Sir
    An application has been made by Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oregon, to the Indian Bureau at Washington for permission to establish a school for the education of Indian children at Grand Ronde Reservation, the same to be in connection with the Catholic Church already established at that place, and under the control and management of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary.
    The matter having been referred to this office, it becomes necessary to call upon you for information.
    You will therefore report to this office upon the subject, stating in your judgment whether the Indians and the service will be benefited by sanctioning the proposed measure, or otherwise, and giving your reasons for so determining in detail, together with any facts or information having a bearing upon the subject.
    A copy of the communication of Rev. J. A. B. Brouillet, V.G., to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is herewith transmitted.
Amos Harvey
    U.S. Indian Agent
        Grand Ronde
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 687.





    NOT GONE YET.--Orvil Dodge, who we announced some time since was going to Fort Klamath, wishes us to state that he has postponed his visit for a few weeks, and is still prepared to render up "the human face divine."

Sir
    In compliance with your request for my opinion as to the "propriety of purchasing Indian annuity goods in the Atlantic States for the Oregon Superintendency, together with such facts as may be within my knowledge in relation to the cost and character of the goods which have been sent from the Department at Washington" and whether it would not result in a saving "of money to the government and benefit to the Indians to allow the Superintendent or agents to make the necessary purchases themselves," I have the honor to submit the following for your information.
    Prior to my appointment as Superintendent, the practice appears to have been to make the purchases by the Superintendent or the agent having charge of the tribe, and in the remittance of the funds for the first half year of my incumbency (1863) no change was made, the funds for annuities of all the tribes being remitted and in due time turned over to the agents, and by them expended. On the 2nd day of May 1863, however, Commissioner Dole advised me that it was his design to change the practice, and cause the goods to be purchased in the "Atlantic cities," and in pursuance of this plan I was directed to transmit my estimate of the articles required for the Indians in the entire Superintendency in such time as to reach Washington "not later than 1st October" 1863, and I was especially enjoined to "a strict compliance with the instructions" upon my part. This letter was received on the 2nd day of June 1863, and acknowledged on the following day. A copy of it marked "A" is hereto appended for your information.
    On the 18th day of June Commissioner Dole informed me that he had ordered certain goods to be purchased in New York, without waiting for my estimate of what was required, and enclosed a list of the goods he ordered. On the 15th day of July Mr. J. B. Gordon, special agent, wrote enclosing invoices of goods purchased in New York and Baltimore, and advising me of their shipment. On the 24th September I forwarded to the Commissioner a carefully prepared estimate of the articles which it was deemed most expedient to purchase for the Indians, which of course did not arrive at Washington until after the purchases for that year had been made. No further communication has ever been received by me from the Commissioner's office upon this subject, but on the 4th of July, 1864, I received a letter from Mr. J. B. Gordon, special agent, advising me of the purchase and shipment of annuity goods for all the tribes in Oregon.
    No allusion to this purchase has ever been made in any letter received from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and this omission cannot be chargeable to the failure of the mails, for my monthly statements of correspondence sent to Washington had been found to correspond with the records of the Commissioner. The goods purchased in 1863 were shipped via Panama, at enormous freight, and arrived at the several agencies in time for distribution the same year. The goods bought in 1864 were shipped via Cape Horn, did not arrive here until the present year, and could not be distributed to the Indians for whom they were designed until very recently. Indeed, a portion of them designed for the Shasta Scotons, Umpquas, & Rogue Rivers are yet in this town. Thus the Indians have been one year without annuities, and much dissatisfaction exists among them in consequence.
    The time and manner in which the goods have been shipped have been most unfortunately chosen. The goods for 1863 were not only shipped by the costly Isthmus route, but they were subjected to exorbitant charges for packing, drayage &c. (for detail of which see comparative schedule, marked "B"), and the bulky nature of some of the articles was such as to make the freight a great deal more than the value of the goods after delivery. Handled axes, hatchets, pitchforks, garden hoes &c. were cased in huge pine boxes, to be transported over the route from Baltimore & New York to Warm Springs & Umatilla The transportation of the bulky wooden handles was five times the value of the articles, handle and all, after delivery, while the Indians would have thought it no hardship to have made the handles themselves out of the timber which grows upon their own reservation.
    The purchases of 1864 were all shipped via Cape Horn and San Francisco to Salem. Salem was the proper destination of no part of the goods. Your familiar acquaintance with the country enables you to see at once the absurdity of shipping goods bound for Warm Springs or Umatilla up the Willamette River to Salem, thence down the river to Portland toward their final destination.
    The goods designed for Siletz Agency afford a still more marked instance of mismanagement.
    They have been transported from San Francisco to Salem at a cost of about $75 per ton, and now the most economical way to get them to their destination will probably be to ship them back to San Francisco again, at like cost, and thence direct to Siletz at a cost of about $16 per ton.
    The only other alternative is to transport them on pack mules from Salem to Siletz, which probably will not cost less than $100 per ton.
    In regard to the quality and suitableness of the goods shipped, it has generally been such as could have been anticipated when the purchaser was entirely unacquainted with the country, or the Indians who inhabit it. There has uniformly been an unfavorable discrepancy between the invoices and the articles actually shipped. I shall not swell this letter to the mordant length necessary to point out all of these failures or swindles, but a few of the more glaring must suffice.
    "Merrimac" prints are named in the invoices of both years. This, as is well known, is the best and most costly sort of calico, and the prices paid have corresponded with the invoice quality, but not a yard of Merrimac calico has ever been put in the package.
    On the contrary, the article shipped has always been of a very inferior quality, such as can be bought for twenty-five or thirty percent less than "Merrimac," and is worth to the Indians, who are expected to consume it, less than half.
    The article shipped as "cotton duck" was a light and inferior article of common drilling.
    A considerable part of the thread sent was rotten and utterly worthless. The needles, the buttons the fish hooks & lines were of the most inferior description, and of very little value to the Indians.
    Spoons enough were brought to give nearly half a dozen to everyone of the tribe, and they were so worthless that the Indians generally refused to carry them away after they were given out. "Fancy mirrors" costing $5 per dozen were sent. They proved to be little looking glasses, about two inches in diameter, and worth absolutely nothing to the Indians.
    A lot of "steel weeding hoes," handled, proved to be little affairs, intended for the use of some delicate lady, if indeed they were intended for use at all. Scissors & shears in inordinate quantity and utterly worthless in quality were sent.
    Tinware packed in roomy cases until the freight was far in excess of the value. Fry pans of thin sheet iron, utterly worthless, and so esteemed by the Indians. In short, the entire purchases show either ignorance of the Indians' wants, or design to defraud them. If the purchases are made intelligently and honestly in New York, it may be that the government and Indians will be as well served, but if the invoices hitherto bought are to be taken as a sample of those to be bought in future, it would be as well to spend half the amount here. No merchant of any interior town in Oregon or Washington ever thinks of buying his stock of goods in New York, and the same reasons which impel individuals to buy at the nearest wholesale mart apply with tenfold force to such purchases as are necessarily made by the government. The facts which I have detailed in my judgment make evident these propositions:
    1st. The purchase of goods should invariably be made by a person acquainted with the Indians and their wants, and with the character of the climate and country where they are to be consumed.
    2nd. That purchases should be made at the wholesale mart nearest to the agency where they are required.
    3rd. That purchase in New York and Baltimore necessarily involves enormous transportation charges, or else the withholding of the goods from the Indians for a year. For your further information I take the liberty to transmit herewith a comparative schedule, marked "B," showing the purchases made in Baltimore and New York in 1863 and 1864, together with my estimate made in 1863 of the articles four which, in my judgment, the annuity funds should be expended.
    A careful examination of this schedule will give you a pretty thorough understanding of what has been purchased and where, and it will also advise you of what in my judgment ought to have been purchased.
    Hoping that my report will be found satisfactory, Hon. J. W. Nesmith
    U.S. Senator
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, pages 692-695.



Dear Sir,
    I herewith most respectfully submit my report for the quarter ending June 30th 1865.
    In relation to the sanitary condition of the Indians, it will be seen by the following report that no epidemic, or contagious, disease has prevailed during the last quarter. And indeed, a great number of the cases treated have been of a chronic character, either originating in secondary, or tertiary, syphilis, or from a hereditary taint, or when primary syphilis has been neglected in its early treatment.
    Of acute diseases inflammation of the lungs, or of the stomach and bowels, were the more common. Nearly all of these cases yielded to treatment, where aid was sought early and the prescription was carried out. The want of regular diet, together with the reckless exposure to which these people subject themselves, is calculated to induce disease, and in many cases prevent the salutary influence of medicine.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 21; Letters Received, 1863-1865, no number.



    MAJOR MULLAN.--We learn from the Red Bluff Independent that Major Mullan, commander of the new military district, arrived at that place on his way to his new command. The district is called the "Military Sub-District of Siskiyou." The new fort is to be established in the north end of Surprise Valley, [and] will be known as Fort Bidwell. Major Mullan's headquarters will be in the saddle, as he intends to scout over the plans between Northern California and the Owyhee country, thereby quelling all Indian disturbances the present season.


Recd. Washington July 20 1865
Hon. W. P. Dole
    Comr. Indian Affairs
        273 Vt. Ave.
The necessity for an agent in place of Amos Rogers is immediate & urgent. We recommend Lindsay Applegate.





Dear Sir
    I received your letter dated April 25 in which you state my claim against the Indian Department for $168.00 will be paid on the receipt of my vouchers at your office and the amount forwarded to me.
    Please send the amount of
    I send my vouchers to your office in this letter. When you receive them please send the amount to me direct to Thomas Clarke, Superintendent's office, Salem, Oregon care of Superintendent Indian Affairs, Oregon.
Charles E. Mix
    Acting Commissioner
        of Indian Affairs
N.B. There is one of my vouchers I sent to your office in 1862. It is now on file there. Here is the other two.


    MEN LOST.--Two Fort Klamath soldiers obtained a pass and went hunting about two weeks since. Their pass ran out, and as they did not make their appearance it was thought that they had deserted, they being good woodsmen and not likely to get lost. Last Saturday one of them made his way into the fort, almost famished. The other gave out entirely, from the effects of hunger, and had to be left. Assistance was promptly sent to him. The men were out fourteen days.

    INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.--Captain John Mullan writes to the Idaho Statesman, from his camp near the Owyhee, that the Indians are up in arms throughout the whole country between there and Humboldt. He sends the following account of atrocities recently perpetrated by them in several places:
    "An express has just reached camp, bringing news of a fight of Lieut. Hobart's command with a large number of Snake Indians at the head of the Malheur River. The soldiers killed four Indians, wounding others, and captured fifteen horses. The troops had two men wounded and lost two animals. The Indians have complete possession of many of the roads. They attacked a train in Pueblo Valley, killing two men and wounding one. One of the men had his head cut off, and a stake driven through his mouth and pinned to the ground; his legs and arms were cut off, his body cut into shreds and hung on the bushes; another is said to have been burned. The news reached us tonight that a train was attacked near the Owyhee, killing the women and capturing two children.
    "Pierce & Francis' saddle train asked yesterday for five men to aid them in getting through, and it was denied them, for the troops are not here to spare. Hill Beachy has been driven off the road--fifty-seven head of horses stolen--and with the remainder he was compelled to leave the line."



J. W. P. Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
Sir:
    La Lake, chief of the Klamaths, has signified his desire to relinquish his authority as chief among his people, on account of some petty feuds and dissatisfaction among them. After conversing with Capt. Kelly upon the subject, I am convinced that it would be impolitic to recognize any other of the Klamaths as chief at present, and I have promised La Lake that I would sustain him if he would consent to still be the head of his people. He says if you also desire it he will not yield his authority, but remain chief. I hope you will encourage him to hold his position.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 22.



J. W. Perit Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs Oregon
Sir:
    Your note, asking for a small cavalry force to remain with you during the sitting of your council, is received. In reply I have to say the detachment must necessarily be very small, but I will send Captain Kelly with what available men he has except barely enough to herd the cavalry horses.
    He will be instructed to join you today and remain as long as you may need his presence.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 21.



J. W. P. Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        Salem Oregon
Dear Sir:
    Enclosed please find a letter from Abraham Patterson of Canyonville, Ogn.
    I would respectfully recommend that these Indians and all others in the state be taken to a reservation as speedily as possible and kept there. Nearly every week I have applications for troops to protect the citizens from Indian depredations. I am aware that there are not troops enough in the Department to guard all points at once. These Indians have got to be collected sooner or later. It will cost no more to do it at one time than another; I think it ought to be done as soon as possible. I presume it is not necessary for me to urge you to exert your influence for the accomplishment of this desirable object. You are as well aware of the necessities of the case as I am.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 4.



    PERSONAL.--Lieut. Chapman, from Ft. Klamath, called upon us this week. He reports all well at the fort. Lieut. McCall, commanding the expedition from Eugene City, had arrived. B. G. Pengra was in company with him. Indian Superintendent Huntington had gone out about thirty miles from the fort to try and effect a treaty with the Snake Indians.


    SURPRISE VALLEY ITEMS.--From a letter written by a friend at Surprise Valley, we learn that Lieut. Hobart's Oregon Cavalry, numbering 60 men, had a lively encounter with the Indians in that vicinity. On the morning of July 10th the company was attacked in camp about daybreak, at Steen's Valley. The troops found themselves surrounded on three sides by 60 Indians mounted and 100 on foot, all well armed. The Indians charged into camp, but the soldiers succeeded in saving 20 of their horses, which they saddled up and soon encountered the Indians, in company with those on foot managing two howitzers. After playing upon the redskins awhile the troops succeeded in recovering their stock and 15 of the Indians' horses. Lieut. Hobart could only keep the Indians at bay with his howitzers, so he concluded to move out, for he soon found his command fighting over 1,500 Indians, who completely covered both sides of the valley. He succeeded in making good his retreat towards Fort Lyon, 60 miles northeast, with a loss of two killed and one wounded. Several Indians were killed, but how many is unknown, as the troops paid more attention to saving stock than shooting Indians, there being so many of them. It is supposed that the Indians have upwards of 5,000 head of stolen horses, and no single companies or portion of companies can travel the country in safety. At least six companies will be necessary to clean out these Indians, and the general feeling on both sides seems to be extermination. Infantry is greatly needed to accompany the cavalry, from the fact that the fighting is behind rocks and in gulches where horses cannot go, thus requiring a force to protect stock as well as a force to do the bushwhacking. The troops cannot do much before next spring outside of protecting settlers and guarding the principal roads.--Yreka Journal.

J .W. P. Huntington Supt. of Indian Affairs
    Sir
        I have concluded that it would conduce much to the benefit of the Indians at this agency to remove the Indian trading post away from Fort Yamhill. If there is nothing in the way Mr. Hosford will enter  into bonds to conduct the store strictly according to law.
    Your answer to this will be thankfully received by yours truly.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 7.



    PERSONAL.--Lt. D. C. Underwood called on us this week, looking well. Indian Supt. Huntington succeeded in making a treaty with Paulina, a Snake chief. Stipulation on the part of the government is $5,000 a year for the first five years, and after that, $1200 a year for fifteen years.

Sir
    You will receive by this mail a bid to furnish 18000 pounds of shorts, in lieu of flour, and two thousand pounds of flour at Fort Klamath for the use of the Indians from John S. Drum. He is a good Union man and is responsible. If his "bid" is accepted please let me know by the same mail that you notify him.
    I have just returned from Jacksonville. No news of importance; have not heard anything of the Snake Indians yet. An expedition to consist of 50 cavalry and 30 infty. to leave here on the 30th for Steens Valley, and to remain there this winter. It goes out under command of Capt. Sprague.
    Let me hear from you soon.
Hon. J. W. Perit Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs in Oregon
        Salem Ogn.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 25.


