pupils went from this school to training-schools outside-namely, to Chilocco and Lawrence.

Taking these into account, a very fair percentage of the children of school age in the tribe have been in attendance on the means of education during the year. I anticipate, however, that the coming year will make a still better showing. The aban donment of the rations system by the tribe, as one of its good results, I think will have the effect to fill up the school, and, though the motive be unworthy, the good to the children will be the same. Owing to the absence of the larger boys it was not practicable to cultivate as large a quantity of ground as last year; nevertheless the industrial teachers, with the assistance of the little boys, raised 9 acres of corn and 4 acres of potatoes, and other garden stuff, from which can be produced 300 bushels of corn, about 150 of potatoes, and an abundance of peas, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other vegetables for the children's table.

Police.

I have reason to be entirely satisfied with the character and efficiency of the police force on this reservation. They obey all orders with cheerfulness and alacrity, and no case of disorderly conduct or act of insubordination has occurred among them.

Sanitary.

The fact, as shown by the statistics, that the births in this tribe have exceeded the deaths, and that their number is actually increasing, contrary to the almost universal experience of Indian tribes, is of itself a sufficient evidence of a favorable sanitary condition.

While a considerable number has been under treatment at one time or another during the year for some trivial ailment, cases of severe and dangerous illness have been very rare, and I am pleased to say that no serious illness and no death has ever occurred among the children in the agency school. Notwithstanding its contiguity to streams of water and its long warm summers the reservation seems to be exceptionally healthy.

THE PAWNEES.

The Pawnees now number 1,045, showing a steady decrease in population from year to year. The deaths largely outnumber the births, and it seems only a question of time when the tribe will become extinct.

The favorable change noticed last year in the gradual breaking up of the village system has continued during the present year. Many who had previously taken allotments, but were unable to occupy them by reason of their inability to make the needed improvements, have managed to get some breaking and fencing done, and will, as soon as they can secure some kind of dwelling, make their permanent residence on their individual farms.

The Pawnees seem to be a more sprightly and enterprising race than most of the Indians of this agency, and manifest a more genuine desire to adopt habits and customs of civilized life than any of the other tribes. This is due, in part at least, to the fact that there are among them several mixed-blood families, who possess a really respectable degree of cultivation and refinement. These have made for themselves neat and comfortable homes, and surrounded them with shade trees and orchards, some of which are already in bearing. They cultivate a variety of crops and live very much as white people. Their influence and example have done much to stimulate the more intelligent and enterprising of the full-bloods to adopt a similar course of life. On account of a partial failure of the corn crop last year many of the Pawnees were reduced to distressing straits to procure the means of subsistence. In their sorest need, however, they never turned their eyes to the flesh pots of Egypt, nor expressed a desire to return to the system of Government rations; but struggled manfully through the winter, and on the opening of spring went to work with a will to plant and cultivate another crop. I am pleased to say that their efforts have been crowned with a degree of success which will afford them abundant provision for the year.

The following figures from the statistics gathered by Mr. McKenzie, the clerk in charge, will show the aggregate results of their farming operations during the past year. They had in cultivation 971 acres, from which there were produced 1,177 bushels of wheat, 35,000 bushels of corn, 969 bushels of oats, 100 bushels of potatoes, 300 bushels of pease and beans, 5,000 melons, 3,000 pumpkins, besides a variety of vegetables too tedious to mention. They have also cut and secured 300 tons of hay. In the way of stock they own 300 head of cattle, 15 mules, 100 swine, and a large number of ponies. These, however, change hands so frequently, and pass so often from the possession of the Pawnees to that of some other tribe and back again, that their number cannot be stated even approximately. They need a better class of horses to do

their work properly. If they had such I am satisfied they would not give them away as they do the ponies. They also need assistance in the way of building houses to enable them to permanently occupy their allotments. One carpenter and one apprentice to do all the work for a population of more than a thousand, find constant employment in the shop, and can do little or nothing in erecting houses on different portions of the reservations.

Agency.

