USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 26
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May 15, 1863, the time fixed for the confer- ence, arrived; and the whites, preparing for the occasion, stationed four companies of the First Oregon Cavalry at Fort Lapwai and made as great a display as possible, while they at the same time erected a beautiful little tent city about a mile from the fort and entertained the Indian leaders as magnificently as possible, in order to keep their good will. Eagle-from-the-Light, Big Thunder and Joseph-all chiefs opposed to another treaty-were present with twelve hun- dred followers, and also Lawyer and his people, numbering about two thousand. On the part of the United States there were Superintendent Hale, and the agents Hutchins and Howe, and Robert Newell, with the military force already mentioned. When all was ready, a delay of two weeks occurred because the Indians would have no interpreter excepting Perrin B. Whitman, who was in the Willamette valley and had to be sent for. The Palouses, taking advantage of this period of idleness, invaded the Nez Perces camp, bent upon mischief, one of them going so far as to strike Commissioner Howe with a riding-whip, when they were ordered off the reservation by Colonel Steinberger, and Drake's company of cavalry was assigned to the duty of keeping them away.
The long looked for council began its sessions about the last of May. The lands in considera- tion aggregated about ten thousand square miles. The chiefs put in their claims to certain parts of the former reservation; and Big Thunder claimed the spot on which the white agency was located and which had also been claimed in part by other white parties. Eagle-from-the-Light laid claim to the country on White Bird creek, a small
branch of the Salmon river, and adjacent to the Florence mines, while Chief Joseph declared his title to the valley of Wallowa creek, a tributary to the Grand Rond river. Each of these chiefs, representing his band, declined to sell. The first proposition of the commissioners was that the Nez Perces should sell all their lands except five or six hundred square miles on the south side of the south fork of the Clearwater, embracing the Kamiah prairie, to be surveyed into allotments, with the understanding that a patent was to issue to each individual holding land in severalty, witlı payment for improvements abandoned. But to this the nation would not agree. The whites next proposed to enlarge this boundary to double the size, and the provisions of the treaty of 1855 to be continued to them; and seventy-five thousand dollars, in material utilities, school-houses, etc., was offered to be expended among the Indians by way of indemnity. Lawyer made a shrewd speech, in order to get ahead of all the other chiefs as well as of the United States. Then for several days various propositions were made al- ternately by each party and rejected, and fears were entertained that the council would end with- out an agreement and war would result. But the absence of most of the chiefs and the presence of. a detachment of white cavalry caused Lawyer to make propositions that were acceptable to the commissioners, and a treaty was signed by him. "From the subsequent action of one of the chiefs," says Bancroft's history, "it is presumable that they believed that by refusing to sign the treaty made with the majority of the nation they would be able to hold their several favorite haunts."
This treaty reserved about a million and a half acres, that is, about five hundred acres to every individual in the nation, and to Lawyer and Big Thunder, the two principal men in the nation, their old homes, at Kamiah and Lapwai respect- ively. The consideration to be paid for the re- linquished lands, in addition to the annuities due under the former treaty, and the goods and pro- visions distributed at the signing of the treaty, was two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. But the general government of the United States had its attention too intently fixed upon the great civil war and its subsequent issues to look after the Indians of the northwest. Characters like
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the "carpet-baggers" of the south were left to ad- minister affairs here and general looseness pre- vailed. The only natural consequence was dis- satisfaction everywhere, with a constant danger of an Indian uprising.
In 1867 an attempt was made by the general government to have the Indians obtain a clear understanding of the provisions of all the treaty clauses that were still in force. A special agent was appointed, in conjunction with Governor Ballard and others, to induce the Nez Perces to accept the new provisions. This failing, the treaty was ratified in its first form by six hun- dred of the nation. The next year a number of chiefs and whites went to Washington to talk with the president, which conference resulted profitably, and Lawyer and Jason, chiefs, re- turned to instruct their people.
