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 27
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"The daring expressman's story of how he ran the gantlet of the hostile tribes with the dispatches and information upon which depended the lives of the party, heightened the impression made by his wretched appearance and doleful tidings."
Ile had left The Dalles on his return trip, fresh and well mounted, and riding all day and night. reached Billy MeKay's ranch on the Umatilla at daylight. The place was deserted. Lassoing a fresh mount. he saw a band of hostiles, racing down the hills towards the valley, and as he sprang into the saddle, they gave fierce yells and eries of "Kill the white man! Kill the white man!" They pur- sned him for many miles, but he slowly drew away, and at nightfall turned off the trail at right angles, rode for several miles, and then took a course parallel with the regular route. Riding in this strategic manner. resting a few hours in secluded covert. and seeking unusual fords, he reached Lapwai, and after a day's rest. pushed on over the Bitter Root mountains. A blinding snowstorm beset him. a tree fell and crushed his Nez Perce companion, and the trail was buried under several feet of new-fallen snow. Unable to travel further on horseback, Pear- son improvised snowshoes, cutting the frames with his knife, and weaving the webs with strands of his rawhide Jariat; and packing blankets and a little dried meat upon his back, pushed over the snow-buried heights, and after four days of this desperate travel, descended into the Bitter Root valley, near Fort Owen, where rest. a fresh mount and friendly greetings awaited him. Three days more, and he was in Stevens' camp on the Teton.
"He brought me letters from official sources (so runs the governor's record), stating that my only chance of safety was to go down the Missouri and return to the western coast by the way of New York :" but the governor's "determination was fixed and unalterable that an attempt should be made to reach the settlements by the direct route, and that all dangers on the road should be sternly confronted." Secretary Doty was sent back to Fort Benton for a large quantity of powder and ball. additional arms and additional animals, and these procured. the governor
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decided to hasten homeward at express speed. Pushing on to Hellgate, he pur- chased every good mule and horse that he could get in the valley.
"The question was, what should be our route home," says Stevens. "It was im- portant, it seemed to me, to our sueeess, that we should be able to eross the moun- tains and throw ourselves into the nearest tribes, without their having the slightest notice of our eoming. I felt a strong assurance that if I could bring this about, I eould handle enough tribes and eoneiliate the friendship of enough Indians to be sufficiently strong to defy the rest. There would certainly be no difficulty from the snow down Clark's fork (and through the Spokane valley), but it was known that the Upper and Lower Pend d'Oreille Indians were along the road, and no party eould travel over it without its approach being communieated to the Indians; whereas Indian report had it that the Coeur d'Alene pass was bloeked up with snow at this season of the year, and I felt satisfied that they would not expeet us on this route, and therefore I determined to move over it. It was the shorter route of the two; it was a route where I desired to make additional examinations; it was a route which enabled me to ereep up, as it were, to the first Indian tribe, and then, moving rapidly, to jump upon them without their having time for preparation. I knew that Kamiaken and Pu-pu-mox-mox had sent a body of warriors to eut off my party ; and that we had to guard against falling into an ambush, but an Indian has not patience to wait many days for such a purpose, and I thought. looking to all these things, that the line of safety was to move over the Coeur d'Alene pass."
Notwithstanding the members of the party, almost without exception, looked upon this plan as most desperate, still they maintained a cheerful spirit, obeyed every order with alacrity, "and enjoyed themselves very much in the evening eamp."
In three feet of snow they erossed the Bitter Root mountains November 20, . and moving down the headwaters of the Coeur d'Alene river the following day. eame to good grass. with fine water. affording excellent range for the exhausted animals. Here a day was taken for needed recuperation. "From the appearanee of all that surrounded us." reported Stevens. "I was satisfied that there were no Indian runners on the lookout for us."
