| OCR Text |
Show 12 REPORT OF THE north and east encompassed by mountains, so that no whites are likely to settle within twenty or thirty miles in those directions; on the south and west is the Pacific. The only entrance to the valley is in the southeast, and this is ex-tremely narrow, rendering it practicable to almost wholly isolate the Indians, and secure them from the pernicioua results which so invariably follow a con-tact with the whites. In additidn to this valuable consideration, to which, in my judgment,Joo much importance cannot be attached, the valley is well watered and timbered, and has a suitable amount of arableland, while the adjacent moun-tains furnish an abundance of game, and the Pacific the best of fisheries. Gov-ernment is now paying rent for the cultivated land of this valley at the rate of five dollars per acre, a price enormously aisproportioned to the value of the improved land, all of which can be purchased, as I am informed, at rates aver-aging alittle less than twelve dollars per acre. I know of no way to avoid these exorbitant charges for rent, except by the purchaseof the land, or the es-tablishment of a reservation at some other point upon the coast. I have no doubt that,.by timely action, we may yet secure for these people a home in the land of their birth, and feel that I should illy discharge my duty if I failed to urge upon you, and through you upon Congress, the importance of immediate action. Unless a tract of country is soon set apart for the use of the Indians, and its title secured to them, every available portion will be occn-pied by whites, and the Indians dliven, by inevitable necessity, into a life of vagabondage and crime, resulting in constant annoyance and vexation to the whites, in frequent collisions between the two races, and, I fear, at last in the extinction of the red race. On the 13th of January last I submittedfor your consideration acommunica-tion from Superintending Agent Wentworth, informing me that hostilities had, to some extent, commenced with the Indians inhabiting that part of California known as the Owen's River valley, and expressing, in the strougestmanner, his apprehensions that a general war would ensue with those Indians unless imme-diate measures should be adopted by Congress, having for their object the pacifi-cation of the Indians, and the securing to them of some portion of the home of their ancestors, where they could live unmolested by the whites. I regret to say that the apprehensions of Superintending Agent Wentwortb have since been fully realized. The conrse of events in this valley is a forcible illustration of the wisdom and importance of enteringinto treaty relations with the wild Indians of our territories, prior to the occupation of their country. Here was a country extending from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada to the great desert, in-habited by several thousands of wild and warlike Indians, with whom we have hitherto failed to establish amicable relations, or, indeed. to hold any official intereourse whatever. The country had been in the unmolested possession of this people for generations, and was ample for their sustenance and support. In an evil day for them, it is discovered that their mountain gnlches and ravines abonnd in the precious metals, and forthwith, in utter disregard of the rights of the Indians, and by resorting to precisely the same means as those employed towards the wild beasts of the country, a tide of emigration sets in upon them 1 |
