BANCROFT LIBRARY o- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 'The Scattered Sheep of Mission Flocks," an Account of the Pres ent State of the Mis sion Indians in South ern California. 1907 Issued by Los Angeles Council of the Sequoya League : : : : : To make better Indians Fourth Bulletin You are asked to join the Los Angeles Council of the Sequoya League. The League secured a model reservation for the evicted Warner's Ranch Indians; secured the repeal of the atrocious "Hair- Cut Order;" has supplied seed-grain, clothing, bedding and food for eight months to the starving Mission Indians; has opened a market for their basket industry that has preserved it from extinction and has gone far toward securing for these disinherited children of the soil, ample land and water by which to earn a secure living by the application of labor and thrift. It has yet many things to do. Membership, $2.00 per year ; life membership, $50.00. Remit to Chas. F. Lummis, 200 Avenue j$, Los Angeles. LEAGUE TO l ) MAKE BETTER. INDIANA Se-quo-ya, the American Cadmus" (born 1771, died 1842), was the only Indian that ever invented a written language. The League takes its title from this great Cherokee, for whom, also, science has named ("Sequoias"} the hugest trees in the world, the giant Redzvoods of California. NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE David Starr Jordan, Prest. Stanford Univ. Geo. Bird Grinnell, Editor "Forest and Stream," N. Y. Chas. Cassat Davis, Los Angeles C. Hart Merriam, Chief Bio log. Survey, Wash. D. M. Riordan, New York City Richard Egan. San Juan Capistrano, Cal. Chas. F. Lummis, Chairman LOS ANGELES COUNCIL Prest., Rt. Rev. J. H. Johnson Treas., Win. C. Patterson EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Wayland II. Smith (Sec. of the Council) Miss Cora Foy Mrs. Arturo Bandini Mrs. J. E. Coleman Chas. F. Lninmis, Chairman ADVISORY BOARD Mrs. Phebe A. Hearst, University of Cal. Archbishop Ireland, St. Paul, Minn. Ex-U. S. Senator Thos. R. Bard, California Edward E. Ayer, Newberry Library, Chicago Miss Estelle Reel. Supt. all Indian Schools, Washington W. J. McGee, Director St. Louis Museum F. W. Putnam. Peabody Museum, Harvard College Stewart Culin, Brooklyn Inst. Field Columbian Museum. Geo. A. Dorsey, Chicago Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, College Phys. and Surgeons. N. Y. Miss Alice C. Fletcher, Washington F. W. Hodge. Smithsonian Institution, Wash. Hainlin Garland, author, Chicago Mrs. F. N. Doubleday, New York Hon. A. K. Smiley (Mohonk), Redlands, Cal. George Kennan, Washington LIFE MEMBERS Mrs. Horace M. Dobbins, 1204 S. Orange Grove Ave.. Pasadena; Mrs. E. L. Doheny, 8 Chester Place. Los Angeles; Josephine W. Drexel ; Mary F. Fels, 30 Wilson St., London; Mr. Joseph Fels, 39 Wilson St., London; Miss Antoinette E. Gazzam. Cornwall on Hudson, N. Y.; Mrs. A. R. Gazzam, Cornwall on Hudson, N. Y. ; Miss Mira Hershey, 350 S. Grand Ave.. Los Angeles; Miss Amelia B. Hollenbeck, Glen Summit. Pa.; H. E. Hunting- ton, Los Angeles; Homer Laughlin, Laughlin Bldg., Los Angeles; J. M. C. Marble, 2202 Figueroa St., Los Angeles; Mrs. D. A. Senter. Pasadena, Cal.; Thos. Scattergood; Geo. W. Marston. San Diego. Cal.; H. C. Gordon, San Diego, Cal. THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS By W AY LA. NO H. SMITH. ADRE JUNIPERO SERRA was the last of the great patriarchs. Under him the Indians were gathered in docile and industrious communes. The beautiful mis sion buildings were grouped around enormous patios. There were great churches, refectories, kitchens, work shops, living quarters, where a marvelous communal life was lived, and the padres were the fathers of their people. The valleys were tilled. The hills were covered with herds of cattle, sheep and horses. Then came the year of the Independence of Mexico. The missions 2 THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS passed from under the control of the Spanish crown. The steady and wise policy of the padres was interrupted. Freedom demands wisdom for its administration. Nothing is so dangerous as the specter of Freedom without the directing spirit of Intelligence. Under the Mexican politicians the plundering of the missions and the enslavement and neglect of the Indians began. It advanced with only partial success until that momentous day when the "Gringo" soldiers marched into Monterey and the splendid, pic turesque and prodigal days of Spanish California were finished. Under the Mexican rule there was at least some sense of tacit responsibility to the stately work of the great padre. But the "Gringo" knew nothing of all this. He was then as now an enemy of "superstition" and a friend of "freedom." So he looted the re- GENERAL VIEW OF PALA VALLEY. maining wealth of the missions, thus abetting the Cause of Progress. He drove the Indians from their fat lands into the desert and the mountains. The fertile mission valleys became the possession of the "non-superstitious" and "progressive" white settlers. The Indians under such conditions decreased rapidly in numbers and became wretchedly poor. But their hiding places on the flanks of the mountains or in the waterless desert were so obscure and remote that even the wandering American who might have been interested in fair play knew nothing of their unhappy state. Then over the plains and around the Horn came pouring in the Gold Hunters of '49. Lawless, picturesque, pre-occupied with the Quest, they overran the land like a flame. The great Spanish land grants were broken up under the auspices of the Gringo, the Indians driven further and further into the desert, and onto mountain land that no white man coveted. THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS 3 In 1876 Helen Hunt Jackson came on her memorable mission, to look into the condition of the Indians of Southern California. As results of her careful and sympathetic examination we have her famous novel, "Ramona," and the summing-up of our too successful Indian Policy in "A Century of Dishonor" a terrible arraignment. She sent also special reports to the Indian Bureau. The heroic labors of Helen Hunt Jackson probably did much toward shortening her life. Some people burned with considerable indignation over the situation as shown in "A Century of Dishonor" ; kind-hearted tourists shed tears at the fate of Alessandro and Ramona. Nothing further, however, occurred. Some of the most picturesquely outrageous evictions happened after the investigation by Mrs. Jackson. CAMPANILE AND MISSION AT PALA. The actual formation of the Sequoya League took place at a meeting held in November, 1901, in Mr. C. F. Lummis's residence on the Arroyo Seco. Work was begun at once. Mr. Lummis's vigorous campaign resulted, as an initial achievement, in the settle ment of the evicted Warner's Ranch Indians in the fertile, well- watered Mission Valley at Pala, instead of the somewhat arid loca tion first selected. These Indians are now happy and prosperous. The land is ample for all their wants. Here follows a brief description of the present condition of Indian matters in Southern California. CAMPO. The Sequoya League's discovery and amendment of the starving condition of the Campo Indians excited at the time national interest. THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS HEADGATES OF NEW PALA DITCH. When Senator Flint visited Campo with Mr. Lummis and the writer, shortly after his election, he said that he wanted to know Indian conditions in Southern California at first hand and for himself. That trip was epoch-making- in the history of the Indian situation in Southern California. More has been done to adjust the historic wrongs of the Mission Indians during- the last two years, than in all the years since the coming of the Gringo. It was late Fall when the trip was undertaken. Sixty miles of uphill climb due east of San Diego, among mountains of inconceivable savag'eness and re moteness, brought us to Campo. As many more miles over unused roads and bridle-paths showed us the various reservations of La LOWER END OF TUNNEL, PALA IRRIGATING CANAL. THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS 5 RIPRAPPING BELOW SAND TRAP IN NEW PALA DITCH. Posta, Manzanita, Cuyapipe and Laguna, and their gaunt and half- starved inhabitants. The result of this rough wagon-ride of nearly two hundred miles, and others that we took later, was shown in Senator Flint's splendid work in securing the appropriation of $100,000, now being laid out under the supervision of Mr. Kelsey, for the purpose of furnishing land and water to the Indians of Southern California. Thirty thousand dollars of this fund will be spent in the rehabilitation of the five Campo reservations. Twelve hundred acres of land with abundant water, have been purchased from this fund. Of this, 420 acres are arable; 120 acres irrigable. It is proposed to add to the Manzanita and La Posta reservations the newly purchased land, RIPRAPPINC AT HEAD OF NEW PALA DITCH. 6 THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS carrying" with it the use of some 30 inches of gravity water. To this will be added by Congressional action over 20,000 acres of Govern ment land, useful only for grazing cattle. ( It is hoped to interest these Indians in the raising of cattle.) This will make a single reservation of 22,000 acres some forty-five miles in circumference. It is proposed to fence the entire reservation, develop the water and put in ditches, buy up the improvements of McCain, who has been squatting (by the Surveyor's error, be it said) on 200 acres of Manzanita reservation land, and to aid the Indians in building the necessary houses. When this is completed, the Campo Indians will be in fine condition to let alone. What these Indians need is a sufficient quantity of inalienable land and water, that they can divide according to their custom, to suit themselves, and then to be let alone. Nothing is worse for the Indians than the uneasy, in- INDTANS FISHING IN A SPRING FRESHET, quisitive, meddlesomeness that many benevolent whites believe to be essential to Indian well-being ; yet a reasonable independence to the Indians can be secured only as the result of a constant and vigilant awareness of