Resolved, by the House, the Council concurring, that our Delegation in Congress be requested to use their influence with the Secretary of War for the establishment of a military post at or near Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon.
    And with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the appointment of a full agent for the Klamath Lake Indians.
    Passed the House, December 9, 1858.
    Passed the Council, December 10, 1858.

    We have been furnished with the following copy of a letter from Gen. Clark to J. W. Nesmith, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in relation to a military post on Klamath Lake. It will be seen that at the moment of the receipt of the letter and resolution, the General was starting all his disposable force south to the Colorado and Mohave country, to suppress Indian hostilities in that quarter.
    We want a military post and Indian agency in the Klamath Lake country--in fact our people are going there the present spring by hundreds, and the country will be settled.
    Sir:--Your letter of Dec. 27, 1858 to Brig. Gen. Harney, in reference to the establishment of a military post near Klamath Lake, in Southern Oregon, has by him been referred to Brig. Gen. Clark.
    The General directs me to say that at the moment of receiving that letter and the resolutions enclosed, he was in the act of sending all his disposable forces to the Colorado River, to suppress Indian hostilities; this work accomplished, he will take all the means in his power to give security to the northern portion of his department and meet the wishes of its citizens.
To J. W. NESMITH, Esq.,
    Supt. Indian Affairs,
        Oregon & Washington Territories,
            Salem, O.T.

Office Supt. Ind. Affairs
    Salem, Oregon, May 3rd 1859

    Editor Evening Bulletin: Considerable excitement was created in town today by the appearance of Lalake, one of the chiefs of the Klamath Lake Indians, having in his possession the heads of three Indians killed by him at or near the Klamath River. As you have already been informed, there were some five persons murdered lately, at the head of Butte Creek, in Oregon, who were on their way to Klamath Lake to settle there. When found, they were horribly mutilated; their horses, arms and everything valuable gone. Suspicion fell upon the Klamath Lake Indians as having committed the murder, none others being known to have been about that country, and some who were in Jacksonville at the time were arrested. Lalake, their chief, being here, and himself and tribe always having been friendly towards the whites, resolved to find the murderers and if possible bring them to punishment. He started out, and found near the scene of the murder three Indians (a father and two sons) who detailed and confessed to him all the circumstances of the murder, and even had the horses, guns etc. of the murdered men in their possession. These Indians were a remnant of the Rogue River tribe, who had all been sent to the reserve, and had either been accidentally left behind or escaped from it. They have been roaming in the mountains for some time. Lalake killed them all, and brought their three heads here to show the whites that they were not of his tribe. A white man who had been with him fully confirms his statement. This, I suppose, will end an Indian war, which likely would have occurred had these murderers not been brought to just and speedy retribution. . . .
San Francisco Bulletin, June 3, 1859, page 3



    WAR BETWEEN TRIBES.—The Siskiyou Chronicle writes as follows concerning the hostile Indians who inhabit the northern counties of California and Southern Oregon:
    "A feud and warfare has long existed between the collection of Indian tribes along the course and about the source of Pit River on the one side, and the tribes inhabiting the plateau of the lake country east of Yreka, as far north as Deschutes River on the other. In 1857, whilst Lieutenant Crook was prosecuting a vigorous campaign against the former, from Pit River Valley, the lake tribes made a flank movement from the north, and carried off, as spoils of war, fifty-six squaws and children, and traded them for Cayuse horses to the tribes living on the waters of the Columbia River in the north, where they find a ready market.
    "It is reported that about the first of June the combined forces of the lake tribes will make a descent upon the tribes inhabiting the large valleys along the Upper Pit River, and have made inquiries beforehand whether the whites have any objection to the proceeding. Inasmuch as the Pit River Indians have always been a bloody and incorrigible band, their extermination will be a fixed fact, if not a necessity, and it is perhaps as well for their old enemies to do the job. There are, certainly, no circumstances calling for intervention. As a matter of curiosity we inquired prices current in the Cayuse market, and learned that a Pit River boy brings one horse, and that a good-looking squaw is worth five or six."
Shasta Courier, Shasta City, California, May 21, 1859, page 1

    As my friend quoted these lines in a low and musing tone, he was gazing yearningly out on the near slopes of the western hills, bathed in the soft radiance of the afternoon sun, and touched already by the emerald wand of spring. There was, indeed a suggestion of early violets in the tender scene beyond us and the balmy air of the matchless February day.
    For a time both of us were lost in plaintive reveries, and then, lighting a fresh cigar and turning so as to get an easier position in his chair, he asked me:
    "Were you ever at Fort Yamhill?"
    "If you mean the old abandoned post in a nook of the Coast Range mountains northwest of here, yes, once."
    "You are right; it is away up there in a corner of Polk County, close to the line of historic Yamhill. It was established there at the natural gateway of the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation to hold the dusky wards of the government in check. The Rogue Rivers, Klamaths and Shastas, red-hot and reeking from the battlefields of Southern Oregon, were brought there in '57 [sic], as also the more peaceful Umpquas and valley tribes proper. Those were stirring times, I tell you, and the scalplock quivered uneasily on the head of every white man there. Had the Indians really risen in arms, as was often threatened, they could have swept the plucky little garrison from their path, or left it boxed up in the blockhouse."
    Carrol puffed away meditatively at his cigar in silence for a moment, and then resumed:
    "Well, it was the suggested scent of violets in the soft vernal atmosphere of this sunny afternoon and the view of the freshening slopes over there that somehow reminded me of my life at Fort Yamhill years and years ago, and the strange and sweet romance interwoven with it and fated to color all my after days.
    "Being a relative of the post trader I was given the position of assistant clerk in the sutler store at the age of fifteen. Our trade came almost entirely from the soldiers and Indians, and as we were allowed to sell wine and beer to the soldiers it was rather rough school for a susceptible youth.
    "That was thirty-odd years ago, mind you, and everything about the place is changed. The old fort, once the most beautiful and picturesque garrison in the Northwest, was, as you know, long ago abandoned, and its site is nearly as desolate as that of ancient Ilium. The old warlike tribes of Indians have dwindled away to a poor scrofulous remnant, half-civilized and possessed of broad, half-tilled acres from which they could hardly be driven away.
    "The place has a historic interest from the fact that the beau sabreur of the national army, Sheridan, was stationed there before the war. He was only a second lieutenant of Company R, Fourth Infantry, then--young and handsome, with bold, black eyes and crisp, close-curling hair, dreamless, in those bright, calm, idyllic, antebellum days, of his future greatness. The destined hero of Winchester was much in the saddle, and almost any summer day, when not attending to the routine duties of the post, he could be seen careering about on his spotted charger, 'Peacock,' and a magnificent horseman was the slender young lieutenant, you may be sure.
    "As I said before, our trade was almost wholly confined to Indians and soldiers, and it was a flush business, too. The Indians all had money in those days, and they spent it royally for 'store' clothes and dress goods. It was no uncommon thing to see a long-haired brave prancing around proudly in a 'biled' shirt and glossy suit of broadcloth, while the upturned soles of his demoralized boots stared him reproachfully in the face.
    "As a rule, the young women of the Rogue River Shasta Indians were comely, and many of them were classically beautiful. With the inevitable instinct of their sex, they adorned their shapely persons with excellent taste, and by every coquettish device made the most of their charms. I confess that I was quite overpowered by the tout ensemble of these dark-eyed Perynes [sic], and was inclined to give them overmeasure at the dry goods counter as a tribute to their fateful attractions.
    "Along in the summer of 1859 I first saw the peerless Anilla. She was a Shasta girl about my own age, and related to the royal house of the warrior chief, Shasta John, the same who made a desperate attempt to capture the steamer while on his way to Alcatraz as a prisoner of war.
    "I will not bore you with an attempted description of Anilla. I was a boy, of course, but even now, as I look upon the picture of her my memory still retains, I must confess that she was the loveliest maiden I ever saw. Never since, in all my wanderings, have I seen such a graceful form, such perfectly chiseled features, such glorious eyes of misty midnight splendor! It was the mystical beauty of a nymph, a Daphne--fanciful, fleeting fateful.
    "Enough; the divine rapture of first love, a pure and holy flame was kindled in my young heart, and I soon found that I was loved in return. Then
    "What a summer that was--the summer of a dream! Looking back now from the sterile heights of middle age, I sometimes think that it was only a dream--the vision of an enchanted soul astray in the elysian fields and banqueting a little while in the bowers of asphodel.
    "I always waited upon her when she came to the store, and even the rude and boisterous soldiers, who saw how it was, seemed to respect our innocent but intense romance and only laughed quietly at it among themselves as they looked over their shoulders from the beer counter and caught us discussing the quality of a piece of dress goods with our heads dangerously close together.
    "Anilla was very shy and gentle and had neither eyes nor speech for anyone about the store but me. She soon learned enough of the language to converse with me, and her childlike pronunciation only endeared the tender thoughts she naively uttered.
    "On the long, sweet, shimmering summer days when I was alone, and I kept her well informed on that point, she would come to the store with a wreath of fragrant wildflowers on her shining black hair and sit beside the counter and sew while we talked interminable, ecstatic nonsense. The sutler himself was a hard-grained man of business and never seemed to realize what was going on. If he did, he generously held his peace. Strangers finding her thus in the store would look wonderingly at the demure, contented little beauty and wonder what it all meant.
    "Ah, well, so ran the happy weeks away--tattoo and reveille, tattoo and reveille--the same weary old routine at the barracks, and down at the store the ceaseless weaving of love's young dream.
    "Finally harvest came on and Anilla's people moved back to their farm lands on the southern side of the Yamhill River to gather their crops. Of course she went with them, and our parting down by the murmuring stream at the foot of the hill, where their camp had been, was prophetically sad and solemn. We exchanged rings and kisses and tears, and then, in the still shadows of the fragrant firs, bade each other goodbye--forever!
    "Poor Anilla, she was taken sick soon after their return to their permanent home, and I could not get away to visit her. You can imagine what I suffered, although I did not anticipate a serious termination to her illness. It was sad enough to know that she was on a bed of suffering and I chained down to the duties of that odious store, for a time at least, and unable to be at her side. The head clerk was away, and I had to await his return before I could visit her.
    "One afternoon Lieut. Sheridan dashed up to the front of the store and, calling for some cigars, told me that he was going over to the Shasta farm and would probably see my sweetheart; did I have any message to send her? There was a merry light in his keen dark eye as he asked the question, but he kindly took the package I handed him for her and galloped away.
    "That was a weary, weary afternoon. A dim foreboding of disaster hung about me like a pallid mental mist and would not be shaken off. The flag over the parade ground hung listlessly about its soaring staff like the drapery of a ghost. The slow, monotonous march of the sentry at the gate became terrible to me. The constant flashes of his bayonet as he wheeled at the end of his beat seemed to burn my very brain.
    "The shadows of sunset were lengthening toward the east when Sheridan returned. There was no smile on his face as he rode up to the platform where I stood and returned the package he had taken for me to Anilla.
    "'Too late, my poor fellow,' he said, in a tone of wonderful sympathy, 'she died today. Be a brave boy now and go over tomorrow.' And generously forbearing to witness my grief he wheeled his fiery steed and dashed away to his quarters on the crest of the hill.
    "I stood there turning the package over and over in my trembling hands like some poor, demented soul who knew not what he did. Let that suffice. Many eventful years have rolled away since then, but my life has never fully emerged from the shadow of the eclipse that then suddenly darkened the summer sun.
    "That very night the Umpqua 'medicine' man who had attended Anilla was waylaid and shot through the heart by a young Shasta named Frank, a cousin of Anilla's, and a tribal war seemed about to be precipitated. Learning that Sheridan was going over with a detachment the following night to arrest the swift avenger of malpractice, I waited and obtained permission to go with them, as hostilities were liable to commence at any time between the Umpquas and Shastas.
    "It was about 9 o'clock, and the resplendent moon was serenely sailing the purple main of heaven when we set out. The Shasta village was nearly three miles away, and for a greater part of the distance there was only a trail winding through moonlit glades and somber woods, and occasionally crossing a brawling tributary of the Yamhill on a footlog.
    "Hardly a word was spoken, for all knew that there was deadly peril in that night's work, as the Shastas were always ripe for revolt and might give battle instead of delivering up the criminal. There were all sorts of strange noises and moving spectral shadows in the forest. We might well apprehend that the stealthy rustling of the underbrush now and then at the side of the trail and the gurgling call of the screech owl from the thick, gloomy branches of some ancient fir were sounds produced by Indian scouts lurking there for an opportunity of revenge.
    "Sheridan was, however, determined to teach the fierce band to which Frank belonged that they were under the white man's law. He apprehended the danger, of course, but was confident of success. He knew that old Shasta John had a great deal of confidence in him and would take his word for it that the murderer, if peacefully surrendered, should be fairly treated.
    "But the capture of Frank is only an incident in the thread of my story, and I need only add that it was successfully effected. The detachment returned with their prisoner, but I remained. The remains of poor Anilla had already been committed to the earth. I knew where the tribal burial ground was, and finally bribed an Indian boy about my own age to go and show me the particular spot where my loved and lost was laid. All the Shastas knew me and so, as what may be termed the 'affianced' of the dead girl, I was permitted to go where I pleased, although they did not dream that I would have the temerity to visit the burying ground in the dead hours of the night.
    "So, under the influence of a heavy bribe, the trembling boy went with me. The graveyard was a quarter of a mile from the village behind an isolated grove of firs. A wild, weird scene burst upon us when we emerged from the grove. On the tall poles that were driven around each of the numerous graves, gleaming tin vessels and long strips and streamers of bright-colored cloths were hung, and on the mounds beneath heaps of glittering beads were strewn--a strange, a thrilling sight there in the white, still luster of the August moon.
    "The Indian boy, affected by the superstition of his race, was convulsed with fear, but I dragged him forward until he showed me the grave, and then allowed him to turn and fly like the wind from the mystery and terror of death.
    "I am not ashamed to say that, left alone, I threw myself on that barbaric grave in an agony of unavailing grief. I lay there for more than an hour and then got up and staggered away to the shadow of the grave and sat down to brood sullenly over my hopeless misfortune. I sat thus for hours without raising my head. A noise of some kind roused me from my stupor. I looked up, and by the light of the setting sun saw that several Indians were gathered about Anilla's grave. I looked more intently and to my horror saw that they were disinterring the body! I recognized in the leader of the vandals the chief 'medicine man' of the Rogue Rivers. You can imagine my unutterable surprise and consternation when I heard the grizzly old magician assure his assistants that Anilla was not dead, that he himself had secretly administered a poison that produced the semblance of death in order to accomplish the ruin of his rival and bring about a war of extermination against the hated Umpqua tribe.
    "I knew enough of the language to understand all this. Finally, to the accompaniment of a low and mournful chant, they raised the body from the grave. They removed the wrappings and there, serene and beautiful in the moonlight, were the features on which I had so often fondly gazed! I saw them touch her and start back with astonishment. They said that the body was even yet warm, and the leader told them that the effect of his medicine was dying away and that she would live. Then he solemnly declared that the fact of her restoration to life must forever remain a secret. Then they filled up the grave and I saw them bear her away, but could neither speak nor move. Afterward I must have become unconscious, and when I opened my eyes again the moon had set and it was near dawn."
    Carroll knocked the ashes from his cigar and paused in his narrative.
    "What then?" I asked, impatiently.
    "Mystery and oblivion," he answered, sadly. "She must have lived, but the satanic art of the 'medicine' man effectually concealed her, and I never cared to retain what I had seen. I spent years in the unavailing quest and then gave it up in despair. But come, the sun is down, and it is time to go."
Morning Oregonian, Portland, March 10, 1889, page 1

