20        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

CHAPTER II.

INDIANS OF NEVADA.

1825 TO 1913.

BY MAJOR G. W. INGALLS.

The first intercourse between the Whites and the Indians of which there is any authentic record, dates from 1825.

The American trappers, in their anxiety to get some of the valuable hunting grounds before the Hudson Bay Company's voyageurs could preempt them, sent out expeditions from St. Louis to the Far West. In 1825 one of the leaders of the expedition that explored the Great Salt Lake region, was Jedediah S. Smith, a New Yorker by birth, who after hunting around the lake, crossed over the great desert of sagebrush between the Humboldt River and Salt Lake, and trapped down the Humboldt, which he named Mary's River in honor of his Indian bride, and crossed over from the Humboldt Sink to the Carson River, and then up Churchill Canyon to the. Walker River in Mason Valley. He followed the Walker River to its source and then went to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. This was in 1825. On his return he saw Mono Lake and is said to have found gold. His second trip through Nevada was made over the southern route through what is now Lincoln County. From southern California he returned to the Rocky Mountains by way of the Columbia River, accompanying Peter Ogden's party to the winter home of the trappers in Jackson's Hole, just south of Yellowstone Park. In 1853 the famous Bonneville party passed through Nevada on its way to California. The expedition's history is written by Washington Irving, who was a friend of Bonneville. Joseph Walker, a famous trapper and guide accompanied the expedition. It is supposed that this was the first party to follow the Truckee River route into California. This same year Kit Carson came into Nevada with Thomas McCoy's trappers. About 1841 the first emigrants passed through Nevada, comprising the Bartle-

INDIANS OF NEVADA       21

son party from Independence, Mo., but the man who showed most prominently in this party was John Bidwell, the famous Californian.

The history of General John C. Fremont's explorations in the West is pretty well known, but we are especially interested in his second expedition, 1834-44. From Klamath Lake he turned south, and after a wearisome journey he came in sight of what he thus describes: "Beyond a defile between the mountains and filling up the lower space was a sheet of green water some twenty miles broad. It broke upon our eyes like the ocean. We camped opposite a very remarkable rock in the lake which attracted our attention for many miles. It rose according to our estimate about 600 feet above the water and presented a pretty exact outline of the pyramid of Cheops. This suggested a name for the lake and I called it "Pyramid Lake." This was written January 14, 1844. On the next day Fremont camped at the mouth of what he called Salmon Trout River and had a delightful trout dinner. From the bend of the River Wadsworth he turned toward the Carson, and still not liking the looks of the snow on the Sierra Nevada range, went on to the Walker River and followed that up to headwaters and finally crossed at one of the most difficult places he could have found. He left his wagons and more interesting than all, a small French howitzer, which had hindered him through all his journeying. This same gun had come very nearly wrecking the expedition at the outset, for the War Department wanted to know why he was taking a cannon into peaceable Spanish territory. Mrs. Fremont got the letter in St. Louis, and knowing its import, had dispatched a letter to her husband telling him to start at once without asking why. Like a good husband he did so, and Mrs. Fremont had her father, Senator Benton, explain matters at the capital. This gun was afterward brought to Carson City through the efforts of Dan de Quille-Wm. Wright, and finally became the property of Captain Pray and taken to Glenbrook, Nev., where it is so carefully preserved by someone that the Pray estate has never been able to get hold of it.

Fremont named Pyramid Lake; Humboldt River after Alexander von Humboldt, the great German scientist; Carson River after Christopher Carson; Walker River after Joseph Walker; Owens River after another guide; and he named Lake Tahoe-Bonpland after a famous French botanist. Other names in Nevada probably originated as follows: Washoe or Wassaw—Indian; Nevada—Spanish, snowy; Reno, after General Marcus

22        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

Reno; Lander after Colonel Frederick W. Lander of the United States Army; Lyon after Captain Robert Lyon of the pioneer army. The next published account of the Great Basin country is in the memoir of Lieutenant, now Brevet Major-General, Gouverneur K. Warren. In this memoir is a letter to General Warren from Robert Campbell, Esq., a well-known gentleman of Saint Louis, who was long connected with the fur trade and its operations in the tramontane regions of the West. In this letter Mr. Campbell gives verbatim the statement of Mr. James Bridger, corroborated by Mr. Samuel Tolleck, both Indian traders, to the effect that he, Bridger, was the first discoverer of Great Salt Lake, in the winters of 1824 and 1825.

"The stream on which they had thus fallen is called by some Mary's River, but is more generally known as Ogden's River, from Mr. Peter Ogden, an enterprising and intrepid leader of the Hudson Bay Company, who first explored it. It must be borne in mind that the Humboldt River constitutes a portion of the Great Basin system. Lieutenant Warren, in his memoir, page 36, says, "The party from the Hudson Bay Company, referred to in the postscript to Mr. Campbell's letter was under the enterprising leader, Mr. Peter Ogden, who discovered the Ogden's or Mary's River in 1828. One of Mr. Ogden's party took a woman for his wife from among the Indians found on this river, to whom the name of Mary was given. From this circumstance the stream was called Mary's River. It is also called Ogden's River, after its discoverer." Lieutenant Warren might with more propriety, we think, have said that the stream formerly was called Ogden's or St. Mary's River; but since the explorations of Fremont in 1845-'46 it has been known, by emigrants and others, entirely as the Humboldt River, the name Fremont gave it. On the map you send, I recognize my names of rivers, of Indian tribes, observations, Mary's or Maria's River, running southwest, ending in a long chain of flat lakes, never before on any map, and the record of the battle between my party and the Indians, when twenty-five were killed. This party clambered over the California range, were lost in it for twenty days, and entered the open locality to the west, not far from Monterey, where they wintered.

With regard to the Indians of the Grand Basin, Dr. Garland Hurt, the intelligent and brave Indian agent in Utah during the Mormon difficulty in 1857, 1858 and 1859, and the only civil officer connected with

INDIANS OF NEVADA       23

the general government whom the Mormons could not drive out of their territory, has furnished Captain Simpson with a very interesting memoir. From this memoir it appears that the Indians of the Great Basin, including those of the valleys of Green and Grand Rivers, consist of two tribes; the Ute and the Sho-sho-nes or Snakes. The Sho-sho-nes Dr. Hurt divides into Snakes, Bannacks, To-si-witches, Go-sha-utes, and Cum-um-pahs, though he afterward classes the last two divisions as hybrid races between the Sho-sho-nes and the Utahs.

The Snakes are fierce and warlike in their habits, and inhabit the country bordering on Snake River, Bear River, Green River, and as far east as Wind River. They are well supplied with horses and firearms, and subsist principally by hunting.

The Go-Shoots, Dr. Hurt classes among the Sho-sho-nes; but according to Mr. George W. Bean, Captain Simpson's guide in the fall of 1858, who has lived in Utah ever since the Mormons entered this region, and has been frequently employed as interpreter among the Indians, they are the offspring of a disaffected portion of the Ute tribe that left their nation, about two generations ago, under their leader or chief, Go-ship, whence their name Go-ship-utes, since contracted into Go-shutes. Captain Simpson is disposed to believe that they are thus derived, from the fact that he noticed among them several Utes, who, while claiming that they be-longed to the Utes proper, had intermarried with the Go-shoots and were living among them. The Py-utes, according to Major Dodge, their Indian agent in 1859, says "they numbered at that date between 6,000 and 7,000 souls. They inhabit Western Utah, from Oregon to New Mexico; their locations being generally in the vicinity of the principal rivers and lakes of the Great Basin, viz.: Humboldt, Carson, Walker, Truckee, Owen's Pyramid and Mono. They resemble in appearance, manners and customs the Delawares on our Missouri frontier, and with judicious management, and assistance from government, would in three years equal them in agriculture. Their chief in 1859 was Won-a-muc-ca—(the Giver), and it was a portion of this tribe under this chief, who had been engaged just previously in the massacres in western Utah. Their language resembles in some words the Sho-sho-ne. This tribe is frequently con-founded with the Pah-utes, with which they show only a distant affinity. The Washoes, according to Major Dodge, numbered in 1859 about 900 souls, and inhabit the country along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada,

24        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

from Honey Lake, on the north, to the Clara, the west branch of Walker's River, a distance of 15o miles. They are not inclined to agricultural pursuits, nor any other advancement toward civilization. They are destitute of all the necessaries of life. In 1859 there was not one horse, pony, or mule in the nation. They are peaceable, but indolent. In the summer they wander around the shores of Lake Bigler, those in the Sierra Nevada, principally subsisting on fish. In the winter they lie around in the artemisia (wild sage) of their different localities, subsisting on a little grass-seed. The Indian vocabulary appended to Captain Simpson's report shows that they are a distinct tribe, and in no way assimilate with the Utes, Sho-sho-nes, or Py-utes.

"The Earth and Man," to wit, that the contour, relief, and relative position of the crust of the earth are intimately connected with the development of man. These Indians live in a barren, on account of its altitude, a cold climate; and the consequence is they are obliged to live entirely on rabbits, rats, lizards, snakes, insects, rushes, roots, grass-seed, etc. They are more filthy than beasts, and live in habitations which, summer and winter, are nothing more than circular inclosures, about four feet high, without roof, made of the artemisia or sagebrush, or branches of the cedar, thrown around on the circumference of a circle, and which serve only to break off the wind. As the temperature in winter must at times be as low as zero, it will be perceived they must suffer considerably. Anything like a covered lodge, or wick-e-up of any sort, to protect them from rain, cold, or snow, Captain Simpson did not see among them. Their dress, summer and winter, is a rabbit-skin tunic or cape, which comes down to just below the knee; and seldom have they leggings or moccasins. The children at the breast were perfectly naked, and this at a time when overcoats were required by Captain Simpson's party. The women frequently appeared naked down to the waist, and seemed unconscious of any immodesty in thus exposing themselves.

The Paiute, Washo, Tribal Synonymy.—Hogopagoni—Shoshoni name, "rush arrow people" (hogap, a small water reed; paba, "arrow.") Numa—proper tribal name, signifying "people" or "Indians"; the same name is also used for themselves by the Shoshoni and Comanche. Pai yu chimu—Hopi name. Pai yu tsi—Navaho name. Palu—Washoe name. Paiute or Piute—popular name, variously rendered "true pai Ute" or "water pah Ute"—pronounced among themselves Paiuti.

INDIANS OF NEVADA       25

NOTE.—The northern bands of the Paiute are frequently included with Shoshoni and others under the name of Snakes, while the others are often included with various Californian tribes under the collective name of Diggers.

Sketch and Characteristics of the Paiutes.—The Paiute belong to the great Shoshonean stock and occupy most of Nevada, together with adjacent portions of southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona and northwestern and southeastern California. The Pahvant and Gosiute on their eastern border are frequently classed as Paiute, while the Chemeheuvi, associated with the Walapai in Arizona, are but a southern offshoot of the Paiute and speak the same language. With regard to the Indians of Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations, who constitute the main body of those commonly known as Paiute, Powell claims that they are not Paiute, but another tribe which he calls Paviotso. He says: "The names by which the tribes are known to white men and the department give no clue to the relationship of the Indians. For example, the Indians in the vicinity of the reservation on the Muddy—and the Indians on the Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations are called Pai original or Pah water Utes, but the Indians know only those on the Muddy by that name, while those on the other two reservations are known as Paviotsoes, and speak a very different language, but closely allied to, if not identical with, that of the Bannocks" (Comr. 45). The Ghost dance originated among these Paviotsoes Indians in the neighborhood of Walker River, at Mason Valley, and for convenience of reference we shall speak of them under their popular title of Paiute, without asserting its correctness.

