[From Asa Merrill Fairfield, Pioneer History of Lassen County (1916)]

 

INDIAN TROUBLES IN NORTHWESTERN NEVADA 1860

Indian Troubles. 1860

            During this year there was an abundance of trouble with the Indians for the settlers on the eastern slope of the Sierras. In telling of the relations existing between the settlers of Honey Lake valley and the Pahute Indians after the murder of Lassen Weatherlow says: "The same friendly relations existed as before. The treaty was respected on both sides. The Indians were

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kindly treated and no white man attempted to molest their squaws or wrong them in any way. This friendly state of affairs continued until the discovery of rich silver leads in the Washoe country brought a host of miners, prospectors, and adventurers of every kind to Carson and Virginia City who were brought in contact more or less with the Pah-ute tribe, and who knowing nothing of the treaty the Honey Lake people had made with Winnemucca, or cared nothing to observe it, frequently treated the Indians with injustice and cruelty, utterly disregarding the common rights even of an inferior race. The Pah-utes frequently complained to us of their wrongs and evidently expected that the terms of our treaty should extend to the whites who were flocking into the southern portion of the territory. Of course the people of Honey Lake could offer them no redress nor interfere in their behalf. "Winnemucca and his people notwithstanding the misunderstandings they were frequently having with the people of Virginia City and the prospecting parties through the mountains still remained in apparent friendship toward the settlers in our valley, but the same earnest feeling of confidence in the justice of the whites did not exist. The red man according to his nature and teaching held any and every white man in a measure responsible for the wrongs he had received at the hands of any unprincipled white man. Still no threats had been made toward the settlers of Honey Lake, nor had any overt act of hostility been done toward us by the Pah-utes until the month of January, 1860."

The Murder of Dexter E. Demming

Told by William Dow and Fred Hines

            The first outrage committed by the Indians was the murder of Demming at the extreme upper end of Willow Creek valley about eighteen miles by the road from Susanville. In the fall of 1858 S. R. Hall and A. J. Demming went into Willow Creek valley and each located a ranch at the upper end of it. They did not stay there the following winter, but the next spring Demming went back and built a cabin on his place. That year his brother Dexter crossed the plains and went on below, but after staying there a short time he came back and lived with Jack until he was killed on Friday, January 13th, 1860.

            Dow says that Jack Demming came to Susanville on the 12th

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on snowshoes after some supplies with which to make fence rails and stayed over night, going home the next day. Hines says he came to Toadtown on the 13th with a couple of axes he wanted to sharpen. It took him some time to grind them on the small grindstone that Hines had and he got a late start for home. He said he wanted something to read and Hines let him have "Lorenzo Dow's Sermons" and "Dr. Kane's Arctic Explorations." He got home just as darkness was coming on, and when he reached the top of the hill on which his cabin stood he saw by the snowshoe tracks and the blood on the snow that something was wrong. Looking into the cabin he saw that everything in it was gone excepting the homemade furniture, and further search showed him that the horses were gone, too. He then thought that his brother might have been wounded and gave a yell, but he received no reply. He put what he had brought with him down beside the cabin door, got onto his snowshoes and started back to this valley, giving a couple of yells as he went down the hill in front of the cabin.

            It took him three or four hours to get back to Toadtown and he arrived there just before people went to bed. At that time E. G. Bangham and Henry Hatch lived in the board house built by Dow and Hatch in 1857. Hines and Sylvester and probably Tutt lived almost directly across the road from them. Dr. Spalding lived on his place just below them and William and John Dow and A. L. Tunison lived in a little cabin near him. Daniel Murray was keeping store there and Henry Hastings ran a blacksmith shop.

            The next morning ten men, William and John Dow, Tunison, Priest, Demming, Luther Spencer, Tutt, Frank Strong, Bangham, and Dr. Spalding, started for the scene of the murder. They had no snowshoes and the snow being so deep in places that they had to break a trail, they made slow progress and it was late, nearly sundown, when they reached the Demming cabin. When Jack left home his brother was doing some washing. He had just made a pair of snowshoes and he said he was going down to the valley to practice on them as soon as he had finished his work. Evidently he had done this, and while he was gone the Indians came and took the two guns that were in the house. They went into the cabin, or behind it, and waited for him to come back, and when he was about twenty feet from the door

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they shot him with a load of buckshot. When it hit him he gave a convulsive spring and struck twelve or fifteen feet away from the snowshoes. The Indians dragged his body into the cabin and stripped it and threw it into a little cellar under the building. They then took everything that would be of any use to them, bedding, clothing, etc., and the two horses and went away. What Jack left beside the cabin door was gone, too, and this showed that the Indians were close enough to hear him yell and came back, but he was out of their reach when they got there. It was a close call for him, for if he had reached home a little sooner, they would have got him, too.

            The first thing to do was to dispose of the dead man's body. All they could find to work with was a small piece of iron and a board. They managed to loosen up the ground in the cellar with the iron and then scoop it out with the board and in this way dug a shallow grave. They wrapped the body up in a blanket that one of the party happened to bring along and putting it into the grave, covered it up as best they could. Demming said it was all right for he intended to move his brother in the spring. William Dow wanted to go in pursuit of the Indians at once. He said they had taken so much plunder that they could not have gone very far, and if the white men would start right out after them, they could overtake them that night and then wait until daylight and take them in. But the rest of the party thought it was not advisable to do this. The weather was very cold, the snow was deep, and they were not prepared for such a trip. Besides this Demming was in no shape, physically or mentally, to go along, and it would not do to divide the party and leave some of them with him. So they started back right away and reached home about five o'clock Sunday morning.

            Some of the early settlers say that a while before this murder was committed Jack Demming was at an Indian dance a few miles below Susanville. Among those present was a Pit river Indian who wore a high-crowned Mexican hat. Demming made a good deal of fun of the hat and finally jammed it down over the Indian's eyes and the crowd all laughed at his struggles to get the hat off. The Indian was very angry, but there were so many white men present that he did not dare to do anything then. Perhaps it was not known for certain, but the whites supposed that this Indian had something to do with the murder.

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Ben Neuhaus and others say that the Indians thought it was Jack Demming they were killing and were sorry that they killed his brother. It is also said that Jack Demming killed a good many Indians when there was no excuse for his doing it.

            Of course the people of Honey Lake valley were greatly excited and angered by this murder, and believing that it was committed by the Pah-utes, demanded that Captain Weatherlow take his Honey Lake Rangers, which he says was a company of sixty men still in organization, and march against them at once.

            The following petition was sent to Governor Roop :

"Susanville, Nevada Ter., Jan. 15, 1860.

            "Dear Sir — We, the undersigned, would most respectfully urge the necessity of your Excellency's calling out the military forces under your command to follow and chastise the Indians upon our borders. We make this request to your Excellency from the fact that we have received information that we fully rely upon, to the effect that Mr. Demming has been murdered, and his house robbed, on or about the 13th instant, by Indians, within the borders of Nevada Territory. Your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.

A. D. McDonald, William Brayton, E. Aubrey, E. A. Rower, W. M. C. Cain, William Dow, N. Purdy, F. Drake, Chas. Kingman, Wm. Hamilton, D. Chandler, G. W. Fry, E. Brannan, Wm. Hill, J. E. Shearer, Geo. W. Shearer, Jas. Belcher, E. R. Nichols, Cyrus Smith, I. N. Boswick, S. S. Smith, W. C. Taylor, J. M. Painter, C. Brown, Fred Morrison, G. W. Mitchell, John D. Robinson, S. H. Painter, Milton Craig, A. A. Holcomb, Wm. Hobby, A. D. Beecher, Dr. Jas. W. Stettinias, Dr. H. S. Borrette, B. E. Shumway, L. Vary, Joshua H. Lewis, Wm. Arullary, Thomas Bare, Z. C. Dow, Thos. Sheffield, E. G. Bangham, Henry Hatch, F. H. Moshier, U. J. Tutt, G. W. Lathrop, O. Streshly, J. Borrette, Dan Murray, J. H. Hollingsworth, E. L. Varney, Jas. A. A. Ohen (or Cohen), A. L. Tunison, Jas. Huntington, M. S. Thompson, Clark Doty, Alex. McLoud, Wm. D. Snyder, S. D. Patten, A. W. Worm, John Altman, A. B. Jenison, L. D. Sanborn, J. S. Haggett, W. Taylor, C. A. Fitch, F. Long, Mark W. Haviland, John Morrow, H. Kingman, J. E. Ellison, M. C. Thaderson (or Shaderson), J. W. Shearer, J. L. O'Donnell, J. W. Doyle, H. E. Arnold, L. J. Spencer, B. B. Gray, B. B.

