to seek or give information, which could just as well be performed by a messenger boy at $1 per day. Good business men do not conduct their business in this manner.

The appropriation of $4,000 wisely given by Congresss at the last session for the employment of clerical labor for a special purpose was not trammeled by any restriction as to the compensation which should be paid to clerks, and as a consequence I am able to say what could not have been truthfully said in the last ten years, to wit: That there are no agents' accounts unsettled in this office outside of the present fiscal year.

DEFICIENCIES IN APPROPRIATIONS.

The funds appropriated by Congress in the regular appropriation bill for the support of the Indians during the fiscal year proved to be entirely insufficient, mainly owing to the high price of beef and flour; and had it not been for the additional appropriation in the sundry civil bill of $200,000 for the purchase of beef, and $25,000 for the support of the Jicarilla and Mescalero Apaches, this office would have been greatly embarrassed and serious difficulties been the result. The amount appropriated for the subsistence of the Sioux under agreement made February 28, 1877, was insufficient by $500,000. Article 5 of this agreement provides for furnishing each individual with a daily ration of 1 pounds beef, one-half pound of flour, one-half pound of corn, and for every 100 rations 4 pounds of coffee, 8 pounds of sugar, and 3 pounds of beans, or in lieu of said articles the equivalent thereof, in the discretion of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. According to the reports of the agents, there are now on the different Sioux reservations 26,683 persons, who, under article 5 of the above treaty, are entitled to 29,217,885 pounds beef gross, 4,869,6473 pounds of corn and flour each, 292,179 pounds of beans, 389,572 pounds of coffee, and 779,144 pounds of sugar, costing at contract prices $1,558,847.68. The amount appropriated by Congress for subsistence of the Sioux, including transportation of all supplies from steamboat landings and terminus of railroads to agencies, is $1,075,000, of which at least $50,000 will be required for transportation, making a deficiency of $500,000, for which an estimate will be submitted to Congress at its next session. As this amount is due under treaty stipulations, it is hoped it will be furnished.

The only other deficiency to be provided for by Congress will be about $50,000 for "transportation of Indian supplies." For that purpose $275,000 were appropriated by Congress, but this amount will not be sufficient to pay for all the transportation; and as the right to incur deficiency for transportation was conceded at the last session of Congress by the House Committee on Appropriations, I have no doubt that the additional amount required will be appropriated.

Section 8 of the act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian service, &c., for the fiscal year 1883, directs that notice shall be given to such Indians as are now being subsisted, in whole or in part, by appropriations not required by treaty, that a recommendation will be made to Congress, at its next session for a diminution of such appropriations, and in pursuance thereof I have issued the following circular and forwarded it to the different Indian agents:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, September 27, 1882.

SIR: In compliance with instructions received from the honorable Secretary of the Interior, your attention is called to section 8 of "An act making appropriations for

the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulation with various Indian tribes, for the fiscal year 1883, and for other purposes," approved May 17, 1882, which reads as follows: That the Secretary of the Interior shall cause such Indians as are now being subsisted, in whole or in part, by appropriations not required in discharge of treaty obligations, to be notified that he will recommend to Congress, at its next session, a diminution of such appropriation, and that in consequence thereof their future support will depend more upon their own exertions."

In compliance with the above you will give your Indians the notice required by this act of Congress, and assure them that while the government is disposed to treat them kindly and even generously, and to extend to them every needed assistance to enable them to make a comfortable living for themselves and families, yet they must remember that there is now no treaty or other obligation on the part of the government to support them, and that what they are now receiving is purely a gift, and that there must come a time when they will be expected to labor for their own support the same as white men do. Say to them that labor is not degrading, but on the contrary is ennobling, and that if they ever expect to become rich and powerful as the white races, they must learn the lessons of industry and economy.

H. PRICE, Commissioner.

INDIAN AGENCIES AND POPULATION.

The following table shows the location of the several agencies and the population:

Nebraska (including 201 attached to Kansas agency, but still living in Nebraska).
Nevada

2

7,756

1, 782

59

246, 932

To this should be added those not under control of agents, living principally in the Territories of Arizona, Idaho, and Utah, and the States of California, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin, numbering 15,434, making total number of Indians in the United States, exclusive of those in Alaska, 262,366.

LIQUOR IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY.

