# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 8/Recollections of an Indian Agent, Part 4

RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT—IV.
By T. W. Davenport.
The Indian's side of the story, in his conflict with the white man, will never be fully told, and it need not be. Something of it is known and the rest can be predicted. An unprogressive being was he, quite well satisfied with the present, unstimulated by the past, non-apprehensive of the future, and any one can say of such a being that in contact with one in all things the reverse, a restless mortal dissatisfied with the present, with a history pointing upwards, apprehensive of the future and always striving for individual and social betterment; in other words, continually working on his environment and full of the enthusiasm of progress which coveted the earth—yes, any one can say that the former would be the victim, the one sinned against, and the latter the sinner, whatever the annals might show. As it is, however, Poor Lo must stand in history as the barbarian resisting unto death the advance of civilization. Of course, if the American aborigine persisted in his habit of depending upon the spontaneous productions of the earth for a living, he must and should go to the wall in a contest with those whose habits of contributing their labor and thought to increase the bounties of nature, put them in harmony with nature's other edict, that man should multiply and replenish the earth. The two modes of life are irreconcilably antagonistic. One is at variance with any considerable increase of population and means destruction either by war or famine to hold it in check; the other is consistent with increase of population, invites to individual effort of mind and body in utilizing the forces of nature and thus leads to civilization.
This natural and therefore inevitable antagonism, which must produce perpetual conflict even when both sides to it are governed by humane principles, was never brought home ​to the Indian except by the terrible tuition of force. Even among our own citizens who have had the opportunities for enlightenment that come from colleges and schools, how many of them have considered this as a philosophical question and looked with compassion upon the red brother who is wholly without such helps to form a proper judgment and thereby incline him to habits promotive of peace and a progressive life. And this tuition of force and destruction, in its entirety, has been unknown to the Indian. Each tribe and probably contiguous tribes could know of it as applied to themselves, but of its history, extent, and universality, they could not know. The Indian, without science and arts, except the rudest, without literature or a recorded history, what could he know of the advance of that persistent, cumulative and relentless force, which resist as he would, was crowding him off the earth? And in this so-called race conflict, are we, with a! our science, history, and philosophy, in a mental condition to do justice to the character of this barbarian? I fear that we are not. We say that he is cruel, treacherous, revengeful, indiscriminate in slaughter when at war, and receives pleasure in torturing his enemies. Admit it all, and the Indian, if he had the ability to read our history, could say that every such allegation is true of the white man in overflowing degree. Yes, the Indian is indiscriminate and inclined to hold the white race responsible for the acts of an individual, and in my experience at the Umatilla, as I have elsewhere related, there was not a case of grievance alleged by a white man against an Indian, that he did not, in his anger, mutter maledictions against the whole Indian breed and blame Uncle Sam for trying to make anything out of it. I did not therefore rush to the conclusion that the white man is no better than the Indian, for in every such instance, after the relations between the races had been explained, and the provocatives to individual resistance and retaliation for the white man's encroachments were shown, the white denouncer proved his superiority by exhibiting a more fraternal spirit towards his red brother.
​If by the declaration that the red man's story will never be told, is meant that there is a darker hue than has been given to the white man's side of the conflict, evidently it should not be told. Enough has been recorded of both sides to show that too large a part of both races are at times given over to destructive frenzy. That is the way with all tribes and nations, and this fact or the degree of the fact is not in the right direction to find the measure of their advancement, which, in the language of the mathematician, is to be found in the summation of the series.
