History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 29

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134

USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 29
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 29
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 29

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The events of this campaign are differently given by Elwood Evans, A. J. Splawn and T. W. Prosch, our chief authorities. All agree that the campaign was a complete failure. Evans indulges in bitter censure of the regular sol- diers, including General Wool, commander-in-chief of the Department of the Pacific. Prosch declares that the expedition was a complete failure owing to the timidity, slowness, and inefficiency of Major Rains. He says that only one Indian was killed and he was a helpless old man. By reason of getting the im- pression that the Catholic missionaries were aiding the Indians the volunteers burned the Mission house on the Ahtanum. To quote from Prosch: "Rains wrote a bombastic letter to Chief Kamiakin November 13th, which, if received, must have astonished and puzzled him. The authorities were also astonished and annoyed by this military fiasco. Capt. E. O. C. Ord, a few years later a successful and distinguished general in the army of the Union, but in this ex- pedition having three howitzers to look after, at once filed charges against Major Rains and demanded that he be tried by an army court. Rains was immediately transferred to Fort Humboldt, California, by General Wool, who recognized his incapacity and placed him where he at least would do no harm. In 1861 Rains resgined and entered the Confederate service, where he served during the four following years as a Brigadier General."

Splawn does not give quite so ignominious a view of the campaign as does Prosch. He gives interesting details of the battle of Pahotacute or Pahquyti- koot (Union Gap), the field of which extended from the vicinity of the present Wapato to the mouth of the Ahtanum. Two monuments in Union Gap com- memorate this battle, one erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the other by Yakimas and friends.

The Indians seem to have been much demoralized by the howitzers, which they considered a "bad tomanowas." They found, too, that the volunteers were bold and enterprising and fully up to Indian methods of warfare. As a result they withdrew in more or less confusion up the Ahtanum and across the present site of Yakima and up the Naches. Kamiakin retreated to the Colum- bia and crossed over at White Bluffs, while Owhi and others went through the

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Selah region to a point on the Columbia at the mouth of Crab Creek, where they lost many horses swimming the swift current.

But though Splawn makes a larger affair of this campaign than Prosch does, he says that many Indians have told him that only one Indian was killed and that was at a little pond just above the old Chambers place, and that Cut- Mouth John was the one who accomplished this solitary feat. The monument inscription does not indicate that Cut-Mouth John killed that Indian. Sluiskin is quoted as stating that the killing occurred just east of present Fair Grounds, on left side of road leading to the Moxee.

WALLA WALLA CAMPAIGN

With this inglorious end the whole command returned southward, going into camp on November 17th, at a point in the Klickitat Valley, twenty-five miles from The Dalles. Colonel Nesmith resigned and was succeeded by T. R. Cornelius in command of the volunteers.

While the Yakima campaign was thus coming to a feeble and inconclusive end, the second division of Oregon volunteers in command of Lieut .- Col. J. K. Kelley was engaged in a campaign in Walla Walla against Peupeumoxmox, the counterpart of Kamiakin in Yakima.

In the year 1855, December 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th, a series of decisive operations took place in the Walla Walla Valley, beginning in the Touchet and thence onward through what is now called Frenchtown, about ten miles from Walla Walla, and culminating at a smooth hill near the present Blalock fruit ranch, about four miles from the city. The Indians were defeated in this series of battles and their chieftain Peupeumoxmox was slain. The manner of his death was singular and has become one of the most bitterly disputed subjects in our history. The old chief had surrendered under a flag of truce while on the Touchet. He professed to wish to make peace, and had been made a hostage by the soldiers while on their march up the Walla Walla.

When the battle broke out Peupeumoxmox with several other Indians was under guard. In the height of the conflict the cry went up from some source : "The Indians are trying to escape!" Others shouted "Shoot them!" Before any one could hardly get a clear idea of what was happening, volleys of musketry were heard, a mad scramble took place, and in a few seconds the old Walla Walla chief with all the Indians except one (and he was a Nez Perce) were dead. Some of the best and most reliable of the witnesses, as G. W. Miller of Dayton, have testified that there was every indication that the Indians were tryin gto break away and that the only resource of the guard was to fire.

