The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Hazard Stevens · English · Gutenberg #43590 · 1,109,120 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Volume 2 (of 2)

Author: Hazard Stevens

Release date: August 31, 2013 [eBook #43590]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
single character following the carat is superscripted
(example: Isaac^1).

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THE LIFE OF ISAAC INGALLS STEVENS

By His Son

HAZARD STEVENS

With Maps and Illustrations

In Two Volumes

VOL. I

[Illustration]

Boston and New York
Houghton, Mifflin and Company
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1900

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXVI

THE CHEHALIS COUNCIL

Graphic account by Judge James G. Swan--Indians assemble on
lower Chehalis River--The camp and scenes--Method of
proceeding--Indians object to leaving their wonted
resorts--Tleyuk, young Chehalis chief, proves recusant and
insolent--Governor Stevens rebukes him--Tears up his
commission before his face--Dismisses the council--His
forbearance, and desire to assist the Indians--Treaty made
with Quenaiults and Quillehutes next fall as result of this
council 1

CHAPTER XXVII

PERSONAL AND POLITICAL.--SAN JUAN CONTROVERSY

Death of George Watson Stevens--Governor Stevens keeps Indians
in order--Visits Vancouver--Confers with Superintendent
Palmer, of Oregon--Firm stand against British claim to San
Juan Archipelago--Purchases Taylor donation claim--Democratic
convention to nominate delegate in Congress--Governor Stevens
a candidate--Effect of speech before convention: "If he gets
into Congress, we can never get him out"--J. Patton Anderson
nominated 10

CHAPTER XXVIII

INDIANS OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA

Manly Indians--Ten Great Tribes--Nez Perces--Missionary
Spalding--His work--Abandons mission--Escorted in safety by
Nez Perces--Intractable Cuyuses--Religious rivalry--Dr.
Whitman--Yakimas, Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes, Flatheads, Pend
Oreilles, Koutenays--Upper country free from settlers--Indian
jealousy--Conspiracy to destroy whites discovered by Major
Alvord--Warnings disregarded--Governor Stevens thrown in
gap--Prepares for council--Walla Walla valley chosen by
Kam-i-ah-kan--Journey to Dalles--Incidents--Unfavorable
outlook--Escort secured--Trip to Walla Walla--"Call yourself
a great chief and steal wood?"--Council ground--Scenes--General
Palmer arrives--Programme for treaty--Officers--Lieutenant
Gracie, Mr. Lawrence Kip, and escort arrive--Governor Stevens
urges General Wool to establish post there 16

CHAPTER XXIX

THE WALLA WALLA COUNCIL

Nez Perces arrive--Savage parade--Head chief Hal-hal-tlos-sot or
Lawyer, an Indian Solon--Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, Umatillas
arrive--Pu-pu-mox-mox--Feasting the chiefs--Fathers Chirouse
and Pandosy arrive--Kam-i-ah-kan--Four hundred mounted braves
ride around Nez Perce camp--Young Chief--Spokane
Garry--Palouses fail to attend--Timothy preaches in Nez Perce
camp--Yakimas arrive--Commissioners visit Lawyer--Spotted
Eagle discloses Cuyuse plots--Council opened--Treaties
explained--Five thousand Indians present--Horse and foot
races--Young Chief asks holiday--Pu-pu-mox-mox's bitter
speech--Lawyer discloses conspiracy of Cuyuses to massacre
whites--Moves his lodge into camp to put it under protection
of Nez Perces--Governor Stevens prepares for trouble--Determines
to continue council--Invites Indians to speak their minds--Lawyer
favorable--Kam-i-ah-kan scornful--Pathetic speech of
Eagle-from-the-Light--Steachus wants reservation in his own
country--General Stevens's tent flooded--Lawyer accepts
treaty--Young Chief and others refuse--Governor Stevens's pointed
words--Separate reservations for Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and
Umatillas--Sudden arrival of Looking Glass--His indignation--
Orders Nez Perces to their lodges--Night conference with
Yakimas--Stormy council--Lawyer goes to his lodge--Kam-i-ah-kan,
Pu-pu-mox-mox sign treaties--Lawyer's advice--Nez Perces
and Cuyuses counsel by themselves--Lawyer's authority confirmed--
Last day of treaty--Both tribes sign--Eagle-from-the-Light
presents his medicine, a grizzly bear's skin, to Governor
Stevens--Satisfactory ending great relief--Delegations
to Blackfoot council--Nez Perce scalp-dance--Treachery of other
tribes--Outbreak--Compelled to live under treaties--Provisions
of treaties--Benefits of council--Present prosperity 34

CHAPTER XXX

CROSSING THE BITTER ROOTS

Party for Blackfoot council--Crossing Snake River--Red Wolf and
Timothy thrifty chiefs--Traverse fine country--Coeur
d'Alene Mission--Council with Indians--Wrestling
match--Crossing the Bitter Root Mountains--Rafting the Bitter
Root River--Bitter Root or St. Mary's valley--Reception by
the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles--Victor complains of the
Blackfeet 66

CHAPTER XXXI

THE FLATHEAD COUNCIL

Chiefs unwilling to unite on one reservation--Alexander dreads
strictness of the white man's rule--Big Canoe--What need of
treaty between friends?--Let us live together--Protracted
debates--Indians feast and counsel among themselves--No
result--Victor leaves the council--Two days'
intermission--Governor Stevens accepts Victor's proposition
and concludes treaty--Moses refuses to sign treaty--"The
Blackfeet will get his hair" 81

CHAPTER XXXII

MARCH TO FORT BENTON.--MARSHALING THE TRIBES

Nez Perces and Flatheads to hunt south of Missouri pending
council--Prairie Plateau on summit of Rocky Mountains--Elk
for supper--Lewis and Clark's Pass--Management of
train--Traverse the plains--Abundant game--Bewildering
buffalo trails--Reach Fort Benton--Governor Stevens meets
Commissioner Cumming on Milk River--Boats belated--Provisions
exhausted--Leathery jerked meat--Pemmican two years
old--Hunting buffalo on Judith--Bighorn at Citadel
Rock--Metsic, the hunter--Two thousand western Indians
fraternizing with Blackfeet--Stolen horses--Doty recovers
them--Cumming claims sole authority--Forced to subside into
proper place--He stigmatizes Blackfeet and country--Disagrees
on all points--Governor Stevens's views--A million and a half
buffalo find sustenance on these plains 92

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE BLACKFOOT COUNCIL

Twelve thousand Indians kept in hand for months--Nez Perces and
Snakes move to Yellowstone for food--Adams and Tappan seek
Crows--Delay of boats imperils council--Indians
summoned--Council changed to mouth of Judith
River--Remarkable express service--Three thousand five
hundred Indians assemble--Best feeling--Treaty
concluded--Peace established--Terms well kept by
Blackfeet--Scenes at council ground--Grand chorus of one
hundred Germans--Homeric feasts--Disgruntled commissioner 107

CHAPTER XXXIV

CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS IN MIDWINTER.--SURPRISE OF THE
COEUR D'ALENES AND SPOKANES

The start homeward--The haggard expressman brings news of Indian
outbreak--How Pearson ran the gauntlet of hostile
Indians--Governor Stevens disregards warning
dispatches--Resolves to force his way back by the direct
route--Sends to Fort Benton for arms and ammunition--Hastens
ahead of train to Bitter Root valley--Confers with Flatheads
and Nez Perces--Alarming reports--Procures fresh animals--Nez
Perce chiefs join the party--Taking the unexpected
route--Crossing the snowy Bitter Roots--Ten dead horses--The
surprise of the Coeur d'Alenes--"Peace or war?"--Craig and
the Nez Perces take direct route home--Surprise of the
Coeur d'Alenes--Rescue of blockaded miners--Indians called
to council--The Stevens Guards and Spokane Invincibles
organized 120

CHAPTER XXXV

STORMY COUNCIL WITH THE SPOKANES

Disaffected Indians--Kam-i-ah-kan's emissaries and
falsehoods--Governor Stevens's firm front preserves
friendship--Looking Glass's treachery discovered and
frustrated--Dubious speeches--Indians' friendship
gained--Light marching order--Four days' march in driving
storm to the Nez Perce country 133

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE FAITHFUL NEZ PERCES

Two thousand assemble in council--Offer two hundred and fifty
warriors to force way through hostiles--Battle of Oregon
volunteers--The way cleared--The Nez Perce guard of
honor--March to Walla Walla--Capture of Ume-how-lish--Reception
by the volunteers--Governor Stevens's speech--Winter
campaign--Letter to General Wool--His inaction and mistaken
views--In camp, 27° below zero--The Nez Perces dismissed--
Governor Stevens pushes on to the Dalles in advance of
train--Crossing the gorged Deschutes--By trail down the
Columbia to Vancouver--The sail at night in the storm--Arrival
at Olympia after nine months' absence--Mrs. Stevens and
children visit Whitby Island--In danger from northern Indians 143

CHAPTER XXXVII

PROSTRATION.--RESCUE

Country utterly prostrated--Settlers take refuge in
towns--Abandon farms--General Wool disbands volunteers, takes
the defensive, and maligns the people--Review of war--
Kam-i-ah-kan, leading spirit--Treacherous chiefs, fresh from
signing treaties, incite war--Miners massacred--Agent
Bolon murdered--Major Haller's repulse--Settlers driven from
Walla Walla--Massacre on White River--Volunteers raised--
Lieutenant Slaughter killed--Impenetrable forests and
swamps--Cascades afford hidden resorts--Fruitless march of
Major Rains to Yakima--Governor Stevens addresses
legislature--His measures of relief--Calls out volunteers--
Visits lower Sound--Enlists Indian auxiliaries--Settlers
return to farms--Build blockhouses--Organization of
volunteers 156

CHAPTER XXXVIII

WAGING THE WAR ON THE SOUND

Volunteers form Northern, Central, and Southern battalions--Plan
of campaign--Cooperation sought with regulars--Memoir of
information sent General Wool and Colonel Wright--Campaign
east of Cascades suggested--Wool's flying visit to
Sound--Demands virtual disbanding of volunteers--Governor
Stevens's caustic letter of refusal--Pat-ka-nim fights
hostiles--Naval forces--Battle of Connell's prairie--Scouring
the forests and swamps amid rains and storms--Red
allies--Massacre at Cascades--Two companies of rangers called
out to reassure settlers--Unremitting warfare--Hostiles
surrender or flee across Cascades--Posts and blockhouses
turned over to regulars--Volunteers on Sound disbanded 171

CHAPTER XXXIX

THE WAR IN THE UPPER COUNTRY

Fruitless movements of Oregon volunteers--Colonel Wright
marches to Yakima valley in May--Parleys instead of
fighting--Governor Stevens proposes joint movement across
Cascades--Colonel Casey declines--Colonel Shaw crosses
Nahchess Pass--Marches to Walla Walla--Governor Stevens
journeys to Dalles--Dispatches Goff's and Williams's
companies to Walla Walla--Seeks coöperation with Colonel
Wright--Warns him against amnesty to Sound murderers--Three
columns reach Walla Walla the same day--Shaw defeats hostiles
in Grande Ronde--His victory restrains disaffected Nez
Perces--Governor Stevens invites Colonel Wright to attend
peace council in Walla Walla--That officer fooled by the
Yakimas--His abortive campaign--Ow-hi's diplomacy 194

CHAPTER XL

THE FRUITLESS PEACE COUNCIL

Governor Stevens, assured of support by Colonel Wright,
revokes call for additional volunteers--Council with
Klikitats--Refuses to receive Indian murderers on
reservation--Pushes forward to Walla Walla--Indians take
pack-train--Steptoe arrives with four companies--Indians
assemble--Manifest hostility--Steptoe moves off--Volunteers
start for Dalles--Steptoe refuses guard--Governor Stevens
recalls volunteers--Hostile and threatening Indians--Steptoe
refusing support, Governor Stevens moves to his camp--
Disaffected chiefs demand that treaties be abrogated,
whites leave the country--Governor Stevens demands
submission--Terminates council--Starts for Dalles--Attacked
on march--The fight--Moves back to Steptoe's camp--Indians
attack it--Repulsed--Blockhouse built--One company
left--Both commands march to Dalles--Steptoe's change of
views--Demand on Colonel Wright to deliver up Sound
murderers, who gives order--Cleverly evaded--Colonel Wright
marches to Walla Walla--Counsels with hostile chiefs--Yields
to their demands--Whites ordered out of the country--Shameful
betrayal of duty--Governor Stevens's indignant letters to the
War and Indian departments--Pernicious influence of
missionaries and Hudson Bay Company--Governor Stevens's views
finally adopted--Steptoe's defeat--Wright defeats
hostiles--Summary executions--Fate of Ow-hi and Qualchen 206

CHAPTER XLI

DISBANDING THE VOLUNTEERS

Entire force disbanded--Their character, discipline--Public
property sold--So many captured animals that more were sold
than purchased--Transportation cost nothing--Anecdote of
Captain Henness--Thirty-five forts built by volunteers,
twenty-three by settlers, seven by regulars--Colonel Casey
refuses demand for surrender of murderers--Governor Stevens
insists--Sharply rebukes Colonel Casey's slurs--Leschi
surrendered for trial--Is finally hanged--Qui-e-muth killed 232

CHAPTER XLII

MARTIAL LAW.--DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME

Hudson Bay Company's ex-employees remain in Indian
country--Suspected of aiding enemy--Governor Stevens orders
them to the towns--Five return to farms, at instigation of
trouble-makers--Arrested and thrown in jail Judge Lander
issues writ of habeas corpus--Martial law proclaimed in
Pierce County--Colonel Shaw arrests judge and clerk, who are
taken to Olympia and released--Lawyers pass condemnatory
resolutions--Judge Lander holds court in Olympia--Issues
writs--Martial law in Thurston County--Judge Lander
arrested--Held prisoner at Camp Montgomery until end of
war--Martial law abrogated--Governor Stevens fined fifty
dollars--His action in proclaiming martial law disapproved by
the President--Dishonorable discharge used to maintain
discipline--Company A refuse to take field--Pass contumacious
resolutions--Are dishonorably discharged--Control of
disaffected Indians--Agents in constant danger--Summary
dealing with whiskey-sellers--Agents men of high
qualities--Statement of temporary reserves--Indians and
agents--Northern Indians depredate on Sound--Captain
Gansevoort severely punishes them at Port Gamble, and sends
them north--Colonel Ebey falls victim to their revenge 242

CHAPTER XLIII

LEGISLATIVE CENSURE.--POPULAR VINDICATION

Governor Stevens's habits of labor--Adopts costume of the
country--Builds home--Housewarming--Fourth message to
legislature--Renders account of Indian war--Resolutions
censuring Governor Stevens, for dismissing Company A and
proclaiming martial law, pooled and passed--Indignation
of the people--Governor Stevens nominated for Congress--
Canvasses the Territory--Elected by two thirds vote--
Resigns as governor--Death of James Doty--Turns over
governorship to Governor McMullan; Indian affairs, to
Superintendent Nesmith--Return journey East--Incidents 260

CHAPTER XLIV

IN CONGRESS.--VINDICATING HIS COURSE

Passing Superintendent Nesmith's accounts--Obtaining funds for
Indian service--President recommends confirmation of the
treaties--Welcomed back by old friends--General Lane a tower
of strength--Demands that military deliver Yakima murderers
to punishment--They abandon their protégés--Takes house and
moves family to Washington--Mr. James G. Swan,
secretary--Circular letter to emigrants--Appeals to Indian
Department to establish farms promised Blackfeet--Has
Lieutenant John Mullan placed in charge of building
wagon-road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla--Exposes
memoir of Captain Cram--Convinces Senate Indian committee
that treaties ought to be confirmed--Advocates Northwestern
boundary commission--Speeches on Indian war--Pacific
Railroad--Defends Nesmith--Matters engaging
attention--Resists exactions of Hudson Bay Company in memoir
to Secretary of State--Steptoe's defeat--Colonel Wright
punishes Indians--General Harney placed in command of
Washington and Oregon departments--He revokes Wool's order
excluding settlers from upper country--Address on
Northwest--Walter W. Johnson, private secretary--Treaties all
confirmed March 8, 1859--Dictates his final report on
Northern route before breakfast 271

CHAPTER XLV

SAVING SAN JUAN

Returns to Puget Sound--Guest of General Harney--Close relations
with--Renominated for Congress--The canvass--Elected--Death
of Mr. Mason--San Juan dispute waxes warm over a pig--General
Harney advised by Governor Stevens--Sends Captain Pickett to
occupy the island--British fleet blockade--Reinforcements
sent to Pickett--British powerless on land--Thousands of
American miners in Victoria and on Fraser River--Governor
Gholson guided by Governor Stevens--Offers support of militia
to General Harney, who places ammunition at his
disposal--General Scott pacifies British lion--Governor
Stevens's influence in saving the archipelago 288

