Church has property here valued at $4,500. This consists of a neat frame church seating 150 persons, frame parsonage, log teacher's dwelling and school room, and a new log building for church, school, and dwelling at the camp on Oak Creek. About 600 persons have, since its beginning connected themselves with the mission. The population in the immediate vicinity of the agency is never large, and is chiefly made up of mixed bloods, loafers, and their relations. Still the attendance on services has averaged about 75, and the number of baptisms this year (110) is larger than usual. The mission exerts a substantial influence on a large number who have not as yet directly connected themselves with it, and many families who are members of it have, for the purpose of farming and stock raising, removed to long distances from the agency, some more than 100 miles. Probably half of the members of the church live at too great distances now to receive much regular instruction from the services and mission day and Sunday schools at the agency. The congregation of a number of such families at Good Voice's Camp on Oak Creek led to the opening last winter of a branch mission and school among them, and since then nearly the whole population have joined the church. This point is but one of many where such branch missions have been for the past year or two earnestly prayed for. Unfortunately, however, none of these camps are as yet so well located or firmly established as to warrant the expenditure of money by the Church in permanent buildings among them. If the Government is to establish schools among the people the camps must first be made reasonably permanent. Could the Government insist on each family or even each band selecting some location (first taking care that it be good agricultural land) and then positively and persistently refuse to recognize or aid such band or families except in the place which they had selected as theirs, it would render a most valuable and parental assistance to them, both as against the common practice among them of driving each other off from improved lands and their inherent disposition to be constantly on the wing." SCHOOLS. Owing principally no doubt to the disturbing causes mentioned above, and considering the large number of Indians connected with this agency (8,000), but little has been done either by the church or the Government for them in the matter of schools. When I first came among them by the united efforts of the two a flourishing dayschool was kept up for two years, and over 400 pupils were enrolled. This school was abolished by a subsequent administration and the building appropriated for an agent's office. Meanwhile the minds of the people were filled with the promise of a large boarding-school which would accommodate 400 children, and to this day that promise, now dwindled to a school for 50 pupils, and still existing only as a promise, has been a most serious obstacle in the way of getting parents to consent to send their children off the reserve to Carlisle, or the mission boarding-schools on the Missouri River. Not until you took hold of the matter and provided the building now ready for use at the agency, and the two about to be erected in the camps, has the Government done anything further towards fulfilling that clause in the treaty of 1868 which pledges it to provide a day-school and resident teacher for every 30 children of a school age. For the past two years a day-school has been kept up at the agency by the mission, and since the opening of the branch station on Oak Creek, one at that place also. The attendance has not been encouraging, especially at the former. This is partly owing to the difficulty of securing competent teachers, but chiefly to the fact that no pressure is brought upon the children from the outside, either by the parents or by the Government, to make them attend. The scholars only come when and because they want to. No large or regular attendance should be expected under the circumstances. A small number of children are now at the Indian training school at Carlisle, Pa., for a five years' course, and we may reasonably hope that much good will result from their being so long under the good influences of that institution. Of the first lot of children who returned from Carlisle after a three years' course, but few have kept up to or near the standard acquired while there, and those only, I believe, because they were placed in most favorable circumstances on their return. If a class could be graduated from Carlisle and another received there each year (the course of training still being for five years, as now) the Government would accomplish much more rapidly and securely what it is trying to do through that school. Annual reinforcements to those who had returned, and who, with their newly gained light and higher life, were battling against the darkness in their old homes, would help much to keep them from what now is all but inevitable, viz: after a fitful struggle against all odds, a falling back with utterly discouraged hearts into the old ways. The same difficulty is not felt so much by those children who attend the mission boarding-schools on the Mission River, and I believe it is because some are coming home from and some going to these schools