Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1881-01-25
INDIANS AND THEIR WARS IN
NEVADA.
BY FRANK T. GILBERT.

ptOpte Nv Uo0unCe " "e pHotte"eto" " VIC
State History in hoax form, Is to gire an oppor
tunity for those ocho observe IN 1t an error as to
fact, name on date, to adeise the Publishers Of
the same If those arho discover anything
to boz $50, Carson, Necada, correcting the
same, they ue;N, By so doing, ceafe, a favor
upon Thompson t Vest, the publishers.
The first intercourse between the white
and red race in Nevada, of which there is
any record, oates from 1882. In August Of
that year Milton Sublette reached the head
waters of the Humboldt River, with a
company of trappers; among whom was the
celebrated Joe Meek Within few days
after their arrival at that place, Meek
shot and killed a Shoshone Indian. The
unfortunate, though famous mountaineer,
n. J. Wythe, who was also of the party,
asked the trapper why he had done this,
and was told that it was only a hint, ''to
keep the Indians from stealing their traps. .
Had he stolen any?" queried his ques-
toner.
NO. replied Meek; but he looked as if
lie aras going tor
This WAS suggestive introduction OF the
whites to the natives of Nevada; one that
gives the chief actor a distinction over which
it requires, upon our part, great effort to
become enthusiastic.
The following year Captain B, L. E. Bon
70 40, itiOo Cff e., man (%(
under Joseph Walker, from the Green River
Valley, to explore and trap the country west
from Salt Lake to the Pacific Ocean-Meek
being one of the party. Kit Carson was
not one of them. He had been seriously
wounded, couple of months prior to this,
in an encounter with the Black Feet Iudi
ans. Consequently, the oft repeated asser-
ton that he discovered the Carson River in
1888 is untrue. The company made its way
slowly down the Humboldt River, trapping
as it went, until the curiosity of the natives
had gradually overcome their fears of the
whites. From day to day their numbers in
creased in The vicinity Of but at what they
considered, "a safe distance from the camp and
line of the strangers advance. At night the
more daring would occasionally steal into
camp and carry off some trifing article that
seemed to them treasure of priceless value.
Their petty larceny proclivities, combined
with their constantly increasing numbers,
eventually aroused the suspicion of Walker,
who claimed, as justification of what fol-
lowed, to have feared meditated attack
Washington Irving, in his account of this
expedition, says:
AT length, one day, they came to the banks of
stream emptyng into Ogden's River (Hum-
boldt), which they were obliged to ford. Here
great number of ShoshOnes were posted on the
opposite bank. Persuaded they were there with
hostile intent, they advanced upon them, leveled
their rifles, and killed twenty-five ID of them upon
the spot. The rest fled to Il short distance, then
halted and turned about, bowling and whining
like wolves and uttering the most piteous wall
ings. The trappers chased them in every direc-
ton; the poor wretches made no defence, but
fed with terror; neither does it appear from the
account of the boosted victors, that weapon had
been welded or weapon launched by the Indi-
ans throughout the affair. We feel perfectly
WINGED that the poor savages had no hostile in
tention, but had merely gathered together
through motives of curiosity.''
1t is to be hoped that Walker and his men
took sufficient pride in this achievement to
make up for the absence of that feeling over
the act with the balance of their race. If
they did not, it is hard to understand what
their recompense could have been for hay
ing become white savages.
A member of Walkers company, one
morning, found some of his traps missing,
and swore that he would have the life of the
first Indian he met. Soon after he CHANGED
to see couple fishing along the margin Of
thr river, unconscious of approaching dan
ger, when he deliberately raised his rifle
and fired at one of them, who sank to the
earth as his death cry rang out over the
valley. Impelled by an instinct that should
have made Of that white assassin jackal
among beasts, he deliberately walked up to
his fallen victim and kicked the dying In
dian from the banks into the stream. After
all these mementos of the white advent
among them, certainly the aboriginees must
have understood that the passage through
their country, or eventual settlement among
them, of this race with a pale skin, was a
thing to be desired and encouraged. If, in
after time, they sometimes failed to act
upon this principle, it should be attributed
to lack, on their part, of a just apprecia-
ton of post favors.
When the hunters reached the Sink of