as reward for faithful service. The Army has used Indians for scouts with great success, and wherever employed the Indian has been found faithful to the trust confided to him. I would also recommend that the police force be supplied with a uniform similar to the style of clothing which I shall hereafter suggest to be furnished for all Indians, with the addition of a few brass buttons by way of distinction. The employment of such a force, properly officered and handled, would, in great measure, relieve the Army from doing police duty on Indian reservations. I am thoroughly satisfied that the saving in life and property by the employment of such a force would be very large, and that it would materially aid in placing the entire Indian population of the country on the road to civilization.

EDUCATION AND CIVILIZATION.

There is little hope of the civilization of the older wild Indian, and the only practical question is how to control and govern him, so that his savage instincts shall be kept from violent outbreaks. There is, however, much encouragement to work for the gradual elevation of the partially civilized adult Indians, and especially of the youths of both sexes; and considerable progress has been made, notwithstanding the difficulties which a humane treatment of the Indians has had to encounter. These difficulties may be stated as partially growing out of the dishonesty of Indian agents, traders, and contractors, by which Indians have been deprived of their just dues, and sometimes of the necessaries of life. Another and serious drawback is to be found in the encroachment of greedy white men, who surround them and continually plot to deprive them of their possessions. Unfortunately, Indians judge all white men by these specimens, with which they are only too familiar. Notwithstanding all the disadvantages, there is, as I have said, a perceptible progress, which, under more favorable circumstances, might be greatly accelerated.

Undoubtedly our chief hope is in the education of the young, and just here our best and most persistent efforts should be made. The Indian youths in the various schools show surprising progress in penmanship and drawing, and can be taught the ordinary branches of a common-school education as readily as white children, except, perhaps, arithmetic. Such being the case, every effort should be made to take advantage of the aptitudes they have exhibited, and to bring Indian children into schools. I would advise the establishment of a rule making it compulsory upon all Indian children between the ages of six and fourteen years to attend schools, and requiring English alone to be spoken and taught therein; and it is decidedly preferable that as many of them as possible should be placed in boarding-schools, which possess more advantages in every way than day-schools, for the reason that the exposure of children who attend only day-schools to the demoralization and degradation of an Indian home neutralizes the efforts of the schoolteacher, especially those efforts which are directed to advancement in morality and civilization. Forty children can be boarded and instructed at an expense of one hundred and twenty-five dollars each per annum, the cost being slightly reduced in schools containing a larger number of pupils.

I recommend that provision be made to give a higher education, in some of our normal schools at the East, to Indian youths sufficiently advanced to enable them to enter such schools, in order that the bureau may be supplied with educated interpreters to take the place of the incompetent men who now perform the service with discredit to themselves and detriment to the Indians.

In order to carry out the policy which I have briefly outlined, I have recommended an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars, as a special fund, for the establishment and support of additional schools wherever, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior, they may be most needed. In addition to the ordinary schools, I particularly recommend the establishment of industrial schools, in which those over fourteen years of age may be taught the various trades and thus be qualified to become self-supporting.

Increased expenditure on civilization account is called for by the additional number of Indians who are actively seeking for the means of civilization. The recent visit of the Sioux chiefs at Washington was remarkable for the earnest unanimity with which they besought the government for implements of agriculture, for cattle, and for schools for their children. The expenditure of one hundred thousand dollars during the next year, in addition to the agricultural fund, would be a wise economy, and tend materially to lessen the demand for supplies in the early future. There is no good reason why the Sioux Indians, for example, might not, in the course of time, become extensive breeders of cattle. The business would not be laborious in itself, and is one for which they have exhibited considerable aptitude. Besides, it would tend directly to interest them in the accumulation of property, which is one of the most important steps in civilization.

INDIAN LABOR.

The Indian, in his savage state, is the only born aristocrat on American soil. He despises labor and looks upon it as an indignity. He will hunt or make war at an immense expenditure of strength, and in the prosecution of those pursuits he will exhibit great tenacity of purpose; but when he is talked to about the necessity of toil as a means to earn his bread legitimately, he turns a deaf ear, and imposes on his squaw the burden and drudgery of work. To overcome the natural repug. nance of the Indian to work, it is needful to adopt a system of training that will gradually incite him to labor by appeals to his self-interest. To that end agents must use care in the distribution of supplies, and should demand from the Indian some work for the rations furnished him. Again, instead of giving out contracts to dissolute or idle white men, who are hanging around the agencies, for cutting fire-wood and splitting and hauling rails for fencing, or for getting hay, the Indians should be made to perform all these offices. Some agents are eminently successful in utilizing Indian labor-Agent Wilbur, of the Yakama agency, for example, who not only has all this work done by his Indians, but has trained them to manufacture saddles and harness, as well as make wagons and do carpenter's work. This office has recently refused to ap prove contracts made by agents for cutting fire-wood and fencing, on the old plan, and has insisted that agents shall secure this work to be done by Indians, by holding out to them the inducement of extra rations or some other compensation.

