Chapter LIX: Appendix: To Chapter Six

ONEATTA, YAQUINA BAY AGENCY, October 1, 1871.

SIR:——I have the honor of submitting this my eighth and last
annual report of the affairs of Siletz agency.

I closed my term of service as agent on the 1st day of May,
1871, at which time, as you are already aware, I turned over the
agency to my successor, Hon. Joel Palmer. Since then I have been
busily engaged in making up my final papers. This task, I regret
to say, is not yet entirely finished. The delay has been owing
to some irregularities, occasioned by a change of employés, and
to other causes over which I have had no control. I shall now,
however, push the work forward with all possible dispatch, and
shall soon have my papers fully completed. I ask, for that
purpose, your indulgence, and that of the department, for a
short time.

I presume it will hardly be expected that I should at this time
enter into the usual details concerning the affairs of the
agency. All the important facts which have not been communicated
to the department by myself heretofore will, undoubtedly, be
embodied in the first annual report of my successor. He will
find it convenient, if not necessary, in introducing himself
officially to the department, to give some sort of a summary of
the condition of the affairs of the agency at the time he took
charge. I feel, therefore, that it would be altogether a work of
supererogation for me to go over that ground in detail. As this
is my last report, after a somewhat protracted term of service
in charge of Siletz agency, I think it not inappropriate that I
should present here a few statements of facts in the history of
the dealings of the Government with these Indians, in order to
show some of the difficulties with which I have had to struggle.
I shall also presume somewhat upon your indulgence by offering
some suggestions, prompted by my own experience, concerning the
future management of the Indians over whom I have so long had
control.

I have had charge of Siletz agency for eight years, and in that
time have had to encounter many stubborn obstacles to the
successful management of its concerns. I think, too, that I may
say, without vanity, that I have _overcome_ many such obstacles.
It is not an easy matter, even under the most favorable
circumstances and with all possible helps, to conduct
successfully the affairs of an Indian agency. To a race
accustomed, as the Indians have been, to the licentious freedom
of the savage state, the restraints and dull routine of a
reservation are almost intolerably irksome. It is not wonderful,
therefore, that they should be often fractious and impatient of
control, or that, even when reduced to complete submission to
the regulations imposed upon them, they should, in many
instances, become sullen and unteachable. To manage such a
people in such a condition with any degree of success requires
unceasing, anxious labor. Yet this is the duty imposed upon
almost every Indian agent in the United States. But in addition
to these difficulties, which are incident to Indian management
everywhere, there are some which are peculiar to Siletz agency.
There are at this agency some fourteen tribes and parts of
tribes of Indians, numbering, in the aggregate, at the time I
took charge, about 2,000. Separate treaties were made with all
of these different tribes in 1855, at the conclusion of what is
known as the “Rogue-river War,” in Southern Oregon. Some of
these treaties have been, in part, confirmed and complied with
by the United States Government, but most of them have been
entirely and persistently disregarded. In expectation, however,
of the immediate ratification of all the stipulations entered
into, the Indians were all removed from their lands in the
Rogue-river country to Siletz reservation at the close of the
war above referred to. Here they have been kept ever since as
prisoners of war, supported by a removal and subsistence fund,
appropriations for which, varying from $10,000 to $30,000, have
been annually made by Congress. For sixteen years this scant,
irregular, and uncertain charity, doled out to them from time to
time, has been the only evidence they have received that they
were not utterly forgotten by the Government. For sixteen years
they have been fed upon promises that were made only to be
broken, and their hearts have sickened with “hope deferred.”
For sixteen years they have seen the white man gathering in
annually his golden harvests from the lands which they
surrendered; and for all those sixteen long, weary years they
have waited, and waited in vain, for the fulfilment of the
solemn pledges with which the white man bought those lands. What
wonder is it that, suspicious and distrustful as they are by
nature, they should, under such tuition, cease to have any faith
in the white man’s word, or to heed his solemn preachments about
education and civilization? Who can blame them if, after such an
experience, they come to regard the whole white race, from the
Great Father down, as a race of liars and cheats, using their
superior knowledge to defraud the poor Indian? And is it amazing
that, with such an eminent example before them, they should grow
treacherous and deceitful as they grow in knowledge; or that
they should use every possible exertion to escape from the
restraints which, as they believe, the white man has imposed
upon them only for the purpose of defrauding them? In my
judgment it is safe to assert that by far the greater part of
their restiveness and indocility is justly attributable to this
cause. I am fully satisfied that it has more than doubled the
difficulty of controlling and managing them for the past eight
years. So thoroughly have I appreciated this fact, that I have
again and again urged, in my annual reports, the necessity of
entering into treaties with the Indians at this agency who are
not now parties to any stipulations. Feeling as I do that the
neglect with which these Indians have been treated in this
particular has been most unwise as well as grossly unjust, I
cannot permit this last opportunity of expressing myself
officially on the subject to pass without again earnestly urging
a speedy correction of this grievous error and wrong.