The different small bands have little political coherence and there is no recognized head chief. The most influential chiefs among them in modern times have been Winnemucca, who died a few years ago, and Natchez. Wovoka's leadership is spiritual, not political. The Sides Indians of Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations claim the Bannock as their cousins, they may be safely estimated at from 7,000 to 8,000 and are thought to be increasing. In 1893 those on reservations, all in Nevada, were reported to number, at Walker River, 563; at Pyramid Lake, 494 at Duck Valley (Western Shoshone agency, in connection with the Shoshoni), 209. Nevada Indians off reservations were estimated to number 6,815, nearly all of whom were Paiute and Shoshone.

            As a people the Paiutes are peaceable, moral, industrious, and are highly

26        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

commended for their good qualities by those who have had the best opportunities for judging. While apparently not as bright in intellect as the prairie tribes, they appear to possess more solidity of character. By their willingness and efficiency as workers, they have made themselves necessary to the white farmers and have been enabled to supply themselves with good clothing and many of the comforts of life, while on the other hand they have steadily resisted many of the vices of civilization. Many of them are employed as laborers on the farms of white men in all seasons, but they are especially serviceable during the time of harvesting and haymaking. Aside from their earnings among the whites, they derive their subsistence from the fish of the lakes, jack rabbits and small game of the sage plains and mountains, and from pinon nuts and other seeds which they grind into flour for bread. Their ordinary dwelling is the wikiup or small rounded hut of tule rushes over a framework of poles, with the ground for a floor and the fire in the center and almost entirely open at the top.

The Washo.—Associated with the Paiute are the Washo Indians, or Wa Sui, as they call themselves, a small tribe of about 900, and having no affinity, so far as known, with any other Indians. *They occupy the mountain region in the extreme western portion of Nevada, about Washoe and Tahoe lakes and the towns of Carson and Virginia City and Reno. They formerly extended farther east and south, but have been driven back by the Paiute, who conquered them, reducing them to complete subjection and forbidding them the use of horses, a prohibition which was rigidly enforced until within a few years. Thus broken in spirit, they became mere hangers-on of the white settlements on the opening up of the mines. They have been utterly neglected by the government and have never been included in any treaty.

Shoshonean Family.—The extent of country occupied renders this one of the most important of the linguistic families of the North American Indians, and may thus be described : On the north, the southwest part of Montana, the whole of Idaho, south of latitude 45-30, with southeast Oregon, south of the Blue Mountains, west and central Wyoming, west and central Colorado with a strip of New Mexico and the whole of north-western Texas, were Shoshonean. All of Utah, a section of Arizona, the whole of Nevada, save the small Washoe strip of country, was held by Shoshonean tribes. The northeastern part of California, also a wide sec-

---------------

* Their dialect is quite different from that of any other Nevada Indians.

INDIANS OF NEVADA       27

tion of the Eastern Sierras, and along the Pacific Coast of California. Also the Hopi Indians of northern Arizona. Bannocks, Utes and Cornmanches, are branches of ancient Shoshonean tribes. To the west of the Rocky Mountains, the Shoshoneans are of different types to those Indians east of the mountains. The latter were Buffalo hunters and they had horses in abundance and the Indians were of a warlike character. The Indians west had, as a rule, a barren country, largely destitute of big game. The original inhabitants were forced to subsist on rabbits and other small game, including fish, mice, rats and gophers and to a considerable extent on roots and the seeds of wild grasses. This mode of life gave this latter branch of the Nevada and California Indians, the name of Diggers. Large supplies of the roots referred to were dug in the summer and fall of the year and buried for the winter's supply of food. By many writers these tribes are unjustly represented as closely approaching the brute creations in their mode of life. But in most respects this statement is untrue. They made and used bows and arrows, manufactured a very fine variety of basketry. Some of these tribes are famous for the unique style and variety of their pottery. A large number of these Indians, including Piutes, Shoshoneans and Washoes of Nevada, Gosi Utes of northeastern Nevada, Chemeheuviers of northern Arizona and western Nevada, the Washoes and Paviotoso tribes have become successful farmers. (See Statistical Tables on Farming, supporting these statements.) I—Hopi. II—Plateau Shoshonean (a) Ute; Chemehueviers, Kerraiisu, Piutes ; Panament, Ute and some of the Bannocks ; Shoshonean Cornmanche; Commanchi Goal Ute. Shoshoni (c) Mono Paviotoo; Mono Paviotoo--Part of Bannocks and East Oregon ; Southern California Shoshoneans (Consult Kroeber Shoshonean dialects of California).—University of California Bub. Am. Archaeology.

Bonniville in 1832 and later found the Shoshones or Snake Tribes living in tipis and sagebrush shelters without roofs, merely half circles of brush, behind which they obtained imperfect protection from wind and snow. There were many dialects among the Shoshoneans corresponding to the greater or less degree of isolation of the several tribes. They presented no essential difference and were all mutually intelligible.

Mr. J. Forney, superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah, classes and numbers the various tribes and bands of Indians in Utah as follows:

28        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

Sho-sho-nes, or Snakes ------------------4,500

Bannacks -------------------------------------500

Uinta Utes --------------------------------- 1,000

Spanish Fork and San Pete farms --------900

Pah-vant (Utes) ----------------------------- 700

Pey-utes (South) -------------------------- 2,200

Pey-utes (West) --------------------------- 6,000

Elk Mountain Utes ----------------------- 2,000

Washoe of Honey Lake ------------------- 700

                                                            --------

                                                          18,500

The Sho-sho-nes claim the northeastern portion of the territory for about 4oo miles west and from 100 to 125 miles south from the Oregon line. The Utes claim the balance of the territory." (Pres. Mes. and Doc., 1859-'6o, Part 1.)

These Go-shoots are few in number, not more, probably, than 2o0 or 3oo, and reside principally in the grassy valleys west of Great Salt Lake, along and in the vicinity of Captain Simpson's routes, as far as the Un-go-we-ah Range.

In addition to the Indians just mentioned as inhabiting the Great Basin, should be mentioned the Pyute and the Washoe tribes, which, not being within Dr. Hurt's jurisdiction, were not included by him.

The fear of capture causes these people to live some distance from the water, which they bring in a sort of jug made of willow tightly platted together and smeared with fir-gum. They also make their bowls, seed and root-baskets in the same way; a species of manufacture quite common among all the Indian tribes, and which Captain Simpson saw in his explorations of 1849, in the greatest perfection, among the Navajos and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. Captain Simpson describes in his report a visit to one of their kants, as they call their habitations, as follows:

"Just at sunset, I walked out with Mr. Faust to see some of these Go-shoots at home. We found, about one and a half miles from camp, one of their habitations, which consisted only of some cedar branches disposed around the periphery of a circle about ten feet in diameter, and in such a manner as to break off, to the height of about four feet, the wind from the prevailing direction. In this inclosure were a number of men, women and children. Rabbit-skins were the clothing generally; the poor infant at the breast having nothing on it. In the center was a brass kettle, suspended to a three-legged crotch or tripod. In this they were boiling the meat we had given them. An old woman superintended the cooking, and at the same time was engaged in dressing an antelope-skin. When the soup was done, the fingers of each of the inmates were stuck into the pot and sucked. While this was going on, an Indian, entirely naked with the exception of his breech-cloth,

INDIANS OF NEVADA       29

came in from his day's hunt. His largest game was the rat, of which he had quite a number stuck around under the girdle about his waist. These he threw down, and they were soon put by the old woman on the fire and the hair scorched. This done, she rubbed off the crisped hair with a pine knot, and then, thrusting her finger into the paunch of the animal, pulled out the entrails. Pressing out the offal, she threw the animals, entrails and all, without further cleaning, into the pot."

      Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory,

 Hon. Geo. W. Manypenny,                                                     May 2, 1855.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington City, D. C.

Sir:

Permit me to call your attention to some facts which I do not feel myself altogether at liberty to remain silent upon.

At the last semi-annual conference of the Latter Day Saints, a large number of missionaries were nominated to go and preach to the Indians, or Lamonites, as they are here called. Since my arrival in this Territory, I have become satisfied that these saints have, either accidentally or purposely, created a distinction in the minds of the Indian tribes of this Territory between the Mormons and the people of they United States that cannot act otherwise than prejudicial to the interests of the latter; and what, sir, may we expect of these missionaries? There is perhaps not a tribe on the continent that will not be visited by one or more of them. I suspect their first object will be to teach these wretched savages that they are the rightful owners of the American soil, and that it has been wrongfully taken from them by the whites, and that the Great Spirit has sent the Mormons among them to help them recover their rights. The character of many of those who have been nominated is calculated to confirm this view of the case. They embrace a class of rude and lawless young men, such as might be regarded as a curse to any civilized community. But I do not wish to excite prejudice and encourage feelings of hostility against these people; on the contrary, I think such a course would be unwise and impolitic. They always have, and ever will thrive by persecution. They know well the effect it has had upon them, and consequently crave to be persecuted.

It is due to many of them, however, to say that they are honest in the belief that they are the only Christians on earth, and that God is about to redeem the world from sin, and establish his millenium.

It is possible, too, that many of them are loyal in their feelings to the United States, but perhaps this cannot be said of many of their leaders. But time will convince many of them of their errors. Many of their prophecies must come true in a few years, or doubt will take the place of sanguine hope, and will do more to relax their energies and weaken their strength than anything else would do at this time. My object in writing is to suggest that the attention of all superintendents, agents, sub-agents, and all other loyal citizens residing or sojourning in the Indian country be called to this subject, that the conduct of these Mormon missionaries be subjected to the strictest scrutiny, and that the 13th and 14th sections of the "Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontier," be properly enforced.

In proof of the fact above stated, I would say that I have had great difficulty in procuring an interpreter, though there are many persons in the Territory who speak the Indian language. But they were all nominated as missionaries, and I was forced to the humiliating necessity of imploring the clemency of his excellency Brigham Young to permit one of them to remain with me. I never saw any people in my life who were so completely under the influence of one man.

Very respectfully,       

GARLAND HURT,

Indian Agent for Utah.

Office of Indian Affairs,

August 13, 1855.

30        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

Hon. R. McClelland,

Secretary of the Interior,

Washington, D. C.

Sir:

In the letter from this office to you of the 10th ultimo, transmitting a copy of a letter from Agent Hurt respecting the contemplated movements of Mormon missionaries among the Indians of Utah and the Indian tribes generally, it was my purpose to have made the subject embrace the Indians generally, although, by oversight, it was confined to the tribes in Utah, for the agent states that "there is perhaps not a tribe on the continent that will not be visited by one or more of these missionaries."

As the subject was deemed important, it was presented for your consideration and advice with a view to the soundness of the policy of instructing the superintendents, agents and sub-agents throughout the Indian country to watch with an eye of vigilance the movements of the Mormons; and in case their efforts, under the guise of missionary labors, should tend to create 'a spirit of insubordination averse to the interests of the Government, that they immediately notify the Department.

The intercourse act of 1834 provides, section 13th, "that if any citizen or other person, residing within the United States or the territory thereof, shall send any talk, speech, message, or letter, to any Indian nation, tribe, chief, or individual, with an intent to produce a contravention or infraction of any treaty or other law of the United States, or to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the United States, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of two thousand dollars"; and the last clause of section 13 reads as follows, viz., "or in case any citizen or other person shall alienate, or attempt to alienate, the confidence of any Indian or Indians from the government of the United States, he shall forfeit the sum of one thousand dollars."

The suspicions which the agent throws upon the character of those Mormons engaged as missionaries are such as may make it necessary, as a precautionary step to preserve the harmony of our relations with the Indian tribes, to instruct the superintendents, agents, and sub-agents to scrutinize the conduct of Mormons and all others suspected of having a design to interrupt the peace and tranquillity between the Indians and the government.

CHARLES E. MIX,

Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs

November 30, 1857.

EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

The scanty information we have in regard to the Indians of Utah is not reliable or satisfactory. It is much to be feared that they have been tampered with, and their feelings towards the United States alienated to such an extent by the Mormons that in any difficulties with the latter a large portion of them may be found on the side of those enemies of our government and laws. Such a state of things has been apprehended by this office for some time, as will be seen from the accompanying copies of reports upon the subject from the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs to your predecessor in 1855.

