USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 23
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But the mistress of the capital soon found fire, and more cheering and refined greetings, and quickly learned to catch her husband's brave and sympathetic spirit. Many of the people called on her, and she found them pleasant and agreeable. "Many of them were well educated and interesting young ladies, who had come here with their husbands, government officials, and who had given up their city homes to live in this unknown land, surrounded by Indians and dense forests."
Mrs. Stevens dwelt there for three years, and learned to love the country round- about. "There was a pleasant company of officers, with their wives, stationed at Steilacoom, twenty miles from Olympia, with whom I became acquainted, and had visits from and visited. Naval ships came up Puget Sound. with agreeable officers on board. I had a horse to ride on horseback across the lovely prairies. About two miles down there was a Catholic mission, a large dark house or monastery, surrounded by cultivated land. a large garden in front filled with flowers, bordered on one side. next the water, with innnense bushes of wall flowers in full bloom ; the fragrance, resembling the sweet English violet, filling the air with its delicious odor. Father Ricard, the venerable head of this house, was from Paris. He had lived in this place more than twenty years. He had with him Father Blanchet (later of be- loved memory in our own inland region), a short, thickset man, who managed every- thing pertaining to the temporal comfort of the mission. Under him were servants, who were employed in various ways, baking, cooking, digging and planting. Their fruit was excellent and a great rarity, as there was but one more orehard in the whole country. There was a large number of Flatheads settled about them. who had been taught to count their beads, say prayers, and were good Catholics in all outward observances: chanted the morning and evening prayers, which they sang in their own language in a low, sweet strain, which, the first time I heard it, sitting in my boat at sunset, was impressive and solemn. We went often to visit Father Rieard, who was a highly edneated man, who seemed to enjoy having some one to converse with him in his own language. Ile said the Canadians used such bad French."
A proclamation by the governor, published soon after his arrival at Olympia in
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November, 1853, designated January 30 as elcetion day to choose a delegate to eon- gress, and members of the legislature, and summoning that body to meet in the capital on the twenty-eighth of February. Columbia Laneaster, a lawyer, was eleeted delegate, and the legislature having assembled on the appointed day, Gover- nor Stevens, in his first message, recommended the adoption of a eode of laws and organization of the eountry cast of the Caseades into counties. On his recommen- dation. the legislature memorialized congress for a surveyor general and a land office, for more rapid surveys of publie lands, for amendment of the land laws so that single women would have the same footing as married ones, for a grant of lands for a university, for improved mail service, and for a wagon road from Puget Sound to Walla Walla.
Busy days were these for the governor, filled with absorbing duties and official eares. In an Indian eanoe he had explored the shores of Puget Sound, and not- withstanding the congressional appropriation for railroad surveys and exploration had become exhausted. he drove forward that important work with his usual intelli- genee and vigor, and thereby inenrred grave peril of political ruin. To provide the necessary funds for the immediate and pressing needs of the survey, he drew on Coreoran & Riggs, government bankers at Washington, for $16,000, and these drafts were dishonored. Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, was in deep sympathy with the pro-slavery party in congress, which neglected no intrigue to discourage and prevent the building of a northern line of railroad.
About that time the politieal situation was explained to Stevens in a letter from his old friend Halleek, then stationed in California. "The pro-slavery extension party." pointed out Halleek, "will work very hard against the North Paeifie states, which must of necessity remain free." Ilalleek added that a vigorous conspiracy was then fomenting in California. "The first branch of this project was to eall a new convention in California, dividing it into two states, making the southern one a slave state, with San Diego as the port and terminus of a railroad through Texas. Circulars and letters to that effect were sent to pro-slavery men in California, and the attempt made to divide the state, but it failed. The next move was to acquire Lower California and parts of Sonora and Chihuahua, making Guaymas the termi- ms, and the newly acquired territory slave states. . If the territory is ae- quired. it will be a slave territory, and a most tremendous effort will be made to run a railroad, if not the railroad, from Texas to Guaymas, with a branch to San Francisco."
