INDIANS OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA
The Indians of the upper Columbia, with whom Governor Stevens was next
to treat, presented a far more pressing and difficult problem than the
reduced tribes of the Sound. They numbered fourteen thousand souls,
comprised in ten powerful tribes, viz., Nez Perces, Cuyuses, Umatillas,
Walla Wallas, Yakimas, Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes, Flatheads, Pend
Oreilles, and Kootenais.[2] They were a manly, athletic race, still
uncontaminated by the vices and diseases which so often result from
contact with the whites, and far superior in courage and enterprise, as
well as in form and feature, to the canoe Indians of the Sound and
coast. Each tribe possessed its own country, clearly defined by
well-known natural boundaries, within whose limits their wanderings were
restrained, save when they "went to buffalo," or attended some grand
council or horse-race with a neighboring tribe. The chase, the salmon
fishery, the root ground, the numerous bands of horses and cattle,
furnished easy and ample sustenance. It was estimated that the Nez
Perces owned twenty thousand head of these animals, and the Cuyuses,
Umatillas, and Walla Wallas not less than fifteen thousand. The Yakimas
and Spokanes also possessed great numbers.
[Illustration: THE INTERIOR FROM CASCADE MOUNTAINS TO FORT BENTON]
Of all these tribes, the Nez Perces or Sahaptin were the most
numerous and progressive. They numbered 3300, and occupied the country
along the western base of the Bitter Root Mountains for over two hundred
miles, and a hundred miles in width, including both banks of the Snake
and its tributaries, the Kooskooskia or Clearwater, Salmon, Grande
Ronde, Tucañon, etc. Yearly, in the spring or fall, their war chief
would lead a strong party across the Rocky Mountains to hunt the buffalo
on the plains of the Missouri, and many were the bloody encounters they
had with the dreaded Blackfeet, the Arabs of the plains. They owned
great numbers of horses, and the advent of the horse among them, about
the middle of the eighteenth century, obtained from the Spaniards of New
Mexico or California, of which they preserved the tradition, was the
chief cause of their prosperous condition. From the days of Lewis and
Clark, the first of the white race to meet their astonished gaze, they
were famed as the firm friends of the white man. During all the
fur-hunting and trading epoch the "mountain men," as the trappers and
voyageurs delighted to call themselves, were welcome in the lodges of
the Nez Perces. Together they wintered in safety on the banks of the
Kooskooskia, and together they hunted the buffalo on the plains of the
Missouri, and made common cause against the Blackfeet. Among the most
noted of the numerous encounters in which they were allied against their
common foe was the stubborn fight of Pierre's Hole in 1832, so
graphically described by Washington Irving in his "Bonneville
Adventures." It was in this fight that Lawyer, then a promising young
brave, and afterwards for many years the powerful head chief of the
Sahaptin, received a severe wound in the hip, which never entirely
healed, and doubtless hastened his death.
In 1836 Rev. H.H. Spalding with his wife was sent out by the
Presbyterians, and settled as a missionary on the Lapwai, a branch on
the southern side of the Kooskooskia, twelve miles above its confluence
with the Snake. Here he was preceded by William Craig, a Virginian, one
of the best type of mountain men, who had married a Nez Perce maiden and
made his home among her people. Aided by Craig's knowledge of the Nez
Perce tongue and character, and of the Indians themselves, Mr. Spalding
taught the whole tribe a simple Christian faith, made a dictionary of
their language, and translated and had printed in the native tongue a
hymn-book, catechism, and New Testament, taught a number of the young
men to read and write their own language, built a saw and grist mill,
and labored to induce them, not without success, to till the soil. Yet,
after all this achievement, he was in the end led to abandon his
mission. In an unhappy hour he opened a store and went to trading with
the Indians. In their experience a trader was the personification of
greed and falsehood. To them the union of the trader, all selfishness
and fraud, and the preacher of morality and truth was monstrous, nay,
impossible. Mr. Spalding, too, was hard and exacting in his dealings,
and offended in that way. With all his zeal and energy, he evidently
lacked knowledge of Indian nature, perhaps of human nature. What wonder
that some of the Nez Perces, seeing that the trading-post was a fact,
concluded that his preaching was a fraud, and warned him out of their
country! The massacre of the devoted missionary, Dr. Marcus Whitman, and
his family, by the Cuyuses, in 1847, had just occurred, and Mr.
