Page 316

316       REPORT     OF COMMISSIONER       OF INDIAN    AFFAIRS. 
yields, except the potato-crop, which is almost an entire failure. The loss
of this crop 
will go hard with them, as the potato is their main vegetable. They lhve
an abun- 
dance of hay for their stock and the most of it very well housed. 
Farming on this reservation has never been carried on as extensively as it
should 
have been, considering the large amount of really good farming land. I have
re- 
peatedly urged upon them the advantages of large fields well fenced and properly
cul- 
tivated. They have invariably answered by saying that if their reservation
was sur- 
veyed so that each Indian could have his piece of land they would then feel
like going 
to work in earnest and clear up their land and farm like white men. Now that
the 
reservation is being surveyed and a prospect that each Indian or family will
have a 
portion of land set apart for them, I have strong faith that they will be
better satisfied 
and more industrious than heretofore; and I am confident that many of them
will 
make successful farmers and good citizens. Their constant theme of conversation
for 
the past year has been the survey of their reservation, and now that it is
about being 
consummated they are making arrangements for building good houses, clearing
and 
fencing large fields, and in fact begin farming in earnest. 
The census taken on the 7th of September shows a population of five hundred
and 
seventy-seven persons, being an increase of one hundred and twenty-seven
in the past 
two years. 
For want of suitable school-buildings and proper appliances the school for
the past 
year has not been very successCul, but now that a large and substantial boarding-
school building is nearly finished and in a very desirable place, with plenty
of good 
land for a school-farm, and the Rev. G. W. Sloan as teacher, I feel confident
df a good 
showing in the future. In view of the fact that the employds' buildings on
this reserva- 
tion are situated on low flat land, subject to frequent overflow in the winter,
and the 
fact that they are old, rotten, and entirely unfit to be inhabited, I would
recommend 
an appropriation sufficiently large to put up new buildings on the site selected
for 
that purpose adjoining the new school-house. 
The health of the Indians on this reservation during the past year has been
gen- 
erally good. For further account of their sanitary condition I will refer
you to the re- 
-port of'the resident physician herewith inclosed. I would also respectfully
refer you 
to the recommendation contained in his report. In the physician's opinion
as to the 
necessity of a hospital I fully concur. 
The number of Indians (including the Nisquallies) that look to this physician
for treat- 
ment is between seven and eight hundred. In view of this fact I would respectfully
recommend that medicines be furnished by the Department for this reservation.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
BYRON BARLOW, 
Farmer in charge Puyallup Reservation. 
Gen. R. H. MILROY, 
Superintendent Indian Affairs, Washington Territory. 
70. 
CHEHALIS RESERVATION. 
SIR: I submit to you my report for the year of 1873. We have this year built
a 
boarding-house for the In Han school, 28 by 46 feet; 
%      barn for hay, 35 by 45 feet; built an office for the doctor, 12 by
14 
feet; 221 desks for school and 40 benches for same, and a black-board; made
12 large 
gates and 5 smaller ones; made 25 rods of picketfence around yard and garden;
also, 
built 250 rods of rail-fence, grubbed and broke 25 acres of new ground for
Govern- 
ment.        *       *IS               -Y        -.U 
The Indians ot this reservation are well pleased with the fruits of their
labor. There 
is not a more moral and industrious tribe of Indians in Washington Territory.
 * 
Rev. J. F. Devore established a branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church
here some 
four months since, and the Indians are now, a majority of them, taking a
deep inter- 
est in religious affairs, and are becoming, very fast, good practical men
and women. 
The Chehalis reservation, is naturally adapted to farming and manufacturing,
hav- 
ing 4,500 acres of good land, abounding with splendid fir, cedar, oak, ash,
and alder, 
with a taw-miUl to convert its fir and cedar into lumber; mechanical shops
to work 
its oak into wagons and plows, and its ash into fork-handles, its alder into
ax-handles, 
its cedar into buckets, churuis, and wash-tubs. 
The reservation is surrounded with large fields of magnificent coal and iron,
making 
it naturally a manufacturing point. Our narest point for lumber is 25 miles,
and our 
nearest wagon and smith shop is 25 miles. Taking the Chehalis Valley, with
its rich 
mineral and large body of land and its splendid timber, with agricultural
shops on 
this reservation, will in a short time become one of the most prolific valleys
west of 
the Rocky Mountains. 
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