each year, sometimes each spring and fall. There are at present 35 children from this agency attending these mission boarding-schools. Very respectfully, yours, JAMES G. WRIGHT, Uni.ed States Indian Agent. WM. J. CLEVELAND, Missionary. SISSETON AGENCY, DAKOTA, SIR: I have the honor to submit this my fifth annual report of affairs at this agency. This reservation is situated in Eastern Dakota and contains 918,780 acres of as fine land for agricultural and grazing purposes as can be found in the Territory. There are numbers of small lakes on the reserve which abound in fish of good quality, pike and pickerel principally, and are plentifully supplied with water-fowl of different kinds, including ducks, geese, and brant. As no rations have been issued except to apprentices and school children since April, 1882, these Indians have had to support themselves and with the assistance they have received from the Government in the shape of agricultural implements, &c., have done so. EDUCATIONAL. The schools have never been in as flourishing a condition as during the past year. All have been full, and on this account many applicants have been refused admission. The progress made by the scholars in all the schools has been very commendable and reflects credit upon the teachers. The average monthly attendance at the manual labor boarding-school for the term was 603, a far greater average than has ever before been attained at this school. Too much credit cannot be bestowed upon Prof. B. S. Haskell, principal of this school, and his corps of able assistants for the general proficiency of its scholars and for their excellent behavior. These Indians are fast learning to appreciate the advantages possessed by the educated members of their tribe and are insisting that their children shall attend school and become educated; and when I have been compelled to refuse admission to applicants for lack of room their parents have invariably come to me and urged me to try and crowd their children in some one of the schools, and also to hurry up the new school so that all who desired to attend might be accommodated. This will bear testimony to the sincerity of their oft-expressed desire to have their children educated. The addition to our new school is being rapidly pushed to completion and when it is ready for occupancy there will be ample school accommodations, I am glad to say, for all children of school age upon the reservation. The Ascension school, presided over by Rev. J. B. Renville, a native missionary, has had a successful year and should be continued. The Goodwill school, under Mr. Morris, and Brown Earth school, under Mr. Hunter, have both done good work. Many visits have been made to this agency during the year by persons interested in civilizing the Indians, notably among whom were Rt. Rev. Bishop Hare, Gen. E. Whittlesey, Rev. Dr. Strieby, and Major C. S. Palmer, assistant district attorney of Dakota, and all have spoken in the highest terms of the schools and their management. AGRICULTURE. While the crop this year will not aggregate by 20 per cent., probably, that of last year, owing to continued drought throughout the season, much more land has been under cultivation. I estimate that at least 5,500 acres have been cultivated during the past year, 500 acres being new land broken this spring. Owing to the disappearance of the buffalo and other large game from this locality these Indians have long since come to the conclusion that they must give up the hunt and become farmers in order to live, and with this fact as an incentive, and an evident desire among many of them to become practical farmers, rapid advancement has been made in agricultural pursuits. The quantity of wheat and oats raised by them during the past few years certainly proves the earnestness of their intentions to become self-supporting by making successful farmers of themselves. Their wheat will compare in quality with any raised in this locality by experienced white farmers. Many of our more successful and intelligent farmers have this year secured skilled white labor in harvesting their crops, there not being machines or labor on the reserve sufficient to meet the demand, although several new reapers, together with quite a number of other farming implements, such as horse and sulky rakes, mowers, &c., have been purchased during the year, and paid for by the Indians. PATENTS. There have been nine patents, for 160 acres each, issued to Indians, who have complied with the treaty stipulations, viz, to plow, fence, and put in crop 50 acres; this makes twelve patents issued to Indians on this reserve. Four more, who have complied with the requirements of law, have forwarded applications for patents. The issuing of these patents has had a very beneficial effect among those who have not the required amount of improvements, and has stimulated them to extra exertion to obtain title to their land. BUILDING. The shoe and tailor shops, with sleeping rooms for mechanics, their families, and apprentices, have been finished, and also one dwelling erected for agency physician. Several frame houses have been built for the Indians, the material and labor being furnished partly by the Indians and partly by the Government. Quite a number of hewn log houses built by the