USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 52
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General Steele had been quite active since taking the command in Oregon. During the summer he had made four tours of inspection: one to and around Puget Sound, travelling between 600 and 700 miles, a part of the time on horseback. The second tour was performed altogether on horseback, a distance of over 1,200 miles. Leaving The Dalles with an escort of ten men and his aide-de-camp, he proceeded to Camp Watson, where he took one of the cavalry companies sent to that post in April, commanded by Major E. Myers, and continued his journey to Camp Curry and Malheur Lake. While encamped on the east side of the lake, the Indians drove off fifty-two pack- mules belonging to the escort. They were pursued, and the animals recovered, except three which had been killed and eaten. From Lake Malheur Steele proceeded without further interruption to Camp Lyon, and thence to Fort Boise, where he found General Hal- leck and staff, returning to The Dalles by the usually travelled road-leaving, it would seem by the com- plaints of the citizens of Eastern Oregon, Myers' company in the Boise country. With Halleck, he
15 See Woods' Rec., MS .; also U. S. Mess. and Docs, 1866-7, 503-4, 39th cong. 2d sess; Or. Jour. Senate, 1866, 51-5; Portland Oregonian, July 14, 1866.
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STEELE'S TOUR.
next inspected the forts at the mouth of the Colum- bia; and on the 13th of August returned to Boisé, crossing Snake River at the mouth of the Bru- neau, examining the country in that vicinity with a view to establishing a post. From Bruneau Steele went to the Owyhee mines, and thence to the forks of the Owyhee, where troops were encamped watch- ing the movements of the Indians. Taking an escort of twenty men, under Captain David Perry, he next proceeded to Alvord Valley, arriving at Camp Smith on the 6th of September. Thence he returned to Fort Boisé, and to Vancouver about the time the legislature was considering the subject of raising volunteers.
Soon after the return of Steele and his interview with Woods, recruiting for the 8th regiment United States cavalry was begun in the Willamette Valley, but progressed slowly, the recruiting service having been injured by the action of the legislature, which held out the prospect of a volunteer organization, in which those who would enlist preferred to serve. The movement to recruit, however, by promising to put an additional force in the field, arrested the volunteer movement, and matters were left to proceed as formerly.16
16 In Sept. the Owyhee stage was attacked and two men shot. In Nov. the Indians fired on loaded teams entering Owyhee inines from Snake River by the main road, and killed a mau named McCoy, besides wounding one Adams. They fired on the Owyhee ferry, and on a detachment of cavalry, both attacks being made in the night, and neither resulting in anything more serious than killing a horse, and driving off fourteen head of cattle. During the autumn a party of 68 Idaho miners were prospecting on the upper waters of Snake River. A detachment of eleven men were absent from the main party looking for gold, when one of the eleven separated himself from them, to look for the trail of others. Ou returning, he saw that the detachment had been attacked, and hastened to report to the main company, who, on reach- ing the place, found all ten men murdered. Their names, so far as known, were Bruce Smith, Edward Riley, David Conklin, William Strong, and George Ackleson. This party were afterward attacked in Montana by the Sioux, when Col Rice and William Smith were killed, and several wounded. See account in Portland Oregonian, Nov. 28, 1866. On the Sth of Nov. the Owyhee stage was attacked within four miles of Snake River crossing, a passen- ger named Wilcox killed, another, named Harrington, wounded in the hip, and the driver, Waltermire, wounded in the side. The driver ran his team two miles, pursued by the Indians, who kept tiring on the stage, answered by passengers who had arms. The wheel-horses being at last shot, the party were forced to run for their lives, and escaped. On returning with assistance,
528
THE SHOSHONE WAR.
But it cannot be said that Steele did not keep his troops in motion. He decided also to try the effect of a winter campaign, and reestablished several camps, besides establishing Camp Warner, on the west side of Warner Lake, and Camp Three Forks of Owyhee on the head of the north branch of that river, on the border of the Flint district, and throw- ing a garrison into each of the two abandoned forts of Lapwai and Walla Walla. Two or three more cavalry companies arrived before December, there being then seven in Oregon and Idaho, besides five companies of the 14th infantry, one of the 1st Oregon infantry, and five of artillery in the department.
A number of scouting parties were out during the autumn, scouring the south-eastern part of Oregon, skirmishing here and there, seldom inflicting or sus- taining much loss. On the 26th of September fifty cavalrymen under Lieutenant Small attacked the enemy at Lake Abert, in the vicinity of Camp War- ner, and after a fight of three hours routed them, kill- ing fourteen and taking seven prisoners. Their horses, rifles, and winter stores fell into the hands of the troops.
