The Indians of the great Northwest, are today of many diversified and
small bands, chief among which are the Crows, Utes, Nez Perces, Paiutes,
Northern Cheyennes, Blackfeet, and Yakimas, and various Columbia River
bands. Linguistically they are Athapascan, Salishan and Shoshonean
stocks with remnants of other stocks along the Pacific coast.
Practically all of them live on reservations. As in the case of the
other tribes described in this volume, the children have been educated,
allotments have been granted to most of the individuals, irrigation
schemes either projected or carried into effect, timber sold, or
Government sawmills established, and the entire life of the Indians
changed. The narrative, therefore, must be along historical and
philanthropic lines rather than ethnologic. True, up to about 1880 many
of these Indians lived in their original condition, and particularly is
this true of the Paiute and Modoc bands located far from the established
routes of travel. The Indians of the Northwest came in contact with the
trappers and gold-hunters flocking to the new country made familiar by
the Lewis and Clark expedition. As an inevitable result, a number of
wars occurred in which all of the Indians were more or less engaged. The
most noted of these was the Nez Perce war of 1877, in which Chief Joseph
led his Indians on a magnificent retreat through the mountains for
upwards of 1100 miles to nearly the Canadian border. The story of our
broken faith with the Nez Perces is set forth in many documents and by
General Howard himself in his book, “Chief Joseph. His Pursuit and
Capture.”
Following the Nez Perce war, in 1878, the Bannock Indians, a numerous
division of the Shoshonean stock, were so harassed by white people that
they went upon the warpath. A number of settlers and soldiers were
killed, and in September, 1878, the outbreak came to an end after the
military had killed all the women and children in a village of twenty
lodges.
In 1870 the Modocs in southeastern Oregon had obtained a very unsavory
reputation. This was due to their resenting the encroachments of the
Whites. Many settlers, and also friendly Indians, were killed during
various encounters. The trouble culminated in the famous siege of the
lava beds, on the California frontier between Oregon and California.
Here the Indians located in an almost impregnable stronghold and
withstood the attacks of troops from January to April, 1873. Some Peace
Commissioners, headed by General Camby, were sent to treat with the
Indians and these were treacherously murdered. After hard fighting the
stronghold was taken and five of the leaders captured and hanged. Like
other Northwest tribes (except larger bands) the Modocs have so dwindled
in numbers that they now cease to be a factor in Indian life. The
northern Cheyennes now located on a reservation at Lame Deer, Montana,
have long been known as a fighting people. Two generations ago the
Cheyennes were much in evidence with the Sioux and other tribes in an
attempt to prevent the usurpation of their hunting grounds and grazing
lands on the part of the Whites. One of the Department Inspectors
recently visited their reservation and under date of September 17th,
writes me as follows:
“I am very busy and am finding conditions here about as bad as they were
at White Earth except that these Indians have not been allotted and are
not losing their land, but they are just as poor and are eating dogs,
horseflesh, prairie dogs, porcupines and skunks. Conditions are
disgraceful but will be properly presented, you may be sure.”
The Crow Indians, an offshoot of the Siouan stock, in Montana, are
numerically the strongest of any of the mountain tribes. They possess a
very large reservation, abundant grazing lands, timber and agricultural
possibilities. However, as in the case of the Cheyennes, they have been
backward in spite of all efforts on the part of the Government to
educate them. The problem on their reservation relates chiefly to the
grazing privilege. The Indians were leasing a vast tract of land to
white men for the pasturing of cattle and horses at so much per head.
The Whites took advantage of the Indians’ ignorance and it was necessary
for the Indian Rights Association to conduct a thorough investigation. I
quote from the Association’s report as to former conditions among the
Crows, and the present improvement.
“The Crow Reservation, in Montana, had for years been controlled by a
small ring of men, who boasted of strong political backing, and they
used it for their private gain at the expense of those Indians, through
the connivance of the Agent, who had formerly been employed in a bank of
which the leader of this ring was the principal stockholder. For three
years the Indian Rights Association sought to have a real investigation
made at that point by the Department, but instead of receiving any
encouragement, its efforts were blocked at every turn. Secretary
Garfield had said to us, ‘bring me facts, and I will investigate them,’
but he refused to give us a formal permit to enable us to go on to the
reservation and get those facts. When our Secretary was sent there for
that purpose, a little later, he was promptly arrested and ordered off
the reservation at his earliest convenience.
