Moses returned to Washington Territory, and awaits the action of Congress.

It is now too late to question the propriety of the arrangement made with Moses in 1879. He will not surrender the reservation without some trouble unless he is compensated in some way for what he doubtless considers belongs to him. It is not proposed to support his band, but to give them the means of making themselves self-supporting. Sar-sopkin and his band are now cultivating land, and it is doubtless good policy to give them the aid they require. To-nas-cat represents the progressive Indians of the Colville Reservation, and is worthy of encouragement aud support. The total area of lands thus open to settlement, if the Indians are all removed to the Colville Reservation, is 2,357,120 acres. It is difficult to fix the amount required to carry out the proposed arrangement, but aside from the future support of the schools stipulated for, it is not believed it will exceed $85,000, which is the amount General Miles estimates will be required.

I therefore recommend that an appropriation be made to carry out the spirit of the above proposition.

MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA.

Believing it desirable to obtain more authentic information concerning these Indians than that possessed by the Department, on the 9th of January, 1883, Mrs. Helen Jackson, of Colorado, and Mr. Abbott Kinney, of California, were appointed to make an examination of the condition and location of these Indians, and report to the Department. Mrs. Jackson, having spent some time in California studying the history of these people, was well qualified for the work; besides, she has given much attention to the Indian question, and was known to have their interest much at heart. Mr. Kinney, a gentleman of character, had also taken a deep interest in the welfare of these people. Both Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney exacted nothing of the Government except the expenses actually incurred in their work. The work could not well be performed during the winter, and was not undertaken until spring. On the 13th of July Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney made their report.

From their report it appears that these Indians number 2,907. The report contains a list of the villages occupied by them-sixteen villages; besides, it is alleged that quite a number live in the white settlements and towns. Some of the villages are on the reservations established for these Indians, others on public land, and not a few on what is claimed to be private land. It is said that fifty years ago these Indians numbered between 20,000 and 30,000, and their condition was much better than it now is. These Indians are not savages, but a semi-civilized people, peaceable and industrious, attached to the Catholic Church.

In a report made to the Interior Department in 1853, Mr. D. B. Wilson made the following statement:

These same Indians had built all the houses in the country, planted all the fields and vineyards. Under the missions there were masons, carpenters, plasterers, soap

makers, tanners, shoemakers, blacksmiths, millers, bakers, cooks, brickmakers, carters, and cartmakers, weavers and spinners, saddlers, shepherds, agriculturists, horticulturists, vineros, vaqueros, in a word they filled all the laborious occupations known to civilized society.

With the settlement of California by the people of the United States came a demand for land; and the Indians who had dwelt in villages for nearly three-quarters of a century, supposing they owned the land, found themselves rudely dispossessed, and compelled to seek other localities. Leaving their former homes, they made others only to be again dispossessed when some one of the "superior race" coveted their possessions. The history of these people since that time appears to have been one of suffering and misery. But little effort appears to have been made to help them, and after a period of thirty years' close contact with the highest civilization of the world, they are poorer and more degraded than ever before. With an intelligent oversight on the part of the Government, and with but little expenditure of money, these people might now be valuable members of the community in which they live. The aid extended to them by the Government has been of but little advantage because they have been without a fixed and permanent abode, and because such aid has not been directed with that intelligence that a work of that kind demands. Slowly but surely the Mission Indians are disappearing, and each year renders it more difficult for them to maintain themselves, even in their now wretched condition.

Those Indians not already provided for should be placed on land of their own, secured to them by patent from the Government, and some aid given them in the first instance, in the way of stock, or agricultural implements, and schools should be established among them. It is doubtful whether a sufficient quantity of public land can be found in that part of California suitable for their support. If this is the case, the Government should purchase the required amount, which can be done without any great outlay of money. Such reservations as have been established should be at once surveyed, and so marked that the Indians will have no difficulty in determining their boundaries. Indians claiming to have property in land included within Mexican grants should have an opportunity to try the question of their rights in the courts, and to that end an appropriation to employ counsel to conduct such suits should be made.

INDIANS OFF OF THE RESERVATION.

There has been much complaint coming from stockmen and settlers in the vicinity of Indian reservations, that the Indians are allowed to go off of the reservations to hunt, and that while out in such hunting parties, they depredate on the settlers and stockmen by killing cattle, stealing horses, &c. In some instances the charges have been without foundation; but it is believed that the settlers and stockmen in some

sections have suffered considerable loss from such parties. In some of the treaties with the Indians they reserve the right to hunt off of the reservation, and as they are generally well informed as to all the provisions of a treaty favorable to them, the agent finds it difficult to keep them on the reservation. In some cases the appropriations for their support are so small that they are compelled to support themselves, in part at least, by hunting. It is quite certain that as game becomes more difficult to obtain, the Indians will increase their depredations, especially those who are suffering the pangs of hunger. It would be difficult to restrain white men under like circumstances, and it is much more difficult to restrain Indians, who have very loose ideas concerning the rights of others. The only remedy is to keep them on their reservations, and this cannot be done unless they are supplied with suitable food, either by the Government or through their own exertions, and whenever they have in treaties with the Government reserved the right to hunt off of the reservation, such treaty should be modified, and in consideration of such modification they should be supplied with work and stock, cattle or agricultural implements, or both.

SURVEYING THE BOUNDARIES OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS.

