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Show i REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF' INDIAN AFFAIRS. XXXV 1 purposes on the Yakama Reservation to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, upon certain terms and conditions therein mentioned, were submitted to t,he Department on the 14th February, 1885. On the 19th Febrbry, 1885, t.he President transmitted the papers to Oongress,. bat beyond the usual reference to committee no action was taken, owing probably to the advanced stage of the session and the . condition of public business. The advent of the Fort?-ninth Congress will necessitate the preparation of a new bill, which will be submitted to the Department in due season. Deferred legislation.-Other legislation in rega.rd to the passage of railroads through Indian reservations, whioh ha.8 not yet been finally acted on by Congress, embraces the ratification of the agreements made with the Sioux Indians of Dakota, in 1880-'81,for a right of way through the great Sioux Reservation to the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway, and the Dakota Central Railway, respectively, and the agreement with the Pah-Ute Indians of Nevada, in 1882, for a right of way to the Carson and Colorado Railroad through the Walker River Reservation. The status of all these cases apperqrs in the last annual report of this office, and the papers will be submitted for transmission to Congress at the coming session., OLERIOAL FOBOE OF THE BUREAU IN WASHINGTON. As the duties devolving on this branch of the Bureau are, in luy opin-ion, most arduous and responsible, I have given the reorganiaation of the force special attention, and it is my purpose to have the personnel of the office most reliable and efficient. The amount and variety of business detail daily passing through the office, for the correctness and honesty of which I am considered responsible, is so great as td render a personal examination by any one man of the clerical work connected with it a physical impossibility. I am therefore compelled, in a major-ity of cases, to rely wholly upon the ability and integrity of my chief elerk a,nd the heads of the different divisions of the office, who have the papers prepared for my signature; and for this reason1 am anxious that the ability of the chief clerk and the chiefs of divisions under him should be of the highest charader obtainable. To secure this, salaries com-mensurate with the responsibility and labor of their respective positions should be paid. As will be seen from what immediately follows,.it is my desire to as-sign to the chief elerk additional important labors. I deem it proper to call attention to the fact that the duties personally devolving upon the Commissioner of Indim Affairs, as the responsible head of the 1ndi& Bureau, are 11nusua:lly multiform, complicated, and onerous, and to properly discharge them requires much more time and attention than can be given during business hours. The good of the service leads me to suggest that Congress be asked to give this Bureau a* assistant cam- I |