The sale and use of liquor has been brought before the public so long as the chief cause of poverty and crime, that when it is stated that nearly

all the serious crimes committed in the Indian country are traceable directly to the selling and drinking of whisky, the statement is accepted as truth, as a matter of course. It provokes no comment, and appears to have little effect on legislation. Yet, to-day, whisky is the one great curse of the Indian country, the prolific source of disorder, tumult, crime, and disease, and if its sale could be utterly prohibited, peace and quiet would almost uniformly exist among the Indians from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Whisky is furnished the Indians by disreputable white men, who would sell themselves and their country for so many pieces of silver. Leniency to such men is a crime. Their homes should be behind iron bars, with never a human face to look upon, and never a sight of the green earth or the skies above, until, in solitary confinement for mouths and years, they had been taught the lesson that "the way of transgressors is hard." Most Indians will drink whisky whenever and wherever they can get it. Under its influence they are savages in deed as well as in name.

The agent at Quapaw says:

A quart of whisky will do more to demoralize Indians than a month of patient labor will accomplish to civilize them.

The agent at Sac and Fox, Indian Territory, says:

The whisky business has been the cause of more difficulty and more crime than all other causes combined.

At Great Nemaha the agent testifies that:

Strong drink is the greatest curse that besets the red man. Unprincipled whites in the settlements, knowing this weakness, and regardless of the consequences that may follow, will barter their own souls that they may fill their coffers with their unlawful and ill-gotten gains.

At Navajo Agency, one of the chiefs says:

We do not make whisky-it is the Americans that do it--and we earnestly plead that the Great Father will take it away from us and not let it be brought near us, for our young men drink it like water.

The agent at Tulalip reports that:

No crimes of a serious character were committed on the reservation, and if it were not for the nefarious trade carried on in selling liquor to Indians by degraded white men, the Indians would be a happy and prosperous race of people.

Page after page might be filled with similar testimonies.

The destruction of the liquor traffic among Indians is necessary, alike for their welfare and for the protection and safety of the lives and property of thousands of good citizens who have their homes near these Indian reservations. The result desired can be accomplished by the passage and enforcement of rigid laws, with severe penalties for the violation thereof. If the guilty ones are surely and sufficiently punished, it will soon be almost impossible for the Indians to get liquor. The present law is defective. It provides that the penalty for giving or selling liquor to an Indian shall be imprisonment for not more than two years and a fine of not more than $300. This law should be so amended as to specify a minimum penalty.

A few selections from reports of agents will show the necessity for such an amendment.

The agent at Grande Ronde says:

The greatest obstacle

is the constant watchfulness required to prevent them from obtaining whisky from a disreputable class of whites who hover around the borders of the agency, or in the small towns, ever ready to furnish Indians liquor and to take advantage of them as soon as they have become intoxicated. I have succeeded in having from forty to fifty of this class of offenders arrested during the past year, nearly every one of whom has been convicted, but the fines imposed are not sufficient to give them a proper respect for law and order. Could our courts be induced to make the sentence imprisonment instead of a small fine, I am confident there would be fewer transgressors.

The agent at Green Bay says:

During the past year five young men have been killed while intoxicated. Drunkenness will continue among the Indians, in spite of the strongest efforts of agents and Indian police, until Congress amends the law by adding, not less than three months' imprisonment and not less than $50 fine.

The agent of the Mission Indians says:

But for the leniency of the courts in dealing with offenders who have been detected and arrested for carrying on this traffic among them, better results might be reported.

In view of these statements, and others on file in this office, I recom mend that section 2139 of the Revised Statutes be so amended that the punishment for the first offense shall be imprisonment for not less than one year, and a fine of not less than $100; and that for the second and subsequent violations of law the penalty shall be imprisonment for three years. I deem this amendment absolutely essential, as under the present law fixing a maximum, but not a minimum penalty, the law is practically of little value, the punishment, in some cases, being a fine of ten dollars and imprisonment for one day, and this, too, after the payment of many dollars in witness fees. The penalty should be commensurate with the crime.

Section 2139 provides that "Every person [except an Indian in the Indian country]" shall be liable to punishment for sale of liquor to Indians, &c. A bill (H. R. 3942) introduced by Representative Haskell at the last session of Congress proposes to amend the section by striking out the words "except an Indian in the Indian country." I hope this legislation also will be secured.

