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Show L REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. Many of the leading meu of the 0miha tribe in Nebraska have for ' some time favored the idea that the Government give the tribe entire control of its own affairs, without the interference or expense of an agent or of agencx emploj6s. Since the sale and allotment of a part of their reservatiorl before referred to, this desire for independence, and their wish to do away with tlie expense of a regularly organized agency force, , has increased. Now more than half of these Indians live in comforta-ble houses; every family in the tribe has land under eulti\-ation in farms ranging from ten to one hundred acre@, and the acreage of tilled laud is increasing every year. They are all moderately well supphed with stock, aud with wagons, plows, and other necessary farming ntensils, which they know horn to use and take care of; and tl~ej. have 'good mills, shops, and school-houses, and hare been very suceessfi~iln farm-ing, so that, with their yearly cash incoule, they feel that their future necessities are provided for. The policy I have adopted in dealing with Indians is to prepare them as soon as possible to take care of them. selves by civilized pursuits, aud to encourage them in self-relial~cea, nd I therefore looked with favor on this feeling of i~~d e lwn d r~am~coneg st the Omahas, believing that it was inspired 4y 1.noper motives. Therefore, on their request,, made ill council, I iustructed the agent of the.Omahas to discharge all agency emplog6s at the Omaha'Agency on t,he 30th day of last September, except, the school employes and one person -,LO i8 to remain there to act as pl~gsiciaua nd farmer and who will look after the interests of the Government and the Indiaus and keep this office ir~formedo f the progress of affairs there, ancl who will be retained iintil his services can be dispensed with. The agent was further iustructed to turn over to the Omaha counciltoen, in trust for the tribe, the mills, shops, dwellitlgs, school-honses, live stock, and all public property on the Omalla R,eservation, al~ichtr :~asferi s no doubt con~[.letedb y this time. Wl~ilet. hi8 is m experiment,, i t is believed that. i t will prove to be suoeessful, and that the O~nahasw ill demon-strate the mit;dom of the methods now pursued by theDepartmeut looking to the ultimate civilization ant1 independence of all the Indian tribes. KICKAPOO ALLOTTEES UNDEP. TREATY OF 1862. In mj last three alluual reports attention was called to the condition of affairs relat,ive to the estates of deceased and minor allotfees under the provisions of the treatgwith the Eickapoo Indians of June28,1862 (13 Stat., G23), and to the fact that the treaty contains no provision whereby female allottees can become citlzens and obtain patents for the lands allotted to them. That matter was submitted to Congress at its last sessiou for the third time, with the result that the proposed bill passed the Senate bat received no consideration in the House of Rep-resentatives. |
