Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/76

66 C. F. COAN Copy sent with treaties to Sec. of Int 21 Aug 1852

File

Office of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs Oregon City O. T. November 7th 1851.

Hon. L. Lea

Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Sir:

You have herewith, thirteen Indian Treaties; which cede to the United States more than Six Million acres of land, lying upon both sides of the Columbia River, upon the Willamette River; and upon the Pacific Coast west of the Cascade range of Mountains in Oregon. The Treaties concluded at Tansey-Point (near the mouth of the Columbia) cover a tract of over one hundred miles on the Pacific, running back along the Columbia about sixty miles; the country was owned by ten small Tribes of Chinook Indians, numbering in all, about three hundred and twenty souls. The Clatsops, who were the first treated with; interposed many objections to parting with their country upon any terms; they made many long and loud complaints, at the injustice done them by the Government; who they said had taken possession of their lands without paying them, had allowed the white people many years since to occupy and buy and sell their country, for which they had received no equivalent; pointing to instances where farms had been sold for from two to six thousand dollars, upon which lands the whites were making "much money." Their first demands of the Government notwithstanding their anxiety to get their pay—were very unreasonable. They assured me that they would not "talk" until I would stop the ships from coming into the Columbia, and destroy two sawmills in the Southern part of their country; which by their noise had "frightened the fish away!" Being assured of the impossibility of having their demands