“When Commissioner Valentine assumed office, however, he promptly
afforded our Secretary every courtesy and facility that were required to
go unmolested over the reservation; and when the result of a month’s
sifting was brought to his attention, he not only ordered an immediate
investigation, but Mr. Sniffen was requested to be present to represent
the Indians—an invitation that was, of course, accepted.
“On the basis of the information gathered by our Secretary, the chief
Supervisor of the Indian Office conducted an investigation during
October and November, 1909, and his treatment of the Crow Indians was in
decided contrast to their experience with a former Inspector two years
previous, when, without provocation, their main witness was brutally
cursed and ordered from the tent. When the Supervisor’s report was
submitted, however, it proved to be one of ‘confession and avoidance.’
He made it plain, certainly in a number of respects, what some of the
conditions were, but he avoided placing the responsibility where it
belonged—upon the then Superintendent. It was clearly proved that this
Superintendent knowingly and wilfully permitted the violation of a
United States statute by the man he regarded as his real superior, who
was NOT an official of the Government, and that provisions of the
grazing permits had not been respected. In spite of this and more,
however, the Supervisor recommended that the Superintendent be ‘assured
of the confidence of the Indian Office in his integrity, business
ability and moral character.’ A few months later (in 1910), the
Superintendent was forced by pressure to resign, notwithstanding the
‘confidence of the Indian Office in his integrity,’ etc. He was
succeeded by an honest and efficient high-grade man, and conditions on
the reservation have greatly improved. It is significant that the
revenue derived from the grazing privileges under the new management
will amount during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, to $160,000,
whereas under the former Superintendent it was $33,001.27.”
All of these tribes mentioned in this chapter still possess sufficient
property for their maintenance, and some of them a great deal. The
conditions are not intolerable as elsewhere, and most of the educated
Indians have become self-supporting and are successful farmers,
teachers, lumbermen, etc. Along the Columbia river the salmon industry
affords employment to hundreds of men and women, and the vast extent of
orchards and vineyards presents an opportunity for other hundreds of
Indians to earn money picking fruit and hops, harvesting grains and hay,
picking apples, etc.
[Illustration:
GRAIN, VEGETABLES AND FRUITS, BEADWORK AND BASKETS
This Exhibit took several prizes at the State Fair, Spokane, Wash.,
1913
]
One of the richest reservations in point of natural resources is that
inhabited by the Yakima of the same linguistic family as the Nez Perces
(Shahaptian). A gentleman whom I have known for many years, L. V.
McWhorter, Esq., has a ranch adjoining the reservation, and has lived
among these Indians until he has become entirely familiar with the
situation and their needs. The problem in the Northwest, being totally
different from that elsewhere in the United States, I herewith reprint a
number of paragraphs from Mr. McWhorter’s recent pamphlet “The Crime
Against the Yakimas.”
It indicates how that the white people have dispossessed these Indians
and taken advantage of the wonderful agricultural, timber and
water-power resources. There are a number of other places in the United
States where at present similar conditions to that on the Yakima
reservation face the Indians, and this may serve to illustrate other
sections of the country where irrigation schemes on Indian lands are
under consideration.
“The Yakima Indian Reservation, Washington, was created at the Walla
Walla Treaty in 1855, for the Fourteen Confederated Tribes, and covers
approximately 1,000,000 acres of diversified country, including a vast
body of fine desert lands susceptible to irrigation, which last has been
allotted in severalty to the Indians, numbering 3,046 souls. About
42,000 acres of this is under a good system of irrigation, some private
ditches, the canals being paid for by the Indians and by special
appropriations by the Government. Crops are produced on 10,000 acres
additional by sub-irrigation, while perhaps 20,000 acres of the allotted
lands have been purchased by the Whites. This irrigable region, fertile
beyond conception when watered, has long been coveted by the white man.
The first attempt at irrigation on this reservation was in 1859.
