Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/73



FEDERAL INDIAN RELATIONS PACIFIC NORTHWEST 63

of February 17, 1851, to serve with Dart in making treaties. Spalding had been removed and his successor had not been authorized to assist in making treaties, and Beverly S. Allen had declined the office. 43

Probably the reasons for the non- ratification of the treaties were other than the objections raised to them by Dart. The fact that in most cases they were made with insignificant bands was probably the strongest objection to them. They did not carry out the Indian policy of Lane and Thurston, which planned for the removal of the western Indians to lands east of the Cascade Mountains, but gave reservations of the tribal lands. There also seems to have been objection to the amount of annuities allowed the Chinook bands.

Dart stated that the plan for the removal of the western Indians to lands east of the Cascade Mountains as provided for in the Act of June 5, 1850, had been found impossible by the treaty commissioners, Gaines, Skinner, and Allen, although they had made every effort to obtain the consent of the Willamette Valley Indians to the plan. The superintendent believed that the Indians were more industrious than other Indians of the United States. He stated that they did the boating on the rivers, made all the rails for fencing, and did the greater part of the labor on the farms, and worked for lower wages than it was possible to obtain white laborers. For these reasons he thought that it was better not to remove them. The Indians treated with by Dart recognized the power of the government to exterminate them, but they said that they would suffer this rather than leave the graves of their band. It was this attachment to their native region that caused the superintendent to believe that the central reservation scheme was impractical. 44

The Indians would not accept annuities unless they were paid within ten years. They said that unless they were paid soon that the whites would have the lands for nothing. They believed that their bands would become extinct within ten

43 Ibid pp. 7

44 Ibid., pp. 7