Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/110

The Nez Perces were but comparatively few of them, and they said at the ratification of the treaty that the Government never meant to fulfil its stipulations; that the white man had no good heart, etc.

"And as time passed on these assertions were verified to some extent by the failure on the part of the Government to build the churches, school-houses, mills at Kamiah, and fence and plough their lands, as provided by treaties of 1859 and 1863, until many of the Indians of the treaty side are beginning to feel sore on account of such failure. These arguments are continually being used by the non-treaty party, and are having great weight, being supported as they are by the stubborn facts. . ..

"These Indians boast with great pride that they as a nation never shed a white man's blood, but the Government has, through its agents, been so dilatory in fulfilling its treaty stipulations, and agents have promised so often that all the stipulations of the treaties would soon be fulfilled, and to so little purpose, that these Indians do not believe that an agent can or will tell the truth.

"I told them at Kamiah that I was going to put up their mill for them. They said in reply that other agents had told them so many years ago."

Little wonder that the non-treaty faction flourished. The wonder is that the treaty element continued to live on expectations. Every action—and every inaction—of the Government served to 95