We have only to look across the line into the British possessions of North America to see that their treatment of the Indian has been more promotive of peace and good will than ours, and some people are swift to conclude that the Canadians are of a higher moral tone than the people of the United States. The true reason lies in the fact that their system of government has a more constant and more powerful restraining influence upon the lawless class in society. There is more individual freedom with us, and consequently more room for departure from the normal line of conduct. This difference is boldly in evidence to those of our citizens who have lived in mining regions governed by Canadian officers, whose official tenure does not depend upon the mood of the populace. The mounted police of the Dawson country is a much better protection to the inhabitants than our system of elective sheriffs and constables. My brother, John C. Davenport, who owned gold mines in British Columbia, was very decided in his preference for the summary proceedings there, in restraining the predatory class that infest the mines of every country and by collusion and false swearing beat honest people out of their rightful possessions. The commissioner appointed to investigate cases of conflict, examines into the merits of each and makes a report, upon which the "frauds" are admonished to take themselves off, and in case of refusal are lodged in jail. As a general rule such methods are satisfactory to honest claimants, but when those armed with such powers become, pecuniarily or otherwise, interested in a vitiation of ​justice, then our people perceive that they have a power to contend with that is more to be dreaded than the temporary mis-verdicts of public opinion. It has been proved hundreds of times that despotic governments are favorable to what is termed "law and order," but the individual surveillance promotive of it is also destructive to that individual freedom without which human progression is impossible. So, as we in the United States have adopted progression as our shibboleth, our Indian question and the history we have made in connection with it, must be viewed from our standpoint. And this means that we must look at what the people have done individually or rather desultorily (and this of course points to the frontiersman), and what has been done by the government. And upon separating these two modes of conduct great dissimilarity may be observed. On the frontier where individualism prevailed, unhindered to a great extent by governmental restraint, the contest between the two forms of society was one of mutual distrust, hate, and retaliation, in which the destructive faculties of both races were conspicuously displayed.
On our part it was always one of encroachment, of necessity, so as we have seen, in which the view point of the Indian was never essayed; his ideas, customs, and rights as he viewed them, seldom respected, and hence all his powers of resistance were brought to the front with most alarming ferocity. It must not be assumed, however, that this fretful edge of civilization was all brutishness; there were conspicuous examples of wisdom and benevolence on our part, enough to temper in some degree the asperities of the conflict, but not enough to control. The government, on the other hand, took a larger view of the situation by recognizing the possessory rights of the Indians, making treaties, buying large tracts needed by us for expansion and, with the consent of the tribes, moving them westward or placing them upon reservations where advancements of money and goods were made to assist them in becoming agriculturists. It is pleasant to know that such was the declared policy of the national government, though we ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 357 are compelled to admit that it has fallen lamentably short in the fulfilment of its promises. As all popular governments must be, ours has been swerved by the vox populi, which is not uninfluenced by merely selfish considerations that find their opportunity in maladjustments and war. There have not been wanting men to make known and resist such abuses, and others of an unofficial character; enough has been done to show that with more deliberation, a better knowledge of the Indian character, a proper regard for his beliefs and customs, and the cultivation of a more fraternal spirit, the advance of civiliza- tion would have proceeded without the horrors that have at- tended it. From the first, the treatment of the Indian by the white man is unexplainable except upon the assumption that he was so far inferior that he must not stand in the way of the latter and yield up to him everything to satisfy his avari- cious and lustful desires. We are so unconsciously in the habit of passing over the Indian as unworthy of notice that we speak of Christopher Columbus as being the discoverer of America, although millions of human beings had occupied the continent for untold ages. From that time onward the natives were considered legitimate objects of conquest and exploita- tion, and with the exception of the missionary work of the Christians, were so treated. History has no blacker pages than those relating the conquest of Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards, in which Dr. Draper says they extinguished a civilization scarcely inferior to their own. Our treatment of the Indian has been mild in comparison, still we have not re- garded him as entitled to equal rights with ourselves, not- withstanding our Jeffersonian principles. In this we erred as every experiment in fraternal treatment has proved. Lewis and Clark, guided by the humanitarian admonitions of Jefferson, passed the breadth of the continent unmolested and even welcomed by the so-called savages, numerous enough to have annihilated them at the commencement of the journey. With the Indian, as with other people, the exhibition of a kindly and just spirit goes far to bring about reciprocal senti- ment and makes for peace. And it may as well be said, that ​358 T. W. DAVENPORT. without such sympathies people do not become acquainted; they cannot weigh