CHAPTER XLVI

THE STAND AGAINST DISUNION

Governor Stevens becomes chief exponent and authority on
Northern route--Letter to Vancouver railroad convention--
Contending for the Northern route--Governor Stevens lives
down prejudice--Gains respect--Great influence with
President and departments--His habits--Rebuke of
self-seekers--Political issues--Governor Stevens a national
man--Sustained constitutional rights of South, as matter
of justice and to defeat disunion--Patriotism of men of
this view--Attends Charleston and Baltimore Democratic
conventions--Supports General Lane--Split in party--Governor
Stevens accepts as chairman of executive committee of
National Democracy--Writes address in a single night--Labors
hard--Hopes of success--Abraham Lincoln elected
President--Act to pay Indian war debt passed--W.W. Miller
appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington
Territory--Governor Stevens's achievements in seven
years--His firm Union sentiments--Denounces
secession--Strengthens the hands of the President 296

CHAPTER XLVII

THE OFFER OF SWORD AND SERVICES

Governor Stevens returns to Washington Territory--Recommends
supporting the government and arming the militia--Elected
captain of Puget Sound Rifles of Olympia--Democratic
convention meets--Governor Stevens withdraws his name as
candidate for delegate--His speech--Offers services--Hastens
to Washington--Meets cold reception--Accepts colonelcy of
79th Highlanders--Governors Andrew and Sprague offer
regiments 313

CHAPTER XLVIII

THE 79TH HIGHLANDERS.--THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

The Highland Guard, a New York city militia battalion, volunteer
as the 79th Highlanders--Splendid material--Severe losses at
Bull Run--Promised to be sent home to recruit--Disappointed--
Colonel Stevens takes command--Breaks unworthy officers--The
mutiny and its suppression--Colonel Stevens enforces
discipline--Marches through Washington with band playing
the dead march--Removes camp guards and appeals to honor of
the regiment--Crossing the Potomac into Virginia--Colonel
Stevens's brief speech at midnight--Building Fort Ethan
Allen--Digging forts and felling forests--Picket alarms--The
reconnoissance of Lewinsville--General McClellan meets
returning column; his anxiety to avoid a general engagement--
Colonel Stevens deprived of his brigade and given three green
regiments--President Lincoln reminded, directs appointment of
Colonel Stevens as brigadier-general; says delay is owing to
General McClellan's advice--Hazard Stevens appointed adjutant
79th Highlanders--Colonel Stevens appointed brigadier-general--
Moves forward four miles to Camp of the Big Chestnut--The
recusant wagon-master--The unexpected rebuke--McClellan's
passive-defensive--General Stevens ordered to Annapolis--Bids
farewell to the Highlanders--Whole line cries, "Tak' us wi'
ye!"--Secures appointment of his son as captain and assistant
adjutant-general--Condemns McClellan's management--Predicts
disaster--Reaches Annapolis--Applies for Highlanders--McClellan
objects, but President Lincoln overrules him and sends them 321

CHAPTER XLIX

THE PORT ROYAL EXPEDITION

General Thomas W. Sherman--His army--General Stevens's
brigade--The embarkation--Fleet assemble off Fortress
Monroe--Boat's crew of Highlanders--Lively scenes--Sailing
out to sea--Storm scatters the fleet--Opening sealed
orders--Sail for Port Royal--The rebel defenses--Commodore
Dupont's attack--The enemy's flight--Landing of the
troops--Demoralized by sweet-potato field--General Stevens
alone urges advance inland--Constructs a mile of defensive
works--Sickness--Life on Hilton Head 341

CHAPTER L

BEAUFORT.--ACTION OF PORT ROYAL FERRY

General Stevens occupies Beaufort, the Newport of the
South--Abandoned by white population--Sacked by negroes;
their ignorance, habits, condition--Faint attack on the
pickets--General Stevens advances across Port Royal
Island--Pickets outer side, throwing enemy on the
defensive--Enemy close the Coosaw River--General Stevens's
plan to dislodge them authorized--Reinforcement by two
regiments and gunboats--Flatboats assembled in a hidden
creek--Troops embark at midnight, cross Coosaw, and effect
landing--March in echelon toward Port Royal Ferry--The
action--The enemy's hasty retreat--The Ferry occupied--The
forts destroyed--Troops bivouac for the night--Cross the
ferry and march to Beaufort in triumph--Thanked in general
orders for the victory of Port Royal Ferry 353

CHAPTER LI

BEAUFORT.--CAMPAIGN PLANNED AGAINST CHARLESTON

General Stevens restores public library--It is confiscated by
Treasury agents against his protest--The Gideonites come to
elevate the freedmen--General Stevens moderates their zeal;
wins their gratitude--Other visitors--Thorough course of
drill and discipline--Twenty-five-mile picket
line--Detachment of 8th Michigan defeat 13th Georgia regiment
on Wilmington Island--Death of Mr. Caverly--Governor
Stevens's views on military situation--General Stevens's
force a menace to Charleston and Savannah Railroad--Six
miles trestle bridges--General Robert E. Lee's defensive
measures--General Stevens eager to cross swords with
Lee--Plans movement to destroy railroad and hurl whole army
on Charleston--Captain Elliott's scouting trips--General
Sherman adopts plan--Commodore Dupont to coöperate--General
Hunter supersedes General Sherman--Fort Pulaski
taken--General Hunter proclaims negroes forever free, then
impresses them as soldiers--General Stevens's views on the
negro soldier--He is confirmed as brigadier-general 367

CHAPTER LII

JAMES ISLAND CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHARLESTON

Enemy abandon lower part of Stono River and batteries--General
Benham plans movement on Charleston by way of James
Island--General Stevens lands on James Island--Drives back
enemy in sharp action--Takes three guns--Cautions Benham of
need of a day's preparation before attacking--Incompetent
commanders--Wright joins, a week later, with his
division--Organization of the army--Enemy strengthening works
across island--Fort Lamar, strong advanced work--General
Stevens erects counter-battery--Reconnoissances 387

CHAPTER LIII

BATTLE OF JAMES ISLAND

General Benham's precipitate determination to assault Fort
Lamar--Protests of his generals--He orders General Stevens to
assault at dawn, Wright and Williams to support--Attacking
column--Forms at two P.M.--Drives in and follows hard on
enemy's pickets--Enters field in front of fort at
daylight--Rushes on the work in column of regiments--The
fight over the parapet--Deadly fire from enemy's reserves in
rear of the work--Troops withdrawn in good order and
reformed--General Williams attacks on left--General Wright
takes position to protect left and rear--General Stevens
about to assault a second time, when General Benham suddenly
gives up the fight and orders both columns to retreat--Forces
and losses--Causes of the repulse--Highlanders' revenge at
Fort Saunders--Benham deprived of command and sent North 399

CHAPTER LIV

RETURN TO VIRGINIA

The Highlanders present General Stevens with a sword--His
response--Death of Daniel Lyman Arnold--General Stevens's
letters to his wife--Holds Benham to account--General Wright
succeeds to command on Benham's arrest--James Island
evacuated--Troops uselessly harassed--Jean Ribaut's
fort--Voyage to Virginia--General Stevens's letter to
President Lincoln recommending such movement--His views of
military situation--Lands at Newport News--Ninth corps
formed, General Stevens commanding first division--Meets
General Cullum 416

CHAPTER LV

POPE'S CAMPAIGN

General Stevens moves to Fredericksburg--Division in three
brigades, and joined by two light batteries--Stevens and
Reno's division, march up the Rappahannock; join Pope's army
at Culpeper Court House--General Stevens stops straggling and
marauding--Battle of Cedar Mountain--Army of Virginia--Pope
advances to Rapidan--General Stevens holds Raccoon Ford--Lee
leaves McClellan--Concentrates against Pope, who withdraws
behind Rappahannock--General Stevens's action at Kelly's
Ford--Marching up the river to head off Lee--Benjamin
silences enemy's gun with a single shot--Reinforcements
arrive from Army of the Potomac--Jackson marches around right
flank and falls on rear--Positions and movements, August 26,
27, 28--Description of Bull Run battlefield--Jackson
withdraws from Manassas and takes position there--Movements
of Pope's forces--Fiasco of McDowell and Sigel--Jackson
attacks--Stubborn fight of General Gibbon near
Groveton--Generals King and Ricketts march away from the
enemy--Pope reiterates order to attack 425

CHAPTER LVI

THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN

Jackson resumes his position--Sigel's troops move forward slowly
and become engaged--Reynolds, on left, advances, but falls
back--Troops of right wing arrive, scattered to meet Sigel's
cries for reinforcements--General Stevens advances with
small force to Groveton--Unexpectedly fired on by enemy's
skirmishers--Benjamin maintains unequal artillery
combat--Sigel and Schenck withdraw troops from
key-point--Jackson forces back Milroy and Schurz--General
Porter's movement--Inactive all day--Pope hurls disconnected
brigades on Jackson's corps--Attacks by Grover, Reno, Kearny,
Stevens, all repulsed--King's division slaughtered--General
Stevens collects his scattered division--Union attacks
repulsed the first day--Lee master of the situation--August
30, second day--Pope sure the enemy had retreated--General
Stevens expresses contrary view--Captain John More finds
enemy in force--Pope's fatuous Order of pursuit--Porter
slowly forms column in centre--Pope's faulty dispositions--
Whole army bunched in centre--Wings stripped of troops--
Porter's attack--General Stevens joins in it--The repulse--
Lee's opportunity--Longstreet's onslaught--The battle on left
and centre--The right firmly held--General Stevens's
remark--Pope orders retreat--General Stevens withdraws
deliberately--Checks pursuit--Capture of Lieutenant
Heffron--Crosses Bull Run at Lock's Ford--Bivouac for
night--Battle lost by incompetent commander--Troops fought
bravely 446

CHAPTER LVII

THE BATTLE OF CHANTILLY

Retreat to Centreville--Rear-guard--Bivouac on Centreville
heights--Counting stacks--Two thousand and twelve muskets
left--Loss nearly one half--General Stevens's last
letter--Sudden orders--March to intercept Jackson--Battle of
Chantilly--General Stevens's charge--He falls, bearing the
colors--The enemy driven from his position--Sudden and
furious thunderstorm bursts over the field 477

CHAPTER LVIII

THE BATTLE OF CHANTILLY

Progress of the fight--General Kearny responds to General
Stevens's summons with Birney's brigade--His death--Three of
Reno's regiments engaged--Night ends the contest--Sixteen
Union regiments against forty-eight Confederate--Respective
losses and forces--General Stevens averted great disaster 487

CHAPTER LIX

FINAL SCENE

General Stevens's body borne from battle to Washington--President
considering placing him in command at time of his death--
Burial in Newport, R.I.--City erects monument--Inscription--
Poem--General Stevens's descendants 498

APPENDIX--Census of Indians 503

INDEX 507

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Arrival of Nez Perce Cavalcade at the Council 34

Feasting the Chiefs 36

Kam-i-ah-kan, Head Chief of the Yakimas 38

U-u-san-male-e-can: Spotted Eagle, a chief of the Nez Perces 40

Walla Walla Council 42

Pu-pu-mox-mox: Yellow Serpent, Head Chief of the Walla Wallas 46

We-ah-te-na-tee-ma-ny: Young Chief, Head Chief of the Cuyuses 50

She-ca-yah: Five Crows, a Chief of the Cuyuses 52

Appushwa-hite: Looking Glass, War Chief of the Nez Perces 54

Hal-hal-tlos-sot: The Lawyer, Head Chief of the Nez Perces 58

The Scalp Dance 60

Ow-hi, a Chief of the Yakimas 64

The Flathead Council 82

The Blackfoot Council 112

Group of Blackfoot Chiefs--Ha-ca-tu-she-ye-hu, Star Robe,
Chief of the Gros Ventres; Th-ke-te-pers, The Rider, Great
War Chief of the Gros Ventres; Sak-uis-tan, Heavy Shield,
Great Warrior of the Blood Indians; Stam-yekh-sas-ci-cay,
Lame Bull, Piegan Chief 114

Blackfoot Chiefs--Tat-tu-ye, The Fox, Chief of the Blood
Indians; Mek-ya-py, Red Dye, Piegan Warrior 116

Group: Commissioner Alfred Cumming, Alexander Culbertson,
William Craig, Delaware Jim, James Bird 118

Crossing the Bitter Roots in Midwinter 126

Coeur d'Alene Mission 128

Spokane Garry: Head Chief of the Spokanes 140

Ume-how-lish, War Chief of the Cuyuses 148

Homestead in Olympia 260

Letter offering Sword and Services (facsimile) 316

Captain Hazard Stevens at the age of 19, from a photograph 340

Headquarters at Beaufort 372

General Stevens and Staff: Captain B.F. Porter, Lieutenant
William T. Lusk, Captain Hazard Stevens, Lieutenant Abraham
Cottrell, General Stevens, Major George S. Kemble, Lieutenant
Benjamin R. Lyons 386

Headquarters on James Island 398

Camp of General Stevens's Division at Newport News 422

Headquarters at Newport News 424

The Monument 502

The portraits of Indian chiefs were made by Gustavus Sohon, a
private soldier of the 4th infantry, an intelligent and
well-educated German, who had great skill in making expressive
likenesses. He also made the views of the councils and expedition.
These portraits, with many others taken by the same artist, were
intended by General Stevens to be used to illustrate a complete
account of his treaty operations. The views of camps and
headquarters were sketched by E. Henry, E Company, 79th
Highlanders.

MAPS AND PLANS

The Interior from Cascade Mountains to Fort Benton. Made on
reduced scale from Governor Stevens's map of April 30, 1857,
sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Routes traversed
by Governor Stevens taken from maps accompanying his final
report of the Northern Pacific Railroad route. See Appendix
for marginal notes 16

Theatre of Indian War of 1855-56 on Puget Sound and West of
Cascade Mountains. Made on reduced scale from map sent by
Governor Stevens to the Secretary of War with report of March
21, 1856 172
Reconnoissance of Lewinsville, September 11, 1862 330

Port Royal and Sea Islands of South Carolina 352

Action at Port Royal Ferry, January 1, 1862 358

Battle of James Island, June 16, 1862 402

Virginia--Potomac to Rapidan River 426

Positions of forces August 26, 1862, 9 P.M. 432

Positions of forces August 27, 9 P.M. 433

Positions of forces August 28, 9 P.M. 443

Second Battle of Bull Run, August 29 446

Second Battle of Bull Run, August 30 464

Jackson's flank march, August 31 480

Battle of Chantilly, September 1 482

THE LIFE

ISAAC INGALLS STEVENS

CHAPTER XXVI

THE CHEHALIS COUNCIL

While treating with the Sound Indians, the governor sent William H.
Tappan, agent for the southwestern tribes, Henry D. Cock, and Sidney
Ford to summon the Chinooks, Chehalis, and coast Indians to meet in
council on the Chehalis River, just above Gray's Harbor, on February 25,
and on returning to Olympia dispatched Simmons and Shaw on the same
duty. On the 22d he left Olympia on horseback, rode to the Chehalis,
thirty miles, and the following day descended that stream in a canoe to
the treaty ground. Among other settlers who attended the council at the
governor's invitation was James G. Swan, then residing on Shoalwater
Bay, and since noted for his interesting writings on the Pacific
Northwest, and for the valuable collections of Indian implements and
curiosities, and monographs of their languages, customs, and history
that he has made for the Smithsonian Institution. Judge Swan gives the
following graphic and lively account of this council in his "Three
Years' Residence in Washington Territory." He describes how he and Dr.
J.G. Cooper, accompanied by twenty canoe-loads of Indians, paddled up
the Chehalis one cold, damp morning, without waiting for breakfast,
finding it difficult to keep warm:--

"But the Indians did not seem to mind it at all; for, excited with
the desire to outvie each other in their attempts to be first to
camp, they paddled, and screamed, and shouted, and laughed, and cut
up all kinds of antics, which served to keep them in a glow. As we
approached the camp we all stopped at a bend in the river, about
three quarters of a mile distant, when all began to wash their
faces, comb their hair, and put on their best clothes. The women got
out their bright shawls and dresses, and painted their faces with
vermilion, or red ochre and grease, and decked themselves out with
their beads and trinkets, and in about ten minutes we were a
gay-looking set; and certainly the appearance of the canoes filled
with Indians dressed in their brightest colors was very picturesque,
but I should have enjoyed it better had the weather been a little
warmer.

"The camp ground was situated on a bluff bank of the river, on its
south side, about ten miles from Gray's Harbor, on the claim of Mr.
James Pilkington. A space of two or three acres had been cleared
from logs and brushwood, which had been piled up so as to form an
oblong square. One great tree, which formed the southern side to the
camp, served also as an immense backlog, against which our great
camp-fire and sundry smaller ones were kindled, both to cook by and
to warm us. In the centre of the square, and next the river, was the
governor's tent; and between it and the south side of the ground
were the commissary's and other tents, all ranged in proper order.
Rude tables, laid in open air, and a huge framework of poles, from
which hung carcasses of beef, mutton, deer, elk, and salmon, with a
cloud of wild geese, ducks, and smaller game, gave evidence that the
austerities of Lent were not to form any part of our services.

