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United States. Office of Indian Affairs / Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the year 1874
([1874])
[Wisconsin], pp. 185-195
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Page 186
186 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. of them have good farms. As a tribe, they are like boys sixteen or seventeen years old; they know too much to be Indians and too little to be white people. Two important changes at least should be made. Their government by hereditary chiefs should be superseded by some simple but strong system, and their lands should be allotted to individuals of the tribe. How to accomplish these things without the aid of corrupt politicians, or resorting to the usual base artifices, I have been unable to determine. Members of the tribe have continued to cut and market large quantities of wood and timber without much benefit to themselves, since they have been extensively swindled by purchasers and have invested a large fraction of the pro- ceeds in whisky, The late decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Cook case has checked this business, and it is to be hoped that the Department will stop it entirely. If individuals are to be allowed to cut and market timber, some system should be devised by which the tribe shall receive pay for the standing timber. A division of lands will cor- rect this evil. The two schools and missions under Rev. E. A. Goodnough, Episcopal, and Rev. S. W. Ford, Methodist, have been more than usually successful. The combined efforts of the teachers and agent have availed to increase the attendance of the pupils and the interest of the Indians in the subject of education. Intemperance has continued to prevail. The Oneidas are as completely surrounded by grog-shops as any southern city was by earth-works during the late war. Efforts to suppress this evil will be alluded to under a separate head. During the year I have asked the Department to consider and settle the status of those Oneidas living on the reservation called the "homeless Indians." and hope that the subject will be taken up at an early day. -t- STOCKBRIDGES. Most of their business has been transacted by congressmen, and Special Commissioner Wells, of New York, who has made three visits to the tribe during the year. I have not been able to shut my eyes to what have seemed to me great wrongs practiced upon a portion of this tribe, but have felt that it would be useless to raise my voice in their behalf. Allow me in this connection, as an agent whose resignation has been accepted, respectfully to sub- mit that, for an agent to perform his duty intelligently and efficiently, he needs to be informed of all the correspondence had, or business done, in connection with the tribes of his agency, whether through private individuals, special commissioners, or members of Congress. The school -taught by Mis. J. Slingerland has been well attended, and the pupils have made good progress. The spirit of kindness and harmony manifested in the school-room is in pleasing contrast with the selfishness and bitterness that.seem to reign when the older people gather in the same place for business. A large addition has been made to the membership of the church, and it is probably no fault of the doctrines of Calvin that the fruits of the Spirit are no more manifest in the lives of many of these people who profess Christianity. 1vIany teams and tools have been purchased by members of the tribe, and more ground has been cultivated than usual. 4, MENOMONEES. This tribe needs more attention than the other two, because they receive more aid from ths Government and are less advanced in what is commonly called civilization. The farmer hae raised for the Indians upon the farm at Keshena about 200 bushels corn, 600 bushels pota- toes, 30 tons of hay. The corn and potatoes will be distributed among members of the tribe for seed next year, and the unusually heavy crops raised will tend to stimulate the Indians to a better cultivation of their lands. He has devoted all the time he could to visiting the homes of the Indians, teaching them how to cultivate their land, care for their stock, and build houses and fences. In the main they appreciate this service and are anxious to im- prove. The miller has ground about 2,000 bushels of grain, sawed 150,000 feet of lumber, and superintended putting 2,000,000 feet of logs into the river for the mill and for market. The mill-site has been seriously injured by the works of the Keshenat Improvement Company. The blacksmith reports that lie has shod 214 horses and 69 oxen; mended 63 chains; made 20 chain-hooks; repaired 100 guns, 33 traps, 50 hoes, 62 wagons, 61 sleds, 9 stoves, 9 axes, 8 bells, 9 plows; set 27 wagon-tires; ironed 27 whiffletrees, 9 neck-yokes, 8 ox- yokes; bailed 10 kettles; mended 11 scythes; ironed 1 cultivator, 23 rakes, 5 wagon- boxes, I wagon-tongue, "25 new sleds, 6 new cutters; made 25 hinges, 14 knives, 25 pan- handles, 91 stove-rods, 14 wedges, 50 hasps and staples, 130 spears, 84 needles, 45 scythe- wedges, 8 heel-rings, 123 cold-sheets, 9 shovels, 164 trammel chains, 20 sap-gouges, 24 clevises, 20 drag-teeth, and 2 cant-hooks. This report gives a good idea of the state of advancement of the tribe. The physician, who came the 1st of July, has had a large number of patients, and has met with less opposition from the medicine-men than was expected. The two schools, taught by Alexander Grignon and Mrs. H. E. Stryker, have been small. All efforts of the teachers and agent, including a generous distribution of clothing and a soup dinner for the pupils, to secure a better attendance, were unavailing, until at a council held the last of June the words of the agent, for some reason, produced such an impression
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