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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 25 and the prevalent idea that he is as hard to looate as changing winds without a weather serviee, I cansider this faot a p e a t big oredit mark on his record. Thme are the most independent, intelligent, industriouq progrsssive Indians that I have seen. (My former Indian service has been in North Dakota, Arizona, and Idaho.) Nearly dl of them speak English. As a rule, they ask no favor6 charge for what they do, and pay for what theyget. They are employed by the whites to do sll sorts of ranoh work. In planting time, haying time,harveat time, t h i e i s a r e in great demand. In breaking horaes snd in herding horses and feeding cattle they &re effl-oient help. They areoccasionslly employedto oarry the United States mail on anow-shoes acrosa the monntains and to do other hard work that wwhjta men shrink from. Of course they are often inalined to throw np their job when they have s, temporaw competency but in the main they are faithful and satisfactory laborers. They %re entirely peaoeable and me on good terms among themselves end with their white neighbors. Of these Indians, the members of the Pi t t River t r i b ~ t h em ost numerous--live mainly in Modoo County, beyond the mountains .to the west of the Surprise Vslley, around Altures, in the South Fork Vdlev. ', around Likelv"., i n the Canb"v nei0rh bor-hood, in nig \'sliay, ombrecing~i~lonnnRdie brn and tllonorthwhatern part of Ladaen C'ounts, and in tho Ashe Tallap in Ill" nonhel.n part of l.asscn Cooot.~. Tbu Dixie Valley and Rat Creek tribes, speaking the e k e language, live mostly along the Hat Creak in eastern Shasta County and in the piotnresqne and almost inaooessible little Dixie Valley in weatern Lassen. In Plnmas County are the Big Meadows tribe (near Prattville), the Indian Valley tribe (from Greenville to Taylorsville and all round), and the Amerioan Valley Indians (around Quincy). Ml these speak the same lan-g ua-m and are larp-ely. m ixed nD with the Di-ee-e r tribe. Sussnville is s miaoellmeaui mecca, for all the Indiana mentioned in this report. The Pitt River Indians 8x8 behind none that I have seen as workers; but I found in Plumes County the best oivili~ationin Indian home life. Here the Indians hsve sbmdoned nearly a l t~ge thetrh e free-for-all life of the oamp m d are living in single-family privaoyin bark or log or framed houses-almost "all same white man." The Pitt Rivers aid Dixie ~alle; wear eood olothes and watohes and ehainins. and have v good wagons and fair buggies, but their Plnmas frienda-mmy of then,-drive spans of horses to haudsome top buzeiea Some of them hsve painted houses, with rackinz-chairs, aewiog machines, andlaoe aurtsins, and I actually sew one Bshing with; reel. Agent Bennett submitted another report Angust 5,1897,in regard to the Indians of the Surprise Vdley, Modoo County, Gal., which is quoted in par& below: Nearly all of these Indians sre members of the Piute tribe. A big majority of them are allotted in the vicinitv off Fart Bidwell near to-ee ther on the rollin-e lands and canyons, takingin the ponds and strems wherever possible on both aides of the Fort Bidwell and Werner Valley road. These have pnaotically a resemation on the most desirable lands that were ieft untaken in the idw well codntry. (This doea not mean that the Indian received any Klondike benefaetion when he got them.) A good majority of the I n d i a remaining were allotted near Eagleville; the others, with few scattering exweptious, near Cedarville. These Piutes are regsrded aa about the mosf "ornery" Indians in theirpart of the country, and yet I think that they have averaged well up to their opportunities. They hunt with a vengeanoe during hunting season, and cache hundreds of pounds of venison for the cold winter. They are good fishermen, and during tbe spring snd summer live on the best food that swim the streams. Daring h a h g time, when any extra work is needed on the rsnahee, the Piute oomes in for his ahare. Be haa little amhition, and does not understand econom.y., but he wonld rather work than be hnngry, and occasiouslly he will "lay by" something for bad weather. Before 1 left Fort Bidwell agood number of my Piote allotwee hadglanted carrots, |