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Painter, P. W. Shearer, James McFadden, J. H. Anderson, A. Ramsey, J. E. Parker, John Taylor, T. Campbell, F. A. Sloss, S. Conkey, C. Hall, Antonio Storff, C. T. Emerson."

            Captain Weatherlow says : " I told them that the Pah-utes had always been friendly and as there existed a treaty between Winnemueca and ourselves which thus far had not been broken it was better to go and see Winnemueca and ascertain the truth of the matter. I believed it might have been the Pit river Indians whose country lay to the north of Honey Lake and who frequently made hunting excursions as far south as Willow creek. A meeting of the citizens was then held and its was agreed that I should send a Lieutenant of my company (Tutt) with fifteen men to trace the murderers and ascertain if it was the Pah-ute or Pit river Indians. I did so. The party was out four days, tracked the Indians through snow, recovered the horses, and came back and reported that it was the Pah-utes who were known as the Smoke Creek band which had drawn away in a measure from Winnemucca's control and recognized a chief known as Smoke Creek Sam as their leader."

            This is the story of that trip after the Indians as Dow, Tutt, and Strong told it. Just as soon as they could get ready, in a day or two, Tutt, William Dow, Priest, Demming, Strong, Lute Spencer, and another man started out after the Indians. They found that the night before they killed Demming the Indians camped at the old Rice cabin about a mile north of the place where the murder was committed. (This must have been the cabin built by Johnson and Todd in the fall of 1859.) The night after the murder they camped at the head of a canyon only a few miles northeast of there, and if the white men had followed them as Dow wished, probably they would have killed all of them. The Never Sweats were on foot and it was slow work travelling through the snow. The first night they stayed at the Rice cabin and the second one on the side of the mountain southeast of Horse lake. The next day they found the Indians camped at Snow Storm creek. Long before the whites reached their campoodie the Indians saw them and got into a big rock pile near by. There they had a good natural fort and they had the two Demming guns, or perhaps more, and some ammunition, and the white men were out on the flat without any shelter. When they got within shooting distance the Indians stood up

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on the rocks and made insulting gestures and dared them to come on, and when a man came close enough they took a shot at him. The Honey Lakers stayed there several hours working every plan they could think of to get at them, and Spencer showed a great deal of bravery and took some desperate chances trying to kill an Indian. Finally they came to the conclusion that the Indians had the best of it and there was no use of staying any longer. One of the men said that he and Spencer crawled toward the rock pile and got pretty close to it. Before long he happened to look back and saw that the others were going away. He called to Spencer and told him about it and then jumped to his feet and ran faster than he ever did before in his life. When he got out of range he stopped and looked back. Spencer was so angry because the rest of them quit that he deliberately got on his feet, threw his gun over his shoulder, and strolled away with his nose in the air as carelessly as though there was not an Indian within a hundred miles of him.

            They went back to the Indian camp and got the things they had taken from Demming. Among them were the books, the axes, Demming 's fiddle, and the two horses. They had food enough for only one day more, it looked as though a big storm was coming on, and so they started for home as soon as they could get ready. A little after dark they reached the plateau east of Pete's valley, and as it was very cold and the wind was blowing fiercely, they found a big juniper tree and camped in its shelter that night. The next day they came into the valley.

            The reader must remember that this, and probably all the winter expeditions in pursuit of Indians, was made by men on foot. Frequently the weather was bitterly cold and sometimes the snow was deep. They had to get along with few blankets and food of the simplest kind and they were in luck if they had enough of that. Of course they had no tents and their only shelter from the winter storms was what they could get from brush and rocks and from the trees, if they were fortunate enough to be where there were any. They wore leather boots without any overshoes and frostbitten feet must have been a common thing. Subduing the wilderness may sound romantic on paper, but in reality there was very little romance about it, especially that part of it which related to the chasing of Indians in the winter.

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            Lieutenant Tutt made his report on the 24th of January. Captain Weatherlow says: "Another meeting of the citizens was held and they again demanded that I should take my company and march out against the Pah-utahs. I told them that at that time there were 3000 head of stock at Pyramid lake protected by only a few herders, there were settlers located in small valleys remote from each other and distant from the settlement at Honey lake, and that small parties of prospectors were scattered through the mountains in every direction all of whom would be hopelessly exposed and murdered if I made an attack upon the Indians at that time. It was then agreed that I should go and have an interview with Winnemucca, inform him of the murder and demand redress."

            On the 28th Governor Roop appointed Captain William "Weatherlow and Thomas J. Harvey commissioners to visit Winnemucca. They performed their duty and on their return made the following report which, with the correspondence also given, is taken from T. and W's. History of Nevada.

"Susanville, February 11, A. D. 1860.

            "Your Excellency: We, the undersigned, your commissioners, appointed Jan. 28, A. D. 1860, to proceed to the camp of the Pah-ute tribe of Indians, respectfully report that we proceeded across the country from this place in the direction of Pyramid lake ; that on the third day of our travel we were met by a band of about (30) thirty Pah-Ute Indians, well mounted, who, with a war-whoop surrounded us and prevented us from proceeding to the main camp. We were detained over night by the same party of Indians, under a strict guard, the said Indians utterly refusing to give us any information as to the whereabouts of their chiefs. On the following morning we were released from imprisonment and ordered to return to Honey Lake valley. We travelled two or three miles in the direction of Honey Lake valley, and there being a dense fog, we came to the determination to travel across the country to the crossing of the Truckee river, and follow down said river to Pyramid lake. Arriving at Pyramid lake we found an encampment of the Pah-Utes, but from the contradictory reports of the said Indians, we were unable to ascertain where either of the chiefs could be found. We then travelled down the lake about ten miles, and found another encampment, which proved to be the camp of Winne-

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

            The chief acknowledged that according to the said treaty, we were warranted in making the demand, but after making many excuses, he refused to interpose his authority in preventing depredations upon the whites on the part of his followers. We then asked him to appoint some future time to visit us. He said that he would not come at all, and that the citizens of Honey Lake valley must pay him $16000 for Honey Lake valley. We have ascertained that he is at this time levying blackmail by demanding from one to two beeves a week from the herders of stock, there being two or three thousand head of stock in his immediate vicinity, herded by so few that they dare not refuse his demand. We find also that the owners of said stock can not drive them to the settlements from the great depth of snow between Pyramid lake and Honey lake, Washoe and Carson valleys. We believe that the Pah-Utes are determined to rob and murder as many of our citizens as they can, more especially our citizens upon the borders. Finding it impossible to bring the Indians to any terms of peace, notwithstanding the advantages offered them, we determined to return as speedily as possible and make this our report to your Excellency.

William Weatherlow,

T.J.Harvey."

            Probably it was on this trip that the lives of these two men were saved by a young Indian called Pike who had been raised by Harvey. As the story is told they had been captured by the Indians and Pike talked them into letting Harvey go. Harvey told Pike that Weatherlow was a good man and asked him if he didn't remember that whenever they two visited him he, Pike, was given a bed and food and treated as well as any one. Harvey refused to go away and leave Weatherlow. The Indians held another council and finally gave the two men their property and told them to go.

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            In his statement Captain Weatherlow says: "Who had instructed the chief to demand that particular sum ($16000) or indeed any sum of money from the settlers of Honey Lake, I can not imagine, but certain it is that up to that time Winnemucca was always willing that the whites should occupy the valley and gave them land freely, his one desire in return seemed to be to have a house and learn to till the soil and live like a white man.

            "On our return to Honey Lake I stopped at the camps of the herders at Pyramid lake and informed them of the approaching danger and advised them to remove their stock as soon as possible. They said the snow was so deep they could not go away and they might as well remain and take the chances of losing their cattle by the Indians as to attempt to drive them through the snow. But they begged me that the Honey Lake people should make no demonstration against the Indians until they could remove. I promised to protect them all I could."

            The next day after the commissioners made their report Governor Roop asked assistance from the General commanding the Pacific department and thoroughly explained affairs in this part of the country. His letter to General Clark was as follows :

"General Clark, U. S. A.,

Commander of the Pacific Department.

