CHAPTER XXXI

THE FLATHEAD COUNCIL

After a quiet and restful Sunday in both camps the Indians assembled at the appointed time, and the council was opened on Monday, July 9, at half past one P.M., by the governor, in a long speech, explaining, as at the other councils, the terms and advantages proffered by the government. Although the Indians were extremely friendly, and very desirous of "following the white man's road" and coming under the protection of the Great Father, their only apparent refuge from the fierce Blackfeet, whose incessant raids threatened them with speedy extinction, the council proved unexpectedly difficult and protracted, lasting eight days, and the treaty was only saved by Governor Stevens's persistence and astuteness in accepting an alternative proposition offered by Victor at the last moment. The chronic objection of every tribe to leaving its own country and going on a reservation in the territory of another was the stumbling-block.

The governor required the three tribes, as they were really one people, being all Salish, speaking a common language, and closely intermarried and allied, and also reduced in numbers, to unite upon one reservation. He offered to set apart a tract for them either in the upper Bitter Root valley in Victor's country, or the Horse Plains and Jocko River in the Pend Oreille territory, as they might prefer, and urged them to decide and agree among themselves upon one of these locations; but neither tribe was willing to abandon its wonted region, where they were accustomed to pitch their lodges, and where their dead were buried. The following brief extracts from the proceedings give an idea of the course of the difficult and at times stormy and vexatious negotiations.

When the governor finished Victor said:--

"I am very tired now, and my people. You [the governor] are the only man who has offered to help us.... I have two places, here is mine [pointing out Bitter Root valley on the map], and this is mine [pointing out Flathead River and Clark's Fork]. I will think of it, and tell you which is best. I believe you wish to assist me to help my children here so that they may have plenty to eat, and so that they may save their souls."

Alexander: "You are talking to me now, my Big Father. You have told me you have to make your own laws to punish your children. I love my children. I think I could not head them off to make them go straight. I think it is with you to do so. If I take your own way, your law, my people then will be frightened. These growing people [young people] are all the same. Perhaps those who come after them may see it well before them. I do not know your laws. Perhaps, if we see a rope, if we see how it punishes, we will be frightened. When the priest talked to them, tried to teach them, they all left him. My children, maybe when the whites teach you, you may see it before you. Now this is my ground. We are poor, we Indians. The priest is settled over there [pointing across the mountains towards the north, the direction of his country]. There, where he is, I am very well satisfied. I will talk hereafter about the ground. I am done for to-day."

In this speech Alexander expresses the difficulty he has to manage his unruly young people, and his fear that the white rule might prove too strict for them.

Red Wing, a Flathead chief: "We gathered up yesterday the three peoples you see here. They think they are three nations. I thought these nations were going to talk each about its own land. Now I hear the governor: my land is all cut up in pieces. I thought we had two places. This ground is the Flatheads', that across the mountains is the Pend Oreilles'; perhaps not, perhaps we are all one. We made up another mind yesterday, to-day it is different. We will go back and have another council."

The governor adjourned the council to the next day, urging them to talk and agree among themselves as to the reservation.

The following day the governor called on the chiefs to speak their minds freely.

Big Canoe, a Pend Oreille chief, made a long and sententious speech, in which he deprecated making any treaty, or parting with any of his country, and thought the whites and Indians could live together in the same land:--

"Talk about treaty, when did I kill you? When did you kill me? What is the reason we are talking about treaties? We are friends. We never spilt the blood of one of you. I never saw your blood. I want my country. I thought no one would ever want to talk about my country. Now you talk, you white men. Now I have heard, I wish the whites to stop coming. Perhaps you will put me in a trap if I do not listen to you, white chiefs. It is our land, both of us. If you make a farm, I would not go there and pull up your crops. I would not drive you away from it. If I were to go to your country and say, 'Give me a little piece,' I wonder would you say, 'Here, take it.' I expect that is the same way you want me to do here. This country you want to settle here, me with you.... You tell us, 'Give us your land.' I am very poor. This is all the small piece I have got. I am not going to let it go. I did not come to make trouble; therefore I would say, I am very poor....