Spalding, fearing a like fate if he remained after the warning,
abandoned the mission where he had done so much. The majority of the Nez
Perces, however, desired him to remain; and when he decided upon going,
they formed a strong party of warriors, and escorted him with his
family and effects unharmed through the hostile Indians to the frontier
settlement. They magnanimously refused the large reward offered them,
saying, "We will not sell Mr. Spalding; he left our country of his own
free will, and we escorted him as his friends." In the war which ensued
they remained the firm friends of the whites, and the officers of the
Oregon volunteers engaged in it presented them with a fine, large
American flag, in which they took great pride. It was their boast that
"We are the friends of the white man. The white man is our brother. His
blood has never stained our hands." Craig remained among them in perfect
safety, and was treated with undiminished kindness. Although abandoned
by Mr. Spalding, they by no means discarded the good he had taught them.
They maintained, unaided, their simple religious worship, and held
services regularly every Sabbath, with preaching, singing of hymns, and
reading of the Bible, all in their own language, with the books
translated and printed for them by the devoted missionary. They prided
themselves upon their superior intelligence, upon having young men who
could read and write, and upon their ancient and fast friendship with
the whites. This friendship indeed was not merely a matter of sentiment.
They were shrewd enough to turn it to good account. Large emigrations
crossed the plains to Oregon during the period from 1843 to 1855; and
the Nez Perces used to go down to the emigrant road on the Grande Ronde
or Umatilla, with bands of fat, sleek, handsome ponies, and exchange
them with the emigrants for their worn-out horses, oxen, and sometimes a
cow, clothing, groceries, ammunition, etc. The Pikes, as the Missourians
who comprised the majority of the emigrants were called, "allowed that
the Nez Perces could beat a Yankee on a trade." By these means they were
beginning to obtain cattle as well as horses, were learning to wear
blankets and shirts instead of skins, and individuals were even
beginning to set out fruit trees, and plant corn and potatoes, and in a
word the Nez Perces were making rapid strides toward civilization. There
is no more interesting and instructive example of the amelioration of a
savage tribe by the introduction of domestic animals, and its steady
growth from abject barbarism, than that afforded by the Nez Perces. But
little more than a century ago they were a tribe of naked savages,
engaged in a perpetual struggle against starvation. Their country
afforded but little game, and they subsisted almost exclusively on
salmon, berries, and roots. The introduction of the horse enabled them
to make long journeys to the buffalo plains east of the Rocky Mountains,
where they could lay in great abundance of meat and furs; furnished them
with a valuable animal for trading with other less favored tribes; soon
raised them to comparative affluence, and developed in their hunting and
trading expeditions a manly, enterprising, shrewd, and intelligent
character. They had improved and profited still more from their
intercourse with the whites, until there seemed every prospect that,
with the introduction of cattle, they might lay aside their nomadic
habits, and become a pastoral and then an agricultural people.
The Cuyuses were the most disaffected and intractable of all the tribes.
But little is known of their early history. They are said to have come
from the east many years ago. No tribe could resist their prowess, and
when they settled on the Umatilla and Walla Walla rivers, having driven
out the original inhabitants, none dared molest them; since which, wars
and pestilence had reduced their numbers to but five hundred, and
continual intermarriages with the neighboring tribes had caused their
own language to fall into disuse. But they still maintained their
separate independence, and were as haughty and arrogant as ever. The
Jesuits established a mission on the Umatilla and made some progress in
their conversion, and then Dr. Whitman came among them, establishing his
mission in the Walla Walla valley, and for several years possessed their
confidence and accomplished much good. The rivalry between Jesuit and
Protestant missionary was carried to a high pitch. Pictorial cards were
issued by each party, representing its opponents descending into the
fiery depths of the infernal regions, where Satan and his imps, with
red-hot pitchforks, were impatiently waiting to receive their prey,
while the converts to the true faith were ascending to heaven up a broad
flight of stairs with winged angels on either side. This hostile and
bigoted attitude of the missionaries towards each other must have
weakened the respect and confidence of the Indians, and contributed not
a little to the troubles that followed.
