Under the circumstances described in this report, it must be evident that the mission of Indian management will henceforth be, more than ever, a mission of peace and not a mission of war. The principal agencies which must be depended upon for the solution of the Indian problem are work, education, the permanent settlement upon agricultural and pasture lands, security of title, and equal protection of the law. All these are civil agencies, and the more the land interests of the Indians press into the foreground, the more necessary will it be that Indian management be connected with that branch of the service which has the administration of public lands under its special control.

It has also been suggested that the Indian service, owing to its importance, should cease to be a mere bureau in the Interior and be intrusted to an independent department. I should consider this advisable. only if the head of that department could at the same time hold a place in the Cabinet, enabling him to make his views heard in its deliberations and to communicate on equal terms with the heads of the other departments of the executive branch of the government. But this would involve the larger question whether it would be wise to increase the number of Cabinet officers, and until this question is decided in the affirmative it would in my opinion be most advantageous to the public interest to permit the Indian service to remain under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to be thus represented in the executive council. Finally, I desire to say that it has not been the policy of this department under my administration, while avoiding all unnecessary outlays of money, to cut down expenses merely for the purpose of making a striking exhibition of economy. The history of Indian affairs. shows that ill-judged parsimony has not unfrequently led to serious trouble and very costly complications. I am now convinced that generous appropriations for agricultural implements, for stock cattle to be distributed among Indians, and for educational facilities, made at this time, when the temper of our whole Indian population is such as to receive such aid in the right spirit, and to use the advantages conferred for general and rapid advancement, will produce results certain to accelerate the solution of the greatest difficulties we have so far been contending with, and, consequently, to bring about a great saving of money in the future. When an Indian lives in a house which he considers his own and that of his family, as now thousands of families are living and many more thousands desire to live; when he cultivates his acres, has them fenced by his own labor, and enjoys the product of his agricultural work, either by his own consumption or the sale of a surplus; when he owns his plow and his wagon, and uses the latter, with his ponies, in freighting, by which he earns liberal wages; when he has his cows, and swine, and poultry on his land, the care of which he finds useful and profitable; when he can send his children to school, and begins to hope that they may become as civilized and prosperous as white people, he will soon cease to think of leading the life of a nomad, and the thought of war

will no longer have any charm for him. He will gradually become ashamed of being a beggar, as many of them have expressed themselves already, and feel a pride formerly little known to him, to depend for his own sustenance and that of his family upon his own efforts. This is not a mere fancy picture, for I have myself observed a multitude of examples of this kind, and manifestations of urgent desire in this direction on the part of Indians are coming to this department in constantly increasing numbers. It appears, therefore, of the highest importance that the government should promptly take advantage of this disposition and stimulate it with generous aid until the final solution of the problem is reached.

THE UTES.

At the time I rendered my last report, the settlement of the dif ficulties which had occurred on the Ute Reservation in September, 1879, was still the subject of negotiations between the Ute tribe and the commission appointed for that purpose, consisting of General Hatch, Mr. Adams, and Chief Ouray. Those negotiations resulted in the surrender of Chief Douglass, of the White River Utes, to the authorities of the United States. The commission recommended that a delegation, representing the various bands of the Ute tribe, be permitted to visit Washington for the purpose of effecting such a settlement as would prevent further troubles. Several headmen of the Southern Utes, under the leadership of their chief, Ignacio, and of the Uncompahgre Utes, headed by Ouray, as well as of the White River Utes, were received here, and after prolonged negotiations these representatives of the Ute tribe consented to the surrender of the whole Ute Reservation in Colorado, on condition that the Ute Indians be settled in severalty, with an individual title in fee simple to their farms on certain small tracts of land in that reservation and immediately adjoining it, the White River Utes to go to the Uintah Reservation, and that the annuities due be paid to them, and further annuities be provided for; the Utes thenceforth to be as individuals occupying their farm tracts respectively under the jurisdiction of local laws and courts. This arrangement was considered a measure of great importance, not only for the reason that it would be apt to prevent a costly and destructive Indian war, but also that for the first time in the history of Indian management it provided for the formal discontinuance of the tribal existence of an Indian nation and for their individual settlement as farmers like other inhabitants of the country under the laws of the land. This agreement was not to have binding force until ratified by three-fourths of all the male adult members of the different bands of the Ute tribe, the ratification to be supervised by a commission which, after the completed ratification, was also to make the payments agreed upon and to superintend the settlement of the Indians upon the farm lands designated for them. This agreement was submitted to Congress with the draught of a bill to give it the force of law. Prompt action was repeatedly urged, so that its most importaut

