Chapter III: Part 3

No more pitiable condition can be imagined than that of the helpless Indian women and girls who were devoted by their husbands and fathers to prostitution among vile whites. The northern Indians brought down to the Songish reserve at Victoria their young women, many of them girls from ten to fourteen years of age, and remained all summer as pimps and procurers.[46] Reports of American Indian agents along the Coast make frequent mention of this practice. In the interior there is less evidence of its existence, but wherever Indians had a chance to linger around towns, they became demoralized. Employes agencies prostituted Indian women or took them for concubines; the Superintendent of Washington Territory issued a circular warning all employes from such acts.[47] The results of prostitution are found in reports of physicians of the various agencies, who almost always speak of venereal diseases as common. It should very clearly be understood that these facts were not true of all tribes in like degree; the tribes in the interior were more robust physically and morally and farther removed from contamination. Nor should the chastity of all the individuals of a tribe be judged by specimens which hung about the towns. In the interior, particularly, it was probably true that "unchastity among Indians is the exception, as it is among the whites."[48]

Everywhere, both north and south of the Boundary, Indian welfare was assailed by the liquor traffic, and everywhere the Government engaged in a less or more futile struggle to combat it. Many of the Indians undoubtedly believed, like an Indian orator at Ft. Simcoe, that they had a right to drink whiskey if they wanted to, especially so long as the white man made it,--and there were always white men ready to sell it.[49] Local government took little part in suppressing the trade in the United States, the work being regarded as belonging to the officials of the general Government. These were hindered by lack of summary powers, by the scarcity of jails, and by the reluctance of juries to convict. Only on the reservations were the powers of the agents ample, and even here they might, in part, be nullified by the planting of resorts on the edges. The whole power of Government in British Columbia, on the other hand, could be utilized for the punishment of offenders. Magistrates had summary powers, and conviction entailed heavy fines and, in the case of regular dealers, loss of license. But the magistrates had the care of immense districts, and the Indians were not localized as they were in the United States after the reservation system was completely established. Yet this form of lawlessness, in common with other forms, was better checked on the whole in British Columbia than in the territories.

As we turn, now, to consider the efforts to solve the Indian problem in British Columbia, quotations from two American administrators will help to set before us the better ordered conditions under British rule. The first is from General Harney: "Like all Indians they [the northern Indians] are fond of whisky, and can be seen at all hours of the day in the streets of Victoria drinking whenever they can get it, yet they are not permitted to become disorderly. These Indians are more obedient under British rule, which appears to be kind, but firm, than their fellow men with us under any of the systems adopted by our government."[50] The other is from an Indian agent, Mr. Davenport, to whom we have before referred. "We have only to look across the line into the British possessions of North America," he says, "to see that their treatment of the Indian has been more promotive of peace and good will than ours, and some people are swift to conclude that the Canadians are of a higher moral tone than the people of the United States. The true reason lies in the fact that their system has a more constant and restraining influence upon the lawless class in society. There is more individual freedom with us, and consequently more room for departure from the normal line of conduct. This difference is boldly in evidence to those of our citizens who have lived in mining regions governed by Canadian officers, whose official tenure does not depend upon the mood of the populace."[51]

The policy of the Colonial Government of British Columbia with respect to the Indian population was distinguished by the following principal features: (1) Title to the soil was not recognized as belonging to the Indians; (2) No compensation, therefore, was allowed to Indians either in the shape of payments, annuities, or of special educational grants; (3) Indians were held to be fellow subjects with white men, and entitled, as individuals, to the protection of law, and responsible for obedience to law; (4) Sequestration of the native population upon large reservations was not followed, but, as settlement progressed, small reserves were assigned to families and septs, in proximity to settlements of the whites.[52]

The adoption of this policy, so different to that of the United States, was not due to differences between the Indian populations north and south of the line. Some differences, it is true, there were: a great part of the natives of British Columbia had been more uninterruptedly under the tutelage of the Hudson's Bay Company than those across the Boundary, and were somewhat more inclined to work; no one tribe in the Colony was so powerful or so well organized as the Nez Perces; nor did the Indians of the Interior of British Columbia possess so many horses as did those to the south. Yet Kootenays, Pend d'Oreilles, and Okanogans crossed the Line at pleasure; the Shuswaps were very like the Coeur d'Alenes or the Cayuses; and the untameability of the nomads south of the Snake was matched by the wildness and ferocity of the Indians to the far north. In numbers, organization, and character it is difficult to see why the natives of the one section were the more adapted to any certain system than those of the other.[53]