To the Editor of the New York Times:
    I send you for publication a letter from Anson Dart, Esq., late Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, which shows very conclusively the superiority of the peace policy over the war policy, in our mismanagement of the Indian tribes.
    Mr. Dart was appointed to this important Superintendency by President Taylor, and made it a condition of his acceptance that all troops be withdrawn from the Territory. This was complied with. [There were still troops in the Territory in 1851.] He then proceeded to effect a settlement of all existing differences between the Indians and whites, and for three years maintained a state of harmony between them, and at a trifling expense to the government, until he was superseded in 1853. [There were battles between the whites and Indians in 1851, 1852 and 1853.] Under Mr. Dart, the entire expense of the Department was less than $24,000 a year. Since his time it has never been less than $350,000 a year, and has reached $750,000, exclusive of war claims made by the people of Oregon and Washington, amounting to $5,000,000.
    In a report made to the House of Representatives by Mr. Colfax, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, in January last, it is said that "during the whole of his (Mr. Dart's) Superintendency, peace and quiet were maintained among all the Indian tribes under his care, and also between them and their white neighbors," that he "negotiated no less than thirteen Indian treaties, saving to the government the usual expense of commissioners for their negotiation; that he was disbursing officer for six Indian agencies; that during his term not a cent of money was expended to quell Indian difficulties; and that the expenses of the Superintendency were not over one-fifth as much as in California at the same time, with about the same number of Indians."
No. 55 Broadway, July 16, 1859.
To the Indian Aid Association:
    I am fully persuaded that the effort you are making to change the present mode of treatment, as now practiced by our government towards the Indians, will meet with success, just in proportion to the amount of truth and correct knowledge that shall reach the people upon this subject.
    But while there are so many persons that are directly or indirectly interested in keeping up the present system, which calls for the expenditure of so many millions of dollars annually, you will find it very difficult to get the truths and facts before the people.
    The result of my acts, while Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in the country now the state of Oregon and Washington Territory, should have some weight in sustaining the position taken by you and others, that kind treatment to the Indians costs but little, while it is sure to make them peaceable and friendly to the white people.
    Before I entered upon the duties of my office, I procured the aid of the then able Delegate, S. R. Thurston, Esq., to persuade the Secretary of War to remove from Oregon all the United States troops. This request was complied with in a few months after I reached Oregon, in 1850; therefore, during my stay of about three years in that country, it was not armed justice that kept all of the Indian tribes of that extensive country peaceable and friendly to the white people.
    The entire cost to the government for every purpose connected with Indian affairs, for the three years in question, was about $71,000. This sum included about $28,000 expended for Indian presents, and about $12,000 for the Superintendent and agency houses, and the entire cost of negotiating thirteen Indian treaties, the salaries of the Superintendent and six agents, interpreters, clerks, provisions for Indians, traveling expenses &c.
    But the cost to the government for management these same Indians under the more popular system adopted from 1853 to 1856, under the sound of the drum and fife, has been from $300,000 up to $750,000 per annum. This, you will bear in mind, is over and above the little war debt of some five millions yet unpaid.
    The statements above you will find corroborated by reference to the files in the Second Auditor's Office at Washington.
    I am in possession of many other interesting facts connected with Indian affairs, which, if made public, would, I think, aid you very much in your laudable efforts in behalf of the aborigines of our country.
    I have the honor to be, very respectfully,
New York Times, July 21, 1859, page 8

Sir:
    As Mr. Yates will leave in a few minutes I have only time to say that regarding Capt. Dodge's rates of transportation to Siletz as altogether unreasonable and exorbitant I have as yet closed no contract with him for the delivery of goods at that point.
    I would also say that after careful examination and reflection I cannot see how the mill you have commenced can be paid for out of the very limited appropriations for the current year. I have determined only on the most extraordinary emergency to incur liabilities directly to consequentially extending beyond the limits of actual appropriations. Nor do I think it proper after having inferentially at least referred the matter of building that mill to the authorities at Washington by the estimates of appropriations forwarded from this office to proceed in the case without specific instructions from that quarter.
    In regard to the treaty goods for which you have estimated I have thought that in case the schooner was not chartered that I would load the goods on the wagons designed for the Siletz agency and hire teams for their transportation by land. I regret much your severe indisposition but trust you will soon be restored to the enjoyment of health. I will write you by the first mail.
R. B. Metcalfe Esq.
    Indian Agent
        Siletz Agency Ogn.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 7; Letter Books F:10, page 386.


Sir:
    It being of the utmost importance that the Indians of the Klamath Lake tribe and the renegade Molallas yet remaining of the party that perpetrated the murder of five white men last spring [the Ledford massacre] should be speedily apprehended and signally punished for their perfidy and atrocious crime, you are directed by this office to take, as promptly as possible, such measures as will secure this object.
    If necessary you will organize a small party of not more than ten men who will furnish their own riding and pack animals, arms and equipments, and proceed with them to the Klamath country and in order to secure the friendly cooperation of Lalakes and other influential Indians you are authorized to purchase a few goods for presents which however you will only deliver to the Indians on the surrender of the murderers.
    In the event of their capture you will deliver the culprits into the custody of the civil authorities at Jacksonville to be retained for trial.
    Regarding it as highly desirable to impress the Indian mind with a sense of the authority and equity of our laws, and to exhibit an example of the respect paid our civil tribunals by our citizens, you will spare no pains to prevent the killing of the Indians by popular violence and to secure them a fair and impartial trial.
    To meet the expenses of this enterprise in which you will use all economy consistent with success, vouchers for services and supplies, properly certified by you, will be duly paid on presentation at this office.
    You are however explicitly instructed not to issue such vouchers for an aggregate amount above the sum of twelve hundred dollars.
To
    G. H. Abbott Esq.
        Sub-Ind. Agent
            Jacksonville Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 7; Letter Books F:10, pages 386-387.



Dear Sir
    Yours of the 24th inst. was handed me by Mr. Yates just as I was leaving Corvallis. I am sorry you have not been able to get a schooner. The articles purchased in Portland and those mentioned in the bill which I left at your office are much needed at this agency. There will probably be other schooners there which can be had at more reasonable rates.
    I hardly know how to regard your letter. You do not order me positively to stop operations on the mill, but it amounts almost to an order. If you desire to postpone the erection of a mill please write me again on the receipt of this. You say you are unwilling only on the most extraordinary emergency to incur liabilities beyond the appropriation. This I do regard an extraordinary emergency and firmly believe the Department would sustain you in four times the amount that it will actually cost. The waste that will inevitably be from issuing the wheat to the Indians would more than pay the whole expense of building the mill. I would regard a failure to complete the mill this fall as one of the most serious disasters that could befall these people. Humanity, justice, economy and everything pertaining to the good of the service demands that we should proceed with that work, and if I were to remain here I would pay every dollar out of my own pocket rather than see a work so important (both for the economy of the government and the benefit of the Indians) abandoned, but my zeal in behalf of these poor helpless mortals has probably carried me too far already and I will look with anxiety for your instructions in the matter.
    The Indians say they are willing to do without beef if we will only complete the mill, and I do not see the impropriety of using any funds that may be applied to the purchase of provision to the erection of a mill. The heaviest portion of the work is already completed. The dam is complete with the exception of a few days' labor nailing on some boards; we have about fourteen thousand feet of lumber sawed which will be enough to complete the building; the lumber for the frame is nearly all hewn, and in ten days everything will be on the ground, and by the first of October the dam and building will be complete ready for the machinery. The millwright says it will not cost one thousand dollars to start the mill to grinding after the frame and dam are completed. Now the expense of the building and the dam is already incurred, or nearly so, as well as the purchase of the machinery, and it certainly would be bad policy to stop the work for the want of one thousand dollars more.
    As we had no wagons I have had about three hundred Indians packing in the wheat, oats and peas. We will be through harvesting in one week more if the weather remains fair. Our potatoes will not be ready to dig before the fifteenth of October.
To
    Edwd. R. Geary Esq.
        Supt. Ind. Affairs
            Portland
                Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 163.



Sir
    Yours of the 8th inst. is received. The requisition for funds in my communication of July 20th was not made in anticipation of any extraordinary emergency, but only for the amount required for the usual and current expenses of this agency for the present quarter.
    I was surprised to learn that no "official information had reached your office of reported disturbances on the Siletz Reservation."
    Enclosed please find a copy of Agent Metcalfe's letter of the 28th of June, being the one referred to in my communication of July 20th, also [a] copy of an extract from a letter received at this office from Peter Ruffner Esq. dated Port Orford, Oregon, July 25th 1859.
    Mr. Gagnier of Siuslaw and the Siuslaw Indians reported to this office that on the first of July Indians from the Siletz agency were crossing the Siuslaw River on rafts, but I have never learned that they crossed the Umpqua and I am now inclined to think that those Indians who left the Siletz Reservation in June did not return to Coquille or Rogue River, as Agent Metcalfe informed me they intended to do.
Edward R. Geary
    Supt.Ind Affairs
        Oregon & W.T.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 165.



Bro. Geary
    Dear Sir, I am sorry to inform you that Indian Charley, the man who was stabbed in July, is still a poor suffering object of pity. I supposed he was well, but a little more than two weeks ago I found him lying out on the ground back of the stores with the clotted blood oozing out of his wounds, and almost in a state of mortification. He was almost naked and groaning every breath. I felt that our common Christianity required that something should be done for him more than the care he was receiving. The Indians who were there would do nothing; his sister was sick with a young child and could do nothing. I tried to get a man to attend to him and promised to go among the citizens with a subscription to pay him. I found a man, an Irishman, that said he would do it. I worked that day to fit him up a room, put a stove of my own into it, and left him expecting he would be cared for, but the next day he left him, saying his wounds stunk so that he could not wash them. Poor Charley seemed deserted by all and left to die. I brought him to my house and have taken care of him thus far. Now, brother, I appeal to you, my cares are such that it is impossible for me to continue to do it much longer. It discharges a pint of matter a day or nearly that, filling his shirt and bedclothes. He has to have his dressing cloths & shirt changed three times a day, and all his blankets must be washed every other day, for by this time they are covered with maggots and fly blows. Without this increasing care he would be eaten alive, and yet with care he may get well. The broken knife blade was left for two weeks and more sticking in the bone (the shoulder blade) & this part, together with the flesh around it, is poisoned and so injured that it must slough off before it will get well. This is the cause of the amount of matter which passes away and the cause of the terrible stench. And now, brother, ought he not to be taken care of. Does not Christ's parable of the good Samaritan teach us this duty. He is a sufferer and a creature of God. Can you not provide some way for his care. I ask nothing for what I have done for him, but feel unable to do much longer. My child is sick and my own family with my public duties requires all my time.
    Write soon.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 146.



Sir,
    Private letters received from Portland by last mail inform the creditors of the Indian Department in this vicinity that funds sufficient to pay the accounts audited by Commissioner Mott were forwarded to you by the mail, which left New York on the 5th inst.
    If, upon the receipt of those funds, you are obliged to go to San Francisco to negotiate drafts, by making a deposit while in San Francisco with the U.S. Assistant Treasurer in my favor for the amount due claimants from this agency, you will enable me to pay their demands some from four or five weeks sooner than it can be done if funds should not be transmitted to this office until you return to Portland after your trip to California.
    The Assistant Treasurer at San Francisco has furnished me with a check book, and for the last two years late Supt. Nesmith has forwarded funds to this office by directing the Assistant Treasurer at San Francisco to place to my credit such amounts as were designed for the use of this agency, on which I have drawn from time to time as funds have been required here or as my checks could be cashed.
    The receipts or vouchers for any funds sent to this office will be promptly forwarded by mail or otherwise, as you may direct, to you at your office in Portland.
    Checks or drafts on the Assistant Treasurer at New York can be cashed at this post without delay by the agents of Wells, Fargo & Co.
    The anxiety and solicitation of holders of the outstanding claims against the Indian Department at this agency have induced me to make the above suggestions for your consideration. These claimants have been constantly pressing their inquiries relative to the earliest moment when their demands could be paid and urging me to do all in my power to hasten such payment.
    Doubtless you have had a similar experience at your office and can appreciate it.
    By reference to my accounts on file in your office, you will see that the amount audited by Commissioner Mott as due to claimants from this office is $27,931.35.
Edward R. Geary
    Supt. Ind. Affairs
        Oregon & W.T.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 160.



