An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1, Part 7

Author: Steele, Richard F; Rose, Arthur P
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Spokane, Wash.] Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 652

USA > Washington > Lincoln County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 7
USA > Washington > Adams County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 7
USA > Washington > Douglas County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 7
USA > Washington > Franklin County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 7

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Your familiarity with the government's policy, duties and interests, render it unnecessary for me to more than hint at the several objects intended by the en- closed bill, and any enlargements upon the topics here suggested as inducements to its adoption, would be quite superflous, if not impertinent. The very existence of such a system as the one above recommended suggests the utility of postoffices and mail arrangements, which it is the wish of all who now live in Oregon to have granted them, and I need only add that the contracts for this purpose will be readily taken at reasonable rates for transporting the mail across from Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia in forty days, with fresh horses at each of the contemplated posts. The ruling policy proposed, regards the Indians as the police of the country, who are to be relied upon to keep the peace, not only for themselves, but to repel lawless white men and prevent banditti, under the solitary guidance of the superintendent of the several posts, aided hy a well-

directed system to induce the punishment of crimes. It will only be after the failure of these means to pro- cure the delivery or punishment of violent, lawless and savage acts of aggression, that a band or tribe should be regarded as conspirators against the peace, or pun- ished accordingly by force of arms.

Hoping that these suggestions may meet your ap- probation, and conduce to the future interests of our growing country, I have the honor to be, Honorable sir, your obedient servant,

MARCUS WHITMAN.

Certainly it is reasoning from slender, un- substantial premises to assert that the great in- fluence exerted upon President Tyler and Sec- retary Webster by Whitman was founded on so slight a pretext as saving to him, personally, the humble mission at Waiilatpu. Whitman must have been a man with "an idea," larger than that to have commanded respect from the ablest statesmen of his day; to have crystalized public sentiment into a desire for the whole of Oregon: to have smelted patriotism into the heraldic proclamation of defiance to England, "Fifty-four forty or fight."

If Whitman were purely selfish, why should he have announced his intention, in 1843, of personally conducting a large train across the mountains? Security of his mission did not depend on this. On the contrary the advance of civilization, with attendant churches, would tend to do away entirely with missions to the Indians.

As we approach the melancholy close of Dr. Whitman's varied career as explorer, mission- ary and statesman, one can not fail to be im- pressed with a feeling that less devotion to a patriotic sense of duty would have conduced to his personal safety. Two antagonists were ar- rayed against him and his political, as well as his spiritual, plans ; primarily the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Indians, indirectly influ- enced by the same commercial corporation. The policy of the company was to keep the country in the condition of a vast game preserve for the purpose of breeding fur-bearing animals. Naturally this pleased the Indians. It was di- rectly in line with their mode of life. The pol-

GENERAL HISTORY.

icy of American colonization was smybolized by the axe and the plow; complete demolition of profitable hunting grounds. And of this latter policy Dr. Whitman was high priest and propagandist.

Since the discovery of America Indian wars have been like

"Freedom's battle, once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son."

In a letter written by. Washington to Jay, in 1794, the first president says: "There does not remain a doubt in the mind of any well- informed person in this country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter with the Indians, their hostilities, the murders of helpless women and innocent chil- dren along our frontiers, result from the con- duct of the agents of Great Britain in this country." Historical justice demands, how- ever, that we assign the primary cause of the Whitman massacre to the entagling circum- stances of the Indians on the Columbia, under two rival peoples and conflicting policies. Also the general character of the Indians as uncivil- ized and superstitious, must be duly considered. Before the tragedy, as since, many Americans were cruel, deceitful and aggressive in their treatment of the unsophisticated savage. Those who have philosophically watched the trend of current events in the past twenty-five years need not be told that more than one Indian outbreak can be directly traced to low cupidity and peculation among our government officials. To a certain extent this cruelty and deception had been practiced upon the Indians by lawless white men prior to the Whitman massacre. To- day we can not come into court with clean hands for the purpose of accusing the English pioneers of Oregon. If their policy was one designed to check the march of western civili- zation, it was certainly devoid of the sometimes satanic cruelty shown by Americans towards the Indians.

