placed in the hands of the Indians, as among the Creeks; but it was being recounted by the Indian sub-agent, (Mitchell, I think,) while Blunt, sitting at the same table, appeared to be taking his pretended claim of one-third of the poor Indian's money for his services in Washington, &c. I have omitted mentioning that Blunt produced a printed power of attorney signed by the Indians, individually or otherwise, and witnessed by the above Government sub-agent. My mind was so disturbed at the course determined on to be pursued, that I did not remain long, feeling it best to keep my hands clear from any further part in it; and still I continue to feel so since my return home. I have endeavored to give a just and true account, so far as my memory serves me; and while Superintendent Hoag and myself agreed fully in sentiment, we could not in conscience respect the claim agent's demand, or believe it right; for we consider that, so long as the Indians are the wards of the Government, receiving its fostering care and provided with its means, they have no right to waste the appropriations granted them by Congress in bargaining or paying such exorbitant fees to selfish agents without the consent of these who have immediate charge of the affairs, and are to a certain extent their guardians. If such claims are allowed there will be a legion of leeches, stimulated by this man's success, crowding around the poor cheated Indian, eager to become agents for him that they may fatten on his spoils and become as bloated with ill-gotten gains as many of their predecessors have been. The scramble has already commenced. They will rob the red man of his annuities, his hunting grounds, his houses, lands, and furs-all in the name of the Government, until the latter will resemble the man described by the poet: With one hand he dropped A penny in the urn of poverty, And with the other took a shilling out. Congress and tax-payers, disgusted, will then cut off all appropriations. Those who are well acquainted with the Indian character know that he is no match for the overreaching dishonesty and cupidity of the selfish white man; and one of the objects for which the commissioners were appointed, as I understand it, was to assist in extricating him from these snares and advancing him toward that better civilization which I trust is in store for him. With kind regard, hoping that thy health will hold out, and mine also, and that we may meet again as a board when the interests of our mission require it. I am, respectfully, thy friend, JOHN D. LANG. Report of committee appointed by Board of Indian Commissioners to visit the Ockmulgee council, Indian Territory. Hon. FELIX R. BRUNOT, Chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners: SIR: Your committee, consisting of Robert Campbell, John D. Lang, and John V. Farwell, appointed to attend the grand council of the tribes in the Indian Territory, held under provisions of acts of Congress, beg leave to report that they met the said council at Ockmulgee after it had been in session several days. Delegates were in attendance from the following nations and tribes: Cherokees, Muskakees or Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Ottawas, Eastern Shawnees, Quapaws, Senecas, Wyandotts, Confederates, Peorias, Sacs and Foxes, Great and Little Osages, and Absentee Shawnees. (See Appendix 35.) We found that the committee on the permanent organization of the Territory into an Indian government, subject to the several treaties of the United States with the different tribes, had made a unanimous report in favor of the measure. It was our pleasure to listen to the discussions upon the report, which were conducted with dignity and ability, after which the report was adopted by a vote of 48 to 5. Your committee were impressed with the great importance of this council, as bearing upon the execution of the humane policy of the administration, uniting as it does the several civilized tribes to coöperate as a unit with the Government, to effect the permanent settlement of the wild tribes, as well as for their own mutual advancement; and knowing the tenacity with which the Indians hold to their tribal relations and treaty stipulations, they were fearful that the objects of the council might not be attained without special effort on their part and by the Superintendent and other true friends of the Indians. Your committee, therefore, cannot but express their belief that the hand of Providence has opened the eyes of these tribes to see this opportunity, just at the time when the Government and the public sentiment of the country are especially enlisted in their behalf, and that the meeting of this council is but the beginning of an epoch in the history of the red man. After the adoption of the report alluded to, an able committee of twelve was appointed to draught a constitution to conform to the treaties under which this council was called, the members of which are very much in earnest in the matter. (Appendix 36.) In our visits to the various tribes of Indians the present season, we are happy to say that we have witnessed much to encourage us in the belief that the present policy of the President and Congress in behalf of the Indians of the United States is showing evidence of success. It inspires courage and confidence in the Indian, and we trust will give still greater encouragement as time rolls on by the continued fostering care of Congress and the faithful performance of the duties devolving upon its agents. We were gratified and deeply interested in a visit to the legislature of the Cherokee Nation, convened at Talequah, consisting of a senate and lower house, a governor, or chief, and council. We were kindly received in a joint session of both houses, and witnessed a display of talents, ability, intelligence, and dignity in the management of business becoming any legislative body of white men. At Ockmulgee we attended the sittings of the general council, and were equally impressed with the dignity and intelligence manifested by the delegates in attendance from the various tribes. Your committee in their visit also witnessed fresh evidences of the improving condition and advancement toward a general civilization of the Indian race under the new peace policy of Congress. On the various important subjects claiming the attention of the council, grave deliberation, good order, cordial expressions of sense and duty, with a high tone of intelligence, prevailed. The general interest manifested for the education of their children is very encouraging. Although they have numerous schools in operation, still we learned they were desirous of increasing the number, and needed more in order to extend to all equal advantages in this respect. The country of the Indians is of superior quality, (Appendix 37,) with an abundant supply of timber and excellent land, and is capable of sustaining a large number of the Indians now in the United States. Comparatively a small portion of the lands in the Territory are at present improved, and there is a great deficiency in the roads, and a lack of facilities for reaching market, and a neglect of general internal improvements. Your committee are particularly pleased with the exertions made by the civilized tribes for the purpose of inducing the wild tribes of the plains to come in and adopt the habits of those who have preceded them in civilization. The project of inducing these wild tribes to come under the care of the civilized tribes, through the instrumentality of the latter, in connection with white people, looks already very encouraging, and your committee cannot but hope that special attention will be directed to this subject. Its success will tend greatly to solve the Indian problem, and put an end to future Indian troubles on our extreme borders. In our intercourse with the assemblies we endeavored to explain the earnest wish of our Government to unite and encourage Indians in their efforts to congregate and adopt all the usages of civilization. In all our meetings we found kindly and courteous responses to our suggestions, and we trust that before many years elapse there will be a large aggregation of the wilder tribes in the ample territory now specially occupied by Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and other Indians, who have abandoned nomadic life, and are now happy and prosperous. In conclusion, your committee express their belief that frequent visits to the Indians and their councils by persons in authority will continue to meet with happy results, as tending to renew a general confidence in this special friendly movement of the Government and to secure the coöperation of the friends of the Indians. ROBERT CAMPBELL, Chairman, Committee of Board to Visit Ockmulgee Council. Supplementary report of the committee appointed to consult with the Osages. To the Board of Indian Commissioners: Your committee, to whom was referred the letter of Isaac T. Gibson, United States agent for the Great and Little Osage Indians, under daté of December 24, 1870, forming a part of our report, marked Appendix 18 and 19, upon our action at the council of said Indians, held at their council grounds on Drum Creek, Kansas, in the month of September, last, with instructions to make a supplemental report upon the facts therein contained, beg leave to report that, preliminary to the holding of said council, learning that there were half-breed and full-blood Indians who had improved farms upon the reservation of said Indians, who, on that account, would strenuously oppose the acceptance of the law of Congress by which their title to the lands in question would be extinguished, your committee called a council of such persons, which was generally attended, to consider a feasible plan by which they could be induced to accept of said law, and at the same time secure their just rights arising from those improvements in which the tribe, as such, had no interest. The majority at that time seemed to be opposed to accepting the law on any terms; but in no event would they do so again, except upon condition that they should be protected in their right to enter their claims as other actual settlers, who had improvements upon them, could, or in selling them to settlers who should be protected in said right to enter, by virtue of their occupancy and improvements and sale.. This seemed so reasonable to your committee that they secured of the prominent citizens of Independence, a large town in the immediate vicinity of these Indian settlements, at which it was suggested that a committee be appointed to meet your committee and arrange terms that should be satisfactory to Mr. Gibson, the Indian agent; and if they could not agree, to leave the matter to Commissioner Lang. For the reason of said committee and their proposition, see Appendix 13 to the original report. In the night succeeding the appointment of said committee to coöperate with us, each one of them proceeded, under cover of darkness, to lay the necessary foundation to secure preëmption rights upon the claims of an equal number of Indian settlers. The following day we were waited upon by the citizens' committee, who