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 25
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When the council met the following day it quickly became apparent that Look- ing Glass had not softened down. He asserted his head chieftainship over the Nez Perce tribe, and contemptuously said that the boys had spoken yesterday, but now his voice must be heard. After many inquiries and objections, he finally mapped out other lines for the Nez Perce reservation which ineluded nearly all the territory that the tribe had ever elaimed. Encouraged by Looking Glass's opposition, the Cayuses withdrew their assent to the treaty, and Young Chief artfully played on the seeming indignity suffered by the Nez Perce war chief, while away fighting the hereditary enemies of his tribe, and still more artfully recognized him as head chief of all the Nez Perces. Lawyer, indignant at this attempted repudiation of his rights. abruptly left the council while Looking Glass was delivering his fieree tirade. The commissioners, refusing to yield to the grasping demands of the aged chief, adjourned the council to the following Monday.
Affairs took now a more hopeful form, for after adjournment, Yellow Serpent for the Walla Wallas, and Kamiaken for the Yakimas, yielding under pressure from their sub-chiefs and head men, came in and signed their respective treaties. The Yellow Serpent had said in the morning, when a spirit of repudiation was in the air,
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that his word had passed, and he should sign the treaty regardless of what Looking Glass and his followers among the Nez Perces might do. His example had much influence with Kamiaken.
Later in the evening a new complication, in the aggrieved bearing of the faith- tul and friendly Lawyer, confronted Governor Stevens. Coming to the governor's tent, this chief said in complaint :
"Governor Stevens, you are my chief. You come from the President. He has spoken kind words to us. a poor people. We have listened to them and agreed to a treaty. We are bound by the agreement. When Looking Glass asked you. 'How long will the agent live with us?' you might have replied by asking the question, 'How long have you been head chief of the Nez Perces?' When he said, '1, the head chief have just got back : I will talk ; the boys talked yesterday,' you might have re- plied, "The Lawyer, and not you, is the head chief. The whole Nez Perce tribe have said in council that Lawyer was the head chief. Your faith is pledged ; you have agreed to the treaty. I call upon you to sign it.' Had this course been taken, the treaty would have been signed."
"In reply," says Stevens, "I told the Lawyer that we considered all the talk of Looking Glass as the outpourings of an angry and excited old man, whose heart would become all right if left to himself for a time; that the Lawyer had left the council whilst in session, and without speaking; that it was his business to have interfered in this way if it had been necessary. We considered the Lawyer's leaving as saying, 'Nothing more can be done today ; it must be finished tomorrow.' Your authority will be sustained, and your people will be called upon to keep their word. You will be sustained. The Looking Glass will not be allowed to speak as head chief. You, and you alone, will be recognized. Should Looking Glass persist, the appeal will be made to your people. They must sign the treaty agreed to by them through you as head chief, or the council will be broken up and you will return home, your faith broken, your hopes of the future gone."
Nez Perce and Cayuse tribal councils, held that night. were not concluded until daylight. The Nez Perees had a stormy council, but ended in an agreement that Lawyer was head chief, and Looking Glass second only to him. This was reduced to writing, and contained a declaration that the faith of the tribe was pledged to Governor Stevens and the treaty must be signed.
A peaceful Sabbath succeeded these stormy events, and pious Timothy, that Timothy who later, in 1858, was to save Colonel Steptoe's little command from ut- ter rout and death, preached a timely sermon, holding up to the execration of the tribe and the retribution of Heaven those members who would follow after the treacherous teachings of the Cayuses and break the unsullied Nez Perce faith. That day Kamiaken, in conference with Stevens, said :
"Looking Glass, if left alone, will sign the treaty. Don't ask me to accept pres- ents. I have never taken one from a white man. When the payments are made I will take my share."
Monday brought the closing scenes of this spectacular and momentous council. Early in the morning Governor Stevens said to Lawyer: "We are now ready to go into council. I shall call upon your people to keep their word, and upon you, as head chief, to sign first. We want no speeches. This will be the last day of the council. Call your people together as soon as possible." "That is the right course,"
WALLA WALLA COUNCIL, 1855
FEASTING THE CHIEFS AT WALLA WALLA COUNCIL
1
THE SCALP DANCE AT WALLA WALLA COUNCIL PRESENTS AND SUPPLIES WERE STORED IN THE LOG HUT
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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replied Lawyer, as he turned away to assemble his people. Governor Stevens thus describes the closing scenes of the gathering:
"The Looking Glass took his seat in couneil in the very best humor. The Cayuses and Nez Perces were all present. Kamiaken sat down near the Young Chief. The council was opened by me in a brief speceh: 'We meet for the last time. Your words are pledged to sign the treaty. The tribes have spoken through their head chiefs. Joseph, Red Wolf, the Eagle, Ip-se-male-e-con, all declaring Lawyer was the head chief, I call upon Lawyer to sign first.' Lawyer then signed the treaty. 'I now call upon Joseph and the Looking Glass.' Looking Glass signed, then Joseph. Then every chief and man of note, both Nez Perces and Cayuses, signed their respective treaties.
