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P.-Statement of account of special deposits for office work in the office of the United States surveyor general for California during the fiscal year 1878.

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PP.-Statement of accounts paid from the appropriation for the survey of private land claims in California during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878.

DR.

1877. Oct. 11

Nov. 8

Oct. 20

Dec. 14

Dec. 22

1878. Jan. 19

Feb. 15

Mar. 15

July 20

Apr. 11

To account of Frederick
MacCrellish & Co. for ad-
vertising survey of Isla de
la Yegua or Mare Island
To account of Vallejo Chron-
icle Publishing Company
for advertising survey of
Isla de la Yegua or Mare
Island

To account of Frederick
MacCrellish & Co. for ad-
vertising survey of Rancho
La Purisima (mission), José
Ramon Malo, confirmee
To account of L. S. B. Saw-
yer for certified copy of
decree of United States
district court in case of
Joaquin Moraga
To account of Frederick
MacCrellish & Co. for ad-
vertising survey of Rancho
Paso de Bartolo, Pio Pico
confirmee.

To account of Frederick
MacCrellish & Co. for ad-
vertising survey of Rancho
Paso de Bartolo, Pio Pico
confirmee..

To account of Los Angeles
Daily and Weekly Star for
advertising survey of

Rancho Paso de Bartolo,
Pio Pico confirmee
To account of Lompoc Re-
cord for advertising survey
of Rancho Mission la Pu-
risima, José Ramon Malo
confirmee.

To account of William Minto
for surveying Rancho
Jumpa

To transferred to credit of
appropriation for survey of
public lands

To amount to balance..

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CR.

$6,000 00

6, 000 00

Q.-Estimate for the surveying service in the district of California, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880.

For surveying exteriors of meridians, standard parallels, township exteriors, and subdivision lines..

For surveying timber lands..

For surveying private land claims

$100,000 00 50,000 00 3,000 00

For compensation of clerks and draughtsmen employed on public surveys.
For wages of messenger, stationery, fuel, lights, and incidental expenses.
For bringing up arrears of office work, public surveys, draughting, &c..
For bringing up arrears of office work on private land claims..
For salary of surveyor general

For one large iron fire-proof safe for archives room, to contain the original Spanish and Mexican grants

1,800 00

15,000 00

3,000 00

10,000 00

2,000 00

3,000 00

187,800 00

THEO. WAGNER,

United States Surveyor General for California.

THE

REPORT

OF

COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, November 1, 1878.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of the Indian Bureau.

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS.

Many changes have been made since my last report in the methods and management of both the office and agency business. Rules previously established have been enforced, and accountability on the part of employés and of those who have had business with the office has been insisted upon, and the affairs of the office generally have been put upon a strictly business basis. The property and cash accounts of agents have been closely scrutinized and the service purified of such agents and employés as have been found unfaithful to their trusts or inefficient in their management. Claims have been critically examined, and as a result large sums of money have been saved to the government. Contractors have been held to the fulfillment of their contracts, and attempts to put upon the government inferior goods have been met by deductions which have fully protected its interests and have served to deter others from making similar experiments. Some dishonest contractors and employés have been and are now being prosecuted and convicted. Many attempted frauds have been detected and thwarted, and some which had been successful in previous years have been discovered, and it is hoped that the perpetrators may yet be brought to justice.

There have been thirty-five new appointments of agents, and it is believed that most of the changes will prove of great benefit to the service.

Specific and detailed instructions as to the manner of inspecting, weighing, and issuing cattle, flour, and other supplies have been given, also as to the disposition of funds and the keeping and rendering of accounts at the various agencies. The attention of agents has been called to the necessity of bringing their Indians to self-support at an early day, and education in the fields has been made a prominent feature in the teaching of the school children. It is proposed to supply a few head of cattle as the nucleus of a cattle herd for each Indian school, and to encourage cattle-raising wherever practicable. As, however, but few Indians can find employment in caring for large herds of cattle, husbandry must be their main reliance. More land has been cultivated this year than last, and preparations have been made for raising very much larger crops next year.

Many changes have been made in the traderships at the agencies.

The new system of buying and selling for cash only, and of requiring traders to post price-lists of their goods in convenient places, and of having but one price, which must be the same for Indians and whites, works well.

Two new inspectors and two special agents have been appointed, and the inspections of Indian agencies have been careful and complete. Good results must continue to follow the more active and thorough su pervision which is being carried out.

The issuing of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, except in return for labor, has been forbidden in most cases.

The adoption of a new form of beef-contract not only secures a better quality of beef cattle for the Indians, but it provides for an equivalent deduction from contract-prices for any inferior cattle which an agent may be compelled to receive rather than permit his Indians to starve.

