bands on the great plains, with which they are often at war, as well as to show them that government has the power to compel them to keep within their own limits, and not encroach upon the rights of others.

If some policy of this kind is not adopted by the government, and if provisions are not furnished them in sufficient quantities to sustain them during the winter months, they will be reduced to the necessity of thieving and robbing. Their game being killed or driven off, nothing better can reasonably be expected from them. In a few years, if allowed to continue to roam at large and visit the settlements at pleasure, they will become victims to intemperance and its concomitant vices, which will reduce them to a condition of great depravity. Humanity demands that this fate should be averted from them, and it can only be avoided by setting them apart to themselves, agricultural instruments given them, and proper instruction imparted to them, as before mentioned.

On Monday the 18th of August I left this agency to go to the Conejos, which is about eighty miles northwest of Taos, to deliver the presents to the Mohuaches and Tabahuaches. I arrived there on the 19th, and found them all assembled and awaiting my appearance. The following day the superintendent arrived, and on the 21st we made the distributions, the Indians conducting themselves with great propriety and receiving the presents with evident satisfaction. About the middle of the afternoon, after having given them some provisions, we dismissed the Indians, who went to their homes, contentment being visible on the faces of all.

The Jicarilla Apaches number about nine hundred and fifty souls. They live in the vicinity of the agency, and the chase is their only means of support. They are rapidly degenerating, their associations with the citizens of this Territory proving to be a great bane to their naturally not very correct morals. We daily witness them in a state of intoxication in our plaza. No sacrifice is considered by them too great to be made in order to procure whisky. Not being allowed to buy it themselves they are always able to find those who will buy it for them. Some time since the territorial legislature passed an act exempting the Pueblos from the conditions of the law which prohibits the whites from selling intoxicating liquors to the Indians, and the Apaches furnish them the means to buy whisky, when all get drunk together. Both the Apaches and Pueblos in this agency will part with everything they have to gratify their appetites for whisky.

The Apaches have caused me more trouble this year than all the balance of the Indians under my charge. They are truly the most degraded and troublesome Indian we have in our department. A few days since one of them was killed in a drunken spree by being stabbed by one of his own tribe with a large butcher-knife. This occurrence placed a temporary check upon them, but they are already conducting themselves with as little restraint as before.

Something must be done soon to remove them from contact with the

settlements if we would avoid their utter ruin. If permitted to re-main as they are, before many years the tribe will be entirely extinct.. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

J. L. COLLINS, Esq.,

C. CARSON, United States Indian Ayent.

Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Santa Fé, N. M.

SIR: It affords me pleasure in this my annual report to be able to report the Indians under my charge to be for the most part prosperous and improving. They have, however, for months past been subjected to much loss and suffering from the inroads and depredations of the Navajo Indians, who, in their hostile incursions upon the settlements of this Territory, made no distinction of race or origin. In fact, the Pueblos have few traits in common with the wild Indians of the mountains and plains. They are eminently an agricultural and settled people, who have long since abandoned, if, indeed, they ever possessed the habits of the hunting and wandering tribes. They follow strictly the avocations of peace and rely upon their industry alone for subsistence.

Such being the character and habits of these people, they have acquired considerable wealth in the form of flocks and herds, which constitute a strong temptation to the rapacious instincts of the wandering tribes. For several months past the Pueblos have suffered great and frequent losses by the depredations of the Navajos. The villages of Laguna and Zuna have been the chief sufferers, in consequence of their more immediate neighborhood to the hostile tribes. These Pueblos are situated convenient to the routes pursued by the war parties of the Navajos in their attacks upon the settlements of the Mexicans. I have not yet obtained sufficient information to form even an estimate of the extent of the damages inflicted upon the Pueblos from this source, but it is my intention to institute an early and thorough inquiry in regard to this matter, the result of which will be promptly submitted to the department.

I beg leave to urge the propriety of supplying the Pueblos with the means of instruction in the more useful arts of civilized life. There is no nation of Indians upon the continent whose character and habits qualify so well to avail themselves profitably of such facilities. Upon the other hand, there is none which deserves so well the encouragement of the government as this tribe, which has never cost it one dollar of military expenditure. Probably there is not another tribe within the limits of the republic, of which the same can be said. So far as being a burden upon the government, or a pest to the people, they are probably the only Indians who steadily contribute to the wealth of the nation, and who never disturb the peace of society.

I have reason to believe that they would welcome and highly value the facilities which are furnished to other of the tribes, who do not seem to appreciate or profit by them. Two or three blacksmiths to teach them the construction and use of the implements of agriculture, would, in my opinion, be an acquisition to them, the beneficial results of which it would be hard to over estimate. The most intelligent of them are already convinced of the great superiority of the tools furnished by the government, over the rude implements which they have used from time immemorial. Under the teaching of two or three smiths, they would, in a very few years, raise enough mechanics of their own to supply all the settlements. The benefits derivable from this trade would be so great and obvious that they would be encouraged to solicit the introduction among them of the other arts of the white man, which, at first, they might not be prepared to accept ; and I have no doubt whatever, that this policy pursued for a very few years would encourage a system of education, which, in due time, would successfully introduce all the blessings and benefits of the Christian religion. Two or three schoolmasters, competent to teach the Spanish language as the medium of instruction, would even now find encouragement among the Pueblos. But I am certain that should their traditional habits be once broken, as inevitably they would be, by the introduction among them of a few of the most simple mechanic arts, the schoolmaster and the minister of the Gospel would find a field of labor, which would remunerate richly their services. I hope, therefore, that the department will, without delay, take means to furnish these people with instructions in one or more of these arts.