"After the treaties were signed, I spoke briefly of the Blackfoot conneil, and asked each tribe to send delegations, the Nez Perces a hundred chiefs and hraves, the whole under the head chief, or some chief of acknowledged authority, as Look- ing Glass. There was much talk on the subject on the part of the Indians. Look- ing Glass said he would have a talk with me alone some other time."
The council ended, presents were distributed among the assembled tribes. In return for his present. Eagle-from-the-Light, the Nez Perce chief who had spoken in eloquent opposition to the treaty, and proudly refused the commissioners' offer of provisions, tendered to Governor Stevens a superb skin of a grizzly bear, with teeth and elaws intact. "This skin," he said in a presentation speech, "is my medieine. It came with me every day to the council. It tells me everything. It says now that what has been done is right. Had anything been done wrong it would have spoken out. I have now no use for it. I give it you that you may know my heart is right." Every day throughout the council sessions, Eagle-from-the- Light had sat upon this skin. teeth and elaws turned towards the commissioners, re- fusing the roll of blankets which had been offered him.
"Thus ended." says Governor Stevens' journal. "in the most satisfactory manner, this great council, prolonged through so many days-a council which, in the num- ber of Indians assembled and the different tribes, old difficulties and troubles be- tween them and the whites. a deep-seated dislike to and determination against giv- ing up their lands, and the great importance, nay, absolute necessity, of opening this land by treaty to occupation by the whites, that bloodshed and the enormous expense of Indian wars might be avoided, and in its general influence and difficulty-has never been equaled by any council held with the Indian tribes of the United States. "It was so considered by all present. and a final relief from the intense anxiety and vexation of the last month was especially grateful to all concerned."
In celebration of the conclusion of the treaty, and the return of Chief Looking Glass and his braves from the buffalo country. the Nez Perces gave a scalp dance. Hazard Stevens, the governor's son, who witnessed with boyish eyes that fright ful savage scene. describes it in his biography of Governor Stevens:
"The chiefs and braves, in full war paint and adorned with all their savage finery. formed a large circle, standing several ranks deep. Within this arena a chosen body of warriors performed the war dance, while the densely massed ranks of braves cireled around them, keeping time in measured tread, and accompanying it with their wild and barbaric war song. The ferocious and often hideous mien of these stalwart savages, their frenzied attitudes and shrill and startling yells, formed
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a subject worthy the pen of Dante and the pencil of Dore. The missionary still had work to do.
"Presently an old hag, the very picture of squalor and woe, burst into the circle, bearing aloft on a pole one of the fresh scalps so recently taken by Looking Glass, and, dancing and jumping about with wild and extravagant action, heaped upon the poor relie of a fallen foe every mark of indignity and contempt. Shaking it aloft, she vociferously abused it; she beat it. she spat upon it; she bestrode the pole and rushed around the ring, trailing it in the dust, again and again; while the warriors, with grim satisfaction, kept up their measured tread, chanted their war songs, and uttered, if possible, yet more ear-piercing yells.
"A softer and more pleasing scene succeeded. The old hag retired with her be- draggled trophy, and a long line of Indian maidens stepped within the circles, and. forming an inner rank, moved slowly round and round, chanting a mild and plain- tive air. A number of the stylish young braves, real Indian beaux in the height of paint and feathers, next took post within the circle. near the rank of moving maid- ens. and each one, as the object of his adoration passed him, placed a gaily deco- rated token upon her shoulder. If she allowed it to remain, his affection was re- turned and he was accepted, but if she shook it off, he knew that he was a rejected suitor. Coquetry, evidently, is not confined to the civilized fair, for, without exeep- tion. the maidens. as if indignant at such publie wooing threw off the token with disdain, while every new victim of delusive hopes was greeted with shouts of laugh- ter from the spectators."
