Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/68

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58 C. F. COAN

the subjects discussed were the removal of the western Indians into eastern Oregon, and pay for the lands taken by the settlers. The Indians objected to having the western Indians brought into their country on the grounds that the western Indians would bring disease among them, and that their customs were different. Dart quieted their fears on this score by inform- ing them that the government would not force the removal of the Willamette Valley Indians, who had refused to leave their native lands. As to pay for their lands, the superintendent promised them that they would be paid for their rights to the land. The second council was held in the Walla Walla Valley with the Cayuse Indians, June 20, 1851. Expressions of friendship were exchanged, and arrangements were made for the establishment of an agency on the Umatilla River. The third council was held with the Nez Perces, June 27, 1851. The superintendent feasted the Indians who expressed themselves as friendly towards the whites. 28 The Nez Perces agreed to postpone their attack upon the Shoshoni. 29 The plan of holding councils with the Indians of upper Oregon preserved the peace of that part of the territory fairly well, as long as there were few settlers in the region.

Upon returning from the interior, Anson Dart continued the work of making treaties with the Indians west of the Cascade Mountains. He submitted a report and thirteen trea- ties, November 7, 1851. These were received by the Commis- sioner of Indian Affairs, January 10, 1852, and sent to the Senate, by the President, August 3, 1852, where they were read and ordered printed. These treaties were not ratified. They may be divided into three groups, as follows : the Tansey Point treaties, which included ten of the thirteen, the two treaties made at Port Orford, and the one with the Clackamas Indians. 30

The Tansey Point treaties were made with ten small bands of the Chinook Indians, numbering in all about 320 Indians. The territory ceded stretched along the Pacific Coast from

28 Dart to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Oct. 3, 1851, in C. I. A., A. R. Nov. 27, 1851 (Serial 636, Doc. 2), p. 479.

29 Bancroft, History of Oregon, II, 217, note.

30 Interior Department, Indian Affairs Office, "Anson Dart submits 13 treaties negotiated with Indians of Oregon, also his report relative thereto," Nov. 7, 1851, Archives. (Photostat copies of the report and five of the treaties are in the Bancroft Collection), Appendix A.

[The references refer to the page numbers of the photostat copies in the Bancroft Collection.]