In May last, I visited the Pueblos to make them presents of agricultural implements, but, notwithstanding, they showed much solicitude to obtain them, yet I found great reluctance to accept them at the hands of the government. Upon investigation, I ascertained that designing Mexicans had impressed them with suspicion that, although the government proffered to give them these presents, yet that some day they would be called on to pay for them, and that the debt thus raised against them would be converted into a claim against their lands. This apprehension was more strongly impressed upon their minds, from the fact that their grants and title papers, which have heretofore been placed on file in the office of the surveyor general for confirmation, have never been returned to them, nor any patent from the government issued for their possession. I reassured them on these points to the best of my ability, and induced them to accept the presents; but I cannot too urgently recommend that the patents for their lands be issued and delivered to them with as little delay as possible.

Beyond the supply of implements of agriculture, and for such facilities for instruction as I have spoken of, I have no petition to make in behalf of these interesting people. They are eminently a self-supporting race, and it would be an injury to them to sap their independence by teaching them to rely to any extent upon the government for the means of subsistence. Persons not acquainted with the peculiar character and mode of life of these Indians, would probably be disposed to doubt the assertion that they are sufficiently advanced to receive

and profit by instruction in the arts of civilization. Such persons, however, are not aware that the Pueblos are now "Indians" only in designation. Acquaintance with their character and habits invariably suggests great doubts, even whether they are of a common origin with the roaming and predatory tribes, to whom the term "Indian" is properly applied.

The Pueblos have governmental institutions far more ancient, and as firmly established as any other people, whatever, upon this continent. Each village, or "Pueblo," as it is called, is a political community of itself, has its own complete organization; its own laws; its own tribunals; and its own officers for their enforcement. Probably there is no people, enlightened or otherwise, among whom the laws are enforced with greater regularity and efficiency. That these laws are adapted to their condition and in the main promotive of their happiness and prosperity, their material condition and the absence of discontent conclusively testify. It would be no boon to them to convert them into citizens, and leave them within the operations of the civil code of this Territory. On the contrary, such a policy would probably result in their destruction. The introduction of the arts of civilization and, finally, the establishment of educational and religious institutions, in the manner I have heretofore advocated, are the only means, in my opinion, in which they can ultimately be safely brought into harmony with the political and civil institutions of our

DEAR SIR: The time having arrived, when, according to the regulations of the Indian department, it is my duty to report to you, I have the honor to submit the following account of the Indians within the limits of the Tucson agency.

I will first speak of the Pimos and Maricopas, who inhabit that part of the Territory embraced by my agency, known as the Gila river west; and I am happy to be able to say that there is a very perceivable advance in civilization among them, their progress in farming having equaled my highest expectations. Their head-chief, Antonio Asul, in company with his son, has paid me a friendly visit since I returned from the superintendency. He accepted a complimentary seat in the stage tendered him by G. W. Jacobs, agent for the Overland Mail, from Fort Yuma, California, to Tucson, and upon arriving here, he expressed himself as highly pleased with his journey. He considers

the mail company great friends of his; says that they bought up all his grain, and paid him a good price for it, and that his people were doing better than they had ever done before; that they were perfectly satisfied with the intentions of the government towards them, and only requested that I should endeavor to obtain for them a few arms before I should leave. The guns which they have are few and old, and I frequently have to have them repaired.

The Papagos, at the old mission pueblo of San Xavier, number some fifty families, and have made much progress in agriculture since my last report. They seem indeed to take a new interest in the cultivation of their lands, and have promised me that, with a few additional implements which I have promised them, they will increase their planting next year to nearly double that of the present. This year has been double that of the former one, since after selling some seven hundred fanegas of grain, they have still on hand a sufficient quantity for bread and seed.

The eight pueblos west of the mission are small, and have heretofore relied principally upon the rains for their crops, but I am fearful that this year will be a failure. They always have, however, some stock, and a few individuals of these Pueblos raise very fine cattle, live in adobe houses, and are now pretty independent. They seem to appreciate the limited and small amount of tools, &c., given them, and I hope that for the future they will be able to live free from want.

A few charges of theft have been made against them, but none, I think, well authenticated, and I am satisfied that they have brought back stock that had strayed into their country to a greater amount than they have ever been charged with having stolen.

They still resort to the salt trade, as I stated in my former report, and they make a considerable business of bringing salt into the Territory, where they generally find a ready sale for all they have. This is a source of profit, and highly commendable, as I tell them, because they are poor and must employ themselves in some way to make a living. Take them altogether as a tribe, I am satisfied that they are the best Indians in the Territory, and are as easily managed as the Pimos. There has been a little dissatisfaction felt between them and one of the employés of the Overland Mail Company, which, I think, has been encouraged by persons in correspondence with the department. In reference to this, as it is a matter of some importance, I will say that I am satisfied of the disposition of the principal managers of the Overland Mail Company to retain the friendship and confidence of these Indians, since they have assured me that such is their desire, and that they would do all in their power to secure it, the company being more interested in keeping them quiet and peaceable than any others in the Territory. They have assured me that no man shall remain at one of their stations where grain is brought in by the Indians who would be disposed to have any trouble whatever, and they desired me to represent this to the department; saying that they had been willfully misrepresented relative to certain difficulties with the Pimos. Now, I am satisfied that the superintendent, agents, &c., of the Overland Mail Company are gentlemen, and will place no man on duty in the vicinity of those Indians, who is not a sober, quiet and