[AT] Machinery use (aunt Charllotte's book)

[DAVIESW739 at aol.com]

When we harvested our potatoes on the Tualatin  Plains, we hired a band of 
Indians to pick them up. They were to do it for a  share of the crop. The deal 
was made with the Chief himself, but only Squaws and  children came to do the 
actual work.

I was not accustomed to  Indians then and they were very interesting to me, 
so Mother let me follow them  about in the field. Father had bought the seed 
potatoes from Joe Meek and  we  had several acres of them planted.
this is from my family book  Charlotte's Mother and Father are my gt. gt. gt. 
 Grandparants.
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All at once, I saw the chief rush up to an old squaw, grab her sack and turn 
the  potatoes out on the ground, then he caught her hair and jerked her 
backwards. As  she lay groveling at his feet, he kicked her brutally and stamped her 
till he  seemed exhausted.

Father saw it and hurried to interfere. The  chief pointed to the pile of 
potatoes, then opened the sacks that she had picked  up for us. The case was 
quite clear to anyone, who saw it, she had put the big,  fine potatoes in her own 
sacks and the smaller ones in ours.I do not know how  the chief found it out, 
but I am quite sure that his beating of the old creature  was calculated to be 
impressive to Father rather than corrective to the squaw.  From what I have 
since learned about Indians, I doubt if any of them were apt to  be as honest 
as all that. I was sorry for the squaw and so was Mother. She had  taken a 
horrid beating and Mother saw to it that she got all of her potatoes,  even though 
they were the best ones. I would not be surprised if she were given  a few 
extras, that would have been like Father and Mother.

Walt  Davies
Cooper Hollow Farm
Monmouth, OR 97361
503 623-0460