Gents
    I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your petition on behalf of the Union men of Jackson County touching the distribution of governmental patronage in that county and as a remedy for the same asking that certain movement of troops from Fort Klamath be "countermanded or postponed."
    It is both the policy and interest of the general government that the unconditional loyal, as it is upon them [that] the burden of the late Rebellion has so heavily fallen, and from their ranks has flowed the flow of blood that divine wisdom ordained necessary to seal the triumphant victory of the nation, should enjoy more than an equal share of the blessings and advantages flowing from the government.
    If my subordinate officers have deviated from the general policy of the government, they have done so without instructions from these headquarters and in direct opposition to the known wishes of the department commander.
    The lateness of the season renders it impossible to countermand the orders sending troops to Steens Mountain. Troops are now marching toward Alvord Valley from three points, and it is confidently expected here that within the next ninety days the country can be assured that there is not a hostile Indian in Eastern Oregon capable of doing any serious injury.
    It is my intention to supply the troops now ordered to Alvord Valley from Southern Oregon and by means of escorts to the government trains keep open and safe the road leading from Southern Oregon to Eastern Oregon and Idaho Territory.
    It is of vital importance to your section of country that the troops now ordered from Ft. Klamath reach their destination early in September. The treaty effected by Superintendent Huntington is of great importance, but unless the old mountain haunts and valley ranges of these Indians are occupied by the whites, the plighted faith of the forty or fifty savages now at Klamath will add but little security to settlers and travelers the coming summer.
    From personal observation I am prepared to say that the number of hostile Snake Indians in Eastern Oregon does not fall short of three hundred warriors. Therefore I cannot alter or abate my plans because forty or fifty here attended a sub-chief as an escort to see the whites and receive unransomed from their hands two or tree captured women and children.
    Last fall the same Indian Pauline humbugged the military authorities by proffers of peace--and thus gained rest and quiet during the winter. This spring found him at his old murderous business.
    I will try and so arrange it that the Union men will have no further cause of complaint in Jackson County or any other section of the Department.
To
S. Colver
Jacob Wagner &
other petitioners
Mabel Wagner Kinney folder 1958-56-179, Box M42A2, Southern Oregon Historical Society Research Library




    The twelfth day of August, in the year of grace eighteen hundred and sixty-five, seems likely to be remembered as a white stone day in the somewhat checkered calendar of the records of Indian diplomacy in Oregon, for on that day, far in the wilds of Oregon, "all in the greenwood shade," with little of the state and circumstance usually accorded on such occasions where we, "the high consenting parties," met in solemn conclave--with a pine tree for a shade, a log for a desk, and the wild valley of Sprague River for a council chamber--was a treaty signed, the effect of which seemed to be, as far as man can look into the future, the termination of the fearful Indian hostilities which have made Oregon for thirty years a by-word among the states, and to cause future generations as they cultivate in peace and security the valleys, once the scene of war and bloodshed, bless the wisdom and courage of the man whose foresight brought about these things.
    The day when Pah-ni-ne [Paulina], Chief of the Snakes, after eight years of determined and successful hostility against the whites, came voluntarily into the camp of his hereditary enemies and asked there and then forever to bury the hatchet and be at peace with all men, with its consequent effect upon the prosperity of Oregon, and of California almost equally as much, deserves something more than the ephemeral record of a newspaper paragraph. Perhaps the readers of the Union may think the same.
    It has been the fate of nearly every state of the Union as the tide of civilization rolled westward to have her Indian wars, as the red man, driven to the brink, made a stand to maintain possession of his lands--or by his avarice and hostilities provoked the whites to his extermination. These long series of bloody guerrilla wars form a vast portion of the history of the United States, and to this record Oregon has contributed perhaps her full, sad share. The long, unrecorded series of murders on the frontier, when the population was too weak to make a stand against the aborigines culminating in long wars of "extermination" on either side--the Modoc, the Cayuse, the Rogue River, etc., etc., had been all over--and the Indian, beaten or sullenly submissive, had retired upon reservations, there to follow to some extent the arts of peace, year by year decreasing until their number in many instances became so few as to render their annual annuities they received in lieu of the free possession of their lands, more a matter of justice than of policy--their numbers being too few to seriously injure the whites who surround them. One body of Indians alone formed an exception, and still maintained their warfare against the whites. From the country which they infested being on the borders of the river of the same name, they were known by the generic name of Snakes, though composed of various bands, such as Bannocks, and under different leaders, and speaking different dialects, yet all united for plundering and robbing the whites. Year after year every newspaper was filled with accounts of their outrages. Emigrants were murdered, droves of horses and cattle driven off, prospectors fallen upon and killed. No one was safe to pass through their country without a heavy armed escort, and even then they frequently attacked the military when securely posted. Nor were the whites alone the objects of their warfare, but the reservations of friendly Indians were ravaged year after year, stock stolen, buildings burned and the whites in some instances forced to flee for their lives. The reservation of Warm Springs was especially subject to plunder by these marauders, and in one night alone five hundred horses were stolen, and four years ago, for several days, the reservation was wholly in their hands, and the entire establishment laid desolate. They were the Ishmaelites of the West--their hands against every man and every man's against them--equal in ferocity if not in power to the Apaches of Arizona. Forts were built, military expeditions, at enormous expense, organized against them year after year, but with comparatively little success, notwithstanding the bravery of officers and men. With scouts and signal fires on every hill, thoroughly acquainted with every pass and cozy defile of the wide country over which they roamed, they rarely allowed themselves to be attacked except in a position where they could have the best of it, and it most frequently happened that the soldiers were forced to retire with loss, having effected little; in fact, having only come off second best. Military expeditions, hampered with heavily laden trains of provisions and munitions of war, little if at all acquainted with the country, and composed of men who, however competent to fight after the laws of civilized warfare, could little be expected to cope successfully with wandering bands of athletic warriors, brave and daring (if they had no other virtue), roaming over a tract of country with whose most minute feature they were acquainted--here today and away tomorrow--their home in their saddle, their forts in a rocky canyon, their commissariat on the hills, or if needs be a handful of grasshoppers, their quartermaster a leaden bullet--desperate, with nothing to lose and all to gain, it was no disgrace to be unsuccessful against such a crowd of red devils. The "Snakes" were everybody's talk, and "extermination" was the only remedy for their barbarism; but who as to "bell the cat"? In the summer of last year, Lieutenant Stephen Watson engaged them on Crooked River, but the Indians were securely posted, and the soldiers were forced to retire with the loss of their gallant leader and several men. In this battle Pah-ni-ne was the principal chief engaged, and it was the last battle he fought against whites, for his band disappeared from that part of the country, only to appear again to the whites under circumstances which led to peace being made with him, and it is hoped, through him, with We-wow-we-wa [Weahwewa] and Hallek, the chiefs of the other two bands still at large, and whose ravages are still subjects of terror. It will be seen that this is more than likely; and, if so, Indian hostilities will close in Oregon and Idaho and all the country north.
    In the autumn of last year, soon after the fight in which Lieutenant Watson was killed, J. W. Perit Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, was returning with his party and escort from the treaty with the Klamath and Modoc Indians, on the southern border of the state, came on a party of Snake Indians near Deschutes River, and after a desperate fray succeeded in killing several of the men and in capturing three women and a boy, whom he retained as hostages, and it was not until subsequently that it was discovered that they were a part of Pah-ni-ne's band, and that the boy was his son and one of the women the squaw of the celebrated desperado. Such a stroke of good luck Huntington was not prepared for, but like a skillful diplomatist he made himself master of the situation, sending a Klamath messenger (whose tribe has always been on more friendly terms with the Snakes than any other, and is suspected of having traded ammunition to them) to Pah-ni-ne, informing him that he would like to meet him at Fort Klamath and talk about peace. Pah-ni-ne, in the most daring manner, answered it in person at Fort Klamath, informing the commanding officer that he would meet him on a certain day. In the meantime, Huntington traveled to the fort to await his coming, dispatching his messenger to his winter camp, and promising him safe conduct under all circumstances. Fort Klamath, however, is a long way from the center of civilization, and as it was a point to which many parties concerned in the treaty traveled, it may be useful to trace our steps until we met under the gallant Major's portico--then to journey east to the council ground.
    I do not know if the good people of Eugene "City" will ever forgive me for even insinuating that their town is not very generally heard of outside of the Willamette Valley, or that I can ever again stalk through the fragrant fennel which ornaments the main street of the "city" without fear of bodily injury (unless, indeed, their thorough contempt for your correspondent outweighs their indignation), for insinuating that its commerce will never seriously effect change; but, as a veracious historian, I am bound to confess that Eugene, though being a few months of the year at the "head of steam navigation of the Willamette River," in the midst of the famous "Long Tom" agricultural country (where the people are too lazy to milk their cows--"doggone it"), and only one hundred and twenty-five miles south of Portland, with the bi-daily sensation of an empty stage coach rumbling through it, is not a very gay place, and if it had not been for "Company A, First Oregon Cavalry," and Lieutenant John M. McCall, it would have been still less lively; but this was also drawing to a close at the period of your correspondent's arrival; but, as there is a sunny side to every picture, so the citizens of the "head of navigation," and more especially the fair demoiselles thereof, had a sort of compensation in having their eyes and ears delectated with the sight of prancing troopers and cursing packers, and the origin of this was fully explained in a paragraph which appeared daily in the State Journal and its opposition Copperhead organ, the Review, that "Lieutenant McCall's command will depart in a few days for an expedition east of the mountain, as an escort to Pengra and Odell, who are about to locate a military road to the Owyhee country," etc., etc., and at the same time it was expected that they would be an escort at the Snake treaty. It is a long lane that has no turning, they say, and the party at last marched out of Eugene, up the Middle Fork of the Willamette, thence to cross the Cascades south of Diamond Peak to Deschutes River; and sad was the laments among the "web-foot" girls of Eugene, and the photographers whom the "boys" had patronized to a great extent before leaving. For the photographer's grief being well-founded, I can vouch, and if all his command were as good fellows as their Lieutenant, why the fair Eugeneites only behaved as certain other damsels even in the Sacramento Valley would have done--Honi soit qui mal y pense. This was on the 17th of July, and from thence date the end of sensation; thereafter Eugene City relapsed into more than Eugeneic dullness, from whence it will never survive until the little bugler of Company A sounds reveille again by the banks of the sweet Willamette! Two days' march took us out of the settlements and the camping on Oregon ranches, to the relief of the Quartermaster's making out fodder vouchers and the horses of certain non-military members of the party, who would gallop on ahead of the party, knowing well that as soon as brass buttons would gleam in the sun all chance of having a little short-lived popularity with the Lane County girls was at an end. No more flirtation at "berrying" camps by the creeks with the Eugene girls out rusticating, to the discomfiture of the "regular" young man; no more plundering of milk-houses, and paying for it by kissing the milkmaid. After the 15th of July, it was our regular square of beans, with the luxury of damning the cook, savored with "Hen." Owen's good yarns, pitted against those of the worthy Lieutenant, Surgeon Arnen, and wound up with a Vancouver Island ode by Dr. Brown, an English naturalist who accompanied the party, or a San Juan Island joke by Cole, the Quartermaster's clerk, all of whom formed the mess at starting. At night we camped on some little prairie, marching in the morning ten or fifteen miles, being about as far as the Quartermaster's mules could carry an aparejo, spending the day in cruising round the neighborhood hunting elk, studying trees and other "ologies," writing diaries for sweethearts or sleeping under the bushes as the inclination or ability of each tended. The road led for the most part through narrow Indian trails, when a pioneer party had to go ahead to cut out fallen trees through woods and over streams, sometimes through pleasant prairies and at other times along fearful precipices, no doubt noted in the Packmaster's memory, for over one [a] burro loaded was lost and dashed to pieces at the bottom. A side of bacon up a fir tree and a wooded ravine white with a snow-like shower of Springfield flour will serve as a monument to commemorate the passing of the first escort.
    In another month a road for wagons will be through here, and as teams rattle securely along, doubtless with true Christian charity they will vent blessings on the carelessness of the man who could lose mules over such a road. Here there was no danger of Indians, and the only duty was the guarding of the horses at night, or the hunting up of some stray cayuse which would insist on straying to undue limits. We had been gradually ascending, almost imperceptibly, but on the 27th the Cascade Range stood out bold before us, and we commenced the crossing of the chain in right good earnest. The ascent was easy, crossing cold creeks which flow from the snow peak of Diamond (the only person who has ascended it, and so named). The altitude began to appear in the change of the flora; rhododendrons were in seed at the base; then as we rose higher they were partially in flower, until as we gained the summit the thicket with their branches of large pink flowers stood out in splendid contrast with the drifts of snow, giving us a faint idea of what the splendid rhododendron thickets in the Himalayas, so graphically portrayed by Dr. Joseph Hooker, must be like.
    Occasionally a magnificent species of mountain lily would bloom by the side of some beautiful saxifrage, and shrubbery of the fragrant cinnamon laurel would scent the air with an almost overpowering odor. The scene from the summit of the pass (4,441 feet) was grand in the extreme. The bold snow-covered crags of Diamond Peak and the "Three Sisters" to the north, and on the left of us, away in the south, the tops of Scott Peak and Mount Williamson, while the wooded valleys and lesser heights of the rest of the Cascade Range lay below; and off to the east the long slope of flat wooded country, with the peaks of the Three Brothers, the only break in the monotony of the view. As we descended the eastern slope, two beautiful lakes were observed embossed amid trees, lying gleaming in the sun in quiet valleys, and were respectfully named "Crescent" and "Summit Lake," while to a third was attached the name of Odell, one of the exploring party. The trees we passed were the western red cedar, the stately sugar pine, yew, and the scrubby "black pine" of the Eastern Cascade region. After a twenty-six miles ride we came to the headwaters of the Deschutes River--here a little creek meandering through--a world of grassy meadows--a sort of "horse heaven," and with little of the characteristic which it possesses nearer its mouth and which gives it its name. This river flows into the Columbia, about eighteen miles above the Dalles. You may wander for miles along its banks dying of thirst and unable to reach the river roaring through between the walls of a canyon hundreds of feet in depth. Here we met Pengra, late Surveyor General, and party. We had a "gay old time" of it here with the mosquitoes and the trout--a very sad one altogether; and the little chipmunks, I believe, even yet come out of their holes expecting a pistol bullet being aimed at them. We now start southerly over a dry pumice stone country scattered over with black lime, and intersected every few miles with a grass-bordered creek. Everywhere were marks of extinct volcanoes, and lava streams had consolidated into strange forms. A diary of a journey over such a country, though very interesting to a savant, yet to ordinary newspaper readers is about as interesting as the time-honored sea journals which used to be something after this fashion: "During first part of this twenty-four hours light breezes from E.S.E. Tradesmen at their trades; hands employed variously; latter, do. do.; 1 o'clock, do. do.; lat. 48°N.; speed, three knots; leeway, ½ knot," and so on. It was over the same style of country, with little adventure. Once we saw great moccasin tracks crossing our track after we camped one night, pronounced by the knowing ones to be Snake "signs," and once we passed on Fremont's trail and there saw the tracks of barefooted horses, and moccasins became numerous, and recent fires showed the party to be only a few hours ahead. So the guard on the pack train was doubled, but it was found only to be Superintendent Huntington's party going to the Treaty and a few hours ahead, though we never overtook him until we came to Fort Klamath. Sometimes a "layover" for a day or two enabled a "prong-horned" antelope to be added to our larder or somebody to discover a mare's nest, or Dr. Brown to burden his horse with all sorts of horrible creeping things and bundles of plants and parcels of seeds yet to flower in European gardens, until on the 3rd of August the Expedition camped on a beautiful meadow by the side of the famed Klamath Marsh, there to lie over for a few days. Thence your correspondent and Lieutenant McCall rode over the ridge fifteen miles through some of the finest groves of yellow pine, until the beautiful grassy pass in which Fort Klamath is built lay beneath, like a large lake, studded with clumps of trees like wooded islands, and evening found us with a courteous welcome from Major Reinhart and his officers, Captain Kelly and Lieutenants Underwood, Chapman and Oates--not forgetting the jolly Doctor. Here we found Huntington loafing full length under the portico, putting his wit against Pengra, who had gone ahead of us, awaiting the arrival of Pah-ni-ne. His party, consisting of Dr. William McKay, a famous Indian fighter in Oregon, F. B. Chase, Lieutenant Applegate and soldiers from Fort Dalles, with a body of Indian warriors from Warm Springs Reservation, etc., were camped a little way off under the pine trees.
    Fort Klamath is situated about forty or fifty miles north of the California boundary line, and is yet scarcely completed. Here are stationed a company of infantry and another of cavalry, with a view to give escorts to parties and mills through the Indian country, but as it is forty miles from the line of travel, it is rather out of the way. Beautifully situated for summer it is badly so for winter; the cold springs in the soil causing, with the shade of the surrounding mountains, the snow to lie so long as to render cultivation futile, though the grass surpasses itself here. Roads lead from here to Southern Oregon--never traveled but by the weekly expressman--here in this most remote place are a number of the fair sex, and as usual all over Oregon under these circumstances, a score of curly-headed brats--adepts at Chinook jargon and learned on the relative merits of Maynard's carbine and the old yager, though the lumber being got out for a school holds out hopes of something more being taught. Notwithstanding the recent establishment of this post, it already, as far as I have seen, the best-ordered post in Oregon; the strict discipline and soldierly-like bearing of the men, with the air militaire of everything about it, reflects much credit upon the Commandant and his officers. At the fort we had a "good time" of it generally, and an excursion down Wood's River to the Great Klamath Lake and back again on horseback over the green prairie, will, I dare say, live in the memories of some of us; but all comes to an end, for on Sunday, the 6th of August, came a messenger from Pah-ni-ne, his horse covered with foam, informing the Superintendent that he would meet him in the valley of Sprague River, fifty miles east of the fort, and so he left; and on the morrow Captain Kelly and a troop of cavalry, for additional security in case of attack, started
    On Monday morning we were off over prairies and meadows and over heavily wooded tracts--forded Williamson's River; then over a ridge until we "struck" Sprague's River, and then along the banks through beautiful green meadows--all lying solitary, or occasionally pastured by a small troop of Indian horses. They are partially overflowed for about a fortnight in the spring, but otherwise are fine grazing grounds. On the way we met Lieutenant McGeurie's detachment returning from Surprise Valley, where they had been escorting a wagon with a saw mill. They had seen no Indians, but gave a glowing account of the prosperity of that valley. Immense trees now began to appear for the first time, and as evening closed in we came to Huntington's camp, thirty miles from the fort. Already a large number of Klamaths from the lake had followed, and were camped, and one of them remarked at the sight of our horse in a sweat that we had been guilty of some little conjugal infidelity last night (such being one of their superstitions), whereat some of our party blushed exceedingly. Next morning found us again on horseback, still along the banks of Sprague's River, through meadows and over barren tracts, covered with sagebrush, from which the prairie chickens flew whirring. Our Indian friends still kept up--now ahead, now in the rear--racing and chasing over the prairie to the utter disregard of their horses' comfort, until we came to the crossing of the river on the trail to Yreka, (Cal.), and there we dismounted and "lit the council fires."
some curious rocky knolls close by the camp we so named in honor of the events which were here transacted. It was in the country of Moshyn-Kas-Kitz (Big Belly), a Klamath chief, and in the evening after we had encamped an Indian having come in, saying that Pah-ni-ne and his men were on the way here, Dr. McKay and some Warm Springs Indians, with a guide, started off to conduct them in and to quiet any fears they might entertain at seeing so many soldiers; and about the same time a messenger arrived from Fort Klamath, with the sad news of the wreck of the Brother Jonathan and the loss of Colonel William Logan, Indian Agent at Warm Springs. His loss will be much felt, and none will more regret him than those whom he so kindly presided over; and among the many homes made sad by the wreck of that steamer none will be sadder than the lodges of Shitac. In memory of him our flag was raised half-mast high.
    It was curious to observe the different groups scattered round the camp and the difference presented by different tribes of Indians--for among no race of savages is there such an essential difference, not only in language and custom, but in personal appearance, character and intelligence; and you worthy Californians who would judge an Indian by the miserable specimens loafing round mining camps, getting particularly drunk on bad whiskey and speaking English with a very immoral vocabulary, would do great injustice to the race generally--for between the different tribes I believe can be found as wide a difference as between different nations of whites. From the tall, athletic Northern Indians about Steken River and Tongas; in the Russian Possessions, and about Fort Simpson, in British Columbia--bold seamen and ingenious mechanics--to the miserable Digger of Nevada--is a wide difference. Between the gracefully made native of Colorado River, the handsome Nez Perces, near the Rocky Mountains, with their thousands of horses, and the Pit River Indian, with his nuts and acorns, is a wide gulf. All have "grit," and show good fight, but there is difference here, too, as well as in honesty and virtue. In an Indian village there is just exactly the same difference of character and disposition as in a village of whites--tricksters, thieves, liars and scoundrels of every degree with their opportunity--all of whom are perfectly well known and are treated accordingly--though unfortunately like the empty nuts that float to the surface, it is the very worst of Indians that come prominently before the public, and it is fully as unjust to judge the whole race by these examples as it would be unfair for a foreigner to judge the American women by the inmates of a house of ill fame, or the intelligence and honesty of the nation by the denizens of the state prison. Different tribes differ also in this respect. You can know little of an Indian without understanding his language perfectly, and to abuse him because his wardrobe is rather dilapidated is merely condemning a man because he has a bad coat on his back. There are certain people who, after seeing some poor devil lounging about some mining town, will tell you knowingly that you "cannot Fenimore Cooper him," but the present writer, after several years' constant travel and intercourse with all sorts of tribes of Indians--good, bad and indifferent--is still able to be "Fenimored." I have heard eloquence from an Indian which would do no disgrace to the Senatorial forum, and none who heard the speech of Lawyer, Chief of Nez Perces to the Indian Commissioners three years ago at Fort Lapwai will be inclined to contradict me. The dire eloquence of Leschi, Chief of Nisqually, is yet fresh in the memory of the sufferers by the Indian war of 1855-'56, when he passed from tribe to tribe, never resting day nor night, inflaming their passions against the whites, painting in such colors as only his imagination could suggest that horrible land to which the "palefaces" would drive his race--where the river flowed mud; where the sun never shone, and where the sting of an insect wounded like the stroke of a spear. These remarks are presented independently of any question regarding civilizing, "chastising" or "exterminating" the race, but only en passant--a sort of "apology" for the Indians, presented on this day of pot-house warriors, "sp'iling for a fight against the Injuns," "b'hoys" who, if you would believe, would eat one "Red" roasted and another raw--with as much diligence as Barclay gave to the world his famous "Apology for the Quakers." I am no "Indian sympathizer," but I would be exceedingly sorry to see the bravery of the Pacific Coast illustrated in the person of a Colonel Chivington, or the ruffian who would shoot an Indian cultivating his farm, merely to see him "jump." We have a few such up here in Oregon, and you have a good number of such heroes in your quarter--verb sap. We had good illustration in our camp of the difference of Indians.
    On one side, under a shelter of willows, sat the Shitacs from Warm Springs Agency--possessing really some very handsome-looking young fellows, and quite rich in horses. Their chief, Pow-is-tam-ini, a noted warrior in days gone by, but now an equally strong friend of his former enemies, possesses in a peculiar degree the typical face of the North American Indian, such as you see in the books on ethnology--dressed in a gaily beaded shirt, leggings and moccasins, a cap of some rare fur, with a dependent wolf's tail and plumes of eagle's feathers, so arranged as to nod at every motion, and with numerous additional pendants of ermine skins, etc.--it was a rather weighty concern. He had on a beautifully embroidered sash, with pouch to match, and when dashing around on horseback, with his long rifle at his saddle-bow, he was really a fine-looking fellow. It was a chief of this tribe, the famous Stock Whitley, who was killed by the Indians last year whilst bravely fighting on the side of the whites. His tomahawk, fire-bag and other articles are now preserved in the Secretary of State's office in Salem. These Shitacs kept apart by themselves, and though they treated them with civility, yet they seemed to have a supreme contempt for the Klamaths, who were a gaily chattering group, and were every way inferior. Many of them were armed with quivers of arrows and bows of Shasta yew. They had very few rifles, and though here and there you might note a good-looking buck, yet they were manifestly inferior in physical appearance to the former. The Klamaths had many of their women with them, and though several of the young ones could not be denied a certain degree of "good-looking"-ness, and one or two even more, yet the horrible custom of blacking part of their face, to keep the sun from skinning it, disfigured them terribly. They were dressed in all kinds of cast-off clothes, and the standing army of Haiti was never clad in a greater variety of costumes than decked Lalake, chief of Klamath, and his band.
    Next day our party was swelled by McCall's command, who camped on the opposite bank of the river, and Lindsay Applegate, Agent, newly appointed, for the Klamaths, Modocs, etc. In the evening Dr. McKay returned after having seen Pah-ni-ne, who treated him kindly and was on the road with some of his picked men but they were mostly on foot, he having eaten (as he said) most of his horses last winter; but it was rather suspected that the old fellow shrewdly thought it was better to leave his horses behind, as possibly some of them might be claimed. He set food before the doctor, and as he explained to him the advantage of being at peace with the whites he remained silent, and subsequently, in desultory conversation, spoke somewhat as follows: "He had fought often and often against the whites, but he was sick of war and wished peace. He was willing to dwell in this pleasant valley. Here my young men can hunt the antelope and catch fish enough--my women can get gammas and kons, and all kinds of roots--none disturbing them. After I fought the soldiers last year, in which your young chief was killed (Lieutenant Watson), I determined never more to fight against the whites and separated from my brother, We-wow-we-wa, and hoped to flee to a country where the white man would never reach me. So I took my horses, my men, my squaws and my children in the direction of the setting sun, and went over the dry country between there and Quesia (Deschutes River), filling deer stomachs with water, for there there is none, and I came to a valley where my men hunted and my women gathered berries, and I thought that the whites had forgot me and that I was safe. But lo! I came back one night to my lodges and the fires were out, my warriors slain, and my women and my little boy had been taken by the great chief, Huntington. My heart was sad, and again I fled, wifeless and childless, poor and hungry, with no food for the winter, with none to dress my deer, with none to make my fire or to cook my food. I was poor after I fought with the whites, for you burnt up my dried meat and my ammunition and took away my horses; but now I was poorer than ever. My people said, 'Let us go to We-wow-we-wa, who had gone to join Hallek at the rising sun, and again band together against the whites; we can be but killed.' But I said no, and all winter I lived by the borders of the lake (Silver Lake), killing my horses for food, and my heart was sad and weary, until the warm day came, but still I hunted and lived poor. You see I have no horses, and how miserable we are. I would not go against the whites, for I was sick of blood and war, and we hunted the elk and the antelope and gathered wocus and gammas, and got trout from the lake, until Huntington's messenger came telling me to come and make peace; but my young men on the hills hunting saw the soldiers were coming and said that they would be killed; but I knew that Huntington never told a lie, and so I came, weary and ashamed, on foot."
    On the morning of the 10th, Dr. McKay rode out to meet Pah-ni-ne, and met him about three miles from camp, in the valley. He was himself on horseback, escorted by a crowd of Klamaths, and far over the plains troops of his people came on foot. He and his people shook hands with the party cordially. There were twenty-three warriors, and five squaws to wait upon them. They were miserably dressed, as they had had no chance to obtain anything from the whites except by plundering. They were wild, savage-looking fellows, painted with red clay and burned red by the sun. Their hair was cut off their foreheads, and hung in long, shaggy locks behind. They were all armed with bows and flint-pointed arrows, and most of them had rifles as well, broken by rough usage, but in very good order. The great chief himself was of rather a hangdog appearance, but a most determined-looking character. The chief next to him had lost an eye in some scuffle, and wore a patch over it. The women were dressed in a long fringed and ornamented buckskin shirt, fastened round the middle, moccasins and leggings, with their hair hanging down into their eyes--though occasionally decorated with combs of pine leaves. All wore moccasins and fringed leggings of dressed antelope skin, with no head cover. Their feet were larger than any other tribe, so that their trail is well known. On the whole, these "chivalry of the desert" were a very savage, determined-looking set, and if the truth must be told, rather dirty and ragged, like certain other "chivalry" we have all heard tell on. He never spoke a word, and understood no jargon. Accompanying was Moshqu-Kas-Kity, the chief of the neighboring territory--a "friendly" chief, though suspected of having traded ammunition to the Snakes, and though not himself concerned in attacks upon the whites, yet acting as a sort of runner for the robbers. Pah-ni-ne dismounted a little outside of the camp, and squatted down with his people without betraying the slightest emotion. They were welcomed by Huntington, and a smoke in silence ensued. His squaw and boy were then brought to him. The boy--bright little fellow of two years--accomplished in lassoing everything about camp and rapidly learning Spanish from an old Greaser in the party, came up in his little beaded buckskin shirt and leggings. The first emotion the Chief had ever displayed was evinced at the sight of his boy. He stretched out his hand for him, but the youngster retreated, affrightened, into his mother's arms. To his wife he made no sign, but, without changing a muscle of his face, he spoke a few words in Snake. The squaw, however, appeared to be glad to see him, though her countenance expressed none of the feelings of her heart. On her approach, Indian fashion, he held down his head and put on an even more careless expression than before. All day long they were the objects of the curiosity of the whole crowd of Klamaths and of the soldiers, who crossed and recrossed the river long after nightfall to have a look at the elephant; and whatever may be our horror at the atrocities of the men, and our desire to see them punished justly, and without barbarism, one cannot help having a sort of sneaking admiration of the pluck of the daredevil rascals who would thus risk the necks which they all knew they had forfeited, in the midst of those to whom they had neither given, nor of whom they had ever asked quarter--trusting to the honor of the whites represented by one man, who bears the grandest of all reputations on the frontier--that of having never told a lie! Certainly it was a little lowering to us to come protected with troops of soldiers, while he came fearless with a score of men! All day he sat smoking, quite unconcerned, and paying no attention to things around him--so new and strange; but his younger men gradually rose and drew around the groups of Klamaths and Shitacs, at the latter of whose fires they were welcomed with a stately welcome by the grand old Chief, Powistamone, their old enemy; and the comfort and wealth of these Indians must have more influenced them in their desire for peace than all the windy arguments of words.
    The morning of the treaty dawned as the days always are at this glorious season of the year, and at 9 a.m. the assembly convened. The Snakes, seated in two semicircles--flanked by the Warm Springs Indians and the Klamaths; seats of flour sacks were arranged for the gentlemen under a shade, and soldiers without arms stood in the background as spectators. All being prepared, Huntington spoke in English. Dr. McKay, assisted by his brother, Donald McKay, translated into Chinook jargon to a Klamath, by whom it was rendered into Snake, and though it may appear somewhat circuitous, yet the rendering appeared perfectly complete and well understood. The following is a literal translation of the speeches on either side from verbatim notes taken at the time:
    Huntington--"I wish to speak with a straight tongue and expect you to do the came. I wish to make known to you what the wishes of your Great Father at Washington are. Your people have been at war with us a long time--eight snows--and are yet at war. In that period you have killed many whites and friendly Indians, and have taken many horses and much of their property; the whites have done the same to you. We are all weary of this, and, therefore, I have invited you here to put a stop to this. Your hearts must tell you by this time that you are not powerful to carry on war with the whites. See how few you are. I sent for you a long time ago; yet not thirty of you came, and I am told that you have not over 200 or 300 in your band. The white people are innumerable. They are more numerous than the grass on this meadow (taking up a handful). You may kill a few hundred of whites, but there are still as many left as before. It is like the grass on this prairie. Burn it up, but it is not gone, for it springs up fresh and plentiful as ever; so it is with the "Bostons," kill them off and others will take their place. Now, what have you got to say? I am willing to listen to you."
    A silence ensued for some minutes, when Pah-ni-ne threw down a paper on the grass. It was the pass of safe conduct which Huntington had sent the fall before. He then said:
    "Last year when you were here you sent me the paper. It did not reach me or my people until after you had reached my camp, captured and killed my people--I have kept your paper to my heart. I remained in the mountains, but I heard of your coming and would have liked to have seen you. I have nothing bad to say; I would like to talk good words to you. I wish to say good. You see my face, and in my face you see my heart. I am not afraid of you, though you have so many soldiers along with you. I wish good. When you return, Great Chief, tell to your people if I have spoken evil. I speak the truth. I wish you to do the same. I wish no other kind of talk. It is as if each of us put down a stake--your stake and my stake--your talk and my talk--let it be lasting--let none tear them up! You have talked to the Chiefs of the Klamaths about friendship, and I have heard it all and taken it to heart. I have not much to say but about one thing, and that is my boy, and I wish to speak strong about it. For the present, I am done."
    Huntington--"Very good; I will now explain to you what is expected of you by your Father at Washington, and what he will do for you.
    "1. I wish to buy your lands and all your country.
    "2. I wish you to remove to this reservation and remain here.
    "3. Whatever prisoners or slaves of whites or friendly Indians you have got, you must deliver up to me; and if either the whites or friendly Indians have got any of your people, they shall be delivered up to you.
    "4. After you remove to this reservation there will be an agent appointed, under whose authority and protection you will be placed.
    "5. You are to stop all war upon the whites or friendly Indians and all plundering whatsoever. If after coming here you commit any depredations whatsoever on persons or property, you will be arrested by the soldiers and punished. If any white man commits any depredations against you, he will be equally punished. In case any bad white man does commit injury upon you, you are not to attempt to take the law into your own hands, but to go to your Agent and lay formal complaint before him, and in the same way, if you commit any injury to the whites, they will seek reparation through the Agent. If any of your people are injured or killed, then the offender will be punished, and if any of your property is stolen, we guarantee that it shall be returned. Last year you are aware that I made a treaty with the Klamaths, providing certain privileges for them, in which, if you come, you shall share. You have a blacksmith and gunsmith, tinsmith, carpenter and wagonmaker, and in addition also a physician, an interpreter, and a person who will teach you how to cultivate the soil. There will also be a school and a person who will teach your children all the knowledge of the white man. All of these things you as well as the Klamaths are to have the benefit of. When you first arrive on this reservation, the government will assist you in opening up farms, and will give you some food until you can raise sufficient for yourselves. But remember, I will not feed you except a little at first. You must raise your own food, as the Shitac Indians do. You will receive some seeds and tools to get a start with, and we will expend for these purposes $4,000" (dollars they seemed to know nothing about)--"and for annuities $2,000 for five years, and $1,200 for ten years longer--not in money, but in goods. I have some presents here for you, but these have nothing to do with the stipulations in the treaty, but are for the present occasion only. You are to come here whenever I send for you, and are not to leave without a pass. Remember, also, that when you make a treaty with the whites you also make a treaty with all friendly Indian tribes, such as the Warm Springs Indians, for whoever are friends of these are friends of the whites, and whoever are friends of the whites are friends of these Indians. I have finished, but I will put all this on paper, which you will sign along with me, when it will be sent to Washington for your Great Father to see."
    Pah-ni-ne--"I can say nothing differently, but intend to be friendly and do what is right. I have nothing to say but what I said before; whatever you have said I will revolve in my heart. I do not wish to send my mouth wandering around talking about everything. Your sending back my little son went like a messenger to my heart, and what evil I intended to have said, the sight of him has killed it all. These people have come expecting bad, but report to your Great Chief at Washington if I have spoken evil. Now my people have heard what I have to say. If your heart is to retain any of my people who have been taken away, I expect you will bring them."
    Huntington--"Why I wish you to come in just now is that travelers from California and other places, not knowing that you have made peace, will kill you. Near the fort there is plenty of fish, and you shall have some flour. Again, if you buy whiskey or drink it, you will forfeit your portion of the annuity for that year, and if you get any arms or ammunition and trade them to any Snakes who may be yet in arms, you will forfeit your annuity and be punished."
    The Council then arose. That afternoon, in obedience to a message of Huntington's, a large number of Klamath men, women and children arrived on horseback from every direction--some of the women's horses being gaily decked with beadwork harness, "where the carcass is, etc., etc.;" at the same time another Major and the Doctor from the Fort. An ox was killed and merriment ensued--and long after I had returned to my tent was the dancing and songs, with their warlike chant, heard as they serenaded each camp. Careless, happy set of devils! Off in the morning, not thinking where they are to sleep at night, or where they are going. On their horses in the morning and travel until dark, light a fire with two flint arrows, really ignorant of Internal Revenue stamps, eat a few grasshoppers and into their blankets or old deerskins, and so for a thousand miles. They have none of the horrors of an assessment roll before them, and the depreciation of the currency is naught to them. An independent race are these roving vagabonds, neither troubled with income tax, nor yet with house rent. Politics, forsooth, they have, and though in the good old times they had a hereditary limited monarchy with a broad tinge of the doctrine of might is right, yet since the advent of the republicans their Chiefs are, in many tribes, elected--and there is displayed as much chicanery and political engineering as was ever perpetrated in the memorable contests of the Long and Short Hairs.
    The treaty was then signed by: On the part of the United States. "J. W. Perit Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon," and by Pah-ni-ne, Han-ni-noo-ey, Ki-nun-ney, Wa-ak-chan, Chok-ko-si, She-the, Che-em-ma, Now-hoop-a-cowick, Ke-po-weit-ka, Han-ne or Shas-took, Sah-too-too-we, Chiefs and Headmen of the Woll-pah-pe tribe of Snake Indians, acting on behalf and by authority of said tribe.
    Quarrels they have among themselves, and bitter ones, over the division of their plunder, and certain infidelities of their spouses is a subject of continual heart-burnings; but they are, unfortunately, as the divorce courts show, not alone in this. Chivalry they are, forsooth, as Chivs go nowadays dirty, ragged, and not over-honorable, like certain brothers over the Rocky Mountains; and, moreover, rather given unto loot. But these are venial offenses in these latter days.
    An Indian comes down to the river where I am drinking, and asks me to pour a little water among his cup of parched pond lily seeds. He stirs it up with his finger, and, never moving from the river side, finishes his frugal supper, remarking, as he washed it down with a drink of water: "Hyas kloosh-muckamuck." Mighty good grub! Easy, lousy, improvident, happy set of vagabonds!
    Bright and early were they together next morning to receive their presents of blankets, shirts, trousers, calico, beads and butcher knives, with the inevitable tobacco added in. Huntington gave them a few parting words of advice and caution, and told Pah-ni-ne that he wished a messenger sent to Hallek and We-wow-we-wa, the other two Snake chiefs who were still at war, to come into a treaty, and if they came to the fort none should harm them, and that on the soldier chief then sending word to them he should travel here again to meet them. Pah-ni-ne then replied: "As soon as I get back to my lodges I will send a messenger to Hallek and We-wow-we-wa, telling them how good you have treated me, and to show you my heart is now good to you and the Warm Springs Indians. I will only take two suns to reach We-wow-we-wa and Hallek's camps. They are by the Iron Mountain, near Harney's Lake, and in that vicinity. Over their mind and mine was the same impression, and on hearing from me they will come right in and make peace. I would like a pass for my messenger in case he should meet whites, and also one for Hallek and We-wow-we-wa. I don't know where they will meet you--whether here or at Crooked River."
    Mr. Huntington--"I will give you a pass to go there and back for half a moon. After that time it will be worthless, and yon will be shot down like a wolf on the prairie. I will meet them either here or on Crooked River. Let them say which place."
    He was then dismissed. Next came old Schonchin, chief of Modocs, once a noted enemy of the whites, but now as fast a friend. The first year he went against the whites he thought to kill off all the Boston tribe; the second year he thought he would scarcely do it, but the third year the whites were more numerous than ever, and he had lost fifty of his warriors and so he stopped. His tribe, however, though at peace with the whites, wish still to keep their lands and live as they used to do, and on account of Schonchin taking an opposite view they have deposed the old man. An Indian from his tribe came into the fort the other day. The Major asked him to stop until Huntington arrived and he should have food, but he replied: "No! I am friendly to the white men; but I wish none of their presents and none of their food. My horse is weary, I am poor, and I have tasted nothing since yesterday, but I want nothing from you." And he rode off and bought food from the Klamaths. The old man was firm and intelligent-looking, and spoke very shortly. He said he came, though he came alone: "When you first came here you took me by the hand quite different from the other white men, and since then I have built you a lodge in my heart, and all your advice has taken root firm as a stake in the ground." Huntington promised that he should be supported in his office against all usurpers. Lalake, Chief of Klamaths, then made a long and dreary speech, complaining that he could not govern his people, that they would not obey him, and so on, asking Huntington to make laws for this and laws for that. Huntington give him some sound advice and a sound raking for the tragedy committed on the Snakes, and a warning in future. Lalake, their Chief, always preaches peace. He is not the war chief, and is altogether a mild sort of cuss, continually requiring his back stiffened to be any chief at all. His speech was full of growling against the whites, fear of whiskey being brought into his tribe, and altogether was full of complaints, and much too long and too uninteresting to give in full. Then were the presents distributed by the Chief, when a jolly row ensued. It was confined to words just then, but one lone individual, standing on the back of a horse, the better to command the crowd, shrieked out at the top of his voice that this was not yet ended with words, but that he had plenty of powder and balls at home, and he would see if he was to be treated thus. He had only received a fish hook as his share of the plunder! and was very properly indignant. More cattle were killed, dancing and singing all night long, and, on the whole, the treaty wound up in a very saltatorial bender.
    A very general belief seems to prevail that treaties of "lasting friendship and amity" with Indians seems pretty much like all other treaties, only to be made to be broken, and many no doubt declare that this will share the fate of many others--no sooner made than broken. There seems good reason to believe differently, and certainly none of those who saw and heard how earnestly he begged "to say good things" could ever doubt the intentions of Pah-ni-ne, and it has ever been found, as the whites were the first to create the disturbances which have led to Indian wars, so they have been amongst the first to break these treaties, and among a rough set of frontier men such is the determined opposition to everything Indian, that it will require the most strenuous efforts upon the part of the Agent to prevent whites passing through their country from committing outrages; and once let an Indian who has come into this treaty be killed, and little security can be held for its observance. It may, perhaps, appear maudlin sympathy to thus advocate leniency and justice in the eyes of men who have suffered by the depredations of Indians, but when we remember the horrible cruelties perpetrated by men bearing the name of Christians, in Oregon and California, during the last ten years, it may appear that they have an equal catalogue of wrongs on their part. "Extermination--let it be the shibboleth of every Indian fighter," howls a mountain editor! Easier said than done. Whenever we have attempted to "exterminate" a tribe, we know what a long talk there was about what blood it cost. If we can accomplish by fair means what force cannot do, then by all means let us try. There seems every reason to believe that Hallek and We-wow-we-wa, now that their former colleague has declared peace, will come in, and, once on a reservation, under the eye of the military, the inducements to keep peace are greater than to make war. We must still remember that they are savages, ignorant of the power of the whites, and with imaginary fears of the whites' treatment of them. Even after all the braves are at peace, a few renegade desperadoes will still be at large, but these will be easily coped with, and then comes, on the whole, a fair prospect of peace in Oregon and Idaho within the next three months. If so, it will be a lasting benefit to the whole coast, and a vote of thanks will be due to the much-abused Indian Department.
    The morning of the 14th of August found all astir and packing up for every point of the compass, for the famous conclave was at an end, the United States had added one more to her many bonds of "lasting friendship and amity," and by eight o'clock all were on their various paths. Lieutenant McCall & "Co." were off with Pengra in the direction of Owyhee, with a guard furnished by Pah-ni-ne; Captain Kelly, with Odell, south of their track; while Lieutenant Applegate and Huntington, with your correspondent, took the back track to the fort, thence again to separate--Huntington for the Dalles, and another party, led by that sturdy old pioneer, Lindsay Applegate, for the white settlements in Rogue River Valley, on the other side of the mountains, one hundred and seventy weary miles. As for the Indians, they dispersed in every direction, and all day long, as we spurred through the valleys and over the ridges, we passed little troops returning to their different camps. Never did these quiet haunts resound with the bon jours of such a "righte goodlie companie."
    As for Pah-ni-ne, he was off to Silver Lake amongst the first there to tell his people the tidings of peace, and to prepare to come on the reservation. His messenger to Hallek and We-wow-we-wa was off at break of day, and God speed him on his errand of peace. It is right easy to be a savage when you have got your regular clean shirts and paper collars in the morning, with the Sacramento Union to discuss during breakfast, but when your shirts are getting rather ragged, your scalp lock appearing by an orifice at the crown if your hat, and your boots given way to moccasins, with a likelihood of these, in their turn, giving place to your naked feet--a kind of attire which, however romantic and apostolic, is not very pleasant to buckle Mexican spurs upon--so we thought it better to say goodbye to the Major and doff the remaining of our sombrero to the fair ladles of Fort Klamath and seek civilization once more. In this wise, Wednesday, the 16th, found us (that is, Lindsay Applegate, your correspondent, and Captain Irvin Applegate, Lieutenant Beeson and Baldwin, three gentlemen of Southern Oregon, whom we met at the fort), camped at Rattlesnake Bluffs on the Klamath Lake; the 17th took on Lieutenant River, and we camped on the Klamath River, a little north of the California boundary line. On the 18th we left the Klamath, to wander through Klamath, Mendocino and Del Norte, and struck through the mountains by a new pass until we came upon the emigrant road, camping on the confines of civilization. On the 19th we entered Rogue River Valley, halted to drink at the Soda Springs (to the horror of certain damsels out on a "sparkin'" drive from Jacksonville), and then through farms and apple orchards breaking down with fruit. It seems to us, from the sagebrush, to be a new world when clusters of grapes hang in the oak trees. This homeward journey would make a very pretty chapter, no doubt, but your readers will be satiated enough with the Snake Treaty at Gasburg (so named from a "gassy" hotel-keeper--its former name was not so euphonious). Everybody was down with fever and ague; even the pigs ran shaking about the one street, and occupied their sane moments in purloining each others' watermelons. Indeed, one hospitable gentleman from "Rough and Ready" diggings proposed to go partnership in a transaction of that nature, but was surprised when informed that I was "not on it." Monday night brought me, the "solitary horseman" of all the gallant company that left Eugene City a month ago, to Jacksonville, there to sleep once more in a bed! with the trellised vines of Madame Jeanne DeRoboam peering in through the windows; wondering when we shall again have such a trip and such a party as those who joined in the wild journey to and from the "Snake Treaty" in Oregon.
Sacramento Daily Union, September 2, 1865, page 1




