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British Columbia Historical Books Collection
Fuller, George W. (George Washington), 1876-1940
"Reprinted 1941, 1946, 1952, 1955 and 1960. Later printings with title: A history of the Pacific northwest; with special emphasis on the inland empire."-- Strathern, G. M., & Edwards, M. H. (1970). Navigations, traffiques & discoveries, 1774-1848: A guide to publications relating to the area now British Columbia. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 103.
xvi, 38 unnumbered leaves of plates, 383 pages : frontispiece (illustration), photographs, maps (1 folded), illustrations, portraits, table ; 25 cm
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A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST von BY GEORGE W. FULLER Second Edition Revised ALFRED•A•KNOPF•NEW YORK G*</?t^^^<-Ot^^<0™&'*&v0*si Copyright 1931 by Alfred A. Knopf Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this boo\ may he reproduced in any form without permission in irriling from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce not more than three illustrations in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Foreword THIS IS A HISTORY OF THE ONLY REGION ADDED TO THE UNION OF STATES BY discovery, exploration and occupation. The discovery, made by Gray in 1792, established a claim to the drainage basin of the Columbia river and its tributaries. The purchase of Louisiana in 1803 joined the Oregon country to the States, and Lewis and Clark first explored the region in 1805-1806. The annexation of Texas in 1845 strengthened the wedge of American influence touching the Pacific. Ownership of Oregon, confirmed by treaty with Great Britain in 1846, was a motive for holding California in 1848, after the war with Mexico, and an excellent reason for purchasing Alaska in 1867. In consolidating its western front on the Pacific, the United States paid bargain prices,— $27,267,622 for Louisiana, $25,000,000 for California and all the rest of the Mexican cessions (of which $10,000,000 was for the Gadsden Purchase in 1854) and .$7,200,000 for Alaska. Nothing was paid for Oregon. The stages in the acquisition of Oregon were: (1) Discovery and exploration. (2) Temporary desertion in the War of 1812, palliated by treaty stipulations at I the close of the war. (3) Joint occupation, 1818-1846, pending the boundary i decision. (4) Agreement on the 49th parallel in 1846. The Oregon country holds a unique place in our history for several reasons beside the three principal ones above mentioned. It is the first region on the Coast to which America made claim and the first to which title was established. It was the first to receive regular migrations from the States. It is the only region jointly occupied by Great Britain and the United States and the only territory where a Provisional Government has existed, supported by citizens of I both nations, fighting its own Indian war and carrying on until Congress got around to organizing a Territory in 1848 and landing a Governor at Oregon City in 1849. Mexico went to war in 1846 chiefly because Polk had been elected President with the anti-British war cry of " Fifty-four forty or fight" and Great Britain i had rejected his proposals. Mexico hoped to win while the United States were i busy with a greater antagonist, but less than a month after Mexico declared war, Great Britain came to terms with America. With the Oregon question settled, ' Mexico was as good as defeated. California was acquired, and the foothold in vi FOREWORD Oregon, precariously maintained for nearly half a century, yielded a landfall on the Pacific of 1,366 miles. In a region where nature stresses mountains and waterways, a view of their distribution explains much in the history of human occupation. The Cascades are the towering physical feature, dividing the Pacific Northwest into the Coast strip and the Columbia basin, latterly known as the Inland Empire, but as a watershed the Cascades play a minor part in the great natural divisions effected by the waterways of the Pacific Northwest. The Columbia river and its tributaries are fed chiefly from the backbone of the continent, the Rockies. Hence the volume of the flood. Finding only one outlet through the Cascades, the waters of the interior split the Coast region. On the north, the ocean still occupies the great depression of Puget sound. South of the Columbia, the Willamette river drains a more elevated valley, from which the sea long ago The first explorers, Lewis and Clark, came by land. The first American traders, the Astorians, arrived both by sea and by land, in two parties. The first emigrants from the States arranged to send their heavy supplies by ship to the Columbia. So settlement began west of the Cascades. The Hudson's Bay Company had its headquarters on the Columbia at the mouth of the Willamette, and its interests were almost wholly to the north and east, —the part of the Oregon country which Great Britain still hoped to hold. As settlers arrived at Fort Vancouver, the Company showed them the advantages of locating in the Willamette valley. A group who came with the 1844 emigration were the first to insist on seeking homes in the Puget sound region. Annual emigrations streamed across the interior, seeing no reason to tarry in a seemingly arid and inhospitable land. As late as 1856, General Wool, commanding the Pacific Division, insisted that the Inland Empire was a natural Indian reservation and fit for nothing else. It was to the interest of the first whites in the interior, — the fur traders, — that settlers be kept out. Just as the Walla Walla valley was being settled, an Indian uprising brought troops upon the stage, and General Wool closed the interior to whites. Its occupation was delayed a dozen years, and the lock-out might have lasted a long time if gold had not been discovered. Nothing could stop the miners' rush. Placer mining built a few rough frontier towns, — depots where pack trains were outfitted. Such were Walla Walla, Lewiston, Boise and Virginia City ii the early days. Desperate men resorted to these places, and law fell into th hands of the vigilantes. This preamble to civilization was in sharp contrast with the beginnings on the Coast, where the settlers were devout missionary groups and law-abiding French Canadians. But the first period in the interior was short. Disappointed miners became cattlemen and farmers. Lode mining began, creating a demand for labor and railways. With improved transportation, FOREWORD vii lumber and agriculture were developed, and numerous towns appeared, rising almost over night, but there to stay. The period covered by the story of civilization in the Pacific Northwest is brief but eventful. It includes the discovery and exploration of a new country, the contest of the nations for its possession and the magic growth of modern cities. It is only 139 years since the mouth of the Columbia was found by Gray, 126 years since Lewis and Clark crossed the Oregon country, 121 years since David Thompson came down the Columbia from the north, 73 years since whites were permitted to settle in the interior and 48 years since the coming of the railroad. 1 '93i.) Contents I. The Pacific Northwest Geology — The two islands — Growth of Cascade barrier and Coast range — Lava floods — Miocene lakes — Glacial age — Mounts Mazama and Multnomah. Physiography — Cascade mountains — Olympic peninsula — Columbia river — The Dalles — Lake Chelan —Inland mountains —Glacier National Park — Channelled Scablands —Grand Coulee — Craters of the Moon — Mystery of the Palouse soil — Climate — Chinook wind II. The Aborigines Original home of the American Indian — Local culture types — Peace and war chiefs —Head flattening — The podatch — Dwellings— Introduction of the horse — Fisheries — First-salmon ceremony — Hunting — Cooking — Weapons — Supplementary foods — Clothing — Burial customs — Social morality — Ceremonial dances — Medicine men — Mythology and religion —The confusion of tongues—Adjacent language families — Shoshones and Bannocks — Local linguistic groups — Salishan family — Shahaptian family — Waiilatpuan family — Chinookan family — Chinook jargon III. Explorers—by-Sea Unwilling visitors — The Nehalem beeswax — Early explorers — Strait of Anian — Captain Robert Gray — Nootka Sound Controversy— Origin of the name Oregon — Gray's second voyage — Discovery of the Columbia — Vancouver in Puget sound — Broughton's exploration IV. Explorers —by Land Henry Kelsey — Pierre La Verendrye and his sons — Narrative of Moncacht-ape — Alexander Mackenzie — Simon Fraser — President Jefferson's interest — Lewis and Clark expedition — Fortunate contact with the Shoshones — Crossing the Divide — Canoe voyage to the sea — Fort Clatsop — Eastern journey — Story of the Journals — Concerning Sacajawea —Mysterious Jeremy Pinch V. Fur Traders — North West Company Coureurs des bois — Nor'westers organized — Proprietors and clerks — Early rivalries — David Thompson — First trading posts in the Pacific Northwest — Spokane House — Thompson's descent of the Columbia — Jane Barnes — Donald McKenzie — Opening the Snake country — Voyageurs and brigades VI. Fur Traders — Pacific Fur Company Mistreatment of Coast natives — Jewitt's Narrative — Winship brothers — Astoria enterprise — Voyage of the Tonquin — Astoria established —Tonquin massacre — First inland expedition — Fort Okanogan — Astor's overland party — Inland competition — Fort Spokane — Decision to abandon Astoria — Astor's business closed out — Loss of the Lark — Ordeal of Dorion's wife — Results of Astor's experiment <&> VII. Fur Traders —Hudson's Bay Company Early records withheld — Amalgamation with the Nor'westers — Governor George Simpson —Dr. John McLoughlin —Trading in the Snake country —The American advance — Jedediah Smith — Captain Bonneville — Fort Vancouver — Life at McLoughlin's capital — Beginnings of agriculture — Forts Okanogan and Walla Walla —Fort Colville —End of Spokane House —The McDonalds of Colville <^> VIII. Missionary Pioneers Indian pilgrimage to St. Louis —Jason Lee's colony —Lee's eastern tour —The "Great Re-enforcement" — Samuel Parker's travels —Whitman mission — Extension and rebuffs—First printing press — Whitman's "Ride" — French Catholic missions -The "Catholic Ladder "-Pierre Jean De Smet - Relations with the Blackfeet —De Smet's Service as Chaplain IX. Whitman Massacre and Cayuse War Evil teaching of Tom Hill — Blood satisfaction — Indian fear of poison—Portents of disaster — Whitman massacre — Incidents of the captivity — Rescue of the captives — Settlers prepare to fight—Joe Meek's Washington mission — Oregon Territory created— Cayuse war — Obstructive peace commission — Cayuse trickery — Closing phase of the campaign — Patkanim's plot — Pursuit of deserters — Hanging of Cayuse murderers X. Oregon Boundary Dispute Preliminary contests — Chapter of accidents — Joint occupation treaty of 1818 — Congress interested — Diplomatic exchanges — Joint occupation extended in 1827 —Congressional interest revived —Final struggle initiated by Linn — Ashburton and Webster — "Fifty-four forty or fight " — Packenham and Buchanan — Aberdeen and Polk —Sudden end of the controversy — San Juan boundary dispute <^> XI. Settling the Country Hall J. Kelley —Nathaniel J. Wyeth — Farnham and the Peoria Party —John Charles Fremont — William A. Slacum—The Oregon Trail — Demands of the Trail —Volume of emigration — xii CONTENTS Tragedy of Meek's cut-off — Barlow road —Wilkes expedition — Mormon pioneers in Idaho—McClellan's failure —The "Mercer girls" XII. Beginnings of Government l Ewing Young estate — First American court — The "Wolf meetings" — Champoeg meeting — Comstock affair — Address of the French settlers — Provisional Government confirmed — Governor George Abernethy —British citizens affiliated —Northern problem — Liquor laws and " Beaver money " — Oregon Territory created — McLoughlin despoiled — Cowlitz meeting — Rival legislatures — Monticello convention — Washington Territory created — Governor Isaac I. Stevens — Northern railway survey —Snoqualmie pass conquered — Hudson's Bay Company operations stopped — Donation land act — First Washington legislature— Puget sound Indian treaties — Martial law episode XIII. Indian Uprising-Blockhouse Era : Rogue River wars — Lane's services — Table Rock treaty — First Walla Walla council—Massacre prevented by Chief Lawyer — Blackfoot treaty—Murder of Agent Bolon —Defeat of Major Haller — Failure of the Rains expedition — Campaign of the Oregon volunteers — Battle of Frenchtown — Bold tactics of Governor Stevens — Cascades massacre — Phil Sheridan's exploit — Blockhouse era —Attack on Seattle —Port Gamble affair —Chief Patkanim's head hunting-Second Walla Walla council-Interior closed to settlers — Removal of General Wool ^» XIV. Steptoe Disaster and Wright Campaign ; Colonel Steptoe's peace parade — His march stopped — Battle of Rosalia—Dash for the Snake river—Profit from the Steptoe disaster—Major Garnett's Yakima raid —Colonel Wright's campaign—Battle of Four lakes —Battle of Spokane plains —Horse CONTENTS Slaughter camp —End of Yaki Walla Wallas punished — Interior opened confirmed by Congress Palouses and settlers —Treaties XV. Later Indian Wars - Chief Joseph : Bannock massacre — Shoshone campaigns of the Oregon volunteers—Quiet restored by General Crook —Modoc war —Peace commission blunder —Murder of General Canby — Surrender and punishment of the Modoc outlaws — Nez Perce war—Non- treaty Indians —Opening of hostilities —Lieutenant Perry's defeat—Battle of the Clearwater—Joseph's escape from General Howard — Pursuit of General Gibbon — Battle of the Big Hole — Howard outwitted again — Colonel Sturgis distanced — Joseph trapped by General Miles — Smohalla and the Dreamer religion — Chief Moses — Bannock and Sheepeater outbreaks (xVj) Social Life of the Pioneers : Pioneer homes — Muslin towns — Miners' amusements — The hurdy-gurdies —Outlaw invasion —Walla Walla vigilantes — Career of Henry Plummer — Vigilance committees in Lewiston and southern Idaho — Lawlessness in Colville country — Boom towns: Pacific City and Grand Dalles — Early press XVII. Political Subdivision and Growth : Pacific Republic plot —Oregon admitted as a State —Idaho Territory organized — The Panhandle question — Statehood — The name " Idaho " — Washington admitted as a State — Organization of Montana —Division of the huge counties — County seat XVIII. Economic Growth —Mining and Transportation Discovery of gold at Colville —Fraser river gold rush —Cariboo and Kootenay —Idaho placer mines —Lode mining industry — CONTENTS Coeur d'Alene riots —The "Bull pen" —Murder of Governor Steunenberg—Copper and other metals —Coal mining —Ceramic industries—Navigation on the Columbia — Cascade locks and Celilo canal — Portage railways — Mule and camel pack trains —The Mullan road —Baker's strap iron railway — First overland railroad plans —Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific — Lieu land litigation — James J. Hill and the Great Northern — Robert E. Strahorn's activities — Terminal rates contest XIX. Further Economic Growth 325 Cattle days — Beginnings of agriculture — Irrigation — Reclamation act projects — Columbia basin project — Flour milling — Dairy industry — Horticulture — Fisheries — Lumber—Foreign trade — Water power — Community growth List of Governors of Territories and States 334 Notes 339 Index Follows page 383 l^t^^^l^X^^t^^t^^l^l^^t^l^t^^^V^^^^l^^^t^t^) Illustrations Mount Rainier from Lake Washington Frontispiece Dry Falls in the Grand Coulee FACING PAGE 12 Glacial Lakes of the Inland Empire 16 Channelled Scablands of the Columbia Plateau 18 Chinook Woman with Flattened Head 22 Chiefs Callicum and Maquina at Nootka 34 Captain Robert Gray 46 Captain Gray's Ship Columbia 52 Meriwether Lewis 60 William Clark 64 David Thompson's Travels in the Inland Empire 78 Early Trading Posts, Forts, Missions and Highways of the Pacific Northwest 80 Alexander Ross 88 John Jacob Astor 94 Gabriel Franchere 102 Ramsay Crooks 106 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS Wilson Price Hunt facii G page 106 Dr. John McLoughlin no Archibald McDonald 122 Spokane Garry 124 Pierre De Smet and Northern Chiefs 138 Peter Skene Ogden 152 Joe Meek 156 Hudson's Bay Company Posts 176 Nathaniel J. Wyeth 182 John C. Fremont 186 George Abernethy 202 Joseph Lane 206 Isaac I. Stevens 220 Cascades Massacre 232 Middle Blockhouse at the Cascades 238 Steptoe Disaster 244 Chief Lawyer 250 Decisive Battles of the Wright Campaign 254 Chief Joseph 262 Chief Moses 274 Political Subdivision 292 Douglas Fir Forest 332 A History of The Pacific Northwest 1 The Pacific Northwest IN THE PRIMARY GEOLOGIC EPOCH, TWO SECTIONS OF THE OREGON COUNTRY Appeared, thrust up from the depths of the sea by disturbances so violent that the sediments of the ocean bed were changed by the heat to slate and marble, through which liquid granite was forced. The old coast line was in the Blue mountains, which seem to have been a promontory thrust out far into the ocean from the highlands in process of formation at the rear. Three hundred miles off this coast lay an island, embracing southwestern Oregon and part of northern California. Professor Thomas Condon of the University of Oregon, who did much to popularize knowledge of Pacific Northwest geology, regarded both tracts as islands and named the eastern section Shoshone and the western Siskiyou.1 Condon believed that the Shoshone land was cut off from the continent by the ocean, because no fossil remains had been found, in the Shoshone area, of the large mammals which abounded east of the Wasatch mountains, in the earliest (Eocene) age of the Tertiary epoch. Geologists, however, have not abandoned hope of finding them. Fossil shells have left a record of the ancient beach levels in both Shoshone and Siskiyou " islands," commencing in the Carboniferous age of the Primary epoch and continuing throughout the Secondary epoch. The latest ocean beach in the Shoshone area dates from the Cretaceous period, the last of this epoch, when most of Europe was still under water.2 The Shoshone land ceased to be a part of the Pacific coast line with the appearance of the Cascade barrier, a section of the great sea dike which rose out of the ocean from southern California to the Aleutian islands. The barrier was low at first, but it established a new seacoast. The Coast range came last and was only a chain of islands at the beginning of the Miocene age, in the middle of the Tertiary epoch. The Coast enjoyed a long period of rest after the appearance of the Cascades and before the new islands became mountains. On the north Siskiyou shore and the west slope of the Cascades, swamps were repeatedly covered with sand by periodical encroachments of the ocean, and the Eocene coal beds were laid down. Marshy lakes in the Cascades also became coal beds. As the fold in the ocean bed which produced the Coast range became more pronounced, a chain of enclosed sounds was created in the San Joaquin, Sacramento and Willamette 4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST valleys and including Puget sound, the Gulf of Georgia and Queen Charlotte's sound. No region on earth shows more abundant marine fossils of the Eocene and Miocene periods than the Willamette valley, which was ideally arranged to become a great aquarium. A fossil seal of Miocene origin found here has been regarded as the oldest known type, combining features of the sea lion, fur seal and common seal.3 The gradual uplift at last spilled the sea out of the Willamette valley, which seems to have remained dry during the Pliocene period, as it lacks fossil remains of the later fauna, such as the camel and the horse. The inland sea found drainage outlets or evaporated,— slowly changing to a system of great fresh-water lakes and then to one stream, the Columbia and its tributaries. When the coast line was in the Blue mountains and most of the Oregon country was an embayment of the ocean, streams brought down deposits from the east, which reached a thickness of many thousands of feet on the ocean floor before the end of the Primary epoch, and became limestone, sandstone, and conglomerate. The magnesite of Stevens county, Washington, was formed in this epoch by the precipitation of calcium and magnesium salts upon the ocean bed. The other precious ores were not formed until a later period i: geologic history. In the Secondary epoch, quantities of liquid granite were j forced up and through the ocean deposits, baking these rocks into' slates, schists, quartzite and marble, and immense areas were tilted above the sea I level to heights greater than any of the existing mountains. Erosion reduced these mountains in the Tertiary epoch. The precious ores which have yielded so much wealth in the last half-century, — gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc,— were infused in the liquid granite. As the granite and the surrounding rocks | cooled, fractures occurred, and solutions of silica containing the metals flowed into these fissures and became veins of ore. Lava Floods The greatest lava floods occurred early in the Miocene age, for beds of deposi bearing Oligocene flora directly underlie the Columbia flow, at least in th John Day basin of eastern Oregon.4 The Columbia river basalt, the great lava flow of the Northwest, is one of the largest bodies of lava in the world, covering the greater part of Washington, eastern Oregon, much of northern California, and the Snake river plain in Idaho, — approximately 250,000 square miles. The lava did not come from the volcanoes of the Cascades, but from fissures and vents which formed all over the country as the crust of the earth cooled and shrank. The molten rock welled up from these cracks and spread in sheets. There are signs of the activity of a small crater in the southern part of the city of Spokane. Such a crater must have been merely a cinder cone around a vent in the surface. Its structure was loose, and it was levelled in the ice age. These THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 5 effusions of lava were numerous, over wide areas. V. R. D. Kirkham, in a paper read before the Northwest Scientific Association, in 1925, reported the greatest number counted by himself to be twenty-eight and the greatest combined thickness of the flows as 4,600 feet. There were sometimes intervals of centuries between the flows, for they are separated by soil deposits in which trees grew to considerable size. The Columbia plateau from the Cascades to Spokane is filled land. Before the lava flows, it was a broken country, with lakes and wooded mountains. The basalt was poured into the mould until it became a plain, with a few of the mountain summits still showing as hills. In neighboring areas, after a period of erosion, the water again collected in large lakes, in the sediment of which the story of Miocene life was kept. Miocene Lakes In a good part of this lake period, the Cascades were low mountains, covered with oaks and conifers. The moist air of the Coast region permeated the interior. The warm Japan current flowed across Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico extended far to the north. The vegetation was sub-tropical, and there are abundant fossil remains of palms and trees of the first period of the Tertiary epoch in the old lake bottoms. There are no mammal remains until the Miocene age, though animal life had been rapidly spreading over the continent. The most numerous Miocene remains are of the oreodon, an animal which presented a curious assemblage of parts suggesting kinship to the deer, hog and camel. Types of the oreodon were as small as a fox and as large as an elk. The little horse with three toes, mesohippus, existed in great numbers and varied in size from that of a large dog to that of a donkey. The rhinoceros lived on the shores of the earliest lakes, and there were several varieties of hogs, ferocious dogs of great size and cats similar to the cougar, but armed with long, slender teeth. Remains are frequently found of a miniature deer, no larger than a rabbit. Accumulating at the rate of a fraction of an inch per year, the sediment of the Miocene lake, in which the record of its fauna was preserved, reached a maximum thickness of 3,000 feet. The mountains continued to grow, and the bed of the old lake, turned to rock, was tilted and crumpled, emptying out its waters. Here the record stopped, until the reshaping of the land by the elements, through a long period, created a new system of smaller lakes. The remains of the latter period are more varied. The little horse has become the hipparion and the protohippus, with two of the three toes no longer touching the ground. The camel, which appeared in a small type at the earlier lake period, is now found over a large area and at its greatest size. Many of the fossils suggest an early Pliocene origin. There were subsequent lava flows which sealed up these remains and turned them to stone. Miocene lake beds are found in the Mascall formation of the John Day region, the Ellensburg formation of the 6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Yakima valley and the Latah formation.6 The last mentioned has a unique history. The lava floods advancing over the Columbia plateau were checked in their eastern progress, before reaching the neighborhood of Spokane, by a line of hills. The lava could not enter the valleys to the east, and it flowed south, hemmed them in and cut off their drainage. Sediment accumulated in these valleys, along Latah creek, the Little Spokane river, the Spokane valley and near Coeur d'Alene. Layers of clay and shale were deposited on the bed rock. The deposits reach a depth of 1,500 feet and are rich in the flora of the Miocene. The bed rock of the Latah formation is not basalt. No lava had reached this region. The sediment lies on the ancient schist and intruded granite. In course of time, the successive lava floods on the Columbia plateau reached a level which left visible only the hills now seen near Cheney, Marshall and Medical Lake, — peaks of the old mountains. The lava encircled these hills, poured over the lower ridges in rim-rock flows, spread across the eastern country and sealed up the clay beds. Except where the basalt sealed and preserved them, these Miocene clay deposits were washed away, and only a few remnants now exist. At a time much later than the rim-rock flows, when deep valleys had been eroded in the basalt and the shale beneath, new streams of lava poured down these valleys. Valley flows account for the falls at Spokane. Before they came, the bed of the river had been eroded to a depth of nearly 900 feet. A long period of time must have elapsed between the rim-rock and the valley flows. The fossil remains of the Latah formation clearly indicate a temperate climate, as the flora is similar to that of the eastern part of the United States at the present time.6 The climate was more humid than at present. The change from the sub-tropical took place with the extension of the mountain barriers on the coast. The ocean was drained out of the Alaska plain, and the warm Japan current was diverted. The gates of the Arctic cold were opened, and the Rockies were elevated to a height which created great snow fields. Glacial Age In the first period of the Quarternary epoch, the Pleistocene or Glacial age, the ice cap advanced upon the Pacific Northwest but halted a short distance south of its boundary and left its mark on the country chiefly by two agencies,— glaciers flowing down the western slope of the Cascades and floods in the interior which registered violence without parallel on earth. The elevation of western America was much greater in the Glacial age than at present. The Willamette valley was a plateau, and Puget sound was dry. Glaciers from the high peaks erected in the Cascades during the Pliocene age plowed the coastal plain. The old channel of the Columbia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca of the Glacial age are now twenty miles out at sea. The ice cap approached the Columbia basin from several directions. A THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 7 great glacier came down the Okanogan valley, crossed the Columbia river and forced it into a new channel, now known as the Grand Coulee. Another glacier moved down the Yakima valley. The beds of Chelan, Okanogan, Kootenai, Flathead, Priest, Pend d'Oreille, Coeur d'Alene and the Arrow lakes were all scooped out by glaciers. The largest glacier was the one which advanced from the region of Pend d'Oreille lake southwest across Spokane as far as Medical lake and Spangle. This is known as the Spangle lobe of the Spokane glaciation, — the general term for the greatest ice invasion, so named because the record of this ice sheet is best preserved on the basalt plains about the city and along the south side of the Spokane river between the city and the junction of the Spokane with the Columbia.7 The Wisconsin glaciation, which came later, crossed the Spokane river in only two or three places, and these were toward the northwest. A small glacier approached Spokane at some time in the valley of the Little Spokane river. Beside the Spokane and Wisconsin invasions, there seems to have been an earlier glaciation, which left few traces, and there may have been a fourth. The Glacial age lasted a million years, and the final retreat of the ice took place between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. The glaciers created a new system of lakes, which lasted into the Champlain and Terrace periods, with a constant change of shore lines and complicated shifting of drainage. The greatest of these lakes was in the southwestern corner of the Columbia plain, covering the lower Yakima, Walla Walla and Snake river areas. This Pleistocene lake is known by the name given it by Lieutenant Thomas W. Symons in 1881, — Lake Lewis.8 The next in importance were Lake Spokane and Lake Missoula. The Pend d'Oreille glacier closed the western end of the Spokane valley, but there are no signs that it crossed the valley at any point east of Opportunity. The waters were impounded in the valley, and a lake was formed which included Coeur d'Alene lake and river valley and extended northeast nearly as far as Pend d'Oreille lake. Boulders brought by floating ice are scattered throughout this area. An outlet was found to the southwest in the gap between Mica and Moran peaks.9 Lake Missoula is the name given to a large body of water which existed in the Flathead valley at the same period. It was formed when the glaciers covered Lake Pend d'Oreille and dammed the Clark Fork a little to the east. Lake Clark, so named by M. M. Leighton, who first called attention to extensive lake deposits between Newport and Jared,10 seems to have extended as far as the hills near Metalline falls, sixty miles above Newport. This lake, like Pend d'Oreille, existed at intervals, when the ice sheet retreated. For a long time after the ice cap had disappeared from the valley of the Clark Fork, the waters of this system of lakes and rivers, including Flathead, Pend d'Oreille and Clark lakes flowed down the valley of the Little Spokane river, into the Spokane, instead of flowing north to the Columbia.11 8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST j At the end of the Champlain period, when the Okanogan ice barrier melted, the Columbia river returned to its old bed, but found it choked with boulders I and drift. In course of time, the river cut its way down to its previous level in most places, leaving a series of terraces to tell the story. The depth of its old I bed is not everywhere known, for the present bed in many spots is still composed of boulders which the river has not succeeded in removing. The cut opposite Lake Chelan has reached a depth of 2,500 feet. Lake Lewis disappeared. Lake Spokane escaped, partly to the west as the ice border melted, and thej Spokane river plowed its way back to the Columbia. Latah creek again flowed I north, and Lake Clark found a new outlet at the north, reversing the direction I of the Pend d'Oreille drainage. Little change has taken place in the waterways i since the Terrace period. The animal remains of the Glacial age are limited in variety, by reason of j the severe climate, and in quantity, because they depended on surface beds for preservation; that is, ponds, swamps and bogs, many of which still remain. The bones are found well preserved in the heavy clay, but disintegrate quickly when exposed to the air, unless properly coated. At least one mammoth skeleton, found in a road-cut on the Pasco-Kahlotus highway, in 1923, lay on the! surface for some time, was gnawed by rodents and was finally buried and preserved very well in the shifting sand.12 The herds of horses and camels which roamed the Inland Empire in the closing ages of the Tertiary epoch were forever: banished by the glacial cold. The hardy fauna of the Pleistocene age included! the mastodon, mammoth, broad-faced ox and mylodon. Prehistoric man wasi acquainted with all these forms. The mylodon was a ground sloth, a clumsy' beast fifteen to eighteen feet long, which fed upon plants and trees. It was; covered with long hair. The mylodon made its way north from South America, and its remains are found in the John Day and Willamette basins. The broad- faced ox preceded the buffalo in the Northwest. It was larger, with longer and thicker horns than those of the buffalo, and its forehead measured nineteen 1 inches across the line of its eyes. It was formidable in appearance, but its broad I skull, two and a half inches thick, housed a diminutive brain. The mastodon 1 and mammoth remains are most numerous, and mammoth bones are especially \ abundant in the Inland Empire. In the elephant family, the mammoth reached I the highest point of development. It had extremely long curved tusks and was i covered with coarse hair falling below the knees, with an additional protection 1 of thick fur next its hide. The variety of mammoth found in the Columbia 1 basin has been named the Elephas Columbi, and the finest skeleton is in the: Field Museum at Chicago. This was found in 1878, in the southern part ofl Spokane county. Mastodon remains were found in 1927 in Clallam county, near 1 the northeast corner of the Olympic peninsula, in a swamp not far above: THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Mounts Mazama and Multnomah Volcanic activity, which continued in the Cascades through the Glacial age, I gradually ceased. Mount Mazama, a lofty volcano in southern Oregon, fell into its own crater, choking it up except for three small cones which formed to let off the gases of the dying fires. When all had cooled, springs filled the great hole : to a depth of 2,000 feet, and Crater lake came into existence, — the most beautiful lake of its kind in the world. One of the small cones shows above the j surface, as Wizard island, and the stump of the old mountain makes a sharp rim, 1,000 to 2,000 feet high, around the lake.13 j In the Three Sisters section of the Cascades, north of Crater lake, a circular group of mountains offers evidence that a far greater crater lake once existed there, at the period when camels thrived in Oregon. This lake was created by I the destruction of a gigantic mountain top which has been named Mount Multnomah. The old peak rose a mile above the present summits of the Three Sisters, and the explosion which destroyed it left one of the largest calderas in I the world, a circle of fifty young volcanic cones and the largest accessible 1 recent lava flow in the United States, —eighty square miles. The South Sister, a young volcano 10,350 feet high, has a crater lake on its summit, 10,200 feet ; above sea level. The Three Sisters area contains seventeen glaciers, - 1 dinary ice field as far south as this. At the end of the Glacial age, there was a general subsidence of the land, ; and the sea line on the coast was about 300 feet higher than at present. The Willamette valley was a sound, a long arm of which extended up the Columbia valley, widening out at The Dalles and forming bays in the ravines cut by i the old rivers. This most recent incursion of the ocean and its recession occupied a long time, as there are no signs of sudden or violent disturbances connected with them. Yet these events fall within our own geologic period. The changes ! since the Glacial age have been largely those due to erosion by wind and water, the formation of new soils and the growth of a new flora. Cascade Range The Coast range is low, the highest elevation being only slightly above four thousand feet, but there are lofty peaks at each end of it, — the Olympics sand the Siskiyous. In southern Oregon and northern California, the Coast range, Klamath mountains, Siskiyous and Cascades form a complex. Several rivers beside the Columbia cross the Coast range. The Cascades extend from Mount Lassen in northern California (an active volcano) to the Fraser river.1* In Washington, there are four volcanic peaks, —Rainier (14,408 feet), Adams (12,307), St. Helens (9,697) and Baker (10,730), which have risen high above elevated mass of older rocks. This plateau has an average elevation of five an eievaieu m. io A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST thousand feet. In Oregon, there has been more recent volcanic action, from a large number of vents. Earth movements have elevated parts of the lava flow, and the plateau is higher toward the south. A line of volcanoes extends along the summit of the plateau, of which the highest are Mount Hood (11,225 ^eet) and Mount Jefferson (10,523). Mount Shasta in northern California reaches 14,162 feet. Mount Rainier lies forty miles from the sound and appears to rise abruptly from sea level, though the crests of the ridges which surround it average six | thousand feet in height.15 Rainier is a truncated mass. It formerly rose to a point, like most of the neighboring volcanoes, but about two thousand feet of the peak blew off, leaving a crater two miles wide. Within this cavity two cinder cones rose to form the present summit. The volcanic fires are dormant but suffice to warm the summit, where steam jets occur and there is little snow. Most of the twenty-seven glaciers originate near the ten thousand foot level. Olympic Peninsula The snow-clad peaks of the Olympic peninsula seem close to Seattle, Victoria and other cities across Puget sound, and yet they crown one of the wildest and most inaccessible regions in America, only eighty by one hundred miles in area, with half the commerce of the Pacific skirting its shores.16 A mild climate (on the Pacific front, flowers bloom the year round) and the heaviest rainfall in the United States explain its isolation. An average rainfall of 128 inches for ten years has been recorded at Clearwater post office. It is one of the most heavily forested regions of America. There are dense growths of spruce, fir, cedar and hemlock and an almost impenetrable undergrowth, favored by humus of great depth and by the dampness and gloom of the thick woods. A matted network of vines quickly obliterates trails. The Olympic group of mountains is nearly circular, radiating from a central mass, which is topped by Mount Olympus, (8,150 feet). Many summits are between seven and eight thousand feet, and the labyrinth of jagged peaks occupies an area of three thousand square miles. There are numerous glaciers, lakes and rivers. The Hoh river, draining some of the principal glaciers, is enclosed in its upper course in canon walls two to three thousand feet high. Ice blocks plunging into this cut produce detonations audible for twenty miles and shake the region as if by an earthquake. Below five thousand feet is the forest and below two thousand feet the jungle. Deer, wildcats and black bear are plentiful. Columbia River The Columbia river is one of the great rivers of the world. The drainage area is about 259,000 square miles. Of this only 47,000 contribute to the river below The Dalles. The Snake, rising in Yellowstone Park and flowing through THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST n Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho, drains 109,000 square miles; the Clark Fork, Kootenai and Upper Columbia drain 60,000, and the main section of the river [from Trail to The Dalles, 43,000. Where the Columbia leaves the Inland Empire at The Dalles, it has a " run-off " nearly that of the St. Lawrence or the Danube. Before it receives the Snake, it is slightly larger than either the Frazer, Missouri or Nile. At Trail, before it receives the Clark Fork, it carries as large a flow as the Yukon at Eagle. Clark Fork at Newport has a slightly larger mean discharge than the Colorado river at its mouth." The fall of the Columbia through the State of Washington is considerable for so large a river,—over 0 feet ii The three great eastern tributaries,—the Kootenai, Clark Fork and Snake, — describe descending loops, one within another, like the arrangement of feathers on a wing. The upper loops carry important lakes. The Kootenai river rises only a short distance from the source of the Columbia, east of the Selkirks. The two rivers flow parallel to each other, in opposite directions, for a few miles, and, encircling the Selkirks, meet on the other side. The middle loop is now known as the Clark Fork only as far as Pend d'Oreille lake. The lower river has taken the name of this lake. Clark Fork drains Flathead lake and Lake McDonald and its sister lakes on the western slope of Glacier National Park. Deep canons are a feature of the Snake. Below Weiser, over twenty miles of its course are through a gorge deeper than the Grand Canon of the Colorado. In the Seven Devils region, the walls rise sharply 8,000 feet above the river. The Salmon river runs between cliffs 4,000 to 5,000 feet high, for a long distance before entering the Snake. Of half a dozen notable falls in the Snake river, Shoshone falls are the greatest, — forty-three feet higher than Niagara and about as impressive until irrigation reduced the head of The Columbia enters Washington through a wide valley, in which its channel is several hundred feet below the surrounding terrain. Turning westward after receiving the Spokane, which is the outlet of Coeur d'Alene lake, its flow becomes more turbulent, and it soon enters its first basaltic canons. Voyageurs on the Columbia might pass the Grand Coulee without noticing this ancient detour, for the river ate its way down to its old bed after deserting the temporary channel across the central plain. The north entrance to the Grand Coulee is now 550 feet above the river. The country presently breaks away on both sides of the river, with cliffs visible in the distance and the foreground of the landscape strewn with huge blocks of basalt, as big as houses. These were deposited here by the ice, which pushed a great lobe across the Columbia west of the Grand Coulee, in the Glacial age. Many of the blocks are fifty to sixty feet in diameter. They are sometimes piled in heaps, but more often are a few rods apart. Some of them are of columnar structure, and as they were thrown on 12 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the plain the joints point in all directions. There are also boulders of granite and gneiss, frequently measuring eight or ten feet in diameter.18 The country at the junction of the Okanogan and Methow rivers with the Columbia is fertile bench-land. Down the next bend of the river, the west bank soon rises to elevations of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and the water is filled with rocks. There are three bad rapids in the sixty miles below Wenatchee, — Rock Island, Cabinet and Priest. At Rock Island, the river is split in twain by pinnacles of basalt. Below Cabinet rapids, the banks fall away into prairie country and the river widens. The eleven miles of Priest rapids are in seven sections, with a total descent of seventy feet.19 White Bluffs, extending thirty miles along the left bank to a point twelve miles above Pasco, belong to the Ellensburg formation, — the deposit at the bottom of Lake Lewis of the Tertiary epoch. Here the river has sliced them and has displayed a typical section of the old lake bed. The bluffs rise to a height of 600 feet above the river, which is still cutting away their bases toward the east. The Yakima river presents a rare phenomenon, — that of a stream pursuing its course in apparent disregard of the topography of the country. The Yakima flows south and passes through at least seven mountain ridges which extend east and west. Some of these ridges are two thousand and three thousand feet high. They are a set of wrinkles in the basalt, caused by pressure from the south. The reason why the stream did not seek the valleys is that it was there first, and the uplift of the ridges was so slow that the water was able to wear away the rock as fast as it rose in its channel. Thus the ridges continue to grow, each provided with a notch for the river. Seldom have surface movements and erosive action been so precisely matched as to cancel each other over a period of many thousands of years. The Dalles The Wallula gateway, which the Columbia opened through the Umatilla highlands, once accommodated a river 1,000 feet deep. Below the palisades the country opens to the south, where the Blue mountains cross the horizon The Dalles, between Fallbridge and the city named for the famous cascades, are the chief obstructions in the course of the Columbia. In twelve miles, the river falls eighty-one feet at low water and sixty feet at high water. The greatest Indian fishing grounds of the old days were at Celilo. The narrows at Seuferts and Big Eddy virtually turn the river on edge for a mile or more, as it is here made to pass through a gap only 140 feet wide at its narrowest point. The French Canadian voyageurs named the principal group of rapids in the Columbia Les Dalles, — The Flag-stones, — because of the general flatness of the rocks in the river throughout this section. A striking feature of The Dalles is the boring of great holes in the basalt bed of the river by the eddies. At Five Mile THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST I3 rapids, there is a hole 170 feet below the low water level, 115 feet below sea level and at least 90 feet below the channel floor immediately down stream The hole is possibly a depression 135 feet deep in the river bed. Another hole^ Big Eddy, is known to be 150 feet below low water and may be much deeper. These holes are due to the plucking out of the jointed basalt by the powerful currents, which are able to hoist the rock fragments ninety feet or more out of the holes and to hurl them over the rims.20 La\e Chelan The Inland Empire is a square central plateau, marked off on three sides by the deep canons of the Columbia and the Snake and embraced on all sides by mountains, with many broad and fertile valleys. The eastern slope of the Cascades is less abrupt than the western, because there has been less erosion, and the rivers on the east side take a general southeasterly direction to the Columbia. The gentler slope has made room for Washington's largest lake, Chelan, which is also more interesting than the other lakes on the border of the Columbia plateau. Like the others, it was plowed by glaciers, but here the furrow is deeper than that of the Columbia, the Yosemite, the Yellowstone or the Colorado canon. The maximum recorded depth of the lake is 1,419 feet. Its bottom is 400 feet below sea level. Almost vertical walls tower 6,000 feet above the surface. The lake is fifty-five miles long, and its head lies in the center of the Cascade range, with a cluster of lofty glacier-crowned peaks placed like a halo above it. The region is a maze of canons, with unnumbered lakes, falls and glaciers. Glacier peak, 10,436 feet, is the highest mountain in this group, but many of its companions are from 8,000 to 9,000 feet. The Stehekin river enters the lake at its head, and four miles up this river are Rainbow falls, with a drop of 350 feet. The canon of the Stehekin is accessible, and thirty miles up the river is the Horseshoe basin, a gorge 6,000 feet deep. The rim of the basin is a line of reddish crags. At their base lies an ice field and below it is a terrace, vividly green in the summer, for it receives the waters of twenty-one falls of from 200 to 2,000 feet descent. These waters unite at the foot of the terrace in one fall of 200 feet and flow into the Stehekin. Railroad creek is another accessible region and is the gateway to Glacier lake and Cloudy pass, the top of the divide. Here the traveler may be rewarded with a glimpse of Glacier peak. The outlet of Lake Chelan is by the Chelan river, which descends 380 feet in a course of four miles, to the Columbia, and cuts across the slower current of the great river with a streak of crystal blue. Inland Mountains The Okanogan Highlands extend across the Inland Empire, north of the Columbia and the Spokane, from the Cascades to the mountains of Idaho. i4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The Cascades form a barrier on the west, through which there is only one! break, the gorge of the Columbia. The Okanogan Highlands are parallel j ranges running south from Canada and halting sharply at the central plateau. The peculiarity of their drainage is that the Okanogan, Sanpoil and Columbia rivers flow south through their valleys, while the Colville and Pend d'Oreille rivers flow north. The lava flow did not invade this region, and there is mucbj granite and the older rocks. The Blue mountains lie south of the plateau. They have an altitude of 6,000 to 7,000 feet and were carved out of a plateau 3,000 to 4,000 feet higher than the Columbia plain, by stream erosion. The rock is largely basalt, and the streams have cut deep canons. The front rank of the mountains to the east of the plateau is an extension of the Selkirks in Canada, and from north to south the divisions of this range are the Cabinet, Coeur d'Alene, Bitter Root and! Beaverhead mountains. Behind them, across the Kootenai and Flathead valleys, are the Whitefish, Flathead and Mission ranges and finally the Continental Divide of the Rockies. Glacier National Par\ Glacier National Park forms the northeastern corner of the Inland Empire. The region was scarcely known, except to the Blackfeet Indians, until the discovery of copper in 1890 brought a rush of prospectors. The eastern slope was! part of the Blackfoot reservation, and the government bought it from the Indians in 1896, for $1,500,000, in order to open it for mining purposes. But the miners soon left in discouragement, and it was made a national park in 1910. Glacier Park embraces 1,534 square miles lying on the Continental Divide, and here the diversion of the waters is triple. Streams which have their sources in the park flow not only into the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico but also into Hudson bay. The chief geological feature of the region, which accounts for much of the picturesqueness of its mountains, is the Lewis overthrust fault. As the mountains were lifted up, with the contraction and crinkling of the earth's crust, a great stratum of older rock, 4,000 to 5,000 feet thick, was thrust up at an angle from the west until it overlapped the existing elevations and fell eastward across them. So the deeper and older rocks are constantly found to overlay younger strata for a distance of ten to fifteen miles. The abrupt rise of the mountains from the level plains of the Blackfoot reservation is due to the fact that they were tumbled there. The bed rock of the entire region extending along the Rockies from the southern boundary of Montana, south of Butte, far into Canada, belongs to the Belt series of Algonkian rock, laid down as sediment at the bottom of an ocean, over 80,000,000 years ago. The various formations in the series, of limestone, shale and quartzite, are colored in reds, greens and blues. A wonderful palette was mixed for the brush of the elements when THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST i5 the overthrust fault at the northern end of the region exposed and shuffled its rocks. The coloring of the mountains is one of the attractions of the park. The park was named because of the extraordinary number of glaciers, — sixty, —but so large an assemblage of glaciers means a far greater number of lakes. There are 250 lakes in the park and twice as many falls. Seven valleys lie on the east slope of the range and twelve on the west side. The largest lakes are found at the bottom of these valleys, but many of the most beautiful lakes are in pockets on the mountains. These pockets are usually glacial cirques,— basins ground out of the rock by the perpetual milling of the ice, with walls which often rise perpendicularly thousands of feet. A glacier at the head of Iceberg lake keeps it filled with floating blocks. The mountain background is split into nearly 100 peaks, over eighty with an altitude of from 7,000 to 10,000 feet and four exceeding this,—Mt. Cleveland, between Many Glacier and Waterton lake, in the northeast corner of the park, reaching 10,438 feet. Over forty peaks may be seen from the summit of Swiftcurrent mountain. The summits are tinted crags flecked with snow and draped with glaciers, and the bases are heavily wooded. Mountain goats and mountain sheep, here protected for many years from the hunter, are frequently seen. The western valleys above Lake McDonald are still little known. Waterton lake extends across the international boundary, and the Dominion has created Waterton Lake National Park, adjoining Glacier Park. The automobile highway on the east side links the two parks. Channelled Scablands The Columbia plateau, 12,700 square miles in extent, is surrounded by rivers, but has few surface streams and, except on the eastern margin, only one, Crab creek, which maintains its flow throughout the year. Even Crab creek disappears under ground several times in its course of 250 miles, and it no longer makes use of its canon outlet into the Columbia, but sinks again before reaching it. The Columbia plateau may be called a plain only in a very general sense. Altitudes within it vary 4,000 feet. It contains hills and deep canons, a gravel desert and extensive soil-covered areas. Much of it, however, has the appearance of a plain. The ridges are separated by wide spaces, and as the deep coulees have been cut below the face of the country, they are often invisible until closely approached. Though almost devoid of streams, the plateau exhibits the most astonishing known collection of alterations effected by running water. An intricate pattern of so-called scablands is drawn across its surface, where 2,800 square miles of the lava flow have been scrubbed bare of soil. Another 900 square miles is a desert of gravel. The scablands are called " channelled " because all contain interlaced channels of varying depth, —a pattern within a pattern. The scablands are all elongated in a general southwesterly direction, 16 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and the channels line in the same direction, which is the downward dip of the . basalt bed, —about twenty feet to the mile. Little has happened since the giant pattern was drawn to obscure its origin. Ten of the great scars start near the southern face of the glacier which crossed the Spokane river. There were possibly only four separate spillway tracts from the ice, and a broad sheet of water flowed south into the ten channel heads. Two deep gashes, Moses and Grand Coulees, lead away from the ice lobe which crossed the Columbia. Diverging over nearly a hundred different routes, the scablands terminate at nine points on the Snake and the Columbia. It is clear that they represent the course of a vast flood which swept across the plateau in the Glacial age.21 The plateau was covered with soil before the glaciers came, and drainage lines had been established. The floods followed these channels and carried away the neighboring soil, —over a wide area where the slope was gentle. Large tracts of the original topography remain, and there are isolated dirt hills in the midst of denuded strips. These hills are prow-shaped, facing toward the north. They elongate with the strips of scabland, and the channels weave around them. The explanation of the maze of channels is that the floods started excavating along every line of least resistance, at first deepening the old rivers, then breaching their divides at numerous points. Torrents twenty miles wide were formed. Narrower streams on the steeper slopes flowed over cataracts hundreds of feet high, which receded until canons up to a thousand feet in depth were cut. At the Wallula gateway, where all the waters escaped into the Columbia gorge, the flood reached a point 1,150 feet above the present river bed. The melting ice cap could not have supplied water enough to produce the effects described, and the high mark reached by the water indicates sudden flooding on a grand scale. Valleys debouching on the plain which never drained glacial areas kept the record of a tremendous backwash, which carried glacial material to uniform levels. Much of the material left in the Yakima valley by the floating ice seems to have come from the Rocky mountains in northern Montana and Idaho. It has been suggested by Bretz that the bursting of the ice barrier which confined Lake Missoula on the northwest suddenly released sufficient water.22 Lake Missoula covered a large part of western Montana and had a maximum depth of 2,100 feet. The ice dam at the northwestern end was only two miles thick, and the eastern heads of the scabland channels were 1,700 feet below the surface of the lake. Grand Coulee The Grand Coulee is the greatest example of canon cutting by glacial rivers, and several features entitle it to be considered among the wonders of the world. After the glacier to the east had retired, more flood water found its course " THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST J7 through the coulee, instead of across country, and Bretz thinks that it saw its greatest activity after the rest of the scablands had gone dry. Long after it had been abandoned by the great river, the Wisconsin glaciation caused it to be re-occupied, and new floods poured over its falls. Now over 500 feet above the Columbia at its beginning, the Grand Coulee starts with a width of three miles, which is reduced to two miles or less in places. Its walls rise 800 feet and later reach a height of 1,000 feet. The only crossing, after entering the coulee at the north is thirty miles below, at Coulee City. The first floods commenced excavating over seven miles down the present coulee, below Steamboat Rock, which is an island two and a half miles long, half a mile wide and 800 feet high. Its flat top, level with the surrounding country, contains about a section of land, —640 acres. Here was the divide over which the waters first poured. This great fall cut its way back on either side of Steamboat Rock toward the Columbia canon and also three miles to the east, forming Northrup canon, the walls of which are 1,000 feet high. The floor of the coulee is flat and sandy. At the upper end the lava sheet was thin, and the water often tore it completely away. The underlying granite rises in islands, which are occasionally crowned with basalt. The greater width of the coulee at the top is due to the weaker resistance of the lava at that spot. At Coulee City, the eastern wall stops, and the floor of the canon merges into the prairie, but the western wall continues, and two miles below the town are the dry falls, over which the river once plunged into its lower canon. The eastern top of the lower coulee is level with the plain, and its floor is over 400 feet lower than that of the upper coulee. The western wall, continuing at its original height, is nearly 1,200 feet above the floor. The width of the gorge narrows down to less than a mile. The lower end is twenty miles long and opens out into the desert of gravel. The narrow gorge to the south, in which Moses lake lies, is a continuation of the drainage. The ancient falls below Coulee City have no known competitors in geological history. W. J. Spillman has described the dry falls as "the most remarkable geological phenomenon on the earth." Three hundred feet of water rolled over a precipice nearly three miles wide and 417 feet high. In the pot holes bored by the falls are Deep and Perch lakes and then, on the way down the gorge, Park, Blue, Alkali and Soap lakes. The shore of Blue lake rises vertically several hundred feet, and the layers of many lava flows may be counted. After the seventh flow from the top had cooled, many feet of soil accumulated, and sufficient time elapsed for trees six feet in diameter to grow in it. The sixth flow from the top buried this forest, and the fossil trees may be seen. One stump is preserved to a height of fifteen feet. The water of some of the lakes is fresh, but as the lakes sometimes overflow in series toward the south, the water becomes progressively more alkaline. The lakes serve as a line 18 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of evaporating pans, ending in Soap lake, where the wind beats the water into great masses of white foam against the shores. Soap lake is particularly rich in sodium carbonate and bicarbonate. The water feels soapy and has an extremely bitter taste. In all the plateau, only one canon cut by the glacial floods can boast of an active waterfall. In the Glacial age, the Palouse river emptied into the Snake at Pasco. When the floods reached the Palouse and filled its old valley, two spillways opened across the divide to the Snake, near Kahlotus and Hooper, and canons 500 feet deep were cut by the recession of waterfalls, — Devil's canon, which is dry, and Palouse canon, the present course of the river. South of Hooper, the glacial stream was ten to fifteen miles wide. Several canons were started by these waters, and all but one were ultimately rejected. Palouse falls, with a drop of 198 feet, is the sole survivor of the cataracts which excavated the gorge. Craters of the Moon Eighty square miles of the great lava flow on the Snake river plains in southern Idaho were proclaimed a national monument in 1924. This region is known as the Craters of the Moon, because of its great resemblance to the surface of the moon as seen through a telescope.23 One of the largest purely balsatic cinder cones in the world is Big Cinder butte, 6,516 feet high. In the Devil's Orchard, remnants of old cones have been weathered into weird pinnacles. Half the area is covered with a ropy type of lava which formed numerous caves. Lava " bombs" ranging from less than an inch to three inches in diameter and from half an inch to thirteen feet in length are scattered over the cones. Ice-cold water is found in holes in the broken lava even on thei hottest days. Mystery of the Palouse Soil The mystery of the Palouse soil has long held the attention of geologists and has been much debated. Interest in the problem of its origin is especially keen on account of the economic importance of the deposit. The Palouse country includes, in Washington, the southern part of Spokane county, all of Whitman county, the eastern part of Adams county, the areas of Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties skirting the Blue mountains, and in Idaho, most of Latah county. A large part of the Palouse has a rainfall of from eighteen to twenty-two inches. Wheat is the chief crop, and it is customary to allow alternate fields to lie fallow for a season. From the top of such an elevation as Steptoe butte, the country is a checker-board of black and green squares undulating like a heavy sea.24 The soil of the Palouse region is rich and deep. The top layer is a brown silt or silt loam, often very dark, eight to fourteen inches thick. Beneath this surface is a layer of lighter brown, thirty-six to forty inches nil dvance ol Spokane idaciation. ihe lloods Irom ted portions of ihe plateau. Ohlique marking esl indicates ihe gravel desert r THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 19 thick. This lies on fifty to seventy-five feet of light yellow loess,-the hardened silt deposited in lake bottoms. The Columbia basalt underlies most of the Palouse soil. The problem is how this fertile country was conjured into being on the bare platform of the last lava flow. Similar soils are found on the western part of the Columbia plateau, in Franklin county, and on the Horseheaven plateau in Benton county, west of the Columbia. The soil lies fifty to 100 feet deep, on the basalt. The color of the surface loam in these areas is yellow, but the darker color of the soil in the Palouse is due merely to a difference in humus content derived from a larger amount of moisture and vegetation. The first three feet of the variously classified Palouse soils are composed of fine silt or silt loam. The variations are found in the underlying layers. Yet the lower layers are apparently of the same fine-grained material, — silt originally distributed by the wind or laid down in water and afterwards becoming a dry bed, from which the wind-borne soil might be derived. In some instances the soil rests on decomposed granite. The rock is usually basalt, and there is seldom any residual material between it and the soil. It was at first thought that the Palouse soil was decayed basalt, dissected by drainage and kneaded by the winds. F. C. Calkins advanced the theory, in 1905, that the soil was not derived from the basalt but from water-laid deposits in the southwestern part of the plateau, that it was conveyed by the wind and that it originally formed a continuous mantle, which was subsequently dissected by drainage. Bretz, in the papers already cited, shows that the soil is older than the Spokane glaciation and notes evidence that it lies on the till of the earlier glaciation. O. W. Freeman of the Cheney Normal School reports the finding of mammoth bones, one mile south of Cheney, in loess overlying till of this early glaciation. Kirk Bryan, in a review of the literature of the subject and an account of his own observations, made in connection with the federal investigation of the Columbia Basin Project, sums up the results in the statement that the Palouse soil " is wind-borne dust or loess, though other material is included in its mass, that this loess is definitely of Pleistocene age . . . and that the present dust storms of the region are phenomena of the last few decades only and have contributed an inappreciable quantity of material to the Pleistocene loess." 25 Dust blown from an arid region to a more humid one sticks there, and the heavier vegetation detains it. Measurements made by P. P. Peterson at Moscow, Idaho, show a deposit of 7,500 pounds of dust per acre each year. This would amount to four inches in a century, and at this rate, leaving erosion out of account, seventy-five feet of soil would accumulate in 25,000 years. But Bryan calls attention to the fact that no storms since the Wisconsin glaciation have deposited much soil, either on the terraces or the scablands. He claims that the present rate at which dust is deposited by the prevailing winds from the southwest is an accelerated rate, quickened by the 20 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST cultivation of large areas of loessial soil to the west and south. Moreover, the dust which is now scattered to the winds is derived from one or another of the Palouse soil areas. The mystery remains unsolved. Climate—Chinook^ Wind The Coast climate is kept uniform by the ocean winds and the warm Japan current. In protected sections such as the Willamette valley, flowers bloom throughout the year. Along the ocean, the rainfall is very heavy, but back of the Coast range and in the Puget sound region it runs between thirty and fifty inches annually. Wherever there is shelter from the west winds, there is lower rainfall. Victoria has a very low precipitation and an exceptionally clear atmosphere (the Dominion astrophysical observatory is located there), and yet parts of the Olympic peninsula are in sight, where it rains nearly all the time. The interior exhibits a wide variety of conditions due to differences in altitude and rainfall. Valleys along the Snake and the Columbia which are as low as seven to nine hundred feet enjoy conditions which are almost sub-tropical. Many of the California grapes are successfully grown. In neighboring sections, only hardy fruits can be matured. A broad dry belt passes north, between Yakima and Lewiston, Wenatchee and Spokane, Okanogan and Colville and on up the Okanogan valley into Canada. A narrow dry strip lies in the Bitter Root, Flathead and Kootenai valleys. In these belts, the precipitation does not exceed fifteen inches, and in a large part of the Big Bend of the Columbia it is between six and ten inches. The land of the arid sections is mostly flat and suitable for irrigation, and the balance of the agricultural land is largely in the Palouse country, where there is a rainfall of over twenty inches. A feature of the winter climate is the Chinook wind. The term was originally applied to the summer wind which blew into the Willamette valley from the coast region north of the Columbia, where the Chinook Indians dwelled.20 It cleared the air and was a welcome visitor. By some freak of usage, the term . now refers to the equatorial trade wind blowing from the southwest in the: winter months and striking the Coast from northern California to Alaska.. It now means rain, west of the Cascades. It penetrates to the interior, however,, robbed of its moisture, and its warm breath often causes a blanket of snow to ( disappear from the ground in a few hours. The Aborigines WHITE MEN ENTERED THE OREGON COUNTRY TOO LATE TO LEARN MUCH about the early life of the natives. Observations go back little more than a century, commencing with Lewis and Clark. Explorers made notes and compiled simple vocabularies. Trained ethnologists came a generation later. Before the time of Lewis and Clark, the native population had been reduced by smallpox, introduced on the Coast. A plague, the nature of which was never determined, raged among the natives on the lower Columbia from 1832 to 1844 and carried off entire tribes.1 There was no longer the abundant food supply which supported an immense population in early times, and Lewis and Clark found the natives on the verge of starvation. Their salmon pem- mican sometimes spoiled, and caterpillars and dead fish were eaten, as well as moss and bark. The Indian languages, especially the Chinook and Salish, were too formidable for the whites, and the Chinook jargon, which made communication possible, also helped to destroy the ancient tongues. By the time competent students entered the field, some important tribes were almost extinct and their highly developed languages had become so corrupted as to be practically dead. The loss to ethnology is greater because there are reasons to believe that the Northwest Coast was the original home of the American Indian.2 The first men from Asia arrived ten to twenty thousand years ago, by way of the Aleutian islands. The earlier and thin stages of immigration were probably spread over thousands of years, and may have been interrupted by the most recent glaciation. The Northwest Coast was a haven for the adventurers, with its mild climate and plentiful supply of fish. The population became jdense, and as it overflowed it followed the rivers, —east and north by the Columbia and south by the interior basin into Mexico. The highest social development was reached in another region which became densely populated, — the central plateau from Mexico to Bolivia. Here the advance was so great that early culture elements were obliterated. In the Pacific Northwest, however, basic elements were preserved and adapted to local conditions and materials. [Very few of the culture growths in other parts of the continent found their the Northwest. Some elements of myth were exchanged between Lake ir and the Coast by the Columbia route, but these influences diminished Superic 22 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in the Northwest with distance from the river. There were undoubtedly later influences from Asia, and in turn American traits were reflected to the Siberian Mystery shrouds the origin and use of small stone images found in the vicinity of The Dalles and in the John Day valley.3 Thomas Condon of the University of Oregon, James Terry of the American Museum and Professor O. C. Marsh of Yale University found specimens at different times, which the primitive sculptors evidently intended to represent the heads of monkeys. The material is basalt, and the heads are eight to ten inches high. One of them has small mortar-like cavities in the top. Condon suggests that they may have been used by medicine men, to mix remedies, as numerous little mortars said to have been used for this purpose are found in Oregon. Terry thinks that a migration of natives who had seen monkeys reached the Columbia valley, in the remote past, and preserved a vivid memory in these sculptures. Nothing like them has ever been found. Local Culture Types Certain material culture types such as the dugout canoe and the plank house have a long history in the Pacific Northwest. The latter is the most] striking local invention, found nowhere else in America. In the Coast strip,! there is a distinctive twining technique in basketry, which also appears to i have originated here, —in contrast with the coiling technique found in Asia, Alaska and down the mountain and plateau backbone to Mexico. In the social order, extreme individualism prevailed. No priesthood by virtue of class or hereditary office appeared. Personal experience in dream or trance j conferred religious authority. There were chiefs with some hereditary power, but their tenure was always uncertain. The honors and privileges in this society were generally contingent on wealth and ability to hold it or readiness to give it all away at a potlatch. There was no political organization, and in this state of anarchy the secret societies of the northern tribes became very elaborate. The chief line of demarcation between local cultures ran down the Cas-i cades as far as the Columbia and continued with the river to the sea. Nootkan influence prevailed on the Coast north of the Columbia, though the Puget sound tribes were affected by communications through the mountain passes. South of the Columbia, in spite of the lack of physical barriers against the northern tribes, the culture was that of the interior. The Klamaths and Modocs of southern Oregon exhibited California traits.4 Peace and War Chiefs Hereditary nobility was more respected on the Coast than in the interior, and there seems to have been a middle class on Puget sound. Inland chiefs THE ABORIGINES 23 always faced the prospect of being displaced by some young brave with a following, who might call an election. In time of war, new chiefs were elected, and one man was frequently made war chief of a group of villages or even a whole people. On returning after a campaign, the war chief was expected to accord precedence to the peace chief. This system had its advantages in dealing with the whites. After suppressing an Indian revolt, the government usually found that the head chiefs could plausibly claim they had been for peace all along, but hot-heads among the young men had got out of control. After a defeat, the war party disappeared. Head Flattening Head flattening was the badge of aristocracy among the lower Columbia tribes.6 Slaves were not allowed to indulge in the practice, and flat-heads were rarely treated as slaves when taken in war. Intermarriage between tribes was frequent, but was regarded as especially seemly when both parties were flat- heads. By the mingling of the best blood of these tribes, an aristocratic type was created on the Coast, with narrow, high noses and taller stature, resembling the physiognomy of the plateau Indians. But the interior tribes did not practise head flattening. There is no evidence that the Flatheads ever deformed the heads of their children, and there is no suggestion of the custom in the Indian names of this tribe. The name was originally French, Tetes-Plates, and may have been conferred by voyageurs who saw among the tribesmen slaves with flattened heads, from the lower Columbia,0 or, as some think, because the Flatheads left the skull in its natural shape, flat on top, instead of compressed to a point. When Jason Lee visited the States in 1839, he took two Chinook boys with him. One of them, when asked why their people flattened heads, inquired, " Why do your women make themselves so small about the waist? "r The Potlatch The wealthy man might provide for the distribution of his property after his death, but under the potlatch custom he could have the fun of distributing the goods himself. It was considered meritorious to give away everything and start over again. A potlatch would be announced, and the distribution was an occasion of much ceremony and feasting. The term is a Chinook word evidently derived from the Nootka potshatl, meaning gift. The center of the custom was on Puget sound. It was an expression of Indian communism and one of the traits which made it difficult for the white man to impose his system on the Dwellings The village was the social unit. Substantial wooden houses gave it greater permanency on the Coast. These were usually rectangular. Some were as large 24 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST as forty by one hundred feet, accommodating several families.8 There were sunken floors and sleeping platforms around the sides, — sometimes two tiers. Very long houses were built for festivals. The Chinook house was of vertical planks, with a high gable roof. On Puget sound, the prevailing style called for horizontal lapped planks and shed roof. In the interior, the winter dwelling was ten to fifteen feet wide and varied in length from twenty to 150 feet. Lewis and Clark spent several days in a village on the Clearwater which consisted of one hut 150 feet long, with twenty-four fires and about twice this number of families. Clark estimated that there were about one hundred fighting men, and the noise of the women pounding roots reminded him of a nail factory. The roof of this kind of hut was of poles sloping from the ground to a ridgepole and covered with mats. Buffalo skins were used as a covering among the tribes which hunted across the mountains. There were no partitions in these huts, but each family had its own allotment of space, where its property and provisions were kept. Wilkes describes a building at the forks of the Snake and the Clearwater, of circular form, constructed of rails set on end, which supported a roof of the same material. The roof served as a platform for drying fish. The Okanogans sank their floors two feet and covered the superstructure of poles and mats with grass and earth. Temporary dwellings were built of bark and rushes in the root and berry season on the Coast. With the approach of warm weather, a plague of fleas drove even Indians out of the wooden houses. The interior tribes used the portable tepee when traveling. Its frame consisted of about ten long poles pointed at the lower end, which were driven into the ground and bound together at the top with thongs. Dressed buffalo hides, sewed together, were stretched over this frame. A lodge was easily set up by the women in a few minutes. The dugout canoe remained the chief means of transportation on the Coast, after the horse had been introduced on the plains. Bark canoes were used in northern interior. Many Inland Empire tribes who lived on fish had no cat at all, among them the Flatheads and Shoshones. Rafts of willows and rushes were used in crossing streams. They were very unsafe, but the Indians v Introduction of the Horse The introduction of the horse as a conveyance, in place of the canoe, w the chief factor in changing the culture of the Inland Empire tribes to tl plateau type. With the means of moving about easily and quickly, the Indiai became nomadic and took to living in lodges instead of huts. They spent the winters in protected spots and the summers in the hills. They sent the women to the camas prairies while the men went to the fishing grounds, and they fol- THE ABORIGINES 25 lowed the buffalo beyond the Rockies, learned a more heroic form of warfare and adopted much of the plains culture, including the fashion of wearing more I clothes. It is supposed that there were no horses in America at the time of the i discovery and the Spanish explorations. Yet fossil remains show that the horse developed on this continent from the little three-toed species. What became of ! the immense herds of wild horses which ranged the land in the Pleistocene age is a puzzle. Horses were introduced by the Spaniards and were stolen in increasing numbers by the Apaches and other marauding tribes of the Southwest. These tribes traded their spoils with the northern Indians, including the Shoshones, from whom horses were purchased by the Cayuses. Horses i came into use by the Indians of the Columbia valley about 1750, scarcely more than a half century before the arrival of Lewis and Clark. The Cayuses were I the first tribe to own them in large numbers, and their name became attached to the tough little animal which radically altered the life of their people. Beside the changes already mentioned, trading became more extensive, for I the value of the horse as a pack animal was immediately recognized. Annual journeys were made to the Green River Rendezvous, and the Cayuses and Walla Wallas extended their operations as far as California. One tribe, the Wishram fishermen at The Dalles grew rich and insolent by the new facility of trade, without leaving home. They were established at the chief fishing grounds of the Northwest, and they caught fish for barter, in exchange for roots, fur robes and horses. Trade between the Coast and interior tribes had to go through their hands, and they took toll from travelers who ventured to pass The Dalles, by robbing them. The Grande Ronde in eastern Oregon was second to The Dalles as a trading center. It is a mountain prairie, twelve by fifteen I miles in extent, on the main trails to the south and east, and here the Cayuses, Walla Wallas and Nez Perces met to trade with the Snakes and Shoshones. Minor expeditions were made over the mountains by the Okanogans and ! Yakimas, to barter small articles of value with the Puget sound tribes, and the ! Okanogans and Walla Wallas are known to have visited the interior of British j Columbia. The Indians became enthusiastic breeders and horse traders. The Nez Perces were soon large owners, and they improved the strain by bringing in heavier i animals from the Mexican and Spanish ranches in California. Some of the Nez Perce chiefs owned from 4,000 to 6,000 head. They were able to keep their property because they were a powerful tribe and the Bitter Root mountains protected them from the eastern raiders. Their herds were handled by practically the same system which was later adopted by the white stockmen. The large I herds were divided and placed on several ranges, with riders to watch them, ! and there was an occasional round-up. When immigration started, the Indians bought footsore but well-bred horses from the whites and still further improved 26 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST their stock. The big herds were not all owned by chiefs, as they v, acquired quickly through luck at the races.9 The Indians were hard riders and showed no feeling for the comfort of their mounts. The women rode well and took part in the racing. Bridles were made by twisting horsehair into ropes, which were tied around the lower jaw, and often cut the corners of the mouth. A pad of buckskin stuffed with hair served as a saddle. It was a poor protection for the backbone of the animal, which was likely to remain raw. The cinch was of horsehair and strips of rawhide, and the stirrups were made of wood, covered with elk or buckskin applied wet. In drying, it stretched tight and was very durable. Ordinary riding saddles for the women were of wood, high at the front and back. The front pommel had a prong, on which to hang things. Fisheries Fish was the staple food, and salmon was the principal fish. The tribes near Cape Flattery were the only ones which captured whales. The interior tribes depended largely on the salmon run for their existence. Primitive races venerate the things which support life, and harvest festivals, with rituals of thanksgiving and sacrifice are common among the American Indians. The bear cult was widespread in eastern Siberia and northern America. Within the bear cult area lay the salmon cult on the Pacific Coast. The salmon run was anxiously awaited and was gravely celebrated. The first fish caught became the center of a ritual. The periodic appearance of the salmon was a factor in establishing the first- salmon ceremony.10 In the Pacific Northwest, however, back of the fear and veneration which finds expression in taboos and ritual, there was a belief which is not found elsewhere in America. Immortality was attributed to salmon, bear and even to plants, and the rites were propitiatory, to avoid offense to the spirit which was willing to be taken and to contribute its flesh to the life of the people.11 Its welfare had to be considered. The ceremonially unclean were not allowed to partake of the salmon or the bear, and refuse had to be so disposed of that it would be transformed, come to life, and again serve the spirit of the fish or animal. Thus it would presumably return. The Coast tribes used ingenious fish traps and nets woven of sr. fibers and of flax, secured from the interior by barter. Fish rakes v monly used on the sound. On the rivers, Willamette falls12 and Kettle falls were favorite fishing grounds. The Dalles was a notorious place in the fishing season. There the natives stood along the walls of the canals in large numbers,: with hooks and spears attached to long poles. To prevent the poles from being broken by heavy fish in this swift water, the hooks and spears were made to unship readily and were secured to ropes tied to the poles near their upper] ends. About 1,500 Indians resorted to The Dalles in the fishing season, repre-l senting the worst element of various tribes. The women as well as the men dis-j THE ABORIGINES 27 pensed with clothing, except a breech-cloth, and all lived in groups of forty or fifty, crowded into small, temporary huts. The most picturesque method of taking salmon was by spearing them. Standing on a rock above the turbulent water, an Indian might remain motionless for half an hour with his spear poised above his head. The spear was a pole cut twelve feet long, with a wooden fork the end, between the tines of which a barbed iron point was fixed. A hand j scoop-net was sometimes used, and the fisherman stood on a scaffold built over the water. Weirs were constructed of basket-work attached to poles and placed I across the river at an acute angle. The fish swam up the river and leaped the I lower side of the obstruction, which was sufficient to create a little fall. They 1 were unable to pass the upper and higher side and were taken in nets. At Kettle 1 falls, the mode of taking salmon at the beginning of the season was by spearing, but wicker baskets were later fixed below the falls, with a broad frame 1 spreading above. In attempting to leap the falls, the fish struck the frame and were thrown back and into the baskets. The baskets were raised several times a day, to remove the catch. The duty of the women at all the fisheries was to clean and dry the catch. After a few hours in the sun, the skins were easily removed from the fish. Then the flesh was separated from the bones, mashed as fine as possible and spread out on frames covered with matting, until dried by sun and wind. The cured fish was pounded into a long basket, holding eighty pounds. It has always been customary for Indian fishing parties to live on the heads and entrails of the fish. The unappetizing fare was justified on grounds of economy. At some of the fishing places, one or more principal men were selected, and their authority was final in the daily division of fish caught in weirs or similar devices. Families or groups made secret caches of their winter supplies. The fishing camps presented a holiday aspect, from June to October, and much time was devoted to gambling, dancing and horse racing. Hunting After the fishing season, hunting parties were organized in sections where deer and other game abounded. Hunting was done with bows or guns, by stalking or by running the game with horses. An ambush was sometimes laid at the narrow end of a valley, into which the game was driven. Bushes were planted in converging lines, to help direct the animals to the spot where their fate awaited them. Dogs and horses were eaten in times of extreme want, but an Indian was in desperate circumstances when he was willing to kill a horse for food. Buffalo were hunted in the Inland Empire in early times. As the native population increased, they were frightened away. It is not likely that they were ever numerous except in the Snake country, where Alexander Ross reported 1 28 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST I seeing thousands in 1818. Until the introduction of the horse, the Indians couldl not have hunted the buffalo extensively. With the horse and the new spirit of adventure, their taste for buffalo meat and their desire to secure skins in-1 duced them to make the long journey each year to the plains of the Missouri I and to face the peril of the bloodthirsty Blackfeet. When the latter got horses,I they in turn made raids on the buffalo in the Shoshone country of southern 1 Idaho. The- tribes inhabiting the plains employed methods of wholesale de-; struction, by driving the buffalo into enclosures or over precipices. The wander-1 ing bands from the Columbia basin, small in numbers and always wary ofl the Blackfeet, were confined to the more sportsmanlike chase. The hunter usu-1 ally divested himself of his clothing. Approaching the rear of a herd, he selected 1 an animal and separated it from the rest by dashing between it and the herd. Riding past the victim on its right, he directed an arrow into its heart.! Lances were sometimes used. When flint-lock muskets were available, the hunter acquired remarkable skill in reloading while riding at full speed, dropping a charge of powder from the horn to the palm of his hand and thence into the muzzle of the gun, and following it with a ball from a supply carried in his mouth.13 Cookjng Hot stones played a large part in the preparation of food. To cook fish, a fire was covered with slabs split from driftwood, on which round stones were >. laid. The fish were placed in a basket of water, into which the hot stones were! dropped. When boiled, the fish were laid on a platter of rushes. Meat was} cut into small pieces and boiled in the same way, though a second lot of red-j hot stones was required to keep the water boiling long enough. The stones were handled with wooden tongs. After the meat was cooked, the family stood around the kettle and dipped in. The broth was afterwards ladled out, into dishes of bark or wood. Wooden dishes and bowls were in general use.| and spoons of wood and horn. Pottery was made only by the Shoshones, who had direct contacts with the Indians of the Southwest. Weapons The weapons used in war and the chase were bows, spears, clubs and knives. The bows were of pine or cedar, covered with sinews wound in glue. The! bows were short, and a slender arrow shaft was used. For warfare the arrows! were sometimes dipped in rattlesnake virus. Horn bows were made by the Sho-I shones of single pieces of elkhorn or small pieces of the bighorn, glued together and bound with sinews. The knives were of flint or obsidian, like the arrow™ heads. Clubs were made by covering a round stick with rawhide, which wi extended at the end to form a bag, enclosing a stone. These clubs were abot THE ABORIGINES 29 foot long and were attached to the wrist with a thong. Some clubs were twice this length, and the stone was covered separately with leather and was joined I to the staff with two inches of thong. A club for use in warfare was made with a worked stone head having a point at each end and a groove at the center in iwhich a handle was fastened with rawhide. Round shields were made of buf- ;falo hide, shrunk by steaming and pounded for several days by the bare heels of the Indians, who made the manufacture of shields a ceremony calling for a : feast and supposed to invest the product with magical protective powers. The Chinooks, though ordinarily naked, equipped themselves for war with an arrow- iproof vest of small hardwood sticks bound together. For heavy fighting, they jhad a long, stiff cylinder of elkskin nearly half an inch thick, with holes for .the arms. The Indians retained their primitive weapons after the introduction of firearms and added the tomahawk, which they purchased from the traders. Supplementary Foods The Indians were naturally improvident and lived from hand to mouth, but, .ignorant of the arts of agriculture and lacking a sufficient supply of game, they did well to get through the summer and to lay up enough roots and dried salmon for the winter.14 Tribes along the Snake river were accustomed to burn the grass and collect the scorched grasshoppers. Dried grasshoppers were pulverized in a mortar and beaten into a mass like pemmican. The Okanogans made bread from tree moss, which was cleaned and buried in a hole in the earth for twenty- 'four hours, together with heated stones. This process reduced the moss to a pasty condition, and it was moulded into cakes and dried. Sunflower seeds were pounded into a meal, used in cooking meats. Pine seed was roasted or boiled, and the inner bark of the pine tree was eaten. Serviceberries and hawthorn berries were dried, pulverized, moistened, made into small cakes and dried again. Blackberries were dried, and huckleberries and choke cherries were ' The staple root was the camas, or sweet onion, which grows on moist prairies :from California to British Columbia. It is dug in June and July and may be -eaten raw or cooked, though it is almost tasteless in the unprepared state. The natives dug the roots with a sharpened stick. A hole ten feet in diameter and :about three feet deep was made in the ground and lined with dry wood, on which small stones were heated. Earth and grass were thrown over the stones. ^Twenty or thirty bushels of the roots were peeled and heaped on the grass in a conical pile and were covered with grass. Water was thrown on, and the pile J was covered with earth. A fire was kept burning on the mound through the night. This treatment turned the roots black and imparted a sweet flavor. After pounding between stones, the dough was rolled in grass, in loaves of eight to ten pounds, put through the steaming process again, made into cakes 3o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and smoked or dried in the sun. Lewis, from whose journal this description is condensed, says that the product was palatable but disagreed with him it every shape in which he tried it. Wilkes lists a succession of root seasons for the northern tribes whose fishing place was Kettle falls. In the early spring they searched for the pox-pox, a similar to the camas. In May a bitter root which they called spatylon was and boiled to a white jelly. Then came the camas, and in October the me which was not so good but helped to stretch the provision for winter. Thl Nez Perces gathered kouse in April and May. For them it was next ir portance to the camas. Unlike camas, it was found in dry soil, along the brows of steep hills. The meal from dried kouse was baked in bricks, pierced with holes, so that they might be strung on a thong and suspended from the saddle. The fresh root tasted like the parsnip, and the baked brick like stale biscuit. It was called biscuit root by the whites. The bitterroot, which was merely dried, was a highly concentrated food, but was found only in the mountains anc' hard to get. In and about the Willamette valley, the wappato was a staple root, and the explorers found it more palatable than the camas. It grows ir mud bottom of shallow lakes, and the women waded in and detached the roots with their feet as well as their hands. Clothing The men of the Coast tribes usually wore no clothing, and the attire of thl women was limited to a cord around the waist, from which strands of twisted fiber hung half way to the knees. This skirt gave the women a swaying gait, b as they were short and thick-set, the effect has been described as a duck waddle, In some tribes, the women wore only a strip of deerskin six inches wide and four feet long as a breech-clout. For protection against the elements, a robe w thrown over the back and fastened across the chest with a cord. This garment was of wood-rat skins or a blanket woven of dog hair. On Puget sound, a special breed of white dogs with long woolly hair was raised for this purpose. To shed the rain, broad-rim hats were worn, woven water-tight of bark and roots hats of the Chinooks and other tribes along the ocean were conical, with woven designs of animals, including the whale, and sometimes with a knob at the top. The knob and the whale design seem to have been reserved for the aristocracy. The fashion of wearing hats is confined to the Northwest seacoast, and is prl sumably an Asiatic trait. The natives of the rainy strip went barefoot. The interior tribes wore more clothes and seldom went without moccasins. They had shirts, leggins, breech-clouts and dresses of buckskin. The hair of the mountain goat was woven for blankets.15 THE ABORIGINES 3I Burial Customs At death, slaves and persons of no importance were disposed of without ceremony,-left in unfrequented spots or thrown into the woods. Regular burial was generally in graves among the inland tribes and above ground on the Coast, where the canoe was used as a coffin. The body was wrapped in mats and skins. Some of the possessions of the deceased were broken up or " killed " and were placed with the body. Holes were cut in the canoe for the same reason that the other property was damaged, — so no one would steal it. A slave was sometimes sacrificed. In 1829, two female slaves were killed and buried with a granddaughter of Chief Concomly, by the girl's mother, who was regarded as an intelligent and respectable woman and was a valued friend of the whites. South of the Columbia, the canoe was left on the ground. The lower Chinooks raised it on a scaffold and covered it with another canoe. In some tribes, after a year, the remains were buried beneath the canoe or in a family cemetery. On Puget sound, the remains, in boxes or canoes, were placed in trees. On the Columbia, above the Willamette, the dead were laid in burial houses. In the scablands of the Columbia plateau, the Indians used the low knolls of material deposited by the winds as burial places, each for a single grave. Graves are also found within rings of stones. In common with the tribes in the arid regions of British Columbia, the Inland Empire Indians took advantage of rock slides for burial purposes. The body was placed on its side, usually flexed, and the rocks above were loosened and caused to slide down upon it. The ordinary grave among the village Indians of the interior was circular, three to five feet deep, and was protected by a layer of poles, on which stones were heaped. Ornaments and other property were buried with the dead, and horses were killed over the grave. A horse might be buried above the body or stuffed and set up on the grave. The medicine man received a fee for attending the burial, eulogizing the deceased and laying his ghost. The house in which a death occurred was destroyed or moved, even if it was the large house occupied by many families, and the medicine man barred the ghost from the new abode by blowing it away with smoke from his pipe. Tbe Nez Perces sometimes followed the plains custom of building platforms on high scaffolds for their dead. Social Morality Polygamy was general among the Indians. On the Coast, few restrictions were placed on the relations of the sexes before marriage, but boys might marry at fourteen and girls earlier, and the system was strict according to its own ■principles. Contact with the white mariners and fur traders introduced temptations which disrupted the moral conventions of the natives. Avarice led mothers 1 32 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST to trade their daughters and husbands their wives. Indian women camped inl summer near the forts, and it was difficult to keep the employes of the fun companies from their huts. Boat-loads of women sometimes appeared and! forced their attentions on the whites. On the arrival of the brigades, women! swarmed in from all parts. Social disease spread without check among thel natives and increased the infant death rate, which was already high on account! of unsanitary conditions and the practice of infanticide. Commercialized relations with the whites immediately relaxed all restraint within the tribe. Mis-J sionaries despaired of doing anything for the degraded peoples, and the great! epidemic which nearly exterminated the lower Columbia Indians seemed anj act of God, solving the problem. Gibbs, who observed the Chinooks in 1854J when their number had been reduced from fifteen thousand to about threa hundred, considered that they were diseased beyond remedy and wrote: "The speedy extinction of the race seems rather to be hoped for than regretted, and; they look forward to it themselves with a sort of indifference." The interior Indians were more fortunate. Their first contact with strangers was with fur traders and half-breeds, who took Indian wives, and next with missionary families. Their own family life, though polygamous, was wel guarded. Captive women became regular wives. Unmarried girls were closely watched, and marriages were arranged by parents, though a youth might court discreetly and indicate his choice to his father. Additional wives were taken without ceremony. Plural wives had separate tepees or individual fires in thf long house. When an unmarried girl had a child, it was a disgrace to her] family, but if the identity of the father was known, the girl became ipse facto'- a wife. Divorce was informal, but when a woman left her husband, he retained] all the property, and as it was unnecessary for a man to desert his wives tol secure another woman, separations were infrequent. Elopements were ordinarily unsafe and seldom occurred outside the season for buffalo hunting, when there was a chance to get away. Punishment for ordinary crimes was generally left to the initiative of family! heads. Murder called for blood-vengeance or the payment of blood-money. I For adultery, the guilty parties might be slain by the husband, or he might! exact a payment of horses or other property. For rape, the penalty was death! or marriage. Each tribe was thought to be responsible for crimes committed! in its own territory, though members of another tribe were guilty. Therefore! a war party did not hesitate to do violence to strangers in enemy country whom they might not have harmed at home.10 Ceremonial Dances The interior tribes kept slaves, who were taken in war and were usually well j treated, after an initial orgy of abuse, during the celebration of the triumph. I THE ABORIGINES 33 Captives were seldom put to death, though Ross Cox describes a terrible scene at which the traders were spectators, among the Flatheads, who had captured some Blackfeet and were settling an old score. The traders induced the Indians to discontinue the horrors.17 The ordinary initiation of slaves took place at the scalp dances, which were inter-tribal in a large section of the interior. These dances were held four times a year, favorite spots being on the north bank of the Columbia above The Dalles, at the forks of Lapwai creek and at the junction of the Columbia and the Snake. A fresh supply of scalps and captives, preferably from the Blackfeet or the Shoshones, was desirable, and the dances were often preceded by raids. The best description of this ceremony is given by Alexander Ross, who witnessed it at the Columbia and the Snake. All the barbarities were perpetrated by the women, who greeted the captives on their arrival, dragged them from the horses on which they were tied, trampled, beat and slashed them and drove them into camp. At the dance, repeated for several days, two rows of men stood fifteen feet apart, with two rows of women inside and at the center the row of captives, men and women, stripped to the waist and bearing the scalps of their own tribesmen on long poles. The rows kept time to a drum beat, moving sideways alternately, chanting and shouting. The captives were required to enter into the spirit of the dance and to laugh and shout, regardless of the blows and cuts which they constantly received from the two lines of women. The men on the outside never touched a captive. At the end of the dance many of the slaves were insensible from their injuries, and all the unfortunates were then bathed, fed and treated with great kindness until the usual hour for dancing on the following day. The performance was mainly of a ceremonial nature. It continued for five or six days, and the slaves were then attached to the families of their captors.18 War dances were also inter-tribal, because of the alliances against common enemies to the east and south, and were danced as a preliminary to the buffalo expeditions, which usually involved collisions with the Blackfeet. The most important ceremony among the Indians whose children named themselves for things seen in dreams was the guardian spirit dance. This was essentially religious, but the ghost dance of the modern religious cult has no connection with it. Each participant in the early " dance of the dream faith " sang his own song, and its meaning was often kept obscure. The other dancers took up the words of the singer and formed a chorus, in which even those who had not been successful in dreaming a guardian spirit might join. The dancers imitated the animals mentioned in the songs, and each painted his forehead to represent his individual guardian. No drums were used in the dance, yet without this reliable stimulant to the emotions, participants sometimes fell in a cataleptic state, so great was their religious excitement. Smoking was a valued adjunct to all ceremonial, social, civic or religious. 