            "Sir: We are about to be plunged into a bloody and protracted war with the Pah-Ute Indians. Within the last nine months there have been seven of our citizens murdered by the Indians. Up to the last murder we were unable to fasten these depredations on any particular tribe, but always believed it was the Pah-Utes, yet did not wish to blame them until we were sure of the facts. On the 13th day of last month Mr. Dexter E. Demming was most brutally murdered at his own house, plundered of everything and his horses driven off. As soon as I was informed of the fact I at once sent out fifteen men after the murderers (there being snow on the ground they could be easily traced) with orders to follow on their tracks until they would find what tribe they belonged to, and if they were proved to be Pah-Utes not to give them battle, but to return and report, as we had some two years ago made a treaty with the Pah-Utes, one of the stipulations being that if any of their tribe committed any murders or depredations on any of the whites we were first

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to go to the chiefs and that they would deliver up the murderers or make redress, and that we were to do the same thing on our part with them. On the third day out they came onto the Indians and found them to be Pah-Utes, to which I call your attention to the paper marked A. Immediately on receiving this report, and agreeable to the said treaty, I sent Capt. William Weatherlow and Thomas J. Harvey as commissioners, to proceed to the Pah-Utes headquarters and there inform the chief of this murder and demand redress. Here allow me to call your attention to the paper marked B. It is now a pretty well established fact that the Pah-Utes killed these eight men, one of them being Mr. Peter Lassen. How soon others must follow is not known for war is now inevitable. We have but few good arms and but little ammunition.

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

            "I remain your humble servant,

"Isaac Roop,

"Governor of Nevada Territory.

"Susanville, February 12, 1860.

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

            No attention was paid to this appeal — at least no troops were sent and no arms and ammunition were furnished.

Cady and Blodgett Killed by the Indians

Told by Dwelley and LeGrow

            During the winter of 1859-60 Asa S. LeGrow, Melzer B. Dwelley, Hank Tufts, — Cady, Joseph Blodgett, and others — quite a large party — had a camp in the lower end of Long Valley. Dwelley, perhaps LeGrow, and some of the rest of the

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party belonged in Sierra valley, but that winter they were ranging their cattle near where they were camped because there was less snow there than at home.

            The Indians had been troublesome that winter and in the spring the Sierra valley men drove their stock home as soon as they could get feed there. After several drives had been made, they got back to camp early one afternoon and Cady and Blodgett went out to drive up the horses. They belonged to Dr. Weber, who had cattle running in Dry valley just east of there, and Blodgett had them on shares. A little dog went with them and in a couple of hours he came back to camp. The men there thought that something must be wrong and as soon as they could, about dark, they started out on the trail of their two friends. They soon found the trails of other horses running into the trail they were following, and believing these had been made by the Indians, they went back to camp. Upon further search later on it was found that they had both been killed by the Indians.

The Pah-ute War. 1860

            Taken from Thompson and West's ''History of Nevada," Captain Weatherlow's Statement, the Newspapers of the day, and from what was told by the early settlers of Honey Lake and Long Valleys.

            The winter of 1859-60 was the hardest one the whites had seen in the Great Basin. "The Territorial Enterprise," published in Carson City, in December, 1859, when telling of the arrival of Governor Isaac Roop from Honey Lake said: "The Indians in Truckee Meadows are freezing and starving to death by scores. In one cabin the Governor found three children dead or dying. The whites are doing all they can to alleviate the miseries of the poor Washoes. They have sent out and built fires for them, and offered them part of their provisions. But in many instances the starving Indians refused to eat, fearing that the food is poisoned. They attribute the severity of the winter to the whites. The Truckee river is frozen hard enough to bear up loaded teams." We have seen how near Governor Roop came to freezing to death on that trip.

            The unkind treatment which the Indians received at the hands of many of the newcomers in Nevada awakened their anger

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against the whites, and when the hard winter came on numbers were led to believe that the Great Spirit was angry because there were so many white men in their country and in consequence the storms and cold weather were freezing and starving them.

            In the latter part of April and the first of May, 1860, nearly all the Pah-ute Indians gathered at Pyramid lake to hold a council. They wanted to decide what to do in view of the fact that the whites were taking their land and killing off all their game. There were a good many chiefs there with their forces, among them the chiefs from Smoke creek, the Black Rock country, and Humboldt Meadows. Old Winnemucca, whose Indian name was Po-i-to, was the head captain over all, the medicine chief of the tribe. He didn't have much to say one way or the other, but was known to be in favor of war. He was a shrewd politician and as long as things were going his way he was willing to keep still and make it appear that somebody else was responsible for what was done. There was, however, one chief among them who knew enough to foresee the result of a war with the whites. This was Numaga, whom the whites called " Young Winnemucca, " the war chief. He was not, as the whites always supposed, the war chief of the Pah-utes. There was but one general chief, and that was Poito, at Pyramid lake. Young Winnemucca was the chosen leader of that branch of the tribe living on the reservation and did not claim any other authority. He and Old Winnemucca were in no way related and were never friendly.

            Numaga was an Indian statesman of intellect, eloquence, and courage combined. He had lived in California and could speak the English language, and understood the superiority of the white race over the Indian. His power outside of his own band was only that of a superior mind working to better the condition of his race. "They knew he was capable, they believed him to be sincere, and it resulted in giving him influence more potent throughout the tribe than Poito 's commands, consequently the whites came to look upon him as the war chief, and he would have attained that position had he outlived Old Winnemucca, alias Poito."

            Before the council Numaga went to all the Indians and talked to them and tried his best to keep them from beginning a war that would result in their destruction. They listened to

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him respectfully, but their silence told him that they were opposed to him. He then went away by himself and lay face down on the ground without food or drink for three days. Some of the Indians told him that he had better go and live among the whites ; others threatened to kill him and he told them to do so for he did not care to live.

            When the council met the chiefs all got up and told their wrongs and demanded war. After they had all spoken Numaga walked in looking like a ghost and poured forth such a torrent of eloquence as these warriors had never before listened to. He told them that no doubt they had great wrongs, but the white men were as many as the stars above their heads and like sands in the beds of the rivers. If they whipped the white men of Nevada, those from California would come to help them and they would cover the land like a blanket. He told them they would be driven from their homes into the barren rocks of the north where their ponies would die, and where the old men and women would starve and they would have to listen to their children crying for food.

            As Numaga was making this last appeal to them to keep from going to war with the whites, an Indian dashed up to the council ground on a "foam flecked" pony and he stopped in his talk. "The newcomer walked into the circle; and pointing to the southeast, said: 'Moguannoga (He was chief at the Humboldt Meadows and the whites called him Captain Soo.) last night with nine braves burned "Williams' station on the Carson river and killed four whites.' " Numaga then looked sadly in the direction the warrior had pointed and told them there was no longer any use for council, they must prepare for war, for the soldiers would now come there to fight them.

            On the seventh of May while the council among the Indians was going on and the great influence of Numaga was beginning to make an impression upon the Indians in favor of peace, Captain Soo's party left secretly, reached Williams' station about sundown, killed the men and burned the station. This station was on the Carson river and on the overland road about ten miles northeast of where Fort Churchill was afterwards built. Captain Soo was smart enough to know what the result of this act would be. It was like burning the bridges behind them.

            Captain Weatherlow has this to say in regard to the begin-

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ning of the war: "While these events (outrages committed by the Pah-ute Indians on the settlers in the neighborhood of Honey Lake) were taking place we neither saw nor heard of the Indian Agent, Major Dodge. From my knowledge of Winnemucca's character, his sense of right and justice, and his faithful observance of the treaty with the Honey Lake people for years, it is my firm belief as well as the openly expressed opinion of the citizens of Honey Lake that if the great chief Winnemucca had been visited in the early commencement of the misunderstanding between his people and the whites, or even after hostilities had actually commenced he had been visited by Major Dodge, or some other authorized agent of the general government who came with full power to treat and perform the promises of the government, the whole war with its subsequent massacres and scenes of blood could have been easily averted. But unfortunately for the whites as well as for the Pah-utes no such mediator came and the war with all its horrors raged on."

            When the report of what had been done at Williams' station reached Dayton, Silver City, and Virginia City it created great excitement and the news was soon carried to the outlying towns. There were prospectors scattered all through the mountains and men took their lives in their hands to warn them and the outside ranchers of their danger. The one thought was to punish the Indians and companies were organized in Genoa, and in Carson, Silver, and Virginia Cities. They left the latter place on the ninth of May and on the tenth reached the scene of the murder and buried three of the victims. They then took a vote to see whether they should go back or go ahead into the Indian country.

            This force consisted of four companies numbering one hundred and five men, or something like that. Each company had its own officers, but there was no one selected to command the whole force although Major Ormsby and others urged them to do this. They went into the fight without any leader although Major Ormsby is usually regarded as having been the commander of the entire party. It was a body of poorly armed, undisciplined men. Probably the general opinion among them was that the Indians would not fight, and some of them would have stayed at home if they had thought there was going to be any fighting done. Others thought that all there was to do was to capture some squaws and ponies and run the Indians out of the country

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without any danger to themselves. But the most of them were brave men and boys, some of them heroes when the occasion came, and with a little discipline and under good leadership would have made a brave fight.

The Battle of Pyramid Lake, Generally Called " The Ormsby Massacre "

            This battle, fought on the 12th of May about two miles south of Pyramid lake, was no battle at all — it was a massacre.

            The whites saw a party of Indians about their own number and thirty of them charged up a little hill onto a plateau. "When they got up there the Indians had disappeared, but just out of gunshot, just as before, there was a thin circle of mounted Indians. For a short time it was doubtful whether the Indians had got them there by design or not ; but that uncertainty vanished when in front and on both flanks Indians arose from behind every bush, gave a yell, and poured in a volley of arrows and bullets. The other members of the command did not come to the aid of those on the plateau and after staying there about ten minutes, during which time they only looked after their animals, some of which bucked the revolvers out of the holsters and made others drop their guns, they all retreated toward their already fleeing companions. They at first retreated towards the timber in the bottom to the west. This was already the hiding place of Chiquito Winnemucca, a chief from the Black Rock country. A number of Indians now reinforced those in the timber, Numaga among the rest, and as the Indians pressed forward he got between them and the whites, waved them back, and tried to obtain a parley with the white men. Chiquito Winnemucca refused to obey the order and ran past him followed by the other Indians. Quite a number of times the whites tried to make a stand but with little success. Many of them fought bravely, but in the end it turned out a panic and when they reached the upland it was every one for himself. The Indians chased them as far as where "Wadsworth now stands killing them all along the way. When this place was reached it got so dark that the whites were able to hide so the Indians could not find them. Major Ormsby and forty-five other white men were killed. The Indians claimed to have had three warriors wounded and two horses killed.

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            On the morning of May 15th the white men on foot got into Buckland's station and those on horseback reached Dayton, Virginia, and the towns further back and created a great panic wherever they went. The news was telegraphed to San Francisco and soon the whole coast knew about it. The people of the surrounding country gathered at Virginia City, Dayton, Silver City, and other towns and fortified themselves the best they could. Warren Wasson went from Genoa to Carson to find why they could get no dispatch over the telegraph line. He thought that the Indians had cut it. When he got to Carson he found that the telegraph operator there had paid no attention to the calls from Genoa, and thus far no Indian had been seen in Carson or Eagle valleys. T. and W. say: "He also found that a party was being organized, under Theodore Winters, to carry a dispatch from General Wright of California to a company of cavalry supposed to be at Honey Lake valley, ordering that company to march at once for Carson. Wasson volunteered to carry the message alone; and mounting a fleet, powerful horse, rode in fourteen hours through the enemy's country a distance of one hundred and ten miles to Honey Lake, without a change of horse, and without seeing an Indian. He delivered his orders and the company marched south." A. L. Tunison says that a detachment of twenty-six soldiers came into the valley on the 16th of May and it is probable that those were the ones that went to Carson.

The War in Honey Lake and Long Valleys

            Alvaro Evans says that he was in Virginia City when the news of the Ormsby Massacre reached that place. As soon as he heard it, the next day after it happened, he bought a horse and started for his home in the lower end of Long valley. He left town about sundown and when between the Truckee river and Peavine springs he caught up with Cutler Arnold, who was going home to Susanville, and they went along together. They reached the Evans ranch about three o'clock in the morning and found all the residents of that part of the valley collected there excepting the Robinsons. They had also gathered in all the cattle and had them on the flat east of the house. The next morning R. E. Ross went up to the Warm Springs ranch and notified the Robinsons that they were all going to Sierra

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valley. He found Mrs. Ambrose Robinson, the only woman in that part of the valley, busily engaged in churning and she said that she could not go until she had finished that work. That same day they all went to Sierra valley and took their cattle with them. The Ross and Evans party took up some land four or five miles from the Summit, built a cabin on it, and stayed there all summer, returning to Long valley in the fall. The Warm Springs ranch house was burned by the Indians that spring, but the other three houses in that part of the valley, the Evans house, the McKissick house, and the one on the Willow Ranch, were not molested that year.

            When the news reached Honey Lake it caused great excitement and dismay. As is usual in such cases the further it traveled the larger it grew. It was reported that there were 1500 warriors in the battle with the Ormsby party and men who claimed to know said there were at least 1000 Pah-ute warriors around Pyramid lake ready to fight. It was reported that twenty head of cattle had been stolen, by the Indians it was supposed, from Antelope valley near Susanville and the settlers thought it probable that the hills were full of savages who were likely to make a descent upon them at any time.

            There were eighty men prospecting out near Black Rock and in Susanville the first thought was to warn them of their danger. The business men offered $150 a day to any man who would go, but no one wanted the job. When it was found that no one could be hired to go Ephraim V. Spencer, whose brother Luther was among the prospectors, made up his mind to go himself. He had no saddle horse and when he tried to buy one he found none to sell. Some of the owners of saddle horses wanted them to leave the country with and others would not sell to him because they didn 't want him to attempt the trip. They all told him that no man could elude the Indians and get through to Black Rock alive. Finally some man told him there was a saddle horse picketed out on the flat below town. Spencer was head sawyer in the sawmill above town and that night he shut the mill down. (This story was told by Mrs. L. P. Spencer, the widow of E. V. Spencer.)

            About midnight he took his saddle on his back, went down on the flat and saddled up the horse, and striking out down the valley reached the Lathrop and Harvey place about daylight.

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His horse had not given out, but he was tired and Spencer saw he was not the horse for such a journey. About a quarter of a mile from the house there was a saddle horse picketed out and he went down there and swapped horses. He then went to the house, called Lathrop up and told him what he was going to do, and asked him for a cup of coffee and something to eat and some food to take along with him. While Lathrop was getting him some breakfast Spencer stood in the door holding the horse by the rope. Pretty soon a man who had been awakened by the noise came out of another room. He looked at the horse at the door, rubbed his eyes and looked again, and then looked at the horse picketed in the field. The horse Spencer was holding was a bay and the one he left in the field was a buckskin so it was very easy to see that the horses had been changed. He then asked Spencer what he was doing with his horse and told him to put him back where he found him. The other man replied that he intended to ride that horse and that if any one interfered with him he would have serious trouble. The man almost cried and said he wanted the horse to ride out of danger from the Indians, but Spencer only answered him by saying that the other one would carry him to Susanville. After eating his breakfast and getting a few provisions Spencer started out and to save time he cut across corners whenever he could. At that time A. W. Worm and Thomas Bear were keeping the trading post at Deep Hole springs and the latter had gone to Susanville for supplies. "Bige" Adams came along and found Worm alone and told him the news of the trouble with the Indians. Spencer must have struck Bear somewhere on the road for they came to Deep Hole together that night. Worm says that about twenty of the Black Rock prospectors also came in that night. At daylight Spencer resumed his journey and succeeded in finding a camp of five men, his brother being one of them. He had not seen an Indian during the entire trip. He had been riding for thirty-six hours without any sleep so he went to bed and those in camp saddled up their horses and started out to find the other men. Whenever they found a camp these men joined in the search and soon they were all together and ready to leave. The Indians had not molested them, but an old man named Smith coming into camp one night with a pack mule had been mistaken for an Indian and killed.

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            On their return they kept out on the desert and saw no Indians excepting once when they saw a large band of them near the edge of the desert. Once, though, when they stopped to water their horses they found Indian tracks made so recently that they were not yet filled with water. Some of the prospectors belonged in this valley and some in the Carson country and when they got almost to Honey Lake they scattered, four or five of them coming in with Spencer.

            Many of the emigrants who had settled in the valley the year before immediately picked up and left in haste for the other side of the mountains. A great deal of stock was driven away for safety. The people in the upper end of the valley went to Susanville and used Cutler Arnold 's log hotel for a fort, keeping the women and children in at night. They had some idea of hauling logs and building a fort but it was not done. Many of them stayed there and stood guard at night for a long time.

            The settlers in the central part of the valley and the lower end of it gathered at Bankhead's. They cut down small pine trees and made a stockade sixty-three by ninety feet and twelve or fourteen feet high around the log house about three fourths of a mile northwest of Bankhead's that Dr. Slater and F. S. Chapman had built the previous December. This was "Fort Janesville." The stockade was loopholed for rifles and at the southwest corner, and perhaps at another one though it doesn't show now, there was a small enclosure set out from the corner that enabled the men in the fort to send in a flank fire on any party that came close to the stockade. Dr. P. Chamberlain, D. I. Wilmans, James Jones, John Bradley, R. D. Bass, Smith J. Hill, W. M. Cain, Malcom Bankhead, and probably many others, with their families, took refuge in the fort. Some stayed a night or two and went over to Quincy, or further, and others went back to their ranches. Some stayed there all summer. Of the families that left the valley some stayed away until the danger was over and others never came back.

