USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 22
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the States; and it is merely mentioned to show that some important consider- ation has always been involved when so large a price has been given. It is not for a moment to be supposed that any such consideration can be involved in any purchases to be made by you, and it is supposed a very small portion of that price will be required.' A. S. Loughery, Acting Commissioner, in 31st Cong., 2d Sess., II. Ex. Doc. 1, 147.
11 31st Cong., 2d Sexs., H. Ex. Doc. 1, 145-51; Hayes' Scraps, iv. 9-10. HIST. OR., VOL. II. 14
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INDIAN AFFAIRS.
would be expended for their benefit. Perhaps the public conscienee was soothed by this show of justice, as pretentious as it was hollow, and the emptiness of which was patent to every one; but it would have been in as good taste, and far more manly and honest, to have shot down the aboriginals and seized their lands without these hypocrisies and stealings, as was frequently done.
Often the people were worse than the government or its agents, so that there was little inducement for the latter to be honest. In the present instance the commissioners were far more just and humane than the settlers themselves. It is true they entered upon their duties in April 1851 with a pomp and cireum- stance in no wise in keeping with the simple habits of the Oregon settlers; with interpreters, clerks, com- missaries, and a retinue of servants they established themselves at Champoeg, towhich place agents brought the so-called chiefs of the wretched tribes of the Wil- lamette; but they displayed a heart and a humanity in their efforts which did them honor. Of the San- tiam band of the Calapooyas they purchased a portion of the valley eighty miles in length by twenty in breadth; of the Tualatin branch of the same nation a tract of country fifty miles by thirty in extent, these lands being among the best in the valley, and already settled upon by white men. The number of Indians of both sexes and all ages making a claim to this extent of territory was in the former instance one hundred and fifty-five and in the latter sixty- five.
The commissioners were unable to induce the Cala- pooyas to remove east of the Cascade mountains, as had been the intention of the government, their refusal resting upon reluctance to leave the graves of their ancestors, and ignorance of the means of procuring a livelihood in any country but their own. To these representations Gaines and his associates lent a sym- pathizing ear, and allowed the Indians to select reser-
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TREATIES.
vations within the valley of tracts of land of a few miles in extent situated upon the lower slopes of the Cascade and Coast ranges, where game, roots, and berries could be procured with ease.12
As to the instructions of the commissioner at Wash- ington, it was not possible to carry them out. Schools the Indians refused to have; and from their experi- ence of them and their effects on the young I am quite sure the savages were right. Only a few of the Tualatin band would consent to receive farming utensils, not wishing to have habits of labor forced upon them with their annuities. They were anxious also to be paid in cash, consenting reluctantly to ac- cept a portion of their annuities in clothing and pro- visions.
In May four other treaties were concluded with the Luckiamute, Calapooyas, and Molallas, the territory thus secured to civilization comprising about half the Willamette Valley.13 The upper and lower Molallas received forty-two thousand dollars, payable in twenty annual instalments, about one third to be in cash and the remainder in goods, with a present on the ratifica- tion of the treaties of a few rifles and horses for the head men. Like the Calapooyas they steadily refused to devote any portion of their annuities to educational purposes, the general sentiment of these western Ind- ians being that they had but a little time to live, and it was useless to trouble themselves about education, a sentiment not wholly Indian, since it kept Europe in darkness for a thousand years.1+
12 No mention is made of the price paid for these lands, nor have I seen these treaties in print.
13 This is the report of the commissioners, though the description of the lands purchased is different in the Spectator of May 15, 1851, where it is said that the purchase included all the east side of the valley to the head-waters of the Willamette.
14 The native eloquence, touched and made pathetic by the despondency of the natives, being quoted in public by the commissioners, subjected them to the ridicule of the anti-administration journal, as for instance: 'In this city Judge Skinner spent days, and for aught we know, weeks, in interpreting Slacum's jargon speeches, while Gaines, swelling with consequence, pronounced them more eloquent than the orations of Demosthenes or Cicero, and peddled
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INDIAN AFFAIRS.