34 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The Indians smoked kinekinick before they got tobacco and later mixed it witr™ tobacco for the sake of economy. The chief supply of pipestone was in the Wenatchee country. The ceremonial pipes had long stems, and on formal occasions when the pipe was passed, the smoker would exhale in the direction^ of the four points of the compass, the sun and the earth. So appropriate did smoking seem in connection with religious rites that it was hard for the natives to understand why they should not smoke at the services of the Christian missionaries.19 Medicine Men The medicine man, or woman, exerted a more powerful influence in instances than the chief. The office was often hereditary, and in any a knowledge of simple remedies was passed on to the novice. Beside this know! edge, he could count on the superstitious awe with which his people regardet the traditional ceremonies of the craft. In various tribes, children acquired their names by retiring to some high place and abstaining from food for s days until an animal, a bird or some mysterious object appeared in their dream Nicknames and family names might be given, and names were sometin purchased, but the object seen in the vigil supplied the sacred name and v also regarded as a guardian spirit. The child was lucky who dreamed of especially sacred things in nature, — sun, moon, clouds or certain birds, as t eagle. Hereditary right to the office of sorcerer was insufficient without a si: at the vigil that the special favor of nature was extended. A child not in t line of succession who received the sign and had the proper qualifications w often trained by a medicine man to carry on his work. The fear of committing a sacrilege and antagonizing nature restrained children from cheating about their dreams. A very helpful qualification was the ability of the medicine man to put himself into a trance. He had significant dreams, and there is much evidence that hypnotism was practiced. Ghosts were believed to be active in smothering children, and to resuscitate a dying child the medicine man had first to which ghost was responsible. Several of the sorcerers were usually called in consultation. Their task was to go to the right grave, recover the child's breath and blow it into the child again. When the child failed to revive, it was because; the ghost had not been located. When the medicine man thought that ordinary remedies were indicated, he prescribed herbs, bleeding, poultices, blistering, hot baths or the sweat house. He prepared eye-washes and set fractured limbs it splints. When the nature of the illness was uncertain, he resorted to his sacred songs, after some show of making a diagnosis. In his incantations, he w£ sisted by friends who kept time by beating boards with sticks, joined ir chant and made shooing noises while he professed to blow away the disease. THE ABORIGINES 35 Or he might apply his mouth to the body of the patient and pretend to suck the malady through the skin, afterwards spitting a mouthful of blood, though no abrasion would be visible.20 When a medicine man was called, it was customary for him to fix his price before commencing treatment. The goods were turned over to him, and he was required to return them if unsuccessful. He might even forfeit his life, if the j patient died, but this drastic reparation was seldom made in cases where the ! deceased was not a person of importance, though anger was always likely to | demand it, and no one would blame the bereaved. Discretion led the medicine man to retire hastily when there seemed to be no hope and to go into hiding i until the relatives recovered from their grief. The Indians believed in evil magic, and the practice of this bad medicine was by no means confined to the profession. Charms might be learned, and a train of disastrous results might follow the utterance of a curse or a threat. If a dying man charged some one with the responsibility for his death, it might go hard with that person, as the dying were supposed to be clairvoyant. Instances of vengeance inflicted by ithe Indians upon their own medicine men and upon the whites for supposed bad medicine are cited in Chapter IX. The Indian at home was traditionally lazy, leaving most of the labor to the women and saving himself for the hunt and the warpath. The Nez Perces had a name for the spirit of fatigue, the wawish, and to overcome its insidious effects in times of peace and keep themselves hard, they had a ceremony lasting ; seven days and performed at least once a year. The stomach was purged repeatedly for three days by passing willow sticks down the throat. After two days of fasting, a little porridge was allowed in the evening until the fifth day, on which regular eating was resumed, except in the mornings. The second and third afternoons were spent in cold water. The entire fourth day and the last i three mornings were devoted to alternate hot and cold baths. The tribesmen , were not expected to continue this ordeal after the age of forty, but many took pride in keeping it up much longer.21 The sweat house was in general use. i An oval roof of willows covered with grass and earth was built over a depres- . sion in the ground. The bather shut himself in, with a number of hot stones. When perspiring freely, he jumped into cold water. This was supposed to be healthful and to cure diseases, but it was practised without discrimination and often produced the opposite result. Mythology and Religion Knowledge of Indian myth in the Pacific Northwest is very fragmentary. i More is known of the myths of the northern Coast tribes, such as the raven cycle. The elements are confused in the Washington-Oregon Coast strip, and various animals and birds are featured. In the interior, coyote and fox are the 36 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST chief characters. On the Coast and east of the Columbia basin, the idea existed of a primaeval ocean, from the bottom of which mud was brought up by the muskrat to form dry land. But the basin tribes thought of the world as always the same as in their own time and as inhabited at first solely by animals.22 The religion of the Indians was animism. All natural things were the embodiment of spirits. The savage feared some of these things and looked with reverence upon the sun, rivers and great trees. He listened to the trees and hoped they might speak to him, as they had sometimes spoken to a n man or a chief. He sought revelation from the nature spirits, in dreams following fasting and meditation. The nearest thing to a religious ceremony was the guardian spirit dance. There was no organized cult, and the medicine man performed very few of the functions of a priest. The dead continued to exist in a spirit life, but there was no ancestor worship. These Indians had so simple a faith that they listened readily to the missionaries, who had so much mor< to tell about religion. The Confusion of Tongues The large number of families is the most striking feature of the Indiar languages in the Pacific Northwest. The map of linguistic stocks shows a few great families dividing the continent, outside of the Oregon country and California.23 A small intruded group appears in Newfoundland, another in South l Carolina, half a dozen on the Gulf of Mexico and three in Arizona and New i Mexico, but the Pacific Northwest is crowded with distinct families, and Cali- • fornia presents as great a variety of additional stocks. This is taken by some 5 to indicate that a dense population once existed on the Coast, in strictly isolated: areas. The confusion of tongues developed before the peoples migrated to other I parts of the continent, — probably in part before they left Asia. Some of thes known tongues have become extinct in the last century, and others doubtless: vanished, with the peoples who spoke them, before the coming of the whites, i Moreover, it is likely that linguistic change in America has been more ins the direction of unification than multiplication. Dialects which are now/ classed in the same family may have originally been distinct languages and have gained the appearance of being related through common borrowing from tongues which are lost.24 Adjacent Language Families Commencing at the mountain boundaries of the Oregon country, north, east and south of the interior, the four most extensive Indian families America radiate to the extremes of the continent. Starting from the uppt Fraser and the headwaters of the Columbia, the Athapascan covers centr; Alaska and Canada north of the Churchill, as far as the Esquimo 25 land THE ABORIGINES 37 the shores of the Arctic ocean and Hudson bay. The Algonquin and Siouan extend eastward from the Rockies, the former reaching the Atlantic and the latter spreading southward down the Missouri and the Mississippi nearly to the Gulf and appearing also in central Virginia and the Carolinas. The Shoshonean is found from the Blue mountains south, in the great central basin, almost touching the Gulf and penetrating to the Pacific in southern California! The Rockies were apparently a barrier sufficient to keep the Algonquin and Siouan development entirely on the east side. The Athapascan family, however, with its great branches in the far south, —the Navaho, Apache and Lipan,— also appears in several isolated tribes on the Coast, on the Willapa and Che- halis rivers, Wapatoo island, along the Oregon and northern California shores at intervals for four hundred miles and on sections of the Rogue and Umpqua Shoshones and Bannoc\s The Blue mountains lie well within the Oregon country, and eastern Oregon and southern Idaho are in Shoshonean territory. The local representatives of the family are the Shoshones and the Bannocks. Sacajawea was a Shoshone, and Lewis and Clark found her tribe on the headwaters of the Missouri. All the emigrations had to pass through their territory. They were called by some of their neighbors Grass House People, because they built lodges of woven grass. Anotber general name for them was Snakes. This term seems to have originated in a misunderstanding of the sign by which they identified themselves,—a serpentine motion of the hand with the index finger extended, probably meant to suggest weaving and referring to their peculiar dwellings. The Bannocks lived in southeastern Idaho, though they roved a great deal after : of fine physique, restless and warlike, and following the Nez Perce uprising. Bannock is a corruption of the name which they applied to themselves, —Panaiti. In barren sections of the central basin, where fish, rabbits and roots were the only food, the Indians were of an inferior type and were called Diggers and Sho- shokos or Walkers. The latter name applied to all the Shoshone tribes which had no horses. Words and grammatical constructions which suggest Aztec relations are found throughout the Shoshonean dialects. Local Linguistic Groups Entirely distinct languages were spoken by half a dozen tribes which lived among the Athapascan groups in the southern Coast strip, — the Kusan, Takil- man, Weitspekan, Yakonan, Shastan and Quoratean. More important language families were the Lutuamian, including the Klamath and Modoc tribes, and the Kalapooian of the Willamette valley, whose language was strangely they secured horses. They tthey started a small ote- :te's 38 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST soft in comparison with the clucking and coughing of their neighbors on the north. The Chimaquan, once a powerful group on the Olympic peninsula, kept its language a State secret.27 The Kitunahan was spoken only by the upt and lower Kootenai on the Columbia lakes. A style of bark canoe resei bling boats used in the Amur region of Asia was peculiar to the lower Koot< nai. The west coast of Vancouver island and the shores of Queen Charlotte ^ sound were the habitat of the Wakashan family, which included the Nootka, Haeltzuk and the very interesting Kwakiutl. The only branch of this} group which secured a foothold on Washington soil was the Makah, at Capet Flattery. Four language groups remain to be mentioned which are the most important of all, — the Salishan and Shahaptian on account of their extent and the character of their people, and the Waiilatpuan and Chinookan, which were! smaller groups of unsavory reputation but much historical significance. Salishan Family The Salishan family inhabited western Montana, northern Idaho and Washington, most of the southern mainland of British Columbia, the southeastern part of Vancouver island and a strip of the northern coast of Oregon. They were most numerous on Puget sound. The group term is taken from the native name of the Flatheads, — Salish.28 Other well-known tribes are, in the interior, the Skitswish or Coeur d'Alenes, Spokan, Okinagan and Pisquows, and, on! the Coast, the Clallam, Nisqualli, Snohomish, Dwamish, Skagit, Snoqualmu, Puyallup, Chehalish and Tillamook. The language is elaborately inflected. Infixes are used as well as prefixes and suffixes, and there are at least five different ways of forming the plural of substantives, including the employment of an entirely different word. Though several consonants are missing, the others are so generously employed that the language is " truly northern and superlatively jawbreaking,"29 as in the words tsatkhlsh, shoes, and s\aikjilentkhl, Shahaptian Family The Shahaptian family formerly extended from the Rockies to the Cascades] and from (including) the Yakima valley and the Palouse country to the Bluf mountains. The name of the group is derived from the Salish name :" Nez Perces, Sahaptini. The Shahaptian tribes were intelligent and bra were generally friendly toward the whites, though jealous of encroachment upon their lands. The eastern tribes went to the plains of the Missouri for buffalo. The Salishan Flatheads were their allies against their common enemy on the eastern side of the Rockies, the Blackfeet. Blackfoot slaves were taken, and raids were made across the Blue mountains into the Snake country, for THE ABORIGINES 39 slaves. The only movement to extend their territory took place in the west iwhen disease depopulated the Willamette valley and the lower Columbia region, in 1829, and the Klikitats moved across the Cascades for a while. The Chinooks held their positions on the Columbia, however, and the Shahaptian villages on the river were kept east of The Dalles. The principal tribes were the Nez Perces and the Yakimas. The Palouses were connected with the Nez I Perces but, unlike them, were allied with the Yakimas in warfare against the ■whites. The Walla Wallas30 occupied an important position at the crossroads I of travel, on the lower Walla Walla river and along the east bank of the Colum- ibia from the Snake nearly to the Umatilla. South of the Columbia, the best known tribes were the Umatillas, Wiam and Tenino. The language of the Nez Perces was spoken by the largest number of the Shahaptian people. Its chief peculiarity is excessive agglutination. The printed language resembles German in the length of the words, for all the words of a phrase or even an entire sentence may be run together, with elision of letters for the sake of euphony. " He keeps one waiting for him a long time at night" is, in the Yakima dialect, "/ pinashapatawtrahliktama warsa." The 'five vowels were employed but only the consonants h, k, 1, m, n, p, s, t and w. The missionaries introduced the consonants b, d, f, g, v and z, in connection 'with the invention of new words which they needed. The Nez Perces had two languages when the traders and missionaries first came among them, —their own, used exclusively among themselves, and a jargon for conversing with itheir slaves. The slave language was wholly unlike their own and was probably derived from a mixture of terms in the dialects of the tribes from which they .took captives. Both languages were taught to the Nez Perce children, but the slaves were not supposed to employ the superior tongue.31 Waiilatpuan Family The Waiilatpuan family had two divisions, the Molalla in the Molalla valley, Oregon, and the troublesome Cayuses in Washington, among whom Whitman located his Waiilatpu mission. The Cayuses, like their Nez Perce neighbors, had two languages, with the difference that, while the Nez Perces used ; their high language at all times among themselves and the low language when 1 conversing with slaves, the Cayuses had a court language which was used only • on state occasions, at councils, and an ordinary tongue for daily use among ;; themselves as well as when addressing inferiors. i The Cayuses were proud to the verge of insolence, and they delighted in t oratory. Their court language was highly rhetorical and abounded in flowery ; expressions. It was suffering a decline when they first came in contact with the l whites, and after their reverses in the Cayuse war they lost their native tongue • as well as their identity as a tribe. The remnant of the Cayuses became confused 4o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST with the Umatillas, with whom they went to live, and they forgot the Waiilatpuan language and spoke only Nez Perce and the Chinook jargon. Chinool(an Family The Chinooks lived on the Columbia river, from its mouth to The Dalles, and were long in control of trade with the interior. They had the reputation of being deceitful and treacherous, and they were a constant annoyance to travelers. They had developed one of the most intricate of languages, and they apparently experienced difficulty in speaking it themselves, the chief troublf being with the pronunciation. The language was utterly impossible to thi whites, and by 1850 the young Chinooks were discarding it for Chehalis and the jargon.32 The consonants f, r, v and z are missing, and it was hard t< whether a speaker was using k or g, d or t, etc. There are three genders and three numbers. In the first person of the dual and plural of pronouns, there are forms to include or exclude the individual addressed. There were many? dialects, and though the grammar was the same in all, the vocabularies were so different that interpreters were necessary. Aztec resemblances appear in the combinations thl, tl and lt. Pronunciation took place in the lower part of the throat, and the syllables were choked out slowly, with much croaking and spluttering. This was accomplished without the aid of the tongue or lips, except tbat a characteristic clucking sound was produced by pressing the tongue to the roof of the mouth and pronouncing tl as if it were tlk. Swan heard some! Indians in conversation playfully ending all the words this way and having something like a clucking contest.33 The Chinook Wg°n Before the coming of the white man, some progress had been made toward a universal language. There was a language of signs, but the Indians were not likely to remain content with that. It is a mistake to think that they ordi-l narily used signs. They liked to talk, and they did not lack words. There aref often more terms for common things in their languages than in English, and the old Chinook offered a long series of particles which had the value of ges-| tures when introduced in conversation. The early mariners, in recording native vocabularies, included many terms which are now known to have come from?: other languages. The explorers did not realize that the natives were not speaking their own tongues but trying to converse in the jargon which they used withl all strangers. As soon as whites settled among them, the universal lang was expanded with French and English words. The Chinook jargon grew in the same way as the Pidgin English of the China ports and the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean. It has been known as the trade language because it was! first brought to public notice in the early period of the Oregon fur trade. In the THE ABORIGINES 4I sixties and seventies, the jargon was spoken by approximately a hundred thousand people in the Pacific Northwest. Though the jargon is still used, among the northern tribes chiefly, it has been loaded with English terms, and the young Indians prefer to speak English.34 The Chinook and Nootka tongues supplied most of the words until French and English contributions began. In 1841, Hale counted 250 words in the jargon; in 1863, Gibbs recorded about 500, and in 1894 Eells included 1,402 in his dictionary, of which 740 were still in use. Eells also collected 1,552 phrases, of which 209 are combinations of mamoo\, meaning to do, —the hardest worked verb in the jargon. Mamoo\ stic\ means to cut wood, and stic\ is also used for tree. This phrase illustrates the combination of an old Chinook word with English. When English and French words were added to the jargon, transliteration was necessary, as the natives had difficulty with r, f and v. Hence the jargon terms pish, piah, cly, lope, lum and tomolla, for fish, fire, cry, rope, rum and tomorrow. Inflection disappeared; so in speaking of a man's arrows the personal pronoun for he, her or it, yah\a, was used with the word for arrow, \lieton. In the old Chinook the phrase was the word for arrow inflected at both tads, — tiakjietanema. Comparison was often indicated in the jargon by rising or falling tone in speaking, or by drawing out the last syllable of siah (far away) and the first syllables of tenas (small or few) and ahncutty (past and Ill Explorers - By Sea DISCOVERY REQUIRES ACTUAL PRESENCE, RECOGNITION OF THE REAL N. of the land or water observed and communication of the information to the world, with satisfactory evidence of its authenticity. The discovery of a river carries with it, for many reasons, a primary claim to its dra area. The vast inland country between the Rockies and the Cascades is the drainage basin of one river, because only one gap in the Cascades permits its waters to reach the sea. The Columbia was the great prize of exploration. Six miles wide at its mouth, flanked by lofty capes and with highlands receding far towards the interior, the Columbia might seem hard to miss, particularly when the explorers expected to find a river somewhere in the vicinity. Many n gators skirted these shores, swept the coast-line with their glasses and sailed away. Bruno Heceta, in 1775, while searching for an entrance to the straits report by Fuca, anchored between the capes of the Columbia and concluded, frc the currents and eddies, that the place was " the mouth of some great river, of some passage to another sea." He mistook the Clatsop plains for an island ai judged that the entrance to the river lay on the further side. Heceta was shortl of men and had only one boat, which required a crew of fourteen. As night j came on, he stood out to sea, and in the morning he was unable to make hisf way back. The Spanish charts named the bay Heceta's inlet and the river the St. Roc. Captain John Meares, in 1788, sailed into the bay and saw no opening in the line of breakers, which seemed to be pounding upon an unbroken shore. He wrote in his journal: " We can now with safety assert that there is no suchl river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts. ... We now reached the opposite side of the bay, where disappointment continued to accompany us; and, being almost certain that there we should obtain no place of shelter for the ship, we bore up for a distant headland, keeping our course within two miles of the shore." Meares named the place Deception bay, little knowing how sadly he had been deceived, and he called the northern headland Cape Disappointment. If Meares had found the river, a nice problem would have been created regarding the rights of discovery, for though he was a British j naval officer on half pay, he was sailing under Portuguese papers. He afterwards EXPLORERS-BY SEA 43 claimed that his ships were British owned, and the British commissioners in 1826 held that he discovered the Columbia. Unwilling Visitors Indian traditions tell of landings made in the early part of the eighteenth century on the Oregon coast by several parties of whites, who for one reason or another, did not enjoy the honor of discovery.1 Twenty-five or thirty men are said to have got ashore from a wreck on Nehalem beach. They remained among the natives for a while, but jealousy arose on account of their attentions to the native women, and they were slain, defending themselves as long as they could with sling-shots, which they had made. There is an Indian " thriller " in which a ship was seen to anchor in the bay south of Necarnie mountain. A boat came ashore, and a party of men carried a chest up to a bench on the mountain side and buried it, after filling it with bags, presumably containing treasure. They also killed one of their number and buried him with the chest. No Indian would molest the cache for fear of interfering with the dead. An added detail, worthy of the best pirate traditions, is that the men stood about the chest and drew lots to select the victim! This narrative and mysterious markings on the rocks have been the incentives for much treasure hunting. Some of the first visitors to the Columbia are said to have left descendants. About 1750, a ship was wrecked on Clatsop beach, and two survivors, who impressed the natives by their long beards and the fact that when found they were popping corn, were taken as slaves. One of them, named Konapee, was a blacksmith and made knives and tools from the iron which was secured by burning the wreck. The men were freed and, after some thought of making an overland journey, settled at the Cascades and had families. Franchere found an old man living near the Cascades, in 1811, who claimed to be the son of a Spaniard wrecked at the mouth of the river. A part of the crew got ashore, and all except four were killed by the Clatsops. The survivors married native women. While he was a child, his father and the other three left with the purpose of making their way by land to the Spanish settlements on the southern coast, and nothing was ever heard of them. There is high romance in the story of a Nehalem Pocahontas, who prevented the slaying of a red-haired sailor washed ashore after a wreck, about 1760. The castaway was revived and cared for by her family. He secured guns and ammunition from the wreckage. After marrying the Indian girl and shooting a jealous rival, he found it expedient to move his family into the country of a Clatsop chief, who had become his friend. Many years later he went to care for this chief, who was ill, and both died of the same disease. Lewis and Clark found an Indian near the place, in 1806, who had freckles 44 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and reddish hair, and John Minto heard the story from this man's son in 1846. An Indian with fair skin, freckles and red hair often visited the Astorians. The name Jack Ramsey was tattooed on his left arm.2 An example of something which probably happened at intervals in the past was afforded in March, 1833, when a Japanese junk was driven ashore near Cape Flattery. Three survivors of the crew were brought to Fort Vancouver and were sent East by the Hudson's Bay Company, to be returned to Japan by way of England.3 The Nehalem Beeswax A much debated mystery of the Oregon sands is the great store of beeswax Which they have been yielding since the earliest remembrance. About ten tons! of the wax have been found, mostly at one spot on Nehalem beach, buried deep j in the sand, considerably above the present high tide level. The beach has been • growing; in the eighteenth century the tides reached the place where the wax was found. Alexander Henry saw it in 1813 and wrote in his journal that the: Clatsops said it was from a Spanish ship, the crew of which were killed by the natives, — possibly the castaways mentioned above, who got into a fight over native women. Daniel Lee states that the Hudson's Bay Company purchased large quantities of the wax from the Killamooks and that he also bought some of it. Doubt that the substance is beeswax was first raised in 1893 by persons who! examined samples and pronounced them to be ozocerite, a wax of mineral! origin. This made the question a matter of economic importance and led an examination by the United States Geological Survey, and the decision was that the substance is beeswax. The government tests were subsequently firmed at Pacific University and the University of Oregon.4 Much of the wax was originally in blocks weighing about twenty pounds, and the blocks v stamped with the initials of Latin phrases familiar to Catholics, — I. H. S. I. H. N. Parts of wax tapers have also been found. The large quantity of th wax suggests that it was a shipment consigned to Catholic missions, for in making images and candles. The Spanish ship San Jose left La Paz, Lowe California, in June, 1769, with supplies for the mission at San Diego, and wa never again seen. Driven far off her course by storms, she may have been wrecked on Nehalem beach. Early Explorers The first incentive to exploration of the Pacific coast was the desire to find a strait by which ships might pass through from the Atlantic ocean. I thought that the new world was an archipelago, though some of the island were very large. The shortness of the journey which brought Balboa in sight o the Pacific encouraged the navigators in this belief. The way around South EXPLORERS-BY SEA 45 America discovered by Magellan was too long and too perilous. So the hopes of the explorers rested on the existence of a passage toward the north. Balboa built the first ships on the Pacific coast, in 1517, but ventured only a short distance. Spain was entrenched in Mexico, and Cortez built ships, in which Ulloa sailed to the head of the Gulf of California, in 1539, and then up the west coast of the peninsula for some distance. Hernando de Alarcon went up the Colorado river as far as the Gila, in small boats, and it appeared that Lower California could no longer be regarded as an island. In several sixteenth century maps, the peninsula is described with a fair degree of accuracy, but by 1600 the old idea reasserted itself. The notion that it ought to be an island gave birth to fabulous explorations, and in the seventeenth century California was again surrounded by water. Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary, published a map in 1705, which was the result of his explorations and convinced the cartographers, with the exception of N. de Fer, that California was a part of the continent. De Fer continued issuing maps showing it as an island until 1720. The dispute was not settled until 1746, when Father Fernando Consag succeeded in skirting the east coast of the peninsula to the mouth of the Colorado.5 Cabrillo and Ferrelo discovered the harbor of San Diego in 1542, and the latter explored the coast as far as Oregon. Spain remained in undisputed ■possession of the Pacific, with a rich trade between Mexico and the Philippines, ■ and made no further effort to confirm her title to the western coast until the •voyage of Sir Francis Drake, in 1577, brought a rude awakening. Drake cap- ■ tured many prizes and landed on the coast of California. He sailed north of ■42° on the high seas, but probably did not approach Oregon. Sebasti was sent in 1602 to make surveys tor t\ Monterey and San Diego, but the plan ■ destroyed ir > forts, and he mapped the harbors of as dropped. The Spanish Armada had iry and a half Spain had to witness ithe competition of England, France and Holland for the eastern part of the ■continent, resulting in the final supremacy of the English. The contest was i carried to the Pacific in 1740, when Commodore George Anson was sent to 'harry Spanish commerce and attack coast towns. In 1728, Vitus Bering, a ; Danish sailor in the Russian service, rounded the eastern end of Asia, and in 1740 he discovered Alaska. The expedition met with many disasters, and Bering died at winter quarters on Bering's island. But the valuable furs which the sailors brought back led to a rapid occupation of the Aleutian islands. The -Spaniards in Mexico were again aroused, and Upper California was occupied ' with missions and presidios, Monterey becoming its capital. Expeditions were - sent to block the Russian advance by making landings and claiming the country |as far north, if possible, as 6o°. Juan Perez entered Nootka sound in 1774, and ^Bruno Heceta landed at Point Grenville in 1775. Juan Francisco de Bodega 46 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST y Quadra, commanding one of his ships, sailed as far north as 580 and landed I on the Alaska coast. Heceta's observations off the mouth of the Columbia hav | already been described. Strait of Anian The search for a Northwest Passage, first navigated by Amundsen in I 1903-1906, began in the sixteenth century. Drake had hoped to get home tha way with his Spanish spoils, in 1577. The mythical Strait of Anian appeared on various maps after 1575.6 It was purely imaginary, though several adventurer sought fame by claiming they had seen it. It was only by accident that th I cartographers placed this strait about where Bering found that the continents were separated. A Greek with the Spanish name Juan de Fuca made the claim first published by Purchas, in 1625, that he had entered the strait from the w end and had sailed through it for a long distance.7 There was no truth in his story, but Heceta and others looked for this Strait of Fuca, as it came called. It was again merely a coincidence that an Englishman, Captain Charles William Barkley, for whom Barclay sound is named, found a strait in 178 which all the earlier navigators had failed to see. His wife accompanied him on this voyage and was probably the first white woman on the Coast. He and Meares, whose men explored it for only ten miles, concluded that it was the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and it was so named. Fuca's own strait, however, was as much a creation of the imagination as Gulliver's Brobdignag, which Swift located in its vicinity, or the fabulous city of Quivira, which was believed as late as the middle of the eighteenth century to be somewhere in the North- One of the purposes of Captain James Cook's third voyage, in 1776, w find the Northwest Passage. After discovering the Sandwich islands, he sailed I to the Oregon coast and sought vainly for Fuca's strait. He then proceeded to Nootka sound and made a careful exploration of the Alaskan coast as far as Bering's strait. Cook's expedition was far more important in its result than the discovery of a Northwest Passage through the Arctic ocean could have been. He found that furs which cost a few cents in the Northwest could be sold I Canton for $100. The news spread rapidly, and ships of several nations begat to make regular trips to the Pacific Northwest for commercial purposes. The sea otter was now the prize sought by mariners, in place of Spanish galleons, short cuts to Asia, or cities of romance. Captain Robert Gray The United States had just joined the family of nations, and the American flag was soon on the Coast. John Ledyard of Hartford, Connecticut, wa corporal on Cook's flagship. He came home in 1783, published a book and ti EXPLORERS-BY SEA 47 to induce American merchants to enter the fur trade. Ledyard did not succeed, but a company was organized in Boston, in 1787. Two ships were sent out — the Columbia Rediviva, of 220 tons, under John Kendrick, and the Lady Washington, a ninety-ton sloop, commanded by Robert Gray. They arrived on the Coast in the autumn of 1788 and wintered at Nootka sound, where they found Captains John Meares and William Douglas. Meares was building a schooner at Nootka, —the first ship launched in the Pacific Northwest. Meares antagonized the Indians by unfair treatment and practised deceit upon the Americans. When the English ships sailed, the demeanor of the Indians became friendly. After successful trading in the spring and early summer of 1789, Gray was transferred to the Columbia and sailed for China, taking the American flag around the world for the first time. Kendrick sailed for China at the end of the season. On slim evidence, Meares reported that Kendrick was the first to sail through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and to circumnavigate Vancouver island. How far the sea extended east of the island remained an open question. This exploration was made in 1789, and Kendrick afterwards made one or more trips to the Coast, for furs. He left no record of his discoveries, and he was accidentally killed in the Sandwich islands, December 12, 1794, by a shot from a British ship which was saluting him.8 Nootka Sound Controversy When the ships of Meares and Douglas returned to the Coast in the summer of 1789, they found trouble awaiting them in a Spanish expedition under Don Estevan Jose Martinez and Lopez de Haro, sent to occupy Nootka sound. The Spaniards were concerned about the intentions of the English and Russians and apparently attached no importance to the presence of American ships. The Boston traders were treated with the utmost cordiality. Martinez, however, wrote in his diary that the Americans were in the fur trade and not, as their commander told him, on a voyage of discovery; that he could have seized their ships, but his situation did not permit him to do so. Kendrick's son was taken into the Spanish service at Nootka. Martinez was courteous to the English, but took possession of their ships in a business-like manner. Douglas was afterwards allowed to leave in his ship, under bond, for the Sandwich islands, but three other British ships were seized as they arrived. The crew of one were sent to China on the Columbia. Meares did not return to the Coast, and one of the British commanders, Captain James Colnett, was so rash as to declare his intention to build a fort and raise the British flag. He quarrelled with Martinez and was forthwith closely confined and sent to San Bias. Hence arose the Nootka sound controversy, which was settled by the withdrawal by Spain of her exclusive claim. It was agreed that both nations might 48 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST establish settlements on the Coast. Spain sent another expedition in 1790, and one of its Captains, Manuel Quimper, sailed into Puget sound. The British government sent Captain George Vancouver, who was to receive from Quadra, the Spanish Governor at Nootka, the buildings and lands of which Meares claimed the English had been dispossessed. Neither Quadra nor Vancouver could find any such property. A new dispute arose when Vancouver interpreted his instructions to mean that he should take possession of the port itself. Both agreed to refer the matter to their governments, and in 1794 a convention was signed at Madrid by which Nootka became neutral ground and neither Spain nor England could set up permanent establishments there. This was in effect an abandonment of Nootka to the natives. The only other attempt of the Spaniards to establish a settlement was at Neah bay, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Boit describes the place in his Journal, and adobe bricks have been found at the spot. The Spanish Viceroy Revilla Gigedo made a report, in 1793, in which he expressed doubt as to the existence of a northwest passage, the permanent importance of the fur trade and the wisdom of trying to occupy the northwest coast merely to keep other nations out. He shrewdly reduced the problem to further investigation of Heceta's inlet. If a great river should be found there, he thought it should be fortified because of the means of access to the interior which it would afford, and he suggested a land expedition from Mexico as well as another effort to locate the mouth of the river. Vancouver was instructed by his government that the discovery of " any river running into or from the Lake of the Woods would be particularly useful." While the English were still interested in learning how far the sea extended into the interior east of Fuca's strait, their thoughts had turned to the possibility of a river route through the unknown west. After the publication of the travels of the Indian Moncacht-ape by Le Page du Pratz, a French writer, in 1758,9 the maps began to show the Great River of the West, approximating the position of the Columbia. The North West Fur Company was ambitious to explore an overland trading route to the Pacific, and the Hudson's Bay Company was awakening from its lethargy. Origin of the Name Oregon Captain Jonathan Carver of Connecticut, who had served in the French and Indian wars, made a journey west of the Great Lakes into Wisconsin, in 1766 and 1767. On his return to Boston in 1768, he tried to secure means to publish his travels, but was unsuccessful. He found a publisher ten years later, in London, and his book was so popular that it ran through more than thirty editions and was translated into French, German and Dutch. Three editions appeared before his death in 1780. In the latter part of the book, he borrowed EXPLORERS-BY SEA 49 j freely from French writers, and in the parts which are doubtless his own he evidently drew liberally upon his imagination. Critics have held that he was "literate and could not have written the book. But evidence has accumulated to restore to a large extent his credit as being a traveler and writer, if not a truthful witness.10 The chief interest in Carver is his application of the name Oregon I to the Great River of the West. Carver's spelling was Oregan, and this spelling :was copied at first. President Jefferson used it in his instructions to Meriwether iLewis in 1803, and Bryant's Thanatopsis, as first published, about 1812, contained the lines: Or lose thyself in the continuous woods That veil Oregan, where he hears no sound Save his own dashings . . . Bryant afterwards made the second line of this quotation read: "Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound." Where one person read Carver, hundreds became familiar with Bryant's lines, which doubtless did much to popularize the name Oregon. Carver, however, retained the distinction of first publishing the name, but he failed to explain it or even to tell where he got it, and its origin remained a mystery. No one could find that it was known to the Indians among whom he travelled, and the opinion has prevailed that he invented it. In speaking of his plan to cross the continent to the Pacific, Carver merely refers to " the four great rivers that take their rise within a few leagues of each other, nearly about the center of this great continent, viz: the river Bourbon, which empties into Hudson's Bay, the waters of the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and the river Oregan, or the river of the West, that falls into the Pacific Ocean at the Strait of Anian." Recent searching in the Public Records Office in London shows that Carver was not the first traveler to use the term, after all, though he was the first to get it into print. Major Robert Rogers, famous as the leader of Rogers' Rangers in the French and Indian wars, commanded the trading post at Micbili- mackinac during the years of Carver's travels and engaged him to make the journey. Before leaving London to take charge of the post, Rogers addressed a proposal to the Crown to lead an expedition " toward the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon, which flows into a Bay that projects North-Eastwardly into the [mutilated] from the Pacific Ocean, and there to explore the said Bay and its Outletts, and also the Western Margin of the Continent to such a Northern Latitude as shall be thought necessary." This petition was tabled by the Privy Council, but Rogers was sent to Mackinac, as the place was named by the whites, and on reaching America he took Carver into his service. Though funds had not been provided, Rogers sent out exploring parties. No mention of the Oregon is made in ' 5o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Carver, but in the case of two other agents, Captain James Tute, a former officer in the Rangers, and his Secretary, James S. Goddard, a fur trader, Rogers gave directions to search for the river and spelled the name Ourigan. He also suggests that the outlet of the river into the Pacific is between the latitudes of 480 and 500. Carver, in the original manuscript of his book, now in the British Museum, mentions meeting the other party on its way " to Find out the Great River Ourigan that runs into the South sea . . ." He received orders to join the Tute-Goddard party as draughtsman, and the parts of his journal which he did not publish show that he accompanied them until supplies promised by Rogers failed to arrive and they were forced to return to Mackinac. When Rogers was again in London, in 1772, he addressed a second petition to the government, using the spelling Ourigan and showing that he had learned while at Mackinac that the Missouri must be ascended to its source. The other river lay beyond. Carver made two petitions for assistance, in 1769 and 1773, and did not mention the river. His book was not published until 1778. Rogers had been to the Great Lakes in 1760, to accept the surrender of Mackinac from the French, and in 1763 as a guide with the expedition to relieve the garrison at Detroit and put down the Indian revolt. At some time in this period he picked up the name.11 Gray's Second Voyage The Americans had no time to think of Carver's proposals at the time they were published, and after the excitement of the Revolutionary war, Cook's travels monopolized attention. When Captain Gray set out on his momentous second voyage, in 1791, he had not heard of the Oregon. The world learned of Gray's discoveries from Vancouver's published journals. Gray published nothing, and died in 1806. No one realized the importance of his records until President Madison asked for information in 1816. At that time, one of the owners of the Columbia, Charles Bulfinch, copied portions of the original log, including the entries describing the discovery of Gray's harbor and the Columbia river. By this circumstance, Gray's own testimony was preserved.12 There was no further interest in the log for thirty years, and in 1838, when William A. Slacum wished to see it, a search disclosed the fact that a niece of Gray, to whom hisi effects had passed, was using the log as waste paper; the second volume, which 1 covered the great discoveries, had already been destroyed. There are several! sources of information regarding Gray's voyages, but no other journal written: by an eye-witness of the discoveries was known until 1919. H. H. Bancroft pub- lished the journal of Robert Haswell in 1886. Haswell was in command of the) Adventure, launched by Gray after reaching the Coast on his second voyage,: and met Gray a month after the discoveries, which he records in seventy; words.13 In 1919, the Massachusetts Historical Society received as a bequest,! a young EXPLORERS-BY SEA from a grandson, the journals and log-books of John Boit, who v, officer on the ship Columbia and a brother-in-law of one of its ow Gray made land on June 4,1791, and remained for fifteen days in Clayoquot fsound, about fifty miles south of Nootka. After a brief visit to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Houston Stewart's channel, the Columbia sailed up Hecate strait and westward through Dixon's entrance. Near Point Higgins on Revil- lagigedo island, natives killed the second mate and two members of the crew who had entered a cove to fish. Cruising down the west coast of the islands, I the Columbia was again at Clayoquot on August 29, and there Kendrick was found with the Washington, ready to sail for China with 1,000 sea otter skins. In spite of some mistrust, due to the fact that he had made no remittances to the owners since parting with Gray on the first voyage and the suspicion that Gray might have authority to seize the Washington, Kendrick came aboard the Columbia. The reunion proved pleasant, and Kendrick departed unmolested, on September 25. The Columbia wintered in Clayoquot sound, and Gray built the sloop Adventure there. The natives were very friendly, and almost daily visits were received from the chiefs and their women. Gray went to the nearest village several times a week and treated the sick. It was believed that the esteem of the Indians had been won, and the whites felt secure, though ordinary precautions were taken to protect the ships. These would have proved insufficient to prevent the ruin of the expedition, if a warning had not come in time. There were about 2,000 native fighting men in the vicinity, and they had more than 200 guns, with plenty of ammunition, which they had secured in trade. It turned out that they allowed small parties of the whites to go among them freely because they hoped for a favorable opportunity to destroy the entire expedition with a minimum loss to themselves. The opportunity came when the Columbia lay tied to a bank, out of range of the fortified house which had been built and with all the heavy guns ashore, in preparation for graving the ship's bottom. The Indians could have boarded the ship as easily as from a wharf, but their excess of caution betrayed their plans. They sought to win over a Sandwich islands boy by offering to make him a chief if he would wet the firearms of the crew before the attack and come to them as soon as he was apprized of their approach. He communicated the plot to Gray, after some hesitation, due to temptation or fear, and the Americans made preparations. The ship was moved within pistol shot of the fort, and the graving was done at low tide, in the night, by men standing in the water. It was interrupted by Indian calls in the woods, and the men went to their posts. The Indians did not show themselves, and it was presumed that they withdrew when they found that the ship was gone and heard nothing from the boy. The Adventure was launched five days later and put to sea on a trading cruise. The Columbia sailed down the sound to the Indian village, which had been hastily 52 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST . abandoned. Gray, who was given to fits of anger, had not recovered from the 1 effects of the treacherous plot and sent Boit with three boats to destroy the vil-l lage, which was half a mile in diameter and contained about 200 well-built I At the end of April, near the Quillayute river, Gray fell in with the Discov-1 ery and the Chatham, commanded by Captain George Vancouver and Lieu-1 tenant William Broughton. Gray directed the British ships to the Strait of I Juan de Fuca and followed them to the entrance, then cruising south again. I Vancouver had gathered from Meares that Gray had sailed through the strait! and around the island, and he was delighted to hear that this was a mistake. He ] evidently left England before Meares explained that Kendrick commanded! the Washington and that the story of the alleged voyage was told by Ken-I drick to a Mr. Neville, in China. Gray told Vancouver that he had seen! the great river but had been unable to enter it, and Vancouver wrote in hisi journal: " I was thoroughly convinced, as were also most persons of observation on board, I that we could not possibly have passed any safe navigable opening, harbour, or place I of security for shipping on this coast, from Cape Mendocino to the promontory of Classett; nor had we any reason to alter our opinions, notwithstanding that theoretical geographers have thought proper to assert, in that space, the existence of arms of the ocean, communicating with a mediterranean sea, and extensive rivers, with safe and J convenient ports. These ideas, not derived from any source of substantial information, j have, it is much to be feared, been adopted for the purpose of giving unlimited credit to the traditionary exploits of ancient foreigners, and to undervalue the laborious j and enterprising exertions of our own countrymen in the noble science of discovery." 1 Vancouver did not expunge this comment from his journal after learning 1 of Gray's discovery, and it was often used against the British pretensions, to- j gether with the notes which he made on his own observations in Deception bay, before he met Gray. He noticed the color of the water, and in spite of the extent of this sure sign of a large river, he decided that the phenomenon was due to a number of small streams. He wrote that he did not consider the bay worthy of further attention and that the large rivers said to exist in this region , " have been reduced to brooks insufficient for vessels to navigate." Gray did con- 1 sider Deception bay worth looking into again, and his persistence and adventurous spirit won him the prize in a fair contest. It was by no accident that he;] discovered and entered Gray's harbor and the Columbia river, a few days after j leaving the British ships, but by reason of qualities which were lacking in Meares and Vancouver. Gray saw an inlet, on May 7, which looked promising. The cutter was sent in and reported nothing but breakers. The weather was squally but Gray, according to Boit's account, " was determined not to give it up." He had apparently resolved to be turned back no longer by the EXPLORERS-BY SEA 53 appearance of breakers where he was convinced that there must be a channel. He ordered the boat ahead to make soundings, and the ship stood in. A passage was soon seen from the mast head, and the bars were quickly passed. The officers insisted on naming the place Gray's harbor. An incident occurred here which Gray did not enter in his log, possibly because he was sick of the cruelties to which he was compelled to resort among savages. Boit gives it at length, and he felt that the thing was justified, though he had carried out his orders to burn the village in Clayoquot sound with much compunction. The natives at Gray's harbor were numerous and of forbidding appearance. On the first night many canoes approached the ship, plainly with warlike intent, and when one of them carrying twenty men got too near, it was destroyed by the nine-pounder. The effect upon these Indians, who seem to have been ignorant of fire-arms, was favorable, for instead of displaying anger at the death of their tribesmen, they behaved as if they had learned a lesson. Some of their canoes came back on the following day to trade, and their crews were seen explaining the wonder of the cannon to visitors from other parts. Discovery of the Columbia Gray left the harbor on the evening of the tenth, and early in the morning, on May n, 1792, he steered boldly toward the line of breakers in Deception bay. This time, a passage was readily found between the sand bars, the pinnace was sent in and the ship followed with no difficulty, under short sail. That they had entered the great river for which mariners had searched nearly 200 years was at once realized. Gray sailed up the river until he saw a large village and then cast anchor, near Point Ellice, on the north shore. Large numbers of canoes came out to trade. The natives were friendly and evidently had never seen a ship. The casks were filled with fresh water here, as the river was at flood. On the fourteenth, Gray moved up the river twelve or fifteen miles and ran on a shoal. The ship floated off after a while and dropped down to an anchorage off Point Gray, where Gray and Boit went ashore "to view the country." The phrase " and to take possession " was inserted in Boit's narrative at some later date, as shown by the color of the ink. Gray was not a naval officer and undoubtedly omitted the formalities which would have been helpful to his government in the subsequent dispute. The importance of his discovery to the fur trade was well understood, however, as Boit learned from the Indians that there were fifty villages on the river, and set down his opinion that a trading station here and another in the Queen Charlotte islands would control the whole trade of the Coast. Gray named the river Columbia's, and the possessive form suggests that he was thinking of his country as well as his ship. He changed the name of Cape Disappointment to Hancock, but this designation 54 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST was never recognized. His name for the southern entrance of the river, Point 1 Adams, was more fortunate in remaining on the maps. The ship returned to its first anchorage on the sixteenth, and the following day was spent in calking and painting. Three days were consumed in maneuver- | ing to get out of the river, and at five o'clock on the afternoon of May 20, the | ship was clear of the bars and bore away northward under full sail. At Nesparte inlet, it again became necessary to destroy a war canoe, with twenty-five natives, which was leading an attack on the ship. In Queen Charlotte sound, a landing . party was attacked in the woods by 200 natives, but got out on the beach, and i the ship's guns raked the woods with grape-shot. After some further encounters I with hostile natives, the Adventure was spoken on June 17. The Columbia ran on a rock, June 28, and got off with a bad leak. A gale separated the ships at I night, and for some weeks the crew of the Adventure believed that the Columbia had foundered. Gray got to Nesparte inlet, where an examination of the | damage showed that it would be necessary to go to Nootka to complete repairs. Gray had orders not to enter a Spanish port unless in distress. At Nootka, Gray was entertained with great cordiality by the Spaniards. Quadra was a courtly I host to all mariners who visited him. The Americans received assistance in • the repair of the Columbia, storehouses on shore for the cargo and a separate house for Gray and Hoskins, who ate at the Governor's table. Quadra would accept no pay for his services. Gray sailed on August 24 and met the Adventure again on the thirtieth. After another call at Nootka, in September, where I Vancouver's ships were found, the Americans proceeded to the Strait of Juan I de Fuca. Here they rendered assistance to the Spanish ship on which Quadra was returning south, and Boit describes the little Spanish settlement at Neah < bay. The Adventure was sold to the Spaniards, and Gray left the Coast on | October 3 for home, via the Sandwich islands and China, reaching Boston on July 25, 1793. Vancouver in Puget Sound- In the interval between his first meeting with Gray and the last meeting at Nootka, Vancouver made a thorough exploration of Puget sound. Kendrick, in 1789, according to mere hearsay reported by Meares, first sailed around Vancouver island. Alferez Manuel Quimper navigated the strait in 1790 and gave its permanent name to the Canal de Haro, which became the boundary between the United States and Canada. Francisco Elisa was in the Gulf of < Georgia in 1791, but left the question still unsolved as to how far the channels extended to the east. No one had explored what is now called Puget sound. Vancouver's base was for a while opposite the site of Seattle, and several parties were sent out in small boats. His ships next moved up to the present location of Everett, and here he took formal possession of the region, calling it New EXPLORERS-BY SEA 55 Georgia. Vancouver placed many names on his chart which have been retained, including Mounts Rainier and Baker, Hood canal, Port Townsend, Admiralty inlet, Whidby and Vashon islands, Port Orchard, Bellingham bay and Howe sound. He intended that Gulf of Georgia should be the inclusive name of all the waters east of the strait. Admiralty inlet extended from the strait to the vicinity of Seattle, and the lower part of the system was to be Puget sound.15 Explorations were made in boats while the ships were anchored near the present town of Blaine, and Vancouver describes the flats at the mouth of the Fraser but failed to find the river. The discovery of the Fraser was made by land, sixteen years later. While returning to his ships from a boat trip to Howe sound and Jervis inlet, Vancouver fell in with two Spanish vessels commanded by Captains D. Galliano and C. Valdes. The Spaniards had sought in vain for the mouth of the great river said to be in the vicinity. They proved pleasant companions on the voyage north, through Johnstone strait to the ocean. Later, at Nootka, Vancouver respected the wish of Quadra that their names might be linked in the designation of some part of the Pacific Northwest by writing the name Quadra and Vancouver's island on his chart. The double name was in use until the middle of the nineteenth century. Broughton s Exploration Vancouver learned of Gray's discovery at Nootka and, sailing on October 18, sent Lieutenant Broughton with the Chatham to explore the Columbia river. Vancouver continued south, as he did not believe that a ship as large as the Discovery could get in. Broughton found less water than Gray reported, as the river was now at a low stage, and he thought that signs of high water on the banks must have been left by unusual floods. So he remarks that Gray's chart " did not much resemble what it purported to represent." Vancouver got his chart from Quadra. At a point about thirty miles above the entrance, Broughton decided that the river itself began, because it was narrow here. Gray had sailed part way up the lower stretch, which Broughton chose to call a sound. He ingenuously concluded that the honor of discovering the river belonged to himself. In this claim he was supported by Vancouver, and the British government made use of it in the boundary dispute.10 Broughton left the Chatham a few miles above the bar, as he found navigation difficult and ran aground. He continued the exploration in his pinnace and rowed up the river to a point which he estimated to be about too miles from its mouth. He named the point for Vancouver. This was not the place, however, where Fort Vancouver was afterward built. As it had taken seven days to reach the place, provisions were running low. " Mr. Broughton gave up the idea of any further e: o this measure, because even thus far the r is reconcilec :r could hardly be considered as 56 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST navigable for shipping. Previously to his departure, however, he formally took possession of the river and the country in its vicinity, in His Britannic Majesty's name, having every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or state had ever entered this river before; in this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. Gray's sketch, in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray eithee saw or was ever within five leagues of its entrance." Many canoes of friendly Indians were with the Chatham's party on the trip; and an old chief, who accompanied them for a considerable distance and was of great assistance, indicated by signs that there were falls above Point Van! couver and that the source of the river was far to the east. Broughton nevertheT; less thought that the mountains which he saw in that direction must close it| course. He named Mount Hood for Lord Hood, Puget and Walker islands for members of his party and Mount Coffin on account of the Indian burial place, where the dead were laid in canoes. In the lower stretch which he called a sound, he named Gray's bay to emphasize his opinion regarding the American's title. Baker's bay was named for the master of the brig Jenny of Bristol, England, which he found inside the bar when he entered the river. Before seeing the Chatham safely inside and heading the Discovery south, Vancouver' heard a gun fired from Broughton's ship and rightly guessed that there was another vessel in the river. Broughton evidently had no conversation witffl Captain Baker until returning from up-river. He then learned that the Jenny had been inside once before, soon after Gray's discovery. The Jenny and Captain James Baker were well known to Vancouver's men.17 Only a few days before, on October 12, the Jenny was at Nootka, and Baker asked Vancouver to take custody of two Hawaiian girls whom he had added to his mess in the Islands.. Vancouver agreed to give them passage home. Baker alleged that he was bound! " straight for England " and said nothing of having already found the Columf bia. That he did not enter the river before Gray is certain from what is knownl of his presence at Tahiti and Hawaii a short time before. He could hardly! have reached the Columbia within a month following Gray's discovery. Moreover, the river natives told Gray that they had never seen white men. Baker'sf reticence at Nootka was due to his owner's strict injunctions of secrecy regarding all operations of the ship. The Jenny, under another skipper, anchored in the Columbia again, on May 11, 1794. Captain Baker was familiar with the treacherous channel and led the way] when Broughton was ready to sail. In spite of their contentions regarding the real mouth of the river, neither Broughton nor Vancouver sought to change the name which Gray had bestowed upon it, and the Columbia it remained,] even on Vancouver's map, which was published in 1798. Vancouver also ao| cepted the name of Point Adams but retained Meares's significant name for the great headland, Cape Disappointment. Explorers-By Land HENRY KELSEY, AN EMPLOYE OF THE HUDSON S first European to explore the region to the west of Hudson bay. In 1689, he travelled, with an Indian boy as his only companion, from a point north of the mouth of the Churchill river two hundred miles into the wilderness. It was eighty-four years before another white man, Samuel Hearne, entered this region. In 1690, Kelsey was sent by Governor Geyer of York Factory on another western expedition. His travels took him to the Saskatchewan river and some distance south of it. He preceded La Verendrye by forty-seven years. Kelsey was the first to sec the buffalo and grizzly bear of the western plains. Little was known of him, and the story of his travels was hardly taken seriously until his papers and journals turned up at the Records Office, Belfast, Ireland, in 1926.1 1 The first white men to see the Rocky mountains were two sons of Pierre jGaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Verendrye.2 Commencing in 1734, their ' distinguished father built a string of forts from Rainy lake and Lake of the j Woods as far as Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. La Verendrye's ambition to i reach the western sea had been fed by the story of an Indian who, by a voyage of no great length, down a river flowing from Lake of the Woods, had reached a broad expanse of water which ebbed and flowed. This was undoubtedly ' Lake Winnipeg, where an illusion of tides is produced by the winds. Convinced that a route further to the south must be sought, in spite of danger from the i Sioux, he established a base in the Mandan country. He was well aware of ! the danger, for his youngest son, with a priest and twenty men had been mur- ", dered by a Sioux war party at Lake of the Woods. Two of La Verendrye's sons, ' Pierre and Francois, guided by various Indians and finally by a war party going ! against the Snakes, journeyed in the summer and fall of 1742 across Montana ! until they came in sight of the Rockies. They were obliged to turn back at once because their Indian companions became frightened and retreated. Just how far west the explorers went is a matter of controversy. It seems probable j that they did not come north or west of the Yellowstone.3 \ Speculations regarding the possibility of crossing the continent had multiplied for a century previous to La Verendrye, and the length of the journey 58 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST was generally underestimated. The Jesuit fathers recorded in their Relations such geographical information as was obtainable from the Indians.4 In a bocl on the Northwest Passage published in 17445 and in his map, Arthur Dobbs gave credence to Baron La Hontan's narrative and the story told to himsel by an old Indian at Fort Factory. Baron La Hontan was one of the companf of early travelers who journeyed far in imagination. In his account of an entirely fictitious voyage up the " Long " river, in 1688, he tells of meeting Indians who had a deerskin map showing a river beyond lofty mountains, emptying into a great salt lake. This is the first suggestion of the Rockies, but the lake waf frequently reported and may have been either Great Salt lake or the oceanl A curious item in the account given by La Hontan's Indians is that the natives at the salt lake wore sharp-pointed hats. Such hats have been worn only by Coast tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The old Indian with whom Dobbs talked claimed to have accompanied a party of thirty men on a marauding expedite against enemy tribes which included the " Tete Plat." They reached the Coast and saw a " large black fish spouting up water." The narrator was the onlf member of the party who survived a fight with Coast natives and the rigors of the return journey. Narrative of Moncacht-ape In 1758, Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz, a French writer who had resided in Louisiana fifteen years, published the story of a Yazoo Indian named Moncacht-ape, who claimed to have ascended the Missouri to its source in tffl " Shining " mountains. Here he remained long enough to learn the language of the natives. He then crossed the mountains and went down a beautiful river flowing into the ocean. The journey was described with much detail, and the Indian told of assisting a Coast tribe who were his hosts, in an attack c bearded strangers who landed from a ship. Le Page had the story direct, que tioned the Indian and was convinced of his truthfulness. This Indian had previously established a reputation as a traveler by making a journey from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic ocean. His description of the western rivel however, would hardly have come from one who had actually descended the Columbia, and it is suspected that he went only as far as the mountains and constructed the remainder of his travels with information which he gleaned from Indians who had been on the Pacific slope. The river which Moncacht-ape claimed to have explored was called the Belle river by Le Page and the Greffl River of the West by subsequent cartographers. All the information the maker! of the maps had was gathered from the accounts of Moncacht-ape's journey given by French writers. Le Page seems best entitled to tell the story, thouj it got into print five years ahead of his publication, in the Memoires of But< Dumont, another Frenchman who lived for a long period in Louisiana.6 EXPLORERS-BY LAND 59 Similar to the Indian story but with even less contact with reality is the account given by William Davis Robinson of a manuscript which he saw in Mexico, written by a California missionary.7 It was the account of two Spanish (priests who went up the Colorado river at an early date, crossed the mountains and descended a river to the sea at about latitude 43° 30'. Their description of the country betrays the story as fiction. John Dunn Hunter, who seems to have had some experience on the prairies, published, in 1823, the account of a journey which he claimed to have made to the mouth of the Columbia. He was undoubtedly an impostor.8 Alexander Mackenzie I The first white man to cross the continent north of Mexico was Alexander 'Mackenzie. He emigrated from Scotland to Canada in his youth and entered the fur trade. While at Fort Chipewyan, in charge of the Athabasca district ;for the North West Fur Company, he had the opportunity to carry out a long xherished plan to explore the river flowing out of Great Slave lake, which was ■thought to lead to the Pacific.9 In June, 1789, he took a birch bark canoe, with •a German and four Canadians as crew, and navigated this river to what proved .to be the Arctic ocean. He returned in September with the knowledge at least that no practicable Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific could : exist, because the continent extended too far within the arctic circle. In October, 11792, he set out from Fort Chipewyan on his principal expedition. He travelled twith canoes a week's voyage past the last trading establishment on the Peace river and went into winter quarters. Here he built a twenty-five foot canoe sof birch bark, and on May 9, 1793, with Alexander Mackay, six French Cana- 1 dians and two Indians, he started for the Coast. ) At the forks of the Peace river, following the advice of an Indian, he made his way up the Parsnip. On June 9, Indians told him of a portage which led to a large river flowing into the ocean. They had never seen white men, but ithey exhibited ironwork which had come from the Coast, where the natives were said to have bought it from ships. After the portage, a small stream was J found running southward. Rapids, whirlpools, treacherous rocks, sandbars and i driftwood reduced the canoe to such a battered condition that the voyageurs isat on the bank and wept. It was only by a fervid appeal to their pride that iMackenzie dissuaded them from deserting. The canoe was repaired, and at } length they entered the Fraser river. They were greeted by the Carrier Indians a shower of arrows. Mackenzie was lucky in conciliating this tribe, for otherwise the expedition would have gone no further. Two Carriers who agreed to accompany him were useful in correcting the attitude of other tribes, which was menacing at first. The Indians assured him that an easy trail led their country overland to the sea, while the river below them was full 60 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of dangers and the tribes at its mouth were murderous. This information and the fact that Mackenzie had only thirty days' provisions and very little ai nition made the overland route decidedly preferable. The start was made in company with seven Carriers on July 4, each me of the expedition packing seventy to ninety pounds beside his gun and ai nition and each Indian grumbling under forty-five pounds. Messengers ahead to make friends for the white men, and the Bella Coola river was reachel in thirteen days. Here the natives overwhelmed Mackenzie with hospitality, and one of the chiefs gave him a splendid robe of sea-otter skins. He found] it difficult to get away, until he got out his astronomical instruments tc an altitude, when it occurred to the natives that the salmon might be as badhj frightened as they were and might leave the neighborhood. So they g£ Mackenzie a canoe, guides and a hasty farewell. He passed out of the Bell| Coola river into salt water, —North Bentinck arm, —and went down Dean channel to a point beyond Elcho harbor. Here there was an unobstructed of fifteen miles down the channel. Indians were encountered who had seen Vancouver's men a few weeks before. On a ledge near the mouth of Elcho harbor, Mackenzie painted the legend: "Alexander Mackenzie from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety- three." 10 As the natives claimed to have been fired upon by Vancouver's men and behaved in a threatening manner, Mackenzie evaded them and got from the place as quickly as possible. The return journey occupied about a month. Mackenzie went to London and published his Voyage in 1801. He was knighted and afterwards became the chief influence in the X Y Company and in the North West Fur Company after the consolidation of the two. As nearly all his explorations, after leaving Peace river on his second expedition, were made below 55°, his discoveries were of prime importance to Great Britain's claims in the Oregon country. Simon Fraser In 1805, Simon Fraser of the North West Company, accompanied by John Stuart, followed the route of Mackenzie as far as the mouth of the Necha the Fraser. He built posts at Stuart and Fraser lakes, and in 1807 he rec instructions to explore the Fraser, still supposed to be the Columbia.11 Fort George was built at the mouth of the Nechaco as the base of the expedition, which left in four canoes on May 28. The party was composed of Fraser, Stuart, Jules Quesnel, nineteen voyageurs and two Indian guides. Day after day it was a question whether the river or a portage was the worse. A horse fell from a cliff into the river, with Stuart's writing desk and medicine chest. A man got jammed by his pack among the rocks, and Fraser crawled out on a ledgj and extricated the man by cutting loose the pack, which was lost. At the mouth EXPLORERS-BY LAND of the Thompson, after the canoes had been abandoned and the men had tramped several days with eighty-pound packs, a native canoe was secured, and three of the party tried the river again, while the rest proceeded on foot. Other canoes were found further on. In a stretch of river which could not be navigated, the canoes were released empty, and they were recovered some distance below, in fair condition. The men had to pack over steep ledges which «... evidently much travelled, to judge by the native ladders,-poles hanging end o end and crossed at intervals with sticks serving as steps. This n burdened as were the voyageurs. a point n however, was not intended for the t A hostile tribe forced the expedition to turn back at a point not far'froi the river's mouth, —probably near New Westminster. Fraser's observations showed that he was not on the Columbia, for the location of its mouth was known. He states that he would have turned back at the spot where he had to leave his canoes if he had suspected that the river was not the Columbia. At two points on the trip, doubts must have arisen, — when Indians on the Chilcotin informed him that whites had recently passed down the first large river to the left, and when the tribe at the mouth of the Thompson told of another large river emptying into the sea. The travelers of whom he heard w David Thompson's party, who were on the Columbia without realizing it. President Jefferson's Interest Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson had been arousing American interest in western exploration. As early as 1782, he quoted " a Mr. Stanley " who claimed to have been captured by the Indians and tt' flowing westward. In 1783, he wrote to George Rogers Clark regarding a plan to forestall British exploration in the direction of California. In 1786, he met John Ledyard in Paris and assisted this extraordinary Connecticut Yankee in connection with Ledyard's plan to sail from Siberia to the Northwest Coast and then to make his way overland to the States.12 Ledyard had been to the Coast, with Captain Cook, and he possessed a physique which might have been equal to any task set by his imagination. Jefferson allowed that he perhaps had too much imagination, but put trust in his strength and resourcefulness. Ledyard hardened himself for the journey by making his way alone and on foot, in midwinter, from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, through Lapland and Finland. His road lay partly within the arctic circle, and he covered fourteen hundred miles in seven weeks. After he had crossed Siberia to Yakutsk, Catherine of Russia caused him to be returned under guard and conducted into Poland. The Empress professed unwillingness to connive at an exploit which she had decided to be suicidal for the courageous American. It is very likely that the Russian American Company persuaded her that an American observer among their establishments on the Coast would be undesirable. Jefferson next 62 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST promoted, in 1793, the plan of Andre Michaux, a French botanist, tc America, with the financial assistance of the American Philosophical Society. This help was made conditional on adoption of the route up the Missouri. Jefferson had Carver's statement about the Oregon at the time, but did nl know of Gray's discovery. Michaux was diverted from the proposed expedition by other activities. Lewis and Clark Expedition As President, ten years later, Jefferson was confronted with the possibility that his plan to purchase Louisiana might fail and with the probability that, following Mackenzie's advice, the British claims would be advanced to a point on the upper Mississippi from which a straight line drawn to the Pacific would reach the Coast south of the Columbia. Jefferson decided to get Americans in the valley of the Columbia without delay in order to establish a claim 1 exploration in addition to Gray's discovery of the river. The need seemed so urgent that he was willing to send an expedition under American army officers across French territory, and Congress approved the plan and appropriated the $25,000 requested, before news of the purchase of Louisiana arrived. Jefferson selected his private secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis of Virginia, to lead the expedition and, at Lewis's suggestion, appointed William Clark, younger brother of James Rogers Clark, to share the command. When Clark's commission was delivered, it proved to be that of a Second Lieutenant, but this made no difference with Lewis, who treated him as equally responsible and always referred to him as Captain Clark. As far as any one could see, Lewis and Clark were joint commanders of the expedition, and they worked together as a perfect team.13 The winter of 1803-1804 was spent in camp, near the mouth of the Missouri, drilling the men, building boats and assembling supplies. On May 14, ffl expedition started up the Missouri, and in October it went into near the villages of the Mandan Indians, and Fort Mandan was built. When ready to leave for the Coast, the force consisted of three sergeants, twenty-three privates, Clark's negro servant and two interpreters. The enlisted men had been picked up at various western posts and included nine experienced Kentucky hunters. Charbonneau, an interpreter secured at the Mandan villages, took one of his three Indian wives with him, — Sacajawea, who became famous as thi principal guide and interpreter of the expedition. She had been captured by the Blackfeet at a time when her people were hunting near the Great falls ol the Missouri. Many were killed in the fight, and several young people we taken captive. Three of the girls were inseparable friends. One of them escap and made her way back to her people. Sacajawea refused to go without h other friend, who slept too soundly to hear the signal for departure. Thes< EXPLORERS-BY LAND 6; two were won by Charbonneau in a gambling bout with the chief. A boy wa born to Sacajawea in the Mandan village, and she took the baby with her o: the journey. Fortv, 'e Contact with the Shoshones Lewis and Clark left the Mandan villages on April 7,1805, and went up the Missouri in canoes, past the mouth of tbe Yellowstone. Their chief concern was to locate the Shoshones and to win the friendship of these Indians, whose help was essential in finding the way to the Columbia basin. There is no telling what might have happened if Lewis had not risked everything on the Shoshone Chief Cameahwait's sense of honor when he fell in with him, if Sacajawea had not been with the expedition and if it had not turned out that Cameahwait was her brother. The fact that the Indians west of the Divide had never seen white men was also greatly in favor of the explorers. The natives at first were either afraid or curious and could be easily handled. The spring of 1805 was backward. This made game plentiful in the hills, and the Indians were hunting away from the rivers. On July 22, Sacajawea recognized the country, and the leaders looked anxiously for the Shoshones. When the three forks of the Missouri were reached on July 25, it was decided to ascend the Jefferson. Lewis and three others went ahead, crossed the Continental Divide through the Lemhi pass, and on August 13, after two futile efforts to treat with frightened Indians, Lewis induced a squaw to lead him to her people. Friendly relations were established with a band of warriors, and the whites were embraced with great cordiality and "no small share of the grease and paint" of the braves. Lewis persuaded the band to return with him ! across the Divide, to help transport the supplies of the main party. He told them how they might profit by the safe passage of the expedition, of the Shoshone woman who was with them and of York, Clark's negro. I York proved the strongest attraction. They had never even heard of black When the main party was not found at the forks of the Beaverhead, where Lewis had said it would be, the Indians felt uneasy, and they accused Lewis of seeking to betray them into the hands of the Blackfeet. Whereupon Lewis and his companions gave their guns to the Indians as a pledge. One of the white men and an Indian were sent down the river in search of the others. Clark's party had been detained by the difficulties of the Beaverhead. When Sacajawea saw her tribesman, she began to dance and sucked her fingers, — the sign that the man was of her own people. At the Indian camp, she recognized the girl who had been captured with her and had escaped, and the two embraced with great tenderness. A council was called, and Sacajawea was asked to act as interpreter. As she was beginning to translate, she recognized Cameahwait 64 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST as her brother and ran to him, weeping. Promises of horses were made byj the chief, and a silver medal was presented to him, bearing on one side a like-j ness of Jefferson and on the other a pipe and tomahawk, crossed, and clasped hands. As the native reports regarding the rivers were alarming, Clark undertook a reconnaissance to determine the possibilities of the Salmon. The Indian camp was now on the Lemhi river, some distance above its junction with the Salmon. Here Clark engaged an old man who knew the country to the north as guide. A rough journey of three days along the Salmon convinced Clark that there was no passage that way, and the only choice was to let the guide take the expedition into the Bitter Root valley. While Lewis waited at Shoshone cove, as the fork of the Beaverhead and Rock creek was named, the men occupied? the time in making pack-saddles. The Journals praise the generosity of thel Shoshones. Game was scarce, and the natives had barely enough to eat; yet they were liberal in the extreme to the travelers. The behavior of the Indians was deferential. They did not steal, and they were careful to return borrowed kettles and knives. The Charbonneaus and the chief came in with about fifty men and their families, bringing horses for the expedition. The canoes were; concealed, and the collections already made and some of the supplies were cached at Shoshone cove. To this rendezvous Clark returned by a different route on the home journey in 1806. Crossing the Divide On August 24, they loaded the horses " as heavily as was prudent, placing the rest on the shoulders of the Indian women." Except for Sacajawea, whose husband had bought her a horse, all proceeded on foot. An Indian, out of politeness, offered Lewis one of his horses to ride. The next day it was learned through Sacajawea that the Indians were planning to make their way down the Missouri in search of the game of which they were greatly in need. Lewis called the chiefs together and reminded them of their promise to see the exj dition safely across the Divide. Cameahwait admitted that he was doing Seeing his people in want of food, he had wished to hasten the annual hum He rescinded his orders, and the Indians stayed with the explorers u Lemhi pass was crossed. On August 30, the expedition started down the Lemhi river, accompanied by the Indian guide, and Cameahwait's people turned back. The smoke of signal fires was seen in several quarters, assembling the tribes for their journey to the buffalo plains. The guide took the party over Clark's previous route down the Salmon to Boyle's creek, then northwest over the hills and up Fish creek. The Bittel Roots were crossed at the sharp angle where they join the Beaverhead range. This put the explorers on the wrong side of the mountains again, bu EXPLORERS-BY LAND 65 necessary to cross the Bitter Roots twice in order to get out of the Salmon river valley and into the upper reaches of the Clearwater. The way was so steep that horses sometimes fell backwards. In the valley known as Ross's Hole a large Flathead camp was found, with five hundred fine horses. Gifts were exchanged, and horses were purchased. Following the Bitter Root river the party reached Traveler's-rest creek, now Lolo creek, on September 9, and four days later they went through Lolo pass. Provisions were running low, and the worst privations and hardships of the entire expedition were suffered on the Lolo trail.14 The western slope of the Bitter Roots is a maze of ridges branching from several main ranges, on which peaks rise to 10,000 feet elevation. The lateral spurs run in all directions in a most bewildering fashion, and the ruggedness of the landscape has been emphasized by glacial action, which sharpened the crags and gouged out deep canons. The Lolo trail was made by the Indians long ago and runs as nearly as possible along the crest of the primary ridges. It has many ramifications, and on the western journey the expedition was often off the main track, as the guide himself was confused. In the canon of White Sand creek, they were forced to kill a colt for food. The guide was mistaken in descending to this stream, and they had to climb out again and hunt for the trail on top of the ridge. Snow had concealed it, and the only signs were marks where the burdens of Indian horses had rubbed the low branches of the trees. Another colt was killed, and two exhausted horses were left behind. The situation became so serious that a new plan was adopted, and on September 16, Clark and the best hunters set out in advance. There was nothing, however, to hunt. Game has always been plentiful in the Bitter Roots, but never in the vicinity of the Lolo trail. A stray horse was killed. Most of the meat was hung in a tree for the other party and was very acceptable. All that Lewis had to supplement the horse meat was a wolf and a few pheasants and gray squirrels. His men were growing thin and weak and were troubled with dysentery and skin eruptions. Coming out on Weippe prairie, Clark found three Indian boys, who hid in the tall grass. He overcame their fears and induced them, with presents of ribbon, to announce him at a Nez Perce village about a mile away. A man came out cautiously and led the strangers to a large tent, where the natives viewed them with mingled curiosity and misgiving. The Indians were hospitable, and over-eating, after the period of short ra ' made Clark very ill. There were many women and few men at the 1 and it was learned that the head chief and all the warriors were away on a raid. The chief at a neighboring village drew a map of the river. Clark sen visions to Lewis and went down to the camp of one of the principal chiefs, Twisted Hair, who was fishing at the mouth of Jim Ford's creek. Twisted Hair drew a map on white elkskin, showing the river route apparently as far 66 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST as The Dalles. Clark says that when he had several Indians make maps of the same country, the details varied little. The main party was meanwhile having its own troubles. The horses, " as I wild as elk," frequently scattered. In one instance, valuable merchandise and all Lewis's winter clothing were carried off by a pack animal. In a second effort to recover this horse, two men found it but lost it again, along with the horse which they took with them, and returned exhausted. After the main party reached the Nez Perce village, Lewis and all the men were ill for ten days or more. Their distress was due to the new diet of dried fish and camas as much as to their weakened condition, and the hot weather on the prairies added to their discomfort. A horse was killed to make broth for the sick. Canoe Voyage to the Sea A point at the junction of the middle and north forks of the Clearwater was selected for canoe building. Logs were fashioned and burned out. Work j proceeded slowly on account of excessive heat and the weakness of the men. The first canoes were launched on October 5, and the horses were rounded up and branded, as the Indians agreed to keep them until the return of the expedition. The saddles and some ammunition were cached, and the voyage commenced on October 7. Two Nez Perce chiefs went along as guides. The old Shoshone and his son deserted. They were last seen running up stream, and i they never called for their pay, but it was afterwards learned that each had j taken a horse. At the mouth of the Clearwater, where Lewiston and Clarkston are situated, large numbers of Indians rode in from villages on the streams, to view the strangers. By this time, the whites, except Clark, were able to relish dog meat, which j was frequently purchased.15 Some of the Indians were more willing to sell ] dogs than good fish, and the whites preferred dog meat to fish, for the fish j which the Indians offered was often bad, and it was observed that they took dead salmon from the rivers. When the camas bread obtained at the first Nez Perce village soured, from being frequently wet in the canoes, it was found | that a good quality of beer could be made from it. In the canoe voyage down ; the Clearwater and the Snake, much equipment and merchandise was los by upsets in rough water, and precious time was consumed in drying out the goods which were salvaged. At the mouth of the Snake, there was a great gathering of natives who had heard of the approaching expedition. The Indian expressed their friendliness by dances in which as many as two hundred at a time took part. Clark ascended the Columbia nearly to the mouth of the Yakima. Two chiefs collaborated in making him a map of the river, which showed very well the Yakima, Wenatchee and Okanogan rivers and the bend of the Columbia to the east, with the location of various tribes. There was EXPLORERS—BY LAND 67 plenty of dog meat at this camp, and the leaders bought forty dogs to take with them when they left. Below the mouth of the Walla Walla river, the explorers met Yellepit, head chief of the Walla Wallas, who was evidently a remarkable Indian. He was helpful to them on the return trip and was afterwards favorably known to the whites. He is described as a handsome, well proportioned man, with a bold and dignified countenance. At the Umatilla rapids, Clark shot a white crane from a high cliff, and, at the report of the gun and the fall of the bird, he saw natives on the other bank running to their lodges. Crossing the river, he and his men, holding pipes in their hands, entered several lodges and found the Indians weeping and wringing their hands in fright. He says that he " could have tomahawked every Indian there." The offer of a smoke and small gifts calmed them, but outside the lodges they were not completely reassured until they saw Sacajawea. Writing of her services, Clark says: "The wife of Charbonneau, our interpreter, reconciles all the Indians as to our friendly intentions. A woman with a party of men is a token of peace." A useful adjunct was the music of the violins, supplemented with dancing by the entire company. The dancing explorers were usually weary and anxious, but the performance served to put the natives in good spirits. The solo dances of Clark's negro servant were always effective. In the treeless sections of the Snake and Columbia rivers, it was necessary to buy wood for cooking purposes, and Indians who had brought small stores of wood long distances charged high for it. By the time they made the long portage at Celilo falls, the explorers had become familiar with the propensity of the natives on this part of the river to pay themselves out of travelers' baggage |or services rendered, and due precautions were taken. So thick were the fleas in the straw and fish skins of the native camps that the men had to work naked on the portage, in order to free their bodies more quickly of the insects. The party ran the short and long narrows in their canoes, which had been lightened of the men who could not swim. These men were stationed along the high rims, with ropes to throw in case of accident. Indians crowded the rocks and seemed astonished that the boats got through. Clark admits that the rapids, bulging upward in the center and frequently breaking into swirling eddies, looked much worse when he was in them than from the ledge above. The risk was taken on the advice of Peter Crusat, the chief waterman (and first violin) of the expedition. The two Nez Perce guides would go no further because of enemy tribes. Camp was made at the present site of The Dalles city, on an easily defended point at the mouth of Mill creek. On the balance of the journey, the size and military character of the party and its constant vigilance were the only things which preserved it from attack. Here they made their first acquaintance with the Chinooks, and they noted brass kettles, sailor clothing, a gun 68 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and other evidence of trade with ships. Even in burial vaults, they saw kettles and frying pans, " killed " (by punctures) to accompany their owners. The portage at the Cascades was made without difficulty. The Chinooks became more thievish, and many of them were armed with muskets and pistols and had powder flasks. The mouth of the Willamette was not noticed on the western trip. Near the Cowlitz, an Indian was found who spoke some English and said that he was going down river to trade with a Mr. Haley. Approaching the mouth of the Columbia, the canoes rolled so heavily in the swells that some of the men were seasick. The north shore was first explored, to Cape Disappointment, High head and Long beach. The famous Chinook chief, Concomly, visited the explorers, and tbe women of his tribe lost no time in striking up a close acquaintance with the enlisted men. In November, while the expedition was somewhere on the north side of the river, the brig Lydia of Boston, with John R. Jewitt aboard, whose adventures are told in Chapter VI, sailed ten miles up the Columbia. The traders were told by the Chinooks that Lewis and Clark had been there. For some reason of their own, the natives withheld the information that they were still in the vicinity. Lewis later recorded his disappointment at not meeting any of the traders. Fort Clatsop The expedition crossed to the south side on November 26. Fort Clatsop was built in December, in timber about seven miles from the sea, three miles up Lewis and Clark river.16 A brave attempt was made to celebrate Christmas in the partly built post. A salvo of guns and a song awakened the leaders. Tobacco was given to the men who used it and handkerchiefs to those who didn't. Clark lists the gifts which he received, including fleece underwear from Lewis and two dozen white weasel tails from Sacajawea. The day was rainy, as were most of the days which the explorers spent in the Clatsop region. The Christmas dinner consisted of spoiled elk, without salt, and "very disagreeable both to taste and smell," dried fish which had gone bad and a few roots. The hut leaked, the room filled with smoke, and the fleas allowed no time for rest. Regular army post discipline was enforced with the completion of the fort. Natives had to leave before sunset, when the gate was closed and sentinels were posted. On December 28, five men with large kettles were sent to the beach, to find a place for making salt. The salt camp was established at Seaside. On December 31, the Indian with freckles and red hair, mentioned elsewhere, appeared at the fort. He understood English to some extent, but could not speak it. Fourteen of the party made a trip early in January, to see a whale which had come ashore on Nehalem beach. Sacajawea was taken along, after shei had protested that it was hard to come so far and not to see the ocean. While: EXPLORERS-BY LAND 6q at the camp of natives who were boiling blubber, a plot to kill McNeil, one of the enlisted men, was frustrated by a Chinook woman, "an old friend of McNeil's," who alarmed the camp by screaming, when she saw a native from another tribe conducting the unsuspecting victim to his fate. A number of the men were under treatment all winter for infection received at their first contact with Concomly's tribe. When a party of Chinook women camped near by, in March, and laid siege to Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark exacted vows of celibacy from their company. Large numbers of elk still ranged the plain and hills in the vicinity of the fort in 1806, and the expedition lived chiefly on elk meat. From December 1 to March 20, they killed 131 elk and twenty deer. The food problem again became serious about March 1, when the animals moved back into the mountains, and a canoe was sent to the Columbia, to buy fish. The Eastern Journey Before leaving for the East, Lewis and Clark presented certificates of good conduct to two chiefs. The fort was turned over to Chief Coboway of the Clatsops, and he occupied it winters for several years.17 The expedition departed on March 23, and on the return trip they heard of the Willamette river, called the Multnomah by the natives. Clark, with six men and an Indian guide, found of Portland, and he noted that the roadway was n-of-war or ship of any burden." He secured maps s, showing tribal habitats. Reports of game shortage ng down the Columbia were disquieting, and tbe iduct of the tribes between the Cascades and The Dalles kept the explorers continuously on the defensive. When the long narrows were reached, it was found that they were now unnavigable in both directions. So the larger boats were cut up for fuel, and five small canoes were taken over the portages. Pack horses were purchased, but slowly, as the natives wanted too much for them or flatly refused to sell. The expedition proceeded partly on land and partly in the canoes. A Nez Perce Indian and his family, returning up river with thirteen head of horses, joined the party, and some of his animals were rented for packing. The last canoes were sold on April 24. The expedition travelled on the north side of the river, and on approaching the Walla Walla country they were met by Chief Yellepit, who conducted them to one of his villages on that side. The Indians provided a generous supply of fuel and treated the whites with great respect. On the following day, Yellepit assisted in getting the horses across the Columbia but insisted on the explorers staying for a dance that night, to which he had invited a neighboring Yakima tribe. About 550 natives danced at the same time, and to their immense delight some of the whites joined in their dance, beside giving the his way to the present sit< " sufficiently deep for a m; of the river from the Indiai gathered from natives con thievish and hostile c 7o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST usual American performance. Conversation with the Shahaptian people was I made possible by the presence of a Shoshone woman prisoner and Sacajawea. All the baggage was ferried over in the morning, and an old trail was taken I across country from the mouth of the Walla Walla past the present sites of Waitsburg and Dayton. Some of Yellepit's young men caught up with thel expedition, two days after the start, bringing a steel trap which had been I accidentally left behind, " an act of integrity rarely witnessed among Indians." The day before the Snake was reached, a Nez Perce chief came to meet them, who had gone down the Snake by land the previous fall, while the explorers were passing down the river in their canoes, and had done much to prepare a friendly reception for them among the lower tribes. On May 4, the Snake was struck, below the mouth of the Clearwater, and here one of the chiefs and the pilot who had accompanied them down river were found. These men promised to guide them up the Clearwater and assisted in transporting them across the river at this point. The ministrations of Lewis and Clark to the sick assumed special importance from their arrival at Yellepit's village until they were safely across the! Rockies. Medical services were offered in place of merchandise, which had run out except for trinkets which the men themselves manufactured. Food in the shape of horses and dogs was demanded as the price of treatment. Lewis says that Clark was the favorite physician. A native offered a fine gray mare fori a phial of eye-water. Eye trouble was prevalent among the Indians, from fishing on the sunlit waters. Clark confesses that he treated some cases which were plainly convalescent and cheerfully took the credit for cures which nature had already performed. " We take care," he says, " to give them no article which can possibly injure them." An Indian found, by means of his dog, some canisters of powder cached on the voyage down the Clearwater but surrendered them when the explorers returned and was duly rewarded. In their camp of May 5, near a village at the mouth of the Potlatch river, Lewis and Clark met three Coeur d'Alene Indians, who said that they lived at the falls of a large river flowing into the Columbia from the east and heading in a lake in the mountains, not far from the falls. This is the first description of the Spokane country. Clark's map shows that the explorers got a better idea of the northern rivers from the Indians than the confused statements in the Journals indicate. On the map, the Clark fork is made to describe a great arc, with Pend d'Oreille lake omitted and the Spokane flowing into the Clark instead of into the Columbia. The location of Coeur d'Alene lake, the falls, Latah creek and the Little Spokane is approximately correct. The explorers realized that the Bitter Root was a branch of the Clark fork and that they were the first white men on any part of this important river.18 The Clearwater was crossed to the south side on May 7, and Jack's creek EXPLORERS-BY LAND ?I was ascended a few miles. Twisted Hair was found on the plain beyond. The horses were rounded up, in fair condition, and the chief was paid. Though the Journals record several instances of genuine hospitality on the part of the Indians, they testify that the high spot was reached at the village of Tunna- chemootoolt, head chief of the Nez Perces, on Lawyer's Canon creek. Here the party remained several days, and the Indians put up a large tent for them, gave them horses and seemed offended at the offer of goods in exchange. At a council with these Indians, four interpreters and five languages were required to communicate the message of Lewis and Clark. It was given in French by one of their men to Charbonneau, in Hidatsa by Charbonneau to his wife, in Shoshone to a slave from her nation and finally in Nez Perce to the chiefs. On May 13, the expedition went into camp on the upper Clearwater and waited nearly a month for the heavy snows to melt. Their first attempt, in June, to cross the mountains failed because the snow was still fifteen feet deep. So they returned to Weippe prairie and waited until June 24, when another start was made, with two Indian guides. The snow on the trail had melted to seven feet, and the Journals express admiration for the guides; so well did they know the way that wherever a piece of clear ground could be seen the summer trail was found there. On June 30, the expedition was on Traveler's-rest creek once more, with all its men. Here Lewis and Clark decided to separate, and on July 3 Lewis and nine men departed for the North, to explore the Marias river. On the same day Clark and the rest of the party left for the cache at Shoshone cove, but in returning they crossed the Divide at once, by Gibbon's pass, into the Big Hole. Guided by Sacajawea across the Wisdom river country, where she had often been in her childhood, Clark found his cache on the Beaverhead undisturbed. The expedition went down to the junction of the Madison and Jefferson rivers, with all the baggage in the canoes. From this point, Sergeant John Ordway continued down the Missouri with nine men and six boats, and Clark, with Sacajawea as guide, eleven men and fifty horses, crossed through Bozeman pass and went down the Yellowstone. Ordway picked up Lewis's party near the mouth of Marias river, just as the latter completed a ride of 120 miles in twenty-four hours, after a fight with eight Piegan Indians. Two natives were killed in the fight, and while Lewis was speeding toward the Missouri, the surviving braves were hurrying away in the opposite direction, more scared than the explorers.10 Lewis's horses were turned loose, and the canoes proceeded on a rough voyage down to the mouth of the Yellowstone, where a note was found from Clark, showing that he had already passed. A few days later, Lewis was accidentally shot through the hip, while hunting. Clark's party was overtaken on July 12. Dugouts were used by the latter on the Yellowstone, and while the I. 72 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST men were constructing them twenty-four of their horses disappeared, presumably run off by Crow Indians, whose signal fires had been seen on the mountains. Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor and two men started driving the remaining horses down the river when the boats set out. Pryor soon learned that he must send one man ahead to get buffaloes off their route, because whenever the horses sighted a buffalo herd they were off at once in pursuit, surrounding the herd as Indian riders had accustomed them to do. The Crows stole Pryor's horses the second night after the start, and thirteen days later he and his men overtook Clark. Near Pompey's Pillar, they made two bull boats, or skiffi canoes. The expedition spent three days in the Mandan villages, where Charbonneau and his wife remained. A few days before reaching St. Louis, Lewis and Clark met Captain John McClallan, a retired officer on a trading venture, who told them that they " had been long since given up by the people of the United States generally, and almost forgotten." They arrived at St. Louis on' September 23, at the successful finish of the most important exploration ever undertaken by the government. Story of the Journals It is curious that such extraordinary material as the Lewis and Clark Journals had to wait a century for publication. Jefferson arranged that full records of the expedition should be kept. Lewis and Clark made daily notes and transcribed them, after the journey, in blankbooks. No report was made to thel government, as Jefferson wished the explorers to enjoy the profits which might be derived from private publication of their adventures. A prospectus was issued in 1807, but the work had to be deferred.20 The authors had been rewarded with public offices which kept them too busy for literary labors. Lewis was appointed Governor of Louisiana Territory, and Clark was commissioned Brigadier General of the Louisiana militia and Indian Agent for the Territory. He later became Governor of Missouri and, in 1820, the first federal Superintendent of Indian Affairs. In February, 1806, before the expedition returned, Congress published a Message from the President in which was a letter from Lewis describing the experiences of the explorers up to their departure from the Mandan villages in April, 1805. Early in 1807, Sergeant Patrick Gass of the exploring party published his Journal, at Philadelphia. Three new American editions had appeared by 1812, and the book was issued in England, France and Germany.21 The Lewis letter which appeared as a public document in 1806 was made the basis of a series of counterfeit narratives of the expedition, which began to appear in 1809. These books were padded with miscellaneous information concerning the Indians. In 1809, arrangements were made for Lewis to finish the editorial work. He EXPLORERS-BY LAND 73 was riding through Tennessee and, while staying at a settler's house, lost his life, probably by murder for the purpose of robbery, though the report was given out that he committed suicide. Clark, still jogged by President Jefferson, secured as editor Nicholas Biddle, a young man of many talents and of proved ability in the foreign service of the government. Biddle made a digest of the Journals, in general preserving the language of the writers, sometimes condensing the narrative and again expanding it with details furnished by Clark, by Gass's Journal and by the notes of Sergeant John Ordway, which Clark supplied. Moreover, George Shannon, a private in the expedition, who was studying law in Philadelphia, and afterwards rose high in his profession and in politics, was constantly consulted. Biddle's edition of the Journals is one of the most notable achievements in American letters. It appeared in 1814, however, as " prepared for the press by Paul Allen, Esquire." Biddle was unable to see the work through the press and generously allowed Allen to take all the credit. Subsequent editions of the Journals have been reprints of Biddle, —in the case of the 1893 edition of Elliott Coues, compared with the originals and extensively annotated. With this exception, the originals lay untouched for two generations in the archives of the American Philosophical Society. They were first published in their entirety in 1904, together with the narratives of Charles Floyd and Joseph Whitehouse, and most capably edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. The excellence of Biddle's digest led the public to rest content with the 1814 version and its reprints. When the Biddle edition appeared, 583 of the two thousand copies were destroyed in some unexplained manner, and the net profit from the remainder was $154.10, of which Clark and Biddle got nothing. Allen had received $500 for his trouble. Concerning Sacajawea There has been much controversy concerning the history and name of the Indian woman, Sacajawea. That she received the name of Lost Woman from her own tribe has already been mentioned. They also gave her the name of Grass Woman. These designations are unimportant. The question is whether the spelling of her more familiar name should be changed to Sakakawea. Of course the discussion is purely academic, for it is not likely that the accepted name will be erased from literature and the monuments at this late day. It is nevertheless interesting to know the facts. Sakakawea means Bird Woman in the Hidatsa language, and the first inquiry is why she should be called Bird Woman. It is certain that another name was given her by her own people when they found her with the Lewis and Clark expedition, "tracking" their boats on the Beaverhead. According to John E. Rees, this name was composed of the Shoshone words saca (boat), tzaw (pull) and meah (to go).22 The combination Saca-tzaw-meah meant something like Goes-with-pulled-boats. The middle 74 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST word would be emphasized, and the tz was pronounced as j. In the original draft of the Journals, Lewis wrote the last syllable with an m, and Clark afterward cancelled this spelling and inserted, in red ink, Sahcagahwea. Nicholas! Biddle, who compiled the first edition of the Journals (1814) and had access to! the records kept by other members of the party as well as the personal advice of Clark, spells the name Sahcajahweah the first time he uses it, as if to suggest its pronunciation, and thereafter consistently employs the spelling which hasi prevailed, — Sacajawea. To call her "Sacajawea or Bird Woman" is to mix the Shoshone and Hidatsa terms. She was Sakakawea (Bird Woman) to thej Hidatsa and Sacatzawmeah (Goes with pulled-boats) to her own people. Those who doubt that she had the Hidatsa name at first hand suggest that thet Shoshones, in uttering the name which they bestowed upon her, made sign! to explain its meaning, and Charbonneau thought that they meant to indicate a bird when they used the sign for boat. Lewis and Clark frequently referred to her as Charbonneau's wife or the Indian woman and evidently inserted her Shoshone name when they were revising the Journals for publication. By 1813, there were reports that both Charbonneau and Sacajawea were dead. Brackenridge mentions her in his Journal as " a good creature, of a mildl and gentle disposition, greatly attached to the whites, whose manners and dress she tries to imitate; but she had become sickly and longed to revisit her native country." 23 In 1812, John C. Luttig, a clerk of the Missouri Fur Company, recorded the death of " the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake squaw."24 This musn have been Otter Woman, the other Shoshone captive. Charbonneau disappeared and was thought to have died. Stella M. Drumm, in her appendix to Luttig'sj Journal, says that in August, 1813, Luttig applied to the Orphans' Court ini St. Louis for appointment as guardian of Charbonneau's children, Toussaint and Lizette. In the records, Luttig's name was afterward crossed out, and that] of William Clark, the explorer, was substituted. St. Louis records show thai Clark provided for the education of Toussaint by a priest and of Baptiste, Sacajawea's son, by a Protestant. The half-brothers were together on the Santaj Fe trail in the forties. Bazil, the son of her sister, whom Sacajawea adopted when she found her people, on the Lewis and Clark expedition, remained with the Shoshones. Baptiste returned to them as early as 1830. Charbonneau was alive as late as 1839, when he is shown, by correspondence in the files of thel Bureau of Indian Affairs, to have been dismissed as interpreter at the Mandan Agency. He travelled to St. Louis to collect his pay for six months during which he had continued to act as interpreter, in ignorance of his discharge. He was then eighty years old, feeble and penniless, and the claim was allowed. After a life of wandering and two marriages subsequent to her final parting with Charbonneau, Sacajawea returned to her people, where she found Baptiste and Bazil, already old men, living at Fort Bridger. Her brother Cameahwait EXPLORERS-BY LAND 75 killed in a fight with the Blackfeet, about 1840. James I. Patten, a government instructor for the Indians, relates that Bazil and Baptiste brought their 'mother to be cared for at the Shoshone agency while they were away on a buffalo hunt, in October, 1874. She was then about eighty-six years old.25 She died at the age of approximately one hundred years, on April 9, 1884, on the ! Shoshone reservation in Wyoming, and was buried by the Rev. John Robert. 'The latter knew Sacajawea and her sons, and he testifies that she remained ! bright and active to the end. She was found dead in her tepee.26 The little that 'is known of Sacajawea is yet enough to convey the impression of an uncommon personality. In a life which has made a powerful appeal to the imagination and sympathy of the American people, because of its tragedy and romance and ! because of her remarkable service to the first explorers, she appears in the 'character of a faithful, generous and brave woman, in every way worthy of the honor done her in the last generation. Mysterious Jeremy Pinch j There is good reason to believe that a party of Americans somewhat larger than the Lewis and Clark expedition was on Columbia waters in 1807, a year lafter Lewis and Clark went home, and that their plan was to build military ■posts and occupy the country. They selected a site, either at Lewiston, Idaho, ■or in the Flathead valley, Montana, for their first establishment, and it is possible that they were in the Spokane region, at Coeur d'Alene lake. Wherever they located, they were ahead of David Thompson. Thompson, who built ■the first permanent trading posts in the Pacific Northwest, as related in ^Chapter V, crossed the Rockies into the valley of the upper Columbia on ■June 30, 1807. He built Kootanae House near Lake Windermere and stayed there until the spring of 1808. On August 13, 1807, he noted in his diary that Kootenai Indians told him "that about three weeks ago Americans to the ■number of forty-two arrived to settle a military post at the confluence of the (two most southern and considerable branches of the Columbia, and that they :were preparing to make a small advance post lower down the river. Two of I those who were with Captain Lewis were also with them, of whom the poor •Kootenaes related several dreadful stories. The establishment of the Americans (will give a new turn to our so long delayed settling of the country, on which iwe have entered it seems too late."2I 1 This part of Thompson's diary was not published until 1925, and the infor- . mation seemed to be only an Indian story until Prof. Robert C. Clark of the University of Oregon found two important letters in the Public Records Office, ; London.28 One is from Lieutenant Jeremy Pinch and is dated at " Polito palton : lake," September 29, 1807. It is addressed " to british Mercht. trafficking with 'the Cabanaws" and was evidently intended for Thompson. It threatened 76 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST expulsion of the British traders if they should prove unwilling to obey American regulations, and it asked him not to continue supplying arms to the Indians. Pinch wrote that " the Pilchenees with their bloodthirsty allies " had attacked the friendly " Polito palton "2" and wounded one of his own soldiers. Thompson replied on December 26, saying that he had just received the letter ancf politely disclaiming responsibility for settling the boundary question. He made a copy of this letter and added a note regarding the probable identity of the tribes mentioned by Pinch and the arrogance of young officers in general. Clark thinks that Pinch's party may have been with Manuel Lisa, who hastened up the Missouri soon after the return of Lewis and Clark and built a post at thl junction of the Big Horn and the Yellowstone, some time in 1807. With no regular communications across the mountains, it would not have been possible for Pinch to stay very long in the country. Alexander Ross speaks of seeing the ruins of an old camp in the vicinit! of Ravalli, Montana.30 He thought that it belonged to Joseph Howse, but Howse's post was on Flathead lake. This site has been suggested for Pinch's post, but Ross saw only " some faint traces of civilization," far more likely to have been Courter's Saleesh camp (not House) mentioned by Thompson, — an outpost of the traders. Nothing further has come to light regarding the mysterious Jeremy Pinch, —as to who sent him into the Oregon country or what became of his expedition. Many have been searching, and an early settler in Missouri by the name of Jeremiah Painsch has been discovered, but he has not been connected with the doughty Lieutenant.31 There can be no] question, however, about Pinch's presence in the region and his location of an American post previous to the arrival of the British. Fur Traders-North West Company A AN EARLY DATE DARING SPIRITS AMONG THE SETTLERS IN THE ST. LAWRENCE valley penetrated the western wilderness to trade for furs with the Indians. These coureurs des bois adopted native habits and became a lawless element on the frontier. Some control over them was obtained by compelling them to secure licenses before they could dispose of their peltries. The French trade extended as far west as the Saskatchewan before the capture of Montreal in 1760. British traders then entered the field, and the license system was continued. The Hudson's Bay Company had been chartered in 1670, and its exclusive right to trade in the North was protected. The independent traders in the West were soon forbidden to deal with the Indians at any place except certain native villages and government posts, where there were superintendents with the authority of peace officers. The traders also had to conform to a fixed scale of prices and were not allowed to sell liquor or rifles to the Indians. Under I the French, a license gave the trader a monopoly in his district. The English abolished exclusive privileges, and with the relaxing of the system of superintendence, which was found too expensive, a period of unscrupulous competition was inaugurated, in which the Indians were corrupted with liquor, the business was ruined by price cutting, and there was considerable bloodshed. This situation led groups of traders to organize, and the North West Company came into lexistence in the winter of 1783-1784. It was a simple partnership, in which 1 the traders received shares in proportion to the capital which they contributed, and the shares were transferable. A certain proportion of the shares were held ■ by the merchants in Montreal, who imported goods from England and shipped them to the interior, in turn receiving the furs and disposing of them in London.1 The organization of the trading end of the concern was admirably designed to hold the loyalty and interest of its personnel. The members who wintered at the trading posts were known as proprietors and clerks. The proprietors held shares without the investment of capital. The clerks were employed for terms !of five or seven years and were reasonably sure of becoming partners at or ; before the expiration of their apprenticeship. The clerks were selected with this expectation and were capable young men who were often required to 78 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST manage posts or to conduct expeditions. If they did not receive partnerships at the expiration of their terms, their salaries were increased until they couldj be promoted. For long or distinguished service, a proprietor might receive a double share from the Company, and he then had the privilege of retiring on one of his shares and of naming some young clerk to succeed to the other share, which carried with it a proprietorship. The nomination was supposed to take merit into consideration, and it usually did, for the consent of a majority! of the partners was required. Over 500 men were at an early date employed in the transportation of goods. The number is said to have increased to 2,000. There were two divisions,! one of which operated between Montreal and Grand Portage, in canoes of fouij tons burden, manned by eight or ten boatmen. The canoes for the interior! voyage were of one and a half tons, with four or five men. This part of the trip! was often marked by privation, as the amount of provisions which could bej carried was limited, and it was necessary to depend in part upon the Indians.! Speed was essential, and the hardy type of boatmen known as the voyageurs was developed. These men were proud of their exploits and were accustomed! to refer in picturesque terms of contempt to the Montreal boatmen. The; voyageurs and the brigades are treated more fully at the end of this chapter. I In 1795 dissension arose among the partners in Montreal, and a rival com! pany was formed. Alexander Mackenzie withdrew from the original concerns after his journey to the Pacific ocean, went to London, published his travels! returned to Canada and became head of the new company. It was 1 the New North West Company, but it is more familiarly known as the X Y Bitter rivalry ensued between the two concerns and with the Hudson's Bay men, both in their own northern domain and in the West, where they w beginning to send expeditions. In their competition for the Indian trade, thf rival Northwesters used 21,299 gallons of liquor in the year 1803 alone. The In dians were demoralized, and sanguinary encounters occurred between thf traders. With the death of Simon McTavish, aggressive head of the North West Company, the chief obstacle to reconciliation was removed, and a reunion with the X Y was effected in 1805. In the reorganized concern, Mackenzi was easily the most influential partner. David Thompson The history of the Pacific Northwest as a permanent abode of white me begins with David Thompson, who entered the service of the North West Company in 1797. It was Thompson who established the first trading pi this region, on Pend d'Oreille lake, in the Flathead country and at the mouth of the Little Spokane, previous to the founding of Astoria. In 1811, he made his famous journey down the Kootenay river and Clark's fork, across countr A. Kullyspell House, on Pend d'Oreille Lake B. Saleesh House, on Clark's Fork C. Spokane House, at mouth of the Little Spokan 1). Fort Okanogan, at mouth of the Okanogan E. Fori Nez Perces. later Fort Walla Walla F. Foi Cobille. .1. FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 79 to Spokane House and thence to Kettle falls. Here a cedar canoe was built in which he navigated the Columbia to Astoria. On his return trip, he went up the Snake to the mouth of the Palouse, across country to Spokane House and north by way of the Columbia and the Arrow lakes. He opened these main lines of travel to the traders, and his journals are the first written history of the region. Thompson was born in Westminster, England, and spent seven years in the Grey Coat School, a charity foundation, where he studied mathematics, geography, astronomy and navigation. In 1784 he was apprenticed for seven years to the Hudson's Bay Company. He was fifteen years old when he arrived at Fort Churchill, and he was sent with two Indians to walk 150 miles to York Factory, where he spent his first year, doing clerical work. In the following year, he was on the Saskatchewan river, almost at the limits of trading adventure. He accompanied a small party whose object was to establish friendly relations with the Blackfeet and Piegans and spent a winter in the lodge of an old chief, near the present site of Calgary. He soon took up his work of geodetic surveying, which was carried on for nearly thirty years. Thompson ranks with the greatest of geographers. In his 50,000 miles of travel, he constantly took observations. With the imperfect nautical almanacs of the time and a ten-inch brass sextant, which he carried for twenty-eight years, he obtained astonishing accuracy. J. B. Tyrrell of the Geological Survey of Canada travelled over Thompson's routes in the years between 1883 and 1898 and checked his figures, finding that they " left little or nothing to be desired." Cook's map was published just as Thompson commenced his career, and in this map the northwestern part of America was a blank. It was Thompson's ambition to fill in this unmapped area, — nearly half a continent. The thoroughness with which he did so is attested by the fact that in 1857 the Canadian government could do no better than to reprint Thompson's map, and Tyrrell states that at the present time some parts of the maps of Canada published by the government, the railway companies and others are copied from the original of America's greatest cartographer.2 The directors of the Hudson's Bay Company in London learned to have confidence in Thompson as an explorer, but he found his efforts frustrated by Joseph Colen, Resident Chief at York Factory, who finally ordered him to stop surveying and to confine his activities to trading. Thompson's term of service had expired, and in 1797, after thirteen years with the old Company, he went over to the Nor'westers, who were glad to make use of his rare talents. At first, they employed him exclusively in the work which he liked best. He was commissioned to determine the position of the 49th parallel of latitude and of the posts of the Company, to visit the Mandan villages and to search for fossil bones. But the Company was not unmindful of his ability as a trader, and an 8o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST arrangement was later made, agreeable to both parties, by which he combined business with surveying. After the coalition of the X Y and the North West Company, it was decided to extend trade west of the Rockies, and Thompson was placed in charge of the parties which were to cross the mountains. In 1799 he had married Charlotte Small, a daughter of a North West partner and a Chippewa woman, and he took his wife and family with him when he went over Howse pass to the Columbia river, in 1807. He travelled back and forth through this pass for three years. The Hudson's Bay Company sent Joseph Howse, for whom the pass was afterward named, to spy on Thompson, and in 1810 Howse made his way from the head of the Columbia to a point north of Flathead lake, near the present city of Kalispell. Here he spent one winter, but abandoned the idea of establishing a post, on account of the warring tribes which made that neighborhood their battleground. No further competition with Thompson was attempted by the Hudson's Bay men. Earliest Trading Posts Thompson built Kootanae House near Lake Windermere, in 1807. He came down the Kootenay river in 1808, made trading arrangements with the Flat- heads near the present Bonner's Ferry and proceeded as far as Kootenay lake. After a trip over the mountains and as far east as Rainy lake, beyond Winnipeg, and two trips to the vicinity of Edmonton, he came down to Pend d'Oreille lake in 1809 and built Kullyspell House, near the mouth of Clark's fork. He explored a good deal of the surrounding country and built Saleesh House near the present station of Woodlin on the Northern Pacific. In the spring of 1810, he went down the Pend d'Oreille river as far as Box canon, where he perceived that there was no easy passage to the Columbia that way. Thompson had as his chief assistant Finan McDonald, and they were the only full-blooded white men at that time within the present boundaries of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. Kullyspell House was at Sheepherder's point on the north shore of Pend d'Oreille lake, near Memaloose island. This was on the line of canoe travel, and there was a large Indian camp in the vicinity. Father De Smet chose the neighborhood for a mission thirty years later. Here the traders were visited by the Spokanes and Indians from Coeur d'Alene lake, whom he calls the J Pointed Hearts. He is the first to record the name, though he erred in his translation of the French term, which originated among the half-breed hunters and means Awl-hearted, presumably indicating stinginess. Thompson also makes first mention of the Pend d'Oreilles, whom he calls the Ear Pendant Indians. Saleesh House was located on a prairie which was used by the natives as a place of refuge from the Piegans and Blackfeet. It was protected by rock slides, up which the marauders did not care to venture. McDonald was at Kullyspell E ARLY TRADING POSTS, FORTS, MISSIONS AND HIGHWAYS OF THE PACIFIC NORTH\ FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 81 House while Thompson wintered at the other post and went to Saleesh House after Thompson's departure on an eastern trip in 1810. The traders armed the local natives, for protection against the hostiles, and McDonald instructed them in the use of fire-arms. He went further than this, as he liked nothing better than a fight. When the Flatheads had been placed on an equal footing with their enemies by the possession of arms and were able to make expeditions to the plains of the Missouri, McDonald accompanied them and won the admiration of the Indians by his reckless exploits. He was six feet, four inches tall, with long red hair and bushy whiskers. When excited, his language was a mixture of Gaelic, English, French and various Indian dialects.3 Thompson made another journey over the mountains to Rainy lake, in the summer of 1810. On his return, the hostility of the Piegans forced him to seek a new way across the divide, and he found the Athabasca pass, which afterward became a main line of travel for the Hudson's Bay Company. He reached the Columbia in January, 1811, but was detained for the winter by the desertion of several men. In his Narrative, Thompson states that his object was to be at the mouth of the Columbia before August. He chose for his winter quarters the spot which later became the rendezvous for travel by way of the Athabasca pass and was known as Boat Encampment. He now had an insufficient crew to carry out his original plan to go directly down the Columbia, and he was therefore obliged to go up the river again. He was fortunate in meeting a party of Nipissing and Iroquois Indians, who had come over the mountains to hunt, and he added three to his party, including an experienced Iroquois bowman, to navigate his canoe. From the source of the Columbia, he crossed to the Kootenay and came down to the point near Jennings, Montana, where the trail led across country to Clark's fork. At an Indian camp which he overtook, he found another Iroquois and engaged him as steersman for his great voyage on the Columbia. At Saleesh House, he did not find McDonald, and at Pend d'Oreille lake he learned that McDonald was at a new post, which had been established in his absence. This was Spokane House, at the mouth of the Little Spokane. It is uncertain whether the new post was built by McDonald or by Jacques Raphael Finlay, generally known as Jaco Finlay, a half-breed hunter whom Thompson found in the country and employed in 1810. Both men were there when Thompson returned in 1811.4 First Descent of the Columbia Thompson's party proceeded to Kettle falls, following the Indian trail between the two fishing places, which ran through the valley of the Colville river. Two weeks were spent in searching for suitable cedar and in building . a large canoe. He started on July 3 with his Iroquois bowman and steersman and five French voyageurs. Two Sanpoil Indians accompanied them. He states 82 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in his notes that the purpose of the voyage was " to explore this river in order to open out a passage for the interior trade with the Pacific ocean." The expedition met with a friendly reception from the Indian tribes along the river, who had never seen white people, and at a camp near Crab creek the Sanpoil interpreters were exchanged for a chief of the Shahaptian stock and his wife. At the mouth of the Snake river, Thompson set up a pole, soon afterward found by the Astorians on their first trip to the interior. Around the pole he tied a piece of paper, with the following notice: " Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its territories, and that the N. W. Company of Merchants from Canada, finding the factory for this people inconvenient for them, do hereby intend to erect a factory in this place for the commerce of the country around. D. Thompson. Junction of the ■ . h ., . . ':'. ' . (V;:: !i:a. Ir';. <.:':. > '■ i i. ' A short distance beyond, he met Chief Yellepit of the Walla Wallas, who entertained Lewis and Clark, and Thompson had disheartening evidence of the passage of the American expedition in the fact that the chief displayed a Jefferson medal of 1801 and a small American flag. On July 10, at a campj opposite John Day river, he learned of the arrival of Astor's expedition at the mouth of the river. On reaching the first Chinookan tribe at The Dalles, the interpreter and his wife turned back. Thompson had some information regarding the lower river, derived from Vancouver's Voyage and Gass's Journal, the first published account of Lewis and Clark, which appeared in 1807. He had heard of the bad Indians, but was fortunate in encountering none. On the morning of July 15, the party delayed starting until 6:25 a.m., while they shaved and j dressed to make a proper appearance at Astoria. Their arrival that afternoon is described in the next chapter. Thompson has little to say about the Astorians. When he commenced his return journey, David Stuart's party accompanied him. The Indians below the Snake were now troublesome, and both Thompson and Stuart had manyj anxious hours. Thompson went ahead at The Dalles and picked up his former Shahaptian interpreter. At the mouth of the Snake, he seems to have added a British flag to the notice which he had posted on the way down. This v the special benefit of Stuart. Thompson then went up the Snake to the Palouse crossing, where horses were secured and he went overland, past the location 0 Sprague and Cheney and through the Four Lakes country to Spokane House arriving on August 13. With only four days' rest, he was off again for Kettle falls, to build another cedar boat. McDonald, following his instructions, hai explored the Columbia from the falls to a point above Revelstoke. Thompso: ascended the river, through the Arrow lakes, in September, to the Canoe rivei A party with supplies from Lake Superior was due to arrive about October 1 FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 83 This expedition was late and left some of the goods east of the mountains. So Thompson crossed the Athabasca pass and got them, returned to Kettle falls, portaged to the Pend d'Oreille river and went up to Saleesh House, where he arrived on November 13. A few days later, John George McTavish, a partner in the Company, and James McMillan, with fifteen men and ten horses, arrived from Rainy lake by tbe way of Kootenae House and the Kootenay river, with goods and supplies. Finan McDonald and McMillan remained at Saleesh House and McTavish established himself at the "lower settlement," as Spokane House was called. With the completion of his survey of the Columbia, Thompson considered his geodetic work to have ended. He was ready to draft his map of northwestern America. He spent the winter of 1811-1812 at Saleesh House and its vicinity and in the spring departed for Montreal by way of the Athabasca and Churchill rivers. Two years were occupied in the preparation of his map. His surveying days, however, were not yet over, for he was engaged from 1816 to 1826 as astronomer to the International Boundary Commission, in running the boundary line from St. Regis, Quebec, to the northwest angle of the Lake of the Woods. He was in comfortable circumstances for some time, but the last years of his life were passed in poverty. He died at Longueuil, opposite Montreal, in 1857, at the age of eighty-six. His half-breed wife was his companion to the end and survived him only three months. They had seven sons and six daughters. A monument was erected over his grave, in Mount Royal cemetery, seventy years after his death. Thompson never forsook the principles learned at the Grey Coat School. His life was exemplary, and he was unobtrusively religious. At a time when the traders were using liquor freely in traffic with the Indians, he held that they miscalculated in thinking that it was profitable business, and for six years while he had charge beyond the Rockies he allowed no liquors for trading purposes to pass the mountains. No portrait of Thompson exists. He is said to have resembled John Bunyan. J. J. Bigsby, naturalist of the International Boundary Commission, who first saw Thompson in 1817, says that his figure was short and compact, and that he wore his black hair long all around and cut square just above the eyebrows. His face was of a ruddy brown color and was deeply furrowed. He had a short nose, which gave him an odd look. His demeanor was quiet and friendly, and he had a remarkable power of description. The Nor'westers and Astorians traded side by side in the Inland Empire for a brief period. The circumstances of this joint occupation and of the purchase of Astor's property by the Canadian concern at the time of the war of 1812 are described in the following chapter, as they belong more properly to the story of the Pacific Fur Company. Astoria became Fort George in the fall of 1813, and some of Astor's men entered the service of the other company, notably 1 84 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Duncan McDougall, the partner who sold out the American interests, and Alexander Ross and Ross Cox, the clerks to whose books we are indebted for the details of subsequent events. After the departure of the eastern brigade on April 4, 1814, with which went the partners and clerks who were unwilling to remain, the new lords of the Oregon country faced a constantly growing unruliness among the Indians. Several expeditions met with open hostility, and efforts to impress the natives ended in discomfiture for the whites, who were forced to beat a retreat. Jane Barnes The arrival of a long-expected North West Company ship, the Isaac Todd, j helped to mend matters. The ship crossed the bar and anchored in Baker's bay on April 22. With this ship arrived Donald McTavish, a partner sent to become Governor at Fort George. A more interesting passenger, however, was Jane ! Barnes, the first white woman on the Columbia. She was an English barmaid, who had taken passage to see something of the world, under the protection of McTavish. The natives thronged to Fort George, to gaze upon a white woman, and her extravagant wardrobe was a constant wonder. A son of Chief Concomly came to the fort one day, with his face painted red and his body reeking with whale oil, and told her that if she would become his wife he would send a hundred sea otters to her relatives; that he would never ask her to carry 1 wood, dig roots or do other manual labor; that he would make her ruler over 5 his other wives, let her wear her own clothes and allow her to smoke as many pipes a day as she wished. When this princely offer failed to win the comely adventuress, he plotted to abduct her, and it was necessary to restrict her walks in the neighborhood of the fort. Alexander Henry was at the fort, whose Journal is one of the most important documents in western history. McTavish was obliged to accept the services of Henry as associate protector for Jane Barnes, but not without a natural measure of jealousy. Henry asserts that his own conduct was prompted solely by considerations of humanity and a sense of duty to render the woman's situation as comfortable as possible. Jane made herself at home in his quarters, and when McTavish came ashore there was no place for him to sleep except a table in the Indian room. He finally found a separate room, but Jane apparently preferred to remain under Henry's protection, for the Governor took to himself a flat-head Chinook woman whose name, Mrs. Clapp, suggests that she was the relict of a certain Pacific Fur Company clerk. McTavish proceeded to dress her in expensive broadcloth, and social relations at the fort were becoming complicated when the episode was abruptly terminated by the accidental drowning of McTavish and Henry, with several voyageurs, on May 22, in crossing the Columbia during a stiff gale.5 FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 85 When the Isaac Todd sailed, Jane avoided the company of its Captain, whom nobody liked, and took passage with a more gallant skipper, Captain Robson of the schooner Columbia, which left at the same time. Ross Cox repeats a story that when last heard of she was living magnificently in China, at the expense of an East India Company official. Corney's Voyages, however, says that the Chinese would not permit Robson to land " the young woman " at Canton. This must have been Jane, because Robson arrived at London with a bill of over $500 for her passage home. The owners were astonished and sent the bill to Alexander McKenzie & Co., Montreal, endorsed " regarding Jane Barnes." They also enclosed " copies of letters this woman has in her possession and an agreement entered into by the representative of the North West Company who went out in the Isaac Todd. Tbe poor woman further desires to know where and to whom she is to apply for the annuity promised her." Here the curtain falls on Jane Barnes. The regular North West Company routine was established in the Oregon country, with the occasional visit of a ship to Fort George and communication by express boats between the fort and eastern Canada. John George McTavish had charge of the interior posts, with headquarters at Spokane House. Ross was located at the Okanogan post, where he had previously been stationed by the Pacific Fur Company, and traded north a distance of 300 miles. An annual council of the proprietors was held at Fort George. This meeting planned trading operations for the year and made assignments. It was customary to transfer a clerk who was hard to manage to some remote post, by way of taming him. The bourgeois also applied this system of discipline to themselves. The majority sometimes banished a disputatious proprietor so effectually that he could not attend meetings.6 It was the habit of the North West brigades, and particularly of the express boats, to make as much speed as possible on their journeys. This did not accord with the wishes of the Indians in the region about the mouth of the Snake, who were numerous and sociable. They expected the boats to stop, and they wanted tobacco. On one occasion they held up the express when it sought to pass them and hauled the boat ashore. After the smoke, they sent the boat on its way with a warning not to try to pass so unceremoniously again. The inland brigade of June, 1815, was poling up a rapid, when Indians, whose invitation to stop had been disregarded, rode their horses into the narrow channel. When the whites threatened them, the natives threw themselves into the water and seized the boats. The whites fired, and three natives were shot. The others withdrew, but the brigade could not proceed on account of a high wind and was forced to spend the night on a sandy island. The crowd of Indians increased, and shots were fired at the position of the whites. On the following day, however, a truce was arranged, payment was made for the dead, and the brigade 86 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST went on. By the time this brigade reached the mountains, after a hard passage, some of the men were unable to undertake the eighty-mile tramp which confronted them, and a boat with seven of them was sent back. At The Dalles des Morts, they lost the boat and all their provisions. Two of the party walked to the establishments below, suffering extreme hardship. The other five re- j mained, and four died from exhaustion. The survivor appeared at Fort Okanogan two months later, looking like a ghost. He had eaten his companions. Donald McKenzie In the summer of 1816, news of a radical change of policy came to Fort George with the express. It appeared to the eastern partners that business on the Coast was marking time and that the bourgeois in Oregon were absorbing all the profits in their leisurely manner of life. It was therefore ordered that the northern district west of the Rockies, known as New Caledonia, should get its supplies from Fort George instead of from the East. The Columbia district was divided, and the western division was instructed to extend its enterprises in a southerly direction, toward California. Instead of trading with the Indians, through established posts, strong trapping parties were to be sent to range the country for furs. James Keith was placed in charge of the trade on the Coast, the shipping to China and the general outfitting. Donald McKenzie, who had been with Astor's company and had chosen to return to j Canada, was sent out as head of all the operations in the Inland Empire. This seems to have been a bitter pill for the resident bourgeois to swallow, and when McKenzie appeared every possible obstacle was placed in his way. I McKenzie knew the country and was firm in demanding everything for which his instructions called. Keith was obliged to outfit his expedition, but the men j provided were a motley crew, and no white man could be found to accompany him as a lieutenant. The proprietors at Fort George were glad to see him go but j were mortified because he succeeded in starting. Their own first attempts to trade in the Willamette valley were failures and resulted in bloodshed, literally because they did not know enough to offer the Indians a smoke. By patient j and intelligent negotiations, Ross appears to have re-opened the southern trade i McKenzie started for the interior late in the fall, and the disgruntled proprietors at Fort George took comfort in the thought that bad weather or the I Indians would stop him. His failure was considered certain. At the Cascades, he found that the Columbia was choked with ice, and he was compelled to stay in the camps of the natives until the ice broke up. They regarded him, however, as one of their first and best friends and he adopted a new plan by f which his forty men were distributed among the lodges of the chiefs, ostensibly as boarders but in reality as spies. He kept enough men with himself to guard FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 87 i the supplies. He knew at all times what was going on, and the natives were ! pleased at the evidence of good fellowship and the payment which they i received. He was treated as a person of authority, on an equal footing with their i own chiefs. He lost a boat and was obliged to leave 5,400 pounds of baggage I with one of the chiefs when the ice broke and he could proceed. On the return of the brigade, six months later, the sixty packages of goods were delivered over, safe and untouched. McKenzie visited his interior posts and made plans for the year, met the other winterers at the rendezvous and came down with the spring brigade to Fort George. The returning brigade of 1817 was the first which could report a year without casualty or bloodshed, and the quantity of furs secured was considerably augmented. Good feeling prevailed at the council meeting, and there was a disposition to accord better support to McKenzie. But circumstances prevented him from getting it. The fur companies were now engaged in keen rivalry east of the mountains, and the promised re-enforcement of voyageurs could not be sent to the Columbia. A supply of Sandwich islanders was sent for, and in the meantime the brigade set out for the interior with half the usual complement, and most of the men were Iroquois. The natives along the river were unusually numerous and had apparently decided to levy tribute upon passing expeditions. McKenzie's open and fearless manner often disarmed the savages. He went among them with presents of tobacco, and he forced smiles from the most sullen by his kindness to their children. At his camps, the arrangements which he made to keep the horde of natives at a safe distance had the appearance of ceremonious efforts to do honor to their chiefs. With similar pretexts he kept the chiefs in his camp at night. Though he went about at will and unarmed, he permitted none of his men to cross the line. Every move which the brigade made was carefully planned and safeguarded. At night the boats were carried out of the water, to form a rampart about the camp. Opening the Snake Country A serious defect in the routine of the interior was that the brigade had first to go to Fort Okanogan, whence Ross travelled north to his post at Kamloops. This compelled the others to go a long way out of the direct road to Spokane House. There was much talk of establishing a central point of separation and rendezvous at the mouth of the Snake, but the argument was advanced that the Indians here were numerous and unmanageable. Ross says that the real reason why Spokane House was so long retained as the depot for the interior and the residence of the chief proprietor lay in its social attractions. "At Spokane House," he says, " there were attractive buildings: there was a ball-room, even; and no females in the land so fair to look upon as the nymphs of Spokane; no damsels could dance so gracefully as they; none were so A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ve. But Spokane House was not celebrated for fine women only; there! were fine horses also. The Race-ground was admired, and the pleasures of the chase often yielded to the pleasures of the race." McKenzie had been sent to the interior by the eastern magnates of the Company to get results, and withl an eye to business rather than bourgeois comfort he declared that Spokane House was an expensive luxury. This did not increase his popularity with the proprietors, but his position was confirmed by an order which came from thej East in 1818. He was instructed to build a fort among the Nez Perces as the central depot for the interior, and Ross was appointed to take charge of it. The council at Fort George were told that they must place 100 men at McKen- zie's disposal, and they were censured for the delays of the preceding two years. On July n, 1818, McKenzie, Ross and ninety-five men camped near the mouth1 of the Walla Walla river, on the site selected for Fort Nez Perces,—a misnomer,] as the Indians in the vicinity were Walla Wallas and Cayuses. The site was re-j markable as the spot at which Lewis and Clark had held a peace celebration, but it was also considered a danger point. After many days of parleying, an understanding was reached, which de-j pended largely on the success of the traders in making the Snake Indians a party to the agreement. An expedition was equipped, with fifty-five men and 195] horses, to cross the Blue mountains under the leadership of McKenzie. Disquieting reports soon began to come in, and Oskonoton, one of McKenzie's Iroquois came back in an exhausted condition. He brought no news of thej main party but said that twenty-five of his comrades had secured McKenzie's consent to hunt and trap in a small river which appeared to be well stocked with beaver. If permission had not been granted, they would have deserted. A band of Snakes came along, and the Iroquois bartered their horses, guns and traps with these Indians for women, until they had little left and noj choice except to remain with their new associates. This man had protested the actions of his comrades and had been pursued when he left them. He was cared for until he recovered his strength and was then sent to Fort George. On an expedition to the Cowlitz region, soon afterward, he was murdered while attempting to rescue a companion. After a period of great anxiety at the fort, McKenzie and six men came in. They had travelled 600 miles on snow- shoes, in the Blue mountains, but were in good health and spirits. They confirmed the story of Oskonoton. After the irresponsible Iroquois had been left behind, the rest of the party met several bands of Snake Indians, who professed willingness to make peace with the Nez Perces. The country was found to be exceedingly rich. At that time it was full of deer, fox and beaver. Mountain sheep and goat, black, brown and grizzly bear displayed curiosity rather than alarm at the approach of the hunters. There were hordes of wild horses, which ranged like deer over the foothills. FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 89 With a week's rest at the fort, McKenzie and his six Canadians set out to determine the navigability of the Snake river. After a voyage of two months, the boat, with four of the men, returned. McKenzie and the other two had gone on to find the hunters, who were at a distance of twenty days' travel, in a country where it had been asserted that less than fifty men could not set foot with safety. He sent back a letter in which he set a rendezvous at a definite place and date and asked that a party be ready to meet him. Ross forwarded twenty- six men at the appointed time, but was obliged to entrust the command to a youthful and inexperienced clerk, who was promptly robbed of all his horses as soon as he entered the Snake country. By good luck, ten of McKenzie's men, sent out to discover why the relief party had not arrived at the appointed time, ran into the thieves and recovered the horses. The several parties were united, McKenzie contrived to round up most of his stray Iroquois, and the expedition was a commercial success. McKenzie sent his furs to the fort and remained in the Snake country, where the summer of 1819 was a succession of adventures and narrow escapes, for he got into the zone of fighting between the Snakes and a Blackfoot invasion, beside constant collisions with robber groups of the local natives. With the return of the transport party from the fort, he had seventy-five men. In June, 1820, McKenzie arrived at the fort with 154 horses loaded with beaver furs and escorted by several hundred Cayuse riders. He spent another year in the Snake country, with even better returns. In the autumn of 1822, he crossed the Rockies. He became Governor of the Red River Colony, tbe second highest post in the service, which he held for nearly ten years, retiring to end his days at Mayville, New York. McKenzie deserves high honor in the annals of the West. He had the physical equipment which was essential, and like a number of other men who were conspicuous in the early days, he had been educated for the ministry. No one was more sagacious in dealing with the savages. His understanding of their psychology was so keen that actions which seemed sheer folly to his associates often served to win his cause. It is a pity that he left no journals. In spite of his education, he disliked writing. He often scribbled his traveling notes on a beaver skin. When not asleep, he was always walking about, asking questions and making plans. " So peculiar was this pedestrian habit," says Ross, " that he went by the name of Perpetual Motion." The North West Fur Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. The new chief in the Oregon country, Dr. John McLoughlin, did not arrive until 1824, and there was an intervening season of great gloom, for it was feared that the day of the French Canadians was gone, and these men were always favorites with the Indians. The account of the merger belongs to a later chapter. go A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Voyageurs and Brigades The voyageurs and the brigades, essential institutions of the great fur com panies, may well be described at this point.7 Beside the partners and clerks, in the long chain of establishments, labored several classes of employes who callet the gentlemen les bourgeois. As the term was used by the men, it meant sim ply bosses. The voyageurs or canoe-men were recruited in the first place fron the French Canadians. These descendants of the original settlers of Canad were the true voyageurs. They were usually engaged for a term of five years After the expiration of their term of service, some of them remained in t Indian country and were called freemen. The freemen, however, were in b repute. They were generally a shiftless element who had saved nothing a did not care to return to the towns, where they would have to go to work aga By the vicious habits into which they lapsed in their vagrant life, they earnec the contempt of both Indians and whites, and they were the source of trouble to the traders. The voyageurs were light hearted and good natured. Their respect fo superiors often amounted to real affection, and they commonly addressed eac other as brother or cousin. They sang constantly, and yelled lustily as theii boats shot the rapids. The strongest men were given the posts of bowm steersmen and were paid higher wages, for the safety of the boats in dangerous water depended largely on their skill. They were capable of incredible endu ance. For six months at a stretch, in their voyages across the country, they rowed or carried loads at the portages from dawn till nightfall, with twci twenty-minute intervals for breakfast and dinner. Four hours was often theia allowance for sleep, when it was possible and desirable to go on after dark! At the portages, each man took two bales, 180 pounds, on his back. With the load partly supported by a strap across his forehead, he could trot along for miles. The food of the boatmen was mostly meat. In the West they had no bread or vegetables. Each man was allowed eight pounds of meat a day and ten] pounds if there was bone in it. It might be buffalo, deer or horse. In the fall months, the ration was often two geese or four ducks, and it was sometimes an equivalent amount of fish. In wet weather or at a long portage, a glass of rum was issued. At Christmas and New Year, flour was provided for cakes and puddings, and each man received half a pint of rum. They called this a regale, or royal privilege. The voyageurs wore capots made of blankets, over striped cotton shirts, leather or cloth trousers, moccasins, hats or fur caps and' belts of variegated worsted, from which were suspended their knives and smoking bags. To the French Canadian boatmen were added in course of time their half- breed sons, some Iroquois Indians and, in the Columbia region, a number of FUR TRADERS-NORTH WEST COMPANY 91 Hawaiians. The half-breeds were fine boatmen and inherited most of the good qualities of their fathers, but they were one stage further removed from the restraints of religion and morals, and they were more like the Indian in their addiction to strong drink. They were cautious about giving offense and quick to resent any insulting reference to their mixed origin, since they generally despised the traditions of their mothers' people. The half-breed sons of the proprietors were often sent to Canada or England to be educated, came back as clerks and rose high in the service. The Iroquois were civilized Indians who professed the Catholic faith. They were useful employes but were inclined to be insubordinate and quarrelsome and were dangerous when intoxicated. At one time they constituted a third of the employes on the Columbia. Their services were valued because they were exceptionally skillful in navigating the rapids, and they were also trappers. They sang hymns instead of the boatmen's songs, but they were like children in their waywardness and fits of temper. The Hawaiians were honest and obedient but awkward in everything except swimming. If a boat upset, they could be counted on to rescue the rest of the crew. They were useful as sentries and to swell the number of employes, in order to impress the natives, and they had a natural antipathy for the Indians. Tbe boats used on the Columbia, as described by Wilkes, were thirty feet long, with five and one-half feet beam, clinker built and sharp at both ends. In building them, flat timbers of oak were bent to the desired shape by steaming. These were bolted to a flat keel at intervals of a foot. The planks were of cedar, generally extending the full length of the boat. Nails were not used. The planks were simply riveted at each end of the boat, and the seams were well gummed. This type of boat was propelled by eight oarsmen. The load was packed in ninety-pound bales, for convenience at the portages. An express service was run by the North West Company between Montreal and Fort George, at Astoria, in special light canoes, taking 100 days each way. About 1840, when Peter Skene Ogden brought down the yearly consignment of $250,000 worth of furs from Stuart's lake to Vancouver, he travelled six months of the year, going to and fro. He used as many as nine boats, with sixty voyageurs, and there were always a number of passengers. The arrival of the brigade des porteurs at a company post was a great occasion. Before coming in sight of their goal, the voyageurs put on their plumes and made their costumes trim. As they came in, they sang their best selection and drove the bateaux at full speed toward the landing, adroitly backing at the right moment, as the bowmen leaped ashore and seized the prows. Others jumped in the water and carried the gentlemen and passengers to dry ground. The guns of the fort were fired at first sight of the approaching brigade, and every one at the post hastened to greet the arrivals. A general hand-shaking took place, and the most humble employe was never overlooked by the bourgeois. 1 92 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The voyageurs did not indulge in the shameless licentiousness of the free-l men, already mentioned, but their habits scandalized the Catholic missionaries who first came among them. Father F. N. Blanchet describes a Brigade of the South which arrived at Vancouver at the beginning of his work there as " a hideous assemblage of persons of both sexes, stripped of all moral principles." Yet by fifteen days' work with this raw material he succeeded in baptizing forty, in performing thirteen marriages and in breaking up a number of free unions. An obstacle to the efforts of the missionaries was the preference of the Com! pany for servants without home ties and its indifference to their temporary relations with the native women. The voyageurs were much like the sailor with a wife in every port. The bourgeois were not averse to taking Indian or half-breed companions, but the unions were often permanent and at some time blessed by the church. These native wives frequently accompanied their husbands on their return to' the Canadian cities, and their children readily found a place in civilized society, though the sons were likely to behave as spoiled offspring of the rich. In soma instances, however, these unions were frankly regarded as temporary and at the. same time entirely proper under the conditions of a long banishment to the* wilderness. Daniel W. Harmon, a partner in the North West Company and at one time Superintendent beyond the Rocky mountains, took a half-breed wife ad interim, and wrote in his scrupulously pious Journal: " This day a Canadian's daughter was offered to me; and after mature consideration concerning the step I ought to take, I have finally concluded to accept of her,j as it is customary for all gentlemen who remain for any length of time in this parti of the world to have a female companion, with whom they can pass their time more socially and agreeably than to live a lonely life as they must do if single. If we can' live in harmony together, my intention now is to keep her so long as I remain in this uncivilized part of the world." On returning to civilization, the trader who had respect for the companion of his exile might allow her an annuity or arrange a marriage for her with' one of the voyageurs. The latter were proud to inherit " the boss's woman," and a generous gratuity might go with her. When unceremoniously deserted, the native woman waited a year or two and then took another white. When a woman had lived faithfully with one or two whites, her character was firmly established, and she was a desirable catch, especially if she had borne no children, for while the Company expected that its employes would take Indian women, it did not encourage large families. In one important connection, the native wife was valued by the Company. These women be-j came closely attached to the whites as a people, as well as to individuals, and were vigilant to give warning of disaffection among the Indians and plots against the traders and settlers. VI Fur Traders-Pacific Fur Company ATER THE DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA, A FEW SHIPS ENTERED THE RIVER EACH year to trade, and most of these were American. The first commercial adventurers on the Coast sought eagerly for tribes which had never traded with white men and would part with their furs for worthless trinkets. This game was soon played out, and the traders then went to places where it ;was known that good peltries could always be purchased, sailing as soon as the stock of the natives was exhausted and taking no special pains to retain their good will. The conduct of the whites was sometimes unfair and cruel, for the reason that they did not expect to come back, and the natives took their revenge on the next ship that called. The fate of the ship Boston, Captain John Salter, is known in detail, because of the published narrative of John R. Jewitt.1 The Boston arrived at Nootka in March, 1803. The natives seemed friendly, but Captain Salter became indignant at Chief Maquina over a trivial matter and called him bad names in English. The chief unfortunately knew some of the bad words, from his long acquaintance with the traders, and it was settled that the Boston should pay for several outrages inflicted by the whites, —the theft of all Maquina's furs at a time when the native men were away from the village, the murder of four chiefs, and the killing of about twenty natives, including several chiefs, because an Indian had stolen a chisel from a ship's carpenter. The officers and crew of the Boston were killed, with the exception of Jewitt, whose skill as armorer had been noted by Maquina, and John Thompson, who hid in the hold and was spared on Jewitt's representation that Thompson was his father. As Thompson was the sail-maker, his services were useful to the chief. Jewitt and Thompson were held as slaves, though many privileges were allowed them. Jewitt was compelled to take a native wife. When he said that there was no Nootka woman whom he cared to marry, Maquina permitted him to choose a maiden from another and better looking tribe, as the chiefs were accustomed to do. A neighboring chief who could speak English took a letter written by Jewitt and delivered it, the following season, to Captain Samuel Hill of the brig Lydia of Boston. No mariners had cared to risk a call at Nootka after the destruction of the Boston, but when Captain Hill received 94 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Jewitt's letter, he came without delay. The Lydia arrived two years and foul months after the Boston, and by several ingenious tricks Jewitt got his companion and himself aboard. Soon after, the Lydia was inside the bar of thi Columbia. " We proceeded about ten miles up the river," says Jewitt, " to I small Indian village, where we heard from the inhabitants that Captains Clark and Lewis, from the United States of America, had been there about a fortnight before, on their journey overland, and had left several medals with them which they showed us." Winship Brothers No effort was made to establish a post where furs could be stored and the ships of the owners could make regular calls, until the venture of the Winship brothers of Boston. Their firm had long been successful in the China trade, and they conceived the idea that a permanent base on the Coast was essential to success in the Northwest fur trade. Their policy was to cultivate friendly relations with the Indians, and their good judgment was further displayed in the selection of the Columbia river as the most promising location. Captain Jonathan Winship sailed the ship Albatross into the Columbia on May 26, 1810. A site for the post was selected at a bend in the river, forty-five miles from the mouth, where there was a stretch of level land, long known as Fanny's bottom. It was planned to build a substantial blockhouse, defended by cannon. The sits was selected partly for its fertility, as the Winships intended to make the garrison self-supporting as far as possible. The scheme was excellent, but a setback came when the river rose above the flat where they had started to build. Like Lieutenant Broughton, they did not understand the signs of high water level on the Columbia. They had planted a large garden, and this was lost, but the logs already in place for the fort were floated to a new site. Here a fresh* difficulty arose. Indians arrived in large numbers. Their behavior had been; friendly, but now it was sullen. As the crowd increased, the whites became uneasy, and Winship finally got at the source of the trouble, in a conference with their principal men. The Indians wanted to trade with the whites, and they were glad to have them enter the river. There was no objection to their building. But these natives had been doing a profitable business by securing! goods from the ships at the mouth of the river and using them in trafficking with the up-river tribes. Winship had encroached upon their territory. When he saw his mistake in going so far up the river, he promptly withdrew and was probably wise in abandoning the enterprise entirely for that year. The Win- ships had plans for another post on the Columbia, which they gave up when they learned that John Jacob Astor had decided to back a similar enterprise with his great wealth. FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 95 Astoria Enterprise Astor ran away from his father's butcher shop in Waldorf, Germany, and after living for a while in London, took a small stock of goods to America and exchanged them for furs, which he brought back to England and sold at a good profit. Henceforth he prospered and became rich. He observed that the Canadian fur companies were operating under very heavy expense in going to the far Northwest for furs and transporting them across the continent to Montreal. A post at the mouth of the Columbia was the logical shipping point. Here the furs could be easily brought down the river from the north. And here it would be possible to trade with the Russians on the Alaska coast and to open an American market for their sea otter skins. Astor's enterprise combined the quest of the sea otter, which brought the mariners to the Coast, with the search for the beaver, which was the incentive of the Canadian advance in the interior. He visualized a more comprehensive fur trade. The China market was open to an American post on the Columbia, and he dreamed of a mid- Pacific station, on some island of which America might secure possession. An essential part of his scheme was an overland route to the States, for quick communication. The expedition of Lewis and Clark had proved that this was feasible, and Astor planned a chain of posts to connect the Columbia with the Missouri. He named his organization the Pacific Fur Company. Half the shares were allotted to four associates, but he was to retain full control. It turned out, however, that he had nothing to say about the final act which sold him out. He was to furnish everything for the expedition to the Coast, up to a cost of $400,000, and he agreed to stand all losses for the first five years. His enterprise was sound in every respect and would undoubtedly have succeeded if there had been no war in 1812. Two circumstances led to the failure of the enterprise, but they gain their importance solely by reason of the war. Astor was obliged to employ experienced men; so his personnel was largely Canadian. And he wished to have the North West Fur Company as an associate rather than a competitor; so he had to unfold his plans, in offering them an interest in the enterprise. The result was that the Canadian company secretly tried to reach the mouth of the Columbia first. They failed in this, but they were in the Columbia valley, and when war was declared, Astor's alien representatives readily came to terms and surrendered the property to the Nor'westers. Astor's partners were Alexander Mackay, who was with Mackenzie on both of his expeditions, Duncan McDougall, Donald McKenzie, David Stuart and Wilson Price Hunt. All were Scotchmen except Hunt, who came from New Jersey and was designated as Astor's personal representative. The Scotch partners were asked to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, before starting. They apparently did so with 96 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST their fingers crossed, for some of them went straightway to the British Minister and explained their situation, receiving his approbation. Incidentally, he se-l cured full information regarding the enterprise. Astor's plan was to dispatch expeditions by land and sea at the same time. The ship Tonquin, of 290 tons, carrying ten guns and a crew of about twenty, sailed from New York on Sept. 8,1810, with thirty-three passengers, including four of the partners, eleven clerks, mostly Canadians, thirteen voyageurs anc' five mechanics.2 Mackay had brought some of the party down from Montreal ir a canoe propelled by the voyageurs. They made the circuit of Manhattan islanc and aroused much interest with their songs and their skill as boatmen. Voyage of the Tonquin When the Tonquin left New York, she was convoyed by the frigate Constitution until the danger of search by British warships was past. While the Tonquin carried ten guns, she had port-holes for twenty, and to make a formidable appearance, sham guns were mounted at the extra port-holes. This show of strength appears to have been effective on one occasion, in scaring away a strange ship which hovered about the Tonquin for three days. The voyage was marked by continuous feuds between the mixed company of adventurers and the Captain of the ship, Jonathan Thorn, an American naval officer who had been furloughed at Astor's request to command the Tonquin. Thorn had been commended by Decatur for gallantry in some of the daring exploits at Tripoli and was undoubtedly a good naval officer, but his selection by Astor for this expedition was a mistake. He tried to introduce the discipline of a warship. The partners felt that they owned the ship, and they had never learned that a Captain's word was law on the high seas. Most of the passengers were accustomed to the free life of western trading-posts. They would have chafed under the most ordinary regulations. They could not understand why they should put out their lights at eight o'clock, or why they shouldn't sing when they felt like doing so, night or day. The Captain could not understand why his passengers should wish to look around a bit at the ports where they touched. At. the Falkland islands, where they stopped for water, he fired a gun as soon as the casks were on board. McDougall, who held Astor's proxy, David Stuart, Gabriel Franchere, Alexander Ross and five others were on shore and did not hear the gun. As they did not return at once, Thorn sailed without them. They rowed after the ship for three and a half hours, when they were picked up. Robert Stuart, whose uncle had been left behind, got a brace of pistols and threatened to kill Thorn if he did not stop. After this incident, the passengers had as little to do with the Captain as possible. The partners conversed in Scotch dialect and the Canadians in French, neither of which was understood by Thorn. In the Sandwich islands, he was greatly annoyed by what he described in his FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 97 i letters to Astor as " the frantic gambols" of his passengers. The actions which aroused Thorn's contempt were efforts to impress the native visitors by dressing up in uniforms or Highland costumes and the activity of the clerks in gathering souvenirs and material for their journals. The weather was rough when the Tonquin arrived at the mouth of the Columbia, and Thorn's impatience cost eight lives. In spite of protests from the partners, he sent a boat with the First Mate, Ebenezer D. Fox of Boston, and four men, to sound the channel. Fox realized that his boat could not live in the heavy seas and bade farewell to his friends, saying, " My uncle was drowned here not many years ago, and now I am going to lay my bones with his." The boat disappeared in the breakers and was never seen again. On the following day the wind fell, and three boats were sent out. They found no opening, but got back to the ship. With a favorable breeze, the Tonquin stood in closer to the bar, and the pinnace was sent ahead, with Job Aitkin, the rigger; John Coles, a sail-maker; Stephen Weeks, the armorer, and two Sandwich islanders. The ship followed and finally passed and lost sight of the pinnace. After some anxious hours, just inside the bar, with everything depending upon the anchors during the ebb tide, the tide changed and Baker's bay was gained. Weeks, the armorer, was found the next day, wandering naked on the shore. The boat had capsized in the breakers. Weeks and the two islanders succeeded in righting it. The islanders were overcome by the cold, and one of them died by midnight. Weeks kept up by sculling the boat and landed on a beach at daybreak. The second islander succumbed to exhaustion in the woods. Weeks discovered a trail and, after following it a few hours, came in sight of the ship. A searching party found the exhausted islander and succeeded in reviving him. A search of forty miles of beaches, conducted by Ross, revealed no sign of Fox's boat. The partners explored the banks of the river for a site. Boats were upset three times in crossing the river, and the lives of several of the partners and clerks would have been lost if it had not been for the Chinook Indians. Ross suspected that one upset was deliberately planned by the Indians, to exhibit their skill in the water. Astoria Established The location of Astoria was selected in a hurry, because Thorn wished to begin trading, up the coast. It was not considered a desirable place for the post. Frame timbers for a thirty-ton schooner, which had been brought out by the Tonquin, were landed. The labor of clearing an acre of ground from the huge trees took two months, and in that period three men were killed by Indians, and three others were injured in the work. Many became ill, and by a strange oversight no doctor had been included in the expedition. As soon as the post was established, McDougall's authority as representative of Astor was unquestioned, 98 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and he showed himself to be an irritable person of second-rate ability. The Tor quin sailed on June 5, with Mackay to represent the partners. The surviving mate, John M. Mumford, had won the Captain's displeasure and was sen! ashore just before the departure. " You see how unfortunate we are," said Mackay to Ross. " The Captain, in one of his frantic fits, has now discharged the only officer on board. If you ever see us safe back, it will be a miracle." Franchere was with Mackay and Robert Stuart on a trip as far as the Casl cades, in May, and he tells of meeting the Spanish half-breed there, whose storyf has been given in Chapter III. The journey was made chiefly on account off statements by the Indians that there were white men above certain rapids. After the return of this party to Astoria, two Indians dressed in the fashion of the interior tribes were brought to the post. They had a letter addressed to John Stuart, a Nor'wester who located a trading post somewhere west of the mountains, after making the journey to the Coast with Simon Fraser. The Indians lost their way and were following the Columbia. They heard that white men were at its mouth and so continued, in the hope that Stuart was with them. The letter was from Finan McDonald, " who had a post on a river which they called the Spokan." This confirmed the suspicion that the North West Fur Company was already in the Columbia valley. As conditions became discouraging at Astoria, under McDougall's rule, there was talk of abandoning the post and going East over the trail of Lewis?! and Clark. Two groups of deserters were held by the Indians for ransom. Robert Stuart and Ross discovered, on another river trip, that the same situation'; existed that wrecked the Winship enterprise. The crafty Concomly, chief of the Chinooks, was spreading suspicion among the up-river tribes, in order to'r keep them from selling their furs directly to the whites. Stuart met with hostility but managed to enlighten the Indians regarding the prices which thej Chinooks were getting at Astoria, with the result that they came to the post in such large numbers that work had to be stopped and all the men had to be kept under arms. It was necessary to call upon Concomly for help in maintaining amicable relations during the trading. After it was definitely learned from the two inland natives that rival traders! were in the upper country, it was decided to extend the operations of thel Pacific Fur Company into the same region without delay. An expedition was fitted out, and the canoes were being loaded when a boat with a British flag at its stern came swiftly down the river, propelled by eight Iroquois oarsmen and bearing David Thompson of the North West Company and his interpreter. McDougall gave the rather unwelcome visitor a most hospitable entertainment. Thompson's purpose had been to reach the mouth of the Columbia first and to establish a British claim. Disappointed in this, he now sought to keep the Americans out of the interior by painting a discouraging picture of the country FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 99 and by announcing that the Nor'westers had decided to abandon the territory west of the mountains. There would be no competition if the Americans would engage not to encroach upon their commerce on the east side. The Astorians had received a more favorable account of the interior from the two Indians and were not deceived. " He forgot," says Ross, " that in speaking to us he was speaking to north-westerns, — men as experienced and cunning as himself." The American expedition, under David Stuart, set out, delayed only eight days by the unexpected visit, and Thompson went up river at the same time. The garrison at Astoria was weakened, but the crowd of natives gradually withdrew from the vicinity, and a false sense of security was created. A chief who had formed a friendship for Robert Stuart, however, informed him that the Indians planned to surprise the post and plunder it, after killing the whites. In a week, the garrison built another house, a palisade and two bastions, mounting four cannon. Tonquin Massacre A large number of Indians from Gray's harbor and the Strait of Juan de Fuca came to Baker's bay, and brought rumors that the Tonquin had been destroyed. They were not believed at first, but other natives from the north arrived with circumstantial details which created much uneasiness at Astoria. In October, particulars of the loss of the Tonquin were learned directly from an Indian who was present at the tragedy. Chief Concomly told the Astorians that this Indian was at Gray's harbor, and they sent for him. He is the only first-hand witness. He gave his name as Kasiascall and said that he was taken on board the ship at one of the points where it stopped, as an interpreter. At a bay near Nootka, Thorn attempted to trade, but had no success because of his insulting and violent conduct toward the natives, and they decided to attack the ship.3 Mackay made a favorable impression on them, and they thought at first of sparing his life and holding him for ransom. Mackay tried in vain to induce Thorn to adopt a more conciliatory attitude to the natives. When they j returned to trade and affected to have forgotten the insults, Mackay cautioned the Captain to be on his guard, but the latter believed he had humbled the i natives and did not even put up the netting used to keep too many from com- i ing aboard at once. The crew were unarmed and scattered about the deck, and i soon there were several natives to every white man. Thorn ignored a warning I from a sailor in the rigging, who observed that the Indians were concealing \ weapons under their bundles of furs, but he finally became alarmed as their I numbers increased and issued orders to sail, telling the chiefs that they must leave. The signal for the massacre was at once given, and in five minutes the struggle was ended. Mackay was the first man killed. He had drawn a revolver and shot down one of his assailants. Thorn killed two and wounded others 1 u zoo A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST with a clasp-knife before a blow from a club felled him. The interpreter said tha he jumped overboard and was taken into one of the boats of the women, which surrounded the ship. Five sailors in the rigging slid down and got into the cabin, one of then receiving a bad knife wound on the way. Guns were secured in the cabin, anc the decks were soon cleared of the savages, who went ashore to deliberate.' A boat with four men was later seen to leave the ship, and the natives followec it, knowing that it could not go far. These men were unable to cross the ba at the entrance of the bay and were obliged to land for rest. They were sur prised while asleep and were put to death. The interpreter was confused in hi account of the final incident, — the explosion of the Tonquin,—and his | porters disagree regarding the circumstances. It can only be said with certaint that after the natives had returned in large numbers to the ship, knowing tha there remained only a wounded man aboard, there was a terrific explosion whic destroyed the Tonquin, killed about 200 of the savages and maimed many oth ers. It will never be known whether the wounded man died and his shipmates set a train before leaving, whether the wounded man himself blew up th ship after waiting for the murderers to come back, or whether the Indian caused the explosion by accident.4 The veracity of Kasiascall was questioned when other natives from th north stated that he was a party to the plot, that he was ashore with six 0 the crew when the attack was made and that he delivered up these men to th< savages, by whom they were tortured until they died. That there was som< truth in this charge seemed to be proved by the fact that the interpreter van ished when he heard of the arrival of the "other Indians. Ross says that Kasia call remained in the neighborhood and collected a party of hostiles, with th object of attacking the fort. When the hostiles were creeping upon the building from the rear, in the evening, it happened that the garrison and a band 0 friendly Indians were practising at the back gate, in preparation for a hunt Kasiascall's party thought their plan was discovered and fled. The loss of the Tonquin left Astoria defenseless and weakened. Seventeen white men and twelve Sandwich islanders perished in the massacre, and th death of Mackay was a most serious misfortune. In his anxiety to sail, Thorn had unloaded only a small part of the articles for trading with the Indians; s the business of the Company threatened to come to a full stop. A large quantit of merchandise was supposed to be on the way by land, but when the overland party arrived it had to report that all its baggage was cached far up the Snake river. It was a great relief, however, and much of the gloom was dissipated, when the first detachment of the overland expedition arrived in January, 1812, and Hunt's party appeared in February; and the spirit of the Astorians rose considerably when the Beaver arrived, in May, with additional men and much FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 101 needed supplies from New York. Reports were prepared after Hunt's arrival e entrusted to two men who wished to go home. The messenger! with Robert Stuart, who was taking supplies to his uncle in the interior. Some of the supplies and a box of letters were stolen by the thievish natives at The Dalles. So the entire party went to the post which David Stuart had established on the Okanogan and came back together, picking up Ramsay Crooks and John Day, the last of Hunt's party, near the Umatilla. First Inland Expedition Ross accompanied David Stuart on the first expedition to the interior and has left a full account of it. The Astorians had no boat like Thompson's and were obliged to use two clumsy Chinook canoes. The Indian messengers, from whom much information had been secured, went with them. These natives had appeared to be a brave and his squaw. They were traveling in this guise for safety, as both were women.5 Ross describes them as adventurous amazons. They ranged ahead of the expedition, advertising to all the tribes that the whites were coming and adding that the great white chief had sent them to announce that gifts would be showered upon them. As harbingers of prosperity, the women were objects of much attention at every Indian village and were loaded with presents, to the great perplexity of the Americans, who did not understand what they were promising. When the Okanogan river was reached, the women had twenty-six horses, many of them loaded with the proceeds of their practical joke. Thompson's fast boat went ahead at The Dalles, and when the Astorians arrived at the Snake they found that-he had planted a British flag there, with a paper warning the subjects of other States not to trade north of this point. A large number of Indians who were there seemed at first disposed to prevent them from proceeding up the Columbia, indicating that the Snake river was open to them. A little diplomacy and some gifts removed the difficulty, however, and these Indians, who were Walla Wallas and Cayuses, surprised them by following the expedition after it left, in order toj bring a bag of shot which had been forgotten when breaking camp. After a*oyage of forty-two days, a site near the mouth of the Okanogan was selected for a post, and a house was built of driftwood. Fort Okanogan became the principal interior post of the Pacific Fur Company and retained its importance under the North West Company. It was maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company until 1859. Ross was left alone in the half-finished house, while four of the party returned to Astoria and Stuart with the three others started for the head waters of the Okanogan, intending to be back in a month. Stuart did not return until March 22,1812, and Ross was alone among the Indians over six months. It was a trying winter, as the attitude of the natives changed with the prolonged absence of Stuart. io2 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST After a period of unrest, during which Ross feared that they might kill him for the goods and tobacco which they knew to be stored in the house, he per-; suaded them to hunt, and by the time of Stuart's return he had traded goods worth about $170 for furs which would bring $12,000 in the Canton market, Stuart had been caught by the heavy snows and had spent the winter 350 miles to the north. Astor's Overland Party The story of Astor's overland party is gleaned from various sources. The first stage of the journey, to the country of the Aricaras on the Missouri, is described by John Bradbury, an English naturalist, and Judge Henry M. Bracken- ridge; and the "scribbling clerks," as Washington Irving called Franchere, Ross and Cox, took down the narratives of the adventurers as they straggled in, at the journey's end.6 Wilson Price Hunt, who was to have complete charge of the Astoria enterprise on his arrival at the Columbia, led the overland party, with a hardy and experienced Nor'wester, Donald McKenzie, as his principal associate. Ramsay Crooks, later President of the American Fur Company, was also with the party, and others were Robert McLellan, a partner of Crooks in trading expeditions on the Missouri; John Day, an experienced hunter, Joseph Miller, whose reputation as a trader on the Missouri aided greatly ii cruiting for the expedition at St. Louis. Hunt commenced organizing his p: at Montreal and went down to St. Louis by the way of Mackinac. The stage of the journey was marked by one of the most stirring events in wes history, —the remarkable race of Manuel Lisa of the Missouri Fur Company to overtake Hunt, who had a start of 240 miles. The race lasted two months, over a stretch of 1,100 miles. Lisa wished to join parties with Hunt, for safety in passing through the Sioux country. Crooks and McLellan feared that Lisa planned to have Hunt detained by the Indians, — a trick which he had once played on them. The Missouri Fur Company had shown opposition to Hunt at St. Louis. Lisa won the race soon after the Sioux country was reached, and the two parties proceeded, with little friction, thanks partly to the good offices of Bradbury and Brackenridge, until they separated at the Aricara villages. Hunt left the Missouri on July 18 and proceeded overland, in order to avoid the Blackfeet. There were sixty-four persons in the party, with eighty-two horses, seventy-six of which were laden with merchandise and supplies. He camped two weeks with some friendly Cheyennes, laying in buffalo meat, and from these Indians he secured thirty-six additional horses for mounts. A week was spent in the Green river valley, hunting buffalo and curing the meat. The party was on the Snake river September 26 and at Fort Henry October 8. Two detachments of trappers were left on the Snake, including Miller, who unexpectedly lost interest in the expedition. From the moment when the Snake river and .arty first FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 103 was reached, most of the party were anxious to get on the water, and at Fort Henry, Hunt could no longer resist and made the fatal mistake of entrusting their fortunes to the dangerous stream. The horses were left in the care of Indians, and fifteen canoes were built. After nine days of gradually increasing forebodings, the first wreck occurred, at Caldron Linn, the present dam site of the Twin Falls irrigation system. One man was lost, and the party became thoroughly dismayed. The banks were explored for forty miles, with discouraging results, and four more canoes were lost on a trial trip. Three parties were sent out, and Crooks started to get the horses, but abandoned the attempt as hopeless and came back. It was finally decided that the river was unnavigable. The merchandise was cached, and the expedition was divided. Crooks, with eighteen men, went down the left bank, and Hunt went down the right bank with twenty-two persons, including a half-breed interpreter, Pierre Dorion, his wife and two children. Both parties were short of provisions, and both were stopped by difficult traveling, where the river breaks through the Blue mountains. Crooks and Day crossed to the right bank. Much of the journey was retraced in order to secure provisions from the Indians. Crooks was ill, and he and Day decided to winter among the natives. Hunt secured a guide and went on again, reaching Astoria on February 15, 1812, where he found that his three exploring parties, headed by McKenzie, McLellan and Reed, sent out from Caldron Linn, and not heard from afterwards, had succeeded in uniting and had beaten him by a month. Hunt lost one man in the mountains, and a child born to Dorion's wife in the Grande Ronde died on the journey. At the time when the progress of Hunt and Crooks was brought to a stop by the mountains and Hunt sent some food across the river to the other party, one man became frantic at the sight of meat, upset a canoe and was drowned. Crooks and Day went on to the Grande Ronde before winter was over. Four Canadians who were with them decided to stay with the Indians, and they reached the Columbia in April. Some friendly Indians assisted them, but at The Dalles they were robbed and stripped of their clothing. They were going back to the tribe which had befriended them, when David Stuart's party from the Okanogan picked them up. Of the trapping parties left on the Snake and Crooks' four Canadians, thirteen in all, seven appeared at Astoria about a year later. At the end of June, 1812, Robert Stuart, Crooks and McLellan were sent East with a new draft of the dispatches which the Indians stole from Reed. John Day had become insane and was sent back with this party, but had to be ■ returned to Astoria in the care of passing Indians. Miller and several of the missing hunters were picked up, and it was found that some of the caches on the Snake had been rifled. After much wandering from the trails, the theft of their horses by Crow Indians and many days without food, they camped for the io4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST winter near the present town of Wellesville, Nebraska. They started again on March 8, 1813, and reached St. Louis on April 30, where they first learned that war existed with Great Britain. Inland Competition At the time when the eastern expedition started in June, 1812, David Stuart, Ross and others returned to the Okanogan and from this base engaged in ous trading trips until the following spring. McKenzie led a party into the Nez Perce country for the winter, and Reed went up the Snake and recovered what remained of the goods which had been cached near Caldron Linn. A party headed by John Clarke, one of the partners who came on the Beaver, and in-I eluding Ross Cox, a young Irish clerk, was entrusted with the important task of establishing a post to compete with Spokane House of the Nor'westers. Clarke's party was the largest and carried most merchandise. He proceeded overland from a point about fifty miles up the Snake to the location of Spokane House, at the junction of the Little Spokane with the Spokane river, and there he built Fort Spokane, " at the corner of the opposition post." A curious inci-I dent of the journey was the adventure of Ross Cox, who was lost for thirteen days. He strayed away from the column and fell asleep. He tells an amusing| story of his wanderings in his Adventures on the Columbia River, though he says he has "rather softened down than overcharged the statement." Cox was! inclined to draw a long bow, and bears, wolves and snakes were never so plentiful in the Spokane country as they were in his imagination. It is never-1 theless remarkable that he ever reached his companions, who believed that he could not survive more than six days. His property had been sold at auction the day before he appeared at the fort. It was his good fortune at last to come upon some kindly Indians, who gave him first aid and took him to the post. Clarke was an old Nor'wester and knew the tricks of his competitors. He adopted a dashing air and kept several of his most able-bodied men about him as aides. They wore feathers in their caps as insignia of their office. He assembled the Indians for speechmaking and gave a ball for his men, in the new fort. Outward relations between the two groups of traders were most jovial. At the same time each was sending out scouts to watch the Indian trappers and to get the first pick of their spoils. Meanwhile McKenzie was learning that the Nez Perces were not trappers. They preferred buffalo hunting and horse trading. He resolved to abandon his post and paid a visit to Clarke. While he was at Fort Spokane, John G. McTavish, a North West partner, arrived with a brigade and the news of war. McKenzie hastened back to his post, cached his goods and went to Astoria. FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 105 Decision to Abandon Astoria The Beaver, with Hunt aboard, had left Astoria in the previous August on a trading voyage and had not returned, and nothing had been heard of her. McDougall and McKenzie felt that they must reach a quick decision. They were agreed that the Astoria enterprise should be abandoned and that all movable property should be removed to the interior before the arrival of a British warship which was reported to be making for the Columbia. McKenzie returned to his post, found his cache robbed and recovered much of his goods by a raid on the Indian camp. Subsequent efforts of the Indians to avoid selling him horses for food were defeated by daring strategy. Clarke came down to the Snake and contributed to the unrest among the natives by hanging an Indian for theft. McKenzie, Clarke and Stuart met at a rendezvous on the Walla Walla, with their parties, and got away safely from an increasing host of excited Indians, arriving at Astoria on June 14, 1813. Clarke and Stuart disapproved of the decision of the other two partners but were finally talked into agreement. A resolution was signed on July 1 by the four partners present, to abandon the enterprise. It was decided that Stuart and Ross should return for another winter on the Okanogan, that Clarke should go back to Fort Spokane and McKenzie should shift his operations from the interior to the Willamette valley. All were to meet at Astoria in May, 1814, and start for the East on June 1. Reed was sent with hunters and trappers to winter in the Snake country, where he was to gather in the stragglers from Hunt's overland party and await the main expedition on its homeward march. All except McKenzie left Astoria on July 5. McDougall was 'empowered, in the event of Hunt's failure to return, to arrange with McTavish for the sale of all goods and furs to the North West Company. If the enterprise was to be abandoned, a cash sale was thought preferable to the chance of transporting the stores safely across the country. Hunt arrived in August on the ship Albatross and was obliged to assent to the decision of his partners. One of Astor's mistakes was in issuing independent orders to the Captains of his ships. It was Thorn's undoing, and it prevented Hunt from returning to Astoria when he wished to do so. He was supposed to be the head of the enterprise, but when he sailed north on the Beaver he found that the Captain's instructions were to trade with the Russians and 1 take the furs to Canton. The Captain might have acceded to Hunt's request : to be landed at Astoria, but the ship needed repairs, and he decided to go to : the Islands. Hunt was only a passenger and was obliged to kill time on board the Beaver until she touched at the Sandwich islands. Here he waited many months until he got a chance to charter the Albatross, to take him to the Columbia. After a short stay at Astoria, Hunt departed in the Albatross, taking io6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST home thirty-two Sandwich islanders who had been in the employ of the Company. Hunt would have detained the ship, to transport the Astorians and their stock of furs to New York, but the Albatross was under charter of another passenger to go to the Marquesas. So the last chance to retire from the field in good order and without sacrifice of the spoils of the enterprise was lost. Astor's Business Closed Out McKenzie was on his way to the Willamette when he met and returned with McTavish and a party of seventy-five Nor'westers, in ten canoes. Clarke had accompanied them from Fort Spokane. They camped near the Astoria establishment, and negotiations began. The Astorians were now in a hurry tol sell, for McTavish brought more definite news of the coming of British ships. McTavish tried to delay, as it would not be necessary for him to give bills of exchange, if a British warship or the armed ship of the North West Company should arrive and seize all the American property. McDougall got ready a fleet of boats to transport his stores to the Willamette, if a sail should be sighted. Then McKenzie devised a plan by which matters might be brought to a head. The Nor'westers were dependent for supplies on the Astorians and were! also protected by the guns of the fort from the Indians, who showed a disposition to harass them. One morning, the Astorians closed the gates, manned the bastions and trained the guns on McTavish's camp, and a message was sent giving him the choice of closing the sale in two hours or removing to other quarters. The agreement was promptly signed, and the British flag was unfurled above the factory. Employes of Astor's company who wished to go home were allowed free passage to Canada, and the others were taken into! the service of the North West Company. After all deductions had been made for back pay guaranteed by the Company to its employes, Astor received $40,- 000. The goods purchased were worth at least $100,000, and Astor himself placed the value at nearer $2O0,ooo.7 Alexander Stuart and Alexander Henry,8 partners of the North West Company, arrived from Lake Superior, on November 15, in two canoes manned by sixteen voyageurs. The British sloop-of-war Raccoon anchored in Baker's bay on November 30. When she was sighted, it was McTavish's turn to load the stores for a retreat up the river, in case it should prove to be an American w ship. When Captain W. Black of the Raccoon landed at Astoria with his officers, they viewed the sale of the property as a clever deal on the part of the Americans and a good joke on themselves, since no prize remained for them to take. But Franchere points out how much more clever it would have been if the Astorians had not sold their goods but had moved them up the ri The British officer could only have destroyed the empty fort. As it was, there was nothing for him to do except take possession in the name of his King. FUR TRADERS-PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 107 He, however, renamed the post Fort George. A comedy interlude was furnished by Chief Concomly, who had for some time been McDougall's father- in-law. The chief professed great fondness for the Americans, was desolated because they had sold out and offered eight hundred warriors to fight any British ship that might come. McDougall reassured him, and exacted his promise not to go aboard the British ship; but Concomly visited the Raccoon, and to the Captain he expressed his admiration for British ships and spoke contemptuously of the Americans. Black gave him an old flag, a laced coat, cocked hat and sword. On the following day, Concomly came sailing across to Astoria in full uniform and flying the Union Jack. Loss of the Lar\ When Hunt sailed on the Albatross, it was with the intention of finding a vessel which could be chartered to remove the stores from the Columbia and take the expedition home by sea. While he understood that the enterprise was at an end, he believed that the merchandise and furs could be saved. If Hunt had remained in command at Astoria, or if he had returned in tune, it is likely that no sale would have been made. At the Marquesas, he found David Porter with the American frigate Essex but could not induce him to go to the Columbia. At the Sandwich islands, Hunt learned that Astor had sent out his annual ship, tbe Lark, in spite of the war, but that the ship was lost. The Lark had nearly reached the Islands when she capsized in a heavy sea. The masts were cut away, and the ship righted, but remained mostly under water, kept from sinking only by the quantity of casks of rum in the hold. After remaining lashed to the bowsprit four days and nights, the crew managed to erect a jury mast, with a platform out of reach of the waves. Two Sandwich islanders secured some wine and a little food by diving into the cabin. One man was lashed to the wheel, up to his waist in water. The winds were favorable, and land was sighted on the twelfth day. The crew got ashore a few days later, on the island of Maui. At least five men perished during the ordeal. The survivors were stripped by the natives, who also appropriated the cargo of the ship, which drifted on the beach and broke up. King Kamehameha restored the men's clothing but claimed that the cargo had been cast up by the waves and was therefore his. Hunt purchased the brig Pedlar, of Boston, and the Captain of the Lark was placed in command. They arrived at Fort George in February, 1814. There was little for Hunt to do, and he sailed in a month with Farnham and several other clerks who elected to go home by sea. McDougall became a partner in the North West Company and Cox, Ross and McLennan entered its service. On April 4, the brigade left for Montreal, .and with it went McKenzie, Stuart, Clarke, Franchere and others who were leaving the country. io8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Ordeal of Dorion's Wife Reed's party on the Snake river had to be brought in, but just as messengers were starting, Marie Aioe, the wife of Pierre Dorion, arrived at the mouth of the Walla Walla with a tale of bloodshed.9 Her own conduct and! fortitude in connection with the loss of Reed's party entitle her to a place in the' first rank of frontier heroines. Reed went into the Snake country with thel Dorion family and five French Canadians. Two of these men died, from disease and injury, and another was killed by the Indians, while trapping. Three of the hunters whom Reed was seeking joined the party. A house was built as headquarters for the winter trapping, and there Reed and one other man usually stayed while the rest were out. At the time of the tragedy, Dorion and three others were at a hut near their line of traps. A friendly Indian brought word to Reed, late one evening, that a band of Snakes were approaching with murderous intent, and Dorion's wife took her two children, got a horse and started for the trappers' hut. She lost her way in the night, spent the first day under cover from a storm, spent two more days in traveling and hiding, and, just as she came in sight of the hut, met one of the men, badly wounded. He said that Dorion and the other men had been killed. She put the wounded man on her horse with one child and turned back, traveling at night. It was not possible to go far the next day, and the man died that night. Mrs. Dorion went on, and on the second day reached the house, finding that Reed and his companion had been murdered and cut to pieces. She hid her children in the woods, building a small fire occasionally to warm them and then rolling them up again in her buffalo robe. On two nights she stole down to the house and secured a stock of dried fish. After resting three days, she loaded the horse, set the children on top of the pack and led the animal through the snow for nine days. Selecting a lonely spot in the Blue mountains for winter quarters, she killed and dressed the horse, and hung the meat on a tree. Here she spent nearly two months, in a hut built of pine branches and moss and packed with snow. Then she started with the children to cross the mountains on foot, reaching the plains on the fifteenth day. She had to carry the children much of the way, and they had little to eat the last week and nothing at all for two days. Smoke could be seen in the distance, and she left the children, wrapped in the robe, and went ahead, scarcely able to crawl. Darkness came on, and she had to sleep. At noon the next day, she dragged herself into a camp of Walla Wallas, who cared for her and were back with the children by night. FUR TRADERS—PACIFIC FUR COMPANY 109 Results of Astor's Experiment The loss of Reed's party of nine men brought the death toll of the Astoria enterprise above sixty. It was a costly experiment in every way, wasteful of life and wealth. Of the three ships sent from New York, the Tonquin was blown up and the Lark was wrecked. The Beaver reached Canton, but the trip was a financial failure, largely because of the Captain's timidity. The merchandise of the overland party was lost, and the furs secured in trade by the Astorians were sold at one-third their value. The Pacific Fur Company capitulated to its chief rival, and the British flag floated over the fort which was to have been the key to American supremacy in the Pacific Northwest. It proved fortunate, after all, for American interests in Oregon that Captain Black took formal possession of Fort George, instead of resting content at finding that the American property had passed into British hands.10 The Treaty of Ghent provided that all territory or places, possession of which had been taken during the war, should be restored without delay. President Madison did not know of the creation of Fort George, but he instructed the American plenipotentiaries to take measures which would ensure the preservation of the post at the mouth of the Columbia. This clause in the treaty would not have applied, if Black had not taken possession. The result was that the American sloop-of- war Ontario, Captain James Biddle, and the British frigate Blossom, Captain F. Hickey, with a special commissioner for the United States, J. B. Provost, visited the Columbia in 1818, and " the settlement of Fort George " was surrendered. The British government had previously notified the North West Company that " due facility should be given to the re-occupation by the officers of the United States." u While the Astor experiment failed as a private enterprise, it succeeded in this important political particular, and there were various far-reaching utilities. The impracticability of the Snake river route to the Coast was proved by Hunt's experiences. Stuart's returning party found the South pass through the Rockies and traced a large part of the future Oregon Trail. The rich promise of the Willamette valley was revealed. Moreover, Washington Irving wrote Astoria, which was published in 1836 and had an incalculable influence upon American interest in the Oregon country.12 1 VII Fur Traders-Hudson's Bay Company IT IS A TANTALIZING THOUGHT TO THE HISTORIAN OF THE OREGON COUNTRY THAT the reports, letters and records of the Hudson's Bay Company for tha period when it was the controlling power in this region are preserved in thl Company's London house but have never been made available to students without reservation. The material which is withheld is undoubtedly of importance, and the history of the period can not be completed until this material is made public. The Company has always kept the confidences of its agents, and the remarkable discipline among its officials has extended to a loyal silence regarding its private affairs. Old factors, in their retirement, might be glad to talk about their adventures, but, much like officers of the army and navy, they would not feel free to discuss questions affecting the policy