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The Indian Dispossessed
Joseph, Nez Perce Chief
The
Indian Dispossessed
By
Seth K. Humphrey
With i6 Full-page Illustrations
from Photographs y- .
"No man has a place or a fair chance J"^
to exist under the Government of the
United States who has not a part in it"
Revised EditioH
New York
Young People's Missionary Movement
of the United States and Canada
Copyright, ipoj.
By Seth K. Humphrey.
^// rigits reserved
Published September, 1905
X
p^
pitntnl
B. J. Pakkhill h Co., BOtTOH, U.
PREFACE
IF the introductory chapter of this book be deemed
to bear too heavily upon long-cherished American
ideals, will the reader generously consider it as no more
than a friendly challenge to discover, in the Indian
tales which follow, that those ideals have borne, un-
sullied, the practical test ?
Not once is there question of the high impulses or
fair intent of the American people ; but a good inten-
tion loses virtue with age, and sentiments which persist
without developing into action can weigh little against
the plain record of facts.
This is no attempt to maintain that "all men are
created equal." In the light of all that is best in hu-
man history, that declaration attains to nothing more
real than a praiseworthy sentiment mistaken for a fact.
Whether the nation which gave it birth has developed
it into a sentiment to be honored, or into a grotesque
absurdity, during its long contact with a race created
not the white man's equal, the reader is left to de-
termine.
S. K. H.
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction i
The Indian Reservation 17
The Umatillas 24
The Story of the Bitter Root 44.
The Nez Perces 73
The Removal of the Poncas 143
The Mission Indians 202
Dividing the Spoils 246
Uncle Sam, Trustee 262
Conclusion ...••• 288
ILLUSTRATIONS
Joseph, Nez Perce Chief, 1897 Frontispiece
Keokuk, Sac and Fox Chief, 1S31 Page 18
Semeo, — Umatilla, 1871 " 17
Wolf, — Umatilla, 1875 " 40
Nez Perce Camp on the Yellowstone, 1871 . . " 78
Ta-ma-son,=Timothy, Nez Perce, 1871 . . . . " 86
In-me-tuja-latk,=Echoing Thunder. Chief
Joseph, 1878 " 97
White Eagle, Head Chief of the Poncas,
1877 "14s
Red Cloud, Ogalalla Sioux Chief, 1876 ....«« 151
Chief Standing Bear, 1877 "177
White Swan, Ponca Chief, 1877 " 198
Ouray, Ute Chief, Colorado, 1874 " «47
Spotted Tail and SgUAW, 1877 "163
Two Strikes, Brul« Sioux, 1878 "177
Little Crow, Leader of Sioux in the Minne-
sota Massacre, i86j " »88
Red Cloud, the Old-time Warrior, totally
BLIND, 1903 " *9S
The Indian Dispossessed
INTRODUCTION
THOSE of us whose Latin is of the vintage
of two or three decades ago may remember
Jacobs' Roman History, with its traditional
fables of Italy's earliest days, done in easy Latin for
beginners; and some may recall the first plunge into
Latin translation: "Antiquissimis temporibus Satur-
nus in Italiam venisse dicitur," — " In most ancient
times Saturn is said to have come into Italy." Then
the next sentence disclosed, after due persuasion, that
he founded a city, and called it Saturnia ; and finally,
at the close of this first paragraph, the first word
of the Italian people : " Hie Italos primus agricul-
turam docuit," from which, with much thumbing
of the " vocabulary " in the back part of the book,
we learned that — " He first taught the Italians agri-
culture." There, in a nutshell, — or,* rather, in a
sentence, — is the beginning of Italian civilization ;
and the beginning was in agriculture — the funda-
mental art, an art so old among the Italians that its
origin was ascribed to Deity.
I I
The Indian Dispossessed
Since then, those who hold the magic wand of
civilization have come, many times the world over,
into the land of the unenlightened, with all shades of
motives, and with all sorts of teachings ; but the point
of it all is that this mythological benefactor began
the civilization of his chosen people, not by teaching
them the alphabet, nor a new creed, nor to make bead-
work for the curio market, but — " He first taught
the Italians agriculture."
From Italy's beginning to the first page of the
American aborigine's story may seem a far cry.
It is. Their significant relation — if a hibernicism be
permissible — is that of dissimilarity. Had some
kindly Saturn preceded the Pilgrims in the land, and
iirst taught the Indians agriculture, the meeting of
the races might have resulted very differently ; but it
was decreed that the Indian should receive his first
impression of the better life from mere mortals.
While the good Puritans appear to have yearned
for the salvation of the Indian's soul, they labored
more effectively for the possession of the Indian's
land ; and with a quick perception of their prime
motive the Indian soon brought himself to see, above
all else in the new civilization, a despoiler of his one
possession — the great hunting-ground of his fathers.
So, under the persuasive influence of these conditions,
the Indian moved continually westward, with his heart
full of hate for the white man, and the first great
lesson in civilization still unlearned.
Introduction
Musing, some twenty years ago, upon these prickly
points in his country's history, a brilHantly satirical
member of the United States Senate disguised the
unpalatable truths in a pellet of humor, thus, —
" When the pilgrim fathers landed upon the New
England shore, they first fell upon their knees, and
then upon the aborigines," — and, forthwith, the
American people assimilated an unwelcome historical
mess without so much as making a wry face. Indeed,
this witticism is now so respectably ancient that it is
here repeated with much trepidation, and only because
there are so few oases of humor in the grim desert
of the Indian's story that the reader may do well to
fortify himself here with a smile, against the heat
of other emotions during his journey toward the end
of the book.
With the coming of the troublous times that led
to the Revolution the good fathers found themselves
in the role of the oppressed, — and then, how changed
their views of man's rights! The youthful nation
announced to the world the discovery of these mighty
Truths in human affairs, — " That all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights, among them being life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
In the calm light of this day it passes the under-
standing that a people burdened with the problem of
two inferior races — one, slaves, and the other, not
slaves only because they possessed not one attribute of
3
The Indian Dispossessed
the slave — should have thus expressed themselves
with any literal intent. It is a kindness to absolve them
from any intent within the real meaning of the pro-
nunciamento, for we see now that it voices a helpful
aspiration, not a fact; but what more was it then
than an impassioned protest against inequality with
those above, without one thought of those helozv, —
a self-centering cry, "None shall be set above us! "
and not the voice of love, saying, " Arise, my brother,
and stand with me " ?
It is with some hesitation that the pet fiction of
the American people is thus vigorously assailed, but
while there remains any of the substance with which
we have invested its vague indefiniteness the true
status of the Indian cannot be clearly defined, and
until the limits of his rights are known we cannot
know to what extent those limits have been over-
stepped. If we believe that, in any literal sense, the
Indian was created the equal of " all men," and en-
dowed by his Creator with the inalienable right to
the pursuit of happiness in his own way, we have
sinned — and that enormously, because against our
own conception of right — in even disturbing him in
the possession of his vast hunting-ground ; a view
untenable, because we know that in this we have
done only that which dominant peoples have done
since the beginning, and will continue to do until
civilization shirks its duty to develop the resources of
the whole earth for the highest good of mankind.
4
Introduction
Then put aside the fallacy, and say, that no Indian
is the equal of the white man until he has turned to
the white man's way; his possessory right to the
great hunting-ground of his fathers conferred upon
him no ownership, in the white man's sense of owner-
ship, in land fitted for the higher uses of civilization ;
no precious metals in the hills were his, because for
generations he had chased the bufifalo and the deer
over the surface.
' The untamed Indian had but one tangible right, —
the right to be shown the new way by those who
had made his own way impossible. The very dearth
of his rights as a savage measured the white man's
tremendous obligation to bring him, by all reasonable
means, into the rights that come with civilization.
That the Indian did not turn readily to the better
way, history makes us sure; the change demanded
was too abrupt, too opposed to his inbred notions
of labor and responsibility; but civilization was not
to be stayed by the Indian's refusal to accept its teach-
ings, and in just proportion to his unbending the
Indian went down before it. This was the main
tragedy in the Indian's story, and his well-meaning
friends have often, in a spirit of undiscriminating
sentimentalism, made of it the main indictment against
the white man. Of this indictment we may at once
acquit ourselves, in so far as we have unselfishly and
intelligently labored to make the new way attractive;
but to no greater extent, for history again shows
5
The Indian Dispossessed
clearly that among the most implacable and bitter of
all Indians were many who had once turned to the
white man, only to be met with treachery and deceit.
The inevitable results of this long, unequal contest
were made more tragic because of the unyielding In-
dian's conviction that his right to " life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness " was being ruthlessly trampled
upon. There was no difference, to his untutored mind,
between defending his native land against the incur-
sions of other wild tribes, as he had often defended
it, and his final contest with the white man. There
was the same bitterness in defeat, the falling of his
braves was as tragic, and the sufferings of his women
and children as real, as though he were yielding to
another barbarian, because — Heaven help him —
there was much in the white man's philosophy which
he could not understand. In the calm of the long
afterward, when we sing our song of liberty:
" I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,"
it will do the Indian no more than a sentimental jus-
tice to remember it as the song of his own glad days.
The tragic story of the untamed, fighting Indian
is closed, and this book will have no more of him, —
thus eliminating many a sad, but possibly instruc-
tive, chapter. Neither is the tale to be burdened
with a recital of individual atrocities perpetrated
by irresponsible white settlers, and by renegades
6
Introduction
who so largely constituted the ragged, cutting edge
of our civilization, — a profitless harrowing of the
sensibilities, unless one delights in instances of un-
controlled depravity. It is with the Indian coming
into his rights as a man through the fundamental
art of agriculture, — how his rights in the real owner-
ship of land have been conserved, and how violated,
under regularly constituted authority; and especially
with the acts of that prime arbiter of the Indian's
destiny, the United States Congress, that these narra-
tives have to do.
With the final placing of the Indians upon reserva-
tions thirty, forty, and fifty years ago the Govern-
ment found itself, for the first time in its history, in
full control of the Indian situation — and, conse-
quently, for the first time with full responsibility for
the Indian's care and civilization. The Indian's game
— his livelihood — had disappeared before the ad-
vancing white man. He was subdued, generally
friendly, and in a mood as receptive as the Indian
mind is capable of. To turn him from the responsi-
bilities of the tribal life to the first responsibilities of
the civilized life was clearly to turn him from the
pursuit of game for a living to the pursuit of agri-
culture for a living. That was the way involving the
least abrupt transition ; from the buffalo and the deer
to stock-raising, from the gathering of roots and
berries to the gathering of vegetables ; and with this,
education and Christian teaching. None but the very
7
The Indian Dispossessed
sanguine could hope that most, or even a large ma-
jority, of the Indians would take readily to the new
way, but this was the natural way, the shortest step,
and the first step, and the Government set out in
good faith to first teach the Indians agriculture.
In view of subsequent history it is instructive to
read in the agency reports of forty and fifty years
ago of the earnestness and industry that character-
ized the Indian's beginning in agriculture and stock-
raising. It does seem as though the very pathos of
his simple efforts would have impressed upon the
Government with new force the double right of the
agricultural Indian to the best of the land, and pro-
tection upon it during his long endeavor to come
into the better way, — the right of a man striving to
do a man's work, and his prior traditional right to
all the land.
But the great, voting public's interest in the Indian
has been sentimental, not material, — often at a high
pitch over some newly revealed injustice, but always
effervescent, and rarely persisting until election day;
and Congress — created by votes, perpetuated by
votes, recognizing sentiment only as expressed in
votes — has always in Indian affairs more or less
narrowly represented the interests of the voters on
the frontier, uninfluenced by public sentiment.
The typical frontiersman was a survival of stren-
uous conditions; a man of forceful action, with an
insatiable desire for more land, and the best land,
8
Introduction
and land always just over the border laid down in
the latest covenant with the Indian, even though cov-
ered with the crops of Indians turned to the white
man's way. His development of the new country
was significant of strength and virility; it extended
the bounds of civilization, and, in his rough way, he
knew of civilization's debt to him and his kind.
The neighbor of this man was an untutored, sub-
dued child of nature, taking his first lesson in the
pioneer's own well-mastered art. He was not a
voter, — not even a man, in the eyes of the law.
His efforts were those of a beginner, — uncertain,
lacking efficiency, and of little economic effect.
How else could such a man as the pioneer regard
this primitive .school in the wilderness, and these
little beginnings, than as a sentimental effort of small
consequence in the general scheme? The Indian's
right and the white man's obligation were nothing to
him. He had seen the less forceful of his own kind
go down to failure before the obstacles which he him-
self had overcome, and he measured the worth of both
Indian and white man alike by the test of strength and
efficiency. The abandoned efforts of his departed
white neighbor had inured to his benefit, and he looked
with anticipation upon the Indian's small improve-
ments as the next in order to come. To develop new
country was his business, and in his greater ability
to develop- its resources he thought he saw his better
right to the Indian's land.
9
The Indian Dispossessed
This was the man who was to determine the Indian's
right to a foothold in his own country, through con-
gressmen and other officials who must heed the de-
mands of their few real electors or be turned out of
office. In the game of politics this much of the nation's
great trust has been consigned to his gentle hand.
Out of this condition came our great national re-
proach. Always of his best the Indian gave up to his
white neighbor. New treaties curtailing his reserva-
tion were entered into, often unwillingly on his part,
or old treaties were violated, and each time the Indian
moved to portions of his country more remote and less
desirable. The lack of permanency made any con-
tinued effort in agriculture impossible. With protec-
tion in the pursuit of agriculture, the Indian might
have learned much ; the strenuous game of the " sur-
vival of the fittest " in which he found himself taught
him nothing better than was in his own philosophy,
and too often he turned back to the old way.
Whether he were the defenceless beginner of the
Northwest, or the skilful agriculturist of the South-
west desert with ancient systems of irrigation, the
Indian was never regarded as a man. The forceful
settler dispossessed the irrigating Indian with even
less than usual formality because his highly cultivated
lands were the more valuable, — either by driving him
into the desert and pre-empting his land, or by divert-
ing his water, thus making his land a desert. Typical
of these Indians were the four thousand Pimas of
lo
Introduction
Arizona. They had practised agriculture by irrigation
along the Qila River for more than three centuries. In
the language of the early records, " They are farmers
and live wholly by tilling the soil, and in the earlier
days of the American history of the Territory they
were the chief support of both the civil and military
elements of this section of the country."
In 1886 the whites began to divert the waters of the
Gila River. A suit in the federal court was talked of
to maintain the clear rights of the Indians, but never
pressed. No district attorney who would prosecute
such a case against voting white men could expect to
live politically. Within seven years the Pimas were
reduced from independence to the humiliation of call-
ing for rations, while the white settlers used the
Indians' water undisturbed.
" Enough has been written about the need of water
for the starving Indians to fill a volume," wrote the
discouraged agent, after ten years. " It has been
urgently presented to your honorable office time and
again, and yet the need of water is just as great and
the supply no greater." So the years went on. In
1900 came the cry from the desert, " This water, their
one resource, their very life, has been taken from
them, and they are, perforce, lapeing into indolence,
misery, and vice." Thirty thousand dollars was ap-
propriated for more rations.
Finally, after eighteen years, the suit to recover the
Indians' rights received its final quietus. The district
II
The Indian Dispossessed
attorney reported in 1904: "There is no doubt but
that the case could be taken up and prosecuted to a
favorable ending, but . . . it would be impossible for
the court to enforce its decree, and the expense of
prosecuting such suit would cost between twenty and
thirty thousand dollars."
This Government long ago lost the right to say that
it could not enforce a federal law against less than a
thousand of its agricultural citizens. Its officials
would not disturb the political balance of Arizona.
Agriculturists one hundred years before the pil-
grims landed; agriculturists until white men stole
their water ; now, looking pitifully for rain in a rain-
less country. " No rain has fallen for more than a
year," says the report of 1904, " consequently they
were cut off from any agricultural achievements, but
found employment in various ways. The men worked
on the railroad, on farms, and in the adjacent towns.
The building of the Tonto Reservoir afforded work
for many. The women do laundry work, cook, raise
chickens, make baskets, and in many ways keep the
wolf from the door."
The crime of it cannot be charged to the frontiers-
man ; it is upon the Government that surrendered this
portion of its trust to those who were unfit to admin-
ister it. It was a trust involving the welfare of a race
not contemplated in our free institutions — an unrep-
resented people under a representative government.
The Indian was left without the protection which
12
Introduction
comes from a sustained public interest, for a sustained
public interest is impossible except as it appeals in
some measure to public selfishness.
But there is another side to this picture. During
all these years of trouble, the Indian was faithfully
attended by a great Unselfishness, always striving to
re-establish him, to educate and enlighten him. The
Government met with no opposition in administering
this portion of its trust, and the workers were granted
its most generous and intelligent support; for the
high ideals of the people have always been the Gov-
ernment's inspiration, even though it be often led to
action by a selfish few.
It is not within the scope of this book to recount the
great good that has come to the Indian through this
branch of the Indian service, save to make full
acknowledgment here of its greatness. It has done
much more than attend the Indian's education. Many
a tribe, and many individual Indians, have had saved
to them tracts of good land, upon which they have
worked their way toward civilization. Indeed, had it
not been for the constant presence of these among the
Indians who labored for their good, little good land
would have been left to any Indians.
These are the two great influences which have
shaped the Indian's destiny; one, steadily hewing
away the foundation — his land ; the other, faithfully
moulding the superstructure — his education; both
generously supported by a vote-seeking Congress.
13
The Indian Dispossessed
Where the first has failed, the Indian is coming
into full citizenship through agriculture, education,
and Christian teaching. Where both have succeeded
in their opposing efforts, we find the Indian figura-
tively, and often literally, on the rocks; educated,
saved, and forlorn, — amiable, but aimless, in his
arrested development. He has missed the fundamen-
tal lesson of mankind.
But, too often, without the foundation of good land
the superstructure has fallen, — and upon us is re-
sponsibility for the most miserable being in the land ;
landless, idle, drunken, dirty, and altogether unattrac-
tive; for forty years discouraged in agriculture and
encouraged in mendicancy under the ration system, —
a degenerate by-product of our nation-building process.
Much that was vicious in the administration of
Indian affairs has been eliminated during recent years.
The system of Indian education was never better,
never more liberally supported by the Government,
and in allotting good land in severalty to Indians
whose reservations still contain good land, we are
fulfilling our obligation to those individual Indians.
But from the portion of the nation's trust which fell
into the political pot we have the barren reservations,
perpetuated for many thousands of Indians of the
second and third generation whom we must, perforce,
continue to support, or " civilize " as railroad section
hands, and ditch diggers, and sellers of bead-work,
while the white man cultivates their good land. We
14
Introduction
now show a belated eagerness to square ourselves with
these Indians by allotting to them their choice of land
from the poor remnants which have been left to them
after the many choosings of the white man, — a
pathetic spectacle, this granting Indians the choice of
land on which no well-equipped white man could make
a living. This portion of our great obligation is
beyond redemption.
When we hear of dark injustice among the natives
of Africa, or in Russia's Siberian wastes, we turn in
horror from the oppressed to vent indignation upon
the oppressor. But when the tale of our own Poor
Lo is told, we lift our eyes to Heaven — not being so
well able to see ourselves as to see others — and mur-
mur, reverently, " 'T is the Survival of the Fittest ! "
Those who think lightly are wont to exclaim, impa-
tiently, that the Indian's story is a closed book. It is
— nearly so ; but the book of history is never closed,
except by those who think lightly.
Ugly facts never stood out more plainly. In this
Indian business Congress has persistently betrayed
the nation's ideals at the behest of a small fraction of
the people; the Rosebud land scandal of 1904 (told
in the chapter, " Uncle Sam, Trustee ") shows that
it can be led as easily now as ever before. If in our
self-satisfied conceit we think that other businesses
have not led, and are not now leading. Congress to
other betrayals of public trust, we, too, may as well
say that history can tell us nothing, and close the book.
15
The Indian Dispossessed
Congress delivers to the highest political bidder. If
the public bids highest, it is because of some great
selfish interest. The Indian's welfare, involving the
nation's honor, was struck ofif to the vicious few be-
cause, forsooth, it was not spelled in dollars before the
public eye.
This states a condition, not a remedy; the remedy
lies — in a slumber that knows no waking — with the
great public, — a public content that its ideals are so
little represented in national legislation.
And now, as we explore the darker recesses of the
Indian's story, we need not forget that the light still
shines outside; and while we watch the stain of what
we did trickling down over the snowy whiteness of
our first good intentions, some may find solace in
the placid, self-centering philosophy of these nameless
lines : —
" Hapless mosquito ! settling on my head,
I give one gentle tap, and thou art dead.
On such a day, to slay e'en thee I 'm loath —
Would that the world were wide enough for both ' "
i6
THE INDIAN RESERVATION
FIFTY years of the American Indian's story
lies in the Indian Reservation. Year by
year the story comes first-hand in the re-
ports of each reservation agent to the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs ; the Honorable Commissioner pre-
sents a review of the reports, with his comments
and recommendations, to the Secretary of the In-
terior; and the Honorable Secretary embodies a
brief of it in his annual report to the President.
Then there are the Indian treaties (so-called,
Heaven knows why), a whole bookful of them,
with Uncle Sam as party of the first part, and
Uncle Sam as absolute custodian of the party of
the second part; and Executive Orders, in which
the signature of the President makes and unmakes
Indian country without the troublesome formality
of consulting the Indians. And, too, when the In-
dian thinks his right to " life, liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness " extends beyond the confines of
his reservation into his old hunting-grounds, the
story shifts to the War Department, and Generals,
Colonels, and Majors take a hand at the record.
So the Indian story threads its way through the
various public documents, from eighteen hundred
2 17
The Indian Dispossessed
and fifty-five to nineteen hundred and five. It is tI:o
object of this book to pick out the official narratives
of a few Indian tribes and present the Indian in
his unromantic reality, — not the Indian in paint
and feathers chasing the buffalo, nor the Indian of
Cooper, but a forlorn individual wrested from old
conditions and brought face to face with new ; a
being bearing the impress of a common Maker at
the absolute mercy of those who profess that " all
men are created equal." The public documents shall
tell most of the story.
The first forcible exposition of the reservation
system, somewhat revised and in working order,
appears in the report for 1872 of the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs to the Honorable Secretary of the
Interior. He says in part:
" In the first announcement made of the reserva-
tion system, it was expressly declared that the In-
dians should be made as comfortable on, and as
uncomfortable off, their reservations as it was in the
power of the Government to make them ; that such
of them as went right should be protected and fed,
and such as went wrong should be harassed and
scourged without intermission. It was not antici-
pated that the first proclamation of this policy to
the tribes concerned would effect the entire cessa-
tion of existing evils; but it was believed that per-
sistence in the course marked out would steadily
reduce the number of the refractory, both by the
18
The Indian Reservation
losses sustained in actual conflict and by the deser-
tion of individuals as they should become weary of
a profitless and hopeless struggle, until, in the near
result, the system adopted should apply without ex-
ception to all the then roving and hostile tribes.
Such a use of the strong arm of the Government
is not war, but discipline."
Not war — certainly not ; but discipline. It is
fairly alive with discipline. If some captious reader
persists in the notion that every war of conquest
since the world began aimed to " steadily reduce the
number of the refractory," both by killing and by
strangling hope in the living, he may content him-
self with the reflection that, sometimes, discipline
is hell.
So the well-disposed Indian was to revel in
plenty, and the hostile, " scourged without inter-
mission." How did it work?
The Government soon discovered three things : first,
that the well disposed and subjugated tribes could be
kept in a state of quiet at an extremely small expense,
simply because they would not or could not fight;
second, that by providing for the powerful and semi-
hostile tribes so bountifully as to allay their resent-
ment of the intrusion, the white settlements could gain
foothold far up into the Indian country without the
aid of the military; and third, that while the system
of rewards to the righteous was correct as a senti-
mental proposition, the same amount of money ex-
19
The Indian Dispossessed
pended on the Indians in inverse ratio to their
friendliness produced the best results — for the Gov-
ernment. Hence a curiously " Inverted Policy " in
full blast at the time of the Commissioner's report.
Here is his apology for it:
" This want of completeness and consistency in the
treatment of the Indian tribes by the Government has
been made the occasion of much ridicule and partisan
abuse; and it is indeed calculated to provoke criti-
cism and to afiford scope for satire; but it is none
the less compatible with the highest expediency of the
situation. It is, of course, hopelessly illogical that the
expenditures of the Government should be propor-
tioned not to the good but to the ill desert of the
several tribes ; that large bodies of Indians should be
supported in entire indolence by the bounty of the
Government simply because they are audacious and in-
solent, while well-disposed Indians are only assisted to
self-maintenance, since it is known they will not fight."
Although " hopelessly illogical," it was held to be
reasonable:
" It is not a whit more unreasonable that the Gov-
ernment should do much for hostile Indians and little
for friendly Indians than it is that a private citizen
should, to save his life, surrender all the contents of
his purse to a highwayman ; while on another occasion,
to a distressed and deserving applicant for charity, he
would measure his contribution by his means and
disposition at the time. There is precisely the same
20
The Indian Reservation
justification for the course of the Government in feed-
ing saucy and mischievous Indians to repletion, while
permitting more tractable and peaceful tribes to
gather a bare subsistence by hard work, or what to
an Indian is hard work."
The friendly Indian seems to have been quick to
perceive the penalty for being a good Indian, but,
unfortunately for his peace of mind, he was unable
to read this lucid explanation of the reasonableness
of his affliction.
That the Commissioner was strenuous in his views
regarding the early reduction of the hostile Indian to
the inexpensive variety, may be gathered from the
following extracts:
" It belongs not to a sanguine, but to a sober view
of the situation, that three years will see the alter-
native of war eliminated from the Indian question,
and the most powerful and hostile bands of to-day
thrown in entire helplessness on the mercy of the
Government. . . .
" No one certainly will rejoice more heartily than
the present Commissioner when the Indians of this
country cease to be in a position to dictate, in any
form or degree, to the Government; when, in fact,
the last hostile tribe becomes reduced to the con-
dition of suppliants for charity. This is, indeed,
the only hope of salvation for the aborigines of the
continent. If they stand up against the progress of
civilization and industry, they must be relentlessly
21
The Indian Dispossessed
crushed. The westward course of population is
neither to be denied nor delayed for the sake of all
the Indians that ever called this country their home.
They must yield or perish; and there is something
that savors of providential mercy in the rapidity
with which their fate advances upon them, leaving
them scarcely the chance to resist before they shall
be surrounded and disarmed. . . .
" The freedom of expansion which is working
these results- is to us of incalculable value. To the
Indian it is of incalculable cost. Every year's ad-
vance of our frontier takes in a territory as large
as some of the kingdoms of Europe. We are richer
by hundreds of millions; the Indian is poorer by a
large part of the little that he has. This growth is
bringing imperial greatness to the nation; to the
Indian it brings wretchedness, destitution, beggary."
So " expansion " and " imperial greatness " are
not terms born of the Philippine situation. The
business dates back some thirty years.
" Discipline " of the strenuous kind proceeded
with the reduction of the hostile Indian in strict
accordance with the good old law of " the Survival
of the Fittest," despite the handicap of the Slogan.
And it is beyond the expectation of reason that a
sentimental expression of " inalienable rights," at
best the cry of a distressed people even though still
persisting as a living truth, should have secured to
the Indian as his game preserve vast areas of coun-
22
The Indian Reservation
try fitted for infinitely better uses. Such a thing
cannot happen until the laws made " in the begin-
ning " become subject to human revision.
But after that, the host of " suppliants " ; and
then, what next? Then, surely, there is grand
opportunity for the play of the humanitarian pro-
fessions of a great nation; with the last Indian
turning to his " Great Father " for instruction in
the better way, will Justice be invited to preside
over the destiny of the unhappy race? Or will
Uncle Sam " measure his contribution by his means
and disposition at the time," and let it go at that?
23
THE UMATILLAS
" I look at this land, this earth ; it is like my mother, as if she was
giving me milk, for from it I draw the food on which I live and grow."
The plea of an Oregon Indian Chief.
" These poor people, relying on the promises of their ' Great Father '
for protection, prefer to keep their little homes and die by the graves
of their fathers, and nothing remains but to do them simple justice and
protect them in their rights." The Response of One Good Man in
Authority.
FIFTY years ago, the Indians living in the
valleys and mountains where Oregon, Wash-
ington, and Idaho meet, first heard the white
man's cry of Gold. Onward came the excited miners,
reckless with gun and regardless of rights, and away
sped the Indians' game. The Indians gazed in wrath-
ful consternation. What should they do?
" Fight," said the chiefs. " Fight for the land
of our fathers ! " echoed the warriors. And fight
they did, with the desperate ferocity of men who
know that in the end they must lose. And they
lost.
Then in 1859 the Government gathered up the
remnants of three tribes, — the Walla Wallas, the
Cayuse, and the Umatillas, — made a treaty with
them, and placed them all together on a reservation
in northeastern Oregon.
24
The Umatillas
In consideration for the cession of their vast
hunting-grounds, which included the exceedingly
valuable Walla Walla valley, this Umatilla reserva-
tion was secured to them, with certain annuities and
other benefits, including an agency for their pro-
tection and instruction in farming, and a school for
the education of their children. They then settled
down to learn to " travel the white man's road."
Seven years later their agent has this to say about
them:
" I estimate the number of acres now under fence
at something over two thousand, about half of which
is unbroken land used for pasture, hay, corrals, etc.,
the remainder being in a good state of cultivation.
The number of acres planted this year may be esti-
mated as follows : Wheat, 480 acres ; corn, 120 acres ;
oats, 100 acres, with about 200 acres in peas, beans,
barley, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, onions, turnips,
carrots, parsnips, beets, cabbage, and other vege-
tables. The approximate yield of this land will be
fifteen thousand bushels of all kinds of produce,
more than sufficient for the wants of all if equally
distributed.
" As usual, quite a number of Indian farmers will
each have from five hundred to one thousand dollars'
worth of produce to sell, which they can dispose of
for good prices at the neighboring towns and sta-
tions on the road. . . .
" Most of the Indians residing here are Roman
25
The Indian Dispossessed
Catholics, and their attachment to the reverend
father, who is pleased to act as their spiritual as
well as temporal teacher, is very great. . . -
" The only violations of law and order are com-
mitted by thoughtless young men and renegades from
distant reservations."
And the State Superintendent adds : " At the an-
nual fair of the Oregon State Agricultural Society,
held in 1865, two first premiums and one second
premium were awarded to these Indians for agricul-
tural products; and I may add that I know, from
personal observation, that products of similar or
even superior quality are by no means uncommon
among them."
A truly pastoral community. Their number is
given as seven hundred and fifty-nine, and thirty-
one scholars are enrolled in the school. Eighty-five
hundred of their horses and cattle graze upon the
reservation.
But the Superintendent's report to the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs indicates that the white
men are beginning to repent of their " treaty " with
these Indians:
" The superior quality of the land, and its loca-
tion on a great thoroughfare, convenient to the gold-
mines of Powder River, Boise Basin, Oughee, and
other points, of course make it attractive to whites.
There are constant attempts to encroach upon it,
constant attempts, under various pretexts, to locate
26
The Umatillas
upon it, and occasional attempts to exasperate the
Indians into the commission of some overt act which
will justify, or at least palliate, retaliation, and thus
give an excuse for plunging the country into another
Indian war, the end of which, they well know,
would be the expulsion of the Indians from the
coveted tract."
And their agent confirms the presence of the cloud
that hangs over these children of the forest:
" The only cause of discontent existing in their
minds is the constant fear that the reservation will
be taken from them and thrown open to settlement
by the whites."
Again, in the following year : " The Indians, who
are superior to most tribes in intellect and energy,
are very much attached to their home, and very
reluctant to abandon it. Some thoughtless whites
have talked quite freely about driving the Indians
off and taking possession by force. During a visit
last spring to that agency and vicinity I heard
threats of that sort repeated many times. Public'
meetings of citizens have been held to devise means
to have the tract opened for settlement, and peti-
tions for the same object to Congress and to the
State Legislature have been circulated and numer-
ously signed. The Indians are hence very uneasy
and very much alarmed. There are here, as on
probably every frontier, a few reckless villains who
desire to provoke a war."
27
The Indian Dispossessed
Two years later comes this plain, blunt communi-
cation from their agent:
" I believe it is as well known by you, as it is by
everybody in the country, that this place is wrongly
situated for an Indian reservation. It is closely sur-
rounded by white settlements, and contains nearly
all the good land in Umatilla County; in fact, there
is a larger area of cultivatable land in one body on
the reserve than anywhere else in eastern Oregon."
" Wrongly situated " because it is too good for
these farmer Indians. But why too good? After
stating that the whites have already opened several
roads through the reservation, he concludes:
" With this situation of affairs it is not surpris-
ing that the whole white population of this region
are clamorous for the removal of the Indians from
this tract of land, which would soon be developed
into a rich and populous country."
Assuming that the agricultural Indian is at least
entitled to an advantageous foothold in the land of
his fathers, it is interesting to note the effect of
these various messages in Washington.
The tales of attempts to encroach upon and ex-
asperate the Indians, of the threats and consequent
terror of the Indians at the thought of being
driven from their homes, seem to have spent them-
selves upon the desert air. But now, " the w^ole
white population of this region are clamorous for
the removal of the Indians," and things begin to
28
The Umatillas
move. Within two months of this " clamorous "
report, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his
report to the Secretary of the Interior, re-states the
case in more diplomatic form :
" The question has been raised whether they should
not be removed to some other locality, as they are
constantly annoyed by the encroachments of the
whites, who covet the possession of their fertile and
valuable lands, lying, as they do, on the highway
to Boise City and Salt Lake. The Superintendent
recommends the appointment of a commission to,
arrange for a sale of their lands, and their settle-
ment upon some other reservation."
This is plain enough. The Indians must not be
annoyed. They may have to give up their homes
to the covetous whites and move to the wilderness,
but they must not he annoyed.
The plan to remove the Indians developed rapidly.
Congress soon resolved:
" That the President of the United States is hereby
requested to negotiate with Indians upon the Uma-
tilla reservation, in Oregon, with the view of as-
certaining on what terms said Indians will relinquish
to the United States all their claims or rights to
said reservation and remove to some other reser-
vation in said State or Washington Territory."
A commission of three was duly appointed, con-
sisting of the State Superintendent, who had recom-
mended their removal, the resident agent of the
29
The Indian Dispossessed
Indians, and a farmer, a former Indian trader,
whose land adjoined the reservation. The summer
of 1 87 1 finds the special commissioners on the reser-
vation, ready for business.
And the Indians! All is excitement and conster-
nation. The crisis is upon them; the men from the
Great Father have come to make another bargain !
Come forth, chiefs ; make the plea of your lives in
defence of the Indian country! Make your words
strong, but with a good heart, for the Great Father
must not be displeased with what the Indians say.
Speak from your hearts for this piece of ground,
for the words of the white man are many, and the
words of the Indian few !
The commissioners came, and the Indians gath-
ered at the agency from all parts of the reserva-
tion. Times without number before, commissioners
have come, and as many times Indians have gath-
ered to meet them, — shrewd and forceful men,
with purpose determined, to bargain with those who
know little else than love of native land. Little
wonder that the Indian moves each time to a less
coveted country, and wonders why the Great Spirit
of his fathers has forsaken him.
But in this particular instance the expectant whites
reckoned witliout one man ; it is necessary to go
back a little. A salient feature of President Grant's
" peace policy " was the Board of Indian Commis-
sioners, authorized by special act of Congress, " to
30
The Umatillas
consist of not more than ten persons, selected from
among men eminent for their intelHgence and phil-
anthropy, to serve without pecuniary compensation."
This Board was the result of an earnest attempt on
the part of President Grant to rescue the Indian
service from the political mountebanks who trafficked
in the welfare of a helpless race to gain the political
support of the frontier country. To check the whole-
sale robbing of Indian supplies, the Board was clothed
with authority to approve and supervise all Indian
contracts ; more especially, the members of the Board
were to acquaint themselves with the needs of the
Indians by personal visits to the reservations, that
they might in some measure stand between the wolf-
ish rapacity of the frontiersmen and the defenceless
reservation Indians.
Felix R. Brunot and Vincent Colyer were ap-
pointed chairman and secretary, respectively, of the
first Board. It is enough to say that they were
qualified literally for their distinguished offices —
" men eminent for their intelligence and philan-
thropy." The story of the labors of ,these men,
of their visits to the agencies and Indian camps
throughout the great West, of hardships endured
for humanity's sake, securing justice, and denying
to no lowly Indian the right to be heard in his
own behalf, covers the brightest page in Indian
history.
Felix R. Brunot appeared with his secretary at
31
The Indian Dispossessed
this Council on the Umatilla reservation. Now,
the records are full of such councils with reserva-
tion Indians ; some of them drag along for a month,
three months, or all summer, before the desired
" consent " is gained. In others, the Commissioners
wear themselves out before the Indians give up, and
depart, always to come again, prepared to win.
This Council lasted six days — just long enough
to carefully present the question of removal to the
Indians, and to hear the replies of their chiefs.
Possibly it would have lasted no longer had Mr.
Brunot not be there. Who knows? But it stands
significant among all the land-winning efforts of the
white man as the shortest unsuccessful council on
record.
The surrounding whites were out in force, highly
interested spectators; a United States senator for
Oregon made one speech to the Indians, in which,
amid protestations of friendship, he pictured the
overwhelming advance of the white man in a way
that must have terrified these simple-minded people.
"... The whites will, perhaps, in the course of
time, want to build railroads through your reserva-
tions, when the President thinks it necessary. The
railroads will bring more white people into the coun-
try. They may settle about the reservation, and we
may not be able to prevent their committing some
wrong. If they should commit wrong on the In-
dians, we fear you would commit some wrong
32
The Umatillas
against them in retaliation. Then the white people
and the Indians might have a great war. There
are great numbers of white people, and we fear they
would exterminate the Indian. This we wish to
prevent. Our hearts are with the Indians, and, as
law-makers, we wish to protect them. We want
them to understand fully the danger that surrounds
them. The President will do all he can to pro-
tect them, but there are some bad white men as well
as bad Indians. We want you to think of it, and
decide whether it would be better to get away from
the roads and the railroads that may some time be
built through the country. . . ."
The Indians took little part in the speech-making
of the first two days. The superintendent presented
the question of removal with great elaboration, and
Mr. Brunot gave the Indians several talks of an
advisory nature. Everything said was carefully in-
terpreted and recorded. One Indian — Uma-pine, a
Caynse chief — interjected remarks at frequent in-
tervals; he seemed suspicious of the superintendent:
" My heart is this way ; you thought over it ; you
wished for this reservation; you wished for Grand
Ronde, for Walla Walla Valley and Umatilla; you
wished for it. What kind of a heart was it that
wished for all these places ? Speak plain and all will
hear it."
But old Uma-pine followed one of Mr. Brunot's
talks with this rather good-humored acknowledgment :
3 33
The Indian Dispossessed
" You brought the mind of the Great Father from
Washington. I am poor, and I speak; I know
nothing; you are a long way ahead of us. You
say we are far behind you; that is all right, and
we do not mind if you tell us so."
On the third day, after the senator had presented
the question of removal in his peculiarly forceful
way, the Indian speeches began. Howlish-Wampo,
the head chief of the Cayuse, led the defence : ^
" I heard what you said about our lands, and I
understood what you said. We like this country and
don't want to dispose of our reservation. I look at
this land, this earth; it is like my mother, as if she
was giving me milk, for from it I draw the food
on which I live and grow. I see this little piece
of land; it is all I have left; I know it is good
land. This reservation was marked out for me.
The people that are on this reservation are work-
ing, are doing their own work for themselves. I
understand that you are asking me for my land. I
say I like my land, and I don't know whether you
will fulfil your promise if I accept your promises
for my land. I did not see, with my own eyes, the
money that was promised me before. All the stock
I have had to feed on this land here. That is why
I say this little piece of land, all I have here, I want
1 The frequent allusions in the Indians' speeches to Stevens and
Palmer, the Council at Walla Walla, and unfulfilled promises, all refer
to their treaty.
34
The Umatillas
left for me. The large country I gave Governor
Stevens, and you have not paid for it. The white
man has settled on it. I feel that I have here a
small piece of land left, this that I live on now.
The whites have all the land outside, and the other
reservations are all full of people who belong on
them. The Nez Perce are living on their reserva-
tion, and the Indians at Simcoe are on their reser-
vation. The Indians below live on Warm Spring
reservation. I see that they are all living on their
own reservations, and feel just as I do living on
mine. The same I said before I say again, I can-
not let my reservation go. That is what I have to
say now to your commissioners."
Then Wenap-Snoot followed ; and Hom-li. Tenale-
Temane made a characteristic Indian speech :
" I have heard what you said to me. There is
my friend Mr. Brunot; he has just come here; I
heard him with my ears and with my heart, and
what I heard him say he talked straight. When he
talked of God, of Him who made the ground on
which we stand, my heart was glad, and I thought
he talked straight; this is why I thought we were
going to have a straight talk. The whites talked
to me some time ,ago, and I came over here. The
land was marked out for me and I came upon it.
We have been here eleven years; and since I saw
this reservation, I have been on it ever since. I
looked and saw with my eyes, there is so much land
35
The Indian Dispossessed
they have marked out for me. Now, my friend,
when I came here, I saw the white man's fences
and how they were made, and I went to work.
Ever since that I have worked hard. I am an old
man; I have worked till the sweat rolled off me to
get food for my children; that is the reason for
what I have to say now. ... I do not wish you,
my friend, to have bad feelings at what I have said.
The President, when he sees what is written, will
see what his children have said, and then he will
think in his heart that his children (the Indians)
love their country. My friend, I tell you again, I
love my country; I want to raise my children, and
also raise provisions for them on it. That is why
I don't want any white man to come and live in-
side the reservation. That is what Governor Palmer
and Governor Stevens told us, that no white man
shall go and live inside our reservation. Now, my
friend, you have heard what I have said about my
land, and that is why I want to stay here; I cannot
find any other country outside; my friend, the white
man, has occupied the whole country. I see the
whites travelling through the country on all sides,
but I stay here on these lands that they promised
me I should keep."
