# The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811–1912/Volume 1/Chapter 14

CHAPTER XIV
1847-1855
The most appalling horror in the history of Oregon and equal in demoniac savagery to anything in the history of the entire country was the unprovoked massacre of Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, and twelve other persons at the Whitman missionary station in Walla Walla valley on November 29-30, 1847. And while there was not the sickening ferocity of burning at the stake which has in past times attended the deadly strife between competing races and rival creeds, yet that element of diabolical depravity was more than equaled in the fact that the victims of this bloody deed were purely, honestly and patiently sacrificing their lives to benefit and lift up the savages that struck them down.
The actual facts of the bloody deed are briefly stated. During the forenoon of the day on which the massacre was executed Dr. Whitman assisted at the funeral of an Indian who had died during his visit to the Umatilla, and was struck with the absence of the tribe, many of whom mounted, were riding about, and giving no attention to the burial; but as there had been a slaughter of beef which was being dressed in the mission yard, an occasion which always drew the Indians about, the circumstances was in part at least accounted for. School was in session, several men and boys were absent at the saw-mill near the foot of the mountains; the women were employed with the duties of housekeeping and nursing the sick, and all was quiet as usual, when Whitman fatigued with two nights' loss of sleep entered the common sitting-room of his house and sat down before the fire to rest thinking such thoughts as—Ah! who will say?
While he thus mused, two chiefs, Tiloukaikt and Tamahas, surnamed "The Murderer," from his having killed a number of his own people, presented themselves at the door leading to an adjoining room, asking for medicines, when the doctor arose and went to them, afterward seating himself to prepare the drugs. And now the hour had come! Tamahas stepped behind him, drew his tomahawk from beneath his blanket, and with one or two cruel blows laid low forever the man of God. John Sager, who was in the room prostrated by sickness, drew a pistol, but was quickly cut to pieces. In his struggle for life he wounded two of his assailants, who, at a preconcerted signal had with others crowded into the house. A tumult then arose throughout the mission. All the men encountered by the savages were slain. Some were killed outright; others were bruised and ​mangled and left writhing back to consciousness to be assailed again until after hours of agony they expired. Dr. Whitman himself lived for some time after he had been stricken down, though insensible. Mrs. Whitman, although wounded, with Rogers and a few others also wounded, took refuge in an upper room of the dwelling, and defended the staircase with a gun, until persuaded by Tamsucky who gained access by assurances of sorrow and sympathy, to leave the chamber, the savages below threatening to fire the house. On her way to the mansion house, where the terror stricken women and children were gathered, she fainted on encountering the mangled body of her husband, and was placed upon a wooden settee by Rogers and Mrs. Hays, who attempted to carry her in this condition through the space between the houses; but on reaching the outer door they were surrounded by savages who instantly fired upon them, fatally wounding Rogers, and several balls striking Mrs. Whitman, who, though not dead, was hurled into a pool of water and blood on the ground. Not satisfied with this, Ishalhal, who had formerly lived in Gray's family, and who had fired the first shot at her before she escaped to the chamber from which Tamsucky treacherously drew her, seized her long auburn hair, now blood-stained and disheveled, and lifting up the head happily unconscious, repeatedly struck the dying woman's face with a whip, notwithstanding which life lingered for several hours.
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The course of Whitman as a man of common apprehension, as the head of a family, and the manager of the mission is difficult to explain. Dr. McLoughlin had warned him of his danger, had called his attention to the fickle character of the Indian and explained to him that the Indians would on occasion kill their own "medicine" men. The honest old Indian friend, Sticcus, whom Col. Nesmith pronounced the only Christian Indian he ever met, had warned Rev. Spalding, and told him that the Indians had decided against the Americans. Whitman and Spalding were bosom friends and Whitman knew all that Spalding knew. Many other intimations had come to Whitman, and it was plain that the Doctor and his wife were in great trouble from great peril. Then why did he not secretly send off a courier to the Willamette valley for a guard to come to his relief? He could have got it for the asking. His course revealed a strange weakness or fatuity of conduct that cannot be explained.
Why did the Indians murder their friend? Three explanations were promiment in the great excitement of the times sixty-five years ago. First, that Dr. Whitman had given poison to the Indians sick with the measles which had been brought into the country and communicated to the Indians by the American immigrants of that year; and for that many Indians had died. Secondly, that the Americans were going to take all the good lands from the Indians and pay them nothing. Thirdly, that the Indians had been incited to the bloody deed ​
by the Hudson's Bay Co. and Catholic priests. The Indians engaged in the mas- sacre themselves put forward the first excuse, even talking of it among them- selves, as proven afterwards, before the murders were committed. A chief named Tamsueky took the lead in this part of the eonspirac}'. Tamsucky 's squaw was sick, and it was agreed among the conspiring Indians to test the medicine proposition. They would give the sick squaw some of Whitman's medicine, and if she got well then the medicine was not poison; but if she died, then it was poison, and Whitman must be killed. They gave the woman the medicine and she died ; then the massacre was decided upon and brutally executed.
As to the land taking excuse, there is no doubt that it had the effect to break do^^Ti the influence of Whitman and alienate the Indians from him. They saw thousands of Americans coming every year. The first large immigration — 1843 — had been brought by or come in with Whitman himself, returning from the states that year. And every succeeding year the Americans came in in- creasing numbers and many of them stopped to see Whitman as a friend. There were also at that time twenty or thirty Iroquois Indians in Oregon, one a half- breed, Joe Lewis was staying at the Whitman mission. These were all enemies of the Americans and were continually poisoning the Indian mind against the Americans by telling the Indians the white men had robbed all the Indians be- yond the mountains of their lands, and that they would do likewise in Oregon and that their only safety was to kill off all the whites before any more came over. This had a powerful influence, and all the prejudice concentrated against the victim Whitman.
As to the position of the Hudson's Bay Co. there never was any reasonable grounds to suppose the ofiScials of that company had in any way connived at the murder of Whitman. McBean, the officer nearest to the Whitman station, acted in a very selfish and heathenish manner towards the escaping Americans; but that was accounted for by his general meanness of character as a man. Mc- Loughlin, Ogden, and all others but McBean made common cause with tlie Americans in denouncing the outrage and in rescuing the unfortunate pri* oners in the hands of the Indians. As to the Catholics, the Indians well knew of the difference between and the strife between the Catholics and Protestants: and like all the little-minded of mankind they doubtless thought thej^ would secure the favor of the Catholics by killing off the Protestants.
If the golden rule or any other of the generally accepted precepts of the Christian religion had been observed by the Catholic priests in their propaganda of Christianity among the Indians, they would have left Whitman alone in the mission he had founded with gi-eat labor and personal sacrifice. If they had done so the massacre would in all reasonable probability not have been executed. There were thousands of Indians in widely separated fields where each sectarian could have exercised their labors and righteous purposes without intruding the one upon the other. And if such non-aggi-essive policy had been pursued each mis- sionary would have had greater influence over the Indians and effected a greater measure of good works for the heathen, and at the same time safe-guarded the lives of those who trusted to the good will of the natives. So far as is known the Catho- lic missionaries did not in any way antagonize the Indians or condemn the mur- ders of Whitman and his family. And in return for such course the Catholics were in no wise molested or inconvenienced by the Indians. In the bitter feeling ​
which arose out of these atrocious murders, eertaiu Protestants undertook to prove by the Indiaus themselves that the Indians had been urged to murder Whit- man by the Catholic priest Father Brouillet; and the statements of the In- dians were taken upon that point; but the charge could never get any other support than the statement of the rascal Joe Lewis (Indian) who said the priests told him Whitman was giving poison to the Indians to kill them off. And after this question was raised, Chief Umhowlish, a friend and believer in Whitman, and other Indians of good character investigated the report among the Indians, and none could be found that ever heard Brouillet make such a statement but Joe Lewis — who was not worthy of belief. But this investi- gation among the Indians uncovered the statements made by Brouillet to a number of Indians, that "Dr. Whitman was a bad man, and if they believed what he told them they would all go to hell, for he was telling them lies." And such a statement as this to unreasoning passionate savages, agitated by the death of their children, was in itself enough to precipitate a massacre.
THE MASSACRE AND THE 11. B. CO.
News of the massacre reached Fort Vancouver seven days after the event by a special messenger sent by McBean, Hudson Bay Co. 's agent at Walla Walla. James Douglas-, Chief Factor of the Company, immediately sent off a special messenger to Oregon City to notify Governor Aberuethy of the Provisional Gov- ernment; and then, without waiting to see what the Americans would do, Peter Skene Ogden, an old and influential factor of the Company, started im- mediately from Vancouver with an armed party determined to rescue the un- fortunate prisoners in the hands of the Indians. In this expedition Ogden ex- hibited his energy and ability iu a most extraordinary manner. Knowing the horrors the unfortunate white women must suffer he pushed through night and day until he reached the wrecked and ruined Whitman Mission, beiug only seven days on the road iu the winter season. On reaching Walla Walla Ogden sent our couriers to all the chiefs and Indians having any of the captives in their possession demanding an immediate council, within four days.
This summons from Ogden whom the Indians knew to be the "Big Medicine" fighting man of the Hudson 's Bay Company, aroused intense excitement at once among all the Indians, of the Cayuse and Nez Perces tribes. For while the Nez Perces had no part in the murders they were fearful of the consequences of arousing the Americans to the fighting point, and did not want an armed force sent into their counti-y. And here is seen some shrewd diplomacy, showing that though the Indian may be stupid in some things, and his religion very much of a cloak to get favors out of the white man, yet when it comes to saving his neck he is quite as smart as his white bi'other. Their first move was to seize Rev. Spalding, friend of the murdered Whitman, and hold him prisoner as a hostage for peace. Then they compelled Spalding to write a letter to Catholic Vicar General Blanchet telling him the "Nez Perces wished the Americans to be on friendly terms with the Cayuses and not come into their country to pun- ish them for the mui'der of Whitman ; giving as a i-eason that the Cayuses had forgiven the killing of a son of Cayuse Chief Peu-peu mox-mox in California, for which the killing of thirteen Americans was no more than a reasonable ​
offset." Further, they impressed Spalding with the threat that if he did not arrange the settlement the Indians wanted they would kill him, too. Blanchet was instructed to convey all this information to the Hudson's Bay Company, and to Governor Abernethy, which the Vicar General did.
But when Ogden suddenly appeared on the scene with his fighting men, and called all the Chiefs together at the house of Bishop Blanchet the whole scheme was gone over again, and the influence of the Bishop earnestly sought to protect the Cayuses. Matters began to look serious for the murdering Cayuses ; and Camaspelo, a Nez Perce chief of high rank, made a long plea to the Bishop for his aid to keep back the Americans. Blanchet informed him that peace might be hoped for, but all the chiefs must meet Ogden and make a clean breast of the whole business. The Bishop's house was packed full of Indians, big chiefs and sub-chiefs. Camaspelo opened the council with a speech deprecat- ing the ignorance and blindness which caused him to despair of the life of his people. He was followed by Chief Tiloukaikt who confessed that the mission- aries had given them teaching for their good ; but wound up by recounting the death of their chief who accompanied Gray in 1837 ; and to the death of Elijah in California, endeavoring to found an excuse for what had been done, hoping the Americans would consider these things, and call it square. Then Edward the son of Tiliukaikt made a speech bringing forward the charge of Joe Lewis that Whitman had poisoned the Indians; and then sprung a surprise on the whole council by showing a blood stained "Catholic Ladder," which he de- clared had been shown to the Indians by Whitman, with the remark: "You see this blood! it is to show you that now, because you have priests among you, the country is going to be covered with blood ; ' ' thus placing all the blame for trouble on the Catholics. Then the Indians submitted their ultimatum, asking, "first that the Americans should not go to war with the Cayuses; sec- ond, that they should forget the murder of Whitman and the others, and the Cayuses will forget the murder of the chief's son in California; that two or three great Americans come up to Walla Walla and make a peace; that then after making the peace the Americans may take away with them all the women and children and other prisoners ; that thereafter no more Americans shall pass through the Cayuse country for fear their young men may do them harm. ' '
Peter Skene Ogden had now the whole Indian scheme before him, which was substantially — we will keep, torture, outrage and kill these prisoners at our will and pleasure unless you make this peace with us. Their relations with the Fur Company had been pleasant and profitable for many years, and they expected Ogden to take up their views and champion their cause. Never were savage men more mistaken. Ogden knew the Indian character through and through. He knew it was to be his own stern, unyielding will against 5,000 Indians. He was a man that no power could bluff ; and rising to the full dig- nity of his magnificent manhood, he delivered to the assembled chiefs the fol- lowing vigorous speech :
"We have been with you for thirty years without the shedding of blood; we are traders and of a different nation from the Americans. But recollect; we supply yoia with ammunition, not to kill Americans, who are of the same color, speak the same language, and worship the same God as ourselves, and
robbed the Americans jiassing through your country, and have insulted their women. If you allow your young men to govern you, I say you are not men, or chiefs, but women who do not deserve the name. Your hot-headed young men plume themselves on their bravery; but let them not deceive themselves. If the Americans begin war, they will have cause to repent their rashness ; for the war will not end until every man of you is cut from the face of the earth ; I am aware that many of your people have died ; but so have others. It was not Dr. Whitman who poisoned them; but God who commanded that they should die. You have the opportunity to make some reparation. I give you only ad- vice and promise you nothing should war be declared against you. The Fur Company has nothing to do with your quarrel. If you wish it, on my return I will see what can be done for you ; but I do not promise to prevent war. Deliver to me the prisoners you hold to deliver them to their friends, and I will pay you a ransom, and that is all I -^dll do."
The white man had brushed aside all their excuses, and all their scheming was for nothing. The determined vnll of one man towered above them as an im- movable mountain. They yielded at once; accepted the ransom offered, of blankets, clothing and a few guns and delivered all the prisoners to Ogden who safely delivered them to Governor Abernethy at Oregon City in ten days there- after. The murderers were not given up by their tribesmen and were not arrested until Governor Lane came into office under the Territorial Government and then five Indians participating in the bloody deed were tried, and con- victed, and hung by United States Marshal Sleek at Oregon City on June 3, 1850, four of them confessing to the murders before the execution, and the fifth admitting that he was present at the murdering, but claimed he took no part in it.
THE SEQUEL
Saving and excepting the organization of the Provisional Government, no single act in the history of the state was ever followed by so many exciting in- fluences as the murder of Marcus Whitman. First, it practically broke up and an- nihilated all missionary efforts to teach and convert the Indians to Christianity for a space of twenty years thereafter. Second, it precipitated an Indian war, and planted- the leaven of hatred and enmity that resulted in wars and bloody reprisal from both sides that sacrificed hundreds of lives and wasted millions of dollars in property loss and military expense. Third, it planted sectarian animosities between professedly Christian peoples that are active and unrelent- ing to this day. Fourth, it proved the substantial value and vital force of the Provisional Government which could and did organize an army and defend the people. Fifth, it hastened the action of the United States Congress to organize Oregon into a Territorial Government under the care and protection of the United States. Sixth, it showed most effectively that the elevation of the native race was not and could not be the work of an evanescent religious en- thusiasm carried on by unreliable contributions of kind hearted church mem- bers; but must be a work of evolution developed and carried out under the certain and reliable support of the National Government which would guaranty ​peace and security to the Indian while teaching him useful arts from generation to generation. To sum up and express the underlying principle of this thought, the writer will quote a sentiment uttered by the Rev. Elkanah Walker, who had spent ten years in teaching Indians on the Spokane river from 1837 to 1847. Mr. Walker preached his last sermon in this life at the little union church at Gaston, Oregon; during the course of which he referred to his experience among the Indians, and closed his address with this remark: "It will take a long, long, long time to make a white man out of an Indian, but it takes but a very brief time to make an Indian or.t of a white man."
