was no policy of bestowing annuities or subsidies, although gifts were
sometimes made for special reasons.[72] To the student of American
Indian history special interest attaches in this connection to the
judgment of Mr. William Duncan, a man of very great experience, wisdom,
and success in his dealings with Indians. Mr. Duncan wrote as follows
in 1875 from his mission at Metlakahtla: "In no matter affecting the
Indians can the Government do more good or harm than in the matter of
gifts.
"Money may be spent to a large amount upon the Indians and yet tend
only to alienate, dissatisfy, and impoverish them, if wrongly applied;
whereas a small sum rightly administered will yield much good both to
the Indians and the country at large.
"The policy of dealing out gifts to individual Indians I consider
cannot be too strongly deprecated, as it is both degrading and
demoralizing. To treat the Indians as paupers is to perpetuate their
baby-hood and burdensomeness. To treat them as savages, whom we fear
and who must be tamed and kept in good temper by presents, will
perpetuate their barbarism and increase their insolence. I would
therefore strongly urge the Government to set their faces against such
a policy." He recommended, on the positive side, that money be put into
Public Works for the benefit of the Indians. It will thus be seen that
Mr. Duncan held substantially the same views with regard to annuities
as did the Agents and superintendents south of the Line, whose
well-conceived ideas were nullified by the officials and contractors in
the East.[73]
As has before been remarked, the Colony of British Columbia made no
special effort for the education of the Indians. It was averred on
the part of the Government that "the Government merely deferred the
subject, believing that it was far more important in the interests of
the community at large to first reclaim the Natives from their savage
state and teach them the practical and rudimentary lessons of civilized
life."[74] Beyond establishing reserves, however, and placing the
Indians under law, one fails to see how the Government directly tried
to teach them these "practical and rudimentary lessons." Certainly
there was no effort by the Government to teach the Indians agriculture
or any of the practical arts, as there was south of the Line.
There were other ways, however, in which the Colonial Government did
help the Indians at considerable expense. In surveying reserves, and in
keeping whites off of them; in the suppression of the liquor traffic;
in exemptions from tolls, taxes, and customs; and in direct pecuniary
aid for the destitute and the sick, the aggregate expenditures and
rebates were considerable. Moreover, the Magistrates in the several
Districts were to act as Indian Agents, and to advise and protect the
Indian "in all matters relating to their welfare."[75]
We arrive now, finally, at the very important subject of reserves.
These Indian reserves of British Columbia are to be clearly
distinguished from the Indian reservations of the United States. The
latter were very large in area, were assigned to a tribe or to a
number of tribes, were founded on the principle of sequestration from
the whites, and were under the oversight of an agent; the reserves of
British Columbia were small, were assigned to septs or families, were
often contiguous to white settlements, and had no special agents. In
size the reserves of British Columbia varied in all degrees from one
acre to six thousand acres.[76] The total area of surveyed reserves
amounted in 1871 to 28,437 acres.[77] The general principle on which
reserves were assigned was that each head of a family should be given
ten acres, but in practice there was considerable variation.[78] It
seems strange to one accustomed to American reservations, that a
reserve of six hundred square miles for a tribe of 400 members should
have been regarded as entirely too extensive to be allowed.[79]
The principle of assigning land in so small amounts, on what we may
call a village system, may have been adopted with special reference
to conditions of life among the Coast Indians or among those of the
lower Fraser, for whose use (since they made their living by fishing
or working for whites) a small parcel of land was sufficient but for
the pastoral Indians of the interior it seemed manifestly insufficient.
So long as there was plenty of range, the smallness of the reserves
was not felt, but when whites acquired title to vacant lands and, at
the same time, the wants of the Indians increased, the latter felt
themselves unjustly treated.[80] When British Columbia entered the
Confederation, the Dominion Government wanted the Indians to have
eighty acres for each head of family. This the Province refused, but
it did consent to grant twenty. This amount still being considered
insufficient for the Interior Indians by the Dominion Superintendent of
Indian Affairs for British Columbia, he requested that it be raised to
forty acres (in accordance with the principle then recognized in the
preemption laws of British Columbia, which allowed 160 acres west of
the Cascades, but 320 east); but the request was not granted.[81]
In addition to their reserves, however, the Indians of British Columbia
had the right to acquire land outside the reserves on the same terms
as white men,--a right not possessed at that time by their kindred to
the South. This right was clearly stated by Governor Douglas: "That
measure," he said (referring to the reserve system) "is not, however,
intended to interfere with the private rights of individuals of the
future Tribes, or to incapacitate them, as such, from holding land;
on the contrary, they have precisely the same rights of acquiring
and possessing land in their individual capacity, either by purchase
or by occupation under the Pre-emption Law, as other classes of Her
Majesty's Subjects; provided they in all respects comply with the legal
conditions of tenure by which land is held in this Colony."[82] This
right, however, was afterwards modified to the extent that preemption
could be exercised by an Indian only by special consent of the
Government.[83] So late as 1872 an Indian received special permission
to pre-empt one hundred acres.
