Cultivating the Klamath

After the Klamath Reservation was occupied by members of the Tolowa tribe during the late 1850s, the Office of Indian Affairs took action against several of its staffers, citing them with wrongdoing. The first to go was Subagent J.P. Heintzelman.

Indian Superintendent Thomas J. Henley had determined that the movement of the tribe to Klamath was “premature” and had sparked the conspiracy that ended in the fight on Wau-Kell Flat. His successor was David Buell, who took charge of the reservation in 1858.

Along with the subagent in charge, the agency staff included a physician, farmer, blacksmith, interpreter, overseer and teacher. All but one of the positions was at Wau-Kell, with overseer stationed at Kepel.

Henley resigned under fire, for reasons not made clear, in 1859, and was succeeded as Superintendent of the California District by James Y. McDuffie, who had visited the area. McDuffie realized that the setting was in a beautiful valley of 800 acres that was fertile and well-adapted to a variety of grain and vegetables.

About 160 acres were under cultivation, which McDuffie felt “spoke well” for the industry, management of the agency and employees, and promised great success. And about a mile below the agency, on the opposite side of the Klamath River, was a 40-acre farm as well as to another 80 acres of land adjacent to it.

McDuffie also had visited an 18-acre farm about 10 miles away at Pecwan. It adjoined 50 acres he felt could be profitable.

Also in its favor were surroundings “unsurpassed for grazing purposes” and protected from “the invasion” of white settlers, and near other acreage that could be cultivated. He figured it could support upwards of 5,000 Native Americans.

Based on his favorable impression on the Klamath, McDuffie pitched his desire to have the Tolowa become a self-sufficient farming commune. John A. Dreibelbis, incoming head of the Northern District of the California Superintendency, toured the area 1860.

After President Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, George M. Hanson replaced Dreibelbis. He was not as optimistic as his predecessor until he visited the area and saw the 300 acres of crops and 600 more acres that could be cultivated.

He decided that although the agency buildings were in “tolerable” condition, money was needed to buy younger working animals and better farm equipment. That funding would be delayed because of the Civil War.