CHAPTER X.
CONCLUSION.
There are within the limits of the United States between two hundred and fifty and three hundred thousand Indians, exclusive of those in Alaska. The names of the different tribes and bands, as entered in the statistical tables of the Indian Office Reports, number nearly three hundred. One of the most carefil estimates which has been made of their numbers and localities gives them as follows: “In Minnesota and States cast of the Mississippi, about 32,500; in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, 70,650; in the Territories of Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, 65,000; in Nevada and the Territories of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, 84,000; and on the Pacific slope, 48,000.”
Of these, 130,000 are self-supporting on their own reservations, “receiving nothing from the Government except interest on their own moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration of the cession of their lands to the United States.”[1]
This fact alone would seem sufficient to dispose forever of the accusation, so persistently brought against the Indian, that he will not work.
Of the remainder, 84,000 are partially supported by the Government—the interest money due them and their annuities, as provided by treaty, being inadequate to their subsistence on the reservations where they are confined. In many cases, however, these Indians furnish a large part of their sup-
- ↑ Annual Report of Indian Commissioner for 1872.
