Condition of (Indian) Affairs - Pages 59-86



Page 59

Agent Ward built them a school house last summer, using the lumber which 
had been hauled to San Ysabel. A Miss Hord, of Mississippi, was teaching 
two pupils, the others being out sick with the measles, and one of the two 
present was sick. She has twenty on her roll. She seemed a very bright, 
nice young woman, and I think a good teacher. She has done good service as 
doctor among the people, showing them how to care for the sick. The 
Indians were in trouble, the progressive ones, with their captain, and are 
glad of the prospect that they may get out from under his control through 
the Severalty bill. Juaquin, a sensible middle-aged man, wanted the 
Indians to take a herd of cattle, and have half the increase for taking 
care of it. The captain would not assent. He then went off by himself and 
took a small herd of goats, which his boy was herding for half the 
increase, while he worked out for a white man. The captain, seeing Juaquin 
was doing a good thing for himself, thought he would take some cattle on 
the same terms, and demanded that Juaquin should put off the goats, and 
would have had him flogged when he refused but for the man for whom he was 
working. He came to see me, and when I explained the Severalty bill to 
him, he went away full of hope that there would be a chance for him some 
time. 

Certain facts which should be pondered very seriously have forced 
themselves upon my attention. Suppose the cases against the Indians, 
commenced by the owners of these old grants, are decided in favor of the 
Indians, and the courts maintain their right to occupy the lands on which 
they are now living, just what will have been secured? In the first place, 
the amount of land is small; secondly, it is for the most part well worn; 
thirdly, it is hemmed in by the grant, within whose exterior bounds it 
lies; fourthly, it is only a title of occupancy, which will inevitably 
lapse through removals and deaths; fifthly, it is a tribal title so far as 
it is a title, and perpetuates the tribal relations so long as it is 
maintained. 

These several propositions are worthy very serious consideration on the 
part of those who are fighting the cause of these people, and desire their 
best interests. 

The school house is new, and if it was not paralleled by some others to be 
seen out here, I would also say unique. It stands on a sttep hillside; one 
side of the roof is much longer than the other, 

Page 60

in deference to the incline of the hill; the seats for the children are 
two long benches extending along the wall at one side and one end of the 
room, without back or desk. The school supplies, in the way of books, 
maps, pencils, etc., are equal to these accommodations. It makes one 
ashamed of the Government when he sees such an outfit for the educational 
work it has undertaken for these people. 

One of our horses had the misfortune to break his shoe and so injure his 
hoof that we were forced to give up our proposed thirty-mile ride to San 
Felipe, where there is an Indian village. This is on a confirmed grant, 
our Government having issued a patent covering the grant. Of course this 
has not settled anything, for the patent only confirms whatever right the 
grantee had, and is conclusive only as between the Government and 
patentee, leaving untouched the question of the Indians' rights of 
occupancy. There are here some sixty Indians. The grant has just been sold 
for a large price, and, though I have not positive information on this 
point, it is said, with the understanding that the title is to be cleared 
of the Indians' right of occupancy. The grant is to be sold in small lots, 
and the Indians will have to go, unless steps are successfully taken to 
defend them. 

Our driver, Mr. Bergman, who has lived on his place for twenty-five years, 
and knows everybody and every foot of land along our route, was constantly 
pointing out places on which Indians once lived, from which they were 
either driven outright or bought off for a sack of flour or a bottle of 
whiskey, or some such consideration. He took me out of my way to show me a 
little valley in which five families are now living on Government land--an 
aggregate of fifteen people. The old man, father or father-in-law and 
grandfather of most of them, has quite a little vineyard and orchard, with 
irrigating ditch and sufficient land for their support if it is secured to 
them. I took the names of the men and the numbers of the sections on which 
they are located, and hope the steps I took will be followed up and the 
land secured to them. 

I believe that if some one could be employed to go about and hunt up the 
land, little farms of ten, fifteen and twenty acres could be found, 
scattered here and there, for a very large number of Indians, and that it 
would be a practical and good thing to do in the settlement of these 
people. 

Page 61

PACHANGO, PALA, PAUMA. The next points visited were Pachango, Pala Pauma, 
La Peche, La Jolla and Rincon. A new and threatening danger hangs over all 
these excepting Pachango, which, so far as I know, does not come under its 
darkening shadow. This is giving great anxiety both to whites and Indians, 
and all alike are uncertain as to what may come of it. 

The Ocean-Side Land and Water Company is purchasing and claiming water 
rights all the way from Ocean Side, at the mouth of the San Louis Rey 
River, up to its head. It has bought Golsh's land, just back of Veal's 
place, beyond the old Mission house at Pala, and has forbidden Veal to 
open up an old ditch of his, through which he used to irrigate. It has 
bought, for $60,000, the Major Utt place, which lies up on the high Mesa, 
under the mountain. The company commenced to dig for a dam near the mill, 
under the high bluffs, between Pala and Pauma; it is also digging in the 
canons above the Pauma village, and over at La Jolla and La Peche, and 
clear up to the very head of the river, posting notices of a claim to 10,
000 inches of water. 

Of course this is causing great alarm among the whites, and Indians too. 

Mr. Coronel, of Los Angeles, a friend of Mrs. Jackson's, and regarded by 
the Indians as a father, had called a meeting of the Indians at Pala. He 
and his wife, Mr. Rust and his daughter, sundry photographers and 
newspaper men from Los Angeles and San Francisco were on hand. About one 
hundred Indians came, from all the principal villages and reservations in 
San Barnadino and San Diego Counties. I got back from Rincon, La Jolla, 
etc., Monday night, and from then until Wednesday morning I had a busy 
time. 

I explained the Severalty bill and urged its provisions. Also, what we 
were doing with reference to the protection of those who are on grants, 
and assured them that they should have the utmost defence that could be 
made; but made no promise, and held out no misleading hopes as to the 
issue. I asked them not to be too badly frightened as to the water 
company. It might be their purpose only to develop and store the water, so 
as to make the most of it, with no intention of cutting off any one 

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from the rights they had to it. So long as they simply went about digging 
here and there off the lands claimed by them, to let them alone; if they, 
or any one else, undertook to turn off their water from them, to notify 
the lawyer whom we would employ to protect them, and also to turn the 
water on again, so that their crops should not suffer. That before any one 
had a legal right to take their water, they must have gained that right in 
the courts, and of course the Indians would know of it. I said that we 
would take whatever steps were necessary to prevent their losing any 
rights they had in the premises, by the digging of these men, and the 
notices given, etc., etc. 

I also explained their rights to enter public land, and said I would see 
any present who wanted to enter such land, and do what I could to help 
them. Quite a number came to me after the meeting for further explanation. 
I also said that on two of the reservations there would be more land than 
the Indians living on them would need, and they must be prepared to give 
up the idea of living where they had always lived, and take land where 
they could get it, if the case now in court should be decided adversely to 
the Indians. 

