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Show 146 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. . ROUND VALLEY RESERVATION. After completing my observations at Hoopa Valley, a six days' ride over grand mountain ranges, camping out at night, brought us to Round Valley reservation. I found the agent, Rev. Hugh Gibson, an earnest Christian, and apparently the right man in the right place. There are about seven hundred Indians on this reservation, and their moral condition is but the counterpart of the Hoopa Valley Indians. Harvesting was com-pleted, and they were engaged in threshing wheat. This is a beautiful valley, surrounded by high mountains, most of which are fine grazing lands. This reservation, like Hoopa, has never been surveyed. The land is fertile, and, all things considered, it is one of the most desirable locations for an Indian reservation for Northern California that could have been chosen. But here, as elsewhere, the want of a fixed policy in dealing with Indians, and the presence of a sufficient number of soldiers to make a foothold for a few traders, settlers, and camp- followers, has inevitably fixed the status of these Indians as doomed to perpetual trials and persecutions unless the strong arm of the Government shall interpose to define the boundaries of the reservation and protect it from invasion. There are at present about one hundred settlers in the valley, all of them squatters, know-ing when they came that it was set aside for Indian occupancy, but the fact that no survey has been made has emboldened some of them to take up claims inside the reservation fences under the swamp- land act. I rode over these swamp lands, and should consider them as valuable for cultivation as any in the valley. One large farm of 2,500 acres is claimed by a former superintendent, and I was informed that the work of fencing, & c., was all done by Indians. Timber- claims and cattle- ranges have been taken by these settlers, upon the mountains, until the reservation cattle have been driven from their accustomed places for feeding, and are shot at sight when found upon a range taken up by a white settler. On some of the timber- claims thus made the claimants threaten to shoot any Indians sent there by the agent to get timber for fencing or houses. About ten years ago there was an Indian massacre on this reservation, in which the set-tlers played the role of Indians. From the best information I could get it seemed to me as though the design was to frighten the Indians to leave the reservation permanently. A story was started among them that they would be murdered if they did not leave. Some twenty or thirty of the settlers took all arms and ammunition from the Indians, even to their bows and arrows, and soon after that fell upon them in the night, in their wigwams, and killed over twenty of them in cold blood. From these facts it can be very easily seen that the incentives to work and make homes for themselves are all taken away. The coming of our party was the occasion of great uneasiness among the Indians. One of the chiefs said to me that the '' Great Father sent so many captains to them, and moved them so often that he had no heart left." The school here is in a flourishing condition under the charge of the agent's wife, who is very successful in interesting not only the children but a large number of adults. The school is held under some trees. The money expended for a school- house by a former agent exemplifies the Scriptures, " They love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." The school- house was built without a window in it, and was used for a warehouse. A school- house and a hospital are necessary to enable the agent to make progress in im-proving the condition of these Indians. My attention was called to some fine blooded stock, put upon the reservation at great expense. I was informed that former superintendents had placed thirteen hundred head of cattle upon the reservation, and ten blooded bulls. In four years the cattle numbered only two hundred. Nothing but the most inexcusable negligence can account for the necessity of the Gov-ernment appropriating of one* dollar for the subsistence of the Indians and soldiers upon this reservation. MISSION INDIANS. The superintendent called my attention to the Mission Indians of Southern California, and the difficulties that had arisen there between them and the settlers, and desired me to make a tour of inspection among them. Not having sufficient time at my command to do this and visit Northern California, I sent Mr. James JST. Eby, a clerk detailed by the Indian Department, to assist in investigating the old claims referred to in another part of this report. His report is attached herewith, and marked A b, No. 30. It will be seen from his report that lands were ceded to these Indians by the Mexican gov-ernment before the United States had acquired title to Lower California. From the character and habits of the Mission Indians my opinion is that they should be made citizens, arid have a right to a homestead of eighty acres each, under some regulation that will give them protection against being dispoiled of their homes again. In closing this report I desire to say that the superintendent of California Indians, B. C. Whiting, esq., agrees with me that the Government is at fault for the bad condition of In |