The Oregon Indians, Part II [pp. 425-433]

THE OREGON INDIANS.
which did succeed in keeping a foothold
for a number of years, was that of Walk er and Eells, among the Spokans.
If the peaceable Nez Perc6s were thus
hard to control, how fared Dr. Whitman,
among the turbulent Cayuses? When
a chief's wife was sick, and he was doing
the best he could to save her life, he was
told that if she died, he, too, should die.
His services as teacher were held at
nought, while the demands on his time,
his patience, his means, were unremit ting. He was struck and spit upon, and
insulted grossly, upon many occasions.
When walking over his farm, with a vis itor from the East, and pointing out the
qualities of the soil, an Indian, walking
behind him, knocked off his hat, and,
throwing a handful of the dry earth over
his head, bade him "take the ground, if
it was so good a thing!"
We are surprised that a man of spirit
and good sense could endure such treat ment at the hands of savages, and voluntarily remain among them. That he
did so, being the kind of man that he
was, shows that he acted from deepseated convictions of duty. The Indians had been taught many things; and
he did not yet despair of teaching them
still better and higher things. Gradually, however, other motives came to operate upon him. A good man, he was
yet a violent sectarian; and the Roman fathers were beginning to get some
ground among the Indians-at a distance, to be sure; but if he should quit
his work, would they not come in and
occupy his field? He was a good American, too, and he had seen indications
that the British Government had designs
upon the Oregon territory. Instead of
quitting it himself, should he not rather
do all he could to induce other Americans to occupy it? The more that the Indians showed themselves ungrateful, and
unspiritual in their natures, the more he
was moved to make his labor of avail to
the Government.
That was the fatal error that cost him
his life. It will no more do to mingle
affairs of Church and State in an Indian
country, than in Washington. In I842,
Doctor Whitman, having heard a boast
made by a man who was at once a Cath olic priest and a British subject, that
they had a colony of sixty souls on the
way from the Red River settlement, to
occupy north of the Columbia River,
made a counter-boast, then and there,
that he would have a thousand Ameri can settlers in the country the following
year. And he was a man to keep his
word. Bidding his wife a hasty adieu,
he set out, quite late in the fall, to reach
the States, with two or three others. Af ter much hardship, he arrived in Wash ington in the spring, to find that he might
almost as well have stayed at home.
He found, on the frontier, a large em igration all ready to move forward to ward Oregon, as soon as Linn's Land
Bill should pass. It had not yet passed,
but such were Linn's promises regarding it, that the emigrants had resolved
to go ahead. Wherever Dr. Whitman
fell in with any of them, he encouraged
them to start. He had hoped to get the
ear of the President and Secretary of
State, concerning the boundary question; but when he arrived in Washington, he found that the Ashburton Treaty,
of the previous August, had already
closed that subject for several succeeding years. Giving the Executive and
Secretary all the information about Oregon he could, and urging them not to
barter it off too cheaply in any future
treaties, he proceeded next to visit the
American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions, and lay before them
his views about Oregon, together with
his report of the mission. To his infinite mortification, the Board failed to indorse his action in making this flying
visit to the States; reproaching him with
the expense, and not at all "pitying him
for the dangers he had passed" in com
I87x.]
429