‘Fair Offer’ of $37

A century ago, events were brewing at Old Fort Spokane (where the Spokane River hits the Columbia River) which would determine the future of the 12 tribes known as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

The issue was depicted in the crudest possible fashion in an editorial cartoon on the front page of The Spokesman-Review on Dec. 1, 1905. It showed two Indians (or racist caricatures of Indians) lying on the benches of a railroad car labeled “Colville Reservation.” A stern Uncle Sam is pinching them by the ears and lifting them off the benches.

Uncle Sam is saying: “You’ve been seat hogs long enough! Sit up, here, and make room for others.”

In other words, Uncle Sam wanted to open up the Colville Reservation to white settlement.

So at Old Fort Spokane that winter, a deal was being offered to the tribes. The head of every family would be allotted 80 acres of land in the south half of the reservation (which is the reservation as we know it today) in exchange for giving up all rights to the rest of the reservation. In addition, they would be paid $1.5 million ($1 per acre) for the north half, which had already been effectively taken away and opened to settlement in 1892.

Of that $1.5 million, the tribes would get $100,000 right away, divided equally per tribal member – $37 per person. The rest of the money, plus proceeds from selling the southern half, would go into a “general welfare and improvement fund,” administered by the government.

The Spokesman-Review ran an editorial headlined “Fair Offer to Indians.”

“By taking allotments and engaging in settled agricultural pursuits, the Indians would soon obtain for themselves a much better status than they now enjoy,” the editor opined. “The money to be distributed among them would materially assist in the development of their holdings.”

Not all of the Indians, of course, saw it that way. The San Poils, one of several tribes making up the confederation, made it clear that they “will not take government aid and will not sign.”

Another man, named Poker Joe, stood up at the council and observed that Indian agent James McLaughlin had developed a headache in trying to get the Indians to ratify the agreement. Poker Joe said he knew a quick headache remedy.

“In the agreement, you say each Indian, big and little, is to receive but $37 in money at first,” said Poker Joe. “Give us more money and every Indian will quit talking, will sign the paper and your headache will be cured.”

The reporter noted that even Major McLaughlin laughed.

Others were holding out for the entire $1.5 million, paid in one lump sum. Yet the government, said a reporter, had already decided that “payment of large sums to the Indians results in harm to them – that they dissipate and gamble away the money in short order.”

As it turned out, McLaughlin did not need to offer more money. He was able to secure the 350 thumbprints (in lieu of signatures) which constituted a clear majority of the 685 Indians residing on the south half.

A number of influential tribal leaders had spoken passionately for ratification, including Dave Williams from the Nez Perce tribe.

“He could give pointers to any Fourth of July orator in Spokane, or for that matter, to any lawyer appearing before the bar of Spokane,” said the S-R. “His tribesmen are in entire sympathy with the plan for opening the south half.”

However, the most compelling argument for ratification was spelled out in the following passage.

“He (McLaughlin) also told them that, in all probability, Congress would order the opening of the south half inside of the next two years, whether an agreement was signed or not,” said the S-R.

In other words, they had no choice.

With that in mind, McLaughlin “advised the Indians, as their friend, to accept the proposition at once.”

So they did. Within the next 11 years, 2,505 Colville members had been allocated more than 333,000 acres of land and white settlement had begun on the remainder.

However, the story has still not ended. In 1956, 800,000 acres of unsold reservation lands were returned to the tribes. Today, the Confederated Tribes have a policy to purchase all lands put up for sale in the reservation. Their goal: to once again own all of the Colville Reservation lands. They still have more than 200,000 acres to go.