GENERAL ORDERS,
FORT KEARNY, NEBR. TER., No. 1. March 30, 1865.

In pursuance of General Orders, No. 80, Department of the Missouri, current series, the undersigned hereby assumes command of the District of the Plains, composed of the Districts of Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska, headquarters at Denver, Colo. Ter.

P. EDW. CONNOR,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO,
Santa Fe, N. Mex., March 30, 1865.

Honorable SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor herewith to inclose for your information printed copies of General Orders, No. 3,* series of 1864, and General Orders, No. 4,+ series of 1865, from these headquarters, which give an epitome of operations against the Indian within the Department of New Mexico for the last two years. You will observe in the summing up in General Orders, No. 4, that we have 3,000 Indian children now upon the reservation. It is in reference to these children that this communication is written. Last year I had the honor to request of the Secretary of the Interior that Department furnish funds for the building of school-houses in which these children may be educated, but no answer was ever made to the letter. I now beg that you will take this important matter under consideration. It lies at the bottom of all our efforts to civilize these Indians. The education of these children is the fundamental idea on which must rest all our hopes of making the Navajoes a civilized and Christian people. It is unnecessary for me to put on paper the many arguments which I could use to convince you of the importance of having schools for these children. You can figure in your own mind 3,000 intelligent boys and girls with no one to teach them to read and write. Here is field for those who are philanthropic, which is ample enough to engage their attention and be the object of their charities for many years. Without money to build school-houses and to buy books my hands are tied. The bishop of New Mexico has promised help in the way of teachers, but in my opinion this important subject should receive the fostering care of the Government. These children properly belong to your Department, and now, as well as when they have become men and women, are and will be objects which must engage your solicitude. I trust, therefore, that my appeal to you in their behalf will not be in vain. There is another point to which I beg to call your immediate attention. Last year I requested of you that the surveyor-general of New Mexico should cause to be surveyed the Indian reservation. This should be done at once. Not only should the exterior lines be run and be marked by durable mounds, but the irrigable lands should be laid off in ten-acre lots for assignment to different families. Perhaps even lost of a smaller size may be necessary. No permanent organization of the tribes into bands, nor identity of bands with particular fields, can be made fairly and justly until this survey is made. You are aware that there are no public surveys making either in this Territory or in Arizona which would interfere with this work.

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*See Vol. XXVI, Part I, p. 23.

+See p. 899.

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