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REPORTS OF AGENTS IN MONTANA.                      133 
ward for good workmanship, or partially withheld as a punishment for negligence

and poorly cared-for allotments. The result was that nearly every piece would
be 
well worked at the end of the week, and the universal verdict is that they
have 
worked better this year than ever before. Their corn and potatoes are looking
re- 
markably well, and should the frost hold off they will be well rewarded for
their 
labor. Many pieces of oats and wheat have been entirely destroyed by grasshoppers,

which have been very thick this season. 
The Indians are very poor so far as teams are concerned, not having many
ponies. 
I therefore aided them all in my power so to do with what agency teams I
have, in 
plowing and preparing the ground for seed, and the agency farmer, Mr. Luke
Dunn, 
has taken a great amount of interest in patiently and kindly showing them
how to 
properly cultivate their little farms. The most of them have a great desire
to eat 
their corn and potatoes and other vegetables before they get ripe, and many
of them 
go in the night time and get their own vegetables, and then say that some
one else 
has taken them. To prevent this I have stationed the police as much as possible
at 
proper places to protect the crops. 
CIVILIZATION, 
Many Indians this summer have manifested a desire for more room and a wish
to 
live by themselves. These I have greatly encouraged to carry out such desires,
ex- 
plaining that it is the way white men live, and that they will soon be as
white men, and 
have good homes, cows, pigs, and chickens, and support themselves, and a
number 
are now building small houses on land some miles from the agency, with an
idea of 
having fair-sized farms of their own. There are a good many Indians willing
to-work, 
but there are ten to gne that can endure lots of rest, and much prefer that
to labor; 
yet by kind treatment and encouraging words I have been able to get considerable

labor from them. The boys and young men have very noticeably become interested

in labor, and many take hold like hired men. I like to take the fourteen
and fifteen 
year old boy by the hand and speak words of praise and encouragement to him.
His 
face will brighten up and he will take hold of work with renew-ed ambition
and en- 
ergy. I believe less in shackles and guard-house, and more in kind and humane
treat- 
ment and patient and pleasant teaching, with industrious example. Taking
into con- 
sideration that many of the Indians here were among the last to leave the
hunt, the 
chase, and the war-path, and acknowledge that they were wards of the Government

and largely dependent upon its magnanimity for their subsistence, they have
done 
well, and the time is not far distant when those that are now just entering
into young 
manhood will be self-sustaining, law-abiding, Christian people. 
STOCK-RAISING. 
The Indians have but a very few cattle. The Department very kindly authorized

me within the last few days to issue sixty cows to deserving Indians, and
some of 
them are actively engaged in putting up hay to feed a cow. Yet the grass
fit for hay 
is very short and scarce this year, and to an Indian unacquainted with using
a scythe 
it is quite difficult to cut any quantity of hay; but I have issued a number
of scythes, 
and the farmer goes out with them and carefully instructs them how to mow,
and 
many of them are doing well, and will undoubtedly care well for a cow. 
IMPROVEMENTS. 
I have had a great amount of labor performed in the way of repairing gates
and 
fences, and a large amount of farm implements were broken and out of repair,
which 
have been repaired; have had agency house painted-two coats outside and also

inside; the barn painted, and am now having a nice picket fence put in front
of 
the house, which it needed very much. I have had tools and wagons and machinery

put under shelter that heretofore stood exposed to the weather, and remodeled
the 
interior of the blacksmith and carpenter shops, and had a general clearing
and clean- 
ing up around the barn and corrals and other agency buildings. 
IRRIGATING DITCH. 
The irrigating ditches and dams built last year by my predecessor are a total
fail- 
ure. The dam at Wolf Point washed out, and the one on Poplar Creek was washed

around so badly that it will cost considerable to repair it, and the ditches,
not being 
laid out by an engineer, are otherwise defective. The honorahle Commissioner
has 
secured a practical civil engineer, who is expected soon to make the necessary
survey 
and estimates for building dam and completing ditches.