Whitman tragedy and the immediate cause of the outbreak. Undoubtedly this will be found to lie in the innate superstition of the savage, educated or. uneducated. Following the return of Whitman from Washington, in 1843, the In- dians in the vicinity of the mission at Waiilatpu were restless and insurbordinate. There is evi- dence that at this period Whitman scented dan- ger. He contemplated removal to The Dalles for safety, and had even gone so far as to ar- range for the purchase of the Methodist Mis- sion at that point. Two personal enemies were arrayed against him; Tamsuky, a Cayuse chief. and Joe Lewis. The latter, was a sullen, re- vengeful half-breed, one who had wandered to the mission, been befriended by the doctor, and secretly became the head center of a murderous plot.

Measles became epidemic among the In- dians during the summer of 1847, introduced among the Cayuse tribe by immigrants. It was Indian medical practice to treat all fevers by placing the patient in a sweat-house, followed by a bath in ice-cold water. Under such ig- norant ministrations many of the patients, of course, expired. They died, too, under the medical attendance of Dr. Whitman. whose ut- most vigilance could not save his patients from the sweat-house and the fatal douche. It was at this critical period that the treacherous Lewis circulated reports that the doctor was poison- ing instead of healing his patients. Lewis af- firmed that he had overheard Whitman and Spalding plotting to obtain possession of the country. It was finally decided by some of the influential chiefs of the tribe to demand of Dr. Whitman a test case of his professional skill. An Indian woman afflicted with the measles was given in his charge. The terrible alterna- tive, secretly decided upon, was this: Should the woman recover, all would be peace ; should she die the Indians were to kill all the mission- aries.

Of this direful plot Whitman was apprised We now come to the savage details of the | by Istikus. a Umatilla friend. The doctor

GENERAL HISTORY.

treated the story with levity. Not so Mrs. Whitman. With the sensitive intuition of woman, she fully comprehended the dread sig- nificance of Istikus' story, and, though intrepid by nature, the heroine of a dangerous pioneer journey across the continent, she became alarmed, and was in tears for the first time since the death of her child eight years before. Dr. Whitman reassured her the best he could, and renewed his promise to move down the river. It was too late. On the fatal 29th of Novem- ber, 1847, great numbers of Tamsuky's adher- · ents were in the vicinity of Waiilatpu. Their sinister presence added to the alarm of Mrs. Whitman. Survivors of the massacre said that the hills were black with Indians looking down upon the scene. About one o'clock in the afternoon of the 29th, while Dr. Whitman was reading, a number of Indians entered his room, and, having attracted his attention, one of them, said to have been Tamchas, buried his hatchet in the head of his benefactor. Another savage, Telaukait, one who had received nothing but kindness, beat the face to a pulp. Bloody work, thus began, was speedily followed with relent- less brutality. None of the white men, scat- tered and unsuspecting, could offer adequate assistance. They were quickly shot down with the exception of such as were remote. Five men escaped. After incredible suffering they finally reached a place of safety. Mrs. Whit- man was the only woman who suffered death. Other women were outraged, and children, boys and girls, held in captivity several days. Will- iam McBean, the Hudson's Bay Company's agent, at Fort Walla Walla, refused to harbor Mr. Hall, who had escaped as far as the fort, and he subsequently perished. A courier was despatched by McBean to Vancouver, but this man did not even warn the people at The Dalles of danger. Happily they were unmolested. So soon as James Douglas, then chief factor in the place of Dr. Whitman, heard of the massacre, he sent Peter Skeen Ogden, with a force, to rescue the survivors. Ogden exhibited a com-

mendable zeal and efficiency, and by the expen- diture of several hundred dollars, ransomed forty-seven women and children.

Following are the names of the victims of this outbreak; the people slaughtered during the eight days of murderous riot: Marcus Whitman, Narcissa Whitman, John Sager, Francis Sager, Crockett Brewley, Isaac Gillen, James Young and Rogers, Kimball, Sales, Marsh, Saunders, Hoffman and Hall. After- wards there was found on the site of the massa- cre a lock of long, fair hair, which was, un- doubtedly taken from the head of Mrs. Whit- man. Among the relics of this tragedy, in Whitman College, it is now preserved. An ac- count of the escape of Mr. Osborne was pub- lished a number of years ago. It is a graphic description of the horrors of the event, and from it we take the following extracts :

