But Casey, strictly forbidden by Wool to recognize the volunteers, sent two companies under Major Garnett to reinforce Wright by the circuitous Cowlitz and Columbia route, declining to “send him across the Nahchess Pass, for the reason, first, I consider there would be too much delay in getting across. In the next place, I have not sufficient transportation to spare for that purpose.” From Steilacoom to Wright’s camp on the Nahchess was barely a hundred miles by the direct route across the pass; by the Cowlitz-Columbia route it was three hundred and fifteen miles, for a hundred and fifteen of which the troops could be transported by water, leaving two hundred to march. By these facts, and by the ease and celerity of Shaw’s march a few days later over the rejected route, the validity and candor of Casey’s “reason” may be judged.

Such a combined movement would have given Wright ample reinforcements, and in the mounted volunteers the very arm he most needed; for infantry could never reach the Indians on those plains in summer unless the latter chose to fight. And for the second time he was given the opportunity, by availing himself of the coöperation of the volunteers, to inflict a severe punishment upon the enemy. Unhappily Wool’s orders tied his hands, and Wright himself was imbued with Wool’s delusion that the Indians of the upper country—the great hostile tribes that had plotted and brought on the war fresh from treacherously signing the treaties at Walla Walla, had murdered the miners and agent Bolon, and had plundered Fort Walla Walla, and laid themselves in wait to cut off Governor Stevens and his party—were innocent and peaceably disposed Indians, who had been forced to war by the aggressions of the whites.

Upon Casey’s rejection or evasion of the joint operation he proposed, Governor Stevens determined to push his mounted men across the mountains, and throw upon that officer the burden of protecting the settlements upon the Sound against hostile incursions. Accordingly he offered to turn over to him his posts on the Puyallup, and on Connell’s and South prairies, and the colonel received and occupied them, for which he was censured and rebuked by Wool as soon as the latter was informed of it. The governor was convinced that the war could be brought to a close only by subduing the hostile tribes of the upper country; that until this was done the Sound country was liable to their raids and stirring up of fresh outbreaks among the Sound Indians; and that every day’s delay in striking them was helping Kam-i-ah-kan and his emissaries in winning over the Spokanes, Cœur d’Alenes, and disaffected Nez Perces to their side. He also deemed it necessary to send supplies and Indian goods to Craig and Lawyer, and strengthen their hands in keeping the Nez Perces loyal, now left more exposed by the withdrawal of the Oregon volunteers from the Walla Walla valley. He proceeded, therefore, to carry out his plans, cherished from the beginning, of striking a blow in the upper country.

On June 12 Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw marched from Camp Montgomery with one hundred and seventy-five mounted men of the Central and Southern battalions, under their respective majors, Blankenship and Maxon, comprising Captain Henness’s Company C, Maxon’s Washington Mounted Rifles, Company D, under Lieutenant Powell, Captain Miller’s Company J, and a pack-train of twenty-seven packers and one hundred and seven pack animals, under Captain C.H. Armstrong, the regimental quartermaster and commissary. On the 20th he reached the Wenass branch of the Yakima, with the loss of only one animal, finding the road good for a mountain road. Colonel Wright was still parleying with the Yakimas, trying to patch up a peace, and not only with them, but also with Leschi, Kitsap, Stahi, Nelson, and Qui-e-muth, the hostile chiefs who had fled from the Sound country, and would vouchsafe no information or suggestion to the volunteer colonel, except the statement that the regular troops were amply sufficient for the Yakima. Shaw therefore continued his march, crossed the Columbia at old Fort Walla Walla, and reached and made camp on Mill Creek, in the valley, on the 9th of July.

Having seen the necessary arrangements made, and orders given for Shaw’s march, the governor hastened in person to the Dalles, arriving there June 12, where he had already assembled Captains Goff’s and Richards’s companies, in anticipation of operating in the upper country.

He had previously, on April 27, inquired of Colonel Wright if he intended to occupy the Walla Walla valley, and if, in case it were not occupied, and the Oregon volunteers there were withdrawn, he could furnish an escort of one company to guard the train to the Nez Perce country. To this Wright replied that it was no part of his plan of campaign to occupy the Walla Walla country, “as we are assured that the Indians in that district are peacefully inclined,” and that the matter of an escort was referred to General Wool, which, of course, was equivalent to refusal. The governor, on receiving this reply, at once wrote Wright:—

Thus Wright was fixed in the opinion that these Indians were peaceably disposed, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. He ignored the information and views given him by Governor Stevens, who, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, was especially charged with the care and management of them; the information furnished by the Hudson Bay Company’s officer at Colville; the opinions of the Nez Perce chiefs and agent Craig; and even a recent attack actually made upon a post of Oregon volunteers on the Umatilla.

