Chapter VI: Indian Wars and Opening of Country to Settlement (1)

In the preceding chapter we have narrated the Whitman Massacre. It was followed by the first of the succession of wars which desolated Old Oregon for about eleven years. During that time Walla Walla, as well as the other parts east of the mountains, was swept clean of white settlers. Not till the public proclamation of opening Eastern Oregon by General Clarke in 1858 and the beginnings of immigration in the next year can the epoch of Indian wars be said to have ended.

The war following the Whitman Massacre may be taken as the starting point of this chapter. Great praise most be accorded to the Hudson's Bay Company's people for promptness and efficiency in meeting the immediate emergency. Dr. John McLoughlin, with whom we have become acquainted in earlier chapters, had retired from the company and made his home at Oregon City. This truly great man, a man for whom no commendation seems too strong in the minds of the old-timers, had been deciding during the years following the advent of the missionaries that American possession of Oregon was inevitable and that in order to ally himself with the future he should become an American. His humane and liberal policy toward the American immigrants was disapproved by the company in London, and in 1844 James Douglas was appointed to succeed him. The good doctor thereby not only lost what was then and in those conditions a princely salary, $12,000 per year, but was charged by the company for the large supplies which he had advanced to the Americans, who in many cases were unable to pay. Moving to the Falls of the Willamette where he had taken up a valuable claim, he started the process of naturalization. But after the Treaty of 1846, his claim was contested by the representative of the Methodist Mission, Rev. A. F. Waller, and the first territorial delegate to Congress, Samuel R. Thurston, was chosen largely on the platform of hostility to the Hudson's Bay Company and the British in general, and he secured a provision in the Congressional land law debarring anyone who had not acquired his final naturalization from holding a donation claim. This law deprived Doctor McLoughlin of the main part of his property. It was a cruel blow. He said with grief and bitterness that he had intended in good faith to become an American citizen, but found that he was rejected by the British and not received by the Americans and was practically a man without a country. It may truthfully be said that he died of a broken heart. It is gratifying to remember that the Oregon Legislature, recognizing the injustice, made amends by restoring his land claim. But this action came too late to do the "Old King of Oregon" any good. We have digressed to make this reference to Doctor McLoughlin, inasmuch as his change of location and condition occurred just prior to the Oregon Treaty and the Whitman Massacre. James Douglas, the new Chief Factor, while not at all equal in breadth and philanthropy to Doctor McLoughlin, was an energetic and efficient manager. Upon learning of the tragedy at Waiilatpu he immediately dispatched Peter Skeen Ogden to rescue the survivors. As narrated in Chapter Five, Ogden performed his duty with promptness and success, and as a result the pitiful little company, almost entirely women and children, were conveyed to the Willamette Valley, where nearly all of them made their homes. A number of them are still living in different parts of the Northwest.

When the tidings of the massacre reached the Willamette Valley, then the chief settlement in Oregon, there was an immediate response by the brave men who were carrying in that trying time the responsibility of the government of the scattered little community. And yet the situation was a peculiar and difficult one. The formal treaty placing Oregon within possession of the United States had legally set aside the Provisional Government. But Congress was absorbed, as it frequently has been, in furthering the little schemes of individual members, or in promoting the progress of slavery or some other tyrannical and corrupt interest, and hence had done nothing to establish a territorial government. In the emergency the Provisional Government assembled on December 9th and provided for a force of fourteen companies of Oregon volunteers to move immediately to the hostile country. Every feature of equipment had to be secured by personal contribution, and the services of the men were purely voluntary. It was a characteristic American frontiersmen's army and movement. Several men well known in Walla Walla and vicinity took part in this campaign. The commander of the force was Cornelius Gilliam, an immigrant of 1845 from Missouri. His son, W. S. Gilliam, was one of the best known and noblest of the pioneers of Walla Walla County. He was truly one of the builders of this region. Daniel Stewart, Ninevah Ford, William Martin, and W. W. Walter were among the citizens of the Walla Walla country and adjoining region who were in that historic army of the Cayuse war. While we shall not usually load this work with lists of names or other purely statistical matter, yet in the belief that the list of volunteers in the Cayuse war may have a permanent reference value to possessors of this volume, we are including here such a list derived from the "History of the Pacific Northwest," published by the North Pacific Publishing Co. of Portland in 1889:

First Company, Oregon Rifles: Captain, Henry A. G. Lee; first lieutenant, Joseph Magone; second lieutenant, John E. Ross; surgeon, W. W. Carpenter; orderly sergeant, J. S. Rinearson; first duty sergeant, J. H. McMillan; second duty sergeant, C. W. Savage; third duty sergeant, S. Cummings; fourth duty sergeant, William Berry; privates, John Little, Joel McKee, J. W. Morgan, Joseph B. Proctor, Samuel K. Barlow, John Richardson, Ed Marsh, George Moore, Isaac Walgamot, Jacob Johnson, John Lassater, Edward Robeson, B. B. Rodgers,---- Shannon, A. J. Thomas, R. S. Tupper, O. Tupper, Joel Witchey, G. W. Weston, George Wesley, John Flemming, John G. Gibson, Henry Leralley, Nathan Olney, ---- Barnes, J. H. Bosworth, Wm. Beekman, Benjamin Bratton, John Balton, Henry W. Coe, John C. Danford, C. H. Derendorf, David Everst, John Finner, James Kester,---- Pugh (killed by Indians near the Dalles in a skirmish),---- Jackson (killed in a skirmish near the Dalles), John Callahan; Alex McDonald (killed by a sentry, who mistook him for an Indian at the camp on the east side of the Des Chutes). Forty-eight men.