FROM KELLEY'S HISTORY OF NEVADA, 1863. MORMON INFLUENCE AMONG INDIANS.

A regular system was adopted or was recognized by the Mormon Church leaders and strenuous efforts were put forth to drive out all Gentiles or non-Mormon

INDIANS OF NEVADA       31

citizens from Western Utah or Nevada Territory, who had settled in the territory, and to deter others from coming in, and the Indian tribes were often stirred up to hostilities and encouraged to depredate upon the defenceless immigrants and often to plunder and murder.

            In May, 1859, there was perpetrated an Indian Massacre at Williams Station, sixty miles below Genoa, where four whites lost their lives. The deed was, no doubt, provoked by the grossest outrages previously committed at that place upon the Indians. Several innocent whites were slain by Indians. A number of prudent and humane old settlers proposed a meeting with the Indians and try to determine who were to blame and whether the killing was done with their knowledge and who were the guilty parties. The proposition for a meeting was overruled by the majority of whites and an indiscriminate massacre followed. For three months hostilities of such a state of terror prevailed which prevented all successful prospecting for mines and seriously hindered immigration and settlement.

MORMON INFLUENCE WITH INDIANS.

                                                    Southeast Nevada Agency,

                                                    Moapa River Reserve, September 11, 1875.

Hon. Edward P. Smith,

            Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C.

Sir:

            While it has afforded me much pleasure to thus record the temporal prosperity, exemplary conduct, and good health of this people, it is to be regretted that so little has hitherto been done in educating them. I feel in full unison and sympathy with the desires of the Government in this respect, and am anxious to see them re-claimed, enlightened, and taught the words of eternal life. To do this, we must first educate them; first prepare the ground, and then sow the seed; first educate, then Christianize; in fact, intelligence is the very basis of Christianity. I have a case in point, which strongly illustrates the truth of this assertion.

            During last summer the Mormon Priesthood in Saint George, Utah, gathered together at that place some two or three hundred Indians of the surrounding tribes whom they proceeded to baptize with all the pomp, ceremony and display calculated to make an impression on the Indian. They even had an artist on hand who produced a very fine and, no doubt, a faithful picture of the scene. The Mormon bishop in the center, up to his waist in water; hundreds of dusky forms all around him while a vast concourse of saints looked approvingly on. These pictures were freely distributed among the Indians a day or two after the event. Now mark the sequel. Every Indian who participated in this farce thinks he is a better Mormon today than Brigham Young himself, and that the ceremony alluded to has clothed him with a sort of armor against any responsibility which he may incur for such trifling matters as horse stealing, or other petty thefts. If he be caught in an overt act, he proudly exclaims, "Me good Mormon Indian; me heap wash." Comment is superfluous. I have only mentioned these facts as illustrative of my well-grounded conviction that to successfully reach the understanding there must first be the capacity to comprehend.

            A very large proportion of the Indians under my charge speak the English language; the younger portion of them quite intelligibly. These are anxious, nay, eager, to be educated. Let us by all means assist such a laudable desire. During my predecessor's term of office, a school was maintained for six months, but was discontinued for want of funds. During that time, however, the boys were prompt in their attendance, and their progress wonderful, all of them being able to read the easy lessons of Wilson or McGuffey's first reader. I propose in a few days that these boys shall go back to school to their old teacher, for whom they seem to

32        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

entertain great affection, and whose reports will show in detail the progress made. This school is located at Saint Thomas, my former headquarters, and is well sup-plied with books, charts, furniture, etc.

Very respectfully,

A.     J. BARNES

United States Indian Agent.

United States Indian Agent Garland Hurt, of Salt Lake City, reports to Supt. Brigham Young on the Nevada Indians, September, 1856, as follows:

The Indians about Stony Point are called To-sow-witches (White Knives), and derive their name from a beautiful flint found in the mountains of that region, and formerly used by them as a substitute for knives in dressing their food. We saw but few of them on our outward trip, except a party of about fifty whom we met on the evening of the 15th, and who said they lived north, and had come over to trade with the emigrants. They were well supplied with guns and horses, and were anxious to trade for ammunition.

At the meadows, and about the sink of the Humboldt, we met in all some two hundred, belonging to the Py-ute tribe, whom we found in the same degraded condition as the Diggers; but what is most strange, the most of them speak the English language sufficiently well to be understood. It is evident that the most of them have lived more or less in California, and have fled from thence, preferring indolence, with all its privations, to the habits of civilized life. We learned that there were about four hundred of this same tribe camped in the mountains north of the sink, whom the Indians desired to send for, but I declined waiting for them, as the grass was poor, and we were anxious to reach the Carson river. We arrived at Ragtown, on the Carson, on the morning of the 23d, having travelled all night, when we saw about eight more Py-utes, who are of the same grade of those we met at the sink, and on the 25th, 25th and 27th we met other bands of this tribe, as we passed up the river, amounting in all to some one hundred and fifty. The most of those Indians have evidently once lived in California, which accounts for their knowledge of the English language. Many of them have become domesticated, and are employed by the settlers of the valley as herdsmen and laborers on their farms. There is another small tribe called the Was-saws, who live mostly on the Sierra Nevada mountains, but claim the Carson as their land, and have made several attempts to collect rent from the settlers, but, being not very numerous, have found a mild course the better policy.

We reached the settlements in Carson on the 28th day of June, having been forty-three days out, and remained until the 30th of July, when we started on our return trip, traveling by the way of Warsaw and Truckee valleys, in which we met several small parties of the Py-utes. We reached the meadows at the sink of the Humboldt on the 6th of August, when we again met some two hundred or more of the Py-utes, busily engaged harvesting the grease-seed, a species of grass somewhat resembling the millet in size and taste of its grain, growing in great abundance upon the shores of the lakes after its waters recede in summer. This seed constitutes an important article of food with them, and large quantities are stored in deposits under ground for winter. We again saw but few Indians after leaving the meadows, until we passed Stony Point, but learned from emigrants, whom we met almost hourly, that they had become exceedingly treacherous, provoking open hostilities by attacking them both by day and night. We were also told that a large amount of money had been seen among them, consisting of five, ten, and twenty-dollar pieces of gold, and that the bodies of three white persons had been

INDIANS OF NEVADA       33

found and buried about fourteen miles below Gravelly Ford. But we camped within two or three miles of where this murder should have been committed, on the night of the 14th of August, where some one hundred and fifty of the To-sow-witch band were also camped, and with all diligence and stratagem that I could use I could find no money with them, nor could get any clue to the murder of the emigrants. A large number of emigrant trains, with some two thousand head of cattle and horses, had been camped for the night upon the same bottom. The Indians of this band appeared quiet, which rendered an incident that occurred at about 9 p.m. the more mysterious. An attack was made upon one of the emigrant camps (Mr. Thompson's, of Missouri) ; three shots were fired in quick succession, one of the balls killing a fine mare at the stern of the wagon, the other two passing through the cover of the wagon, without further damage. This feat was so daring and unexpected that Mr. Thompson could not believe it to be Indians, and as they had had a difficulty with some robbers on Raft river he supposed that they might still be in pursuit of them. But as I drove out of camp next morning I discovered the tracks of three Indian ponies, which I followed into the canon, about two miles above Gravelly Ford, where I came suddenly upon a band of about fifty fierce warriors, who, on seeing me, sprung instantly for their guns and horses and in a moment they were ready for battle. I requested my interpreter to speak to them, when two of them who had seen me before dropped their guns and came running to shake hands.

            We moved about half a mile below them, when in a short time they were all in camp. They acknowledged that three of them had fired into the emigrant camp the night before, but said that the cook belonging to that company had struck one of them upon the head with a stick when he asked him for bread. I noticed that he was slightly bruised on the side of the face, which showed plainly that the cook or some one else had been taking too much liberty with these lords of the soil. The most of them were from the north, and said they had visited the road to trade; but their eagerness for ammunition induced the emigrants to withhold it from them, and this appears to be the cause of the difficulty. I learned that Nin-ah-tu-cah, the old chief, was camped about twenty miles up the river, and told them that I desired to go to his camp that night, whereupon five of them offered their service to go with us, as they said it would be dark before we could reach his camp, which I accepted. We did not find the chief until noon the next day, when I told him the many complaints that were made against his people. He said that some of his men were tobuck (mad), but he had done all he could to keep their hearts good. He thought that the emigrants were to blame some, for I had told them the summer before that the Shoshonees and Americans were to be friendly, and treat each other as brothers; but now, when his people were starving for meat, the Americans would not sell them any powder. He said if we were friends, he did not understand why we could not trade. He and some of his men followed us on foot about twelve miles to our camp, at night, to talk, as they said; but, perhaps, to get something to eat. I was informed that a band, under a chief named Sho-cup-ut-see, had undertaken to farm at Haws' ranch this season and was told by the Indians upon the road that they had made shaunts (plenty) of wheat, potatoes and squashes. Mr. Peter

Haws informed me that they had planted about fifteen acres, and had done it principally with some hoes, which I sent them last spring, he having furnished them their seed.

            We continued to hear of depredations being committed in Thousand Spring and Raft River valleys, and about the junction of the roads; but after leaving the Humboldt we encountered the same difficulty in seeing the Indians of this region that we had the summer before. Except the chief, Setoke, who came to us in Thousand Spring valley, and told us the particulars of Murray's Massacre, who he said was killed about two weeks prior to our passing on the outward trip by the

34        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

same band of Indians whom we met in the canyon, we saw none till we reached the settlements; yet it is upon this part of the road, between the Humboldt and Bear rivers, that the Indians have been most troublesome this season. We scarcely met a train who had not had some of their property stolen, or been fired upon while on this section of the road. One man (Mr. Stratton, from Missouri) lost seventy-two head of cattle and a mule, and had himself and one of his men wounded in an attempt to recover them. From an estimate which I made from the reports of different trains, no less than three hundred head of cattle, besides some sixty or seventy head of horses and mules, have been stolen or destroyed upon this section of the road this season. A part of the road here lies in Oregon territory, and the country over which it passes is neutral ground between the Banacks, Snakes and Cum-i-um-has, and the most reckless and unprincipled men of each of these tribes haunt the road here during the season of emigration for the purposes of rapine upon the defenceless traveler. If government should not take steps to check their growing insolence, their success will encourage others to adopt their practices, and in a short time, perhaps in another season, their merciless deeds may exceed anything known to the history of Indian barbarity.

            But it is unreasonable to expect a complete and perfect reformation in these wild nomadic creatures in so short a period, even admitting that they are susceptible of civilization. The history of the Indian is one of strange mystery, and his mental and physical character not less so. The past to him moves swiftly on to oblivion, limiting his knowledge of things to the country in which he lives. The deeds of his sires are but dimly seen in the few traditions that descend to him, and, like objects imperfectly reflected through the twilight of evening, are soon lost in the sable curtains that follow. That he is a being susceptible of civilization, and, when civilized, capable of erecting, sustaining and perpetuating the institutions of civilized man, is a desideratum upon the solution of which depends the future policy of government towards him. For it may yet be shown that the continued presence of a superior race is necessary to direct and control his energies, in order that he may enjoy the benefits of an enlightened government.

                                    Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

                                                                                          GARLAND HURT.

His Excellency Brigham Young,

            Governor and ex-officio Superintendent Indian Affairs, Utah.