Sir:
    I have the honor to submit to your consideration the following annual report with the accompanying papers.
    Having so recently assumed the supervision of this extensive field, a minute review of the events of the past year, or extended reflections on the condition and prospects of the various tribes of Indians, so diversified in character and circumstances, is scarcely practicable.
    This is, however, rendered less important by the ample reports of the subordinate officers, which present much valuable information.
    With the exception of the rude and predatory bands of the Shoshones or Snake Indians, inhabiting a vast and but partially explored region in the southeastern portion, the Indians within this Superintendency may be regarded as maintaining peaceful relations with the United States. Many of the tribes and bands have always been well affected towards our government, and the severe tests which their fidelity and friendship have undergone during hostilities with tribes in their vicinity, afford a reliable guarantee that these relations will be perpetuated.
    The Indians implicated in the hostilities of the last four years may be considered as conquered and generally convinced of the folly of waging war against a nation so superior in intelligence, numbers, and resources.
    Yet with a people so inveterate in their superstitions and prejudices, and whose ignorance subjects them to the evil influence of the reckless and designing of both their own and the white races, the presence of a competent military force at judiciously selected posts, and the agents of the government, will long be required to afford our frontier settlements, now so rapidly extending, the assurance of safety.
    The signal chastisement administered last year by the U.S. troops on the hostiles of the northern interior, and the stern justice meted out to several of the chief instigators and actors in the atrocities committed against our citizens, have evidently had a salutary effect, and we trust will not need to be repeated. This, however, must greatly depend on the wisdom and integrity of those charged with carrying into effect the policy of the government, for so extensive and deep has been the sentiment of distrust and dissatisfaction produced by the influx of immigration to the Indian country, coupled with the protracted delay in the ratification of the treaties negotiated in 1855, that the most persistent efforts of the agents and other officers of the government have barely sufficed to preserve amicable relations, even with tribes heretofore friendly.
    The most salutary effects in quieting the apprehensions of the Indians have been manifested on the announcement of the ratification of the treaties, not only among the tribes immediately interested, but with others with whom as yet no treaties have been negotiated. If adequate appropriations be made without delay for fulfilling treaty stipulations, it is confidently believed that the remaining tribes will be eager to dispose of their country, and secure the protection and other advantages arising from the present policy of colonizing on reservations.
    Congress cannot be too deeply sensible of the importance of making the appropriations for fulfilling the recently ratified treaties at the earliest practicable moment, and to facilitate legislative action much care has been exercised in the elaboration of the estimates and accompanying explanatory analysis herewith transmitted.
    Sound views of economy, justice and humanity indicate clearly that as these treaties are required to go into operation during the current fiscal year, the appropriations should be made so early as to warrant the commencement of the improvements on the several reservations in February or March at the latest, otherwise the spring crops, of great importance to the economical subsistence of the Indians, and for which they are especially solicitous, will be delayed another year.
    When it is considered that this course will eminently tend to perpetuate the sentiments of peace and good will in powerful tribes, and prevent the recurrence of another savage war, necessarily bloody and devastating to our settlements, extended under the authority and sanction of the government--a war involving a vast expenditure of treasure and blood, and fraught with destruction to the cherished hopes of humanity with regard to the Indian race on these shores--it is confidently expected that the utmost promptitude in enacting the necessary law will commend itself to our legislators, and the immediate action of this office will be based on such expectation.
    The influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of the British name over the Indians in a large portion of this Superintendency, is well understood; and our present threatening relations with Great Britain have already had a perceptible influence on the Indians of Washington Territory, bordering the coast and Puget Sound. Should it again become necessary for the safety of the settlers to collect these Indians and guard them on reservations, it can be done most effectively and economically under the provisions of the ratified treaties.
    With a race so excitable and superstitious, such an emergency may arise from the slightest causes; and the lives and property of our citizens should not incur the jeopardy of savage violence for a moment through any delay to give effect to measures already determined by solemn treaty.
    Our Indian policy comprises two grand objects. The first is the protection of our citizens from their predatory and murderous attacks on the one hand, and on the other the Indians themselves from the wrongs and abuses to which they are exposed from the reckless and unprincipled of the white race unfortunately found in all communities.
    To save from extinction these waning remnants of the aborigines, ameliorate their circumstances, and elevate them, if possible, to the possession of the advantages, comforts and hopes of a pure civilization, is the second object.
    These are objects worthy [of] the consideration and endeavors of the statesman and philanthropist, and their energetic pursuit is alike due our citizens and the original proprietors of the soil on which we have become a happy and prosperous nation.
    As a means of mutual safety to the races, and for preventing the horrors of savage warfare, no scheme commends itself so strongly as that, now become the policy of the government, the collection of the Indians on properly located reservations.
    On these reservations they will be more immediately under the notice of the agents of the government, who will thus be able to detect the earliest manifestations of discontent, prevent hostile combinations, and arrest and punish the ill-disposed before defection becomes general. The benefits derived from their improved lands; the safety secured them from the hostile of their own race; their herds collected there, and especially their homes and families being there, will be so many guarantees and pledges of good conduct.
    Protected too from all encroachments on their rights and privileges, their reasonable desires gratified and their necessities relieved, they will be bound to us by a sense of interest and dependence, if not of gratitude, and provided with a fixed home and an individual right in the soil, from which they will be instructed to derive their subsistence, they will be stimulated to the exercise of a forecast which will save them from becoming the victims of sudden impulses, and create an adaptation to civilized pursuits never to be acquired while the nomadic character is retained.
    Thus they will become gradually assimilated in character, interests and pursuits, and discords and contentions yield place to mutual confidence and uninterrupted peace.
    Roaming unrestrained without a fixed abode, and mainly relying for subsistence on the spontaneous productions of nature, man has never risen high in the intellectual and moral scale. Approached by civilized and enlightened communities, his history has usually been--after a fierce but unequal contest--to succumb to superior intelligence, sink in degradation by losing the virtues of the savage and gaining only the vices of the superior race, and finally dwindle into extinction. Such has been the history of many aboriginal tribes on the Atlantic shores, and such in the natural and unrestrained operation of the laws of progress, is the impending destiny of the tribes of this coast. This destiny can only be arrested by the prompt, wisely directed and persistent efforts of humanity, sustained and protected by the resources of the government.
    Approached by the advancing and the refluent wave of civilization, there is neither respite nor escape. They must rise with the billows or sink beneath them. The alternative is civilization or annihilation. How the Indian may realize the happier destiny and have existence rendered a blessing is the problem presented to humanity and religion for solution.
    Amidst many failures, enough has been achieved to establish the improvability, intellectually, morally and socially, of the Indian race, that the impediments to their elevation are not innate and peculiar, but such as would be found in any other portion of the human family, in the same condition and affected by the same influences.
    Were the Indian natively inferior, that inferiority would be expected to follow his blood; but who knows not that some of our distinguished orators, jurists, and statesmen, have boasted this blood in their veins?
    One of much experience and acute observation declares that "the Indian youth is capable of equal mental culture with the white, and will learn as rapidly."
    This race also along its entire history, since an early period in the settlement of our eastern coast, has afforded examples of those who adopted our language and customs, and who, comprehending the Christian religion in the sublimity of its tenets, exemplified its elevated and pure precepts by irreproachable lives.
    Nor are we confined to cases of isolated individuality. No longer savage and barbarous, whole tribes are classed, and justly too, as having attained a high rank in civilization.
    To bring the Indians as far as practicable under the full energy of every meliorating influence, sanctioned by judicious observation and experience, is clearly the policy of our government, and this policy is in full consonance with the national sentiment. This sentiment and policy, finding its proper exponents in the officers of the government charged with the administration of Indian affairs, can scarcely fail of securing the achievement of many permanently good results. Yet to expect success in all cases to follow even the most judicious and benevolent endeavors, would be unreasonable and destined to frequent disappointment. Nor will any ephemeral, spasmodic endeavor redeem the Indian from his barbarism and ignorance.
    On this coast the Indian presents a great diversity of character and condition. On this diversity to a great extent I doubt not we may base our prospects of relative success. The Coast Indians generally, and all the Indians west of the Cascade Mountains, are allowed to be physically and mentally inferior to those of the interior. This inferiority is probably ascribable partly to their habits of life and sources of subsistence. Their degradation is, however, most directly traceable to the sad effects of intemperance and prostitution. These have, through the extent of whole tribes and bands, so deteriorated their physical and moral stamina as to leave little to encourage the hope of their elevation, or to keep alive the expectation or desire for their perpetuated existence. Humanity, however, demands an asylum for these miserable victims of debasement, where they may be restrained and protected, and the most sacred considerations demand that society be freed from their pestiferous presence. Such asylum the reservations are designed to afford, and that they should be strictly confined to their limits, especially in the vicinity of the white settlements commends itself to every rightly actuated judgment. Yet even within the section of this Superintendency, now under consideration, the major part of the Indians present a hopeful aspect, and with assiduous and rightly directed care their descendants may at some future day be found physically sound, and intellectually and morally elevated.
    Difficulties and embarrassments usually attend the initiation of any great enterprise, and many have been encountered on the existing reservations. Yet the success realized is sufficient to encourage hope and stimulate endeavor. The Indians are subdued and partially protected from the vitiating influences so potent to effect their ruin. Some progress has been made in the knowledge of agriculture; they generally have rude but comfortable houses, to which they resort during the rainy season, few being willing to forgo the luxury of an open camp during the summer. A few surrounded their dwellings with cultivated enclosures, exhibiting an encouraging degree of industry and thrift. An occasional family is found, usually of the mixed blood, where the social and domestic virtues are in a state of partial development.
    With the masses the moral and intellectual condition is not perceptibly advanced, and debasing superstition and inveterate attachment to savage customs continue to prevail without mitigation. Indolence and a propensity to a vagabond life are besetting vices with the savages. In order to effect his reclamation, these can no more be indulged in the savage than the child. So far as practicable, and consistent with prudence and safety, they should be compelled to perform regular labor for their own support. This might be done with some success by organizing them into squads under the direction of proper officers, whose duty it would be to direct and keep a proper account of their labor, and report delinquents to the agent in charge. The proceeds of their industry should in all cases, inure to their individual benefit. As a further stimulus a judicious system of rewards might be adopted; and stated festive days established, and innocent games introduced for their amusement. Withal, the kindness of parental authority should never merge into the arbitrary sternness of the master. In many cases too the Indian who has learned to perform labor would be benefited by permitting him to hire out (as is actually done) to persons of proper character, his wages to be for his own benefit. In permitting this, much care should be taken to guard against exposure to improper influences, and in no case should contracts be permitted without the approval of the agent. Humanity also dictates that the agent should be permitted to find homes in suitable white families for neglected orphans, where they might be indented for a term of years.
    With the exception of that on the Squaxin Reservation, the schools provided for in the several treaties have been, after a brief trial, discontinued. The success has, in no case, been of a marked character. The Indians' parents have been found generally either indifferent or opposed, the attendance has been limited and irregular, and the good influence of the schoolroom more than counteracted by the bad influence of their savage homes. Education is nevertheless an indispensable means for their improvement, and the industrial schools provided for in the several treaties should be established on a liberal and permanent basis. The children educated at these institutions should, in most cases, be taken entirely from the control of their parents and boarded under the care of a judicious matron, where habits of cleanliness, punctuality and order should be carefully cultivated. The education of these schools should not only embrace letters, but the boys should be instructed in agriculture and trades, the girls in the use of the needle and the various branches of domestic economy. These schools should be governed and taught by persons of not only capacity, firmness and amiability, but by those of decidedly religious character. You cannot displace a superstition, and leave the mind and heart a religious void. Man is by nature a worshiper, and a true religion can alone elevate him. Nor is it a dictate of good sense to suppose that those influences should be absent from the school where the savage is instructed, so generally deemed indispensable in the school where we educate our own children. Much less can we expect the savage to be elevated in the presence of immoralities that always serve to degrade the civilized. Teachers, and all connected with these institutions, should be of pure language and conduct. The plan of boarding the children who shall be instructed in the industrial schools, under the care of proper persons, seems to be the only measure promising success among the Indian tribes west of the Cascade Mountains, and this remark applies with nearly equal force to the Indians to be located at Simcoe and the Warm Springs, on the east side of the mountains. With regard to the educational provisions of the treaties with the other Indians east of the Cascade Mountains, as they are but little contaminated with the degrading vices so deplorably extensive among those before referred to. I believe that the schools of every character provided for should, as early as practicable, be carried into vigorous operation, and so located as to give the fullest facilities to the parents to send their children. The boarding house system should, however, be regarded as inseparable from the industrial schools.
    The labors of the missionaries, Protestant and Catholic, have had a salutary influence on many of the Ind. tribes of the interior, by which they have acquired a knowledge and appreciation of many of the arts and usages of civilization; and not a few of the more enlightened strongly desire the education of their children and look forward to the establishment of the contemplated schools with much interest. In regard to the schools I have to say, as of those west of the mountains, their success and utility rests mainly on a regimen embracing the inculcation.and practice of the pure and elevated maxims of Christianity.
    I embrace the occasion also to express my deep conviction of the importance of employing on the reservation those only of pure morals and correct deportment.
    Men of family should ordinarily, their qualifications being equal, be preferred to single persons as teachers, farmers and mechanics. The presence of enlightened females and well-ordered families can scarcely fail to exert Indian neighbors to imitate and even emulate their example.
    Since 1847 the Catholic fathers have been the only Christian missionaries among the Indians in this Superintendency. In that year the once-promising Protestant missions among the Spokanes, Nez Perces and Cayuses were broken up and abandoned. The missionary labors in the interior, both Protestant and Catholic, have resulted in manifest and, I believe, permanent improvement in the character and condition of many of the more influential tribes. Many of the Indians are imbued with religious sentiments and are most exemplary in the punctual observance of their devotions. This is true not only of many Indians receiving the uninterrupted instruction of the Catholic fathers, but also of a considerable number of those formerly under the care of the Protestant missionaries, though for eleven years deprived of their presence and counsels. These are suggestive facts, and worthy [of] the most serious consideration of those interested in the mission of Christian benevolence.
    On the several reservations now occupied by the Indians, as before intimated, the aspect of affairs is on the whole encouraging to continued efforts.
    Extensive improvements have been made by Agent Miller in the Grand Ronde Valley, at the eastern base of the Coast Mountains, the chief part of the lands valuable for pasturage and crops being enclosed by substantial fences. Large tracts are under cultivation, but the ungenial character of the soil, the prevalence of frost, and the extreme dryness of the present season render both the cereal and vegetable crops extremely light, and as heretofore a considerable expense will of necessity be incurred during the winter in subsisting the Indians.
    By careful management the soil of this valley may be eventually much improved, though the most of it can never become largely productive. The best portions of the valley have been parceled out in small farms to the Indians. The whole extent of arable land, however, is not sufficient for this purpose if divided according to the terms of the treaties made with the tribes residing there. In view of this fact I would, as heretofore done by my predecessor in office, recommend the purchase of two additional tracts, the greater containing 800 and the less 160 acres. The latter is entirely surrounded by the reservation, and is continually liable to trespass by the Indians, which is a constant source of annoyance both to the owner and the agency. The greater tract is found by a recent survey to take in a part of the buildings at the military post and a considerable part of the improvements made by the Cow Creek and Santiam Indians. A large part of this tract is situated in a sheltered cove, the soil being a sandy loam and very productive, being the only place in the immediate vicinity of the reservation where vines and the more tender vegetables flourish, or even succeed at all. This tract also is the only source from which firewood for the adjoining Indian improvements can be obtained. The addition of these farms will aid much in rendering the reservation self-sustaining, and it will scarcely ever become so without them.
    In the treaty with the Molels [Molallas], confederated with the Umpquas, there is provision made for an industrial school, for which no more eligible site could be found than in the sheltered cove referred to above. The provision "for the extinguishment of title to land," &c. in the 6th article of the same treaty is ample for the purchase and improvement of these farms and is embraced in the accompanying estimates with a view to this object.
    The crops of grain and vegetables at the Siletz agency promise a fair yield, and it is believed will fall little short of a sufficiency for the subsistence of the Indians collected there.
    The want of a mill at that agency is severely felt, and humanity, justice and economy so clearly demand this improvement that I have interposed no objections in the way of the agent, who has commenced its erection. As a portion of the Indians entitled by treaty to the benefits of the grist and saw mill erected at Grand Ronde are at the Siletz, and as the treaty with the Coast Indians, many of whom are at the same place, has failed to be ratified, sound policy and equity suggest that the mills provided for in the treaty with the Molels be erected at Siletz.
    The temporary reservation at the mouth of the Umpqua promises nothing in the way of improving the Indians, being on a barren beach wholly unsuited to agriculture. The Indians are also much exposed to the degrading influences of intemperance and prostitution. They are greatly reduced in numbers and should be removed up the coast to the vicinity of the Yaquina Bay, where fish and wildfowl are abundant and a sufficient amount of arable land can be obtained for cultivation. The Indians on Smith River and at Siuslaw are among the most thrifty and industrious of the coast tribes. The sub-agency at the mouth of Umpqua should be abandoned and the sub-agent required to reside at Yaquina Bay.
    A communication from this office has already informed you of the depredations of the Snake Indians on the Warm Springs Reservation. Several of the Indians have been murdered and taken captive by these freebooters and the white employees compelled to fly for their lives. A large amount of stock has been driven off, and the crops, at first supposed to have suffered but little damage, are found extensively injured. The loss to the government and the Indians will fall little short of $16,000. The Snake Indians have been notorious from the early settlement of Oregon to the present for their depredations on the lives and property of the immigrants. It is believed that at least a hundred whites, many of them women and children, have within the last ten years fallen by their hands. With the exception of the execution of the reputed murderers of the Ward family in 1853 by Major Haller, they have hitherto escaped with impunity. They have stolen many horses from government and the neighboring tribes of Indians. On these they move with celerity, and their excursions this summer have extended as far as the valley of the Bitter Root, whence they drove away over a hundred horses in July last. On presenting an account of their depredations on the Warm Springs Reservation to Genl. Harney, he ordered a company of dragoons to proceed along the Blue Mountains to recover the stolen property and punish the marauders, should they overtake them. A small detail was also made for the protection of the reservation. It is indispensable that a military post be established in that vicinity to inspire the Indians with confidence to return and to protect them thereon.
    It is important that an agent should be appointed for the Snake Indians, who should devote his entire attention to correcting the bad habits, and conciliate their good will. To effect this, however, it will first be necessary that they feel the heavy hand of chastisement and thus learn to respect our authority.
    Much solicitude was felt for a time in regard to the temper of the Nez Perces and the tribes on the route of the wagon road now opening into the Bitterroot Valley. The opening of the road had doubtless greatly alarmed their apprehensions; but advices from Agent Cain, who has recently met the Nez Perces in council, and from Dr. Mullan, give confident assurance that no serious difficulty need be apprehended.
    With a single exception, the Nez Perces' chiefs have all expressed much gratification at the ratification of the treaty, and look with interest to the time when it shall be carried into effect. Under its ample provisions, it may justly be expected this noble tribe will make rapid advancement in civilization.
    The annuity goods, machinery, tools and implements of husbandry provided for in the treaty with the Flathead nation should all be purchased in the eastern market and shipped to Fort Benton, now established as the head of steamboat navigation on the Missouri, where they can be conveyed by a practicable wagon road, a distance of less than 300 miles, to their destination. The proper schedules will be duly forwarded.
    These interesting and always friendly Indians especially deserve the fostering care of the government. The transmissions of the treaty goods should be at the earliest possible moment. The effect will be most salutary not only on them, but neighboring tribes.
    A delegation from the Flathead tribe, the Upper and Lower Pend d'Oreilles, the Colvilles, Coeur d'Alenes and Spokanes visited General Harney and the Superintendent early in June last. Great care was taken to impress them favorably, not only as respects our military resources, but also with regard to our agriculture, commerce, mechanical ingenuity, schools and the general comfort and good order of society, by which they might learn the superiority of civilization over savage life, and realize the value of our protection and friendship. We doubt not the best effects will follow their visit.
    The Yakima agency has been removed to Fort Simcoe, which has been abandoned as a military post, and the buildings and improvements turned over to the Indian Department. This is a valuable acquisition, and will save a considerable amount of expenditure in the execution of the treaty stipulations with the Indians there to be collected.
    The report of the agent and his subordinates in the district of Puget Sound are detailed and instructive and evince an energetic administration.
    The recommendation that the annuity provided in the treaty of Medicine Creek be increased from 2000 to 6000 dollars is founded on the valid reason that the Indians embraced in that treaty are nearly threefold as numerous as was supposed when the negotiations occurred, their number being not less than fourteen hundred souls. I therefore concur in the request for its augmentation.
    The operations of the several reservations under the provisions of this treaty have been peculiarly successful, so far as the subsistence of the Indians is regarded; and it is hoped that permanently beneficial results will accrue to the Indians there, from the praiseworthy efforts of the sub-agent in charge.
    I would respectfully present the importance of embracing the remaining tribes of this Superintendency under the provisions of treaty. And as a method best calculated to secure the quiet of the country and the greatest good to the Indians, as well as economical to the government, I would recommend that they be confederated and placed on reservations with tribes already treated with, according to their locality and affinities.
    The Klamath Lake Indians may be confederated with the Indians in Middle Oregon, embraced in the treaty of June 25, 1855; the Okinikanes on the north and the bands on the Columbia River above Fort Vancouver, with the Indians on the Yakima Reservation, the Colvilles, Lower Pend d'Oreilles and Coeur d'Alenes with the Flatheads, and the Spokanes with the Nez Perces.
    West of the Cascade Mountains, the Cowlitz and Upper Chehalis bands might be confederated with those included in the treaty of Medicine Creek. The Lower Chehalis and Chinooks would find their affinities with Qui-nai-elt [Quinault] and Quil-leh-ute, Indians of the coast. In Oregon, the Coast Indians and those of the Lower Columbia, not treated with, should be gathered to the several Coast Reservations. To all of these liberal annuities should be paid, and they should share equally with the tribes with whom they may be confederated in the soil, mills, schools, shops and other privileges.
    The importance of having a small swift war steamer on the waters of Puget Sound, so often pressed on the consideration of the government, is continually becoming more urgent. As a means of holding our own Indians in subjection, it is the most effectual, and will alone protect our settlements against the incursions of the daring and rapacious Indians from the regions beyond our national boundary on the north, who move with a celerity and boldness in their large war canoes, with which a well-manned and well-armed steamer can alone successfully contend.
    Five white men were most inhumanly murdered by a party of Indians, on the headwaters of Butte Creek, in Jackson County, Oregon, last spring. They were evidently attacked while asleep, and the pains taken to cover up all traces of the deed, indicate that it was not intended as an act of war, but perpetrated to possess themselves of the arms and ammunition of the victims. The murderers were a party of renegades who have skulked in the mountains since the removal of the various tribes of  Oregon to the reservations, and two of the La Lake band of Klamaths, connected with the former by marriage. Through the exertion of Sub-Agent Abbott, acting under instructions from the former superintendent, Col. Nesmith, the perpetrators of this villainy were all discovered. Three of them were killed by the Klamath Indians, and five are yet at large. Measures are now in progress, which, it is hoped, will result in their apprehension. I have directed that, if practicable, they be delivered over to the civil authorities for trial and punishment, believing that the effect will be more salutary on the Indians than any irregular and violent measures of revenge.
    The Klamaths and Modocs in  Oregon probably number about eight hundred souls. The Klamaths have had much intercourse with the Indians of the Willamette Valley, and are generally well-disposed. The Modocs are fierce and warlike, and till lately have been constant in their depredations on the whites who have fallen into their power. As these Indians live on the line of immigration to  Oregon, the presence of a small military command in their country for a limited period would, I believe, have a good effect, but as the extension of our settlements make it important that the country be purchased, and the Indians be confederated with others on reservations at an early day, and as a garrison will be necessary at the Warm Springs Reservation, through which the same thoroughfare of travel extends, I do not think it expedient to establish a military post in that region. [Geary is geographically confused. The Modocs terrorized the southern route of the Oregon Trail; Warm Springs lies on the northern route.]
    In conclusion, I with much pleasure express my high appreciation of the promptness, energy, and ability of the several agents, sub-agents and other officers throughout this Superintendency.
To
    Hon. A. B. Greenwood
        Commissioner &c.
            Washington City
                D. C.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 90-103.