The initiation of this policy (especially with respect to the non-recognition of Indian title and the withholding of compensation) was in part due to pressure for funds in the Colony and to the refusal of the Imperial Government to assume any financial responsibility in the matter. Governor Douglas before the founding of the Colony had acted, apparently, on a different principle when, as agent for the Hudson's Bay Company, he had bought in 1850-51 considerable areas from various tribes in Vancouver's Island.[54] Compensation of some sort to Indians on the mainland was at least tentatively endorsed by the colonial office of the Home Government while it was in charge of Sir E. B. Lytton; yet Lytton was careful to state that he did not adopt the views of the Aborigines' Protective Society as to the means for extending protection to the natives.[55] This society was an organization in England which had "taken for many years a deep interest in the welfare of the Indian Tribes to the west as well as the east of the Rocky Mountains," and it may be looked upon as a British manifestation of the same sort of philanthropic sentiment in regard to Indians as existed among certain classes in the eastern part of the United States. The Secretary of the Society, in a long letter to Lytton, after quoting a long extract from a New York paper relative to the extreme cruelty of miners to Indians in California and characterizing the Indians of British Columbia as a "strikingly acute and intelligent race of men," "keenly sensitive to their own rights," and "equally alive to the value of the gold discoveries," claimed for them protection against wanton outrages and asked that "the Native title should be recognized in British Columbia, and that some reasonable adjustment of their claims should be made by the British Government."[56] The policy of compensation to Indians was further endorsed by Governor Douglas in regard to lands on Vancouver Island, on the occasion of the transmission of a petition from the House of Assembly of Vancouver Island, "praying for the aid of Her Majesty's Government in extinguishing the Indian title to the public lands in the Colony." The money then needed amounted to £3000, and Douglas proposed that it be advanced by the Imperial Government, payment to be made from the proceeds of sales of land. But the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, replied tersely that he was "fully sensible of the great importance of purchasing without loss of time the native title to the soil of Vancouver Island; but the acquisition of the title is a purely colonial interest, and the Legislature must not entertain any expectation that the British taxpayer will be burdened to supply the funds or British credit pledged for that purpose."[57]

Whatever the reason, however, for denying recognition of title to the Indians both of the Island and of the Mainland, and for withholding compensation, there can be no doubt of the fact: "The title of the Indians in fee of the public lands, or any portion thereof," wrote an eminent colonial official, "has never been acknowledged by Government, but, on the contrary is distinctly denied."[58]

The beginnings of a positive Indian policy in British Columbia may be traced in an early letter of Governor Douglas to Sir E. B. Lytton, March 14, 1859. This letter was in reply to one from the latter (Dec. 30, 1858), in which Lytton inquired whether a plan for settling the Indians in permanent villages, like the plan used by Sir George Grey with the Kaffirs in South Africa, might not be feasible.[59]

Douglas endorsed the plan as of advantage both to the Indians and to the Colony and then sketched the principles upon which he proposed to establish reserves on the mainland. In the first place, the reserves should "in all cases include their cultivated fields and village sites, for which from habit and association they invariably conceive a strong attachment, and prize more, for that reason, than for the extent or value of the land."[60]. Such settlements, in the second place, were to be entirely self-supporting. The Governor here adverted to the plan pursued in the United States with regard to Indian reservations, but stated that that plan was expensive to the Government and debasing to the Indians. The system followed by the Spanish missions in California, likewise, he regarded as defective, in that it kept the Indians in a state of pupilage and did not train them to self-government and self-reliance. He would avoid the evils of both these systems and, in particular, cultivate the pride of independence. He proposed to that end, that each family have title to its own plot of ground, but without power of alienation; that they should be encouraged to add to their possessions by purchasing property apart from the reserve; "that they should in all respects be treated as rational beings, capable of acting and thinking for themselves; and, lastly, that they should be placed under proper moral and religious training and then be left, under the protection of the laws, to provide for their own support."[61] "I have impressed upon the miners," wrote Douglas to Lytton, "the great fact that the law will protect the Indian equally with the white man, and regard him in all respects as a fellow subject."[62] "The Indian population," he wrote to another, "are considered by the laws of England as fellow subjects, entitled to protection and punishable, when guilty of offenses, through the sole action of the law."[63] In a review of the Colonial Indian policy, written in 1875, the Attorney General stated that that policy "was based on the broad and experimental principle of treating the Indian as a fellow subject."[64]

It now remains for us to inquire how this Indian policy, so based, was applied by the Colonial Government to this class of Her Majesty's subjects; not omitting, as we do so, to notice contrasts to administration in the United States.

In the administration of justice the courts of British Columbia treated the Indian as the white man was treated. "When Indians commit offenses," ordered Governor Douglas, "they are to be dealt with impartially and to receive a fair trial before the proper authorities, and not to be treated like the wild beasts of the forest."[65] We get a glimpse of the way in which the law was administered with respect to Indians from the terse records of the old Ft. Hope Police Book. An Indian, for stealing money from another was sentenced to two days in jail. Two Indians, for being drunk and disorderly, were sent to jail for twenty-four hours. Simon B. McClure was charged by an Indian with assaulting him and was fined forty shillings. William Welch, charged by another Indian with the same offense, claimed that the Indian had beaten his dog and attacked him with a knife; Welch was let off, and the Indian was reprimanded. An Indian who struck an Indian woman in the face with a gun had his hair cut off. J. Spencer Thompson, for selling about one pint of liquor to an Indian had to pay a fine of $100, with costs, and lost his license to sell liquor. The sentences, it will be observed, were generally light for minor offenses, but not for selling liquor to Indians. Whites and Chinamen, the records reveal, were treated exactly as the Indians. Of course for grave offenses Indians, as well as others, were bound over to the assizes. In a number of cases Indians were hung for murder. This even-handed, carefully adjusted dealing out of justice to Indians, whites, and Chinese alike, contrasts plainly with the carelessness, ruthlessness, and lack of system in the territories. One could scarcely imagine an event like the following occurring on an American frontier: "May 28, 1862. Chas. Millard, Capt. of the Ft. Hope (steamboat) appeared to answer the complaint of Jim (an Indian) for having on the 16th inst. broken and otherwise damaged his canoe at Union, valued at twenty-five dollars ($25.00).

