Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1875 — Indian Statistics. [ARTICLE]

Indian Statistics.

In his report the Commissioner of Indian Affairs classifies the Indians under three heads, as follows; First— I Those who are wild and scarcely tractable to any extent beyond that of coming near enough to the Government Agent to receive rations and blankets. This class numbers abont 89,813, and may be catalogued as follows: 44,354 out of abont 52,000 Sioux; 420 Mandans, 1,620 Gros Ventres, 4,200 Crows, 5,450 Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans; 6,163 Utes in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico; 9.057 Apaches in New Mexico and Arizona; 4,975 Kiowas and Comanches in Indian Territory; 7,324 Cheyennes and Arrapahoes in Indian Territory, Wyoming and Dakota; 5,362 Chippewas in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan; 800 Nez Perces in Idaho; 1,600 Shoshones and Bannocks in Wyoming; 1,0 0 Shoshones, Bannocks and Piutes in Oregon. Second—Those who are thoroughly convinced of the necessity of labor and are actually undertaking it, and will more or less accept the direction and assistance of Government Agents to this end. These number about 51,429, and are summed up as follows: 5,769 Chippewas and Amenomonecs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, 338 Sacs and Foxes in lowa, 4,622 Sioux, 730 Poncas and 973 Rees in Dakota; 3,289 Pawnees, Omahas, Ottoes, Sacs and Foxes in Nebraska; 1,820 Flatheads in Montana, and 2,500 mixed Shoshones and Bannocks and Sheep-eaters and 1,200 Nez Perces in Idaho; 295 Kickapoos, 303 Kaws and 2,372 Osages in the Indian Territory; 100 Pah Utes on reservation in Nevada, 575 Utes in Utah, 1,450 Mohaves and Hanlapaes in Arizona, 9,o6BNavajoes in New Mexico, and 15,056 among the different tribes in Washington Territory, Oregon and California. Third—' Those who have come into possession of allotted lands and other stock property in stock and implements belonging to a landed estate. This class comprises 5, 40 Senecas and other Indians in New Yo 11,774 Chippewas and other Indians in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota; 2,760 Sioux at Sisseton, Santee and Flandreau agencies; 266 lowas and 1,735 Winnebagoes in Nebraska; 750 Pottawattamies and Kickapoos in Kansas; 500 Osages, 15,600 Choctaws, 1,300 Creeks, 500 Chickasaws, 2,438 Seminoles, 17,217 Cherokeoe and 4,141 belonging to smaller bands in the Indian Territory; 100 Eastern Cherokees in North Carolina; 4,307 Nez Perces in Idaho; 5,112 Yakomas and others in Washington Territory, and 10,905 Pneblos in New Mexico. Within thcr above classification, modified somewhat, might be included 4,300 Pimas and Maricopas and 6,000 Papagnes in Arizona, and a majority of the 5,000 Mission Indians in California, who have always been self-supporting and only within a short time have been furnished by the Government with an agent and a few employes. A fourth class of roamers and vagrants is enumerated, consisting of 500 Wmnebagoes in Wisconsin, 250 Kickapoos in Kansas, known as Mokohoko’s Band, 5,000 Diggers and others in California, 3,000 Indians on the Columbia River, Utes in Nevada, Utah,Colorado and Arizona; 2,080 Yumas and others in Arizona, and 1,200 scattered Indians in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Texas. The Commissioner says a decided advance has been made daring the year in the direction of securing control and influence over the Indians embraced in Class 1; and the way has opened quite perceptibly for a much larger and mere hopeful work among them du ing the coming year. The first requisite in the treatment of afi Indians of this class is firmness. Any outrages or depredations should be followed up promptly and punished at all hazards and any cost. Any leniency which comes in to prevent this is an expensive and mistaken kindness. The 51,429 people embraced in Class 2, the Commissioner says, may be properly classified as Indian novitiates in. civilization. They have largely broken away firbm heathenish practices, are generally abandoning the medicine dance, and have come directly under the influence and control of religions teaching. For this class of Indians, the beginnings of civil government, a large increase or school facilities, lands in severalty, and generous assistance in furnishing teachers of trades and agriculture, together with farming implements, seeds and stock, are needed. The third class, composed of Indians who, without violence to the term, may be called civilized, is most numerous. All of them have been greatly assisted in attaining to this condition by the direct and long-continued religious teachings and influences of missionaries. They need some form of civil government and the inanguratlon of a process through which they may cease to be Indians by becoming American citizens. Of the roamers, numbering about 14,000, little can be said, except that they are generally as harmless as vagrants and vagabonds can be In a civilized country. They ale found in all stages of degradation,produced by licentiousness,intemperance, idleness and poverty, without a land, unwilling to leave their haunts for a homestead upon a reservation, and, scarcely in any way related to or recognizee! by the Government, they drag out a miserable life. The report states that the Sioux number 50.000, the greater portion of them “ yet unreashed by civilization. 1 Four thousand four hundred and forty-four of the more tractable received rations from the Government at eleven different agencies, and from 5,000 to 10,000 of the wilder class "consented to visit the agencies" when on “an occasional raid for rations." The wildness of the Sioux and the non-adaptability of the country they inhabit to their support in a civilized mode Of life make the future of the tribe a serious problem. In reference to the Black Hills the Commissioner says that all legislation looking to settlement of this region by the whites should be frowned down, as It would create demoralization among the 81oux. The relinquishment of the right given in 1868 to the Red Cloud and Spotted .JTau Agencies to hunt in Nebraska, it is believed, can be obtained by paying the Indians $21,000. Their right to roam in Wyoming still exists, although their repeated violations of the treaty made with them Would justify the Government, the report states, in abrogating it. Without calling for vigorous operations by the military, it would be impossible. Commissioner Smith asserts, to put a stop to the constant and murderous raiding by Indians belonging in the southwestern portion of the Indian Territory. But the necessity of fighting these Indians would have been obviated by firmness and promptness in procuring the punishment of the crimes of individual Indians mid of white marauders in their territory. The question of the future of the wild Indians in the Indian Territory, he says, is a very serious one, as their deep and avowed aversion to any settled life cannot be overcome so long as they are on the border of vast , unoccupied plains and almost within sight of herds of buffalo, and makes it well-nigh impossible to secure settlers

in Northern Texas and New Mexico from pilfering and murderous attacks by .small parties or by individuals of these tribes. * The remedy fifiESP-sted U to procure from the Cherokees, Choctaws and Chickasaw* a sufficient quantity of land, in five different tracts, suited to herding end agriculture, disarm and dismount these wild Indians and remove them to these localities, furnishing them cattle in return for their ponies and rations and clothing in return for their labor in building houses and opening forms for themselves. The Conimissioiner conclndes by stating his conviction of the feasibility of Indian clvuiza tion, and that the difficulty of its problem isP'not so inherent in the race, character and disposition of the Indian, "great as these obstacles are, as in his anomalous relations to the Government and in his surroundings affected by the influence <*pd interest of white people; that the main difficulty, so far as the Government is concerned, lies in the fact that the Indian's deepest need is that which the Government, through its political organization* and operatious, cannot well bestow. The first help which a man in barbarism requires is not luat which can he afforded through a political part} - , hut that which is offered by u fellow-man wiser than himself, coming personally and extending % hand of sympathy and truih; that no amount of appropriations and no governmental machinery can do much toward lifting an ignorant and degraded people, except as it works through the willing bauds of men made strong and constant by their love lor their fellow-men.