Dr. Whitman was accustomed to attend the Indians when sick, and these
labors, undertaken in the purest benevolence, were ultimately the cause
of his death; for, the measles having broken out among them, and great
numbers, especially of the children, dying, their suspicions were
directed towards this devoted and able missionary.
In the war which ensued the Cuyuses suffered severely, were deprived of
great numbers of horses, compelled to relinquish their white captives,
and to surrender to well-deserved death some of the most active in the
massacre. Their head chief was known as the Young Chief, and next in
rank and influence was the Five Crows.
The Walla Wallas and Umatillas numbered upwards of one thousand, and
inhabited the banks of the rivers which bear their names, and those of
the Columbia. Their head chief was Pu-pu-mox-mox or the Yellow Serpent,
a man of great intelligence and force of character, but well stricken in
years.
The Yakimas, including outlying bands,[3] were over 3900 strong, and
occupied the large region between the Columbia and the Cascades, with
their principal abodes in the Yakima valley. One band, the Palouses,
lived on the Palouse River, on the north side of the Snake and east of
the Columbia, next the Nez Perce country. Large bands of the Yakimas had
crossed the Cascades and were pressing on the feebler races on the west,
by whom they were appropriately termed "Klik-i-tats" or robbers. The
Jesuits had a mission on the Ah-ti-nam Creek, on the Yakima, but do not
seem to have acquired much influence over them.
The Spokanes numbered 2200, including the Colvilles, 500, and
Okinakanes, 600, and held the country north of Snake River to Pend
Oreille Lake and the 49th parallel, and extending west from the Nez
Perce country, and that occupied by the Coeur d'Alenes at the base of
the Bitter Root Mountains, to the Columbia River. A Presbyterian mission
was also established among them under Rev. E. Walker and G.C. Eells, and
abandoned about the same time as that of Mr. Spalding.
Immediately east of the Spokanes, under the western slope of the Bitter
Roots, lived the Coeur d'Alenes, a tribe of about five hundred. There
was a Catholic mission among them presided over by Father Ravalli, and
they had been converted to the ancient faith, and their material
condition greatly improved by the good fathers.
The Flatheads, Pend Oreilles, and Koutenays lived in the mountain
valleys between the main range of the Rockies and the Bitter Roots, upon
the tributaries of Clark's Fork chiefly, and depended largely upon the
buffalo for their subsistence. They, too, like the Nez Perces, were
distinguished as the constant friends of the whites, and were exposed
to the unceasing forays of the Blackfeet. They numbered 2250. They
termed themselves the Salish, and the Spokanes and Coeur d'Alenes were
of the same stock.
There were also some small independent bands along the Columbia, who
subsisted chiefly on salmon. Five sixths of the Indians lived within the
Washington superintendency,--all, indeed, except the Cuyuses, Umatillas,
Walla Wallas, and a small number of the Nez Perces, who dwelt or roamed
in both territories, and the small bands about the Dalles and on the
Columbia, Des Chutes, and John Day's rivers, who lived wholly in Oregon.
The whole vast region occupied by these numerous, brave, and manly
Indians was still free from the intrusion of white settlers, save a
handful in the Walla Walla valley and about Colville. But year after
year they saw the long trains of emigrants pass through their country
and settle, like swarming bees, upon the fertile plains of the Wallamet.
