The S'Klallam Village That Bought Its Own Ground on Dungeness Bay

Jamestown.

I did not have time to go to Dungeness during my short visit at Sequim, but one afternoon I took a drive with my friend G. H. Gerrish to the Indian village of Jamestown, situated on the shore of Dungeness Bay, about midway between Sequim Bay and Dungeness spit, and at the landing place of the logging railway of the Port Discovery Mill Company.

This village is composed of a number of young Clallam Indians, under Belch, a son of the famous chief, Lord Jim. These Indians were born at Dungeness and Sequim, and having worked from boyhood with the farmers of Clallam County, have acquired many of the ways of civilization. They are good farmers and have been induced by some of their white friends to purchase a fine farm of 160 acres which they own and work in common. Their village consists of some thirty houses, arranged in a row along the beach in an orderly manner. These are not wigwams, but regular pitched-roof buildings, looking like the common architecture of the white people. These Indians are industrious and find plenty of work among the farmers.

This village is under the supervision of the Skokomish Agency, on Hood's Canal, and the name Jamestown was given to it by Mr. Eels, the Indian agent in charge of that reserve. It is an evidence that Indians can be induced to be industrious and self-supporting whenever they are encouraged by the white settlers, as has been the case among the farmers of Clallam County, and is a pleasing contrast to the old filthy residences of the former Indian towns on the Sound. Although Jamestown is but little known, yet it is worthy of mention, and may serve as a model for farmers in other localities who have Indians about them. As soon as harvesting is well over and the sand-hill cranes, geese, brant and ducks begin to fly, I propose to go to Dungeness on a visit, and at some future time give you an account of that nice settlement where I have many old and valued friends. S.