[From H. H. Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho and Montana (1890)]

 

CHAPTER II.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

1862-1866.

MINERAL DISCOVERIES -- COUNTIES AND TOWNS -- IMMIGRATION ROUTES TO THE MINES -- INDIAN WARS -- FORTS -- QUARTZ-MINING COMPANIES AND CLAIMS -- MORE TOWN-BUILDING -- STAGE-ROADS -- SLIDING CLUBS -- TRAFFIC AND TRAVEL -- OREGON VERSUS CALIFORNIA -- MAIL CONTRACTS -- PROSPECTING AND MINING -- NEW DISTRICTS -- OUTPUT OF PRECIOUS METALS.

            THE early history of Idaho has already been given in the former volumes of this series ; the modern history of Idaho properly begins with the discovery of the Boise mines, in August 1862,[1] previous to which the movement for a new territory met with little favor. In the spring of 1863 there were four county organizations and ten mining towns, containing, with some outside population, about 20,000 inhabitants, all of whom, except a handful, had come from various parts of the Pacific coast and the western states within the two years following Pierce's discovery of the Clearwater mines.[2]

(406)

MINING TOWNS. 407

            The leader of the Boise expedition having been killed by Indians while prospecting farther on the stream where gold was found, it received the name of Grimes Creek in commemoration. The party retreated to Walla Walla, where a company was raised, fifty-four strong, to return and hold the mining ground.[3] They arrived at Grimes Creek October 7th, and founded Pioneer City. Others quickly followed, and in November Centreville was founded, a few miles south on the same stream.[4] Placerville, on the head of Granite Creek, contained 300 houses. Buena Vista on Elk Creek and Bannack City[5] on Moore Creek also sprang up in December, and before the first of January between 2,000 and 3,000 persons were on the ground ready for the opening of spring. Up to that time the weather had been mild, allowing wagons to cross the Blue Mountains, usually impassable in winter. Companies of fifty and over, well armed to protect themselves against the Shoshones, at this time engaged in active hostilities, as narrated in my History of Oregon, made the highway populous during several weeks. Supplies for these people poured rapidly into the mines. In the first ten days of November $20,000 worth of goods went out of the little frontier trading post of Walla Walla for the Boise country, in anticipation of the customary rush when new diggings were discovered. Utah also contributed a pack-train loaded with provisions, which the miners found cheaper than those from the Willamette Valley, with the steamboat charges and the middlemen's profits.[6] Besides, the merchants of Lewiston were so desirous of establishing commerce with

408 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Salt Lake that a party was despatched to old Fort Boise, September 20th, to ascertain if it were practicable to navigate Snake River from Lewiston to that point or beyond. This party, after waiting until the

[Map]

BOISE BASIN.

river was near its lowest stage, descended from Fort Boise to Lewiston on a raft, which was constructed by them for the purpose.[7] It was soon made apparent,

BOISE BASIN. 409

however, that Lewiston was hopelessly cut off from Salt Lake, and even from the Boise basin, by those formidable barriers alluded to in the previous chapter, of craggy mountains and impassable river caņons and falls. The population of Boise was equally interested in means of travel and transportation, and had even greater cause for disappointment when they found that wagons and pack-trains only could be relied upon to convey the commodities in request in every community 300 miles from Umatilla landing[8] on the Columbia to their midst, Umatilla, and not Walla Walla, having become the debouching point for supplies.

            Meantime the miners busied themselves making preparations for the opening of spring by locating claims and improving them as far as possible,[9] doing a

410 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

little digging at the same time, enough to learn that the Boise basin was an extraordinary gold-field as far as it went. Eighteen dollars a day was ordinary wages. Eighty dollars to the pan were taken out on Grimes Creek. Water and timber were also abundant[10] on the stream, which was twelve miles long. On Granite Creek, the head waters of Placer and  Grimes creeks, from $10 to $50, and often $200 and $300, a day were panned out. In the dry gulches $10 to $50 were obtained to the man. Ditches to bring water to them were quickly constructed. The first need being lumber, a saw-mill was erected on Grimes Creek during the winter by B. L. Warriner, which was ready to run as soon as the melting snows of spring should furnish the water-power. Early in the spring the second mill was erected near Centreville by Daily and Bobbins, the third begun at Idaho City in May by James I. Carrico, who sold it before completion to E. J. Butler, who moved it to the opposite side of Moore Creek, and had it in successful operation in June. The first steam saw-mill was running in July, being built in Idaho City by two men, each known as Major Taylor. It cut from 10,000 to 15,000 feet in ten hours.[11] Thus rapidly did an energetic and isolated community become organized.

            The killing of Grimes and other Indian depredations[12] led to the organization of a volunteer company

INDIAN TROUBLES. 411

of the Placerville miners in March 1863, whose captain was Jefferson Standifer, a man prominent among adventurers for his energy and daring.[13] They pursued the Indians to Salmon Falls, where they had fortifications, killing fifteen and wounding as many more. Returning from this expedition about the last of the month, Standifer raised another company of 200, which made a reconnoissance over the mountains to the Payette, and across the Snake River, up the Malheur, where they came upon Indians, whose depredations were the most serious obstacle to the prosperity of the Boise basin. Fortifications had been erected by them on an elevated position, which was also defended by rifle-pits. Laying siege to the place, the company spent a day in trying to get near enough to make their rifles effective, but without success until the second day, when by artifice the Indians were induced to surrender, and were thereupon nearly all killed in revenge for their murdered comrades by the ruthless white man.[14]

            To punish the hostile Indians in Idaho, Fort Boise was established July 1, 1863, by P. Lugenbeel, with two companies of Washington infantry in the regular service. It was situated on the Boise River about forty miles above the old fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, near the site of the modern Boise City.

412 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Lugenbeel was relieved later in the season by Rinearson of the 1st Oregon cavalry.[15]

            The summer of 1863 was one of great activity. Early in the season came flattering news of the Beaverhead country lying on the head waters of Jefferson fork of the Missouri River, where claims were held as high as $10,000 and $15,000. On Stinking Water Creek, fifteen miles in length, the diggings were reported to be marvellously rich. Good reports came also from all that region lying between the Rocky and Bitter Root ranges, and the camps on the Missouri to the east of it. About 1,000 miners had wintered in these diggings and two towns, Bannack City on the Beaverhead and Virginia City on another affluent of Jefferson fork, had sprung into existence contemporaneously with the towns in the Boise basin. In the spring of 1863 a bateau load of miners from the upper Missouri left Fort Benton for their homes, taking with them 150 pounds of gold-dust.

            The principal drawback on the Missouri was the hostility of the Blackfoot Indians, who, notwithstanding their treaty, robbed and murdered wherever they could find white men. Whole parties were killed, and whole pack-trains seized.

            The immigration of 1863 was not so large as that of the preceding year, and was divided into three columns, one of which was destined for southern Idaho and the mining region of eastern Oregon; another was bound for California; and the third, furnished by the government with a separate escort under Fisk, consisting of twenty-three wagons and fifty-two men, turned off at Fort Hall for the Salmon River country, failing to reach which they tarried in the Beaverhead mines. Four steamers left St Louis

DIFFICULTIES OF IMMIGRATION. 413

in the spring for the upper Missouri, the Shreveport and Robert Campbell belonging to La Barge & Co., and the Rogers and Alone, owned by P. Choteau & Co. They left St Louis May 9th, and the river being low, were too late to reach Fort Benton. The Shreveport  landed her passengers and freight below the mouth of Judith River, 200 miles from that post; the Rogers reached Milk River, 500 miles below the fort; the Alone could not get beyond an old fort of the American Fur Company, twenty-five miles down stream; and the Campbell, drawing only three feet of water, was stopped at Fort Union, 800 miles from her destination, where her passengers and freight were landed, the latter being stored in the fort.

            This state of affairs involved much loss and suffering, which was prefaced by the bad conduct of the Sioux, who on one occasion attacked a party of five men whom they invited ashore, killing three and mortally wounding a fourth. The travellers, left at the  mercy of the wilderness and the Indians, made their way as best they could to their destinations, some on horse and some afoot. Many miners, expecting to return to their eastern homes by the boats, had gone to Fort Benton from different parts of the country to await their arrival, who now had to turn back to Salt Lake and take passage on stages. To Fort Benton in July had gone 150 wagons to meet the expected boats and convey the freight to the various distributing points. Thirty cents a pound was the lowest  rate from Milk River.

            Notwithstanding the falling-off in immigration from the east in 1863, the Boise mines drew between 25,000 and 30,000 to southern Idaho.[16] Improvements were rapid and prices high. To supply the population

414 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

in the Boise basin required great activity, and to provide for the coming winter exhausted the resources of freighters. Ten or more pack-trains arrived daily in July and August, with half that number of wagons,[17] laden with merchandise. No other means of passenger-travel than by horses was obtained this season, but the brains were at work which brought about a different state of affairs in the following spring, although the danger from Indians and banditti greatly discouraged stage-owners and express-men. The Indians stole the horses of the stage companies, and highwaymen, both white and red, robbed the express messengers.[18]

            From the abundance of quartz in southern Idaho, and occasional fragments found containing free gold, it was early anticipated that the real future wealth of the territory would depend upon quartz-mining, and miners were constantly engaged in exploring for gold-bearing lodes while they worked the bars and banks of the streams. Their search was rewarded by finding promising ledges on Granite Creek, near the first discovery of placer mines, and on Bear Creek, one of the head waters of the south Boise, where placer claims were also found yielding from $16 to $60 a day to the man. There was a frenzy of excitement following the finding of these quartz lodes, which set men to running everywhere in search of others. In September no less than thirty-three claims of gold

QUARTZ-MINING. 415

and silver quartz mines had been made on the south Boise, all of which promised well.[19] A company was formed to work the Ida Elmore, and a town called Fredericksburg was laid out at this ledge. Other towns, real and imaginary, arose and soon passed out of existence; but Rocky Bar has survived all changes, and Boise City, founded at the junction of Moore Creek with Boise River, was destined to become the capital of the territory.

            The quartz discoveries on Granite Creek rivalled those in the south Boise district. The first discovery, the Pioneer, had its name changed to Gold Hill after consolidation with the Landon. It was finally owned by an association called the Great Consolidated Boise River Gold and Silver Mining Company, which controlled other mines as well. The poorest rock in the Pioneer assayed over $62 to the ton, and the better classes of rock from $6,000 to $20,000. These assays caused the organization in San Francisco of the Boise River Mining and Exploring Company, which contracted for a ten-stamp mill, to be sent to Boise as soon as completed.[20]

416 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

            Among the richest of the lodes discovered in 1863 was the Gambrinus, which was incorporated by a Portland company. This mine, like others prospecting enormously high, lasted but a short time. It was so rich that pieces of the rock which had rolled down into the creek and become water-worn could be seen to glisten with gold fifty feet distant.[21] A town called Quartzburg sprung up on Granite Creek, two miles west of Placerville, as soon as mills were brought into the district, and on the head waters of the Payette, Lake City, soon extinct and forgotten.

            But the greatest discovery of the season came from a search for the famous lost diggings of the immigration of 1845. In the spring of 1863 a party of twenty-nine set out from Placerville on an expedition to find these much-talked-of never-located mines.[22]

SEARCH FOR LOST MINES. 417

            Crossing Snake River near the mouth of the Boise, they proceeded, not in the direction supposed to have been travelled by the immigration of 1845, but followed along the south side of Snake River to a considerable stream, which they named Reynolds Creek, after one of their number, where they encamped. Two of the company, Wade and Miner, here ascended a divide on the west, and observed that the formation

[Map]

JORDAN CREEK.

of the country indicated a large river in that direction.  Up to this time nothing was known of the course of  the Owyhee River, which was supposed to head in Oregon. It was not certain, therefore, what stream this  was. On the following day their explorations lay in the direction of the unknown watercourse. Keeping  up the creek, and crossing some very rough moun-

418 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

tains, they fell upon the head waters of another creek flowing toward the unknown river, where they commenced prospecting late in the afternoon of the 18th of May, and found a hundred 'colors' to the pan. This place, called Discovery Bar, was six miles below the site of Boonville on Jordan Creek, named after Michael Jordan.

            After prospecting ten days longer, locating as much mining ground as they could hold, and naming the district Carson, two other streams, Bowlder and Sinker creeks, were prospected without any further discoveries being made, when the company returned to Placerville.

            The story of the Owyhee placers caused, as some said, a kind of special insanity, lasting for two days, during which 2,500 men forsook Boise for the new diggings. Many were sadly disappointed. The discovered ground was already occupied, and other good diggings were difficult to find.[23] The distance from Placerville was 120 miles; the mines were far up in the mountains; the road rough, and the country poorly timbered with fir. Nothing like the beautiful and fertile Boise Valley was to be found on the lava- skirted Owyhee. Those who remained at the new diggings were about one in ten of those who so madly rushed thither on the report of the discovery. The rest scattered in all directions, after the manner of gold-hunters; some to return to Boise, and others to continue their wanderings among the mountains. In the course of the summer fresh diggings were found in the ravines away from Jordan Creek ; but the great

OWYHEE AND JORDAN CREEK. 410

event of the season was the discovery of silver-bearing ledges of wonderful richness on the lateral streams flowing into Jordan Creek. This created a second rush of prospectors to Owyhee, late in the autumn of 1863.[24]

            Great interest was taken in the Owyhee silver mines, claimed to be the second silver deposit of importance found within United States territory; and much disappointment was felt by Oregonians that this district was included within the limits of the newly organized territory of Idaho, as upon exploration of the course of the Owyhee River, ordered by Governor Gibbs, it was found to be.