They saw the Indians there dispossessed of their hunting grounds, and
rapidly dying off the face of the earth. The tale of every Indian
wronged or aggrieved, or who thought himself wronged or aggrieved, was
borne with startling rapidity to their ears. Thus far their intercourse
with the whites had been of immense benefit to them. The fur traders
supplied them with superior weapons, blankets, and many articles of
comfort, and had greatly improved their condition. Devoted missionaries
had labored among them for years, and with marked success. By trade with
the emigrants they were growing rich in cattle. But the actual
occupation of the soil by the settlers filled them with alarm. Amid all
these benefits, the fear was fast growing into conviction that the fate
of the Chinooks and the Wallamets was the presage of their fate, and
that the whites would sooner or later pour with increasing numbers into
their country, and appropriate it for themselves. The Flatheads, Pend
Oreilles, and Koutenays, remote from the settlements, retained their
ancient friendship for the whites. But among the other tribes the
desperate resolution was extending and deepening itself to rise and wipe
out the dreaded invaders ere it was too late. For several years the bold
and turbulent spirits among them had been enlisting the disaffected
Indians far and wide in a great combination designed to crush the
unsuspecting whites simultaneously at all points by one sudden and
mighty blow. In 1853 the wild rumors of impending outbreaks, the
forerunners of every Indian war, but which have been invariably unheeded
by the over-confident whites, were flying about the land. Yet outwardly
all was serene. The great tribes of the upper country, from whom alone
danger was to be feared, were as yet unmolested by settlers, had reaped
only benefits from the whites, and were as friendly as ever to all
appearance. Both authorities and people were lulled into a sense of
complete security, and disregarded with contempt the warnings of the few
who foresaw the danger. In truth, a similar state of affairs has
preceded nearly all our great Indian wars. They have not been caused by
petty acts of aggression, stinging whole tribes to frenzied revenge.
Indians who undergo such treatment are usually too degraded and helpless
to resist. But powerful tribes, unbroken by too long contact with the
whites, fired and led by their master spirits, have from time to time
risen in arms, and vainly striven to arrest and drive back the white
race ere it overwhelmed them, as it had overwhelmed their kindred. Many
chiefs have shown profound sagacity in foreseeing the danger menacing
their race, and the highest talents and bravery in their bloody
struggles to avert it. The Nez Perces saw the danger, but they alone
realized the hopelessness of averting it by war. The Nez Perces alone
discerned that their only safety was to "follow the white man's road,"
and that his mode of life was better than their own. Under the wise
guidance of Lawyer, they had become imbued with these convictions, by
which their traditional friendship to the whites was strengthened and
confirmed, and the time was fast approaching when their fidelity was to
save many a valuable life, and preserve the settlements from
destruction.
In the spring of 1853 General Benjamin Alvord, then a major and
commanding the military post at the Dalles, heralded among the Indians
the approach of Governor Stevens with the exploring parties, and in
reply was visited by a delegation of chiefs of the Yakimas, Cuyuses, and
Walla Wallas, who said that "they always liked to have gentlemen, Hudson
Bay Company men, or officers of the army, or engineers, pass through
their country, to whom they would extend every token of hospitality.
They did not object to persons merely hunting, or those wearing swords,
but they dreaded the approach of the whites with ploughs, axes, and
shovels in their hands." Major Alvord had largely dealt with and studied
these Indians, and moreover he had confidential sources of information
from the Catholic priests of the Yakima Mission. He became so impressed
with the danger of an outbreak that he reported the facts and rumors to
his superior, General Hitchcock, commanding the Pacific Department, by
whom they were discredited, and Major Alvord was soon afterwards
relieved from the Dalles. Events were soon to prove that the magnitude
and imminence of the danger were even greater than he apprehended. Says
General Alvord:[4]--
"I informed Governor Stevens of these threatened Indian
difficulties, and of the gigantic scale of their proposed
insurrection. What should he do? Was he to remain idle and let the
storm come? No, he set to work to provide for the inevitable. As the
whites would come as five or six, or ten thousand would come every
summer, he did his best to get the Indians to sell their Indian
titles."
It was on reaching the Dalles on his overland exploration that the
governor first learned of this smouldering fire. Quick to grasp the
situation, to see the breach into which, as Governor and Superintendent
of Indian Affairs, it was his duty to throw himself, he lost no time, by
his earnest and forcible reports, and by his visit in Washington, in
obtaining the necessary authority for treating with these Indians.
Five years had elapsed since Congress, by the Donation Acts, had invited
settlers to take possession of the lands of these brave and numerous
Indians, utterly disregarding their rights, and now, when the volcano
was ready to burst forth, the effort was to be made for the first time
to treat with them, and the herculean task was devolved upon Governor
Stevens of buying their country, allaying their well-founded fears,
adjusting their jealousies and disputes with the whites and with each
other, and inducing them to relinquish their savage and nomadic mode of
life for agriculture and civilization. Many of the best informed
settlers and army officers thought that any attempt to treat with these
Indians for their lands was a useless and dangerous enterprise, and
would surely lead to collision and bloodshed.