frustrated the proposition just referred to; and also by the Indians whose claims had been thus seized during the night, and who were so enraged that they would listen to no proposition, alleging that men who were capable of doing what they had done could not be depended upon to carry out any agreement that they should consent to make. During the day delegations from the towns of Parker and Liberty waited upon us at the agency to ascertain the progress made in the object of our mission, who, upon learning the facts connected with the council with the half-breeds, took measures to call a mass-meeting of citizens settled upon the Osage reservation, for the purpose of pledging themselves as a community to protect the half-breeds fully to the extent of their demands should they be deemed fair by their agent and your committee. Such meeting was held previous to the grand council and was very largely attended. Resolutions were drawn up and unanimously passed, after a free and full discussion of the subject, guaranteeing to the half-breeds full protection in their right to enter their claims the same as white settlers, should they desire to remain upon them, and if not, of selling them, and extending to purchasers of such Indian claims the same protection in their right to enter. A committee was appointed by said meeting with promise to enforce said resolutions, and the community was pledged to see that they were enforced. (See Appendix 42.) Your committee, desiring that no conditions should be entailed upon the execution of their mission in obtaining the consent of the Indians to the law of Congress, by which over twenty thousand white settlers were to obtain title to homesteads, advised these half-breed settlers to accept of these pledges and consent to the law of Congress unconditionally, believing that under the circumstances they would be faithfully fulfilled. The Indians still insisted that these people only wanted them to sign the bill by which their titles would be extinguished, and then they would disregard those pledges entirely. Finding that there was no other alternative but to pledge our influence with the Government to secure all that this massmeeting had guaranteed, or fail to get the coöperation of these halfbreeds, we did say to them in case they signed the bill that we would use our influence with the Government to compel those twenty thousand squatters to redeem their pledges to the very letter. Believing that your committee had been intentionally deceived by those white settlers, whose interests were much more in jeopardy than that of the Indians, who, it seems, were not deceived by their false promises, and would only accept of our personal assurance that the Government would not suffer them to be defrauded, we deem it of grave importance that the grievance, as complained of in the letter of Agent Gibson, which has induced your honorable body to call for a supplemental report upon the statement of facts therein contained, should command the immediate attention of the Secretary of the Interior for full and ample redress, first, because justice demands it; second, because this being the first agreement of importance in which your commission has acted on behalf of the Government in the removal of an Indian tribe into the Indian Territory, where it is the intention of the Government to remove others as rapidly as their consent can be obtained, their influence in making necessary negotiations with this tribe, and with others, will be greatly impaired. Should this case be allowed to pass without such action by the Government as will speedily make good the promises of your committee, necessarily given to secure such great benefits to those who have so wickedly disregarded their words to these helpless wards of the Government, not only is it evident that in justice to themselves the commission could not consent to use their influence in like negotiations in future, if such transactions are allowed to pass without just and speedy redress. That such action will be taken by the Government as the exigency of this case requires, we cannot for a moment doubt. JOHN V. FARWELL. Secretary. Report of Commissioner Vincent Colyer on the present condition of the Nez Perces in Idaho, the Umatillas in Oregon, obtained from personal inspection, and of the Indians in Alaska Territory. It was the 21st of October when I arrived at Umatilla reservation in Oregon. The foliage was bright in its autumnal color; the valley curtained with a purple haze; brown prairie and grey clouds, with the silver thread of the beautiful river glistening through it, all opened before the delighted vision of the tired traveler so beautifully that one could well understand the joy with which the early emigrant greeted the scene as he emerged from the rough roads of the Blue Mountains, on his westward journey to his new home in Oregon. We were fortunate in finding the agent, Major Boyle, and his excellent lady, Father Vermeersch, the Jesuit missionary, and the other officers, at home and at their duties. Major Boyle at once made me feel at home, and, after showing me the agency buildings, school, store-house, and blacksmith shop, kindly read to me his annual report, as follows: UMATILLA INDIAN AGENCY, SIR: I have the honor to submit this my second annual report of the condition of Indian affairs at the Umatilla Indian Reservation. In this report I will try to classify, as far as possible, each department under its own appropriate head. INDIANS ON THE RESERVATION. The three tribes of Indians under my charge, consisting of the Walla-Wallas, Cay |