When within twenty-five miles of the Catholic mission. the governor, deeming it impraetieable to take the whole train in in one day without breaking down the horses, took Pearson. Craig and four Nez Perees, and starting at daylight, pushed rapidly into the mission. "throwing ourselves into the midst of the Indians. and. with our rifles in one hand. and our arms outstretched on the other side, we ten- dered to them both the sword and the olive branch. They met us very cordially." says the governor's narrative,* "every Indian left his lodge and gathered around us. I had told the four Nez Perces. 'When you reach the Coeur d'Alenes, talk to them Blackfoot: tell them about our great couneil and treaty at Fort Benton : tell them that they ean hunt buffalo without being disturbed by their hereditary enemies, the Blackfeet: tell them that the lion and the lamb have lain down together ; get their minds off their troubles here, and turn them to other subjects in which they take an interest.' It is enough for me to say that we established the most eordial relations with the Coeur d'Alenes. We found that the emissaries of the Yakimas
* By the Indians Stevens was called the Hyas Tyee Skookum Tum-Tum, the "Big Chief with the Strong Heart."
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had only left that point some four or five days, having despaired of our crossing the mountains."
The train arrived the next day, and Stevens determined to push on to the Spo- kane river, having sent forward from the mission Craig and a part of the Nez Perces, to bring a large delegation of the latter tribe into the proposed council with the Spokanes. and to arrange for a friendly Nez Perce escort through the hostile country and on to the military post at The Dalles.
"Moving from the Coeur d'Alene mission on the 27th day of November," con- tinnes the narrative. "I made our first camp at the Wolf's lodge, some nineteen miles from it, and the next day made a forced march, moving forty miles to the Spokane country. We met Polatkin, one of the principal chiefs of the Spokanes, on our way, and were at Antoine Plant's before dark."
'This Antoine Plant, the reader will recall, had served as guide between the Spokane country and the Blackfoot treaty grounds. He was a French Canadian. with one-fourth Blackfoot blood in his veins, but cherished a cordial hatred for his mother's tribe, and when Governor Stevens sought his services as a guide. had eagerly laid aside the pleasures of his peaceful life on the Spokane, and his eye kindled at the prospect of going onec more into the land of the warlike and pred- atory Blackfeet, where, in his more youthful days, he had taken part in numerous bat- tles. Antoine kept a small trading post at a ford on the Spokane river below the site that afterwards became historie as Cowley's bridge. When on the march he had a cheery habit of rousing the encampment at daybreak with a warwhoop. He had been a voyageur under the regime of the Hudson's Bay company, but having retired from that service, had settled down to a semi-savage life in the pleasant valley of the Spokane.
Here the governor found a number of miners from the Colville country. Stevens never neglected to strike when the iron was hot. Before midnight he had Indian messengers on the trails, to the Lower Spokanes, to the Colville Indians, and thence on to the Okanogans. and to the Lower Pend d'Oreilles, asking them to meet him in conneil. Angus McDonald, in charge of the Hudson's Bay post at Colville, and the Jesuit fathers from the mission there, were also invited to visit him in his camp. "We remained on the Spokane nine days," says the governor. "and I had there one of the most stormy councils for three days that ever occurred in my whole Indian experience; yet having gone there with the most anxious desire to prevent their entering into the war. but with a firm determination to tell them plainly and can- didly the truth, I succeeded both in convincing them of the facts and gaining their entire confidence. At this council were all the chiefs and people of the Coeur d'Alenes and the Spokanes- the very tribes who defeated Steptoe the past season. the very tribes who have met our troops since in two pitched battles; and I feel that I can, without impropriety refer to the success of my labors among these Indians. backed up simply with a little party of twenty-four men. When our council was adjourned, the Indians gave the best test of their friendship and affection, by each one coming to lay before me his little wrongs and ask redress. They come in a body and offered me a force to help me through the hostilities of Walla Walla val- ley and on the banks of the Columbia, which I declined, saying that I came not among the Spokanes for their aid, but to protect them as their father."