each other. How many times conflicts and wars could have been averted by a mutual understanding, by putting ourselves in the Indian's place. And here I must narrate an incident that occurred on the plains in the year 1850. Our train of fifteen wagons and as many men was passing through the Otoe Indian country, some fifty miles west of the Missouri River, when descending into a hollow we came unexpectedly upon a hundred Indians sit- ting in a semi-circle facing the road. One of them arose and approached, evidently with the desire to say something. The train halted and this man said that his brethren sitting there were Otoe Indians, that they had depended in times past upon hunting and fishing for a living, but since the travel through their country to Sante Fe, Salt Lake, California and Oregon had become so constant during the hunting season, there was no longer any game for them. They could not go north or west without meeting with their enemies, the Pawnees and Sioux, or to the south without coming in contact with the more dreaded Comanches, and they thought it not out of the proper way to ask travelers through their country to contribute some- thing for their support. This was said in good English and with a respectful manner. At that, one of our men, Mr. Ephraim Cranston, from Ohio, began what I should call a Fourth of July oration, in which he informed the Indian speaker in grandiloquent style that we were American citizens, entitled to travel anywhere in Uncle Sam's dominions and that we came prepared to resist any encroachments upon our rights. At the close of that peroration, the Indians, if they had been inclined to ridicule, should have given liberal applause, for we had no guns in sight and probably could not have presented a loaded rifle in 15 minutes by the watch, while there sat 100 Indians with their guns, every one presumably ready for instant service. The Indian, like a sensible man, made no reply and my father asked him how much they had been requesting travellers to contribute. He answered, $1 ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 359 a wagon. * * I see, I see, ' ' said father, * * your request seems to be reasonable and here are three dollars for our three wagons. ' ' A Mr. Collins, late a professor in a Kentucky college, said, "Dr. Davenport, you pay one dollar for me and I will hand it to you this evening at camp." When all had paid, the Indians arose and one of them, the chief, came forward, ad- dressed my father as Doctor Davenport, and began to con- verse with him in faultless English. We learned afterwards that he had attended an American college. He wished to know which were our wagons, and after they were pointed out, he said, ' ' Doctor, your buggy ought not to be called more than half a wagon, ' ' and addressing a word or two in his own language to the collector, the latter handed father half a dollar. Turning to Mr. Cranston, who was ill at ease, from the adverse outcome of his oratory, the chief asked, "How many fighting men have you, Captain?" Mr. Cranston no doubt felt that the question was rather on the sarcastic order .and remained silent. Likely, there would have been no danger in refusing to contribute, but the incident is valuable in showing how easily conflicts arise between people having different ideas, customs and laws. Mr. Cranston, though in this instance sadly indiscreet, was a well-informed man and knew that the Otoes claimed the country we were travelling over and that the general government had not purchased their claim, but ensconced in the egotism common to a large part of the American people, he had dismissed the Indian notion of tribal ownership as childish and the practice of the govern- ment in treating with them and purchasing the land claimed l>y them, as worse than foolish, for it confirmed them in the absurd opinion that they really owned the land they had been in the habit of roaming over. Still, as a matter of natural justice, and in every aspect of the case, the Otoes had the best of the argument. They were natives to the soil, their an- cestors for untold generations had occupied and possessed it, there was no allegation of conflicting claims, and so their title was good by every condition precedent, ever urged by any civilized nation. At that time the government maintained ​an agency in the Otoes' country and was doing something in the line of improvement, as they were hemmed in by hostile tribes that kept them away from the buffalo country. Here the Missouri River was the western boundary of civilization, which was with difficulty restrained from invading the Indian territory.
And here, as at every other point where the white and red man met, their attitude was one of personal antagonism lead- ing to destructive physical conflict. And when we go further back and inquire into the antecedents of the contestants, there should be no wonder as to the result ; in the nature of things it could not be otherwise. As we have shown, civilization, devoid of personality, is essentially aggressive, and when we add to this the education of the white man, the explanation is complete.
From the cradle up he was the recipient of folk lore which placed the Indian as his hereditary and implacable enemy. To the childish request, "Grandma, te.ll me a story," it was bear or Indian, ghost stories being too tame for frontier life, and that the bear and Indian did not stand upon the same plane as objects to be exterminated, seldom entered into the thoughts of the grandmother or the little one soon to take part in the conquest of the wilderness. When older, his read- ing was of a like kind, Western Adventures, Border Wars, etc., in which the Indian was pictured as a war demon isolated from every human affection, and the white warrior as battling for family, kindred, home and country. Granny might bring tears to the eyes of her little auditors by telling how the bear's cubs moaned over their dead mother, but no tears flowed for the Indian children made destitute by this perpet- ual conflict. No thought was taken of them. With such tuition isn't it to the credit of the white man that his side of the story is no worse?
