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