From the express messenger who came over yesterday on the Oregon Pacific train from Yaquina, particulars were obtained of a serious trouble which has arisen on the Siletz Reservation near that place.
    A short time ago a surveyor named Lackland was sent there by the government to do some surveying. He did his work and at the same time wooed and won the affections of a half-breed Indian maiden, with whom he ran away, going to Portland. In leaving the couple, after crossing the ferry, left the two horses they were riding on the ferry-boat, and set it adrift. It floated down the river about six miles, and in getting it back one old Indian named Catfish was drowned. This, together with the manner in which Lackland had carried away the half-breed girl, made the Indians very angry. Lackland had boarded with the Indian agent, J. B. Lane, and they blamed him for the whole affair. Finally their wrath was nursed to such a degree that they gave Agent Lane peremptory notice to leave the reservation. To avoid trouble Mr. Lane left for Portland with the intention of returning to investigate the matter. The Indians also notified Miss Hattie Hansell, a highly respected young lady, who was engaged in teaching on the reservation, to leave, and yesterday she quit the reservation and started for her home in Portland.
    It is stated that certain white men who were opposed to Mr. Lane as agent have been assisting toward inciting the Indians to their present action.
Albany Democrat, Albany, Oregon, April 13, 1888, page 3


    TROUBLE AT THE RESERVATION.--From a passenger who came over from the Siletz Reservation yesterday, the following particulars are learned about the trouble with the Indians on the reservation: It seems that the Indians have been having considerable trouble among themselves of late, and in the settlement of these troubles the Indians became dissatisfied with their agent, J. B. Lane, and last Monday they held a council of war and notified Agent Lane to leave the reservation by Tuesday noon, or take the consequences, and also gave Miss Henshaw, a school teacher, notice to leave; the agent and teacher both took their departure for Toledo, on receipt of the notice, and Agent Lane immediately telegraphed to Washington concerning the trouble. Three families of whites still remain on the reservation but no fears of further trouble is anticipated, at least at present. The reservation is in charge of the clerk, Mr. Gaither.
    Later--Since writing the above, information has been received that Agent J. B. Lane has come out from Toledo and is on his way to Salem to intercede with the Governor to send troops over to the reservation, to keep down the trouble.
Corvallis Gazette, April 13, 1888, page 5


    EDITOR STATESMAN:--Siletz Agency was thrown into quite a state of excitement on Monday night, April 2nd, by the elopement of a surveyor by the name of S. W. Lackland and a half-breed Indian girl by the name of Annie Pierre, a cook in the boarding hall. Lackland was employed last summer to do the surveying in the allotment of the lands to the Indians on the Siletz Reservation. But when winter set in the work was suspended, and the surveyor, instead of leaving the reservation, took up his quarters at the agent's house, ostensibly for the purpose of fishing and hunting; but his real purpose in staying, as the sequel will show, was to ruin and capture Miss Pierre. This he did by writing letters, by making promises, by giving presents, and by the aid of other parties.
    Miss Pierre was educated at the Chemawa school, near Salem, and was rather a good-looking and intelligent girl. This is a good case for an inspector to investigate. The girl will doubtless be put in a house of ill fame.
Oregon Statesman, Salem, April 13, 1888, page 1


    A CROOKED AGENT.--A correspondent in the Yaquina Post, in an article upon the elopement of the surveyor Lackland and the girl Anna Pierre from the Siletz Reservation, thus pays his respects to Lackland and Jo Ben Lane, the agent: "He (Lackland) is guilty of theft of government property; has corrupted one ol the very nicest girls on the agency; has disgraced the finest family there, making good men and women bow their heads in shame, and yet Lane makes no effort to punish the offender. Of course, no one knows it to be absolutely so, but everything points toward Lane's conniving in the matter. If he is not in cahoots with Lackland, he has bungled the matter as he did the Jake Rooney affair, making the county a lot of expense, and not allowing the officer to subpoena the prosecuting witness. She was subpoenaed against his will, and he would not assist her to go out, and thus Benton County has an expense bill to pay and no conviction. Later--It has developed that Lane tried to buy off John Adams, Anna's uncle, by offering him $50, and telling him that Lackland would send him $100 from Portland. It is time this rottenness was broken up."
Oregon Statesman, Salem, April 18, 1888, page 3


    ST. PAUL, April 19.--A Portland, Ore., special says: A gentleman who arrived here last evening from Yaquina reports that the dissatisfaction which has existed among the Indians on the Siletz Reservation has culminated in a large number of Indians collecting at the agency and giving Joe Ben Lane, the agent, warning to leave the reservation within twenty-four hours. They also sent a similar notice to the Indian woman who has been acting as housekeeper for Mr. Lane. It is said that Lane left the reservation and boarded an Oregon Pacific train at Toledo early in the morning. The gentleman bringing this report states that there has been much dissatisfaction among the Indians for some time in regard to the manner in which things have been going on at the reservation, and the Indians at last became worked up to a pitch which boded danger.
Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Iowa, April 20, 1888, page 3


