resented to be in the southern part of Montana, about the headwaters of the Yellowstone. As this is the country claimed by and conceded to the Crows, and as the northeastern Bannocks and Shoshonees, treated with by ex-Governor Doty, did not claim an eastern boundary this side of the Wind River mountains, it seems doubtful whether the last-mentioned Indians can be other than roving bands, properly belonging in Idaho or northern Utah. The agent at Fort Bridger, who has charge of Washakee's band of Shoshonees, has been directed to inquire into this matter.

General Meagher recommends the establishment of an agency for the Crows at Kercheval City, near the mouth of the Muscle Shell, but the Indians themselves preferred that it should be placed near the mouth of Milk river, and the treaty so provides. This agent should also have charge of the Gros Ventres.

An interesting question was presented to the office early in the year, where a British subject, at some point on the Flathead reservation, brought on a stock of goods and proposed to open trade with the Indians without license, claiming to have the privilege of doing so under certain reserved rights of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Ashburton treaty. The agent was instructed to require a license, as no such right existed.

NORTHERN SUPERINTENDENCY.

From the annual report of Superintendent Taylor, and those of such of the agents as have come to hand, we obtain a variety of interesting information as to the tribes under their charge.

The agencies within the northern superintendency are seven in number, and are as follows: Omahas, population by last census 997, Agent Furnas; Winnebagoes, population 1,750, Agent Mathewson; Ottoes and Missourias, population 511, Agent Smith; Sacs and Foxes of Missouri, and Iowas, (Great Nemaha agency,) population 380, Agent Norris; Pawnees, population 2,750, Agent Becker; Santee Sioux, population 1,350, Agent Stone; and Upper Platte agency, having charge of the Ogallalla and Brulé Sioux, numbering 7,865 by the latest estimates, and the northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, numbering 2,550. The total number of Indians in charge of this superintendency is thus seen to be 18,153.

Mr. Taylor was one of the commissioners who, at Fort Laramie, during the past summer, met and treated with two of the powerful bands of Sioux, and had conferences preliminary to a treaty with other Indians. This subject has been referred to heretofore, under the head of "Indian Treaties of the Year." It was particularly necessary that these Indians should be pacified. By their hostility the great overland route to Colorado and the region beyond, to the west and northwest, had been rendered unsafe. The Indians naturally yield their hunting grounds very reluctantly, and it will require great care in their management to secure uninterrupted travel through their country.

indeed, as has been stated already in another connexion, a small portion of the Sioux resolutely refuse to treat, and propose to resist, at all hazards, the use of a route to Montana already much sought by emigrants to that region. Superintendent Taylor recites in his report the various events leading to the treaty at Fort Laramie.

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It is but just to add that the favorable result brought about was, in a great measure, due to the good influence acquired over the Indians by their kind treatment at the hands of Colonel Maynadier, commanding that post. One illustration of this good feeling, being an account of the Christian burial among the whites of the daughter of a Sioux chief, at his request, is placed among the accompanying papers.

Quite recently advices have been received from Agent Patrick that some 150 of the northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes had come down to the fort for the purpose of entering into treaty stipulations with the government.

It was

Complaints have been very frequent in Kansas during the summer, and till a recent period, of outrages of various kinds, involving, in some cases, the loss of life and the infliction of savage barbarities upon defenceless frontier settlers; and the authorities of that State deemed it necessary to take measures to put a stop to them. It has not appeared that the military authorities of that district were either unable or unwilling to take the matter in hand, though such may have been the case; but this office was advised that a general of the Kansas militia was engaged in persuading a large number of the men of some of the tribes, residing upon reservations in that State, to join his forces in an expedition to chastise the bands engaged in the outrages referred to. Directions were at once sent to the superintendent, Mr. Murphy, to prevent his Indians from joining in any such expedition, as it was not deemed advisable to allow of the employment of those Indians, and the inevitable hostility to be aroused between them and other Indians with whom they might come in contact. at the time supposed that the "dog soldiers" of the Cheyennes were the authors of those alleged outrages, but by recent correspondence between General Cloud, the Kansas officer above alluded to, and Superintendent Taylor, they appear to be charged upon the Ottoes, Pawnees, and Omahas, of the northern superintendency. General Cloud, as agent, appointed by the State authorities, requested the superintendent to send down to a point named in western Kansas some of the chiefs of the tribes named, that they might attend an investigation of these matters, proposed to be had at that place. Superintendent Taylor has referred the correspondence to this office, and has been instructed to decline sending a delegation of the chiefs, as requested, but to assure the parties who are seeking to identify the guilty parties that if they will present their evidence, the most careful investigation will be made in each tribe, in order to ascertain if such parties are harbored among them.

The superintendent expresses a very decided opinion that neither the Omahas nor Pawnees are guilty, but is not sure that some of the Ottoes may not have been engaged in these outrages.