The agency buildings, with the exception of that used for office and agent's residence, are in very bad condition. Built originally of cotton-wood lumber and roofed with cotton-wood shingles, they have become so rotten and dilapidated as scarcely to afford shelter from the storms. By authority of the Department I have directed the carpenter to prepare plans and estimates for the buildings needed. These are not yet ready, but this work should be pushed to completion during the coming year.

School.

The industrial boarding-school was conducted with energy and success during the school year of ten months. The children have made a steady and gratifying advance in their studies, in the understanding and use of the English language, and in skill and efficiency in the various branches of manual labor taught in the school. The Pawnees are fully awake to the importance of education. In addition to the pupils in the agency school, they have sent a large number to other schools for the benefit of a more thorough training than they can secure at home. During the year a well was sunk and a tank and windmill erected to furnish the school with water. They have proved a complete success, affording an abundant supply of pure water in the building.

Missionary.

The Ladies' Home Missionary Society of the M. E. Church has recently placed a missionary in this field in the person of Mrs. Gaddes, who seems in every way fitted for this important work. The society proposes to erect a building and make this a permanent missionary station. There is here a large and inviting field for this kind of work, and I anticipate the happiest results in a few years from the labors of the society among these people.

Sanitary.

The preponderance of deaths over births and the general diminution of the tribe is sufficient evidence that the sanitary condition of the people is not good. The trouble, however, is not of a local character. The acute diseases incident to the locality and climate are not particularly frequent or severe. But many of the Indians are tainted with hereditary and constitutional complaints which weaken their powers of resistance, and they succumb to attacks of pneumonia or malarial fever which a healthy constitution would easily overcome.

THE OTOES AND MISSOURIAS.

I have but little to say for this tribe. Indeed I feel compelled to modify somewhat even the guardedly favorable opinion I expressed of them in my last report. They promise everything and perform nothing; they are easy and good natured, but intolerably lazy and shiftless. They are still possessed of the idea that they are rich and do not need to work. They are sharp, too. They are willing to pay a blacksmith and a carpenter for the mere nothings they want done, and to do all the work in their respective lines without asking the Indians to do any part of it. But they do not want a farmer, and have made a formal demand on me to abolish the place, pretending they know enough about farming. But the real reasons are they want his salary added to their annuity, and they don't want anybody around whose business it is to try to make them work. It seems exceedingly difficult for the Otoes and Missourias to abandon their nomadic habits. They will leave their houses, and collecting around the agency, or on some other part of the reservation, erect a village of tents, where they will stay feasting and dancing until they are driven away, only to repeat the operation again and again during the year. While the above presents, as I think, fairly the prevailing temper of the tribe, I have, nevertheless, been able to force work enough out of them to entitle them to their rations under the rule, and a few, notably the half-breeds, have shown a commendable degree of enterprise in cultivating their crops and extending their farms.

The following exhibits shows what the tribe has accomplished in the way of farm

ing and improvement during the year. They have under fence 1,140 acres, 321 acres of which were in cultivation. From these were produced 3,500 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of potatoes, 50 of turnips, 25 of onions, 1,000 melons, 200 pumpkins, and 200 bushels of other vegetables. They have also made 200 rods of fencing and cut and put up 500 tons of hay.

LOWER OTOES.

That portion of the tribe which seceded some years ago, and have been living on Deep Fork, in the neighborhood of the Sac and Fox reservations, still obstinately refuse to return to their own reservation, preferring to lead a precarious and povertystricken existence, depending mainly upon the bounty of other Indians for subsistence, who can ill afford the draft upon their resources. The conduct of these Indians in absenting themselves from their proper home is due mostly to the influence of their chief, Medicine Horse, and it is thought that upon his death, which cannot be far distant, they will return and the tribe will be thus finally reunited.

School.

The boarding-school was conducted during the year with an exceptional degree of success. The attendance was larger than ever before, and the progress made by the pupils was very good, especially in the acquisition of the English language, many of them speaking it quite fluently.

THE NEZ PERCÉS OF JOSEPH BAND.

