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Show 8 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIOITER OE INDIAN AFFAES. Indians receiving subsistence in some degree or other from the Gov-ernment out of the total population of 267,900. This, as has been said, is exclusive of children in boarding schools, who are wholly cared for and liberally provided for there. The total cost of the subsistence purchased for issue to Indians for the current fiscal year is about $1,231,000. The evils likely to arise from the gratuitous i~s u eof rations were early anticipated by the Government and steps taken looking to their prevention. In 1875, for the purpose of inducing Indians to labor and become self-supporting, Congress passed a law requiring all able-bodied male Indians between the ages of 18 and 45, in return for supplies and annuities issued them, to perform services upon the res-ervation for the benefit of themselves or the tribe to an amount equal in value to the supplies to be delivered, and that such allowances should be distributed to them upon condition of the performance of such labor. The Secretary of the Interior, however, was authorized to exempt any particular tribe from its operations where he deemed it proper and expedient. In accordance with the letter and spirit of that law, theRegulations of the Indian Office make it the duty of an agent to distribute sup-plies and annuities according to labor. These regulations go further than this, and in order to enable agents not only to encourage, but also to enforce, regular labor among Indians, require that sugar, coffee, and tea, except in cases of old age or infirmity, shall be issued to Indians only in payment for labor performed by them for them-selves or for the tribe. The regulations also make it the duty of agents to see that each able-bodied male Indian is given an opportunity to labor, and when this is done to judge whether or not the Indian is entitled to a daily ration, determining the matter rather from the ~lpirit and disposition to work manifested than from the value of the work performed. Though agents are required to and do certify upon the &sue vouchers that labor has been performed upon the reservations by the Indians to whom the supplies have been issued, it may be doubted if either the letter or spirit of the law and regulations are complied with on some of the reservations. There bas been a decided improvement in the method of issuing rations in late years. The old-fashioned way was for the Indians to assemble at a central supply station on ration day. At a given time the cattle, wild by nature, frightened and desperate by their surround-ings, were turned loose to be chased by the Indians, yelling and whoop-ing, and shot down upon the prairie in imitation of the savage method of buffalo hunting of the early days. When the animal was killed a a motley assembly of Indians, ponies, and dogs of all sizes and ages gathered around where it lay. The bucks and squaws gorged themselves upon the raw entrails and smoking blood, the hide was taken to the |