THE INDIAN WARS
It is impracticable to include in this history the long and tedious account of the Indian wars of Oregon. The narrative would crowd out other and more important matter. And whilst the personal experiences of beleaguered settlers, the courage of reckless Indian fighters, and the hair-breadth escapes from savage brutality would be to many readers interesting in some ways, yet it would not teach any useful lesson. But leading examples of the Indian war game will be given, which will fully illustrate the whole period of the wars; and important battles upon which depended the fate of the dying Indian tribes and confederacies will be given.
The Whitman Massacre was the opening chapter of seven years of more or less uninterrupted warfare with the Indian tribes of Oregon. The first call for men to punish the Cayuses for the murder of Whitman and safeguard the immigration to Oregon was made by Governor Abernethy of the Provisional government. The news of the massacre reached Oregon City on December 8th after the horrible deed, being communicated to the governor by a letter from Fort Vancouver carried by a special messenger. That night a meeting was called for volunteers to go to the Dalles and defend that Mission and stop any marauding party that might attempt to descend the Columbia and attack the white settlers. The meeting resulted in a volunteer company of forty-five men, who adopted the name of "Oregon Rifles" as the name of their organization. Most of the men had their own rifles, but those who lacked arms were furnished by Dr. McLoughlin on their own credit. H. A. G. Lee was made captain; J. Magone, 1st lieutenant; and John E. Ross, 2nd lieutenant. This being the first military force called in to existence to defend the infant state of Oregon, the names of all these brave men going out to defend their homes and the homes of their neighbors and furnishing their own arms and rations without pay, deserve to be mentioned here as "The First Defenders" and have their names recorded here as follows:
Joseph B. Proctor, George Moore, W. M. Carpenter, J. S. Rinearson, H. A. G. Lee, Thomas Purvis, J. Magone, C. Richardson, J. E. Ross, I. Walgamoutts, John G. Gibson, B. B. Rogers, Benj. Bratton, Samuel K. Barlow, Wm. Berry, John Lassater, John Bolton, Henry W. Coe, William Beekman, Nathan Olney, Joel Witchey, John Fleming, John Little, A. J. Thomas, Geo. Westby, Edward Robson, Daniel P. Barnes, J. Kestor, D Everest, J. H. McMillen, Jno. C. Danford, Ed. Marsh, Joel McKee, H. Levalley, J. W. Morgan, 0. Tupper, R. S. Tupper, ​C. H. Devendorf, John Finner, C. W. Savage, Shannon, G. H. Bosworth, Jacob Johnson, Stephen Cummings, Geo. Weston.
As forty-five men could not make war upon the powerful tribe of the Cayuses, or do more than hold the "pass" at The Dalles, as the Greeks had the Thermopylae "in the brave days of old," Governor Abernethy submitted the exigency to the Provisional Legislature then in session; which at once took up the weighty matter and passed laws providing for an army of fourteen companies with Field, Staff and Line officers as follows:
Colonel, Cornelius Gilliam (accidentally killed). Lieutenant-Colonel, James Waters (promoted to Colonel). Major, H. A. G. Lee.
Adjutant, B. F. Burch.
Surgeon, W. M. Carpenter.
Assistant Surgeons, P. Snyder and H. Saffaraus. Commissary, Joel Palmer.
Quartermaster, Berryman Jennings. Paymaster, L. B. Knox.
Judge Advocate, Jacob S. Rinearson. Company A—55 men—Captain, Lawrence Hall; "First Lieutenant, Hugh D. O'Bryant; Second Lieutenant, John Engent.
Company B—43 men—Captain, John W. Owens; First Lieutenant, A. F. Rogers; Second Lieutenant, T. C. Shaw.
Company C—84 men—Captain, H. J. G. Maxon; First Lieutenant, I. N. Gilbert; Second Lieutenant, Wm. P. Pugh.
Company D— 36 men—Captain, Thomas McKay; First Lieutenant, Charles McKay; Second Lieutenant, Alex. McKay.
Company D—52 men—Captain, Phil F. Thompson; First Lieutenant, Jas. Brown; Second Lieutenant, Joseph M. Garrison.
Company E—44 men—Captain, Levi N. English; First Lieutenant, Wm. Shaw; Second Lieutenant, F. M. Munkers.
Company E—36 men—Captain, Wm. Martin; First Lieutenant, A. E. Garrison; Second Lieutenant, David Waters.
Company E—63 men—Captain, W. P. Pugh; First Lieutenant, N. R. Doty; Second Lieutenant, Maxwell Ramsby. Company G—66 men—Captain, James W. Nesmith; First Lieutenant, J. S. Snook; Second Lieutenant, M. Gilliam. Company H—49 men—Captain, George W. Bennett; First Lieutenant, J. R. Bevin; Second Lieutenant, J. R. Payne.
Company I—36 men—Captain, William Shaw; First Lieutenant, D. Crawford; Second Lieutenant, B. Dario.
Company No. 7—27 men—Captain, J. M. Garrison; First Lieutenant, A. E. Garrison; Second Lieutenant, John Hersen. F. S. Water's Guard—57 men—Captain, Wm. Martin; First Lieutenant, David Weston; Second Lieutenant, B. Taylor.
Reorganized Company—Captain, John E. Ross; First Lieutenant, D. P. Barnes; Second Lieutenant, W. W. Porter. ​The following brief of the operations of Colonel Gilliam is taken from Himes' History of the Willamette Valley:
"Colonel Gilliam reached The Dalles on the twenty-third of February, with fifty men, followed a few days later by the remainder of the regiment. On the twenty-seventh he moved to the Des Chutes with one hundred and thirty men, crossed to the east bank, and sent Major Lee up that stream about twenty miles on a reconnoisance, where he found the enemy, engaged them, killed one, lost some of his horses and returned to report progress. On the twenty-ninth Colonel Gilliam moved up to the Des Chutes to Meek's Crossing, at the mouth of the canyon in which Major Lee had met the Indians. The next morning, on entering the canyon, a skirmish followed, in which were captured from the hostiles, forty horses, four head of cattle and $300 worth of personal property, all of which was sold by the Quartermaster for $1,400. The loss of the Indians in killed and wounded was not known. There was one white man wounded. The result was a treaty of peace with the Des Chutes Indians. The command pushed immediately forward to the Walla Walla country and reached the Mission prior to March 4. On the way to that place a battle occurred at Sand Hollow, on the emigrant road, eight miles east of the Well Springs. It commenced on the plain where washes in the sand made natural hiding places for a foe, and lasted until towards night.' The volunteer force was arranged with the train in the road, protected by Captain Hall's company. The companies of Captain Thompson and Maxon, forming the left flank, were on the north side of the road, and those of Captains English and McKay, as the right flank, were on the south, or right side of the command. Upon McKay's company at the extreme right the first demonstration was made. Five Crows, the head chief of the Cayuses, made some pretentions to the possession of wizard powers, and declared to his people that no ball from the white man's gun could kill him. Another chief of that tribe named 'War Eagle,' or 'Swallow Ball,' made similar professions, and stated that he could swallow all the bullets from the guns of the invading army if they were fired at him. The two chiefs promised their people that Gilliam's command should never reach the Umatilla river, and to demonstrate their invulnerability and power as medicine chiefs, they dashed out from concealment, rode down close to the volunteers and shot a little dog that came out to bark at them. Captain McKay, although the order was not to fire, could hold back no longer, and bringing his rifle to bear, took deliberate aim and shot War 'Eagle through the head, killing him instantly. Lieutenant Charles McKay brought his gun down to the hollow of his arm, and firing without sighting it, so severely wounded Five Crows that he gave up the command of his warriors. This was a serious, chilling opening for the Indians—two chiefs gone at the first onset and their medicine proved worthless—but they continued to battle in a skirmishing way, making dashing attacks and masterly retreats until late in the afternoon. At one time during the engagement. Captain Maxon's company followed the enemy so far that it was surrounded, and a sharp encounter followed, in which a number of volunteers were disabled, in fact, eight of the eleven soldiers wounded that day were of Maxon's company. Two Indians were known to have been killed, but the enemy's loss could not be known as they removed all their wounded and dead except two.
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liitliaiis built large ami iiuiiiorous fires along tiie blulYs, or high lauds, some two miles iu advance. The next day Colonel Gilliam moved on, and without inci- dent worthy of note, reached Whitman's mission, the third day after the battle. The main body of Indians fell back towards Snake river, and a fruit- less attempt followed to induce them to give up the parties who had committed the murders at Waiilatpu. Colonel Gilliam at last determined upon making a raid into the Snake river country, and in carrying out this programme sur- prised a camp of Cayuses near that stream, among whom were some of the mur- derers. The captured camp professed friendship, however, and pointed out the horses of Indians on the hill, which they said belonged to the parties whom the Colonel was anxious to kill or capture, stating that their owners were on the north side of the Snake river and beyond reach. So well was their part acted that the officers believed their statements, proceeded to drive ofE the stock indicated, and started on their return. They soon found that a grievous error had been made in releasing the village, whose male population was soon mounted upon war horses, and assailed the volunteers on all sides, forcing them to fight their way as they fell back to the Touchet river. Through the whole day and even into the night after their arrival at the latter stream the contest was maintained — a constant harrassiug skirmish. The soldiers drove the Indians back again and again, but as soon as the retreat was resumed, the enemy were upon them once more. Finally, after going into camp on the Touchet, Colonel Gilliam ordered the captured stock turned loose ; and when the Indians got possession of it, they returned to Snake river without molesting the command any further. In the struggle on the Touchet, when the retreating soldiers first reached that stream. William Taylor was mortally wounded by an Indian who sprang up in the flushes by the stream and fired with but a few yards between them. Nathan Olney, afterwards Indian agent, seeing the act, rushed upon the savage, snatched from his hand a war club in which was fastened a piece of iron, and dealt him a blow on the head with it with such force as to cause the iron to split the club, and yet failed to kill him. He then closed with his antagonist in a hand-to-hand strug- gle, and soon ended the contest with a knife. There were no other casualties re- ported.
"Colonel Gilliam started from the Mission on the twentieth of March, with a small force destined to return from The Dalles with supplies, while he was to con- tinue to the Willamette and report to the governor. While camped at Well Springs he was killed by an accidental discharge of a gun, and his remains were taken to his friends west of the Cascades by Major Lee. This officer soon returned to his regiment with a commission as Colonel, but finding Lieutenant-Colonel Waters had been elected by the regiment to that position in his absence, he re- signed and filled a subordinate office, for the remainder of his term of enlistment. The attempt by commissioners, who had been sent with the volunteers, as re- quested by the Indians in a memorial to the Americans at the time the captives were ransomed, to negotiate a peaceful solution of the difficult problem, failed. They wanted the Indians to deliver up for execution all those who had imbued their hands in blood at Waiilatpu ; they wished the Cayvises to pay all damages to imigrants caused by their being robbed or attacked while passing through the Cayuse country. The Indians wished nothing of the kind. They wanted peace and to be let alone; for the Americans to call the account balanced and ​drop the
matter. The failure to agree had resulted in two or three skirmishes, one of them at least a severe test of strength, in which the Indians had received the worst of it, and in the other the volunteers had accomplished nothing that could be accounted a success. The Cayuses, finding that no compromise could be ef- fected, abandoned their country, and most of them passed east of the Rocky mountains. Nothing was left for the volunteers but to leave the country also, which they did, and the Cayuse War had practically ended.
' ' The Cayuses, as a tribe, had no heart in the war, Joe Lewis told them imme- diately after the massacre that now they must fight, and advised them to send him to Salt Lake with a band of horses, to trade for ammunition with the Mormons. He started with a select band of animals, accompanied by two young braves; and a few days later one of them returned with the intelligence that Joe Lewis had killed his companion and decamped with the horses; and this was the last the Cayuses saw of the scheming villain. Thus matters stood until the spring of 1850, when the Cayuses were given to understand that peace could be procured by delivering up the murderers for punishment. At that time Tam-su-ky and his supporters, including many relatives who had not in any manner participated in the massacre, were hiding in the mountains at the head of John Day river. The Indians who desired peace went after the murderers, and a fight ensued, ending in the capture of nearly all of the outlawed band. In this fight 'Cutmouth John,' an Indian well known in Umatilla, while endeavoring to capture one of the murderers, received the wound which gave rise to his peculiar appellation. Only one of the five actually engaged in the bloody work at Waiilatpu (so the Whitman Indians assert) was captured, and he was Ta-ma-has, and ugly villain whom his countrymen called 'The Murderer.' It was he who commenced the work of death at Waiilatpu by biirying a hatchet in Dr. Whitman's brain. Tak- ing him and four others, several of the older men and chiefs went to Oregon City to deliver them up as hostages. They were at once thro\\Ti into prison, condemned and executed at Oregon City on June 3, 1850 ; and even the ones who had escorted them, in view of this summary proceeding, congratulated themselves upon their safe return. They believed that Ta-ma-has should have been hanged, but not the others. So that it was the peaceful Indians that finally brought the murderers to trial and the hangman's rope."
There have been recently rescued from dust and oblivion some of the docu- ments which show the manner of furnishing the first army of Oregon. Yamhill county sent the following: Andrew Hembree, 600 lbs. pork, and 20 bushels of wheat ; Eli Perkins, one horse, 2 lbs. powder, 2 boxes caps, 5 lbs. lead ; William J. Martin, 1 horse loaded with provisions; Benj. Stewart, 2 boxes caps, 2 lbs. lead, 1 blanket; John Baker, 1 horse; Thomas McBride, $5.00 cash; James Ramsey, 3 lbs. powder, 8 lbs. lead; Samuel Tustin, $5.00 cash, 5 lbs. lead, 2 lbs. powder; Joel J. Hembree, 1 horse, 200 lbs. pork, 20 bu. wheat; James McGinnis, $3.00 in orders; James Johnson, $7.75 on Abernethy, 4 lbs. lead; T. J. Hubbard, 1 rifle, 1 pistol; Hiram Cooper, 1 rifle, 1 musket, 60 rounds ammunition; A. A. Skinner, 1 blanket, 1 lb. powder; Jas. Fenton, 3 pairs shoes ; J. M. Cooper, 2 boxes caps, two gims ; James Green, 2 boxes caps, 2 lbs. lead ; C. Wood, 1 rifle ; J. Row- land, 1 outfit ; W. T. Newby, 1 horse ; Carney Goodridge, 5 bu. wheat, 100 lbs. pork; John Manning, 1 pair shoes; John Richardson, 1 Spanish saddle-tree; Solomon Allen 6 bars lead; Felix Scott. 1 gray horse; O. Risley, 1 rifle, 3 boxes ​
THE CENTENNIAL IllSTOIv'Y OF OREGON ;!.s7
caps, 100 lbs. flour; M. Burton, 1 pair pants; RiL-liard Miller, 1 horse, 6 boxes caps' Amos Harvey, 1 guu; James Burton, 1 sack and stirrups. Salem Mercury, in Albany State Rights Democrat, Oetobci' 12. 1S77. Says Abernetliy to Lee, "We are now getting lots of pork and some wheat . Or., Archives, MSS., 103. Thomas Cox, Avlio had lironslit a stock of goods across the plains the jjrevious summer, had a coiisidcralilc (|uantitv of anununilion which was manufactured by himself ill Illinois, and winch lir now freely furnished to the volniifeers without charge. Or. Literary Vidilt,. A])ril, 1879. The "Caps" mentioned in the above muni- tions of war wci-c "percussion caps" to fire the guns.
