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United States. Office of Indian Affairs / Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the year 1856
([1856])
[New Mexico], pp. 180-184
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Page 183
TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO. communities, richly deserving the fostering care and assistance of the government. They continue to cultivate the soil with success, and, as a general rule, are free from the want of any of the neces- saries of life. Several of the Pueblos have lost their grants from the governments of Spain and Mexico for the lands held by them, and in such cases their agent, A. G. Mayers, has taken testimony before the surveyor general of the Territory to substantiate their claims; and it is to be hoped thaf in all such cases Congress will promptly con- firm their titles. These Indians have, from time to time, been sup- plied with agricultural implements, and as the appropriation for this purpose is not yet exhausted, this policy is proposed to be continued. in this connexion I would respectfully recommend that the superin- tendent be authorized to assign some of the Pueblos to other agents, more conveniently situated to attend to their interests than the Pueblo agent is, because some of the Pueblos are located distant from their agent, but in the immediate vicinity of some other agent, who could act for them ; for instance, the pueblo of Taos is situated within four or five miles of the Utah agency, whilst it is over seventy-five miles from the Pueblo agency. Again, the Pueblos of Moqui are about eighty miles from the Navajo agency, and over three hundred from the Pueblo agency; therefore, if the Pueblo agent desires to visit Moqui, or the Indians of this pueblo should wish to communi- cate with their agent, either party must make a journey of three hun- dred miles to accomplish the object; and they must, in either case, pass immediately by the Navajo agency, when, if these pueblos were assigned to the last mentioned agency, one could communicate with the other by travelling eighty miles; and in addition to these consi- derations, the Moquis do all their trading at Fort Defiance, where the Navajo agency is located. From the most reliable information in my possession, we have ac- quired, by the Gadsden treaty with Mexico, about five thousand In- dians in addition to those heretofore under the charge of this super- intendency. A large portion of this accession to our Indian-popula- tion consists of Pueblos, situated near Tucson; and, as a military post is about being established in that vicinity, and that section of this Territory is now being rapidly settled by our people, I would respect- fully recommend that an additional agent or sub-agent be appointed to take charge of the interests of these Indians. They are removed to a distance of at least three hundred miles from any other agency, and more than five hundred miles from the Pueblo agency. The Gila Apaches commit frequent depredations upon them, and unless they have an agent at hand to attend to their interests, their rights may be trampled upon. This agent could also take charge of the neighboring Gila Apaches. These recently acquired Pueblo Indians are represented to me as being in a similar state of civilization as the other Pueblos of this Territory. They reside in permanent villages, have comfortable houses built of adobes, have flocks and herds around them, and rely upon the cultivation of the soil for a subsistence- raising wheat, corn, cotton, and other vegetables. They are divided into six pueblos, or villages, but whether or not they hold their lands under grants from the former governments of their country I am not 183
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