FOOD FOR THE INDIAN.

Beef is the staple food for the Indian, and great care should be taken to furnish a good quality of it. The want is mostly supplied by Texas cattle, which are driven north by easy stages, and are allowed to feed in the many ranges furnishing an abundance of grass of excellent quality. These Texas cattle, properly cared for, make very good, nutritious beef; more like wild meat, however, as the meat is lean and not so interlarded with fat as stall-fed eastern cattle. The southernmost agencies get the poorer class of cattle, which have been driven only a comparatively short distance without the advantages of such grass as grows in the Platte Valley. Heretofore the government has paid little attention to the quality, or even weight, of cattle for the Indian service. This, however, is undergoing investigation with a view to a better reg-. nlation of this branch of the service.

Flour is the next great article of food furnished to the Indians, and the standard quality used for the purpose is known as the New York XX flour. The chief difficulty in getting the full percentage of value out of flour arises from the ignorance of the Indians in the art of breadmaking. This is only to be overcome by a more systematic and thorough course of education for Indian girls.

Corn has been furnished to the Indians recently in large quantities, but where they have no facilities for making it into corn-meal, they have in many instances sold it to the traders. It is, therefore, useless to send the corn unless there are mills to grind it at the agencies. Corn-meal cannot be sent to the agencies, as it sours very soon, and can only be used when fresh ground.

METHODS OF CLOTHING INDIANS.

The blanket must give way. It is only tolerable in the rudest savage life. It is unfitted to be the garment of civilization and labor; and as the Indian is gradually brought to give up his nomadic life for one of labor and industry, the question of clothing becomes one of practical interest as bearing upon his advancement and civilization. The custom hitherto pursued has been to furnish blankets, and clothing made of cotton-warp fabrics, known in the market as "satinets" and "meltons." Clothing made of these materials is not serviceable, as the garments become threadbare with the least wear, and will rend with slight strain. In an economic point of view nothing is more useless, and, indeed, extravagant, than clothing made of these materials. We should have a uniform material, made entirely of wool-like army-cloth-for Indian clothing; and the garments should consist of a coat and pantaloons, the coat to be in shape like the old fringed rifle-coat or blouse, with a belt at the waist. The object should be to secure the comfort of the wearer and uniformity in style of clothing, so that competitors for clothing-contracts might know in advance precisely what kind of garments would be wanted for the Indian service.

In this connection I would say that one Indian agent proposes to erect a woolen-mill at, his agency, to enable the Indians to make their own cloth from wool of their own raising. This would be advisable if the necessary machinery to do the work were simple and inexpensive.

REMOVALS TO THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

Experience has demonstrated the impolicy of sending northern Indians to the Indian Territory. To go no farther back then the date of the Pawnee removal, it will be seen that the effect of a radical change of climate is disastrous, as this tribe alone, in the first two years, lost by death over 800 out of its number of 2,376. The northern Cheyennes have suffered severely, and the Poncas who were recently removed from

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contact with the unfriendly Sioux, and arrived there in July last, have already lost 36 by death, which, by an ordinary computation, would be the death-rate for the entire tribe for a period of four years.

In this connection, I recommend the removal of all the Indians in Colorado and Arizona to the Indian Territory. In Colorado, gold and silver mines are scattered over a wide extent of territory, and are to be found in every conceivable direction, running into Indian reservations. Of course miners will follow the various leads and prospect new ones without regard to the barriers set up by an Indian reservation. Hence the sojourn of Indians in this State will be sure to lead to strife, contention, and war, besides entailing an enormous expense to feed and provide for them. Again, there is no hope of civilizing these Indians while they reside in Colorado, as all the arable land in the State is required for its white settlers. A mining population needs in its immediate vicinity abundant facilities for agriculture to feed it. The question of feeding the white population of the State is one of paramount importance, and will certainly force itself on the attention of the government.

