USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 13
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 13
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 13
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 13
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
"Kloakamus-I was there at the time ; I lived there, but I had no hand in the murder. I saw them when they were killed, but did not touch or strike any one. I looked on. There were plenty of Indians. My heart was sorry. Our chief told us to come down and tell who the murderers were. There were ten; they are killed. They say I am guilty, but it is not so; I am innocent. The people do
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Courtesy of Mr. Michael Kenny
FORT WALLA WALLA IN 1857
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not understand me. I can't talk to them. They tell me I must die by being hung by the neck. If they do kill me, I am innocent, and God will give me a big heart."
"Monday, II : 30 A. M .- I have no reason to die for things that I did not do. My time is short. I tell the truth. I know that I am close to the grave; but my heart is open and I tell the truth. I love every one in this world. I know that God will give me a big heart. I never confessed to the marshal that I was guilty, or to any other person; I am innocent. The priests did not tell us to do what the Indians have done. This is my last talk."
"Siahsaluchus (or Wet Wolf)-I say the same as the others; the murderers are killed; some by the whites, some by the Cayuses, and some by others. They were ten in number."
"Monday, II : 30 A. M .- I have nothing more to say; I think of God. I for- give all men; I love them. The priests did not tell us to do this."
"Thomahas-I did not know that I came here to die. Our chief told us to come and see the white chief and tell him all about it. The white chief would then tell us all what was right and what was wrong. Learn us (how) to live when we returned home. Why should I have a bad heart-after I am showed and taught how to live? My eyes were shut when I came here. I did not see, but now they are opened. I have been taught; I have been showed what was good and what was bad. I do not want to die; I know now that we are all brothers. They tell me the same Spirit made us all."
"Monday, 11 : 30 A. M .- Thomahas joined with Tilokite. My heart cries my brother was guilty, but he is dead. I am innocent. I know I am going to die for things I am not guilty of, but I forgive them. I love all men now. My hope, the priest tells me, is in Christ. My heart shall be big with good."
"(Signed). . HENRY H. CRAWFORD, Sergeant, Co. D, R. M. R. ROBERT D. MAHON, Corporal, Co. A, R. M. R."
Following the close of the Cayuse war there was a lull in hostilities during which several white men came to the Walla Walla country or near it, with a view to locating. In Col. F. T. Gilbert's valuable history of Walla Walla and adjoin- ing counties, published in 1882, we find the data for a summary of the earliest settlers as follows :
The first settlers of all were William C. McKay, son of Thomas Mckay (who himself was the step-son of Dr. John McLoughlin) and Henry M. Chase. These men were located on the Umatilla River in 1851 at a point near the present Town of Echo. Doctor Mckay later became a resident of Pendleton where he was well known for many years. In 1852 Mr. Chase went with Wm. Craig to the Nez Perce country near Lewiston where he entered the cattle business. In 1855 he went to the region of the present Dayton and a short time later to Walla Walla. He lived in Walla Walla a number of years and was well known to all old-timers. He lived upon the property now the site of St. Paul's School. Louis Raboin, a Frenchman, though an American citizen, was in the Walla Walla country a number of years beginning in 1851. In 1855 he located at what is now
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the Town of Marengo on the Tucanon. P. M. Lafontain came to the region in 1852 and located a claim adjoining that of Mr. Chase, near the present Dayton, in 1855. Lloyd Brooke, George C. Bumford, and John F. Noble came to Waiilatpu in 1852, and in the following year established themselves there in the cattle business. There they remained till driven out by the War of 1855. A. P. Wood- ward was a resident of the Walla Walla country during the same period. It is proper to name here Wm. Craig who had been a mountain man a number of years and became located among the Nez Perce Indians at Lapwai in 1845. From him Craig Mountains took their name. He was an important personage as interpreter and peace-maker among the Nez Perces during the great war later. There were several men drifting through the country employed as laborers by Mr. Chase and by the cattle-men at Waiilatpu.
There was at that time quite a settlement on the Walla Walla around what is now known as Frenchtown, about ten miles from the present city. These were Hudson's Bay Company men. We find in the list of names several whose descendants lived subsequently in that region, though they mainly left during the Indian Wars and did not return. There were two priests among them, Fathers Chirouse and Pondosa, and they were assisted by two brothers. James Sinclair had at that time charge of Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia. Though the region was then in possession of the United States, the Hudson's Bay Com- pany had not yet delivered up its locations.
