USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 54
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BATTLE OF SILVER CREEK
About two weeks were spent in scouring the country looking for the Indians. On June 22d Robbins and his scouts, who were in advance, struck a fresh trail and followed it for about thirty miles, when he went to the top of a moun- tain which commanded a good view of the surrounding country, from which point of vantage he succeeded in locating the Indian camp only a few miles away, in a canyon on Silver Creek. That night he moved up cautiously and reconnoitered the camp. In the meantime the Bannock hostiles had been joined by the Piute bands under Chiefs Egan and Otis and some of the Malheur and Umatilla tribes. Robbins estimated the number in the camp at 2,000 and went back to
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report to Colonel Bernard, who was rapidly coming up with the main body of troops-about two hundred and fifty men. A council was held, in which it was decided that Robbins, with his thirty-five scouts, should go over the hill and open the attack as soon as it was light enough to see the next morning, while Bernard, as soon as he heard the firing, was to advance up the canyon. The plan was followed, the Indians being taken completely by surprise, though they rallied and concealed themselves among the rocks of the canyon, where they could conduct the fight more to their liking. The soldiers also found positions where they were not so exposed and a desultory firing was kept up by both sides during the day. That night the Indians stole quietly out of the camp and moved, in the direction of the John Day River, in Oregon.
In this action the Indian loss was over one hundred in killed and wounded, while that of the whites was only five killed and a few slightly wounded. Early in the fight Chief Egan recognized Colonel Robbins and "went after his scalp." Egan was mounted on a good horse and armed with a repeating rifle. He would fire at Robbins, then throw himself on the opposite side of his horse, from which position he would rise quickly and fire again. Several bullets passed through Robbins' clothes, and one grazed his finger, but he finally succeeded in shooting the chief through the wrist, which put him out of the fight. He fell from his horse, when Robbins shot him through the right side of the chest and another scout shot him in the groin. He was dragged away by some of his warriors and was on the road to recovery, when he was killed by Chief Homily's band of Umatillas on the 15th of July.
DEATH OF BUFFALO HORN
Gen. O. O. Howard was in command of the district, his forces consisting of sixteen companies of cavalry. On June 15th he learned that some six hun- dred Indians were gathered in the valley between the Cedar and Stein mountains and sent four companies of cavalry to dislodge them. In the fight that ensued a number of Indians were killed; it has often been asserted that Buffalo Horn, the chief who had started the war, was killed in this fight although the evidence is quite positive that he met his death at the South Mountain fight, the main body of the Indians got away and evidently united with the larger force that was defeated by Bernard and Robbins at Silver Creek about a week later. The loss of the whites was insignificant.
FIGHT IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
On June 23d, just before the beginning of the battle of Silver Creek, Colonel Bernard sent a messenger to General Howard, who was then on the way to the Malheur Indian reservation, advising him that they had found the Indians in strong force and that he and Robbins might need help. Immediately upon receipt of this message, Howard started for Silver Creek and arrived on the morning of the 24th, after the Indians had fled. Being the ranking officer, he took command and the whole force started in pursuit, with Robbins and his scouts in advance. By their destruction of property as they went along, the Indians left a plain trail. Robbins located the Indians in a rocky canyon leading up to the Blue Mountains and sent word to General Howard, who came up later in the day.
Courtesy of L. V. Mcwhorter. Copyrighted.
THOMAS LINDLEY
Vol. 1-85
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While on the march several companies of infantry under General Wheaton had been added to the white forces. It was arranged that Robbins, and his scouts, now numbering forty, should attack early on the morning of July 8th, Colonel Bernard with four companies of cavalry to make a flank movement up one side of the canyon, and Howard and Wheaton to follow up the canyon. The plan was similar to that used at Silver Creek and the result was very much the same. Robbins charged into the Indian camp with such vigor that the savages fled in all directions for shelter in the clefts of the canyon, where they were exposed to the fire of Bernard's troops from the side of the canyon. This forced them to retreat, firing back at the soldiers as they did so, killing a few horses, but not a white man was hurt. When Howard and Wheaton came up the fight was renewed, when the whites lost one man killed and four wounded. The Indian loss in killed and wounded was severe and about two hundred ponies were captured.