When the council ended thus happily, few of the little band of white partiei- pants, realized how perilously near they had been to a death of Indian treachery. If the Nez Perce chief Lawyer had not, through his spies in the hostile Cayuse camp, discovered the conspiracy, warned Stevens and assumed open and conspicu- ous protectorate over the commissioners and their party. the murderous plot would probably have been consummated, and the fair valley of the Walla Walla would have witnessed a recurrence of that Cayuse treachery which signalized the destruc- tion of the Whitman mission.
"Their design, (says Lieutenant Kip) was first to massacre the escort, which would have been easily done. Fifty soldiers against 3,000 Indian warriors, out on the open plains, made rather too great odds. We should have had time, like Lieuten- ant Grattan at Fort Laramie last season, to deliver one fire, and then the contest would have been over. Their next move was to surprise the post at The Dalles, as they could also have easily done, as most of the troops were withdrawn, and the Indians in the neighborhood had recently united with them. This would have been the beginning of their war of extermination against the settlers."
"Foiled in their plot." comments Hazard Stevens, "why did they then so quickly agree to the treaties? All the circumstances and evidence go to show that, with the exception of Steachus. the friendly Cayuse, they all-Young Chief, Five Crows, I'n-pu-mox-mox. Kamiaken and their sub-chiefs-all signed the treaties as a delib- erale aet of treachery, in order to lull the whites into fancied security, give time for Governor Stevens to depart to the distant Blackfoot country, where he would prob- ably be wiped out by those truculent savages, and for the Nez Perces to return home, and also for completing their preparations for a wide-spread and simultaneous onslaught on all the settlements. Scarcely had they reached home from the council
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when they resumed such preparation, buying extra stores of ammunition, and send- ing emissaries to the Spokanes, Cocur d'Alenes and even to some of the Nez Perees and to other tribes, to incite them to a war, actually beld a council of the disaf- fected at a point in the Palouse country the following month, and, within three months of aceepting ostensibly the protection of the Great Father, precipitated the conflict. Agent Bolon and many white miners and settlers in the upper country were massaered, and settlements as widespread as Puget Sound and southern Oregon, 600 miles apart, were attacked on the same day. In this conspiracy and contest, Kamia- ken was the moving spirit, the organizer, the instigator, whose crafty wiles never slept, and whose stubborn resolution no disaster eould break. But in the end, after protracted and stubborn resistance, they were defeated and compelled to move on their reservations, and live under the very treaties they so treacherously agreed to, and under which they still live and have greatly prospered.
"Over 60,000 square miles were eeded by these treaties. The Nez Peree reser- vation contained 5,000 square miles, including mountain and forest as well as good land, and provision was made for moving other tribes upon it. The payment for the Nez Peree lands comprised $200,000 in the usual annuities, and $60,000 for im- proving the reservation, saw and grist mills, sehools, shops, teachers, farmers, me- chanies, ete. Ardent spirits were excluded. The right to hunt, fish, gather roots and berries, and pasture stoek on vaeant land was seeured, and provision was made for ultimately allotting the land in severalty. An annuity of $500 for twenty years was given the head chief, and a house was to be built for him, and ten aeres of land feneed and broken up the first year. At the special request of the Indians, the claim and homestead of William Craig (near Lewiston) was confirmed to him, and was not to be considered part of the reservation, although within its boundaries."
Besides Lawyer and Looking Glass, fifty-six sub-chiefs signed the Nez Perce treaty. Of these was Joseph, father of the younger Joseph, who, twenty-two years later. was to become famous as leader of the warring Nez Perces and fight a bril- liant running battle, over a long and devious trail, baffling again and again Generals Howard and Gibbon, and inflicting heavy losses on the regulars engaged in that mem- orable campaign of 1877.
Eight hundred square miles were embraced in the Umatilla reservation. The treaty carried $100,000 in annuities, $50,000 for improvements, $10,000 for moving the immigrant road, and provisions for a saw and a grist mill, two sehoolhouses, a blacksmith shop, wagon and plough-making shop, earpenter and joiner shop, tools and equipments. For instruction, teachers, farmers and mechanies were provided for twenty years. The head chief received the same allowanee as in the Nez Perce treaty, and Pu-pu-mox-mox was granted the privilege of conduet- ing a trading post at the mouth of the Yakima, and received besides three yoke of oxen and liberal stores of agricultural machinery and farm implements. The eanny old chief had certainly driven a hard bargain. This treaty was signed by three head-chiefs and thirty-two sub-chiefs.
