the tremendous inroads made upon their
hunting-grounds since 1867, the Indians would still have hope
of life. But another such five years will see the Indians of
Dakota and Montana as poor as the Indians of Nevada and
Southern California; that is, reduced to an habitual condition
of suffering from want of food. The freedom of expansion which
is working these results is to us of incalculable value: to
the Indian it is of incalculable cost."--_Report on Indian
Affairs_, 1872, p. 10.

* * * * *

_Seventh._ It is, further, highly desirable, in order to avoid the
possibility of an occasional failure in such provision for the immediate
wants of the Indians, and for their advancement in the arts of life and
industry, and also to secure comprehensiveness and consistency in the
general scheme, that the endowments for the several tribes and bands
should be capitalized and placed in trust for their benefit, out of the
reach of accident or caprice. Annual appropriations for such purposes,
according to the humor of Congress, will of necessity be far less
effective for good than would an annual income of a much smaller amount,
arising from permanent investments.

To a considerable extent this has already been effected. For not a few
tribes and bands provision has been made by law and treaty which places
them beyond the reach of serious suffering in the future, and which, if
their income be judiciously administered, will afford them substantial
assistance towards final self-support. Stocks to the value of
$4,810,716.83-2/3 are held by the Secretary of the Interior in trust for
certain tribes; while credits to the aggregate amount of $5,905,474.59
are inscribed on the books of the United States Treasury in favor of the
same or other tribes, on account of the sales of lands, or other
consideration received by the government,[J] making a permanent
endowment of nearly ten millions of dollars, the Indians sharing in the
benefits thereof numbering in the aggregate nearly eighty thousand.
Computing the average annual return from these funds at five and
one-half per cent, we should have an assured income of five hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year, or about seven dollars for each man,
woman, and child. Moreover, most of these tribes have still large bodies
of lands which they can dispose of sooner or later, from which funds of
twice the amount already secured may