The governor now notified Wright of Shaw’s march and orders to coöperate with him:—

But the governor’s wise and patriotic efforts to secure coöperation, and this fine opportunity to strike the enemy a crushing blow, were frustrated by Wright’s pacific attitude and the cold shoulder he turned to Shaw. It was indeed hard to induce concert of action, especially aggressive action, between authorities who knew the Indians as hostile and murderous, and to be subdued only by defeat and punishment, and officers who regarded them as wronged, and deserving to be made peace with and protected. Thus Wool’s pernicious and inexcusable views and orders paralyzed the campaign of his subordinate, who shared his delusion.

The governor remained at the Dalles some two weeks, combining and expediting the movements of his two columns to the Walla Walla valley, and gaining the latest information from the Indian country, and returned to Olympia June 30.

On this trip the governor summarily dismissed a quartermaster at Vancouver for dishonest conduct, and the incident was made the subject of a caricature by John Phœnix, the nom de plume of that inveterate wit and joker, Lieutenant George H. Derby, who was then stationed at Vancouver.[11]

It will be recollected that the governor left Captain Sidney S. Ford in the Walla Walla to organize a company for home defense of the few settlers who had returned with the Oregon volunteers. He succeeded in raising twenty-five men, but was soon succeeded by a company under Captain Henry M. Chase, composed of ten whites and forty-three Nez Perces. On the withdrawal of the volunteers, they, too, had to be disbanded, and the valley was wholly abandoned.

On the 22d the two companies under Captains Goff and Williams, who succeeded Richards, mustering one hundred and seventy-five men, with a train of forty-five wagons and thirty-five pack-animals, in charge of Quartermaster Robie, marched from the Dalles, and on July 9 joined Shaw on Mill Creek, except a detachment of seventy-five men under Captain Goff, which left the train on the Umatilla to go to the assistance of Major Lupton, of the Oregon volunteers, who was in the presence of a force of the enemy in the Blue Mountains. Goff and Lupton followed the hostiles across the mountains, and on the 15th and 16th inflicted a sharp blow upon them on Burnt River.

Lieutenant-Colonel Craig, with a force of seventy-five Nez Perce volunteers under Spotted Eagle, marched from Lapwai and joined Shaw’s command, also on the 9th, so that the three columns, starting from points as widely divergent as Puget Sound, the Dalles, and Lapwai, all met in the valley on the same day. The Nez Perces gave assurances of the continued friendship of the tribe, and Robie proceeded with the train of Indian goods to their country under their escort alone.

Thus far Shaw had encountered no enemy in his march, the Yakimas being virtually protected by Colonel Wright and his parleyings, and the Cuyuses and Walla Wallas having left the valley; but learning that the hostiles were in the Grande Ronde valley in force, he determined to strike them. Moving by night by an unused trail across the Blue Mountains, guided by the faithful Nez Perce chief, Captain John, he encountered the enemy on the third day, July 17, in the open valley. Although taken by surprise, they received him in a defiant attitude; large numbers of braves, mounted and armed, and with a white scalp borne on a pole among them, confronted him, while the squaws were fleeing across the valley to seek refuge, and, on Captain John’s approaching them to parley, cried out to shoot him. Upon this, throwing off his hat, and with a shout, the tall, rawboned leader of the volunteers instantly charged at the head of his men, his long red hair and beard streaming in the wind, broke and scattered the Indians, chased them fifteen miles clear across the valley, killed forty, and captured a hundred pounds of ammunition, all their provisions, and over two hundred horses and mules, many of which bore the United States brand, and had been evidently run off from Wright’s and Rains’s commands. Shaw’s loss was only three killed and four wounded.

Having driven the hostiles beyond the Grande Ronde, and not having sufficient supplies to warrant pursuing them farther, Shaw returned to his camp in the Walla Walla.

Meanwhile Robie had been threatened and ordered out of the Nez Perce country by the disaffected portion of that tribe, and had returned by forced marches to the valley, but on learning of Shaw’s victory, and in answer to his message that “if they beat their drums for war, he would parade his men for battle,” the recusant chiefs again made professions of friendship. Lawyer and the majority of the tribe were unwavering in their friendship, but there were a considerable number who sympathized with their Cuyuse kindred, and repented having made the treaty, among whom Looking Glass, Red Wolf, Joseph, and Eagle-from-the-Light were leaders.