On the morning of the 15th of October Lieutenant Oatman, Ist Oregon infantry, from Fort Klamath, with twenty-two men and five Klamaths as scouts, set out for Fort Bidwell to receive reinforcements and provisions for an extended scouting expedition. He was joined by Lieutenant Small with twenty-seven cavalrymen. The command marched to the Warner
Wilcox was found scalped and mutilated. The mail-bags were cut open and contents scattered. In Dec. twenty savages attacked the Cow Creek farm in Jordan Valley, and taking possession of the stable, riddled the house with bullets and arrows. Having frightened away the inmates, they drove off all the cattle on the place. They were pursued, and the cattle recovered. U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, 99-100, vol. iii., 4th cong. 2d sess. Dalles Mountaineer, Dec. 7, 1866; Owyhee Avalanche, Nov. 17, 1866; Idaho World, Nov. 24, 1866. On the 30th of Oct. the Indians raided Surprise Camp, a military station, carry- ing off grain, tents, tools, etc. Major Walker, promoted from captain, pur- sued them, when they divided their force, sending off their plunder with some, while a dozen of them charged the soldiers. Four Indians were killed and the rest escaped. Boise Statesman, Nov. 8, 1866.
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OATMAN'S FIGHT.
Lake basin, seeking the rendezvous of the enemy. Two days were spent in vain search, when the com- mand undertook to cross the mountains to Lake Abert, at their western base, being guided by Blow, a Klamath chief. After proceeding six miles in a direct course, a deep cañon was encountered running directly across the intended route, which was followed for ten miles before any crossing offered which would permit the troops to pass on to the west. Such a cross- ing was at last found, the mountains being passed on the 26th, and at eleven o'clock of the day the command entered the beautiful valley of the Chewaucan by a route never before travelled by white men.
About two and a half miles from the point where they entered the valley, Indians were discovered run- ning toward the mountains. Being pursued by the troops, they took up their position in a rocky cañon. Leaving the horses with a guard, the main part of the command advanced, and dividing, passed up the ridges on both sides of the ravine, while a guard remained at its mouth. At twelve o'clock the firing began, and was continued for three hours. Fourteen Indians were killed, and twice as many wounded. The Indians then fled into the mountains, and the troops returned to their respective posts.17
Early in November the Shoshones under Panina threatened an attack on the Klamath reservation, in revenge for the part taken against them by the Klam- aths in acting as scouts. With a promptness unusual with congress, the treaty made with Panina in Sep- tember 1865 had been ratified,18 and this chief was under treaty obligations. But true to his threat, he invaded the Sprague River Valley, where the chief of the Modocs had his home, stealing some of Sconchin's horses. In return, Sconchin pursued, capturing two Snake women. He reported to the agent on the
17 Jacksonville Reporter, Nov. 3, 1866; Dalles Mountaineer, Dec. 7, 1866. 18 Cong. Globe, 1865-6, pt v. ap. 402.
HIST. OR., VOL. II. 34
530
THE SHOSHONE WAR.
reservation that he had conversed with some of Panina's head men, at a distance, in the manner of Indians, and learned from them that the Snakes were concentrating their forces near Goose Lake, prepara- tory to invading the reservation, and capturing the fort. Applegate, the agent, notified Sprague, who reported to his superiors, saying that he had not men enough to defend the reservation and search for the enemy. The Shoshones did in fact come within a few miles of the post, where they were met and fought by the troops and reservation Indians, losing thirteen killed and others wounded. Meanwhile the troops were gradually and alınost unconsciously surrounding the secret haunts of the hostile Shoshones in Oregon, their successes being in proportion to their nearness of approach, the attacking party on either side being usually victorious. 19
About this time the controversy between the civil and military authorities took a peculiar turn. The army bill of 1866 provided for attaching Indian scouts to the regular forces engaged in fighting hostile bands; and certain numbers were apportioned among the states and territories where Indian hostilities existed, the complement of Oregon being one hundred. Governor Woods made application to General Steele to have these hundred Indians organized into two companies of fifty each, under commanders to be selected by himself, and sent into the field independently of the regular troops, but to act in conjunction with them. This proposition Steele declined, on the ground that the army bill contemplated the employment of Indians as scouts only, in numbers of ten or fifteen to a com- mand.
19 In Oct. Lieut Patton, of Capt Hunt's company, with 10' men, had a skir- mish on Dunder and Blitzen Creek, which runs into Malheur Lake from the south, killing 6 out of 75 Indians, with a loss of 1 man, and 4 horses wounded. Boisé Statesman, Oct. 27, 1866. Capt. O'Beirne also had a fight on the Owyhee in Nov., in which he killed 14 and captured 10, losing one man wounded and a citizen, S. C. Thompson, killed. Id. Nov. 17, 1866; Owyhee Avalanche, Nov. 10, 1866. Baker's command, in Nov. and Dec., killed about 60 Indians. Dalles Mountaineer, Dec. 14, 1866; Sec. War Rept, i. 481-2, 40th cong. 2d sess.
531
INDIAN COMPANIES.
Being refused by Steele, Woods appealed to Hal- leck as division commander, who also refused, using little courtesy in declining. The quarrel now became one in which the victory would be with the stronger. Woods telegraphed to the secretary of war a state- ment of the case, and asked for authority to carry out his plan of fighting Indians with Indians. Secre- tary Stanton immediately ordered Halleck to conform his orders to the wishes of the governor of Oregon in this respect; and thus constrained, authority was given by Halleck to Woods to organize two companies of fifty Indians each, and appoint their officers. Accord- ingly, W. C. McKay and John Darragh, both familiar with the Indian language and customs, were appointed lieutenants, to raise and command the Indian com- panies, which were sent into the field, with the humane orders to kill and destroy without regard to age, sex, or condition.20
About the time that the Warm Spring Indians took the field, George Crook, lieutenant-colonel 23d infantry, a noted Indian-fighter in California, was ordered to relieve Marshall in the command of the district of Boisé,21 as the Idaho newspapers said, "to
20 Lieuts McKay and Darragh, in giving a personal account of their expedi- tion, relate that their command killed fourteen women and children, which was done in accordance with written and verbal instructions from headquarters of the military district, and much against the wishes of the Indian scouts, who remonstrated against it, on the ground that the Snakes, in their next inroad, would murder their wives and children. U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, 1867-8, vol. iii., pt ii., 101, 40th cong. 2d sess. Woods' apology was that the women of the Snake tribe were the most brutal of murderers, and had assisted in the fiendish tortures of Mrs and Miss Ward, and other immigrant women, for which they deserved to suffer equally with the men.
21 See Recollections of G. L. Woods, a manuscript dictation containing many terse and vivid pictures of the modern actors in our history; also Overland Monthly, vol. ii., p. 162, 1869.
The following is a complete roster of the officers in the department of the Columbia in the autumn of 1866: Department staff: Frederick Steele, major- gen. commanding department. George Macomber, 2d lieut 14th inf., A. A. insp .- gen. Henry C. Hodges, capt., A. Q. M., bvt lieut-col U. S. A., chief Q. M. Sam. A. Foster, capt., C. S., bvt major U. S. A., C. C. S., Act. A. A. G. P. G. S. Ten Broek, surgeon U. S. A., bvt lieut-col, medical director. George Williams, brevet capt. U. S. A., aide-de-camp. Richard P. Strong, Ist lieut 7th inf., aide-de-camp. Stations and commands: Fort Colville, Capt. John S. Wharton, co. G, 14th inf. Fort Lapwai, Lt J. H. Gallagher, 14th
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THE SHOSHONE WAR.
the satisfaction of everybody." General Crook was a man of quiet determination, and the people of Oregon and Idaho expected great things of him. Nor were they disappointed, for to him is due the credit of sub- duing the hostile tribes on the Oregon and California frontier, and in Idaho. When the war began, eastern Oregon was for the most part a terra incognita, and the Oregon cavalry had spent four years in exploring it and tracking the Indians to their hitherto unknown haunts. And now the most efficient officers decided that the Indians must be fought in the winter, and Steele, after brief observation, adopted the theory. Then Governor Woods had thrown into the field the best possible aids to the troops in his two companies of Indian allies.
When Crook assumed command in the Boise dis- trict the Indians were already hemmed in by a cordon of camps and posts, with detachments continually in the field harassing and reducing them. About the middle of December Crook took the field with forty soldiers and a dozen Warm Spring allies. On the Owyhee he found a body of about eighty warriors prepared for battle. Leaving ten men to guard camp, he attacked with the remainder, fighting for several hours, when the savages fled, leaving some women and children and thirty horses in his hands. Twenty-
inf., co. E, 8th cav. Fort Walla Walla, Lt Oscar I. Converse, co. D, 8th cav. Fort Stevens, Capt. Leroy L. James, co. C, 2d art. Cape Hancock, Capt. John I. Rogers, co. L, 2d art. Fort Steilacoom, Capt. Chas H. Peircc, co. E, 2d art. San Juan Island, Capt. Thomas Grey, co. I, 2d art. Fort Vancouver, Col G. A. H. Blake, Ist U. S. cav., field, staff, and band; Bvt lieut-col Albert O. Vincent, co. F, 2d art .; Capt. William Kelly, co. C, 8th cavalry. Vancouver Arsenal, Bvt capt. L. S. Babbitt, det. ordnance corps. Camp Watson, Bvt. lieut-col Eugene M. Baker, co. I, Ist cav .; Lieut Amandus C. Kistler, co. F, 14th inf. Camp Logan, Lieut Charles B. Western, 14th inf., co. F, Sth cav. Fort Klamath, Capt. F. B. Sprague, co. I, Ist Or. inf. volunteers. Boisé Dis- trict: Fort Boisé, Bvt maj .- gen. George Crook, 23d inf .; Bvt col James B. Sin- clair, co. H, 14th inf. Camp Three Forks, I. T., Bvt lieut-col John J. Cop- pinger, cos A and F, 14th inf. Camp C. F. Smith, Capt. J. H. Walker, co. C, 14th inf. Camp Warner, Capt. P. Collins, cos B and D, 14th inf .; Brt major Edward Myers, co. H, Ist cavalry. Camp Lyon, I. T., Capt. James C. Hunt, co. M, Ist cav. Off. Arm. Regis., 1866, 67; Portland Oregonian, Dec. 22, 1866. Capt. David Perry superseded Marshall at Fort Boisé in the interim before Crook's arrival; and Major Rheinhart, Ist Or. inf., was in command at Fort Klamath during the summer of 1866.
533
CROOK'S CAMPAIGNS.
five or thirty Indians were killed. Crook lost but one man, Sergeant O'Toole, who had fought in twenty- eight battles of the rebellion.
In January 1867 Crook's men again met the enemy about fifteen miles from the Owyhee ferry, on the road to California. His Indian scouts discovered the Snake camp, which was surprised and attacked at daylight. In this affair sixty Indians were killed and thirty prisoners taken, with a large number of horses. A man named Hanson, a civilian, was killed in the charge, and three of Crook's men wounded. Soon after a smaller camp was discovered; five of the sav- ages were killed, and the remainder captured. An Indian was recognized among the prisoners who had before been captured and released on his promise to refrain from warlike practices in the future, and was shot for violating his parole.22 From the Owyhee Crook proceeded toward Malheur lake and river, in the vicinity of which the Warm Spring Indian com- panies had been operating. On the 6th of January McKay attacked a camp, killing three, taking a few horses and some ammunition. He discovered the headquarters of Panina, who had fortified himself on a mountain two thousand feet in height, and climbing the rocks with his men, fought the chief a whole day without gaining much advantage, killing three Sho- shones, and having one man and several horses wounded. The same night, however, he discovered another hostile camp, attacking which he killed twelve, and took some prisoners. The snow being fourteen to eighteen inches deep in north-eastern Oregon at this time, the impossibility of keeping up the strength of their horses compelled the scouts to suspend operations.
Meanwhile, notwithstanding the exertions of the troops, it was impossible to check the inroads of the Indians. Only a few years previous to the breaking
22 U. S. Int. Rept, 1867-8. vol. iii. 188, 40th cong. 2d sess; Owyhee Ava- lanche, Jan. 5, 1867.
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THE SHOSHONE WAR.
out of the Shoshone war this tribe was treated with contempt, as incapable of hostilities, other than petty thefts and occasional murders for gain. When they first began their hostile visits to the Warm Spring reservation Robert Newell, one well acquainted with the character of the different tribes, laughed at the terror they inspired, and declared that three or four men ought to defend the agency against a hundred of them. But a change had come over these savages with the introduction of fire-arms and cattle. From cowardly, skulking creatures, whose eyes were ever fastened on the ground in search of some small living thing to eat, the Shoshones had come to be as much feared as any savages in Oregon.23
As early as the middle of March detachments of. troops were moving on the Canon City road, and fol- lowing the trails of the marauders. They travelled many hundred miles, killing with the aid of the allies twenty-four Indians, taking a few prisoners, and de- stroying some property of the enemy. On the 27th of July Crook, while scouting between Camp C. F. Smith and Camp Harney with detachments from three companies of cavalry, travelling at night and
23 For example, it takes a brave and somewhat chivalrous savage to rob a stage. On March 25th, as the Boisé and Owyhee stage was coming down the ravine toward Snake River from Reynolds .Creek, it was attacked by eight ambushed Indians. The driver, William Younger, was mortally wounded. James Ullman, a California pioneer, a Boisé pioneer, a merchant of Idaho, in attempting to escape, was overtaken and killed. The mail and contents of the coach were destroyed or taken. The same band killed Bouchet, a citizen of Owyhee. A few days previously they had raided a farm, and driven off 23 cattle from Reynolds Creek. On the 25th of April, 8 Shoshones raided the farm of Clano and Cosper, on the Canon City road, and secured 25 cattle and 2 horses. They were pursued by J. N. Clark, whose house and barn they had destroyed in Sept., who, with Howard Maupin and William Ragan, attacked them as they were feasting on an ox, killing 4 and recovering the stock. One of the Indians killed by Clark was the chief Panina. In the same month Fraser and Stack were killed near their homes on Jordan Creek. In May they attacked C. Shea, a herder on Sinker Creek, and were repelled and pursued by & white men, who, however, barely escaped with their lives. Two men, McKnight and Polk, being in pursuit of Shoshones, were wounded, McKnight mortally. The savages burned a house and barn near Inskip's farm, Owyhee, and drove off the stock, which the troops finally recov- ered. They killed three men in Mormon Basin. On every road, in any direction, they made their raids, firing on citizens and stealing stock. U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, 1867-8, iii. 101-3, 40th cong. 2d sess.
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INDIAN ALLIES AND RESERVATIONS,
lying concealed by day, came upon a large body of the enemy in a canon in the Puebla Mountains. He had with him the two companies of allies, composed of Warn Spring, Columbia River, and Boise Sho- shones, the first eager for an opportunity of aveng- ing themselves on an hereditary foe. They were allowed to make the attack, leaving the troops in re- serve. The Shoshones were completely surrounded, and the allies soon had thirty scalps dangling at their belts. It was rare sport for civilization, this making the savages fight the savages for its benefit.24 Pro- ceeding toward and when within eight miles of the post, another Indian camp was discovered and sur- rounded as before, the allies being permitted to per- form the work of extermination.
From observing that the Indians were constantly well supplied with ammunition, and that although so many and severe losses were sustained the enemy were not disheartened nor their number lessened, General Crook came to the conclusion that it was not the Oregon tribes alone he was fighting. From a long experience in Indian diplomacy, he had discovered that reservations were a help rather than a hinderance to Indian warfare, premising that the reservation Indians were not really friendly in their dispositions. It was impossible always to know whether all the Indians belonging to a reservation were upon it or not, or what was their errand when away from it. An Indian thought nothing of travelling two or three hundred miles to steal a horse-in fact, the farther his thefts from the reservation the better, for obvious reasons. He was less liable to detection; and then he could say he had been on a hunting expedition, or to gather the seeds and berries which were only to be found in mountains and marshes, where the eye of the agent was not likely to follow him. Meantime he, with
24 See Owyhee Avalanche, in Oregonian, Aug. 24, 1867. 'The troops did not fire a shot.' Boise Statesman, in Shastu Courier, Aug. 31, 1867.
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THE SHOSHONE WAR.
others like-minded, could make a rapid journey into Oregon, leaving his confederates on the reservation, who would help him to sell the stolen horses on his return for arms and ammunition, and who in their turn would carry these things to the Oregon Indians to exchange for other stolen horses. There were always enough low and vicious white men in the neigh- borhood of reservations to purchase the property thus obtained by the Indians and furnish them with the means of carrying on their nefarious practices. By this means a never-failing supply of men, arms, and ammu- nition was pouring into Oregon, furnished by the reservation Indians of California. Such, at all events, was the conviction of Crook, and he determined to act upon it by organizing a sufficient force of cavalry in his district to check the illicit trade being carried on over the border.
It was the intention of Crook to have his troops ready for prosecuting the plan of intercepting these incursions from California by the 1st of July; but owing to delay in mounting his infantry, and getting supplies to subsist the troops in the field, the proposed campaign was retarded for nearly two months. The rendezvous for the expedition was Camp Smith, on the march from which point to Camp Warner, in July, his command intercepted two camps of the mi- gratory warriors, and killed or captured both. Crook left Camp Warner on the 29th of July with forty troops under Captain Harris, preceded by Darragh with his company of scouts, with a view of selecting a site for a new winter camp, the climate of Warner being too severe.25 Passing southerly around the base of Warner buttes, and north again to the Drew crossing of the shallow strait between Warner lakes,
25 The winter of 1866-7 was very severe in the Warner Lake region, which has an altitude of nearly 5,000 feet. One soldier, a sergeant, got lost, and perished in the snow. The entire company at Camp Warner were compelled to walk around a small circle in the snow for several nights, not daring to lie down or sleep lest they should freeze to death. Owyhee Avalanche, April 6, 1867; Portland Oregonian, Aug. 24, 1867.
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