EMPLOYÉS. I take pleasure in acknowledging the efficiency of the present agency employés they have been faithful in the performance of their various duties, and our mutual relations have been pleasant and harmonious. In conclusion, I heartily thank the officials of the Indian Office for the kind and courteous treatment shown to me during the past year, and I shall endeavor to merit your confidence and esteem in the future. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. JOHN FOSHER, United States Indian Agent. REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT, In the Field, September 11, 1890. SIR: The obligation to prepare my annual report comes in the midst of visitations of Indian schools and agencies on the Pacific coast. I deem it inexpedient to return to Washington, D. C., for this purpose, it being desirable to complete my work among the schools in this far-off region without incurring the expense and loss of time which a trip to and from Washington would involve. According to previous custom, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs will embody in his report the statistical data relating to the Indian schools; and therefore it seems most fitting that I should comprise in my report such matters as have come under my personal observation in the field. During the sixteen months that have elapsed since my appointment, on the 1st of May, 1889, I have been in the field thirteen months. In this time I have visited a part of the schools in the Indian Territory; all the schools in Nebraska, except those at Santee; the Crow Agency schools, in Montana; the Nez Percé and Coeur d'Aléne schools in Idaho; all the schools in Washington, save at the Neah Bay and Colville Agencies; * all in Oregon; all in California, except at Round Valley; all but two in Arizona; nearly all in New Mexico; all in Nevada, except at Western Shoshone; and the following large industrial schools: Lincoln Institute, Carlisle, Hampton, Haskell, Chilocco, Genoa, Albuquerque, and Chemawa. This makes more than eighty schools in all, besides repeated visits to several. I have visited fifty Indian reserva tions, situated in twenty-three agencies; and half a dozen military reservations. Number of miles traveled in this service to September 11 is 28,340, of which 2,610 miles were by wagon. Such has been my field of observation. When I entered this service, I resolved to hold my preconceived opinions regarding Indian matters tentatively, until such time as I should have opportunity to test them upon a more definite basis of facts. I have therefore been studying the Indian problem in the field, by personal observations and close contact with the living issues. Nor have my observations been confined to the more progressive tribes. In southern Montana, among the Pah Utes of western Nevada, all through Arizona, even to the blood-thirsty Apaches, and with the quaintly civilized but non progressive Pueblos, I have come in contact with the Indians farthest removed from our civilization. On the other hand, * Visited later. I have visited some of the tribes most advanced in civilization-the Omaha, Nez Percé, Yakama, Umatilla, Puyallup, Tulalip, S'Kokomish, Chehalis, Klamath, Siletz, Coeur d'Aléne, and fragments of the Digger. As a whole, I have found the Indians of northern Idaho, Washington, and Oregon the most advanced in civilization. These Indians, so far as I can learn, have not been pauperized by rations from the Government; and I believe that many of them have been under the administration of a larger number of excellent agents who held the office for a longer term of years than have the Indians of some other sections of the country. Then there has been a larger amount of continuous Christian effort among the Indians of this region during the last sixty years than among the Indians elsewhere, except in the five civilized tribes of the Indian Territory. The type of white population which pushed over the mountains into the Northwest section brought with it the very best elements of the civilization in the United States, very different from the Mexican civilization which penetrated and largely dominated the tribes along our southern border. While therefore among the southern Indians the prevalent variation from their own dialects is the Mexican language, the Indians of the Northwest speak much English. In the Northwest, board houses of three, four, and five rooms have taken the place of brush houses, and the old-time Indian costume has almost wholly disappeared; but only wykiups, except now and then rude adobes and more rarely still timber houses, are used by the Indians of Arizona, western Nevada, and southern California. In the Northwest I found no Indians bearing firearms; and in Nevada, California, New Mexico, and Arizona also these weapons have disappeared, except among the fierce Apaches, and to a small extent among the Navajos. The deep shadows of ignorance, pagan superstition, squalor, and ultra conservatism, so painful and oppressive among the tribes of Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, measurably disappear as we come among the Indians of Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho. Filthy, un empt, ignorant, lazy, lounging Indians there are still in the Northwest, but they are rapidly falling into the minority. The Indian skies of the Northwest are many degrees brighter than those of the Southwest, but they are still flecked with clouds and mists, leaving yet much work for philanthropists and the Government. It must be confessed that the Indians of Arizona have points of physical superiority over those beyond the Cascades. Their complexion is very dark, and they wear their long black hair unkempt and often thickly matted; but they are tall, straight, and muscular, without corpulency. How such powerful physiques have developed in the hot zone of Arizona I can not understand. They are really strong, of great endurance and agility, as is abundantly attested by railroad agents in charge of construction gangs. Mojaves and Yumas are much preferred to Italians and Irish for such labor. They are declared to be quicker and better able to endure the heat, and many of them are earning a good living by such labor, and most are eager to obtain opportunities for work. When we come to mental ability, we find the Indians of Arizona inferior to any others. The children are slow to learn, sorely taxing the patience and ingenuity of teachers; and the environments, I regret to state, do not stimulate the children to progress or the teachers to enthusiasm. While all Indians are more or less improvident, and some in all sections recklessly so, those of Arizona, particularly the Yumas, Mojaves, Hualpais, and Apaches are the most improvident of all. The Maricopas, living near the thrifty towns of Tempe and Phoenix, are evidently borrowing civilized methods and habits, and are learning to make more regular provision for their needs. The Pimas, situated a little more remotely from civilized communities, are utilizing their valleys and scanty water supply for the cultivation of grain, selling yearly to the traders 6,000,000 pounds of wheat in exchange for goods. They occupy a narrow