“In 1895 the Commercial Club of North Yakima, Wash., petitioned Congress
to sell the surplus lands of the Yakimas, and to open the reservation
for settlement. Two years later Commissioners were sent to negotiate
with the tribe. It was estimated that 200,000 acres of land would
suffice for all allotments, and for the residue the Government offered
$1,400,000, deferred payments to bear four per cent interest. The
Yakimas refused this offer.
* * * * *
“Aside from the Jones Bill, December 21, 1904, which provides for the
opening of the reservation and the sale and settlement of unallotted
tribal lands, the next serious attempt to amputate the Yakimas from
their lands culminated in the notorious Jones Bill, March 6, 1906, which
provides that the irrigable lands of the Reservation be cared for by the
United States Reclamation Service. This bill, with the consent of the
Indian, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to sell sixty acres of
each eighty-acre allotment; the twenty acres retained by the Indian to
be furnished with a water right, to be paid for from the sale of the
sixty acres. After the payment of such water right, ‘the balance, if
any, shall be deposited in the treasury of the United States, to the
credit of the individual Indian, and may be paid to any of them, if, in
the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, such payments will tend to
improve the condition and advance the progress of said Indian, but not
otherwise.’ Under this act the Wapato Project to water about 120,000
acres, was launched. The estimated cost for a water right for the
Indian’s twenty acres, including storage, is $30.00 per acre.”
We have no space for a full discussion of the attempt to rob the
Yakimas. Friends rallied to their support—notably the Indian Rights
Association. McWhorter saw the fruits of his toil ripening, and it now
appears that these Indians will be protected in part, if not entirely.
June 8th, 1912, the Indians themselves sent a long petition to Hon. J.
H. Stephens, Chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs. The
closing paragraphs are characteristically Indian:—
“On Ahtanum River divide of our reservation where white man have most
land, the Secretary of the Interior gives three-fourths of water to
white man. Now, when red man have most land to water, he gives nearly
all water to white man. This was done and we could not help ourselves.
We want only what is right. God wants the white man and the red man to
live in peace. We try hard to do right and obey the white man’s laws. We
want you to help us.
“Our friend in Congress introduced ‘House joint resolution 250’ for
Attorney General to settle our water rights. This is good, but Secretary
Interior hold up this resolution and try to make Jones bill 6693 law, so
Reclamation will own all water and have us flat. We want you to stop
Jones bill and make law the resolution 250. Then Attorney General will
settle all justly. If this is not done we are bringing suit in United
States court to settle our water rights. We want the white man to be
honest and treat us right. Our words are done.
“Our friend, help us. We want to hear from you.
“Your friends,
“(Signed) WE-YAL-LUP WA-YA-CI-KA (his x mark),
“_Chief Judge of the Yakima Tribal Courts_,
“_Clan Chief of the Ahtanum_.
“(Signed) LOUIS MANN,
“_Corresponding Secretary of the [Indian]
Councils_.”
The Utes of Utah and Colorado never have been progressive, though some
of them do work. They require special treatment. A Government employee
remedied conditions among them in August, 1912, and wrote me, giving
sensible advice, as follows:—
“What good does it do to send out circulars on sanitary conditions and
dairying, when some of these Indians are in destitute circumstances? The
poor Utes down at Navaho Springs need something to eat and wear, and
some blankets to keep them warm. They sleep on sheepskins on the floors
of their tipis. They get but little rations. They have been compelled to
sell their ponies and buckskin suits, and beadwork, and Navaho blankets,
to get something to eat for themselves and their children. They have no
allotments, do not farm and have no way to make a dollar.
[Illustration:
INDIAN PACK-TRAIN IN THE MOUNTAINS
Photographed by E. R. Forrest, Washington, Pa.
]
“Here at this reservation I have found that the Indians have been
defrauded in their lands and moneys. They sold their lands under
direction of the Agent, and then the scheme was to get their money away
as soon as possible. It was done through the dishonest Indian trader in
every possible manner. Indians’ checks were drawn, of which the Indian
knew nothing, in favor of some Indian trader for horses, wagons and
other things of which the Indian had no knowledge and which he did not
get. Although the checks are drawn in his name and charged to the
Indian, no credit is given the Indian on the books of the trader. This
is just a sample. One poor Indian who lives at Navaho Springs, had his
allotment of 160 acres sold for $245. This was put on the books to his
credit. Then a check was drawn for a horse and saddle in favor of Mr.
Trader for $165 to pay for same. He never bought same and never had this
horse and saddle. No credit for this check on the Trader’s books. Then
another check was drawn in the sum of $67 against this Indian account,
of which he knows nothing, for a saddle, bridle, and tent. He never
bought or got the bridle, saddle, or tent and knows nothing of the
transaction. He never put his thumb mark to either check. So out of the
little pittance he got for his land, a little more than a dollar an
acre, he has had stolen from him out of that $245, the sum of $232.”
Several correspondents in the Northwest give their opinions on what
should be done, and I submit extracts from their letters.
“The Government, in my judgment, should further strengthen its work in
suppressing the liquor traffic among the Indians. A large appropriation
should be asked for each year, and good, competent men should be
employed to break up the traffic. In my opinion, it is useless to
educate the Indian to grow up and drink himself to death, and if the
United States laws are too little enforced with relation to the liquor
traffic among Indians, it is not because they are not violated, but
because the Government has not yet secured sufficient assistance to see
that the law-violators are punished.”
Correspondent, Pendleton, Oregon
“I have always believed that unallotted Indians who have large grazing
areas on their reservation should be the direct beneficiaries of their
own grazing-lands and have continually urged that a reimbursable
appropriation be made to stock this reservation. It has also occurred to
me that the Indians should be encouraged by the use of large
reimbursable appropriations to stock their allotments with tools and
livestock and I am glad that the above propositions are being actively
pushed as desirable propositions by the present Commissioner of Indian
Affairs.”
Correspondent, Lame Deer, Montana
“In my opinion, the reservation was opened seventy-five years too soon.
With the exception of a few half-breeds, they were absolutely unprepared
for the opening of the reservation. Humanly speaking, they are doomed to
utter annihilation. In dealing with them, we forgot that they were
savages, and that, as it took centuries to polish our own ancestors who
were vastly more intelligent than these redmen, at least one century, or
one century and a half, would be required to make these people
civilized.”
Correspondent, St. Ignatius, Montana
“When I took charge, nothing had been done for them by the Government. I
at once issued agricultural implements, wire, seeds, etc., and organized
each band and devoted the first efforts to agriculture on individual
tracts, but worked all together as a community. By this means we raised
a good crop the first year, in one instance going from almost starvation
to plenty in the short space of four months. Since that time not a
single ration has been issued, and aside from supervisory work and
teaching, which is given by myself and employees, all my Indians are
entirely self-supporting. I am unqualifiedly and absolutely opposed to
all ration and annuity distribution as it has been carried on in our
department. I am insisting upon all my Indians caring for and supporting
their old people, and see that it is done. My method of helping Indians
is to work both day and night to inaugurate methods and give
opportunities to enable them to work out their own salvation.
“I have had an unusual opportunity to work out my own ideas, by reason
of beginning in a virgin field. So far I have been remarkably
successful. However, there is a strange characteristic apparent among
all Indians, that they have apparently no sense of gratitude, and take
everything that is done as a matter of course, and do not seem to have
the faculty of contrasting their situation from year to year and
striking a balance, as it were, to note their material progress.
“I have no suggestions as to reforms, except those directed toward the
Indian himself. In this State he is not discriminated against as in
others. Here he has nothing except his labor to tempt the cupidity of
the Whites. In the past he has been given many opportunities for
improvement through the Mormon Church, and he had the chance to become
just as well off as the majority of the Mormon immigrants who came here
into the desert almost with their bare hands. So the fault, if fault it
is, lies entirely with himself. He had the opportunity to observe and
profit by the example of the poor Whites who started on desert ground
under the same environment and made themselves homes; in addition to
this just as soon as the Mormon Church was able, the authorities
‘called’ some of its members, sent them to each band, not as preaching
missionaries, but as farmers, and gave them tools and oxen and
instructed them how to use them. This was done with every band under my
jurisdiction. As these missionaries were sent without any pay, and were
poor, they had their own families to support, and gradually returned to
the settlements, leaving the Indians to carry on their work themselves.
The Indians simply killed the oxen and kept up their nomadic life to a
great extent, simply holding campgrounds on the water courses where
their water rights have been protected by the church until I took all
the responsibilities over.”
Correspondent, Salt Lake City, Utah
[Illustration:
THE CHALLENGE. NEZ PERCE WARRIOR
Copyright by L. V. McWhorter, who photographed the Indian, and permits
publication.
]
“The immorality of our Indians, in my opinion is largely (probably
seventy-five per cent) due to the presence of low Whites. Had the
Indians been left alone seventy-five years longer; and had they been
allowed to continue the time-honored custom of punishing crimes with the
whip—they would be today easily and surely seventy-five per cent better
men than they are. Here again we forgot that they were savages,
absolutely impervious to really noble feelings, such as honor, and that
it takes time and careful training to raise them to a higher level.
Today, they are incapable of feeling the shame of a prison or
penitentiary. When they come back from either, they are treated as
heroes. Twenty-five years ago, a whipping solemnly, modestly, and
moderately administered to those who had been guilty of thievery,
adultery, fornication, gambling or drunkenness, was producing marvelous
results. Two years ago, a deputation of Kootenay Indians came to beg me
to write in their name to the Great Father (the President) and ask him
to allow again the use of the whip. They said, ‘Tell the Great Father
that our young men and women only laugh at the white punishments; it is
the whip and the whip alone that kept us straight, and the same
punishment alone will correct the generation.’
“Under the present circumstances I believe that the Government has at
heart the welfare of its wards and is protecting them. There is only one
flaw which I desire to bring to your notice. The real wards of the
Government are the full-blood Indians, and they, more than the
mixed-bloods, are entitled to the care of the Government, for many
reasons, easy to understand; now, in point of fact, mostly all of them,
on this reservation, are helpless. They are, if in good health, unable
to understand their real interest, and to work as they should. In
matters of business they are at the mercy of everyone who chooses to
deceive them. But the number of those who are in health is very limited.
The vast majority are old, crippled, blind or otherwise helpless. And
those, I am sorry to say, are practically left unaided. They need food,
raiment, shelter, they should be supported. As it is, they are
practically thrown on the charity of the white people. Though possessed
of lands, they are unable to draw any profit from them. Some
appropriation is made yearly for those; but it is insufficient to
furnish them with food, raiment and shelter. Means should be provided
for that purpose. They are doomed to disappear, and in justice their
last years should be made comfortable. The Government has been
collecting large sums of money from the white settlers; why not dispose
of some of this money liberally for the impotent full-blood Indians who
are left in destitution, instead of spending it in improving the
irrigation of the reservation, which improvement will never benefit the
full-blood Indians who are disappearing, but will turn to the advantage
of the mixed-bloods who have very little right to the land (some of them
none at all) and who, on account of their superior intelligence got the
very best part of the allotments at the time of the opening of the
reservation. The condition of mostly all the full-bloods is pitiful. If
they have leased their lands, it takes them an age to receive their
money, the local Agent having no authority to disburse it, and the
Indian Bureau being very slow in granting it. It seems to me that
provision should be made in favor of destitute Indians to have them
receive monthly some food, and a small sum of money to provide
themselves with clothes, also to have them provided with decent houses
and with fuel when they cannot get it themselves. No one but those who
live on the spot have any idea of the privations which this class of
full-bloods have to submit to, through no fault of theirs. It seems to
me that this evil could easily be remedied. Some people seem to think
that a monthly sum of money, $20, should be paid to each destitute
Indian, with which he could easily provide for his needs; but knowing
them as I do, I would prefer to see them receive only $10 or even $5
with rations, for if they get more money, they will spend it all in the
first days of the month.”[49]
Correspondent, St. Augustins, Montana
-----
Footnote 49:
NOTE—A very interesting book, “Life Among the Pai-utes,” was written
by Sarah Winnemucca in the early ’80’s. This presents an account of
the Nez Perce, Bannock and other wars from the Indian point of view.