Viewing page 130 of 485

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[preprinted]] 128 [[/preprinted]]

3.

admits both by word and practice that this is a grazing rather than a farming country, altho. grain, hardy vegetables and fruits will ripen in farmed localities. Still when the land is looked upon as territory to be divided among the Indians, or is a region to be thrown open to settlement, the agricultural qualities are accordingly increased in value and the practical rating of the soil, lost sight of. I do not wish to burden my reports, nor this Office, with the petty troubles which arise from ignorance of the Act of Feb 8, 1887, & from an ignoring of the Indian's right to his full share of the best of his land, and from a greed to possess land withheld from settlement; but as I find myself followed by either self appointed, or in some other way commissioned, persons, who propose "to look after the interests of the Settlers", I desire to leave no precaution untaken which may prevent future controversy and trouble concerning this allotment, either between the white settlers and the Indians, or the former and the Department. The confidence which the Indians express in me, I have been many times urged to use, in order to draw the Indians from their desirable lands, to the river canyons etc, that these farms might be left for the white men, and many are the sharp and ugly remarks made to the Indians and of me