"Around the sides of the square were ranged the tents and wigwams of
the Indians, each tribe having a space allotted to it. The coast
Indians were placed at the lower part of the camp; first the
Chinooks, then the Chehalis, Quen-ai-ult, and Quaitso, Satsop, upper
Chehalis, and Cowlitz. These different tribes had sent
representatives to the council, and there were present about three
hundred and fifty of them, and the best feeling prevailed among all.

"The white persons present consisted of only fourteen, viz.,
Governor Stevens, George Gibbs (who officiated as secretary to the
commission), Judge Ford, with his two sons, who were assistant
interpreters, Lieutenant-Colonel B.F. Shaw, the chief interpreter,
Colonel Simmons and Mr. Tappan, Indian agents, Dr. Cooper, Mr.
Pilkington, the owner of the claim, Colonel Cock, myself, and last,
though by no means the least, Cushman, our commissary, orderly
sergeant, provost marshal, chief story-teller, factotum, and life of
the party,--'Long may he wave.' Nor must I omit Green McCafferty,
the cook, whose name had become famous for his exploits in an
expedition to Queen Charlotte's Island to rescue some sailors from
the Indians. He was a good cook and kept us well supplied with hot
biscuit and roasted potatoes.

"Our table was spread in the open air, and at breakfast and supper
was pretty sure to be covered with frost, but the hot dishes soon
cleared that off, and we found the clear, fresh breeze very
conducive to a good appetite. After supper we all gathered round the
fire to smoke our pipes, toast our feet, and tell stories.

"The next morning the council was commenced. The Indians were all
drawn up in a large circle in front of the governor's tent, and
around a table on which were placed the articles of treaty and other
papers. The governor, General Gibbs, and Colonel Shaw sat at the
table, and the rest of the whites were honored with camp-stools, to
sit around as a sort of guard, or as a small cloud of witnesses.

"Although we had no regimentals on, we were dressed pretty uniform.
His Excellency the Governor was dressed in a red flannel shirt, dark
frock coat and pants, and these last tucked in his boots, California
fashion; a black felt hat, with, I think, a pipe stuck through the
band; and a paper of fine-cut tobacco in his coat pocket. We also
were dressed like the governor, not in ball-room or dress-parade
uniform, but in good, warm, serviceable clothes.

"After Colonel Mike Simmons, the agent, and, as he has been termed,
the Daniel Boone of the Territory, had marshaled the savages into
order, an Indian interpreter was selected from each tribe to
interpret the jargon of Shaw into such language as their tribes
could understand. The governor then made a speech, which was
translated by Colonel Shaw into jargon, and spoken to the Indians,
in the same manner the good old elders of ancient times were
accustomed to deacon out the hymns to the congregation. First the
governor spoke a few words, then the colonel interpreted, then the
Indians; so that this threefold repetition made it rather a lengthy
operation. After this speech the Indians were dismissed till the
following day, when the treaty was to be read. We were then
requested by the governor to explain to those Indians we were
acquainted with what he had said, and they seemed very well
satisfied. The governor had purchased of Mr. Pilkington a large pile
of potatoes,--about a hundred bushels,--and he told the Indians to
help themselves. They made the heap grow small in a short time, each
taking what he required for food; but lest any one should get an
undue share, Commissary Cushman and Colonel Simmons were detailed to
stand guard on the potato pile, which they did with the utmost good
feeling, keeping the savages in a roar of laughter by their humorous
ways.

"At night we again gathered around the fire, and the governor
requested that we should enliven the time by telling anecdotes,
himself setting the example. Governor Stevens has a rich fund of
interesting and amusing incidents that he has picked up in his camp
life, and a very happy way of relating them. We were all called upon
in turn. There were some tales told of a wild and romantic nature,
and Judge Ford and Colonel Mike did their part. Old frontiersmen and
early settlers, they had many a legend to relate of toil, privation,
fun, and frolic; but the palm was conceded to Cushman, who certainly
could vie with Baron Munchausen or Sindbad the Sailor in his
wonderful romances. His imitative powers were great, and he would
take off some speaker at a political gathering or a camp-meeting in
so ludicrous a style that even the governor could not preserve his
gravity, but would be obliged to join the rest in a general laughing
chorus. Whenever Cushman began one of his harangues, he was sure to
draw up a crowd of Indians, who seemed to enjoy the fun as much as
we, although they could not understand a word he said. He usually
wound up by stirring up the fire; and this, blazing up brightly and
throwing off a shower of sparks, would light the old forest, making
the night look blacker in the distance, and showing out in full
relief the dusky, grinning faces of the Indians, with their blankets
drawn around them, standing up just outside the circle where we were
sitting. Cushman was a most capital man for a camp expedition,
always ready, always prompt and good-natured.

"The second morning after our arrival the terms of the treaty were
made known. This was read line by line by General Gibbs, and then
interpreted by Colonel Shaw to the Indians. The provisions of the
treaty were these: They were to be placed on a reservation between
Gray's Harbor and Cape Flattery, and were to be paid forty thousand
dollars in different installments. Four thousand dollars in addition
was also to be paid them, to enable them to clear and fence in land
and cultivate. No spirituous liquors were to be allowed on the
reservation; and any Indian who should be guilty of drinking liquor
would have his or her annuity withheld.

"Schools, carpenters' and blacksmiths' shops were to be furnished by
the United States; also a sawmill, agricultural implements,
teachers, and a doctor. All their slaves were to be free, and none
afterwards to be bought or sold. The Indians, however, were not to
be restricted to the reservation, but were to be allowed to procure
their food as they had always done, and were at liberty at any time
to leave the reservation to trade with or work for the whites.

"After this had all been interpreted to them, they were dismissed
till the next day, in order that they might talk the matter over
together, and have any part explained to them which they did not
understand. The following morning the treaty was again read to them
after a speech from the governor, but although they seemed
satisfied, they did not perfectly comprehend. The difficulty was in
having so many tribes to talk to at the same time, and being obliged
to use the jargon, which at best is a poor medium of conveying
intelligence. The governor requested any one of them that wished, to
reply to him. Several of the chiefs spoke, some in jargon and some
in their own tribal language, which would be interpreted into jargon
by one of their people who was conversant with it; so that, what
with this diversity of tongues, it was difficult to have the subject
properly understood. But their speeches finally resulted in one and
the same thing, which was that they felt proud to have the governor
talk with them; they liked his proposition to buy their land, but
they did not want to go to the reservation. The speech of Narkarty,
one of the Chinook chiefs, will convey the idea they all had. 'When
you first began to speak,' said he to the governor, 'we did not
understand you; it was all dark to us as the night; but now our
hearts are enlightened, and what you say is clear to us as the sun.
We are proud that our Great Father in Washington thinks of us. We
are poor, and can see how much better off the white men are than we
are. We are willing to sell our land, but we do not want to go away
from our homes. Our fathers and mothers and ancestors are buried
there, and by them we wish to bury our dead and be buried ourselves.
We wish, therefore, each to have a place on our own land where we
can live, and you may have the rest; but we can't go to the north
among the other tribes. We are not friends, and if we went together
we should fight, and soon we would all be killed.' This same idea
was expressed by all, and repeated every day. The Indians from the
interior did not want to go on a reservation with the coast or canoe
Indians. The whole together only numbered 843 all told, as may be
seen by the following census, which was taken on the ground:--

Lower Chehalis 217
Upper Chehalis 216
Quenaiults 158
Chinooks 112
Cowlitz 140
---
843

"But though few in numbers, there were among them men possessed of
shrewdness, sense, and great influence. They felt that though they
were few, they were as much entitled to a separate treaty as the
more powerful tribes in the interior. We all reasoned with them to
show the kind intentions of the governor, and how much better off
they would be if they could content themselves to live in one
community; and our appeals were not altogether in vain. Several of
the tribes consented, and were ready to sign the treaty, and of
these the Quenaiults were the most prompt, evidently, however, from
the fact that the proposed reservation included their land, and they
would consequently remain at home.

"I think the governor would have eventually succeeded in inducing
them all to sign, had it not been for the son of Carcowan, the old
Chehalis chief. This young savage, whose name is Tleyuk, and who was
the recognized chief of his tribe, had obtained great influence
among all the coast Indians. He was very willing at first to sign
the treaty, provided the governor would select _his_ land for the
reservation, and make him the grand _Tyee_, or chief, over the whole
five tribes; but when he found he could not effect his purpose, he
changed his behavior, and we soon found his bad influence among the
other Indians, and the meeting broke up that day with marked
symptoms of dissatisfaction. This ill-feeling was increased by old
Carcowan, who smuggled some whiskey into the camp, and made his
appearance before the governor quite intoxicated. He was handed over
to Provost Marshal Cushman, with orders to keep him quiet till he
got sober. The governor was very much incensed at this breach of his
orders, for he had expressly forbidden either whites or Indians
bringing one drop of liquor into the camp.

"The following day Tleyuk stated that he had no faith in anything
the governor said, for he had been told that it was the intention of
the United States government to put them all on board steamers and
send them away out of the country, and that the Americans were not
their friends. He gave the names of several white persons who had
been industrious in circulating these reports to thwart the governor
in his plans, and most all of them had been in the employ of the
Hudson Bay Company. He was assured that there was no truth in the
report, and pretended to be satisfied, but in reality was doing all
in his power to break up the meeting. That evening the governor
called the chiefs into his tent, but to no purpose, for Tleyuk made
some insolent remarks, and peremptorily refused to sign the treaty,
and with his people refused to have anything to do with it. That
night in his camp they behaved in a very disorderly manner, firing
off guns, shouting, and making a great uproar.

"The next morning, when the council was called, the governor gave
Tleyuk a severe reprimand, and, taking from him his paper, which had
been given to show that the government recognized him as chief, he
tore it to pieces before the assemblage. Tleyuk felt this disgrace
very keenly, but said nothing. The paper was to him of great
importance, for they all look on a printed or written document as
possessing some wonderful charm. The governor then informed them
that as all would not sign the treaty it was of no effect, and the
camp was then broken up.

"Throughout the whole of the conference Governor Stevens evinced a
degree of forbearance, and a desire to do everything he could for
the benefit of the Indians. Nothing was done in a hurry. We remained
in the camp a week, and ample time was given them each day to
perfectly understand the views of the governor. The utmost good
feeling prevailed, and every day they were induced to some games of
sport to keep them good humored. Some would have races on the river
in their canoes, others danced, and others gambled; all was friendly
till the last day, when Tleyuk's bad conduct spoiled the whole."

That was an intrepid and resolute act of Governor Stevens, thus to tear
up the turbulent chief's commission before his face, surrounded by three
hundred and fifty Indians and supported by only fourteen whites; but it
effectually cowed the insolent young savage, and preserved the respect
of the Indians.

The council was by no means abortive, for in consequence of it the
following fall Colonel Simmons obtained the assent and signature of the
chiefs of the Quenaiult and Quillehute coast tribes to the treaty so
carefully explained to them at the Chehalis council, and it was signed
by Governor Stevens at Olympia, January 25, 1856, on his return from the
Blackfoot council, and duly confirmed with the other treaties on March
8, 1859. These Indians were given $25,000 in annuities, and $2500 to
improve the reservation, the selection of which was left to the
President. A reservation of ten thousand acres was set off at the mouth
of the Quenaiult River, including their principal village and salmon
fishery, renowned as yielding the richest and finest salmon on the
coast, a fish of medium size, deep, rich color, and exquisite flavor.
The other provisions were the same as those secured to the Sound
Indians.

Tah-ho-lah and How-yatl, head chiefs of the two tribes, and twenty-nine
other chiefs signed the treaty, and it was witnessed by M.T. Simmons,
general Indian agent; H.A. Goldsborough, surveyor; B.F. Shaw,
interpreter; James Tilton, surveyor-general; F. Kennedy, J.Y. Miller,
and H.D. Cock.

These two tribes numbered four hundred and ninety-three, a number
greatly in excess of the census given in Swan's account. In their
distrust the Indians invariably reported less than their actual numbers,
and nearly every tribe was found to be larger than the first estimate.
The numbers of the Chinook, Chehalis, and Cowlitz Indians were reported
by Governor Stevens in 1857 as one thousand one hundred and fifteen.

Including the Quenaiults and the Cowlitz, and other Indians not on
reservations, they now number some seven hundred, and are in about the
same condition as the Sound Indians.[1]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A census of all the tribes in the Territory, returned with
Governor Stevens's report and map of April 30, 1857, is given
in the Appendix.

CHAPTER XXVII

PERSONAL AND POLITICAL.--SAN JUAN CONTROVERSY

Just before going to the Chehalis council, Governor Stevens and his
family suffered a sad and severe affliction in the death of his young
kinsman, George Watson Stevens, who was drowned on February 16 at the
debouch of the Skookumchuck Creek into the Chehalis River, as he was
returning from Portland, whither he had gone to cash some government
drafts. He was accompanied on the journey by A.B. Stuart, the mail and
express carrier, who, as they approached the stream, had occasion to
stop at a settler's house, while George Stevens kept on, and, although
cautioned by Stuart, lost his life in the attempt to cross by the usual
ford. The Skookumchuck empties into the Chehalis at right angles, and
although ordinarily a stream of moderate size, becomes, when swollen by
rains, a mighty and furious flood, which, encountering the rapid current
of the Chehalis, forms a dangerous whirlpool in the centre of that
river. Not realizing the danger, and anxious to reach his journey's end
that day, he forced his horse into the raging torrent, and was swept,
man and steed, into the whirlpool below, where, although a fine swimmer
and a strong, vigorous man, he met his death. Stuart reached the ford
soon afterwards, and finding it impassable and his companion nowhere
visible, rightly concluded that he was lost, and hastened to Olympia
with the sad tidings.

Governor Stevens with a party hastened to the scene, and diligently
searched for the missing one. The governor caused a band of horses to
be driven into the stream to test its power, but all were instantly
swept down into the larger river, several of them clear to the
whirlpool, although the water had fallen considerably. The unfortunate
youth's horse swam ashore, and was found with the saddle and saddle-bags
soaked with water, and a few days later his remains were found in the
river a mile below the whirlpool. This sad event cast a deep gloom upon
the family, and indeed all the community, for he was a young man of
great promise, noble traits, and only twenty-two years of age. The
governor said of him:--

"His whole character was an admirable blending of strength and
gentleness. He was essentially a man of great resolution, daring,
enterprise, and purpose, who adhered with great inflexibility to his
determinations; yet he was so gentle, so kindly, so courteous, and
so disinterested that his strength did not fully appear in ordinary
intercourse. To his friends his death is a sad bereavement, which
time only can obliterate. His memory will be precious, his life an
example, his bright and pure spirit is now in the heavenly mansion."

"He was a brother in the house," wrote Mrs. Stevens to her mother;
"evenings he always spent at home, and took an interest in
everything about the house, played with the children, seemed to be
happy just staying in our society. Here is my garden he made, and
the flowers he set out, and marks of him all about us."

It was a sad time when his remains were brought in, and the little toys
and candy he had thoughtfully purchased for the children were found in
his pockets and saddle-bags. He was buried on the beautiful green Bush
Prairie, amid the scenes of mountain, prairie, and forest he loved so
well. His intimate friends, Mason and Doty, were soon to be laid at rest
by his side.

In a letter to a sister Mrs. Stevens relates another instance of the
governor's firmness and fearlessness in dealing with the Indians:--

"There are three different tribes of Indians in Olympia now, all
different,--the Nisquallies, Chissouks, and northern Fort Simpson
Indians. A curious sight it is to see them. They are all gambling,
their mats spread on the ground; and you will see groups of fifty
seated on the ground, and playing all day and night. The town is
full of them. Mr. Stevens has them right under his thumb. They are
as afraid as death of him, and do just what he tells them. He told
the chiefs of the tribes he would not let them disturb the whites.
That night they kept up an awful howling and singing, making night
hideous like a pack of wolves. Mr. Stevens got up, took a big club,
and went right in among them, and talked to them, and told them that
the first man that opened his lips he would knock down. The chief
said, 'Close' (All right), and not another sound came from them that
night. When he came back, he said the biggest lodge was full of men
sitting in a circle around a big fire, smoking and singing."

Returning from the Chehalis council, Governor Stevens remained the next
two months in Olympia, hard at work with his multifarious duties,
reviewing legislative acts, preparing reports of the councils and
treaties, instructing the Indian agents, and attending to the unceasing
cares and questions arising from the Indians, and preparing for the trip
east of the mountains. In April he made the arduous horseback and river
trip to Vancouver, and there met Superintendent Joel Palmer, of Oregon,
by appointment, having previously invited him, in order to arrange with
him in regard to the proposed council with the Indians of the upper
country, some of whom were within General Palmer's superintendency.

