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 33
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The Spokane council was held on the morning of September 23, in front of Colonel Wright's tent. It was a delegate gathering, attended by 107 representatives and chiefs, who came empowered to speak for the Spokanes. the Colvilles. the Pend d'Oreilles and several smaller bands. The Colville chief was a canny old redskin. Prior to the war he told his people that he had heard a good deal about the soldiers, but never having seen them, he would go down and be a witness of the fighting. Ile was at the battle of the Four Lakes, and when the engagement was over he hastily mounted his horse and hurried back to his own illihee, the Indian word for home or country. Having called his tribe together, he reported that he had seen the soldiers, but never wanted to see them again. They stood as firm as the pines, he said, when the Indians fired at them; they could march faster and further in a day than horses and their guns carried a mile, more than half way as far again as the Indians' arms: and his concluding words were that they should always re- main friends with the whites.
Addressing the council Colonel Wright promised them peace on the same terms he had imposed on the Coeur d'Alenes. He expected them, he said, to come for- ward like men, as the Coeur d'Alenes had done and were now friends of the gov- ernment. This was the last treaty that he should make, and he desired that the friendly Nez Perces be included in it. but the hostile Nez Perces who had taken part in the fighting must be driven out of the country. In conclusion he declared that the goverment intended to make roads through their country, where and whenever it pleased, and the men employed in that work must not be molested.
The Spokane chief replied: "I am sorry for what has been done, and glad of the opportunity now offered to make peace with the Great Father. We promise to obey and fulfill these terms in every point."
Another old Spokane chief said "My heart is the same. I trust everybody is included in the Colonel's mercy."
Colonel Wright: "It embraces everybody, and those who go with me to Walla Walla as hostages for the good behavior of the nation shall not be hurt the least. but well taken care of until their safe return at the expiration of one year."
The treaty was signed by all the chiefs present for the Spokanes. While the conneil was in session, Garry and Big Star returned and reported that they had hunted all night for Kamiaken without success, but had found him and his brother Schroom at daybreak on the other side of the Spokane river. They could not in-
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duce him, however, to come in, as he said he was afraid of being taken to Walla Walla.
After the conditions of peace had been interpreted to Garry and Big Star they also signed the treaty.
Milcapzy, a Coeur d'Alene chief who had not attended the council of his tribe at the mission, was present at the Spokane council, and Colonel Wright singled him out and said:
"Milcapzy, I saw your letter to General Clarke. You said to the General: 'Perhaps you think that we are poor and want peace. We are neither poor nor do we want peace. If you want peace von must come and ask for it, and take care that you do not come beyond the battle ground.'
"Who now asks for peace? I do not. And where stands the battleground? Milcapzy thinks he is rich. He has bands of horses, and houses and farms and lodges full of grain. Let him remember that riches sometimes take wings and fly away. Tilkohitz was rich once, but is poor now. Milcapzy, look upon the banks of the Spokane (a reference to the killing of Tilkohitz's great band of horses). I should like to hear Milcapzy speak."
Milcapzy reflected a moment, conferred with a warrior at his side, and after adjusting his head-dress, replied: "I am aware that I have committed a great crime. I am very sorry for it. My heart is east down. But I have heard your talk just made in this council. I have confidence in what you say, and I thank you for it. I am ready to abide by the terms you propose."
After Father Joset had explained to him the terms of the treaty under which peace had been granted to the Coeur d'Alenes he signed it and the council was ended.
"Among the chiefs at this council." according to Kip. "were Polotkin, the head chief of the Spokanes, whom we formerly held as a prisoner and released-and one of his sons, the one who visited our camp on the Spokane the day his father was detained. His brother and himself were the Indians who were fired at by the guard across the river when demanding the release of the old chief. He is one of the most splendid looking men I have ever seen, He was shot in the arm below the elbow, and his brother was shot through the body. From what we could learn of him, he will probably not recover."
One of the hostages taken to Walla Walla was Anthony, a Coeur d'Alene chief who was in the fight with Steptoe. When Lieutenant Gaston fell, he covered his body with leaves, intending to go back afterward and bury it, but when he returned the body had been removed.
"I can not close this communication," says Wright in his report of the council. "without expressing my thanks to Father Joset, the superior of the Coeur d'Alene mission, for his zealous and unwearied exertions in bringing all these Indians to a true understanding of their position. For ten days and nights the father has toiled incessantly, and only left ns this morning after witnessing the fruition of all his labors."