or the good name of the organization. The Hudson's Bay Company is doing a larger business in the twentieth century than it ever did in the past. It is a commercial enterprise, and to make its confidential records available might result in sensational publications harmful to its interests.1 The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson Bay was chartered by King Charles II in 1670, following the voyages of Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart, later known as Sieur des Gro- seilliers. No one understood how vast and rich was the territory which lay beyond Hudson bay and was granted in the charter.2 Not only the " whole trade" but the possession, succession, government and defense of this region of known extent was turned over to the Company. Two centuries later, the Company relinquished its territorial title, to Canada, retaining only its commercial rights and, at the request of the government, one-twentieth of Rupert's Land, as a guarantee of its assistance in transferring the authority which it held over the Indian population. " To have been the possessor of such absolute powers as those given by the charter," says Bryce; " to have been able to carry on government and trade so long and so successfully, is not so much a commendation of the royal donor of the charter as it is of the clemency and general fairness of the administration, which entitled it not only officially but really to the title The Honorable Hudson's Bay Company." After the French had been dispossessed of their power in Canada, inde pendent traders entered the western field, at first without interference from the FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY ni Hudson's Bay Company, which seemed content with its great profits. But the exploits of the rival traders and the growth of the North West Company aroused the old concern from its lethargy and caused it to assert its charter rights. From 1814 to 1821, there was open warfare between the traders, in which violence of every description was practiced. The only possible result was the merger, which was finally accomplished by the influence of leading partners of both concerns and threatened action by the British government. The death in the same year, 1820, of Alexander Mackenzie, whose influence was dominant among the Nor'westers, and of Lord_ Selkirk, who had awakened the Hudson's Bay Company to aggressive action, smoothed the way to an amicable settlement.3 With the amalgamation, headquarters was moved from Lake Superior to Norway House on Lake Winnipeg, and George Simpson became Governor.4 His appointment was remarkable for the fact that he was a young clerk in the London office and had no experience in the fur trade; but it proved a wise selection, and he remained chief officer of the Company for forty years. He was a native of Scotland, short in stature but strong, affable and sympathetic and with tremendous driving power when he started to do something or to go somewhere. He displayed boundless energy in visiting the posts and forced his boatmen to the limit of speed. He made his journeys in considerable pomp and carried buglers and pipers in his company. The natives expected to see something unusual when the Governor came, and he was shrewd enough to give them a good The Hudson's Bay Company came into formal possession of the Oregon trade with the arrival of Governor Simpson at Fort George in 1824, in company with Dr. John McLoughlin, who was to be left in charge as Chief Factor and was destined to become one of the most important figures in the history of the Pacific Northwest. McLoughlin was born on October 19,1789, in Parish La Riviere du Loup, on the St. Lawrence river, 120 miles below Quebec. His father was a native of Ireland, and his mother was of Scotch ancestry. He was educated in Canada and Scotland and became a physician. He joined the North West Company and was in charge of Fort William on Lake Superior, its principal post, when the merger of the fur companies was effected. He married the widow of Alexander McKay, Astor's partner who perished in the Tonquin massacre. Dr. McLoughlin was six feet four inches tall, of powerful physique and commanding presence. He was forty-two years old when he came to Oregon, but his hair, worn long, was even then almost white. The Indians called him, White-Headed Eagle.c For many years his authority in the Oregon country was supreme. To the Company's servants he never exhibited indecision, and • they knew the man so well that they had no inclination to question his actions. He exacted obedience and retained the loyalty of his subordinates as much by his humane qualities as by his firmness. nius / in ion. ii2 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The Indians admired him and accepted his word as truth, because the]! learned at once that he always kept a promise, whether it was to reward or to punish. The Columbia region swarmed with savages when he took charge, five years before the great epidemics of 1829 to 1832, which swept most of themf away, and the dangers of travel have already been described. Strongly armed brigades moved with caution and were frequently robbed. McLoughlin's genii so altered conditions that small parties of his men traversed the country i safety. The Hudson's Bay insignia were borrowed by travelers as a protectioi When white settlers came and the Indians, becoming alarmed at their increai ing numbers, commenced to molest them, Hudson's Bay men were obviously immune. It is no wonder that the Americans charged the Company with rousing the Indians against them. Settlement of the country meant the eventual extinction of the fur trade and probably a decision of the boundary dispute favorable to the United States. But the Indians had no reason to turn against the Hudson's Bay men, and the presence of settlers was enough to account for what happened. The Canadians showed no disposition to settle the country; The Americans did and by that token assumed the responsibility of a conflict' with its uncivilized inhabitants. The first Indian war came in 1847, the year following McLoughlin's retirement. The conduct of McLoughlin and his associates was admirable throughout the long and trying period of adjustment. In the early days of American exploration, missionary endeavor and emigration, timely and ungrudging assistance was given to the new-comers at Forts Walla Walla and Vancouver, as numerous journals and letters testify. Most of the first missionaries and settlers needed help and could not have remained in the country without the assistance which McLoughlin gave them. In notable instances, no bill was presented for the generous first aid which was afforded, and facilities were offered for the purchase from England of supplies which could not otherwise have been secured. Boats were provided, cattle were loaned, and settlers were supplied with clothing, food, farming utensils and wheat for seed. McLoughlin testified, in his old age, that " very many of these men honorably paid, as soon as they could," but others allowed religion and politics to efface all memory of their indebtedness, and they succeeded in depriving McLoughlin of his property at Oregon City and impoverishing him. The State of Oregon made reparation for this spite work to his heirs, five years after his death. Trading in the Snake Country Donald McKenzie's exploits in opening the Snake country for trade, under the Nor'westers, have been related in Chapter V. He left the Northwest in. 1822. Alexander Ross was in charge at Fort Nez Perces, and though the merger of the fur interests had taken place, it would be another year before the new FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 113 government could be established in the Columbia district. So the annual expedi- to the Snake country was fitted out as usual and was placed under the command of Finan McDonald. When McDonald returned from his Snake trip, instead of making rendezvous at the new fort, he took his men to Spokane House. "He had passed many years among the fascinating pleasures of the far-famed Spokane House," says Ross, "and the moment that McKenzie had turned his back on the Columbia, old prejudices were revived." McDonald's trip was successful financially, but it was unfortunate in other respects. One of his men was murdered by Piegans, and seven others were killed in subsequent fighting.7 McDonald himself was badly wounded by the accidental discharge of a gun during a squabble with his own Iroquois. Ross took the next season's expedition into the Snake country. He started from Spokane House with forty men and recruited the number to fifty-five in the Flathead country. It was a motley crew, composed of two Americans, seventeen Canadians, five half-breeds, twelve Iroquois, two Abinakis, two Nipis- sings, one Soulteau, two Crees, one Chinook, two Spokanes, two Kootenais, three Flatheads, two Kalispels, one Palouse and one Snake slave. Five of the Canadians were over sixty years of age, and two were about seventy. The confusion of tongues was a difficulty, and when the Iroquois began to sing hymns, mutiny was to be expected. Twenty-five of the men were married, and consequently twenty-five women, with sixty-four children had to be taken along. The expedition started with 392 horses, and the cavalcade was more than a mile long. Ross, unlike McKenzie, was a journalist, and he has left a full account of the adventures and hardships of a typical expedition into the Snake country in the twenties, in his Fur Hunters of the Far West. In spite of the dangers of the country and the difficulty in keeping his heterogeneous party in line, he brought back five thousand beaver skins. The American Advance Trappers of the Missouri Fur Company discovered the South pass, and one of their leaders, Andrew Henry, built a post, in 1810, in southeastern Idaho, which was afterwards called Fort Henry. It was used less than a year. In 1822, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company was organized, with Henry still active, and sent a famous group of hunters to the Divide. They gathered each year at the Green River Rendezvous. The Hudson's Bay Company expeditions in the Snake country began to come in contact with the American trappers as early as 1824. The Snake country was the first disputed ground in the American advance upon Oregon. Peter Skene Ogden had charge of the expedition of 1825, following Ross, and Ogden lost forty-eight men by desertion, twenty- three of whom went over to the Americans. He finally had only fifteen men of ii4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the seventy-five who started with him, and his returns in peltries were small,! but he was lucky to get out at all. McLoughlin dispatched another expedition, under Archibald McDonald and Thomas McKay, without waiting for Ogden, and the latter joined it. This party reached Klamath lake, and Ogden crossed the Cascades and re-| turned to Vancouver by the Willamette valley. Ogden's interest seems to have turned toward exploration. He went into the Snake country again in 1826-* 1827, and much new territory was traversed. In the summer of 1827, two Hudson's Bay Company expeditions were in the region, — Ogden's and a party direct from York Factory, under Simon McGillivray. Many Americans were encountered, floundering in the deep snows of the mountains, for which they. were not equipped, and Ogden refused to sell them snowshoes. In 1828, he; crossed the Klamath country to Great Salt lake and the Humboldt and Pitt rivers. In 1829-1830, he was in the south again and this time went as far as the San Joaquin valley in California. On this trip he met a party of Americans with Kit Carson and Ewing Young, whose odd part in the beginnings of government in Oregon will be described later. The Company continued to derive good returns from the Snake country for a number of years through the operations of Thomas McKay and other hardy and resourceful clerks. A noteworthy journey of the period was made by Joshua Pilcher of the reorganized Missouri Fur Company, who left Council Bluffs in 1827, came through the South pass and wintered on Green river. He had forty-five men and a hundred horses. In the spring of 1828, he went north along the base of the Rockies to Flathead lake, where he spent the next winter. In 1829, he de-! scended the Clark Fork to Fort Colville, and returned to the States by the northern Columbia, Athabasca, Red river and Missouri. Jedediah Smith Of the American fur traders who came to close quarters with the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, two deserve special notice, — Jedediah S. Smith and Captain Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville. Smith was head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In 1826, he made his way with a small party through Utah to the Virgin and Colorado rivers, crossing southern California to San Diego. The winter was spent in an expedition to the neighborhood of the headwaters of the San Joaquin and Merced rivers. With two men and nine horses and mules, he started on May 20, 1827, to cross the mountains at some point south of the Humboldt river. He reached the rendezvous near Great Salt lake by the middle of June, after great hardship and the loss of seven animals. He returned at once to California, to find the men he had left there, traveling with a party of eighteen by the route which he had followed the previous year. The Mojaves had been warned by the Spanish authorities, in the n FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 115 let Americans pass, and they killed ten of his men and took all his property. On the tenth day after the fight, he reached San Gabriel, where he was obliged to leave two wounded men. The Spaniards seized two Indian guides whom he had employed. One died under cruel treatment, and the other was sentenced to death. He went north and united his parties. The Mexican Governor at Monterey finally allowed him to purchase supplies but ordered him out of the country. He followed the Sacramento river to its principal fork, where he spent several months. The name American fork originated in this cir- On April 13, 1828, Smith moved in a northwesterly direction to the coast, which he followed to the Umpqua river. He had lost two men by desertion, and his party now numbered nineteen, including himself. They trapped on the way and were very successful. On July 14, while exploring for a trail, he was fired on by Indians. Eluding their pursuit, he returned to camp and found that it was in the hands of the natives. Fifteen of his men had been killed, and the others had fled. Smith pushed on alone and reached Fort Vancouver. There he found the other three men. When the first fugitive appeared, McLoughlin dispatched Indian runners, instructing the Willamette chiefs to search for Smith and the other two survivors and warning them not to harm the Americans. He also sent Tom McKay with a strong force to intimidate the hostiles. McKay recovered most of the stolen property, and McLoughlin purchased the furs at the market value of about $20,000. This is an example of his principle to protect all whites and his generous treatment of rivals in distress. Smith spent the winter at Fort Vancouver, went up the Columbia in the spring of 1829 to Saleesh House and soon afterward rejoined his partners in the Snake country, one man accompanying him of the thirty-three who started on his two expeditions. In recognition of McLoughlin's generosity, Smith insisted that the fall hunt of the Americans should be made east of the Divide, in territory not disputed by the Hudson's Bay Company.8 Captain Bonneville Captain Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville's chief distinction is as a character in literature. Little would have been heard of him if he had not turned over his journals to Washington Irving.0 The original notes disappeared, but Irving states that many of the most graphic passages in his book are but little varied from Bonneville's own language. Bonneville's adventures, however, form only a third of the subject-matter. The book consists mainly of Irving's own observations on the American fur trade and material derived from other journals and from conversations with various actors in the events described. It was really the story of the American fur trade in its prime, and Bonneville's name was not featured in the original title. Bonneville was born n6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in France, and his father, who was in disfavor with the government, arranged for him to leave the country secretly, with his mother and Thomas Paine, whose influence secured him an appointment to West Point. He was detailed to accompany Lafayette on his tour of the States in 1825 and was a guest for some time at the General's home in France. On his return to America, he was stationed on the frontier and became ambitious to engage in the fur trade. j He secured private backing for his expedition, which was plainly for the purpose of trade and was well equipped. He obtained a two years' leave from 1 the War Department, however, with the understanding that he was to explore the country and secure information regarding the natives, the economic possibilities and the geology and topography of the region. It was described as a scientific expedition, but it was to be conducted at no expense to the government. As a commercial enterprise, it was a complete failure, and no report was ever made to the War Department. The start was made from Fort Osage, near Independence, on May 1, 1832. Bonneville was at least successful as a leader. He maintained strict military discipline but was popular with his men and likewise with the Indians. His camps were favorite gathering places for the free trappers, on account of his hospitality. He spent three years in the mountains without losing a man from any party under his personal command. Yet this kind of efficiency was of no avail in bringing him furs, and he was outwitted at every point by his unscrupulous rivals. His first mistake was in building Fort Bonneville on Green river at a place which was unsuitable for a permanent post because of its altitude and severe winter weather. He put up the usual palisade and bastions, but removed to a warmer location before winter. The establishment was never occupied and was named by the trappers Fort Nonsense and Bonneville's Folly. His principal achievement was in bringing wagons through the South pass for the first time. His efforts to invade the preserves of the Hudson's Bay Company failed because he could do nothing without purchasing supplies from the Company which they could hardly be expected to furnish to a rival. Leaving his camp in the valley of the Portneuf, on Christmas morning, 1833, he went down the Snake, with three men, and reached Fort Walla Walla on March 4, 1834, having chosen the most difficult way. Pierre C. Pambrun, in charge of the fort at that time, was most hospitable but made it clear that the Company would not outfit a rival.10 Bonneville hastily retraced his steps, and he was so indignant at Pambrun that he declined the invitation to accompany a British party which was about to cross the mountains by an easy route and punished himself with another toilsome journey. In the summer of 1834, Bonneville decided to make a second attempt to trade in the Columbia region. He took twenty-three men on this expedition, and when he was about thirty miles from Fort Walla Walla, he sent a small party FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY n7 for provisions. This request was naturally no more successful than the first, and he proceeded to the Columbia, fifty miles below the fort. He soon discovered that the Indians under the influence of the Company respected its wishes. Nothing could be done with them, and he wisely crossed the mountains again to his camp on the Portneuf, before winter. In August, 1835, he was in the East. He had overstayed his leave a year, but was reinstated in the army by President Jackson, in recognition of his contributions to geographical knowledge. These contributions were slight, but his maps were new to the public, who were not familiar with Gallatin's map of the previous year. Gallatin's map contained most of the novel features, largely the fruit of the explorations of Jedediah Smith, but this map was buried in a learned publication. After service in the Seminole and Mexican wars, with wounds and a brevet as Lieutenant Colonel, for bravery in the latter struggle, Bonneville came to the command at Vancouver Barracks, in 1853. He mapped the military reservation acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company, and he sent timely aid to Governor Lane during the Rogue River Indian outbreak. He remained loyal to the Union when the Civil war came, though he sympathized with the South, and he was made a Brevet Brigadier General. He died at Fort Smith on June 12, Fort Vancouver One of the first events of Dr. McLoughlin's administration in the Oregon country was the removal of headquarters from Fort George to Fort Vancouver. Ships could pass up the Columbia to the new post, and there was a great saving of time and labor for the brigades. The site was well chosen. Vancouver was the natural terminus for ocean and inland voyages. It was also the starting point for parties going up the Willamette valley or overland to Puget sound. Here the Hudson's Bay Company established its principal depot in the Pacific Northwest. The post was at first about a mile back from the river, but it was found desirable to move closer to the boat landing, where the United States army post, Vancouver Barracks, is now located. When Fort George was given up, there was not much to leave, for the post had been burned in 1821 and rebuilt on a small scale. The removal to Vancouver was made as much for political as for practical advantage. George Canning, Secretary of the British Foreign Office, had expressed the wish that the Company might hold the north bank of the Columbia with its establishments, as Great Britain no longer counted on getting any territory south of the river, in the final settlement of the dispute. The removal to Vancouver was arranged while Governor Simpson was with McLoughlin at Fort George.11 The Okanogan post was already on the north bank. The plan was found impractical in connection with Fort Nez Perces, which Simpson wanted to move, and with Fort Colville, where Simpson himself n8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST selected a site and was forced by consideration of the welfare of the post tot locate it on the wrong side. While the British government wished the Company to entrench itselfi securely on the Columbia, active trading in the region south of the river was! also regarded as desirable, as a buffer against American encroachment. The; first line of American advance was the fur traders. The Astorians had been! disposed of, but others were working west by land. Various trading houses were! established by the Company, south of the Columbia. Most of them were noil forts, but Fort Boise was built in 1834, and Fort Hall was purchased from»' Nathaniel Wyeth in 1837. Fort Umpqua was built in southern Oregon. The trading posts of the Nor'westers in the Pend d'Oreille, Kootenay and Flathead regions were continued. These were not forts and could be easily shifted about. Saleesh House, established by David Thompson, was moved up the riveil several times, until it reached its final location, in 1847, on Post creek, near the St. Ignatius mission. Fort Vancouver was the capital of the Oregon country. The first establishment was smaller than Fort George, but it grew steadily because of its superior location as headquarters for the Company's business and because of the agricultural opportunities in its neighborhood. In the thirties, with from five hundred to seven hundred residents, it was the most important community on the entire! Pacific Coast.12 The second fort was a parallelogram, about 250 yards long and 150 yards wide, enclosed by a wall twenty feet high, formed of beams set! upright in the ground, fitted together and supported by buttresses on the inside. The usual bastions originally stood at the angles, but these had been removed! by the time of Wilkes' visit. Two old eighteen-pounders, on sea-carriages, were! kept inside the fort and were viewed with awe by the natives, but in a few years these cannon became useless from neglect. No defensive measures were! ever required against the natives of the vicinity. On one occasion, when a band; of Indians came down the river, in an ugly mood, McLoughlin invited thel chiefs to the fort and completely overwhelmed them with the majesty of the audience which he granted them in his hall. And he had learned the value! of a favorite device of Simpson's. At the gate, the Indians passed a huge sentinel in kilts, who did not seem to notice them, and a little later they came upon another Highlander, parading magnificently back and forth and absorbed in playing his bagpipe. The weird music added to their dismay, and they concluded that he must be making powerful medicine. Several times when the lives of Americans were endangered, a command from McLoughlin was sufficient to prevent violence. The area inside the stockade was divided into two courts, around which were arranged about forty wooden buildings. These were offices, apartments for the clerks, warehouses, a bakery, drug store, retail shop for the English Bachelors' Hall" adorned with weapons, tlemen, clerks, chaplai: ernor presiding. A sti company. There was i linen. A variety of w FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 119 goods and the workshops of carpenters, smiths, coopers, wheelwrights, tinners, etc. A powder magazine was the only building constructed of brick and stone! There was a schoolhouse and a chapel. The Governor's house stood at the center and had a piazza and flower beds at the front. Beside the large dining hall, there was a " Bachelors' Hall" or smoking room, the walls of which were costumes and other curiosities of savage life. The gen- , physician and guests dined together, with the Gov- ct order of precedence was observed in seating the 1 abundance of good fare, a fine dinner set and table nes was provided in decanters, but moderation was the Governor's table, and he seldom used wine. Once a year, he drank a toast, to open the festivities on the return of the brigades. Spirits were never permitted at his board. Mrs. Whitman, in her Journal, says: "There is one article on the table I have not yet mentioned, and of which I never partake. That is wine. The gentlemen frequently drink toasts to each other, but never give us an opportunity of refusing, for they know that we belong to the Tetotal Society. We have talks about drinking wine, but no one joins our society." Dr. McLoughlin and his principal associate, James Douglas, who succeeded him, had half-breed wives, and Mrs. Whitman refers to McLoughlin's daughter, Maria, as " quite an interesting young lady." The custom of the country did not permit full-blooded Indian women who had married gentlemen and clerks to dine at the hall with their husbands. The half-breed women dressed in English clothing, with the exception that they generally wore gaiters ornamented with beads. These women were the daughters of chief traders by Indian girls of great personal attractiveness. They spoke correct French and English and usually possessed other accomplishments. The native wives wore English clothes to some extent, but retained their moccasins. On the bank of the river, below the fort, was a village of sixty or more houses, built in rows, where the mechanics and other servants lived with their families. Here the Company maintained a hospital. Beginnings of Agriculture The charter of the Hudson's Bay Company did not provide for agricultural activities, but McLoughlin saw their importance to his establishments, and it was in Simpson's plans to make them self-supporting. Cultivation of the land was started at the same time as building operations, at Fort Vancouver. Beginning with less than twenty head of cattle, but with the determination that none should be killed for beef until the herd was of ample size to meet all demands, McLoughlin had 200 head in 1828. In 1836, when the first cattle were killed, he had 700 head, exclusive of what he bad sent to other places, - Okanogan 120 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and Colville. Sheep were imported from England. By 1838, when he had over 1,000 cattle, beside hundreds of hogs, sheep, horses and oxen, he organized the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, to take over the stock-raising interests, as they had obviously exceeded anything within the functions of the Hudson's Bay Company. The herds increased enormously at Vancouver, Nisqually and Cowlitz, and a large exporting business developed, in dairy products to the Russians in Alaska and hides and wool to England. The agricultural concern, at thel time of Slacum's investigations in 1837, was already raising a large surplus of wheat, as well as great quantities of oats, peas and potatoes. Flour ground in the two mills at Vancouver was shipped to the Russians. There were two sawmills at Vancouver in 1837, and a profitable export trade in lumber for the Sandwich islands had developed.13 Forts O!(anogan and Walla Walla In 1816, Ross Cox had replaced the original buildings of the Okanogan post with a strong fort. He says, in his Adventures: " Before the month of September we had erected a new dwelling-house for the person in charge, containing four excellent rooms and a large dining hall, two good houses for the men and al spacious store for the furs and merchandise, to which was attached a shop for trading with the natives. The whole was surrounded by strong palisades fifteen feet high and flanked by two bastions. Each bastion had, in its lower story, a| light brass four-pounder; and in the upper, loopholes were left for the use of! musketry. . . . The point of land on which the fort is built is formed by the junction of the Oakinagan river with the Columbia." The Okanogan post was important as the gateway to Kamloops and New Caledonia. It was a storage depot and a horse rendezvous. The last New Caledonia brigade came down* in 1847. Partly on account of Indian troubles, starting with the Cayuse war,| and partly because the boundary had been fixed, the Company decided to send its furs from Kamloops to the mouth of the Fraser river, and a new trail was broken, up the Similkameen and down the Coquihalla to Fort Hope on the Fraser. The importance of Fort Okanogan was gone, though the Company maintained the post another twelve years. The rush to the Fraser river mines brought the trail into use for a while, and some of the miners became the first settlers of the Okanogan country. The present highway up the valley and from the north end of the lake to Kamloops follows the general course of thej old trail.14 In the early sixties, some of the buildings at Fort Okanogan were standing, but now there are only the depressions in the ground where the cellars were. There are plainer traces of the original buildings, a mile or more distant, though these were abandoned in 1816. Two things contributed to the complete obliteration of the fort. Placer miners, whites and Chinese, working on the bars of the Columbia, raided the place for lumber, and the flood of 1894 swept FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 121 the site clean and even carried away the river bank, leaving a wide stony beach in its place. No satisfactory location north of the Columbia could be found for Fort Nez Perces, the chief rendezvous of the traders in the interior. This fort later known as Fort Walla Walla,15 was the most strongly fortified post. It was about 200 feet square, with a twenty-foot palisade and a gallery inside. There were bastions at the corners, in which cannon were mounted, and water reservoirs were provided against attempts to attack with fire. Indians admitted to trade were required to carry on their negotiations through a window in an inside wall. The buildings were within this second defense. Everything was so dry and hot when Drayton of the Wilkes expedition visited the fort that he thought a single spark might ignite the whole and reduce it to ashes. This is precisely what happened, soon after his visit. The fort was rebuilt, of adobe, at the same place. Fort Colville Governor Simpson selected the site for Fort Colville,10 a new post which seemed desirable on account of the proposed abandonment of Fort Spokane. McLoughlin hesitated to put up the buildings because Simpson's own location was south of the Columbia, but here again there seemed to be no alternative, and the post was built near the present town of Marcus, where the agricultural possibilities promised to make it self-supporting. The enclosure was 208 feet square, and the stockade was fourteen feet high. There was only one bastion, and it was not necessary to provide elaborate defenses. Some of the houses were built outside the fort, and a large part of the stockade had been taken down before the Indian uprising in the fifties. The agricultural development at Fort Colville led to the erection of a mill and many other buildings. In a few years the place presented the appearance of a thriving farming community. The man selected to build Fort Colville and at the same time to dismantle Spokane House was John Work, who had a long and honorable career in the Pacific Northwest. On March 21, 1826, Work's Journal records the closing scene at Spokane House as a Company post.17 Twelve years elapsed before Cushing Eells and Elkanah Walker arrived to set up another white man's establishment in the vicinity, the Tshimakain mission. David Douglas, the botanist, for whom the Douglas spruce is named, though it was the sugar pine that impressed him most, arrived at Kettle falls in April, 1826.18 Douglas went to Spokane House to see Jaco Finlay, who was the only man within eight hundred miles who could mend his gun. Finlay was the half-breed who, with Finan McDonald, built Spokane House in 1810. He was living on camas and water when Douglas found him. Held by some strong attachment for the place, he stayed till his death in 1828. Samuel Parker 122 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST passed that way in 1836 and noted that one bastion of the old fort remained The spot was long a resort of Indian fishermen and became uninhabitable on account of the accumulation of refuse. High ground across the river was an ancient burial place, and the locale was fruitful of Indian ghost stories. When Angus MacDonald came to Fort Colville in 1852, the site was still a stopping place in conducting business with the tribes to the east, but he changed hi trading point to a more convenient location northeast of Spokane falls, on Peone prairie, so named because the man in charge was Baptiste Peone, an old em ploye of the Company.10 Finan McDonald, who shared with Finlay the distinction of being first at Spokane House, left the country in the fall of 1826. Douglas, in his Journal entry for June 1, 1827, gives an account of a struggle near Fort Edmonton between McDonald and a buffalo bull, in which he threw the animal and held it down until he became unconscious from injuries. When released, the buffalo walked away. McDonald was badly hurt and was rushed to Cumberland House, where the services of a physician were secured, five days later. He survived and settled in the East, where he was commissioned as a Captain in the Glengarry militia in 1838 and was elected from Williamstown to the provincial parliament for Canada West, now Ontario, in 1843. The McDonalds of Colville From the time it was built, in 1826, until it was abandoned by the Company, in 1871, numerous travelers and missionaries visited Fort Colville and left descriptions of the place in their journals.20 Archibald McDonald, who was in charge of the post from 1836 until 1843, is the best known of its Superintendents.21 McDonald's hospitality was famous and of such variety as to receive the praises of convivial spirits and of sober missionaries. McDonald was first married, in 1823, to Princess Raven, a daughter of Chief Concomly. She died in 1824, shortly after giving birth to a son who was destined to play a strange part in American and Japanese history, returning to end his days in the Inland Empire. This was Ranald MacDonald.22 His first two years werel spent with a sister of his mother in an Indian lodge at Fort George. When his father came to Kamloops with his new bride, the boy was brought there, but he spent considerable time until his tenth year with his Chinook relatives. He attended the first school in the Oregon country, taught by John Ball, at Vancouver, in 1833-1834, and was then sent to the Red River Settlement. His father's letters show great concern for the education of this son, partly because he was a half-breed. Yet the father wrote, " Who knows but a kinsman of King Concomly is ordained to make a great figure in the new world."28 Ranald first learned that he was a half-breed when he fell in love with a Canadian girl. The facts of his origin were revealed, and his Indian blood was FUR TRADERS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 123 considered a barrier to marriage. So he ran away to sea, and he never married. He had long cherished a desire to penetrate the forbidden mysteries of the Hermit Kingdom. On June 27,1848, he left a whaler, off the coast of Japan, in a small boat, with provisions and a box of books. Only Chinese and Hollanders were permitted to land in Japan, but he contrived to arrive with his boat in a sinking condition, and on account of curiosity about his books he was well treated, though confined in a cage. He introduced English into Japan, and one of his pupils acted as interpreter when the American corvette Preble appeared. Ranald was surrendered to Commander James Glynn of the Preble and, after a life of adventure, came back to spend his last days in the Colville country. He lived much of the time with a cousin, Donald MacDonald, at the abandoned fort and received visitors in the grand manner of a gentleman of the early days. He died in 1894. John Lee Lewis, or Lewes, a Beau Brummel of the traders, followed Archibald McDonald at Fort Colville. It was to him that the missionaries at Tshimakain turned for protection in 1848. He was succeeded by Alexander C. Anderson. The last Chief Trader was Angus MacDonald, a nephew of Archibald, who was in charge from 1852 to 1871, with a brief interval in the fifties.24 His hospitality was as generous as his uncle's. When the matter of entertaining Governor Stevens and Captain McCleUan, whose parties met at Colville in 1853, was left to his discretion, he was prepared with " fifty imperial gallons of extra rations to entertain the gentlemen." He was fond of philosophizing and writing, and his extant manuscripts include long poems and several plays, one of which is a tragedy based on the Whitman massacre. His deportment was that of a Scotch laird, and he was particular about the manners and the acquaintances of his children. He was exceedingly fond of horses and kept a large stable, including hack and driving horses, running horses, buffalo and pack animals and the ordinary Indian ponies. He had a special breed of imported French roan horses, described as tough as mules, which were great travelers. In 1855 and 1856, Forts Boise and Hall were abandoned, and when Fort Vancouver was closed in i860, supplies for Fort Colville were shipped from Victoria by way of Fort Hope and the Similkameen, which had been the export ' route since 1847. The importance of Fort Colville increased, as it became the headquarters of the Company's business in the Inland Empire. Its territory included the Okanogan, Kootenai and Flathead sections. In 1871 the Company withdrew from this territory, and the post was vacated on June 1 of that year. MacDonald moved the goods to Kamloops but claimed the fort as his home i until 1874. All the buildings of Fort Colville are now gone. Missionary Pioneers THE HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC NORTH- west lies in the fact that the first American settlement was planted by a missionary group,— the Methodists in the Willamette valley. Indeed, this mission became so secularized that the church was obliged to reform it. But the new line drawn between church and State left the same men running both, until emigrations swelled the population, and the old settlers became the " mission party." When the Catholic missionaries came from Canada, by permission of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Americans regarded them as British re-enforcements as well as ecclesiastical competitors. Then Marcus Whitman, against the advice of everybody, stayed at his post in the interior. The massacre followed, the Cayuse war was fought by the settlers, and the United States had to set up territorial government in Oregon without further delay. The first religious influences felt by the native tribes did not come from missionary sources. Presbyterians and Episcopalians among the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company held services for the Indians west of the Cascades. At Fort Walla Walla, Pierre Pambrun, the chief trader, gave Catholic instruction, and Captain Bonneville, on his visit to Fort Walla Walla in 1832, was greatly impressed with the results of Pambrun's teaching. He speaks particularly of its effect upon the Nez Perces. Bonneville himself, at the request of the Indians, discoursed to them on religion and morals. There were also Indian teachers. Spokane Garry gave Christian instruction to his people, commencing about 1830, on his return from the Red River Settlement, where he had been sent with other Indian boys by Governor George Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company. Garry was in school there five years and learned to read and write French and English. He held services among the Spokanes, at which he read the Bible and taught the Minor Historical Catechism. Other members of the tribe learned to give the catechism lessons in his absence. Garry interpreted the Rev. Samuel Parker's sermon to the Spokanes, near Loon lake, in 1836. The Rev. Elkanah Walker says in his Journal that Garry sometimes translated sermons at the Tshimakain mission, in 1842, and was especially effective in passages picturing the final state of the damned.1 MISSIONARY PIONEERS 125 Indian Pilgrimage to St. Louis hristianity was introduced among the Flatheads between 1812 and 1820 by a wandering band of Iroquois from the Caughnawaga mission near Montreal, who remained and intermarried. Ignace La Mousse, variously called "Big Ignace " and " Old Ignace," was the Iroquois leader, and he was held in great honor by the Flatheads. He was a zealous teacher of the Catholic faith. From these seeds of religion sown by laymen, before any missionary organization had planned to enter the Oregon field, there grew a desire among the Indians for official emissaries of Christianity, the " black robes" of whom they had been told. The initiative was taken by the Indians, who sent a delegation to St. Louis in 1831. The party included Nez Perces as well as Flatheads. Four of the Indians reached St. Louis. There they found General William Clark, well remembered on account of his journey through their country in 1805-6. They were hospitably received by Clark and were put in touch with people of the faith they professed.2 Two old men in the party died in St. Louis. They had received baptism, and their funeral services were held in the Catholic church.3 The survivors were young men, and they started on their long journey homeward in the spring of 1832. George Catlin, the ethnologist and painter, travelled up the river by steamer in company with them a distance of two thousand miles, to the mouth of the Yellowstone.4 He states that they were both Nez Perces and that he became much pleased with their manners and dispositions. He says they came east " to enquire for the truth of a representation which they said some white man had made amongst them, that our religion was better than theirs and that they would all be lost if they did not embrace it." One of the Indians died near the mouth of the Yellowstone, "and the other one I have since learned," says Catlin, " arrived safely amongst his friends." Catlin says that he later verified the Indians' story, in a conversation with General Clark. There is no other first-hand information about the Indian pilgrimage. An agent in the work of removing the Wyandotte Indians west of the Mississippi, William Walker, heard the story from General Clark, and is responsible for the first misstatement of the facts, published in the Christian Advocate for March 1, 1833, — a highly imaginative account written to please Protestant readers and destined to have far-reaching results.5 The other secondhand report is in a journal kept by Dr. Whitman in 1835, in which he states that his information came from a trader under whose protection the Indian pilgrims travelled. The trader said " their object was to gain religious knowledge." The deaths and the return of the young Nez Perce, alone, are confirmed.0 i26 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Jason Lee's Colony The Indian pilgrimage bore curious fruit. The appeal for Catholic missionaries was answered by the Methodists. The Methodist party, however, passed by the tribes which had asked for help and located in the Willamette valley. Here it became a mission to white settlers rather than to Indians. But thif very circumstance led to activities on the part of its leader, Jason Lee, which; entitle him to a place of first importance in the " saving" of Oregon. His services have never been questioned; it simply happened that, in the heat of the Whitman controversies, they were scarcely noticed. In the accounts which were published in religious periodicals, the quest of the Indian pilgrims at St. Louis was transformed into a search for the " white man's Book of Heaven." They were represented as departing in disappointment at not having found the Book.7 Wilbur Fisk, President of Wesleyan University and a man of great influence, was roused to action. His call to work among the Indians of the Oregon country was answered by the young Methodist elder, Jason Lee, and his nephew, Daniel Lee. The Methodist mission went out with Wyeth's second expedition, in 1834. Supplies were forwarded by sea on the brig Mary Dacre. It was natural that the mission should go through to Fort Vancouver. The Whitman party, which followed, did likewise. But at Vancouver Dr. McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company persuaded Lee to stay west of the Cascades!. The sole gesture of promise to the interior tribes was the subsequent establishment of a branch mission at The Dalles. There were already white settlers in the Willamette valley, and the Indians there were few and unpromising. The missionaries soon conceded that the adult natives were "comparatively hopeless." A score of Indian children were gathered into a school, and the mission turned its attention chiefly toward the development of agriculture and social institutions among the whites and toward settlement of the country. Lee admitted that there were opportunities elsewhere for more fruitful efforts among the Indians, but he had a vision of the future of the whole Oregon country. He believed that a strong base of operations should be developed, in a region hospitable to the pursuits of civilized life, and that the encouragement of emigration from the East was essential. He first asked for additional helpers, and the Board of Missions sent out two parties by sea, in 1837. In the following year, Lee returned overland to the States, to secure further re-enforcements. He took with him two Indians and three half-breed children, and he lectured in all the States through which he passed. He had armedf himself with a memorial signed by missionaries and settlers, including French Canadians in the Willamette valley.8 This was not a religious plea, and it was not so much a bid for homeseekers as it was a declaration of American rights in Oregon and a prayer to Congress for legislation which would secure to the| MISSIONARY PIONEERS I2y settlers the title to the lands they had taken up, and for the extension of the laws of the United States into the new region. The settlers affirmed that "the germ of a great State" existed in Oregon. There were only eighty-six white Americans in Oregon at this time! Counting those going out in 1839, the American population would reach 151. Lee had come East to re-enforce his mission, and he was remarkably successful in this purpose as well as in his other activities. There was opposition on account of the heavy expense of work in Oregon, and yet he secured the appointment of twenty-one additional helpers. Only five of these were ministers. There were four teachers, four farmers, six mechanics, an accountant, and a physician. With their families, the party numbered more than fifty persons. Lee also secured the largest grant ever made to a single mission in the history of the society at that date, — $42,000, which was used for the purchase of machinery, agricultural implements and merchandise, and for the transportation of these supplies by water.9 The recruits, known thereafter as " the great re-enforcement," reached the Willamette valley in 1840. There was so much to be done in improving conditions of life in the new country, and the mission personnel was so well qualified to do this work, that Lee's own fears for the evangelical activities proved well founded. The mission assumed a secular character. The Missionary Society began to receive complaints from Oregon, and in 1844 the Rev. George Gary arrived to take charge. Before learning of the change, Lee had started East. He died in 1845, in Canada. His body was brought to Oregon in 1906. The changes of policy effected by Gary were wise. The community was growing rapidly, and the church now became more effective by confining itself to religious work. Samuel Parker's Travels The second mission to Oregon was sent out by the American Board, representing the Congregationalist, Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches.10 The Methodist party under Jason Lee had started in 1834, and in the spring of 1835 the American Board sent the Rev. Samuel Parker of Ashfield, Mass., to make a survey of the field. Parker enlisted Dr. Marcus Whitman in the expedition. Whitman had studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical College, Pitts- field, Mass., and had practiced several years in Canada. He had, however, returned to his old home in Rushville, N. Y., and was associated with his brother in running a sawmill. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church and an applicant for missionary work in Oregon. Parker was a clergyman, 56 years of age, fastidious and critical. Whitman was only 33 years old and keen to accept all the conditions of frontier life, however primitive. Parker's references to Whitman, in his Journal, published after his return,11 are few, but they bear witness to the young physician's invaluable services. At Bellevue, cholera i28 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST broke out, and Parker says that without Whitman's effective practice the caravan would have dispersed. When the wagons were left at the Black hills fort, Parker found that no payment would be accepted by the commander of the caravan, Lucien Fontanelle of the American Fur Company. At the Green River Rendezvous, Whitman extracted an iron arrow three inches long from the back of Jim Bridger, which he had received in a skirmish with the Blackfeet three years before.12 A crowd of Indians watched the operation. After conferences with Nez Perce and Flathead chiefs at the Rendezvous, it was decided that Whitman should return for recruits, and Parker went on with an Indian escort.13 Parker reached Fort Walla Walla on October 6, 1835, and was warmly received by Pambrun. At The Dalles he met Captain Wyeth, who gave him a Chinook vocabulary. On October 16 he was at Vancouver. He visited Astoria and the Methodist mission in the Willamette valley. Afterf wintering at Vancouver and drawing on the Hudson's Bay Company for clothing, goods to pay his Indian guides and provisions for these men, he found that the Company would accept no payment. In April, 1836, he set out to explore the interior, going first to Fort Walla Walla and the Nez Perce- country; then to Fort Colville. His party was lost for a time but was set right" by a kindly Spokane Indian. From Colville he rode to Fort Okanogan, crossing the Grand Coulee. Parker had two French voyageurs with him, and a bateau was secured, in which the party went down the Columbia to Fort Walla Walla. Two Indians who had been entrusted with the horses at Fort Okanogan brought them in safely. The return to Fort Vancouver was made by canoe. An excursion on the Columbia in the steamboat Beaver led him to reflect shrewdly " upon the probable changes, which would take place in these remote* regions, in a very few years." Parker felt some obligation to await the coming of Whitman's party, in order to impart the information he had collected, in person instead of by letter. He considered, however, that he had proved the two main points of his mission of exploration, — the practicability of penetrating in safety to all parts of tha interior and the favorable disposition of the natives, who had everywhere heard him gladly. So he yielded to the advice of his friends at Fort Vancouver and the attraction of a passage to Oahu on the barque Columbia, with the hope of a speedy return thence to the United States. He reached New London in May, 1837. Soon after his return, he published his Journal, one of the best of the narratives of exploration. Whitman Mission Dr. Marcus Whitman, accompanied by two Indian boys, returned to Rushville, N. Y., early in the winter of 1835, and the American Board authorized the mission. Whitman married Narcissa' Prentiss in February, 1836, and L MISSIONARY PIONEERS I2C, in the same month the Rev. Henry H. Spalding and his wife were associated with the enterprise. W. H. Gray was appointed mechanic and farmer. It was an ill-assorted group. Whitman was a man of single purpose, who wished to believe the best of every one, cherished no grudge, heeded no warning and accommodated himself to any circumstance of life. Narcissa Whitman was an attractive young woman of cheerful disposition and fine spirit. Mrs. Spalding was an invalid but keen for the enterprise, and her fearlessness was admired by the Indians. Spalding was " difficult" as an associate. His earnestness is unquestioned, but he was the kind of man who can only work alone, and his actions sometimes did not seem to be governed by a well balanced mind. Moreover, he had been a schoolmate and early suitor of Narcissa Prentiss, and there were misgivings in her family regarding the wisdom of his selection. Gray, the mechanic, exalted his position. His headstrong acts were a disturbing element in the work of the mission and possibly contributed to the closing tragedy. Whitman's party left St. Louis on March 31, 1836. At the Green River Rendezvous the convoy of the American Fur Company was exchanged for the protection of the Hudson's Bay Company traders, John McLeod and Thomas McKay. Stops were made at Fort Hall and Snake Fort (Boise), where they arrived on August 19, and where McKay remained. Here the wagon was left. This was the first wagon to come west of Fort Hall, and since one of the axletrees had broken, on July 28, it travelled as a two-wheeled cart. After a few days of rest at Fort Walla Walla, the entire party went down to Fort Vancouver in one of the Company boats. Mrs. Whitman wrote in her diary of September 12: " We are now in Vancouver, the New York of the Pacific ocean." Two ships were in the harbor, and it was an impressive sight for the reason that she had never seen a ship. The comparison seems less extravagant when we recall that the population of New York city at the time was only 300,000. Dr. McLoughlin's reception of the Whitman party was most cordial.14 Parker had left the suggestion that a station be established about six days from Walla Walla, on the Clearwater. It was therefore decided to locate two stations. The idea of a location at the Grande Ronde, which had been in their minds when they left home, was abandoned when they saw the difficulty of getting supplies there. Dr. McLoughlin realized that the settlement of American missionaries in the interior was now unavoidable. There was nowhere else for them to go, and he dissuaded Whitman from locating at The Dalles, where the Indians were as unpromising as those of the Willamette valley. The men of the party went back to Fort Walla Walla on September 21, and on October 18 Spalding returned with the Montreal express, bringing the news that two locations had been selected. Dr. McLoughlin gave the mission a large quantity of clothing, bedding and other supplies and an order 130 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST on Fort Colville for all the grain and flour which they might need in the5 first two years. He also made it possible for them to order goods from England, by sea. Mrs. Whitman lived as a guest at Fort Walla Walla while her husbani prepared a dwelling at Waiilatpu, twenty-five miles from the fort and aboul six miles from the present city of Walla Walla. The Spaldings and Gray wenl to Lapwai, where they lived at first in buffalo-skin lodges. About three months} after locating in Waiilatpu, the Whitmans' only child was born, a girl, whi was drowned two years later. By spring Gray became restless and insisted on going East for re-enforce| ments. Without the approval of his associates, he started across the plains, taking with him four Nez Perces with a considerable number of norsel which they hoped to trade for cows. The party was attacked by a band of Sioux, all the Nez Perces were killed and their horses were stolen. Indians at thl mission who owned some of the horses demanded reimbursement. Gray created the impression in the East that he had been sent for help and that the horses would have been sold for the benefit of the mission. Whitman was abliged to write to the American Board regarding Gray's misrepresentations, one of which was describing his (Gray's) position in the mission as that of " physician and mechanic." Gray had attended public medical lectures for Extension and Rebuffs The American Board decided to enlarge the mission. Gray married while in the East, and in the fall of 1838 he returned to Oregon with his bride and* with three ministers, — Cushing Eells, Elkanah Walker and A. B. Smith, their wives and a teacher, Cornelius Rogers. The missionaries now formed an organization to regulate their own affairs. Where each should work and what he should undertake to do in addition to ordinary religious duties was to be decided at annual meetings or at conferences called in emergencies. Eells and Walker were sent among the Spokanes. Gray and Rogers joined Spalding; and Smith, after a winter at Waiilatpu, went to Kamiah on the Clearwater, sixty miles above Spalding's post. Smith's mission was a failure from the start, through no fault of his own. The Indians at the other locations were generally hospitable and were glad to have the missionaries among them, until the novelty wore off and suspicions arose. But at Kamiah there was no welcome for Protestants; the influence of the Flatheads and the Iroquois was near! Smith was at first tolerated but was asked to pay for everything, and he was finally ordered to leave. Walker and Eells located at Tshimakain, now Walker's prairie, a site suggested by Archibald McDonald, in charge of the Hudson's Bay post at Fort Colville.18 The site was selected partly because it was the home of a chietf MISSIONARY PIONEERS 131 and a point which the various bands of Indians frequently passed in their nomadic movements to and from the popo or camas plains, the fishing dams, and the winter camps. From March to November the missionaries preached to a procession; one-half of the congregation changed each week. By November winter quarters were established, and there was a permanent audience of two hundred, with groups of visitors from neighboring camps, who stayed a week or two. In January, 1840, Eells's cabin was gutted by fire, and he lost nearly all his personal property, including books, clock, bedding and saddles. It was the first fire of the kind that the Indians had seen, but they helped in dragging out such goods as were in boxes. The snow was deep and the temperature ten below zero, but two gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company and four employes came at once from Fort Colville and made the cabin again habitable. By the winter of 1841 the missionaries are found complaining of the apathy of the Indians. Eells rode hundreds of miles, to reach the different bands. There was generally respectful attention, but none of the results hoped for by evangelical preachers. Attendance at the schools fell off, and the Indians resumed their dances, incantations and gambling. The Indian from whom Walker received instructions in the language confessed that he and his fellow tribesmen did not feel the least concern about their souls, and suggested that the missionaries could have plenty of people around by keeping a good supply of tobacco on hand. Mrs. Eells wrote to her mother in March, 1847: "We have been here almost nine years and have not yet been permitted to hear the cries of one penitent or the songs of one redeemed soul." First Printing Press in the Northwest The first printing press in the Pacific Northwest was brought from Honolulu, where it had been sent from Boston in 1835.17 Edwin O. Hall, a Boston printer, and his wife arrived with the press at Fort Vancouver in April, 1839, and were given passage up the river by the Hudson's Bay Company. The press was set up at Lapwai, where a Nez Perce primer was first printed, in two editions, tbe first being used solely to strengthen the binding of the revision. When the "copy" for another book was ready, Hall had gone to Waiilatpu on account of his wife's confinement, and it was decided to send the press to the printer. The pack horse which carried it fell down a precipice, and Rogers salvaged the outfit two days later and took it back to Lapwai. Some type was missing, but Rogers managed to print the book. The first book in the Flathead language was prepared by Walker and Eells and printed by Walker and Spalding in 1843. As early as 1840, the future of the work at Waiilatpu and Lapwai looked hopeless. The seeds of discord planted by the American Board, when it selected persons of incompatible temperament to dwell together under trying i32 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST conditions in the wilderness, germinated into constant internal strife. Spalding's jealousy of the Whitmans was felt in various ways at Waiilatpu. Gray had no sympathy with Spalding, and no one approved of Gray's expedition, though the re-enforcements which he brought were welcome. In the fall of 1840, Smith wrote to the American Board, advising that Spalding be dismissed, and in a letter to her father Mrs. Whitman said: " The man who came witm us is one who never ought to have come. My dear husband has suffered more from him in consequence of his wicked jealousy and his great pique towards me than can be known in this world."18 Walker and Eells looked on, ref proving and distressed. The Smiths, the Grays and Rogers finally left the mission, persuaded that its usefulness was ended. The appearance of the first Catholic missionaries, on their way to Fort Vancouver, caused fresh uneasiness. In 1841, Pambrun died of injuries received in a fall from a horse, anol the mission lost a good friend, though his successor, Archibald McKinlay, a Scotch Presbyterian, could be more in sympathy with its work. From letters written by various members of the mission, the American Board got the impression that the only station worth supporting was Tshima-' kain, where the Indians were docile and their teachers dwelled together in peace. Whitman's services were appreciated, but the Board was unable to grasp the importance of holding a vantage point on the emigrant trail, at Waiilatpu. An order was accordingly dispatched to Oregon, recalling Spalding, Gray and Smith, assigning Whitman and Rogers to the northern branch of tha mission and authorizing them to dispose of the property at Waiilatpu and Lapwai. Gray, Smith and Rogers had departed before the order arrived. In September, 1842, the first sizable party of emigrants (112 persons) came over the trail, led by Dr. Elijah White. White had been a member of the: Methodist mission in the Willamette valley from 1837 to 1840, but returned} East on account of friction with his associates. He lectured through the middle States, organized his own party of settlers and astonished the Americans in the Willamette by coming back with a commission from the government as Sub-Indian Agent for Oregon, the first resident official of the United States on the Pacific Coast. His powers were uncertain, but there was no doubt about his readiness to assume authority. He brought good news of the increasing interest in Oregon, together with mail containing the bad news from the American Board. Whitman's "Ride" A meeting of the four remaining missionaries was called at Waiilatpu. Three days were spent in conference. Walker wrote in his diary for September 28: " Rose this morning with the determination to leave, and found Mr. S. had the same view and was making preparations to leave, as he felt that; MISSIONARY PIONEERS i33 nothing could be done. At breakfast the Dr. let out what was his plan in view of the state of things. We persuaded them to get together and talk things over. I think they felt some better afterwards."10 His three associates finally signed a resolution " that Dr. Marcus Whitman be at liberty and advised to visit the United States as soon as practicable, to confer with the Committee of the A. B. C. F. M. in regard to the interest of this mission." A. L. Lovejoy, a Massachusetts attorney who had come out with White's expedition for his health, was still at Fort Walla Walla and agreed to accompany Whitman. On October 3, 1842, Lovejoy joined Whitman, and the famous journey commenced. They covered the distance of more than five hundred miles to Fort Hall in eleven days. Here they turned south over an old Spanish trail to Taos, New Mexico, passing through a rougher country than would have been traversed on the direct route, and suffering great hardship. From Taos they followed the Santa Fe Trail to Fort Bent in Colorado. Here Lovejoy's strength gave out, and he was forced to remain. Whitman went on with a trader's party to Independence, and reached Boston on March 30, 1843. The effect of an unexpected appearance after a winter journey across the continent was spoiled by the receipt by the Board, previous to Whitman's arrival, of a joint letter from his associates, which had beaten him by mail via the Sandwich islands. Whitman was to have taken this letter with him, and Walker went home after the meeting to write it. But Whitman was anxious to start, and his associates were chagrined to find that he had departed without the letter, which was thereupon sent by the next mail to the Islands. It was a lengthy document, and it explained very convincingly the importance of preserving the southern branches of the mission. Whitman's reception was cool, but he found the Board already pledged26 to continue the work at Waiilatpu and Lapwai. No provision was made, however, for new helpers to replace the three who had left the mission. He was told that he could have them if he could find them " without expense to the Board or any connection with it." Naturally he got none. Whitman had time to visit Washington and there talked with the Secretary of War. He joined the spring emigration just as it was starting, with over a thousand persons, in May. His presence was a great encouragement to the emigrants, and his services were, as usual, invaluable. Lovejoy was waiting for him at Fort Laramie. News reached him at Burnt River that his medical services were needed in the Spalding family. He rode ahead of the train, went to Lapwai and was at Waiilatpu before the train arrived. The emigrants were in dire need of provisions, and he gave them everything that the mission had, sending to Lapwai to replenish his stores. Then came a call to the north, to attend Mrs. Eells in confinement, before he could go to The Dalles to greet his wife. He did not find Mrs. Whitman at Waiilatpu on his return, for in his i34 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST absence the Indians had renewed their molestations. Tamsuky, a chief of 1 Tilaukait's village, attempted an assault on Mrs. Whitman in her room atj midnight and was driven out with the assistance of a Hawaiian employed at the mission. Then the mill was burned, and McKinlay took Mrs. Whitman to the fort for protection. A dramatic interpretation of this remarkable journey developed in course of time. Whitman himself contributed little to it; he was not the kind of person to do so, though it should be remembered that in all their endeavors the missionaries felt they were instruments of Divine Providence in spreading Christian civilization. In this instance, they were very sure that any advance must be American and Protestant, and any such gain was their success. Whitman's admirers claimed that he "saved Oregon," and a violent controversy was5 launched.20 Whitman's plea was that the government should at once establish a chain of farming and supply stations along the trail, to safeguard emigrations. Secretary of War Porter, whose own plan favored forts and a show of military force, asked Whitman to submit the synopsis of a bill, and he did so, by mail, after leaving Washington. Nothing further was heard of this bill until it was discovered in the files of the War Department about forty years later. Discussion of the value of individual services, particularly regarding the claims made for Whitman, seems beside the point when we stop to ask what >< part of Oregon needed saving at the time. This was the period of joint occupation. The possibility that extensive emigration, either British or American might set in, before a settlement of the boundary dispute, had been considered in the Convention of 1818 and again in the Convention of 1827. Both nations felt that the dispute could not yet be settled, but it was agreed that its solution should not be left to the chances of emigration. So both Conventions affirmed the principle that the final decision must be on the question of right, based on acts previous to 1818. There was never any serious danger that the territory south of the Columbia would be lost to the United States. In 1842 the British were resting their claim only on that part of Oregon lying north of the river. ] American emigration never threatened to occupy that section. When the] boundary was fixed in 1846, there were only half a dozen American settlers north of the Columbia. The part of Oregon which was in danger, the northern part, was saved by diplomacy and the course of events. French Catholic Missions Catholic laymen, who were numerous among the fur traders and the parties of the early explorers, and Iroquois Indians who intermarried with the Flat- heads were the first teachers of the faith in the Pacific Northwest. The delegation of Flatheads and Nez Perces which travelled to St. Louis in 1831, in search MISSIONARY PIONEERS 135 of "black robes" sought help very naturally in the eastern States and in the city which had been the base of the western traders since the days of Lewis and Clark. Yet it was from Montreal that the first priests came, for the missionary forces of the church in the United States were too weak to respond. The Canadian enterprise was launched in response to another appeal, which came in 1834 from the settlers on French prairie in the Willamette valley. The rivalry of the fur companies had ceased, and Dr. John McLoughlin was lord of the Oregon country. Under his direction, Canadian employes whose terms had expired were aided in settling on the land. These people knew of the creation of a Catholic District of the Northwest in 1818, with a resident Bishop at St. Boniface, Manitoba, and to him they addressed their appeal. It was necessary to secure passage from the Hudson's Bay Company, and early in 1838 Governor Simpson communicated its consent, with the stipulation that no missions should be established south of the Columbia," as the sovereignty of that country is still undecided." This was not exactly what the Willamette petitioners wanted, and there were scarcely any whites north of the Columbia at the time. But it ensured pastoral visits and brought the ministrations of their church within reach. The Bishop of Quebec appointed the Abbe Francois Norbet Blanchet as Vicar General in the Oregon country. Father Blanchet was of a distinguished family. He had served for seven years among the Acadians, made famous by Longfellow, and had won a reputation for heroism which was strengthened by his conduct during a cholera epidemic in 1832, when he was a priest in the diocese of Montreal. The Abbe Modeste Demers, a young priest of the mission of the Red River of the North, was named as his assistant. The missionaries travelled with a large brigade, crossed the Rockies between Mounts Hooker and Brown, in Alberta, on October 10, 1838, and came down the Columbia from its most northern bend. In the rapids near this spot, twelve of the twenty- six persons in one of the boats were drowned. As the boat was being brought safely to shore, an English botanist and his wife, in their excitement, jumped and capsized the craft. They, were among the lost. The brigade was delayed eighteen days at the post above the Arrow lakes by this accident. Stops were made at Forts Colville, Okanogan and Walla Walla, and the party reached Vancouver on November 24. This is generally given as the date when the history of Catholicism as a church begins in the Pacific Northwest.21 Dr. John McLoughlin, though not a Catholic, had prepared the ground for the missionaries, at Vancouver. Beside his English school for the children of the officials, he maintained a separate one in which prayers and canticles were taught in French to the Catholic women and children. He visited the school every week and joined in chanting the canticles, assisted by his wife and daughter. This school furnished an excellent foundation for the work of the 136 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST priests. McLoughlin became a Catholic in 1842. He was as faithful in his! devotions as in all the other acts of his honorable career. About a montB before his death, in 1857, he received the insignia of the Knights of St. Gregory from the Pope. A mission was established at Cowlitz, in accordance with tha original instructions, and occasional services were held in the Willamette valley, in a church which the French settlers had built for themselves. The locationf was about four miles from Willamette falls. The church was dedicated to St. Paul, and the place was thereafter called St. Paul by the missionaries. The " Catholic Ladder " Father Demers learned the Chinook jargon in three weeks, and to assist! in teaching the history of Christianity to the Indians who came to the Cowlitz mission, Blanchet devised the famous Catholic ladder, which De Smet said should be adopted in all the missions of the world.22 The original was drawn on a square piece of wood, which the Indians took to their village. The traditional forty centuries from the Creation to the birth of Christ werl represented by forty marks, one above another, the years of the life of Christ by thirty-three dots and a cross at the top, and the Christian era by eighteen marks and thirty-nine dots. The Indians named the ladder, in the Chinook jargon, sahale stick (wood from on high). A large chart was afterwards designed, on which, in addition to the dashes for centuries and the dots for years, pictures were drawn showing the Days of Creation, the Tree of Life, the Tower of Babel, Noah's Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, Mount Sinai, Calvary and the Church of Constantine. Opposite the dash for the sixteenth century, a line was drawn, departing from the ladder and dividing into smaller lines. Over this was printed the word "Reformation," and at the opposite side were the names of Luther, Calvin and Henry VIII. At the top] of the line of dots for the years of the eighteenth century, was the legend, " Missionaries to the Columbia, 1838." The inscriptions were in French. The final form of the ladder, which was copyrighted in 1859, measures five feet in length and two and one-half feet in width, but ladders ten feet long were sometimes used, and explanations were made with the aid of a pointer. Some of the chiefs acquired the ability to discourse on religion for several hours, with the ladder as a guide. They were supplied with bells, to call their followers to prayers. Chiefs from Puget sound and from the interior journeyed to the lower country to receive instructions, and sometimes stayed all The territory which the first two Catholic missionaries endeavored to cover was large. Missions were held at Fort Nisqually, in addition to the posts already mentioned, and Father Demers made visits to Walla Walla, Okanogan and Colville. The arrival of the brigades at Vancouver always meant a busy L MISSIONARY PIONEERS i37 time for the priests, as many of the trappers and voyageurs came with wives and children to be instructed. There were numerous baptisms on these occasions and marriage ceremonies to solemnize the informal unions which existed. In October, 1839, shortly before the return of Dr. McLoughlin from a trip to London, notice was received that the Hudson's Bay Company had no further objection to a regular Catholic establishment in the Willamette valley. The change of policy had been adopted on representations from McLoughlin. The Vicar General thereupon took up his residence at the Willamette mission. The Columbia mission was made a vicariate apostolic in December, 1843, and Blanchet remained in charge with the title of Bishop of Drasa. After his consecration at Montreal, he went to Europe and spent a year in securing funds, missionaries and sisters for his vicariate. He aroused much interest and was received at the Courts of Belgium, Austria and France. King Louis Philippe gave him 17,800 francs. Before his journey was completed, he found that Rome had erected his vicariate into an ecclesiastical province. He was made an Archbishop, with residence at Oregon City; his brother, Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet, Canon of Montreal, was named Bishop of Walla Walla, and Father Demers was named Bishop of Vancouver Island. The new Archbishop took twenty-two priests and sisters to Oregon, where he resumed his work in August, 1847, after an absence of two years and seven months. While the return of Archbishop Blanchet, with his large party of workers, was the occasion for great rejoicing among his people, the arrival of his brother at Fort Walla Walla, a week later, was clouded with tragedy. The new Bishop of Walla Walla unwittingly stepped into the closing scene of Whitman's career. Pierre Jean De Smet The Jesuits entered the northern field in 1840, two years after the French priests came to Vancouver. A novitiate was established at St. Louis in 1823. Among the young students transferred there from Louisiana was Pierre Jean De Smet, who had come from Belgium two years before, with five others from tha Seminary of Malines, resolved to become missionaries in America.23 De Smet was of an honored family, the eleventh of fifteen children, one of whom was a twin sister. He grew up in the atmosphere of religious enthusiasm which was one of the reactions from the French Revolution. He had an attractive personality and great physical strength, which won him the nickname of Samson from his fellow students. The first Indian pilgrimage to St. Louis in search of " black robes" took place at a period when no one could be spared from the new school. Old Ignace went to St. Louis with two sons, in the summer of 1835, and presented his request directly to Bishop Rosati. Ignace and his sons returned home in the spring of 1836. In 1837, Ignace, three Flatheads and one Nez i38 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Perce started for St. Louis. After leaving Fort Laramie, they travelled with; the party of W. H. Gray of the Whitman mission, on his ill-fated eastern] trip. When the party was attacked by the Sioux, and the whites were ordered to stand aside while their Indian companions were being murdered, Ignace, was placed with the whites because of his clothes, but insisted on sharing the fate of his tribesmen. The pilgrimage which was answered in the way these persistent Indians desired was made in 1839. Young Ignace and an Indian! named Pierre Gaucher went down the Yellowstone and the Missouri in canoes, I with a party of trappers. They met Father De Smet at Council Bluffs and proceeded to St. Louis with letters of introduction to the Superior of thel Jesuits. A definite promise could now be given that a priest would be sent! west in the spring, and one of the Indians made a winter journey home, to hasten the good news, while the other remained in St. Louis, to accompany the missionary. Father De Smet was that missionary. Ten Flatheads were at Green River to meet him, and the party passed through Jackson Hole, across the Tetonl range to Pierre's Hole, where sixteen hundred Flatheads and Pend d'Oreilles were waiting. So hopeful was the outlook that, before reaching the Flathead country, De Smet turned back with the idea of saving time by returning to St. Louis the same season for the means of founding a permanent mission. An escort of seventeen Indians accompanied him as far as Fort Alexander on the Yellowstone. From this point, he made the dangerous journey down the Missouri in company with a Flemish hunter who had been in Napoleon's Grenadiers and had volunteered at the Grande Ronde to attend the missionary. Whenever they fell in with Indian bands, De Smet managed to make friends of them. At St. Louis there were still no funds, and knowledge of the effecrl which his failure would have on the Indians led him to raise the money himself in New Orleans. De Smet left St. Louis on April 30, 1841, with Fathers Nicholas Point and Gregory Mengarini and three lay brothers. Some Flat- heads awaited them at Fort Hall. St. Mary's mission was established, about thirty miles up the Bitter Root valley. Then commenced a series of journeys, in the course of which De Smet increased the number of his missions to six. He was away two years, and in this period he raised funds from New Orleans to Boston, to send out more helpers, went to Europe and returned around the Horn with priests, lay brothers and sisters for Catholic institutions in the Willamette valley. Relations with the Blackfeet He was ambitious to make peace with the Blackfeet. The menace of their invasions was one of the reasons why Jason Lee's party did not locate in thel northern country. Blackfeet frequently crossed the mountains and lay con- MISSIONARY PIONEERS I39 cealed until an opportunity offered to pick off Flatheads returning to their village after dark, from St. Mary's mission. When the Flatheads were away on a hunt, the missionaries posted guards day and night, at their stockade. De Smet approached the Blackfoot country by a roundabout route, hoping for some lucky opening. He went north to the headwaters of the Columbia and crossed the range. At Rocky Mountain House, he was fortunate in meeting a party of Blackfeet who had come to the fort, and was invited by the chief to visit their country. This was precisely what De Smet wanted. The Indians went ahead to dispose their tribesmen to give the priest a friendly reception. De Smet was obliged to take as his interpreter a man against whom he was warned. This person proved to be sullen, indulging in incoherent mutterings, and the priest became convinced that he was either unbalanced or was plotting mischief. They came across a Canadian, and when it seemed likely that he would accompany them for a while, the interpreter disappeared. De Smet made a vain effort to find another guide, threading a labyrinth of valleys without meeting any Indians. After a heavy snowfall, he realized that he must seek refuge in a post of the fur company for the winter, and he rode to Fort Edmonton. He started for St. Ignatius in March by way of Fort Assiniboin, on the Athabasca, and 300 miles down the river on the ice, to Fort Jasper. To reduce his weight, before attempting a sixty-mile snowshoe trip between Rocky Mountain House and the Columbia, he fasted thirty days. At Colville he found a boat going to Vancouver and went down, to get supplies for his missions, before returning to St. Ignatius. Coming up the river, he struck across from Fort Walla Walla through the Nez Perce country, with his caravan, to the St. Francis Regis and St. Ignatius missions. Father Point had been recalled, by a letter which was three years on the way, and he left the Sacred Heart mission for the East with De Smet. To Point we are indebted for the sketches of missions and Indian life which were published in some of De Smet's books. De Smet kept his plan for the Blackfeet in mind when he left St. Mary's, and a strange circumstance gave him a fresh opportunity. St. Mary's mission had secured some influence over groups of neighboring Blackfeet, so that there was a camp in the Yellowstone valley that summer, made up of a large number of Flatheads, thirty lodges of Nez Perces and a few Blackfeet. A body of Crow Indians appeared. The Crows were at war with the Nez Perces and the Blackfeet. The presence of the Flat- heads caused some hesitation in attacking, and when the fight came the Flatheads did not desert their companions. The Crows were driven off with considerable loss. The Blackfeet appreciated the loyalty of their allies and noted that there were no losses on their side and that during the fight the old men, women and children of the Flatheads had knelt in prayer. De Smet and Point were present, and were forthwith invited to visit the principal i4o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST camp of the Blackfeet on the Judith river. Here a veritable love feast w held by more than 2,000 representatives of the Flatheads, Nez Perces, Piegar Bloods, Gros Ventres and Blackfeet, and instead of continuing the journe east, Father Point remained to establish a mission. At Fort Lookout, De Sme secured the consent of the principal chiefs of the Sioux to receive a miss An interesting episode of his journey down to Westport was his n with the Mormons at Council Bluffs. Here he found the advance guard 0 their emigration, numbering about 10,000. While his opinion of their religi may readily be imagined, he was moved by their persecutions and wandering He became well acquainted with Brigham Young and described to him the Salt Lake basin, which he had explored. De Smet afterward wondered how much his accounts had to do with the Mormon determination to settle there. De Smet's Service as Chaplain De Smet never visited his missions in the Inland Empire again, as a missionary. His superiors had other work for him, in which he was as proficient if not as enthusiastic. He was permitted, however, to assist the government at the great Indian council near Fort Laramie, Wyoming, in 1851. This was the beginning of his services to his adopted country in settling Indian troubles. When a second expedition was sent to the relief of the federal troops in Utah, who were in danger of being starved out by the Mormons, in 1858, General William S. Harney was placed in command, and at his request De Smet was commissioned as Chaplain. The expedition was turned back when the Mormons capitulated, and De Smet expected to give up his commission. But the government had heard of Steptoe's defeat, and General Harney had been ordered to Vancouver. De Smet could not refuse to stay with him, for the tribes to whom he had brought the Catholic religion were involved, and he thought that he might be able to do much toward securing peace.24 When Harney reached Vancouver, by Panama and the sea, the war was over. Colonel George Wright had forced all the tribes to make peace, but there was still a great deal to be done toward reconciling the Indians to a future | without warfare. De Smet was sent to consolidate the peace, and spent the winter in visiting the northern missions, which he had not seen for twelve years. He secured traveling companions at Fort Walla Walla by inducing Colonel Wright to part with the hostages taken during his campaign. The return of the hostages added to the rejoicing of the northern Indians at seeing De Smet again, and gave them full confidence in what he had to say about the government. He was able to make up a party of eight chiefs of the Flatheads, Coeur d'Alenes, Kalispels, Colvilles and Spokanes, with the famous Kamiakin of the Yakimas as a ninth member, to visit General Harney at Vancouver. It was indeed an MISSIONARY PIONEERS 141 achievement to have persuaded Kamiakin to come, for Colonel Wright had been unable to treat with him and had declared that he would be shot on sight. Kamiakin was largely responsible for the uprising. Unfortunately, when the delegation reached Walla Walla, the officiousness of an Indian agent, for which he was reproved by Harney, aroused Kamiakin's suspicions and he went back, to remain an outlaw. The results of the conference at Vancouver were most beneficial. The Indians spent three weeks in sightseeing and were properly impressed with the strength and superiority of the De Smet went East by land, stopping a few days at his missions. He found two more opportunities to visit them, in 1862 and 1863. After all his labors, he saw failure in some quarters, and the future looked dark. The kind of spiritual empire which he hoped might be created among the Indians, similar to that which the Jesuits maintained for 150 years in Paraguay, could not long exist in contact with the whites. The first missions that went under were those near the lines of travel. St. Mary's closed in 1850, after it became a favorite wintering place for hunters, who abandoned themselves to debauchery, and very naturally demoralized the Indians in the vicinity. The priests reproved the disreputable whites, and the latter in return set the Indians against their benefactors. St. Paul's at Colville was closed in 1858. The gold seekers had succeeded in corrupting the Indian villages in that neighborhood.25 Father De Smet died on May 23, 1873. He was endowed with the qualities which make a great traveler and leader, and he had the ability to write charmingly about the strange things which he saw. It was as a traveler that he gained celebrity. Beside his constant wanderings over the western country during many years, he crossed the Atlantic nineteen times and made one voyage around the Horn and two by way of Panama. The total mileage of his journeys, at a time when travel was difficult, was from seven to nine times round the earth. During two years in the mountains, he did not taste bread, salt, coffee, tea or sugar, and he was once three years without receiving a letter. His courage was as great as his physical strength. When threatened, at one of the missions, by an Indian bully, he knocked a hatchet from the native's hand, threw him and lashed him with a riding whip until the Indian promised to behave and to tell his tribesmen about the incident. De Smet kept the tomahawk until the Indian called for it a week later and made a further surrender to the church. In his western missions, De Smet carried out his own ideas, largely with funds which he himself raised. He was indefatigable, and the moment an objective was reached, he was again in motion. His voluminous writings convey the impression of a well integrated personality, at once gentle and resolute, with considerable power of analysis and prophecy. In matters of public affairs, he is 142 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST said to have " thought with his mouth shut." He confided his wealth of thinking on these things to his letters, and in the personal correspondence which was not intended for publication in'the interest of his work, he showed that • he possessed a keen sense of humor, coupled with good taste. He became an American citizen, and was greatly concerned over the neglect of the country's interests in Oregon. On one occasion, he sent information to Senator Thomas H. Benton, the great friend of Oregon, regarding a significant conversation which he had heard, between British naval officers. Whitman Massacre-Cayuse War WHITMAN REBUILT HIS MILL AND ALSO CONSTRUCTED A SAWMILL, TWENTY miles from Waiilatpu. By the end of 1844, the physical welfare of the mission was restored. The emigration of 1844 numbered nearly 1,500 persons. With it came Henry Sager, his wife and six children. Another child was born on the journey. The parents died before Oregon was reached, and the seven orphans, the oldest of whom was thirteen years of age, found a home with the Whitmans.1 Other children were left in the care of the mission, including Mary Ann Bridger, daughter of the famous plainsman; and Helen Mar Meek, whose father, Joseph L. Meek, carried the appeal of the settlers to Washington, after the massacre. Many emigrants now wintered at the mission, on account of illness or the exhaustion of their oxen. The population of Waiilatpu varied from fifty to seventy-five persons in the last years. The men were employed about the place, and the children attended the school, which no longer sought to educate the Indians. The Spald- ings sent their daughter Eliza to attend school at Waiilatpu, just before the In May, 1845, Whitman wrote to the American Board, expressing doubt of the permanency of the mission. In this letter he mentioned the disturbing influence of Tom Hill, an eastern Indian, educated at Dartmouth College, who was warning the tribes that the whites, if encouraged, would come in great numbers and seize all their lands. Whitman also mentioned the desire of the Walla Wallas to avenge the murder of their chief's son at Sutter's Fort in California and the notion that, as the youth was an educated Indian active in religious work, Spalding or Whitman would be a suitable victim. All students of Indian life are familiar with this custom of blood satisfaction, and the missionaries were constantly confronted with instances. In most cases it was a medicine man who was sacrificed, because his incantations failed to work. Mrs. Whitman wrote in 1837 of the competition with sorcerers into which Dr. Whitman was sometimes forced. An old chief, Umtippe, was successfully treated at the mission, and at the same time another chief, a relative of Umtippe, died in the hands of a noted Walla Walla te-wat (medicine man). A brother of Umtippe, who was with him at the mission, left at once for the i44 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Indian camp and slew the te-wat. Mrs. Whitman cites other instances. Gustavus I Hines records a story told by Peter Skene Ogden, who claimed to have wit-1 nessed the killing of a medicine woman at The Dalles by the father of a boy J whom she had unsuccessfully treated. The father found the unhappy sorceress listening to the preaching of the Rev. H. K. W. Perkins and proceeded at once to cut her throat. While Lieutenant Phil Sheridan was at Fort Yamhill, in 1857, medicine men used his cellar as a place of refuge when patients died. A medicine woman was pursued by sixteen relatives and friends of an alleged victim and was overtaken and killed on the parade ground, in sight of the officers' quarters. Mrs. Whitman was accustomed to give medical treatment to Indians ii the doctor's absence. In cases where hope of recovery seemed slight, she says she dared not give any medicine. It is said that Dr. Whitman himself was so careful. A more serious matter than failure to cure, mentioned in Whitman's 1845 letter, was the suspicion that he had medicines which v meant to kill. One source of this suspicion possibly dates back to Astork 1811. To intimidate the Indians, who had become threatening at Astoria after the explosion of the Tonquin, Duncan McDougall showed them a small phial which, he said, contained smallpox. " I have only to take the cork 0 he explained, " to let the disease loose among you." The Indians were scared, and the story of what the white man could do if he wished spread among the tribes. Chief Factor Black was murdered in the Thompson River Fort, in 1841, by an Indian whose brother had become ill and had died immediately after a dispute with the Hudson's Bay man. Whitman, Walker, and Spalding mention the impression made upon them by this incident. The missionaries were known to have used poisoned meat to kill wolves. Dogs belonging to Indians had died from eating it.3 The Indians thought nothing of stealing melons from the mission gardens, and the missionaries doctored some of the melons with an emetic, to discourage the practice. An Indian story which was generally credited after the massacre was that Whitman was induced to administer medicine to three Indians, of whom two were sick and one was only shamming illness. All died, and the Indians were then convinced that Whitman was poisoning them. The fear of poisoning was so persistent that when the captive women were compelled to cook for the Indians after the massacre, the women were made to eat some of the food first. On the eighth day of the captivity, Old Beardy, a pious Indian, whose presence in the emigrant house was welcomed by the women, ate too much of his favorite peach pie and became ill on returning to his lodge. The suspicions of even this friendly native, who had refused to be present at the massacre, were aroused, and he gathered some friends and went back to the emigrant house in a highly dangerous mood. The native wife of a WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 145 trader was fortunately there at the time, and she succeeded in explaining the cause of the Indian's distress. Whereupon he exhausted himself with laughter. Portents of Disaster The year 1847 might have marked the close of the missionary enterprise, if the November tragedy had not occurred. In April Whitman wrote to the Board that he did not know " whether to stay or go, nor at what time. Whether it be demanded by the Indians or the Board, I think in the course of the ensuing summer I shall locate a claim for land in the lower country to be ready in case of retirement." Spalding commenced a long series of letters to the Board in February, describing the desertion of the mission by nearly all the Indians at Lapwai, the closing of his school, destruction of property, acts of personal violence, and general return to gambling, licentiousness and sorcery.4 The 1847 emigration included over 4,000 persons and convinced the Indians that Tom Hill's predictions were correct. They particularly objected to the donation and sale of the products of their lands to strangers. To add to their alarm, a virulent form of measles appeared and spread from The Dalles throughout the Snake country. The white people naturally suffered less than the Indians, and the suspicion arose that Whitman was allowing the latter to die off. Joe Lewis, an eastern half-breed, circulated the charge that Whitman had caused the epidemic. White men had previously been blamed for introducing the social diseases among the Indians. The winter of 1846-7 was so severe that the Indians lost most of their horses and cattle. As they could not remember so cold a winter, they wondered if the whites might not have something to do with it. In September, the Rt. Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet, designated Bishop of Walla Walla, and nine associates arrived at the fort. 