the dangers of the situation. PA LA. Chief Engineer Code of the Indian Service has recently completed some extensive improvements that vastly better the usefulness of the irrigating canal at Pala. New ball-bearing intake gates have been erected at the point of juncture with the San Luis Rey River (whose entire flow may be diverted to the canal ) . A covered concrete conduit has been located where it cannot be washed away, as the old one was ; a practical sand-trap has been built, and the entire ditch put into serviceable condition. When the system of lateral ditches now being dug by the Indians is complete, Pala will have THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS 7 as fine a system of gravity irrigation as could be asked for. When the foolish "portable" houses furnished by the department (hot to suffocation in summer and cold as ice-chests in winter) have been replaced by Indian-built adobe houses, the old mission valley of Pala will be in fine condition for the government to let alone, so that the Indians may work out their own salvation in their own way. Nothing can be more stupid or more hurtful than the persistent attempts to remake Indians on white patterns. PA CHANG A. For years the Pachanga Indians have been obliged to haul their entire water supply some five miles in barrels. This included all water used for drinking, bathing, cooking and garden use. It is not perhaps remarkable that bathing was curtailed under such cir- T\vo YOUNG MATRONS OF MANZANTT\ RESERVATION. cumstances. There is a good spring in a canon adjoining the reservation, located on Government land. When Senator Flint was in Pachanga he went up and examined this spring, recognized the urgency of the situation, and promised the Indians that he would do what he could to have a pipe put in to carry the water down to the village. He also noticed the inadequacy of the land to support the Indians. - As a result, Mr. Kelsey has been empowered to buy some 235 acres of fine land from the Little Temecula grant (their former home), which will be added to the reservation, together with the Government land containing the spring spoken of. The pipe line -from the spring is also being constructed. Altogether some $10,000 have been expended. This pipe will furnish about 30,000 gallons of water a day, not enough for irrigation, but ample for household use at Pachanga. The Indians here, it is expected, will be made self-supporting. 8 THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS LOS CONEJOS. These Indians have long been in great destitution. They live on an isolated section of the Capitan Grande reservation and have been saved great suffering by food and clothing furnished through the League. Enough land has been added to their reservation to make them comfortably independent, and their water supply has been protected. The water supply on the various Southern California reservations, vastly important and heretofore overlooked, has been especially cared for by Mr. Kelsey. AGUA CALTENTE. At this reservation, also called Palm Springs, $6,000 have been spent in securing the Barney land, some 800 acres, and all rights, including a pipe-line eight inches in diameter and 6,000 feet in INTERIOR OF THE OLD MISSION AT PALA The walls were decorated with paintings done by Indians. These were recently destroyed by a coat of whitewash. length, carrying abundant water. Some water rights in the canon below are included. PAUMA. On this reservation a reservoir will be built, securing to the Indians a permanent water supply that has been greatly needed. SANTA ROSA. These Indians are located inside the forest reserve. This secures them from molestation, and an attempt is being made to have the land occupied by them given to them legally. SANTA YSABEL AND MESA GRANDE. The e?cact limits of these two reservations have been long in doubt and the Indians have always had a great deal of trouble about them with the adjoining settlers. The Santa Ysabel Indians were long THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS Photo, by Mrs. C. B. Daggett AN OLD CAMPO INDIAN WHO REMEMBERS THE DAYS OF THE PADRES AT SAN Luis REY. ago evicted from their homes in the beautiful and fertile Santa Ysabel Valley in the high-handed fashion so popular in dealing with the aborigines of the coast. They are now living on the top of a flat mountain called Volcan, and in an adjoining canon. The boundaries of both reservations are being settled, and both will be fenced. The League has earnestly demanded the fencing of all these Southern California reservations, and most of them will now be fenced. The importance of this is clear to those who are familiar with the aggressive habits of white settlers located near Indian lands. CABEZON, TORRES, ETC. A pumping plant, as designed by Chief Engineer Code, is being 10 THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS erected for these Indians. It is located on the highest part of the reserve, and will irrigate 250 acres of land that is now without water. The new wells will be of large capacity, and should make the land fruitful. SAN AUGUSTIN. Here