52 C. F. COAN
were promised that any lands settled upon by newcomers would be paid for by the government, and that an agent would be sent among them to care for their interests. Lane gave to each member of the band a paper, signed "Jo Lane," for the purpose of informing the whites that these Indians had made a peace treaty with the government. 13 No further trouble occurred in this vicinity until the fall of the following year.
Thus, the governor, in his ex-officio duties as the superin- tendent of Indian affairs, succeeded in establishing and main- taining amicable relations between the races. No policy was adopted further than that involved in making peace treaties with the Indians, in giving presents to them, and in prompt punishment for offences committed by the Indians against the settlers.
A statement of the complaints of the Indians living in the Willamette Valley was made by Lane in a report to the gov- ernment, April 9, 1849. The Indians stated that the whites had taken their lands, brought sickness among them, and killed off the game. In return, they had received only promises that the government would pay them for their lands. In order to remove these causes for dissatisfaction, Lane recommended that the government buy their lands, and locate them out of the settlements. No suggestion was made as to where or how they should be removed, but the opinion held by Lane was, that there was no longer a place for them in the Willamette Valley. 14
Lane recommended in his message to the legislative as- sembly of Oregon Territory, July 17, 1849, that they memo- rialize Congress for the removal of the Willamette Valley Indians. He stated that the Indians whom he had visited in the valley, as well as in other parts, were well disposed toward the whites and desirous of selling their rights to the land; and that the Indians of the Willamette Valley should be re- moved to some district remote from the settlements, because the destruction of the roots, grasses, and game by the settlers in the valley forced the Indians either to Steal or starve. 15
13 Victor, The Early Indian Wars of Oregon, p. 260.
14 Lane to the Secretary of War, April 9, 1849, Message from the President . . . in answer to a resolution of the Senate, calling for further information in relation to the formation of a state government in California; and also, in Oregon, May 22, 1850 (Serial 561, Doc. 52), p. 5.
15 Message of Governor Lan, July 17, 1849, Ibid., p. 7.
