Chapter II: Part 2

last few years so many of the Indians have become Christians that public opinion has frowned on it, and there is very little, if any, of it, though some of the Indians who do not profess to be Christians, when they visit other Indians, will gamble, although they do not when at home.

The _Potlatch_ is the greatest festival that the Indian has. It is a Chinook word, and means “to give,” and is bestowed as a name to the festival because the central idea of it is a distribution of gifts by a few persons to the many present whom they have invited. It is generally intertribal, from four hundred to two thousand persons being present, and from one to three, or even ten, thousand dollars in money, blankets, guns, canoes, cloth, and the like are given away. There is no regularity to the time when they are held. Three have been held at Skokomish within fifteen years, each one being given by different persons, and during the same time, as far as I know, a part or all of the tribe have been invited to nine others, eight of which some of them have attended.

The mere giving of a present by one person to another, or to several, is not in itself sinful, but this is carried to such an extreme at these times that the morality of that part of them becomes exceedingly questionable. In order to obtain the money to give they deny themselves so much for years, live in old houses and in so poor a way, that the self-denial becomes an enemy to health, comfort, civilization, and Christianity. If they would take the same money, buy and improve land, build good houses, furnish them, and live decently, it would be far better.

But while two or three days of the time spent at them is occupied in making presents, the rest of the time, from three days to two and a half weeks, is spent in gambling, red and black tamahnous, and other wicked practices, and the temptation to do wrong becomes so great that very few Indians can resist it.

When some of the Alaska Indians, coveting the prosperity which the Christian Indians of that region had acquired, asked one of these Christians what they must do in order to become Christians, the reply was: “First give up your potlatches.” It was felt that there was so much evil connected with them that they and Christianity could not flourish together. Among the Twanas, while they are not dead, they are largely on the wane. Among a large part of the Clallams they still flourish.

Intemperance is a besetting sin of Indians, and it is about as much a besetting sin of some whites to furnish intoxicating liquors to the Indians. The laws of the United States and of Washington Territory are stringent against any body’s furnishing liquor to the Indians, but for a time previous to 1871 they had by no means been strictly enforced. As the intercourse of the Indians with the whites was often with a low class, who were willing to furnish liquor to them, they grew to love it, so that in 1871 the largest part of the Indians had learned to love liquor. Its natural consequences, fighting, cutting, shooting, and accidental deaths, were frequent.

VII.

TEMPERANCE.

In 1871 the agent began to enforce the laws against the selling of liquor to the Indians, and, according to a rule of the Indian Department; he also punished the Indians for drinking. Missionary influence went hand in hand with his work, and good results have followed. For years very few Indians on the reservation have been known to be drunk. Punishment upon the liquor-drinker as well as the liquor-seller has had a good effect. Far more of the Clallams drink than of the Twanas. They live so far from the agent that he can not know of all their drinking, and, if he did, he could not go to arrest them all; and many of them live so close to large towns where liquor is very easily obtained, that it has been impossible to stop all of their drinking. Still his occasional visits, the aid of a few white men near them, and of the better Indians, together with what they see of the evil effects of intemperance on themselves, have greatly checked the evil. Very few complete reformations, however, have taken place among those away from the reservation, except those who have become Christians. In addition, a good share of the younger ones have grown up with so much less temptation than their parents had, and so much more influence in favor of temperance, that they have become teetotalers.

For a long time, beginning with 1874, a temperance society flourished, and nearly all the Indians of both tribes joined it. Each member signed the pledge under oath, and took that pledge home to keep, but in time it was found that the society had no penalty with which to punish offenders sufficient to make them fear much to do so again. The agent alone had that power--so the society died. But the law and gospel did not tire in the work and something has been accomplished.

