USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 4
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In their journey up the Missouri River and over the divide in 1805, Lewis and Clark found good friends among the Nez Perce Indians, from whom they obtained supplies and trustworthy information regarding the country. Bonneville visited the tribe in 1834 and gave them a high reputation for independence and bravery, friendly with all the surrounding tribes except the Blackfeet. They were always
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friendly to the white people, the only rupture being Chief Joseph's war of 1877, an account of which is given in the chapter on Early Military History. Those still living in Idaho have adopted the civilization of the white man, are fairly success- ful farmers, and their children make rapid progress in the schools.
Some of the Nez Perce chiefs are entitled to a place in history with the famous Red Jacket, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, or Keokuk, the great diplomat of the Sacs and Foxes. Among these was Ish-hol-ho-at-sho-ats, called Lawyer by the whites because of his ability as a debater. Always a friend of the whites, he showed his friendship by his acts and many of the prospectors of 1861, explor- ing the unknown regions contiguous to the Clearwater and Salmon rivers, owed their lives to his extended help and kindly hospitality. He was both a states- man and a warrior. Chief Timothy, who was the first Indian to be admitted to membership in the church at the Lapwai Mission, was a power among his people and a firm friend of the white people. Joseph the younger was by no means the friend of the white man, but he was a warrior worthy the steel of any foe. He has been called the Napoleon of the Indian tribes of the Northwest.
THE PEND D'OREILLE
In the native tongue these Indians were known as the Kalispel, the name Pend d'Oreille being of French origin, because the early traders found some of them wearing pendants in their ears. Their country embraced the northern part of Idaho, the northeastern part of Washington, and the northwestern part of Mon- tana, extending northward a short distance into British Columbia. The French divided them into the Pend d'Oreille of the Upper Lake and the Pend d'Oreille of the Lower Lake, the former occupying the region about Priest Lake and farther north and the latter living on the shores of Lake Pend d'Oreille.
The tribe belonged to the Salishan family. The men were well formed, suc- cessful hunters and fishermen, and skilled in the arts of war, but the women, according to De Smet, were "untidy, even for savages." It was an uncommon occurrence among them, when reduced to dire poverty, to bury the very young and very old alive, because they could not care for themselves and would be better off dead, while there would be more food left for the able-bodied men and women. When a young Pend d'Oreille approached manhood he was sent alone to a mountain, where he was required to remain until he dreamed of some animal or bird, which was thereafter to be his "medicine." A claw, tooth, bone, or some other part of such animal was to be worn as his charm, especially when starting on the war path. One of their superstitions was that the howling of certain animals, particularly the medicine wolf, around the lodge at night was a certain forerunner of bad luck.
THE SHOSHONE
The Shoshone (or Shoshoni), the leading tribe of the Shoshonean family, formerly inhabited western Wyoming, southern Idaho, northeastern Nevada and that part of Utah west of the Great Salt Lake. Some writers say this name was given the tribe by the Cheyenne Indians, but this is probably a mistake. The name signifies "People of the high land," and doubtless grew out of the fact that they inhabited the elevated country in the Rocky Mountain region. They were called the Rocky Mountain Indians by the first explorers and travelers
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through the West. They were also called the Snake Indians. Haines says : "It is uncertain why the term 'Snake' was given to this tribe by the whites, but probably because of their tact in leading pursuit by crawling off in the long grass or diving into the water."
Hoffman says the name snake was applied to them because they had a sign made by a serpentine motion of the hand with the index finger extended. It was through this tribe that the Snake River received its name, as the valley of that stream was their stronghold. They lived in grass huts and were known to the neighboring tribes as the "grass house people." The first white men to give any account of the Shoshone were Lewis and Clark, who first met them in the western part of Montana in 1805. The explorers called them "Shoshonees, a small tribe of the nation called Snake Indians," and described them as "of diminutive stature, with thick flat feet and ankles, crooked legs, and generally speaking worse formed than any Indians we have seen."
