There are evils incident to the trade, and temptations to fraud and wrong, in any event, and there is too often reason to suspect collusion with officers of this bureau, but such evils, temptations, and possible collusions must only increase with the number of traders. It seems proper to mention here, that four of the superintendents whose attention has recently been directed to the subject have united in a recommendation for such a change in the policy of the department in regard to license to trade, as will annually give license at each post or for each tribe to the responsible party, who, after public advertisement, shall be the lowest in the schedule of prices, at which he will furnish goods to the Indians. I am not prepared at present to recommend this change, seeing many difficulties in the way of its practical accomplishment; but you will observe that it is the farthest possible from a general opening of the trade to all parties desiring to enter upon it. The above is submitted as a brief reply to your inquiry, the pressure of business upon this office being such, that I am unable to go into further detail. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JAMES HARLAN, Secretary of the Interior. D. N. COOLEY, Commissioner. No. 165. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Office of INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C., June 11, 1866. SIR: Having recently, with the sanction of this office, visited and made some investigation into the educational operations in the State of New York, modelled after the German Kindergarten schools, I beg leave to submit my report thereupon, having heretofore been delayed in such report by the pressure of official duties in my division. My attention had been called to these schools some years since, by representations from relatives then living in New York city, as to the wonderful success obtained by the teachers employing the system referred to, in attracting the attention of the children, and retaining that attention to such extent that the schools were practically a play-ground for them, while, almost unconsciously to themselves, they were constantly learning all that it was desirable to teach. Upon reading the reports of many of the teachers of our Indian schools, I had become impressed with the fact, that in the case of Indians, to a greater extent than whites, a system of teaching which possessed such attractions must prove very beneficial to the pupils, since the most frequent complaint of our teachers, and constant apology for short-comings, noticeable in the schools is that they cannot retain the regular attendance of those wild children accustomed to savage liberty of action and the freedom of out-door life. The system was introduced and carried to great success in Germany by Froebel, whose very complete work upon the subject has been translated in London, and published there; but I could not learn of its being for sale in this country. A book has, however, been prepared and published by Miss Peabody and Mrs. Horace Mann, in Boston, which to a certain extent supplies the want of Froebel's work, and at all events opens to the interested and capable teachers a sufficient view of the system to enable them to proceed in its use with success. I purchased in New York a copy of this book, and present it herewith for examination. Ascertaining from my friends the address of several persons in New York who could give me information upon the subject, I proceeded in my search, and after some delay, owing to the absence of persons whose address I had, I found one of these schools in operation in Brooklyn. under the charge of Miss A. M. Kittredge, at 14 Tompkins Place. Upon making my business known, I was cordially invited to be present the next day and witness the regular ordinary operations of the school. I attended accordingly, and was present about four hours; and by observation and conversation with the teacher, obtained such information as to the operation of the system in this school (comprising some thirty children of both sexes, ranging from five to nine years of age) as was entirely satisfactory as to its great value to them, and also satisfied me that in our Indian schools it can be used to very great advantage with children of greater age. On examination of the Kindergarten Guide herewith, it will be apparent, as it was to my mind, that everything depends upon the capacity of the teachers to make use of the system, and the patience and the skill with which it is directed in the schools. I should not be willing to guarantee its success in all of our Indian schools, for the reason that some of the teachers may not have the will, energy, patience, and ingenuity, as well as real love for their work, necessary to such success; but I think that I can name several of the schools in which this system might be introduced to great advantage at once, and from which it may be, as may be deemed desirable, extended to other schools. The schools to which I refer are those among the Menomonees, in Wisconsin, the Kickapoos and Delawares in Kansas, and those upon the Tulalip and Makah reservations in Washington Territory. Should you think favorably of the suggestions herein, I beg leave to recommend that further correspondence may be had in order to ascertain the necessary cost of supplying each of the schools referred to with the books requisite for making a trial of the system, which cost will not exceed the sum of fifty to seventy-five dollars for each school, aside from the cost of transporting the books to the more distant agencies. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. D. N. COOLEY, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. W. H. WATSON, Civilization Division, Indian Office. No. 166. Section four of An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the year ending thirtieth June, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and for other purposes. SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That any loyal person, a citizen of the United States, of good moral character, shall be permitted to trade with any Indian tribe upon giving bond to the United States in the penal sum of not less than five nor more than ten thou. sand dollars, with at least two good securities, to be approved by the superintendent of the district within which such person proposes to trade, or by the United States district judge or district attorney for the district in which the obligor resides, renewable each year, conditioned that such person will faithfully observe all the laws and regulations made for the government of trade and intercourse with Indian tribes, and in no respect violate the same: Provided, That the laws now in force regulating trade and intercourse with Indian tribes. affecting licensed traders, and prescribing the powers and duties of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, superintendents, agents, aud sub-agents in connection therewith, shall be continued in force and apply to traders under this provision, except as herein otherwise provided. Approved July 26, 1866. FORM OF TRADERS BOND. The condition of the above obligation is such, that whereas (name and title of agent, subagent, superintendent, or acting superintendent) hath granted to the said (name of person or persons licensed, as above) a license dated (date of license,) to trade for one year with the (name of tribe) tribe of Indians, at the following described place (places) within the boundaries of the country occupied by the said tribe, viz. (name, if any, and designation of locality of the place or places :) Now, if the said (name of the person or persons licensed) so licensed shall faithfully conform to and observe all the laws and regulations made, or which shall be made, for the government of trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and in no respect violate the same." and shall trade at the aforesaid place (places) and no other, and shall, in all respects, act conformably with the license granted to him, (them,) then this obligation to be void; else to remain in full force and virtue. 66 Signed and sealed in presence of [SEAL.] [SEAL.] [SEAL] [PUBLIC-No. 22.] AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to regulate trade and intercourse with the In. dian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers," approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and thirty-four. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of United States of America in Congress assembled, That the twentieth section of the "Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers," approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and thirty-four, be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows, to wit: SECTION 20. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall sell, exchange, give, barter, or dispose of any spirituous liquor or wine to any Indian under the charge of any Indian superintendent or Indian agent appointed by the United States, or shall introduce, or attempt to introduce, any spirituous liquor or wine into the Indian country, such person, on conviction thereof before the proper district court of the United States, shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding two years, and shall be fined not more than three hundred dollars: Provided, however, That it shall be a sufficient defence to any charge of introducing or attempting to introduce liquor into the Indian country if it be proved to be done by order of the War Department, or of any officer duly authorized thereto by the War Department. And if any superintendent of Indian affairs, Indian agent, or sub-agent, or commanding officer of a military post, has reason to suspect, or is informed, that any white person or Indian is about to introduce, or has introduced, any spirituous liquor or wine into the Indian country, in violation of the provisions of this section, it shall be lawful for such superintendent, agent, sub-agent, or commanding officer, to cause the boats, stores, packages, wagons, sleds, and places of deposit of such persons to be searched; and if any such liquor is found therein, the same, together with the boats, teams, wagons, and sleds used in conveying the same, and also the goods, packages, and peltries of such person, shall be seized and delivered to the proper officer, and shall be proceeded against by libel in the proper court, and forfeited-one half to the informer, and the other half to the use of the United States; and if such person be a trader, his license shall be revoked and his bond put in suit. And it shall moreover be lawful for any person in the service of the United States, or for any Indian, to take and destroy any ardent spirits or wine found in the Indian country, except such as may be introduced therein by the War Department; and, in all cases arising under this act, Indians shall be competent witnesses. Approved February 13, 1862. APPENDIX. [Papers received too late to be placed among the accompanying documents in their regular order.] WASHINGTON SUPERINTENDENCY. No. 1. TULALIP INDIAN RESERVATION, August 3, 1866. SIR: In compliance with the regulations of the Indian department, I here with forward my annual report of the Snohomish Indian school under my charge. At the beginning of last winter my pupils (who are all boarders) numbered forty-eight; but having neither clothing nor provisions wherewith to furnish such a number, I was reluctantly obliged to allow some of them to return to their homes hungry and almost naked. At present there are thirty-five in attendance: these I am endeavoring to keep together with the greatest ado. The general system of teaching still continues to be adopted