Col. F. E. Gilbert, author of a pioneer history of Walla Walla, took the position in his book that the affair was an atrocious murder, the work of "ghouls rather than men." He was not present, but drew his conclusions from the testimony.

The late Lewis McMorris, one of the most honored pioneers of Walla Walla, was close by, though not an eye-witness of the beginnings of the struggle. He related to the author a grotesque and horrible sequence of the death of Peupeu- moxmox, which any one who knew him must accept as true, to the effect that

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the body of the old chief was mutilated and that his ears were cut off and put in a jar of brandy. The brandy disappeared. It became a common thing to hear men about the camp bawling out, "Who drank the whisky off Peupeumox- mox' ears ?"

It was the common opinion that a certain lieutenant of the command had done the ghastly deed. The ears were taken and tacked to a public building at Salem.

Probably no one can confidently adjudge the right or wrong of the death of the Walla Walla chief. But when we remember the atrocious murder of his son, Elijah, in California and that there is no evidence that he sought imme- diate revenge, and when we call up the testimony of David Longmire of the great kindness and helpfulness of the chief to the immigrants of '53, we can not quell the suspicion that perhaps the Indian was not the only sinner at the time of the Walla Walla battle.

In March, 1856, a band of Klickitats swooped down upon the settlements on the north side of the Columbia between The Dalles and Cascades and nearly exterminated them. The same young lieutenant who had been in Haller's Battle was in command of a blockhouse on the north side of the river at the upper Cascades. This was Phil Sheridan, and the blockhouse has often been referred to as the scene of "Sheridan's first battle." As a matter of fact it was not strictly speaking his first. Old settlers claim that this Klickitat attack was the most atrocious act of the whole war. The author has been assured that when the volunteers reached the scene they found dead stock thrown into the springs and wells, the bodies of men horribly mutilated and the naked bodies of girls and women with stakes driven through. On the other hand old Chief Stwires, in whom both white and red have confidence, assures us that the Klickitats were always friendly. The only solution, if we accept the two testi- monies, is that the attacks were made by Yakimas or by broken bands of rene- gades, and not by Klickitats at all.

Almost contemporary with the massacres at the Cascades were another en- counter in the Yakima Valley. Colonel Nesmith had been succeeded, as will be remembered, by Col. T. R. Cornelius. The new commander had been making quite a campaign through the Palouse and then to White Bluffs on the Colum- bia, whence he proceeded to a point opposite the entrance of the Yakima into the Columbia. Crossing the river at that point, he went with five companies of 241 men up the Yakima, reaching a point on the Satus not far from the pres- ent town of Alfalfa. A report that a large band of Indians had been seen induced the colonel to order a reconnaissance early the next morning. A small party, of whom Capt. A. J. Hembree was one, volunteered for this service. Captain Hembree seems to have been skeptical of the presence of the enemy and exposed himself to attack, with the result that he was mortally wounded by a volley from ambush. A scattering battle ensued. Kamiakin seems to have been the Indian leader. Indeed he was apparently omnipresent and was the soul of Indian warfare in all directions. In all that day, though there seemed to be hot fighting, Captain Hembree was the only white man killed, and only one was wounded. Several Indians were killed and wounded, though in

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this instance, as usual, it was impossible to state the real Indian loss. Old Indians have asserted to L. V. McWhorter that there was no fight at the time of Hembree's death. Indian scouts on Satus Mountain killed him.

The death of Captain Hembree was deeply deplored, as he was a man highly respected both in the volunteer service and in his home in Oregon.

VICTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS

As the year 1856 went on it became clear that the growing strife between Regulars and Volunteers, and between General Wool and the State authorities of Oregon and Washington, would, if continued, go on to fatal weakness. Nevertheless Governors Stevens and Curry kept urging on their backwoods soldiers with untiring zeal. They were rewarded with a decisive victory. For Col. B. F. Shaw in command of 160 officers and men of the Washington Vol- unteers, leaving Walla Walla on July 14th, made a rapid march into the Grande Ronde, where they had learned that the enemy was concentrating, and struck an overwhelming blow.

