Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/84

The Story of the Bitter Root protest; but even this man of indomitable will seems to have reached the limit of his endurance, and it is painful to find him at last embittered, broken in spirit, with little faith in the white man and his ways.

Finally, four years after their surrender of the Bitter Root, the first payment arrived:

"This payment was made at a most opportune time in the early spring. The money was paid by check, but the following day all the beneficiaries proceeded by rail to Missoula, where, in the presence of the agent, their checks were cashed, and though the sum paid was over $18,000, and the number of Indians receiving shares was 47, not one of their number could be tempted by the numerous whiskey vendors, and all, after making some purchases of tools, implements, clothing, and provisions, returned quietly to their reservation."

Here we leave Charlos and his heroic band. Charlos—an ignorant, unknown Indian. But in patriotic endeavor for his people according to his light; in steadfast love of liberty, justice, and native land, he shared in the nobility of some with whom the Fates have dealt more kindly. A once struggling people are pleased to call such a man the Father of his country.

It is the story of an endeavor that failed. The Bitter Root Valley was added to the land of the Noble Free, at a cost in money insignificant 71