            The first town laid out on Jordan Creek was Boonville. It was situated at the mouth of a caņon, between high and rugged hills, its streets being narrow and crooked. In a short time another town, called Ruby City, was founded in a better location as to space, and with good water, but subject to high winds. Each contained during the winter of 1863-4 about 250 men, while another 500 were scattered over Carson district. In the first six months the little timber on the barren hills was consumed in building and fuel. Lumber cut out with a whip-saw brought forty dollars a hundred feet, and shakes six dollars a hundred. In December a third town was laid off a mile above Ruby, called Silver City.

420 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

            The general condition of the miners in the autumn was prosperous. Idaho City, called Bannack until the spring of 1864, had 6,000 inhabitants. Main and Wall streets were compactly built for a quarter of a mile, crossed by but one avenue of any importance. Main street extended for a quarter of a mile farther. Running parallel with Elk Creek were two streets -- Marion and Montgomery half a mile in length. The remainder of the town was scattered over the rising ground back from Elk and Moore creeks. There were 250 places of business, well-filled stores, highly decorated and resplendent gambling-saloons, a hospital for sick and indigent miners, protestant and catholic churches, a theatre, to which were added three others during the winter,[25] three newspapers,[26] and a fire

CENTREVILLE AND IDAHO CITY. 421

department. Considering the distance of Boise from any great source of supplies or navigable waters, this growth was a marvellous one for eleven months.

            Centreville also grew, and was called the prettiest town in the Boise basin. It contained, with its suburbs, 3,000 people.[27] A stage-road was being built from Centreville each way to Placerville and Idaho City by Henry Greathouse, the pioneer of staging in southern Idaho. Placerville had a population of 5,000. It was built like a Spanish town, with the business houses around a plaza in the centre. The population of Pioneer City was 2,000, chiefly Irish, from which it was sometimes called New Dublin. These were the principal towns.

            On the 7th of October a festival was given in Idaho City, called Moore s ball, to celebrate the founding of a new mining state, at which the pioneers present acted as hosts to a large number of guests, who were lavishly entertained.[28] Society in Boise was chaotic, and had in it a liberal mixture of the infernal. The union-threatening democracy of the south-western states was in the majority. Gamblers abounded. Prostitutes threw other women into the shade. Fortunately this condition of things did not last long.

422 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

            Sickness attacked many a sturdy miner, laying him in his grave away from all his kindred, who never knew where were his bones. Yet not unkindly these unfortunate ones were cared for by their comrades, and the hospital was open to them, with the attendance of a physician and money for their necessities. The Boise News called upon all persons to send in notices of deaths occurring under their observation, and offered free publication, that the friends of the deceased miner might have a chance of learning that his career was ended in the strife for a fortune.[29] To avoid the winter many went east, and into Colorado, Utah, and Oregon, and others would have gone but for the mining law of the district, which required the holders of claims to work them at least one day in seven.[30]

            Californians were numerous in southern Idaho.[31] Many had been in the Oregon and the Clearwater mines, when the Boise discovery drew them to these diggings. They were enterprising men, and patronized charities and pleasures liberally, many of them being old miners and having no puritan prejudices to overcome. The sport which offered the most novel attractions, while it was unobjectionable from a moral standpoint, was that furnished by the sliding clubs of which there were several in the different towns. The stakes for a grand race, according to the rules of the clubs, should not be less than $100 nor more than $2,500, for which they ran their cutters down certain hills covered with snow, and made smooth for the purpose.[32] A circulating library and a literary club

WINTER IN THE MINES. 423

also alleviated the irksomeness of enforced idleness in their mountain-environed cities.

            The winter was mild in the Boise basin until past the middle of January, when the mercury fell to 25 below zero at Placerville. So little snow had fallen in the Blue Mountains that pack-trains and wagons were able to travel between Walla Walla and the mines until February. These flattering appearances induced the stage companies to make preparations for starting their coaches by the 20th of this month; but about this time came the heaviest snow, followed by the coldest weather, of the season, which deferred the proposed opening of stage traffic to the 1st of March.[33] The first attempt was a failure, the snow being so deep on the mountains that six horses could not pull through an empty sleigh.[34]

424 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

For the same reason, the express from Salt Lake, which was due early in February, did not arrive until in March.

            On the 16th of March the first saddle-train for a month arrived at Placerville, bringing a party of twelve, one of whom was a woman. They were eleven days on the road.[35] On the 1st of April the pioneer coach, belonging to the Oregon and Idaho Stage Company, which was to run its stages from Umatilla landing to Boise, arrived at Placerville with a full load of passengers at $100 each. But this coach had come from Shasta, California, and had taken the California and Oregon stage-road to Portland, going thence to The Dalles by steamer, and there taking the road again. It had been fifty-nine days on the trip. Four other coaches of this line, starting from Shasta March 2d, accomplished the journey in twenty-three days. Ish and Hailey of Oregon owned this line.

            On the 1st of May coaches began to run from Idaho City and Placerville to Boise City and Owyhee.[36] Road and ferry franchises were much sought after. A new road up the John Day River and through Caņon City to Boise was opened the 20th of June. A. B. Meacham, of Modoc- war fame, and his brother Harvey, settled at Lee's Encampment, on the Blue Mountains, so named from Jason Lee having parted from his friends at this place on his journey east in 1838, and erected what was known as the Mountain House, doing much to open roads and facilitate trade. A franchise was granted to a company to build a road from the head of Camas prairie[37] to Boise, but it was found impracticable to build it as projected, and it was abandoned. The Owyhee Ferry

MINING IMMIGRATION FROM CALIFORNIA. 425

Company also obtained a franchise at the first session of the Idaho legislature.[38]

            The question of cheap freights was much discussed. The large number of men from northern California who were interested in Boise held that a road could be made from the Boise basin to the Sacramento River, by which freights could be brought more cheaply in wagons alone than by the O. S. N. Co.'s boats, and wagons from their landings. A company was incorporated, called the Idaho and California Wagon-Road Company, February 6, 1864, to build a wagon-road from Snake River Ferry, near old Fort Boise, to Red Bluff, California, via Ruby City.[39]

            On the 19th of April there arrived from Healdsburg, California, a party of six men with pack-animals, who came by the way of the Washoe and Humboldt mines and Owyhee. They reported the road lined with people on their way to Idaho, and that wagons had already arrived within fifteen miles of Jordan Creek, where the hills became too rough for them to proceed farther. On the 1st of May a train of eighteen wagons left Scott Valley and Yreka for Boise, and on the 11th of June six others belonging to William Davidson, taking the Yreka and Klamath Lake route. These two routes continued to be travelled during the period of the California emigration to Idaho, and but for the hostility of the Indians, were good roads needing little improvement. One party of twenty-three, that left Red Bluff April 24th, took the route first contemplated by the projectors of the Idaho and California Road Company

426 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

down the Malheur to the mouth of the Boise, and became lost between the Warner Lakes and the head waters of the Malheur. They wandered about for three weeks, but finally reached their destination about the 20th of June.

            Not only was there a large immigration both over land and by sea, via Portland, but the freight offerings by steamer to the latter place were more than could be carried, and a number of sailing vessels were employed. This freight consisted of dry goods, hardware, and groceries. Provisions were furnished by Oregon and Utah.[40]

            About the 1st of May two express lines were established between Boonville and Sacramento. They left Boonville on the 2d and 4th respectively, and re turned, the first on the 22d, bringing the Sacramento Union of the 16th, to the delight of Californians. They continued to make successful trips until interrupted by Indian hostilities.[41]

            In the spring of 1864 a contract to carry the tri-weekly mail from Salt Lake to Walla Walla, via Fort Hall and Boise City, was awarded to Ben Holladay & Co., carriers of the California mail, the service to

VARIATIONS OF PROSPERITY. 427

begin July 1st, and an agent was sent over the route with men, teams, hay-cutting machines, and other means and appliances. He arrived in Boise in June. The main line from that place passed directly to Payetteville, a station on the north side of the Payette River, crossing the Snake River a short distance above the mouth of the Payette, and running through Burnt, Powder, and Grand Rond valleys to Walla Walla. The first overland mail reached Boise on the 1st of August. The immigration of this year was large, and the future of the territory looked promising.

            The miners of Idaho were like quicksilver. A mass of them dropped in any locality, broke up into individual globules, and ran off after any atom of gold in their vicinity. They stayed nowhere longer than the gold attracted them. Notwithstanding their early regulations against Chinamen working in the mines, when the Nez Perce gold-fields had yielded up their richest deposits, these more patient toilers were permitted to take what remained by paying six dollars a month tax, one half to go to the territory, and the remainder to the county in which they resided, the sheriff being empowered to pursue into another country any one attempting to evade the act.

            In June there were not enough white men in the Oro Fino district to work the claims well supplied with water and, wood, which was another motive for the admission of Chinese. At Elk City, on the north branch of the Clearwater, miners were taking out incredible amounts daily; still they were not crowded. At Warren's 600 men were doing well, and continued to do well for years. But Florence, for a few months the central attraction of the country, was almost depopulated in the winter of 1863, without recovering its population at any subsequent period. Its history was as short as it was brilliant. No mining camp with placers of such richness ever was so soon exhausted and deserted. In 1864 this district, too, was

428 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

pretty well abandoned by white miners, and the Chinese were allowed to come in. The Florence gold was also of less value than that of other districts.

            The discovery of silver ledges in the Kootenai region was made as early as 1859, but nothing was done to explore the country, owing to the fact that the mines lay north of 49° in British territory, where mining regulations were somewhat arbitrary. Gold was discovered in the Pend d'Oreille and Coeur d'Alene country by Donelson, of Stevens expedition, in 1853, and still earlier by Owens; but the hostility of the Indians and the finding of gold elsewhere diverted attention until the autumn of 1863, when good prospects were found on the Kootenai River. In May 1864, despite the deep snows of that region, a considerable portion of the mining population of eastern Oregon and northern Idaho had located claims and built up a town called Fisherville, fifty miles north of the United States boundary line.[42] But the favorite country for prospectors was still southern Idaho and the newly created territory of Montana, which for a year constituted a part of the former territory. Discoveries were made early in 1864 on the north Boise, where the mining towns of Beaver City and Summit City came into existence about the 1st of February.[43] A more important discovery was made on the Malade River in Volcano district, forty miles south of Little Camas prairie.[44] The distinguishing feature of Volcano district was the width of the ledges found there, which were in some

SILVER HILL AND QUARTZ-MIXING. 429

cases forty feet thick. Silver Hill district was discovered July 3d by a road party surveying for a route from Placerville to South Boise along the base of the Payette range.[45] In August two towns, Banner and Eureka, with a hundred miners in each, were established, and twenty or more gold and silver quartz mines located. The Banner ledge, first and richest, gave character to the district. Wagon-roads were laid out to Silver Hill. A shaft was sunk thirty feet, and a tunnel run 300 feet, across several other ledges, but this activity failed to foreshadow a great and sudden prosperity for this district.

            Quartz-mining, unlike placer-mining, was retarded by the distance from any point where mills for crushing ores could be obtained, and by the outlay required. The first quartz-mill erected in the Boise basin was put up by W. W. Raymond on Granite Creek, about two miles from Placerville. It arrived in July, and was ready to go into operation in September. It was furnished with ten stamps, each weighing nearly 600 pounds, and crushing one and a half tons daily, with a reserved power amounting to half a ton more each. This mill was employed on the Pioneer, Lawyer, and Golden Gate ledges. It cleaned up from its first week's run fifty pounds of amalgam.[46]

            The Landon lode, three miles north-east of Idaho City, on the divide between Moore and Elk creeks, named after its owner, was prospected by rigging ordinary sledge-hammers on spring-poles. In this manner 1,200 pounds were crushed, and a yield obtained of over $23 to 100 pounds; 200 pounds being pulverized in three days with the labor of one man. A mill was placed upon it by the Great Consolidated

430 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Boise River Gold and Silver Mining Company, having five stamps, which was ready for crushing rock in December. Other mills were erected during the year in the Boise basin.[47]

            At South Boise between forty and fifty arastras were run by water-power, making flattering returns, and the number was soon increased to eighty-four, crushing about a ton a day. The Ophir yielded in the arastra $100 to the ton.

            Several mining companies shipped from 1,000 to 10,000 tons of ore to San Francisco and New York in order to attract the attention of capitalists, secure investments, and obtain mining machinery. The first mill in South Boise, however, was one with five stamps, owned by Cartee, Gates, & Company, which was packed in, and put in operation before a wagon-road was opened over the mountains. The Ada Elmore rock crushed in this mill yielded an average of $100 per ton;[48] the Confederate Star $150 per ton.