Daniel Boone, when an old man and entertaining some young admirers with his hunting experiences, spoke of the grand excitement the hunter feels when in the pursuit of "big game" deer, bear, elk, buffalo, etc. "But boys," said ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 361 he, "the grandest game of all is Indians." And Daniel Boone was not a bad or blood-thirsty man. In fact quite the reverse. From his first entry into Kentucky, that * ' Dark and Bloody Ground," his life was one long contest with the sav- ages, with scarcely an intermission of peace. From the per- sistence and intensity with which the Indians of that State and the country north of the Ohio River resisted the white man's approach, it seemed as though they were actuated by a common purpose to defend their country to the last extremity. There is nothing more exciting in human annals, nothing more inspiring to the virile resolution and forces of men than the hair-breadth escapes, the thrilling adventures and heroic fortitu.de exhibited by the pioneers in their life-and-death struggle with the red man for possession of the great, rich and beautiful valley of the Ohio. And Daniel Boone was the wise counsellor, the indefatigable protector, the wary and skillful warrior, in truth, the most striking and picturesque figure of the many extraordinary personages, both men and women, who contributed to the desired result. In his day and in his circumstances, there was no room for philosophical disquisition and broad views that might have brought other means to bear in the solution of that terrible problem, and he can well be pardoned for an utterance in his old age which smacks of a love of diabolism. Omitting the Indian's side of the story, the needless indi- vidual aggressions, the breaking of promises that involved the public faith, some of them that in the nature of things could not be fulfilled and ought never to have been made, the making of treaties under duress, the frequently recurring and cruel demands to leave their ancestral homes and burial places and go westward into strange and comparatively barren regions surrounded by enemies of their own race, omitting all these from the white man 's view, as indeed they were, and recollect- ing only his own side, the vacant seats at the fireside, the ambush and the Indian 's deadly aim, the captivity and torture, the scalping knife and tomahawk, is it any particular wonder that in his view the only good Indians are dead Indians and ​362 T. W. DAVENPORT. % that he should think of them as "varmints" to be killed on sight ? This may be thought an extreme view, as indeed it is, when applied to the government or the whole people of the United States, but it is not extreme in its application to most of those who have had to bear the brunt of the conflict re- sulting from the impact of the two antagonistic modes of human existence. An incident which illustrates this branch of the subject is related in Lyman's late History of Oregon, viz.: that of a young man in the emigration of 1847, who wantonly shot a squaw that was in a tree gathering boughs for a bed. I had an account of it from one of the members of the train and have no doubt as to the truth of his narration. The young fellow had said frequently that he intended to kill an Indian and get into line with his ancestors who were Indian fighters. His boasting was thought to be mere gas and no serious at- tention was given to it, further than to remark that killing Indians had better be postponed to a more propitious season. One day while the company was encamped he returned from a hunt and coolly informed his fellow travellers that he had made his word good by shooting an Indian. His story was not credited, but soon a band of Indians arrived and de- manded the murderer. Strenuous efforts were made to in- demnify the justly irate Indians by the payment of goods, money, cattle or anything in the train, but they were not to be appeased by such presents, and as they largely outnumbered the emigrants, no effectual resistance could be opposed to their requisition. Knowing that in their present mood the victim would meet with a most cruel death, as a last resort, they proposed a trial and conviction after the manner of the white man's court. Nothing would do, he had to be given up to the Indians, who flayed him alive in hearing of the horror-stricken emigrants. It would have been more in accordance with their reputation to have robbed or massa- cred the train. It is stated in the aforesaid history that thirty- two white immigrants were killed by the Snake Indians in the year 1851, but there is no provocation or incident given by the ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 363 historian as a reason for such hostility. Presumably he knew of none or he would have recorded the fact. There was one, however, well known to the members of the train in which the first casualty occurred. The Patterson train arrived at Rock Creek on the south side of Snake River about the middle of July. Dr. Patterson, as camp hunter, had preceded the train and, finding a small party of Indians encamped upon the best place on the creek, he ordered them off. They did not heed or maybe did not understand his commands, and he brought his shotgun into play, pointing it at them and at last firing it over their heads. Thereupon they took hasty leave and the next morning at dawn, one of the guards, a Mr. Black from Indiana, was shot through the abdomen while standing before the camp fire. The same morning two others in trains near by were slightly wounded. Our train, Mac Alexander's, arrived at the Rock Creek camp the evening of that day, and we saw Mr. Black, ex- amined his wound and heard from members of the train the recital given above. I heard the story from