Chapter LVI

Comments on Vicar-General Brouillet's arguments against the Whitman
massacre being the act of Catholics.--Joe Stanfield: Brouillet's
story in his favor.--Murders on the second day.--Deposition of
Daniel Young.--More murders.

Vicar-General Brouillet, in his narrative of "Protestantism in Oregon," says: "I could admit that _Joseph Lewis_, _Joseph Stanfield_, and _Nicholas Finlay_, who may have been seen plundering" (as proved on the trial of Stanfield), "_were Catholics_, without injuring in the least the cause of Catholicism; because, as in good reasoning" (Roman Catholic, of course), "it is never allowed to conclude from one particularity to another particularity, nor to a generality; in like manner, from the guilt of three Catholics it can not be reasonably concluded that other Catholics are guilty, nor, _a fortiori_, that all Catholics are guilty and Catholicism favorable to the guilt."

No man, set of men, or sect, not interested in the result of a measure or a crime, will ever use an argument like the one we have quoted from this priest. Dr. Whitman and those about his station had been slaughtered in the most brutal and cowardly manner, by a band of Indians that this priest, his bishop, and associates, backed by the consent and influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, had brought about through the direct influence of these three men: all of whom knew, and consulted with the Indians as to the commission of the crime. And we have the strongest reason to believe that this priest and his party were, by their conversation, instructions, and direct teachings, adding their influence and approval to that horrid transaction. Besides, when the crime is committed, we find this same band of _fur traders and priests protecting, shielding, advising and assisting the murderers_ to the utmost of their power and influence, both in the country and in their foreign correspondence. If such facts do not implicate a party, we ask what will? The very book from which we are quoting, containing 108 pages, has not a single sentence condemning the course or crime of these men, but every page contains some statement condemning Spalding, Whitman, or some American supposed to belong to, or in favor of, the American settlements or missions.

But let us return to further particulars of this Whitman massacre. We have gathered up the statements and facts on both sides of this question, and with our own knowledge, previous to and since its occurrence, we write with assurance, if not with the best judgment in selecting the facts and evidence to place the truth before the public.

We were in the midst of describing that horrible scene of savage blood and carnage, when we stopped for a moment to inquire after the character of three of the prominent actors, in fact, the leaders in the tragedy.

Brouillet tells us (on page 89 of his narrative, page 56 of Ross Browne) in extenuation of the guilt of Stanfield, that "the following circumstance, if true, speaks very highly in his favor, and shows that if he has at any time forgotten the good principles he had received in his infancy, once, at least, those principles prompted him to an heroic action. It was on the morning of the day that followed the massacre. There were several Indians scattered in the neighborhood of the mission buildings, but especially a crowd of Indian women was standing near the door of the house in which all the white women and children were living. Stanfield, being then at a short distance from the house, Tilokaikt, the chief of the place, came up and asked him if he had something in the house. 'Yes,' said Stanfield, 'I have all my things there.' 'Take them away,' said the Indian to him. 'Why should I take them away? they are well there.' 'Take them off,' he insisted, a second time. 'But I have not only my things there; I have also my wife and children.' 'Yes,' replied Tilokaikt, who appeared a little surprised, 'you have a wife and children in the house! Will you take them off?' 'No,' replied Stanfield, 'I will not take them away, and I will go and stay myself in the house. I see that you have bad designs; you intend to kill the women and children; well, you will kill me with them. Are you not ashamed? Are you not satisfied with what you have done? Do you want still to kill poor innocent creatures that have never done you any harm?' 'I am ashamed,' replied Tilokaikt, after a moment's hesitation. 'It is true, those women and children do not deserve death; they did not harm us; they shall not die.' And, turning to the Indian women who were standing near the door of the house waiting with a visible impatience for the order to enter and slaughter the people inside, he ordered them to go off. The Indian women then became enraged, and, showing them the knives that they took from beneath their blankets, they insulted him in many different ways, calling him _a coward, a woman who would consent to be governed by a Frenchman_; and they retired, apparently in great anger for not having been allowed to imbrue their hands in the blood of new victims. The above circumstance was related at Fort Wallawalla to Mr. Ogden, by Stanfield himself, under great emotion, and in presence of the widows, none of whom contradicted him. An action of that nature, if it took place, would be, of itself, _sufficient to redeem a great many faults_."

