The council was carried on by signs.
Never before had an Indian treaty been entered into with such perfect
knowledge of the intentions and designs of the whites by the Indians,
and such profound ignorance of the qualities of the Indians by the
whites. It need scarcely be said that the treaty was an unquestionable
Indian success. They did not give up their arable lands; what they did
sell to the agent they refused to exchange for extravagant-priced shoddy
blankets, worthless guns, damp powder, and mouldy meal. They took pay in
dollars, and were thus enabled to open more profitable commerce with the
traders at the settlements for better goods and better bargains; they
simply declined beads, whiskey, and Bibles at any price. The result
was that the traders found it profitable to protect them from their
countrymen, and the chances of wantonly shooting down a possible
valuable customer stopped the old indiscriminate rifle-practice.
The Indians were allowed to cultivate their fields in peace. Elijah
purchased for them a few agricultural implements. The catching, curing,
and smoking of salmon became an important branch of trade. They waxed
prosperous and rich; they lost their nomadic habits--a centralized
settlement bearing the external signs of an Indian village took the
place of their old temporary encampments, but the huts were internally
an improvement on the old wigwams. The dried fish were banished from the
tent-poles to long sheds especially constructed for that purpose.
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