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 Foit 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 what 
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 would 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-1 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 lesl 1 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., 1 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 
