Indian Delegation Seeks Aid for Civilization Progress
There has been in this city for the past week a large delegation of Indians, who came to hold one of their semi-occasional “pow-wows” with their “Great Father,” to protest against being removed from their reservations, and to request aid toward the civilization of their race. Some of the Indians had never come in contact with civilization before, and consequently made their wants known in rather peculiar demands; but there appears to be no doubt as to the genuineness of the wishes of some of them for the benefits of civilization. That some of the Indians are improving very fast in this direction is very evident from a recent report of the Board of Indian Commissioners, that is quite gratifying to the friends of the red men, for it shows that in 1868 the houses occupied by Indians numbered but 7,467, while in 1876 they numbered 54,717. There were then on the reservations but 111 schools; there are now 344. There were then 4,718 pupils attending school; there are now no less than 27,215 native scholars. Out of about 266,000 Indians, the Board estimates that over 100,000 wear citizen’s dress. The Indians raised then 126,117 bushels of wheat and 467,363 bushels of corn; in 1876 they raised 463,054 bushels of wheat and 2,229,463 bushels of corn. They owned in 1868 but 2,683 sheep and 20,890 swine; in 1876 they owned 417,295 sheep and 214,076 hogs. All this is certainly very encouraging, and proves that under a proper policy, which shall hold out some inducements to them to follow peaceful pursuits, a large per cent of the red men may be saved to civilization.—Washington Correspondence of the Scientific American.