JOE JIKKK's 1MIS8ION TO WASHINGTON
As a part and parcel of the whole country-wide uproar over the murder of Whitman, the Provisional Government decided to send a special messenger far- H-way over the mountains to President Polk beseeching aid to the colony. All niiiuls turned at once to one and the same man — Joseph L. Meek, for the danger- ous mission. Meek's knowledge of the mountains, plains, Indians and dangers of every sort between Oregon and the Missouri river identified him as the man to undertake the hazardous trip ; and besides all this, his cousin, James K. Polk, whom he had not seen since boyhood, had been elected President of the United States, and it was believed that the extraordinary trip of such a delegate over the Rocky mountains in the depth of winter would arouse the President and Congress to immediate action. Meek resigned his membership in the Pro- visional Government Legislature, accepted the commission to Washington and made speedy arrangements for his departure. For company and aid in trouble he took along with him as far as St. Louis his old mountaineer friends, John Owen and George W. Ebberts. They packed their pack horses and took saddle horses and left Oregon City for the east by the way of the Barlow road around Mt. Hood on January 4, 1848; Meek carrying with him authority from the legislature and governor to present Oregon's ease to the President and Congress of the United States. And it must now be recorded here that by this commission to Meek, Oregon had so far as its governor had authority, put two delegates to Congress on the w'ay to Washington City. After much consideration and advice from interested parties Governor Abernethy had on the 18th of October, 1847, appointed and commissioned J. Quinn Thornton to go to Washington City and advocate the cause of Oregon with the president and congress. Thornton was at the time Supreme Judge of the Provisional Government, a smooth, plausible man and popular with the Methodist mission. But his appointment by tlie governor was not relished by the legislature, which passed resolutions indi- rectly condemning the appointment as the " offieiousness of secret actions." Thornton sailed from Portland October 18, 1847, on his mission to Washing- ton by the ocean route on the bark Whittou, whose captain contracted in con- sideration of certain voluntary contributions of flour and very little money, to carry the Oregon delegate down to Panama. But on this ship and contract Thornton got no farther than San Juan on the coast of Lower California, where the United States Sloop of War Portsmouth picked up the stranded Thornton and carried around Cape Horn and landed him at Boston on May 2, 1848.
Returning now to the Meek party we find 'it delayed tw^o weeks at the Dalles ​
to allow the provisioual army to drive back the hostile Indians. Then as soon as the hostiles were out of the way Meek proceeded to the wrecked Whitman station and decently re-interred the murdered victims of the massacre, the hasty burial by the Catholic Priest Brouillet not having been sufficient to protect the bodies of the slain from the ravages of the wolves. At this time Meek, with thoughtful tenderness, saved some tresses of the golden hair of Mrs. Whitman to carry to relatives in the states, and one of which was carefully preserved and turned over to the Oregon Pioneer Association, and is now in the rooms of the Oregon Historical Society, City Hall, Portland. And notwithstanding these unavoidable delays, such was the tireless energy of these sturdy pioneers that within sixty days after leaving Oregon City the partj' safely reached St. Joseph on the Missouri river. If one stops to think, and can think of all the dangers, trials and sufferings those men had to endure and overcome on that trip through the snows in the dead of winter, shooting some wild animals and packing scanty supplies of food for themselves, sleeping under any tempo- rary shelter of brush or trees while their horses pawed the snow from dried grass for feed, over a trackless winter waste for two thousand miles, they can get some idea of the fiber, the courage and the real heroism of the men who founded the state of Oregon and saved it to the United States, and who in truth and deed stand "unrival'd in the glorious lists of fame."
It was not an exploit that necessarily incurred great personal dangei*, hard- ship or sacrifice for a Csesar to cross the Rubicon and devastate Gaul ; nor for Napoleon to scale the Alps and pounce down upon Italy ; nor for Grant to hang to the flanks of the rebel armies until they were penned up, exhausted and forced to lay down their arms at Appomattox; but it was a mighty different propo- sition to freeze and starve and bleed with Washington at Valley Forge ; or to march and freeze and wade and fight with George Rogers Clark at Old Vin- cennes and save the Ohio valley to the United States ; or to trudge and fight and starve and freeze with Joe Meek and the Oregon pioneers to save three great states to the American Union and secure a foothold on the great western ocean. And it is a labor of love as well as duty to see that these real heroes and hero- ines of the Great West have justice done their names as far as words and histori- cal records will suffice.
Although Thornton had started for Washington City three months before Meek started, he reached the city only one week before Meek got there; and Meek had the advantage of three months' later news from the west and all the thrilling events of the Whitman massacre. On this account and his superior address and his kinship to the President, he quite overshadowed the educated lawyer and judge, Delegate Thornton. The bill to organize the Oregon terri- tory was then before Congress, and the report that Meek was able to make suf- ficed to load up Senator Tom Benton with one of the best of the many speeches he made for Oregon. On May 31, 1848, Benton in advocacy of the Oregon Bill delivered an address in the senate from which is taken the following extract :
"Only three or four years ago the v/hole United States seemed to be in- flamed with a desii'e to get possession of Oregon. It was one of the absorbing and agitating questions of the continent. To obtain exclusive possession of Ore- gon, the greatest efforts were made, and it was at length obtained. What next ? After this actual occupation of the entire continent, and having thus obtained
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THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON ;!h9
si'ssiou after session oi' Congress pass away without a single thing being (lun<' for the government of a country to obtain possession of whieh we were willing to go to war with England!
"Year after year, and session after session have gone by, and to this <lay the laws of the United States have not been extended over that territory. In the meantime, a gi-eat community is gi-owing up there, composed at this time of twelve thousand souls — persons from all parts of the world, from Asia, as well as from Europe and America — and which, till this time, have been preserved in order by compact among themselves. Great efforts have been made to preserve order — most meritorious efforts, which have evinced their anxiety to maintain their own reputation and that of the country to which they belong. Their ef- forts have been eminently meritorious; but we all know that voluntary govern- ments cannot last — that they are temporary in their very nature, and must en- counter rude shocks and resistance, under which they must fall. Besides the in- convenience resulting from the absence of an organized government, we are to recollect that there never yet has been a civilized settlement in territory occu- pied by the aboriginal inhabitants, in which a war between the races has not occurred. Down to the present moment the settlers in Oregon had escaped a conflict with the Indians. Now the Avar between them is breaking out ; and I cannot resist the conviction that if there had been a regularly organized govern- ment in that counti-y, immediately after the treaty with Great Britain, with a military force to sustain it — for a government in such a region so remote would be nothing without military force — the calamities now impending over that country might have been averted.
But no government was established, and now all these evils are coming upon these people, as everybody must have foreseen they would come ; and in the depth of winter, they send to us a special messenger, who makes his wa,y across the Rocky mountains at a time when almost every living thing perished in the snow — when the snow was at such a depth that nothing could penetrate to the bottom of it. He made his way across, however, and brings these complaints which we now hear. They are in a suffering condition. Not a moment of time is to be lost. If the bill were pa.ssed this instant — this morning, as I hoped it would be — it would require the utmost degree of vigor in the execution' of it to be able to send troops across the Rocky mountains before the season of deep snow. They should cross the mountains befoi-e the month of September. I was in hopes, then, that on this occasion there would be nothing to delay action — that we should all have united in deploring that for years the proposition to give these people government and laws has been defeated by the introduction of questions of no practical conseciuence, but which have had the effect of depriving these peo- ple of all government and bringing about the massacres which have taken place, and in which the benevolent missionary has fallen in the midst of his labors. All the calamities which have taken place in that country have resulted from mixing up this question, which has not a particle of practical value, with all the measures which have been introduced for the organization of a government in Oregon. All the laws passed by the Congress of the United States can have no effect on the question of slavery there. In that country there is a law superior to any which Congress can pass on the subject of slavery. There is a law of climate, of position, and of Nature herself, against it. Besides, the people of the ​
country itself, by far the largest number of whom have gone out from slave- holding states, many of them from the state of Missouri, in their organic law, commumcated to Congress more than a year ago, and printed among our docu- ments at the last session, declare that the law of nature is against slavery in that region. ' '
Thus it is seen that Meek's record-breaking dash across the continent in the dead of winter, and Benton's speech quoted are necessary incidents from the murder of the martyr missionary. Whitman had himself made a journey from Oregon to Washington in the winter season of 1842-3 ; but he was six months on the way, about twice the time consumed by Meek. But it was considering the antecedents and knowledge of the two men, quite as great a feat of physical prowess for Wliitman as for Meek. That both men did, each in his way largely influence the fate of Oregon there can be no doubt. The career of Whitman and his wife, and their brutal murder is the most affecting, exciting and dramatic chapter of history of the United States. Even down to the arrest and execiition of the savages the pathos and the horror of the scene keep hand in hand, and the brutal murderers that could not be reached and arrested by white men were hunted down and delivered up for trial and execution by their own blood and kindred, for the purpose of putting an end to the white man's war against the Cayuse tribe.
THE BATTLE OP THE ABIQITA
The Cayuse war east of the Cascade mountains came to an end more from the inability of the Indians to get powder than from being whipped out by the volunteers ; which is, however no reflection on the volunteer soldiers, as they had faithfully put in their time with short rations and on their own equipment of clothing and arms in patrolling the Oregon trail and making travel safe. The murderers reduced to poverty and destitute of ammunition had to keep out of the way of an even half dozen men with good guns and plenty of powder and bul- lets.
But the story of the fighting had spread far and wide among the Indians as if by wireless telegraph, and restless spirits among them were everywhere eager to give the whites all the trouble they could inflict. And among these wander- ing bands were some Molallas and Klamaths who ranged about the head of the Willamette valle.y, and skulked along down the foothills where the towns of Brownsville, Lebanon, Scio and Stayton are now located. These marauders be- lieving all the warriors among the white settlers had gone away to fight the Cay- uses, took advantage of the situation to rob and steal whatever came liandy, and in one instance attacked and abused a young woman in Lane county, stole a lot of cattle in Benton county, and attacked the house of Richard Miller near Cham- poeg in Marion county. The mail carrier — the only mail carrier in Oregon at that time — came up with the robbers and immediately scattered the alarm and soon collected a force of 150 men and boys at the house of Miller to pursue and punish the Indians. This volunteer force organized immediately by the election of Daniel Waldo as colonel, and R. C. Geer, Allen Davy, Richard Miller and Daniel Parker as captains. The Indian encampment was on Abiqua creek where it enters the valley from the Cascade IMountains about where Silve ​rton is
uovv; and toward this poiut llic vdluiilcfrs iiuiiiediately marched with their shooting irous; the nioiuitcd nicii pi'dcccdinK- up the uorth side of the ereek, and the footmen on the south side. R. L\ (ieer wrote an aceoimt of this affair which was pi'intcd in the Oregon Statesman in August, 1877. He mentions the lolh)wing settlers as taking part in the liattle which took place: William Parker, James Harpole, Wilburn King, James Brown, S. D. Maxon, L. A. Bird, Israel Shaw. Robert Shaw, King Ilibbard, William Brisbane, — Winchester, Port (iilliam, William Thomas Howell, George Howell (founders of Howell Prairie), William Hendricks. Lew Goff, Leander Davis, G. W. Hunt, James Williams, J. Warnnck. J. W. Shrum. Thomas Shrum, Elias Cox, Cyrus Smith, T. B. Allen, lit'nry Shrum, antl Jacol) Caplinger. The volunteers overtaking the Indians before dark, they retreated up the creek after exchanging a few shots with the attacking party. Night coming on. those who had families to protect returned home, leaving the single men and boys to watch the enemy. At daybreak the next morning pursuit of the foe was commenced and a running fight kept up for most of the day. Seven warrior Indians, one of whom was a woman, were killed and two Indian women wounded. But when the battle was over it was dis- covered that the volunteers had not engaged the fighting marauding Indians, but those who had suffered were the families and camp guards, while the real rob- bers and fighters had escaped entirely. The easy victory was not a matter to be proud of and was never much referred to for thirty j-ears afterwards, when it was all threshed out in the public press again. But thfere can be no doubt that if prompt resistance had not been made to the raids of these Indians, the ma- rauders, emboldened by success, might have brought in all the warriors of the Klamath tribe, a nation of fighters, as proved by Capt. Jack in the ^Modoc war. and many lives would have been lost and homes burned out.
WIDESPRE.VD DEMORALIZ.\TION OF THE INDIANS
The raid into the Willamette valley and the battle of the Abiqua, trifling in itself, was however, important as an indication of widespread unrest and demor- alization of the Indians in Oregon. The provisional government being forced to act to defend its own citizens, was compelled to face and deal with the wider and greater (piestion of maintaining the peace with all the Indian tribes within the ten-itory now covered by the States of Oregon, W^a.shington and Idaho. Steps nuist be taken at once to control the supplies of powder and balls to the Indians throughout this vast region; for if ammunition was freely on sale at any point within this territorj', Indian runners would distribute it throughout the whole region. There were by this time twenty-six Catholic priests, with schools and stations scattered over this widely extended region, all of whom, and especially the Indians attached thereto, must be provided with food, the principal part of which was the wild game. This all required ammunition, and the priests pro- vided the same just as they would any other supply. This enraged the Ameri- cans, as they believed the Indians would use this ammunition to make war on the American settlers. And so the line of cleavage and battle was drawn; the lU'iests and the Indians on one side, and the Protestant preachers, American set- tlers and the provisional government on the other. It was passing strange that peace was maintained at all. ​
The military forces of Col. Gilliam had not been able to capture the mur- derers of Dr. Whitman, nor to force the Cayuses into a decisive battle ; but they had succeeded in breaking up the existing tribal community of the Cayuses and scattering them far and wide from the Columbia to California and from the Cascade mountains to the Rockies ; and everywhere the Cayuse had gone he was a preacher of murder and destruction of the white men, telling how they had been driven away from their lands, homes and graves of their fathers. It was a hard case to meet, and the Cayuse war was substantially the parent of all the other Oregon Indian Wars.
ROGUE RIVER WARS
Whether justlj- or unjustly, the community of tribes and families of Indians inhabiting the southwest corner of the state, and classed by the Ethnologists as the Shastan, Takelman and Athapaskan families, commenced their inter- course with the white man under the reputation of being a bad lot ; so bad that they were named the "Rogues;" and the disreputable appellation attached to their beautiful river. The author is aware that some writers claim that the river got its name from red or "rouge" clay found along its banks, and with which the Indians always painted themselves before going into battle. But as he has been up and down the river from its source in Mt. McLoughlin to its discharge into the Pacific ocean at Gold Beach, and never saw or heard of any such red or "rouge" clay, the unfortunate name will stick to the river long after the last rogue of an Indian has departed to the happy hunting grounds beyond this vale of tears. The unimaginable titanic forces concealed in the crust of our little globe of an earth never produced anywhere on its surface a more beautiful home for a nomadic race of men than is to be found in the clustered valleys of the Umpqua, Rogiie river, Illinois, Applegate, Klamath, Scott and Shasta, with their intervening timber and picturesque mountains. Having been all over that region, and knowing of all the hatred with which the early miners and settlers regarded the native Indian owners of that land, yet the impartial judge might well be justified in paraphrasing and applying to the Rogue River Indian wars the famous speech of Tom Corwin (senator from Ohio) on the Mexican war, and say, " If I were an Indian as I am an Amei-ican, I would welcome the white men with bloody hands to hospitable graves."
