INFORMATION WITH HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL
STATEMENTS RELATIVE TO THE DIFFERENT TRIBES.
APACHES.
The number of agencies through which the Apaches are cared for by the Government has been reduced during the year from eight to six by the consolidation of the Verde and White Mountain agencies with San Carlos, and the removal of the Indians belonging thereto to the San Carlos reservation. There are now four agencies in New Mexico and two in Arizona, with an aggregate of 9,248 Apaches, of whom 4,233 are on the San Carlos reservation. Of these, all but the 950 Jicarillas, who belong to the Cimarron and Abiquia agencies, and 1,000 Mescaleros, on the Mescalero agency in New Mexico, have remained quietly on their reservation, and have given no disturbance nor alarm to the citizens of either Territory. The former have always been regarded as thievish vagabonds. They have no land of their own, their agencies being on private land-grants. They are in the vicinity of Mexican towns, where they have unlimited access to whisky, and nothing has ever been attempted ou their behalf beyond furnishing sufcient rations in the scarcity of game to remove them from the temptation to live by plunder; yet even these savages, wandering about the country without a home, are not reported as having committed depredations during the year past. They should be removed to and consolidated with the Mescaleros.
they have shown an interest and perseverance which promise well the future. A school-building has just been completed, and their first school will be opened this fall.
The 900 Chiricahua and other Apaches still keep their pledge to the Government, but are making no further advance in civilization, owing to the sterility of their reservation in the Dragoon Mountains.
The Southern Apache agency, at Tulerosa, N. Mex., was last year abandoned, and 400 Apaches belonging thereto, who bore the reputation of being the most intractable and indolent in the Territory, were removed to Ojo Caliente. The gathering of 1,700 more on the new reservation, it is believed, leaves less than 100 Apaches who are not now fully under the control of the Government. So depredations have been laid to their charge during the year. One hundred families have committed themselves to the "new way" by breaking and cultivating 100 acres; and having come into a good location for a permanent home, it is believed that their self-support by farming will be found an accomplished fact within a few years.
At San Carlos reservation, in Arizona, where nearly half of the whole Apache family is now permanently located, the most vigorous and successful efforts for civilization have been made. Three hundred and twenty-eight acres are under cultivation by Indians, whose crops amount to 625 bushels of wheat, 2,000 bushels of corn, 625 bushels of barley, and 9,200 bushels of potatoes and other vegetables; 800 rods of fencing have been built; 223 houses are occupied by Indians. When it is considered that only 1,000 of these Indians have been on the reservation two years, most of whom were participants in the outbreak of last year, that the 1,400 Tonto, Yuma, and Mojave Apaches from Verde arrived in March last, and that the 1,800 Coyteros from White Mountain agency arrived July last, after harvest, the above figures will be found a most striking exhibit of the results of the application of a firm control and common-sense treatment for one year.
The law requiring that rations and goods shall be issued only in return for labor is strictly adhered to. The agent also reports that "all work on new ditches and repairing old ones, clearing land, building fences, and farming for themselves, is performed without any compensation whatever." Good order is maintained by a force of 25 Indian police, who are armed with needle-guns, and receive a small fixed salary. They render such efficient service that with over 4,000 Indians who have been regarded the terror of the Territory, the agent finds no further necessity for calling on the military to assist in the enforcement of his orders. By the support of this police he has compelled all Indians who have removed to his agency, much against their will, to deliver up their arms. By their aid, also, the manufacture and use of "tiswin" has been almost entirely abolished.
The removal of the 1,000 White Mountain Apaches by the agent and one employe, with no escort, and with the opposition, instead of the assistance, of the military, is given in detail by Agent Clum in his annual report, to which attention is respectfully invited.
The following extracts in regard to the removal of the Verde Indians are taken from the report of the special commissioner, L.E. Dudley, by whose efforts this most difficult undertaking was accomplished:
General Crook assured me that, neither himself or his officers would place any obstacles in the way of removal, and that he would afford me every assistance in his power, except to compel them to remove by military force; and when the move was decided upon, General Crook did afford me every facility for transportation at his command; and both himself and Z. W. Mason, commanding Camp Verde, aided me to the extent of their ability. No effort was made by any of the citizens of Northern Arizona to
interfere with the movement by personal influence over the Indians. Of course the Indians were opposed to going, but when told it was the order of the President, that the move was intended for the purpose of placing them in a more healthy and better country, that the move was to be peaceable, and that they were not to be driven by troops, their consent was obtained. I found the distance to be traversed was nearly 180 miles, over an extremely rocky trail, and that it would be impossible to supply rations at any point upon the route by other means than pack-animals. After seeing the Indians fairly en route, under the care of Agent Chapman, under the escort of fifteen cavalry, I proceeded to carry out the remainder of my orders, and then took a saddlehorse and one man, and overtook them the second afternoon. A severe snow-storm had for one day impeded the march. Late in the afternoon of the next day a difficulty occurred between two boys – one an Apache Yuma and the other an Apache Tonto – which resulted in a general fight between the two tribes. An old feud had long existed between the two tribes, and had been augmented by the fact that the young men of each tribe had been used against the other as scouts. The escort, under the direction of Mr. A.L. Seaber, chief of General Crook's scouts, at once took position between the two contending parties, and made every effort to send them to their respective camps, and success attended their efforts. When the loss came to be counted, we knew of five dead (the Indians said seven) and ten wounded. Not a great loss where so much lead was expended.
No further matter of any particular interest occurred until Saturday, the 3d of March, when we reached Salt River. We fortunately found that the stream could be forded, but running as swiftly as it does in the month of March, it was a sad duty to compel men, women, and children, to wade through the cold water, even though they were Indians. The water was about waist-deep to a tall man, and the crossing was a pitiful sight.
We found at the crossing 25 head of cattle and 1,100 pounds of flour sent out to us by agent Clum, which relieved the fears which had fearfully troubled me about being able to keep the Indians supplied. I left the same day, and on the following reached the agency at San Carlos. The next thing was to select a location for those who were coming. I found the bottom-land of the Gila the best adapted for agricultural purposes, the best of any I had seen in the territory, and it was easy to find just the right place. I can see no reason why, with good management, these Indians should not become self-sustaining next year. I returned and met the column, and found everything going well. The move was a difficult one to make and was successfully made; no one at Prescott thought it could be made without many of them going to the mountains.
