184      REPORTS OF AGENTS IN          WASHINGTON       TERRITORY. 
curse to themselves and every one else with whom they come in contact-whisky-drink-

ing, prostitution, and gambling forming their chief pursuits; once a happy,
contented 
people, now made exactly the opposite through the policy of the Government
in regard 
to the land question. Why could not these people have been fairly treated
with and 
given their 160 acres of land or compensated for the loss thereof and placed
on a reserva- 
tion away from the contaminating influence of vicious whites?  But it is
the same old 
story, so oft repeated in our Indian policy, of broken promises, or a battle
of the strong 
against the weak. 
GAMBLING. 
Gambling is a vice which the Indians of this agency indulge in quite extensively,
and 
it seems a hard matter to stop, for no sooner have you broken up a game and
your atten- 
tion been called in another direction before the Indians are again engaged
in the same 
occupatiop. Their chiefs have promised to reform their Indians in this respect,
but 
thus far have made slow progress, and all an agent can do is to keep trying.

CRIME. 
One Indian only during the year has suffered the penalty of the law for murder.
His 
name was Michel, an Indian of the Colville tribe, who murdered a white man,
Shafer, 
who was a saloon-keeper in the old town of Colville. How much misery and
crime are 
committed in consequence of the direful effects of whisky! God knows how
hard a 
matter it is to stop the sale of whisky to Indians of this agency, but I
can say that in 
leaving the service I have no regrets at the course I have pursued toward
the men, nay, 
fiends, who have been engaged in the sale of whisky to Indians; and while
I have 
made enemies, I glory in the fact that the walls of the penitentiary inclose
two, with 
prospects of another this term of court, and with heavy fines against two,
all of whom 
I have had successfully prosecuted during the year. 
An Indian intoxicated is quarrelsome and dangerous, and the blood of young
Geiger, 
murdered by Whil-com-te, cries for vengeance against the party in Spokane
Falls who 
furnished the Indian the whisky which made him commit this foul deed. At
the bar 
of a just God this act will appear against him. Much trouble and drunkenness
has ex- 
isted among Indians near Fort Spokane, and I have found that the Indians
can readily 
obtain whisky (provided they pay roundly for it) from the soldiers, and in
no instance 
where I have found an Indian drunk could I get any evidence from him save
that "it 
was a soldier who sold it and he could not tell the man; they all looked
alike."  I had 
the pleasure of closing up the place kept by a notorious character-"
Virginia Bill '--on 
a recent visit to Fort Spokane. His associations with Indians and his frequent
visits to 
the reservation led me to suspect him, and I gave him the alternative of
closing up his 
saloon or of going to the penitentiary. 
INDIAN HOMESTEADS. 
During the year I have entered several homesteads for the Indians not on
reservations, 
and there is still much to do yet. At the Deep Creek colony I found that
several of 
the claims of the Indians were on land claimed by the railroad company; also
claims of 
Calispels, living near Che-we-lah, and the proper efforts made to secure
these claims to 
the Indians. As yet nothing has been heard from the Department touching this
matter; 
but I earnestly hope justice will be given these Indians, for an Indian's
home is a dear 
spot to him. The land contains the bones of his kindred. How often has an
Indian of 
the Spokane tribe pleaded with me fbr a piece of land on the Little Spokane
River, saying 
that it was the place where his father had "lain down to rest himself
when he was 
tired!" I told him it could not be; the Government had given it to the
railroad com- 
pany. He said, "I was born there, and there my father died." 
EDUCATION. 
The schools of this agency number four-two at Coeur d' Ahine and two at the
Col- 
ville Mission-under contract with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and
the Bureau of 
Catholic Indian Missions. They are all industrial boarding schools and are
faithfully taught 
by the fathers of the Jesuit faith and the noble Sisters of Charity. They
are all in a flour- 
ishing condition, and the outlook for the future is very bright for them.
A new school 
building at the Colville girls' school has been finished and is now ready
for occupancy. 
These school buildings are built entirely at the expense of the mission,
and the pupils are 
maintained (board, clothes, and tuition) at an expense to the Government
of only $108 
per year for each pupil. This compensation is wholly inadequate to maintain
these