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Show 100 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History government in 1880 to send James E. Spencer, the newly appointed Nevada Indian Agent, to investigate. This was the first recorded time a Nevada agent had visited the reservation since Barnes left in 1875. Spencer's report, if anything, was even less encouraging than Bradfute's: The reservation is entirely deserted by the Indians, solely because it is unprotected from stock owned by herders whose cattle and horses graze in the valley both above and below the reserve, and are left, if not encouraged, to stroll over the lines and devour every green thing in their way, whether willows, pasturage, meadow or growing crops. I . . . laid off, by metes and bounds a tract of land above and one below, and including the present reserve, and recommended this enlarged reservation to be set aside by Executive order. Two important objects would be attained by this enlargement; first, it would make the territory as large, but not larger than the tribe require; second, it would give them a reservation well, yet cheaply, protected by natural barriers against all marauding herds, at least to such an extent that but little fencing would be required to make the protection complete. No action, of which I am apprised, has yet been taken on my recommendation, and as a consequence the Indians are scattered over the surrounding country for 200 miles around, eking out a precarious existence . . . a life not of their choice, but forced upon them for lack of a protected reservation equipped with a very few of the necessary appliances for commencing the work of tilling the soil. The farmer-in-charge has the care, unaided of 6 mules and 80 head of cattle that are pinched with hunger nearly the whole year round, as the stock of outsiders devour most of the herbage both on and off the reservation. The buildings are all more or less dilapidated, implements and wagons worn out or long ago fallen to pieces in that searching, arid climate. . . . But, wisely or unwisely, not one Indian has resided on the reservation to be demoralized by the sad spectacle thus presented of the white man's waning civilization. I am also informed that these Indians have reaped no benefit whatever from this reservation for several years, except that a few have been there employed as laborers for mere wages, while they are not reluctant to tell where the harvests there raised have gone. This is a painful history for me to write, and reveals gross neglect or mismanagement of the affairs of the Moapa River Reservation. Who is to blame; or more properly, is it my province to inquire who will inaugurate reform? That reservation, enlarged as I proposed and protected by that enlargement, would afford a good home for 600 Indians. I will furnish the Indians if the government will furnish and equip the reservation.27 |