During this lull a very important event occurred. On March 3, 1853, the Territory of Washington was created and Isaac I. Stevens was appointed governor. The first Territorial Legislature laid out sixteen counties. Among them was Walla Walla County. That was the first "Old Walla Walla County." That it was much more extensive than the area especially covered by this work will appear when the boundaries are given, thus: "Beginning its line on the north bank of the Columbia at a point opposite the mouth of Des Chutes River, it ran thence north to the forty-ninth parallel." It therefore embraced all of what was then Washington Territory east of that line, which included all of present Idaho, about a fourth of present Montana, and about half of what is now Wash- ington. That was the first attempt at organized government in Eastern Wash- ington. The county seat was located "on the land of Lloyd Brooke," which was at Waiilatpu. The Legislature further decreed: "That George C. Bumford, John Owens, and A. Dominique Pambrun be, and they are hereby constituted and appointed the Board of County Commissioners; and that Narcises Remond be, and hereby is appointed sheriff ; and that Lloyd Brooke be, and is hereby appointed judge of probate, and shall have jurisdiction as justice of the peace ; all in and for the County of Walla Walla." These appointees with the exception of Mr. Owens (who lived near the present Missoula), were residents of the region of Waiilatpu and Frenchtown. That county organization was never inaugurated, and it remains as simply an interesting historical reminiscence.
In March, 1855, another most notable event occurred, the first in a series that made much history in the Northwest. This was the discovery of gold at the junction of the Pend Oreille River with the Columbia. The discoverer was a French half-breed who had previously lived at French Prairie, Ore. The announcement of the discovery caused a stampede to the east of the mountains and inaugurated a series of momentous changes.
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Governor Stevens had entered upon his great task of organizing the newly created territory by undertaking the establishment of a number of Indian reserva- tions. The necessities of the case-both justice to the Indians and the whites, as well as the proper development of the country whose vast possibilities were beginning to be seen by the far-sighted ones-seemed to compel the segregation of the natives into comparatively small reservations. The history of the laying out of these reservations is an entire history by itself. There has been contro- versy as to the rights and wrongs of the case which has been best treated by Hazard Stevens in his "Life of Governor Stevens" (his father) in defence, and by Ezra Meeker in his "Tragedy of Leschi" in condemnation. Suffice it to say that the reservation policy was but faintly understood by the Indians and occur- ring in connection with the gold discoveries and the entrance of whites, eager for wealth and opportunity, it furnished all the conditions requisite for a first-class Indian war. Doubtless the great underlying cause was, as usual in Indian wars, the perception by Indians that their lands were steadily and surely passing out of their hands.
In 1854 and 1855 a general flame of war burst forth in widely separated regions. There can be no question that there was an attempt at co-operation by the tribes over the whole of Oregon and Washington. But so wide and so scat- tered was the field and so incapable were the Indians of intelligent unity of action that the white settlements were spared a war of extermination. The centers of warfare were the Rogue River in Southern Oregon, a number of points on Puget Sound, especially Seattle and vicinity, and White River Valley.
In May, 1855, Governor Stevens with a force of about fifty men reached Walla Walla for a conference with the tribes. The best authorities on the conference are Hazard Stevens, then a boy of fourteen, who accompanied his father, and Lieu- tenant Kip of the United States Army. This meeting at Walla Walla was one of the most interesting and important in the annals of Indian relationships with the United States Government. There seems some difference of opinion as to the exact location of the conference. It has generally been thought that Stevens' camp was at what is now known as "Council Grove Addition," near the residence of ex-Senator Ankeny. When General Hazard Stevens was in Walla Walla some years ago he gave his opinion that it was in the near vicinity of the residence of Mrs. Clara Quinn. William McBean, a son of the Hudson's Bay Company agent at Fort Walla Walla during the Cayuse war, who was himself in Stevens' force, as a young boy, told the author nearly thirty years ago that he believed the chief point of the conference was almost exactly on the present site of Whitman College. It appears from the testimony of old-timers that Mill Creek has changed its course at intervals in these years, and that as a result the exact identification is difficult. It seems plain, however, that the Indians were camped at various places along the two spring branches, "College Creek" and "Tannery Creek."
