RESERVATION POLICY PACIFIC NORTHWEST 11
would give the settlers the lands, and that would satisfy the Indians and thus prevent hostilities. This proved to be an impossible task.
In the fall of 1853, the Indian service for Washington Ter- ritory was organized. The superintendent visited the Indians under his charge as he proceeded westward as chief of the Northern Pacific Railroad Survey, and became acquainted with the tribes which he was to manage until 1857. The Act which created the territory, March 2, 1853, reserved to the Federal government the control over the Indians ; and to the Indians all the rights that they had had prior to the formation of the territory. It provided that the governor should be, ex-officio, superintendent of Indian affairs. 27
The instructions issued to Governor Stevens by the Com- missioner of Indian Affairs, May 9, 1853, were of a general nature. The Commissioner stated that the information in the hands of the bureau concerning the Indians of the new Terri- tory of Washington was of very little value. Stevens was instructed : to obtain all the knowledge relative to the various tribes that he could; to report all the informal treaties that had been made between the Indians and the settlers; to state the needs of the Indian service in Washington Territory, after having surveyed the field ; to submit estimates of the expenses necessary for the efficient conduct of the Indian affairs of the region ; and to make recommendations relative to a change in the laws regulating trade and intercourse with the Indians. The Commissioner urged that the report on these matters be made as soon, and as full, as possible in order that he might make recommendations to Congress, since no money had been appropriated for the Indian service in the territory. Economy was necessary because funds appropriated for other purposes were being used for the Washington superintendency. Stevens was authorized to appoint temporary special agents. 28
The report of Isaac I. Stevens, December 26, 1853, was received by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs prior to the report of the latter of February 6, 1854, and influenced
27 An Act to Establish the Territorial Government of Washington, Mar. 2, 1853, Statutes at Large, X, 172.
28 The Commissioner of Indian Affairs 'to I. I. Stevens, May 9, 1853, C. I. A., A. R. t Nov. 26, 1853 (Serial 710, Doc. i), p. 453.
