RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 127 self informed as to their condition and wants, and in studying how best to distribute and apply the means afforded by the Government, as well as to assist in preserving the peace. I tried to show him the importance of his position and that he could do more to make the reservation system a success than the agent. When the chief does all this, he will have richly earned his salary and every Cayuse will get his share of it. The money paid him was green-backs, and as he held the bills in his hands slowly looking them over, he was laughing and talking in low tones to the interpreter. "What pleases Howl- ish Wampo this morning?" I asked. "Why, he says this is the only salary ever paid to him." ' ' What ! does he say that in earnest ? ' ' "Yes." "Antoine, ask him for me this question: 'Did Agent Barn- hart or Mr. Abbott ever pay you any part of your salary ? ' ' Howlish Wampo answered, "Way-toh." I understood it to mean no, and the interpreter said that Howlish Wampo answered in the negative. Pierre, or Meanatete, the salaried chief of the Walla Wallas, was a pleasant, gabby, drinking, full-blood Indian, who had associated with the French traders enough to speak the language as it was used by the Canadians, but he had no fol- lowing and influence with his tribe, which was controlled by Homely, of whom I have spoken upon former pages. Whether he or Winam Snoot, the Umatilla chief, had been paid any portion of their salaries, I never asked and never learned. "How little people in general know of the Indian char- acter," I often exclaimed after a nine months' service at the Umatilla. Previously, I was full of false notions concerning Indians, though I knew or rather judged that the common esti- mate was far from the truth. To speak of chastity as being more than an exception among Indian women would raise a laugh in any American community, and the persons holding to such an opinion would be considered very generous or very green ; but I found, after a fair inquiry, that unchastity among