As the guns fired and the yells commenced I leaned my head upon the bed and committed myself and family to my maker. My wife removed the loose floor. I dropped under the floor with my sick family in their night clothes, taking only two woolen sheets, a piece of bread and some cold mush, and pulled the floor over us. In five minutes the room was full of Indians, but they did not discover us. The roar of guns, the yells of the savages, and the crash of clubs and knives, and the groans of the dying continued until dark. We distinctly heard the dying groans of Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Rogers and Francis, till they died away one after the other. We heard the last words of Mr. Rogers in a slow voice, calling, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

Soon after this I removed the floor and we went out. We saw the white face of Francis by the door. It was warm, as we laid our hand upon it, but he was dead. I carried my two youngest children, who were sick, and my wife held on to my clothes in her great weakness. We had all been sick with measles. Two infants had died. She had not left her bed for six weeks till that day, when she stood up a few minutes. The naked, painted Indians were dancing a scalp dance around a large fire at a little distance. There seemed no hope for us and we knew not which way to go, but bent our steps toward Fort Walla Walla. A dense, cold fog shut out every star and the darkness was complete. We could see no trail and not even the hand before the face. We had to feel out the trail with our feet. My wife almost fainted, but staggered along. Mill Creek, which we had to wade, was high with late rains and came up to the waist. My wife in her great weakness came night washing down. but held to my clothes. I

GENERAL HISTORY.

braced myself with a stick, holding a child in one arm. I had to cross five times for the children. The water was icy cold and the air freezing some. Staggering along about two miles Mrs. Osborne fainted and could go no further, and we hid ourselves in the brush of the Walla Walla river, not far below the lodges of Tamsuky, a chief who was very active at the commence- ment of the butchery. We were thoroughly wet, and the cold, fog-like snow was about us. The cold mud was partially frozen as we crawled, feeling our way into the dark brush. We could see nothing the darkness was so extreme. I spread one wet sheet down on the frozen ground ; wife and children crouched upon it. I covered the other over them. I thought they must soon perish as they were shaking and their teeth rattling with cold. I kneeled down and commended us to our Maker. The day finally dawned and I could see Indians riding furiously up and down the trail. Sometimes they would come close to the brush and our blood would warm and the shaking would stop from fear for a moment. The day seemed a week. I expected every moment my wife would breathe her last. Tuesday night we felt our way to the trail and staggered along to Sutucks Nima (Dog Creek), which we waded as we did the other creek, and kept on about two miles, when my wife fainted and could go no farther. Crawled into the brush and frozen mud to shake and suffer on from hunger and cold, and without sleep. The children, too, wet and cold, called incessantly for food, but the shock of groans and yells at first so frightened them that they did not speak loud. Wednesday night wife was too weak to stand. I took our second child and started for Walla Walla; had to wade the Touchet; stopped fre- quently in the brush from weakness; had not recovered from measles. Heard a horseman pass and repass as I lay concealed in the willows. Have since learned it was Mr. Spalding. Reached Fort Walla Walla after daylight; begged Mr. McBean for horses to go to my family, for food, blankets and clothing to take to them, and to take care of my child till I could bring my family in should I live to find them alive. Mr. McBean told me I could not bring my family to his fort. Mr. Hall came in on Monday night, but he could not have an American in his fort, and he had him put over the Columbia river; that he could not let me have horeses or anything for my wife or children, and I must go on to Umatilla. I insisted on bringing my family to the fort, but he refused; said he would not let us in. I next begged the priest to show pity, as my wife and children must perish and the Indians, undoubtedly, kill me, but with no success.

There were many priests at the fort. Mr. McBean gave me breakfast but I saved most of it for my family. Providentially Mr. Stanley, an artist, came in from Colville, and narrowly escaped the Indians by telling them he was "Alain," H. B., meaning that his name was Alain and that he was a Hudson's Bay Company employe. He let me have his two horses, some food he had left from Revs. Ellis' and Walker's mission;

also a cap, a pair of socks, a shirt and handkerchief, and Mr. McBean furnished an Indian who proved most faithful, and Thursday night we started back, taking my child, but with a sad heart that I could not find mercy at the hands of God. The Indian guided me in the thick darkness to where I supposed I had left my dear wife and children. We could see nothing and dared not call aloud. Daylight came and I was exposed to Indians, but we continued to search till I was about to give up in despair, when the Indian discovered one of the twigs I had broken as a guide in coming out to the trail. Follow- ing this he soon found my wife and children still alive. I distributed what little food and clothing I had and we started for the Umatilla, the guide leading the way to a ford.

Mr. Osborne and family went to William- . ette Valley where they lived many years, as honored members of the community, though Mrs. Osborne never entirely regained her health from the dreadful experiences incident to the massacre and escape.

The most ingenious casuisty will fail to palliate the heartlessness of Mr. McBean. At the present day when charity, chivalry, nay, self-sacrifice to aid the suffering meet with heartiest approval from nearly all civilized na- tions, it is difficult to conceive of such base mo- tives as appear to have actuated him. That he reflected the baser qualities of the Hudson's Bay Company's policy, no one can reasonably deny. It seemed necessary to him to show the Indians that so far from reproving their con- duct the representative of the company was in sympathy, if not in actual collusion with the savage conspirators. McBean's attitude on this occasion stands forth as one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Hudson's Bay Company's "joint occupancy" with Americans of the territory of Oregon.

If further proof were wanted of the appar- ent understanding between the Indians and the company the case of the artist who gave his name as "Alain," representing himself as con- nected with the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company is before us. Refusal of assistance to Mr. Osborne by the priests at Fort Walla Walla is readily understood. Their tenure of spiritual office was dependent on the company. Their

GENERAL HISTORY.

heartless action was not based on theological antagonism. No difference of creed entered into the matter. They were guided simply by personal interest ; they were but another form of the abject creatures to which the Hudson's Bay Company sought to reduce all their de- pendents. But in the annals of American his- tory there is no more pathetic recital than the story of Osborne's and Hall's rejection at the English fort to which they had fled for shelter.

A less distressing case of a few weeks later is presented in the following extract from some reminiscences of Mrs. Catherine Pringle, formerly of Colfax. Mrs. Pringle was one of the Sager children, adopted by Doctor and Mrs. Whitman. The story of the "Christmas din- ner" which follows was given by her to the Commoner, of Colfax, in 1893 :

The Christmas of 1847 was celebrated in the midst of an Indian village where the American families who kept the day were hostages, whose lives were in constant danger. There is something tragically humorous about that Christmas, and I langh when I think of some things that I cried over on that day.

When the survivors moved to the Indian village a set of guards was placed over us, and those guards were vagabond savages, in whose charge nobody was safe. Many times we thought our final hour had come. They ordered us around like slaves, and kept us busy cook- ing for them. Whenever we made a dish they compelled us to eat of it first, for fear there was poison in it. They kept up a din and noise that deprived us of peace by day and sleep at night. Some days before Christmas we complained to the chief of the village who was sup- posed to be a little generous in our regard, and he gave us a guard of good Indians under command of one whom we knew as "Beardy." The latter had been friendly to Dr. Whitman; he had taken no part in the massacre, and it was claimed that it was through his intercession that our lives were spared.

We hailed the coming of Beardy as a providential thing, and so, when the holiday dawned, the elder folks resolved to make the children as happy as the means at hand would allow. Mrs. Sanders had brought across the plains with her some white flour and some dried peaches, and these had been brought to our abode in William Gray's mission. White flour was a luxury and so were dried peaches then. Mrs. Sanders made white bread on Christmas morning, and then she made peach pie. Beardy had been so kind to us that we had to in- vite him to our Christmas dinner. We had ever so many pies, it seemed, and Beardy thought he had tasted 3

nothing so good in all his life. He sat in one corner of the kitchen and crammed piece after piece of that dried pie into his mouth. We were determined that he should have all the pie he wanted, even if some of us went hungry, because Beardy was a friend on whose fidelity probably our lives depended.

And so we had our Christmas festival, and we sang songs and thanked heaven that we were still alive. After dinner, and about an hour after Beardy went away, we were thrown into alarm by a series of mad yells and we heard Indian cries of "Kill them! Tomahawk them !" A band of savages started to attack the Gray residence, and we saw them from the windows. Our time had come and some of us began to pray. The day that opened with fair promises was about to close in despair. To our amazement and horror the Indian band was led by Beardy himself, the Indian we counted on to police us in just such emergencies. He was clamoring for the death of all the white women. Fortune favored us at this critical juncture for just as the Indians were enter- ing the house messengers arrived from Fort Walla Walla. The messengers knew Beardy well, and they advanced on him and inquired the reason for his wild language.

Me poinsoned !" cried Beardy, "Me Killed. White squaw poisoned me. Me always white man's friend, now me enemy. White squaw must die."

That would be a liberal translation of the Indian words. Then followed a colloquy between Beardy and the messengers, and from the language used we learned that Beardy had suffered from an overdose o' American pie, and not knowing about the pains that lie in wait after intemperate indulgence even in pie, he rushed to the conclusion that he had been poisoned. It required a long time for the messengers to convince Beardy that they were innocent of any intention to cause him pain. but that he was simply suffering from the effects of inordinate indulgence in an indigestible luxury. The messengers talked Beardy into a reasonable frame of mind ; he called off his horde of savages and peace once more spread her wings over the William Gray mission. We were all happy that night-happy that Mrs. Saun- dres' pie had not been the means of a wholesale slaughter of white families on Christmas day.

The messengers I speak of brought good news from the fort. Succor was at hand, and on December 29th we were moved to the fort and started down the river to The Dalles, January 3. 1848. The Christmas of the year 1847, as it was celebrated in this territory, offers something of a contrast to the yuletide merriment in all the churches and homes to-day.

We have described the Whitman Mission, Whitman's mid-winter journey, his work for Oregon and the massacre. It remains to speak of the Cayuse war which followed as a nat- ural sequence.

CHAPTER V

THE CAYUSE WAR.

Friends of Mr. McBean have come forward with an explanation of liis treatment of the refugees from the Waiilatpu massacre. It is claimed tht his reluctance to do any act which appeared like befriending Americans was through fear of the Cayuse Indians and a be- lief that they were about to begin a war of ex- termination upon Americans, their friends and allies. Therefore it would be dangerous to assist such Americans as were then seeking re- fuge from massacre, outrage and torture.

It was reserved for Americans, however, to take the initiative in this war. News of the Whitman tragedy stirred the hearts of genuine men ; men in whose veins ran the milk of hu- man kindness instead of ice-water. On the day following the massacre Vicar General Brouillet visited the Waiilatpu mission. He found the bodies of the victims unburied; he left them with such hasty interment as was possible, and soon after met Mr. Spalding whom he warned against attempting to visit the mission. This was, indeed, a friendly act on the part of the Vicar General, for the horrors of this tragedy did not come to a close on the first day. While it was safe for Brouillet, in close touch with the Hudson's Bay Company, to repair to that sad scene of desolation, it was not considered safe for any Americans to visit the spot. On Tues- day Mr. Kimball, who had remained with a broken arm in Dr. Whitman's house, was shot and killed. Driven desperate by his own and the sufferings of three sick children with him, he had attempted to procure water from a stream near the house. The same week Mr. Young and Mr. Bulee were killed. Saturday the savages completed their fiendish work by

carrying away the young women for wives. Of the final ransom of the captives F. F. Victor, in "The River of the West," says :

"Late in the month of December (1847) there arrived in Oregon City to be delivered to the governor, sixty-two captives, bought from the Cayuses and Nez Perces by Hudson Bay blankets and goods; and obtained at that price by Hudson's Bay influence. 'No other power on earth,' says Joe Meek, the American, 'could have rescued those prisoners from the hands of the Indians,' and no man better than Mr. Meek understood the Indian character or the Hud- son's Bay Company's power over them."

On December 7, 1847, from Fort Van- couver, James Douglas sent the following let- ter to Governor Abernethy :

SIR :- Having received intelligence, last night, by special express from Walla Walla, of the destruction of the missionary settlement at Waiilatpu, by the Cayuse Indians of that place, we hasten to communicate the particulars of that dreadful event, one of the most atrocious which darkens the annals of Indian crime.

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An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1, Part 7

Author: Steele, Richard F; Rose, Arthur P Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Spokane, Wash.] Western Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 652

Author: Steele, Richard F; Rose, Arthur P
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Spokane, Wash.] Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 652