History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 29

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

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In the fall of 1875 several men who were passing through the Yakima country, on their way from the Sound to the Colville mines, were killed by the Indians. Among the killed was the Indian agent, A. J. Bolan, who had gone to inquire into the circum- stances of the death of the other men. Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter, with forty men, started across the mountains from Fort Steilacoom late in September, and Major G. O. Haller marched south from The Dalles with a force of more than one hundred men, to co-operate with him. Major Haller engaged the Indians on Simcoe creek, was forced to retreat to the summit of a hill, where he was surrounded by the enemy. He dispatched a courier in haste to procure aid, but before it could reach him his force was driven from the Indian country with considerable loss. Upon receipt of the intelli- gence of this disaster, Major G. J. Raines, commander of the post at Vancouver, ad- dressed communications to Governor George L. Curry, of Oregon, and Acting Gov- ernor C. H. Mason, of Washington, requesting the aid of volunteer troops, since the national forces were entirely inadequate to meet the emergencies. Two companies were raised in Washington, which were mustered into the regular army, while the ten com- panies recruited in Oregon retained their volunteer organization, being under the com-

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mand of Colonel J. W. Nesmith. This division of authority led to a want of cordial co-operation and consequent futility of action. Sixteen other companies were organ- ized at various places in Washington territory, chiefly for home protection.

Lieutenant Slaughter, having withdrawn back across the Cascades, his force was in- creased, and on the twenty-fourth of October again started for the Yakima country, under the command of Captain M. Maloney. He soon learned that no troops had started from The Dalles to co-operate with him, and fearing to be caught in the moun- tains by snow he returned to Steilacoom. Before his dispatch, announcing this fact, reached The Dalles, Major Raines and Colonel Nesmith had jointly marched north- ward to form a junction with him. After an engagement, in which Kama-i-akun's warriors were defeated, the Indians abandoned the country and the troops, learning that Captain Maloney had returned to Steilacoom and required no assistance, marched back to The Dalles, having been absent about three weeks.

Prior to the return of these two commands, another force of volunteers marched up the Columbia towards Fort Walla Walla, where Peo-peo-mux-mux, was reported to be stationed with 1,000 warriors. Other volunteers marched to join them, the whole force being placed under the command of Lieut. Colonel James K. Kelly. This move- ment was especially designed to clear the route of hostile Indians and permit the safe return of Governor Stevens from east of the Rocky mountains, that gentleman being already on his way back and ignorant of the existing hostilities. In this movement, General John E. Wool, commander of the department of the Pacific, who had hastened to the scene from San Francisco, refused to participate with the regular troops, deeming a winter campaign unnecessary and unlikely to be successful. Nothing daunted, the Oregon volunteers proceeded alone, having a force of about 500 men.

A great battle was fought along Walla Walla river, which lasted three days and resulted in the complete defeat of the Indians, whose loss was reported at seventy-five. The troops lost seven killed and mortally wounded, and thirteen wounded. Among the dead on the Indian side was the great Peo-peo-mux-mux, who at the time of the battle was a hostage in the hands of the whites, and was shot during the excitement incident to the battle. The Indians then withdrew from the country, leaving it in the possession of the volunteers, who spent the winter there, suffering many hardships. Governor Stevens returned in safety and immediately preferred charges against General Wool, accusing him of incapacity and willful neglect of duty.

During the winter the settlements along Puget sound suffered severely from the ravages of Indians. Seattle was attacked, and all of King county beyond the limits of that place was devastated. Volunteers, regular troops, Indian auxiliaries and the small naval force on the sound, occupied block houses at all the important points from the Cowlitz to Bellingham bay, but did not engage in a regular campaign, since the hostile savages were not gathered in a large body as were those east of the mountains, but roamed about in small bands, destroying property and killing settlers wherever they could be found unprotected. The population, to a great extent, were collected in block houses for safety. Early in March, 1856, the Oregon volunteers who had occupied the Walla Walla country during the winter, again entered upon an aggressive campaign, under the command of Colonel Thomas R. Cornelius. After considerable traveling about north of Snake river the command crossed the Columbia near the mouth of the Yakima and