One of the first acts of Colonel Wright at the Dalles had been to release the Cuyuse war chief, Um-how-lish, whom the governor had captured and brought to that point, and to allow him to return to his people, accepting all his professions at par. Under this encouragement some of the friendly Cuyuses and the families of some of the hostiles had taken refuge among the Nez Perces, despite the governor’s refusal to permit them to go there. The very thing he apprehended occurred, viz., the disaffected and hostile Cuyuses, visiting their kindred with, and mingling among, the Nez Perces, had stirred up considerable disaffection in this hitherto faithful tribe. Moreover, the Yakima emissaries had assured the Nez Perces that the Spokanes were about to break out against the whites, and threatened them with the same treatment accorded the whites, unless they, too, would make common cause against the encroaching race. Lawyer and Craig, therefore, were sorely troubled to hold firm the wavering friendship of the disaffected part of the tribe, and had written the most urgent messages to the governor for assistance. Hence his great anxiety to have the Walla Walla valley held in force, and to get through to the Nez Perce country a train bearing supplies and encouragement to the faithful chiefs.

Shaw’s victory occurred most opportunely to restrain the disaffected, and both he and Craig represented that the moral effect of it was great and salutary upon them. The governor therefore decided to proceed in person to Walla Walla, and there hold a council with the Indians, in order to confirm the friendship of the Nez Perces and restrain the doubtful and wavering from active hostility. He directed Craig and Shaw to summon the hitherto friendly Indians, the Nez Perces, Spokanes, Cœur d’Alenes, and friendly Cuyuses, to the council; and also to send messengers to the hostiles, inviting them to attend it also, under the sole condition of submission to the government, requiring them to come unarmed, and assuring them of safe conduct to, at, and from the council. He took this course in order to give the hostiles every opportunity to give up the conflict and accept peace, if their minds were ripe for it, and also to refute the infamous charges of Wool and satisfy the doubts or scruples of other regular officers, by demonstrating his earnest wish to end the war and treat the hostiles with all possible leniency. To this end, on August 3 he wrote a pressing invitation to Colonel Wright to attend the council, recommended him to establish a permanent garrison in the Walla Walla valley, and requested a conference at the Dalles on the 14th of September.

The governor called out two hundred more volunteers to maintain the strength of Shaw’s command, whose term of enlistment was about to expire, for he deemed it indispensable to hold the Walla Walla valley.

Colonel Wright, acting on Wool’s theory of wronged and innocent Indians, had suffered himself to be completely deceived by the wily Yakimas, and had given open ear to their lying tales and treacherous professions, and, without striking a blow, or seizing a single murderer, or exacting any guaranty for future good behavior,—not even a promise to observe their treaty and allow whites to come into their country,—had concluded a quasi-peace with them. This was as great a victory for their diplomacy as Haller’s defeat was for their arms. It rendered Wright’s campaign utterly abortive, saved them from losses and punishment, recognized as valid their objections to the treaty and the presence of white settlers, and left Kam-i-ah-kan and his followers free to continue their machinations among the doubtful tribes, which they were actively carrying on.

While these wily Indians were thus beguiling Wright, they also tried their diplomacy on the authorities on the west side of the Cascades. In May Indian messengers from Ow-hi and Te-i-as—two of the most cunning and treacherous of the Yakima chiefs, the former second only to Kam-i-ah-kan, as well as foremost in bringing on the war—approached Colonel Simmons through friendly Indians, pretending a desire to make peace, and were sent to Olympia to the governor. After conversing with them, the latter was satisfied that they came only as spies and trouble-instigators, but directed them to return to the chiefs who sent them, bearing his invitation to all who wished to resume friendly relations to come with their women and children to the prairie above Snoqualmie Falls, and submit to the justice and mercy of the government; that only those guilty of murder and instigating the war would be punished, and all others would be pardoned and kindly treated, like the Indians on the reservations. At the same time he charged Colonel Fitzhugh, in connection with Colonel Simmons, with the mission of bringing about the surrender of the Indians in question in case they were acting in good faith. Three weeks later, June 20, Fitzhugh reported that his mission had turned out a perfect failure, that the governor was correct in his opinion, that the messengers only wanted to gain time and information, and added:—

Little did the cunning Ow-hi foresee the tragic fate that awaited him and his son, only two years later, at the hands of Colonel Wright.