Notwithstanding the many embarrassments with which I have had to
contend in the management of the affairs of this agency, I am
fully satisfied that no Indians on this coast have made any more
rapid advancement than those under my charge, in industry and
civilization. When I entered upon the discharge of my duties as
agent, eight years ago, I found the Indians in almost a wild
state, kept together and controlled by military force. This
condition of things rapidly disappeared; and for the past four
or five years I have succeeded in keeping the Indians generally
upon the reservation, and in controlling them without any other
aid than a very small corps of employés. And when I turned over
the agency to my successor the state of discipline was far
better than it was at any time when the agent had the assistance
of a detachment of soldiers to enforce his orders. Besides, the
Indians have, many of them, attained a comparatively high degree
of proficiency in the useful arts. About all the mechanical work
needed on the reservation can now be done by them. Indeed, so
great has been the improvement among them in every respect that,
in my judgment, many of them are to-day capable of becoming
citizens of the United States, and should be admitted to
citizenship as soon as circumstances will permit. Knowing as I
do the liberality of your views on the subject of the equality
of men, I feel confident that you will spare no effort in your
power to bring about this state of things at as early a day as
possible.

Before closing this report permit me to make one suggestion as
to the management of the Indian agencies under the system lately
adopted by the Government. I am satisfied that, under this
system, it would be a matter of economy, as well as a benefit to
the Indians, to place the whole subject under the immediate
control of the superintendent, doing away with agents entirely.
Each reservation could be managed by a sub-agent appointed by
the superintendent, and subject to his supervision and control.
The superintendent should then be held strictly responsible for
the management of the reservations or agencies within his
jurisdiction, and the various sub-agents and employés should be
made accountable to him alone. The disbursements could be made
by the superintendent, and the accounts for the whole
superintendency could be kept in his office. The advantages of
this system would, undoubtedly, be great. It would reduce
considerably the machinery of the Indian Department, and would
simplify all its processes. Besides, it would render those who
had the management of the different reservations amenable for
their conduct not to a distant authority, but to one at home.
Their acts would thus be judged, and condemned or approved, as
the case might require, in every instance by one who would have,
to a great extent, a personal acquaintance with all the
circumstances. Under the present arrangement the Indian
Department is little better than a gigantic circumlocution
office, in which everything is done by indirect and circuitous
methods. Every agent renders his account, and is responsible
(nominally) to the central office at Washington, and not to his
immediate superior. In this labyrinth of routine and red-tape
official incompetency and dishonesty may often hide securely. On
the other hand, wise management and worth frequently escape
notice altogether, or receive censure instead of commendation.
In fact, there are in each superintendency so many different
centres of power and influence, each of which must be watched
from the head of the department, that the view is distracted and
bewildered, and official accountability degenerates into a mere
farce. The superintendent, though he has a sort of supervision
of the different agencies, is yet really powerless to correct
abuses which may come to his notice. His subordinates are not
responsible to him, and he can do no more than report their
incompetence or misconduct to the common superior of all, and
then await the tedious processes of circumlocution. His
jurisdiction is, in fact, merely formal, rather than actual, and
he is not responsible for the conduct of his subordinates; there
is but little motive for him to exercise even the slight power
which he has. The only remedy is to give him full authority over
all the agents and sub-agents, and to make him personally
accountable for their official acts.

I think that the necessity for this change is now more urgent
than ever before. As a religious element has been infused into
the management of Indian affairs, and as agents are appointed
upon the recommendations of the different churches, there is
danger that, in the search for piety in those who aspire to
office, certain other very respectable and necessary qualities
may be lost sight of. It is quite as needful that appointees
should have some talent for affairs as that they should have the
spirit and form of godliness; yet the former does not always
accompany the latter. Many very good and pious men are but
children in the business of the world. It is also a fact of
common experience that if religious bodies are left to select
men for responsible positions of any sort, they are apt to
choose them more on account of their zeal in the service of God
or of some gift of exhortation or prayer, than on account of
capability for business. I know that thus far the President has
been very fortunate in his selections of men to carry out his
new “Indian policy;” but depending, as he must, upon the
recommendation of church organizations in these matters, he is
liable hereafter to make the mistake I have mentioned, and
appoint men to office whose piety constitutes their only fitness
for the positions they are called upon to all. It is in view of
this danger that I particularly recommend the propriety of
making the change suggested above.

With many thanks for the distinguished consideration which I
have received at your hands in my official dealings with you, I
have the honor to be, your most obedient servant,

BEN. SIMPSON,
_Late United States Indian Agent_.

HON. A. B. MEACHAM,
_Superintendent Indian Affairs in Oregon_.