Corroborative of these warnings, the governor received a curt and peremptory order from Secretary Davis, disapproving his arrangements and ordering him to suspend his winter operations. This eritieal situation he met with a quick resolu- tion to hasten to the national eapital and thwart the eunning sehemes of southern politicians, and to justify his apparent desertion of territorial duties, the legislature readily passed a joint resolution that "no disadvantage would result to the terri- tory should the governor visit Washington, if, in his judgment. the interests of the Northern Pacific Railroad survey eould thereby be promoted."
Leaving Olympia March 26, the governor went by way of the Cowlitz river to the Columbia, and took steamer for San Francisco, arriving there early in April. Taking the isthmus route, he was in New York in May, and proceeding promptly to Washington, presented before the department a report so thorough and
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convincing that Secretary Davis was moved to submit to congress an estimate to cover the deficieney. The necessary appropriation was made, and the protested drafts honored. Of this incident General Hunt afterwards wrote:
"I followed him in the thorough work he made of the Northern Pacific Railway survey-of his row with Jeff Davis for overrunning in his expenditures the amount assigned him, and so preventing Jeff's designs of defeating that road. In 1854 } had, at Fort Monroe, occasion to describe your father to old Major Holmes, a class- mate of Jeff. He went to Washington, and on his return told me, 'Your friend Stevens is ruined. Davis refuses to recommend to congress to make good the ex- penditures as contrary to orders. It will ruin Stevens.' 'Wait awhile,' said I; '] see by the last Union that Stevens has just arrived, en route to Washington, at Panama. He will leave Jeff nowhere.' Soon after he arrived in Washington, was followed by an appropriation covering all his bills, and so Jeff failed all round."
CHAPTER XIX
NEGOTIATING TREATIES WITH THE INTERIOR TRIBES
STEVENS PLUNGES INTO AN ARDUOUS TASK-WALLA WALLA A GREAT COUNCIL GROUND- GOVERNOR MEETS THERE 5,000 INDIANS IN 1855-NEZ PERCES MASS A THOUSAND WARRIORS-A STRIKING PAGEANT-HAUGHTY MESSAGE FROM THE YELLOW SERPENT- KAMIAKEN PROUD AND SCORNFUL-FEASTING, HORSE-RACING AND FOOT-RACING- INDIAN ORATORY AND SARCASM-CHIEF LAWYER EXPOSES A PLOT TO MASSACRE THE GOVERNOR'S PARTY-CONSPIRACY IS THWARTED -- THE TREATIES EXPLAINED-A STARTLING INCIDENT-STORMY COUNCIL-TREATIES CONCLUDED-CELEBRATED WITHI A SCALP DANCE.
"The passions are the only orators that always persuade; they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it."
-La Rochefoucauld.
C ONGRESS had enaeted the donation land act, which held out to settlers the entieing offer of 320 acres to a single man, $20 acres each to married man and wife, who would eross the plains and mountains and found homes in Oregon. No serious attempt had been made to establish treaty rights with the possessing Indians, who, finding themselves ignored and their property rights dis- regarded, and noting the swelling stream of white immigration, grew startled, suspicious, alarmed and restless. This native discontent was fast deepening into indignation and anger, and throughout the interior bolder spirits were advocating a widespread uprising and war of extermination before it should become forever too late to roll back the white invaders.
To face and solve this difficult problem, to allay the Indians' grievance and patch up tardy treaties with the tribes both east and west of the Caseade moun- tains, was the delicate and difficult duty laid by government upon the governor of the young territory of Washington. Returning from the national capital. Stevens promptly plunged into this arduous undertaking, and having first established trea- ties with the Indians in the Puget Sound country, we find him, in the early months of 1855, inviting two great councils with the tribes between the Caseade and the Rocky mountains.
Indian Agents A. J. Bolon and R. H. Lansdale were sent that spring among the powerful tribes of the Inland Empire, to point out to the chiefs the advan- tages that would aeerue to their people by entering peaceably into just and liberal
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treaty relations with the government, and on the suggestion of Kamiaken, head chief of the Yakimas, the Walla Walla valley was selected for the council ground. "There of old." said Kamiaken, "is the place where we hell our councils with the neighboring tribes, and we will hold this council there now."
Preparatory to the assembling of the tribes, a large quantity of merchandise and provisions was taken up the Columbia in keelboats to Walla Walla, and a party of twenty-five men was organized at The Dalles. in eastern Oregon. and with packtrain, mules, riding animals and provisions. sent to the council ground to pre- pare for the coming of the redmen, and afterwards to accompany Governor Stevens to the scene of another great council, to be held near the site of the present city of Missoula, Montana.