The Superintendent responded with another long
talk about the places to which the Indians might
go. He talked so long that Hom-li ended his speech
the next day with the remark : " You make speeches
36
The Umatillas
too long. All day yesterday you talked. We can-
not remember what you say."
Wenap-Snoot replied to the numerous suggestions
with one of the shortest and pithiest Indian speeches
on record:
" I want to say a few words to answer what you
have said. I saw Lapwai (Nez Perce) with my
own eyes, and I have seen the mouths of the Yakama
with my own eyes; I have seen the Yakama reser-
vation (Simcoe) with my own eyes, and I have
seen Walloa Valley with my own eyes, and all the
Snake country away South I have seen with my own
eyes, and all these countries. I have seen all them
with my own eyes, and none of these countries would
suit me."
The numerous speeches bring out many interesting
phases of Indian thought. The dignified earnestness
of all their utterances indicates the seriousness with
which the Indians regarded this coming again of
the white man. " God hears me now," said Pierre,
" and he hears you ; we have spoken plainly to one
another, and not with bad hearts. I have no wish
to go and see that country you talked to us about.
I have no wish for any other country."
And Uma-pine : " I believe you think your bodies
are dear to you in the same way we value our land.
It is dear to us — dear to every one of us. We
know every day there is some bargain made."
On the morning of the sixth day some one brought
37
The Indian Dispossessed
De-co-tisse bad news from home, and, despite his
expressed desire to avoid pubHcity, his sorrowfully
humorous tale became a part of the record :
" I don't want what I say written down ; I only
want to tell you I have been here at the council so
many days. You told us you were going to make
this matter about the land all plain to us. I left
fifty-seven bundles of oats, sixty rows of corn and
pumpkins, and all I had, I left them on the ground
to attend this council. They are all destroyed. Two
cows with bells on, followed by a band of mixed
cattle, with mixed brands on them, came in and
destroyed them. I do not tell you this from a bad
heart ; I only wanted to tell you what has happened."
Poor De-co-tisse! Many a patriot has left the
plough at his country's call, but few have had their
sacrifices heralded with such particularity.
Finally the Indians were told to counsel among
themselves and prepare their final answer. There
could not have been much doubt about this final
answer; as the commissioners withdrew, a Cayuse
chief called after them, " You need not wait long ;
come when you get your dinner ! "
And this was the answer:
" Howlish-Wampo. You are asking us now as
if you were speaking to our hearts. What you
have spoken this people have heard. . . . This res-
ervation that we are on, we all hold it with our
bodies and with our souls; and right out here are
38
The Umatillas
my father and mother, brothers and sisters and chil-
dren all buried; and I am guarding their graves.
That is my heart, my friend. This reservation, this
small piece of land, we look upon it as our mother,
as if she were raising us. You come here to ask
me for my land. It is like as if we who are In-
dians were to be sent away and get lost. I look
upon all sides. On the outside of the reservation
I see your houses. They are good. They have
windows in them. You are bringing up your chil-
dren well; that is why I say this. You must listen
to me. I do not want to part with my land. I
want to show you white chiefs that that is what
my heart is. I do not want you to make my land
smaller. If you do, what would my stock feed upofi ?
What is the reason you white men, who live near
the reservation, like my land and want to get it?
You must not think so. You are not going to get
it. I am telling you this as a friend. I am not
telling it with a bad heart. I want to know, if I
was to go away from here, where I could find as
good a piece of land as large as this is ? My friends,
I tell you now, I wish you would not talk too strong
about getting my land. I like my land ; will not let
it go. That is what makes me talk so. I am show-
ing you my heart about this reservation. You have
been asking me for my heart. This is my heart."
" Wat-che-te-mane. ... I want you to listen
to what I have to say. Here is the way my
39
The Indian Dispossessed
heart is. Here in this land my father and mother
and children have died. The father (priest) is the
only one who straightens out my heart. That is
why my heart is this way. I am getting old now,
and I want to die where my father and mother and
children have died. That is why I do not wish to
leave this land and go off to some other land. I
see the church there. I am glad to see it, and think
I will stay beside it and die by the teaching of the
Father. I see how I have sweat and worked in try-
ing to get food. I see the flour-mill the Government
has promised. I have gotten it. I see my friends.
I like all that I have (the mills and lands). That
is why I cannot go away from here. The President
will see the record, and see what we poor old men
have said in this council. What the whites have
tried to show me I have tried to learn. It is not
much, but I have fenced in a small piece of land
and tried to raise grain on it. I am showing you
my heart. I like my church, my mills, my farm,
the graves of my parents and children, and I do not
wish to leave my land. That is all my heart, and
I show it to you."
" Pierre. I am going to make a short speech.
I have only one heart, only one tongue. Although
you say, ' Go to another country,' my heart is not
that way. I do not wish for any money for my
land. I am here, and here is where I am going to
be. I think all these young men's hearts are like
40
Wolf, — Umatilla
The Umatillas
mine. I think a great deal and have but little to
say. What I have said will go on paper to Wash-
ington. Then they will think over what we Indians
have said. That is all I have to say. I will not
part with my lands. And if you should come again
I will say the same again. I will not part with my
lands."
There was no mistaking the Indian decision; and
the Indian decision, according to the view of Mr.
Brunot, was. what the commissioners came for. That
ended the business.
Mr. Brunot concluded the council with words
of encouragement and assurance which must have
touched the hearts of these harassed Indians. Then
he turned to the whites, who had gathered to learn
the result of the council, and sent this parting shot:
" I know that there are many persons within reach
of this reservation, and other reservations, who sup-
pose that the Indians will be removed, and they are
waiting for places on them. These men will be told
by their candidates for Congress that they will get
the Indians removed. If they should ever succeed,
and I do not believe they ever will, it will be with
the certainty that the Indians will get the full value
of their lands, and I believe the man who waits here
to get a pre-emption claim on this land will die a
poor man, still waiting. Now, my friends, I never
expect to see you again (unless we may hope, as
I hope, to meet you in a better world hereafter), and
41
The Indian Dispossessed
in parting I will venture one word of advice. If
I lived near this reservation with the idea of ever
living on it I would abandon it at once. I would
hitch up my team Monday and I would go to where
the Pacific railroad will probably come, or I would
settle on some other good place."
Mr. Brunot's report to Washington does not seem
to allow the Government much choice of action:
" In view of the maladministration of agents and
the misapplication of funds, the failure of the Gov-
ernment to perform the promises of the treaty, and
the fact that the Indians have been constantly agi-
tated by assertions that the Government intended
their removal, and that their removal was urged
for several years in succession in the reports of a
former agent (thus taking away from them all in-
centives to improve their lands), it must be admitted
that the progress these Indians have made in ten
years has been wonderful. Had they, as the result
of the late negotiations, given their consent to re-
moval, I should have felt bound to remonstrate
earnestly against any action of the Government to
take advantage of so injudicious a decision of their
incompetent wards. Happily, the unanimous refusal
of the Indians to sell or remove from the remnant
of land which the United States has solemnly guar-
anteed to them, leaves no room for any question of
that kind. The arguments used in favor of their
removal will apply with equal force to any other
42
The Umatillas
place to which they might be sent ; and even if they
did not, these poor people, relying on the promises
of their ' Great Father ' for protection, prefer to
keep their little homes and die by the graves of
their fathers, and nothing remains but to do them
simple justice and protect them in their rights. It
is earnestly hoped that the determination to do so
will be authoritatively announced."
But the noble Elect — the gentle frontiersmen who
gazed with longing eyes upon the Indian lands — -
denounced in language picturesque the whole busi-
ness as an outrageous miscarriage.
And so it was; a miscarriage of injusticd
43
THE STORY OF THE BITTER ROOT
"If it [the Bitter Root Valley] shall prove, in the judgment of the
President, to be better adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe,
. . . then such portions of it as may be necessary shall be set apart
as a separate reservation for said tribe." The National Pledge to the
Flatheads.
SITUATED in the mountainous country at the
extreme western edge of Montana is the fer-
tile valley of the Bitter Root, the ancient home
of the Flathead Indians. The earliest noteworthy in-
cident in their history dates back to about 1835 ;
the story is rather fancifully told by a Government
agent, in a report made many years later:
" Nearly forty years since some Iroquois from
Canada, trading with the Flatheads, told them of
the teachings of the Jesuit fathers, who for many
previous years had been laboring among them, both
for their spiritual and temporal good. The Flat-
heads, listening to these narratives of wonder and
love, and as if directed by inspiration from above,
selected some of their best men, rude and savage
warriors, to proceed to St. Louis and ask a mission
to teach them ' the ways of the cross.' Wending
their way through the then almost trackless wilds
between here and St. Louis, the delegation found
44
The Story of the Bitter Root
itself among a hostile band of Sioux, on the western
borders of Missouri, only to be murdered, but one
escaping to tell the fate of the rest. In the fol-
lowing year, another and a larger delegation was
despatched on this Heaven-inspired duty, which suc-
ceeded in reaching the object of their destination,
and prevailing on Father De Smet to accompany
them to their wild mountain homes — the Flatheads
thus becoming the first spiritual children among the
red men of that venerated and distinguished Catholic
missionary. Located among them, the Pend d'Oreilles
soon sought his teachings, and bending their necks
to the Christian yoke, both tribes in aggregate were
duly received into the church, and to this day, al-
though subject to failings and shortcomings, like
the rest of humanity, they (particularly the Flat-
heads) will compare favorably, at least in morality,
with a like number of people anywhere."
The capacity of the Indian nature to absoi'b and
literally follow the teachings of a higher faith was
never better illustrated than in the case of these
tribes. During the years of warfare that followed
the advent of the whites in search of gold, nearly
all the tribes in the mountains of the great North-
west, alarmed at the flight of their game — their
livelihood — before the reckless white explorers, re-
sisted with the ferocity of despair this invasion of
what they regarded as their own country. Through-
out these bloody years the Flatheads, the Pend
45
The Indian Dispossessed
d'Oreilles, and the Nez Perces, three neighboring
tribes under Christian teachers, remained steadfast
friends of the whites, and under the guidance of
their self-sacrificing instructors these Indians sup-
plemented the pursuit of game with increasingly
successful attempts at agriculture and stock-raising.
But the restless white explorers gradually crowded
into the attractive valley of the Bitter Root. Then
comes the story of another bargain for the Indian
country. In 1855 the Flatheads, numbering some-
thing less than five hundred, under the leadership
of their old Chief Victor, met in council with com-
missioners appointed to treat with them for the
cession of territory and settlement on a reservation.
Some miles to the northward of the Bitter Root,
in what was known as the Jocko Valley, there
had been set apart a large reservation for the
Flatheads, the Pend d'Oreilles, and the Kootenais,
and thither it was proposed to remove them. The
Pend d'Oreilles and Kootenais were successfully
disposed of, but Victor and his people strenuously
opposed this measure. They were ready to give
up the large territory demanded of them, except
their Bitter Root Valley; this they would not cede
and remove to a country that did not compare in
fertility with their own. Besides, why should they?
In that valley they had set up their church, their
houses, their farms ; it belonged to them ; there they
had established themselves to learn the ways of the
46
The Story of the Bitter Root
white man, and there they proposed to remain. All
argument and persuasion failed to shake their de-
termination; Victor and his men flatly refused to
sign a treaty which involved the cession of the be-
loved land of their fathers.
Now, large interests were dependent upon the sign-
ing of this treaty; no Brunot was in attendance to
cut off the persuasive tactics of the commissioners.
The Bitter Root Valley was only a portion of the
coveted territory to be ceded. The treaty must be
signed.
The white man is resourceful, while the Indian
is simple; these two characteristics appear promi-
nently in every treaty council with the Indians.
After all other expedients had failed, this clause
was added to the document for the special benefit
of the Flatheads :
" Article XL It is, moreover, provided that the
Bitter Root Valley, above the Lo-Lo Fork, shall be
carefully surveyed and examined, and if it shall
prove, in the judgment of the President, to be bet-
ter adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe than
the general reservation provided for in this treaty,
then such portions of it as may be necessary shall
be set apart as a separate reservation for said tribe.
No portion of the Bitter Root Valley, above the
Lo-Lo Fork, shall be opened to settlement until such
examination is had and the decision of the President
made known."
47
The Indian Dispossessed
" If it shall prove, in the judgment of the Presi-
dent, to be better adapted to the wants of the Flat-
head tribe — ". " The pledge of the Great Father,"
the Indians argued; of course the land of their
fathers was better adapted to their wants than the
barren Jocko. With an abiding faith in the nation
that gave to them their first instructors in the better
way, Victor and his chiefs signed the treaty.
There seems to have followed a subsidence of the
wave of immigration to that section of country, and
no urgent demand for the evacuation of the valley
is in evidence for a considerable period. Victor died
a few years later, and the chieftainship of the tribe
fell to his son Charlos (sometimes written Chariot),
a man full worthy to watch over the affairs of this
peaceful community. For seventeen years after the
signing of the treaty these Indians were left in un-
disturbed possession of their lands, except for the
gradual encroachment of the white settlers, and
during those years they made most remarkable
progress in civilization.
In 1872 their number is given as four hundred
and sixty; they have four hundred and fifty acres
in cultivation, and fifty-five log-houses furnish them
with comfortable homes. Two thousand horses and
cattle, and large quantities of grain and vegetables,
indicate the thrift of these Indian farmers.
It would seem that if ever a band of Indians
struggling toward the light of a higher civilization
48
The Story of the Bitter Root
were entitled to the earnest consideration of a power-
ful republic, the Flatheads should have had that rec-
ognition; but the surrounding whites were already
clamoring for the Indian possessions.
During all these seventeen years the Bitter Root
Valley had not been " surveyed and examined," nor
had the " judgment of the President " been obtained,
as provided for in the eleventh article of their treaty.
The Indians had not given the question of title an-
other thought. Since Victor signed the treaty, every
succeeding year had made the valley " better adapted
to the wants of the Flathead tribe " than the Jocko or
any other reservation, and the Indians held the na-
tional pledge that on this one condition the land was
to be set apart for them as a separate reservation.
Still, the title had never been formally settled in
the Indians; and the whites coveted the valley.
Political wires were manipulated, and Washington
was appealed to; the great Juggernaut which was
to crush this band of Indians began to move.
To dispossess the Flatheads, their title must first
be invalidated under color of law. This necessary
formality required " the judgment of the President."
Here it is, signed by U. S. Grant, President of the
United States:
" Executive Mansion, November 14, 1871.
" The Bitter Root Valley, above the Lo-Lo Fork,
in the Territory of Montana, having been carefully
4 49
The Indian Dispossessed
surveyed and examined in accordance with the elev-
enth article of the treaty of July i6, 1855, concluded
at Hell Gate, in the Bitter Root Valley, between the
United States and the Flathead, Kootenai, and Upper
Pend d'Oreilles Indians, which was ratified by the
Senate March 8, 1859, has proved, in the judgment
of the President, not to be better adapted to the
wants of the Flathead tribe than the general reser-
vation provided for in said treaty; it is therefore
deemed unnecessary to set apart any portion of said
Bitter Root Valley as a separate reservation for
Indians referred to in said treaty. It is therefore
ordered and directed that all Indians residing in said
Bitter Root Valley be removed as soon as practicable
to the reservation provided for in the second article
of said treaty. . . ."
This effectually cleared the land of the Indian
title. One would infer that the general reservation
must have been a better land than the Flathead
home, although the best portions of the Jocko had
long since been taken by the tribes already there.
The missionary to the Flatheads wrote an earnest
letter of protest, and this is his opinion of the land :
" I am satisfied to say — and I know the ground,
every inch — that in that whole flat not a couple of
hundred acres of middling farming-land can be
taken. Besides, what there is of good land is in
small, narrow strips, spots, and patches, far apart
one from the other. Hence the necessity of fenc-
50
The Story of the Bitter Root
ing in large tracts of bad land, in order to enclose
two or three acres of good soil. The few acres of
good farming-land along and on both sides of Finley
Creek have been taken up long since by half-breeds,
and two or three white men married to Indian
women. . . ."
Yet the Bitter Root Valley, with its four hundred
and fifty acres of growing crops, its houses and
cattle, its Indian church and its Indian graves of
many generations, was declared " in the judgment
of the President, not to be better adapted to the
wants of the Flathead tribe " than this unsubdued
waste in the Jocko!
President Grant's record as a steadfast friend of
the Indian is too secure to be called into question,
but this executive order is eloquent of a system
which can procure the signature of an illustrious
president to as black a lie as ever Russia's bureau-
cracy compelled from the hand of the Czar. Can
this business be charged to the American people?
Certainly not. Public opinion, whenever it has been
sufficiently aroused to take notice of Indian affairs,
has invariably been with the Indians. But it can
be charged to the extremely popular system of gov-
ernment which holds every national official with his
ear to the ground, listening to popular clamor. Rule
by " the voice of the people " is well enougK when
all the people are interested, but a disinterested, con-
tented people will not take the trouble to rule any-
51
The Indian Dispossessed
thing ; this relegates local matters, such as the seizing
of Indian lands, to the control of a very few — the
interested few. Wherever a few faithful voters are
gathered together, they can, if they present their
demands vociferously, impress their own particular
congressman into their service. They become, for
him, " the voice of the people " ; silent ones do not
count. He is the servant, not of the whole Ameri-
can people, but of his immediate constituents. It
becomes his business to secure the necessary legis-
lation ; no matter how questionable the business may
be nor how much opposed to the righteous sentiment
of the whole people, a congressman cannot rise above
the average moral standard of his own clamorous
electors if he would hold his political ground. But
this imposes no moral strain upon the congressman,
unless he be an accident in office. He makes repre-
sentations to the Indian bureau, backed by docu-
ments galore from the anxious settlers, and the case
travels from official to official as the expressed " will
of the people." He approaches a few other con-
gressmen, each burdened with the wants of his
electors ; " you support my Indian bill, I vote for
your scheme;" the rest will vote "aye" anyway,
little knowing whether it is to be a cheese factory
for New York City or a junket to Hoboken.
Thus a bit of depravity threads its way, unrecog-
nized, upward through the official line to the Chief
Executive. Thus a " vociferous few " obtain national
52
The Story of the Bitter Root
legislation which would not for a moment bear the
scrutiny of the whole people.
The plans for this removal were well laid. The
Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his
report, alluded to these Indians as " the Flatheads
and ot!:er Indians remaining by sufferance in the
Bitter Root Valley," and in the spring Congress
passed an act ordering their removal to the Jocko
reservation. Within ten weeks of the passage of
the removal act special commissioner James A. Gar-
field (afterward President of the United States) ap-
peared among the Flathead Indians, to acquaint them
with the demands of the Government and to secure
their removal.
The argument with which they met the mandate
of the Government is given in General Garfield's
own words:
" Responses were made by the three chiefs, and
by several head-men of the tribe, and all of the
same tenor. The substance of their views may be
thus briefly stated:
" It seemed to be their understanding that they
had never given up the Bitter Root Valley, and they
were very strongly opposed to leaving it. They in-
sisted, and in this I believe they are partly borne
out by the facts, that when the treaty of 1855 was
nearly completed, Victor, the Flathead chief, refused
to sign it unless he and his people could be permitted
to remain in the Bitter Root Valley.
53
The Indian Dispossessed
" It will be remembered that by that treaty a very
large territory was ceded to the United States — a
tract extending from near the forty-second parallel
to the British line, and with an average breadth of
nearly two degrees of longitude; that this territory
had long been held in undisputed possession of the
Flathead nation, and that, on yielding it, Victor in-
sisted upon holding the Bitter Root, above the
Lo-Lo Fork, as a special reservation for the Flat-
heads proper.
" The chiefs admitted that, under the provisions of
the eleventh article, it was left in the power of the
President to determine whether the Bitter Root
Valley, above the Lo-Lo Fork, should be reserved
as the permanent home of the Flatheads. But they
insisted that by that article the President was re-
quired to have the Bitter Root Valley carefully sur-
veyed and examined, and, if it should be better
adapted to the wants of the Flatheads, then it should
be made a permanent reservation.
" They insisted that such a survey and examina-
tion should have been made immediately after the
ratification of the treaty, but that it had never been
done at all. That for seventeen years no steps had
been taken in regard to it, and they considered the
silence of the Government on this subject an admis-
sion that the valley was to be their permanent home.
" They further called attention to the fact that
they had learned something of civilization, and had
54
The Story of the Bitter Root
done a good deal in the way of cultivating the lands
and making the valley a more desirable home. They
complained that the schoolmasters, blacksmiths, car-
penters, and farmers promised them in the treaty of
1855 had never been sent into the Bitter Root Val-
ley; and all the speakers concluded by the declara-
tion that they claimed the Bitter Root Valley as
their home and were wholly unwilling to leave it.
They, however, affirmed their steady friendship for
the whites and disclaimed any hostile intentions, de-
claring themselves willing to suffer, peaceably, what-
ever the Government should put upon them, but that
they would not go to the reservation."
But as an officer of the Government commissioned
to execute a law already enacted. General Garfield
was not in a position to discuss with the Indians
the ethics of the situation. It became necessary to
inform them that the question was, not whether the
order was just or unjust, but, to quote his words,
" whether they had decided to disobey the order of
the President and the act of Congress." Moreover,
he realized, as these Indians could not, the utter
futility of an appeal from the decision of the De-
partment; a fertile valley certainly would not be
cleared of white men in order that the provisions
of an Indian treaty might be fulfilled. And he
foresaw, as they could not, the pathetic hopelessness
of a long-continued struggle to maintain their homes
in this valley if they resisted the command to move.
55
The Indian Dispossessed
It was explained to the Indians that, by act of
Congress, the first fifty thousand dollars received from
the sale of their lands were to be used to establish
them on the Jocko; but they contended (and Gen-
eral Garfield records his full agreement with them)
that the sum was wholly inadequate remuneration,
even if they were disposed to relinquish their homes
for any consideration. They were ofifered the privi-
lege of taking land in severalty in the Bitter Root
if they would break up tribal relations, but the
proposition to accept a small tract each out of the
large valley which they regarded as their own in
its entirety did not appeal to their sense of justice.
Charlos and his people steadfastly refused to go
to the reservation, and the council ended with the
secession of two sub-chiefs, who, with their follow-
ing of twenty families, consisting of eighty-one
people, consented to remove to the Jocko. General
Garfield contented himself with the reflection that
when Charlos saw these people comfortably housed
and specially favored he would surely follow.
Unfortunately for the Indians, the missionary in
charge of the Agency Mission was in Helena at the
time of the council. On his return he at once for-
warded by letter an appeal for the Indians. He
objected strenuously to the location on the Jocko
selected for them, and asserted that the land " is
mostly rocky and gravellous, and altogether unfit for
any agricultural purposes." He continues:
56
The Story of the Bitter Root
"... Such being the case, the consequences can
be easily foreseen. Either the Flatheads will not
move to that new place, or they will soon abandon
it, or if they should remain there the Government
will have to feed and support them, since they
could never become self-sustaining on it. The first
remark I heard from the Indians on this subject,
on my return from Helena, was simply this : ' The
Great Chief has no heart for the Indians, since he
intends to make them settle down on rocks.' . . .
" Besides the two objections above, there is a third
one, deserving even more particular consideration.
All the Flatheads are practical Catholics. There in
the Bitter Root Valley they have a Catholic mis-
sion and church to themselves; two of our mission-
aries live among them to instruct them in their
religious duties and minister to them in all their
spiritual wants. . . .
" We would have no means to start a new mis-
sion for them in their new home. Consequently,
those poor Flatheads will be made also necessarily
to suffer in what is most dear to them, in what
they value more than anything else in this world,
viz., their religion and the practice of it. When
the whole Flathead tribe will be notified of this
fact I doubt not that their unwillingness and repug-
nance to move thither will be intensely increased.
" Hoping, dear sir, that you will give these my
observations the consideration your kindness may
57
The Indian Dispossessed
deem them to deserve, I beg to remain, respectfully,
yours,
"F. L. PALLADINI, S.J.
" In charge of Saint Ignatius Mission.
" Hon. James A. Garfield, M.C."
This letter was laid before the Secretary of the
Interior by General Garfield, but it availed nothing.
The good priest had a distorted idea as to what
observations were likely to impress the Indian
bureau.
Then began a record unparalleled in Indian his-
tory for unique features. Charlos and his four
hundred, clinging with Indian faith to the promise
in the eleventh article of their treaty, determined to
stand by their homes and passively await the action
of their Great Father in Washington ; " to suffer,
peaceably, whatever the Government should put upon
them," as they had said to General Garfield.
The Indian ring was in a quandary. To grant the
demands of the " Vociferous Few," call out the mili-
tary, and remove the inoffensive Indians by force
would advertise the malodorous record to the coun-
try, with the certainty that swift condemnation of
the whole business would follow. On the other
hand, to redeem the national pledge required the
removal of the whites from the Indians' land, be-
sides congressional and executive acts in reverse order
— a retreat unprecedented, impossible.
58
The Story of the Bitter Root
Finally a plan of peaceful reduction was developed.
All the benefits and protection provided for in their
treaty virere vi^ithdrawn, and the Flatheads w^ere left
to shift for themselves, — a little, independent people
closely encircled by a hungry horde of frontiersmen.
Their history from this time appears year by year
in the reports of the Jocko agent.
One year ; the agent writes :
" I have visited most of the Indian lodges and
houses in the Bitter Root Valley, and talked as
much as possible with the white settlers, and not-
withstanding the desire of the latter to see troops
brought into requisition, yet some of them don't
wish to part with the Indians; nor can they state
more than one case in which a Flathead has com-
mitted a crime against a white person, and this was
the shooting of a cow by one who received one
hundred and fifty lashes for the offence by order
of the chief Charlos."
Three years; Charlos still holds out. Here is a
quiet scheme to dispossess him :
" There are yet between 300 and 400 Flatheads
living in that valley, adherents of the chief Charlos,
who so far have refused to listen to any counsel for
removal, and hold no communication with the agency
whatever; having apparently abandoned all relations
with the Government, believing that the Garfield
treaty will never be fully carried out. However, as
an order has been issued by the county authorities
59
The Indian Dispossessed
for the assessment of their property with the view
of collecting taxes, the majority of them will, if the
Garfield promises are kept in good faith before them,
probably remove to the Jocko within another year."
It must be borne in mind that the Indians were
wholly without the protection of law, with no stand-
ing in the courts, and no vote or other representa-
tion of any kind. An Indian was not even declared
to be a person in the eyes of the law until 1879.
Now if there is one principle of government that
does not find a place in the boasted declarations of
the Free and Equal, it is that of taxation without
representation. How will a scheme so un-American
be received at the seat of Government?
The Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
in his report for that year to the Honorable Secre-
tary of the Interior, says:
" The remaining 350 Flatheads, under two chiefs,
are still in the Bitter Root Valley, and hold no com-
munication with the agency, and are trying to main-
tain themselves on their farms. Whether they will
prove equal to the competition which the settlements
have brought around them, and be able to save their
property from sheriff's sale by prompt payment of
taxes, is yet a question. Amid the eager desire to
gain possession of their valuable farms, there will
be few days of grace after the taxes are due."
It is a curious coincidence that at this time the
country was celebrating the one hundredth anniver-
60
The Story of the Bitter Root
sary of its own famous protest against this same
form of oppression. " Taxation without represen-
tation is tyranny," declared the patriot fathers, and
several hundred chests of taxed tea cast upon the
waters of Boston Harbor proclaimed their senti-
ment in concrete terms. So, at this centennial time,
the Government looked approvingly upon the fes-
tivities of its Chosen, while it calmly discussed the
same scheme of taxation for another distressed
people — not for revenue only, but as a means to
gain the property taxed.
Five years; the confiscation scheme seems to have
failed :
" The whole Flathead tribe, consisting of nearly
four hundred souls, with the exception of the few
families who removed to this agency, adhere to
Charlos and follow his fortunes, choosing rather
to eke out a livelihood by their own exertions in
the neighborhood of their venerated chief than to
accept the bounty of the Government and leave their
homes. . . ."
The summer of 1877 was an eventful one in the
mountains of the Northwest. A portion of the Nez
Perces in Idaho, under Chief Joseph, refused the de-
mand of the Government for the evacuation of their
valley and location on a reservation. Troops were
hurried to the valley, and the command to move
was repeated with a show of force. This led to
murder, and murder to war. The Nez Perces, flee-
61
The Indian Dispossessed
ing before the United States troops under General
O. O. Howard, came directly through the Bitter
Root Valley. They called upon their old friends,
the Flatheads, to join their cause. Could a tribe
of harassed Indians resist this appeal?
The Jocko agent reports : " They not only refrained
from joining their ancient allies, the Nez Perces, but
they gave them warning that if an outrage was
committed, either to the person or property of any
settler of the Bitter Root Valley, in their retreat
before General Howard's advancing troops, they
would immediately make war upon them; and to
this worthy action of Charlos, the non-treaty Flat-
head chief, and the chiefs and head-men of this
reservation, do the white settlers of the Bitter Root
Valley owe their preservation of life and property
during those trying days."
Now it would seem possible for a great Govern-
ment to be magnanimous in a case of this kind
without offending petty politicians; under similar
circumstances one might expect something handsome
from the king of the Hottentots. A communication
from the agent to the Commissioner contains the
story of the Indians' reward:
"... The Flatheads lost their crops, owing in
part to neglect, caused by assisting the whites in
guarding their homes, and to a hail-storm which
cut everything down before it that season, leaving
them, destitute, and compelling them to go to the
62
The Story of the Bitter Root
buffalo country to sustain life by the chase, as they
were refused any assistance by the government, al-
though I made an earnest appeal in their behalf at
the time."
Seven years; the lines are drawing closer:
" Under Chief Charlos some 350 Flatheads still
cling to their homes in the Bitter Root Valley, re-
fusing to remove to this reservation. The rapid set-
tling up of the valley by a white population has
hedged these people in so closely that there is scarcely
grazing room for their cattle and horses."
A new scheme now comes to light. The Indians
were induced — by misrepresentations which will ap-
pear — to sign a request for patents of the tracts of
land occupied by them individually as farms. Of
course, the acceptance of such patents would be
equivalent to a surrender of the entire valley, with
the exception of the little tracts on which they ac-
tually lived.
But the abandonment of " the Bitter Root Valley,
above the Lo-Lo Fork," which Charlos steadfastly
insisted must be " set apart as a separate reservation
for said tribe," was far from the Indian intention.
They were shrewd enough to perceive the signifi-
cance of the plan when the patents were offered to
them. The agent reports:
" Charlos, the chief, refused to accept his patent,
and of course all the Indians present followed his
example. In explanation he said, in substance, that
63
The Indian Dispossessed
the treaty agreed upon between his father, Victor,
head chief of the Flathead nation, and other In-
dian chiefs, and Governor Stevens on the part of
the Government, on the i6th of July, 1855, pro-
vided that the Bitter Root Valley, above the Lo-Lo
Fork, should be set apart as a separate reservation
for the Flathead tribe. . . .
" In regard to the issue of the patents, Charlos
claims that that matter was never properly explained
to him or his people, and when they gave their names
for title they simply understood they were signing a
petition to the President to allow them to retain the
Bitter Root Valley as a separate reservation from
the Jocko, as agreed upon by the eleventh article of
the treaty. I found it in vain to try to explain the
precise meaning and wording of this clause, as he
persisted that it was the Indian understanding that
according to the Stevens [Victor] treaty they have
a valid right and title to the Bitter Root Valley as
a reservation. It was also inferred by him that if
his people did accept the patents they would not
know where to find the land, as a part of what he
claimed to be his land has already been taken away
from him by a white man, who claimed his land
ran through it. Taxation and the breaking up of
tribal relations is another objection, and also an
utter lack of appreciation or confidence in the good
intentions of the Government. He fully appreciates
the strength of the Government and the fact that
64
The Story of the Bitter Root
he can be forced into measures, but he claims that
if it should come to that he will only ask the privi-
lege to seek another home in another country of his
own choice rather than give up his title to the Bitter
Root as a reservation by accepting a patent for his
farm or by removing to the Jocko.
" I would state to the honorable Commissioner
that the affairs of the Flatheads of the Bitter Root
Valley are in a most deplorable and unsatisfactory
condition, and my motive in entering into so many
details is to place the matter before you in as in-
telligent form as I can, so that some action may
be taken to settle the question definitely without
resort to force. The time is surely approaching
when the Bitter Root land question will' lead to
serious difficulty, as the valley is fast being settled
by thrifty farmers. The chief, Charlos, is a good
and peaceable Indian, and well respected by the
whites, but he clings to the notion that his people
have been wronged in regard to the Bitter Root
question."
Twelve years; Charlos still gazes fondly upon the
land of his fathers, and awaits with childlike faith
the fulfilment of the promise " if it shall prove, in
the judgment of the President, to be better adapted
to the wants of the Flathead tribe." The agent
suggested to the Department the advisability of
" inviting Charlos to a conference at Washington,
when the intentions of the Government for the wel-
S 65
The Indian Dispossessed
fare of his people might be thoroughly impressed
upon him." Charlos went to see the " Great Father."
The record of that visit is interesting:
" In January, 1884, Chief Charlos and four of
his head-men, accompanied by the agent and an in-
terpreter, visited Washington under orders from the
Indian Department. Nearly a month was spent at
the National Capitol, and during that time several
interviews were held with the Secretary of the In-
terior, but no offer of pecuniary reward or persua-
sion of the Secretary could shake Charlos' resolution
to remain in the Bitter Root Valley. An offer to
build him a house, fence in and plough a sufficiency
of land for a farm, give him cattle, horses, seed,
agricultural implements, and to do likewise for each
head of a family in his band; also a yearly pension
to Charlos of $500, and [to] be recognized as the
heir of Victor, his deceased father, and to take his
place as head chief of the confederated tribes of
Flatheads, Pend d'Oreilles, and Kootenais Indians,
living on the Jocko reservation, had no effect."
On one hand, poverty, the white man's promise,
and the home of his people; on the other, plenty,
and the Jocko. Charlos' grip on the national pledge
could not be loosened; his country was not for sale.
And Charlos seems to have considered himself " the
heir of Victor, his deceased father," regardless of
Washington's approval or consent.
Having failed to liquidate the national obligation in
66
The Story of the Bitter Root
open conference with'Charlos, the Honorable Secre-
tary devised a new plan of campaign:
" In compliance with verbal instructions from the
Honorable Secretary of the Interior, a full report of
which I furnished the Indian Office under date of
March 27, 1884, I made certain propositions to in-
dividual families to remove from the Bitter Root and
settle at the Flathead reservation, and the result
was that twenty-one heads of families concluded to
remove, and to them, following the views of the
Honorable Secretary of the Interior, as expressed to
the Indians in Washington, I promised to each (i)
a choice of 160 acres of unoccupied land on the
reservation; (2) the erection of a suitable house;
(3) assistance in fencing and breaking up ten acres
of land for each family; (4) the following gifts:
two cows, a wagon, set of harness, a plough, with
other agricultural implements, seed for the first
year, and provisions until the first crop was
harvested."
Quite tempting inducements, surely. It may be
interesting to know what sort of Indians these
seceders were ; the agent supplies the information :
" The members of Charlos' band who removed
from the Bitter Root to this agency cannot be
classed among the most industrious and civilized
members of the tribe. In fact the colony is com-
posed mostly of Indians who, with their families,
followed the buffalo until this game became almost
67
The Indian Dispossessed
extinct, and continued to make a precarious living
by hunting, fishing, and wandering among the
settlements."
Fourteen years; more of the band have given up
the struggle. Three hundred and forty-one remain
in the Bitter Root Valley.
Fifteen years; the pressure is telling on Charlos'
followers. The agent writes : " Those who choose
to remain should be made to understand that they
need look no further for Government aid; " and the
number drops to two hundred and seventy-eight.
Sixteen years; Charlos and one hundred and
eighty-nine still cling to their forlorn hope.
Seventeen years; now one hundred and seventy-
six. But the census of the confederated tribes on
the Jocko shows a decrease of one hundred and four.
The Indians seem in truth to be going to a " better
country."
Eighteen years; still one hundred and seventy-
six. But a handful of men cannot hold out forever
against a government intent on their peaceful re-
duction. Denied the protection of the courts against
the encroachment of the whites, they were finally
reduced to a condition of abject poverty. The time
was at hand when the interests of humanity, in the
absence of original justice, demanded that these
people be wrested from the land they loved too
well. At this opportune time a proposition was
made to sell their lands and improvements and de-
68
The Story of the Bitter Root
vote the proceeds to their estabHshment on the
Jocko. The terms were accepted, and in 1890,
after eighteen years of endeavor as an independent
people, maintaining to the last the peace they had
promised to General Garfield, Charlos and his
band surrendered their beloved valley of the Bitter
Root.
Such a surrender arouses a mingled feeling of
relief and added interest. Of relief, for the van-
quished are no more under the stern displeasure that
has borne them down; of added interest, for it
brings opportunity to a magnanimous victor.
This is the record in the Great Book:
" The last arrangement with this unfortunate band
and the delay in its consummation has entirely dis-
couraged the Indians. They are now helpless and
poverty-stricken on their land in that valley, look-
ing forward to the promise for the sale of lands
patented to certain members of that band and to
their removal to this reservation. The hope was
given them, when their consent was secured for an
appraisement and sale of their lands and improve-
ments, that arrangements would be made to remove
them to the Jocko reservation before the ist of
March, 1890, in order to give them an opportun-
ity to select lands on the reserve and to put in
crops to harvest this year. With that view they
could not be induced to plough or sow their land in
the Bitter Root Valley. They are destitute of means
69
The Indian Dispossessed
of support and, if the contemplated appropriation to
remove and support them until they can raise crops
is not carried out this year, some means should be
adopted to furnish them with provisions, or they
will certainly suffer from starvation."
The Indians were in fact not removed until the
autumn of the following year. It seems beyond
belief that indifference for the welfare of this tribe
should have followed so closely upon their giving
up the coveted valley, but for some inexplicable
reason the money received from the sale of their
farms was withheld for three years more, although
$14,674.53 were reported on hand in 1892, nearly
two years before the first payment was made to
them. In 1893 the agent reports :
" These Indians are very anxious in regard to the
payment to them of the money already paid to the
Government from sale of certain tracts of said lands,
claiming that it was promised to be sent without
delay for distribution to the owners or heirs of the
same, in order to enable them to improve and cul-
tivate their new farms on their reservation."
The record discloses nothing that accounts for
this situation. It deals with facts, not explanations.
But we find these once independent farmers on a
bare reservation, without means to begin life anew,
reduced to the condition of ration Indians, living
for four years on the bounty of the Government.
The voice of Charlos is raised in one continued
70
The Story of the Bitter Root
protest; but even this man of indomitable will seems
to have reached the limit of his endurance, and it
is painful to find him at last embittered, broken
in spirit, with little faith in the white man and his
ways.
Finally, four years after their surrender of the
Bitter Root, the first payment arrived:
" This payment was made at a most opportune
time in the early spring. The money was paid by
check, but the following day all the beneficiaries
proceeded by rail to Missoula, where, in the pres-
ence of the agent, their checks were cashed, and
though the sum paid was over $18,000, and the
number of Indians receiving shares was 47, not one
of their number could be tempted by the numerous
whiskey vendors, and all, after making some pur-
chases of tools, implements, clothing, and provisions,
returned quietly to their reservation."
Here we leave Charlos and his heroic band.
Charlos — an ignorant, unknown Indian. But in
patriotic endeavor for his people according to his
light; in steadfast love of liberty, justice, and native
land, he shared in the nobility of some with whom
the Fates have dealt more kindly. A once struggling
people are pleased to call such a man the Father of
his country.
It is the story of an endeavor that failed. The
Bitter Root Valley was added to the land of the
Noble Free, at a cost in money insignificant com-
71
The Indian Dispossessed
pared with its value; but in the pledging of the
national faith, " if it shall prove, in the judgment
of the President, to be better adapted to the wants
of the Flathead tribe," have they not paid the price
incalculable — the national honor ?
72
THE NEZ PERCES
" The line was made as I wanted it ; not for me, but my children
that will follow me ; there is where I live, and there is where I want to
leave my body. The land on the other side of the line is what we gave
to the Great Father." Joseph, Nez Perce Chief.
WITH many words of friendship the Nez
Perce chiefs, speaking in Indian council
forty-five years ago, hailed the long-
delayed ratification of the treaty which gave to the
white man the Nez Perce country, and to the Nez
Perces an Indian reservation within it.
Four years before — in 1855 — the treaty had
been signed by the chiefs and head-men of the Nez
Perce nation in council with Governor Stevens, of
Washington, and Governor Palmer, of Oregon. The
reservation secured to the Indians was of generous
proportions. It included the principal valleys occu-
pied by the different bands, or tribes, of the nation,
and the hardship of severing their connection with
native land fell upon very few of the Nez Perces.
" Nor shall any white man," the treaty recites,
" excepting those in the employment of the Indian
Department, be permitted to reside upon the said
reservation without permission of the tribe and the
superintendent and agent." In consideration for the
cession of territory, the Nez Perces were to have
73
The Indian Dispossessed
annuities, schools, blacksmiths, carpenters, farmers,
a sawmill, and a gristmill; the head chief, a very
politic old Indian named "Lawyer," found himself
— in the treaty — provided with a furnished house
and five hundred dollars a year. This was desig-
nated by courtesy as " salary." Head chiefs in more
highly organized society have been propitiated in
much the same way.
It was a most liberal treaty; and it was good
policy to make a liberal treaty with these most
numerous and powerful of all the mountain Indians,
especially in view of the fierce rush for gold that
had maddened the Indian tribes of the great North-
west to the verge of war. During that year Gov-
ernors Stevens and Palmer made treaties with many
of the tribes, under instructions from Washington,
to extinguish the Indian title to the gold region and
gather the natives upon reservations.
The subsequent history of the Northwest would
have been less bloody, less filled with tales of Indian
massacres and Indian wars, had the Government ful-
filled with any degree of promptness its obligations ;
but Congress, year after year, failed to render the
treaties operative by ratifying them, while the In-
dians, accepting in good faith the terms of their
agreements, vacated the ceded lands and gathered
upon the tracts reserved for them, to await the bene-
fits that were promised in the way of annuities, in-
struction, and implements of agriculture.