Early travelers through southern Idaho found them living along the Snake River and described them as Indians of a lower type than most of the North- western tribes, due probably to the scarcity of game, which compelled them to live largely on fish. Some bands subsisted chiefly on the camas and other roots, which led to their being sometimes called "Diggers."
A Shoshone tradition says that many years ago they dwelt in a country far to the southward, where the rivers were inhabited by large numbers of alligators. Consequently, when a Shoshone came to a strange river that it was necessary for him to cross, he always offered a brief prayer to the alligators that might be in it to spare his life. After leaving that southern land they came to the Rocky Moun- tains, where they had lived for about fifty years before the first trappers and traders came among them. During that period they had frequently been com- pelled to resort to arms to repel invasions of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow and Arapaho tribes.
They were superstitious, with a firm belief in ghosts, fairies, little devils, evil spirits, etc. They also believed in a demon of bad luck, who resembled a short, stocky human being dressed in goatskin garments, and who carried a quiver filled with invisible arrows. Any one shot with one of these invisible arrows did not die, but was certain to meet with a reverse of health or fortune. If a member of the family fell ill, if a favorite pony went lame, it was considered proof positive that one of the invisible arrows had done its work. In such a case the only way to obtain relief was to remove to another section of the country. The howling of a coyote at time of full moon was an omen of good luck. If a family was removing to another place to escape the baleful influence of the invisible arrow, and should hear the howl of a coyote while the moon was at the full, the head of the family. would immediately give the order to return to the old home, satisfied that the evil spell was broken.
The clothing of the Shoshone Indians was made of the skins of the larger animals killed in the chase, the dress of the chiefs and leading warriors being ornamented with beads, shells, etc., as the insignia of their greatness. Their wigwams were also constructed of skins stretched over a framework of polés, with an opening at the top for a chimney. They had a limited knowledge of pottery and made some very good pots and jars from baked clay. The men were natural gamblers and, as one old trapper expressed it, "took to draw poker
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as a duck takes to water." In 1910 there were 3,250 of this tribe on the reserva- tions at Fort Hall, the Wind River reservation in Wyoming and in Nevada, all that were left of what was once one of the most numerous tribes of the North- west.
THE FLATHEAD
According to the reports of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, the name Flathead was applied to several different tribes from the custom that prevailed among them of flattening the heads of their children artificially, and that there was no distinct tribe of that name. In the East the Catawba, Choctaw and some other Indians practiced this custom, and the Chinook of the Columbia was the western tribe in which the practice prevailed to the greatest extent. The Salishan family never flattened the heads of their young. Concerning the tribal names in the Northwest, Warren A. Ferris, who was associated with the Amer- ican Fur Company for many years, in his "Life in the Rocky Mountains," says : "Several tribes of the Mountain Indians, it will be observed, have names that would be supposed descriptive of some national peculiarity. Among these are the Blackfeet, Flatheads, Pend d'Oreilles, Nez Perces, Gros Ventres, etc. And yet it is a fact that of these the first have the whitest feet; there is not among the next a deformed head; there is not among the Nez Perces an indi- vidual having any part of the nose perforated ; nor do any of the Pend d'Oreilles wear ornaments in their ears; and finally, the Gros Ventres are as slim as any other Indians and corpulency among them is as rare."
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
There never was among the Indians of the Northwest a social or political organization as well marked as that which existed among the tribes of the East. The grand council, to consider and act upon important questions pertaining to the general welfare, was unknown. The clan system, which was so well defined in the Algonquian family, was absent. With the Delaware, Miami, Ottawa and other eastern tribes, the village or camp was always laid out with reference to the importance of the various clans, but no such custom was observed by any of the Rocky Mountain Indians. A trace of the clan system may be seen, how- ever, in the organization of the Salishan tribes, each of which was ruled over by a chief, though at times all recognized the paramount authority of one great chief. The Northwestern Indians intermarried without regard to caste, a custom that would not have been tolerated by the tribes of the Ohio Valley and the region about the Great Lakes. But the mountain Indians had some compensa- tion for their lack of organization. Of all the North American tribes they were the most robust and stalwart and what they lacked in political efficiency they made up in physical superiority.