    The following graphic description of some of the authorities of the Indian Bureau and the menial and unprincipled influences surrounding them, etc., etc., is taken from the columns of The Nation of March 15th, 1888. It develops a deplorable state of affairs that is a shame and disgrace to the honor of the Republic, and whose influence gnaws, as with the taint of leprosy, the moral virtue of Christian civilization; a curse to humanity and justice, cruel, arrogant--damnable--since it is practiced at the sacrifice of the moral and social welfare of those who cannot complain and who are too weak to remonstrate.
    The heart of Christian humanity may well bleed and Justice stand abashed, and cry SHAME, when the nefarious vocation of the intolerant upstarts of jobbery, corruption and fraud are permitted to flourish at the sacrifice of the interest of the helpless, the poor and the ignorant. And this too, 'neath the very shadow of Liberty's dome surmounting the National Capitol.
    "Something needs to be done, and done promptly, about the Indian service, and the only thing that can be done to secure reform is the extension to this service of the civil service rules. The matter has more than once been laid before the President by the Indian Rights Association of Philadelphia. He has not questioned the accuracy of these reports, and he has acquiesced in the opinion expressed by Mr. Oberly, that he has the power, under the law, to extend the operation of the rules of this service. Nevertheless nothing has been done. All the recent accounts of the doings at the agencies go to show that the
anywhere than it flourishes there. Nevertheless, nowhere is is such a disgrace to the nation. The helplessness and ignorance of the Indians constitute the strongest possible claim on the Administration for care in the appointment of those who are to look after them. Political hacks are bad enough in the post offices and custom houses of white men, but in these places they are impositions on people who ought to be able to take care of themselves. Putting them in charge of the Indians is
    The root of this trouble (and if the President does not know it, it is time he did) is that Mr. Atkins, although personally a most respectable man, is much too simple-minded and good-natured for his place. The REAL Indian Commissioner is not he but Mr. Upshaw, his assistant. It is Upshaw who manages Indian affairs, and he manages them NOT FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE INDIANS, but for his own benefit and that of the "party." Nearly every appointment in the Indian service is made by him, or comes direct from him, and is turned to his account in some way. Under his system he manages to place Senators and Congressmen under PERSONAL obligations to him. We are informed that when he hears of their election, he writes to them, asking if they need anything in his line, or, in other words, whether they would like to plant a henchman in the Indian service. It must be said for him, however, that there is nothing partisan in his operations. He "tenders" his good offices to Democrats and Republicans alike, and he consequently has abundance of friends in both parties ready to certify in the hour of need that he is "one of the ablest executive officers in Washington." In short, he lives on terms of CLOSE INTIMACY with the MAMMON OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
If the President means to put an end to the GREAT DISCREDIT the Indian service has been bringing upon his Administration, and destroy the ammunition it will furnish to his enemies next summer, he must begin with Upshaw. There can be no change for the better as long as there is a man in Upshaw's place more occupied with obliging Congressmen than taking proper care of the nation's wards, or a man in Mr. Atkins' place who is willing to let Upshaw have his way.
    The effects of the "Upshaw system" began to show themselves as early as 1885.… Things have not mended since then. They have grown worse. Such things always grow worse merely by continuing, like any sore, physical or moral. No bad man or bad practice maintains for any length of time the same degree of badness. Mr. J. B. Harrison, whose competence and high character as an observer are well known to readers of The Nation, visited the Indian boarding school on the Yainax reserve, in Southern Oregon, in the summer of 1886. He found in charge of Prof. Leeke an admirable man whom any other civilized government would think itself lucky to get in its service. When his term expired, Upshaw got rid of him promptly. Prof. Painter, who visited the Territory last summer on behalf of the Indian Rights Association, found some government boarding schools in which as many as four successive superintendents had served in one year. The condition of some of the schools under "Upshaw's system" he reported as deplorable.
    In fact, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the
as no other department of the government has done from the change of administration in 1884. It has, as far as we can ascertain, all come from the fatal error of putting a weak man at the head of the Bureau, and giving him a smart, active, unscrupulous and energetic politician to do his work for him. The President cannot have meant this, but he cannot afford to let it go on. Upshaw is too expensive a person for any administration to keep in the house. He cannot get votes out of the Indians, and
who wish well to President Cleveland's Administration, but to whom CRUELTY, JOBBERY AND CORRUPTION are never so odious as when practiced on those WHO CANNOT COMPLAIN!
    That the Indian service has suffered under the "Upshaw (and we might add Sheehan & Co.'s) system," no intelligent person, conversant with the affairs of the White Earth reservation for the past three years, can consciously deny. Let any person who may have visited this reservation, six or eight years ago, and noted the then universal spirit of thrift and enterprise pervading all the industries engaged in, and the general mutual good feeling prevailing among the people at that time, come here now, and see what an unqualified "system," managed by willful and unscrupulous influences, has done towards paralyzing--demoralizing--the honest motives and efforts of the Ojibwas towards a progressive civilization! Abused confidence, personal, official and "party" interest have plowed deep furrows of disappointment in the bosom of budding ambition, hopes and efforts! And in its cruel wake, sown the seeds of turmoil, misery, waste and despair.
    The revolting ignominy, and uncharitable actions, of unscrupulous officials and their cringing henchmen, against many of the intelligent people of this reservation (who protested against the diabolical intrigue and machination of jobbery, fraud and intolerance) are yet fresh in the memory of the intelligent reader of the Progress, and we refrain further allusion to the subject. We earnestly hope that the day of "better things," is near "onto the dawn," when the Indian bureau will be purified and under the supervision of qualified, liberal and intelligent authority a fit abode for the sacred virtues of Charity, Justice and Humanity, and not as it has been, in many instances and to the sorrow of our fair reservation, a lucrative field for the bombastic official autocrats and upstarts--a refuge for moral assassins.
The Progress, White Earth Agency, Minnesota, June 9, 1888, page 1