Thus ingloriously was the war carried on, or rather paralyzed, by the regular forces in the upper country. The only blow inflicted upon the hostiles of that region during the year was struck by Shaw in the Grande Ronde, and the effect of that was dissipated by the subsequent behavior of Wool’s officers.

CHAPTER XL
THE FRUITLESS PEACE COUNCIL

It will be remembered that Colonel Wright, hugging his delusion and shutting his eyes to obvious facts, in April expressed the opinion that the hostile Cuyuses and Walla Wallas were “peaceably disposed” when declining to occupy the valley or furnish an escort for the Nez Perce train. The governor, by bringing him to attend the council and see and judge for himself, hoped to open his eyes to the real situation, and to induce him to take a more manly and aggressive course in case the Indians persisted in the war.

Accordingly, leaving Olympia August 11, Governor Stevens reached Vancouver on the 13th, and there met Colonel Wright, who informed him that he was unable to attend the council from pressure of other duties, but that he was dispatching a force of four companies of regulars under Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe in season to be present, and that the governor could rely upon that officer for support in case of need, an assurance not made good, and which involved him in no little personal peril.

As it was no longer necessary to maintain Shaw’s force in the valley, since the regulars were to occupy it, the governor now revoked his call for two hundred more volunteers.

Traveling together to the Dalles, the governor and Colonel Wright had repeated conferences en route, and at that point also met and conferred with Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, Major Lugenbeel, and Captain Jordan, with the result, as the governor supposed and reported to the Indian Bureau, of establishing “the most cordial and effective coöperation in all the measures taken to maintain the friendly relations of the tribes east of the mountains.” It is evident that Governor Stevens, by his personal ascendency over men, and the manifest wisdom and necessity of his measures, actually compelled these officers, like Lieutenant-Colonel Casey, to a degree of coöperation incompatible with Wool’s orders, and probably repugnant to their own prejudices. It is impossible, however, to acquit Wright and Steptoe of a lack of candor in concealing from the governor the real character of Wool’s instructions, and in leading him to expect their faithful coöperation and support. For not only had Wool positively forbidden anything of the kind, but had ordered them to disarm the volunteers, if they had sufficient force to do so, and expel them from the Indian country, as appeared from Wool’s orders when subsequently published by the government. He also ordered them to exclude American settlers from the entire upper country, but not to interfere with the Hudson Bay Company people, it being his intention to make the Cascade Range a scientific frontier to the settlements.

It is noteworthy that the officers of the 4th infantry, who garrisoned the country at and before the outbreak of the war,—Alvord, Rains, Haller, Maloney, Slaughter, and Nugen,—agreed perfectly with the territorial authorities and the people as to the causes of the outbreak, and were always ready to coöperate with them. It was Major Alvord who first detected and reported the existence of the Indian conspiracy, and Major Rains who called for the volunteers.

But the officers of the 9th infantry, like Wright and Casey, were new-comers in the country, bound by Wool’s orders, and prejudiced by his infamous slanders, and undoubtedly affected by professional jealousy. They were ready to ignore the territorial authorities, and to make peace by restraining the whites instead of punishing the hostile Indian aggressors. They prolonged the war east of the mountains and kept back the settlement of the country for two years, but at last the scales were torn from their eyes by stern experience; they realized how mistaken had been their views and fruitless their policy, and found themselves obliged to adopt the views of Governor Stevens and make war in earnest. Then, under the severe blows of Wright, the hostile tribes were finally punished and subdued, and permanent peace assured.

On the day after reaching Vancouver the governor held a council with a band of Klikitat Indians, at which Colonel Wright was present, and made arrangements for removing them temporarily to their original home east of the Cascades on the Klikitat River, with the view of placing them ultimately on the Yakima reservation. He informed Colonel Wright that he would receive and care for, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, any surrendered Indians, except the Sound murderers,—Leschi, Qui-e-muth, Nelson, Sta-hi, etc.,—to whom he had already cautioned him against granting amnesty. He now made formal requisition upon Colonel Wright for the surrender of these chiefs to be tried for their crimes, and notified him that he had forbidden the Indian agents to receive them on any reservation either east or west of the Cascades. He gave full and careful instructions on all these matters to the agents on the river,—Captain J. Cain, who had general charge of the Indians on the Columbia, Mr. Field at Vancouver, Mr. Lear at the Cascades, and the agent near the Dalles,—and made the necessary arrangements to meet all exigencies. This trip affords one of many examples of the governor’s untiring zeal and energy in the public service. In a single week he travels sixty miles on horseback, thirty in canoe, and forty by steamboat to Vancouver; holds a council with the Klikitats, and arranges for removing them from the settlements; instructs five Indian agents; revokes his call for volunteers; confers with Colonel Wright; demands of him the surrender of Indian murderers for punishment; travels eighty miles farther to the Dalles; and, by repeated conferences with Wright and his officers, secures their coöperation, as he has reason to believe. Moreover, he finds time to write the most clear and detailed reports to the Indian Bureau and to the Secretary of War.