As to which system, that of British Columbia or that of the United
States, on the whole was the better, is a question difficult, if not
impossible to decide; and it would certainly involve extensive research
in the period subsequent to that of our study and beyond its scope.
W. J. TRIMBLE.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Davenport, T. W. Recollections of an Indian Agent. Quar Or. His.
Soc., Vol. VIII, No. 4, Dec. 1907, p. 352.
[2] Mullan--Report on Military Road, p. 52
[3] Id., p. 79.
[4] Id., p. 52.
[5] Con. His. Soc. Mont., Vol. VI, p. 284.
[6] Rpt. Com. Indian Affairs, 1863, p. 442.
[7] Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways, Vol. I, pp. 250 & 318.
[8] Recollections of an Indian Agent. Or. His. Quar. Vol. VIII, No. 1,
March, 1907, p. 389.
[9] The Pioneer Reminiscences of George Collier Robbins, Pacific
Monthly, Vol. 26, No. 2, Aug., 1911, pp. 288-9.
[10] An Incident of this nature is related in Hailey, History of Idaho,
p. 58.
[11] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quart. Or. His. Soc. Vol. VIII,
No. 4, Dec., 1907, p. 360.
[12] The Montana Post. Feb. 4, 1865
[13] Journals of the Council and House of Representatives of Idaho
Territory, 4th session, 1866-7, pp. 343-4.
[14] For different views of one expedition, contrast the account of the
expedition led by Jeff Standifer in Hailey's Idaho, pp. 49-60, with
that in the Pioneer Reminiscences of George Collier Robbins. Pacific
Monthly, Vol. 26, No. 2, Aug., 1911, pp. 198-9.
[15] General Conner's men marched several days in extremely cold
weather, in order to catch and surprise these Indians. Of the soldiers
in this expedition 15 were killed, 53 wounded, and 75 more or less
seriously frozen. An account may be found in Langford, Vigilante Days
and Ways, pp. 337-354.
[16] The Idaho World, Feb. 24, 1866.
[17] Owyhee Avalanche, Dec. 16, 1865.
[18] Id., Nov. 11, 1865.
[19] The Idaho World, Jan. 27, 1866.
[20] The Canadian Pacific Railway has a special plan for providing
for such settlers, by itself building houses and breaking land. It is
a well-known fact in Western Canada that new emigrants from the old
country find it much more difficult to get a start than do Americans
or people from Eastern Canada. This fact was recently called to my
attention, on a visit to Alberta, by an English farmer of several
years' experience.
[21] I am indebted for a number of the ideas and facts expressed in
this paragraph to Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His.
Soc., Vol. VIII, No. 1, March, 1907, pp. 12-18.
[22] Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 1861, p. 160.
[23] Id., 1862, p. 419.
[24] Id., 1863, p. 52.
[25] Id., 1861, p. 160.
[26] Report Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1860, pp. 173-761.
[27] Rpt. Com. Ind. Affairs, 1862, p. 397.
[28] The Weekly Oregonian. Sept. 7, 1861.
[29] San Francisco Daily Bulletin, July 24, 1862.
[30] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Oregon His. Soc., Vol.
VIII, No. 2, June, 1907, p. 108.
[31] Report of Henry A. Webster. Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1862, p. 407.
[32] T. W. Davenport. Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His.
Soc., Vol. VIII. No. 2, June, 1907, p. 108.
[33] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1863, p. 459.
[34] San Francisco Daily Bulletin, Jan. 28, 1864.
[35] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1860, p. 185.
[36] Rpt. Com. Ind. Affairs, 1861, p. 159.
[37] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1862, pp. 400-401.
[38] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII,
No. I, March 1907, p. 14. {See transcriber notes}
[39] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Ore. His. Soc., Vol.
VIII., No. 1, March, 1907, p. 14.
[40] Id., p. 7.
[41] 36 Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Doc. I, p. 802.
[42] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII,
No 1, March, 1907, pp. 18-19.
[43] Id. No. 2, June, 1907, p. 105.
[44] Cf. on these points Id. No. I, pp. 4 & 5.
[45] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1860, p. 184; 1862, p. 263; 1863, pp. 52, 65,
82-84, 449-451, and 473; 1864, pp. 73-4, 85.
[46] British Columbia Papers Connected with the Indian Land Question,
Report of I. U. Powell concerning the Songish reserve, pp. 121-2.
[47] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1861, p. 77.
[48] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or., His. Soc., Vol.
VIII., No. 2, June. 1907, pp. 127-8.
[49] San Francisco Daily Bulletin. July 24, 1862.
[50] 36 Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 11, No. 2, p. 108.
[51] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar., Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII.
No. 4, Dec., 1907, p. 355.
[52] It should be carefully noted that this statement of policy has no
reference to the Canadian policy. The two are clearly distinguishable.
[53] Statements of numbers of population in both sections may be found
in Documents relating to Vancouver's Island Laid Before the House of
Commons, 1849, pp. 9 & 10, and Report from the Select Committee on
the Hudson's Bay Company, 1857, pp. 366-7. Some information as to the
grouping of natives in British Columbia may be obtained from Tolmie
and Dawson--Comparative Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes of British
Columbia.
[54] These conveyances are found in Papers Connected With the Indian
Land Question, pp. 5-11. A clause common to all papers was the
following: "The condition of or understanding of this sale is this,
that our village sites and enclosed fields are to be kept for our
own use, for the use of our children, and for those who may follow
after us; and the land shall be properly surveyed hereafter. It is
understood, however, that the land itself, with these small exceptions,
becomes the entire property of the white people forever; it is also
understood that we are at liberty to hunt over the unoccupied lands,
and to carry on our fisheries as formerly."
It was claimed by Hon. Joseph W. Trutch that these transactions were
merely "made for the purpose of securing friendly relations between
those Indians and the settlement of Victoria, * * * and certainly not
in acknowledgement of any general title of the Indians to the lands
they occupy." Id., Ap, p. 11.
[55] Sir E. B. Lytton to Governor Douglas, July 31, 1858, and Sept. 2,
1858,--Papers relating to Indian Land Question, p. 12: Carnarvon to
Governor Douglas, April 11 and May 20, 1859, Id., p. 18.
[56] Id., pp. 12-14.
[57] Id., p. 20.
[58] Memorandum, 1870, of Joseph W. Trutch, Commissioner of Lands
and Works, Id., ap. pp. 10-13. Cf. also The Indian Land Question in
British Columbia, a lecture delivered April 22nd, 1910, in Vancouver
by Rev. Arthur E. O'Meara, B. A., p. 13. This lecture is in opposition
to the policy which has been pursued. The Roman Catholic missionaries,
as well as some clergymen of other denominations, have been
actively sympathetic with the Indian point of view sometimes to the
embarrassment of officials; Papers Relating to Indian Land Question,
pp. 27-8, 86-91, 145-148.
[59] Id., pp. 16 and 17.
[60] This principle was acted upon, also, with regard to burial
grounds. In the establishment of the reserve system, as, indeed, in
all dealings with the Indians, the officials of British Columbia were
more considerate of the prejudices and attachments of the Indians than
officials in the United States usually were. An interesting example of
this consideration was an "Ordinance to prevent the violation of Indian
graves." This ordinance decreed that anyone damaging or removing any
image, bones, or any article or thing deposited in, on, or near any
Indian grave in the Colony, would be liable to a fine of £100 for the
first offense, and twelve months imprisonment at hard labor for the
second. In any indictment "It shall be sufficient to state that such
grave, image, bones, article or thing is the property of the Crown."
Ordinances of the Legislative Council of British Columbia, Sess.
Jan.-April, 1865, No. 19.
[61] Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, pp. 16 and 17.
[62] Oct. 11. 1858: Papers Regarding British Columbia, I, 39.
[63] Douglas to Mortimer Robertson Miscellaneous Letters, Ms., I, p. 37.
