“The plow and the Bible go together in civilizing Indians,” is the
remark of Rev. J. H. Wilbur, who for more than twenty years was one of
the most successful workers among them: but neither Indians nor whites
feel much like clearing land and plowing it unless they feel sure that
the land is theirs.
When the treaty was made in 1855 it was the understanding that whenever
the Indians should settle down on the reservation, adopt civilized
habits, and clear a few acres of land, good titles would be given to
them by the government. With this understanding, not long after Agent
Eells took charge, he had the reservation surveyed and divided, so that
each head of a family whose home was on the reservation should have a
fair portion. He gave them papers, signed by himself, in 1874,
describing the land, with the expectation that the government in a short
time would give them good titles, he having been thus assured by his
superiors in office. Other agents did the same. But new movements by
the government with reference to the Indians are usually very slow, as
they have no votes, and this was no exception. Agent Eells, as well as
others, plead and plead time and again, to have this stipulation in the
treaty fulfilled, but for a long time to no purpose. Often he had no
reply to his letters. People of both political parties put this as a
plank into their platform; those of all religions and no religion; those
who opposed the peace policy as well as those who favored it, signed
petitions to this effect, but in vain. This delay was the source of much
uneasiness to the Indians, more, I think, than any other cause, for men
were not wanting who told them that they would be moved away; there were
plenty of people who coveted their land, and examples were not wanting
of Indians who had been moved from place to place by the government. It
has been the only thing which has ever caused them to talk about war.
Some Indians left the reservation because they feared they would be
moved away. “I am not going to clear land and fence it for the whites to
use,” was what one said and others felt.
When the treaty was made it was believed by the Indians that they
possessed all the land, and that they sold all except the reservation,
to which they supposed they had a good title, at least as good as the
United States had, and white people believed the same; but a decision of
the Supreme Court of the United States in 1873 reversed this idea, and
they learned that they had sold all the land, and that government
graciously allowed them to stay on the reservation according to its
will. In the spring of 1875 they were forbidden to cut a log and sell it
off of the reservation, and found that they had no rights to the land
which the government was bound to respect, but if she wished to remove
them at any time she could do so.
The question came up early in missionary work. The Indians said: “You
profess to be Christians, and you have promised us titles to our land.
If these titles come we will believe your religion to be true, but if
not it will be evidence that you are deceiving us.”
The agent worked nobly for the object, but receiving no reply for a long
time he grew almost discouraged. He could work in only one way, by
writing to his first superior officer, hoping that he would successfully
press the subject upon those more influential.
About this time, in 1878, I determined to see what I could do through
another channel: through the Board of Indian Commissioners, where
missionaries would naturally look. Accordingly, in May, a long letter
was written to the secretary of the American Missionary Association, and
his influence was invoked to work upon the Board. He gladly did so. At
the annual meeting of the Congregational Association of Oregon and
Washington, in June of the same year, I plead strongly for the same
object, whereupon a committee of five of the influential men of the
denomination was appointed, who drafted strong resolutions, which were
passed and sent to the Board of Commissioners. The fact that the Bannack
Indians of Eastern Oregon were then engaged in a war with the whites,
and that they had attempted to induce the Indians of Puget Sound to
assist in it, was an argument used, and of no small weight. I intended
to urge the passage of similar resolutions through the Presbytery of
Puget Sound, and the Methodist Episcopal Conference of Oregon, both of
whom had missions among the Indians, and were asking for similar favors
from the government; but before those bodies met I received a letter
from Hon. D. H. Jerome, of the Board of Commissioners, who had been
appointed a committee by that Board in regard to titles of Indians to
their lands, promising to press the matter upon the department until
titles should be issued, or a good reason given for not doing so, and
requesting a description of the lands for which titles were asked. I
gave the letter to the agent, who had the desired information, and who
quickly gave it. The Board nobly fulfilled its promise, and in March,
1881, certificates of allotment were sent to the Indians. They were not
wholly satisfactory. The title to the land still remained in the United
States. They said that each Indian is entitled to take possession of his
land, “and the United States guarantees such possession, and will hold
the title thereto in trust for the exclusive use and benefit of himself
and his heirs so long as such occupancy shall continue.” It prohibited
them from selling the land to any one except other members of the same
tribe.
These certificates, however, proved to be better than was at first
feared. It was decided that under them the Indians had a right to sell
the timber from the land. The Indians were satisfied that they would not
be removed, and were quieted.
Efforts are still being made to obtain the patents, and with
considerable hope of success, as they have been granted to Indians on
three other reservations on Puget Sound through the efforts of Agent
Eells, but owing to various causes they have not been obtained as yet
for the Skokomish Indians.
The Clallam Indians have bought their land or taken it by homestead, and
so have not had the same difficulty in regard to titles. One incident,
however, occurred which was rather discouraging. Four of the Clallam Bay
Indians, in 1879, determined to secure, if possible, the land on which
their houses stood. They were sent to the clerk of the Probate Court,
who knew nothing about the land, but told them that it belonged to the
government, and offered to get it for the usual fee, nineteen dollars
each. They paid him the seventy-six dollars, and he promised to send it
to the land-office and have their papers for them in two weeks. They
waited the two weeks but no papers came. In the meantime they learned
that the man was not to be trusted, although he could lawfully attend to
the business, and that the land had been owned by private individuals
for fifteen years. He, too, on writing to the land-office, found the
same to be true. But the difficulty was to get the money back. This man
was an inveterate gambler, and the evidence was quite plain that he had
gambled the money off very soon after he received it. I saw him soon
afterward, and he told me that it had been stolen, that he would soon
get it, and the like. One Indian spent three weeks, and two others two
weeks each, in trying to recover it, but failed to do so. Then the agent
took it into court, but through an unjust ruling of the judge, or a
catch in the law, he was neither compelled to pay it nor punished for
his deed. The Indians received about the amount they lost, as witness
fees and mileage for their attendance on court. Yet that man, at that
time, was also postmaster, United States commissioner, and deputy
sheriff, and had offered fifty dollars to the county treasurer, to be
appointed his deputy.
This was a strange contrast to the action of the Indians. I felt very
sorry for them. For four years we had been advising them to obtain land,
and they were swindled in their first attempt. When I saw them, before
the case was taken to the court, I was fearful lest they should become
discouraged, and offered them ten dollars, saying, “If you never get
your money, I will lose this with you: but if you do obtain it, you can
then repay me.” One tenth of my income has long been given to the Lord,
and I felt that thus much would do as much good here as anywhere. When I
first mentioned this to them, they refused to take it, saying that they
did not wish me to lose my money, if they did theirs; but two weeks
later, when I left the last one of them, he reluctantly took it.