INDIANS.--According to the Portland, Oregon, News, the 20,000 Indians on the reservations in the Northwest show great improvement. It says the Indians at Siletz and Grand Ronde are so improved that they live much as whites do; they respect marriage, and have comfortable homes. They can be seen traveling about with their own teams and wagons. They have no annuities, but grow crops of vegetables, fruits, and grain. They have stock, and live upon the proceeds of their farms. 'They were originally the worst savages upon the coast, the ones who used the torch and the scalping-knife in Rogue River Valley. They are now civilized, wish to become citizens and voters, to own their lands, and would be glad to pay taxes if they could be citizens.
San Jose Weekly Mercury, February 7, 1884, page 4


"Oregon," Sacramento Daily Union, July 8, 1884, page 2


    George Justice, proprietor of a livery stable, living at Grants Pass, Jackson County, Oregon, had trouble yesterday with a young Indian. The row resulted in Justice shooting the Indian twice, inflicting wounds necessarily fatal. Both parties had been drinking heavily. It is claimed that Justice was the aggressor; that he followed the Indian, firing at him. The Indian finally drew a knife and turned on Justice, when he received the fatal shots. The wounded man is the son of Umpqua Joe, the old sub-chief of the Umpqua Indians. Justice was arrested at once, and is now in custody, awaiting the result of the Indian's injuries.
"Oregon," Sacramento Daily Union, August 2, 1884, page 4


    Thirty years ago, this North Pacific region was filled with hostile Indians who had just waged one war, and were making ready to commence another. From the sage plains of Northern California to the rocky shores of British Columbia, numerous tribes existed along the coast and in the interior. They occupied a region five hundred miles square, and over all that territory a weird influence prevailed, for unseen runners came and went with messages of peace or war. During the occupancy of the whites the Indians have seldom, if ever, been at war among themselves. The exception has been when parties have organized, as the Warm Spring scouts did under General Crook, in his war against the Snakes in Southern Middle Oregon, and again under General Jeff C. Davis against the Modocs. In early times they were strongly allied, and suddenly, in 1855, they precipitated a war that required all the power of Oregon Territory to quell it.
    The war was waged on the north, in the interior, eastward, and more especially among the Indians of Southern Oregon. The settlers turned out cheerfully as volunteers. There were then a large proportion--much larger than exist here now--among us of frontiersmen, who were handy with the rifle. They were eager for the chase, be the game Indian, elk, or bear. I remember distinctly the interest with which we watched for "news from the war." There was no daily stage, no telegraph, and no frequency of mail privileges. News did come, however, and it was sometimes terrible. The Rogue Rivers burned many a home and massacred many a family. Afterwards, when the mining districts of Eastern Oregon and Idaho were opened, Indians there made some resistance. Within the last decade we have had war with Bannocks, Modocs, and Nez Percés--who were all nomadic races--but within a quarter of a century the old tribes of this region have been subjugated and become satisfied they had nothing to gain by fighting with the whites. Slowly but surely they were retired on reservations. The few that hung about the settlements gave up the "Noble Game of War" and became "hewers of wood and drawers of water," generally for the dispensers of their worst foe, the deadly firewater.
    One old chieftain of Southern Oregon who was the war chief of the Rogue Rivers through the deadly campaign of '55-'56, and whose hand fed the burning brand to many blazing homes in that beautiful and Eden-like valley, was sent in chains to San Francisco, to be immured in Alcatraz. Old Sam made a last display of his power in an attempt to capture the steamer that took him. He was successful for a while, but didn't "understand the ropes" well enough to handle a great ocean steamer all by himself, shackled as he was. [It was John, not Sam.] That was the last heroic incident of the Western tribes.