"It is two winters since you passed here. Every year since, my horses have gone to the Blackfeet. Here this spring the Blackfeet put my daughter on foot. She packed her goods on her back. It made me feel bad. I was going on a war-party as your express passed along. Then I think of what I heard from you, my father, and take my heart back and keep quiet. If I had not listened to your express, I should have gone on war-parties over yonder. We drove one band of horses from the Blackfeet. I talked about it to my Indians. I said, 'Give the horses back, my children.' My chief took them back. You talked about it strong, my father. My chief took them back. That is the way we act. When I found my children were going on war-parties, I would tell them to stop, be quiet; tell them I expect now we will see the chief; I expect he will talk to the Blackfeet again."

Governor Stevens: "I will ask you, my children, if you fully understand all that was said yesterday? I ask you now, can you all agree to live on one reservation? I ask Victor, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays? I ask Alexander, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Koo-te-nays? I ask Michelle, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles? What do you, Victor, Alexander, and Michelle, think? You are the head chiefs. I want you to speak."

Victor: "I am willing to go on one reservation, but I do not want to go over yonder" [Pend Oreille country].

Alexander: "It is good for us all to stop in one place."

Michelle: "I am with Alexander."

Governor Stevens: "The Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays think it well to have all these tribes together. Perhaps Victor might think so by and by, if the place suits. Alexander and Michelle wish to live together, their people on one place,--they have a thousand people, the land ought to be good. Each man wants his field. The climate ought to be mild....

"I ask Victor, Alexander, and Michelle to think it over. Will they go to the valley with Victor, or to the mission with Alexander and Michelle? I do not care which. You will have your priests with you, whether you go to the mission or Fort Owen. Those who want the priest can have him. The Great Father means that every one shall do as he pleases in regard to receiving the instructions of the priests."

But the council next day showed no change in the situation. Victor was unwilling to move to the mission, and Alexander to the valley. Neither would object to the other coming to his place. It being evident, after protracted discussion, that no progress would be made by continuing the council that day, and it appearing that an influence was being exerted by the priests of the mission which might be adverse to the views of the government, a messenger was dispatched directing the presence of Father Hoecken for the purpose of investigating it, the council was adjourned over to Friday, and the Indians were recommended to have a feast and a council among themselves on the morrow. Accordingly they had a grand feast on the 12th, the means for which--two beeves, coffee, sugar, flour, etc.--were furnished them, after which the day was spent in discussing the question of the reservation among themselves.

But in council next day they appeared no nearer an agreement, and, after much and fruitless talk, Ambrose, a Flathead chief, said:--

"Yesterday Victor spoke to Alexander. He said: 'I am not headstrong. The whites picked out a place for us, the best place, and that is the reason I do not want to go. Two years since they passed us. Now the white man has his foot on your ground. The white man will stay with you.' Yesterday, when we had the feast, then Alexander spoke; he said, 'Now I will go over to your side. I will let them take my place, and come to your place.' But Victor did not speak, and the council broke up."

Governor Stevens: "Alexander, did you agree yesterday to give up your country and join Victor?"

Alexander: "Yes, yesterday I did give up. I listened and he did not give me an answer; then I said, 'I will not give up my land.'"

Governor Stevens: "I speak now to the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays. Do you agree to this treaty?--the treaty placing the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays on this reservation? [at the mission]. I ask Victor if he declines to treat?"

Victor: "Talk! I have nothing to say now."

Governor Stevens: "Does Victor want to treat? Why did he not say to Alexander yesterday, 'Come to my place'? or is not Victor a chief? Is he, as one of his people has called him, an old woman? Dumb as a dog? If Victor is a chief, let him speak now."

Victor: "I thought, my people, perhaps you would listen. I said, 'This [at the mission] is my country, and all over here is my country. Some of my people want to be above me. I sit quiet, and before me you give my land away. If I thought so, I would tell the whites to take the land there [the mission]. It is my country. I am listening, and my people say, "Take my country."'"

Governor Stevens: "Alexander said yesterday that he would come up here. Why did you not answer and say 'Come'?"

Victor: "Yesterday I did talk."

