The agent receives us kindly, and shows us round everywhere with
interest in his work and its results. One Sunday I was there, and,
hearing the church-bell calling to service, went in. The Sabbath-school
was just beginning in the school-room behind the boarding-house. It was
a mixed assembly of all ages, some ninety or a hundred in all. The
women were better dressed, and the little children had been treated to
all the comforts and care in the way of dress their parents could
muster. There was a great variety of type apparent, for the remnants of
thirteen tribes of the coast and Klamath and Rogue River Indians are
collected on this reservation. Nearly all could speak a little, and
understand more, English--and I think we could have got on quite as
well without the help of the Indian interpreter, who turned our English
into fluent Chinook. This man, named Adams, is an excellent fellow,
well instructed, capable, civil, and, I believe, an earnest Christian
man. The agent asked me to take the Bible-class at the far end of the
room, and soon I was the center of the observant eyes of a dozen Indian
men of all ages. Certain of them were friends of mine. Old Galeese
Creek Jem, a little fellow about five feet high, with a broad face and
a pair of twinkling, laughing eyes, had brought us some salmon in Rock
Creek a few days before, and was under promise to bring us some more on
Monday. Two or three of the others always stopped for a chat as they
passed through. All of them, I noticed, were curious to see how King
George's man would act in this new capacity. I am bound to say that
they showed considerable knowledge and some reflection in the answers
they gave. Perhaps this is not to be wondered at, considering the
resolute efforts made now for several years past to instruct and
Christianize the Indians here.
At the store I found an excellent stock of all things that the Indians
need, and marked at prices which enabled them to lay their money out so
as to get its fullest value. The assistant told me that they were all
keen traders, and alive to minute differences in quality and texture of
their purchases.
[Sidenote: _SUGGESTIONS._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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