            Warren Wasson, United States Indian Agent, August 14, 1861, reports on Washoe and Pai-Utes to Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Governor J. W. Nye:

            The Washoe tribe have no reservation, or rather none on which they can reside. I understand that the Pyramid lake reservation was set off and intended for both the Pah-Utes and the Washoes. That idea is entirely impracticable. They are not friendly and cannot live together, and it would result in trouble and incessant broil. The Washoes roam over the valley of the Carson and Washoe, not interfering to any considerable extent with any of the pursuits of the whites, and subsist on such productions and insects as are of no value to the whites. This agency, as established, only included, as I have been informed, the tribes of the Pah-Utes and Washoes. It is now claimed that many of the tribes of the Shoshones and Nannacks are within the jurisdiction of this Territory. I have been unable to ascertain where the eastern boundary of the Territory is, any further than the organic law indicates.

INDIANS OF NEVADA       35

Office of Indian Agent,

Carson Valley Agency, August 13, 1861.

Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report in reply to the letter under date June 21, 1861, addressed to you by Charles E. Mix Esq., Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and by you transmitted to me July 13.

First, there are but two tribes within the limits of this agency, viz., the Pah-Utes and the Washoes. Secondly, the Pah-Utes number 7,000 souls; 3,600 of which are females and 3,400 males; the Washoes number 550, the sexes are about equal, if anything the women predominate. Thirdly, the wealth of the Pah-Utes consists of about twelve hundred ponies, worth forty dollars each; the Washoes have no property of any kind. Fourthly, they have no schools. Fifthly, there are no missionaries or religious societies within the limits of this agency.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WARREN WASSON,

Acting Indian Agent, Carson Valley Agency.

His Excellency James W. Nye,

Governor and ex-officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs,

Carson City, Nevada Territory.

As regards the Washoe tribes, I see no other resource than to aid them with provisions through the winter. They are a most miserable people—in fact, in point of intelligence or instinct, but one remove from the brutes. They have learned that the great chief or captain at Washington, through the lesser captain here, must feed them, or help to do so at least. There is great justice in this request. The streams in which they formerly fished are now all spoiled for that purpose by the operations of the miners and the washing of the ores and metals. They are indeed most all diverted from their original courses, or dammed so frequently that the fish have disappeared from them. Lake Bigler, lying in the country of the Washoes, and from which they formerly obtained large quantities of the best kind of fish, is now taken possession of by the whites, and has become a watering place, to which large numbers from this Territory and California resort, and from which this poor tribe are virtually excluded. The hills and plains over which roamed plenty of game are now occupied by the whites, and the game has fled, like the Indians, from their presence. Their chief food in the short summer which we have is a large bug or cricket and a weed called tule, which disappears when snow or frost appears.

There are but two tribes of Indians within the limits of this agency, namely, the Pah-Utes and the Washoes. The Pah-Utes tribe numbers about six thousand souls, and are now increasing; the sexes being about equally divided. They occupy a strip of country about two hundred miles in width, extending along the western boundary of the Territory from the northern to the southern line. They are the most virtuous, temperate, and warlike of the two tribes, and of all Indians I am acquainted with, the most susceptible of acquiring the arts of civilized life. I would respectfully make the following suggestions, with a view of the improvement of their condition.

Carson, July 13, 1861.—I have also to suggest that the agent be provided with a medicine chest, containing such simple remedies as their diseases require. I have heretofore been in the habit of furnishing them medicines at my own expense, and my prescriptions having been attended with great success among them they will expect medicines of whoever resides among them hereafter. The Washoes number about five hundred souls, and are rapidly diminishing, being located in the immediate vicinity of the whites. They have no property whatever, and seem to have very little inclination to acquire any. They however behave themselves very well,

36        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

considering their proximity to the whites. They live along Lake Bigler and the headwaters of Carson, Walker and Truckee rivers, and in Long and Sierra valleys, which last is in the state of California.

WARREN WASSON,

Acting U. S. Indian Agent.

His Excellency Gov. James W. Nye,

Superintendent Indian Affairs for Nevada.

July 13, 1861.

In August, 1832, Milton Sublett, with Joe Miller, of Oregon, and a company of trappers camped on the headwaters of the Humboldt. The following year Captain B. L. E. Bonneville started an expedition of forty men (Mrs. F. F. Victor places the number at 118; see "Mountain and Forest," by that authoress, pages 143 and 144) 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 a couple of months prior to this in an encounter with the Black Feet Indians, and later in the season trapped the Humboldt down to its sink. Consequently, the oft-repeated assertion that he discovered the Carson River in 1833, is untrue. The company made its way slowly down the Humboldt, trapping as it went, until the curiosity of the natives had gradually overcome their fears of the whites. Their numbers increased 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 trifling article that seemed to them a 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 followed, to have feared a meditated attack.

Washington Irving, in his account of this expedition, says:

At length, one day they came to the banks of a stream emptying into Ogden's river (Humboldt), which they were obliged to ford. Here a great number of Shoshones were posted on the opposite bank. Persuaded that they were there with hostile intent, they advanced upon them, leveled their rifles, and killed twenty-five (the number killed is placed at seventy-five by same authoress in same book, 'Mountain and Forest, see page 146) of them upon the spot. The rest fled to a short distance, then halted and turned about, howling and whining like wolves and uttering the most piteous wailings. The trappers chased them in every direction; the poor wretches made no defense, but fled with terror; neither does it appear from the account of the boasted victors that a weapon had been

INDIANS OF NEVADA       37

wielded, or a weapon launched by the Indians throughout the affair. We feel perfectly convinced that the poor savages had no hostile intention, but had merely gathered together through motives of curiosity.

A member of Walker's company, one morning, found some of his traps missing and swore that he would have the life of the first Indian he met. on after he chanced to see a couple fishing along the, margin of the river, unconscious of approaching danger, 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. When the hunters reached the sink of the Humboldt, they struck across the country towards the west. Arriving at Pyramid Lake, they followed the Truckee River up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and from thence passed across to the Sacramento, following nearly the same route now traversed by the Central Pacific Railroad. After the departure of Walker's party, there was no more slaughter of Indians for the ensuing seventeen years, although numerous expeditions passed through Nevada, culminating in 1840-'50 in a tidal wave of whites from over the plains that passed down the western slope, a deluge upon the golden plains of California.

The passage of emigrants through the country, among whom were many that were reckless, and some who thought that the reputation of having killed an Indian would transform them into heroes, resulted in the slaughter of some straggling Shoshones along the Humboldt in 1849. Several instances of the kind occurred, where they were shot in retaliation for real or fancied aggressions. In 1850 this tribe, or portions of it, commenced a series of depredations that lasted until the close of 1863.

In June, 1850, a train from Joliet, Illinois, among whom was Capt. Robert Lyon, who relates that while camped at a point near where Elko now is, they lost one of their party, who was shot through the heart with an arrow while on picket duty. An ineffectual attempt was made to stampede the horses, but three of the animals that were running loose fell into the hands of the Indians. The next day the man was buried near Gravelly Ford, and the emigrants pursued their way. About twenty miles from the ford they came upon another train of seven wagons and twelve men that had no stock, all of it having been stampeded and driven off, and they were forced to burn their wagons and go on foot the balance of the way to California. Later the same season another train was

38        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

served in the same way, all its stock being taken; but with the assistance of others, among whom chanced to be several mountaineers, pursuit of the Shoshones was made under the leadership of one—Warner—resulting in a surprisal of the Indians, the killing of some thirty of them, and the recovery of the stock. This put a stop to trouble that season.

Washoe Raids.—In the summer of 1852, a man who kept a station on the overland road at a point near the present site of Empire, came up to Eagle Station and informed those stopping there that a band of Washoes on the east side of the river, near that place, had in their possession several American horses that he supposed, of course, they had no right to. It was immediately determined by all to go down and take the animals away from the Indians. The whites, under the leadership of Pearson, a noted Indian fighter, consisted of Frank Hall, now of Carson, his brother, W. L. Hall, of Esmeralda County, the stationkeeper, and a man named Cady. They found the Washoes with little trouble but failed to discover the American stock. They found, also, that the squaws were taking the unnecessary camp equipages of the band up the mountain to the east. This looked like business, and when a body of about sixty warriors with their paint on, advanced upon them, matters assumed a decidedly hostile appearance. Pearson, the leader, decided that there were too many to justify risking a fight, and with two of his fellows "lit out." Frank Hall and Cady concluded to await the approach of the enemy and "play the friendly dodge," which they did by distributing their small stock of tobacco among them. Of course the Indians did not object to the gifts, but, after accepting them, ordered the donors to hunt their eyrie at the base of the mountain in the west, and they hunted.

A few days later Cady was riding along a trail not far from where Dayton now is and overtook an Indian, and like a brave man, deliberately shot him. In 1852 the Indians made many raids upon the stock in Carson Valley. In retaliation the whites captured a couple of the tribe and brought them into the Mormon Station as hostages for a return of the stolen property. One of the captives was a powerful man, dressed in a full buckskin suit, and. the other was a mere lad, some sixteen years of age, who dressed as nature had clothed him. Several days passed and, nothing was heard from the lost animals; when one morning the larger Indian was let walk out a little way by himself, and he suddenly made a dash for freedom. He scattered his garments as he went, and, naked as

INDIANS OF NEVADA       39

he was born, bounded like a frightened stag away toward the mountains. The guard, named ----- Terry, had in a careless way leaned his gun against the stockade, and was probably ten yards away from it when the warrior started; but in a moment he had the formidable rifle in his grasp and, taking a long, deliberate aim, fired. As the whip-like report broke upon the morning stillness the runner leaped high into the air and then fell to the ground, and when they reached the fallen Washoe he was dead. The Indian boy had not seen the fate of his companion, but the rifle shot had told him enough, and he was badly frightened, expecting a similar fate for himself. His terror so impressed those who had him in charge that they determined to set him at liberty. They fitted him up with a suit of new clothes, hat, coat, pants and shoes, and then leading him about a hundred yards away, pointed to the hills about twenty miles across the valley, where his people were , and said to him, "go." At first he moved off in a hesitating kind of way, looking doubtfully back over his shoulder, expecting every instant to hear the dreaded rifle speak death to him. At length his movements became more assured. He scanned the country ahead, looked back once more, then suddenly leaping into the air those shoes went spinning into the sage-brush on either side and the boy was off for the camp of the Washoes with the speed of the wind.

Between the years 1852 and 1857 there were more or less murders, both of whites and Indians, along the line of the overland road, within what is now Nevada. In 1857 two men were killed by Washoes on the road running south of Lake Tahoe over the mountains to California. (See Hopkins, pages 70, 71, 72, 73.) Their names were John McMarlin and James Williams, and both were on their way to California in charge of separate pack trains from Mormon Station. Both were killed by Washoes the same day, Williams at Slippery Ford Hill, where he was buried, and McMarlin on the summit near by. The body of the latter was taken to Carson Valley and buried on the ranch now owned by Mrs. Clayton. There was no white survivor of the double tragedy, consequently none to tell of the scene that was enacted in the shadows of the pines up among the rocks and ravines of the Sierra, where their life's journey ended.

Murder of Peter Lassen.—In March, 1859, some prospectors went over from Honey Lake Valley to search for gold in the Black Rock country, in what is now known as Humboldt County. Some of them had been

40        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

there before, consequently the party separated, four going in advance of the other three. They had an understanding that they were to meet in a canyon on Clapp Creek, where running water is to be found during a portion of the year. The creek is about twenty miles northwest of Black Rock. The second party consisted of Peter Lassen—after whom a peak in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is named--accompanied by ------ Clapper and ------ Wyatt. They had reached the mouth of the canyon up which the rendezvous had been appointed, as night came on, and camped by a large boulder till morning. At daylight Lassen got up, lit his pipe, sat down and was, smoking, when the party was fired on by a concealed foe and Clapper was killed. Lassen sprang to his feet, rifle in hand, and scanned the surrounding rocks in search of the assail-ants, but unable to see any, told Wyatt to move their camp equipage to a safer place while he watched and kept the enemy at bay. The latter had taken one load of their effects away and was returning for more when another volley from among the twilight shadows rang out on the morning air, and the brave old hero of many a mountain battle sank down by the rock where he had been standing. As Wyatt came up he said to him; "I am done for at last ; take care of yourself" ; and, mounting a bare-backed horse, the only survivor dashed away over the rocks and plains of sand to bear the sad news to the settlements. The four men camped further up the canyon knew nothing of the disaster until they were met on their way into the Honey Lake station by a party on its way out to recover the bodies of the two victims. They buried them where they had been killed, but in November of that year Lassen's remains were removed to Honey Lake.