The Yakima treaty carried the same general provisions as the Nez Peree and Umatilla agreements. In addition to their large reservation in the Yakima country, they were given a smaller one on the Wenatehec, where they had a fishery. The payments carried $200,000 in annuities, $60,000 for improving the reserva- tions, and allowanees for instruction, cte., similar to those in the other treaties.
CHAPTER XX
NEGOTIATING THE FLATHEAD TREATY IN MONTANA
WALLA WALLA COUNCIL BREAKS UP-TRAILS FILLED WITH WILD AND PICTURESQUE CAVALCADES-GIFTS FOR THE SPOKANES-STRIKING BORDER CHARACTERS-PEARSON THE EXPRESS RIDER-STEVENS LITTLE PARTY MOVES EASTWARD ACROSS THE INLAND EMPIRE-GREAT COUNCIL ON THE HELLGATE-GOVERNOR STEVENS EXPLAINS THE TREATIES-MORE INDIAN ORATORY-CUTTING THE GORDIAN KNOT-"EVERY MAN PLEASED AND EVERY MAN SATISFIED."
S CENES of extraordinary bustle and seeming confusion succeeded the ter- mination of the council. A great village of more than 5,000 people was quickly demolished and as quickly passed from view. Lodges were lowered, the scattered herds were rounded up, and decked in their gorgeous and resplendent gifts of scarlet blankets and gaily figured calicoes, the assembled tribes scattered to every point of the compass. They "filled all the trails leading out of the valley with their wild and picturesque cavalcades."
Next in order now was the holding of other great councils with the Flatheads und neighboring tribes. the Spokanes, and the warlike Blackfeet in the buffalo country east of the Rocky mountains. As the territory of Washington joined then the territory of Nebraska, Alfred Cumming, superintendent of Indian affairs for Nebraska, had been appointed as one of three commissioners to negotiate the Blackfoot treaty. General Palmer of Oregon had been named as the third, but his territory having at most, only remote association with the far eastern tribes. he declined the appointment, and with the Oregon officers left for the Willamette valley.
As Stevens intended to negotiate a separate treaty with the Spokanes, on his return from the Blackfoot council, A. J. Bolon, Indian agent of the Yakimas. was despatched with a small party to old Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia, with goods intended for the Spokanes, there to be stored for safe-keeping. He was next to visit and inspect the Yakima reservation, and after that proceed to The Dalles, bring the Nez Perce goods to Walla Walla, where he was to load up with the Spokane goods and pack them to Antoine Plant's ranch on the Spokane river, preparatory to the governor's council on his return from the country of the Black- fcet.
"It was a beautiful sunny June morning, the 16th," says Hazard Stevens. "when the little train drew out from the deserted council ground and took its way in single file across the level valley prairie, covered with luxuriant bunch-grass
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and vivid-hued Howers. A large, fine-looking Coeur d'Alene Indian named Joseph, led the way as guide; then rode the governor with his son, Secretary Doty, Agent Lansdale, and Gustave Schon, the artist, barometer carrier and observer; then came Packmaster Higgins, followed by the train of eleven packers and two cooks, and forty-one sleek, long-cared pack-mules, each bearing a burden of 200 pounds, the men interspersed with the mules to keep them moving on the trail; while seventeen loose animals, in a disorderly bunch, driven by a couple of herders, brought up in the rear. It was a picked force, both men and animals, and made up in efficiency for scanty numbers.
"The artist, Gustave Schon, a soldier of the Fourth infantry, detailed for the trip, was an intelligent German, a clever sketcher, and competent to take instrumental observations.
"Iliggins, ex-orderly sergeant of dragoons, a tall. broad-shouldered, spare, sinewy man, a fine swordsman and drillmaster, a scientific boxer, was a man of unusual firmness, intelligence, and good judgment, and quiet, gentlemanly manners, and held the implicit respect, obedience and good will of his subordinates. He afterwards became the founder, banker and first citizen of the flourishing town of Missoula, at Hellgate in the Bitter Root valley.
"A. II. Robie worked up from the ranks, married a daughter of Craig. and settled at Boise City, Idaho, where he achieved a highly prosperous and respected career.
