Page 311

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 311 
but when the school-house was completed, and it was announced to the chiefs
that school 
would commence, the children could not be induced to enter the house, nor
even to approach 
the place where they had been attending school unawares. The old Indians
had evidently 
frightened them in some way. Since then there has been no attempt made at
educating the 
children, but the effort will probably be renewed next winter. 
The Indians have always positively refused to do any work, especially the
men, until this 
last year. During the winter the young men were often employed at the agency
in handling 
stores, &c., and they always worked well for pay in some sort of merchandise.
Last spring 
a large number commenced farming; we helped them make their dam and irrigating-ditch,
and they got a fine start, the old chiefs and the young men taking hold in
earnest. They 
planted corn, beans, potatoes, and pumpkins, and they all came up nicely,
but early frosts 
damaged the prospects considerably, and about that time came a distracting
rumor, pretty 
well authenticated, that the agency would very soon be moved to Ojo Caliente,
and every- 
thing combined to discourage the Indians from doing any work after June.
The result of 
their efforts at farming is a failure. They have proved that they can work
successfully 
when properly urged to commence and encouraged to continue. No farming has
been at- 
tempted this season by the Government employes, aside from gardening for
their own use, 
because their time has been-entirely occupied in attending to the Indians
and keeping up 
the old buildings of the agency. 
We have been annoyed but very little on the reservation by the thieving propensities
of 
the Indians, but it is pretty certain that they still steal a good many horses
at a dis- 
tance from home, probably joining the Arizona Apaches in raids into Sonora.
They are 
fond of visiting the Arizona Apaches, and these visits I cannot stop, for
want of cavalry near 
the agency with which to follow, and bring them back for punishment, when
they start. I 
have made repeated efforts to have at least a small detachment of cavalry
at Fort Tulerosa, 
but have failed to secure them. 
The Apaches have not hitherto given any attention to raising stock, not even
horses, the 
animals in which they take great delight. Their practice has always been
to steal a supply 
of horses, and as soon as they were all traded off or broken down by abuse,
to procure a new 
supply in the same way; but this summer they are raising quite a number of
colts, and 
are keeping a few goats about their rancherias. Stock-raising is encouraged
by all means 
at the agent's command. 
The agency is now being removed from the Tulerosa reservation to the Ojo
Caliente res- 
ervation, nearly identical with the reservation from which they were removed
by Mr. Vincent 
Colyer in ] 872. The place to which we are now removing is not as well adapted
in any respect 
for an Indian reservation as the place we are leaving, unless the Mexican
town of Canada 
Alamosa is purchased by Government, and the eastern line of the reservation
run so as to 
include the farming district now cultivated by the inhabitants of that town.
I would re- 
spectfully recommend the purchase of this town, as Government already owns
the land, 
and the Ojo Caliente reservation will not be worth much unless it can be
extended so as to 
include this arable land. 
There has been a good deal of time lost in the work of civilizing these Indians
by these 
changes of location, and it will certainly be good policy now to locate permanently
and erect 
suitable buildings for the greatest efficiency of the agency. I asked the
principal chief if 
be was willing to remove to Ojo Caliente, and he replied " Yes; but
give us some place 
and let us remain there." 
The accompanying statistics are made entirely with reference to the Tulerosa
reservation. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
BEN. M. THOMAS, 
United States Agent, Southern -Apaches. 
H-on. En. P. SMITH, 
Commissioner, Washington, D. C. 
HOOPA VALLEY INDIAN RESERVATION, CALIFORNIA, 
August 31, 1874. 
SIR: In obedience to instructions, I have the honor to submit my annual report
for this 
reservation. 
The service here labors under some natural disadvantages. The farming-lands
are divided 
into eight tracts, four upon each side of the Trinity River, the extremes
being about seven 
miles apart. A hill in each direction from the agency buildings allows only
about one-third 
the quantity to be hauled at a time that is usual upon ordinary farms, causing
much addi- 
tional labor of teams, wear and breakage of wagons, and aIn increased quantity
of supplies, 
&c. There are about seven hundred acres of plow-land, one-third of which,
before it was 
worn and exhausted, would have been consideired second-rate land, the rest
ranking as fourth