Mr. J. W. P. Huntington
    Supt. of Indian Affairs
        Sir,
            I have the honor to return herewith Col. Drew's letter of the 24th in 1865 Hon. Mr. Nesmith, referred to me by you at the time of your last visit to this post.
    The claim of Mr. Anderson is a just one, and embraces the account for fresh beef that I have already sent to you. The beef was issued not only to George's band, who are entirely without foot and whose chief was taken care of by Col. Drew, by hanging him near Jacksonville because he refused to come to this country to starve, but it was issued to a great many others who were in as much need and who must have died of starvation had they not have been partially fed with the beef issued.
    I respectfully recommend that the account be paid by the Indian Department, and I certify on honor that I had no interest directly or indirectly in any of the said issues made to the Indians.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 49.



Sir
    Your official bond duly executed, with the sufficiency of the sureties duly certified by the judges of the U.S. Circuit Court, and having your oath of office attached, has been received at this office and will be transmitted to the Department at Washington.
    Your commission is herewith enclosed, and upon its receipt you will be authorized to act in official capacity, governed by the laws [and] regulations of the Indian Department and the instructions which you will from time to time receive from this office. Your compensation will be at the rate of $1000 per year to commence from the date of this.
    For the present you will not be authorized to incur any expense (except necessary traveling expenses) beyond the salary of interpreter. You will appoint a suitable person to that place at a salary of $500.00 per year and cause him to take the oath of allegiance before entering upon his duties. This office must be advised of the date of his appointment.
    A schedule of certain property formerly in the possession of Sub-Agent Amos E. Rogers, now in keeping of [blank] Holbrook for me, is enclosed. You will forthwith obtain the property from Mr. Holbrook, take the same into possession and account for it in your property return. Blank receipts for your signature covering this property and that left for you at Fort Klamath are herewith enclosed. You will sign them and return to this office without delay.
    You are assigned to duty in the Klamath and Rogue River region, it being expected that the Klamath [and] Modoc tribes, the several bands of Snakes and the small number of Indians, stragglers and others who are lurking about the mountains of Jackson and Josephine counties.
    This office is well advised of the condition of the Klamath, Modoc and Snake tribes, down to dates as late as August 15th, but of the other Indians mentioned, and of all of them subsequent to the date mentioned, information is desired. You are therefore directed to make at as early a day as possible a full report of the condition of affairs, coupled with such recommendations and suggestions as you may think proper.
    Blank forms for your accounts will be sent in due time, and instructions sufficient to enable you to complete your returns.
    Stationery from this office will be furnished upon your requisition.
Lindsay Applegate
    U.S. Indian Sub-Agent
        Ashland
            Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-187  3, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, pages 710-711.




Sir
    My annual report for this year is herewith submitted.
    The Indians of this Superintendency may be properly divided into two classes:
    1st. Those which have been collected upon reservations, are controlled by the government under the supervision of agents, receive annuities and other benefits from appropriations, and are making more or less progress in agriculture and civilization.
    2d. Those who are hostile to the whites, retain their savage habits and mode of life, and are not controlled by agents.
    The first class number 5571, located at the agencies designated as Umatilla, Warm Springs, Grand Ronde, Siletz and Alsea. The Statement of Tribes of Indians in Oregon, which is herewith transmitted, marked "A," shows the number of each tribe as well as the total at each agency, the name of the agent or sub-agent under whose management they are, the amount of money appropriated for their benefit per capita, and some other interesting particulars concerning them. The reports of the several agents and subordinates which accompany this report give details of their conditions, which it is unnecessary to repeat here, and I shall confine myself to a few general remarks upon each agency and some statements and suggestions applicable to all of them.
    The reservation for the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla tribes is a fertile tract of land well adapted for grazing, and parts of it of superior fertility.
    It has the advantage of proximity to extensive white settlements of miners and others, and the consequent ready and profitable market for produce and domestic animals.
    Its disadvantages are the frequent and constant intercourse of the Indians with the whites, and tendency to dissipation and debauchery which results therefrom.
    The progress made in agriculture in the three years during which I have had supervision of them has been most commendable. The crops which I saw during my visit there in the early part of this month were, many of them, such as no white farmer need be ashamed of, and each year increases the breadth of land in cultivation.
    In conversation with the Indians a desire for agricultural implements and facilities, in preference to the goods usually distributed as annuities, was uniformly expressed. The great want of the mills provided by the treaty will be supplied by another year (the appropriation made by the last Congress for that purpose being now in process of expenditure), and I am gratified to be able to report that the work is being done in a thorough and substantial manner.
    When the mills are complete, there is no reason why this colony of Indians may not become thrifty and prosperous. They own large numbers of horses and some cattle, which subsist on the natural herbage of the country and find a ready sale to the travelers and miners in the vicinity.
    Details of the numbers, value &c. of their domestic animals, as well [as] of their crops for 1864, are given in the "Consolidated Return of Farming," marked "B," herewith submitted.
    The late Agent William Logan, who was in charge of this agency, perished on the steamer Brother Jonathan, which was lost on the 30th of July last between San Francisco and Portland.
    The vacancy thus created has not yet been supplied, and there is therefore no agent's report for this year, but the reports of the several employees give a satisfactory account of the operations there, which I am enabled to confirm by personal observation. The crops are not so good as last year, partly because of severe drought, no rain having fallen from March until August, and partly in consequence of the ravages of grasshoppers.
    These insects appear to be identical with the locusts of Egypt, and return in countless myriads at intervals of several years. When they come they destroy the vegetation of large districts with a suddenness and completeness quite incredible to those who have not witnessed it. When I passed the agency in July, en route to the Snake country, a field near the agency of nearly thirty acres attracted my notice as promising a good yield of wheat. Upon my return the crops had been harvested by the insects, leaving the ground as bare as a barn floor. The loss was total.
    The crops on other parts of the agency suffered, some much and others little, but enough has been secured for the subsistence of the Indians the coming winter. There being no miller and sawyer employed then at the time the reports of the employees were submitted, no account of the production of lumber &c. is given.
    The sawmill has been run a large part of the time and a large amount of lumber made. I estimate it at 25,000 or 30,000 feet, which has been used by the Indians for building and fencing purposes, and for repairs and erection of agency buildings.
    The flouring mill has ground all the grain of the Indians. The mills are the best in the Superintendency, and are admirably adapted to the purpose for which they were designed.
    The Indians own horses and cattle, but in less number than those at Umatilla, and their horses are much inferior, but they manifest great desire to accumulate property of this sort, and the abundant bunchgrass of their reservation is ample for their maintenance. Particulars of their stock and agricultural productions are given in the "Consolidated Return of Farming," before referred to.
    The permission which was incorporated into the treaty 25th of June 1855 with these Indians, which permits them to hunt, fish, gather roots, berries &c. upon lands outside the reservation, is not only unfortunate because it gives the Indians access to white settlements, but it is the greatest obstacle in the way of their civilization. They will often labor industriously to put in a crop, and then prolong a trip to the fisheries on the Columbia River, or to the Cascade Mountains for berries and game, until the whole product is destroyed.
    The school for the same reason is rendered nearly useless, and the Indians while near the white settlements become so enfeebled and demoralized by dissipation and debauchery that they are unfit for labor when they return to the reservation.
    The last Congress made an appropriation for a supplemental treaty with them, which was placed in my hands last spring. I had made arrangements to meet the Indians upon my return from the Snake country in August, but the death of Agent Logan so disarranged affairs that I thought best to defer it. The Indians are very reluctant to surrender the right, and I am by no means sure that they can be induced to do it at all. I intend to make the attempt in the early part of next month and will report upon the subject when the result is known. '
    The death of Agent Logan, and the manner of it, made a deep impression upon these Indians. When among them I was met with a universal expression of sorrow for the loss thus sustained, and respect for his memory. His long acquaintance with them made him familiar with their character and wants, while the even-handed justice with which he arbitrated their disputes, punished their misdeeds and distributed such favors he was enabled, was uniformly acknowledged.
    His loss is a calamity to the government as well as to the Indians, and his place will be difficult to fill. Long and intimate personal acquaintance gave me high appreciation of his character and virtues, and I regret that the willing tribute I could pay to his sterling worth is not appropriate in such a paper as this.
    The Indians collected at this agency (which is located upon a small addition to the Coast Reservation) are those which have been longest in intercourse with whites, and have therefore acquired more of the vices and virtues of civilization. They are tractable and peaceable, live nearly altogether in houses--some having very good ones--and depend mainly upon the cultivation of the soil for subsistence.
    Some of the more thrifty and enterprising live very much as their white neighbors do, well housed, well clad, well fed, and often have produce to sell, have good fences and thrifty young orchards &c. &c. Others are vagabond, who beg and steal, or prostitute their women rather than work. Then there are all intermediate grades. But there is a proneness to whiskey drinking, debauchery and idleness among them, greater than with Indians who have lived more remote.
    They own a few horses and cattle and have a laudable ambition to increase their property of this sort, which of late has been pretty rapidly gratified.
    The mill dams here are much out of repair--as indeed are all the agency buildings.
    I recommend an appropriation of one thousand dollars to put them in good repair during the coming summer.‘
    A fishery has been established on the‘coast at the mouth of Salmon River for the benefit of this agency. A road to it has been constructed, a small seine and other fixtures purchased, and an abundance of salmon as well as other fish of good quality are easily obtained. The effect is very good in removing one great inducement which has existed to the Indians to straggle off, that is, the absence of fish at the agency, and the ease with which an abundance of them can be caught on the Willamette and other rivers. A reference to the "Statement of Indian Tribes" and the "Consolidated Return of Farming," before referred to, will give additional information concerning this agency.
    The tribes here, although not parties to any treaty, and having but very meager appropriations expended for their benefit, have made excellent progress in agriculture, and their location is rapidly assuming a partially civilized appearance. The number located here is double that at any other reservation, but only a very small part of them draw any annuities or have ever had any money appropriated for their benefit.
    The salaries of the few employees in the service there, and the other expenses of the agency, have been mainly met from the fund appropriated for removal and subsistence of Indians not parties to any treaty. The want of means has crippled the agency much, especially in the lack of farming implements and teams, those on hand being mainly so worn out as to be nearly useless.
    The sawmill erected by Agent Simpson in 1863 is in good condition, and capable of producing lumber enough for the present wants of all the Indians, but the grist mill has never been of any use. It was erected several years ago, at a large cost, in an unsuitable location, and has since been so damaged by flood as to require rebuilding before it can be used.
    The burrs and irons are of the best quality, and I have recently directed Agent Simpson to have them taken care of, but a new building must be built, and prudence as well as convenience require that a new site should be selected. My previous reports, and those of my predecessors, have called attention to the non-ratification of the treaty of 1855 made with the tribes now located here and at Alsea.
    The same discontent exists now as heretofore, and indeed is increasing. It is often aggravated by the interference of designing persons who tell the Indians that they have no treaty, that the government is neglecting them, while it treats other tribes so much better, and advise them to leave for their own country. This advice is sometimes followed, and would he oftener were it not for the vigilance of the agent.
    I repeat my former recommendation that the treaty of 1855 be ratified or a new one authorized, and I also recommend an appropriation of ($4000) four thousand dollars to rebuild the grist mill, and one of five thousand dollars ($5000) to be expended in the purchase of teams, agricultural implements and seeds.
    This agency is small in number of Indians, the extent of its operations and the amount of money expended there. The Indians like those at Siletz were parties to the unratified treaty of 1855, and the same apprehension exists among them of removal.
    They have made some progress in farming, but less than at other reservations, and derive a large part of their subsistence from fish, of which a great abundance are easily taken. Some course in relation to them should be determined on without delay. If they are to be removed to another location, the sooner it is to be done the better. If they are to remain permanently where they now are, they ought to be advised of that intention, and assisted to make homes for themselves that will be attractive. Their location has plenty of fertile land, is not likely to attract the cupidity of the whites, and consequently be liable to encroachment.
    The only objection that I see to allowing them to remain is the expense of keeping up a separate agency, when, if they were taken to Siletz, the whole expense of Alsea would be avoided.
    The number of schools in the Superintendency is five, located one at Umatilla, one at Warm Springs, two at Grand Ronde and one at Siletz. The last named and one of those at Grand Ronde are kept upon what is known as the " manual labor plan."
    The others are "day schools." The testimony of agents and teachers, as well as of other persons who have opportunities of judging, is uniform in confirmation of the opinion expressed in my previous reports that manual labor schools alone are likely to produce any beneficial results among the Indians. It is usually quite impossible to secure that regularity of attendance on the part of children which is essential to the success of day schools, and even if this is attained, the good influence of a few hours' attendance in the day is counteracted by the greater length of time they are associated with their savage parents,
    Education of Indians in Oregon and Washington was first attempted by missionaries of various religious denominations more than thirty years ago, and it has been prosecuted by them, by teachers employed by the government and by others ever since. The teachers may some of them have been inefficient or incompetent, but the majority have been devoted, zealous men and women, often inspired by a lofty determination to give their lives to a noble work. Presbyterians and Methodists, Roman Catholics and non-professors have vied with each other, and the result has been not one Christianized or an educated Indian is to be found.
    There are one or two instances of Indians who have been taken to the eastern states, and there, cut off from their savage associations, some learning has been instilled into them, and they have perhaps imbibed some of the truths of Christianity. But these instances are rare, and I do not think one can be found in this Superintendency (outside of the lately established manual labor schools) who can read as well as the average of the six-year-old boys in the Atlantic States. These facts indicate a radical error in the plan adopted. In my judgment the mistake is in supposing the savage mind capable of comprehending or containing--not alone the exalted teachings of divinity, the abstruse subtleties of theology, or the pure morality of the Bible--but the lesser ethics which children of enlightened society imbibe unconsciously with their mother's milk, and teach each other with infantile prattle. These things to us are trivial and insignificant. The grown-up savage can easier be taught the differential calculus than brought to a faint conception of them.
    The first efforts with an Indian child should be through the stomach--give him plenty of wholesome, nutritious food. Then let him be warmly clad. The next step is to teach him to labor, instill habits of industry, and associate him with industrious people. He may then be approached cautiously with books. Such a system, carried out with patient labor and with earnest energy, can be made to improve and elevate the race. Reverse it, and put the book in use at the beginning, and the result will not only be useless--it will be absolutely pernicious.
    In a word, the hoe and the broadaxe will sooner civilize and Christianize them than the spelling book and the Bible.
    The manual labor schools at Grand Ronde and Siletz have produced good results and promise better in future. The scholars are kept in an enclosure six days in the week, cultivate a small tract of land, the boys performing that labor and the girls needlework, housework &c. and at the same time due attention is given to elementary studies.
    I have several times received tolerable specimens of penmanship from scholars of both these schools.
    I again recommend such legislation as will convert all the schools in the Superintendency into manual labor institutions, and urge upon you a careful consideration of this subject.
    There is a constant tendency to encroach upon reservations by whites, arising sometimes from widely different motives. Often it is some vagabond white who wants to make a furtive living by stealing on the credit of the Indians, or by illicit traffic in whiskey or other contraband pursuits. Sometimes the advance of population, the discovery of some new route of travel, rich mineral deposit, valuable fishery or good harbor, makes the land reserved suddenly valuable, and cupidity overcomes respect for the law or regard for the rights of the Indians. Oftener, perhaps, than either one, the attraction is the mere fact that the imaginary line which is made the boundary says to the adventurous seeker after a new home, "Thus far shalt thou go," &c., and the same motive which induced our first parents to eat of the one tree in preference to any other, forthwith magnifies the value of the forbidden tract a thousandfold.
    The agents are constantly coming into controversy with these interlopers, and sometimes the aid of [the] military is invoked in support of the law.
    Much acrimonious feeling is thus unavoidably engendered among whites, and the Indians are constantly harassed with the apprehension that their last home is to be taken from them. An obvious cause of this aggressive disposition on the part of citizens, most of whom in all else are law-abiding, is the frequent concessions which have heretofore been made to the universal greed for new land. The remedy is plainly such legislation as will determine the policy of the government and assure the Indians of protection and deter aggressors.
    My report for 1864 gave a brief account of the attempts to settle in the vicinity of Yaquina Bay upon the Coast Reservation. At a late date I was called upon by the Hon. J. P. Usher, Sec. of the Interior, for a full report upon the subject, which was furnished under date of Dec. 12th 1864. A copy of this report marked "C" is herewith transmitted, and I respectfully ask that it be printed with the present report and considered a part of it.
    The litigation commenced by the intruding parties was decided in favor of the agent in the court of the 2nd judicial district of this state, and upon appeal to the Supreme Court that decision was sustained. To the suggestions as to the propriety of surrendering a part of the reservation to settlement, I invite your careful attention. The boundary between the part surrendered (if any) and the part between, continued in reserve, should be determined by actual examination and survey. I recommend that the Superintendent and the agents at Siletz and Alsea be authorized to determine and survey the same, and that an appropriation of five hundred dollars to defray to pay the expenses thereof be made.
    The second class of Indians referred to are estimated at 4900 souls, nearly all of whom live in the country east of the Cascade Mountains and south of the Blue Mountains. They are the Klamaths, Modocs and the several subtribes of Snakes known as Yah-hoos-kin, Wal-pal-pe, Wah-tat-kin, I-uke-spi-ule, and Hoo-ne-boo-ey. Congress having made an appropriation for treating with and subduing these Indians, I proceeded last October, under instructions from your office, to make a treaty with the Klamaths, Modocs and Yahooskin Snakes. This object was attained, and a full account of the expedition was transmitted to your office in my letter of 10th December last. A copy of that letter is hereto appended, marked "D," made a part of this report, and I hope will be printed with it.
    Last June, acting under further instructions from your office, I proceeded to the Snake country, designing to consummate a treaty with such of the Snake Indians as could be reached. Two of the women and one of the children captured in the previous expedition were taken along under guard, the other woman and child being left, too sick to travel, at Warm Springs, and through them and the partially friendly Klamaths I got in communication with Paulina, or Pah-ni-nee, chief of the Wal-pah-pe Snakes, and after a few days' conference, during which I had no small difficulty in overcoming their fear of just retribution for their barbarous and long-continued war upon the whites, the treaty was agreed upon, committed to writing, and duly signed. The treaty was transmitted to your office on the 1st September inst. It will be found upon examination to call for the expenditure of a very small amount of money when ratified.
    Indeed, it is mainly an addendum to the treaty of 15th October 1864 with the Klamaths and Modocs, bringing the Wal-pah-pe tribe onto the same reservation, giving them partial benefit of the same employees and buildings, the only additional expenditure being the moderate sum stipulated for establishing them in their new home and the small annuity to be given them. Indeed, the two treaties taken together will be found to include a greater number of Indians, cede a larger extent of territory, and anticipate smaller expenditure than any other treaties ever negotiated in this region. I earnestly recommend their ratification, and trust you will endorse this recommendation to the Senate.
    The several tribes of Snake Indians have never been friendly with the whites, but their hostility cannot be said to have been systematic and determined until within the last eight or nine years.
    The amount of property destroyed and the number of lives taken by them in that time has been enormous. A partial "List of Depredations" committed by them has been compiled from the newspapers of the state and other sources and is herewith submitted, marked "E." This does not probably include all of their depredations upon the whites. Besides these are several raids made upon the Warm Springs Reservation, in which large amounts of stock have been stolen and many lives taken.
    In one of these attacks made in 1859, Agent Dennison being then in charge, the Snakes stole a large number of horses, variously stated at from 500 to 700, and all the cattle of both Indians and Department. But a small part was ever recovered.
    Numerous military expeditions have been sent against them, but the nature of their country, their nomadic habits and fierce character gave the Indians such advantage that it is no exaggeration to say that ten good soldiers are required to wage successful war against one Indian. Every Indian killed or captured by the military has cost the government fifty thousand dollars at least.
    Economy, then, indicates that it is much cheaper to feed them than to fight them.
    Once settled upon the Klamath Reservation the Wal-pah-pe tribe will be the means of bringing all the others in. Indeed, Paulina is the war chief--the recognized leader in all their warlike expeditions.
    His submission will soon no doubt be followed by that of Howluck and Weahwewa, and with them the last of the hostile bands.
    I confidently expect to be able to treat with all of them without any additional appropriations.
    In negotiating these treaties, and in traveling through the hostile country I frequently found it necessary to call upon the military authorities for assistance, and it gave me pleasure to say that they were uniformly ready to extend such aid as was necessary. Gen. B. Alvord, Col. G. B. Currey, Major W. V. Rinehart, Capt. Wm. Kelly and Lieutenants Halloran, Applegate [and] Underwood all responded cheerfully to such demands as I made.
    The business of the last fifteen years has accumulated a large amount of official papers and records in this office, which are liable to loss in case of the destruction by fire of the building containing them. Their loss would be a public calamity. Besides, there is often a considerable amount of public funds deposited in the office.
    The iron safe now in the office is too small to contain a fifth part of the books and papers, and besides is very old and insecure. In case of fire, its contents would almost certainly be consumed. A new one should be purchased large enough to hold all the records, and I respectfully recommend an appropriation of an amount suitable for that purpose.     It is due to the agents and employees of the Superintendency to say that they have generally discharged their duties efficiently and faithfully. Their reports, which accompany this, will confirm what I say and give further information upon the subjects referred to by me. Hon. D. N. Cooley
    Commissioner &c.
        Washington D.C.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, pages 711-721.