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followed down the west bank to Fort Walla Walla. From there they started upon their return to The Dalles, passing through the Yakima country. On the seventeenth of April, near Satas creek, the Yakima Indians suddenly attacked the advance forces, killing Captain A. J. Hembree, but were repulsed with the loss of two braves. An engagement ensued, in which six Indians were killed and the others driven from the field, without any loss to the volunteers. The troops then marched to The Dalles, going into camp in Klickitat valley. While there fifty of Kama-i-akun's warriors made a descent upon the camp and captured 300 horses. Thus summarily dismounted, the volunteers were mustered out and returned to their homes.

Before this, however, important events occurred nearer home. A railway portage was under construction between the lower and upper Cascades of the Columbia, on the Washington territory side of the river, and quite a force of men was at work. On the morning of March 16, a band of Yakima Indians made a sudden attack upon the Upper Cascades. The men retreated hostility to a combined store and dwelling on the river bank and defended themselves successfully till aid arrived two days later. On the morning of the third day the steamers Mary and Wasco arrived from The Dalles loaded down with troops, and the Indians hastily decamped. A like siege was sustained by parties in the block house at Middle Cascades, and quite a battle was fought at the lower landing. In all fifteen men and one woman were killed and twelve were wounded. How many Indians were killed is not known, but nine of them were hanged for their treachery immediately afterwards.

Colonel George Wright marched north from The Dalles in May for the pur- pose of driving the Indians out of the Cascade mountains and across the Columbia eastward. Early in July volunteers from the sound pushed across the mountains with- out encountering the enemy, and united at Fort Walla Walla with another battalion which had proceeded from The Dalles. The whole force numbered 350 enlisted men, and was under the command of Colonel B. F. Shaw. With a portion of his force Colonel Shaw crossed the Blue mountains and fought a severe battle on Grand Ronde river on the seventeenth of July. At the same time another detachment encountered the hostiles on Burnt river, and had an engagement with them, lasting two days. Some fifty Indians were killed in these two battles, while the loss of the volunteers was five killed and five wounded. Meanwhile, unable to concert terms of peace with Kama- i-akun, Colonel Wright marched his force of regulars back to The Dalles.

In the fall Colonel Wright dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Steptoe with sev- eral companies to establish a military post at Walla Walla. Governor Stevens pro- ceeded to that region, and had an unsuccessful council with the hostiles. When he set out upon his return, he was attacked by the Indians, and his small command defended itself all day and until relieved by the regulars. In November Colonel Wright re- turned with a detachment of regulars and established a military post at Walla Walla, and held a council at which he procured a cessation of hostilities by promising the Indians immunity for past offenses and agreeing to prevent white settlers from enter- ing their country. It was a practical victory for the Indians. In November Puget sound was invaded by water by a band of northern Indians, who committed many dep- redations ; but they were severely defeated and driven away by the naval forces sta- tioned there to guard the sound country.

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A. G. Welling, Lith. Portland, Or.

RESIDENCE OF SOL. KING. Corvallis, Benton Co., Or.

INDIAN WARS.

CHAPTER XX.

INDIANS OF SOUTHERN OREGON.

Relative Importance of the Subject-Material for Writing History-Common Origin of Indian Wars-Brief Account of Indian Tribal Affinities-Modocs, Klamaths, Shastas and Rogue Rivers were Related-Habits of Life-Umpqua Indians-Decadence-Invasion of Klickitats-Sources of Information-Aboriginal Desig- nations.