The agent could tell many a story of prosecuting liquor-sellers; sometimes before a packed jury, who, when the proof was positive, declared the prisoner not guilty; of having Indian witnesses tampered with, and bought either by money or threats, so that they would not testify in court, although to him they had previously given direct testimony as to who had furnished them with the liquor; of a time when some of the Clallam Indians became so independent of his authority that they defied him when he went to arrest them, and he was obliged to use the revenue-cutter in order to take them, and when, in consequence, his friends feared that his life was in danger from the white liquor-sellers, because the latter feared the result of their lawlessness; of a judge who, although a Christian man, so allowed his sympathies to go out for the criminal that he would strain the law to let him go; or, on the other hand, of another judge who would strain the law to catch a rascal; of convicting eight white men at one time of selling liquor to Indians, only to have some of them take their revenge by burning the Indians’ houses and all of their contents. Still in a few years he made it very unsafe for most permanent residents to sell intoxicating liquors to the Indians, so that but few except transient people, as sailors and travelers, dared to do so.

“For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain” the Indian and the liquor-seller can almost rival the “heathen Chinee.” A saloon is on the beach, and so high that it is easy to go under it. A small hole is in the floor under the counter. A hand comes up with some money in it: after dark a bottle goes down, and some Indians are drunk, but nobody can prove any thing wrong.

An Indian takes a bucket of clams into a saloon and asks the bar-tender if he wishes them. “I will see what my wife says,” is the reply, and he takes them to a back room. Soon he comes back and says: “Here, take your old clams, they are bad and rotten.” The Indian takes them, and soon a company of Indians are “gloriously drunk,” a bottle having been put in the bottom of the bucket. Sometimes a part of a sack of flour is made of a bottle of whiskey.

An Indian, having been taken up for drunkenness, was asked in court, in Port Townsend, where he obtained his liquor. “If I tell, I can not get any more,” was the blunt reply. Others have found theirs floating in the river or lying by a tree, which may all have been true, yet some man who understood it was the gainer of some money, which perhaps he found. Many an Indian, when asked who let him have the liquor, has said: “I do not know;” or, “I do not know his name.”

Yet there are stories on the other side which make a brighter picture. In 1875 the Twana and Nisqually Indians met as they had often done during previous years for feasting, visiting, trading, and horse-racing. The first agreement was to meet on the Skokomish Reservation, but continued rains made the race-track on the reservation almost unfit for use, it being bottom land. There was another track on gravelly land about ten miles from Skokomish. On the Sabbath previous to the races the sermon had reference to the subject, because of the betting and danger of drunkenness connected with it. A Nisqually Indian came then and urged the Skokomish Indians to go to the other race-track at Shelton’s Prairie, because the one at Skokomish was so muddy. The Skokomish Indians replied that they did not wish to go to the prairie for fear there would be whiskey there, but that they would go to work and fix their own track as well as they could. One sub-chief, the only one of the chiefs who had a race-horse, said he would not go there. This word was carried to the Nisqually Indians who were camped at the prairie, but they refused to come to Skokomish, and sent their messenger to tell the Skokomish Indians so. Several hours were occupied in discussing the question. In talking with the agent, the head-chief asked him if he would send one of the employees to guard them, should they decide to go to the prairie. The head-chief then went to the prairie and induced the Nisquallys to come to the reservation for the visit, trading, and marriage, which was to take place, and for the races if the track should be suitable. From Wednesday until Saturday was occupied by the Indians as agreed upon, but the weather continued rainy and the track was unfit for use. On Saturday the Nisqually Indians went back to the prairie and invited the Skokomish Indians to go there for the races. On Monday twenty-five or thirty of them went, but this number did not include a chief or many of the better class, the great fear being that they would be tempted to drink. According to the request of the chief, one white man from the reservation went, together with the regular Indian policemen. There were also present ten or twelve other white men from different places, one of whom carried considerable liquor. The Indian policemen on seeing this went to him and told him he must not sell or give any of it to any of the Indians, and he promised that he would not. He was afterward seen offering some to a Nisqually Indian, who refused. When night came it was found that, with three or four exceptions, all of the white men present had drank some, and a few were quite drunk, while it was not known that any of the Indians present had taken any. That the better class of Indians should not go to the races, and that all should earnestly contend against going to that place for fear of temptation; that they asked for a white man to guard them; that an Indian told a white man not to give liquor to his fellow-Indians, and that, while most of the white men drank some, it was not known that any Indian drank at all, although it was not the better class of Indians who were present, were facts which were encouraging.

