Part 63 (1/2)

If we would be just, then let us remember that our civilization has refused them, and _them alone_, its benefit.

If we honor bravery, let us remember that they have resisted _only when oppressed_.

If we reverence the high and n.o.ble principles of fidelity in a people, let us not forget that, of all the nations of the earth, the Indian is the most faithful to his compact.

Let us as a nation, reading our destiny in the coming future by the light of the hundred stars upon our flag, be true to G.o.d, true to ourselves, and true to the high trust we hold.

While we shake hands with the Briton and our brothers of the South, over the battle-fields of the past, let us not withhold from these people our friends.h.i.+p.

While we forget the crimes of others, let us bury in one common grave all hatred of race, all thirst for revenge.

While we are strong enough and brave enough to defy the taunts of the civilized world for proclaiming the advent of the hour when the song of the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem shall become the motto of a Christian nation,--”Peace and good will to men,”--let us not live a lie, and prove our cowardice by shouting ”EXTERMINATION” against a race fast fading away.

Let us not fall from our high estate by debasing a grand national power in a triumph over a civilization inferior to our own.

Let us gather up and care for these people, redeem the covenant of our fathers, fulfilling our high mission.

Let us uphold the hands of our rulers who declare a more humane policy, and let it be the crowning glory of the American statesman to proclaim to the world that the glad time so long foretold has come, when ”The wolf, also, shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER SIX.

ONEATTA, YAQUINA BAY AGENCY, October 1, 1871.

SIR:--I have the honor of submitting this my eighth and last annual report of the affairs of Siletz agency.

I closed my term of service as agent on the 1st day of May, 1871, at which time, as you are already aware, I turned over the agency to my successor, Hon. Joel Palmer. Since then I have been busily engaged in making up my final papers. This task, I regret to say, is not yet entirely finished. The delay has been owing to some irregularities, occasioned by a change of employes, and to other causes over which I have had no control. I shall now, however, push the work forward with all possible dispatch, and shall soon have my papers fully completed. I ask, for that purpose, your indulgence, and that of the department, for a short time.

I presume it will hardly be expected that I should at this time enter into the usual details concerning the affairs of the agency. All the important facts which have not been communicated to the department by myself heretofore will, undoubtedly, be embodied in the first annual report of my successor. He will find it convenient, if not necessary, in introducing himself officially to the department, to give some sort of a summary of the condition of the affairs of the agency at the time he took charge. I feel, therefore, that it would be altogether a work of supererogation for me to go over that ground in detail. As this is my last report, after a somewhat protracted term of service in charge of Siletz agency, I think it not inappropriate that I should present here a few statements of facts in the history of the dealings of the Government with these Indians, in order to show some of the difficulties with which I have had to struggle.

I shall also presume somewhat upon your indulgence by offering some suggestions, prompted by my own experience, concerning the future management of the Indians over whom I have so long had control.

I have had charge of Siletz agency for eight years, and in that time have had to encounter many stubborn obstacles to the successful management of its concerns. I think, too, that I may say, without vanity, that I have _overcome_ many such obstacles.

It is not an easy matter, even under the most favorable circ.u.mstances and with all possible helps, to conduct successfully the affairs of an Indian agency. To a race accustomed, as the Indians have been, to the licentious freedom of the savage state, the restraints and dull routine of a reservation are almost intolerably irksome. It is not wonderful, therefore, that they should be often fractious and impatient of control, or that, even when reduced to complete submission to the regulations imposed upon them, they should, in many instances, become sullen and unteachable. To manage such a people in such a condition with any degree of success requires unceasing, anxious labor. Yet this is the duty imposed upon almost every Indian agent in the United States. But in addition to these difficulties, which are incident to Indian management everywhere, there are some which are peculiar to Siletz agency.

There are at this agency some fourteen tribes and parts of tribes of Indians, numbering, in the aggregate, at the time I took charge, about 2,000. Separate treaties were made with all of these different tribes in 1855, at the conclusion of what is known as the ”Rogue-river War,” in Southern Oregon. Some of these treaties have been, in part, confirmed and complied with by the United States Government, but most of them have been entirely and persistently disregarded. In expectation, however, of the immediate ratification of all the stipulations entered into, the Indians were all removed from their lands in the Rogue-river country to Siletz reservation at the close of the war above referred to. Here they have been kept ever since as prisoners of war, supported by a removal and subsistence fund, appropriations for which, varying from $10,000 to $30,000, have been annually made by Congress. For sixteen years this scant, irregular, and uncertain charity, doled out to them from time to time, has been the only evidence they have received that they were not utterly forgotten by the Government. For sixteen years they have been fed upon promises that were made only to be broken, and their hearts have sickened with ”hope deferred.”