To comprehend the historical lesson of the Indian wars, or any war, the reader should "put himself in their place." The Indian had been living in these beautiful valleys, untouched by the hands of man, for thousands of years. His untutored mind seeing God onlj^ in clouds, or hearing Him only in the wind, could no more comprehend the white man's desire for land to dig gold out of, or produce food from, that he could explain the apparent daily round of sun, moon and stars. Lee, Whitman, Walker and Spalding had laboriously sought to enlighten that untutored mind in the Cayuse and Nez Perce, and in a little measure prepared the Indian to comprehend the white man. But the Rogue River Indian had received no such light ; and all he knew of the white man was as an uninvited intruder on his peaceful home, a taker of his land and game
THE CENTENNIAL HfSTORY OF OREGON 393
without liis coiiseut or without even asking for it ; aud so from the very hrsl it was war to the knife, and knife to the hilt between the two oecupiers of those val- leys. •
When -Joseph Ijjiui', tlir lirst yovernor of Oregon under L'nited States author- ity, reaehed Oregon City on ilareh 2, 184!J, he found the Cayuse war practically ended by Governor Abernethy and the provisional government troops. Whit man's murderers had been captured but not yet ti'ied for the murder. The desultory border warfare between the miners and settlers of Southern Oregon had been going on for years as occasion offered to attack emigrant trains, or parties passing between Oregon and California. Gold had been discovere«' be- fore Lane reaehed Oregon, and he quickly sized up the importance of peace with the Indians of the Southern Oregon valleys, through which the gold seekers must pass and repass with their pack trains and treasure. A party of gold miners returning from California had been attacked at Rocky Point on Rogue river and barely escaped with their lives into the woods, while the Indians seized their camp outfit and poured all their gold dust into the river. Governor Lane was not a man to halt between two opinions, and quicklj- calling to his aid fifteen ex- perienced white men and taking along with him also Klickitat Indian Chii'f Quatley and fifteen of his warriors, the expedition set out for Rogue river valhy in May, 1850. Reaching the neighboi-hood of the Indian village at Sam's Valley not far from Rock Point about the middle of June, 1850, Lane sent a message to the Indian chief to come to his (Lane's) camp for a talk, as he had come
answer that he and his people would come unarmed as directed, in two days. ,Vnd, according to promise, the two principal chiefs and seventy-five war- riors came and crossed over the river to Lane's camp. Lane had already coached Chief Quatley and his warriors as to what they were to do ; whicii was to help to make a treaty of peace; and not to fight unless fighting was necessary. A cii'cle was formed, with the Rogue river warriors forming one- half thereof, and the white men and Quatley and his warriors forming the other half, with Governor Lane and the Rogue river chiefs in the centre. But before these high contracting parties got down to business, a second band of Rogue river warriors as large as the first appeared on the scene fully armed with bows and arrows, and the outlook was much more like fighting than peace-making. Here were 150 Indian warriors on one side, and fifteen white men aud fifteen Klickitats on the other side. It took a man of superb courage, immovable nerve and supreme confidence in himself to face the situation ; and yet Governor Joe Lane proved equal to the occasion. The first move was to order the second band of Indians to deposit all their arms behind the outside circle and sit down on the grass. Then Lane directed Quatley with two of his men to take a position next to the head Rogue river chief, to be ready for an emergency. Then Gov- ernor Lane made an address to the Indians through an interpreter in which ho explained his position as head man among the whites, and reminded them of their acts in killing and I'obbing white men. and that he wanted all such conduct stopped, and wanted the whites and Indians to live at peace with each other as brothers ; and that if the Indians respected his wishes aud advice and beliaved well that they would all be paid for their land, and have an agent and teachers to instruct them in all the ways and knowledge of white men. In reply to this, ​
when Lane was done speaking, the Rogue River chief addressed his warriors in a loud voice, in deliberate words with menacing gestures, when instantly every Indian sprang to his feet, raised the war cry and seized their weapons. Klickitat Chief Quatlej' instantly seized the Rogue River chief and held him fast. And Governor Lane ordering his men not to fire, with revolver in hand dashed at the armed Rogue Rivers and knocked their guns and bows out of their hands, com- manding them to sit down again. And as their chief was a prisoner, with Quat- ley's knife at his throat, tliej^ quickly obeyed Lane's order. Lane then com- manded the captive Chief to send his warriors away or they would be shot on the spot, and not to come back for two days, while their big Chief was re- tained in Lane's camp as a prisoner. During the absence of the warriors Lane used evei-y means to impress the chief with the power of the white man, their great numbers, guns, etc., and succeeded in convincing him that it was best to make a treat.y of peace. And when the warriors returned at the end of the two days the chief advised them to accept the terms which the great white Chief of- fered, which they finally agi*eed to. The treaty being concluded. Lane gave the Indians slips of paper announcing the fact, and warning white men to do them no injur}-. These little papers, bearing Lane's signature, became a talisman among all the Indians, who on meeting a white man would hold the paper up, crying out ' ' Jo Lane 1 " "Jo Lane ! ' ' the only English words they knew. This treaty was fairly well kept by both sides for about a j'car. The old Chief and Lane became fast friends, the Chief asking Lane to bestow his name" upon him, saying he had seen no man equal to "Jo Lane."
The governor consented to give him half his name, and thereafter the Indian went b.y the name of "Jo," and in the last treaty with the Rogue Rivers is named "Joseph." The governor also named the chief's wife, calling her Sally. And these two royal heads of the Rogue River nation had a son and daughter which Lane also gave names to, naming the son "Ben" and to the daughter, who is represented bj' Lane to have been ciuite a qvieen in beauty and manners, he gave the gentle name of "Mary." This Mary was an unusual Indian. She never married into the tribe, and when after five years of war the remainder of the tribe was placed on the Siletz Reservation, Mary chose her life among the white people of Rogue river valley, and lived and died with them ; and of her, gowned in the gorgeous dress of beads, silks and lace she had made with her own hands, and in which she was buried, is given a fine photo-engraved picture on another page.
Having now given the opening chapter of the Rogue River wars, let us for a moment compare the leading incident of this chapter with a similar scene in the Cayuse war. When Peter Skene Ogden suuuuoned the Cayuse chiefs before him to give an account of themselves and their station in connection with the Whitman massacre he knew that he had to deal with the whole of the three Caj'use, Nez Perce and Snake tribes. For while the Nez Perces and Snakes had nothing to do with the murders, they were not friendly to Whitman because of the immi- gration of the white men and not disposed to hunt down his murderers. Ogden could not go out and find and arrest the murderers or recover the unfortunate prisoners. If he succeeded in his mission it must be thi'ough the moral and mental forces of his personality. In this he was of course supported by the fact that he represented the all-powerful fur company. But he made the demand ​
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OK OREGON ;j'.)5
I'or the prisoners in tlu^ fiice of ;ill this taeit opposition, aiid in Ihr I'jiee of the J'ear of the Jiidiaii Chiefs th;it they iniglit themselves lie pnnishcd if they yiehled to tlie white Ciiief 's (lein.-iinl. But i)i'otesting their own innoceuee while pleading that the nuirders were more tiuui eondoned fof ]>y Ihe idlling of Indians by white men in California, they suri-endered to the une«iuivocal demand of a single white man. That was a great triumph of moral over brute force, represented by the personality, culture and intellectual powers of Ogden.
Now shift the scene from the Umatilla to Rogue River. The Rogue River Indians had been robbing and killing inoffending white men passing through their country for more than twenty years, and had escaped any punishment for their savage brutalities. The first man in authority, and tbe first man of any station to appear on the scene and demand a settlement was Joseph Lane, then territorial governor. The Rogue River Indians knew no more about Lane or his ofiScial position than they knew about Christopher Columbus. To them Governor Lane was only a man like any other white man. That he was the big chief they had only his word for it. And yet he calls them in for a council — 150 warriors, half of them armed, with their big chief, sullen, unyielding, demanding war and swift killing of all white men. And yet, with his slender force of thirty men, half of them Indians, and surrounded by the savages, he boldly arrests their chief before their eyes, binds him a prisoner, and then with his own single weapon proceeds to knock their bows, arrows and guns out of their hands, in- dignantly dismisses the council, ordering the Indian army to begone and not return for two days — and they obey his orders and leave their chief in his hands without an efi'ort to release him. The feat of Governor Lane was greater than that of Ogden : for he had twenty times as many Indians in his presence to deal with ; he had not the prestige of the great fur company to back him, and he of- fered no ransom of presents or plunder to secure peace. And yet he, by sheer force, of his own demonstration and natural superiority over the red men, forced the Rogue Rivers into a peace treaty that was observed for more than a year.
After making this treaty. General Lane passed on down to California and engaged in gold mining, having learned that he was to be, as it turned out that he was, sujierseded as governor of Oregon by the api)ointnient of John P. Gaines as governor.
In 1850 Congress passed an Act to extinguish the Indian title to all lands west of the Cascade mountains, and President ]Millard Fillmore appointed Anson P. Dart superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon. A commission was also created by congress consisting of the newly appointed Governor Gaines, Alonzo A. Skinner and Beverly S. Allen, to make treaties with the Indians west of the Cascades. Superintendent Dart soon had plenty of trouble. For without any- body being able to point out the exciting cause of it, during the latter part of 1850 and the summer of 1851 there was a general outbreak of the Indian war spirit from the Snake river region down to the California line. Many persons blamed the troiible upon the instigation of the ^Mormons, and others upon the general unrest of the Indians by the increasing settlements of the white people. The latter cause was all-sulificient. The Indian could see that he could not com- pete with the white man : and that he must become subject to him or go down in the contest, and he resolved to fight first. On the Oregon trail throug ​h Idaho
the immigration of 1851 suffered the most fiendish outrages at the hands of the Snakes, who regarded neither age, sex or condition. Thirty-four persons were killed, many wounded, and many thousand dollars worth of horses and cattle stolen. The road to California, now constantly traveled by going and returning gold miners, could not be safely passed over without constant danger of Indian ambuscades with frequent murders. David Dilley was murdered and his camp robbed of much gold dust by two professedly friendly Rogue Rivers ; Dr. James McBride, of Yamhill county, with thirty-one men returning from California, were attacked at Rogue river by two hundred Indians, half of whom were armed with rifles, the ilcBride party having only seventeen guns. The battle lasted four hours, and until the Indian Chief Chucklehead was killed, when the In- dians drew off. The white men lost sixteen hundred dollars worth of gold dust and other property, but no men ; the Indian loss not known. At the time of this battle Major Philip S. Kearney had a party of United States dragoons explor- ing out a road through the Umpqua canyon to Rogue river, and receiving infor-, mation of the fight made a forced march with twenty-eight men to the scene of the trouble, reaching Rogue river five miles below Table Rock, the ancient In- dian stronghold. Here he divided his force and sending one-half of the men up the south bank of the river under Captain James Stuart and leading the other half up the north bank, he soon found plenty of Indians who were prepared for and expecting an attack. The men had tied their sabers to their saddles to pre- vent noise and when they struck the Indian camp they dismounted so quicklj^ they forgot their sabers and dashed into the Indians firing their carbines and charging with revolvers. The Indians — 200 of them — fled from twenty-eight soldiers, leaving eleven dead on the ground; the only loss of the whites being- Captain Stuart who was shot through the kidneys by an arrow fired by an In- dian he had knocked down, dying the next daj^ from the wound, and being buried at the mouth of a creek emptying into Rogue River, and which from that incident received the name of Stuart creek.
Fi-om the Stuart creek battlefield, the Indians fell back to their natural forti- fication at Table Rock, which is a high, flat-topped promontory overlooking Rogue River valley, and from which signals can be given for many miles. Find- ing his force too small to attack the Indians in this position he made a camp to observe the enemy and wait for the balance of his force with volunteers to come in and prepare to attack the Indian stronghold. Here he was soon reinforced by thirty miners going to the Willow Springs mines, and by General Lane and forty men making a second venture to the California mines. And with this combined force of about one hundred men. Major Kearney attacked the Indians behind their log defenses on Table Rock on June 23, 1851. Two attacks were made on the 24th, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. General Lane's old friend. Chief "Jo" being in command of the Indians, and boasting that while he had not many guns, he had bows enough ' ' to keep a thousand arrows in the air all the time. ' ' There had then been practically four days of fighting, and Kearney then offered to treat for peace, and if no peace attack the Indians again on June 25th. The morning of the 25th came and found the Indians run- ning down the river, which they crossed seven miles below Table Rock and fled up Sardine creek. As soon as the course of the Indians was discovered, the reg-
to fight, scattering in the forest, and leaving their women and children to be captured and fed by the soldiers. After scouring among the hills for two days and finding no Indians, Kearney was compelled to abandon the chase, taking back to camp thirty Indian women and their children. Here General Lane gallantly and generously offered to relieve Kearney of his captives, he having no means of taking care of them, and take them to Oregon City and deliver them up to Governor Gaines. With this charge he started and proceeding north he met Governor Gaines in the vicinity of where Grant's Pass is located, and there on July 7, 1851, delivered the captives to the governor. And by means of the possession of the prisoners, the governor was enabled to get eleven of the head men of the Indians and about one hundred of their followers to come in and make peace. These treaty-makers belonged to the Peace Party among the Rogue Rivers, and always came to the front when the fighting Indians got thrashed in a battle; and for years afterward they were alternately fighting or peacemaking, according as the fortunes of war ran for or against them.
From the beautiful Rogue River valley the bloody scenes now shift to the sea coast. About June 1st, 1851, the steam coaster Sea Gull, Captain William Tichenor, master, landed a party of nine men at Port Orford in Curry county, as the first installment of a force that was intended to establish a trading establishment at that point, and open a pack trail from there to the gold mines in Jackson county. The names of these men were, J. M. Kirkpatrick, J. H. Eagan, John T. Slater, George Ridoubs, T. D. Palmer, Joseph Hussey, Cyrus W. Hedden, James Carigan, and Erastus Summers. Tichenor was under contract with the men to give them supplies, rifles and ammunition for defense in case of an attack from the Indians: but on landing the men found they had only three old flint-lock muskets, an old sword and a few pounds of lead and powder and one rifle owned by one of the men. Complaining of this miserable outfit, the gallant captain assured them they needed no arms at all, but these would do to show and scare the Indians as well as good guns. But to make sure of more efficient defense in case of an attack, the men carried off the signal gun from the ship which was about a four-pound cannon. Soon after the men were landed the Indians gathered around and by signs warned them to leave. This intimation of danger proved their salvation, for they at once set about making ready for an attack. The old cannon was dragged up the sloping end of an immense rock rising out of the edge of the ocean. And upon this rock the men took their outfit of food and blankets, loaded the old cannon with powder and slugs of lead and awaited the attack they felt was coming. As soon as the ship sailed the Indians again ordered the men to leave. There was now no chance to leave. The next morning, June 10, 1851, the great rock was surrounded on the land side with a hundred yelling Indians. Their chief made a loud speech to his warriors, after which with a chorus of yells fifty Indians made a rush for the rock and the balance of them filled the air with arrows aimed at the nine white men. The rock is so shaped that before the Indians could reach the white men they would have to crowd upon and along a narrow space for thirty feet. The old cannon had been trained to sweep that approach, and as the first Indian reached the muzzle of the cannon, and the narrow approach was crowded with yelling Indians, Captain Kirkpatrick applied the match and thirty Indians were hurled into eternity in ​
the twinkling of an eye. Besides the outright killing of half the attacking party, the balance of the Indians on the rock were so shocked by the loud explosion that they tumbled off into the ocean or rolled down the sides in deadly terror. This terrific repulse sent the whole band remaining alive or vinmangled back to their camp in wailing. And that night the defenders packed their pockets and knap- sacks with food and set out in the night on foot to reach the white settlements in Umpcjua valley more than a hundred miles distant ; and finally after incred- ible hardships in hiding from the pursuing Indians, wading streams, sleeping on the ground in wet clothing and living on snails and wild berries they all safely reached the houses of white men. The great rock has ever since gone by the name of Battle Rock, a photo of it and a spirited sketch of the battle appears on another page.
lane's second treaty
The first treaty of peace made bj' General Lane with the Rogue River Indians was tolerably respected for a year ; and then desultory fighting with miners and travelers and stealing stock from the farmers was resumed ; so that by 1853 all the tribes of that region were again practically on the war path. The settlers got together as well as they could a small body of volunteers. General Lane brought over fifty men from Umpqua valley where he had settled on a farm, and assumed command of the whole force ; Colonel John Ross, of Jackson county, and Captain Alden, of the regular army, serving under Lane. Old "Jo" — the "Jo" Lane " Jo " Chiefs John and Sam were leaders of the Indians who had collected a large force of warriors and made their headquarters in the rough mountains and heavy timbers on Evans creek, and making a fortified camp of fallen tim- bers on Evans creek, and making a fortified camp of fallen timber with plenty of arms and ammimition made a formidable foe to attack. Nevertheless, on reach- ing the ground Lane charged the breastwork of the Indians, and received a shot in one arm, while Captain Alden received a wound from which he never fully recovered. Several other volunteers were badly wounded and died, and Pleas- ant Armstrong, an old and respected citizen of Yamhill county, was shot dead on the ground. In this fight the Indians and white men were so close together in the charge on the log fort, that they could easily talk back to each other, and the Indians bitterly reproached Lane for the attack, and asked him to come into their camp and arrange another peace. And surprising as it was to all his men, General Lane stopped the battle, and in his wounded condition marched alone into the Indian stronghold Avhere he saw many dead and wounded Indians, showing clearly they had got the worst of the battle. And after a talk with the Chiefs it was agreed that both whites and Indians should all go back to Table Rock and there make a permanent peace. And upon that temporary arrange- ment both sides retired from the Evans creek battlefield and did go back to Table Rock, both parties marching over the same trail — the Indians preceding the white men,
When this outbreak occurred couriers were sent off for aid by the regular U. S. soldiers and volunteers. To this appeal Colonel James W. Nesmith re- sponded with 75 volunteers raised quickly in Polk, Marion and Linn counties: Capt. A. J. Smith marched at once with Company C of the First U. S. Dra​
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON ;!99
goons, while ('apt. August A'. Ivautz, tlicu just out of West Point and ai'ler- wards a Major General in the I'liion army, brought up the rear with a twelve pound howitzer and fixed animunitiou. These forces all reached Fort Lane on Rogue river ou September 18, 1853, making a combined force of about 250 men as against an estimated Indian force of 700 warriors. Now for the bal- ance of the story of this second treaty of peace the account of Col. Nesmith is given in full, describing a thrilling drama, never safely executed by any otiier man than General Joseph Lane, of Douglas county, Oregon.