A sub-chief of the Clallam Indians, at Elkwa, one hundred and twenty miles from the reservation, in 1878, found that an Indian from British Columbia had brought a keg of liquor among his people. He immediately complained before a justice of the peace, who arrested the guilty man, emptied his liquor on the ground, and fined him sixty-four dollars.

The head-chief of the Clallams, Lord James Balch, has for nine years so steadily opposed drinking, and imprisoned and fined the offenders so much, that he excited the enmity of the Indians, and even of their doctors, and also of some white men, much as a good Indian agent does. Although he is not perfect, he still continues the good work. Fifteen years ago he was among the worst Indians about, drinking, cutting, and fighting.

In January, 1878, I was asked to go ninety miles, by both Clallams and Twanas, to a potlatch, to protect them from worthless whites and Indians, who were ready to take liquor to the place. The potlatch was at Dunginess, given by some Clallams. I went, in company with about seventy-five Twanas, and it was not known that more than eight of them had tasted liquor within four years, although none of them professed to be Christians. During that festival, which continued nine days, and where more than five hundred Indians were present, only one Indian was drunk.

More than once a whiskey-bottle has been captured from an Indian, set out in view of all on a stump or box, a temperance speech made and a temperance hymn sung, the bottle broken into many pieces, and the contents spilled on the ground.

The Indians say that the Hudson’s Bay Company first brought it to them, but dealt it out very sparingly, but when the Americans came they brought barrels of it. They seem to be proud that it is not the Indians who manufacture it, for if it were they would soon put a stop to it; nor is it the believer in God, but wicked white men who wish to clear them away as trees are cleared from the ground.

Thus, when we take into consideration the condition of these Indians fifteen years ago, and the present condition of some other Indians in the region who lie beastly drunk in open sight, and compare it with the present status of those now here, there is reason for continued faith in the God of the law and gospel of temperance.

VIII.

INDUSTRIES.

Logging, farming in a small way, and work as day-laborers, have been the chief means of civilized labor among the men on the reservation. A large share of their land is first-class, rich bottom land, though all was covered originally with timber. It had been surveyed, assigned to the different heads of families, and certificates of allotment from the government issued to them. Nearly all of them have from one to ten acres cleared, most of which is in hay.

Still when there has been a market for logs at the neighboring saw-mills, they have preferred that work, not because there is more money in it, for actually there is less, but because they get the money quicker. It comes when the logs are sold, generally within three months after they begin a boom. But in regard to their land, they must work some time after they begin to clear it, before it is done; then a year or two longer, before they can obtain much of a crop of hay from it. Hence it has been up-hill work to induce most of them to do much work at clearing land. For several years before their annuities ceased, in 1881, the government made a rule that no able-bodied man should receive any annuities until he had performed labor on his land equal in value to the amount he should receive. From the example of the few adjoining settlers, some are beginning to see that farming is more profitable than logging. The largest share of good timber on the reservation has been taken off during the past twenty years, so that now a number have bought timber off the reservation for logging. They own their own teams, keep their own time-books, and at present attend to all their own business in connection with these camps. In one respect they differ from white folks--in their mode of conducting the business. Instead of one or two men owning every thing, hiring the men, paying all expenses, and taking all the profits, they combine together and unitedly share the profits or losses. When the boom is sold, and all necessary expenses which have been incurred are paid, they divide the money among themselves according to the amount of work each has done. A few have tried to carry on camps as white people do, but have always failed.

Very few now pursue the old avocations of fishing and hunting, except the old ones. Nearly all the able-bodied men work at some civilized pursuit. Take a ride over the reservation on almost any pleasant day, and nearly all the men will be found to be busy at something.