            An eight-stamp mill was built in Portland for South Boise, intended for the Idaho lode; but in the mean time Andrews and Tudor, who left South Boise for the east in November 1863, purchased a twelve-stamp mill in Chicago, for the Idaho, which was hauled by ox-teams from the Missouri River in Nebraska at a cost of thirty cents a pound. It reached its destination in October and was ready for work in December. A five-stamp mill built at Portland was placed on the Comstock ledge in the autumn. R. B.

SOUTH BOISE AND WAR EAGLE. 431

Farnham, who took a ton of rock to New York and on its merits succeeded in forming a company called the New York and Idaho Gold and Silver Mining Company, purchased and shipped to South Boise a thirty-stamp mill, which arrived too late to be put into operation that year.

            A new district was discovered on the head waters of the middle Boise River which was named Yuba. The ledges found on the south and middle Boise were solid quartz, larger but not so rich as those of Owyhee. The rock in which they were found was granite. South Boise had at this time four towns, Esmeralda, Clifden, Rocky Bar, and Happy Camp, and about 2,000 persons were scattered over the district. A good wagon-road was completed to Boise City in August, built by Julius Newberg & Co. Of the large immigration of 1864, many settled in South Boise.

            In May 1864 the Oro Fino Gold and Silver Tunnel Company was incorporated in Carson district, Owyhee, for the purpose of running a tunnel through Oro Fino mountain and developing the wealth therein, thirty locations having already been made on it, one of which, the War Eagle, subsequently gave its name to the mountain. This wonderful mass of mineral constituted the dividing ridge between Jordan and Sinker creeks; and it was on the ledges belonging to the north-eastern side of the ridge that the first quartz-mill of the Owyhee region was placed. I might mention a number of other companies which flourished during this year, but do not deem it necessary. The great discovery of 1865 was the Poorman mine, on War Eagle mountain.[49] It was so named because its

432 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

discoverers were without capital to work it. The ore was the richest known, and so easily worked that it could be cut out like lead, which it resembled, but with a tint of red in it, which gave it the name of ruby silver. It was a chloride of silver richly impregnated with gold, and brought four dollars an ounce as it came from the mine. A twenty-stamp mill was placed upon it, which, with another mill, worked the product of this mine.

            The Mammoth district, containing veins of enormous size, was discovered in the spring of 1864 south of Carson district. It took its name from the discovery lode. Flint district, only separated from Mammoth by the extension of War Eagle mountain southward, was also prospected with good results. The Rising Star ledge was the principal mine.

            Indian depredations continuing, the people of Idaho petitioned to have General Conner sent to them from Utah.[50] Most of the fighting was done on Oregon soil, by the 1st Oregon cavalry, as will be seen by a reference to my History of Oregon, although it was for the protection of Idaho as well, the cavalry ex-

INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 433

tending their operations to Alvord Valley, and thence into Nevada as far as Mud Lake.

            The spring of 1865 opened with renewed hostilities. A detachment of Washington infantry, under Sergeant Storm, and a small company, came upon Indians on Catherine Creek, killing eight. Never had the Shoshones, now a powerful foe through their possession of an abundance of horses, arms, and ammunition, given so much trouble. Petitions were made to the government by Oregon, Idaho, and northern California, for better defensive measures. A new military sub-district, embracing Nevada, and including Owen's River Valley in California, was established, under the command of Charles McDermitt of the 2d California volunteer cavalry, who established Camp Bidwell, near Goose Lake,[51] on the California road, which had been closed by hostilities.[52] By the mustering-out of the Oregon and Washington troops in 1865-6 the territory was left with even less protection than formerly, while the Indians were more troublesome than ever. But in the spring of 1866, the civil war having been brought to a close, the army was distributed on the western frontier, and after a few years more of wars and treaty-making, peace was restored with the Snakes and related tribes.

            Unlike the previous two winters, that of 1864-5 set in in November by a violent snow and wind storm, which inflicted heavy damages by destroying miles of

434 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

flumes in eastern Oregon, letting the water into the ditches, and sweeping earth into claims, completely covering up many, filling up cuts and drains, burying miners tools, and levelling to the ground the fences of the newly improved farms over a large extent of country. Heavy rains followed the cold weather, making the season one of unusual severity; but the spring opened early with a heavy immigration, which struggled in before freight trains could get through the mountains with supplies, and the new-comers, many of whom were "from the left wing of Price's army," created first a bread famine, and then a riot. Not that they were actually starving, for there was food for all, but flour was a dollar a pound, and bread an extra dish at the eating-houses.

            Street meetings began to be held by the idle consumers to compel the merchants who had a little flour left to reduce the price. A mob of sixty men marched to the store of Crafts & Vantine in Idaho City, where they found about 200 pounds, which they seized. Proceeding to the store of Heffron & Pitts, the command was given by their leader to seize whatever flour they found. At this crisis Jack Gorman, deputy sheriff, with great courage arrested and disarmed the leader, a burly six-foot Missourian, placing him in irons, amidst cries of "Shoot him, shoot him!" from the rioters. This action damped their spirits, and order was restored. The merchants reduced the price of flour to fifty cents a pound, and soon after it be came plenty at six cents.[53]

            Checked for the time by the prompt action of Gorman, the mob element found an opportunity to retaliate by setting fire to the city, which on the 18th of May was burned in the most valuable and business portion, only three public buildings being left standing -- the catholic church, the Jenny Lind theatre, and the office of the Idaho World, the newspaper which had succeeded the Boise News at Idaho City. Besides

BURNING OF IDAHO CITY. 435

these, nothing remained but the scattered houses on the hillside, and Buena Vista Bar, a suburb of the city, separated from it by a flat. Into these the homeless population was gathered, while the catholic church was converted into a hospital to receive the dislodged inmates of the county hospital, which was consumed. Taking advantage of the confusion and alarm created by the devouring element, men seized and carried off the provisions and other goods saved from burning buildings, taking them to hiding-places in the mountains. The merchants fortunately had a large portion of their stocks stored in underground receptacles, built after the manner of root-houses, which fashion prevailed first on account of the lack of warehouses, and afterward as a defence against fire. Their losses, however, aggregated $900,000. The town was immediately rebuilt with many improvements. By the middle of June it had almost its former proportions, and more than its former dignity of appearance.[54] In July an indictment for arson was found against one Thomas Wilson, who never was punished, owing to the condition of the territorial government at this time, the defects of which and their causes will be treated in another place.

            The immigration from California and Nevada in 1865 was in such numbers as to make necessary increased means of travel and transportation. Hill Beachy, an enterprising citizen of the Boise basin, formerly of Lewiston, established direct overland communication with Star City, Nevada, and with California, stocking the road a distance of 260 miles, and in April passed over the route with five coaches

436 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

filled with passengers. Owing to Indian troubles, however, after a few trips the route was abandoned, the stages and stock were withdrawn, and also the stock of the Humboldt express, the Indians having burned one of the company's stations, within forty miles of Owyhee, and killed the keeper.

            John Mullan,[55] engineer of the military road from Walla Walla to Fort Benton on the Missouri, from which so much was expected in the way of immigration and so little realized in any way, undertook to establish a stage line from Umatilla to Boise City, and another from Boise City to Chico, California, but was finally prevented by the Indians. His company was called the Idaho and California Stage Company. Early in September they advertised to sell tickets from Boise City to San Francisco, Virginia City, Nevada, and all other points, promising through connections and rapid transit; the time consumed between Ruby City and Chico to be six days for the opening trip, and four when arrangements were perfected. Ten companies of soldiers were distributed between Chico and Owyhee. But in October nearly every horse belonging to the company was stolen, and the stages had stopped running.

            In this struggle -- a truly valiant one -- to master the obstacles to communication with the outer world and lessen the expense of living, distance, cold, snow, and hostile Indians were not the only obstacles the mining territory had to contend against. A lively warfare was carried on by the Oregon newspapers against the efforts of the Idaho merchants and others to bring about a direct trade with California. So long as their operations were controlled by the steamship line between San Francisco and Portland, or the Oregon Steam Navigation Company on the Columbia River, it could hardly be expected that the expenses of transportation or travel would be

DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL. 437

much reduced. On the other hand, a road, over which teams could be driven with ordinary speed and safety, always allowed a possible escape from exorbitant charges. In cases where time was money, also, they hoped to gain by a direct route.[56] But the Portland papers cast ridicule upon these schemes for avoiding paying tribute to Portland and the O. S. N. Co.;[57] and every exultant paragraph of an Idaho paper on the arrival of trains direct from California was caught up and invidiously commented upon. The Oregonians also seized upon all the mountain passes and river crossings with their toll-roads and ferries, wringing tribute from the residents of as well as the travellers to the mining districts outside the boundaries of the state.[58] At least so said the Idahoans.

            I have mentioned that several private surveys of Snake River had been made with a view to navigation between Lewiston and Salmon Falls, or even Lewiston and Olds ferry or Farewell Bend. These surveys were not sufficiently encouraging to induce outlay. The attempt to navigate Snake River above Lewiston having failed, the O. S. N. Co. built a boat called the Shoshone, above the crossing of Snake River, at great cost, to test its navigability. She made her trial trip May 16, 1866. It was ex-

438 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

pected she would carry a great deal of freight from Olds ferry to the crossing of the Boise City and Owyhee road, and also government freight to Fort Boise; and that in case she could run up to Salmon Falls a road would be opened to South Boise, and another to the mines of Volcano district. But this experiment also failed. There was no wood along the banks for steaming purposes. The boat could not pass the mouth of the Bruneau River, little more than half-way between the Boise landing and Salmon Falls ; and the Owyhee Avalanche, published at Ruby City, being in favor of the California overland routes in preference to all others, never ceased to disparage the attempt which the Idaho City World and Boise City Statesman commended.[59]

            The overland immigration from the east in 1865 was also large, 1,840 wagons passing Fort Kearny in May; and though the comers distributed themselves over the whole coast, Idaho and Montana retained the greater portion of them.[60] Besides the regular immi-

IMMIGRATION OF 1866. 439

gration, the stages also brought full loads of passengers. And while the stage-line suffered severely by the depredations of the Indians on the plains, the immigration experienced little trouble, owing to its extent and the thoroughness of its organization. The pioneers of Idaho and Montana were saved the worst half of the journey across the continent, which formerly exhausted the energies and means of the Oregon and Washington emigrants. They arrived early, and their stock was usually in good condition. Every arrival from the east was hailed with a cordial welcome, for it was evidence that the mines could be easily reached from the great outside world, which conveyed a feeling of satisfaction to the hearts of the self-exiled miners. If the emigrants brought stocks of goods with them, so much the better. They often sold them cheaper than they could be obtained from any other direction, and there was no jealousy of competition.

            In the spring of 1866, in spite of Indians and other obstacles, the Humboldt and Chico routes were again opened; Owyhee and Boise City raising men, money, and horses to fight the former, and Mullan raising money, coaches, and horses, in New York and California, to stock the latter. Thirty wagons were advertised to start from Chico, with a number of the stage company's coaches, early in April; and in fact, trains did arrive over the Chico route by the middle of the month, on account of which the Idaho press was jubilant, and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company offered to reduce their freight charges. On the other hand, to insure the successful competition of the California roads with the O. S. N. Co., the Central Pacific Railroad and California Navigation companies offered to carry freight free to Chico landing.

            Freight was carried by wagon to Ruby City and Boise for eleven and twelve cents a pound. Ox-teams came through in one month. Mullan's Stage Company put men and teams upon the road to improve it,

440 EARLY SETTLEMENT.

build stations, and cut hay. Finally, in August the coaches began running, the time from Chico to Silver City being four days. Treasure and government freight were also carried over that route.

            But there was a rival route which had a friend at court. Conness of California introduced a bill in the senate to provide for the construction of a wagon- road from Boise City to Susanville, in California, with a branch from Surprise Valley to Puebla, with an appropriation of $10,000 for surveys. This was called the Red Bluff route, favored by the Northern Teamsters Association, which advertised to take freight for from eleven to thirteen cents, and secured a great deal. Again, the Sacramento merchants subscribed $5,000 to be given as a bonus to the first train which should carry 100 tons of merchandise through to Owyhee by the Truckee pass, to be applied to the extra expenses of the trip.[61] Jesse D. Carr secured the contract for carrying a daily mail between Virginia City, Nevada, and Boise City, Idaho, via this route, which lay to the east of the Humboldt Mountains, and was the same, in part, over which Hill Beachy carried the mail for several months the previous year. The amount of money expended in these several enterprises was large, and the competition resulted in furnishing such accommodations for travel as were rarely enjoyed in new countries.

            I have given considerable space to the subject of roads, as to me it appears of the highest importance. The inaccessibility of Idaho tended to retard development, but every obstacle was finally overcome.[62]

BULLION PRODUCT. 441

 

* * * * *

 

 

CHAPTER IV.

THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

1861-1874.

