THE DAKOTA INDIANS. 5 



ing in buffaloes and smaller game, which afforded an abundant maintenance 

 for the hunting Indians, it is now deserted, save by a few antelopes and 

 deer. The buffaloes have been destroyed or driven to the Upper Missouri, 

 and this large population of 50,000 Indians is held in a tract of country 

 whose natural resources are utterly inadequate to maintain even a tithe of 

 the number. 



The agricultural possibilities of the Sioux Reservation may practically 

 be considered as nothing. The soil and climate will admit of farming only 

 at a few places in the narrow valleys of some of the larger streams, and 

 even in the most favored spots cultivation is possible only by a systematic 

 work of irrigation. It is a high estimate to say that one-half of one per 

 cent of this great country can possibly be irrigated. 



Many parts of the reservation afford excellent grazing during the sum- 

 mer, though water is very deficient, but the rigors of a Dakota winter for- 

 bid any attempt at a systematic engagement in the grazing of stock, espe- 

 cially by the improvident Indians. It may be said with truth that the 

 Black Hills include all the desirable land in the reservation and all the 

 useful timber, and by those who view the treatment and future of the In- 

 dians in this region in a purely humanitarian spirit the presence of gold in 

 the Black Hills has been regarded as unfortunate, for if it were not for its 

 discovery, this beautifull}^ timbered and grassed region would afford them an 

 excellent retreat during their initiation into the simpler labors of civilization. 



By many of the more intelligent of the Dakotas the Black Hills have 

 been long thought of as the final refuge of their tribe from the encroach- 

 ments of the whites. They are by far the most powerful Indian nation 

 within our territories, including, as they do, a population of 50,044*; and 

 by the absence of game in their country, coupled with its agricultural bar- 

 renness, they are of necessity thrown upon the bounty of the government, 

 which has taken all the desirable land they possessed in Minnesota and 

 elsewhere, leaving them a desolate waste. 



Exploration in the region between the Missouri River and the Rocky 

 Mountains has not been so thorough and complete as in the corresponding 



* Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1875. 