The winter of 1859-'60 was one of unprecedented severity in Nevada, and the summer that preceded it had witnessed the first wave of white emigration from California to the Comstock. The spirit of discontent had gained a pretty thorough hold of the natives of the country before these last causes had been added to their real and fancied wrongs. Many of them were led to believe that the evil spirit had been angered by the presence in the Territory of so many whites, and that in consequence thereof he was sending the storms that were freezing and starving them.

Governor Roop and the Indians.—The Territorial Enterprise, published in Carson in December, 1859, in mentioning the arrival of Gov. Isaac Roop from Honey Lake, said :

INDIANS OF NEVADA       41

The Indians in Truckee Meadows are freezing and starving to death by scores. In one cabin the Governor found three children dead and dying. The whites are doing all they can to alleviate the miseries of the poor Washoes. They have sent out and built fires for them, and offered them bread and other provisions. But in many instances the starving Indians refuse to eat, fearing that the food is poisoned. They attribute the severity of the winter to the whites. The Truckee River is frozen over hard enough to bear up loaded teams.

On the 13th of January, 1860, Dexter E. Demming was brutally murdered by the Pah-Utes at his ranch in Willow Creek Valley, just north of Honey Lake Valley, in what has since been determined to be California. This resulted in the following petition addressed to Governor Roop :

Susanville, Nevada Ter., January 15, 1860.

Dear Sir : We most respectfully urge the necessity of your Excellency's calling out the military forces under your command to follow and chastise the Indians upon our borders. We make this request to your Excellency from the fact that we have received information that we fully rely upon, to the effect that Mr. Demming has been murdered, and his house robbed, on or about the 15th instant, by Indians, within the borders of Nevada Territory, Your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.

This petition was numerously signed by residents of the Territory.

A detachment was immediately sent out to trail the murderers and find out, if possible, to what tribe they belonged. Under date of January 24, Lieut. U. J. Tutt reported to the Governor that they had been tracked into the Pah-Ute camp. On the twenty-eighth of the same month, two commissioners were appointed by the Governor to visit Winnemucca, the chief of that tribe, and demand the murderers in accordance with a treaty previously made with him, providing for an emergency like this. The following is a copy of their report:

Susanville, February 11, A. D. 1860.

Your Excellency: We, the undersigned, your Commissioners, appointed January 28, A. D. 1860,, to proceed to the camp of the Pah-Ute tribe of Indians, respectfully report that we proceeded across the country from this place in the direction of Pyramid Lake; that on the third day of our travel, we were met by a band of about (30) thirty Pah-Ute Indians, well mounted, who, with a war-whoop, surrounded us and prevented us from proceeding to the main camp. We were detained over night by the same party of Indians, under a strict guard, the said Indians utterly refusing to give us any information as to the whereabouts of their chiefs.

On the following morning we were released from imprisonment and ordered to return into Honey Lake Valley. We traveled two or three miles in the direction of Honey Lake Valley; there being a dense fog, we came to the determination to travel across the country to the crossing of the Truckee River and follow down' said river to Pyramid Lake. Arriving at Pyramid Lake, we found an encampment of the Pah-Utes; but, from the contradictory reports received from the said Indians, we were unable to ascertain where either of the chiefs could be found. We then traveled down the lake about ten miles, and found another encampment,

42        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

which proved to be the camp of Winnemucca, the war chief of the Pah-Utes. We represented to the chief that we were sent to them by the whites, to ask of the chiefs the delivery of the murderer, or murderers, of Mr. D. E. Demming, in accordance with a treaty made and entered into between the Pah-Utes and the citizens of Honey Lake Valley, at the same time inviting the chief to return with us and settle our difficulties amicably.

The chief acknowledged that, according to said treaty, we were warranted in making the demand; but, after making many excuses, he not only refused to come to Honey Lake Valley, but refused to interpose his authority in preventing depredations upon the whites on the part of his follows. We then asked him to appoint some future time to visit us. He said that he would not come at all, and that the citizens of Honey Lake Valley must pay him $16,000 for Honey Lake Valley. We have ascertained that he is at this time levying blackmail by demanding from one to two beeves per week from the herders of stock, there being two or three thousand head of stock in his immediate vicinity, herded by so few that they dare not refuse the demand. We find, also, that the owners of said stock cannot drive them to the settlements from the great depth of snow between Pyramid Lake and Honey Lake, Washoe and Carson valleys. We believe that the Pah-Utes are determined to rob and murder as many of our citizens as they can, more especially our citizens upon the borders.

Finding it impossible to bring the Indians to any terms of peace, notwithstanding the advantages offered them, we determined to return as speedily as possible, and make this our report to your Excellency.

WILLIAM WEATHERLOW,

T. J. HARVEY.

It will be observed that the report of the commissioners was dated February 11, 1860. On the next day Governor Roop asked assistance from the general commanding the Pacific Department, in language that so thoroughly explains the position of affairs in that part of the country that we give the document in full:

General Clarke, U. S. A.,

Commander of the Pacific Department.

Sir : We are about to be plunged into a bloody and protracted war with the Pah-Ute Indians. Within the last nine months there have been seven of our citizens murdered by the Indians. Up to the last murder we were unable to fasten these depredations on any particular tribe, but always believed it was the Pah-Utes, yet did not wish to blame them until we were sure of the facts. On the thirteenth day of last month, Mr. Dexter E. Demming was most brutally murdered at his own house, and plundered of everything, and his horses driven off. As soon as I was informed of the fact I at once sent out fifteen men after the murderers (there being snow on the ground, they could be easily traced), with orders to follow on their tracks until they would find what tribe they belonged to; and if they would prove to be Pah-Utes, not to give them battle, but to return and report, as we had, some two years ago, made a treaty with the Pah-Utes, one of the stipulations being that if any of their tribe committed any murders or depredations on any of the whites, we were first to go to the chiefs and that they would deliver up the murderers or make redress, and that we were to do the same on our part with them. On the third day out they came onto the Indians and found them to be Pah-Utes, to which I call your attention

INDIANS OF NEVADA       43

to the paper marked A. Immediately on receiving this report, and agreeable to the said treaty, I sent Capt. William Weatherlow and Thomas J. Harvey, as commissioners, to proceed to the Pah-Utes' headquarters, and there inform the chief of this murder and demand redress. Here allow me to call your attention to the paper marked B. It is now pretty well an established fact that the Pah-Utes killed those eight men, one of them being Mr. Peter Lassen. How soon others must fall is not known, for war is now inevitable. We have but few good arms and but little ammunition.

Therefore, I would most respectfully call upon you for a company of dragoons to come to our aid at once, as it may save a ruinous war to show them that we have other help besides our own citizens, they knowing our weakness. And if it is not in your power at present to dispatch a company of men here, I do most respectfully demand of you arms and ammunition, with a field-piece to drive them out of their forts. A four or six-pounder is indispensable in fighting the Pah-Utes. We have no Indian Agent to call on, so it is to you we look for assistance.

I remain your humble servant,

ISAAC ROOP,

Susanville, February 12, 1860.           

Governor of Nevada Territory.

P.S.—Sir: If you should forward to us arms, ammunition, etc., I hereby appoint Col. I. H. Lewis to receive and receipt for and bring them here at once.

I. ROOP.

The foregoing indicates, with sufficient clearness, that the accumulated hostility between the two races had reached that point where it required ' but a spark to cause it to burst forth into a fierce war flame. The commanding general sent no troops and furnished no arms, and it all terminated in that sanguinary outbreak in the following May that resulted so disastrously to both Indians and whites.

INDIAN ACCOUNT OF THE WAR OF 1860.

The defeat and massacre of the party, usually known as the "Ormsby party," on the 12th of May, 1860, sent a thrill of horror throughout the Pacific Coast, and to this day is regarded as one of the most important events in the early history of the State. Happening, as it did, anterior to the great War of the Rebellion, the people were unaccustomed to tales of battle and bloodshed; the slaughter of great numbers of relatives, friends and neighbors, and the conflicts, movements and losses which at a later date would have seemed trifling, then had a terrible effect and left a lasting impression. The publishers of the Thompson & West History of Nevada, 1881, desiring the most minute particulars of this most important Indian war of Nevada, in the latter part of 188o dispatched one of their corps of writers to thoroughly examine the ground and interview

44        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

all whites and Indians who could be found who had participated in the fatal battle. In company with the Acting Indian Agent, Major W. H. H. Wasson, he visited the Pyramid Lake Reservation, obtained an interpreter, a Pah-Ute named George Quip, who spoke the English language fluently, and with numerous veteran savages traversed the battle-ground, spending three days in the examination. The Indians were assured that whatever statement they should make would never be used against them, and with such assurances they gave a detailed account of the whole affair.

It was a strange assemblage of those old braves, each narrating what he had done and seen of that bloody record of 1860. Each Indian would recount his own experience and observation, but when asked concerning anything beyond that, would say : "Me no see 'um, mebe ------ tell you 'bout that," and the party designated would be sent for, if not present, and the story would go on. On the third day we rode over the battle-field and trail from Pyramid Lake to Wadsworth, a distance of eighteen miles, accompanied by some of them. As we came to a place where a white man had been killed, or some special event worthy of note had transpired, they would stop and, in their peculiarly slow, dreamy way, tell the event, or describe the death struggle. Their speech was accompanied by gesticulations and movements of the body, conveying to the looker-on a knowledge of what had transpired there in all its tragic detail before the interpreter had opened his lips. In this manner those events, that before had remained a secret between the slayer and his dead, were revealed. In the latter part of April, 1860, the Pah-Utes congregated at Pyramid Lake from all over the extensive territory for the purpose of holding a council. The object of the gathering was to decide what they should do, in view of the fact that the whites were rapidly encroaching upon their lands, killing their game and cutting down their orchards (thus referring to the pine-nut trees). By the first of May they were nearly all in at the rendezvous.

There was a Shoshone chief there with his band who had married a Pah-Ute squaw; he was for war, and his Indian name was Qu-da-zobo-eat. A few years later he was killed near Battle Mountain by members of his own tribe, after his return from a raid into Paradise Valley. They killed him because he was all the time making trouble for them by stealing stock from the whites. There was a chief from Powder River with his followers there who was also for war. His name was Sa-wa-da-be-bo;

INDIANS OF NEVADA       45

he was a half Bannock and half Pah-Ute, and was killed by the whites some two years later. Wa-he, a brother of old Winnemucca, was fierce for the conflict. He was afterwards killed by the Pah-Utes at Walker River, concerning which a more extended account is given elsewhere. Sa-a-be, chief of the Smoke Creek Indians, was for war. He was a brother-in-law of old Winnemucca and was killed later by one of his own tribe, whom he was proposing to "Ho-do," or bewitch. No-jo-mud, chief of the Honey Lake band, was for war. Some years later he was killed by his followers, who had become afraid of him because of his continued active hostility to the whites, fearing that it would bring disaster upon them. Ho-zi-a, another Honey Lake leader, who was afterwards killed by Captain Dick, their present chief, was also for war. Yur-dy, known as Joaquin by the whites, was for war. His band ranged in the vicinity of the big bend of the Carson River, and south toward Mason Valley. He is now dead. Ha-za-bok, a big medicine and chief at Ante-lope Valley, now living, was for war. He proposed to supply the warriors with bullets, by changing their tobacco into lead, to cause the ground to open and swallow the whites, and to kill them with fierce storms of hail.

