OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 99 Mr. MEACIIAM then said : This is four days we have come tog- ether ; we have done nearly all the talking, ami have < 2,' iven you our hearts about the condition of things. We have not decided on anything, and we do not want to decide anything-. We do not want a thing all on one side ; we want you to show some heart too : when you have talked we may see what your heart is, then we will know what other kind of talk to have. Think well what you say, and say nothing but what you have thought over. We will tell you anything you want to know when you ask us for it. We are ready to hear you talk. HOWLISH WAMPO ( chief of the Cayans.) You are all my friends who are sitting here. This is what my heart is. My heart does not feel sad. I feel that you have talked the truth, and talked good. We are like brothers, although I am a red man. We are talking with you white chiefs. You talked with a good heart when you told me that you be-lieved in God. I thought that was good. That is my heart, too, while I stand on this ground. When I came on this reservation, all that Governor Stevens told me, and all that was said at the council, I brought with me to this reservation. I just wanted to show you chiefs what is in my heart. All that was promised me I kept in my heart, and brought with me onto this reservation. This is what was told me : " You ( the three chiefs) are going to live well, to have a house like white men." That is what 1 heard. That is one thing that was promised. Another thing that was promised, when we went on the reservation, that wr e should have a white man for a doctor, a good one ; and we were to have a good blacksmith, a good school- teacher to teach our children, and a man to teach us religion, a good man. And we should have a flour- mill as soon as we got to the reservation, and a good man to show us how to farm, and a good sawyer to attend to the saw- mill. Now I want to show all of you white chiefs that none of these things that were promised to us can we see. And that we were to have a hospital in which to put our sick people for the doctor to attend to them. All of these words I got from chiefs like you; and brought them with me. I will tell yon all that I see on this reservation. I see a small church ; some of my children go to school at the church. And all of us the head chiefs. We do not see any of the houses they promised us. I see a house that was supposed to have been built for me It is about five feet high, made out of round cottonwood logs. It is all rotten and falling down. There is Weuap Snoot's house, down below ; it is as if it had been made for a pig- sty. Horn- IPs house, up the river, is made out of cottonwood logs, and looks like a house fir pigs. There are only two houses besides mine; one belongs to Hom- li, and one to Wenap Snoot. They both look like pigs' houses. I see my real house over there ; it is made out of mats ; that is the one the chief lives in. He was promised a good house with glass windows and doors in it. The reason why I say we have no doctor is, that my people get sick and die off. I can only look at them and see them die ; there is no one to doctor them. When we had as agent, Barnhard, before Mr. Couoyer came, when my people died, a coffin was made for them, and they were put in naked, and had no clothes to cover them. When Baruhard was agent, he had a blacksmith here ; we thought he was here for us, but when an Indian went to have anything fixed he was driven out of the shop. Was that right ? It is the same when an Indian takes a gun to be fixed ; it is taken to the shop, they are told to leave it, and there it stands until it rots, and they do not see it any more. There are some Indians have wag-ons ; when they break them they take them to the shop to have them fixed. They stay there weeks and months, and are never repaired. If a white man comes along with a broken wagon it is repaired at once, they do not have to wait. Yet these very men who repair them are working for us and not for the white man. My friends, I want to tell you how we have been served since we have been on this reservation. When Barnhard was agent I used to see twenty hogs in a pen, fed with wheat that grew on the reservation, and I never knew what became of the hogs. I think he did not take good care of us. Mr. COKBF. TT. Who raised the wheat that was fed to the pigs ? Howus H WAMPO. The men who were working on the reservation, the employe's. After the Indians came on the reservation they worked to bad advantage ; they had no one to teach them to work ; that is what I want to show my friends. It is the way things have been done since we came upon the reservation. That is why some of the Indians say : Yes, we want to try and follow in the white men's ways. I have listened to you. You said we should have a good talk, and a straight one, and I am glad we shall do so. I show you our hearts, and the way we have done since we have been here. You say you will show us a good heart, and I will show you a good heart. I want to show my own heart. I have no bad feelings toward anybody, and I do not want anybody to feel bad at what 1 say. Mr. CONOYER. Houlish Waiiipo forgot to say that there was a mill here ; it would look bad on paper not to say so. HOWLISH WAMPO. I forgot that there is a mill. Mil. MEACIIAM, ( to Houlish Wampo.) Has Dr. Leil ever refused to doctor your children when called upon ? HOWLISM WAMPO. Dr. Leil is hardly ever here when we want him. Sometimes when any one is sick he came to see us, but at other times he gave us medicine and told u to give them ourselves. Mr. CONOYER. I wish to correct a little error as to what has taken place before. There has been a school here always, ( at least for six years.) |