'William McBean, a Catholic, had succeeded McKinlay as Superintendent. Four of the priests departed for the Yakima country in October, and the Bishop's party left the fort, to locate at the Umatilla on November 27, two days before the massacre. Whitman and Spalding met the new missionaries at the fort, and Spalding agreed to send them supplies. The Protestant missionaries spent Saturday night, the twenty- seventh, at the lodge of Stickas, near the Umatilla. Leaving Spalding to conduct a service there on Sunday morning, Whitman went to visit the sick in the other Umatilla camps. He called on the priests, inviting them to visit him at Waiilatpu, but declining to stay for dinner, explaining that he was anxious to return home. Spalding had supper with the priests on the twenty-ninth and told them that Whitman was anxious to return because he had been informed of the intention of an Indian called " The Murderer " to kill him. This was Tamsuky, a second chief in the camp of Tilaukait, chief of the Cayuses, on whose land the Whitman mission was located.6 The Catholic missionaries had 146 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST discovered, while at the fort, that the only site which the Indians were willing to offer in that neighborhood was the.Wbitman mission; whereupon they had accepted the invitation of Tawatowe (Young Chief) at the Umatilla. Camas- pelo, one of the chiefs of the Umatilla, afterwards said that Tamsuky tried to enlist him in the plot to kill Whitman, but that he used his sick child as an excuse for staying at home. Whitman went to see the child on the twenty-^ eighth and probably received his news of the plot from Camaspelo, who has been blamed for not warning him. That Whitman was conscious of impending disaster, his own letters show. He had been repeatedly warned by the Hudson's Bay men, and in July, 1847, Paul Kane, a Canadian artist, was at the camp of the Walla Wallas, near the fort, when the advance messenger of a returning war party came in. He was a brother of the Indian killed by an American at Sutter's Fort, and the war party of 200, led by his father, Peupeumoxmox, had departed eighteen months before, to avenge the murder. In a speech lasting three hours, he recounted the misfortunes which had befallen the expedition and the great loss of life! by disease, naming the victims one by one, amidst prolonged howls of grief and resentment. Mounted messengers were immediately sent to bear the news to neighboring tribes. Kane says in his book' that both McBean and himself felt that the Whitmans were in great danger, and it was decided that Kane should warn them. He rode to Waiilatpu that night, urged Whitman for an hour, with no success, to come to the fort for a while at least, until the first excitement had passed, and rode back to the fort before morning. Kane feared for his own safety, as it was known that he had been taking likenesses of the Indians. The Whitman massacre was planned in Tilaukait's camp. While staying at the lodge of Stickas on his return from the Umatilla, Spalding's fears were aroused at hearing the death song, and as he rode away an Indian woman warned him not to go to Waiilatpu. Catherine Sager tells that Whitman confided to his wife, the night before the massacre, information furnished by Stickas, that Joe Lewis was inflaming the Indians and that they were holding meetings every night. Catherine overheard, and Whitman tried to reassure her.7 In the morning, Mrs. Whitman was crying and ate no breakfast. Whitman told Andrew Rogers of Missouri, who was teaching at the mission, that the Catholic Bishop was coming to see him in a few days and that, if things did not clear up by spring, he would move his family down river. The Whitman Massacre When the blow was struck at Waiilatpu, all the whites were engaj their customary occupations. An unusually large number of Indians gai on the premises, their weapons concealed under their long blankets. No suspicion WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 147 was aroused by their presence, as a beef was being dressed, and it was customary for the Indians to stand around and watch. Tilaukait and Tamsuky arrived, went at once to the kitchen of the mission and called for Whitman, who stepped into the kitchen from the sitting room and closed the door. Tilaukait engaged him in conversation, and Tamsuky came up behind him and felled him with a tomahawk. One of the Sager boys, John, who was in the kitchen at the time, was shot. The only other person in the room, Jim Bridger's daughter, escaped around the house and carried the news of what had happened to Mrs. Whitman and the others in the living room, who were stunned at the report of the gun. The chiefs left the house and joined their companions. The latter had taken the gunshot as a signal to produce their weapons and attack the whites. At the time of the massacre, fifty-nine people were living in the mission houses at Waiilatpu, and thirteen others were at the sawmill twenty miles up Mill creek. There were seventeen men, thirteen women and forty-two children. Illness confined eleven persons to their beds. The Indians killed fourteen persons. When the general attack started, at the spot where the beef was being dressed, Jacob Hoffman of New York and a Missourian named Marsh were killed fighting. Nathan S. Kimball of Indiana was wounded but reached Whitman's house. Isaac Gilliland of New York, a tailor, was shot while sitting on his table in the emigrant house. L. W. Saunders of Indiana, teacher in the mission school, which adjoined the kitchen, was found by Tamsuky soon after the first killings, and a hand-to-hand fight ensued. Another Indian appeared, and Saunders broke away, running toward the emigrant house, but was killed before he could reach it. Andrew Rogers was working in the garden. He received a bullet wound in the wrist, but got into Whitman's house. Soon after the arrival of Rogers, Mrs. Whitman received a bullet in the shoulder, while peering through a window. She recovered sufficiently from the shock to take charge of those who remained alive in the house. All sought refuge on the second floor, with the exception of Josiah Osborne of Illinois, his wife and three young children, who had concealed themselves under the floor of a room adjoining the living room. In the upper rooms were Mrs. Whitman, Rogers, Kimball, four of the Sager girls, Mrs. Rebecca Hays of Missouri, whose husband had died on the trail, Mrs. Peter D. Hall of Illinois, Miss Lorinda Bewley of Missouri and little Helen Meek who, with Louise Sager, was hopelessly ill. The Indians soon filled the lower part of the house and broke down the door to the stairway, but hesitated to ascend, for fear the fugitives might fire upon them. After an interval, Tamsuky and Joe Lewis came to the stairway and talked with Rogers. At Mrs. Whitman's request, Tamsuky came up-stairs, the more readily as he had learned there was no danger. He shook hands, professed sorrow at the tragedy, said that the young 148 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST men would surely burn the mission building and offered to conduct thel fugitives safely to the emigrant house. Meanwhile a group of children in the schoolroom, who had climbed into a loft above, were persuaded to come down and were taken outside, near the living room door. With them were Francis and Matilda Sager and Eliza Spalding. A considerable number of Indians with guns stood close by and seemed to be waiting for some one. In the room above, Mrs. Whitman had accepted Tamsuky's offer, and it was agreed that the women should be taken over to the emigrant house first and the children afterwards. All the adults thereupon descended to the living room, with the exception of Kimball, who had been overlooked by Tamsuky. Mrs. Whitman, too faint to walk, lay down on a settee. The other women started, taking with them some of the children who were standing outside. Rogers and Lewis picked up the ends of the settee. When about ten feet from the house, Lewis dropped his end and stepped back. The waiting Indians fired a volley. Rogers fell, and Mrs. Whitman rolled from the settee. Francis Sager was pushed out from among the children and shot. The others were conducted to the emigrant house, with the exception of three half-breed boys, who spent the night in the lodge of Nicholas Finley, a half-breed employed at the mission, and were then sent to Fort Walla Walla. In the midst of the carnage, Finley and another employe, Joseph Stanfield, a Frenchman, went about their chores and milked the cows, knowing that they would not be molested. Darkness had fallen, and the Indians disappeared, leaving the children in the up-stairs room with Kimball, at the mission. Two young men who were ill in bed, Crockett Bewley in a room on the ground floor of the mission, and Amos Sales in the blacksmith shop, had not been approached. Each spent the night wondering whether any others were alive. Kimball suffered severely from his wound, and the sick children asked constantly for water. Towards morning Kimball crept out to find some. Returning after daylight, he was seen by the Indians and shot at, but hid until evening, when he was killed while climbing a fence, in an attempt to reach the emigrant house. Several escapes were made on the first day of the massacre. William D. Can- field of Iowa received a minor wound in the volley fired at the men who were dressing the beef. He ran to the blacksmith shop, where his family was lodging, gathered his five children and took them to the emigrant house, where he concealed himself until night. His wife gave him some food, and he set out on foot for Lapwai, with only a vague idea of the direction he should take. After several days of hardship, he brought the news to Mrs. Spalding. Another man who escaped was Peter D. Hall of Illinois, a carpenter, who was building an annex to the mission. He lost no time in getting away, for when he arrived at Fort Walla Walla in the morning he could report only that Whitman and another had been killed. Hall insisted on going down river at once, and; WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR i49 ] McBean, who says that he tried in vain to convince him that his family had : probably been spared and that the fort was the safest place for him, finally gave : him a blanket, ammunition, etc., and set him across the Columbia.8 Hall seems : to have had a gun, and an Indian who arrived at the Whitman mission soon ; after Hall's escape told a story of meeting a demented man, who had attacked !him, snatched his gun and fled. The Indian retained his powder and ball. He i had been unable to overtake his strange assailant.0 Nothing further was ever I heard of Peter Hall, excepting a rumor that he took a canoe from the In- : dians and was drowned in the rapids. He left a wife and five children at the I mission. The only others who contrived to escape were a family of five persons, the lOsbornes of Missouri, for whom Hall was building the annex. They were i temporarily quartered in the Indian room adjoining the living room, and re- i mained concealed throughout the day, under the floor. They got away at night, I but Mrs. Osborne was an invalid, and only three miles were covered the first might. Remaining hidden in the daytime, they travelled about the same dis- I tance on the second night. Then Osborne concealed his wife and two older : children and went on to Fort Walla Walla with a boy two years old, on his ! back. J. M. Stanley, an American artist, loaned Osborne a horse, and McBean | provided a Walla Walla Indian to accompany him in search of his family.10 I Osborne felt that his wife and children could not have survived so long in their i exhausted condition and without food. He would have abandoned the search, ; but the Indian said he had been told by McBean not to return without finding ! them. The Indian rode on alone until he located their hiding-place, and they i were brought in alive the next evening. As soon as McBean learned of the l massacre from Hall on November 30, he dispatched his interpreter and an I Indian to Waiilatpu for further information and to warn Tilaukait that the I killings must stop and that the women and children must not be harmed. I Nicholas Finley brought the half-breed boys to the fort the same day, and the i interpreter returned in a few hours. McBean at once sent in his report to Fort 1 Vancouver, and the news was forwarded by the Chief Factor to Governor , Abernethy at Oregon City and to the American mission in the Islands. When the Indians reappeared at the mission on the second day of terror, I the children in the upper room were taken to the emigrant house. Bewley and ! Sales were later carried to the same place. That they were not killed at the start ' was probably due to the belief that they would soon die anyway. After a few 1 days, when it appeared likely they would recover, a council was held. Their I doom was decreed, and a party of Indians came to the house and clubbed them I to death. On the second day, a son of Elam Young of Missouri, whose family i were living at the sawmill, came down with a load of lumber and was shot a ! short distance from the mission. Stanfield went out a few hours later and buried 150 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST IL the body. That evening, Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet and his interpreter rode into 1 Tilaukait's camp and learned of the massacre. After a sleepless night, the priest baptized three sick children and then hastened to the mission, where he found that Stanfield had dug a grave and was preparing the bodies of the slain for burial. The mission sheets were used as shrouds, and the priest and Stanfield carried all the bodies to the grave. With the weeping women and children standing around, Father Brouillet read the burial service. The Indians remained at a distance, painted and armed. Knowing that Spalding would soon arrive at Waiilatpu, the priest told the women of his desire to intercept him and hurried his departure. When he left, he found that he was to be accompanied by Edward, son of Tilaukait and a relative of the interpreter, and the priest feared the worst, but could only go on. They met Spalding before they had gone far, and it happened that Edward had just fired his pistol to get a light for his pipe and had not reloaded. Before acquainting Spalding with the tragedy, the priest begged Edward, through his interpreter, as a special favor, not to harm him. Edward said he would take no responsibility for Spalding but would go back and consult the other Indians. This would not take long, and the priest gave Spalding some provisions, and the interpreter instructed him regarding the safest route to Lapwai. Spalding had been gone only twenty minutes when three armed Cayuses rode up in 1 search of him. They stopped long enough to express their anger that Spalding had been warned and hurried on, but a heavy fog and approaching darkness made it impossible to follow his trail.11 Spalding travelled by night and hid in the daytime, lost his horse the second night and was soon obliged to discard his shoes, as they were too tight. On the sixth night, he made his way to the lodge of a friendly Nez Perce and learned that his family and the other whites I at Lapwai had been protected and removed to Craig's mountain, about tenl miles away. William Craig, a well-known mountain man, was the only American living in the Nez Perce country, beside the mission people. Some of the leading Nez Perces were still faithful to the missionaries, and others were clever enough to see that the atrocities of the Cayuses would result in reprisals and that the best policy for the Nez Perces would be to remain blameless. They asked Spalding to protect them from the Americans. A band of Cayuses appeared at Lapwai, but departed when the attitude of the numerous Nez Perces was made plain. Two Nez Perces went to Waiilatpu in the hope of bringing back Spalding's daughter, but were not allowed to take her. Incidents of the Captivity There were no killings at Waiilatpu after the sick men had been put out of the way. Helen Meek and Louise Sager, who were hopelessly ill at the time of the massacre, died during captivity. Daniel, another son of Elam Young, WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR i5i came down from the sawmill, in search of his brother who had been murdered. He was sent back, and an Indian escort brought down all the whites, with a promise of safety, on condition that the men would run the grist mill. Tilaukait censured Young for traveling on Sunday and admonished the captive women, who had been set to making shirts for the Indians, not to do any of this sewing on the Lord's day! The treatment of the captive women by the Indians is a matter of controversy. Spalding's hysterical accounts of it in his published lectures have been | denied by survivors, and some of his more sensational episodes do not fit in with known facts. The women were submitted to great annoyance and were in constant fear of violence. A contemporary report was that an Indian who had killed her father took Susan Kimball as his wife, but the story of the girl and her sister Sophia is that an Indian wanted Susan to be his wife but never took her. Edward Tilaukait took Mary Smith as his bride on December 10, and the girl's father, one of the men at the sawmill, assisted at the ceremony. Edward and the Smith girl had become lovers and were accustomed to read the Bible together. After their marriage, they occupied a room on the second floor. When the captives were ransomed, it was evident that Mary could not stay happily in the Indian country, and the two parted quite reluctantly. Stanfield, the French Canadian, was tried as an accomplice in the massacre and was exonerated by a jury at Oregon City. One of the charges was that he took Mrs. Hays as his wife. The facts are that he had formed an attachment for her, as was well known at the time of the tragedy, and that he immediately offered to marry her, in the presence of the other women. She demurred, as her husband had died only a short time before, on the trail. Whereupon Stanfield suggested that she merely pass as his wife until rescued from the Indians. It was arranged that they should occupy the same bed at the emigrant house and that her young son should sleep between them. They were found in this situation by the chief, Tilaukait, when he inspected the emigrant house on the second night. The presence of Stanfield and Edward Tilaukait in the house undoubtedly saved the captives from many indignities. It is not known that Stanfield ever saw Mrs. Hays after his acquittal. On the fifth day Tilaukait had the older girls meet with half a dozen of his men, to discuss the advisability of the girls marrying some of the devout chiefs, for protection against the young men. The meeting resulted in nothing further than talk, however, and the consent of the girls to this arrangement was not asked. As the days passed and the terror wore away, the children indulged in games, and there was much singing, in which the Indians joined. To Miss Bewley, who was twenty-two years old, fell the most trying experiences.12 Sought as a wife by a young Indian, said by some to have been Tamsuky, she was dragged out of the house. When he tried to place her on his horse, 152 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST she successfully resisted. In the struggle, he became enraged, threw her on tl ground and attacked her. He returned the next day with some friends to hel him carry her to his lodge. But in the meantime two Indians had come extra horses, to convey her to the Umatilla as the chosen wife of Achekai (Five Crows). This chief was wealthy, single, a Protestant, and wore Englisl clothes. To Tilaukait and his son it seemed a piece of good fortune that sh should be taken under the protection of this powerful chief. It was always impossible to explain to Indians why white women did not wish to marry them when so many white men took Indian girls as wives. Miss Bewley was obliged to go to the Umatilla, where she appealed to the priests, at whose house Achekaia allowed her to stay three nights, though he displayed great anger. On the fourth night he took her forcibly to his lodge. For two weeks she spent her days at the priests' house and was violently taken away at night. She stated that the Bishop provided kindly for her while she was at the house but said that resistance would be useless. When news of the ransom came, Achekaia gave Miss Bewley warm clothing and robes for the journey and said farewell with much feeling. Rescue of the Captives The rescue of the captives forms one of the noblest chapters in the history of the Hudson's Bay men. Dr. McLoughlin had been succeeded as Chief Factor at Vancouver by James Douglas, and with him was Peter Skene Ogden, who had been for some years in charge of the river brigades and was a fearless and experienced trader.13 Without delay, a quantity of goods was packed, and Ogden started up the river in a boat with sixteen paddlers. The journey took twelve days, and the party arrived at Fort Walla Walla on December 19. Before their arrival, the Cayuses had become alarmed at the possible consequences of their atrocities. They had found that the Nez Perces intended to protect the whites at Lapwai, in order to retain the good will of the Americans. The messengers whom the Cayuses sent to the Spokane country were also balked. They spread the report that sixty Spokanes who were working in the Willamette valley had been killed by the whites to avenge the Whitman massacre. But the chief of the Spokanes, after a talk with Eells, sent out runners with the warning not to believe the Cayuses. The Cayuse chiefs in their discomfiture gathered at the Catholic mission at the Umatilla, and Bishop Blanchet prepared a petition to Governor Abernethy, which Tilaukait, Camaspelo, Tawatowe and Achekaia signed, asking for a peace conference and offering to give up the captives. The Bishop had received a letter from Spalding, urging him to use his influence in the Willamette valley to induce the Americans to send a peace commission instead of troops. The Bishop included with the Indians' petition a letter of his own, advising the WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR same course and calling attention to the dangers of an Indian war which might become general. When Spalding's letter was read to the chiefs, Tilaukait remarked, " He speaks well, but it is because he is in a hole." Spalding's later statements proved that Tilaukait was right, for he blamed the Bishop for making his letter public, though in the letter itself he asked him to do so. Spalding also said that, to the request that no troops be sent, he would have added " until we are rescued," if he could have safely done so. Spalding was no further from danger than The Dalles, where he found the first detachment of the Volunteers, when he came out for a war of extermination on the Cayuses! The meeting at the Umatilla had just adjourned when news came of Ogden's presence at the fort, together with a request that Bishop Blanchet attend a council there. The messenger had already been at Tilaukait's camp. At the council, Ogden taxed the chiefs with allowing their young men to govern them, and warned them that if the Americans should begin war, the Cayuse tribe would be wiped out. He told them that Dr. Whitman did not poison their people. He emphasized the neutrality of the Company; the traders were merely actuated by sympathy for the sufferers. He could only give advice and an opportunity to make some reparation, but could not promise to prevent war. If they would deliver the prisoners, he would pay a ransom, and that was all.14 The Indians were in a mood to listen to a bold speech, and Ogden was the one man whose advice they could take without loss of pride, as some of them intimated in their replies. He was known among them as " Uncle Pete." All consented to the surrender of the captives, including representatives of the Nez Perces, who left at once to bring in the hostages at Lapwai. The ransom paid for the captives consisted of sixty-two blankets (twelve of these and some of the other articles were for the Nez Perces, on account of Spalding's party), sixty-three cotton shirts, twelve Company guns, 600 loads of ammunition, thirty- seven pounds of tobacco and twelve flints. Tilaukait turned over seven of the mission oxen and sixteen bags of flour. The Hudson's Bay Company was never reimbursed for the expenditure or for the wages of the sixteen boatmen who were with Ogden's expedition for a month; indeed, the Company presented no bill. Ogden could not get away until January 2, ten days after the council, for it was necessary to wait for Spalding. These were days of great anxiety lest news of an approaching armed force upset everything. The first company of the Volunteers had been sent up the river only a few days behind Ogden, to protect the mission at The Dalles. Rumors of their presence reached the Cayuses, and the chiefs continually quizzed Ogden as to what this might portend. He could only reply that he did not believe these Americans would come to avenge the murders. It was fortunate that no report of the warlike activities at Oregon City came through. The captives reached the Willamette on the day the i54 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST regiment was ready to leave. Ogden got away from Fort Walla Walla none tooi early. The whites at Waiilatpu were transferred to the fort on December 29. Mrs. Delaney tells of their hurried journey and their fears until they were inside the gate. Ogden kept them out of sight on the following day when the?. Indians came for the ransom. Spalding's party appeared on January 1, escorted! by fifty Nez Perces, and at noon, January 2, the boats shoved off for VanB couver. In the march to the boats, according to Mrs. Elizabeth Sager Helm,15 Spalding was placed at the center of the party of men, as there were signs that he might not be allowed to get away, after all. They were hardly gone, when a band of Cayuses rode up to the fort, demanding the surrender of Spalding. They had commenced to give credence to the rumors about the armed force at The Dalles. When Ogden sent notice of the ransom to Lapwai, he cautionedf Spalding to make no promises. But Spalding, whose position was that of at hostage, had already promised much, and the Indians now realized that they had let him go too soon. The down-river journey of six days was without incident. Stanley, the, artist, went with the boats and was of great service in caring for the children. At Vancouver he bought them all calico for new dresses. Sunday was spent at the fort, and on the next day Ogden turned over the captives to Governor? Abernethy at Portland. Bishop Blanchet went down with Ogden and the cap! tives. Monseigneur Demers accompanied them to Oregon City, and the letters of Blanchet and Spalding were delivered by Ogden to the Governor. After some! hesitation, the letters were published.10 All the buildings at Waiilatpu except the grist mill were burned by the Indians shortly after the rescue, and wolves dug up the bodies of the victims. Settlers Prepare to Fight The Oregon boundary question had been settled in the year previous to the Whitman massacre, but Congress had done nothing toward organizing the Territory. The Provisional Government established by the settlers in the period of joint occupation continued to function, with George Abernethy as Governor. It was the barest outline of a government, with few officials, no militia and only $43.72 in its treasury, — and debts amounting to $4,123.46." The settlers were' nearly all residents of the Willamette valley, and many were French Canadians or half-breeds. It was hardly a favorable time to start a war against the Indians. But outrages had been perpetrated, and worse things might happen with the coming of the next emigration. Unless the Cayuses were speedily punished, other tribes would undoubtedly unite with them against the whites. The settlers had long been watching for a regiment of mounted riflemen which Congress had at last authorized for the protection of the Oregon Trail. These troops were supposed to be somewhere on the way. The settlers did not know L WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 155' that this regiment had been diverted to the Mexican war,18 but they could not afford to wait for help from Washington, and with unanimity and dispatch they proceeded to conduct their own campaign. The provisional legislature, with seventeen members present from six counties, met at Oregon City on December 7. The Governor's message, read the next morning, called attention to the need of firm action against the Indians, whose robberies and other misdeeds were becoming every day more exasperating. This proved to be timely advice, for the Governor had to transmit to the legislature, a few hours later, the news of the massacre, just received from James Douglas. By noon of December 9, a company of riflemen had been raised, officered and equipped. It left in the afternoon for The Dalles. The mission there had been taken over from the Methodists by Whitman, in 1847. A. Hinman, who had taught school at Waiilatpu, and Perin B. Whitman, a nephew of the doctor, were in charge. Hinman had accompanied McBean's messenger to Vancouver and had appealed for pro- The action of the settlers belied their seemingly feeble condition. In the next thirty days a regiment of five hundred men was enlisted and equipped. Cornelius Gilliam was appointed Colonel.20 Recruiting officers enrolled companies in each county, and as the men gathered at the Portland rendezvous, each recruit bringing his horse, arms and equipment, the companies elected their own officers. A company of Canadians was raised at French prairie by Thomas McKay, an experienced Indian fighter. The Hudson's Bay Company advanced supplies worth $1,000 on the personal pledges of Governor Abernethy, Jesse Applegate and A. L. Lovejoy, and these men, as a loan commission, secured additional loans of money and supplies, amounting to $3,600, from the Methodist mission and the settlers, — little enough to finance a war! The legislature later established a system by which its agents gave bonds for supplies, which were valued by appraisers. Joe Meel(s Washington Mission The next problem was to get word of the disaster to Washington and to secure federal assistance. Joseph L. Meek, a fearless mountain man, the first sheriff in Oregon, and a member of the provisional legislature, was selected as messenger. He was asked to borrow $500 for his expenses, on the good faith of Oregon, and to seek compensation from the United States. It was a hard task for Meek to raise the money, on the heels of the loan commission. Governor Abernethy wished him to go by way of California, but Meek was too wise to take this course and chose to accompany the troops to The Dalles and to get away by the Oregon Trail, with which he was familiar. The Governor then sent Jesse Applegate, with fifteen others, to carry the appeal to California. This expedition started early in February and reached the Siskiyous in two i56 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST weeks, but was unable to proceed on account of deep snow.21 There could be no further hope of establishing communication with California before spring. Meek could go no faster than the Volunteers, until they encamped at Waiilatpu. There he left them on March 4, with a few companions, most of whom were men who took this opportunity of returning to the States. A company of the riflemen escorted his party as far as the Blue mountains. Meek's party encountered deep snow and were often short of food. Two of the men dropped out at Fort Boise. In hostile Indian country, the party travelled at night. Meek was in St. Louis on May 17, with the first news of the Whitman massacre and the war in Oregon.22 He went at once to Washington, where he was warmly welcomed at the White House because of his mission and also because he was a relative of President Polk and of the President's secretary, Knox Walker. Meek's heroic physique and vivid personality created a sensation at the Capital. He found that he was not the only representative of Oregon at Washington, though he was the only one who could testify to the urgent need of assistance. Governor Abernethy had assumed the responsibility of sending a delegate to Congress, J. Q. Thornton, Chief Justice in the Provisional Government. Thornton left by sea before the Indian outbreak, with flour and other commodities contributed by settlers, which he sold at San Francisco to defray his expenses. He was in Washington a few days before Meek arrived, and was invited to sit in the Senate. His appointment was sharply criticized in Oregon, as it was fell that he represented the Methodist mission faction rather than the settlers in general. Yet it was fortunate that Thornton happened to be in Washington at this critical time. His ability was recognized, and he won the respectful attention of Congress, while Meek had constant access to the White House. The two men had nothing in common except their devotion to Oregon, but they were perfect foils for each other, and the combination proved more powerful than anything that could have been planned. Meek brought a vigorous memorial from the Oregon legislature,23 which commenced: " Having called upon the government of the United States so often in vain, we have almost despaired of receiving its protection." The memorial described the outrages and the Indian situation, with which the settlers were too weak to cope. It reminded Congress that the Provisional Government rested on a compact between citizens of a republic and subjects and official representatives of a monarchy. Little could be expected of such an arrangement. " We have rather endeavored to maintain peace by forebearance, hoping that the dangers and difficulties to be apprehended from domestic discord and from the savages around us, would be postponed until we became an acknowledged people, and under the protection of our mother country." An odd petition was that the most important offices in the new Territory be rilled by men of the highest ability regardless of place of residence, — presumably not Oregonians. The reasons for this L WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR I57 J plea will be found in the even balance of the political factions in Oregon and in the desire to spoil the chances of Judge Thornton, candidate for the governorship. The memorial closed with the words: " When the ensuing summer's sun shall have dispelled the snow from the mountains, we shall look with glowing hopes and restless anxiety for the coming of your laws and your arms." Oregon Territory Created President Polk sent a special message to Congress on May 29, transmitting this memorial and other documents. The bill to admit Oregon as a Territory had long been before Congress, and the chief cause of delay was the effort of southern members to incorporate an amendment permitting slave-holding. Efforts were made to add Thornton's influence to the forces supporting the amendment, on the representation that he could not hope to see the bill pass without it. But Thornton was conscientious and sagacious; he knew that Oregon did not want slaves, and he was sure that the bill would not pass with the amendment. In spite of Benton's appeals that the bill be passed without delay, so that troops might cross the mountains before the coming of deep snows, two and a half months were consumed in talk, and a filibuster failed only at the last moment. The Oregon bill passed on August 13. Polk appointed General Joseph Lane of Indiana Governor and Joseph Meek United States Marshal. Meek delivered the commission to Lane at his home in Newburg. In three days they were ready to start. They left Leavenworth on September 10, with an escort of twenty-five riflemen. With the surgeon, other officers and teamsters, the party numbered fifty-five. The wagons were abandoned at Santa Fe. After crossing the Colorado, the animals died rapidly, and the escort dwindled by desertion until only three men remained by the time they reached the Coast. In the last stages of the journey, the Oregon government walked, as the surviving animals were needed to pack the baggage. A ship was found at San Pedro, about to sail for San Francisco, and there the party, now consisting of Lane, Meek, Lieutenant Hawkins of the escort, the surgeon and three soldiers, embarked on a small vessel crowded with miners going to the Columbia. The Governor's party arrived at Oregon City on March 2. President Polk had greatly desired that the new Territory be organized in his administration, and Lane issued his proclamation as Governor on March 3, Polk's last day as President. Cayuse War Meanwhile the settlers had fought their own war with the Cayuses. One of the first acts of the provisional legislature was the appointment of a peace commission to accompany the troops. This action was taken before Bishop Blanchet wrote his letter and enclosed Spalding's appeal and the petition of J 158 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the Cayuse chiefs, asking that just this thing be done. But the legislati an army, too, and the intentions of the double-headed expedition were doubtful The peace commissioners were ordered to take counsel with the field office! regarding the policy to be pursued, and their presence with the army was embarrassment to the aggressive commander. Prompt military operations w impossible any way, on account of the distance of the Indian country fron the settlements, — 300 miles, — and the difficulties of transport. Companies were sent up the river as fast as they could be assembled at Portland and equipped. A base was established at the Cascades and was named Fort Gilliam. One company was detailed to build a road at the portage, a task at which the recruits were inclined to rebel. Colonel Gilliam went ahead with fifty men, as he had received news at the Cascades of the first skirmish of Major H. A. G. Lee with a band of hostile Indians at The Dalles. A mixed party of Cayuses and members of other tribes drove off a herd of 300 cattle belonging to emigrants. Lee's men were unable to prevent the theft, lacking horses, thougb they attacked the Indians and killed several. Lee captured sixty Indian horses the next morning, when he went to the assistance of the Des Chutes chief, Siletza, who had been robbed for not joining the raiders. The raid took place on January 8, only a few days after Ogden had passed The Dalles with the captives. The Cayuses, as previously noted, speedily concluded that the settlers meant to fight. Colonel Gilliam took command at The Dalles on January 24. The stockade erected there was named Fort Lee. Three additional companies soon Colonel Gilliam, not yet burdened with the peace commission, took 130 men in pursuit of the raiders, as far as the Des Chutes river. Major Lee, with an advance detachment, located the Indians, who were moving their camp to the mountains. After a skirmish, in which he captured some horses, Lee started back to report and was ambushed in a ravine, but his men succeeded in hiding among the rocks and escaped injury from the volleys fired by the Indians and the stones which they showered down from the top. Gilliam's entire force attacked the Indians on the following day, destroyed their camp, captured forty horses and some cattle and recovered $1,400 worth of stolen goods. Lee continued to harry the Indians for several days. In the general attack the only casualty suffered by the troops was one man wounded. The Indians fled, demoralized by the lusty yelling of the whites, which was far superior to their own, on which they were accustomed to rely, to frighten their enemies before attacking. In the skirmishing, Lee lost three men killed and one mortall| wounded. The Indian losses are unknown, but among the wounded was Edward Tilaukait. L WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 159 Obstructive Peace Commission Gilliam contrived to give this demonstration of the fighting qualities of his force before he received instructions to await the peace commission at The Dalles. The commission consisted of Joel Palmer, now Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon and Commissary General of the army, Robert Newell, who was well qualified by his knowledge of Indian traits, and Major Lee. When Palmer and Newell of the commission arrived, a conference was held, and the difficulty of reconciling the purposes of the expedition was made plain. The Governor's instructions were that the Indians must be informed that the Americans desired only the surrender of the Waiilatpu murderers, restitution for property stolen and the assurance that emigrants would not be molested in the future. The commission favored calling a council of all the tribes, and Gilliam at first consented reluctantly to send the commission ahead, accompanied by about 100 men. Then a suggestion came from the Governor that Gilliam might move his entire command to Waiilatpu, if he saw fit. He now had over 500 men and the cannon which McKay's Canadians had succeeded by heroic efforts in bringing around the Cascades in a snow storm. He was strong enough to advance. Moreover, his men needed something to do. They chafed at serving merely as an escort to a peace commission. Some talked of turning back. Discipline was poor, ammunition was wasted in much useless shooting, and the men raided the commissary at will. All this indicated to a seasoned military man that it was time to get in motion. Rumors came in that the eastern tribes were uniting to resist the demands of the whites. If the revolt threatened to become general, delay would be costly. Parleying would be interpreted by the Indians as a confession of weakness and would give them time to strengthen their defense. So Gilliam informed the commission that his entire command would accompany them, with the exception of a small garrison at The Dalles. Two important letters had been dispatched by the commission, with no response. This silence was regarded by Gilliam as ominous, and he decided to hasten his march to Waiilatpu. One of these letters was for the Catholic mission on the Umatilla, and it was not known that the mission had been abandoned on February 19. Bishop Blanchet had previously left for the lower country, and Fathers Brouillet and Leclaire removed to Fort Walla Walla on receiving information that the Cayuses were resolved to fight. After their departure, their property on the Umatilla was destroyed by the Indians. The other message was sent to Superintendent McBean at the fort. The messenger was captured by the Cayuses, and presents of flags and tobacco intended for the Nez Perces were stolen, but the letter addressed to McBean was sent to him. The Indians hesitated to retain anything with his name on it. This ci i6o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST was most fortunate, as the packet contained a letter written in the Nez Perce language by Spalding. It called all the Nez Perce chiefs by name, assured them that the Americans wished only to take the murderers, told them of the| military strength of the whites and urged them to meet the peace commission- in council. It happened that two of the chiefs were at the fort when the letter was delivered. They carried the message to their people, and the danger in this quarter which Gilliam feared was happily averted. McBean sent a reply to| Gilliam, which was intercepted by the Cayuses and destroyed, but this was not important. It only kept the commission in ignorance of the course of events! for a few days, and this lack of information served to speed up the advance. It was well that Gilliam marched with his main force, for the Cayuses soon disclosed their intentions. Though the peace commission had to accept tha whole army as an escort, they insisted on going ahead with a white flag. At noon on February 24, a large party of Cayuses appeared. They respected the white flag to the extent of sending a warning to keep off, whereupon the commissioners fell back upon the main force, and hostilities commenced. About 400 Indians were seen, but one-fourth had come as spectators. These remained at a distance, on the hills. The strength of the combatants was too nearly equal for the Indians to risk a direct attack, and the country did not offer the cover suitable for sniping and ambushes, — their customary mode of warfare. They contented themselves with riding furiously past the marching troops and making a great din. Confidence in their prowess was not lacking, and some of them ventured too near and paid for their temerity. A medicine man who perhaps believed himself invulnerable exposed himself audaciously and was killed. Two chiefs, Gray Eagle and Five Crows, rode close to the Canadians, and the former, recognizing Tom McKay, made the mistake of threatening him. The Captain promptly shot Gray Eagle dead, and Lieutenant Charles McKay of the same company shattered Five Crows' arm with a rifle ball. Gilliam disposed his lines on both sides of the wagons and cattle and moved steadily forward. Whenever the Indians seemed to be gathering to oppose the advance, the troops rushed them, with yells which caused as much surprise as in the previous encounter with the Des Chutes. The Indians were evidently dismayed at their losses and at the uninterrupted march of the Americans, and they withdrew in disorder to a respectful distance, leaving their dead andj wounded on the field. The army went into camp at sunset. Five Americans had been wounded. The situation of the troops was uncomfortable, for they had neither wood nor water, and they got no water until the following night, when the Umatilla river was reached, after marching all day, with the Indians on both flanks. On the second day of the hostile demonstrations, the spectators of the first day's running fight sent messengers to say that the Cayuses were divided and that they and some of the war party wanted peace and would agree to a WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 161 council. But now the peace commission were as anxious as the army to get water before halting to talk, and the march continued. After crossing the Umatilla, on the third day, the Americans could see that the crowds of Indians on the hills were thoroughly alarmed and that there was a real division of feeling among them. Stickas and others came in with offers of peace and were told to meet the commission at Waiilatpu. In seizing McBean's letter to Gilliam, the Cayuses unwittingly injured their own cause, for if the commissioners had known that conditions were secure at Fort Walla Walla and that their message had reached the Nez Perces in time, they would have treated with the Cayuses, the majority of whom favored surrendering the murderers and making peace. As it was, the peace commission ceased to function at the moment when it could have succeeded, and the Cayuses were compelled to look to their defenses. On the next morning all the Indians had disappeared, — a sure sign that they had gone to prepare for a campaign. The army's march to Fort Walla Walla was without further interruption, and here several questions were cleared up. The peace message had reached the Nez Perces; Peupeumoxmox and his Walla Wallas remained friendly to the whites; Walker and Eells were safe in the north country, and the priests from the Umatilla were at the fort. The army moved up the Walla Walla river to the camp of Peupeumoxmox and found a friendly reception. The next march took the army to Waiilatpu. Gilliam first visited the ruins, with two companies. What he saw there stirred his fighting spirit to a pitch which threatened any further peace proposals. The buildings had been burned, and everything movable had been thrown into the fire. The orchard had been cut down, and the remains of the victims, exhumed by the wolves, were scattered about the grounds. The soldiers gathered up the bones and buried them all in one grave. Gilliam moved his camp to the site of the mission and began to build a fort, to be named for Lieutenant Colonel James Waters. It was at this point that Meek and his party took the trail for the East. The army grumbled at having to labor on the fort, particularly on Sunday, and Gilliam declared that he would march against the Indians on the sixth and give battle. But the peace commissioners forestalled him by sending William Craig, at whose place, near Lapwai, the Spaldings had sought refuge after the massacre, and Joseph Gervais of the Canadian company to meet a large body of Nez Perces who were reported to be approaching. Gilliam did not make his start, for Craig and Gervais returned on the sixth with 250 Indians, mostly Nez Perces, who asked to meet the commission. They were received with cheers by the troops, and a council was held the next day. Chief Joseph spoke in place of Ellis, the head chief, who was in the buffalo country. Joseph's mother was a Cayuse, and he said that he spoke for the Cayuses present as well as for his own people. He said that the fact that his half-brother, Five Crows, had been wounded made no ife A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST difference in his desire to keep his people out of the war. Half a dozen other Nezf Perce chiefs and one Cayuse, Camaspelo, made friendly speeches. The council resulted in an agreement by the Nez Perces to return home, to accept William Craig as resident agent and magistrate and to refrain from molesting travelers or the missionaries at Tshimakain. General Palmer promised that no white! would be permitted to settle on Indian lands without their consent and thai a teacher and a blacksmith would be sent after the restoration of peace. An American flag and tobacco were presented, and the Indians entertained the army in the evening with a war dance. Through all this Gilliam was wondering what the hostile Cayuses were doing and how many spies they had in his camp. Cayuse Trickery The next move was also arranged by Palmer, who induced the Nez Perce chiefs to visit the Cayuse camp, twenty-five miles away, to urge them to surrender the murderers. The army was to follow, a day behind, but it haoj marched only three miles when it was met by Stickas, bringing cattle, other} property and money stolen from the mission. Gilliam was suspicious of the motives behind this peace offering and the request which accompanied it, that the army halt and hold a council. Subsequent events proved that he was right! But he had to bow to the wishes of a majority of the commission, and the army; went into camp. Captain English and forty-two men were sent back to ForH Waters with the cattle. This reduced the force with Gilliam to 158 men when he was again ready to march. Thus the first byplay of the Cayuses succeeded in checking the advance of the troops and drawing off one-fifth of their strength. At the council, Stickas suggested that some compromises would be necessary. He stated that the Cayuses would not surrender Tawatowe or Tamsuky. Tha latter was wanted as the murderer of Whitman, but no one had accused Tawatowe, whose camp was on the Umatilla. The object in linking these names was doubtless to start an argument. Then Gilliam introduced a new idea which broke up the council. He offered to accept Joe Lewis in place of five of the murderers. This might have seemed a good bargain for the settlers, bu| the peace commission had a definite program to carry out. Writing of Gilliam's proposal, Newell says in his notes, " Seeing such a move, I concluded to be off." The commission left for Oregon City on March n, and Gilliam was free to make his own plans. He started again for the Cayuse camp on the day when he got rid of the peace commission. Once more the Indians sought to gain time?: Three Cayuses appeared with a flag and returned some of the horses stolen! on the march from The Dalles to Fort Walla Walla. They said that Stickas; had taken Joe Lewis into custody and was conducting him to Gilliam, when the half-breed had been rescued. The story was not believed, and no time wal lost. Near the head of the Touchet, a message was received from Tawatowe WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 163 declaring his intention to desert the hostiles and conveying interesting information. He reported that his own camp was above Gilliam's, on the Tucannon; that Tamsuky had gone into the Nez Perce country and that Tilaukait had gone down the Tucannon, with the intention of crossing the Snake into the Palouse country, where he would find allies. Gilliam took the chance that this information was correct, as it proved to be, though he ran the risk of being surrounded. He made after Tilaukait, who was the principal chief of the hostiles and one of the murderers whose capture was most desired. After a night march, Gilliam approached the Cayuse camp, not far from the mouth of the Tucannon, at dawn. He was met by an old Indian who claimed that the camp was not Tilaukait's, but belonged to the friendly Peupeumoxmox; Tilaukait had fled, leaving h'is cattle on the hills. Some of the cattle could be seen, and the old man said that the Americans might as well take them. Only a few Indians were found in the camp,—painted and armed, but apparently friendly. The old man's suggestion seemed a good one, and the troops climbed painfully up the steep side of the canyon through which the Tucannon flows at this point. When they reached the top, it was found that the stock there were mostly horses. The Snake was visible from this height, and the cattle could be seen swimming the river. Tilaukait had made good his escape.24 He had also left another surprise for his pursuers. Gilliam realized that there was nothing to do but round up the five hundred head of stock and return to his camp on the Touchet, but he had marched only a mile when he was attacked by four hundred Palouses. The Cayuses had induced their allies to do the fighting while they ran away. After riding all night, the troops were obliged to conduct a marching fight all day and to pass another sleepless night. They, rested at a small stream, but the Indians fired into their camp incessantly, and the captured stock was turned out, to cause a diversion and in the hope that the Indians might be satisfied at recovering it. When the troops broke camp at daylight, however, the Indians still surrounded them. It was necessary to move along the crest of the hills, to avoid ambushes. The Indians attacked sharply and were driven back. The spirit of the troops was fine, and they sent out an interpreter to challenge the enemy to attack again. A ford on the Touchet was the Americans' objective, and there were trees at this point, affording cover. The Indians and the whites seem to have thought of this at about the same time. Captain Shaw and twenty picked men charged ahead as the column neared the river and cut off the direct approach of the Indians, who then took a short cut to the stream, intending to follow it and to reach the timber first. The official report says that the courage and determination of a few young men saved the army from heavy loss and perhaps from being cut to pieces. The race for the timber was won by the Americans, and the crossing was made. The Indians made no attempt to cross. The troops were 164 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST at Fort Waters on the sixteenth, hungry as well as exhausted, for all they had eaten in three days was a small colt. Their casualties were ten wounded, one of whom died. Closing Phase of the Campaign Provisions were badly needed at Fort Waters, and it was decided to sendf half the force to The Dalles, to bring up a supply train. Gilliam went witl the two companies which were detailed for this service, in order that he might get in touch with the Governor. In their camp at the Springs beyond the Umatilla, he was taking a rope out of a wagon when it caught on the trigger of a gun, and he was instantly killed. From The Dalles, Major Lee and Captain McKay conducted his remains to the Willamette valley. Instead of promoting! Lieutenant Colonel Waters, the Governor sent Lee back as Colonel. He accepted the commission reluctantly, — possibly with a plan in mind which he carried out on reaching Fort Waters. Lee was a popular officer, and the Governor's action met with more approbation than blame.25 It had been the hope of Governor Abernethy that the first regiment of volunteers would prove sufficient to occupy the Indian country until the arrival of aid from California. The United States transport Anita entered the Columbia on March 16, but it brought no assistance. Instead there was a recruiting officer on board, who had been sent, in ignorance of the events in Oregon, to raise a battalion for service in Mexico! The information brought by Lee and the report from Capt. H. J. G. Maxon, commanding at The Dalles, convinced the Governor that the settlers must make further sacrifices, and he issued a proclamation calling for three hundred additional men, to be mustered in by Colonel Lee at Portland on Apri| 18. The women organized to provide clothing, and a band of young women issued an announcement that they would show no favor to any young man who refused to enlist and that they would defend the claims and rights in the valley of all who joined the army. The fear of losing their land claims had kept many single men from going. Lee's reluctance to accept the command was due to his knowledge that there were politicians who would seek to injure him, but he found that he had the support of many staunch patriots. Jesse Applegate offered to make almost any sacrifice, if Lee would take the field and seek a prompt decision with thl Indians. Officers were resigning because their private interests were suffering while they were away, and there were desertions of enlisted men who wera tempted to enrich themselves by running off Indian horses, which they drove] over the Mount Hood road. The operation of the commissary was uncertain? But Captain Maxon took a supply train to Fort Waters and reported that thf men there had improved their condition, having found a cache of wheat and/ repaired the grist mill. They had slaughtered a large quantity of beef anf . WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 165 had dried it, in preparation for a campaign. Lee left The Dalles with re-enforcements on May 3 and received news from Waters, en route, that Tawatowe, Otter-Skin-Shirt, Stickas and Camaspelo had returned to the Umatilla with their stock, and professed friendship, and that about one hundred Nez Perces were at Waiilatpu, with a request that a new head chief be named, in place of Ellis, who had died of measles, with sixty other members of the tribe, while on the buffalo hunt. Lee went ahead of the relief column to hold a council with the Nez Perces. Palmer had resigned as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, on account of his burdensome duties as Commissary General, and the Governor had persuaded Lee to act in his place. Richard, who had accompanied Whitman to the States in 1835, was made head chief, and Meaway was appointed war chief, probably because of his peaceable reputation. The Indians did not oppose Lee's wishes in these appointments, but Richard was presently assassinated, and they held an election of their own. Lee also held a council with the Walla Wallas and the Cayuses who had returned and made it clear that the Americans would hold the country until reparation had been made and the murderers had been surrendered. A fresh source of uneasiness was the act of the legislature withholding ammunition from the Indians without distinction of friend or foe. The Walla Wallas resented this, and Peupeumoxmox threatened to go over to the hostiles. But he reconsidered, and all the Indians near the forts were ready to keep the peace when they saw fresh companies arriving from the Willamette and learned that a regiment of United States riflemen might come from the East at any moment. Lee found that Waters had acquitted himself most creditably. In the period of waiting, he had effected a remarkable improvement in the troops at Waiilatpu. It was plain that he deserved to retain the leadership, and Lee magnanimously turned over the command to him and sent his own resignation as Colonel to Governor Abernethy. This act united the troops in a demand that Lee serve as Lieutenant Colonel, and he consented. On May 17, over four hundred men set out to find the hostile Cayuses, who were supposed to be somewhere in the Nez Perce country. The expedition was hampered by the reticence of the friendly Indians as to Tilaukait's movements until he was well out of their country, but a considerable amount of his stock was captured, and the Nez Perces assisted in driving it to Fort Waters. Before returning to Waiilatpu, Waters sent two companies to Lapwai, to remove the family and property of the Indian Agent, Craig, who felt unsafe. Another company was sent to escort the Tshimakain mission families from Fort Colville, where they had taken refuge.20 At Fort Waters, it was understood that the campaign must close. The men were needed in the Willamette valley, to harvest the crops. No further pursuit of the murderers was possible, for they could easily hide in the mountains all i66 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST summer. Lee called for volunteers to remain at Waiilatpu and The Dalles till September 15, pledging several of his friends to return by that time with families to settle the country. He secured more than the fifty volunteers required and obtained the Governor's sanction to the forfeiture of the Cayuse lands. The only missionaries remaining were the Catholics, and Lee notified them that they must not operate missions until their safety could be guaranteed by the presence of United States troops. The Catholics thereupon abandoned their plans to build, but several of the priests remained in the country, farming, or traveling about with the Indians, as French Canadians might do with entire safety. The', regiment started home, and many of the men scurried away without asking to be formally discharged or taking any thought to secure their pay. Lee's connection with the army ceased at Fort Waters, and he declined to accept the commission as Lieutenant Colonel which had been forwarded to him, and with it the pay. The volunteers who remained in the Walla Walla country got along very well without help from the commissary, which could raise no more funds, for they found some large caches of grain and raised three hundred bushels of corn. The Indians stayed quiet, and the 1848 emigration was unmolested. The murderers and their friends had no ammunition and kept to the mountains. Patkanim's Plot —Pursuit of Deserters The capture of the Whitman murderers was the unfinished business of the Cayuse war. Governor Lane, whose active duties commenced in March, 1849, could only await the long expected regiment of riflemen. When it arrived, reduced in numbers and exhausted, no barracks were ready, and the men were housed for the winter at Oregon City. Meanwhile Lane had his hands full of minor Indian troubles.27 He restored peace between the Klikitats and Walla- Wallas and mended some difficulties near the settlements. In May, 1849, a war cloud appeared on the sound, and Lane went north with the United States forces, which still consisted only of Lieutenant Hawkins and the five men of the Governor's escort who stayed with him all the way to Oregon. But he took arms for the settlers. Chief Patkanim of the Snoqualmis was responsible for the outbreak, the first object of which was the capture of Fort Nisqually.28 An armed force of Indians gathered outside the fort, and Patkanim, who was admitted, said that they were come merely to adjust a domestic difficulty with the Nisqually chief. One of the Company's men accidentally discharged a gun and this seems to have been mistaken by the Indians for a signal from Patkanim. A rush was made for the gate, but the guards closed it. An American settler who was outside and did not respond to the call, " All hands ir' " killed, and another was wounded. When the Indians saw that the bastions had been manned, they withdrew. Patkanim slipped away during the excitemen WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 167 If the plot had succeeded, the Indians would have secured a large stock of arms and ammunition, and a bloody war on the settlers would have followed. The settlers erected blockhouses, and by the time Lane reached Tumwater news overtook him of the arrival of the U. S. propeller Massachusetts with two companies of artillery. Lane sent one company north, and Fort Steilacoom was built, in August. Two of the guilty Indians were surrendered, in September, and were executed, but one of the artillerymen was murdered a few months later, and his assassin was never identified. The discovery of gold in California led to numerous desertions from the army, and to prevent wholesale losses the regiment of riflemen then at Oregon City were ordered to new barracks at Vancouver, in the spring of 1850. Before the removal, however, 120 of the men hit the trail to California. They pretended to be a government expedition and got supplies on credit from the settlers. Less than half the deserters succeeded in crossing the Rogue river, after a fight with the Indians, and the number who reached the Sacramento valley is not known. Governor Lane and Colonel W. W. Loring of the regiment hastened in pursuit. Lane took a volunteer party of mountaineers with him, and a detachment of the faithful troops followed with the pack train. Groups of the deserters were found in a starving condition in the Umpqua valley. In one instance, they had just drawn lots for a victim to be slaughtered for food. All the deserters who were found gladly returned with Lane. Loring took the trail of the other party into the snows of the Siskiyous and captured seven stragglers. Hanging of Cayuse Murderers Lane had just returned when news came that the Cayuse murderers had given themselves up, and he went with an escort to The Dalles, to arrest them. The Indians who surrendered were Tilaukait, Tamahas, Klokamas, Quiamashouskin and Tsaiachalkis. They maintained a proud bearing, and as they displayed no feeling of remorse they were surprised at any acts of kindness on the part of their guards. When offered food from the soldiers' mess, Tilaukait said, " What hearts have you to offer me of your food, whose hands are red with your brother's blood ?" Though the prisoners must have expected a death sentence, they seem to have cherished the hope that lawyers familiar with the ways of the white man's justice might do something for them, as they offered fifty head of horses for a successful defense. This offer, their behavior and the fact that one of them was not known to have been connected with the murders aroused speculation as to their motive in surrendering. When questioned on the subject, Tilaukait said, " Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? Thus we die, if we must, to save our people." Edward S. Curtis was told by the Nez Perce chief Yellow Bull and his Cayuse wife, a daughter of Tamahas, that after the Waiilatpu murders, there was i68 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST disagreement among the Indians as to the persons who had originated the plot! and should therefore assume the responsibility. This disagreement still existed! after two years of wandering in the mountains, and there was much discord in the tribe. Tilaukait finally decided that five men who had been accused should! shoulder all the blame and sacrifice themselves for the welfare of the tribe.29 There was also the certainty that the Americans would continue to increase inl numbers, and United States troops had actually come. In addition to the rifleJ men, there were two companies of artillery, which had been sent by sea fronl California. The last hope of the wandering Cayuses was gone, and the offer; of peace on the surrender of the murderers was kept before them by Governoil Lane, who had carried on negotiations from the time of his arrival, though- unable to do anything else. The prisoners were confined on an island in the river, at Oregon City. From the jury were excluded all older settlers or men who had reason foJ being embittered against the Indians. The trial was fair, and the prisoners were' ably defended, the grounds of the defense being that at the time of the murders? the laws of the United States had not been extended to cover Oregon, that thl deaths had been brought about by a combination of circumstances and that the evidence of the witnesses was uncertain and conflicting. There was no evidence against Quiamashouskin except the fact that he gave himself up. Thl jury, however, rendered a verdict of guilty, and the Indians were sentenced! to be hung on June 3. Three of them were visibly dismayed at the verdict! Hanging was abhorrent to the Indians; as chiefs and warriors, they had supl posed they would be shot. Joe Meek, who acted as executioner, said that onf the gallows Quiamashouskin begged to be stabbed, but Meek ended the argul ment by releasing the drop with his tomahawk. Peace had presumably been established in the Territory, but Protestant misl sionary work was ended east of the Cascades, and settlers were not permitted? to take up land until treaties could be concluded with the tribes. An efforl to induce the legislature to close all the Catholic missions failed. The Catholil missions which remained were all in the North and had not been involved in the Indian troubles. The Cayuse tribe was broken, its spirit and prestige gone. Tilaukait's men, deprived of leaders and lands, went to the Umatill where the other Cayuses lived. In a short time, the once arrogant tribe lost bot its name and its language, beside dwindling in numbers. The expenses of th Cayuse war were finally met with an appropriation of $100,000 by Congress, bu great indignation was occasioned by the acts of the United States militai authorities in reserving lands for the posts which they established in 1849 am 1850. A reservation at The Dalles ten miles square was declared; the reservatioi at Vancouver was four miles square, and at Astoria lands were included whic had been improved by settlers. A tract for an arsenal was taken at Milwauki WHITMAN MASSACRE-CAYUSE WAR 169 and when the settlers learned that it would include the land claims of William Meek and Henderson Luelling, indignation ran high. These men took 700 fruit trees overland in 1847 and were successful in transplanting them. Their nursery was one of the most important enterprises in the new country. The settlers were delivered from this military usurpation through the efforts of their delegate to Congress. At the same time, they asked the government to withdraw what was left of the regiment of riflemen, and gave notice that they preferred to continue fighting their own wars. Oregon Boundary Dispute IN THOSE PARTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST WHICH EVENTUALLY FELL TO THE United States, the British explorers did thorough work but were unfortunate in arriving after the Americans had shown the way. The great prize of exploration was the Columbia river. Gray won it after the British navigators had given it up. Then Broughton, with the aid of Gray's chart, entered the river, explored it a considerable distance and held, for the benefit of the British claims, that the part which Gray saw was only a bay at its mouth. David Thompson came down the Columbia, — the first white man to travel its entire course, — only to find that Astor's fort was at the point of control. Thompson knew that Lewis and Clark had already explored the region on the line of the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia, but he was disappointed to find that Americans had actually occupied the river. All Thompson's posts were north of the Columbia and the Spokane, and this is the only quarter where British claims had any hope of success. American emigrations settled the country south of the Columbia. The only British occupation was north of the river, and this! was not by emigration, but solely by the fur traders, including their retired employes. Necessary preliminaries to the acquisition of Oregon were the quieting of the claims of Spain and Russia on the Coast and of France and Great Britain to the territory intervening between Oregon and the States. Several early contests were decided in ways which later proved most fortunate for the American cause. In 1790, Spain was forced by lack of allies and by fear of revolt in her colonies to accede to England's demands. In the Nootka Convention Spain relinquished her exclusive claims north of California, and it was agreed that British subjects should have the right to trade and to make settlements on any part of the Coast not already occupied. At this time, the vast region known as Louisiana, originally a French possession, was in the hands of Spain. Louisiana was ceded to France in 1800, and Napoleon sold it to the United States in 1803, for $15,000,000. The Louisiana Purchase extended in a northwesterly, direction to the Rocky mountains. Its natural boundary on the north v irregular, partly below and partly above the 49th parallel. In 1818, Great Britain abandoned her hope of retaining navigation rights on th OREGON BOUNDARY DISPUTE vp. Mississippi and of eventually defining her territory with a line drawn across the country on the 42nd parallel, and the 49th parallel was adopted as the Canadian boundary, from Lake of the Woods to the Rockies. In 1819, Spain accepted the 42nd parallel as her northern boundary, from the Rockies to the Pacific, and by this treaty formally gave up all possible claims in the Oregon country. Russia, in the period of the first voyages, made pretensions to the right of settlement in northern California. No settlement was actually made south of 60° and Spain therefore extended her claims to that point.1 With Spain eliminated from the controversy and with Great Britain and the United States consenting, in 1818, to the joint occupation of Oregon for a period of ten years, it remained for these two governments, severally or conjointly, to negotiate terms with Russia. It became necessary to conduct the negotiations separately, for President Monroe, in transmitting the question to Congress in his message of December 2,1823, declared the principle which became known as the Monroe Doctrine and extended it to cover the Northwest Coast. Great Britain did not assent to this principle and could not join in any transaction which might imply approval. An agreement was reached between the United States and Russia, in 1824, by which the line was drawn at 54°4o'. In 1825, Great Britain made a treaty with Russia by which the eastern boundary of Russian territory was fixed at a line beginning at 54°4o' and extending north along the ridge of the Coast range. The old Oregon country was thus finally defined, with England and America still in joint occupation, and the sole remaining issue was the Oregon boundary dispute. Chapter of Accidents The American people were not interested in the Oregon question at first, with the exception of Astor and those associated with him in the fur trade and of a few far-seeing statesmen, though public sentiment later on would have plunged the nation into another war with England, if England hadj/'" not been anxious to avoid war over what was just then a remote and relatively unimportant issue with her government. It was fortunate that the British naval officer who arrived at Astoria at the time of the War of 1812 took formal *' possession in the name of his King, though Astor's men had already sold the property to the Nor'westers. Due probably to Astor's own prompting, the American government had a clause inserted in the Treaty of Ghent providing that all places taken by either party from the other during the war should be restored. The transfer of Fort George, as Astoria was named when the British took possession, was demanded, but the British Minister at Washington immediately protested that Astoria was not one of the places contemplated in the treaty. His reasons were that it had already been purchased by British 1 172 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST subjects and that possession had been taken of the entire Columbia valley long prior to the coming of Astor's men, by Lieutenant Broughton, in 1792.2 This was the formal opening of the dispute which lasted for a generation. The British government chose to permit the transfer of Astoria under the_ treaty, giving notice at the same time that it did not concede American ownership of the Columbia region and proposing arbitration. The suggestion of arbitration was wisely opposed, and shortly afterward, on October 20, 1818, the decision of the question was deferred ten years by the treaty providing for joint occupation. In the negotiations in London which led to this result J the Americans seem to have thought that Lewis and Clark explored thel Columbia " from its sources to the ocean," and the British were ignorant of the travels of David Thompson in the Inland Empire.3 The American claim to the upper country seemed much stronger than it did later on, when it was realized that Lewis and Clark saw nothing of the Columbia above the mouthf of the Yakima and that Thompson had posts on the Spokane, Pend d'Oreille lake and the Clark fork previous to the arrival of the Astorians. Congress Interested The Oregon question was first brought before Congress in 1820, when John Floyd of Virginia proposed an inquiry into the expediency of occupying the Columbia river. Floyd had secured information from Ramsay Crooks andl Russell Farnham of Astor's expedition. A committee was appointed and on January 25, 1821, the Floyd Report was presented to Congress.4 It affirmed the belief that the United States had a good title to a large part of the Coast, that* the country was rich and fertile and that a settlement should be established at the mouth of the Columbia. The committee also reported a bill authorizing the President to occupy the Columbia country, extinguish the Indian title, allot lands to settlers and provide a government. This bill died on the calendar. Floyd introduced another bill in 1822, in which the proposal was first made to designate the region officially as Oregon. The name had been previously applied to the river5 but not to the surrounding country. The measure was ably del fended by Floyd and by Francis Baylies of Massachusetts, who caught a vision of the future lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest. Floyd's second bill was laid on the table, and in 1824 he presented a third, with a change of tactics! He asked that a grant of land be made to each settler in Oregon, that a terril torial government be established and that the President be authorized to take! military possession of the country. Another report followed, which was! accompanied by a letter from Quartermaster General Thomas S. Jesup, advo-. eating a line of army posts, to be made partly self-sustaining by agricultur cattle raising, and a naval base at the mouth of the Columbia. This bill passed the House. In the Senate, Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, for many years OREGON BOUNDARY DISPUTE i73 ward the great champion of Oregon in Congress,0 gave the bill his support, but it was tabled. The chief point in the opposition was that the proposed acts were in violation of the treaty of joint occupation. Another bill was introduced in 1827, but did not come to a vote. Floyd was elected Governor of Virginia in 1829, and Congress had a respite on the subject of legislation for Oregon until the late thirties, when missionaries and emigrants forced the issue upon the Diplomatic Exchanges In 1824, the executive branch of the government resumed boundary negotiations through Richard Rush, the American Minister at London.8 John Quincy Adams, still Secretary of State, in the belief that the Columbia had its source as far north as 51 °, instructed Rush to claim that parallel as the boundary, in order to include the whole river. As a compromise, Adams was willing to accept the 49th parallel, since this had already been adopted as far west as the Rockies. The 1824 proposals came to nothing. George Canning, British Foreign Secretary, stuck to the contention that Broughton discovered and took possession of the Columbia; Gray didn't count, as he did not officially represent the American government. Canning claimed for England, under existing circumstances, equal rights with the United States and all other powers to trade and residence in the entire Oregon country, but he was willing to divide the territory with the United States. In dividing it, however, he wished to retain the section of the Coast containing Nootka sound, for sentimental reasons, and the right to free navigation of the Columbia, for commercial purposes. Albert Gallatin was sent to London in 1826, to resume the negotiations. Henry Clay, Secretary of State, writing to Gallatin on the adoption of the 49th parallel, said: "This is our ultimatum, and you may announce it." The prospect of reaching a decision was poorer than ever. American sentiment was stronger, Canning was head of the British Cabinet, the Hudson's Bay Company had absorbed the Nor'westers, and Dr. John McLoughlin was the actual ruler of Oregon. The British commissioners suggested running the line along - the 49th parallel as far as the Columbia and down the center of the river, to the sea. As a concession, because this division of the country left most of the harbors on the British side, the Olympic peninsula was offered to America, within a line running from Cape Flattery to Point Wilson, down Admiralty inlet and Hood's canal to the southern end of the latter, thence to the south side of Gray's harbor and north to Cape Flattery. Gallatin's instructions permitted only minor compromises. He was willing to give up the southern point of Vancouver island, in exchange for the part of the Columbia valley which lay north of 490, and he was authorized to offer free joint navigation of the Columbia. The sole result of Gallatin's negotiations was the extension of joint occupation of the 1 i74 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Oregon country, this time for an indefinite period, each nation reserving] the right to withdraw from the compact on a year's notice. While this may] have seemed like marking time, it was really giving America the opportunity s to occupy the region with settlers and thus to strengthen her claim/it is true' that in 1827, as in 1818, the principle was affirmed that the final decision must be on the question of right, based on acts previous to 1818. Yet American occu-j pation would have undoubtedly influenced the decision. When the settlers] came, however, they did not locate in the part of Oregon claimed by Great' Britain. Their presence in the south country and their contacts with the Hudson's Bay Company made a decision urgent, in order that they might have the protection of government, but the decision might still have been more or_ less favorable to the British claims, if certain considerations entirely foreign to the boundary dispute had not led to a sudden acceptance of the American demands. Congressional Interest Revived After the last effort, in 1827, to secure Oregon legislation, Congress heard little of the matter for ten years, with the exception of an important message? of President Jackson in 1831, transmitting letters of General W. H. Ashleyl Major Joshua L. Pilcher, Lewis Cass, General William Clark and the partners: in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.0 These letters described the exploits, of the American traders and gave their observations of routes by which wagons might be taken across the mountains. The information in this document was frequently reprinted. In 1831, President Jackson sounded the British government on the question of re-opening the boundary discussion. England was not. prepared to resume negotiations, and the matter rested for another decade. Captain Bonneville's exploits took place in 1832-1835, and on his return JacksonJ sent Lieutenant William A. Slacum to secure first-hand information in Oref gon.10 Slacum reported in 1837, and among his most earnest recommendatioi was that 490 remain the American demand, in order to take in Puget sount and that free joint navigation of the Columbia should not be granted, excep in exchange for a fair equivalent, such as free navigation of the St. Lawrence Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri11 introduced a bill in Congres: February 7, 1838, to establish Oregon Territory, and the contest was on w was to end with the settlement of the boundary dispute in 1846 and the ci of the new Territory in 1848. Linn presented a report on June 6, 1838, which contained a map prepared by the War Department at the unanimous request of the Senate. This has been known as the Ultimatum Map, from the fact that it shows the boundary at 49° and quotes Clay's instructions to Gallatin, mentioned above. Congress printed, in this and other documents, 26,000 copies of this map. In 1839, Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts presented two reports 1 OREGON BOUNDARY DISPUTE i75 the Oregon question, which were printed together, in an issue of 10,000 copies, the Ultimatum Map being included. Linn introduced two other bills and a joint resolution, in 1838 and 1839, which at least kept the debate alive. The Wilkes expedition was sent out in 1838. A notable event in 1840 was the publication by the government of Green- how's History of Oregon and California}- Robert Greenhow was Translator and Librarian of the State Department. John Forsyth, Secretary of State, had given Greenhow the opportunity to spend considerable time in collecting material on the Pacific Northwest. Linn asked for Greenhow's manuscript, and the Senate Committee on Oregon adopted it as their report. The Senate unanimously accepted the report and ordered 4,000 copies printed. It was immediately published as a book in New York and London, and had a large sale. There are good grounds for supposing that the London edition was subsidized by United States Secret Service funds. In 1841, Linn introduced a bill for the occupation of Oregon, which included a string of army posts from Fort Leavenworth to the Rockies and a donation land law giving each citizen 1,000 acres. He later sought to have the President instructed to serve Great Britain with the required year's notice of termination of the treaty of joint occupation. President Tyler's message at the opening of the second session of Congress in 1841 supported the plan for a chain of army posts from Council Bluffs to the Pacific ocean. In 1842, the Military Committee of the House, to whom this section of the President's message had been referred, presented a report, of which 6,500 copies were printed. This is known as Pendleton's First Report. The Ultimatum Map was reprinted with it, and the first returns of Wilkes' investigations were included. England sent Lord Ashburton to America in 1842, to settle the northeastern boundary, between Maine and Canada, and all similar difficulties. The northeastern boundary presented the most critical issue of the moment. Ashburton could only insist on retaining the Columbia as the boundary in Oregon. Daniel Webster was Secretary of State and was convinced of the necessity to secure a good harbor on the Pacific. San Francisco was a Mexican possession. If England would help America to effect the transfer of northern California, perhaps England might keep Oregon above the Columbia. But Ashburton could promise nothing, and Webster did not care to continue discussing the Oregon ques- - tion. Ashburton suspected that the return of Wilkes had much to do with Webster's attitude. Wilkes had not been able to enter the Columbia, and he was enthusiastic over the harbors of Puget sound. He favored including the Fraser river in the American demands and sticking for the boundary at 54°4</- Rufus Choate made a statement in the Senate at Webster's request, in 1843, that Webster " had never at any time made or entertained a proposition to admit of any line south of the 49th parallel . . ." u vfo A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST "Fifty-four Forty or Fight" Public feeling over the failure of Linn's bills and on account of various statements credited to Webster led to meetings and resolutions,14 and after thei Democratic convention in 1844, when James K. Polk was nominated for President, " Fifty-four Forty or Fight" became a slogan. Polk asserted, in his inaugural address, that the title of America to the whole of Oregon was unquestionable. This was hopelessly extreme, considering the fact that America had already offered to accept the 49th parallel. The British position, while not so radical^ since it relinquished everything below the Columbia, was just as impossible. Unless some ameliorating influence should enter, war was inevitable. Richard Packenham was sent to Washington in 1844 as Minister, with the_ special mission to settle the Oregon question. John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of State, assured Packenham that the last concession which could be expected of America was in bending the boundary at 490 around the lower end of Vancouver island. Polk was elected President, and his Secretary, James Buchanan, made a definite offer of a boundary at 49° but the line was to run straight across Vancouver island, and no commercial privileges were to be granted to the British south of the line, with the exception of free ports on the island. Packenhamdeclined. Buchanan thereupon withdrew the offer, in a letter which rebuked the Minister for declining without consulting his government, and stated that the offer meant a compromise on the part of the President and had been made out of respect for the actions of his predecessors in office and from " a sincere and anxious desire to promote peace." This step was taken on August 30, 1845, and when Congress met in December, Polk's first annuall message recited the failure of the negotiations and asked that the year's notice of termination of joint occupation be given. He also recommended laws and an Indian agency for Oregon and a line of forts from the Missouri to the Rockies, with a force of mounted riflemen to protect the emigrations. Congress adopted a joint resolution abrogating the treaty of 1827, which was signed on April 27, 1846. Notice was forwarded to London on the following day. Many bills were introduced with the object of carrying out Polk's other recommendations. A huge flood of oratory was provoked, in spite of the excitement over the wafl with Mexico, but none of these bills was enacted. One of the things which heartened the Mexican government in matching strength with the United States was the imminence of war between Great Britain and America for the possession of Oregon. But in June, 1846, thai Oregon question was settled. Lord Aberdeen, British Foreign Secretary, proposed a treaty making the 49th parallel the boundary to the sea, giving England the whole of Vancouver island, reserving free navigation for her ships on thei; Columbia and protecting the property rights of the Hudson's Bay Compan Sketches made in 1841 by Joseph Drayton of the Wilkes expediti OREGON BOUNDARY DISPUTE 177 Polk avoided the appearance of inconsistency by submitting the treaty to the Senate and asking for instructions, at the same time declaring that his own opinions, as expressed in his first message, had not changed. The Senate advised acceptance, the treaty was signed, returned to the Senate and ratified on June 18. Sudden End of the Controversy Much has been written in explanation of the sudden assent of the British statesmen to the actual desires of America. In her claim to the line of the Columbia, Great Britain had a strong case, and it took some years to overcome the effect of Canning's vigorous championship of this position. Sir Robert Peel, as Prime Minister, and Lord Aberdeen were more willing to yield, and Packenham was censured by the British Foreign Office as well as by Buchanan for not referring Buchanan's offer to London. Three things are thought to have con- iributed clircctlv to the final proposal of a treaty, —the situation in Oregon, reduction of ihe tarifl on English goods by Congress ami the apparent readiness of America to fight. Made uneasy by Polk's belligerent inaugural address, the British government sent two officers from Canada to the Columbia to report on means of defense, in case of an armed invasion by America, and a frigate sailed for Oregon, arriving in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on August 31, 1845. Her commander was Sir John Gordon, a brother of Lord Aberdeen, and the officer whom Gordon dispatched to Vancouver, to secure information, was Lieutenant William Peel, a son of the Prime Minister. The investigation was hurried, and Gordon took Peel to the Sandwich islands, whence he proceeded to London, arriving early in February, 1846. Lieutenant Peel's report confirmed the government's view that American population was rapidly increasing on the Coast and < that the British traders were themselves willing to retire from the Columbia. The importance of the ri 0 the fur trade 'anishing. The Hudson's Bay . for protection, but the Company likely to be plundered. Governor had joined the Provisional Gove still feared that its stores at Vancouver v> Simpson issued orders, in 1845, for the transfer of most of the goods to Fort Victoria, " which is intended to be made the principal depot of the country." These facts, when understood in England, made it easier for the government to recede from the Columbia boundary line. It was more important to save Victoria than Vancouver.15 In the inaugural address which raised the spectre of war, Polk announced a policy which promised commercial peace with England. Peel's tariff policy had favored America, and Polk was pledged to effect a substantial reduction in the tariff on English goods. The Whigs charged that Oregon was really to be/' purchased by a reduction in the tariff, while the die-hards in Congress who were still shouting " Fifty-four forty or fight" claimed that Oregon was being 178 A HISTORY OF THE.PACIFIC NORTHWEST sacrificed to make a feast for England. The simple truth is that the modification of the American tariff created a good feeling in England and helped the government to compromise the boundary dispute.1" The third influence mentioned above, the readiness of America to fight, was particularly effective because both Peel and Aberdeen were men of peace. Aberdeen, in a report on the Oregon question in 1845, said, " My Lords, I consider war to be the greatest folly, if not the greatest crime, of which a country could be guilty." The British cabinet was a peace cabinet, and Peel would court no risk of a rupture with America over a region so remote as Oregon and of such questionable value.17 San Juan Boundary Dispute By an oversight in the treaty, an opening was left for a minor boundary dispute which for a time threatened to cause serious trouble and was not settled! until 1872. The Oregon boundary line was run along the 49th parallel " to thel middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's island; and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of Fuca's; straits to the Pacific ocean." It was questionable which of two principal channels was meant, and between them lay a group of islands, the most important of which was San Juan. George Bancroft, when Secretary of the Navy in Polk's] Cabinet, suspected that trouble might arise over this question and had charts made in preparation for a dispute. As Minister to England, he took pains to indicate that America understood the western channel to be on the boundary line. All this was previous to 1850. The Oregon legislature, in 1852, included San Juan island in one of its counties.18 James Douglas, now at Victoria as Governor, placed sheep on this island, in 1853, under the care of herders. Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, Collector of Customs] for Puget sound, found the sheep in 1854 and claimed that they were on American soil. They were assessed by Whatcom county the next year, and ai Douglas refused to pay the taxes, some of the sheep were sold. Diplomatic exchanges followed, and commissions were appointed by both governments, in 1856, but with instructions which prevented them from reaching an agreement. Settlers, both British and American, increased on the island, and therffl were two sets of revenue officials, but nothing happened until an American, Lyman A. Cutler, killed a troublesome pig belonging to a British peace officer, Justice Charles J. Griffin. Payment was offered, but Griffin chose to make the incident an international affair. Cutler frightened away the British officers who threatened him with arrest by reaching for his gun. At about the same time! Americans residing on the island asked General Harney for military protection against the northern Indians. A company under the command of George E. Pickett, who led the Confederate charge at Gettysburg, was sent from the blockhouse at Bellingham bay, and Harney's orders made it plain that protecting OREGON BOUNDARY DISPUTE m the citizens from the Indians was not his " more serious and important duty " The latter was to protect the Americans in their civil rights " and to resist all attempts at interference by the British authorities ... by intimidation or force." Three British ships were sent to the island, but Pickett firmly declared that he would open fire if a landing was attempted, regardless of the size of the enemy force. Harney sent word of his approval and ordered Lieutenant Colonel Casey to the island with all available troops at Fort Townsend and Fort Belling- ham. Casey got his men ashore under cover of a fog and then steamed around m the landing and boldly unloaded his supplies, under the guns of the British ships. In spite of intense excitement at Victoria, the British naval officers kept their heads and chose to await orders from their government. Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, commander-in-chief of the American army, was sent to the scene. He arranged for joint occupation of the island, pending a settlement of the dispute, and transferred Pickett. A force of British marines was landed at the end of the island furthest from the Americans, but the relations of the two garrisons soon became most cordial. After Scott's departure, Harney placed Pickett in command again. Scott called the War Department's attention to this action as evidence of a lack of sympathy with his own pacific measures, and Harney was at once recalled from the Coast. Pickett remained at his post, however, until news of war arrived, when he hastened to the colors of the Confederacy in his native State, Virginia.10 The San Juan dispute was finally referred to Emperor William I of Germany, for arbitration, and George Bancroft, then Minister at Berlin, argued the case for America. A decision was rendered on October 21, 1872, in favor of the western channel, the Canal de Haro, as the proper boundary. On October 31, 1873, the Washington legislature created San Juan county, to embrace the disputed islands. XI Settling The Country THE BEST PUBLICITY AGENT FOR THE OREGON COUNTRY IN THE EARLY DAYS WAS Hall J. Kelley, Boston school teacher, student of the higher mathematics and competent surveyor.1 He was clever in marshaling facts, but he carried his interest in the occupation of Oregon to a fanatical extreme. Ha incorporated the American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory and, in 1831, issued a circular for emigrants, though he knew nothing about western travel. " Females and children," he stated, " must be provided, at the time of starting, with covered horse wagons, containing each a bed and two or more blankets. From St. Louis they will be subject to no other expense than the above named, and in Oregon will receive gratuitously a landed estate of great value." Two towns were laid out, on paper, and Kelley memorialized Congress for support, but his irritating personality and extravagant hopes hurt his cause, and Congress had no power to make the land grants which he requested. He finally arranged to take his expedition west with that of Nathaniel J. Wyeth in 1832, but Wyeth would not consider including women and children before becoming better acquainted with conditions. Kelley was not ready at the appointed time and was left behind. Ten of his emigrants joined Wyeth. Kelley later travelled to Oregon by way of Mexico and California. He hoped to make arrangements for trade in fish and lumber between Oregon and Mexico, to promote education in Mexico and to examine the opportunities for colonies in California. A small party of Boston emigrants who came down by sea, to go with him from New Orleans, robbed and deserted him instead. He crossed Mexico, walking part of the way, to San Bias, and proceeded north by land and water to San Diego. He spent several months in California, surveying and making maps, in spite of the refusal by the government of a permit! to do so, and he recruited another party for the trip to Oregon. Among his companions was Ewing Young, who had some horses. Two other men with horses, who joined the expedition, turned out to be thieves. When Kelley's party reached Vancouver, he found that the Mexican Governor of California had advised McLoughlin by sea that he and Young were the horse thieves. So they saw nothing of the customary hospitality of the Company, though SETTLING THE COUNTRY 181 Kelley, because he was ill, was carried part of the way to the fort by McLoughlin's men and was supplied with a shelter and with food and medicine. To add to his discomfiture, Wyeth, now on his second visit to Oregon, was being cordially entertained at the fort, and Wyeth and the Americans who came out with him owed their presence in Oregon in a measure to Kelley's activities. The Americans took their cue from their British hosts and avoided him. In spite of illness and disappointment, Kelley spent his time in surveying on the Columbia and acquiring material regarding Puget sound. He noted the methods of the British traders and studied the chances of checking their power. During his observations, he was closely watched by McLoughlin, who finally got rid of him by giving him passage on a ship and a personal check. Kelley's knowledge of the country was extensive, and for thirty years after his return to the States he continued writing. In 1852, he published his Narrative, in which he enlarged on his " troubles and tribulations," — a phrase which he changed in the title of a later book to " persecutions and afflictions of forty years continuance." Information furnished by Kelley played an important part in the contest for the recognition of Oregon, but his zeal for the cause and his hatred of the Hudson's Bay Company had assumed the proportions of a mania. He spent the last years of his life nursing his grievances as a hermit, at Three Rivers, Massachusetts. Nathaniel J. Wyeth Nathaniel J. Wyeth is among the first who should be mentioned as instrumental in opening the Oregon country to American settlers.2 Though he caught some of Kelley's enthusiasm, he soon became impatient at the erratic school teacher's notions, and yet there was comedy in Wyeth's own preparations for the expedition. He designed a fantastic uniform for his party, which included striped shirts. Each man carried a bayonet and a large clasp knife in a broad belt. The wagon boxes were caulked and fitted for quick conversion into boats. Cambridge students called this amphibious contraption the "Nat- Wyethium." All superfluous material was abandoned by Wyeth himself by the time he was well on his way. The boat-wagons were left at St. Louis. Wyeth left Boston in March, 1832. He joined forces with William L. Sublette at Independence, Missouri, May 12, glad to avail himself of this seasoned plainsman's counsel, after listening to the tales of traders returned from the West. When the party was on Columbia waters at Pierre's Hole, and Sublette could accompany them no further, dissention developed among Wyeth's men. At the request of the dissatisfied element, he called a meeting but would permit no discussion, merely asking for a division on the question of going on. Nine men voted not to proceed, reducing Wyeth's party to eleven. The deserters were to return with William Sublette, but before a start could be made the camp J i82 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST was attacked by Blackfeet, and Sublette was wounded. The deserters set off! with Alfred K. Stevens and a party of four. Attacked by Blackfeet on thl second day, Stevens was fatally wounded, and one of his men and a deserter! were killed. Milton G. Sublette, with a small company of mountain men, stayed! with Wyeth while he was in the Blackfoot country. Wyeth tried his hand atj trapping and was fairly successful, but was forced to cache his furs because hisj expedition was too small to carry them. He was well received at Fort Walla Walla and arrived at Fort Vancouver in October. Here he learned that hisj ship, the Sultana, with its cargo of goods, had been lost. The disaster put an end to his hopes, and after short excursions in the surrounding country, he returned to the States in February, passing through the Spokane region. He made a trading contract with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company on the way! receiving their order for goods. With Milton Sublette, three half-breeds and a Nez Perce, he travelled in a frail " bull boat" fashioned of three buffalo hides, from the first navigable point on the Bighorn to the mouth of the Yellowstone.] Soon after reaching home, Wyeth organized the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company. He now had a salmon fishing and packing enterprise in mind. Persuaded that he would be successful this time, his backers outfitted another ship, the Mary Dacre. Three months after his return, in 1834, he again set out for Oregon. With him went Jason and Daniel Lee, at the head of the first group of missionaries. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company refused to complete its contract, and Wyeth built Fort Hall, at the junction of the Snake and Port- neuf rivers, to house his unsold goods. Leaving one of his men in charge of the fort, he hurried to Vancouver and arrived a day ahead of his ship. The ship was to have arrived much earlier, for the fishing, and the delay meant thali he could not start salmon packing that year. He built Fort William on Wappato island, at the mouth of the Willamette, as a trading post. This was a direci challenge to the British traders, and while they were friendly, they had no intention of letting a competitor succeed. Farnham, in his Travels, speaks admiringly of Wyeth's business skill, but says of the Hudson's Bay Company: "They preceded him, followed him, surrounded him everywhere and cut thl throat of his prosperity with such kindness and politeness that Wyeth wasj induced to sell his whole interest, existent and prospective, in Oregon, to his generous but too indefatigable, skillful and powerful antagonist." Wyeth formed a lasting friendship with McLoughlin, in spite of everything. McLoughlin purchased Fort Hall, and it was long a stopping place on the Oregon Trail. Nothing was done with Fort William. Farnham and the Peoria Party On his eastern trip, in 1838, Jason Lee spoke in Peoria, Illinois, and one of the Chinook boys in his party, who became ill, was left there. As a result of the SETTLING THE COUNTRY 183 interest aroused by Lee's visit, Thomas J. Farnham organized an expedition, in 1839, apparently with the intention of raising the American flag in Oregon. He named his company the Oregon Dragoons.3 A flag presented by Mrs. Farnham bore the legend, " Oregon or the Grave." A circular tent sheltered the whole party and its baggage, but he had at the most only eighteen men. Three turned back near the crossing of the Osage river, and the party continued to go to pieces. There had been dissension in its ranks from the start. At the lower Arkansas crossing, three other men decided to go to New Mexico instead of Oregon, and one recruit was picked up. Here Farnham was forced to resign the leadership. At Fort William, three men, including Farnham, were voted out of the expedition, and two others chose to go with them. Farnham found a guide and went on. At Fort David Crockett, two of his men were led to turn back by bad reports of Oregon which they heard there. Farnham and the other two continued to Fort Hall, with a Shoshone Indian. A Walla Walla Indian guided them to Fort Boise and the Walla Walla valley, where Farnham paid a brief visit to the Whitman mission. One of his companions, who had fallen out with him, made his way down the Columbia alone, and the other took work at Lapwai. Farnham was guided by Indians from Fort Walla Walla to the mission at The Dalles, and Daniel Lee, with an Indian crew, accompanied him down-river to Fort Vancouver, which he reached in October. The eight men who considered that they had expelled Farnham from the expedition wintered at Fort David Crockett, excepting Robert Shortess, who went on to Fort Hall in the company of the famous mountain men, Newell and Meek. Francis Ermatinger, in charge of the fort, let Shortess go to Fort Walla Walla with one of his men, and he worked at the Whitman mission all winter, going down to the Willamette in the spring. Four others of this group got through Farnham did not raise the American flag in Oregon or ask the Hudson's Bay Company to leave, as he had promised to do. He and those of his Oregon Dragoons who straggled in were glad to accept aid from the British traders. But he kept a bold face in spite of his reverses, and he gathered considerable information. He took away with him a petition (probably written by himself), signed by seventy of the settlers, praying for the protection of the United States. After returning to the East by way of Hawaii, California and Mexico, he published his Travels and other books which were very popular and did much to awaken interest in the possibilities of Oregon and California. His expedition did not take the usual route, but followed the upper Arkansas river, through Colorado, and the country which he described was new to American readers. 