Among those episodes which lend interest to the history of Southern Oregon, the series of hostile acts which we collectively style the Rogue river wars, undoubtedly, possess the greatest interest. The period of the occurrence of these events is so com- paratively recent that their recollection is yet fresh in the minds of many who partici- pated therein, and there are persons not yet beyond the middle years of life to whom they were once a present reality. To write a history of those wars is the task which the writer now assigns himself, confident that the collection and preservation of the existing memorials and recollections of the stirring scenes of Indian hostility will prove a work of public and acknowledged value. For such a work ample materials exist ; official documents, reports of military attaches, newspaper accounts, memorials of gov- erning bodies, the acts of legislative assemblages, but chiefly the personal recollections of eyewitnesses, make up a vast mass of evidence extraordinarily perfect in scope and thoroughness. From such resources the compilation of a history sufficiently detailed to interest those previously acquainted with its subject, and sufficiently ample in scope to form a useful addition to the records of the Pacific coast, would seem an easy task requiring but the common attributes of the historical writer-industry and conscien- tiousness. Under such circumstances it has seemed possible to trace with considerable minuteness the occurrences of the wars; and it will probably be more in consonance with the desires of the readers of this book if the writer describe in detail this inter- esting contest, instead of confining himself in the manner of a philosophical disserta- tion, to those salient instances in which the tendency of the age is most strikingly manifested.

It will doubtless occur to the attentive reader who rises from a perusal of this ac- count, that there was nothing extraordinary in this war ; that there were no distinguish- ing circumstances connected with it that raise its history above the account of an ordinary Indian war; that it was a struggle, similar in all respects, save names, time

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and place, to each of those innumerable contests by which the American settler has won his way to the possession of his home, and driven forward the bounds of civiliza- tion from State to State, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In no essential does it seem to differ from the desperate and bloody contests waged against the Indians of Massa- chusetts, of New York, of Ohio, of Florida, of Kentucky, and of a dozen other States, where the blood of the early settlers was poured out in vindication of the grand prin- ciple of Caucasian progressiveness. For the white and the red races are equally unconformable to each other's habits of life, and meet only to repeat the old story of white conquest and native subjection. Still there is much in each individual account of stern and bloody Indian warring to enchain the reader's attention, unwearied by the hackneyed repetition of sanguinary fight or hair-breadth escape. So we find it in the Rogue river wars; a generation has passed, but the oft-told story of a woman's heroic defense of her hearth, or the terrible massacre of innocents, has rather gained than lost in interest, and every brave Tecumseh, King Philip, Red Jacket, Black Hawk or Osceola is matched in the exploits of Old John, Joe, Sam and Limpy, hum- bler savages though they were, and living in a prosaic age which has not told in song their deeds.

To discover romance or any elevated qualities in an Indian distance is required. Thus separated from living aborigines by the breadth of a state, Fennimore Cooper was enabled to give those inimitable portrayals of the American Indian which through half a century have been unrecognized. Other writers have found their keynote in a depreciation of the savage ; but the people of southern Oregon, long ago sated of the Indian, will join the writer in denying to him any useful or civilizable qualities, but will make partial amends by conceding to him-at least to the tribe of Rogue Rivers- bravery and steadfastness on the battle-field, and patience and perseverance in the worst straits to which he was reduced by war. To make a less acknowledgment were to do discredit to the troops by whom the red men were conquered, and to those others who sustained and repelled their assaults during the years of hostility. To ren- der this much of justice to an enemy who can no longer ask it, is befitting, nor does it detract from the credit of the stronger race. It seems a creditable and worthy thing that a man should have so strong a sense of right that, disregarding the feelings of friendship and his own personal prejudices, he could write or read the truth under all circumstances. In an attempt to tell the exact truth this account was composed ; in the same spirit may it be read.

The principal tribes with whom our history has to deal were the Rogue Rivers, Shastas, Klamaths, Modocs and Umpquas. Among the first four are found strong race affinities, and they spoke dialects of the same language. Their localities ad- joined, their intercommunication was frequent, and in time of war they often fought side by side. For a detailed description of these savages, see Mr. Bancroft's work on the Native Races of the Pacific Coast, wherein is embraced an enormous quantity of in- formation bearing upon the subject. The four tribes first mentioned abode in the contiguous valleys of the Rogue, Klamath, Shasta and Scott rivers and their affluents, and in the vicinity of Klamath, Tule, Clear and Goose lakes. The country about the three latter belonging exclusively to the Modocs, whose habitations were mainly in California. The Rogue river valley was occupied, previous to the advent

