Wm. Richards was consoled by his brother's letter of the 24th and has a much brighter view of the future. Yesterday he reached the end of his Indian experience and wishes to tell his brother of it. He has been forced to operate with the so-called Catholic Indian Bureau on one hand and the Government Indian Bureau on the other. The first Bureau is composed of General Charles Ewing, Father J. B. A. Brouillet, Charles S. Lusk, who is a clerk of Ewing and who is paid by Brouillet, and also the Mr. Hunter about whom Richards has formerly spoken. Congress has annually made an appropriation of $1800. to cover the salary of an agent to the Papagos Indians in Arizona but when Richards asked Ewing and Brouillet why no agent had been there for longer than two years, they did not give a satisfactory reason. The duties of this agent have been transferred to another agent some 70 or 80 miles away. Richards then conferred with Trowbridge, who talked reasonably and seemed to favor Richard's proposal to have the salary restored to the Senate; and since then, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs reported the bill to the Senate last Monday after it has already passed the House. Last Friday Richards saw Trowbridge again and asked him why his office had recommended the abolition of the Papagos Agency, but he did not know why and could get no information because his chief clerk was away in New York. This clerk, Brooks, who is in the Indian Office just now, did not come until Wednesday instead of on Monday as he planned. On Monday, Richards again saw Ewing and urged the importance of having the Senate restore the appropriation. Ewing agreed and intended to see Trowbridge immediately but left for New York on mining business and is still away. Trowbridge seems not unfavorable about having the Papagos Agency restored but he is not too warm about it because the Senate had considered the bill that day and had already disposed of some ten pages of it. Richards next contacted his friend, Senator Allison of Iowa, and explained to him that Bishop John Salpointe, of Tucson, Arizona was anxious to send the Sisters to open a school among the Papagos, but hesitated to do so unless there would be an agent there. The Bishop would have been able to draw $2500. annually from the government to finance a school there but no school has been started. Senator Allison believes that every Catholic tribe should have a Catholic agent, but said that nothing could be done unless the Commissioner and the Secretary of the Interior would write a letter recommending the restoration of the agency and the salary. Because the letter had to be sent immediately, Richards saw Trowbridge but his clerk was busy with Senator Terry of Michigan. Even though Commissioner Trowbridge knew Richards was waiting, he attended to a meeting with some Crow Indians first, and after this shabby delay he very coldly took up the matter of the Papagos Agency and schools. After conferring with his Chief Clerk, Trowbridge decided there was very little which could be done about it since there were only 6000 Indians near Tuscon, and this constituted but a small group. The majority of the Indians were off somewhere and the duties of an agent would have been few, but if Salpointe could start a school he would attract the Indians back to his settlement and an agent would be needed. Richards believes it pitiful that such an agency has been given to the Catholics, but yet they cannot benefit from it, and since this appeared to be all that could be done with Trowbridge, he dropped the matter. Proper actions by Catholics at the proper time would have saved the agency but it is hard to decide if Ewing's Bureau or the Indian Bureau is most to blame. The Papagos are a superior, self-supporting tribe and Bishop Salpointe is anxious to start a school among them. These salary appropriations were made to extend down to the coming June 30, but none of the money has been given. Richards also learned from Brouillet that some years ago the Land Office, at the request of the Indian Office set aside a portion of land as a reservation for the Papagos but unfortunately the boundary line did not include the wells which the Papagos had made up in the hills, and upon which they depended for all their water. In 1874, Bishop Salpointe and the Chiefs discovered that a minor has set up a quartz mill near the wells and was going to use the water as he pleased. A formal protest was sent to the Indian Bureau to influence the Land Office to extend the Reservation to include the wells. Salpointe sent letters to Brouillet and Ewing filed them with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs but the Land Office decreed that the minor, Adams, had complied with all legal restrictions and had a title to the wells. The Commissioner cooly added that if the matter had been attended to in 1874, the Papagos could have gotten the wells. Adams cannot be dispossessed unless compensated for his improvements, but no compensation can be made to him unless Congress passes a law to that effect. The Indians have lost their wells and must stop irrigating their fields, but no one is concerned about it. Richards would gladly write articles blowing up the Indian Office and Ewing's Bureau but his prospects for getting any sort of position would be ruined. Richards hoped to secure a position in the Indian Bureau because Trowbridge seemed to understand his difficulties, but now there is little chance of it. Trowbridge is greatly swallowed up by the others in the organization since his chief clerk really runs the office just as Hayt did, so it will take a long time for him to gain control. This entire Indian Office is antiCatholic, the Secretary himself being one of those German Free-thinkers who regards all religion as an outgrowth of fetishism. This same Secretary told Bishop James O'Connor of Omaha, Nebraska that it might be as well to gratify the Indians by giving them the Catholic religion as it would be to amuse them with any other bauble. When Trowbridge was asked about the Papagos Agency and the schools, he said that Catholic priests were not interested in schools but rather they only wanted to baptize the little Indians and let them run. Trowbridge has very aptly picked up the prejudice of the office since he has joined them. Senator Teller was correct when he said that not five out of 100 Indian agents were interested in civilizing or Christianizing the Indians, but rather all they wanted was plunder. Although Richards is not sure of the characters of the men Ewing selects as agents, he estimates that there are only four or five good ones out of 70 from the Indian Office. Ewing seemed very friendly and favored Richard's taking the Papagos agency not only because of his confidence in him, but because he hoped Richards might work up some mining business to their mutual advantage. James F. Wilson of Iowa has offered to aid Richards in securing a position and so has Senator Allison who is under obligations to Wilson. Wilson advised Richards to see the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and promised to supply the necessary backing for him. The bill for Claim Agents has not gone through the House yet but it is certain to do so before the session closes. Richards has written to Henry Bushnell promising him the sketches and also a few points to look up. :: I-2-c A.L.S. 12pp. 12mo. 11