Second Company: Captain, Lawrence Hall; first lieutenant, H. D. O'Bryant; second lieutenant, John Engart; orderly sergeant, William Sheldon; duty sergeants, William Stokes, Peter S. Engart, Thos. R. Cornelius, Sherry Ross; Color-bearer, Gilbert Mondon; privates, A. Engart, Thos. Fleming, D. C. Smith, W. R. Noland, Jos. W. Scott, G. W. Smith, A. Kinsey, John N. Donnie, A. C. Brown, F. H. Ramsey, S. A. Holcomb, A. Stewart, Wm. Milbern, A. Kennedy, Oliver Lowden, H. N. Stephens, P. G. Northrup, W. W. Walter, J. Z. Zachary, Sam Y. Cook, J. J. Garrish, Thos. Kinsey, J. S. Scoggin, Noah Jobe, D. Shumake, J. N. Green, J. Elliot, W. Williams, John Holgate, R. Yarborough, Robert Walker, J. Butler, I. W. Smith, J. W. Lingenfelter, J. H. Lienberger, A. Lienberger, Sam Gethard, John Lousingnot, A. Williams, D. Harper, S. C. Cummings, S. Ferguson, Marshall Martin.

Third Company: Captain, John W. Owen; first lieutenant, Nathaniel Bowman; second lieutenant, Thomas Shaw; orderly sergeant, J. C. Robison; duty sergeants, Benj. J. Burch; J. H. Blankenship, James M. Morris, Robert Smith; privates, George W. Adams, William Athey, John Baptiste, Manly Curry, Jesse Clayton, John Dinsmore, Nathan English, John Fiester, Jesse Gay, Lester Hulan, Stephen Jenkins, J. Larkin, Joshua McDonald, Thomas Pollock, J. H. Smith, S. P. Thornton, William Wilson, Benjamin Allen, Ira Bowman,---- Currier, George Chapel, William Duke,---- Linnet, T. Dufield, Squire Elembough, Henry Fuller, D. H. Hartley, Fleming R. Hill, James Keller, D. M. McCumber, E. McDonald, Edward Robinson, Chris. Stemermon, Joseph Wilbert, T. R. Zumwalt, Charles Zummond.

Fourth Company: Captain, H. J. G. Maxon; first lieutenant, G. N. Gilbert; second lieutenant, Wm. P. Hughes; orderly sergeant, Wm. R. Johnson; duty sergeants, O. S. Thomas, T. M. Buckner, Daniel Stewart, Joseph R. Ralston; privates, Andrew J. Adams, John Beattie, Charles Blair, John R. Coatney, Reuben Crowder, John W. Crowel, Manly Danforth, Harvey Graus, Albert H. Fish, John Feat, Andrew Gribble, Wm. Hawkins, Rufus Johnson, John W. Jackson, J. H. Loughlin, Davis Lator, John Miller, John Patterson, Richard Pollard, Wm. Robison, Asa Stone, Thos. Allphin, Wm. Bunton, Henry Blacker, Wm. Chapman, Samuel Chase, Sam Cornelius, James Dickson, S. D. Earl, Joseph Earl, D. O. Garland, Richmond Hays, Goalman Hubbard, Isaiah M. Johns, S. B. Knox, James H. Lewis, Horace Martin, John McCoy, James Officer, Henry Pellet, Wm. Russell, John Striethoff, A. M. Baxster, D. D. Burroughs, Samuel Clark, John M. Cantrel, Asi Cantrel, Albert G. Davis, S. D. Durbin, Samuel Fields, Rezin D. Foster, Isaac M. Foster, Horace Hart, Wm. Hock, Wm. A. Jack, Elias Kearney, James Killingsworth, Isaac Morgan, N. G. McDonnell, Madison McCully, Frederick Paul, Wm. M. Smith, H. M. Smith, Jason Wheeler, John Vaughn, Reuben Striethoff, Wm. Vaughn, Wm. Shirley.

Fifth Company: Captain, Philip F. Thompson; first lieutenant, James A. Brown; second lieutenant, Joseph M. Garrison; orderly sergeant, George E. Frazer; duty sergeants, A. Garrison, A. S. Welton, Jacob Greer, D. D. Dostins; privates, Martin P. Brown, William A. Culberson, Harrison Davis, James Electrels, William Eads, Alvin K. Fox, William J. Garrison, William Hailey, John A. Johnson, J. D. Richardson, Martin Wright, William Smith, E. T. Stone, John Thompson, H. C. Johnson, Joseph Kenny, Henry Kearney, Jacob Leabo, Daniel Matheny, William McKay, John Orchard, John B. Rowland, John Copenhagen, Bird Davis, John Eldridge, John Faron, C. B. Gray, Robert Harmon, James O. Henderson, Green Rowland, William Rogers, Thomas Wilson, William D. Stillwell, William Shepard, Alfred Jobe, T. J. Jackson, Jesse Cadwallader, Andrew Layson, J. C. Matheny, Adam Matheny, Charles P. Matt, James Packwood, Clark Rogers.

McKay's Company: Captain, Thomas McKay; first lieutenant, Charles McKay; second lieutenant, Alexander McKay; orderly sergeant, Edward Dupuis; duty sergeants, George Montour, Baptiste Dorio, David Crawford, Gideon Pion; privates, John Spence, Louis Laplante, Augustine Russie, Isaac Gervais, Louis Montour, Alexis Vatrais, Joseph Paino, Jno. Cunningham, Jno. Gros, Louis Joe Lenegratly, Antoine Poisier, Antoine Plante, Pierre Lacourse, Ashby Pearce, Antoine Lafaste, Nathan English, Charles Edwards, Gideon Gravelle, Chas. Corveniat, Antoine Bonanpaus, Nicholas Bird, Francis Dupres, William Torrie, Thomas Purvis, A. J. Thomas, J. H. Bigler, Mango Antoine Ansure, Narcisse Montiznie, Edward Crete.