Se-quin-a-ta, a chief from the Black Rock country, was impatient for the strife to begin. He now lives at the reservation, is a little man, and is known as Chiquito (little) Winnemucca. He was a man grown and remembers distinctly when Fremont camped at Pyramid Lake, on his way from Oregon through this country in January, 1844. It was this Indian that refused to obey Young Winnemucca, charging with his band past the latter as he waved back the Pah-Utes in a vain effort to obtain a peace talk with the Ormsby party, after the battle had opened. Mo-guan-no-ga was chief at the Humboldt Meadows, and was known to the whites as Captain Soo. He was for war, and was shot by his brother Bob a few years later, receiving a wound that eventually resulted in his death. He was in command of the expedition whose acts precipitated the war, by the killing of the Williams brothers and the burning of their station. Before his death, however, he became a strong friend of the whites and rendered valuable assistance in breaking up the bands that kept up hostilities in Humboldt County for several years after the out-break. His friendship for the whites was the cause of his death. He had been leading a company of soldiers into the Black Rock country, where they had killed a number of Pah-Utes. When he came back a

46        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

cousin of his, named Captain John, wanted him to resign because of what he had done, and expressed a determination of becoming the chief himself. Soo's brother Bob proposed to settle the matter by shooting both of them and the one not killed, being the genuine medicine man, ought, of course, to be chief. He accordingly "turned loose" on his brother first and proved him to be "no good medicine," but before he was ready for John, that worthy "blazed away" and fetched the would-be arbitrator to "grass." Bob eventually recovered, but, said our informant, "He heep sorry bime-by, 'cause he think he kill um both, and get to be chief himself." Old Winnemucca, whose Indian name is Po-i-to, was head captain over all, and medicine chief of the tribe. He held his own council, and declared neither for peace or war, but was known to be in favor of the latter. He was a shrewd old politician, and knowing things were moving to suit him, kept still and let others assume the responsibility of acting.

Numaga's Effort for Peace.—Among all that assemblage of the Pah-Ute tribes there was one, and one only, among the chiefs, with sufficient sagacity to foresee the evils that would result to his people from war; one only who at the same time possessed the courage to throw his influence in opposition to their will and declare for peace. The name of that warrior was Numaga; and he was called by the whites Young Winnemucca, the Reservation Indian chief. The word Numaga means the giver of food, the name indicating the disposition of its owner as being that of a generous man. Numaga was not, as the whites always supposed, the war chief of the Pah-Utes. There was but one general chief, and that was Poito, at Pyramid Lake. Numaga was the chosen leader only of that branch of the tribe living upon the reservation, having no authority, and claiming none, in any other locality. Neither was he a relative of Poito, and the two were always unfriendly.

Numaga was an Indian statesman who possessed intellect, eloquence and courage combined. He had been among the whites in California and could speak the English language; consequently he appreciated the superiority of the race with whom his people would make war. His power, outside of his own band, was that only of a superior mind, working, under the control of an absorbing wish, to better the condition of his race. They knew he was capable, they believed him to be sincere, and it resulted in giving him an influence more potent throughout the tribe

INDIANS OF NEVADA       47

than Poito's commands; consequently, the whites came to look upon him the war chief, and he would have attained that position had he outlived Old Winnemucca, alias Poito.

 Such was the man who threw himself with all his power into the council to try, if possible, to stem the tide that had set for war. He rode from camp to camp, from family to family, friend to friend, reasoning, counseling and beseeching them not to precipitate a war and bring destruction upon themselves. On every side he was met with a calm, respectful silence that told as plainly as words could have done it, that all were against him. Then he went off by himself and, lying down with his face to the ground, would speak to no one. Without food, or drink, or motion, he lay there as one dead. The day passed and the night, another day and night, and the third found him as had the first, a motionless and silent mourner, brooding over the calamity that he saw threatening his people. This began to effect a reaction among the masses of the Pah-Utes, and the chief, seeing it, came to him and said: "Your skin is red but your heart is white; go away and live among the pale-faces." Others came and said, "Get up or we will kill you"; and then he replied, "Do it if you wish, for I don't care to live."

At length the council met. Chief after chief rose and recounted the wrongs of his band and demanded war. After all had spoken, then Numaga, looking like the ghost of a dead Indian, walked into the circle and for an hour poured forth such a torrent of eloquence as these warriors had never listened to before. "You would make war upon the whites," he said; "I ask you to pause and reflect. The white men are like the stars over your heads. You have wrongs, great wrongs, that rise up like those mountains before you; but can you, from the mountain tops, reach and blot out those stars? Your enemies are like the sands in the bed of your rivers; when taken away they only give place for more to come and settle there. Could you defeat the whites in Nevada, from over the mountains in California would come to help them an army of white men that would cover your country like a blanket. What hope is there for the Pah-Ute? From where is to come your guns, your powder, your lead, your dried meats to live upon, and hay to feed your ponies with while you carry on this war? Your enemies have all of these things, more than they can use. They will come like the sand in a whirlwind and drive you from your homes. You will be forced among the barren

48        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

rocks of the north, where your ponies will die ; where you will see the women and old men starve, and listen to the cries of your children for food. I love my people; let them live; and when their spirits shall be called to the Great Camp in the southern sky, let their bones rest where their fathers were buried."

As Numaga was thus making a last desperate effort to change the action of the chiefs, and was sending home conviction of its folly to their understanding, an Indian, upon a foam-flecked pony, dashed up to the council ground and the speaker paused. The new-comer walked into the circle and, pointing to the southeast, said : "Moguannoga, last night, with nine braves, burned Williams' Station, on the Carson River, and killed four whites." Then Numaga, with a sad look in the direction that the warrior had pointed, replied : "There is no longer any use for counsel ; we must prepare for war, for the soldiers will now come here to fight us."

Burning of Williams' Station.—On the 7th of May, 1860, the question was pending, and the great influence of Numaga had begun to make an impression in favor of a conference instead of a collision with the whites. A secret war party, numbering nine in all, had left camp unknown to that chief, under command of Captain Soo. They reached the Carson River about sundown at the place where James O. Williams was keeping a station on the Overland Road, ten miles northeast of where Fort Churchill was afterwards built.

There are three of that war party now living, and one of them described the scene that followed. Said he, "We get there 'bout night; sun little way up; and leave ponies back, maybe half mile. Then we all go down to cabin and three white men come out. They look mighty scared and talk heap to Captain Soo, and ------" "What did they say to them?" we asked. "Dunno ; talk heap. I no understand English then." "Well, what did they do next?" "Bimeby one start off and run up the road towards Buckland's, and two Injin run after him, and bring him back. Then one, he run for the river, and me after him; he jump in and me watch; bimeby he get halfway across maybe, then drown." "Did you shoot him when he was swimming?" "No; nobody shoot him in water; maybe so, somebody shoot him 'fore that. He heap splatter water; no swim much. I know him drown purty soon ; no use to shoot." "While you were gone to the river what was done at the station ?" "I no see that. They tell me white man draw a knife and then one Injin grab

INDIANS OF NEVADA       49

him from behind, then two, three—maybe four—Indian grab him; then one take his arm and do so (the narrator here, by motion, indicating a twisting, backward wrenching of the arm), and break it, and that make him drop knife; and then they throw him on the ground and kill him." "How did they kill him?" "Dunno. When I come back, four Injin hold him on the ground; then I go off down the river little ways to find place to picket pony, and when I look back see cabin on fire." "Was it dark when they burned the station ?" "No—pretty dark, though." The narrator insisted that they found but three whites at the station. We said to him that five men were killed and he asked, "How you know?" Upon his being told that the information was from those who buried them he replied that, "Maybe white man tell you heap of lies." Finally he suggested that it was possible that two might have remained in the house concealed, who were suffocated and perished in the flames. The following are the names of the parties who were killed and only one escaped from the place: Oscar Williams, a married man, aged 33 years, and a native of Maine; David Williams, a single man, aged 22 years, and a native of Maine; Samuel Sullivan, a married man, aged 25 years, and a native of New York ; John Fleming, a single man, aged 25 years, and a native of New York; "Dutch Phil," unknown name, age and residence. The Indians camped on the bottom around the place until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and then started across the eight mile desert for Buckland's Station, intending to kill the owner, after whom it was named. They passed the ranch of C. M. Davis without molesting him and on arriving at day-light on the farm of W. H. Bloomfield, one of their number named ------ ------, proposed to the band that they drive off the stock from the place and return to the lake without committing any further depredations. It now being daylight, and as further advance would be attended by considerable risk, it was determined to follow this suggestion, and one of their number was sent in advance to report what they had been doing. It was the arrival upon the council ground at Pyramid Lake of this messenger that interrupted Numaga's speech. "Why," we asked, "did you not kill C. M. Davis ; he was much nearer to you than S. S. Buckland?" "Davis," he replied, "purty good man; never abuse Injin; no kill him. Buckland he heap bad; whip Injin; scold Injin; mighty cross all the time ; we all say kill him, purty good." On the evening of the massacre the owner of the station, J. O. Williams was camping a couple of miles fur-

50        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

ther up the river and thus escaped the fate of his brothers. The next morning he returned and finding the place a smoldering ruin, around which lay the bodies of his murdered kinsmen, he started for Virginia City. Mr. Davis, with three other men, remained for several days at his place after the event before they knew what had transpired. When the news finally came to them, however, they started with their effects for Dayton, reaching Buckland's Station the same evening—May 9—that the Ormsby command arrived there, on its way to chastise the Indians.

Demand for Vengeance.—The news brought by Williams to Dayton, Silver City and Virginia City, created an intense excitement and couriers soon carried it, with added horrors, to all the outlying towns. Scattered over the whole country were little squads of prospectors and ranchers, whose isolated positions rendered them an easy prey to prowling bands of savages. Such were to be warned, and many a wild ride was taken by horsemen over secret mountain and valley trails to bear the notes of danger to a friend. In the whole country there was but one voice, and that went up from the whole people, for a swift and bloody retaliation—one that should strike terror to the heart of the Pah-Ute and leave his country a tenantless waste. Detachments were organized for that purpose at Genoa, Carson, Silver and Virginia cities, and on the 9th of May, 186o, they moved from the latter place to Buckland Station, on the Carson River, en route for the scene of the late massacre. On the tenth they arrived at Williams' Station and buried three of the victims and took a vote as to whether they should return or continue their march into the enemy's country. The vote was unanimous for the advance, and they proceeded to the Truckee River and camped on the night of the 11th of May at the place where the town of Wadsworth is now located.

Volunteers for the Expedition.—On the opposite bank of the river was standing at the time a log cabin in which were five men who had been besieged for several days by the Indians. On the Sunday prior to the massacre they had, with three others, been hunting at Pyramid Lake, where they were attacked and three of their number killed. The five, having made their escape, had since found refuge in that cabin. They were ferried, on a log drawn by lariats across the river, and joined the expedition on foot.

Let us now take a glance at this force that found itself in a hostile country, intent upon chastising an enemy that they must have known

INDIANS OF NEVADA       51

greatly outnumbered them. There were four detachments, numbering 105 men, nominally under the command of officers selected for their general reputation as being courageous men. The Genoa squad was under the orders of Thomas F. Condon, Jr., Major Ormsby was leader of the detachment from Carson City, Richard Watkins was in charge of the Silver City force, and Archie McDonald was captain of those from Virginia City. No one was selected to the chief command, although its necessity was strongly urged by Major Ormsby, J. Gatewood and others; and they went into the fight without a leader, although Major Ormsby is usually regarded as having been the commander. It was a heterogeneous mixture of independent elements, poorly armed, without discipline, and they did not believe that the Indians would fight. A few of them would not have been of the party had they contemplated serious trouble, but in the main they were boys and men who would have made a heroic defense if properly handled. What they lacked most was discipline, and a leader in whom they had entire confidence, and who had authority to enforce his commands. In the absence of these last two essentials it would have been better had they all been cowards. Many started on the expedition with the watchword of "An Indian for breakfast and a pony to ride," contemplating the pleasure of sacking Pah-Ute villages, capturing their squaws and ponies, killing a few warriors and running the balance out of the country. There was another element there prompted by sentiments and urged forward by feelings that make the patriot, produces heroes and often ends in martyrdom. Of this class Henry Meredith, Young Snowden, Spear, Headley, Eugene Angel, and the "Nameless Hero," were bright particular stars.

