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United States. Office of Indian Affairs / Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the year 1873
([1873])
[Warm Springs agency], pp. 319-320
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Page 319
REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 319 tory, for the prompt manner in which they have constantly aided me in my efforts to punish those guilty of this offense. I have continually urged upon these Indians the benefits that would inure to them if they would let some of their young men work in the shops and at the mills; and although some of the old men see the necessity of their so doing, they have no control over their children; and I have not yet been able to get a single one to come. I have promised to board and clothe them, and as soon as they are capable of earning any- thing to pay them liberally for their work. I have pointed out to them that in a few more years their treaty will expire, and there will be no more mechanics or millers to do their work for them ; but they will not heed the advice. I have several times reported to the Department the difficulties attending the proper control of the Indians of this reservation in consequence of the large number of vaga- bond Indians on the Columbia River; and I am glad to find that Hon. E. C. Kemble United States inspector, who visited this atency last month, has received instructions to make some arrangements with those Indians. I understand that he has called them together to meet in council about the middle of this month. The day-school at this agency, under the general supervision of Reverend Father G. A. Vermeerseh, who has been ably assisted by Mr. Thomas Tierney and Miss M. C. Cornoyer, has been carried on during the entire year, with the exception of one week's vacation at Christmas and a few weeks during the extremely hot weather in the month of August. There has been an average attendance of 26, viz: 16 boys and 10 girls. Many of the children are able to read, write, and cipher as well as most white children of their age. The girls have made great advancement in sewing and knitting ; nearly all the clothing that I have been able to give the scholars has been made up by the girls in the school, and they have knit a great many pairs of socks and stockings, both for themselves and their parents. The fact that I have had no annuity funds in my hands for the past two years, has prevented me from clothing the children as well as I could wish. Many of the children of a proper age to go to school live at a long distance from the school-house, rendering it impracticable for them to attend until we are prepared to board and lodge them; but I trust that an appropriation will soon be made for a manual-labor school; when this is done I think we will have a large in- crease in the number of scholars. The divine services on Sunday are well attended, not only by the members of the church, but by many who are not, and a more orderly congregation cannot be found in the United States, or one which appears to take more interest in the matters which pertain to their eternal salvation. During the early part of last month the Right Reverend A. M. Blanchet, bishop of Nisqually, visited this agency and administered the holy sacrament of confirmation to over twenty Indians and several whites who availed themselves of the visit of the bishop to receive that holy rite at the same time. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, N. A. CORNOYER, United States Indian Agent. Hon. EDWARD P. SMITH, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 72. WARM SPRINGs AGENCY, September 1, 1873. Sip: In compliance with the regulations of the Indian Department service, I have the honor to submit the following as my annual report for the time intervening between the date of my last report and September 1, 1873: I have not been able to make a new census during the year, but presume that the deaths and births are about the same, and the census of last year will therefore apply to this, making, in all, the number of Indians belonging to this reservation 626. About thirty-nine of this number are absent without leave. They left the reserva- tion while under charge of my predecessor. They were induced to do so by the influ- ence of bad men; and also they are believers in a superstition known as the Smohollah. This religion, if such it may be called, is believed by nearly all the Umatillas, Spokanes, a great part of the Yakimas, and many renegades of other reservations. The religion is like that of the Mbrmons, and ministers and works on the evil passions. The main object is to allow a plurality of wives, immunity from punishment for law-breaking, and allowance of all the vices-especially drinking and gambling-are chief virtues in the believers of this religion. Some provision should be at once made for placing all these outlaws on a reservation where they could receive the benefit of a strict law rigidly enforced. The Indians residing on this reservation are making a great progress in every re- spect. They are now nearly all professors of Christianity, and, as a natural result, are rapidly becoming civilized. They have no quarreling among themselves; are on
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