TRIBAL AND TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS OF THE ABORIGINES -- ATTITUDE OF THE NEZ PERCE NATION -- GOLD DISCOVERY ON THE NEZ PERCE RESERVATION -- COUNCIL AT LAPWAI -- TERMS OF TREATY DISREGARDED BY THE WHITE MEN -- ABORIGINAL DIPLOMACY -- BIG THUNDER AND THE MISSIONARIES -- TERMS OF THE NEW TREATY -- CLAIM OF EAGLE-FROM-THE-LIGHT -- SPEECH OF LAWYER -- CONFERENCE WITH JOSEPH.

            THE native races of Idaho were divided by the Salmon River range of mountains, the Nez Perces being the representative nation of the northern division, and the Shoshones of the southern. The condition and character of the former were relatively higher than those of the latter.[63]

            During the five years war from 1863 to 1868, the history of which I have given, the Nez Perces remained quiescent, taking no part in the hostilities, although they were not without their grievances, which might have tempted other savages to revolt. The troubles to which I here refer began in 1855, with the treaties made with them and the other tribes of eastern Oregon and Washington by Palmer and Stevens, superintendents respectively of the Indians of those territories. At this council there were two parties among the Nez Perces, one for and one against a treaty -- a peace and a war party -- but in the end all signed the treaty, and observed it, notwithstanding the strong influences brought to bear upon them by the

482 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

surrounding tribes, who went to war after agreeing to its terms. They were conquered, and the country opened for settlement.

            It was at this period, when the discovery of gold on the reservation of the Nez Perces caused white men to overrun it without regard to the rights of the Indians, that their loyalty was most severely tried, and that a division occurred in the nation. A war at this time was narrowly averted by the combined efforts of Superintendent Hale of Washington, and Lawyer, the head chief of the Nez Perces, together with the establishment of a military post at Lapwai.[64]

            At a council held in August 1861, at Lapwai, Eagle-from-the-light gave his voice for war, and for a coalition with the Shoshones. Looking-glass, the former war chief, was now too old to lead in battle, but Eagle-from-the-light was eager to succeed to his honors. A number of sub-chiefs were ready to support this measure; but on the other hand, the powerful interest represented by Lawyer was against it, and a company of dragoons under Captain Smith, stationed at Lapwai ostensibly to protect the Indians from the impositions of the miners, was a standing menace to the Nez Perces, should they break the peace. The council finally adjourned without agreeing upon anything in particular.[65]

            This condition of the Indian mind was strongly represented in congress, to procure an appropriation of $50,000 for the purpose of holding a treaty with the Nez Perces for the purchase of an important

INDIAN AFFAIRS. 483

part of their reservation, $40,000 of which was appropriated, and expected to be in the hands of the agents by November 1862. Meanwhile the reservation was freely occupied by white men, who dug gold, built towns, laid out roads, and sold whiskey upon it, contrary to law. Even the military guard was withdrawn, because the commander of the military district dared not subject a company to temptation by placing it on the border of a rich mining region, lest it should desert. The irritability of the Indians becoming more manifest, General Alvord determined upon the establishment of a permanent post at Lapwai, on the return of Maury's command from an expedition to Fort Hall, in the autumn of 1862.[66]

            November came, and the Indians were gathering to the promised council when the commissioners appointed were forced to announce that no funds had come to hand, and to defer the conference until the following May. Even the well-disposed Nez Perces found the unaccountable delay anything but reassuring, and were only kept on friendly terms by the efforts of William Craig and Robert Newell, in whose probity they had the greatest confidence. At length the 15th of May, 1863, was fixed upon for the council. As a means to the peaceable ending of the conference, four companies of the 1st Oregon cavalry were stationed at Lapwai, and much display was made of the power and material of the military branch of the government, as well as its munificence in entertaining the whole Nez Perce nation, for which a village of tents with regularly laid out streets was spread upon a beautiful plat of ground about a mile from the fort.

            Looking-glass had died in January, but Eagle-from- the-light, Big Thunder, and Joseph, all chiefs opposed to another treaty, were present with their 1,200 followers, and Lawyer and his sub-chiefs with his people,

484 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

numbering about 2,000. On the part of the United States, there were Superintendent Hale, agents Hutchins and Howe, and Robert Newell. When all else was ready, a delay of two weeks occurred, because the Indians would have no interpreter but Perrin B. Whitman, who was in the Willamette Valley and had to be sent for. So much time thus allowed for discussion gave opportunity for recalling all the grievances of the past, and prognosticating for the future. The Palouses, taking advantage of this period of idleness, invaded the Nez Perce camp, bent upon mischief, one of them going so far as to strike Commissioner Howe with a riding- whip, when they were ordered off the reservation by Colonel Steinberger, and Drake's company of cavalry assigned to the duty of keeping them away.[67]

            About the last of the month the council was allowed to begin. The lands to be treated for embraced an area of 10,000 square miles, containing, besides the mines, much good agricultural land. It was at this conference that the disaffected chiefs put in their claims to certain parts of the former reservation as their peculiar domain. That spot where the agency was located, and which was claimed also in part by the representatives of the American Board of Foreign Missions,[68] was alleged by Big Thunder to belong to him. Eagle-from-the-light laid claim to the country on White Bird Creek, a small branch of Salmon River, and adjacent to the Florence mines. Joseph declared his title to the valley of Wallowa Creek, a tributary

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE NEZ PERCES. 485

of the Grand Rond River ; and each holding for himself and band declined to sell.

            The lands reserved by the treaty of 1855 embraced all the country enclosed by a line beginning at the source of the south fork of the Palouse, extending south-westerly to the mouth of the Tucannon, up the Tucannon to its source in the Blue Mountains, along this range in a general southerly direction to a point on Grand Rond River, midway between the Grand Rond and Wallowa Creek, along the divide between the Wallowa Creek and Powder River, crossing Snake River at the mouth of Powder River, thence in an easterly direction to Salmon River fifty miles above the mouth of the Little Salmon, thence north to the Bitter Root Mountains, and thence west to the place of beginning, comprising an area which later constituted five counties.

            The first proposition of the commissioners was that the Nez Perces should sell all their lands except five or six hundred square miles situated on the south side of the south fork of the Clearwater, and embracing the Kamiah prairie, to be surveyed into allotments, with the understanding that a patent was to issue to each individual holding land in severalty, with payment for improvements abandoned. But to this the nation would not agree. The next proposition was to enlarge this boundary so as to double the amount of land, embracing, as before, the Kamiah prairie, the agricultural lands to be surveyed, and the provisions of the treaty of 1855 to be continued to them. There was to be expended, besides, 50,000 in wagons, farm stock, and agricultural implements, $10,000 in mills, $10,000 in school-houses, $6,000 for teachers for the first year, and half that amount annually for fourteen years for the same object. Buildings for teaching black-smithing and carpentering were to be furnished. Between $4,000 and $5,000 was to be paid for the horses furnished Governor Stevens and the volunteers during the war of 1855-6. The Indians might sell their

486 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

improvements to private individuals or the government; and the whole of the stipulations should be carried out within one year after the ratification of the treaty by the senate of the United States. This proposition was to be final.

            Lawyer then made a speech containing a remarkable mixture of diplomacy and sarcasm -- the sarcasm being a part of the diplomacy -- giving evidence of those peculiar talents which enabled this chief always to outgeneral his rivals. He assured the commissioners that he and his chiefs and people fully understood the present position of the government toward the Nez Perces, who were a law-abiding people, while the government itself had broken its own law, the treaty of 1855. He had understood that there were two opinions in congress concerning the making of a new treaty. As to the old one, he was willing to adhere to that, as he had done heretofore, having always regarded himself sacredly bound by it, and the chiefs who refused to be governed by it as beyond the pale of the law, and not acknowledged by him to be chiefs. Although satisfied that the first treaty was preferable, he would like to hear what the United States proposed to give for the reservation lands, and that the government was disposed to be just.[69]

            The object of this speech was fourfold: to show that he was in a position to object to the proffered treaty, to arraign the government of the United States, to make this the ground for securing additional benefits should he consent to the propositions of the government agents, and to proclaim as outlaws all the other chiefs who did not follow his direction, by which proclamation his alliance with the government would be strengthened, this being the foundation of his power with his own people. After this speech of Lawyer's, the rival chiefs, Big Thunder, Three Feathers, Eagle-from-the-light, and Joseph, who had held aloof from the conference, came into the council,

INDIAN DIPLOMACY. 487

when Lawyer with great adroitness appeared to side with them, and declared the Nez Perces would never sell their country, though they might be brought to consent to gold-mining upon it for a sufficient consideration. Some of the chiefs questioned the authority of the commissioners to make a treaty, and the Indians appeared to be drifting farther away from a friendly feeling as the negotiations continued. Superintendent Hale, affecting to resent the imputation upon his authority, replied that the doubt would terminate the council, and he had nothing further to submit.

            The withdrawal of the commissioners changed the attitude of Lawyer, who intimated that in a few days he would offer a proposition of his own. On the 3d of June a grand council was again called, at which all the chiefs of both divisions of the Nez Perces were present except Eagle-from-the-light. The objections of Lawyer were answered, the grievances of the Indians explained away by the commissioners, and the thanks of the government tendered for the loyal services of the tribe in the past. They were assured that the government desired their welfare, and believed it would be promoted by locating on a reservation where they could be protected, and their land secured to them forever in severalty by a patent from the government; but if they were unable to come to any conclusion, the council would be immediately terminated.

            On the evening of that day Lawyer offered to give up the land on which Lewiston was situated, with twelve miles around it, including the Lapwai agency and post, which was promptly rejected. There was now a lengthened consultation among the Indians; and again several meetings of the council were held, the non-treaty chiefs being present. They were told by Commissioner Hutchins that their sullen and unfriendly manner was the occasion of the disagreements among the Nez Perces, and that although they might

488 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

persist in refusing to accept their annuities, as they had done heretofore, such action would not release them from the obligations of the treaty they had signed in 1855. To this they severally replied without altering their attitude of passive hostility, and withdrew from the council, Eagle-from-the-light being already absent, but represented by a deputation of his warriors.

            Affairs now assumed a threatening aspect, the commissioners fearing the defection of the whole tribe, and having apprehensions for their safety. A message was despatched to the fort, and a small detachment of cavalry, under Captain Curry, ordered to the council- ground. It arrived about one o clock at night, finding everything quiet except at one of the principal lodges, where fifty-three chiefs and head-men were assembled in earnest debate, the arguments being continued until almost daybreak, when, being still unable to agree, the principal chiefs on each side dissolved, in a solemn but not unfriendly manner, their confederacy, and having shaken hands, separated, to go each his own way with his followers. The seceders were Eagle-from-the-light, Big Thunder, Joseph, and Coolcoolselina, with their head-men.

            At the next meeting of the council, Lawyer, for himself and the nation, accepted the proposition of the commissioners, somewhat altered and amended, and the 9th of June was set for the signing of the new treaty, and the distribution of presents. Hope was entertained that the disaffected chiefs would finally yield, but in this the commissioners were disappointed.[70] From the subsequent action of one of these chiefs, it is presumable that they believed that by refusing to sign the treaty made with the majority of

TREATY WITH THE NEZ PERCES. 489

the nation, they would be able to hold their several favorite haunts.

            The terms of the new treaty reserved an extent of country bounded by a line beginning at a point on the north bank of the Clearwater, three miles below the mouth of Lapwai Creek, crossing to the north bank at Hatwai Creek and taking in a strip of country seven miles wide along the river, reaching to the North Fork, thence in a general southerly course to the 46th parallel, and thence west and north to the place of beginning, containing 1,500,000 acres, or about 500 acres to every individual in the nation, and embracing Kamiah prairie and many small valleys, as well as some mountain land, the whole being less than one sixth of the former reservation. By this division, Lawyer retained his home at Kamiah, and Big Thunder his location at Lapwai, these two being the principal men in the nation.

            The consideration agreed to be paid for the relinquished lands, in addition to the annuities due under the former treaty, and the goods and provisions distributed at the signing of the treaty, was $260,000, of which $150,000 was to be expended in removing and settling on the reservation such families as were outside the new limits, and ploughing and fencing their lots, which were also to be surveyed for them, four years being allowed for the completion of this part of the contract. The sums already mentioned as offered for farm- wagons and implements, mills, school-houses, and schools, were to be paid, with an additional $50,000 for boarding and clothing the children, and two years additional of the school appropriation at $2,000 a year. To build two churches within a year after the ratification of the treaty one at Lapwai and one at Kamiah $2,500 was provided. Provision was made for two subordinate chiefs, with a salary of $500 each, and houses furnished. Inasmuch as several provisions of the former treaty had not been carried out, $16,000 was agreed upon to sup-

490 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

ply the deficiency. To the chief Timothy, who led Colonel Steptoe into the midst of his enemies in 1858, was allowed $600 to build him a house. The Nez Perce claim for horses was to be paid in gold coin, and all the conditions of the first treaty not abrogated or changed were to remain in force, the United States reserving the right to lay out roads across the reservation, build hotels or stage-stations, and establish the crossings of streams; but the profits of ferriage, licenses, and rents accruing from these improvements were reserved to the Indians, as well as the timber, springs, and fountains on the reservation.[71]

            I have dwelt thus particularly upon the conditions of the Nez Perce treaty because of the prominence of this aboriginal nation among the tribes of the northwest, and in order to explain what is to follow. Congress being fully occupied with the complex questions arising during the civil war, and in consequence of it, gave little attention to Indian affairs, and had little money to expend upon treaties. The Nez Perces meanwhile had much to complain of. The treaty of 1855 was not ratified until 1859. No appropriation was made until 1861, and then only a partial one. Another partial payment was made in 1862. Mean while evil-disposed persons poisoned the minds of that portion of the tribe which had always been disaffected, saying that the government was broken up by the rebellion and could not redeem its promises, and that the Indians were fools to observe their part of the compact. There was much justification for apprehension of fraud or failure in the overrunning of the reservation by miners, and the location of the capital of the territory upon it. It was to do away

LAWYER VISITS WASHINGTON. 491

with these fears and establish the status of both white and red men that the new treaty was proposed.

