past year that
additional legislation is imperative to relieve and prevent the
delay of justice and possible oppression to suitors which is thus
occasioned. The encumbered condition of these dockets is presented
anew in the report of the Attorney-General, and the remedy suggested
is earnestly urged for Congressional action. The creation of
additional circuit judges, as proposed, would afford a complete
remedy, and would involve an expense, at the present rate of salaries,
of not more than $60,000 a year.

The annual reports of the Secretary of the Interior and of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs present an elaborate account of the
present condition of the Indian tribes and of that branch of the
public service which ministers to their interests. While the conduct
of the Indians generally has been orderly and their relations with
their neighbors friendly and peaceable, two local disturbances have
occurred, which were deplorable in their character, but remained,
happily, confined to a comparatively small number of Indians. The
discontent among the Bannocks, which led first to some acts of
violence on the part of some members of the tribe and finally to the
outbreak, appears to have been caused by an insufficiency of food
on the reservation, and this insufficiency to have been owing to the
inadequacy of the appropriations made by Congress to the wants of the
Indians at a time when the Indians were prevented from supplying the
deficiency by hunting. After an arduous pursuit by the troops of
the United States, and several engagements, the hostile Indians
were reduced to subjection, and the larger part of them surrendered
themselves as prisoners. In this connection I desire to call attention
to the recommendation made by the Secretary of the Interior, that
a sufficient fund be placed at the disposal of the Executive, to be
used, with proper accountability, at discretion, in sudden emergencies
of the Indian service.

The other case of disturbance was that of a band of Northern
Cheyennes, who suddenly left their reservation in the Indian Territory
and marched rapidly through the States of Kansas and Nebraska in the
direction of their old hunting grounds, committing murders and other
crimes on their way. From documents accompanying the report of the
Secretary of the Interior it appears that this disorderly band was as
fully supplied with the necessaries of life as the 4,700 other Indians
who remained quietly on the reservati