With his little force, Governor Stevens might well have been startled, if he had been a man sensible of fear, when there came tearing across the plain to the northeast of the council ground an army of twenty-five hundred Nez Perces, headed by Halhaltlossot, known to the whites as Lawyer. After the Indian cus- tom they were whooping and firing their guns and making their horses prance and cavort in the clouds of dust stirred by hundreds of hoofs. But as it proved, these spectacular performers were the real friends of the Governor and his party and
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later on their salvation. Two days after, three hundred Caynses, those worst of the Columbia River Indians, surly and scowling, made their appearance, led by Five Crows and Young Chief. Within two days again there arrived a force of two thousand Yakimas, Umatillas, and Walla Wallas. The "Valley of Waters" must have been at that time a genuine Indian paradise. The broad flats of Mill Creek and the Walla Walla were covered with grass and spangled with flowers. Numerous clear cold steams, gushing in springs from the ground and overhung by birches and cottonwoods, with the wild roses drooping over them, made their gurgling way to a junction with the creek. Countless horses grazed on the bunch- grass hills and farther back in the foothills there was an abundance of game. No wonder that the Indians, accustomed to gather for councils and horse-races, and all the other delights of savage life, should have scanned with jealous eyes the manifest desire of the whites for locations in a spot "where every prospect pleases and man alone is vile."
It became evident to Governor Stevens that a conspiracy was burrowing be- neath his feet. Peupeumoxmox of the Walla Wallas and Kahmiakin of the Yakimas were the leaders. The former was now an old man, embittered by the murder of his son Elijah, and regarded by many as having been the real fomenter of the Whitman Massacre. Kahmiakin was a remarkable Indian. Winthrop. in his "Canoe and Saddle," gives a vivid description of him as being a man of extraordinary force and dignity. Governor Stevens said of him: "He is a pe- culiar 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 ges- ticulations many and characteristic. He talks mostly in his face and with his hands and arms." He was a man of lofty stature and splendid physique, a typical Indian of the best type. This great Yakima chief saw that his race was doomed unless they could check White occupancy at its very beginning. Restrained by no scruples (as indeed his civilized opponents seldom were) he seems to have con- spired with the Walla Wallas and Cayuses to wipe out Stevens and his band, then rush to The Dalles and exterminate the garrison there; then with united forces of all the Eastern Oregon Indians sweep on into the principal settlements of the whites, those of the Willamette Valley, and wipe them out. Meanwhile their allies on the Sound were to seize the pivotal points there. Thus Indian victory would be comprehensive and final. Preposterous as such an expectation appears now to us, it was not, after all, so remote as we might think. Six or seven thou- sand of these powerful warriors, splendidly mounted and well armed, if well directed, crossing the mountains into the scattered settlements of Western Oregon and Washington might well have cleaned up the country, with the exception of Portland, which was then quite a little city and in a position which would have made any successful attack by Indians hopeless.
But the Nez Perces saved the day. Halhaltlossot perceived that the only hope for his people was in peace and as favorable reservation assignments as could be secured. He nipped the conspiracy in the bud. Hazard Stevens gives a thrilling account of how the Nez Perce chief went by night to the Governor's camp and revealed the conspiracy. He moved his own camp to a point adjoining the whites and made it clear that the hostiles could accomplish their aims only in the face of Nez Perce opposition. This situation made the conspiracy impotent.
