About this time, in 1878, I determined to see what I could do through another channel: through the Board of Indian Commissioners, where missionaries would naturally look. Accordingly, in May, a long letter was written to the secretary of the American Missionary Association, and his influence was invoked to work upon the Board. He gladly did so. At the annual meeting of the Congregational Association of Oregon and Washington, in June of the same year, I plead strongly for the same object, whereupon a committee of five of the influential men of the denomination was appointed, who drafted strong resolutions, which were passed and sent to the Board of Commissioners. The fact that the Bannack Indians of Eastern Oregon were then engaged in a war with the whites, and that they had attempted to induce the Indians of Puget Sound to assist in it, was an argument used, and of no small weight. I intended to urge the passage of similar resolutions through the Presbytery of Puget Sound, and the Methodist Episcopal Conference of Oregon, both of whom had missions among the Indians, and were asking for similar favors from the government; but before those bodies met I received a letter from Hon. D. H. Jerome, of the Board of Commissioners, who had been appointed a committee by that Board in regard to titles of Indians to their lands, promising to press the matter upon the department until titles should be issued, or a good reason given for not doing so, and requesting a description of the lands for which titles were asked. I gave the letter to the agent, who had the desired information, and who quickly gave it. The Board nobly fulfilled its promise, and in March, 1881, certificates of allotment were sent to the Indians. They were not wholly satisfactory. The title to the land still remained in the United States. They said that each Indian is entitled to take possession of his land, “and the United States guarantees such possession, and will hold the title thereto in trust for the exclusive use and benefit of himself and his heirs so long as such occupancy shall continue.” It prohibited them from selling the land to any one except other members of the same tribe.

These certificates, however, proved to be better than was at first feared. It was decided that under them the Indians had a right to sell the timber from the land. The Indians were satisfied that they would not be removed, and were quieted.

Efforts are still being made to obtain the patents, and with considerable hope of success, as they have been granted to Indians on three other reservations on Puget Sound through the efforts of Agent Eells, but owing to various causes they have not been obtained as yet for the Skokomish Indians.

The Clallam Indians have bought their land or taken it by homestead, and so have not had the same difficulty in regard to titles. One incident, however, occurred which was rather discouraging. Four of the Clallam Bay Indians, in 1879, determined to secure, if possible, the land on which their houses stood. They were sent to the clerk of the Probate Court, who knew nothing about the land, but told them that it belonged to the government, and offered to get it for the usual fee, nineteen dollars each. They paid him the seventy-six dollars, and he promised to send it to the land-office and have their papers for them in two weeks. They waited the two weeks but no papers came. In the meantime they learned that the man was not to be trusted, although he could lawfully attend to the business, and that the land had been owned by private individuals for fifteen years. He, too, on writing to the land-office, found the same to be true. But the difficulty was to get the money back. This man was an inveterate gambler, and the evidence was quite plain that he had gambled the money off very soon after he received it. I saw him soon afterward, and he told me that it had been stolen, that he would soon get it, and the like. One Indian spent three weeks, and two others two weeks each, in trying to recover it, but failed to do so. Then the agent took it into court, but through an unjust ruling of the judge, or a catch in the law, he was neither compelled to pay it nor punished for his deed. The Indians received about the amount they lost, as witness fees and mileage for their attendance on court. Yet that man, at that time, was also postmaster, United States commissioner, and deputy sheriff, and had offered fifty dollars to the county treasurer, to be appointed his deputy.

This was a strange contrast to the action of the Indians. I felt very sorry for them. For four years we had been advising them to obtain land, and they were swindled in their first attempt. When I saw them, before the case was taken to the court, I was fearful lest they should become discouraged, and offered them ten dollars, saying, “If you never get your money, I will lose this with you: but if you do obtain it, you can then repay me.” One tenth of my income has long been given to the Lord, and I felt that thus much would do as much good here as anywhere. When I first mentioned this to them, they refused to take it, saying that they did not wish me to lose my money, if they did theirs; but two weeks later, when I left the last one of them, he reluctantly took it.

X.
MODE OF LIVING.

IN 1874 most of the Indians of both tribes lived on the ground, in the smoke, in their large houses, where several families resided. That year the agent induced those on the reservation to receive lumber as a part of their annuity goods, and the government carpenter erected small frame-houses for most of them, but left them to cover and batten the houses. They were slow to do so. At first they used them to live in during the summer, but during the winter they found these houses too open and cold and returned to their smoke-houses. It was two or three years before they made them warm enough to winter in them, but since that time nearly all, except a few of the very old ones, have lived off of the ground and out of the smoke. Although the government gave no aid to those living off of the reservation to build them homes, yet about three fourths of them have built for themselves similar or better houses. Many of them have lived near saw-mills where they could easily get lumber for their houses.

All of them dress in citizen’s clothes, and they obtain about three quarters of their living from civilized labor, and the rest by fishing and hunting, supposing that hunting and fishing are not civilized pursuits. Many of them have sewing-machines, bureaus, and lace curtains, while clocks and watches, chairs, bedsteads, and dishes, tables, knives and forks are very common.

Neatness.—It is easier to induce them to have good houses, with board floors, than to keep them clean. Grease is spilled on the floor, and, mingling with the dirt, sometimes makes the air very impure. The men are careless, bring in dirt, and spit on the floor; the women are sometimes lazy, or else, after trying, become discouraged about keeping the house clean.

This impure air has been the cause of the death of many of their children. They breathe the poison, and at last waste away. The older ones are strong and can endure some of it, and, moreover, are in the pure air outdoors much of the time. But the little ones are kept in the house, are so weak that they can not endure such air, and they die. The old Indian houses on the ground had, at least, two advantages over the board floors, although they had more disadvantages. The ground absorbed the grease, as boards can not; and, if the houses became too bad, they could easily be torn down and moved a few yards away to a better place. But good houses are too costly for this.