WHITE BIRD'S BAND
When Chief Joseph surrendered at Bear Paw Mountain in October, 1877, White Bird and his band succeeded in making their escape. They went to British Columbia and joined Sitting Bull, the exiled Sioux chief, but were not as well treated as they thought they ought to be and soon grew discontented. Early in July White Bird led his followers back across the border and up the Bitter Root Valley in Montana, killing a few settlers and stealing live stock. Lieutenant Wallace, with fifteen men followed them to the headwaters of the Clearwater River, where a fight of two hours occurred, in which six Indians were killed, two wounded and nineteen captured. This was early in July, 1878. The band then joined the hostile Indians in Idaho and Oregon, but the war was too near at an end for them to do much damage. They were afterward reabsorbed by the Nez Perce tribe and given a home on the reservation.
END OF THE WAR
The death of Buffalo Horn and the loss of Chief Egan seemed to have a demoralizing effect on the Indians and small parties began to desert here and there and return to the reservations. On July 17th Colonel Sanford struck an Indian camp on Wolf Creek, a tributary of the Powder River, killed seventeen warriors and captured about twenty-five squaws and children. The white forces were constantly being augmented. A company of volunteers was organized at Walla Walla under Capt. Charles Painter ; another company came from Nevada ; Capt. Edward McConville, who was afterward killed in the Philippine Islands dur- ing the Spanish-American war, organized a company at Lewiston which kept the Indians quiet on the Nez Perce reservation and prevented the hostiles from coming into that part of Idaho; Major Connoyer, agent for the Umatillas, held a large part of that tribe loyal to the whites, and other volunteer companies were in the field. Under these circumstances the Indians saw their prospects of success gradually disappearing and decided to return to their reservations, where their sins would be wiped out and they would be treated as "good Indians," protected and cared for by the Government.
Much of the fighting was in Oregon, the two principal battles of the war- Silver Creek and the Blue Mountains-being in that state, and most of the
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depredations were committed in Oregon, though as the different bands were returning to their reservations they continued killing white settlers, running off cattle and horses, destroying stage stations, etc. The property loss was there- fore large and just how many lives were lost will probably never be known. After the cessation of hostilities Camp Howard was established near Mount Idaho and Fort Coeur d'Alene (latter Fort Sherman) on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Troops were stationed at both these places and there was no more serious trouble with the Indians, though the next year occurred what is known as the Sheepeater war.
THE SHEEPEATER WAR
In the mountain fastnesses of central Idaho and especially in that portion traversed by Loon Creek and Big Creek, there began to congregate soon after the whites began their settlements in Idaho, renegades from the various Indian tribes, principally Bannocks and Shoshones, with an occasional Lemhi and in- cluding a number of Nez Perce and Coeur d'Alenes from the north, a few Blackfeet from Montana and Utes from Nevada. These outlaws, whose con- duct had compelled their own people to cast them out, banded themselves to- gether and were called by the other Indians the Too-ka-rik-ka, but were known to the whites as the "Sheepeaters." Their numbers were limited, never exceed- ing 200, and they lived by plundering prospectors who ventured into that section, stealing livestock from the settlers along the Salmon, fishing and hunting, most of the game killed being mountain sheep which were very numerous in that mountainous region.
These Indians had been a menace to the safety of miners in their vicinity and especially prospectors in the region they occupied from the time they first made it their headquarters, and scores of men had been robbed and murdered by these outcasts. Cowardly in the extreme, they took no chances by attacking parties who knew their methods, and were prepared to give them battle, but laid in wait for the careless and unwary and through murder of the owners obtained possession of many prospecting outfits, including horses.
Chinamen were seemingly particularly obnoxious to them, and as the nearly worked out placers on Loon Creek invited the settlement there of many of this race, and they were its sole inhabitants, they attacked that camp in the winter of 1878 and 1879 and killed all but one, who, though severely wounded, escaped to Bonanza on Yankee Fork of the Salmon River and gave the alarm.
In the latter part of May, 1879, a party of the sheeepeaters went to the ranch of Hugh Johnson, on the South Fork of the Salmon River, killed Johnson and a man named Dawson, burned the buildings and haystacks and drove off the live- stock. News of this outrage was sent to Boise and other places, and coming as it did on the heels of various other crimes committed by this band, caused Colonel Bernard, in command at Fort Boise, to start with sixty regular soldiers under his command for the scene of the massacre, accompanied by Colonel Robbins as scout. About the same time Lieutenant Catlin set out from Fort Lapwai with forty men, and Lieutenant Farrow started from Fort Walla Walla with a few soldiers and twenty experienced and friendly Umatilla Indians as scouts.
