tion. By the same agreement the chiefs and headmen of the Shoshones and Bannacks of Fort Hall agreed to cede to the United States a portion of the southern half of their reservation, including Marsh Valley and the settlements therein.

By the terms of the agreement the United States, in consideration of such cession, agrees to pay to the Lemhi Indians the sum of four thou sand dollars per annum for twenty years, and to the Fort Hall Indians the sum of six thousand dollars per annum for twenty years, in addition to any sums to which said Indians are already entitled by treaty provisions. The United States further agrees to cause the lands of the Fort Hall Reservation to be surveyed and allotted to the said Indians in severalty, in the proportions mentioned in said agreement, and to issue patents therefor, with restrictive clauses against alienation, &c., so soon as the necessary laws are passed by Congress.

In anticipation that the agreement would be confirmed, a bill to accept and ratify the same, and to make the necessary appropriations, was prepared in this office and submitted to the department, and introduced in both houses of Congress at the last session (H. R. 6226 and S. 1759). So far as the Lemhi Indians are concerned, that part of the agreement which relates to them becomes inoperative, the tribe having since declined to remove to Fort Hall. I therefore recommend that so much of said agreement as relates to the Fort Hall Indians and their reservation be accepted and ratified by Congress.

FORT HALL AGENCY.

During the year encouraging progress has been made in the work of civilization at this agency.

The effort to assist these Indians was seriously embarrassed and retarded by the outbreak of a portion of the tribes in 1878, but the evil effects arising therefrom have been to a great extent overcome, and the agent reports that many of the Indians who participated in the out break referred to are now among the most industrious farmers and laborers at the agency, having come to the wise conclusion that it is better to remain quietly at home than to go on the warpath.

A boarding-school has been established which, commencing with three scholars, gradually increased until at the close of the session there were twenty-seven children in attendance. The agent, in his report, expresses the opinion that "this school is the very foundation of the civilization of these two bands of Indians, and its success is consequently of greater importance than any other matter connected with the agency." The success of the same is so far assured that more pupils will probably be furnished the present fall than can be accommodated.

The 1,040 Shoshones and 460 Bannocks at this agency have 460 acres of land in cultivation, upon which they have raised this year 5,750 bushels of wheat, 1,025 bushels oats and barley, 3,500 bushels vegetables, and 180 tons of hay. In addition to the above, 42,000 feet of saw-logs have been cut in the mountains, hauled to the saw-mill, and converted into lumber by the Indians, with the assistance of a sawyer, who ran the machinery of the mill.

Two dwelling-houses and eight granaries have been erected during the year, in the building of which the Indians have performed much of the labor. There have also been erected a dwelling-house for the farmer, 24 by 40, an addition to the commissary, 20 by 40, and an extension to the ice-house, 20 by 12.

AGENCIES IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

Whatever changes have occurred among the tribes in the Indian Territory during the year have been in the line of improvement. At the Quapaw Agency the necessity for issues of rations, except to the aged and helpless, ceased long since. The Indians of the eight small tribes belonging thereto wear citizens' dress, are comfortably housed, have ample school facilities, and are virtually civilized. But though they have reached the position of self-support, they have not acquired selfreliance, and the watchful care of the government must not cease for several years to come. Schools must be supported, employés furnished, . implements repaired and occasionally replaced, buildings must be kept in order, and the whole machinery of an agency must be continued; otherwise from the money and labor expended in the past will be realized merely a temporary instead of a permanent good.

The Absentee Shawnees of the Sac and Fox Agency may be included in the above classification, but the conservative Sac and Fox, and the restless Mexican Kickapoos, although they have learned to depend on farming for about half of their subsistence, are very slow to adopt civilized dress and customs, and the aversion of the latter to both houses and schools is yet to be overcome.

The Poncas are referred to at length on page xxxv.

The Nez Percés, attached to the Ponca Agency, are especially interested in the day school which has been opened among them, and which is taught by James Reuben, a full blooded Nez Percé Indian, who received his education at the Nez Percé Agency in Idaho. He is entirely devoted to the best interests of the tribe, labors among them as missionary as well as teacher, holds intelligent religious services on the Sabbath, which are well attended, and in every respect exerts an admirable influence. The grace with which the Nez Percés are submitting to the inevitable, and the prosperous condition to which they may and probably will soon attain, is shown by the following extract from the annual report of Agent Whiting:

When the facilities to work with are taken in consideration, the Nez Percés have made good progress the present year. With only twenty-three teams at their disposal, they hauled all of their supplies one hundred miles from terminus of railroad, besides breaking one hundred acres of prairie, and hauling logs for houses. They have more garden vegetables, potatoes, melons, &c., of their own raising than they can make use of, and they have asked for wheat to sow this fall.