74
The Nez Perces
They waited in vain. Deprived as they were of
their hunting-grounds and the only means of sub-
sistence, starvation 'and the inhuman treatment of
the miners soon drove them to desperation; the rec-
ords are full of their pleadings with Government
agents to give them relief.
" I am not a bad man," says Seattle, a great chief
in western Washington, " I am, and always have
been, a friend to the whites. I listen to what Mr.
Paige says to me, and I do not steal, nor do I or
any of my people kill the whites.
" Oh, Mr. Simmons, why don't our papers come
back to us? You always say you hope they will
soon come, but they do not. I fear we are for-
gotten, or that we are to be cheated out of our
land.
" I have been very poor and hungry all winter,
and am very sick now [a fact]. In a little while
I will die. I should like to be paid for my land be-
fore I die. Many of my people died during the last
cold, scarce winter, without getting their pay.
" When I die my people will be very poor. They
will have no property, no chief, no one to talk for
them. You must not forget them, Mr. Simmons,
when I am gone.
" We are ashamed when we think that the Puyal-
lups have their papers. They fought against the
whites, while we, who have never been angry with
them, get nothing."
75
The Indian Dispossessed
And this from a Snohomish chief:
" We want our treaty to be concluded as soon as
possible; we are tired of waiting. Our reasons are
that our old people (and there are many of them)
are dying. Look at those two old men and old
women; they have only a little while to live, and
they want to get their pay for their land. The
white people have taken it, and you, Mr. Simmons,
promised us that we should be paid. You and
Governor Stevens. Suspense is killing us. We are
afraid to plant potatoes on the river bottoms, lest
some bad white man should come and make us leave
the place.
" You know what we are, Mr. Simmons. You
were the first American we ever knew, and our chil-
dren remember you as long as they remember any-
thing. I was a boy when I first knew you. You
know we do not want to drink liquor, but we cannot
help it when the bad ' Bostons ' bring it to us.
" When our treaty was made we told our hearts
to you and Governor Stevens ; they have not changed
since. I have done."
There is a significant interest in this one:
" I will now talk about our treaties. When is the
Great Father that lives across the far mountains
going to send us our papers back? Four summers
have now passed since you and Governor Stevens
told us we would get pay for our land. We re-
member well what you said to us then, over there
76
The Nez Perces
[pointing to Point Elliott], and our hearts are very
sick because you do not do as you promised. We
saw the Nisquallys and Puyallups get their annuity
paid them last year, and our hearts were sick be-
cause we could get nothing. We never fought the
whites; they did. If you whites pay the Indians
that fight you, it must be good to fight."
" It must be good to fight." Slowly the Indians
came into a full understanding of the " hopelessly
illogical " policy of the Government under which its
benefits were " proportioned not to the good but to
the ill desert of the several tribes." War and deso-
lation filled the land, and the tribes of the moun-
tains stubbornly maintained an unequal struggle for
that which, to their untutored minds, seemed to be
their own country. A despairing and pathetic con-
test it is when an unlettered race, with its simple
views of fundamental justice, comes against calcu-
lating, enlightened, and overwhelming might; the
dim realization of inferiority kindles in the be-
nighted mind a desperate ferocity which is akin to
patriotic zeal in more civilized defenders of native
land.
It is impossible to account for this policy of in-
action. Millions more were spent in these wars than
would have met every obligation under the treaties.
Superintendents, agents, and army officers in the field
sent appeal after appeal to the Government to act
upon the treaties and stop the useless destruction.
77
The Indian Dispossessed
One agent, sending in the pleas of several still
friendly Indian chiefs, writes :
" After reading this I think that you, sir, must
agree with me in thinking that humanity, as well as
justice, makes it an imperative duty of Government
to adopt some plan by which the Indians can be
separated from the whites. Their forbearance has
been remarkable. While they had the power of
crushing us like worms they treated us like brothers.
We, I think, should return their kindness now that
we have the power, and our duty is so plainly pointed
out by their deplorable situation. My own impres-
sion is that the speediest and best way of settling
all these difficulties is the ratification of the treaties.
The agents will then have the means in their hands
of supplying all that I now think is wanting to en-
able them to govern these unhappy creatures, and
to lay the groundwork of civilization for their chil-
dren to improve upon."
An officer in the field calls the attention of the Hon-
orable Commissioner of Indian Affairs with no minc-
ing of words to the labors of Stevens and Palmer :
" Those seeing these things at a still later day,
and being in position to avert them by a wise, dis-
creet policy for ourselves, and a just one for the
Indian, set to work, and from the Rocky Mountains
to the Pacific, coast labored hard and long in the
field and office, travelling through every Indian tribe,
learning their history and wants, and with the au-
78
Keokuk, Sac and Fox Chief
(1831)
The Nez Perces
thoritative voice of the Government made three years
ago treaties with these Northwestern Indians, and to
this day the labors of Governor Stevens are disre-
garded and uncared for, and the treaties containing
the solemn promises of the Indian on the one side,
and binding obligations of the Government on the
other, lie among the dusty archives of Congress,
while a war rages in every quarter of the Northwest
coast. The Indians feel that their rights have been
trifled with by promises, made by agents armed and
vested with authority to act, which the Government
has not ratified. And will it, I ask, longer remain
in this passive mood? Will it longer act inertly
while lives are sacrificed and millions squandered,
and still longer hesitate to act? For one I trust
not. Let these be ratified. . . ."
In the command of this officer was a company of
thirty Nez Perce warriors, who, the record recites,
" marshalling themselves under brave war chiefs,
were placed at his disposal to assist him in finding
and fighting his enemy." Writing of the Nez Perce
tribe, this officer says:
" This is the same people who, meeting the flying
columns of Colonel Steptoe in hot night-retreat, hav-
ing abandoned animals, provisions, and guns behind
them, received him with open arms, succored his
wounded men, and crossed in safety his whole com-
mand over the difficult and dangerous south fork of
the Columbia. . . .
79
The Indian Dispossessed
" They are far advanced already in civilization —
much further than any tribe vilest of the Rocky
Mountains, except the Flatheads. They are inclined
to agriculture; already raise wheat, corn, and vege-
tables, with the rudest of means. When asked by
Colonel Wright what they wanted, their reply was
well worthy of a noble race : ' Peace, ploughs, and
schools' And will you, can you, longer refuse them
these? I ask, therefore, to commend these noble
people. Colonel Wright has given me the command
of this band of warriors while in the field, and
hence I am in a position to know and study them.
I ask that a special appropriation be made to give
these people schools, farms, and seeds; that means
be taken to so build them up in their mountain
homes that we may be enabled to point with joy-
ous pride to a first few tutored savages reclaimed
from their wild, nomadic habits; and while asking,
aye petitioning, for these, I cannot forget my old
mountain friends the Flatheads and Pend d'Oreilles.
As yet they are friendly, and I ask that you retain
their friendship. I made both to Governor Stevens
and to yourself, four year ago, petitions in their
favor; but, alas! they passed unheeded. I again
renew them, and ask that steps, prompt and efficient,
be taken that will avert from these noble bands the
devastating arm of war. I ask not that my version
be taken alone, but simply ask that it go to form
part and parcel of versions given by abler pens, and
80
The Nez Perces
men who saw but to reflect upon the past and future
destiny of the Indians. I point you, commencing
with Lewis and Clark in 1804 to the present day,
to the accounts of all travellers across the continent;
and with one accord they point to the Nez Perces
and Flatheads as two bright, shining points in a
long and weary pilgrimage across a prairie desert
and rugged mountain barrier, alive with savage
hordes of Indians, where they have been relieved
and aided when most in need; and instances suffi-
ciently numerous to swell a volume exist, that render
it needless for me here to refer to them. But I
make one more appeal in behalf of these people."
Chief Lawyer joined in the general appeal with a
diplomatic reminder, addressed to Governor Stevens :
" At this place about three years since we had our
talk, and since that time I have been waiting to hear
from our Big Father. We are very poor. It is
other people's badness. It is not our fault, and I
would like to hear what he has to say. If he thinks
our agreement good, our hearts will be thankful.
" Colonel Wright has been over after the bad
people, and has killed some of the bad people and
hung sixteen; and now I am in hopes we will have
peace."
This the Governor at once sent to the Commis-
sioner in Washington, with an appeal for the rati-
fication of their treaty.
In 1859 the wars ended, as all Indian wars end,
6 81
The Indian Dispossessed
with the last hostile tribe " reduced to the condition
of suppliants for charity." Throughout the four
years the Nez Perces, Flatheads, and Pend d'Oreilles
remained steadfast friends of the whites, and the
ratification of their treaties came as a long-delayed
reward.
A Government agent bore the news to the expec-
tant Nez Perces, and a grand council was called to
welcome the word from their Great Father. Law-
yer, the head chief, Joseph, Looking-glass, and numer-
ous sub-chiefs, voiced their hearty approval of their
new relation to the Great Father in Washington;
in the characteristic Indian way they expressed their
gratitude, their firm determination to maintain a
perpetual peace, their blind confidence in the stability
of the new covenant. The record of this council is
quite complete.
Lawyer, head chief of the Nez Perces nation, made
the opening speech :
" I heard you talk yesterday. I heard what the
Great Father said. He has laws for his white chil-
dren and for his red children. He says : ' My white
children must do what is right, and my red children
must do the same; that is the law.'
" The Great Father tells us his heart through you,
and now you have told us all he has to say; it is
good. Your law for us is right. I respect the law ;
my children and young men respect it.
"Now, I will tell you my heart; the chiefs are
82
The Nez Perces
here, and I want them to hsten to me. I don't want
any of my chiefs and young men to harm the whites ;
we always were friends, are now and always will be;
you all know my heart, it is to do right. That is
all I have to say."
Looking-glass, a sub-chief in Joseph's tribe, then
spoke :
" I am now going to say to you what I said to
Governor Stevens, four years ago. I told him the
amount of country I wanted, and where it laid, and
also what I wanted it for. Governor Stevens said
yes. That is all I said in council. Our treaty was
sent to the Great Father, and he answers it now.
He says yes; his word has come. It is the same
as if I had seen the great father and exchanged
hearts with him. He says he wants my children
to do well; he will take care of them. He talks of
this country. I want all of you to talk; all of my
young men to talk. I am thankful for the word the
Great Father has sent us."
And another:
" E-YEM-MO-MO-KIN. Yes, my friends, I heard my
name called yesterday, on the list of signers of the
treaty. Now, I am going to talk. I am an old
man; you told us yesterday that we old men will
die on our own lands, and I thank you, my white
friend. I am glad to hear from our Great Father,
and to know that he will provide for our children
that will follow us. It makes my heart good.
83
The Indian Dispossessed
"I want them to take hold of hands and never
let go. We have taken your hands, my white friend,
and I hope we will never part. I have heard the
Lawyer and others talk, and my heart is the same
as theirs."
Joseph, chief of the Nez Perces in the Wallowa
Valley, delivered the most serious and thoughtful
speech of them all. Looking into the future, as his
fellow-chiefs evidently did not, he saw in the white
man's protection the loss of Indian control, of tribal
restraint, and in the loose communism of the reser-
vation he saw the danger to the individual. Joseph
saw these things darkly, instinctively; his untutored
mind could grasp only the immediate needs of his
people; but the breaking down of tribal restraints
without the substitution of adequate law, and the
herding together of a heterogeneous mass in a com-
munism of idleness with the consequent destruction
of individual incentive, have been solely responsible
for the fearful degeneracy of the reservation Indian
during the past forty years. In Joseph's words there
is a wisdom that he knew not of; his earnest plea
for the Indian's individuality is of deep significance :
" I want to tell you my heart. I am a red man.
I have my own opinion about this country ; we should
make up our minds before we talk. When we made
a treaty with Governor Stevens, the line was drawn;
I know where it is ; you told us right yesterday ; it
is as you said. When Governor Stevens made the
84
The Nez Perces
line, he wanted a certain chain of mountains. I said
no, I wanted it to hunt in, not for myself, but for
my children; but my word was doubted.
" The line was made as I wanted it ; not for me,
but my children that will follow me; there is where
I live, and there is where I want to leave my body.
The land on the other side of the line is what we
gave to the Great Father.
" You told us yesterday if there is anything we
do not understand, you will explain. I will tell you
one thing; I have a great many bad young men.
I don't want them all to live together in one place;
it will not do. We have too many horses and cattle
to feed on one piece of land; and I am afraid that
my young men and young men of other parties will
not get along together. I don't only talk so to-day,
but I will tell you the same some other time. We
will talk this matter over some other time.
" My young men get drunk, quarrel, and fight, and I
don't know how to stop it. A great many of my men
have been killed by it; and I am afraid of liquor.
" I think we cannot all live in one place ; it is
better for each tribe to live in their own country.
We will talk of this matter some other time.
" This summer some of my children were mixed
up with other tribes, and some of them done wrong;
and if the buildings you spoke of, and are mentioned
in the treaty, were divided, it would be better for us
all. I have told you my mind as it is. I wish you
85
The Indian Dispossessed
could arrange it so we could live in our own coun-
try. I know my young men are wild, and it is better
to keep them separated. It is better for all to live
as we are. That is all I have to say."
The agent was impressed : " I have heard Joseph
talk," he responded, "and my heart is glad. His
talk is that of a wise man." Joseph prevailed, and
the different tribes maintained their separate exist-
ence, each in its native valley, but still within the
limits of the reservation; in the words of the Hon-
orable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, " Chief Law-
yer occupying the Kamiah Valley, Big Thunder the
Lapwai, Timothy the Alpowai, Joseph the Wallowa,
and Billy the Salmon River Valley."
In his report of this council with the Nez Perces,
the agent says:
" This tribe, who have been the friends of the
whites since the visit of Lewis and Clark to the
country, having protected and saved the lives of
Governor Stevens and his party, in 1855 ; organized
a party who served with Colonel Wright during his
campaign against the hostiles last year; and during
every exigency where the whites have needed friends,
they have been their firm allies, and [are] entitled
to great consideration on the part of Government."
But subsequent happenings give this paragraph a
peculiar interest:
" I found there had been great dissatisfaction,
not in regard to the treaty, but from the circula-
86
TA-MA-soN = TiMOTHy, — Nez Perce
('S7O
The Nez Perces
tion of false rumors amongst them by renegades
from other tribes, to the effect that they were being
deluded with the idea that their ' treaty ' was good,
and would be carried out until the whites and soldiers
were strong enough to take their lands by force."
The meddlers may have been " renegades " ; but in
making this prediction they were wizards, soothsayers.
Scarcely had the Nez Perces settled down under
the treaty to learn the white man's way, when the
discovery of gold brought a rush of miners and
adventurers into the reservation itself. No effort
seems to have been made to restrain them, and the
provision in the covenant, " nor shall any white
man ... be permitted to reside upon said reserva-
tion," became a dead letter. Indeed, the whole
energy of the interested white population was di-
rected toward securing another curtailment of the
Indians' country. Year by year the situation grew
worse; the official story is briefly told by the Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs in a report to the Secre-
tary of the Interior:
" In defiance of law, and despite the protestations
of the Indian agent, a town site was laid off in
October, 1861, on the reservaton, and Lewiston,
with a population of twelve hundred, sprung into
existence. . . .
" By the spring of 1863 it was very evident that,
from the change of circumstances and contact with
the whites, a new treaty was required to properly
87
The Indian Dispossessed
define and, if possible, curtail the limits of the
reserve."
" To properly define and, if possible, curtail the
limits of the reserve." A most diplomatic phrase;
the Honorable Commissioner was writing for public
perusal. To " properly define," primarily, and to
" curtail," incidentally, a new treaty was required.
Diplomacy never more delicately screened a real in-
tention behind a fictitious one. No time was wasted
in defining the limits of the reserve; the white men
knew where they were ; the Indians understood them ;
nobody misunderstood them. A new treaty was
drawn up, cutting down the reservation to a plat
of land about one-eighth of its original size, in the
centre of the old reserve. Then came the usual
struggle to gain the Indian assent. The Wallowa
Valley was excluded under the new treaty, and
Joseph refused to sign it; Looking-glass, White
Bird, and many other chiefs whose country was to
be taken from them, refused to sign. Even Lawyer,
the head chief, whose country in the Kamiah was
to be made the centre of the many benefits to come
from the new treaty, held out long against the
humiliating cut to " twenty acres each " of tillable
land for each adult male. But the treaty is full of
" Kamiah," although the agency was at Lapwai.
" Ten thousand dollars for the erection of a saw
and flouring mill, to be located at Kamiah " ; a
church " on the Kamiah " ; a blacksmith shop " at
88
The Nez Perces
Kamiah " ; Lawyer's " salary " was continued, and a
like " salary " to two of his sub-chiefs, " who shall
assist him in the performance of his public services " ;
six hundred dollars more to another of his chiefs,
" in consideration of past services and faithfulness " ;
and Lawyer signed — " with fifty other chiefs and
head-men, twenty of whom were parties to the treaty
of 1855," records the Commissioner.
Fifty-eight chiefs and headmen had signed the
original treaty eight years before; only twenty of
these fifty-eight signed the new treaty. Now, where
were the missing thirty-eight who did not sign?
And again, whence arose thirty new chiefs and head-
men in so short a time, to sign the new treaty?
This is not the only time that, while a treaty
waited, chiefs and head-men were made to order to
meet the demand for signers.
With these fifty signatures the treaty was declared
to be the expression of a majority of the Nez Perce
nation, and all outside tribes were given one year
in which to come within the limits of the new
reservation. It is impossible to perceive either hon-
esty or justice in thus getting a favored portion of
an Indian nation to sign away the possessions of
outside tribes, who were holding their native valleys
under express agreement with their Great Father in
Washington. A few of the outside Indians bowed
to the inevitable, and removed to the reserve, but
the majority did not; Joseph, always tenacious of
89
The Indian Dispossessed
the Indian right to lead the Indian life, refused to
move; he continued in possession of the Wallowa
Valley.
The Nez Perce nation became divided against
itself; two factions, "treaty" and "non-treaty"
Indians, were the direct result of the new treaty.
From the very beginning of their reservation life
the Nez Perces were the victims of more than the
usual amount of official pilfering, and a persistent
reluctance on the part of their " Great Father " to
fulfil his treaty obligations added to their suspi-
cion that to " take hold of hands and never let go "
might mean either a token of perpetual peace or of
perpetual bondage.
To such limits was the robbery carried that in
1862 — the year before the new treaty — the entire
force of the agency was discharged, and the super-
intendent made a personal investigation. This is
what he found:
" I sought in vain to find the first foot of land
fenced or broken by him and his employees ; and the
only product of the agricultural department that I
could discover consisted of some three tons of oats
in the straw, piled up within a rude, uncovered en-
closure of rails, to raise which must have cost the
Government more than seven thousand dollars. Even
this property was barely saved by the present agent
from the hands of the departing employees, who
claimed it as the result of their private labor.
90
The Nez Perces
" As I witnessed the withdrawal from this meagre
pile of the rations for my horse, I could hardly fail to
sigh to think that every movement of his jaws devoured
at least a dollar's worth of governmental bounty.
" The chiefs whom I met in council complained
that the employees heretofore sent to instruct them
under the provisions of the treaty had taken their
women to live with, and had done little else; and
they seemed desirous to know if that was the
method proposed by the Government to carry out
the stipulations of the treaty.
" Several of these discharged employees were loung-
ing around the agency waiting for their female In-
dian companions to receive their proportion of the
annuity goods."
But it makes little difference to the Indian whether
the agent gets his goods and confiscates them, or the
goods are not furnished at all by the Government.
Such fine reasoning as " insufficient appropriations "
or " delays incident to change of administration " is
not within the scope of the Indian mind. He knows
only that he does not receive his just dues, and with
simple Indian directness he refuses to entertain ex-
cuses in lieu of annuities. In 1866 the Nez Perces
were still dreaming of the alluring benefits which
were to come to them under their second treaty:
" The Indians of southern Idaho are fast fading
away, and as we occupy their root grounds, con-
verting them into fields and pastures, we must either
91
The Indian Dispossessed
protect them or leave them to the destroying ele-
ments now surrounding them, the result of which
cannot be doubtful. A humane magnanimity dictates
their protection and speedy separation from those
evils to which they are exposed by intermingling
with white men.
" Prominent among the tribes of northern Idaho
stand the Nez Perces, a majority of whom boast that
they have ever been the faithful friend of the white
man. But few over half of the entire tribes of the
Nez Perces are under treaty. The fidelity of those
under treaty, even under the most discouraging cir-
cumstances, must commend itself to the favorable
consideration of the department. The influx of the
white population into their country has subjected
them to all the evils arising from an association
with bad white men, and, as might well be expected,
the effect upon the Indians has been most unhappy.
The non-payment of their annuities has had its natu-
ral effect upon the minds of some of those under
treaty; but their confiding head chief (Lawyer) re-
mains unmoved, and on all occasions is found the
faithful apologist for any failure of the Government."
This is the view of the Governor of Idaho. The
Nez Perces agent expresses himself freely:
" One great cause of the disagreement and split
among this people is the non-payment of their an-
nuities. The non-treaty side throw it up to the
other side that now they have sold their country
92
The Nez Perces
and have got nothing but promises which are being
received from year to year, that their annuities will
never be here. They use it, too, with such good
effect that every day their side is increasing in
strength. Many of the young men, and some of
the old ones of the Lawyer side, say it is true, and
that they had rather be with the non-treaty side and
not expect anything than to remain with the Lawyer
side and have, every few days, these promises re-
peated to them. Too much praise cannot be awarded
Lawyer, the head chief of the nation, for his en-
deavors to keep peace between his people and the
whites, and to account to them for the want of
good faith on the part of the Government. . . .
" It is uphill work for an agent to manage his
Indians well when he refers them to certain treaty
stipulations reserved as their part, when they can
retort by saying that but few • of the stipulations
on the part of the Government are kept."
Very little good the combined protest did. In
the following year the Governor says:
" Their grievances are urged with such earnest-
ness, that even ' Lawyer,' who has always been our
apologist, has in a measure abandoned his pacific
policy, and asks boldly that we do them justice.
From all the facts obtained, it is apparent that had
the Government been prompt and just in its dealings
with them, it would have given much power and
prestige to the treaty party of the Nez Perces, and
93
The Indian Dispossessed
[have] had a powerful influence in drawing the non-
treaty party into the covenant. Even now it may
not be too late, but if neglected, war may be reason-
ably expected. Should the Nez Perces strike a blow,
all over our Territory and around our boundaries
will blaze the signal fires and gleam the tomahawks
of the savages."
Even the prospect of war failed to arouse Wash-
ington to a sense of its treaty obligations. Another
change of administration, and a new agent — a second
lieutenant in the army — records his first experience
as a purveyor of promises :
" I arrived here on the 14th of July, 1869, and
assumed the direction of affairs on the 15th. The
Indians on hearing of my arrival commenced com-
ing to see me. Among the first that came was
' Lawyer,' the head chief, who seemed to be well
pleased that ' General Grant had sent him a soldier
chief,' and in the course of the conversation he told
me that some of his people had gone to the buffalo
country. Here I first learned that there was a
* non-treaty party ' among these Indians. The lead-
ing men from all parts of the reservation came to
see me, and they, both treaty and non-treaty Indians,
all of them, seemed to be well pleased that General
Grant had sent them a ' soldier chief.'
" My first object was to find out the cause of the
disaffection of this roaming band of Indians known
as non-treaty Indians. I found that at first there
94
The Nez Perces
were but comparatively few of them, and they said
at the ratification of the treaty that the Government
never meant to fulfil its stipulations; that the white
man had no good heart, etc.
" And as time passed on these assertions were
verified to some extent by the failure on the part
of the Government to build the churches, school-
houses, mills at Kamiah, and fence and plough their
lands, as provided by treaties of 1859 and 1863,
until many of the Indians of the treaty side are
beginning to feel sore on account of such failure.
These arguments are continually being used by the
non-treaty party, and are having great weight, being
supported as they are by the stubborn facts. . . .
" These Indians boast with great pride that they
as a nation never shed a white man's blood, but the
Government has, through its agents, been so dilatory
in fulfilling its treaty stipulations, and agents have
promised so often that all the stipulations of the
treaties would soon be fulfilled, and to so little pur-
pose, that these Indians do not believe that an agent
can or will tell the truth.
" I told them at Kamiah that I was going to put
up their mill for them. They said in reply that other
agents had told them so many years ago."
Little wonder that the non-treaty faction flour-
ished. The wonder is that the treaty element con-
tinued to live on expectations. Every action — and
every inaction — of the Government served to con-
95
The Indian Dispossessed
firm and strengthen Joseph in his love of the inde-
pendent hfe, in his contempt for civilization as it
was presented to him, in his fine scorn for the Great
Father's promises. He was forced by the logic of
events to the conviction that there was no sincerity
in the white man's covenants. For ten years after
the attempt to extinguish their title to the Wallowa
Valley Joseph and his people maintained their sep-
arate existence, filling the valley with their herds of
horses and cattle during the summer, and retiring
each fall to the more sheltered Imnaha Valley for
the winter, or to the buffalo country east of the
mountains for the annual hunt. During all these
years, and as old age came upon him, Joseph im-
pressed upon his two sons, In-me-tuja-latk and Olli-
cut, the importance of the trust that would devolve
upon them to hold for their people the land which
he had saved, " not for myself, but for my children."
Upon his death In-me-tuja-latk assumed the name of
Joseph, and succeeded to the chieftainship. Young
Joseph was then a few years past thirty; in tem-
perament, in ability, in the strength of his conviction
that the Indian way was the only way for the Indian,
he was the counterpart of his father. A description
of this man, who was to be the central figure in the
tragic events which cost this tribe its native valley,
appears in an official report:
" He is in the full vigor of his manhood ; six feet
tall, straight, well formed, and muscular; his fore-
96
1n-me-tuja-latk=::Echoing Thunder. Chief Joseph
(1878)
The Nez Perces
head is broad, his perceptive faculties large, his head
well formed, his voice musical and sympathetic, and
his expression usually calm and sedate; when ani-
mated, marked and magnetic. His younger brother
[Ollicut] in whose ability he evidently confides —
putting him forward much of the time as his advo-
cate — is two inches taller than himself, equally well
formed, quite as animated, and perhaps more im-
passioned in speech, though possibly inferior in
judgment."
Joseph came into the chieftainship at a critical
period in the history of his tribe. In the early
seventies white settlers became so numerous and
persistent in their claims to rich portions of the
Wallowa Valley, and pressed upon Washington their
desire for the expulsion of the Indians with such
political force, that in 1873 a commission was sent
into the valley to arrange with the Indians for their
removal. But, contrary to the expectations of the
Vociferous Few who had brought about the agita-
tion, the Commission decided in favor of the Indian
claim to the Wallowa Valley; the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs approved their finding, the Secretary
of the Interior endorsed it, and the President of the
United States made this order :
"Executive Mansion, June 16, 1873.
" It is hereby ordered that the tract of country
above described be withheld from entry and settle-
7 97
The Indian Dispossessed
ment as public lands, and that the same be set apart
as a reservation for the roaming Nez Perce Indians,
as recommended by the Secretary of the Interior and
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
" U. S. Grant."
This executive order not only confirmed to Joseph
and his band the Wallowa Valley as their reserva-
tion; it implied the endorsement by the highest
authority of their contention that the valley had
not been ceded under the treaty of 1863, and defi-
nitely settled the question of their title to the coun-
try that was theirs before the advent of white men.
But the order aroused the land-seizing population
to a pitch of wild indignation; that the President
should affirm the Indian right to Indian land so
nearly wrested from him by encroachment and tres-
pass was deemed an outrage without precedent.
Meetings were held, representatives in Congress were
appealed to, and by every possible means they gave
vent to their displeasure. Despite the protests of
the Indians and in direct violation of the Presi-
dent's order, the settlers remained in the valley,
while Joseph and his people struggled to hold their
ground with their herds of cattle and horses. Those
were troublous days for Joseph, but knowing full
well that any retaliation for outrages committed
upon the Indians would be hailed by the settlers as
a welcome opportunity to annihilate his people, he
98
The Nez Perces
succeeded in maintaining peace and a fair propor-
tion of his rights in the valley.
In matters vitally affecting the American Indian,
there has yet to be recorded a single instance
where the vote-seeking Government officials have
long withstood the demands of the Vociferous Few.
The Governor of Oregon made a strong personal
appeal to Washington for the expulsion of the In-
dians; inspired by the delegation from Oregon,
Congress refused to appropriate the necessary funds
for the reimbursement and removal of settlers, thus
blocking the executive order. And the great Gov-
ernment meekly, humbly bowed before the new state
of Oregon. Within two years of the first order,
and wholly without notice to Joseph, a second order
came from the President's hand:
" Executive Mansion, June lo, 1875.
" It is hereby ordered that the order dated June 16,
1873, withdrawing from sale and settlement and set-
ting apart the Wallowa Valley, in Oregon, described
as follows: ... as an Indian reservation, is hereby
revoked and annulled, and the said described tract of
country is hereby restored to the public domain.
"U. S. Grant."
By this stroke of the pen the Indians became
trespassers in their own country. It became the duty
of the agent to acquaint them with this latest change
in their relation to the Government:
99
The Indian Dispossessed
" When I received information from the Depart-
ment to the effect that the Wallowa Valley had been
opened to settlers, I sent for ' Joseph,' and upon his
arrival informed him of the same. At the first in-
terview he was inclined to be ugly, and returned to
his camp very much dissatisfied with the action of
the Government. In the course of a week he came
back and talked more reasonably. To guard against
any trouble that might arise, I requested General
O. O. Howard, commander Department Columbia,
to station troops in the valley during the fishing
season, which request was complied with. I think
the question of the Wallowa Valley ought to be
definitely settled. The Indians go there with large
bands of horses, from which springs nearly all the
trouble between the Indians and settlers, the latter
having large herds of stock in the valley also."
This occupation by the soldiery marked the be-
ginning of the end; but Joseph steadfastly refused
to vacate the Wallowa Valley. A year passed ; then
a special commission was appointed to proceed to
the Nez Perce country and labor with the redoubt-
able Joseph. They came, they saw, but they did
not conquer:
" A few moments before the appointed hour the
head of his well mounted column was seen from the
agency, turning a point in the road. With military
precision and order it massed itself in front of, but
at considerable distance from, the church. As he
lOO
The Nez Perces
entered the church with his band it was evident that
their ranks were considerably swelled by the addi-
tion of other prominent non-treaty Indians, as also
by some malcontents among those who acknowledge
themselves bound by the treaties. The commission
occupied the platform of the church. Joseph and his
band, sixty or seventy in number (including mal-
contents), after an exchange of salutations by him-
self and a few of his headmen with the commission,
took seats upon our left, the treaty-Indians filling the
right and centre of the house.
" Brief personal introductions by General Howard
followed, who also made to Joseph a plain and con-
cise statement of the peaceful errands and objects of
the commission.
" From the first it was apparent that Joseph was
in no haste. Never was the policy of masterly in-
activity more fully inaugurated. He answered every
salutation, compliment, and expression of good will,
in kind, and duplicated the quantity. An alertness
and dexterity in intellectual fencing was exhibited
by him that was quite remarkable. . . .
" When, in answer to suggestions and general in-
quiry, no grievance was stated, the commission plied
him with questions touching his occasional occupation
of Wallowa Valley, and the irritations and disturb-
ances consequent thereon with the white settlers, he
answered, he had not come to talk about land, and
added that these white settlers had first informed
lOI
The Indian Dispossessed
him of the appointment of this commission, ex-
pressing their belief that on its assembhng all these
troubles would be settled, and they (the whites)
would retire from the valley. In this, and the fol-
lowing interviews, which were long drawn out, one
of them continuing into the night, Joseph maintained
his right to Wallowa Valley, including, as we under-
stood, the tract of country set apart as a reservation
for him and his band, by Executive order dated
June i6, 1873. ...
" The earth was his mother. He was made of
the earth and grew up on its bosom. The earth, as
his mother and nurse, was sacred to his affections,
too sacred to be valued by or sold for silver and
gold. He could not consent to sever his affections
from the land that bore him. He was content to
live upon such fruits as the ' Creative Power ' placed
within and upon it, and unwilling to barter these
and his free habits away for the new modes of life
proposed by us. Moreover, the earth carried chief-
tainship (which the interpreter explained to mean
law, authority, or control), and therefore to part
with the earth would be to part with himself or
with his self-control. He asked nothing of the
President. He was able to take care of himself.
He did not desire Wallowa Valley as a reservation,
for that would subject him and his band to the will
of and dependence on another, and to laws not of
their own making. He was disposed to live peace-
102
The Nez Perces
ably. He and his band had suffered wrong rather
than do wrong. One of their number was wickedly
slain by a white man during the last summer, but
he would not avenge his death. But, unavenged by
him, the voice of that brother's blood, sanctifying the
ground, would call the dust of their fathers back to
life, to people the land in protest of this great wrong.
" The serious and feeling manner in which he
uttered these sentiments was impressive. He was
admonished that in taking this position he placed
himself in antagonism to the President, whose gov-
ernment extended from ocean to ocean; that if he
held to this position, sooner or later there would
come an issue, and when it came, as the weaker
party he and his band would go to the wall; that
the President was not disposed to deprive him of
any just right or govern him by his individual will,
but merely subject him to the same just and equal
laws by which he himself as well as all his people
were ruled."
Day after day the commissioners met with the
Nez Perces; their report is filled with the pictur-
esque Indian speeches:
" What I tell you is the truth," declares Joseph.
" It is not for us to trade off the land that is not
traded off; and, as I said before, it is not marked
and should be so left. It is a cause of great grief
and trouble to us. When there is no cause there is
no reason to be troubled. When we heard the whites
103
The Indian Dispossessed
say that they came to settle there by authority of a
Government officer, our hearts were sick. At that
time the whites were very troublesome. I said to
them, ' My friends, don't do that way ; be quiet ;
we can't get along that way.' At that time I wrote
to Washington. It has been yearly for some time
that I have sent word to Washington. I think a
great deal of my country. I cannot part with it.
At that the whites became angry, and told me that
it was not my country. You know that our horses
do not graze around by our thoughts. I asked the
whites if I ever called them to my country. For
what purpose did you come to my home? They
have been very troublesome for these years. There
the whites killed one of our number. We told them
we could not commit a wrong on good land. For
the purpose of carrying their point one of them
lied. I admit my heart was aroused. . . .
" I did not expect to be talked to again about my
country by the whites. I will withhold my country
from the whites, nor will I let them take it from
me. We are not to be trampled upon and our rights
taken from us. The right to the land was ours be-
fore the whites came among us ; white men set such
authority aside. If that course were adopted neither
would have chiefs — neither would have rest. It
ought to fill you with fear. Wrong has been done
us. We will not shed blood. Perhaps a law will
be found applicable to the case. Law is not without
104
The Nez Perces
eyes; hence, friends, listen; we will hold to our
chieftainship."
Another adjournment, and another day of Indian
oratory; Joseph persists in his attachment to the
land of his fathers:
" That which I have great affection for, I have
no reason or wish to dispose of; if I did, where
would I be? The earth and myself are of one mind.
The measure of the land and the measure of our
bodies are the same. Say to us, if you can say it,
that you were sent by the Creative Power to talk
to us. Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here
to dispose of us as you see fit. If I thought you
were sent by the Creator I might be induced to
think you had a right to dispose of me. Do not
misunderstand me, but understand me fully with
reference to my affection for the land. I never said
the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one
who has the right to dispose of it is the one who
has created it. I claim a right to live on my land,
and accord you the privilege to live on yours."
Suggestive questions met with ready answers:
" Mr. Jerome. Is there any other place where
you would like to go?
" Young Joseph. I see no place but the Wallowa
Valley. It is my home. Everything grows there in
the earth. I do not think so much of the fish.
" Mr. Jerome. Have n't you a stronger affection
for peace than you have for the land?
105
The Indian Dispossessed
" Young Joseph. I think with reference to the
land. I look upon the land, made as it was,
with pleasure. It was made for us, with all its
natural advantages. I grew up on it, and took it
as it was given to me. As it was created, it was
finished with power. There is nothing should su-
persede it. There is nothing which can outstrip it.
It is clothed with fruitfulness. In it are riches
given me by my ancestors, and from that time up
to the present I have loved the land, and was thank-
ful that it had been given me. I don't wish to be
understood as talking about the Lapwai, but the
Wallowa. I have set my foot down, and have gone
as far as I intend to go. I have already shown to
you my mind about the country over there, and you
know what I think as well as I do.
" Mr. Jerome. What shall we say to the Presi-
dent when we go back?
" Young Joseph. All I have to say is that I
love my country."
Another still more suggestive question from Gen-
eral Howard : " Suppose several thousand men should
come from Oregon with arms, what would you do ? "
Within a year the troops came upon them from
Oregon, with General Howard at their head. How
prophetic !
Is there anything of the traditional Indian ven-
geance in this?
" When I learned they had killed one of my
1 06
The Nez Perces
people, it clothed my heart with fear and trouble.
My heart was darkened. I was heart-sick. I looked
for relief as out of the question. Nothing would
bring back the dead. I told them this. I thought
when I heard a commission was coming here we
could settle this thing and interchange ideas with
good effect. My travelling around in my own coun-
try used to be unmolested ; I went in happiness and
peace. The killing of that Indian caused me to feel
that darkness pervaded my heart. I thought, when
I heard of this commission, perhaps something will
be said in the council that will in a measure heal my
heart. When I heard the whites had killed the In-
dian, I thought perhaps they had not been taught
the law. By the whites causing the trouble they
were brought up to justice by the law. With refer-
ence to the body of the white man who committed
the deed I have made up my mind. In whatsoever
manner I may think concerning the murderer you
will hear of as coming from me; I have come to
the conclusion to let him escape and enjoy health,
and not take his life for the one he took. I am
speaking as though I spoke to the man himself. I
do not want anything in payment for the deed he
committed. / pronounce the sentence that he shall
live. I spoke to the murderer and told him I thought
a great deal of the land on which he had shed the
blood of one of my people. When I saw all the
settlers take the murderer's part, though they spoke
107
The Indian Dispossessed
of bringing him to trial, I told them there was no
law in favor of murder. I could see they were all
in favor of the murderer, so I told them to leave
the country. I told them it was of great impor-
tance. You see one of our bodies lying dead. I am
not talking idly to you. I cannot leave that country
and go elsewhere. . . .
" When the whites did not live in the Wallowa, I
grew up there; you see my gray hairs now. I have
travelled all its trails. Then there were no whites
or fences. I have heard what you have said. I
think you can reprimand your people so that they
will do better. I have stock ranging perhaps the
whole length of the creek. That stock I have
traded for. I have been listening to the whites for
perhaps twenty years. I have said nothing in this
line. My children have shown you friendship, and
you have set aside that friendship. That much I
show up to you."
Pressed for an explanation of his frequent mi-
grations from the valley, Joseph gives this unique
justification :
" Joseph said : There is much snow there. In
severe weather we go to Imnaha. There is good
hunting there. . . . This one place of living is the
same as you whites have among yourselves. When
you were born, you looked around and found you
lived in houses. You grew up to be large men. At
any time you wished to go from any point to an-
io8
The Nez Perces
other, you went. After making such journey, per-
haps you came back to a father. I grew up the
same way. Whenever my mind was made up to
travel, I went. When I got to be quite a lad, I
was clothed with wisdom. My eyes were opened.
I did see. I saw tracks going in all directions. I
grew up seeing the trail as far as the buffalo coiui-
try, and saw that my seniors had followed it. As
large as the earth is, it serves as a house to live
in. Seeing as I said, I concluded the earth was
made to live in as well as to travel on. I saw in
what kind of houses you lived. I approve of them
for your use. Whenever I see houses, I know
whites have been there; but it is not for me to
demolish them. I have already shown to you that
the land is as a bed for me. If we leave it, per-
haps for years, we expect it to be ready to receive
us when we come back."
But the labors of the commissioners were in vain ;
Joseph made this final declaration:
" You say come on the reservation. I say I don't
come on the reservation. As for the Wallowa Val-
ley, I will settle there in my own way and at my own
pleasure. That is the way my heart is, and if you
ask each of my people you will find their hearts the
same."
The scene of activity now shifts to the War
Department. After much correspondence between
Washington and the military of the Northwest, the
109
The Indian Dispossessed
early spring was determined upon for the final move
upon Joseph. In February the Nez Perce agent sent
a delegation of "treaty" Indians to the Wallowa
Valley with an untimatum to the refractory chief.
This is Joseph's reply:
" I have been talking to the whites many years
about the land in question, and it is strange they
cannot understand me. The country they claim be-
longed to my father, and when he died it was g^ven
to me and my people, and I will not leave it until
I am compelled to."
By the ist of May a strong military force, in
command of General O. O. Howard, was approach-
ing the Nez Perce country. The General met Joseph
and other non-treaty chiefs for a final parley:
" Friday, the 4th of May, the Indians came to-
gether again very much reinforced, part of White
Bird's Indians and some others having come in.
They go through a similar preliminary ceremonial
around the garrison. . . .
" Joseph simply introduced White Bird and his
people, stating that they had not seen me before,
and that he wished them to understand what was
said. White Bird sat demurely in front of me, kept
his hat on, and steadily covered his face with a large
eagle's wing. . . .
" White Bird's Indians, having come a long dis-
tance, were evidently very tired. I thought it was
best to allow them to assemble again, with a view
no
The Nez Perces
of keeping them on the reservation and gathering
in others still, and let them have time to talk over
what we had told them until I could get my troops
in position; ... so when Joseph asked for a post-
ponement till the morrow, I said : ' Let the Indians
take time; let them wait till Monday morning;
meanwhile they can talk among themselves.' This
gave evident satisfaction, and Monday morning at
nine o'clock was fixed for the next meeting."
And the Indians gladly welcomed the three days'
delay, while the astute General gathered his forces
about them.
But there was no common ground for a parley.
The Indians were inclined to discuss the old ques-
tion of their rights to the valley, while General
Howard insisted on an immediate compliance with
the order to remove from Wallowa to the reserve.
One old Indian, Too-hul-hul-sote, seems to have
especially irritated the General:
" ' The law is, you must come to the reservation.
The law is made in Washington; we don't make
it.' Other positive instructions are repeated. Too-
hul-hul-sote answers, ' We never have made any
trade. Part of the Indians gave up their land; I
never did. The earth is part of my body, and I
never gave up the earth.'
" I answer, * You know very well that the Gov-
ernment has set apart a reservation and that the
Indians must go on it. . . .'
Ill
The Indian Dispossessed
" White Bird, in a milder manner, said he agreed
with Too-hul-hul-sote. He said if he had been taught
from early years to be governed by the whites, then
he would be governed by the whites. ' The earth
sustains me.' I then turned to the old man, whom
they mean to keep at it, and say : ' Then you do not
promise to comply with the orders ? ' He answers :
' So long as the earth keeps me, I want to be left
alone; you are trifling with the law of the earth.'
I reply : ' Our old friend does not seem to under-
stand that the question is, Will the Indians come
peaceably on the reservation or do they want me to
put them there by force ? '
" He then declares again : ' I never gave the In-
dians authority to give away my land.' I asked :
' Do you speak for yourself? ' He answered fiercely:
' The Indians may do what they like, but I am not
going on the reservation.' Speaking as sternly as
I could, I said:
" ' That bad advice is what you give the Indians ;
on account of it you will have to be taken to the
Indian Territory. Joseph and White Bird seem to
have good hearts, but yours is bad; I will send you
there if it takes years and years. When I heard
you were coming, I feared you would make trouble;
you say you are not a medicine man, but you talk
for them. The Indians can see no good while you
are along; you advise them to resist, to lose all
their horses and cattle, and have unending trouble.
112
The Nez Perces
Will Joseph and White Bird and Looking-glass go
with me to look after the land? The old man shall
not go; he must stay with Captain Perry.' The
Old Dreamer says : ' Do you want to scare me with
reference to my body ? ' I then said I would leave
his body with Captain Perry, and called for the
captain to take him out of the council.
" He was led out accordingly and kept away till
the council broke up."
Too-hul-hul-sote was kept in confinement five days.
This summary arrest and removal of their spokes-
man from what they supposed was a friendly coun-
cil brought the Indians to a realization of the utter
hopelessness of their cause; sadly, reluctantly they
yielded to the removal. The chiefs were invited
to inspect the reservation and select their location;
General Howard records his satisfaction with a
stern duty well done:
" Having now secured the object named, by per-
suasion, constraint, and such a gradual encircling
of the Indians by troops as to render resistance
evidently futile, I thought my own instructions
fulfilled.
" The execution of further details I leave in per-
fect security to the Indian agent and Captain Perry,
whom I put into my place for this work."
Constrained as was their compliance with the
order, the Indians proceeded in good faith to gather
up their goods, collect their herds, and move toward
8 113
The Indian Dispossessed
the reservation. Had it not been for a single un-
toward incident, the story of the Nez Perce removal,
like the story of every successful Indian removal,
would have ended with their silent bending to the
inevitable. Some friction arose between the settlers
and White Bird's Indians, and friction with Indians
yielding their homes to superior force is dangerous
business — as well strike a match in a powder-mill.
There is a story that the white settlers, taking ad-
vantage of the Indians' movement of their herds,
endeavored to stampede and run off with their
horses and cattle , — an act which the exasperated
Indians summarily avenged. General Howard says
in his report to the War Department : " After ex-
amination, it seems to have been a private quarrel,
according to Indian story." The version of the Nez
Perce agent is probably true, except that the mo-
tive is lacking:
" They agreed to move on the reserve by a cer-
tain time, had selected the lands upon which to
locate, but on the very day that they were to go
upon the lands selected — all having left their old
or former homes and moved their stock and fami-
lies to the borders of the reserve — a party of six
from White Bird's band commenced the murdering
of citizens on Salmon River, thus bringing on an-
other Indian war."
Indians, even Indians grieving over real or fancied
wrongs, do not commit indiscriminate murder with-
114
The Nez Perces
out some immediate inciting cause; what that
was, the official records do not disclose, but the
Indians' story of the whites' rapacity remains un-
controverted.
Among Indians in a less inflammable mood, this
act of a few vengeful hotheads need not have
plunged the whole tribe into war; but the smoul-
dering fire of discontent needed only these murders
to turn instantly the whole body of non-treaty In-
dians from the calm persuasion of their chiefs. By
the acts of a few, all were compromised ; " the
Indians have risen ! " went up the cry, and with it
ended the peaceful removal so nearly accomplished.
The outbreak occurred many miles east of the
Wallowa Valley; neither Joseph nor any member
of his band were concerned in it. Yet such was
the instantaneous effect of this unhappy incident that
to have opposed the common cause of all would
have been little short of traitorous ; sides were taken
in a day, and the non-treaty Indians almost to a
man were arrayed with their chiefs against the
military.
Then began the Nez Perce war. " The enemy
manifests extraordinary boldness," reports General
Howard, " planting sharpshooters at available points,
making charges on foot and on horseback with all
manner of savage demonstrations." After a few
preliminary skirmishes, the " war " developed into
a pursuit of the Nez Perces — and it was the most
"5
The Indian Dispossessed
remarkable campaign in the annals of Indian war-
fare. Across into Montana, over the Rocky Moun-
tains, down through the Yellowstone Park, then
northward nearly to the British line, Joseph, with
his men, women, and children, led General Howard
from June until October in a chase of thirteen
hundred miles. Joseph fought only when compelled
to. In the Bitter Root Valley he traded for goods
with the rapacious storekeepers who were traitorous
enough to willingly supply his wants. One mer-
chant, however, declined to aid his country's ene-
mies, and closed his store in their faces ; the Indians
could easily have looted the place, but Joseph was
first and last for peace if it could be accorded him.
His mode of warfare brought him this tribute in
General W. T. Sherman's report to the Secretary
of War:
" The Indians throughout displayed a courage and
skill that elicited universal praise; they abstained
from scalping, let captive women go free, did not
commit indiscriminate murder of peaceful families
which is usual, and fought with almost scientific
skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish-lines
and field- fortifications."
That flight of months before the troops was one
long tragedy for Joseph and his people. If it taxed
to the utmost the endurance of General Howard's
command, what must it have been for the Indians,
encumbered with their families? Many fell by the
ii6
The Nez Perces
way who were not the victims of their pursuers'
bullets; many women and children of Joseph's band
were left in hastily made graves. It is a sad truth
that desperate men among the fleeing Indians com-
mitted a number of robberies and murders which
could not be considered as acts of war; but the
dishonors of the campaign seem to weigh against
General Howard's Indian allies. " See these women's
bodies disinterred by our own ferocious Bannock
scouts ! " writes General Howard. " See how they
pierce and dishonor their poor, harmless forms, and
carry off their scalps! Our officers sadly look upon
the scene, and then, as by a common impulse, deepen
their beds, and cover them with earth." ("Joseph
Nez Perce.")
Notwithstanding these few barbarities committed
on both sides, the campaign was singularly free
from incidents that add bitterness to the inevitable
horrors of Indian war. Brave and hardy soldiers,
doing a stern duty under orders from their Gov-
ernment, pressed to the utmost a band of some six
hundred fleeing men, women, and children who could
not be made to understand why the country of
their fathers from time without reckoning should
pass to the white man "by right of discovery and
occupation." Many old men in that stricken band
had been with Old Joseph when he said, " The land
on the other side of the line is what we gave to
the Great Father." Is it to be wondered at that the
117
The Indian Dispossessed
simple Indian mind cried out, " Why has the white
man crossed the Hne?"
The sad story of the American Indian is told in
these, " the law of nations " — which does not rec-
ognize him, and that other law not made by men
or nations, the " Survival of the Fittest " — which
dooms him.
United States troops all along the line of flight
were called out to intercept the Indians. General
Gibbon, making a hasty march from Helena with
about two hundred men, came upon Joseph before
he had reached the Yellowstone Park, drove him out
of his camp with considerable loss, and captured his
herd of ponies. Without ponies the Indians' flight
would have been of short duration; no one knew
that better than Joseph. So, gathering his scattered
forces, he turned upon Gibbon, routed him out of
the same camp, recaptured his ponies and escaped,
leaving eighty-nine Indians dead on the field. Gib-
bon himself was wounded in the assault.
But fighting with women and children on the
field of battle was not to the liking of General
Gibbon. " He pointed to where women, during the
battle, with their little ones in their arms, had
waded into the deep water to avoid the firing; and
told me how it touched his heart when two or
three extended their babies toward him, and looked
as pleasant and wistful as they could for his pro-
tection; this was while the balls were whistling
The Nez Perces
through the willows near by." ("Joseph Nez
Perce.")
After passing through the Yellowstone Park, and
along the borders of the famous Yellowstone Lake,
Joseph turned to the northward, with the intention
of escaping into the British possessions. By this
time troops were being hurried to the scene of ac-
tion from all parts of the country; even far-off
Georgia sent two companies across the continent.
In those days, before the United States Government
had conceived its mission to impress Christian civi-
lization upon foreign peoples by means of the mili-
tary, its army was so insignificant that one band
of runaway Indians served to draw the whole avail-
able force into the field.
Beset with foes in his long journey to the
northward across Montana, dodging from one little
" army " almost into the clutches of some other,
Joseph successfully eluded them all until his escape
seemed certain. But finally, in the Bear Paw Moun-
tains, within one day's march of the British line,
the Indians were intercepted by a force in com-
mand of Col. Nelson A. Miles. There Joseph made
his final stand. With all their remaining strength
and numbers the Indians desperately fought their
last battle. It was a hopeless fight of worn-out men
against a superior force of comparatively fresh sol-
diers. White Bird and a few of his followers es-
caped through the lines to the British possessions,
119
The Indian Dispossessed
while Joseph, to save his people from annihilation,
surrendered to Colonel Miles, after his brother Olli-
cut, five other chiefs, and many warriors had been
killed in the battle.
" This reply of Joseph's was taken verbatim on
the spot," says General Howard's report:
" Tell General Howard I know his heart. What
he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired
of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass
is dead. Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men
are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or
no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is
cold, and we have no blankets. The little children
are freezing to death. My people, some of them,
have run away to the hills, and have no blankets,
no food; no one knows where they are, perhaps
freezing to death. I want to have time to look for
my children and see how many of them I can find.
Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear
me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and
sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight
no more forever."
Captives at last. A strange tragedy," this, to be
enacted on the one hundredth anniversary of the
patriots' darkest winter!
1777, 1877; a liberty-loving nation, dwelling at
this centennial time on the memories of its own
struggle for independence; pointing its youth to
the picture of Washington and his men at Valley
1^0
The Nez Perces
Forge, — freezing, hungry, and ill-clothed, yet hold-
ing out that they might rule their lives as they saw
fit; might have dealt generously with a luckless
people brought by the same love of liberty to a
similar unhappy predicament. But their affliction
was only beginning.
It was the intention of their captors to send the
Indians back to Idaho. Joseph never ceased to
claim that the one condition of his surrender was
that he be taken back to Idaho. General Howard
states in his report : " I directed Colonel Miles to
keep the prisoners till next spring, it being too late
to send them to Idaho by direct routes this fall, and
too costly by steamer and rail." But no sooner did
the good people of Idaho hear of the capture and
plans for the return, than they entered a most
strenuous protest; Indians once removed would
never return if they could prevent it. Once more
the " voice of the people " secured the Govern-
ment's ear and set up the murders by a portion of
the tribe as sufficient reason for keeping the In-
dians forever outside the limits of Idaho. As usual,
Washington yielded to the Vociferous Few. The
protests of Joseph, the judgment and recommenda-
tion of General Howard and Colonel Miles were set
aside, and the Indians were ordered to that " grave-
yard of the northern Indian," the Indian Territory.
It was done with a full knowledge of the conse-
quences, The Honorable Commissioner of Indian
131
The Indian Dispossessed
Affairs had said in his report to the Honorable
Secretary of the Interior, no more than three months
before the Nez Perce removal took place:
" Experience has demonstrated the impolicy of
sending northern Indians to the Indian Territory.
To go no farther back than the date of the Pawnee
removal, it will be seen that the effect of a radical
change of climate is disastrous, as this tribe alone,
in the first two years, lost by death over 800 out
of its number of 2376. The Northern Cheyennes
have suffered severely, and the Poncas who were
recently removed from contact with the unfriendly
Sioux, and arrived there in July last, have already
lost 36 by death, which, by an ordinary computa-
tion, would be the death rate for the entire tribe for
a period of four years."
Yet these Nez Perces, accustomed to the high alti-
tude, the cool bracing atmosphere of mountainous
Idaho, were to be sent to the hot prairies of the
Indian Territory with the full approval of this same
Commissioner. The political consideration must have
been great to have compelled this fourth sacrifice
of human life.
The Indians were first taken to Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, and placed in camp on the Missouri River
bottoms for the winter. The change from Idaho to
Missouri River bottoms, enough in itself to invite
disaster, was aggravated by their surroundings; says
an inspector, " Between a lagoon and the river, the
123
The Nez Perces
worst possible place that could have been selected;
and the sanitary condition of the Indians proved
it." Here they were kept until well into the fol-
lowing summer : " One-half could be said to be sick,
and all were affected by the poisonous malaria of
the camp." In the middle of July they were removed
to the scorching plains of the Indian Siberia. Here
these mountain Indians went down like moths in a
flame. Within three months the Commissioner who
had recounted the disastrous effects of the climate
on the Pawnees, the Cheyennes, and the Poncas
made this report:
" After the arrival of Joseph and his band in the
Indian Territory, the bad effect of their location at
Fort Leavenworth manifested itself in the prostra-
tion by sickness at one time of 260 out of the 410,
and within a few months they have lost by death
more than one quarter of the entire number."
The death rate was so appalling that public at-
tention was attracted; criticisms began to pour in
upon the Indian service. Indignant people demanded
that something be done, and the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs made a personal visit to the tribe:
" Joseph had two causes of dissatisfaction, which
he presented to notice in plain, unmistakable terms.
He complained that his surrender to General Miles
was a conditional surrender, with a distinct promise
that he should go back to Idaho in the spring. The
Other complaint was that the land selected for him
123
The Indian Dispossessed
on the Quapaw reservation was not fertile, and
that water was exceedingly scarce on it; that two
wells had been dug to a depth of 60 to 70 feet
without reaching water ; and that he did not like the
country."
Then the Commissioner set out with Joseph and
an interpreter in a vain search for some spot in the
Territory to Joseph's liking. He continues:
" I travelled with him in Kansas and the Indian
Territory for nearly a week and found him to be
one of the most gentlemanly and well-behaved In-
dians that I ever met. He is bright and intelligent,
and is anxious for the welfare of his people."
Joseph never lost an opportunity to assert his un-
derstanding of the terms of surrender. His agent
reports :
" Joseph expresses himself as very much opposed
to making this country his future home, dwelling
particularly on what he claims were the terms of
surrender agreed upon between himself and General
Miles at Bear Paw Mountain, according to which
he argues he was to be returned to his old home."
This claim of Joseph, so often repeated, receives
no official comment in the records. It is given each
time simply as a declaration coming from Joseph,
unaccompanied by so much as a statement that he
is mistaken. To get at the facts, the author ap-
pealed for information to the best possible authority
■ — Gen. Nelson A. Miles. With characteristic cour-
J24
The Nez Perces
tesy the General supplied this clear account of the
surrender :
" Washington, D. C, June 3, 1904.
" Dear Sir :
" Your inquiry of ist received. When
Chief Joseph was surrounded and held for five days
with no possible chance of escape he asked under a
flag of truce what would be done with him in case
he surrendered. He was informed that so far as I
knew it was the intention of the Government to send
him back to the Idaho reservation and require him
to stay there. I do not think there was any other
purpose or design on the part of the authorities at
that time, and I have always believed that that
should have been done.
The sending of Joseph and the Nez Perces to the
Indian Territory, where a large percentage of them
died from malaria, was an after-consideration, and
in my opinion a serious mistake. The location of
his tribe, however, was not a condition of his sur-
render, for he surrendered, and was compelled to
surrender, by force of arms.
But, in my opinion, the ends of justice would
have been reached had he been returned at once
to his reservation; and justice has been delayed by
his being forced to remain in another part of the
country.
" Yours truly,
"(Signed) Nelson A. Miles."
125
The Indian Dispossessed
The Indian language does not contain qualifying
clauses ; the Indian mind does not comprehend them.
It is easy to understand how Joseph could have mis-
taken the General's reply that, so far as he knew, the
Indians were to be returned to Idaho.
Popular indignation was pressing hard upon the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and the righteous
wrath of justice-loving citizens has to be reckoned
with as well as the importunities of the Vociferous
Few.
"The extinction of Joseph's title," he says, "to
the lands he held in Idaho will be a matter of great
gain to the white settlers in that vicinity, and a
reasonable compensation should be made to him for
their surrender. It will be borne in mind that
Joseph has never made a treaty with the United
States, and that he has never surrendered to the
Government the lands he claimed to own in Idaho.
On that account he should be liberally treated upon
his final settlement in the Indian Territory."
Passing strange, this recognition of the Indian
title after, and not before, the Indian's summary
expulsion from his country! Possibly it was com-
pelled by public opinion ; and surely, with the Indian
country gained, Washington could safely indulge a
conscience which at an earlier stage would have been
fatal to its plans. The Commissioner continues in
the same strain :
" The present unhappy condition of these Indians
126
The Nez Perces
appeals to the sympathy of a very large portion of
the American people. I had occasion in my last
annual report to say that ' Joseph and his followers
have shown themselves to be brave men and skilful
soldiers, who, with one exception, have observed the
rules of civilized warfare, and have not mutilated
their dead enemies.' These Indians were encroached
upon by white settlers on soil they believed to be
their own, and when these encroachments became
intolerable they were compelled, in their own esti-
mation, to take up arms. Joseph now says that the
greatest want of the Indians is a system of law by
which controversies between Indians, and between
Indians and white men, can be settled without ap-
pealing to physical force. He says that the want
of law is the great source of disorder among In-
dians. They understand the operation of laws, and
if there were any statutes the Indians would be
perfectly content to place themselves in the hands
of a proper tribunal, and would not take the right-
ing of their wrongs into their own hands, or retali-
ate, as they now do, without the law. In dealing
with such people it is the duty, and I think it
will be the pleasure, of the department to see
that the fostering hand of the Government is
extended toward them, and that it gives them
not only lands on which to live and implements
of agriculture, but also wholesome laws for their
government."
127
The Indian Dispossessed
One cannot read the Indian records of the past
fifty years without being impressed by the persistent
denial to the reservation Indian of civil law, or of
laws necessary to take the place of the tribal con-
trol which he was compelled to surrender. Year
after year good men in the service filled the record
with appeals for adequate Indian law, but every
attempt to secure congressional action was effectu-
ally blocked by the interested few in Congress.
And why? For no other reason than that the
reservation Indian, as one of a herd, without per-
manency, without organization or legal recourse,
lent himself more readily to the successive removals
which were compelled by successive demands for
the best of his remaining land. Deny this as they
may, or seek to excuse it on the ground of the In-
dian's incompetence, it is to their lasting dishonor
that for their own personal gain a people boasting
the equality of all men should have steadily denied
to the Indian the one thing by which he might
hope to come into an advantageous relation with
the superior race, — recognition under the law.
And once more, here is the deadly parallel ; in the
Declaration of Independence, this is set down as
iirst in the arraignment of King George:
"He has refused his assent to laws, the most
wholesome and necessary for the public good."
The history of oppressed peoples is much the
same in all ages, and among all nations; and this
128
The Nez Perces
great nation may well join in Kipling's suppli-
cation :
" Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget ! "
The story of Joseph's band in the Indian Territory
is told in successive annual reports:
" A day school was opened in February, 1880, and
has been very successfully run under the care of
James Reubens, a full-blood Nez Perce, with an
average daily attendance of twenty.
" The Nez Perces are a religious people, and under
the intelligent teachings of Mr. Reubens they are
strict observers of the Sabbath, refusing to perform
any labor whatever upon that day. Twice upon the
Sabbath they meet together, and listen to the preach-
ing of Mr. Reubens, and sing hymns, with an occa-
sional prayer. Their services are conducted with
as much order and the congregation is as much in-
terested in the proceedings as any body of white
people in any church in the land."
Again, in the following year:
" The Nez Perces, located at Oakland, comprise
three hundred and twenty-eight souls, and I am sorry
to be compelled to report that there has been a large
amount of sickness and many deaths among them
during the last year. This arises from the fact that
they have not become acclimated, and are to a great
extent compelled to live in tepees, the cloth of which
9 129
The Indian Dispossessed
has become so rotten from long wear and the eflfects
of the weather as to be no longer capable of keep-
ing out the rain, by which they were soaked during
the last spring. The tribe, unless something is done
for them, will soon become extinct. Of all In-
dians with whom I have become acquainted, they
are by far the most intelligent, truthful, and truly
religious. . . .
" Love of country and home, as in all brave people,
is very largely developed in this tribe, and they long
for the mountains, the valleys, the strealms, and the
clear springs of water of their old home. . . .
" The number of females outnumbers the males
by more than one hundred. This surplus is caused
by the widows whose husbands fell during the war.
These poor women are all longing to return to Idaho,
to their friends and relations. I would suggest the
propriety of returning them to their old homes, where
they will be more comfortable than they are at pres-
ent, and, I believe, would not be a greater expense
to the department than they are here. So brave,
good, and generous a people deserve well of their
Government, and I can only express the hope that
such generous action will be taken by the coming
Congress in their behalf as may enable the depart-
ment to furnish them with the horses and imple-
ments of agriculture that they so much need. Such a
people should not be allowed to perish, and this great
Government can afford to be generous and just."
130
The Nez Perces
And the year after :
" Filled with a love of country — almost wor-
shipping the high mountains, bright flashing streams,
and rich fertile valleys of Idaho — they have in-
herited and transmitted to their children a name for
bravery, for truthfulness, and honor of which they
may indeed be proud. The unfortunate war into
which they were driven in 1877 with the United
States is far from being a blot on their escutcheon,
and all brave, high-minded people the world over
will honor them for their gallant defence of their
homes, their families, and their hunting-ground.
When they surrendered to superior force they did
it in the most solemn manner and under the most
solemn promises of protection and a return to their
own country. That that promise has not been kept
is an historical fact, and never has been explained.
Might never made right, and the power to punish
can never excuse its exercise wrongfully. As the
years go by the eyes of this people are turned to
the Northwest, and their yearning hearts pulsate
naught but Idaho. Like Inspector Pollock, I can
exclaim, ' Of all men in the world, is it possible
that we two only can see this wrong ! ' "
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs is finally con-
strained to recommend their return to Idaho:
" The deep-rooted love for the ' old home,' which
is so conspicuous among them, and their longing
desire to leave the warm, debilitating climate of the
131
The Indian Dispossessed
Indian Territory for the more healthy and invigorat-
ing air of the Idaho Mountains, can never be eradi-
cated, and any longer delay, with the hope of a final
contentment on their part with their present situation,
is, in my judgment, futile and unnecessary. In view
of all the facts, I am constrained to believe that the
remnant of this tribe should be returned to Idaho,
if possible, early next spring."
During the following year, by permission of the
Department, " twenty-nine Nez Perces, mostly the
widows and orphans of those killed in the war,"
were returned to the reservation in Idaho, but Con-
gress turned a deaf ear to the plea of the tribe.
Their story continues in the reports :
" These Indians are in some respects superior to
those of any other tribe connected with the agency.
They are unusually bright and intelligent; nearly
one-half of them are consistent members of the
Presbyterian Church. They meet regularly for
weekly services in the school-house, and so far as
dress, deportment, and propriety of conduct are
concerned they could not be distinguished from an
ordinary white congregation. The entire band, with
perhaps one or two exceptions, are quiet, peaceable,
and orderly people. They receive what is provided
for them with apparent thankfulness, ask for noth-
ing more and give no trouble whatever. They are
extremely anxious to return to their own country.
They regard themselves as exiles. The climate does
132
The Nez Perces
not seem to agree with them, many of them have
died, and there is a tinge of melancholy in their
bearing and conversation that is truly pathetic. I
think they should be sent back, as it seems clear they
will never take root and prosper in this locality."
The successive annual enumerations of the Nez
Perces might have furnished Congress food for re-
flection, had it taken the trouble to consult the
reports. Four hundred and ten were originally taken
to the Indian Territory. Then, while the first great
epidemic of disease was taking off one quarter of
their number, a considerable remnant of " non-
treaty " Nez Perces was captured in Idaho and
brought to the Territory, thus swelling the number
of survivors to 391. Then follow successively the
annual counts : 370, 344, 328, 322, 282 (29 widows
returned), 287, and finally, after seven years of life
in the Indian Territory, 268. At this rate of de-
crease the last Nez Perce would have departed for
the happy hunting-ground within twenty years.
But philanthropic persons were impressed by this
steady reduction of the tribe, if the Indian bureau
was not, and in this seventh year nothing less than
a thoroughly aroused public opinion, pointedly ex-
pressed, compelled the return of these Indians to the
Northwest. To the Northwest, but not all to their
people in Idaho; another element had to be reck-
oned with, — the stern opposition of the Idaho set-
tlers. The Indian bureau, with no policy except to
133
The Indian Dispossessed
please, with its ear to the ground, listening to the
divided clamor of the people, met this divided sen-
timent most curiously by dividing the Indians, re-
storing less than half to the Nez Perce reservation,
while the others, including Joseph and his more im-
mediate following, were sent to an Indian reserva-
tion in northeastern Washington to continue their
exile.
All history acquits Joseph and his band in the
Wallowa Valley of the murders which decided the
" non-treaty " Indians for war. Nevertheless, Joseph
had led the combined forces in their hopeless struggle ;
and afterward it was Joseph's voice that was raised
in continual protest against the extinction of his
people. So, in the selection of a scapegoat to ofifer
up to the good people of Idaho, the lot naturally fell
to Joseph. It was the irony of fate that he who
had mainly accomplished the restoration of his people
was not to participate in it. And again, the irony
of fate that fifteen of White Bird's band — the band
concerned in the murders — should at this same time
have been received back from their retreat in British
territory and given good land in the home reserva-
tion of the Nez Perces.
The restoration of the favored portion to their
own tribe is reported by the Nez Perce agent:
" One hundred and eighteen Nez Perces of Joseph's
band reached this agency June i, 1885, were kindly
received, and have gone out among the tribe. After
134
The Nez Perces
an absence of eight years they return very much
broken in spirit. The lesson is a good one and
furnishes profitable study for the more restless of
the tribe who are not disposed to settle down and
enter upon civilized pursuits. They seem inclined
to profit by experience. Some have already taken
up lands and are fencing the same, while others will
follow next spring."
There, as the story goes, " they lived happily ever
after."
And from Colville agency in Washington comes
this tirade:
" Last June a remnant of Joseph's band was
brought from the Indian Territory, numbering 150,
and placed upon this reserve — taken from a coun-
try where they had already become acclimated, where
they had their well-fenced fields, their bands of cattle
and horses, their children at school, and in fact pro-
gressing finely, rationed by the Government as well,
and on account of the sickly sentiment expressed in
the East towards them removed to Idaho and Wash-
ington Territories, against the wishes of the people
of these territories, whose relatives were slain by
this band, whose outrages and atrocities will last in
the minds of these settlers as long as they have
being. It is said that they have been removed back
to this country by the Government at their own
request, and that in a great measure they will be
expected to care for themselves on account of lack
135
The Indian Dispossessed
of sufficient appropriations. What can they do for
the next year until they can harvest a crop? Joseph
says : ' We have nothing. My people cannot and will
not starve, and if we are not fed we will go and
find it.' Why was this not thought of before they
came here? My estimates for food for them were
cut down and they were placed on short rations
until they appealed to the military, and have since
been fed. I earnestly recommend that Congress
provide sufficiently for their wants early in the
session."
This reflects the sentiment of the gentle settler.
What are the facts of history to him!
With this final disposition of Joseph's band the
Indian spirit seems to have been broken. Departing
hope left behind a listless indifference. Indian agents
came, and Indian agents went, each wondering at
their settled inaction. This report, after five years,
is much like those from the Indian Territory:
" Joseph's hand of Ncc Perces are more or less
unsettled and of a restless character; they appear
to be greatly dissatisfied at times with their location.
In my opinion the causes of their dissatisfaction are
just. Owing to many of their friends and relatives
living on the Nez Perce reservation in the State
of Idaho, an effort should be made to remove them
from their present location at Nespilem to the Nez
Perce Agency, Idaho, where they claim land would
be allotted to them, as is being done with their
136
The Nez Perces
friends and relatives of that reservation. I have
taken particular notice of the fact that when they
receive letters from their relatives living on the Nez
Perce reservation or a visit from their friends from
that reservation they appear to have the ' blues ' and
at once express a strong desire to return to their
old home. I am thoroughly satisfied they will never
be content to remain on this reservation, no matter
how well they may be treated by the Government."
Did ever the Government heed an Indian appeal
for the sake of the Indians alone? Public clamor
had been stilled by Joseph's removal to the North-
west, and far-off Nespilem best suited the Govern-
ment as the final location for Joseph's band.
The Indian comprehends civilization only as it
comes within range of his vision. He takes it as
he sees it. What had Joseph seen in the white
man's civilization? In his earlier years, the many
broken promises of the Government ; white encroach-
ment and aggression; the strong hand of the mili-
tary; the violation of what he held to be a sacred
promise, then seven years of slow death; and now,
another land of exile, with the heritage from Old
Joseph, the Wallowa Valley, forever lost to his
people. Why should Joseph meekly bend to a sys-
tem which had made of his tribe an unhappy
people? What was there worth striving for in a
civilization so full of injustice toward his race?
Back, back to the Indian way, said Joseph; back
The Indian Dispossessed
to the tepee, and to the blanket; back to the Indian
traditions, and to the simple Indian notion of jus-
tice; back to the Indian Hfe in search of lost happi-
ness! The story of the American Indian reservation
contains many a tale of Indian retrogression, but
none more marked than that of Joseph's band. Every
reservation can show its quota of old-time Indians
carried over from the old Indian life into the semi-
captivity of the present day, — unprogressive always,
frowning their impotent protest as they recall the
happier hunting days, — not a grand, but a sad army
of old warriors who failed to win in the fight for
liberty and country.
And so the older Indians in Joseph's band idly
dream of the good old days in the Wallowa, while
the young men go uncontrolled ; there are none of the
activities and incentives of the real Indian life; there
are all of the white man's vices to fill their place.
Fifteen years of this life pass, and Joseph feels
old age coming upon him. Then he dreams an
impossible dream. It is that he shall take his people
back to the Wallowa Valley — that he may die in
the land of his fathers.
Did ever an exiled Indian more blindly reckon with-
out the white possessors of his old hunting-ground?
No Indian petition to his Great Father in Washington
could prevail against such a report as this:
" The subject of Joseph's transfer to the Wallowa
Valley in Oregon has been discussed at length among
138
The Nez Perces
them during the year and has had a demoraUzing
effect upon them. ... A liberal Government has
treated him with a generosity scarcely having a
parallel, and his entire lack of appreciation is clearly
shown in his unblushing audacity in asking for
more liberal assistance in being transferred to an-
other territory."
" Asking for more " ! Here we have another
Oliver Twist. The agent continues:
" It is true that the Wallowa Valley is the birth-
place of Joseph and that there lie the bones of his
forefathers, and he no doubt entertains many kind
and pleasant remembrances of his younger life. Boy-
hood with its sweet memories furnishes food for
deep reflection, and he no doubt cherishes the thought
of some day returning, but in my opinion by his
actions in after years he has forfeited all his rights
and privileges to enjoy the blessings of a peaceful
and happy life in his old home. . . . His reason for
a transfer from his present home is purely senti-
mental, bolstered up by a personal ambition. . . .
" It is true Joseph fought with much gallantry,
but when finally overcome he was tendered the gen-
erous hand of a beneficent Government. In my
opinion any act, its ultimate object being the re-
moval of Joseph and his followers to either Idaho
or Oregon, would be an injudicious one. The hor-
rors of long ago lie at his threshold and are plead-
ing for justice. The appalling wrongs done by him
139
The Indian Dispossessed
are crying from the blood-stained soil of Idaho for
restitution. Joseph's Hfe would be jeopardized should
he ever return for a permanent residence in a ter-
ritory he previously occupied."
Then the Commissioner of Indian Affairs takes
it up:
" Last March Chief Joseph visited this city and
submitted to this office a petition to be allowed to
leave his present location on the Colville reservation
in Washington and return with his band of about
150 Nez Perces to Wallowa Valley, Oregon. This,
he claimed, was the home of his ancestors and was
his own home until he and his people were removed
from Idaho to the Indian Territory in 1877, at the
close of the Nez Perce war. By Department refer-
ence the office also received a communication, dated
April 7, 1900, from Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles,
United States Army, recommending that Joseph's
request be granted."
But there are a hundred objections, according to
the Commissioner. The Wallowa Valley contains
four prosperous towns ; Wallowa Lake " is fast be-
coming a favorite summer resort " ; the land is worth
" from $20 to $75 per acre " ; and, mark ye well, the
Wallowa Valley contains 1,017 precious votes! This
asset is set forth with great particularity in a table
arranged by precincts. " It would be very expensive
to secure any portion of Wallowa Valley upon which
to locate those Indians." He concludes :
140
The Nez Perces
" While a majority of the settlers of the Wallowa
Valley retain no ill will against the Nez Perces for
the troubles of 1877, yet there are some whose rela-
tives were ravished and killed by Indians on Salmon
River and Camas Prairie during that outbreak who
vow vengeance against all members of the band, and
more particularly against Joseph, and many of the
settlers predict that should the Indians be returned
to this valley to stay permanently Joseph would be
assassinated within a year."
Here again is the threat of assassination for crimes
that he never committed. During all these years
Joseph had lived in perfect safety within easy reach
of the bereaved settlers, but were he to " ever re-
turn for a permanent residence " or, " to stay per-
manently," in other words, to occupy some of their
precious land, then their gentle grief would rise to
the pitch of murder. What finely balanced sorrow
this, to be so weighed in the commercial scale!
It was an impracticable, impossible thing, this
dream of a homesick Indian. So Joseph returned
to his people. Four years more of idle longing;
then, in September, 1904, Joseph departed for the
happy hunting-ground, where treaties are not made
to be broken, and liberty is real.
" The line was made as I wanted it; not for me,
but my children that will follow me; there is where
I live, and there is where I want to leave my body.
141
The Indian Dispossessed
The land on the other side of the line is what we
gave to the Great Father."
Wise and far-seeing old chieftain, to save a coun-
try for his people! Poor Indian, poor fool, to
think that his " Great Father " would turn back the
faithful who might cross the line set down in the
covenant !
142
THE REMOVAL OF THE PONCAS
" I see you all here to-day. What have I done ? I am brought
here, but what have I done ? I don't know. It seems as though I
have n't a place in the world, no place to go, and no home to go to."
Chief Standing Bear.
SPREAD out the map of the state of South
Dakota; begin at the southeastern corner,
and follow up the Missouri River to the
mouth of the Niobrara; then up the river again,
only a finger's breadth, to Ponca Creek. If the
map is one of the present day, the name of Ponca
will attach only to the creek, for that flows on for-
ever; if it is a map of fifteen years ago, a small
strip of land between Ponca Creek and the Niobrara
River may bear the name " Ponca Indian Reserva-
tion." If so, it is only because the name clings to
the country that had belonged to the Ponca Indians
a dozen years before.
But twenty-eight years ago, and one hundred years
ago, and how much longer ago nobody knows, for
the white man's history of that region dates no far-
ther back, the Ponca Indians dwelt in this fertile
country of wooded valleys and upland prairies, a
little band distinct from all the Indians around. Dur-
ing all those years they maintained their country
143
The Indian Dispossessed
against the repeated incursions of the powerful Sioux
on the north with a vigor and tenacity born of the
Indian love of the land of his fathers.
The tide of white occupation that flowed to the
Northwest during the early fifties was temporarily
checked by the Sioux on the upper Mississippi, who
at that time ruled supreme in the greater part of
Minnesota and all of Dakota, and it then took the
course of least resistance, — through Iowa, and into
eastern Nebraska. This placed the Poncas between
the hostile Sioux on the north and the white settle-
ments on the south, — a situation well calculated, in
the ordinary course of events, to hasten the day when
Ponca Creek should become the monument of the
tribe. But this circumstance really gave the Poncas
a new lease of life. They met the advancing whites
with the hand of friendship, while the high-strung
Sioux (with the exception of the Yancton and one
or two other small tribes of the Sioux nation) re-
sisted the invasion with a ferocity that dismayed
even the reckless frontiersmen. The keen settlers
were quick to perceive the strategic value of a
friendly tribe between themselves and the powerful
hostiles :
" I cannot speak in too high terms of the uniform
good conduct of this tribe. While many other In-
dians have been fighting the Government, and mur-
dering the frontier settlers, this tribe and the
Yancton Sioux have remained faithful to their
144
The Removal of the Poncas
treaty stipulations, and stood as a barrier between
the hostile Indian and the white settler upon the
frontier."
So, under shelter of this gentle band, the white
man rested for a time while he gathered strength
for the next advance; and just so long as the
Poncas were of service " as a barrier between the
hostile Indian and the white settler," they were
treated with a consideration rarely accorded to an
Indian people so insignificant in numbers, so un-
assertive, and possessed of so good a country.
But in course of time the inevitable demand for
more of the Indian country made itself felt in
Washington. In 1858 a treaty was entered into
with the Poncas, by the terms of which they ceded
much of their territory for certain considerations.
Article I. recites the cession of territory and defines
the tract that is guaranteed to them. Then follows :
" Article II. In consideration of the foregoing
cession and relinquishment, the United States agree
and stipulate as follows, viz. :
" First. To protect the Poncas in the possession
of the tract of land reserved for their future homes,
and their persons and property thereon, during good
behavior on their part."
The second stipulation secured to the Poncas the
payment of annuities extending over a period of
twenty-five years. Other benefits, such as schools,
agency, etc., were provided for. The Poncas ap-
'° 145
The Indian Dispossessed
pear to have been fairly satisfied with the treaty,
except that their ancient burial-ground was not in-
cluded in the portion left to them. This situation
was remedied by a supplementary treaty in 1865,
in which the bounds of their reservation were moved
eastward a few miles, but still between, and at the
confluence of, the Missouri and Niobrara Rivers,
where the tribe had been discovered sixty odd years
before. The provisions of the treaty of 1858 were
in nowise altered or disturbed. The record shows
what generous treatment will do for an Indian
tribe :
" The ratification of the supplementary treaty with
the tribe has greatly encouraged them. It not only
gives to them their old burying-grounds, but gives
them a tract of land in every respect much better for
agricultural purposes than their former location. . . .
" In agricultural pursuits the members of this tribe
are becoming quite proficient. They have between
500 and 600 acres of corn and other vegetables,
which have all been well cultivated, and now bid
fair to yield a very heavy harvest."
The superintendent reports in 1866:
" PoNCAS. Since my acquaintance with this tribe,
for a period of upwards of five years, they have
remained faithful to their treaty obligations in every
particular, under circumstances at times that would
have palliated, if not excused, a hostile attitude on
their part. The unprovoked and fiendish attack made
146
The Removal of the Poncas
by a party of drunken United States soldiers in the
fall of 1863 upon a small number of this tribe, while
making their way to their reservation and home from
a friendly visit to a neighboring tribe, the Omahas,
by which seven of them lost their lives and consider-
able property, would have been considered, in a civ-
ilized community, as a sufficient cause for retaliating
upon their murderers or their relatives, especially if
no effort was made to indemnify the sufferers, by
the Government who had permitted its soldiers to
perpetrate such wrongs."
Among the murdered were three women, a little
girl, and an infant. Their supplementary treaty
provided for the payment of damages to the rela-
tives of the deceased.
Not many Indian tribes have had praise so heaped
upon them. In 1869 their number is given as 768.
The agent reports:
" The Ponca Indians are in no way addicted to
drinking or gambling, neither will they spend their
money for whisky. They fully understand the use
of money, and will use it to the very best possible
advantage. I am fully of the opinion that if their
annuity were paid to them in money, they would
use it more judiciously for their comfort than it
could possibly be used for them in the purchase of
goods. The Poncas are the most peaceable and
law-abiding of any of the tribes of Indians. They
are warm friends of the whites, and truly loyal to
147
The Indian Dispossessed
the Government, and they fully deserve its consid-
eration and protection."
And again:
" I respectfully submit the following report of the
Ponca school. The school was opened May i, 1871,
and has continued to the present date, with an aver-
age attendance of 17 girls and 33 boys. The chil-
dren have been taught in the common English
branches, and have made a good degree of progress,
learning quite as readily as white children. The
parents and relations of the scholars exhibit great
interest in the advancement of their children, and
to their influence is to be attributed the regular
attendance."
The next year three schools are reported, with an
average attendance of seventy-seven.
In their earnest striving after the white man's
way, the Poncas were constantly beset by the horde
of hostile Indians on their unprotected border. The
records mention these raids at different times, and
in 1873 the untamed Sioux seem to have been more
than usually active:
" But far worse is the record of disasters from
frequent engagements with hostile Indians, who
come in force to fight in disproportionate numbers
these poor, ill-armed, but really brave Indians, peace-
ably imbibing and receiving the practical lessons
of civilization, and proving to their friends their
evident desire to better their condition. . . .
148
The Removal of the Poncas
" The Poncas, having thus almost unaided kept
the enemy at bay with little better than clubs and
bows and arrows, and fought their way through a
season of greater peril from hostile Indians than
has ever before been encountered by them, as I am
informed, ask only that guns of long range and
capacity for speedy execution be put into their hands ;
and this application I would earnestly indorse and
urge upon the attention of the Department as an
act of justice to these brave men, who are strug-
gling upward to the light, and if protected in their
persons and property, and given such efficient aid
as their rate of progress requires, will, as the evi-
dences bear me out in saying, make a record that
cannot but justify the benevolent intentions of the
Government, and prove beyond cavil that the In-
dian can be and will be made to contribute to the
general welfare, and can appreciate while he shares
the benefits and blessings he has with others
earned. . . .