This spring began the San Juan Island controversy with Great Britain,
which came near involving the two countries in war, and lasted with
various phases for eighteen years, until it was finally decided in favor
of the United States by Emperor William I., of Germany.

By the treaty of 1846 the main ship-channel which separates the
continent from Vancouver Island was fixed as the boundary from the point
where the 49th parallel intersects the Gulf of Georgia, in order to give
the whole of that island to Great Britain, for the parallel intersects
it. It happens, however, that there are two channels, with a valuable
group of islands between them, answering this description. The Americans
claimed the western-most, the Canal de Haro, which runs next to
Vancouver Island, and is the shorter, broader, and deeper, in every
respect the main ship-channel, while the English insisted that the
eastern channel, Rosario Straits, was the proper boundary. The shrewd
and aggressive officers of the Hudson Bay Company at Victoria, Sir James
Douglass at their head, originated the British claim, which otherwise
had never arisen, so little merit had it, and in order to gain a
foothold on, and claim possession of, these valuable islands, placed a
flock of sheep on San Juan, and stationed there a petty official of the
company. The island was included in Whatcom County by act of the
Washington legislature, the property thereon became subject to taxation,
and the sheriff of the county levied upon and seized a number of the
sheep in default of payment of taxes.

Sir James Douglass thereupon addressed Governor Stevens, complaining of
the seizure, and demanding to know if the sheriff's proceedings were
authorized or sanctioned in any manner by the executive officer of
Washington Territory. The governor promptly replied, May 12, 1855, and
firmly and uncompromisingly asserted the American right, and justified
the sheriff. After reciting the acts of Oregon and Washington assuming
jurisdiction over the islands, he continued:--

"The sheriff, in proceeding to collect taxes, acts under a law
directing him to do so. Should he be resisted in such an attempt, it
would become the duty of the governor to sustain him to the full
force of the authority vested in him.

"The ownership remains now as it did at the execution of the treaty
of June 11, 1846, and can in no wise be affected by the alleged
'possession of British subjects.'"

The correspondence was communicated to the Secretary of State, who in
reply deprecated any action by the territorial authorities pending a
settlement of the question by the respective governments, and the
dispute remained in abeyance until excited some years afterwards by
another British act of aggression. Had our government firmly asserted
its undoubted right at this time, the matter would have been settled. To
the resolute and patriotic stand of Governor Stevens on this occasion,
and his subsequent course in defense of this American territory, as will
be seen hereafter, were due the ultimate defeat of the persistent and
hard-fought British demands.

At this time the governor purchased of William Taylor for $2000 his
donation claim, a fine tract of half a section, 320 acres, six miles
southwest of Olympia, and in the northwestern corner of Bush Prairie. It
comprised a few acres of prairie, over a hundred acres of heavy meadow,
and the remainder in heavy fir timber. A small house and a field fenced
off the prairie were the only improvements. The governor always took
great interest and pleasure in the soil, in gardening and farming. He
soon put a man on the place, and laid out extensive plans of improving
it.

In April the Democratic convention met in Olympia to nominate a
candidate for delegate in Congress, to succeed Judge Lancaster. The
delegates assembled in a large store building on the southwest corner of
Main and First streets, belonging to George A. Barnes. Governor Stevens
was a candidate for the nomination. He was desirous, after completing
his treaty operations and returning from the Blackfoot council, to
represent the Territory in Congress, and there push forward his plans
for the public service, further railroad surveys, wagon roads, mail
routes, steamer service, Indian treaties and policy, and, above all, the
Northern Pacific Railroad. Many of the first settlers were strong in his
support, recognizing how much such a man in Congress could accomplish
for the Territory. There were two other candidates, Judge Columbia
Lancaster, very anxious to succeed himself, and J. Patton Anderson,
United States marshal, who had traveled all over the Territory in taking
the census the previous year, and, it was said, had diligently improved
his opportunities as census-taker by paying court to all the women,
kissing all the babies, and pledging all the men to support him for
delegate. He was a man of good appearance, cordial, pleasant Southern
manners, and well calculated to make friends. The convention divided
between the three candidates, and balloted an entire day without result.
In the evening the candidates were invited to address the convention.
Colonel Shaw, who was one of the governor's supporters, although not a
member of the convention, says that he advised the governor not to
accept the invitation, lest the friends of the other candidates, hearing
him speak, should become alarmed at his ability and power, and combine
against him. Such advice was the very last that the governor, with his
straightforward and positive character, would relish. He went before the
convention, and in a forcible and patriotic speech, without reference to
himself, set forth the needs of the Territory, and the public measures
required for its advancement, so ably and clearly that his friends were
delighted, and felt sure that he would be chosen on the next ballot. But
it turned out as Shaw feared. Although he gained votes, his opponents
combined on Anderson, and nominated him, some of them exclaiming, "It
won't do to nominate the governor, for if he once gets into Congress, we
can never get him out again."

CHAPTER XXVIII

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.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE WALLA WALLA COUNCIL

The Nez Perces, the first to arrive, came the next day, May 24, 2500
strong. Hearing of their approach, the commissioners drew up their
little party on a knoll commanding a fine view of the unbroken level of
the valley. The standard of the Nez Perces, the large American flag
given them by the officers engaged in the Cuyuse war, was sent forward
and planted on the knoll. Soon their cavalcade came in sight, a thousand
warriors mounted on fine horses and riding at a gallop, two abreast,
naked to the breech-clout, their faces covered with white, red, and
yellow paint in fanciful designs, and decked with plumes and feathers
and trinkets fluttering in the sunshine. The ponies were even more
gaudily arrayed, many of them selected for their singular color and
markings, and many painted in vivid colors contrasting with their
natural skins,--crimson slashed in broad stripes across white, yellow or
white against black or bay; and with their free and wild action, the
thin buffalo line tied around the lower jaw,--the only bridle, almost
invisible,--the naked riders, seated as though grown to their backs,
presented the very picture of the fabled centaurs. Halting and forming a
long line across the prairie, they again advanced at a gallop still
nearer, then halted, while the head chief, Lawyer, and two other chiefs
rode slowly forward to the knoll, dismounted and shook hands with the
commissioners, and then took post in rear of them. The other chiefs,
twenty-five in number, then rode forward, and went through the same
ceremony. Then came charging on at full gallop in single file the
cavalcade of braves, breaking successively from one flank of the line,
firing their guns, brandishing their shields, beating their drums, and
yelling their war-whoops, and dashed in a wide circle around the little
party on the knoll, now charging up as though to overwhelm it, now
wheeling back, redoubling their wild action and fierce yells in frenzied
excitement. At length they also dismounted, and took their stations in
rear of the chiefs. Then a number of young braves, forming a ring, while
others beat their drums, entertained the commissioners with their
dances, after which the Indians remounted and filed off to the place
designated for their camp. This was on a small stream, flowing parallel
to Mill Creek, on the same side with and over half a mile from the
council camp. The chiefs accompanied the governor to his tent and arbor,
smoked the pipe of peace, and had an informal talk.

[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEZ PERCES]

Hal-hal-tlos-sot or the Lawyer, the head chief of the Nez Perces, was an
Indian Solon in his efforts to improve the condition of his people.
Without any advantages of birth or wealth, he made himself the first in
his tribe, while yet in middle life, by his unrivaled wisdom and force
of character. His first acts were directed against gambling, which was
indulged in to great excess, and against polygamy. Finding, however,
that his influence as head chief was insufficient to carry out his plans
for the improvement of his people, he reorganized the government of the
tribe, appointed an additional number of chiefs from the young men, and,
having thus increased and strengthened his influence, was enabled to
accomplish his reforms. He early perceived that the growing power of the
whites, which threatened to swallow up all before it, could not be
resisted by force, and in consequence all his efforts were directed to
inducing the Indians to adopt the customs and civilization of the
whites, and to preserving the unbroken friendship between the two races.
From the effects of the wound received at the battle of Pierre's Hole he
was still suffering, and his right arm had been twice broken in a fight
with a grizzly bear. Wise, enlightened, and magnanimous, the head chief,
yet one of the poorest of his tribe, he stood head and shoulders above
the other chiefs, whether in intellect, nobility of soul, or influence.

Provisions were issued to the Nez Perces, and some petty tribes which
had come in, at the rate of one and a half pounds of beef, two pounds of
potatoes, and one half a pound of corn to each person.

The Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and Umatillas next arrived, and went into
camp without any parade or salutations on a stream on the other side of
Mill Creek, and over a mile distant from the camp of the whites, from
which the intervening fringes of trees completely hid them. The head
chief of the Walla Wallas and Umatillas was Pu-pu-mox-mox or the Yellow
Serpent, who held despotic sway over his own people, and great influence
with neighboring tribes. He owned thousands of horses and cattle, and
had amassed a large sum in specie, from trade with settlers and
emigrants. Some years before one of his sons, a youth of promise, was
murdered by a miner in California, and although he had always been on
friendly terms with the whites, not even allowing his people to take
part in the Cuyuse war, it was believed that the outrage rankled in his
heart. He was well advanced in years, and somewhat childish and
capricious in small things, but his form was as erect, his mind as firm,
and his authority as unimpaired as ever.

[Illustration: FEASTING THE CHIEFS]

The day after their arrival many of the Nez Perce chiefs came to see the
commissioners, and after much friendly conversation were invited to
dine. Governor Stevens and General Palmer presided at opposite ends
of the long table, at which were seated some thirty chiefs, and, having
heard of the enormous appetites of the Indians, piled the tin plates, as
they were presented, to the brim. Again and again were the plates passed
up for a fresh supply; the chiefs feasted and gorged like famished
wolves; and the arms of the hosts became so wearied from carving and
dispensing the food that they were glad to resign the posts of honor to
a couple of stalwart packers. The table for the chiefs was kept up
during the council, and every day was well attended, but it was not
again graced by the presence of the commissioners.

During the morning an express was received from the Yellow Serpent. He
sent word that the Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and Yakimas would accept no
provisions from the commissioners, but would bring their own, and
proposed that the Young Chief, Lawyer, Kam-i-ah-kan, and himself, the
head chiefs of the Cuyuses, Nez Perces, Yakimas, and Walla Wallas
respectively, should do all the talking for the Indians at the council.
The messenger would accept no tobacco for the chief, a very unfriendly
sign, and muttered as he rode off, loud enough to be overheard by the
interpreter, "You will find out by and by why we won't take provisions."

Every effort was made by the other Indians to induce the Nez Perces to
refuse provisions, but without avail. The latter took great pride in
their unwavering friendship to the whites, and were fond of contrasting
their course with that of the Cuyuses. Considerable jealousy sprung up
between them in consequence.

Two of the priests, Fathers Chirouse, of the Walla Walla, and Pandosy,
of the Yakima Mission, arrived for the purpose of attending the council.
They reported that these Indians were generally well disposed towards
the whites, with the exception of Kam-i-ah-kan. The latter said,
referring to the proposed council: "If the governor speaks hard, I will
speak hard, too." Other Indians had said, "Kam-i-ah-kan will come with
his young men with powder and ball." They were opposed to selling their
lands; and when Secretary Doty visited and invited them to attend the
council, Kam-i-ah-kan refused the presents offered him, saying that he
"had never accepted anything from the whites, not even to the value of a
grain of wheat, without paying for it, and that he did not wish to
purchase the presents." He was a man of fine presence and bearing, over
six feet in height, well built and athletic. Governor Stevens said of
him: "He is a peculiar man, reminding me of the panther and the grizzly
bear. His countenance has an extraordinary play, one moment in frowns,
the next in smiles, flashing with light and black as Erebus the same
instant. His pantomime is great, and his gesticulation much and
characteristic. He talks mostly in his face, and with his hands and
arms."

Reports were flying about that these tribes had combined to resist a
treaty, and fears were expressed that an attempt to open the council
would be the signal for an outbreak.

The following day a body of four hundred mounted Indians, supposed to be
Cuyuses and Walla Wallas, were observed approaching, armed and in full
gala dress, and uttering their war-whoops like so many demons, and,
after riding three times around the Nez Perce camp, they departed. Soon
after the Young Chief, accompanied by his principal chiefs, rode into
camp, and, being invited to dismount, did so with evident reluctance,
and shook hands in a very cold manner. They refused to smoke, and
remained but a short time. "The haughty carriage of these chiefs,"
remarks Governor Stevens in his journal, "and their manly character
have, for the first time in my Indian experience, realized the
descriptions of the writers of fiction."

[Illustration: KAM-I-AH-KAN
_Head Chief of the Yakimas_]

Garry, the head chief of the Spokanes, came, not to take part in the
council, but as a spectator. When a boy he had been sent to the Red
River settlements in Manitoba by Sir George Simpson, then governor of
the Hudson Bay Company, where he acquired a common-school, English
education. It being impracticable to assemble so distant and widely
scattered a tribe as the Spokanes in time for this council, Governor
Stevens designed making a separate treaty with them later in the season
on his return from the Missouri.

Father Menetrey, from the Catholic mission among the Pend Oreilles, also
arrived to attend the council,--a cultivated man, who spoke English
fluently.

A messenger sent to invite the Palouses returned accompanied by only one
of the chiefs, who reported that his people were indifferent to the
matter, and would not come. A number of scattered and insignificant
bands, who lived at different points on the Columbia, also arrived.

The following is from Governor Stevens's journal:--

May 27, Sunday. There was service in the Nez Perce camp and in the
Nez Perce language, Timothy being the preacher. The commissioners
attended. The sermon was on the Ten Commandments. Timothy has a
natural and graceful delivery, and his words were repeated by a
prompter. The Nez Perces have evidently profited much from the labor
of Mr. Spalding, who was with them ten years, and their whole
deportment throughout the service was devout.

The next day agent Bolon, with an interpreter, was sent to meet the
Yakimas, who were thought to be near at hand. He soon returned, having
met Kam-i-ah-kan and also the Yellow Serpent. The latter said to Mr.
Bolon that he was very sorry to hear that the chiefs and others in the
commissioners' camp had said that he was unfriendly to the whites,--that
his heart was with the Cuyuses, whose hearts were bad. He had always
been friendly to the whites, and was so now, and he would go to-day to
see the commissioners, and ask why such things had been said of him.
Accordingly, soon after Bolon's return, Pu-pu-mox-mox, Kam-i-ah-kan,
Ow-hi, and Skloom, the two latter being chiefs of the Yakimas,
accompanied by a number of their braves, rode into camp. Dismounting,
they shook hands in the most friendly manner, and seating themselves
under the arbor indulged in a smoke, using their own tobacco
exclusively, although other was offered them.

Governor Stevens addressed them, saying that he had important business
to lay before them, and proposed to open the council the next day at
noon. The Yellow Serpent replied that he wanted more than one
interpreter at the council, that they might know they translated truly.
Being assured on this point, and invited to designate an interpreter in
whom he had confidence, he said, in a scornful manner, "I do not wish my
boys running around the camp of the whites like these young men,"
alluding to some young Nez Perces present and feeling quite at home. He
added that he had only ridden over to-day to see the commissioners, and
soon withdrew with his party.

In the morning the commissioners and Secretary Doty visited the Lawyer
at his lodge, as, his wound having broken out afresh, he was unable to
walk without great pain and difficulty. He exhibited and explained a map
of his country, which he had drawn at Governor Stevens's request. During
the conference several chiefs came in, and suddenly one of them,
U-u-san-male-e-can or Spotted Eagle, said:--

[Illustration: SPOTTED EAGLE
_A Chief of the Nez Perces_]

"The Cuyuses want us to go to their camp and hold a council with
them and Pu-pu-mox-mox. What are their hearts to us? Did we propose
to hold a council with them, or ask them for advice? Our hearts are
Nez Perce hearts, and we know them. We came here to hold a great
council with the great chiefs of the Americans, and we know the
straightforward path to pursue, and are alone responsible for our
actions. Three Cuyuses came last night and spoke to me and two other
chiefs, urging us to come to a council at the Cuyuse camp to meet
Pu-pu-mox-mox and Kam-i-ah-kan. We did not wish to go. They
insisted. Then I said to them, 'You had best say no more. My mind is
made up. Why do you come here and ask three chiefs to come to a
council, while to the head chief and the rest you say nothing? Have
we not told your messenger yesterday that our hearts are not Cuyuse
hearts? Go home! Our chiefs will not go. We have our own people to
take care of; they give us trouble enough, and we will not have the
Cuyuse troubles on our hands.'"