In the winter, however, it is different. They have very little work for rainy days, and so there is more temptation to gamble and tamahnous. “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”

The women have less temptation than the men in winter. When they have no outdoor work, or it is stormy, they can sew, do housework, make mats and baskets, and all, even the very old ones, are commonly busy at some of these things. Some of them are good washerwomen and some are cooks in the logging-camps. They are by no means so near in a state of slavery as some Indian women in the interior, but are treated with considerable propriety by their husbands.

A few of the young men, after having been in school for a time, have been apprenticed to the trades of carpenter, blacksmith, and farmer, and have done so fairly, that they were employed by the government after the white employees were discharged.

The Clallams have done very little logging or farming. A number have obtained land at Port Discovery, Jamestown, Elkwa, and Clallam Bay, but only a little of it is first-class land, and they have used it for gardens and as a place for a permanent home, so that they should not be driven from one place to another, more than for farming. At Seabeck, Port Gamble, Port Townsend, and Port Discovery, they work quite constantly in the saw-mills; at Jamestown, for the surrounding farmers; at Port Angeles, Elkwa, and Clallam Bay, more of them hunt and fish than elsewhere. A number earn considerable money taking freight and passengers in their canoes. The obtaining of dog-fish oil is something of a business, as logging-camps use a large amount of it. In September there is employment at the Puyallup and surrounding region, about ninety miles from Skokomish, in picking hops. Hop-raising has grown to be a large business among the whites, and Indians have been preferred for picking the hops, thousands of whom flock there every year for the purpose, from every part of the Sound, and even from British Columbia and the Yakama country. Old people, women, and children do as well at this as able-bodied men. It has not, however, always been a healthy place for their morals, as on Sundays and evenings gambling, betting, and horse-racing have been largely carried on. At one time “The Devil’s Playground,” in the Puyallup Valley was noted as the place where Indians and low whites gathered on the Sabbath for horse-racing and gambling, but it became such a nuisance to the hop-growers, as well as to the agents, that they combined and closed it.

A part of the Clallams earn considerable money by sealing, off the north-west coast of the Territory, a very profitable business generally from January to May. In 1883 the taxes of those Clallams who live in Clallam County were $168.30.

IX.

TITLES TO THEIR LAND.

“The plow and the Bible go together in civilizing Indians,” is the remark of Rev. J. H. Wilbur, who for more than twenty years was one of the most successful workers among them: but neither Indians nor whites feel much like clearing land and plowing it unless they feel sure that the land is theirs.

When the treaty was made in 1855 it was the understanding that whenever the Indians should settle down on the reservation, adopt civilized habits, and clear a few acres of land, good titles would be given to them by the government. With this understanding, not long after Agent Eells took charge, he had the reservation surveyed and divided, so that each head of a family whose home was on the reservation should have a fair portion. He gave them papers, signed by himself, in 1874, describing the land, with the expectation that the government in a short time would give them good titles, he having been thus assured by his superiors in office. Other agents did the same. But new movements by the government with reference to the Indians are usually very slow, as they have no votes, and this was no exception. Agent Eells, as well as others, plead and plead time and again, to have this stipulation in the treaty fulfilled, but for a long time to no purpose. Often he had no reply to his letters. People of both political parties put this as a plank into their platform; those of all religions and no religion; those who opposed the peace policy as well as those who favored it, signed petitions to this effect, but in vain. This delay was the source of much uneasiness to the Indians, more, I think, than any other cause, for men were not wanting who told them that they would be moved away; there were plenty of people who coveted their land, and examples were not wanting of Indians who had been moved from place to place by the government. It has been the only thing which has ever caused them to talk about war. Some Indians left the reservation because they feared they would be moved away. “I am not going to clear land and fence it for the whites to use,” was what one said and others felt.

When the treaty was made it was believed by the Indians that they possessed all the land, and that they sold all except the reservation, to which they supposed they had a good title, at least as good as the United States had, and white people believed the same; but a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1873 reversed this idea, and they learned that they had sold all the land, and that government graciously allowed them to stay on the reservation according to its will. In the spring of 1875 they were forbidden to cut a log and sell it off of the reservation, and found that they had no rights to the land which the government was bound to respect, but if she wished to remove them at any time she could do so.

