University of Oklahoma College of LawUniversity of Oklahoma College of Law Digital CommonsAmerican Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-18991-26-1897Klamath Boundary Commission.Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/indianserialsetPart of the Indian and Aboriginal Law CommonsThis Senate Document is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-1899 by an authorized administrator of Universityof Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact darinfox@ou.edu.Recommended CitationS. Doc. No. 93, 54th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1897)54TH CONGRESS, } 2d Session. SENATE. { DOCUMEN'l' No. 93. KLAMATH BOUND.A.RY COMMISSION. JANUARY 27, 1897.-Referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed. The VICE-PRESIDENT presented the following LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, TRANSMIT-TING COPY OF A REPORT OF THE KLAMATH BOUNDARY COM-MISSION, APPOINTED UNDER A CLAUSE IN THE IfiDIAN APPRO-PRIATION ACT OF JUNE 10, 1896. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, January 26, 1897. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith copy of a report dated December 18, 1896, of the Klamath Boundary Commission, appointed under a clause in the Indian appropriation act of June 10, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 321). The Commissioners find the area of lands which have been excluded from the reservation by the erroneous surveys ,of its outboundaries to be 617,490 acres, and determine the value of these excluded lands to be $533,270. The report in question has been carefully examined by the Commis-sioner of Indian Affairs, as shown by the accompanying communication dated 25th instant, who states that in his opinion a portion of the funds due the Indians should be made available for irrigation purposes for the benefit of the Indian allottees and the schools, and he recommends that the sum of $350,000 be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of these Indians to draw interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, which interest shall be paid to them annually per capita, and the remainder of the sum recommended by the Commis-sion to be paid, after the payment of the legal fees of attorneys, be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior in the drainage and irrigation of lands, and in the purchase of cattle, wagons, mowing machines, and agricultural implements, the erection of houses, and for such other purposes as he may deem for the benefit of the Indians. . The Commissioner submits an item for insertion in the Indian appro-priation bill now pending, prepared in accordance with the above recom-mendations, and I have the honor to recommend that the matter receive early and favorable consideration by the Congress. I also transmit herewith copy of a communication of 12th instant, from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to whom the matter was referred. Very respectfully, The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE. D. R. FRANOIS, Secretary. 2 KLAMATH BOUNDARY COMMISSION. DEP .ARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF lNDl.A.N AFFAIRS, Washington, January 25, 1897. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, by Department reference for report, of the report of the Klamath Boundary Commis-sion (Messrs. W. P. Coleman, R. P. Hammond, and I. D. Applegate), dated December 18, 1896. This Commission was appointed under the following clause in the Indian appropriation act of June 10, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 321): That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to appoint a com-mi sion, to be composed of three persons, two of whom shall be practical surveyors, not more than two of whom sha\l be of the same politfoal party, and not more than one of whom shall be a resident of any one State, whose duty it shall be to visit and thoroughly investigate and determine as to the correct location of the boundary lines of the Klamath Indian Reservation, in the State of Oregon, the location of said boundary lines to be according to the terms of the treaties heretofore made with said Indians establishing said reservation; and when the correct Ideation of said tr a.ty bonndaries"rlf said reservation shall have been so ascertained and determined, saicl commi sion shall -ascertain and determine: as nearly as practicable, the number of a. res, if any, of the land, the character thereof, and also the value thereof in a state of nature, that have b~en excluded from said treaty reservation by the errone-ous urvey of its out boundaries, as now existing and as shown and reported to have b n m. de in r port of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and of the Commissioner of the neral Land Office, submitted to the Senate by the Secretary of the Interior, and aa s tout in Senate Executive Documents Numbered One hunched ancl twenty-nine, Fifty-third Congress, second session, and Numbered Sixty-two, Fifty-third Congress, third session. And said commi sion shall make report of the facts ascertained and of their con-clusions and