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Show WASUIWRTCOITNY , January 28, 186'3. St!: The undersigned respectfully invite your attention to the extract from the message of the acting governor of Utah to thc legislature of that Territory on the 14th December last, in regard to the reservations for the Utah nation of Indians. The viewa which he has presented on the subject we deem eminently useful and practical, and therefore recommend theiradoption by the government. We also beg leave to refer to the reports of the superintendent of Indian affairs in relation to those reservations, and to assure you that we are, very respectfully, vonr obedient servants. JAXES DUAXE DOTY, Governor. J. T. IiIXNEY. Extract fronz the gocernor's annual messase. EXECUTDIVEPEA RTMENTU.. T., Great Salt Luke City, December 14,1563. To the honora6le the council and house of ~cpresentariaer of the legislative assembly of L.2a.h Tenitory : *. i X I L I * *s SPANISH FORK AND SAN PETE nELERV.hTIOSS. 'I'hme 3uggerlion~ aro tndr in view of the crcnts d.dy tr;rnspil.iil- around us, and prrlttniuary in crrlling your atrenriou to rhr Sp;miilt Fork anJ2nrc l'rte Indian rescrv:~tions, This latter rrserration, sitoart:d in the centre bf the Lr-tile valley of that name, and su~~oundebdy an industrious and agricultt~ral population, is of small extent, embracing not more than five huudred acres. I t has been lying idle for several years past, and there is littls probability of its ever again heing required for Indian purposes. The land is capable of pro-ducing good crops, and, in justice to the people ready and willing to reduce it to profitable cultivation, should be vacated as an Indian ~eservationt,o which it is not adapted, and for whichit is evidently not required. The Spanish Fork reservation, at the southern end of Lake Utah, contains about 15,000 acres of land of good quality, and all susceptible of irrigation. Some years since a small portion of the reservation was cultivated as an Indian farm, hut the amount of producc realisad Was in no manner at all commensurate with the cost to the government. For the last three yeam no work has been perfolmed on this reservation, and it has returned to a state of nature; the farm-house in very bad repair; the fences all gone, and the land overgrown with weeds and bushes ; indeed, it is to-day simply a tract of naked wild land, with few of its im~rovementsT et remainin.e, , and these. abbest, hut monuments of decav and nlin, no less than of rile mi~trkenp olicy ~vhiclts eek?' m arneliornte the Eoudi-tiou of the red man by placittg him in ncar proximity ro a thickly popu1ntr:d white sctrlrmcn~. 01)th e other hand, it has b e ~ na fruitful source of ir~.irarion and dissatisfaction to the Indiana, who are continually led to expect benefits which they never receive; and the fact that, while holding out hopes destined never to he realized, it draws the Indiansinto the most densely populated settle-ments, to the great annoyance of the citizens, whom they burden with a heavy and eontinual tax, is not the least among the many evils justly complained of: Even should the reservation be again devoted to Indian pu~~poseosn, ly a small 12 C I |