several of the company and there was no material difference. There seemed to be no excuse for Patterson, although all agreed that he intended no bodily harm to the Indians. I wrote it down at the time, as did my mother, who included it in letters to friends East, and it is a little strange that it did not get into print. I have a letter before me from the Hon. John N. Davis, of Marion County, Oregon, who claims to be the only survivor of the Patterson train. He writes from memory and cannot give the exact date of the occurrence, but says it was about the middle of July, and he gives the first name of Mr. Black (Presly), which I never knew, and also stated that he lived seventeen days afterwards and was buried on Birch Creek. I can corroborate Mr. Davis 's memory as to the latter, for I was present at his deathbed and assisted to bury him on Birch Creek. Mr. Davis goes a little more into details concerning Patterson's reasons for driving the Indians away than were given to me at that time, and his account makes the conduct of Patterson appear in a worse light. I quote that portion ​' 364 T. W. DAVENPORT. of this letter: "The Indians wanted to trade ducks for powder, but the doctor and his party were afraid to let the Indians camp near them, so they pointed their guns at them, and the Indians ran. Then Dr. P. and party fired their guns over the fleeing Indians' heads and pursued them on horse- back to see how fast the Indians could run. It was the cause of Black's death and the whole trouble with the Bannock tribe of Indians that year." As the Indians are very good judges as to the meaning of human actions, presumably they did not believe that Patterson intended to shoot them, but what he did was a most dastardly insult which a white man would have considered just cause for war. Thereafter the emigrants had a running fight for a hundred miles along that portion of Snake River. My father, Dr. Benjamin Daven- port, and Dr. Hutton examined Mr. Black and decided that if he could be at rest or carried 011 a litter there was good prospect of recovery. But people were panicky and wanted to get out of the Indian country as soon as possible. The wounded man was placed upon a bed made by weaving a rope through holes along the upper edge of a wagon bed and car- ried in this way until he died. That he lived for seventeen days, jolted ten or twelve hours a day on rough and rocky roads, would seem to prove that the doctors were correct in their prognosis. Thousands of provocatives on both sides have never been recorded, and the order of their occurrence, especially with reference to priority, is wholly unknown ; sometimes from one side and sometimes from the other a single exhibition of brute force, an invasion of human rights from an untraceable source, being sufficient to bring on a collision between two races mutually distrustful and apprehensive of destructive assault. But along with such forbidding features, stand out in bold relief instances of sympathy and fraternity coming from both races that should redeem even the Indian from the general charge of unmitigated barbarism. Among our own people there is a small class whom we may call philanthropists, ever contending that the white man is the active and needless ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 365 aggressor, and that to restrain him is the rational and sure way to preserve the peace. They forget or do not properly weigh the fact that the Indian tribes, before civilization pressed them, were, with slight intermission, in continual war- fare with each other, and that such a school is not promotive of an active and predominant state of the moral sentiments. That a hand to hand conflict, such as must have been with the weapons then used, wherein the destroying passions were at the highest tension, did not blot out the kindly qualities of their nature, should be taken as proof that they are good sub- jects upon which to try the civilizing experiments. In tha year 1846 some of the immigrants to Oregon were diverted to the southern route, passing through Rogue River Valley, and from want of water and grass while travelling through an unexplored region on the east side of the Cascade Moun- tains, were brought to extreme destitution. Some of them died, more were so reduced in strength from excessive toil and privation as to be barely able to walk. In this condition my father's cousin, David Colver, of the Waldo Hiills, Oregon, fell into Rogue River and though he held to an overhanging bush he was unable to extricate himself. The water was cold, his hold upon the bush was gradually losening, when he was espied by an Indian and rescued from his perilous position. The Indian conducted him to his wigwam, warmed, dried and fed him, and, thus reclaimed to the living, piloted him several miles on his way to the Willamette Valley. Even at this time the whites were treating the Rogue River Indians as enemies. Was that a foolish Indian or one of the good Samaritan breed? I learned from others who came that way that they too were befriended. When our train arrived at Fort Laramie in the fore part of June, 1851, thousands of Sioux Indians were scattered for miles around the fort. There was no alternative but to camp among them and evidently futile to try to guard our stock, so we turned loose our cattle and horses, went to bed and trusted to Providence to find them in the morning. Not a hoof was missing or strayed and the explanation for such an ​366 T. W. DAVENPORT. % unexpected result was somewhat varied; some attributing it to the proximity of the fort which contained a company of U. S. Cavalry; others to the fraternal treatment of the In- dians who visited us at camp. The chief came to our tent, was invited to supper by my father, partook heartily of dough- nuts