RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 123 aggregate, their environment had changed and they were not adapted to it. Although the Federal Government attempted no interference with the social and governmental habits of the tribes, of necessity the authority of the chiefs was weak- ened. The Indian agent was the dispenser of a government more powerful than chiefs whose subjects felt if they did not see a diversion or division of sovereignty. In fact, the agent and the chiefs must have co-operation based upon an unde- fined and undef inable understanding, which in the nature of things, created an observable departure from the old tribal order. The dullest "buck" could perceive that there had been a change, in which he had lost consideration and conse- quence with his chief, who had formerly relied upon the countenance of his people as a source of his authority. In many instances, and quite naturally, too, the agent sought to secure a peaceful administration by treating the chiefs "hand- somely," thus establishing what Mr. L. D. Montgomery (be- fore quoted) named the "subsidy plan" of running an Indian agency, which was fatal to any general improvement. It really separates the chief from his people by destroying the reciprocity of sentiment and feeling which must exist between ruler and people in all governments which are tolerable. During my term at the Umatilla, the chiefs of the three tribes were powerless as rulers of their people. The subsidy plan had produced social disintegration and had substituted noth- ing as a menace to evil-doers among themselves. I had observed this soon after my arrival and talked with Howlish Wampo, H|omely, and Stickas, of the propriety of having a governmental organization of all the Indians to promote their peace, but they felt their impotence even to assist. At length, some time in March, 1863, a most attrocious murder was perpetrated at the camp of the Umatillas, by one of the young bloods of the Walla Walla tribe. He had been drinking at Swift's, a trading post located where Pendleton now stands, and passing with his comrade towards home, he committed a nameless assault upon a Umatilla woman, whose