For sixteen years they have seen the white man gathering in annually his golden harvests from the lands which they surrendered; and for all those sixteen long, weary years they have waited, and waited in vain, for the fulfilment of the solemn pledges with which the white man bought those lands. What wonder is it that, suspicious and distrustful as they are by nature, they should, under such tuition, cease to have any faith in the white man's word, or to heed his solemn preachments about education and civilization? Who can blame them if, after such an experience, they come to regard the whole white race, from the Great Father down, as a race of liars and cheats, using their superior knowledge to defraud the poor Indian? And is it amazing that, with such an eminent example before them, they should grow treacherous and deceitful as they grow in knowledge; or that they should use every possible exertion to escape from the restraints which, as they believe, the white man has imposed upon them only for the purpose of defrauding them? In my judgment it is safe to a.s.sert that by far the greater part of their restiveness and indocility is justly attributable to this cause. I am fully satisfied that it has more than doubled the difficulty of controlling and managing them for the past eight years. So thoroughly have I appreciated this fact, that I have again and again urged, in my annual reports, the necessity of entering into treaties with the Indians at this agency who are not now parties to any stipulations. Feeling as I do that the neglect with which these Indians have been treated in this particular has been most unwise as well as grossly unjust, I cannot permit this last opportunity of expressing myself officially on the subject to pa.s.s without again earnestly urging a speedy correction of this grievous error and wrong.

Notwithstanding the many embarra.s.sments with which I have had to contend in the management of the affairs of this agency, I am fully satisfied that no Indians on this coast have made any more rapid advancement than those under my charge, in industry and civilization. When I entered upon the discharge of my duties as agent, eight years ago, I found the Indians in almost a wild state, kept together and controlled by military force. This condition of things rapidly disappeared; and for the past four or five years I have succeeded in keeping the Indians generally upon the reservation, and in controlling them without any other aid than a very small corps of employes. And when I turned over the agency to my successor the state of discipline was far better than it was at any time when the agent had the a.s.sistance of a detachment of soldiers to enforce his orders. Besides, the Indians have, many of them, attained a comparatively high degree of proficiency in the useful arts. About all the mechanical work needed on the reservation can now be done by them. Indeed, so great has been the improvement among them in every respect that, in my judgment, many of them are to-day capable of becoming citizens of the United States, and should be admitted to citizens.h.i.+p as soon as circ.u.mstances will permit. Knowing as I do the liberality of your views on the subject of the equality of men, I feel confident that you will spare no effort in your power to bring about this state of things at as early a day as possible.

Before closing this report permit me to make one suggestion as to the management of the Indian agencies under the system lately adopted by the Government. I am satisfied that, under this system, it would be a matter of economy, as well as a benefit to the Indians, to place the whole subject under the immediate control of the superintendent, doing away with agents entirely.

Each reservation could be managed by a sub-agent appointed by the superintendent, and subject to his supervision and control.

The superintendent should then be held strictly responsible for the management of the reservations or agencies within his jurisdiction, and the various sub-agents and employes should be made accountable to him alone. The disburs.e.m.e.nts could be made by the superintendent, and the accounts for the whole superintendency could be kept in his office. The advantages of this system would, undoubtedly, be great. It would reduce considerably the machinery of the Indian Department, and would simplify all its processes. Besides, it would render those who had the management of the different reservations amenable for their conduct not to a distant authority, but to one at home.

Their acts would thus be judged, and condemned or approved, as the case might require, in every instance by one who would have, to a great extent, a personal acquaintance with all the circ.u.mstances. Under the present arrangement the Indian Department is little better than a gigantic circ.u.mlocution office, in which everything is done by indirect and circuitous methods. Every agent renders his account, and is responsible (nominally) to the central office at Was.h.i.+ngton, and not to his immediate superior. In this labyrinth of routine and red-tape official incompetency and dishonesty may often hide securely. On the other hand, wise management and worth frequently escape notice altogether, or receive censure instead of commendation.

In fact, there are in each superintendency so many different centres of power and influence, each of which must be watched from the head of the department, that the view is distracted and bewildered, and official accountability degenerates into a mere farce. The superintendent, though he has a sort of supervision of the different agencies, is yet really powerless to correct abuses which may come to his notice. His subordinates are not responsible to him, and he can do no more than report their incompetence or misconduct to the common superior of all, and then await the tedious processes of circ.u.mlocution. His jurisdiction is, in fact, merely formal, rather than actual, and he is not responsible for the conduct of his subordinates; there is but little motive for him to exercise even the slight power which he has. The only remedy is to give him full authority over all the agents and sub-agents, and to make him personally accountable for their official acts.