OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COXXISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 9 in education, have, in the hours devoted to labor, earned more than $2,000 towards paying the expenses of the school and the agency. Agent Elder represents the four trihes under his chargothe Puyallups, Nisqnallies, Squaxsius, and Chehalis-as prosperous, well satisfied, and peacea-ble, except in regard to the Squaxsins, who are locdted upon an island, on poor soil, and where they are exposed to had inflnences fiom the whites. The agent recommends the sale of their reservation, and the removal of the tribe to the Puyallup reservation, which is ample in extent. It is worthy of notice that, during the past year, a case has occurred here in which a white man has been tried, convicted, and sentenced to long imprisonment for killing an In-dian, as great dissatisfaction has often been expressed (and is referred to in the report of Agent Eowe this year) on account of the failure to punish well-established eases of outrage by whites upon the Indians, while the offencea of the latter are followed with great severity. Much embarrassment has arisen in this superintendency,as well as the others npon the Pacific coast, as the result of the dcpreciat~onin the currency. ORECOX. The progress made during the past year by the va~ious Indian tribes of Oregon which have heretofore come within the control of the Indian department, in the knowledge of agriculture, in industry, and the disposition and ability to sustain themselves by the cultivation of the soil, has been gratifying indeed, as will he seen by examination of the annual report of Ssperintendent Huntington. and the documents accompanying it. Most of the friendly Indians have re-mained quietly upon their reservations, except when absent by permission of the agent in charge, or aiding as scouts by arrangement with the military authorities engaged in hostilities with the ~outheastern bands of Oregon; and a large number who had heretofore strayed away from their proper locationm have been sought ont and returned to their homes. The reports from the several agencies at the Umatilla, Warn Springs, Grande Ronde, and Siletz reservations, and the Alsea sub-agency, are very full in the detail of their operations. The first named of these, the Umntilla reservation, in the northeastern portion-of the State, under the charge of Agent Barahart, presents a very gratifying state of affairs among the confederated bands of Walla-Wallas, Cayuses, and Umatillas, there located, and numbering some seven hundred and twenty souls. There are also some three hundred Walla-Wallas nominally in charge of this agency, hut who have never consented to remove to the reservation, preferring their roving life about the upper waters of the Columbia river. The estimated value of the property of the Indians upon the reservation is over $200,000, mostly consisting of some eight thousand horses and two thousand head of cattle. It is true that these larae herds of stock are owned hv some twentv-five or thirty of the Indians, tit; leaving the remainder of the people cornpa& tively poor in marketable stock, hut there have been fenced some fifteen hundred acres if good land, of which seven hundred and twenty-six acres have been cultivated by the Indians alone, and many of them have made such progress in agriculture that they need henceforward no assistance. The agent records with 1 satisfaction the fact that one Indian would have a surplus of $1,000 worth of produce for sale, and a dozen others from $200 to $500 worth beyond what is necessary for their own wants and those of their families. The agenr. recom-mends the allotment of land in severalty for the nse of these Indians, deeming them abundantly capable of managing for tbemselves, but thinks that the agency farm must necessar~lyh e kept in optration for the support of the aged and decrepit who are unable to labor. Di&culty is apprehended in the future, indeed has already commenced, from |