            Four or five years after this Indian war Fort Janesville fell into disuse. People helped themselves to the doors and windows of the building or anything else they wanted. Along in 1866-67 the Indians took the house away, part of it at a time, and used it to build some campoodies about half a mile to the southwest. Perhaps the whites carried some of the logs away and soon the

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building was all gone. The writer went to school near there in 1867 and he doesn't remember any building inside the stockade at that time. The stockade stood for a good many years and fell down a log at a time.

            During this panic Governor Roop again made application to General Clark for troops to be stationed in the valley to protect the settlers, or at least for arms and ammunition to enable the few settlers who remained to protect themselves and their property. Weatherlow's company was reorganized and ordered to hold themselves in readiness to take to the field at a moment's warning. About this time Lieutenant Chapman came in from Fort Crook with a detachment of U. S. dragoons. He stayed in the valley three days and then received orders to return to Fort Crook, and this he did without having accomplished anything here. This left the valley as unprotected as before. Some of the settlers wanted to raise a company and join Colonel Jack Hays at Carson and help fight the Pah-utes. Others wanted all the men to stay at home and protect the few women and children who remained and also the property. John Byrd raised a company of twenty men in the lower end of the valley and J. C. Wemple remembers the following names of those who were among them: John Byrd, Captain, Dr. P. Chamberlain, Wm. H. Clark, Wm. N. Crawford, George Greeno, T. H. Fairchilds, Charles Kingman, Fred. Kingman, Henry Arnold, — Anderson, A. G. Eppstein, and J. C. Wemple.

            On the 29th of May Weatherlow 's company went down to the Jack Byrd ranch eight miles below where Milford now stands. Byrd and his company were there and Weatherlow proposed to him that they join forces and wait for the Indians at a canyon north of Pyramid lake where, when beaten by Hays, they would pass in their retreat. He believed that in this way they might receive a blow that would direct them away from the unprotected settlements. Byrd agreed with him, but the younger members of his company objected to this arrangement so he went on the next day. Weatherlow stayed there a couple of days and jerked some beef and on the first of June set out for Pyramid lake with his command of thirty-five well armed men, he says, but Tunison, who was with him, says there were only twenty-six men when they left the Byrd place.

            We will now return to the country around Carson and Vir-

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ginia Cities. As a result of the Ormsby Massacre hundreds of people left the territory of Nevada and went to California. Many of those who remained were so badly frightened that they would have been of no use in helping to fight the Indians.

            In California the news produced intense excitement and every one was willing to go to the assistance of the people of Nevada. Within thirty-six hours after the news reached Downieville 165 men were raised, armed, and equipped. In five days they marched over the mountains to Virginia City. Organized companies came from Nevada City, San Juan, Sacramento, and Placerville. The Governor of California sent the men of Nevada for their own use 500 Minnie muskets with plenty of ammunition. All the towns of Nevada furnished their share of men and the citizens contributed to provision the forces.

            These forces were organized into eight companies of infantry and six of cavalry. Colonel John C. Hays was the Colonel commanding and the whole force consisted of 544 men. They left Virginia City on the 24th of May and on the 31st had reached the place where Wadsworth now stands. There they were joined by 207 United States troops under Captain Stewart. By mutual consent, Colonel Jack Hays assumed command of both divisions.

The Battle of the Truckee

            On the morning of the 2nd of June eighty men were sent down the river on a scouting expedition. "When they got down where the land sloped abruptly to the valley part of them stayed on the upland and the others went on down into the valley. In a short time those on the hill signaled that the enemy were in sight. Three hundred Indians were coming and they chased the whites back to the main body. The Indians kept firing at the whites with a rifle of long range, probably the one taken from a man named Elliott who was killed in the Ormsby fight. One man was wounded by these shots. When the fight began the Indians had the advantage in the ground. They were on the hill in a place cut up by gullies and the whites were out on the open ground. About two thirds of the whites were in the fight and the rest were held in reserve. The Indians fought for five hours, but at last were driven from the field. There was a large force of Indians — no one knows how many — and it was the most stubborn fight ever made by the Indians on this coast. The whites

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lost three men killed and one wounded. The Pah-utes never acknowledged the loss of but four killed and seven wounded. No white man in the fight ever saw more than three dead Indians ; but Joseph F. Triplett of Elko, who was in the fight, claims that several of the leading Indians told him soon after the war that forty-six Indians were killed.

            On the fourth of June the command marched on towards Pyramid lake burying the bodies of the Ormsby men wherever they found them. The Indian village was deserted and not an Indian could be found in the country, but the trail led north and on the fifth the pursuit was resumed. They passed along on the east side of the chain of mountains between Pyramid and Mud (Winnemucca) lakes. While going along this range five men were sent up the side of the mountain as scouts. When they got near the top one of the men was killed by the Indians. The cavalry went there as fast as they could, but when they reached the place the Indians had taken his horse, arms, and clothes and fled. This was the last hostile act of the campaign.

            On the sixth they started to return. On the seventh the volunteer forces under Hays were disbanded; but the troops under Captain Stewart remained at Pyramid lake where earthworks were thrown up that received the name of Fort Haven, in honor of General Haven of California who had volunteered as a private in Colonel Hays' command. T. and W. say "After the battle the Pah-utes remained in considerable force in the vicinity of Pyramid lake, maintaining a hostile attitude, and committing depredations, but the punishment given and the force displayed admonished them to keep the peace." They also say that Major Frederick Dodge, the Indian Agent, aided by Mr. Wasson, who had been engaged by Captain Stewart as a scout, tried to pacify the Indians, entice them to their reservations, and supply them with provisions, blankets, etc.

Movements of the Never Sweats

            J. C. Wemple says it was reported here that the Indians lost about forty men in the last fight. The Byrd company reached Pyramid lake two days after the battle took place. They stayed there a day and a half and then started for home. Nothing of particular interest took place during the entire trip which lasted something like two weeks.

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            T. and W. say: "There was a force of possibly thirty men under Captain Weatherlow from Honey Lake valley, in the mountains west of and toward the north end of Pyramid lake ; and the following letter of confident power and prowess tells all concerning him and his command :

"June 4th, 1860.

            "Dear Gov. : With my small party I am scouting around Pyramid lake. The last two days have been on the north side of it, and am now on the west side and within two miles of the lake. I have not seen an Indian, although I am in view of the ground on which Major Ormsby fought the Indians. "Would to God I had fifty men, I would clean out all the Indians from this region. Thus far I have been waiting for the troops from Carson to attack them, and then cut off retreating parties, but the movements of the troops are so desultory that I fear the Indians will scatter off before anything is done. If there is any more men in the valley who will come, and can get a fit-out, send them along for my party is too small to venture much ; yet all are anxious for a brush with the red-skins. You need feel no alarm of being attacked in the valley; there is no Indians to make it, at least on the north.

            Respectfully yours, etc.,

            Capt. Weatherlow.

            Gov. Isaac Roop."

            "It would seem that the Captain got out of the way just in time, from the north end of the lake, to escape an opportunity of having the brush his men seemed so desirous of; and if his courage was equal to his assertion, it is fortunate that he did not have fifty men." Weatherlow 's courage was equal to almost anything, and if he and his thirty men had been lying in wait in that canyon when the Indians went through it, he might have fired on them small as his force was.

            The first day after leaving the Byrd ranch Weatherlow 's company went to High Rock Springs. It rained all that day. The next day they went on to Pyramid lake and occupied the canyon. Weatherlow says "So much was I impressed with the necessity of striking the Indians in their retreat north that I sent a message to Col. Hays asking him to reenforce me. This he never received, or at least the reenforcement never came. In the meantime the battle at Pyramid lake did not take place on the

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day fixed for it, and after laying in ambush, short of provisions and without a fire for fear of showing our position to the Indians for over three days during a severe sleet storm, I supposed the fight would not come off and left the position. On the day after leaving it the Indians passed through the canyon. They had a fair retreat of over forty miles in open country and escaped comparatively unharmed. They boast to this day that they have killed more whites than they have lost men. From the escape of the Indians without receiving a severe blow the chance of the speedy close of the war was for the time lost." Weatherlow scouted on the north and east sides of the lake and then went home, arriving there on the tenth, without seeing an Indian on the trip. "On the news of the volunteers having returned to California reaching our valley a second panic occurred. Nor was this unreasonable for the Indians who had escaped north held the country around the valley. A small party of prospectors who had been driven in by the hostiles had seen them in force some 400 strong at Wall Springs on the emigrant road.

            "The troops removed from Honey Lake had left us entirely defenseless. At this critical juncture Col. F. W. Lander, Supt. of the U. S. overland wagon road, arrived in our valley with his company of some fifty men well armed and equipped. Their presence was a welcome relief to our unprotected settlement, for the Indians had grown so emboldened by success that they entered the valley within a few miles of the chief settlement and in broad day killed Mr. Adams, one of our most respected and worthy citizens. Governor Roop with a number of the principal settlers waited upon Col. Lander and besought him to aid them in protecting the valley against the Indians."