Lewis MeMorris
J. J. Rohu
Dr. John Tempany
Michael Kenny
Joseph MeEvoy
COMRADES AT FORT WALLA WALLA IN 1857
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Not all, however, of the Nez Perces approved the tactics of Lawyer. There was a powerful faction that favored the Yakimas, Cayuses, and Walla Wallas. While Governor Stevens had been gradually bringing the main body of the Nez Perces to consent to a treaty assigning certain reservations to them, and was flattering himself that with the aid of Lawyer he was just about to clinch the deal, there was a sudden commotion in the council, and into the midst there burst the old chief Apashwayhayikt (Looking Glass). He had just been on a raid against the Blackfeet, and hearing of the probable outcome of the Walla Walla Council, had made a ride of 300 miles in seven days. With his little band of at- tendants he came racing over the "bench" on which "Garden City Heights" is now located, and with scalps of several slaughtered Blackfeet dangling from his belt he rushed to the front, and fixing his angry and reproachful eyes upon his tribes- men he broke forth into a harangue which Hazard Stevens was told by some Indians began about thus : "My people, what have you done? While I was gone you sold my country. I have come home and there is not left me a place on which to pitch my lodge. Go home to your lodges. I will talk with you." Lieutenant Kip declares that though he could not understand the words, the effect was tremendous and the speech was equal to the greatest bursts of oratory that he had ever heard. The council broke up and the nearly accepted treaty went to naught.
With great patience and skill Stevens and Lawyer rallied their defeated forces and, in spite of the opposition of Looking Glass; they secured the acquiescence of the main body of the Indians to three reservations. These were essentially the same as now known: the Yakima, the Umatilla; and the Nez Perce. In case of the last, however, there was a lamentable and distressing miscarriage of agree- ment and perhaps of justice. William McBean, already mentioned as a half- breed boy employed by Governor Stevens, stated to the author many years ago that he discovered that the general impression among the Nez Perce Indians was that by accepting the treaty and surrendering their lands in the Touchet, Tucanon, and Alpowa countries, they would be assured of the permanent posses- sion of the Wallowa. Now, if there was any region more suitable to Indians and more loved by them than another, it was that same Wallowa, with its snowy peaks, its lakes and streams filled with fish, its grassy upland with deer and elk, its thickets and groves with grouse and pheasants. The understanding of the "Joseph band" of Nez Perces was, according to McBean, that the loved Wallowa was to be their special range. Upon that supposition they voted with Lawyer for the treaty and that was the determining influence that secured its passage. But twenty years later, white men began to perceive that the Wallowa was also suitable to them. With that lack of continuity in dealing with natives in face of a demand for land by whites which has made most of our Indian treaties mere "scraps of paper," the administration ( that of Grant) forgot the understanding, the Indians were dispossessed, and the Nez Perce war with the very people who had saved Stevens in 1855 was precipitated in 1877. Young Joseph (Hallakalla- keen) led his warriors in the most spectacular Indian war in the history of this country, as a result of which his band was finally overpowered and located on the Nespilem, a part of the Colville reservation. Kamiakin had seemed to agree to the treaty at Walla Walla. But he was only biding his time. Governor Stevens, having, as he thought, pacified the tribes by that group of treaties, proceeded on a similar mission to the Flatheads in Northern Idaho. There, after long discussion,
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a treaty was negotiated by which a million and a quarter acres was set aside for a reservation. The next move of the Governor was across the Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton.
But what was happening on the Walla Walla? No sooner was the Governor fairly out of sight across the flower-bespangled plains, which extended 200 miles northeast from Walla Walla, than the wily Kamiakin began to resume his plots. So successful was he, with the valuable assistance of Peupeumoxmox, Young Chief, and Five Crows, that the treaties, just ratified, were torn to shreds and the flame of savage warfare burst forth across the entire Columbia Valley.
Hazard Stevens, in his invaluable history of his father, gives a vivid picture of how the news reached them in their camp, thirty-five miles up the Missouri from Fort Benton. Summer had now passed into autumn. A favorable treaty had been made with the Blackfeet. On October 29th the little party were gathered around their campfire in the frosty air of fall in that high altitude when they discerned a solitary rider making his way slowly toward them. As he drew near they soon saw that it was Pearson, the express rider. Pearson was one of the best examples of those scouts whose lives were spent in conveying messages from forts to parties in the field. He usually traveled alone, and his life was always in his hand. He seemed to be made of steel springs, and it had been thought that he could endure anything. "He could ride anything that wore hair." He rode 1,750 miles in twenty-eight days at one time, one stage of 260 miles having been made in three days. But as he slowly drew up to the party in the cold evening light, it was seen that even Pearson was "done." His horse staggered and fell, and he himself could not stand or speak for some time. After he had been revived he told his story, and a story of disaster and foreboding it was, sure enough.
