1892 Board of Indian Commissioners
"Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs," pp. 5-1268. In U.S. House. 52d Congress, 2d Session. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1892 (H.Ex.Doc.1, Pt. 5, Vol.2). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1892. (Serial Set 3088)From: Report of Hon. Darwin R. James, pp. 1287-1295.

. . . NEZ PERCE.

Matters upon this reservation were in a condition of unrest and dissatisfaction. Special Agent James A. Leonard had been sent to make an investigation, which had already commenced. At his request, I was with him during two days in the examination of witnesses as to the conduct of the reservation agent. It is not desirable or necessary that mention be made of the evidence taken, as the report of Mr. Leonard, has gone to the Commissioner.

Abuses have been growing during a series of years so that the fault of the existing demoralization can not all be charged to the present agent, but the time has come for a radical change and the introduction of a new order of things.

So much time was given to the investigation of abuses that we were unable to see as much as we desired of the better side of affairs, for there is a better side in spite of demoralization and abuses. The school at the old fort under Mr. McConville is very prosperous, and there are many honest, faithful Christian Indians who are waiting and praying for a change. For a long time they have been depressed and broken down, for their side is unpopular and at a discount. The condition of the Langford claim and the difficulties in their churches have been very serious and caused them much anxiety, but they are hoping for an improvement.

The effort to establish a ferry across the Clearwater River from the agency is a commentary on the way in which the Government work is prosecuted upon this reservation. Twice it has broken down just as it was ready for use. It was finished for a second time after our arrival, and our plans were to leave the reservation by this route, but before we were ready, and our visit only extended over four days, it had completely broken down again and it seemed to us to have been a needless accident, if it was such.

The lower school was closed June 28 by order from Commissioner Morgan, and the scholars were leaving on the day of our arrival. There were 60 scholars here, the younger children of the reservation. The school building is large and comfortable, and the place presented an attractive appearance. The Lapwai River runs along one side of the grounds, while on the opposite side is a row of large shade trees which are kept fresh by running water. An impression was abroad that this school was to be permanently closed and the scholars transferred to the larger school at the old fort. This latter school was in excellent condition. Mr. McConville, the superintendent, allowed no interference with his plans, and, being heartily supported by his assistants, had one of the best disciplined and most enthusiastic schools of all we had visited. The studying was practically finished, but we attended an evening entertainment by the scholars, consisting of declamations, recitations, dialogues, and singing, which was very enjoyable; the affair would have done credit to any school anywhere. The brass band is also an interesting feature of the school; the semi-military drill and marching of the scholars to and from their meals and to and from the chapel were good features. Mr. McConville is well adapted to his place; full of enthusiasm and always on the alert, nothing escapes his notice; he knows where the scholars are and what they are doing, and withal he is very much beloved by the scholars.

Henceforth all clothing for the scholars will be made upon the premises and by the scholars, under the supervision of the industrial teacher. The farmer is an Indian; the carpenter, shoemaker, harness-maker, and blacksmith are likewise Indians. They were all taught at Chemawa. The laundress is also an Indian.

The drainage is very bad and needs attention. The buildings were erected for the soldiers and were part of the military post. Those used for the boys' dormitory and for the general dining room are poorly adapted to the purposes. The building used by the girls is spacious and comfortable; it accommodates 100. The physician, Dr. West, secured three trained nurses from Portland, who have departments of labor, and can be called upon in times of sickness—an arrangement which seemed to us to be eminently wise. The building used as a hospital is sadly in need of a new roof. The medical appliances were few and old; we advised the doctor to ask for a complete set of modern instruments, such as the Indian Bureau sends to the agencies and schools, and which are so necessary at times. The stock of medicines was likewise small. Miss Alice Fletcher, the special agent for the allotting of lands, was meeting with many obstacles, but she was persevering at her task and was steadily making headway against much opposition.

