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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INHAN AJFAIRS. 
DEPARTMENT OF TM INmOR, 
Office Indian Affairs, November 26, 1855. 
Sm: I have the honor to submit the annual report of this office, 
accompanied by the usual reports of the superintendents, agents, 
teachers, and other employes attached to the Indian service, with 
copies of various documents emanating from, and addressed to, this 
bureau; to all which your attention is respectfully called. 
The Senecas of the State of New York, with the remnants of other 
of the "Six Nations'" residing in that State, have made some im-
provement in their educational and other temporal pursuits. The 
internal dissensions of the Sen ecas, referred to in former reports, have,
in a great degree, ceased. The legislature, with commendable liber- 
ality, has made an appropriation for the establishment of an asylum 
for the benefit of the indigent on the Cattaraugus and Alleghany re- 
serves, and it is understood that measures are in progress to consum- 
mate the benevolent intentions of the State. 
New conventional arrangements, deemed requisite with the Indians 
in the State of Michigan, have been entered into with the confederate 
tribe of Ottowas and Chippewas, the Chippewas of Saginaw, and the 
small band of Chippewas of Swan creek. By them the Indians are 
to have assigned permanent homes, to be hereafter confirmed to them, 
in small tracts, in severalty. Such guards and restrictions are thrown 
around their lands and limited annuities as cannot fail, if faithfully 
regarded and respected, to place them in comfortable and independent 
circumstances. 
It is expected that similar arrangements will be made with the 
Pottowatomies of Huron, and remnants of other Indian tribes in 
Michigan, in time, if approved, to be acted on and ratified during the 
approaching session of Congress. 
It is gratifying to know that the Indians of Michigan are advancing 
in the arts of civilized life, increasing in numbers, and many of them 
now exercising the privileges and discharging the duties of citizens 
of the State, to which, by her humane and liberal policy, they may 
all in time attain. 
. The provision made for the Menomffnee Indians, by the.convention 
of May, 1854, supplementary to the treaty of 1848, appears to be pro- 
perly appreciated by the entire tribe. It is provided that the money 
to be from time to time hereafter appropriated to carry into effect its 
stipulations, shall be applied under the direction of the President, in 
such manner as will, it is believed, promote the improvement of these 
people in all the essentials requisite to educate and make them an 
agricultural community. Since their present reservation in Wiscon- 
sin has been confirmed to them as a p0ermanent home, they have made 
very gratifying advancement in improvement, and have shown a ready 
willingness to apply themselves to labor, and otherwise to conform to 
the habits and customs of the white race.