provisions might be carried out before the winter season should set in; but action was had only after a delay of many weeks. The commission provided for by law, composed of Messrs. George W. Manypenny, John B. Bowman, John J. Russell, Alfred B. Meacham, and Otto Mears, proceeded to the Ute Reservation to carry the law into effect. In order to obtain the ratification of the agreement it was necessary to call together the Indians who were scattered over a large extent of country. The sudden and deplorable death of Chief Ouray, a man of advanced views, great sagacity, remarkable tact and noble impulses, indeed probably the wisest Indian of this generation, whose influence upon his people had always been in favor of peace, good order, and progress, seemed for a time to render the success of the labors of the commission doubtful. But the ratification of the agreement was finally signed by the requisite number of Indians within the limitation of time specified by the act of Congress. The commission reported that the Indians, presumably guilty of the murder of Agent Meeker and the agency employés, had fled beyond the boundaries of the United States. The payment of annuities due has been proceeded with according to law. It would have been possible to make the necessary preparations for the individual settlement of the Ute Indians upon the farm lands designated for them had not the winter season intervened. This delay is to be regretted, and I can only say that it would have been avoided had Congress acted as promptly upon the agreement as was repeatedly and urgently recommended by this department.

A new trouble threatened seriously to disturb peace and quiet on the Ute Reservation again, after the ratification of the agreement had been obtained, and everything seemed to favor a final and prosperous settlement of the trouble. On the evening of the 29th of September, a young Ute Indian, son of a chief, was killed by a young man named Jackson, belonging to a party of freighters. It has been alleged by some that the Indian fired first at the white men, and that Jackson killed him in self-defense. On the other hand, the report of Major Offley, Nineteenth Regiment United States Infantry, represents the conduct of the Indian as friendly and peaceable, and, in the language of Captain Pollock, Third United States Infantry, whom Major Offley quotes, calls the deed "a wanton and unprovoked murder of an Indian by a reckless, halfdrunken teamster." Jackson was arrested, and, under the escort of three white citizens of Colorado and one Indian, he was to be taken to Gunnison City to be tried; but the party was intercepted on its way, by a number of Indians and white men; the prisoner was taken from them, and his fate is not known, although the probability is that he was killed. In Major Offley's report the opinion is expressed that this was done at the instigation of some white men, possibly freighters, who deemed the killing of the murderer of the young Indian necessary to protect themselves in the pursuit of their business from the possible revenge of the Indians. Captain Pollock calls this "a clear case of lynching, which,

as much as it might be deplored, is not an uncommon occurrence throughout the country in the midst of civilization and enlightenment." Great excitement ensued in the settlements near the Ute Reservation; and the trial of Mr. Berry, the United States Indian agent, was vociferously demanded on the ground that he, in confiding Jackson to the escort of three white men and one Indian, had deliberately betrayed him into the hands of Indians eager to avenge the death of one of their people. Mr. Berry was subsequently arrested by the United States marshal, and taken before the United States district court at Denver, where his case is now pending. Before his arrest he showed great skill and influence over the Indians, in keeping them quiet and preventing further disturbance on their part. It is to be hoped that the State and local authorities in Colorado will use their best judgment and endeavors to allay the excitement existing in that State, so as to restrain evildisposed persons from invading the Indian reservation and provoking collisions with the Indians, which would be especially deplorable at a time when the so-called Ute problem is on the point of successful solution by just and peaceable agencies and in accordance with an agreement successfully concluded.