" We have a few plain signals with the bell and
the voice, which all well understand, and which
evoke always a ready response. There are no
cowards in camp, except it be the young women
and small children; the old women, when they are
not permitted to fight, urge on the lagging and
make most excellent camp followers."
Notwithstanding the solemn treaty pledge " To
protect the Poncas in the possession of the tract of
149
The Indian Dispossessed.
land reserved for their future homes, and their per-
sons and property thereon," this band of hapless
Indian farmers still served well as a buffer between
the hostile Indian and the white settler. At this
time the " peace policy " — or, rather, its " in-
verted " substitute — was in full force ; and under
the acknowledged interpretation of it, " that the
expenditures of the Government should be propor-
tioned not to the good but to the ill desert of the
several tribes," the Government was purchasing an
uncertain immunity from attack from these same
hostiles by the liberal distribution of rations, while
they followed their murderous pastimes in the Ponca
country. But the attacks of the Sioux became much
less frequent during the next two years, and with
eighty children in school, a church of two hundred
members, and one hundred and fifty comfortable
houses, the Poncas were much like any white com-
munity of peaceful farmers. Then in 1876 came
this cheering news from the agency of the Lower
Brule Sioux, — the half-wild Indians who had so
long harassed the Poncas :
" During the year the chiefs and head-men of the
tribe asked for and obtained permission to visit the
Ponca agency, for the purpose of making a treaty
with the Poncas, with whom they have been on un-
friendly terms for years. This treaty was effected
and entered into in the best of faith."
With this only serious difficulty so satisfactorily
150
The Removal of the Poncas
adjusted, there was no apparent reason why these
Indian farmers should not make rapid advance along
the " white man's road."
No apparent reason. But events of far-reaching
importance had meanwhile been transpiring in the
great Sioux Country north of them, — events of
such importance that a tribe so insignificant as the
Ponca, had it only known, might well have trembled
for its future at the hands of a Government whose
avowed policy was to bestow its favors on the power-
ful and hostile Indians in the interest of peace.
Away to the Northwest stretched the great Sioux
reservation, from the Missouri River on the east
to the western line of Dakota. The territory em-
braced was as large as the State of New York, and
fifty thousand Sioux drew rations from the various
Government agencies upon it. The appropriations
for these Indians were about two million dollars
annually, — an amount ridiculously in excess of
treaty stipulations, but no more than sufficient to
prevent serious hostilities. In the extreme western
part of this great reservation lay the Black Hills,
with their millions of treasure still uncovered. Ex-
plorations made in the early seventies disclosed the
presence of gold; in 1874 a military expedition was
sent into the Hills to explore the country, and in
the following year a commission endeavored to ob-
tain from the Indians a cession of that portion of
their country — but the attempt ended in failure.
151
The Indian Dispossessed
But the cry of gold had gone up, and the white
man's progress was not to be stayed by an Indian
refusal. The horde of gold-seekers came up from
the Union Pacific railroad and the overland wagon
routes on the south, as far as the southern line of
the Sioux reservation. And there they stopped.
Directly in this natural gateway to the Black Hills
were some fourteen thousand Sioux, under Spotted
Tail, the most diplomatic Indian politician of his
time, and Red Cloud, an acknowledged leader in
the great Sioux nation.
" No passing through," said they ; " until another
bargain is made with the Great Father, this is In-
dian country." Then the cry of the Vociferous Few
went up to Washington, — the old, old cry for In-
dian removal, — and again the Government heard
" the voice of the people."
The Black Hills must be cleared of Indians; so
must the gateway on the south. But how propitiate
the untamed Sioux?
The Indian ring sought eagerly for some especially
favored spot for the powerful chiefs. Spotted Tail
and Red Cloud; something to serve up to them as
a token of kindly regard.
There, at the southeast corner of the great reserve,
was the land of the Poncas, — a prize for any In-
dian chief. And why not? One hundred and fifty
houses, five hundred acres of growing crops, — just
the place to teach the astute Spotted Tail, or Red
The Removal of the Poncas
Cloud, the warrior, the gentle arts of the white
man.
The Poncas ? Some eight hundred of them —
what were they compared to the recovery of the
Black Hills? The treaty? Hang the treaty!
And the public? What cared the Vociferous
Few, so long as the great American people slept
on under the delusion that they were really " the
people " ?
The records show a most careful development of
the scheme. During the years 1875 and 1876 there
appeared four executive orders, adding to the Sioux
reservation on the north a considerable area, and
on the east — along the east bank of the Missouri
River — a country as large as the state of Massa-
chusetts. These immense additions on the east fore-
shadowed the removal of the Black Hills section of
the Sioux tribes eastward to the Missouri River.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report
for 1875 to the Secretary of the Interior, suggests
the removal of the Poncas to the Omaha reserve,
in eastern Nebraska, ending with the naive remark
that " The country where they now are would make
a suitable location to which the Red Cloud Sioux
could be removed. It is hoped that provision may
be made by the next Congress for such removal."
All details having been perfected, the necessary
legislation for the whole scheme was secured at one
stroke. On August 15, 1876, an appropriation for
153
.The Indian Dispossessed
the Sioux Indians was made by act of Congress,
with certain provisions; among them:
" Hereafter there shall be no appropriation made
for the subsistence of said Indians, unless they shall
first agree to relinquish all right and claim to any
country outside the boundaries of the permanent
reservation established by the treaty of eighteen
hundred and sixty-eight for said Indians; and also
so much of their said permanent reservation as lies
west of the one hundred and third meridian of
longitude."
The first clause is aimed at their hunting privilege
outside their permanent reservation, as provided for
in their treaty of 1868 ; the second cuts off from the
west side of their reservation a country as large as
the State of Connecticut, including the Black Hills.
Another stipulation:
" And unless they will receive all such supplies
herein provided for, and provided for by said treaty
of eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, at such points
and places on their said reservation, and in the
vicinity of the Missouri River, as the President may
designate."
This relates to the eastward movement of the
Black Hills Sioux.
And lastly:
" Provided further, That the Secretary of the In-
terior may use of the foregoing amounts the sum
of twenty-five thousand dollars for the removal of
154
The Removal of the Poncas
the Poncas to the Indian Territory, and providing
them a home therein, with the consent of said
band."
This is the first mention of the Indian Territory
in connection with the Poncas. The only hope of
these farmer Indians now Hes in the provision for
their consent. The worst that the Commissioner
had hinted at as being in store for the Poncas was
removal to the Omaha reservation, — in eastern Ne-
braska, not a great distance from their own. The
Omahas were intermarried extensively with the Pon-
cas, and a removal to that reservation would have
entailed no extraordinary hardship.
But the Indian Territory! The graveyard of the
northern Indian condemned to spend his days in
exile there!
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, commenting
in 1874 on removals to that country, says:
" It has heretofore been considered feasible eventu-
ally to domicile a large majority of the Indians in
this Territory. Experience, however, shows that no
effort is more unsuccessful with an Indian than that
which proposes to remove him from the place of his
birth and the graves of his fathers. Though a barren
plain without wood or water, he will not voluntarily
exchange it for any prairie or woodland, however
inviting."
But in this year, 1876, what does the Commis-
sioner say?
155
The Indian Dispossessed
" Steps are being taken for the removal of the
Poncas from their present location in the south-
eastern corner of Dakota to the Indian Territory.
Their exposure to raids from the Sioux, whose hos-
tility arises from the fact that the Poncas are on
lands claimed originally by the Sioux and included
in their permanent reservation, has hitherto been a
serious obstacle in the way of the progress in civi-
lized life which they seem disposed to make. It is
believed that when the necessity of giving a large
share of attention to self-defence is removed they
will readily come into a condition of self-support by
agriculture."
The Commissioner expressed this tender solicitude
for the welfare of the Poncas under date of Octo-
ber 30 ; he had the report of his agent, dated August
II, setting forth their treaty of peace with the Sioux.
With that report before him, why was he attempt-
ing to accomplish their removal to avoid a condition
which had already ceased to exist? His next sen-
tence reveals the cause of his sudden interest in
their welfare:
" The proposed removal will not only benefit the
Poncas, but the reserve thus vacated will offer a
suitable home for some of the wild bands of Sioux,
where, with a set of agency-buildings, one hundred
Indian houses, and five hundred acres of improved
land to start with, the experiment of their civiliza-
tion may be tried to advantage.
156
The Removal of the Poncas
" For this removal, conditioned on the consent of
the Poncas, Congress at its last session appropriated
$25,000. If the efforts now being made to gain
such consent are successful, the move will be com-
menced in early spring."
This provision for the consent of the Poncas
proved to have been a most indiscreet concession
on the part of Congress. The efforts to gain the
Indian consent were continued well into the winter,
and in January an inspector took ten of the chiefs
to the Indian Territory to show them the country.
There are two entirely different tales of this trip
to the South. Here is the story as discreetly told
by the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs:
" Unfortunately, the delegation of ten chiefs, on
account of the failure of the Osages to show hospi-
tality, inclement weather, and other causes, became
disheartened at the outset, declined the friendly ad-
vances of the Kaws, refused to look farther, scarcely
noticed the rich lands along the Arkansas River, and
on reaching Arkansas City, eight left in the night
on foot for the Ponca agency, which they reached in
forty days."
The Indians relate a dark tale of attempted coer-
cion, with the alternative of being cast adrift, with-
out money, interpreter, or guide, in a strange land
four hundred and fifty miles from home, if they
refused to select a location for their tribe and agree
to removal. According to the story of one of the
157
The Indian Dispossessed
eight chiefs, they replied that " it would be better
for ten of us to die than that the whole tribe, all
the women and little children, should be brought
there to die, and die we all would, right there, rather
than do what they asked."
The remaining two chiefs were induced to make a
selection of land, and chose a location on the Quapaw
reservation in the Indian Territory. Then the in-
spector returned, and continued his efforts to gain
the consent of the Poncas. What he gained is told
in the report of their newly appointed agent for
1877:
" In obedience to instructions received from the In-
dian Office, I left Hillsdale, Michigan, on the 24th
day of April last, arriving at Columbus, Nebraska,
on the 28th, at which place I had expected to find
Agent Lawrence with the Ponca tribe of Indians
en route for their new home in the Indian Terri-
tory. In this I was disappointed, as Lawrence ar-
rived on the same day with only 170 of the tribe;
more than three-fourths of the tribe having refused
to leave their old reservation in Dakota, stating, as
reported to me, that they preferred to remain and
die on their native heath, in defence of their homes,
and what they claimed to be their rights in the land
composing the reservation upon which they were
living, than to leave there and die by disease in the
unhealthy miasmatic country which they claimed had
been selected for them in the Indian Territory."
158 . -
The Removal of the Poncas
This was the resuh of the winter's work, — one
hundred and seventy out of a total of seven hun-
dred and thirty Indians. How had Washington
taken their refusal to move?
On March third, attached to an appropriation bill
providing for the removal of the Black Hills Sioux
to the Missouri River, Congress passed a second act
for the removal of the Poncas :
"And provided further, That the sum of fifteen
thousand dollars of this appropriation, in addition
to that heretofore appropriated, may be used for the
removal and permanent location of the Poncas in
the Indian Territory."
It will be perceived that this act bears a strik-
ing resemblance to the one of August 15 preceding,
which has already been quoted, except that the words
" with the consent of said band " are omitted. The
inference is that the resourceful Uncle Sam, finding
himself handicapped by this provision in the first act,
decided to simply legislate the matter of Indian con-
sent out of existence. This inference may be con-
sidered as far-fetched; indeed, it may be asserted
that it is monstrous to impute a motive so atrocious
to the mere omission of one phrase.
Let the public records express the Government's
intent. In a later report, containing executive orders
and other papers relating to Indian affairs, is this
statement :
" Ponca Reserve. By the Indian appropriation act
159
The Indian Dispossessed
of August IS, 1876 (19 Stats., p. 192), an appro-
priation was made for the removal of the Poncas
to the Indian Territory when they should consent
to go. By the Indian appropriation act of March 3,
1877 (19 Stats., p. 287), an additional appropriation
was made for the same purpose, but there was noth-
ing contained tisercin respecting their consent. Under
these acts the Poncas were removed to the Quapaw
reserve."
And again, more clearly, in the official " Schedule
of Indian Land Cessions" are found these two entries :
" 1876. Aug. 15, Act of Congress. Stat. L.,
XIX, 192 — Ponka — Provides for removal of
Poncas to Indian Territory whenever they consent.
See Acts of Congress for March 3, 1877, . . ."
" 1877. March 3, Act of Congress. Ponka —
Provides for their removal to Indian Territory
without' regard to their consent. They were re-
moved under this act and temporarily located in
the Country of the Quapaw, . . ."
There is a grim, though possibly unintentional,
humor in recording under the title of " Indian
Land Cessions " the removal of a tribe of Indians
from their native heath " without regard to their
consent." A further perusal of this remarkable
book suggests a change of title in the interests of
candor.
But the Indian consent was no longer to be reck-
oned with in carrying out the grand scheme for
160
The Removal of the Poncas
the recovery of the Black Hills. By this clever
device the attitude of the Poncas in withholding
their consent to give up their land became at once
one of opposition to the Government. To gain their
consent, when their consent was a legal requirement,
was one thing; to overcome the unwillingness of
these Indian farmers to obey an act of Congress
was quite another.
The Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs
continues his recital to the Honorable Secretary of
the Interior:
" It having been determined that the removal of
the remainder of the tribe must now be insisted
upon, troops were ordered to the Ponca agency. But
it was decided to forestall the need of their presence
by sending back the Ponca agent, Mr. Lawrence,
with his successor, Agent Howard, to again urge
upon the Indians a quiet compliance with the wishes
of the Government. They so far succeeded as to be
able to request that the four companies who had
started for the agency be recalled, and on the i6th
of May the last Ponca crossed the Niobrara and
turned his face southward."
This is the manner of the agent's success:
" On the 1 5th, I held another council, which was
largely attended by the chiefs, head-men, and sol-
diers of the tribe, and which was of more than four
hours' duration. At this council the Indians main-
tained that the Government had no right to move
II 161
The Indian Dispossessed
them from the reservation, and demanded as an in-
ducement or equivalent for them to give up the
reservation and move to the Indian Territory, first,
the payment to them by the Government of the sum
of $3,000,000; and, second, that before starting, I
should show to them the sum of $40,000, which
they had been told had been appropriated by the
Government for their removal. To all of which I
replied positively in the negative, telling them that
I would not accede to nor consider any demands
that they might make, but that I would take under
my consideration reasonable requests that they might
submit touching their removal, and, as their agent,
do what I could for them in promoting their wel-
fare; that I demanded that they should at all times
listen to my words; that they should go with me
to their new home, and that they should, without
delay, give me their final answer whether they would
go peaceably or by force. The Indians refused to
give answer at this time, and the council closed
without definite results, and the Indians dispersed
with a sullen look and determined expression.
" On the following morning, however. May 16,
they sent word to me at an early hour that they
had considered my words and had concluded to go
with me, and that they wanted assistance in getting
the old and infirm, together with their property, over
the Niobrara River, which was much swollen by the
rains and at a low temperature. I at once employed
162
The Removal of the Poncas
from the young men of the tribe a suitable number
for the purpose, and at five o'clock p. m. had the
entire tribe with their effects across the river, off
the reservation, and in camp in Nebraska."
Twenty-five soldiers had been in service at the
Ponca agency while the " consent " of the one hun-
dred and seventy was being secured; they seem to
have furnished the necessary showing of force.
Confronted with the choice of going either " peace-
ably or by force," these unarmed people naturally
concluded to go peaceably. The soldiers escorted
them for the first twelve of their fifty-two days'
journey south, to insure their going.
This total disregard of the protests of the Indians,
and their removal with a display of force, has been
dwelt upon at great length by all writers of Ponca
history, under the impression that the action was in
direct violation of the provision in the removal act, to
first gain their consent. The legislation designed to
remedy this annoying feature of the first act seems
to have wholly escaped notice. It should be conceded
that while the national pledge, humanity, justice, and
Christian dealing were put aside, the provision for
the Indian consent was not violated; it was legis-
lated out of existence. The Indians were removed
under the second act of Congress.
But in the blaze of indignation which swept over
the country v/hen the main facts of the Ponca re-
moval became known, every official in Washington
163
The Indian Dispossessed
connected with the affair rested meekly under the
charge of violation of the consent clause. Not once
do we find this second act of Congress set up to
stem the tide of popular reproach. It may be con-
sidered that, in this, good judgment assisted their
discretion.
Then comes the story of the journey southward,
— and these are extracts from the " Journal of the
March," as it is designated in the records:
"May 21. Broke camp at seven o'clock, and
marched to Crayton, a distance of thirteen miles.
Roads very heavy. The child that died yesterday
was here buried by the Indians, they preferring to
bury it than to having it buried by the white
people.
" May 23. The morning opened with light rain,
but at eight o'clock a terrific thunder-storm occurred
of two hours' duration, which was followed by steady
rain throughout the day, in consequence of which
we remained in camp. During the day a child died,
and several women and children were reported sick,
and medical attendance and medicine were obtained
for them.
" May 24. Buried the child that died yesterday
in the cemetery at Neligh, giving it a Christian
burial.
" May 27. The morning opened cold, with a misty
rain. Rain ceased at half-past seven o'clock, and
we broke camp at eight, and marched eight miles
164
The Removal of the Poncas
farther down Shell Creek, when, a heavy thunder-
storm coming on, we again went into camp. Sev-
eral of the Indians were here found to be quite sick,
and, having no physician and none being attainable,
they gave us much anxiety and no little trouble. The
daughter of Standing Bear, one of the chiefs, was
very low of consumption, and moving her with any
degree of comfort was almost impossible, and the
same trouble existed in transporting all the sick.
" May 29. Major Walker, who had accompanied
us from the Niobrara to this place with twenty-five
soldiers under orders from the War Department, took
leave of us and returned to Dakota.
" June 3. Had some trouble in getting started.
Broke camp at eleven o'clock, and marched eight
miles. Went into camp on Blue River. Many
people sick, one of whom was reported in a dying
condition. Had bad roads, and rained during the
afternoon.
" June 5. Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched
fourteen miles, and went into camp near Milford.
Daughter of Standing Bear, Ponca chief, died at
two o'clock, of consumption.
" June 6. Remained in camp all day for the pur-
pose of obtaining supplies. Prairie Flower, wife of
Shines White, and daughter of Standing Bear, who
died yesterday, was here given Christian burial, her
remains being deposited in the cemetery at Milford,
Neb., a small village on Blue River.
. 165
The Indian Dispossessed
" In this connection I wish to take official knowl-
edge and recognition of the noble action performed
by the ladies of Milford in preparing and decorating
the body of the deceased Indian woman for burial
in a style becoming the highest civilization. In this
act of Christian kindness they did more to ameliorate
the grief of the husband and father than they could
have done by adopting the usual course of this untu-
tored people, and presenting to each a dozen ponies.
" June 8. Broke camp at Milford, and marched
seven miles. Roads very bad. Child died during
the day.
" June g. Put the child that died yesterday in the
coffin, and sent it back to Milford to be buried in
the same grave with its aunt, Prairie Flower.
" June 14. Water-bound, and had to remain in
camp all day waiting for creek to run down. The
Otoe Indians came out to see the Poncas, and gave
them ten ponies.
"June 16. Broke camp at seven o'clock, and
reached Marysville, Kans., where we went into camp.
During the march a wagon tipped over, injuring a
woman quite severely. Indians out of rations and
feeling hostile.
" June 18. Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched
nine miles, and went into camp at Elm Creek. Little
Cottonwood died. Four families determined to re-
turn to Dakota. I was obliged to ride nine miles on
horseback to overtake them, to restore harmony, and
166
The Removal of the Poncas
settle difficulty in camp. Had coffin made for dead
Indian, which was brought to camp at twelve o'clock
at night from Blue Rapids. A fearful thunder-storm
during the night, flooding the camp equipage.
" June 19. The storm of last night left the roads
in an impassable condition, and in consequence was
obliged to remain in camp all day. Buried Little
Cottonwood in a cemetery about five miles from
camp.
" June 25. Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched
to a point about fifteen miles farther up Deep Creek.
Two old women died during the day.
" June 26. The two old women who died yester-
day were given Christian burial this morning.
" June 30. Broke camp at six o'clock. Passed
through Hartford, and camped about six miles above
Burlington. A child of Buffalo Chief died during
the day.
"July I. Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched
twelve miles, and went into camp. Purchased a
coffin at Burlington, and gave the dead child of
Buffalo Chief a Christian burial at that place."
Christian burial seems to have been the only good
thing the agent had to offer these exiles. He con-
tinued the good work, for six weeks later he says,
" Since the arrival here there have been eight deaths,
all of which have been given Christian burial with
but small expense to the service."
Far out upon the bleak steppes of northern Asia,
167
The Indian Dispossessed
where the Russian exiles slowly drag themselves to
their Siberia, are the old and infirm, the little chil-
dren and consumptive girls, who give up the weary
struggle and sink by the wayside, accorded the in-
estimable boon of Christian burial? The heart
sickens at the thought that they are not. A copy
of this " Journal of the March " should be pre-
sented to the Czar, that he may learn with what
exquisite tenderness a more enlightened Government
attends the last rites of its victims.
Further perusal of this agent's very complete re-
port gives us a picture of the situation and outlook:
" I am of the opinion that the removal of the
Poncas from the northern climate of Dakota to the
southern climate of the Indian Territory, at the sea-
son of the year it was done, will prove a mis-
take, and that a great mortality will surely follow
among the people when they shall have been here
for a time and become poisoned with the malaria
of the climate. Already the effects of the climate
may be seen upon them in the ennui that seems to
have settled upon each, and in the large number
now sick.
" It is a matter of astonishment to me that the
Government should have ordered the removal of the
Ponca Indians from Dakota to the Indian Territory
without having first made some provision for their
settlement and comfort. Before their removal was
carried into effect an appropriation should have been
i68
The Removal of the Poncas
made by Congress sufficient to have located them in
their new home, by building a comfortable house for
the occupancy of every family of the tribe. As the
case now is, no appropriation has been made by Con-
gress, except a sum of but little more than sufficient
to remove them ; no houses have been built for their
use, and the result is that these people have been placed
on an uncultivated reservation to live in their tents as
best they may, and await further legislative action.
" The rainy season, which I am informed usually
commences in this country from the ist to the 15th
of September, will soon be upon them, and before
any appropriation can be made by Congress for the
construction of houses, winter will have set in, and
they will be obliged to remain in their tents until
spring, which will be but a poor protection for their
families against the elements."
The agent's gloomy predictions, based on the cli-
matic conditions and the lack of shelter, were duly veri-
fied. The official record of deaths for the ensuing
year was eighty-five ; the Indians mourned the loss of
one hundred and fifty-seven ; but if there is any virtue
to be extracted from the fact that one-seventh, instead
of one-fifth, of the entire tribe was sacrificed within
the first year, the Indian service is welcome to it.
The agent next proceeds to lecture his Govern-
ment on the question of title:
" As the matter now stands, the title to this reser-
vation remains in the Quapaws, no effort having been
169
The Indian Dispossessed
made as yet to even remove them from it; and the
title to the old Ponca reservation in Dakota still
remains in the Poncas, they having signed no papers
relinquishing their title nor having violated any of
the provisions of the treaty by which it was ceded
to them by the Government.
" These Indians claim that the Government has
no right to move them from their reservation with-
out first obtaining from them by purchase or treaty
the title which they had acquired from the Govern-
ment, and for which they rendered a valuable con-
sideration. They claim that the date of the settlement
of their tribe upon the land composing their old
reservation is prehistoric; that they were all born
there, and that their ancestors from generations back
beyond their knowledge were born and lived upon
its soil, and that they finally acquired a complete and
perfect title from the Government by treaty made
with the ' Great Father ' at Washington, which, they
claimed, made it as legitimately theirs as is the
home of the white man acquired by gift or pur-
chase. They now ask that a delegation of their chiefs
and head-men be allowed to visit Washington for
the purpose of settling all matters of difference be-
tween them and the Government; and that they may
talk to the ' Great Father ' face to face about the great
wrongs which they claim have been done them.
" I earnestly recommend that their request be
granted."
170
The Removal of the Poncas
It may be interesting to learn which of the Black
Hills Chiefs succeeded to the ancient home of the
Poncas, — Red Cloud or Spotted Tail ? Two
months later the Honorable Commissioner of In-
dian Affairs, with this full Ponca record before
him, reported to the Honorable Secretary of the
Interior the selection of a location for Red Cloud
farther up the Missouri. Then he says :
" For the latter [Spotted Tail], the old Ponca re-
serve was decided upon, where the agency dwellings,
store-houses, one hundred and fifty Indian houses,
and five hundred acres of cultivated fields, left va-
cant by the Poncas, offer special advantages for
present quarters."
And with the Sioux it is the same old story of
the Indian attachment to the soil. In his next sen-
tence the Commissioner complains that " the Spotted
Tail and Red Cloud Indians persisted in making
strenuous objection to such removal," — but they
were removed, and Spotted Tail soon dwelt, an
exile, in the home of the Poncas.
What is home? Four walls? A palace? It
may be high mountains and a green valley; rocks
and a stream; or a sea of brown grass waving
in the wind. It is the one spot in nature that
entwines our earliest thoughts, which ripen with
maturing years into tender memories. And those
who dwell nearest nature know best the ties of
home.
171
The Indian Dispossessed
In considering the Indians' appeal to Washington,
the Commissioner says, in the same report:
" A delegation of the tribe recently visited Wash-
ington and presented to the President their earnest
request to be allowed to return to their old reserva-
tion in Dakota or to join the Omahas, a kindred
tribe, in Nebraska. The obviou^ unwisdom and even
impossibility of removing Indians from the Indian
Territory necessitated a refusal of their request ; but
they were given permission to select a permanent
home upon any unoccupied lands in the territory
which the Government still owns. They were urged
to take immediate steps to effect a settlement of the
matter, and were promised, as soon as the locality
should be decided upon and Congress should pro-
vide the necessary funds, such assistance in the way
of schools, houses, stock, seeds, tools, agricultural
implements, etc., as would enable them to more than
replace the property and improvements unwillingly
relinquished in Dakota; but they were made dis-
tinctly to understand that all assistance by the
Government would be in the line of teaching them
self-helpfulness, and would be conditioned on exer-
tions put forth by themselves in that direction."
The italics are those of the Commissioner. It is
difficult to discover any process of reasoning in the
words " obvious unwisdom and even impossibility,"
but that italicised word " from " furnishes the key
to the settled policy of removals to the country
172
The Removal of the Poncas
which the Indians have always regarded as " the
graveyard of the Indian race." Indians may go to,
but never from that country. Originally intended
as an exclusive refuge for the American Indian,
where he might learn the ways of civilization and
eventually become a part of the national life as an
Indian State, the Indian Territory had degenerated
into a general dumping-ground for every tribe that
in its own home was an obstruction to the grand
scheme of national upbuilding. The only removals
from the Indian Territory were those of the grim
reaper, and his harvest among the outcasts seems
to have been viewed with settled complacency.
These are some of the expressions of the Com-
missioner before the storm of popular disfavor broke
upon Washington. Now observe the change. One
year later, stung by the most severe criticism, beset
on all sides by lovers of justice, this same Commis-
sioner extends his tender sympathy:
" In this removal, I am sorry to be compelled to
say, the Poncas were wronged, and restitution should
be made as far as it is in the power of the Gov-
ernment to do so. For the violation of their treaty
no adequate return has yet been made. They gave
up lands, houses, and agricultural implements. The
houses and implements will be returned to them;
their lands should be immediately paid for, and the
title to their present location should be made secure.
But the removal inflicted a far greater injury upon
173
The Indian Dispossessed
the Poncas, for which no reparation can be made,
— the loss by death of many of their number, caused
by change of climate."
Again this curious recognition of the Indian title
after, and not before, the Indian has been dispos-
sessed — but without a suggestion of restoring the
land.
How changed is the tone of official Washington
when above the clamor of the Vociferous Few rises the
real, the unmistakable " voice of the people " ; of a
high-minded people, outraged, burning with shame
that the Government of " all the people " should lend
itself to the intrigues of a handful of mountebanks!
A year after their removal to the Indian Territory,
the Poncas, again removed one hundred and eighty-
five miles farther west, were still living in tents;
their agent says :
" Their sufferings have greatly discouraged and
made them dissatisfied with this location, and they
express a strong desire to go back to their old
reservation in Dakota. However, I am of the opin-
ion that if the Government will fully and promptly
fulfil all the promises made to them to induce them
to leave Dakota and take up their home on this
reservation they will cheerfully accept the situation
and settle down with a determination to labor and
better their condition. At present there is a rest-
less, discontented feeling pervading the whole tribe.
They seem to have lost faith in the promises of the
174
The Removal of the Poncas
Government, and often say the ' Great Father ' has
forgotten them; by the time he again remembers
them none will be left to receive what he has prom-
ised them. The chiefs are very anxious to visit
Washington and have a talk with the President for
the purpose of having the size and boundaries of "
their reservation determined and definitely settled by
treaty stipulations. I would earnestly recommend
that they be allowed to do so some time during the
coming winter. I think it would contribute greatly
toward a restoration of good feeling, and to re-
move the spirit of discontent and dissatisfaction
which now pervades their minds.
" The Poncas are good Indians. In mental en-
dowment, moral character, physical strength, and
cleanliness of person they are superior to any tribe
I have ever met. I beg for them the prompt and
generous consideration of the Government, whose
fast and warm friends they have ever been."
This appeal of the Indians for a second talk with
with their " Great Father " in Washington was not
granted. Denied the recognition of their treaty
right to their old home, and discouraged in the
hope of ultimate justice, the Poncas, homesick,
heartsick, sick in body, began to escape from their
reservation in small parties, in the hope that they
might make their way back to die in the land of
their fathers. The story of the wanderings of these
little bands five hundred miles through a strange
The Indian Dispossessed
country to their beloved Dakota home is most pa-
thetic; that any of them reached the North alive
is wholly due to the quick sympathy and assistance
of benevolent people through whose country they
passed, and of many others who had learned of
their affliction. A few of these Poncas reached their
old neighbors, the Santees, whose reservation was a
few miles east of the old Ponca home. The Santee
agent reports:
" During the last year about thirty Poncas came
among us asking that they could be allowed to stay,
stating they had been taken to a very hot place and
many of their friends had died, and they were heart-
sick and wished the Santees to have pity on them
and allow them to stay up here in this good land
among them. The councillors consented, and they
are among us sending their children to school and
making a good start."
Another little band, in the early spring of 1879,
set their faces northward under the guidance of
Chief Standing Bear. It will be remembered that
the daughter of Standing Bear, Prairie Flower, died
on the march to the South; many of his relatives
and all but one of his children died in the Indian
Territory. The last to die was his oldest son, a
young man who could speak and read English, the
hope and dependence of his aged father. The dying
boy, according to the later testimony of Standing
Bear, begged his father to take his body back to
176
The Removal of the Poncas
the old home for burial, and the broken-hearted
chief, hoping at the same time to save the lives of
his wife and only remaining child, placed the bones
of his boy in an old trunk, and with fifty of his
followers escaped from the reservation. After en-
during incredible hardships, thirty of them reached
their kindred tribe, the Omahas, who dissuaded them
from at once attempting to continue on their jour-
ney to the old Ponca reserve, for they were sick
and without provisions and the necessary implements
to establish homes for themselves. The Omahas in-
duced Standing Bear to remain with them, gave his
party land, tools and seed to plant it, and those of
the Indians who were not too ill to do so went to
work.
But the Interior Department did not propose to
have any Ponca bands within a possible marching
distance of their old home. Under orders of the
War Department troops were sent to the Omaha
reservation to take the party South. They came
upon these Indians, half of them still sick, the
others ploughing and planting, acquainted them with
the orders of the Department, and once again the
Poncas took up the weary march, back to their
Siberia, still bearing the trunk containing the bones
of Standing Bear's son.
They were first taken to Fort Omaha, situated on
the outskirts of the city of Omaha. In an incred-
ibly short time their story was being told about the
12 177
The Indian Dispossessed
city; a day or two later, one Sunday, several
churches passed resolutions after their regular ser-
vices, and the pastors joined in a telegram of pro-
test to the Secretary of the Interior. Friends of
the Indian race in Washington were at once in-
formed, and appealed in person to both the Secre-
tary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs.
All this availed nothing; the final word from
Washington ordered their return to the Indian Ter-
ritory. But this set-back served only to stimulate
the good people of Omaha in their efforts. Attor-
neys were then interested in the case, and on a writ
of habeas corpus the whole question of the deten-
tion and removal of Standing Bear's band was
brought into the United States District Court for
Nebraska for a hearing, on the ground that the
Indians had committed no crime and were deprived
of their liberty without due process of law.
The Interior Department strenuously opposed this
measure of relief. The counsel for the Government,
in an argument of several hours' duration, main-
tained that Standing Bear was not entitled to the
protection of a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground
that an Indian was not a person under the law, and
had no standing in the courts; while the equally
able attorneys for the Indians contended that such
protection was intended to apply to every human
being, and that any other interpretation of the law
178
The Removal of the Poncas
was in violation of the fundamental principles of
the Constitution.
This is a bit of Standing Bear's testimony:
"A. He says, when I got down there, I saw the
land, and the land was not good to my eye; some
places it looked good, but you kick up the soil a
little, and you found lots of stones. It was not fit
to farm. When we got down there we heard we
were going to get clothing, and get money, and
everything that we wanted, but I have not seen it
yet. When I was told to go down there, I thought,
perhaps, the land was good, and I could make a
living, but when I got down there it was entirely
different from the land in my own home. I could n't
plough, I could n't sow any wheat, and we all got
sick, and could n't do anything. It seemed as though
I had no strength in my body at all. The hot cli-
mate did n't agree with me. But when I came back
here I seemed to get strength every day. Instead
of our tribe becoming prosperous, they died off every
day during the time. From the time I went down
there until I left, one hundred and fifty-eight of us
died. I thought to myself, God wants me to live,
and I think if I come back to my old reservation
He will let me live. I got back as far as the Omahas,
and they brought me down here. I see you all here
to-day. What have I done? I am brought here,
but what have I done? I don't know. It seems as
though I have n't a place in the world, no place to
179
The Indian Dispossessed
go, and no home to go to, but when I see your faces
here, I think some of you are trying to help me, so
that I can get a place sometime to live in, and when
it comes my time to die, to die peacefully and happy.
(This was spoken in a loud voice, and with much
emphasis. )
" The Court. Tell the witness to keep cool."
The opinion of Judge Dundy begins with these
words :
" During the fifteen years in which I have been
engaged in administering the laws of my country,
I have never been called upon to hear or decide a
case that appealed so strongly to my sympathy as
the one now under consideration. On the one side
we have a few of the remnants of a once numerous
and powerful, but now weak, insignificant, unlet-
tered, and generally despised race. On the other, we
have the representative of one of the most power-
ful, most enlightened, and most Christianized na-
tions of modern times. On the one side we have
the representatives of this wasted race coming into
this national tribunal of ours asking for justice and
liberty to enable them to adopt our boasted civiliza-
tion and to pursue the arts of peace, which have
made us great and happy as a nation. On the
other side we have this magnificent, if not magnan-
imous, Government, resisting this application with
the determination of sending these people back
to the country which is to them less desirable
i8o
The Removal of the Poncas
than perpetual imprisonment in their own native
land."
It may seem beyond belief that in the one hundred
and third year of the declaration, " all men are
created equal," it was necessary for a federal judge
to determine at great length that every human being
is a person, and as such entitled to a hearing in the
courts, but pages of the decision are given to this
phase of the case; even the dictionary is appealed
to. The Judge says :
" Webster describes a ' person ' as ' a living soul ;
a self-conscious being; a moral agent; especially a
living human being; a man, woman, or child; an
individual of the human race.' This is comprehen-
sive enough, it would seem, to include even an
Indian."
The Judge reviews the circumstances at the time
of the arrest, and at considerable length leads up to
his decision :
" To accomplish what would seem to be a desir-
able and laudable purpose, all who were able so to
do went to work to earn a living. The Omaha In-
dians, who speak the same language, and with whom
many of the Poncas have long since continued to
intermarry, gave them employment and ground to
cultivate so as to make them self-sustaining. And
it was when at the Omaha reservation, and when
thus employed, that they were arrested by order of
the Government for the purpose of being taken back
i8i
The Indian Dispossessed
to the Indian Territory. They claim to be unable
to see the justice, or reason, or wisdom, or necessity
of removing them by force from their own native
plains and blood relations to a far-off country in
which they can see little but new-made graves open-
ing for their reception. The land from which they
fled in fear has no attractions for them. The love
of home and native land was strong enough in the
minds of these people to induce them to brave every
peril to return and live and die where they had been
reared. The bones of the dead son of Standing
Bear were not to repose in the land they hoped to
be leaving forever, but were carefully preserved and
protected, and formed a part of what was to them
a melancholy procession homeward. Such instances
of parental affection, and such love of home and
native land may be heathen in origin, but it seems
to me that they are not unlike Christian in
principle. . . .
" I have searched in vain for the semblance of
any authority justifying the commissioner in at-
tempting to remove by force any Indians, whether
belonging to a tribe or not, to any place, or for
any other purpose than what has been stated. Cer-
tainly, without some specific authority found in an
act of Congress, or in a treaty with the Ponca tribe
of Indians, he could not lawfully force the relators
back to the Indian Territory, to remain and die in
that country, against their will. ... If they could
182
The Removal of the Poncas
be removed to the Indian Territory by force, and
kept there in the same way, I can see no good
reason why they might not be taken and kept by
force in the penitentiary at Lincoln, or Leavenworth,
or Jefiferson City, or any other place which the
commander of the forces might, in his judgment,
see proper to designate. I cannot think that any
such arbitrary authority exists in this country.
" The reasoning advanced in support of my views
leads me to conclude: ,
" First. That an Indian is a person within the
meaning of the laws of the United States, and has
therefore the right to sue out a writ of habeas corpus
in a federal court, or before a federal judge, in all
cases where he may be confined, or in custody under
color of authority of the United States, or where
he is restrained of liberty in violation of the Con-
stitution or laws of the United States.
" Second. That General George Crook, the re-
spondent, being the commander of the military
department of the Platte, has the custody of the
relators under color of authority of the United
States, and in violation of the laws thereof.
" Third. That no rightful authority exists for
removing by force any of the relators to the In-
dian Territory, as the respondent has been directed
to do.
" Fourth. That the Indians possess the inherent
right of expatriation as well as the more fortunate
183
The Indian Dispossessed
white race, and have the inalienable right to ' life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' so long as they
obey the laws and do not trespass on forbidden
ground. And —
" Fifth. Being restrained of liberty under color
of authority of the United States, and in violation
of the laws thereof, the relators must be discharged
from custody, and it is so ordered."
Liberty! Bereft of homes and goods, mourning
their many dead, yet Liberty came to these benighted
Indians as a ray of light in the darkness. Standing
Bear, taking from his few treasures a war-bonnet,
a tomahawk, and a pair of buckskin leggings, sought
out his three greatest benefactors — the gentleman
who had first discovered his distress, and the two
attorneys who conducted his case without expecta-
tion of reward — and presented to them the simple
tokens of his gratitude:
" A little while ago I had a house and land and
stock. Now I have nothing. It may be that some
time you may have trouble. You might lose your
house. If you ever want a home come to me or
my tribe. You shall never want as long as we have
anything. All the tribe in the Indian Territory will
soon know what you have done. While there is one
Ponca alive you will never be without a friend." '
But freedom did not bring with it the restoration
of a single right to their goods and lands. They
1 " The Ponca Chiefs."
184
The Removal of the Poncas
were destitute, and without a home. The members
of the Omaha Committee, with substantial aid from
many other friends of the Indian, succeeded in gath-
ering about one hundred of the refugee Poncas near
their old reservation. The number was soon in-
creased to one hundred and seventy-five. The San-
tee agent's report for the ensuing year takes notice
of them:
" In my report last year I spoke of a number of
Ponca Indians who had come among the Santees.
Since then they have nearly all left, and they are
now living on an island, about three miles above
Niobrara, adjoining their old reservation. I visited
them a short time ago and found they numbered
103 souls. They have considerable corn; are mak-
ing hay and building houses for the winter. They
have been and are now receiving some assistance
from an organization at Omaha which has been
created for their relief."
Consternation was upon the autocrats of the In-
dian Ring. An Indian a person? Impossible. En-
titled to the protection of the courts? A dangerous
proposition. The Indian would be lost to the Inner
Circle as a political asset if freedom were extended
to him. The case was promptly appealed, but, in
the language of the records:
"At the May term, 1879, Mr. Justice Miller
refused to hear an appeal prosecuted by the United
States, because the Indians who had petitioned for
185
The Indian Dispossessed
the writ of habeas corpus were not present, having
been released by the order of Dundy, J., and no
security for their appearance having been taken."
It would have required something more than a
cordial invitation to bring Standing Bear again into
the clutches of his Great Father.
Much more that is interesting in the Ponca case
does not appear in the official reports. The case
of Standing Bear brought the public to its highest
pitch of indignation over the Ponca outrage. Public
meetings were held in condemnation of the whole
affair, and attention was called to many other in-
stances of the Government's perfidy in its dealings
with its helpless wards. In Boston a committee was
appointed, with Gov. John D. Long of Massachu-
setts as chairman, to investigate the wrongs of the
Poncas ; money was raised to determine in the courts
the legality of holding the remaining members of the
tribe in the Indian Territory, and to restore their
old home to them. The Secretary of the Interior
was appealed to by persons of prominence in both
official and civil life to sanction such a test of the
matter in the courts. Again, all this availed noth-
ing. The official argument is of much the same
satisfying and convincing order as " The obvious
unwisdom and even impossibility of removing In-
dians from the Indian Territory."
The most miserable of all the official excuses put
forward was based upon an incomprehensible blunder
i86
The Removal of the Poncas
of the Government. It will be remembered that in
1858 the Poncas had their home guaranteed to them
by solemn treaty. In 1868 a treaty was entered into
with the Sioux, and, in loosely defining the bounds
of their reservation as the Missouri River on the
east and Nebraska on the south, the entire Ponca
reservation, lying just north of the Nebraska line,
was unwittingly included in that allotted to the
Sioux. Now nothing is clearer than that this mis-
take should have been at once rectified by obtaining
from the Sioux a relinquishment of the Ponca tract ;
a Government that could peremptorily demand of
the Sioux the cession of the entire Black Hills on
pain of starvation could have obtained this small
concession by even less strenuous methods. It is
equally clear that the vested rights of the Poncas
could not equitably be disturbed in this settlement,
which was a matter only between the Government
and the Sioux.
That such a blunder could have been made, and
allowed to stand for eight years, shows with con-
siderable clearness the Government's disregard for
the integrity of its Indian treaties; it is still more
significant that, after eight years, this " unfortunate
blunder " made its official appearance coincident with
the plan to remove the Spotted Tail and Red Cloud
Sioux to the Missouri; but the saddest service of
this miserable excuse was to block the way to the
restoration of the Ponca homes. Time and again
187
The Indian Dispossessed
the chroniclers in the pubHc records admit the
wretched business, and as many times deny restitu-
tion. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs says :
" By a blunder in making the Sioux Treaty of
1868, the 96,000 acres belonging to the Poncas were
ceded to the Sioux. The negotiators had no right
whatever to make the cession. . . ."
Here is one of the most ludicrous defences in the
records :
" By a treaty made by the Government with the
Sioux in 1868, the Ponca lands were ceded to them
by mistake, so that both tribes claimed the land;
the Poncas had the oldest and best title, but the
Sioux being so much stronger, and regarding and
treating the Poncas as trespassers, were fast send-
ing them to the ' happy hunting-grounds,' and thus
the question presented itself to the Government, the
duty of protecting the weak against the strong, of
saving human lives; this was paramount to the
question of title, because, conceding as it did the
Ponca title to be good, the Government zvas unable
to protect them in the peaceable enjoyment of it,
and the only just and humane thing it could do
was to move them out of the reach of their op-
pressors. The Government could pay for the spolia-
tion, but it could not restore the dead to life."
This is really too silly to deserve comment. In
all the pilfering Sioux raids, not a dozen Poncas
were actually killed; yet one hundred and fifty-
188
The Removal of the Poncas
seven were sent to the " happy hunting-grounds "
by the removal within one year.
The Honorable Carl Schurz, as Secretary of the
Interior, and nominally at the head of Indian affairs,
had visited upon his undeserving head the odium of
the whole Ponca business. His open letters to Gov-
ernor Long, Senator Dawes, and Mrs. Helen Jack-
son (the author of " Ramona " and " A Century of
Dishonor ") are laden with his tale of personal woe.
They reveal an able advocate with a pitifully weak
case, but he valiantly makes the best of it. Here are
a few fragments from a letter to Governor Long:
" The old Ponca reserve in southeastern Dakota,
a tract of 96,000 acres, was confirmed to that tribe
by various treaties. In 1868 a treaty was concluded
with the Sioux by which a reservation was granted
to them, including the tract which formerly had by
treaty been confirmed to the Poncas. The Sioux
treaty of 1868 was ratified in the usual way and
became the law of the land. The Poncas, however,
continued to occupy the ceded tract."
So the Siot(x treaty became the law of the land.
What became of the Ponca treaty? This raises a
question : If the Government confirms a tract of land
to one tribe, then unwittingly deeds it to another
tribe, which gets the land? Justice might point to
the first tribe. The Government, with the power to
deliver to either, seems to have taken its choice.
The Secretary's personal defence is the only con-
189
The Indian Dispossessed
vincing feature in the correspondence. He shows
clearly that the whole scheme involving the Ponca
removal was laid by the preceding administration,
although consummated immediately after he took
office. Of this he says :
" The removal itself, in pursuance of the law
quoted, was effected a very short time after I took
charge of my present position, when, I will frankly
admit, I was still compelled to give my whole at-
tention to the formidable task of acquainting myself
with the vast and complicated machinery of the
Interior Department. If at some future day you,
Governor, should be made Secretary of the Interior,
you will find what that means; and although you
may accomplish it in a shorter time than I did, yet
you will have to pass through some strange experi-
ences during the first six months."
In view of the subsequent career of the distin-
guished Governor, this friendly warning is rather
interesting. But there is a depth of meaning in the
secretary's admission. When revolting tales come
from the realm of the Czar of remorseless cruelties,
of stifled justice, and hopeless exile, the world is
now enough enlightened to say, " 'T is not the Czar
— look to the bureaucracy." So, in the land of the
Noble Free; secretaries may come to grope their
uncertain way, and secretaries may go with the
passing of the presidents, but the bureaucracy sits
tight at the public crib, guiding unseen the affairs
190
The Removal of the Poncas
of state. " 'T is not the Czar — look to the
bureaucracy."
But as an apologist Secretary Schurz lapses into
the mediocre. Of that terrible winter for the Poncas,
when an inquisition of months wrung " consent "
from one hundred and seventy of them, he says:
" As to the measures taken by Mr. Kemble to
obtain what he represented as the consent of the
Poncas to the relinquishment of their lands and
their removal to the Indian Territory, it may be
said that he followed a course which unfortunately
had been frequently taken before him on many oc-
casions. Having been a man of military training,
he may have been rather inclined to summary
methods; moreover, it is probable that as the Ponca
reserve had been ceded to the Sioux by the treaty
of 1868, and as Congress' had provided also that the
Sioux should be removed to the Missouri River,
and the Sioux were the same year to occupy that
part of the country, the removal of the Poncas may
have appeared to Mr. Kemble a necessity, in order
to prevent a collision between them and the Sioux
which would have been highly detrimental to both."
As it was the pre-arranged intention to remove
the Black Hills Sioux directly into the Ponca houses,
an inspector even less astute than Mr. Kemble might
have perceived the " necessity " of getting the Poncas
out of the way. It was his business to gain, not ask
for, the Indian consent.
191
The Indian Dispossessed
The question of the Poncas' fundamental right to
their old homes is buried under a mass of argument
against their restoration on the ground of inexpe-
diency, none of which is convincing. The terrible
Sioux bogey appears again ; but Spotted Tail dwelt as
unwillingly in the homes of the Poncas as the Poncas
remained in the South. He remained there a few
months ; then, long before the Poncas had ceased to beg
for their return, Spotted Tail peremptorily ordered his
Great Father to take his people back to their old home,
on pain of another Sioux war. Within ten days the
wily old chief's camp was on wheels, merrily rolling
toward the Rosebud country. Spotted Tail, gentle
reader, was a Big Chief in the Sioux nation.
Here is a miserable excuse of the Secretary for
a great nation to lean upon:
" But another difficulty arose of a grave nature :
the invasion of the Indian Territory by white in-
truders striving to obtain possession of certain lands
in the Indian Territory held for Indian settlement
in that region, of which the present Ponca reserva-
tion forms a part. . . . The lands coveted by the
invaders are held against the intrusion on the ground
that they are reserved for Indian settlement. It is
important, therefore, that the Indian settlements ac-
tually on such lands should remain there at least
while the Indian Territory is in danger. To take
away the existing Indian settlements from those lands
under such circumstances would very much weaken
192
The Removal of the Poncas
the position of the Government defending them, and
encourage the invasion."
To preserve the pubHc domain from invasion by
a few lawless frontiersmen, — a melancholy service
for a handful of half-dead Indians who had once
" stood as a barrier between the hostile Indian and
the white settler upon the frontier " !
And here is another:
" If the Poncas were now taken from those lands
and returned to Dakota, this very fact would un-
doubtedly make other northern Indians, who have
been taken to the Indian Territory, restless to follow
their example, such as the Northern Cheyennes [fully
fifty per cent dead — one hundred and fifty killed by
soldiers while escaping to the North] , the Nez Perces
[thirty per cent dead], and possibly even the Paw-
nees [over eight hundred dead out of 2376]. Un-
scrupulous white men, agents of the invaders, would
be quickly on hand to foment this tendency."
The Secretary judged the temper of these three
tribes with " deadly " accuracy. They really might
have been fired with a desire to get out of the In-
dian Territory.
Did ever a desperately weak case seek strength
from equally desperate argument?
This extraordinary letter called forth a prompt
reply from the Boston Committee, signed by John D.
Long, chairman. Without a trace of personal feel-
ing, and granting the sincerity of the Secretary in his
13 193
The Indian Dispossessed
views, it is a scathing arraignment of the whole miser-
able business. One characteristic passage will suffice :
" First. Did you commit a cruel and unlawful
outrage upon the Ponca Indians in robbing them of
their homes? To which you have already answered,
Yes. Second. Have you lifted a finger for all these
three years, during which you say you have so sin-
cerely repented your error, to restore them to their
homes? To which you have already answered, No.
Third. Will you not, even at this last moment, for
the sake of the credit of the administration and the
country, ascertain, by men in whom the Poncas have
confidence, whether those who are still in the Indian
Territory do not really wish — having full knowl-
edge that the way is cordially open to them — to
rejoin the hundred or more who have escaped and
returned to Dakota? And if they do, will you not
ask for an appropriation, and do what you can to
restore them, also? Can you not apprehend the one
fundamental thing, that this land in Dakota is theirs,
theirs, theirs? We beg you to apply to their case,
not the wrench of a ' policy,' but for once the good
old golden rule — not always bad, even, as a policy
— of ' doing unto others as ye would that men should
do to you.' It may leave the constitutional ' Indian
Policy ' blotted by a drop of the milk of human kind-
ness, but it will leave you a record in the adminis-
tration of President Hayes upon which you will have
no more sincere congratulations than our own."
194
The Removal of the Poncas
Secretary Schurz may have admitted the " cruel
and unlawful outrage," but he distinctly proved that
he was not primarily responsible for it. His argu-
ment leaves no question of the sincerity of his opinion
that, after this lapse of three years, the happiness and
welfare of the Poncas could best be served by estab-
lishing them fairly and permanently upon their new
reservation. To his mind, expediency was the ques-
tion of the hour. The original sin was upon the
preceding administration and had become immutable
law. That was his reason why, for three years, these
helpless Indians were left to die, were hounded if
they escaped, were refused their piteous request to
again visit their Great Father, after the Spotted Tail
Sioux had left the old Ponca home absolutely va-
cant. The Government had blunderingly given the
Ponca lands to the Sioux, and laws, however devil-
ish, had given legal color to the Ponca removal be-
fore he came into office. He might " apprehend
the one fundamental thing, that this land in Dakota
is theirs, theirs, theirs," and only wring his hands
in impotent distress over conditions beyond his
control.
The splendid record of Mr. Schurz as a friend of
the oppressed forces the conclusion that he really
could not undo a villainy when once fastened upon
the Department. Then, what unseen force comes
out from the iniquitous depths of the Indian bureau
to turn the will and tie the hands of such a Secre-
195
The Indian Dispossessed
tary of the Interior? Does the underworld supply
" the voice of the people," even v^^hile the people
protest? There is more of concern in this than the
mere welfare of a luckless race.
The Ponca agitation finally resulted in an under-
ground scheme to settle the questions at issue and
end the contest. It is a tale of chicanery worthy of
the Indian bureau. Observe the sequence of dates.
On October 25, 1880, twenty Ponca chiefs and
head-men in the Indian Territory affixed their marks
to this statement, and their agent forwarded it to
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs :
" We, the undersigned, chiefs and head-men of the
Ponca tribe of Indians, realize the importance of set-
tling all our business with the Government. Our
young men are unsettled and hard to control while
they think we have a right to our land in Dakota,
and our tribe will not be finally settled until we
have a title to our present reservation and we have
relinquished all right to our Dakota land. And we
earnestly request that the chiefs of the Ponca tribe
of Indians be permitted to visit Washington the
coming winter for the purpose of signing away our
right to all land in Dakota and to obtain a title to
our present reservation; and we also wish to settle
our Sioux troubles at the same time. We make the
above request, as we desire to have the young men
of our tribe become settled and commence to work
on their respective claims.
196
The Removal of the Poncas
" We also desire to make this visit in order to
convince the Government that it is our intention of
remaining w^here we are, and requesting the aid of
the Government in obtaining teams, wagons, harness,
tools, etc., with which to work our land."
Now read any Indian speech, letter, or other ut-
terance; compare with the phrasing of this; study
the desires herein expressed in the light of the Ponca
record; then, if it appears reasonable to do so, be-
lieve that the Indians dictated this petition, or knew
what they were signing.
The next move was calculated to throw dust into
the eyes of a critical public. While a delegation of
Ponca chiefs was being piloted to Washington to
sign away their Dakota reservation, the President
announced the appointment of a commission:
" Executive Mansion,
" Washington, D. C, December i8, 1880.
" I request the following gentlemen to proceed to
the Indian Territory as soon as may be, and, after
conference with the Ponca tribe of Indians, to as-
certain the facts in regard to their recent removal
and present condition, so far as is necessary to de-
termine the question what justice and humanity
require should be done by the Government of the
United States, and report their conclusions and
recommendations in the premises : Brig.-Gen. George
Crook, U. S. A.; Brig.-Gen. Nelson A. Miles,
197
The Indian Dispossessed
U. S. A.; .William Stickney, Washington, D. C;
Walter Allen, Newton, Mass.
" It is the purpose of the foregoing request to
authorize the commission to take whatever steps
may, in their judgment, be necessary to enable them
to accomplish the purpose set forth.
" General Crook is authorized to take with him
two aides-de-camp to do clerical work.
" R. B. Hayes."
The champions of the Ponca cause then rested
on their guns; the battle seemed half won.
On December 28, ten days later, before the special
commissioners could reasonably have reached the
Indian Territory on their mission " to determine
the question what justice and humanity require
should be done by the Government of the United
States," the Ponca chiefs in Washington were in-
duced to sign away all their right and title to the
old home on the Missouri.
Four weeks later — on January 25, 1881 — the
special Commission reported to the President, set-
ting forth the wrongs and scattered condition of
the Poncas — some being on the old Dakota reserve
— and recommended :
" That an allotment of 160 acres of land be made
to each man, woman, and child of the Ponca tribe
of Indians, said lands to be selected by them on their
old reservation in Dakota, or on the land now oc-
198
White Swan, Ponca Chief
(■877)
The Removal of the Poncas
cupied by the Ponca Indians in the Indian Territory,
^yithin one year from the passage of an act of Con-
gress granting such tracts of land. That until the
expiration of this period free communication be per-
mitted between the two branches of the tribe."
This is followed by a recommendation of generous
appropriations to the Poncas pro rata in whichever
reserve they choose to locate, and that the question
of title to the Ponca land be at once settled. Finally,
for the special purpose of re-establishing the Poncas
in their old home on the Missouri :
" That the further sum of not less than $5,000
be appropriated for the construction of comfortable
dwellings, and not more than $5,000 for the erec-
tion of a school-house for the Poncas in Nebraska
and Dakota, and that suitable persons be employed
by the Government for their instruction in religious,
educational, and industrial development, and to super-
intend, care for, and protect all their interests. We
respectfully suggest that the welfare of these Indians
requires us to emphasize the necessity of prompt ac-
tion in settling their affairs, to the end that this
long pending controversy may be determined accord-
ing to the dictates of humanity and justice."
On March 3, by act of Congress, provision was
ostensibly made for carrying out the various recom-
mendations of the Commission :
" For the purpose of enabling the Secretary of the
Interior to indemnify the Ponca tribe of Indians for
199
The Indian Dispossessed
losses sustained by them in consequence of their
removal to the Indian Territory, to secure to them
lands in severalty on cither the old or new reserva-
tion, in accordance with their wishes, and to settle
all matters of difference with these Indians, one
hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, to be im-
mediately available and to be expended under the
direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as fol-
lows," etc.
Then the public clamor was stilled. Justice had
— in words — been done. But against this seem-
ing intent of the Government to give the Poncas
free choice to locate on either their old or new
reservation, there is the disturbing knowledge that
the Honorable Commissioner had, weeks before, se-
cured a deed of relinquishment from the Poncas in
the Indian Territory to their old reservation. Now,
what provision was made, in the settlement of the
Sioux treaty blunder, for the return of Poncas still
in the Indian Territory?
On August 20, of the same year, an agreement
was entered into with the Sioux:
" The said tribes of Sioux Indians do hereby cede
and relinquish to the United States so much of that
portion of the present Sioux reservation as was for-
merly occupied by the Ponca tribe of Indians, set
forth and described by the supplemental treaty be-
tween the United States of America and the Ponca
tribe of Indians concluded March lo, 1865 (14 Stats.,
200
The Removal of the Poncas
675), as may be necessary for the settlement of that
portion of the Ponca tribe under Standing Bear nozv
on or residing near the old Ponca reservation, for
their use and occupation, in the proportion and to
the extent of as many tracts of 640 acres each as
there are heads of famihes and male members now
of the age of twenty-one years and upwards and
unmarried."
No provision whatever was made for any Ponca
Indians except those " under Standing Bear now on
or residing near the old Ponca reservation." No-
where is there a line to indicate that the act of
Congress providing for their return was ever com-
municated to the Poncas. The official count two
years later shows a net gam of twelve in the In-
dian Territory, while the Poncas on the old reserve
barely hold their own. Not one Ponca was returned
to the Missouri. The numbers remain in about the
same proportion to this day. The Ponca country
was cleared of Indians, with the exception of Stand-
ing Bear's band, and in a few years was opened to
settlement.
This is the story of the Ponca removal, with in-
evitable sidelights on the Poncas' guardian. Whom
do the facts concern more — the Poncas or the
guardian ?
201
THE MISSION INDIANS
" This class of Indians seems forcibly to illustrate the truth that no
man has a place or a fair chance to exist under the Government of the
United States who has not a part in it." Hon. Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, iS'j^..
SOME half-dozen years before the birth of
American Independence the Franciscan monks
founded, under the protection of the Spanish
Government, the first of the famous Indian Missions
in what is now Southern CaHfornia. These worldly-
wise missionaries gradually extended their establish-
ments northward, and in the memorable year 1776
they attained their northernmost point in the build-
ing of the Dolores Mission near the present city
of San Francisco.
The sites of these old missions indicate clearly that
while the Franciscans may have had first in mind
the spiritual welfare of the native peoples, they were
also adepts in the art of husbandry and in the selec-
tion of locations for the practice of it. Their system
of Indian control points as well to a division of
their thought between the welfare of their child-like
charges and their own material prosperity. It is
certain that under the direction of the Fathers many
thousands of the Indians became Christians, learned
202
The Mission Indians
the arts, and adopted the ways of civilization to an
extent which raised them greatly above their nomadic
kinsmen of the North. They lived in houses on the
mission lands, which were at least considered as their
permanent homes and descended along family lines
much as in more highly organized communities. It
is also certain that the carefully trained labor of
the Indians was utilized by the shrewd monks to
add a wealth of highly cultivated lands, produce,
cattle, and sheep to their various missions. The
title to the land seems to have generally, if not
always, rested in the Fathers, while the valuable ac-
cumulation of chattels was held in a more or less
modified communism, with the property rights greatly
in favor of the Franciscans.
For fifty years the Franciscan missions flourished
under the protection of Spain in a manner befitting
an institution of such marked benefit to both the
Indians and their instructors. If the labor were not
altogether one of self-sacrifice, nothing less than a
goodly endowment of religious zeal could have held
these educated men in utter isolation among an un-
lettered, inferior people. As we look back upon the
work of these men and view the stability of the
old mission edifices which still stand in the most
fertile spots in Southern California, justice, more
than charity, compels the clear recognition of their
devotion to the cause of Christianity as -first, and
above all else, with a material prosperity as inci-
203
The Indian Dispossessed
dental, — a prosperity justified, deserved, and shared
liberally with their Indian wards. The frequent
aspersions cast upon the motives of these first pio-
neers are largely due to the frivolous habit of be-
grudging all missionaries everything more than the
barest means of existence, as though constant attend-
ance upon want and hardship were a portion of their
mission.
But with the independence of Mexico in 1822 came
the undoing of the Franciscan missions. The Spanish
governmental favor under which they had prospered
for a half-century was lost to them; the Mexican
attitude became one of distinct hostility. If this
were to be a story of Mexican misrule it would call
for more than the mere statement that within fifteen
years the last of the Franciscan missions ceased as
an organization of the Franciscan monks, but for
our purpose the bare recital of fact suffices.
With the passing of the Franciscans the mission
lands were in many cases allotted in parcels to the
Indians living on them ; in other instances no record
appears of any Indian title beyond the possessory
title which comes from generations of occupancy.
Although deprived of much needed protection, the
Mission Indians continued to live on and cultivate
their lands, while a few remaining zealous adherents
of the faith kept them together and attended their
spiritual and temporal wants as best they could.
The latest of the old Mexican records shows about
204
The Mission Indians
twenty thousand baptized, registered Indians. It is
doubtful whether more than two-thirds of this num-
ber were actually attached to the missions in the
sense of having permanent homes upon them. Dur-
ing the fifteen years which elapsed between the final
dismemberment of the missions and the acquisition
of California by the United States in 1848, it is safe
to say that about half of the Mission Indians were
driven from their lands by venturesome Mexicans
who coveted their valuable homes. However accu-
rate this estimate may be, the United States Govern-
ment found in its new domain some seven thousand
of these Indians still peacefully occupying the old
mission lands, and cultivating the same parcels which
had been the homes of their fathers and grandfathers
before them. The earliest United States Government
report of the Mission Indians appears in 185 1:
" At the close of the Mexican war some of these
old Mission Indians remained in possession of lands
under written grants from the Mexican Government.
Some have sold out, others have been elbowed off
by white men. All are now waiting the adjudica-
tion of the commissioner of land titles. Many of
them are good citizens in all respects save the right
to vote and be witnesses. They are anxious to hold
their title homesteads and resist all offers to buy
as steadily as they can. How long their limited
shrewdness can match the overreaching cupidity that
ever assails them it is difficult to say.
205
The Indian Dispossessed
" They lack thrift, incline to dissolute habits, yet
plant regularly year by year, and have small stocks
of horses, cattle, and sheep. A better crop and more
commodious huts, a few chairs, and a table distin-
guish them from the mountain villages; still, they
have made a broad step towards civilization. Cus-
tom has always allowed them ardent spirits, from
which lamentable practice not even the missionaries
can be excepted. The laws of nature have had their
course, and the Indian is paying the penalty of all
who violate them. Three years ago they were prac-
tically slaves. American freedom does not profit
them. They soon fall into the bad ways of their
Christian neighbors. American rule and American
liberty, which have come to them and overthrown
the church, have given them the white man's habits
of dissipation, and they are disgusted with prospects
of civilized life."
Sixty years of Franciscan dominion had served to
differentiate these Indians from all other Indians in
the great western country; they presented an aspect
of Indian life entirely new to the advancing hosts
of Uncle Sam. But sixty years under paternal
guardianship had left them unassertive, dependent
without those upon whom to depend, and wholly
unprepared to cope with the persistent American
frontiersman. The system from which they had
derived their great benefits developed rather than
overcame the Indians' one great weakness, — their
206
The Mission Indians
child-like dependence upon the guiding hand of a
stronger people.
" Wherever, in California," says one of the earlier
Government reports, " an Indian is discovered supe-
rior to the mass of his fellows, it will be found,
with scarce an exception, that he speaks Spanish
(not English), from which it may be safely inferred
that he was once attached to some mission. There
is about the same difference between these Mission
Indians and the wild tribes as there is between the
educated American negro and a wild African ; these
have both undergone the same process, and with
very nearly the same results."
If the Mission Indian question appeared to the
Government as a novel one, the attitude of the
Government toward the Mission Indians was no less
unique. From the earliest times it had been the
custom of the Government to recognize in the wild,
nomadic tribes a possessory right to their vast
hunting-grounds which required extinguishment by
treaty and by purchase. For a more or less (usu-
ally less) valuable consideration the aborigines had
been induced to recede before the white population,
but always with at least the color of a bargain.
But the rights of the Mission Indians were sum-
marily disposed of in an astonishing manner by this
decision of a committee of the United States Senate :
" that the United States, acquiring possession of the
territory from Mexico, succeeded to its rights in the
207
The Indian Dispossessed
soil; and as that Government regarded itself as
the absolute and unqualified owner of it, and held
that the Indian had no usufructuary or other rights
therein which were to be in any manner respected,
they, the United States, were under no obligations
to treat with the Indians occupying the same for
the extinguishment of their title." Thus it happened
that the Indians, who had, according to generally
accepted views as to the rights acquired by long-
continued occupancy and cultivation, the best right
of all Indians to the land of their ancestors, were
to receive from the Government not even the color
of recognition. In all the great book of Indian
treaties, there is not one treaty or agreement with
the Mission Indians. They had nothing for which
to treat.
Under these conditions the Mission Indians were
delivered to the tender mercies of the never-to-be-
stopped pioneer at a time when great discoveries of
placer gold had brought hordes of more than usu-
ally adventurous and reckless prospectors into the
new country. No attitude of the Government toward
the Indians could have better pleased the on-coming
white men.
" In accordance with this view," writes a special
commissioner, " the assumed Indian title has always
been disregarded by the land-officers of the Govern-
ment in this district, and by settlers. As expressed
by the present register of the land-office, the location
208
The Mission Indians
of an Indian family or families on land upon which
a white man desires to settle is, in law, no more a
bar to such settlement than would be the presence
of a stray sheep or cow. And so, like sheep or
cattle, they have been too often driven from their
homes and their cultivated fields, the Government,
through its officers, refusing to hear their protests,
as though in equity as well as in law they had no
rights in the least deserving consideration."
The story of the Mission Indians is best told in
the annual reports of the Indian Office. It is a tale
too incredible to be told in any other way.
" The Coahuilas, of San Timoteo, during the exist-
ence of the smallpox two or three years ago, fled
in dismay, leaving their lands, not with the inten-
tion of abandoning them, but from fear of the epi-
demic. The white settlers near the Indian lands
immediately took forcible possession of them, and
have positively refused to give them up. It is of the
utmost importance that immediate steps be taken to
examine fully into this matter, to the end that strict
and impartial justice be done in the premises. . . .
" Some nine miles from Temecula is a place called
Pajamo. When the Indians left this place for their
summer grounds, a number of villainous Americans,
headed by two men named Breeze and Woolfe,
burned the Indian houses or ' jacablo,' and then
took forcible possession of their lands and ditches.
This is the complaint made by the Indians, and it
14 209
The Indian Dispossessed
is substantiated by the whites. Justice demands a
full and impartial investigation of this matter. . . .
" During the last year, in several instances, the
whites have induced Indians to abandon their little
farms for the purpose of obtaining possession them-
selves ; as an inducement giving them trifling pres-
ents. I told the Indians, by doing so, they could
never again occupy their lands, and consequently
would be without homes for their families, and told
them they ought not to sell or give up their farms
to any one.
" The fact is, however, the whites are pushing
back on the frontier, and unless lands are reserved
for the use of the Indians, soon they will have no
place to live. . . .
" I have been acting as special agent for the Mis-
sion and Coahuila Indians five years, and during
that time have forwarded to the Commissioner of
Indian Afifairs at Washington detailed reports of the
conditions and wants of the Indians of Southern
California, showing the number and locality of each
tribe, recommending the establishment of a reserva-
tion to which the Indians could be taken as they
became crowded out of their homes by the white
settlers.
" I presume that one reason why nothing has been
done for these Indians is, they have been peaceable
and caused the Government no trouble, and conse-
quently have been almost entirely neglected."
2IO
The Mission Indians
Every report urges the necessity of reserves for
the Mission Indians, to include especially the lands
on which their villages are located. Naturally, every
instinct of the voting white population opposed such
a waste of the public domain. But finally, after
twenty years, the first Indian reserve was set apart
for the Mission Indians, — - a large tract in the San
Pasqual Valley, including the Indian village, or ran-
cheria, of San Pasqual. The frantic demonstrations
of the outraged settlers against this usurpation of
their right to the whole country are more than
hinted at in the agent's report:
" On the 2d of April, 1870, the reservation order
was received, and the office of the agency was moved
to San Pasqual Valley reservation, when I learned
that the settlers had employed counsel to have the
order set aside, had also enlisted the sympathy and
co-operation of the majority of the people of the
county in their favor, and that the editors of San
Diego were publishing some most wonderful curi-
osities in the way of newspaper incendiary litera-
ture, in no manner calculated to throw oil on the
troubled waters. I also found the Indians had been
told ' they were to be made slaves of by the Gov-
ernment; smallpox was to be introduced in the
clothing sent them; their cattle were to be taken
from them ; ' and to such an extent had they been
tampered with, that they positively refused to locate
on the lands set apart and secured for their especial
211
The Indian Dispossessed
use and benefit. The parties tampering with the
Indians I have classified as follows :
" 1st, settlers on the reservations; 2d, settlers in
the vicinage; 3d, men living with Indian women;
4th, persons employing Indian labor at little or no
wages; 5th, politicians after votes; 6th, lawyers
after fees in contingency; 7th, vagabonds generally.
I can safely assert that not one in the above-enu-
merated classes has the true interests of the Indian
at heart, but is actuated by motives personal or
those of a friend. . . .
" The Indian law prevailing in this agency is
exceedingly doubtful, uncertain, and unjust in its
workings. The townships contiguous to the reser-
vations, viz., Agua Caliente, Temecula, and Santa
Isabel, have no justices of the peace, and have had
none for many years. It does appear to me that
there is a chronic indisposition on the part of the
people of Southern California to having a duly
constituted judiciary. The nearest court of justice
is in one direction, San Luis Rey, some twenty
miles, and in San Diego, about thirty-four miles.
I would therefore recommend that some provision
of law may be devised whereby the agent may be
empowered to exercise the functions of a justice of
the peace, and that something similar to a garrison
or regimental court might be authorized for the
trial of light offences, the captains and principal
men to compose the court, the findings of said court
212
The Mission Indians
to be submitted to the agent for his approval, or
otherwise.
" The settlers on the reservation are making no
preparations to move on the ist of September
proximo, as ordered by the superintendent of Indian
affairs. State of California. As all the available
land is taken up by the settlers on the reservations,
I would respectfully ask. Where am I to locate the
Indians if they should conclude to come in after
this date? . . .
" San Pasqual rancheria, on San Pasqual Valley
reservation, is located on less than a quarter-section
of land; even this is partitioned among the set-
tlers, who are only restrained by fear of the Gov-
ernment from taking possession at once and driving
the Indians therefrom."
The story of San Pasqual Village is typical of all
the Mission Indian rancherias. The agent's serious
statement of the conditions there counted as nothing
against the efforts of the Vociferous Few. Did
ever the vote-seeking Uncle Sam let pass unheeded
the clamor of his Chosen? Within a year the
President revoked the order establishing the Indian
reserve, and once more the gentle white man was
at liberty to push the Indian further up into the
canyons. In the next report the agent recounts the
manner of it :
" San Pasqual and Pala were established as In-
dian pueblos under the secularization law of 1834.
213
The Indian Dispossessed
These lands had long been occupied by the Christian
Indians, and in 1835 were divided among them by
the priests and prefect in accordance with said laws,
and were occupied by them until dispossessed by
squatters within the last few years. . . .
" The possessory claim of the Indians to land has
never been deemed a serious impediment to white
settlers; the latter always take by force that which
they fail to obtain by persuasion.
" Conceiving that this state of things would ulti-
mately leave ,the Mission Indians homeless, I recom-
mended in my annual report for 1869 ' that certain
lands at Pala and San Pasqual Valleys, in San
Diego County, which had been given to the Indians
by the Mexican Government, be removed from public
sale, surveyed, and set apart as a reservation.' I
stated ' that the Indian claims to these lands had
never been presented to the board of land commis-
sioners appointed under the act of 185 1 to settle
private land claims in California, and were conse-
quently disregarded by the settlers, the lands being
presumptively a part of the public domain.'
"On the 31st of January, 1870, pursuant to this
recommendation and a similar suggestion made by
J. B. Mcintosh, then acting as superintendent of
Indian Afifairs for California, the President of the
United States made an order setting apart those
lands for an Indian reservation, and a proclamation
was issued to that effect.
214
The Mission Indians
" The settlers, coveting the valleys, formed an
organization against this movement. They em-
ployed counsel at home and in Washington to draw
up and present to our Representatives in Congress
and the President of the United States papers fal-
sifying facts, for the purpose of obtaining a revo-
cation of the order.
" I am informed by Indians, and by white men
of great respectability, that a notorious monte-dealer
by the name of McCan, residing at New San Diego,
prepared a remonstrance against the reservation, and,
with the assistance of two others, attached to it sev-
eral hundred names (Indian and Mexican), and
transmitted it to Washington. Some of these names
were collected from old church records, and were
the names of Indians and Mexicans who had been
dead for years; and none of them, if I am cor-
rectly informed, were written or authorized by the
parties to whom they belonged. McCan subsequently
boasted of his success, and the facility with which
so many signatures and marks could be made by
three scribes only. For this valuable service McCan
received $40 from Olegario, $20 from Manuel Largo,
and smaller sums from various other mountain In-
dians, who had become, through false representa-
tions of the settlers, opposed to a reservation. This,
with other documents of a kindred nature, was taken
to Washington by Ben. C. Truman, and on the 17th
day of February, 1871, the order of the President
215
The Indian Dispossessed
was revoked, and the special agent for the Mission
Indians soon after dismissed."
Did this recital rouse the Government to a restora-
tion of the Indian lands? Did ever recitals of
fiendish acts in the Indian country stir the Govern-
ment to any action opposed to the wishes of the
almighty voter?
Two years later another special agent continues
the sad story of San Pasqual :
" I reached San Pasqual on the 15th instant, from
Pawai, where you were yourself detained. I pro-
ceeded at once to the house of Panto Lion, captain
of the village, and requested him to summon his
people together on the following morning for a
conference, at the same time explaining to him that
we had been sent by the Government at Washing-
ton to inquire into their condition and to ascertain
if anything could be done by the Government to
aid them.
" The villagers began to assemble early. At the
appointed hour the captain rose, and in a short
speech in the Indian language, which seemed to be
both eloquent and well appreciated, gave his hearers
to understand the errand upon which I visited them.
A lively interest was manifested by every one. They
complained of the encroachments of their American
neighbors upon their land, and pointed to a house
near by, built by one of the more adventurous of
his class, who claimed to have pre-empted the land
216
The Mission Indians
upon which the larger part of the village lies. On
calling upon the man afterward, I found that such
was really the case, and that he had actually paid
the price of the land to the register of the land-
office of this district, and was daily expecting the
patent from Washington. He owned it was hard
to wrest from these well-disposed and industrious
creatures the homes they had built up. ' But,' said
he, ' if I had not done it somebody else would, for
all agree that the Indian has no right to public
lands.' These Indians further complain that settlers
take advantage of them in every way possible; em-
ploy them to work and insist on paying them in
trifles that are of no account to them ; ' dock ' them
for imaginary neglect, or fail entirely to pay them;
take up their stock on the slightest pretext and
make exorbitant charges for damages and detention
of the stock seized. They are in many cases unable
to redeem it. They have therefore little encourage-
ment to work or to raise stock. Nor do they care
to plant fruit-trees or grapevines as long as land
thus improved may be taken from them, as has
been the case in very many instances. Among the
little homes included in the pre-emption claim above
referred to are those adorned with trees and vines.
Instead of feeling secure and happy in the posses-
sion of what little is left to them, they are continu-
ally filled with anxiety. They claim that they ought
to be allowed to remain where their forefathers have
217
The Indian Dispossessed
lived for so long, and that they should be protected
by law in the peaceful possession of the homes that
have been handed down to them.
" I asked how they would like for their children
to go to school, learn to speak the English language,
and to live more like white people. It would be
very nice, they replied, but it would do them little
good if they could not have their homes protected.
" I asked them how they would like to be moved
to some place where they would be better protected,
have ground of their own secured to them, and more
comfortable homes. The answer was, ' Our fathers
lived and died here, and we would rather live here
than at any other place.' "
Two years more, and another agent writes:
" The valleys of San Pasqual and Pala, in San
Diego County, which were once set apart for a
reservation would afford good homes for a large
part of the people, and ought to be restored to them.
The abolishment of this reservation four years ago
was secured by interested parties, through a shame-
ful perversion and falsification of the real facts of
the case at that time, and the Indians yet remain-
ing in these valleys are being shamefully imposed
upon by the settlers."
Then San Pasqual disappears from the records
for a period of several years. It has officially ceased
to exist. But in 1883 ^ special commissioner writes
the final chapter;
218
The Mission Indians
" This San Pasqual village was a regularly or-
ganized Indian pueblo, formed" by about one hun-
dred neophytes of the San Luis Rey Mission, under
and in accordance with the provisions of the Secu-
larization Act in 1834. The record of its founding
is preserved in the Mexican archives at San Fran-
cisco. . . . There is now, on the site of that old
Indian pueblo, a white settlement numbering thirty-
five voters. The Indians are all gone, — some to
other villages; some living near by in canyons and
nooks in the hills, from which, on the occasional
visits of the priest, they gather and hold services
in the half-ruined adobe chapel built by them in the
days of their prosperity."
Vale, San Pasqual!
From a superficial point of view one might be
led to think that the Government delighted to wit-
ness the slow extinction of Indians at the hands of
the Faithful. It is really not so. The officials of
the Government have never been disposed to inflict
unnecessary torture on the receding Indian. But
their very official existence depends upon the pleas-
ure, not of the whole people whom they are sup-
posed to represent, but of the few who are sufficiently
interested in legislation to express their pleasure or
displeasure. There is no virtue, in the official mind,
in the unexpressed sentiment of a great order- and
justice-loving people, so long as they continue to
live under the delusion that the public servants are
219
The Indian Dispossessed
directing the public business with due regard for
the national honor.
Thus it is that the Vociferous Few — they may
be attending the vanishing Indian in the West, or
gathered upon velvet in the effete East — besmirch
the whole official mass, and color national legislation
with their filthy desires. The public servants can-
not, under the Constitution, get above the level of
their rulers.
While the San Pasqual tragedy was being en-
acted, a similar affair was attempted on another
California reservation which illustrates well the
prevailing conditions :
" By order of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
I caused two suits to be commenced for trespass on
lands inside of the reservation fence. I expected to
be able to test the validity of swamp-land claims
to some of the best wheatAand now cultivated on
the reservation. Lobby influence at Washington was
too much for the Indian Department. A telegraph-
order from the United States Attorney-General's
Office to L. D. Latimer, United States district at-
torney, directed that officer to suspend all further
proceedings against trespassers on the Round Valley
reserve. . . .
" The Indian Department has in actual possession
and under fence only about 4,000 acres, and a por-
tion of that is falsely claimed as swamp-land. The
balance of the valley is in possession of settlers, all
220
The Mission Indians
clamorous for breaking up the reservation and driv-
ing the Indians away.
" It is useless to attempt to disguise the fact that,
so long as these settlers have a voice in the selection
of our Representatives to Congress, and Indians have
none, they must and will be heard at Washington.
I would say, listen to them, and if they propose a
fair compromise of a vexed question, accede to it;
but if they are fully determined to drive the red
man from the face of the earth, without a hearing,
and without bread or money, stop them in their
mad career, and say, ' Thus far shalt thou go, and
no farther.' There can be no doubt that it is the
duty of Congress to act in this matter with prompt-
ness and fidelity; and to delay action would be
criminal."
" Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." Impos-
sible language in the land of the Free. It suggests
a curtailment of personal freedom. A Government
slavishly dependent upon the expressed will of the
people has no incentive to enforce a sustained,
consistent Indian policy opposed to local interests,
although in accord with the perfectly well under-
stood, but unexpressed, sentiment of the great body
of the American people. It cannot afford to sacri-
fice political capital by administering a richly de-
served rebuke in one quarter, unless it thereby makes
an equal or greater gain in another quarter. To
be sure, the public generously applauds a righteous
221
The Indian Dispossessed
act in the Indian country, but the pubHc remembers
for a day, while the interested few remember until
election day. To this psychological fact may be
charged most of the vicious legislation which afflicts
the American people.
The effect of this political cowardice upon the
trespassing settlers is pictured in the same report:
" Since the order of the United States Attorney-
General to suspend all legal proceedings against
certain trespassers on the Round Valley reserva-
tion, some of them have become bold and insolent.
Gates and fences have been frequently thrown open.
Indian lodges, established at the gates for the con-
venience of travellers wishing to cross the reserva-
tion, and for the protection of growing crops, have
been wantonly broken up by ruffians. The Indians
have been driven off, and outside stock wickedly
turned into the reservation inclosures, there to riot
in growing wheat, oats, and corn, some of which
was nearly ripe enough to cut. There are many
respectable settlers in the valley who abhor this
conduct, and would gladly see the culprits brought
to a just punishment. It is not, however, consid-
ered a safe undertaking, in the neighborhood of
Indian reservations in California, for a good, law-
abiding man to attempt to punish a bad man and
a law-breaker by habit for any indignity to Indians
or those having them in charge. . . .
" A soldier recently murdered an Indian in his
222
The Mission Indians
bed, on the Hoopa reservation. It is said to have
been done without the sHghtest provocation. No
redress can be had in Klamath County. Grand
juries have repeatedly refused to take any notice
of complaints where it is alleged that a white
man killed or committed any other wrong upon an
Indian.
" It is no longer a mooted question whether bad
white men, wilful trespassers, liquor-dealers, mur-
derers, thieves, and outlaws shall be kept off and
away from the reservations, but rather, shall the
reservations be permitted or kept up at all?
" It is not considered a crime to steal horses and
cattle in Round Valley, so long as they are taken
from the Indian reservation."
This was the condition of Indian affairs in Cali-
fornia twenty-five years after the United States Gov-
ernment had rescued the country from the tyranny
of Mexico.