The question came up early in missionary work. The Indians said: “You profess to be Christians, and you have promised us titles to our land. If these titles come we will believe your religion to be true, but if not it will be evidence that you are deceiving us.”

The agent worked nobly for the object, but receiving no reply for a long time he grew almost discouraged. He could work in only one way, by writing to his first superior officer, hoping that he would successfully press the subject upon those more influential.

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.

Time, teaching, and example have, however, worked some changes for the better. There are many of the Indian women who wash, at least, the floors of their front rooms every week. Still the bedrooms, which are not likely to be seen, are often topsy-turvy, and the kitchens often have a bad smell, and the back door needs lime and ammonia. Occasionally, however, a house is found where there is a fair degree of neatness all the way through.

XI.

NAMES.

White people do not usually take kindly to the jaw-breaking Indian names, hence a “Boston” name has generally been given them. But the white men who lived around Skokomish were mostly loggers, who among themselves went by the name of Tom, Jack, Jim, and the like, and seldom put Mr. to any body’s name. As the Indians mingled with them they received similar names, and as there soon came to be several of the same name, they were distinguished by some prefix, usually derived from some characteristic--their size, or the place from which they came. So we had Squaxon Bill, Chehalis Jack, Dr. Bob, Big John, Little Billy, and the like. These were bad enough, but when their children came to take these as their surnames, they sometimes became comical, for we had Sally Bob, Dick Charley, and Sam Pete. Therefore, we soon found that it was best to give every school-child a decent name, and Bill’s son George became George Williams, and John’s boy became Henry Johnson, and Billy’s daughter was Minnie Williamson, and so on. At first, when the older ones were married, it was done with the old Indian nickname, but I soon thought that if in time they were to become Americans they might as well have decent names. So, at their first legal recognition, as at their marriage, baptism, or on entering school, they received names of which they had no need to be ashamed in after years.

XII.

EDUCATION.

This has been conducted entirely by the government, but generally in such a way as to be a handmaid to religion. On the reservation a boarding-school has been kept up during the ten years of missionary labor, as well as many years before, for about ten months in the year. About half of the time, including the winter, the school has been kept six hours in the day, and during the rest of the time for three hours; the scholars being required to work the other half of the day--the boys in the garden getting wood and the like, and the girls in the house sewing, cooking, house-keeping, and doing similar things.

The position of the one in charge has been a difficult one to fill, for it has been necessary that the man be a teacher, disciplinarian, handy at various kinds of work, a Christian, and, during the last year and a half after the agent left, he had charge of the reservation; while it was almost as necessary that his wife be matron, with all the qualifications of taking care of a family of from twenty to forty. It has been difficult to find all these qualifications in one man and his wife, who were willing to take the position for the pay which the government was willing to give, for during the later years the pay was cut down to the minimum. It has not been strange that with all the burdens frequent changes have taken place. There have been seven teachers in the ten years, but most of them were faithful, some of them serving until their health failed. Yet the school has been carried on generally in as Christian a way as if the Missionary Society had had charge of it. All of the teachers and their wives have been Christians--not all Congregationalists; for it has been often impossible to obtain such; in fact, only three have been; but there has been a plain understanding with the others that they should teach nothing in regard to religion which conflicted with the teachings from the pulpit--an understanding which has been faithfully kept, with one exception. In 1874 the school numbered about twenty-four scholars, but it gradually increased until it numbered about forty, which was more than all the children of school age on the reservation, though it did not include many of the Clallams. They were so far away that it was not thought wise to compel them to remain so steadily so far away from their parents year after year.

The school has been a boarding-school, for nearly all the children lived from one to three miles away, and it has been impossible to secure any thing like regular attendance if they lived at home, while some have come from ten to seventy miles distant.