"The encampment of the Indians was on the side of the mountains, of which Table Rock forms the summit, and at night we could plainly see their camp fires, while they could look directly down upon us. The whole command was anxious and willing to fight, but General Lane had pledged the Indians that an effort should be made to treat for peace. Superintendent Palmer and Agent Culver were upon the ground. The armistice had not yet expired, and the 10th was fixed for the time of the council. On the morning of that day General Lane sent for me, and desired me to go with him to the council ground inside the Indian encampment, to act as interpreter, as I was master of the Chinook jargon. I asked the general upon what terms we were to meet the Indians. He replied that the agreement was that the meeting should take place within the encampment of the enemy, and that he would be accompanied by ten other men of his own selection, unarmed.
■"Against those terms, I protested, and told the general that I had traversed that country five years before, and fought those same Indians; that they were notoriously treacherous, and in early times had earned the designation of 'Rogues,' by never permitting a white man to escape with his scalp when once in their power; that I knew them better than he did, and that it was criminal folly for eleven unarmed men to place themselves voluntarily within the power of seven hundred well-armed, hostile Indians in their own secure encampment. I reminded him that I was a soldier in command of a company of cavalry and was ready to obey his order to lead my men to action, or to dis- charge any soldierly duty, no part of which was to go into the enemy's camp as an unarmed interpreter. The general listened to my protest and replied that he had fixed upon the terms of meeting the Indians and should keep his word, and if I was afraid to go I could remain behind. When he put it upon that ground, I responded that I thought I was as little acquainted with fear as he was, and that I would accompany him to what I believed would lie our slaughter.
"Early on the morning of the 10th of September, 1853, we mounted our horses and rode out in the direction of the Indian encampment. Our party consisted of the following named persons : Gen. Joseph Lane ; Joel Palmer, Superintendent of Indian affairs, Samuel P. Culver, Indian agent, Capt. A. J. Smith, 1st Dragoons; Capt. L. P. jMosher, Adjutant; Col. John E. Ro.ss; Capt. J. W. Nesmith; Lieut. A. V. Kautz ; R. B. Metcalf, J. D. Mason, T. T. Tiemey.
"After riding a couple of miles across the level valley, we came to the foot of the mountain where it was too steep for horses to ascend. We dismounted and hitched our horses and scrambled up for half a mile over huge rocks and through brush, and then found ourselves in the Indian stronghold, j ​ust under
the perpendicular cliff of Table Rock, aud surrounded by seven hundred fierce and well armed hostile savages, in all their gorgeous warpaint and feathers. Captain Smith had drawn out his company of dragoons and left them in line in the plain below. It was a bright, beautiful morning, and the Rogue River valley lay like 'a panorama at our feet ; the exact line of dragoons sitting statue like upon their horses, with their white belts and burnished scabbards and carbines, looked like they were engraven upon a picture, while a few paces in our rear the huge perpendicular wall of the Table Rock towered, frowningly, many hundred feet above us. The business of the treaty commenced at once. Long speeches were made bj^ General Lane and Superintendent Pal- mer; they had to be translated twice. When an Indian spoke in the Rogue River tongue it was translated by an Indian interpreter into Chinook or jar- gon to me, when I translated it into English; when Lane or Palmer spoke, the process was reversed, I giving the speech to the Indian interpreter in Chinook, and he translating it to the Indians in their own tongue. This double trans- lation of long speeches made the labor tedious, and it was not until late in the afternoon that the treaty was completed and signed. In the mean time an episode occurred which came near terminating the treaty as well as the repre- sentation of one of the 'high contracting parties' in a sudden and tragic man- ner. About the middle of the afternoon a young Indian came running into camp stark naked, with the perspiration streaming from every pore. He made a brief harangue, and threw himself upon the ground apparently exhausted. His speech had created a great tumult among his tribe. General Lane told me to inquire of the Indian interpreter the cause of the commotion; the In- dian responded that a company of white men down at Applegate Creek, and under the command of Captain Owen, had that moz'ning captured an Indian known as Jim Taylor, and had tied him to a tree and shot him to death. The hubbub and confusion among the Indians at once became intense, and murder glared from each savage visage. The Indian interpreter told me that the In- dians were threatening to tie us up to trees and serve us as Owen's men had served Jim Taylor. I saw some Indians gathering up lass-ropes while others drew skin covers from their guns, and the wiping sticks from their muzzle.
"There appeared a strong probability of our party being subjected to a sudden volley. I explained as briefly as I could •what the interpreter had com- municated to me, in order to keep our people from huddling together, and thus make a better target for the savages, I used a few English words, not likelj^ to be understood by the Indian intei*preter, such as ■ ' disperse ' and 'segregate.' In fact, we kept so close to the savages, and separated from one another that any general firing must have been nearly as fatal to the Indians as to the whites.
"While I admitted that I thought that my time had come, and hurriedly thought of wife and children, I noticed nothing but coolness among my com- panions. General Lane sat upon a log with his arm bandaged in a sling, the lines about his mouth rigidly compressing his lips, while his eyes flashed fire. He asked brief questions, and gave me sententious answers to what little the Indians said to us. Capt. A. J. Smith, who was prematurely gray-haired, and was afflicted with a nervous snapping of the eyes, leaned upon his cavalry saber, and looked anxiously down upon his well formed line of dragoons in the valley below. His ​
eyes snapped more vigorously than usual, and muttered words escaped from under the old dragoon's mustache that did not sound like prayers. His squadron looked beautiful, but alas, they could render us no assistance. I sat down on a log close to old Chief Jo, and having a sharp hunting knife under my hunting shirt, kept one hand near its handle, determined that there would be one Indian made ■good" about the time the tiring commenced.
In a few moments General Lane stood up and commenced to speak slowly but very distinctly. He said: 'Owens who has violated the armistice and killed Jim Taylor, is a bad man. He is not one of my soldiers. When I catch him he shall be punished. I promised in good faith to come into your camp with ten other unarmed men to secure peace. Myself and men are placed in your power; I do not believe that you are such cowardly dogs as to take advan- tage of our unarmed condition. I know that you have the power to murder lis, and you can do as quickly as you please, but what good will our blood do you? Our murder will exasperate our friends and your tribes will be hunted from the face of the earth. Let us proceed with the treaty, and in place of war, have la.sting peace. ' Much more was said in this strain by the general, all rather defiant, and nothing of a begging character. The excitement gradually sub- sided, after Lane promised to give a fair compensation for the defunct Jim Tay- lor in shirts and blankets.
The treaty of the 10th of September, 1853, was completed and signed and peace restored for the next two years. Our party wended their way among the rocks down to where our horses were tied, and mounted. Old A. J. Smith gal- loped up to his squadron and gave a brief order. The bugle sounded a note or two. and the squadron wheeled and trotted off to camp. As General Lane and party rode back across the valley, we looked up and saw the rays of the setting sun gilding the summit of Table Rock. I drew a long breath and remarked to the old general that the next time he wanted to go unarmed into a hostile camp he must hunt up some other one besides myself to act as interpreter. With a benignant smile he responded, 'God bless you," 'luck is better than science. "
"I never hear the fate of General Canby at the Modoc camp, refen-ed to, that I do not think of our narrow escape of a similar fate at Table Rock. Kickreall. April 20, 1879.'"
Of this account, General Lane wrote to Colonel Nesmith as follows:
"RosEBURG, Monday April 28, 1879.
"My Dear Sir — Your note of the 23rd instant, ent-losing a copy of an ar- ticle giving an account of our council or treaty with the Rogue River Indians on September 10, 1853, was received two or three days ago and would have l)een answered on receipt, had I not been too feeble to write. I am feeling quite well this morning, though my hand trembles. You will get this in a day or two, and the article will be published in the Star on Friday and will reach you an Saturday. Dates and incidents in the article are in the main correct. You could, however, very truly have said, that neither you nor myself had a single particle of fear of any treachery on the part of the Indians toward us, and the proof was they did not harm us.
"We had at all times been ready to fight them, and to faithfu ​lly keep and
maintain oui* good faith with them. AVe never once, on any occasion, lied to them, and as you know, when the great Indian war of 1855-6 broke out, and you were again on the field fighting them, poor old Jo was dead, and you, or some other commander, at old Sam's request, sent him and his people to Grand Round Reservation.
"Old John and Adam, and all others except Jo's and Sam's people fought you hard, but the Rogues, proper, never forgot the impression we made upon them in the great Council of September 10, 1853. It was a grand and successful Council, the Rogue Rivers proper, fought us no more ; they did not forget their promises to us.
"Very trul.y your friend and obedient servant,
"Joseph Lane."
CHIEF John's last battle
Notwithstanding the second treaty made by Lane, the treaty of 1853, the Rogue Rivers were all again on the war path killing and robbing the settlers in 1855 and 1856. The widely scattered settlements of the mountainous region of Southern Oregon could not be successfully defended by any reasonable force of white men, because they could not live and fight and travel through the mountains as the Indian could. Chief John was the leader and hero of this last Indian Avar, and an Indian better cpialified for guerilla warfare could not have been found. It is impossible to record in this work all the battles, routs, murders and toilsome marches of a dozen separated commands of volunteers and regulars endeavoring to keep the Indians so continually on the move from one hiding place to another that they would be exhausted, surrender and go on the then provided Indian Reservation. By this strenuoiis effort nearly all the old men, women and children of the Indian tribes were gathered up, but the able- bodied warriors still roved about the country murdering and robbing wherever there was an opportunity. The Indians had made the jimction of the Illinois and Rogue river streams their headquarters; for while this location was diffi- cult of access by regular United States soldiers and their equipment, it was an ideal point for the Indians to convene at and run away from if attacked, furnishing three water-level valleys in three different directions as line of ac- cess or escape. To this point Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan in command of the United States regailara, directed his efforts in hopes of convening there all the warring chiefs for the purpose of inducing them to go on the Indian Reser- vations in Benton or Yamhill counties. Word was sent out in all directions inviting the outstanding warriors to meet Buchanan at Big Meadows near the mouth of the Illinois river. Chief John accepted the invitation and came May 21, 1856, with all his men, and Chief George, Limpy and other minor chiefs. John was invited into the white soldiers' camp for a talk, and assured of pro- tection. He came and had a long talk with Colonel Buchanan, and which was finally ended by John's speech to Buchanan, saying: "You are a great chief; so am I. This is my country. I was in it when those large trees were very small, not higher than my head. My heart is sick with fighting ; but I want to live in my country. If the white people are willing I will go back to Deer creek and live among them as I used to do. They can visit mj^ camp, and I will ​
visit tlicirs; l)u1 I will not lay dowu my ai-nis ami go with you to the Ri'servc.
I will light. (tOOcIIiv." 'riicii he returned unrostraiiicd to liis owu camp as had been agreed.
Aft(M- imieh argiiiiient ami |)roiiiis('.s oi' iiiauy presents all the ehiel's hut John raiiie in four days after and gave up their arms and were escorted by
II pait of tiie sokliers to Fort Lane on their way to the reservation. Captain A. J. Smith had given notice that in three or four days he would be back again at) the common rendezvous with his men to receive the remainder of the Indian wiir- riors; and to hasten their decision had told them that if he found any of them roaming around the country with fire arms he would hang them. But when he got back to camp no Indians appeared, but instead thereof, two peaceably dis- posed Indian women came in and informed Smith that he might expect an attack from Chief John on the next day. Smith immediately hurried otf a courier to Colonel Buchanan asking for reinforcements to meet this sudden change in John's disposition, and then immediately moved his camp to higher ground, but further away from water, and had to leave his cavalry horses in the meadows below him. The men worked all night, getting no sleep, dig- ging rifle pits with their tin cups, having not a single spade in camp, and planting their howitzer so it would command one approach to their position while the men lying flat in their shallow pits could protect the other approach with their carbines. John's first move was to send forward forty armed war- riors for a talk with Captain Smith, and as they advanced to the east approach they called on Smith to come out and talk. The Captain was too well aware of Indian tactics to trust himself in their possession, and so ordered them to retire and deposit their arms at the edge of the timber. Thus finding Smith prepai-ed to fight, and no chance to capture him by strategj^, the warrioi's returned to their camp, and ^vithin an hour, on May 27, 1856, was commenced the last pitched battle of the Rogue River Indian war. The Indians simultaneously attacked both sides of Smith's camp, firing their guns and rushing up the de- fending slopes with hideous yells. They were met at short range with the deadly fire of the carbines on both sides and compelled to fall back to the tim- ber. (See the drawing on another page.) Not being able to get at the soldiers by these approaches, the Indians made desperate attempts to scale the unpro- tected sides with perpendicular banks, and the regulars were compelled to abandon their rifle pits and hurl back the desperate foe with shots at short range, and even some Indians with clubbed muskets. The Indians exhibited the most reckless daring and bravery in repeated attacks thi'oughout the day in attempts to get into Smith's camp, but all to no purpose but the loss of life to the attacking party. Thus the long day of May 27, was spent; followed by hard work all the succeeding night digging more rifle pits and erecting breast- works, without food, water or sleep. On the 28th the Indians renewed the attack; and to the white men was added not only the labor and dangers of defense, but also the fatigue from loss of sleep and the torture of thirst. The Indians understood the frightful condition of the white men, and from their covert in the edge of the timber, tauntingly called out "Mika hyas ticka chuck" (You very much want water?) ; "Halo chuck Boston" (No water for white man.) And to this taunt they added another (referring to Captain Smith's threat to hang all Indians he found roaming over the country with arms ​
in their hands) "that they had ropes to hang every trooper, the soldiers not being worth the powder and ball to shoot them ; ' ' and occasionally a rope would be hung out on a bush and Captain Smith was told to come out and hang him- self. All sorts of insulting epithets in tolerable English were hurled at the sol- diers from the nearest fringe of timber. This terrible strain continued until four o'clock the second day of the battle, when one-third of Smith's command was killed and wounded. About sundown the Indians held a council, and rely- ing on the exhausted condition of the white men planned to charge Smith's camp with the whole force. "It was an hour never to be forgotten" — says the letter of one of the soldiers — " a silent and awful hour, in the expectation of speedy and cruel death." Suddenly an infernal chorus of yells burst forth from John's camp, the whole Indian army joining in one blood-curdling roar of demoniac fury; they rushed upon Smith's poor camp from all sides. The life of every white man hung in the balance ; and the yelling, and savage thirst for the white man's blood had prevented the Indian chief from discovering that at that same instant Captain Augur, responding to Smith's call for aid, had silentlj^ crept through the surrounding timber, and as the Indians charged down upon the beleagured whites Augur's men rushed upon the rear of the In- dian attack firing at short range and then charging with the bayonets, and the battle was over in fifteen minutes, the Indians wildly fleeing in all directions, abandoning their camp entirely. Thus ended May 28, 1856, the last battle of Chief John and the Rogue Rivers.