    Jo Ben Lane, agent at the Siletz Indian Reservation, is again in peaceful possession of affairs at the reservation. A special agent accompanied him on his return, after being driven off by the Indians, and a peace has been patched up, and things are again moving along quietly without danger of any further disturbance on the part of the Indians.
"Oregon News," Oregon Scout, Union, Oregon, June 15, 1888, page 6


    BALL GAME.--The Chemawa and Grand Ronde base ball clubs (Indians) will play a match game at the former place tomorrow afternoon. A red-hot contest is anticipated, as both clubs will play for blood.
Oregon Statesman, Salem, July 1, 1888, page 3


    Mr. Jo Ben Lane has been removed from the agency of the Siletz Reservation and Mr. D. Gaither has been appointed in his stead. Mr. Gaither has been the clerk of the agency for some two years. The removal of Mr. Lane was caused by the trouble in the spring with the Indians, an account of which was published in the Herald. A government surveyor ran away with a half-breed girl employed at the agency and the Indians blamed the agent for it. The trouble was fomented by persons outside the agency under threats of personal harm by the Indians. The girl was sent to the school at Chemawa. Mr. Lane secured an investigation of the matter by a special agent of the government. The result of the investigation was a request for Mr. Lane's resignation. He went to Washington to vindicate  himself but with no effect. Mr. Grady, a brother of the famous Georgia editor, is industrial teacher at the reservation.
Albany Weekly Herald, Albany, Oregon, August 24, 1888, page 7


    Archbishop W. H. Gross has returned from a week's visit to the Siletz Indian Reservation, where he had a pleasant time. Agent Lane and all the government officials showed him the greatest courtesy, and he returns to them his sincere thanks for the attentions.
    Archbishop Gross was accompanied by Father Croquet, of the Grand Ronde Reservation, who is past his 70th year. He has been engaged in missionary work among the Indians for twenty-eight years. The reverend gentleman went by rail to Toledo, thence by conveyance to the reservation, which is about ten miles from that place.
    Last Saturday Archbishop Gross visited all the Indians on the reservation, and Sunday he preached to them in the schoolhouse. He had a mixed audience of bucks, squaws and their papooses and government officials. At the conclusion of the sermon, which occupied an hour in its delivery, the Indians crowded around the archbishop and complimented him highly, at the same time extending him an invitation to come again.
    "Although many of the Indians are at present engaged in hop picking, 1 found more on the reservation than I expected," said Archbishop Gross. "I was very much pleased with everything I saw on the reservation, it is so well kept. There are many houses on it, built and owned by Indians. There are many Catholic Indians on the reservation, and I have made arrangements so that they will have services at least once a month."
    Archbishop Gross is said to be the first Catholic archbishop who has ever visited the Siletz Reservation.
Albany Weekly Herald, Albany, Oregon, September 28, 1888, page 7




    There are about 700 Indians on the Siletz Reservation, twelve miles north of Newport.
"Occidental Jottings," Capital Journal, Eugene, November 20, 1888, page 4

Last revised November 21, 2025