The system of permitting agents in all cases to choose agency employés from among their relatives and friends having proved disastrous to agents and disadvantageous to the service, has been changed.

CONSOLIDATION.

During the last session of Congress, at the verbal request of the House Committee on Indian Affairs, a bill was drawn in this office and sent to the committee, providing for the removal and consolidation of certain Indians in the States of Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and the Territories of Washington and Dakota.

The objects sought to be attained by the bill were as follows:

First. The reduction of the number of agencies, and consequently a large annual reduction of the expense attending the civilization of the Indians and the management of their affairs.

Second. The consolidation of the Indians upon reservations where they might be best protected in their personal and property rights.

Third. The sale of the lands vacated by the consolidation, and the use of a portion of the funds arising therefrom in the removal and settlement of the Indians, now residing on the reservations to be vacated, on the reservations where the consolidation is to be effected, the balance of the money to be funded for their use, the interest thereon to be expended in lieu of direct appropriations for the benefit of all the Indians on the reservation as created by the bill.

Without attempting to particularize, it may be said that the various tribes and bands of Indians embraced in the bill now occupy thirty-six reservations, containing 21,922,507 acres of land, under charge of twenty agents and the necessary attendant corps of teachers and other employés. Upon the reduction proposed in the bill they will occupy nine reservations, containing 4,239,052 acres, under the charge of nine agents, all of whom are now provided for by law. A reduction of twenty-five reservations and eleven agencies will thus be effected. There will be restored to the public domain 17,642,455 acres of land, and an annual saving in agency expenses to the amount of $120,000 will be effected, after making a liberal allowance for an increase of teachers, farmers, &c., at the several consolidated agencies.

Since the presentation of the bill to the committee a more particular investigation of the subject has convinced me that further consolidations of like character are not only possible, but expedient and advisable. There is a vast area of land in the Indian Territory not yet occupied. Into this should, and may, be gathered the major portion of the

Indians of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. The Klamath Indians of Oregon can, with material advantage to themselves and the government, be removed to Yakama Reservation, in Washington Territory, to which reservation the Bannocks and Malheur Indians will also be immediately sent. This policy should also be pursued with the Indians of Western Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and other sections; the paramount object being to locate them on good agricultural lands to which permanent title can be given, and to sustain and aid them thereon until they become self-supporting.

Among the most radical defects of the policy formerly pursued with the Indians has been the frequent changes in their location which have been made, and the fact that the method of distributing the annuities which they have received under various treaties has, in general, encouraged them in idleness and dependence on the government, whereas they should have been used in locating them in permanent homes and in educating them in agricultural and other civilized pursuits. But a small proportion of the lands now occupied by the Indians is utilized for any purpose. They are, in the main, dependent upon the charity of Congress for the little aid that is given to assist them in agricultural pursuits, and in many cases the meager amount given, however honestly expended, is wasted on account of its insufficiency to accomplish the desired ends. In my judgment, permanent homes, sufficient aid to enable them to build houses, cultivate the soil, and to subsist them until they have harvested their first crops, will wean them entirely from their old methods of life, and in the course of a few years enable them to become entirely self-supporting. A practical application of the merely common-sense methods named above have, within a comparatively brief period, enabled the Sisseton Sioux of Dakota, the Chippewas of White Earth, Minnesota, and the Santee Sioux of Nebraska, not only to produce sufficient grain for their own use, but a large surplus for sale, and the Yakama agency in Washington Territory has surplus beef for sale. A new era has dawned for them; they no longer desire to follow the chase; they have tasted the benefits of civilization, and have, consequently, ceased to lean entirely upon the government for support; they are willing and earnest laborers, eager to be taught, and ready to adopt the habits, customs, methods, and advantages of civilization.

Among the more forcible arguments which can be presented in connection with this subject is the fact that the expenses attending the removal and consolidation of the Indians as herein proposed will be more than met from the sale of lands vacated. Under the provisions of the bill as presented at the late session 17,642,000 acres of land will be vacated. Should these lands be opened to settlement under the pre-emption or homestead laws, but a very small revenue, if any, would be derived from their sale, as they would be largely absorbed under the last-named act. The bill presented contemplates the appraisement and sale of the lands vacated, except in the case of four of the tribes, to whom a sum in gross is to be paid, and the money arising therefrom, as before stated, used in effecting the removal, building houses, purchasing cattle, breaking lands, and teaching them the rudiments of agriculture; the balance to be funded, the interest to be used as long as necessary in furthering the objects named above.

Much of the land now owned by these Indians is valuable only for its timber, and may be sold at an appraised value for an amount far in excess of the price fixed by law, and yet leave a large margin of profit to the purchaser into whose hands the lands will fall. The same conditions exist as to the arable lands now embraced in the reservations to

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