Why did not the Indian, in this land where " all
men are created equal," possess himself of the magic
vote and become one of the Chosen? It may seem
incredible that any Indian should have had the
temerity to face the conditions which surrounded
the precious ballot, but the fact is officially recorded
in this twenty-fifth year:
" Three Indians at least have recently made appli-
cation to be registered as citizens in Los Angeles
County. Their petition was refused by the clerk of
223
The Indian Dispossessed
the county court, acting under the advice of the
district attorney, on the sole ground of their being
Indians. They then referred the matter, through
their attorney, C. N. Wilson, Esq., to the United
States Commissioner at Los Angeles, asking him to
take such action in the premises as would fully test
their rights in this regard under the Constitution.
He refused to have anything to do with the case,
further than to transmit the affidavits of the Indians
to the district attorney at San Francisco. Here the
matter rests for the present, with little prospect that
anything in their interest will be done by the offi-
cers of justice to whom they have made appeal."
Year after year the story of the Mission Indians
appears in the official reports:
" I may first remark, in general, that I find them
a much more numerous, civilized, and industrious
people than I had supposed; properly provided for,
their future is hopeful. Their relation to the Gov-
ernment, and the white population now pressing in
upon them, is a sad commentary upon the Christian
civilization of the age in its modes of dealing with
the weak and defenceless. If citizens, their rights
as such have been entirely overlooked and trampled
upon ; if wards of the Government, they have been
most sadly neglected, left at the mercy and in the
power of the citizens who are settling around and
among them. While some treat them humanely, yet
the too prevailing sentiment is that they have no
224
The Mission Indians
rights which a white man is bound to respect, while
the general testimony is that they are singularly loyal
to the Government, honest, peaceable, inoffensive,
and patient under wrongs. Among all the depend-
ent wards of the Government there are none so
much needing or deserving her speedy and foster-
ing care; and to relieve them from their present
deplorable condition will be a truly humane and
Christian work. . . .
" The one pressing want of these people now is
land, on which they can cultivate their gardens,
herd their stock, and feel secure in the possession
of their homes. At every place I have visited, their
homes are being invaded by settlers with their stock.
In one settlement, Morongo, in San Bernardino
County, the people have all been driven off at the
point of the revolver. Everywhere the sad com-
plaint is that their gardens are being invaded and
their pastures consumed by the stock of settlers ; the
water turned away from their ditches to irrigate the
gardens of those trespassing upon their lands; and
they have no redress. And I know from observa-
tion that their complaints are but too true. This
state of things cannot continue much longer with-
out disastrous consequences. Either these helpless,
non-resisting people will be driven from their lands
as homeless wanderers, or will be exasperated to
violent deeds of self-defence. Then we know what
will follow. I cannot exaggerate the urgency of
IS 225
The Indian Dispossessed
this case. Something must be done soon, or at
least reliable assurances must be given that the Gov-
ernment will adjust difficulties. What can be done?
In my judgment, it is no use to spend any more
money or time in sending commissioners or agents
to talk; Indians and settlers alike say they have
had enough of this, and I feel I do not want to go
again among that people without authority to do,
or at least propose, something in the way of a
speedy and safe settlement of these grave difficulties."
But " sending commissioners or agents to talk "
disturbed no political fences, and soothed the Gov-
ernment's conscience with the notion that it was
doing something, while it shrank from sustaining
the Indian rights, and dreaded as well to complete
the sacrifice of the Indian for political gain.
Poor, buffeted, helpless Uncle Sam! The servant
of the people, the tool of the Vociferous Few! So
the miserable business of " sending commissioners "
went on. After thirty years of existence under the
" Banner of Freedom," the Mission Indians received
the distinguished consideration of another very com-
plete report of their unfortunate condition :
" The Mission Indians may be divided, with re-
spect to their condition and manner of living, into
three classes. The first division may be defined as
those who stay on or about the ranches or farms
of white men, living by daily labor upon the farms,
receiving, when they work, about one dollar per
226
The Mission Indians
day. Most of the larger ranchmen have about them
one or several families, whom they permit to build
their slight houses on the corners of the ranch, or
on grounds adjoining, and in addition allow the use
of water sufficient to irrigate a garden, which such
Indians often cultivate. These Indians do most of
the ordinary work of the ranches, except when
harvest-time, sheep-shearing, or some special season
requires the employment of other help. They live
more or less comfortably, as the proprietor of the
ranch to which they are attached is a humane and
just man, or hard-hearted and a cheat. They are
not legal tenants; they cannot make legal contracts,
or collect their wages by a suit at law, if for no
other reason, because they have not the means to
prosecute suits. The interests of the ranchman gen-
erally dictate treatment at least fair enough to pre-
vent his Indians from moving away from him. This
class of Indians is pretty large. They have no dif-
ficulty in securing enough food and comfortable
clothing, and some of them have learned to be
thrifty and prudent.
" The second class is made up of those who live
in small communities, cultivating lands they have
held for a long time and have been accustomed to
call their own. At each village are gathered as
many families as the natural supply of water will
make comfortable. They desire above all else to
be left in possession of these little villages, which
227
The Indian Dispossessed
are situated wherever a spring or small stream of
water exists, scattered through a large tract of
otherwise desert country. Thus they have a vil-
lage at Potrero, twenty-five miles from here.
Twenty miles in another direction is another vil-
lage; fifteen miles farther another village, and so
on. Till recently all these places were on unsur-
veyed public lands, and unclaimed. Now white
men have set up claims of more or less valid char-
acter upon almost every acre of these lands, and
they are liable to be taken away unless there is
prompt and energetic action by the Government.
Each Indian family at these villages has a house
and cultivates a patch of ground, varying from one
acre to four or five. A field of five acres cultivated
by one family is rarely found. Fruit-trees and well-
kept vines are not unusual. The Indian men plant
their fields in the spring, give them a more or less
thrifty cultivation till a season comes when they can
get temporary employment on ranches, and then they
leave their homes in charge of the squaws and old
men, and go out to labor, very much as the young
men in Canada flock over into ' the States ' in
haying-time to work for the New England and
New York farmers. A much greater number of
the Mission Indians were formerly included in this
class, and oftentimes the Indians described in the
first class owned and cultivated the very lands where
they are now only tolerated as day-laborers. They
228
The Mission Indians
are very much attached to their homes. One In-
dian that I know has maintained a home in the
Potrero, and for many years wori<ed most of the
time twenty miles away. He is as httle willing to
give up his Potrero house and field as any of his
neighbors who live there constantly. But now his
home is threatened by a land-grabber who wants it
for nothing. This second class of Indians are the
ones now most especially needing the energetic care
of the Government. The land-grabbers are after
them, and an agent with seven-leagued boots could
scarcely travel from village to village as fast as
those Americans who are seeking a few acres of
ground with a spring upon it, or moist lands where
wheat and potatoes grow without irrigation, that
may be pre-empted or taken up under the desert-
land act. That such lands have been held by In-
dians and cultivated by Indians counts for nothing
more than if they had been only homes for grass-
hoppers and coyotes. This seems to me a great and
unpardonable vice in the law, that it treats as un-
occupied, and subject to pre-emption, lands which
have been in fact occupied and cultivated precisely
as white men occupy and cultivate, and that, too,
for more than one generation of- living men. But
for that vice of the law the Mission Indians would
now be secure in their old possessions, and where
their improvements and water-rights were wanted
they would be bought and paid for instead of taken
229
The Indian Dispossessed
for nothing- in the name of law. I cannot learn at
all accurately the number of this class of Indians,
but do not suppose they can be more than one-third
of all.
" The third class is rather small, and includes
those that hang upon the outskirts of towns, pass
wistfully through the streets, seldom asking for
anything, but silently begging with their longing,
pathetic eyes. At times, when they can get whisky,
the men are besotted brutes, and the women are
generally prostitutes, though the family tie is still
strong enough to keep squaw and papoose with
the husband. With this class are some unmarried
women who are prostitutes. This, which I will call
the vagrant class, is not so large as I was prepared
to find it; and I believe, from observation and
from general report, that vagrancy is not a state
into which the Mission Indians naturally or will-
ingly fall. Except in the third class, I believe
prostitution is almost or quite unknown, and that
the virtue of women is quite as highly esteemed
and as much practiced as among the most enlight-
ened peoples."
Neither does the report of 1880 show any change
in the settled habits of the frontiersmen :
" Those who by sufferance have lands to cultivate
where they live, have tilled them to profit during
the season. Only yesterday two Indians from the
San Luis Rey tribe called at the agency, reporting
230
The Mission Indians
that they had come with two wagons, loaded with
over seven thousand pounds of wheat, which they
were having ground into flour for sale and for
their own use. This amount the two men had
raised by their own labor; and they report that
their people have plenty of wheat and are doing
well.
" It is doubtful, however, whether they will be
allowed to gather another harvest from those fields
which they have long cultivated, and which, until
recently, they believed to be reserved lands. Two
years ago a ' land-grabber ' suddenly discovered that
these Indians were not on the lands reserved for
them in a given township east of the meridian line,
but in the corresponding township west of the merid-
ian, and at once filed upon the land they occupied
under the ' desert-land act.' How lands cultivated
by these people for more than a generation can be
called ' desert ' I am not able to answer. But it is
quite likely that certain land officials in these parts
who consider the occupancy of lands by Indians as
of no more significance than their occupancy by so
many coyotes will have less difficulty with such
questions. The Indian ' must go ' if he is on a
patch of ground that a white man wants, and no
matter that he has lived on and cultivated it for a
generation. It is wanted all the more on account
of its improved condition. . . .
" Other wrongs practiced upon these helpless people
231
The Indian Dispossessed
have been checked in great measure since my arrival
at this agency, such as the fraudulent methods of
employers in paying Indian laborers. Every con-
ceivable trick is resorted to to get labor of this
kind as cheap as possible. The following case was
brought to my attention some time ago. An Indian
having labored at cutting wood for six days, earn-
ing, at the wages agreed upon, the sum of $2.50,
received in part payment two bottles of wine, for
which he was charged $1, and upon demanding the
balance of $1.50 in money he was ordered to leave
the premises. The Indian refusing to go without
his money, the man took down his shot-gun and
discharged a load of buck-shot into the Indian's
face, destroying the sight of an eye and otherwise
disfiguring his face. The next day this employer
boasted to an acquaintance how he had settled a
bill of $1.50 with an Indian by paying him in
buck-shot."
And in the following year:
" A further source of trouble in this connection
is that growing out of the fact that even-numbered
sections have been reserved for Indians within the
limits of ' railroad land grants.' In some instances
their villages are found to be on railroad sections ;
or, if they happen to be on reserved land, their little
fields, cultivated all these years, are claimed as within
the limits of the railroad grant, their improvements
presenting such temptations as to overcome all con-
232
The Mission Indians
siderations of sympathy and right. The lands are
entered in the office of the railroad company, taken
and occupied, and the Indians turned out. Now if
the same rights which attach in common to the
bond fide white settler occupying land prior to such
grant to railroads were accorded to Indian occu-
pants, it would be different; but, unfortunately for
the Indian, he has not yet in fact come to be con-
sidered by the Government as a man, although bear-
ing the impress of a common Maker in all respects
except as to the color of his skin. . . .
" Referring to the subject of civilization, I have
to say that the Mission Indians are as much civi-
lized as the population by which they are surrounded ;
and if they are not up to the full standard, it is
because of their surroundings. All wear civilized
dress, sustain themselves, with few exceptions, by
civilized pursuits, and hold themselves answerable
to the law of the land when they violate it."
However lightly this constant tale of woe may
have affected Congress, its reactive effect on one
of the agents was marked. After four years of
service as compiler of facts for the dusty archives
of the Government, he vents his disgust:
" It is true the goal of my ambition to see them
provided with land for permanent homes, which has
been so persistently urged in former reports, has not
yet been reached. And my faith in the power and
influence of agents' reports and letters on subjects
233
The Indian Dispossessed
of this nature is at this writing very much shaken
by results, or, rather, the want of results. But I
have not been alone in efforts in this direction, nor
yet in want of success. Since my last annual report
voluntary and independent action has been taken by
a prominent State religious and city-trade associa-
tion, as well as by prominent individuals, in the
way of memorializing Congress in behalf of homes
for these people, but with no better result. To me
it is doubtful whether Congress will ever take ac-
tion in the premises, since it has been demonstrated
in its past dealings with the Indian question that
distinguished consideration is shown to the Indian
only in proportion as he has developed a disposi-
tion to be troublesome and worthless."
But here is a variation from the usual tale:
" In the month of June last I visited a village of
the San Luis Rey Indians, who had hitherto been
wandering about, landless and homeless, but who a
year ago settled in the foot-hills near Temecula
ranch, from which they were once ejected. No
running water is found where they live, but at
great labor they had dug wells and developed
water for domestic purposes. They had just har-
vested their first crops, consisting of wheat and
barley, which was grown upon winter rains. One
Indian told me he would have about 500 sacks of
barley. I estimated that they would have about two
carloads of grain to sell over and above what they
234
The Mission Indians
would require for their own use. The land they
had settled upon I found to be surveyed Govern-
ment land, and I found also that their success in
growing grain upon it had already attracted the
attention of the ubiquitous ' land grabber.' No time
must be lost in securing this land for these Indians.
The Indians feared they might be driven off, and
I promised them I would not sleep after returning
to the agency till I had written to Washington and
asked that this land be given to them. I kept my
promise, and, with commendable promptness, I re-
ceived an executive order setting apart the land for
their use. To me, as well as to these Indians, it
was the most gratifying incident of the year."
It is indeed something that the Indian's refuge
in the canyons was saved to him. The case of this
little band of San Luis Rey Indians was only one
of many. In foot-hills, in canyons, on unclaimed
little oases in the deserts — wherever a few of the
dispossessed Indians had gathered together in the
hope of again establishing themselves — executive
orders were secured setting aside portions of the
public domain for their use. And whenever one of
these little reservations proved too tempting to the
on-coming white man, he had only to persist in his
inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness in that
particular spot; another executive order as easily
disposed of the Indian right, and restored the land
to the public domain — to his domain. The real
235
The Indian Dispossessed
significance of the Government's beneficence is dis-
closed in the report for 1886:
" The Government has apparently been very gen-
erous to the Mission Indians. It has given them
more than twenty different reservations, embracing
nearly 200,000 acres; but what a country! After
a careful examination of all the land we do not
think there are over 5,000 acres of tillable land,
and the best portion of that is now held by tres-
passers in defiance of the agent and Government.
" The Potrero reservation is covered over with
squatters who have settled there long since the lands
were set apart for Indian purposes. They are there
in open defiance of law. They have managed to
get their cases before the Indian Department for
adjudication. The rights of these Indians to these
lands are as clear and absolute as the proclamation
of a President can make them. The squatters should
never have had a standing in court till after they
were dispossessed. The Government ought to have
removed every one of them, and if they have rights
then let them assert them before the courts. Until
the Indians feel assured of a perfect title they will
not build houses, put out orchards or vineyards, nor
anything to make the land more valuable."
" The squatters should " and " the Government
ought " — these are sure marks of a new agent.
What a godsend to his Government and to the
Indians each and every new, inexperienced agent
236
The Mission Indians
fondly imagines himself! The grossest, most pal-
pable injustices have only awaited his coming, that
a simple recital of self-evident abuses with their
equally patent remedies (strange that previous agents
have overlooked them!) shall bring happiness out
of misery and order out of chaos.
Poor fellow ! He soon discovers himself — a mere
speck in the political firmament, just below the hori-
zon. The squatter continues to do as he pleases, and
the great Government continues to do as the squatter
pleases.
After forty years of wild and reckless " Freedom "
at the expense of the miserable Mission Indians, the
squatters met their first — and only — reverse. The
great Government automaton suddenly refused to
respond to invisible political pulls. Its executive
head — horrible discovery ! — had the temerity to
respond to impulses from his own nerve-centres.
" The position of these intruders," proclaimed
President Grover Cleveland, " is one of simple and
bare-faced wrong-doing, plainly questioning the in-
clination of the Government to protect its dependent
Indian wards and its ability to maintain itself in
the guaranty of such protection. These intruders
should forthwith feel the weight of the Govern-
ment's power."
This expressed the attitude of the Cleveland ad-
ministration toward the persecuted Indian. A short
time previous to this declaration the removal of the
237
The Indian Dispossessed
astonished squatters had been undertaken, with vary-
ing success. One agent reports the accomplishment
of squatter removals without serious difficulty, and
adds, " What these men will do under the circum-
stances I know not. They have been seeking relief
through their representatives in Congress, but the
result is not reported."
Far more interesting is the account from the
Round Valley reservation. It was here that, fifteen
years before, suits of ejectment had been summarily
dismissed because " Lobby influence at Washington
was too much for the Indian Department." In this
year, 1887, as in 1872, the trespassers were firmly
entrenched behind their local political forces; they
met the Government order for removal with a
prompt refusal; they unhesitatingly arrayed them-
selves against Federal authority, and Federal au-
thority bravely undertook to vindicate itself by
calling into requisition a section of its little army.
It is a comedy briefly but concisely told in tele-
graphic despatches between Gen. O. O. Howard,
commanding the Department of the Pacific, and
the War Department. General Howard opens the
play:
"... Captain Shaw's company. First Artillery,
was, August 17, sent to evict trespassers upon Round
Valley Indian reservation. On 19th instant he com-
menced evictions and was thereupon served with
injunction, issued by Judge Superior Court of Men-
238
The Mission Indians
docino County, California, by person claiming to be
deputy sheriff of same, which Captain Shaw refused
to obey, and continued to evict. Upon affidavit of said
deputy sheriff, judge of said court has issued attach-
ment for Shaw, who declined to surrender. . . ."
Plucky man, Captain Shaw. He seems to have
labored under the impression that his Government
had some rights which the Vociferous Few were
bound to respect.
The next day General Howard again telegraphed
the Department:
" Shall I leave Captain Shaw to be arrested and
imprisoned, at the call of the trespassers, who have
no rights whatever, in obedience to orders of local
courts? . . . Please sustain me, and Captain Shaw,
who has not exceeded our orders one whit."
And the War Department replied to the General :
" In view of facts as presented to the Secretary
of War, he directs that you desist in declining to
obey writ until question of jurisdiction is determined
by Federal courts."
So the soldier boys wended their way homeward,
carrying their wounded feelings with them, while
the squatters held high carnival, victors upon a
bloodless field; in the doleful language of the Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs, " Thus the second at-
tempt to regain possession of the reservation by
military force ended in utter failure."
" All Government derives its just powers from the
239
The Indian Dispossessed
consent of the governed " — therefore, if the gov-
erned do not consent, they have only to cry,
" Hands off ! " and the Government may only view
from the outside their unique efforts to govern
themselves.
The spectacle of Round Valley is not an unusual
one. Nothing short of a general and bloody riot,
threatening destruction under conditions manifestly
beyond all local control, will induce the American
people to tolerate the interference of the Federal
Government, so grounded are they in the belief that
their full measure of " life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness " can come only through the sacred
right of each and every community to be a " law
unto itself " in its local affairs. The scheme of
" Government by the people " does not contemplate
a central authority which shall exercise a salutary
control over widely diverse social conditions in the
interest of a homogeneous and consistent whole. A
community has only to fortify itself with its own
public sentiment that, in the pursuit of happiness,
Indians may be driven to the deserts, or negro citi-
zens burned at the stake; that community is as
secure from Federal interference as would be any
neighboring Spanish-American State that might in-
dulge in similar pastimes. More secure, for if an
American negro citizen were to be burned alive in
any country on the face of the globe except his
own, one of the most efficient navies afloat would
240
The Mission Indians
enforce, if necessary, full and prompt reparation for
the outrage. Uncle Sam is impotent only within his
own realm.
And the story of the Mission Indians goes on in
the annual reports:
" The teachings of the padres saved them from
savagism. Neglect and white man's greed have
robbed them of land, and his vices have reduced
their numbers from 15,000 in 1834, to 7,000 in
1852, to 3,000 in 1890. No man with a particle of
humanity left can meet these people as an agent
does without feeling ashamed as the agent of this
good Government, which has forcibly taken posses-
sion of this country and assumed the care for this
weak people, that we should have by neglect and
dishonesty of its paid agents reduced them to such
abject poverty and helplessness. Our own records
of the past are humiliating. Cortez robbed the
Aztecs of gold, but left them their land and water.
Americans posing as Christians have robbed these
poor children of nature, by legal trickery, of their
land made sacred by the graves of their ancestors.
As agent for this Government, that I know desires
to deal fairly with this people, now I ask and urge
that a commissioner may be appointed to come here
and settle all land titles, give these people from ten
to twenty acres of available land with water for
homes, tools to work with, and enforce attendance
in school until every child has secured a common
16 241
The Indian Dispossessed
English education. In this way we can soon make
some return for the lands we have driven them
from, and make them self-supporting, intelligent,
local citizens. Oft-repeated promises and disap-
pointments cause them to distrust any statement
made by civil officers, with reason."
Here again, in 1894, are the San Pasqual Indians,
after many years in oblivion:
" San Pasqual Village. These Indians have been
treated by the United States in a very unfair and
unjust manner. Their lands in San Pasqual Valley
were granted to them by the Mexican Government.
Notwithstanding this, the United States patented the
same lands to whites, and, as a result, the Indians
had to leave and seek a new home, which, when
found, does not in the slightest compare with their
former lands in San Pasqual Valley. They are
quiet, law-abiding people, and deserve consideration
at the hands of the Government."
1 848- 1 898. Fifty years under the glorious flag
of the United States. In this year, 1898, did the
Mission Indians celebrate the semi-centennial with a
grand jubilee, or joyously sing, " My country 't is of
thee, sweet land of libert^^, of thee I sing " ? If they
did, there is no record of it. The agent's report
for that year mentions no singing:
" Once they possessed the best of this land, in
fact, owned it all. The advent of the white man
has resulted in their discomfiture, and they have
242
The Mission Indians
been driven back to inhospitable canyons, gravelly
wastes, and mountain-tops. In this position we find
them to-day, humiliated, and in many cases legally
robbed of their former possessions. The protection
of their remaining rights from the rapacity of the
whites, even to the pillaging of the little feed that
grows within the confines of their reservation, is a
task of no small magnitude.
" While upon this subject it would be d, propos to
consider the self-support of these people. I desire
to call your attention forcibly to this fact, that they
are not in any sense of the term self-supporting.
In a majority of instances they are geographically
located so that self-support is impossible. Without
soil or water, they are obliged to depend upon the
acorn and mesquite bean crop and other forage for
their subsistence."
Then the nineteenth century draws to a close ; the
American people have become one of the greatest
of the world's nations. . They have expanded to the
farthest limits of their great country. California
has added her scores of millions of golden treasure
to the national wealth and her old Mission lands have
yielded their millions in golden fruit. It is a period
of rejoicing, of congratulation, of feverish desire for
more unsubdued wilds to conquer. As Uncle Sam
stands upon the threshold of the new century, gazing
with speculative eye upon the isles across the western
sea where another inferior race awaits his pleasure,
243
The Indian Dispossessed
he pauses in the work of conquest to jot down in
his great diary this agent's memorandum of the in-
ferior race at home:
" During the past fiscal year I have visited each
and every reserve, even to those situated in the re-
motest districts. At many reservations I found the
poor Indians eking out a miserable existence, in a
half-civilized condition, with never enough food and
clothing to sustain them properly, and as a make-
shift making pilgrimages to the Sierra Madre Moun-
tains, in Mexico, to gather the pine nuts for food
during the pinching days of winter; yet I will give
them the credit, even under greatly adverse circum-
stances, many of them were trying hard to raise
something from their small patches of dry ground."
Vale, Mission Indian! Struggle as you may to
gather sustenance from your gravel patch ; fill your
belly with the acorn, the pine nut, and the mesquite
bean, if you will; but the day is coming when the
white man will need your gravel patch ; when his
genius will devise some use in his own economic
system for the acorn, the pine nut, and the mesquite
bean.
Vale, Mission Indian!
And fifty years from now, when the more venture-
some among the Noble Free — free from every re-
straint not imposed by themselves upon themselves,
free to pursue happiness to the limit of their own
desires — shall have exercised their God-given rights
244
The Mission Indians
for a half-century in the new island country of the
Pacific, will the United States Government be record-
ing the woes of little native bands in the mountains
and canyons of the Philippines, " eking out a miser-
able existence in a half-civilized condition " ?
Possibly the mountain fastnesses of the archi-
pelago do not grow acorns, pine nuts, and mesquite
beans? Perish the thought! Nature cannot have
been so cruelly improvident of future necessities for
the unhappy people who have hopelessly sung for
their own country —
" Land where my fathers died,
From every mountain-side.
Let Freedom ring ! "
245
DIVIDING THE SPOILS
IN the pioneer days of fifty, forty, and even
thirty years ago, when settlement on the fron-
tier meant something of hardship and priva-
tion, the homestead law, with its provision for a
small fixed charge upon every homesteader without
regard to difi^erences in land values, served to re-
ward the hardy pioneer for pushing out beyond his
neighbors by bestowing upon him the first choice
of soil and location. Not only was he rewarded in
direct proportion to his hardihood by this system of
" first come, first served," but the Government and
the country at large gained as well, in the develop-
ment of new territory.
In preparation for this great westward movement,
the Indians of the plains and mountains were from
time to time gathered upon reservations; those east
of the Rocky Mountains were located, in the main,
along the Missouri River on the north, and within
the Indian Territory on the south. The advancing
civilization of the white man came up with these
reservations, established itself alongside them, and
pushed on westward to the natural limit.
246
Ouray, Ute Chief, Colorado
(1874)
Dividing the Spoils
As late as twenty-five years ago the same condi-
tions obtained over a limited extent of the western
territory, and the homesteading of Government land
continued normally, steadily, always a little in ad-
vance of railroads and the comforts which come
with settled conditions. Finally the arid and semi-
arid lands of the eastern Rocky Mountain slope were
reached; railroads extended everywhere. Then, in-
stead of a fertile farm in the wilds to be obtained
at the cost of personal comfort, the prospective
homesteader was offered decidedly unproductive land
within easy distance of railroad and town. Still
the business of homesteading went on; but the high
prairies refused to yield the expected reward. The
disastrous recoil from the great eastern slope will
not soon be forgotten, either by the over-confident
settlers, or by the eastern investors who later ac-
quired the " farms " as souvenirs of money loaned
and lost.
With the taking of the last of the really good
public lands, the wave of restless humanity which
constitutes the cutting edge of civilization turned
back to the Indian reservations — generally large,
fertile tracts, adjacent to well-developed country.
There the land-seekers gazed hungrily at the pos-
sessions for which the Indians had given up their
great hunting-grounds. With a Government at its
beck and call, pledged to execute the expressed will
of the people, it was not in human nature for these
247
The Indian Dispossessed
people to wait long. New bargains were made with
the Indians, and cessions of land secured — always
their best land, and at one-half to one-tenth of its
real value. Reservations were diminished or done
away with altogether, and tribes consolidated, and
once more there was public land — not land in the
wilds, to be earned by the subduing of it, but good
land, and well within the boundaries of civilization.
Wholly changed conditions confronted the land
department of the Government. The inequalities of
value inherent to any country were enormously in-
creased in these reservations by the proximity of
towns on their borders, and by railroads often run-
ning directly through the ceded lands. A new
scheme of equitable land distribution was demanded
by the new conditions.
With the vanishing of the frontier the homestead
law, with its fixed-price, first-come-first-served sys-
tem, served its last useful purpose. Its impartial
gifts and rewards had led the hosts westward to
the Pacific coast, and it deserved to pass into his-
tory as a grand instrument in the upbuilding of
the West. Not one condition remained to give the
homestead law an excuse for exercise, yet from that
time until to-day these ceded Indian lands have all
been opened under the essential provisions of that
law, for no other reason than that a Government
bound by the Vociferous Few to questionable
methods of gaining cessions of Indian lands has
248
Dividing the Spoils
been equally bound in its manner of dividing the
spoils.
What has always been the result?
Instead of the Government beckoning to civiliza-
tion to people its wilderness, we find it announcing
the day and hour set for the opening of its public
land. The fixed price per acre is but a fraction of
its value; Uncle Sam gives the Faithful the full
benefit of his sharp bargains with the Indians. The
military parades across the tract to keep it clear of
" sooners " — an expressive term applied to boomers
who enter the promised land sooner than they ought ;
on the day of the opening, soldiers with loaded rifles
are posted in front of the hungry horde, with orders
to shoot if the line is overstepped — and they have
shot, too, with telling effect; adventurers take the
place of bona Me settlers, and alluring Chance super-
cedes reasonable expectation of reward for labor.
The evils and abuses attending the " rush " sys-
tem reached their culmination at the opening of
the Cherokee Strip, on the northern border of the
Indian Territory, in September, 1893. The reader
cannot better comprehend this method of dividing
the spoils than by attending, in retrospect, this most
grotesque event.
A hundred thousand men stand in line on land in
Kansas and Oklahoma worth from ten dollars to
twenty-five dollars an acre, gazing upon land to be
offered at the crack of a gun for one dollar and a
249
The Indian Dispossessed
half and two dollars and a half an acre. That is
the measure of the Government's bargain with the
Indians. Some have been there for weeks, some for
months — why so long, nobody knows ; neither do
they. The shrewd ones have been waiting no more
than a day or two ; they and their horses are fresh for
the rush. Twelve o'clock is the hour set for the
opening, and on the last morning of the long wait
a deep, suppressed excitement possesses the motley
crowd, growing more intense as the forenoon wears
away.
They begin to form for the great race. The cow-
boys in front with their hardy prairie horses, ready
to swear to each other's " time " before the land
office officials — for after the race each must prove
the time of his arrival if several enter claims for
the same tract. Men with race-horses, too, confi-
dently take their places beside the scrubby cow-
ponies; but they will not ride their thoroughbreds
next time — racers do not understand about badger-
holes and gopher-mounds ; very few cow-ponies ended
that race with broken legs. Then there are horses
in harness; sulkies, buckboards, spring buggies, and
even lumbering lumber wagons, — prairie schooners,
tops and all, loaded with stoves, and chairs, and
babies, and chickens, with now and then a pig
thrown in; sure signs, these, of the nomadic, rent-
ing farmer, the all-wise, know-nothing, soldier of
misfortune, the typical western renter.
250
Dividing the Spoils
You find him everywhere, this sage of the corner
grocery; in the West he is the nomadic renter. In
the fall, to begin with, there is the renter and his
family, fresh from their latest failure. He bargains
for a broken-down team and mortgages it back to
the owner for the full price, — the owner is pleased
to have his team fed through the winter. He bor-
rows a cow for her " keep " and increase, then rents
a farm " on shares " ; the owner furnishes the seed,
and rewards himself liberally in the lease for doing
so. The winter passes somehow, with odd jobs; by
spring he had delivered a course of lectures at the
country store on How to Run the Government, and
the store-keeper holds a mortgage on the crops " to
be " for supplies advanced. Now he half plants his
crops, and tends them — hurriedly ; for he is needed
at the store to explain grave defects in the na-
tional currency system. Harvest time comes, and he
" buys " machinery ; another chattel mortgage. But
the lightning of misfortune never misses him ; if too
wet, his crops wash out; if too dry, they burn out;
for they were never really in. And he lays it all to
the currency.
After the harvest comes the accounting. The land
owner helps himself first, then the store-keeper; the
machinery goes back to the factory, and the owner
of the team claims his own. Last of all, the source
of his milk supply ambles out through the gate in
the wake of her unfeeling master.
251
The Indian Dispossessed
So, once more in the fall, there is the renter, and
his family — plus one. The annual cycle is rarely
left incomplete.
Months ago the renter heard of the great Cherokee
Strip opening, and started forthwith for the prom-
ised land. He has been camping out all the way
down from loway, or lllinoiay; he has been camp-
ing here for weeks. But for the first time in his life
his cock-sureness wobbles a little; there is something
in the determined looks, in the be-pistoled figures
of the line in front that dispels his dream of a
home for the asking. Deluded renter, you are only
one of fifty thousand! This is to be a race for the
swift, not for the settler.
The great, lumbering wagon cannot make the run
— he gets that through the armor of his self-conceit.
So he proceeds to " on-hitch " his least " winded "
plough-horse, and gets astride; and as this Don
Quixote outfit shuffles to the front, the children
squall, and the chickens squawk, while his long-
suffering, much better half tearfully prays that this
once in their dreary lives good fortune may smile
upon them.
Over there is a man standing beside a rough stone
set in a little mound of earth ; that stone is a section
corner. He is talking in a low tone with two or
three friends; the quarter section of land marked
by that stone is worth four thousand dollars, and
it will cost some lucky man two hundred and forty.
252
Dividing the Spoils
As he thinks of it his breath comes hard, and his
eye has a dangerous Hght. He turns to his friends.
Will they bear witness that at the crack of the gun
he was the first to claim this tract? Will they stand
by him?
His friends gaze down the line of thousands and
turn apprehensively away; they have seen the same
dangerous light in too many eyes that morning.
Each man has a little flag to thrust into the
ground as soon as he thinks he has reached a
square half-mile of land without a claimant. But
suppose there is another flag, and another claimant?
Well, each man has a little gun, and if he can con-
vince his unwelcome neighbor by argument that he
is the better shot, there need be no bloodshed.
It lacks fifteen minutes of twelve o'clock. The
tension of the supreme moment brings silence to
the trembling line, save only low mutterings over
the final adjustment for places. Men who have never
seen a hundred dollars at one time in their lives
now see thousands in their grasp if only they can
place themselves among the winners; and there are
five men to every prize. Out one hundred yards in
front, and twice as far apart, stand soldiers with
loaded rifles. Some, already drunk with the antici-
pated excitement, care more for the game than for
the stakes to be won or lost, but to many a man in
that line who has staked his last dollar on the one
chance to win more than he can ever earn, those
253
The Indian Dispossessed
last minutes are a long, hot agony of suspense.
Suddenly a revolver is accidentally discharged; a
middle-aged man, in the frenzy of the moment, mis-
takes it for the starting gun, and with a bound his
horse shoots over the line.
"Hold on there! Come back!" yells the crowd
in wild discord, and the man imagines the crazy
horde racing at his heels.
" Halt ! " commands the soldier in front, bringing
his rifle to position ; but the man hears nothing, sees
nothing, thinks of nothing except the prize ahead.
The soldier drops to his knee, and aims ; there
is no report above the din of the excited mass at
the line — only a puff of smoke ; the old man
topples from his horse — dead, with a bullet in his
brain.
Twelve o'clock. The report of the signal gun is
echoed down the miles of line from every soldier's
rifle, and with a dull roar that makes the earth
tremble the racers are off! Horsemen, buggies,
buck-boards, wagons, as far either way as one can
see — and prairie schooners, too, lumbering and
pitching in the rear. Away over the rolling prairie
they speed, disappearing finally on the distant hills
like a lot of scared jackrabbits, now well strung
out. Suddenly a trained race-horse goes down —
he has learned his first lesson in badger holes. A
bullet from his master's gun ends the animal's suf-
fering, and with him goes his master's last chance.
254
Dividing the Spoils
It is sixty-six miles across the strip, but another
Hne is racing up from the south. Half-way, if
they run so far, the unlucky ones in the two lines
must meet, and turn back.
On they go, with now the fleet horsemen well out
of sight ahead, and the prairie schooners as well
out of sight behind. It is hot, — a hundred in the
shade, and no shade ; and dry, — no rain has fallen
for weeks, and not a green thing is to be seen ;
no water anywhere, and a strong head wind.
There is smoke ahead — a prairie fire ! The cow-
boys in advance, impelled by a cheerful desire to
impede those following, have fired the dry prairie.
The grass is short, and a prairie fire runs ahead of
itself in spots; it is easy to get through the breaks
in the fire-line — if the grass is short. But word
comes along the line that the fire has caught a
schooner in the tall grass of a ravine, — and there
is one less family to people the new country.
The boomers are continually dropping off to plant
their little flags — some one will get this land, and
why not they? Here a man finds himself in a wide
stretch with no one near ; he " strikes," then lei-
surely searches for the corner-stone. A school sec-
tion. " Damn ! " And he has no second chance, for
the line has swept past him.
Four sections out of every thirty-six reserved for
school and county funds, but with nothing to dis-
tinguish them; so one out of nine of the successful
255
The Indian Dispossessed
racers must draw blanks in Uncle Sam's great game
of chance, in spite of their success.
A young fellow has run thirteen miles in the front
rank of the line, and locates a beautiful tract, but
he comes upon a man calmly smoking, while his
horse grazes peacefully near, with not a hair turned.
" Sooner ! " angrily charges the young man ; then
he suddenly looks down the barrel of the sooner's
gun. It is a wicked little black hole; the young
man sees the point of the argument, and gallops on.
Down in that ravine are a few trees — there are
no trees, except in ravines. There is something un-
usual about one of these trees. Go nearer, and a
man hangs from one of the limbs. A slip of paper
is pinned to the coat:
"Too Soon"
Nothing more; a brief but comprehensive epitaph.
A determined boomer plants his flag on a tract
of fine bottom land — the prettiest quarter section in
sight, he notes exultingly. A young tenderfoot from
" back East " unwittingly plants his flag on the same
tract. He thinks he is first, and perhaps he is. He
approaches the boomer to expostulate, and the boomer
draws, but the tenderfoot is not familiar with that
line of argument. A shot; and a pretty home in
New York State will wait and wait for news of
its adventurous son. The boomer turns from the
shivering form to the little half-mile of land danc-
256
Dividing the Spoils
ing in the hot sun before his feverish eyes, and
mutters, " Mine, mine! "
Which of these two is the more miserable victim
of the Government's gambHng scheme?
Evening comes, and with it the wind dies down.
The dry air quickly cools. The great rush has left
its members scattered over the prairie — far too
many of them for the rewards it had to oiifer, but
the interminable fights, disputes, and lawsuits over
the spoils are for other days. A short communion
with the pail of cold grub and the canteen of warm
water; then to the blankets, under nature's canopy.
It is a glorious, still night out on the prairie.
The heat, the dust, and the wild excitement seem
like unpleasant incidents of long ago. The heavens
in that clear, dry atmosphere are fairly ablaze with
stars; one cannot gaze into their quiet depths and
realize that within the past few hours one hundred
thousand men have indulged the fiercest of human
passions, and for higher stakes than they have ever
before dreamed of. But relaxation comes after un-
natural stress, and men begin to know how tired
they are; so winners and losers alike roll up in their
blankets to sleep. The delicious calm of the night
is made weird by the far-off, long-drawn-out cries
of the boomers, calling the numbers of their land :
" My — number — is — section — township — range
— . K-e-e-p — o-f-f ! " Then, after each call, crack !
goes a rifle, as added warning ; now from one direc-
*7 257,
The Indian Dispossessed
tion, perhaps plainly, and again from another, so far
away that little more than the faint report comes
out of the darkness.
With the rising of the sun comes the wind, and
tlien the heat; higher wind, and more fierce heat.
Everybody is astir. Some start back for Kansas —
the exodus of the unluclcy begins early. Others head
for the land office, farther south, to file their claims,
and many flock to the towns which have sprung up
over night along the railroad. A mushroom town
is a jolly thing to see — and then to get away from.
All through the night freight-wagons and the rail-
road have been bringing merchandise and material
to the town-site, and the stuff is piled everywhere.
Already the lucky winners of town lots have put up
tents, braced against the howling wind, and a few
have begun work on their cheap frame buildings. It
is a busy day in this dust-swept town for the noisy,
unwashed multitude, and Sunday at that. Sunday,
and from an improvised pulpit under the railroad
water-tank, a preacher delivers the first sermon to
a very small but not select audience, while a lively
vaudeville show farther along gives the town its
first suggestion of paint. But carpenters, merchants,
teamsters, and boomers of every description are too
busy with the first business of their town to give
much attention to either.
A tented restaurant springs from the ground ; only
black coffee and biscuit, but the coffee is hot — what
258
Dividing the Spoils
a relief from cold grub and warm water! Business
is rushing, and long arms are reaching over the
crowd in front. Then some one announces, " Lady
coming ! "
A lady! Instantly, respectfully, the crowd makes
a clear way to the counter, and here comes the lady
— Heaven save the name !
A bedraggled, unwashed, sand-biting human crea-
ture like the rest of us, but a female withal ; she may
be the forlorn wife of some boomer, or she may be
the remnant of a trim maiden schoolma'am from
"back East." There is no telling which; twenty-
four hours next to nature have obliterated all dis-
tinguishing marks. She shuffles up to the booth, gets
her creamless coffee and butterless bun, and shuffles
off again.
But there is chivalry for you, put to the severest
test and not found wanting. Plenty of men in that
crowd who will fight, and shoot if necessary, for
a prize in Uncle Sam's great lottery, but a respect-
able woman is safer there than on many a city
street.
But human nature, and good nature, cannot long
stand under these strenuous conditions, and now the
exodus is on in earnest. Even the winners are ill-
prepared to live in a treeless, waterless country from
which nothing can be gathered for a year. Back to
civilization the boomers wearily march, on horseback,
on foot, in wagons, — and the prairie schooners again,
259
The Indian Dispossessed
with their stoves, and chairs', and babies, and chickens,
— but what a changed lot from the expectant, ex-
cited boomers of a few days ago! Worn out, dirty,
disgusted; suppHes gone, money gone, hope gone,
and cursing their luck. Many corner stores, if the
orators succeed in getting " back home," are going
to hear caustic lectures on the mistakes of the
Government.
So this motley crowd of disappointed boomers
works its passage back to loway, and IWinoiay, and
to all the other ways which had known them before
the great fever to get something for nothing took
possession of their senses. Some — good sports,
good losers — laugh at their own folly, and thank
Heaven for returning sanity. Others stare into the
face of ruin — they had burned their bridges be-
hind them, and are stranded, perhaps with families,
in a strange land. And the families? The stran-
gers' corner in many a Kansas cemetery can show
little mounds — and sometimes larger ones — made
in September, 1893.
And what was it all about? Did they want land
to cultivate, land on which to establish homes?
Not one in ten, for not one in ten of the winners
made homes of their winnings more than long enough
to get their patents and sell out.