with some apparent improvement, chiefly owing to the judicious management of my two assistants, and some recent addition to the school requisites. The pupils are divided into three departments, and I am happy to say are progressing favorably under the present arrangement. During the past year sickness has prevailed to a very great extent among the Indians of the Sound, and I am sorry to say that my pupils have suffered much more than heretofore, although we have lost but one, whose death was occasioned by the accidental explosion of a gun while out hunting. The medicine that I received last winter from the department has been a great means of staying the ravages that sickness was likely to occasion among the Indians; and there being no doctor on the reservation, they still continue to apply to me for medicine, believing my stock inexhaustible. I trust, therefore, the department will furnish me with another supply, together with some common drugs, that are likely to suit the exigencies of the complaints which the Indians of the Sound are particularly subject to. With regard to manual labor, our pupils have given abundant proof of their unremitting toil. They cleared and strongly fenced something over fifteen acres of land, and planted forty bushels of potatoes, some barley, peas, and other vegetables. These crops at present appear healthy and promising; and, notwithstanding the barrenness of the soil, I have every hope of sufficient vegetables for the maintenance of at least twenty boys. The school should be provided with a hand-mill, so that the pupils could grind their own corn, and thus turn it to much more advantage. I regret very much to say that I do not receive from the department sufficient to maintain ten boys, and it is very much to be regretted that our pupils are obliged to go around the Sound once every year begging old cloths and provisions from the white settlers, in order to enable them to remain at school; and were it not for the sympathy they excite and the aid they receive on this occasion, it would be utterly impossible for me to keep them at school, or to try to reclaim them under the present existing system. Four of my oldest and more advanced pupils left the school last spring, and are now making every effort to fix their homes on the reservation, and support themselves by small farming operations. Their intentions and dispositions are as good as can be expected; but it is also to be regretted that they, having spent so many years working hard at school, found themselves, on leaving, without means, and deprived of all hope of assistance from the department, the only place they have had to look to for support in order to get a start in a life of honesty and industry. The wandering, wild children of the Sound, who have never been to school, appear far better clothed and fed, and are very naturally subjects of envy to our half-naked, halfstarved pupils, who are, as it were, doomed to a life of misery and woe, owing to their good disposition to become civilized and to be (according to their present expectations) hereafter a credit to themselves and their posterity. Not so with the former: working as they do for the white settlers, they earn as much money as they require to supply their wants, and very often earn too much, from the bad use they are taught to make of it, entailing misery on themselves and on all those with whom they have còmmunication. This, then, is one of the many reasons that some help, some encouragement should be awarded to those poor, well-disposed children who are giving such evident proof of their desire to become civilized and setting a good example to all others of their kind. During the past year I have had an opportunity of seeing nearly all the Indians of the Sound, and I am happy to state that, notwithstanding all the opposition my teaching meets with at the hands of the base and corrupted, the number of Christians is rapidly increasing, and the income of the whiskey-seller and existence of crime are consequently on the wane. It is really lamentable to listen to the wailings of a large number of those poor Indians who have children of the other sex, complaining that there is no one to take charge of and instruct these poor 'unfortunate orphans. I must here again beg to remind you of the urgent necessity there is in completing the school for these poor girls, and in doing so you will rescue them from a life of indolence, infamy, and debauchery. Trusting that the suggestions therein contained will meet with that response to which they are so justly entitled, I have the honor to remain, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, P. S.-Copy sent to Mr. Elder, agent. E. C. CHIROUSE. NEW MEXICO. Los LUNAS, August, 1866. DEAR SIR: I have the honor to enclose herewith the report for the year ending June 30, 1866, as requested by you in your letter of July 22, and beg to add the following remarks: In regard to the number of acres cultivated on the grant of each pueblo, it is impossible to give the exact amount unless a regular survey is made of them, because the Indians are in the habit of cultivating small pieces of land wherever there is a piece suitable for their purpose without paying any attention to regular lines or shape. I have therefore put the number of acres according to my best knowledge and belief from a personal inspection of the lands under cultivation. The amount of acres cultivated appears very large in comparison to the amount of crops raised last year. This finds its explanation in the following two circumstances, viz: first, the crops of last year were very much injured, and in some parts of the Territory almost entirely lost by overflows of the Rio Grande, and by grasshoppers, bugs, and corn-worm epidemics; and, second, in the fact that the Indians in general are very much inclined to withhold true