We do not wish to question any good act this Frenchman may have done; but the guilt of knowing that crime was to be committed, and that the Americans were to be killed around him like the ox he had brought to the slaughter, which he knew was to be the signal for its commencement; and the manner he and his two associates conducted themselves on the ground; _the influence he had_ to stop the massacre at any time, and his _robbing the widows and orphans_ in the midst of the slaughter;--these make up a complication of crime that none but the vilest will attempt to excuse.

On the 30th of November, Mr. Kimball and Mr. Young, a young man from the saw-mill, were killed. Mr. Kimball, in attempting to go from his concealment in the chamber for water for himself and the sick children, was shot by a young Indian, who claimed his eldest daughter for a wife as his lawful pay for killing her father.

We will now give an original deposition which explains the killing of Mr. Young, and also of two other young men, who escaped the first and second, and became victims of the third more brutal slaughter.

_Deposition of Mr. Daniel Young relative to the Wailatpu Massacre._

QUESTION.--When, and in what manner, did you learn of the
massacre?

ANSWER.--I was residing with my father's family at Dr. Whitman's
saw-mill, about twenty miles from Wailatpu, where we had gone for
the winter. My brother, a young man about twenty-four years of
age, and about two years older than myself, had gone down to the
station, the Tuesday before, with a load of lumber, and for
provisions, and was expecting to return about the last of the
week. Joseph Smith and family were also living at the saw-mill,
except his oldest daughter, who was at the station. His family was
out of flour and meat, and ours was now out of meat. On Saturday
evening, he proposed to me to go down the next day for provisions.
I did not wish to go down; told him if he wanted provisions he
could go. He said if he had a horse he would go. We offered him a
horse. He still urged me to go, as there was no one, he said, to
stay with his family. I went down on horseback on the Sabbath,
being the next Sabbath after the massacre. I did not go to the
place till about an hour after dark, and learned nothing of the
massacre till after I had got into the house. In the room where I
expected to find my brother, I found them eating supper, with
several Indians in the room. At the table was Mrs. Hays, and
Joseph Stanfield, and Mrs. Hall, with the remnant of her family.
About a couple of minutes after I went in, Joseph Stanfield left
the table and went out of the house (this was some time previous
to the rest leaving the table), and was gone for about three
hours, I knew not where; but after he returned, he said he had
started to go to Nicholas Finlay's, a half-breed's lodge, but had
got lost. Nicholas had come in about half an hour before Stanfield
returned. In the mean time I had learned from the Indian Beardy,
through Eliza Spalding (his interpreter), of the massacre. This
was in short sentences and much confused. Beardy said, however,
that the Doctor was his friend, and he did not know of it until a
good many had been killed, and he was sorry for what had taken
place; he said the Indians said the Doctor was poisoning them, and
that was the reason they did it, _but he_ (Beardy) _did not
believe it_. That he was there to protect the women and children,
and no more should be killed. During the evening I also learned of
the number that had been killed, and of those who had escaped from
the place; but it was not known what had become of them.

I was informed by Stanfield that my brother had met an Indian who
had told him to go back and stay for a week, but another Indian
told him he could safely go on for provisions, and that he would
go with him. He went on to within half a mile of the mission. The
Indians were said to have gone thus far with him. Stanfield said
he there found him dead, shot through the head near one eye, and
there he buried him. _Stanfield said_ also that evening that the
Doctor was poisoning the Indians, which had caused the massacre;
that Joe Lewis had heard from an adjoining room one night the
Doctor and Mrs. Whitman talking of poisoning them, and that the
Doctor had said it was best to destroy them by degrees, but that
Mrs. Whitman said it was best to do it at once, and they would be
rid of them, and have all their land and horses as their own; and
that he (Joe Lewis) had told the Indians this before the massacre.