In conclusion, I would respectfully suggest that no more schools be contracted for until those now established are put in better condition. I would recommend that a skillful sanitary engineer be employed to visit the schools, plan the methods of drainage to be carried out under the supervision of the superintendent, and examine ventilation of dormitories and class rooms, recommending such changes as are necessary to health, which recommendations should be faithfully carried out by the superintendent.

A trained nurse should be employed in every school, who should be able to give lectures on nursing to the older pupils. . . .

From: Proceedings of Board of Indian Commissioners at the Tenth Lake Mohonk Indian Conference, Experiences in Allotting Land, by Miss Alice C. Fletcher, pp. 1307-1311.

The Nez Perces are living under very different conditions. There you have a territory that is lying between the Rockies and the Cascades, in the more arid region of our country. The uplands of that reservation, generally speaking, can be used as wheat lands, however; but in that country summer fallowing is an absolute essential for a crop, so that the farms are large in extent, and half the fields must lie fallow in any summer. Most of the Nez Perces, however, had very few lands on these uplands; they were living in the cañons.

The people are divided into three large settlements. Those on the Lapwai, where the agency is stationed, number perhaps a little more than a third of the tribe. A large and very remarkable settlement is some 20 miles away, at Kameah, and another group in the North Fork region. The people, as I said, live in the little cañons. Those at Kameah were in a little valley that contains about 3 square miles, all told. There are altogether about five or six hundred of the Indians in the Lapwai. It is a narrower valley and some others branch out from it, so they are a little more scattered, but always in the valleys. Here they had their little gardens and fields, hardly more than 20 acres to anyone. In fact, under their treaty they were given or assigned 20-acre lots; and the whole reservation was surveyed into such lots. The consequence was that the work became exceedingly difficult in adjusting these improvements, as every man was extremely tenacious, and the women a little more so, of the orchards and bits of garden. And although the Nez Perce allotments record only 1,908, it stands for the work of about 3,000. The people had to have repeatedly explained to them the possibility of taking their lands on the uplands, and this new idea presented of the merchantable character of the land itself. There is no railroad that strikes the reservation, although one has been surveyed. There is a branch of the Northern Pacific that comes down near the northwestern corner. North of the Clearwater the land is very fertile and well fitted for the raising of wheat; and I urged upon the thrifty ones to settle there; for one must always pick out those who are enterprising; the first thing one must do is to make inequalities. I went firm to these progressive men, those who were willing to risk something to move out, who had a desire to prosper materially; and I always found that they were those who had had their children in school. I succeeded in persuading a large number of these people to take this land. In doing that I had to read my letter of instructions in large type, so to speak, because the old treaty provided that the people should be allotted in their bands, and closed up together; and I was informed that I was, as far as practicable, to observe this. But I considered that it was practicable to honor the observance in the breach. Therefore I taught that the entire reservation belonged to the entire tribe, and that to say that the man from the southeast part of the reservation is not to take his land in the northwest was nonsense. The whole place was free for whoever would be willing to take the choice of the best. I have had a great deal to overcome on this reservation; but I was glad to find that, as twenty-one years have gone on, the spirit of understanding, the education that grew among the people in discussing these affairs, were most marked. I think you will find very few Indians there to-day who will not tell you that the whole tribe had the freedom of choice, and that the whole of the land belonged to the Nez Perces, and not to this head man or that head man.

The experiences of the early years of the allotment were very interesting. It was very difficult indeed to make people understand that the land was of any consequence; it was always water. The Indians themselves took up the joke: "The white man wants land, but the Indian wants water." But to take nothing but rocks because there is a spring, I was finally able to demonstrate to them, was foolish. The practical working of the law, however, is an education in itself.

Another point which I always considered of the first importance was to inculcate in their minds that our Government was not a one-man power, but a government of the people. Therefore, I always explained to the people what county their allotments would lie in, and where the boundary lines of the county were; that a county, again, was divided into precincts, and that the people of a precinct elected their officers; and I explained to them the duties of these officers. Very soon they began to understand that allotment was going to bring to them something more than a bit of land; that it brought responsibilities—responsibility for the roads, the bridges, the conditions of the precinct.