The Lawyer then opened a book containing in their own language the
advice left them by their former head chief, Ellis, and read as
follows:--

"Whenever the great chief of the Americans shall come into your
country to give you laws, accept them. A Walla Walla heart is a
Walla Walla, a Cuyuse heart is a Cuyuse, so is a Yakima heart a
Yakima, but a Nez Perce heart is a Nez Perce heart. While the Nez
Perces are going straight, why should they turn aside to follow
others? Ellis's advice is to accept the white law. I have read it to
you to show my heart."

The speech of U-u-san-male-e-can afforded new evidence that the Cuyuses
were plotting underhand, although but little could be learned as to the
nature of their designs.

At two P.M., on May 29, 1855, the council was formally opened by
Governor Stevens. Under the roomy arbor in front of the tent were seated
the commissioners, secretaries who kept the records, interpreters, and
Indian agents, while the Indians were seated on the ground in front in
semicircular rows forty deep, one behind another. Timothy, the chief and
preacher, concerning whom Governor Stevens said, "He and others are very
devout, and seem to form a theocracy in the tribe, and, like the old New
England fathers, to require every one to worship God in some visible
way,"--this Timothy, assisted by several of the young men, who were very
tolerable penmen, kept the records of the council for the Nez Perces.
They were accommodated with a table under the arbor, where everything
could be seen and heard. Some two thousand Indians were present, fully
half of whom were Nez Perces. The pipe having been smoked with due
solemnity, two interpreters were appointed and sworn for each tribe,
some preliminary remarks were made, and the council was adjourned until
ten o'clock the next morning. Before adjourning Governor Stevens renewed
the offer of provisions to the recusant Indians, proposing that each
tribe should take two oxen to its own camp and slaughter for themselves.

Young Chief: "We have plenty of cattle. They are close to our camp.
We have already killed three, and have plenty of provisions."

General Palmer to the interpreter: "Say to the Yakimas, 'You have
come a long way. You may not have provisions. If you want any, we
have them, and you are welcome.'"

Young Chief: "Kam-i-ah-kan is supplied at our camp."

The Yellow Serpent and Kam-i-ah-kan dined with the commissioners, and
remained in their tent for a long time, smoking in a friendly manner,
but the Young Chief declined the invitation to dine.

[Illustration: WALLA WALLA COUNCIL]

The two following days Governor Stevens explained the proposed treaties
at length, item by item. There were to be two reservations,--one in the
Nez Perce country of three million acres, on the north side of Snake
River, embracing both the Kooskooskia and Salmon rivers, including a
large extent of good arable land, with fine fisheries, root grounds,
timber and mill-sites, and was for the accommodation of the Cuyuses,
Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and Spokanes, as well as the Nez Perces. The
other embraced a large and fertile tract on the upper waters of the
Yakima, and was for the Yakimas, Klikitats, Palouses, and kindred bands.
The reservations were to belong to the Indians, and no white man should
come upon them without their consent. An agent, with school-teachers,
mechanics, and farmers, would take charge of each reservation, and
instruct them in agriculture, trades, etc.; grist and saw mills were to
be built; the head chiefs were to receive an annuity of five hundred
dollars each, in order that they might devote their whole time to their
people; and annuities in clothing, tools, and useful articles were to be
given for twenty years, after which they were to be self-supporting. At
first the reservations were to be used in common, but provision was made
for the survey and subdivision of the land, and its allotment to the
Indians in severalty as soon as they should be prepared to receive and
utilize it. As it was evidently impracticable to make so radical a
change in their habits suddenly, the Indians were to have the privilege
of hunting, root-gathering, and pasturing stock on vacant land until
appropriated by settlers, and the right of fishing. The advantages of
the reservations were dwelt upon. They embraced some of the best land in
the country, and were large enough to afford each family a farm to
itself, besides grazing for all their stock; they contained good
fisheries, abundance of roots and berries, and considerable game. They
were near enough to the great roads for trade with the emigrants, yet
far enough from them to be undisturbed by travelers. By having so many
tribes on the same reservation, the agent could better look after them,
and could accomplish more with the means at his disposal. The staple
argument held out was the superior advantages of civilization, and the
absolute necessity of their adopting the habits and mode of life of the
white man in order to escape extinction. Governor Stevens also exhorted
them to treat, for the sake of the example upon their inveterate
enemies, the Blackfeet, that thereby they would prove themselves firm
friends of the whites, and that he would then take delegations from each
tribe with his party and proceed to the Blackfoot country, and make a
lasting treaty of peace, so that they could ever after hunt the buffalo
in safety, and trade horses with the Indians east of the Rocky
Mountains. The Indians listened gravely and in silence, as these matters
were slowly unfolded to them, sentence by sentence through the
interpreters, for five or six hours each day, and upon the adjournment
of the council, quietly dispersed to their lodges. The third day the
Young Chief for the first time dined at Governor Stevens's table with
the other head chiefs, and General Palmer and the gentlemen of the
party; and in the evening he sent word that his young men were tired of
such close confinement as they had undergone at the council, and desired
to have a feast and holiday to-morrow, and he requested that no council
be held until the day after (Saturday). The commissioners cheerfully
acceded to his request, well pleased at these signs of mollifying the
opposition of the haughty savage.

There were now assembled on the ground between five and six thousand
Indians. Says Colonel Kip: "About five thousand Indians, including
squaws and children. Their encampment and lodges are scattered over the
valley for more than a mile, presenting a wild and fantastic
appearance."

Every afternoon, after the council adjourned for the day, horse-races
and foot-races were held at the Nez Perce camp, attended by the sporting
bloods of the other tribes, and witnessed by many of the whites. The
usual course was a long one,--some two miles out and back, making four
miles. Oftentimes thirty horses would start together in a grand
sweepstakes; the riders and betters would throw into one common pile the
articles put up as stakes,--blankets, leggings, horse equipments, and
whatever was bet, and the winner would take the whole pile. The
foot-races were equally long, and the runners would be escorted in their
course by a crowd of mounted Indians, galloping behind and beside them
so closely that the exhausted ones could hardly stop without being run
down. The riders and runners were invariably stripped to the
breech-cloth, and presented many fine, manly forms, perfect Apollos in
bronze.

Everything was very quiet about the council ground the day begged for a
holiday by the Young Chief, the Indians remaining at their own camps.
But the next day, Saturday, June 2, they reassembled as usual; and after
several hours had been spent in further explaining the provisions of the
treaties, Governor Stevens called them to speak freely, saying, "We want
you to open your hearts to us," etc.

Hitherto the Indians had listened in grave silence, but now the
opponents of the treaties took the lead in the discussion. The Yellow
Serpent, in a speech marked by strength and sarcasm, uttered the
prevailing reluctance to part with their lands, and their dread and
distrust of the whites:--

"We have listened to all you have to say, and we desire you to
listen when any Indian speaks. It appears that Craig knows the heart
of his people; that the whole has been prearranged in the hearts of
the Indians; that he wants an answer immediately, without giving
them time to think; that the Indians have had nothing to say, so
that it would appear that we have no chief. I know the value of your
speech from having experienced the same in California, having seen
treaties there. We have not seen in a true light the object of your
speeches, as if there was a post set between us, as if my heart wept
for what you have said. Look at yourselves: your flesh is white;
mine is different, mine looks poor; our languages are different. If
you would speak straight, then I would think that you spoke well.

"Should I speak to you of things that happened long ago, as you have
done? The whites made me do what they pleased. They told me to do
this, and I did it. They used to make our women to smoke. I supposed
then they did what was right. When they told me to dance with all
these nations that are here, then I danced. From that time, all the
Indians became proud and called themselves chiefs.

"Now, how are we here as at a post? From what you have said, I think
that you intend to win our country, or how is it to be? In one day
the Americans become as numerous as the grass. This I learned in
California. I know it is not right; you have spoken in a roundabout
way. Speak straight. I have ears to hear you, and here is my heart.
Suppose you show me goods, shall I run up and take them? That is the
way with all us Indians as you know us. Goods and the earth are not
equal. Goods are for using on the earth. I do not know where they
have given lands for goods.

"We require time to think quietly, slowly. You have spoken in a
manner partly tending to evil. Speak plain to us. I am a poor
Indian. Show me charity. If there was a chief among the Nez Perces
or Cuyuses, if they saw evil done they would put a stop to it, and
all would be quiet. Such chiefs I hope Governor Stevens and General
Palmer have. I should feel very much ashamed if the Americans did
anything wrong. I had but a little to say, that is all. I do not
wish a reply to-day. Think over what I have said."

After a stinging rebuke administered by Camospelo, a Cuyuse chief, to
some of his young men who had behaved in a surly manner, talking and
walking about during the proceedings, the council was adjourned until
Monday.

[Illustration: PU-PU-MOX-MOX: YELLOW SERPENT
_Head Chief of the Walla Wallas_]

This speech of the Yellow Serpent is marked in every sentence by his
bitter distrust of the whites. He intimates, almost asserts, that the
commissioners are trying to deceive and overreach the Indians, and with
biting irony declares that he would feel very much ashamed if the
Americans did anything wrong.

Late that evening the Lawyer came unattended to see Governor Stevens. He
disclosed a conspiracy on the part of the Cuyuses to suddenly rise upon
and massacre all the whites on the council ground,--that this measure,
deliberated in nightly conferences for some time, had at length been
determined upon in full council of the tribe the day before, which the
Young Chief had requested for a holiday; they were now only awaiting the
assent of the Yakimas and Walla Wallas to strike the blow; and that
these latter had actually joined, or were on the point of joining, the
Cuyuses in a war of extermination against the whites, for which the
massacre of the governor and his party was to be the signal. They had
conducted these plottings with the greatest secrecy, not trusting the
Nez Perces; and the Lawyer, suspecting that all was not right, had
discovered the plot by means of a spy with the greatest difficulty, and
only just in time to avert the catastrophe.

The Lawyer concluded by saying: "I will come with my family and pitch my
lodge in the midst of your camp, that those Cuyuses may see that you and
your party are under the protection of the head chief of the Nez
Perces." He did so immediately, although it was now after midnight, and,
without awakening the suspicions of any one, he caused it to be reported
among the other Indians that the commissioners were under the protection
of the Nez Perces.

Governor Stevens on his part imparted his knowledge of the conspiracy to
Secretary Doty and Packmaster Higgins, and to them alone, for he feared
that, should the party generally learn of it, a stampede would ensue.
Having through these efficient officers quietly caused the men to put
their arms in readiness, and posting night guards, he determined to
continue the council as usual, hoping that the Cuyuses, foiled in their
design, would finally conclude to treat.

On Monday the governor opened the council by inviting the Indians to
speak their minds freely, and, no one responding, finally called on the
Lawyer. He expressed himself in terms favorable to the treaty, and was
followed by several of his chiefs in a similar strain. Kam-i-ah-kan, on
the other hand, avowed his distrust of the whites, and alluded in a
contemptuous manner to the speeches of the Lawyer and the others:--

"I have something different to say from what the others have said.
They are young men who have spoken as they have spoken. I have been
afraid of the white man. His doings are different from ours. Perhaps
you have spoken straight that your children will do what is right.
Let them do as they have promised."

The Yellow Serpent said with bitter irony, "I do not wish to speak. I
leave it to the old men."

Steachus, the only chief of the Cuyuses reported to be well disposed,
commended the speech of the Lawyer, and exhorted all present to speak
their minds freely.

But the most impressive speech by far was that of
Tip-pee-il-lan-oh-cow-pook, the Eagle-from-the-Light, a pathetic and
touching speech:--

"You are now come to join together the white man and the red man.
And why should I hide anything? I am going now to tell you a tale. I
like the President's talk. I am glad of it when I hear it here, and
for that reason I am going to tell you a tale.

"The time the whites first passed through this country, although
the people of this country were blind, it was their heart to be
friendly to them. Although they did not know what the white people
said to them, they answered Yes, as if they were blind. They
traveled about with the white people as if they had been lost.

"I have been talked to by the French [Hudson Bay Company men] and by
the Americans, and one says to me go this way, and the other says go
another way, and that is the reason I am lost between them.

"A long time ago they hung my brother for no offense, and this I say
to my brother here, that he may think of it. Afterwards came
Spalding and Whitman. They advised us well, and taught us
well,--very well. It was from the same source,--the light [the
east]. They had pity on us, and we were pitied, and Spalding sent my
father to the east,--the States,--and he went. His body has never
returned. He was sent to learn good counsel, and friendship and many
things. This is another thing to think of. At the time, in this
place here, when there was blood spilled on the ground, we were
friends to the whites and they to us. At that time they found it out
that we were friends to them. My chief, my own chief, said, 'I will
try to settle all the bad matters with the whites,' and he started
to look for counsel to straighten up matters, and there his body
lies beyond here. He has never returned.

"At the time the Indians held a grand council at Fort Laramie, I was
with the Flatheads, and I heard there would be a grand council this
side next year. We were asked to go and find counsel, friendship,
and good advice. Many of my people started, and died in the
country,--died hunting what was right. There were a good many
started; on Green River the smallpox killed all but one. They were
going to find good counsel in the east, and here am I looking still
for counsel, and to be taught what is best to be done.

"And now look at my people's bodies scattered everywhere, hunting
for knowledge,--hunting for some one to teach them to go straight.
And now I show it to you, and I want you to think of it. I am of a
poor people. A preacher came to us, Mr. Spalding. He talked to us to
learn, and from that he turned to be a trader, as though there were
two in one, one a preacher and the other a trader. He made a farm
and raised grain and bought our stock, as though there were two in
one, one a preacher, the other a trader. And now one from the east
has spoken, and I have heard it, and I do not wish another preacher
to come, and be both trader and preacher in one. A piece of ground
for a preacher big enough for his own use is all that is necessary
for him.

"Look at that; it is the tale I had to tell you, and now I am going
to hunt friendship and good advice. We will come straight
here,--slowly perhaps, but we will come straight."

The next two days Governor Stevens continued, explaining the treaties
still further. A large map was brought forth, and the boundaries of the
reservations accurately marked out and shown. The Indians took great
interest in this map, asking many questions about the mountains and
streams they saw represented upon it, and in some instances adding
streams which were not laid down.

Superintendent Palmer spoke for some time, going over the same ground as
Governor Stevens. After he had concluded, Steachus, the friendly Cuyuse,
arose and said:--

"My friends, I wish to show you my heart. If your mother were in
this country, gave you birth and suckled you, and, while you were
suckling, some person came and took away your mother and left you
alone and sold your mother, how would you feel then? This is our
mother,--this country,--as if we drew our living from her. My
friends, all of this you have taken. Had I two rivers, I would leave
the one, and be content to live on the other. I name the place for
myself, the Grande Ronde, the Touchet towards the mountains, and the
Tucañon."

Thus even Steachus, the most friendly of the Cuyuses, was the first to
express his dissatisfaction with a treaty which left him none of his own
country, and to request a reservation within its borders. The Indians
were slow to speak; they required time to make up their minds, and the
council was therefore adjourned.

[Illustration: WE-AH-TE-NA-TEE-MA-NY: YOUNG CHIEF
_Head Chief of the Cuyuses_]

About midnight the governor and his little son were awakened by Lawyer,
who shook the tent and said, in a low, soft voice, without a trace of
hurry or excitement, "Water come now." On springing out of bed, they
splashed knee-deep in water flooding the tent, and were forced to make a
hasty flight to higher ground. The creek had risen suddenly without
warning, probably from a waterspout or heavy rains in the mountains. The
following day it subsided again as rapidly as it rose.

When the council met the next day, Lawyer spoke first, and expressed the
assent of himself and his people to the treaty. A great part of his
speech was addressed to the Indians. He traced the increase of the
whites from the discovery of the New World by Columbus; alluded in a
touching manner to the way in which the Indians had passed and were
passing away; and urged his auditors, as their only refuge, to place
themselves under the protection of the Great Father in Washington.

When Lawyer concluded, the Young Chief, the haughty Cuyuse, was the
first to break the silence:--

"He would not sell his country. He heard what the earth said. The
earth said, 'God has placed me here to take care of the Indian, to
produce roots for him, and grass for his horses and cattle.' The
water spoke the same way. God has forbidden the Indian to sell his
country except for a fair price, and he did not understand the
treaty."

Five Crows, the Yellow Serpent, Ow-hi, and several other chiefs followed
in similar strain. The Yellow Serpent proposed that another council
should be held at some future time. He insisted that the whites should
not be allowed to come into his country to settle. He complained that
the Indians were treated like children, were not consulted in drawing up
the terms of the treaties, etc.

Kam-i-ah-kan refused to speak, although several times urged to do so.
His invariable reply was, "I have nothing to say."

The commissioners replied, explaining those parts of the treaties which
the Indians did not understand, and answering their objections. The
discussion on the part of the Indians was captious, stormy, and
unsatisfactory. Governor Stevens in pointed words, well calculated to
touch their pride, urged the recusant and evasive chiefs to speak
plainly:--

"My brother and myself have talked straight. Have all of you talked
straight? Lawyer has, and his people here, and their business will
be done to-morrow.

