Читать книгу Ten years of missionary work among the Indians at Skokomish, Washington Territory, 1874-1884 - Eells Myron - Страница 12

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AS far as the government was concerned, affairs remained much the same until 1880. Then the time agreed upon by the treaty for which appropriations were to be made—twenty years—expired. By special appropriation affairs were carried on for another year, however, as usual. In July, 1881, the government ordered that the carpenter, blacksmith, and farmer be discharged, and Indian employees be put in their places. Some of these were afterward discharged. The next year the three agencies on the sound, the Tulalip, Nisqually, and Skokomish, were consolidated enough to put them under one agent, without, however, moving the Indians in any way. The three agencies comprised ten reservations, which were under the missionary instruction of the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Catholics. By the consolidation there was to be no interference with the religious affairs of the Indians. Mr. E. Eells, the agent at Skokomish, was selected as the one who was to have charge of all, but his head-quarters were moved to the Tulalip Agency, which was under the religious control of the Catholics. Thus, after more than eleven years of residence at Skokomish, he departed from the place; after which he usually returned about once in three months on business. A year later this large agency was divided; the five Catholic reservations were set off into an agency, and the five Protestant reservations were continued under the control of Mr. Eells, whose head-quarters were moved to the Puyallup Reservation, near Tacoma.