The work has been about as follows: At Skokomish there were about two
hundred Indians, including a boarding-school of about twenty-five
children. Services were held every Sabbath morning for them in Indian.
The Sabbath-school was kept up, immediately following the morning
service. English services were held once or twice a month, on Sabbath
evening, for the white families resident at the agency and the
school-children. On Thursday evening a prayer-meeting was held
regularly. It was in English, as very few of the non-English-speaking
Indians lived near enough to attend an evening service, had they been so
inclined. Various other meetings were held, adapted to the capacities
and localities of the people: as prayer-meetings for school-boys, those
for school-girls, and those at the different logging-camps.
Thirty miles north of Skokomish is Seabeck, where about thirty Indians
live, most of whom gain a living by working in the saw-mill there. For
several years I preached to the whites at this place, about eight times
a year, and when there, also held a service with the Indians.
Twenty miles farther north is Port Gamble, one of the largest saw-mill
towns on the sound. Near it were about a hundred Clallam Indians, most
of whom became Catholics, but who have generally received me cordially
when I have visited them two or three times a year. They, however, have
obtained whiskey very easily, and between this and the Catholic
influence comparatively little has been accomplished.
Thirty-five miles farther on is Port Discovery, another saw-mill town,
where thirty or forty Indians have lived, whom I have often called to
see on my journeys; but so much whiskey has been sold near them and to
them, that it has been almost impossible to stop their drinking, and
hence, very difficult to make much permanent religious impression on
them. By death and removal for misconduct, their number has diminished
so that at one time there were only one or two families left. But the
opportunity for work at the mill has been so good that some of a fair
class have returned and bought land and settled down.
Forty miles from Port Gamble, and seventeen from Port Discovery, is
Jamestown, near Dunginess, on the Straits of Fuca. This is the center of
an Indian settlement of about a hundred and forty. Previous to 1873
these Indians were very much addicted to drinking--so much so, that the
white residents near them petitioned to have them removed to the agency,
a punishment they dreaded nearly as much as any other that could be
inflicted on them. The threat of doing this had such an influence that
about fifteen of them combined and bought two hundred acres of land. It
has been laid off into a village; most of the Indians have reformed, and
they have settled down as peaceable, industrious, moral persons. I have
generally visited them once in six months, and they have become the most
advanced of the Clallam tribe. A school has been kept among them, a
church organized, and their progress has been quite interesting--so much
so, that considerable space will be devoted to them in the following
pages.
Once a year I have calculated to go farther: and twenty miles beyond is
Port Angelos, with about thirty nominal Indian residents. But few of
them are settlers, and they are diminishing, only a few families being
left.
Seven miles further west is Elkwa, the home of about seventy Indians. It
was, in years past, the residence of one of the most influential bands
of the Clallam tribe, but they are diminishing, partly from the fact
that there have been but few white families among them from whom they
could obtain work, and, with a few exceptions, they themselves have done
but little about cultivating the soil. As they could easily go across
the straits to Victoria in British Columbia, about twenty miles distant,
where there is little restraint in regard to their procuring whiskey,
because they are American Indians, they have been steadily losing
influence and numbers. Four or five families have homesteaded land, but
as it was impossible for them to procure good land on the beach, they
have gone back some distance and are scattered. Hence they lose the
benefits of church and school. Still the old way of herding together is
broken up, and they obtain more of their living from civilized pursuits.
Thirty-five miles farther is Clallam Bay, the home of about fifty more.
This is the limit of the Indians connected with the Skokomish Agency.
They are about a hundred and fifty miles from it, as we have to travel.
In 1880 they bought a hundred and sixty acres of land on the
water-front, and are slowly following the example of the Jamestown
Indians. This is the nearest station of the tribe to the seal-fisheries
of the north-west coast of the Territory; by far the most lucrative
business, in its season, which the Indians follow.