Conspieuons as ringleaders in the work of inciting the uprising were Owhi and Qualchien, father and son. They were Yakimas, Owhi a brother-in-law of Chief Kamiaken. and were regarded as two of the worst Indians west of the Rocky moun- tains. The son was even more notorious than the father, and Colonel Wright was
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particularly anxious to secure him. That desire was now to be gratified, and a tragedy was to be enacted on the meadow banks of the Ned-whuald that would change its name and associate it forever with as startling an act of military jus- tice as the annals of Indian warfare can anywhere present.
Owhi was a conspicuous figure at the great commeil at Walla Walla in 1855, where he opposed all cessions of land to the whites, protesting against the treaties with great zeal and ability. Thanks to Lieutenant Kip, who was at the Walla Walla couneil and took notes of Owhi's speech, his sentiments have been preserved in history :
"We are talking together," said Owhi on that occasion, "and the Great Spirit hears all that we say today. The Great Spirit gave us the land and measured the land to us. This is the reason that I am afraid to say anything about this land. I am afraid of the laws of the Great Spirit. This is the reason of my heart being sad. This is the reason I cannot give you an answer. I am afraid of the Great Spirit. Shall I steal this land and sell it? or what shall I do? This is the reason why my heart is sad. The Great Spirit made our friends, but the Great Spirit made our bodies from the carth, as if they were different from the whites. What shall I do? Shall I give the land, which is a part of my body, and leave myself poor and destitute? Shall I say I will give you my land? I cannot say so. I am afraid of the Great Spirit. I love my life. The reason I do not give my land away is I am afraid of being sent to hell. I love my friends, Ilove my life. This is the reason why I do not give my land away. I have one word more to say. My people are far away. They do not know your words. This is the reason I can not give you an answer. I show you my heart. This is all I have to say."
After their defeat at the Walla Walla council, Owhi and his son Qualchien cooperated with Kamiaken to organize the uprising and outbreak of the follow- ing winter when the Indian agent and several other white men were murdered.
On the evening of the Spokane conneil. Owhi came in and surrendered to Colonel Wright, who received him in sternness and sent for a priest to act as interpreter. The colonel had a peculiarly nervous way of putting questions.
Wright : "Where did he see me last?"
Priest : "He saw you in his country."
Wright : "Whereabout in his country?"
Priest : "On the Natchess river."
Wright : "What did he promise me at that time?"
Priest : "That he would come in with his people in some days."
Owhi became pale and confused.
Wright: "Why did he not do so?" (Aside: "Tell the officer of the guard to bring a file of his men; and Captain Kirkham, you will have some iron shackles made ready.")
Owhi hung his head and looked still more confused.
Priest: "He says he did do so."
Wright: "Where is he from now?"
Priest : "From the mouth of the Spokane."
Wright : "How long has he been away from there?"
Priest : "Two days."
Wright : "Where is Qualchien?"
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Priest: "At the mouth of the Spokane."
Wright: "Tell Owhi that I will send a message to Qualchien. Tell him he, too, shall send a message, and if Qualchien does not join me before 1 eross the Snake river, in four days 1 will hang Owhi."
When this communication was made to Owhi, we are informed by Kip, he ap- peared to lose all power over himself. He sank on the ground and perspiration came out on him in large drops. He took out a book of prayers, and in much confusion turned over the leaves for a moment, looking at the pietures apparently without knowing what he was doing, and handed it to the priest who was standing by him. He was then taken off by the guard and put in irons. When the mes- senger went off Owhi said he did not think Qualchien would come in.
Captain Keyes has left a graphie description of the surrender of Qualehien and the quick resulting tragedy. About 12 o'clock on the day following the plae- ing of Owhi in irons, two Indians and a fine-looking squaw emerged from a canyon near the camp. The three rode abreast, and a little distance behind them rode an Indian hunchback. The three chief personages were gaily dressed and ap- proached with a dashing air. They wore a great deal of searlet, and the squaw displayed two ornamental searfs, passing over the right shoulder and under the left arm. Across the front of her saddle she carried a long lanee, the handle com- pletely wound with bright beads, and from the ends of which hung two long tippets of beaver skins. The two braves hore rifles, and one, evidently the leader, carried an ornamented tomahawk. With exceeding boldness they directed their horses to Colonel Wright's tent.