"The Young Chief says he is blind, and does not understand. What is
it that he wants? Steachus says that his heart is in one of three
places, the Grande Ronde, the Touchet, and the Tucañon. Where is the
heart of Young Chief?

"Pu-pu-mox-mox (the Yellow Serpent) cannot be wafted off like a
feather. Does he prefer the Yakima reservation to that of the Nez
Perces? We have asked him before. We ask him now. Where is his
heart?

"And Kam-i-ah-kan, the great chief of the Yakimas, he has not spoken
at all. His people have had no voice here to-day. He is not ashamed
to speak. He is not afraid to speak. Then speak out!

"But Ow-hi is afraid lest God be angry at his selling his land.
Ow-hi, my brother, I do not think that God will be angry if you do
your best for yourself and your children. Ask yourself this question
to-night: 'Will not God be angry with me if I neglect this
opportunity to do them good?' Ow-hi says his people are not here.
Why did he promise to come here, then, to hear our talk? I do not
want to be ashamed of Ow-hi. We expect him to speak straight out. We
expect to hear from Kam-i-ah-kan, from Skloom."

[Illustration: SHE-CA-YAH: FIVE CROWS
_Cuyuse Chief_]

At length Five Crows proposed an adjournment. "Listen to me, you chiefs.
We have been as one people with the Nez Perces hitherto. This day we are
divided. We, the Cuyuses, the Walla Wallas, and Kam-i-ah-kan's people
and others will think over the matter to-night, and give you an answer
to-morrow."

The feature of the treaties which met with the greatest opposition was
the provision that the Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and Umatillas should
relinquish the whole of their own lands, and remove to a reservation in
the Nez Perce country. The commissioners therefore decided to establish
a separate reservation for these three tribes on the headwaters of the
Umatilla, at the base of the Blue Mountains. Conferences were had with
the recusant chiefs separately, the proposition of a reservation in
their own country was broached, and the whole ground of the treaties
again gone over and fully discussed. Steachus expressed himself as
highly pleased with the new arrangement, and, although the others gave
less encouragement, the commissioners were hopeful that a successful
result would soon be reached.

The change of reservations was brought forward in council the next day.
The annuities of five hundred dollars for ten years to each of the head
chiefs were extended to twenty years. The Yellow Serpent was given the
privilege of establishing a trading-post for trade with the settlers and
emigrants, and an annuity of one hundred dollars a year for twenty years
was given his son. Young Chief and Yellow Serpent were the principal
speakers, and in lengthy and rambling speeches gave their assent to the
treaties. The latter, on declaring his acceptance, exclaimed, "Now you
may send me provisions!" Kam-i-ah-kan was sullen, and refused his
assent.

Some commotion was now observed among the Indians, and suddenly a small
party of warriors were seen approaching, painted and armed, singing a
war-song, and flourishing on the top of a pole a freshly taken scalp. It
proved to be a party of Nez Perces, headed by Looking Glass, the war
chief, just from the Blackfoot country, where they had been for three
years hunting the buffalo. Looking Glass was old, irascible, and
treacherous, yet second only to Lawyer in influence. While hunting the
buffalo he had several fights with the Blackfeet. At one time seventy of
his horses were stolen by them; but the vigorous old chief hotly pursued
the depredators, killed two, put the rest to flight, and recovered his
horses. He had reached the Bitter Root valley on his return home, when
he heard that the Nez Perces were at a great council, and concluding a
treaty without his presence. Leaving his party to follow more slowly, he
pushed on with a few chosen braves, crossed the Bitter Root Mountains,
where for some distance the snow was shoulder-deep on their horses, and,
having ridden three hundred miles in seven days at the age of seventy,
reached the council ground while Governor Stevens was urging
Kam-i-ah-kan to give his assent to the treaty, for the governor, hearing
the arrival of Looking Glass announced, seized the occasion to call upon
the Yakima chief to sign the treaty in the name of Looking Glass, there
being great friendship between these two. Scarcely had he concluded when
Looking Glass, surrounded by his knot of warriors with the scalps
tossing above them, rode up, excited and agitated, received his friends
coldly, and finally broke forth into a most angry philippic against his
tribe and the treaty:--

"My people, what have you done? While I was gone, you have sold my
country. I have come home, and there is not left me a place on which
to pitch my lodge. Go home to your lodges. I will talk to you."

[Illustration: LOOKING GLASS
_War Chief of the Nez Perces_]

The council was immediately adjourned. Governor Stevens consulted
Lawyer, who was of opinion that Looking Glass would calm down in a day
or two and accept the treaty. He said, however, that the latter's
return would make it impossible to reduce the Nez Perce reservation,
which, originally intended for the Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and Umatillas,
in addition to the Nez Perces, was larger than they alone required, and
it was determined to make it a general reservation for other tribes, not
exceeding in numbers those for whom it was at first designed.

In the evening Governor Stevens assembled the Yakima chiefs in his tent,
and discussed the treaties with them until one o'clock in the morning.
Kam-i-ah-kan was not present, but Skloom acted as the principal
spokesman. The governor remarks in his journal, "Skloom was desirous
that his land should first be surveyed."

The council of the following day, however, soon made it evident that
Looking Glass had not yet calmed down. He declared himself the head
chief of the tribes present; that the boys had spoken yesterday, but
that he would speak to-day. He made many inquiries, raised many
objections, and finally marked another line for the reservation,
including nearly the whole of the Nez Perce territory. The Cuyuses
seized the occasion to retract their assent to their treaty, and the
Young Chief strenuously supported Looking Glass in his objections, and
omitted no opportunity to assert his supremacy as head chief of the Nez
Perces. At length Lawyer abruptly left the council in the midst of one
of Looking Glass's philippics, and retired to his lodge. Governor
Stevens refused to submit to the demands of the angry and grasping old
chief, and adjourned the council until the following Monday.

After the adjournment the Yellow Serpent and Kam-i-ah-kan, who had at
length yielded to the advice of the other chiefs, with all the chiefs
and prominent men of the two tribes, came forward and signed their
respective treaties. The former had remarked in the morning that his
word was pledged, and that he should sign the treaty no matter what
Looking Glass and the Nez Perces did. It was thought that his example
had great weight with Kam-i-ah-kan.

Late in the evening Governor Stevens had an interview with Lawyer, who
said:--

"Governor Stevens, you are my chief. You come from the President. He
has spoken kind words to us, a poor people. We have listened to
them, and have agreed to a treaty. We are bound by the agreement.
When Looking Glass asked you, 'How long will the agent live with
us?' you might have replied by asking the question, 'How long have
you been head chief of the Nez Perces?' When he said, 'I, the head
chief, have just got back; I will talk; the boys talked yesterday,'
you might have replied, 'The Lawyer, and not you, is the head chief.
The whole Nez Perce tribe have said in council Lawyer was the head
chief. Your faith is pledged. You have agreed to the treaty. I call
upon you to sign it.' Had this course been taken, the treaty would
have been signed."

"In reply," says the governor, "I told the Lawyer that we considered
all the talk of Looking Glass as the outpourings of an angry and
excited old man, whose heart would become all right if left to
himself for a time; that the Lawyer had left the council whilst in
session, and without speaking. It was his business to have
interfered in this way, had it been necessary. We considered the
Lawyer's leaving as saying, 'Nothing more can be done to-day; it
must be finished to-morrow.' Your authority will be sustained, and
your people will be called upon to keep their word. You will be
sustained. The Looking Glass will not be allowed to speak as head
chief. You, and you alone, will be recognized. Should Looking Glass
persist, the appeal will be made to your people. They must sign the
treaty agreed to by them through you as head chief, or the council
will be broken up and you will return home, your faith broken, your
hopes of the future gone."

The council being adjourned, the Cuyuses and Nez Perces retired to
their respective camps to hold councils by themselves, which lasted all
night. The position of Looking Glass was determined by the latter to be
second to Lawyer, who was reaffirmed head chief. The council was stormy,
but the chiefs at length all agreed on a paper sent in by Lawyer, and
read in council, which declared the faith of the tribe pledged to
Governor Stevens, and that the treaty must be signed. "Those who would
advise breaking their word were no better than the Cuyuses. Let them
share the lot of the Cuyuses." The morning after this council being
Sunday, Timothy preached a sermon for the times, and held up to the
indignation of the tribe, and the retribution of the Almighty, those who
would coalesce with the Cuyuses, and break the faith of the Nez Perces.

The governor had a conversation with Kam-i-ah-kan, who said:--

"Looking Glass, if left alone, will sign the treaty. Don't ask me to
accept presents. I have never taken one from a white man. When the
payments are made, I will take my share."

Steachus, the friendly Cuyuse chief, expressed his earnest desire that
his tribe should sign the treaty, and both Pu-pu-mox-mox and
Kam-i-ah-kan used their influence to induce them to accept it.

Early Monday morning Governor Stevens saw Lawyer, and said to him: "We
are now ready to go into council. I shall call upon your people to keep
their word, and upon you as head chief to sign first. We want no
speeches. This will be the last day of the council. Call your people
together as soon as possible." The Lawyer replied, "This is the right
course," and immediately summoned his tribe. The closing scene of the
council is best given in Governor Stevens's own words:--

"The Looking Glass took his seat in council in the very best humor.
The Cuyuses and Nez Perces were all present. Kam-i-ah-kan sat down
near the Young Chief. The council was opened by me in a brief
speech: 'We meet for the last time. Your words are pledged to sign
the treaty. The tribes have spoken through their head chiefs,
Joseph, Red Wolf, the Eagle, Ip-se-male-e-con, all declaring Lawyer
was the head chief. I call upon Lawyer to sign first.' Lawyer then
signed the treaty. 'I now call upon Joseph and the Looking Glass.'
Looking Glass signed, then Joseph. Then every chief and man of note,
both Nez Perces and Cuyuses, signed their respective treaties.

"After the treaties were signed, I spoke briefly of the Blackfoot
council, and asked each tribe to send delegations, the Nez Perces a
hundred chiefs and braves, the whole under the head chief, or some
chief of acknowledged authority, as Looking Glass. There was much
talk on the subject on the part of the Indians. Looking Glass said
he would have a talk with me alone some other time."

The council being completed, presents were made to all the assembled
tribes, who began packing up and moving off. Eagle-from-the-Light, the
Nez Perce chief, who was at first opposed to the treaty and refused to
accept provisions, now presented a magnificent grizzly bear's skin, with
the teeth and claws intact, to Governor Stevens with the following
speech: "This skin is my medicine. It came with me every day to council.
It tells me everything. It says what has been done is right. Had
anything been done wrong, it would have spoken out. I have now no use
for it. I give it to you that you may know my heart is right." Every day
Eagle-from-the-Light had brought this skin to the council, and, placing
it with the teeth and claws turned towards the commissioners, had used
it as a seat, declining the roll of blankets offered him.

[Illustration: HAL-HAL-TLOS-SOT: THE LAWYER
_Head Chief of the Nez Perces_]

"Thus ended," says the journal, "in the most satisfactory manner,
this great council, prolonged through so many days,--a council
which--in the number of Indians assembled and the different tribes,
old difficulties and troubles between them and the whites, a
deep-seated dislike to and determination against giving up their
lands, and the great importance, nay, absolute necessity, of opening
this land by treaty to occupation by the whites, that bloodshed and
the enormous expense of Indian wars might be avoided, and in its
general influence and difficulty--has never been equaled by any
council held with the Indian tribes of the United States.

"It was so considered by all present, and a final relief from the
intense anxiety and vexation of the last month was especially
grateful to all concerned."

The following day the Nez Perces celebrated the happy conclusion of the
treaty, and the return of Looking Glass and his braves from the buffalo
country, by a scalp-dance. The chiefs and braves, in full war-paint and
adorned with all their savage finery, formed a large circle, standing
several ranks deep. Within this arena a chosen body of warriors
performed the war-dance, while the densely massed ranks of braves
circled around them, keeping time in measured tread, and accompanying it
with their wild and barbaric war-song. The ferocious and often hideous
mien of these stalwart savages, their frenzied attitudes and shrill and
startling yells, formed a subject worthy the pen of Dante and the pencil
of Doré. The missionary still had work to do. Presently an old hag, the
very picture of squalor and woe, burst into the circle, bearing aloft
upon a pole one of the fresh scalps so recently taken by Looking Glass,
and, dancing and jumping about with wild and extravagant action, heaped
upon the poor relic of a fallen foe every mark of indignity and
contempt. Shaking it aloft, she vociferously abused it; she beat it, she
spat upon it, she bestrode the pole and rushed around the ring, trailing
it in the dust, again and again; while the warriors, with grim
satisfaction, kept up their measured tread, chanted their war-songs,
and uttered if possible yet more ear-piercing yells. A softer and more
pleasing scene succeeded. The old hag retired with her bedraggled
trophy, and a long line of Indian maidens stepped within the circle,
and, forming an inner rank, moved slowly round and round, chanting a
mild and plaintive air. A number of the stylish young braves, real
Indian beaux in the height of paint and feathers, next took post within
the circle, near the rank of moving maidens, and each one, as the object
of his adoration passed him, placed a gayly decorated token upon her
shoulder. If she allowed it to remain, his affection was returned and he
was accepted, but if she shook it off, he knew that he was a rejected
suitor. Coquetry evidently is not confined to the civilized fair, for,
without exception, the maidens, as if indignant at such public wooing,
threw off the token with disdain, while every new victim of delusive
hopes was greeted with shouts of laughter from the spectators.

The turning-point in the council was undoubtedly the discovery of the
Cuyuse conspiracy by Lawyer, and his act of moving his lodge into
Governor Stevens's camp, thereby placing the whites under the protection
of the Nez Perces. This was all that prevented the hostile chiefs and
braves from striking the blow. They refrained because they knew that if
Lawyer was killed in an attack on the camp, which was to be expected in
the mêlée, the whole Nez Perce nation would avenge his slaughter in
their blood. The real extent and imminence of the danger was known to
but few, but the fact of the plot was soon generally bruited about.

[Illustration: THE SCALP DANCE]

"Their design," says Colonel Kip, "was first to massacre the escort,
which _could have been easily_ done. Fifty soldiers against three
thousand Indian warriors, out on the open plains, made rather too
great odds. We should have had time, like Lieutenant Grattan at
Fort Laramie last season, to deliver one fire, and then the contest
would have been over. Their next move was to surprise the post at
the Dalles, as they could also have easily done, as most of the
troops were withdrawn, and the Indians in the neighborhood had
recently united with them. This would have been the beginning of
their war of extermination against the settlers."

Foiled in their plot, why did they then so quickly agree to the
treaties, which up to that time they had so bitterly spurned? All the
circumstances and evidence go to show that, with the exception of
Steachus, the friendly Cuyuse, they all--Young Chief, Five Crows,
Pu-pu-mox-mox, Kam-i-ah-kan, and their sub-chiefs--all signed the
treaties as a deliberate act of treachery, in order to lull the whites
into fancied security, give time for Governor Stevens to depart to the
distant Blackfoot country, where he would probably be "wiped out" by
those truculent savages, and for the Nez Perces to return home, and also
for completing their preparations for a widespread and simultaneous
onslaught on all the settlements. Scarcely had they reached home from
the council when they resumed such preparations, buying extra stores of
ammunition, and sending emissaries to the Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes,
and even to some of the Nez Perces and to other tribes, to incite them
to war, actually held a council of the disaffected at a point in the
Palouse country the following month, and, within three months of
accepting ostensibly the protection of the Great Father, precipitated
the conflict. Agent Bolon and many white miners and settlers in the
upper country were massacred, and settlements as widespread as Puget
Sound and southern Oregon, six hundred miles apart, were attacked on the
same day. In this conspiracy and contest Kam-i-ah-kan was the moving
spirit, the organizer, the instigator, whose crafty wiles never slept,
and whose stubborn resolution no disaster could break. But in the end,
after protracted and stubborn resistance, they were defeated and
compelled to move on their reservations, and live under the very
treaties they so treacherously agreed to, and under which they still
live and have greatly prospered.

Whether or not the Walla Walla council precipitated the outbreak, as has
been claimed, it is certain that it confirmed the Nez Perces in their
friendship, neutralized the Spokanes for two years, kept even some of
the Cuyuses friendly all through the war, namely, Steachus and his band,
extinguished the Indian title, and permanently settled the status of the
Indian and his relation with the white man, without which peace was an
impossibility. The outbreak itself could have been suppressed in a
single season, had Governor Stevens's firm policy and sagacious views
been sustained.

