Briefly stated, the points raised by the Indian authorities are as follows:

The Choctaws, whilst conceding to the railway company "the right to use and occupy just what ground is absolutely necessary for the successful operation of a railway," nevertheless contend that all that their treaty with the United States provided, and all that Congress had power to grant, was a bare right of way through their land; that the granting or taking of any lands for the purposes of the road beyond such bare right of way was in violation of the fifth amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the taking of private property for public use without just compensation, and that in the absence of the consent of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and of an act of Congress making such additional grant, and providing for compensation, the Department was without power to approve the plats of survey.

The Creeks admit that by the terms of the treaty of 1866 they "agree to the occupancy of so much land by the company as shall be necessary to its proper management," but assert that by this they did not grant to the railway company the exclusive right to determine as to the quantity of land necessary to be so occupied; and they insist that the Creek national council, as conservator of the general interest of the Creek Nation, is an interested party, and as such will urge its right to a voice in determining the quantity of land necessary to be occupied under the provisions of the treaty.

Having given a detailed account of the operations of this Bureau, I desire to offer some suggestions of a general character.

It is evident that the Indian race has reached a crisis in its history. The Indians can no longer exist in this country in a savage or semi-civ. ilized state, nor can they longer recede before the advancing march of civilization. It has already surrounded them. Movements of population eastward and northward and southward have gone on with unprecedented rapidity, until every reservation is closed in and pressed upon by colonies of settlers, miners, ranchmen, and traders. The practice of moving the Indian to more distant reservations can be continued no longer. He must make his final stand for existence where he is now. Unless he can adapt himself to the necessities of these new conditions and partake of this all-pervading civilization, his extinction will be sure and swift. The need of a permanent scheme of Indian management to meet this emergency is pressing upon the Government with imperious urgency.

To determine properly the question as to the true method of conducting our Indian affairs in the present crisis, there should be a clear understanding of the state of things which has thrown upon the Government the responsibility of an Indian policy of any kind, and a clear perception of the object which, in dealing with it, the Government proposes to accomplish. What, then, is this thing-our Indian policy, or, as it is sometimes called, the Indian service? Here in Washington it

means a great bureau or governmental department, with its system of divisions and clerks and inspectors and special and local agents—a sort of state department, conducting correspondence and adjusting the relations of sixty-seven inferior governments of certain "domestic dependent nations," and at the same time invested with authority to control and protect the individuals living under those governments. The cost of this Indian service in direct annual appropriations it is difficult to ascertain accurately, but, from the most reliable data available, it cannot be less than an average of $3,870,629 from the year 1832 to the present time. It now amounts to more than $6,000,000 per annum, and has at different times reached $7,000,000.

ESTATE OF THE INDIANS.

The principal possession of these "domestic dependent nations,” with which this Department has to deal, is the land owned by them. But a number of the tribes have funds invested and other moneys belonging to them, and have also aunuities secured to them by treaty stipula tions. Estimating the total area of their reservations as given at $1 per acre, the value of the estate owned, held, and occupied by the Indians is, in round numbers, $134,000,000. And to this should be added other invested and uninvested funds amounting to seventeen millions, and other lands, on the market, but not yet sold or paid for, making a total of $152,000,000 in round numbers. This does not include the annuities, which, on account of the uncertainty and indefiniteness of some of them, cannot be accurately calculated beyond each year; nor does it embrace the value of other property in ponies, sheep, cattle, industrial implements, &c.

Here, then, is the Indian service, as seen in the workings of the Indian Office. It certainly shows a great expenditure of money, effort, political enterprise, and organization. For whom and for what is required this expensive equipment of a great department of the Government, with the constant vigilance and occasional active assistance of the military establishment?

There is but one answer. It is for the control, protection and management of a population of only 260,000, including men, women, and children-less than the population of the city of Baltimore.

Whatever may be said about the injustice and cruelty with which the Indians have been treated in the past, characterized by some as a "century of dishonor," the Government is now, as all must admit, putting itself to great trouble and expense for a very small and inutile population. The question arises, what is the purpose sought to be accomplished? Is it to protect this country against the Indian as a menace to the security and peace of our people? Nothing could be more absurd.

The Indian race is no longer a source of danger to the peace or security of this great Republic. Most of the reservations are encircled

by powerful communities, and those upon the frontier are completely in the hands of our military forces. Nor is the Indian any longer an obstacle to our national progress or to our material development. So far as the interests of our own people are concerned, apart from the needs of the Indian population, the Indian problem could be easily solved by simply withdrawing all governmental supervision over these people and conferring upon them the rights of American citizenship. Those who would not pass away would be soon absorbed into American society. After incorporating into our body politic four millions of blacks in a state of slavery and investing them with citizenship and suffrage we need not strain at the gnat of 260,000 Indians. It would only be an additional morsel, and a very small one. Such a course, however, would be more cruel and destructive to the Indian in the helpless condition to which the extension of settlements will soon reduce him than a war of extermination.