            Among other Indian depredations was the following : In the fall of 1859 Isadore Goumaz, a brother of Philip J. Goumaz, who was foreman for the Lee Brothers, with a man to help him, took a band of cattle belonging to the Lees, 200 or 300 head, to the lower Hot Springs in this valley. He kept the cattle there that winter, herding them back to keep them from straying where the Indians would be likely to steal them, and in the spring moved them to Mt. Meadows. He left his camp just as it was — didn't take away anything. Probably he was gone four days, and when he returned he found that the Indians had paid the

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place a visit during his absence and entirely destroyed his camp. They burned what they could not carry off, the wagon being burned along with the other things.

The Murder of Horace Adams

Told by Wm. Milton Cain and A. L. Tunison.

            In 1859 Charles Adams brought another band of cattle from the States and his brother Horace came to the valley with him. He was killed by the Indians June 17th, 1860. There was very little land fenced on the Adams ranch and they kept up a saddle animal, picketing it out in the daytime and keeping it in the corral during the night. This morning Horace got up first and went at once to get the mare and picket her out. Just as he reached the middle of the corral one of the two Indians who lay concealed behind it fired at him from a distance of fifteen feet killing him instantly. "Bijah" Adams, who was the only man on the ranch besides Horace, had just got up and when he heard the shot he sprang to the door in time to see his brother go down. He ran outside at once and fired his pistol two or three times and then ran back into the house, grabbed his gun, ran out and jumped onto the mare, and started after the Indians. One of the Indians fired at him as he came out, but missed him. He crowded the Indians so hard that one of them dropped his gun and Adams got it, but the place was covered with sloughs and it was difficult to get around very fast with a horse and the Indians got into the tules and he could not find them. Adams then went back to the house and set some posts on fire to attract attention. Some one on the south side of the valley saw the smoke and went over there.

            Col. Lander with a pack train and about fifty men, thirty of whom were armed with Sharp 's rifles and dragoon pistols, arrived at Susanville about the first of June and camped at the Neale ranch four miles below there. When the settlers called on him and asked his aid in protecting the valley from the Indians, he said he would take part of his force and go out to reconnoiter the Indian position if the settlers would raise a company to join him. Lander said he was an Indian Agent and was authorized to make treaties with them. He said he should only seek an interview with Winnemucca, but if he found it impossible to do that or the Indians kept on fighting the settlers or interfered with his road work, he would fight them.

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            The murder of Mr. Adams was reported to him on the 18th and in less than half an hour he started with twenty men in pursuit of the Indians. They rode all night and found the route the Indians had taken and probably where they were going. They then returned to camp after a ride of fifty miles.

            The foregoing account of Col. Lander's movements and the following account of the expedition taken by a part of his command and Captain Weatherlow 's Honey Lake Rangers was taken from a letter published in the " Daily Alta Californian " of July 17, 1860. It was signed by "Knight" who was a member of the expedition.

Lander and Weatherlow 's Expedition Against the Pah-utes

            On the evening of the 19th of June, a few hours after Lander got back from his scouting trip, Weatherlow with thirty Rangers and Lander with thirty-five of his men, all mounted, started out into the country to the northeast of this valley. They made forced marches for two nights in succession, halting for a few hours in the heat of the day. When they got out near Madeline Plains (so called in the report of Lieut. Beckwith's survey) they found some moccasin tracks and Weatherlow 's scouts saw two mounted Indians reconnoitering the camp. The next morning Captain Weatherlow with one company started out for another scout leaving Lieut. Tutt in command of the Rangers. By sunrise the whole command had packed up and started. Col. Lander and one man went up the hill to the left where he could overlook a canyon and there saw an Indian in ambush watching their movements. He at once ordered the train up the hill to cut off the canyon and approach it from a commanding position. Lieut. Tutt opposed this style of approach and said that Capt. Weatherlow had left orders for the command to go through the canyon. Lander said that if a large party of Indians was met, the whole command would be cut off, but as it was a joint command he would follow the orders Capt. Weatherlow had given. He claimed the privilege of leading the train and calling up Mr. Snyder, the commissary of the train, went on with him. When they entered the rocky walls of the canyon Lander said "Remember, gentlemen, I do not bear the responsibility."

            Fifteen of the best men were sent to the rear behind the pack train. After they had gone nearly a mile Capt. Weatherlow

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and his company who, as Lander supposed, turned back to meet them and would have taken the trail over the rocky side hill in preference to the canyon, Tutt having misunderstood his orders. It was too late to remedy this and they went on. "When they were nearly through the narrow canyon and were just ready to come out on the open ground, the Indians fired on the head of the column where Lander and Weatherlow were riding, mortally wounding Alexander Painter, a brother of Samuel H. and B. B. Painter. The bullet entered the body below the heart and lodged beneath the skin near the spine. He made no outcry, but rode off a short distance to the right near his brother Benj. B. and after dismounting said to him, "I am shot — don't wait for me; leave me my rifle and shot pouch and go on."

            The Indians, how many there were of them they could not tell, kept up a continued fire and the bullets flew thick and fast, but they did no harm. Lander sent some men with a flag to a hill on the right and had the pack train sent out of the line of the fire and told the men to hold the hill at all hazards. He then took ten men and started out to drive the Indians away. They ran like scared dogs as the mounted men approached, going over the rocky hill sides where neither horse nor foot could follow them. The train then went out to the edge of a white plain from which the Indians had evidently retreated on the approach of the white men, perhaps taking their women and children with them. The force stayed there that night and were not molested by the Indians.

            Lander moved the camp to a long, rocky hill that ran out from the mountain and then prepared a decoy for the Indians. They had built defenses of stone along this and he thought they would come down there and try some long shots at the whites. About ten o'clock a large number of Indians came down this hill and hid themselves among the rocks. Lander waited for them to hide themselves, ten horses were saddled and led around to the opposite side of the hill, and fifteen men led by Lander went along the base of the rocks. The plan was to encourage the Indians with the footmen and let the cavalry cut them off from the mountain. A skirmish was kept up with a scattering fire and several Indians were seen to fall. Before the cavalry got up the hill the Indians saw them and fled precipitately. Col. Lander now mounted his horse and with a flag rode out

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toward the foot of the mountain, leaving his rifle in plain view leaning against a cedar tree. Seeing no chance for a fight and no chance to get in their rear, he thought he might obtain one object of the journey and have a talk with the chief. The Indians, instead of coming forward to talk, kept creeping behind trees toward him rifle in hand. They refused to parley so the white men advanced toward them again and they fled back along the side of the inaccessible mountain. Just at dark an Indian appeared out of the pass leading to Honey Lake — by good fortune two of their best and freshest horses stood saddled — and seven or eight men were made ready to support. The Indian was supposed to be one of the murderers from Honey Lake valley. At a given signal two of the most skillful riders started in full chase after the Indian and in open view of the enemy on the hill. As soon as the Indian saw the men in pursuit he threw off his soldier cloak and made for the hills, but he was too late. The race was a hard one — his comrades on the hill saw his danger, but dared not come to his help. They counted thirty-one Indians come out of the mouth of the canyon, but they dared come no further. Just then the Indian turned and fired at the foremost of his pursuers who saw his object and threw himself over to the other side of his horse and the ball passed harmlessly over the horse's back. The rider then raised and fired, bringing the Indian to his knees with a ball from his pistol. As he rode up the Indian clutched at the rope hanging from the horse's neck and the rider again drew his pistol and fired, the ball entering the neck of the Indian, who held his grip and with his last gasp gave the warwhoop which was answered by his comrades on the hill who did not dare to come to his relief. A rope was then tied to his leg and he was dragged into camp. The dead savage was recognized by the Rangers as "Big Jim," a noted warrior of the Smoke Creek band, one of the murderers of Mr. Adams, and the leader of the parties who had made their incursions into the valley. That night they buried Mr. Painter under a cedar tree at the foot of the hill.

            That day the Indians were seen to carry off several of their dead, but the whites didn't know how many of them they killed. The Pah-ute who was killed at sunset was buried in an open grave and covered with cedar boughs. They did not

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scalp or mutilate him. During the night the Indians went away and in the morning they could see no signs of them. The whites went on in the direction of Granite springs along the emigrant road. On reaching it they found that the fortified point at Wall springs had been abandoned by the Indians whom they met in a much stronger position in the mountains. Nothing of interest took place on their road home and they reached camp on the 30th of June.