CHAPTER III INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS
SPANISH POLICY TOWARD THE INDIANS-THE FRENCH POLICY-THE ENGLISH POLICY-POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES-TREATY OF CAMP STEVENS-THE HELL GATE TREATY-SECOND NEZ PERCE TREATY-SHOSHONE TREATY OF 1863-TREATY OF FORT BRIDGER-FORT LEMHI RESERVATION-PEND D'OREILLE CESSION-COEUR D'ALENE CESSION-DUCK VALLEY RESERVATION-A NEW IDAHO.
For many years the Indian tribes mentioned in the preceding chapter, with their friends and kinsmen, roamed at will over the mountains or through the valleys and plains of Idaho, with "none to molest them or make them afraid." Then came the white man, first as a trader, afterward as a prospector, and finally as a conqueror, and the Indian ceased to.be the owner and proprietor of the land. The manner in which the white race obtained the lands of the Indian tribes was the outgrowth of the methods of dealing with the natives by the European nations first making discoveries in America, and is well worth careful reference and full review.
THE SPANISH POLICY
When Cortez was commissioned captain-general of New Spain in 1529, he was directed to "give special attention to the conversion of the Indians; to see that no Indians be given to the Spaniards as servants; that they pay such tribute to His Majesty as they can easily afford ; that there shall be a good correspondence maintained between the Spaniards and the natives, and that no wrong shall be offered the latter either in their goods, families or persons."
Notwithstanding these explicit instructions from the Spanish Government, during the conquest of Mexico and Central America extreme cruelty was visited upon the natives and they were regarded as slaves, whose services were due their conquerors. After Cortez came Don Sebastian Ramirez, bishop and acting governor, who tried to carry out the humane orders of the commission and con- vert the Indians to the Catholic faith. Antonio de Herrera says that under his administration "the country was much improved and all things carried on with equity, to the general satisfaction of all good men."
The Spanish authorities never accepted the idea that all the land belonged to the Indians, but only such tracts as were actually occupied, or that might be
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necessary to supply their wants. All other lands were claimed as belonging to Spain "by right of discovery," and the policy of dealing with the natives was based upon this hypothesis.
THE FRENCH POLICY
Regarding the title to the lands in sections where they acquired control the French had no settled policy. In the letters patent given by Louis XV to the Western Company in August, 1717, was contained the following provision :
"Section IV-The said company shall be free, in the said granted lands, to negotiate and make alliance with all the nations of the land, except those which are dependent on the other powers of Europe; she may agree with them on such conditions as she may think fit, to settle among them, and trade freely with them, and in case they insult her she may declare war against them, attack or defend herself by means of arms, and negotiate with them for a peace or truce."
It will be noticed that in this section nothing is said about the acquisition of lands. As a matter of fact the French cared practically nothing for the owner- ship of the lands, the principal object being to control the fur trade. The trading post did not require a large tract of land, and outside of the site of the trading house and a small garden, the Indians were left in full possession of their hunting grounds. Nor did the French become the absolute owners of the small tracts at the trading posts. In the event the post was abandoned the land reverted to its Indian owners. Under such a liberal policy it is not surprising that the French traders were, except in rare instances, always on friendly terms with the natives.
THE ENGLISH POLICY
The policy of Great Britain treated the Indian as a barbarian and in making grants of land ignored any claim he might make to the ownership of the soil. English colonists bought the land from the tribal chiefs. In several instances " failure to quiet the Indian title by purchase resulted in disastrous wars. An example of the English policy is seen in the charter granted by Charles I to Lord Baltimore, wherein the grantee was given authority "to collect troops, wage war on the 'barbarians' and other enemies who may make incursions into the settlements, and to pursue them even beyond the limits of their province, and if God shall grant it, to vanquish and captivate them; and the captives to put to deatlı, or, according to their discretion, to save."
All the nations of Europe which acquired territory in America asserted in themselves and recognized in each other the exclusive right of the discoverer to claim and appropriate the lands occupied by the Indians. Parkman says : "Spanish civilization crushed the Indian ; English civilization scorned and neglected him ; French civilization embraced and cherished him."
POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES
As early colonies were planted in this country, the colonists adhered to the policy of the nation to which they belonged. By the treaty of September 3, 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war, all the rights and powers of Great Britain descended to the United States. In this way the United States inherited the
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English method of dealing with the native tribes. The Articles of Confederation, the first organic law adopted by the American Republic, provided that :
"The United States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the states, provided that the legislative right of any state within its own limits be not infringed or violated."
On March I, 1793, President Washington approved an act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, in which it was expressly stipulated "That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the constitution."
The penalty for each violation of this act was a fine of one thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding twelve months. With amendments by subse- quent sessions of Congress, this law remained in force as the basis of all rela- tions with the Indians of the United States for nearly eighty years. Cyrus Thomas, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, says: "By the act . of March 3, 1871, the legal fiction of recognizing the tribes as independent nations, with which the United States could enter into solemn treaty, was, after it had continued nearly one hundred years, finally done away with. The effect of this act was to bring under the immediate control of the Congress the transactions with the Indians and reduce to simple agreements what had before been accom- plished by solemn treaties."
The first treaties made by the United States with the Indian tribes were merely treaties of peace and friendship. On August 3, 1795, a great council was held at Greenville, Ohio, at which time the Miami, Pottawatomi and asso- ciated tribes ceded to the United States certain tracts of land in Ohio and In- diana for military posts and the right of way for roads through the Indian country. These were the first cessions of lands by Indians to the United States after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. A short time after this council the Delaware Indians relinquished a portion of the country claimed by them for settlement by the white people. From that time treaty after treaty followed, each extending the white man's domain farther to the westward until about the middle of the Nineteenth Century, when it reached what is now the State of Idaho.
TREATY OF CAMP STEVENS
Among the Oregon emigrants of 1845 was Joel Palmer, who was born in Canada, in 1810. In early life he went to Indiana, where he engaged in farming. He was joined in Oregon in 1847 by his family, soon after the occurrence of the Whitman massacre. In the organization of the military to punish the In- dians for that crime, Mr. Palmer was made quartermaster and commissary- general. With Robert Newell, and Perrin Whitman (a nephew of the murdered missionary) he went into the Nez Perce country and succeeded in winning many of that tribe and the Walla Walla away from the hostile Cayuse. Mr. Palmer was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon in 1853. Two years later he joined Governor Stevens of Washington Territory in calling a council of the Nez Perce Indians for the purpose of negotiating a treaty.
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The council was held at a place called Camp Stevens, Washington Territory, where on June 11, 1855, Governor Stevens, Mr. Palmer and William Craig con- cluded a treaty with the Nez Perce tribe, in which the Indians ceded to the United States a tract of land bounded as follows :
"Commencing at the source of the Wo-na-ne-she or southern tributary of the Palouse River; thence down that river to the main Palouse; thence in a southerly direction to the Snake River at the mouth of the Tucanon River ; thence up the Tucanon to its source in the Blue Mountains; thence southerly to a point on the Grand Ronde River midway between Grand Ronde and the mouth of the Woll-low-how River; thence along the divide between the waters of the Woll-low-how and Powder rivers; thence to the crossing of the Snake River at the mouth of the Powder River; thence to the Salmon River fifty miles above the place known as the crossing of the Salmon River; thence due north to the summit of the Bitter Root Mountains; thence along the crest of the Bitter Root Mountains to the place of beginning."
Most of the lands ceded by this treaty lie in the states of Oregon and Wash- ington. A large tract, lying on both sides of the Snake River, was reserved bv the tribe. In Idaho the land ceded now constitutes the southern part of Sho- shone County, the eastern half of Clearwater and Idaho counties, and the northern part of Lemhi. The reserved tract included the present counties of Lewis and Nez Perce, the western half of Clearwater and Idaho, the southern part of Latah. practically all of Adams and the northern portions of Boise and Washington.