I also said that while we were trying to fight their battles for them, 
they were protecting and supporting the most destructive enemies they had. 
That the Government had sent out a man to discover and punish the men who 
were debauching their women and robbing them of everything they had by 
means of whiskey and gambling, and, instead of helping him fight their 
enemies, they were concealing and protecting them. That I could not do 
much for them with my friends in the East, if they should be told that 
these Indians were a miserable, whiskey-drinking, debauched people. We 
could not lead men to victory who fell out by the wayside drunk, or who 
took to the bushes to gamble: that Col. Wallace was here to help them 
drive out their enemies, and I wanted them to help him do it. The Colonel 
then explained what he had come to do, and what steps must be taken by 
them, and would see any who would undertake to furnish proof against 
liquor sellers. A number came to the Colonel, and said they would do all 
they could, now that they knew how to stop this traffic. 

Don Antonio Coronel, who is recognized by the Indians as a 

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staunch friend, talked to them in a most fatherly way, and some who had 
before said they would die rather than leave their old homes, expressed 
themselves as willing, if necessary, to go to such place as they could be 
assured of. 

The day was a very laborious one, and I believe valuable in every way. 

It is said that Bishop Mora has sold his ranch at Pauma to a Boston 
syndicate. He either owned or did not own the lands on which the Indians 
lived; if he did not, of course he could not sell it; if he did, then he 
can scarce pose as the special friend of these poor people, if he did not 
except from the sale their homes. 

Mrs. Coronel was told by an Indian woman that the Indians whipped him out 
of their church at Pala not long since. 

At Rincon, La Peche, and La Jolla the situation is unchanged. The school 
at La Peche, taught by a lady from Georgia, does not amount to much. The 
house is full, but the teaching poor. The house itself is a disgrace to 
any grade of civilization. It is a new house, built by Agent Ward, two 
years since. It would be as easy, almost, to warm the country about it as 
the inside of it. The water question gives great anxiety to the Indians 
here and at La Jolla. 

Mrs. Colonel Coutts has, as yet, taken no steps, I believe, to make good 
her claim to 8,848 acres of La Jolla, based upon a grant made in 1845 to 
Jose and Pablo Apis, and purchased from them by Col. Cave Coutts. This 
claim was not presented to the Land Commission appointed March 3d, 1851, 
to investigate titles under old Mexican grants. It is reasonable to 
suppose that if she thought it good she would urge it; but it lies back of 
the order creating this reservation in 1875 and 1877, and may yet be 
brought forward and give trouble. 

The school at Rincon is taught by Miss Alexander, of Atlanta, Georgia. We 
reached there at 3 P. M., but the school was already dismissed, and I had 
no chance to judge of her work. She appeared to be a pleasant, sensible 
sort of a woman. She and the other teacher, the one at La Peche, board 
together at the old Andrew Scott house, under the hill on the road from La 
Peche to Rincon, and have bought the place, as if it was their expectation 
to hold their positions permanently. 

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Feles Calac, the first Indian in California who has been allowed to 
purchase State land as a citizen, whose right to do so was recently 
affirmed by the Superior Court, was complained of to me by some of the 
Indians, as having a piece of land under cultivation on the reservation, 
while he was living on his own land off the reserve. I found it was a 
piece he had himself cleared up, and on which he made his money with which 
he purchased the school land, on which he lives, and that he wants to have 
some of his own family have it when the lands are allotted. I said to the 
complainants that if he had stayed among them, and spent his money for 
whiskey, they would not complain of his holding it, and I did not think it 
just to punish him for saving his money and going ahead--that when the 
reservation land should be allotted, the Commissioner would settle the 
question, but he ought to have his field which he had cleared, and give 
the use of it to some one of his own family, rather than to some one of 
them who had no claim to it. 

There is another Indian who had built a house on the school land which 
Calac has bought, and made improvements on it before he bought it. I asked 
Calac what he intended to do with his claim for improvements, and for him. 
He said he would pay him for his improvements, and that he was still 
living on it, and he charged him no rent. I advised him to pay him, and 
also to charge him a small rent, so as to raise no question in the future 
as to ownership. 

The Indians said Calac bought the land as their captain, and the land 
ought to be theirs as a tribe; but, instead of that, he had left them, 
become a citizen and taken the land as his own. They admitted that he had 
paid for it with his own money, and I explained that it was only as a 
citizen that he could purchase it. 

It was easy to see, from the experiences of a day, that I could spend the 
next ten years as Lord Chief Justice, settling petty cases. 

At Pala an Indian had built a house and cultivated some fields on 
Government land. Two years ago a Mexican named Pico, who has an Indian 
wife, begged the privilege of spending the winter in it, as he had no 
home. It was granted. The fellow is still in possession; he filed upon the 
land as unoccupied, but was defeated in his effort to prove upon it, by 
our counsel, 

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Shirley Ward. Two other Indians have been cultivating a part of the 1/4 
section on which the house stands; one of these, a woman, Marie, has grit, 
and has "stood" the Mexican and every one else "off," and holds on to her 
part, five acres of it. 

I tried to get it settled by having the Indian file on it and save it to 
himself and then adjust the claims and rights of Marie and the other 
Indian, but they move so slowly it will require the presence for a long 
time of some one who will show them how to do it. 

There are only 160 acres on the Pala Reserve; and only about 55 acres of 
this is fit for anything; this is less than two acres to each of the 
thirty Indians on it. There are several little nooks of public land that 
can be filed upon, near, and in some cases, adjoining it. It needs very 
greatly a man of sense and honesty to go in, hand-picking, to settle these 
people. 

A large and fine reservation was set apart for them, but the whites got it 
restored to the public domain, and not only the Indians, but some whites 
who had settled on it, lost their homes. 

The agent here has received notification that all the schools among this 
people, excepting four, not counting Father Ubach's boarding-school at San 
Diego, must be closed at the end of this year. The four to be maintained 
are: San Jacinto, Coahuila, Rincon and La Peche or La Jolla (these are the 
same). The reason assigned is the small attendance. The order does not 
specify the schools by name, but if executed will close all whose average 
attendance has not been as high as twenty. Only four have maintained that 
average. All the schools have been depleted by the measles, and it would 
be an outrage to enforce the order, and doom to perpetual ignorance the 
children of those who have suffered so many wrongs at our hands. If, 
perchance, there were only 19 children who could be kept in school in one 
of these isolated villages, it would be advisable, even under an 
economical administration of Indian affairs, to give those a chance to fit 
themselves for citizenship, and, imitating Abraham the father of the 
faithful, in his plea for Sodom, we might urge the school even for "ten's 
sake." 

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CAPTAIN GRANDE. I went also to the Capitan Grande Reservation, which the 
President ordered to have cleared of intruders the middle of last winter, 
which order had been suspended and repeated once or twice. The order was 
renewed in the spring, and the military were to remove them if they did 
not go. The agent told me that the order had been carried out and the 
intruders were gone. I went there to see about it. I found that one man, 
who had taken possession of an Indian's house some years ago, and had been 
running a liquor saloon in it, had taken his liquors out and moved about a 
quarter of a mile, while he still retained possession of the Indian's land 
and had men in charge there. This was the only change that had been made. 
I also found that a San Diego water company was building a flume across 
the reservation almost its entire length--a fact never reported to the 
Government by the Agent--and was posting claims to the water, very much to 
the disturbance of the Indians. I found five liquor saloons in full blast 
on the reservation. On coming out I met a representative of the Department 
of Justice, who had been sent out to make some inquiries into the liquor 
traffic, at Los Angeles, to whom I made known the situation. The United 
States Marshal and troops sent in by General Miles, under charge of John 
T. Wallace, the special inspector above mentioned, went in and brought out 
seven men, destroyed their beers and ales, and captured a wagon load of 
whiskies and wines, and when I came away the seven men were in jail at Los 
Angeles awaiting their trial. I should add that Mr. Wallace did not deem 
it prudent to say anything to the district attorney who had been appointed 
in that district, although it belonged to him, as a part of his duty, to 
arrest these men. 

The Department, since my report of the doings of this water company, has, 
through its new agent, made a contract with the company, by which it 
agrees to furnish these Indians with all the water needed by them for 
irrigation and domestic purposes, and to pay $100 per mile for the right 
of way through the reservation. I think the latter is more than justice to 
the Indian. We could not ask for land damages when they are amply supplied 
with water. 

It is a commentary on the way the good intentions of the 

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Department fail ofttimes of execution--this fact that the operations of 
this water company on the reservation, though in progress for many months, 
had not been reported by the Agent in charge; that this order for the 
removal of intruders had utterly failed of execution, though entrusted to 
the Agent, with the authorized aid of the military, and that these several 
saloons were in full blast, undisturbed either by the Agent or the 
military, and would not have been discovered by the special inspector sent 
out from the Department of Justice, but for my visit. 

In the whole management of Indian affairs there is a very great distance 
between the responsible head and the executing hand; there are many 
chances that good intentions shall go astray before they can be put in 
operation; that beneficent orders shall get lost in the pigeon holes of 
careless clerks, or shall get hung up and lost before they are executed. 

It is much pleasanter for Special Inspectors to stop at comfortable hotels 
in the neighboring cities, than to endure the discomforts of long rides to 
the reservation, and reports can more easily be written while waiting 
there, than while hunting for truthful facts of which to make them. Unless 
they are belied by men who profess to know about it, few of the inspectors 
who have reported on this reservation ever went nearer to it than did the 
man who set it apart for the Indians, and have uniformly, almost, taken 
their information from the very men who are crowding and robbing them. The 
President cannot, of course, come out here to see what orders should be 
issued, or that they have been executed, but, seeing he must trust men to 
deal honestly by him, it becomes imperative that he shall know that the 
men he must trust are worthy of his confidence. 

This reservation lies almost 35 miles east from San Diego, and, as 
originally set apart, contained none of the homes of the Indians for whose 
benefit it was set apart. The lines were so run that these were left out, 
and only inaccessible mountain elevations were included in it. The whites 
at once began to file upon the homes of the Indians. Pres. Grant, by a 
subsequent order, included these homes, and ordered the filings made to be 
cancelled and the whites removed. The latter was never done, and the 
Indians have been forced up into the foot hills or have gone away 
entirely. If the order of Pres. Cleveland, which so 

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far has miscarried, shall be fully carried out, there will be homes here 
for all who formerly called it their home, and if the contract with the 
San Diego Water Company is ratified by Congress, as it must be, before it 
will be legal, these people will have sufficient of land and water for 
their use. 

SAN JACINTO. At San Jacinto are found the Saboba Indians, whose battle we 
are fighting in the court and for whom we have won a victory at last. 

This valley lies under the grand old mountains whose name it bears, and is 
now attracting much attention. There is a scheme to build an immense 
reservoir in the mountains, sufficient to store water for the irrigation 
of what lands cannot be reached by ditches from the river. "The bloom is 
on the boom" just now, and expectations are extravagant as to the future. 
It is, much of it, laid out in town lots, and real estate men, in 
connection with the hotels at the two rival villages, are running free 
coaches from Perris, and were ready to give the new comer free rides all 
over the valley. I found a strong sentiment, strongly expressed by some, 
in favor of the rights of these Indians as against Byrnes. It must be 
remembered that here, as at San Ysabel, there are Indians on an old grant, 
on which they claim a right to homes, also a reservation set apart for 
them by the Government. I found those who live on the grant, on fine land, 
with abundant water. Their crops were good, and notwithstanding the dark 
cloud which has so long hung over them, and which they were expecting, 
when I was there, would burst and sweep them away, they have maintained 
themselves and kept up their farms. They have a good school house--the 
best I saw at any of the villages--which the Captain and Mrs. Fowler ( nee 
Miss Sheriff), the former teacher, built for themselves after the Agent, 
McCullom, refused to ask the Department to build it. Mrs. F., who had 
always taught the school, and had the confidence of the Indians to an 
unusual, I may say, unlimited extent, was removed by Agent Ward, and Miss 
Noble, a Catholic girl, put in her place, on the pretext that it is the 
policy of the Department to employ only single ladies. I saw a letter from 
Commissioner Atkins to Ward (a copy of it was sent to Mrs. F., which I 
saw), in which 

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he says, that he knows of no such policy, in fact, thinks it very 
desirable that women in such isolated places shall have husbands, and 
orders Ward to nominate Mrs. F. for the position. I do not know how it 
came about that he did not do so, or that, failing to do it, the 
Commissioner did not himself appoint her. The school was closed and the 
teacher gone, and so I could not see her. These poor Indians are full of 
apprehensions as to what may be before them, and some of the young men 
talk as if they will die fighting for their homes, if they are to be 
ejected. I told them I deeply sympathized with the feeling, and could not 
say that I would not do so under the same circumstances, but urged that 
they must not do it as it would result only in disaster to them. I 
comforted them as best I could with the assurance that we would do all we 
can do to get homes for them elsewhere, if we do not succeed in defending 
the ones they now have. 