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of the whites, by the powerful and important tribe known by the name of the river. Branches of the tribe, more or less corrupted by intermixture with the neighboring Umpquas and others, lived on the Illinois, Applegate, Big Butte and other tributary streams, always paying to the head chief of the tribe the allegiance customary to the aboriginal headship. Along the Klamath river and about Klamath lake dwelt a strong tribe, generally known as the Klamaths. The Shastas had their home about the base of the great mountain of that name. These four tribes, apparently equally numerous and powerful, formed, with others, what Bancroft has styled the Klamath family. "This family is in every way superior to the more southern tribes. In phys- ique and character they approached more nearly to the Indians of eastern Oregon than to the degraded and weak tribes of central California. The Rogue River Indians were an exception to the general rule of deterioration on approaching the coast, for in their case the tendency to improve toward the north held good; so that they were in many respects superior to those of the interior.

" The Klamaths formerly were tall, well-made and muscular, with complexions varying from black to light brown, according to their proximity to large bodies of water. Their faces were large, oval and heavily moulded, with slightly prominent cheek bones; nose well set and eyes keen and bright. The women were short and sometimes quite handsome, even in a Caucasian sense." Powers, in the Overland Monthly, wrote of the Klamaths: "Their stature is a trifle less than Americans ; they have well sized bodies strong and well knit. With their smooth skins, oval faces, plump and brilliant eyes, some of the young maidens-barring the tattooed skins- have a piquant and splendid beauty." Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Archaeology, says : " Many of the women were exceedingly pretty, having large, almond shaped eyes, sometimes of a hazel color, and with the red showing through the cheeks. Their fig- ures were full, their chests ample; and the young ones had well shaped busts and rounded limbs." On the other hand most travelers have failed to remark any special beauty in these tribes, and some have characterized the women as " clumsy, but not ill-favored."

As for clothing, the men of the Klamath family anciently wore only a belt, some- times a breech-clout, and the women an apron or skirt of deer skin or braided grass. In colder weather they threw over their shoulders a cloak or robe of marten or rabbit skins sewn together, deer skin, or among the coast tribes sea-otter or seal skin. They tattooed themselves, the men on the chest and arms, the women on the face in three blue lines extending perpendicularly from the centre and corners of the mouth to the chin. In some few localities, more especially near the lakes, the men painted them- selves in various colors and grotesque patterns.

Their houses were of designs common to many tribes. Their winter dwellings, varying with locality, were principally of two forms, conical and square. Those of the former shape prevailed most widely and were thus built: A circular hole, from two to five feet deep and of variable width, was dug. Round this pit or cellar stout poles were driven into the ground, which being drawn together at the top, formed the rafters of the building. A covering of earth several inches deep was placed over the rafters, a hole was left at the top to serve both as door and chimney, to which rude ladders composed of notched poles gave access. Some houses were built of heavy timber form-

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ing a bee-hive shaped structure. The temporary summer houses of these tribes were square, conical or conoidal in shape, by driving light poles perpendicularly into the ground and laying others across them, or by drawing the upper ends together at the top. Huts having the shape of an inverted bowl were built by driving both ends of poles into the ground. These frames, however shaped, were covered with neatly woven tule matting, or with bushes and ferns. The ground beneath was sometimes scooped out and thrown up in a low circular embankment.

The men of the tribes were usually practiced hunters. A portion of their food during a great part of the year was the wild game of the forest, and this they approached and captured with considerable adroitness. The elk, too large and powerful to be taken by bows and arrows, was sometimes snared; and the same fate befell the deer and ante- lope. The bear was far beyond the power of the natives when their only weapons were the bow and arrow, but after their acquisition of the white man's rifle, they have hunted bruin with success. The last grizzly bear ever seen west of the Cascades was killed in 1877, by Don Pedro, a Klamath, near White Rock Butte, east of Roseburg.