    Sir    I send you enclosed the carpenter, sawyer and farmer's report and four specimens of boys' writing. When I got here on Monday evening the school was dismissed for a week and the scholars scattered, and as the threshers came on Tuesday we have all been busy trying to secure the wheat. I have seen but those four scholars, and they wrote what they did on the back of a book on the ground. I will see hereafter that you will have specimens of their writing with each annual report.
    We had heavy rain yesterday and last night, but today looks favorable for any weather. The wheat is considerably injured, but we are all doing all we can to save it as well as possible.
    I think I will be over next week.
J. W. P. Huntington Supt. Ind. Affairs
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 36.




Gentlemen
    Your bids for furnishing flour to the Indian Department at Fort Klamath, being the lowest, is accepted.
    Contracts in duplicate are herewith transmitted for your execution. The price as proposed by you in coin has been converted into legal tender at present rates. It is expected that the "shorts" will be the article known in Oregon under that name, and in the eastern stats as "middling," and that it will be of good quality.
John S. Drum
Alexander Martin
    Jacksonville
        Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 723.



J. W. P. Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        for Oregon
            Salem Oregon
Sir:    Enclosed herewith I have the honor to transmit for your information a letter from Mr. Steele of Yreka, Cal. relating to the Modoc Indians. I attach no importance to the letter myself, but you may regard it differently. Mo-shen-koska came in a few days ago and reported that Howluck and some of his tribe were within two days' ride of his camp and that Howluck was anxious to see you and make a treaty.
    I sent Mo-shen-koska to bring Howluck to see me. They have not yet returned.
    I can get no definite information from Paulina. Capt. Kelly killed one of Weahwewa's Indians near Warner's Mountain while he was escorting Mr. Pengra, and Mo-shen-koska reports that Capt. Sprague's men fired at a party in the same vicinity two weeks later. He says the Indians do not know what to think of this. I tried to explain to him that although you had invited them to come in and make peace, until they did come or send someone to say they would come, the soldiers did not know their hearts and must look upon them as enemies.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 51.



Sir
    Your letter enclosing a copy of one from the Vicar General proposing to establish a school at this agency under the control of Sisters of Jesus and Mary was duly received. In it you ask me to state whether in my judgment it would be an advantage to the Indians and service to sanction the proposed measure.
    In answer I do not think such a school would be of much benefit to the Indians. What they need is practical teachers of all the ordinary labors of farm life together with the common branches of an English education, which I think is much better understood and taught by teachers that have spent their lives on a farm than by those who have spent theirs in cloister. So far as my observation has extended, Catholic schools in Protestant communities are mostly confined to literary and fashionable attainments instead of the practicable matters of common life, and from the best information I have been able to obtain, the Indian schools on this coast under the charge of Catholic teachers--while they have succeeded [in] inculcating the peculiar dogmas of popery on the minds of their pupils and making them familiar with the routine of church ceremony, they have as a general thing had very poor success in developing the intellect and forming a sound moral character, and they have almost entirely failed in giving them a knowledge of the common branches of an English education.
    Another objection to Roman Catholic teachers is they are all either priests or nuns, setting no practicable example of married life, a matter in which the Indian needs to be educated in--both by example and precept--as many of their difficulties and troubles occur for want of properly understanding the duties and responsibilities of the conjugal state, also another objection is the exclusive nature of their religion, holding and teaching that all who do not conform to their notions and ceremony are not only in error but sure of eternal damnation. With these ideas instilled into the mind of the Indian, what agent or employee can expect to secure their good will or exert a healthy and beneficial influence over them unless he be of the Catholic faith, and we have had practical illustration of this on this agency. Mr. Croquet, the Catholic priest, who [was] here part of the time, has been telling the Indians that if they had the school they would do much better by them and that if any of the children who are attending the present school should die they would go to the "bad place" &c. &c., at least as the Indians say, and give this as a reason why they are afraid to let their children attend. The fact is I have found that nothing but evil has heretofore resulted from what little connection the priests have had with the Indians under my charge and instead of recommending that they be appointed as teachers I would much sooner think of asking for authority to keep them away from the reservation altogether.
Hon. J. W. Perit Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        Salem
            Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 43.



Sir
    I have the honor to transmit herewith the official bonds of Lindsay Applegate, sub-Indian agent, and of Wm. H. Barnhart, Indian agent. They will be found upon examination to have been properly executed, and the sufficiency of the sureties is duly certified by the judge of the U.S. District Court.
Hon. D. N. Cooley
    Commissioner &c.
        Washington D.C.




J. W. Perit Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        Salem Oregon
    Sir: I have the honor to inform you that "Paulina," chief of the Snakes, arrived at this post on the 4th inst., bringing with him a brother-in-law of "Howluck," Snake chief.
    He represents that all the Indians of his tribe who stipulated to come in are now in Mo-shen-koska's country and that he would like to talk with yourself or Mr. Applegate.
    He also says "Howluck" and his Indians are three days' ride from the council ground and want to see you for the purpose of making a treaty.
    I have appointed the 20th of the present month as the day you or Mr. Applegate will meet them and have said [that] I would write you to this effect.
    I think the Indians will keep their promise to meet you, and have to request that you will notify me of your pleasure in the matter at your earliest convenience.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 52.




Sir
    I am in receipt of a letter of date Oct. 2nd inst. from E. Steele, late Superintendent of Indian Affairs for N.D. [Northern District] California, in which he states that he has been called upon by a delegation of Indians known as the Modocs inhabiting the country about Goose Lake with whom he formed a treaty when he was Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and they state that arrangements are being made for their removal to Upper Klamath Lake by the Oregon Superintendency.
    They claim that their lands and residence is in this state, that they have complied with the treaty made with Mr. Steele, and they desire to remain on their present location, which they say is in this state, and "so writes Mr. Steele."
    I have been unable to visit that portion of the state and am unadvised as to the facts in the law. I have written Mr. Steele stating that I would write you on this matter.
    I should be pleased to hear from you on this subject and learn the true state of affairs, as Mr. Steele writes me that trouble is anticipated if the Indians are removed as anticipated.
Hon. J. W. P. Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        Salem
            Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 53.



Hon.
    J. W. Perit Huntington
        Supt. of Indian Affairs
            Dear Sir,
                My commission as sub-Indian agent, with accompanying documents, has been received.
    The property of the sub-agency for which you sent and order on Holbrook after some delay I found in possession of one Daniel Hopkins at Jacksonville, who says he receipted for the articles when left in his charge by Sub-Agent Rogers and he refuses to give them up unless on an order directed to him or on the return of the receipt given by him to Rogers.
    In pursuance of instructions I appointed O. C. Applegate as interpreter on the 12th of the present month.
    In accordance with instructions I now make requisition for stationery sufficient for my purposes in carrying on the duties of my office.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 48.




(Telegram)
To
    Lindsay Applegate
        Indian Agent
            Jacksonville
    Howluck and other Snakes will be at Klamath on the twentieth. Go there immediately. Instructions by mail.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 728.



Sir
    At the request of the parties interested, I ask your attention the claims of George Megginson and Thomas Briggs, certified vouchers for which (amounting to $195 in each case) were issued by Indian Agent B. R. Biddle, June 30th 1862, and transmitted to your office with my letter of 26th December 1863. The receipt of the vouchers has never been acknowledged, and the claimants are wholly without evidence of their claims, except such as [is] in possession of the Department. The persons named were many years in the service, are [in] every way meritorious, and there cannot be a question as to the justice of their claims or the regularity of the evidence in support of them. They ought to be paid without any further delay.
Hon. D. N. Cooley
    Commissioner &c.
        Washington D.C.




Sir,
    In reference to the inquiries of Thomas Briggs about a claim for services rendered at Siletz Agency in second quarter 1862, I have to say that said claim was transmitted to Washington by me on 26th December 1863 with a favorable report and a recommendation that it be paid forthwith. Since that date I have heard nothing of it.
    I do not know of anything that I can do to expedite the payment of this claim. If I did, I would do it promptly and cheerfully.
    I have this day written to the Commissioner, calling his attention to the subject, and if your address is furnished this office, I will take care that you are promptly advised of any action the Department may take in the matter. This letter will be enclosed to Mr. A. D. Barnard of Corvallis, because I am ignorant of your address.
Thomas Briggs
    Corvallis
   
Hon. W. P. Dole
    Commissioner Indian Affairs
        Sir
            Please find the recommendation for payment [of] the claim [of] Geo. Megginson & Thomas Briggs for service under B. R. Biddle, agent, Siletz Reserve.
Corvallis Oct. 19, 1865





Sir:
    When I sent [a] telegraphic dispatch to you, directing you to proceed to Fort Klamath, I hoped to be able to meet you there about the 25th instant, but I now find that it will be impossible to do so. It will, therefore, become necessary for your to represent the government in intercourse with the Indians there and especially the Snake tribe.
    You, having been personally present and acted as interpreter at the council of Aug. 10 held in Sprague River Valley, are fully informed of the results of that council and the stipulations entered into by the Snakes of the Walpahpe tribe. I understand that in pursuance of the agreement then made the chief "Paulina" and his people are now at Fort Klamath, or in that vicinity, and you will endeavor to pursue such course in regard to them as will ensure their remaining and good conduct. Further instructions will be given you at a future day with reference to them, the design of this letter being chiefly to guide you in the course to be pursued with the other tribes of Snakes who are said to be in the vicinity of Klamath.
    If Howluck and Wyoniwa can be induced to come to the Klamath Reservation and remain there it will be a practical end of the Indian war so far as Oregon is concerned. You will therefore turn your chief efforts towards securing their assent in accordance with the invitation you heard me make through "Paulina." I am informed by Maj. W. V. Rinehart, now commanding Fort Klamath, that a part of them were within a short distance of Sprague River on the 6th instant and that he made arrangements for them to come on the 28 to the Fort. If they complied with this arrangement they are there now, and you will endeavor by issues of moderate amounts of subsistence, and such other conciliatory measures as you may think advisable, to make them remain and prepare them for complete negotiations next spring. You are not authorized to conclude any formal treaty with them for the purchase of their land that matter, and indeed all others involving promises on the part of the government in its future management of them being reserved for future consideration. Of course, I cannot, at this distance, and with my limited information undertake to lay down rules which will cover every case that may possibly arise or provide for every contingency that may happen. Much, therefore, is necessarily left to your discretion, enjoining only a reference to the general instructions here laid down, and the law and regulations which have relation to the case in hand. You will take care to report fully and frequently to this office, giving detailed information as to the condition of affairs and making such suggestions as your judgment dictates as to the measures proper to be adopted.
    I made contract some time ago for seventeen thousand pounds of shorts and three thousand pounds of flour to be delivered at Fort Klamath. Eleven hundred pounds of the flour will be used to replace that amount loaned to me by the Commissary (Act. Asst.) from the public store at Fort Klamath. Of the remainder you are authorized to take possession and account for upon signing and enclosing to me the blank receipts herewith transmitted. I should also remark that I made arrangements with Maj. Rinehart for some small issue to be made, if necessary, from the Commissary stores, to be replaced out of such flour as may be on hand belonging to the Indian Department. You will ascertain whether he has made any issue under that arrangement, and if so, replace the amount, taking the same up in your property account as issued by yourself.
    All your property accounts must be returned to this office in triplicate, and it will be well for you to retain a copy (the fourth) for your protection and information. The abstracts of issues, which are vouchers for that part of the account, must be signed by the recipients, and witnessed by at least two white persons and the interpreter, with a certificate that they were personally present at the time.
    The subsistence under the contract referred to it is presumed will be amply sufficient for the wants of the service at that point the ensuing winter. Should an emergency arise which temporarily requires a larger amount, you will communicate with this office and await further instructions. No provision has been made for subsisting of the Klamaths and Modocs, for the reason that it is supposed that they have laid up sufficient to keep them alive through the winter. A small issue to the chiefs, or to those that may happen to be absolutely destitute and suffering, will be permitted, but you will bear in mind that the provision is made for the Snakes, and if directed to others it must be only in cases of the most urgent necessity. The amount of funds at my disposal for these purposes is small, and economy of the strictest sort in these expenditures is imperatively required.
    In regard to the Klamath and Modoc tribes, no detailed plan can be laid down until action can be had upon the treaty of 15th October 1864 by the U.S. Senate. You will, however, report upon their condition and purchase for the use of their reservation five yoke of young, likely oxen, provided they can be obtained at reasonable price in time to get them up to Link River this fall. Funds to pay for them will be duly furnished.
    The sum of $250.00 of the fund appropriated for "General and Incidental Expenses" will be placed at your disposal at first opportunity, and you will be required to account for that sum under your official bond.
    Maj. W. V. Rinehart, in command of the Fort, will afford you such military assistance as you may require not inconsistent with the other demands upon that branch of the public service. You will exhibit this letter to him, and to Lieut. D. C. Underwood as well, in order that they may understand the policy which it is designed to pursue.
Lindsay Applegate
    U.S. Indian Agent
        Fort Klamath, Ogn.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, pages 735-737.