In order to give the Indians the reservations they desired it was necessary to include some tracts claimed by settlers, which would either have to be vacated, the government paying for their improvements, or the settlers compelled to live among the Indians, an alter- native not likely to commend itself to either the set- tlers or the government.
A careful summing-up of the report of the commis- sioners showed that they had simply agreed to pay annuities to the Indians for twenty years, to make them presents, and to build them houses, while the Indians still occupied lands of their own choosing in portions of the valley already being settled by white people, and that they refused to accept teachers, either religious or secular, or to cultivate the ground. By these terms all the hopeful themes of the commissioner at Washington fell to the ground. And yet the gov- ernment was begged to ratify the treaties, because failure to do so would add to the distrust already felt by the Indians from their frequent disappointments, and make any further negotiations difficult.15
About the time the last of the six treaties was concluded information was received that congress, by act of the 27th of February, had abolished all special Indian commissions, and transferred to the superin- tendent the power to make treaties. All but three hundred dollars of the twenty thousand appropriated under the advice of Thurston for this branch of the service had been expended by Gaines in five weeks of absurd magnificence at Champoeg, the paltry remain- der being handed over to Superintendent Dart, who received no pay for the extra service with which to defray the expense of making further treaties. Thus ended the first essay of congress to settle the question of title to Indian lands.
them about the town. . . This ridiculous farce made the actors the laughing- stock of the boys, and even of the Indians.' Or. Statesman, Nov. 6, 1852.
13 Report of Commissioners, in 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 2, pt. iii. 471.
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ANSON DART.
Dart did not find his office a sinecure. The area of the country over which his superintendency extended was so great that, even with the aid of more agents, little could be accomplished in a season, six months of the year only admitting of travel in the unsettled por- tions of the territory. To add to his embarrassment, the three agents appointed had left him almost alone to perform the duty which should have been divided among several assistants,16 the pay offered to agents being so small as to be despised by men of character and ability who had their living to earn.
About the 1st of June 1851 Dart set out to visit the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains, who since the close of the Cayuse war had maintained a friendly attitude, but who hearing that it was the design to send the western Indians among them were becoming uneasy. Their opposition to having the sickly and degraded Willamette natives in their midst was equal to that of the white people. Neither were they will- ing to come to any arrangement by which they woukl be compelled to quit the country which each tribe for itself called its own. Dart promised them just treat- ment, and that they should receive pay for their lands. Having selected a site for an agency building on the Umatilla he proceeded to Waiilatpu and Lapwai, as instructed, to determine the losses sustained by the Presbyterians, according to the instructions of gov- ernment.17
16 Dart complained in his report that Spalding, who had been assigned to the Umpqua country, had visited it but twice during the year, and asked his removal and the substitution of E. A. Starling. The latter was first stationed at the mouth of the Columbia, and soon after sent to Puget Sound. Wam- pole arrived in Oregon in July 1831, was sent to Umatilla, and removed in less than three months for violating orders and trading with the Indians. Allen, appointed after Henry and Francis, also finally declined, when Skinner ac- cepted the place too late in the year to accomplish anything. A. Van Dusen, of Astoria, had been appointed subagent, but declined; then Shortess had accepted the position. Walker had been appointed to go among the Spokanes, but it was doubtful if $750 a year would be accepted. Finally J. L. Parrish, also a subagent, was the only man who had proven efficient and ready to perform the services required of him. 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 2. pt. iii. 473; U. S. Ev. H. B. Co. Claims, 27; Amer. Almanac, 1851, 113; Id., 1852, 116; Dunniway's Capt. Gray's Company, 162.
17 The claims against the government for the destruction of the missions was large in the estimation of Dart, who does not state the amount.
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INDIAN AFFAIRS.
The Cayuses expressed satisfaction that the United States cherished no hatred toward them for their past misdeeds, and received assurances of fair treatment in the future, sealed with a feast upon a fat ox. At Lapwai the same promises were given and ceremonies observed. The only thing worthy of remark that I find in the report of Dart's visit to eastern Oregon is the fact mentioned that the Cayuses had dwindled from their former greatness to be the most insignifi- cant tribe in the upper country, there being left but one hundred and twenty-six, of whom thirty-eight only were men; and the great expense attending his visit,13 the results of which were not what the govern- ment expected, if indeed any body knew what was expected. The government was hardly prepared to purchase the whole Oregon territory, even at the minimum price of three cents an acre, and it was dangerous policy holding out the promise of some- thing not likely to be performed.
