The Annual Conference of the Board of Indian Commissioners with the representatives of the various religious bodies having charge of Indian Missions was held in the parlors of the Riggs House, January 8th.  The presence of Senator Dawes, Representative Cutcheon, and other distinguished persons, gave weight to the deliberations, and special interest was added to the meeting by the troubles now prevailing in the Dakotas among the Sioux Indians.  Commissioner Morgan, Captain Pratt of the Carlisle School, General Armstrong of Hampton, and the Secretaries of the Missionary Societies presented an array of facts and of recent information that gave a more favorable aspect to the situation than is generally entertained.  The disturbance among the Indians is confined to at most 5,000 among the 250,000, and strong hopes are entertained that serious bloodshed may be avoided.  And yet, so great is the uncertainty hanging over this matter, that before these lines reach our readers, the daily press may give sad news of battle and disaster.

The discussions of the Conference were ended with a series of resolutions, the purport of which may thus be summed up:  The Dakota trouble is confined to a small number of Indians, and is due to the inevitable opposition of the chiefs and anti-progressive elements among the masses of the Indians.  The removal of experienced Indian Agents for political reasons was deprecated, and the importance of permanence in the lines of policy pursued in the educational and Christianizing influences was emphasized.  Larger appropriations by the Government to establish an adequate system of common-school education, until every Indian child is enabled to attend school, compulsory education and the continued support to contract schools, and additional facilities for securing lands in severalty to the Indians, were endorsed.

The decision which it was understood the Government had made, not to transfer the care of the Indians to the War Department, was warmly approbated.

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THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

The present difficulties among the Indians in the Dakotas will probably lead to a re-consideration of the whole system by which the Government and the nation deals with these people.  As a contribution to that discussion, we present in condensed form some suggestions recently published in a Boston paper, from our esteemed friend, S.B.  Capen, Esq., whose intelligent interest in the Indian entitles his opinion to thoughtful consideration: 

While public attention is everywhere called to this matter, it is time to agitate for a radical change in the whole administration of the Indian service.  We believe that this should be disconnected entirely from the Department of the Interior, and be made a separate department.  This whole Indian question is so important and so complex that it ought not to be simply an annex to a department which has