Sir:
    A package of stationery, as per schedule enclosed herewith, is sent by Wells, Fargo & Co.'s express to Jacksonville.
    You will receive the same, sign the blank receipts herewith enclosed, returning them to me, and take the several items of stationery up upon your property return, to be properly accounted for as belonging to the United States.
    I take this occasion to mention that all items of property belonging to the United States, however insignificant in value, must be entered in your property account and returned on hand each quarter until disposed of according to law. This will include purchases, property receipted for from other officers, and all other public property.
Hon. Lindsay Applegate
    U.S. Indian Sub-Agent
        Jacksonville
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 743.



Sir:
    Your letter of 9th instant concerning the Modoc tribe of Indians, and the statements of late Supt. Agent Steele about them, has been received. I am glad of the opportunity thus afforded of giving you correct information concerning them.
    The Modoc Indians live on the line between California and Oregon, and number about 700 all told. They claimed the country from about 40 miles west of the Lower Klamath Lake to the divide between Lost River and the waters of Goose Lake. They do not live about Goose Lake, and never did. That region is inhabited by a tribe who sometimes call themselves Snakes and join the marauding bands further north, and sometimes find it convenient to be friendly with whites, when they call themselves Pah-Utes or Washoes. Gov Nye, of Nevada, gave them some presents last year. Their language is a dialect of the Shoshone or Snake, and altogether distinct from the Modoc. The Modocs are intermarried with the Klamaths, speak a language almost identical, and might not improperly be considered a part of that tribe. About half of the Modoc country is in California--that of the Klamaths wholly in Oregon.
    In February 1864, late Supt. Agt. E. Steele induced a few of them and of the Klamaths to visit Yreka, and made a sort of arrangement with them which was reduced to writing and signed by Mr. Potter on behalf of the Indians, and Mr. Steele on the part of the U.S. The name of J. D. Keane, sheriff, was also attached, though what or whom it represented does not appear. The Indians gave verbal assent but did not sign. You will find this document on page 108 of the Report of the Commr. Ind. Affrs. for 1864 (No. 28). This action of Mr. Steele was thought insufficient by the Department, and they therefore directed late Supt. H. E. Wiley, myself and one of the Oregon agents to conclude a treaty with them. These instructions will be found on page 112 of the book referred to (No. 30). Supt. Wiley was unable to come, and the Commissioner directed me to proceed without him, which I did, and the treaty was made. The Klamaths and Modocs were both parties to it, and a part of the Klamath country was set apart as a reservation. They all made this treaty willingly, and never have expressed any dissatisfaction with it until very recently. I visited the country last August, and had a conference with them. Schonchin (spelled Schonge sometimes), the chief of the Modocs, was present and complained with some earnestness of the delay of the govt. in moving them to the reservation and opening the promised farms &c. &c., and those with him seemed quite anxious to go. He also complained much of some white men in and near Yreka, part of whom were living with squaws (Mr. Potter has one) persuading his people to live near Yreka. He thought they would gain nothing by living with whites. The same parties, he also said, had persuaded a part of his people to refuse to recognize him as chief, and to appoint one Kintepoose chief (a case of secession after the explosion of the Southern Confederacy). Kintepoose was one of those who signed the treaty, and has a great fondness for whiskey, according to Schonchin. I also learned that the Klamaths and Modocs were in the habit of buying ammunition from the whites in Yreka and trading it to the hostile Snakes east and north. A very large part of the depredations committed up there in the last two or three years have been done with ammunition bought at Yreka and Jacksonville. To break up this traffic, I sought to prevent the Indians from visiting those places, but as there was no agent there nor authority to appoint, and no money applicable to their use, the effort was futile. It did however alarm those who desired the presence of the Indians (and squaws) in Yreka, and they have assiduously endeavored to make dissatisfaction, but they have as yet succeeded only to a very limited extent.
    It is not true that the Oregon Superintendency has yet made any effort to remove the Indians to the Reservations. It cannot do so, because there never have been any appropriations made for the benefit of these tribes. If any are made, and placed in my hands, I shall cause the removal to be made, and I anticipate not the slightest difficulty in doing so.
    My practice has universally been to separate Indians from the white settlements as much as possible and in carrying it out I often come in contact with whites who seek to thwart the object, but the policy is very much the best for the Indians, and I shall therefore continue to follow it.
    I have conferred on this subject with Capt. W. Kelly, late in command at Fort Klamath, with Maj. W. V. Rinehart, now in command, and with other officers at the Fort. They coincide with me in these views, and their long and intimate acquaintance with Indians in question entitles their opinions to consideration. I do not think it essential that the Indians should be taken to the Klamath Reservation. If the govt. desires to make a separate agency and reservation for them, it may be done elsewhere either in California, Oregon or Nevada. The only objection would be the extra expense this occasioned.
    Your letter was sent by W.F.&Co.'s express, and as I usually send my letters through the mail some delay was thus occasioned in its receipt.
Hon. Chas. Maltby
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        in California
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, pages 743-745.



Sir,
    In relation to matters on this sub-agency, and in regard to my transactions as sub-agent, I have the honor to report as follows:
    Having received telegraphic dispatches from you stating receipt of letter from Major W. V. Rinehart informing you that "Howluck" was in the vicinity of Fort Klamath, I started immediately for Fort Klamath in obedience to your desire, where I arrived on the 18th instant and immediately sent a message to "La Lake" requesting an interview with him on the next day.
    Major Rinehart informed me that "Paulina" had been at the fort some time before with a brother-in-law of "Howluck" and had stated that "Howluck," desiring a treaty, was then in "Bly" or "Mo-shen-koska's country" (about the 6th instant) where he saw him.
    I concluded that the best policy to pursue would be to send out a deputation of Klamaths to see "Howluck," taking with them Paulina, who was said to be in Sprague River Valley, and induce Howluck to come into the fort and enter into negotiations calculated to secure a peace with his tribe, and appointed Tuesday the 23rd instant to meet him. I saw La Lake on the day after my arrival, and he readily agreed to take some of his principal men and set out immediately to see "Howluck."
    On Monday the deputation arrived from Bly or Sprague River Valley, reporting that "Mo-shen-koska" in company with Paulina had gone to see "Howluck" on the confines of his country and had found him unwilling to treat, saying that he could fight the whites yet longer, that he felt like a wild elk with long antlers and laughed at Paulina for his becoming a peace man. I was at a loss to know what had caused the impression that "Howluck" wanted to treat but concluded that he may have really talked of peace, being convinced of the unprofitableness of war, yet now perhaps delays to come in, thinking to make a peace more profitable by getting extra presents as an inducement.
    It is my impression that he will be willing to treat by spring, as the winter campaigning by the troops will certainly convince him that Paulina's condition is far better than his own.
    "Paulina" and two other principal men of his tribe, viz, "Inhaltock" and "Chat-chat-chuck," returned to the fort with "La Lake" and with them I had a talk on the 27th instant, having remained until that time awaiting instructions. "Paulina," I am convinced, is acting in good faith, and I have no doubt has made use of all his endeavors to have "Howluck" and "Weahwewa" forsake the war path. I explained to him the positions of the boundaries of the reservation and the necessity of his immediately coming within its limits that his people might not be taken for those of "Howluck" or "Weahwewa" by the military, and gave him to understand that the war would be rigorously prosecuted against the last-named chiefs as long as they persisted in hostilities, but as soon as they were ready for peace I would meet them as a friend. "Paulina" as a proof of his sincerity offered to accompany Major Rinehart if he made a campaign into "Howluck's" country and show him the whereabouts of that chief, taking with him if desired a portion of his war party to assist in chastising his old friends, but whom he seems to consider his enemies as long as they are enemies to the government under whose protection he has come. His people were not all upon the reservation, he said, but he would bring them within its limits immediately that the military might not molest them.
    I left Fort Klamath for home on the same day of the talk with "Paulina," and fifteen miles this side of the fort I met the bearer of instructions from you. Examining them and finding I could do nothing of advantage in their pursuance at the fort which could not be done on a future visit, I did not return there.
    Making inquiries I find that there are a dozen Indians near Flounce Rock on the Rogue River and John Day wagon road. These are principally squaws detained there by white men who reside in the vicinity. A similar state of things may be found at Kanaka Flat above Jacksonville, where a number of squaws are kept by miners there.
    It is rumored that there are a few Indians on Illinois River and at other places in Josephine County, and in regard to them I am seeking information and hope soon to be able to report on their numbers, location and condition before long.
    Under the present circumstances, there being no funds provided to purchase subsistence for these stragglers in Jackson and Josephine counties, it might be well to let them remain where they are until spring, or until Congress takes action on the Klamath treaty, as they have no doubt provided for the winter.
    The Klamaths I believe have laid up ample supplies for the winter, but I think it would be advisable to make some small issues to the chiefs, and perhaps to some others, to prevent disaffection. "La Lake" has adopted a more rigorous system of government, has erected a prison house and confines all those disposed to question his authority or violate the rules of justice. As some of the Klamaths have opposed "La Lake" by cause of his want of spirit, I think his plan is a good one to convince them of his power and his disposition to enforce his authority. Since leaving the fort I have learned that on the 27th instant he had five Indians (men) bound and confined for disrespect shown him, and I have written to Major Rinehart, requesting him to inquire into the matter and see that Indians were confined for good cause and not inhumanely treated.
    I am informed that the states' rights doctrine is being agitated by ex-superintendent Steele and others of Northern California to dissatisfy the Modocs with the treaty, so as to keep them within reach of Yreka in order to secure their trade. The Indians it is reported have all left their country and gone onto Butte Creek, a tributary of the Klamath, rising near Mt. Shasta. The Indian trade is said to be a principal reason of the remaining vitality of the town, and I believe the Yrekans, or some of them, are striving hard to induce the Indians to remain within the state limits. Steele and others wrote some time since to Major Rinehart, saying that the Modocs were within the state of California and hence not under the supervision of the Oregon Superintendent, or something of like effect, ignoring the fact that an appropriation was made to treat with certain tribes of Indians, not regarding the whereabouts of all members of those tribes, and put it into your hands to carry out the treaty &c. As far as state lines are concerned the greater part of the Modoc country is in Oregon, as the Modocs claim most of the valley of Lost River.
Hon.
    J. W. Perit Huntington
        Superintendent of Indian Affairs
            in Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 62.


    Mr. J. M. Wagner left at our office last week, says the Jacksonville Sentinel, a sample of syrup manufactured from sorghum or Chinese sugar cane. This plant grows well in this section of country, and promises to be a valuable staple. Mr. Wagner says it will yield from one to two hundred gallons of syrup to the acre. He also says that by two experiments of the best lands suitable to its growth, one in the rich, sandy loam of Wagner Creek bottom, and the other high up on black sticky land, he has decided in favor of the latter as being the better adapted to the culture of sorghum. We think that farmers should give this plant a fair trial. All know that our sugar and syrup has to be imported at great expense, and although the importation could not be stopped entirely, very considerable revenue could be saved to our country by the culture of this sugar cane, and the time would not be far distant when we could begin to export. This syrup is used in large quantities in the northwestern states, especially in the rural districts. It can also be used with advantage in curing meats, more particularly beef and pork hams.
"State Items," Morning Oregonian, Portland, November 2, 1865, page 4


Hon. J. W. P. Huntington
    Sir
        Martin & Drum have delivered at this post for the Indian Dept. 17000 pounds of shorts & 3000 pounds of flour. It is stored here in [the] government warehouse.
    There is nothing new here; everything is going along about the same as usual.
    I have been trying to get out of the service for some time, but have not succeeded yet, but am in hopes that I will soon. I am in hopes to get out by the 1st of Dec. If I do, I will probably be at Salem sometime this winter.
    Applegate is not here; there is an agent need here very much. Capt. K.'s squaw called on me yesterday, having Indian Frank with her, and said the Capt. had deceived her (he having promised her that he would come and get her this fall) and that he was a "cultus" ["worthless"] man anyway, that she wanted another man, and that she wanted Frank. She said that by living with the Captain she was all the same as "sitcum Boston" ["half white"] and suggested the propriety of my marrying them. I told them that it was rather out of my line of business, but I told them I thought there would be no harm done if she should sleep with Frank for the present, and when the gent got here he could marry them. They departed in great spirits, thinking that I had really married them.
    I do not think Howluck will come in this fall, although he was disposed to do so ar first, but after Capt. Kelly left you on Sprague River he and his men (Capt. Kelly's), [killed?--word cut off] an old Indian, an uncle of Howluck's, who was old and harmless, and showed no disposition to fight, or make any resistance--and at the same time Kelly was doing this it appears that some of Howluck's men were with Mc[cut off] and Pengra, on friendly terms, and expressed a great desire to quit fighting and come in and treat with them.
    But when Howluck heard of the death of his uncle, and heard that Kelly had come direct from the treaty ground, and knew that messengers had gone out to see the Indians, telling them to quit fighting &c., he said he would not come in to be killed like a woman--this is what the Indians tell me.
    Let me hear from you occasionally, and let me know how times are in that part of Oregon.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 97.


    MAJOR RINEHART, Commandant at Ft. Klamath, paid Jacksonville a flying visit the first of the week. He reports everything getting along finely at the post.


Sir,
    Since returning from Fort Klamath I have been looking after a chance to procure an ox team as required by instructions of October 21st and find I can get a team of five yokes of serviceable oxen at an average of $110 per yoke, and I can also get a good breaking plow for $50, and a wagon at $150, making a complete outfit for $750 in legal tenders, and $600 without the wagon, but the wagon I consider as necessary as the balance of the outfit. Spring wheat I can procure at $2 per bushel if desired. I can take the team to Link River if required, but from present appearances the oxen could be wintered here at little expense.
    I am of opinion that I can get the team to Link River at any time between now and Christmas, and to take them there would perhaps be best, as in that case the oxen could be used there in time to put in a spring crop. As $110 per yoke will perhaps seem a high price for oxen, I have thought it well to state that owing to the scarcity of oxen in this valley, $110 in legal tenders is considered reasonable here for a yoke of young, likely oxen. Please further instruct in regard to this matter.
Hon. J. W. Perit Huntington
    Superintendent of Indian Affairs
        Salem, Oregon.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 68.