and coffee with sugar and cream, conversed as well as he could by means of a few words of English and his native pantomime, at which he was an adept, and with many hand- shakes departed at a late hour, no doubt well pleased with his reception. A short distance away was another camp of emigrants who, with one exception, extended the hand of friendship to the red brothers. This man motioned them away, evinced by scowls and other signs that their company was not wanted and they complied with his wishes. Next morning his family alone had cause to lament his want of hospitality. A thief in the night time had stolen their entire outfit of cook- ing utensils. His suspicions were no doubt correct, that In- dians had done it, and possibly they would have taken his cattle also if they could have identified them. Sometimes it is bad policy to spurn even a worm. From such instances as are of historical record and others handed along from sire to son, we must conclude that there is far greater difference in individuals of the aboriginal type than of other peoples, or else that the character of the typical Indian as given by his- torians is of very doubtful accuracy. If there is one quality accredited to the Indian upon which writers oftener agree it is treachery, a term which may be indicative of good or bad disposition, depending wholly upon circumstances. No sensi- ble person, well informed upon legal matters, attaches any importance or binding obligation to a bargain or treaty made under duress, or when one of the parties to it is not free to express his wishes or interests, or is seduced by false promises, but that is the kind of treaty we have been making with the Indians, with slight exceptions, ever since the discovery by Columbus. In a proper and legal sense they were not treaties but impositions to be protested whenever favorable oppor- tunity arrived. That the Indians have been faithless to them ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 367 in several instances may be termed treachery by us, but when we take time to think of the whole subject-matter, he rather rises in our estimation as a good specimen of the Patrick Henry sort who prefers death to a loss of liberty. If we are to credit history, the treaty made by William Perm and the Indians was genuine and faithfully observed by both con- tracting parties. We are so unaccustomed to the observance of the Golden Rule by putting ourselves in others' places long enough to get a proper understanding of their relation to nature and its facts, that we are altogether unacquainted with how the In- dian feels or how we would feel when being called upon by an alien to leave the land of our birth and inheritance through unknown generations ; to tear the heart strings loose from all that humanity holds dear and sacred and emigrate to a region where the problem of life must begin anew. Some of these demands, especially in their execution, have been most heart- less and cruel, but in the main the government has executed such decrees of fate in a spirit of true philanthropy. Most bloody and bitter has been the red man's answer to some of these demands. Captain Jack and his little remnant of Mo- docs could not understand why the great and powerful white race that had usurped the whole country could not let them remain upon Lost River, their ancestral home. They wanted to reason the case but the white man would not reason. In fact there was no reason, other than the fact of civilization, and this to the barbarians was an enigma. Is it strange that they lapsed into a destructive frenzy, blind to consequences? All that Chief Joseph the Nez Perce wanted was to be let alone in his home, the little, lovely, out-of-the-way Wallowa Valley. But no reason that led towards equal rights for him and his people did not apply. Unlike Captain Jack, he did not fall into a frenzy, but he towered with splendid res- olution and gave the white man battle according to the civil- ized code of warfare. Neither reason nor force could rescue him from the grip of fate; he lost both his country and his freedom, and now, an old man, is looked upon by his con​> 368 T. W. DAVENPORT. ^ querors as a hero worthy of a better cause. Very likely he knew that he would be beaten, but the habit and inspiration of freedom defies consequences and puts the human soul at one with the universe. A great council was held in the Walla Walla Valley in May, 1855, at which were gathered all the principal tribes of Eastern Oregon and Washington, the federal government be- ing represented by two very able men, Governor Isaac I. Stevens and Joel Palmer, Commissioner from Oregon. As usual there was ' ' a feast of fat things full of marrow, ' ' which no doubt helped to smoothe the way to an amicable under- standing which came late and after many hindrances and was made possible by the steadfast purpose of Young Lawyer, chief of the Nez Perces, the mild and conciliatory spirit of old Stickas of the Cayuses, and the wisdom of the aforenamed agents of the government. Old Kamiakin of the Yakimas, Peu-peu-mox-mox of the Umatillas and Walla Wallas, and Ow-hi, a young chief of the Cayuses, correctly apprehending the seductive effects of a feast, refused to eat or smoke at the white man's expense. But they were in the minority and tacitly but grudg'ingly assented to what was done by the others, A reservation was set off for the Nez Perces in their own country; the Yakimas in their; the Spokane and Pend d'Oreilles on part of the vast region they were in the habit of roaming over; and the Umatillas, Walla Wallas, and Cayuses were permitted to remain in their own country subject to largely reduced boundaries. Governor Stevens at first pro- posed a reservation of three million acres on the Clear Water and Salmon