INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 439 



municated to them what you had done, and what you had intended and promised to do for them; 

 and particularly setting before them the objects of the council to be held at Fort Benton during 

 the next summer. They received the intelligence of the council with much joy and exultation, 

 and they now look forward to the coming summer as a time from which they are to date a new 

 and happy period in their nation s history. In reply to the many things told them, they said they 

 were deeply and fully aware that they were a helpless and miserable race of beings; but now 

 their hearts were glad to hear that the government had not neglected them, but that it intended 

 to send an agent among them, who would superintend their interest and welfare ; they said whai 

 they wanted the government to do for them now was, to send a man among them who would 

 teach them how to till the soil, and to send them agricultural implements and seeds ; and that 

 they neither desired nor demanded more than this. 



And now what 1 w r ould recommend is the appointment of an intelligent, reliable man ; one 

 who, with a good moral character, combines a degree of firmness and resoluteness, and at the 

 same time is an excellent practical farmer, and who is also a member of the Catholic 

 church. This last I mention and recommend from the fact that the Jesuit priests have been 

 among the Flatheads for ten or twelve years, and have laid among them a foundation upon a 

 better and firmer basis than has ever been laid among any Indian tribe either east or west of the 

 mountains, upon which a superstructure can now be built which will be an ornament not only to 

 the district where it will be erected, but to our whole nation. This man, so appointed, could 

 perform the duties of Indian sub-agent; could enclose a farm, and have the necessary buildings, 

 in the Bitter Root valley, to whom the Indians could apply in need for information and help ; 

 who, by his high moral stand, could and would exert a powerful and salutary influence over the 

 Indians ; and who could, in case the mission is re-established at the St. Mary s village, fully co 

 operate with the priests there stationed, and cause the Bitter Root valley, at no distant day, to 

 teem with life, business, and happiness. Such a man, no doubt, can be found in Oregon who 

 would willingly accept of such a post; if not in Oregon, at least in the States. And another 

 thing I would recommend would be, that the man should be a married man, with a family. He 

 would thus have every inducement to comfortably settle himself for life, and be less disposed to 

 become dissatisfied, and thus destroy the good intentions of those who have the supervision of 

 our Indian affairs. While at this place, application has been made to me, by a man living at 

 Fort Hall, for the post for his father, who at present is a farmer at Manayunk, Philadelphia 

 county, Pennsylvania, and also a Catholic, with a family. His name is Hugh Damsy. I told 

 him I would mention his case to you. As to who he is, his capacity, &c., I know nothing; 

 only his son seems to be an upright, sober man, and who, from year to year, trades on the emi 

 grant road. 



I think myself some man should be appointed whom you well know, or who comes to you 

 recommended by those who have had an opportunity of judging of him. That there is a neces 

 sity, and that a great one, that some one should be among the Flatheads to teach them to till the 

 soil, there can be no manner of doubt ; and as it has been partially promised them, and as they 

 fully expect it, I recommend to you that it be urgently set forth before the proper department, 

 and that action should be had upon it during the session of the coming Congress. I shall be able 

 to send you, by Lieutenant Grover, the present number of the Flatheads, their relations, power, 

 intercourse with other tribes, &c. The report of the council at Fort Benton has spread throughout 

 the whole Indian country as on the wings of lightning, and has been received as the harbinger of 

 glad tidings to all. It is a matter that must not be let fall to the ground, but the sparks that have 

 been struck by our expedition must be fanned into a flame until it shall envelope all the Indian 

 tribes both east and west of the Rocky mountains. For myself, I feel a deep interest in it, and, 

 for one, should regret to hear that our government had overlooked, either partially or completely, 

 the interests of so many thousands of souls that it is in duty bound to protect. One great result 

 obtained from this council, and of course the treaty, will be the settling of the whole of the eastern 