[64] Papers Relating to the Indian Land Question, p. 4.
[65] Miscl. Letters, Ms. I, 37.
[66] The old Police Book is the more trustworthy, because it was
not intended as a report, nor for publication. The officials whose
judgments were recorded were Chief Justice Begbie and Mr. O'Reilly.
[67] Some Indians were tried and convicted for murder in 1861, in the
Wasco County (Oregon) Circuit Court; Oregonian, Oct. 12, 1861.
[68] Two renegade Umatilla Indians on one occasion attempted to rob
a sleeping miner. He awoke, and in a scuffle one of them shot and
wounded him. These Indians called at the lodge of Howlish Wampo, a much
respected Cayuse chief, and then disappeared. Colonel Steinburger, in
command at Walla Walla, had the chief arrested, put in chains, and was
dissuaded from executing him only by the earnest solicitations of the
Indian Agent. The two Indians were afterward arrested and, after a
farcical trial by a military commission were executed. The miner had
not died. Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol.
VIII, No. 1, March, 1907, pp. 24-35.
[69] There was a disturbance in 1848 between Indians and miners along
the Fraser, before Government was established. Miners volunteered and
organized in true American fashion and compelled peace.
[70] Government Gazette, May 28, 1864, and Jan. 14, 1865.
[71] When Bolon, Indian Agent of the Yakimas, was murdered in 1855, the
Olympia Pioneer and Democrat said: "Chastisement can now be visited
upon the tribes instead of going to the trouble of ferreting out
individual guilty members." Oct. 12, 1855.
[72] In the Budget of 1864, out of a total of £135,639, there was
specified for gifts to Indian chiefs, £200, (Government Gazette, Feb.
20, 1864); out of a total appropriation of £122,250 in 1869, £100 was
appropriated for Indian expenses. (Papers Relating to the Indian Land
Question, p. 98.)
[73] It might have been well for the enthusiastic Eastern
philanthropists, who were so zealous in inveighing against wrongs
perpetrated by Westerners upon the Indians, to have directed some of
their efforts to their own neighbors.
[74] Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, Ap., p. 4.
[75] Id., p. 4.
[76] Schedule of Indian Reserves in the Province of British Columbia;
Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, pp. 104-5.
[77] Report of the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, Id., p. 103.
[78] Id., p. 137.
[79] Id., p. 33.
[80] On this phase consult letter of Rev. Father Grandidier from
Okanogan, Id., pp. 145-147.
[81] Id., p. 124.
[82] Government Gazette, Jan. 30, 1864.
[83] Papers Relating to the Indian Land Question, Ap., p. 4.
DOCUMENTS
The prominence given to the name of the Indian Chief Leschi in the City
of Seattle is sufficient to lend an interest to the following record
of a meeting of pioneers in Pierce County. It was copied from the
Pioneer and Democrat of Friday, January 29, 1858, by Harry B. McElroy
of Olympia. Mr. McElroy has a fine series of old territorial newspapers.
Indignation Meeting
The citizens of Pierce County, W. T., after returning from witnessing
the disgraceful transaction enacted at Fort Steilacoom, the place
appointed for the execution of the murderer Leschi, on the 22nd
January, 1858, assembled at the church in Steilacoom City.
Mr. O. P. Meeker was called to the chair, and N. W. Orr was chosen
Secretary.
The chairman then stated the object of the meeting.
The meeting was addressed by Messrs. Sam McCaw, E. Cady and Henry
Bradley. On motion,
A committee of five were appointed, consisting of A. L. Porter, O. H.
White, W. R. Downey, E. M. Meeker and M. J. West, for the purpose of
drafting resolutions expressing the views of this meeting as regards
the conduct of Sheriff, Geo. Williams, U. S. Commissioner, J. M.
Bachelder, and such of the military officers at the Steilacoom Garrison
as assisted in evading the execution of the law, and likewise the
disgraceful course pursued by Frank Clark.
The committee, after retiring for a short time, reported the following
resolutions which were unanimously adopted.
WHEREAS, at connivance, as we fully believe, of sheriff Williams
and others, an arrest was made of said Williams for the purpose of
preventing the execution of Leschi, who had been tried, convicted of
murder, and sentenced to death, therefore,
RESOLVED, That we, as citizens of Pierce County, denounce the act
as being unworthy of honorable men. That the aiders, abetters and
sympathisers in this high-handed outrage, deserve the unqualified
condemnation of all lovers of good, order, and are no longer entitled
to our confidence.
