The Mission Indians
would require for their own use. The land they had settled upon I found to be surveyed Government land, and I found also that their success in growing grain upon it had already attracted the attention of the ubiquitous 'land grabber.' No time must be lost in securing this land for these Indians. The Indians feared they might be driven off, and I promised them I would not sleep after returning to the agency till I had written to Washington and asked that this land be given to them. I kept my promise, and, with commendable promptness, I received an executive order setting apart the land for their use. To me, as well as to these Indians, it was the most gratifying incident of the year."
It is indeed something that the Indian's refuge in the canyons was saved to him. The case of this little band of San Luis Rey Indians was only one of many. In foot-hills, in canyons, on unclaimed little oases in the deserts—wherever a few of the dispossessed Indians had gathered together in the hope of again establishing themselves—executive orders were secured setting aside portions of the public domain for their use. And whenever one of these little reservations proved too tempting to the on-coming white man, he had only to persist in his inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness in that particular spot; another executive order as easily disposed of the Indian right, and restored the land to the public domain—to his domain. The real
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