Mellum Harris

Mellum was a Modoc woman

The Klamath Tribes consisted of three Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited Southern Oregon and Northern California in the United States: the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians.

Klamath Agency was an Indian agency for the Klamath Indian Reservation established on May 12, 1866, on the shore of Agency Lake.

The Klamath Reservation was terminated in 1961, but the community at Klamath Agency still exists.

When white explorers entered the Klamath Basin in the 1820s, the Klamath Indians occupied the Upper Klamath Lake area, which included Klamath Marsh and the Sprague and Williamson Rivers. The Modoc people inhabited the Tule Lake area of Northern California and Southern Oregon. Yahooskin land bordered Klamath territory to the west and extended east into present-day Lake and Harney counties.

The traditional territory of the Klamath and Modoc once encompassed the entire Klamath Basin. The Klamath inhabited the northern portion from Klamath Marsh south to present-day Klamath Falls. The Modoc lived in the area from Lost River south to Mount Shasta.

Additional Reading:
1) Horton, Kami. “150 Years Ago, One of Oregon’s First Indian Boarding Schools Opened.” Opb, 27 Feb. 2024, www.opb.org/article/2024/02/27/native-american-indigenous-klamath-boarding-schools-forced-assimilation-indian-school/.
2) Lewis, David G. “Klamath Termination: Water, Timber and Sovereign Rights – the Quartux Journal.” Ndnhistoryresearch.com, 17 July 2015, ndnhistoryresearch.com/2015/07/17/klamath-termination/. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
3) Davidson, I. G. “Oregon History Project.” Oregonhistoryproject.org, Oregon History Project, 2024, www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/new-recruits-forest-grove-indian-school-1881/.

They were called recruits!

4) Pacific University. “The Forest Grove Indian Training School, 1880 - 1885.” YouTube, 7 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4iAk53ONpg. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.

Biography:
Mellum (aka Betsy) Harris was born c. 1841 to unknown parents. Records do not support either marriage or children.

According to the book Vanished in Hiawatha, author Carla Joinson makes several statements, some likely in error. First, she is identified as a Winnebago committed by the Klamath Agency. Census records indicate that she was either a Klamath or Modoc Indian, based on the surname of the family with which she resides and her identification as an aunt.

It is also stated that Mellum was diagnosed on commitment with senile dementia. (Senile dementia, also known as senility, is a mental decline that occurs with aging and is characterized by a gradual decline in cognitive abilities.) Records so far from Canton do not support this, and due to the conflicts regarding her actual age, the diagnosis is nothing more than conjecture.

Mellum was admitted to the Canton Asylum on April 26, 1911, and died there on August 23, 1912. A newspaper obit confirms her date of death. (See the discussion tab on this profile.)

Her profile is part of the https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Canton_Asylum.

Research Notes:
-I'm surmising that the Indian Agency likely gave Melllum the title "Head" in the 1912 census because she was living alone at Canton and no longer living with the family.
-Mellum is NOT in the 1913 census
-Mellum (as Aunt Betsy Harris) began living with her nephew William Crawford and his family in 1901. It was from there in 1911 that she was committed to the Canton Asylum
-The Crawfords lived in the Agency district, the Yainax District did not seem to contain any Crawfords or Harris's. Before June 20, 1900, I found NO one named Mellum at all or Betsy Harris of the required age in the Klamath Agency census.

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Sources:

1900 Jun 20 - "United States, Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K28-K3MD : Sun Mar 10 08:24:45 UTC 2024), Entry for Mellum Harris and Orville Elliott, 20 Jun 1900, pg. 828/1104, Section 7, Township 34, Range 7.5
Willamette Meridian, 160 acres, Orville Elliott purchaser

1901 Jun 30 -“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll224unit/page/n517/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 518/663, line 124 (age 46, Aunt Bitsy Harris), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1902 Jun 30 -“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll224unit/page/n551/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 552/663, line 126 (age 47, Aunt Betsy Harris), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1903 Jun 30 -“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll224unit/page/n569/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 570/663, line 130 (age 48, Aunt Betsy Harris), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1904 Jun 30 -“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll224unit/page/n590/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 591663, line 132 (age 49, Aunt Betsy Harris), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1905 Jun 30 -“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll224unit/page/n609/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 610663, line 128 (age 50, Aunt Betsy Harris), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1906 Jun 30 -“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll224unit/page/n631/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 632663, line 130 (age 51, Aunt Betsy Harris), census of the Klamaths, Modocs, Paiutes, and Pitt Rivera Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1907 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPR1-5GGM : Sat Mar 09 14:02:21 UTC 2024), Entry for Mellum Harris, 1907, pg. 12/663, line 138 (age 52, Aunt), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and the Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1908 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll225unit/page/n42/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 43/660, line 140 (age 53 as Mellum Harris), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and the Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1909 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPR1-P2HY : Sun Mar 10 18:55:13 UTC 2024), Entry for Mellum Harris, 1909, pg. 76/663, line 139 (age 54 as Mellum Harris), census of the Klamath Indian Reservation, Klamath, Oregon

1910 May 17 - "United States, Census, 1910", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLBW-7TB : Sat Mar 09 05:14:25 UTC 2024), Entry for White Cinda and Mellum Harris, 1910, pg. 241/1278, line 31 (age 54, widow), census of the Klamath Indian Reservation, Klamath, Oregon

1910 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll225unit/page/n105/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 106/660, line 144 (age 55 as Mellum Harris, Aunt), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and the Yahooskin band of Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1911 Jun 28 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll015unit/page/n503/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 504/519, line xxx (age 70!, census of the Canton Asylum

1911 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll225unit/page/n146/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 147/660, line 130 (age 56 as Mellum Harris, Aunt), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and the Yahooskin band of Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1912 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll225unit/page/n192/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 193/660, line 144 (age 57 as Mellum Harris, Head), census of the Klamath, Modoc, and the Yahooskin band of Snake Indians, Klamath Agency, Oregon

1912 Aug 31 - The Evening Herald, Aug 31 1912 • Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia, United States
https://www.oldnews.com/en/record?record_id=record-12003-322908357-...
(Curator Note: states her age as 71, which aligns with the Cansum census, but she is 13 years older than the age sequence from the census reports from the Klamath Agency. States date of death as August 23, 1912. And, why would a paper in Georgia be reporting on a death in South Dakota and shipment of a body to Oregon?)