Garry and a party of Coeur d'Alene chiefs and influential men arrived at the
LOOKING GLASS
War Chief of the Nez Perces
PU-PU-MOX-MOX, OR YELLOW SERPENT
Head Chief of the Walla Wallas
-
THE LAWYER Head Chief of the Nez Perces
OW-III A Chief of the Yakimas
-
1
THE YOUNG CHIEF Head Chief of the Cayuses
1
KAMIAKEN Head Chief of the Yakimas
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council ground November 29. Three days later came MeDonald with the Colville chiefs, the missionaries and four white miners. The eouneil was held December 3, 4 and 5, and was marked, says Hazard Stevens, "by disaffected and at times openly hostile views and expressions and uncertain purposes, on the part of the Indians, and steadfast determination to hold their friendship and restrain them from war, on the part of the governor. The Spokanes openly sympathized with the hostiles. Many of their young braves had joined them. They insisted that no white troops should enter their country, and urged the governor to make peaec with the Yakimas, for the rumor was eurrent that the troops had driven them aeross the Columbia and into the region claimed by the Spokanes. They objected to the whites taking up their land before they had made treaties and sold it, and were mueh stirred up be- eause a number of Hudson's Bay company cx-employes at Colville had staked out claims, and filed with Judge Yantis the declaratory statements claiming them under the donation act. Kamiaken's emissaries had imbued them with all kinds of false- hoods concerning the war and its causes, and the purposes of the whites, particularly of Governor Stevens, and what he did and said at the Walla Walla council. They were to be driven by soldiers from their own country, and foreed to go on the Nez Perees reservation without any treaty or compensation. They were to be deported west of the Cascades, and shipped across seas to an unknown and dreadful doom. Highly colored but imaginary stories of wrong and outrage inflicted upon Indians were industriously cireulated, and equally mythical tales of Indian victories and exploits."
Prior to the opening of the council, Stevens learned to distrust the petulant, treacherous and aged chief Looking Glass of the Nez Perces. A half-breed inter- preter, employed by the governor, to keep a close watch on Looking Glass and Garry, saw Looking Glass euter Garry's tent late one night, and creeping up to the lodge, overheard a conversation wherein Looking Glass proposed a plot to entrap the governor and his party on their arrival in the Nez Perce country, and force him to enlarge the Nez Perce reservation to the area which had been demanded by Looking Glass at the Walla Walla council when he came theatrically upon the coun- cil grounds there, after his return from a long hunting trip beyond the Rocky mountains, and to demand such additional payments and advantages as would amount to a stiff ransom.
Stevens met this alarming situation by despatching a messenger to Lapwai, ad- vising Craig of the proposed conspiracy and instructing him how to undermine Looking Glass's hostile influence among the Nez Perces. Garry, unaware that the governor knew of Looking Glass's proposal. boldly and artfully supported his de- mands in a specch before the council.
"When I heard of the war (said Garry) I had two hearts, and have had two hearts ever since. The bad heart was a little larger than the good. Now I am thinking that if you do not make peace with the Yakimas, war will come into this country like the waters of the sea. From the time of my first recollection, no blood has ever been on the hands of my people. Now that I am grown up, I am afraid that we may have the blood of the whites upon our hands.
"I hope that you will make peace on the other side of the Columbia, and keep the soldiers from coming here. The Americans and the Yakimas are fighting. I think they are both equally guilty. If there were many Frenchmen here, my heart
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would be like fighting. These French people here have talked too much. I went to the Walla Walla council, and when I returned I found that all the Frenchmen (set- tlers in the Colville valley, who were former employes of the fur company) had gotten their land written down on a paper. I ask them "Why are you in such a hurry to have writings for your lands now? Why don't you wait until a treaty is made?'
"Governor, these troubles are on my mind all the time, and I will not hide them. When I was at the Walla Walla council my mind was divided. When you first commenced to speak, you said the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Umatillas were to move on to the Nez Perce reservation and the Spokanes were to move there also. Then I thought you spoke bad. Then I thought when you said that. that you would strike the Indians to the heart. After you had spoken of these nine different things, as schools, and shops, and farms, if you had then asked the chiefs to mark out a piece of land-a pretty large piece -to give you, it would not have struck the Indians so to the heart. Your thought was good. You see far. But the Indians, being dull-headed, ean not see far. Now your children have fallen. The Indians have spilled their blood, because they have not sense enough to understand you. Those who killed Pu-pu-mox-mox's son in California, they were Americans. Why are those Americans alive now? Why are they not hanged? That is what the Indians think. that it will be Indians only who are hanged for murder. Now, governor, here are these young people- my people. I do not know their minds, but if they will listen to you, I shall be very glad. When you talk to your soldiers and tell them not to cross Snake river into our country. I shall be glad."