Colonel Bernard proceeded to Loon Creek and found the burned houses
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and sluice boxes of the murdered Chinamen, and started in pursuit of the out- law band. Lieutenants Catlin and Farrow with their commands came into the troubled section from the north and west and diligently endeavored to find the sheepeaters. The country was rough and precipitous and the Indians' knowl- edge of the trails and hiding places gave them great advantages. The constant effort of the pursuing parties finally had its effect and the Indians were kept constantly on the move. Too cowardly to fight an armed force, they soon became worn out and discouraged, and on August 20th Lieutenant Farrow came upon their main body and drove them into a narrow canyon, where he captured all their horses and mules but from which he was unable to dislodge them.
After a siege lasting a couple of days the beleaguered sheepeaters agreed to surrender, provided they were permitted to go to a certain point in the Seven Devil Mountains, and provided that the commands, excepting Farrow, would not follow them. This was agreed to by Colonel Bernard and the Sheepeater band, reduced to sixty in number, took the trail westward for the appointed rendezvous, closely followed by Farrow and his Indians. On September Ist, they gave themselves up to Lieutenant Farrow and were taken to Vancouver. Thus the country became entirely rid of this obnoxious and dangerous Indian band.
Since the Sheepeater trouble there have been no other Indian wars in Idaho. Occasionally trouble arose with the Indians in various places and people became alarmed, but such troubles were always promptly quieted. The whites began to come about this time into all parts of Idaho in ever increasing numbers. The valley lands of the southern part of Idaho were rapidly settled and great irrigat- ing canals were taken out in scores of places and made possible a great farming community. Lode mining sections were opened in many places, including the mountain areas where the Sheepeaters formerly roamed. The timber industry developed and hundreds of men were soon working in the woods; the general Government after the forest reserve system was commenced, had representatives everywhere through the mountain regions, opening up new roads and trails and extending civilization to the most remote places; the stock men leasing the forest reserve lands, invaded every part of the interior of the state, these nearly inaccessible regions until then being almost unknown, and no hiding places were left. The various Indian tribes gradually realized the dawning of a new era and the passing of the old methods, and treaties were entered into with nearly all, cutting down the reservations in size and granting the Indians lands in severalty. With many of their youths educated in the various Indian schools, habits of civilization have been partially adopted; many of the Indians have dropped their tribal relations, commenced wearing the apparel of the white man and assumed the duties of citizenship; all have begun to learn. that the ways of civilization are better than the haphazard, barbarous life of the past, and an Indian war has become in every part of the West, a matter un- dreamed of by either Indians or whites, and an event that will never again occur.
CHAPTER XXVIII TRADING AND MILITARY POSTS
CHARACTER OF EARLY FORTS-KULLYSPELL HOUSE-FORT HENRY-FORT HALL- OLD FORT BOISE-OTHER EARLY FORTS-FORT LEMHI-FORT LAPWAI-NEW FORT BOISE OR BOISE BARRACKS-FORT SHERMAN.
In the chapter on Fur Traders mention is made of some of the early trading posts, though no detailed description is given of any of them in that chapter. These were not military posts in the true sense of the term, as they were not authorized by the Government, yet they played a conspicuous part in the early history of Idaho and the Northwest, and a few subsequently became regular military establishments.
KULLYSPELL HOUSE
The first trading post to be established within the present limits of the State of Idaho was founded by David Thompson, one of the members of the North- West Company, and was located on the northeast shore of Lake Pend d'Oreille, not far from the present Town of Hope, in Bonner County. About the middle of August, 1809, Thompson left Fort William on the shore of Lake Superior, the headquarters of the North-West Company, for the purpose of opening a trading post somewhere in the Rocky Mountain country. On the 10th of September he arrived at Lake Pend d'Oreille and after selecting an available site began the construction of a log structure, to which he gave the name of "Kullyspell House" (probably a corruption of "Kalispel," the native name of the Pend d'Oreille tribe of Indians).
