Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/149

The Nez Perces not seem to agree with them, many of them have died, and there is a tinge of melancholy in their bearing and conversation that is truly pathetic. I think they should be sent back, as it seems clear they will never take root and prosper in this locality."

The successive annual enumerations of the Nez Perces might have furnished Congress food for reflection, had it taken the trouble to consult the reports. Four hundred and ten were originally taken to the Indian Territory. Then, while the first great epidemic of disease was taking off one quarter of their number, a considerable remnant of "non-treaty" Nez Perces was captured in Idaho and brought to the Territory, thus swelling the number of survivors to 391. Then follow successively the annual counts: 370, 344, 328, 322, 282 (29 widows returned), 287, and finally, after seven years of life in the Indian Territory, 268. At this rate of decrease the last Nez Perce would have departed for the happy hunting-ground within twenty years.

But philanthropic persons were impressed by this steady reduction of the tribe, if the Indian bureau was not, and in this seventh year nothing less than a thoroughly aroused public opinion, pointedly expressed, compelled the return of these Indians to the Northwest. To the Northwest, but not all to their people in Idaho; another element had to be reckoned with,—the stern opposition of the Idaho settlers. The Indian bureau, with no policy except to 133