The following is as complete a list of that ill-fated party as we have been able to procure:

Genoa Rangers.—Captain T. F. Condon, C. E. Kimball, Michael Tay, Robert Riley, ("Big Texas"), M. Pular, Lee James, J. A. Thompson.

Carson City Rangers.—Major Wm. M. Ormsby, F. Shinn, John L. Blackburn, James Gatewood, Chris Barnes, Frank Gilbert, William S. Spear, C. Marley, William Mason, John Holmes, Richard Watkins, Dr. Wm. E. Eichelroth, Samuel Brown, James McIntyre, Dr. Anton W. Tjader, ------ Lake, Eugene Angel and nine

 United States soldiers.

Silver City Guards.—Capt. R. G. Watkins, Keene Albert Bloom, Chas. Evans, James Shabell, James Lee, Anton Kauffman. Captain Watkins was a veteran of the Walker filibustering expedition to Nicaragua, where he lost a leg. Upon the organization of the party to punish the Indians he was invited to take command of a company, but declined on account of his crippled condition; but being told that some who had served under him in Nicaragua were anxious he should be their

52        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

leader he consented. He possessed a powerful horse, and in riding was strapped to the saddle. The Captain has written a vivid report of the march and battle, the principal points of which are incorporated in the account here given.

From Virginia City.—Company 1, Captain F. Captain Johnston, F. J. Ca., ------ McTerney, Hugh McLaughlin, Charles McLeod, John Fleming (a Greek), Henderson (a Greek), Andread Schnald (Italian), Marco Kuergerwaldt, John Gaventi George (a Chileno), O. C. Steel. Company No. 2, Captain Archie McDonald, Wm. Armington, Chas. W. Allen, G. F. Brown, G. I. Baldwin, D. D. Cole, A. K. Elliott, Chas. Forman, A. L. Grams, F. Gatehouse, F. Hawkins, Arch Haven, J. C. Hall, George Jones, R. Lawrence, Col. M. C. Vane, Henry Meredith, H. McIntosh, Pat McCourt, S. McNaughton, Henry Newton, John Noyce, A. I. Peck, Richard N. Snowden, M. Spurr, O. Spurr.

Company Not Known.—J. F. Johnson, N. A. Chandler, G. Jonner, A. G. B. Hammond, James McCarthy, ------ Armstrong, T. Kelley, ------ Galehousen, J. Bowden.

The next day the command continued its advance, moving to the north down the Truckee River. No resistance was met with until they had reached the bottom land, about one-half mile north of the present reservation building and within about two miles of the south end of Pyramid Lake.

The Battlefield.—Within about three and one-half miles of the lake the bottom lands widen out, leaving a broad level stretch of meadow on both sides of the river, through which the stream shifts its bed more or less every year. There is a belt of large cottonwood trees with underbrush among them, skirting the stream through the entire distance. This meadow land is inclosed on the west by a mountain and on the east by a wide stretch of comparatively level table-land that is elevated somewhat above the meadows. The point of contact between the two is sharp and well defined. The difference in elevation increases in the direction of Wadsworth until it terminates in a bank some fifty feet high, at the south end of the valley where the meadows narrow down to a few yards each side of the stream. At this south end the trail leading north passes down from the higher country into the lower, and runs on the east side of the river to the lake. Where this trail passes down into the valley is the south end of the battlefield, and the point of the last stand made by the Ormsby party.

An Aimless Charge and Wild Retreat.—The whites had passed into this lowland and through it to the north, about one and a half miles, when there suddenly appeared on an elevated point to the right front, just out of gunshot range, a band of Indians that apparently about equaled their own number. The order was given Major Ormsby for the command to dismount and tighten the girths of their saddles. While this order

INDIANS OF NEVADA       53

was being executed a man by the name of A. K. Elliott, who had a globe-sighted rifle, took several shots at the enemy with no visible results. The company then mounted and the order was given to charge, and with a yell about thirty of the party dashed up an easy grade, made by a wash, a little to the east of the Indians, on to the plateau, where they found that the Indians had melted away from sight like a dissolving view. There seemed no place for them to go ; but they were gone, and as before just out of rifle range appeared another scattered line of mounted Indians. Their right, as far as it was visible, rested on an elevated point at the margin of the valley, while their left, stretching away to the east and south, formed a half circle. There seemed but few of them, but they were badly arranged for the comfort of the whites; a little stretching out of that left or south-east line would have inclosed them. In fact, it looked as though they had charged through an open gate into an Indian corral. For a time it was doubtful whether the position of Ormsby's party was the result of accident or design; but the uncertainty vanished as every sage-bush in front and on both flanks suddenly developed the hiding place of a Pay-Ute; and a shower of bullets and arrows came hissing over their heads and among them. The very air trembled with the wild yell that followed the discharge, and many a poor fellow sitting on his horse there began to picture to himself the horrors he had read of that befell those who fell into the hands of a savage war party. The battle was lost to the whites in the next five minutes by a failure to promptly continue the aggressive, and thus give hope of success with which to occupy the mind, instead of a gradually growing fear and horror of falling wounded or otherwise into the hands of the Indians. Besides, the greater number of the party had lagged behind after observing the force of the enemy.

The volunteers who had charged remained upon the plateau possibly ten minutes, doing nothing except to attend to frightened animals, and became thoroughly imbued with the belief that they were out-generaled and defeated. Some of the animals became so unmanageable that they bucked the revolvers out of their riders' holsters and forced others to drop their guns. The time for a favorable result had passed, and then the retreat began in the effort to join their already flying comrades. The first move was toward the bottom to the west to gain the shelter of the timber that came within two hundred yards of the plateau.

This was another mistake, for the shelter they sought was already the

54        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

hiding-place of Chiquito Winnemucca's band that made the Indian line continuous westerly to the river. This only left the enemy on the plateau with nothing to do but out-flank the whites by moving south on the upland and shoot down into the timber, occasionally at pistol range, where the course of the river swept close into the east margin of the meadows. A number of them reinforced Chiquito Winnemucca in the timber where Numaga joined them, and as the Indians were pressing forward he rushed in between them and the whites, waving back his followers in an attempt to obtain a parley. Chiquito Winnemucca refused to obey the order and dashed by Numaga, followed by the entire yelling horde. The whites fell back, but through the personal exertions of two or three men, they formed again a few hundred yards away.

There was one member of Ormsby's party named William Headly, who, from the first, until he was killed, made himself constantly conspicuous. He was termed by the Indians the "White Brave" and was sup-posed by them to be in command. Again and again members of the retreating force endeavored to make a stand. About half a mile from where the battle opened, some tried to cross the river, but were swept back again to the shore they had started from. At this place now stands, on the upland overlooking the valley, an Indian schoolhouse and the river approaches within fifty yards of the elevated point. Here a number of mounted Indians had congregated and the whites, if they retreated further, were forced to run the gauntlet, the dread of which had caused some to attempt the passage of the surging stream. It had to be done, however, and the rush was made. One horse was killed in passing this point, its rider being among the last to give way before the onslaught of the band, led by Chiquito Winnemucca, that was constantly pressing them in the timber from the north. The horse in falling dashed its rider to the ground, who instantly sprang to his feet and turned upon the foe, wounding in the knee the assailant nearest to him, and then sank by his dead horse to the earth again, riddled with arrows and bullets. His name was Eugene Angel, and his death was witnessed only by his slayers, who, twenty years later, described the death scene, and pointed out the spot where the bones of the brave man were buried. Three-quarters of a mile farther south, still in the bottom lands, along the east bank of the river, another rally was made in a grove of cottonwood, and it was here that the chivalric young Meredith fell. In front of the grove to the north

INDIANS OF NEVADA       55

was an open space through which they had passed in falling back. Chiquito Winnemucca, in his eagerness, arrived upon this open ground in advance of his band, and rode alone out into it in pursuit of the whites. As soon as he appeared the brave Headly, who had been lingering in the rear, turned upon the chief. Hatless, coatless, without a shot left, he went for his enemy with the bridle reins in one hand and a revolver grasped by the barrel in the other, regardless of Winnemucca's weapons, he rode down upon him. The chief turned and back they went, pursuer and pursued, through the enemy's lines, when the heroic "White Brave" reeled in his saddle and fell to the ground, shot through the head from behind. His horse and weapons became the spoils of the Indian he had been pursuing. The grove where Ormsby's command was now making a last, desperate effort to stem the tide of defeat, was within less than a quarter of a mile of where the trail passed out of the meadows, up a steep bank about fifty feet, onto the table-lands above. If the Indians in force gained possession of this point of exit from the valley there was left, seemingly, no outlet of escape, and it was a position to be held at all hazards. Major Ormsby ordered Thomas F. Condon and Richard Watkins, with their commands, to go and take possession of that place and hold it, which they did, although deserted by nearly all of their men as soon as the point was reached. Said Anton Kauffman, now of Humboldt County, who was a boy about sixteen years of age at the time : "The last I saw of the battle, and the bravest thing I ever saw, was Captain Watkins standing there on the trail, leaning on a crutch and blazing away at the redskins. It's always been a mystery to me how he got away. He was the last white man I saw that day, or until the next morning, when I arrived at Buckland's Station." Mr. Kauffman was erroneously under the impression that Captain Watkins was defending the trail after the balance of the command had passed him in the retreat.

Thomas F. Condon started back to inform Major Ormsby of the critical condition of affairs on the trail, therefore let us follow him and see what had been transpiring at the front. The horse that Chiquito Winnemucca rode was shot under him, in the open space before described, as that warrior returned to the attack after Headly's death, and he had nothing to do with the massacre that afterwards occurred. The timber was within range of the heights, and bullets were constantly pattering against

56        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

and whistling among the trees from that direction. An old bed of the river, thickly covered with an undergrowth, connected the position of the whites with that of the Indians in the bottom, and afforded the latter a concealed route by which they could reach the already hard-pressed command. Soon the woods were swarming again with the savages. Meredith went down under a mortal wound, and where his life-blood mingled with the soil a bunch of wild roses sprang into life, to mark the place in after years where a hero had fallen. Again the whites gave way and the Indians, in pressing them out of the timber, discovered two secreted in the underbrush near where Meredith had been left. They passed on, however, in the pursuit, pretending not to have seen them, supposing they would remain there hid until a more leisurely opportunity presented itself for attending to them. It was the last they saw of their reserved prisoners, the two men making their escape.

As the whites retreated from this, their last cover, and went flying to the south to reach the upper country, they passed through a constant shower of deadly missiles that greeted them from the bluff all along the meadow trail. Added to this was the thrilling war-cries of exultation going up from the hundreds that crowded upon their rear; and all combined to complete what had been so effectually begun—the total demoralization of the entire party. It was a wonder that such had not been the result long before, and the retreat became a wild, panic-stricken stampede. As the flying horsemen approached the place, where Watkins, like another Leonidas in the Pass of Thermopylae, was, single-handed, defending their line of retreat, death spreading over them her somber wings and silently shadowing them all.

As the horsemen reached the point where the trail went up the steep bank, it was impossible for all to go at once; and the result was a halt for many, and an almost hand-to-hand conflict with the savages. One horse, with a fatal wound, dashed away to the west, and carried its rider to his death in the timber by the river bank. Two men passing to the right in climbing the heights by a more gradual ascent, went rolling with their horses fatally shot, down the bank among their enemies. Young Snowden, as he reached the summit, fell from his horse and expired. A few rods farther on, just a little way to the south and west of the trail, another man threw up his hands with a despairing look, laid down with his face to the ground, and died.