Sir:
    I transmit herewith enclosed fifty dollars "legal tender" for services as interpreter in Snake Ind. Treaty Expedition. Also vouchers in triplicate for same amount, which you will please sign and return to this office by mail.
Hon. Lindsay Applegate
    U.S. Indian Sub-Agent
        Ashland
            Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 750.



Captain
    I have just learned that a party of four men from Cañon City bound for Jacksonville was attacked by Indians (probably Weahwewa's Snakes) at the springs where the Deadmond murder was committed, about two miles northeast of the head of Willow Creek. The men were at breakfast when the Indians (said to be numerous) were first observed. Their horses were grazing at a little distance, and the men made an effort to reach them. The Indians got between the horses and the men, and also between the men and the camp, thus cutting them off from both. The men made good their escape and all crossed the Deschutes fifteen miles below the place on the 13th. One of them reached the house of "Haller" at Oak Grove yesterday morning; the others have not been heard from yet, but have probably reached the settlements on the Tygh. They were without food for several days and much exhausted. The Indians got five horses, four guns, fifteen or twenty oz. of gold dust, and all the provisions, ammunition, camp equipage &c. belonging to the party. The place where the attack was made is about thirty-five miles east or southeast from here, and we are somewhat apprehensive that the marauders may visit the agency for the purpose of repeating one of those raids which they have been in the habit of making so profitable in years past. I send you this, the first information I have, and will send such additional facts as may reach me.
    I learn also that a quartermaster's wagon, escorted by twelve men, was recently attacked on the Cañon City road, the men defeated and driven off, and the wagon and mules (with the freight) captured by the Indians.
Capt. Charles Lafollet
    Comdg. Camp Polk
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 751.



    MULES STOLEN.--By the politeness of Mr. McManus we give the following letter, which is the latest news received of the loss of the train. Mr. McManus is the sufferer, as the train belonged to him and not to Miller and Maury, as reported in some of the newspapers:
FRIEND PAT:
    We arrived on the 22nd inst., and on that night had 58 of our mules stolen. We recovered 34 of them the next day; the balance, 24 mules and the bay bell mare, are gone to feed "lo! the poor Indians" this winter. The mules that are gone are generally the very best mules in the train. We leave here this morning with the remainder of the train, and if we have no bad luck will be in Jacksonville about the 1st of December.

Sir:
    Your letters addressed to this office are written on foolscap paper. For convenience of filing it is necessary that all correspondence should be upon quarto post size, and but one subject should be included in each letter. All agents and sub-agents are required to comply with this regulation.
Lindsay Applegate
    U.S. Indian Sub-Agent
        Ashland, Jackson Co., Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 756.


    HOME AGAIN.--Mr. Alex. Miller and Col. Maury got home on Sunday last from the plains. Mr. Miller informs us that they got three more of the lost mules after he wrote Mr. McManus. The Indians displayed great skill in stealing when they took the train, showing conclusively that they have been well instructed. They took first the bell mare, knowing the rest would follow. After going about three miles the hobbles were cut, and then they traveled very fast. As soon as a detachment of soldiers could be prepared and mounted, which was about four hours after the mules were taken, they started on the trail to overhaul the bold robbers, while another detachment went in another direction to cut them off. the "poor Indians" were pressed so close that they let thirty-odd out of the band. They got away with the balance, 24 animals, of which number three were afterwards recovered.


Sir
    I have the honor respectfully to represent that in my opinion a visit by you to this camp, accompanied by a guide, interpreter &c. for the purpose of communicating with the Indians in this vicinity, many of whom are constantly prowling about this camp, hiding in the mountains during the day and making their inroads during the night, would notably result in making terms with them. I believe that they are short of supplies for winter use. They have not been as successful as usual during the past summer in capturing from the whites stock of various kinds, nor do I think they have succeeded in gathering as much seed and roots as heretofore upon which to live.
    There is in the vicinity of Warner's or Christmas lakes, and Harney and Malheur lakes, a large band of Snakes. These can be found, and it is believed that with the assistance of someone who understands their modes of conveying intelligence they could be induced to come into communication with the agent. Orders have been issued from the headquarters of the Department to prosecute a vigorous campaign against these Indians. This will be done on the part of the troops at this post if it is possible at all during the winter to travel through this country. I do not think however that an expedition can leave this camp before the middle of January, on account of the incompleteness of our camp buildings, the exposed condition of our forage &c. (our hay being eight miles away), all of which ought to be completed and secured before an expedition leaves in search of Indians.
    This length of time if you think it advisable to come at all would give you or your agent time to get here.
    The benefit of a peace with these Indians to the state and territories in which they have their lurking places can readily be appreciated by you, and I am of those who believe that every possible means that is likely to result in peace should be used to secure that result. The advocates for extermination will admit the fallacy of their doctrines when they have attempted to put them in practice.
    This is intended  as a private communication; a copy will not be sent to headquarters, but if you should contemplate coming, or sending [an agent], you might make a transcript of its contents and forward to the Dept. headquarters in order that they might be apprised of your coming and furnish me or whoever commands this camp the necessary instructions.
Hon. J. W. P. Huntington
    Supt. Indian Affairs
        Salem Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 137.



Dear Huntington,
    I have settled the question of purchasing goods upon this side for the Indian Department upon the Pacific Coast, and no more will be sent.
    In my report I get after Dole sharply, as well as "Caleb Lyons of Lyonsdale." The former has sunk into contempt, and the latter I think will certainly be ruined. Secretary Harding as well as the present commissioner seems to be determined to have an honest administration of Indian Affairs. It affords me pleasure to be able to state that your department is in good repute here, and your administration is perfectly satisfactory.
    We have just commenced our steps to have a portion of the Coast Reservation vacated. We were somewhat perplexed about the boundaries, but upon consultation with Dr. Bailey and Elijah Williams, who are here, we determined on the following.
    Commencing ten miles south of the Siletz agency, thence west to the ocean, thence south along the ocean to the Alsea River, thence up said river to the eastern boundary of the reservation, thence north along said boundary to a point due east of the place of beginning, thence west to the place of beginning. How will that do? I think that we will succeed in getting the above-described district vacated by an executive order, but in the event of a failure I will try to have it done by legislation.
    I thought it best to have a strip vacated, and thus try to get an appropriation for the removal and subsistence of the Indians south, to the north of the vacated strip, and have the remaining southern portion vacated. Knowing the anxiety of our people to occupy the Yaquina Bay and obtain an outlet to the ocean, I did not like to have the application dependent upon the uncertain contingency of obtaining so large an appropriation as you ask for in your communications to the Commissioner of the 12th of December 1864. I think that if we get the strip vacated the Indians will suffer no inconvenience, and it will not interfere with the procuring [of] the necessary appropriations hereafter.
    I got a letter from Simpson a few days since, but have not time to reply now. Please show him [this] and present him my kind regards.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 131½.



Sir:
    Your letter of 5th ultimo, concerning the two squaws named Polly and Mary belonging to the Klamath tribe and now sojourning at the Dalles, is just received and attention given to its contents.
    In view of the impossibility of travel between Dalles and Klamath at this season, and the manifest impropriety of putting Klamath Indians upon the Warm Springs Reservation, I consent that the two women named remain at the Dalles until further notice, upon condition that you and other responsible citizens of your vicinity will guarantee that supervision shall be extended over them (without expense to the government) to the extent that they commit no crime or gross immorality, and further that you promise in case this restriction is disregarded by the squaws to inform me of the fact without delay.
    I should state, in justice to Marshal Keeler, that I requested him to expel all Indians from the Dalles. I did not suppose there were any Klamaths there, or I should not have directed their return to their own country at this season of the year, when it is clearly impossible that they can do so.
    This permission in regard to these two women must not be considered a precedent to justify similar requests in future.
    The policy of the government is the segregation of the Indians upon reservations designated for them. My instructions are explicit and exacting that this policy be carried out. My endeavor will be to comply with them in letter and spirit.
Hon. Jos. G. Wilson
    Dalles
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 9; Letter Books H:10, page 761.



J. W. P. Huntington Esq.
    Supt. Ind. Affairs.
        Dear Sir,
            Your letter of the 3rd of November enclosing copies of correspondence with Chas. Maltby, Supt. of Ind. Affairs for California, reached me this morning. I went at once to the Indian Department to inquire about the matter and was informed that the office had received communications upon the subject from Maltby and that [the] Commiss. was interesting himself in the matter, but I did not examine the papers, as the Commissioner was about starting to new York I deferred it and asked that no action should be had in the matter until I could be heard. I will show the papers as well as all others which you sent to the other members of our delegation. The Commissioner has in his annual report strongly recommended the confirmation of your treaty of the 15th of October 1864, and I do not think that it will be in the power of Congress to defeat it.
    Maltby is an old "skeezix" ["rascal"] who got appointed because he once lived in Springfield and knew Mr. Lincoln, and that is about all the qualification he has for the place. Cooley, the present Com., is a bright, intelligent gentleman, and I am much pleased with him, and what is better he appears to be pleased with me. I will send you a copy of his report as soon as I can get hold of it.
    I wrote you at length a few days since, and have only to report that you and the Oregon agent are all right at the Department. I brought on an immense amt. of Department business, which has occupied all of my time since I have been here, and I was never more crowded with business in my life.
    I have filed with the Secretary of the Interior a memorial signed by all our delegation in relation to the vacation of a portion of the Coast Reservation, and have strong hopes of success.
    I have also filed a paper with the Com. of Ind. Affairs showing the balances of appropriations due to Barnhart's Indians and asked that the amount be remitted to you. Keep me fully posted in relation to this business of your office, and it shall have my earnest and prompt attention.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 131.


Commissioner of Indian Affairs
    Please inform the subscriber whether there is any merit in the enclosed papers, which are hereby respectfully submitted. By communicating the facts in the case you will oblige
Yours very respectfully
    Alfred Schicking
        Box 200


    VOTE OF FORT KLAMATH.--The boundary between this and Grant County should be changed so as to include Fort Klamath in Jackson County. Hon. Jacob Wagner, our Senator, passed through town on Tuesday last, on his way to Salem. He informed us that he would introduce a bill to change the boundary between Grant and Jackson counties so as to include in Jackson the waters of Klamath River, Lost River and all their tributaries, branches and lakes.
    This bill ought to pass because there are nearly one hundred Union voters at Fort Klamath who have been quasi deprived of the right of suffrage at our two last elections. It is at least two hundred and fifty miles from this post to Canyon City, the county seat of Grant County, while it is only about ninety from Jacksonville to Fort Klamath. A large portion of the soldiers at the Fort are volunteers from this county, and cannot vote for county officers in any other.
    Give us the vote of Fort Klamath, and we will clean out the Copperhead Anti-Johnson Democracy of this county at the next June election by a handsome majority.--Sentinel.
    We hope to be able to report the passage of the proposed bill before this paper goes to press. At the last election there were sixty or seventy votes at Fort Klamath, who belonged in Jackson County, and who would have been in Jackson County and voted there but for the interference of certain gentleman [sic], and would have voted the Union ticket and saved Jackson County to the Union cause. But another and entirely sufficient reason for making the proposed change is the fact that, as present situated, the people at Fort Klamath are deprived of the benefits of civil law, being too far removed, and separated from the balance of county Wasco by an Indian country, virtually preventing the transaction of civil business with the county seat. Fort Klamath properly belongs to Jackson, and all its business connections and relations are with Jacksonville.
Oregon Statesman, Salem, December 11, 1865, page 3


Mr. Huntington
    Dear Sir
The honorable probate court of Jackson County has appointed me to settle the estate of my brother, J. M. Anderson.
    I want to inquire whether you have received any instruction to pay for the beef that my brother furnished the Indians at Klamath Lake.
    I fell in company with the honorable Mr. Nesmith as he was on his road home last spring, and he informed me that he had the papers directing you to pay the same.
    If he carried the papers back with him I will have to write to Washington for them.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 103.


    RETIRES FROM SERVICE.--Lt. D. C. Underwood reached town from Ft. Klamath on Tuesday last. Lt. Underwood entered the army February 1st, 1862, as 2nd Lieutenant in 1st Reg. Oregon Cav. Vol., and in October last he sent in his resignation, but was not relieved from duty until the 3rd inst., consequently he has been in the service three years and ten months. During that time he was promoted to a 1st lieutenancy. He entered the quartermaster and commissariat's office in June, 1862, and has discharged the duties of these important positions, both at Camp Baker and Ft. Klamath, from that time until he was honorably discharged on the 3rd of December, 1865.
    Lt. Underwood has made, during his term of service, an honest, vigilant, active and useful officer. He has kept the posts constantly supplied with a bountiful supply of quartermaster and commissary stores, under the most trying circumstances. He has purchased supplies in some instances on his own account, when he was unable to buy on the credit of the government. When he was without money or greenbacks; when the national credit was at its lowest ebb; while copperheads were constantly predicting the dissolution of the Union and the downfall of the government and even while good Union men doubted its success, he was confident of the ultimate triumph of the Union cause and he pledged his own property to buy supplies for the soldiers.
    Now, when the government is out of danger, he retires from the army, and in a few days he will join his wife and family in Douglas County. May the government never again need his services in the field, and long may he live to see his country prosper, and may he enjoy a quiet, peaceful and rural life among the delightful hills and dales of North Umpqua.

Sir
    I start today with my interpreter for Fort Klamath. My principal purpose is to look after the Snake Indians and issue to such of them as are entitled to subsistence such an amount as will supply them for the remainder of the winter.
    I am informed that Paulina's people are not all on the reservation, and I will endeavor to bring them within its limits speedily.
    Possibly something may be done towards bringing "Howluck" and "Weahwewa" to terms, and I will probably go into their country with a detachment of troops from Fort Klamath to see if anything can be accomplished.
Hon. J. W. Perit Huntington
    Superintendent of Indian Affairs
        in Oregon
            Salem, Oregon
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 111.



[Telegram]
To J. W. [P.] Huntington
    Supt. Indn. Affairs
        Salem
    The Pres. has relieved from reservation the following boundary commencing at a point two (2) miles south of the selected agency thence west to the Pacific thence south along said ocean thence to mouth of the Alsea River thence up said river to the eastern boundary of the reservation thence north along said eastern boundary to a point due east of the place of beginning thence west to the place of beginning. Letter by mail.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 121.



Dear Huntington,
    I wrote you some time since of my efforts to have a portion of the Coast Reservation vacated, and have just succeeded in getting the order made. The Commissioner of Ind. Affairs has sent you a dispatch today notifying you of the fact.
    I had some difficulty in fixing the boundaries of the vacated strip, but upon consultation with Bailey & Elijah Williams they thought that the boundaries designated would be the best, and so I put them into the memorial.
    I also set forth in the memorial that there were no Indians on the strip proposed to be vacated.
    The question of vacating that portion south of Alsea can be reserved for future action.
    I hope that this vacation will be satisfactory to the people who desire an outlet to the coast, and I do not believe that the Indians will suffer any inconvenience from it.
    Senator Williams have [sic] gone to Richmond to take a look at the headquarters, or hindquarters, of the late Confederacy. I should have asked to have gone, but had too much to attend to here.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 22; Letters Received, 1865-1866, No. 147.



Dear Sir,
    If the order has been made to vacate the portion of the Coast Reservation in Oregon please send me a copy of the order




Last revised May 13, 2024