information about their property, because they are afraid that the white people, seeing them prosper, might feel a desire to interfere with their earnings. Under the head of wealth and individual property," I have included the value of last year's harvest, live stock on hand, together with such other personal property as there is to be found in the pueblos. Most of the Pueblo Indians, except those in the pueblo of Isleta, are very poor and have hardly anything in their dwellings, and the main reason for this appears to be the great ignorance prevailing among them. There is no doubt that our Pueblo Indians are poorer at present than what they were years ago when the Spanish kings had established schools among them and taught them the advantages of instruction and education. There is at present not one school in existence, and it is a deplorable fact that the younger generation can neither read nor write, nor do they learn how to speak the Spanish or English language, and their whole conversation is held in their Indian idiom The missionaries of the Catholic denomination, who are residents of this Territory, have been trying to introduce schools among these Indians, but finding no encouragement-neither from the Indians themselves nor from our government, they have abandoned the plan, and the Indians are left to take care of their own education. An appropriation of money for the purpose of furuishing schools, teachers, and a blacksmith and carpenter for each pueblo, will be the only means our government can resort to to rescue the Pueblo Indians from utter misery and perdition. The grants of the Pueblos of Santa Anna, Zuni Acoma, and La Laguna not having been surveyed as yet, I have no means of stating the size of them, under the appropriate hea 1. There are neither frame houses nor log houses in the pueblos, and all the dwellings consist of adobe or mud houses, which in summer are generally cool and in winter tolerably warın, I have the honor to be, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant, A. B. NORTON, Esq. Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Santa Fe, N. M. TORIBIO ROMERO, Indian Agent Pueblos, N. M. ΜΟΝΤΑΝΑ. OFFICE FLATHEAD INDIAN AGENCY, SIR: Since making my last report upon the condition of the Indians under my charge, all three of the tribes have returned from their summer's buffalo hunt. That of the Kootenays and Flatheads was very successful, and they returned to their homes with their horses loaded down with buffalo meat. The health of the Flatheads is very fine, and that of the Kootenays much better than for some time past, but still not near as good as it should be. The crops of the Flatheads are excellent, and could not be better; and what little the Kootenays have, is generally good. The Pend d'Oreilles were not so successful as the other two tribes; they had hardly reached their usual hunting grounds before they were attacked by a large force of Blood, Piegan, and Blackfoot Indians, and twenty men and one woman of the Pend d'Oreilles were killed on the spot, and a large number wounded. Of course they returned in a horrible condition; twenty-seven of their number being wounded, and a great many sick, and all nearly famished for food. I purchased a small quantity of tea and sugar for the use of the wounded and sick, and also turned over to the surgeon some beef and flour for the same purpose. With this assistance they have got along very well. Father Ravallie, a Jesuit priest, who is probably the best surgeon in the Territory, came over and staid with us some ten days, doing all that was in his power for the wounded; and all are now doing well. None will die of their wounds. The sick are also doing well. The crops of the Pend d'Oreilles have been greatly damaged by the crickets and grasshoppers; in many instances entirely destroyed, in some only partly injured, while the crops of a few have escaped injury entirely. This tribe is very much discouraged; in fact, the loss of their crops, the number killed and wounded, and those who have died from sickness, and those who are still sick, is enough to discourage any people. I have raised a large amount of seeds, of all kinds needed in this country, for gratuitous distribution among the Indians under my charge another season. All promise me that they will make greater efforts to raise a crop another season than they have ever done before. At this agency we have done remarkably well; we have all of our wheat,oats, and hay cut, and near all in the barn; thirty tons of fine hay, and between four and five hundred dozen of No. 1 sheaf oats. Our wheat was badly injured by the grasshoppers, yet we will have abundance for bread and seed. The entire crop on the new or lower farm is totally destroyed by this pest; but on the farm adjoining the agency every thing is No. 1, except the wheat. Our vegetables cannot be excelled in the country. Had we escaped the ravages of the grasshopper, our surplus products of the two farms would have netted us about two thousand dollars. If I remain here, I propose parcelling the lower farm out among the Indians, and enlarge the farm adjoining the agency to at least one hundred acres, eighty acres of which I shall seed in wheat and oats, and twenty acres put in corn, potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, beans, &c. Should I do this, I will expect the Indian department to provide me with a reaping and mowing machine. Next Monday we commence with all hands to repair our mills and put them in complete order. On examination of the mill-dam, it shows every timber in it to be badly decayed. Instead of building a new dam, we will put in a flume, which will answer a better purpose than a dam, and can be built by our present force of hands in less than a month. By the first of October I hope to be able to report that our mills are in complete running |