Over sixty thousand square miles were ceded by these treaties. The Nez
Perce reservation contained five thousand square miles, including
mountain and forest as well as good land, and provision was made for
moving other tribes upon it. The payment for the Nez Perce lands
comprised $200,000 in the usual annuities, and $60,000 for improving the
reservation, saw and grist mills, schools, shops, teachers, farmers,
mechanics, etc. Ardent spirits were excluded; the right to hunt, fish,
gather roots and berries, and pasture stock on vacant land was secured,
and provision was made for ultimately allotting the land in severalty.
An annuity of $500 for twenty years was given the head chief, and a
house was to be built for him, and ten acres of land fenced and broken
up the first year. At the special request of the Indians, the claim and
homestead of William Craig was confirmed to him, and was not to be
considered part of the reservation, although within its boundaries.

Besides Lawyer and Looking Glass, fifty-six chiefs signed this treaty,
and among them were Joseph (the father of the chief Joseph, who in 1877
fought the brilliant campaign against Generals Howard, Gibbon, and
Miles, the only conflict that has ever occurred between the Nez Perces
and the whites), James, Red Wolf, Timothy, Spotted Eagle, and
Eagle-from-the-Light.

The Umatilla reservation contained eight hundred square miles. $100,000
to be given for annuities in goods, etc., for twenty years; $50,000 for
improving the reservation; $10,000 for moving the emigrant road, which
passed through it, around its borders; a sawmill, a flour-mill; two
schoolhouses; a blacksmith's shop, a wagon and plough making shop, a
carpenter and joiner shop; tools and equipments; and teachers, farmers,
and mechanics to instruct them for twenty years,--were the very liberal
payments for their lands. Moreover, the head chief of each tribe was to
have his annuity of $500 for twenty years, a house built, and ten acres
fenced and ploughed. Pu-pu-mox-mox, in addition, was to be allowed to
maintain a trading-post at the mouth of the Yakima; his first year's
salary was to be paid him on signing the treaty; he was also to receive
three yoke of oxen, three yokes and four chains, a wagon, two ploughs,
twelve axes, two shovels, twelve hoes, one saddle and bridle, a set of
wagon harness and one of plough harness; and his son was to have an
annuity of $100 for twenty years, and have a house built, and five acres
of land ploughed and fenced.

The wily old chief had certainly gotten all he could.

The other provisions were similar to those of the Nez Perce treaty. It
was signed by the three head chiefs and thirty-two sub-chiefs.

The Yakima treaty contained the same general provisions. A large
reservation on the Simcoe, a southern branch of the Yakima, and a
smaller one on the Wenatchee, including the fishery there, were set
apart for them. The payments include $200,000 in annuities, $60,000 for
improving the reservations, the annuity, house and field for the chief,
etc. In all the treaties provision is made for finally dividing the land
among the Indians in severalty.

Kam-i-ah-kan, Ow-hi, Skloom, and eleven other chiefs signed the treaty.
The first three were able and persistent inciters of, and leaders in,
the Indian war. Ow-hi is mentioned in "The Canoe and Saddle," by
Theodore Winthrop, and met a tragic end, being slain while a prisoner
trying to escape from the troops under Colonel George Wright.

After their exemplary punishment the Yakimas settled down on their
reservation, and for many years were prosperous and contented under the
charge of the faithful agent Wilbur. They number 2556, showing little
diminution; have taken their lands in severalty; most of them wear
civilized dress in whole or part; have 17,000 acres under cultivation;
raise 50,000 bushels of grain, 9600 of vegetables, and 25,000 tons of
hay.

The Spokanes number 3000. While some of the bands are backward, others
have made encouraging progress, "are thrifty and industrious, have
splendid farms, and raise large crops of grain and hay, ... are
self-supporting, and, but for the intemperance of some of them, are
making rapid strides towards civilization." The agent says of one band:
"They accept no issues from the government, and are independent and
self-supporting. They are peaceable in their own social relations, and
courteous to their white brethren. They have made material progress,
having good farms, fine horses, and many of them small herds of cattle."

[Illustration: OW-HI
_A Chief of the Yakimas_]

The Coeur d'Alenes, numbering 506, are further advanced in civilization,
and in better condition financially than any other tribe. They are well
supplied with all kinds of farming implements, from a plough to a
threshing-machine, of which latter they now have thirteen in operation,
purchased by themselves with their own money.

The Nez Perces, the most progressive and deserving of all, seem to have
fared the worst. Their reservation was early overrun by thousands of
miners, and they were outrageously swindled by dishonest agents. They
number only 1795, having diminished one half. But they have taken their
lands in severalty; have 10,000 acres under cultivation, 100,000 acres
under fence; raise 55,000 bushels of grain, 15,000 bushels of
vegetables; own 30,000 horses, 15,000 cattle, 3000 swine, and 20,000
fowls. "Very enthusiastic revival meetings were conducted here last
winter by the native elders, which resulted in quite a number of
converts being made."[6]

[6] Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1899, pp. 147,
148, 297, 298, 304, 612, 618, 626, 628.

CHAPTER XXX

CROSSING THE BITTER ROOTS

On the close of the council the Indians homeward-bound filled all the
trails leading out of the valley with their wild and picturesque
cavalcades,--the braves resplendent with scarlet blankets and leggings;
the squaws and pappooses decked with bright calico shirts and kerchiefs.
Lieutenant Gracie marched away to join Major Haller in an expedition
against the predatory Snakes. The secretaries and other treaty officers
toiled early and late making up the records and reports for Washington,
which, with letters and instructions for Olympia, were dispatched on the
14th by W.H. Pearson, the express rider.

It will be noted how carefully and fully the proceedings of all Governor
Stevens's councils were recorded; not merely a statement of what was
done, but a complete verbatim report of the deliberations, the speeches,
every word uttered by both whites and Indians in council, and many of
the talks out of council, was reduced to writing and made part of the
official record,--a record which now affords the most convincing
evidence of the wisdom, foresight, and benevolence of the treaties, as
well as the difficulties and dangers attending them, and presents a most
interesting and historically valuable picture of the characters,
dispositions, and feelings of the Indians.

General Palmer had been appointed one of the commissioners to treat with
the Blackfeet, Governor Stevens and Alfred Cumming, Superintendent of
Indian Affairs for Nebraska, being the others, but he declined the
arduous and dangerous duty, and, with the Oregon Indian officers,
started for home.

A.J. Bolon, the Yakima Indian agent, with a small party, was sent to old
Fort Walla Walla with a quantity of Indian goods intended for the
Spokanes, there to be stored for safe-keeping. He was instructed to
visit and inspect the Yakima reservation, thence proceed to the Dalles
and bring the Nez Perce Indian goods to Walla Walla, deposit them, and,
loading up with the Spokane goods, take them to Antoine Plante's ranch
on the Spokane River, in readiness for the council on the governor's
return from the Blackfoot country. Mr. Henry R. Crosby was dispatched to
Colville to notify the Indians, the Hudson Bay Company officers, and the
missionaries of the proposed council. Agent W.H. Tappan was sent with
Craig to Lapwai to organize a delegation of the Nez Perces to go to the
Blackfoot council, and was to accompany them himself. All the officers
were charged to examine the regions traversed by them, and report on the
topographical and agricultural features, etc. The governor had procured
from New York a supply of barometers and other instruments, and was
determined to continue and complete his railroad explorations, so
summarily arrested by Jefferson Davis, as far as possible on this
expedition, although it was one primarily on the Indian service. In his
final railroad report he gives a daily journal of this trip, and a
graphic description of the country passed over, together with an immense
amount of new information, the fruits of his own indefatigable personal
exertions and those of his subordinates, amplifying and triumphantly
vindicating his first report.

It was a beautiful, sunny June morning, the 16th, when the little train
drew out from the deserted council ground, and took its way in single
file across the level valley prairie, covered with luxuriant bunch
grass and vivid-hued flowers. A large, fine-looking Coeur d'Alene
Indian, named Joseph, led the way as guide; then rode the governor with
his son, Secretary Doty, Agent Lansdale, and Gustave Sohon the artist,
barometer-carrier, and observer; then came Packmaster Higgins, followed
by the train of eleven packers and two cooks, and forty-one sleek,
long-eared pack-mules, each bearing a burden of two hundred pounds, the
men interspersed with the mules to keep them moving on the trail; while
seventeen loose animals, in a disorderly bunch, driven by a couple of
herders, brought up the rear. It was a picked force, both men and
animals, and made up in efficiency for scanty numbers. The artist,
Gustave Sohon, a soldier of the 4th infantry, detailed for the trip, was
an intelligent German, a clever sketcher, and competent to take
instrumental observations. Higgins, ex-orderly sergeant of dragoons, a
tall, broad-shouldered, spare, sinewy man, a fine swordsman and
drill-master, a scientific boxer, was a man of unusual firmness,
intelligence, and good judgment, and quiet, gentlemanly manners, and
held the implicit respect, obedience, and goodwill of his subordinates.
He afterwards became the founder, banker, and first citizen of the
flourishing town of Missoula, at Hell Gate, in the Bitter Root valley.
A.H. Robie worked up from the ranks, married a daughter of Craig, and
settled at Boisé City, Idaho, where he achieved a highly prosperous and
respected career. Sidney Ford, a son of Judge Ford, already mentioned,
was a handsome, stalwart young Saxon in appearance, broad-shouldered,
sensible, capable, and kindly. The others were all men of experience on
the plains and mountains, brave and true; several had been members of
the exploring expedition; others had served the fur companies, or
voyageured and trapped on their own account. By all odds the most
skillful and picturesque of these mountain men, and having the most
varied and romantic history, was Delaware Jim, whose father was a
Delaware chief and his mother a white woman, and who had spent a
lifetime--for he was now past middle age--in hunting and traveling over
all parts of the country, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, meeting
with many thrilling adventures and hair-breadth escapes. He had a tall,
slender form, a keen eye, an intelligent face, and reserved manners. He
was reticent in speech, although he spoke English well; but when he was
induced to relate his varied experiences and adventures, his simple and
modest narrative impressed every auditor with its truth. Many of the men
were clad in buckskin moccasins, breeches, and fringed hunting-shirts;
others in rough, serviceable woolen garb, stout boots, and wide slouch
hats. All carried navy revolvers and keen bowie-knives, and many in
addition bore the long, heavy, small-bored Kentucky rifle, which they
fired with great deliberation and unerring skill.

One of the most remarkable men connected with the expedition was the
express rider, W.H. Pearson. A native of Philadelphia, of small but
well-knit frame, with muscles of steel, and spirit and endurance that no
exertion apparently could break down, waving, chestnut hair, a fair,
high forehead, a refined, intelligent, and pleasant face, the manners
and bearing of a gentleman,--such was Pearson. He was destined that year
to render services invaluable in character and incredible in extent. Of
him the governor remarks in his final report, p. 210:

"Hardy, bold, intelligent, and resolute, having a great diversity of
experience, which had made him acquainted with all the relations
between Indians and white men from the borders of Texas to the 49th
parallel, and which enabled him to know best how to move, whether
under the Southern tropics or the winter snows of the North, I
suppose there has scarcely ever been any man in the service of the
government who excelled Pearson as an expressman."

He was still young, about thirty-five, but, as a Texan ranger, a scout,
Indian fighter, and express rider, knew the frontiers from the Rio
Grande to the Columbia and Missouri like an open book.

The party thus starting on the protracted and perilous expedition was
composed of only twenty-two persons, as follows: Governor Isaac I.
Stevens; James Doty, secretary; R.H. Lansdale, Indian agent; Gustave
Sohon, artist; Hazard Stevens; C.P. Higgins, packmaster; Sidney S. Ford,
Jr., A.H. Robie, Joseph Lemere, Frank Genette, H. Palmer, William
Simpson, John Canning, Frank Hale, Louis Oson, Louis Fourcier, C.
Hughes, John Johnson, William S. De Parris, William Prudhomme, packers,
the last two cooks; Joseph, the C[oe]ur d'Alene guide; and Delaware Jim,
who deserves a place by himself.

The party followed the Nez Perce trail, and, after a short march of
eight miles, made camp on Dry Creek. Two messes were formed,--the
gentlemen of the party, with the guide Joseph, Delaware Jim, Ford,
Genette, and De Parris as cook, comprising the governor's mess, and the
remainder of the party Higgins's mess.

Continuing on the Nez Perce trail, the party in the next three days and
fifty-four miles traversed a beautiful rolling prairie country of
fertile soil, luxuriant bunch grass, and wild flowers, crossing the
Touchet and Tucañon rivers, and ascending the Pa-ta-ha branch of the
latter, and, descending the Al-pa-wha Creek, reached its confluence with
Snake River at Red Wolf's ground. Here was found a village of thirteen
lodges of Nez Perces, under the chiefs Red Wolf and Timothy, with a
fenced field of thirty acres, well watered by irrigation from the
Al-pa-wha, and containing a fine crop of corn and a promising orchard.
"I observed with great pleasure that men as well as women and children
were at work in this field, ploughing and taking care of their crops,"
observes the governor. After some bargaining, for the chiefs were keen
traders and exacted a stiff toll for the service, the party, with packs
and baggage, were ferried across the Snake, a notably swift and
dangerous river, by the Indians in their canoes, and went into camp,
while the animals crossed by swimming.

By appointment Lawyer met the governor here, and with the other two
chiefs took supper with him, the three devouring the lion's share of a
fine salmon, which Timothy had just sold at an exorbitant
price,--clearly the Nez Perces were fast learning the ways of
civilization,--and completed the arrangements for sending their
delegation to the Blackfoot council. Lawyer also gave much information
about his people and country.

Climbing out of the deep cañon of the river next morning by an easy
grade up a lateral creek, the party took a general N.N.E. course across
the high, rolling plains stretching away to the mountains, for five days
traversing a fine fertile and diversified country, clothed with waving
grass and bright flowers, well wooded with groves of pine, and
abundantly watered. They passed on the second day 600 Nez Perces
gathering the kamas root, and having with them 2000 horses, and crossed
the Palouse River, with its broad valley extending far eastward into the
heart of the mountains. Says the governor: "We have been astonished at
the luxuriance of the grass and the fertility of the soil. The whole
view presents to the eye a vast bed of flowers in all their varied
beauty." The governor continually remarks the fertility and agricultural
capabilities of the country traversed. It now forms the most productive
part of the wheat belt of eastern Washington, and is all settled up by a
prosperous farming community. The third day's camp was made at the
kamas prairie of the Coeur d'Alenes, where were found 29 lodges and
250 Indians of that tribe, gathering and drying kamas. This esculent is
about the size and shape of a large tulip bulb, and when dried and
smoked for use has a dark color and sweet taste, and was highly esteemed
by the Indians and mountain men. The governor had a talk with Stellam,
the head chief, and a number of other chiefs, and requested them to meet
him at the mission in order to learn about the treaty the Great Father
desired to make with them. They promised to attend. In the evening came
the Palouse chief, Slah-yot-see, with 30 braves, and complained that no
goods were given him at the recent council. The governor replied:--

"Slah-yot-see, you went away before the council was ended.
Koh-lat-toose remained and signed the treaty. He was recognized as
the head chief of the Palouses, and to him the goods were given to
be distributed among his tribe as he and the principal men should
determine. I have brought no goods to give you. Go to Koh-lat-toose.
He is the chief, and it is from him you must obtain your share of
the presents. Had you remained until the council terminated, you
would have had a voice in the distribution of the goods.
Kam-i-ah-kan, your head chief, signed the treaty, and said that he
should bring the Palouses into the Yakima country, where they
properly belonged."

The chief said but little in reply except acknowledging Kam-i-ah-kan as
his head chief. The Palouses had a bad name, and were regarded as
sullen, insolent, and disaffected.

The last day, putting the party in camp on the Coeur d'Alene River,
the governor with Doty and Sohon rode on nine miles farther to the
mission, where he was received with the utmost hospitality by good
Father Ravalli, and where he found Crosby, just arrived from Colville.
The mission was situated on a sightly eminence in the midst of a little
prairie on the right bank of the river. On this beautiful and commanding
site stood a well-proportioned church, solidly built of squared timbers
as smoothly hewn and closely fitted as though done by skillful white
artisans, yet all the work of the Indians, under the direction of the
priests. A long wooden building, plain but comfortable, afforded
quarters for the fathers and two or three lay brothers and the transient
guests. At the foot of the knoll, near the river, were the lodges of the
Indians, constituting their principal village.