I also visited the Indians living on the reservation. There are some six 
or seven families of these up in the canons, embracing some 200 acres of 
the only available land of the 3,100 acres contained in the San Jacinto 
Reservation. A woman and her son have attempted to homestead 160 acres 
each in one of these. The old grandfather, who recently died, at the age, 
it is said, of 135, had long lived on this land, and there is an old 
vineyard fifty years or more old. It would hardly be just for these two 
families to take all the good land there is in this canon, as there are 
not 320 acres of good land in it. 

It is a practical suggestion which I make, and is indorsed by Miss Hiles, 
that we employ a man to do the work an Agent ought to do, but which no 
Agent employed by the Government will ever do, and have him hunt up the 
Indians and such land as can yet be found for quite a number of homes, and 
enter the lands for the Indians. As it is, the Indians, through ignorance, 
and because of the hostile attitude of men who want all the land there is, 
and through the indifference, if not worse, of the officers in charge of 
public lands, these poor people will utterly fail to improve such chances 
to secure small but sufficient homesteads as are still open to them. 

I had a little experience which justifies and emphasizes what I say on 
this point. I went to the land office to see whether the filing of certain 
men on lands occupied by Indians had been 

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allowed, and whether he had raised the question as to whether there were 
Indians on it. The Register said he had no time to make inquiries as to 
whether Indians were on such lands or not. I asked if he did not have time 
to discharge the duties of his office. He wanted to know who I was that I 
assumed to put such questions; then said it was not his duty to do so, and 
that he had no such instructions. I showed him the very explicit 
instructions of Commissioner Macfarland. After reading them, he said it 
was not his duty to make such inquiries unless the man attempting to file 
should deny there were Indians on it when he had reason to suspect that 
there were. I asked what would call forth such denial, except his 
questions. He said it was the duty of the Indian Agent to look after the 
Indians and challenge the parties. My reply was, that the Agent had a duty 
with reference to Indians on reservations; Indians living on lands under 
discussion were not on the reserve; that he had the public lands of his 
district under his care, and the order of May 30th, 1884, made it his duty 
to know, "by all means at his command" whether Indians were on any of it, 
and not allow filings on such lands. 

It is very evident that the Indians will find no protection from him 
unless some one shall be present to challenge those who attempt to oust 
them. If this is done, a friend of the Indian, outside the land officials, 
must be on hand to do it. 

A SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS FOR MISSION INDIANS. I met at San Diego the 
Superintendent of Schools for these Indians, Professor Janus, of 
Washington, who had come to inspect schools just when they had all closed 
for the season. He was an old and feeble man, who has since died, utterly 
unfit, physically, for the hardships of his position. The schools are 
widely scattered and many of them difficult of access, and the old man 
could not, or ought not, feeble as he was, endure the necessary travel to 
look after them. One could not but believe that the position had been 
given him as a sinecure which would give him support while he sought 
health; a pleasant arrangement, considered as a charity, but one that did 
not contemplate primarily the efficiency of the school service. 

As these Indians are mostly Catholics, it seemed more appropriate that the 
Superintendent should belong to that Church, 

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than that one of like faith should be sent to have control of schools 
where only Protestant Missions and Protestant Schools have been sustained, 
as has been done in some cases. 

The complaint has been made, and grows stronger, and will eventually 
become outspoken, that this Church is securing an undue amount of 
patronage from the Government in the matter of schools, and is gradually 
getting control of the educational work among Indians. I have compiled the 
following figures from the last Report of the Superintendent of Indian 
Schools, which seem to confirm the asserted fact, so far as contract 
schools are concerned. Further investigations are needed to establish or 
disprove the suspicion that the same discrimination in favor of this 
Church is shown in the purely Government Boarding and Day Schools. 

There are fifty-two Contract Boarding Schools for Indians, with the 
following denominations or churches:-- 

                           Total    Average
                          Average   Time of   Total Amount    Per Capita
                 No. of   Attend-   Schools   Paid by Gov-   for Adverage
                Schools    ance     Months      ernment       Attendance
Roman Catholic     26      1,360     10.5     $168,479.66      $123.88
Presbyterian        4        186     10         20,447.76       109.86
Congregational      4        149     11.25      18,319.40       122.94
Episcopalian        2        127     12          6,267.38        49.66
Quakers             2        107      9         17,816.34       166.50
                                                            ==========
         Total for all the Contract Boarding Schools. . . .$308,299.98
         Of this the Catholics receive for half the schools 168,479.66
         And all others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139.820.32


There are other contract boarding schools than those given in this list, 
as at Hampton and Philadelphia, which are not denominational schools. 

There are twenty-one Contract Day Schools in all:-- 

                 No. of             Time
                Schools   Pupils   Months   Total Paid   Per Cap. Cost
Roman Catholic    12       400      7&1/4   $7,632.52         $19.08
Presbyterian       4        72      3          254.33           3.53
Quaker             5       126      8&7/8    1,960.00          15.55
                                                           -----------
                       Total amount paid for Day Contract  $9,947.27
          Of this the Roman Catholics, for 12 schools, get  7,632.52
                                                           ===========
                                   And all others receive  $2,214.75


There are reported seventeen Mission Schools supported by Churches without 
Government aid:-- 

                   No.     Whole       Average     Time School
Roman Catholics     3    63 pupils    49 pupils    7&1/3 months
Presbyterian        2    64   "       37   "      10       "
Congregational     12   346   "      129   "       8&1/2   "

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AGENT WARD'S RESIGNATION AND REPORT. It seemed unfortunate that one 
acquainted with the situation, as an Agent who has held the office for two 
years ought to be, should be forced to resign, as Mr. Ward asserts he was, 
out of respect for himself, just at the present crisis of affairs among 
these people,and a man new to the country and ignorant of Indians should 
come in to take charge. A full history of this case, and of the causes 
leading to this issue, would not give one an exalted idea of the 
management of the Bureau. On the other hand, one who makes himself 
acquainted with the facts on these various reservations, will not shed 
many tears over the change, if the new man shall deal less with rhetorical 
flourishes in reports and correspondence, and more with the actual 
condition and needs of his Indians. 

Mr. Ward evidently intended to go out in a blaze of glory, in the 
estimation of the people of California among whom he lives. To do this he 
took the unusual method of giving to the public press of Los Angeles his 
last report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in which he seeks to 
ingratiate himself with his public by belittling the Indians, making 
contemptuous flings at every one else, and showing how easily the whole 
problem would be solved if his practical common sense could only be 
utilized. He says: "This has been a year of expectancy on the part of the 
Indians. Government officials and outside enthusiasts have bespangled the 
Indians' sky with cabalistic signs of the coming jubilee, and the 
consummation of the `Land in Severalty Bill' has been promised as the 
keynote in the grand chorus of emancipation from the thraldom of the white 
man." 