What is true of Colorado is to a certain extent true of Arizona also; but in addition thereto, it must be considered that the expense of transporting annuities and supplies is enormous. The government has been paying eight and ten cents per pound for the transportation of flour and other necessaries to feed the Indians, and the total cost of maintaining the Indian tribes of Arizona for the past three years has been $1,084,000. While the Indians are kept there this expenditure will go on, perhaps indefinitely increasing, without any corresponding improvement in their welfare or civilization. Moreover, the Indians of the State and Territory are uneasy and restless, and are constantly moving about, both on and off their reservations. The true remedy for these evils is their immediate removal to the Indian Territory, where 58,000 square miles are set apart for the use of Indians; where they can be fed and clothed at a greatly diminished expense; and where, better than all, they can be kept in obedience, and taught to become civilized and self-supporting.

ON AGENTS.

The anomaly of the present system of paying Indian agents needs only to be stated to be apparent. We pay an agent having charge of three hundred and twenty-five Indians $1,500, while another, having the care of seven thousand, is paid only the same sum. It may also happen that an agent having the oversight of but three hundred and twenty-five Indians may have with him a son employed as a clerk at $1,000 per annum, a daughter as a teacher at $600 per annum, a brother as a farmer at $900 per annum, a cousin as a blacksmith at $900 per annum, with a nephew as a carpenter at $800. At the same time, another agent having the care of seven thousand, having only his wife, (not under pay,) though obliged to entertain all strangers and military officers visiting his agency, draws from his salary only a bare subsistence for himself and wife, and is necessarily in very straitened circumstances. This latter case, to my knowledge, is literally and exactly true of one agent. The first case stated, though a supposable one, is possible to have occurred under our present system.

I recommend, to remedy this inequality and unfairness, a classification of the agencies as follows:

Agents of the first class, having in charge 7,000 or more Indians, $2,500.

Agents of the second class, having in charge more than 5,000 and less than 7,000 Indians, $2,200.

Agents of the third class, having in charge more than 3,000 and less than 5,000 Indians, $2,000.

Agents of the fourth class, having in charge more than 2,000 and less than 3,000 Indians, $1,800.

Agents of the fifth class, having in charge more than 1,000 and less than 2,000 Indians, $1,500.

Agents of the sixth class, having in charge more than 800 and less than 1,000 Indians, $1,200.

Agents of the seventh class, having in charge less than 800 Indians, $1.000.

The classification of agents above suggested, although securing to some of them a higher salary than they now receive, will not entail a larger expense upon the government when the consolidation of Indian tribes upon a smaller number of reservations is accomplished, as the number of agents will then be correspondingly reduced. It is also to be hoped that a higher rate of compensation will secure to the government a superior class of officers.

The estimates presented by this office are based upon the old system, for the reason that the changes herein suggested will require additional appropriation.

It is necessary that, as far as possible, temptation be put out of the way of agents, by discouraging purchases in open market. Such purchases have been in the past a fruitful source of speculation. Such purchases should only be made, with the approval of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior, in cases where he is convinced that a real emergency exists. To avoid open-market purchases to a greater extent than heretofore, ample notification will be given to agents to send in estimates of the goods and supplies needed at their respective agencies before the commencement of the fiscal year, in order that the annual lettings of contracts and making of purchases shall, as much as possible, include all needs, and that goods and supplies may be apportioned properly, thus leaving little room for future wants or deficiencies.

Up to the present time nepotism has prevailed at the Indian agencies to such an extent as to have become a public scandal, a nuisance that must be immediately abated. For instance: It is not an uncommon thing to find four relatives quartered upon a single agency. Sometimes more than that number may be found, including the traders. One case has been discovered in which the agent has had his wife appointed matron at a salary, and the only individual to matronize is his family cook. One agent recently forwarded for the approval of this office the nomination of one of his sons, a lad of 17, as farmer, at a salary of $1,000, while his real market-value probably would not exceed $150 per annum; and another son, aged 16, as assistant farmer, at a salary of $900; the market-value of such a boy probably being $100. In such cases, however, the fraud on the service would be greater than the difference between the market-value of the two boys' services and the salaries paid them, since they would be utterly unfit to work with the Indians and train them to a knowledge of farming, for which alone the expenditure could properly be made. These are not solitary instances, and an extended list of others, quite as flagrant, might be made. We are endeavoring to suppress such abuses as rapidly as they are discovered.

NEED OF A SOLICITOR FOR THE BUREAU.

In large mercantile establishments it is the practice to employ one or more solicitors, to be always present in counting-rooms, whose special