"The Walla Walla council, like the Blackfoot." says Hazard Stevens. "was conceived and planned exclusively by Governor Stevens. He alone impressed the necessity of them upon the government. and obtained the requisite authority. The work of collecting the Indians was done chiefly by his agents, and it was not until he learned from Doty that the Indians had agreed to attend, and that the council was assured. that he invited Superintendent Palmer (of Oregon) to take part in it as joint commissioner with himself for such tribes as lived partly in both territories. This fact he caused to be entered on the joint record of the council."
Leaving the governor's office in charge of Secretary of State Mason. Governor Stevens set ont from Olympia early in May for the Walla Walla valley. The route taken by his party lay across country to Cowlitz landing, where canoes were taken down the Cowlitz to the Columbia; thence by steamboat to Vancouver. and thence by steamboats and portage to The Dalles, where the United States main- tained a military post of two companies of the Fourth infantry, under Major G. J. Rains, and where Superintendent Joel Palmer of the Oregon agencies awaited his coming.
"The outlook for effecting a treaty was deemed unfavorable by all." says Hazard Stevens. "Governor Stevens was warned by Father Ricard. of the Yakima mis- sion, that the Indians were plotting to cut off the white chiefs who might attempt to hold a council. The Snake Indians had attacked and massacred parties of white immigrants recently, and Major Rains was under orders to send a force on the immigrant road to protect them."
But the governor was determined to carry out the arrangements. for he fore- saw that retreat at this critical moment, after the council had been agreed upon, the Indians invited to the rendezvous, and gifts assembled on the ground. would involve a fatal show of weakness and in all probability prove the very means to precipitate the threatened uprising. After supper he discussed the situation for two hours with Major Rains, and persuaded that officer to give him a small detach- ment of forty soldiers. "I remarked." he wrote in his diary, "that the services of a small force in checking insolence would be as good as 200 men subsequently. We deemed it necessary to maintain our dignity and that of our government at the conneil. and we would seize any person, whether white man or Indian, who behaved in an improper manner. There were unquestionably a great many mal- contents in cach tribe. A few determined spirits, if not controlled, might embolden all not well disposed. and defeat the negotiations. Should this spirit be shown,
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wney must be seized; the well affected would then govern in the deliberations, and I anticipated little or no difficulty in negotiating. I then alluded to my determina- tion to call out the militia of the territory should I find, on reaching the council ground, that any plan of hostilities was being matured.
"So doubtful did General Palmer consider the whole matter, that it was only the circumstance of a military forec being dispatched which determined him to send to the treaty ground presents to the Indians. He stated to me that he had coneluded to send up no goods; but, the eseort having been ordered, he would send up his goods."
History, I believe, will sustain the opinion that in tense dramatic interest, in wealth of savage staging and barbarie eolor, and in ultimate influence alike upon the white man and his red brother, the Walla Walla couneil stands out in bold relief, the most important, the most striking historie event in the Inland Empire, if not within the entire Pacific northwest. Five thousand Indians gathered there- 2,000 warriors sat in eomeil, and the proceedings were enlivened by fieree native eloquenee and haughty flights of bitter irony and biting wit. Tribe found itself arrayed against tribe, and faetion set against faction ; some counseled peace, some boldly stood for unrelenting war; and some there were who carried on anda- ciously their angry plot to sound the dreadful toesin by massaereing on this couneil ground the governor's party and his little soldier escort of forty men.
The eouneil ground lay on the right bank of Mill ereek, six miles from the Whitman mission, and within the present limits of the eity of Walla Walla. "The valley," says the governor's biographer, "was almost a perfect level, covered with the greatest profusion of waving bumneh-grass and flowers, amidst which grazed numerous bands of beautiful, sleek mustangs, and herds of long-horned Spanish eattle belonging to the Indians, and was intersected every half mile by a clear. rapid, sparkling stream, whose course could be easily traced in the distance by its fringe of willows and tall cottonwoods. Now every foot of this rich valley is un- der cultivation, a dozen grist mills run their wheels by these streams, and the very treaty ground is the center of the thriving town of Walla Walla." A city it has grown since that was penned. with 20,000 people dwelling together in culture, prosperity and wealth.