He says of the nearly 200,000 acres of land on their 19 reservations, 
there are not more than 500 acres on which white men would undertake to 
live, unless they could be irrigated. But adds, further on, that no Indian 
who wished to cultivate land has been prevented from doing so for lack of 
land. This would give one-quarter of an acre of land to each Indian. 

He says, again: "The annuities of money, clothing and agricultural 
supplies furnished by the Government to the Indians have smothered out 
nearly every particle of native self reliance among them." 

"They are content to lie in the shade and wait for the annual 

Page 73

appropriation. Pensions and annuities will never develop a high order of 
manhood in any race of people. If the rain of manna and quail had 
continued, no Hebrew would have ever owned a poultry or grain farm." 

He tells me that the amount appropriated for these Indians amounted to 
some $400 for the whole 2000. 

I heard of one man at one place who had received a hoe. At Mesa Grande 
they had accumulated one plow, I think, and three hoes. I saw at Capitan 
Grande a large six-horse Nashville wagon which had been issued to Ignacio 
for his people, which after a protracted effort, by the combined labors of 
all the Indians and ponies, they had succeeded in getting to the 
reservation, but which they could put to no use whatever. Ignacio had 
hired it out to the San Diego Water Co., which was building a flume across 
that reservation, thinking he could get something out of the noble but 
demoralizing gift, but this was forbidden by the Agent as soon as he heard 
of it. In the meantime, the man who had driven Ignacio from his home, and 
was keeping a liquor saloon in his house, whom the Agent had been 
instructed to put off the reservation, was still in possession. 

He says again: "There are, on the Banning Reservation, thirty or forty 
trespassers, who have established good homes, with vineyards and orchards. 
These homes will have to be given up by the white man. The Indian now sits 
in the shade of the trees, meditating on which particular well-improved 
home he is to get." 

In passing over this reservation with Agent Ward, he pointed out to me 
where the Indians had attempted to plow for crops, but the white men ran 
their furrows clear around and enclosed the patches the Indians were 
breaking up, and then drove the Indians off and would not suffer them to 
plant. 

Knowing well the wonderful attachment of these people for their homes, 
also the feuds which exist among them, and the hostility of some bands for 
others, he proposes, as a cure-all for the difficulties of the situation, 
that they be gathered on two reservations, and forced to farm and put 
their children in school. 

The new Agent, Mr. J. W. Preston, had not arrived when I left, but has 
taken hold of his work strongly since his arrival, if judgment can be 
based upon the very business-like and manly reports he has made as to his 
action in ejecting the squatters 

Page 74

from the Banning Reservation, and his arrangement with the San Diego Water 
Company for supplying the Capitan Grande Indians with water, as a 
condition of crossing their lands. 

Immediate action should be taken to settle the Indians on these lands, and 
then to allot them in severalty, and secure them by patent. Not until this 
is done can their rights be protected. 

THE SAN FERNANDO CASE. As I was clossing up my work, and was about to 
return to the East, a telegram came from Mr. J. W. Davis, of Boston, of 
the Mohonk Committee on Legal Defence of Mission Indians, asking me to 
await a letter which required attention. This, when it came, proved to be 
a complaint from Hon. R. M. Widney, of Los Angeles, that the Mohonk Legal 
Defence Committee had done Hon. Charles Maclay and himself a grievous 
wrong in a statement made in a circular letter issued by them, in an 
appeal to the public for funds. The circular, in order to show the need of 
these funds for the defence of the Mission Indians, gave a brief account 
of the facts, as understood by the Committee in the case of the Indians 
ejected from the San Fernando Mission, as follows:-- 

THE SAN FERNANDO INDIANS. "A few years since, Mr. E. F. DeCeles, of Los 
Angeles, sold to two prominent citizens of California the San Fernando 
grant, inherited by him from his father, to whom it was granted by the 
Mexican Government, which grant contained a clause excepting the land 
occupied by the Indians." 

"An old Indian named Rogerio occupied ten acres, the bounds of which were 
clearly defined, and upon which he has for a number of years paid taxes." 

"When the deed was made out, the clause in the old grant excepting this 
land of the Indian was not incorporated in it. Mr. DeCeles refused to sign 
it unless that clause was inserted, until assured by his attorney that it 
was not necessary for the protection of the Indian, inasmuch as the land 
was not his, and he could convey by deed only what he owned." 

"This, with the assurance of the purchasers that the Indians would never 
be disturbed, induced him to sign the deed without the excepting clause. 
Notwithstanding this assurance, the 

Page 75

purchasers soon brought an action for the ejectment of Rogerio and his 
family. Judgment was based wholly on a technical mistake of his attorney, 
and not on the equitable or legal rights of the plaintiffs, and a writ of 
ejectment was issued last winter." 

"The manner of ejectment was as cruel as the fact was outrageous. Rogerio 
was over eighty years old, and his wife and another woman, nearly of equal 
age, with five or six other persons, constituted his household. The 
sheriff removed them by force in the midst of the winter, tumbled the two 
aged women, with all their effects, including Rogerio's blacksmith tools, 
fuel, chickens, etc., into a wagon, and dropped them by the roadside, 
where they lay without the slightest protection, and without food, 
excepting parched corn, for eight days, when the rainy season was at its 
worst, while the old man went to Los Angeles to get permission from the 
priest to occupy an old dilapidated shed connected with the old mission 
church." 

"His tools, fuel, baskets and other possessions were pilfered; and it 
being thought by many that the old man must have money burried under his 
house, as he had for many years done the blacksmith work for that part of 
the country, diligent search was made for that. The old wife died of 
pneumonia, brought on by the exposure, and the old man is a homeless 
wanderer." 

"A fine spring of water on this land was one main object of this 
dispossession, and it may interest some to know that these plaintiffs 
purpose erecting a Theological Seminary on this property." 

There were a few circulars printed which gave the names of these prominent 
citizens of California, Judge R. M. Widney and Hon. Charles Maclay, but 
the Committee had no controversy with these men, and no purpose to 
subserve by putting them in the pillory of the public press, though as a 
matter of fact they had been thus pilloried in the press of their own city 
by Mr. E. F. DeCeles, and they at once suppressed the circular containing 
their names and substituted for it one which did not give them. A few, 
however, contrary to their wish, escaped destruction, and some one sent a 
copy to these gentlemen. 

This called forth the letter and affidavit inclosed with it, which Mr. 
Davis sent me, with the request that I diligently inquire as 

Page 76

to the facts, that proper correction and apologies might be made b them, 
to the satisfaction of the complainants. 