INDIANS OF NEVADA       57

These were all, eight only, whose life-blood had thus far paid the penalty of the fatal mistakes of that terrible day. Eight only upon the field of battle had died facing the foe, as brave men, all of them, as any for whom history weaves its chaplets of fame. As soon as the upper country was reached all thought of anything except escape was abandoned, and the fastest horses led the retreat. The unfortunate man whose animal gradually lost his position in the advance and fell to the rear, found himself slowly and with certainty slipping into the arms of death. It was an open country, a straight trail, and a terrible ride with a fearful stake that only speed could win. To lose it was swift, terrible and certain death. The pursuers in that race for life were constantly seizing the whites who had become the last among the flying band, and then would follow a quick, desperate struggle, and another was added to the number of the nameless dead. Two miles were thus passed when the Indians, becoming more bold, one rode up behind a white man, and, throwing his right arm around him, lifted him out of the saddle and threw him upon the ground, while the horses were at full speed, where he was killed without offering any resistance.

This feat elicited such applause from the pursuers that it at once became popular, and the same thing was attempted with the next horseman reached. It was a different style of fugitive this time, and as the Indian threw his arm around his victim he was received with a pistol shot, and a desperate encounter ensued, side by side their horses flew over the country. .As the riders grasped in each other's embrace, struggled for mastery, and fought for life; until, locked in a deadly embrace, they rolled from their winged battlefield into the trail. Lying upon the ground they fought and strove, rolling over and over, first one, then the other gaining a temporary advantage, until the Indian was throttled, and would have been strangled had not his comrades come to his assistance. It was a quickly ended contest then, and the brave Californian, Wm. S. Spear, was added to the list of those who were sacrificed that day.

            A little further along, the trail runs close to a precipice, two hundred feet high, at the base of which flows the river. Upon the narrow space between the brink and the still higher bluff, an Indian rushed up to look at an apparently dead white man, when the corpse suddenly brought a revolver to bear and fired. The white man sprang to his feet, and seizing the Pah-Ute, struggled as one mad to jump from the dizzy heights to cer-

58        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

tain death below, with the Indian in his embrace. His design was frustrated by the lookers-on, who ended the desperate combat by killing their comrade's antagonist, and rolling his body from the heights.

About seven or eight miles south from the battlefield a mountain comes down in one place to the east bank of the river. At this point there is a narrow neck of level ground through which the trail passes, and a short distance to the south, it passes down again to a meadow by the river. The meadow, or bottom-land, is possibly a half mile long, and then the trail leads out into the high, open country again. Major Ormsby had left on his way down a number of men, under command of a person named ------ Lake, with orders to hold the position and thus secure their line of retreat. They were posted on higher ground that overlooked the trail, and in a favorable position from where a dozen brave men could have held at bay for a short time a small army.

Here Ormsby had intended to have made a stand, if defeated at the lake, but as the leading fugitives came dashing down the trail the reserves deserted their post and joined them. Upon Ormsby's arrival at this point he found no nucleus around which to attempt a stand, and passed on with the balance. All were not so fortunate, however, for as the rear entered the narrow place their flight was retarded by their numbers. The Indians overtook them in force; rode in among them; beat them with their hands, bows or guns, the horses of the fugitives over the heads, thus causing them to fall back further among their pursuers. In this way the leaders pressed forward to overtake horsemen farther in advance, leaving those passed to be dealt with by their followers, and crowded upon a number just as they were passing down the trail into the bottom-land just mentioned. At this point Ormsby's men received a volley that filled five nameless graves down near the banks of the Truckee River.

"What about the white men that you rode among in the narrow pass?" we inquired. "White men," said our informant, "all cry a heap ; got no gun throw um away ; got no revolver, throw urn away, too ; no want to fight any more now ; all big scare just like cattle ; run, run, cry, heap cry, same as papoose; no want Injun to kill um any more; that's all."

But it was not all, for further questioning revealed the details of a scene that no artist could paint or pen portray. A scene where the victims, tortured by fear into madness, rode among their slayers with outstretched arms, pleading and begging for life; crying in vain for mercy,

INDIANS OF NEVADA       59

while the jeering devils, flushed with victory and drunk with blood, laughed at their supplications, played for a time with their frenzy, and then ended their miseries.

Death of Major Ormsby.—When Ormsby left the bottom where the battle had occurred, he was riding a mule that had been shot through the flank from where the blood would gush forth at every step. The Major was wounded in the mouth and both arms, which rendered him almost helpless, and as Captain Watkins dashed past him in the retreat to rally if possible some men to make another stand, he ordered Lieut. Chris. Barnes to remain behind with the wounded officer and whip the mule, if possible, into greater speed. Watkins finding that no one could be induced to attempt any farther resistance, soon returned to assist Ormsby and the Lieutenant.

As he reached them the Indians, who were crowding close in pursuit, fired upon the party and Barnes received a wound. What immediately followed is given in Captain Watkins own language, as taken from a let-ter from him upon this subject: "I then made up my mind that the fight was up, that I could do no more for the Major, but might save myself, so making a motion to Barnes to go, I said to Ormsby that I would try once more to rally the men. He replied that it would be of no use; but to look out for myself, as it was but a question of a few more minutes with him, and that all he now asked was strength to face the foe when he received his death shot. The Indians were gaining on us rapidly; one look at them and thought of self conquered valor, and the next moment, with a few parting words to Ormsby, I was on my way to Carson. As I was climbing up the third and last of the ravines, I overtook Big Sam. Brown on his white mare, with Capt. John Blackburn on behind him, toiling up the hill." Captain Watkins, farther on, took up a man behind him on his horse and carried him to safety. The account of what followed his departure was obtained from the Indians. The Major continued his retreat as he best could, and had reached the last little valley down by the river where the five men were killed by a volley from the savages as before mentioned. Here he was passed, by such of the whites, as had up to this time been following in his rear and engaging the attention of the pursuers in the manner before described. At the point where the trail passes out from this last-mentioned little valley he was overtaken. This point is about half-way

60        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

between the battle-ground and Wadsworth, and is at the place where a month later a detachment of United States soldiers under Captain Stew-art, and volunteers under Col. Jack Hays defeated the Indians as a chastisement for their outrages. He was half-way up the trail when his saddle turned, throwing him upon the ground, and his mule, wheeling toward the river, went back. The Major got up and walked to the top of the steep grade; when looking back he recognized one of the Indians nearest to him in the pursuit, and instantly turned and started to meet them. He evidently supposed there was hope of his being spared, because of the friendly relations that heretofore had existed between him and the Pah-Utes that now confronted him. As he moved down to meet them, he waved his hand with the palm advanced, and said : "Don't kill me, ------ ------ ," calling the Indian by name. "I am your friend, I'll go and talk with the whites and make peace." "No use now," replied the Indian, "too late,". and he sent an arrow flying through the stomach and another through the face of his late friend, who, sinking to the ground, was rolled from the ridge dying into the gully below.

A Nameless Hero.—A little in advance of Major Ormsby on the trail were two parties, one from necessity and the other from choice, having been left with their leader, as their companions had passed on. N. A. Chandler was the name of one of the two who, being without a horse, was there against his will; and as he saw Ormsby ascend the hill and then turn back he darted off down a depression until it came to a precipitous terminus. Reaching this point, he took off his revolver, and, laying it down, sprang from the embankment and made his escape.

The other member of that forlorn hope was a young man, a mere boy in his teens, out of whose grey eyes looked the soul of a peerless hero. He was riding a good horse, but had lingered in the rear, and saw the Major thrown from his animal. He then stopped and dismounted in the train, within twenty feet of where Ormsby stood when he turned back to talk with his Indian friend. As that friend fired upon the Major, two other savages dashed past to make way with the youth at the top of the trail, possibly 100 feet away, expecting an unresisting victim. In this they were disappointed, for the brave lad sprang behind his horse, and with a revolver fired hastily at one of the two who were advancing, but without effect. One of the savages then rushed up to the opposite side of the

INDIANS OF NEVADA       61

animal, and the struggle went on with the horse between them, until their positions were so changed as to bring the youth in range of the gun of the disengaged Pah-Ute. This ended the combat, and the "nameless young hero" sank by the trail, where he was afterward buried and forgotten; and but for the enemy who killed him the noble act that resulted in his death would never have been known to his own race. (It has been erroneously stated that Richard Snowden was the name of this young man. Snowden's body was found several miles farther to the north.)

The cruel fate which quenched in oblivion the name and young life of this lad leaves behind it for us a memory sadder than tears; a broken home circle somewhere in the world that kept fruitless watch through the years that followed for the return of the youth or the man, and never knew of the sublime act that, closing his life, had transformed their boy-hero into a martyr.

Closing Scenes.—The next victims were Jones, McCarthy and McLeod. They were overtaken in the open country, and made a desperate resistance, keeping the band at bay for some time with their revolvers, but finally were killed. The event was considered of sufficient importance to warrant a kind of war-dance, and there was a circular trail beaten around them, where their slayers had danced in joyous triumph, because of the death of two such desperate foes. While they were engaged in murdering these two men the sun went down, but they still continued their pursuit of the fleeing command, until reaching the place where Wadsworth now stands, it had become so dark that the pursued were enabled to hide away and elude the search.

Our guide accompanied us through to Wadsworth, stopping at each place where a white man had been slain to describe the death scene, until forty-six were pointed out. The Indians claim to have killed only that number, unless a few wounded, of which they have no knowledge, strayed away into the mountains and perished. They claim, however, that had the battle opened two hours earlier in the day there would not have been a white survivor. Their own loss by acknowledgment was three warriors wounded, and two horses killed. Thus ended the Battle of Pyramid Lake, the most disastrous conflict to the whites ever waged in what is now the State of Nevada.

Effects of the Defeat.---On the morning of May 15, 1860, after the dis-

62        THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

aster, the stragglers on foot commenced arriving at Buckland's Station, and on horseback at Dayton, Va., and the other towns in the valleys farther west, creating a panic of the most remarkable character that followed them wherever they went. The horror was flashed over the line to California, and in a few hours the massacre, with exaggerated generalities, had sounded its note of alarm for the Nevadans throughout the Pacific Coast. At Virginia the women and children were placed in a partially completed stone building for safety, the structure being speedily converted into a fort. The place was called Fort Riley, and later the Virginia Hotel. The citizens organized, and sentinels were posted around the town.

At Silver City, a stone fort was built on the rocks overlooking Devil's Gate and the town, in which was mounted a cannon made of wood and hooped with iron, that was trained to rake the canyon below, and yawned with its cavernous mouth, portentous of an impending calamity to the Pah-Utes. After the war had ended a few citizens took that cannon back on the hill and fired it off with a slow match, thus demonstrating that the man who invented the thing had made a mistake in naming and locating it, as it proved to be an excellent torpedo, and a judicious point of location for its most approved work would have been in the center of a hostile village. At Carson, the women and children were barricaded in the Penrod House, and the country around was picketed. At Genoa, the only building suitable for defense was the stone cabin of Warren Wasson. He vacated the premises, and that night started alone for Carson, to find out why no telegraph message could be obtained from that place; it being feared that the Indians were between the two points and had cut the wires.

            Arriving at Carson he found that the operator had paid no attention to the telegraph calls from Genoa, and that no Indians had thus far put in an appearance in either Carson or Eagle Valleys. He also found that a party was being organized, under Theodore Winters, to carry a dispatch from General Wright, of California, to a company of cavalry supposed to be at Honey Lake Valley, ordering that company to march at once for Carson. Wasson volunteered to carry the message alone; and mounting a fleet, powerful horse, rode in fourteen hours through the enemy's country a distance of 110 miles to Honey Lake, without change of horse, or without seeing an Indian. He delivered the orders and the company moved south.