Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/128

120 T. W. DAVENPORT. It is nothing new under the sun, whether in societies called civilized, enlightened or barbarous, that the principal victims of abnormal social conditions stoutly resist any project of reform. At the South, the "poor whites," whose non-progressive condition could not be remedied while negro slavery remained, were the chief defense and support of the institution and re- sisted every attempted emancipation. Among the North American Indians, custom made the In- dian woman a veritable slave. She was the worker; the male w r as the drone. A great part of the service necessary to clothe and feed the family was performed by her. He might kill the game and catch the fish, but all, after that, was done by the woman. Preparing the skins for clothing, making the garments, cleaning, drying and storing the meat, picking the berries, digging the roots, moving the camp and erecting the lodges; gathering, breaking up or cutting and carrying the fuel, and much more, fell to the lot of the woman. Is it to be wondered at that she was old and worn in body, while young in years'? Humane agents of the government frequently undertook the task of remedying such inequality, but gener- ally with little success, for the reason that the squaws rejected any proffered assistance that would detract from the dignity of their husbands. Fuel, consisting of fagots and the fallen limbs of trees, broken up by the squaws with stones or over their knees, was carried by them in large conical baskets, supported on their backs and held there by straps or thongs passing over their shoulders and across their foreheads, a service which was very trying and destructive to them. This custom General Joe] Palmer, when agent at the Siletz in the year 1872, tried to abolish, and it was really amusing to witness the indignation of the human beasts of burden, that the agent should compel their male relatives to use the depart- ment wagons and teams to haul wood like white men. One brave, to show General Palmer how his order was appreciated,