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Show MOAPA 103 Welton did his best to straighten out matters, and at first it seemed that he managed to do so to some extent. The closing out of government supervision, however, was just one further step in the continuing policy of neglect. Moapa seems to have been too inviting for corrupt white men, probably because of the government's unwillingness to take charge and insure against further corruption. Combined with the isolation of the reserve, this condition made Moapa a great temptation for the dishonest. Between the years 1888 and 1900 there is hardly any record of what happened at Moapa. It is apparent, though, that L. J. Harris was taking advantage of his position as trustee. In 1881 the public survey reached the reservation. Its findings moved the reservation one-half mile to the northwest from where it previously had been surveyed by Bateman and Barnes in 1875. In 1895 L. J. Harris learned about this boundary conflict and urged his partner, James Pickett, to buy the lands thus placed outside the reservation from the state of Nevada. When a resurvey was made of the reservation boundaries in 1902, it found the Bateman and Barnes survey to be correct and the public survey to be wrong. Conflict immediately arose because of the selection of the disputed lands by Nevada and their resultant purchase by Harris and Pickett. Supervisor Holland, who made an inspection trip in 1900, found Harris had occupied the government buildings which were on the disputed land and had dispossessed the Indians.32 As a result of the new government interest brought on by this land conflict, Indian Agent D. W. Manchester visited the reservation in 1903. Interest had been revived even to the extent that the government decided to take charge again at Moapa. W. C. Sharp was appointed Industrial Teacher-in-Charge in December of 1902. Manchester meanwhile reported that, although he accounted for 150 Moapa Nuwuvi, only 75 to 80 lived on the reservation. He recommended that Harris be run out of the country.33 Harris did in fact leave in 1903, but Pickett quickly moved into the government buildings and refused to budge. On June 12, 1903 the Department of the Interior gave in and directed that the 1881 survey be accepted,34 which left some Paiutes living off the northern boundary. Therefore, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs recommended that two tracts of land totaling 103.28 acres be added to the reservation. This was |