ogress of those best disposed and most advanced
is, however, retarded by the fact of the tribal lands being held in
common, by which the incentive to individual exertion is greatly
impaired, and habits of industry and frugality discouraged. There are
also some members who fail to keep pace with the progress of the tribe,
in part, probably, from the same cause which hinders the improvement of
those better disposed, but principally from that fatal curse of the
Indian, the passion for intoxicating liquor, which is especially
developed among those members of the tribe who are engaged in lumbering.

It is now believed that a large majority of the tribe favor the division
of their lands, and the allotment of parcels to families and
individuals,--a measure deemed to be of the first importance to the
future welfare of this people, and which, it is suggested, should be the
subject of legislative action with a view to its consummation at the
earliest practicable date. There are two schools for this tribe, having
on the rolls two hundred and seventeen scholars, the average attendance
being ninety.

The stray bands of Winnebagoes, Chippewas, and Pottawatomies number
about sixteen hundred. They are scattered in small parties over the
central and northern portions of the State, and are those members of the
tribes named who did not remove when their respective tribes went west
of the Mississippi. They receive no assistance from the government, and
subsist by cultivating small patches of corn and vegetables, by hunting,
fishing, and gathering berries, and by working for the whites at certain
seasons of the year. A number own a few acres: others rent small patches
from the whites. They are accused of causing considerable annoyance to
the farmers in some localities; and, on account of complaints having
been made in this respect, Congress has appropriated funds to remove
them to the tribes to which they respectively belong, or to some place
in the Indian Territory south of Kansas. For various reasons their
removal has not yet been undertaken. Indeed, while this may be found
practicable, I doubt whether it can be thoroughly accomplished without
additional and severe legislation on the part of Congress, as the
Indians are attached to the country, and express great repugnance to
their contemplated removal from it. On this account, and for the reason
that they cannot be supposed to feel much interest in those from whom
they have been so long