In 1869 the government made a radical change by assigning to each Indian agency a military officer as agent. Lieutenant J. W. Wham was appointed to the Lapwai agency. But in 1870 congress passed an act whereby it became neces- sary to relieve officers of the army from this ser- vice and to substitute the missionaries of the various religious organizations of the country. Accordingly a Presbyterian was sent to the Nez Perces, some of whom had been made Catholics, and friction naturally resulted. None of these church missionaries were as satisfactory to the Indians as their former agents had been, and meanwhile white invasions continued, by estab- lishing routes of travel, building bridges, etc., --- all of which tended to arouse and confirm Indian suspicions as to the fidelity of the white man's government.
The limitation of the Indian to narrower quar- ters was in the direction of compelling him to labor for his livelihood more than he had been accustomed to, with the result that any one would naturally expect. Besides, the policy of our gov- ernment in giving annuities and payment for lands encouraged idleness among them.
Thus for years sundry propositions and decrees were made and either rejected or disregarded by both parties, leaving many things in chaos as be- tween the whites and reds. After the close of the Modoc war, in 1874, General Davis ordered a march ofseven hundred miles by the cavalry through the country threatened by the dissatisfied tribes, in
order to impress upon their minds the magnitude or power of the military force of the United States. The Indians continued to roam at will, regardless of reservations, while the white set- tlers on the so-called reservation or disputed ter- ritory ended their uneasiness by having the gov- ernment annul the reservation clause of the treaty, June 10, 1875, when the president released fourteen hundred and twenty-five miles from all Indian title.
At this juncture the department at Washington appointed a commission to repair to Idaho and hold a consultation with Joseph and others, in order to learn more thoroughly the exact status of affairs. The commission learned from the shrewd chief that he cared for no reservation or anything else made by the white man, and he seemed too independent to parley with white men about the matter. The commissioners, how . ever, recommended that the teachers of the In- dian religion, which consisted mainly in hatred to the white man and to all division of land, should not be permitted to visit other tribes and influence the non-treaty Indians; that a military station should be established at once in the Wal- lowa valley, while the agent of the Nez Perces should still strive to settle all that would listen to him upon the reservation; that unless in a reasonable time Joseph should consent to remove he should be forcibly taken with his people and given lands on the reservation; and that if they persisted in overrunning the lands of the settlers and disturbing the public peace by threats or otherwise, sufficient force would be used to com- pel them to take the reservation and keep the peace. A similar policy was recommended to- ward all the roaming bands, whether they had signed any treaty or not. The government adopted these suggestions, stationing two com- panies of cavalry in the Wallowa valley and using all diligence in persuading the Indians to go upon the reservation; and, at lengthi, in May, 1877, they consented,-Joseph and White Bird, for their own and smaller bands, agreeing to re- move at a given time and select their lands, within thirty days. On the twenty-ninth day the war-whoop was sounded and the tragedy of Lost river valley in Oregon was re-enacted along the Salmon river in Idaho!
For this purpose the Indians had been gath-
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ering on Cottonwood creek at the north end of Camas prairie, at the foot-hills of the Florence mountains, about sixty-five miles from Lewiston, with the ostensible purpose of removing to the reservation. General O. O. Howard was at Fort Lapwai, and, seeing that the Indians were con- gregating in large numbers near the reservation, instead of going directly upon it, sent out Cap- tain Perry on the afternoon of the last day of grace, to have ready a small detachment which should start early on the morning of the 15th to obtain news of the actions and purposes of the red men. The same evening he received a letter from a prominent citizen of Mount Idaho, who expressed fears that the Indians did not intend to keep faith with him; but the General took no measures to prevent the disaster feared.
In the morning the detachment under Perry started out toward Cottonwood creek, meeting two reservation Indians who excitedly bore the news that four white men had been killed on John Day creek, and that White Bird was riding about declaring that the non-treaty Indians would not go on the reservation. Howard has- tened to the agency to consult with J. B. Mon- teith, the Presbyterian missionary there, taking with him the Indian witnesses, who stated that the white men were killed in a private quarrel. This report necessitated the sending of other messengers to prove the truth of what they had heard before the General would feel justified in displaying any military force. Late that after- noon they returned, and with them another mes- senger from Mount Idaho, with letters giving a detailed statement of a general massacre on Sa !- mon river and the destruction of all the property of the settlers.
At Fort Lapwai were two companies of cav- alry, numbering together ninety-nine men. On the night of the 15th, above mentioned, Perry set out with his command, Troop F, and came upon the Indians in White Bird canyon, early on the morning of the 17th. He immediately attacked them, but with the most disastrous results. In about an hour thirty-four of his men were killed and two wounded! He retreated to Grangeville, sixteen miles distant, leaving his dead upon the field!
Of course the whites were obliged to rise sud- denly with all the force they could command.
General Howard and the governors of Oregon, Washington and Idaho issued orders for the rais- ing and equipment of volunteer companies with all haste. By the 22d of the month troops enough had gathered to enable General Howard to take the field, having two hundred and twenty-five men, with artillery, ready to march. The war thus inaugurated on the 23d of June continued to the 4th of October, "with interesting incidents enough," says Bancroft, "to fill a volume." Jos- eph continued to run from one point to another, marvelously escaping capture until his surrender to Colonel Nelson A. Miles, near the north end of Bear Paw mountains, on the 5th of October.
Miles lost two officers-Captain Hale and Lieutenant Biddle-and twenty-one killed and forty-four wounded. The number of persons killed by Joseph's people outside of battle was about fifty; volunteers killed in war, thirteen; officers and men of the regular army, one hun- dred and five, and the wounded were not less than a hundred and twenty. Thus, to capture three hundred warriors, encumbered with their families and stock, required at various times the services of between thirty and forty companies of United States troops, aided by volunteers and Indian scouts! The distance marched by How- ard's army from Kamiah to Bear Paw moun- tains was over fifteen hundred miles, one of the most famous marches on record. The fame of Joseph became widespread by this enormous out- lay of money and effort in his capture and from the military skill he displayed in avoiding it for so long a time.
When the Nez Perces surrendered, they were promised permission to return to Idaho, and were given in charge of Colonel Miles, now a general, to be kept until spring, it then being too late to make the journey. But General Phil. Sheridan, in whose department they were, or- dered them to Fort Leavenworth and afterward to the Indian Territory, near the Ponca agency, where they continued to reside in peace and prosperity.
In 1878 the number of Nez Perces, exclusive of Joseph's followers, still off the reservation, was five hundred. The progress of the Nez Perces on the reservation was rather assisted than re- tarded by their separation from the non-treaty Indians. Four of the young men from Kamiah
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were examined by the Presbytery of Oregon in 1877, and licensed to preach and teach among their tribe. The membership of the Kamiah and Lapwai churches in 1879 was over three hundred. They were presided over by the white minister, and one Nez Perce minister, named Robert Wil- liams. In 1880 there were nearly four thousand acres of land in the reservation under cultivation by one hundred and forty Nez Perce farmers. Of the twelve hundred who lived on the reserve, nearly nine hundred wore the dress common to the whites. In education they were slow. Not- withstanding the government grant of six thou- sand dollars annually for school purposes for thirteen years, and notwithstanding all the mis- sionary work, the number who could read in 1880 was only one hundred and ten! The number of children of school age was two hundred and fifty, only about one-fifth of whom attended school.
July 1, 1880, the Stevens treaty expired by limi- tation, and with it chieftainships and annuities were abolished. In most cases chieftainship had been a source of jealousy to the Indians and danger to the white people, as in the cases of Joseph, White Bird and others; but the influence of Lawyer and his successor was probably worth much more than the salary he received, in pre- serving the peace. When the war was forever ended, it was no longer needed for that purpose.
THE SHOSHONE WARS.
Soon after the termination of the war with the Nez Perce Indians in the north, the Shoshones of the southern part of the territory of Idaho be- gan to make trouble. During the Shoshone war of 1867 Governor Ballard made an informal treaty with the Bannock branch of this nation in the eastern part of the territory, by which they agreed to go upon the Fort Hall reservation be- fore June 1, 1868, provided the land should be set apart for them, and that they should be taught husbandry and mechanics and given schools for their children. The Boise and Bruneau branches were gathered under an Indian agent and fed through the winter. In 1868 all these Indians were located upon the reservation about Fort Hall, although a few afterward strayed back to their former homes.