"Ordered to pay four pounds ($20.00) being the damage sustained by the Indian as sworn to by C. C. Craigie & Wm. Yates. Paid. P. O'Reilly, J. P."[66]

It is difficult in the mining regions south of the Line to find satisfactory records as to how justice was administered to the Indian. The reservation system, as it was being applied in the Pacific Northwest, weakened the ancient tribal authority; the "subsidy plan" tended to alienate the people from the chiefs, and the presence of Agents lessened their prestige in the eyes of the young or of those inclined to be bad. The Agents, on their part, had no authority for the punishment of criminal acts. If they had possessed magisterial powers, both with regard to whites and Indians, justice might have been better administered. Local authorities had no jurisdiction over Indians who were on reservations, although they sometimes punished those who were off of them.[67] Only United States courts had full power, but these courts were slow in action, and could not be expected, moreover, to take cognizance of minor cases. Indian criminals, finally, were sometimes arrested by army officials and tried by army courts with scanty consideration.[68] For the Indian, indeed, there seems to have been at this period practically no real protection before the law in the American procedure.

In case of Indian outbreak the British Columbia system aimed to punish offenders as individuals and not to take revenge on tribes. One of the marked features of the history of the Colony of British Columbia is that there was but one serious Indian outbreak during the colonial period.[69] This happened in April, 1864, when some Chilcotin Indians killed roadmakers and settlers to the number of fourteen. The whole tribe went on the warpath, but were subdued by volunteers from New Westminster and Cariboo. Rewards of $250 each were offered for the individual murderers, the aim being, as Governor Seymour expressed it, "to secure justice, not vengeance."[70] Too often, south of the Line, in case of Indian depredations, there was no discrimination between the tribe and guilty members of the tribe.[71]

In the British Columbia Indian system, as we have before stated there was no policy of bestowing annuities or subsidies, although gifts were sometimes made for special reasons.[72] To the student of American Indian history special interest attaches in this connection to the judgment of Mr. William Duncan, a man of very great experience, wisdom, and success in his dealings with Indians. Mr. Duncan wrote as follows in 1875 from his mission at Metlakahtla: "In no matter affecting the Indians can the Government do more good or harm than in the matter of gifts.

"Money may be spent to a large amount upon the Indians and yet tend only to alienate, dissatisfy, and impoverish them, if wrongly applied; whereas a small sum rightly administered will yield much good both to the Indians and the country at large.

"The policy of dealing out gifts to individual Indians I consider cannot be too strongly deprecated, as it is both degrading and demoralizing. To treat the Indians as paupers is to perpetuate their baby-hood and burdensomeness. To treat them as savages, whom we fear and who must be tamed and kept in good temper by presents, will perpetuate their barbarism and increase their insolence. I would therefore strongly urge the Government to set their faces against such a policy." He recommended, on the positive side, that money be put into Public Works for the benefit of the Indians. It will thus be seen that Mr. Duncan held substantially the same views with regard to annuities as did the Agents and superintendents south of the Line, whose well-conceived ideas were nullified by the officials and contractors in the East.[73]

As has before been remarked, the Colony of British Columbia made no special effort for the education of the Indians. It was averred on the part of the Government that "the Government merely deferred the subject, believing that it was far more important in the interests of the community at large to first reclaim the Natives from their savage state and teach them the practical and rudimentary lessons of civilized life."[74] Beyond establishing reserves, however, and placing the Indians under law, one fails to see how the Government directly tried to teach them these "practical and rudimentary lessons." Certainly there was no effort by the Government to teach the Indians agriculture or any of the practical arts, as there was south of the Line.

There were other ways, however, in which the Colonial Government did help the Indians at considerable expense. In surveying reserves, and in keeping whites off of them; in the suppression of the liquor traffic; in exemptions from tolls, taxes, and customs; and in direct pecuniary aid for the destitute and the sick, the aggregate expenditures and rebates were considerable. Moreover, the Magistrates in the several Districts were to act as Indian Agents, and to advise and protect the Indian "in all matters relating to their welfare."[75]

We arrive now, finally, at the very important subject of reserves. These Indian reserves of British Columbia are to be clearly distinguished from the Indian reservations of the United States. The latter were very large in area, were assigned to a tribe or to a number of tribes, were founded on the principle of sequestration from the whites, and were under the oversight of an agent; the reserves of British Columbia were small, were assigned to septs or families, were often contiguous to white settlements, and had no special agents. In size the reserves of British Columbia varied in all degrees from one acre to six thousand acres.[76] The total area of surveyed reserves amounted in 1871 to 28,437 acres.[77] The general principle on which reserves were assigned was that each head of a family should be given ten acres, but in practice there was considerable variation.[78] It seems strange to one accustomed to American reservations, that a reserve of six hundred square miles for a tribe of 400 members should have been regarded as entirely too extensive to be allowed.[79]

The principle of assigning land in so small amounts, on what we may call a village system, may have been adopted with special reference to conditions of life among the Coast Indians or among those of the lower Fraser, for whose use (since they made their living by fishing or working for whites) a small parcel of land was sufficient but for the pastoral Indians of the interior it seemed manifestly insufficient. So long as there was plenty of range, the smallness of the reserves was not felt, but when whites acquired title to vacant lands and, at the same time, the wants of the Indians increased, the latter felt themselves unjustly treated.[80] When British Columbia entered the Confederation, the Dominion Government wanted the Indians to have eighty acres for each head of family. This the Province refused, but it did consent to grant twenty. This amount still being considered insufficient for the Interior Indians by the Dominion Superintendent of Indian Affairs for British Columbia, he requested that it be raised to forty acres (in accordance with the principle then recognized in the preemption laws of British Columbia, which allowed 160 acres west of the Cascades, but 320 east); but the request was not granted.[81]