As to the Presbyterian mission claims, if the board had been paid what it cost to have its property ap- praised, it would have been all it was entitled to, and particularly since each station could hold a section of land under the organic act. And as to the claims of pri- vate individuals for property destroyed by the Cayuses, these Indians not being in receipt of annuities out of which the claims could be taken, there was no way in which they could be collected. Neither was the agency erected of any benefit to the Indians, because the agent, Wampole, soon violated the law, was re- moved, and the agency closed.
18 There were 11 persons in Dart's party-himself and secretary, 2 inter- preters, drawing together $11 a day; 2 carpenters, $12; 3 packers, $15; 2 cooks, 86. The secretary received $5 a day, making the wages of the party 850 daily at the start, in addition to the superintendent's salary. Transpor- tation to The Dalles cost 8400. At The Dalles another man with 20 horses was hired at 815 a day, and 2 wagons with oxen at $12; the passage from Portland to Umatilla costing 81,500 besides subsistence. And this was only the beginning of expenses. The lumber for the agency building at Umatilla had to be carried forty miles at an enormous cost; the beef which feasted the Cayuses cost $80, and other things in proportion, 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 2, pt. iii.
215
A RIGHTEOUS JUDGE.
Concerning that part of his instructions to encour- age missionaries as teachers among the Indians, Dart had little to say; for which reason, or in revenge for his dismissal, Spalding represented that no American teachers, but only Catholics and foreigners were given permission to enter the Indian country.19 But as his name was appended to all the treaties made while he was agent, with one exception, he must have been as guilty as any of excluding American teachers. The truth was that Dart promised the Indians of eastern Oregon that they should not be disturbed in their religious practices, but have such teachers as they pre- ferred.20 This to the sectarian Protestant mind was simply atrocious, though it seemed only politic and just to the unbiassed understanding of the superin- tendent.
With regard to that part of his instructions relating to suppressing the establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, he informed the commis- sioner that he found the company to have rights which prompted him to call the attention of the government to the subject before he attempted to interfere with them, and suggested the propriety of purchasing those rights instead of proceeding against British traders as criminals, the only accusation that could be brought against them being that they sold better goods to the Indians for less money than American traders.
And concerning the intercourse aet prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors to the natives, Dart re- marked that although a good deal of liquor was con-
19 This charge being deemed inimical to the administration, the President denied it in a letter to the Philadelphia Daily Sun, April 1852. The matter is referred to in the Or. Statesman, June 15th and July 3, 1852. See also Hlome Missionary, vol. Ixxxiv. 276.
20 In 1852 a Catholic priest, E. C. Chirouse, settled on a piece of land at Walla Walla, making a claim under the act of congress establishing the terri- torial government of Washington. He failed to make his final proof according to law, and the notification of his intentions was not filed till 1860, when Archbishop Blanchet made a notification; but it appeared that whatever title there was, was in Chirouse. He relinquished it to the U. S. in 1862, but it was then too late for the Catholic church to set up a claim, and the archbishop's notification was not allowed. Portland Oregonian, March 16, 1872.
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INDIAN AFFAIRS.
sumed in Oregon, in some localities the Indians used less in proportion than any others in the United States, and referred to the difficulty of obtaining evidence against liquor sellers on account of the law of Oregon excluding colored witnesses. He also gave it as his opinion that except the Shoshones and Rogue River Indians the aborigines of Oregon were more peaceable than any of the uncivilized tribes, but that to keep in check these savages troops were indispen- sable, recommending that a company be stationed in the Shoshone country to protect the next year's im- migration.21 Altogether Dart seems to have been a fair and reasonable man, who discharged his duty under unfavorable circumstances with promptness and good sense.
