difficulties, expenses and sacrifices, as well as the cruelties of Indian warfare, I thought it better if possible to endeavor to secure justice for the Indians, and, at the same time, protection for the white settlers. I therefore sent out officers to find Chief Moses and other prominent men, and summon them to my headquarters at Vancouver, for counsel. When they came I listened to all their grievances and their statements of what they believed to be their rights; what they expected the government to guarantee to do for them, and also to their recital of the aggressions of the white people. I also heard the accounts of the depredations of the Indians and their trespasses upon the property of the white settlers. With a view of settling the whole difficulty without proceeding to hostilities, I obtained permission to send a delegation of the Indians, accompanied by Captain Baldwin, to Washington, that they might have an opportunity to negotiate a treaty that would be satisfactory to both Indians and settlers, and at the same time be creditable to the general government.

On the 7th of July, 1883, they made an agreement with the Secretary of the Interior, whereby they engaged to give up all claim to the Columbia or Moses reservation, and remove to the Colville reservation. In consideration of this concession, Moses and Tonasket were to receive an annuity of $1,000 each as long as they lived. Moses was also to receive a house costing $1,000. For the benefit of the whole number of Indians, two schoolhouses were to be built and two sawmills and gristmills. There were to be provided, three teachers, two sawyers, two millers, and one doctor, for the use of each of whom a house was to be erected. Four hundred and sixty cows were to be furnished, as well as a large number of wagons and agricultural implements. The Indians already located on the Moses reservation who wished to remain were to be allowed to take up land there in severalty under existing laws.

On the 31st of August an order was issued, directing Captain Baldwin to visit the Indians concerned in this agreement and explain to them all its terms and effects. First Lieutenant James Ulio, Second Lieutenant John S. Mallory, and Topographical Assistant Alfred Downing were detailed to assist him in carrying out these instructions.

All necessary preparations having been concluded at old Fort Colville, on September 10, Captain Baldwin directed Lieutenant Ulio to proceed to the southern portion of the Moses reservation, explain the agreement to the Indians, and should any of them desire it, locate and carefully survey for each head of a family or male adult, a tract of land containing not more than six hundred and forty acres.

Topographical Assistant Downing was detached under orders to proceed to, and carefully examine the falls of Bonaparte Creek and the Nespilene, where it was proposed to locate the promised sawmills and gristmills. Lieutenant Mallory remained with the main party until the 13th, when he was sent to that part of the Columbia reservation lying north of the region to be examined by Lieutenant Ulio.

The result of his own investigations satisfied Captain Baldwin that great good had been effected by the visit of the three chiefs to Washington. They had all carefully explained the agreement to their people, who seemed disposed to look upon it favorably. Sarsopkin and his following, without an exception, were willing to move to the Colville reservation, many of them hav

On

far as to select the future homes. Baldwin disger to Moses to nodesired to see him, rived on the evenhaving ridden day. He said that made up their him to the Colville would be ready as

season was over.

made up of what "wild" Indians: depended upon fish

ing even gone so location of their the 18th Captain patched a messentify him that he and the chief aring of the 20th, eighty miles that all his people had minds to go with reservation, and soon as the fishing This band was were known as they had always (salmon) and game

for food, and knew absolutely nothing about farming. Tonasket, the principal chief of the Colville Indians, was a man of great force of character. Although he had received little or no help from the government, he exhibited a deep interest in the fortunes of his people, urging them to work and take up lands, but his greatest desire was to see a suitable school provided for them. He and his people not only consented that all the Indians on the Columbia should establish themselves on the Colville reservation, but that all others who wished to settle down and become industrious farmers should enjoy its benefits. Captain Baldwin was much pleased with the members of Tonasket's band, considering them further advanced in civilization than any Indians he had seen west of the Mississippi.

Lieutenant Ulio visited a number of families, five of whom consented to allow him to locate farms for them. He also had a conversation with Chelan Jim, who had become the recognized chief of a small band of Indians. At first this man refused to either locate any land or to move on the Colville reservation, but afterward he consented to consider the matter.