This year, 1868, a formal treaty was made with the Bannocks by which over a million and a half acres were set apart for their use and also for the
use of kindred tribes. But these Indians, al- though patient in many respects, had never before had the occasion to learn patience in the new phase brought on by the circumstances inaugu- rated by white civilization. They commenced farming, but the grasshoppers destroyed a large portion of their crops, and at the same time the United States government was, as usual, behind with its annuities. By the terms of the treaty the Indians were permitted to go to the buffalo grounds and to dig camas on Big Camas prairie, a part of which, it was agreed, was to be set aside for their use whenever they should desire it.
Matters generally progressed favorably until the death of the principal chief, Tygee, in 1871, and then the Indians began to evince signs of restlessness, suspicion and even hostility. In 1872 an Indian from the Fort Hall reservation attempted to shoot a farmer at work making hay on the South Boise river. He was captured, but finally liberated by the white man who arrested him, for fear of arousing a general conflict with the tribe. But during the summer several mur- ders were committed by the Indians and other misdemeanors practiced.
In 1873 the government ordered a special com- mission to investigate causes of trouble in the district of Idaho; and they modified the treaty in force with the Bannocks and Shoshones, by which the latter relinquished their right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States without a written permit from the agent; but by an oversight no reference was made to the privi- leges the Indians were enjoying on Camas prai- rie. They soon gathered to that prairie in large numbers, especially in the Weiser valley, where there were many white settlers; and here they were met by Umatillas from Oregon, held a grand fair, horse-races, etc., and made exchanges of property in their old style. When the number here had reached about two thousand, the white settlers in the vicinity began to feel uneasy. The superintendency of Indian affairs here having been taken away from the governor, the only appeal of the whites was to the Fort Hall agent. who justified the giving of passes to the Indians on account of the meagerness of the commissary department at the agency.
Suspicion and discontent were further aggra- vated in 1874 by an order from the Indian de- partment for the removal of about a thousand
Too-Lah.
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Indians from the Lemhi valley to the Fort Hall reservation, who refused to be thus removed. Among these were a band of "Sheep-eaters," who had been settled in the Lemhi valley under an agent. The next year, however, the order was withdrawn and a reservation of a hundred square miles set apart for them; and during this year also an addition was made to the Malheur reser- vation in Oregon, which was still further enlarged in 1876.
Meantime the Modoc war and Joseph's ob- streperousness occasioned a great deal of dis- turbance in the minds of the Indians of southern Idaho and vicinity. The annihilation of the Mo- doc nation was followed by an ominous lull for three or four years. Then the Nez Perce out- break occurred and great fears were entertained by the whites that all the Indians of Idaho and vicinity would join in the great revolt. Even the Piutes were in sympathy with their red neigh- bors. Winnemucca, their chief, appeared on the Owyhee with all his warriors; but, finding the people watchful and the military active, he had the prudence to remain quiet and let the Nez Perces do their own fighting. The presence of the Piutes, in connection with the revival and spread of the "Smohallah" or "dreamers' " doc- trine that the red man was ultimately to repossess all the land, tended to augment the alarm of the white settlers.
Numbers, among men as well as among boys, intensify the central focus of excitement and mis- chief. By the summer of 1877 the Bannocks be- came so excited and even turbulent as to require a considerable military force at the agency.
The ensuing spring there was not enough food to keep them all on the reservation. The scarcity was caused partly by the Nez Perce war, which Bannocks understood plainly, and partly by the fact there was a greater number on the reserva- tion than usual. In May they commenced shoot- ing white people on Camas prairie, which terri- tory they claimed, under the treaty, equally with the United States. Another source of irritation was the fact that the white settlers imported and kept swine, which destroyed the camas root in large quantities.
War was opened by the Indians, who first fired upon two herders, wounding them severely. They next seized King Hill stage station, destroying
property and driving off the horses, the men in charge barely escaping. About the same time they appeared on Jordan creek, demanding arnis and ammunition, seized two freight wagons near Glenn's ferry on Snake river, driving off a hun- dred horses, cutting loose the ferry-boat and de- stroying several farm-houses from which the fam- ilies had fled. Throughout the territory again, as during the preceding summer, business was prostrated, farms were deserted and the citizens under arms.