It is due to them that their denial and the correction of misstatements, 
so far as there were such, should be made even more widely than the 
misstatements were circulated, and as I was responsible for the statement 
as originally made, and was called upon to investigate the facts anew, and 
the doing of this occupied my time for the last two weeks of my stay in 
California, and, because it is due to these gentlemen that their denials 
and corrections shall be given, and also due to myself that the facts of 
statement as corrected shall be given, but more than all, that the friends 
of the Indians shall understand how great the difficulties in the way of 
learning the facts of any given case, and the methods by which even 
reputable men get the advantage of the Indian, and would mislead the 
public with reference to the facts, I give the case as now made out. 

The letter and affidavit are as follows:-- 

LOS ANGELES, CAL., June 30th, 1887. 
HON. JOSHUA W. DAVIS:-- 

Dear Sir :--Recently some one sent to me a circular to which your name 
with others was attached, in which an attack was made on Ex-Senator Maclay 
and myself. I have prepared the accompanying affidavit, showing how 
grossly you have been deceived. I presume the falsehoods started from 
local parties here, and did not originate with you or with any responsible 
parties. I am surprised, however, that any person of the standing which I 
presume you and others signing the circular have would try, convict, 
condemn, sentence and execute the sentence upon American citizens without 
any opportunity given for a hearing or a defence. Any agent here 
investigating the matter should at least have called upon the accused and 
heard both sides of the case. You will at once recognize that the 
proceeding has been ex parte and star chamber in its nature. I can only 
account for it upon the supposition that your name was obtained without 
your knowing the contents of the circular. A damage has been done us that 
never can be repaired. The circulars can never be followed to each place 
where they have gone, and in the minds of many the false accusations can 
never receive any refutation. 

Page 77

I have forwarded to each member of the committee one of the affidavits and 
this letter, for the purpose of correcting the facts in your mind. My 
object does not end in producing in your mind a correct belief as to the 
facts. It reaches to the end that the correction before the public be as 
ample as the injury. A simple correction to us is of no public benefit to 
us. We certainly are entitled to as widespread correction as the original 
injury. If you are not satisfied of the correctness of the facts set out 
in the affidavits, I would suggest that you send some reliable person here 
to get at the facts. Do not understand that I am making any threats, but 
we certainly cannot be expected to quietly submit to the present status of 
the matter. 

An early answer is desired to this communication. 

Respectfully, 

R. M. WIDNEY, 

For self and as Attorney for C. Maclay. 

STATE OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, .......... ss . 

Hon. Charles Maclay, being duly sworn, deposes and says he has read the 
accompanying circular. 

That affiant is the person referred to in said circular. 

That the statements in said circular reflecting on affiant and Judge 
Widney are grossly and maliciously false. 

The statements are specifically false, as follows, to wit:-- 

E. F. DeCeles never sold any land to Hon. Charles Maclay and Judge Widney, 
or to either of them. The land referred to as the "San Fernando Grant" was 
sold by order of the Probate Court of Los Angeles County, of date June 12, 
1874. At such sale it was sold to the highest and best bidder, without 
reserve. 

Affiant, C. Maclay, was the highest and best bidder, in the sum of $117,
500. 

That said sale was duly confirmed by the Probate Court on the 10th day of 
August, 1874, and said E. F. DeCeles, as admintrator of the estate, was 
directed by the court to make the conveyance. That as such administrator, 
and not otherwise, said E. F. DeCeles executed the deed conveying said 
lands to said C. Maclay. 

Page 78

That during the next ten years the rancho title changed hands once or 
twice. 

That Mr. DeCeles never refused to sign the deed, as stated in the 
circular; that, as administrator, he had no authority to refuse to obey 
the order of the Probate Court. 

That nothing about the said Indians was said in the matter. The statement 
of the circular that "with the assurance of Messrs. Maclay and Widney that 
the Indians would never be disturbed," ect., is too false to justify words 
in condemning it and its authors. Maclay and Widney never had such a 
conversation, or ever heard of the matter until it appeared in said 
circular; and said Widney never bought any lands of DeCeles, and did not 
buy of Maclay until in 1885, over ten years after said sale by said estate 
of DeCeles. Maclay and Widney never brought suit against said Indian 
Rogerio and family. The suit against Rogerio was begun in 1878 by G. K. 
Porter and C. Maclay, and the judgment entered accoeding to the 
requirements of the law years before said Widney had purchased in the 
rancho. 

The statement in the circular that "the manner of ejectment was as cruel 
as the fact was outrageous," etc., is most conwardly and most villanously 
false. The facts are as follows:-- 

The Sheriff was instructed by Judge Widney to notify the Indians to 
remove, and, if compelled to remove them, to pay them all that their 
improvements were worth, and then, in addittion, to let them take off all 
the said improvements they might wish to take. Also that if the Indians 
wanted to come to Los Angeles City, the Sheriff should rent a suitable 
dwelling at Maclay's expense, and at Maclay's expense move the Indians to 
it. Or, if they wanted to remain at San Fernando, to rent a house there 
and move the Indians into it. Further, that if the Indians needed 
provisions the Sheriff should buy all they needed and furnish it to them 
at Maclay's cost, and also to give them some money for other expenses, if 
they needed it. 

That the Indians, acting under bad advice of certain persons, refused all 
of these offers, and compelled the Sheriff to unload them and their 
effects at the place where he did, the Indians designating the place, as 
affiant is informed. 

That the Indians lay by the road sick "eight days without food, except 
parched corn," is wholly false, as the Indian 

Page 79

Rogerio came to said Maclay, said he had been deceived by others, and 
wanted to receive the provisions before offered by Maclay. Thereupon 
Maclay took the Indian Rogerio to the store and told the proprietor to 
give him what he wanted. This was done, to the Indian's satisfaction, and 
Maclay paid the bill, which included a number of sacks of flour, 
groceries, etc. 

The statement that the Indian's tools, fuel, etc., were pilfered, is a 
libel on the sheriff and his deputies, as being thieves, and in the 
opinion of affiant is false. 

That diligent search was made in "hopes of finding money" buried, is as 
false as the rest of the circular. 

The statement in the circular that these plaintiffs propose "erecting a 
Theological Seminary on this property," is also grossly false, as the 
College, which is partly erected, is over a mile distant from said land. 

The United States patent for said rancho, under which Maclay bought, in no 
wise reserves any lands for Indians, and is a grant in fee simple to the 
DeCeles estate, and was issued January 3, 1873, over a year before Maclay 
purchased. 

Affiant calls attention to the fact that the first of said circulars 
issued contained the words "sold to the Hon. Chas. Maclay and Judge
Widney," etc., while the second set of circulars changed the words to 
"sold to two prominent citizens of California," etc. 

At the time of the eviction outside parties tried to make money out of the 
matter, offering for $10,000 to remove the Indians; such persons affiant 
believes to be the author of said false statements in said circulars. 