21 Eighteen thousand dollars worth of property was stolen by the Shoshones in 1851; many white men were killed, and more wounded. Hutchison Clark, of Illinois, was driving, in advance of his company, with his mother, sister, and a young brother in the family carriage near Raft River 40 miles west of Fort Hall, when the party was attacked, his mother and brother killed, and Miss Grace Clark, after being outraged and shot through the body and wrist, was thrown over a precipice to die. She alighted on a bank of sand which broke the force of the fall. The savages then rolled stones over after her, some of which struck and wounded her, notwithstanding all of which she survived and reached Oregon alive. She was married afterward to a Mr Vandervert, and settled on the coast branch of the Willamette. She died Feb. 20, 1875. When the train came up and discovered the bloody deed and that the Indians had driven off over twenty valuable horses, a company was formed, led by Charles Clark, to follow and chastise them. These were driven back, however, with a loss of one killed and one wounded. A brother of this Clark family named Thomas had emigrated in 1848, and was awaiting the arrival of his friends when the outrages occurred. Or. Statesman, Sept. 23, 1851. The same band killed Mr Miller, from Virginia, and seriously wounded his daughter. They killed Jackson, a brother-in-law of Miller, at the same time, and attacked a train of twenty wagons, led by Harpool, being repulsed with some loss. Other parties were attacked at different points, and many persons wounded. Or. Spectator, Sept. 2, 1851; Barnes' Or. and Cal., MS., 26. Raymond, superintendent at Fort Hall, said that 31 emigrants had been shot by the Shoshones and their allies the Bannacks. Or. Statesman, Dec. 9, IS51; S. F. Alta, Sept. 28, 1851. The residents of the country were at a loss to account for these outrages, so bold on the part of the savages, and so injurious to the white people. It was said that the decline of the fur-trade compelled the Indians to robbery, and that they willingly availed themselves of an opportunity not only to make good their losses, but to be avenged for any wrongs, real or imaginary, which they had ever suffered at the hands of white men. A more obvious reason might be found in the withdrawal of the influence wielded over them by the Hudson's Bay Company, who being now under United States and Oregon law was forbidden to furnish ammunition, and was no longer esteemed among the Indians who had nothing to gain by obedience. Some of the emigrants professed to believe the Indian hostili- ties directly due to Mormon influence. David Newsome of the immigration
217
MORE PROMISES.
On returning from eastern Oregon, Dart visited the mouth of the Columbia in company with two of his agents, and made treaties with the Indians on both sides of the river, the tract purchased extending from the Chehalis River on the north to the Yaqui- na Bay on the south; and from the ocean on the west, to above the mouth of the Cowlitz River. For this territory the sum of ninety-one thousand three hundred dollars was promised, to be paid in ten yearly instalments, in clothing, provisions, and other neces- sary articles. Reservations were made on Clatsop Point, and Woody and Cathlamet islands; and one was made at Shoalwater Bay, conditioned upon the majority of the Indians removing to that place within one year, in which case they would be provided with a manual labor school, a lumber and flouring mill, and a farmer and blacksmith to instruct them in agricul- ture and the smith's art.
Other treaties were made during the summer and autumn. The Clackamas tribe, numbering eighty-eight persons, nineteen of whom were men, was promised an annuity of two thousand five hundred dollars for a period of ten years, five hundred in money, and the remainder in food and clothing.22 The natives of the south-western coast also agreed to cede a territory extending from the Coquille River to the southern boundary of Oregon, and from the Pacific Ocean
of 1831 says: 'Every murder, theft, and raid upon us from Fort Laramie to Grande Ronde we could trace to Mormon infinences and plans. I recorded very many instances of thefts, robberies, and murders on the journey in my journal.' Portland West Shore, Feb. 1876. I find no ground whatever for this assertion. But whatever the canse, they were an alarming feature of the time, and called for government interference. Hence a petition to congress in the memorial of the legislature for troops to be stationed at the several posts selected in 1849 or at other points npon the road; and of a demand of Lane's, that the rifle regiment should be returned to Oregon to keep the Indians in check. 32d Cong., 1st Sess., Cong. Globe, 1851-2, i. 507. When Superintend- ent Dart was in the Nez Perce country that tribe complained of the depreda- tions of the Shoshones, and wished to go to war. Dart, however, exacted a promise to wait a year, and if then the United States had not redressed their wrongs, they should be left at liberty to go against their enemies. If the Nez Percés had been allowed to punish the Shoshones it would have saved the lives of many innocent persons and a large amount of government money.