English's Company: Captain, Levin N. English; first lieutenant, William Shaw; second lieutenant, F. M. Munkers; orderly sergeant, William Martin; duty sergeants, Hiram English, George Shaw, Thomas Boggs, L. J. Rector; privates, Jackson Adams, L. N. Abel, William Burton, Joseph Crauk, John Downing, Thos. T. Eyre, R. D. Foster, Alexander Gage, Thomas Gregory, G. W. Howell, Fales Howard, J. H. Lewis, N. G. McDonald, James Officer, Joseph Pearson, Jackson Rowell, William Simmons, Lewis Stewart, Charles Roth, Daniel Waldo, George Wesley, William Vaughn, L. N. English, Jr., Nineveh Ford, Albert Fish, A. Gribble, Samuel Senters, Thomas Wigger, Richard Hays, Wesley Howell, Richard Jenkins, G. H. March, William Medway, J. R. Payne, Benjamin Simpson, Alexander York.

Martin's Company: Captain, William Martin; first lieutenant, A. E. Garrison; second lieutenant, David Waldo; orderly sergeant, Ludwell J. Rector; duty sergeants, William Cosper, Fales Howard, Joseph Sylvester, Benjamin Wright; privates, J. Albright, H. Burdon, T. J. Blair, Joseph Borst, George Crabtree, Joseph Crauk, Wesley Cook, Samuel Center, John Cox, John Eads, Parnel Fowler, S. M. Crover, John Kaiser, Clark S. Pringle, Israel Wood, Lewis Stewart, Pleasant C. Kaiser, Thomas Canby, Sidney S. Ford, William Melawers, A. N. Rainwater, B. F. Shaw, Wm. Waldo, Silas G. Pugh, G. H. Vernon, Isaiah Matheny, Thomas T. Eyre, John C. Holgate.

Shaw's Company: Captain, William Shaw; first lieutenant, David Crawford; second lieutenant, Baptiste C. Dorio; orderly sergeant, Absalom M. Smith; duty sergeants, George Laroque, Vatall Bergeren, George W. Shaw, Charles McKay; privates, John H. Bigler, O. Crum, Joseph Despont, William Felix, Xavier Plante, Eli Viliell, F. M. Mankis, Antonio Plante, Charles Edwards, Andrew Heeber, Xavier Gervais, David Jones, John Pecares, Samuel Kinsey, Joseph Pearson, William Towie, Peter Jackson, Alexander Laborain, William McMillen, B. F. Nichols, Hiram Smead, William Marill, Francis Poiecor, George Westley.

Garrison's Company: Captain, J. M. Garrison; first lieutenant, A. E. Garrison; second lieutenant, John C. Herren; orderly sergeant, J. B. Kaiser; duty sergeants, George Crabtree, George Laroque, Joseph Colester; privates, E. Biernaisse, Thomas R. Blair, John C. Cox, Joseph Despart, Caleb M. Grover, Isaiah Matheny, John Picard, William Philips, Henry Barden, Silas P. Pugh, Isaac Wood, Penel Fowler, Andrew Hubert, Daniel Herren, Xavier Plante, Vitelle Bergeron.

This building was upon the site now covered by the garage erected in 1917 by the Stone estate. The picture is reproduced from a crayon sketch made by Lizzie Hungate (Mrs. H. A. Gardner), when a young girl in St. Paul's school. The building was of cottonwood logs and remained on the original site until 188--, when it was removed by C. W. Phillips, who designed keeping it as a historical relic, but the cottonwood logs soon decayed.]

Colonel Gilliam, though having had no military education, had the American pioneer's capacity and fertility of resources, and conducted his midwinter campaign with courage and energy. As already noted, Peter Skeen Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company, had ransomed the captives of Waiilatpu long before even the scantily equipped regiment of Oregon volunteers could take the field. But even though the first necessity, that of rescuing the captives, had been filled, the command felt that the situation compelled a definite campaign and the capture and bringing to justice of the murderers. Hence Colonel Gilliam pressed on his march as rapidly as possible. On the last day of February, 1848, he crossed the Des Chutes River to a point where hostile Indians had already taken a stand. A battle ensued the next day, resulting in the defeat of the Indians and a treaty of peace with the Des Chutes tribe. Pressing on toward Walla Walla, the command was checked at Sand Hollows in the Lower Umatilla River Valley, by a strong force of Indians in command of Five Crows, a Cayuse chief. This chieftain claimed the powers of a wizard and declared that he could swallow all the bullets fired at him by the whites. Another brave called War Eagle, or Swallow Ball, made equal claims to invulnerability. The two chiefs undertook to demonstrate their wizard powers by dashing out in front of the volunteers. Tom McKay, who was the stepson of Doctor McLoughlin and was then the captain of a company composed mainly of French Canadians, could not withstand the challenge and sent a bullet from his trusty rifle through the head of Swallow Ball. At the same time Charles McKay sent a companion ball into the supposedly invulnerable anatomy of Five Crows, wounding him so severely that he was out of the war henceforth. After a desultory series of engagements, the Indians retreated and Colonel Gilliam's command pushed on to Waiilatpu, which point they reached on March 2d. At the desolate spot they discovered that the remains of the martyrs of the Whitman Mission had been hastily interred by the Ogden party, but that in the interval of time coyotes had partially exhumed them. They reverently replaced the sacred remains in one large grave, covering them with a wagon box found on the ground. Them in that abandoned place the bones of the martyred band remained unmarked for many years. As now known to all residents of Walla Walla, a monument was reared upon the hill overlooking the scene of the tragedy, and the remains were reinterred and covered with a marble slab inscribed with the names of the victims of the massacre. A lock of long fair hair was found near the ruined mission which there is every reason to think was from the head of Mrs. Whitman. It is now preserved among the precious relics in the museum of Whitman College.