I have purchased a small quantity, but large variety of seeds for the Indians, and hope that the Gila bottom will soon be green with other fields than those of the Indians who were here before.
The few Apaches in the Indian Territory are not included in the above enumeration.
Of these, 520 Apaches on the Kiowa and Comanche reservation are entirely friendly and peaceable and took no part in the recent hostilities in that Territory. They are still blanket Indians, but show a decided readiness to engage in agriculture and have cultivated a few acres successfully. They have sent 20 children to school, as many as could be provided for. One hundred and eighty Essaquetas, who were enrolled as friendly, were frightened away at the time of the Wichita fight, and are supposed to be now in the vicinity of the Pecos River, Texas. They have been directed to return to the reservation.
A small band of 119 Apaches, attached to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe agency, are peaceable and friendly, but have taken no steps in civilization beyond a promise to plant corn next spring.
ARAPAHOES.
A careful count shows the Arapahoes to number 3,229, of whom 1,664 are included in the Cheyenne and Arapahoe agency, in the Indian Territory, and 1,552 in the Red Cloud agency, in Dakota. Those in the Indian Territory have continued loyal and peaceable during the year in spite of the bad example of their Cheyenne neighbors, and of hardships and privations endured in consequence of hostilities in which they took no part. They have been obliged to remain near the agency in worn-out lodges during the entire year; their lodge-cloth, blankets, and other
annuity-goods did not arrive till midwinter; their ponies, herded within short range, became poor; one short buffalo hunt was almost a failure; the trade in robes has been dull; the Government rations allowed were not only entirely inadequate for their support while encamped around the agency, but were irregularly issued, owing to the criminal neglect of the contractor to deliver supplies on time. Indian goods were left for months lying in depots and cars while his teams were freighting other parties, and he is thus directly responsible for great suffering among the Indians and for injury if not peril to their relations with the Government.
Between the Arapahoes and Cheyennes a growing antipathy is taking the place of the former unity and friendship, and, as suggested in report of last year, separate reservations should be provided for the two tribes. Though still wild blanket Indians, the Arapahoes are showing a decided inclination to begin a civilized life, and a number of converts to agriculture have been made during the year, by whom 140 acres have been cultivated and 82 broken. Many more have selected their farms and intend to commence work next spring, and to foster these efforts a permanent location should be decided upon at an early day. Fifty-three children have attended the boarding-school and have made satisfactory progress in study.
The good feeling among these Indians has been greatly promoted by the arrest of two young Arapahoes, one for the murder of a Mexican agency employe and the other for the attempted murder of the son of the agency blacksmith. They are now serving out a sentence of imprisonment at Fort Marion, Florida. Regarding the moral effect of these arrests the agent says:
Some anxiety was felt as to how the tribe would behave in regard to the arrest of two of its members. It is my pleasure to state that the tribe considered the arrest as a "new departure" that will ultimately prove of great benefit to the tribe in holding the members individually responsible, instead of as has been the case previously, punishing a whole community for the sins of one man.
The Northern Arapahoes in Dakota have been ordered to join their brethren in the Indian Territory, and now that peace is restored in that country there is nothing on the part of the Bureau in the way of such removal.
ARICKAREES.
The Arickarees number 900; who, with 600 Gros Ventres and 420 Mandans, are included under the Fort Berthold agency, and have had an exceptionally prosperous year. The Sioux have left them unmolested, and owing to an unusual quantity of rain the 520 acres cultivated by Indians on an agency-farm and in garden-pitches have yielded 3,400 bushels of corn and 6,500 bushels of potatoes, so that they are able to look forward to a winter of comparative comfort. Ten neat agency buildings have been erected on a new site one and one-half miles from the site of the old buildings which were burned last year; and for the first time in many years the employés are in quarters fit for human occupancy, and removed from the immediate vicinity of a compact Indian village whose noise and filth were alike destructive to comfort and health. Forty-three wagons, 31 carts, and 84 sets of harness have been issued to deserving Indians. Fifty new log-houses have been built by the Indians for themselves during the year. They have also cut and sold to steamboats and the Government 1,000 cords of wood, put up 600 tons of hay, and are now engaged in mining the 75 tons of coal required for agency use. Within two years 150 male Indians have been induced
for the first time to labor with their own hands. As a result of all these circumstances sickness among the Indians is less prevalent and fatal than ever before.
Notwithstanding the great improvement in their condition, which has resulted from two years of wise, faithful, and laborious effort, the outlook for these Indians is not encouraging. The soil of the reservation is entirely unsuited to agriculture, and only about once in three years can be expected that the crops will escape the ravages of grasshoppers, worms, frosts, and droughts; and even if the soil were productive the Indians could not be induced to settle upon individual farms, owing to their constant fear and danger of attacks from their hereditary enemies the Sioux. There is no doubt but that rapid progress toward self support and civilization would at once be made by these Indians if they could be properly located. Their rtied loyalty to the Government renders them deserving of all reasonable assistance tending to increase their comfort and well-being in their present location.
Two treaties, at Fort Abraham Lincoln, were concluded in May and June last by the Indians of the Berthold agency with the Sioux of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River agencies. This most gratifying change in the attitude of the large body of the Sioux toward their weaker neighbors is largely due to the efforts of General Custer, and is an important step in the direction of the prosperity and civilization of the parties concerned. The strenuous effort a year ago to induce the Arickarees to remove to the Indian Territory resulted only in a further illustration of the innate unwillingness of Indians to leave the country that is endeared to them by occupancy and inheritance.
BANNACKS.
This tribe has scarcely taken the first step toward civilization. Six hundred, parties to the Fort Bridger treaty in 1868, belong on the Fort Hall reservation in Idaho, but spend more than half the time in hunting outside the reserve. The reservation is well supplied with grazing and farming lands. The agency farm of 235 acres, cultivated by Indian labor under the direction of but one white man, notwithstanding the grasshopper raid, has yielded large crops.It was known in early spring that the Mormons had out their emissaries seeking interviews with these Indians, urging them to go to Salt Lake City to be baptized in the Mormon Church. Quite a number of them went without the knowledge of the agent, were thus baptized, and then returned as missionaries to work among their tribes. By these efforts quite a number who were out on permits found their way to Corinne, where the Mormons had an encampment and furnished rations to all Indians who would come to them and be baptized in the Mormon faith. They were told that by being baptized and joining the church the old men would all become young, the young men would never be sick, that the Lord had a work for them to do, and that they were the chosen people of God to establish His kingdom upon the earth, &c.; also that Bear River Valley belonged to them, and if the soldiers attempted to drive them away not to go, as their guns would have no effect upon them. Their whole teachings were fraught with evil and calculated to make the Indians hostile to the Government, and especially to the people of Corinne. As near as I have been able to ascertain there were about twenty lodges or one hundred and twenty persons there from this agency. They had no idea of fighting the troops, and when ordered by them to leave started once. They seem very much disgusted with the whole proceeding, have lost faith in the Mormons, and say they did not know they were doing anything in opposition to the Government. I have no fears of any more trouble in that direction at present.