            But here again the government was remiss. It neither honored the old treaty nor confirmed the new. In 1865 I find the agents writing that no money has been received since June 1863; that the white settlers insisted upon the terms of the new treaty not yet confirmed, while the Indians clung to the old, and there was danger that a hostile confederacy would be formed between the people of Eagle-from-the-light and the Blackfoot and Crow nations for the extermination of the white settlers of Idaho and Montana. At length, upon the representations of Governor Lyon, a sum little short of $70,000 was placed in his hands for the benefit of the Indians, but for $50,000 of which he failed to account.[72] Thus time and money slipped away.

            In 1867, the senate having amended the treaty of 1863, a special agent was appointed in conjunction with Governor Ballard and others,[73] to induce the Nez Perces to accept the amendments; but this being refused, the treaty was finally ratified in its first form[74] by six hundred of the nation, and in the following year Lawyer, Utsemilicum, Timothy, and Jason, chiefs, attended by P. B. Whitman, interpreter, and Robert Newell, made a journey to Washington City, by permission of the president, to talk with him and the head of the Indian department about the still existing differences of construction put upon those articles. Utsemilicum died in Washington soon after arriving, but Lawyer, who could better bear the strong rays of civilization's midday sun, lived to profit by his visit, and returned with Jason to instruct his people.

492 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

Some amendments to the treaty[75] as it existed were proposed by Lawyer, who complained, among other things, that the reservation was too small. He was afraid of being crowded.

            In 1869 the government made a change in the administration of affairs at the various Indian agencies, by assigning to each a military officer as agent, and Lieutenant J. W. Wham was appointed to the Lapwai agency. The superintendent of Indian affairs was also a military officer, whom we have met in southern Oregon, Colonel De L. Floyd Jones. But by an act of congress, passed in July 1870, it was made necessary to relieve officers of the army from this service, and the next change made was that of placing the appointment of Indian agents in the choice of religious societies, to each of whom certain agencies were as signed by the department. The Nez Perces were placed in charge of the presbyterians, who nominated a man of their church, J. B. Monteith.

            None of these, however, were as satisfactory to the Indians as their former agents had been. D. M. Sells, who relieved Wham in February 1870, was much complained of for a scandalous fraud in fencing the Indian farms,[76] and Monteith was obnoxious on account of his sectarianism, a part of the Indians being catholic, and desiring catholic teachers. Then the government appointed another commission to inquire into this and other grievances, which reported that catholic[77] interference would destroy the effect of the

ON THE RESERVATION. 493

instruction given by the government under the presbyterians. The other causes of dissatisfaction related to the presence of certain white persons upon the reservation whom the agent wished removed, but whom Jacob, who had been elected head chief, desired to remain.[78]

            These were important issues on a reservation, and employed the politicians of the Nez Perce nation, who had little else to do, in a continual attempt to show cause why they should not be satisfied, although the treaty of 1863, when finally ratified, had been pretty faithfully observed. The greatest obstacle in the way of the welfare of the Indians was the same now that it had been when Spalding first taught amongst them an abhorrence of labor. The reservation system, although made unavoidable by the danger to the Indians of contact with white men's vices, encouraged idleness by providing for the wants of the Indians until such time as the benefits of their treaties should expire, and they be compelled to work.

            But it was not only that the Nez Perces on the reservation required much soothing; ever since the council of 1863 there was a threatening faction among the non-treaty Nez Perces who had never removed to the reserve. Eagle-from-the-light spent most of his time east of the Rocky Mountains among the warlike tribes of Montana and the plains. Several petty chiefs resided on tributaries of the Salmon and Snake rivers in Idaho, and Joseph, son of that chief Joseph who had been a member of Spalding's church at Lapwai away back in 1844, made the valley of Wallowa Creek in Oregon his summer resort for fishing and

494 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

grazing his stock, but for the rest of the time roamed where he pleased.[79]

            Joseph's people came in contact with the Shoshones, and with a bad class of white men, neither of which were profitable as associates. The longer he remained off the reservation and under these influences the worse it was for everybody at least, so thought the inhabitants of Idaho, who had an experimental knowledge of Indian disturbances, and who, alarmed by the Modoc war, arising from almost exactly similar circumstances, urged the Indian department to take measures to remove all the Indians to their reservations.

            Accordingly, in March 1873, Superintendent Odeneal of Oregon, and Agent Monteith, under instructions from the secretary of the interior, held a conference with Joseph and his followers at Lapwai, to listen to their grievances and report to the secretary. At this conference Joseph entirely repudiated the treaty of 1863, and declared his refusal to go upon either the Umatilla or Nez Perce reservations, as proposed. Upon this report, the secretary issued an order that Joseph's band should be permitted to remain in the Wallowa Valley during the summer and autumn, promising that they should not be disturbed so long as they remained quiet. The secretary also directed that a description of the country should be sent to him, that he might make an order setting apart this valley for the exclusive use of the Indians, prohibiting its further settlement by white people, and enabling him to purchase the improvements already made. On the 16th of June the president set apart a reservation for the non-treaty Nez Perces under Joseph, including the Wallowa and Immaha valleys, the latter being the usual residence of this chief.

            This infraction of the treaty of 1863 by the secre-

PREPARING FOR AN OUTBREAK. 495

tary and president occasioned much disapprobation, and gave further cause for alarm, being a repetition of the course pursued toward the Modocs, which resulted so disastrously. The newspapers warned the people to be ready in case of an outbreak, with their arms in order and ammunition on hand. A company of volunteers was raised at Mount Idaho, which being on the border of the reservation was in the most exposed situation. The governor of Idaho made a requisition upon the ordnance department of the United States, which shipped to him 500 Springfield rifled muskets, and ammunition in large quantity, which arms and ammunition were to be issued to organized military companies, under certain restrictions and pledges.

            These precautions were not without good reason, there being much uneasiness among all the tribes in Idaho, caused, it was believed, by the Modoc war, and frequent instances were reported of insolent and threatening behavior, with occasional thefts and murders, which were generally attributed to the Shoshones. The Coeur d'Alenes and other northern tribes partook of the excitement, and Odeneal and Monteith were directed to negotiate with them, after which a council was held, July 29, 1873, between the Coeur d'Alenes and the commissioners before mentioned as having been appointed in this year. These Indians had never entered into treaty relations with the United States, but had remained friendly after the punishment administered in 1858 by Colonel Wright. A reservation had been assigned to them in 1867 by order of the president, upon which, however, they had never been confined, and which interested persons had caused to be changed, to their injury. Agents who had been appointed to reside among them to protect their rights had not done so. Of some of these they complained that their practices and examples were scandalous. These abuses the commissioners promised should be corrected, and a

496 THREATENING ASPECT OF AFFAIRS.

new reservation was agreed upon, extending from the mouth of the Okanagan River eastward by the course of the Columbia and Spokane rivers to the boundary line between Washington and Idaho, and east of that five miles, whence it ran north to the 49th parallel and west along that line to the middle of the channel of the Okanagan River, and thence to its mouth. This large area was reserved for the several tribes residing upon it, namely, the Lower Spokane, Lake, San Poel, Colville, Pend d'Oreille, Kootenai, and Methom bands, as well as the Cceur d'Alenes. All the improvements of white persons were to be purchased and presented to the Indians, except those of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had been paid for in the award to that company. To any head of a family desiring to begin to farm for a livelihood, a certificate was to be issued securing the possession of 160 acres, with assistance in putting in a crop and building houses. Schools were to follow in good time. Every child of a white father and Indian mother should be entitled to inherit from the estate of the father, and cohabitation should be considered to constitute marriage in a suit for the rights of inheritance.[80]

            On the part of the Indians, they promised to surrender their title to the country south and east of the tract reserved, and asked no pay, in money or goods; but if the United States wished, they would accept such help as above named. A year afterward congress had taken no action in the matter, and the Indians were still roaming and unsettled.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER V.

INDIAN WARS.

1874-1878.

MARCH OF THE CAVALRY -- ATTITUDE OF JOSEPH -- HIS OPINION OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS -- INDIAN OUTBREAKS -- MILITARY COMPANIES IN THE FIELD -- THE GOVERNORS OF WASHINGTON, OREGON, AND IDAHO -- BATTLE OF COTTONWOOD -- JEALOUSIES BETWEEN REGULARS AND VOLUNTEERS -- BATTLE OF CLEARWATER -- FLIGHT OF JOSEPH -- BATTLE OF RUBY CREEK --  ON SNAKE CREEK -- SURRENDER OF JOSEPH -- ANOTHER INDIAN TREATY -- DISAFFECTION OF THE BANNACKS -- FURTHER FIGHTING -- END OF HOSTILITIES.

            AFTER the close of the Modoc war, General Davis ordered a march by the cavalry of 700 miles through the country threatened by dissatisfied tribes, in order to impress upon their minds the military force of the United States. But the reservation set apart for Joseph and his non-treaty followers remained unoccupied, and he continued to roam as before. The settlers on the Wallowa were impatient to know whether their indemnity money was to be paid, or what course the government would pursue, and wrote to their representative in congress, who replied that the commissioner of Indian affairs had assured him that the reservation order would be rescinded, and the settlers left undisturbed.[81] With this understanding, not only the settlers who were in the valley remained, but others joined them, and when the Indians overrun their land claims with imperious freedom, warned them off. It was not until June 10, 1875, that the president revoked his order, thereby formally

493 INDIAN WARS.

releasing 1,425 square miles from any shadow of Indian title.

            But Joseph regarded neither president nor people, and in 1876 another special commission was appointed by the Indian department at Washington to proceed to Idaho and inquire into the status of Joseph with regard to his tribe and the treaties. The commissioners were D. H. Jerome, O. O. Howard, William Stickney, A. C. Barstow, and H. Clay Wood. They arrived at Lapwai in November, where Joseph met them after a week of the customary delay, and proceeded to measure his intellectual strength with theirs.

            When plied with questions, he had no grievances to state, and haughtily declared that he had not come to talk about land. When it was explained to him that his position in holding on to territory which had been ceded by the majority of the nation was not tenable according to the laws of other great nations; that the state of Oregon had extended its laws over this land; that the climate of the Wallowa Valley rendered it unfit for a reservation, as nothing could be raised there for the support of the Indians, with other objections for setting it apart for such a purpose, and a part of the Nez Perce reservation was offered instead, with aid in making farms, building houses, and instruction in various industries he steadily replied that the maker of the earth had not partitioned it off, and men should not. The earth was his mother, and, sacred to his affections, too precious to be sold. He did not wish to learn farming, but to live upon such fruits as the earth produced for him without effort. Moreover, and this I think was the real motive, the earth carried chieftainship with it, and to part with it would be to degrade himself from his authority. As for a reservation, he did not wish for that, in the Wallowa or elsewhere, because that would subject him to the will of another, and to laws made by others. Such was substantially his answer, given in a serious and earnest manner, for Joseph was a

JOSEPH'S THEORIES. 499

believer in the Smohollah doctrine, whose converts were called dreamers -- an order of white-man-hating prophets which had arisen among the Indians.[82]

            The commissioners recommended that the teachers of the dreamer religion should not be permitted to visit other tribes, but should be confined to their respective agencies, as their influence on the non-treaty Indians was pernicious; secondly, a military station should be established at once in the Wallowa Valley, while the agent of the Nez Perces should still strive to settle all that would listen to him upon the reservation; thirdly, that unless in a reasonable time Joseph consented to be removed, he should be forcibly taken with his people and given lands on the reservation; fourthly, if they persisted in overrunning the lands of settlers and disturbing the peace by threats or otherwise, sufficient force should be used to bring them into subjection. And a similar policy was recommended toward all the non-treaty and roaming bands.

            The government adopted the suggestions as offered, stationing two companies of cavalry in the Wallowa Valley, and using all diligence in persuading the Indians to go upon the reservation, to which at length, in May 1877, they consented, Joseph and White Bird for their own and other smaller bands agreeing to remove at a given time, and selecting their lands, not because they wished to, but because they must, they understanding perfectly the orders issued concerning them. Thirty days were allowed for removal. On the twenty-ninth day the war-whoop was sounded, and the tragedy of Lost River Valley in Oregon was reenacted along the Salmon River in Idaho.