Chief John was a very unusual Indian. He is described as a bolder, braver and stronger man mentally than any chief west of the Cascade mountains. When dressed in white men's costume he might have been easily taken for a hard working, sun burnt farmer of the western states. A good likeness of him is given upon another page. With slight resistance after his last battle he, with all his warriors, came in and surrendered to Captain Smith, and Joel Palmer, Svipt. of Indian affairs, on June 1, 1856, thus ending the Rogue River Indian wars for all time. The final result was that about 2,700 Indians old and young were removed from the Southern Oregon country to the Siletz and Grande Ronde Reservations, and shoAving that before the war commenced there must have been an Indian population of fuUj' 5,000 in that region. Many minor events, bloodj^ reprisals, and isolated murders from both sides have been recorded, but Avhich have not been referred to, but which are well worth pre- serving. These have been collated by the Hon. Wm. M. Colvig, and given to present day readers in an address by him to the reunion of Indian war veterans at Medford on July 26, 1902 ; and all of this Indian war historj' compiled in the above address, and which has not been already recorded herein, will now be given and credited to the careful work of Mr. Colvig.
The first recorded fight between the Indians and whites in any portion of southei-n Oregon occurred in 1828 when Jedediah S. Smith and seven other trap- pers were attacked by the Indians on the Umpqua River, and fifteen of the whites were slain, only Smith and three of his companions escaping. The next fight of which we have any account was in June, 1836, at a point just below the Rock Point Bridge, where the barn on the W. L. Colvig estate stands. In this fight there were Dan Miller, Edward Barnes, Dr. W. J. Bailey, George Gay, Saunders, Woodworth, Irish Tom, and J. Turner and Squaw. Two trappers were killed.
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the scene of the fight, and pointed out to my father its location. In September, 1837, at the mouth of Foot's Creek, in Jackson county, a party of men who had been sent to California by the Methodist mission to procure cattle, while on their return were attacked by the Rogue River Indians and had a short, severe tight, in which several of the whites were badly wounded and some twelve or fourteen of the Indians killed. In May, 1845, J. C. Fremont had a fight with the Indians in the Klamath country; it may have been a little over the line in Califoniia. Four of Fremont's men were killed and quite a large number of the Indians. Kit Carson was a prominent figure in this battle.
A few bold adventurers had located in Rogue River Valley as early as De- cember, 1851. During the spring, summer, and fall of that year there was a considerable amount of travel by parties from northern Oregon going to and re- turning from the great mining excitement of California. Fights between these travelers and the Indians were of frequent occurrence. On the fifteenth of May, 1851, a pack train was attacked at a point on Bear Creek, where the town of Phoenix is now situated, and a man by the name of Dilley was killed.
At the massacre of emigrants at Bloody Point, Klamath Coimty, in 1852, thirty-six men, women and children were murdered. Capt. Ben Wright, and twenty-seven men from Yreka and Col. J. E. Ross and some Oregonians went out to punish these Modocs. Old Sconchin, who was afterwards hung at Fort Klam- ath in 1873, at the close of the Modoc war, was the leader. Wright gave them no quarter. He and his men, infuriated at the sight of the mangled bodies of the emigrants, killed men, women and children without any discrimination.
I can not give you the names of all who were killed in Rogue River Vallej' during the years 1851 and 1852, and 1853. I will mention some that were killed in 1853. In August of that year Edward Edwards was killed near Medford; Thomas Wills and Rhodes Nolan, in the edge of the town of Jacksonville; Pat Dunn and Carter, both wounded in a fight on Neil Creek above Ashland. In a light with the Indians on Bear Creek, in August, 1853, Hugh Smith was killed,

## iud Howell Morris, Hodgins, Wittemore, and Gibbs. wounded, the last named

three dying from their wounds soon after.
These murders, and many more that could be mentioned, brought on the In- dian war of 1853. Southern Oregon raised six companies of volunteers, who served under the following named captains, viz., R, L. Williams, J. K. Lamerick, John F. Miller, Elias A. Owens, and W. W. Fowler. Capt. B. F. Alden, of the Fourth U. S. Infantry, with twenty regulars, came over from Fort Jones, Cali- fornia, and with him a large number of volunteers under Capt. James P. Goodall and Capt. Jacob Rhoades, two Indian fighters of experience. Captain Alden was given the command of all the forces. The first battle of the war was fought on the twelfth day of August, 1853, and was an exciting little fight between about twenty volunteers under Lieut. Burrell Griffin, of Miller's company, and a band of Indians under Chief John. The volunteers were ambushed at a point near the mouth of Williams creek, on the Applegate. The whites were defeated with ii loss of two killed, and Lieutenant Griffin severely wounded. There were five Indians killed and wotmded in the battle. On August 10, 1853. John R. Hard- ing and Wm. R. Rose, of Captain Lamerick "s company, were killed near Willow ​Springs.
The war of 1855-56 was preceded by a great many murders and depredations by the Indians in different parts of southern Oregon. I will mention a few : —
— Dyar and McKew, were killed on the road from Jacksonville to Josephine
County on June 1, 1855. About the same time a man by the name of — — Phil- pot was killed on Deer Creek, Josephine Countj"^, and James ]\Iills was wounded at the same time and place. Granville Keene was killed at a point on Bear Creek,
above Ashland, and J. Q. Paber was wounded. Two men, Fielding, and
Cunningham, were killed in September, 1855, on the road over the Siskiyou mountains.
On account of these various depredations, Maj. J. A. Lupton raised a tem- porary force of volunteers, composed of miners and others, from the vicinity of Jacksonville, about thirty-five in number, and proceeded to a point on the north side of Rogue River, opposite the mouth of Little Butte Creek. There he attacked a camp of Indians at a time when they were not expecting trouble. It is said that about thirty men, women and children were killed by Lupton 's men. The Major himself received a mortal wound in the fight. This fight has been much criticised by the people of southern Oregon, a great many of them believing that it was unjustifiable and cowardly. Two days after this affair a series of massacres took place in the sparsely settled country in and about where Grants Pass is now situated. On the ninth of October, 1855, the Indians, having divided up into 'small parties, simultaneously attacked the homes of the defenseless families located in that vicinity. I will name a few of those tragic events. On the farm now owned by James Tuffs, Mr. Jones was killed, and his wife, after receiving a mortal wound, made her escape. She was found by the volunteers on the next day and died a few days afterwards. Their house was burned down. Mrs. Wagner was murdered by the Indians on the same day. Her husband was away from home at the time, but returned on the following day to find his wife murdered and his home a pile of ashes. The Harris family consisting of Harris and wife and their two children, Mary Harris, aged twelve, and David Harris, aged ten, and T. A. Reed, who lived with the family were attacked. J\Ir. Harris was shot down while standing near his door, and at a moment when he ^little suspected treachery from the Indians with whom he was talking. His wife and daughter pulled his body within the door, and seizing a double-barrelled shotgun and an old-fashioned Kentucky rifle, commenced firing through the cracks of the log cabin. They kept this up till late in the night, and by heroic bravery kept the Indians from either gaining an entrance into the house or succeeding in their attempts to fire it. Just back of the cabin was a dense thicket of brush and during a lull in the attack the two brave women escaped through the back door and fled through the woods. They were found the next day by the volunteers from Jacksonville, our late friend, Henry Klippel "being one of the number. Mrs. Harris lived to a good old age in this coiuitry. Mary who was wounded in the fight, afterwards became the wife of Mr. G. M. Love, and was the mother of George Love of Jacksonville, and Mrs. John A. Hanley of Medford. David Harris, the boy, was not in the house when the attack was made, but at work on the place. His fate has never been ascertained, as his body was never found. The Indians stated, after peace was made, that they killed him at the time they attacked the Harris house. Reed, the young man spoken of, was killed out near the house. ​
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OliEGON 407
On October ;}1, l,S:j;j, the battle of Hungry Hill was fouj^ht near the present railway station of Lelaud. Capt. A. J. Smith oi' the United States army was at that battle, and a large number of citizen soldiery. The result of the battle was very undecisive. There were thirty-one whites killed and wounded, nine of them killed oiitright. It is not known how many of the Indians were killed, but after the treaty was made they confessed to fifteen. The Indians were in heavy timber and were scarcely seen during the two days' battle.
In April, 1856. after peace had been concluded between the whites and In- dians, the Ledford nuissacre took place in Raucherie Prairie, near Mount Mc- Loughlin, in this county, in which five white men were killed. This event was the last of the "irrepressible conflict." Soon afterwards the Indians were re- moved to the Siletz reservation, where their descendants now live and enjoy the favors of the government which their fathers so strongly resisted.
The war in Rogue River Valley had not virtually ended. "Old Sam's" band, with an escort of one hundred United States troops, was taken to the coast reservation at Siletz. Chiefs "John" and "Limpy," with a large number of the most active warriors, who had followed their fortunes during all these struggles, still held out and continued their depredations in the lower Rogue River country and in connection with the Indians of Curry County.
Gen. John E. Wool, commander of the Department of the Pacific, in Novem- ber, 1855, had stopped at Crescent City while on his way to the Yakima coun- try. He received full information while here of the military operations in southern Oregon. Skipping many details, it is sufficient to state that he ordered Capt. A. J. Smith, to move do\\ii the river from Port Lane and form a junction with the United States troops under Captain Jones and E. 0. C. Ord (after- wards a major-general in United States army) who were prosecuting an active campaign in the region from Chetco, Pistol River, and the Illinois River Valley. Captain Smith left Fort Lane with eighty men — fifty dragoons and thirty in- fantry. I can only take the time to mention a few of the fights in that region during the spring of 1856. On ]\Iarch 8th, Captain Abbott had a skirmish with the Chetco Indians at Pistol River. He lost .several men. The Indians had his small force completely sun-ounded when Captain Ord and Captain Jones with one himdred and twelve regular troops came to his relief. They charged and drove the Indians away with heavy loss. On March 20, 1855, Lieutenant-Colonel l^uchanan, assisted by Captain Jones and Ord, attacked an Indian village ten miles above the mouth of Rogue River. The Indians were driven away, leaving several dead and only one white man wounded in the fight. A few days later Cap- tain Augur's company (United States troops) fought John and " Limpy 's" band at the mouth of the Illinois River. The Indians fought desperately, leaving five dead on the battlefield. On March 27, 1855, the regulars again met the In- dians on Lower Rogue River. After a brisk fight at close quarters the Indians fled, leaving ten dead and two of the soldiers were severely wounded. On April 1, 1855, Captain Creighton, with a company of citizens, attacked an Indian vil- lage near the mouth of the Coquille River, killing nine men, wounding eleven and taking forty squaws and children prisonei-s. About this time some volun- teers attacked a party of Indians who were moving in canoes at the mouth of the Rogue River. They killed eleven men and one squaw. Only one man and two s(iua-«\s of the party escaped. On April 29, 1855, a party of sixty regulars es​
corting a pack train were attacked near Chetco. In this tight three soldiers were killed and wounded. The Indians lost six killed and several wounded.
The volunteer forces of the coast were three companies known by the name of "Gold Beach Guards," the "Coquille Guards," and the "Port Orford Min- ute Men. ' '
On May 31st, Governor Curry ordered the volunteer forces to disband — nearly all the Indians had surrendered. About one thousand three hundred of the various tribes that had carried on the war were gathered in camp at Port Orford. About July 1, 1856, "John" and thirty-five tough looking warriors, the last to surrender, "threw down the hatchet."
A large number of the pioneer Oregonians rendered valuable and distin- guished services in this long, bitter and sanguinary contest with the native red men. General Joseph Lane, Col. John E. Ross, Capt. Wm. H. Packwood, Capt. Ben. Wright, J. H. Lamerick, John F. Miller, Elias Owens, W. W. Fowler, B. F. Alden, Burrell Griffin, Major J. A. Lupton, Mrs. Mary Harris, Capt. A. J. Smith, Capt. Creighton, Major Latshaw, Capt. J. M. Kirkpatrick, Col. John Kelsay, Col. W. W. Chapman, Major James Bruce, and Dr. Wm. L. Colvig ; all of whom have now passed over the Great Divide, except Major Bruce, and Capt. Pack- wood, who are at this writing (May 1st, 1912) both still in the full vigor of their mental faculties and good bodily health.
THE YAKIMA WAE
There can be but little doubt that there was an effort on the part of all the Indians of the region of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to form in 1854 a general combination to expel the white people from all this territory or to exter- minate them. And if the Indians had possessed a great leader like Pontiac or Tecumseh they might well nigh have succeeded. There could not have been more than 3,500 men capable of bearing arms in Oregon at that time. Washington was so sparsely settled that it could not have defended its own people ; and [daho was still then an Indian country. As against such a combination the men of Oregon would have had to do the fighting, as in fact thej' did do it. helped out by small detachments of the regular army. The wars broke out simultane- ously in Idaho, Eastern Oregon, on Puget Sound and in Southern Oregon. It was ascertained subsequently that previous thereto the Indians in all these sec- tions of the country had been accumulating large quantities of powder, lead and rifles. The aggregate force of Indian warriors in these regions could not have been less than eight thousand. In their wide extended attacks they had many advantages over the Oregonians. First, a large force had to be deployed to Idaho to protect the incoming immigration on the Oregon Trail. Here fifty Indians could keep 500 white men busy scouting for them, and then not catch a single Indian and not fully protect the immigrants. Second, the Indian men could all go on the war path and leave the women to shift for themselves and take care of children. Third, the Indians needed no shelter tents, commissary train, baggage masters, wagons, horses or wagon roads. They knew every nook, corner, defile and hiding place in all the mountains, and could fire from ambush and retreat in safety, while their game hunters could supply them with meat
CHIEF JOSEPH OF THE NEZ PERCES The greatest Indian character since Pontiac and Tecumseh
"On Wednesday, March 26, 1856, at about 8:30 A. M. the men had gone to their work on the two bridges of the new railway, mostly on the bridge near Bush's house, the Yakimas came down on us. There was a line of them from Mill Creek above us to the big point at the head of the falls, firing simultaneously on the men ; and the first notice we had of them was the bullets and the crack of their guns. Of our men, at the first fire, one was killed, and several wounded. Our men on seeing the Indians all ran for our store, through a shower of bullets, except three who stalled down stream for the middle blockhouse, distant one and a half miles. Bush and his family also ran into our store, leaving his house vacant. The Watkins family came to the store after a Dutch boy, who was lame from a cut in the foot,—had been shot in their house. Watkins, Finlay and Baily were at work on the new warehouse on the island, around which the water was now high enough to run about three feet deep under the bridges. There was grand confusion in the store at first; and Sinclair, of Walla Walla, going to the railroad door to look out, was shot from the bank above the store and instantly killed. Some of us commenced getting the guns and rifles, which were ready loaded and behind the counter. Fortunately, about an hour before, there had been left with us for transportation below, nine United States gov​eminent rifles with cartridge boxes and ammunition. These saved us. As the upper. story of the house was abandoned, Smith the cook, having come below, and as the stairway was outside where we dare not go, the stove pipe was hauled down, the hole enlarged with axes, and a party of men crawled up and the upper part of the house was soon secured- We were surprised that the Indians had not rushed into the upper story, as there was nothing or nobody to prevent them.
