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[[preprinted]] 8 [[/preprinted]]

Nez Perce Agency Idaho, June 8, 1889.
Hon. Comm'r. of Indian Affairs:

Sir:
I have the honor to report that I am here at Fort Lapwai with the surveyor who has been trying to establish the boundaries of the military and [[lay?]] reservations. These occupy the choicest part of the Lapwai Valley and together with the Spalding-Langford claim (concerning which I shall report) about cover all the agricultural land from the mouth of the Lapwai to its junction with the Sweetwater. This valley and the others where the Indians are living are narrow and winding shut in by banks from 5 to 800 feet high, rocky and unfit in the most part even for pastures. Upon the flats these precipices and basalt teraces are laid out in 20 acre tracts as though the territory was prairie land. Upon the uplands beyond the banks, small grain can be grown under the most favorable circumstances, but the crops are apt to fail. A hot windstorm last Tuesday burnt up all the grain upon these lands in this vicinity. Irrigation is impossible, and no trees or vegetables can be raised, and even pasturage is uncertain during the summer months. These lands therefore should be allotted as grazing lands a decision concurred in by all the Government officers at present here, and the surveyor

Transcription Notes:
Fort Lapwai name verified