            For two weeks Indians of the bands of Joseph, White Bird, and Looking-glass had been gathering on Cottonwood Creek, at the north end of Camas

500 INDIAN WARS.

prairie, which lay at the foothills of the Florence Mountains, about sixty-five miles from Lewiston, with the ostensible purpose of removing to the reservation. The white settlements extended along the prairie for considerable distance, the principal one -- Mount Idaho -- being central. Other settlements on Salmon River were from fifteen to thirty miles distant from Mount Idaho, in a south and south-west direction.

            General Howard was at Fort Lapwai, and cognizant of the fact that several hundred Indians, with a thousand horses, were on the border of the reservation without coming upon it. On the afternoon of the last day of grace he directed Captain Perry, whom we have met before in the Modoc country, to have ready a small detachment which should start early on the morning of the 15th to obtain news of the actions and purposes of the Indians. That same evening the general received a letter from a prominent citizen of Mount Idaho, giving expression to his fears that the Indians did not intend to keep faith with him, but took no measures to prevent the execution of their design should the settlers' fears prove true. In the morning, at the time and in the manner before indicated, the detachment trotted out toward Cottonwood Creek to bring in a report. It returned at noon, having met two reservation Indians excitedly bearing the news that four white men had been killed on John Day Creek, and that White Bird was riding about declaring that the non-treaty Indians would not go on the reservation.

            Howard hastened to the agency to consult with Montieth, taking with him the Indian witnesses, who, on being questioned, represented that the white men were killed in a private quarrel. This report necessitated sending other messengers to prove the truth of the Indian statement before the general commanding in Oregon would feel justified in displaying any military force. Late that afternoon they returned, and with them another messenger from Mount Idaho

PERRY'S DEFEAT. 501

with letters giving a detailed account of a general massacre on Salmon River,[83] and the destruction of all the property of the settlers, including their stock, which, if not driven off, was killed.

            There were at Fort Lapwai two companies of cavalry -- Captain Perry's troop F, and Captain Trimble's troop H -- numbering together 99 men. On the night of Friday, 15th, Perry set out with his command, and came upon the Indians in White Bird caņon early Sunday morning. Perry immediately attacked, but with the most disastrous results. In about an hour thirty-four of his men had been killed and two wounded, making a loss of forty per cent of his command. The volunteers, who were chiefly employed holding the horses of the cavalrymen, sustained but a slight loss. A retreat of sixteen miles to Grangeville was effected, the dead being left upon the field. In the mean time Howard was using all despatch to concentrate a more considerable force at Lewiston and Lapwai ; the governors of Oregon and Washington were forwarding munitions of war to volunteer companies in their respective commonwealths; and Governor Brayman of Idaho issued a proclamation for the formation of volunteer companies, to whom he could offer neither arms nor pay, but for whom a telegraphic order from Washington soon provided the former.[84]

502 INDIAN WARS.

            Not until the 22d were there troops enough brought together, from Wallowa, Walla Walla, and other points, to enable Howard to take the field. At that date 225 men, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, were ready to march.[85] Such defensive measures as were possible were taken to secure the settlements, and the little army commenced a pursuit which lasted from the 23d of June to the 4th of October, with enough of interesting incidents to fill a volume.[86] The first skirmish took place on the 28th, when Howard, who had two days before arrived at White Bird caņon to collect and bury Perry's dead, and been re-enforced with about 175 infantry and artillerymen,[87] discovered the Indians in force on the west side of Salmon River not far from opposite the mouth of White Bird Creek. They flaunted their blankets in defiance at the soldiers, dashed down the bare hillside to the river bank, discharged their rifles, and retreated toward Snake River, uninjured by the fire of the troops. Crossing the turbulent Salmon with no other aid than two small row-boats, the army took up the stern chase on the 2d of July. Before starting upon it, Whipple was sent on a march of forty miles toward Kamiah to check the reported preparations for war of the band of young Looking-glass, son of the old chief of that name; but having to rest his horses at Mount Idaho,

HOWARD'S CAMPAIGN. 503

the chief gave him the go-by, and escaped to Joseph, with his people, leaving over 600 horses in the hands of the troops. Whipple then marched back to Cottonwood, where there was a stockade, and scouted to keep the road from Lapwai open for the supply train under Perry.

            Meantime Howard was following Joseph through the mountainous region on the west side of the Salmon. When he arrived at Craig's crossing of the river he learned that the Nez Perces had already recrossed at a lower point, and doubling on their track had returned to Camas prairie, and were keeping the cavalry at Cottonwood penned up in the stockade.

            One of two scouts sent out to reconnoitre in the direction of Lawyer Creek caņon was captured. The other escaping to the quarters of the troops, Whipple despatched to the assistance of the captive ten men under S. M. Rains, guided by the survivor. Before the main command could mount and overtake this detachment, the whole twelve had been ambushed and slain. This was on the 3d of July. On the 4th Whipple marched to meet Perry, and escorted him to Cottonwood without encountering Indians; they were surrounding the station with the design of capturing the supplies. Rifle-pits and barricades were constructed, and Gatling guns placed in position. Skirmishing was kept up until nine o'clock that evening, but so inadequate was the force to the situation that the enemy was suffered to move off unmolested toward the Clearwater the following morning. A company of seventeen volunteers, D. B. Randall captain, coming from Mount Idaho, encountered the enemy within a mile of Cottonwood, and escaped, after a severe engagement, only by the assistance of a company of cavalry from that place, which rescued them after half an hour of exposure to the Indian fire.[88]

504 INDIAN WARS.

            When Howard heard of the appearance of the Indians on Camas prairie he treated it as the rumor of a raid only, and ordered McConville's and Hunter's volunteers to re-enforce Perry, in command at Cottonwood. This force performed escort duty to the wagon conveying the wounded and dead of Randall's command to Mount Idaho, and returned in time to meet the general when he arrived at Cottonwood via Craig's ferry, sixteen miles distant from that camp. McConville then proposed to make a reconnoissance in force by uniting four volunteer companies in one battalion, and discover the whereabouts of the Indians. Accordingly, he soon reported them within ten miles of Kamiah, and that he with his battalion occupied a strong position six miles from Kamiah, which Howard requested him to hold until he could get his troops into position, which he did on the 11th, McConville withdrawing on that day[89] to within three miles of Mount Idaho to give protection to that place should the Indians be driven in that direction.

            Joseph was at this time in the full flush of success. He had abundance of ammunition and booty. His return to Camas prairie and the reservation grounds had drawn to him about forty of the young warriors

BATTLE OF THE CLEARWATER. 506

of the treaty bands, and twenty or more Coeur d'Alenes, thirsting for the excitement of war. He expected to be attacked, but from the direction of the volunteers, on which side of his camp he had erected fortifications. On the other he had prepared a trail leading up from the Clear-water as a means of escape in case of defeat, and made many caches of provisions and valuable property. The camp lay not far from the mouth of Cottonwood Creek, in a defile of the high hills which bordered the Clearwater. A level valley of no great width was thus bounded on either side of the river. When Howard placed his guns in position for firing into the enemy's camp he found that on account of the depth of the caņon which protected the Indians he only alarmed instead of hitting them, and they ran their horses and cattle beyond range of the artillery up the stream, on both sides of the Clearwater, getting them out of danger in ten minutes.

            Hurrying the guns to another position around the head of a ravine, a distance of a mile and a half, the Indians were found to have crossed the river, and thrown up breastworks ready for battle. Firing commenced here, and Howard's whole command was posted up and down the river for two miles and a half, in a crescent shape, with supplies and horses in the centre. So active were the Indians that they had almost prevented the left from getting into position, and had captured a small train bringing ammunition, which the cavalry rescued after two packers were killed. Their sharp-shooters were posted in every conceivable place, and sometimes joined together in a company and attacked the defences thrown up by the troops. To these fierce charges the troops replied by counter-charges, the two lines advancing until they nearly met. In these encounters the Indians had the advantage of occupying the wooded skirts of the ravines, by which they ascended from the river bottom to the open country, while the soldiers could only

506 INDIAN WARS.

avoid their fire by throwing themselves prone upon the earth in the dry grass, and firing in this position. All the time the voice of Joseph was heard loudly calling his orders as he ran from point to point of his line. And thus the day wore on, and night fell, after which, instead of the noise of battle, there was the death-wail, and the scalp-song rising from the Nez Perce camp. The only spring of water was in the possession of the Indians, and was not taken until the morning of the 12th.

            Howard then withdrew the artillery from the lines, leaving the cavalry and infantry to hold them, and Captain Miller was directed to make a movement

[Map]

THE LOLO TRAIL.

with his battalion, piercing the enemy's line near the centre, crossing his barricaded ravine, and facing about suddenly to strike him in reverse, using a howitzer. At the moment Miller was about to move to execute this order a supply train, under Captain Jackson, was discovered advancing, and Miller 's battalion was sent to escort it within the lines, which

PURSUIT OF JOSEPH. 507

was done with a little skirmishing. This accomplished, he marched slowly past Howard's front, and turning quickly and unexpectedly, charged the barricades, about two o clock in the afternoon. After a few moments of furious fighting, the Indians gave way, their defences were taken, and they fled in confusion, the whole army in pursuit, the Indians retreating to the Kamiah ferry and the trail to the buffalo country by the Lolo fork of the Clearwater.

            Joseph was not in a condition to leave Idaho at once. He therefore encamped four miles beyond Kamiah, over a range of hills, and sent word to Howard that he wished to surrender. The general had spent the 14th in reconnoitring, and had started on the 15th to march with a column of cavalry twenty miles down the Clearwater and cross at Dunwell's ferry, hoping the Indians would believe he had gone to Lapwai. But Joseph had been once taken by a strategic movement of that kind, and had no fear of another. He rose equal to the occasion, and by another ruse de guerre induced Howard to hasten to Kamiah to listen to his proposal of surrender. At Kamiah he met, not Joseph, but a head-man from his staff, who entertained him with a talk about his chiefs, while one of his people fired on the general from an ambush. This put an end to negotiations; the messenger surrendered with his family, and a few recruits from the neighboring tribes whom the battle of Clearwater had satisfied with war, and Howard again prepared to follow Joseph.[90]

            It was not until the 17th that the pursuit commenced. On that day Colonel Mason, with the cavalry, the Indian scouts, and McConville's volunteers, were ordered to make a two days march to discover the nature of the trail, and whether the Indians were

508 INDIAN WARS.

keeping on toward the buffalo country. They found the trail leading over wooded mountains, where masses of fallen timber furnished frequent opportunities for ambuscades, and on the 18th, when within three miles of Oro Fino Creek, the scouts and volunteers ran into the enemy s rear-guard. Only the tactics of the scouts, by drawing the attention of the attacking party, saved the volunteers from severe loss. Three of the scouts were disarmed, one wounded, and one killed. The enemy sustained a loss of one warrior killed, and two pack-animals. After this involuntary skirmish, the troops hastily retreated to Kamiah, where they arrived that night.

            The retreat of the cavalry was followed by the return of a small force of the hostile Nez Perces, who, scattering themselves over the country in search of plunder, caused great alarm to the white inhabitants and the reservation Indians. They pillaged and burned some houses on the north fork of the Clearwater, captured 400 horses from the Kamiahs, and rejoined their main army. This raid was the last one made by Joseph's people in Idaho. From this time they pushed on upon their extraordinary exodus, whose objective point became the British possessions.

            By the battle of the Clearwater, Joseph's plans were disarranged. Had he been as successful here as up to this time he had been, all the ill-disposed reservation and non-treaty Indians would have gathered to his camp and the war would have been much more disastrous than it was. His loss in battle was twenty-three killed, and between forty and fifty wounded, a large percentage out of 300 fighting men. Taken together with the loss of camp equipage and provisions, he had sustained a severe blow, among the severest of which was the desertion of his temporary recruits. Henceforth he could not hope to increase the number of his followers in his own country. Howard's loss was thirteen killed, and two officers and twenty-two men wounded.

ESCAPE OF THE INDIANS. 509

            The last raid of Joseph had also interfered with the plans of Howard, by compelling him to remain in the vicinity of the places threatened until troops then on the way should arrive to protect them. It was his first intention to march his whole command to Missoula City in Montana, by the Mullan road, where he hoped to intercept Joseph as he emerged from the Lolo caņon in that vicinity. He had already telegraphed Sherman, then in Montana, and the commanders of posts east of the Bitter Root Mountains, information of Joseph's exodus by the Lolo trail, and asked for cooperation in intercepting him. On the 30th, two weeks after the Nez Perces started from their camps beyond Kamiah, Howard set out to over take them with a battalion of cavalry, one of infantry, and one of artillery, in all about 700 men, another column having taken the Mullan road a few days earlier.

            Captain Rawn of Fort Missoula, on hearing that Joseph was expected to emerge from the Lolo trail into the Bitter Root Valley, erected barricades at the mouth of the caņon to prevent it, and hold him for Howard. He had twenty-five regular troops, and 200 volunteers to garrison the stone fort. He committed the error of placing the fortifications too near the exit of the trail, outside of two lateral ravines, of one of which Joseph made use to pass around him and escape, having first consumed four days in pretended negotiations, during which time he made himself master of the topography of the country.