rivers, for the three latter tribes, but they ob- jected .so unanimously and strenuously that the Governor by the advice of Palmer withdrew the proposition and the Upper Umatilla country continued to be their home. At that council Governor Stevens came nearer stating the question at issue between the races, in a form comprehensible to untaught natures, than any I have seen recorded. Probably his lan- guage is not preserved but the ideas he sought to impress upon those people are fundamental and essential to a voluntary ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 369 acquiescence in the march of civilization. The Indians said, in substance, "This is our country and we have a right to do as we please with our country. We do not invade the white man's country, but he comes and takes ours and demands that we shall live as he does. We answer him, No, No. Let him stay in his own country and leave us to do as we please. ' ' A historian writes that ' ' Stevens felt fully that here was the crisis but it could not be explained to the Indians.* They held a view irreconcilable with the new conditions. He desired them to understand that the Americans were willing to give them the same, or even better opportunity than their own people, but the country could not be closed to settlement. He had not, neither had the government itself, the power to check the American settlement of the country. His measures were as a protection to the Indians. ' ' There is other evidence that he told them more upon the same subject ; that the large region they had been living in could not be kept as a game preserve for any people, that it must be cultivated and afford a living for more people than could get a living on it by hunting and fishing, and as they were not accustomed to agriculture the government would help them to begin and send white men to teach them, which is more than is done for white men. The Governor seemed to be doubtful as to their ability to under- stand, but I think he was unduly faithless. Peu-peu-mox-mox saw a difference between goods and the earth. He said,
earth." Evidently he had a vague perception that the earth is the primal source of all goods, which is a platitude among political economists. The Governor made a good beginning and should have gone into details and a rationale of the movement he was inaugurating, for such would have been more easily comprehended than generalities. A dull Indian
father, I sent him a copy of this page relating to the big council, and the Oregon historian's account of it, to which the biographer replied that his father explained everything fully to the Indians and had no doubt as to their understanding of the situation. T. W. D. ​370 T. W. DAVENPORT. can be made to understand the immense advantage a tiller of the soil has over a hunter, if his mind be directed to a com- parison of the rewards of the two modes of life. Merely say- ing to an Indian or a white man that the two modes are antagonistic is not enough; we must descend to particulars and bring it home to them practically. Such was my course at the Umatilla, as before related, and those who attended my lectures were asked to compute the difference from their own experience. I was satisfied that they appreciated the advantages to be derived from their situation, for they began in early spring to use all the facilities the government afforded them for raising crops of wheat, oats, potatoes and other edible roots, something which, with few exceptions, they had never done in all their long dwelling in that ideal farming country the Umatilla Valley. After I left the agency, which was about the first of July, 1863, a change of program must have taken place on the reservation, for a large company of Indians, reported to be two hundred, went over to the Grande Ronde Valley where I was surveying the first of August, to see me and get some assistance in redressing some grievances they had experienced under the new management. Of their visit and the purpose of it I was informed by Green Arnold, a former resident on the Umatilla, besides several other citizens of La Grande. Being out in the mountains at that time, I did not see them and never learned as to the precise nature of their complaint, but I requested Mr. Arnold to inform them that I could do nothing for them, except to get them and myself into trouble with the agency authority, and my advice was to go back, squat upon a piece of land and make a home there. Up to this time the Indians on the Umatilla had been opposed to the allotment of lands in severalty, but as I have stated in another place, as soon as their eyes Were opened to their true interests they were anxious to have their lands surveyed and lots distributed. I surveyed three ten-acre lots, but from the fact that they could not be assured possession of them they ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 371 very properly concluded to wait for the action of the govern- ment. There was another reason which had operated against an allotment and that was the opposition of the owners of large bands of horses, who were interested in free range on many thousand acres of land, which they could not expect to get in any governmental scheme of allotment. As heretofore stated, Howlish Wampo had 800 head, Tin-tin-meet-suh had 4000, and these men would exert all their influence to postpone the time when they could have only 160 acres each. There was still another reason that operated upon all, poor and rich, horse owner and horseless alike, viz. : that expansive feeling we call freedom which resists the lets and hindrances of limited areas and among the aborigines everywhere in America finds ex- pression in opposing the private ownership of land. Likely the poorest breech-clouted Indian felt, while sauntering