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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 145 While at Round Valley and Hoopa Valley reservations, where a large number of the claims were made, diligent inquiry was made concerning them, of the oldest settlers upon said reservations, the result of which was that less than fifty of the number making claims were known to said settlers. A Mr. Rufus Heriick was the only claimant that presented himself, and. from information derived from reliable sources, I am satisfied that his claim and that of his wife are just and should be paid. The reason he has no vouchers, as stated by himself, arose from a difficulty with the superintendent, which was the* cause of his dis-missal without any evidences of the service performed by him on the reservation. From the information I could gather, my convictions were very strong that nearly all of these claims are either fraudulent or have been paid. At all events, none of the owners seemed anxious to establish their validity through the channels of your committee. The largest of these claims date back to 185iJ, and are notorious, in the section where the}' originated, as gross frauds. Some of the small ones, mostly made from 1855 to 1865, may be just, and payment has been delayed because of their insignificance Under your instructions, received on my arrival in San Francisco, I proceeded to visit the Hoopa and Round Valley reservations, in company with Superintendent B. C. Whiting, ( who rendered me valuable assistance in obtaining information,) and an escort of Army officers who were visiting those reservations in the discharge of their military duties. Through the courtesy of General Ord, I was provided with every facility for gaining informa-tion through the officers in command at those two reservations. At Hoopa Valley I found the remnants of several tribes, numbering, in all, about 600. In September, 1870, there were 649. They were actively engaged ill harvesting wheat, with two of McCormick's reapers some fifty men and women in one field. There are, on this reservation, 1,1UO acres under fence, 450 of which are cultivated. This year the product has been 6,000 bushels of wheat, 160 tons of hay, 1,000 bushels of apples, and 250 bushels of peaches. There is a saw- mill on the reservation capable of sawing 1,200 feet of boards per day, and a flouring- mill of the capacity of ten barrels per day. The saw- mill should be moved to a different site, and an appropriation made for that purpose of at least $ 1,000. I found the agent, D. H. Lowry, to be a firm friend of the Indians, having nine employe's under him, most of whom had their familes with them. The school here has made very little progress, in fact had only just been organized, and much difficulty was experienced in getting the children to attend. The condition of these Indians indicates that while they have become accustomed to work and dress like white people, ( with the exceptions of a few very old men who were entirely naked,) they have become fearfully demoralized by their contact with the white race. ( See report of the physician to the reservation, Appendix A b, No. ^ 8.) I am satisfied that the immediate presence of the soldiers is a curse to the Indians, and no less so to the soldiers. The Government provides a physician for the Indians and one for the soldiers, and, upon inquiry, I found that the principal business of each was treating venereal diseases. The officer in command avers that it is an impossibility to prevent this state of things. Whisky is allowed to be sold freely to the soldiers by the post traders. I scarcely knew which to pity most, the soldiers or the Indians under such regulations. The small number of Indians gathered here and their peaceable disposition seems to me to warrant a recommendation that the soldiers should be removed so far away that no inter-course could be had, except by order and invitation of the agent to quell disturbances that he cannot manage, should any arise ; and that no trader should be allowed on the reservation, except by consent of tie agent in charge. There has never been a survey of this reservation, and the consequence is that some squat-ters have taken claims in the valley, and more will be likely to do so, much to the injury of the service, unless lines are drawn and made public, making the reservation a reality instead of being one only in name. The valley proper is about five miles long, and a half to one and a half miles wide, with, say, 1,500 acres of tillable land in it. There are several hundred cattle belonging to the reservation, which are herded in the mountains adjoining. If this reservation was extended to the mouth of the, Klauiath River, taking in the Klamath Indians, and was made permanent by a law of Congress. It would have a very beneficial effect upon the Indians in the efforts of the Government to civilize them. They seem to think that they have no permanent home, and the incentives to make farms and other improvements are all taken away by this conviction toiced upon their minds by the ninny changes that have been made in their location. The Klamath Indians have no agent, though they exceed in number all the Indians in California who are gathered upon reservations. If the present humane policy is to be continued, one of the first requisites of success in it seems to me to be the speedy settlement of all Indians upon permanent reservations, and to assure those already upon reservations that they will not be removed under any circum-stances. ( See Appendix A //, No. 29, for . statements of Mr. Knight, an old settler in Cali-fornia, who was introduced to me by Superintendent Whiting, at Eureka, on our way to Hoopa Valley.) 10 ic |