            Once in the Bitter Root Valley, they bartered such things as they had, chiefly horses, with the inhabitants, who dared not refuse,[91] and supplied themselves with what they most needed.[92]

610 INDIAN WARS.

            There was but a single regiment in western Montana when Howard made his demand for aid. This was the 7th infantry, under Colonel John Gibbon. Withdrawing all he could from forts Benton, Baker, and Missoula, Gibbon started in pursuit of Joseph soon after he passed the latter post, July 27th. He had seventeen officers, 132 men, and thirty-four citizen volunteers. On the night of the 8th of August he succeeded in creeping close to Joseph's camp, which was situated on a piece of bottom-land on Ruby Creek, a small stream forming one of the head waters of Wisdom River. At daylight on the 9th he attacked, and the Indians being surprised, their camp fell into the hands of the infantry in less than half an hour. But while the soldiers were firing the lodges, the Indians, who had at first run to cover, began pouring upon them in return a leaden shower, which quickly drove them to hiding-places in the woods. Fighting continued all day without abatement, the Indians capturing a howitzer and a pack-mule laden with ammunition. During the night the Nez Perces escaped, leaving 89 dead on the field, of whom some were women and children. Gibbon had 29 killed and 40 wounded, himself being one of the latter.[93]

            On the second morning after this battle, Howard came up with a picked escort, and Mason with the remainder of the cavalry arrived late on the 12th. On the 13th Howard took up the pursuit again with the addition to his battalion of fifty of Gibbon's command. Proceeding southward he was met by the report of eight men killed near the head of Horse prairie the previous night, and 200 horses captured.[94]

THE CHASE CONTINUED. 511

But on the 15th he received a message from Colonel George L. Shoup, of the Idaho volunteers, informing him that the Indians had recrossed the mountains into Idaho, and surrounded the temporary fortifications at Junction, in Lemhi Valley, containing only forty citizens. Shoup with sixty volunteers had reconnoitred their camp west of Junction, finding them too strong to attack, and called for help. Before Howard could decide to send assistance, another courier informed him that Joseph had made a sudden movement toward the east, leaving the fortified settlers of Lemhi unharmed. Other couriers from the stage company intercepted him on the 16th, and reported the Indians on the road beyond Dry Creek station, in Montana, interrupting travel, and cutting off telegraphic communication, although a guard had been set upon every pass known to the commander of the pursuing army. It was not until the 18th that their camp was discovered near that place.

            The following day was Sunday, and Howard, who had religious scruples, went into camp early in the afternoon, about eighteen miles from the encampment of the Nez Perces. The opportunity was a good one for Joseph, who commenced a movement on his own rear a little before sunset, cautiously approaching Howard s camp, and sending a few skilled horse-thieves into it, undertook to divert the attention of the troops by a sudden advance on the pickets, while they stampeded the pack-animals. At daylight three companies started in pursuit, and a skirmish ensued, which by continuance became a battle, the remainder of the force joining in. The result was one man killed, six wounded, and the loss of the pack-train, which was not recovered. Thus the chase was kept up as far as Henry Lake, where Howard awaited supplies, and rested his men and horses.

512 INDIAN WARS.

            As for Joseph, he and his people seemed made all of endurance. They passed on into Wyoming and the national park by the way of the Madison branch of the Missouri. In the lower geyser basin they captured a party of tourists, resting but a short time near Yellowstone Lake. Although a large number of troops were put into the field, namely, six companies of the 7th cavalry under Colonel Sturgis, five of the fifth cavalry under Major Hart, and ten other cavalry companies under Colonel Merritt, to scout in every direction, Joseph again evaded them, and crossed the Yellowstone at the mouth of Clark Fork, September 10th, leaving both Sturgis and Howard in the rear. Sturgis, being re-enforced and sent in fast pursuit, over took the Indians below Clark Fork, and skirmishing with them, killed and wounded several, and captured a large number of horses. Nevertheless, they again escaped, crossing the Musselshell and Missouri Rivers, the latter at Cow Island, the low- water steamboat landing for Fort Benton, where they burned the warehouses and stores, and skirmished with a detachment of the 7th infantry engaged in improving the river near Cow Island. On the 23d of September they moved north again toward the British possessions.

            When Howard found that the Nez Perces had escaped from Sturgis and himself at Clark Fork, he sent word to Colonel Miles, stationed at the mouth of Tongue River, who immediately organized a force to intercept them. This command left Tongue River barracks on the 18th, reaching the Missouri at the mouth of the Musselshell on the 23d, learning the direction taken by the fugitives on the 25th, and coming up with their camp on Snake Creek, near the north end of Bear Paw Mountains, on the 29th. An attack was made the next morning by three several battalions, the Indians taking refuge, as usual, in the mountain defiles.[95]

JOSEPH SURRENDERS. 513

            The first charge cut off from camp all the horses, which were captured, and half the warriors. In the second charge, on the rifle-pits, Captain Hale and Lieutenant Biddle were killed. As soon as the infantry came up, the camp was entirely surrounded, but as it was evident the fortifications could not be taken without heavy loss, Miles contented himself with keeping the enemy under fire until he should surrender. For four days and nights the Indians and the troops kept their positions. A white flag was several times displayed in the Nez Perce camp, but when required to lay down their arms they refused. At length, on the 5th of October, after three and a half months of war, meanwhile being ten weeks hunted from place to place, the Nez Perces were forced to surrender, and General Howard, who had arrived just in time to be present at the ceremony, directed Joseph to give up his arms to Colonel Miles. In the last action Joseph had lost his brother Onicut, a young brave resembling himself in military talent, Looking- glass, another prominent chief, and two head-men, besides twenty-five warriors killed and forty-six wounded. Miles lost, beside the two officers named, twenty-one killed and forty-four wounded. The number of persons killed outside of battle by Joseph's people was about fifty; volunteers killed in war, thirteen; officers and men of the regular army, 105. The wounded were not less than 120.

            To capture 300 warriors, encumbered with their families and stock, required at various times the services of between thirty and forty companies of United States troops, supplemented by volunteers and Indian scouts. The distance marched by Howard's army from Kamiah to Bear Paw Mountains was over 1,500 miles, a march the severity of which has rarely been equalled, as its length on the war-path has never been surpassed.

            The fame of Joseph became wide-spread by reason of this enormous outlay of money and effort in his

514 INDIAN WARS.

capture, and from the military skill displayed in avoiding it for such a length of time. It only shows that war may be maintained as well by the barbarian as by the civilized man, the best arms and the greatest numbers deciding the contest. When the Nez Perces surrendered, they were promised permission to return to Idaho, and were given in charge of Colonel Miles, to be kept until spring, it then being too late to make the journey. But General Sheridan, in whose department they were, ordered them to Fort Leavenworth, and afterward to the Indian Territory, near the Ponca agency, where they subsequently lived quietly and enjoyed health and comfort. That this was a judicious course to pursue under the circumstances, the behavior of a part of White Bird's band, who fled to the British possessions after surrendering, and returned to Idaho the following summer, satisfactorily demonstrated.[96]

            Scarcely was the Nez Perces war over, and Joseph's people banished, before the territory was again agi-

SHOSHONE AFFAIRS. 515

tated by the threatening attitude of the Shoshone and allied tribes. The origin of the outbreak was their dissatisfaction as wards of the government. For a few years after their subjugation by generals Crook and Conner the people of Idaho enjoyed a period of freedom from alarms, but in 1871 there was a general restlessness among the tribes of southern Idaho, from the eastern to the western boundary, that boded no good.[97]

            In 1867, while the Shoshone war was yet in progress, Governor Ballard, in his capacity of ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs, made an informal treaty with the Bannack branch of the Shoshone nation in the eastern part of Idaho, by which they agreed to go upon the Fort Hall reservation before the 1st of June, 1868, provided the land should be set apart forever to them, and that they should be taught husbandry, mechanics, and given schools for their children. The Boise and Bruneau Shoshones were also fathered under an agent and fed through the winter, in 1868 all these Indians were located on the reservation at Fort Hall, some of them straying back to their former homes. A formal treaty was this year made with the Bannacks, by which 1,568,000 acres were set apart for their use and that of kindred tribes. But the ardor with which some of these Indians set to work to learn farming was quenched by the results of the first year's effort, the grasshoppers destroying a large portion of their crop, in addition to which the government was, as so often happened, behind with its annuities. By the terms of the treaty the Indians were permitted to go to the buffalo-grounds, and to dig camas on Big Camas prairie, a part of which was agreed to be set aside for their use whenever they should desire it.[98] Affairs progressed favorably until

516 INDIAN WARS.

the death of the principal chief, Tygee, in 1871, when the Indians began to present a hostile front. In 1872 an Indian from the Fort Hall reservation attempted to shoot a farmer at work making hay on the South Boise River. He was seized, but finally liberated by the white man who took him, rather than incur the danger of bringing on a conflict with the tribe. Several similar affairs happened during the summer, and some murders were committed. In 1873 the government ordered the special commission before referred to, of which Shanks was chairman, to investigate causes of trouble in the district of Idaho. These commissioners made a modification of the former treaty with the Bannacks and Shoshones, by which they relinquished their right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States without a written permit from the agent. But no reference was made in the amendments to Camas prairie privileges. Once at Camas prairie, the Indians proceeded under their different chiefs, in detachments, to the Weiser Valley, now being occupied by settlers, where they were met by the Umatillas from Oregon, and where they held a grand fair, horse-races, and exchange of property in the ancient manner. When thus assembled, they numbered, with the Umatillas, about 2,000, and the settlers felt unsafe from their proximity. The superintendency having been taken away from the governor, there was no appeal within the territory, except to the agent at Fort Hall, who justified the giving of passes on account of the meagreness of the commissary department at the agency.

            Further trouble was caused in 1874 by an order from the Indian department for the removal of about a thousand Indians among whom was a band known as the Sheep Eaters, who, five years previous, had been settled in the Lemhi Valley under an agent to the Fort Hall reservation, these Indians refusing to be removed. In the following year the order was withdrawn, and a reservation set apart for them con-

BANNACKS AND PIUTES. 517

taining 100 square miles. In this year, also, an addition was made to the Malheur reservation in Oregon, which was still further enlarged, with new boundaries, in 1876.

            But meantime the Modoc war and Joseph's attitude concerning the Wallowa Valley had their effect in disturbing the minds of the Indians, particularly those of the Oregon Shoshones and the Piutes associated with them. Three or four years of deceitful quiet followed the banishment of the Modocs. When the Nez Perce outbreak occurred, great alarm was felt by the white inhabitants lest the Shoshones and Piutes should join in the revolt. Winnemucca, chief of the Piutes, appeared on the Owyhee with all his warriors; but finding the people watchful, and the military active, they remained quiescent, and Joseph was permitted to do his own fighting. Yet the widespread consternation which this one band was able to create, and the injury it succeeded in inflicting, encouraged the Indians --many of whom were believers in the Smohallah doctrine of the conquest of the country by the red men -- to think that a more combined attack would be successful.

            In the summer and autumn of 1877 the Bannacks on the Fort Hall reservation became so turbulent as to require a considerable military force at the agency.

            When spring came there was not enough food to keep them all on the reservation,[99] would they have stayed; and being off, in May they commenced shooting white people on Camas prairie, to which, under the treaty, they laid claim equally with the United States. As the settlers kept swine, the camas root was destroyed by them in a wholesale manner very irritating to the Indians.

518 INDIAN WARS.

            Their first demonstration, after threatening for some time, was to fire upon two herders, wounding them severely. They next captured King Hill stage- station, destroying property and driving off the horses, the men in charge barely escaping. About the same time they appeared on Jordan Creek, demanding arms and ammunition, and captured two freight- wagons near Glen's ferry on Snake River, driving off

[Map]

CAMAS PRAIRIE AND VOLCANO DISTRICT.

100 horses, cutting loose the ferry-boat, and destroying several farm-houses from which the families had fled. The settlers of this region fortified themselves at Payne s ferry, and formed a volunteer company. All over the territory again, as in the preceding summer, business was prostrated, farms were deserted, and citizens under arms.

            Again it required time to concentrate troops and find where to strike the Indians. Their movement seemed to be from Fort Hall west along Snake River to the Owyhee. The leader of the hostile Bannacks was Buffalo Horn, one of the Bannack scouts em-

MORE FIGHTING. 519

ployed in the Nez Perce war, but who was said to have deserted Howard at Henry Lake because he would not be advised by him, and push on to Joseph's camp, which he insisted could be taken at that time. Evidently he had a taste for fighting which was not satisfied with Howard's tactics. The chiefs of the Piutes, Winnemucca and Natchez, maintained an appearance of friendship, while Eagan and Oits led the Indians of south-western Oregon and northern Nevada, Piutes and Malheurs, in their murderous raids. The Umatilla Indians were divided, many of them joining the war-making bands, and others volunteering to fight with the troops. There seemed imminent danger that the uprising would become general, from Utah and Nevada to British Columbia.

