The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Volume 1 (of 2)

Dah-whil-luk, the Skokomish head chief, an old man, rose and said:—

Hool-hole-tan or Jim said:—

Chits-a-mah-han or the Duke of York, the head chief of the Clallams:—

Other chiefs of the Clallams and of the Chem-a-cums followed in the same strain as the Duke of York, approving the treaty. After further explaining its provisions the governor adjourned the council to the morrow at the request of the Skokomish chief, in order that they might talk it over and understand it thoroughly.

It will be observed that this treaty encountered considerable opposition on the part of the Skokomish, who were, however, the most benefited by it, as the reservation was located in their country. They were largely influenced by the example of the other tribes, and after much discussion among themselves, and talks between sessions with the governor and his assistants, concluded to accept it.

The next morning was a fine, pleasant one, and the Indians came to the council bearing white flags. The governor addressed them, pointing out that the treaty gave them all those things that a father would give his children, as homes, schools, mechanics, and a doctor; the right to fish, hunt, and gather roots and berries. Besides, it prohibited fire-water, and does not a father prevent his children from drinking fire-water? The Great Father was good to his children, and did not wish to steal their lands. It was for them to say what they thought right. If they had anything to say, say it now.

The Duke of York then presented a white flag, saying:

Dah-kwil-luk, the Skokomish chief, said:—

He also presented a flag to the governor.

Kul-kah-han, the Chem-a-cum chief, then presented his flag, saying:—

Then all signed the treaty, and at a signal a salute was fired from the steamer in honor of the event.

Some hostile feelings having previously existed between the tribes, Governor Stevens now declared that they must drop them forever, and that their hearts towards each other should be good as well as towards the whites. Accordingly the three head chiefs, in behalf of their people, then shook hands. Then the presents were distributed to them. In the afternoon the party reëmbarked, Mr. Mason returning to Olympia on the steamer, and Governor Stevens with the remainder proceeding to Port Townsend in the schooner, on his way to Cape Flattery, the next point of meeting.

The tribes mentioned in the treaty as parties thereto are the Skokomish, To-an-hooch, Chem-a-cum, and S’Klallam, and the sub-bands of the last, viz., Kah-tie, Squah-quaihtl, Tch-queen, Ste-teht-lum, Tsohkw, Yennis, Elh-wa, Pishtst, Hun-nint, Klat-la-wash, and O-ke-ho, occupying lands on the Strait of Fuca and Hood’s Canal.

A reservation was set off at the mouth of the Skokomish River, of 3840 acres. $60,000 in the usual annuities, and $6000 for the improvement of the reservation, were provided, and the other provisions were the same as in the Tulalip and She-nah-nam Creek treaties. This treaty was witnessed by the same gentlemen who witnessed the preceding.

COUNCIL OF NEAH BAY, AND MAKAH TREATY.

From Port Townsend the schooner sped rapidly down the Strait of Fuca, running one hundred and twenty miles in two days,—no holiday voyage, in a small vessel in midwinter, along that exposed and shelterless coast,—and reached Neah Bay on the evening of the 28th. At this point, just inside Cape Flattery, the Makah Indians had their principal village. Messengers were immediately dispatched to call in the Indians of the other Makah villages, and of tribes farther south on the coast. The tents, goods, and men were landed on the 29th, and camp established. The following day the governor, accompanied by Mr. Gibbs, crossed the Cape Flattery peninsula to the Pacific coast, and examined the country for the purpose of selecting a suitable reservation. In the evening he called a meeting of the Makah chiefs on board the schooner, the other villages having come in during the day, and explained the principal features of the proposed treaty. The Great Father had sent him here to watch over the Indians. He had talked with the other tribes on the Sound, and they had promised to be good friends with their neighbors, and he had now come to talk with the Makahs. When he had done here, he was going to the Indians down the coast, and would make them friends to the Makahs. He had treated with the other Sound Indians for their lands, setting aside reserves for them, giving them a school, farmer, physician, etc., etc. When he concluded, Kal-chote, a Makah chief, spoke: “Before the big chiefs Klehsitt, the White Chief, Yall-a-coon or Flattery Jack, and Heh-iks died, he was not the head chief himself, he was only the small chief, but though there were many Indians then, he was not the least of them. He knew the country all around, and therefore he had a right to speak. He thought he ought to have the right to fish, and take whales, and get food where he liked. He was afraid that if he could not take halibut where he wanted, he would become poor.”

