Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/375

 RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 367 in several instances may be termed treachery by us, but when we take time to think of the whole subject-matter, he rather rises in our estimation as a good specimen of the Patrick Henry sort who prefers death to a loss of liberty. If we are to credit history, the treaty made by William Perm and the Indians was genuine and faithfully observed by both con- tracting parties. We are so unaccustomed to the observance of the Golden Rule by putting ourselves in others' places long enough to get a proper understanding of their relation to nature and its facts, that we are altogether unacquainted with how the In- dian feels or how we would feel when being called upon by an alien to leave the land of our birth and inheritance through unknown generations ; to tear the heart strings loose from all that humanity holds dear and sacred and emigrate to a region where the problem of life must begin anew. Some of these demands, especially in their execution, have been most heart- less and cruel, but in the main the government has executed such decrees of fate in a spirit of true philanthropy. Most bloody and bitter has been the red man's answer to some of these demands. Captain Jack and his little remnant of Mo- docs could not understand why the great and powerful white race that had usurped the whole country could not let them remain upon Lost River, their ancestral home. They wanted to reason the case but the white man would not reason. In fact there was no reason, other than the fact of civilization, and this to the barbarians was an enigma. Is it strange that they lapsed into a destructive frenzy, blind to consequences? All that Chief Joseph the Nez Perce wanted was to be let alone in his home, the little, lovely, out-of-the-way Wallowa Valley. But no reason that led towards equal rights for him and his people did not apply. Unlike Captain Jack, he did not fall into a frenzy, but he towered with splendid res- olution and gave the white man battle according to the civil- ized code of warfare. Neither reason nor force could rescue him from the grip of fate; he lost both his country and his freedom, and now, an old man, is looked upon by his con-