Attendance on school has been compulsory--the proper way among Indians. While the parents speak well about the school, and say that they wish to have their children educated, yet, when the children beg hard to stay at home, parental government is not strong enough to enforce attendance, especially as long as the parents do not _realize_ the value of education. The children have not all liked to go to school, and at first some of them ran away. The agent and his subordinates could tell some stories of getting runaway children, by pulling them out of their beds, taking them home in the middle of the night, and the like. In this respect the government had the advantage of a missionary society, which could not have compelled the children to attend school.

There was no provision in the treaty for more than one school, and that on the reservation. But after the Clallams at Jamestown had bought their land, laid out their village, built their church, and become somewhat civilized, they plead so hard for a school, offering the use of the church-building for the purpose, that the government listened to them, and in 1878 sent them a teacher. This was a day-school, because funds enough were furnished to pay only a teacher, and nearly all the children lived in the village within less than a half-mile from the school. A very few of the children walked daily five or six miles to school, and some of the better families of the village did nobly in making sacrifices to board their relations, when the parents would not furnish even the food for their children. This school has varied in numbers from fifteen to thirty children, and has been conducted in other respects mainly on the same principles as the one on the reservation. It has been of great advantage to the settlement.

A few of the rest of the Clallam children, whose parents were Catholics, have sent their children to a boarding-school at Tulalip, a Catholic agency, and others have not gone to school, there being difficulties in the way which it has been almost or quite impossible to overcome.

The schools have been conducted entirely in English. This is the only practicable plan, for the tribes connected with the school speak three different languages, and it is impossible to have books and newspapers in their languages, while teachers can not be found who are willing to acquire any one of these languages sufficiently well to teach it. It is also the only wise plan. If the Indian in time is to become an American citizen,--and that is the goal to be reached,--he must speak the English language, and it is best to teach it to him while young. In large tribes like the Sioux, where the children will speak their native language almost wholly after they leave school, and where there are enough of them to make it pay to publish books and papers in their own tongue, it is probably best to have the schools in their native language, as a transition from one language to the other. This transition will necessarily take a long time among so large a number of Indians, and needs the stepping-stone of native schools and a native literature to aid it. But where the Indian tribes are small, as is the case on Puget Sound, and surrounded by whites with whom they mingle almost daily, who are constantly speaking English to them, this stepping-stone is not needed. It is possible for the next generation to be mainly English-speaking in this region; in fact, most of them will understand it whether they go to school or not, and it is not wise, were it possible, to retard it by schools in the native language.

CORRECTING THOMSON’S PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC.

An incident occurred in the school, in 1878, worthy of note. One of the scholars in arithmetic found four examples which he could not do, and after a time took them to his teacher, Mr. G. F. Boynton, for assistance. After the teacher (who was a good scholar) had tried them to his satisfaction, he found that there was a mistake about the answers in the book and told the boy so, and then, in a half-joking way, said to him: “You had better write Dr. Thomson and tell him about it.” The boy did so, telling also who he was. In due time he received a reply from Dr. Thomson, who said that two of the mistakes had been discovered and corrected in later editions, but that the other two had not before been found; and then he wondered how an Indian boy out in Washington Territory should be able to correct his arithmetic. He invited the boy to continue the correspondence, but I believe he never did.

XIII.

THE FOURTH OF JULY.

This day has always been celebrated in some way, at least by a dinner. During the first few years the agent furnished the beef and most of the provisions at government expense. On the Fourth of July, 1874, among other exercises, I married seven couples; on the next Fourth, three couples, and in 1878 four more. Speech-making by some of the whites, explaining the day, and music were interspersed. Long tables have usually been made, on which were dishes, knives, and forks, while beef, bread, tea, coffee, sugar, cake, pie, rice, beans, doughnuts, and such things were the principal food.

It was not until 1878 that they took upon themselves the main burden of the day, both of expense and labor, and since that time they have furnished both. The following, from the _Tacoma Herald_ of July, 1879, will answer for

THE FOURTH OF JULY ON SKOKOMISH RESERVATION.