Indians themselves have been shingle-roofed for them by the agency carpenters. SANITARY. The general sanitary condition of the Indians on this reserve has been excellent. No epidemic has prevailed with the exception of the measles, and that to no considerable extent, very few cases having proved fatal, owing to the prompt and efficient measures taken, and the careful treatment administered to the patients. The health of these people is better than ever before, and this is without doubt attributable to the change in their mode of life, the majority of them now living in frame and comfortable log houses, which better shield them from the severe wind storms and the extremely cold winters peculiar to this region than did their lodges in days gone by. POLICE. The force of this reserve consists of one captain, one lieutenant, two sergeants and eleven privates, and numbers among its membership some of the best men on the reserve; They are efficient and capable in their positions, always prompt in their obedience to orders, but so quiet and orderly are the people generally that they have had comparatively little to do in the line of their duty; several arrests for minor offences have been made, and the offenders punished. MISSIONARY. Much good has been accomplished and many conversions to Christianity made by the white and Indian missionaries here. There are five of the latter, of the Presbyterian denomination, and under the able direction of Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Morris they are doing noble work with an earnestness that is very commendable. Saint Mary's Episcopal Church, although yet in its infancy, is doing great good under the able and efficient supervision of its rector the, Rev. E. J. Ashley, whose untiring zeal and energy has gained the confidence and esteem of these people in no small degree. For the year there have been 21 baptisms and 10 confirmations, and an average attendance of 75, with 26 communicants. Besides Saint Mary's Church there are two other stations under Mr. Ashley's charge, Saint Luke's, and Saint John the Baptist's, at which services are held every Sunday, presided over by native deacons, with very fair attendance. WHISKY. During the early part of the calendar year some of the lower class of our Indians succeeded on several occasions in obtaining liquor in Brown's Valley. After much trouble I succeeded in obtaining sufficient evidence to warrant me in instituting proceedings against the man who furnished the liquor, and as United States Marshall Deny, of Minnesota, was in Brown's Valley at the time, I placed the matter in his hands, and he escorted the whole party to Saint Paul, where the accused plead guilty, was fined $50 and discharged. Since this time I have had little trouble from this source. CONCLUSION. In closing this my last annual report, my resignation having been accepted, I wish to say I have not lost faith that the Indian can be civilized. In my judgment they have never done as well as now, and all interested in the race have every reason to feel encouraged to work for their future good. Very respectfully, The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. CHARLES CRISSEY, United States Indian Agent. STANDING ROCK INDIAN AGENCY, DAK, SIR: I have the honor to submit the following as my annual report for the year ending July 31, 1883. LOCATION. This agency is located on the "Great Sioux reservation," occupying the northeastern corner of the same. The agency buildings are situated on an elevated plateau on the west bank of the Missouri River, about 60 miles south of Bismarck, the new capital city of Dakota Territory. This portion of the reservation is well watered by numerous small streams, but the country adjacent to these streams, together with that bordering along the Missouri River, is somewhat broken and hilly, with small stretches of alkaline or bad lands. The hilly portion, however, affords excellent grazing, while the valleys and table-land are very fertile and well adapted to agricultural purposes, and, except in seasons of severe drought, which this whole section of country is unfortunately subject to, wheat, oats, corn, and vegetables, when properly cultivated, are reasonably certain to return an excellent yield. TRIBES AND POPULATION. The Indians of this agency, constituting 1,085 families, numbering 4,472 persons, are composed of the Upper and Lower Yanktonnais, Uncapapas, and Blackfeet bands of Sioux, classed respectively as follows, which classification is taken from the agency census rolls, carefully corrected up to and including July 31, 1883. The number of Indians at this agency has been materially augmented during the past year by the transfer from the War Department on the 10th of May last of Sitting Bull and his immediate followers, numbering 153 persons, who were held as prisoners of war at Fort Randall, Dak., since September, 1881. This number, 153, includes 6 boys belonging to the families of these late prisoners who were attending school at the Yankton Agency at the date of the transfer, and who have since joined their respective families here. A considerable number of Indians came into this agency from the north last fall and winter, and there also arrived from the Fort Peck Agency, Mont., during the months of May and