Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/44

 36 T. W. DAVENPORT. not doing enough in the line of civilizing agencies. With but few exceptions the agents of the Government were faithless as to the success of the project, even when they could spare the time from schemes for their own enrichment. They did not enter the work with any heart and acting upon the maxim that it is cheaper to feed than to fight Indians, of course, nothing could come of it. Suppose, on the other hand, that as many incentives to exertion had been given them as the white man enjoys; practical tuition, prizes for skill and excellence in agricultural methods, industrial fairs, etc. ; who can doubt that the red man, too, would have become a successful agri- culturist and stock raiser? But, cooped up on a tract of country not large enough to afford them a living by their ancestral modes, waiting upon the promises of the Government, which were often delayed and never entirely fulfilled, partly fed, partly clothed, and always in doubt as to the spirit and meaning of the whole business, what else could they be except vagabonds or social derelicts, judged in either the savage or civilized sense? The boundary of the reservation, from the head of Wild Horse Creek, a straight line along the crest of the Blue Moun- tains to an uncertain place known as Lee's Encampment, was in continual dispute; also the northwestern boundary, a straight line from the mouth of McKay Creek to the mouth of Wild Horse Creek, was in doubt, for the reason that the latter creek had several mouths, and landless white men, choosing a mouth to suit themselves, were pushing their improvements over onto the Indian's ground, as he thought. All such en- croachments festered in his flesh, for it was in the memory of every Indian that it was the white man's coming which re- duced him to his present narrow quarters, and an every-day experience that the white man's stock pastured on his un- fenced grounds. Complaints were made nearly every day and it was a very difficult matter to explain to them the inevitable- ness of such conditions, and thus allay their irritable feelings. In fact, it could not be done entirely, and human nature is prone to retaliation, or as the slang goes, "to get even."