Office Superintendent of Indian Affairs
Oregon City October 14th 1850
Sir,
Your Bond Dated October 11th and duly Executed, has been received, and is approved, and placed on file in this office. Your Salary then as Indian Agent will commence with this day.
I have decided upon establishing (temporarily perhaps it may be) Your Agency in the Southwestern portion of this Territory; and at some convenient place in the Umpqua Valley.
Information has reached me to the effect that the Indians of that quarter, particularly those of Rogue river, are in the habit of robbing from, and otherwise seriously annoying, persons who pass through their country. In view of these facts, I wish you to repair with as little delay as possible, to the Umpqua Valley, and visit also, soon after your arrival there, the Indians on Rogue river. You will represent to these tribes whose predatory habits and roguish dispositions, so much annoy our peaceable citizens, that you are an officer sent among them by their Great Father the President of the United States, to warn them of the danger of any longer
ill treating the people of the United States. Impress upon their minds if possible, the fact that their Great Father the President, wishes to treat them as friends, as well as to protect them in their rights. But in no event will they be allowed to go unpunished, should they persist in their thieving course, or to any other manner to annoy those traveling in their country. But on the other hand, that if they are quiet and peaceable Indians, it will give their Great Father, the President, much pleasure to make them valuable presents, and treat them always as friends.
I would next call your attention to the suppression of the whiskey trade among the Indians in that quarter. I apprehend that this traffic has been productive of much of the trouble existing in the Umpqua Valley, and I would here strictly enjoin on you that no person be allowed to trade or traffic, in any manner among the Indians in your Agency. In a copy of the intercourse law, which I herewith inclose, you will observe the strict injunctions upon all agents or others having intercourse with the Indians, and the penalty incurred by those guilty of the offense of selling whiskey or other spirits to them.