On returning from eastern Oregon, Dart visited the mouth of the Columbia in company with two of his agents, and made treaties with the Indians on both sides of the river, the tract purchased extending from the Chehalis River on the north to the Yaquina Bay on the south; and from the ocean on the west, to above the mouth of the Cowlitz River. For this territory the sum of ninety-one thousand three hundred dollars was promised, to be paid in ten yearly instalments, in clothing, provisions, and other necessary articles. Reservations were made on Clatsop Point, and Woody and Cathlamet islands; and one was made at Shoalwater Bay, conditioned upon the majority of the Indians removing to that place within one year, in which case they would be provided with a manual labor school, a lumber and flouring mill, and a farmer and blacksmith to instruct them in agriculture and the smith's art.
Other treaties were made during the summer and autumn. The Clackamas tribe, numbering eighty-eight persons, nineteen of whom were men, was promised an annuity of two thousand five hundred dollars for a period of ten years, five hundred in money, and the remainder in food and clothing.[1] The natives of the south-western coast also agreed to cede a territory extending from the Coquille River to the southern boundary of Oregon, and from the Pacific Ocean
- ↑ Or. Statesman, Aug. 19, 1851; Or. Spectator, Dec. 2, 1851.
of 1851 says: 'Every murder, theft, and raid upon us from Fort Laramie to Grande Ronde we could trace to Mormon influences and plans. I recorded very many instances of thefts, robberies, and murders on the journey in my journal.' Portland West Shore, Feb. 1876. I find no ground whatever for this assertion. But whatever the cause, they were an alarming feature of the time, and called for government interference. Hence a petition to congress in the memorial of the legislature for troops to be stationed at the several posts selected in 1849 or at other points upon the road; and of a demand of Lane's, that the rifle regiment should be returned to Oregon to keep the Indians in check. 32d Cong., 1st Sess., Cong. Globe, 1851–2, i. 507. When Superintendent Dart was in the Nez Percé country that tribe complained of the depredations of the Shoshones, and wished to go to war. Dart, however, exacted a promise to wait a year, and if then the United States had not redressed their wrongs, they should be left at liberty to go against their enemies. If the Nez Percés had been allowed to punish the Shoshones it would have saved the lives of many innocent persons and a large amount of government money.