THE PONCAS.

The case of the Poncas has continued to be a subject of public as well as private attention, on account of the hardships suffered by that tribe in consequence of its removal from Dakota to the Indian Territory. I have repeatedly in my reports expressed the opinion that the Poncas had a serious grievance on account of that removal, and that a generous indemnity was due to them. I am free to say, also, that a clear knowledge of their case at the time of their removal, which happened at the very beginning of the present administration, would have induced me then to oppose it to the extent of the discretion permitted by existing law to this department in such cases. The question how that grievance was to be redressed admitted of two different answers. One was that they should be returned to Dakota and the other that their condition be made as comfortable and prosperous as possible on their new location in the Indian Territory. There were several reasons against their return to Dakota. Their lands in Dakota had, by the treaty of 1868, been ceded to the Sioux, who had been their old enemies, and whose hostile incursions in years past had called forth among the Poncas themselves a desire to get out of their way by removal. The great problem in the management of Indian affairs at that time was to insure the general pacification of the Sioux tribes, in all over 30,000 souls strong. The Sioux occupied the Ponca Reserve for some time in 1877, shortly after the removal of the Poncas to the Indian Territory had taken place. Two large Sioux bands, numbering over 13,000, are now permanently located in the southern part of the great Sioux Reservation, at a distance from the old Ponca Reserve, but within comparatively easy reach. The Poncas could

not be moved back to their old lands without a previous agreement with the Sioux. While it is said that the latter are now more favorably disposed toward the Poncas, and while the conduct of that branch of the Sioux Nation is now very satisfactory, yet it is also a matter of experience that old grudges among Indians, although smoothed over, are apt to be revived by reckless individuals among them, in which case the Poncas, numbering only a few hundreds, would be at a great disadvantage compared with their powerful neighbors. Moreover, Congress had granted neither authority nor money for the removal of the Poncas back to Dakota. I should willingly have recommended the passage of a law and appropriation to that end, there being no interest nor any pride of opinion in the Department that could possibly have prevented such a step-for in the very first report rendered by me after the removal of the Poncas, and after I had become fully aware of the whole character of the transaction, the wrong done to them was frankly acknowledged-had there not been other considerations of superior weight against it. The principal injury suffered by them immediately after their removal, by disease and the death of many of their people, could not be repaired. When they were once settled in the Indian Territory upon land which is acknowledged to be excellent for agricultural and herding purposes, and had made new beginnings in civilized pursuits and the promotion of their wellbeing, those beginnings would have been destroyed by a second removal, and the whole operation would have had to be repeated. It is but natural that frequent removals of an Indian tribe should have a disastrous effect upon their advancement in civilization and prosperity.

According to the latest reports, their condition is now very much improved. How much better they are situated in a sanitary point of view than immediately after their arrival in the Indian Territory appears from the fact that, according to the returns for the year just passed, there were during that year eleven deaths and fifteen births in the tribe, so that the Poncas have been actually increasing in: numbers. Most of them are now living in houses, are tilling the soil, and have been provided with stock cattle for herding. They have school facilities for the education of their children. Their progress would have been greater had they not been kept in a state of restlessness by reports from the outside that they would soon be returned to Dakota, and that therefore they need not apply themselves to the improvement of their condition on the soil they occupy in the Indian Territory. Instead of benefiting them, such reports have evidently inflicted upon them an injury. Nothing would have been more apt to improve their health, raise their spirits, and promote their well-being than steady and fruitful work. That the Poncas feel this themselves appears from a petition which on the 29th of October they addressed to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and in which they say "that their young men are unsettled while they think they have a right to their land in Dakota," and that "their tribe will not be finally settled until they have a title to their