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Show elsewhere than in Oklahoma, showing that the desire to set1 rather than to retain or lease their lands is waning, or that the efforts of speculators to secure tbese tracts are less persistent. But for the decisive staiid taken by this office and upheld by theDepartment much more of t,he boldings of tbese Indians would have been wrested from them by persisteut purchasers. PYEAMID LAKE AND WALKER RIVER IXDIANS. In the annual report for 1895 I commented upon Senate bill No. 99, introduced in the Fifty-third Congress at its second session, which provided, among other things, for the relinquishment of the Indian title to the entire Walker River Reservation and to a portion of the Pyramid Lake Reservation in Nevada, and for the removal of the Walker River Indians to the Pyramid Lake Reservation. A similar bill (8.N o. 3) was introduced in the Fifty-fourth Congress,first session, and in the same session House bill 7579 was introduced, which irr simi-lar to the Senate bill, except that it fails to reserve a tract of land within the Pyramid Lake Reservation, situated near the town of Wads-worth, Nev., containing 110 acres, more or less, upon which is located the Indian schoolhouse, this tract being described by hetea and bounds in the Senate bills. Desiringlabr advices as to the effect of the proposed legislation than the report of Albert K. Smiley, member of the Bomd of Indian Corn-missioners, published in the annual report for 1895, and wishing to know the recent views and desires of the Indians in regard to the matter, I transmitted a copy of Senate hill No. 3 to the United States Indian agent of the Nevada agency on February 4, 1896, with request for report on the subject. Part of his report, dated February 11,1896, I quote below: * * * The ellsctment of the legialatiou proposed in Senate hill 99, which failed of considerat,ion ot the last Congress, would bc s, serious blow to the present happy, contented, prosperous, progressive condition of the Psh Ute Indians residing on the Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations under the jurisdiction of this 5genOY. The Indims of both of the reserves are unanimous in their opposition to the prop-ositions oontainedin the bill, and it would require the strong arm of the Govern-ment to forae them to change their opinions. Moreover, even if the Indians were willing to give their voluntary approval to the provisions of the hill, I muld deem it my boonden duty to enter a protest against it, for the reosoa that it would be an unfair, nnjust, unwmmted, and uncalled-for pioce of legislation, enacted solely in the interests of a few wet l l th~s tockmen, mining men, and the Canon and Colorado Railroad Company, as against the best iuterests of the Pah Ute Indiana, whose future interests I hove at beart, and who aro perfeatly contented in their present aondition. The Pah Ute Indians are law shidillg, industrious, and progressive, and entitled to sfair fieatment at the hands of the Government, as against the grssping greed of a, few of the aitizens (of this State) who are at present trespassers on their rights. On October 11,1891, sn agreement was entered into with these Indians (Pyramid Lake Reserve) for the relinquishment of the southern portion of their reservation |