With the volunteers was Joseph L. Meek, one of the Rocky Mountain trappers who had settled in the Willamette Valley and had become prominent in establishing the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1843. He now with a few companions was on his way across the continent to carry dispatches to Washington announcing the Whitman Massacre and urging the Government to make immediate provision for a proper territorial government. Meek had come thus far with the troops, but now passed beyond them on his difficult and dangerous journey. It may be added that with much hardship from cold and near starvation he reached St. Louis in the extraordinarily short time of seventy-two days.

The dilatory and scheming Congress and administration was roused by the Whitman Massacre to some sense of the needs of far-away Oregon. A great struggle ensued over the slavery question in which Calhoun, Davis, Foote, and other southern senators made determined efforts to defeat the prohibition of slavery in Oregon. They were overpowered by the eloquence of Corwin, the determination of Benton and the statesmanship of Webster, and on August 13, 1848, the bill to establish a territorial government for Oregon with slavery prohibited passed Congress. President Polk appointed Joseph Lane governor, Joseph Meek marshal, and William B. Bryant judge in the new territory. Not till March 3, 1849, did they reach their stations and take up their duties. Of all the history of the great congressional discussion with the momentous national questions involved, there is a graphic account by Judge Thornton, while Benton in his "Thirty Years in Congress" gives a vivid and illuminating view.

Meanwhile the little army of Oregon volunteers were engaged in a long-drawn and harassing series of marches and counter marches in search of the guilty murderers. An adobe fort, called Fort Waters, from Lieut. Col. James Waters, was built at Waiilatpu. The Cayuses had counted upon the help of the other tribes, but the Nez Perces and Spokanes repudiated their murderous kindred, and the Yakimas took an attitude of indifference. Peupeumoxmox of the Walla Wallas, though having more of a real grievance against the whites than any other Indian on account of the brutal murder of his son, as related in the preceding chapter, did not actively aid the hostiles. He played a wily game, and was justly regarded with suspicion by the command.

In the midst of the tangle and uncertainty, and the scattering of the guilty parties in all directions, Colonel Gilliam decided to make an expedition northeasterly to the Tucanon and Snake rivers in the hope of encountering and destroying the main force of the hostiles and bringing the war to a conclusion at one blow. Reaching the mouth of the Tucanon, a few miles below the present Starbuck, the colonel was outgeneraled by the wily Indians who gave him to understand that the Indian camp was that of Peupeumoxmox. Taking advantage of the delay the Cayuses drove their large bands of stock into the Snake River and made them swim to the north bank. The main body of Indians succeeded in getting away with their valuable stock. The Palouses were doubtless aiding and abetting them. Disappointed in his aims Colonel Gilliam gave the order to return to Walla Walla. Upon reaching the Touchet in the near vicinity of the present Bolles Junction, the Indians made a rush for the Touchet River in the evident hope of entangling the troops at the crossing. A desperate encounter took place, the hardest, and in fact the only real battle of the year, in which the whites fought their way through the stream and made their way to the Walla-Walla. Reaching Fort Waters at Waiilatpu on March 16th, it was determined by a council of war that Colonel Gilliam should go to The Dalles with 160 men in order to meet and escort a supply train to the Walla Walla, while Lieutenant-Colonel Waters should take command at the fort. On the way, just having crossed the Umatilla, Colonel Gilliam while in the act of drawing a rope from a wagon accidentally caught it in the trigger of a loaded gun. The weapon was discharged and the commander was instantly killed. This was a most lamentable loss, for Colonel Gilliam was not only an efficient commander, but was one of the best of the Oregon pioneers, with the capacity for a most useful career in the new land. Lieutenant-Colonel Waters became colonel in command upon the announcement of the death of Colonel Gilliam. He undertook at once a march to Lapwai under the belief that the murderers were harbored among the Nez Perces. Nothing definite was accomplished by this expedition. According to the assertions of the Nez Perces Telaukaikt, one of the supposed leaders of the Whitman Massacre, had fled. The Nez Perces delivered a number of cattle and horses which they said belonged to the Cayuses. The attempt to seize the murderers themselves being seemingly futile, Colonel Waters returned again to the fort at Waiilatpu. It had now become evident that the condition did not justify the retention of a regiment in the Cayuse country. Governor Abernethy, still acting as head of the Provisional Government of Oregon, decided to recall the main body of troops. A small force under Major Magone was sent to Chimakain, the mission near Spokane where Eells and Walker were located, in order to bring that missionary band to a place of safety. It was found by Major Magone that the Spokane Indians had been faithful to their teachers and had guarded them from danger. Few things more thrilling have been narrated in the hearing of the author than the accounts given by Mr. Eells and Mr. Walker, and above all by Edwin Eells, oldest son of Father Eells, of the conditions under which that devoted group existed for some days when it was thought that the hostile Indians were on the way to Spokane to destroy them. On one evening hearing an awful powwow and hullaballoo from a crowd of mounted Indians and seeing them rapidly approaching in the dim light, Father Eells went out bravely to meet them, thinking it likely was the dreaded marauders, to discover in a moment that it was their own Spokanes, armed for their defence.

Escorted by the company of volunteers, the missionaries of Chimakain went to the Willamette Valley where the Walker family made their permanent home, while Father Eells with his family remained twelve years and then returned to the Walla Walla country to found Whitman College and to make his home for a number of years at Waiilatpu.

While Major Magone was thus engaged in caring for the last of the missionaries, Capt. William Martin was left at Fort Waters (Waiilatpu) with fifty-five men to look out for the interests of immigrants who might enter the country and to keep a vigilant eye upon the movements of the savages. This Captain Martin, it may be remembered by some readers, took up his residence at Pendleton in 1880 and was long a leading citizen of that city. One of his sons now lives at Touchet in Walla Walla County and one of his grandsons, of the same name as himself, became one of the most noted athletes at Whitman College and now occupies a place as physical director in a large eastern university. Another small force in command of Lieutenant Rogers was stationed at Fort Lee at The Dalles. But as to further operations in the field they seemed to be at an end. The Cayuses scattered in various directions, and other Indians, while making no resistance to the whites, gave them little or no assistance. Finally in 1850 a band of friendly Umatillas pursued a bunch of Cayuses under Tamsaky or Tamsucky to the headwaters of the John Day River and after a severe struggle killed Tamsaky and captured the most of his followers.

The last act in the tragedy was the execution of several Indian chiefs who had voluntarily gone to Oregon City and had been seized and subjected to trial as being the murderers of the Whitman party. There is a very unsatisfactory condition of testimony about the real guilt of this group of Indians. The Cayuse Indians claimed, and many of the whites believed that one only of the five who were hung on June 3, 1850, was guilty. As a concluding glance at this grewsome event, the reader may be interested in the following official declaration of innocence of those Indians.

"Tilokite--I am innocent of the crime of which I am charged. Those who committed it are dead, some killed, some died; there were ten, two were my sons; they were killed by the Cayuses. Tumsucky, before the massacre, came to my lodge; he told me that they were going to hold a council to kill Doctor Whitman. I told him not to do so, that it was bad. One night seven Indians died near the house of Doctor Whitman, to whom he had given medicines. Tumsucky's family were sick; he gave them roots and leaves; they got well. Other Indians died. Tumsucky came often. I talked to him, but his ears were shut; he would not hear; he and others went away. After a while some children came into my lodge and told me what was going on. I had told Tumsucky over and over to let them alone; my talk was nothing; I shut my mouth. When I left my people, the young chief told me to come down and talk with the big white chief, and tell him who it was, that did kill Doctor Whitman and others. My heart was big; 'tis small now. The priest tells me I must die tomorrow. I know not for what. They tell me that I have made a confession to the marshal that I struck Doctor Whitman. 'Tis false! You ask me if the priests did not encourage us to kill Doctor Whitman? I answer no, no."

"Monday, 11:30 o'clock--I am innocent, but my heart is weak since I have been in chains, but since I must die, I forgive them all. Those who brought me here and take care of me, I take them all in my arms, my heart is opened."

"Quiahmarsum (skin or panther's coat)--I was up the river at the time of the massacre, and did not arrive until the next day. I was riding on horseback; a white woman came running from the house. She held out her hand and told me not to kill her. I put my hand upon her head and told her not to be afraid. There were plenty of Indians all about. She, with the other women and children, went to Walla Walla, to Mr. Ogden's. I was not present at the murder, nor was I any way concerned in it. I am innocent. It hurts me to talk about dying for nothing. Our chief told us to come down and tell all about it. Those who committed the murder are killed and dead. The priest says I must die tomorrow. If they kill me, I am innocent."

"Monday, 11:30 A.M.--I was sent here by my chief to declare who the guilty persons were; the white chief would then shake hands with me; the young chief would come after me; we would have a good heart. My young chief told me I was to come here to tell what I know concerning the murderers. I did not come as one of the murderers, for I am innocent. I never made any declarations to any one that I was guilty. This is the last time that I may speak."

"Kloakamus--I was there at the time; I lived there, but I had no hand in the murder. I saw them when they were killed, but did not touch or strike any one. I looked on. There were plenty of Indians. My heart was sorry. Our chief told us to come down and tell who the murderers were. There were ten; they are killed. They say I am guilty, but it is not so; I am innocent. The people do not understand me. I can't talk to them. They tell me I must die by being hung by the neck. If they do kill me, I am innocent, and God will give me a big heart."

FORT WALLA WALLA IN 1857]

"Monday, 11:30 A.M.--I have no reason to die for things that I did not do. My time is short. I tell the truth. I know that I am close to the grave; but my heart is open and I tell the truth. I love every one in this world. I know that God will give me a big heart. I never confessed to the marshal that I was guilty, or to any other person; I am innocent. The priests did not tell us to do what the Indians have done. This is my last talk."

"Siahsaluchus (or Wet Wolf)--I say the same as the others; the murderers are killed; some by the whites, some by the Cayuses, and some by others. They were ten in number."

"Monday, 11:30 A.M.--I have nothing more to say; I think of God. I forgive all men; I love them. The priests did not tell us to do this."

"Thomahas--I did not know that I came here to die. Our chief told us to come and see the white chief and tell him all about it. The white chief would then tell us all what was right and what was wrong. Learn us (how) to live when we returned home. Why should I have a bad heart--after I am showed and taught how to live? My eyes were shut when I came here. I did not see, but now they are opened. I have been taught; I have been showed what was good and what was bad. I do not want to die; I know now that we are all brothers. They tell me the same Spirit made us all."

"Monday, 11:30 A.M.--Thomahas joined With Tilokite. My heart cries my brother was guilty, but he is dead. I am innocent. I know I am going to die for things I am not guilty of, but I forgive them. I love all men now. My hope, the priest tells me, is in Christ. My heart shall be big with good."

"(Signed)
HENRY H. CRAWFORD,
Sergeant, Co. D, R. M. R.

ROBERT D. MAHON,
Corporal, Co. A, R. M. R."

Following the close of the Cayuse war there was a lull in hostilities during which several white men came to the Walla Walla country or near it, with a view to locating. In Col. F. T. Gilbert's valuable history of Walla Walla and adjoining counties, published in 1882, we find the data for a summary of the earliest settlers as follows:

The first settlers of all were William C. McKay, son of Thomas McKay (who himself was the stepson of Dr. John McLoughlin) and Henry M. Chase. These men were located on the Umatilla River in 1851 at a point near the present Town of Echo. Doctor McKay later became a resident of Pendleton where he was well known for many years. In 1852 Mr. Chase went with Wm. Craig to the Nez Percé country near Lewiston where he entered the cattle business. In 1855 he went to the region of the present Dayton and a short time later to Walla Walla. He lived in Walla Walla a number of years and was well known to all old-timers. He lived upon the property now the site of St. Paul's School. Louis Raboin, a Frenchman, though an American citizen, was in the Walla Walla country a number of years beginning in 1851. In 1855 he located at what is now the Town of Marengo on the Tucanon. P. M. Lafontain came to the region in 1852 and located a claim adjoining that of Mr. Chase, near the present Dayton, in 1855. Lloyd Brooke, George C. Bumford, and John F. Noble came to Waiilatpu in 1852, and in the following year established themselves there in the cattle business. There they remained till driven out by the War of 1855. A. P. Woodward was a resident of the Walla Walla country during the same period. It is proper to name here Wm. Craig who had been a mountain man a number of years and became located among the Nez Percé Indians at Lapwai in 1845. From him Craig Mountains took their name. He was an important personage as interpreter and peace-maker among the Nez Perces during the great war later. There were several men drifting through the country employed as laborers by Mr. Chase and by the cattle-men at Waiilatpu.

There was at that time quite a settlement on the Walla Walla around what is now known as Frenchtown, about ten miles from the present city. These were Hudson's Bay Company men. We find in the list of names several whose descendants lived subsequently in that region, though they mainly left during the Indian Wars and did not return. There were two priests among them, Fathers Chirouse and Pondosa, and they were assisted by two brothers. James Sinclair had at that time charge of Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia. Though the region was then in possession of the United States, the Hudson's Bay Company had not yet delivered up its locations.

During this lull a very important event occurred. On March 3, 1853, the Territory of Washington was created and Isaac I. Stevens was appointed governor. The first Territorial Legislature laid out sixteen counties. Among them was Walla Walla County. That was the first "Old Walla Walla County." That it was much more extensive than the area especially covered by this work will appear when the boundaries are given, thus: "Beginning its line on the north bank of the Columbia at a point opposite the mouth of Des Chutes River, it ran thence north to the forty-ninth parallel." It therefore embraced all of what was then Washington Territory east of that line, which included all of present Idaho, about a fourth of present Montana, and about half of what is now Washington. That was the first attempt at organized government in Eastern Washington. The county seat was located "on the land of Lloyd Brooke," which was at Waiilatpu. The Legislature further decreed: "That George C. Bumford, John Owens, and A. Dominique Pambrun be, and they are hereby constituted and appointed the Board of County Commissioners; and that Narcises Remond be, and hereby is appointed sheriff; and that Lloyd Brooke be, and is hereby appointed judge of probate, and shall have jurisdiction as justice of the peace; all in and for the County of Walla Walla." These appointees with the exception of Mr. Owens (who lived near the present Missoula), were residents of the region of Waiilatpu and Frenchtown. That county organization was never inaugurated, and it remains as simply an interesting historical reminiscence.

In March, 1855, another most notable event occurred, the first in a series that made much history in the Northwest. This was the discovery of gold at the junction of the Pend Oreille River with the Columbia. The discoverer was a French half-breed who had previously lived at French Prairie, Ore. The announcement of the discovery caused a stampede to the east of the mountains and inaugurated a series of momentous changes.

Governor Stevens had entered upon his great task of organizing the newly created territory by undertaking the establishment of a number of Indian reservations. The necessities of the case--both justice to the Indians and the whites, as well as the proper development of the country whose vast possibilities were beginning to be seen by the farsighted ones--seemed to compel the segregation of the natives into comparatively small reservations. The history of the laying out of these reservations is an entire history by itself. There has been controversy as to the rights and wrongs of the case which has been best treated by Hazard Stevens in his "Life of Governor Stevens" (his father) in defence, and by Ezra Meeker in his "Tragedy of Leschi" in condemnation. Suffice it to say that the reservation policy was but faintly understood by the Indians and occurring in connection with the gold discoveries and the entrance of whites, eager for wealth and opportunity, it furnished all the conditions requisite for a first-class Indian war. Doubtless the great underlying cause was, as usual in Indian wars, the perception by Indians that their lands were steadily and surely passing out of their hands.

In 1854 and 1855 a general flame of war burst forth in widely separated regions. There can be no question that there was an attempt at co-operation by the tribes over the whole of Oregon and Washington. But so wide and so scattered was the field and so incapable were the Indians of intelligent unity of action that the white settlements were spared a war of extermination. The centers of warfare were the Rogue River in Southern Oregon, a number of points on Puget Sound, especially Seattle and vicinity, and White River Valley.

In May, 1855, Governor Stevens with a force of about fifty men reached Walla Walla for a conference with the tribes. The best authorities on the conference are Hazard Stevens, then a boy of fourteen, who accompanied his father, and Lieutenant Kip of the United States Army. This meeting at Walla Walla was one of the most interesting and important in the annals of Indian relationships with the United States Government. There seems some difference of opinion as to the exact location of the conference. It has generally been thought that Stevens' camp was at what is now known as "Council Grove Addition," near the residence of ex-Senator Ankeny. When General Hazard Stevens was in Walla Walla some years ago he gave his opinion that it was in the near vicinity of the residence of Mrs. Clara Quinn. William McBean, a son of the Hudson's Bay Company agent at Fort Walla Walla during the Cayuse war, who was himself in Stevens' force, as a young boy, told the author nearly thirty years ago that he believed the chief point of the conference was almost exactly on the present site of Whitman College. It appears from the testimony of old-timers that Mill Creek has changed its course at intervals in these years, and that as a result the exact identification is difficult. It seems plain, however, that the Indians were camped at various places along the two spring branches, "College Creek" and "Tannery Creek."

With his little force, Governor Stevens might well have been startled, if he had been a man sensible of fear, when there came tearing across the plain to the northeast of the council ground an army of twenty-five hundred Nez Perces, headed by Halhaltlossot, known to the whites as Lawyer. After the Indian custom they were whooping and firing their guns and making their horses prance and cavort in the clouds of dust stirred by hundreds of hoofs. But as it proved, these spectacular performers were the real friends of the Governor and his party and later on their salvation. Two days after, three hundred Cayuses, those worst of the Columbia River Indians, surly and scowling, made their appearance, led by Five Crows and Young Chief. Within two days again there arrived a force of two thousand Yakimas, Umatillas, and Walla Wallas. The "Valley of Waters" must have been at that time a genuine Indian paradise. The broad flats of Mill Creek and the Walla Walla were covered with grass and spangled with flowers. Numerous clear cold steams, gushing in springs from the ground and overhung by birches and cottonwoods, with the wild roses drooping over them, made their gurgling way to a junction with the creek. Countless horses grazed on the bunch-grass hills and farther back in the foothills there was an abundance of game. No wonder that the Indians, accustomed to gather for councils and horse-races, and all the other delights of savage life, should have scanned with jealous eyes the manifest desire of the whites for locations in a spot "where every prospect pleases and man alone is vile."

It became evident to Governor Stevens that a conspiracy was burrowing beneath his feet. Peupeumoxmox of the Walla Wallas and Kahmiakin of the Yakimas were the leaders. The former was now an old man, embittered by the murder of his son Elijah, and regarded by many as having been the real fomenter of the Whitman Massacre. Kahmiakin was a remarkable Indian. Winthrop, in his "Canoe and Saddle," gives a vivid description of him as being an of extraordinary force and dignity. 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 gesticulations many and characteristic. He talks mostly in his face and with his hands and arms." He was a man of lofty stature and splendid physique, a typical Indian of the best type. This great Yakima chief saw that his race was doomed unless they could check White occupancy at its very beginning. Restrained by no scruples (as indeed his civilized opponents seldom were) he seems to have conspired with the Walla Wallas and Cayuses to wipe out Stevens and his band, then rush to The Dalles and exterminate the garrison there; then with united forces of all the Eastern Oregon Indians sweep on into the principal settlements of the whites, those of the Willamette Valley, and wipe them out. Meanwhile their allies on the Sound were to seize the pivotal points there. Thus Indian victory would be comprehensive and final. Preposterous as such an expectation appears now to us, it was not, after all, so remote as we might think. Six or seven thousand of these powerful warriors, splendidly mounted and well armed, if well directed, crossing the mountains into the scattered settlements of Western Oregon and Washington might well have cleaned up the country, with the exception of Portland, which was then quite a little city and in a position which would have made any successful attack by Indians hopeless.

But the Nez Perces saved the day. Halhaltlossot perceived that the only hope for his people was in peace and as favorable reservation assignments as could be secured. He nipped the conspiracy in the bud. Hazard Stevens gives a thrilling account of how the Nez Percé chief went by night to the Governor's camp and revealed the conspiracy. He moved his own camp to a point adjoining the whites and made it clear that the hostiles could accomplish their aims only in the face of Nez Percé opposition. This situation made the conspiracy impotent.

J. J. Rohn

Dr. John Tempany

Michael Kenny

Joseph McEvoy

COMRADES AT FORT WALLA WALLA IN 1857]

Not all, however, of the Nez Perces approved the tactics of Lawyer. There was a powerful faction that favored the Yakimas, Cayuses, and Walla Wallas. While Governor Stevens had been gradually bringing the main body of the Nez Perces to consent to a treaty assigning certain reservations to them, and was flattering himself that with the aid of Lawyer he was just about to clinch the deal, there was a sudden commotion in the council, and into the midst there burst the old chief Apashwayhayikt (Looking Glass). He had just been on a raid against the Blackfeet, and hearing of the probable outcome of the Walla Walla Council, had made a ride of 300 miles in seven days. With his little band of attendants he came racing over the "bench" on which "Garden City Heights" is now located, and with scalps of several slaughtered Blackfeet dangling from his belt he rushed to the front, and fixing his angry and reproachful eyes upon his tribesmen he broke forth into a harangue which Hazard Stevens was told by some Indians began about thus: "My people, what have you done? While I was gone you 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 with you." Lieutenant Kip declares that though he could not understand the words, the effect was tremendous and the speech was equal to the greatest bursts of oratory that he had ever heard. The council broke up and the nearly accepted treaty went to naught.

With great patience and skill Stevens and Lawyer rallied their defeated forces and, in spite of the opposition of Looking Glass they secured the acquiescence of the main body of the Indians to three reservations. These were essentially the same as now known: the Yakima, the Umatilla, and the Nez Percé. In case of the last, however, there was a lamentable and distressing miscarriage of agreement and perhaps of justice. William McBean, already mentioned as a half-breed boy employed by Governor Stevens, stated to the author many years ago that he discovered that the general impression among the Nez Percé Indians was that by accepting the treaty and surrendering their lands in the Touchet, Tucanon, and Alpowa countries, they would be assured of the permanent possession of the Wallowa. Now, if there was any region more suitable to Indians and more loved by them than another, it was that same Wallowa, with its snowy peaks, its lakes and streams filled with fish, its grassy upland with deer and elk, its thickets and groves with grouse and pheasants. The understanding of the "Joseph band" of Nez Perces was, according to McBean, that the loved Wallowa was to be their special range. Upon that supposition they voted with Lawyer for the treaty and that was the determining influence that secured its passage. But twenty years later, white men began to perceive that the Wallowa was also suitable to them. With that lack of continuity in dealing with natives in face of a demand for land by whites which has made most of our Indian treaties mere "scraps of paper," the administration (that of Grant) forgot the understanding, the Indians were dispossessed, and the Nez Percé war with the very people who had saved Stevens in 1855 was precipitated in 1877. Young Joseph (Hallakallakeen) led his warriors in the most spectacular Indian war in the history of this country, as a result of which his band was finally overpowered and located on the Nespilem, a part of the Colville reservation. Kamiakin had seemed to agree to the treaty at Walla Walla. But he was only biding his time. Governor Stevens, having, as he thought, pacified the tribes by that group of treaties, proceeded on a similar mission to the Flatheads in Northern Idaho. There, after long discussion, a treaty was negotiated by which a million and a quarter acres was set aside for a reservation. The next move of the Governor was across the Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton.

But what was happening on the Walla Walla? No sooner was the Governor fairly out of sight across the flower-bespangled plains, which extended 200 miles northeast from Walla Walla, than the wily Kamiakin began to resume his plots. So successful was he, with the valuable assistance of Peupeumoxmox, Young Chief, and Five Crows, that the treaties, just ratified, were torn to shreds and the flame of savage warfare burst forth across the entire Columbia Valley.

Hazard Stevens, in his invaluable history of his father, gives a vivid picture of how the news reached them in their camp, thirty-five miles up the Missouri from Fort Benton. Summer had now passed into autumn. A favorable treaty had been made with the Blackfeet. On October 29th the little party were gathered around their campfire in the frosty air of fall in that high altitude when they discerned a solitary rider making his way slowly toward them. As he drew near they soon saw that it was Pearson, the express rider. Pearson was one of the best examples of those scouts whose lives were spent in conveying messages from forts to parties in the field. He usually traveled alone, and his life was always in his hand. He seemed to be made of steel springs, and it had been thought that he could endure anything. "He could ride anything that wore hair." He rode 1,750 miles in twenty-eight days at one time, one stage of 260 miles having been made in three days. But as he slowly drew up to the party in the cold evening light, it was seen that even Pearson was "done." His horse staggered and fell, and he himself could not stand or speak for some time. After he had been revived he told his story, and a story of disaster and foreboding it was, sure enough.

All the great tribes of the Columbia plains west of the Nez Perces had broken out, the Cayuses, Yakimas, Palouses, Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and Klickitats. They had swept the country clean of whites. The ride of Pearson from The Dalles to the point where he reached Governor Stevens is one of the most thrilling in our annals. By riding all day and night, he reached a horse ranch on the Umatilla belonging to William McKay, but he found the place deserted. Seeing a splendid horse in the bunch near by, he lassoed and saddled him. Though the horse was as wild as air, Pearson managed to mount and start on. Just then there swept into view a force of Indians who, instantly divining what Pearson was trying to do, gave chase. Up and down hill, through vale, and across the rim-rock, they followed, sending frequent bullets after him, and yelling like demons. "Whupsiah si-ah-poo, Whupsiah!" ("Kill the white man!") But the wild horse which the intrepid rider bestrode proved his salvation, for he gradually outran all his pursuers. Traveling through the Walla Walla at night Pearson reached the camp of friendly Nez Percé Red Wolf on the Alpowa the next day, having ridden 200 miles from The Dalles without stopping except the brief time changing horses. Snow and hunger now impeded his course. Part of the way he had to go on snow-shoes without a horse. But with unflinching resolution he passed on, and so now here he was with his dismal tidings.

The dispatches warned Governor Stevens that Kamiakin with a thousand warriors was in the Walla Walla Valley and that it would be impossible for him to get through by that route, and that he must therefore return to the East by the Missouri and come back to his territory by the steamer route of Panama. That meant six months' delay. With characteristic boldness, Governor Stevens at once rejected the more cautious course and went right back to Spokane by Coeur d'Alene Pass, deep already with winter snows, suffering intensely with cold and hunger, but avoiding by that route the Indians sent out to intercept him. With extraordinary address, he succeeding in turning the Spokane Indians to his side. The Nez Perces, thanks to Lawyer's fidelity, were still friendly, and with these two powerful tribes arrayed against the Yakimas, there was still hope of holding the Columbia Valley.

After many adventures, Governor Stevens reached Olympia in safety. Govornor Curry of Oregon had already called a force of volunteers into the field. The Oregon volunteers were divided into two divisions, one under Col. J. W. Nesmith, which went into the Yakima country, and the other under Lieut.-Col. J. K. Kelly, which went to Walla Walla. The latter force fought the decisive battle of the campaign on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of December, 1855. It was a series of engagements occurring in the heart of the Walla Walla Valley, a "running fight" culminating at what is now called Frenchtown, ten miles west of the present City of Walla Walla.

The famous battle of the Walla Walla, being so conspicuous and so near the present city, is worthy of some detail. The report of Col. J. K. Kelley is as follows:

"On the evening of the 8th inst., I gave you a hasty report of our battle with Indians up to the close of the second day's fight, and then stated that at a future time I would give a more detailed account of all transactions that occurred since the march from the Umatilla River. Owing to active engagements in the field, and in pursuit of the Indians, I have not hitherto had leisure to make that report.

"As soon as it was dark on the evening of the second, I proceeded with my command from Fort Henrietta to Walla Walla, having left a detachment of twenty-five men, under command of Lieutenant Sword, to protect the former post. On the morning of the third we encamped on the bank of the Walla Walla River about four miles from the fort; and, proceeding to the latter place, I found it had been pillaged by the Indians, the buildings much defaced and the furniture destroyed.