In addition to their reserves, however, the Indians of British Columbia had the right to acquire land outside the reserves on the same terms as white men,--a right not possessed at that time by their kindred to the South. This right was clearly stated by Governor Douglas: "That measure," he said (referring to the reserve system) "is not, however, intended to interfere with the private rights of individuals of the future Tribes, or to incapacitate them, as such, from holding land; on the contrary, they have precisely the same rights of acquiring and possessing land in their individual capacity, either by purchase or by occupation under the Pre-emption Law, as other classes of Her Majesty's Subjects; provided they in all respects comply with the legal conditions of tenure by which land is held in this Colony."[82] This right, however, was afterwards modified to the extent that preemption could be exercised by an Indian only by special consent of the Government.[83] So late as 1872 an Indian received special permission to pre-empt one hundred acres.

As to which system, that of British Columbia or that of the United States, on the whole was the better, is a question difficult, if not impossible to decide; and it would certainly involve extensive research in the period subsequent to that of our study and beyond its scope.

W. J. TRIMBLE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Davenport, T. W. Recollections of an Indian Agent. Quar Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII, No. 4, Dec. 1907, p. 352.

[2] Mullan--Report on Military Road, p. 52

[3] Id., p. 79.

[4] Id., p. 52.

[5] Con. His. Soc. Mont., Vol. VI, p. 284.

[6] Rpt. Com. Indian Affairs, 1863, p. 442.

[7] Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways, Vol. I, pp. 250 & 318.

[8] Recollections of an Indian Agent. Or. His. Quar. Vol. VIII, No. 1, March, 1907, p. 389.

[9] The Pioneer Reminiscences of George Collier Robbins, Pacific Monthly, Vol. 26, No. 2, Aug., 1911, pp. 288-9.

[10] An Incident of this nature is related in Hailey, History of Idaho, p. 58.

[11] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quart. Or. His. Soc. Vol. VIII, No. 4, Dec., 1907, p. 360.

[12] The Montana Post. Feb. 4, 1865

[13] Journals of the Council and House of Representatives of Idaho Territory, 4th session, 1866-7, pp. 343-4.

[14] For different views of one expedition, contrast the account of the expedition led by Jeff Standifer in Hailey's Idaho, pp. 49-60, with that in the Pioneer Reminiscences of George Collier Robbins. Pacific Monthly, Vol. 26, No. 2, Aug., 1911, pp. 198-9.

[15] General Conner's men marched several days in extremely cold weather, in order to catch and surprise these Indians. Of the soldiers in this expedition 15 were killed, 53 wounded, and 75 more or less seriously frozen. An account may be found in Langford, Vigilante Days and Ways, pp. 337-354.

[16] The Idaho World, Feb. 24, 1866.

[17] Owyhee Avalanche, Dec. 16, 1865.

[18] Id., Nov. 11, 1865.

[19] The Idaho World, Jan. 27, 1866.

[20] The Canadian Pacific Railway has a special plan for providing for such settlers, by itself building houses and breaking land. It is a well-known fact in Western Canada that new emigrants from the old country find it much more difficult to get a start than do Americans or people from Eastern Canada. This fact was recently called to my attention, on a visit to Alberta, by an English farmer of several years' experience.

[21] I am indebted for a number of the ideas and facts expressed in this paragraph to Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII, No. 1, March, 1907, pp. 12-18.

[22] Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 1861, p. 160.

[23] Id., 1862, p. 419.

[24] Id., 1863, p. 52.

[25] Id., 1861, p. 160.

[26] Report Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1860, pp. 173-761.

[27] Rpt. Com. Ind. Affairs, 1862, p. 397.

[28] The Weekly Oregonian. Sept. 7, 1861.

[29] San Francisco Daily Bulletin, July 24, 1862.

[30] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Oregon His. Soc., Vol. VIII, No. 2, June, 1907, p. 108.

[31] Report of Henry A. Webster. Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1862, p. 407.

[32] T. W. Davenport. Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII. No. 2, June, 1907, p. 108.

[33] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1863, p. 459.

[34] San Francisco Daily Bulletin, Jan. 28, 1864.

[35] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1860, p. 185.

[36] Rpt. Com. Ind. Affairs, 1861, p. 159.

[37] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1862, pp. 400-401.

[38] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII, No. I, March 1907, p. 14. {See transcriber notes}

[39] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Ore. His. Soc., Vol. VIII., No. 1, March, 1907, p. 14.

[40] Id., p. 7.

[41] 36 Cong., 1st sess., Sen. Doc. I, p. 802.

[42] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII, No 1, March, 1907, pp. 18-19.

[43] Id. No. 2, June, 1907, p. 105.

[44] Cf. on these points Id. No. I, pp. 4 & 5.

[45] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1860, p. 184; 1862, p. 263; 1863, pp. 52, 65, 82-84, 449-451, and 473; 1864, pp. 73-4, 85.

[46] British Columbia Papers Connected with the Indian Land Question, Report of I. U. Powell concerning the Songish reserve, pp. 121-2.

