The California Indian, often termed “Digger”, has been considerably maligned. Statements are not wanting that the California Indians were of deficient mentality, little above the brutes and about the lowest of all human beings. Such statements are entitled to no credence. Kroeber, Barrett, Goddard, Merriam, Powers, Lummis, and all writers having actual acquaintance with the California Indians, place them as equal to any of the other American tribes. Teachers in the California Indian schools say that the California Indian children are as intelligent and capable as any Indians they have ever taught. Nearly one thousand Indian children are in the public schools of California and their scholarship is in no wise inferior to that of the white children of the same age, though it must be admitted that few Indian children attend after adolescence. A few of those in better financial circumstances have graduated from high schools with honors. Employers of Indian labor, without exception, pronounce them honest, reliable and capable. They can be trusted to work alone, which cannot be done with Oriental labor or floating Whites. Conviction of an Indian for theft is almost unheard of. Statistics gathered in 1909 showed twenty-eight Indians in the prisons of California for crimes of violence, mostly committed when under the influence of liquor, and not one Indian for theft or robbery or crimes against property. This is remarkable when we consider the straits under which the Indians are often placed.