also an artesian well is being bored and an auxiliary pump ing plant installed. This land is of excellent quality, and with water will make a fine property. MORONGO. Tests of the cicnega by borings, etc., are being made to see if there is water enough -to warrant a cement dam to bed-rock. If practical, this will be built. If not, some other means of securing a water supply will be used. Photo, by Mrs. C. B. Daggett AN OUTLYING HUT OF THE CAMPO RESERVATIONS. SAN MANUEL. Here a five-acre tract that has been used by the Indians as a garden and a seven-acre tract above the ditch, containing the Indian cemetery and orange trees, have been bought. Among the Indians, their cemeteries are held in the highest veneration, and no greater calamity can befall them than to lose the burial place of their dead. CAHUILLA. Attempts are being made to develop water when it seems feasible and an enlargement of the reservoir has been begun. MARTINEZ. Some fifteen artesian wells will be put in at and below Martinez, as soon as the question of the Salton Sea is settled to the Depart ment's satisfaction. CHIMEVI. The lands occupied by these Indians on the Colorado River have THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF .MISSION FLOCKS 11 been temporarily reserved, and it is expected that the land will be allotted to them or other suitable provision will be made. SAN PASQUAL. Nothing has yet been accomplished for these Indians, but it is hoped that they may be cared for in the near future. GOVERNMENT LANDS. Large tracts of government lands have been set apart as additions to the reservations of Capitan Grande, Inyaha and Agua Caliente. There have been also additions of Government land to the reserva tions of Campo, Laguna and Cuyapipe, besides those already re ferred to in connection with the new reservation purchased by the Government at Manzanita. All this indicates a long stride toward the completion of the local work undertaken four years ago by the Los Angeles Council of the Sequoya League. We feel that too Photo, by Mrs C. B. Daggett Two CAMPO PATRIARCHS. much praise cannot be given to Senator Flint for his intelligent and tireless work, and to Mr. Kelsey, Special Agent for California Indians for his handling of a problem that demands minute knowledge of the situation, and much horse sense. A WORD ABOUT INDIAN BASKETS. Indian basket work is perhaps the only product of unaided, aboriginal skill that has found a place in American households. The art of weaving baskets had almost died out among many of the Mission Indians, when the Sequoya League brought about a general revival of the industry by taking and selling the entire pro duction of a number of obscure reservations seldom visited by tourists and out of the lines of travel. On the five Campo reserva tions, basket making had become practically extinct. By personal encouragement and the certainty of a ready sale, the Indian women have been brought to take renewed interest in their ancient and 12 THE SCATTERED SHEEP OF MISSION FLOCKS characteristic art. Many hundreds of dollars have thus been added to the scanty earnings of the tribes. The Sequoya League has felt that it would be a loss to the white race as well as to the Indians to have this noble and beautiful in dustry fail from lack of encouragement. Mrs. Chas. F. Lummis, 200 East Avenue 43, Los Angeles, has kindly taken charge of the basket selling for the League entirely without pay. Her disinterested help has been invaluable in the work of reviving the weaving of baskets among the Indians. On one of the most visited reservations, the writer found that the Indian women under the cultured impetus of tourist encouragement, were copying on baskets designs taken from lace curtains, wall paper and other of our factory-made art products. The League has strongly encouraged the use of the old Indian designs and colors those expressions of the ancient race genius of a sincere and artistic people. These baskets are sold at most reasonable prices and it Photo, by Mrs. C. B. Daggett FAMILY GROUP AT CAMPO. might be well to suggest that buyers of Christmas and other presents would be wise to see Mrs. Lummis's baskets. The function of the Sequoya League is to maintain a center of informed interest in Indian affairs knowing what to do and how to do it. The Indians are children, quite incompetent to make head way against the cunning or force of the white settlers who covet their lands. The League proposes to see that the Indians are justly treated. They are Indians, not white men ; with Indian blood, the Indian traditions, and also the Indian sense of dignity and honor. It is the League's suggestion that they may remain Indians if they want to, as they unquestionably do ; and that they should be also guaranteed, out of the boundless lands that we have taken from them, at least enough on which to gain a decent living by labor and thrift. This the Sequoya League has set itself to secure; and when it is secured, to make permanent, being well assured that eternal vigilance is the price of red as well as white independence. From "Out West," October, 1907