The ninety-six head of two-year-old heifers and four bulls received for the Nez Perces were issued to them July 20, 1880. The Indians are taking excellent care of their cattle, and appear to be natural herders, and show more judgment in the management of their stock than any Indians I ever saw. We are now sawing out lumber for the purpose of erecting houses for Indians, and I hope to have them all comfortaby housed before cold weather.

The Nez Percés are an intelligent, religious, and industrious people, ready and willing to work and help themselves, and if agricultural implements, sufficient stock to work their land, and seeds are furnished them, they will do much towards supporting themselves another year.

The Pawnees are slow to renounce the life and habits of the Indian, and but a small proportion have yet adopted civilized dress or exchanged their tepees for houses. Farms are principally worked by the bands in common, and the crops are divided according to the labor performed. Several individuals, however, have undertaken independent farming, and their example will be followed by others until the clannishness of the tribe is gradually broken down. Their crops, consisting of 1,980 bushels of wheat and 4,000 bushels of corn, will relieve the government of nearly one-fourth of their support.

In school matters they are more progressive, and have sent 120 children to the boarding school. In complying with the educational terms of the treaty, the Pawnees have been much more faithful than the government. According to the treaty, "the United States agree to establish among them two manual-labor boarding schools, and the President of the United States, if he deem it necessary, may increase the number to four. The Pawnees, on their part, agree that each and every one of their children between the ages of seven and eighteen shall be kept constantly at these schools for at least nine months in each year." The chiefs are to be held responsible for the attendance of orphans, and failure or refusal of the parents to keep their children in school is punishable by deduction from the annuities. The establishment of another boarding school is not considered advisable at present, but the opening of four day schools, one in each band, as proposed by the agent, will nearly fulfill the conditions of the treaty. With the right kind of teachers, who will, in addition to work in the school-room, look after the general interests of the bands in whose midst they are located, these schools will constitute four civilizing centers, and the influences going out therefrom will be felt in every part of the tribe. There is no doubt that a well-organized system of neighborhood day schools, carried on in connection with a central boarding school, will at many agencies exert a more powerful and a more rapid influence over the whole tribe than if boarding schools alone were attempted, especially in view of the fact, already referred to, that the funds which can be applied to the support of boarding schools are utterly dis proportioned to the number of children ready to be educated in them.

The jealousy of factions, national conservatism, and a superabundance of tribal funds (which took away the necessity for labor) have conspired to keep the Osages farther down in the scale of civilization than other tribes which are less advantageously placed, and have received less attention from the government. Out of 1,600 full-blooded Osages only eight have yet adopted civilized dress. At the same time the new interest in house-building, which has sprung up during the year, and especially the request of the Osages that all rations except the beef ration be discontinued, mark an important era in their tribal history, and rapi progress from this time forward may reasonably be expected. Their efforts at farming have been commendable, but owing to the drought but 20,000 bushels of corn have been harvested from 1,999 acres. The cattle fever has also made serious inroads on their herds. The schools have been better filled, and the attendance of the children has been more regular than ever before. Freighting has been taken hold of with energy and zeal, and the only difficulty with which the agent has to contend is "to decide who shall have the preference in getting the business.” Equal interest in freighting is shown by the Kaws, and in most respects their condition is similar to that of the Osages, except that they are still willing-to use an expression of the Osages-"to be fed like dogs," and manifest no desire to have any portion of the regular ration discontinued. The 200 Quapaws who have gradually left their own reserve (where they had become thoroughly demoralized) and settle among the Osages, seem to have been benefited by the change, and begin to show a disposition to work. The few implements issued to them in the spring were so gratefully received and faithfully used as to encourage the office to make further efforts in their behalf.

For the "wild tribes" in the Territory-the Cheyennes, Arapahoe Kiowas, Comanches, and a few Apaches-the year has been an esp cially quiet and prosperous one. Freighting has turned into a health direction some of the surplus energy of Indians, who, while they have

decided to remain at agencies and draw rations, have yet found in farming and other civilized avocations no acceptable substitute for the freedom of life on the plains.