Hon. Supt. Ind. Affairs
    Oregon & Washington
        Dear Sir, Some days ago four squaws and two children belonging to the mouth of Rogue River Indians (Joshute tribe) and from Siletz Reservation came to my place--Enchanted Prairie, on middle fork Coquille River in Coos County, Oregon, and have been in that vicinity until the present time.
    I write concerning them, for our community and for myself, and would respectfully request that they be removed to the reserve as soon as convenient.
    Our reasons for removing them must be obvious--or desiring their removal.
    By informing me what instructions you may give concerning their removal at or upon receipt of this you will confer an individual favor on
Hon. Supt. Ind. Affairs
    Salem
        Oregon
P.S. I have special reasons for wishing to know what instructions may be given for their removal.
P.S. (No. 2) One of the squaws had a government yager or rifle, which was taken away from her in Camas Valley by a Mr. Higgerson.
    The rifle the squaw says belongs to Joshua, chief of the Joshute tribe of Indians, and was stolen from him by her. If you will give me an order to take the rifle from Mr. H. I will do so and be responsible to the Ind. Dept. for it.
    It is wrong that Joshua should lose it, for he has uniformly been an honest Indian and good friend to the whites.
    I will be at home again in two or three days. If anyone comes for them while there  there will be no difficulty in finding them. How long they will stay I know not, as they intend going on to Rogue River.
    If the Supt. desires any information as to myself, he can inquire of Judge Terry, Salem & R. B. Metcalfe Esq.
Yours respectfully
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 167.



Sir
    I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of instructions from your office dated August 24th directing me to take measures to secure the arrest of the Indians remaining of the party that perpetrated the murder of the Ledford party last spring. The instructions will receive prompt attention.
    In case of it becoming necessary for me to visit the Indian country to make the arrest, which I think it will, I will take about ten men with me, which force I think will be sufficient to effect the arrest of the two Klamath Lake Indians if they can be found. The Molallas have gone into the mountains about the headwaters of the Willamette and will probably elude pursuit for the present.
    I will delay the purchase of presents for the Indians until I learn how they are disposed to act in regard to the surrender of the murderers, but will use every exertion to secure their cooperation
    P.S. Be so kind as to forward a check on San Francisco for my quarter's salary at the end of the quarter together with the necessary vouchers which I will receipt and return to you. Provided you can make the arrangement with any of the banks.
E. R. Geary Esqr.
    Superintendent &c.
With the utmost economy the expenses of the trip will be about twelve hundred dollars exclusive of presents.
    I will make up my returns for the present quarter before going to the lakes. At least I will get them as near complete as possible so that I can finish and mail them in a few days after my return.
E. R. Geary Esqr.
    Superintendent Indian Affairs
        Oregon & W.T.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 180.



Bro. Geary
    Dear Sir, I recd. your kind letter in reference to Charley in due time, and thank you for the sympathy expressed. You also stated that you had directed Agent Miller to procure his transfer to Grand Ronde, but I hope you will recall the order so that no expense may be incurred in sending a team after him now. Charley is by far too sick and weak to take such a journey. He is better, much better than when he came to my house. His general health is good; he has entirely recovered from the terrible cough which he had when I found him. His bowels are perfectly regular; there is no internal disorder, but yet he is as weak as an infant and very much emaciated from the daily pouring out of such a mass of matter from his wound. He was very near to mortification when I found him, and I have no doubt but this fact, the cold which he took while exposed lying out on the ground, together with other causes mentioned in my former letter, have produced this constant flood of pus. I think he ought to be saved, and that the expense of caring for him ought to be shouldered by our common public treasury. You intimated your willingness to meet all expense which was proper in the case. As I said before I ask nothing for the four weeks' care which I have taken of him. I did not take him for money. I took him because he is a fellow creature and ought to be cared for by someone. But now my wife's health is poor and I wish to leave home for a while and I write you to ask if I may not put him into a neighbor's family with the promise that you will pay them for their care. Mr. Keller is a member of the M.E. Church, and I believe he will care for him well. I told him I thought you would be willing to pay twelve or fifteen dollars per week. (It is worth that to take care of him.) If this arrangement meets your approval I should be glad to know it, so that I can inform him that you are willing to meet the expense. I tried other persons before I found Mr. Keller but no one would take such a disagreeable task at any price.
    Please write soon.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 168.