Keh-tchook, of the stone house: “What Kal-chote had said was his wish. He did not want to leave the salt water.”

Governor Stevens informed them that, so far from wishing to stop their fisheries, he wished to send them oil-kettles and fishing apparatus.

Klah-pr-at-loo: “He was willing to sell his land. All he wanted was the right of fishing.”

Tse-kan-wootl: “He wanted the sea. That was his country. If whales were killed and floated ashore, he wanted, for his people, the exclusive right of taking them, and if their slaves ran away, he wanted to get them back.”

Governor Stevens replied that he wanted them to fish, but the whites should fish also. Whoever killed the whales was to have them if they came ashore. Many white men were coming into the country, and he did not want the Indians to be crowded out.

Governor Stevens asked them whether, if the right of drying fish wherever they pleased was left them, they could not agree to live at one place for a winter residence and potato ground, explaining the idea of subdivision of lands, and he desired them to think the matter over during the night. They were asked to consult among themselves upon the choice of a head chief. As they declined doing this, on the ground that they were all of equal rank, the governor selected Tse-kan-wootl, the Osett chief, as the head, a choice in which they all acquiesced with satisfaction. Temporary papers in lieu of commissions were then issued to a number of the sub-chiefs.

The Indians assembled in council on the morning of January 31. The number of the tribe was found to be six hundred. Governor Stevens explained the provisions of the treaty:—

The treaty was then read and interpreted and explained, clause by clause.

Governor Stevens then asked them if they were satisfied. If they were, to say so. If not, to answer freely and state their objections.

Tse-kan-wootl brought up a white flag and presented it, saying: “Look at this flag. See if there are any spots on it. There are none, and there are none on our hearts.”

Kal-chote then presented another flag and said, “What you have said is good, and what you have written is good.”

The Indians gave three cheers or shouts as each concluded. The governor then signed the treaty, and was followed by the Indian chiefs and principal men, forty-one in number, of the Neah, Waatch, Tsoo-yess, and Osett villages, or bands of the Makahs. Among the names are Klah-pe-an-hie or Andrew Jackson, Tchoo-quut-lah or Yes Sir, and Swell or Jeff Davis.

The witnesses were M.T. Simmons, Indian agent; George Gibbs, secretary; B.F. Shaw, interpreter; C.M. Hitchcock, M.D.; E.S. Fowler, Orrington Cushman, and Robert Davis.

The provisions of this treaty are the same as in the others. The annuities in goods, etc., amounted to $30,000, and $3000 were provided to improve the reservation, which embraced Neah Bay and Cape Flattery and their principal village. It was intended only for a place of residence, with enough cultivable land for potatoes and vegetables, and, what was more important, to prevent their being crowded off by fishing establishments. The locality is unfit for agriculture, being rocky and sterile, with an annual rainfall of 122 inches. And the reserve was all they needed, for the Makahs are bold and skillful fishermen and sailors, accustomed to venture thirty to fifty miles out to sea in their large canoes, and take the whale and halibut, while inshore they hunt the seal and sea-otter, and catch the salmon. They are a more sturdy, brave, and enterprising race than the natives of the Sound, more resembling the northern Indians. In their remote, rocky stronghold, protected by the strong arm of the government extended over them by this treaty, but depending upon the sea and their own efforts for a livelihood, they have prospered greatly, putting up vast quantities of fish, furs, and oil for market; and there are few white communities that have so much wealth per capita, or wealth so evenly distributed, as these industrious and manly Indians.

