Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/63



FEDERAL INDIAN RELATIONS PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Following the recommendation of the governor, the legisla- tive assembly memorialized Congress, July 20, 1849, for the purchase of the Indians' rights to the land ; and for the re- moval of the Indians from the district needed for settlement, namely: the Willamette Valley. The memorial also stated that the Indians had been promised payment for their lands, and that it was the custom of the government to pay the Indians prior to the settlement of a region. Three reasons were given for the need of removing the Indians from the settlements: the absence of a large number of the men of the valley, who had gone to the California mines ; the moral and civil interests of the communities ; and the necessity of some humane pro- vision for these Indians by the government, in some place remote from the settlements, since they were no longer able to take care of themselves, and were degenerating through con- tact with the whites. The conclusion was that the Indians should be colonized in some region distant from the growing population of the Willamette Valley. 16

For the Indian service in Oregon, Lane suggested the es- tablishment of two agencies : one for the Puget Sound region, and one for the Grande Ronde Valley in upper Oregon; and two sub-agencies : one in the Umpqua Valley, and one near Fort Hall. This plan would have placed representatives of the Indian bureau along the emigrant trail in the interior of Oregon, as well as in the Puget Sound country, and the valley south of the Willamette Valley. 17

THE CONGRESSIONAL POLICY OF THE ACT OF JUNE 5, 1850

While I^ane was dealing with the Indians in Oregon and making recommendations for the future treatment of the Indians, Samuel Thurston, the delegate to Congress from Oregon, was planning to have all the Indians west of the Cascade Mountains moved to the country east of those moun- tains. The Secretary of the Interior, December 3, 1849, urged Congress to make an appropriation for the conduct of Indian affairs irr Oregon, and to authorize the appointment of a num-

16 Memorial of thg legislature of Oregon praying for Ike ertinguiskmtnt of the Indian title. . . July an, 1849 (Serial 593. Doc. $), p. t.

if Lane to the Secretary of War, Oct. 13, 1849, op. fit., p. 161. firtt paging.