[47] Rpt. Com. Ind. Af., 1861, p. 77.

[48] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or., His. Soc., Vol. VIII., No. 2, June. 1907, pp. 127-8.

[49] San Francisco Daily Bulletin. July 24, 1862.

[50] 36 Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Doc. 11, No. 2, p. 108.

[51] Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar., Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII. No. 4, Dec., 1907, p. 355.

[52] It should be carefully noted that this statement of policy has no reference to the Canadian policy. The two are clearly distinguishable.

[53] Statements of numbers of population in both sections may be found in Documents relating to Vancouver's Island Laid Before the House of Commons, 1849, pp. 9 & 10, and Report from the Select Committee on the Hudson's Bay Company, 1857, pp. 366-7. Some information as to the grouping of natives in British Columbia may be obtained from Tolmie and Dawson--Comparative Vocabularies of the Indian Tribes of British Columbia.

[54] These conveyances are found in Papers Connected With the Indian Land Question, pp. 5-11. A clause common to all papers was the following: "The condition of or understanding of this sale is this, that our village sites and enclosed fields are to be kept for our own use, for the use of our children, and for those who may follow after us; and the land shall be properly surveyed hereafter. It is understood, however, that the land itself, with these small exceptions, becomes the entire property of the white people forever; it is also understood that we are at liberty to hunt over the unoccupied lands, and to carry on our fisheries as formerly."

It was claimed by Hon. Joseph W. Trutch that these transactions were merely "made for the purpose of securing friendly relations between those Indians and the settlement of Victoria, * * * and certainly not in acknowledgement of any general title of the Indians to the lands they occupy." Id., Ap, p. 11.

[55] Sir E. B. Lytton to Governor Douglas, July 31, 1858, and Sept. 2, 1858,--Papers relating to Indian Land Question, p. 12: Carnarvon to Governor Douglas, April 11 and May 20, 1859, Id., p. 18.

[56] Id., pp. 12-14.

[57] Id., p. 20.

[58] Memorandum, 1870, of Joseph W. Trutch, Commissioner of Lands and Works, Id., ap. pp. 10-13. Cf. also The Indian Land Question in British Columbia, a lecture delivered April 22nd, 1910, in Vancouver by Rev. Arthur E. O'Meara, B. A., p. 13. This lecture is in opposition to the policy which has been pursued. The Roman Catholic missionaries, as well as some clergymen of other denominations, have been actively sympathetic with the Indian point of view sometimes to the embarrassment of officials; Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, pp. 27-8, 86-91, 145-148.

[59] Id., pp. 16 and 17.

[60] This principle was acted upon, also, with regard to burial grounds. In the establishment of the reserve system, as, indeed, in all dealings with the Indians, the officials of British Columbia were more considerate of the prejudices and attachments of the Indians than officials in the United States usually were. An interesting example of this consideration was an "Ordinance to prevent the violation of Indian graves." This ordinance decreed that anyone damaging or removing any image, bones, or any article or thing deposited in, on, or near any Indian grave in the Colony, would be liable to a fine of £100 for the first offense, and twelve months imprisonment at hard labor for the second. In any indictment "It shall be sufficient to state that such grave, image, bones, article or thing is the property of the Crown." Ordinances of the Legislative Council of British Columbia, Sess. Jan.-April, 1865, No. 19.

[61] Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, pp. 16 and 17.

[62] Oct. 11. 1858: Papers Regarding British Columbia, I, 39.

[63] Douglas to Mortimer Robertson Miscellaneous Letters, Ms., I, p. 37.

[64] Papers Relating to the Indian Land Question, p. 4.

[65] Miscl. Letters, Ms. I, 37.

[66] The old Police Book is the more trustworthy, because it was not intended as a report, nor for publication. The officials whose judgments were recorded were Chief Justice Begbie and Mr. O'Reilly.

[67] Some Indians were tried and convicted for murder in 1861, in the Wasco County (Oregon) Circuit Court; Oregonian, Oct. 12, 1861.

[68] Two renegade Umatilla Indians on one occasion attempted to rob a sleeping miner. He awoke, and in a scuffle one of them shot and wounded him. These Indians called at the lodge of Howlish Wampo, a much respected Cayuse chief, and then disappeared. Colonel Steinburger, in command at Walla Walla, had the chief arrested, put in chains, and was dissuaded from executing him only by the earnest solicitations of the Indian Agent. The two Indians were afterward arrested and, after a farcical trial by a military commission were executed. The miner had not died. Recollections of an Indian Agent, Quar. Or. His. Soc., Vol. VIII, No. 1, March, 1907, pp. 24-35.

[69] There was a disturbance in 1848 between Indians and miners along the Fraser, before Government was established. Miners volunteered and organized in true American fashion and compelled peace.

[70] Government Gazette, May 28, 1864, and Jan. 14, 1865.

[71] When Bolon, Indian Agent of the Yakimas, was murdered in 1855, the Olympia Pioneer and Democrat said: "Chastisement can now be visited upon the tribes instead of going to the trouble of ferreting out individual guilty members." Oct. 12, 1855.

[72] In the Budget of 1864, out of a total of £135,639, there was specified for gifts to Indian chiefs, £200, (Government Gazette, Feb. 20, 1864); out of a total appropriation of £122,250 in 1869, £100 was appropriated for Indian expenses. (Papers Relating to the Indian Land Question, p. 98.)