To the 210 Bannacks on the Lemhi reservation in Idaho, the following remarks of Inspector Watkins in regard to the Indians at Fort Hall would apply with equal force:
They are generally willing to work and anxious to get farms of their own. If the appropriation for them could be increased a few thousand dollars for the next years, so as to enable the agent to build them small houses at suitable places on the reservation, and assist them in starting with farm tools, &c., the question of Indian civilization, so far as these Indians are concerned, would be settled. They would be self-supporting.
The 173 confederate Bannacks and Snakes recently gathered on the Malheur reservation in Oregon are manifesting some disposition to labor for day-wages, but have not yet settled down to individual farming.
BLACKFEET AND BLOODS.
Each tribe was divided into a certain number of bands, with a band-chief, a war-chief, and a mina maska, or priest of the sun. The band-chief was responsible to other chiefs for the conduct of those under him. There were formerly 33 of these bands in the nation, each independent of the other, but answerable for all offenses against each to the exkinoya, or great council of the tribes, which formed a confederate supreme council for the decision or action of all matters affecting the entire nation, and the declaration of war or peace with neighboring tribes, and alone possessed and exercised all judiciary and legislative powers, and whose decision was final. The exkinoya-chief was head-chief for the year, and the rest of the band-chiefs formed the senate, while the other chiefs formed a body of representatives.
For the past five years they have been entirely peaceable and friendly to the Government, but have shown no desire to settle down to any civilized pursuit. Buffalo are plenty, and more than half the year is spent in hunting across the British line where easy access to bad whisky and continued intercourse with low whites have reduced their numbers, and debauched and degraded them to such extent as to destroy even this tribal organization.
the death-penalty for murder. These laws are considered by the Indians as binding, and the agent reports them as having been thus far rigidly obeyed, resulting in a marked change for the better in all their habits. The practical workings of the system are thus described by Inspector Watkins:
While there is no law under which such a tribunal can legally act, their decision is considered binding by the Indians, and every violation of the law which they have thus made is reported to the agent, and steps taken to bring the offender to justice – if an Indian, to be tried and punished; if a white man, to be turned over to the proper authority. I consider the code of laws eminently just and the practical working of the system very beneficial.
A day-school with an enrollment of 80 pupils has been successfully carried on, notwithstanding the irregular attendance of children who have no fixed home. Many of the older Indians express themselves as ready to settle down and make their first attempt in farming, and it is hoped that the next year will witness a decided change in the condition and prospects of these savages hitherto neglected and considered hopeless.
CADDOES.
CANCOWS.
CAYUGAS.
CAYUSES.
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The war-band chiefs were charged with the proclamation and enforcement of laws enacted by the supreme council, the protection of the camp, all police matters, and also the punishment of public offenders. Another class of men busied themselves entirely with hunting and marching of the camp. Early in the spring of each year the head chief named a day for a general meeting of all the members of the tribe, which was then formed in a single camp for the summer season.
The exkinoya-chief kept his council nearly every day settling differences among members of the various bands, examining candidates for different degrees, assigning the band-chiefs to their fall and winter quarters, the Blackfeet north, the Bloods in the middle, and the Piegans south in the tribal lands. Okan, the feast of the sun, which is the national feast of the Blackfeet, was held for four days, as a closing ceremony, after which the exkinoya and soldier lodge dissolved themselves, and the members of the tribes resumed their band-camp organization under their respective chiefs, and dispersed to their fall and winter quarters.
The country formerly roamed over by this tribe covered 20,000 square miles, and included the valley of the Saskatchawan, and the head-waters, south and west, of the Missouri River. The Executive order reducing their territory to a tract along the northern boundary of Montana, bounded by the Missouri, Marias, and Sun Rivers, and the State line of Dakota, deprived the Indians of much of their best hunting-grounds, and left the agency outside of the reservation.
New agency-buildings are now being erected within their reserve. During the year, in a council called by the agent, chiefs were formally elected, who, with the agent, constitute a tribunal before which all offenses are to be brought, with power to hear, try, and punish. A code of laws was adopted prohibiting intemperance, polygamy, traffic in women, and providing punishment for theft, or assault, and establishing
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than to settle down to an agricultural life. Stock-raising also offers stronger inducements than farming, as the cattle and horses require little care and find a ready market. Only 12 families live in houses and only 21 children attend school. Many Indians are asking for houses, and the recent removal of the mill nearer the timber will enable the agent to furnish lumber for building next season.
Through the vigilance of the chiefs intemperance is almost unknown. Two white men have been tried and convicted in the United States court, one for selling whisky to an Indian and the other for stealing a horse irom an Indian.
CHEHALIS INDIANS.
The 300 Chehalis Indians, on a reservation of the same name, near Puget Sound, are making satisfactory progress. They have labored well during the year on their farms, and in clearing lands, fencing, and building a few houses. A day school has been maintained for a portion of the time. A church, with Indian members and two local Indian preachers, has been established by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and sabbath-school is well attended.CHEROKEES.
No census has been taken of the Western Cherokees in the Indian Territory since 1872. They were then reported, in round numbers, at 17,000, which number has probably been swelled by natural increase and immigration to 18,000.
lessly left the title in their agent personally, and not in trust. By this neglect, when subsequently the agent became insolvent, all their lands were seized and sold for his debts. By special legislation of Congress, their case has been brought before the courts of the State of North Carolina, and their rights to a certain extent asserted, and they are enabled to maintain possession of their lands, and, by the use of their own funds in extinguishing liens, are now in possession of above seventy thousand acres of fair arable timber and grazing lands. They have shown themselves capable of self-support, and I believe have demonstrated the unwisdom of removing Indians from a country which offers to them a home, where a white man could make a living. This is shown by the fact that they are now, though receiving scarcely any Government aid, in a more hopeful condition, both as to morals and industry personal property, than the Cherokees who removed West.