During the spring Mr. Doty and agents A.J. Bolen and R.H. Lansdale were
visiting the powerful tribes of the upper country, and preparing them
for treating. The Walla Walla valley was chosen for the council ground
at the instance of Kam-i-ah-kan, the head chief of the Yakimas, who
said, "There is the place where in ancient times we held our councils
with the neighboring tribes, and we will hold it there now." A large
quantity of goods was taken up the Columbia to Walla Walla in
keel-boats. A party of twenty-five men was organized at the Dalles,
outfitted with a complete pack-train, mules, riding animals, and
provisions, and sent to the council ground to make ready for the
reception of the Indians, and afterwards to accompany the governor to
the Blackfoot council. The Walla Walla council, like the Blackfoot, was
conceived and planned exclusively by Governor Stevens. He alone
impressed the necessity of them upon the government, and obtained the
requisite authority. The work of collecting the Indians was done chiefly
by his agents, and it was not until he learned from Doty that the
Indians had agreed to attend, and that the council was assured, that he
invited Superintendent Palmer to take part in it as joint commissioner
with himself for such tribes as lived partly in both Territories. This
fact he caused to be entered on the joint record of the council.
Leaving the gubernatorial office in the hands of Mr. Mason, and the
Indian service, now well organized, in charge of Colonel Simmons and
other agents, Governor Stevens early in May left Olympia on his
treaty-making expedition east of the mountains, calculating to be absent
from five to six months. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Richard
Arnold, en route to San Francisco; Captain A.J. Cain, Indian agent for
the lower Columbia; R.H. Crosby; his son Hazard, whom he decided to take
as far as the Dalles and then send home; and some other gentlemen. The
little cavalcade trotted rapidly across the prairies amidst severe and
drenching showers, and after a brisk ride of thirty miles reached the
hospitable log-house of Judge Ford for supper and shelter.
It rained heavily during the night, and on continuing the journey the
next morning, and fording the Skookumchuck, where poor George Stevens
was so recently lost, and which was then barely passable, a terribly
swift, turbulent, and dangerous-looking torrent, the whole country
seemed to be under water. The prairie upon which the town of Newarkum is
built was flooded, and the horses laboriously waded across the plain in
single file, belly-deep in water. The narrow track through the timber
beyond the prairie was like a canal. Dick Arnold, who led the party, a
tall, erect, athletic, soldierly figure, suddenly sunk down into the
water with a plunge until only his head and his horse's ears were
visible. He had ridden into a deep slough, which here crossed the road,
indistinguishable in the general flood, but his steed swam and struggled
across it and climbed out on the other side, the water dripping from man
and horse, but the rider remaining firm in his seat through it all.
After some delay the rest of the party effected a crossing on foot by a
fallen tree, and drove the horses across by the road, swimming. Without
further mishap, save the toils and discomforts of muddy roads and rains,
they reached Cowlitz Landing that afternoon, descended the Cowlitz in
canoes the next day, and proceeded by steamboat to Vancouver. After a
day's stay here the governor continued his journey up the river by
steamboat to the lower Cascades, where he spent the night, crossed the
Cascades portage on horseback early the next morning, proceeded by
steamboat to the Dalles, and found hospitable quarters with Major
Granville O. Haller at the military post, where were stationed two
companies of the 4th infantry, under Major G.J. Rains. Superintendent
Palmer was found at the Dalles, awaiting the governor's arrival.
The outlook for effecting a treaty was deemed unfavorable by all.
Governor Stevens was warned by Father Ricard, of the Yakima Mission,
that the Indians were plotting to cut off the white chiefs who might
attempt to hold a council.[5] The Snake Indians had attacked and
massacred parties of emigrants recently, and Major Rains was under
orders to send a force on the emigrant road to protect them. General
Palmer and his Indian agents were reluctant to attempt to treat with the
Indians at that time. The governor relates in his diary how he induced
Major Rains to send from his small force a detachment of forty soldiers,
under Lieutenant Archibald Gracie, to the council as a guard. Mr.