During the whole of the year to which this report relates the Nez Percés were agitated over the subject of removal to their former homes. They confidently expected to have gone during the fall of 1884. Failing in this they passed the winter in anticipation of a removal in the early spring, and finally left in May, 1885, a part of the band going to their old home in Idaho, and a part to Washington Territory. Under these circumstances, as was naturally to be expected, they accomplished nothing during the entire year except to put up a little hay in the fall to winter their stock. As these Indians did nothing since the date of my last report in the way of farming, building, or improvements of any kind, there is nothing of this sort to present and no statistical statements except that which relates to the school which accompanies this report. Their number and whatever is of interest in relation to their social and vital statistics will doubtless appear in connection with the reports of the respective agencies to which they were sent.

School.

The day-school was conducted as usual and with fair success up to the time Indians left the reservation, the Nez Percés through all their excitement having never faltered in its support or lost their interest in the education of their children.

THE TONKAWAS.

On the 29th of June, 1885, the Tonkawas from the neighborhood of the Sac and Fox Agency took possession of the reservation recently vacated by the Nez Percés. They number ninety-two all told, and appear from the little I have seen of them to be a degraded and inferior race of Indians, lazy, filthy, and thievish. They present in every respect a marked contrast to the high-minded, alert, and reliable Nez Percés, whose place they will poorly fill. They nearly all speak English, more or less, showing that they have at some time and place had considerable intercourse with the whites, but it was such intercourse as did them little good, since, to use a well-worn expression, they have acquired all the vices of the white man without any of his virtues. The Nez Percés left plenty of comfortable houses to accommodate all these people, but instead of occupying them they all huddle around the agency, and live in dilapidated tents or in booths made of boughs covered with a bit of canvas. Their object in this is to be handy, so that when rations day comes around they can get their grub with the least possible exertion. They are very poor, a few ponies and some worn-out tents constituting their worldly wealth. It seems the tribe never owned a wagon till they came here, and not one of them knew how to hitch up a team. A few lessons, however, have been given them in matters of this kind. They have been assisted to break some of their ponies, and seem quite interested. It is possible that patience and perseverence may do something for them yet.

In conclusion, and in quitting the service, I beg leave to express my profound sense of the kindness and courtesy with which I have at all times been treated by the De

partment. I desire also to say that I have been generally fortunate in the selection of my employés, and have found them, with few exceptions, faithful and efficient in the discharge of their several duties.

Very respectfully,

JOHN W. SCOTT, United States Indian Agent.

A

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

UNITED STATES INDIAN SERVICE, QUAPAW AGENCY,

August 26, 1885.

SIR: In obedience to instructions, I have the honor to submit my first annual report of this agency. I assumed the duties of agent September 1, 1884. Having been among the Sioux Indians of Dakota two years before coming here, I found the duties here differing very materially from what I had been used to--in some particulars more pleasant, and in others not so pleasant.

Eight remnants of tribes are under the control of this agency. The Indians are all civilized and competent to earn a livelihood for themselves. Most of them speak the English language fluently, and their communities in point of intelligence compare very favorably with settlements of whites in the neighboring States. White blood is so predominant in a part of the tribes that an agent has to inquire whether they are Indian or white. The different tribes agree with each other very well, but many petty disagreements exist internally among most of the tribes, the Wyandottes, Senecas, and Modocs being the exceptions.

This agency is very poorly located. We are 4 miles from Seneca, Mo., on the flint hills of the Ozark range, with a beautiful prairie lying to the north and northwest, which lets in the winds and storms of winter, and a thick growth of brush, scrub oak, and luxuriant vegetation on the south, east, and west, which shuts off in the hot season of the year all the breeze we might otherwise enjoy. I cannot write as glowing a report of this agency as my predecessor did.

The work of the agency is too much scattered, the Seneca blacksmith-shop being 15 miles to the south, over flint hills and rocks. The Wyandotte school is 4 miles southwest, the Quapaw school 12 miles northwest, and the Miami day school still 12 miles beyond that.

Most of our Indians are well disposed.

The census of this agency this year shows the population, by tribes, to be as follows:

The buildings at this agency are good. The shops have been rebuilt during the year, and now afford plenty of room and good accommodations for all mechanical work.