"Why is the country in difficulty again?" asked the chief of the Lower Spokanes. "That comes on account of the smallpox brought into the country, and is all the time on the Indians' heart. They would keep thinking the whites brought sickness into the country to kill them. That is what has hurt the hearts of the Yakimas. That is what we think has brought about this difficulty between the Indians and the whites. I think, governor. you have talked a little too hard. It is as if you had thrown away all the Indians. I heard you said at the Walla Walla council that we were children, and that our women and children and cattle should be for you, and then we thought we would never raise camp and move where you wished us to. We had in our hearts that if you tried to move us off we would die on the land."
Then spoke up Stellam, chief of the Coeur d'Alenes: "We have not yet made friends. All the Indians are not yet your children. When I heard that war had commenced in the Yakima country. I did not believe they had done well to com- mence. I wish you would speak and dry the blood on that land now. If you would do that, then I would take you for a friend. You have many soldiers, and I would not like to have them mix among my people."
Schlateal voiced similar sentiments: "Now the Yakimas have crossed the Colum- bia. I would not like to have the whites cross to this side. If the whites do not cross the river the Indians will all be pleased. We have not made friendship yet. We have not shaken hands yet. When we see that the soldiers don't cross the Columbia we shall believe you take us for your friends. When you stop that diffi- culty-the fighting now going on-we shall believe that you intend to adopt us for your children. Then I will believe that you have taken us for your friends, and will take you for my friend."
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Peter John, a Colville chief: "My heart is very poor, very bad. My heart is of all nations. I never hide it. My heart is fearful. There are some who have talked bad. I am always thinking that all would be well. I wish all the whites and Indians to be friendly ; but even if my people should take up arms against the Americans, I myself would not. I know we can not stop the river from running, nor the wind from blowing, and I have heard that you whites are the same. We could not stop you. I only speak to show my heart. I am done."
Snohomish, a chief of the Lower Spokanes, living near the Columbia, said: "When you went away to the Blackfoot country, and the Yakimas commenced fight- ing, my heart was broken. Ever since my heart is very small. Ever since 1 have been thinking, How will the governor speak to us? And yesterday he did speak, and said to the Indians, 'You must keep peace.' and I have been thinking what God would say if we should spill blood on our land. I never loved bad Indians, nor war; I never believed in making war against Americans. I wish they would stop all the Indians and whites from fighting. Now I will stop. I have shown my heart."
Big Star, Spokane chief: "The reason that I am talking now is that all the In- dians did not like what you said at the Walla Walla council. They put all the blame on you for the trouble since. The Indians say you are the cause of the war. My heart is very small towards you. My heart is the same as the others for you. Ever since I heard there was war, I was afraid for you. I am afraid you will be killed. You have not yet made a treaty, and you passed us by, and your people have commenced coming- the miners- and they will upset my land. This spring, when my people commenced talking about the ammunition, I said. 'My children, do not listen to my children who wish to do wrong.' I said to the Sun chief, 'What is the reason you are getting into trouble? Your father was good ; now he is killed by the Blackfeet.' And this summer, when the governor passed here, I spoke to him again, and he would not listen. I left home and went to the Nez Perces. and there met Mr. McDonald. After crossing the Columbia river these two young fellows overtook me. I spoke to Mr. MeDonald to give me good advice to help my children. He did speak, and I thought he gave me good help. I was glad. We had not yet arrived at the fort when that young man (a Spokane) rushed on the whites and choked them. After McDonald and myself had talked to them, I thought they would listen. If I had not tried to make them do right, it would not have hurt my feelings so much. Since that, 1 am crying all the time."
Quin-quim-moe-so. a Spokane chief living at Eells and Walker's old mission on Walker's prairie, was outspoken in fixing on Governor Stevens the blame for the Yakima uprising: "When I heard, governor, what you had said at the Walla W'alla ground, I thought you had done well. But one thing you said was not right. You alone arranged the Indians' land ; the Indians did not speak. Then you struck the Indians to the heart. You thought they were only Indians. That is why you did it. 1 am not a big chief. but I will not hide my mind. I will not talk low. 1 wish you to hear what I am saying. That is the reason, governor; it is all your fault the Indians are at war. It is your fault, because you have said that the Cayuses and Walla Wallas will be moved to the Yakima land. They who owned the land did not speak, and yet you divided the land."