“Among the Indians, from all appearances, the Fourth of July will
probably in time take the place of the potlatch. The latter is
spoken of by their white neighbors as being so foolish, while the
former is held in such high esteem; and as Indians, like others,
enjoy holidays and festivals, it now seems as if the potlatch would
be merged into the Fourth, changed a little to suit circumstances
and civilization. The potlatch has always been given by a few
individuals to invited guests and tribes, presents of money and
other things being made to those who came, while in return a great
name and honorable character was received. It lasts several days or
weeks and is accompanied by gambling, feasting, tamahnous, and the
like.

“The Fourth of July on the Skokomish Reservation began about a week
beforehand and so lasted as long as a short potlatch. The Nisqually
and Puyallup Indians, having resolved to have celebrations of their
own, the attendance was smaller than it otherwise would have been.
The Chehalis Indians came a full week before the Fourth in wagons
and on horseback, while those from Squaxon, Mud Bay, and Seabeck
came between that time and the Fourth. A few of the Skokomish
Indians were at the head of the celebration, bore most of the
expense, and received most of the honor. Other Indians besides
these few, however, occasionally invited all the visitors to a
feast. The guests, on arriving at Skokomish, brought more or less
food with them,--much as at a potlatch, only on a smaller
scale,--and they were received with less ceremony. A table a
hundred feet long was made in a pleasant shady grove, and here for
more than a week--when the guests were not invited to the house of
some friend to a meal--they feasted on beef, beans, rice, sugar,
tea, coffee, and the like: sitting on benches, eating with knives,
forks, and dishes, and cooking the food on two large stoves brought
to the grounds for the purpose; visiting, horse-racing, and other
sports filled up the rest of the time.

“The Fourth was the central day of the festival and was celebrated
in much the same style with the other days, only on a larger scale,
there being more Indians present, more flags flying, more firing of
guns, and more whites on the grounds. By invitation the whites on
the reservation were present and were assigned to a very pleasant
place on the grounds, where they might have had tables if they had
done as the Indians did: made them for themselves; but, as it was,
they picnicked on the ground, while their colored brethren sat at
the tables. A few white men, rather the worse for liquor, visited
the horse-races after the dinner; but not an Indian is known to
have tasted liquor during the week.”

The Clallam Indians seldom have celebrations of their own. They usually attend those of the whites near them, often being invited to take part in canoe-races. There has always been much drunkenness among the whites at these times; the Indians have often been sorely tempted to do the same, and many of them have fallen then who seldom have done so at other times.

The Fourth of July, 1884, in many respects has the best record at the reservation. It was indeed not the greatest, most expensive, or most numerously attended. As the leading ones had decided not to have any horse-racing or betting, the younger ones thought that they could have no celebration, and it was only the day before that they decided to have one. It consisted of a feast, after which they went to the race-track. I felt fearful that some professing Christians would fall, but thought it not best for me to go near that place, but leave them and await the result. When the report came, it was that, while they had some fun with their horses, hardly any of which was regular racing, not a cent had been bet by any one.

XIV.

CHRISTMAS.

This day has been celebrated with as much regularity as the Fourth of July, but the former remains yet as our affair, while the latter has passed into their hands. They have no building large enough to contain much of a celebration of the day. The church is at the agency, and is the most suitable building for the purpose, and the exercises naturally center around the school, so the older Indians come to us on Christmas, and we go to them on the Fourth.

Usually there have been some speeches made, and presents from the government, school-supplies to the Indian school-children. Private presents have been made among the whites, but it has only been during the last two or three years that the outside Indians have taken much interest in this custom of ours. Indeed, during the first few years generally but few of them were present. It was far from their homes, the nights were dark, the roads muddy, so that they did not take much interest in it, but as the first school-children have grown up they have kept up the idea they received in school, and imparted it to others, and of late years a good share of them have been present. On Christmas 1882 and 1883 they made quite a number of private presents; more on the last one than ever before. Usually nuts and candy have been provided from contributions by the whites, and apples which are raised at the agency for the older Indians. A Santa Claus Christmas-tree, or something of the kind, has been the usual way for distributing the presents. The report of the Sabbath-school for the year has been a central item in the exercises, showing the attendance, the number of times each has been on the roll of honor, with the distribution of some extra present to those who have been highest on this roll.

In 1878 quite an exhibition was made by the school, consisting of pieces spoken, dialogues, compositions, tableaux, and the like. In 1879 I arranged so that about twenty of the aged Indians, who had neither land nor good houses, came to the agency and had a dinner of rice, beans, bread, and tea. This was new to them, they generally being the neglected ones, but I thought it to be according to the principles of the New Testament.

The celebration for 1883 suited me better than any previous one in many respects. The first part of the exercises were more of a religious service than usual--more of a celebration of Christ’s birth. This idea suited also the minds of the Indians better than to have it mainly consist of sport. The Indian girls did nearly all the singing and playing, six of them playing each one piece on the organ. The year before three of them had done so, but this year it was still better. Then five of the older Indians made speeches, including two of the chiefs and two of the young men who had been in school. This was new for them on this day. More of the Indians also made private presents than ever before. Thus they took up the work, as the whites who previously had done it had been discharged, and it is better for them to do so.

The people at Jamestown for several years have had a celebration of their own, consisting often of a Christmas-tree, and they have borne the whole expense. I have never been present, but they have always been spoken of as enjoyable affairs, a good number of the surrounding whites feeling that it was a pleasant place for them to spend the evening.

XV.

VARIETY.

“Jack-at-all-trades and good at some” was the pleasant way in which Dr. Philip Schaff put it, when some of the students in the Theological Seminary at Hartford, Connecticut, had done up some furniture for him, to send to New Haven. I have often been reminded of this, as I have had, at times, to take up a variety of work. Missionaries among the Indians have to be the first part of the sentence and console themselves with the hope that the latter part may sometimes prove true.

On one tour among the Clallams, I find the following: When three miles from home, the first duty was to stop and attend the funeral of a white man. Forty-five miles on, the evening of the next day until late at night, was spent in assisting one of the government employees in holding court over four Indians, who had been drunk; a fifth had escaped to British Columbia and was safe from trial. This kind of business occasionally comes in as an aid to the agent. I seldom have any thing to do with it on the reservation, as the agent can attend to it; but when off from the reservation, where neither of us can be more than once in six months or thereabouts it sometimes saves him much trouble and expense, and seems to do as much good as a sermon. It is of but little use to preach to drunken Indians, and a little law sometimes helps the gospel. The agent reciprocates by talking gospel to them on the Sabbath on his trips.

On reaching Jamestown, the afternoon was spent in introducing an Indian from British Columbia, who had taken me there in his canoe, to the Clallam Indians and the school; and in comforting two parents, Christian Indians, whose youngest child lay at the point of death. The next day she died, and, as no minister had ever been among these Indians at any previous funeral, they needed some instruction. So it was my duty to assist in digging the grave and making the coffin, comfort them, and attend the funeral in a snow-storm.

The Sabbath was spent in holding two services with them, one of them being mainly a service of song; and, as there was a part of the day unoccupied, at the request of the whites near by I gave them a sermon. The next day I found that “Blue Monday” must be adjourned. Years ago the Indians purchased their land, but owing to a mistake of the surveyor, it was necessary that the deeds should be made out again. So, in order to get all the Indians together who were needed, with the proper officer, I walked fourteen miles, rode six in a canoe, and then, after half-past three o’clock, saw that nineteen deeds were properly signed, which required sixty-two signatures, besides the witnessing, acknowledging, and filing of them, which required seventy-six more signatures. The plat of their town--Jamestown--was also filed and recorded. When this was done, I assisted the Indians to obtain two marriage-licenses, after which we went to the church, where I addressed them on two different subjects, and then the two weddings took place, and by nine o’clock we were done.

The monotony of the next day was varied by a visit to the school; helping the chief to select a burying-ground (for their dead had been buried in various places); a walk of ten miles and a wedding of a white couple, who have been very kind to me in my work there, one of them being a member of the Jamestown church.