Portland, Oregon,
June 11, 1886

Dear Dr Ellinwood:
Your letter of the 3^rd inst. is before me. It refers to Mr Monteiths letter which I forwarded to you. I felt the necessity of giving you the latest information from this quarter respecting the effort to secure the reappointment of Mr Monteith to the Nez Perce Agency, without delay. Hence, I had not time to comment upon all the contents of the letter. Mr. Monteith’s judgement is sometimes warped. When irritated he is liable to act or speak without his usual discretion. There have been differences between him and the McBeth sisters of a serious nature. I hoped that you would be able to bring the three into a conference when you were in that region and that you would reconcile them. I have found it very laborious and sometimes impractical to settle such difficulties by correspondence. I have had more than one long drawn series of effort of this kind on the Nez Perce Reservation. I had hoped to do something in a projected visit there this spring, but it never got beyond the project owing to the loss of time necessitated by the dislocation of travel.

Miss Sue McBeth, it must be admitted, has interfered with the agent’s order on management though she denies it. I think her interferences was the rather constructive and not direct. A little foresight on the part of the agent would have prevented any difficulty. Our missionary operations among the Nez Perces, Spokanes and Umatillas need revision and a new impulse.
Faithfully yours,

A.L. Lindsley