Dear Sir
    Enclosed please find a bill of expenses already incurred on the mill. The memoranda has been correctly kept and shows exactly what the expense has been up to this time. The machinery has been paid for and is in Portland ready for shipment.
    The dam, which was a very heavy and expensive job, has been completed, and all the timbers hewn & hauled on the ground ready for the frame of the mill, which will be two stories above the basement, and all the lumber sawed for weatherboarding &c. Now in addition to the enclosed bill there will be nails, some iron, blacksmithing &c., which will come under the head of incidental expenses.
    Mr. Wood proposes to do all the labor necessary to put the mill in operation for twenty-five hundred dollars and wait for his money, the govt. furnishing everything on the ground. This would make the total cost according to my estimate $5296.06 (not including transportation of machinery). Should you conclude to let him have the contract please write me by return mail. You may be able to get a millwright in Portland to do it for less; if so please send him on at once.
To
    Edward R. Geary Esqr.
        Supt. Ind. Affrs.
            Portland
                Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 177.



Sir,
    I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant referring to your expedition to the Klamath Lake country.
    Your request for a check on San Francisco for the amount of your salary for the current quarter I cannot comply with as I am not yet in possession of funds applicable to the present year. I may reasonable however expect them in a short time and immediately on their arrival arrangements will be made in accordance with your request.
Geo. H. Abbott Esq.
    Sub-Ind. Agent
        Jacksonville
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, page 6.



Sir,
    The account of W. H. Packwood for $225.00, being claim on Commissioner Mott's docket No. 289, left by you in my care, I have examined as found on the docket corrected at Washington and find it approved.
    Referring to my instructions from the Commissioner of Ind. Affairs (see enclosed notice) you will observe that I am specially and positively instructed to make all payments to the parties named on the certificates.
    In order to facilitate the payment of this claim, I will on the presentation of Mr. Packwood's order pay over the money in cash, or by check on San Francisco, as may be preferred. Per this course I will not be following the strict letter of my instructions, but I feel no disposition to interpose vexatious delays in regard to the payment of those claims already so long delayed.
Geo. H. Abbott Esq.
    Sub-Indian Agent
        Jacksonville
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 6-7.



Sir
    Herewith I forward my quarterly returns for this quarter, including property returns, abstract of disbursements for genl. incidental expenses, and account current.
    The expenses of this district for the qr. ending 30th of September amount to the inconsiderate sum of one hundred & two dollars & fifty cents, being traveling expenses and office rent.
    I start to Klamath Lake tomorrow in compliance with instructions from your office to arrest the murderers of the Ledford party.
    I learn from an Indian from Klamath Lake today that a small party of emigrants were massacred near Tule Lake about two weeks since by the Modoc Indians.
    If the report should prove true, it is a most horrid affair, for not one escaped "to tell the tale."
    I will visit the Modoc country while out and satisfy myself.
Hon. E. R. Geary
    Superintendent Ind. Affrs.
        Oregon & W.T.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 201.



Sir,
    Your letter of the 3rd September last advising me of the appointment of Gen. D. Newcomb Indian agent for Oregon, vice R. B. Metcalfe Esq. resigned, and of Joshua B. Sykes Esq. as sub-agent for Oregon to replace E. P. Drew Esq. has been received. These gentlemen will be duly informed, and on their qualifying and properly executing their respective bonds, will be assigned to official duty, in accordance with the tenor of their appointments.
    Proper steps will be taken as early as practicable for the removal of the Indians now at the Umpqua Agency to the Yaquina Bay on the Coast Reservation.
Hon. A. B. Greenwood
    Commissioner In. Aff.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 12-13.



Sir
    Col. Jennings has requested me to address you a note and state what I know of the circumstances attending his contract with Superintendent Hedges for supplying the Siletz Agency with flour in the fall of 1857. As I was one of Col. Jennings' securities on the contract, and was actively engaged myself in aiding him to carry it out, I feel that I am competent to give a truthful history of the whole affair. The contract referred to required that the flour should be delivered at the Siletz Agency or at "Yaquina Bay." To deliver at the former place involved the necessity of packing it across the mountains before the rainy season set in, and to the latter place the employment of a vessel to go by sea to a port, which up to this time had never been entered by any vessel. At the earnest solicitation of Supt. Hedges, Col. Jennings was induced to fit out a vessel at great expense and make the pioneer voyage to this unsurveyed port, and thereby test the practicability of supplying the Coast Reservation through this channel. The voyage was successfully accomplished after surviving a gale at sea that made it necessary for the safety of the vessel to throw overboard her entire deck load of lumber and nails which was shipped by the Superintendent for the purpose of building a storehouse on the "bay." And thus by the enterprise and the risk of Col. Jennings was the practicability of entering this new harbor established, which as you know has since proved of such infinite utility to the government. The first cargo of the schooner Calumet (the vessel employed in this service) was delivered by agreement immediately inside the "bay." This involved the necessity of boating the flour some twelve miles up the bay and packing from that point about six miles by land before reaching the agency. Agent R. B. Metcalfe, who was in charge of the Siletz agency at that time, objected very much to having the balance of the flour delivered at "Yaquina Bay," as he had no facilities for boating and packing to the agency, and insisted that the next cargo should be delivered at the mouth of the Siletz River some 15 or 20 miles farther up the coast, stating at the same time that he believed the entrance to the Siletz River to be safe and practicable, and if so that he could then boat his supplies up the Siletz River to the agency (which is situated on said stream). At his earnest solicitations, backed up by those of Superintendent Hedges, Col. Jennings ordered the capt. of the schooner Calumet to make the attempt, but he (the capt.) refused to do so, stating that he would not risk his life for any salary to try it. His place was supplied at great expense to Col. Jennings by the appointment of Capt. Tichenor to the command, who is notoriously one of the most experienced coasters and daring navigators on the Pacific coast. Capt. Tichenor, agreeable to orders, attempted to enter the Siletz with his vessel but not finding water enough on the bar, he was driven ashore, where shortly after succeeding in getting the flour all out and apparently safe on the bank, a severe storm came up which drove the vessel at high tide across the headland into the river, completely dismantling her of mast, sails, boats, chains, anchors &c., and in fact everything but the naked hull (and that pierced in several places with drift logs) was swept entirely away and lost. The cargo too, that had been delivered on the bank, shared the same fate of everything else belonging to the vessel. This loss proved to Agent Metcalfe the impracticability of using the Siletz as a harbor for vessels laden with supplies for the reservation. At this time the Indians were almost in a starving condition, and every effort was made by Agent Metcalfe to induce shipmasters & owners to contract for supplying his starving Indians with flour. The pilot boat at the mouth of the Columbia was applied to, but all to no purpose. After exerting all other resources that could give him immediate relief, he applied again to Col. Jennings and his associates who entered into another contract to supply him at "Yaquina Bay" and fulfilled the contract at the most extravagant expense to themselves, having to pack sails, rigging &c. for the dismantled vessels across the mountains on showshoes at an expense of near one dollar per pound. This enterprise, far more hazardous and expensive than the first, was finally accomplished, and then it required longer time than was anticipated at first. The supplies that was too late for some was in time to save the lives of many who were starving for bread.
To E. R. Geary Esq.
    Supt. Ind. Affairs for
        Oregon & Washington
            Portland, Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 186.



Rev. E. R. Geary
    Dear Sir, Indian Charley is gone. He died Sabbath evening and was buried Monday. Mr. Keller had him from Tuesday the 12th of Sept. till Monday the 3rd Oct., just three weeks. This time was given to his care. Charley was too sick for him to attend to any other business during this time except to take care of him. I think, brother, Mr. Keller has more richly earned fifty dollars in what he has done for Charley than Dr. Swigart did twenty dollars of the one hundred which I heard he had charged for his services in this case. I propose (as I do not doubt you wish to get at justice) that you pay less to the Dr. and more to Keller. Understand me, I am no calumniator. I have no self-interest to influence in what I say. I ask nothing for myself, nor for any friend of mine, but I love justice and righteousness in the distributions of public funds, as I do everywhere else. The man who has rendered real service is the one I wish to receive an equivalent of the general government, as I would if he had worked for a citizen, and this I say simply as a suggestion to you and for your eyes alone. It simply shows where, I think, truth and right would point your mind.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 169.



Sir
    In compliance with the instructions contained in your letter of the 3rd September last I have this day written to Gen. D. Newcomb, directing him, in the event of his accepting the appointment tendered him by the government, to execute his bond and repair to this office without delay for instructions with a view to his being designated to official duty at the Siletz Agency.
    Owing to the feeble health of Agent Metcalfe & his request to be relieved, I appointed Joshua B. Sykes special agent to receive the funds and property of the Department from Agent Metcalfe, and take charge of the same, subject to the orders of this office. Mr. Sykes will be relieved as soon as Gen. Newcomb reports himself for duty.
    Mr. Metcalfe will be duly enjoined as to the necessity of transmitting his final accounts for settlement at the earliest day possible.
Hon. A. B. Greenwood
    Commissioner I. Aff.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, page 13.



Sir
    I have the honor to inform you that this office is officially informed of your appointment by the President of the United States Indian Agent for Oregon in the room [sic] of R. B. Metcalfe Esq. resigned. In the event of your accepting the appointment you will proceed to execute your bond and transmit it to this office for approval and transmission to Washington.
    As Mr. Metcalfe has already left the Siletz Agency and expects soon to return to his home in Texas, it is highly important that you repair to this office with all possible dispatch, that the proper arrangements may be made for your entrance on your official duties at the earliest practicable period.
    In order to relieve Mr. Metcalfe, whose health has been very precarious, I appointed Mr. Joshua B. Sykes a special agent, authorizing him to receive and receipt to Agent Metcalfe for all public funds and property in his hands and take charge of affairs at said agency until your arrival.
    As Mr. Sykes has been appointed sub-agent for Oregon in the room of sub-agent, E. P. Drew removed, and as it is highly important that he enter immediately on the duties of his appointment by relieving Mr. Drew, it is hoped that this motive for your prompt assumption of the duties of your office will have your due consideration.
    Permit me to call your special attention to the instruction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in relation to the proper execution of your official bond, viz: Your bond is required to be in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars with two or more sureties, whose sufficiency must be certified by a judge or district attorney of a District Court of the United States and to take the oath of office before such judge or a justice of the peace, and if before the latter, then his official character must be certified by the proper court or officer under seal. To
    Genl. D. Newcomb
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 14-15.



Sir,
    I have the honor to inform you that I am officially advised of your appointment by the Secretary of the Interior a sub-agent for Indians in Oregon in the room of E. P. Drew Esq., removed. Your commission and form of official bond and oath were forwarded you by the last mail.
    You will, in the event of your accepting the appointment, be careful to execute your bond with the required sureties, whose sufficiency must be certified by a judge or district attorney of a District Court of the United States and to take the oath of office before such judge or a justice of the peace, and if before the latter, then his official character must be certified by the proper court or officer under seal. Your bond and official oath, when executed, you will deposit in this office for transmission to the proper department in Washington, if found executed in accordance with the foregoing requirements.
    As soon as you shall be relieved from your present duty as special agent in charge of the Siletz Agency you will repair to this office in person for further instructions.
    I have also to inform you that you will be directed to proceed to the Umpqua Agency at as early a day as practicable to relieve Sub-Agent Drew, who will be duly instructed to turn over to you all moneys and property in his hands in virtue of his office, you executing to him the proper receipts therefor. Joshua B. Sykes Esq.
    Special Agent
        Siletz, Benton Co., Ogn.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 15-16.



Sir
    In reply to your letter of the 14th July last enclosing affidavits of Henry Fuller and others in regard to cattle and hides lost by said Henry Fuller and alleged by him to have been taken and stolen by the Indians then on the Coast Reservation at divers times in the winter of 1856-7, I have to say, on the verbal statement of Agent Metcalfe, that the tribes then at the Salmon River station, on the Coast Reservation, were the Tututnis, Mikonotunnes, Shasta Costas, Port Orfords, Sixes, Upper and Lower Coquilles and a few others, all coast Indians, the treaty with whom has not been ratified. Mr. Metcalfe further states that at the time the cattle and hides were taken, the Indians were in a starving condition, many of them barely sustaining life by eating fern roots, and that a number of children actually perished from hunger, that the cattle and hides were not stolen, but taken with his knowledge and permission, prompted by a sense of justice and humanity to a famishing people, whom he felt the government, under the circumstances, was bound to succor and relieve.
    The coast Indians are much impoverished and possess no means of making payment for the cattle in question. Should the treaty with them be ratified, nothing could be spared from the annuity provided, even to repay Mr. Fuller in small installments, without great detriment to the Indians, nor do I think that Mr. Fuller should be indemnified out of any provision hereafter to be made for said Indians, but receive whatever remuneration he may be deemed entitled to by special appropriation.
    The letter of Mr. Metcalfe of the 10th instant, herewith, contains important statements affecting the validity of Mr. Fuller's claim.
    I return herewith the papers accompanying your letter. My reply has been delayed by awaiting a personal conference with Agent Metcalfe.
Hon. A. B. Greenwood
    Commissioner Ind. Aff.
        Washington D.C.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, page 17.



Sir,
    In compliance with instructions contained in your letter of the 8th of August last, I herewith forward to your office abstract and account sales of property belonging to the estates of Dick Johnson and Mummy, two Indians murdered at Yoncalla in November last, with a statement of the account of S. D. Dickinson, late probate judge of Umpqua County, with said estates and the surviving Indians.
    Mr. Dickinson sold the property and settled the affairs of those estates under my direction--in fact, he was, as I have stated in former communications to your office on this subject, employed by me as sub-Ind. agent to attend to the settlement of the estates and property of those murdered Indians and the surviving members of their families.
    Looking to the Indian Department for compensation for his services, he paid over to Indian Jim and the widow of Mummy all the money he obtained from the sale of the property belonging to Mummy's estate.
    The money now remaining in the hands of Mr. Dickinson has all been obtained from the sale of property belonging to the estate of Dick Johnson, and Mr. Dickinson considers that Dick's widow and children ought to have the whole of it.
    Under existing circumstances, Dick's heirs are not likely to derive any benefits from his farm or improvements, which are now in the possession of and appropriated by white men who claim a preemption right to the soil. The houses and buildings and fences were valuable where they are situated, but worth little to remove away.
    It seems to me that the account of Mr. Dickinson may very properly be paid by the Department, as he was employed by me under instructions from the Supt. of Ind. Affairs.
    Is it right that he should be paid out of the proceeds of the personal property belonging to Dick Johnson's estate, when his services were rendered in the settlement of both the estates of Dick and Mummy?
    It does not appear to me that any of Dick's personal property should be taken from the heirs, as they will, in all probability, lose the farm and improvements.
Hon. E. R. Geary
    Supt. Ind. Affairs
        Oregon & W.T.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 205.



    MASSACRE BY MODOC INDIANS IN THE NORTH.--The Jacksonville Sentinel (Southern Oregon), of 1st October, says:
    News was brought us yesterday by G. H. Abbott, Indian agent, of a fearful slaughter of immigrants at Tule Lake. Mr. Abbott received information of this massacre from a trusty Klamath Lake Indian, who came to town yesterday noon. He states that the massacre was committed about two weeks ago. His story is that it was a small band of immigrants, consisting of men, women and children, who were on their way hither. At Tule Lake, they were attacked by a party of Modoc Indians. The men and women were killed at once, the savages reserving the children for slavery, but, seeing other immigrant trains passing a day or two after, the Indians became apprehensive of the discovery by them of the slaughter, and dispatched the youthful victims. The animals were also killed, and the property seized was taken to the island in Tule Lake, where it is still kept. Not a soul was spared, and as the Indian who brought the news is unable to give any further intelligence of the affair, it will doubtless be a long time before the names of the unfortunate parties can be known.
    The same journal says that Mr. Abbott was to start on 1st October for Klamath Lake, to arrest the Indians concerned in the massacre of Ledford and his party last spring. Mr. Abbott will be accompanied by ten picked men, citizens of the valley, to aid him in the desperate service. He has recently received information in regard to that savage slaughter, which will doubtless enable him to catch and bring the perpetrators of it to justice.
San Francisco Bulletin, October 12, 1859, page 3



    The Jacksonville (Oregon) Sentinel urges the purchase from the Indians of their title to the country in the region of Klamath Lake. That paper says:
    "Action, vigorous action, is all that is required at Washington to effect this, and though our state is somewhat crippled in the measure of her full representation there, we cannot but think that with our present force, the Indian title to the lands above Klamath Lake may be extinguished."
Daily National Democrat, Marysville, California, October 21, 1859, page 1



R. B. Metcalfe Esq.
    Dear Sir,
        As it is your intention to visit old Chief John and his son Adam while at San Francisco, I have to request that you will endeavor to ascertain the state of their feelings towards the whites in Oregon, if practicable, and write this office a full account of your interview, and your impressions as to the propriety of their return to their friends on the reservation. If after sounding Adam you regard it safe to have him return you are hereby authorized to procure his passage on the steamer to this place. Any necessary expenses you may incur will be cheerfully met, and the amount remitted to your order.
    I would not at present hazard the return of Old John, as I fear his indomitable spirit might impel him to some deed of violence or to spread discontent among the Indians at the Siletz.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, page 22.



Sir
    I am informed from credible sources that parties of Indians from Grand Ronde Agency continue still to make frequent and protracted visits to Salem, and that their stay in that vicinity is generally connected with scenes of debasing drunkenness and prostitution.
    In view of those statements, which I would gladly learn to be false, but which come to me in so authentic a manner as to challenge my confidence, I respectfully urge that you adopt measures to restrain the Indians, and especially the Indian women, from visiting Salem and other places off the reservation, when you have any reason to suspect their objects to be as indicated above, or where your acquaintance with the parties leads you to believe these degrading indulgences will be likely to follow the opportunities their absence from the reservation may afford them.
    The most sacred interests of society--morality and social order--and every consideration rendering the continued existence of the Indian race desirable, demand restraint on their vagabond habits, and the prohibition of their sojourn in the neighborhood of our towns and villages, especially when accompanied by their women. The object, with rare exceptions of such sojourns, is well understood, through other objects are often quite plausibly assigned. As officers of the government, our duty clearly is to use every lawful endeavor to protect peaceful and orderly citizens from the annoyance and injury arising from the presence in their vicinity of drunken Indians and polluted squaws, and on the other hand humanity and a just appreciation of the policy of our government toward the Indian race equally require this course, which should we ignore it will render all other efforts for their physical and social improvement futile and unavailing.
    I would not be understood as intending to prohibit the Indians from making visits of reasonable duration to their friends and old homes, nor from spending a short time at their accustomed fisheries in the proper season. Neither is it designed to prevent the Indians from hiring out, to labor for persons who, in the judgment of the agent, will exercise a proper care and influence over them, but so far to restrain and regulate their conduct, that if practicable, we may protect the citizens of our villages from the evils complained of, and save these wretched beings from further degradation and accelerated destruction.
To
    Gen. Jno. F. Miller
        Sub-Agent Grand Ronde
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 25-26.  A copy is on NARA Series M234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-81, Reel 612 Oregon Superintendency, 1860-1861, frames 135-134.



Received at Siletz Agency, Oregon,
    of Edward R. Geary,
        Supt. of Indian Affairs, the following article of Ind. Department property, being for the sixth annuity for the Rogue River Indians, per 3rd article of the treaty of 10th September 1853, and being the pro rata share thereof, to which the number of said Indians, located upon the Siletz Reservation, are entitled, to wit:

6		Doz. Camp Kettles
6		"     Bread Pans
12		"     Tin Pans
200		Powhatan Pipes and Items
30		Boxes 600 Lbs. Soap
10¼		Lbs. Linen Thread
1		M Assorted Needles
100		Flannel Overshirts
1000		Yds. Prints
400		"     Brown Sheeting
400		"     Woolen Linsey
10		Pairs Satinette Pants
10		Wool Hats
14		Pairs 3 Pt. Blankets
10		"     Men's Brogans
20		"     Women's Shoes
10		"     Boys' Brogans
3		Ox Wagons Complete	_______
			$1250.00

NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 18; Letters Received, 1860, enclosure to No. 85 of November 2, 1859.

	1		Wool blankets	$15.00
	12		Yds. table linen @ 65	6.60
	76		Yds. prints @ 13 cts.	9.88
	3		Pcs. handkerchiefs @ $4.00	12.00
	2		Pcs. bleached domestic 107½ yds. @ 14 cts.	15.05
	6		Kegs island sugar 664 lbs. @ 12½ cts.	83.00
	1		Sack coffee 100 lbs. @ 20 cts.	20.00
	2		Kegs syrup @ $6.00 each	12.00
	1		Box tea 56 lbs. @ 82 cts.	45.92
	1		Dozen overshirts	20.00
	1		Dozen undershirts & drawers	13.50
	1		Case boots	60.00
	1		Dozen woolen socks @ $6.00	6.00
	3		Dozen cotton hose @ $2.25	6.75
	½		Dozen brooms @ $9.00 per doz.	4.50
	½		Gross hooks & eyes @ $2.50	1.25
	2		Kegs dried apples @ 16 cts.	36.00
	½		Dozen satinette pants @ $36.00	18.00
	2		Dozen overalls @ $7.00	14.00
	3		Dozen grey flannel shirts @18.00	54.00
	1		Dozen white men undershirts #40	12.50
	2		Dozen white men undershirts #24 @ 12.00	24.00
	2		Dozen white men underdrawers #85 @ 11.00	22.00
	1		Dozen white men underdrawers #84	12.00
	1		Dozen grey men underdrawers	10.00
	1		Dozen grey undershirts	10.00
	50		Lbs. beads @ 75 cts.	37.50
	2		Pcs. silk handkerchiefs #13 @ $4.00	8.00
	2		Pcs. silk handkerchiefs #16 @ $4.50	9.00
	2		Pcs. silk handkerchiefs #22 @ $5.00	10.00
	100		Lbs. coffee @ 20 cts.	20.00
	107		Lbs. butter @ 25 cts.	26.75
	1		Keg for butter	1.50
	3		Dozen yeast powders @ $4.50	18.00
	2		Reams paper @$2.50	5.00

    I certify on honor that the above bills of goods are true and correct and were on hand at the time the bills and invoices were made out.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 30; Miscellaneous Loose Papers 1850-1873.


Hon. Eli K. Price
    Dear Sir,
        You will see by the enclosed that our movement in behalf of the Indians is making some headway, and I thought you would feel a pleasure to read as I do to communicate the knowledge of the fact.
    I have had about the same process and nearly the same experience here as in Philadelphia, only I profited by what I learned in your city and was more cautious about allusion to Missouri and to pecuniary matters. But notwithstanding this the case is about the same, for a printed private circular was addressed to each of the 140 pastors of the city, inviting them specially to occupy the platform, as a public invitation to the same effect was given from the platform at the meeting, yet only one (a Unitarian) made his appearance, although there were quite a number in the gallery.
    The circumstance was noticed by Wendell Phillips, who commenced his speech by saying that he appeared on the platform because he knew that the pastors would not and rather than a question of such magnitude should be left to be sustained by one alone he would do his part to help it onward. I have learned from several that they now regret their refusal to obey the invitation, as Phillips took the occasion to review missionary operations in general and denounced the whole as an insult to the common sense of the savage, affirming that the reason the Indians are not Christianized is because they are not depraved enough to accept it under the circumstances with which it is presented. So you see if I did not tell the whole truth it was told. And the Christians are now cowering under the rebuke. The result will be that when we call another mass meeting (as we shall do soon) the pastors will be on hand promptly in their place. One sign which is quite ominous is that Dr. Kirk, the president of the "American Tract Society," has asked me to prepare a tract in behalf of the Indian for the society to publish. (I shall do so next week.)
    In regard to money I resolved to do as I did for the first two years after my leaving Oregon: Say little or nothing about it. The consequence is I am using up my own resources in paying for the use of halls and printing, distributing bills and books, traveling expenses, board and an extensive correspondence. Occasionally a small donation is given to me, but all that I have received since I have been in Boston during three months does not amount to more than one-fourth of what I have expended. I am now paying interest upon borrowed money. And the good people suppose that I am supported by the rich men of the Quaker City and of New York whose names are associated with me in this cause.
    You are ready to say why don't you tell them the facts in the case? Because in the first place I am ashamed to tell the whole the very thought of a national association for an object so noble and so necessary and composed of the most influential men of two cities the most wealthy in the Union and this national association having but one agent actively employed and he living for the most part upon his own means, working for nothing in poverty and debt. I say all this is too humiliating for the public to know. And where I do tell it the feeling would be that the object is of no importance or if it was these wealthy and public-spirited gentlemen would give it a corresponding support.
    I say I have profited by experience and rather than run the risk of offending my colleagues and fellow workmen here as I did in your city by telling them my necessities, I will suffer a little longer in silence. I know the time will come when that which is done shall be published from the housetop.
    There is a society in Boston (composed for the most part of Unitarians) for the propagation of the Gospel among Indians and others I will meet next Thursday. I have placed in the hands of its secretary a written statement of my circumstances--places and prospects I have some hopes from the liberal and genial spirit which they have uniformly expressed towards me that some efficient aid will be given.
    Believe me, dear sir, that I love my home and my family as much as others. I have not seen them for more than three years. This, as you know, is a sacrifice of some account to a man of sympathy, especially when I know that my grown-up son is uneducated and that the means which he had worked hard to accumulate for the purpose is now expended. But, serious as the consideration is, it weighs light against the retribution which I see impending upon the proprietors and silent approvers of the wrongs as indicated in the last news from California.
    I shall be pleased to hear from your board and hope that it will determine to invite a national convention to be held in February 1860. I shall publish a first number at the convention as soon as I have $500 on hand and give the whole away in secret as specimen numbers.
Beinecke Library



    RESULT OF THE KLAMATH LAKE EXPEDITION.--The Jacksonville (S.O.) Sentinel gives an account of the recent expedition by G. H. Abbott and others to Klamath Lake, in search of the Indians who were engaged in the massacre of Ledford and his party last spring. The expedition was gone twenty days. The Sentinel says:
    "That the Indians who had been engaged in the massacre were secreted by members of their tribe Mr. Abbott was well satisfied, but the paucity of his force, and the difficulty to be encountered in pursuing and capturing them, prevented him from making the effort. The Indians were peaceably disposed while the party were among them, although they evinced considerable dissatisfaction at not being furnished with goods and presents, but they were made to understand that until they delivered the murderers of the Ledford party over to the proper authorities, no such articles would be dispensed to the tribe.
    "Mr. Abbott made careful inquiry into the correctness of the report brought to town just before he left of the massacre of a party of emigrants by the Modoc Indians. The statements were conflicting--some declaring that there was a massacre, others as stoutly declaring that the rumor was without foundation. Among others, Mr. Abbott met the chief of the Modocs, who assured him it was the Pit River Indians who had committed the massacre upon the emigrants about the time specified, and that the Modocs had nothing to do with it, nor were they within several miles of the scene.
    "A broad, extensive valley of surpassing fertility, and thickly grown with luxuriant bunchgrass was discovered to the north of the lake, beyond the divide which separates the emigrant trail, some twenty miles. It is described to be larger than the Rogue River Valley, and admirably adapted to the grazing of numerous herds. By abandoning the old trail and striking over the northern slope of the great butte, the party obtained a full view of this delightful valley, with which they were very much charmed.
    "The whole party returned in first-rate health and in fine spirits. They found a superabundance of elk, deer, bear and other game during their absence, and brought in the saddles of three or four bucks. The rain prevented them from hunting two days, but they did not suffer any lack of game from this cause."
San Francisco Bulletin, November 3, 1859, page 3



NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 30; Miscellaneous Loose Papers 1850-1873.





