Mr. BIDWELL. The care and maintenance of the Indians in California have already cost the Government a very considerable sum. But the duty still devolves upon the Government to care for and protect the Indians of that State. The Indians there are very differently situated from what they are in most of the Territories of the to.States. They do not consist of tribes as they do in the other Terri tories; tribes with whom you can enter into treaties and negotiations for the purchase of their lands, and for the assignment to them of reservations where they may live upon their hunting grounds or cultivate the soil for their own proper maintenance. Before the acquisition of California the government of Mexico never under any circumstances pretended to purchase the land of the Indians. The Government of the U.S., succeeding to the rights of Mexico, have never purchased a single acre of land, to my knowl edge, from the Indians of California. On the contrary, the white settlements have been extended throughout the entire State, almost into every valley, however secluded, in the mountains of that State; thereby taking from the Indians their hunting grounds and every possible means they have in their power for their support. I say, therefore, notwithstanding the im mense sums which the Government may have heretofore appropriated for the maintenance of the Indians in California, it is still an obligation upon the Government to properly provide for them. Here is a valley in the mountains of the coast range, distant from the settlements, and large enough to support a considerable portion, if not all of them, of the Indians in northern California. That valley at this time is partially occupied by a reservation on which a large number of Indians are located; it is also partially in the occupation of settlers. The object of the bill now before the House is this: to enable the Government to acquire possession of the entire valley. Now, the reason for that is evident; you cannot take care of the Indians, you cannot have that complete control over them if they are located in the vicinity of white settlements which you could if they were distant from them. I may state here that in California one of the great obstacles to the management of the Indians there is the existence of a class of loose people, men of bad morals, who congregate around the Indian reservations, furnish the Indians with liquor, teach them every vice, and induce them to run away from the reservations. Now to prevent these troubles it is necessary to get a location for them distant from the settlements. This Round. spoken of in the bill, seems to be peculiar fitted for a reservation for Indian purposes. possesses a fertile soil, a salubrious climate, and it is ample in its extent. Being in the mount ains, which are incapable of settlement, it will be so isolated that no white settlers can come near its borders. There is another view to be taken of this matter: the settlements in this valley have been threatened for a number of years with being dispossessed by the Government on the ground that it was the intention of the Government to take possession of the entire valley, and dedicate it to the purposes of an Indian reservation. But they have gone there as they have on all other public unsurveyed lands and established their precmption claims; and now over 100 settlers, I believe, occupy that valley in connection with the Indian reservation. It is the duty of this Government to come to a decision and say whether it in tends to make that entire valley a reservation. It is inconsistent with the interests of the Indian Dept, the proper management and control of the Indians, that white settlements should be in juxtaposition with the reservation; and I say that the Government ought either to take possession of the whole valley and make it a suitable reservation or abandon it altogether. There is some fear in the State of California, which I have learned from the Fo prints, that the Indians might possibly e disturbed upon the other reservations. In order to do away with any such apprehension, I am willing to offer a substitute for this bill, to which I think there can be no objection, and which I think, too, will harmonize with the views of the ComIndAffrs. I ask to have the substitute read.