Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/28

 20 T. W. DAVENPORT. person knows the fact and that the fault is completely rem- edied by the phonetic alphabet which can be learned in an hour by a child ten years old, there is scarcely an effort by educators and philanthropists to bring about its adoption. I had bought some large geographical maps for the school and during the time of taking the census I made the first use of them, in teaching an adult class composed of the principal men of the three tribes, who were invited to my house. A dozen or more lectures were given for the purpose of showing the condition of the country as respects its population since the discovery by Columbus, and how the Indian tribes once so numerous and powerful, one after another had ceased to exist, because of their tenacity in holding onto the habits of savages instead of heartily adopting the industrial knowledge and habits of the white race. Also the location of the power- ful tribes upon the Atlantic coast and throughout the West, with an idea of their approximate numbers, and short accounts of their wars with the whites and the interminable wars with each other; the destruction of game upon which they depended for subsistence, and their subsequent removal to get out of the way of civilized man, whose advancing column was steadily and irresistibly westward. I emphasized the conclusion as to themselves: " There is no avoidance, you must become agri- culturists and occupy the ground with your improvements or it will be taken away from you. ' ' They were interested auditors and surrounded those maps day after day, engaged in earnest conversation. As a result they applied to me for allotments of land whereon they could work, each for himself. They were informed that permanent allotments I had no authority to make, but they could select small tracts, in severalty, fence them in and have all the pro- ceeds of their labor. Homely, the hereditary chief of the Walla Wallas, by far the most influential one of his tribe, had been supplanted by Pierre, a chief of the white man's choosing, and had conse- quently absented himself from the reservation, taking the most of the tribe with him. Hearing that a new agent had arrived