this attempt at treaty making reads much like the accounts of others—the Indians did not want to leave their homes. "Our whole system of treaty making with these frontier Indians is wrong," says Swan. "They cannot be made to understand why the agents sent to them to make treaties are not empowered to close the bargain at once, instead of referring the matter back to Washington, and awaiting the tardy action of Government. Many of them had been at the treaty-making a few years before at the mouth of the Columbia, where Doctor Dart attempted to make a purchase of their lands; but he was so totally unfitted for the duties of the office that the treaty was instantly repudiated at Washington, and himself removed. But the Indians had acted in good faith. They told me that they did not offer their lands to Doctor Dart, but he told them he would give them a certain price, which they agreed to, and they could not understand why they did not get what they were told they would receive. Consequently, they regarded Doctor Dart and his treaties as humbugs and placed no more on what Governor Stevens told them than they had on Doctor Dart, when they found that the governor was also obliged to refer his treaties back to Washington, and that it might be possibly two years before they would be finally placed on the reservation." Governor Stevens now transferred his operations to the east side of the mountains. June 11th, after three weeks of negotiation, the governor and Gen. Joel Palmer, representing Oregon, concluded treaties with the Yakima, Walla Walla, Cayuse, Umatilla and Nez Perce tribes. From this council ground, near the present City of Walla Walla, the governor went into Montana where he made treaties with the Flatheads, Blackfoot and other tribes. Simmons, Shaw and others returned to the Sound from the Walla Walla council and July 1st were successful in concluding treaties with the Quinaielt and Quillayute tribes. In less than one year's time, Governor Stevens had made treaties with more than seventeen thousand Indians and in doing so had extinguished the Indian title to more than one hundred thousand square miles of land now making up much of the territory of the states of Washington, Idaho and Montana. Congress, in passing the Oregon Donation Land Law of 1850, "got the cart before the horse." Under this law each settler was granted 320 acres of land with an additional 320 acres to each settler's wife. How Congress, in the face of its policy of recognition of the possessory rights of Indian tribes to their lands, expected white settlers to take and retain possession of their donation claims, remains a mystery. With millions of acres lying idle, and plenty of room for both whites and Indians, the early settlers on the Sound encountered no opposition from their Indian neighbors-in fact the Indians were glad of the opportunity of getting white man's food, clothing and implements. More settlers came and the Indians began to feel the pressure of this constantly increasing swarm. Soldiers and renegade whites imposed upon the Indian, swindled him, abused his women and introduced diseases that threatened to exterminate the race. The first Legislature asked Congress to provide for the surveying of the donation claims held by the settlers. The Government then tried to get the horse into his normal position-ahead of the cart-by instructing the governor to extinguish the Indian title to the land. The governor, in carrying out these instructions, added to that "vague unrest" which always precedes an uprising of a people-barbarian or civilized-who feel themselves imposed upon. Even before the governor left for Washington in March, 1854, and almost one year before the signing of his first treaty, this unrest was showing on the surface. It had existed, to a greater or less extent, from the very day the first settler cut the first tree for the first cabin. The War of 1855-56 might well be called a continuation of the Cayuse war of 1847-the culmination of a series of events, the climax of the contest between ignorance and enlightenment, between barbarism and progress, the natural result of the evolutionary processes of civilization. The land could not remain in an undeveloped state-the hunting ground of a roving band of primitive people—it must yield itself to the higher demands of a higher type of humanity. The regrettable thing about it is that the original owners were treated unjustly by civilization. Governor Stevens was the able agent of an advantagetaking government. Not a free agent, but one willing to drive a hard bargain for his employer. CHAPTER XV LESCHI'S ORATORY EMPLOYED TO STIR REDS AGAINST WHITES-GOVERNOR, foresee- Leschi, when he tore into fragments his commission as sub-chief, trampled the pieces into the earth of the Medicine Creek council ground and left for his home, threw down the gauntlet of war before Governor Stevens. Leschi's tribesmen knew this action meant war. Many years afterward old Pa-al-la told Ezra Meeker: "Leschi tear up paper; I saw him do it, and then I knew he would