recommendations upon the matters hereby committed to them to the retary of the Interior, who is hereby directed to report tbe facts found and reported by said commission and their conclusions and recommendations in the matter, together with his recommendations thereon, to the next regular Congress for i action. The contention regarding the location of the boundary lines of the Klamath Re ervation and the erroneous survey thereof is so fu1ly set out in the executive documents referred to in the above legislation that it i de med unnece ary to further refer to the same. The Commis ioners report that after a careful review of the treaty, th note. taken by each ommi ·ioner, and the testimony obtained, th etermiuecl the correct location of the boundary line of the reser-tion in accordance with the term of the treaties with the Indians to be follows: d from the to be 617,49 Th r a1 m liru i d t r: t f o rl m ae according to the terms of the treaties heretofore made with said Indians establishing said reservation; and when the correct loc:ttion of said treaty boundaries of said reservation shall have been so ascertained and determined, said commission shall ascertain and determine, as nearly as practicaule, t.he number of acres, if any, of the land, the character thereof, and also the value thereof, in a state of nature, that have been excluded from said treaty reservation by the erroneous survey of its out boundaries as now existing, and as shown antl reported to have been made in reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs auc1 of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, submitted to t.he Senate by the Secre-tary of the Interior, and as set out in Senate Executive Documents Numbered One hundred and twenty-nine, Fifty-third Congress, second session, and Numl>ered Sixty-two, ifty-tbird Congress, third session. And aid commission shall make report of the facts ascertained, and their conclu-sions n.nd recommendations upon the matters hereby committed to them, to the Secre-tary of the Interior, who is hereby directed to report the facts found aud reported by said commission and their conclusions and recommendations in the matter, tog ther with his recommendations thereon, to the next regular session of Congress for its action. KLAMATH BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 7 to concentrate them on an · area much more limited, but which would still be ample to provide them with the means of subsistence. . To attain this the marked tendency of t.he treaty and the emphatic testimony of th~ Indians seek to make all the boundaries mountain rido-ea a purpose which the nature of the country renders easy of acc~mplishment on all sides except the north. There is no prov1sion in the treaty, however, for the support .of t.he Indians by the Government, and as the hi~h 3:Ititude and the s~verity of the climate are unfavorable to the cult1vat10n of cereals, their sub- · sistence depended upon natural products, consisting principally of game, fish, wild ro~ts, and seeds. These mountain barriers, th~refore, must include a territory frequented by game, streams stocked with fish, and ground producing the roots and seeds which formed so large a por-tion of the subsistence of the Indians. For the two former, the treaty specially provides; the mountain ridges and adjacent valleys furnished the game, the fishery is designated by name, and only the fields (where every season the scattered bands gathered to the harvest of wo-kus, camus, eppos, and other roots and seeds) were left in doubt; thoug·h even this point becomes clear, if a thorough knowledge of the topography of the territory is applied to the treaty. Iu this treaty drawn up at Council Grove (not on Ya1nax Butte, 40 miles distant, as erroneously stated in the reports of the Indian agents who confounded the supplemental treaty of August 12, 1865, with the original and decisive one of October 14, 1864), though Com-missioners Huntington and Logan couched the agreement in terms current with us, instead of giving the natural topographical features in their expressive Indian names, they fortunately left two salient points-keys to the entire question-the proper establishment of which necessarily defines the boundaries and we believe reconciles the appar-ent variance in the wording of the treaty and the Indian claim. These two keys are the location of Ish tish e wax Creek, and upper end of the Klamath Lake or marsh. With these preliminary remarks, the commission respectfully report that they arrived at Klamath Agency October 18, where they met all the surviving India.n signers of the treaty living in the vicinity, from whom they obtaiued sworn statements which are annexed hereto and marked Exhibit A. Leaving the agency October 22, the commission for six weeks, by wagon, horseback, and afoot, explored the entire territory in in , d t rmining it , o , I> ·ifi ·a11 pr ri 1 ha w ar for· d to tb con lu ion that the Ind i, n ·laim i.· itb r , n rr r wbi h ha r p in from the lap e of r h r . nl f rn d r11 n m n ·la m· applied to the mountain r In i 11.· in· b r a wa mad . hil tb Indian n wi h u.