Leaving the Dalles on the 19th, and pushing forward in advance of Steptoe with a train of thirty wagons drawn by eighty oxen, and two hundred loose animals, attended only by Pearson, and without escort except the employees, Governor Stevens reached Shaw’s camp in the valley on the 23d. On the evening of the 28th a small pack-train was captured by the Indians within a few miles of camp, the packers escaping on their horses without loss, after firing away all their ammunition. The governor was much chagrined at this, the only loss of animals or supplies suffered by his volunteers during the whole war, and in orders rebuked the parties whose negligence was responsible for the mishap, and concluded:

Craig and Dr. Lansdale, the latter the agent for the Flatheads, just down from the Bitter Root valley, arrived on the 30th with some of the Nez Perce chiefs. The next day agent Montour and Antoine Plante came in from the Spokanes and reported that, although the tribe professed a friendly disposition, they would not attend the council. Captain D.A. Russell (later major-general commanding 1st division, 6th corps, Army of the Potomac) with three companies marched from the Yakima to the Columbia, opposite old Fort Walla Walla, and, being without means of crossing, the governor sent him a wagon boat guarded by twenty volunteers, by means of which he ferried his command over the river. On the 5th Steptoe reached the valley, and went into camp four miles below the governor’s camp, his force, including Russell’s, consisting of four companies. The volunteers were therefore all started for the Dalles, their term of service expiring on the 8th, except Captain Goff’s company, which cheerfully consented to remain as a guard at the camp until relieved by the regulars.

Lawyer and the bulk of the Nez Perces arrived on the 6th, and encamped four miles above. A train of Indian goods under Robie reached the camp the next day. On the 8th the governor received the Nez Perce chiefs and headmen to the number of three hundred, after which he held a conference with the chiefs, and entertained them at dinner. Father A. Ravalli, of the Cœur d’Alene mission, arrived in the evening, bringing important information. Reports the governor:—

On the 9th provisions were issued to the Nez Perces. In the evening it was reported that a party of volunteers on their way to the Dalles were being attacked by the hostile Indians, and Colonel Shaw was dispatched to their assistance with all the volunteers in camp and a detachment of Nez Perces. This left the governor with only ten men, and as he expected to open the council the next day, and had a large quantity of Indian goods on the ground, he requested Steptoe to send a company of dragoons to the council ground as early as practicable. In notes to and conversation with him the governor had repeatedly requested him to camp at or near the council ground, in order “to show the Indians the strength of our people and the unity of our councils.” In sending the wagon boat to Captain Russell he made a similar request. He well knew that the pacific and parleying attitude of the regular officers had imbued the Indians with the idea that the regular troops were a different people from the settlers and volunteers. He wished to disabuse the Indians, and moreover a guard would be indispensable for the protection of his camp and supplies as soon as the last of the volunteers moved away. Wright’s assurances, and the cordial conferences with that officer and Steptoe, fully justified him in relying upon their support.

The next morning Colonel Steptoe moved his camp farther up the valley, and on his way called at the governor’s camp with a company of dragoons. The latter, supposing that, after his repeated request and the manifest necessity of the case, Steptoe would of course encamp near by, did not reiterate his request, and the regular officer continued his march and established his camp eight miles above the council ground, leaving it wholly unprotected. Fortunately Shaw, with his small force, returned in the afternoon, the rumored attack proving a false alarm, and reported having seen Stock Whitley, chief of the Des Chutes Indians, who said his people and the Cuyuses would come to the council that day. The opening of the council was postponed to the morrow. Later in the afternoon these Indians, with the Umatillas in large force, advanced mounted to within a short distance of camp, then, without any salutation or shaking hands, wheeled and moved off to the Nez Perce camp, where they partook of a feast prepared for them, after which they encamped just above their hosts. This demeanor, with the facts that they fired the prairie when coming in, and treated some members of the party with great insolence, was indicative of anything but a friendly spirit.