THE HELL GATE TREATY
On July 16, 1855, a treaty was concluded at Hell Gate, Montana, with the Flathead, Kootenai and Upper Pend d'Oreille Indians, by which those tribes ceded to the United States a tract of land lying between the Rocky and Bitter Root Mountains and extending westward on the forty-ninth parallel to the "divide between the Flatbow or Kootenai River and Clark's Fork; thence southerly and southeasterly along said divide to 115° of longitude." Nearly all the tract thus ceded is located in the State of Montana, only the northwest corner extending into Idaho, including the eastern two-thirds of Boundary and the northeast corner of Bonner counties.
SECOND NEZ PERCE TREATY
The treaty of Camp Stevens was never fully satisfactory to either the white men or the Indians and after the discovery of gold in what is now Idaho it became less so than before. Consequently, on June 9, 1863, a new treaty was negotiated at the council grounds in the Lapwai Valley, by which all the lands reserved to the tribe by the treaty of June 11, 1855, were ceded to the United States except a reservation described as follows:
"Commencing at the northeast corner of Lake Waha; thence northerly to a point on the north bank of the Clearwater River, three miles below the mouth of the Lapwai; thence down the north bank of the Clearwater to the mouth of Hatwai Creek; thence due north to a point seven miles distant; thence east- wardly to a point on the north fork of the Clearwater, seven miles from its mouth; thence to a point on the Oro Fino Creek, five miles above its mouth; thence to a point on the north branch of the south fork of the Clearwater, five
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miles above its mouth ; thence to a point on the south fork of the Clearwater, one mile above the bridge on the road leading to Elk City (so as to include all the Indian farms now within the forks); thence in a straight line westwardly to the place of beginning."
The new reservation, as established by this treaty, contained nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand acres. It embraced nearly all the present counties of Nez Perce and Lewis, a little of the western part of Clearwater and a small portion of the County of Idaho. By the agreement of May 1, 1893, all title and interest in the unallotted lands of the reservation, except certain specified tracts, were ceded to the United States. The agreement was confirmed by act of Con- gress, approved on August 15, 1894, and the unallotted lands were opened to white settlement, leaving 212,390 acres in the reservation.
SHOSHONE TREATY OF 1863
On October 1, 1863, a treaty was concluded with the western bands of the Shoshone Indians, by which the United States acquired the title to a large body of land in Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho, extending from the neighborhood of the forty-fifth parallel southward to the northern border of the Colorado Desert. That portion of the cession lying within the State of Idaho included the present counties of Custer, Gem, Canyon, Ada, Elmore, Gooding, Lincoln, Twin Falls and Owyhee, the western part of Blaine, Cassia and Minidoka, and the southern parts of Boise and Washington.
Associated with the Shoshone bands more or less intimately were the Ban- nock Indians. Their respective boundaries, however, were involved in much confusion and contradiction, and in fact both tribes ranged with equal freedom over the same vast extent of territory. No formal purchase of the Bannock interests was made by the United States, the Government merely taking posses- sion and assuming the right of satisfying the tribal claims by assigning reserva- tions sufficient to supply their needs, etc. More than three years elapsed before any move was made toward establishing any reservation in accordance with the provisions of this treaty. On June 14, 1867, President Andrew Johnson issued an order setting apart a tract at Fort Hall "for the Shoshone, Bannock and associated tribes." The boundaries of this proposed reservation were not de- fined by the order, and it was not surveyed nor occupied by the Indians until after the
TREATY OF FORT BRIDGER
In the spring of 1868 Gen. William T. Sherman, Gen. William S. Harney, Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Gen. C. C. Augur, John B. Sanborn, Samuel F. Tappan, Nathaniel G. Taylor and J. B. Henderson were appointed commissioners to negotiate treaties with certain tribes of the Northwest. After concluding treaties with the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow and Sioux Indians at Fort Laramie, the commissioners went to Fort Bridger, where they met the chiefs and head men of the Shoshone and Bannock tribes. There, on July 3, 1868, a treaty was con- cluded with these Indians, by which they agreed to relinquish all claims to their lands in Wyoming and Southeastern Idaho, except certain tracts to be surveyed and set apart for their use and occupancy. That portion of the cession lying
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