The crops in this locality are fair. In the low lands a portion of the crops were destroyed by the heavy rains and high water in the month of July.

The schools of this agency deserve especial mention. The Seneca and Wyandotte boarding-school has done good work, considering the accommodation in the way of buildings. The condition of the buildings can scarcely be described. The sleeping accommodation is limited to such an extent that from thirty to forty girls sleep in one room, while from forty to fifty boys sleep in another. The buildings are very badly decayed, and consequently are very unhealthy. We have not sufficient room to keep our clothing and property belonging to the schools in the condition they should be kept in. The condition of the Quapaw boarding-school is about the same. The attendance at both these schools has been very good. The expense of maintaining these schools, for salaries alone, has been this year $7,300. If the Department would erect a new building at this agency sufficient to accommodate all the children, it could be maintained at a cost of $4,750 per year, resulting in a saving of $2,550 in

salaries alone every year, to say nothing of other expenses. With such a school, properly located, the boys could be employed to good advantage, both to themselves and 5067 IND-▬7

the service, in the work at the shops at the agency, and get the benefit of mechanical training that they cannot now enjoy.

The work of the year at this agency has been very satisfactory to me. Last November I organized the court of Indian offenses at this agency. Its work has been very commendable. Many disputes and minor difficulties have been adjusted and settled by the court in a very satisfactory manner.

I have had a very competent and agreeable force of employés during the year, with one exception, and I can say for each one of them that they have done their part to make the work of the agency successful.

The missionaries amongst us have, with commendable zeal, carried forward their part of the work, and the fruit of their labors can plentifully be seen in the houses of the Modocs and others. Hulda H. Bon will, one of God's noble women, has worked here during a part of the year as a missionary, but failing health has compelled her to return to her home in Philadelphia. We trust that she may be restored to health, and that her people may return her to her field of labor.

We look forward to a pleasant and prosperous year, and leave the past with but few regrets.

Very respectfully,

W. M. RIDPATH. United States Indian Agent.

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

SAC AND FOX INDIAN AGENCY, INDIAN TERRITORY,

August 10, 1885.

SIR: In compliance with instructions from your office, dated July 1, 1885, I have the honor to herewith submit my second annual report of Indian affairs at this agency. I deem it unnecessary to indicate in this report the boundaries of the several reservations, being a repetition of reports made for a number of years, no changes having taken place during the past year.

The number of Indians in each of the five tribes is about the same; also Indians settled among them from other tribes, as enumerated in my last report.

TONKAWA INDIANS.

On the 22d day of October, 1884, received from Lieutenant Chandler, acting Indian agent, 92 Tonkawa Indians from Fort Griffin, Texas. They were in a very destitute condition. I placed them on the Iowa reservation, in compliance with the Department instructions, where they remained until June 16, 1885, when they were moved to the Oakland Agency, Indian Territory, in compliance with instructions from your office, with all their effects, Government stores, &c., arriving at their destination June 30, 1885, after a trip of thirteen days, through rain, mud, and across exceedingly high waters. They were very loath to go to their new homes, and did not give their consent to go until after a delegation of their people had visited the reservation and reported favorably. They seemed very anxious to engage in agricultural pursuits, and if properly encouraged I think they will be an industrious people.

STATISTICS.

The statistical part of this report is approximated from best information to be had. The extent of the Territory, scattered condition of the Indians, and limited amonnt of help allowed at this agency for the labors to be performed, render it impossible to make an actual census and an absolutely correct statistical report.

BUILDINGS.

There have been erected at the agency during the past year three frame buildings complete, except as to painting, to wit: One carpenter's dwelling and one clerk's dwelling, each one story (10 feet), and of same dimensions, 16 by 30 feet, and 14 by 14 feet, and one combined carpenter and blacksmith shop 18 by 40 feet with 10-foot story. All of the above-named buildings were erected by the agency carpenter, assisted by the regular employés.

There also has been erected, during the same time, an addition to the Absentee Shawnee boarding-school building, 36 by 100 feet, two stories, the mechanical labor being performed by Messrs. Thompson and Collins under contract. The same parties also erected, in connection with the same property, a frame wash-house complete,