            There are other accounts of this expedition — Weatherlow 's, E. V. Spencer's, and one published in the "Territorial Enterprise," but in most respects they do not differ greatly from the one already given. The "Enterprise" says that Governor Roop and W. L. Jernegan of the "Enterprise" were members of Weatherlow 's company and that Lander gave the American flag carried on this expedition to the family of Alexander Painter. Col. Lander also "publicly complimented Capt. Weatherlow and his company for their conduct while under fire." It also says that on several occasions Col. Lander laid aside his weapons and went toward the Indians and tried to talk with them, but they always retreated and said they wanted "heap fight." Weatherlow says they fought the Indians for five hours and when Lander tried to talk with them they shot at him. Spencer says that three or four hundred mounted Indians charged them three times, but did not come within reach of their rifles. When Lander tried to talk with the Indians Winnemucca climbed up on a big rock where they could all see that he was dressed in white man's clothes and said "If you want to fight, you come up here. You no want to fight, you go home."

            A little explanation will make Knight's story plainer. Mr. Spencer says they went into the country near the head of Smoke Creek Canyon. He also says that the canyon where Painter was killed ran in a northerly direction, was broad, and had higher, steeper walls on the left-hand side than on the right. Judging from what is told about that country by W. D. Minckler, the expedition must have gone from the head of Smoke Creek Canyon over to the creek that drains Painter Flat and followed up the canyon through which it flows. The fight took place just where the canyon comes out into the flat. Painter was buried on the flat which bears his name about a mile and a half north

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of east from where he fell and "Big Jim" was buried near him. Mr. Spencer was a member of the expedition.

            The last of June Capt. Lance Nightingale came in with twenty-five men. He stayed here about a week and then went out towards the Humboldt on an Indian hunt. The third of July First Lieut. Hamilton came from the San Francisco Presidio with fifty men of Company I, Third Artillery. These soldiers stayed in the valley for the protection of the settlers.

            On the Fourth of July Col. Lander and his men started out to work on the emigrant road between Honey Lake and the Humboldt river. Before leaving he told the people of Susanville to send, if possible, some friendly Indians to the Pah-utes and try to get Winnemucca to come in and make a treaty with him. The Wagon Road party built some reservoirs at Rabbit Hole springs and at Antelope springs, and also did some work at Hot, Buffalo, and Mud springs. These improvements were of much benefit to the emigrants who passed over the road in after years.

            The Pah-utes stole a large band of cattle from Captain John Byrd this summer. He again raised a party of settlers, among whom were Asa S. LeGrow, M. B. Dwelley, William H. Dakin, William Hamilton, Thomas Fairchilds, and Fred Washburn, and prepared to follow the thieves. He also sent a messenger to Ft. Churchill, asking immediate attention and assistance. (This Fort was about twenty-five miles south of east of Virginia City.— F.)

            It was twenty-four hours after the stock had been taken before the party was ready to start, but they had no trouble in following the trail. It led to the north through a level country and the pursuers made good time. The second day, after they had ridden sixty or seventy miles, they got near enough to the Indians to see them running away from the cattle. Very frequently during the day they had passed cattle that had been killed and once in a while an animal had its heart or tongue cut out. They also saw Indians watching them from the high places, and probably these signaled to the ones who were ahead with the cattle. On the approach of the white men the Indians, as usual, killed all the stock they could and then took to the hills and watched their enemies from a safe distance.

            No Indians were killed. Byrd says he lost one hundred and

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fifty-four head of good cattle as the result of this raid, and other people whose stock ran on the same range also suffered loss.

Utt's Escape from the Indians

            Knight's letter from Rabbit Hole springs, dated July 31, 1860, gives the following account of the escape of Hiram Utt from the Indians about the 20th of July: "One of the Honey Lake party out prospecting near Black Rock, Mr. Utt, a few days before our arrival had a narrow escape from massacre by a party of Indians. He had become separated from his comrades and was about four miles from camp. A rain storm had come up and he took shelter with his mule beneath a ledge of rocks at the mouth of a small canyon; while there he was suddenly surprised by four mounted Piutes, three armed with bow and arrows and one with a rifle. He leveled his rifle at the later but the gun would not go off ; he then sprang upon his mule, and dashing the rowels deeply into its sides started at full run for the camp. The savages with a yell pursued him and headed him off. The one with the rifle dismounted, and in order to make sure work of it, lay down in a little gully, and resting his gun on the bank, was proceeding to take deadly aim at Mr. Utt. The latter also sprang off his mule, recapped his rifle, and trusting to luck, fired while the Indian was still taking aim. The bullet struck the Indian directly in the forehead and killed him instantly. It was certainly a lucky shot for Mr. Utt, who again mounted his mule and rode towards camp. Two of the Indians followed and tried to cut him off, but he kept them at a respectful distance with his revolver and thus reached his comrades in safety. We afterwards saw the body of the dead Indian at the spot where the encounter took place."

Colonel Lander's Talk with Young Winnemucca

            The story of this "talk" was told in Knight's letter written from Neale's ranch in Honey Lake valley, August 26, 1860.

            The Lander party had finished its work on the road from Honey Lake to the Humboldt river. On the evening of the fifth of August word came that four Pah-utes had come to a trading post about two miles up the river, and knowing that Col. Lander wanted to interview them and have a talk with Winemucca, Mr. George Butler and two others started out and succeeded in

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capturing them and bringing them into camp. Their arms were taken away, but they were treated kindly and finding that they were not to be hurt they were willing to remain in camp until Lander, who was at Rabbit Hole springs, had been notified that they were there and came to have a talk with them. They said that Old Winnemucca was up in the mountains among the Oregon Indians, that Young Winnemucca was in the Snow mountains near the Truckee river, and that their people were scattered in small bands through the mountains. They promised to bring one of the little captains, who was in the neighborhood, Chief Naanah, to have a talk with Lander. After a delay of two days he came into camp and had an interview with the Colonel. It was a private talk, but the result was that two Indians started out on borrowed horses, furnished them by the Colonel, with the agreement that they would visit their great chief Winnemucca and tell him that Lander wished to talk with him and get him if possible to return with them. They agreed to return in "six sleeps" and meet the train at a certain place (Granite creek) on the route home. Many of the party predicted that neither the Indians nor the horses would ever be heard of again, but the Colonel from his knowledge of the Indian character had confidence that they were sincere in their promises. It proved that he was correct, for on the evening of the 21st at the very place and time agreed on, the Indians came into camp with the borrowed horses accompanied by Winnemucca and some six or eight of the leading men of the tribe. After cordial greetings on both sides and partaking heartily of dinner, preparations were made for a talk.

            Young Winnemucca was then about thirty years old, six feet tall, with a Roman nose and broad chin and a mouth showing strong will and decision of character. He and Lander lighted their pipes and smoked some time in silence and then Lander asked him through the interpreter to talk plain and straight and tell all that he wanted the great father at Washington to hear. Winnemucca started in slowly and spoke in a deep guttural tone, but he soon warmed up and his whole form seemed to expand with his pent up emotions. He said he was glad to meet the big captain and take him by the hand and have a good talk. He desired peace— not for himself for Winnemucca could die for his people, but for the squaws and papooses who were tired

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of hiding away in the rocks ; they were poor and hungry and he was sorry for them. The white men were coming into the country and taking up the finest valleys, driving the red men from their fishing grounds and giving them nothing in return. The white man dug money from the ground and covered it with one hand while he held out his other hand empty to the Indian. The white man had plenty, but the Indians were poor, and when they asked for flour and meat the white man drove them away. The Indians were whipped and kicked and ill treated by the bad white men and they came to him with the stories of their wrongs. He was their leader, their war chief, and they looked to him to redress them. He was compelled to fight the white men while they were yet few in number. Presently they would be so strong that he could not fight them. He had been a good friend to the whites for many years. The other tribes, Shoshones, Pannacks, and Pit River Indians had stolen horses and cattle and killed white men yet presents had been made these bad Indians. The Pah-utes had been good yet received nothing. By and by the white men came to Washoe and they were bad men. They took the horses and squaws of the Indians and one of the chief's sons was killed. The Indians were very mad and they made fight, but now they were willing for peace.

            Col. Lander told him that the big father at Washington was very mad when he heard that the Pah-utes were killing his people, and he would send his soldiers to fight them for ten snows or until they were all gone if they killed any more white men ; but if they were good and would steal no more cattle from the settlers or the emigrants and kill no more whites, perhaps the big father would pay them for their lands in Honey Lake valley and Carson. They might fish at Pyramid lake and hunt in the mountains and the white men would not disturb them.

