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The Indian Dispossessed "If it shall prove, in the judgment of the President, to be better adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe—". "The pledge of the Great Father," the Indians argued; of course the land of their fathers was better adapted to their wants than the barren Jocko. With an abiding faith in the nation that gave to them their first instructors in the better way, Victor and his chiefs signed the treaty.

There seems to have followed a subsidence of the wave of immigration to that section of country, and no urgent demand for the evacuation of the valley is in evidence for a considerable period. Victor died a few years later, and the chieftainship of the tribe fell to his son Charlos (sometimes written Charlot), a man full worthy to watch over the affairs of this peaceful community. For seventeen years after the signing of the treaty these Indians were left in undisturbed possession of their lands, except for the gradual encroachment of the white settlers, and during those years they made most remarkable progress in civilization.

In 1872 their number is given as four hundred and sixty; they have four hundred and fifty acres in cultivation, and fifty-five log-houses furnish them with comfortable homes. Two thousand horses and cattle, and large quantities of grain and vegetables, indicate the thrift of these Indian farmers.

It would seem that if ever a band of Indians struggling toward the light of a higher civilization 48