Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/430

412 people and Shastas who had been temporarily placed upon the Grand RondRonde [sic] reserve were removed to Siletz, Sam and his band only being permitted to remain as a mark of favor.

I will not here discuss further the reservation system. It was bad enough, but was probably the best the government could devise, the settlers being determined to have their lands. In theory, the savages thus became the wards of the United States, to be civilized, christianized, educated, fed, and clothed. In reality, they were driven from their homes, huddled within comparatively narrow limits, and after a brief period of misery they were swept from the earth by the white man's diseases.

In March 1857 congress united the superintendencies of Oregon and Washington, and called for an estimate of the unpaid claims, which were found to aggregate half a million dollars, and which were finally allowed and paid. On the Siletz reservation many Indians had farms of their own, which they worked, and many were taught the mechanic arts, for which they exhibited much aptitude; the women learning housekeeping and the children going to school by the advice of their parents; considerable progress having been made in the period between 1878 and 1887. It is also stated that their numbers increased instead of diminished, as formerly.