RESOLVED, That the action of those of the officers of the U. S. A.
at Fort Steilacoom, who have participated, aided and abetted in the
arrest of sheriff Williams at the very hour he was to have executed
Leschi, and, as we believe, solely for the purpose of preventing him
from performing his duty as sheriff, deserve at our hands the severest
condemnation, that we consider it an act unworthy of the officers of
the U. S. Army, it being clearly their duty to assist in enforcing the
law instead of throwing obstacles in the way of its mandates.
RESOLVED, That the action of the U. S. Commissioner, J. M. Bachelder,
in issuing a warrant for the arrest of sheriff Williams, on the
affidavit of an Indian, and, as we believe, with full knowledge of the
object to be effected by the arrest, is without the least shadow of
excuse, and that the interest of the community demands his immediate
removal.
RESOLVED, That we believe that Frank Clark has done all that was in his
power to prevent the execution of the laws, and has been instrumental
in having an affidavit filed, which resulted in the arrest of the
sheriff and his deputy, and we brand the act as being unworthy of a law
abiding citizen of this Territory.
RESOLVED, That the representative of the foreign company in our midst,
W. F. Tolmie, has, by his own officiousness in this matter, rendered
himself more than obnoxious to the citizens of Pierce County, and that
we earnestly desire to see the day when our Country shall be rid of
this incubus on our prosperity.
On motion of A. C. Lowell,
A committee of three was appointed by the Chair, consisting of Henry
Bradley, A. L. Porter and Sam McCaw to circulate the above resolutions
to give such of our citizens as wish, the opportunity to endorse the
same.
On motion of A. C. Lowell, The proceedings [were ordered] published in
the Pioneer and Democrat. On motion the meeting adjourned.
O. P. Meeker, Ch'n
N. W. Orr, Sec.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE STORY OF THE PONY EXPRESS. By Glen D. Bradley. (Chicago, A. C.
McClurg & Co. 1913. Pp. 175. $.75.)
The Pony Express was an incidental enterprise of importance in the
attempts to establish rapid communication between the Missouri River
and the Pacific Coast during the early sixties. Before the middle
of the nineteenth century explorers and traders in the far West had
established three great thoroughfares across the continent. These
were the Santa Fe, the Salt Lake, and the Oregon trails. The Mormon
settlement of Utah and the discovery of gold in California led to
the establishment of mail routes across the country. In spite of
governmental subsidies, the difficulties occasioned by the Indians,
the severe weather, especially in the mountains, irregular highways
and absence of bridges made communication particularly difficult
and uncertain. Railroads and telegraph lines were being pushed east
and west, but had not connected when the Civil War approached, and
with it grave fears lest California be lost to the Union. Rapid
communication was essential and into this gap was pushed the Pony
Express, a thoroughly organized system of riders who carried the
mails on horseback between stations maintained along the route.
For sixteen months the daring men identified with this work with
unsurpassed courage and unflinching endurance kept the two sections
in communication with each other until, in October, 1861, telegraph
wires took the place of flesh and blood as means of communication,
and the Pony Express passed into history, and California was saved to
the Union. The Pony Express failed in a financial way to reimburse
its organizers, but it served the country well and gave another
opportunity for the exercise of "man-defying American pluck and
determination--qualities that have always characterized the winning of
the West." Mr. Bradley's theme has much in it of romance and heroism
and he has lost none of it in the telling.
EDWARD MCMAHON.
* * * * *
THE COMING CANADA. (The World Today Series.) By Joseph King Goodrich.
Sometime Professor in the Imperial Government College, Kyoto. (Chicago,
A. C. McClurg & Co. 1913. Pp. VIII, 309. $1.50 net.)
This book was written not for the specialist in history or political
science, but for the general reader, and should be judged from that
standpoint. It is largely a compilation from satisfactory authorities,
but the author relies upon direct knowledge gained by travel during
the past twenty-five years and he has also received suggestions and
statistics from the various departmental authorities at Ottawa. The
book has no independent historical value, but forms a good guide
for the general reader and is well worth perusal by one who is
contemplating a Canadian tour or desires a bird's view of present
conditions. The range of topics is broad, covering, with the exception
of present party politics and problems of racial and religious
assimilation, all subjects of major interest.