MF1323.1197 Reel 39_1149

California 16569 Austin Wiley San Francisco, Cal July 6, '64 --- Wants instructions rel. to the employment of Indians by unauthorized persons also as regards Kidnapping of Indians ___ What [shall] be done? [Seal] RECEIVED AT THE July 30 INDIAN BUREAU

In Commis

Office of Indian Affairs San Francisco Cal.a July 6th 1864.

Sir: In passing through Sonoma County a few weeks since, I found a lot of indians at work on the farms, in bands of from ten to forty, reaping, threshing and grinding grain, digging potatoes etc. I knew they did not live in the locality in which I found them, and upon inquiry I learned that they were brought there from the Northern part of the adjoining County, and were hired out by men who live among them and subsist by the labors of the men and wages of sin of the squaws.

I have taken such steps to have the indians returned to their home as my limited power gives me, but I can find no law, either statutory or general which gives me the power to arrest and punish the parties having them in charge. A civil process for involuntary servitude would fail because it would be shown that the indians worked willingly and were paid by their worthless proprietors for their labor.

I should thank the Department if they would give me power and definite instruction pertaining to this and the kidnapping of Indian children. In regard to the latter a conviction before a civil tribunal is impossible for this class is composed of men who can always find witnesses.

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with a sufficient elasticity of conscience to prove anything, so that attempted convictions under our State statutes, though the case may be clear, are always unsuccessful and generally followed by a malignant prosecution of the informer.

Very Respectfully Your Obdt Servant, Austin Wiley Supt Indian Affairs.

Hon. Wm. P. Dole Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Washington, D.C.