    Then came the era of subjugation. The Indians were gathered on reservations, and fed and guarded by military. A young man named Sheridan, a lieutenant of infantry, was one of their guardian angels at that period. That was a speculative epoch of history. Indian agents were appointed to look after those wards of the government, and see if they were treated according to law. That was a time when bran and shorts passed readily for flour, and "bull beef" was considered wholesome diet for aboriginal stomachs. Indian agents became rich by some sudden stroke, as if they had mysteriously touched Aladdin's lamp. The savages became poor literally, as to flesh, soul, and purse--and savage. They died off. The miserable remnant of them dragged out a loathsome existence. I had the wretchedness to spend one season in proximity to an Indian agency. The mercury that winter was for weeks 10° to 33° below zero, but the Indians, and the whites that governed and guarded them, were morally lower than that. At that time--about 1860--there were tribes of the North--such as the Coeur d'Alenes and Nez Percés--under missionary teachings and care, that had some marks of decency, but the Indians on the newly established reservations were poor and ignorant; no effort was made for their improvement. An Indian agency was considered a source of wealth. One fact that my children can remember in connection with me will be that in 1865, at Washington, I declined the offer from an Oregon Senator of an Indian agency in Idaho.
    The early missionaries effected but little. The Methodist mission in the Willamette had no good results so far as the Indian was concerned. Dr. Whitman taught the Cayuses and Umatillas for eleven years, and then came the Whitman massacre. The Nez Percé,s under Rev. Spalding, did better. The Coeur d'Alenes, under the Catholics, have remained at peace and have done well. The general condition of the Indians up to 1864 may be called savage, and showed no progress, but I wish to take up their condition since that time, to show the effect of care and teaching well applied. In a general sense we may say that for the twenty years since '64 there has been a different system and decided effort. The results are fairly gratifying.
    Having recently had the pleasure of meeting General Nelson A. Miles, and had opportunity for free conversation with him concerning the Indians of this department--the military department of the Columbia--I have become interested in his views of the Indian question--views that well become a successful soldier and an honorable man. The twenty years just elapsed have not witnessed any unusual effort for reforming and improving the Indians, and it is therefore all the more certain that their success and improvement--though partial--indicates their ability to become actually civilized and self-supporting. In the Pacific far West there are fifteen Indian reservations, with about fifteen millions of acres of land, generally of excellent quality. The Flatheads are too recently reached by the railroad to be well understood, but their farms on the Jocko River show a tendency to improvement. Coming west, we find the great interior basin that has the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascade ranges on the west for its limits, and extends vaguely north and south a long way. In this region of rolling uplands and grassy plains are different bands that have much the same nature, and are nearly allied in many respects, though grouped under different leaders in small bodies. These are the hunting tribes, who live by the chase and have their salmon fisheries on the Columbia. Further south they are represented by Klamaths and Modocs. It is safe to say that these people, where they have remained on reservations and applied themselves to agriculture, have done well. They have demonstrated their desire to be educated and civilized, and their willingness to labor when they see actual results from it.
    The Coeur d'Alenes are Catholics and are very peaceable. In 1882 they produced 30,000 bushels of grain for sale. I once met their chief, Sultees, who was a warrior with the rest of them thirty years ago. He and his people are practically civilized and have a very beautiful country. It will illustrate their progress to say that Sultees (as a merchant who says he invites him to his family table told me) has a comfortable covered carriage and a pair of matched bays to draw it. His accumulations from honest trade and traffic are considerable, and this coin he was then in May, 1882, loaning at Spokane Falls on mortgage at two percent per month interest. If that doesn't show the refinement of civilization, what can?
    The Yakimas of Eastern Washington, close to the Cascade Mountains, have excellent land, and have for many years until lately had the benefit of Rev J. F. Wilbur's best efforts. Father Wilbur is a Methodist, a practical man, and genuine Christian. He has done everything for those people, and they have made great improvement under his administration. The Nez Percés and Cayuses have large and valuable reservations, and have made good advance in cultivation and genuine civilization.
    The Warm Springs Reservation has half a dozen bands upon it--all naturally allied--who were twenty years ago as degraded as possible. They were diseased and dying off rapidly, when Captain John Smith, who died only a few days ago, became their guardian. Under President Grant's plan for allowing religious denominations to control agencies, the Presbyterians presented Captain Smith for this position. Those tribes live as his monument. They have become civilized; they adopt Christianity and discard polygamy; they work well on their farms; they have become virtuous, and have even outgrown disease; have become healthy, and as a race have begun to increase. The Warm Springs bands may not be perfect yet, but their improvement exceeds the ordinary limits of belief. Look at them as they were in '64 and as they are in '84, and we are compelled to believe that the Indian question has great possibilities.