One other amendment is, in my judgment, necessary. The War Department is authorized to introduce liquor into the Indian country. This should not be. Fire should not be permitted near a powdermagazine, nor whisky near an Indian reservation. Army whisky is no better than other whisky; it does not appear that its effects are any more desirable. An Indian will as surely get drunk on army liquors as on those obtained from less highly favored citizens of the country. I recommend, therefore, that such portions of sections 2139 and 2140 as authorize the War Department, or Army officers, to introduce liquor into the Indian country be repealed.

Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which agents labor on account of inadequate and defective law, and the leniency and indifference with which it is administered, they have made strenous efforts during the year to repress the sale of liquor to Indians by the prosecution of whisky sellers, and have been fairly successful. Through the efforts of 30 different agents, 136 cases have been prosecuted; 16 failed of conviction, 36 are still pending, one forfeited his bail bond, 19 were punished by fine, 30 by imprisonment, and 34 by imprisonment and fine. The fines varied from $1 to $125, and the terms of imprisonment in jails, houses of correction, and penitentiaries, from one day to 3 years and a half. Only 7 were imprisoned for a year or over, and the average term of the others was 58 days. The average fine was $32.

The tendency of the law to bear the hardest on the weakest party was well exemplified among the Indians of the State of New York, where 3 white men were fined $20, $50, and $75, respectively, for selling liquor to Indians; and for the same offense an Indian was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a fine of $100. A table showing prosecutions and penalties in detail, will be found on page 375, herewith.

Much larger results could have been secured if the office had funds at its command to cover the expense of detecting liquor selling, making

arrests, sending witnesses to court, &c. For this purpose I urged last year an appropriation of $5,000, which was granted in the House but failed in the Senate. Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the use of whisky by white men, there is but one opinion as to the mischief and danger of its use by Indians, and I can see no reason why the small amount asked should not have been granted. I trust that Congress at its next session will show some interest in the matter, and some readiness to assist the office in its single-handed fight against this evil.

LEGISLATION REQUIRED.

Intruders on Indian lands.-In my last annual report I drew attention to the insufficiency of existing laws on this subject. On the 29th of March last, the draught of a bill for the more adequate prevention of trespasses on Indian lands, previously prepared in this office, was transmitted by the President to Congress for consideration (House Ex. Doc. No. 145, 47th Cong., 1st sess.)

This bill reads as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section twenty-one hundred and forty-eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended to read as follows, namely:

Every person who without anthority of law enters and shall be found upon any Indian lands, tribal reservation, or lands specially set apart for Indian purposes, shall, for the first offense, upon conviction thereof, pay a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than one year; and for every subsequent offense, shall, upon conviction thereof, pay a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, and not less than five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than two years, nor less than one year; and the wagons, teams and outfit of such person or persons so offending shall be seized and delivered to the proper United States officer, and be proceeded against by libel in the proper court and forfeited, one-half to the informer and the other half to the United States, and in all cases arising under this act, Indians shall be competent witnesses: Provided, however, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to emigrants or travelers peaceably passing through such Indian lands, tribal reservations, or lands especially set apart for Indian purposes, without committing any willful trespass or injury to person or property."

I greatly regret that Congress took no action in this matter. The urgent necessity for an amendment of the law is again apparent in the attempted settlement in the Indian Territory by the so-called "Oklahoma Colony," under the leadership of D. L. Payne, which has twice been repeated during the past year; first in May last, when Payne with a party of followers was arrested in the Indian Territory by the military, and afterwards released on the Kansas border; and more recently, in the latter part of August, when, with a party consisting of seven men and two women, and an outfit of wagons, horses, &c., he was again captured by the troops whilst endeavoring to effect a settlement at Oklahoma. Upon this last occasion, refusing to go out of the Territory peacefully, the party were disarmed and taken to Fort Reno as prisoners. Upon the recommendation of this department, they were, turned over by the military to the United States civil authorities at Fort Smith, Ark., by whom, it is reported, they have since been released to appear at the November term of the United States court for the western district of Arkansas, to answer to civil suits for the recovery of the prescribed penalty of $1,000, which is the only redress the existing law provides. The result will probably be judgments against them by default, which will be and remain uncollectible.

It is surely time that this farce which has now been going on for three years or more, should cease. If Congress will give us a law (such as has been laid before it) providing for imprisonment in addition to fine,