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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LVII for such a purpose " aS may be provided by law." The said tracts have not for years been used, and probably never will be used, for the pur-poses for which they were reserved, and being several miles distant from the tribal reservation, it is not possible for the agent to exercisc such care in their protection as will prevent trespasses upon them by white men. Congress should provide for the disposition of these tracts, and for the application of the fund derived therefrom to the benefit of the Kickapoo Indians. I AoiENCIES IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY. This year has been one of general quiet a,t all the agencies of the 1 Indian Territory, and with the exception of some excitement over the action of. LC Captain Payne," who with a small party of whites claimed the right to homestead certain lands that the civilized Indians had ceded to the United Stites for the purpose of settling friendly Indians and freedmen thereon, and whose prompt arrest and conviction is a matter of publicity, nothing of special moment has occurred. The great drought of this summer, which has so terribly scourged a goodly portion of our country, extending as it has in a wide belt from the Eastern through the Middle and Western States, has left its with-ering track at all the agencies in this Territory, and so thorough has been its work of devastation that at most of the agencies an admost total failnre of crops is reported. The loss to a white farmer of his crop for one year is keenly felt, but the loss of a crop to an untutored Iudian is a great calamity; and especial1y~isi t disheartening when i t is remembered that this is the third successive year that, from the same cause, the crops there have been either a partial or general failure. To induce the Iudiaus to labor in some one of the civilized pursuits is the paramount aim of this office, but the great aud perplesing ques-tion that constantly presents itself is, What shall they do 9 Since the year 1877, whenagent Miles so successfully inaugurated Iudian freight-' ing at t,he Cheyenne end Arapaho Agency, the Indians of this and other agencies in the Iudian Territory have generally freighted not. only their own agency goods and supplies, but also goods and supplies belong-ing to the military and traders. At the Uheyelme a11d Arapaho Agency the Indians have freighted this year over 400.000 pounds of freight for the military at Fort Reno. But this field of industry of course is not large, as it should be remembered that the Indians are shut in upon their reservation without the chance or opportunity of working 1 for oukide parties. If this Territory were well adapted to agriculture 1 it wotlld be the better policy of the department to gather there all of 1 the Indians of the conntry, excepting only those in the most nortl~erly I portion, but the expression of agents upon this subject has uniformly 1 been that, owing to frequent droughts, a,griculture cannot with any be depended upon. From reports of. our agents for the last J it is found that farming in the Indian Territory for about |