[73] It might have been well for the enthusiastic Eastern philanthropists, who were so zealous in inveighing against wrongs perpetrated by Westerners upon the Indians, to have directed some of their efforts to their own neighbors.

[74] Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, Ap., p. 4.

[75] Id., p. 4.

[76] Schedule of Indian Reserves in the Province of British Columbia; Papers Relating to Indian Land Question, pp. 104-5.

[77] Report of the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, Id., p. 103.

[78] Id., p. 137.

[79] Id., p. 33.

[80] On this phase consult letter of Rev. Father Grandidier from Okanogan, Id., pp. 145-147.

[81] Id., p. 124.

[82] Government Gazette, Jan. 30, 1864.

[83] Papers Relating to the Indian Land Question, Ap., p. 4.

DOCUMENTS

The prominence given to the name of the Indian Chief Leschi in the City of Seattle is sufficient to lend an interest to the following record of a meeting of pioneers in Pierce County. It was copied from the Pioneer and Democrat of Friday, January 29, 1858, by Harry B. McElroy of Olympia. Mr. McElroy has a fine series of old territorial newspapers.

Indignation Meeting

The citizens of Pierce County, W. T., after returning from witnessing the disgraceful transaction enacted at Fort Steilacoom, the place appointed for the execution of the murderer Leschi, on the 22nd January, 1858, assembled at the church in Steilacoom City.

Mr. O. P. Meeker was called to the chair, and N. W. Orr was chosen Secretary.

The chairman then stated the object of the meeting.

The meeting was addressed by Messrs. Sam McCaw, E. Cady and Henry Bradley. On motion,

A committee of five were appointed, consisting of A. L. Porter, O. H. White, W. R. Downey, E. M. Meeker and M. J. West, for the purpose of drafting resolutions expressing the views of this meeting as regards the conduct of Sheriff, Geo. Williams, U. S. Commissioner, J. M. Bachelder, and such of the military officers at the Steilacoom Garrison as assisted in evading the execution of the law, and likewise the disgraceful course pursued by Frank Clark.

The committee, after retiring for a short time, reported the following resolutions which were unanimously adopted.

WHEREAS, at connivance, as we fully believe, of sheriff Williams and others, an arrest was made of said Williams for the purpose of preventing the execution of Leschi, who had been tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death, therefore,

RESOLVED, That we, as citizens of Pierce County, denounce the act as being unworthy of honorable men. That the aiders, abetters and sympathisers in this high-handed outrage, deserve the unqualified condemnation of all lovers of good, order, and are no longer entitled to our confidence.

RESOLVED, That the action of those of the officers of the U. S. A. at Fort Steilacoom, who have participated, aided and abetted in the arrest of sheriff Williams at the very hour he was to have executed Leschi, and, as we believe, solely for the purpose of preventing him from performing his duty as sheriff, deserve at our hands the severest condemnation, that we consider it an act unworthy of the officers of the U. S. Army, it being clearly their duty to assist in enforcing the law instead of throwing obstacles in the way of its mandates.

RESOLVED, That the action of the U. S. Commissioner, J. M. Bachelder, in issuing a warrant for the arrest of sheriff Williams, on the affidavit of an Indian, and, as we believe, with full knowledge of the object to be effected by the arrest, is without the least shadow of excuse, and that the interest of the community demands his immediate removal.

RESOLVED, That we believe that Frank Clark has done all that was in his power to prevent the execution of the laws, and has been instrumental in having an affidavit filed, which resulted in the arrest of the sheriff and his deputy, and we brand the act as being unworthy of a law abiding citizen of this Territory.

RESOLVED, That the representative of the foreign company in our midst, W. F. Tolmie, has, by his own officiousness in this matter, rendered himself more than obnoxious to the citizens of Pierce County, and that we earnestly desire to see the day when our Country shall be rid of this incubus on our prosperity.

On motion of A. C. Lowell,

A committee of three was appointed by the Chair, consisting of Henry Bradley, A. L. Porter and Sam McCaw to circulate the above resolutions to give such of our citizens as wish, the opportunity to endorse the same.

On motion of A. C. Lowell, The proceedings [were ordered] published in the Pioneer and Democrat. On motion the meeting adjourned.

O. P. Meeker, Ch'n
N. W. Orr, Sec.

BOOK REVIEWS

THE STORY OF THE PONY EXPRESS. By Glen D. Bradley. (Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co. 1913. Pp. 175. $.75.)

The Pony Express was an incidental enterprise of importance in the attempts to establish rapid communication between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast during the early sixties. Before the middle of the nineteenth century explorers and traders in the far West had established three great thoroughfares across the continent. These were the Santa Fe, the Salt Lake, and the Oregon trails. The Mormon settlement of Utah and the discovery of gold in California led to the establishment of mail routes across the country. In spite of governmental subsidies, the difficulties occasioned by the Indians, the severe weather, especially in the mountains, irregular highways and absence of bridges made communication particularly difficult and uncertain. Railroads and telegraph lines were being pushed east and west, but had not connected when the Civil War approached, and with it grave fears lest California be lost to the Union. Rapid communication was essential and into this gap was pushed the Pony Express, a thoroughly organized system of riders who carried the mails on horseback between stations maintained along the route. For sixteen months the daring men identified with this work with unsurpassed courage and unflinching endurance kept the two sections in communication with each other until, in October, 1861, telegraph wires took the place of flesh and blood as means of communication, and the Pony Express passed into history, and California was saved to the Union. The Pony Express failed in a financial way to reimburse its organizers, but it served the country well and gave another opportunity for the exercise of "man-defying American pluck and determination--qualities that have always characterized the winning of the West." Mr. Bradley's theme has much in it of romance and heroism and he has lost none of it in the telling.

