The Settler's Hunger for the Moses Reservation

The Colville Indian reservation comprises an area of about 5,000 square miles. It is largely a mountainous country and covered with a heavy growth of timber. About one-fourth of the area, comprising 500,000 acres, is valuable agricultural land. At $5 per acre, one-fourth of this land would be worth $4,000,000, to say nothing of the value of the timber or mineral wealth that abounds in that reservation, which is as large as the state of Connecticut. The lowlands are such as lie along the valleys of streams emptying into the Columbia. The Columbia river bench lands are very fine, and orchards that a few of the christianized Indians have been induced to cultivate exhibit a wonderful capacity for production. The mountains along the Kettle river are rich in minerals—gold, copper, silver, and lead have been found in large ledges. It is hard for the prospector's conscience to look across the Columbia river upon a portion of his own country, so rich and yet forbidden his inspection. Still, despite the efforts of the agency to keep away white people, they do go over there. It is a pity that so small a number of Indians should be in possession of so vast, beautiful and productive a portion of our state, with the capacity and possibilities of an empire.