Logging, farming in a small way, and work as day-laborers, have been the
chief means of civilized labor among the men on the reservation. A large
share of their land is first-class, rich bottom land, though all was
covered originally with timber. It had been surveyed, assigned to the
different heads of families, and certificates of allotment from the
government issued to them. Nearly all of them have from one to ten acres
cleared, most of which is in hay.
Still when there has been a market for logs at the neighboring
saw-mills, they have preferred that work, not because there is more
money in it, for actually there is less, but because they get the money
quicker. It comes when the logs are sold, generally within three months
after they begin a boom. But in regard to their land, they must work
some time after they begin to clear it, before it is done; then a year
or two longer, before they can obtain much of a crop of hay from it.
Hence it has been up-hill work to induce most of them to do much work
at clearing land. For several years before their annuities ceased, in
1881, the government made a rule that no able-bodied man should receive
any annuities until he had performed labor on his land equal in value to
the amount he should receive. From the example of the few adjoining
settlers, some are beginning to see that farming is more profitable than
logging. The largest share of good timber on the reservation has been
taken off during the past twenty years, so that now a number have bought
timber off the reservation for logging. They own their own teams, keep
their own time-books, and at present attend to all their own business in
connection with these camps. In one respect they differ from white
folks--in their mode of conducting the business. Instead of one or two
men owning every thing, hiring the men, paying all expenses, and taking
all the profits, they combine together and unitedly share the profits or
losses. When the boom is sold, and all necessary expenses which have
been incurred are paid, they divide the money among themselves according
to the amount of work each has done. A few have tried to carry on camps
as white people do, but have always failed.
Very few now pursue the old avocations of fishing and hunting, except
the old ones. Nearly all the able-bodied men work at some civilized
pursuit. Take a ride over the reservation on almost any pleasant day,
and nearly all the men will be found to be busy at something.
In the winter, however, it is different. They have very little work for
rainy days, and so there is more temptation to gamble and tamahnous.
“Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”
The women have less temptation than the men in winter. When they have no
outdoor work, or it is stormy, they can sew, do housework, make mats and
baskets, and all, even the very old ones, are commonly busy at some of
these things. Some of them are good washerwomen and some are cooks in
the logging-camps. They are by no means so near in a state of slavery as
some Indian women in the interior, but are treated with considerable
propriety by their husbands.
A few of the young men, after having been in school for a time, have
been apprenticed to the trades of carpenter, blacksmith, and farmer, and
have done so fairly, that they were employed by the government after the
white employees were discharged.
The Clallams have done very little logging or farming. A number have
obtained land at Port Discovery, Jamestown, Elkwa, and Clallam Bay, but
only a little of it is first-class land, and they have used it for
gardens and as a place for a permanent home, so that they should not be
driven from one place to another, more than for farming. At Seabeck,
Port Gamble, Port Townsend, and Port Discovery, they work quite
constantly in the saw-mills; at Jamestown, for the surrounding farmers;
at Port Angeles, Elkwa, and Clallam Bay, more of them hunt and fish than
elsewhere. A number earn considerable money taking freight and
passengers in their canoes. The obtaining of dog-fish oil is something
of a business, as logging-camps use a large amount of it. In September
there is employment at the Puyallup and surrounding region, about ninety
miles from Skokomish, in picking hops. Hop-raising has grown to be a
large business among the whites, and Indians have been preferred for
picking the hops, thousands of whom flock there every year for the
purpose, from every part of the Sound, and even from British Columbia
and the Yakama country. Old people, women, and children do as well at
this as able-bodied men. It has not, however, always been a healthy
place for their morals, as on Sundays and evenings gambling, betting,
and horse-racing have been largely carried on. At one time “The Devil’s
Playground,” in the Puyallup Valley was noted as the place where Indians
and low whites gathered on the Sabbath for horse-racing and gambling,
but it became such a nuisance to the hop-growers, as well as to the
agents, that they combined and closed it.
A part of the Clallams earn considerable money by sealing, off the
north-west coast of the Territory, a very profitable business generally
from January to May. In 1883 the taxes of those Clallams who live in
Clallam County were $168.30.