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bled were willing, for a small amount of beef and flour, to have signed any treaty which it had been my pleasure to write. I simply proposed to them that for all the one hundred and twenty thousand square miles, full of mines and rich enough to pay the public debt of the United States, they should abandon that territory and confine themselves to the elbow in the Colorado River, not more than seventy-five thousand acres. But I did not enter into any obligation on account of the United States to furnish them with seeds and agricultural implements. I simply told them that if I was elected to represent that Territory in this Congress, I would endeavor to lay their claims before the government, which they understood to be magnanimous, and that I hoped that this Congress would have the generosity and the justice to provide for these Indians, who have been robbed of their lands and their means of subsistence, and that they may be allowed to live there where they have always made their homes. They desire to live as do the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. Those Pueblo Indians live in settlements, in towns, in reservations, according to the wise policy of the Spanish Government, which colonized the Indians in reservations, and made their labor valuable in building improvements for their own subsistence, for churches, and public improvements, and in that manner made them peaceable Indians, instead of having everlasting and eternal war with the people whom they had robbed of their land.

"These people having been citizens of the Mexican government, are not, according to our theory, entitled to any right in the soil; and there

fore no treaty with these Indians for the extinction of their title to the soil would be recognized by this government. It is a fiction of law which these Indians in their ignorance, are not able to understand. They cannot see why the Indians of the Northeast have been paid annuities since the foundation of this Government for the extinction of their title, while the Indians who were formerly subject to the Spanish and Mexican governments are driven from their lands without a dollar. It is impossible for these simpleminded people to understand this sophistry. They consider themselves just as much entitled to the land which their ancestors inhabited before ours landed on Plymouth Rock as the Indians of the Northeast. They have never signed any treaty relinquishing their right to the public domain.

"I beg to lay before you a memorial of the Territorial Legislature on the subject. ""To the Senate and House of Representatives

of the United States in Congress assembled: "Your memorialists, the Council and House of Representatives of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Arizona respectfully represent, that the four tribes of Indians known as the Yavapais, Hualapais, Mojaves and Yumas, numbering about ten thousand, are now scattered over an extent of country from the Gila River on the south to the northern boundary of the Territory, and from the Colorado River on the west to the Rio Verde on the east; that these Indians are now roaming at large over the vast territory above described, gaining a precarious subsistence from the small patches of land along the Colorado River, which they cultivate, and

from fishing and hunting; that when the seasons are unfavorable to their little farming interests, or the Colorado River does not overflow to irrigate and enrich their fields, they are reduced to a starving condition, and compelled, by necessity to make raids upon the stock and property of the whites, and not infrequently do they ambush the traveler and miner, and waylay and stampede the stock of trains and plunder their packs and wagons; that the whites are settling up the country, and necessarily diminishing their means of subsistence, and increasing the dangers of a collision with them; that the late Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the Territory, Hon. Charles D. Poston, in view of their scattered and destitute condition, selected and caused to be laid off, on the east bank and bottom of the Colorado River, a reservation ample enough for the accommodation and support of all the above named tribes; that an irrigating canal can be constructed at an expense of a small amount (the Indians performing the labor) that will render highly productive a large tract of land that will yield an abundance for their support, and afford a large surplus to be disposed of for their education and improvement; that when placed upon said reservation they can, under judicious management, be made not only self-sustaining, but to produce largely for the market; that, to enable those who may be placed over them or have charge of them to open said canal, to remove them upon said reservation, and sustain them until they can, by their own labor, provide enough for their subsistence, your memorialists respectfully ask of your honorable body an appropriation of $150,000; that to secure the atten

tion and favorable consideration of the subject and matters of this memorial by the Congress of the United States.

"Be it resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Arizona, That our Delegate in Congress, Hon. Charles D. Poston, be requested to use all honorable means to bring the subject before Congress.

"And be it further Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor of the Territory of Arizona be requested to forward this memorial, together with such other information touching the subject as he may have in his possession, to Hon. Charles D. Poston, our Delegate in Congress.

666

"""W. CLAUDE JONES,

'Speaker of the House of Representatives.
"COLES BASHFORD,
"President of the Council.

"Approved November 7, 1864.

"JOHN N. GOODWIN.'

"In order that the proposition may be clearly understood I will read the report of the engineer who accompanied me on an examination of the valley of the Colorado to select a reservation for these Indians:

""La Paz City, Arizona, "May 30, 1864. "Sir: At your request I have made an examination of the lands on the eastern bank of the Colorado River from La Paz to Corner Rock.

"I have been surprised at the great quantity of rich bottom land and alluvial soil, traversed by many sloughs and lagunas, which extend from the banks of the river for several miles into the valley. Most of them are dry now, as the river did not rise high enough last year to fill them.

"I directed my special attention to the lands between Halfway Bend and the Mesa. With the exception of a few stretches of heavy sand land which I estimated at about one-fifth of the entire area, I found the soil excellent, most of it consisting of a light loam, of which many thousand acres are covered with mesquite trees, a sure indication of rich ground, while willows and cotton trees grow luxuriantly in the vicinity of the river, the sloughs and lagunas.

"At some places I noticed alkaline efflorescences, but they are not extensive. If these places could be regularly overflowed, much of the salts would be carried off. It is well known, moreover, that Indian corn and wheat grow well in alkaline soil.

"If the eastern boundary of the intended reservation runs from the mouth of the principal slough at Halfway Bend (the Indians call it Mad-ku-dap) in a direction nearly north, 26° 30′ east to Corner Rock, it will include an area of about 118 square miles, equal to 75,520 acres. Of this, six square miles are mesa land, leaving 112 square miles, or 71,680 acres of valley land. Onefifth deducted as sand land leaves 90 square miles, or 57,600 acres, of bottom land or light loamy soil. About one-fourth of this, say 22 square miles, or 14,080 acres, is covered with mesquite trees. A large mesquite tree yields several bushels of beans. Supposing, then, that in this year every acre produced five bushels, the crop would amount to 70,400 bushels, which, with rabbits, lizards, tuli roots, the fish of the river, the little wheat and pumpkins they can raise, and the sale of hay, may give a precarious subsistence this year to the ten thousand In

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