Page 310

310     REPORT     OF  THE    COMMISSIONER       OF  INDIAN    AFFAIRS. 
there were six schools in successful operation. In the first quarter, 1874,
there were eight 
schools, and all well attended; highest number enrolled during year, 298;
highest 
attendance, 170. Three additional schools were asked for by the Indians,
but I had no 
funds for their support. Since the close of first quarter the attendance
has steadily di- 
minished, owing to parents employing their children in herding cattle and
watching the 
growing crops. In the present (third) quarter we have only five schools,
with an exceed- 
ingly small and irregular attendance. Although a fair improvement is observable,
by rea- 
son of these schools, the results are not commensurate with the expenditures.
I am fully 
convinced that no permanent advantage will result unless a central training-school
be es- 
tablished. 
This was refarred to, at length, in my last report, and I need not recapitulate.
I might 
say, in this connection, however, that if the Department does not favor the
expenditure of 
so large a sum in any one year as $25,000, the work could be successfully
carried forward 
with an annual expenditure of not more than $5,000, and completed with no
more than the 
first-named amount. Two or three of the schools now organized should be sustained
until 
the completion and successful opening of the training-school, provided they
could maintain 
an average attendance each, of from thirty to fifty children. In order to
convince the De- 
partment of my confidence in the establishment of the proposed training-school,
I employed 
the following language in a letter to Rev. J. C. Lowrie, secretary of the
Presbyteiian Board: 
" I will guarantee to build and fully equip a suitable building for
$4,000, including land for 
the purpose." To secure the most lasting and beneficial results, those
who receive instruc- 
tion should be placed in hourly contact with their teachers, and English
language and cus- 
toms, and be wholly removed from the influence of the Pueblos. 
I cannot close this report without referring to the efforts which have been
made from time 
to tine to secure the passage of an act by Congress declaring the Pueblo
Indians citizens. 
It is impossible for me to find any other motive for this than the removal
of the protection of 
an agent, in order that no bairiers be interposed between the Mexicans and
the Indians to 
prevent the former from encroaching upon lands of the latter, and the perpetration
of any 
and all outrages with impunity. In the event of the removal of the protection
of the Gov- 
ernment, many of these Indians would be deprived, by fraud, of their lands,
and, reduced to 
pauperism, would soon follow the life and habits of savage tribes. It is
needless to call the 
attention of the Government to such action as would unavoidably follow; the
annual expend- 
itures of the Indian Depatmnent bear witness to its cost. 
Permit me to say, in conclusion, that, my resignation being already in the
hands of the 
honorable Commissioner, I trust the recommendations in the foregoing report
will be ac- 
cented as disinterestedly advanced, and with no other motive than the protection
and ad- 
vancement of a people placed by Providence under the care of the Government.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
EDWIN C. LEWIS, 
United States Indian Agent. 
Hon. E. P. SMITH, 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. 
OFFICE SOUTHERN APACHE INDIAN AGENCY, 
Tulerosa, New Mexico, August 31, 1874. 
SIR : I have the honor to submit hereby my second annual report of the affairs
of the 
Southern Apache Indian agency. 
It gives me pleasure to be able to make my second report much more favorable
than the 
first, though I have not by any means accomplished all that I set myself
to do during the 
year just closed. 
The Southern Apaches have passed, during the year, from a condition to be
compared with 
that of very wild beasts of prey, with many of the vices of human beings
superadded, to 
that of uncivilized, indolent, cruel human beings. They have acquired a new
and tamer 
expression of contenance, and they approach a white man differently, manifesting
iore con- 
fidence. They have not offered, on any occacion during the year, to shoot
the agent or any 
of the employcs, but are generally very manageable under all circumstances.
They still 
use nothingbut muslin and raw-hides stretched over bent sticks stuck in theground
for shelter, 
and they move their encampment every few days or weeks, sometimes living
at the agency, 
and sometimes twenty miles away; but they generally live within a few miles
of the agency 
during the winter-months. Last winter I built a small log school-house, and
made quite an 
effort to get a teacher from the States to try the experiment of starting
an Apache school, 
but failed. Finally the agent's wife undertook the task while the house was
being built, 
using her own quarters for the purpose, without giving the children to understand
that it 
was school they were attending. The children were well pleased, and we felt
encouraged;