    Very nearly kindred to the Modocs were the Klamaths, who occupy the Lake region near the California line east of the Cascade Range. I know them well, as I lived a month in 1873 at their Agency during the Modoc War. Their present agent tells me that the ten years' time since then has seen them make great improvement. Their land is too cold to grow even rye or turnips with certainty. They have grass, and the marsh land grows a species of wild rice called wocus, found in the pod of the water lily; they also dig camas and kowse freely. They have horses and cattle and make good use of both. The Klamaths have sixty-four horse teams among them. They do all the hauling for the government post, and so earn what money they need to buy flour and groceries. They are independent and happy. All these tribes referred to can build good houses. They have saw mills on their reservations, and cut and haul the logs and saw the lumber themselves when there is no regular sawyer. Many of them are fair mechanics. Most of them live in civilized fashion, and their children are schooled.
    I have given this brief glance at the Indian tribes of the "Inland Empire" compare the then and now, the darkness of 1864 with the light of 1884. Some credit must be given to the policy of General Grant, who permitted the different churches to take charge of the various agencies with, in this region, very favorable average results. There have been a few very zealous workers among these Christian agents. Some were successful in securing the confidence of their wards, and by so doing they could be far more useful. An Indian has respect for truth and integrity; when they respect their agent they can be handled easily, and unless they do, they will not show him respect or attention.
    We come now to the more numerous Indian bands west of the Cascades, in Oregon and Washington.
    After 1856 the subjugated tribes of Southern Oregon were removed to reservations on the coast adjoining the Willamette Valley. No great care was taken to improve them, and they decreased in numbers rapidly for some time. Those Indians have also begun to live in civilized fashion and grow crops for sale. I occasionally in summertime see an Indian family going past in their wagon, looking for all the world like the more common sort of whites, certainly having a look of comfort about them. Inquire, and you will learn that they are going to visit some friend, or making an excursion to the berry fields in the Cascade Mountains. I conversed with their agent, who has been in charge many years, and he says they make continual progress. But he also says they ought to be decidedly changed in their relations; that they take a great interest in public affairs, and when an election is held they attend and will look on with eagerness. This agent has resigned; he therefore tells the truth freely, and he advocates breaking up all agencies and reservations and making the Indians on them take up land and pay taxes as citizens.
    Over on the coast of Washington Territory and on the waters of Puget Sound, there are at least half a dozen reservations, with bands of Indians occupying them. They all seem to be progressing and improving in some measure, and it is true of these, as of almost every reservation east of the Cascade ranges, that they occupy far more land than they require, and stand in the way of the whites. The Nez Percés Indians claim under treaty a vast tract of excellent country, which they do not pretend to occupy. The Yakimas have a wide region assigned to them of the very richest of soil, and do not use it. The Coeur d'Alene tribe have the most fertile tract known in the upper country, and make whites pay tribute for the timber in their mountains. Everywhere complaint is made that the Indian blocks the way, and has land he cannot use. This especially applies to the Umatillas, who are now surrounded by farms. The transition from the adjoining farms of the whites to the barren waste of the reservation--barren, though the richest of soil, and only lacking cultivation--is very striking.
    The Indian has too much land everywhere, and his conditions are generally unwholesome. The tribal arrangement should cease; the lands should be bought back from them, as was done or agreed upon lately with Moses and the other bands on the Columbia River reservation. The Indians have made some improvement, but not enough. They are, in a measure, dependent, and it is the interest of many persons to keep them so, and especially of the agents in charge of them. General Miles takes sincere interest in them, and his experience has been very general. He took the wildest of Sioux off the war path; gave them land; taught them to till it, and in one season made them self-supporting. That was years ago, and they remain so yet. He takes a liberal and humane view of this important question, and a right one. He has became convinced that the Indian will work; that he is ambitious to learn; that he wishes to be a citizen; and he claims for him that he should become one--a citizen and taxpayer. He asserts that the true policy is to purchase the reservations, locate all Indians in severalty on the public domain, with a proviso that their lands can not be sold for at least twenty-five years; assist them to become self-supporting by making part payment for their lands in farm utensils and building materials, with some sheep and cattle. The Indians will take naturally to stock-raising. Provide them with schools, and endow them with land with individual tenure, and they will possess a manhood and independence they never have had, and never can have under the tribal system and on their reservations.