This seemed to end organized resistance in that part of the field, although atfer the usual fashion of Indian wars, the defeated enemy had fallen into prowling bands even more inimical to settlement than the organized forces. With the successful battle on the Grande Ronde, it seemed that the work of the volunteers had been accomplished and on October 3, 1856, they were dis- banded.

Meanwhile a most acrimonious conflict raged between General Wool and Governor Stevens. Historians as well as participants have seldom had a good word for General Wool, and though some have maintained that he was a brave and capable commander, his record in Oregon, as well as in the Civil War later, seems to justify the conclusion that he was a stupid and opinionated martinet, not capable of large and vital views. On the other hand the general sentiment of settlers and volunteers was so entirely one-sided in all Indian troubles as to render them unable to do justice to one who, like Wool, was inclined to favor the Indian side of the case.

Another officer, destined to play a very important part in this Indian War was located in the Yakima Valley in 1856. This was Col. George Wright. With eleven companies he was camped on the Naches in the Spring and Sum- mer of the year. Some of Colonel Wright's correspondence of that period is so interesting that we again use a chapter in Mr. Splawn's book containing some of Wright's letters and other valuable matter.

"The Regulars and Volunteers did not work in harmony during the Indian uprisings. Governor Stevens did not hesitate to say that the failure of the Federal troops to cooperate with him unnecessarily lengthened the war. The opposite point of view is expressed in a letter dated June 6, 1856, from General Wool, commander of the Federal troops for the Pacific Coast in this part of the country, to Assistant Adjutant-General Thomas at New York City, in which he says: 'Colonel Wright is now in the Yakima country with eleven companies well appointed and prepared, a force sufficient to crush these Indians at once, if I can only bring them to battle. I shall pursue them and they must fight or

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leave the country. He has had several interviews with a number of the chiefs who appear to want peace, and remarks, "I believe these Indians desire peace and I must find out what outside influence is operating to keep them from com- ing in." It is reported to me that Governor Stevens has ordered two hundred Volunteers to the Yakima country, and that they arrived in the vicinity of Colonel Wright's camp on the Natches River about 17th of May. If this should be true, I should consider it very unfortunate, for they are not wanted in that region, as there is not a settler or white man in the Yakima country to pro- tect or defend. Colonel Wright required no Volunteers to bring the Indians to terms and he so informed Governor Stevens. The latter, however, as I believe, is determined if possible, to prevent the Regulars from terminating the war. Nevertheless, I think it will be accomplished soon.'"

Colonel Wright, reporting to his superior officer, Assistant Adjutant-Gen- eral D. R. Jones, at Benicia, California, under date of May 30th, states that "his camp is still on the Natches, and that the river is still impassable, the Indians. crossing by swimming their horses.

"The salmon have not commenced running in any great numbers," he writes, "and hence the Indians are compelled to go to the mountains, to seek subsistence. It is reported that Ka-mi-akin has gone over to see some of the Nez Perce chiefs who were engaged at this time. I believe most of these chiefs desire peace, but some of them hold back in fear of the demands that may be made upon them for their murders and thefts. They seem to think and say they had strong reasons, for the outrages of the former and the injudicious and intemperate threats of the latter, if true, as they say, I doubt not maddened the Indians to murder them."

He notes that Colonel Steptoe joined him the day before with four com- panies, his pack train returning immediately to Fort Dalles to bring up supplies. Inclusive of detachments with pack trains, Colonel Wright states that he has. about 500 men with him and that as soon as the river can be crossed, he will advance to the Wenas and the fisheries and "if I do not bring the Indians to terms, either by battle or desire for peace on their part, I shall endeavor to harass them to such an extent that they will find it impossible to live in the country. I am now throwing up a field work and gabions of dimensions suffi- cient to contain a company or two and all our stores. This depot will enable us to move unencumbered by a large pack train."

Writing to General Jones, June 11th, still from the camp on the Natches, Colonel Wright says: "On the 8th inst., a party of Indians numbering thirty- five men with a chief at their head paid a visit to my camp. These Indians live up in the moutains on the branches of the Natches River. They do not consider themselves under the authority of any of the great chiefs of the Yakima nation, and not being engaged in any hostilities, and evidenced a friendly disposition. On the following day a party of fifteen Priest Rapids Indians with a chief came to see me. The chief presented me a letter from Father Pandosy. It appears that these Indians at the commencement of the war were living on the Ahtanum near the mission, but fled to the north; the chief has many testimonials of good feeling for the whites. I have also re-

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ceived a visit from other delegations headed by smaller chiefs. They all want peace for they doubtless see the probability, if the war continues, that their own conntry will be invaded. On the evening of the 8th of June, two men came to me from Chief Ow-hi, saying himself and other chiefs would come in next day. These men brought in two horses belonging to the volunteer ex- press recently sent over to the Sound. The men remained with us and on the evening of the 9th, Ow-hi, Ka-mi-akin and Te-i-as encamped on the other side of the Natches River. The chiefs all sent friendly messages, declaring they would fight no more, and were all of one mind for peace. I answered them if such was the case, they must come and see me. After a while Ow-hi and Te-i-as came over and we had a long talk about the war and its origin. Ow-hi related the whole story of the Walla Walla treaty, and concluded by saying that the war commenced from that moment and the treaty was the cause of all the deaths by fighting since that time.

"Ow-hi is a very intelligent man and speaks with great energy; and is well acquainted with his subject, and his words carry conviction of truth to his hearers. I spoke to these chiefs and asked them what they had to gain by war and answered them by enumerating the disasters which must befall them-their warriors all killed, or driven from their country never to return; their women and children starving to death. But if peace were restored, they could live happily in their own country where the rivers and earth offered ample food for their subsistence.

"I gave them to understand in no uncertain tones if they wanted peace they must come to me and do all I required of them; that I had a force large enough to wipe them off the earth, but I pitied their condition and was willing to spare them, and help make them happy if they complied with my demands. I have never seen Indians more delighted than these were. Five days were allowed for them to assemble here; to surrender everything they had captured or stolen from the white people and to comply with all my demands.

"Ka-mi-akin did not come over to see me, but remained during the con- ference on the opposite bank. I sent word to Ka-mi-akin if he did not come over and join in the treaty, I would pursue him with my troops, as no Indian can remain a chief here in this land that does not make his peace with me. Skloom and Show-a-way, two chiefs belonging here, have crossed the Columbia River east of here. They are properly Palouse Indians, but their people are incorporated in Ow-hi's band. Leschi was here. He came with Ow-hi and Te-i-as, as he is a relative of those chiefs and believes lie would prefer to re- main with them than to return to the Sound."

Colonel Wright tells of completing a bridge "across the Natches after great labor," and June 11th eight companies went over it and marched nine miles to Wenas Creek. Leaving the Wenas at sunrise June 17th, they moved north, crossing the deep canyon of Ump-tan-um, where the howitzer had to be dismounted and packed on mules, reaching the Kittitas Valley the afternoon of the 19th. Colonel Steptoe with three companies of the Ninth Infantry and a mounted howitzer with artillerymen were left to occupy Fort Natches. Wright

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spent several days in the Kittitas country, setting out July 4th up the "Swuck," the march next day being very difficult, "over steep mountains and obstructed trails where were many fallen trees."

"On the 6th," he writes, "we came to Pish-Pish-aston, a small stream flow- ing into Wenatchee River; arriving on that stream we were met by the Indians who had visited me at Natches and with them was Father Pandosy. They are willing to go at once to the Toppenish, or any place I suggest, but express fear as to their subsistence, which I believe is well taken, as they can procure food much easier and surer when they are scattered. This is beyond question the greatest fishery that I have seen. I have consented for those Indians to remain here and fish, and later move into Yakima. Te-i-as, Ow-hi's brother and father-in-law of Ka-mi-akin, is here.

"They followed the Wenatchee River to its junction with the Columbia, and then returned in three days to Kittitas where he reports he has about 500 In- dians, men, women and children, and a much larger number of horses and cattle.

"The Indians brought in," he notes, "about twenty horses that had been stolen or captured from the Government. Left in my camp at Kittitas, Leschi, Nelson and Kitsap."

Colonel Wright located Fort Simcoe in August, 1856, gathering all the captured Indians at this point. He says of the Yakima Valley: "The whole country between the Cascade Mountains and Columbia River should be given over to the Indians, as it is not necessary to the whites." He was a fine soldier, but a poor agriculturist and not much of a prophet.