Towards evening of May 21 came the governor and his party upon the scene, drenehed by the soaking rains through which they had ridden since early morn, but cheered by the sight of barbarie comfort that met their eager eye. Hazard Stevens, who, then a boy of 13, rode with his father to the council ground, thus describes the historie scene :
"The camp was found pitched, and everything in readiness for the council. A wall tent. with a large arbor of poles and boughs in front, stood on level, open ground, a short distance from the creek and faeing the Blue mountains. all ready for the governor. This was also to serve as the council chamber. and ample elear space was left for the Indians to assemble and seat themselves on the ground in front of the arbor. A little farther in front. and nearer the ereek, were ranged the tents of the rest of the party, a stout log house to safely hold the supplies and Indian goods, and a large arbor to serve as a banqueting hall for distinguished chiefs, so that, as in civil lands, gastronomy might aid diplomacy. A large herd of beef cattle and a pile of potatoes, purchased of Messrs. Lloyd Brooke, Bumford &
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Noble, traders and stock-raisers, who were occupying the site of the Whitman mission, and ample stores of sugar, coffee, bacon and flour, furnished the materials for the feasts."
Previous to the arrival of the Indians, the following program was adopted :
1. Governor Stevens to preside.
2. Each superintendent to be sole commissioner for the Indians within his jurisdiction.
3. Both to act jointly for tribes common to both Oregon and Washington, cach to appoint an agent and commissary for them, and goods and provisions to be distributed to them in proportion to the number under the respective jurisdictions.
1. Separate records to be kept, to be carefully compared and certified jomtly as far as related to tribes of both Territories.
5. To keep a public table for the chiefs.
The following officers were appointed for the joint treaties:
Washington: Commissioner, Governor Isaac I. Stevens; secretary, James Doty ; commissary, R. H. Crosby ; agent. R. H. Lansdale: interpreters, William Craig and N. Raymond.
Oregon: Commissioner, Joel Palmer; secretary, William C. Mckay: com- missary. N. Olney; agent, R. R. Thompson; interpreters. Matthew Danpher and John Flette.
As additional interpreters Governor Stevens appointed A. D. Pambrun, John Whitford, James Coxie and Patrick MeKensie.
Lieutenant Gracie and his little command from The Dalles arrived on the 23d, and with the lieutenant, as guest. came Lieutenant Kip, who was to participate in the Wright campaign in the Spokane country two years later and record in enter- taining style his experiences in a little book called "Army Life on the Pacific." For their comfort the governor had pitched a tent. while the soldiers threw up rough shelters of boughs, covered with canvas pack-covers. The two officers dined with the governor, "off a table constructed from split pine logs," says Kip, "smoothed off. but not very smooth."
Now all was ready for the Indian hosts. First came the Nez Perces. men, women and children, 2,500 in all, the greater part of the tribe, for the occasion was deemed one of high moment and perhaps of enduring significance to them and their descendants for untold generations. Dear to the Indian heart is studied ceremonial, and learning of the approach of the barbarie cavalcade, the commis- sioners drew up their little party on a knoll which commanded a fine view of the wide and flower spangled valley. In token of Nez Perce friendship through- out the Cayuse war that followed the Whitman massacre of 1847, the officers in that campaign had presented the tribe with a large American flag. This they bore aloft in the soft May sunshine, and sent ahead of their advancing hosts to be planted upon the knoll.
"Soon their cavalcade came in sight," says an observer of this stirring seene .* "a thousand warriors mounted on fine horses and riding at a gallop. two abreast. naked to the breechelout, their faces colored with white, red and yellow paint in fanciful designs, and decked with plumes and feathers and trinkets fluttering in the sunshine. The ponies were even more gandily arrayed, many of them selected
* Hazard Stevens.