All the great tribes of the Columbia plains west of the Nez Perces had broken out, the Cayuses, Yakimas, Palouses, Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and Klickitats. They had swept the country clean of whites. The ride of Pearson from The Dalles to the point where he reached Governor Stevens is one of the most thrilling in our annals. By riding all day and night, he reached a horse ranch on the Umatilla belonging to William McKay, but he found the place deserted. Seeing a splendid horse in the bunch near by, he lassoed and saddled him. Though the horse was as wild as air, Pearson managed to mount and start on. Just then there swept into view a force of Indians who, instantly divining what Pearson was trying to do, gave chase. Up and down hill, through vale, and across the rim-rock, they followed, sending frequent bullets after him, and yelling like demons. "Whupsiah si-ah-poo, Whup-si-ah!" ("Kill the white man !") But the wild horse which the intrepid rider bestrode proved his salvation, for he gradually outran all his pur- suers. Traveling through the Walla Walla at night Pearson reached the camp of friendly Nez Perce Red Wolf on the Alpowa the next day, having ridden 200 miles from The Dalles without stopping except the brief time changing horses. Snow and hunger now impeded his course. Part of the way he had to go on snowshoes without a horse. But with unflinching resolution he passed on, and so now here he was with his dismal tidings.
The dispatches warned Governor Stevens that Kamiakin with a thousand war- riors was in the Walla Walla Valley and that it would be impossible for him to get through by that route, and that he must therefore return to the East by the Missouri and come back to his territory by the steamer route of Panama. That
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meant six months' delay. With characteristic boldness, Governor Stevens at once rejected the more cautious course and went right back to Spokane by Coeur d'Alene Pass, deep already with winter snows, suffering intensely with cold and hunger, but avoiding by that route the Indians sent out to intercept him. With extraordinary address, he succeeding in turning the Spokane Indians to his side. The Nez Perces, thanks to Lawyer's fidelity, were still friendly, and with these two powerful tribes arrayed against the Yakimas, there was still hope of holding the Columbia Valley.
After many adventures, Governor Stevens reached Olympia in safety. Gov- orner Curry of Oregon had already called a force of volunteers into the field. The Oregon volunteers were divided into two divisions, one under Col. J. W. Nesmith, which went into the Yakima country, and the other under Lieut .- Col. J. K. Kelly, which went to Walla Walla. The latter force fought the decisive battle of the campaign on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of December, 1855. It was a series of engagements occurring in the heart of the Walla Walla Valley, a "running fight" culminating at what is now called Frenchtown, ten miles west of the present City of Walla Walla.
The famous battle of the Walla Walla, being so conspicuous and so near the present city, is worthy of some detail. The report of Col. J. K. Kelley is as follows :
"On the evening of the 8th inst., I gave you a hasty report of our battle with Indians up to the close of the second day's fight, and then stated that at a future time I would give a more detailed account of all transactions that occurred since the march from the Umatilla River. Owing to active engagements in the field, and in pursuit of the Indians, I have not hitherto had leisure to make that report."
"As soon as it was dark on the evening of the second, I proceeded with my command from Fort Henrietta to Walla Walla, having left a detachment of twenty-five men, under command of Lieutenant Sword, to protect the former post. On the morning of the third we encamped on the bank of the Walla Walla River about four miles from the fort; and, proceeding to the latter place, I found it had been pillaged by the Indians, the buildings much defaced and the furniture destroyed.
"On the morning of the fourth, a body of Indians was observed on the opposite side of the Columbia, apparently making preparations to cross the river with a large amount of baggage. Seeing us in possession of the fort, they were deterred from making the attempt, when I sent a small detachment down to a bar making into the Columbia immediately below the mouth of the Walla Walla, and opposite to where the Indians were, with directions to fire upon them and prevent the removal of their packs of provisions. The width of the river at this place is about 250 yards; and a brisk fire was at once opened upon the Indians, which was returned by them from behind the rocks on the opposite shore. No boats could be procured to cross the river in order to secure the provisions or to attack the body of Indians, numbering about fifty, who had made their appearance on the hill north of Walla Walla, who, after surveying our encampment, started off in a northeasterly direction. I at once determined to follow in pursuit of them on the following day.
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