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Show claims of the settlers now upon the lands for impmvements moat he disposed of under the provisions of the law of April. 1864. The proposed arrangement seems t~ me an excellertt one in many respecta,as establishing the lately hostile Indians npon a reservation sufficiently large and fertile for their wants, and putting an end to hostilities which have been very ex-pensive to the government and disastrous to both whites and Indians. In order that no time may be lost in consummating the arrangement, I have, with your concurrence, instructed Mr. Wiley to appoint, without delay, not exceed~ngth ree honest and discreet persons to make the valuation of the improvements of white settler8 lawfullv in the Hoona vallev, as wntemolated bv the aat of Avril 8. 1864. The re< of this apfiaisal wFll he submitied to yo; as Boon as re&ived. in order to its transmission to Con--m ss for app- roval, should you deem it just and reasonable. On the whole. I think there is rearon for gratification at the degree of snccess which Itas thns tkr aud so eoon resulted from the chnoge in the system of admin-intrationof'lndian atfiirs in California. both in reenrd to the economv with wl~ich the operations of the superintendency can he carried on, as well & the better care taken of the Indians. It is to be regretted that no reports of the progress of the small remnant of this people in education and religion and moral training can yet be given, but there is reason to hope that in this respect good results will follow their concentration upon fewer reservations, in more compact hodies, where their physical wants may be more e p l y supplied, and the Indians kept in a great degree from the wntamination nd destruction of body and soul re-sulting from their association with vicious and unscrupulous white men. The government ought, in justice to its own honor, to endeavor to help the feeble remnants of the old California tribes to obtain at least some faint glimpses of a nobler humanity before they disappear from the face of the earth ; and the only ope of duiog this exista, m my judgment, in the faithful continuance of the olicy now adopted. NEVADA. The reports from Hon. James W. Nye, governor and ex o&io superin-tendent of Indian a5aira of this Territory, and from Agents Lockhart and Burch, which are herewith submitted, give satisfactory information in regard to the various tribes inhahiting that country. Those of most importance are the Washoes, in the northwest, on the eastern dope of the SierraXevada mountains; the Pah-Utes, who have two reservations, (Walker river, ahout 75 miles north-east of Oarson city, and Truckee, about the same distance to the sontlteast, hut most of the Indians living 05 the reservations the greater portion OF the year;) the Shoshonees, most of whom are in Utah, three hands being within the limits of Nevada; the Pannakbs, who are a powerful tribe ranging between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, about one hundred and thirty milee north of the sink of the Humholdt river, and the Humholdt river Indiaus. Besides these am the Tosowes and Moadocs, of whom we have very little definite il~formation. Quiet has generally prevailed among all of these Indiana during the present year, end a disposition to he at peace with- the whites. The efforts made by the %en@ to induce the Indians to cultivate the soil have reeulted in finding them tractable and willing to work. These efforts have been mostly confined to the Pah-Utes, at the Truckee River reservation, where a great deal of labor has been performed in digging an irrigating canal from the dam which was ton-structed in connexiou with awntemplated saw-mill. The long drought, how-ever, and the failure of the usnal amount of snow during the last winter, ren-dered it useless to attempt to erect the mill, and the failure of water to fill the dam rendered futile for this year to a great extent the work upon the canal. The crops, iu wnnequence, have been very light. While, therefore, the state of |
