RESERVATION POLICY PACIFIC NORTHWEST 7
was serious and that the proper means had been adopted to remedy it.
J. L. Parrish, the agent for the Oregon coast district, rec- ommended, July 20, 1854, that the Indians be treated as wards, placed on reservations, protected, and taught the customs of civilized life; that they be trained to understand the laws of the land; and that they be persuaded to give up their tribal relations and customs, in order that they might become capable of exercising the rights and duties of citizenship. 16 .
The Indian agent for eastern Oregon, R. R. Thompson, expressed the belief, July 20, 1854, that the existing unsatis- factory conditions could only be remedied by purchasing the Indian title and placing the Indians on reservations. 17
Palmer visited the coast district, between the Yaquina and the Al-sea River, in the spring of 1854, and found that it was less desirable for an Indian reservation than he had sup- posed. He stated that it would be possible to locate the Indians in that region if the Indian department would furnish sufficient employees to manage the Indians in the isolated valleys which characterized the country.
In the summer of the same year, Palmer visited the Klamath Lake region and reported that it would be a good location for the Indians of the Willamette and the Umpqua Valley. The advantage of this district was its remoteness from other lands useful for settlements. Objections were found to the plan, in the cold winters of the Klamath Lake area, and the un- willingness of the Indians to move east of the Cascade Moun- tains. These, however, were not considered serious 'hin- drances to the plan.
Palmer again recommended, September 11, 1854, that treaties of purchase be made with the Indians of the Territory of Oregon. This was an unnecessary repetition of earlier rec- ommendations but he had not been informed that Congress had passed an Act authorizing the making of treaties and appropriating money for that purpose, July 31, 1854. 18 The recommendations, however, were important because the policy
16 J. L. Parrish to Palmer, July 20, 1854, C. I. A., A. R. Nov. 25, 1854 (Serial 746, Doc. i), p. 498.
1 7 Thompson to Palmer, July 20, 1854, ibid,, p. 485.
1 8 The Indian Appropnation Act, July 31, 1854, Statutes at Large, X, 330.