strip of land extending 40 miles along both sides of the Gila River. The high land back of the river is arid and barren, but the soil of the valley is fertile, and, with sufficient water supply for irrigation, will support the Pimas and in part the Papagoes. I feel it my duty to call the attention of the Department to the fact that the white population near the Pima Reservation, by turning aside and storing the water supply for their own use, are imperilling the welfare of the Indians. It is greatly to be feared that soon the Indians will find themselves without even the meager supply of water which they have been accustomed for centuries to appropriate. To allow this absorption of water by the whites is a palpable violation of "the rights of eminent domain" recognized in constitutional law. It will also be a great misfortune, pauperizing these hitherto self-supporting, worthy Pimas, who derive their subsistence from the raising of horses and cattle and the cultivation of the soil. They have been farmers for centuries, raising wheat principally. White men, with all their skill, cannot live in a country like this without water for stock and for irrigation; how much less this simple people, unacquainted with art and civilization. Better leave the Pimas, in blankets and long hair, to subsist on berries, than to educate them and then take away from them their last drop of water. In that case education will create new needs which can only remain unsupplied. The Papagoes have a very limited area of agricultural land; nothing at all adequate to their needs. The small area assigned them contiguous to Tucson on the south comprises only 2,500 acres which can be irrigated. Another small reservation for these Indians is located at Gila Bend, on the Southern Pacific Railroad. On these two reservations live from 300 to 500 Indians, a small portion of a tribe hitherto estimated at from 4,000 to 7,000 souls. The larger portion of these Papagoes roam over that part of Arizona lying south of the Southern Pacific Railroad, some of them making foraging journeys far down into Sonora, Mexico. They are self-supporting after a fashion. Those living on the reservations cultivate the soil so far as it is cultivatable; some assist the Pimas in harvesting, receiving grain for compensation; and the migratory portion raise horses and cattle. In the summer season all these classes use the fruit of the cactus plant and wild berries for food. It is a marvel how they live. About 90 miles to the south of Tucson are two Papago villages, each with nearly thirty miserable, squalid adobe houses, with not a drop of water within many miles, except what is caught in a pool during the rainy season. In a short time the water in these pools becomes indescribably thick and vile from being the common resort of Indians, cattle, and swine. The pools soon dry, and the Indians roam into the mountains in pursuit of water for themselves and their stock. In a large area traversed by the Papagoes there is no permanent supply of water for irrigation, nor will the land furnish subsistence to appease the hunger even of the coyotes and gophers, which are barely maintaining a starving existence upon it. At this point I can not resist the assertion that the primary and principal education to be given these children, for the present, is the imparting of such knowledge as will bring new and practical arts of civilization to bear upon their sterile fields. Much can be said in praise of this people. The women are remarkably chaste. An old prospector and miner said: "The Papago women stoutly resist the temptations of miners even when large pieces of gold are offered." The Papagoes are quite industrious, according to their opportunities, and those I saw in Tucson and vicinity were decently dressed, with clothing usually clean and well repaired. A close ob server of these Indian says: Ultimately the Government will be compelled to gather these Indians together, give them a place to dwell, and in some way secure water, without which industry is unavailing and living is impossible in this country. As the white population fill up the Territory, the little the Indian has possessed, so far, will be taken from him, and he be left to drag out a miserable vagabondish existence or to starve. The Moqui rank among the most staid and conservative of all Arizona Indians, and everything about them wears an antique appearance their walled habitations on lofty cliffs, to which fuel, produce, and water are carried with great labor; their old-time customs, of which they are very tenacious; their strange pagan shrines and rites, perpetuated from times immemorial; their grotesque snake dances; their peculiar form of self-government; their repugnance to education; their jealous guarding against any modification of tribal ideas and customs; their shrinking timidity in the presence of hostile invaders; and their unchanging identity for centuries. Such are the Moqui whom we seek to assimilate to our civilization and incorporate into our na tional life. They live in several large communities, aggregating 2,200 people, weak in chivalry, but strong in their isolated, lofty, rocky homes. They are withal industrious, and rank among the best farmers, cultivating their low lands at great disadvantage, because so far from their habitations. Within the past two years the Moqui are being induced to build houses in the valley and live in them-the first indication of change among a hitherto unchanging people. It is hoped that this step will let in sunshine and progressive ideas which will revolutionize their tribal life. The Navajos live mostly in Arizona; but a by no means unimportant part of the tribe occupy the northwest corner of New Mexico. On the border of the two sections a mine of gold and silver of remarkable promise and a huge vein of coal, much like the Lehigh of Pennsylvania, have been recently discovered. These Navajos are estimated variously at from 16,000 to 22,000, and have flocks and herds which approximate 1,100,000. The number of these Indians has probably been exagger. ated. They have a large reservation, much of it being mountainous and arid, producing little feed for flocks; and, very naturally, this people are extending beyond the reservation borders, taking up claims and settling in unoccupied valleys north of Gallup and Manuelito. The Navajos, hitherto very nomadic, are becoming stationary. Two hundred houses were reported by the police as in process of building at the time of my visit last May. The Navajos are devoting more attention to agriculture, but are very conservative in regard to education. Altogether this is the largest and most powerful aboriginal tribe I have seen, not merely numerically, but also in respect to mental acuteness, sagacity, and physical prowess. It is certain that the Government must manage this tribe wisely and effectively, or it may become an element of trouble not easily controlled. Under recent experiences they have become and are now tractable, improving in harmony and the arts of civilization; but the latter they are gaining slowly. Schools and Christian missions in their midst will be helpful and hopeful factors. |