among the Indians. That creed, for some reason or other, better suits the capacity and intellect of the Indians than any other, and controls them better, and, it may be added, that the Catholic missionaries possess the great and rare merit of attending exclusively to their proper business. I do not think that there is any other information concerning the tribes under my charge, not contained in the reports of the agents, which it is in my power to give. There are and have long been in the country leased by the United States from the Choctaws and Chickasaws, roving bands of Kickapoos, pretending to live by hunting, and charged by the people of Texas with the commission of depredations on the frontier. These Indians are well armed and brave, and would not fear to engage an equal number of white men. They are perhaps unjustly charged by the people of Texas; it is so alleged by officers of the Army with whom I have conversed; at all events they should not be suffered to roam about destroying the game and leading a life of vagrancy. I recommend that a reserve be assigned them near the other bands, and that they be compelled to settle upon and cultivate it, and that no Indians be allowed to roam about without occupation in the leased country. It is an evil example set before those whom the government is endeavoring to civilize. I respectfully renew my recommendations contained in former, reports. If it is considered at all important that the authority of the United States should be maintained, and peace and order enforced in the Cherokee country, a military post should at once be established at Frozen Rock. If that is not done, the agent should be withdrawn, and disorder left to take its course. The intercourse law, as I have repeatedly had the honor to suggest, needs radical changes, in order that innocent acts may no longer be punished as felonies, and that petty annoyances and vexatious interferences may no longer exasperate the Indians, and bring the law and its officers into contempt. I again advise the department to endeavor to procure the enactment of provisions making the agents temporary administrators of the property within their agencies of persons dying there, and constituting them commissioners to take depositions, issue warrants of arrest, examine persons and witnesses, commit, discharge, or hold to bail and take recognizances for appearance at the proper court; as also to take depositions to be used in the courts of the United States, and to do other acts of like nature. I recommend the attempt to procure the enactment of a law providing that the district court for the western district of Arkansas shall have circuit court jurisdiction in suits instituted by citizens of the United States against persons residing in the Indian country belonging to the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, in any matter of contract where the cause of action accrued within a certain time before the passage of the act, with power to issue and 1 have executed all necessary original mesne and final process in such suits, and to have execution of any judgment on the same. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, ELIAS RECTOR, Superintendent Indian Affairs. Hon. A. B. GREENWOOD, Commissioner Indian Affairs, Washington. No. 46. OFFICE NEOSHO AGENCY, Quapaw Nation, September 18, 1860. SIR I have the honor, in compliance with the regulations of the Indian department, to submit my annual report of the condition of Indian affairs within this agency. The general health of the Indians. residing upon the five different reserves embraced within this agency has been, for the past year, very good, and there has not been any very material increase or decrease in their number. The Senecas, Senecas and Shawnees, and the Quapaws all reside on the reserves situated south of Kansas Territory, in what is known as the Indian Territory, with the exception of about three quarters of a mile in width and twenty in length of the Quapaw reserve, which is embraced in the Territory of Kansas. This small strip they wish to sell; and, in fact, they wish to sell not only that, but a part of the balance of their reserve, in order to relieve their very pressing wants. I would advise the purchase of their lands, and then locate the northern Shawnees upon them adjoining the Senecas and Shawnees. This is very much desired by the Shawnees, both of Kansas river and those under my charge. The Osage reserve and the New York Indian reserve is situated in Kansas, and it is with great difficulty that the just rights of these Indians can be protected, from the fact of their reserves being very extensive and lying within the bounds of an organized Territory. The Osages are very anxious to reduce the extent of their reserve by ceding a large portion of it to the government by treaty. Having their new bounds distinctly marked, they can the better be protected · from the intrusion of their white neighbors. The New York Indian reserve has but recently been surveyed, and those Indians found entitled to land under the treaty of 1838, have had 320 acres allotted to them, and the balance of said reserve, which amounted in the original to 1,824,000 acres, has been turned over to the General Land Office as public domain, and subject to entry as other public lands. In consequence of the continued drought for the past year, there is almost an entire failure of the crops throughout this whole region. It is so extensive that but few of the many streams have running water in them, and many of the springs and wells have failed entirely to afford water, and great suffering is bound to follow the coming winter, unless some relief is extended to these people, as they have, as a general thing, no means of relief. The Senecas and Senecas and Shawnees, have each an annuity which might be expended for provisions to relieve their wants; but the Quapaws have nothing but a few cattle, hogs, and ponies to meet their pressing necessities, and it is hoped that the department will aid them out of the public funds set apart for such purposes by Congress. You will notice from the accompanying report of the superintendent of the Osage manual labor school, that it is prosperous beyond the most sanguine expectations of its founders, and it is now retarded only for the want of additional buildings, to accommodate all the children that the Osage and Quapaw parents are anxious to send to the school. It is hoped that the department will be enabled to appropriate funds to enable the superintendent of the school to erect additional buildings, as they are very much needed, to my certain knowledge, having just inspected the school and all connected therewith. I have recently returned from the Osage nation, where I repaired for the purpose of delivering to the Osage Indians the balance of cows and calves due them under the treaty with government in 1839, and to inspect the schools, and hold a general council with the Indians; and it is proper here to say that the Osages are