    Not long since I saw at Portland a military-looking company in gray marching the street. I was in their rear and remarked the tall, straight, soldierly forms of the boys, and wondered who they were. They proved to be Indian cadets from the school maintained by government at Forest Grove. That school is a credit to the Indian race and an honor to our government. It has proved that the Indian boy and girl are capable of rising in the scale of humanity. There are some touching stories told in connection with it. A year or so ago a blanketed savage brought his boy to go to the school. The lad was unkempt and poorly clad, but he had a bright face and made a good scholar. Last summer he went home for the vacation--changed indeed; his natty uniform became him well; he was a trim-looking lad for any country. But he couldn't recognize the father he expected to meet him. The older Indian, it seems, was afraid this son would be ashamed of him, so he, too, tried to be civilized. He had his long hair cut and bought himself a suit of plain "store clothes." Each was so changed he did not recognize the other for a time, and when they finally met and saw the change time had effected, father and son--stoical sons of the wilds as they were--embraced and wept. The necessity of educating those people is plain enough. It need not be very expensive to do it, either, if we consider that there are abandoned military posts through this department, and others that will soon have to be closed. Several such can be found in this military department, so General Miles tells me, and he further says the Indians can furnish from their farms supplies for the maintenance of their children.
    It seems impossible to place the Indians where they will not be in the way of the whites and liable to be imposed on by rough characters. No man will dispute the justice of allowing the Indians to locate lands as the whites do, and as they are inclined to be pastoral, they can be allowed enough to afford grazing land on the rougher sections of country. Break up the reservation system; locate every family in severalty, and treat them kindly and reasonably in settling them on their own lands, and we shall have no more Indian question to vex us forever more. General Miles is very earnest in presenting this matter, and takes a deep interest in all that pertains to the Indians. He does not undervalue them, but has great confidence in their desire to become civilized and their ability to achieve civilization.
    The greatest prejudice now exists against them on the part of many whites, because they find great tracts of rich land lying idle that are set aside as Indian reservations. The overplus of Indian lands, above the needs of the tribes, amounts to millions of acres in this military department. Their lands do not belong to the Indians generally, and they are not encouraged to improve them. The whites feel that it is an outrage that they are not allowed to locate on them. Carry out the policy advocated by Generals Crook and Miles--the two most successful of our Indian-fighting generals--both of whom believe that the Indian deserves good treatment, and will appreciate it if he gets it--and we shall see the Indians removed from all tribal conditions and the attendant superstitions, and become self-respecting citizens. As they stand today, the efforts to improve them are in a measure inoperative. They have no such independence as is necessary to give them self-respect. They have shown a capacity to improve that is deserving of our consideration. If they choose lands, it will be together, in favorite localities, in small valleys, where they can make a community and support schools. When all are located, at least half their best lands will revert to our government and increase the public domain. There will be no conflict between them and the whites--no jealousy. The possibility for their improvement will be greatly increased, and the condition of both whites and Indians will be decidedly advanced.
    The small remnant of the great tribes that formerly occupied this continent has some claim upon our consideration. If there ever has been an instance where a treaty with Indians was executed promptly and justly, it has been an exception. Our national history--and all history from Columbus until now--has been a record of injustice. It will be tardy justice at the best, but our nation owes it to whites and Indians alike to help the Indians to forsake savagery and induce them to become producing and self-supporting. In many instances they are so already. There is evidence that with proper encouragement they will become good citizens. Let us give them, then, this needed encouragement and opportunity. If the treaties are all abrogated by repurchase of their reservations, and the military department is left to carry out the new policy, in a brief space the Indians will become land owners and citizens and begin to swell the products and increase the wealth of our nation.