The Omahas have had a very prosperous year, and have, as usual, paid much attention to farming. If the stipulations of their treaty providing for the allotment of their lands in severalty were carried into effect, the agent thinks the tribe would abandon the chase altogether. Every year more of the men and less of the women labor in the fields, the latter being left to their household work. The population of this tribe by the last census was 997, showing a slight decrease since last year. The people have raised this season about 65,000 bushels of grain, and 8,000 bushels of potatoes and other vegetables, their crop being valued at $35,725. They dispose of their surplus products to advantage among the whites, and are in a very comfortable condition.

A change has been made in the superintendent of their mission school, and the result has been beneficial. The report shows 61 scholars in attendance, with a progress generally satisfactory.

The agent expresses the opinion that there should be a more general diffusion of education among them, that sufficient facilities should be provided for educating all their children within certain ages, and that attendance should be compulsory. The theory is a good one, and were the means at hand to provide the necessary buildings and teachers, the plan could, at all events, be tried. The Omahas last year showed their willingness to adopt such a system, by agreeing to the insertion of a clause in their last treaty by which the annuities of those who should refuse to send their children to school should be stopped. The clause was not inserted, however.

Estimates for the survey of the reservation, with a view to allotments, have been prepared, and it is contemplated to effect this much-desired improvement in their condition in time for them to labor upon individual lands next year. Our accounts from the Winnebago agency are quite favorable, and the agent,

Mr. Mathewson, appears to be the right man in the right place. The tribe is fortunate in being in charge of a person who takes a deep interest in its welfare, as the people have suffered much during the three years which have elapsed since their removal from Minnesota, their census showing a diminution of 400 or 500 since that period. Under the provisions of their late treaty, which are being carried into effect upon the new reservation purchased for them of the Omahas, rapid progress is being made in restoring them to comfort and independence.

Immediately after the ratification of that treaty, Agent Mathewson repaired to the reservation, and after a conference with the chiefs, and assuring them of the good intention of the government in their behalf, proceeded with the promised improvements. His monthly report for May showed that the necessary buildings had already been erected for a storehouse, lodging for employés, carpenters' shop, &c., two miles of fence built, and four hundred acres of land prepared for crops. Upon the land cultivated by the Indians they have raised this year some 20,000 bushels of corn, thus materially aiding in their subsist

ence.

The tribe has not yet recovered from the general debility resulting from their past sufferings, and the general health of the people is not good; but they feel encouraged by the hope that a better day is coming for them.

The agent has furnished them with clothing such as is worn by whites, so that they present little of the appearance of Indians. Arrangements are on foot to provide them with the facilities of education, of which they will gladly avail themselves, and the best hopes are entertained of the future prosperity of

the tribe.

The Ottoes and Missourias, confederated upon a reservation lying on the line dividing Nebraska and Kansas, have profited comparatively little by the stipu lations heretofore made for their benefit in treaties, and the provisions for employés for a certain period, to teach them the arts of self-sustaining industry, have expired, leaving them nearly as wild as before. They, however, have at length begun to see that they must labor if they would live, and have consented to the payment of a farmer from their annuities, and have raised a crop this year of 4,500 bushels of grain, besides putting up some 65 tons of hay for their horses. They number 511 in all.

The mission school formerly maintained for the benefit of this tribe by the Presbyterian board was long ago abandoned, and the Indians desire the establishment of another, the agent recommending that the present agency building be repaired for the purpose, and that a new building be erected for the use of the agent.

It is stated that many white settlers are taking advantage of the disappearance of the stakes of the survey of the reservation, and encroaching upon its lines, cutting timber, &c. Measures must be taken to run out the lines again, so as to define it plainly, and thereby avoid trouble with the tribe, which is somewhat excited on account of this alleged invasion of their rights.

At the Great Nemaha agency are the Iowas and Sacs and Foxes of Missouri, numbering together 380 persons. In my last annual report I had occasion to mention the fact that a considerable sum of money, placed in the hands of a special agent to be paid over to half-breeds of this agency, had not been so paid over. The special agent referred to died in New Orleans, and the funds were paid over by his sureties, and those who were entitled to the money have received it.

Of the Iowas of this agency the agent speaks somewhat favorably, as they appear willing to labor, and have raised a fair crop of corn and vegetables, cultivating some four hundred acres. The Sacs and Foxes, however, are represented as being too lazy to work, and generally improvident, and, as a neces sary result, poor.

The Pawnees went upon their usual hunt in the winter, returning with a large supply of meat and robes, by the use and sale of which they were made quite comfortable. In the spring, they, under the charge of their agent, planted a considerable breadth of land, and the crops being well attended to and the season favorable, the yield has been large.

Constant complaint is made of the steam mill upon this reservation. The wood required for keeping it in operation must be hauled from a considerable distance, and this labor, together with the cutting of the wood, is very reluctantly performed by the Indians, while the regular force provided by treaty can be employed to better advantage. It has been heretofore recommended that a new mill be built, to run by water, upon a location easily accessible, and thus the services of an engineer be dispensed with; but under existing restrictions, by act of Congress, against the diversion of funds provided in treaties for any other use than that specifically set forth, this cannot be done. The Indians would gladly consent to the change.