Captain Keyes pulled aside the tent flap and said: "Colonel, we have distin- guished visitors here." When the colonel came out he instantly recognized Qual- chien, who daringly entered into conversation with him, retaining his rifle by his side. Qualchien's bearing was so defiant that Captain Keyes, fearing that the out- law meditated violence, placed himself on guard and stood alert to spring on the Indian at the slightest demonstration.
Presently Colonel Wright mentioned Owhi's name and Qualehien started and exclaimed, "Car?" (where). "Owhi mittite yawa" (Owhi is over there), re- plied the colonel.
At these words Qualehien seemed to be half paralyzed. He acted in the dazed way of a man who had been stunned by a physical blow. He kept repeating, mechanically, "Owhi mittite yawa!" "Owhi mittite yawa!" Then he made a motion as if he would use his rifle, and made towards his horse, but was seized by the guard and disarmed. He carried a fine pistol capped and loaded, and plenty of ammunition.
Colonel Wright commanded him to go with the guard, and he at first assented, but then held back and was pulled along. He was a fine specimen of physical manhood, with a broad chest, muscular limbs and small hands and feet. By the time he had reached the guard tent he was recovered from his semi-stupor and fought desperately for his freedom. It required six men to tie his hands and feet, although he suffered at the time from an unhealed wound in the lower part of his body. The subsequent proceedings were startlingly summary. Wright recorded them in his official report in a single sentence: "Qualchien came to me at 9 this morning, and at 9:15 a. m. he was hung."
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But letters and reports by others of his command have preserved for us a more dramatic setting. When Qualehien's fate was made known to him, he fell to curs- ing Kamiaken. He was dragged to a neighboring trec, but when they attempted to place the rope around his neck, the struggle was renewed. and bound as he was. it became necessary to throw him on his back before the noose could be put over his head, he shrieking all the while: "Copet six! (stop my friends). Wake memaloose nika! (do not kill me); nika potlatch hiyu chickamin, hiyu knitan (I will give much money, a great many horses) : spore nika memaloose. nika hiyu siwash silex (if you kill me a great many Indians will be angry ) ; copet six!" In spite of his protests the rope was run over the limb of a tree and he was strung up. shouting curses on Kamiaken with his last breath. Among those who pulled with eagerness on the rope were two miners who had been with the party attacked by Qualchien and his band in the Colville country a few months before.
It developed a little later that Qualchien had been the victim of some act of treachery. for he had not met the messenger sent out in search of him, but had either come of his own accord or been lured in by the Indian hunchback, whose expression when Qualchien was hauled up indicated a devilish satisfaction. And as soon as the deed was over the hunchback galloped to the upper end of the en- campment where he related with savage joy to his people the part he had played in guiding the victim into the hands of Wright. The squaw who. a few minutes before. had ridden in so airily. proved to be Qualehien's wife. a daughter of Polot- kin. She was suffered to depart, and rode off with Qualchien's companion. It was supposed that Qualchien had been sent in by Kamiaken, as a spy. to learn what Colonel Wright would do with the ringleaders of the outbreak, and the victim looked upon the great war chief of the Yakimas as the author of his death.
"He died like a coward." wrote an officer who had witnessed the tragedy. "and very differently from the manner in which the Indians generally met their fate. So loud indeed were his eries that they were heard by Owhi, who was confined near by." In disgust the old chief disowned him, saying. "lle is not my son, but the son of Kamiaken," meaning that he had followed the counsel of the Yakima leader.
It became bruited around the next day that Qualchien had a large sum of money on his person. and his body was exhumed to prevent the treasure falling into the hands of the Indians, but little of value was discovered.
"In all the battles, forays and disturbances in Washington territory." said Kip, "Qualchien has been one of the leading spirits. The influence for evil which he exerted was probably greater even than that of either Owhi or Kamiaken. Of the three. he was the most addicted to fighting and bloodshed. He has been di- rectly charged with the murder of nine white men at different times. In the action of March 1, 1856, on White river. Puget Sound district, Qualchien was present with fifty Yakima warriors, and of these seven were killed."
Three days after the hanging of Qualchien. Owhi, his father, made a dash for freedom. Lieutenant Morgan, riding by his side, fired three shots from his re- volver, all taking effect. and a dragoou hastened to the wounded chief and put a bullet through his head.