Fishing was a more congenial and more productive occupation than hunting. Its results were more certain, and in the prolific waters of the Klamath and Rogue, more abundant as well. Several methods were in vogue for taking fish. Sometimes a dam of interwoven twigs was placed across a rapid so as to intercept the salmon in their periodical visits to deposit their spawn. Within niches suitably contrived the fish collected and were speared. These dams often required an immense amount of work in their construction, especially if upon a large stream. On Rogue river the fish were speared by torchlight in a manner similar to that in use in Canada and the far north. Many trout were taken from small streams by beating the water with brush, whereby the fish were driven into confined spans and dipped out. Bancroft says: "When preserved for winter use, the fish were split open on the back, the bones taken out, and then dried or smoked. Both meat and fish, when eaten fresh, are either broiled on hot stones, or boiled in water-tight baskets into which hot stones are thrown to make the water boil. Bread is made of acorns ground to flour in a stone mortar with a heavy stone pestle, and baked in the ashes. Acorn flour is the principal ingredient, but berries of various kinds are usually mixed in, and frequently seasoned with some high-flavored herb. A sort of pudding is also made in the same manner, but it is boiled instead of baked."

The Indians gathered a great variety of roots, berries and seeds which they made use of for food. The principal root used was the camas, great quantities of which were collected and dried during summer and stored for the coming winter's provision. This is a bulbous root much like an onion, and is familiar to nearly every old resident of Oregon. Another root called kice or kace was held in high esteem ; it was bulbous, about an inch long, of a bitterish taste like ginseng. The ip-ar e-pua or e-par root was a prominent article of diet and grew abundantly upon the banks of the Rogue and other rivers. There were several varieties of grass seeds, the huckle-berry, black-berry, salmon-berry, squaw-berry, manzanita-berry and perhaps others, which entered into the diet of the Indian generally, or as governed by the locality in which they grew. At Klamath lake the pond lily grows in profusion; and its seeds, called wo-cus by the savages, formed an article of diet of which they were very fond. The women, as is

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invariably the case among the North American Indians, performed all the work of gather- ing these comestibles and of preparing them likewise. The men were not in any de- gree an exception to the general rule of laziness and worthlessness. Their only active days were when in pursuit of game or their enemies. Wars among these Indians were of frequent occurrence, but were hardly ever long or bloody. The casus belli was usually lovely woman. Wicked sorceries inflicted by one people on another were also causes of war. If one tribe obstructed a salmon stream so as to prevent their neighbors above from obtaining a supply of food the act often provoked war. No scalps were taken, but the dead foeman was decapitated-a fate meted out to all male pris- oners, while the women and children were spared to be the property of the conquerors.

Their bows were usually about three feet long, made of yew or some other tough wood; the back was an inch and a half in width and was covered with the sinews of the deer. The arrows were about two feet long, and occasionally thirty inches. They were made of reeds, were feathered and had a tip of obsidian, glass or iron. They often made their arrows in two sections, the front one containing the tip being short and fastened by a socket so contrived as to leave the tip in a wounded animal, while the longer and more valuable feathered section dropped upon the ground and could be found in the fleeing animal's trail. Poisoned arrows seem to have been in use, es- pecially among the Modocs, who used the venom of the rattlesnake for the purpose. They macerated the reptile's head in a deer's liver which, putrefying, absorbed the poison and assumed the virulent character itself. Arrows dipped therein were regarded as capable of producing death. There is no record of these poisoned arrows having been used with fatal effect on a white man, but there is no good reason to suppose that in the absence of remedies a wound of this sort would be otherwise than fatal.

The Indian women ingeniously plaited grass, tule or fine willow roots into bas- kets, mats, etc. The baskets constructed for cooking purposes would retain water and were even used as kettles for boiling that fluid. Stones, heated very hot, were thrown into the vessel, whereby heat was communicated to the water. Canoes were made from the trunk .of a tree, hollowed out and shaped by means of fire. Pine, fir and cot- tonwood were the species used, and the completed vessel was blunt at each end, and those made by the Rogue River Indians were flat-bottomed. The tree having been felled by burning off, or being found as a windfall, was burned off to the required length and hollowed out by the same agency. Pitch was spread on the portion to be burned away, and a piece of fresh bark served to prevent the flames from spreading too far. These canoes were propelled by means of paddles. Such constructions of course lacked the requisite lightness and grace of the birch-bark canoes of the far- eastern Indians, nor could they equal them in speed or handiness.

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 29

Author: David D. Fagan Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages: