OCR Text |
Show four feet wide, and four feet deep, which had been dug principally through a gravel bed with wooden spades similar to the one before mentioned, and the dirt thrown out with their hands; the last being performed by the squaws and children, which the men were employed in digging. He also showed me adam constructed of logs and brushwood, which he had made to turn a pottion of the water from the river and convey it ot his farm throgh this ditch; and I must say that the labor would do credit to the more experienced hands. I saw those I have noticed more particularly to show that, with proper assistance from the General Government these Indians could, in a few years, be taught the acts of civilized life, and would depend upon their own labor for support; and I am well pursuaded that this sourse would be the most economical and best adapted to their wants. I presented the chief and head men with a few spades, shovels, and hoes, together with some clothing and other ariticles, which they prized very highly and the chief said, that they would be of more advantageous to his band than double the amount of powder, lead and trinkets. The Piute Indians are divided into numerous bands, though small in numbers, and mostly inhabit the extreme southern portion of the Territory, on the Santa Clara and Muddy rivers, and employ much of their time in farming their small patches of of land, in their rude manner of cultivating the soil, their numbers have been much dimmin- |