    The latest Indian imbroglio that arose in our region remains yet unsatisfied and illustrates the faults of our Indian policy. Moses was a man of strong character, who drew to himself a large following irrespective of tribal allegiance. He and his people were "dreamers," equivalent to being spiritualists. Much was feared from their superstition, but while it is certain that Moses could have precipitated war on the settlements, he fortunately had too much sense to do it, and restrained his young men. They occupied a wide region of plains in the Big Bend of the Columbia River for some years, but stockmen came in there, and negotiations ended in setting aside over 300,000 acres adjoining the British line for his band and others that were in the way of progress. It was supposed that the rough country given them was entirely out of the white man's way, but mines were discovered near the northern line, and in response to representations President Arthur summarily cut off a million acres from the Columbia River reserve and threw it open for the whites. This was an insult to Moses, as it lessened his influence with his people, who thought he had secured the land for them. His pride was hurt, and all the other Indian bands through the interior were alarmed to see their common rights invaded. The question with them was: "How long before the President will take away our land?" It is easy to perceive the effect on the Indians of all this region. Trouble began to foment; runners were sent about, and disaffection was apparent to the military department.
    General Miles became very apprehensive. He sent for Moses and had a long talk with the old chief, who bitterly complained of the personal disrespect to himself and the high-handed dishonesty in this act of government. General Miles is one of the most successful of generals in Indian wars, and he also commands respect from the Indians by truly honest treatment of them. He realized the danger, took Moses and some others to Washington, in charge of Captain Baldwin, an experienced officer, who was mainly instrumental in securing a settlement of affairs on a new basis. It was agreed that the Columbia River reserve should be abandoned, and the Indians take up land in severalty where they preferred. Some, who had begun farming on the old reserve, stayed there; others--including Moses and his people--took up land on the Colville Reservation, to the east of the old reservation. The Colvilles have made good advance and live well. Their chief is a remarkable man, who freely welcomes all other Indians to his reserve.
    By the agreement made at Washington, schools were to be established, mills put up, and farming implements furnished. But for the whole tract of nearly four millions of acres the Indians are to receive benefits to cost less than $100,000. They were delighted with the prospect of schooling their children and becoming civilized. This agreement needs ratification by Congress. The Indians are waiting for their tools, wagons and supplies to begin spring work, and do not dare to finally locate until Congress has ratified the agreement. Here is a simple matter of business that it would seem could be accomplished in an hour, but nothing has been done. The thousands of Indians through the inland country are watching to see whether the government deals fairly with their allies. The different bands that are directly interested present an interesting picture of a savage people anxious and willing to become civilized, waiting with intense apprehension for the fulfillment of the agreement made with them. The military, who have been instrumental in solving the question of peace so favorably, are deeply interested. General Miles recognizes that honorable conduct towards this people is imperatively necessary, and that no other course can safely be pursued. It is creditable both to the head and heart of this distinguished officer that he holds the welfare of the aboriginal race closely at heart, and is deeply interested in securing their progress. His view is the right one--that they should hold land and become citizens, obey the laws and pay taxes, be educated to make citizens, and become producers. This matter of the agreement with Moses and others he considers of great importance. It is now spring* and the Indians need their supplies as agreed, but the government follows the same inert policy as ever, and their interests are neglected. Worse still, the word pledged to them is forfeited. No wonder that they look with scorn upon the President. General Miles once had a conference with some wild plains Indians, and proposed that a delegation should go to Washington. One old chief objected. He had been there once, and "the President had lied to him." The general tried to explain or modify the expression. "No," said the blanketed savage, "the President lied to me; he made promises he did not keep." Time after time he repeated it with scorn, but finally said: "You haven't lied to us yet; we will try you awhile." They did try him, and in response to his advice took land and cultivated it, and from that day those barbarous Sioux have been self-supporting, all because they had confidence in General Miles and followed his counsel.
Samuel A. Clarke, Overland Monthly, October 1884, pages 405-411  *This was written six months ago.

Last revised March 17, 2025