desirous of receiving the balance of the "stock and agricultural implements" yet behind, under the treaty of 1839. The intruders are still numerous upon their reserve, notwithstanding they were notified by me, in May last, agreeably to instructions from the department, and the Indians now demand their removal by force, as they are constantly destroying their timber, &c. The employés of my agency, I am happy to say, have done their duty to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, ELIAS RECTOR, Esq., ANDREW J. DORN, Supt. Indian Affairs, Fort Smith, Arkansas. No. 47. OSAGE MANUAL LABOR SCHOOL, SIR: I now submit to you my annual report for the present year up to September 1, 1860. In my last, dated September, 1859, I stated that our pupils in the male department numbered seventy-two Osage and eight Quapaw boys, and on the female side sixty Osage and twelve Quapaw girls. During the course of the winter months several of the larger pupils returned to school, and continued their studies until the spring time. At present, September, 1860, the number has increased to 125 boys. The ladies of Loretto, who preside over the female department, feel exceedingly mortified not to be able to receive into their schools an equal number of girls, not having sufficient house room, and being entirely destitute of means to erect a comfortable building sufficiently large to accommodate many, who, at this moment, are willing and anxious to come. In my two private letters or petitions to the department of Indian affairs, when referring to the necessity of a building at least eighty feet by thirty, and two stories high, and that such a building should not be undertaken without assistance from government, I expressed my reasons why I thought it more proper that the Osage girls should be kept together exclusively under the same roof. We find from experience that the Indian male children may be accommodated or lodged in small separate buildings without the like detriment to morality, as long as they have a prefect to preside over each division or apartment; but it must be remembered too, that in proportion as the number of these increase, so much more does the labor and inconvenience also increase. We have, moreover, in endeavoring to retain the good will and feelings of the Indians, allowed their children to be crowded upon us, and thereby have been compelled to erect during the last winter an additional two-story log-house, forty-two by sixteen feet, and several repairs to the amount of $700 cash, exclusive of the other materials prepared and hauled by our regular hired hands. We have received no less than forty male children into our school within the last four months. We have made out to find room for them by occupying every corner in the above-mentioned houses. The same inconvenience will exist during the coming winter that did last, namely, that of using the study and class-rooms for dormitories during the night, for the sole reason that we are unable to afford to our pupils the desired and necessary accommodations; besides, the crops throughout our whole region have failed entirely, in consequence of the great drought of this season; and our Osages being reduced to the very extremes of poverty, none feel the effects of it so sensibly as ourselves. The schools, however, go regularly on. Four teachers are constantly and exclusively employed in teaching the usual branches of education, namely, spelling, reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, grammar, parsing, and composition. Their improvement this year is somewhat retarded, and they may not show out so conspicuously as in former years, owing chiefly to the increased number of new pupils, who must be first trained to the discipline of the school, and also taught to, at least, understand English, before we can even commence to advance them with any kind of success. The female children are under the guidance and vigilant care of fourteen Sisters of Loretto, who are all equally and devotedly interested to form their little pupils to habits of industry, and to instill into their young minds the advantages of a well-regulated civilization. The benefit which these children derive from the kind and gentle treatment of those religious ladies is and will ever be highly valued by the rising generation. Most of their first Osage and Quapaw pupils are already settled in life, and, it is gratifying to have it to say, are doing well. The number of those ladies will show sufficiently that they are prepared to bestow education and care to a very large number of Indian children. Before closing this report, I should not omit to remark that, in consequence of the increase of late in the number of female pupils, whom we could not by any means refuse, and which has caused the house to be more than ever thronged, it has become absolutely necessary to make a small new addition on their side. Therefore, an order for $250 worth of lumber was sent last week to the proprietors of the saw mill, 1 which lumber is to serve for the erection of this building. The work on this will also be another item, which it would be hard just now to estimate, but will be conducted as economically as possible. JOHN SCHOENMAKERS, Superintendent of the Osage Manual Labor School. ANDREW J. DORN, Esq., No 48. QUAPAW NATION, DEAR SIR: I have the honor to transmit you my first annual report. I entered upon my duty as Quapaw farmer on the 1st of last April; since that time I have kept a vigilant watch over their tools, &c., and have given all the instructions I deemed necessary to benefit them. I have stocked twenty or thirty plows, and done various other work that comes under the range of my duty. The most of the tools are kept in good condition. They have about 300 acres in cultivation, which they cultivate by plowing and hoeing in the usual manner. Their crops looked better than I had ever seen them until the drought came, which cut them very short. Their wheat was an entire failure, owing to the cold, dry winter and dry spring; their oats were light, and they will not make a half crop of corn. They have ponies, cows, and hogs, and their lands are of the best quality. Most all of them are farming on a small scale; some have good farms, and farm correctly, while others will not have more than two to five acres. If it had not been for the severe drought they would have had a good amount of surplus; but as it is, they will be very needy, as they have no annuity, and have to depend upon their own exertions for a subsistence. They all have very comfortable cabins; and I can say that I will continue exertions to make them work and have plenty, that they may live comfortably. Very respectfully, United States Indian Agent. ANDREW J. DORN, Esq., No. 49. CREEK AGENCY, October 15, 1860. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following as a report of the condition of the Indians comprised within this agency. It is gratifying to be able to state that the health of the country has Pen remarkably |