"Sidney Ford, a son of Judge Ford, was a handsome. stalwart young Saxon in appearance, broad-shouldered, sensible, capable, and kindly. The others were all men of experience on the plains and mountains, brave and true. By all odds the most skilful and picturesque of these mountain men. and having the most varied and romantic history, was Delaware Jim, whose father was a Delaware chief and his mother a white woman, and who had spent a lifetime-for he was now past middle age-in hunting and traveling over all parts of the country, from the Mississippi to the Pacific. meeting with many thrilling adventures and hair- breadth escapes.
"Many of the men were elad in buckskin moccasins, breeches and fringed hunt- ing shirts; others in rough. serviceable woolen garb, stout boots and wide slouch hats. All carried navy revolvers and keen bowie knives, and many in addition bore the long, heavy, small-bored Kentucky rifle, which they fired with great deliberation and unerring skill.
"One of the most remarkable men connected with the expedition was the ex- press rider. W. H. Pearson. A native of Philadelphia. of small but well knit frame, with muscles of steel. and spirit and endurance that no exertion apparently could break down, waving, chestnut hair, high forchead, a refined, intelligent and pleasant face, the manners and bearing of a gentleman-such was Pearson."
In one of his official reports Governor Stevens pays cordial tribute to this splendid border character: "Hardy, bold, intelligent and resolute, having a great diversity of experience, which had made him acquainted with all the relations between Indians and white men from the borders of Texas to the forty-ninth parallel, and which enabled him to know best how to move. whether under south- ern tropics or the winter snows of the north. I suppose there has scarcely ever
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been any man in the service of the government who excelled Pearson as an ex- pressman."
Taking the Nez Perce trail, the party moved leisurely up through the Walla Walla valley into the Palouse country, eamped one night on Hangman creek south of the falls of the Spokane, passed thenee into the Coeur d'Alenes, and moving up the Coeur d'Alene river, by way of the Catholic mission, retraeed the gover- nor's route of 1853, and erossing the summit of the Bitter Root mountains on July 1, deseended the St. Regis de Borgia, and came to the Bitter Root river on July 3.
While encamped on Hangman creek, Governor Stevens was visited by the Palouse chief Slah-yot-sec and thirty braves, the chief complaining beeause no goods had been given him at the Walla Walla council. The governor promptly met his whining with this terse reply :
"Slah-yot-see, you went away before the council was ended. Koh-lat-toose remained and signed the treaty. He was recognized as the head chief of the Palouses, and to him the goods were given to be distributed among his tribe as he and the principal men should determine. I have brought no goods to give you. Go to Koh-lat-toose. He is the chief, and it is from him you must obtain your share of the presents. Had yon remained until the council terminated, you would have had a voiee in the distribution of the goods. Kamiaken, your head chief, signed the treaty, and said that he should bring the Palouses into the Yakima country, where they properly belonged."
The crossing of the Bitter Root river was safely effeeted on July 4, although the stream was then at its torrential stage. Moving eastward, the party was met on the 7th by 300 chiefs and warriors of the Flathead, Pend d'Oreille and Kootenay tribes, and with a rattling discharge of musketry were eondueted to their encamp- ment near the Hellgate river. After a pleasant conference of several hours, the governor's party established camp on the main river, a mile distant from the Indian rendezvous. That afternoon three head chiefs-Vietor of the Flatheads, Alexan- der of the Pend d'Oreilles, and Michelle of the Kootenays, along with several sub-chiefs. visited the governor, and after the peace pipe had been duly smoked, were addressed by him in his usual opening vein. He spoke of the reeent eouneil at Walla Walla, and proposed the following Monday as opening day for their couneil.
"The Flatheads or Salish," says Hazard Stevens, "ineluding the Pend d'Oreilles and Kootenays, were among those who had been driven westward by the Blackfeet, and now oceupied the pleasant valleys of the mountains. They were noted for their intelligenee, honesty and bravery, and although of medium stature and inferior in physique to the brawny Blaekfeet, never hesitated to attack them if the odds were not greater than five to one. Having been supplied by the early fur-traders with firearms, which enabled them to make a stand against their out-numbering foe. they had always been the firm friends of the whites, and like the Nez Perees. often hunted with the mountain men and entertained them in their lodges. A number of Iroquois hunters and half-breeds had joined and intermar- ried with them. (These Iroquois had been brought into this country by the old Northwest Fur company, as voyageurs or boatmen. in which occupation they gen- erally exeelled all others.) The Bitter Root valley was the seat of the Flatheads proper. The Pend d'Oreilles lived lower down the river, or northward in two
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