Governor Stevens: "Alexander said yesterday he offered to give up his land and go to you. Alexander says you made no answer. Why did you not say, 'Yes, come to my place'?"

Victor: "I did not understand it so."

Governor Stevens: "Ambrose says he understood Alexander to say so. Alexander says he said so. You did not speak and say, 'Come to my place,' but you were dumb. Does Victor mean to say that he will neither let Alexander come to his place nor go to Alexander's?"

Ambrose, Til-coos-tay, Red Wolf, and Bear Tracks, Flathead chiefs, took up the discussion, pouring oil on the troubled waters, and excusing Victor for not speaking in answer to Alexander at their own council.

At length the governor said:--

"My children, I find that things are nearer to an agreement than when we began talking this morning. Ambrose says the people are not quite prepared, but will be ready by and by. Ambrose says, 'Be patient and listen.' I am patient, and have been patient and listened to them. Others of you have said they they were hiding their minds and did not speak; hence I reproved you and said, 'Speak out, let us have your hearts.' It seems many of the Flatheads are ready to go to the mission. If their chief says so, they will go. Victor says, 'I am ready to go, but my people will not;' but the people say they are ready to go. We want all parties to speak straight, to let us have their hearts, then we can agree. If Victor's people will go, we want Victor as a chief to say, 'I will go.'"

Victor here arose and left the council. After a pause of some minutes Governor Stevens said:--

"I will ask Ambrose where is Victor?"

Ambrose: "He is gone home."

Governor Stevens: "Ambrose, speaking of Victor, said he wanted time. Victor is now thinking and studying over this matter. We don't wish to drive or hurry you in this business. Think over this matter to-night, and meet here to-morrow. I ask Ambrose to speak to Victor and tell him what I say. Ambrose loves his chief, let him take my words to him."

He then adjourned the council to meet in the morning.

But the following day word was sent by Victor to the governor that he had not yet made up his mind, and the council was postponed to Monday morning.

When the council opened at eleven Monday morning, Victor said:--

"I am now going to talk. I was not content. You gave me a very small place. Then I thought, here they are giving away my land. That is my country over there at the mission, this also. Plenty of you say Victor is the chief of the Flatheads. The place you pointed out above is too small. From Lo Lo Fork above should belong to me. My stock will have room, and if the Blackfeet will let my horses alone, they will increase. I believe that you wish to help me, and that my people will do well there. We will send this word to the Great Father. Come and look at our country. When you look at Alexander's place, and say the land is good, and say, Come, Victor, I will go. If you think this above is good land, then Victor will say, Come here, Alexander. Then our children will be well content. That is the way we will make the treaty, my father."

Governor Stevens: "Victor has spoken. Do Alexander and Michelle speak in the same way? I will ask Alexander if he agrees."

Alexander: "Maybe we cannot all come together. Here is Michelle, I know his mind. He told me, you go this way, I won't go. Here are the lower Pend Oreilles. Maybe they are the same way. They have no horses; they have only canoes. I am very heavy, as though they tied me there."

Michelle: "I am just following Alexander's mind. If he goes this way, I will not go. I have come a long way to see you; when you leave I go back."

The governor again asked them if they would agree to Victor's proposition, and go to the reservation which was found best adapted to their needs after survey and examination, but both chiefs positively refused.

The governor then cut the knot by accepting Victor's proposition as far as it concerned him, and giving the others the reservation at the mission:--

"My children, Victor has made his proposition. Alexander and Michelle have made theirs. We will make a treaty for them. Both tracts shall be surveyed. If the mission is the best land, Victor shall live there. If the valley is the best land, Victor shall stay here. Alexander and Michelle may stay at the mission....

"I ask Victor to come up and sign the treaty. [He came up and signed.] Now I ask Alexander and Michelle." [They also then signed.]

Moses, a Flathead chief, on being called on to sign, refused. He stepped forward, and said:--

"My brother is buried here. I did not think you would take the only piece of ground I had. Here are three fellows [the head chiefs]; they say, 'Get on your horses and go.' ... Last year, when you were talking about the Blackfeet, you were joking."