EDWARD MCMAHON.

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THE COMING CANADA. (The World Today Series.) By Joseph King Goodrich. Sometime Professor in the Imperial Government College, Kyoto. (Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co. 1913. Pp. VIII, 309. $1.50 net.)

This book was written not for the specialist in history or political science, but for the general reader, and should be judged from that standpoint. It is largely a compilation from satisfactory authorities, but the author relies upon direct knowledge gained by travel during the past twenty-five years and he has also received suggestions and statistics from the various departmental authorities at Ottawa. The book has no independent historical value, but forms a good guide for the general reader and is well worth perusal by one who is contemplating a Canadian tour or desires a bird's view of present conditions. The range of topics is broad, covering, with the exception of present party politics and problems of racial and religious assimilation, all subjects of major interest.

One excellent chapter is devoted to sources of Canadian wealth; according to the view of the author, the greatness of The Coming Canada is founded upon agricultural products, live stock and kindred industries, rather than upon its mineral wealth. This seems to be the keynote of the book. Subjects worthy of especial mention are governmental policies for internal development, including the homestead laws; railway, past, present and future; and brief discussions of the social and economic relations of Canada and the United States. The description of local and central institutions of government is adequate for the purposes of the general reader.

The historical introduction, comprising the first quarter of the book, is the least satisfactory. It has no independent historical value and the facts may be obtained elsewhere in briefer and more satisfactory shape. The notices, however, of official processes by which the present boundaries of the Dominion were attained, are adequate.

The forty illustrations from photographs add greatly to the attractiveness of the volume; but the reviewer regrets that at least one of them could not have been replaced by a good map.

OLIVER H. RICHARDSON.

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SUBJECT INDEX TO THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND OF ALASKA AS FOUND IN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS, CONGRESSIONAL SERIES, IN THE AMERICAN STATE PAPERS, AND IN OTHER DOCUMENTS, 1789-1881. Prepared by Katharine B. Judson, A. M., for the Seattle Public Library. (Published by the Washington State Library, Olympia, 1913. Pp. 341.)

The compiling of this index involved the examining page by page of over 2,000 volumes of documents. One can readily imagine the deadening drag of such a piece of work unless it was done by a person with a historical sense who saw what a help it would be to those making a study of Pacific Northwest history from its original sources. Those who have tried by themselves to dig out material from early documents know how helpless they are and they will readily recognize the usefulness of such a reference work as Miss Judson has compiled.

It may be interesting to note that the history of no other section of the United States has been covered by such an index.

There may be some question why the index was not brought down to a date later than 1881. This was unnecessary, as there are adequate general indexes to government documents from that year to date.

One might be led to think from the title "Subject Index" that each document included had been minutely indexed. This is not the case and it would have been impractical to have attempted to do so, but on the other hand when a document was found to include material on several topics, such, for example, as mail service, fisheries, agriculture, it has been listed under these various headings. Perhaps it is more nearly a catalogue than an index to documents. Arranged as it is under broad headings rather than specific ones, the index can scarcely be considered a ready reference tool, but I am doubtful if it could have been made so, at least not without greatly increasing the amount of work entailed in compiling it.

The index covers a much wider range of topics than the word history usually is taken to include. Banks and banking, missions, mail service, education, roads, and cost of living are some of the subject headings which are used. Accordingly it would seem that the index should prove indispensable to any one who is studying the development of the Pacific Northwest from a social, political, religious, economic, or historical point of view.

Although the index is of primary use to the serious student, still it makes available much thoroughly readable material for those who have interested themselves in the history of the Pacific Northwest merely for their own pleasure.

CHARLES H. COMPTON.

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GUIDE TO THE MATERIALS FOR UNITED STATES HISTORY IN CANADIAN ARCHIVES. By David W. Parker. (Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1913. Pp. 339.)

Of the Papers thus far issued by the Department of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, none can prove of greater service to American historical scholarship than the present volume. As stated by Professor Jameson in the Preface: "The constant relations between Canada and the English colonies, or the United States, during two centuries of conflict and a hundred years of peace, across the longest international line, save one, that the world has ever known, have made it inevitable that the archives of Canada should abound in documents useful, and sometimes highly important, to the history of the United States." Students of our own regional history will be astonished to find what a wealth of material is preserved in the Canadian archives, particularly in the archives of the Archbishopric of Quebec, that bears directly upon the history of Oregon and Washington. It will be particularly regretted, by students in these states, that the Archives of British Columbia located in the nearby city of Victoria could not have been adequately listed. It is stated, however, that "A complete annotated catalogue of the documents in the Provincial Archives [of British Columbia] will be issued as soon as the Department moves into the new quarters, now being built, and the material will then be available to the student."

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AN AMERICAN HISTORY. By Nathaniel W. Stephenson, Professor of History in the College of Charleston. (New York, Ginn & Co. 1913. Pp. 604.)

AMERICAN HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT. By Willis M. West, Sometime Professor of History in the University of Minnesota. (New York, Allyn & Bacon, 1913. Pp. 801.)

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By John S. Bassett, Professor of History in Smith College. (New York, The Macmillan Co. 1913. Pp. 884. $2.50.)

