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Show X REPORT OF THE COMMI$FSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. to give to each persou-man, woman, and child-160 acres. There are, according to the latest statistics of this office, 79,380 Indians in the In-dian Territory, and if the lallds there were equally divided among them each person would have about 500 acres. Of the 79.380 111dians in the Tei ritory, 67,493 wear citizens' dress wholly and 6,679 in part. Nearly the whole number wearing citizens' dress are either civilized or in an advanced state of civilizatiou. I have referred thus particularly to the advantages of this Territory in order that the argument of t h ~ s ead vocating the "concentration" polio7 may be fairly understood. On the ot'her hartd, the opponeuts of this plan advocate the idea of the general difusion of the Indian tribes over as large a space as practicable, with the view of bringing the Indiaus more directly in contaot with a. higher type of civilization, so that they can, a8 they allege, be the Inore easily absorbed or assimilated and become the loore easily citizenized. They also urge thatthe Indians have strong local attachment8 to the homes of their ancestors, and to the haunts of their childhood; that their consent to sell their ancestsal homes and move to a strange land among strangers, although of their own race, could uot be obtained, and that hence it is idle to expect that they will voluntarily conceutrate in the Indian Territory, hoaever inviting its beautif111 rivers, fertile prairies, and healthful climate. But a stronger and more potent objection to concentration in the Indian Territory exists than any yet given, and that is the fierce and uncompromising opposition which this proposition meets in the nlmost nnanimous sentiment of the white citizens of the four great States of Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas, which surroundthis Territory. Such an array of political power and influence,speaking as one man, ia entitled to. respect and grare consideration. In a wuntry like ours, where public opinion crystalizes into law, where it makes presidents, and Congress, and courts, &nd commands armies, it cannot sa,fely be dis regarded. -4nd aathough the representatives of t,he other States of the ~ n i &m ight believe.that the concentration of the savage Indian tribes of this country in the Indian Territory would be best for the Indians and greatly relieve. the treasury of the United States, as it would, nevertheless I would not advise such astep, eveu if it should be agree-able to the Iudiaus uow scattered over a vast area of country, against the earnest protestatiol~s of the peol~le of the four great States re-ferred to. That they have any fear that the red i a n will demoralize or debauch their civilization, I cannot believe; that they could have any just ap-prehension of danger from the Indiaus, if the whole 260,000 were set-tled upon the soil of t l~eT erritory, since t,hey would not wnstitute ope-tenth of the population of the four States, is not for a moment to be enter-tained; besides, it is more likely that small bamds of predatory Indians would depredate and go on the war-path, as they style their mprauding parties, than if larger bodies were massed with. more stringent internal |