It is not, therefore, to protect the peace of the country, or the security of its frontiers from the danger of Indian war, or on account of their hindrance to our material progress, that all these efforts and expenditures are made in their behalf. It is because this Government is bound by duty, humanity, religion, good faith, and national honor to protect, at whatever of expense or sacrifice, these original possessors of the soil from the destruction with which they are threatened by the very agencies that make our prosperity and greatness. The sense of this obligation was profoundly felt by the founders of our Republic. They not only recognized it as the rule of their own conduct, but they wrote it down in their statutes and ordinances for the guidance of their posterity. The Ordinance of 1787 (Article 3) contains the following language:

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property rights and liberty they never shall be invaded or disturbed unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them and for preserving peace and friendship with them. The principles embodied in these noble utterances constitute the fundamental principles of a genuine Indian policy.

Assuming, then, that the civilization, the moral, intellectual, social, and industrial elevation of the Indian, to fit him to take part in the civilization of the country and the age, is the common object of all, the question arises, what means should be adopted to accomplish this?

I have not been long enough in this office to become so thoroughly acquainted with the characteristics, customs, habits, and wants of the Indians as to feel myself competent to propose any general plan or policy which in all respects will be adapted to the conditions of the present and adequate to the probable exigencies of the future. There are, however, some measures which I think are necessary to lay a solid

foundation for Indian civilization and to avert the demoralization and destruction of these people, which the environment of the white race now threatens.

I recommend that a portion of every reservation be divided up into separate tracts of suitable size for farms, to be allotted to each individua. as his sole and separate estate. Provision should be made against the power (until after a time limited) of selling or mortgaging the same, or even leasing it to any but Indians living within the same reservation. Without legislation of this kind all efforts to make the Indian support himself by his own labor will prove fruitless and unavailing. To overcome his natural aversion to labor there must be the incentive given alone by a sure guarantee that the fruits of his labor shall be enjoyed in security. No man will clear forests, inclose fields and cultivate them, and rear houses and barns when at any moment he may be removed and carried off against his will to some distant and unknown region. The ownership of land, freeholding, tends to inspire individual independence, pride of character, personal industry, and the development of the domestic virtues. Provision should be made that the Indian accepting a patent for his land shall not thereby forfeit any of his rights as a member of his tribe, nor the protection and benefit which the laws of the United States extend to the Indians generally.

I favor the policy recommended by a predecessor in this office, Secretary Kirk wood, of reducing to proper size the existing reservations, when entirely out of proportion to the number of Indians thereon, with the consent of the Indians, and upon just and fair terms; and second, of placing by patent the titles to these diminished reservations as fully under the protection of the courts as are titles of all others of our people to their lands. The surplus portion cut off should be subject to sale and the proceeds invested for the benefit of the Indians. The execution of it should be cautious and tentative.

My recommendation that only a portion of each reservation be divided into separate tracts, as stated above, is based upon the conviction that we must lead the Indians into holding lands in severalty by ripening their right of occupancy under their communal system into a feesimple by a gradual process, and not by the sudden abolition of a system which is with them a religion as well as a law of property.

Those who urge the speedy breaking up of tribal relations, the obliteration of the reservation system, and the localization of individuals upon separate allotments of land as a general policy, overlook the important fact that the Indian race is not a homogeneous race. It consists of numerous widely separated tribes, speaking different languages, and varying greatly in customs, habits, and conditions, from the enlightened commonwealths of the five nations, to the wild, fierce, roving bands who eke out by plunder the scanty subsistence they derive from the chase and Government rations. Any general policy adapted to the advancement of one tribe would be disastrous and destructive to another.

Each must be managed as its peculiar circumstances and condition requires.

The great difficulty under which the Department labors in doing this arises from the fact that the service is conducted from the seat of Government at Washington, through different agents, at great distances away. This organization is found to be sufficient for general purposes of administration, the agents themselves being as competent men as the meager salaries will command. But the Department lacks consistent, intelligent, and accurate information as to the true condition of the respective tribes and bands, such as will lead to a thorough understanding of the needs of each, and to the adoption of the best course for their advancement in the pursuits and habits of civilization.

I am of the opinion that the service could be greatly improved and much expensive mismanagement avoided by the appointment of a commission, of not exceeding six men, three to be selected from the officers of the Army, whose duty it shall be, under the direction and instructions of the Secretary of the Interior, to visit each of the reservations and investigate and report to him the condition, peculiar circumstances, and needs of the Indians residing thereon.

Perhaps the commission might be empowered to obtain the consent of the Indians to such changes as the measures proposed would involve. The commission should be composed of men of integrity, intelligence, and experience, and of such ability as to be able to comprehend the course of treatment and methods of management best adapted to insure the speediest progress of the respective tribes and bands. The compensation of the civilian members should be commensurate with the importance and character of the service required, and a sufficient additional sum should be provided to meet the traveling and other expenses of the commission.

In the mean time, until the Indian is ready by education and development to take his place as an individual among the people of the country, the reservation system is his only protection; and whatever may be said of the tribal relation which it is thought to be so desirable to dissolve, it is in their uncivilized state the normal condition of Indian society. It is not only deeply imprinted in his mind as the polity of his race, but it is his constitutional status in this country. The Constitution of the United States recognizes the Indian in his tribal relations, and in its delegation of powers to Congress it declares that it shall regulate commerce among foreign nations and the "Indian tribes." At one time I was very strongly impressed with the plan of bringing all the Indian tribes together on two or three great reservations, where, under the supervision and control of two or three men of superior intelligence and ability and with easy access to the military, much of the expense and many of the evils and embarrassments of the present sys tem could be avoided. A study of that portion of the map of the country where the Indians are located, with isothermal lines in view, brings