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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 141 Imt I don't know what 1ms become of them. You see these chiefs, ( Indians;) they know ail about these things. If we did not work we would be very poor. Mr. Meacham said there was no money fora saw- mill or a flour- mill, so we agreed to help the work, and have done so. I think 1 am a good Indian. I am a chief. Mr. Brunot said good words to us. We ought to work. We need the grist- mill now. When we first made the treaty it was not said whether a priest would teach us or somebody else. I know what was promised us. I was promised eighty acres of land, others less. If we had had a good agent we would have been better off. The agents wanted only the money ; they did not want to help the In-dian. The blankets and shoes and goods for Indians the house was full of them. I did not know who got them ; perhaps a rat tyec ( rat chief) got them ; but I am an Indian, and think it all right. Outside belongs to the whites. Indians sold it, but I never saw the money. If I had it I would buy plows and wagons. Some of my people are in the pen-itentiary. I don't know why they were put in. I want to know what they did to put them there. BILLY WILLIAMSON. I think it is good for Mr. Brunot to come. This summer we see things as we never did before. Since Mr. Meecham came this summer our eyes have been opened. Our saw- mill is almost done, and we expect to have a grist- mill soon. Mr. Brunot comes from Washington, and I want to know whether what I said before, and that now, was put on paper did my words go to Washington ? Then the Indians were all separated ; now they are all here. If you go to see their homes you will find many things they made them-selves. They learned it from the whites outside. The men on the reservation did not learn us. When the treaty was made we were very poor. For fifteen years we have been talking about what was needed. Do they know it at Washington ? Some white men say we will only get twenty acres. Where I came from I had not only twenty* acres, but a hundred. Everybody know.-; we are poor. I had a cow and a yoke of oxen long ago ; that is all I have now. I don't want to lie to God. I don't think I am a very good man. I may tell a lie ; I urn an Indian. I speak the truth. I don't drink. I don't do as Indians did in old times. I have quit that. WT e can't do everything in a day. It we get our land we need cows and horses and plows and wagons. Then we won't go outside ; we will stay here. There are a few half- breeds here. I think nothing about that ; they have families here. I want to know if money was sent here for us. Now we are like white men. You know about God ; so do these Indians. I speak no bad words. White men and Indians are all alike. Some Indians here have been shot and whipped by white men for nothing. Two of our peo-ple are in Salem penitentiary. We want to get them out; they did nothing. White men gave them whisky and got them drunk, and TIOW they get them into the penitentiary. SOLOMON KIGGS. I am glad to see Mr. Brunot here. I want him to take my words to the President. I arn going to speak true. It has been promised that our land should be sur-veyed ; I am glad to see it is done. We are promised a saw- mill ; I see it too ; I am glad of it ; I want lumber. When I get my land it is mine, and while I live I will stay on it. Three or four years ago I was like as if I had been asleep ; now I am awake. Agents five or six years ago never said to raise anything. When Mr. Meacham came he said we must raise grain as ^ the whites do, and all of the Indians have done so. Now we want a grist-mill. There are plenty of old people about me ; they are poor ; I am young and can take my wheat outside. Many old people ask me to talk about the mill for them. Some agents here have made us poor. We can't help the old people. We need plows and harness, and when we have them we will bo like white people, and will make our living the same way. You have promised to take care of the Indians as a man does of his children. Now we can take care of ourselves. I will be very glad to have a school. We want our children to go to it ; that is where they learn sense. Mr. Brunot's father sent him to school, and now he is a man ; so we want to send our children to school, and they will learn. JOE HUTCHINGS, ( a fine- looking, well- dressed man, wore a white shirt, buck gauntlets, and spoke English well ; a very intelligent, sensible man). The people have hid in their hearts the truth about the half- breeds. They have been employed about the mills and shops. We want our children to learn and be employed instead of the half- breeds and whites. We don't want the half- breeds here to interfere with us. They are getting the good things instead of the Indian; they are getting cows and horses. I don't know where they came from or who gave them to them. We want a white man in the mill, and we want our Indian boys taken there, and kept there until they learn, and thev will be able after a while to run it themselves. As at the mills, so at the blacksmith- shop. A white man works at the wagon- shop, and a young Indian works with him. They will learn, and soon they can make wagons themselves. The Indians will soon learn themselves and can do without the white men. SAMSON, ( an old Indian who spoke in English.) How long will it be before the In-dians learn it? They are jealous of the half- breeds. The boys will go and stay a while and then run away. It is too late now ; the halt- breeds stay and learn the trades, and are now employed. ^ JOK HUTCHINGS. If a white man and an Indian were put in the mill, the Indian will soon learn and the white man can be done away with, and the Indian will run the mill. If the Indians work in the mill like white men, they ought to be paid like white men Mr. Meacham says by and by the Indian will learn ; they will never ieurn ; we want them em- |