Lieutenant Mallory, after leaving Captain Baldwin's camp near the junction of Curlew Creek with Kettle River, continued over the Little Mountain trail to the mouth of the creek just mentioned, and from there over a magnificent belt of country to the lake where the creek takes it source. This lake proved to be a beautiful body of water about eight and a half miles in length. Soon afterward he came to another lake, much smaller than the first and oval in shape, which proved to be the source of the San Polle River. He had never seen a map on which either of these lakes was noted. Having crossed the Okinakane and marched along its farther bank for some distance, he came upon several ranches owned by Indians. One of them named Looploop was a man about fifty years of age, with a thoughtful, intelligent face. In a long talk with Lieutenant Mallory this Indian expressed his opinion very freely, both concerning the pretensions of Moses and the general situation of affairs, and as he voiced the sentiments of a great many others is words are worth repeating. He said: "There are four things above all others which you white men tell us we should avoid; lying, thieving, drunkenness and murder. Moses is a liar; Moses is a thief; Moses is a drunkard, and Moses is a murderer. Yet, he is the man you have set as chief over us, and he is the man you send to Washington to represent us. He has traded away our rights, he has sold our lands, and there is no help for us. He will have a fine house built for him and will get one thousand dollars every year, and he and his people will be given wagons and harnesses and many cows. Looploop is not a beggar; he has never asked nor received any help from the government, nor does he ask it now. He is able to take care of himself; and all that he asks is to be let alone. When Moses came back from Washington the first time, there was a great council between the whites and the Indians. General Howard stood up in the midst and said: 'The Indians have for many years been wanderers from place to place and there has been no rest for any of them, but now they are to have a reservation-Moses-which will be a home for them forever. While the mountains stand and the rivers run the land is to be theirs, their children's and their children's children's forever.'

"The Indians heard; they believed and were satisfied. Scarcely four years have passed by and we are told that we must leave this reservation, this land which was to be our home forever. How do we know that if we move to the Colville reservation we will be left in peace? Why should we not be driven from there in a few years, and then what can we do? There is no other place left. But you tell us that we who do not recognize Moses or any other chief, are not obliged to leave our home; that you will mark out for each of us a square mile and will set stakes so that no white man can take the land away from us; and you wish to know whether we will go or stay. There are but few of us here, and our blood is the same, but our minds are different. As for me, why should I go? Here I have a house, and fields that raise oats and hay and all kinds of vegetables. When white men pass through here they need these things and pay me for them. Did you not, yesterday, give me $25 for one thousand pounds of oats? With money in my pocket, I feel that I am a man, and respect myself. Why should I give up all this, and move on the Colville reservation, to become a wild Indian again? But I am getting an old man now. My daughter is married and has children. I love them, and like to be with them; but my son-in-law thinks he will go on the Colville reservation. My only son has two sons; sometimes he thinks he will go, and again he thinks he will stay. Our hearts are sad, and we know not what to do. You must give us time to think and talk among ourselves, and we will then tell you whether we will go or stay. But we cannot tell you to-day, or to-morrow, or for many days to come. Leave us now, and return after we have had time to think; we will then know our minds, and what we say we will do."

Eventually, though only after much indecision, the Indians concerned in the matter all yielded, and the treaty went into full effect. But a long period elapsed before the government completely fulfilled its part of the agreement. Nevertheless, there was a marked improvement almost immediately. In 1885, when Captain Baldwin once more visited the valley of the Okinakane, where, in 1883, he had found only half a dozen farms, there were hundreds of acres fenced and under cultivation, almost every available spot on the river and its tributaries was occupied, and large herds of domestic stock belonging to the Indians were grazing on the hills.

In 1885 I at last succeeded in having the remnant of Chief Joseph's band of Nez Percé Indians brought back from the Indian Territory to the vicinity of their old home, as stated in a preceding chapter. Popular