Stanfield also asked me if I had heard of his being married. I
told him I had heard from my brother that he was going to take
Mrs. Hays for a wife. He said: "We are married, but have not yet
slept together." I said: "Yes, I understand, you pretend to be
married." He said: "We are married; that is enough." I thought it
strange why he was saved unless he was a Catholic, and during the
evening took an occasion, when I thought he would not suspect my
object, to ask Stanfield whether he was a Catholic? He said, "_I
pass for one._"

I slept with Stanfield that night; did not retire till late. Next
morning, Crockett Bewley, a young man about twenty-one or
twenty-two, I should think, who was sick at the time of the first
massacre, and whose clothes had been stolen (by Stanfield), came
into the room wrapped in a blanket or a quilt. _Bewley seemed to
speak of the Doctor's poisoning the Indians as something commonly
reported among them_ as the cause of the massacre, but said he did
not believe any thing of it, _but he believed Joe Lewis was one of
the leaders_, and _the Catholic priests were the cause of it_.
Stanfield replied, "_You need not believe any such thing, and you
had better not let the Indians hear you say that,_" and spoke in a
voice as though _he was somewhat angry_. Soon after this, Bewley
left the room; Stanfield turned to me and said: "_He had better be
careful how he talks; if the Indians get hold of it the Catholics
may hear of it._" As soon as I could do it without being
suspected, I sought an opportunity to caution Bewley about the
danger I thought he was running in speaking thus in the presence
of Stanfield, and asked him if he did not know of Stanfield being
a Catholic? He said he did not. I told him he might have known it
from the fact of most French being Catholics. He replied he did
not know of the French being Catholics more than any other people.
I told him to be cautious hereafter how he spoke, and he said he
would.

Soon after the conversation with Bewley, I told Stanfield I must
return home; he said I must not, the Indian chiefs would be there
after a while and would tell me what I must do; said he did not
think I could get off till the next day.

We now commenced making a coffin for one of the Sager children
that had died the night before. Soon after, the chief Tilokaikt
came. He told me I could not go back till the next day, that he
would then send two Indians back with me. I told Stanfield, in the
chief's presence, that I had told my folks I should be back on
Monday if I came at all. Stanfield told me in reply, that the
chief says, "Then you may go;" Stanfield also said, "The chief
says tell them all to come down and bring every thing down that is
up there; we want them to come down and take care of the families
and tend the mill. Tell them, '_Don't undertake to run away; if
you do, you will be sure to be killed_;' not be afraid, for they
shall not be hurt."

The chief had now done talking. Stanfield now told me to caution
them, our people, at the saw-mill, as to _what they should say_;
if they said any thing on the subject, "say that the Doctor was a
bad man, and was poisoning the Indians." He had also before that
told me the same. I got a piece of meat and asked for some salt;
but he said there was none about the house; afterward I found this
was not the case. I then returned home, and informed our people as
to what had taken place, and my father's first reply was, "_The
Catholics are at the bottom of it._" Mr. Smith admitted it, but
said, immediately, we must all become Catholics for our safety,
and before we left the saw-mill, and afterward, he said he
believed the Doctor was poisoning, and believed it from what Joe
Stanfield had told him before about the Doctor's misusing the
half-breeds and children at his mission. The next day, Tuesday, we
went down to the mission, and arrived after dark; found the young
men, Bewley and Amos Sales, who were sick at the time of the first
massacre, were both killed, and their bodies were lying outside of
the door near the house where they lay during the night, and
Stanfield said he could not bury them until he got the permission
of the Indians. The next day we helped to bury them.

