Hon. C. Delano, Secretary Interior:—
Dear Sir: We would most respectfully submit the following notes or memoranda, in compliance with your request, on the 25th, that we should embody in writing the views which we had just expressed on the situation of affairs in the Klamath and Modoc country, in Southern Oregon:—
The Indians and military are incompatible. They cannot peaceably dwell in contact. Soldiers should not be allowed to go on an Indian Reservation at all. An agent in charge of an Indian Reservation should have the right to determine who should be about the Reservation.
The Modocs and the Klamaths have been at war as far back as tradition knows. The Klamaths persecute the Modocs when the Modocs are on the Klamath Reservation, because this Reservation is in the country of the Klamaths. This is a most irritating cause of discontent with the Modocs. The near vicinity of the Modocs to the ancient home of their fathers adds to their discontent. Moreover, the Modocs do not understand that they have justly parted ownership with their old home. The Modocs are desperate. Their disposition now is to sell their lives as dearly as possible; not to submit to the military. Active military operations should be suspended immediately. Soldiers should remain in guard only (the regulars) of the settlements against a raid by those Indians until a peace officer reports on the situation.
Because to undertake to drive those Indians to the Reservation by force would involve a considerable loss of life and property, and great expense to the Government.
Because war and bloodshed in such close proximity to Klamath and Yai-nax would produce disaffection among all those Indians, which would continually augment the force of the insurgents, and even endanger a general uprising and breaking up of those Reservations; and discontented Indians from everywhere would seek the hostile camp, and make out of a little misunderstanding a great war.
Because to force Indians on to a Reservation by arms, and keep them there against their will, would require a standing army or a walled-up Reservation.
Because those Indians already know that the Government
is able to annihilate them. There is nothing, therefore, to be gained in merely making them feel its power. Their extermination would not be worth its cost. And, moreover, they look to the Government to protect them against local mistake and wrong.
Because they cannot, under the present juncture of affairs, be taught by force the justice of the Government; for, to them, it is an attempt by force to enforce an injustice—to force them to abandon their own home and leave it unoccupied, while they are quartered upon the Klamaths; to use the wood, water, grass, and fish of their ancient enemies, and endure the humiliation of being regarded as inferior, because dependants; and particularly so since those Indians had been quieted for some time with the assurance that their request for a little Reservation of their own would be favorably considered. They, therefore, considered the appeal to the military to be premature, as a definite answer to their petition had never been had. Different tribes of Indians can be better harmonized together where none can claim original proprietorship to the soil.