"Major Haller with one company of the Fourth Infantry and two of the Ninth Infantry was camped in the Kittitas at this time, while Major Garnett was at Simcoe with two companies erecting temporary quarters for twice that number. Captain Dent was in charge of the construction of a military road from The Dalles to Fort Simcoe, a distance of sixty-five miles."-Thus ends the chapter from Mr. Splawn.

AFTERMATH OF THE WARS

After the battles in Grande Ronde and Walla Walla there was a period of indecision and uncertainty in the eastern section. During the Fall and Winter of 1855 and the beginning of 1856 the Indians were prosecuting their attacks on settlers around Puget Sound.

On January 26, 1856, they attacked the little settlement at Seattle and at first gained considerable success. But this was only transient. Failure was in- evitable and soon came. One striking feature of this war was the prominent part taken by Yakima warriors on both sides of the mountains. Owhi and Qualchan seem to have gone to and fro with wonderful celerity. Kamiakin, the generalissimo on all the "fronts," travelled with restless energy from Yakima in all directions, organizing, encouraging, inciting, threatening, and at critical points taking personal charge. He was in truth a remarkable Indian, a veritable Hannibal on a small scale, and like the great Punic genius, his

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downfall was largely the result of non-support and collapse of his own people. While chivalrous for a wild man and not guilty of atrocities he had sworn un- dying hatred to the white man.

Leschi and his brother Quiemuth were the chief leaders on the west side, though Kanasket, Nelson, Stahi and Kitsap played important parts. Leschi spent much time on the east side, and in fact this entire war might well be con- sidered as engineered from Yakima. After the failure at Seattle the hostiles scattered, and there was but one more encounter of any moment. This was at Connell's Prairie on the 10th of March, and resulted in an "Appomattox" for the Indians. The war on the west side was practically ended. Finding his cause lost Leschi crossed the Cascade Mountains immediately after the battle of Con- nell's Prairie and joined Kamiakin. But the cause of the Indians was lost there also. Owhi was willing to surrender, and Leschi seeing the hopelessness of their cause surrendered to Colonel Wright in his camp on the Naches on June 8th. Colonel Wright in a report of June 11th, as quoted in Meeker's "Tragedy of Leschi," gives a very interesting view of both Owhi and Leschi. In a letter of June 25th from Ahtanum Wright says that he had left in his camp on the Kittitas Nelson, Leschi, and Kitsap, with a small party of Nisquallies. He says that Leschi was the recognized chief of all those people, including those on the Naches, and that they desired to return to the Sound, provided they could do so with safety.

Into this bitterly disputed question of Leschi we cannot enter in detail. Readers desirous of full statements of the case may find them in Hazard Stevens' "Life of General Isaac I. Stevens," and in Ezra Meeker's "Tragedy of Leschi." Other works of Washington writers deal with the subject at length, and the reader will be bewildered rather than otherwise by the seemingly good evidence for the conflicting claims as to the guilt of Leschi. At all events after a most extraordinary series of legal and military moves and countermoves by Governor Stevens seeking to convict, and others seeking to acquit, the sentence of death was imposed and executed on February 19, 1858. Quiemuth, Leschi's brother, had been murdered in November, 1856, by some one unknown who entered the Governor's office where he was confined under guard. There must certainly have been most vigilant guard to have allowed such a deed without knowing anything about it. We follow the account here as given by Hazard Stevens.

We have no desire to pass judgment on this vexed question of Leschi. As a matter of historical interest, it may be said that the author has been told by an Indian living near Tacoma, one of the most wealthy, reliable, and intelligent Indians in the state, that the Indians have always regarded Leschi as a victim of perjury and hatred, and as in reality one of the most just and merciful of their race. As giving certain views of the case which the author does not re- member to have seen in full in any one of the books, we are giving here a state- ment by Lieut. (afterwards General) A. V. Kautz, well-known in military and civil circles for many years in this state. This is from an interview in the Tacoma Ledger of April 14, 1893.

OLD BLOCK HOUSE, FORT SIMCOE

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THE DEATH OF LESCHI

General Kautz Throws Some Additional Light on His Execution.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 29

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1134

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134