To concentrate troops and ascertain the locali- ty of the hostile Indians required time. Their movement seemed to be along Snake river from Fort Hall to the Owyhee, but the Piutes under the chiefs Winnemucca and Natchez, still main- tained at least an apparent friendship, while those under Eagan and Otis, along with some Mal- heurs and Umatillas, engaged in their murderous raids. The Bannocks were led by Buffalo Horn, who had been employed as a scout by General Howard in the Nez Perce war but deserted that general at Henry lake on account of a difference of opinion concerning the practicability of cap- turing Joseph at a certain camp.
It was not until the 8th of June that the whites could assume the aggressive, on which day J. B. Harper, of Silver City, with a squad encountered sixty Bannocks seven miles east of South moun- tain in Owyhee county, and was repulsed. On the IIth a mail stage was attacked, the driver killed, the mail destroyed and some arms and ammunition seized. Malheur Indians from Ore- gon were on the way toward Boise. On the 15tl1 Howard discovered six hundred armed Indians, the main body of the enemy, gathered in the val- ley between Cedar and Steen mountains, and sent four companies of cavalry upon them, and dur- ing the first engagement Buffalo Horn was killed. But before General Howard, who had in the dis- trict altogether sixteen companies of cavalry, came to the scene the Indians, as usual, had dis- appeared. Going northward they committed as many outrages as they could, in the destruction of property, while Howard's forces were far too limited to make a successful pursuit.
On the 2d of July the loyal Umatillas, under their agent, Connoyer, met the enemy four hun- dred strong, fighting them all day and killing thirty, with a loss of only two. Although this
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prevented a raid the general alarm of the settlers was scarcely allayed. A thousand or more wo- men and children were gathered at Pendleton. General Wheaton at Walla Walla, with an avail- able force, was appealed to for help, and as soon as he got under way he found the wilds almost alive with Indians on the war path. In a few days Captain Sperry with nearly all his com- mand was killed at Willow Springs, Oregon, and white families were rushed to places of safe- ty as rapidly as possible, while the governors and generals were massing their meager forces with all haste. Skirmishes and small battles were hurriedly entered into, generally with vic- tory to the whites, until, little by little, the great uprising was totally suppressed,-this requiring several weeks.
The loss of property was immense. To the marauding parties were added, about the Ist of August, a portion of White Bird's band of Nez Perces, who had returned from the British pos- sessions, where they had not met with satisfac- tory treatment from Sitting Bull, the exiled Sioux chief. The close of hostilities soon after their arrival rendered them powerless to carry on war, and they became reabsorbed in the Nez Perce nation. Directly after the suppression of these raids Camp Howard was established near Mount Idaho, and also Camp Coeur d'Alene, afterward Fort Coeur d'Alene, and after this there was no more trouble with the Indians.
Such is a brief synopsis of the Indian troubles which so long retarded the development of Idalio. All danger from that source has now been re- moved forever. The feeble remnants of once
powerful tribes have settled down to the prosaic arts of peace. The great increase of white popu- lation, the construction of railroad and telegraph lines, the rapid diminution of their own num- bers, all preclude the possibility of Indian out- breaks in the future. Yet we should be grossly lacking in appreciation if we should overlook the struggles and hardships endured bv the early set- tlers in combating these treacherous foes, and rendering the land safe as it now is beyond the shadow of peril. Surely, when the true history of heroism is written, the story of our northwestern pioneers should receive proper recognition.
TOO LAH.
One of the most interesting Indian characters connected with the history of Idaho was Too Lah, the friendly Nez Perces squaw who rode her pony twenty-five miles in the night to give warning to the miners at Florence that the In- dians were massacring the white settlers. She started from Slate creek and rode to Florence in order to save the white settlers, and covered the distance in such a short time that her pony died from the effects of the hard ride. Her noble work ·accomplished, she then returned on foot to her home on Mckenzie creek. Naturally the white settlers had the highest appreciation for her he- roic action and always held her in grateful re- membrance. She made a living by raising and drying fruit, by taking in washing, by nursing, and at one time was engaged in driving a pack train of six Indian ponies from Grangeville to Freedom. She died in 1898 and was buried at Meadow Creek.
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