These three new textbooks appearing within a few weeks of each other bear eloquent witness of the activity of the teaching and study of history. Prof. Stephenson's book is intended for use in the elementary schools, and is eminently fair and well balanced. Very great care has been exercised in the selection of illustrations and in some cases the author has very wisely chosen those of representative men not usually pictured in a textbook. A very large number of small maps are used to elucidate the text, and in this respect the author has set a new mark in efficient textbook making.

Bassett's Short History is a textbook for the use of college students and for readers who desire a reliable account of United States history in a single volume. In addition to these uses, it will no doubt have a wide sale as a reference book in schools whose library facilities are limited. Professor Bassett is always careful about his facts. The emphasis is well proportioned and the maps well selected. There are no illustrations. The subject matter of the volume is treated in a purely conventional way and differs very radically in this respect from Professor West's History and Government. If one could apply the terms of politics to history writing Bassett's book is conservative and West's progressive. Professor West is widely known as a textbook writer and is just as careful of his facts and proportion as Professor Bassett, but he has had a different purpose in mind. He views history not merely as political history. "The growth of our political democracy has been intertwined with the development of our economic and industrial conditions. I have tried to make this interaction the pervading principle in determining the arrangement and selection of material. * * * [and] I should not have cared to write the book at all, if I had not believed that a fair presentation of American history gives to American youth a robust and aggressive faith in democracy. At the same time, I have tried to correct the common delusion which looks back to Jefferson or John Winthrop for a golden age, and to show instead that democracy has as yet been tried only imperfectly among us."

West's selection of material has been well made with this end in view. The book is stimulating and suggestive and will meet with hearty approval from those who are disciples of the "new history" and will throw a flood of new light upon the subject for those who have studied and taught history in the conventional way. With the spread of democracy, such books as West's are bound to grow in number and use.

EDWARD MCMAHON.

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WRITINGS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Edited by Worthington Ford. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1913. Vol. 2, 1796-1801. Pp. 531. $3.50 net.)

Volume 1 of this important set was noted in the Quarterly for April, 1913, page 131. As noted there, the readers in the Pacific Northwest are awaiting with interest the subsequent volumes containing the record of John Quincy Adams in the diplomacy of Old Oregon.

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DECISIONS, JULY, 1912, TO JULY, 1913. By United States Geographic Board. (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1913. Pp. 54.)

There are here given 365 decisions on geographic names. Of this total a surprising number of decisions (107) are devoted to geographic features of the State of Washington. Of these there are 56 in Whatcom County in the vicinity of Mount Baker and 49 are found in the Mount Rainier National Park. The remaining two are Mount Spokane and Portage Bay, the latter a part of Lake Union, Seattle.

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EARLY AMERICAN MOUNTAINEERS. By Allen H. Bent. (Reprint from Appalachia, Vol. XIII, No. 1. Pp. 45 to 67.)

Western mountains come in for a fair share of attention in this interesting little monograph. There are a number of portraits, among which may be seen those of David Douglass, the famous early botanist who wrought in the Pacific Northwest, and General Hazard Stevens, who made the first ascent of Mount Rainier with P. B. Van Trump.

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MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE GREAT PLAINS. Selected and edited by Katharine Berry Judson. (Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co. 1913. Pp. 205. $1.50 net.)

This is the fourth volume in the series of Myths and Legends edited by Miss Judson. Earlier volumes covering Alaska, The Pacific Northwest, and California and the Old Southwest have been noted in previous issues of this magazine.

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF PEACE. By Henry Cabot Lodge. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1913. Pp. 136. $1.25 net.)

This timely book should find a welcome in the State of Washington, where committees are already at work to celebrate the centennial of peace by the erection of an arch or some other form of imposing monument where the Pacific Highway passes from the United States into Canada.

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JAMES HARLAN. By Johnson Brigham. (Iowa City, The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1913. Pp. 398.)

This latest volume in the very creditable Iowa Biographical Series (edited by Benj. F. Shambaugh) is the well told story of one of Iowa's best known sons. James Harlan was a typical Westerner, a man of rugged sincerity, an orator and debater of no mean ability, an independent and self-reliant leader of a pioneer people. The years of his political career were entangled with the anti-slavery agitation, the Civil War, and the confused and trying periods of Reconstruction. He was not perhaps a statesman of first rank, but Iowa does well in setting forth the work of her sons in the very excellent series of which this volume forms a creditable addition. On the whole, the volume does not measure up to the standard for fairness set by some of the earlier volumes. On too many controverted points the opinion of the "Burlington Hawk-Eye" and "the Iowa State Register" are quoted as if their judgment was final. A good many states would reflect credit on themselves by encouraging a similar excellent biographical series.

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THE LIFE OF ROBERT TOOMBS. By Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Ph. D., Professor of American History in the University of Michigan. (New York, The Macmillan Co. 1913. Pp. 281. $2.00.)

This volume from the pen of one of the ablest students of American history gives in available form an interesting and instructive account of one of the leading "fire-eaters" of the ante-bellum period. Professor Phillips treats Toombs as an exponent of the social and industrial history of his period and section and therefore emphasizes these factors rather than those that are purely biographical. In very large measure he allows Toombs to speak for himself through his speeches and letters.

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AN ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. By Charles A. Beard, Associate Professor of Politics, Columbia University. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1913. Pp. VII, 330. $2.25 net.)