The removal of the Kiowa and Comanche Agency from Fort Sill to the Washita River, which has been contemplated for several years, and has been strongly recommended and as strongly opposed, was effected last fall; and on the 4th of December, 1879, the first issue of rations was made from the new ware house. The advantages of the new location have proved to be all that the advocates of the removal claimed for it. The distance of the Indians from the Texas line, and the fact that a military post is between them and the line, has nearly put an end to the raids of horse-thieves upon their herds. Except a few Indians who possessed houses and cultivated fields in the vicinity of Fort Sill, the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches have moved up to the Washita, and are settling down, not as before in large crowded camps, but in small groups and by families, and they are opening up separate farms instead of cultivating one large body of land in common. In this way tribal relations are being modified and the influence of chieftainship impaired. One Kiowa, who two years ago plowed his first corn-row in a field held in common by his tribe, has now a well-tilled forty-acre field of his own, which he has surrounded with an eight-rail fence, with a stone under each corner. With $50 saved from wages paid him for freighting, he has bought 3 cows and calves with which to start a herd. A willingness to dispose of ponies for articles more helpful to civilization, and a disposition to adopt citizens' dress, are most favorable indications. Twelve hundred acres have yielded about 12 bushels of corn to the acre. Eight hundred acres have been broken, but only for Indians who had first surrounded, by a substantial fence, he ground to be plowed. A new school-building, which will accommodate 200, is nearly completed. One hundred children, all that could be accommodated in temporary quarters, have attended the industrial boarding school during the past year.

The Northern Cheyennes under Little Chief have remained quietly at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency, although fears were entertained in some quarters that they might make an attempt to escape to the north during the summer. Little Chief refuses to allow the children of his band to attend school, and makes no concessions to civilization. The fact that Little Wolf and his band are still with the military in the Powder River country, undoubtedly keeps alive for Little Chief the hope that he may eventually be allowed to return there, and in the mean time he is careful not to commit himself to any of the ways of the white man. Ten wagons were purchased for his band, but only four young men had the courage to brave his displeasure and accept them. The Southern Cheyennes and a portion of the Northern Cheyennes manifest exactly the contrary disposition, and, with the Arapahoes, engage in every kind of remunerative labor which the agent can furnish them-freighting, making brick, burning lime, hauling stone, &c. In fact, the demand for work of this character is much greater than the supply, and is so persistent as to severely tax both the ingenuity and the resources of the agent. In farming, which does not give immediate returns for the labor expended, the Arapahoes have shown considerably more interest and perseverance than the Cheyennes. Owing to the drought, however, but 9,540 bushels of corn have been raised from 1,180 acres. A great draw back to energetic farming among both tribes is the uncertain status of their land title. Until the tract which they now occupy is confirmed to them by act of Congress, they will be slow to settle down and make pernauent improvements thereon. The two boarding-schools have been

attended by 308 pupils, a good showing for Indians who are still wearing their blankets and living in tepees.

All of the 1,237 Wichitas and affiliated bands belonging to the Kiowa Agency, except the Caddoes and Delawares, continue to advance in industry and thrift. They wear citizens' dress, live in houses, cultivate on the average one and four-fifths acres each, and, at times, require but small issues of rations. Self-support might have been attained by this time except for their proximity to and association with the wild Kiowas and Comanches. So long as these tribes must, for the sake of peace, be fed by the government in comparative idleness, their industrious neighbors will feel that they have a just claim to at least partial subsistence from government stores. The issue of any but beef rations to the Caddoes and Delawares has been stopped. They have so lost their ambition as to have actually retrograded instead of advanced for some years past, and it is hoped that with the necessity for exertion will return the energy and enterprise which a few years ago placed them in the front rank of the affiliated bands. In the new boarding-school building 127 children have been taught-about one-third of the children of school age belonging to the tribe.

Self-support by farming cannot reasonably be expected of this generation of Indians in a country so liable to drought as that now occupied by the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes. The actual loss of the crop once in three or four years will seriously affect the progress of a people who are both improvident and easily discouraged, and a new industry which will promise a reasonably sure return for the labor expended must be introduced. The Indians are therefore turning their attention more and more to stock-raising, and 1,100 head of cattle have been bought for them during the year. Thus far the temptation to use them to supplement the insufficient government ration has been resisted, and it is hoped that the same pride and satisfaction which the Indian now takes in his herd of ponies will, before long, be called out by the ownership of a herd of cattle.

PONCAS.

The prosperous condition of the Poncas in the Indian Territory, referred to in the last annual report of this office, continues. The agent reports that since the 1st of January last over seventy families have moved into houses, the total number occupied being seventy-nine.

Meddlesome persons are still endeavoring to induce the Poncas to abandon their present location and return to Dakota, but the leading men of the tribe have frequently assured the agent that they are satisfied, and do not desire to return. The efforts of such persons, however, create an unsettled feeling among the younger men, tending to retard their advancement. This uneasiness, it is believed, can be removed by the enactment of the law which was recommended in the last annual report of this office, providing for the permanent location of the Poncas by the purchase from the Cherokees of the land embraced in the reservation on which they are now located, and for the appropriation of a sum sufficient to indemnify the tribe for the lands and property heretofore owned by them in Dakota.

The Poncas are anxious to have their matters definitely settled, and to this end, under date of the 25th ultimo, the chiefs and headmen forwarded a petition, as follows:

We, the undersigned, chiefs and headmen of the Ponca tribe of Indians, realize the importance of settling all our business with the government. Our young men are un