OCR Text |
Show at the Blackfeet Agency, has been improved, and that, owiug to the liberal appropriations made by ~ongr e s fso rtheir support during the present fiscal year, there is no lack of supplies at any of their agencies. At the Blackfeet Agency, where it was reported thatduriug the winter and spring of 1883 and 1884 the Indians were co~npelled to kill their horses for food, and were eating bark, wild roots, &c., to keep from starving, the agent reports that he has more thau sufficient supplies to last until June 30,1886. The attention of Congress is respectfully invited to the insutllcient amount appropriated for '<pay of Indian police."' The act reads: For the service of not exceeding seven hundred and fift,p privates, at eight do112m, per mont,h escb, and not exceeding seventpfive officers, at ten dollars per month each, ' * and for the purchaseof equipment8 andrations for policemen st non-ration agencies, eighty-three thouaand dollara. To pay 75 officers at $10 per month each, and 750 privates at $8 per month each, requires $81,000; for 825 uniforms, at an evera,ie cost of about $17, the sum of 814,025is required, and at least $10,000 is needed for rations at non-ration agencies, or a total of about $105,000. As I have already stated, I hare reduced in my estimate to Congress the number of privates to 700, and of ofticers to 70, to provide for which will 'mquire $Y0,000, and I hope ,the full amount asked for will be gtauted. In this col~nwtion1, t ake the liberty again to call theattention of Cougress to the necessity of making the ar~propriatiolrsfo r t,he snpport of the Indiau iervice at an early date. So long as the amount. gra~rted by Congress for the different trihev are uot known, no definite esti~nntes as to the number and kind of arti&les to be purchased can be made. Thc preparation of these schednles reqnires a vest alnouut of clerical labor, and they cannot be mad& until the appropriation is made. The law requires that no purchases be made, exoept by giving three weeks' noMce in the nemspapers; and after the bids are ol)cned it requires over a month to make awards, execnte contracts, &a. The blankets, clothiug, \ragaus, and a number of other nrticlev have to be mauufact-ured after the co~itractsa nd bonds are approved ; aod experience shows that in order to have ample time for the preparation and printing of t.he schednlesof articlosrequired,advertisiug, making awards, andexecuting contracts, &a,, and td stlip goods so as to arrive at the agencies, especially those in Montaua and Dakota, iu .time to be used duriug the winter, the a.ppropriation bill for the snpport of the Indian service should be-come a law not later than February 1 in each year. As a rule, the sub-sistence provided for each year is only sufficient to last until the e~ld of the fiscal year, and if contracts are not made and approved early in May, it is impossible toship supplies in time to be on hand at the agen-cies at the beginning of the fiscal year. Delay iu the appropriations has repeatedly bee11 t l ~ eso urce of anuoyauce and the cause of great ap-prehension, and I hope my request for an early appropriation will ~aeet this t in~ew ith snccess. |