184 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ] John Charles Fremont John C. Fremont's father was French, and his mother was from a prominent Virginia family.4 He had considerable early experience as an engineer and refused a professorship of mathematics in the navy, to continue surveying. He was for three years an assistant of Jean Nicholas Nicollet in mapping the region between the upper Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. Marriage to a daughter of Senator Benton of Missouri, the great friend of Oregon, assisted Fremont in securing the work which he coveted in the West. He was sent by the government, in 1842, to survey the Oregon Trail as far as the South pass, and again, the following year, to continue the work and connect it with the surveys of Wilkes on the Coast. His guide on the first trip was the famous Kit Carson, In 1843, he went down to Vancouver, but in two days started back, with supplies purchased from McLoughlin and with all the information which the latter could give him regarding south-central Oregon, where he proposed to go, — still a region of mystery. The narrative of Jedediah Smith, who saw part of the region, had not been published. The mythical Buena Ventura river was still supposed to flow from the Rocky mountains into San Francisco bay. Fremont's party were probably the first white men in the Klamath lake country, though they saw only a section of the marshes. He intimidated the natives! reputed to be dangerous, by firing his howitzer, and he had no trouble withl them on this visit. Cold, snow, lack of grass for the animals and, for a while! only horse, mule and dog meat for his men were among the discomforts due to lack of information about the interior. His cartographer strayed from the party and saved himself from starvation by eating a hill of ants. In place of the fabled river leading to the Pacific, Fremont found a desert. His great discovery was that no river except the Columbia passed through the mountains to the Coast, and he saw that it was essential that the United States should retain the Oregon country. He crossed the Sierra Nevada in midwinter and arrived at Sutter's fort on March 6, 1844. When Fremont was again sent west, in 1845, he had secret instructions for use in event of war with Mexico, and he went from Great Salt lake direct to California, through the Humboldt valley. He crossed into Oregon for the las| time, seeking a pass from the Klamath lake country into the Willamette valley. In a night attack by the Klamaths, in May, 1846, the chief of the war party was killed, but Fremont lost three men. He set an ambush while retiring fi the locality and exacted heavy toll from pursuing natives. This fighting c; just as an officer reached him with orders from President Buchanan t< to California. His subsequent career had no direct relation to the Pacific Northwest. In 1856, he made a strong race for President against Buchan Fremont's romantic title of " Pathfinder" originated in the adventitioi SETTLING THE COUNTRY j85 of the term during his campaign for the presidency. Others had previously traversed most of the country which he marked. He had a natural flair for publicity, but he always referred to the real discoverers in writing of his travels. He gathered data for the first set of profile maps of the Oregon Trail, from St. Louis through the South pass to tidewater on the Columbia. His memoir was reprinted many times, under different titles. William A. Slacum President Jackson sent William A. Slacum, a naval Lieutenant, to California and Oregon in 1836, to secure precise information regarding conditions on the Coast.5 He was to visit the settlements in Oregon, note the sentiment of the whites toward the United States, determine the number of Indian inhabitants and collect geographical data. He was resourceful and diplomatic, and his mission was successful in ways not contemplated in his instructions. He arrived on the Columbia in an American ship which he had chartered in the Sandwich islands at his own expense. With his own ship, flying the American flag, he was in no way dependent upon the Hudson's Bay Company. He spent only one month in the Oregon country, but in that time secured all the desired information and accomplished important results in uniting the settlers for the first time in a common enterprise and one which made them more independent of British domination. The Methodist missionaries, French settlers, mountain men and others who had decided to stay in the country, having little in common, were suspicious of each other. Ewing Young, who remained after the departure of the companion of his misfortunes, Hall Kelley, was still handicapped by his false reputation as a horse thief. Not being able to do much else to establish himself, he was making plans to start a distillery. This very act led the church people to make overtures to him, conditioned on his promise not to engage in the manufacture of liquor, and he readily assented. What he chiefly desired was a fair chance in the community. Slacum cleared his reputation and put him in good standing with the Hudson's Bay Company. Slacum saw that one of the greatest needs of the settlers was cattle, and he organized a company to buy cattle in California and drive them overland to Oregon. He even induced Dr. McLoughlin to take half the stock, making it possible to purchase enough cattle to make the enterprise pay. When Slacum sailed, he took a party with him, headed by Ewing Young, to get the cattle. Young's party returned in the spring with six hundred head. They had purchased eight hundred head at $3 apiece and forty horses at $12 apiece. The overland trip was difficult, but three-fourths of the stock came through, and the prosperity of the settlers was notably increased. Young's acquaintance with California and his knowledge of the overland route were important factors in the success of the enterprise. He acquired considerable 1 i86 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST I property and at the end performed an odd service to the American cause by] dying intestate, in 1841. As there were no known heirs, the settlers were ledl to take the first step toward establishing civil government in Oregon, by electing a judge, clerk and sheriff, in order to provide for the administration of Young's! Slacum's report was presented to Congress in December, 1837. The LinrJ report, to be mentioned later, and a bill for military occupation of Oregon and] the extension of United States jurisdiction over the settlers were introduced in 1838. This was the beginning of a discussion of the Oregon question which) continued without further intermission until the dispute was settled. Increasing public interest gave Congress no respite. Politicians made due note of the new! enthusiasm and saw the possibility of directing it to the creation of a national issue. Meetings were called, and the occupation of Oregon was agitated on! political as well as economic grounds. The heedless prosperity of the Mississippi valley in the early thirties ended in a period of financial depression, in 1837, followed by another, which, in thl spring of 1842, reached extreme severity. This made men eager for change and! more willing to engage in a great adventure than they would have been in normal times. The situation in St. Louis became so tense in 1842 that citizens; gathered with the purpose of mobbing the brokers. Transportation difficulties caused an over-production of crops. Eastern farmers and the few foreigners who had come west to the Mississippi found their hopes of prosperity baseless and joined the movement to the Coast. In 1843, weather conditions were bad, and in 1844 many settlements were devastated by floods. Sickness and utter discouragement followed. At this time, it was generally reported that the Coast farmers would find markets for their products in the Orient. The Oregon Trail And so the Oregon Trail came into existence, beaten through the wilderness by the thousands who dreamed of a new chance in the West. The history of the Trail dates back to 1805, when Lewis and Clark found their way to tha Snake and down the Columbia, thus covering a part of its course. The firs| white men to travel through the South pass were Missouri Fur Company hur ers in 1810 and Robert Stuart and his party of Astorians returning ti States in 1812. The course they took was practically that of the later Orego: Trail. Between 1832 and 1836, the expeditions of Bonneville and Wyeth passec over the entire Trail. Foremost among the encouragements to emigration was the growing fund of information brought to the Missouri frontier by trappers, traders and e plorers. The missionaries and settlers sent word of their contentmei country, and the 1841 emigrants supplied information in the form of a guide l! SETTLING THE COUNTRY :87 book covering the journey out.8 By 1842, emigrating societies had been formed in the States of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Iowa and Kentucky. The 1843 party came of such a society'established by Peter H. Burnett.7 In the fall of the previous year, he settled in Weston Platte county, Missouri, and set to work to organize a group to join him in emigrating to Oregon. Hundreds of recruits responded to his lectures in the neighboring counties. Some of the companies were communistic, and at least one, in 1853, avoided all semblance of organization. The emigrations of 1844 and 1845 had officers with military titles as high as Colonel, and the Savannah company had both civil and military government. In most instances, the final organization was effected on the Trail. The leader was sometimes chosen by calling for a division of the party in support of various candidates, and the man around whom the largest number rallied was elected. Discipline, however elaborately planned, tended to break down after a while. The spirit of American independence was in the emigrants, and some of the parties were too loosely organized for safety. The emigrations followed the old Santa Fe Trail a two days' journey. Forty- one miles from Independence, a signboard directed the emigrant toward the "Road to Oregon."8 The traveler could rest, overhaul his wagons and rearrange his cargoes at Fort Laramie. From this point, the Trail left the plains and entered mountainous country. The next place at which repairs could be made was 394 miles away. Through the valley of the North Platte, the rugged character of the country often forced the road back from the stream. Deer creek, the largest tributary after leaving the Laramie, was an important camp. At Poison Spider creek, 807 miles on the way, the Trail left the river, which here turns south. Independence Rock, 838 miles on the way, was a well-known landmark, and Devil's Gate, a rift in a granite ridge through which the Sweetwater river flows, was one of the sights of the Trail. The road followed the Sweetwater, crossing the stream several times. The South pass, 947 miles from the starting point, is less than 7,500 feet above sea level and resembles a broad open valley of gentle slopes. On the Pacific side, the Trail turned southwest and, until Green river was reached, wound through dry, barren country, which in summer is almost unbearable to the traveler because of the heat and dust. Fort Bridger, 1,070 miles on the way, was the first point after Fort Laramie where the emigrants could rest their stock, repair their wagons and replenish their supplies. The fort was established by Jim Bridger in 1843, for the purpose of meeting the emigrants' needs. It was pleasantly situated in the valley of a mountain stream. The Trail descended Bear river and came, at the end of 1,288 miles, to Fort Hall, on the Snake river. The Salt Lake Trail branched off beyond Fort Bridger, and the California Trail left the Snake at Raft river, beyond Fort Hall. After leaving Fort Hall, where at first wagons were abandoned for 1 i88 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST pack horses, the Trail ran 300 miles to Fort Boise, a Hudson's Bay Company post on the Snake. At the Grande Ronde, a beautiful valley and a famous camping place, the traveler faced the difficult Blue mountains. On emerging from the mountains, he followed the Umatilla river to the Columbia, which conducted him to Fort Vancouver, after a journey of 2,020 miles. At first the route was determined by traders passing between the plains of the Missouri and the Columbia basin. They in turn had found their waf through the mountains by following paths worn by the Indians over the easiest natural courses. As wagon travel became heavy, the road was well defined. With the increase of emigration, numerous short cuts were discovered, and de- i made whenever the road became too deeply worn. The parallel roads were in some cases within a few hundred feet of each other and were separated by miles. Between Independence, Missouri, and Grand island, on the Platte, the Trail is now hard to find, owing to cultivation of the land. But the rest of the route lay through valleys and along streams; so the location is almost everywhere known. In some places the original road is still to be seen, and every year the winds carve the furrows deeper, thus perpetuating the Trail as a memorial of the energies, undaunted hopes and bitter sufferings of its makers. Demands of the Trail When the traveler started over the two-thousand-mile stretch of perilous country, in 1843, he found civilization only at the four widely separated trading posts.9 If travelled in the spring, the first part of the Trail was delightful. It took him over a dry turf, hard enough to sustain traffic and yet easy for the feet of the animals. At this time of the year, game was plentiful and the prairie rich in grass and flowers. But during the dry summers the Trail was a desolate waste, littered with cast-off possessions. Along the Platte lay the wrecks of old and beautiful furniture, heirlooms which had proved too burdensome for the Trail. Under the painful conditions of the trip, precious relics were tossed aside. There were heavy stoves, bedding, feather beds, even provisions. These things were to be seen during the earlier stages of the journey. Further on, abandoned wagons appeared, left as the teams became weaker or the cholera killed their owners. The skeletons of perished animals mingled with human remains, disinterred from their graves by prowling Indians and wolves. Many of the pioneers were tragically ignorant of the demands of the Trail. The requirements were simple but precise. Wagons had to be built to stand hard use. Oxen were preferable as draft animals, because of their endurance and their small value to marauding Indians; also, oxen were more easily fed on the way. Cattle raised in Illinois and Missouri were best prepared to stand the trip, as they were accustomed to eating prairie grass. It was unwise to set - SETTLING THE COUNTRY 189 out with only one yoke of oxen to a wagon. Each family needed a few cows. As Ezra Meeker says: " The milk can stood near by and always yielded up its lump of butter at night, churned by the movement of the wagon from the surplus morning's milk." A sheet-iron stove was desirable, for the wind and the scarcity of fuel made fires on the ground a nuisance. With yeast and a reflector, fresh bread could be enjoyed throughout the journey. The ravages of cholera could be greatly reduced by boiling the drinking water. In the crush of wagons, pressing on at some seasons in an almost uninterrupted flow, the one thought in the minds of the travelers was apt to be getting there at any cost. At the first taste of hardship, many lost their heads and drove their animals to death. According to Ezra Meeker, the motto, " Keep cool!" carried more families safely through than any other principle. For diversion, there was buffalo hunting until the volume of travel drove the beasts to the smaller streams for summer grazing. There was dancing at Fort Laramie, and the company was always cheered up when a marriage took place. An important ceremony was carving the family names on Independence Rock, the great register of the desert. Few women brought the right kind of clothes, and the older women were the first to adapt themselves to the new manner of life, shortening their skirts in a way which seemed daring in those times. Young women reluctantly abandoned the fashions of the States. Patches multiplied on the clothing of all classes, and bare feet appeared as the sand wore out a family's insufficient stock of shoes. In the later stages of the journey, women who had nothing else left were forced to put on their party gowns and to travel, thus clad, for weeks in the cloud of dust which hid the wagons. Much of the bedraggled finery went in ■ exchange for salmon during the month or more on the Snake river, and the .Indians in their new clothes, worn regardless of age or sex, were a costume ; picture only a trifle more fantastic than the emigrants themselves. The Oregon Trail inspired great awe in the minds of the Indians when . they first saw it. It was even an astonishing sight to the whites who viewed it . for the first time. Father De Smet vividly describes the effect of the great high- 1 way upon the Indians in whose company he travelled in 1851.10 " Our Indian , companions," he says, " who had never seen but the narrow hunting-paths by . which they transport themselves and their lodges, were filled with admiration on seeing this noble highway which is as smooth as a barn floor swept by the '. winds, and not a blade of grass can shoot up on it on account of the continual . passing. They conceived a high idea of the countless White Nation, as they . expressed it. They fancied that all had gone over that road, and that an im- . mense void must exist in the land of the rising sun. Their countenances testified evident incredulity when I told them that their exit was in no wise per- [ ceived in the land of the whites. They styled the route the Great Medicine I Road of the Whites." 190 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST There were about 400 Americans in Oregon in 1841. The 1842 emigration brought between 105 and 137. In 1843, nearly 1,000 people came, and Ameri-j can influence was henceforth preponderant. The large emigration of that year also opened the road for wagons all the way to the Columbia. Approximate figures for the succeeding emigrations are: 1844, 700; 1845, 3,000; 1846, 1,350; 1847, between 4,000 and 5,000; 1848, 700; 1849, 400; 1850, 2,000; 1851, 1,500; 1852, 2,500." When gold was discovered in California, the road was crowded: as never before, as far as the point beyond Fort Hall where it divided. It soon became better known as the California Trail. Travel gradually fell off and ceased entirely with the coming of the railway. The Trail was abandoned in the early se Tragedy of Meel(s Cut-off The desire to find a direct route from Fort Boise to the Willamette valley, through southern Oregon, led to a foolhardy adventure on the part of 200 families in the 1845 emigration, which cost many lives. Meek's Cut-off was! named for the man who undertook to guide this party, — Stephen H. L. Meek. His qualifications apparently consisted of a desire to distinguish himself and of information given him by Dr. Elijah White, who had made some! exploration of the region, without success. The cut-off was tried just after! White had passed and had talked with these people. White's enthusiasm on the subject was undoubtedly the first cause of the disaster, but Meek got all the blame.12 Meek's company turned off the main trail a few miles below Fort Boise, and was soon in one of the most rocky sections of eastern Oregon. Many of the oxen became helpless and were abandoned. Thirty cows disappeared, one night, and it was feared that Indians had stolen them. The party camped for some days at two small springs, and here they were joined by other wagon: trains which had followed them. There were now 150 wagons. The surrounding country was explored for seven days by one hundred horsemen, but no waters and very little grass could be found. The life of the guide was in danger, and he hid in a wagon. Some of hisj friends announced that he had gone on and succeeded in getting the party moving again. The advance detachment of thirty wagons drove two days and' nights and toward sunset on the third day were guided by Meek, who had been scouting ahead, to a tributary of the Deschutes river. Soon after going into camp, the band of runaway cows was discovered and rounded up, though! with difficulty, for they had become wild. They had been pursued by Indians, for some of them had arrows sticking in their hides. After other trains began to come up, the advance party continued down the Deschutes. At a point where they were preparing to cross the river by rigging a rope ferry, word came tl an emigrant had sworn to kill the guide in revenge for the death of his tl L SETTLING THE COUNTRY Ipi sons. Indians got Meek and his wife safely across by means of a rope before the enraged father arrived. Some of the men reached the Methodist mission at The Dalles the day before Joel Palmer's company came in, and Black Harris, a well-known scout, volunteered to take a party to the assistance of the lost companies. Palmer says that about twenty of the emigrants died on the cutoff and as many more after their arrival at The Dalles. The losses have been placed as high as seventy-five. Barlow Road ;; The Barlow road, around Mt. Hood to Oregon City, is named for Samuel K. Barlow, one of the leaders of the 1845 emigration.18 When the emigrations reached The Dalles, it was often necessary to wait a long time, for boats were |carce. The Hudson's Bay Company loaned its bateaux, and the emigrants built rafts. Barlow believed it possible to cut a road for wagons across the Cascades. Palmer joined Barlow with twenty-three wagons. Barlow had seven. Their cattle were sent back after a few days, to be driven over a trail north of the mountain. After many hardships, the emigrant families were taken through to the Willamette by pack horses and with the aid of a relief party of settlers from the valley, who had heard of their undertaking. This party probably saved many lives. It was more than two months before the last of Barlow's company got out of the rr Wilkes Expedition The government sent Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, in 1838, with five ships, on a.four years' voyage of exploration in the Pacific.14 Wilkes arrived with four of his ships at the mouth of the Columbia in April, 1841. The weather was bad, and the man on whom he depended, " a person from the Sandwich islands who professed to be a Columbia river pilot," was unable to locate the channel. So Wilkes left the sloop-of-war Peacock and the tender Flying Fish to cruise on the coast and sailed with the sloop-of-war Vincennes and the brig Porpoise to Puget sound, where he made extensive surveys. Three land parties were sent out. Midshipman Eld went down the Chehalis river to Gray's harbor and thence along the coast to the Columbia, and Lieutenant George F. Emmons made a surveying trip by land from the Columbia to San Francisco. Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson crossed the Naches pass and visited Forts Okanogan and Colville, the Tshimakain mission, Spokane falls, Coeur d'Alene lake, Lapwai and Fort Walla Walla. He then went up the Yakima valley and over the range to Nisqually. The journey of a thousand miles was made without 1 accident, except to some of the scientific instruments. Horatio Hale, the philolo- 1 gist, who was with Johnson's party, travelled from Waiilatpu to Tshimakain i and Fort Colville by the Palouse river valley and the old Indian trail. While 192 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Johnson was going up the Yakima, Joseph Drayton, an artist with the expedition, came up the Columbia with Ogden's brigade and explored the Blue mountains. Drayton made sketches and secured data for a map of the Columbia and the region about Fort Walla Walla, which was incorporated in Wilkes's chart of Oregon, and Drayton's notes concerning the customs of the interior Indians occupy nearly a hundred pages of the Wilkes report. Wilkes visited Cowlitz, Astoria, Fort Vancouver and the settlements in the Willamette valley. The Peacock was lost on the Columbia bar, in trying to enter the river, and Wilkes purchased a Boston ship at Astoria, to take her place. The Wilkes report was at first communicated confidentially to the Senate by President Tyler, on acount of the boundary negotiations. In 1844, Wilkes was detailed to prepare the report for publication, and in the seventeen years of his editorial work sixteen volumes appeared. The last published volume was issued in 1874. Five were never printed. The government edition was limited to one hundred sets. These precious documents were not appreciated by some of the libraries of the States and Territories, where they were deposited, even in the Pacific Northwest, and were allowed to scatter. The Wilkes report which is familiar to readers is a reissue of the first five volumes of Narrative. McCleUan s Failure To Captain George B. McCleUan, in 1853, was assigned the work of directing surveys from the western end of Governor Stevens' railway survey and of exploring the Cascades.15 He received ample assistance, having ten officers and thirty men at his disposal. He was also to undertake the building of a militaryj road from Walla Walla to Steilacoom. Congress had appropriated funds for the task, and McCleUan was ordered to survey and locate the road and to make, contracts for its construction. The government wished to open the road by fall, in order to accommodate the emigration of that year. He was ordered, in case he was unable to carry out the original instructions, " to fix the line of the road,' especially through the Cascade mountains, and to perform such work on tha most difficult portions as will enable the immigrants to render the route practicable by their exertions, detaching a suitable person as guide and director, to meet them at Walla Walla." Of this task McCleUan made a complete failure. He arrived late at Vancouver and showed no sign of doing anything. To meeti the emergency, the settlers did all they could toward building the last hundred miles of the road. Money, provisions and tools were subscribed, and many contributed time and labor. Headed by Edward Allen of Olympia a party of road makers went to the Naches pass. McCleUan neglected every opportunity to perform his duty, for he had been instructed to step in, lead and pay just such a group, if necessary. The emigrants found no guide awaiting them at Walla Walla, and when they reached the mountains the road crew had gone home, , SETTLING THE COUNTRY Ip3 thinking that they were not coming. But enough of the work had been done to enable the wagons to get through. In the matter of exploring the Cascades, McCleUan simply reported that he had heard from the Indians that deep snow would make it impossible for him to pass over the range. His opinion was that the Columbia river route was the only one worth considering for a road. The government's road program was turned over to Lieutenant Richard Arnold in 1854. He travelled over the road opened the previous season, adopted as far as possible the route chosen by Allen and continued to build toward the east. The government money was expended on minor improvements. The settlers were never reimbursed for the work which they did. It was held that the appropriation was for a military road and that the settlers did their work for the benefit of emigrants, —a fine distinction, in utter disregard of the original instructions to McCleUan and the subsequent use which the government made of the road. Mormon Pioneers in Idaho The first settlement in Idaho, when it was still a part of Oregon Territory, was made in 1855 by a party of twenty-eight Mormons, after a month's journey from Utah. They built Fort Lemhi near the present town of Tendoy." Others came, and the settlement flourished until March, 1858, when the settlers, who were missionaries, were officially recalled on account of attacks by the Bannock Indians. In April, i860, however, the Mormons returned to Idaho and founded the first permanent settlement in the Territory, the town of Franklin. The " Mercer Girls " After its separation from Oregon, Washington grew rather slowly in population, and there were few white women in the country. Newspapers called attention to the large proportion of bachelors, and eastern papers copied, but there were no answers to the advertising. Asa S. Mercer returned from college in 1861 and became the first President of the Territorial University. At the end of his first term, he took up a subscription and went east to organize an emigration of young women to Washington.17 He made up his first party in Lowell, Mass., saying nothing about marriage but promising lucrative employment in music and school teaching. Ten Lowell girls joined the adventure, and a Boston girl was added at San Francisco who had intended to live in California. The first group of " Mercer Girls" arrived in 1864 and were honored with a public reception in Seattle. Most of them took schools and later married. " It is to the efforts of Mr. Mercer, joined with the wishes of the darlings themselves," said the Seattle Gazette, " that the eleven accomplished and beautiful young ladies ■ whose arrival was lately announced have been added to our population. . , . I Mr. Mercer is the Union candidate for joint councilman for King and Kitsap L 194 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST counties, and all bachelors, old and young, may, on election day, have an opportunity of expressing, through the ballot box, their appreciation of his devo-J tion to the cause of the Union, matrimonial as well as national." It is hardly necessary to add that he won a sweeping victory. Mercer was encouraged to make a second attempt, and this time he hoped j to bring out three hundred widows.and orphans of the Civil war, with thel aid of the government. There were many idle ships, and he believed that Presi-J dent Lincoln would favor his plan. Mercer arrived in New York the day after! Lincoln's assassination. The New York Herald attacked Mercer's scheme andj warned women against going to Washington. He toured the East for sixl months, calling for volunteers and now stressing the matrimonial opportunities. He had circulated the following contract in Seattle before starting: " I, A. S.j Mercer, of Seattle, W. T., hereby agree to bring a suitable wife, of good moral character and reputation, from the East to Seattle, on or before September, 1865, for each of the parties whose signatures are hereunto attached, they first j paying to me or my agent the sum of three hundred dollars, with which to pay! the passage of said ladies from the East and to compensate me for my trouble."] He gathered a party of ninety-five, though some of the emigrants were men! with their families. They sailed from New York in January, 1866, on an armyj transport which had been purchased by Ben Holladay. There were few pas-j sengers other than the Mercer party. Mercer was in financial straits before sailing. It was a wonder that he managed to start, and the story of this emigra-; tion is most amusing. Four of the girls married during the voyage, one becoming the bride of Mercer himself. Beginnings of Government THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN ENTERED INTO AN AGREEMENT, IN l8l8, providing for joint occupation of the Oregon country. No steps could very well be taken by either nation to set up a government in Oregon until the treaty of 1846 established the northern boundary of the United States at the 49th parallel. Great Britain entrusted the keeping of law and order among her subjects to the Hudson's Bay Company. The United States left its citizens to their own resources. The Hudson's Bay Company was endowed with authority to arrest and confine its employes for minor offenses. Persons charged with serious crimes were sent to Canada for trial. Retired servants of the Company, settled in Oregon, recognized its authority. The French Canadians were so peaceful and industrious that there was no need of further legal protection for them. The petition to Congress by the Methodist missionaries in 1838 has already been mentioned. In the following year, a rough census was taken. This brought out the fact that there were about seventy people of American sympathies in Oregon. By 1840, the American population had doubled. Another more urgent petition was sent to Congress. It gave warning that the Hudson's Bay Company had received a grant of all land between the Columbia and Puget sound. Feeling against the British occupation was growing stronger with each year and was the motive of the first petitions. As in the case of Wyeth, British competition made it difficult for Americans to succeed in business. It was felt that the Hudson's Bay officials relied upon their retired employes, through their Indian marriages, to rally the native warriors if ever it should become necessary to retain possession of the country by force. A well organized system of trade kept the Indians dependent upon the Company, and the respect for the Hudson's Bay men shown by the Indians infuriated the Americans, because they had no means of commanding the same consideration when traveling. The years 1839-1840 brought to the settlement a few men of good education and some legislative experience, whose assistance was enlisted in the effort to attract the attention of the United States government. The settlement was well fitted to develop a government of its own, because of the communicating waterways upon which the people had made their homes. But some urgent need i96 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST had to arise before any step toward political organization could be taken. This need was created by the death of Ewing Young, in 1841. Young, a cattleman, probably owned the largest estate in the American community, and he died without a will and with no known heirs. First American Court It was necessary to take care of Young's six hundred head of cattle immediately, and the settlers who attended his funeral resolved to meet on the following day at the Methodist mission. The meeting was well attended, and officers were chosen. Dr. Ira Babcock was named "Superior Judge, with probate powers." He was instructed to act temporarily, according to the laws of New York. This made Babcock law-maker, judge and executive for the Americans, as there was no copy of the laws of New York in the colony for ten years after he accepted office. G. W. Le Breton was named Clerk and Recorder of Public Documents and William Johnson, Sheriff. Four Justices of the Peace and four Constables were chosen. A committee was formed to frame a constitution and draft a legal code. The committee was composed of French Canadians, Methodist preachers and American settlers. Father Blanchet, the Catholic Vicar General, was made Chairman.1 The estate was probated in a creditable fashion, but the committee failed to frame a constitution. Father Blanchet was not in] favor of a government and resigned, and Dr. William J. Bailey was appointed Chairman. The committee was asked to consult Lieutenant Wilkes and Dr. McLoughlin as to the wisdom of adopting a constitution and laws, and both Wilkes and the Chief Factor advised against the plan. At a subsequent meeting, the committee reported that it had made no progress, and the meetings ceased. However, the officials elected for the purpose of probating the estate of Ewing Young continued to hold office for more than two years. Thus the Willamette settlement had taken a definite step in 1841 toward establishing a gov- By 1842, the emigrants had begun to swell the population. Dr. Elijah: White returned in that year as United States Sub-Indian Agent. This markj of recognition from the States raised hopes that the needs of the settlers would be further considered. A public meeting was called to send thanks to Congress. A meeting was held to plan the Multnomah Circulating Library, and one] hundred five-dollar shares were sold. This center of community interest was; supplemented by a debating society, which encouraged familiarity with legal and political matters. Dr. McLoughlin, George Abernethy and L. W. Hastings were prominent in the movement. Hastings came out with White and was employed as McLoughlin's attorney. It is probable that the debating society did more for the cause of organization than was realized at the time. Some of the Americans held specific grievances against the Hudson's Bay I BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT Ip7 Company concerning lands in the Willamette valley. McLoughlin laid claim to land at the falls which was coveted by the Methodists. A group of the missionaries formed a milling company in 1841 and took possession of a site on an island in the river, at the falls. This ground had been taken up by McLoughlin in 1829. The missionaries erected buildings on the east side of the river, on McLoughlin's claim. In j&p, he had the ground surveyed and laid out into lots for the town of Oregon City. He also set up a mill These acts were made subjects for complaint in a petition to Congress drawn up at a meeting held early in 1843. The "Wolf Meetings" The settlers' livestock suffered from the depredations of wild animals, and this furnished a good reason for concerted action and at the same time a fresh opportunity for those who were anxious to establish a government. The first " Wolf Meeting " was held on February 2, 1843, at the Oregon Institute. Dr. Babcock presided, and a committee was appointed to devise means for protecting the herds against the " bears, wolves and panthers," and to report at a meeting to be held in March. On March 4, the settlers met at the home of Joseph Gervais. The committee presented resolutions providing for the collection of money from the settlers to pay bounties for the destruction of beasts of prey. At the end of the meeting, W. H. Gray, just arrived from the Whitman mission, to become secular agent of the Willamette mission, indulged in a burst of oratory on protection from human enemies, which was supplemented by resolutions having no relation to bears, wolves and panthers, but creating a committee to devise measures for civil and military organization of the setders. The committee called a meeting for May 2, at Champoeg, to perfect the plan. This action disclosed much difference of opinion among the settlers. A series of public meetings were held, and the people talked of nothing else. At a meeting held at Willamette Falls, the village which was later named Oregon City, Jason Lee and George Abernethy expressed conservative views of the situation. They considered the action of the second " Wolf Meeting " unwise, and a government unnecessary. Lee had been active in attempting to secure the extension of United States authority over Oregon. It was natural that he should feel that if the settlers provided themselves with local protection there would be less chance of gaining federal recognition. To add to the confusion, Dr. White seemed to be of the opinion that his position as Sub-Indian Agent gave him the power to govern the settlement. Dr. McLoughlin appeared to favor an independent rather than a provisional government, but some of the Americans feared that an independent government would be controlled by the Canadian settlers. McLoughlin kept informed of what was going on, and i98 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the dislike of the Hudson's Bay Company shown by the Americans in all their actions had the effect of stiffening the Canadian opposition. Champoeg Meeting Before the meeting planned for May 2, 1843, the Americans canvasset the settlers of all nationalities, in an.attempt to influence opinion agai Hudson's Bay Company. The winning of the allegiance of Etienne Luci makes an entertaining story. He had heard that windows were taxed in tl United States and was concerned about the openings of his cabin, over whic sheep skins had been hung. One of his own people, who is said to have be forced to leave Canada on account of anti-British sentiments, was able to relie his fears, and his vote was won.2 There was no building at Champoeg lar enough to hold the meeting; so it gathered in the open air, near the bank 0 the river. Less than half the American settlers were present. The Canadia attended in full force and nearly succeeded in defeating the purpose of tl meeting. A motion to accept the report of the committee was lost. After si confusion, a division was called for on the question of proceeding to organiz and the count showed that the proposal had carried by a majority of tw votes.3 The two French Canadians mentioned above had come over American side. Most of the British faction thereupon withdrew. A. E. Wilso was made Judge; G. W. Le Breton, Clerk; J. L. Meek, Sheriff; W. H. Willso Treasurer. A number of minor officers were named, and a legislative con was appointed, with instructions to draft a constitution and laws. About ha the persons who voted for a government got offices in it. The members 0 the legislative committee were not lawyers. Two of them came west Wyeth in 1834, two with Farnham in 1839, two were missionaries, ant had been trappers in the Rockies. The first meetings of the " House," a: chose to call themselves, were held in the granary of the Methodist missio and the sessions were opened with prayer. The committee were allowed on sixty days to accomplish their work. Some members of the committee to set up a single executive, and so an Executive Committee of three w stituted. The legislative group presented its report at the general meetin held July 5, at Champoeg. This meeting was presided over by the Rev. Gustav Hines. The organic articles and laws were adopted and became Oregon's fir written constitution. David Hill, Alanson Beers and Joseph Gale were chose for the Executive Committee. Dr. McLoughlin's son, Joseph, who lived the valley, made the motion for the adoption of the first law. The organic articles were formulated from the law books at hand, i eluding a copy of the statute laws of the Territory of Iowa, enacted in 183 1839, and a copy of the ordinance of Congress for the government of t Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, 1787. The preamble read: "We, t' BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT i99 people of Oregon Territory, for the purpose of mutual protection and to secure peace and prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us." Odd features of the constitution were vesting the executive power in a committee and a provision to raise funds by voluntary subscription. The land law was so worded as to vacate McLoughlin's claim at Willamette Falls and at the same time to clear the title of the Methodists. Slavery was prohibited, and a militia battalion of three companies of mounted riflemen was authorized. Four districts, Tuality, Yamhill, Clacamas and Champoeg, were created, from which representatives were to be elected. The temporary officials were to continue until a general election in May, 1844.4 On March 4, 1844, two white men were killed by a party of Indians at Willamette Falls. One of the whites was Le Breton, Clerk of the Provisional Government. An Indian named Comstock had a disagreement with negro settlers who hired him to clear some land. White interfered and offered a reward for Comstock's arrest. Le Breton attempted to arrest the Indian and was shot. Rogers, an innocent onlooker, was wounded with a poisoned arrow and died the next day. One of the negroes, coming to Le Breton's aid, crushed Comstock's skull with a gun barrel. In the ensuing panic, measures were taken to organize a company of volunteers, but when the cause of the trouble was understood, excitement quickly waned. Provisional Government Confirmed The emigration of 1843 brought many people who could not give hearty allegiance to the Provisional Government. Some resented the obvious determination of the mission group to control affairs. Most of the new citizens were of the hardy pioneer type, by no means partisan in religion and more congenial to the Hudson's Bay men than the Methodist settlers had been. The supporters of the Provisional Government were scarcely a majority, and the new sentiment developing within the colony threatened a change. Many felt that the government must be strengthened if it was to survive, and a meeting was called, apparently to harmonize the differences between the Canadians and Americans.5 According to letters of McLoughlin, the Americans now called upon their French neighbors to join them in forming a government agreeable to all. The Canadian residents of the Willamette valley presented an address at this meeting. McLoughlin states that it was the work of and was presented by Father Langlois, a French priest. The address formulated the objections to the existing government and suggested what seemed to the Canadians to be a better plan. The Canadians thought that only such laws should be made as were necessary for mutual protection. They wished to be free to make further regulations for themselves. They considered the militia 200 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST dangerous, in addition to being a useless load on the community. It was! dangerous because its very existence might arouse suspicion and unrest among the Indians. The Canadians proposed that the government be vested in ai senate or council elected from tbe several counties, with fewer officials. In] this criticism of the number of public offices, the Canadians had the sympathy of leading men in the American ranks. Though they wanted a council, to actl both as the legislative body and the court, the Canadians had the idea that its! sessions should be something like those of the New England town meeting. I They declared that at meetings of the elected council, " every honest person shall have the right to take part in the discussions and to give his opinion." j It was not until after the increase of settlers from the 1843 emigration that the Canadians became convinced of the necessity of a Provisional Government. Now that the Americans were arriving in large numbers, the Canadians de-:i sired some protection against the rougher element among the emigrants. A number of unruly camp-followers had given the travelers much trouble enj route and might well be expected to prey upon the community. Others were of a boastful, adventurous type, bent upon taking a part, and a bloody part, if need be, in settling the boundary question. This class talked as loudly in Oregon about turning out the Hudson's Bay Company as agitators for American intervention were talking in the East. The Company's loans in the Willa-J mette settlement had risen, in 1844, to $30,000. For the collection of this debtj the Company relied solely on the good faith of the settlers, unless, "by joining the Association we can sue and attach the property of any man in this| country who is indebted to the Company." Though the meeting of March, 1844, was unrecorded, from the events which.j followed it is evident that an understanding was reached. The Canadians voted, for the first time, in the May election. At subsequent meetings of the newlyl elected legislative body, the interests of the Canadians and British were con-l sidered. The land law was repealed, and a new one was enacted. The clause which was originally devised to deprive McLoughlin of his claim at Willa-J mette Falls disappeared. It was apparent that the government could not be! supported by voluntary subscriptions, and a plan of taxation was approved. Payment of taxes was optional; no arrangement for confiscation of property was provided. But if a settler did not pay his taxes, he could not vote, and ha had no recourse at law if any one should jump his claim, or for any other, grievance. He virtually became an outlaw. The office of Governor was createdl to replace the Executive Committee, the Governor to be elected for two years} and to have the power of veto. The legislative committee gave way to a house} of representatives, to consist of not less than thirteen and not more than sixty- one members. The house was to appoint the Supreme Judge. A measure for-v bidding the manufacture or sale of ardent spirits was passed. Another law L BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT forbade the residence of negroes in Oregon. All negro slaves who had been brought into the country must be removed within three years. Free negroes or mulattoes must leave within two years. If a free negro failed to go, he was liable to be whipped on the bare back, the punishment to be repeated every six months until he did leave. At a later meeting, the flogging section was amended, and the whole law was repealed in 1845. The first public building authorized was a jail. McLoughlin donated the site, and funds for the building happened to be available from the estate of Ewing Young. A bill was passed closing the business of the estate and diverting the receipts into the treasury of the legislature of 1844 practically destroyed its own charter, and it was clear that the organic law as amended must be submitted for approval to the citizens. The proposal for a constitutional convention was voted down in June, 1845, and at another election, in July, the amended organic law was accepted. George Abernethy was elected Governor. He was a merchant at Willamette Falls, who had set up in business with the stock of the Methodist mission, which he purchased at the time when the mission relinquished its secular activities. A nominating convention was held prior to the election, and A. L. Lovejoy was slated for Governor, but at the election Abernethy, though absent in the Sandwich islands, received more votes than Lovejoy and two other candidates combined. Francis Ermatinger, Chief Trader of the Hudson's Bay Company at Willamette Falls, was elected Treasurer, Jesse Applegate, one of the best men in the early days of Oregon, entered the legislature from the Yamhill district and at once became a powerful factor in reconciling the warring nationals.8 At his suggestion, a change was made in the form of the oath of office. The amended oath read, " I do solemnly swear that I will support the organic laws of the Provisional Government as far as said organic laws are consistent with my duties as a citizen of the United States, or a subject of Great Britain, and faithfully demean myself in office." On August 15, after the oath of office had been amended, McLoughlin and Douglas accepted the invitation that the Company recognize the Provisional Government. The Chief Factor had notified the officers of the Company that it was imperative that the British government protect the Hudson's Bay Company's property. In June, 1845, he received an answer to the effect that the state of affairs precluded the sending of help and that the Chief Factor must protect the Company as best he could. McLoughlin wrote to the British Consul at Hawaii, asking for protection, and there was no answer to this appeal. " We have yielded," said McLoughlin, " to the wishes of the respectable part of the people in the country, of British and American origin, by uniting with them in the formation of a temporary and provisional government designed to prevent disorders and maintain peace, until the setdement of the 202 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST boundary question leaves that duty to the parent States. . . . A cri evidently fast approaching, which would drive us to the painful necessit of yielding to the storm, or of taking the field openly, arms in hand, w' means so unequal compared with those arrayed against us, as to leave no hopes of success. ... We decided on joining the association both for tl security of the Company's property and the protection of its rights." The sul sequent appearance of one British ship in the river and two more in the vicinit alarmed the settlers. But McLoughlin's embarrassment must have been as their alarm. Northern Problem The Provisional Government indicated that it considered its jurisdictio to extend into the region north of the Columbia. The population of this regi was small and was composed chiefly of persons connected with the Hudsoi Bay Company. At first the northern country was divided into two districts, Tuality and Clackamas. Then one district was recognized, including ever thing from the Rockies to the Pacific and from the Columbia to 540 40'. Tl was after reports of the Polk campaign and of the " Fifty-four-forty or "_' slogan had reached Oregon. No attempt was made to organize the regio though it was proposed to divide it into two districts, to be named for Lew and Clark. The Sheriff, however, was not required to cross the Columbia the exercise of his duties. In 1845, some kind of an agreement was made wi the Hudson's Bay Company, and the northern region was actually incorporated in the domain of the Provisional Government, as a single distric the name of Vancouver. This name was a detail on which McLoughlin sisted. In return for the very real assistance of the Company in controlling t Indians and its contribution in taxes, which was particularly appreciated, m of the government offices north of the Columbia were given to British re dents. The union was more in the nature of a treaty than a coalition, but results were as beneficial as had been expected. Taxes were collected, prope was safe, contracts were enforced, and schools were established. In 1845, t government took on a new dignity. It had the confidence and respect of classes. Considering the diversity of sentiment in the community, with allegiance to two distant nations, the success of its makeshift government provokes wonder. The readiness of the government to assume responsibility and leadership in a crisis was proved at the time of the Whitman massacre. Liquor Laws and " Beaver Money " The legislature of 1846 busied itself with the liquor problem and the creation of new districts. There were serious faults in the existing liquor law. The fines were divided between the informer, the witnesses and the officials . Chief Executive of the Provisional Go BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 203 who tried the case, making them all interested, from the judge down, in securing convictions. Instead of correcting this provision, the legislature adopted a license law and passed it over the Governor's veto. Prohibition was put to the vote of the people in 1848 and passed by only 17 votes. Under the circumstances, the law could not be effectively enforced. By 1847, the increase in population warranted the addition of two new districts, — Lewis, comprising all of Oregon north of the Columbia and west of the Cowlitz, up to 54° 40', and Polk county, south of Yamhill, including everything between the Willamette and the Pacific. Henceforth the districts were called counties. Abernethy was re-elected and served until Oregon became a Territory. One of the fruits of the old debating society, the Oregon Lyceum, was the first newspaper, the Oregon Spectator, and its editor, William G. T'Vault was made Postmaster General by the legislature. After the discovery of gold in California, Oregon had an abundance of gold dust for use as a circulating medium, but no coinage. The legislature had just authorized the establishment of a mint when the news of territorial recognition arrived. In the meantime, however, the settlers were relieved of the inconvenience of weighing out gold dust by the introduction of the " beaver money," so called because it bore the image of the animal which first brought white men into the country. This money was manufactured in five and ten-dollar gold pieces by the Oregon Exchange Company, an association of prominent citizens, including the Governor. The coinage was illegal, but it answered a real need of the entire community, and the pieces contained more gold than United States coins of the same denominations.9 Oregon Territory Created Several memorials were sent to Congress, complaining of neglect and setting forth the settlers' inability to deal with the Indians and with criminals. Governor Abernethy, on his own responsibility, sent J. Quinn Thornton to Washington to plead for recognition. This action aroused much criticism from the opposition, for Thornton was a strait-laced member of the mission group. Although he was influential in the closing period of congressional debate on Oregon, Joe Meek performed more effective service in bringing Oregon's claims to the attention of Congress, when he went to Washington with the news of the Whitman massacre and the Cayuse war.10 At the time of Oregon's efforts to gain recognition, Texas was in a similar situation. Both regions were championed in Congress by Calhoun. In pressing the claims of Oregon, an ■ anti-slavery section, he hoped to make it easier to secure the admission of Texas, which was slave territory. Once Texas was secure, some of the politicians were no longer interested in Oregon. In 1846, the boundary was fixed, and in 1847 the President recommended that the Oregon country receive a 2o4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST government and territorial representation. Southern members continued to obstruct the passage of the bill, in the hope that it might be amended to permit slave-holding, even after the President sent the news of the Cayuse war to Congress, in May, 1848, and requested quick action. As presented by Stephen A Douglas of Illinois, the Oregon bill was consistent with the laws of the Pri.i visional Government, in prohibiting slavery, and Thornton was uncompromii ing 1 his attitude on the rr The bill passed the Senate by a few votes, and another storm broke : House. The bill was finally returned to the Senate, with several importan amendments. This was near the end of the session, and every known expedi was employed to kill the measure by delay. Congress was to adjourn Monday, August 14, and on Saturday the Oregon bill was still under discussion. Its supporters had agreed to vote down every motion to adjourn. Senator Foote rose at 10 o'clock, Saturday night, and declared that he would keep the floor until Monday noon. He proceeded to relate Scriptural history and spoke until two hours before sunrise, Sunday, yielding only to motions to adjourn. The friends of the bill rested in an adjoining room. A page notified them 0: each motion to adjourn, and they filed in to vote. The opposition gave up Sunday morning, August 13, when the bill was passed. The rule against presenting bills for signature on the last day of a session was suspended, and the bill was signed. Additional details of the contest over the Oregon bill are given in Chapter IX, in connection with the account of Joe Meek's mission to Washington General Joseph Lane, who had distinguished himself in the Mexican war was appointed Governor, and issued his proclamation bringing the territoria government into existence, at Oregon City on March 3, 1849. Lane's services to Oregon were notable in many ways, as Governor, later as Delegate to Congress and as Senator from Oregon in 1859-1861. He was a Democrat, President Taylor replaced him as Governor, in 1850, by the appointment of John P. Gaines, a Whig, after offering the office to Abraham Lincoln, who declined.11 In i860, Lane was nominee for Vice-President, with Breckenridge His Southern sympathies and the charges that he was conspiring with the other Senators and Representatives from Oregon and California, to set up Pacific Republic, retired him permanently to private life.12 Dr. John McLoughlin's humane policies toward the American settlers found disfavor in London, and he retired from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1846 i He took up his residence at Oregon City and made declaration of intention to become an American citizen. The Donation act, passed by Congress soon after the creation of the Territory, once more despoiled him of his land. For this | injustice, Samuel R. Thurston, Oregon's Delegate, was chiefly responsible Thurston misrepresented the case to the members of Congress, in a letter I BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 205 mailed to them individually. Title to the land on Abernethv's island was given t0 the Willamette Milling Company, and the rest of McLoughlin's claim was "set apart to be at the disposal of the legislative assembly, for the establishment and endowment of a university." " McLoughlin died in 1857, and five years later the Oregon legislature made reparation to his heirs by selling them the land at the nominal figure of $1,000. The claims of the British traders against the United States were adjusted by an international commission, sitting at Washington city from 1865 to 1870, with the award of $450,000 to the Hudson's Bay Company and $200,000 to the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. Washington Territory Created It was customary for the early settlers to seek advice of the Hudson's Bay Company as to the best place to locate. The Willamette valley was always pointed out as most desirable, and the settlers were told that no American had ventured to make his home in the wilderness north of the Columbia. The British still had hopes -of establishing the international boundary line on the river, and it was evident that any considerable number of American settlers north of it would weaken the cause of England. The 1844 immigration, however, brought a group who were determined to locate north of the Columbia. One of them, George W. Bush, was a mulatto and for that reason was barred from Oregon by the negro law of that year. He was not likely to be disturbed if he stayed in the northern region, as the Sheriff was not required to cross the Columbia. Bush was wealthy and generous and enjoyed the confidence of his fellow emigrants. Most of these men had their families with them. For nearly a year, the party remained on the north side of the Columbia, near Fort Vancouver. In the winter, Michael T. Simmons took a canoe up the Cowlitz, and in the following summer made a trip to Puget sound with several companions. He returned filled with an enthusiasm which induced several families to seek homes on the sound. There Simmons began the town of Tum- : water, originally called Newmarket. Through these men, other settlers were ■ tempted to enter the region, and in a few years the population was large . enough to warrant the creation of new counties, with representation in the In course of time, a feeling of dissatisfaction arose on account of the diffi- . culties of communication between the northern settlements and the seat of I government. As the result of a separatist July 4 oration by John B. Chapman, ; at Olympia, in 1851, a convention was called for August 20 at Cowlitz. In > spite of the difficulties of travel, a large number of men assembled. Seth Catlin, i the "Sage of Monticello," was elected President of the convention. A meeting j was set for May, 1852, to draft a constitution preparatory to seeking admission ] as a State. This proposal was somewhat early in view of the fact that the .206 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST suggested State was then a part of a Territory eight times greater in population. The May convention, however, was not held. In February, 1851, the legislature passed an act removing the capital from Oregon City to Salem. The Governor was opposed, and the United States District Attorney pronounced the act invalid. The Attorney General of the United States expressed a similar opinion, and he was supported by two judges of the Supreme Court of the Territory. Nevertheless a majority of the legislature met at Salem, organized both houses and went about the official business. The two judges opposed to the change sat at Oregon City. Columbia Lancaster, representing the three northern counties in the upper house, was the sole member of the council present. Daniel F. Brownfield, the only representative in the lower house from the north side of the river, was joined by three other representatives. Lancaster elected himself President of the council. The house elected its speaker, and the two houses met in all seriousness for seventeen days. On October 25, 1852, a convention was held at Monticello, near the mouth of the Cowlitz river, to consider separation from Oregon. By this time Seattle had come into existence, and it sent eight of the forty-four delegates present. Port Townsend also sent its representative. A memorial was drawn up asking the creation of the Territory of Columbia. The boundaries suggested were the Columbia river, the 49th parallel and the Pacific ocean. On November 4, tM Oregon legislature also adopted a memorial asking for division. Delegate Joseph Lane of Oregon pressed the matter in Congress. The bill to divide Oregon Territory was presented to the House on February 8, 1853. It m< with no great obstacles. When questioned regarding the population of proposed Territory, Lane's deft answer was that the population of Colum would be as great as was that of the whole of Oregon when the latter beca a Territory. Richard H. Stanton of Kentucky suggested that the name of t proposed Territory be changed from Columbia to Washington. Lane agreet and the bill passed the Senate, March 2, 1853, and was signed by Presic Fillmore, two days before his term ended. The boundary lin changed to run along the Columbia river to its intersection of the 46th para near the mouth of the Walla Walla river, then due east to the summit of t Rockies. This practically doubled the area suggested in the original petition Governor Stevens — Northern Railway Survey J. Patton Anderson, appointed United States Marshal for Washin preceded the other officers, to prepare for the election of a legislature by takin a census. He found only 3,964 white people, of whom 1,682 ■ President named Isaac Ingalls Stevens of Massachusetts Governor and Supe tendent of Indian Affairs. He was also placed in charge of the survey fo northern railway to the Pacific.15 Stevens was well qualified for the work of t BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 207 survey. He graduated from West Point at the head of his class, as a Lieutenant of Engineers. He first advocated engineer units in the army and was allowed w recruit the original company, which served under George B. McCleUan in the Mexican war. Stevens was full of schemes to improve the army, and while in command of the Coast Survey he made drastic changes in the service His vision of the problems involved in the railway survey impressed the President and won the appointment. Stevens secured the assignment of McCleUan to the duty of exploring the Cascades and left St. Paul in May, 1853, with 243 men, including eleven army officers and a staff of scientists and artists. At Fort Benton, the expedition was joined by the first party from the Coast, consisting of fifty-two men, under Lieutenant Rufus Saxton, who came up from The Dalles by way of the old trail from the mouth of the Palouse to the Spokane, thence to Pend d'Oreille lake and up Clark's fork to St. Mary's mission on the Bitter Root, where there was still a Flathead village, though the missionaries had left, and where John Owen had built his fort. At Walla Walla, Saxton engaged as his guide Antoine Plante, a half-breed who lived on the Spokane river, east of the falls, and afterwards became well known to all the whites in the region from the fact that he ran a ferry at his place. Saxton was stopped by each tribe as he journeyed east, with a challenge as to his intentions in bringing an armed force across their lands. He satisfied them all and performed a useful service as advance agent of the Governor. Saxton found John Owen and his brother among the Spokanes. They had left their trading post at St. Mary's, in fear of the Blackfeet. The coming of Governor Stevens enabled them to return. With Stevens' arrival at Fort Owen, assurance was given that the menace of the plains Indians no longer existed. Stevens commenced his great work as peacemaker for the Indians of the Pacific Northwest at a council which he arranged, before leaving Fort Benton, with chiefs of the Piegans, Bloods and Blackfeet. These were the traditional enemies of the Flatheads and Nez Perces. The latter tribes could not cross the Rockies to the plains of the Missouri, for buffalo, without bloody encounters, and the Indians of the plains made occasional raids into the Flathead and Bitter Root valleys and the Snake country. The Indians were disposed to consider Stevens' peace proposals, and he arranged for the great council which was held two years later. As evidence of good faith, the principal chief at the 1853 meeting, Low Horn, came with his band to welcome the western Indians on their way to the council of 1855. Stevens shows, in his report, that he was conscious of an oversight on the part of the whites, himself included, in their formal negotiations with the natives. " On all solemn occasions when I met the Indians on my route," he says, " they were arrayed with the utmost care. My duties in the field did not allow the same attention on my part, I 2o8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and the Indians sometimes complained of this, saying, 'We dress up to receive you, and why do you not wear the dress of a chief?'" This was a detail which the experienced officials of the British fur companies never : overlooked. The main party, under Stevens, reached the summit of the Rockies on September 24 and crossed by Cadotte's pass. Here Stevens issued a proclama- tion, declaring the territorial government to be inaugurated. An examination was made of all the passes that could be found in the Rockies and Bitter Roots. The existence of the Marias pass, now used by the Great Northern, was known to the Blackfeet, and they described it to Stevens. They had long shunned it themselves, in the belief that it was haunted by evil spirits. The pass is broad j and easily noted when approached from the right direction, but two of Stevens' parties failed to locate it. A. W. Tinkham, an engineer in charge of the second party, made some observations in what is now Glacier National Park. In May, 1854, James Doty saw the pass, but lacked time to explore it, —a fact which; Stevens greatly regretted, as he felt that possibly the best route through the mountains lay here. After Doty's visit, thirty-five years elapsed before another white man found the pass. In 1889, John F. Stevens, on a reconnaissance for the Great Northern, walked straight into it. Lieutenant Donelson was sent with the main party by way of Clark's fork and Pend d'Oreille lake. The Governor took a more direct route, through Coeur d'Alene pass, and met several bands of Indians on their way to hunl buffalo. He went down the north side of the Spokane river and noted that: the horses of the Spokane tribe roamed the valley in herds. Crossing the river at the site of Spokane House, where there were two Indian villages, but nothing remaining of the old post, Stevens camped about eight miles to the west, on; October i7.10 Chief Garry came in with news of McClellan's arrival at Foffl Colville. Garry sent a guide to meet Donelson's train, and Stevens went tof Colville the following day by relays of horses which Antoine Plante had on the trail. McCleUan made the trip to Colville with sixty-six men and 173 horses and mules. He used the Klikitat pass, south of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. When he reached the Yakima valley, he sent Lieutenant H. C. Hodges through the Naches pass to Fort Steilacoom, with fifty pack horses, for provisions. Word came back from Hodges that he had lost sixteen of his horses and could not find enough pack animals to carry all the supplies. As the Indian troubles which McCleUan feared had not developed, he reduced his force, sending back the military escort. The treacherous Yakima chiefs, Kamiakin and Owhi, impressed McCleUan as very friendly, and he described the latter as " the most good natured Indian yet seen in the country." McCleUan went up the Yakima r and made observations at the lakes which are its source and the Yakima L river and made observations at the lakes which are us source and the Yakima BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 209 pass. Though close to the Snoqualmie pass, he did not stop to examine it but proceeded to Fort Okanogan. He reported that from the range separating the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys, the mountains toward the north and west were piled one on another, "rugged and impassable." At Okanogan, he learned of the Indian trail to the sound by way of the Methow valley and explored it until he was convinced of its unfitness for a railway. He also went up the Okanogan river to a point near the lake. Stevens was particularly interested in running a line through the most likely pass to the sound, in order that he might speak positively on the matter of grades for a railway. This had not been done, "though a fine examination had been made of the eastern slope of the Cascades," and he hastened to get under way again. He spent only two days at Colville, lavishly entertained by Angus MacDonald, who had "fifty imperial gallons of extra rations" laid by for the Donelson. The return journey included a stop at the Tshimakain mission, where Walker's house was still standing. A settler was found in the valley, who was living there by Garry's permission. In the Colville valley, the settlements extended for twenty-eight miles, and the farmers, who were former Hudson's Bay employes, were anxious to become American citizens and to secure title to their lands. Garry had forwarded the message to Donelson and was awaiting Stevens at the mission, with 200 of his tribe. A new location, near the camp of Pctober 17, was selected for Camp Washington, his first headquarters in the Territory. Donelson came in with the main train on October 28. The original plan was to organize several parties, to finish the journey to Vancouver over different routes, and for McCleUan to run a line for the railroad, through the Snoqualmie pass. The horses were worn, however, and Stevens left to McCleUan and Donelson the decision regarding the survey. Neither cared to go, and the expedition started for Fort Walla Walla on October 29, with Garry and a brother as guides. " Had I possessed at Camp Washington information which I gained six days afterwards at Walla Walla," wrote Stevens, "I should have pushed the party over the Cascades in the present condition of the animals; but Captain McCleUan was entitled to weight in his judgment of the route, it being upon the special field of his examination." Going down the Columbia to Vancouver in a canoe, in advance of the main party, Stevens was the guest of Captain Bonneville, at this time in command of the army post, and he then went over the usual route by way of the Cowlitz river to Olympia, where he arrived on November 25, 1853. An amusing anecdote is told of his reception. Pushing ahead of his men, the Governor entered Olympia alone, tired, dirty and hungry. He tried in vain to gain 2io A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST admission to the only eating place he could find. "We are going to have doin's here," he was told, " and we can't feed strangers till after they're over." Stevens protested that he was hungry and begged to be given some scraps at the kitchen table. This was not too much to ask, and after satisfying his hunger, he went out into the street. A man complained to him of the slow! arrival of the new Governor, to which Stevens answered, " Then I suppose I am the man you are looking for." The citizen thereupon began to beat anj old saw hung to a post. Men appeared from all directions and gathered in the dining hall, where the Governor sat at the head of the table and watched the others eat. Snoqualmie Pass Conquered While at Fort Walla Walla, Stevens learned that the Naches pass was frequently open until December. Moreover, the settlers had done enough work on a wagon road to enable the 1853 emigrants to go through. The building of this road, for which Congress appropriated $20,000, was one of the tasks entrusted to McCleUan which he failed to perform, as related in Chapter XI. Stevens instructed F. W. Lander, one of his engineers, to cross the Naches pass, but Lander soon appeared at Olympia with various excuses for noS attempting the passage. " I did not censure Mr. Lander," says Stevens, " but l| resolved to get my line to the sound, and accordingly despatched an express to the Walla Walla, directing Mr. Tinkham, on his arrival at that point, to cross to Puget sound by the Sno-qual-moo pass, my object being two-fold: to get, at some facts which would decisively settle the question of the depth of snow, in regard to which Captain McClellan and myself differed, as well as to conl nect our work with the sound itself." McClellan left Olympia on December 23, with a small party, and went by canoe up the Snohomish and Snoqualmie rivers, reaching the falls on January 7. He believed the Indians when they told him at Steilacoom that he must go up the rivers, as land transportation was impossible, and again when they reported, at the falls, that the snow was twenty-five feet deep in the pass. He was in Olympia again on January 21. On February 1, Tinkham came in, having crossed the Snoqualmie pass with two Walla Walla Indians. He found the snow to be as deep as six feet for only", a few miles and the grades to be favorable for a railway. Three roads now cross the Cascades in Washington, — the Northern Pacific, by the Stampede pass; the Milwaukee, by the Snoqualmie pass, about ten miles to the south, and the Great Northern, by Stevens pass. A. W. Tinkham deserves his superior's encomium, " one of the most intelligent and able officers I ever knew." He covered 1,164 m'les between October 7 and February 1. After many hardships in the Rockies and Bitter Roots, he found his orders at Walla Walla, took on another task without hesitation and showed the way for the first railroad L BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 211 across the Cascades.17 McClellan cherished his resentment for years and, by stubbornly contending that the Columbia river route was the only practicable tone, injured Stevens at Washington. At the time of the Civil war, the two again became friends. One of Stevens' first concerns as Governor was to appraise the properties of the Hudson's Bay Company. The posts were visited, and in a report to the Secretary of State, Stevens estimated that the value of the British holdings could not exceed $300,000. He urged prompt settlement, and the long delay in which the government indulged cost the American people a great deal [more.18 Acting under instructions from the Secretary of State, he notified the Company that after July, 1854, they would not be allowed to trade with the Indians. Stevens found that a dangerous situation was created by the Donation act passed by Congress in 1850. This measure amounted to an invitation to take up land, whether surveyed or not and without regard to the extinguishing of Indian titles or the definition of lands guaranteed by treaty to the British. The Hudson's Bay men were resentful, and the Indians were made restless. The first settlers got large claims, —320 acres for a single man and 640 acres to a married couple, if married before December 1, 1851. Scores of people rushed into matrimony. Early marriages became common, and as women were not numerous, girls only twelve years of age were led to the altar. Emigrants who arrived after December 1,1851, could take only half the amount of land allowed to the earlier pioneers. A bad feature of the act was that the settlers were widely scattered, in a country where the chief conflicts with the Indians were fyet to come. Emigrants made a tour of the valleys and the sound region and selected the locations which seemed most promising. A curious result of locating claims previous to surveys was that the shape of many such claims Was very irregular, following the whims of the settlers, and it became the duty of the Surveyor General to mark the boundaries as claimed. First Washington Legislature Political parties were organized in the Territory, and Columbia Lancaster, a Democrat, was elected Delegate to Congress. G. N. McConaha was made President of the council and F. A. Chenoweth Speaker of the lower house. The new legislature convened, February 27, 1854. The laws of Oregon were adopted as far as practicable. Several counties were created, among them Walla Walla, with the county seat " on the claim of Lloyd Brooks," the present site of Walla Walla city. This county began at a point on the Columbia opposite the Deschutes river and included all of eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana which lay within the Territory, — that is, most of what is now known as the Inland Empire. Beside the people in the neighborhood 212 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of Fort Colville, there were a few settlers in the south, — two at Waiilatpu, on Whitman's place, and some farms south of the Touchet. The settlers were mostly retired Hudson's Bay men. The organization of Walla Walla county had to await the conclusion of the Indian troubles in 1858. A bill to grant suffrage to white women was lost by one vote in the house. One of the men who voted against it had an Indian wife. An attempt to enact the Maine prohibition law was defeated. The sentiment of the settlers on the negro question was shown by a resolution asking Congress to confirm the claim of the mulatto, George Bush, to the land which he had cultivated for nearly ten years. As a negro, Bush could not secure title under the Donation act. Congress passed a special act for his relief in 1855. While Stevens was carrying his surveys for a northern railway to favorable completion, a strong opposition at Washington stood ready to undo all his work. The Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, was interested only in a southern route. When Stevens' appropriation was exhausted and he was obliged to draw on the government for an additional amount of $16,000, Davis ordered him to disband his surveying parties and allowed his drafts to go to protest. The territorial legislature approved his request for a leave of absence, and he went East for a double purpose, — to conserve the results of his labors and to support the acts of the legislature, which required the approval of Congress. Davis took every means to discredit the evidence of the survey, raising Stevens' estimate of the construction costs of the railway by $34,000,000, ignoring Tinkham's explorations and quoting McClellan instead, and describing the Inland Empire as sterile and severely cold. Davis was able to deprive Stevens of the popular recognition which his explorations merited and to retard the development of the Pacific Northwest for a while, but the survey was fortunately complete in all its important particulars, and Stevens, as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, was able to collect additional data without help from the government. Stevens' presence in the capital prevented personal attacks which would otherwise have been made upon him, and he worked with Lancaster and Lane, in their efforts to secure approval of the Washington and Oregon legislative enactments. Some desirable amendments to the Donation act werq obtained. Congress voted land for a university in Washington Territory,! allowed a Surveyor General, appropriated $30,000 for a wagon road from Fort Benton to Walla Walla and $10,000 to enable Stevens to continue his peace negotiations with the Blackfeet and neighboring tribes. Secretary Davis tools, advantage of a technicality in denying the request that arms and ammunition be sent to Fort Steilacoom, — an appeal which was made in view of depredations by the Indians. L BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 213 Puget Sound Indian Treaties After Congress adjourned, Stevens returned to Olympia, with his wife and four children, in the fall of 1854. The second legislature met on December 4, and after seeing it started and delivering his message, the Governor set out on his first treaty-making expedition. A small steamer was chartered for a tour of the sound. There were some eighty-five hundred Indians on the sound, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The first council was held with the Nisqually, Puyallup, SteUacoom and neighboring tribes. The Indians were ready to enter an agreement, as settlers had assured them that the government would pay for their lands. Reservations were laid out and annual payments were agreed upon. The next council was held, January 12 to 21, 1855, at Point Elliott, with twenty-three hundred Indians from the east side of the sound. The territory ceded by the Indians comprises the present King county and a part of Kitsap, Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, Island and San Juan counties. The Indians were the Duwamish, Suquamish and allied tribes east of the sound as far as Bellingham bay. The third treaty was made at Point-no-Point, Ion the west side of the sound, opposite the southern end of Whidby island. Twelve hundred Indians, comprising the Clallams, Chimakums and Sko- komish attended. The council met on the twenty-fifth, regardless of a heavy storm. Considerable opposition developed among the Skokomish, but, influenced by the example of the other tribes, they assented. The schooner Port Townsend then carried the party down the Strait of Juan de Fuca a distance of 120 miles, to Neah bay. Here the Makah Indians assembled in council, January 31. There were six hundred in the tribe. These Indians accepted the treaty without question. After the Puget sound treaties had been signed, a council was held on the Chehalis river, just above Gray's harbor, February 25, but no treaty could be concluded with the restless natives of this region. However, the work was not entirely lost, for Special Indian Agent M. T. Simmons and others concluded a treaty with the Coast tribes north of Gray's harbor, July 1, 1855. By these treaty negotiations, Stevens established nine reservations, containing over sixty thousand acres, and promised annuities of clothing and other goods for twenty years, amounting to $300,000. He abolished slavery and war among the Indians and excluded liquor from the reservations. Martial Law Episode I In 1856, settlers near SteUacoom suffered from Indian raids, and it was : noted that the marauders always chose the right time for their operations and : easily eluded pursuit, also that the squaw-men in the vicinity were never troubled. It was suspected that the latter were in treacherous 0 I 214 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST with the natives, and Stevens ordered them to remove to the settlements or blockhouses. When they refused, he caused their arrest, and to defeat a plan to secure their release by habeas corpus proceedings, he placed Pierce county under martial law, on April 3. Chief Justice Edward Lander opened court at Steilacoom, to try the case of the prisoners, and Stevens arrested him and detained him in custody a few days, for ignoring the proclamation. When the time of the regular court term at Olympia approached, Stevens placed Thurston county under martial law, on May 13. Judge Lander opened court and ordered Stevens' arrest for contempt, but the United States Marshal lacked nerve to arrest the Governor, and, with the arrival of a company of volunteers, the Court went into hiding. The commander of the troops found him, however, and Lander was sent for a while to Fort Montgomery. The military authorities paroled the suspected settlers, excepting two, who were sent to Fort Montgomery. In defending his action before the legislature, Stevens said: "There is no such thing in my humble judgment as neutrality in an Indian war, and whoever can remain on his claim unmolested is an ally of the enemy, and must be dealt with as such." Martial law was revoked on May 24. When Lander opened the July term of court, Stevens appeared by counsel and was fined $50. Then Isaac I. Stevens as Governor pardoned Isaac I. Stevens convicted of contempt of court.10 By December, 1856, when the legislature met, the Governor had several groups of opponents to face, — those, who objected to the use of martial law, others who were incensed at his discharge of a company of volunteers, for insubordination, and his political enemies, the Whigs. The legislature restored the discharged troops, censured Stevens for proclaiming martial law and asked Congress to separate the offices of Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. At the same time all the measures which Stevens recommended for the good of the Territory were enacted, and when a law was passed on January 28, 1857, incorporating the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, the legislature placed his name at thej head of the fifty-eight incorporators. Stevens was nominated as Delegate to Congress by the Democrats and won a decisive election, July 13, 1857. The next legislature, on January 19, 1858,,? adopted a joint resolution vindicating Stevens' actions as Governor, particularly his recourse to martial law. Congress was asked to ratify his treaties with the Indians, and General John E. Wool was roundly censured for his attitude toward the civil authorities and the volunteer troops, in connection with the Indian uprising, the story of which has been reserved for the next two! chapters. In his first term in Congress Stevens was unable to secure passage of a bill for the payment of the war debt. None of the measures urged by him at this session was successful. But he was returned to Congress the follov ' year. At the session of 1860-1, he secured the establishment of a land c BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT 215 for the Territory, an appropriation of $100,000 for the Mullan road, $10,000 additional for road improvement and appropriations for fulfilling the Indian treaties. The Territory was given an Indian Superintendent and more Agents. At the close of the session, Congress agreed upon a plan for payment of the war debt. During this session, Stevens labored earnestly to prevent secession. He returned to Olympia with the intention of seeking re-election, but he withdrew his name when the convention met. Fort Sumter had been taken, and he hastened East, to offer his services to the President. He was commissioned Colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York regiment, and he fell in the battle of Chantilly. XIII Indian Uprising-Blockhouse Era DURING THE TRIAL OF THE CAYUSE MURDERERS AT OREGON CITY, IN 185O, Governor Lane was in southern Oregon dealing with fresh Indian j troubles, which were later seen to be connected with a general uprising of the tribes from the Siskiyou mountains to the British Columbia boundary. His last act as Governor was a demonstration of his remarkable skill in dealing with the natives and a striking example of his courage.1 He held a council with Indians at the Rogue river who were terrorizing the California trail. Lane had thirty men, fifteen of whom were Klikitats, including a chief, j Quatley. Two chiefs and seventy-five warriors presented themselves at the council unarmed, according to instructions. A circle was formed, with the visiting chiefs, Lane and a few of his men in the center. Before the council began, another party of Rogue River Indians arrived, as large as the first and armed with bows and a few guns. Lane invited them to lay down their arms and join the council. He knew that there would be trouble and communicated a plan of action to Quatley. Lane's demeanor on such occasions was bland and deliberate. As the council opened, Quatley and two or three of his tribesmen moved close to the principal Rogue River chief. Lane explained the proposals of the government for the maintenance of peace. The reply of the principal chief was brief and loud, and his 150 braves sprang to their feet, brandishing their weapons. The war cry in which they felt obliged to indulge gave Lane all the time he needed. When they looked toward their chief, they saw him pinioned by three Klikitats, with Quatley pressing a knife to his throat. Lane, with a revolver in his hand, walked down the line of astonished Indians knocking up their levelled guns. The chief repeated Lane's command t ground arms, and after a few minutes Lane ordered the outlaws to withdraw1 and to return in two days for another council. He retained the chief as hostage, and so great was the Indian's admiration for Lane that he agreed t the terms of peace, — and kept them that year. The Indian also borrowet part of Lane's name and was henceforth known as Chief Jo. Lane had learned that he was to be replaced by a Whig, and after securin this respite from Indian depredations he went to the Shasta gold mines. Joh P. Gaines became Governor and Anson Dart was appointed Superintenden INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 217 of Indian Affairs. He was to have three sub-agents, but one of them never irrived; another, Elias Wampole, was removed after three months, for trading with the Indians, and the third, Rev. H. H. Spalding, was dismissed for neglect of duty. Others were appointed, but J. L. Parrish, formerly with the Methodist mission, was the only sub-agent who proved willing and able to treat with the more dangerous tribes. Treaties were made with the Willamette valley tribes in 1851, and Dart visited the interior, establishing an agency on the Umatilla. Spread of Indian Unrest The Snake Indians next became troublesome. The Cayuse murderers undoubtedly spread disaffection during their sojourn in the Snake country, and the Mormons were suspected of stirring up the tribes along the emigrant trail. The Hudson's Bay Company lost control of such tribes as the Snakes when it could no longer sell them ammunition. The Snakes displayed hostility toward the Nez Perces as allies of the whites, and Dart discovered that a tribal war was about to start. He persuaded the Nez Perces to wait another year for United States troops, promising not to interfere again, if troops failed to come. That summer the Snakes killed thirty-four persons and wounded many more in the emigrant parties, beside stealing property valued at $18,000. The Rogue Rivers also resumed their attacks on emigrants and settlers in 1S51, murdering thirty-eight persons. Companies of volunteers had clashes with the outlaws, and the remnant of the regiment of mounted riflemen, which had been ordered to California after the protest of the settlers, did not get out of Oregon without some actual fighting. A detachment under Major Phil Kearney defeated a band of Rogue Rivers, but Captain James Stuart of Kearney's command, a brave young officer who had been through the Mexican war, was killed. Treaties were made with the peace party of the Rogue Rivers whenever the war party failed. All the treaties made since Governor Gaines and Superintendent Dart came into office awaited ratification by the government, and when news came that Congress wanted more time to define its policy toward the Indians and that the treaties had been tabled in the Senate, Dart sent in his resignation. Fighting in the Rogue river, Klamath and Coquille districts continued for several years. Lane was in Washington in 1852 as Delegate from Oregon, and he made every effort to secure military protection for the emigrants. He was embarrassed by the earlier demand of the exasperated settlers for the removal of the riflemen, but Governor Gaines wrote for help, and Dart's report advised sending troops. In September, 268 men of the Fourth U. S. infantry arrived at Vancouver. The regiment had been reduced to a skeleton by sickness on the Isthmus, and the survivors were not fit for service. They fortunately had nothing to do at first except to make themselves comfortable for the winter. 218 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Table Rock TreatV Lane returned to Oregon with his second commission as Governor and as again elected Delegate to Congress. In the summer of 1853, he was junded in the arm while commanding an expedition against the Rogue Rivers. The Indians recognized him and asked him to arrange for a council. This time, his adroit management of the negotiations resulted in placing the tribe on a reservation. A howitzer borrowed from Colonel B. L. E. Bonneville, now in command at Vancouver, did much to awe the natives into submission. Yet the council was near to tragedy for a few minutes. With his customary fearlessness, Lane had agreed to come with ten others to the council, unarmed. Some of the others did not share his confidence and told him they expected to be slaughtered. His companions included Joel Palmer, newly appointed Indian Superintendent and James W. Nesmith. Their premonition of danger was justified, but all of them remained as impassive as Lane when the crisis came. They found seven hundred natives in full war gear, and in the midst of thej speeches a naked Indian rode up with news that a sub-chief had been tied to a tree and shot by a party of wbites. An interpreter warned Nesmith that the infuriated natives were talking of treating the whites now conveniently in their power in the same way, and Nesmith had his companions scatter among the Indians, to remove the temptation which the group presented as a target.; Lane remained seated on a log. After the first blaze of indignation, he made] a conciliatory speech, pointing out the folly of the policy of mutual reprisals, promising punishment for the chief's murderers and a definite compensation for his death. The last mentioned offer was essential. The anger of the Indians cooled, and the Table Rock council proceeded to a successful conclusion. T treaty was ratified by the Senate in 1854, and the tribe went on a reset but considerable policing remained to be done. Clashes between non-treaty ! dians and roving whites were to be expected, and sometimes friendly nativ and settlers became involved through misunderstanding, but on one occasio when two Indian murderers were traced to the reservation, the tribe them over to be hanged. In the summer of 1855, the Rogue river country was full of Indians w strayed off the reservation, and it was necessary to round them up. Man clashes occurred which were due to mistaking peaceful natives for renegad Miners, militia, peace officers and regular troops were constantly at odds Killings were frequent, and acts of reprisal caused the deaths of many innoce persons. With no good reason, a party of thirty volunteers fired on an Indi camp at night, killing twenty-three natives, and in the morning it was fount that the camp consisted mostly of old men, women and children. Instead fleeing, the surviving Indians went to the reservation fort for help. Fifte INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 219 companies of volunteers were in the field by fall. The simplest account of all the episodes of the Rogue river fighting in 1855 and 1856 would fill many pages. The Indians were able to hold out because they had secret trails all over the region and because they were armed with good rifles. Regular troops jwere sent into action with no better guns than old musketoons, effective only at short range. Small settlements were attacked, and in some instances every farmer in the neighborhood was killed. The people took refuge occasionally at Port Orford and other forts. The fort at Whaleshead was besieged thirty-one days, until the arrival of troops. With a strong force of regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan and militia under General Lamerick in the field, in 1856, the Indians were harried to the point of surrender. They had been kept on the war-path by the driving will of Chief John of the Shastas, who preferred fighting until exterminated to going on a reservation. After a battle with the regulars on May 27 and 28, his followers scattered and surrendered in small bands. In his last fight, John's cunning was shown when he managed things so that the troops were led to occupy a small hill where they were without shelter, water or a chance to retreat. Moreover, the officers had not noticed another hill near by which was wooded and within Indian rifle range but not within reach of the army guns. The troops would have been wiped out if aid had not come on the second day from Buchanan. After this fight, which was regarded as decisive, the army moved down Rogue river toward Port Orford, gathering in natives who agreed to go on the reservation, until they had over four hundred. On this march, about forty Indians who could not be made to go were shot or driven to their death in the river. John surrendered when deserted by his people, but he was so restless and his influence was so greatly feared that the government took him to Fort Alcatraz, California. Several hundred Indians were still at large, and volunteer companies were needed another year to rid the hills of them. ' The federal military authorities openly disapproved of all armed demon- 1 strations on the part of the settlers in defense of their lives and property, and consequently of all local militia organizations. This attitude of the military • was a reflection of the views of one man, the commander of the Division f of the Pacific, General John Ellis Wool. The government was most unfortunate in its selection of this opinionated officer for a post where knowledge of ' the Indians, prescience of trouble and dispatch in forestalling it were needed j at that very hour. Wool was a typical representative of the military caste, seventy years old, — too old, some thought, to conduct an Indian war. Yet he served with distinction in the Civil war until 1863, when he retired at the age of seventy-nine. He was impatient with civilian government and despised volunteer troops. He believed that the Indians would behave better if left 220 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST alone and that the large numbers of emigrants now coming west would be able to take care of themselves. He marched a detachment from Vancouver to Klamath lake and back, declaring that it was more for the protection of the Indians than the whites. Because he made this statement to the Secretary of War, he did not get the re-enforcements for which he asked. The regulars in Oregon and Washington at the beginning of 1855 numbered only 335 men. The first shock to this smug policy was the murder of nineteen Kentuckians by the Snakes, near Fort Boise, in 1854. Major Granville O. Haller was stationed at The Dalles, with one company. He took sixty regulars and a few volunteers into the Snake country and made a show of force, though the Indians had retired to safe positions in the hills. Haller resumed the campaign in the summer of 1855 and secured the hanging of the leaders in the massacre. First Walla Walla Council When Dart resigned, Palmer again became Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and after the division of Oregon, Governor Stevens was Superintendent for Washington. On the strength of Stevens' reports in 1853, when he conferred with the tribes east of the Cascades, while conducting the railway survey, Congress authorized Stevens and Palmer to make treaties and appropriated funds for the purpose. In the winter of 1854, Stevens sent an agent, James Doty, among the tribes, to invite them to a council in May and to explain its purpose.'2 It was clear that the temper of the Indians had changed since Stevens' first interviews with them. The unrest which had led to open hostilities in western Oregon and in the Snake country was found to be general. The increasing multitude of settlers was sufficient to account for it, but no one could tell how dangerous the situation might be. The interior tribes were well informed of the events on the Coast. They heard of Palmer's plan to move the Willamette tribes to a reservation east of the mountains, and they protested, raising the unexpected objection that the Indians in the lower country were diseased. Palmer abandoned this scheme. The Yakimas, Nez Perces, Walla Wallas and Cayuses were called to the first council, at a spot selected by Kamiakin, chief of the Yakimas, — an old council ground, five miles from Waiilatpu. Though Kamiakin agreed to attend the council, he refused to accept the usual presents offered by Doty, saying that he had never accepted from the Americans the value of a grain of wheat without paying for it, and he did not wish to purchase the goods offered him. The commissioners had an unimpressive military escort of forty-seven dragoons from The Dalles, commanded by Lieutenant Archibald Gracie. Lieutenant Lawrence Kip, who published interesting accounts of this council and of Colonel Wright's expedition against the northern tribes, was present as an observer.3 About 900 Nez Perces arrived first at the council ground. An American flag First Governor of Washington Territory INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 221 presented to them by the officers in the Cayuse war was sent forward and planted near the camp. The Cayuses, numbering between 300 and 400, appeared two days later. Some of their chiefs visited the camp of the troops, clearly with the purpose of sizing up its strength. Though Kip and Gracie exchanged friendly calls with the Nez Perces, they found that their acquaintance was not desired at the Cayuse camp. By the time the council opened, on May 29, nearly 5,000 Indians were present. A Palouse chief who returned with the messenger sent to his tribe said that his people were indifferent and would not come in. Many of the Indians brought their own provisions and would not accept tobacco from the whites. On Sundays, the Nez Perces had religious services, which were attended by the commissioners and others of their party. The proposal of the commissioners was that the Indians go on reservations and sell all other lands to the government. On the reservation the government would maintain schools, mills and blacksmith and carpenter shops. This |£rvice was offered in part payment for the lands and not as a favor. The Nez Perces alone seemed willing to consent. Their head chief, Lawyer, spoke at length, making a display of the learning which he had derived from the whites. The objections voiced by the other chiefs could be reduced to three a. That they had no right to sell the land given them by the Great Spirit and feared to do so. Young Chief made an eloquent speech on this subject, in which he asked, "I wonder if the ground has anything to say? I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said? " But at the close he betrayed his real thoughts by saying that the Great Spirit would not have the Indians trade off the land, — unless they got a fair price. b. That they did not clearly understand what was proposed. This was merely a c. That some tribes were not sufficiently represented, and another council should be held before deciding. The Indians never saw any reason for haste, and some became more suspicious of Stevens' good faith when he would not listen to the suggestion of a second council. Kamiakin sat through the meetings without taking any part. To Palmer's invitation to speak, he replied, " I have nothing to say," and when Stevens appealed to him, he asked, " What have I to be talking about? " Peupeumoxmox of the Walla Wallas was among those who wished to adjourn without a decision. The first sign of progress came on June 8, when Palmer offered a separate reservation to the tribes who were unwilling to be placed with the • Nez Perces. Consent was secured from all the tribes except the Yakimas. But the situation darkened with the unexpected arrival of Looking Glass, war chief i of the Nez Perces, from an expedition into the country of the Blackfeet. He arrived while the council was in session and appeared much excited. Speaking 222 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in a low voice, he said, " My people, what have you done? While I was gone, you have sold my country." The council at once adjourned for the day, as the Nez Perces were anxious to hear the story of the expedition. For three days: it seemed likely that Looking Glass would spoil everything and that he might displace Lawyer as head chief. Looking Glass had been away three years, and! Lawyer had become head chief in his absence. On the morning of the ninthi Peupeumoxmox and Kamiakin came to Stevens, and the former agreed to sign the Walla Walla treaty regardless of the action of the others. Kamiakin said he would sign the Yakima treaty; his people were scattering too far, marrying; and remaining on the Coast, and this might bring them all together again. He declared that he was high chief of the Palouses, by lineal descent, and he included them among the tribes which he pledged. Both chiefs signed the treaties privately, after the council meeting on the ninth, which had been a stormy one. The tenth was Sunday and was ominously quiet, with few Indians in sight. On the eleventh, Stevens made a brief appeal to the Nez Percesa Lawyer came forward and signed and was at once followed by the other chiefs. The Cayuse chiefs, finding that they now stood alone, signed their treaty! All the Indians seemed relieved that an agreement had been reached, though many of them signed only because it was expedient to do so, and their motives were treacherous. Presents were distributed, and the council dissolved. The treaties gave the Nez Perces $200,000, the Yakimas $200,000 and the Cayuses, Walla Wallas and Umatillas, who were to be located together, $150,000. The agency services already mentioned were to be provided on each reservation, and tbe Indians were to be paid for improvements which they had made on the ceded lands. They were not required to move to the reservations until a year after the ratification of the treaties by Congress. Massacre Prevented by Chief Lawyer Palmer made similar treaties with the John Day, Des Chutes and Wasco- pam Indians on the way home and believed that permanent peace had been secured in northeastern Oregon, while Stevens prepared to treat with thl tribes of northeastern Washington. " We subsequently discovered," says Kip, " we had all the time been treading on a mine. Some of the friendly Indians afterwards disclosed to the traders that, during the whole meeting of thf council, active negotiations were on foot to cut off the whites. This plS originated with the Cayuses." Their program was, first, to massacre the escort; and then to surprise the post at The Dalles. Stevens was aware of the danger, for on the fifth night of the council Lawyer had come to him with information regarding this plot, which was secured by a Nez Perce spy. The hostiles planned to keep the Nez Perces in the dark. Lawyer moved his lodge into the commissioner's camp after midnight. Stevens took only two of his own party INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 223 into the secret,-Doty and his Pack Master, C. P. Higgins. They quietly posted guards and saw that the arms of the escort were in readiness. Lawyer explained his action to the Indians, on the following day, as a demonstration 0£ friendliness. Its effect was to prevent attack, for the hostiles knew that he would undoubtedly be killed in the fight, and that the Nez Perce nation Stevens proceeded to the Coeur d'Alene mission, where he notified the chiefs of a council to be held on his return from the Blackfoot country. The naturalization oath was administered to the priests at the mission. A council was held in July with the Flatheads, Pend d'Oreilles and Kootenais, near Hell Gate, and a treaty was concluded.5 The northern Indians were greatly interested in the promise of peace with the Blackfeet and relief from their murderous raids on the tribes which were accustomed to hunt in the buffalo country. When Stevens invited some of the Coeur d'Alenes to accompany him to the council with the Blackfeet at Fort Benton, they said that they feared M go because the Blackfeet would probably kill them all. A party of fourteen Nez Perces, including Looking Glass and other principal chiefs, joined Stevens at Hell Gate and went with him to Fort Benton. Commissioner Alfred Cum- ming, who had been appointed to act with Stevens in treating with the Blackfeet, came up the Missouri with boats bringing the council goods. The Blackfoot treaty was concluded on October 17, and Stevens' messenger, W. H. Pearson started for Olympia with the news. Pearson was a most valuable aid, tireless, resourceful and familiar with the Indians. He carried the news of the Walla Walla council to the capital, reached Hell Gate in time to return on July 18 with the report of the Flathead council, was at Fort Benton on August 27 and again returned to the lower country. Stevens started for home on October 28 and met Pearson the next night, coming back from The Dalles with the startling information that the Yakimas were on the war-path and other tribes were expected to join them. Murder of Agent Bolon After the Walla Walla council, the Yakima chiefs met at Kamiakin's place.6 Some were for immediate hostilities, but Kamiakin's decision was that they would fight if troops should enter their country, and that messengers be sent to the passes to warn the Americans that they must not go through the Yakima lands. Miners in increasing numbers were coming from the Coast to the Colville region, where gold had been discovered, and this was a source of unrest among the Indians. Kamiakin said that they must be killed if they persisted in coming. The Yakima chiefs went among all the other tribes, fomenting discontent. Qualchan, a nephew of Kamiakin, took the initiative in enforcing the decision of the council. With five relatives, he came upon six 224 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST white men on the Yakima river and killed them all. Soon after these murdel two other whites were killed. Hearing of the murders, Sub-Indian Agent A. J, Bolon, on his way to join Stevens in the Spokane country, decided to proceed by the way of Kamiakin's place. He rode alone, as he had every reason tb believe that the Indians were friendly toward him, and he did not wish to make a show of force. At the lodge of Ice, a younger brother of Kamiakin, he was advised to turn back. Ice was an old friend, and Bolon took his advice, but he was overtaken by three Indians who had recognized his trail as that of a white man. He and his horse were killed and burned. One of the murderers was a son of Ice, who was grieved at Bolon's death and wanted to surrender his son, but was over-ruled by Kamiakin. When Bolon failed to return, Nathan Obey, agent at The Dalles, sent a friendly Des Chutes chief to Kamiakin's place as a spy. He came back with the news of the murder and the information that the Yakimas had accumulated considerable ammunition. Kamiakin told him that he was prepared to fight five years, if necessary. The priests at the Yakima mission had already written to Olney and to the priest at The Dalles, giving the information that war had been the chief topic of discussion among the Indians since the Walla Walla council and that the Cayuses and Walla Wallas were involved. C. H. Mason, Secretary of Washington Territory and Acting Governor in Stevens': absence, confirmed the reports of murders in the Yakima country, and I September, 1855, he asked for federal troops. Major Gabriel J. Rains, in com mand at Vancouver, ordered Major Haller to move into the Yakima countt" from The Dalles with eighty-four men and a howitzer, and sent Lieutenan W. A. Slaughter through the Naches pass with fifty men, to join Haller' command. While the army authorities chose to view the expedition merely a an investigation and Haller evidently did not expect to be attacked, the terri torial officials of Oregon and Washington were greatly concerned over the outcome of an invasion of Kamiakin's land by so small a force. Defeat of Major Haller The Indians were informed of every step in Haller's advance, and they, were ready to contest the passage of troops through their country. Haller. encountered them about sixty miles from The Dalles. The Indians afterward! claimed that their intention was first to ask Haller to retire and to open fire if he refused. The troops claimed that the Indians fired first, without any parleying. Kamiakin's men were exhausted by noon of the second day and had; been forced across a creek, but re-enforcements arrived under Qualchan. Th troops were driven back, losing most of their mules and provisions. Fearing that the food might be poisoned, the Indians burned it. A Wascopam Indian with Haller got through the Yakima sentinels that night and rode for help! INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 225 to The Dalles. The fight was resumed on the third day, with the troops surrounded on a hill and deprived of food and water. By nightfall the Indians felt confident that they could easily finish their work next day, and they withdrew to sleep. Haller led his men away in the night and reached the mountains before daybreak, when his flight was discovered. He was obliged to spike and bury the howitzer. The Indians pursued and inflicted some losses on the troops luring their retreat through the mountains. Haller's total losses were five killed and seventeen wounded. Re-enforcements joined him in the Klickitat valley, but he returned to The Dalles. Qualchan led a band of warriors to the Naches pass, to intercept Lieutenant Slaughter's command, of whose approach the Indians had been informed. Teias, uncle of Qualchan, was in advance with the scouts. A lone white man was discovered coming through the pass, and they surrounded him. He was at once recognized as a trader named Edgar, who had married a niece of Teias. He said he was coming to warn them about the soldiers. Teias believed him and innocently told him of Haller's defeat, advising him to turn back, as Qualchan would probably kill him. Edgar was Slaughter's guide, and he lost no time in carrying the news to the troops. By marching all night, Slaughter gbt his men out of the pass and well on the way to the sound before the main force of the Indians reached the summit. Qualchan, who had distrusted his uncle's intelligence from the start, ordered him to join the old men and the women in the Kittitas valley and to stay there until the end of the war. Edgar became a marked man and was soon afterwards murdered by an Indian. Haller called for a thousand men. Rains was able to send only 334 men, and to do this he was obliged to leave the posts west of the Cascades almost defenseless. He called upon Acting Governor Mason for two companies of volunteers and upon Governor George L. Curry of Oregon for four companies. Mason secured arms from two government ships on the sound. The two Washington companies were used as guards for the settlements, in the absence of the federal troops, and a third company was raised by Indian Agent B. F. Shaw, to meet Stevens and to act as an escort. Four additional companies were ordered to be raised in Vancouver, Cathlamet, Olympia and Seattle, for any emergency that might arise. Mason commissioned Rains as Brigadier General, commanding the territorial troops. In Oregon, Curry was not satisfied with raising four companies. He believed that other tribes along the territorial boundary would revolt, and he called for eight additional companies to act as an independent force but in conjunction with Rains. James W. Nesmith was commissioned Colonel of the Oregon volunteers. Rains's commission as a General was believed to be a device to enable him to rank the commander of the Oregon troops. 