Newport's Petition to Expel the Kalispel

Capt. Napoleon LeClerc has been circulating a petition during the past week asking the proper authorities to have the Calispel Indians removed from the lands they are now occupying in the Pend Oreille valley to some reservation. The petition was quite generally signed by residents of the valley and of Newport.

The move is a good one and in the right direction, both for the protection of the Indians and for the development of the valley. At the present time the Indians are squatting on some of the most valuable tracts of land in the valley. They are not tilling the soil to any advantage, but are satisfied with raising a portion of a crop—not enough to subsist on during the year, but sufficient for a portion of the time. The balance of the time they spend in hunting and fishing and attending potlatches of other tribes.

The petition describes them as an extremely worthless set. The tribe is nearly always afflicted with smallpox or some other loathsome disease, and at these times wanders around among the white settlers without regard to the rights of the latter. During the past winter an epidemic of smallpox has been in existence among the Calispels, and numbers of them have left the camps in which they were segregated and wandered into Newport, Priest River and other points, spreading the disease to others.

The Indians have no valid title to the lands, but are simply squatters. While most of the tracts occupied by them have been occupied by Indians for years, still the same Indian does not make his habitat on the same piece of land continually, but frequently trades with another Indian. They are inveterate gamblers, and it is not uncommon for an Indian to stop at the ranch of another Indian, play poker all night and the next morning be the owner of the farm.

They should be transferred to some agency where they could be cared for by the government. At present they are not in receipt of government assistance, and not under the control of the government, as are members of other tribes located on reservations. During the present cold spell they have suffered terribly from lack of proper shelter and food. If located on a reservation they would at least have been supplied with sufficient food.

There is another feature to the case and that is the preservation of the forests. The Indian in his way has destroyed many thousands of acres of valuable standing timber during the past few years. During the huckleberry season he migrates from the low lands along the river to the huckleberry section and resides there as long as the crop holds out and the women will work picking the berries and sell them to the whites. He will build his fires and leave them burning when he moves to another camp. The winds fan the coals and soon the forest is in flames. Large areas of timber in the Pend Oreille valley were destroyed during the past year from this cause alone. This cost the government and owners of timber large sums of money for fighting fire as well as the loss on the timber.

Several efforts have been made in the past by the settlers to have the Indians removed, but, from some cause or other, they have been unsuccessful. The petition will be sent to the proper authorities at Washington, and it is to be hoped that both United States senators and the congressmen from Washington will assist in having the matter attended to at as early a date as possible.

It is not known what disposition will be made of the lands now occupied by the Indians in case they are removed. It is a question as to whether they have any rights to the land. They would, of course, be allowed the value of their improvements, where they have been energetic enough to make any. The lands would probably be thrown open for settlement by the land department, but in what manner it is now impossible to state.