"Our men soon got some shots at the Indians on the bank above us. I saw Bush shoot an Indian, the first one killed, who was drawing a bead on Mrs. Watkins as she was running for our store. He dropped instantly. Alexander and others mounted into the gable under the roof, and from there was done most of our firing, it being the best place of observation. In the meantime, we were barricading in the store, making portholes and firing when opportunity presented. But the Indians were soon very cautious about exposing themselves. I took charge of the store, Dan Bradford of the second floor, and Alexander of the garret and roof.
"The steamer Mary was lying in the mouth of Mill Creek, and the wind was blowing hard down stream. When we saw Indians running toward her and heard the shots, we supposed she would be taken ; and as she lay just out of our sight, and we saw smoke rising from her, concluded she was burning, but what was our glad surprise after a while to see her put out and run across the river. I will give an account of the attack on her hereinafter.
"The Indians now returned in force to us, and we gave every one a shot who showed himself. They were nearly naked, painted red and had guns and bows and arrows. After a while Finlay came creeping around the lower point of the island toward our house. We halloed to him to lie down behind a rock, and he did so. He called that he could not get to the store as the bank above us was covered with Indians. He saw Watkin's house burn while there. The Indians first took out all they wanted — blankets, clothes, guns, etc. By this time the Indians had crossed in canoes to the island, and we saw them coming, as we supposed, after Finlay. We then saw Watkins and Bailey running around the river side towards the place where Finlay was, and the Indians in full chase after them. As our own men came around the point in full view, Bailey was shot through the arm and leg. He continued on, and plunging into the river, swam to the front of our store and came in safely, except for his wounds. He narrowly escaped going over the falls. Finlay also swam 'across and got in unharmed, which was wonderful, as there was a shower of bullets around them.
"Watkins next came running around the point, and we called to him to lie down behind a rock, but before he could do so he was shot in the wrist, the ball going up the anu and out above the elbow. He dropped behind a rock just as the 'pursuing Indians came following around the point, but we gave them so hot a reception from our house that they backed out and left poor Watkins where he lay. We called to Watkins to lie still and we would get him off; but we were not able to do so until after the arrival from The Dalles of the steamer Mary with troops — two days and nights afterwards. During this time Watkins fainted several times from weakness and exposure, the weather being very cold, and he was stripped down to his underclothes for swimming. When he fainted he would roll down the steep bank into the river, ​and the
ii'(>-c'old water reviving liiiii. lie would cniwi liaek under lire to his retreat be- hind the rock. Meautiiue. his wile aud ciiildren were in the store in full view, and moaning piteously at his terrible situation. H(> died from cxliaus- tion two days after he was rescued.
•'The Indians were now piteliing into us 'right smart.' They tried to Iniru us out; tlirew rouks and tire l>rands. hot irons, pitch wood — everyl liiriK on the roof that would burn. But you will recollect that for a short distance hack the bank inclined toward the house, and we could see and shoot the In- dians who appeared there. So they had to throw from such a distance that the largest rocks and bundles of fire did not quite reach iis; and what did, generally rolled off the roof. Some times the 'roof got on fire, and we cut it out, or with cups of brine drawn from pork barrels put it out or with long sticks shoved off the fire l)alls. The kitchen roof troubled us the most. How they did pepper us with rocks; some of the big ones would shake the house all over.
"There were now forty men, women and children in the house — four women, and eighteen men that could fight, and eighteen wounded men and children. The steamer Wasco was on the Oregon side of the river. We saw her steam up and leave for The Dalles. Shortly after, the steamer Mary also left. She had to take Atwell 's fence rails for wood. So passed the day, during which the In- dians had burned Inman 's two houses, your saw-mill and houses, and the lumber yards at the mouth of Mill Creek. At daylight, they set fire to your new ware- house on the Island, making it as light as day around us. They did not attack us at night, but the second morning commenced as lively as ever. We had no water, but did have about two dozen ale and a few bottles of whiskey. These gave out during the day. During the night, a Spokane Indian who was travel- ing with Sinclair, was in the store with us volunteered to get a pail of water from the river. I consented, and he stripped himself naked, jumped out and down the bank, and was back in no time. By this time we looked for the steamer from The Dalles, and were greatl.y disappointed at her non-arrival. We weath- ered it out during the day. Every man keeping his post, and never relaxing in vigilance. Every moving object, shadow, or suspicious bush on the hill, received a shot. The Indians must have thought the house a bombshell. To our ceaseless vigilance I ascribe our safety. Night came again; we saw Sheppard's house burn ; Bush 's house neai'by, was also fired, and kept us in light until about four A. M., when darkness returning, I sent the Spokane Indian for water from the river, and he filled two barrels. He went to and fro like lightning. We also slipped poor James Sinclair's body down the slide outside, as the corpse was quite offensive.
"The two steamers now^ having exceeded the length of time we gave them in which to return from The Dalles, we made up our minds for a long siege and until relief came from below. We could not account for it, but supposed the Ninth Regiment had left The Dalles for Walla Walla, and had proceeded too far to return. The third morning dawned, and lo! the Mary and the Wasco blue with soldiers, and towing a flat-boat with dragoon horses, hove in sight: such a hallo as we gave.
' ' As the steamer landed the Indians fired twenty or thirty shots into them, but we could not ascertain with any effect. The soldiers as they got ashore could ​
not be restrained, and plunged into the woods in every direction, while the howitzers sent grape after the retreating red skins. The soldiers were soon at our store, and we, I think I maj' say, experienced quite a feeling of relief on opening our doors. During this time we had not heard from below. A com- pany of dragoons under Colonel Steptoe went on down. Dan went with them. The block-house at the middle Cascades still held out. Allen's house was burned, and every other one below. George W. Johnson's, S. M. Hamilton's, P. A. Chenoweth's, The wharf boat at Cascades — all gone up. Next in order comes the attack on the Mary. She lay in Mill Creek, no fires, and wind hard ashore. Jim Thompson, John Woodard and Jim Herman, were just going up to the boat from our store and had nearly reached her as they were flred upon. Her- man asked if they had any guns. No. He went on up to Inman's house, the rest staying to help get the steamer out. Capt. Dan Baughman and Thompson were ashore on the upper side of the creek hauling on lines, when the firing from the Indians became so hot they ran for the woods, passed Inman's house- The firemen, James Lindsaj*, was shot through the shoulder. Engineer, Buckminster shot an Indian with his revolver on the gang-plank, and little Johnny Chance went climbing up on the hurricane deck with an old dragoon pistol, killed his In- dian; but he was shot through the leg in doing so. Dick Turpin, half crazy, probably, taking the only gain on the steamboat, jumped into a flat boat lying along side, was shot, and jumped overboard and was drowned. Fires were soon started under the boiler and steam was raising. About this time, Jesse Kempton, shot while driving an oxteara from the saw-mill, got on board ; also a half-breed named "Bourbon," who was shot through the body. After sufficient steam to move was I'aised, Hardin Chenoweth ran up into the pilot house, and, lying on the floor, turned the wheel as he was directed from the lower deck. It is almost needless to say that the pilot house was a target for the Indians. After the steamer was fairly backed out and turned around, he did toot that whistle at them good. Toot ! Toot ! Toot ! it was music in our ears. The steamer picked up Herman on the bank above. Inman's family, Sheppard, and Vanderpool all got across the river in skiffs, and boarding the Mary went to The Dalles.
"Colonel George Wright and the Ninth Regiment, Second Dragoons, and Third Artillery, had started for Walla AValla, and were out five miles, camped. They received news of the attack at 11 P. M., and by daylight were l3ack at The Dalles. Starting down, they only reached Wind Mountain that night, as the Mary's boiler was in bad order, because of a new fireman the day before. They reached us the next morning at 6 o'clock.
"Now for below. George Johnson Avas about to get a boat's crew of Indians when Indian Jack came running to him, saying the Yakimas had attacked the block house. He did not believe it, although he heard the cannon. He went up to the Indian village on the sand bar to get his crew; saM' some of the Cascade Indians, who said they thought the Yakimas had come, and George, now hearing the muskets ran for home. E. W. Baughman was with him. Bill Murphy had left the block-house early for the Indian camp, and had nearly returned before he saw the Indians or was shot at. He returned, two others with him, and ran for George Johnson's, about thirty Indians in chase. After reaching Johnson's, Murphy continued on and gave Hamilton and all below warning, and the families embarked in small boats for Vancouver. The men would have barricaded in the ​
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON 4J;J
whari'-boat but for want ol' aimimiiitioii. There was considerable goveriiiuenl freight in tlie wharf-boat. They staid about the wharf-boat and schooner nearly all day, and until the Indians coiumenced tiring upon them from the zinc house on the bank. They then shoved out. Tommy Price was shot through the leg in getting the boats into the stream. Floating down they met the steamer Belle with Phil Sheridan and forty men (Sheridan afterwards Maj. Gen. Sheridan of the Union Army) sent up on report of an express carried do^vn by Indian Simpson in the morning. George and those with him went on board the steamer and volunteered to serve under Sheridan, who landed at George's place and found everything burned. The steamer returned, and the Indians pitched into Sher- idan, fought him all day and drove him with forty men and ten volunteers to be- low Hamilton's, notwithstanding he had a small cannon — one soldier killed.
"The steamer Belle returned the next day (3rd of the attack) and brought am- munition for the block-house. Your partner. Bishop, who was in Portland, came up on her. Steamer Fashion, with volunteers from Portland, came at the same time. The volunteers remained at the lower Cascades. Sheridan took his command, and with a bateaux loaded with ammunition, crossed to Brad- ford's Island on the Oregon side, where they found most of the Cascade Indians, they having been advised by George Johnson to go on there the first ^lay of the attack. They were crossing and re-crossing all the time, and Sheridan made them prisoners. He pressed a boat's crew, and as they towed up to the head of the Island and above, saw great numbers of Indians on the Washington Territory side and oi)posite them. Sheridan expected them to cross and fight him, and between them, and the friendly ( ?) Indians in his charge, thought he had his hands full.
■■Just then Sheridan discovered Steptoe and his dragoon infantry and volun- teers coming down from the Mary, surprising completely the Indians, who were cooking beef and watching Sheridan across the river. But on the sound of the bugle the Indians fled like deer to the woods w'ith the loss of only one killed — 'Old Joanum. ■ But for the bugle they ought to have captured fifty.
' ' The Ninth Regiment are building a block-house on the hill above us, also at George Johnson 's and will hereafter keep a sti'ong force here. Lieut. Bissell and twelve men who were stationed at the Upper Cascades were ordered awa\- and left for The Dalles two days before the attack w^as made upon us.
■"The Indians Sheridan took on the Island were closely guarded. Old Cheno- weth (Chief) was brought up before Colonel Wright, tried, and sentenced to be hung. The Cascade Indians, being under treaty, were adjudged guiltj" of trea- son in fighting. Chenoweth died game; was hung on the upper side of Mill Creek. I acted as interpreter. He offered ten horses, two squaws, and a little something to every ' tyee ' for his life ; he said he was afraid of the grave in the ground, and begged to be put into an Indian dead house. He gave a terrific war whoop while the rope was being put around his neck. I thought he expected the Indians to come and rescue him. The rope did not work well, and while hanging he muttered, 'wake niki kwass kopa memaloose!' (I am not afraid to die). He was then shot. I was glad to see the old devil killed, being satisfied that he was at the bottom of all the trouble. B^xt I cannot detail at too great length.
■■The next day Teeoiueoe anil Cap. Jo. were hung. Cap. Jo. said all ​cade Indians were in the fight. The next day, Toy, Sim Lasselas, and Four-fingered Johnny were hung. The next day Chenoweth Jim, Tumalth, and Old Skein were hung and Kanewake sentenced, but reprieved on the scaffold. Nine in all were executed. Banaha is a prisoner at Vancouver and decorated with ball and chain. The rest of the Cascade Indians are on your Island, and will be shot if seen otf of it. Such are Col. Wright's orders. Dow, Watiquin, Peter, Mahooka John, Kotzue, and maybe more of them, have gone with the Yakimas.
"I forgot to mention that your house at the Lower Cascades, also Bishop's was burned ; also to account for Captain Dan. Baughman and Jim Thompson. They put back into the mountains, and at night came down to the river at Vanderpool's place, fished up an old boat and crossed to the Oregon side. They concealed themselves in the rocks on the river bank opposite, where they could watch us ; and at niglit went back into the mountains to sleep. They came in safely after the troops arrived.
"We do not know how many Indians there were. They attacked the block-house, our place, and drove Sheridan all at the same time. We think there was not less than two or three hundred. When the attack was made on us three of our carpenters ran for the middle block-house, overtook the cars at the salmon house, cut the mules loose, and, with the car drivers, all kept on. They were not fired on until they got to the Spring on the railroad, but from there they ran the gauntlet of bullets and arrows to the fort. Little Jake was killed in the run. Several were wounded."
This is a sample of the desperate sort of fighting the Indians prosecuted all over Eastern Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Southern Oregon for the years 1855 and 1856 ; and only came to an end by the practical exhaustion of the Indian allies. The U. S. Government then made a business effort to extinguish the Indian title to lands the American settlers wished to occupy. When all the bills and expenses the Government was liable for, or should justly assume and pay for these years of war was summed up, the aggregate was $6,011,457.36, as reported by Captains Rufus Ingalls and A. J. Smith, U. S. A., and L. F. Grover, commissioners appointed to audit these war claims. On February 7. 1860, R. J. Atkinson, Third Auditor of the United States Treasury, reported $2,714,808.55 as justly due ; and the greater part of this sum was during the early years of the Civil war in depreciated currency. This reduction and mode of payment bankrupted many of the early settlers, from the effects of which they never recovered. Then a peaceable settlement was made with the Indians for less than one- sixth of that expense. Treaties and purchases of lands from the Indians were made as follows. Twenty-nine thousand square miles, covering Klickitat, Yakima, Kittitas, Spokane, Lincoln, Whitman, Franklin, Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, Columbia, and Walla Walla counties in the State of Washington and portions of Union and Umatilla Counties in Oregon, excepting the Indian Reserves therein, were ceded to the United States by the allied Indians known as the "Yakima Nation." For this vast tract the Indians were to be paid $200,000 in yearly installments, and $500 a year to the head chief for twenty years. The Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Umatillas joined in another treaty by which they were to receive $100,000, with $500 a year to their head man for twenty years, and re- serving the lands in the Umatilla Reservation. The Nez Perces, who had always been friendly to the whites, joined in another treaty ceding eighteen thousand
Fifty-eight Chiefs signed this treaty. The Flatheads, Kootenais, and Upper Pend d'Oreilles, constituting that Flathead Nation, made a treaty cediiiji: twenty thousand s(|uaiH' miles, reserving a large tract for their exehisive use, and for which they were to reeeive $200,000 and $500 a year for twenty years to their head man. After making all these treaties, buying over fifty million acres of land for less than two cents an acre. Gen. Joel Palmer, who had negotiated all these treaties returned to The Dalles, Oregon, and there induced the Wascoes, Des Chutes, and John Day river Indians on June 25, 1855, to cede their lands amounting to sixteen thousand square miles, for the sum of $150,000. This was the best bargain of all, including as it did all the rich wheat lauds, of Wasco, Sherman, Morrow, Crook, and Wheeler Counties at one cent per acre, and re- serving to the Indians the beautiful Warm Springs Reservation at the east base of Mt. Jefferson. After making these treaties for the acquisition of all these millions of acres of Indian land. General Palmer published a notice in which Governor Isaac I. Stevens of Washington Territory concurred, telling the people that all the country east of the summit of the Cascade Mountains, except the Reservations, was opened to settlement. But the Indians did not so understand it. The great body of the Indians did not approve of what their Chiefs had done. They could not understand how for a sum of money they knew not the value of, the Chiefs could barter away their ancient hunting grounds. And so when the first breath of resistance came they were all ready to repudiate what the Chiefs had done and rush into a wide spread relentless war. So far as money considerations were concerned the exhausted and impoverished Rogue Rivers fared worse than all the other Indians, receiving only about $125,000 in trust for all of their Southern Oregon country.
