Page View
United States. Office of Indian Affairs / Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the year 1879
([1879])
Reports of agents in Wisconsin, pp. 159-166
PDF (3.6 MB)
Page 159
.REPORTS OF AGENTS IN WISCONSIN. -159 SHOPS. The shops of the agency have been supplied with tools and material, so as to make each department thrifty. We instruct apprentices in all the shops and mills. HOSPITAL. The hospital suffkred inconvenience from the delay of the medicinei-not being re- ceived for six months after they were purchased. The general health of the Indians has been better this year than in years past. The children are becoming healthier; fewer deaths, and more births. The Indiansof the agency have generally been orderly, and increasingly industrious the past year. A very great effort has-been made by some of the whites outside of the agency to get the Indians to renounce their tribal relation and leave the reserve and take land outside. This is done by evil and designing men, who are using every means and measure to break up the reservation, so it may be thrown open to the whites and the Indians driven to parts unknown. 1 repeat, what in substance I have said before, the great want of the service is not more money, soldiers, or police, to keep order, to make the Indians of the nation quiet and self-supporting, but practical business, Christian men in every department, that can govern and instruct, by precept and example, how to work and how to live. Educate them to till the soil, make them mechanics, develop their muscles in holding the plow, splitting rails, making fence, chopping wood, and all kinds of work done in civilized life. My acquaintance with the Indians of this coast for thirty-two years, and having charge of this agency (with the exception of eighteen months) since September, 1864, I speak understandingly when I say the Indians of the nation may be made self-support- ing; keep them separate and distinct from the whites, in possession of good land, with a title to the same-extending the laws of the United States over them-punishing them for their crimes and giving them an opportunity of testifying in our courts, so their wrongs may be redressed and justice may be administered. I have the honor to report the refundinfrta the United States Treasury at the end of this fiscal year an unexpended balance of $8,214.59. I am, sir, your obedient servant, JAMES H. WILBUR, United States Indian Agent. The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 4 GREEN BAY AGENCY, KESHENA, SIAWANO COUNTY, WISCONSIN, 8eptember 1, 1879. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith my first annual report of affairs of this agency. POPULATION. The number of Indians by tribes at the last enrallment was: Onedias, 1,470; Meao- monees, 1,460; Stockbridges, 120-total 3,050. THE ONEIDAS are head and shoulders ahead of fhe other tribes in agricultural pursuits; they are self-supporting and entirely dependent upon their own industry for their subsistence, their annuities from the government amounting to only about 68 cents per capita per annum. Many of them have some of the finest farms in Northern Wisconsin and raise large and valuable crops. What is particularly desired by them is the Allotment of lands, which would be a great incenti'e to them to further industry in agricultural pur- suits. Schools. They have four schools on the reservation that are well attended. One is taught by Rev. E. A. Goodnough, an Episcopal missionary; the second, by Rev.S. W. Ford, a Meth-
As a work of the United States government, this material is in the public domain.| For information on re-use see: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright