456 INDIANS OF WESTERN NEVADA AND CALIFORNIA. 



by the removal of the garrison, and by his vigorous measures in forbid- 

 ding the women from visiting town, and bad whites from coming on 

 the reservation, he has greatly abated social vice and the consequent 

 disease ; all plural wives have been put away, and most of the Indians 

 have been married by the forms of the church ; no profane language is 

 heard, the Sabbath is well observed, and stealing is much less frequent. 

 A church is organized, numbering about 130 members, who are regarded 

 as intelligent and sincere Christians; there are frequent prayer- meet- 

 ings and Sunday schools, iu which the Indians take an active part ; 

 there are five men licensed to exhort. The whole reservation has been 

 consolidated into a little confederacy, with a form at least of independ- 

 ent government; the chiefs of the tribes constitute a senate, and two 

 delegates from each tribe make up a house of representatives — both to- 

 gether being " the congress of the Eound Valley United States Indian 

 reservation. 1 ' They meet about once a month, and listen to the reading 

 of, and vote upon, laws for the regulation of their every-day affairs. 

 There is an Indian judge, who hears and summarily disposes of all 

 cases brought before him ; also an Indian marshal, who makes arrests 

 and imprisons the culprits according to the findings and seuteuce of 

 the judge. The Indians take considerable interest in all these proceed- 

 ings ; but whether they would long maintain the church, the Sunday- 

 school, and the "congress," if left to themselves, may well be questioned. 

 Their material condition is not so good as their moral and spiritual. 

 There are very few lumber cabins on the reserve, although the Govern- 

 ment owns a saw-mill on it. The majority of them still sleep on the 

 ground, and you will frequently see a good bedstead shoved aside, and 

 and the perverse old aborigine making his bed on the earth, as his ances- 

 tors did before him. They have not been taught to make floors and chim- 

 neys to any considerable extent. Most of the rancherias are built on 

 low ground in the valley, and one at least on an old Indian burying- 

 ground, so that the exhalations are unhealthy and productive of 

 disease. In their native state the Indians, though there was a large 

 population in the valley, always placed their lodges around the edge of 

 it, on the first little bench of the foot-hills, where the atmosphere is 

 salubrious. They would build there now, if it were made convenient for 

 them to do so. 



The long-standing differences with the settlers in the vicinity, and the 

 consequent restriction of the area of the reservation, have not a little 

 impaired its usefulness and unsettled the minds of the Indians. They 

 have long been looking forward to the time when they should receive 

 land in severalty, whereon they could build their own houses, cultivate 

 a few acres, keep some stock, and live a somewhat independent and 

 assured life like white men. " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." 

 The Indians are unable to comprehend the intricate and complicated 

 processes of government; and they do not understand, when they were 

 promised land so long ago, why the Great Father does not take it away 