"Nothing has been done in this campaign," said Lieutenant Kip. "so effectually to secure the peace of the country as the death of these two chiefs."
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In explanation of the hanging of Qualehien, Colonel Wright said in his report to his superior at Fort Vancouver : "He has been actively engaged in all the mur- ders, robberies and attaeks upon the white people sinee 1855, both east and west of the Caseade mountains. He was with the party who attacked the miners on the We-nat-che river in June last, and was severely wounded; but recovering rapidly, he has since been committing assaults on our people whenever an oppor- tunity offered."
I have been unable to find in Colonel Wright's reports any account of the hanging of other Indians on Hangman creek. Lieutenant Mullan mentions briefly that "a number of Pelouses at this camp expiated their many erimes upon a gal- lows ereeted for the purpose," and Kip is a little more eireumstantial. "In the middle of the day," says that authority, "two Pelouse Indians eame in, bringing a letter from the priest. They were followed shortly after by seven or eight more. The whole party were at once taken to the guard-house and ironed. At evening they were brought up for examination, and being eonvieted of having been engaged in various atroeities. six of them were at once hung. One of them was proved to be the Indian who killed Sergeant Williams at Snake river, when, after being wounded in Colonel Steptoe's affair, he was trying to make his way baek to Walla Walla." These, in addition to Qualchien, and the Indian hanged in the Spokane valley, made a total of eight who died by the noose in the Spokane country. Four more were hanged on the Palouse, and four at Walla Walla. Ae- cording to Wright, eleven Indians were hanged in all, but other reports show a total of sixteen and that is probably the correct count.
While the main command rested on Hangman ereek, Colonel Wright dispatched three companies of dragoons to the Steptoe battlefield, distant about ten miles, to recover the remains of the officers and men who had fallen in that engagement and the two mountain howitzers which had been buried on the evening of the memor- able night retreat to Snake river. Lieutenant Kip, who participated in this sad mission, thus describes the solemn duty :
"On reaching the battlefield proper. we halted and eneamped. and pieketing our animals in good grass, began to search for the remains of the men there so inhumanly butchered. and the guns lost in that desperate encounter.
"The guns having been well buried, were found as they had been left, undis- turbed. Passing along the slope of the hill, we came upon a small ravine in which lay the graves of four men: Captain Taylor, a half-breed, and two dragoons. Silently and mournfully. we disinterred their remains, and securely packing them bore them from the field to our eamp, in order to transport them to Walla Walla, there to give them proper burial with military honors.
"Silently surveying the ground from the top of this hill. a seene of sadness and desolation met the eye at every turn. Broken and burnt fragments of all that had once constituted the equipage of this command lay scattered to the right and left, and everywhere were to be seen the unmistakable signs of a relentless savage foe who had determined on the utter annihilation of this small command.
"But one thing remained not totally destroyed, a pair of shafts of one of the buried guns. Why this had escaped the general conflagration of such things as the Indians could not usefully appropriate was a wonder to us all.
"This, with our rude means at hand, we framed and fashioned into a eross,
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which we created upon the battlefield as a Christian token to the honored dead, and to point the stranger to the spot where brave men bravely met their fate; and as each officer and soldier lingered near the spot. and heard rehearsed the sad recital of that memorable defeat, the silent tear stole down many a bronzed check that had confronted death and braved danger upon many a tented field."
"Poor Gaston," exclaims Kip. "My parting with him was at West Point, when full of life and spirits and bright anticipations of his future carcer. My last recol- lection of him is in his gray cadet uniform. I never saw him after, until I thus stood by his remains today. He was every inch a soldier ; and when, during the last year. ill health weighed him down, and he feared the approach of that feebleness which would withdraw him from his duties, his military spirit seemed to be the strongest impulse he felt. He often expressed the hope that he might die in battle, and thus it was that his wish was gratified. He had a soldier's death. and will have a soldier's burial and grave,-
""The fresh turf, and not the feverish bed.'"
CHAPTER XXIX
WRIGHT'S RETURN MARCH TO WALLA WALLA
TELLS THE PALOUSES THEY ARE RASCALS AND DESERVE TO BE HUNG-TREATS THEM AS OUTLAWS, BUT PUTS THEM ON PROBATION-JIANGS FOUR AS A WARNING TO THE OTHERS- "CUTMOUTH JOHN" A CONSPICUOUS FIGURE-MILITARY HONORS FOR THE GALLANT DEAD-LIEUTENANT KIP'S PREDICTION-"THE WAR IS CLOSED -COLONEL WRIGHT'S FINAL REPORT.