aim- lessly about on that great reservation, that it was God's free gift to him and that he could camp anywhere upon it, by its mountain springs and meadows, in its pleasant groves or on its grassy undulating plains, without feeling himself a tres- passer or hearing the warning "keep off the grass." That feeling that the earth is the equal birthright of all the living is not confined to any tribe or race or time ; it crops out all the time and everywhere, notwithstanding the edicts of despots or the equally despotic enactments of popular assemblies. And who can tell, even with the help of statistical tables relat- ing to nations in varying degrees of civilization, how much the death rate is affected by the suppression of this innate aspiration and habit of freedom? The common opinion that the Indian cannot bear civiliza- tion because it denies to him the rude and merely animal ex- citements which are the constituents of barbarism, that in fact he is as much out of place as an ichthyosaurian of the once torrid seas would be in the cooler waters of the present ocean, and is therefore a vanishing product of evolution, when examined critically, is found to be wide of the truth. Evi​ 372 T. W. DAVENPORT. . % dently the Esquimaux cannot survive at the equator any more than the negro can live near the poles, but that both states have been derived progressively from the same source is not denied. "We are too much inclined to reckless generalizing with the Indian, who is not like the Saurians that perished from a change of physical environment. On the contrary, the present physical conditions are favorable to his continuance and the excitements that kept his faculties in healthy exercise in his tribal state can be found with slight modification among civilized people. That part of civilization which is poison to him is equally poisonous to the white man and is found in the abuses of civilization. He has been compelled to bear the diseases and abuses which the white man brought, without the curative relief which is the resource of the white man. To be sure, we provide doctors at the call of the penned -up agency Indian when he is sick, but what kind of success should we expect from the treatment by even skilled physicians who are actuated by a laudable desire for scientific experiment and who at the same time hold the common opinion that an Indian is only good when he is dead? Perhaps it is quite within a rational judgment to say that he is treated without that at- tentive sympathy bestowed by the white doctor upon one of his own race, and so far as we know there is no Christian Sci- ence to lift him up from the slough of despond into which many white people drift despite the help that other science brings. We expect him to pass from the free, wild, out-of- door life of the nomad, to the in-door, artificial life of a citizen, by the influence of example, and because he does not make a success of the compulsory venture, but suffers decima- tion, we at once declare him unfit and a vanishing relic of a by-gone age. How we forget that such a requirement is not according to the order of nature, that no such jumping transi- tion was ever known of any tribe or people inhabiting the earth. AVe did not pass from cave-dwellers to our present state except by ages of preparation and experience whereof science was born, arts multiplied and perfected, all of which ​RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 373 are causative accompaniments of progress. With us it was lawful evolution ; in truth there was no other way, and yet we require that the Indian shall pass to our social and industrial status by remaining on the outside. How absurd and how unjust to him. Evolution may be rapid or slow, but knowledge and adapta- tion are essential to it, and hence he must be taught ; he must have access to the white man's accumulations. If he live in houses and have artificially prepared food, he must have a knowledge of hygienic laws in order to survive, and it was the first duty of the government when it compelled him to abandon his aboriginal mode of life to induct him by the natural entryway to the higher type of existence. Let us say that the reservation system was in that direction, but it was in practice only a half-hearted experiment, for in carrying out the design, it was entrusted to its enemies. Was it ever known in the United States that the Indian Department in- structed its agents to see that Indians' houses be constructed in conformity with sanitary requirements? Instead, they are the merest dens, unfitted for human habitations; real pest houses in which no race, civilized or savage, could long tarry. Look at the other side a moment. Our libraries are plethoric of books upon physiology, hygiene, housebuilding, domestic sanitation, etc., and yet the people who have access to them employ architects to plan and mechanics to construct their dwellings, and after that, if living in cities, they are unde/ supervision of health boards and compelled to habits of clean- liness promotive of their own and the public welfare. From this cursory and incomplete view of the subject, any one can see with half an eye that the Indian, in the vernacular of the street, "is not in it"; he is not involved with the civil- izing processes and until he is there is no progress for him. To expect more is to be disappointed, for it is an expectation that could not be realized with any race. Booker T. Wash- ington understands the problem and is solving it every day. ​ 374 T. W. DAVENPORT. The government is doing the work at Chemawa, provided the Indians there educated become like the negro Washington, teachers of their people, instead of doing as nearly all hav^ done, becoming mere parasites in the outskirts and slums of civilization.