The governor now ordered the company of volunteers to march for the Dalles the next morning, and made a requisition on Colonel Steptoe for the presence of two companies of troops on the council ground, stating that the Cuyuses had all come in, and, as the volunteers were about to leave, it was essential to have a force on the ground to control the Indians. Incredible as it may seem, Steptoe refused, giving several lame excuses, and his real reason in the following pregnant sentence: “And permit me to say that my instructions from General Wool do not authorize me to make any arrangements whatever of the kind you wish.” As the governor requested no arrangements except that a regular force should camp near him to protect his council ground and show the Indians “the unity of our councils,” as he bore the President’s commission, and was charged by the government with the care of the Indians, this act shows to what length the malignity of Wool and the prejudices of a somewhat weak though well-meaning officer could extend. The fact was that these regular officers had idealized the Indians, accepting as true the falsehood of Kam-i-ah-kan, sympathized with the savages, and were “down” on the settlers and volunteers.

The governor learned for the first time from this note that Steptoe had moved his camp so far away, for he had taken it for granted that that officer had encamped near by. Therefore he retained Goff’s company of only sixty-nine men for the protection of the council, countermanding the order for it to march below in the morning. A portion of it was already one day’s march on their way down, but was immediately brought back.

The council was duly opened the next day, September 11, the chiefs of the Nez Perce, Cuyuse, Umatilla, John Day, and Des Chutes Indians being present. The governor expressed his sorrow at the state of hostilities,—reviewed the course of Kam-i-ah-kan, Pu-pu-mox-mox, and the hostiles in accepting their treaties, professing the utmost satisfaction with them, and then murdering whites traveling through their country and their agent, Bolon, plundering Fort Walla Walla, burning the houses of settlers, and threatening the lives of himself and party returning from the Blackfoot council. He had labored only for their good as their friend, and could they wonder that he was grieved at this state of affairs? The provisions of the treaties relating to punishments for offenses committed by Indians upon whites, or by whites upon Indians, were fully explained, and the fact stated that under the treaties they had bound themselves to deliver up the murderers. It was the law, and to that they must submit. Men were killed on both sides in battle, but that was not murder. But the Indians who killed their agent, Bolon, and others must be given up to be tried and punished by the law. He invited all Indians who desired peace to submit unconditionally to the justice and mercy of the government; the lives of all except the murderers should be safe. He spoke of the Indians of the Sound who had surrendered and been placed on reservations, fed, clothed, and protected, and treated not harshly, but with kindness. Few of the hostiles were present. Many conflicting rumors were current as to the whereabouts of Kam-i-ah-kan and other hostile chiefs.

The council continued the next day. The governor said that he had given his views in regard to the war and how it could be ended, that his words were intended for all the Indians of the country, and called upon them to express their minds. The Indians manifested a reluctance to speak, each seeming to wait for another. Several chiefs expressed sorrow that war existed, and hoped a peace might be made. Peeps, a hostile Cuyuse chief, said there was no haste, as Kam-i-ah-kan was coming, and they waited for him.

Wee-lap-to-leek, a hostile chief of the Tigh Indians, a band near the Dalles, said that the Indians were determined to have their country; they would bet it on a fight with the whites, and the winners should take it. He was indorsed by Camas-pello, former war chief of the Cuyuses.

Eagle-from-the-Light, the prominent Nez Perce chief, complained bitterly because a Nez Perce brave had been hanged in the valley last winter by the Oregon volunteers, and asserted that the man was guiltless. He was followed by others in the same strain.

The governor explained the laws of the whites in regard to spies, and that the executed Nez Perce was punished as one, and that he would speak further of the case the next day, after he had learned all the facts. He then adjourned the council, expressing the hope that Kam-i-ah-kan and Garry would be present the next day.

The Indians held councils in their camps all night. So hostile were the Cuyuses, Umatillas, Walla Wallas, and others, and so much did more than half of the Nez Perces sympathize with them, that the friendly Nez Perces danced the war-dance during the whole night. The lives of the friendly chiefs were threatened, and the great bulk of the Indians seemed simply to be waiting for the coming of Kam-i-ah-kan to fall upon the governor and his party. Some of the Indians were detected attending the council with arms under their blankets, and posting themselves near the governor and other members of the party; but although no open notice was taken of them, the redoubled vigilance of the volunteer guards gave no chance for their premeditated treachery.

