Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/28

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26
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

ments were in progress to bring to them their wives and children, who at that time were living on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. But the appearance of some officers of the law on the reservation, whom the Indians suspected of having come there for the purpose of arresting them under indictments found against them for horse-stealing and murder, Victoria and his men effected their escape, suddenly left the Mescalero Reservation, took with them other southern Apaches, and resumed their old marauding practices until after many fights and vicissitudes they came to their end. Some remnants of his band seem to be still at large, but it is thought that they can easily be overcome and caught, and that then peace will be restored on our southern frontier.


THE LEMHI AND FORT HALL INDIANS.


Congress at its last session passed an act providing for the settlement of the Lemhi Indians upon Fort Hall Reservation, and also for the cession of a part of that reservation to the United States in consideration of certain annuities to be paid to the Indians affected thereby, subject to the consent of the latter. I had a personal conference with the chiefs of the Lemhi and Fort Hall Indians at the agency of the latter in August last, in which a majority of the Lemhi Chiefs and headmen declared their unwillingness to abandon their present abode. Their consent to their removal provided for in the law not being obtained, no further steps were taken in that direction. The Fort Hall Indians, on the other hand, declared themselves satisfied with the arrangements made; and it will therefore be necessary so to change the law as to adapt it to this new state of circumstances, which is hereby respectfully recommended.


THE PI-UTES.


Early last winter Chief Winnemucca, his daughter, Sarah Winnemucca, and some headmen of the Pi-Utes, asked permission to come to Washington for the purpose of making certain arrangements for the permanent settlement of their people. That permission was granted and they represented that most of the Pi-Utes scattered over Nevada and Southern Oregon, as well as those settled on the Yakama Reservation in Washington Territory, were desirous to move to the Malheur Reservation in Oregon, for the purpose of cultivating the soil and establishing permanent homes. They received the assurance that this department would facilitate such a movement, provided the Indians concerned really desired it, and that in such case their settlement upon the Malheur Reservation would be aided in every possible manner, but that those Pi-Utes who were at present working for wages, or who were settled on the Yakama Reservation or other lands, and did not desire to remove to the Malheur Reservation, should in no way be forced to do so. On the occasion of my visit to the Pyramid Lake Reservation in Nevada, where I met several chiefs