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Show I.SVIII REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. ]);id made entries and filings, under thlegeneralland laws of the United St,ates, covering lands embraced within the reservation set apart for his people; lauds which had been occupied, watered, and in part cnlti-vated by them and their ancestors for more than a hundred years. The letter was rvferred by the Department to this office. I at onee ex-r amiued into the matter, and made it the subject of a special report to the Department, dated July 13, 1885. It appears that, for many )ears prior to 1877, the Zuiii Indians, who are a poor but rery peaceable and industrious people, had heen gaining a lirelihood by cultivating small patches of arable laud found along the Zuiii River and its tributaries, l l ~ 1e:io LORN ntrias and Rio Pesoado, the ruost valna.ble of wh'ich were in the neighborhood of the Nutrias, Pescado, and O.jo Caliente Springs. They owned a tra,ct two leaguea square, near the Arizona line, granted to the111 by the Spnoish Govern. merit in 1689, but the laud being almost worthless, and altogether inad-equate to their support, they were forced to find other land to cultivate, ard so for centuries they had been in peaceful and undisturbed occnpa-tiun of small tracts and patches, outside the limits of their grant, wherever water, which is very scarce in that country, could be found. As the country began to settle up it was found that these people would require some protection to preventthcir beiug crowded out,, and accord-ingly it was deci'ded to set aside a tract of country for their exclusive occupation and use, which should embrace their settlements at Nutrias Spriugs, Pescado Springs, and the Ojo Calieute, and an Executive Order was issued Ma,rch 16,1877, defining the boundaries of a reserva-tiou for said Indians, as follows : Beginning at the one hundred and thirty-aixth mileatone on the western boundary Xne of the Territory of Kern Mexico, and running thenoe north 61° 45' east, 31 miles and eight-tenths of s, mile to the crest of the mountain, a short distanae above Nu-tries Spring; thenoe due south 12 milaa to a point in the hills s, short diatance sauth-esst of the Ojo Pescado; thenoe south 61° 45' west to the one hundred and forty-eighth milestone on the western boundary line of said Territory ; thenoe north with maid boundary line to tbe place of beginning. There thematter rested, and the 1ndians continued to reside and oul-tivate their lands as usual in collscious security, and, as far as is known, without molestation from any quarter. Finally, however, some one made the discovery that by a strained coustructiou of the terms em-ployed the description given in the executive order of March 16,1877, would not and did not include in the reservation either the Nutrias or the Pescado Spriugs, and thereupon certain parties immediately set about to enter the lands in the neighborhood of and embraoing the Nu-trias Springs, whicl~ entries the local land officers allowed. As soon a8 this action became known it was reported to the Department by Iu-spector Howard, and to this Bureau by Agent Thomas, the agent in charge of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexiho, both of whom protested in the strongest terms against t,he consummation of what they declared to be a gross outrage upon the Indians." |