June last, in several small parties, 386 Yanktonnais, accompanied by a few Uncapapas, who were transferred to this agency by Agent Porter, of the Fort Peck Agency. These Indians formerly belonged to the Standing Rock Agency, but went north subsequent to 1870 and prior to 1872, making their headquarters at the Fort Peck Agency, and have since hunted in that region; but as the buffalo have now nearly all disappeared from that vicinity, and as these nomadic Yanktonnais are closely related to some of the oldest and better class of Indians here, they have therefore returned, with strong professions of their present good intentions, and express a determination to settle down among their relatives and commence an agricultural life. Many of them have made commendable progress this summer, having planted small fields of corn, and are now building log cabins on claims upon which they have located. There can doubtless be no valid objections to these Yanktonnais being admitted here, as they properly belong to this agency, but this large addition to the number estimated for for the current fiscal year cannot be provided for from the supplies calculated upon for the number of Indians at this agency when my estimate was prepared. I therefore recommend that provision be made by which the subsistence now being consumed by them will be replaced next spring, and as this additional consumption will exhaust the subsistence stores estimated for the current fiscal year by the 15th of May next, I trust that the same will be replaced on or before that date. AGRICULTURE. Nearly every family of this agency has been cultivating small fields this year, which have been planted with corn, potatoes, and other vegetables. There were also 100 acres of wheat and 70 acres of oats sowed by 41 heads of families, in all aggregating about 1,400 acres cultivated by Indians, which, with 60 acres of oats sowed for use of agency stock, and 40 acres cultivated by the two boarding-schools for use of the scholars, will approximate 1,500 acres now under cultivation at this agency. The Indians commenced their spring work in good season, and cared for their fields in a very commendable manner, and all crops looked well, in fact could not have been more promising up to June 28, at which date an excessively warm spell set in which lasted three days, with the thermometer registering 108° in the shade, and on June 30 a burning hot wind from the southwest, with the thermometer registering 135° in the open air, killed many of the growing crops outright and parched all others to such an extent that not more than one-fourth of an ordinary yield will now be realized. Oats, pease, and the other smaller garden vegetables were the worst injured, and a severe drought that succeeded this excessive hot spell prevented the crops from recovering from this back-set. The corn crop alone withstood this extreme heat, but the dry weather has kept it from filling properly, and owing to the drought the potato crop will be almost a total failure, there being but few in each hill and very small. The Indians labored earnestly up to the time of this hot spell, after which their crops, which previously promised so well, were left in such a condition as to be very discouraging, and many abandoned their fields entirely, believing that nothing could be harvested from them, which was a fact in many cases. Those, however, who kept their fields well cultivated from the beginning, and had a good, healthy growth at that time, will harvest about one-half a crop. Notwithstanding that more acres have been cultivated and more labor performed this year than last by the Indians, yet owing to the causes herein referred to, and which could not be controlled, there will not be over one-third of the quantity of products realized from this season's cultivation as compared with last year's yield. The hay crop, for the reasons hereinbefore set forth, is light, but the Indians have been and now are industriously engaged in securing their winter's supply, which will approximate about 2,000 tons. This failure of crops is not by any means confined to Indian farming or to this agency, but is general throughout the entire section of Northern Dakota bordering on the Missouri slope. SITTING BULL AND THE OTHER LATE HOSTILES. As herein before stated, Sitting Bull and his immediate followers arrived at this agency from Fort Randall by steamer on May 10 last, and immediately upon their arrival were transferred to the Indian department at this agency by Lieut. T. F. Davis, of the Fifteenth Infantry, United States Army, the officer in charge of the party. On the following day Sitting Bull, accompanied by his people, came to the agency office soliciting a council, whereupon, with the greatest sang froid, he commenced his harangue by announcing a code of regulations by which he and his people desired to be governed, stating that he did not intend to plant anything this season, but would look around and see how it was done, so that he would be prepared to commence next year; that he did not want ration tickets, but would be "big chief" and draw all supplies in bulk for himself and his people. He also asked to be placed first on the rolls of the agency, together with numerous absurdities. He also presented a paper, which |