            The first actual conflict between armed parties was on the 8th of June, when a company of thirty-five volunteers, under J. B. Harper of Silver City, encountered sixty Bannacks seven miles east of South Mountain in Owyhee county. The volunteers were compelled to retreat, with four white men and two Indian scouts killed, one man wounded, and one missing.[100] On the 11th the stage was attacked between Camp McDermitt and Owyhee, the driver killed, mail destroyed, and some arms and ammunition intended for citizens captured. The Indians on the Malheur reservation in Oregon had left the agency about one week previous, after destroying a large amount of property, going in the direction of Boise. On the 15th Howard, who was near Cedar Mountain ]in Oregon, announced the main body of the enemy, 600 strong, to be congregated in the valley between Cedar and Steen mountains, and that he was about to move upon them[101] with sixteen companies of cavalry,

520 INDIAN WARS.

infantry, and artillery. This movement was commenced on the 23d, the advance, under Bernard, surprising himself and the Indians by running into their rear near Camp Curry the next morning at nine o'clock. The cavalry, four companies, charged the Indians, who rallied and forced Bernard to send for assistance. Not much loss numerically was sustained on either side, the Bannacks, however, losing their leader, Buffalo Horn, which was to them in moral force equivalent to a partial defeat. Before Howard came up, on the 25th, the Indians had disappeared, and left their course to be conjectured by the general. He believed that they would proceed north by Silver Creek and the south branch of John Day River, then up Granite Creek to Bridge Creek, to join the discontented Cayuses and other Indians in that vicinity, when they would make a demonstration still farther north. To provide for this, he sent Colonel Grover to Walla Walla to take command of five companies of cavalry, numbering 240 men, to intercept them, while he remained in their rear with 480 with whom to follow.

            Being thus driven, the Indians moved rapidly north. On the 29th they poured into the valley of the south branch of John Day River, surrounding a little company of fifteen home-guards, killing one and wounding several. Wherever they went they pillaged and destroyed. Cattle were butchered by the hundreds and left to rot; valuable horses were killed or maimed, and whole herds of sheep mutilated and left to die. The appeals for military aid from beleaguered outlying settlements were as vain as they were piteous. Soldiers could not be spared for guard duty while employed in driving the Indians upon the citizens. Appeals to the governor of Oregon were equally fruitless,

THE UMATILLA ALLIES. 521

as he was not permitted to call for volunteers, and was without arms to distribute to the unarmed settlers, or citizen companies.

            On the 2d of July the loyal Umatillas, under their agent, Connoyer, met the enemy 400 strong, fighting them all day, killing thirty, with a loss of only two. This prevented a raid, but alarmed the thousand or more of helpless women and children gathered at Pendleton, and a petition for troops was sent to Walla

[Map]

EASTERN OREGON.

Walla, where General Wheaton had a small force. Wheaton had been advised of the probable approach to the Columbia River of the raiders, and not yet having been joined by Grover, had moved his whole available force of fifty-four men to Wallula, where

522 INDIAN WARS.

they were to take a steamboat and patrol the river to observe if any Indians were crossing. But on receiving the call for help from Pendleton, he directed this company to proceed to that place.

            All at once calls came from everywhere along the line of settlements, from Des Chutes to the head waters of John Day, showing hostile Indians all along between these points. At Bake Oven, fifty miles from The Dalles, on the 2d of July, they captured a wagon laden with arms and ammunition for the state militia, burned a house, killed one man, and wounded two others. At the same date they were fighting in the vicinity of Caņon City and raiding at other points. On the 5th of July Wheaton managed to get possession of a steamer, which he manned with ten ordnance soldiers and ten others, under Captain Kress, who, furnished with a howitzer and Gatling gun, started to patrol the Columbia in the vicinity of Wallula.

            On the 6th General Howard was near Granite City, fifty miles south of Pendleton. Half-way between him and that place, at Willow Springs, a company of citizens was attacked, and Captain Sperry and nearly all his command killed or wounded. Hearing how the war was going, if war it could be called which was only a raid feebly resisted, governors Chadwick and Ferry hastened to Pendleton to confer with Howard. A large number of families were sent down the river to The Dalles on a special steamer. A few arms obtained at Vancouver were distributed at that place, and medical service rendered to the sick, of whom there were many, owing to the crowded condition of the town and the mental strain. The Portland militia companies tendered arms and services. The former were accepted, and a consignment of guns made to Governor Brayman of Idaho, arrested at Umatilla by permission, and furnished to the people in that vicinity. Governor Ferry also lent the guns belonging to Washington for use by the citizens of Oregon.

THE WAR CONTINUES. 623

            On the 8th of July three companies of cavalry from the department of the Clear water, under Throckmorton, marching from Lapwai via Walla Walla and Pendleton, made a junction with Howard's force at Pilot Rock on Birch Creek, a branch of the Umatilla River, which skirts the reservation of the Umatilla Indians on the west, and near which, in Fox Valley, the Indian army had received a re-enforcement of disloyal Umatillas, the number of the hostile Indians being now estimated at 1,000. The scouts at this point discovered the Indians in force six miles south-west of Pilot Rock, on Butter Creek, directly on the route to the Columbia, forty miles distant. Strongly posted on the crest of a steep hill, which could only be reached with difficulty by crossing a caņon, they awaited the approach of the troops, who skirmished to the top and drove them from their position, capturing some camp material, ammunition, and two hundred broken-down horses. Again they took a position among the pines which cover the crests of the Blue Mountains, but were soon dislodged by the cavalry under Bernard, and fled still farther into the mountains, where, owing to the roughness of the country, they were not pursued. In this skirmish the Indians sustained slight loss. Their best horses, with their families and property, were between them and the Columbia River, but, as Howard thought, going toward Grand Rond. On the same day several small bands effected a crossing to the north side of the Columbia, driving large bands of horses. Captain Kress with his armed steamboat intercepted one party below Umatilla, and Captain Wilkinson another above that place. The presence of boats at the crossings, notwithstanding Captain Worth, just from San Francisco with his company for this service, had been for several days engaged in seizing boats to prevent the passage of the Indians, showed the complicity of the Columbia River Indians.

            Howard having satisfied himself that the principal

524 INDIAN WARS.

movement of the marauders was toward Snake River, through the Grand Rond, sent Sandford's three companies of cavalry and a company of infantry under Miles to follow them. The remainder of his force, under Forsyth, was ordered to Lewiston and Lapwai, to intercept the enemy at the Snake crossing. At Weston, on the 12th, he had a conference with governors Ferry and Chadwick, the latter endeavoring to show that the movement toward Lapwai was premature, and the country in danger if the troops abandoned Oregon at that time. He requested that Throckmorton, who was stationed on Butler Creek, should be ordered to the Umatilla agency. Howard maintained his belief that the Indians were hurrying toward Snake River, and departed the same afternoon for Lewiston by steamer, Chadwick returning to Pendleton. As he did so, he observed signal-fires on the Meacham road over the Blue Mountains, east of Cayuse station, where he had dined that day, and learned that the station had been attacked and burned, the raiding party pursuing the stage from Meacham's, and attacking another party of travellers, wounding two, one mortally.[102] Turning aside, he reached Pendleton by a different route during the night, finding the towns-people greatly agitated, the Indians being within six miles of that place, on the reservation. The governor had just despatched the few arms at his command to La Grande, and could do nothing toward arming the citizens. He had hastened a courier after Howard, who did not, however, return; and to give the people confidence, organized a battalion of three hundred men,[103] who ignorantly believed they were to be armed.

            In the mean time, however, couriers had overtaken Miles, who was not far from Pendleton with one com-

WHEATON'S CAMPAIGN. 525

pany of infantry, one of artillery, and Bendire's cavalry, and who, being joined by a company of volunteers, gave the Indians battle on the morning of the 13th, and drove them in confusion several miles, or until they again escaped to the Blue Mountains. Five Indians were killed, and many wounded, while the loss on the side of the troops was two wounded.

            On the same day Wheaton, being informed that Indians were approaching Wallula by the Vansycle caņon, sent an order to the cavalry under Forsyth, moving toward Lewiston, to turn back and intercept them. On learning of the invasion of the reservation, Forsyth was ordered to hasten to the assistance of Miles, and Wheaton himself joined the commands at the Umatilla agency on the 15th. Sanford, who had by this time reached La Grande, was ordered by telegraph to return and cooperate with Forsyth's column, which was in pursuit of the Indians, in attacking the Indian position on the head of McKay Creek, in the mountains, not far from Meacham's station on the road to La Grande. He found his force too small to meet the Indians congregated at the summit, and retreated to Grand Rond, where, with the assistance of volunteer companies, he kept watch upon the passes into that valley.

            On the 16th, while Wheaton was marching toward Meacham's station, a company of Umatilla Indian volunteers pursuing the raiders killed their chief, Eagan, and brought in his head for identification, together with ten scalps. These sanguinary trophies looked less horrible after finding the bodies of seven teamsters killed along the road to Meacham's, and the contents of their wagons strewn upon the ground for miles. Again on the 17th the Umatillas, in charge of three white scouts, found the trail of the savages near the east branch of Birch Creek, on the Daly road to Baker City, and battled with them, killing seventeen and capturing twenty-five men, women, and children. Egbert's command on Snake River had taken

526 INDIAN WARS.

an equal number of prisoners. These reverses, and particularly the death of Eagan, dispirited these Indians, who had never shown the persistence or the bravery of the Nez Perces under Joseph. They were soon scattered in small parties, endeavoring to get back to Idaho or Nevada, and the troops were employed for several weeks longer in following and watching them. Little by little they surrendered. On the 10th of August 600 souls were in the hands of the commander of the department in Oregon. But it was some weeks later before depredations by small parties ceased in Idaho. The loss of property was immense. To the marauding parties were added, about the 1st of August, a portion of White Bird s band of Nez Perces, returned from the British possessions, where they had not met with satisfactory treatment from Sitting Bull, the expatriated Sioux chief, to whom they had fled on the surrender of Joseph. The close of hostilities soon after their arrival rendered them powerless to carry on war, and they became reabsorbed in the Nez Perce nation. The establishment of Camp Howard, near Mount Idaho, and Camp -- later fort -- Coeur d'Alene, followed the outbreaks here described. After this no serious trouble was experienced in controlling the Indians.

* * * * *

            A movement looking to the closing out of Indian reservations by allotting land in severalty to Indians

574 MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

had been begun, and promised good results. The Fort Hall and Bannack reservation, comprising 1,202,330 acres, contained 525,000 acres of first-class, easily irrigable land, the remainder being good grazing land, with some portions rich in mineral. The Indians, for whom all was reserved, numbered 1,700 men, women, and children. If every individual should receive 160 acres, there would still be left over a million acres. The Indians on the Fort Hall reservation had made some progress in agriculture, 380 of them cultivating small tracts, on which they raised a variety of farm products.[104] The Lemhi reservation contained 105,960 acres, which was held for 548 Indians, who cultivated 258 acres. [105] The Nez Perce reservation embraced 746,651 acres of the best agricultural land west of the Rocky Mountains, and not excelled by any portion of this union for soil, water, timber, and all natural advantages. It was held for 1,227 Indians men, women, and children. About 300 families cultivated small farms, raising grains, fruit, and vegetables. [106] This tribe had been taught almost continuously for fifty years, and were, when first known, superior to all the other tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. Indian Agent George W. Norris, in his report to the governor of Idaho in 1888, remarked concerning this people that they took little interest in education beyond a desire that their

INDIAN AFFAIRS. 575

children should learn to speak the English language; and that their ambition was bounded by a demand for the fires, beds, clothing, and subsistence furnished during the winter by the government. In his opinion, land should be allotted to them individually, and secured by patent, and they be compelled to labor, instead of being dependent upon the bounty of the United States, whose creatures have taken from them about all that they once possessed. Their increasing wants would lead them to dispose of their superfluous lands, and thus the reservation question be amicably settled; but to open reservations to settlement before the allotments were made would alarm the Indians and lead to trouble.

            The fourth Indian reservation in Idaho was the Coeur d'Alene, in which was contained 598,500 acres, held for the benefit of about 500 individuals. A portion of this territory was rich in minerals, and was in actual possession by a mining population. Steps were being taken to secure its relinquishment by the Indians, who jealously guarded their rights under their treaty with the United States. The Coeur d'Alenes were catholics, and were far behind the Nez Perces in intelligence.

            Still another reservation was that of the western Shoshones, comprising 131,300 acres at the head of the Owyhee river, and occupied by about 400 Indians. These were wild Indians who cultivated no farms.

            Thus there were within the boundaries of Idaho 2,884,731 acres of the most valuable, agricultural, timbered, and mineral lands, held for 4,375 persons, not more than one fifth of whom were heads of families. Aside from the desire to have these lands productive and taxable was the apprehension that any misunderstanding might involve the territory in an other war such as had desolated certain portions only as recently as 1877 and 1878. This conjunction of circumstances led Governor Stevenson to point out to the general government that while Idaho had be-

576 MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

tween 4,000 and 5,000 Indians within her borders, she had but one company of cavalry and one of infantry for defense, at Boise Barracks.[107] Fort Sherman, also a two-company post, was, to be sure, in Idaho, but almost at its extreme northern boundary, and so nearly in Washington that its influence was not felt. The governor called attention to this want of consideration for Idaho, and demanded "one good permanent, at least, four-company post," to check the roaming habits of the Indians, "whose presence excites the fears and evil passions of our people."[108]