226 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Failure of the Rains Expedition Rains's first contact with the Yakimas came on October 8. The Indians avoided a battle, though in the first encounter, at Union Gap on the Yakima,! they apparently intended to stop the troops. Stone breastworks had been erected, but these were scattered by howitzer fire. With some of Nesmith's command, which had joined the column, Rains now had a force sufficient to overwhelm the Indians. He moved with extreme caution, however, and took no advantage of the ground which his troops won. The Oregon men were anxious for aggressive action and chafed under his restraining orders, as did also Lieutenant Phil Sheridan, who commanded the advance guard and was therefore constantly with the volunteers.7 On one occasion, incensed by the taunts of the Indians on a neighboring hill and galled by their own inactivity, a large number of troops, including many officers, rushed from the camp, without orders, and took the bill. Rains would not allow it to be held, and they retired after building a bonfire. Thereupon the Indians returned and warmed themselves at the fire. Kamiakin had sent a considerable part of his warriors to aid Peupeumoxmox, in anticipation of fighting in the Walla Walla country. He knew that he could not cope with Rains's force, and after he had covered the retreat of the old men and the women toward the Okanogan, he ordered his band to scatter in several directions. The troops lost time by going into camp at the Catholic mission to await the arrival of a detachment supposed to be coming through the Naches pass. These troops failed to get through on account of heavy snow. The mission had been plundered by the Indians, who took the priest, Father Pandosy, along with them. The troops disposed of the priest's pigs, which had been left behind by the Indians, and dug his potatoes. In the garden they found half a keg of powder, which he had hidden from the Indians. Some of the soldiers made the unreasonable inference that he was the source of the mysterious supply of ammunition which the Yakimas owned. The mission buildings were burned by the excited troops before their officers became aware of what was going on. A fruitless search was made for the retreating Indians, and as snow was falling in the mountains, Rains started for The Dalles. The snow concealed the trails and the march was a trying experience, particularly for the mounted volunteers and Sheridan's dragoons, who broke the road for the infantry and the guns. Every one regarded the expedition as a failure, and charges of incompetency were preferred against Rains. He was never tried, for General Wool, who had arrived at Vancouver, held that he did not have a sufficient number of officers of appropriate rank to constitute a court. Wool was indignant, however, that Rains had called for volunteer troops, and he claimed that the regiment raised by Governor Curry INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 227 was in no sense necessary for the defense of Oregon. With his unblushing inconsistency, he also stated that he had called on the United States government for at least one additional regiment. Wool knew that the troops were needed, but he wanted only regulars, though it would take months to get them. Timely Aid from Oregon The company of Washington volunteers raised to go to the relief of Stevens Was waiting to be mustered into the regular service at Vancouver, and Wool took advantage of this fact to disband it. It is to Rains's credit that he protested against this act, as did also Captain William McKay, in command of the company. Wool is reported to have said that Stevens could take care of himself; he could go down the Missouri or get aid from General Harney. Harney was then on the eastern side of the Sioux country, as far from Stevens as the latter was from The Dalles. Wool afterwards wrote Stevens that he did not know the purpose for which this company had been raised, but orders to recruit the company for this specific purpose had been issued by agreement between Acting Governor Mason and Major Rains. Much anxiety for the safety of Stevens' party was felt in the two Territories. When the regular troops returned to their garrisons, after Rains's Yakima campaign, Colonel Nesmith moved the Oregon volunteers into the Walla Walla country. Governor Curry cited the perilous situation of the Stevens party as one of the reasons for this movement. A Yakima band had gone to join the Walla Wallas, and Peupeumoxmox threatened to kill Stevens. The federal military authorities showed no interest in protecting Stevens, though he was United States Indian Agent as well as Governor of Washington. In the emergency, the Oregon men took the field, and if they had not done so, he would never have reached The Dalles. Nathan Obey, Sub-Indian Agent at The Dalles, preceded the troops. He found plain signs of a general outbreak and induced the three Hudson's Bay officers at the fort to throw a large amount of ammunition into the Columbia. Other stores were placed in charge of a friendly Walla Walla chief, and the settlers were advised to prepare for a sudden departure. Soon afterwards, news reached an approaching column of Oregon troops that Peupeumoxmox had taken and pillaged Fort Walla Walla. The chief who was left in charge was cleared of blame, as he was alone and could offer no resistance. The settlers had no time to escape from the valley and were on the defensive, among friendly tribesmen. It was estimated that there were about 1,000 hostiles. While Nesmith and part of the Oregon troops were with Rains in the Yakima country, six companies of the volunteer regiment assembled on the Umatilla, under Lieutenant Colonel James K. Kelley, and built a fort, which j they named Fort Henrietta, for the wife of Major Haller. Kelley moved I toward Fort Walla Walla on December 2. Finding the fort deserted, he 228 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST followed the Indians up the Touchet. Peupeumoxmox came in, with a flag of truce. He was surly and left the impression with Kelley that he merely planned to gain time for his people to escape. He was given the choice of leaving under his flag of truce, with the knowledge that the troops would immediately attack his villages, or staying with six of his men, as hostages, until his followers should surrender their arms and ammunition, as he had agreed that they would do. The chief chose to stay. He suggested that they move toward his village, a short distance above, to get some beef cattle. The troops soon found that they must enter a canon where they could be easily entrapped, a warning from Obey checked the advance, and they marched back again to a safe camping place.8 The chief was allowed to send one of the six other hostages to the village, to notify his people of the terms to which he had agreed. The messenger did not return, and it was found on the next day that the Indians had removed all their property and deserted the village in the night. They could be seen on distant hills, but they refused to parley when a flag of truce was sent forward. So Kelley took his command to the mouth of the Touchet, where his supply train was waiting. Battle of Frenchtown When the troops started for Waiilatpu on December 7, the Indians closed in and commenced firing. Their number increased all day, and they were driven ahead with great difficulty. As the troops neared Waiilatpu, brush and trees extending from the hills on the left to the river afforded the Indians shelter for the kind of warfare which they liked best. Their fire from this cover stopped the advance of the troops. The hills were covered with Indian horsemen, and bands of the savages danced around poles, from which dangled scalps of white people.9 There was sharp fighting around some of the settlers' houses, — afterwards known among the troops as the battle of Frenchtown. The Indians were dislodged from a house protected by a close-built fence, with the aid of a howitzer found at Fort Walla Walla, but the gun burst and wounded Captain A. V. Wilson, Captain Charles Bennett and Lieutenant J. M. Burrows were among the killed in the first day's fighting. The prisoners became a problem. Peupeumoxmox constantly shouted to his warriors, cheering them on and issuing orders. When every volunteer was needed in the fighting, Kelley ordered the guard to tie the prisoners and to kill them if they resisted. As they were about to be bound, one of the Indians stabbed a soldier in the arm with a knife which had been concealed. The chief tried to snatch a gun from a guard and was promptly felled with a blow on the head and killed. The other prisoners attempted flight and were shot, with the exception of a Nez Perce boy, who allowed the guard to bind him. The killing of tl prisoners was justified, and those who are familiar with the a INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 229 Indian warfare and of the massacres which were fresh in the minds of the Oregon volunteers can readily understand how it happened that some of the troops scalped Peupeumoxmox and cut off his ears, though their action was culpable and resulted in a military scandal. Camp fires were hurriedly extinguished with the contents of kettles and coffee pots, on the night of the seventh, when the Indians commenced using the fires as targets, and the troops remained alert all night. The Indians closed in again in the morning with still greater numbers and interrupted the breakfast of the troops by retaking positions lost on the seventh. Fighting continued through the next two days. The Indians were driven out of the timber and brush, and were back again by morning. This was the situation on the tenth, and the Indians had thrown up breastworks. These were rushed, two companies recovered the timber, and a cavalry charge decided the battle. The Indians scattered and did not return. Fort Bennett was erected, two miles above Waiilatpu. Nesmith resigned his command, and Thomas R. Cornelius became Colonel of the regiment. Bold Tactics of Governor Stevens When Pearson brought the news of the Yakima outbreak to Governor Stevens in the Blackfoot country, he also transmitted messages from the federal military authorities at Vancouver, advising him to go down the Missouri and to return to Olympia by way of New York. Stevens was not likely to take this kind of advice. He sent Doty back to Fort Benton for more arms, ammunition and horses, and hurried ahead of the train, accompanied by an interpreter. The departing Nez Perces were overtaken before reaching the Bitter Root valley, and they agreed to share fortunes with the Governor. Camp was established in the Bitter Root, and Doty came in with the train in a few days. The party started on November 14 and crossed the mountains in deep snow. Luckily for Stevens, the trail had recently been broken by Indians, who left ten dead horses along the way. The Coeur d'Alenes and the Spokanes were taken by surprise at a moment when their loyalty was weakening, as the emissaries of Kamiakin had just left them. A council of the northern tribes was held at Antoine Plante's place on the Spokane. It lasted three days and was sometimes stormy, but Stevens won the confidence of the tribesmen. Chief Garry of the Spokanes expressed the belief of the northern Indians that they would [inevitably be involved in the war, if the Yakimas should be driven into their ! country and the troops should move north of the Snake river. An effort was i made to exact a promise from the Governor that the troops would not cross : the Snake. A chief of the lower Spokanes brought up an old issue when he said: "When you stopped the traders from selling us ammunition, you stabbed our ; hearts. We do not know what to make of it. We are not Blackfeet." Most of the J 230 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST chiefs spoke for peace. At the end Garry said: "All these things that we have been speaking of had better be tied together as they are, like a bundle of sticks, because you are in a hurry. There is no time to talk of them. But afterwards you can come back, when you find time, and see us." The Coeur d'Alenes and Colvilles approved, and the council adjourned with general expressions of A number of miners had gathered at Antoine Plante's, and others came from Colville with Angus MacDonald, the Chief Trader, and the Colville chiefs. The miners organized as a volunteer company, the Spokane Invincibles, with Judge B. F. Yantis as Captain. Some of the rifles for this company were purchased from the Indians. The Governor's party also organized, as the Stevens Guards, with C. P. Higgins, his Pack Master, as Captain, and Pearson as First Lieutenant. These companies were duly mustered into the territorial service and were supplied with good horses. Doty was made Adjutant, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and W. H. Toppan was appointed Quartermaster. Stevens now had a military command, in addition to his Nez Perces, though it numbered scarcely fifty men. A running fight with several thousand hostiles was not unlikely; so he reduced each pack to two pairs of blankets, ten pounds of personal baggage and ten days' rations. He distrusted the Nez Perces, chiefly on account of Looking Glass, and he set his interpreter to watch this Indian. Looking Glass was heard explaining to a Spokane chief a plan to overpower Stevens when they should reach the Nez Perce country. Stevens said nothing, but made his own plan, with a confidence which the course of events justified. He believed he could rely on the general good sense of the tribe. He started for the Nez Perce country on December 6 and was at Craig's place on the eleventh. About two thousand Nez Perces, eight hundred of whom were warriors, were encamped there. Lawyer was among them, and it was evident that they were still loyal. Stevens could assure them of the unwillingness of the northern tribes to engage in a war. Before the deliberations were ended, Timothy and Red Wolf came up with the news of the victory of the Oregon volunteers. Many speeches were made, declaring loyalty to the government, and finally Three Feathers said: "Why don't you get up and say that you are all going with Governor Stevens? We said it before coming here. He is anxious to start." Whatever may have been Looking Glass's intentions, he closed the Indian speech-making by saying: " Now let none of you turn your face from what has been said. Your old people have spoken, and where is the man who will turn his back on it ? " A third company was added to the territorial troops, composed of sixty-nine Nez Perce riflemen, with Spotted Eagle as Captain. Thirty other Indians acted as horse guards, as each warrior took with him, on an average, three fine horses. The train moved with Lieutenant Pearson and a scouting party several miles INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 231 in advance and the Nez Perces on the flanks. Umehowlish, war chief of the Cayuses, came in and surrendered, claiming that he had not been engaged in the fighting and that he had been waiting to talk with the Governor. At Mill creek about one hundred friendly Cayuses and Walla Wallas were found, with a guard of twenty-five settlers, mostly French and half-breeds who had remained in the valley. Stickas and several other Cayuse chiefs were with them. |,Most of the Indians in this group were Catholics and had been kept friendly by the influence of Father Chirouse. At the camp of the Oregon volunteers, Stevens addressed four hundred of the troops, thanking them for routing the enemy and opening the road, — and firing the first gun in his attack on General Wool and his failure to help the settlers and the territorial government. The December weather was exceptionally inclement. The temperature fell to 270 below zero. The winter campaign which Stevens wished to prosecute, in order to make the success of the troops conclusive, was plainly impossible. Some of the horses of the Oregon volunteers froze to death. On December 31, the Governor decided to go at once to Olympia. Craig was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, and the Nez Perce volunteers were ordered home, there to be mustered out by Craig. Doty was instructed to move the Walla Walla Bat- • talion, consisting of the Stevens Guards and the Spokane Invincibles, to The Dalles, as soon as the weather moderated, and to muster them out. Colonel B. F. Shaw of the Washington Militia was placed in command of a Military District embracing Walla Walla county and was ordered to organize the settlers for their own defense. Stevens left for The Dalles on January 1,1856, with three of his men, two Nez Perces and the prisoner, Umehowlish. The Oregon troops kept the field through the winter. Five new companies were recruited and arrived about March 1, to replace the men whose terms were expiring. Six boats were built in February, and the regiment crossed the Snake tbirty miles below the mouth of the Palouse, marching across the plain to White Bluffs on the Columbia and back. This expedition was fruitless and trying. Half the horses were lost for lack of grass and water. On this march and afterwards, contact with the hostiles was confined to efforts to run off each other's horses. Cattle were scarce, and horses were needed for food as well as for mounts. In April, Cornelius led part of his command down the north side of the Columbia, and Kelley took the rest of the regiment down the south side to Fort Henrietta. There was no sign of the coming of regular troops, but the time for which the Oregon men had enlisted was about to expire. Bands of hostiles roamed the country. Proceeding up the Yakima river to Satus creek, the force led by Cornelius encountered 300 Yakimas under Kamiakin. In a reconnaissance, Captain A. J. Hembree was killed. The Indians attacked as soon as their presence was disclosed. The region was hilly, and the volunteers succeeded in taking possession of all the commanding positions. Kamiakin fortified 232 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST a hill several miles ahead. In directing the movements of his braves in this engagement, he signalled his orders with a black flag. The troops carried the fortified hill in a series of rushes, and the Indians fled. Pursuit was unwise on account of shortage of food and was made impossible when the Indians practically dismounted the regiment by stampeding nearly all of Cornelius's horses at a camp five miles from The Dalles and by capturing forty-five of Kelley's horses and swimming them across the Columbia. The regiment was disbanded by Governor Curry, but one company was organized to serve in the Walla Walla country, and two companies were located in the Tyghe valley, under the command of Major Davis Layton. Cornelius spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe of the difficulties of a compaign in the Indian country, and the latter is said to have replied: " With raw volunteers like yours, it may seem difficult, but with trained soldiers like mine it is different." It was just two years later that Steptoe met with disaster as a result of this conceit. Cascades Massacre General Wool was called to California in January, 1856, and in February Governor Stevens commenced transmitting a series of reports to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, in which he charged Wool with incapacity and criminal neglect of duty and asked for his removal. As he went down the river in January, Wool met eight companies of the Ninth infantry, under Colonel George Wright, coming up, and at sea he passed two companies of the same regiment, with its Lieutenant Colonel, Silas Casey. Wool assigned Casey to command the Puget sound district and Wright to the Columbia district. Wright was ordered to concentrate his force at The Dalles and to build a fort in the Walla Walla valley and two forts in the Yakima country. These operations were unaccountably delayed. The five companies of Oregon recruits went up the river in February. Wright's command did not start until March, and his first movement gave the Indians an opening for which they were looking. Wool returned from California at this moment and issued orders which made the situation even worse. The sequel was the Cascades massacre. The Cascades on the Columbia created a military hazard as well as a transportation difficulty. The long portage delayed the forwarding of supplies, which tended to accumulate there, —a rich booty for the watchful savages. A wooden tramway had been built along part of the road, and there was a blockhouse about midway. The settlements above and below the Cascades were unprotected. Two small steamers were above the rapids. Kamiakin plotted the massacre and sent thirty Yakimas to lead in the adventure. They added twenty Klikitats to their number, and this band of fifty easily won over the Cascade Indians. The plan was to wait until both the up-river steamboats were L INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 233 at the Cascades, burn them, kill the whites and hold the place until the arrival of Kamiakin with a large force. With his instructions to build a fort in the Walla Walla valley and with no suspicion of danger at the rear, Wright marched above The Dalles and camped first at Five-mile creek. Wool sent two of the three companies at Vancouver to Steilacoom and took away the company at the Cascades, leaving nine men to garrison the blockhouse. Two days after the withdrawal of the company, when both steamers were at the Cascades, the attack was made simultaneously by two parties, at the upper settlement and the blockhouse." The surprise failed in an essential detail. The steamers were not captured. The Mary lay near a mill. It was early in the morning, and the fires were out. Three of the crew were on their way to go aboard, and they tried to get the steamer out but were forced to run for cover in the woods. Several men were fortunately on the boat, and though they were armed only with revolvers and a pistol, they kept the Indians off and started the fires. Three of the crew were wounded, and one of these jumped into the river and was drowned. Two wounded men were taken on board, and one of the crew, lying flat on the floor of the pilot house, backed the steamer out. The whistle was blown, to inform the people on shore that the Mary was off for aid. The other steamer, the Wasco, was across the river, with its crew aboard. The Wasco also got away, and the men who had escaped to the woods were picked up by the boats, further up the river. At the first onslaught, the Indians killed one man, his wife and her young brother, at the mill. Several men working on a bridge and a warehouse on an island were wounded, one mortally. One of the wounded men lay hidden under a shelf of rock for two days. Most of the settlers, about forty in number, reached the store of Bradford & Company, which was a two-story log house, with the stairs outside. In the confusion of the first moments, James Sinclair, formerly in charge of Fort Walla Walla, opened the door to look for stragglers and was shot dead. To reach the upper floor, the stovepipe hole was enlarged. Port-holes were cut in the logs, and the Indians were kept at a distance with nine rifles which had been left at the store that morning. The last refugee to come in was a woman, whose belated flight to the store was covered by rifle fire from the port-holes. The Indians threw burning pitchwood on the roof from a bluff at the rear of the store, and the men on the upper floor poked off the brands with long sticks, put out some of the fires with cupfuls of brine from a pork barrel and cut out burning patches of the roof with axe and saw. The besieged had no water, though the building stood on the bank of the river, with a slide for handling goods extending down to a wharf. Several bottles of whiskey and two dozen bottles of ale afforded some relief the first day. The Indians burned houses at night, to prevent a sortie under cover of darkness. One bucket _ 234 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of water was procured by a Spokane Indian boy, a protege of Sinclair, who stripped and slid down to the wharf. He performed the same feat repeatedly on the second night, filling two barrels, and the body of Sinclair was slipped into the river. At the blockhouse, five of the garrison of nine who were on hand when the attack came got out the howitzer and kept the Indians off while most of the people in the vicinity ran for shelter through a shower of bullets. A sixth member of the garrison was wounded at the door of the blockhouse in the first volley from the Indians, and another wounded soldier managed to reach the fort towards night. The cannon was effective in keeping the Indians away from a large building which they wished to burn and in dispersing a force of Indians who appeared on the Oregon side of the river. Two sorties were successfully made on the second day, to search for food, arms and ammunition in neighboring houses and to bring in wounded. The people at the lower landing were warned by a friendly Indian, who ran down from the blockhouse when the attack commenced, and by a workman on the tramway, who cut loose his mules from a car and rode down, shouting the news. Two boats were loaded with women and children and were started for Vancouver. There was considerable government freight at the landing, but the men had insufficient ammunition to attempt a defense, and when the Indians appeared, towards night, they pushed out into the river, on a schooner and several bateaux, escaping with one man wounded. A day's delay in the relief from The Dalles was due to the absence of the troops, already on the march to Walla Walla. The two steamers returned at daybreak on the 28th, with Colonel Wright and 250 men. The whistles announced their arrival. Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe was sent with two companies of infantry, a detachment of dragoons and a howitzer, to disperse the Indians, but they could not be found. They had contented themselves with firing one volley at the Mary, while she was stranded for a while before landing, and had then vanished. Lieutenant Phil Sheridan's Exploit Lieutenant Phil Sheridan and forty dragoons were the only troops tha could be sent from Vancouver, when news of the attack was brought by th boats bearing the women and children from the lower landing. There was: artillery, and Sheridan borrowed a small iron cannon, used for firing salut from the captain of a San Francisco steamer.11 Some solid shot that would fit th gun were found at the arsenal. The troops sailed at 2 a.m. on the 27th, on 1 steamer Belle. They landed below the settlement, early in the day, a the steamer was sent back for volunteer re-enforcements. The only approac to the Indian position was along a narrow neck of land. Sheridan with hal I INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 235 a dozen men made a reconnaissance, and an Indian bullet nearly ended his career, grazing his nose and killing a soldier beside him. The cannon was used to keep the Indians under cover, but the situation made a frontal attack suicidal for either party. Sheridan was anxious to bring relief to the people besieged in the blockhouse and was unwilling to remain inactive until re-enforcements should arrive. He conceived a daring plan and carried it out successfully. Early on the morning of the 28th, after firing a few shots from the cannon at the Indian front, he took his command across the river in a bateau which carried twenty men at a time. The departure of the troops was not observed, and they were soon hidden behind Bradford's island, which lies close to the Oregon bank. Sheridan was puzzled at the ease with which this movement had been executed and climbed the mountain side to discover what was engaging the attention of the Indians. He found that they were running horse races, and he hastened to proceed with his enterprise. He crossed the narrow channel to the island, with ten men, to haul the boat up the rapids, as it was impossible to take it up by the south bank. A party of squaws was found, who had been placed on the island for safety, and the Indian women were pressed into the service at pulling on the tow rope. Sheridan testifies that they worked well. At the upper end of the island, the boat was loaded with men, as there was a smooth stretch of water. The others continued along the bank until a point opposite the blockhouse was reached. Then the entire force was taken across, and Sheridan apprized the besieged of his arrival. His plan had worked out very neatly, but he was deprived of the fruits of his success by the appearance of Steptoe's column and the fatuous blowing of a bugle, which warned the Indians. Sheridan does not mention this mistake in his memoirs, but says he told Steptoe that when they moved down the river they would find that the Yakimas had left and that their Cascade allies had crossed to Bradford's island. In the meantime two companies of volunteers from Portland and Vancouver and a company of regulars had landed below the Cascades. The volunteers freely vented their indignation at the escape of the Yakimas. Steptoe sent Sheridan to Bradford's island with the dragoons and the howitzer. The Cascade Indians were found there, badly frightened and ready to put all the blame on the Yakimas. Lining the warriors up with their muskets in hand, Sheridan put his finger into the muzzle of each gun and proved that every gun had been recently discharged. The Indians were then disarmed, and thirteen of those most under suspicion were arrested and taken to the lower landing. Colonel Wright conveyed them to the upper landing, where a trial by military commission was held. Nine of the Indians were found guilty and were promptly hanged from a tree. All the condemned men confessed that they had taken part in the massacre. A few prisoners were sent to Vancouver. Wright stationed troops at the upper and lower landings and ordered blockhouses to be built. 236 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST By the end of April, the regulars set out again from The Dalles, with Wright in command, and marched into the Yakima country, instead of going to Walla Walla. The Indians made a few hostile demonstrations but in general kept out of reach. Many weeks were spent in trailing them about. Kamiakin wished to fight, but most of the chiefs favored prolonging negotiations with the army until the fishing season was over and they were sure of their winter supply of food. Kamiakin finally rode away into the Palouse with several hundred of his warriors and never.returned to his old home. At one time, however, the danger of heavy fighting seemed so strong that Wright sent for Steptoe and all the troops available on the Columbia. The force in the field by the end of May numbered over five hundred, exclusive of pack trains. Fort Naches was built, known by early settlers as the basket fort, because it was made of baskets of twisted willows, filled with rocks and sand. Owhi seems to have been really anxious for peace, with Moses a more doubtful second. After Kamiakin's withdrawal, only two hundred warriors were left to oppose the army. The chiefs visited Wright and agreed to give up all warfare. The Indians then departed, with the understanding that Owhi would return later to carry out various provisions of the pact. This he failed to do, as might have been expected. Wright spent the summer in marching through the country. Fort Simcoe was established, in August, between Simcoe and Toppenish creeks. Major Robert S. Garnett was left in command, with two companies, and a military road was built from The Dalles, sixty-five miles distant. Blockhouse Era Stevens' attention was occupied through the winter of 1856 by Indian depredations west of the Cascade mountains. These were a part of the general uprising and had been started by emissaries of Kamiakin. Soon after the first Washington volunteer companies were mustered out, Stevens called for the enlistment of the Second regiment. No further units were to be raised for. the defense of particular localities. This regiment was organized in three bat-, talions and was intended to cover the whole field of operations. Citizens were urged not to leave the border settlements but to build blockhouses wherev there were three or more families. The report of W. W. DeLacy, Captain Engineers, W. T. V., at the close of the war, shows that the settlers built three blockhouses or stockades, the volunteer troops thirty-five and the regub four. There was also much road construction, for military purposes. This h been called the blockhouse era. Co-operation of the army, elsewhere lacking, was all that could be desire in the sound district, where Lieutenant Colonel Casey was in command; an the navy, which had several small gunboats on the sound, was in complete sym pathy with the territorial government. The naval officers supplied arrr INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 237 volunteers, and Governor James Douglas sent a steamer from Victoria to Nisqually with fifty rifles and a large supply of ammunition. The sloop-of-war Decatur lay in the harbor of Seattle, but this did not discourage an attack on the town.12 Friendly Indians conveyed a timely warning that hostiles were approaching from Lake Washington. Tradition credits Angeline, daughter of Chief Seattle, with a canoe trip by night to save the town, but there are rival claimants to the honor. The Decatur dropped a shell where the enemy was reported to be and drew a volley of rifle shots in reply. The firing lasted until night, when the Indians left. Chiefs Coquilton and Leshi are said to have been assisted in the attack by the Yakima Owhi, —an instance of the far-reaching activities of Kamiakin and his staff. On another occasion, at the battle of Con- nell's prairie, two companies of volunteers whipped a large force of natives. The Indians afterwards worked in small bands. "Fire-ships," to use the Indian term for steamers, were of great help in quieting the Indians on Puget sound. Beside the Decatur, there were the Hudson's Bay Company steamers Beaver and Otter, the U. S. revenue cutter Jefferson Davis and survey steamer Active and the steamers Massachusetts and John Hancock. The thing which the settlers most feared was that the Puget sound tribes would form an alliance with the Haidas in the north. These Indians were the pirates of the great inner seas. They travelled in swift war canoes carrying fifty men apiece and made distant raids for slaves and plunder. A large band of the northern savages camped at Port Gamble and refused to leave. Captain Swartwout of the Massachusetts sent a howitzer ashore. After the Indians had been driven into the woods, with heavy losses, their canoes and provisions were destroyed. They surrendered and were taken to Victoria, where they were left to find their way home. This engagement was decisive, though it was thought best to build Fort Townsend and Fort Bellingham, where Captain George E. Pickett of Civil war fame was in command. The savages felt obliged to strike a few blows in revenge, though they showed no further desire to match strength with the army or navy. They captured two schooners and murdered the passengers and crews. Their code required that they should take the head of a white chief in recompense for the loss of one of their chiefs at Port Gamble. So a party from Kake visited Whidby island, August 11, 1857, called Colonel Isaac N. Ebey to the door of his house, killed him and took away his head.13 United States Marshal George W. Corliss and his wife, who were in the house at the time, escaped, together with Ebey's wife and children, but were murdered by the northern Indians at a later date. In i860, the legislature thanked Chief Trader Charles Dodd for recovering Ebey's head, after a two years' hunt, while on northern trips in the Beaver and the Labouchere. Chief Patkanim, who was suspected of plotting the capture of Fort 238 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Nisqually in 1849, as related in Chapter IX, afterward cast in his lot with the whites and led his tribesmen against Leshi and other hostiles. Patkanim's services were rewarded for a while at the rate of $20 apiece for heads of hostiles, with four times as much for chiefs.14 Rear Admiral T. S. Phelps, who was a Lieutenant on the Decatur, tells of receiving several invoices of these trophies, for checking and shipment to Olympia. When business was dull, Patkanim killed some of his own slaves, to maintain his reputation and income. The Indians west of the mountains were driven into hiding, but the region could not be freed from danger and settlers could not return to their lands until the eastern tribes should be vanquished whose unrest was persistently communicated to the Coast. Wright's operations in the Yakima country promised no decisive result, and Wright notified Stevens that he now had no intention of moving towards Walla Walla and building the fort there which had been included in his original plans, as he felt that the Indians there were friendly. An escort of regulars could not be secured for the supply train which had to be sent to Craig's agency in the Nez Perce country. Moreover, Craig wrote from Lapwai in May that he felt sure all the upper Columbia tribes had joined the war party and had formed an alliance with the Snakes, Cayuses and Palouses. The friendly Nez Perces were without ammunition and were surrounded by enemies who threatened to drive them out of the country along with the whites. The argument of the hostiles was: " What can the friendly Indians do? They have no ammunition, and the whites will give them none; we have plenty. Come and join us and save your lives, or we will take your property anyhow." Looking Glass and the Nez Perces who had belonged to the volunteer company prevented a band of Spokanes, in search of horses, from crossing the Clearwater. Lawyer advised that Craig and the friendly Indians remove to the Salmon river, a little further away from their enemies. It was evident that another task awaited the volunteers. Stevens sent Lieutenant Colonel Shaw over the Naches pass with four companies and a pack train, and a similar force was dispatched by the river route. The two columns united at Mill creek in the Walla Walla country on July 9 and were joined there by Craig and sixty Nez Perce auxiliaries under Spotted Eagle. About seventy-five men under Captain F. P. M. Goff had been detached from the southern column at the Umatilla, to aid Major Davis Layton of the Oregon volunteers in the Blue mountains. Shaw marched at once against the hostiles in the Grande Ronde and administered a crushing defeat, capturing nearly all the enemy's provisions and ammunition and over two hundred horses. Meanwhile the Oregon troops and Goff's men had won the battle of Burnt river, after pursuing the Indians from the headwaters of the Umatilla. I INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 239 Second Walla Walla Council Stevens took this to be a propitious occasion to call a council of all the Indians, both friendly and hostile. As the six-months' term of Shaw's troops was about to expire, a call for two hundred recruits was issued, but was revoked when Colonel Wright decided to send four companies of regulars to Walla Walla. The regulars arrived, under the command of Steptoe, and all the volunteers went home except Goff's company. This company and two of the others were almost entirely Oregon men. A detachment of Goff's company had already started and was called back when Stevens discovered that Steptoe had camped about eight miles away and would not station any troops at the council ground.15 Antoine Plante and the Indian Agent in the north, Montour, came in with the news that the Spokanes would not attend the council. A large band of Cayuses, Des Chutes and Umatillas arrived and camped near the Nez Perces, without calling on the Governor. Some of these Indians had just captured one of Stevens' pack trains, the packers being forced to abandon it after exhausting their ammunition. This was the only loss of the kind which the Washington volunteers had suffered. It elated the hostiles and spoiled the effect of the raids by Shaw and Goff. Father A. Ravalli of the Coeur d'Alene mission brought the information that Kamiakin, Skloom, Owhi, and Qualchan of the Yakimas and Looking Glass of the Nez Perces, all of whom he had interviewed, would not be present. The council opened on September 11, and on this and the following day there were frank statements from the Indians of their readiness to fight, though most of the chiefs were reluctant to speak and seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Many were known to be carrying arms, and there were rumors that Kamiakin was not far away. The Indians held councils by themselves. The friendly Nez Perces, whose lives were threatened, danced the war dance throughout the second night. A company of dragoons came from Steptoe on the third day, with the suggestion that Stevens might remove to a point nearer the camp of the regulars. The invitation was accepted the next day, and on the way a war party of Yakimas under Kamiakin, Owhi and Qualchan was unexpectedly encountered. The surprise was to the advantage of the whites, whose train was guarded by the dragoons, Goff's company and the Nez Perce volunteers, and nothing happened. The council continued on the 16th and 17th, with the Yakimas encamped a quarter of a mile away. An attack was feared on the night of the 16th, and the Nez Perce allies beat the drum all night and kept guard around the Governor's camp. It was plain that nothing could be accomplished. The Indians were hopelessly intractable, with the exception of one-half of the Nez Perces. The idea had been spread by Kamiakin that the government, as represented by the Superintendent of Indian affairs, did not have the military 240 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ;il seemed to prove this. Stevens power behind it, and events during the 0 closed the council on the 17th. In spite of the demonstrations of hostility during the council meetings and the dangerous situation at their close, Steptoe remained loyal to the pacifist j instructions of his superiors one more day. He held a conference of his own with the Indians and said to them: " My mission is pacific. I have come not to fight you, but to live among you. Come into my camp when you please." j He invited the chiefs to a more formal conference on the next day. They took ; what he said literally, however, and followed Stevens when he started for The mpany and fifty Nez Perce a . Before leavii ng Dalles with Goff's the vicinity of Steptoe's camp, the Indians set fire to the grass. They attacked Stevens within three miles of the camp. He was ready for them and moved on under fire until water was reached, at a point easily defended. The hostiles sent word to the Nez Perce escort that their women and children, who were camped I about a mile away, would be killed unless they returned. Whereupon Stevens ordered them to retire. The fight continued into the night, and the Indians were twice scattered by charges. In one of these sallies, Shaw with twenty-four men 1 had to cut his way back through a force of 250 Indians who got in his rear. Stevens sent word to Steptoe that he was fighting the Indians but expected to resume his march in the morning, and the Governor, — to quote from his report, — " expressed the opinion that a company of his (Steptoe's) troops would be of service." Steptoe was now ready to make common cause with the Governor. He replied that the Indians had burned his grass, and he suggested that Stevens i return and give the army the use of his wagons, in order that both parties might move together to the Umatilla, where the regulars would find si for their animals. Steptoe sent dragoons and a howitzer. The invita accepted, and the return was made before daylight. The Indians attacket Steptoe's camp soon after sunrise and were dispersed by howitzer fire charge by the regulars. Kamiakin was greatly incensed at Steptoe for interfe ing, regarding his action as a breach of faith. It was decided, on Stevens' advi to build a blockhouse and stockade, to leave one company and most of t supplies and then to proceed in light marching order to The Dalles. Stepto views of the Indian situation had changed over night. He seems to have fall in with the Governor's opinion that the army ought to return, with increase! strength, for a winter campaign. He wrote to Colonel Wright: "In genera terms I may say that in my judgment we are reduced to the necessity of wagin a vigorous war." Stevens sent messengers them to separate from the hostiles and 1 country, and Steptoe sent word that he ' soon to discover, however, that the vi to the friendly Nez Perces, c; o keep them out of their part of tl ould punish the bad Indians. He w ws of his superiors had suffered n INDIAN UPRISING-BLOCKHOUSE ERA 241 change. The combined force of Stevens, Steptoe and the Nez Perce auxiliaries arrived at The Dalles on October 2, and Stevens went to Olympia. The legislature met in December, and the Governor's message was a keen review of the events and difficulties of the Indian war. It was published, with accompanying correspondence, in a volume of 450 pages and is one of the most valuable documents in the history of the Pacific Northwest. Interior Closed to Settlers Meanwhile, General Wool, in his reports, was alleging that Stevens had called the second council at Walla Walla with the direct purpose of starting another Indian war. Colonel Wright and one additional company went to Walla Walla with Steptoe's command, on its return, and Wright called a council of chiefs. The few who attended were told that the bloody shirt would be washed, past differences would be forgotten and that the treaties need not be kept. "Warned by what has occurred," wrote Wool in his instructions to Wright, " the General trusts you will be on your guard against the whites . . . and prevent further trouble by keeping the whites out of the Indian country." Steptoe, left in command of the new Fort Walla Walla, published an order from General Wool excluding white settlers from the country. This order was dated much earlier, August 20, at the moment when Steptoe's column was leaving The Dalles to follow Stevens' party to the Walla Walla council. Its publication at that time must have been judged impolitic, for the settlers' militia were still on the ground. Stevens protested the exclusion order, in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior and in his message to the legislature, showing that in the case of claims actually taken, not even Congress could escheat the rights of the citizens without compensation. Steptoe suggested to Wool that it might be wise to permit " a good industrious colony " to settle in the Walla Walla valley, but Wool replied that the whole interior was a natural reservation and the Cascade mountains a most valuable wall of separation between two races always at war when in contact. Wool sought to support his position by publishing in eastern newspapers a report by Captain Thomas J. Cram, an engineer officer on his staff. It was a lengthy " topographical memoir" on the Columbia river country, which now makes curious reading. When Wool sent the document to the War Department, with his hearty commendation, Captain A. A. Humphreys, in charge of the Pacific railroad reports, called attention to numerous plagiarisms from the Stevens survey. Cram appropriated much descriptive matter without credit, and his conclusions merely echoed the opinions of Wool. He spoke of " Oregon from the Pacific to the summit of the Rockies, a region only fit, as a general rule, for the occupancy of the nomadic tribes who now roam over it, and who should be allowed peacefully to remain in its possession." The river was 242 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST unnavigable and the country mostly barren. " In the acquisition of this strip of territory," he said, "the United States realized from Great Britain but very little that is at all valuable or useful to civilized man." This was published in 1857! The Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, disapproved the report and censured Wool. Removal of General Wool Early in the spring of 1857, Stevens was elected Delegate to Congress from Washington. J. W. Nesmith was appointed Indian Superintendent for Oregon and Washington, combined, and recommended that the treaties of 1855 be ratified by Congress without further delay. General Wool was recalled from command of the Department of the Pacific, following a petition of the Oregon legislature, and General Newman S. Clarke was named as his successor. In May, 1857, J. Ross Browne, a special agent of the Treasury Department, was sent by the Indian Office to investigate the causes of the wars in Oregon and Washington, and his report exonerated the settlers from the charge that they started the wars for purposes of peculation from the public treasury. He also dismissed the charge that making treaties with the Indians provoked the uprising. He found that the Donation act had been a fruitful source of trouble, since the government made no exception in it of lands held in reserve or lands to which the Indian title had not been extinguished. Browne and Nesmith agreed on the necessity for treaties.10 Clarke came to his new command prejudiced very naturally in favor of excluding settlers from the interior and maintaining garrisons there to protect the Indians, though the fate of his predecessor was a warning. Wool's eclipse had been compassed by the Oregon legislature, and in January, 1858, the Washington legislature attacked his exclusion policy in resolutions which described it as " a high-handed outrage." By the time these resolutions had passed from Stevens to Secretary Floyd and through the usual army channels back to Gen eral Clarke, many things had happened. Clarke was of the opinion that th Indians might be impressed with the power of the government if their chie could visit the national capital, but he suspected that it was now too late. Grea numbers of miners were going up the Columbia to Colville and the Canadia side, and he feared collisions. Moreover, Steptoe was already in the field. Th Indians had been insolent and had stolen his cattle. Clarke informed the Wa Department that Steptoe had marched to chastise the Indians. There wer disquieting rumors that he had met with disaster. Clarke was ready to thro more troops into the interior. He wrote from San Francisco on June 1,1858, ant did not then know that Steptoe had been attacked fifteen days before. Steptoe Disaster-Wright Campaign LIEUTENANT COLONEL STEPTOE COMMENCED SENDING DISQUIETING REPORTS TO headquarters in April, 1858. It was said that two men had been killed rfnear the Palouse river, on their way to Colville. Palouse Indians raided the Walla Walla valley early in April and carried off horses and cattle belonging to whites and Indians, including thirteen head of beef cattle belonging to the army. Some forty persons living at Colville petitioned for troops, believing that their lives and property were in danger. Steptoe decided to march his command through the Palouse country, in search of the thieves, then to go among the Spokanes for the purpose of conferring with them, and finally to investigate the situation at Colville. His hope was to check the reported disturbances by peaceful means, and he was not equipped for a campaign. He was obliged to await the return of his horses in May from Fort Vancouver, where they had been sent for the winter on account of lack of hay at Walla Walla. When his expedition set out, on May 6, he had 158 men, — three companies of dragoons and part of a company of infantry with two mountain howitzers. Two of the dragoon companies were armed with musketoons, — short muskets with a very limited range, useless beyond fifty yards and therefore utterly ineffective against Indians armed with rifles. The other dragoon company had Mississippi Yager rifles, which carried well but could not be loaded on horseback. There were ten good carbines in the infantry company. Some of the men had revolvers, and others had only old-fashioned muzzle-loading pistols. The cavalry did not have sabers, a weapon which proved very useful in the Wright campaign. At one point in the Steptoe fight, when several men were engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with Indians seeking to take the body of a wounded officer, they fought with clubbed rifles. One of them, who had been in the French army, swung his gun barrel like a sword, exclaiming, " My God, for a saber! " Thomas Beall, chief packer, stated in a newspaper article, in 1916, that the officers and noncommissioned officers carried swords, but that Steptoe ordered the cavalrymen to leave their sabers behind because he did not wish them to be encumbered in any way.1 The small supply of ammunition was the thing which General Winfield Scott mentioned as surprising, in transmitting Steptoe's report to the Secretary of War. The expedition carried only forty rounds to the man. 244 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST The blame seems to rest with the chief packer, who found that his train could not carry all the supplies which had been allotted to the expedition. The amount of baggage was cut down before the departure from Fort Walla Walla, and several boxes of ammunition were left behind. This serious omission may have been overlooked, or the officers may have considered that the supply was sufficient. " When we left Walla Walla," wrote Lieutenant David Gregg, " no one thought of having an encounter." A band of Palouses were reported near Red Wolf's crossing, and it was decided to march in that direction. The Palouses fled on learning that troops ' were coming, and Steptoe crossed the Snake at the mouth of the Alpowa, where Timothy and his Nez Perces had a fleet of canoes. This was the only point at which it was possible for a military expedition to cross. The supplies and equipment were taken over in the boats, and the Indians swam the horses across. After leaving the Snake, Indians were frequently seen, and some came within the lines and talked with the officers and men. These were spies, who sent information ahead regarding the strength and equipment of the troops. Steptoe's Advance Stopped On crossing the Palouse river, Steptoe was informed that the Spokanes would resist the entrance of troops into their country. The officers were not yet ready to believe this report, and the column advanced on Pine creek, then known as the Ingossomen by the Spokanes and the Tohotonimme by the Nez Perces. Camp was made on the night of the fifteenth a little south of the present site of Rosalia, near the hill which was selected for their last stand against the Indians two days later.2 The march was resumed on Sunday morning, the sixteenth, though it was reported that a force of Indians was assembling somewhere ahead. At ii o'clock a war party of from six hundred to twelve hundred Indians suddenly appeared. They were well mounted and were mostly armed with rifles. The two forces halted a hundred yards apart, and several Spokanes came forward. They said they had heard that the army intended to annihilate them and announced that they were ready to fight. Steptoe explained the friendly purpose of his journey. Though they professed to believe him, they made their objection to his plans clear by announcing that they would not supply the means of crossing the Spokane. This was enough, according to Steptoe's report, to convince him that it was useless to go on. He told his officers, at the close of the conference, that they would have to fight. His first concern was to find a camp site for that night. The troops moved ahead, with the Indians on their right j flank, until the trail approached a defile, into which it would have been foolhardy to venture, for the Indians swarmed over the surrounding hills. When the troops turned to the west and marched a mile to a small sheet of water, the enemy showed its appreciation of this act of caution by taunts and jeers. , topographical report oi" the Wright campaign j STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 245 The command halted, but did not dare to dismount for three hours, when the Indians withdrew, towards sunset. Another conference with the chiefs had proved futile, and while it was going on, other Indians were assuring the troops that Timothy's canoes on the Snake would be seized to cut off their retreat and that the only reason why a battle had not already started was the fact that Steptoe broke camp at daylight on the seventeenth and took a short cut back to the main trail. Lieutenant David Gregg was in advance with H Company of dragoons. Captain O. H. P. Taylor followed at a distance of 1,000 yards with C Company of dragoons. Then came the infantry and howitzers, under Captain C. S. Winder, and the pack train. Lieutenant William Gaston covered the rear with E Company of dragoons. The Indians appeared by 8 o'clock and dogged the march of the rear guard. Father Joseph Joset of the Coeur d'Alene mission rode up, soon after tbe appearance of the Indians, and warned Steptoe that an attack was imminent, suggesting, however, that it might still be averted if another conference could be held with the chiefs. Steptoe was unwilling to halt, and the priest offered to bring in the chiefs for a talk while they rode along, but he was able to bring only Vincent of the Coeur d'Alenes. Steptoe told the chief that he was returning to Walla Walla because he had found that the presence of his troops was offensive to the tribes whom he regarded as friends, and because he could not cross the Spokane at the season of high water without the boats which they had denied him. While they were talking, a Nez Perce scout accused Vincent of speaking " with a forked tongue " and struck him with a whip, at the same time asking why he did not fire. Vincent paid no attention to the insult, which has been taken as evidence that the Nez Perces hoped the troops would have to fight. The scout was rebuked, and Vincent seemed ready to believe Steptoe, but the conference was abruptly ended by a messenger who informed Vincent that the Palouses were about to open fire, and asked him to rejoin his tribesmen. Battle of Rosalia The engagement opened as the column crossed a stream near the junction of the Palouse and the Inland Empire highways. The firing was at first at long range and was directed at the rear guard. The troops moved on, without replying, and took to the hills on the east. The Indians gradually rode closer and threw their lines along the flank. The advance soon became a race for favorable positions on the hills, with maneuvering to keep out of the ravines. The necessity of conserving ammunition was impressed upon the men, and they fired chiefly during the short charges by which they continually drove the Indians back. The lack of sabers was keenly felt in this kind of fighting. The Indians always ran when the dragoons charged and were on their heels again as soon 246 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST as they wheeled back toward the line of march. The pack train was moved with great difficulty, as the animals were badly frightened and sought to break away. Many were shot down. After two miles or more of slow progress, under continuous fire, it was observed that the Indians were making for a hill at a considerable distance ahead which would command the line of advance. Gregg's company raced for it and won. The Indians moved around to another hill close by which was still higher, and Gregg was obliged to leave a detachment to hold the first hill and to rush the Indians off the other. The Indians retired as usual before the charge of the dragoons, but not far, and the troops had to stay on the hill and await the arrival of their comrades. Captain Winder's section, with the howitzers, reached the hill at n o'clock. Steptoe was with this part of the column. The guns were fired, more to frighten the Indians than for the actual damage they could inflict. The Indians now made a desperate attempt to cut off the other two companies of dragoons. Gaston repeatedly drove back the pursuing force, but before he could reach the hill a large party of the enemy swept in between, and he was subjected to a cross fire. His critical position could be seen from the hill, and at the moment when he turned from his pursuers and charged the enemy in front, Gregg's company rode down. Gregg so timed his movement that the Indians were caught in an angle, as they sought to extricate themselves from the same kind of trap which they had prepared for Gaston. The dragoon companies met, and twelve Indians were killed and many wounded at the point where the trap closed. The two companies moved towards the hill, with the enemy pressing on both flanks and at the rear. Meanwhile, Taylor's dragoons reached the hill by a series of short charges, and the entire command was assembled for the first time since morning. Only one soldier had been killed, but several were wounded. The Indian were furious over their losses, which included three important Coeur d'Alene Victor, Jacques and Zachariah, a brother-in-law of Vincent. These men h entered the fight reluctantly, after hearing the reports of Vincent and Fathe Joset on their conference with Steptoe.3 The troops could not rest for the hill. It was necessary to reach water, and the Indians were evidently receiv ing re-enforcements. Much signaling was going on, from the hills. The wa toward Pine creek lay down a long slope, and the Indians rode in from a sides as the march was resumed. Safety for the troops now depended upon r taining a compact formation. Taylor and Gaston were ordered to protect th flanks. Gregg guarded the rear, and Winder kept the pack train moving, clea ing the way by frequently unlimbering the howitzers and firing ahead. Th column had moved about half a mile, when Gaston was killed. Elated at seein an officer fall, the Indians massed and charged his company, which fell bac in a demoralized condition upon the pack train. Steptoe succeeded in rallyin STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 247 them, and Gregg's men rode in and stopped the enemy's charge. In this movement a part of the train was unavoidably exposed and lost. Fighting was equally sharp on the other flank, and Captain Taylor was mortally wounded half an hour after Gaston's death. Lieutenant James Wheeler took command of his company. There was a hand-to-hand fight, with clubbed rifles, over Taylor's body, until the wounded officer could be carried within the lines. Taylor fell at a point on the main highway about one mile north of Rosalia. Steptoe realized that the advance could not continue much longer, through a horde of enemies who found fresh opportunities to attack at every turn he took. He could only choose a spot which might be successfully defended as long as his ammunition held out. A Nez Perce scout had started for Fort Walla Walla the night before, but there was no hope that aid would arrive in time. The distance was too great, and the messenger had only a small chance of getting through. So the column, relieved for a brief interval from the violent onslaught of the enemy, moved up a ridge to an eminence at its top, from which the ground fell away steeply on the further side, to the creek. The baggage was stacked near the steep decline, and the animals were picketed in a circle around the supplies. The men were posted in a larger circle around the crest of the hill, lying flat on the ground, in high grass. One howitzer was placed where it would command the long ridge up which the troops had marched and the other at the rear. Some of the men dug shallow trenches, and the officers crawled around the circle to give their instructions. Captain Taylor died soon after the hill was occupied. Assistant Surgeon J. F. Randolph cared for the wounded at a spot which was out of range of the enemy. The Indians surrounded the hill at once and crept up the slopes, with grass tied to their heads. Twice they started to carry the position by storm. At nightfall, about 8 o'clock at this time of the year, the chiefs ordered firing to cease. Camp fires appeared along the creek and signal fires on the hills. Three rounds of ammunition remained to the troops, and no one doubted that the fight would end with the first rush by the enemy in the morning. To remain on the hill meant certain death for all. A retreat by night offered a chance that some might get away. Steptoe had been an artillery officer, and he seems to have hesitated partly because it would be necessary to abandon his guns. He also felt that the chance of escape was very slight, and his men might be captured in small groups and subjected to torture before being put to death. After considerable discussion, however, it was unanimously agreed among the officers that a dash for the Snake river, ninety miles away, should be attempted. If the Indians had not relaxed their vigilance, in their confidence that the fight was won and in their desire to finish the whites by daylight, Steptoe could not have escaped. A. J. Splawn, whose information was from Indian sources, claims that Kamiakin was present and that he urged his people not to rest, 248 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST reminding them of similar occasions when the prey had slipped away.4 The Indians might plan a night attack, but it was not their habit to sustain an action after darkness had set in. In this case they were sure that the troops were at the end of their resources. Dash for the Snake River When Steptoe's decision was made, a party of scouts was sent down the hill to the south. Both sides of the creek were explored, and it was found that no Indians remained. As soon as the scouts reported, the howitzers and the dead were buried, and horses were led over the ground to conceal the place of burial with their tracks. The gun carriages were taken down to the creek and sub- | merged. Fifteen wounded men were mounted and lashed in their saddles, and each was placed under the care of a comrade. Horses of light color were blanketed. All the extra animals were left picketed on the hill, and the supplies were abandoned. It is said that the division of this booty among the several tribes occasioned a dispute which prevented immediate pursuit, when the flight of the troops was discovered. Steptoe, with the first detachment, consisting of Wheeler's dragoons and Winder's mounted infantry, left the hill between 9 and 10 o'clock. Gregg waited, with the other two companies, until the outposts could be called in. It was necessary to hunt carefully for these men, who were lying in the tall grass. Some of them were so exhausted that they had fallen asleep. So quietly was the retreat conducted that Gregg did not know of the departure of the first detachment until Randolph notified him that it was well on its way down the valley; whereupon the last two companies moved of with equal success in preserving silence. Steptoe proceeded slowly until Greg caught up with him, and then the dash for the Snake river commenced. Mo of the distance was covered at a gallop. One or two survivors, in newspaper interviews given half a century afte the battle, have stated that the Nez Perce Timothy discovered the unguardec pass and led the troops to safety. Others have assumed that Timothy accom panied the expedition, after ferrying it across the Snake. He has not only bee hailed as its savior but has also been charged with double-dealing, in guidin it directly into the Spokane country instead of taking the main trail to Colvill This alleged treachery has been viewed as part of a Nez Perce plot to involv< the troops in warfare with the northern tribes. It was Steptoe's intention visit the Spokanes, and there are many reasons for believing in Timothy loyalty. There is also good reason to doubt that he was with the troops aft they left the river. If he performed the notable service with which he has bee credited, it would surely have been mentioned in the reports. No officer refers his presence, and Lieutenant Gregg afterwards said he did not recall that Timothy was with the troops.6 J STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 249 Two severely wounded men were soon obliged to abandon hope of escape. Victor C. De Moy, the French soldier previously mentioned, was laid beside the trail. He retained his revolver, with several charges, the last of which he said would be for himself. Splawn was told by the Indians that when they came upon him, he wounded two of them. After retiring to a safe distance, they heard another shot. They then dismounted, crept forward and riddled his body with bullets. Sergeant W. C. Williams was also laid beside the trail when he could no longer endure the pain of riding. Several stories are told of his fate, the most credible being an account given by the Indians to John O'Neil, a survivor of the expedition, when he was in the country a few years later, and related by Manring. This story is that Williams was found by some Coeur d'Alenes, and begged them to shoot him, but that they declined to do so, and an old squaw attended him until he died. The Palouse river was reached at dawn on the eighteenth. A short halt was made after crossing, and observations taken from the hills revealed no sign of pursuit. Yet the column hurried on with a far extended line of scouts. The troops rode into the Nez Perce village at the Snake river crossing soon after 10 o'clock that night. Camp was made with the Nez Perces, as it was impossible to cross the swollen stream in the darkness. The squaws took care of the wounded, and the Indian men posted a guard on the hills. The pursuing hostiles, when ten miles from the place, were informed by their scouts that the Nez Perces were guarding the approach, and they turned back. The Nez Perces ferried the troops across the river on the following morning. Nothing had been 'Seen here of the Indian messenger who left Steptoe's camp on the sixteenth, but before the column was ready to resume its march to Fort Walla Walla, Captain F. T. Dent rode up, with a part of the garrison. The messenger had crossed the river at a point further west and had taken the news to the fort. No time had been lost by any of the parties concerned. After one day's march toward Walla Walla, a large body of fndians were seen approaching at a gallop. The troops hurriedly prepared for a fight, but as the riders came nearer they displayed an American flag, and they were recognized as Nez Perces. Chief Lawyer came forward and said that when the news of Steptoe's defeat had reached his people, probably by the rapid system of Indian signaling, they had hurried to his rescue. Lawyer offered the services of his warriors and proposed that the combined forces march back into the north country and punish the hostiles. The offer was fully appreciated, but the troops were in no condition for another campaign. They continued the march to the fort, and Lawyer's band passed on toward the Snake river. First Sergeant Edward Ball, who was reported among the missing when Steptoe reached Walla Walla, afterwards came in, having made the journey on foot and alone. He awoke towards morning on the eighteenth, in the brush near the creek, 250 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and found that all his comrades were gone. It is said that he had assisted the commissary in destroying the stock of liquors, on Steptoe's orders, before the supplies were abandoned. Ball was commended for bravery by Steptoe and, later, by Wright and eventually won the rank of Major. Profit from the Steptoe Disaster Steptoe found consolation for the disaster in several fortunate eventualities. His command escaped the massacre which he had believed for a while to be inevitable. His reconnaissance disclosed the actual temper of the northern tribes. And the episode was timely in checking another expedition about to enter the field, which was even more poorly prepared to defend itself and would probably have been annihilated. Father Joset told Steptoe that the Indians had heard that the government planned to seize their lands. As evidence of this intention, said the mischief makers, they would soon see a surveying party at work in their country. The northern tribes had agreed that this would be sufficient proof, and they had bound themselves to massacre any such party. The tricky agitators, who were mostly Yakimas, had accurate information about the surveying party, but the purpose of the survey was to locate a military road from old Fort Walla Walla, at Wallula, to Fort Benton. Lieutenant John Mullan was placed in charge of the survey, and he was at The Dalles on May 15. He started at once with his surveyors and road crew, and forwarded a requisition to Fort Walla Walla for the military escort which had been ordered, — one officer and sixty-five men. The news of Steptoe's defeat came when MuUan's road work had advanced only as far as Five Mile creek. He realized that the prospects for road building would be bad, but he bridged Five Mile and Ten Mile creeks and improved the road as far as the Deschutes river while awaiting definite word from the fort. He received a message from Steptoe on May 30, returned to The Dalles and disbanded his party. Beside notifying the War Department, he suggested to General Clarke that he was ready to accompany any expedition which might be sent into the field. This offer was fortunately accepted; MuUan's maps and report on the Wright campaign are invaluable. From the moment of Steptoe's defeat, the officers of the army showed a change of heart regarding the Indians. The army had viewed the struggles of the militia with professional detachment, but when a disaster happened to regular troops, the high command ordered immediate reprisals, and the campaign was conducted by Colonel Wright with the utmost vigor and with a summary execution of justice which satisfied the most extreme hopes of the settlers. General Clarke moved his headquarters from San Francisco to Vancouver. Several companies of artillery preceded him. One of his first acts was to stop the sale of ammunition to the Indians at Colville, by causing the Hudson's Bay Company agents to store a large incoming shipment at Thompson's I STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 251 river. On his protest, they also turned over horses and mules from Steptoe's expedition which some Coeur d'Alenes had sold to the Company's agent at Colville. Father Joset was aware that many of the Coeur d'Alenes regretted the attack on Steptoe and that most of them realized that they were in a bad scrape. He visited the General and offered to mediate in a last effort to make peace. Clarke authorized the priest and his superior, Father N. Congiato, to bear his proposals to the Indians. The conditions were hard, but no more severe than the situation demanded. He declared that troops would pass through the Indian country whenever he pleased to send them, and that the road to Fort Benton would be built. All property stolen from the government must be returned. The Indians had sought to put the blame for the Steptoe attack upon members of the tribe who fired on the troops in disobedience to the orders of the chiefs. Clarke demanded the surrender of all these men, for punishment. The priests travelled among the Indians for three weeks. Father Congiato made a lengthy report to Clarke, in which he confessed that nothing could be done. Much to their surprise, they found that the repentant spirit of the Indians had changed to a fighting attitude. They were singing their war chants. He attributed the change to the influence of Kamiakin, who was still living among them. The priests were able to dampen their enthusiasm by describing the irresistible military power of the government. The songs were stopped and the fighting regalia was laid aside. The Indians discussed the conditions of peace, but after all saw no way of complying with them. The authority of the chiefs was nominal; they could not compel the surrender of the guilty. Much of the plunder had been sold. The horses remaining in the Indian camps had passed from hand to hand, and the last buyers would not part with them without payment. Most of the tribesmen were for peace, but some were for war, and there was no effective tribal government. " No one can tell what they will do," was Father Congiato's conclusion. Letters from three chiefs were enclosed with this report, including a long and rather diplomatic message from Garry. All spoke of the unwillingness of the Indians to surrender their kinsmen. " You ask some to be delivered up," wrote Garry. " Poor Indians can't come to that." All spoke of the conception of peacemaking among the Indians. Peace meant burying the hatchet and exchanging gifts. It was difficult for the savage mind to reconcile reparations and peace. General Clarke took measures to retain the friendship of the Nez Perces by concluding a new treaty with them, in which each party agreed not to bear arms against the other, each agreed to aid the other in the event of war, and provision was made for a council to settle any misunderstanding which might arise. A company of Nez Perces was organized and placed under the command of Lieutenant Mullan. These Indian auxiliaries were equipped with army I 252 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST uniforms, partly to distinguish them from hostiles. They took great pride in their new clothing and insisted on having the full equipment, even to the glazed cap covers. The bravery of Mullan and his company was mentioned by Colonel Wright in his report on the battle of the Four Lakes. The auxiliaries were used as scouts in advance and on the right flank, in opening the battle, and were soon recognized by the hostiles, who were greatly incensed at the sight of the Nez Perces in army uniforms. Both Wright and Mullan had high praise for the conduct of the auxiliaries, who charged and drove the enemy out of the brush and timber and, later, repulsed an attack on the rear of the column. They acted mostly on their own responsibility and did not wait for orders. Major Garnett's Yakima Raid General Clarke planned simultaneous operations in the Yakima and Spokane regions. Re-enforcements were sent to Major Robert S. Garnett at Fort Simcoe, and he was ordered to proceed towards the mouth of the Okanogan, about the middle of August, and to punish the Indians who had attacked a party of miners. Garnett had 300 men, and it was expected that the hostiles who did not fall into his hands would be driven into the Spokane country, where Wright could deal with them. On the third day of his expedition, a detachment of fifteen men under Lieutenant Jesse K. Allen surrounded an Indian village and captured the entire band. Several of the Indians who were believed to have taken part in the attack on the miners were tied to trees and shot, —three according to Garnett and five according to A. J. Splawn, who gives their names. At the moment when the troops rushed the village, Lieutenant Allen was mortally wounded. Garnett next sent a hundred men over the mountains to a fishing place on the Wenatchee river and moved his main force to the mouth of the river. The smaller party surprised and captured a considerable number of Indians at the fishing place. Four more of the alleged murderers were recognized and were strung up and shot. The troops engaged in a trying and eventful hunt for the fishermen who had escaped. The chase led over the most difficult part of the mountains, and in its course the fugitives circled back to the fishery. Finding no provisions there, they set to fishing again, as they had two days' start of their pursuers. When scouts reported the approach of the soldiers, another race began. Though the Indians had their women and children with them, they took to the highest places, instead of going down the river, where Garnett was awaiting them. Three days later they made good their escape by felling trees across a narrow chasm, constructing a bridge strong enough for their horses to pass over and destroying it after they had crossed. When the troops arrived, before the Indians were out of sight, there were no more trees to fell, and it was too far around. So the chase was abandoned, and the wearied soldiers went down the Wenatchee and rejoined Garnett on the Columbia. STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 253 The united command then marched to the mouth of the Okanogan, where news of Wright's success was received, and they returned to Fort Simcoe. Colonel Wright's Campaign The main operations, in the Spokane country, which broke forever the power of the Indians, were distinguished by careful preparation, good leadership and summary punishment of the guilty. Colonel Wright led 700 men on his punitive expedition, and the only members of the command who lost their lives were two soldiers who died from eating poisonous roots. This immunity was due to discipline and superior weapons. The men were armed with a new rifle of long range, and the Indians could not get near enough to use their Hudson's Bay guns with any effect. There was much rifle practice and strenuous drilling before the expedition started.6 The first detachment of the expedition started from Fort Walla Walla on August 7. On the second day, they were notified that a band of Indians had driven off thirty-six oxen from Walla Walla, the night before. Parties of dragoons were sent out in search of the marauders and scoured the country for thirty miles. On the following day it was learned that Gregg's dragoons, starting from the fort, had seen the Indians swimming the cattle across the Snake river. When the high 'prairie was reached, it was observed that the hostiles had burned the grass on both sides of the Snake river. The crossing at the mouth of the Tucannon was selected as most advantageous, and Fort Taylor was built, of basalt rock with hexagonal bastions of alder. Boats were transported from Fort Walla Walla, and a large flat-boat was constructed. One company of artillery was left to garrison the fort. The expedition crossed on August 25 and 26 and advanced in a compact column. Wright had 570 regulars, of whom 190 were in four troops of dragoons and 380 were infantry, or artillery serving as infantry. In addition to the regulars, there were thirty Nez Perces and 100 packers and other employes. Rations for thirty-eight days, ammunition and other supplies required two pack trains, and there were 800 animals, including the cavalry mounts and 400 mules. At a point where the trail divided, the western branch being the direct route to Colville and the eastern one leading to the falls of the Spokane, Wright chose the latter. News had been received at Fort Taylor that the hostiles were gathering in great force at some lakes in this vicinity. Wright's dispatches show that he thought the Indians might allow him to march as far as the Spokane and then burn the entire country behind him. If they should succeed in burning all the grass, the soldiers would kill their animals for food, shoulder their packs and walk home. By August 30, the Indians began to appear on the hills. They fled at the advance of the dragoons, and the same program was carried out on the following day. These Indians had been sent to decoy the soldiers towards the main L 254 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST force of the hostiles, who had chosen their own ground for a battle. In the afternoon, an effort was made to cut off the Nez Perce scouts who were far away on the hills, but they were rescued by the dragoons. Just before camp was made, the hostiles attacked the supply train, under the cover of smoke from grass which they had fired. The grass proved too green to burn freely, and three companies of riflemen, deployed quickly about the train, repulsed the attack. Battle of Four Lakes The battle of the Four Lakes, at which the Indians received their first great surprise, was fought on September 1.' At daylight the troops found that the enemy had occupied a high hill two miles northeast of the camp. Soon after nine o'clock, Wright sent two squadrons of cavalry toward the northern slope of the hill. As they ascended, some of the men held the horses and the rest deployed on foot as skirmishers. The Nez Perces circled the hill toward the east, where the ascent was easier, and were followed by Wright with six companies of foot. The enemy retreated down the further side but remained at the foot of the hill under cover of trees and bushes in the ravines. From the top of the hill the four lakes could be seen. A pine forest at the right was apparently swarming with the enemy, and several hundred mounted warriors rode madly back and forth on the open plain, evidently spoiling for a fight. Wright moved his troops within five minutes. Three companies, with the howitzer, were ordered to drive the Indians from the pine woods, where many of those who had stopped at the foot of the hill were forced to take temporary refuge as the dragoons and the other three companies of foot came down the slope. The infantry passed out on the plain, ahead of the dragoons, who followed, leading their horses. The Indians employed their old tactics, charging up, firing and riding quickly away; but on this occasion they were met by a hail of minie balls long before they could perfect this maneuver. To their consternation, the troops kept on advancing, as if on parade. When it was observed that the enemy were becoming panic stricken, the dragoons mounted and went through the intervals of the infantry at a gallop, cutting down all the Indians they could reach, with their sabers, and completely clearing the plain. In the meantime, the pine woods had been emptied of the enemy. The cavalry horses were blown by the time the further hills were reacht and a halt was necessary. The foot troops again passed the dragoons and kef up the pursuit for two miles over the hills. At last only one group of Indians could be seen from a high crest, and these disappeared when a shell from the howitzer burst over their heads. The fight lasted less than four hours. The Indian losses were heavy. They could never be accurately estimated, as the Indians made every effort to carry away their dead. The same uncertainty Kamiakin's presence exists in connection with this battle as in the Stej s CAMP, AUG.31 to SEPT.5, 1858 Map based on data in MuUan's report and identification of locations by T. C. Elliot I STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 255 fight. If he was present, he kept out of sight. It is known that he was in the subsequent battle of the Spokane Plains and was injured, and he was not seen by the whites on that occasion. The Nez Perce scouts followed the enemy eight or ten miles, after the regulars turned back. Their army uniforms did not deter the Nez Perces from taking scalps, and they celebrated the victory with a war dance around their camp fire until far into the night. Battle of Spokane Plains Wright gave his command a three days' rest. He had gone into the first engagement with horses and men fatigued from the long march. The horses were too quickly exhausted in the charge on September 1, and no one knew how much work lay ahead. When the advance was resumed on September 5 and the troops reached a broad prairie with woods on the right, the enemy appeared about three miles away, at the edge of the woods, and set fire to the grass in front of the column and on its right flank. The march was hastened, as the flames looked threatening and the Indians were likely to come close enough, under cover of the smoke, to do execution with their old guns. Wright took the offensive at once, in order to cheat them of any such opportunity, though it was necessary that the skirmishers whom he sent out in force should charge through the burning grass. The enemy were driven into the woods, dislodged by howitzer fire, followed by the foot troops and repeatedly pressed back in this way 0 e of four miles. When a open space v reached, the cavalry rode through the infantry and cleared the field. The pack train moved forward with the troops. In the last stage of the march, the enemy fought in scattered groups. When a large party was seen, the howitzer was turned loose upon it. The skirmishers found much variety in their task. One band of Indians was driven successively from three high table rocks. Before the troops reached the Spokane river, the resistance of the enemy had dwindled away, and regular marching order was resumed for a short distance, to the present site of Fort George Wright, at Spokane, where camp was made. The command marched twenty-five miles on September 5 and fought the Indians over fourteen miles of the way. One soldier was wounded. This is the engagement which was named the battle of the Spokane Plains. One day of rest was taken at this camp, and the only Indians seen were a few who appeared on the opposite bank of the river and signified a desire to talk. On September 7, Wright proceeded to a point about two miles above the falls, on the south bank of the river, where Chief Garry crossed over and declared his lack of sympathy with the war party in his tribe and his inability to restrain this element. A brother and a brother-in-law of Garry had been killed in the recent fighting. Wright sent Garry back with a demand of unconditional surrender, accompanied by a threat of extermination. Chief Pohlatkin of the s. Wright 256 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Spokanes and nine of his warriors came into camp, and Wright held him and one of his men who was suspected of murder. Tbs man was tried on the following evening, found guilty and hanged. Pohlatkin was one of the chiefs who sent letters by Father Congiato to General Clarke. After marching nine miles, on September 8, a great cloud of dust was seen in the hills up the valley, and three companies of dragoons were sent forward to investigate. The Indians were driving off their stock toward the south. The cavalry dismounted and followed into the hills, dispersing the Indian herders at Liberty lake and returning with eight hundred horses.8 The herd of cattle was too wild to capture, though two efforts were made, on the eighth and ninth, to drive them in. Horse Slaughter Camp The capture of the horses, however, was the final blow to the Indiai put them in a corral at his next camp, on the Spokane river. He kne would be dangerous to take them along with the expedition. The Indians would stampede them, and the troops might lose some of their own animals. So it was decided to kill the captured horses. Wright afterwards learned from the Indians that they were not discouraged by the capture of the horses, as they felt confident they could be recovered; but when they heard the news of the slaughter, they knew the game was up. Two companies were detailed to shoot the horses, and the work occupied a good part of two days. The heaps of bones long remained to mark the site of " Horse Slaughter Camp." About one hundred of the Indian horses were spared, for the use of the troops, but proved too wild. Many of them pulled their stakes and ran away, and the rest had to be shot. The troops destroyed many caches of wheat, vegetables and camas belonging to the Indians. Before breaking camp, a message was received from Father Joset, stating that the Coeur d'Alenes were ready to sue for peace, and two Indians came in, with a white flag, saying that they had been sent by Big Star, a Spokane chief, who wished to surrender, but could not overtake the troops, as he had lost all his Wright crossed the Spokane and marched to the Coeur d'Alene mission, where a council was held on September 17. Chief Pohlatkin of the Spokanes was released, on his promise to return to his people and prepare for their submission. Most of the Coeur d'Alenes were in hiding, and it took much urging by Chief Vincent and the priests to bring them in. When several parties ventured to return to the mission and were unharmed, the others surrendered, turning over the stolen property which they had. At the council, the Indians acknowledged their guilt, expressed contrition and agreed to all tbe demands of the government, which included the surrender of men who started the attack on Steptoe and the giving of hostages. Wright was afterward criticized by General Clarke for the lapse which he made in this instance from his generally relentless STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 257 treatment of the guilty during the campaign. His treaty with the Coeur d'Alenes provided for the return of the prisoners as well as the hostages, after Wright commenced to retrace his steps on the day after the council, crossing the Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe rivers and making camp, September 22, on Latah creek, where a council was held with the Spokanes. The chiefs and about a hundred tribesmen, accompanied by Father Joset, were awaiting the troops. Even Kamiakin and Tilcosx, a Palouse chief said to have owned the horses killed by Wright, came in, the night before the troops arrived, but changed their minds and departed. Wright sent Garry and Big Star to find Kamiakin, with instructions to tell him that he would not be harmed if he came to the council, [but that if he did not surrender, he would be hunted down and killed. The messengers located Kamiakin beyond the Spokane, after an all-night search, but could not persuade him to surrender. They said he feared he would be taken to Fort Walla Walla.0 The Spokanes were as humble at the council as the Coeur d'Alenes had been and expressed thankfulness for the terms offered them. The Ithree chiefs who had written to General Clarke were present, — Garry, Pohlatkin and Milkapsi, who was a Coeur d'Alene. Milkapsi was instrumental in involving his people in the attack on Steptoe, and his letter to Clarke was most haughty. He now asked permission to sign the Coeur d'Alene treaty and was allowed to do so, after a sbarp lecture by Wright. Representatives of the smaller northern tribes were told tbat they might consider themselves on the same footing as the Spokanes so long as they conformed to the treaty terms. End of Yakim At sunset, on the day of the council, the Yakima Owhi rode into the camp alone, and said that he wished peace. Some of the Indians believed that his purpose was to intercede for his son, Qualchan. Wright reminded him of his breach of faith in the Yakima country, when he promised to bring in his people but ran away, instead. When questioned, Owhi said that Qualchan was at the mouth of the Spokane. Wright put the chief in irons, and sent a message to Qualchan, stating that Owhi would be hanged if the son did not surrender within four days. Wright's report for September 24 says: " Qualchan came to me at 9 o'clock, and at 9:15 a.m. he was hung." Wright's account of Qualchan's fate is laconic, and there is little more that can be told with certainty. Qualchan did fflot come in response to the message, for he was apparently stunned when he learned after his arrival that Owhi was a prisoner. Qualchan was accompanied by another warrior and a fine looking squaw. All three were gaily dressed, and the men were fully armed. The squaw carried a long lance, wound with beads and ornamented with tippets of beaver. They rode boldly up to Wright's tent, and Qualchan dismounted. Captain E. D. Keyes, commanding the artillery 258 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST battalion, was in front of the tent and called out: "Colonel, we have distinguished visitors here! " Wright came out and talked with the chief, whom he recognized. Qualchan's bearing was defiant until Wright told him that Owhi was present, when he gazed about helplessly and repeated the Colonel's words. The guard at once disarmed him and led him away. In the guard tent, he recovered from his stupor, and six men were required to tie his hands and feet. Qualchan's companion and the squaw, wbo was found to be the chief's wife, a daughter of Pohlatkin, were allowed to depart. An Indian hunchback, who had previously been seen about the camp, rode in behind Qualchan's party, watched his discomfiture with visible satisfaction and then hastened to the tents of his people, to tell the news. The officers felt that Qualchan had been betrayed into paying the visit. When he was taken out to be hanged, fifteen minutes after his arrival, he cursed Kamiakin, and the most reasonable explanation of his action is that the wily head chief used him as bait, to disclose Wright's real intentions with reference to the principal Yakima miscreants. Qualchan showed no stoicism in the face of death, but begged the soldiers to spare him, and Owhi, who was within hearing, disowned him as a son, for this display of cowardice.10 Owhi did not long survive his notorious son. About ten days later, just after the troops had left Fort Taylor for Walla Walla, he was shot while making an attempt to escape. Lieutenant Michael R. Morgan, afterward a General in the Civil war, had charge of the prisoner and was riding alone with him. The other guards were on foot and were walking a fallen tree across a stream. Owhi cut Morgan across the eyes with his whip and dashed away. Morgan says that he rode after him, angered at the assault and fearing that his military career would be ended, if his prisoner should escape. Morgan succeeded in putting three revolver bullets into the chief. Owhi was driven into a cul-de-sac, and Sergeant Ball rode up and dispatched him with a shot through the head.11 Before leaving the camp where the Spokane council was held, a detachment under Major Grier was sent to the Steptoe battlefield, to recover the buried howitzers and the remains of the dead. Survivors of the battle identified tl locations, and Lieutenant Mullan gathered the data for his map. This part returned to camp on September 25. Many Palouse Indians came in, that ning, saying that Kamiakin had fled north, and they had seceded from his bant Wright arrested fifteen of these Indians, hanged six on the spot and took th others along, in irons. Palouses and Walla Wallas Punished Camp was made on the Palouse river, four days later, where nearly all th members of the Palouse tribe remaining in the country had been gathered by chief who had taken no part in the war, Slowiarchy, to whom the tribe now turned for help in getting out of their scrape. At the council on September 30, STEPTOE DISASTER-WRIGHT CAMPAIGN 259 Wright told the Palouses that he would not be doing wrong, if he should hang them all. He refused to make a written treaty with them and threatened with death all who should cross the Snake. The whole tribe would be exterminated, if they did not stay in their own country and keep other Indians out. Wright demanded the surrender of the two Palouses who had murdered miners. After a short consultation among the Indians, one of the murderers came forward. The other could not be found. Wright then called for six men who had stolen the army cattle when the expedition was starting from Fort Walla Walla, j They were promptly surrendered. While the council proceeded, the murderer and three of the thieves, who were recognized as notorious marauders, were hanged by the guard from a tree several hundred yards distant. The usual quota of hostages were taken from the Palouse tribe, — one chief and four men, with their families. After crossing the Snake, Fort Taylor was abandoned and left to the care of Chief Slowiarchy. The garrison returned with the rest of the troops to Fort Walla Walla on October 5. Here the victims of the Steptoe fight were buried with military honors. The bodies of the two officers were later removed to the Cadets' Cemetery at West Point. The Walla Wallas were called into council on October 9. Wright delivered his customary indictment and asked all who had taken part in recent battles to stand up. Thirty-five rose, and Wright selected for execution four whose reputations were pre-eminently evil. Thus was the last general uprising quelled, and though Wright's methods were harsh, they were regarded as just by the Indians. The executed men, with few exceptions, surrendered or were turned over by their tribesmen, in full expectation of punishment. The Palouses were plainly annoyed because one of their number was missing when he was wanted. Most of the victims accepted their fate calmly. Lieutenant MuUan's cart, the only vehicle taken on the expedition, was used at executions as well as for the purpose of measuring by odometer, the distance travelled. As soon as the noose was adjusted about their necks, some of the condemned men jumped off the cart. After the Wright campaign, General Clarke joined those who had long favored ratification of the treaties made by Stevens. Stevens and Lane, together in the national capital, as Delegates from their Territories, succeeded within a few months in having the deficiency payments for the Indian Service allowed by the Department of the Interior. Stevens also worked incessantly to secure ratification of the treaties. Though the treaties had not been reached when Congress adjourned on June 9,1858, the contest was practically won. The news of Steptoe's defeat reached Washington in June and had the immediate effect of winning over the army. General William S. Harney was appointed to command a new military department embracing Oregon and Washington, in September, 1858, and his first act, on reaching his post, was to revoke Wool's 26o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST orders and to throw open the interior to settlement. The Senate confirmed the treaties on March 8,1859.12 Colonel Wright served during the Civil war as a Brigadier General of volunteers, in command on the Pacific Coast, and in 1864 returned to Vancouver as commander of the Department of the Columbia. In 1865, he and his wife were drowned when the steamer Brother Jonathan went down off the mouth of the Columbia. Later Indian Wars - Chief Joseph A THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR, NEARLY ALL FEDERAL TROOPS WERE WITH- drawn from the Pacific Northwest, and the Indians of southern Idaho and Oregon found this a convenient opportunity to commit some of the worst outrages in the history of the frontier.1 Only fifteen persons escaped of a party of forty-four emigrants, who were attacked by Bannocks on September 13, i860, soon after a convoy of cavalry had left them in fancied security, west of Fort Hall. After two days of fighting, the survivors abandoned their wagon train at night and eluded the savages. But several of the fugitives died of starvation, and, after " consultation and prayer," it was unanimously voted to eat the bodies of four children. The body of a man who had been buried was later exhumed and was being prepared for eating when troops arrived from Fort Walla Walla, under Captain F. T. Dent. The War Department authorized the enlistment of a volunteer regiment in Oregon and another in Washington. It was nearly a year before six companies of cavalry were raised in Oregon. There was little inducement to enlist, and many who joined the colors did so in the hope that their services might later be demanded in the East. Colonel Justus Steinberger brought the Washington regiment to full strength by recruiting four companies in California. The Oregon troops did valiant duty in protecting the trails, assisted by detachments of frontiersmen equipped in the mining camps and, in 1862 and 1863, by a company of eastern volunteers under Captain Medoram Crawford, who escorted the emigrant trains. The military operations were hindered by Secessionist sentiment among the very emigrants whom the troops protected. In the settlements, a secret order known as the Knights of the Golden Circle sought to undermine the Union militia organization. The Circle was said to be drilling with smuggled arms. The Washington and Oregon troops, of whom Steinberger became the ranking officer, co-operated in making an impression on the Nez Perces, who were beginning to split into factions. At the great council at Lapwai in 1863, to be mentioned later, the troops rounded up a large number of renegades from the northern tribes and drove them off the Nez Perce reservation. The Oregon cavalry operated largely in country which was unknown except to stray trappers. Murderous bands of Indians were pursued and shot at sight. 