Page 335

REPORTS OF AGENTS IN           NEW   YORK.                335 
road of permanent peace and prosperity. The Indians complain of having their
agents 
changed so often. Permanence in this relation, when you can secure good agents,
is very 
desirable for the welfare of the Indians. A stranger, unaccustomed to the
frontier life and 
the habits and customs of the Indian character, has a difficult task to supply
the place of 
one who has acquired the confidence and respect of the tribe. I can see no
need of recom- 
mending any changes. My relations with the Department are so satisfactory
to me and the 
tribe, and the modes of treatment so well adapted, when properly applied
and carried out, 
that they cannot fail to secure gradually the desired results. 
Experience has shown that my recommendation respecting the military force
on the res- 
ervation was well made. The small guard of ten mounted soldiers and a non-coinmissioned
officer, for protection of property, has proven all-sufficient for the police
service of this agency, 
and works to entite satisfaction. Our relations with the military are of
the most friendly 
nature; Captain Kauffman, commanding Fort McRae, (forty-five miles distant,)from
whose command my guard is furnished, rendering all the assistance and co-operation
de- 
sired when Indians are disposed to leave the reservation. The entire community
feel a sense 
of security for life and property that they never before have felt. 
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. M. SHAW, 
United States India  Agent. 
Hon. EDw. P. SMITH, 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 
REPORTS OF AGENTS IN NEW YORK. 
NEW YORK INDIAN AGENCY, 
Forestvill,N. Y., October, 15, 1875. 
SIR: In making my sixth annual report, I have the honor to state that the
whole number of 
Indian children residing upon the eight reservations in this agency number
2,341, of whom 
1,737 are between the ages of five and twenty-one years; 290 live upon the
Allegany res- 
revation, 58"2 on Cattaraugus, 31 on Cornplanter, 52 on Oneida, 126
at Onondaga, 356 at 
Saint Regis, 117 at Tonawanda, and 183 on Tuscarora reservation. The whole
number of 
Indian children attending the thirty schools in the agency during some portion
of the school 
year ending September 30, 1875, was 1,174. The schools were taught on an
average of 
thirty-two weeks during the year, and the average daily attendance was 555.1.
Of these 
schools, one is a day-school on Cornplanter reservation, and is supported
by the State ot 
Pennsylvania at an annual expense of about $350. One on the Onondaga reservation,
New 
York, is also a day-school, and is supported by the Episcopalians, at an
annual expense of 
about $600. The boarding-school at Allegany reservation, New York, at which
there has 
been an average attendance of 24 Indian children during the year, is wholly
supported by 
the Society of Friends at Philadelphia, at an annual expense of about $2,700,
exclusive of use 
of farm and farm-products connected therewith. The other twenty-seven schools
in the agency 
are mainly supported by the State of New York, at a yearly expense of about
$9,000, of 
which sum the Indians pay about $550. All are day-schools except the one
connected with the 
Thomas Orphan Asylum on Cattaraugus reservation, which is a boarding-school,
under ex- 
.cellent discipline and management, with two teachers, and an average attendance
of about 
80 students. These twenty-seven State schools are under charge of six local
superintend- 
ents, who are appointed by the State superintendent of schools, who make
quarterly school 
.reports to me, and employ the teachers. Owing to the small compensation,
of about $5 
per week, paid to teachers, and the difficulty of obtaining suitable boarding-places
near the 
schools, the teachers are generally poorly qualified. About one-fourth of
the teachers in 
these schools have been, for a few years, Indians, and the Indian teachers
who have been 
properly trained for their work have usually succeeded well, and are to be
preferred to white 
teachers. The appropriations heretofore made from the fund for civilization
of Indians for 
education of Indian teachers for these schools have produced good results,
and it is very 
desirable that the same should be continued. 
In June last a census was taken of the Indians in this agency, except those
on Cornplanter 
reservation in Pennsylvania. This census was taken by competent enumerators.especially
appointed for the purpose by the secretary of the State of New York, and
contains valuable, 
and, in the main, reliable statistics of education of the Indians and of
their agricultural 
products. I have examined these census-returns, and availed myself of the
information 
therein contained in making this report. A like census was taken by the State
of New York 
in 1865. 
The present population of the Indians in this agency is 4,955 ; an increase
in ten years of 
866, and in twenty years of 911. Of the present Indian population of the
agency, 59 are 
over seventy years of age, 29 over eighty, 5 over ninety, 1 one hundred and
one years 
old ; and Mary, Jacobs, of Onondaga reservation, died the past year at the
advanced ago 
one hundred and twelve years. 
The Indians on Oneida reservation number 25 less than in 1865; but this apparent