One great difficulty in keeping the Indians on their reservation and the whites off is the uncertainty of the boundary lines. The exterior of all the reservations should be surveyed, and plainly marked, so that neither Indians nor whites would have difficulty in determining the boundaries thereof, and I recommend a suitable appropriation for this purpose.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

The report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office shows that the disposal of public lands under all acts of Congress aggregates 19,430,032.80 acres, of which amount 339,235.91 acres, were Indian lands, and 1,999,335.71 acres railroad sections under various acts of Congress. The total cash receipts in connection with the disposal of the public lands amounted to $11,713,883.70, of which amount $625,404.27 was on account of the sale of Indian lands. The increase in receipts for the year 1883 over that of the year 1882 was $3,319,367.66, and over that of 1881, $6,305,079.34; pre-emption and private entries, 4,465,665.49 acres; timber-culture entries, 3,110,930.23 acres; the number of homestead entries 56,565, embracing 8,171,914.38 acres. Not included in the lands disposed of, and in addition thereto, were 47,933 pre-emption filings, 4,999 soldiers' declaratory statements, and 10,232 miscellaneous filings, these three items embracing in the aggregate 8,000,000 acres.

The increase in the number of claims recorded in 1883 was 55,548 over that of the year 1882, and 93,700 over that of the year 1881; the number of entries approved for patenting under various laws, 53,847; an increase of 26,239 over that of the year 1882. Four thousand two

hundred and seventy-four contested cases were examined and acted upon during the fiscal year. The number of pre-emption cases undecided June 20, 1883, was 12,542, an increase of the number in arrears of 2,370, and 11,912 new cases were received for action. A considerable amount of timber land was sold at public sale; but no land valuable for agricultural purposes has been offered at public sale. The vast amount of work done by the Land Office during the fiscal year can be seen from the foregoing summary.

The Commissioner again renews his recommendation that the preemption law be repealed. He says:

In my last annual report I renewed the recommendation frequently made by my predecessors that the pre-emption law be repealed.

Continued experience demonstrates the advisability and necessity of such repeal. The objection that much good has heretofore resulted from the pre-emption system, and that it should not be discontinued because abused, appears to me without good foundation under the changed conditions created by the homestead law.

Before the homestead system was adopted the only method by which unoffered public lands could be obtained by settlers was by pre-emption. All the advantages of the pre-emption system are now embraced in the homestead laws. The same lands can be entered upon the same conditions and proofs and the payment of the same price under the homestead law as under the pre-emption law.

We have simply a double system for the same purpose, employing two sets of machinery, two agencies of adjustment, and a duplication of records, when only one is required. The administration of the law would he simplified and the labor and expense lessened by a discontinuance of the now unnecessary system of pre-emption.

He also recommends the repeal of the timber-culture law, and says: In my last annual report I called attention to the abuses flowing from the operations of this act. Continued experience has demonstrated that these abuses are inherent in the law, and beyond the reach of administrative methods for their correction.

Settlement on the land is not required; even residence within the State or Territory in which the land is situated is not a condition to an entry. A mere entry of record holds the land for one year without the performance of any act of cultivation. The meager act of breaking five acres, which can be done at the close of the year as well as at the beginning, holds the land for the second year. Comparatively trivial acts hold it for a third year. During these periods relinquishments of the entries are sold to homestead or other settlers at such price as the land may command.

My information leads me to the conclusion that a majority of entries under the timber-culture act are made for speculative purposes, and not for the cultivation of timber. Compliance with law in these cases is a mere pretense and does not result in the production of timber. On the contrary, as one entry in a section exhausts the timber-culture right in that section, it follows that every fraudulent entry prevents a bona fide one on any portion of the section within which the fraudulent entry is made. My information is that no trees are to be seen over vast regions of country where timber-culture entries have been most numerous.

He rcommends its repeal, and I fully concur with him in such recommendation.

The Commissioner recommends that the homestead law be so amended as to require a period of not less than six months after a settlement claim has been placed on record before final proof shall be admitted, irrespect

ive of alleged time of residence prior to the time of entry. In this I also concur.

The attention of the Department has been called to the frequent frauds committed by parties securing lands under existing settlement laws without a compliance therewith. In very many cases there is not even an attempt to comply with the laws. When the country was new, and the parties desiring to secure land comparatively few, it is believed that these laws were complied with in most cases when land was entered, but as the demand for land has increased, it seems as if the people are restless under the restraint imposed on them in securing land, and they go to work systematically to defeat the very purpose of the law. The homestead and pre-emption laws, designed to secure to the actual settler lands at a reasonable price, have become agencies by which the capitalist secures large and valuable areas of the public land at but little expense.

The parties thus securing land without a compliance with the terms of the law rarely hold the title thereto for any considerable time. In many cases, doubtless, such conveyances are made for the purpose of placing the title in the hands of those not connected with the frauds practiced at the time of entry, and in other cases from a desire to realize the value of the land. Much embarrassment arises from the attempt on the part of the Department to avoid such fraudulent entries. No difficulty is found where the parties making such fraudulent entries still hold the title, but in case there has been a transfer for a valuable consideration without notice of the fraud, great injustice is done to the purchaser by disturbing the title which he had no reason to suppose was fraudulent. Where the fraud is discovered before the issue of the patent the Department finds no difficulty in canceling the entry, but where such entries have passed to patent resort must be had to the courts. In some cases fictitious names are used in the entry, and under a well known principle of law no title passes by such entry and patent. On the records of the United States, as well as in the local office of record, there appears to be a good title in the patentee for the premises described in the patent. The local records show a conveyance to some one who professes to be the owner; on the strength of such patent and the conveyance under it, for a valuable consideration, a conveyance is made to a bona fide purchaser who subsequently finds his title attacked by the Government. If it is clearly established that the grantee in the patent had no existence, the title is held to be in the Government, and the purchaser has no remedy except against the vendor, who is usually impecunious, and not infrequently has left the country. It would appear to be right that after a certain time the presumption should be conclusive that the patent was issued in strict accordance with law, and there should be no inquiry into the proceedings anterior to the time of issue.