find employment, either in transporting the farmers and their produce and supplies in their canoes, or in helping them to clear their land and plant and gather their crops. Many of them have either bought or taken up land, which they are improving as they are able, and seem to be striving to imitate those who live on the reservation. Among those who have land of their own, I have distributed during the past year 300 fruit trees, and also agricultural tools and some materials for building houses. The desire and determination among them to own land seems to be growing. Some new lands have been surveyed during the past summer in their country, and several of them are locating claims there already, while others are negotiating for the purchase of land from the whites. At Jamestown, the largest village among them, and the residence of the head cuief, the Indians own all the land, some 200 acres, acquired by purchase. They have a neat village; have built a church and school-house, in which, at government expense, there has been kept up a day school through the entire year. I visited this school in June last, and found present about 20 scholars, none of whom had been to school more than fifteen months, and most of whom could not speak the English language before they commenced going to school, and yet every one in the school could read and write sufficiently well to spell their words on their slates, while many had acquired a good knowledge of arithmetic and geography. They have also kept up religious services every Sabbath and a weekly prayer-meeting every Thursday evening, both of which have been well attended. Here, at the comparatively small expense of six or seven hundred dollars a year to pay a teacher, as much advancement has been made through the efforts of one man as the expenditure of ten times that amount would have accomplished in moving and consolidating them, and they are now all contented and happy. This day school, which was started as an experiment, has proved a success, and has convinced me that one advantageous method of dealing with these Indians would be to throw them on their own resources, make them amenable to the laws, and provide them means of education. Their necessities will make them industrious; the example of their white neighbors will incite them to habits of civilization, and the benefits of education will gradually become apparent to them, so that they will avail themselves of the advantages offered them. Then, with the care of an agent, to see that the laws preventing drinking are properly enforced, and their children made to attend school, no further draiu need be made on the public treasury for their aid or support. THE SKOKOMISH Indians have made less progress than they would have done had they received the patents they have been so long expecting for the lands they are occupying, and which have been alloted to them. Their habits are generally good. As a rule they are temperate and industrious; their children attend school regularly; some of their young men are learning the various trades taught by the employés, and are doing well, and they might, and I have no doubt would, in a few years become a productive class of citizens were they not losing their confidence in the government's ever giving them titles to their homes. They have good comfortable houses, small patches of land cleared, which is very productive, and a good start made for further advancement, but they will not, unless forced to do so, clear up more land until they know whether it is to be theirs, or whether they are to be moved to some other reservation. I very much regret this long delay in giving them titles. White men will not go on to the public domain and clear up land and make improvements thereon unless they have a legal guarantee of title, and why should we expect Indians to do so? In another year the treaty will expire. The government will then be under no treaty obligation to aid them farther. If they have titles to their homes they will improve them; if not, many of them will leave and drift aimlessly about, eking out a bare existence, with no object in view, except the gratification of their present desires. During the past year they have made about 300 rods of fence, have cleared about 25 acres of land, set out about 700 fruit-trees, and very much improved many of their dwellings. The school has been well sustained, and grown in numbers and interest. Their health has been quite good, and their intercourse with the neighboring whites has been peaceable and harmonious. Their only productions for sale are hay and potatoes, and the difficulty to get work has dien many of them to hunt and fish who would gladly work for wages if they had the opportunity. At the agency a new blacksmith's shop has been erected 14 by 22 feet, but most of the improvements made this year have been for the Indians. Some changes have occurred among the employés, and a full-blooded Indian, one of our former scholars, now very successfully discharges the duties of carpenter. The efforts of the missionary have been felt in the general good moral tone that is prevalent among the Indians. Peace and quiet, health and prosperity, obtain in all departments, for which we are grateful to the all-wise Ruler of events and things. Very respectfully submitted. The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. EDWIN EELLS, United States Indian Agent. TULALIP INDIAN AGENCY, WASHINGTON, August 1, 1879. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following as my first annual report of affairs pertaining to this agency from the date on which I relieved my predecessor, A. N. Marion, February 18, 1879. It is gratifying to me to say that since my arrival here, peace, harmony, and good will have prevailed among the Indians subject to my charge, and habits of industry and thrift are becoming more noticeable day by day, particularly on the Lummi and Muckleshoot Reservations, where the land is unsurpassed by any in the Territory, and yields a return that amply repays the Indians for the time spent in cultivation. Many of the Indians take advantage of the privileges allowed them by nature and many fine little farms can be seen that would do credit to a more civilized community. During the year numbers who have been heretofore strangers to farming, seeing the growing prosperity of their companions, have taken hold in earnest, and are now hewing homes out of the forest. The land on the Tulalip, Madison, and Swinomish is of such a poor quality that it affords but little encouragement to the Indians to follow farming as a business, for with the exception of a few small swails or marshes it is high and gravelly, and thickly covered with a dense growth of fir, cedars, and spruce. It requires an immense amount of labor to clear a few acres, and even when in fit condition for planting the yield is so small that it is truly discouraging, and would tax the continuity of a more industrious and determined people than the Indians. THE SCHOOLS have been prosperously carried on, and it is pleasing to note the marked advancemen made. The children appear anxious to learn, and every encouragement and advantag is afforded them by the good Sisters of Charity, who labor untiringly and persistentl in their great work of educating and civilizing them. The boarding-schools are con ducted in an orderly and systematic manner, and everything is neat and in its place and in fact it is carried on with the regularity of clock-work. Preparations are now under way to build an addition to the female-school house, which is much needed, owing to the narrow and cramped quarters they now occupy, and the growing desire of the Indians to have their children educated and instructed in the manners of the white people. In all, there are five schools on the different reservations, two boarding and industrial, and three day schools, at which there has been an average attendance of 101 scholars, of whom 37 are capable of reading and writing the English language understandingly, and working in the four fundamental rules of arithmetic. Some of the older and advanced scholars are well acquainted with geography, grammar, and United States history, and their penmanship is excellent. Taking all into consideration, the schools have been conducted ably and well, and too much praise cannot be lavished on the instructors for the commendable manner in which they acquitted themselves. The sanitary condition, with the exception of a few months during the winter and spring, has been good, and although the physician has no lack of patients, the complaints in many cases are more imaginary than real. Scrofula and consumption are the most prevalent diseases. The agency is assigned to the care of the Roman Catholic Church. The officiating priest is Father Boulet. There are five churches, one on each of the reservations. The greater portion of the Indians are Catholics, and are very zealous in their devotion and belief. NO CRIME of any serious nature has been committed; little breaches of conduct occur from time to time, but owing to the untiring vigilance and watchfulness of the police the vicious and unruly habits of the Indians are greatly subdued. AGRICULTURE. About one-third of the Indians belonging to this agency are engaged in agricultural pursuits; the remainder are either laboring for white people at different points on the sound or follow their old customs of fishing and hunting for a living. About 800 acres of land is now under cultivation, which is divided up into fields of from two to forty acres each. The production is small for the amount of land planted, and can be attributed to no other reason than the lack of experience and want of proper instructions. This will, however, be in a great degree remedied during the next year, as there is now stationed at Lummi a practical and experienced farmer who will use all the means in his power to promote the interests and welfare of the Indians under his guidance. |