Early the following morning the governor sent the following letter to Steptoe:—

While this letter was being dispatched the council reopened, and the governor took up the case of the Nez Perce spy, showed that he had joined Kam-i-ah-kan, taken presents from him, participated in burning settlers’ houses and in stirring up hostilities, and pointed out that Kam-i-ah-kan and his people were to blame for the death of this man, for they had caused the war, and but for them he would still have been living. He had visited and been arrested in the volunteer camp in time of war, and duly tried, convicted, and executed. Finally Red Wolf, to whose band the spy belonged, admitted that he committed the offense for which he was punished, and this ended all complaint.

Speaking Owl, a Nez Perce chief and the mouthpiece of Looking Glass, now spoke up and said, “Will you give us back our lands? That is what we all want to hear about; that is what troubles us. I ask plainly to have a plain answer.” The governor, in his report to the Indian Bureau, comments on this demand as follows:—

Timothy and James expressed a similar determination, but Joseph, Speaking Owl, Eagle-from-the-Light, and Red Wolf denied that they understood the treaty, or ever intended to give their land away, and declared that Lawyer had sold it unfairly. It appeared almost certain that no satisfactory peace could be made with the hostiles, and that one half of the Nez Perces, through the intrigues of Kam-i-ah-kan and the Cuyuses, had become disaffected and desirous of annulling their treaty.

In the afternoon a company of dragoons came with Steptoe’s answer to the governor’s dispatch of the morning:—

In view of the threatening attitude of the hostiles, and the approach of Kam-i-ah-kan, who was reported as encamped that day on the Touchet, only a few miles distant, as well as for the protection of the large quantity of Indian goods brought up for the friendly Nez Perces, and such of the hostiles as might surrender, the governor the next day moved his whole party and train to Steptoe’s camp, and established a new camp and council ground within a quarter of a mile of his encampment. They were met on the march by Kam-i-ah-kan and Ow-hi, with a party of one hundred warriors under the lead of Ow-hi’s son, Qualchen, who clearly meant mischief; but the coolness with which they were received, and the manifest readiness of the volunteers and dragoons for battle, checked them, and they made no disturbance save attempting to provoke a quarrel with the friendly Nez Perces in rear of the train. The Indians, having been notified in the morning of the change of council grounds, moved up to the new location the same day and the following. Kam-i-ah-kan and his followers encamped a quarter of a mile from the council ground, separated therefrom only by Mill Creek and its wooded bottom.

The council continued the next two days, the 16th and 17th. The Lawyer and half the Nez Perces were determined in their adherence to their treaty and ancient friendship to the whites, and approved of all the governor said. The other half of the tribe wished the treaty done away with. The hostiles all said, “Do away with all treaties, give us back our lands, let no white man come into our country, and there will be peace; if not, then we will fight.”

The governor advised the Nez Perces to stand by their treaty. It was now in the hands of the President, and could only be set aside by him. To the hostiles he repeated the terms of peace alone possible: they must throw aside their guns and submit to the justice and mercy of the government; but as they were invited under safe conduct, they were safe in coming, safe in council, and safe in going. The council was then declared at an end. Many of the friendly Nez Perces departed at once to their camp, but a large number of hostiles, most of whom it was observed had arms concealed beneath their blankets, remained loitering around the council ground. Noting the vigilance and readiness of the volunteers, they made no disturbance, and by nightfall all retired to their camps. On every day except the first, known braves of the hostiles came to the council armed to the teeth, and took positions evincing designs upon the life of the governor; but picked men watched them closely, ready to strike down any assailant at the first overt act, so no attempt was made.

During the night of the 16th there was great excitement among the Indians. The friendly Nez Perces were much alarmed, and brought frequent reports that the hostiles were bent upon attacking the camp, and wiping out the governor and his party. These faithful allies beat the drum all night, and kept guard around his camp.

The governor called attention especially to the speech of Spotted Eagle on the last day,—

The day after the conclusion of the council the governor made preparations for returning to the settlements. He decided to withdraw Craig temporarily from the Nez Perce country on the advice of the friendly chiefs, who feared he might be killed by Kam-i-ah-kan’s warriors as a means of embroiling the Nez Perces in war against the whites. Said the Spotted Eagle:—