But they fared better in Reservations; their homes being cast in the mild climate of Lincoln and Yamhill Counties, with very good hunting and trapping grounds and an abundance of fish, with friendly white neighbors with whom they could visit and trade.
In the prosecution of the Yakima war, many Oregonians rendered distin- guished and valuable services; among whom should be named Col. T. R. Cor- nelius, Col. James K. Kelly, Col. Gilliam, Col. James W. Nesmith, Major Sowall Truax, and many others.
THE MODOC WAR
This Chapter will be closed with a brief account of the most bitter and sen- sational Indian war in the whole history of the United States, the leader of which was the youngest Chief among all the fighting Indians; and who for mental ability, quick perception, cunning and dare-devil courage was more than equal to any military officer sent out to capture or kill him. Bancroft's account of the Modoc war covers 183 pages of his history of Oregon, and its great length of detail forbids its inclusion in a single volume of the State.
The word "Modoc" means "a stranger" or "hostile stranger;" and that is what in fact and truth the Modoc Indians proved to be to the people of South- east Oregon. From the time some of Fremont's men were killed on Klamath Lake in 1843. down to the making of the first treaty with them in 1864, the Mo- docs were the implacable enemies of the white race. They lived on the border land between California and Oregon, but mostly in Oregon, on Sprague River ​and upper Klamath Lake; Sconchin, the head Chief having his original home on Sprague river. Keintpoos, a young sub-chief, had his camp anywhere convenient about Tule Lake, and ranging the country over between the two Klamath Lakes to Yreka, California. He was called "Captain Jack" by the white settlers, because he had a love for military ornaments. He was a thoroughbred savage, and as debased a specimen of manhood as could be found, quickly taking up all the vices of civilization, and making his easy money by the prostitution of the women of his band, petty thieving and downright robbery. During the years of the civil war with the Southern States, "Jack," who had acquired considerable knowledge of the English language at the mining camps, heard much of the great war among the white men, and how so many thousands were being killed off. And having no knowledge of the size or population of the United States, conceived the idea that all the white soldiers being now away at war among themselves it would be a good time and an easy job to kill off all the white men in the Klamath Lake region, and thus get rid of them. But before starting in on this enterprise he sought out and had an interview with Elijah Steele, the Superintendent of Indian affairs for Northern California. The Modocs being Oregonians, Steele had no authority to make any treaty with them, but he did make a sort of personal and individual compact with Jack and his band which amounted to nothing more than abstaining from drunkenness, prostitution, theft, murder, child-selling and killing the white people, the only penalty for which was the loss of Steele's friendship. This of course amounted to nothing with the Indians. They were free to visit mining camps, go where they pleased and do as they please and cunningly cover up their bad conduct. Sconchin, the head Chief, was now an old man, and "Jack" speedily grasped the reins of authority, and lost no time in making himself master of the Indian situation, and taking unto himself all the joys and pleasures of an unrestrained and bloodthirsty savage. He would not remain on the Klamath Indian Reservation where old Chief Sconchin had gone; nor would he respect any authority of the Indian Agents, or the advice or wishes of the other Indian Chiefs, who had become attached to a young chief named Allen David, and who was striving to teach all the Indians the arts of peace. During the summer of 1871 Jack frequently visited the Klamath Reservation, defying the military authorities, and boasting that he had friends in Yreka who gave him passes to go where he pleased ; and upon a challenge he actually produced a pass signed by E. Steele confirming the boast of the Indian. Becoming so arrogant and puffed up with his budding greatness. Jack went upon the Klamath Reserve and killed an Indian doctor, who having failed to save the life of a member of Jack's family, was according to Jack's reasoning guilty of the death of the deceased. For this murder Ivan D. Apple- gate, commissary at Camp Yainax, made a requisition on the commander of Fort Klamath to arrest Jack for murder ; and this effort to bring Jack to account was defeated by Jack's white friends in Yreka. Jack now assumed that he was all-powerful; and with this event the trouble commenced. If the Yrekans had joined in demanding Jack's punishment for the murder of his own tribesman, he would have been punished, and all the bloody Avork he inflicted thereafter would have been prevented. Jack now demanded a separate Reservation for himself, six miles square lying on both sides of the Oregon and California line near the head of Tule Lake. And Superintendent of Indian Affairs, A. B. Mea​
cham, not knowing how to get Jack back on the Klamath Reserve, recommended that this special favor be given the ontlaw. All this fed the vanity of the savage and made him more insolent and dangerous. A part of the land that Jack de- manded was claimed under U. S. laws as the property of Jesse D. Carr of Cal- ifornia, and then in ('liarge of Carr's Agent — the old pioneer, Jesse Apijlegate. Of Applegate, Jack demanded pay for occupation, which being refused, one of Jack's personal friends known as Black Jim went on the war path with twenty warriors, alarming the whole community. The Modoc war had now practically commenced. Jack had repudiated and defied the U. S. authorities, openly com- mitted murder on a government reserve, defied the rights of white settlers to their lands under the laws, and put an armed force in the field to enforce his de- mands. About this time there was much confusion of authority on the Klamath Reservation by the changing of Agents, there being four different agents inside of three years time ; and this did not add to any respect for U. S. authority. Jack was invited to repeated conventions to settle differences, sometimes he would come and sometimes treat the invitation with contempt; and when he did con- descend to meet the white men to talk peace he was always accompanied by a dangerous retinue of fighting men. Finally, on June 27, 1872, Jack sent a mes- sage to Agent L. S. Dyer who had invited Jack to meet him at Linkville, in-, structing Dyar to say to the Superintendent: "We do not wish to see him (the Supt.) or talk with him. We do not want any white man to tell us what to do. Our friends and counselors are men in Yreka, California. They tell us to stay where we are, and we intend to do it, and will not go upon the Reservation. I am tired of being talked to, and I am done talking. "
This ultimatum from the haughty son of the forest, somewhat humiliating to the kindly appeals of government officials, put upon them the necessity of either allowing a savage to run at large ready to commit any outrage his innate hatred of the white race might suggest, or take the last resort and capture Jack and all his warriors by military force. The Superintendent of Indian affairs turned the whole matter over to Col. Green of Port Klamath, and that officer, guided by Ivan Applegate, made a forced march for Captain Jack's camp, ar- riving there early on the morning of November 29, 1872 with thirty-six regular troopers. Arriving at the outskirts of Jack's camp they called on the Indians to come out and surrender. A part of the Indians seemed willing to yield to the command, but Scarface Charley and Black Jim seized their guns and stood on the defensive. Lieut. Boutelle then advanced with a small guard to arrest "Scarface" and "Jim", when Scarface fired a rifle shot at the Lieut, and missed him. A volley of shots from both sides followed ; and one trooper was killed and seven wounded, and fifteen Indians were killed outright. Up to the time of the firing Jack had remained silent in his tent; but on the opening of the battle he came out and led the reti-eat of the Indians numbering twice as many as the soldiers. The Jlodoc war was now fairly opened; and couriers were sent off in every direction warning the white settlers to flee for their lives. Prom that time the enraged Indians burned, killed and destroyed in every direction, to the full extent of their a.bility. These murders and pillaging of property aroused the Governors of both California and Oregon to action and volunteci-s were called out to aid the U. S. regulars. Col. John Ross of Jacksonville and Capt. 0. C. Applegate of Klamath both raised companies which were accepted ​
and mustered into the service. Applegate's company was made up of seventy men, nearly half of whom were selected Klamaths, Modocs, Shoshones and Pit River Indians, and from their training and knowledge of the country proved to be the most alert and effective soldiers in the service.
Jack's warriors were finally rounded up and forced to retreat to the lava beds on the east shore of Tule Lake, from which it looked as if nothing but an earthquake or another outflow of lava would ever be able to get him out. Prom the time Jack and his warriors retreated into this lava ^p.d stronghold on De- cember 16, 1872, until he was finally forced out after the massacre of General Canbey and the peace makers on May 30, 1873, — five ane. a, half months — there was continuous effort to capture or destroy him, without success. The savage Chieftain never at the best had more than sixty warriors to support him, while the regular army and volunteers amounted to fully five hundred men equipped with every then modern means of effective gunnery. And this also shows that the Indian must have been preparing for such a siege by laying in provisions for a long time before.
The massacre of the Peace Commissioners by Jack and his leaders on the 11th day of April, 1873, was a terrible revelation to the kind-hearted advocates of justice to the Indian. And it showed that there were fully as many white men who did not understand the Indian character, as there were Indians who could not comprehend the white man. When warned over and over by Riddle, the white husband of an Indian wife, that the Indians must not be trusted in a proposition for a peace talk in their lava bed den. Rev. Thomas, the Methodist minister who was murdered with Canby, replied "That God Almighty would not let any such a body of men be hurt that were on as good a mission as peace making." To this Riddle returned the only sensible and safe reply that could be made : ' ' Mr. Thomas, you may trust God as much as you please, but I don 't trust any of them Injuns."
The sad record of the treachery and murder of the peace makers is briefly as follows: Commencing about the 5th of March, 1873, diplomatic negotiations between Jack and Gen. Canby was carried on until the 10th of April; Jack endeavoring to get the General and his aids into his power and murder them, and the General trying on his part to secure honestly and fairly, just terms of peace between Jack and his adherents and the white settlers. Dozens of mes- sages were passed to and from the opposing camps. Toby Riddle, the white man with an Indian wife, and who understood the Modoc language acted as interpreter and go-between, and repeatedly warned Canby that it would not be safe for him to meet Capt. Jack in Council. The negotiations proved that the Indian was more than a match for the educated army officers in cunning, saga- city and diplomatic genius. Jack finally agreed to meet the Peace Commission, composed of Brig.-General E. R. Canby, Rev. E. Thomas, Supt. of Indian Af- fairs, A. B. Meacham, and Indian Agent, L. S. Dyer, and meet them at a point one mile from the soldiers, without guards, and all to go unarmed. Jack to be accompanied by five of his warriors. Toby Riddle still opposed the meeting, and again warned Canby of his danger. Meacham and Dyar also both opposed the meeting fearing a trap, but yielded to the wishes of Canby and Thomas. But so earnest was Riddle in his opposition to the meeting and determined to be not blamed for results, he forced the Commissioners to go with him to the ​
tent of Col. Gillem who was sick, and there made before Gilleni a formal pro- test against meeting Jack at the place selected, and admitted that he would go along rather than be called a coward; and then urged each man to arm him- self with a small pistol concealed on his person, so that if betrayed they would have something to defend themselves with.
This suggestion was spurned by Canby and the preacher, but adopted by Meacham and Dyer. Caiiby trusted to the army, and Thomas to God, to see them safe through. T'he point selected by Jack was a depression in the lava bed rocks, favoi'abl +o an ambuscade; and into this trap the Peace Commis- sioners went like laniuS to the slaughter on the morning of April 11, 1873. Ar- riving at the rendezvous all sat down around a camp fire. Canby offered the Modocs cigars, which were accepted, and all smoked for a while. The Genei'al opened the Council with an address, talking in a fatherly way about his desire to promote the welfare of the Indians, and make a permanent treaty of peace. Meacham and the Methodist minister followed in the same strain, urging the Indians to trust the white men and look forward to happy and peaceful days. Jack replied in a careless tone as to his having given up the Lost River country, and did not know anything about any other countries, and that he would de- maud the Cottonwood and Willowcreek lands, and removal to the U. S. soldiers from that country. And while ileaeham was making reply, and Sconchin was making disrespectful remarks in his own tongue. Hooker Jim arose from the ground and going to Meacham 's horse, took his overcoat aud putting it on with mocking gestures asked if he wa.s not a good Meacham. The affront was under- stood by all of them, but not noticed by any of them. General Canby then calmly arose and with kindly words to the Indians, told them he could not remove the soldiers without the authority of the President. Then Sconchin reit- erated the demand for the Cottonwood and Willow Creek lands. And while Sconchin was talking Jack arose from the ground and took a position in front of Gen. Canby ; and as he took this position two Indians suddenly appeared, as if rising out of the ground, each carrying a number of guns. Every man sprang to his feet as Jack gave the word "all ready" in his own language, and draw- ing a revolver from his breast shot down Gen. Canby. Simultaneously Sconchin fired on Meacham, and Boston Charley on the preacher. At the first motion of Jack to fire, Agent Dyer took to his heels and run for life pursued by Hooker Jim, but being hard pressed by the savage he turned and fired on him twice and finally reached the picket line in safety. Riddle also escaped by running, and his wife, Toby, after getting a blow on her head from one of the savages was allowed to follow her husband. Canby and Thomas were shot dead and both stripped and left naked. Meacham had five bullet wounds and a knife cut on the head, was thought dead, and stripped as the others; but was not dead, and was finally revived and survived the terrible attack. The Indians followed up this treacherous advantage with efforts to decoy other officers beyond the lines and murder them; but soon the awful truth was known and the soldiers rushed out to recover the dead.
This terrible chapter exceeds in savage brutality anything in previous deal- mgs with the Indians, and was followed up by a campaign that never halted or hesitated, until the last Modoc was captured, and Jack and his fellow mur​
derers hanged for their crimes; and all the rest of the Modocs sent into per- petual exile from their country at Quapaw Agency in the Indian Territory.
At the outset Jack 's warriors were estimated at sixty ; and on the final sur- render there were fifty fighting men and boys, over fifty women and sixty chil- dren. And while Jack was on the war path forty-one soldiers had been killed, fifty-nine wounded and twenty-four settlers had been killed and sixty-three wounded. Jack is described as rather small in stature, with small hands and feet and thin arms. His face was round, forehead low and square, expression serious, almost morose, his eye black, sharp, watchful, indicating cunning, cau- tion, and a determined will, and his age 36 when executed.
Thus ends the review of the Indian wars of Oregon. What was called the Shoshone war of 1866 and 8 never amounted to a serious war. While the In- dians committed many depredations on travelers, and isolated settlements, it was all of the horse-stealing character of warfare, and never amounting to a regular battle in any case with either settlers or soldiers. According to Mrs. Victor 's count, going over the whole history of Indian troubles in Oregon, Wash- ington and Idaho, the total number of white people killed in this region by In- dians from 1828 down to 1878 — fifty years — was 1896.
In closing this chapter a few words should be said in order to perpetuate the memories of three men — mixed bloods — who served Oregon well in the Indian wars — Captain Thomas McKay and his two sons. Dr. William C. McKay and his brother Donald. Captain McKay was the efficient commander of a company of volunteers in the Cayuse war, and died at Scappoose in 1849. Dr. McKay and Donald were scouts in the Yakima war of 1855-56, whose services were invaluable. It was the skill of the latter, under most hazardous conditions, that saved the lives of Major Haller's command of one hundred U. S. soldiers at the time he was defeated in Klickitat county, Washington, in October, 1855. In the Modoc campaign in 1872-1873 Donald McKay, with his sixty Warm Spring scouts, did more in ninety days to rouse the Modoc Indians from their stronghold in the lava beds than one thousand soldiers of the regular army did in a year. Captain Thomas McKay was a son of Alexander McKay, the partner of John Jacob Astor, who went on the Tonquin from Astoria, to Queen Charlotte's island in the summer of 1811 and was killed by the Indians together •ndth the entire ship's crew. He was the father of Dr. McKay and Donald. The former was born at. Astoria in March, 1824, and the latter near Walla Walla in 1836.