Page 200

200     REPORT     OF THE    COMMISSIONER       OF INDIAN      AFFAIRS. 
very promising on most of the reservations until visited by migratory grasshoppers.
These 
voracious insects have nearly destroyed all the later crops on the reservations
of the Santee 
Sioux, Pawnees, and Ottoes and Missourias; also greatly injured those of
the Iowas and 
Sacs and Foxes. 
SANTEE SIOUX. 
The Santee Indians have been peacefully attending to their own business and
agricultural 
pursuits. Their crops were promising until visited by grasshoppers, which
destroyed them. 
-Consequently their dependence for subsistence must be upon Government supplies
until 
next year's crops are available. 
On the 15th of Eighthmonth last, small-pox appeared in this tribe and continued
its rav- 
agos until the 6th of Twelfthmonth. During its continuance there were about
one hundred 
and fitty cases, of whom forty-six females and twenty-eight males, total
seventy-four, died. 
A building for an industrial boarding-school has been finished, the school
organization is 
completed, and the school now in successful operation. 
On the 9th of Sixthmonth last a storm of great violence washed out the soil
at the end of 
the dam of the grist-mill, letting out the waters of the dam, since which
time the grist-mill 
1as been idle. It is important that repairs should be made before winter;
otherwise the 
entire dam will probably be destroyed by spring rains. 
WINNEBAGOES. 
The Winnebagoes have increased their tillage of land and been successful
in the culture 
of their crops. 
The Winnebago industrial school is organized and prepared for the reception
of scholars, 
with a prospect of receiving without difficulty the number which can be accommodated
in 
the building. A farm has been attached to the school, fenced, sod broken,
and the farm 
successfully cultivated in wheat, and will be in good condition for agricultural
industry of 
the pupils another year. A laundry, barn, workshop, and other necessary outbuildings
for 
the industrial school have been contracted for, and are now in course of
construction. The 
grist-mill is also being improved, so as to double its capacity of work,
with the same ex- 
penditure for running expenses as at present. 
Great care has been taken to meet the wants and relieve the necessities of
the Wisconsin 
Winnebagoes removed to the Winnebago reservation during the winter. A special
sub- 
agent has had oversight and charge of them, regular rations of food and supplies
of clothing 
have been issued to them, and a fertile tract, consisting of nearly twenty
sections of land, a 
portion of it heavily timbeied, purchased from the Omahas for their special
use, and, as far 
as the lateness of the season would admit of, prairie-sod has been broken
for them on the 
new purchase preparatory to next year's agricultural operations. 
Many of the Wisconsin Indians appear to be of dissolute habits, and the restraint
of 
agency laws, with other causes, has made them dissatisfied with their new
home. Probably 
one-half of the number removed frou Wisconsin have left the reservation.
OMAHAS. 
The conduct of the Omahas during the past year has been very commendable.
They 
seem to have fully realized that their future dependence for subsistence
must be upon suc- 
cessful cultivation of their reservation. All their broken prairie has this
year been cultivated 
by Indians without payment for labor performed, they looking forward to the
harvest for 
compensation for their toil. Fortunately for them the grasshopper has passed
by without 
stopping, and they are likely to enjoy the fruits of their labor. 
The judicious expenditure of three-fourths of their " cash annuity"
and the proceeds of 
lands sold to Winnebagoes for agricultural implements and stock, will greatly
assist this 
tribe in future farming operations. 
PAWNEES. 
During the autumn of 1873 about thirty lodges of Pawnees visited the Wichita
agency, 
and, meeting with a friendly reception, have remained there. The leader of
this party, a 
soldier at home, has been ieceived and recognized as a chief of the tribe,
and a delegate in 
the great council of the tribes now located in the Indian Territory, and
an invitation ex- 
tended to the Pawnee tribe to remove there. This invitation, in connection
with reports 
spread among them by emissaries of the fatness of the land, that it is flowing
with ponies 
and "ox-bread," articles dear to the Indian's heart, and their
crops on the reservation 
having been destroyed by grasshoppers, has had a tendency to demoralize and
unsettle 
them. Itis believed that a large portion of the tribe is willing and ready
to start for the Indian 
Territory, with a view of making it their home, if they can go at once, without
the delay con- 
sequent upon congressional action. If the Pawnees remain upon their reservatioii
during 
the winter they must necessarily be fed with regular weekly "rations,
they being in a neces- 
sitous condition, and some of the old and poorer persons already requiring
aid.