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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 151 which way it blew for its future guidance. Every cottage should be visited at least once a month, and the inmates instructed, encouraged, and aided. Just so quick as an Indian had a place worth taxing, the assessor should be called upon to enroll his name as a citizen and u voter, and the reservation leave him to his fate, to shift for himself as other poor people do. There are many that would speedily take care of themselves. The reservation has, in fact, degraded the Hoopa Indians, and they know it, and their Indian neighbors know it. The Klamath River Indians, who have had no help from the Government, are better fed and clothed, and more cleanly and manly to- day than the Hoopas on the reservation, and would more qasily be made good, self- supporting citizens. They despise the Hcopas, and do not want a reservation. They say that they would rather work out their own salvation than have an agent to dictate to them. His dictation would do them more harm than the Government bounty would do them good. But their condition is precarious, on account of their utter want of rights, and the recog-nition of them by the hite settlers. They are very numerous, perhaps three thousand. They have some good fishing- places, garden- spots, and grazing- lands, which furnish their maiu subsistence, but wh'te men are gradually settling on these favorite spots, and in a few years will leave the native nothing but the barren mountain- tops, with the usual concomi-tant of war and massacre. On my explaining this t some of the Klamath chiefs, they replied, " Yes; we under-stand you; you talk right. Suppose we don't make house, and fence, and home. By- and-by white man come and tak} all, and then Indian must steal, and white man will kill him. But suppose I do make houst, and Held, and white man corne and take it all, what can I do?" I tried to explain that they had rights, and white men could not do that. But they replied, " Well, that may be, if yon would come and live among us, and tell us how to do all these things, and talk to tie white men for us ; but they do not mind us." It is but too true. There should be an agent at once for the Klamath Indians. He should be a philanthro-pist of ability and experience. His chief duty should be to advise and instruct them, and intervene in their behalf in ill disputes with the whites. There should be no plantation, as at Hoopa. Let them rely GJ themselves for food, & c., always, but whenever they will build a house and make iields andrardens, help them to tools, seeds, stock, & c. They should also be entitled to a certain portion of land in their own country under certain conditions. A school might be set up in tme, but to produce food is the first desideratum. My plan, then, is the self- sioporting family cottage, with instruction in white man's laws and usages, instead of the planation with its dictation and slavery, and old Indian traditions. I have the honor to be, ymrs, respectfully, H. L. KNIGHT, Attorney- at- Law. J. V. FARWELL, Esq., San Francisco. APPENDIX A e, No. 30. Report of Janes N. Eby esq., on the Mission Indians of Lower California. SAN FRANCISCO, August 5, 1871. SIR: In compliancewith your verbal directions, I have the honor to report that I visited Los Angeles, and nad? inquiry into the matter of Indian titles to lands in the southern part of California, the part and present condition and treatment of the Mission Indians, and noted the results < f n- y investigation, as follows : The Indians h< d title to their lands. I am assured by Don Juan Foster, a resident of thirty- five yeavs'standiug in California, that he saw and read documents, issued under authority of the vfexican government prior to American occupation, reserving lands about various missionrfbr Indian uses and purposes. Colonel Keweu, a reliable and intelligent lawyer, sustain: Mr. Foster's statement, so far as he can know from traditional sources. Others equally 3sponsible confirm these impressions and statements, and it is suggested that a search of 8p* ish records in San Francisco would reveal indisputable testimony on this point. Formerly, tf Indians referred to were cared for and controlled by the San Franciscan Fathers, a Rdan Catholic association, and under them reduced to a system of peonage. They workedn farms and vineyards, had plenty to eat, but little to cover their nakedness, the climate b'" g even and mild. Afterward, various changes in the Mexican government, and the finalccupation of the country by the United States, scattered the Fathers, and the Indians wer< eft to their own resources, being employed as much as the comparatively small demand for bor would allow. At this diJ they are without an agent, and dispersed over the country, many laboring for stock- raiser farmers, and viniculturists. Without any one to watch over them, thry are fast becoming ankards and nuisances. They seem to be easily persuaded to any industrial pursuit byi efficient and intelligent manager. I observed in my wandering, in the vicinity |