At the camp of the party this evening an incident occurred of quite
unusual character,--a wrestling match between Indian and white. A large
number of the Coeur d'Alenes had come down with their canoes, and
assisted the party in crossing the rivers, and had taken the packs by
water a long distance, thus relieving the animals over a stretch of
muddy trail, and at night camped near the whites. After supper they came
over to camp, and, with much talk in Chinook and many signs, at length
conveyed the idea of a challenge at wrestling between an immense,
powerfully formed Indian, whom they brought forward as their champion,
and any "skookum man" of the whites. The latter were rather taken back.
None liked the looks of the big and muscular savage, but all agreed that
it would never do to decline the challenge, and back down before a
parcel of Indians. At last Sidney Ford stepped forward, declaring that
he would try a fall with him, if he broke his back in the effort. In the
struggle which ensued, it was soon apparent that the Indian was the
superior in weight and strength, and Ford had to put forth all his skill
and agility to prevent being forced to the ground. At last, while all
the spectators, both red and white, were breathlessly watching the
straining, panting wrestlers, the whites especially with great anxiety
and apprehension, Ford gave a sudden and mighty heave, the huge Indian's
bare legs and moccasined feet whirled in the air, and the next instant
he struck the ground with a heavy and sickening thud, and lay senseless
as the dead. Ford had thrown him completely over his shoulder by some
skillful wrestling stroke. The Indian soon recovered, and departed with
his companions, well satisfied that the white man was "hi-u skookum"
(mighty strong). This rencounter led to much discussion around the
camp-fire that evening as to the relative prowess of Indian and white.
All agreed that the latter was far superior, not only in courage and
physical strength, but even in endurance and woodland and savage arts
and skill.

The next day the party moved and encamped near the village, and on the
following morning the principal chiefs to the number of thirty assembled
in front of the governor's tent, and listened attentively as he
explained to them the benefits they would gain by learning to "follow
the white man's road," and referred to the treaties made with the other
tribes at the recent council, at which some of them were present, and
asked them to meet him in council with the Spokanes on his return.
Finally he invited them to send with him a delegation to the Blackfoot
council, and make peace with those fierce and feared marauders. The
chiefs received the talk favorably, but declined to send the delegation,
saying that only a few of their people went to buffalo, and besides they
were afraid to go to the council. The Blackfeet would kill them.

At noon, after this conference, the train set out in charge of Higgins,
while the governor, with Doty and Crosby, remained a few hours longer.
The oath of allegiance to the United States was administered by Crosby
to the fathers and lay brothers, who subscribed the naturalization
papers, and seemed much pleased with the idea of becoming American
citizens. Towards evening they bade the hospitable missionaries
farewell, and, riding rapidly eleven miles, found the train snugly
encamped in a large prairie with fine grass, where the governor
encamped, October 12, 1853. The next two days the party were kept in
camp by a pelting summer rain.

Friday, June 29, on a cool and delightful morning after the storm, the
march was continued up the Coeur d'Alene River, retracing the
governor's route of 1853 across the Bitter Root Mountains; the summit
was passed on July 1, and, descending the St. Regis de Borgia, crossing
and recrossing the stream no less than thirty-five times, the Bitter
Root River was reached on the 3d, eighty-six miles distant from the
mission. The Father Superior of the Catholic missions, with two
companions returning from an inspection of the Pend Oreille Mission, was
met the first day, and on the summit a Coeur d'Alene Indian, whom the
governor had previously sent to the Bitter Root valley[7] with
dispatches to Mr. Adams, special agent for the Flatheads, in regard to
holding a council with them, brought the gratifying intelligence that
the Indians were all ready to assemble, all full of the Blackfoot
council, and that everything was quiet in the Indian country. The
governor took great pains in examining the route and the topography of
the country, and in determining the altitude by the barometer.

The Fourth of July was spent in crossing the Bitter Root, which was at
this point one hundred and fifty yards wide, with a swift, strong
current, and fordable only at the lowest stage of water in fall and
winter. It was now swollen from recent rains and melting snows in the
mountains. All hands set to work felling trees and building rafts, with
which to effect a crossing. While thus laboriously engaged, a large
band of Flathead Indians, who were encamped here, took down their
lodges, and ferried themselves over the swift and broad river, with all
their women, children, horses, dogs, lodges, and effects, in less than
an hour's time, and in a simple and ingenious manner, which put the
whites quite to the blush. The buffalo-skin lodge was spread out on a
smooth, flat place at the water's edge, all the blankets, robes,
clothing, bundles of provisions, saddles, packs, everything in short in
the way of goods and chattels were piled in a broad, circular pile upon
it, and the ends and edges of the skin were stretched up and tied
together on top, as one would tie up a bundle of clothes in a
handkerchief. This being completed, a brave rode his horse into the
river until almost swimming, holding by his teeth the end of a line; the
bundle was then pushed and lifted into the river; the squaws climbed on
top of it with the children and babies around them, one of them took and
held the other end of the line, and the brave started his pony swimming
across the stream, holding by the mane or tail with one hand, and
swimming with the other, and soon reached the opposite bank in safety.
It was a curious and exciting spectacle to see ten or twelve of these
bundles, the size of large haycocks, surmounted by groups of squaws and
pappooses, rapidly floating down the stream, while being slowly towed
across, nothing visible of the ponies and braves except their heads,
while the loud, labored breathing of the swimming horses and the shouts
and splashings of the Indians echoed across the water.

The Flatheads were accustomed to train and exercise their horses in
swimming, and were very skillful in crossing streams in this manner. The
buffalo-skin lodges were impervious to water for only a short time, and
would become leaky and useless by a prolonged soaking.

The party built three large rafts, loaded all the goods upon them, and
poled them across the river with long poles. The animals were compelled
to swim. The last, bearing the governor, was the largest and least
manageable, and came near escaping down the river on a voyage of its own
choosing. It was carried farther down than the others, and on nearing
the other bank got into a swifter current, where the poles were quite
useless, and was swept along at break-neck speed, flying past the rocks
and trees of the bank only forty feet away. At this juncture Higgins
seized the end of a pack rope and plunged headfirst into the raging
current, gained the shore in a few powerful strokes, raced along it at
top speed to keep the rope from being jerked out of his hands by the
flying raft until he came to a tree, threw a turn of the rope around it,
and checked the raft, which then swung inshore under the pressure of the
current. In these few minutes the unwieldy craft was carried down two
miles. But everything was gotten together and a comfortable camp pitched
before night. The tired men smoked their pipes around the camp-fire
after supper and recounted the adventures of the day, with great
satisfaction that the river was behind them.

After a late start the next morning the party moved eighteen miles up
the right bank of the beautiful river, traversing tracts of open woods
and prairies, alternating in pleasing variety with the dark, rugged
range just surmounted, frowning on the right. Large schools of salmon or
trout were seen in the clear, pellucid water, motionless over the
spawning-beds, fairly covering and hiding the river's bed, in such
numbers were they. The next day's march was thirty-seven miles. On the
7th, soon after leaving camp, they were met and received by three
hundred chiefs and braves of the Flathead, Pend Oreille, and Koo-te-nay
tribes, in the most cordial manner, with a salute of musketry, and
escorted to their camp near Hell Gate River. After spending some hours
with them, learning their condition, and establishing pleasant relations
between them and his own party, the governor moved to the main river, a
mile distant, and established his camp and council ground.

In the afternoon the three head chiefs, Victor of the Flatheads,
Alexander of the Pend Oreilles, and Michelle of the Koo-te-nays,
accompanied by a number of other chiefs, visited Governor Stevens, and
after the pipe had passed around,--the indispensable introduction to
every Indian conference,--the latter spoke to them in his usual vein,
proposing a treaty, referring to the great council just held with so
many Indians in the Walla Walla valley, and appointing the next Monday
for opening the council with them. He also spoke of his efforts to make
peace with the Blackfeet, and urged them to send a delegation to the
proposed council with these, their inveterate and bloody foes. This was
a sore subject with the Flatheads, for the Blackfeet had but faithlessly
kept their promises of amity and good conduct towards their neighbors.
Many of their young braves, despite the efforts of the chiefs and elders
to restrain them, had continued their predatory raids, saying, "Let us
steal all the horses we can before the great white chief returns and
makes peace with all the tribes, and stops horse-stealing forever," and
had inflicted severe losses upon the Flatheads since the governor passed
through their country nearly two years before, notwithstanding, and that
was what made it all the harder to bear; the Flatheads had scrupulously
heeded the governor's admonitions, and refrained from retaliation. On
one occasion, when some young Pend Oreilles ran off a number of
Blackfoot horses, the chiefs sent them back, at the risk of the lives of
the party returning them. When the governor finished, Victor said:--

"The Blackfeet have troubled us very much. I am going to tell what
has happened since you were here. Twelve men have been killed when
out hunting, not on war-parties. I fear the whites and keep quiet. I
cannot tell how many horses have been stolen since. Now I listen,
and hear what you wish me to do. Were it not for you, I would have
had my revenge ere this. They have stolen horses seven times this
spring."

The chiefs then returned to their camp, promising to attend the council
the following Monday.

The Flatheads or Salish, including the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays,
were among those who had been driven westward by the Blackfeet, and now
occupied the pleasant valleys of the mountains. They were noted for
their intelligence, honesty, and bravery, and although of medium stature
and inferior in physique to the brawny Blackfeet, never hesitated to
attack them if the odds were not greater than five to one. Having been
supplied by the early fur traders with firearms, which enabled them to
make a stand against their outnumbering foe, they had always been the
firm friends of the whites, and, like the Nez Perces, often hunted with
the mountain men, and entertained them in their lodges. A number of
Iroquois hunters and half-breeds had joined and intermarried with them.
The Bitter Root valley was the seat of the Flatheads proper. The Pend
Oreilles lived lower down the river, or northward, in two bands, the
upper Pend Oreilles on the Horse Plains and Jocko prairies, and the
lower Pend Oreilles on Clark's Fork, below the lake of their name, and
were canoe Indians, owning few horses. The Koo-te-nays lived about the
Flathead River and Lake. All these, except the lower Pend Oreilles, went
to buffalo, and their hunting-trips were spiced with the constant peril
and excitement of frequent skirmishes with their hereditary enemies. The
Jesuits, in 1843, established a mission among the lower Pend Oreilles,
but in 1854 moved to the Flathead River, near the mouth of the Jocko.
They also started a mission among the Flatheads in the Bitter Root
valley, forty miles above Hell Gate, where they founded the beautiful
village of St. Mary, amid charming scenery; but the incessant raids of
the Blackfeet were slowly but surely "wiping out" these brave and
interesting Indians, and the mission was abandoned in 1850 as too much
exposed. The Owen brothers then started a trading-post at this point,
which they named Fort Owen; and fourteen miles above it Lieutenant
Mullan built his winter camp in 1853, known as Cantonment Stevens, which
has been succeeded by the town of Stevensville. The term "Flathead" was
a misnomer, as none of them practiced the custom of flattening
the head.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Now known as the Missoula Valley and River.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE FLATHEAD COUNCIL

After a quiet and restful Sunday in both camps the Indians assembled at
the appointed time, and the council was opened on Monday, July 9, at
half past one P.M., by the governor, in a long speech, explaining, as at
the other councils, the terms and advantages proffered by the
government. Although the Indians were extremely friendly, and very
desirous of "following the white man's road" and coming under the
protection of the Great Father, their only apparent refuge from the
fierce Blackfeet, whose incessant raids threatened them with speedy
extinction, the council proved unexpectedly difficult and protracted,
lasting eight days, and the treaty was only saved by Governor Stevens's
persistence and astuteness in accepting an alternative proposition
offered by Victor at the last moment. The chronic objection of every
tribe to leaving its own country and going on a reservation in the
territory of another was the stumbling-block.

The governor required the three tribes, as they were really one people,
being all Salish, speaking a common language, and closely intermarried
and allied, and also reduced in numbers, to unite upon one reservation.
He offered to set apart a tract for them either in the upper Bitter Root
valley in Victor's country, or the Horse Plains and Jocko River in the
Pend Oreille territory, as they might prefer, and urged them to decide
and agree among themselves upon one of these locations; but neither
tribe was willing to abandon its wonted region, where they were
accustomed to pitch their lodges, and where their dead were buried. The
following brief extracts from the proceedings give an idea of the course
of the difficult and at times stormy and vexatious negotiations.

When the governor finished Victor said:--

"I am very tired now, and my people. You [the governor] are the only
man who has offered to help us.... I have two places, here is mine
[pointing out Bitter Root valley on the map], and this is mine
[pointing out Flathead River and Clark's Fork]. I will think of it,
and tell you which is best. I believe you wish to assist me to help
my children here so that they may have plenty to eat, and so that
they may save their souls."

Alexander: "You are talking to me now, my Big Father. You have told
me you have to make your own laws to punish your children. I love my
children. I think I could not head them off to make them go
straight. I think it is with you to do so. If I take your own way,
your law, my people then will be frightened. These growing people
[young people] are all the same. Perhaps those who come after them
may see it well before them. I do not know your laws. Perhaps, if we
see a rope, if we see how it punishes, we will be frightened. When
the priest talked to them, tried to teach them, they all left him.
My children, maybe when the whites teach you, you may see it before
you. Now this is my ground. We are poor, we Indians. The priest is
settled over there [pointing across the mountains towards the north,
the direction of his country]. There, where he is, I am very well
satisfied. I will talk hereafter about the ground. I am done for
to-day."

In this speech Alexander expresses the difficulty he has to manage his
unruly young people, and his fear that the white rule might prove too
strict for them.

[Illustration: THE FLATHEAD COUNCIL]

Red Wing, a Flathead chief: "We gathered up yesterday the three
peoples you see here. They think they are three nations. I thought
these nations were going to talk each about its own land. Now I hear
the governor: my land is all cut up in pieces. I thought we had two
places. This ground is the Flatheads', that across the mountains
is the Pend Oreilles'; perhaps not, perhaps we are all one. We made
up another mind yesterday, to-day it is different. We will go back
and have another council."

The governor adjourned the council to the next day, urging them to talk
and agree among themselves as to the reservation.

The following day the governor called on the chiefs to speak their minds
freely.

Big Canoe, a Pend Oreille chief, made a long and sententious speech, in
which he deprecated making any treaty, or parting with any of his
country, and thought the whites and Indians could live together in the
same land:--

"Talk about treaty, when did I kill you? When did you kill me? What
is the reason we are talking about treaties? We are friends. We
never spilt the blood of one of you. I never saw your blood. I want
my country. I thought no one would ever want to talk about my
country. Now you talk, you white men. Now I have heard, I wish the
whites to stop coming. Perhaps you will put me in a trap if I do not
listen to you, white chiefs. It is our land, both of us. If you make
a farm, I would not go there and pull up your crops. I would not
drive you away from it. If I were to go to your country and say,
'Give me a little piece,' I wonder would you say, 'Here, take it.' I
expect that is the same way you want me to do here. This country you
want to settle here, me with you.... You tell us, 'Give us your
land.' I am very poor. This is all the small piece I have got. I am
not going to let it go. I did not come to make trouble; therefore I
would say, I am very poor....

"It is two winters since you passed here. Every year since, my
horses have gone to the Blackfeet. Here this spring the Blackfeet
put my daughter on foot. She packed her goods on her back. It made
me feel bad. I was going on a war-party as your express passed
along. Then I think of what I heard from you, my father, and take my
heart back and keep quiet. If I had not listened to your express, I
should have gone on war-parties over yonder. We drove one band of
horses from the Blackfeet. I talked about it to my Indians. I said,
'Give the horses back, my children.' My chief took them back. You
talked about it strong, my father. My chief took them back. That is
the way we act. When I found my children were going on war-parties,
I would tell them to stop, be quiet; tell them I expect now we will
see the chief; I expect he will talk to the Blackfeet again."

Governor Stevens: "I will ask you, my children, if you fully
understand all that was said yesterday? I ask you now, can you all
agree to live on one reservation? I ask Victor, are you willing to
go on the same reservation with the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays? I
ask Alexander, are you willing to go on the same reservation with
the Flatheads and Koo-te-nays? I ask Michelle, are you willing to go
on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles? What
do you, Victor, Alexander, and Michelle, think? You are the head
chiefs. I want you to speak."

Victor: "I am willing to go on one reservation, but I do not want to
go over yonder" [Pend Oreille country].

Alexander: "It is good for us all to stop in one place."

Michelle: "I am with Alexander."

Governor Stevens: "The Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays think it well
to have all these tribes together. Perhaps Victor might think so by
and by, if the place suits. Alexander and Michelle wish to live
together, their people on one place,--they have a thousand people,
the land ought to be good. Each man wants his field. The climate
ought to be mild....

"I ask Victor, Alexander, and Michelle to think it over. Will they
go to the valley with Victor, or to the mission with Alexander and
Michelle? I do not care which. You will have your priests with you,
whether you go to the mission or Fort Owen. Those who want the
priest can have him. The Great Father means that every one shall do
as he pleases in regard to receiving the instructions of the
priests."

But the council next day showed no change in the situation. Victor was
unwilling to move to the mission, and Alexander to the valley. Neither
would object to the other coming to his place. It being evident, after
protracted discussion, that no progress would be made by continuing the
council that day, and it appearing that an influence was being exerted
by the priests of the mission which might be adverse to the views of the
government, a messenger was dispatched directing the presence of Father
Hoecken for the purpose of investigating it, the council was adjourned
over to Friday, and the Indians were recommended to have a feast and a
council among themselves on the morrow. Accordingly they had a grand
feast on the 12th, the means for which--two beeves, coffee,

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