As the council progressed. Garry assumed a tone of haughty equality and inde-
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pendence: "When you look at the red men, you think you have more heart, more sense, than these poor Indians. I think the difference between us and you Ameri- cans is in the clothing: the blood and body are the same. Do you think, because your mother was white and theirs dark, that you are higher or better? We are dark, yet if we cut ourselves, the blood will be red, and so with the whites it is the same, though their skin is white. I do not think we are poor because we belong to another nation. If you take those Indians for men, treat them so now. If you talk to the Indians to make a peace, the Indians will do the same to you. You see now the Indians are proud. On account of one of your remarks, some of your people have already fallen to the ground. The Indians are not satisfied with the land you gave them. What commenced the trouble was the murder of Pu-pu-mox-mox's son (by miners in California) and Dr. Whitman, and now they find their reservations too small. If all those Indians had marked out their own reservations, the trouble would not have happened. If you could get their reservations made a little larger. they would be pleased. If I had the business to do. I could fix it by giving them a little more land. Talking about land. I am only speaking my mind. What I was saying yesterday about not crossing the soldiers to this side of the Columbia is my business. Those Indians have gone to war, and I don't know myself how to fix it up. That is your business! Since, governor, the beginning of the world there has been war. Why can not you manage to keep peace? Maybe there will be no peace ever. Even if you should hang all the bad people, war would begin again, and would never stop."
By patient reasoning and convincing denial of the false reports concerning his utterances at the Walla Walla council, the governor dissipated, at least for the time, the growing hostile feelings of the Spokanes, and when the council was over, they expressed friendly sentiments and willingly exchanged their fresh horses for the travel-jaded animals of the party, taking for boot the Indian goods which had been brought up from old Fort Walla Walla for the deferred council. They even gave up some of their rifles, needed by Stevens to arm the miners who had come in from the upper Columbia river bars, and who were now mustered in, along with the other members of the expedition as the "Spokane Invincibles," the first militia company to be organized and armed in the Inland Empire.
"When I moved from Spokane," reported Stevens. "I had with me the best train of the season. I reduced transportation to twelve days, and the paeks to eighty pounds. for 1 desired to be in a condition if the Nez Perces were really hostile, and I was not strong enough to fight. I could make a good run. and then I struck for the Nez Perces country."
. Moving down the valley, on the afternoon of December 6, from the treaty grounds at Antoine Plant's place, the party encamped by the falls of the Spokane. "The second day." runs Stevens' narrative of 1855. "I met an express from Craig's. telling me that the Nez Perces were all right, and that the whole tribe would back me up. We moved towards Lapwai, and were four days in reaching that point. the distance being 108 miles. The weather was very disagreeable, being snowy and rainy. In about fifty miles from the Spokane we got upon our old trail to the Red Wolf's ground, which trail we followed for about twenty miles, and then keeping to our left. passed to the mouth of the Lapwai, and thence to William Craig's place on that stream . My object not being to give an account of my Indian
BLOCK HOUSE AT UPPER CASCADES OF THE COLUMBIA Where General Philip Sheridan made his first war record
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ul-II-VX
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operations or of the Indian war," says the narrative of 1855 in conclusion, "I will elose my narrative at this point, referring you to my official reports should further information be desired in connection with this trip. I will state that on my way into the settlements I remained in the Walla Walla valley some ten days, where I saw much of the Oregon volunteers. Went to The Dalles, in advance of my party, with three men, and, the river being elosed by iee, went down from The Dalles to - near Vancouver on the trail, and reached Olympia on the 19th of January."
Notwithstanding winter was well advaneed when the governor's party eame to William Craig's hospitable homestead and the ground was well spread with snow, Chief Lawyer had brought together there 208 lodges, which sheltered more than 2,000 friendly Nez Perees. "An animated eouneil was at onee held," says Hazard Stevens. "The council lodge was a hundred feet in length, built of poles, mats and skins, and in this assembled 200 chiefs and principal men, Lawyer presiding. An ox had been killed. and young men, who officiated for the oeeasion, roasted or boiled the meat at fires in the lodge, and handed it around in large pans, from which each person selected such choice pieces as suited his faney. The scheme of Looking Glass found no adherent, indeed was not broached, and the unanimous resolve was not only to maintain their friendship to the whites and stand by their treaty, but to escort Governor Stevens with 250 of their bravest and best armed warriors, stark buffalo hunters and Blackfoot fighters every one, and foree their way through the masses of hostile Indians gathered in the Walla Walla valley."
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