When those Indians look back to the valuable country which they have sold, abounding, as it does, with fish and game and rich gold fields, it is but natural that they should conclude that the $2.50 per annum was a poor compensation for the rights they relinquished. It is true that the Government can congratulate itself upon the excellence of its bargains, while the millions of dollars subsequently spent in subduing those people have failed to convince them that they have been fairly dealt with.
Even the treaties which have been made remain, with but few exceptions, unratified, and of the few that have been ratified but few have been fulfilled.
Those delays and disappointments, together with the unfulfilled promises which have been made to them, have had the effect to destroy their confidence in the veracity of the Government agents; and now, when new promises are made to them for the purpose of conciliating their friendship, they only regard them as an extension of a very long catalogue of falsehood already existing....
That the Indian has been overcome by power may be established by the fact, that in the treaty council of 1855, whereby “The Confederate Bands of Middle Oregon” were compelled to accept Warm Springs Reservation as a home, by the threats and presence
of an armed force of the Government. This I state on the authority of Dr. Wm. C. McKay, who was secretary for the council.
That the Indian has been faithful to his compacts, I submit the testimony of a veteran, who has fought them forty years,—General Harney.
HUMANE TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS.
General Harney, before the House Committee on Military Affairs, to-day, gave his opinion that if the Indians were treated fairly there would never be any difficulties with them. He had known but two instances in which they ever violated the treaty stipulations, and in these the Indians were to be excused, for the treaties had grown old before they were sought to be enforced, and the chiefs and head men who made them were all dead. The troubles with the Indians were principally caused by fraudulent agents and by whiskey dealers.
That the Indian has not been the aggressor in the wars of Oregon, I refer to one of the bloodiest that has ever cursed this young State, in proof.
From Hon. George E. Cole, now Postmaster, Portland, Oregon, I learned some of the facts in this case. No man stands fairer than Mr. Cole as a man of integrity and honor. In proof of this assertion his present position, in one of the most respectable federal offices in the State, is cited.