Governor Stevens: "How can Moses say I am not going to the Blackfoot country? I have gone all the way to the Great Father to arrange about the Blackfoot council. What more can I do? A man is coming from the Great Father to meet me. Does he not know that Mr. Burr and another man went to Fort Benton the other day?"

Moses: "You have pulled all my wings off, and then let me down."

Governor Stevens: "All that we have done is for your benefit. I have said that the Flatheads were brave and honest, and should be protected. Be patient. Everything will come right."

Moses: "I do not know how it will be straight. A few days ago the Blackfeet stole horses at Salmon River."

Governor Stevens: "Ask him if he sees the Nez Perce chief, Eagle-from-the-Light; he is going to the Blackfoot council with me."

Moses: "Yes, I see him. They will get his hair. The Blackfeet are not like these people. They are all drunk."

All the principal men came forward and signed the treaty. Governor Stevens then said:--

"Here are three papers which you have signed, copies of the same treaty. One goes to the President, one I place in the hands of the head chief, and one I keep myself. Everything that has been said here goes to the President. I have now a few presents for you. They are simply a gift, no part of the payments. The payments cannot be made until we hear from the President next year."

The presents were then distributed. The chiefs were then requested to assemble on the morrow with regard to the Blackfoot council.

Thus successfully and happily terminated this protracted council, "every man pleased and every man satisfied," says the governor. Twelve hundred Indians were present on the treaty ground.

The jealousy and pride of the chiefs, Victor and Alexander, greatly increased the difficulty of coming to an agreement. The former repeatedly asserted his chieftainship over both tribes by claiming that the countries of both were his, a claim that Alexander offered to recognize if Victor would move to the Horse Plains (mission) reservation. Alexander claimed to be chief of the lower Pend Oreilles, a claim the governor summarily rejected. The influence and advice of the former Hudson Bay Company employees and half-breeds, to this and to the other treaties, was prejudicial, instigating the Indians to make unreasonable demands, and often opposing and misrepresenting the treaties themselves.

Father Hoecken arrived before the end of the council, in response to the governor's summons. It did not appear that he was exerting any adverse influence. On the contrary, he highly approved the treaty, and signed it as one of the witnesses. It seems, however, as the governor reported, that the dislike of the Flatheads to the mission establishment was one cause of their unwillingness to move to the reservation in the Pend Oreille country. It is probable that the missionaries at St. Mary's had been too strict and exacting for their independent natures. Moreover, it was the fact, as the governor had cause to realize later, that the missionaries feared and dreaded the approach of the settlers, and sympathized wholly with the Indians as between the two.

This treaty, like all made by Governor Stevens, was remarkably liberal in its terms to the Indians. The reservation on the Flathead River comprises a million and a quarter acres. $84,000 in annuity goods; $36,000 to improve the reservation; salaries of $500 a year for twenty years, with a house and ten acres fenced and ploughed, to the three head chiefs; schools, mills, hospitals, shops; teachers and mechanics for twenty years; the right to fish, hunt, gather roots and berries, and pasture stock on vacant land; and the provision for ultimately dividing the reservation among them in severalty,--were all embraced. It was agreed that the three tribes were to constitute one nation under Victor as head chief, to be known as the Flathead nation, in which, and on the same reservation, were to be included other friendly tribes, as the lower Pend Oreilles and Coeur d'Alenes. Besides Father Hoecken, R.H. Lansdale, W.H. Tappan, R.H. Crosby, Gustavus Sohon, and William Craig witnessed the treaty. Some 25,000 square miles were ceded.

All three tribes now occupy the reservation on the Jocko (mission), together with the lower Pend Oreilles and a few Spokanes. They number 2000, showing little diminution since the treaty, and have made fair progress. Nearly all have houses with some land inclosed. Many raise small crops of wheat and have good gardens. They have 20,000 acres under fence, over ten miles of irrigation ditches, and raised last year 25,000 bushels of grain, 10,000 bushels of vegetables, and 7000 tons of hay. Their lands have not yet been allotted in severalty. The agent complains that worthless employees are frequently foisted upon the agency, "many incompetent men hold positions who take no interest in their work,"[8] etc.,--a state of things equally unfair to the Indians and disgraceful to the government.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1899, pp. 192-194, 620.