fight." Many of the Indians knew it would be a losing fight, that the "whites get big guns; lots of ammunition" and that even if the Indians killed all the soldiers, more would come. Under the influence of the able Leschi's oratory they decided to make a last stand for the protection of their homes and hunting grounds. "The first and last of the Stevens treaties were apparently the immediate cause of the war that followed," says Thomas Prosch, "for the Indians affected by them were the ones that entered upon it, while the Indians affected by other treaties generally abstained, though the terms of the treaties were substantially alike." That Governor Stevens feared the treaties would bring trouble with the Indians is perhaps shown by a letter written to Secretary of War Davis August 15, 1854, while the governor was in Washington, D. C., and in which he said: "Arms and ammunition are much needed on Puget Sound, in order that the settlers may protect themselves from Indian depredations. The militia of the territory has not yet been organized, though efficient steps to this end will be taken the coming winter. If under these circumstances arms and ammunition can be issued, I will request that it may be done without delay. I will suggest that 1,000 stand of arms and 100,000 cartridges, with a few revolvers, be placed in depot at Fort Steilacoom, in charge of the commandant, subject to the requisition of the government of the territory." Davis replied that the law would not permit his granting the request. Vol. I-10 Although the governor did not at the time know it, the storm already had broken in the Northwest. August 22d, just seven days after the writing of the letter, the Ward train of immigrants was attacked about twenty-five miles east of Fort Boise by a band of sixty Indians. Eight men were killed, the women ravished, then killed in the most brutal manner and some of the little children were burned alive. On the Sound Captain Jewel and another man were murdered by the Clallams, and M. T. Simmons took the field against them. Indian camps on Hoods Canal were destroyed by the revenue cutter Jeff Davis, a number of Clallams were taken prisoners and others killed by cannon shots. At the time Governor Stevens concluded the Medicine Creek treaty, the total military force on the Pacific coast numbered but 1,200 men. Of these only 335 were stationed in Washington and Oregon. News of the dissatisfaction felt by the Nisquallies spread to other tribes, until by the time the governor was ready to take up the treaties with the Indians on the eastern side of the mountains, every tribe from the California line to British Columbia and from the ocean to the Rocky Mountains was ready to meet all treaty-making advances with suspicion. Weeks were spent on the Walla Walla council ground; many speeches were made and one attempt to kill the governor and his party was defeated only because Chief Lawyer, of the Nez Perce tribe, in the night, moved his family into the governor's camp. So quickly and quietly was it done that only a few, even of the governor's men, knew of it, and when morning came the murderous Yakimas, Cayuses, Walla Wallas and Umatillas saw that to carry out their plans they would have to risk the chance of spilling the blood of the powerful Nez Perce chief. Pretending to be satisfied with the treaty, they marched up and signed their names. R. R. Thompson was appointed agent of the Umatilla reservation; W. H. Tappan to the Nez Perce, and A. J. Bolon to the Yakima. The Indians retired to their homes to await the payments of money which the governor had promised as soon as the treaties could be confirmed by Congress. Then Governor Stevens set out for the Blackfoot country. About this time Washington and Oregon became much excited by the reported discovery of gold on the sandbars of the creeks and rivers of the Colville country and many men left their work and their homes for the "diggings." Charles Walker, L. O. Merilet, J. C. Avery, Eugene Barier and a Mr. Jamieson went from Seattle through the Snoqualmie Pass into the Yakima country where they found unmistakable evidences of the murder of O. M. Eaton and Joseph Fanjoy, King County men who had preceded them. The miners met a party of Yakima Indians who not only pretended friendship but offered to put them on the trail to the mines. Upon the pretense of showing them this trail the Indians induced Jamieson and Walker to leave the camp and go with them. Hearing shooting from the direction in which their companions had gone, Merilet, Avery and Barier rightly concluded Jamieson and Walker had been led into ambush and murdered. They hid in the woods and made their way back to Seattle. Sub-Agent Bolon, on his way with supplies for Governor Stevens met Chief Garry, of the Spokane tribe, who told him of the murders committed by the Yakimas. Bolon set out alone for the Catholic Mission on the Ahtanum where he met Kamiakan, chief and leading warrior of the Yakima tribe. What took place at this meeting is not known. Bolon left the mission accompanied by Qual |