Lawrence Kip, afterwards a colonel of the United States army,
accompanied Mr. Gracie on the trip, and published an interesting account
of the council:--
"After supper, went with Major Haller to see Major Rains. It was
about midnight, but the major got up, and we talked for two hours on
Indian matters. I dwelt particularly on the necessity of a small
force on the treaty ground to maintain order. He saw the necessity,
but had no suitable force at his disposal, etc. The bearing of the
proposed council on the Snakes was then alluded to by me, and I
remarked that the services of a small force in checking insolence
would be as good as two hundred men subsequently. We deemed it
necessary to maintain our dignity and that of our government at the
council, and we would seize any person, whether white man or Indian,
who behaved in an improper manner. There were unquestionably a great
many malcontents in each tribe. A few determined spirits, if not
controlled, might embolden all not well disposed, and defeat the
negotiations. Should this spirit be shown, they must be seized; the
well affected would then govern in the deliberations, and I
anticipated little or no difficulty in negotiating. I then alluded
to my determination to call out the militia of the Territory should
I find, on reaching the council ground, that any plan of hostilities
was being matured, or should a feeling of hostility be manifested,
in case a small force was not sent from the garrison.
"So doubtful did General Palmer consider the whole matter of the
council, that it was only the circumstance of a military force being
dispatched which determined him to send to the treaty ground
presents to the Indians. He stated to me that he had concluded to
send up no goods; but, the escort having been ordered, he would send
up his goods. At this time the Oregon officers expected little from
the council, and evidently believed that the whole thing was
premature and ill-advised."
Stopping at the Dalles only long enough to obtain this detachment and
outfit his own small party with riding animals, seven pack-mules, two
packers, and a cook, the governor again took the saddle, and traveling
rapidly overland two hundred miles to the Walla Walla valley in four
days, camping the first night on the Des Chutes River, the second on
John Day's River, the third on the Umatilla, reached the council ground
on May 21 towards evening, the party thoroughly drenched by the soaking
rain in which they had traveled all day.
An amusing incident occurred at the camp on John Day's River, which the
governor was fond of relating as a good joke on himself. There was no
wood to be found in that vicinity, except some drift sticks, which were
claimed by an old Indian who had pitched his lodge on the river's bank.
After many fruitless attempts to purchase some of his wood, the men took
advantage of the temporary absence of the old fellow to purloin a small
quantity of it. This was nearly all consumed, and a hot and savory
supper was smoking before our travelers, when the old Indian returned
and discovered his loss. Dismounting from his pony, he approached the
governor, and, in a tone of indignation and scorn, exclaimed, "Do you
call yourself a great chief and steal wood?" A liberal present mollified
him considerably, and after partaking of the supper, he departed in
great good humor.
The council ground was situated on the right bank of Mill Creek, a
tributary of the Walla Walla River, and about six miles above the site
of the unfortunate Whitman Mission, in the midst of a wide and fertile
valley, bounded in the distance on either hand by high, bare, rolling
hills, and extending, fan-shaped, far eastward to the Blue Mountains,
whose lofty and wooded heights bounded and overlooked the plain. The
valley was almost a perfect level, covered with the greatest profusion
of waving bunch grass and flowers, amidst which grazed numerous bands of
beautiful, sleek mustangs, and herds of long-horned Spanish cattle
belonging to the Indians, and was intersected every half mile by a
clear, rapid, sparkling stream, whose course could be easily traced in
the distance by its fringe of willows and tall cottonwoods. Now every
foot of this rich valley is under cultivation, a dozen gristmills run
their wheels by these streams, and the very treaty ground is the centre
of the thriving town of Walla Walla, with a population of six thousand
souls.
Under the energetic hands of Doty and C.P. Higgins, the packmaster,--a
position corresponding to the chief mate on shipboard, or the orderly
sergeant of a company of troops,--the camp was found pitched, and
everything in readiness for the council. A wall tent, with a large arbor
of poles and boughs in front, stood on level, open ground a short
distance from the creek, and facing the Blue Mountains, all ready for
the governor. This was also to serve as the council chamber, and ample
clear space was left for the Indians to assemble and seat themselves on
the ground in front of the arbor. A little farther in front, and nearer
the creek, were ranged the tents of the rest of the party, a stout
log-house to safely hold the supplies and Indian goods, and a large
arbor to serve as a banqueting-hall for distinguished chiefs, so that,
as in civilized lands, gastronomy might aid diplomacy. A large herd of
beef cattle and a pile of potatoes, purchased of Messrs. Lloyd Brooke,
Bumford & Noble, traders and stock-raisers, who were occupying the site
of the Whitman Mission, and ample stores of sugar, coffee, bacon, and
flour furnished the materials for the feasts.
