Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/572

554 during the winter season, but roving abroad in the summer through the region about Warner and Goose lakes. In March 1871, by executive order, a reservation containing 2,275 square miles was set apart, on the north fork of the Malheur River, for the use of the Shoshones. In the autumn of 1873 a portion of them were induced to go upon it, most of whom absented themselves on the return of summer. Gradually, however, and with many drawbacks, the Indian department obtained control of these nomadic peoples, who were brought under those restraints which are the first step toward civilization.

With the settlement of the Shoshones upon a reservation, the title of the Indians of Oregon to lands within the boundaries of the state was extinguished. The Grand Rond reservation in the Willamette Valley was afterward purchased of the Indians and thrown open to settlement. The Malheur reservation was abandoned, the Indians being removed to Washington. Propositions have been made to the tribes on the Umatilla reservation to sell their lands, some of the best in the state, but so far with no success, these Indians being strongly opposed to removal. Ten years after the close of the Shoshone war, claim was laid by a chief of the Nez Perces to a valley in north-eastern Oregon, the narrative of which I shall embody in the history of Idaho. Thus swiftly and mercilessly European civilization clears the forests of America of their lords aboriginal, of the people placed there by the almighty for some purpose of his own, swiftly and mercilessly clearing them, whether done by catholic, protestant, or infidel, by Spaniard, Englishman, or Russian, or whether done in the name of Christ, Joe Smith, or the devil.