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for their singular color and markings, and many painted in vivid colors contrast- ing with their natural skins-crimson slashed in broad stripes across white, yellow or white against black or bay; and with their free and wild action, the thin buffalo line tied around the lower jaw,-the only bridle, almost invisible-the naked riders, seated as though grown to their backs, presented the very picture of the fabled centaurs. Halting and forming a long line across the prairie, they again advanced at a gallop still nearer, then halted, while the head chief, Lawyer, and two other chiefs rode slowly forward to the knoll, dismounted and shook hands with the com- missioners, and then took post in rear of them. The other chiefs, twenty-five in number, then rode forward, and went through the same ceremony. Then came charging on at full gallop in single file the cavalcade of braves, breaking succes- sively from one flank of the line, firing their guns, brandishing their shields, beat- ing their drums, and yelling their warwhoops, and dashed in a wide cirele around the little party on the knoll, now charging up as though to overwhelm it, now wheel- ing back, redoubling their wild action and fierce yells in frenzied excitement. At length they all dismounted and took their stations in rear of the chiefs. Then a number of young braves, forming a ring, while others beat their drums, enter- tained the commissioners with their dances, after which the Indians remounted and filed off to the place designated for their camps. This was on a small stream flowing parallel to Mill creek, on the same side with and over half a mile from the council camp. The chiefs accompanied the governor to his tent and arbor, smoked the pipe of peace, and had an informal talk."
As the Indians came to the council on invitation of the commissioners, they were regarded as guests of the government, and rations were issued to the Nez Perces and some other petty tribes then on the ground-one and a half pounds of beef, two pounds of potatoes. and a half pound of corn to each person.
Next to arrive were the Cayuses, Walla Wallas and Umatillas. Without pomp or pageantry they encamped on the opposite side of Mill creek, at a point more than a mile removed from the whites. An intervening fringe of leaf trees com- pletely concealed them from view. As head chief of the Walla Wallas and Uma- tillas, the aged Pu-pu-mox-mox, or Yellow Serpent, exerted autocratic sway over his own people, and was a personage of marked influence with neighboring tribes. Ile was a thrifty soul, and by trade with the immigrants passing through his do- mains en route to the Willamette valley, had acquired a large sum in coin. His herds ran into the thousands. Notwithstanding his son had been murdered by California gold miners, he had always maintained friendly relations with the whites, although the loss of his son still rankled in his breast, and as he had grown some- what childish, malcontents were striving, by frequent reference to that outrage, to inflame his mind and induce him to join in a war of extermination.
The day after their arrival, the Nez Perce chiefs and head men, to the number of more than thirty, came over to dine with the commissioners. Seated upon the ground, in two long parallel lines, they quite filled the arbor. They brought vora- cious appetites to the banquet, and Governor Stevens and Commissioner Palmer, who had graciously assumed the office of carvers, discovered that they had bur- dened themselves with a strenuous task. At length, their arms wearied by the work and the perspiration dropping from their faces. they were glad to yield the honors to two husky packers. "The table for the chiefs was kept up during the council,
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and every day was well attended, but it was not again graced by the presence of the commissioners."
An envoy from Pu-pu-mox-mox. the Yellow Serpent, brought the haughty and ominous message that the Yakimas, Cayuses and Walla Wallas would accept no provisions from the commissioners; that they would bring their own, and it was their desire that the Young Chief, Lawyer, Kamiaken and himself, head chiefs of the Cayuses, Nez Perces, Yakimas and Walla Wallas respectively. should do all the talking for the Indians at the council. Refusing to accept any tobacco for his chief, the messenger was overheard to mutter as he rode disdainfully away. "You will find out by and by why we won't take provisions."
Father Chirouse of the Catholic mission among the Walla Wallas, and Father Pandosy of the Yakima mission, came in to attend the council, and reported that with the exception of Kamiaken these Indians were generally well disposed towards the whites. This chief had been heard to say, "If Governor Stevens speaks hard. I will speak hard, too." Other Indians had said that Kamiaken would come to the council with his young men, "but with powder and ball." When invited to the council by the governor's secretary, Mr. Doty. he had scornfully rejected the tendered presents, declaring that he "had never accepted anything from the whites. not even to the value of a grain of wheat, without paying for it, and that he did not wish to purchase the presents." Speaking of this noted chief, Governor Stevens said: "He is a peculiar man, reminding me of the panther and the grizzly bear. His countenance has an extraordinary play, one moment in frowns, the next in smiles, flashing with light. and black as Erebus, the same instant. His pantomime is great, and his gesticulation much and expressive. He talks mostly in his face, and with his hands and arms."
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