A question has arisen between these two Cherokee bodies as to rights in the proceeds of the lands west of the Mississippi, purchased with funds received in cornpensation for lands ceded by the Cherokees in the East.
CHEYENNES.
The Southern Cheyennes belonging to the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency in the Indian Territory have been carefully counted, and number 2,055. Those in Dakota number 1,727.A more wretched and poverty-stricken community than these people presented after they were placed in the prison-camp, would be difficult to imagine. Bereft of lodges and the most ordinary of cooking apparatus, with no ponies or other means of transportation for wood or water, half-starved, with very little meat, and scarcely anything that could be called clothing, they were truly objects of pity, and for the first time the Cheyennes seemed to realize the power of the Government and their own inability to cope successfully therewith.
By way of punishment and example, it was decided that thirty-three of the ring-leaders and desperadoes, who were known to have committed crimes, should be selected from among these captives, and condemned to close confinement in Fort Marion, at Saint Augustine, Fla. On an appointed day the hostiles were assembled and the selection and identification begun, but only fifteen had thus been selected when night came on, and General Neil, to complete the number, "cut off eighteen from the right of the line," without regard to name or character, intending at a future day to proceed with the identification, and to release those of the eighteen against whom no charges could be found, substituting therefor other proven offenders. These thirty-three were then placed under strong guard. A few days afterward a stampede of the hostile camp occurred, which is reported by Agent Miles as follows:
The very fact known to us all, that these Indians had not surrendered their best arms, was sufficient to lead us to the belief that it was only a question of time and opportunity that a revolt should occur. While the process of "ironing" the prisoners was going on, a young "brave," stung to madness by the taunts of some squaws seated a little distance off, watching the process, kicked over the "blacksmi[t]h," sprang away from the guard, and would have escaped had not the guard been ordered to fire upon him, which they did, inflicting a mortal wound, from the effects of which he died
shortly afterward. In the mean time the firing had created the wildest consternation in the immediate vicinity, which soon spread all over the prison-camp. A numbcr of arrows were aimed at the guard, one man of which received a very dangerous wound. News of the disturbance was quickly signaled to the commanding officer, who ordered a company of cavalry to at once advance in support of the prison-camp guard. Seeing the troops advancing, and believing that they were about to be attacked, the Cheyenne braves fled to an adjoining sand-hill where were a quantity of arms and ammunition that they had previously hidden away for an emergency of this kind, and intrenching themselves in the sand, in pits, they opened fire on the troops who had followed them, and successfully held their ground against three companies of cavalry and two Gatling guns, from 2 p.m. until dark, escaping under cover of an extremely dark and stormy night. A number were wounded on both sides, and three Cheyennes were killed.
Of the "stampeders" it is estimated that between 300 and 400 went north and joined their relatives in Dakota. The remainder gradually returned and assembled in the vicinity of " Whirlwind's" camp, and on April 27 were formally turned over to Agent Miles, and were by him registered, and for the first time in eleven months declared at peace with the Govenment.
The thirty-three selected before the stampede have been taken to Fort Marion, where they are serving out their sentence. As above stated, not half of these have been proven guilty of any crime. It would therefore seem but simple justice that the eighteen should be tried, and that such as are not found guilty be returned to their friends at the agency. There is no doubt that Cheyennes guilty of the most flagrant crimes are still at large among the Sioux, having fled thither during the hostilities in the fall and winter, and at the time of the stampede in April.
The friendly Cheyennes, while suffering with the Arapahoes, as detailed above, have had their loyalty put to the severest test by a comparison of their own condition with that of the full-fed and warmly clothed and housed captives in charge of the War Department. Notwithstanding all privation, they have been unswerving in their friendship and ever ready to assist the agent in maintaining order and in compelling Southern Cheyennes who have visited the agency to submit to a count. They have not heretofore taken any interest in farming or education, but now promise, as soon as located on a new reservation apart from the Arapahoes, to send their children to school.
The Northern Cheyennes, to whom have been added over 400 of the wild blanket Southern Cheyennes, have been heretofore subsisted with the Sioux of Red Cloud agency on Government rations. They affiliate with the Northern Arapahoes, and are to be removed with them to the Indian Territory, where they can be subsisted with their southern brethren. Until this removal is effected, there are no funds applicable from which rations can be furnished.
Upon such removal all the Cheyennes should be placed at a new agency to the east of the present site, leaving the Arapahoes where they now are. Such removal and division would tend greatly to good discipline, and enable the enforcement of compulsory labor by the Indians. This removal is only waiting until the military is prepared to support the order from the Department.
CHIMHUEVIS.
They number 350, and formerly ranged through Southern California, and as far north as Utah, but were last year induced to settle down on the California bank of the Colorado River, and the Colorado River reservation was so extended as to include them within its boundaries. With the exception of a little assistance from the agent in the way of tools and seeds, they are self-supporting.CHIPPEWAS.
The Chippewas, now numbering 19,606, formerly ranged over Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and with common interests, and acknowledging more or less the leadership of one controlling mind, formed a homogeneous and powerful nation; a formidable foe to the Sioux, with whom they waged incessant warfare, which was checked only by the removal of the Minnesota Sioux to Dakota after the outbreak of 1862.I feel very much gratified with the prospects of material prosperity of the Indians[.] Never during my agency have they planted and sowed seed to such an extent as this season, and I have never seen their crops look so thrifty and promising. The special attention l have given toward encouraging them in agricaltural pursuits during the past two seasons has more than met my expectations, and convinced me that this is the way to advance the Indians in civilization and prosperity. In the Indians of Michigan may be unquestionably seen the triumphs of Christian civilization over paganism. They stand out in the strong light of a striking contrast with the aborigines. They
almost universally wear the dress of citizens: many speak, and more understand, the English language; large numbers have adopted our industries; camp and tent are superseded by shanty and house; domestic, instead of nomadic, life is their rule; the mumeries of idolatry and conjuring of paganism have given place to the prayers praises addressed to the true and living God; polygamy is practically abandoned, monogamy accepted, and the rites and rights of marriage and home regarded and respected.
The Bad River and Red Cliff bands in Wisconsin who are located, the former in Ashland County, numbering 732, and the latter, numbering 726, north of Bayfield. At Bad River, in spite of determined opposition on the part of the chiefs, 160 allotments, of 80 acres each, have been made to as many families, who are persevering in farming, and have raised during the year good crops of corn, potatoes, and turnips, sufficient, with fish, of which they consume and sell large quantities, to subsist them comfortably through the winter. The day and night schools, in connection with the manual labor boarding-school, have had an attendance of 128 pupils. At Red Cliff, the 80 acres under cultivation have yielded good crops, proving that the reservation is adapted to agriculture. Several Indians have learned the cooper's trade, but the barrels made this year found no market. One hundred thousand staves have been manufactured. An allotment in severalty should be made at an early day to these enterprising Indians, who have received their last annuity from the Government, and are glad to engage in any employment which will furnish them with a livelihood. Their day and night schools have an attendance of 52 pupils.
The Red Lake band, numbering 1,141 on a reservation lying around Red Lake, in Minnesota. Satisfied with their blanket and wigwam, kept from hunger by the cultivation by the women of small patches of corn and potatoes, and by fish from the lake, scantily clad by means of their annuity of blankets and cloth and $8 per capita, and seldom visited by white men – these Indians, until within three years, have passed an undisturbed and comparatively comfortable savage life. A recent attempt to begin among them, while yet undemoralized by contact with white men of the border, a work of civilization, has met with most gratifying success. A desire for houses, for citizens' dress, for more land under cultivation, and for the individual possession of stock and farming implements, was soon awakened. Two hundred men, out of a population of less than 1,200, have learned to labor with their own hands. The "medicine-men" are losing their hold, and there is a growing desire for the education of their children. A small day-school has been maintained, but, owing to the distance of their scattered homes, little can be accomplished in this direction until a boarding-school shall have been established. For this a special appropriation is needed. The condition and progress of the Red Lakes is reported by their agent as follows:
The Indians have raised this year crops in about the following quantities: Corn, 5,000 bushels; wheat, 80 bushels; potatoes, 2,000 bushels. The Indians manifest a growing desire for a surer and better livelihood, for homes like the whites, with similar comforts and conveniences, and to this end are anxious to obtain work, are willing
to work well and faithfully, and have cleared up some land adjoining their gardens, thus increasing the area under cultivation. Their crop of corn is good, notwithstanding the drought, while the wheat, although severely injured by the grasshoppers, is double that ever raised here; the potato-yield will be under their average owing in part to lack of seed, severe cold freezing them, and also to the potato-bug.
Some half dozen hewed log-houses for Indians are just finishing at this date.
Nearly one-half of them wear citizen's dress, and all are engaged in cultivating gardens, even though they resort to the lakes at their very doors for fish, which constitutes a large element of their food. The Indians are quiet, peaceable and orderly; about as much so as a white settlement in the same locality would be.
During the year I have, with the help of the Indians, built a very fair wagon-road, with the necessary bridges, from this agency to the northern line of the White Earth reservation, a distance of about fifty miles, there connecting with a road, via White Earth, to Detroit our shipping-point on the Northern Pacific Railroad.
The Mississippi Chippewas, numbering about 800, (with a few Pillagers and half of the Pembinas,) at White Earth, Minn. These Indians, who, five years ago were in their wigwams and blankets, are now ready for a limited citizenship. They show by object-lesson teaching what the Government can do for Indians with an application of the proper means in a way not altogether contrary to common sense. ln these few years they have been raised from wretcheduess and beggary to a condition of comfort and self-support by agriculture. They have houses, farms, stock, farming-implements, saw and grist mills, shops and schools. Religious societies have furnished churches, pastors, and a hospital. The results of this season's Indian-farming are 7,000 bushels of wheat, 2,500 bushels of corn, 15,000 bushels of oats, 5,100 bushels of vegetables, and 2,000 tons of hay. One boarding and two day schools are attended by 129 pupils. Each year of effort has shown steady progress, and they need now from the Government little beyond the continued stipport of the schools and of the employé force to insure a constant annual gain toward Christian civilization. To this end the recent allotments of lands will largely contribute, in giving a sense of security in the possession of the first homes which they have earned the right to call their own. The following in regard to these White Earth Indians is taken from a report made by the assistant secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners:
The progress made in the seven years past gives reason to hope that in a few years more the goal will be reached of self-support and manly, honest living. No good reason appears why these Indians should much longer need the care of the General Government. They have a rich country, well watered, containing fair proportions of prairie and timber lands, and large enough to support every Indian in the State of Minnesota. Let their lands be partitioned under the homestead act of March 3, 1875; let this reservation be organized as a county; let them have the protection and control of State laws, the benefits of common schools, and the rights of citizens; then the United States Indian agency can be abolished.
The Chippewas who have made little or no progress in civilization are:
Half of the Pembinas, who number in all 557, and who were ordered two years ago, on pain of forfeiture of their annuities, to remove from their haunts in Turtle Mountain and around Fort Pembina, in Dakota, to White
Earth, and most of the Otter Tail Pillagers, 522 in number, who were likewise compelled to remove from Otter Tail County in Minnesota, where they had become a source of annoyance and alam to the settlers. These two bands have been slow in falling into line with the rest of their tribe on that reservation, although a fine location has been selected for
them, on which ground has been broken and a water-power saw-mill erected. Several have this year made a beginning in farming, and it is hoped that next year will witness a greater readiness on their part to labor and to adopt the white man's dress and customs.
The Pillager and Lake Winnebagoshish bands in the vicinity of Leech Lake, Minnesota, comprising 1,594 of the most degraded and disorderly of the Chippewas. Nothing is being done for their civilization, except in the maintenance of pupils in a boarding-school, and the plowing in the spring of the few accessible patches of arable land of inferior quality which the reservation affords. The only help for these Indians in a large annual expenditure for all time to come for their support in their present location, or generous appropriations for a few years to effect their removal and establishment upon White Earth reservation, on lands adjoining. To such removal their unwillingness to leave their lake would present
obstacles more or less serious. Two Indians, who have been ringleaders in all the disturbances which have taken place on the reservation for the past few years, were arrested by the agent in September and taken before the United States district court at Saint Paul for trial; but the court decided that the case did not come within its jurisdiction, and thus the moral effect which it was hoped their arrest and punishment would have on other turbulent members of the tribe, was lost for want of the legislation which the Bureau has most earnestly asked.
The White-Oak Point Mississippis, numbering 790, on the Mississippi River, who are in much the same condition as the Pillagers, except that they have no school, and are at a greater distance from the agency.
The Mississippis of Mille Lac who live around a lake of the same name in Central Minnesota, on good farming and timber lands, which they ceded in 1863, reserving only the right of occupancy during good behavior. They depend for support on the fish and rice of the lake and their per capita annuity, of which a portion has this year been expended in getting their little garden-patches plowed and in the purchase of farming-implements and clothing. A band of Mille Lacs, known as the Snake River Indians, are living at Rice Lake, in the vicinity of Brunswick, Minn., some of whom own small tracts of land purchased by themselves at Goverriment rates, and work in the lumber camps. But they have become so demoralized by whisky and close contact with bad white men that their elevation in their present location is impracticable if not impossible.
The Fond du Lac band, numbering 404, who, as, reported last year, have a reservation nearly covered with pine on Saint Louis River, near Duluth, Minn., which, if it could be sold, would furnish ample means for their removal and establishment at Bad River. They are naturally thrifty and intelligent, and accustomed to obtain more than half their scanty subsistence by work for the railroad and lumber camps, and in the cultivation of small patches of corn and potatoes, but are utterly unwilling to be removed to a better country.
The Lac de Flambeaux, 665 in number, on a timbered reservation in Marathon County, Wisconsin. Remote from settlements, they are still in their primitive condition, the chiefs resolutely opposing any attempt on the part of the agent to induce the young men to begin a civilized life on Bad River.
The Bois Fortes, numbering 697, on an almost inaccessible reservation in Northern Minnesota. They have made a small beginning in farming, but no report as to the results has been received, and no encouragement is expected while they remain in their present location. It is feared that the Bois Forte country has been swept over by the late fires, which have caused more or less damage on all of the seven reservations belonging to the La Pointe agency.
The Grand Portage band, numbering 262, which is in the same condition as last year, living in log houses on a sterile reservation on the northern shore of Lake Superior, subsisting mainly by hunting and fishing, and occasionally working in mines and lumber camps in Canada. A school sustained by a Catholic mission has an irregular attendance. In regard to their condition their agent reports as follows:
As you are well aware, no attempt has been made to bring these bands of Indians under the civilizing influence of the Government, through the labor of their hands. It has been impossible to find any kind of labor for them to do, even though we had funds to do it with. They are so far north that they can be reached but once each year, and then it must be in the season of navigation.
The fires of midsummer that swept over the Northwest, extend to their reservation, and fears were entertained that their houses on the lake-shore would be burned.
The flames were stayed, however, through the combined efforts of every man, woman, and child that could lift a hand. The fires were fought for some two weeks, during which time many gardens were entirely destroyed. Potatoes, just large enough to eat, were scorched and burned till their growth was entirely destroyed. It being too late to replant, many will be entirely without during the coming winter; they have had an unusually good year in sugar and rice. Those having gardens near the lake-shore have unusually good ones. The lots and gardens have been fenced with the lumber I lent them last year. I observed neatness and cleanliness where two years ago I found filth and vermin. Many who wore long hair have abandoned this superstitious custom, and now wear hair short. I am satisfied the Indians are trying to do the best they can under the circumstances to make their homes comfortable. They expected nothing from the Department this year, and when informed of the object of my visit, and that the Government was mindful of their condition and wants, their joy and happiness were unbounded.
The 1,040 Lac Court d'Oreilles, who have three townships in the center of Wisconsin. It was hoped, from the vigorous effort which was put forth last year for their civilization that most gratifying progress would this year be reported. In regard to the adverse influences which have been at work, their agent writes:
This band has been kept in a state of excitement and unhappiness by mischievous white men, who, too lazy to work, circulate among and live off the poor ignorant Indians.
The farmer and teacher who had inaugurated this work on the reserve, in July, 1873, becoming discouraged and disheartened on acconnt of funds, and a suspension of the work, resigned in January, and I wish to bear record to their faithfulness and devotion to the labor in hand. About twenty-five thousand dollars have been spent in this work, the Indians receiving the greater part for labor performed for their own benefit, or that of their bands, and so much had been accomplished that the agent did not consider it policy to abandon the work; he therefore engaged another teacher and farmer, who were sent out June last. Eighty families are now actually engaged in agricultural pursuits. These Indians certainly deserve attention from the Government; they are willing to work, and have some good farming lands. Can we not be assured that funds ample for this work will be furnished this next year?
Notwithstanding these discouragements the Lac Court d'Oreilles have raised 1,000 bushels of potatoes, 100 bushels of corn, and have broken thirty-three acres, and a small school has been maintained since July.
CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS.
The Choctaws and Chickasaws, though maintaining separate governments, occupying different reservations, and speaking a different language, having made joint treaties with the United States, are generally classed as one people. Living in the southeast portion of the Indian Territory, where they came in contact with the slave-holders of Arkansas and Texas, there is less tendency to individual effort among them than among some of their neighbors.
purpose of allotment of lands in severalty among themselves, but the Choctaws decline to join in the request, and claiin that the treaty provision, that no survey shall be made until the Choctaws and Chickasaws ask for it, will not allow the granting of this request. Unfortunately, the letter of the treaty requires this view of the subject.
Coleman Cole, governor of the Choctaw Nation, in his annual message to the national council in October last, recommended the adoption by the nation of the colored people formerly held as slaves by the Choctaws, giving them equal rights with Choctaw citizens except in the soil in which they are each allowed forty acres only of land, in accordance with the terms of the treaty of 1866; also the placing of the public schools entirely under the control of the national council and excluding the children of white persons not citizens. He is opposed to the admission of any more white men as merchants or miners, and hopes the people of the United States will let the Choctaws alone to enjoy their rights in their own way. He says the crops of corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, and cotton are sufficient for the wants of the people, and much better than for years past. He claims that all the mines of coal, lead, and other minerals, and all the timber belongs to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and not to individual Indians who may be occupying the soil, and recommends the appointment of national agents with authority to construct scales for weighing coal offered for sale, and to collect royalty for the same, the proceeds to be expended for educational purposes. Recommendation is also made to continue the effort to collect of the United States what is known as the Choctaw net-proceeds claim rejected by the last Congress, and its payment to the national treasurer for the individual claimants as per the treaty of 1833.
COAHUILLAS AND COCOPAHS.
