Letter to the Secretary of the Interior

Refer in reply to the following: Departmeut of the Interior, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, WASHINGTON, January 29, 1902. The Honorable The Secretary of the Interior. Sir:- I have the honor to acknowledge receipt informally of a communica- tion to the President from Mr. Charles F. Lummis of Los Angeles, Cal., protesting against the abolishment of the Indian Agency in Southern California. Charges have been filed in this Office on several occasions, against the present incumbent, stating that he was selling liquor to Indians from his drugestore at San Jacinto, Cal., and that he was neglecting his duties as Agent and devoting practically his entire time to the management of his store. The matter has been investigated on several occasions and the reports have been somewhat conflicting. However, that has nothing to do with the continuance or discontinuance of the Agency. As will be seen from the memoranda submitted by Mr. .Lummis, the reservations of the Mission Agency are 34 in number and are very much scattered in the southern portion of the State - one of them as far as 320 miles from the Agency. It will be readily seen that it would be a physical impossibility for the Agent to visit these reservations even once a year, which ought to be done in order that the Indians may derive any benefit from an agency. As a matter of fact, he does