Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1883 — THE INTERIOR. [ARTICLE]

THE INTERIOR.

Aaaaal Itoport of the Secretary of That Department. The report of Secretary of the Interior Teller for the fiscal year ending June 80,1883, is largely devoted to Indian affairs, and the remarks chiefly emphasize recommendations made in the report of the preceding year. In substance the report is as follows: It says that there has been a very considerable improvement among the various Indian tribes, with but little dissatisfaction, and but one outbreak, and that among the Apaches of Arizona. The amount appropriated in 1883 for Indians with whom there are no treaty engagements was 81,520,000. ' There is a marked improvement in Indian schools, and it is suggested that half the children of school age be put in manual-labor schools. The Government ought to spend $2,600,000 during the coming year in order to educate 10,000 additional Indian youth* The Secretary urges, also, the creation of a contingent fund on which the department might have a discretionary power, not to be used for subsistence, but for aiding exceptional cases for civilizing purposes, such as employing farmers, mechanics and others to teach by practice the Indians to become farmers, mechanics, stock-rais-ers and general laborers. The salaries of agents should be increased. Each tribe should have a patent for the land the Government has guaranteed to it, leaving the Indians to determine the question of allotment for themselves. In regard to the leasing of Indian lands Congress should provide some system by which the unoccupied lands can be leased by the tribe or the department for the benefit of such tribes, and the money expended for the tribe without covering it into the treasury. Of the great Sioux Reservation, which contains 48,924 square miles, it is said: "If the conditions of the treaties of 1868 and 1878, together with those in the present agreement, are carried out in good faith on the part of the Government, the Indians will need no further aid from the Government, and can readily be made self-sup-porting within the next ten years." The Secretary recommends that Gen. Crook’s prisoners of war should be removed from the' agency to some point where there will be less danger of their escape, and where their evil influences will not be felt by the more peaceably disposed of the tribe. There are valuable coal and silver mines in the San Carlos Reservation which the Government should buy. The Crow Indians could be rendered self-sup-porting for a few years if 3,000,000 acres of their reservation were sold. It is recommended that an appropriation be made to settle Chief Moses and his band of Indians in Washington Territory, on the Colville Reservation, so that the Indians will abandon the Columbia Reservation, and thus throw open to settlement 2,367,120 acres. Gen. Miles estimates that this result, which was agreed upon by treaty with Moses in 1879, could be brought about bythe expenditure of $85,000. Helen Hunt Jackson C‘H. H., of the Century Magazine) was employed by the Department of the Interior to investigate the condition of the “ Mission" Indians of California. She and her associate found that those Indians, who are semi-civilized and attached to the Catholic church, number 2,907. They are slowly but surely disappearing, and have been barbarously treated by the Government, having been repeatedly dispossessed of their homes. Some provision should, be made for them at once. The report or the Commissioner of the General Land Office shows that the disposal of public lands under all acts of Congress aggregates 19,430,032.80 acres, of which amount 339,236.91 acres were Indian lands, and 1,999,385.71 acres railroad sections under various acts of Congress. It is again recommended that the Pre-emption law should be repealed. The Secretary further recommends that the Homestead law be so amended as to require a period of not less than six months after a settlement claim has been placed on record before final proof shall be admitted. This will prevent fraud. The necessity still exists for legislation in reference to lapsed railroad land-grants. The attention of Congress is invited to the taxation of railroad lands.

The report of the Commissioner of Pensions shows that at the close of the last fiscal year there Were 303,663 pensioners, classified as follows: Army invalidsl9B,64B Army widows, minor children, and dependent relatives 74,374 Navy invalids 2,468 Navy widows, minor children, and dependen t relatives 1,907 Survivors of the war of 1812 4,831 Widows of those who served in the war of 1812 21,336 There were added during the year 38,162 new pensioners! an excess over the number added the previous year of 10,645. The Government should provide for the payment of pension money every month when it becomes due. The number of applications for patents received was 32,845; number of patents granted, 21,185; receipts from all sources, $1,095,884; expenditures, $704,348, The increase in receipts of 1883 over 1882 was $165,020. There is a large increase of work in the office of the Commissioner of Education. The system of voluntary statistical information is the most complete in existence. The General Government should supplement the Work begun in the several States by affording to the State such financial aid as may be needed. The total indebtedness of the several subsidized Pacific railroads to the United States is $123,845,605. The total credit for transportation and money paid into the treasury is $21,469,292. The necessity for a Government for Alaska is becoming very apparent. The total population of the Territory of Alaska is npt far from 30,000. Of this number about 5,000 are Aleuts, who are not barbarians if they are not of the highest order of civilization. Before the cession by Russia good schools were maintained by them, but since the cession the schools have been discontinued, and the adult Aleut who received his education under the Russian Government and at its expense sees his children growing up without education. Suitable provision should be made for the education of the children of the Aleuts, which can be done without great expense. It is reported that plural marriages have decreased in Utah since the passage of the act under which the Utah Commission is acting. The board shall not go out of existence until the Legislature shall have enacted such laws as shall prohibit all polygamists from participating in the election of public officers, or from holding any such office. It is not provided who shall determine the question whether the Legislature provided for the filling of said offices in accordance with the provisions of the said act or not. Any laws which may be passed should be submitted for the approval of Congress. ’ In regard to the Yellowstone National Park it would sCem to be necessary that more convenient and practicable means should be provided for the protection of person and property within the park. The Superintendent is clothed with no authority in such matters.