The school mentioned last year as established, after long delay, in the new and extensive building erected at the expense of the tribe, has continued in charge of the teacher then employed; but, deeming it desirable that a more effective and permanent interest should be established in this school, arrangements are nearly perfected for placing it under the charge of the Methodist Mission board, and hopes are entertained that this friendly tribe will profit largely by the arrangement. The school-house has ample accommodations, it is understood, for one hundred scholars; and a manual labor school, faithfully conducted, will do much to elevate the Pawnees, by teaching their children the arts of selfsustaining labor, as contemplated in the management of such institutions.

In the month of August there appeared in this city nine Pawnees, consisting of seven men, one woman, and a little child, in charge of two individuals, one of whom had the assurance to pretend that these people had come, with him as interpreter, to obtain pay due to their tribe for services as scouts upon the frontier. Upon an investigation into the matter, it was found that the whole story was a fabrication of this man, who had started with the Indians on an exhibition tour through the country; finding which speculation unprofitable, he intended to leave them upon the hands of the government, which in fact he did, leaving the city before he could be arrested. His arrest would probably have availed but little, as there is no law prohibiting such conduct. Such an enactment is necessary, and I trust will be provided. One other such case has occurred during the year. These Pawnees were provided by the War Department with rations and quarters for a short time, during which they gratified the dowager Queen of the Sandwich islands, by appearing before her in their native costume, and were then returned to their homes in Nebraska. I regret to add that, in view of the fact that their agent, Mr. Wheeler, was found to have given written permission to the man who had these Indians in charge to take them from the reserve and exhibit them through the country, it was deemed proper to recommend his dismissal from office.

Santee Sioux.-Very important action having been taken by this office since the last annual report relative to the several bands of Santee Sioux, and their location having been changed to the Territory of Nebraska, I have deemed it expedient, in order to present a connected and intelligible narrative of events, to make all necessary reference to the subject under the head of the northern superintendency, although the Indians in question have heretofore lived in Dakota and Minnesota.

At the period of the last report the condition of the various portions of the Santee Sioux, known in our treaties as the Sisseton, Wahpaton, Mendawakanton, and Wahpakoota bands, was about as follows:

far

Nearly or quite 1,000 were at the Crow Creek reservation, near Fort Randall, up the Missouri river. These were mostly old men, women, and children,

the families of those who had been hung in Minnesota for participation in the massacre of 1862, or of those who were imprisoned at Davenport for alleged complicity in the same outbreak. In this number were also some sixty who had been imprisoned at the last-named place, and released by order of President Lincoln. These Indians had thus far failed in their willing labors to raise crops at Crow creek, and the expenses of their care, subsistence, and clothing, including transportation, had annually nearly or quite exhausted the appropriation of $100,000 made by Congress for their benefit, with no prospect of any improvement in the future. It was evident, from the successive annual reports from that quarter, and particularly from the reports of the northwestern treaty commissioners, who visited the reservation, that the Indians must be removed from that place to one where they could earn their own subsistence.

Some two hundred Indians were at Davenport, held as prisoners by the War Department, under military guard, since the fall of 1862. A part of the original numbers taken prisoners-by voluntary surrender of themselves in most cases -had been hung, and a part sent to Crow Creek, as above mentioned. Persons fully cognizant of the facts in the case had all along insisted that the really guilty parties had for the most part escaped, and that many of these very prisoners had actually exerted themselves to save the lives of whites, and had urged their release as having been sufficiently punished for such small degree of complicity in the outbreak as was proved against them, and on account of their exemplary conduct while in confinement. The military authorities had expressed their intention to release them, and measures had been taken, looking towards a formal pardon to be issued by the President in their favor, in order that they might join their people at Crow creek when released; but General Pope had objected earnestly against their being sent to that place, on account of its being of too easy communication with those Sioux who were but lately in hostility.

About three hundred of these people were living upon various portions of their old reservation in Minnesota, leading a precarious life. Many of these men had acted a noble part in withstanding the onset of their people upon the whites, and had, at the risk of their lives, saved and rescued many captives. Congress had acknowledged their services by appropriating $7,500 to be paid to certain individuals among them, and by securing to them the right of eighty acres of land for each family, including improvements, upon the old reservation; this privilege being valueless to them, since the white settlers would not consent to their remaining in that region permanently. Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, and other persons, had taken a warm interest in those meritorious and unfortunate people, and earnestly urged the department to provide for them.

In the neighborhood of Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory, not far from the northwestern extremity of their old reservation, were some six or eight hundred of these Sioux, who had fled from the indiscriminate vengeance of the whites in 1862, though for the most part persistently urging their innocence of any share in the massacres planned and carried into effect by the lower Sioux, these people belonging to the upper bands. A large number of this band had been engaged and paid as scouts upon the frontier by the military authorities, and the rations issued, from time to time to them and their families, with such small means as they possessed of cultivating the soil, had furnished them a meagre support. Besides these four classes, the remainder of the bands hitherto named, and comprising most of the really guilty parties, had fled far to the north, and were either in or near the British possessions, defiantly determined, for the most part, not to make terms of peace, but, according to some accounts, exhibiting exceptional cases of leading men who were willing to lay down their arms.

The earnest attention of this office has been directed to the subject, with the desire of adopting some just and practicable plan for improving the condition of