Received at Siletz Agency, Oregon,
    of Edward R. Geary,
        Supt. of Indian Affairs, the following articles of Indian Department property, being for the fifth annuity for the Shasta Scoton and Umpqua Indians, per third article of the treaty of 18th November 1854, to wit:

116		Pairs 3 Pt. Blankets
104		Flannel Overshirts
100		Hickory Shirts
87		Pairs Satinette Pants
90		Black Wool Hats
87		Pairs Men's Kip Brogans
87		"        "      Socks
1000		Yds. Prints
800		"     Woolen Linsey
800		"     Brown Sheeting
36		Pairs Boys' Kip Brogans
36		"         "     Socks
60		"    Girls' Kip Shoes
60		"        "     Stockings
126		"    Women's Kip Shoes
126		"           "         Stockings
4		Gross Matches
2		Doz. Brooms
101		Lbs. Twist Smoking Tobacco
1000		Feet White Oak Plank	_______
			$2000.00

NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 18; Letters Received, 1860, enclosure to No. 85 of November 2, 1859.



Received at Siletz Agency, Oregon,
    of Edward R. Geary,
        Supt. of Indian Affairs, the following Indian Department property, for the proper disposition of which I am accountable to the United States Treasury, viz:

600		Lbs. Soap
9¾		"     [sic] Linen Thread
1		M Assorted Needles
200		Flannel Overshirts
2700		Yds. Prints
2038		"     Brown Sheeting
1530½		"     Woolen Linsey
150		Prs. 4 Pt. White Blankets
200		"     Sat. Pants
200		"     Men's Brogans
200		"         "      Socks
300		"     Women's Shoes
200		"           "          Stockings
36		"     Boys' Brogans
36		"          "    Socks
50		"     Girls' Shoes
60		"         "     Stockings
250		Gals. Syrup
1000		Lbs. Ch. Sugar
137		Men's Wool Hats
50		Powhatan Pipes & Stems	_______
			$3508.84

Also
Two (2) Stoves and Pipe
Six (6) Office Chairs
One (1) Straw Cutter
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 18; Letters Received, 1860, enclosure to No. 85 of November 2, 1859.



Sir,
    Your official bond, this day received, has been examined and forwarded for the approval of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The field of duty assigned you is that heretofore in charge of late Sub-Agent E. P. Drew, in whose stead you have been appointed, and whom you will proceed to relieve as early as practicable.
    Mr. Drew is instructed to turn over to you all public moneys and property in his possession together with all files and records pertaining to his office. You will secure from him a statement of the funds and services of the property transferred, in triplicate, and execute to him therefor receipts in triplicate. A statement of the funds received by you from Mr. Drew you will immediately transmit to this office.
    You will as early as practicable take the census of the Indians in the several bands, stating the number of males and females of the adults and children. You will also ascertain their resources of subsistence, their sanitary condition--the deceases existing, and their causes, and whether their numbers have increased or diminished within the last two years.
    Inasmuch as those Indians in the vicinity of the Umpqua are not within the limits designated as an Indian reservation, and as the soil is wholly unsuitable for agricultural purposes, the Department at Washington has ordered that they be removed and permanently located at a suitable place on the reservation. I have therefor to direct that you will select as early as practicable an eligible site for their settlement within the limits prescribed, and proceed at once to break and enclose a small tract for agricultural purposes, and erect suitable dwellings. As far as practicable you will employ Indian labor on these operations, particularly those for whose benefit the improvements are designed.
    You are also authorized to procure two or three yokes of oxen and plows and other farming implements that may be needed, and Agent Newcomb at the Siletz will be directed to turn you over a wagon. In all the measures required to affect the removal of the Indians from the Lower Umpqua you will incur no expense beyond the means that shall be actually placed in your hands.
    It is not designed to remove the Indians located on the Siuslaw, where they are already employed to some extent in agriculture. This pursuit you will encourage by providing them from time to time with such agricultural implements as they may need. For selecting the site contemplated for the Indians to be removed, regard should be had to its proximity to the fisheries, their habits being such as to make the productions of the sea staple articles of subsistence.
    You will keep this office duly advised of all important events connected with the service in your district. Enclosed you will find a statement of funds turned over to you by this office.
Joshua B. Sykes Esq.
    Sub-Indian Agent
N.B. See statement of funds at the bottom of the page.
Statement of funds turned over to Joshua B. Sykes, Sub-Indian Agent.

For the general incidental expenses of the Indian service in the Territories of Oregon & Wash. &c.	$250.00
For the defraying of the expenses of the removal and subsistence of the Indians in Oregon	350.00
	$600.00

NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 31-32.



Sir,
    It has occurred to me that in view of the superabundance of the potato crop on the Siletz, it would be a good measure to send a few hundred bushels by the schooner to be sold in the market for the benefit of the Indians. If therefore Capt. Dodge has not sailed on the receipt of this letter and will carry a consignment of potatoes, at a rate not exceeding ten dollars per ton, payable out of the proceeds of the sales at Portland, which I believe he will readily do, you will set the Indians to work to dig and ship them.
    The net proceeds will be placed in your hands for the benefit of the Indians interested, and I have no doubt the result of this little "adventure" if managed with economy will have a happy effect in stimulating industry and promoting contentment among the Indians. A copy of the "Rules and Regulations of the Indian Bureau"--as good as we have, I send you.
    I will write you more fully by mail. Sub-Agt. Sykes will hand you this.
To
    Daniel Newcomb Esq.
        Indian Agent
            Siletz Ogn.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, page 32.



    DISTINGUISHED ARRIVAL.--His copper-colored mightiness La Lake, chief of the Klamath Lake Indians, arrived in town during the late rain of Thursday (we do not mean he dropped with it) and paid a visit to our office. After giving a few exceedingly unintelligible grunts, and the same amount of supremely inexpressive looks, he left. He did not inform us which of the dozen or two Presidential candidates he preferred. We put him down a Wise man in consequence, although he may be a Hunter chap. Perhaps Botts may get him--they are fellow Native Americans, and equally troublesome.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, November 5, 1859, page 3



    INDIAN AGENCY CHANGE.--The Sentinel says that Geo. H. Abbott, Indian agent for that section, is ordered to proceed within a few days to the Dalles, there to assume charge of the Indians in that district, during the absence of the regular agent, A. P. Dennison, who purposes visiting the Eastern States.
Oregon Argus, Oregon City, November 5, 1859, page 2


Sir
    In compliance with instructions from your office, I employed ten men and started from Jacksonville to Klamath Lake on the first of October last for the purpose of arresting the Indians accused of the murder of the Ledford party in April last.
    We entered the Indian country on the seventh day, counciled with the chiefs on the tenth and eleventh and continued exploring and looking for the murderers until the sixteenth, when we recrossed the mountains on our return to Jacksonville, where we arrived on the nineteenth.
    I am sorry to be compelled to report a total failure of the principal object of the expedition, viz. the arrest of the accused Indians.
    At first many of the warriors showed a decided disposition to be independent and impertinent, but after the council, during which I explained the nature of our business and the consequences of resistance on the part of the tribe, they expressed a willingness that the murderers should be arrested, but nothing could induce them to assist me, nor guide my party to their places of concealment, but on the contrary I am satisfied that while pretending indifference they were posting the murderers as to my movements.
    Consequently I never saw the accused parties, and of course they are yet at large.
    As authorized by you I offered presents to the tribe to induce them to assist in the arrest and as plainly told them that so long as they harbored and protected the murderers of white men they might expect nothing from the government.
    The chiefs replied that if they or any of their people should assist us, it would cause a lasting difficulty in the tribe, that the friends of the parties accused would kill as many of those that assisted in their arrest as they could. From this I inferred that the murderers had many friends and supporters in the tribe.
    I learned while counciling with the chiefs that the Snake Indians had proposed, through their emissaries, to the Klamath and Modoc tribes to join them in a general war against the whites and that the Klamaths are divided on the subject, one party being in favor of the Snake proposition.
    I am confident that it will require great discretion and a very correct administration of the affairs of the eastern and Klamath Lake districts to prevent serious troubles next summer. I presume that they will remain quiet until the winter breaks up.
    They can do but little while the snow is on the mountains.
    While in the lake country we explored a valley at the north end of Big Klamath Lake, most beautifully situated, of good soil, and well watered by six streams of very cold transparent water, a plentiful supply of good timber and grass, containing about one hundred & fifty sections of agricultural land.
    There is a vast extent of grazing lands in the country inhabited by those Indians, and so soon as the proper protection is extended to it our citizens will occupy it.
    The trail leading from Northern California to northeastern Oregon and Washington Territory runs immediately through the lake country, and the route from Great Salt Lake via Humboldt Valley to  Oregon and Northern California, which is probably the best immigrant route to Oregon, runs through the Modoc country.
    The Indians in that region have carried their depredations to such an extent that travel has been discontinued on those routes for several years past with exception of a very few adventurous parties.
    The mountain pass between Rogue River and Klamath Lake valleys is I presume the best and most easy of access of any pass through the Cascade Range, the highest altitude being about twenty-four hundred feet above Rogue River Valley (barometrical observations).
    A good road could be made over it at a light expense. Distance from Jacksonville to Big Klamath Lake sixty-five miles, with good grass and water at convenient distances for camps. The valley of Klamath Lake is about two thousand feet above Rogue River Valley, or about two thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea (barometrical observations).
    Hoping that the attention of the Department may be directed to that interesting portion of our young state, I have the honor respectfully to submit the foregoing facts.
E. R. Geary Esqr.
    Superintendent Ind. Affairs
        Oregon & W.T.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 224.  A copy is on NARA Series M234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-81, Reel 612 Oregon Superintendency, 1860-1861, frames 121-124.



Sir
    According to instructions I proceeded to Salem and there found some eight Grand Ronde Indians together with some four or five from the Siletz Agency. I got them off after some little difficulty. I found them intoxicated and fighting the afternoon I arrived. I then proceeded to Corvallis where I found some more Indians and sent them home. I am now here waiting for the weather to hold up a little, when I shall make all haste for Fort Umpqua to relieve Mr. Drew. The schooner has arrived and sailed again for Portland.
To
    Edwd. R. Geary Esq.
        Supt. Ind. Affairs
            Portland
N.B. Mr. Casey informs me that there were some receipts that were mislaid, and he has written for copies. Since that time they were found. I turned them over but some way they were in the wrong envelope and were overlooked by him (Casey).
Respty. your
    Obdt. servt.
        J. B. Sykes
            Special Ind. Agent
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 236.



Sir
    On the 30th ult. Sub-Agent Drew turned over to me the property at this agency pertaining to the Indian Dept. Mr. Drew informs me he has no funds to transfer.
    I find the Indians belonging to this agency are at present residing in different localities being in quest of food such as game and fish, therefore it will be almost impossible for me to obtain a correct census list without going to considerable expense. I am informed however by Sub-Agent Drew that there was a census list taken by him in October which I expect is very nearly correct. The following is a copy of said list.

	Coos Bay Indians	No. of Souls		292
	Umpqua Indians	"     "      "		127
	Alsea Indians	"     "      "		130
	Siuslaw Indians	"     "      "		85
		Total		634

The Coos Bay and Umpqua tribes reside here but at present there are small parties at Scottsburg, Ten Mile Creek and Coos Bay. So soon as they return I shall take a census list & forward to you. At present I have on hand near two months' rations, providing I make issues as Agent Drew has been doing. There is considerable venereal disease among these Indians, but as far as I can ascertain they are free or nearly so from other sickness. These Indians are in the habit of obtaining liquor, from what source I am unable to learn. I shall use my utmost endeavors however to suppress this evil and shall ascertain if possible the parties who furnish it and prosecute them. Should I be able to get the necessary evidence, economy and the interests of the Indians shall always be my guide in operating for the service.
    The only piece of land fit for agricultural purposes that I have been able to find is situated on the coast about six miles south of the Alsea and contains about 150 acres. I shall however in the course of a few days proceed up the coast and endeavor to look out some better location. I will return to the Umpqua in sufficient time to receive any communication from you.
    The nearest desirable point for the location of these Indians is from 40 to 45 miles from this agency over a very rough country, and it will be necessary to open the road to some extent prior to their removal.
    The Indians are very much opposed to their removal, the probable cause of which is that they are in the habit of cutting wood for the steamboats and thereby obtaining considerable money, also by prostituting their women to the whites. Their resources for subsistence are very meager; they manage, however, with the flour issued them by the Dept. and what money they obtain, to get along.
    The military physician at this post has been employed by the Dept. heretofore at a salary of $75.00 per month, he furnishing the medicines. Please inform me whether I shall continue to employ him. I consider it absolutely necessary for the welfare of the Indians that they should have medical attendance, as they have considerable faith in the "Boston doctor's" medicine.
    Since my arrival here I have been obliged to rent an office and storehouse at the rate of sixty dols. per month. There are no buildings here except those belonging to Mr. Drew, and I have been obliged to hire an office & storehouse. There is no grazing land nearer than 25 miles. I shall send four animals to that point to be ranched and keep one at this agency.
    So soon as I hear from you I shall immediately proceed with some Indians to the point I design for my agency and commence operations, and as the road is very bad I shall not be able to travel back and forth to any very great extent. I think my presence and cooperation at that point will very much facilitate operations. In consideration of these facts I wish to appoint Mr. W. A. Yates local agent at this place and ask your approbation in the matter. I wish to take this step because it will be absolutely necessary for someone to be located at this point for the present, and my presence will be needed elsewhere for reasons heretofore stated in this letter.
To:
    Edwd. R. Geary
        Supt. Ind. Affairs
            Portland
                Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 18; Letters Received, 1860, No. 2.


