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Show 134 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. The CHIEF. That is what we would like. Mr. BRUNOT. That is what we think is good, and I am going- to ask to have that done. General McKeuney has asked that it might be done elsewhere, and I am glad you wish to have it, done here. CHIEF, ( to General McKenney.) That is my mind ; it seems from your talk you are clos-ing the mouth of the bad Indians. There are many Indians outside to lie about what is said and done. Mr. McKENNEY. We are proud to see you. You don't say anything against our religion. You encourage us. That is our mind about General McKenney. I am not able to go to Olympia to see you. Those bad Indians and bad white men talk bad about General Mc- Keuney. It is not right, for General McKenuey is the friend of good Indians ; for that reason I am glad you are here that we may tell you our minds. General McKENNEY. I am glad to see the chief and his people. I have not seen you for a long time. I always thought good of the Indians on the Lummi reservation. I spoke good of them in my Washington papers. I said they talked daily with God. When I was here a long time ago you had slaves among you. I told you you must give them up. and I learn you have done so, and that there are no slaves. I said you must give up gambling, and I learn the Lummi Indians don't gamble. I told you you must have but one wife, and be married to her, and must take care of your wife and children, and must work as white people do. I saw a few still flatten their heads ; I told them that was bad. I am glad to see the children grow up with their heads not flat. I have done all I could to help Father Chirouse. I intend to do all I can to help him. He is building a mill ; soon the Lummi Indians can get lumber at it. You have heard these things from me a great many times. Some Indians give up gambling and take to it again. I am sorry to hear this. I am glad to meet you with Mr. Brunot, who comes right from Washington. He wants to take the Indians' words to Washington. The CHIEF. Our farms are off two or three miles. You must not think this is our only town, and that we have no farms ; the land about here overflows, and we cannot cultivate it; if we had tools we would ditch it, and have much good land. Mr. BRUNOT. Some of the Indians I have been to see are wild ; they don't live on the sound ; they live on the plains ; they wear leggins and blankets. I want to see them civilized also ; I have seen and talked with them, and I think after a while they will do right. If I see them do wrong, and I say, " Go away, I will not have anything to do with you," can I do them any good ? So of these bad Indians about you ; you don't like them, but if you are kind and say they are not right, you can persuade them, but you cannot drive them to church. If you are kind, after a while they will come. You must coax them to send their children to school, and persuade them one by one to take a farm. Except the bad ones who drink whisky and go to bad places, one by one you will get them to come, all to be like brothers ; after a while there will be a great many of you. Try that way. It is time now for us to go, still wT e will wait if you wish to say anything more. DAVID CROCKETT. For that reason we want the reservation surveyed, that we may bring the Indians from the outside, and that all may have lands, and know what is theirs. I hope you will not be weary with our long talk. We don't see a great chief often, and want to express our minds. There is a white man lives on what we think is our land, and it is the best piece of garden laud on this reservation. It is on one corner of it. Governor Stevens and Mr. Simmons told us that this reservation was half a mile below the river. My father and all the old men and I were there and heard it. Mr. BRUNOT. The treaty will be taken and the right line run, and whatever the surveyor makes it we must agree to. CHIEF. We don't want, like a pack of dogs, to be always quarreling about a piece ol land, but we want it fixed, and then have it settled. Mr. BRUNOT. I was at the Sirncoe reservation and Warm Spring reservation, and I found one Indian who, when a small boy, was sent to where a man made harness ; he learned to make harness, and he has a shop. The Indians come to him now for harness. Also at the blacksmith- shop, and wagon- makers shop, was an Indian who could make horseshoes and wagons. Some of your boys could go where they could learn to make these things, and you would have some one to do your work. As soon as you get farms like white men, you will need many wagons and plows and harness, and you ought to learn how to make them yourselves. CHIEF. When the work is done at Tulalip, can we have a carpenter come and help us ? General McKENNEY. Yes; the carpenter horn Tulalip can come and help you. CHIEF. I ought to have a better iiouse to receive my friends when they come ; and we want an altar built in the church, and a belfry on it; this work we cannot do ourselves. But two of us have spoken, but we are all of one mind. During their council they brought their harness and tools to show the kind of material they had to work with, and which were very imperfect. After the council, in company with the Indians we made a trip up the Nook- Sack " River, and then went around to the ' other side of the reseivatiou and saw some very good farm |