Affiant states that his own good name and reputation is as sacred as that 
of any of the parties signing said circular, and so far as they continue 
to spread said circulars and said reports, and do not recall said 
statements, affiant charges them with a degree of baseness unworthy 
respectable citizens of this Republic. 

Copies of these affidavits will be forwarded to each of said committee 
signing said circular, to the Department of the Interior, for the use of 
the Department and of Congressional Committee. 

CHAS. MACLAY. Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 29th day of June, 
1887. T. S. SMITH, Justice of the Peace of San Fernando , Los Angeles 
County, California. 

Page 80

R. M. Widney, being duly sworn, says that he is the person referred to in 
said circular as Judge Widney. That the foregoing affidavit of C. Maclay 
correctly sets out the facts on the points relating to R. M. Widney. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 30th day of June, 1887. 

R. M. WIDNEY. 

GEO. J. CLARKE, Notary Public , Los Angeles County, California. 

One of the first facts discovered as bearing upoin the case was found as 
follows (Cal. Reports, vol. 53, pages 372, 373):-- 

In an action brought by Eulogio DeCeles, as administratrix of her deceased 
husband, against A. Brunson, for breach of trust, as attorney of her 
predecessor, E. F. DeCeles, in the sale of certain property belonging to 
the estate, the plaintiff read in evidence the deposition of the defendant 
given in an action brought by one Alvorado against Eulogio for commissions 
claimed for selling the interest of the estate in the Rancho San Fernonde. 
The deposition contained the following passages:-- 

"He (Maclay) asked me if I was not attorney for the defendant (Eulogio). I 
told him I was. Next he stated that he was acting for himself and others, 
and desired to purchase the ranch, and they would make it an object to me 
to effect a sale. He said he was authorized to pay $125,000 for the Ranch, 
or DeCeles' interest in it, and that he would pay me one-half of all that 
I could get the ranch less that that sum. I immediately went to the office 
and met Mr. DeCeles. I told Mr. DeCeles that I could get $115,000 for 
their interest in the ranch. He replied that he had made up his mind to 
sell for $120,000. We talked the matter over for a short time, as to what 
would be for the best interests of the estate, and he then concluded, and 
so informed me, that he would sell the interest of the estate for $117,
500. 

"I received from Maclay $3750 for my services in the matter. The defendant 
also agreed to pay me $2500, of which I have already received $1750." 

The Court found no fraud on the part of the defendant (Brunson). Judgment 
given for defendant, and plaintiff appealed. 

Page 81

The Supreme Court held that Brunson held such relations to Eulogio F. 
DeCeles as prohibited his receiving $3750 from Maclay. Judgment and order 
reversed, and cause remanded for new trial. 

(Copy). 

This establishes the fact that Mr. Maclay bribed the attorney for DeCeles 
in the sale of this very property to betray the interest of his client, 
and paid him $3750 for effecting a sale of his client's property for $7500 
less than he said he was willing to pay for it. And yet this sale, Mr. 
Maclay swears, was at public auction, to "the highest and best bidder," 
under an order from the court, in such manner as to give no option to Mr. 
DeCeles to accept or refuse his bid, or to sign the deed of transfer. 

Next follows the affidavit of Mr. DeCeles, and it may be said that he has 
given the facts of this case over his own name in the public press of Los 
Angeles. It will be remembered that Mr. Maclay swears he never heard of 
the Indians' right to a home on the ranch not being protected by the deed 
given, nor of a promise that the Indians should not be disturbed, until he 
saw it in the circular complained of. 

LOS ANGELES, CAL., August 31, 1887. I, the undersigned, E. F. DeCeles, was 
the administrator of the estate of my father, E. DeCeles. 

The Rancho Ex-Mission of San Fernando (or rather one-half of it) was part 
of my father's estate. 

Ex-Senator Maclay came to see me about purchasing the San Fernando Rancho, 
which I wished to sell in order to pay off some debts of the estate. The 
Probate Court had granted power to sell at either public or private sale, 
subject to its approval; the latter was preferred. 

Pending negotiations as to terms, price, etc., Mr. Maclay, by the aid of 
Governor Stanford, assumed or otherwise settled the amount of a mortgage 
which had been foreclosed on the property. 

The price was finally agreed upon at $80,000 cash and $37,500 in a 
mortgage on the property, the purchasers being C. Maclay and Geo. K. 
Porter. 

Page 82

When the papers were already made out, I objected to them because they did 
not contain the clause in my father's deed by which the old Indians were 
to be kept in possession of the lands they occupied for the length of 
their lives. 

In an interview at the office of Gen. M. G. Cobb, Nevada Block, San 
Francisco, my attorney, the matter was discussed. Hon. Anson Brunson, also 
attorney for the estate, and Gen. Cobb both represented to me that the 
insertion of the clause was not necessary, as the purchasers under my 
father's deed would be bound by any and all conditions imposed upon him. 

In the course of the discussion Mr. Maclay asked how much land the Indians 
occupied. I told him that Rogerio occupied about twenty, and those at the 
Escorpion (on the northwest side of the Rancho) about fifty. He said then 
that it was a very small matter, and they never would be disturbed, even 
if no such clause existed. 

The sale was finally made by me, as Administrator, to C. Maclay and George 
K. Porter, and the Probate Court duly confirmed it. Mr. Widney at the time 
had nothing to do with me about the sale of the Rancho, nor has he at any 
time before or since, except as attorney for Maclay, when he asked me for 
some information about the line of partition with the San Fernando Farm 
Homestead Association. 

I do not know that the Rancho has changed hands since I sold it, except to 
subdivide between C. Maclay, George K. Porter, and Ben. F. Porter, until 
this year, when each one of these parties has made a sale, the two former 
still retaining an interest in their respective portions. 

The Indian Rogerio came to me for protection at the time Maclay et al were 
trying to eject him. After hearing his statement, I took him to Col. G. 
Wiley Wells, who investigated the state of affairs, and found that, 
unfortunately, Maclay et al had the law technically on their side, through 
an oversight of the attorney whom Mr. Romulo Pico entrusted with the care 
of Rogerio's case, whereby Maclay's attorney (Mr. R. M. Widney, I believe) 
obtained judgment by default. 

Under instructions of Col. G. Wiley Wells, I told Rogerio to proceed to 
his home, and when the officers should come, to offer no resistance, but 
allow himself to be put out . Rogerio afterward 

Page 83

reported to me that he had strictly obeyed instructions; that the 
Sheriff's officers had taken him from his house and packed him and his 
things into a wagon and dumped him and them on the county road. Next day 
it rained; his wife took cold, and shortly died of pneumonia, at an old 
ruined house at the old mission buildings, property of the church, which 
they occupied by kindness of Rev. Bishop Mora. I do not know anything 
being offered or given to them by Maclay et al . I think Mr. Pico offered 
to give them, or did give them, some provisions, on his own account. I 
was, unfortunately, unable financially to help them. Rogerio is now living 
in the San Franciscuito Canon, on land loaned to him by a Mexican. He is a 
thoroughly honest man, a hard worker, and would never think of robbing a 
fellow-being of his rights. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 1st day of September, 1887.
E. F. DECELES. 