All these things, of course, are not marking out, surveying, putting down the monuments, and walking round and showing the Indian his corners, but it is showing him his corners in another sense. These are the corners he must know if he is going to be a man. The real work of an allotting agent lies between the lines.

I also felt that it was quite essential that they should understand the matter of descent, which again was something new. Being myself familiar, from study of Indian relationships, with their methods of treating the subject, it was easier for me to explain to them. The result of it was that I think you will find very few of the Nez Perces who will not be able to tell you from whom they will inherit and where their land will go when they die. For the purpose of trying to overcome the difficulties which the law gives in a land as arid as that—because a man could not really live on 80 acres of agricultural land—in order to give them the benefit of larger fields I have grouped together the families—that is, those who would inherit one from another—so that there is a chance for larger fields, and in the case of death as little disturbance as possible in those who work the land. I speak of these practical details as showing the way it works at the other end of the line. These are the things that will make the difference between prosperity and failure in the working out of the law.

Wherever you go you have to adjust the work to the conditions, of course; and there among the Nez Perces the conditions were very different from what they would be in a prairie country. I had, however, some allotments about which it was impossible for me to exercise my best judgment. I will tell you of one man, who was himself a leading man in the Nez Perce war. He is known as Yellow Bull, a very excellent man, a good worker, and brought admirable letters from the Army officers and the agent. He had made up his mind to take his land on the Nez Perce Reservation, however, and he came for allotment, with his son and some other members of his family. He was so good a worker, and had so good a start, that I was quite anxious he should take a good allotment. I spent a good deal of time with him, going out and trying to get him to locate properly; but he always came back to one place. I told him it was a miserable place—he never could do anything with it; there was not a spot in the whole that he could make a garden out of, and he could not plow a foot of the land. But he said; "I want that spring. When I was a little boy I used to go there with my father. When I was a young man I always went out of my way to take a drink from that spring, and that was where I went whenever I was hunting. And all the years I was in the Indian Territory I was hearing the water of that spring; and I want that spring." Yellow Bull has got the spring. But I have given his son and his relatives some good land near by, so I trust he will prosper. . . .

. . . At Kameah is this remarkable settlement where Miss Sue McBeth has left the great mark of her work. Kameah is some 70 miles from the agency, and has been removed from the agency influence; and these Indians have risen to a degree of independence and intelligence that is very remarkable. In the Kameah settlement Felix Corbett was elected judge. The agent ran one candidate, the people who were opposed to him ran another; and the result was that the Christian, progressive Indians put up their candidate, and he was elected. I was some 50 miles away at the time this happened, and the next day Felix Corbett came to my tent. He said: "the people have honored me by electing me their judge. You tell us we will be citizens when our lands are allotted, and that we will live under the laws of the land. I want to do right; it seems to me it would be well for me to try to administer my office under those laws, and I would like to have a book to tell me about them." I entered into some correspondence with some lawyers, and it resulted in my presenting him with a copy of the revised statutes of Idaho, under which he administered his judgeship during the last year, was reëlected the present year, and is going on in the same way. I am informed, however, that he has been found fault with because he does not collect sufficient fines. He told me that he had been able to manage the people with only one offense where he had had to collect any fine, which I think was a good record for Kameah and Judge Corbett. But Felix can not read. However, his daughter has been at Chemawa school, and she has read the statutes to him.

I have not begun to speak as I wanted as to the way in which allotment stimulates the Indian to go forward and make a beginning. The change which has come over the people in the four years I have been with the Nez Perces is remarkable. And remember that time is necessary for careful allotment work.

In answer to a question from Prof. Painter, Miss Fletcher said: As to the wisdom of the Indian having time for his choice, if you have time to give him more than one choice, it is wise. I think I do not overstate the fact when I say that I have certainly changed between 500 and 800 allotments among the Nez Perces as the result of the growth of the people in making better choice. I think the people today are allotted as well as I could do it. I have left only two grumblers behind me. . . .