The Mission Indians
"The settlers, coveting the valleys, formed an organization against this movement. They employed counsel at home and in Washington to draw up and present to our Representatives in Congress and the President of the United States papers falsifying facts, for the purpose of obtaining a revocation of the order.
"I am informed by Indians, and by white men of great respectability, that a notorious monte-dealer by the name of McCan, residing at New San Diego, prepared a remonstrance against the reservation, and, with the assistance of two others, attached to it several hundred names (Indian and Mexican), and transmitted it to Washington. Some of these names were collected from old church records, and were the names of Indians and Mexicans who had been dead for years; and none of them, if I am correctly informed, were written or authorized by the parties to whom they belonged. McCan subsequently boasted of his success, and the facility with which so many signatures and marks could be made by three scribes only. For this valuable service McCan received $40 from Olegario, $20 from Manuel Largo, and smaller sums from various other mountain Indians, who had become, through false representations of the settlers, opposed to a reservation. This, with other documents of a kindred nature, was taken to Washington by Ben. C. Truman, and on the 17th day of February, 1871, the order of the President
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