- uni ind ig-na in · a mountain 1 mil al 1 w1.'l' · b 11 ·r Indian , •icrn r f the wi 11 1,r ruptn · and ·onfi.dence a far KLA.MATH BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 9 as Cowhorn Monntain (His chok wal as), are uncertain and confliding in locating Bal la wisk se. . . Charley Preston locates it as '' the highest peak of His chok wal as." (Exhibit A, pp. 1 and 2.) . . . Allan David says: "His cbok wal as is a httle sharp peak of Bal la wisk se." (Id., pp. 4 aud 5.) Henry Blow says: '"From Tum su°:1 ne along the_ ~i~ge to the p~ak called His chok wal as . and Bal la wisk se, the adJomrng mountam." • (Id.~ p. 8.) . . . . . On account of this wide variance w1t,h the treaty and the confhctrng testimony of the Indians themselves, we deem ~he claim to go nor~h beyond Oowhorn Mountain untenable, and determme Cow horn Moun~am to be the correct location of the northwest corner of the boundary lme. To carry the boundary to Tsne wheet sto e los and Ba ha a similar objectiou applies. Their location is so far north of the "upper end of the lake" that they could only be adopted by an entire disregard of the treaty. A thorough personal investigation of the north end of the lake and the country adjacent to it established the fallacy of the theory that at any time witbiu centuries the lake could have extended any appre-ciable distance farther north, a range of steep bills within a few hun-dred yards of its upper end limiting its area in that direction by the period of their existence, at least. We therefore determine that from Cowhorn Mountain the boundary should run duly east, "passing the said north end of the upper lake to tbe summit of the mountains on the east side of the lake." This "summit of the mountains on the east side of the lake" can not be mistakell. It is the bold and lofty peak so forcibly described by Commissioner Lamoreux under the title ''Bald Butte" (Senate Ex. Doc. 62) as "necessarily a prominent and conspicuous landmark." It abruptly terminates the ridge, the western brancb. of Winter Ridge, the estabHshment of which as the ''mountains east of the lake" the location of Ish tish e wax creek in the succeeding paragraph neces-sarily determines. This mountain, identified to us as Chok chok lisk se bytbe Indians, is known to the whites by somanynames-BaldMountain, Mount Hagershot, Hagerie, Hager, etc.-that we deemed it expedient to give it a definite official designation, and accordingly took the liberty of 11aming it Mount Francis, in honor of the honorable Secretary of the Interior, and it so appears on the map (Exhibit B) accompanying this report. Tlte location of Ish tish e wax Creek is the next essential point. To determine this, the commission spent several days on the ground, exam-ining every water course emptying into Sprague River, and clearly estab-lished that the mouth of the stream, designated by the mark B, on map No. 1, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 62, as in sec. 6, T. 37 S., R.15 E., is the only place atisfying the meaning of the word and fulfilling the purpose it described. Ish tish means little fish-Ish tish e wax, place of little fish. The creek is a small water course running northwesterly from tbe moun-tains, ahout 6 miles distant, fed principally by the melting snow• often ~ry in the late ~ummer, but a rapid brook, dashing down a rocky bed, ~n the early spr~ng. About 100 yards fr_om ~he point where it empties mto Sprague River the gorge down whwh it runs widens out into a small amphitheater, near the middle of which the creek tumbles over a ledge about 2¼ feet high, which the Indians raise about 2 feet more by a dam of rocks. 10 KLAMATH BOUNDARY COMMISSION. KLAMATH BOUNDARY. CUM11ISSIOX. 11 The area which we ascertain and determine to bave been excluded . from the treaty reservation by the erroneous survey of its out bounda-ries is 617 ,MIO acres. · 'l'he cha,racter of the excluded area varies greatly. There are some limited tracts of good meadow and grazing laud, but the major portio11 of the area is of inferior qua.lity. Witll the exception of the meadows of the Sycan and Sprague River seetious, which are the p1:hrnipal bone of contention, the greater part of the excluded land consists of rocky and sterile mountain ranges, producing very ordinary timber and little grass. The territory in the vicinage of Mounts Scott and Cow horn on the northwest anrl north is especially of little or no value. Being of volcanic formation, the land consists of substrata of basalt and pumice stone lightly covered with volcanic ashes and decomposed pumice, offering scanty sustenance to vegetation. The extensive areas embraced in tbe eastern slopes and spurs of Yamsay Mountains and the western of Winter Ridge are likewise of little worth owing to their rugged and rocky formation. , Giving these inferior tracts, the good timber land and the meadows of the Sycan and Sprague River valleys their proportionate valuation, we determine the value of the excluded land to be $533:270, or 617,490 acres at 86.30 cents per acre. · In our intercourse witb the Iudians on this reservation we observed that a very commendable spirit of progress has been awakened in them. T\1ey impressed us as being of a higher type than the ordinary Indian; ambitious, industrious, and thrifty, they have already made great advancement in civilization. They have, with rare exceptions, adopted the language, dress, and. habits of the whites, and the children are few who are not inmates of the excellent schools provided by the Government. An eager desire for further a11d continuous progress seems to animate young and old alike. Tbe admirable provisions of the Government to enable them to acquire land in severalty and to build houses and barns are highly beneficial. One step further would assure their self-support and independence of Government aid. This step is some assistance to enable them to utilize profitably the lands now being allotted them. Grazing is the best and largely predominant resource of the reser-vation, therefore a few head of cattle as a start for each family would seem to be a prime necessity. We accordingly respectfully recommend that one-fourth of the amount determined to be due them be paid to the Indians, per capita, for the purchase of cattle, wagons, and mowing machines, and that the remaining portion be held in trust for them by the United States for such period as Congress may establish prohibitory of the disposal of the lanouts-not only the Klamaths, but the Snakes, Moclocs, and others-for the purpose of c:1.tching- the small fish which collect t~ere iu the l_ate spring-May and ,June. A sort of rough clam _of heavy stone~ was bmlt there he_fore I was born aud is there yet. The fish were dnven by th_e Indians :upstream and _u:to a large hollow just below the dam, where they were ~1pped out m great quant1ti_es in hand nets wickers etc. They were afterwards dned and cured ,and stored for winter use, a'nd formed an important part of the food of the Indians. A~ a.bou~ the season of fishing every year it was customary to add some stones, or repair the little dam. I well remember before the treaty a large dwarfed and aged pine tree growing on the side of the 0reek just al.Jove the dam. I saw the stnmp of the same tree there to-day--at the same place. I nev~r knew_ of _any other Indi_an fishery near there, or at any part of the Ho bots w~ere it empties mto S~rague ~1ver. . Huntino-ton came to Council Grove and sent out rnv1tat1ons to all the Indrnns to meet him0 to discuss a treaty about the lands. I went as chief irith Sevell ·warm Springs Indians to the first meeting at Council Grove. I met La Lake, hea1l chief, and Cbiloquen, chiefs of the Klamaths; also Captain Jack, Schoncben, and Chief George, of the Modocs. Huntington met me there with the man who wrote for him, and another white ma,n. We were there about a week and talked three da.,s about the treaty. We built our first camp tire under a big pine tree which I think is still there. Huntington made a speech and said: "I have come from Washington, from the Great Father, to see about buying your land and have l>rought me the things to pay for it." He then showed up fishhooks, beads, bnttons, coarse l>lankets, and red paint. Hunting-ton finished his speech by saying, "Tell me how much land you want to save for your-selves f" The chiefs went back to the camp and talked among themselves and agreed, ancl the next clay told Huntington they wanted the land from the three snow moun-tains and the Cascades (the three sisters) from there to Steens Mountain; thence southerly along the monntains east of Goose Lake Valley to tbe Califomi:1 line, then westerly to the Cascades, taking in the Tule Lake country; tllen back to the beginning. Huutington replied that was ''too much land for you to take care of and hold, and I want you to go back to your camp and think it over, and then point out to me . land near your homes here, which you can hold and take care of." So 'Ne went to camp and all talked it over and over for many hours, and finally agreed on Lee Lakes proposition, that we should keep the land to Tom sum ne, then to His chok sal as, Ba la wisk se, Tsue whel sto e los, Ba ha, Chok choke lisk se, then to Kal wal by Isb tish e wax. To this Huntington agreed, saying, "That is all right; and thematterisnow:finished. You will now be closed up, like in a high fence, so no one can get over to you, or their cattle get over, nor can you get out to them without permission; so, to-morrow I will issue you all the things I have, and to-night we will have a big dance." The next day the things Huntington had were issued and they all wen~ and signed the treaty. I know and have been on the summits of the mountains called Tom sum ne and His chok o las and along the ridge. From His chok o las I saw the lake to the west of it. From the high points I have seen Ba la wisk se. I know Ba ha, and Chok choke lisk se and have been on these mountains, also Tsno wbel sto e los, from which I saw a large little lake and two or three smaller ones easterly. Tsne whel sto e los is a mountain with timber all over; it is the mountain that is due north of the Klamath marsh. From Bear Creek Tsne whel sto e los is northwest from that place and