T. E. ROMAN, [SEAL] .......... Notary Public . [Copy.] 

Unless Mr. Maclay failed to receive a letter from G. Wiley Wells, Esq., 
dated November 12th, 1875, he certainly had heard of this matter before 
the circular brought it to his attention; for in that letter Mr. Wells 
speaks of DeCeles' declaration to him (Wells), that the matter was fully 
discussed and understood at the time of the sale. Mr. Wells uses this 
language in this letter:-- 

"When Mr. DeCeles called on me with this Indian, and informed us that in 
the grant from the Government to his father there was a provision made 
that these Indians were to be maintained in possession of the lands which 
they occupied during their lifetime, I asked him whether this clause had 
been continued in the deed between the administrator and those purchasing. 
He informed me, that while it might not be in the deed, yet there was a 
distinct understanding and pledge between the parties purchasing and the 
parties selling.***Mr. DeCeles informs me that at the time the ranch was 
sold you and the other purchasers distinctly understood the matter. If 
that is so, while it may not be a legal obligation, yet the matter rests 
with you as to whether they are to remain." 

As to the liberal and kindly manner in which this writ was 

Page 84

served under instruction from Messrs. Maclay and Widney, I have the 
affidavits of the Sheriff and two deputies, whose painful duty it was to 
execute the order. It should be remembered that if Rogerio had consented 
to vacate his house and land, he would have surrendered all his rights, 
and there would have been no opportunity to recover possession. The offer 
made to him should be interpreted by this fact. 

STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES. SS . George E. Gard, being 
first duly sworn, deposes and says: That at the time Rogerio--and other 
Indians were ejected from that portion of the San Fernando Ranch owned by 
Charles Maclay and others, I was acting as and in the capacity of Sheriff 
of Los Angeles County. The first time that the attempt was made to eject 
said Indians, I went in person to their place of residence to carry out 
the order of ejectment. At that time I received instructions from R. M. 
Widney and Charles Maclay, the reputed owners of said lands, as follows, 
to wit: That if said Indians would leave said premises quietly and 
"peacefully," that upon said condition I was to inform them that they 
could move into some house they might find on the outskirts of the ranch 
or in the surrounding canons, and that I, upon their authority, could 
furnish said Indians, from the store of Maclay and Griswold, at San 
Fernando, a sack of flour and other provisions to a small amount, and five 
dollars in money. Pending the attempt to peacefully eject the Indians, I 
received an order from the court countermanding the order of the 
ejectment. Some time thereafter I was again ordered to eject said Indians, 
when I was again instructed by said R. M. Widney to offer them about the 
same inducements as before, to leave, coupled with the order, if they did 
not accept said proposals, to pull down their building and put them out in 
the road. They were eventually ejected by my deputies, Martin Agiurre and 
W. A. Hammel. I have seen and read the affidavit made by the Hon. Charles 
Maclay relative to the ejectment of the Indians above referred to, in 
which statement appears the following language: "The Sheriff was 
instructed by Judge Widney to notify the Indians to remove, and if 
compelled to remove them, to pay them all that their 

Page 85

improvements were worth, and then, in addition, to let them take off all 
the said improvements they might wish to take , also that if the Indians 
wanted to come to Los Angeles City, the Sheriff should rent a house at 
Maclay's expense, and at Maclay's expense move the Indians into it; or, if 
they wanted to remain at San Fernando, to rent a house there and move the 
Indians into it. Further, that if the Indians needed provisions, the 
Sheriff should buy all they needed and furnish it to them at Maclay's 
cost, and also to give them some money for other expenses, if they needed 
it." All of which I pronounce to be absolutely false, except so far as I 
hereinbefore stated . .......... GEO. E. GARD. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 17th day of September. 

[SEAL] .......... FRANCIS J. THOMAS, (Copy.) .......... Notary Public.

The writ was finally served and executed by the two deputies whose 
affidavit is here given. These men belong to a class from which you would 
not expect an undue amount of gush or sentiment, but they could not 
rehearse the facts after the lapse of many months without deep emotion, 
and a most earnest and manly denunciation of its cruelty. Judge Widney has 
procured an affidavit from them denying what had never been charged--that 
they treated the Indians cruelly in their ejection of them, or that they 
had stolen and carried off their property. 

LOS ANGELES, CAL., July 30th, 1887. 

The persons whose names are appended to this statement were the Deputy 
Sheriffs of Los Angeles County, who were charged with the duty of ejecting 
the Indians, Rogerio and others, from the part of the San Fernando Ranch 
claimed by Messrs. Maclay and Widney. We found them occupying one main 
adobe building, two or three tule buildings, and two frame buildings--the 
lands which they occupied and cultivated were enclosed by fences, and 
amounted, we judge, to some 15 acres more or less. It was our duty to 
execute the order of the court, and as there was no place provided for 
them to which we could remove them, we were forced to dump them with all 
their belongings by the 

Page 86

side of the road, without protection from the rain, it being the rainy 
season of the year. We were so touched by their pitiable condition, that 
we offered to take them to any place within reasonable distance if they 
could tell us of any such place to which they could go, but as they had 
none in view, we were forced to leave them in the road. 

We had our instructions from the office, as in case of any other duty, but 
Mr. Widney asked us to hasten our work, and he would give us $5.00 extra 
if we should get them off that afternoon. 

We had no instruction to hire at the expense of Maclay or Widney a house 
for them, either in Los Angeles or San Fernando. We had no instruction to 
pay them for their improvements, we had no instruction to allow them to 
remove any of their fixed improvements, and we know that their wish to 
take down and remove a porch from one of their houses was refused. We had 
no instructions to purchase anything for them, nor were we furnished with 
any money with which to do this, but were told by Maclay and Widney that 
the Indians could get needed provisions at their expense if they left 
peacefully; we were also told that if they wished to come into Los Angeles 
they could do so. 

Though forced to do this disagreeable duty, we regarded it as a hard and 
cruel thing to take those old people from their homes and throw them into 
the street, unprotected, in the midst of the winter season. .......... 
WILL A. HAMMEL, M. AGIURRE, Ex-Deputy Sheriffs. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 30th day of July, 1887. 

B. E. TANEY, (Copy). .......... Justice of the Peace. 

I give also the affidavit of a Mexican gentleman living at San Fernando, 
who witnessed the ejectment and knows all the facts;--