Here I would say that the two Indians the chief wished to send
with me, as he said, to see us safe down, as Stanfield interpreted
to me at the time, were the chief's sons, and he wished me to wait
because Edward, Tilokaikt's son, had gone to the Umatilla to the
_great chief_, to see what to do with the two young men who were
sick. This, Stanfield told me, was the business which Edward
Tilokaikt had gone for, and he would not get back so as to go with
me that day. Three Indians, however, arrived within an hour after
I got to the saw-mill, viz., Clark Tilokaikt, Stikas and one whose
name I never knew, and came down a part of the way with us next
day. I learned from Mrs. Canfield and her daughter, that this same
Edward Tilokaikt, after he returned from the Umatilla, gave the
first blow with his whip, and broke and run out of doors, when
other Indians finished the slaughter of the sick men. While at the
station, Joseph Smith threatened me with the Indians if I did not
obey him. I felt our condition as bad and very dangerous from the
Indians, and feared that Smith would join them. He sometimes
talked of going on to the Umatilla to live with them. His daughter
was taken by the chief's sons (first Clark, and in the second
place, Edward) for a wife. I told Mr. Smith, were I a father, I
would never suffer that, so long as I had power to use an arm; his
reply was, "You don't know what you would do; I would not dare to
say a word if they should take my own wife." I continued to regard
our situation as exceedingly dangerous till we got out of the
country.

After we had arrived at Wallawalla, I said, in the presence of Mr.
McBean, that I supposed there were present some of the Indians who
had killed my brother, and if I knew them I would kill them yet.
Mr. McBean said, "_Take care what you say, the very walls have
ears._" He was very anxious to get us safe to the Wallamet.

Q.--Would you suppose one who was acquainted at that place liable
to get lost in going that evening to Finlay's lodge?

A.--I would not. It was in sight and a plain path to it, and was
not more than twenty-five yards off.

Q.--When did you learn from your brother that Stanfield was going
to take Mrs. Hays as a wife?

A.--Some two or more weeks before the massacre, something was said
as to Mr. Hoffman taking Mrs. Hays. My brother says, "No, I heard
Joe Stanfield say that he was going to take her as a wife."

Q.--Did your brother appear to believe that this was about to take
place?

A.--He did, and my brother talked about it,--made us believe it
was going to take place.

Q.--What opportunity had your brother to know about this, more
than yourself?

A.--He boarded at the station, and was some of the time teaming
from the saw-mill, and Mrs. Hays cooked for him and several others
of the Doctor's hands, among whom was Stanfield.

Q.--Why did you think Stanfield was a Catholic, as a reason for
his being saved?

A.--Because I heard Dr. Whitman say at the mill, that the
Catholics were evidently trying to set the Indians upon him, but
he thought he could keep it down for another year, when he would
be safe. I supposed he expected safety from the government being
extended over the country.

Q.--How did Stanfield seem to know that the chief would be there
after a while, and would tell you what you might do as to going
back to the saw-mill?

A.--I did not know.

Q.--Why did you tell your people that you would be back on Monday,
if at all?

A.--Because we were in an Indian country, and I remembered what I
had heard the Doctor say at the Umatilla, and my brother had not
returned as expected.

Q.--Had you any means of knowing what "_great chief_," at the
Umatilla, Tilokaikt spoke of, where his son Edward had gone to
learn what to do with the sick young men?

A.--I had not.

Q.--Did you know at that time that the bishop was said to be at
Umatilla?

A.--Yes.

Q.--Did you form in your own mind, at that time, any opinion as to
whom Edward had gone to consult?

A.--I thought the term "_great chief_" might have been put in to
deceive me, as Stanfield had told me, the evening before, that the
Catholics were going to establish a mission right away at that
place, and that they would protect the women and children, and _I
thought it might be the Catholics_ he was consulting, or it might
be some great Indian chief. This talk of establishing a station
there continued for more than a week after we got down to the
station. After I found Bewley and Sales were killed, I seemed to
forget much until even after I had got down, and even to the
plains, when the facts again came more clearly to my recollection,
and I spoke of them freely to my parents and to others.

(Signed,) DANIEL YOUNG.

Sworn and subscribed to, before me, this 20th day of January, A.D.
1849, in Tualatin Plains, Oregon Territory.

G. W. COFFINBURY, Justice of the Peace.