As reported last year, they are estimated to number respectively 150 and 180, and cultivate small patches in the neighborhood of Fort Yuma, Arizona. Ample provision has been made for receiving them upon the Colorado River reserve, where rich lands, capable of irrigation, offer them an abundant living in return for moderate toil. The main body of these tribes are in Mexico. Their proximity to Arizona City and Fort Yuma tends to perpetuate their degredation by lewdness and intemperance and nothing but hunger bordering on starvation is likely to make them willing to remove.COAST TRIBES.
The Indians included under this head are located on three reservations on the Oregon coast. They number, in the aggregate, 2,068, and are designated as follows: 118 Alseas, 45 Sinelaws, 120 Coos and 42 Umpquas at Alsea; 1,000 Indians, divided into fourteen small bands, of which only Chitcoes, Sixes, Rogue Rivers, Chasta Scotons, and Macanootitas are named by the agent, at Siletz; and 54 Oregon City, 32 Cow Creek, 41 Mary River, 76 Mollala, 66 Clackama, 29 Calapooia, 73 confederated Rogue River and Shasta, 160 Umpqua, 62 Santiam, 66 Wappato[,] 32 Luckiamut, and 51 Yam Hill Indians on the Grand Ronde reservation, adjoining Siletz.
tion was restored to the public domain, thus making two reservations, of which the lower is occupied by the tribes in the Siletz, and the upper by those in the Alsea agency. It is of first importance, in endeavoring to promote the welfare of these tribes that the question of their permanent home should be settled at an early day. The Indians on the Alsea and Siletz reservations are scattered at different points along the coast, and should be gathered together within the reach of a small agency. Fortunately the Siletz reservation offers a country suitable for such consolidation, and the Department is now endeavoring to effect the removal of the scattered bands and their location under the present Siletz agency.
The Alseas and Sinelaws are on lands which their fathers have occupied for generations. The Coos and Umpquas were removed thither in 1855. The Indians of this agency wear citizens' dress, live in houses, and though cultivating a very few acres, subsist mainly on fish, game, and berries, with which their reservation is abundantly supplied. Their first school has been opened the past year, in which 32 pupils have shown great interest and advancement. They are naturally disinclined to remove, and on account of their unwillingness, in accordance with the recommendation of their agent, the removal is postponed till spring, when it is hoped it will be effected without resistance on the part of the Indians, and greatly to their advantage.
The fourteen bands of Siletz Indians were formerly scattered along the coast, in small villages, each governed by its own chief, independent of and generally hostile to the others, holding nothing in common but a hatred of the whites. Every crime could be condoned by payment; wives were bought and sold like cattle; and they seemed to have reached the lowest depths of degradation and superstition. They were the principal actors in the wars of 1855 and 1856, and after their subjugation and collection by force upon a reservation, licentiousness and bitter and constant feuds were a most effectual bar to all progress toward civilization, and at the end of sixteen years of reservation-life these Indians still bore the reputation of being the most turbulent and degraded in the State. Five years ago an earnest effort was made by Christian men for their physical, moral, and religious elevation, the results of which have more than realized the most sanguine expectatious. The whole population, clothed in citizens' dress, live in houses and engage in agriculture, the men working with their own hands. Allotments have been made in severalty; agency-farms have been abandoned; agency teams and cattle have been bought by Indians and paid for in labor or produce, and a community of independent farmers is taking the place occupied by a set of paupers and vagabonds.
Their crops this year will average to each individual nearly 3 bushels wheat,* 2 bushels oats, and 4 bushels potatoes and turnips. They own 220 houses, 50 wagons, and 80 head of cattle. The grist-mill in process of erection will be a great stimulus to industry and, it is hoped, will enable them to realize good profits by wheat-raising.
In education, they are not keeping pace with their improvement in other respects. A school building has just been erected, but owing to the prejudice of parents, caused by the death of several school-children some years ago, but twenty-eight pupils have been induced to attend.
In regard to the remarkable change in morals and religion, their agent reports:
Only by looking backward two and a half years, and contrasting the condition then and the condition now, can any definite idea be gained of the great change that has
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taken place. Adultery and other kindred vices, then so common, have now almost ceased; theft, wife-beating, then of every-day occurrence, are now seldom heard of. Our guard-house, or jail, has been tenantless for months. Then the fierce jealousy existing between savage tribes who had been hostile for generations, was continually breaking out in desperate conflicts, in which numbers were engaged; now, a more peaceable, orderly, and quiet community does not exist.
On the Sabbath, a well-dressed, orderly congregation assembles for worship. During the week few men are seen lounging round the agency and stables, as formerly; but in their shops or on their farms are busi]y employed, while the women at home are learning to make their houses comfortable and attractive, and are profiting by the instructions given them. Of course, all have not yet been able to divest themselves of old customs and old ways; some still cling to the traditions of their ancestors, and manifest little inclination to profit by the assistance tendered them; but their numbers and influence are decreasing. Men formerly foremost in brawls and fights, feared and disliked by all the others, have been brought under the light of the Gospel, and exhibited such change of character and life, patience under provocation, readiness to forgive injury, a spirit of meekness and love under persecution, that they have now the respect and confidence of all; and men who a short time ago derided and persecuted them, now eagerly seek their advice and apply to them to settle their differences.
The number uniting with the church during the past year has not been great. Probably twenty (20) in that time have been received on probation, who are still giving evidence of consistent Christian conduct. The church here, though not numerous, is earnest and agressive, and the circle of its influence is daily widening.
As a result of this reformation in character and life, the rapid decrease in numbers has been arrested, and the number of births and deaths are now about equal. None of these tribes have any treaty relations with the Government, except some of the Rogue Rivers, who were associated with the Grand Roude Indians in their treaty and were placed upon that reservation; but were subsequently allowed to remove to Siletz, much to the relief of the better-disposed Indians at Grand Ronde.
consented to remove to the mouth of the Salmon River, on the Siletz reserve, on the condition that they shall be included under the Grand Ronde agency, from which they are only eight hours distant by a good road.
COMANCHES.
COLVILLES.
The Indians under the Grand Ronde agency, like those at Siletz, are remnants of various tribes; but, unlike them, have, in the main, been loyal to the Government. Since coming upon a reservation, about twenty years ago, they have steadily evinced a desire to improve and willingness to support themselves by labor on farms. Four thousand acres, the entire amount of tillable land which their reservation of 69,120 acres affords, are under cultivation by Indians in individual farms, allotted in severalty, from which the more enterprising raise not only food enough for their own consumption, but a surplus which finds a ready market at good prices. Their wheat-crop this year will average two barrels of flour to each individual. They live in houses, wear citizens' dress, and have a local government, with justice, jury, lawyer, sheriff, clerk, &c, modeled after the State government of Oregon.
These Indians have now reached such a point that the expiration of treaty stipulations last year will not materially affect their progress, if the Government will only for a few years longer continue the salaries of employés and the support of the two schools. They furnish a fine illustration of the wisdom of the policy which, while treating the Indian as a child, gives him facilities for growth in the way of schools, careful training in farming or some mechanical art, furnishes him necessary aid while learning to care for himself, and assists him in accumulating property sufficient for a fair start until he shall attain his majority and is ready for citizenship.
A tract of country north of the Salmon River has for generations been occupied by some twenty-four Nestuccas, one hundred Tillamooks, and a few Clatsops and Neehalims, numbering in the aggregate not far from two hundred, who have never been parties to any treaty. They have hitherto lived by fishing and hunting, with occasional assistance in the way of provisions, to prevent suffering. The opening of this portion of Oregon to settlement has made their removal necessary, and through the efforts of Special Commissioner Simpson they have reluctantly
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Only eight of their number are reported as killed by the military, but the campaign left them utterly impoverished and thoroughly humbled. Nine of their number, including one chief, have been sent to Fort Marion, Florida, for military confinement.
Many of the horses delivered up to the military by the Comanches and Kiowas died or were shot; some were returned to the Indians, some taken by military scouts, some given to Tonkaways, and the remainder sold for about $22,000, with which General Mackenzie is now purchasing sheep to be distributed to the Indians of the agency.
Of the Comanches who remained loyally on their reservation a large number have this year, for the first time, taken hold of farming in earnest. About 200 acres have been plowed, planted, aud cultivated by men who have harvested 5,000 bushels of corn. Heretofore it has been impossible to get a Comanche child to attend school; twenty have this year attended the industrial school, in which the parents have takcn an unusual interest.
Only two whites are reported killed by these Indians during the year. During the same period the Comanches with the Kiowas have lost fifteen of their people killed by Texas citizens and rangers. Five Quahada Comanches out of a party of six were beheaded by citizens of Jack County.
A band of 165 Penetethka Comanches were settled on the Wichita reservation at the time it was set apart for friendly tribes. While entirely loyal, they have manifested no disposition to labor until within the past year, when they have taken hold of farming with unexpected energy, and have realized good crops.
progressive. During planting and harvest they labor industriously for white settlers, and, if suitable lands were set apart for their occupation, would soon settle down to agriculture and readily abandon fishing, hunting, and root gathering, to which they are now forced to resort during two-thirds of the year. Nearly all have embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and have built for themselves a large log church. Thirty children are in a boarding-school under the care of Sisters of Charity. To its support the parents willingly make contribution, and have recently furnished a year's supply of fish.
The other tribes belonging to the Colville agency are the Lakes, Spokanes, Pend d'Oreilles, Okanagans, Methows, San Poels and Nespeelums, of whom all but the last three tribes, like the Colvilles, are inclined to agriculture and a civilized life, and with almost no assistance from the Government in that direction are making praiseworthy efforts to follow the "white man's ways." None of them have made any treaty with the United States, and the reservation set apart for their occupancy by executive order in the northwestern part of the Territory is so barren and mountainous that but few Indians are located thereon and no buildings have been erected, and the agent and his small force of employés are at Fort Colville occupying such quarters as the post-commander can spare. Consequently the influence of the agency extends to but a small portion of the Indians, and the difference in thrift and intelligence between those bands which come most directly under its influence and those which are more remote is marked. A portable grist-mill has been recently purchased for the use of the agency, which will be of great service and encouragement to such Indians as are undertaking agriculture.
Their agent says:
They are much pleased in having a mill of their own where they can get their wheat and corn ground without having to pay the excessive tolls that were exacted of them heretofore. Since the mill commenced grinding, about the first instant, the Indians have floured about five hundred bushels of wheat. They came from eighty to one hundred miles with their wheat, and many of them now work for the whites and take their pay in wheat, who would not work before.
COEUR D'ALÉNES.
This tribe, whose number is variously estimated from 500 to 700, roam through Northern Idaho, along the proposed line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. They have no treaty with the United States, and, though a reservation was set apart for their occupancy by Executive order in 1867, no steps have ever been taken to place them upon it. A Catholic mission, established many years since in their vicinity, is the only civilizing influence wiihin their reach. It is thought that if the Colville reservation were properly located, they might be induced to settle within its limits.CREEKS.
The Creeks were reported in 1872 as numbering 13,000.
wheat, cotton, tobacco, &c., has been gathered than ever before. During the year a flouring-mill and cotton-gin have been brought into successful operation, and large expenditures made for improved agricultural machinery, while various families of the tribe have purchased sewing-machines and cabinet-organs for their households.
The three boarding-schools, with their 200 pupils, have had continued success. The 36 day-schools, with an estimated attendance of 600, labor under many disadvantages, because of the scattered population and the impracticability of teaching English thoroughly during the brief daily session. A "Teacher's Institute" was held by the Creeks during the year. The second territorial fair, held at Muskogee, was a decided success, bringing together representatives from all the various tribes to strive for the mastery in a way quite uuusual among Indians.
The need of a United States Court for a more efficient administration of law becomes every day more apparent and urgent.
CROWS.
The Mountain and River Crows, numbering respectively 3,000 and 1,200, have a reservation, bounded by the Yellowstone River, the 107th meridian, and the north boundary-line of Wyoming; but most of the River Crows roam north of the Missouri River, where they fall an easy prey to the vices and bad whisky of degraded white men. This year, for the first time, the River Crows have been at the agency in a body. A careful count shows their number to vary little from that previously reported. They promise to remain on the reservation during the coming winter. With plenty of buffalo and liberal annuities, and other large amounts realized from the sale of robes and peltries, the Crows are entirely comfortable and prosperous, according to their savage ideal. Abundance of game, illicit whisky-trading, and incessant warfare with the Sioux, are the main obstacles in the way of their civilization.DELAWARES.
The Delawares were originally a powerful tribe, in the vicinity of the Susquehanna River. After their removal to Ohio, they became a thrifty, prosperous community. But after a series of removals, each one of which has brought them into contact with a new set of the worst class