Annual report of the Superintendent of Hot Springs Reservation..... Annual report of the Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park.... 3 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: In compliance with the law requiring the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to make an annual report of the condition of affairs connected with his bureau, I have the honor to submit herewith my report for the year 1882. Evidently this law contemplates that the report. thus required should show not only operations of the past year and the present condition of affairs, but also make such suggestions and recommendations, based upon the year's experience, as would be beneficial to the service. The operations and results of the last year in the different agencies, which will be more fully described and explained under their appropriate heads, will, I think, compare favorably with any one of the preceding years. Land has been opened to cultivation; houses for Indian residences have been built; schools opened and operated; and in many cases, and in various ways, the cause of civilization generally advanced; and I might, with this general statement of facts, proceed to give a separate chapter of each reservation and agency; and follow these with the tabulated statements required by section 468 of the Revised Statutes. But such a report would not, in my opinion, be discharging my whole duty, nor would it be such a report as the framers of the law contemplated. When the rules and regulations under the law governing the operations of the Indian Department become perfect, and the machinery less multiform and complicated, such a report might answer the purpose; but until such is the case, a report should not only state what has been done, but also what changes would be advantageous to the service. DELAY IN SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS. Too much machinery is often worse than too little, and, in my judgment, there is now too much machinery in use in the settlement of accounts connected with this bureau. I say this with a full knowledge gained by an experience of many years of the absolute necessity of proper checks and balances in the manner of keeping and settling accounts. But after an individual has complied with his contract and produces his vouchers certified and signed by the legally appointed officers, showing that he has performed his undertaking in letter and spirit, he is in all fairness entitled to the prompt payment of the compensation stipulated. But such, I am compelled by personal knowledge to say, is not the case as the law now stands. After all has been done as above indicated, honest claimants have in very many instances been compelled to chase their accounts through twelve or fifteen departments of the government, consuming weeks and even months, and in some instances years of time, until hope has sickened into despair, and men have grown gray waiting for the tardy footsteps of the messenger from whose hands they should long before have received their just dues. It is no answer to this to say that the system now practiced has been long in use and therefore ought not to be changed. This is no argument for its continuance unless it can be shown that age sanctifies error. I make this statement in the interest not only of fair and honorable dealing, but also and particularly in the interest of economy for the government. A prompt paymaster gets more for his money than one who is not prompt; and when it is understood that delay may be expected in receiving payment for labor or material furnished, those who furnish the labor or material make their calculations accordingly, and charge enough to pay them for waiting. The system of purchasing the annual supplies for the Indian service by inviting and receiving sealed proposals is productive of a healthy competition, and the opening of these bids and awarding the contracts in the presence of the bidders leaves no just ground for charges of unfairness or favoritism, and, in my opinion, there is not much room for improvement in that respect; but I desire to repeat and emphasize it, that the law in reference to settling the accounts ought to be changed. INDIAN AGENTS. Among the many causes which exist tending to retard the improvement of the Indians, one very important one is the difficulty of procur ing men of the right stamp to act as agents. We have over a quarter of a million of Indians scattered over many thousands of miles of territory, many of the points at which they are located being difficult of access. Many of these Indians, outside of the five civilized tribes, are wild roving nomads, preferring savage to civilized life. These are an untutored and untractable people, who are naturally indolent, improvident, and shiftless, and very impatient of restraint or discipline. The object of the government is to transform these uncivilized people into peaceable, industrious, and law-abiding citizens, and for this purpose a system has been devised, good in many respects; but when we come to operate that system we make a fatal mistake, and a mistake which, if not corrected, will, in my opinion, prevent for generations the accomplishment of good, which might otherwise be reached in one decade. I refer, of course, to the present system of appointing and paying the men who have the immediate charge of the Indians, and who are known as Indian agents. When the fact is once clearly established that an agent is utterly unfit from any cause for his place, he ought, on any theory of sound business principles, to be removed at once, and a more suitable man put in his place; but it requires as much machinery now, and frequently more time, to get a new agent appointed than it does to appoint a minister to the Court of St. James. Within the last year seven entire months were consumed in making such a change at one of the agencies, where any correct business man transacting his own business would have made the change in less than seven days. This is the fault of the law, and ought to be changed. These Indian agents furnish the precept and example to which we must look more than to any other cause or influence as a means of changing the habits, manners, and customs of the Indians. If the agent is au honest, industrious, and intelligent Christian man, with the physical ability and disposition to endure hardship and courageously encounter difficulty and disappointment, or, in other words, if he is morally, mentally, and physically above the average of what aie considered good men, he will work wonders among these wards of the nation. And I but state what every thinking man must know, that, as a rule, this class of men cannot be procured to cut themselves off from civilization and deprive themselves and families of the comforts and advantages of civilized society for the pittance which is now paid to Indian agents. Occasionally men have been found who, for the good which they hoped to accomplish, have voluntarily exiled themselves and labored for the good of these people, but they generally found more trouble from their surroundings and less moral support from the government than was expected, and, becoming discouraged and disheartened, have retired from the service, leaving their places to be filled by less competent men. One agent, in tendering his resignation a few weeks since, uses the following language: I have labored faithfully for the good of the Indians, dealing honorably with all men, but I have at last become disheartened, and feel that life is too short to waste any more of it here. One great cause of embarrassment and discouragement to Indian agents is the trouble and annoyance they find in keeping their accounts so as to comply technically with all the regulations and rulings in reference to the final settlement of their accounts. As the matter now stands, an agent may execute to the letter an order given him by the Secretary of the Interior for the payment of money, and yet that item in his account may be suspended against him, and he and his sureties be compelled by law to pay the money again. The result is, if he refuses to obey the orders of his superior he loses his position, and if he obeys he loses his money. I give it as my honest conviction as a business man, after one year and a half of close observation, in a position where the chances for a correct knowledge of this question are better than in any other, that the true policy of the government is to pay Indian agents such compensation and place them under such regulations of law as will insure the services of first-class men. It is not enough that a man is honest; he must, in addition to this, be capable. He must be up to standard physically as well as morally and mentally. Men of this class are comparatively scarce, and as a rule cannot be had unless the compensation is equal to the service required. Low-priced men are not always the cheapest. A bad article is dear at any price. Paying a man as Indian agent $1,200 or $1,500, and expecting him to perform $3,000 or $4,000 worth of labor, is not economy, and in a large number of cases has proven to be the worst kind of extravagance. The wholesale, sweeping charge of dishonesty sometimes made against Indian agents is not true. Some of them are good and true meu, doing the very best they can under the embarrassing circumstances by which they are surrounded; and some of them are capable; but I repeat, the inducements for such men to remain are insufficient, and the difficulties and discouragements which they meet, crowd them out of the service, and until all Indian agents are selected and paid as a good business man selects and pays his employés (which is not the case now), it need not be wondered at if many of them are incompetent, and a few of them dishonest. CO-OPERATION OF RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. One very important auxiliary in transforming men from savage to civilized life is the influence brought to bear upon them through the labors of Christian men and women as educators and missionaries. |