General Palmer arrived the same day with R.R. Thompson and R.B.
Metcalfe, Indian agents for Oregon tribes, who had visited the Cuyuses
and Umatillas and small bands living wholly in Oregon, and summoned them
to attend the council. Fatigued and uncomfortable as they must have been
after the day's journey and drenching, the commissioners had a long
conference in the evening, listened to Doty's report of his visits to
the tribes and the talk and dispositions of the chiefs, and discussed
the location of reservations and other points. The following programme
was agreed upon:--
1. Governor Stevens to preside at the council.
2. Each superintendent to be sole commissioner for the Indians within
his jurisdiction.
3. Both to act jointly for tribes common to both Territories, each to
appoint an agent and commissary for them, and goods and provisions to be
distributed to them in proportion to the number under the respective
jurisdictions.
4. To keep separate records, to be carefully compared and certified
jointly as far as related to tribes common to both Territories.
5. To keep a public table for the chiefs.
The following officers were appointed for the joint treaties, in each
case the first named for Washington, the second for Oregon: Governor
Isaac I. Stevens and Superintendent Joel Palmer, commissioners; James
Doty and William C. McKay, secretaries; R.H. Crosby and N. Olney,
commissaries; R. H. Lansdale and R.R. Thompson, agents; William Craig,
N. Raymond, Matthew Danpher, and John Flette, interpreters.
The governor also appointed as interpreters A.D. Pambrun, John Whitford,
James Coxie, and Patrick McKensie.
Lieutenant Gracie, with his little detachment, arrived on the 23d. A
tent, furnished by the governor, was pitched for the officer and his
guest, Mr. Kip, while the soldiers built huts of boughs, and spread over
them canvas pack-covers. The two gentlemen dined with the governor under
the arbor near his tent, "off a table constructed from split pine logs,
smoothed off, but not very smooth," says Mr. Kip.
The scanty treating party of whites were now all assembled, and awaited
the arrival of the Indians with interest, not unmixed with apprehension;
for it seemed a bold and perilous step to meet so many brave and warlike
Indians, many of whom were known to be disaffected and ready to provoke
an outbreak, in the heart of the Indian country, two hundred miles from
the nearest settlement or military post, with such a mere handful. They
numbered barely a hundred men,--the governor's party of thirty-five,
twelve with General Palmer, the military guard of forty-seven, two
Catholic missionaries, and a few settlers.
The second day after reaching the valley Governor Stevens, learning that
General Wool had just arrived at Vancouver, wrote him a letter urging
the importance of occupying the Walla Walla valley with a strong
military force, preferably of cavalry, pointing out the central location
of the point, and its strategic advantages for protecting the emigrant
road, the trails to the Missouri on the east, the Puget Sound on the
west, and for controlling the disaffected Indians, particularly the
Cuyuses and Snakes. This, like other sound and indeed necessary measures
recommended by the governor, was ignored by the self-sufficient Wool and
his officers, until they were obliged to adopt them from necessity.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Numbers and names of all these tribes as given in tabular
statement or census, in Governor Stevens's map and report of April
30, 1857, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, now on file in
Indian Bureau. See Appendix.
[3] Pisquouse or Wenatchee, 600; Yakimas, 700; Ps-hawn-appan, 500;
Columbia River bands, 1000; Palouses, 600; Klikitats, 500.
[4] Letter to author; Report of J. Ross Browne, H. Doc., p. 38, 1st
session, 35th Congress; Swan's Three Years, Washington Territory,
pp. 324-425; Speech of Governor Stevens, 1st session, 35th
Congress, Congressional Globe, vol. 37, pp. 490-494.
[5] Speech of Governor Stevens, 1st session, 35th Congress,
Congressional Globe, vol. 37, p. 490.