Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs: Accompanying the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, for the Year 1856 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs: Accompanying the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, for the Year 1856

Sir: I have the honor to submit for your consideration, the usual annual report from this office, and for minute details of the operations of the service, with the condition of the Indian tribes, refer you to the various accompanying reports and other papers.

The improvement in the condition of the New York Indians, though gradual, is very perceptible. The farms, buildings, crops and stock, and the substantial comforts surrounding the homes of many of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Tuscaroras, and the Tonawanda, Cattaraugus and Alleghany Senecas, evidence in them, a uniform advancement. The reliance of the Alleghany Senecas upon their timber and lumber, has not made it necessary for them to turn their attention wholly to agriculture; and while this resource has furnished them temporary aid, the timber and lumber trade in which they are engaged may be regarded as a hindrance to their permanent improvement.

Churches and religious influences, and schools, are well sustained among these Indians, and all seem to be impressed with a desire to educate their children. The State of New York, and the American Board of Missions, continue to make liberal appropriations for education among them. The Thomas Asylum, on the Cattaraugus reservation, is completed, and is now rapidly filling with orphan and destitute children. The Indians on this last reservation have had the kind offices and aid of the Society of Friends, and the patronage of the department has been extended to them.

The Ottowas and Chippewas, and the Chippewas of Saginaw and Swan creek and Black river, all within the State of Michigan, continue gradually to increase in numbers as well as to advance in the arts of peace; and under the liberal provisions of the treaties of 1855, by which every family is to receive a homestead from the public domain, and the friendly feelings manifested towards them by the people of the State, present indications would seem to justify the hope that they will attain a much higher state of civilization, and possess more of the comforts of life, than they have heretofore done. They are beginning to locate on the lands assigned them, and apparently highly appreciate the separate homes to which they are entitled.

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