of the region prior to April 18, 1879. However, fewer than 100 members of Moses's tribe had moved to the reservation. Moses himself did not live there, having relocated to the Colville Reservation just to the east of the Columbia Reservation when his tribe was expelled from the Columbia Basin. The settlers began a lobbying campaign to abolish the reservation and move the Sinkiuse-Columbia to the Colville Indian Reservation. Failing that, they asked for the return to white settlement of that portion of the reservation within 10 miles (16 km) of Canada. (Nearly all the mining claims were within that region.) Violence broke out in 1882, with angry white settlers destroying Indian property. General Miles also feared an Indian uprising. Order was soon restored, however. On February 23, 1883, President Chester A. Arthur signed an executive order restoring a wide strip along the Canada–US border to the public domain. Chief Moses and other delegates were taken to Washington, D.C. for a conference to resolve the outstanding issues. Later developments An agreement was reached on July 7, 1883, for the government to purchase the entire Columbia Reservation from the Indians. Those families formerly assigned to the reservation were to be given the choice of moving to the Colville Reservation or taking allotments of one section (1 sq mi or 2.6 km²) of land each. By act of Congress on July 4, 1884, the entire reservation was restored to the public domain. On May 1, 1886, it was formally reopened for white settlement. The influx of settlers was so great that Okanogan County (roughly the same area as the Columbia Reservation) was split from Stevens County two years later. Chief Moses died in 1899 on the Colville Reservation. He was buried there, near Nespelem, Washington. Chief Moses once asked a follower to count the grains of sand in a pile. "There are too many," said the man. "It is the same with whites," replied Moses, "There are too many." Legacy Moses Lake, Moses Coulee, and the city of Moses Lake are named for Chief Moses. One of the middle schools in Moses Lake was originally named for Chief Moses (now Columbia Middle School). His relatives include Lucy Friedlander Covington (1910-1982) and Paulette Jordan (born December 7, 1979). Notes References Marshall, Maureen E. Wenatchee's Dark Past. Wenatchee, Wash: The Wenatchee World, 2008. Ruby, Robert H. and John Arthur Brown, Half-Sun on the Columbia: