Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/15

 RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 7 acterized as one half breed who could be depended upon to tell the truth, a very strong testimonial and one which, after an acquaintance, I would not diminsh. George Barnhart had been acting as farmer at a salary of $1,000 a year, but he departed with his brother, thereby making a vacancy to be filled. Although there was no legal provision for a clerk or private secretary to the agent, Mr. B. had one, Matty Davenport, who was mustered on the roll of employees as school teacher at a salary of $1,000 a year. As there was no actual school there, this method of paying a clerk seemed a little irregular to an outsider, but it was said to be the custom at all the agencies. Mr. B. spoke of it as "a paper fiction, ' ' and I thought the term admirable in several points of view. Matty Davenport went away with the retiring agent and there was a vacancy in the office of school teacher, and an end to the paper fictions at the Umatilla. Before going, Mr. Barnhart remarked to me, that * ' the place of agent at the Umatilla is worth $4,000 a year," to which I responded by asking how that could be on a salary of $1,500. He made no reply but told the sutler, Mr. Flippin, that he ' ' could show me how easy it is to do such things. ' ' There was no difficulty in turning over the Government property, though a very broad margin was left for inaccu- racies. Wheat, oats and barley, in the stack, estimated in bushels; several acres of potatoes not dug, but estimated by digging and measuring three rows ; and several hundred dol- lars worth of medicine in the agency drug store, for which 1 had to take the word of Dr. Teal as to the amount. The list contained an item of five plows, only one of which could be shown, and that was broken in removing from the wagon which brought it from the implement store. It had not been used and the others were said to be on the reservation some- where. As Mir. B. said, "may be in some fallen tree top." To the enquiry, whether the Indians had been instructed to return them to the store as soon as they had finished their work, he said, ' ' Yes, but the instruction was not obeyed. Oh, they do not plow, only dig with them a little. Did you ever