Sir:
    I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th of October (4th December?) and am constrained to say that I am somewhat surprised and mortified at its tenor.
    In my instructions to you of the 3rd of November I directed you to take an exact census of the Indians within the Umpqua Sub-Agency, distinguishing between males and females, adults and children. You have forwarded to me a lumping enumeration of those Indians of an indefinite and unsatisfactory character which you say was made by late Sub-Agent Drew and you believe to be correct. If I had desired to obtain from Mr. Drew any information in his possession in reference to those Indians it is believed that he would have cheerfully furnished the same to this office without your mediation. Moreover we already have all that we desire from Mr. Drew on that subject, as the files of this office contain his reports and statements in that matter more in detail than the list you have forwarded. But there are contradictions in the reports of Mr. Drew himself upon this subject. In his annual report dated June 30th 1858 he states that the Coos, Scottsburg and Umpqua bands number 450 and that the Alsea and Siuslaw bands number 250, making a total of seven hundred. From the list he has furnished you it appears that the whole number in your agency is 634, being a diminution of 66 souls in one year, whilst the Alsea and Siuslaw bands which in 1858 numbered 250, number in 1859 only 215, being a falling off of thirty-five! This diminution cannot be accounted for by deaths from disease or otherwise because Mr. Drew, in his annual report dated July 4th 1859, uses the following language: "During the past year the number of Indians within this district has not materially changed, a few superannuated old Indians having died, while the increase by birth has been larger than in years previous. Disease and sickness among the young and middle-aged have very much diminished, and the general health of the different tribes is much improved" &c. What this office requires is a correct census of those Indians, and I have again to direct that you will attend to this matter without delay. In making your enumeration you will not be governed by the statements of any employee or other person, but will yourself make an actual count of those Indians.
    In the personal interviews had with you at this office you were informed that the appropriations for the Indian service for this Superintendency during the present year are less than they were last year by $147,200, or in other words that the appropriations have been reduced about one-half. You have also been informed that it is necessary in order to keep within the appropriations to reduce the expenses of the service in all quarters of the Superintendency in like proportion (one-half) so as to avoid contracting liabilities beyond our means, such being the imperative instructions from the Department at Washington to this office. You were also informed that the Umpqua Sub-Agency formed no exception to the rule, but that the expenses there must and should be reduced in a like proportion. In view of these facts I had supposed that your every effort would be exerted to effect the required curtailment of expenses. Instead of this, however, you propose to largely increase the current expenses of the Umpqua Sub-Agency. You have rented an office and a storehouse for 60 dollars per month! The rent charged by your predecessor Mr. Drew for an office, storehouse and stable was 33 dollars per month. In Mr. Drew's administration, the affairs of the Umpqua Sub-Agency received the supervision of but one agent; you propose to have two, a sub-agent and a local agent. I have to inform  you that these steps have my disapproval.
    You state that you have on hand near two months' rations providing you make issues as Agent Drew has been doing. The policy of the government is not to subsist the Indians in idleness at the public expense, but "to aid them in procuring their own subsistence." I have therefore to inform you that no issues of provisions to Indians will receive the approval of this office except to the old, sick and helpless or such as by account of their youth, or by reason of some special emergency, are unable to obtain their own subsistence, and that these facts must be made to appear upon the face of the proper vouchers of issue.
    You will be careful to observe that you are not authorized by my letter of the 3rd of November to take any steps towards the actual removal of the Indians as therein indicated until so instructed by this office.
To
    J. B. Sykes, Esq.
        Ind. Sub-Agent
            Fort Umpqua
                Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 43-44.



Sir,
    I enclose you herewith a copy of the report of Sub-Agent George H. Abbott of an expedition to Klamath Lake and the surrounding country, made in pursuance of instructions from this office.
     Mr. Abbott was sent out for the purpose of effecting the apprehension of the remaining murderers [who] engaged in the unprovoked slaughter of five white men while asleep in their camp near the head of Butte Creek in Jackson County last April. I regret to say that this important object was not attained and that the murderers are still at large.
    The report contains valuable information in regard to the soil, extent and accessibility of the region explored, and of the disposition of the natives towards the whites. The hostile and predatory spirit manifested by their neighbors, the "Snakes," last summer, and the success of their forays, has evidently had an unfavorable influence on these bands, and excited an appetite for blood and plunder which I fear will manifest itself in deeds of violence on our exposed frontier early next summer, unless the timely presence of a military force prevent it. I would therefore urge the necessity of an early military demonstration in that portion of the interior as a measure of humanity to the Indians themselves, and absolutely required for the safety of our citizens, many of whom, attracted by the extensive ranges for cattle in Middle Oregon, and by the newly discovered mines on the northern boundary, will occupy the thoroughfares referred to in the report in passing from Southern Oregon and California to those regions. It is also urgently demanded that treaty stipulations with those Indians be authorized at an early day. The natural pastures of Western Oregon are exhausted, and the extensive grazing country, which is said to be also well adapted to agriculture in the vicinity of those lakes, cannot be much longer held in the exclusive occupancy of a few roving Indians. I would respectfully press the importance of this measure on your consideration, and ask that the way be prepared for entering into treaty stipulations with the Klamath and Modocs at a period not later than next spring. I believe the Klamath might be advantageously confederated with the bands to be located on the Warm Springs Reservation, while the Modocs might be all induced to remove within the jurisdiction of the Superintendency of California, to the Indians within which Superintendency they are assimilated in character. The Superintendent, if authorized to negotiate, should however be clothed with discretionary power in regard to the location of the Klamath, for the great interests of peace, humanity and the development of the country demand that these Indians be provided for on some reservation, and if not practicable to induce them to confederate, as just indicated, a part of their own country should be set off for their exclusive occupancy.
    I would also say in this connection that I am informed that the Surveyor General has recommended that the public survey be extended into that portion of Oregon next summer and refer you to a letter of my predecessor of the 20th January last transmitting a joint resolution of the Legislature, recommending a military post and an Indian agency in the Klamath country. Should it be practical to confederate and dispose of these Indians as I have first suggested, these might be dispensed with, but should a reservation for the Klamath be made in their own country, both a military post and an agency in that region will be highly important.
To
    Hon. A. B. Greenwood
        Commissioner &c.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 41-43.  The original is on NARA Series M234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-81, Reel 612 Oregon Superintendency, 1860-1861, frames 116-119. Abbott's report is transcribed under date of November 8th, above.



Honl. C. H. Larrabee
    Sir
        Allow me again to trouble you with my Indian claim here enclosed. I intended to have handed it to you before you left for Washington. I desire you to take charge of the claim and proceed as you think best. I would like, however, to get an advance on it if possible of about two or three hundred dollars which I very much need to carry me through the winter. I expect to realize out of my Chicago claim May next enough to keep me going. Enclosed you will find Judge McLein's decision in favor of the plaintiff allowing him to redeem and Mr. Newbury has allowed the plaintiff to do so, which would seem to establish my claim to 110 acres in the [illegible] of Newbury's and is precisely a parallel case to the one enclosed. My suit is now pending; [it] will be decided in April next.
    Mr. Larrabee, do if possible raise me some money on my claim and let me hear from you at your earliest convenience and oblige
Your obdt. servt.
    J. E. McClure
   
Inventory of property destroyed by the hostile Indians on Rogue River O.T. the 23rd, 24th & 25th February, 1856 and owned by J. E. McClure

	2 dwelling houses valued at	600.00
	4 Blasdell's patent amalgamating machine with frames     all complete $225	900.00
	1 drop riffle sluice, complete	75.00
	1 drop riffle sluice, unfinished	50.00
	1 drop riffle sluice, second hand	35.00
	1 tom, second hand	15.00
	3 extra ironed toms, $25	50.00
	2 axes, shovels, picks &c.	35.00
	1 wheelbarrow & wheeling planks	30.00
	125 feet sluice troughs	40.00
	190 feet hose	25.00
	1 endless pump	15.00
	2 cast balance wheels, cranks and running gear for pumps $25.00	50.00
	80 feet gutta percha pump belting	40.00
	1 chest carpenter's & joiner's tools	95.00
	1 set smith's tools	75.00
	1 punching machine	50.00
	75 lbs. tinner's solder	46.87
	2 soldering irons	10.00
	100 lbs. quicksilver (charged)	200.00
	2 gold scales	20.00
	1 retort, and a crucible	17.00
	2 monkey wrenches	7.00
	Provisions, cooking & table furniture	150.00
	2 gals. oil & lamps	10.00
	6½ prs. blankets @$8	52.00
	4 beds & pillows	30.00
	1 large trunk of clothing & books	125.00
	2 India rubber coats & boots	30.00
	Gold specimens & watch	150.00
	8 oz. platina	56.00
	1 diamond breast pin	25.00
	1 small medicine chest & medicines	15.00
	Money expended on mining claims	500.00
	1 share in the I.C.P. Water Co., being 1/9 of the capital stock invested	845.24
	1 share in the Log Town Water Co., being 1/5 of the capital stock invested	772.30
		5276.47

    Personally appeared before me, William Tichenor, a notary public for and in the county of Curry O.T., J. E. McClure, and being duly sworn says that the above inventory of property destroyed by the hostile Indians on Gold Beach near the mouth of Rogue River O.T. and of losses incurred by him on account of the depredations committed by the on the 23, 24 & 25th of February 1856 is just and true.
Port Orford 25th April 1856
Indian Creek Water Co.
   
     B. F. Perry & J. L. Evans, being duly sworn, say that they are personally acquainted with J. E. McClure, and that the foregoing inventory of property destroyed by the hostile Indians on the 23, 24 & 25 of February 1856, and of the losses incurred by him on account of the depredations committed by them, is just and true according to the best of our knowledge and belief.
Port Orford O.T. Apl. 25th 1856
William Tichenor
Notary Public in and for the Territory of Oregon
   
[written later:]
See United States Statutes at Large volume 10
Treaty concluded between the United States & above Indians in 1854, see page 1020 U.S. District Attorney office. See treaty of [Rogue] River also, in 1853, Section 16-17-18 (page 731)
NARA Series M234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-81, Reel 612 Oregon Superintendency, 1860-1861, frames 508-513.



Sir,
    I herewith submit for your consideration copies of my instructions to Mr. J. B. Sykes, sub-Ind. agent, on his assuming the charge of the Umpqua Agency, of a letter from Mr. Sykes to this office, and my reply thereto.
A. B. Greenwood
    Commissioner Ind. Affrs.
        Washington City D.C.
   
[Attached are copies of Geary's letter to Sykes of December 13th and his instructions of November 3rd, as well as Sykes' letter of December 4th, all transcribed above.]
NARA Series M234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-81, Reel 612 Oregon Superintendency, 1860-1861, frames 72-81.



Sir,
    Herewith enclosed is a letter to the Hon. Secretary of the Interior from John F. Miller Esq., Ind. agent Grand Ronde, Yamhill Co., Ogn., asking leave of absence to visit Washington, the better to effect a speedy adjustment of certain claims in his accounts suspended and disallowed by the Indian Bureau. I would respectfully ask for this application of Agent Miller your favorable consideration.
Hon. A. B. Greenwood
    Commissioner Ind. Affrs.
        Washington City D.C.
   
Sir,
    In view of the fact that a large amount of the appropriation for deficiencies contracted at this agency, and which were audited by Mr. Commissioner Mott, had been suspended at Washington for want of more definite information as to the nature of the claim, and as the amount is justly due to men to whom the delay is almost ruin, I would respectfully solicit leave of absence to visit Washington, the better to effect a speedy settlement of the same.
Hon. J. Thompson
    Secy. of Interior
        Washington
            D.C.
NARA Series M234 Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-81, Reel 612 Oregon Superintendency, 1860-1861, frames 84-86.



Sir
    I am happy to say one school is in successful operation.
    Below I give a detailed statement of each day the present week.

Dec. 26	Monday	9	scholars	5	girls	4	boys
	Tuesday	18	"	9	"	9	"
	Wednesday	27	"	25	"	14	"
	Thursday	34	"	28	"	16	"
	Friday	38	"	20	"	18	"

    The ages of the children will probably be within the years of five and fifteen with the exception of one girl. Umpqua chief Lewis' daughter is probably 16 or 17 years old.
E. R. Geary
    Supt. of Ind. Affairs
        Portland Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 258.



Sir:
    I received a letter from your predecessor E. P. Drew Esq. on the 18th of July last relative to the estates of Indian Dick Johnson and Indian Mummy, who were the victims of an atrocious murder perpetrated by white men at Yoncalla in November 1858. I have carefully considered the recommendation of Mr. Drew that the just charges of the Hon. S. D. Dickinson for settling said estates, yet coming due him, be paid by the Indian Department. While I would gladly relieve the estates of the deceased from these expenses I do not feel myself warranted in such application of any funds now in my hands without special instructions to that effect from the Indian Bureau, whither I have referred the matter. Meanwhile it is but justice to Judge Dickinson that his claim be paid, and it is I think best that he retain his fees from the moneys of the estates yet remaining in his hands, as the laws provide.
    I confidently hope however that I will be able to procure some indemnity from the government for the survivors of the inhuman and brutal tragedy. Certainly no case appeals more strongly to the sentiment of justice and humanity.
    I shall at least without a reasonable doubt be authorized to refund to the heirs all the proper expenses incurred in settling said estates. The pressure upon my time connected with the liquidation of perplexing claims audited by Judge Mott has occasioned a longer delay in regard to this subject than I intended. Judge Dickinson will be duly advised of the action I feel myself constrained to take in the premises.
J. B. Sykes, Esq.
    Ind. Sub-Agent
        Fort Umpqua
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 8; Letter Books G:10, pages 55-56.



Sir--
    I have the honor to report that nothing worthy of remark, in regard to the sanitary condition of the Indians on this reservation, has occurred during the present quarter.
    The number of severe affections of the chest is of course augmented as the rainy season advances, and the Rogue River Indians, with their constitutions enfeebled by scrofula and venereal [disease], have as usual the greatest proportion of sickness among them.
Capt. Jno. F. Miller
    Indian Agent
        Grand Ronde Reservation
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 17; Letters Received, 1859, No. 45.




Last revised October 13, 2024