H AVING practically completed his campaign, Colonel Wright now broke camp on Hangman creek and began the retrograde march to Walla Walla on the morning of September 26. On the evening of the twenty-ninth the command encamped at a point well down on the Palouse river, on what appeared to have been an old battleground of the Indians, arrow heads and remains of other weapons being scattered about.
A large number of Palouse Indians came in the next morning, with their families, and the Colonel determined to hold a "council," as he termed these somewhat one- sided conferences with the broken and humiliated tribes. The Palouses having gathered before his tent, and the interpreter being ready, the Colonel delivered this gracious and complimentary address:
"Tell them they are a set of rascals and deserve to be hung; that if I should hang them all, I should not do wrong. Tell them I have made a written treaty with the Coeur d'Alenes and the Spokanes, but I will not make a written treaty with them ; and if I catch one of them on the other side of the Snake river, I will hang him. Tell them they shall not go into the Coeur d'Alene country, nor the Spokane country, nor shall they allow the Walla Walla Indians to come into their country. If they behave themselves, and do all that I direct them, I will make a written treaty with them next spring. If I do, there will be no more war between us. If they do not submit to these terms, I will make war on them ; and if I come here again to war, I will hang them all, men, women and children.
"Tell them that five moons ago two of their tribe killed some miners. The mur- derers must immediately be delivered up."
After the Palouses had weighed these words, they conferred among themselves, and presently one of them came forward. The other had slipped away, apparently to the great annoyance of his tribe, who, to save themselves were eager to comply with the victor's conditions.
Colonel Wright: "Tell them they must deliver up the six men who stole our beef cattle at Walla Walla."
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This demand met with quick compliance, and the offenders were brought forward and handed over to the guard.
Colonel Wright continued: "Tell them they must allow all white men to pass unmolested through their country, and must deliver up to me one chief and four warriors, with their families, to go with me to Walla Walla as hostages."
All these terms were accepted by the unhappy and terror-stricken Palouses, and then, to make the lesson more impressive, four of them-the murderer and three others who had been selected as notorious marauders-were marched to a tree sev- eral hundred yards distant and hanged.
The return to Walla Walla was made without notable incident, the command arriving there October 5, after an absence of just sixty marching days. As it marched into the fort, "Cutmonth John" was by far its most conspicuous figure. elad in a red blanket, a large skin cap upon his head, and in his hand a long lance from the end of which dangled the scalp he had taken in the battle of the Four Lakes.
When the troops reached the parade ground the column halted, the ranks opened, and Colonel Mansfield, the inspector general of the department. who had arrived a few days before, made a thorough inspection. There was nothing about the com- mand, says Kip, of the "pomp and circumstance of glorious war." During two months no one had slept under roof. and all were begrimed with mud. rain and dust. The artillery and infantry wore blue flannel shirts. drawn over their uniforms and belted at the waist. The dragoons had a similar dress of gray flannel. The officers had adopted the same, with slouched hats. The only marks of their rank were the shoulder-strap sewed on to the flannel. Yet all this was showing the reality of sery- ice. If there was little display of uniforms. the arms were in perfect order, and we believe the troops had never been in a higher state of discipline or a more perfeet condition for action.
Quoting from the same officer's journal :
October 7th .- Today we turned to more solemn duties. At ten o'clock took place the burial of Captain Taylor, Lieutenant Gaston and the remains of the men which had been found on Colonel Steptoe's battleground. It was from this post they had marched forth. and here they were to be laid to their rest. They were, of course, buried with military honors, the ceremony being invested with all the pageantry which was possible, to show respect to the memory of our gallant comrades. All the officers, thirty-nine in number, and the troops at the post, amounting to 800 (rein- forcements having arrived since our departure), took part in the ceremonies. The horses of the dead, draped in black, having on them the officers' swords and boots, were led behind the collins. The remains were taken about half a mile from the post and there interred. Three volleys were fired over them, and we left them where day after day the notes of the bugle will be borne over their graves, while we cherish their memories as those who laid down their young lives in the battlefield for their country.
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