Thompson was an Englishman and had formerly been associated with the Hudson's Bay Company. He has been described as an educated, religious man, one who did not permit the hardships of frontier life to interfere with his study of the Bible, an accurate geographer and surveyor and honest in all his dealings with the Indians. Kullyspell House was occupied as a trading post for two seasons, when Donald Mackenzie, manager of the North-West Company, ordered Thompson to remove to a new and more favorable location near the present City of Spokane, Wash., where the "Spokane House" was built.
FORT HENRY
About the time David Thompson built the Kullyspell House Andrew Henry of the Missouri Fur Company was endeavoring to open up a trade with the
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Indian tribes of Western Montana. He attempted to establish a post at the junction of the three forks of the Missouri River, but was driven out by the Blackfeet Indians and returned to St. Louis, the headquarters of his company.
The following season he again came into the Northwest, but this year he avoided the Blackfoot country. In the fall of 1810 he built Fort Henry on the stream still known as Henry's Fork of the Snake River. This post was located about ten miles southeast of the present City of St. Anthony, the county seat of Fremont County, and not far from where the little Village of Egin now stands. It consisted of two or three rude log buildings and was occupied by Henry and his companions for about a year, while they trapped and traded with the Shoshone Indians.
Fort Henry is given the credit by some writers of being the first trading post on any waters falling into the Columbia River, but this is a mistake as the Kullyspell House had been established at least a year sooner. It was, however, the first post on the Snake River or any of its tributaries. At the close of the trapping season in 1811 it was abandoned by its founder, though in October of that year it was occupied for a short time by Wilson Price Hunt and his party, who were on their way to the Pacific coast. It then fell into the hands of the Indians and was dismantled.
FORT HALL
The trading post known as Fort Hall, which was one of the most noted of the early trading establishments, was built by Nathaniel J. Wyeth in the summer of 1834. It may seem strange that the site of a post that won so much notoriety while it was in existence cannot be definitely located, but authorities differ widely on the subject. On a map made to accompany Chittenden's "History of the American Fur Trade," the fort is shown on the south side of the Snake River, a short distance below the mouth of the Blackfoot. The naturalist, John K. Townsend, who accompanied Wyeth on his expedition of 1834, and who kept a journal, writes on July 14th: "Captain Richardson and two others left us to seek a suitable spot for building a fort, and in the evening they returned with the information that an excellent and convenient place had been pitched upon, about five miles from our present encampment. The next morning we moved early and soon arrived at our destined camp. This is a fine large plain on the south side of the Port Neuf, with an abundance of excellent grass and rich soil." John C. Fremont, in his report of his expedition of 1844, mentions Fort Hall as being situated "nine miles above the mouth of the Port Neuf, on the narrow plain between that stream and the Snake River." Five years later (in 1849) Maj. Osborne Cross, quartermaster-general of the United States
army, in his account of the march of a regiment of mounted rifllemen to Oregon, describes the fort as "having a large sally port, which fronts the Port Neuf, with its walls extending back towards the Snake River," which would indicate that the post was located somewhere near the junction of the two streams. Prof. C. J. Brosnan, in his "History of Idaho" (recently published) locates the fort "on the left bank of the Snake River, nine miles above the mouth of the Port Neuf, northwest of the present City of Pocatello," a description which agrees in the main with that given by Fremont.
Old Fort Hall, as built by Wyeth, consisted of a stockade of cottonwood
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logs about fifteen feet in height and inclosing a space about eighty feet square. At diagonal corners were two bastions each eight feet square and provided with portholes for rifles. Inside the stockade were log huts for the accommodation of the men. In 1836 Wyeth sold the fort to the Hudson's Bay Company, by whom it was occupied until 1855. Major Cross, in his journal above referred to, describes the fort as follows: "It is built of clay, and much in the form of Fort Laramie. * * There is a blockhouse at one of the angles and the buildings inside are built against the side of wall and are of the same materials. The place is occupied by Captain Grant, who has been here about fourteen years."
The change from the cottonwood stockade to adobe walls was made after the fort passed into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company. During the Civil war the old fort was occupied for a time by United States troops. In 1869 an agreement between England and the United States was reached, by which the latter nation was to pay the Hudson's Bay Company "in gold coin or its equi- valent" for its possessions in the Oregon Country, and soon after that old Fort Hall was abandoned, the Government having selected a site for a new Fort Hall in the northern part of the Bannock Indian Reservation, about ten miles east of the present City of Blackfoot.
