Page 117

REPORTS OF AGENTS IN NEVADA. 
117 
by the white people as servants on ranches and about houses, and as herders
of stock, &c. 
Another class subsist as they can, by begging and gambling, and sometimes
hunting. The 
Indians under my charge have no reservation; they are generally destitute.
They are 
scattered over a very large tract of country, and inhabit the following named
counties in Ne- 
vada: Lander, Nye, White Pine, Eureka, Elko, and a part of Lincoln and Humboldt.
I find on close examination that the Western Shoshones number nearly 4,000,
including 
some Gosh-Utes and other Indians near the line of Utah and Nevada. There
are several 
small bands of Gosh-Utes, Utes, and a few Pah-Vants among the Shoshones of
the eastern 
part of the State. These Indians claim to belong to no agency, and say they
receive noth- 
ing from the Government. The Mormon people have frequently assisted them,
and have a 
great influence over them as well as the Shoshones in that vicinity. Nearly
all the Indians 
near the line of Utah and Nevada have been baptized by the Mormon people.
The influ- 
ence that people have over these Indians has been greatly increased in the
past two years 
by the failure of the Government to provide for the relief of the suffering
among the Indi- 
ans. 
The Indians under my charge have received little or no assistance from the
Government 
during the past year. Considerable suffering prevailed among the Indians
last winter and 
spring in the vicinity of the trouble that occurred last September, (full
particulars of 
which have been heretofore reported.) The Indians were compelled to leave
their ranches 
and homes and go to Deep Creek, in Utah, and remain there until after the
excitement was 
over. They left most of their grain, which they cached in the mountains.
The most of 
their potatoes and other vegetables were not harvested at the time they left,
and were subse- 
quently destroyed by cattle belonging to the whites. I was informed by Mr.
A. S. Lehman, 
of Snake Valley, that while the Indians were absent some white men had stolen
a con- 
siderable amount of the grain belonging to the Indians, which rendered them
destitute on 
their return; and winter set in upon them in this condition. These facts
I reported to the 
Department, under date of December 2, 1875. The Indians above referred to
have done con- 
siderable farming for themselves this year, without any assistance whatever
from the De- 
partment. They had some trouble in obtaining seed, and not as much was done
in the way 
of farming as would otherwise have been done. Many of the Indians in that
vicinity are 
now destitute; some sickness prevails among them, and should be attended
to. 
The Indians who are farming throughout the eastern part of the State have
been greatly 
annoyed during the past year by the want of land and water. The country is
being fast 
settled up by white people; and the patches of land heretofore cultivated
by the Indians, in 
many cases, have been taken from them, and in other cases the water used
for irrigating pur- 
poses has been taken from them, and their crops have dried up and become
worthless. I 
have been frequently appealed to by the Indians to assist them in such cases,
but in most 
instances it has been impossible for me to do so: the Indians being scattered
over a very 
large tract of country, and I being entirely without means to use in their
behalf. I have, 
however, succeeded in assisting them in some cases at my own expense. 
The Indians complain to me that the country is being fast settled up by the
whites, and 
that in a very short time there will be no land for them and no place for
them to go, and 
that in most cases they have to work for the whites for anything they may
see fit to give 
them, and that this state of affairs is growing worse instead of better.
The most intelligent 
of them see the condition of affairs, and are anxious that something should
be done, while 
others are indolent and ignorant, and care for nothing but the present. 
Since the writing of this report I have been visited by a delegation of Indians
from White 
Pine, (my former home.) Among them is an intelligent young chief by the name
of Tsa-wie, 
(good knife.) Captain Sam, another chief from the north side of the Central
Pacific Rail- 
road, is also present. In a conversation had with the former, he stated that
he could not 
see what was to become of the Shoshones in his country; that the game was
all gone; the 
trees that bore pine-nuts were cut down and burned in the quartz-mills and
other places ; the 
grass-seed, heretofore used by them for food, was no more; the grass-land
was all claimed 
by the whites, and the grass cut for hay before the seed was ripe; that the
good land was 
or soon would be all claimed and cultivated by the white people; and that
his Indians would 
soon be compelled to work for theranchers for two bits (twenty-five cents)
per day, or starve. 
He also states that himself and many others of his tribe are in favor of
a tract of land being 
reserved for the Shoshones, that they may have some place for their future
home ; that if 
one place cannot be found large enough for them all, then locate three or
four places, as the 
case may require ; but to have these places as near together as possible,
and as near to where 
there is game and fish as can be found. Captain Sam states that he thinks
such places can 
be found north of the railroad in his country, but does not know to what
extent it is claimed 
by the whites. He states that he is anxious to go with me this fall and ascertain
if a place 
or places can be located suitable for a home for the Shoshones. Tsa-wie and
others also 
are anxious to go with me, and furnish their own horses. 
The Indians state that in their opinion it will take some time to get all
of the Shoshones 
to leave their present homes and locate in any place or places suitable for
them. Some of 
the old Indians are very superstitious about leaving the country formerly
inhabited by their 
ancestors and where their relatives have died, believing, as they do, that,
if they leave their 
old homes and die somewhere else, their spirits will be lost. Some of the
old men have con-