west of Ba ha, and would be between Ba la wisk se and Ba ha. In looking from Silver Lake (town) to Tsne wbel sto e los, I would see Ba ha and another little mountain, and could not see Tsne whel sto e los, which is west of it . . At the time of the Huntington treaty I don't remember any descriptions being given by easterly or westerly corners, but only by the mountains. In the Snake war I served with the Government soldiers as a scout for nearly a year, and was wounded in the left breast by an arrow. Also served in the Modoc war on the side of the whites from the beginning Went out with Captain AJi>pleg~te to the rescue o~ the settlers who were being killed. Then I regularly enl~sted m the volm~teer service for t,he war, and my name is on the muster roll. Was slightly wounded m the shoulder, the bullet glancing off my gun, S. Doc. 93--2 18 KLAMATH BOUNDARY COMMISSION. in the battle of the Lava Beds. I also serYed in the Pitt River Indian troubles under General Crook. WitnesA to mark: H.J. BitADY. his Mo GHEN X KAS KIT. mark. Subscribed anY. w. P. COLEMAN, Conimissioner and Sp cial Disbursing Agent. hi HE. ·Ry ' J CK 0, . mark. rn 1 worn to b f, r m ! bi 1 h lny of T v mb r 1 96. \V. P. ('OLE fA. ·, 0111111is io11 1· and• 1>el'ial D LJll l'lfing ,Jg nt. KLAMATH BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 19 HARRISON BROWN BEN DREW, JIM BARCLAY, MODOC HENRY, and JOHN LIT-TLEJOHN, being first 'duly sworn, testify and depose as follows: V,,Te all and each of us know the place calletl b~ the Indians Ish ti~h ea wax. We and each of us have known it from_ boyhood. It IS_ the same p~ace ~ornted out to t11;e Commission to-day by us. There IS no other Ish t1sh ea wax m this country. It is the old Indian fishery. We never knew of any Indian fishery at the Ho bots where it empties into Sprague River. Witness to respective marks-H. J. BRADY. hjs HARRISON X BROWN, mark. hjs BEN X DREW. mark. his JIM X BARCLAY. mark. his MODOC X HENRY. ma_rk. his JOHN X LITTLEJOHN. mark. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of November, 1896. W. P. COLEMAN, Commissioner and Special Disbursing Agent. KLAMATH FALLS, OREG., November 27, 1896. 0. A. STEARNS, being first duly sworn, deposes and says: My name is O. A. Stearns; my age is 53 years. I reside 7 miles west of Klamath Falls, Oreg. I am a farmer, stock raiser, and dairyman. I have resided in Oregon since 1853; I joined the United States volunteer service November17, 1864, and was ordered to Fort Klamath in May, 1865. I remember that a portion of C Company, Capt. William Kelly, was ordered to the Sprague River country to escort and accom-pany Indian Superintendent Huntington at the time of the Yaiuax supplemental treaty. That is the only time I remember Superintendent Huutington being on the reservation while I was Rtationed, there. We went to Yainax by the usual route leading by the Klamath Agency. I think be came to Fort Klamath by the Des Chute road. · My company was Company I, First Oregon Infantry1 Capt. F. B. Sprague. We camped about the middle of August-about the 20th-1865, on Sprague River, just east of the canyon or narrows. I remember hearing the officers and soldiers say (we were then outside of the reservation) that the line crossed the river from one moun-tain range to the other at the narrows. Subsequently, in 1866 and 1867, we had a number of Indian scouts attached to our company, and I heard from them the same as above about the reservation boundary. I remember in November, 1865, Moghen Kas kit and his family and other Indians were encamped along the canyon on the west end oftbenarrows inside the reservation. In the spring of 1867 I went through the Sycan Valley on the way to Silver Lake with a scouting party, accompanied by a number of Klamath Indians. We went up the east side of the marsh. The Indians claimed that all the Sycan Valley to the summit of the mountain on the east and north was on the reservation. There were no settlers on the Sycan and Sprague River valleys before 1868 or 1869. In 1869 there were a few white settlers in Sprague River Valley about where Bly is now situ-ated; that is my recollection. The narrows were about 8 to 10 miles northwest of Bly. We always regarded Moghen Kas kit and bis band, as a sort of guardian of the border. We depended on him for information of the hostile Snakes, and when the h?stile I~dians sent envoys to i~cluce the Klamaths to join them in hostiliti~s, Kas kit and bis people held them until we sent for them and took them prisoners. I always underst_ood that the whole of Sycan Valley was in the reservation, but none of Sprague River Valley east of the narrows. I have not been there since 1869, until last October, when I first learned that the reservation line took in some of the country east of the narrows. 0. A. STEARNS. I Subscribed and sworn to before me the 27th day of November, 1896. 0 W. P. COLEMAN, Com'rnissioner.

Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

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Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

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