22 Or. Statesman, Aug. 19, 1851; Or. Spectator, Dec. 2, 1831.
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INDIAN AFFAIRS.
to a line drawn fifty miles east, eighty miles in length, covering an area of two and a half million acres, most of which was mountainous and heavily timbered, with a few small valleys on the coast and in the interior,23 for the sum of twenty-eight thou- sand five hundred dollars, payable in ten annual in- stalments, no part of which was to be paid in money. Thirteen treaties in all were concluded with different tribes, by the superintendent, for a quantity of land amounting to six million acres, at an average cost of not over three eents an acre.24
In November Dart left Oregon for Washington, taking with him the several treaties for ratification, and to provide for carrying them out.
The demand for the office of an Indian agent in western Oregon began in 1849, or as soon as the Ind- ians learned that white men might be expected to travel through their country with horses, provisions, and property of various kinds, which they might be de- sirous to have. The trade in horses was good in the mines of California, and Cayuse stock was purchased and driven there by Oregon traders, who made a large profit.25 Many miners also returned from California overland, and in doing so had frequent encounters with Indians, generally at the crossing of Rogue River .- 6 The ferrying at this place was performed in canoes, made for the occasion, and which, when used and left, were stolen by the Indians to compel the next party to make another, the delay affording opportunity for
23 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 2, pt. iii. 483.
24 After his return from his expedition east of the Cascade Range, Dart seemed to have practised an economy which was probably greatly suggested by the strictures of the democratic press upon the proceedings of the previous commission. 'All the expense,' he says, referring to the Coquille country, 'of making these treaties, adding the salaries of the officers of government, while thus engaged, would make the cost of the land less than one cent aud a half per acre.' 32d Cong., 1st Sess., HI. Ex. Doc. 2, pt. iii. And in the California Courier he says the total cost of negotiating the whole thirteen treaties was, including travelling expenses, about $3,000. Or. Statesman, Report, Dec. 9, 1861.
25 Honolulu Friend, Aug. 24, 1850.
26 Hancock's Thirteen Years, MS .; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 121-2, 133.
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LANE AT ROGUE RIVER.
falling on them should they prove unwary. After several companies had been attacked the miners turned upon the Indians and became the assailants. And to stop the stealing of canoes, left for the convenience of those in the rear, some miners concealed themselves and lay in wait for the thieves, who when they en- tered the canoe were shot. However beneficial this may have been for the protection of the ferry it did not mend matters in a general way. If the Indians had at first been instigated simply by a desire for plunder,27 they had now gained from the retaliation of the Americans another motive-revenge.
In the spring of 1850 a party of miners, who had collected a considerable sum in gold-dust in the placers of California and were returning home, reached the Rogue River, crossing one day, toward sunset, and encamped about Rock Point. They did not keep a very careful watch, and a sudden attack caused them to run to cover, while the Indians plundered the camp of everything of value, including the bags of gold- dust. But one man, who had his treasure on his per- son, escaped being robbed.
It was to settle with these rogues for this and like transactions that Lane set out in May or June 1850 to visit southern Oregon, as before mentioned. The party consisted of fifteen white men, and the sanie number of Klickitats, under their chief Quatley, the determined enemy of the Rogue River people. Quat- ley was told what was expected of him, which was not to fight unless it become necesary, but to assist in making a treaty. They overtook on the way some cattle-drivers going to California, who travelled with
27 Barnes' Or. and Cal .. MS., 13. Says Lane, speaking of the chief at Rogue River, over whom he obtained a strong influence: 'Joe told me that the first time he shed white blood, he, with another Indian, discovered late in the afternoon two whites on horseback passing through their country. At first they thought these might be men intending some mischief to their people, but having watched them to their camp and seen them build their fire for the , night, they conceived the idea of murdering them for the sake of the horses and luggage. This they did, taking their scalps. After that they always killed any whites they could for the sake of plunder.' Autobiography, MS., 148.
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