It was the value in this land above the Govern-
ment price — the value which the Indian had given
up in his bargain with the Great Father — that
260
Dividing the Spoils
brought these adventurers from all parts of the
country. It was the wild chance to come in for a
share of their Government's spoils that aroused them
to a gambling pitch.
Deluded fools! They furnished a boom for the
new country, and left millions of their good dollars
in the land of the Vociferous Few who had engi-
neered the whole scheme. Easy victims!
A grotesque method, this, for settling the public
domain. But the opening of the Cherokee Strip was
an object-lesson in governmental rectitude com-
pared with the latest developed scheme for dividing
the spoils in the Indian country. Not until the
year 1904 did the Vociferous Few demonstrate to
what length a half-dozen men can safely go, with
the aid of a willing Congress, in the gentle art of
buncoing the Indian and hoodwinking the public.
261
UNCLE SAM, TRUSTEE.
" By the President of the United States of America : A Proclama-
tion : Whereas, by an agreement between the Sioux tribe of Indians
on the Rosebud reservation, in the State of South Daltota, on the one
part, and James McLaughlin, a United States Indian inspector, on the
other part, amended and ratified by act of Congress approved April 23,
1904 (Public No. 148), the said Indian tribe ceded, conveyed, trans-
ferred, relinquished, and surrendered, forever and absolutely, without
any reservation whatsoever, expressed or implied, unto the United
States of America all their claim, title, and interest of every kind
and character in and to the unallotted lands embraced in the follow-
ing-described tract of country now in the State of South Dakota, to
wit. . . ."
THE public is thus informed of the manner
in which a portion of the Rosebud Indian
reservation was added to the pubhc do-
main. The proclamation then proceeds to explain
in detail the method of opening these lands to
public entry under the general provisions of the
homestead law.
It is proposed to show —
That the above statement intentionally conceals the
truth, and misleads the public into the belief that
the act of Congress taking these Indian lands was
in accordance with an agreement with the Indians.
That no agreement with the Indians existed bear-
ing the faintest resemblance to the provisions of this
act.
262
Spotted Tail and SguAW
(1877)
Uncle Sam, Trustee
That by this act Congress took over the Indian
lands on terms of its own, which were never sub-
mitted to the Indians for their approval.
That Congress alleged an agreement with the In-
dians as a basis for the act when no such agree-
ment existed, for the studied purpose of covering
up the confiscation of nearly one million dollars of
Indian land value.
To prove the truth of these accusations one need
not go beyond the range of facts easily accessible,
but their serious nature compels a discussion of this
one event in the affairs of the Rosebud Indians,
to the exclusion of a more general history of the
tribe.
As a premise it will be sufficient to say that the
Rosebud Sioux, numbering about five thousand, oc-
cupy a large reservation in the southeast corner of the
original great Sioux reservation. For a considerable
distance its eastern boundary is — or was, until the
act of 1904 moved it westward — the Missouri River;
Nebraska lies on the south, the Pine Ridge reser-
vation joins it on the west, and to the northward is
the great cattle range country of South Dakota.
It was to the Rosebud country that the great
Sioux Chief Spotted Tail led his dissatisfied people,
when, in 1878, he evacuated the Ponca homes so
kindly placed at his disposal by the Government.
For the accommodation of Spotted Tail the Rose-
bud agency was established, and a large portion of
263
The Indian Dispossessed
these Indians to-day are the old followers of Spotted
Tail, or their descendants.
By far the greater part of the Rosebud reserve
lies within the area of insufficient rainfall, and is
good only for grazing. The increase in altitude is
rapid as one goes westward from the Missouri River,
up the great slope that leads to the Black Hills, and
then to the Rocky Mountains beyond. But in the
vicinity of the Missouri River are large sections of
exceedingly fertile agricultural lands; in fact, the
only strictly agricultural lands on the whole reserve
lie at its eastern end. Naturally, then, the eastern
end became of especial interest to the land speculators.
In respect to cessions of land the Sioux nation
has sustained a relation to the Government differing
greatly from that of other Indian tribes, by virtue
of an iron-clad article in their fundamental treaty
of 1868, known as the treaty of Fort Laramie:
" Article XII. No treaty for the cession of any
portion or part of the reservation herein described
which may be held in common shall be of any valid-
ity or force as against the said Indians unless exe-
cuted and signed by at least three-fourths of all the
adult male Indians occupying and interested in the
same. . . ."
There is a directness of intent in this article not
often found in Indian treaties. No treaties are made
with Indians which are not for cessions of land;
consequently, instead of representing the consent of
264
Uncle Sam, Trustee
a few favored chiefs, every treaty or agreement since
1868 with any of the numerous Sioux tribes has
been compelled to exhibit the signatures of three-
fourths of the adult males concerned. If one won-
ders how an Indian treaty happened to contain a
provision so sweeping, so certain in its meaning, and
wholly without the usual convenient loophole, " at
the discretion of the President," or some other au-
thority vested in the party of the first part, — a
trick that has let the force out of nearly every In-
dian treaty, — he should remember that in 1868 the
Sioux nation could muster as many warriors as the
whole United States army was able to send against
them; the settlements of the great Northwest, the
Union Pacific railroad, — then building, — and at
times even the army itself, were at the mercy of
such powerful chiefs as Spotted Tail, and Red
Cloud, made desperate by what they regarded as
the invasion of their country, and the extinction of
their game. The treaty of Fort Laramie was no
one-party affair; but even under the stern neces-
sity of securing protection for the frontier and the
cessation of hostilities, it is to be doubted whether
this covenant would have found a place in the treaty
without some undermining provision attached, had
its lasting import been fully realized.
Coming at once to the events directly concerned
in this discussion, in the summer of 1901 United
States Indian Inspector James McLaughlin negoti-
265
The Indian Dispossessed
ated an agreement with the Rosebud Indians for
the purchase of 416,000 acres at the eastern end of
their reservation. This tract included the entire
frontage on the Missouri River, and practically all
of the agricultural land on the reservation. Nearly
one-half of the tract, however, consisted of strictly
grazing land, worth but little more for stock-raising
purposes than the western portion of the reserve left
to the Indians, except that it was nearer to the river
and to transportation facilities.
The price was fixed at two dollars and a half per
acre, or one million and forty thousand dollars ; nearly
half of the sum was to be paid to the Indians, in
money and live-stock, upon ratification of the
agreement, the remainder to follow in four annual
cash installments.
The agreement was signed according to the treaty
of 1868 by 1 03 1 Indians, that number, as the agent
certifies, " being twelve more than three-fourths of
the male adult Indians of the Rosebud reservation."
Although, according to a subsequent report of no
less an authority than the Honorable Commissioner
himself, "when the agreement of September 14,
1901, was being concluded, the Indians argued with
great persistency that their lands were worth more
than two dollars and a half per acre, and they were
almost unanimous in declaring that they were well
worth five dollars per acre," it is not the intention
to question here the methods used to obtain the
266
Uncle Sam, Trustee
agreement, but to accept it as bona Ude. The farm-
ing land was, of course, worth several times two
dollars and a half per acre, but the grazing land
would, in 19DI, have scarcely sold for one dollar
and a half.
This agreement was to be binding upon the In-
dians " when accepted and ratified by the Congress
of the United States." A bill embodying its pro-
visions was presented at the next session of Con-
gress, but it was not passed; in the vernacular of
Washington the bill was " killed " somewhere among
the committees. The agreement, consequently, was
not accepted nor ratified. The explanation current
at that time for the failure of the scheme was that
it was then inexpedient to ask Congress for the large
appropriation required to pay for the land.
Beginning with 1901 a most remarkable wave of
land speculation swept over the West like a tre-
mendous thunder-shower, leaving a rain of gold in
its path. The storm seemed to centre first in South
Dakota, and like most storms in the Northwest it
moved northward. After delighting the hearts and
filling the pocket-books of the North Dakotans, it
finally spent itself in the Canadian Northwest. Land
values in South Dakota were doubled, then trebled;
in many instances they were quadrupled within two
years. At no time, curiously enough, even in the
height of the buying, was there any considerable
immigration of permanent settlers; the buyers were
267
The Indian Dispossessed
mainly wealthy farmers and country bankers from
Iowa and adjacent States, augmented by a consid-
erable force of chronic speculators from everywhere.
Not in a dozen years had so much land been sold
as in the two years of this speculative boom. It was
a natural reaction from the long period of land de-
pression which followed the disastrous western mort-
gage business of the eighties, and as a net result
of the general shaking-up, South Dakota found her-
self in 1903 with normal, steady land values averag-
ing throughout the State somewhat mbre than double
those which prevailed prior to the welcome raid of
the speculator.
This kaleidoscopic change in the land situation
served to intensify, as may be imagined, the sin-
cere sorrow of the South Dakota delegation in Con-
gress over the loss of a good bargain with the
Indians. But it is in the philosophy of the profes-
sional land-grabber that " while there 's an Indian
there 's hope " ; pressure was again brought to bear
upon the Department of the Interior, and in the
summer of 1903 Inspector McLaughlin was again
on the Rosebud reservation, endeavoring to obtain
a renewal of the old agreement, modified, however,
in one important particular, so as to avoid the neces-
sity of asking Congress for any considerable ap-
propriation. Instead of the Government buying the
entire tract outright at two dollars and a half per
acre, as previously proposed, the Indians were asked
268
Uncle Sam, Trustee
to let the Government, as trustee, open the lands for
white settlement at the same flat price of two dollars
and a half, pay the Indians the money only as col-
lected from the settlers, and guarantee neither the
sale of all of the tract, nor the payments.
Here was a tract of land representing extremes
of value; rich agricultural land, worth five dollars,
ten, and some even twenty-five dollars per acre, on
the one hand ; on the other, grazing land hardly sal-
able at two dollars. The Indians failed to see why
they should let the choice of their land go at the
average price for the whole, and be left with the
poorest on their hands. The reasonableness of their
position is apparent; a merchant having a stock of
cloths, part silks, the rest <;ottons, might fairly name
a flat price per yard for the entire stock of both
silks and cottons; but were he, in a fit of mental
aberration, to open his store to the retail trade at
that same flat price per yard, first come first served,
the public would end the day with rare bargains ip
silks, and the merchant — with a stock of cottons.
Moreover, the Indians refused to renew the former
agreement to sell the entire tract at the two dollars
and a half rate; a syndicate of capitalists had re-
cently offered the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
five dollars per acre for the same tract, and to this
figure they persistently clung.
Thus the scheme failed. The Indians had the
temerity to demand from the Government the same
269
The Indian Dispossessed
price offered by a speculating syndicate, and the de-
vice intended to capture the good land for a song,
without taking the poor, failed to entrap the Indians.
Viewed from the professional boomer's standpoint,
there is nothing to be gained by opening lands to
public settlement at somewhere near its value; it is
not the land, but the z'aliic above its selling price,
that is depended upon to bring a rush of prize-seekers
into a new country. The greater the value to be
given away, the more deluded fools with money will
struggle with each other for the few prizes, and t;he
greater the resulting boom.
The South Dakota statesmen were sad. Inspired
by the good old saw, " if at first you don't succeed,"
they had tried again — and failed again. But there
is in the philosophy of the sanguine land-grabber
another bit of cheer, equally inspiring — " if again
you don't succeed, try Congress."
In Washington, " far from the madding Indians,"
the schemers then gathered together and drafted a bill
after their own liking for taking over the Indian
lands. Here is their beneficent proposition :
The Indians were to " cede, surrender, grant, and
convey to the United States all their claim, right,
title, and interest " to the 416,000 acres, excepting
the allotments to individual Indians.
Next, " The United States stipulates and agrees
to pay for sections sixteen and thirty-six, or an
equivalent of two sections in each township, two
270
Uncle Sam, Trustee
dollars and fifty cents per acre," and to deliver it
to the State of South Dakota for school purposes.
These sections — two in every thirty-six — were all
that the Government was to pay for.
All the remaining land — some 382,000 acres —
" shall be opened to settlement and entry by procla-
mation of the President," the price to be, " upon
all land entered or filed upon within three months
after the same shall be opened for settlement and
entry, four dollars per acre,^ to be paid as follows:
one dollar per acre when entry is made; seventy-
five cents per acre within two years after entry;"
and seventy-five cents each year thereafter until paid
for. This delivered to the land-grabbers the entire
body of agricultural land, worth four, ten, fifteen,
and in some instances twenty-five dollars, at the bar-
gain-store price of four dollars, and on terms so easy
as to suit the most vociferous.
Then, as to the lands below the four-dollar mark
— comprising about one-half of the entire tract —
" Upon all land entered or filed upon after the ex-
piration of three months and within six months after
the same shall be opened for settlement and entry,
three dollars per acre," with the same dollar paid
down, and fifty cents annually after two years. Of
course, very little land not taken at four dollars
would go for three dollars: this provision was a
1 In the original draft of the bill the maximum price was three dol-
lars; these quotations are from the act as passed by Congress.
27^
The Indian Dispossessed
mere pretentious showing of a sliding scale of prices,
designed to cover the main attack on the left-over
lands.
This final steal was a clever piece of work. The
value of these grazing lands was not much below
two dollars and a half per acre, even under the
handicap of the homestead law, which required a
nominal residence of at least fourteen months upon
the land; another wave of speculation, or a couple
of good cattle years, would double, perhaps treble,
their value — and such a turn in the market might
come at any time.
So, in anticipation of the happy day, the plotters
decreed that all land left over from the first two
sales was to remain open to homestead entry at two
dollars and a half per acre for a period of three
and one-half years more ; and finally, any land " re-
maining undisposed of at the expiration of four
years from the taking effect of this act, shall be
sold and disposed of for cash, under rules and regu-
lations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the
Interior."
Thus, if the grazing lands should advance to five
dollars, the Indians would get two dollars and a
half; if prices should remain stationary, or decline,
the lands were to be sold for whatever they would
bring. The land-grabbers were to take the gain in
values, and the Indians the loss.
And the last words of this precious act carefully
272
Uncle Sam, Trustee
explain that Uncle Sam does not " guarantee to find
purchasers for said lands, or any portion thereof, it
being the intention of this act that the United States
shall act as trustee for said Indians to dispose of
said lands and to expend and pay over the proceeds
received from the sale thereof only as received, as
herein provided."
Three separate peculations were developed in this
scheme :
First, the Big Steal — the confiscation of every
dollar of Indian value above the four-dollar-per-acre
mark.
Second, the Long Steal — the four-year open game
of " heads I win, tails you lose," for the grazing
lands.
Third, the Little Steal — the taking by the Govern-
ment of some twenty-three thousand acres at two
dollars and a half — exactly half the price offered
by the syndicate.
Thus the Rosebud bill was drafted. To give it
any measure of reputable standing, the endorsement
of three-fourths of the male Indians was absolutely
essential; but their endorsement was out of the
question.
One other way was open to the conspirators, —
that was to take advantage of a recent decision of
the Supreme Court, abrogate the time-honored Sioux
treaty, and take the land without the Indian consent.
On January 5, 1903, the Supreme Court of the
18 273
The Indiaa Dispossessed
United States, in deciding the Lone Wolf case, de-
clared that " The power exists [in Congress] to
abrogate the provisions of an Indian treaty." This
sweeping declaration was attended by many sug-
gestions of limitation, of caution, and of the grave
responsibility laid upon Congress to exercise this
trust with due regard for the national honor:
" Presumably such power will be exercised only
when circumstances arise which will not only justify
the Government in disregarding the stipulations of
the treaty, but may demand, in the interest of the
Government and the Indians themselves, that it
should do so." And again, " In a contingency such
power might be availed of from considerations of
governmental policy, particularly if consistent with
perfect good faith toward the Indians."
Still again the decision bears upon Congress its
moral responsibility:
" We must presume that Congress acted in perfect
good faith in the dealings with the Indians, . . . and
that the legislative branch of the Government exer-
cised its best judgment in the premises."
In this decision the Supreme Court virtually pro-
nounced the death sentence upon the Indian's treaty
rights, with the supplication — " And may Congress
have mercy on his soul ! " as though it feared the
worst.
Indian treaties since the beginning have never been
deserving of the name of " treaties " ; nearly every
274
Uncle Sam, Trustee
stipulation in the Indians' favor has been provisional,
ambiguous, or directly subject to the discretion of
the Government. " Articles of Guardianship " would
have been a better name for the fairer ones, and
" Sharp Bargains " for the majority. Though pro-
fessing to be treaties, at no time have they had the
standing of treaties made with the most insignificant
of outside nations — and in the very nature of things
such recognition was impossible. Yet for one hun-
dred years the United States hypocritically bargained
with the aborigines under the guise of treating with
competent nations. The name " treaty " was aban-
doned in 1 87 1, although the business has since been
continued under the name of "agreements."
The appalling feature of this radical decision of
the Supreme Court lies, not in proclaiming the hol-
lowness of these treaty farces, but in the naming
of the Indian's guardian — Congress, the amiable
Pontius Pilate of the Indian race, always ready to
yield to the clamor of the Faithful ! It is impossible
to estimate the disasters that may come to the In-
dian as a result of this decision. The Indians'
friends have welcomed with one accord the break-
ing up of the reservation system, the allotment of
lands in severalty, and the curtailment of rations —
but with these steps in advance comes the necessity
for the sale of the surplus Indian lands. At this
critical time, when the proper establishment of the
Indian in his new relation as an individual de-
27s
The Indian Dispossessed
mands that his small remaining patrimony be most
conscientiously realized upon, he is deprived of all
voice in his own affairs and the disposal of his land
goes into the general stock-in-trade of that great
political trading-post, Congress.
But over this doubtful course through the con-
gressional clearing-house the South Dakota states-
men hesitated to send the Rosebud bill. There was
nothing in it to " justify the Government in disre-
garding the stipulations of the treaty " ; the interest
of the Indians was not considered; it was wholly
" mconsistent with perfect good faith toward the
Indians."
Nothing but an unadorned display of its arbitrary
power to " abrogate the provisions of an Indian
treaty " would enable Congress to pass this bill. It
might as well be labelled, " An act to confiscate all
value in the Rosebud lands above four dollars per
acre, and deliver it to the Faithful." That would
have been an honest title, and the power exists in
Congress to pass just that kind of a bill.
The land schemers discarded the open course as
too dangerous. Nothing remained but to railroad
the bill through under color of the Fort Laramie
treaty. In the absence of an agreement with the
Indians, it became necessary to allege an agreement,
so the discarded agreement of 1901 was resurrected
and attached to the bill.
It was a plain agreement to sell the entire tract
276
Uncle Sam, Trustee
outright to the Government at two dollars and a
half per acre; it bore not even a family resemblance
to the provisions of the proposed bill; it had been
once presented and refused in Congress, and later
repudiated by the Indians; land values had more
than doubled in the two years which had elapsed;
but what of it?
" An agreement with the Indians " — that so dis-
armed general suspicion, both in and outside of
Congress, that the Indians' friends protested almost
in vain when the bill appeared in January, 1904.
Reuben Quick Bear, President of the Rosebud
Indian Council, appealed to the Indian Rights
Association :
" If ever we needed help we need it now, and
badly. ... A real estate man recently went over
it and told a friend of mine that he would gladly
give $10 an acre for the whole tract, and could
raise the money in three weeks. Over a year ago
a syndicate offered the Commissioner $5 per acre
for the whole tract, and land around here has since
doubled in value. We only ask $5 per acre. . . .
" Ask that three men be appointed to value the
land — one to be appointed by the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, one by the Indians, and these two
to select a third, as was done when the Omaha
reservation was valued years ago. If this proposal
is entertained the South Dakota delegation will at
once consent to $5 per acre, as they well know that
277
The Indian Dispossessed
any half-way fair valuation would be far more than
that. . . ."
But the South Dakota delegation did not propose
to have daylight let into their scheme by three im-
partial appraisers.
Newspaper articles appeared, scoring the bill in
language picturesque. A periodical of the highest
authority on current affairs came out with a broad-
side against the bill, denounced both the scheme
itself and its " agreement " disguise, and strongly
urged a competitive sale of the lands under home-
stead restrictions as the only sane, honorable method
of realizing for the Indians the full value of their
surplus lands. But land everywhere is offered at
competitive sale; boomers do not rush in to spend
money for land offered at its value.
Congress was not without official information and
advice during its deliberations. The Honorable Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs, in reporting the bill to
Congress, had this to say:
"When the agreement of September 14, 1901,
was being concluded, the Indians argued with great
persistency that their lands were worth more than
$2.50 per acre, and they were almost unanimous in
declaring that they were well worth $5 per acre. . . .
In fact one offer was made by parties to take all the
lands covered by the cession at the rate of $5 per
acre. . . .
" The Indians cannot see . . . why they should
278
Uncle Sam, Trustee
not procure such price for the lands as settlers are
willing to pay for them. The Indians in their talks
have shown themselves to be not unreasonable in
their demands, but simply persisted in demanding
what they believed to be just and proper. . . ."
Whatever may have been the shortcomings of
Indian Commissioners in years past, the Indian
office during the last few years has been adminis-
tered by sincere friends of the Indian. There is
nothing in the Indian situation more gratifying than
this, at a time when the last of the Indian's patri-
mony is absolutely at the disposal of Congress.
But the efforts of the Indian Rights Association
and the plain statement of the Commissioner served
only to raise the maximum price, originally three
dollars, to four dollars per acre. Nothing but a
thoroughly aroused public opinion can move Con-
gress, and public opinion could not be aroused in
the face of " an agreement with the Indians."
Then, with the declaration, " That the said agree-
ment be, and the same hereby is, accepted, ratified,
and confirmed as herein amended and niodHied, as
follows : " — the Rosebud bill became a law in
April, 1904, as though an agreement between two
parties, changed out of all resemblance to its origi-
nal self by one of the parties without the consent of
the other, were entitled to the name " agreement " !
Thus ends the first act in the Rosebud land scandal.
The second has to do with the division of the spoils.
279
The Indian Dispossessed
The Rosebud bill provides, " That the lands ceded
to the United States under said agreement . . . shall
be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation
of the President, which proclamation shall prescribe
the manner in which these lands may be settled
upon," etc., but at the prices and terms set down
in the act.
Never before had such acute conditions been
confronted at a distribution of public land. The
Rosebud tract bordered upon well-settled, prosper-
ous farming country; adjacent railroads and cities
furnished the necessary elements for a most pro-
digious boom; immense value above the four-dollar
price was to be given away; and, with it all, the
West was land-crazy. The usual " rush at the crack
of a gun " was out of the question. The stakes were
too high. Frenzied boomers would tear each other
to pieces.
A very different scheme was adopted for the dis-
tribution of the Rosebud lands. Instead of the fierce
rush at a given signal, the choice of lands was to
be determined by a lottery drawing. This system
was first devised in 1901 for the opening of a
somewhat remote tract of Indian land in the Indian
Territory, but it lent itself well to the purposes of
the Rosebud opening. The President's proclamation
fully sets forth the plan:
" Each applicant who shows himself duly quali-
fied will be registered and given a nontransferable
280
Uncle Sam, Trustee
certificate to that effect, which will entitle him to
go upon and examine the lands to be opened
hereunder. ...
" The order in which, during the first sixty days
following the opening, the registered applicants will
be permitted to make homestead entry of the lands
opened hereunder, will be determined by a draw-
ing. . . . Preparatory to this drawing the registra-
tion officers will, at the time of registering each
applicant who shows himself duly qualified, make
out a card, which must be signed by the applicant,
and giving such a description of the applicant as will
enable the local land officers to thereafter identify
him. This card will be subsequently sealed in a
separate envelope which will bear no other distin-
guishing label or mark than such as may be neces-
sary to show that it is to go into the drawing.
These envelopes will be carefully preserved, and re-
main sealed until opened in the course of the draw-
ing herein provided. When the registration is com-
pleted, all of these sealed envelopes will be brought
together at the place of drawing and turned over
to the committee in charge of the drawing, who, in
such manner as in their judgment will be attended
with entire fairness and equality of opportunity, shall
proceed to draw out and open the separate envel-
opes and to give to each inclosed card a number in
the order in which the envelope containing the same
is drawn."
281
The Indian Dispossessed
Then the hicky thousand or so first out of the box
were to choose their prizes in the order of their
numbers.
And the rest ? Merely blanks.
The distribution of public lands under the time-
honored homestead law was thus resolved into a
game of chance, from which every element of re-
ward for personal achievement had been eliminated,
— a simon pure lottery, with the price of admis-
sion a trip to the land office. As a lottery, its ab-
solute fairness was vouched for by the Government;
but the Government is on record as unequivocally
opposed to lotteries of all kinds. The spectacle of
Uncle Sam treading upon his own toes is, of course,
paradoxical, but these parallel quotations are sig-
nificant in view of the wide circulation of the Presi-
dent's proclamation through the mails:
From the President's From the U. S. Postal
Proclamation : Laws :
" Each applicant will be " No letter, postal card,
notified of his number, and or circular concerning any
of the day upon which he lottery, so-called gift concert,
must make his entry, by a or other similar enterprise
postal card mailed to him at offering prizes dependent upon
the address given by him at lot or chance, and no list of
the time of registration." the drawings at any lottery or
similar scheme . . . shall
be carried in the mail."
282
Uncle Sam, Trustee
" The result of each day's " Nor shall any newspaper,
drawing will also be given to circular, pamphlet, or publi-
the press to be published as cation of any kind . . .
a matter of news." containing any list of prizes
awarded at the drawings of
any such lottery or gift enter-
prise, whether said list is of
any part or of all of the
drawing, be carried in the
mail."
Possibly there is some technical evasion of liability
under the law; but who will say that the spirit of
the law was not violated? The United States postal
laws, and the several State laws directed against
games of chance, do not presume fraud; they aim
to protect the people from the demoralization that
comes from tempting offers of opportunity to get
something at less than its value, — something for
nothing.
The effect on the people of this " circular . . .
offering prizes dependent upon lot or chance " can
be readily guessed. Relieved of apprehension as to
life and limb, guaranteed " fairness and equality
of opportunity " in a simple game of chance where
the turn of a card meant hundreds, or thousands —
or nothing — the gambling spirit was aroused as the
Louisiana lottery never aroused it. By hundreds
from the Eastern States, by thousands from the Cen-
tral West, men flocked into South Dakota to " play
the game " with Uncle Sam. Nearly three weeks
283
The Indian Dispossessed
were consumed in registering the multitude of ap-
plicants. Hamlets of a few hundred became tem-
porary cities of ten thousand. Gambling breeds
gambling, and professional gamblers from all parts
of the country catered to the absorbing passion of
the day. " Never in the palmy days of Deadwood
was gambling more rife," writes one correspondent;
" just about every game ever invented, with the
single exception of policy, can be found in one or
more of the public resorts." The carnival of
crookedness led to open defiance of the authorities,
but the better element among the boomers, after a
pitched battle with the crooks, finally succeeded in
checking the lawlessness. The casualties of both
sides covering the whole summer campaign in the
Rosebud country were between twenty and forty,
including both killed and wounded. Twice during
the excitement formal demand was made on the
Governor for State troops, but the Governor seems
to have wisely concluded to let the motley crowd
" fight it out."
After the registration came the drawing.
There were twenty-four hundred homesteads in the
entire Rosebud tract. Of these, a thousand were
prizes well above the four-dollar mark.
For a chance to draw these one thousand prizes,
106,296 individuals had registered their applications.
The game stood one hundred to one against the
players.
284
Uncle Sam, Trustee
Remote as was the chance of drawing a lucky
number, never was a gambHng game conducted more
fairly and squarely than this one. Every move in
the grand final event was religiously referred to
Mistress Chance. First, boxes containing one thou-
sand each of the 106,296 envelopes were numbered,
and the order in which they should be emptied into
the one big drawing-box was determined by lot. On
the theory of " first in, last out," this preliminary
event narrowed the probable winners down to the
last few thousand cards deposited in the big recep-
tacle. Then, from among eight boys named by the
drawing committee, four were chosen by lot to draw
the numbers in turn from the box. Again the boys'
names went into the hat, and a third drawing de-
termined the order in which the four lads were to
draw the envelopes.
Finally, Boy Number One, all ready to draw Prize
Number One, was photographed beside the precious
box while the expectant throng held its breath.
Prize number one — the best one hundred and
sixty acres on the Rosebud — perhaps next to a
townsite — or a vantage point on the Missouri —
wherever the winner might choose to locate hi^
little fortune — fell to a clerk in the United States
Treasury Department at Washington. And the first
one hundred winners fared nearly as well. About
twelve hundred entries were made at the four-dollar-
per-acre rate.
285
The Indian Dispossessed
But the losers? One hundred and five thousand
of them. This tells of only one:
" One old man stood near the edge of the plat-
form, looking with anxious interest at the drawing.
Clerk John McPhaul, who was in charge of the
Bonesteel office, whose heart is as kind as a woman's,
saw the old man and beckoned him to come to the
stage and offered him a chair. But the old man was
too interested to take a chair. All during the three
days' drawing he hovered just over the chairs of
the clerks who were taking the names of the lucky
drawers. On the second day he was at his post
when the drawing commenced, his old, weather-
beaten face tense with anxiety. The third day
found him still at his post, anxious, but still hope-
ful. That he was expecting to draw a claim be-
came noised around, and every one was hopeful that
the old man would be lucky. When the last num-
ber was drawn and his name had not appeared the
old man looked about in a dazed sort of way and
shuffled off the platform. His shoulders were bent
and it was easy to see that he had suffered a deep
disappointment. That old man was probably a type
of thousands who were scattered throughout the
country."
And the rake-off? One hundred thousand pil-
grimages to the promised land, at an average of
twenty dollars each — two million dollars of expense
money left with the South Dakotans; this is more
286
Uncle Sam, Trustee
than twice the sum that will be paid to the Indians
for the lands taken; more visitors, and more visi-
tors' money, than South Dakota had seen in ten
years. Did it pay? Of course it paid. What
would a sane, competitive sale at fair value have
been, compared to this?
Who furnished the prizes? The Rosebud Indians,
— the erstwhile followers of the powerful Spotted
Tail. In 1877 we saw the Poncas driven by Con-
gress into worse than Siberian exile that it might
reward Spotted Tail for his valiant services in se-
curing peace with the Black Hills Sioux. Now we
see the dwindling remnant of Spotted Tail's people
robbed by Congress that it may pay its political debt
to the stalwart South Dakota delegation.
And the Steal? The entries made at both the
four-dollar and the three-dollar rates will yield, if
all entrymen pay in full, about $850,000; but after
the first excitement, many will never make the second
payment. What the Indians will eventually get for
the remaining lands is problematical, — the four-year
game of " heads I win, tails you lose " is now on for
the grazing land. Taken as a whole, a guaranteed
return of one million dollars for the tract would have
been a better sale for the Indians; they could have
sold for two million dollars. The steal? Approxi-
mately one million dollars.
287
CONCLUSION
HERE is the spectacle : a government founded
on the principle of equal rights to all men,
securing to its own citizens equality of op-
portunity and fair play, while it persistently denies
both to the Indian. The people earnestly desire jus-
tice for the Indian — of this there is no question.
Congress is made up of the people's representatives,
and Congress, ignoring the general sentiment, has
from 1789 to 1904 persistently, steadily borne down
upon the Indian in the interest of the few in the
Indian country.
Curiously enough, each individual writer of Indian
history sees the short cut to reform through an ap-
peal to the American people.
Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, who gave the best
part of his life to the Indian cause, declared, after
recounting the acts of broken faith which led up to
the great Sioux massacre of 1863, " I submit to
every man the question whether the time has not
come for a nation to hear the cry of wrong, if not
for the sake of the heathen, for the sake of the
memory of our friends whose bones are bleaching
on our prairies." This bookful of wrongs, and
volumes more, have been perpetrated since.
288
Little Crow, Leader of Sioux in the Minnesota Massacre
(1863)
Conclusion
More than twenty years ago Helen Hunt Jackson
closed the preface of her " Century of Dishonor "
thus : " It is a shame which the American nation
ought not to lie under, for the American people, as
a people, are not unjust. If there be one thing which
they believe in more than any other, and mean that
every man on this continent shall have, it is fair
play. And as soon as they fairly understand how
cruelly it has been denied to the Indian, they will
rise up and demand it for him." And the century
of dishonor has lengthened by another quarter.
Col. Richard I. Dodge, after thirty-three years on
the plains as Indian fighter, displays in his " A Liv-
ing Issue " this same confiding hope : " It is too much
to expect any one of these [politicians] to risk the
loss of votes and thus jeopardize his future career
for a miserable savage. Politicians will do nothing
unless forced to it by the great, brave, honest, human
heart of the American people. To that I appeal!
To the press; to the pulpit; to every voter in the
land; to every lover of mankind. For the honor
of our common country; for the sake of suffering
humanity; force your representatives to meet this
issue."
This was written more than twenty years ago.
What is the matter with " the great, brave, honest,
human heart of the American people " ? Nothing.
But a " government of the people " has not much to
boast of if, when so constituted, it fails to be a
19 289
The Indian Dispossessed
" government by the people." This persistent mis-
carriage of good intentions leads to the inquiry
whether the Government really does represent the
people.
It is the ideal of statesmanship that statesmen de-
termine questions of national policy on broad lines
of national expediency, without undue regard for the
more narrow desires of their respective constituents;
but it is enough to expect of the average represen-
tative that on all questions his views will be more
or less colored by the interests of those to whom he
looks for support. Assuming that each member of
Congress is indebted for his office directly to the
people, and not to other combined interests (but
what an assumption!), there is no menace to the
public welfare in this narrower statesmanship; the
resultant of their legislative efforts will be along
• the line of greatest good to the greatest number.
But the main business of Congress — or, rather,
of congressmen — is not the determination of na-
tional issues. The final measure of a congressman's
political usefulness is his ability to secure a fair share
of governmental favors for his district, and for his
political supporters. Harbor and river improvements,
fortifications, dry docks, arsenals, federal buildings,
irrigation plants, and ten thousand and one desirable
federal offices, — all these are within the gift of
Congress, and every congressman has a right to in-
dulge the hope that, with reasonable endeavor on
290
Conclusion
his part, these favors will be dealt out to him in fair
proportion to his political representation. In gen-
eral, each section has its own particular desires, and
is scarcely interested in the ambitions of its neigh-
bors except as they affect its own ambitions. The
seaboard town urging the betterment of its harbor
is indifferent to the construction of jetties in the
Missouri, while a dry dock appeals to the western
member charged with securing an irrigation appro-
priation merely as having an unpleasantly suggestive
name.
It is no more than natural that from these con- '
ditions there should have developed in Congress an/
elaborate system for the exchange of support in thel
business of securing these local favors; in view ofl
the expectations of his constituents, it is not onlyl
natural, but necessary, that a congressman, even a\
conscientious congressman, study the distribution of 1
his influence as much with reference to the returns
it will bring in exchange as to the merits of the
schemes to which he lends it. Even in this business
— and it is strictly business, not statesmanship —
there need be no menace to the national honor; to
gain strategic advantage for one good cause by skil-
fully advancing other good causes, is good business.
But the descent from the ideals of statesmanship
to the realm of hand-to-hand business is a descent
from the forum of public discussion to intrigue and
private agreement. In this lies the danger. A not •
291 /
The Indian Dispossessed
too close scrutiny of the projects to which he gives
his approval brings to the congressman a greater
measure of support; in turn, if his supporters are
equally accommodating, his own demands for gov-
ernmental favors may safely assume questionable
proportions. Every tendency within the system is
reactively downward; constituencies, knowing little
of methods, are quick to recognize success; and it
is the natural tendency that only " successful " men
are returned to Congress. With the strengthening
of this class comes increased opportunity under the
peculiar methods of the trading system.
Now, among these numerous favors at the disposal
of Congress place the American Indian.
" But," you say, " harbors, and dry docks, and
federal patronage are material things, reasonably to
be trafficked in ; with the Indian and his affairs you
introduce the human element, — you place the wel-
fare of human beings on a level with mere chattels
in the political market."
That is just where the Indian has been for one
hundred and twenty-five years, — a valuable asset in
the general stock, to be manipulated and exchanged
with as little regard for the human interests involved
as though his lands and all things material to his
welfare were no more than harbors and dry docks.
A western district covets the best portion of an In-
dian reserve; the way to the Indian land lies through
Congress, and the business is placed with the dis-
292
Conclusion
trict's representatives. The support of delegations
from other Indian reserve districts comes as a mat-
ter of course, — they may in turn be called upon
to perform a like service for their constituencies.
Together, they are an influence in Congress which
can determine the success or failure of a dozen other
projects — and they are intent upon advancing only
this one. What, then, is easier than to convince the
ardent seekers after river improvements, and public
buildings, that their scheme is one of sheer philan-
thropy for the Indian ? A few " gentlemen's agree-
ments," judiciously placed, and the business is done.
Why should the whole villainy of it be charged
to the western member? Could a scheme such as
the Rosebud bill, exposed as it was to every member
of the Senate and House of Representatives, have
passed the honest scrutiny of members who could
have had no possible selfish interest in the bill?
In the midst of the general barter, is it in human
nature that the western member should not bring
his influence into the market-place, and offer it for
his one desire?
Under this system the Indian, although ostensibly
giving up his substance to his western neighbor, has
indirectly been an unwilling subscriber to the thou-
sand and one benefits distributed by Congress to the
people the country over. There is in this a reason
for the almost inexplicable persistence of the one
dishonor that has run the whole length of the na-
293
The Indian Dispossessed
tional life. Under the very system of government
which is supposed to secure to all men an active
participation in its benefits, the Indian's vital inter-
ests — establishment upon good land, with protec-
tion and equality of opportunity during his long
endeavor to adopt the new civilization — are hope-
lessly entangled with the merely sordid, commercial
side of national legislation. In all the conglomerate
mass that makes up the nation, he is the only human
factor without representation by vote; he has no
political asset with which to gain consideration for
himself from a government which apportions its
consideration according to representation.
Thirty years ago a Commissioner of Indian Affairs
delivered himself of a fervent opinion which should
become classic. The miserable story of the California
Indians had dragged itself through twenty-five years ;
every measure of relief had been blocked in Congress
by the interested few, — the Vociferous Few in the
Indian country. " This class of Indians," concludes
the Commissioner, " seems forcibly to illustrate the
truth that no man has a place or a fair chance to
exist under the Government of the United States
who has not a part in it." A more illuminating
commentary on the Indian's unhappy status in the
land of the Free can hardly be written in one sen-
tence. The Indian's story does not argue that the
Indian should have been at any time given the pro-
tection of the franchise; but it does argue that in
294
Red Cloud, the Old-time Warrior
(Totally blind, 1903)
Conclusion
a loose-jointed republic where national legislation is
at the beck and call of every little coterie of irre-
sponsible voters, the Indian has been subjected to
more devilish variations of human caprice than if
he were at the mercy of an openly oppressive, but
more consistent and centralized style of government.
There is no despotism more whimsically cruel than
that of men unused to power, who suddenly find
themselves in absolute control of a people whose one
vital interest — an advantageous foothold on good
land — is in continual conflict with their own chief
desire, — the possession of that same good land.
It is a boast of the American people that no fla-
grant wrong can long persist against an opposing
public opinion; that the remedy is with the people,
and the people will apply it. Now, although grounded
as this Indian iniquity has always been on the very
principles of " government by the people " which
place the remedy in the people's hands, why has
public opinion, so often aroused, failed to dislodge it?
Suppose the representative of a particularly vir-
tuous district in New England were to take a de-
termined stand against some unjust Indian legislation,
not only threatening its success, but disturbing, pos-
sibly, other projects before Congress dependent upon
a general exchange of support. And suppose the
overwhelming majority in Congress which recognizes
the expediency of the trading system were to punish
this obstreperous member by sending him back to
295
The Indian Dispossessed
his constituents witiiout the benefits and patronage
to which he is fairly entitled. His constituents may
vigorously applaud his action in the Indian matter,
but will they recognize it as balancing his failure
to secure the new post-office building which they
had a right to expect? If they do, will the memory
of the righteous act endure until the next election
day against the continual, daily want of the material
thing? And even if the voters' sentiment carries
them to this unusual length, will the political man-
agers, the office seekers, who really sent him to Con-
gress to get something, and to whom he is primarily
accountable, permit his name to again appear on the
ballot?
The answer to these questions is safely a negative
one. Behold, then, the wide distribution of respon-
sibility for this melancholy Indian business! Con-
sidering its intimate connection with the material,
commercial favors which come to all the people
through their Congress, is its persistence so inex-
plicable as it might seem? And did ever an ini-
quity more subtly fasten itself upon the very shoulders
of a people intent on promoting virtue!
No wonder it persists. And under the same con-
ditions any other evil which appeals to the selfish
interest of the few can persist, because it indirectly
'promotes the selfish interests of the many. That
which can be done in Congress by an irresponsible
community can be done by any other irresponsible
296
Conclusion
combination with the requisite showing of poHtical
influence. What better can a people expect of legis-
lators whom it virtually holds to the business of
legislation by private agreement, than that they will
also make private agreements on their own individ-
ual accounts ? Congressmen have only to maintain a
reasonable showing of returns to their constituents
from the system of legislative barter, to effectually
kill the kind of public sentiment that lacks the in-
spiration of some selfish interest. In effect, the
people are without representation in Congress as
regards their moral convictions.
The Indian iniquity, and these other evils, will
persist as long as the irresponsible community stands
equally with other communities in the ease with
which it can secure legislative enactments, restrained
only by such vag^e moral considerations as may in
Congress survive the exigencies of the trading sys-
tem. They will persist until the people are willing
to give up some of their freedom in order that a
few may not be too free; until there is toleration
for a central authority which shall restrain the irre-
sponsible community, as the communities themselves
restrain the irresponsible individual.
There is no quick remedy in an appeal to the
people. The remedy must go deep into grounded
notions of what constitutes freedom and what really
is government by the people; then it may reach that
institution of perverted functions. Congress.
297
The Indian Dispossessed
The prime requisite for the advancement of the
pubHc good is to instil in the public mind a deep,
persistent distrust of the National Congress. Only
by stirring to the depths can there come lasting
good.
298
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