            Winnemucca listened with great attention to the words of the Colonel and said it was good, but there had been much talk by the whites and no good had come of it. He would try the whites again. He would send his runners out into the mountains and tell his people not to kill the whites. His people were scattered far and wide and it might take two or three moons to tell them all, but he would send them word and they would all be good for one year, maybe two years, and wait and see what the big father would do — whether the white man lied or not. He

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said he had visited the cities of California, all the large ones, and saw that the white man lived well. He had plenty and his squaw and papoose sat down in his wigwam and were not afraid. He also desired to have a big house and teach his people to till the earth and raise wheat and corn and squashes. The white men promised to teach them, but they lied. He most positively denied that his people had any hand in the killing of Peter Lassen last fall or the murder of Mr. Demming at Willow Creek during the winter. He said that Lassen was a good man and his friend. The murder was done by bad Indians under a chief named Mia-a-cow, living near Goose Lake, who was a great rascal. Col. Lander told them that Major Dodge would come and talk with them also and tell them what the big father would do.

            The Indians stayed there that night and in the morning after they had been given a few presents they got on their horses and departed. Winnemucca was the last to go, and as he went away he extended his hand to each one of them and said " Good bye — Goodbye " in a musical voice. Every look, act, and gesture marked him as the leading spirit of his tribe and a mighty chieftain.

            When they got back to Honey Lake Col. Lander received information that two Pah-utes who had come into the valley on the strength of his talk with Winnemucca had been arrested by the soldiers under the command of Lieut. Hamilton and were detained in custody. The Colonel, fearing that the arrest of the Indians would defeat the consummation of a treaty, rode up to Lieut. Hamilton's quarters. The Lieutenant was absent at the time, but the officer in command, ascertaining the circumstances of the case, at once liberated the Indians who came down to Lander's camp where they remained all night and were kindly treated. Rumors came into his camp, however, that some of the citizens of the valley had sworn vengeance against the Indians and were determined to shoot them on sight, hence the Colonel was compelled to keep an armed guard for their protection and at early dawn dispatch them to rejoin their tribe. He then wrote a letter to Major Dodge, the Indian Agent to the Pah-ute tribe, and sent it by a special messenger to Carson City. Lander told him that he had an interview with Young Winnemucca and had agreed to do all he could to have the government

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pay the Indians for their lands. This arrangement made with Winnemucca was agreed to by all the Indians. It enabled the emigrants to get through unharmed. It would also allow Dodge to go into any part of the Indian territory and see Old Winnemucca, the medicine man, who was now with the Pit Rivers, but was expected to arrive at the Big Meadows on the Humboldt river in a couple of weeks. He told Dodge that it was left with him to have an interview with the Indians and set things to rights. There was no danger in going among them if they expected him. The rest of Lander's letter told about the other things that he and Winnemucca had agreed upon and also told about the Indians captured by the soldiers in Honey Lake valley. This letter was left open so the expressman could show it to the people of Long valley, and it was hoped that it would prevent them from provoking the Indians to further fighting.

A Meeting of the Citizens of Honey Lake Valley

            The following facts in regard to this meeting were taken from a letter written from Marysville by Knight, September 10, 1860.

            Before Col. Lander's party left Honey Lake valley for Marysville where it was disbanded, a meeting of the citizens was held at the hotel in Richmond for the purpose of an expression of opinion with reference to a cessation of hostilities with the Indians and the propriety of an armistice as agreed upon with the Pah-utes. The meeting was largely attended by the principal farmers and citizens of the valley.

            Mr. John H. Neale was appointed chairman and Mr. A. D. McDonald secretary. The chairman read a letter from Col. Lander acknowledging a polite invitation to be present at the meeting, but declined the same inasmuch as the object of the meeting, as he was informed, being for the discussion of the propriety or impropriety of his acts in regard to the armistice, etc., his presence might tend to prevent a full and free expression of their sentiments which it was desirable should be given, etc. The meeting was then addressed by Mr. J. H. Lewis who said that having heard that two Indians who entered the valley, possibly upon the strength of the armistice, had been threatened with violence by some of the settlers who swore they would kill them outright, he had signed the call for the meeting in order

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to ascertain the real sentiments of his fellow settlers, whether they were ready to jeopardize the whole overland emigration and nullify by individual acts of vengeance on the Indians all that Col. Lander had accomplished by his interview with them.

            Messrs. J. S. Ward, Frank Drake, John Byrd, Dr. Spalding, Col. Lewis, and J. H. Neale, who had been appointed a committee on resolutions, then brought in their report which was read and adopted.

            The Preamble stated that because of the fact that it had been the misfortune of the people of the Nevada Territory to be harassed by the depredations of the Pah-utes and other tribes of Indians on the frontier for the last three years (supposed to have been incited by the Mormons of Salt Lake), and for the last six months to labor under the events of a disastrous Indian war, they Resolved That they were especially grateful to the United States government for placing a small military company in the valley, and protested against the removal of that company until a lasting peace had been declared; That the presence of that company was necessary, to keep both the Indians and the citizens in order during the armistice concluded with the war chief Winnemucca by Col. F. W. Lander, Supt. of the U. S. wagon road expedition, and undoubtedly to be ratified by Maj. Dodge, Indian Agent to this tribe; That they thought the energy of Col. Lander in protecting the settlers during the war, carrying on the work he was sent to do, and obtaining an interview with Winnemucca and making an armistice with him merited their admiration and respect; That they heartily agreed to the armistice and pledged themselves to maintain it under the terms agreed upon by Winnemucca and Col. Lander and that all the persons present constituted themselves a committee to restrain any one from doing anything to re-open the war until the action of the general government could be had in the premises; That Messrs. Drake, Thompson, and Conkey be appointed a committee to receive the accounts of those persons who by reason of loss or expense in the service of the community felt justified in applying to the general government for redress or pay; That a certified copy of these Resolutions be forwarded to the "Territorial Enterprise," "Plumas Argus," and "Standard" with the request that the same be published and the citizens in the

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southern part of the Territory be requested to hold meetings to indorse or oppose the action of this meeting.

            Great unanimity prevailed, though it was a hard matter for some of those present to forget their own wrongs or forego their thirst for revenge. But they all agreed that Col. Lander had done well in making this arrangement with Winnemucca. It would have agreed more with the feelings of the citizens, and probably with those of the Colonel, if the war could have been carried on until the tribe was exterminated or they had come in to apply for peace. But as the government did not seem to be willing to carry on the war, Col. Lander thought it best for the protection of the citizens to make some provision for their safety. The armistice would enable the settlers to perfect their farming operations for the season and stop hostilities until the government could take some action in the matter.

Young Winnemucca 's Talk with the Never Sweats

            Two or three weeks after Young Winnemucca's visit to Lander he came into Susanville with twenty-four warriors. He found Governor Roop and told him that he had made a treaty with Lander and that he wanted to have a talk with the people of this valley and have it understood that they were to be good friends from that time on. To make the occasion as formal as possible the Governor got twenty-four of the principal citizens and they all went into a large room in the second story of the Brannan hotel. After the men of the two races had seated themselves on opposite sides of the room Winnemucca, who could speak English, again said that he had made peace with the white government and he wanted the white people to understand that he was friendly and he wanted to smoke the pipe of peace. They got a pipe and passed it around, each one taking a whiff, and after that they all shook hands. E. V. Spencer told that Winnemucca said "Now Injun no more steal cattle, Injun no more kill white man, Injun no more fight. Injun good Injun now." Roop said "White man no more kill Injun, no more fight from this on. We are good friends." Winnemucca said that " Smoke Creek Sam " had twenty or thirty men who killed and plundered the whites and that he had sent some men to kill " Old Smoke, " as he called him. If he did send men

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on that errand, they never found "Old Smoke" and he and his band did a great deal of mischief after that.

            After this meeting in Susanville word was sent all over this part of the country that a treaty had been made with the Pah-utes. People returned to their ranches and turned their stock out on the ranges. The Pah-utes came into the valley as before and for a number of years both the Winnemuccas came into the valley occasionally to visit the old settlers.

            This is the only war the whites ever had with the Pah-utes as a tribe, and probably this could have been averted had the proper measures been taken in time. Perhaps some depredations were committed by the Pah-utes after this in spite of the efforts of their head chiefs to keep them from molesting the property of the white men, for, as Winnemucca once said, "Some bad Injun. Maybe some time some bad white man." A good many outrages, which it was afterwards found had been committed by the Indians of other tribes, were laid to the Pah-utes, and as a result of these reports one, or both, of the Winnemuccas nearly lost their lives while visiting Susanville. But this war showed them the strength of the whites and they never forgot it. A few years after this when some of the renegade bands of this tribe were making trouble for the whites, a good many of the Pah-utes joined the soldiers in hunting them down. They were afraid that if the whites got angry they would exterminate the whole tribe, and they looked upon the Indians who were making the trouble as their enemies, too.

 

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Asa M. Fairfield, Indian Troubles in Northwestern Nevada  1848-59; 1860; 1861-64; 1865-67; 1868-69