Immediately after the signing the presents were distributed, the camp was broken up, and in the evening the party reëmbarked. The little vessel at once hoisted sail for Port Townsend, where, after a three days’ trip, being delayed by head winds, she arrived February 3. The next day the governor, with some of the party, took the Major Tompkins for Victoria, in order to confer with Governor Douglass upon the means of preventing the piratical incursions of the northern Indians upon the Sound. On the 5th he returned to Port Townsend, and reached Olympia on the night of the 6th.

This brief campaign was Napoleonic, in rapidity and success. In six weeks Governor Stevens met and treated with five thousand Indians, of numerous independent and jealous tribes and bands, and in four separate councils carefully and indefatigably made clear to them the new policy, convinced them of its benefits to them, and concluded with them four separate treaties, by which the Indian title to the whole Puget Sound basin was extinguished forever, and the great source and danger of collision between the races was removed. For the eight thousand five hundred Indians hitherto ignored by Congress and treated by the settlers as mere vagrants, to be shoved aside at the whim or self-interest of any white man, he established nine reservations, containing over 60,000 acres, for their permanent homes and exclusive possessions; provided annuities of clothing, goods, and useful articles for twenty years, aggregating $300,000; abolished slavery and war among them; excluded liquor from the reservations; extended over them the protection of the government, with agents, schools, teachers, farmers, and mechanics to instruct them; and, in a word, set their feet fairly on “the white man’s road.” To accomplish this astonishing work in such brief time, he traveled eight hundred miles upon the Sound and Strait in the most inclement season of the year, half the distance, and that the most dangerous, in a small sailing-craft. He disregarded the storms and rains of that inclement season, and spared neither himself nor his assistants. It is not easy to say who had the hardest task, the agents and messengers who traveled all over the Sound in canoes in the tempestuous rainy season to call the scattered bands together, or the unfortunate secretary, who had to catch and set down on paper the jaw-breaking native names.

The success and rapidity with which he carried through these treaties were due to the careful and thorough manner in which he planned them, and prepared the minds of the Indians by his tour among and talks to them a year previous, and by the messages and agents he had sent among them. Besides, the Indians realized their own feebleness and uncertain future, divided into so many bands, exposed to the depredations of the northern Indians, and dreading the advent and encroachments of the whites. Their minds consequently were well attuned for treating; and when they understood the wise and beneficent policy and liberal terms offered by the governor, they gladly accepted them, and put their trust in him as their friend and protector, a trust never withdrawn and never forsaken.

The Indian war which occurred soon after, and the delay in the ratification of the treaties, seriously militated against carrying out the beneficent policy so well inaugurated, and later the occasional appointment of inefficient and dishonest agents has proved even more detrimental; but notwithstanding all these drawbacks the Indians have made substantial advances in civilization, and it is interesting to compare their present condition, as given in the last reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and from local sources.

Their numbers have diminished only about one half. No one seeing their debased condition in 1850 to 1860 (except the Makahs) would have deemed it possible for them to hold their own so well.

All now wear civilized dress, and live in houses. Many can read and write, and many of their children attend the reservation schools.

All the reservations on the Sound have now been allotted, and the Indians are living on their respective allotments. A considerable number have taken up farms under the homestead laws, or purchased lands from the whites, and are farming successfully. Such Indians are frequently seen driving into the towns with good wagons and teams, as well dressed as the average white rancher, and accompanied ofttimes by their wives and children.

During the fall hundreds of them congregate on the hop-fields, where they supply the most reliable hop-pickers, whole families—men, women, and children—diligently working together. After this harvest crowds of them flock into the towns, and lay in stores of clothing and provisions for the winter before returning home.[11]

The Riverside Press
Electrotyped and printed by H.O. Houghton & Co.
Cambridge, Mass, U.S.A.