Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/18



8 C. F. COAN

was not determined in detail by Congress or the Indian bureau but left to the discretion of the superintendents of Indian affairs in Oregon and Washington. Palmer advised that the Indians be placed on reservations where they should be gov- erned, at first, by agents of the government; and later, when they became capable, by members of their own race under the laws of the United States. 19

Several treaties were made by Palmer before the authoriza- tion by Congress, July 31, 1854. After the conflict in the upper Rogue River Valley during August and September 1853, Joseph Lane, the commander of the Oregon volunteers, made a peace treaty, September 8, 1853, with the Upper Rogue River Indians. It defined the boundaries of the lands claimed by these Indians, and provided that they should accept a reservation to be designated in the future. They agreed to surrender their arms, and pay for the destruction of property in the late conflict with the whites, out of their annuities. 20 Palmer made a treaty with these Indians, September 10, 1853, one provision of which was that $15,000 was to be retained for the payment of property destroyed as provided in Lane's treaty of September 8, 1853. The other provisions of the treaty were, as follows: the Indians agreed to cede the lands of the upper Rogue River Valley and accept as a temporary reserve the Table Rock region, with the understanding that this reservation might be exchanged for another, or divided into farms for the Indians. They were to receive, $55,000 in twenty annual installments in addition to presents received at the time the treaty was made and houses for the chiefs. The Indians also agreed to protect travelers; restore stolen property; and to submit their grievances among themselves and with the whites, to the Indian agent for settlement. 21

The Cow Creek band of Umpqua Indians, on account of having participated in the attacks on the settlements in the upper Rogue River Valley in August and September, 1853, were forced to cede their lands, September 19, 1853. The cession was a small region in the central part of southwestern

19 Palmer to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Sept. u, 1854, C. I. A., A. R., Nov. 25, 1854 (Serial 746, Doc. i), p. 473.

20 C. J. Kappler, comp., Indian Affairs Laws and Treaties. (Serial 4624, Doc. 319), II, 1049.

3i Ibid., II, 603-5.