Around Fort Hall cluster more historic associations and recollections than any other of the early posts of Idaho. Here on July 27, 1834, Rev. Jason Lee preached the first sermon ever dilevered within the present limits of the state, and here on August 5, 1834, the first United States flag was unfurled to an Idaho breeze from a flag-staff planted in the ground. Lewis and Clark no doubt carried the flag of their country with them on their expedition to the Northwest in 1804-06, but it remained for Captain Wyeth to erect a flag-staff at old Fort Hall, where the flag was hoisted and a salute fired at sunrise on Tuesday morn- ing, August 5, 1834, nearly thirty years before Idaho was organized as a terri- tory. For a number of years the fort was one of the principal stopping places on the Oregon Trail.
FORT BOISE
The first post of this name was built in 1834 by Thomas Mckay of the Hud- son's Bay Company as a competitor of Fort Hall. It was located on the Boise River, about ten miles above its mouth and was an active trading post until 1836, when Wyeth sold Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay Company, after which that post was made the principal headquarters of the company in the Snake River Valley and Fort Boise became one of secondary significance. On Sunday, August 21, 1836, Rev. Henry H. Spalding preached at Fort Boise and the services held on that occasion are said to be the second regular religious services ever held in what is now the State of Idaho.
In 1838 the Hudson's Bay Company removed the fort to the east bank of the Snake River, a short distance below the mouth of the Boise. The first fort consisted of a few log cabins surrounded by a stockade, but after the removal to the Snake River better buildings were constructed and the post given a more permanent character. Instead of a stockade of logs, the outside wall was of adobe, about three or four feet in thickness, with a blockhouse at each corner.
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Inside the wall log houses were built along the walls for dwellings and store- houses, leaving an open square in the center. The main entrance was on the side next to the Snake River.
Maj. Osborne Cross, previously mentioned, left Fort Hall with his regiment of mounted riflemen on August 8, 1849, and on the 29th of that month arrived at Fort Boise (Cross spells is "Boisse" in his report). In his report he says : "We encamped on a small creek called Owyhee, about three-fourths of a mile from the post, which is on the opposite side of the Snake River and immediately upon its banks. The walls are of clay, with a sally port next to the Snake, and the buildings inside have the same arrangement as at Fort Hall. A man named Craige was then in charge, having been here about thirteen years."
Another man connected with old Fort Boise was Francis Payette, after whom the Payette River and the County and City of Payette were named. Old Fort Boise was one of the noted camping places on the Oregon Trail until the decline of the fur trade, when the post was finally abandoned.
OTHER EARLY FORTS
Scattered over the Northwest in the early years of the Nineteenth Century were a number of trading posts which bore the name of "forts." Most of these were established by the fur companies, though at times some of them were oc- cupied by United States troops, and a few were actually established by authority of the Government. They were similar in character to Fort Hall and old Fort Boise-a few log cabins surrounded by a stockade or an adobe wall. While none of these posts was within the present boundaries of Idaho, each played its part in the subjugation of the Indian tribes, and a few were the beginnings of some of the important cities of the Northwest.
Fort Owen, a Hudson's Bay Company post, was located on the Bitter Root River, only a few miles east of Idaho's eastern boundary, and, a little southwest of the present City of Missoula, Mont. Some seventy miles north of Fort Owen was Flatheat Post, which was established by the Astorians. Fort Cass was the first post located in the country of the Crow Indians and was shortly followed by Fort Van Buren, both established by the United States. Fort Piegan, an- other Government post, was established at the mouth of the Marias River in 1831, to protect the trappers and traders from the hostile Gros Ventre tribe. Other Montana forts were Benton, Lewis, Three Forks, Sarpy. Jackson, Alex- ander, Lewis, Manuel and Mackenzie. Fort Walla Walla, on the Columbia River a few miles below the mouth of the Snake, was an important post in early days, as was Spokane House, located on the Spokane River where the City of Spokane now stands. Fort Okanagan, founded by the Astorians, was situated on the Columbia River at the mouth of the Okanagan, near the present Town of Pateros, Washington, and about one hundred miles farther up the Columbia was Fort Colville, from which the City of Colville and the Indian reservation take their names.
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