262 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST A small detachment under Lieutenant J. A. Weymire, with the assistance of fifty-four settlers commanded by C. H. Miller (Joaquin Miller, the poet, whose newspaper at Eugene had been suppressed by General Wright for seditious expressions), had one of the hardest fights of the campaign, against a gready superior force of Utah and Nevada Indians, in the Harney valley. The Oregon cavalry were reduced in numbers by the expiration of enlistments, and the government authorized an infantry regiment. Enlistment was now stimulated by reports of southern victories and by fear of the secret Secessionist militia in the Willamette valley. When General Wright was drowned in the wreck of the steamer Jonathan, an Oregon cavalry officer, George B. Currey, now Colonel of the infantry regiment, was left in command, and he hastened to organize the campaign against the Indians on the frontiersmen's principle of \ as summer operations. He concentrated supplies in numerous win moved against the enemy as soon as travel in the mountains wa stroying many native caches. The War Department mustered 01 as many of the volunteer troops as could be reached, in Octobei " a fair chance. He succeeded, however, in wearing r camps and possible, de- Currey and 1865, before Paulina, one of the most intelligent and crafty of the chiefs. General George Crook took command in the Boise basin in December, 1866, and carried out Currey's plan, keeping the hostiles constantly on the move through the winter. After two years of this, the only Indians in southern Idaho and Oregon who still threatened to make trouble were a few Modocs and Shastas. Modoc War The danger was naturally belittled. These Indians wore white men's clothes, cut their hair short and spoke English. Many of them, with their old chief, had settled on the reservation. Some of the younger men were fond of the dissipations of Yreka and the other settlements and could not be managed.2 Tbey worked occasionally for settlers, but they preferred to beg food, and they had no scruples at living on the immoral traffic of their women. Not verffl likely material for an uprising. Their strength was in the natural defenses of the country where they took refuge and in their resourceful leader, Captain Jack. He defied all efforts to keep him on the reservation, and when troops were sent, in 1872, to bring him in, he ensconced himself in the lava beds adjoining Tule lake, where he boasted that his fifty fighting men could stand off a thousand soldiers. This was no idle boast, as events proved.3 The lava beds are volcanic debris covering an area eight by four miles in extent. From a distance, the land appears to be a plain. It is really a labyrinth of ridges, seldom over ten feet high and split open along their tops, affording excellent shelter, and of transverse trenches, which the Indians blocked at will with broken lava. They were able to slip out of their stronghold and make raids, with small chance LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 263 of capture. A foe advancing into the lava beds was frequently stopped by impassable crevices and deep pits. After their first sad experience in storming the Modoc fortress, with nine killed and thirty wounded and without seeing an Indian, army officers agreed that Captain Jack's estimate of the number of troops required was correct and that mortars would be necessary. In one day's exertions, the shoes and clothing of the soldiers were shredded, for the edges of the rocks are as sharp as knives. The thousand men were sent for, and General Edward R. S. Canby, a distinguished veteran of the Seminole, Mexican and Civil wars, took command. But at this point the government decided to send a peace commission from Washington, headed by A. B. Meacham, former Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, who was in need of employment at the moment. Through his women, who paid visits to the camps, Jack learned of the new plan, and he let it be known that there was a peace party in his own band. He saw the opportunity for an exceptional piece of treachery. The whites had information of a plot to kill the commissioners, and the danger was explained by wire to the Department of the Interior. The reply of Secretary Delano flouted the suspicions and ordered the commission to continue. The dispatches of Secretary of War Sherman to Canby were more in accord with the situation. Two members of the commission resigned, one of them being Jesse Applegate, who described it as an " expensive blunder." Eleazer Thomas, a Methodist minister of Peta- luma, California, dubbed by the Modocs "the Sunday Doctor," and L. S. Dyer, Indian agent for the Klamaths, were appointed to the commission. Jack at once sent word to Thomas that God had softened the hearts of the poor savages. After indulging in a series of baffling maneuvers, and delaying until the season was sufficiently advanced to permit escape into the Shoshone country, Jack agreed to a conference in the open between his position and the troops, both parties to come unarmed. Canby felt that he could not refuse, and Thomas, who had spent many hours in prayer over the matter, was sure that God would protect them and rebuked the doubters. Meacham and Dyer sent farewell messages to their wives. T. F. Riddle and his Modoc wife, Toby, who went along as interpreters, protested that all would be killed. Before the conference had proceeded far, the actions of one of the Indians, who put on Meacham's overcoat and dropped a significant remark, were well understood by the whites. At a signal from Jack, Canby and Thomas were slain. Riddle and Dyer, who had moved aside, bolted to safety. Toby had reclined on the ground, to get out of the line of fire. Meacham received five bullets and was supposed to be dead. The bodies were stripped, and an Indian had partly cut Meacham's scalp when Toby checked this indignity to an old friend by shouting, "Troops! " and the assassins fled. The tragedy was witnessed by the observer posted above the 264 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST military camp, and the troops were sent forward. Meacham was regaining consciousness when the bodies were picked up, and he recovered from his wounds. The army finally shelled Jack's band out of their caves, but the Indians slipped away through fissures in the rock to another part of the lava beds. They were once seen bathing in the lake, in plain view of the military camp. A detachment of five officers and sixty-five enlisted men was trapped while making a reconnaissance. Twenty-seven of the soldiers were killed, including all the line officers, and seventeen were wounded. Indian women employed as scouts later reported that the Modocs had left the lava beds, and Jack, clad in General Canby's uniform, soon afterward led an attack on an army camp at Sorass lake. Unexpected re-enforcements of troops arrived, and, though the army suffered more than the Indians in the fight, the latter were repulsed, with the loss of many pack animals and their ammunition. Then desertions commenced, which ended in Captain Jack's surrender. He said that his legs had given out. A military commission tried six of the Modoc leaders, and four, including Jack, were hanged. The band was removed to the Quapaw agency in Indian Territory. The government tried only the Indians accused of killing General Canby, Dr. Thomas and Lieutenant W. L. Sherwood, who was shot when he went out to meet an Indian carrying a white flag, while the fatal peace conference was in progress. This trap had been laid for Colonel E. C. Mason, in command of the camp. The government refused to surrender to Governor L. F. Grover of Oregon the Indians wanted for the murder of citizens. Every action of the government reflected its belief that the settlers were really to blame for the war. Nez Perce War The last and most spectacular Indian outbreak in the history of the Pacific Northwest came unexpectedly and originated in a tribe which had always been staunch friends of the whites, the Nez Perces. This revolt revealed the surpassing military genius of Chief Joseph, who deserves a place in the front rank of American generals.4 Defeating or eluding several forces of regular troops, while encumbered with the women and children of his tribe, he conducted a masterly flight of more than a thousand miles. Joseph's father and his principal lieutenant in the war, Looking Glass, were among the signers of the treaty of 1855. This treaty left the Nez Perces in possession of the lands of their ancestors. Old Joseph and Looking Glass signed only because the Wallowa and Imnaha valleys in the south were guaranteed to them. In 1863, another treaty was made, taking away these valleys. The northern chiefs signed this treaty, which did not affect their interests, but Old Joseph and several others refused to sign or to go on the shrunken reservation at Lapwai. His people became known as non- treaty Indians. Young Joseph succeeded to the traditions of his father, and his people became so restless that President Grant gave them the exclusive use of 11 LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 265 the Wallowa valley by executive order, in 1873. The region attracted the whites by its beauty and fertility, and the executive order was revoked in 1875. The Indians remained and adopted a policy of passive resistance, until a member of the tribe was killed by a white man, in 1876, in a quarrel over stock. General O. O. Howard, commanding the department, asked for a commission, to settle the controversy, and the commission held that, as a majority of the Nez Perce chiefs had signed the 1863 treaty, Joseph ought to be compelled to go on the reservation. This argument had no force with Indians, who did not recognize the principle of majority rule. When a majority decision was reached among them, it did not mean that the dissenters must conform, but only that they were at liberty to depart and do something else. Howard was ordered to occupy the Wallowa valley with troops, and the Indians prepared to defend themselves. Joseph held that there must have been a misunderstanding of his case and pleaded for another hearing. Councils were held at Umatilla, Walla Walla and Lapwai. Ollicut, Joseph's brother, a handsome and intelligent Indian, represented the non-treaty groups at the first two councils, and Joseph was present at the Lapwai meeting, at which Father Joseph Cataldo opened the proceedings with a prayer in the Nez Perce tongue and Marcus Whitman's nephew acted as interpreter. The non-treaty Indians, however, were almost entirely under the influence of the Smohalla cult, or Dreamer religion, which is described later in this chapter. The doctrines of this faith confirmed them in their unwillingness to change their habitation. At the Lapwai council, they permitted a sullen old chief, Toohulhulsote, of the Dreamer religion, to act as their spokesman. Nothing could be done until General Howard removed this Indian from the council. Joseph advised the other chiefs to pay no attention to the incident, and they agreed to view the lands which were offered to them. Joseph, Looking Glass and White Bird paid visits to the suggested location, with Howard, and when the latter returned to Portland there was no reason to doubt that the non-treaties would go on the reservation. Joseph had said that he would give up everything rather than to let his people start a hopeless war. Opening of Hostilities The arrival of additional troops and the rather limited period allowed for the evacuation of the Wallowa valley, thirty days, caused great resentment. The Indians moved, but lost considerable stock in the hurry, and a ten-days' council was held in Rocky canon, at which Toohulhulsote and others fanned the war spirit. The young braves secretly bought a large supply of ammunition, and several of them, including a son of the Indian who had been killed in the quarrel with a white stockman, cast the vote of the tribe for war by going out and killing four white men. Joseph afterwards said:5 " I saw that the war could not 266 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST then be prevented. ... I knew that we were too weak to fight the United States. We had many grievances, but I knew that war would bring more. ... We hoped the white settlers would not join the soldiers. Before the war commenced, we had discussed this matter, and many of my people were in favor of warning them that if they took no part against us, they should not be molested in the event of war being begun by General Howard. This plan was voted down in the war council." General Howard received the news of the outbreak at Fort Lapwai. The first word came from Mount Idaho, where wounded settlers were straggling in with the reports of numerous outrages. The Indians had continued the killings. The story as told by some of the young braves implicated Joseph, but it is not likely that he took any part in these acts of violence. One of the messengers from Mount Idaho was a brother of Looking Glass, and other friendly Nez Perces came in from the south at about the same time. They had left Joseph's camp as soon as it seemed certain that there would be war. Howard sent two companies of cavalry, under Lieutenant David Perry, and a force of about fifty volunteers joined Perry near Mount Idaho. The volunteers were anxious to fight and believed that the Indians would run when they found that the troops had arrived. The first encounter occurred on White Bird creek. It became evident early in the fight that the whites were outnumbered. The Indians were strongly entrenched among stony buttes, and the volunteers were the first to leave. Perry ordered a retreat, and the Indians not only pursued them closely but White Bird's band succeeded in flanking the troops. Thirty-three of the ninety soldiers, including Lieutenant Theller, were killed in this engagement. The Indians gave up the pursuit after a running fight of ten miles.6 The date of Perry's defeat was June 16, and on June 22 Howard took the field with between five hundred and six hundred men, two small cannon and a Gatling gun. Howard went first to White Bird canon and buried the dead of Perry's command. Joseph had crossed south of the Salmon. Captain Whipple attacked the camp of Looking Glass, and the Indians fled, after a short fight. Howard followed down the Salmon after Joseph, who crossed again and turned north. Scouts reported the approach of the Indians to Whipple, who was moving to meet Perry returning from a trip to Lapwai for ammunition and supplies, and Whipple sent Lieutenant Rains, a scout and ten men in advance. Rains ran into a trap, and before the main force came up, he and his entire detachment were killed. The Indians camped on Craig's mountain, and Whipple's force dug rifle pits where they were, near the Cottonwood. Perry joined them with the supplies and assumed command. A party of citizens at Mt. Idaho organized a company, and went to help the troops. The volunteers were stopped by the Indians before they reached Perry's position, their mounts were shot, their Captain, Randall, and another man were killed, and several LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 267 were wounded. The troops later established contact with them. Perry was charged with making no effort to save them. At first he declared his belief that they were all dead. Then, at Whipple's urging, he sent a cavalry company to them. Perry was later exonerated on the plea that he could not have relieved the volunteers at first without endangering his supplies, but Lew Wilmot, one of Randall's Lieutenants, states that, after the first charge, the volunteers were between Perry's supplies and the Indians.7 The Nez Perces withdrew from Craig's mountain and chose a place on the Clearwater to wait for the troops, where they attacked Howard's entire command and for a time cut it off from its water supply. Howard says, " I do not think that I had to exercise more thorough generalship during the Civil war than I did in that march to the battlefield and in the ensuing battle with Joseph and his Indians on the banks of the Clearwater." After two days' fighting, Joseph withdrew, and the troops pursued him as far as Kamiah. Joseph was making for the Lolo pass, and Howard prepared for a long chase. It is said that at the battle on the Clearwater, Joseph, White Bird and Toohulhulsote seemed to share the command, but that after this fight Joseph was regarded as the war chief. He appeared at all points of the Indian line in the Clearwater fight, throwing out flanking parties and leading charges. Before taking the trail to the mountains, he made a last effort to stop the war, but was overruled in the Indian council. He proposed to fight the war out in his own country, rather than to go with his people to die in a strange land. The council, however, voted to go, and Joseph bowed to this decision and devoted his best efforts to carrying it out successfully.8 Though the Nez Perce warriors were encumbered with women, children and old men throughout their long flight, they were able to distance the troops, partly because they had no mercy on their animals. In passing along the mountain ridges, they did not stop to cut obstructions from the trail, but pushed their horses and mules under and over the fallen trees. The pursuing troops found scores of dead and disabled animals which had been abandoned when they had reached the limit of their strength. The Indians aimed to have a large supply of extra mounts, and wherever there was an opportunity they sent out raiding parties to capture horses. The cavalry horses were rather heavy for mountain work, and the Indians led them over the roughest country they could find. Joseph's Escape Captain C. C. Rawn, in command at Fort Missoula, had scouts out, watching for the Nez Perces, but before anything had been learned of their approach, runners arrived from Joseph, asking the troops and the people of the Bitter Root valley to permit his band to pass through and promising to do them no harm. Rawn's force was small, and he was able to take only fifty men to meet 268 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Joseph. About one hundred citizens went along as volunteers, and a barricade was built in the canon down which the Lolo trail runs. After two days of fruitless parleying, Joseph notified Rawn that he would go down into the valley the next morning in spite of any opposition which might be offered. A fight was expected, and a strong line of pickets was sent out. In the morning, firing commenced, by Indian skirmishers, and the general attack was awaited. After a while, when it failed to develop, the troops discovered that Joseph's band had outwitted them by zigzagging up and down a series of lateral gulches on the right of the fortification, while a few of his men held attention to the front by firing on the outposts. Rawn overtook the Nez Perces after they had turned up the Bitter Root valley. They were then in a strong position and outnumbered Rawn's force four to one, as half the citizen volunteers had disappeared. Rawn wisely retired to Fort Missoula. If he had attacked, it is likely that he would have been beaten, and in no event could he have prevented the escape of the Indians, who would have also devastated the valley in revenge. General Gibbon assembled troops rapidly from Fort Benton and other camps and crossed by Cadotte's pass to Fort Missoula. With seventeen officers, 146 men and a wagon train, he started in pursuit on August 4. Unaware that Gibbon had been summoned and knowing that Howard was a long distance behind them, the Nez Perces moved up the valley in a leisurely manner, as they were accustomed to do in times of peace, on the way to the buffalo country. The Indians had many acquaintances among the settlers and were able to buy horses, guns and ammunition with gold stolen from the murdered whites. Many of the settlers were anxious to remain neutral, and the Indians maintained that they were not fighting the ranchmen of this section. In one instance only did they pillage a house, the owner having fled at their approach. A village of outlaw Nez Perces under a chief named Poker Joe joined Joseph in the valley, and when Gibbon came along he added thirty-six citizens to his own command. Gibbon travelled twice as fast as the Indians, but they crossed the Divide ahead of him. Lieutenant J. H. Bradley, with sixty men, mostly volunteers who knew the country, followed the Indians down Trail creek about ten miles, to the Big Hole basin, with the vain hope of stampeding the horses, of which there were over two thousand head. Gibbon got his wagons to the summit and, leaving them there, led his command on foot to Bradley's outpost. The Indians evidently expected to camp in the Big Hole several days, and the squaws were preparing lodge poles for use on the treeless plains. Bradley's observations had been made without revealing the presence of troops. Battle of the Big Hole Gibbon advanced on Joseph's camp in the night of August 8 and at daylight deployed his men to attack from three points.0 The charge was made along LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 269 the whole line, at the opening shot, fired at the first Indian who emerged from his tepee in the morning. The surprise was complete, and the Indians could only seize their weapons and run for cover on the river bank. Many were killed, but in a few minutes the troops began to suffer in their exposed position on the plain, as the enemy rallied and returned their fire under the direction of the chiefs. Looking Glass was heard railing at the tribesmen who started the war and expressing the hope that they would be killed rather than the rest. Two of them were. Some of the Indians got into the hills, and the troops were subjected to a cross-fire. After destroying as much of the camp as possible under the circumstances, Gibbon withdrew to a gulch. He did not succeed in stampeding the horses, as they were driven down the valley by a few Indians immediately after the charge on the camp. As soon as the troops withdrew, the Indians returned to the camp, packed most of their belongings on horses and sent them away with the squaws and children. They were under fire, at long range, while doing this. Among those who were killed, probably at this time, were two of Joseph's wives and a daughter of Looking Glass. In the earlier fighting, the women took part and were known to have killed a number of soldiers. Rifle pits were dug in the gulch, and rock defenses were thrown up. The Indians invested the place closely and inflicted further losses on the troops. The wagon train had been brought to within five miles, where its position was fortified and was successfully defended by the twenty men who formed its guard. A howitzer was sent forward with six men and was about to open fire from a bluff, when a large band of Indians charged and captured it. Some of the men escaped. The Indians also got a pack-mule loaded with two thousand rounds of ammunition which was brought along with the howitzer, and this was a serious loss, compelling the troops to reserve their fire. The Indians burned the brush, but the wind turned and blew the flames back when they had almost reached Gibbon's position. A courier arrived from General Howard on August io.10 Gibbon had heard nothing from his own wagon train, and his fears were increased by the fact that the courier did not come across it. But a messenger brought news of its safety later in the morning, and a detachment was sent to escort it to camp. The Indians disappeared during the night. Howard arrived the next morning, and after burial of the dead, Gibbon, who had received a bullet in the thigh, went with the other wounded men to Deer Lodge. About half his command accompanied Howard in pursuit of the Nez In the battle of the Big Hole, the whites lost twenty-nine killed and forty wounded. Two officers were killed, — Captain William Logan and Lieutenant J. H. Bradley. One of the five wounded officers, Lieutenant W. L. English, died a few days later. Six citizens were killed and four wounded. Of the Indians, 270 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST eighty-three were buried on the field, and a few other bodies were afterward found in the woods. The number of wounded who died during the retreat could never be ascertained. General Gibbon had six companies of the Seventh infantry, but they were on a peace footing of twenty-five men each. If he had been able to take their full strength into the field, or even half that number, the Nez Perce war would have ended with the battle of the Big Hole. One of the official reports of the fight says, after referring to the condition to which Congress had reduced the Seventh infantry, "And it was equally painful to behold its Colonel, recently a Major General and a distinguished corps commander, reduced to the necessity of fighting, rifle in hand, as a private soldier, and compelled by a sense of duty to lead a mere squad of men as a forlorn-hope against a savage enemy from whom defeat would have been destruction." Attack on Howard At Junction Station, Montana, a stopping place for stages, a company of volunteers joined Howard's command, and two troops of cavalry were dispatched to cut off the Indians in the vicinity of Yellowstone Park. After this detachment had left, Joseph turned back and attacked Howard's camp in the night. He marched his warriors in cobmn-of-fours, so that the sentries thought they were their own cavalry returning, until the Indians were close upon them. Before the attack, some Indians crawled into the camp and cut the hobbles of the mules. They also took the bells from the lead-animals, and when the firing commenced the mule herd was stampeded and was directed in its flight by Indian riders, ringing the stolen bells. At dawn, the cavalry overtook and recaptured the mules, but Joseph had allowed for this in his plans, for at that moment the cavalry, now separated from the rest of the troops, ran into the entire Indian force in ambush. No further attention could be paid to the mules, and Joseph secured most of them. After the infantry came up, the fight became general until the Indians withdrew, early in the afternoon. Howard was now forced to make a considerable reduction in his baggage, on account of his crippled pack train.11 The detachment sent to intercept Joseph at one of the gateways to the Yellowstone Park feared to attack the Indians on account of superior numbers. Some of Joseph's young men shot three tourists and captured the wife and sister of one. White Bird provided the captives with horses and sent them hurriedly away before there was a chance of their being harmed. Joseph captured a miner in the park and used him as a guide, treating him well. Colonel Sturgis was known to be on the other side of the Park, with the Seventh cavalry, reorganized since the Custer massacre, but every attempt to communicate with Sturgis was frustrated by the Indians, who caught and slew all the couriers that Howard sent out. When Joseph located Sturgis, he made a feint which started the latter L LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 271 in the wrong direction, and slipped away toward the Musselshell basin. Sturgis, with re-enforcements from Howard's command, overtook the Indians at a point where they had stopped to rest. Joseph started his caravan of non-combatants ahead, held his position for a while and then made a running fight of 150 miles, at the end of which he distanced all pursuit. He defeated a guard of j troops at the Missouri river crossing, captured some supplies and moved on i toward the Canadian line. His intention was to cross into Canada and join the great hostile camp of Sitting Bull, where he and his people would at last be safe. Joseph Trapped by Miles Joseph did not know of the presence of another American force, near the i mouth of the Tongue river, commanded by Colonel Nelson A. Miles. Howard sent information to Miles regarding the course which the Indians had taken, urging Miles to angle in ahead of the fugitives, in order to cut them off from Sitting Bull. At the same time, Howard changed his course, in order to give the enemy the idea that they were no longer pursued. It was hoped that the speed of the retreat would be slackened and that Miles would therefore have time to come up. As part of the plan, Howard's scouts fled and left horses behind them whenever they came in contact with the enemy scouts. This helped to convince the Nez Perces that the troops were no longer very near and had probably given up the chase. The Nez Perces finally went into camp and began to jerk buffalo meat for the coming winter.12 Miles travelled rapidly and, in a snowstorm, came upon Joseph's camp, on Eagle creek.13 The Indians, though surprised, managed to hold the crests of the hills surrounding i their camp against a cavalry charge, in which every officer and non-commissioned officer except one was killed or wounded. Joseph and one of his daughters were on the other side of the creek when the charge was made. He reached his camp and took command, but his daughter and many others were cut off and fled to the distant hills. Some of these fugitives were murdered by the Sioux, and others perished from exposure, but Joseph's daughter was restored to him six months later. Joseph could not attempt another flight, for all his horses had been driven off in the first charge of the cavalry, but he prepared to resist indefinitely. He visited Miles under a flag of truce, but would not accept his terms. The Indians displayed great ingenuity in building a system of deep trenches and underground shelters, with communicating galleries. On October 4, Howard arrived, and his two old Nez Perce scouts, George and Captain John, both of whom had daughters in the hostile camp, were sent to Joseph to urge his surrender. It was promised that the Indians would be taken to Tongue river for the winter and would be returned to Idaho in the spring. All the chiefs except 272 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Joseph and White Bird had been killed in the fight with Miles." Joseph agreed to surrender and said: " I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are, — perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever." Though White Bird consented to the surrender, he and a number of others crept out of camp and crossed into Canada. It is said that 104 escaped. Joseph, with a small group of his warriors, rode into Miles' camp on October 4, and Joseph dismounted and offered his rifle to Howard. The latter motioned him toward Miles, who accepted the token of surrender. Joseph shook hands silently with the officers and then turned away toward the tent provided for him.15 The promise that his band would be returned to Idaho was not kept until seven years later. The Indians were taken to Kansas instead, where many of them became ill on account of the change of climate. Their numbers were reduced by accident and disease from 418 to about 280 before they were removed to the Colville reservation, in 1885. There were some Christians among them, and these were allowed to return to the Nez Perce reservation. A small party of widows were sent back to Lapwai two years before the rest.10 Joseph went to Washington, D. C, in 1897, to complain to the President regarding encroachments by whites on the reservation. While on this journey, he rode with General Miles at the dedication of Grant's tomb, in New York. He made another trip to Washington, in 1903, to see the President and Miles, whom he never blamed for the failure of the government to carry out the terms of his surrender. A year after this trip, in September, 1904, Joseph fell dead in front of his tepee. The Nez Perce outbreak caused great uneasiness throughout the Inland Empire. In the Yakima country, there were fears that Smohalla's followers and Moses' band might go on the war-path. In the Palouse, rumors spread that the Palouses, Spokanes and Coeur d'Alenes were involved. Many people fled to Walla Walla, and a blockhouse was built at Palouse City, 125 feet square, where two hundred settlers sought refuge for a while. It was reported that Father Cataldo was held a prisoner at the Coeur d'Alene mission. At Spokane, a few Nez Perces appeared, and there was a war dance in the Indian camp every night. Settlers from the Four Lakes district came to the falls, and nearly all the whites moved to Havermale island in the Spokane river, for safety. The LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 273 situation was relieved when troops were sent to the falls. They built barracks on what is now Main avenue, near Howard street (named after General Howard), and stayed until the spring of 1878. When the war-time hysteria subsided, it was realized that the Indians in the Spokane country had been as badly scared as the whites. The movement of troops, the concentration of the settlers and the propaganda of the disaffected Nez Perces perplexed them. The controlling j influence proved to be Father Cataldo, who was not a prisoner, but travelled the country for two months after the outbreak, urging the Indians to remain I quiet." General Frank Wheaton, who came with the first troops to the falls, called an Indian council, which was attended by Fathers Cataldo, Joset and Giorda. At the council, Chief Selteese expressed the sentiment of the Catholic ; mission Indians by declaring that if he were forced into war, he and his tribe would fight on the side of the whites. Smohalla and the Dreamer Religion i Some further mention of Smohalla,18 founder of the Dreamer religion, is i desirable because of the far-reaching influence which this strange person exerted ! over the Indians and because of the important part which his doctrines played in confirming the non-treaty Indians in their attitude toward the whites. The first official reference to Smohalla was made by A. B. Meacham, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, who complained in 1870 of the trouble which the new faith was causing. Smohalla's band, the Sokulk or Wanapum, lived on both sides of the Columbia at Priest rapids, and his followers along the river were supposed to number two thousand in 1872. His apostles went among the other tribes. Just previous to the outbreak of Chief Joseph, General Howard and a commission held a conference with Smohalla at Wallula, with the result that the non-treaty Indians on the Columbia refrained from taking part in the war, though they still refused to go on a reservation. Attention was drawn again to Smohalla in 1883, with the coming of the railroad and the consequent unrest among the Indians of the Yakima valley and vicinity. The trouble was not exclusively due to invasion of land rights; much of it was on account of interference with the religious ceremonies of the Dreamers. General Miles, then commanding the Department of the Columbia, sent Major J. W. MacMurray to investigate. The latter spent about a year in visiting the Indian villages, and his report is the most valuable source of information regarding the cult.10 Smohalla was born about 1815 or 1820. Howard called him " an odd little wizard of an Indian." In 1884, he was described by MacMurray as being short, thick-set, bald-headed and almost a hunchback, but he had a large head with a deep brow over bright, intelligent eyes. In speaking he usually affected a bland, persuasive style, but he could be aroused to eloquence. MacMurray said that Smohalla's speaking never lost interest to him, though it was in a language 274 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST which he did not understand. The Indians were spell-bound by its magic. Smohalla commenced to preach his doctrines about 1850, and traces of their influence are apparent in speeches made by the disaffected Indians at the first Walla Walla Council. About i860, Chief Moses, who feared that Smohalla was " making medicine " against him, provoked a fight with him, and Smohalla was left on the ground as dead. He revived, however, and crawled into a boat on the Columbia. The boat drifted a long distance down the river, and he was rescued by white men. When he recovered from his injuries, he became a wanderer, going down the coast to California and Mexico and returning to his former home on the Columbia by way of Arizona, Utah and Nevada. The Indians believed that he had returned from the dead, and he spoke with an authority which he had never before possessed. He told the Indians that the Great Spirit was angry at their apostasy and commanded them to return to their primitive manner of life. He now expounded to them an elaborate system of ceremonial, based on their own mythology, on the observances which he had witnessed as a youth at the Ahtanum Catholic mission, with possibly some additions from Mormon sources. Smohalla was undoubtedly subject to cataleptic trances, and he, as well as his followers, manifestly believed the things which came to him in this state. Yet, like many similar prophets, he did not hesitate to supplement these revelations with deception. He enhanced his reputation by predicting eclipses, which he was able to do by the help of an almanac and some explanations from a party of surveyors. This series of prophecies came to an abrupt end when he was unable to get new almanacs. There were frequent services in the Smohalla ceremonial, during which drumming was kept up almost continuously. In an outdoor service, a processional was headed by the prophet and a boy with a bell. On entering an enclosure, Smohalla hoisted a heraldic flag and delivered a sermon. At the services inside Smohalla's church, lines of women kept time to the drums with ceremonial gestures and by tapping with their heels on the floor, chanting at the same time. The men and boys knelt on the canvas-covered floor in lines of seven. The individuals were arranged according to height, and each line wore shirts of the same color. Smohalla knelt in front, clothed in white, with the boy bell- ringer at his right. Testimonies were given at these meetings, —usually stories of visions or dreams. There was a song leader, and the bell was used at the end of each line and to stop the singing, when it was rung continuously and all raised their hands with a loud "Ai! " Smohalla lived to an advanced age, and much of the ceremonial part of his religion still survives among the Yakimas. Chief Moses Among the non-treaty tribes were the Sinkiuse under Chief Moses who lived on the east side of the Columbia between Fort Okanogan and Crab creek, . LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 275 just north of Smohalla's people. Moses had been asked to go on a reservation, and he told General O. O. Howard at Fort Simcoe, in June, 1877, tnat he was not unwilling but that some of the northern tribes had invited him to become their chief and he might prefer to go with them. Moses' tribe were uneasy, and the settlers in the neighborhood feared an outbreak, but the chief himself was evidently for peace, and General Howard had great confidence in him, which does not appear to have been misplaced.20 Near the close of the Bannock war, a few renegades who had been concerned in the trouble moved north of the Columbia, murdered a white family by the name of Perkins and stayed in the Sinkiuse country. Howard went to Moses' camp, with a strong body of troops, and Moses agreed to deliver up the murderers, if they could be found. In December, 1878, an agreement was made at the Yakima agency by which twenty white volunteers were to act with some of Moses' men in searching for the fugitive band. A misunderstanding occurred regarding the place of rendezvous. Fearing treachery, Moses confronted the volunteers with a show of force. There was a tense moment, but Moses disclaimed warlike intention, and the parties separated, with the idea that a small group of the Indians would later join the settlers in their search. A few days after this episode, Moses took nine men into the Big Bend country, where the renegades were hiding, and another misunderstanding occurred regarding his intentions. He and his men were surprised by the volunteers at night and were disarmed. Moses was taken to the agency and confined in jail until, on the appeal of Indian Agent Wilbur, his release was ordered by General Howard. Unrest continued among the Indians, although the influence of Moses remained consistently for peace. The government humored the Indians to the extent of taking a delegation of chiefs, including Moses, to Washington, D. C, to make their pleadings. It was finally arranged that Moses should take his tribe into an unoccupied part of the Colville reservation. Governor Elisha P. Ferry, General Howard and a considerable force of troops held a council with Moses and other northern chiefs at a trader's store near the Wenatchee. All apprehensions were relieved and there was no subsequent trouble of any consequence. In 1879, the original Columbia River or Moses reservation was bounded by the Okanogan river on the east and by the Columbia and Lake Chelan on the south. An executive order later restored to the public domain a strip fifteen miles wide along the northern border. Then it became necessary for Colonel Merriam, stationed at Fort Spokane, to enforce rigidly the exclusion of whites from the rest of the Moses reservation. In 1883, General Miles, commander of the Department of the Columbia, had a conference with the northern chiefs at Vancouver. There was resentment of Moses' claims of authority to represent them on the part of Chief Tonasket of the Colvilles and Sarsopkin of the Okanogans. Miles finally sent the three chiefs to Washington, where it was agreed that Moses' 276 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and Sarsopkin's bands would remove to the Colville reservation. While Moses was glad to have Joseph and his band as neighbors, Chief Skolaskin and his San-poils resented the presence of both Moses and Joseph on lands which they considered the inalienable domain of the San-poil people. Skolaskin held absolute power in his tribe. As a candidate for the office of chief, left vacant by the death of the old chief without a son to succeed him, Skolaskin's pretensions excited ridicule, because he was lame. In his anger, he exclaimed, " Before another day has passed, God will punish you for making sport of his work! " His saying was recalled when an earthquake shook the country that night, and in the morning the frightened Indians acclaimed him chief. He coolly accepted the earthquake as an answer to his prayer and took further advantage of the situation by extorting a tribute of horses from each of the tribesmen while they were still scared, — thereby becoming the richest member of the tribe.21 Major R. D. Gwydir was Indian Agent when Joseph's party was placed on the reservation. He asked for troops from Fort Spokane, and two companies of infantry and a troop of cavalry were sent. The Agent attended an unsatisfactory council of the San-poils, after which he went to Nespelem to hold a council of the three interested parties. About two hundred San-poils went with him. The Indians held meetings during the night, the followers of Moses and Joseph meeting together. Gwydir said nothing about the coming of troops and on the following day postponed the joint council as long as he could. About noon, he was obliged to call the Indians to the government mill. He stood in the doorway. Moses' men were seated on the right, the Nez Perces on the left and the San-poils facing the door. The speeches were inflammatory. Skolaskin called Moses and Joseph murderers, and Moses said he was glad his people were not ruled by a dreamer who frothed at the mouth like a dog but, in his opinion, was not as good as a dog. The San-poils were greatly enraged and were evidently ready to spring at their enemies at a word from Skolaskin. The tension was relieved by a bugle call, as the advance guard of the troops rode up and dismounted. Gwydir dissolved the council, and the San-poils left for home at once. Joseph and his band were located on their allotment with no further opposition. Bannock and Sheepeater Outbreaks The Bannock Indians had agreed to go on the Fort Hall reservation, and they were present to draw their annuities and to get government rations, but they roamed the country about as much as ever. It was their habit to visit Camas prairie every summer. As the number of settlers in the vicinity increased, their hogs rooted up most of the camas. This source of the Indians' food supply being greatly reduced, and the hunting proving to be poor, their government allowance was insufficient in 1878 to feed them. They went on the war-path under Buffalo Horn, who had served as a scout to General Howard in the Nez Perce LATER INDIAN WARS-CHIEF JOSEPH 277 war. Settlers were killed and much property was destroyed. In a battle with a company of volunteers near Silver City, Idaho, Buffalo Horn was killed. This was a severe blow for them, but they crossed into Oregon, hoping to form an alliance with Columbia river tribes. A prompt movement of the army, however, under General Howard, dispersed them. They were afterward rounded up in small parties. About six hundred prisoners were taken. The Bannocks were kept for a while at the forts, until orders were received from Washington to move them to the Yakima reservation, the idea being that they would there have an object lesson of native progress. They were too far behind the civilized Indians, however, to take any interest in such an example, and the government located them in Nevada.22 Another troublesome little war broke out in 1879. About one hundred renegades from various tribes who lived in the Salmon river mountains and were known as Sheepeaters commenced making raids, after which they took to the mountains, where they felt safe from pursuit. General Howard sent three separate commands into the Salmon river country. One column was defeated and lost its pack train and supplies. Lieutenants E. S. Farrow and W. C. Brown, with seven enlisted men, twenty Umatilla scouts, including the war chief of the tribe as First Sergeant, and fifty cayuse ponies, followed the outlaws into the Seven Devils region and scattered them. Farrow took fifty-three prisoners to General Howard at Vancouver. This was the last Indian outbreak in Idaho.23 The last Indian scare in the Spokane country came in 1891. A freighter named Cole was murdered by Indians in the Okanogan region, and in making arrests a Deputy Sheriff killed an Indian known as Captain John. A cousin of this Indian came in and surrendered, expecting a trial, but a party of masked men took the prisoner from the jail and hanged him. The victim of the lynchers was a boy only fifteen years of age, and deep resentment spread through the Colville reservation and even as far as the Yakimas. The Indians were everywhere indulging in dancing, and the more remote settlements became alarmed. A militia company was called out in Spokane, but Adjutant General A. P. Curry and a few men who were experienced in dealing with the Indians went to the Colville reservation and succeeded in quieting the e: Social Life of the Pioneers WHEN THE EARLY SETTLER ARRIVED IN OREGON, IT WAS HIS GOOD FORTUNE to find a powerful organization on the ground, prepared to relieve his wants and to make up for his improvidence. Dr. McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company was always ready to provision the needy, to protect the American when he was in danger as promptly as he would the Canadian and to make the first winter of the pioneer as safe and pleasant as possible. A ship occasionally appeared in the Columbia, with goods to supply the colonists. The Rev. Samuel Parker, on his visit to Vancouver in 1835, noted the comfort and good cheer, which was in striking contrast with the grinding and perilous life of settlers in the Middle West. The mildness of the Oregon climate was conducive to good health. Water was plentiful and fish and game easy to obtain. It was not necessary to provide feed for the animals against a long winter. Timber grew in abundance, and the soil was excellent in the Willamette valley. Communication was sure with the outside world, by sea. Perhaps the greatest hardship of the Oregon pioneer was his isolation, due not merely to the small population but to the distance which he voluntarily placed between himself and his neighbors on account of the generous Donation land law. There were no Indian troubles in the early pioneer period, and there was no danger from vagabonds and criminals. Though implements were scarce, they were safe from theft. The pioneer home was a simple cabin, usually of logs chinked with moss and mud. One form of building was of baked mud bricks, or adobe. The floor was of earth. Pine boughs with earth thrown over them formed the roof. Stretched cotton cloth, or oiled undressed deer skins were used for windows, although a box of window glass was occasionally available. Stoves were rare, and open fires were generally used for cooking. Furniture was made by hand, with the table in the form of a large board hinged against the wall. The table boards were often packed a hundred miles or more. If enough boards could be procured, bunks were built against the wall and filled with husks, over which the blankets were spread. Nearly every family preserved its feather bed, whatever else was discarded on the journey across the plains. Buffalo robes were common, and these, or bear skins, were used to protect the bed from SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PIONEERS 279 leaks. Tin dishes, forks and spoons were brought out by the pioneers. The wares of a tinner who lived at Fort Vancouver were in great demand. There were some earthenware dishes. These things, as well as clothing for white women, had to be shipped from London and ordered a year in advance. When thread and cloth gave out, buckskin and shredded deer sinew were used to make clothing. Buckskin also served as flour sacking. The evenings in the pioneer home were lighted by the open fire or by wicks burning in cups of fish-oil. The Indians were curious and often invaded the cabins to watch the pale-face women cook. A door, the upper part of which could be opened while the lower half remained closed, was adopted in the later periods, to keep the Indians outside without giving offense. When the Rev. Cushing Eells and his family went to the Willamette valley, after the Whitman massacre, they lived for a while fifteen miles north of Salem in a log house with a puncheon floor,— that is, of logs split in two and hewed on the split side. They had no furniture except a bass viol box, which was used as a table. Their largest dish was a tin wash-basin. In this Mrs. Eells made bread, which was baked in a gallon kettle, buried in hot ashes.1 Muslin Towns In the mining regions, at the time of the first gold rush, most of the houses were frames covered with muslin. They were windowless, and the streets were lighted at night by the lamps and candles within the transparent shelters. It was customary to protect beds against stray bullets, with sacks of flour or sand. When the rush started in the spring of 1861, muslin towns sprang up in a day. Within three months of the selection of Lewiston as a packing depot, there were several streets more than a mile long, with stores, saloons, hotels and dwellings, mostly of muslin. Money was plentiful in the mining towns, and the first real cabins were more luxurious than those of the pioneer settlers. Cowskin rugs were nailed to the floors, and there were books and newspapers, mirrors and pictures. Prices of foodstuffs were high, as most of the supplies had to be brought from the Willamette valley, Utah and California. Vegetables were in great demand, on account of the prevalence of scurvy. There was always fish, but few could spare time to go fishing. It was held that a camp was not really worthy of the name until it could boast a well-filled graveyard. Idaho City claimed to lead all the rest in this respect. Another gauge of a town's importance was the number of pleasure resorts. There was no restriction on the vending of liquor. Familiar names for whiskey in the frontier days were "tangle-leg," "forty-rod," "lightning" and "tarantula-juice." Excessive drinking was the rule, even among people considered conservative. Etiquette required that invitations to parties should specify whether they were to be eight or ten gallon dances or possibly even n dr A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST pretentious affairs. The Philipsburg Pioneer Association, in resolutions i must have been hilariously adopted, reserved " the right to get decently drunk." Some of the men who played prominent parts in ridding the country of outlaws later went to pieces through dissipation. Horse-racing and prizefighting were favorite sports, and gambling was everywhere. Barnstorming troupes roamed from town to town. A newspaper correspondent's account of a theatrical performance in Walla Walla stated that the play, " Naval Engagements," featuring Mrs. Leighton, was given in a barroom. Between acts, the audience lined up at the bar. The hurdy-gurdies, or dance halls, were well patronized. As with most other public resorts, they were often the scene of drunkenness and violence, but they were not houses of prostitution. One of them is described as follows: "At one end of a long hall, a well-stocked bar and monte bank in full blast; at the other, a platform on which were three musicians. After each dance, there was a drink at the bar. The house was open from 9 p.m. until daylight. Every dance was $1.00, —half to the woman and half to the proprietor. Publicly, decorum was preserved, and to many miners who had not seen a feminine face for six months these poor women represented vaguely something of the tenderness and sacredness of their sex."2 A large proportion of the women were German, and were usually engaged by the proprietors of social resorts in sets of four, — with a chaperone! At the expiration of their contracts, most of them married men whose acquaintance they had made at the dance halls, and they are reputed to have made good wives and mothers.3 The immoral women formed another class, and houses of prostitution were plentiful. These women paraded the streets in gorgeous raiment, and small companies of them were often to be met on the trails, dressed in men's clothing and wearing revolvers strapped to their waists. No trail was too difficult for them, if a rich camp lay at the end. Sunday was the least holy of days, being the one time when the miner could wash and darn his clothes, prepare a supply of food to carry him over the busy week, get his mail from town, settle his business matters and have a good time. Dancing, drinking and gambling were in full swing. Yet there were peace-loving souls in the raw communities who spent their evenings quietly, reading. Trimble cites the case of a man at Orofino who, " in the long evenings, read Scott's novels to his comrades."4 As the towns prospered, buildings of sawed lumber or stone were erected. Several firms selling different lines often occupied the same store, and perhaps the room served as office for a doctor or lawyer as well. The owners usually slept in the store at night. Halls were built for the meetings of organizations, and here respectable dances could be held. Churches were early erected in some of the towns. In all the papers of the new communities, almost from the first issues, marriage notices were printed. Many divorces were granted by the legis- SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PIONEERS 281 latures. In the winter of 1862-1863, there was a total population of 670 in what is the present state of Montana, and fifty-nine were evidently respectable women. It is safe to say that the number of good women in the early mining towns has been greatly underestimated. In the summer of 1863, many emigrants arrived from Missouri and Arkansas, whence they had fled to escape the guerrilla warfare prevalent in those States at the time. They brought home comforts and good wagons and teams. There was a large sprinkling of marriageable young women among them. The population of the mining towns was drawn from many parts of the globe, —Americans from all the States, Canadians, Englishmen, Chinese, Mexicans, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians and Hawaiians. The Chinese were an important economic factor in the community and were probably the most abominably treated of all classes. At first they were looked upon as being fit for nothing more than to buy the once-washed claims which no white man would consider. Their industry and patience made it possible for them to extract surprising amounts of gold from abandoned claims. The whites lost their scorn for the Chinamen, and gave them employment on account of their gift of quiet perseverance. But the Chinese were taxed unjustly by the authorities, and tribute was levied upon them in various ways. Yet some Chinamen became prosperous and bought good claims, for which they frequently paid Outlaw Invasion As Walla Walla was the principal town in eastern Washington, it harbored a large assortment of the criminals who always flock to mining regions. The undesirables of 1861 and 1862 were, in many cases, fugitives from justice in other localities. Party feeling ran high at the time. The war was a sore point with every one, and murder was frequently the result of political passion. Among the more conspicuous law-breakers of the time was Cherokee Bob, a native of Georgia. In 1861-62, the fort was garrisoned with California Volunteers. They were men of good families and generally of independent means, who had enlisted for patriotic reasons and little expected to be stationed at a Northwest fort. Cherokee Bob hated these young " hirelings of Abe Lincoln," as he called them and never failed to offer insulting remarks when he came within hearing. The fact that they always appeared in groups, armed with regulation revolvers, prevented him from wreaking his vengeance on them in the street. So he devised a plan for the night of a theatrical performance. He arranged with a Secessionist Deputy Sheriff, who acted as peace officer at the show, to interfere during the first noisy applause. At the appointed time, the Sheriff leaped from his chair and yelled an insult at a group of soldiers from the fort. This brought the desired result, —a protest from one of the men. The Sheriff seized the 282 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST nearest soldier and called for help. When Cherokee and his gang had fled, two of the soldiers lay dead on the floor, and others were brutally mangled. Cherokee fled to Lewiston on a stolen horse. He organized a band of c throats, with his own saloon as their rendezvous. He later moved to Florence, with a woman he had won in a gambling game from a notorious murderer. He decided that his mistress should go to a ball in the town. She went with a named Willoughby, who was instructed to report if there was any trouble. The women present made it plain that they or the outcast would have to leave, and the managing committee expelled the unwelcome pair. Cherokee and Willoughby armed themselves to the teeth and set out the next day to punish the committee. The committee were evidently well prepared, for both outlaws were killed in the exchange of shots. The Rev. Cushing Eells tells of several experiences with horse thieves at Walla Walla in 1862. His sympathy was witb the vigilance committee, and his oldest son was a member of it. The first shooting of a horse thief by the vigilantes took place near the Eells house, at Waiilatpu. Two brothers-in-law of the victim were members of the committee. Myron Eells says that it seemed doubtful at first whether the vigilantes would win or not, as there were about four hundred men on each side. The outlaws had spies on the committee, and a secret organization had to be formed of men who could be trusted. This inner circle quietly hanged six or eight men, and soon about seventy-five of the worst offenders left the valley. The Eells boys slept with loaded guns within reach. At one time, when Myron and his mother were alone, a man came to the house and asked to stay all night, saying he had been at Waiilatpu about the time of the massacre. Myron watched him closely, but he stole some things before leaving the next day, and he was later marched out of town by the vigilantes. He returned and was soon afterward found hanged. This was the last lynching at Walla Walla. It was believed that this man had been sent by the outlaws as a spy, to see if it was safe for them to return, and they learned it was not.5 Career of Henry Plummer In the spring of 1861, Henry Plummer came to Lewiston and set up as a gambler. A band of criminals soon gathered about him, whom he organized under iron-clad rules administered by a committee of which he was chairman. He was not suspected by the townspeople of being anything more dangerous than a sharper, as he dressed and behaved like a quiet business man. He built two road-houses, or " shebangs," one on the Lewiston-Walla Walla trail and the other between Lewiston and Orofino. They were managed by his henchmen and were headquarters for various forms of lawlessness. Miners outfitting in Lewiston were watched by the members of Plummer's gang. Accurate descrip- SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PIONEERS 283 tions of their animals and saddles were taken. Bills of sale were then made out according to the descriptions, giving title to the animals under an earlier date, to the keeper of one of the " shebangs." A fast courier carried the bill of sale to the man in whose name it was drawn. It was then an easy matter for the criminals to dispossess the traveler of his animals at the point of a gun, while he was being shown the bill of sale. Resistance meant deatb and burial in a private cemetery.6 The murder of a German named Hildebrandt resulted at last in measures to protect the people against outlawry. Hildebrandt ran an orderly saloon in his muslin house. He was well liked, and his place was a favorite resort. He was known to possess a considerable quantity of gold dust, and the Plummer gang took steps to get it. One night while Hildebrandt was sleeping, the door was torn from its hinges, and a volley of revolver shots was fired into his bed. Two friends of Hildebrandt escaped with the treasure, and the disappointed murderers retired through a crowd of citizens, voicing oaths and threats as they went. No one dared to attempt an arrest. But the citizens met on the following day to plan means of protection. Plummer, unsuspected of being the instigator of this or any other crime, attended the meeting and spoke eloquently for conservative action. It was largely due to his influence that no organization was formed at the time. An honest saloon-keeper named Ford denounced the citizens present at the meeting as cowards. Later, Plummer and two others, went hunting for Ford and descended upon a saloon in Orofino which he owned. When Ford appeared, they were demolishing his furnishings, but he had the drop on them, drove them from the saloon and ordered them out of town. They rode to a feed yard, and Ford followed and demanded why they had not left. The answer was a shot, and in the fight Ford was killed. Plummer then shifted his headquarters to Florence, and, with a new gang, continued his robberies, his activities extending to Elk City and Deer Lodge. With the help of the sporting and outlaw classes, he was elected Sheriff, in 1863, for all the camps east of the Bitter Roots. The series of atrocities which he perpetrated while in office finally resulted in a vigilance committee at whose hands he and a dozen of his partners met their death. Vigilance Committees In October, 1863, a robbery was committed on the road from Florence to Lewiston, and another a few days later, when two brothers, Joseph and John Berry, were robbed on the same trail. They recognized two of the robbers as Dave English and William Peebles, and it was learned that the third was Nelson Scott. When the Berrys reached Lewiston, the citizens took it upon themselves to run down the criminals. Plummer was no longer there to dissuade them from violence. Peebles was captured in Walla Walla, English at A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Wallula and Scott on Dry Creek. The robbers were astonished at the interest shown in their capture and had fully expected to escape. Meanwhile, a citizens' :e had been organized in Lewiston, and all suspicious characters were ordered to be brought in for trial. The result was a sudden exodus of the undesirables, the town was in a fever of excitement, everybody wore a revolver, and business was suspended. The trio were placed under guard for the night, but the first person who arrived at the building in the morning found that the culprits had been hanged and that the guard had disappeared. In the same year, Loyd Magruder was packing supplies from Lewiston to camps on the Clearwater and Salmon rivers. He was well known and had many friends. One of these was Hill Beachy, owner of the town's largest hotel. In August, Magruder started over the trail to Virginia City, on a journey of almost three hundred miles. About ten days later, another party set out for Virginia City, caught up with Magruder and helped him the rest of the way witb his sixty-mule pack train in exchange for their board. At the destination most of the second party scattered, but three bad men who had purposely followed Magruder remained with him in Virginia City and assisted him in disposing of his goods. He engaged the three criminals and three other men for the return journey, and started back with about $30,000 in gold dust. Half way to Lewiston, Magruder and two of his men were murdered, and the bodies were dropped over a bluff. Five of the best mules were selected, and the rest were killed in a deep canyon. The camp equipment was burned. The man whose life had been spared was a trapper. He was compelled to accompany the murderers, who quietly entered Lewiston, disposed of their mules and took the stage to Walla Walla. Beachy noted the shortness of their stay and, feeling sure that something was wrong, complained to an officer. Magruder's mules were identified, and Beachy set out in pursuit of the criminals. He anticipated their arrival in San Francisco with a wire to the police, and when Beachy arrived, the murderers were behind the bars. The gold dust was traced to the mint, and the prisoners were taken back to Lewiston. They arrived there on the day when the first legislative assembly of the Territory of Idaho convened. The organic act creating the Territory had failed to provide that the previous territorial laws should remain in force, and Idaho had no civil or criminal law. While the murderers of Magruder awaited trial, the legislature hastily passed an act adopting the common law of England. The three men were convicted of murder in the first degree and were duly executed. Vigilantes in Southern Idaho Horse stealing was common in the early days, and stolen horses were seldom recovered. In 1864, William J. McConnell, later Governor of Idaho, was robbed of a horse in the Payette basin. The owner went to Boise, and though he did L SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PIONEERS 285 not succeed in locating the stolen property, in the course of the search an animal stolen some months before was discovered in the stable of Dave Opdyke, who later became Sheriff. A restaurant keeper claimed the mare and refused to give her up. The owner took the matter to court and lost the case. A few nights later, nine more animals were stolen in the Payette valley. A posse recovered the animals in Oregon, and on their return a meeting of all the residents of the locality was held on Porter creek. Although no organization was planned at the time, this was the beginning of the vigilantes in southern Idaho. At another meeting, the Payette vigilance committee was organized. Three forms of punishment were adopted, — banishment, horsewhipping and death. A jury was empanelled to take testimony relative to the operations of a band who had been making bogus gold dust. It was shown that an organization existed for the purpose and that a man named Conklin was the Payette agent for the scheme. A committee of one, with an escort, was appointed to give Conklin twenty-four hours notice to leave the country. The Washoe ferry on the Snake river was owned by two brothers named Stewart, who had a reputation for harboring desperate characters. They protested against the new vigilance committee and challenged its members to take their well-guarded cabin. A few vigilantes captured the place by a clever stratagem, and a jury was selected to try the Stewarts and two men found with them. Two others had been released at once, as they easily satisfied the vigilantes that they were strangers who had stopped at the place in ignorance of its reputation. Capital punishment was the verdict in the case of the brothers. One of the men found at their place was acquitted, and the other banished. The Stewarts were twenty-six and twenty-eight years of age, and the penalty seemed too severe to McConnell, now Captain of the vigilantes; so he, in turn, took the law into his own hands and contrived their escape, after exacting from them a promise to leave the country and to lead honorable lives. The Payette vigilantes reformed their valley in three months. A group of Boise citizens organized in 1864 to punish the Piute Indians for various atrocities. Dave Opdyke, mentioned above, was put in charge of a party of volunteers, who did not succeed in finding the Indians. It was doubted that they had tried. At the trial of one of these volunteers over a horse, a member of the party told a story which differed materially from the accounts of his companions. Apparently as a sequel to his indiscretion, he was killed by a volunteer named Clark. The murderer was arrested, and all his friends swore that he acted in self-defense. But the feeling of the people was so strong against the witnesses that the court held the accused under guard, and the Boise City vigilance committee was organized. It adopted a constitution and by-laws similar to those of the Payette vigilantes. It was decided that the murderer's crime deserved death, and an executive court was appointed to carry out the verdict. 286 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Although Clark was held in the guard-house at Boise barracks, a way was found to take him. He was hanged, and Boise speedily became rid of its rougher element. Soon after, Opdyke was hanged. It is not known who performed this public service, but it was the general opinion that another lawless character was out of the way. Boise county's first Sheriff was a man named Pinkham. It was later arranged between a criminal, Patterson, and his friends, to kill Pinkham. Patterson's friends were to testify that Pinkham drew first. The scene of the murder was Warm Springs, below Idaho City, on the Boise City stage road. Coming upon Pinkham, Patterson challenged him to draw, but shot him before he had time to turn. The fleeing murderer was arrested and confined. With the object of speeding the cause of justice in this case, meetings were held in the mining towns, and delegations were sent to Idaho City. The Payette vigilance committee was asked to lend its aid. A Captain was chosen, and in two weeks nine hundred men were enrolled. The plans for taking the jail were elaborate, including even a field hospital, set up near by. The Sheriff engaged the roughest element in town to guard the jail, and as the project had been so well advertised, it was thought inadvisable to risk an attack. Patterson was acquitted at the trial, but all felt confident that he would not be allowed to live long, and he was shot soon afterward, in Walla Walla, by a Portland ex-policeman whom he had threatened to kill. Lawlessness in Colville Country W. H. Watson, the first Representative in the legislature from Spokane county, was murdered by an Indian on his return from Olympia, in 1861. The murderer was caught by the Sheriff, examined before a Justice at Pinkney City and bound over to the district court, but the crowd of citizens and soldiers at the hearing took the Indian from the Sheriff and strung him up. The residents of Pinkney City suffered from lawlessness on the part of the troops stationed at Fort Colville in 1861 and 1862. Two companies of California Volunteers, commanded by Major James F. Curtis, were sent to the fort, to replace the regulars, at the beginning of the war. Unlike the California Volunteers at Walla Walla, these men were reputed to be largely jail-birds from San Francisco. They indulged in all kinds of violence. Four days after their arrival, they broke into the only laundry in town, ran off the Chinaman and stole the clothes, leaving most of the citizens short of under-garments.7 Lieutenant John M. Henry came into town on February 8, 1862, and killed a man, with a butcher knife. Major Curtis turned the officer over to the Sheriff, who kept him on his farm all winter, awaiting a term of court. Henry demanded a hearing before a Justice of the Peace, in the spring, and as no one appeared to prosecute, on account of intimidation by the soldiers, he was discharged, and left the SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PIONEERS 287 country. In April, Major Curtis demolished the local distillery and stopped the sale of liquor, — a peace measure which the citizens approved. The abandoned barracks of the British Boundary Commission were used for dances, at which the women were almost entirely native or half-breed. Charles Harper, who had come to the neighborhood with other desperadoes 'driven out of Lewiston, killed a woman at one of these dances, in January, 1863. He was caught and hanged at Leo's bar, about fifteen miles below the old fort, by a party of miners. About the same time, a stranger suspected of being an outlaw named Wells who had killed a Sheriff, his Deputy and a driver near Sacramento, was murdered on the Little Pend d'Oreille by two companions who became afraid of him. A posse guided by James Monaghan overtook the fugitives, after a chase to the vicinity of Antoine Plante's ferry, east of the Spokane falls. These men escaped, after being held under guard all winter.8 The chance of escape, when prisoners had to wait a long time for the next session of court or had to be escorted a great distance to the county seat, encouraged local and more certain satisfaction of justice. Before the organization of Baker county, Oregon, when Auburn had become a busy camp, a miner living there was accused of poisoning two companions. He was tried by an improvised judge and jury and executed at once, to save the expense of taking him to Dalles City, 250 miles away. Boom Towns I Boom towns were as numerous as in all new countries. Dr. Elijah White, already mentioned in various connections with the early history of the settlements, crowned his career with the original town-site fraud.0 He platted Pacific City, on Baker's bay in southwestern Washington, and disposed of a considerable number of lots to persons who had never seen the place. White's model town, with schoolhouses and fine residences, existed only on paper, but his picture of the city park filled with deer was not far from the truth. One victim invested $28,000 in a hotel for which there were no guests, but he was more fortunate than the others after all, for the government later paid him $25,000 for part of his claim, as a military reservation, and he had enough land left to lay out the seaside resort of Ilwaco. Another Pacific City victim moved across to Willapa harbor and distinguished himself by starting the oyster industry in the Northwest with shipments to San Francisco. Grand Dalles was the most shameless scheme ever hatched east of the Cascades. In 1880, the Rev. Orson D. Taylor came to The Dalles as a Baptist missionary, and in 1891 he acquired land opposite the town for his project. His maps gave the impression that there were fine boulevards and street car lines and that three railroads entered the place. He even moved the mouth of the Klickitat river nine miles as an added attraction for Grand Dalles. His 288 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST original company was capitalized at $150,000, and it purchased his property for that amount. Other companies followed, taking over the interests and enlarging the issues of stock, and he opened offices in Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Saginaw. In Saginaw, he entered into business relations with Dr. Daniel B. Connell, who brought about his downfall. Taylor was arrested at The Dalles in July, 1895. The case was carried to the supreme court, and he was released on a technicality. He cheated his lawyers of their fees and money which he had borrowed from them, and they later denounced him. The only place of business remaining in Grand Dalles after the fiasco was the post-office. The Early Press Newspapers played an important part in the life of the pioneers, and, aside from reporting the doings of neighbors, they tell us the hopes of the early communities and the struggles for civic betterment.10 The violent partisan feeling which prevailed is reflected in epithets now hardly printable. The cost of living and the things which could be bought are shown in the advertisements. Merchant vessels from the States announced the goods which they brought. At the time of the Civil war, newspapers from the Coast, delivered at the mining camps by stage, sold for a dollar a copy and were eagerly taken at the price. The Oregon Printing Association was organized at Oregon City in 1844, by W. G. T'Vault, J. W. Nesmith, John P. Brooks and George Abernethy. A Washington hand press was brought from New York, and The Oregon Spectator appeared on February 5, 1846. The Spectator was edited for a while by George Curry, but he resigned on account of strict censorship of his work and started an opposition paper, The Oregon Free Press. He bought eighty pounds of type from the Catholic missionaries and had a rude press built, chiefly of wood. His type was intended for the French language and lacked w's; so he whittled a number of w's out of hard wood. This combination of types gave his paper an odd appearance. The publication lived only from March to October, 1848. The Spectator survived it until March, 1855. The Rev. J. S. Griffin took the Spalding mission press, the first printing press in the Pacific Northwest, from The Dalles, where it had been stored, to Tualatin plains, in March, 1848, and issued eight numbers of the Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist. His subscription terms were four dollars in currency or three dollars in real money. Clubs of ten subscribers could pay " in merchantable wheat at merchant prices, delivered at any time (giving us notice) at any principal depot for wheat in the several counties." Wheat had taken the place of beaver skins as a medium of trade. Publication was irregular, and the editor announced: "We will not declare our days of issuing until the next number, hoping some mail opportunity will be secured, and if so will issue that day most favorable for immediate circulation." When subscribers took exception to SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PIONEERS 289 the editor's opinions, they asked, then as now, to have their paper " stopped." They really stopped Griffin's paper, by bribing his printer to quit. The Oregonian was started in Portland by Thomas J. Dryer, December 4, 1850, and Asabel Bush launched The Oregon Statesman at Oregon City in [March, 1851. He soon moved to Salem. Both papers are still published. The Oregonian is the oldest surviving newspaper west of Iowa and Missouri except The Deseret News of Salt Lake City, which dates six months earlier. The first paper in the northern region was The Columbian, named for the proposed Territory which was organized as Washington. Its press, a Ramage, had been used in Mexico previous to 1834, to print pronunciamientos. It was taken to Monterey for the same purpose. Later, The Star of San Francisco and The Aha California were printed on it. It also produced the first copy of The Oregonian, and, after serving The Columbian, it was used by the first Seattle newspaper and continued its pioneering in other towns until it came to rest in the University of Washington museum. The mining rush attracted newspaper men to Walla Walla, and several brought presses with them. Some became discouraged at the outlook, but two groups joined forces and started the Washington Statesman on November 29, 1861, with old equipment from The Oregon Statesman and The Oregonian. The Statesman discontinued in 1910. The Union was established in Walla Walla, April 17, 1867, to offset the Democratic influence of The Statesman, and is still published. On August 2,1862, A. S. Gould started The Golden Age in Lewiston, a hotbed of disloyal sentiment. The United States flag which he kept flying over his office was a favorite target of the Secessionists. The first paper in the Boise basin was The Boise News, which appeared on September 29, 1863. The equipment was primitive; a pine log covered with zinc served as the imposing stone. The cost of printing was high, even with home-made devices, and as much as $2.50 was paid for copies of The News. The Idaho Statesman, still published, began its career on July 26,1864. Political Subdivision and Growth THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF OREGON TERRITORY WAS A DEMOCRAT. Democrats had a majority of the voters, but both parties lacked org; tion. The Whigs were at first opposed to party machinery. The territorial election of 1852, in which they were badly defeated, convinced them that organization was important. The leadership of the Democratic party passed into the hands of a few men known as the Salem Clique, and Asabel Bush, editor of tne Statesman, dominated their policy. These men were arrogant and strongly partisan, and they resented all interference from the East. As early as 1850, the legislature appointed a committee to inquire into the matter of a constitutional convention.1 In 1851, the legislature asked Congress to permit the citizens of Oregon to elect their own officers, even under the territorial organization. It was rumored that the Oregon Democrats were planning to repudiate their allegiance to the States and to set up a republic.2 The introduction of the Kansas- Nebraska bill in Congress in 1854, stirred up still greater unrest in Oregon. Though the Democrats were in the ascendancy, there was a strong opposition to the extension of slave territory. The first meeting of the Free-Soilers was held in 1855. This was the beginning of the Republican party in Oregon. The rumor of a plot to establish a Pacific republic was again in circulation. In July, 1855, the Statesman printed an article suggesting the possibility of forming an independent nation west of the Rockies. In part, it read: " Is the recently avowed doctrine of Territorial Sovereignty broad enough so that it will permit us freely to say whether we will come into the Union, or whether we will remain without, and become separate from it. If nature ever marked out the division of countries, it has done so in North America. The vast chain of the Rocky Mountains present an unmistakable boundary, and we have reason to believe that these boundaries, laid down by an over-ruling Providence, ought to be more strictly regarded. The growing disparity of habits between us and the Atlantic States, and the pecuniary advantages or disadvantages of a separation from the States are not the only questions which ought to be considered. Is it policy for us to join a government, the different sections of which are even now antipodal on a most exciting question, and which are cultivating a spirit of disunion by their altercations? " POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 291 The Oregonian, of Whig sympathy, denounced this article under the caption Revolutionary Filibustering in a New Direction. The Democrats were accused of plotting a revolution. Then the Statesman published a letter from an anonymous San Francisco correspondent, in which it was stated that a secret scheme to form a republic of ten States in the West was under way. Three States were to be formed within the present California, three in Oregon Territory, two in Washington Territory and two from the western part of Utah and New Mexico. The writer seemed to be in possession of many details. Of the proposed republic, he said: " The President, Senate, Representatives, and Cabinet Ministry are all to be chosen by direct vote of the people. The naturalization laws are to be fixed on a severe basis. The act of independence is to be simultaneous with a well-planned and decisive seizure of the United States Reserves, with whatever of movables or livestocks they may contain. . . . You may also guess how readily such a severance will be graciously received by England, France and Spain." Oregon Admitted as a State Year after year, the legislature submitted statehood measures to the people, and the voters as regularly rejected them, but the legislature kept on trying, and in June, 1857, the people voted in favor of statehood and elected delegates to a convention. Early in 1858, the parties held conventions to nominate State officials in anticipation of the admission of Oregon. In July, a State legislature was elected while the bill was still before Congress. On February 12, 1859, the bill was passed, and on February 14 it became a law. There was further rumor of a Pacific republic in i860, but the Republicans carried Oregon in that year, making the prospect of secession very slight, and the disunion press was silenced with the outbreak of the Civil war. After the discovery of gold in Washington Territory, Nez Perce and Idaho counties were organized. By 1861, the population east of the Cascades was two- thirds larger than that on the Coast. In the summer of 1862, an important gold discovery was made some three hundred miles from Walla Walla, east of Fort Boise. This led, in 1863, to the creation of Boise county, which comprised the country south of the Payette river, between the Snake and the Rocky mountains. The county seat was at Bannack City. Roads, bridges and ferries were built throughout the mining region, and Lewiston was incorporated. Eastern Washington grew so rapidly in population during the early mining period that it began to demand a government of its own. The idea was not new, for in 1855 a convention was called at The Dalles, to discuss the creation of a new Territory, to include eastern Washington and Oregon, but the plan was forgotten in the excitement of the Indian uprising. At the time when Oregon was seeking statehood, Stephen A. Douglas was strongly in favor of a boundary 292 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST at the Cascades. In 1861, the Washington legislature was asked to memorialize Congress for the creation of Walla Walla Territory. The resolution lost by a vote of twelve to eighteen in the house. Two subsequent attempts to reconcile political and natural boundaries in the Inland Empire are mentioned Idaho Territory Organized A bill permitting the people to vote on a constitution for the State of Idaho was introduced in January, 1863, and passed the Washington council. The house amended the bill to read " State of Washington " and then tabled it. On making a direct appeal to Congress, the petitioners were more successful, and Idaho Territory was organized, March 3, 1863. It included the present States of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, —more than 300,000 square miles. But in March, 1864, Montana Territory was created, and in 1868 Wyoming took away a large part of southeastern Idaho. This reduced Idaho to its present size of about 85,000 square miles.4 The first Governor of Idaho, W. H. Wallace, made his headquarters at Lewiston, near his own home. It was the oldest town, but the location of the capital, so far from the center of the Territory and close to the Washington line, was not in the best interests of the people. The Governor's first proclamation was dated September 22, 1863, and a general election was called for October. The act of Congress stated that the Governor and the legislative assembly should establish the seat of government for the Territory at the place they deemed most desirable. The act did not locate the capital at Lewiston, but left the selection with the Governor until final action by the legislature. The first legislature met at Lewiston, December 7, 1863. It took its duties seriously, and filled a volume of 610 pages with its enactments. Governor Wallace was elected Delegate to Congress, and William B. Daniels, Secretary for the Territory, took his place in March, 1863. In February, 1864, Caleb Lyon of New York was appointed Governor. The legislature of 1864 passed an act removing the capital to Boise City. The district court enjoined the removal of the seal and archives. The Governor went duck shooting and improved the opportunity to get safely away to the southern part of the Territory. A new Secretary, C. De Witt Smith, was sent from Washington. It was suspected that he intended to violate the injunction, and the court ordered the Sheriff to enforce it and to deputize citizens to assist. Smith secured a detachment of troops from Fort Lapwai, who escorted him, with the seal and archives, across the Washington line. He took the records to Boise, where they remained. The court held that the act locating the capital at Boise was illegal and made the injunction permanent. An appeal was taken but was never heard, and Boise was the capital without sanction of law until the act wbch made Idaho a State settled the issue forever. 1 OREGON STATE 1% \ p-vM WASHINGTON V V TERRITORY | OREGON STATE IDAHO TERRITORY 1 ' i 1 1 POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 293 The early territorial officials left a record of dishonest acts. Caleb Lyon was reappointed Governor late in 1865. Already accused of misusing public funds, he now promoted a fraudulent diamond scheme. He signed every bill except one submitted to him by a faithless legislature. After six months of this and of shameless abuse of bs power of appointment, he abandoned his office and departed. His place was filled by his private secretary until June, 1866, when j David W. Ballard of Yamhill county, Oregon, was appointed Governor. The first part of Ballard's term was naturally difficult. His attempts at honest government brought a storm of abuse upon him. The legislature was called the " guerrilla legislature " and was even more abominable than the previous one. [Enemies of Ballard induced the President, in 1867, to suspend him and to nominate another Governor. The President, however, changed his mind before the commission was made out. The last two years of Ballard's administration were a period of steady advance for Idaho. Idaho Panhandle Question Opposition to the extension of Mormon influence was bitter in Idaho. One expression of it was a memorial to Congress, asking that Utah be denied admission to the Union. There was a large Mormon population in southern Idaho,-25,000, according to the Governor's estimate. The 1884-1885 legislature legalized a test oath designed to bar Mormons from the polls. The same legislature memorialized Congress in favor of the annexation of the Panhandle to Washington, and the plan was approved in the platforms of both political parties in each Territory. A bill was introduced in Congress by Voorhees of Washington, December 8, 1885, was favorably reported by the House and Senate Committees on Territories in February, 1886, and passed Congress on March 2.5 President Cleveland killed it by a pocket veto and never gave his reasons for doing so. The Governor of Idaho is said to have wired Cleveland that public opinion had changed in the Panhandle. There had been no great change of sentiment in that section, but fear had spread in the southern counties that the remainder of Idaho would soon become a second Mormon commonwealth, if the gentile vote in the Panhandle should be lost. The Idaho legislature petitioned Congress in January, 1887, against all further measures of division, mentioning particularly the progressive reduction of Idaho and the fear that the remnant would eventually be incorporated in Nevada and that Idaho would disappear from the map. When this memorial was received by Congress, in 1888, numerous petitions were reported from citizens and public officials to the same effect. The House Committee on Territories reported unfavorably on new bills and quoted the Delegate from Idaho, John Haley, who had favored the measure at the previous session but now claimed that nine- tenths of the people were opposed to it." A constitutional convention was called 294 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 5, and Idaho became a State on July 3, 1890. George L. Shoup, the last is elected Governor. The Name "Idaho" The name of Idaho is derived from a familiar Shoshone expression, pronounced Ee-dah-how by the Indians. The first syllable conveys the idea of coming down. Compounded with the words for water and snow, it indicates raining and snowing. The second syllable is the root for both sun and mountain as everlasting objects. The last syllable is merely an exclamation point. The expression means that a rim of light is descending on the mountains as the sun rises behind them. As an exclamation often heard in the morning, it it simply that the sun was rising and it was time to get up.7 This expression was used by branches of the Shoshonean family in Wyoming and Colorado, and the first permanent settlement in Colorado was named Idaho Springs in ). When the Territory was organized in 1861, it was proposed to name it Idaho, but the name Colorado was adopted at the instance of Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, afterwards Vice President with Grant. Wilson also d have been responsible for the subsequent naming of Idaho and Montana. When the rush to the Idaho mines was on, one of the Columbia river boats was named the Idaho by Colonel J. S. Ruckle of Portland, an owner, who said that he got the name from a Colorado mining man and that it meant Gem of the Mountains. Joaquin Miller, who rode pony express between Lewiston and the mines, learned the real meaning of the expression from Colonel William Craig of Craig's mountain.8 Miller says that the term was known to every one in the camps. The Washington legislature, in 1861, named one of the new ' :s Idaho. The bill creating the Territory passed the national House in 863, with the name Montana, but, in the Senate, Wilson secured the change Washington Admitted as a Slate The Washington legislature commenced in 1867-1868 to submit the ques to the people, but several trials showed tha 1873, the vote against the convention w for Delegate to Congress and yet was e 376 a majority for the convention was si to fear that further delay migh Territory in the interior. The next legislatur Walla Walla in June, 1878. A delegate from though he had no vote. A new easter boundary proposed for the State included the Panhandle. The delegates twenty-four days, and in November the constitution which they drafted w e indifferent, a fourth of the total \ to defeat the measure, but i The change in popul result in the creation called a constitutional northern Idaho attended the POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 295 adopted by the people. The Delegate from Washington, Thomas H. Brents, submitted the question of statehood immediately upon taking his seat in Congress, but it did not meet with favor, and the labors of the 1878 convention were lost. In 1884, Watson C. Squire became Governor. Chinese riots on the Coast, in 1885-1886 proved his ability. He declared martial law in Seattle and kept the situation well in hand, with the energetic assistance of Sheriff John H. McGraw, later Governor of the State.0 Governor Squire's reports to the Secretary of the Interior were remarkable for their exhaustive treatment of western progress. The report of 1884 was said by the Secretary to be the finest ever submitted by any Governor up to that time. The government edition was soon exhausted. A revised report, with additional information, was published in 1885. Governor Squire's reports were reprinted and distributed in large editions by the legislature, the Northern Pacific and other agencies, and they played an important part in securing statehood for Washington. A rapid growth in population and in shipping, from 1880 to 1886, was also instrumental. Eugene Semple was appointed Governor of Washington in 1887. He found the legislature divided on the proposition of removing the capital to a more central location. North Yakima and Ellensburg were suggested, but western Washington had its way, and the capital remained at Olympia. On February 22, 1889, Congress passed an act for the admission of Washington as a State. The Governor was instructed to call a constitutional convention, to meet on July 4 at Olympia. On October 1, State officers were elected, and the constitution was adopted by a vote of 40,152 to 11,879. Woman suffrage and prohibition were defeated. John L. Wilson was elected Congressman and Elisha Pyre Ferry, Governor. On November 11,1889, after the legislature had assembled, Washington became a State. Organization of Montana Congress passed an act on May 26, 1864, providing a government for the Territory of Montana.10 This region had been for a while the northeast section of Idaho. At the same time, the southeast section of Idaho was restored to Dakota, whence it had been taken when Idaho was organized. Sidney Edgerton of Ohio was appointed Governor of Montana Territory. The first election was held on October 24, to choose a legislature and a Delegate to Congress. The legislature met in December, at Bannack, but located the capital at Virginia City. There was no map of the country, by which the district boundaries could be defined, and a draftsman was employed to make one. The statutes of Idaho were repealed, the common law was adopted, and provision was made for codification of the territorial laws. An act was passed to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons, but where most people went armed, with r L 296 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST no concealment of the fact, such a law had little meaning. Several of the towns which were incorporated soon disappeared from the maps. The organic act provided that, in making future apportionment of representation, the legislature should gradually increase its membership to thirteen councilmen and twenty-six representatives. In its first apportionment act, the number was raised to the limit. The Governor vetoed the bill, and the legislature showed its resentment by adjourning without making any apportionment whatever. The Territory was left without election machinery for two years. Edgerton returned to the East in the summer of 1864, leaving Secretary Thomas F. Meagher as executive. The Democrats wished to form a State constitution and they called upon Meagher to order an election for a convention. At first Meagher held that only Congress could now issue a call, but he changed his mind after a few weeks and declared his authority to convene the legislature. He called the council which had been elected October 4, 1864, and the house elected September 4,1865, to meet at Virginia City in March. His policy was wholly anti-administration, and Montana's Delegate, Samuel McLean, was threatening Congress with secession of the Territory to Canada. Meagher set at large a dangerous criminal and refused to observe Judge Lyman E. Munson's request that he annul the pardon. The criminal was hanged by the vigilantes. The legislature legalized a convention, which met in April, 1866, at Helena. A quorum failed to appear, but the convention voted its absent members and prepared a memorial to Congress. Among other things, the memorial requested that Congress prevent re-annexation to Idaho of that part of Montana lying between the Bitter Root mountains and the Rockies. There was a chance that this change might be made, in connection with the proposed separation of northern and southern Idaho. The memorial said nothing about the object of the convention, — State organization. Hope of accomplishing this had run low. Much doubt existed as to the legality of the legislative enactments. The matter was taken into court by an attachment suit, and Judge Munson declared the acts passed at the March session to be illegal. While the matter was being carried to the supreme court, it became clear that Congress would not recognize the acts of the legislature. The Comptroller of the Treasury had refused to honor drafts in payment of its expenses. Meagher headed open-air meetings to denounce Judge Munson and the government. Feeling ran high, and on August 1, 1866, Meagher issued a proclamation calling for a general election in September of each year. He called a third session of the legislature before the Governor appointed to succeed Edgerton arrived, in October, 1866. Governor Green Clay Smith of Kentucky was an unassuming person, who set to work quietly and persuasively to improve matters in the Territory. The legislature which convened in November contained the maximum membership POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 297 allowed by the organic act. Smith called attention to the large debt of the Territory, and noted that some counties paid no taxes. Choteau county refused to organize. The Treasurer of Edgerton county had neglected to collect taxes and had left it in debt. The legislature was directed to find a way to force the delinquent counties of Beaverhead and Meagher to make returns. The legislature had affected economy by cutting the salaries of federal officers, but had doubled the number of territorial officers and paid them three times as much as the organic law allowed. The Territory's debt was over $80,000, and $28,000 more was due to members of the second and third legislatures. It was under Smith that the civil code of California was adopted. Its mining laws had been devised to cover conditions similar to those which existed in Montana. The criminal code remained woefully defective. Its definitions of crime were left so ambiguous by the legislature that nearly half of all complaints tried in the early courts resulted in acquittal. It was almost impossible to get tion for murder, for a number of reasons aside from the law. Public s condoned homicide in many instances. In some cases, juries preferred responsibility to the more impersonal and expeditious action of the vigilantes. When the law called for a long prison sentence, citizens on one occasion petitioned the court to release the man with a small fine, — about what he was able to pay, —because it would be expensive to keep him in jail. If the sentence ran over three years, the prisoner had to be taken to the Michigan penitentiary at Detroit. This was not merely expensive; it was often unsatisfactory because the prisoner escaped en route. The courts were least of all to blame for lawlessness and the recourse of the people to lynch-law. Montana's early judges were upright men of exceptional ability, but the difficulties which confronted them were unsurmountable. Altered mining conditions made Virginia City less desirable as the capital, and the legislature of November, 1866, removed the territorial seat to Helena. According to the organic act, the final location could not take place until the people had voted on the matter. Helena was not definitely selected until 1874. When Smith returned to the States, after a few months, Meagher again stepped to the front and called a special session of the legislature. This session busied itself with the passage of toll-road charters, — a system by which favored citizens of eastern Oregon, Idaho and Montana were granted monopolies in holding up the traveler. On the pretext of having graded a few miles of road or thrown a flimsy bridge across a stream or established a ferry, the charter permitted the collection of an exorbitant toll and prohibited competition within a stated number of miles. Meagher had schemed to amend the election law in the interests of his party, but the legislature failed him in this connection, through fear of congressional displeasure. It had already offended sufficiently, and just after adjournment news came that Congress had annulled all laws and charters made 298 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST by the Montana legislatures from the beginning. The judges and Governor re- ceived instructions from Congress, and the legislative assembly was authorized to re-enact any laws of the previous legislatures which might seem worth retaining. By 1883, conditions were improved to the extent that the treasury of Montana held a surplus of over $14,000. The educational system had greatly advanced. The population was 40,000 and efforts to secure statehood were renewed. In January, 1884, a convention was held at Helena. A large vote was cast in favor of a constitution, though nothing further came of the movement. The legislatures had all been Democratic until 1888, when the Republicans had a working majority in both branches. In March, 1889, a Republican Congress passed an enabling act authorizing a constitutional convention. The convention assembled on July 4, at Helena. Under the constitution which was drafted, women might hold the office of county superintendent or any school district office, and women could vote who were tax-payers and had the qualifications required of male voters. At the election in October, 1889, a large majority voted for the constitution, and Montana got a Republican Congressman and a Democratic Governor. The Lieutenant Governor and all the other State officials were Republicans. The sharpest contest was for seats in the legislature, which would elect two United States Senators. The first returns indicated a Democratic majority, but the vote in Silver Bow precinct was challenged and thrown out, giving the Republicans a small lead. A savage contest followed, and it was feared that this fight would wreck the cause of statehood. President Harrison, however, issued a proclamation on November 8, 1889, admitting Montana to the Union. The contest continued, with two rival legislatures, each of which elected two Senators, thereby passing the decision to Washington. Division of the Huge Counties The first territorial subdivisions in old Oregon were called districts, of which there were four, created at the second Champoeg meeting, July 5, 1843. Tuality and Clackamas shared the country north of the Yamhill river as far as 540 40', the boundary between them being an extension of the line of the Willamette river. The Willamette and a southern extension of its line served as the boundary between the districts of Yamhill, on the west, and Champooick on the east. A fifth district, Clatsop, was created in 1844, and the term county was introduced. The legislature of 1845 united the northern districts under the name of the district of Vancouver. Next, its eastern boundary was made the Columbia. Within a few months, Lewis county was organized to embrace all of this district west of the Cowlitz. The reduction of these units commenced in 1846, with the acceptance of the new northern boundary.11 Considerable interest attaches to the division of the immense counties which POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 299 were created east of the Cascades. In eastern Oregon, Wasco county, organized in 1854, included everything east of the mountains and south of the Columbia. Dalles City, later named The Dalles, was the only settlement. Baker county was cut off in 1862, when the mining population called for a government. There was no town in Umatilla county when it was organized, the same year, and the first efforts to make one grow were a failure. The county records were finally taken to a spot where there was a farmhouse and a shed, named Pendleton by a commission which sympathized with the anti-war sentiments of the nominee for Vice President in 1864. The farmhouse was used as a county building, with the basement as a jail. Everything in Washington east of Cape Horn on the Columbia was originally in Skamania county, created by the first legislature on March 9, 1854.12 On April 25, the legislature cut off the eastern part of this region at the Deschutes river, to form Walla Walla county, which was therefore very nearly co-extensive with the Inland Empire, — about 450 miles long and 200 miles wide, or 90,000 square miles of territory! Walla Walla county was not organized, however, until the Indian troubles were settled, in 1858, and in that year the legislature took away the greater part of the area, though not much of the population, to form another county. The region north of the Snake, from the Cascades to the Rockies, was transferred to this county, though the northern and western boundaries were along the 49th parallel, as far as the Columbia and then down the middle of the river to the mouth of the Snake. The area was about 76,000 square miles. This was Spokane county, which had the oddest history of all these early political units. The first two groups of officials appointed by the legislature, in 1858 and 1859, made no effort to organize. Another group, appointed in i860, met and organized on May 8. An election precinct was established at Pinkney City.13 A full list of county officials was elected in July and W. H. Watson was elected to the legislature. When he appeared at Olympia he discovered that the act creating Spokane county had omitted to give it a representative. As amends for the error and recompense for his long journey, the legislature elected him Doorkeeper. On his way back to Pinkney City, he was murdered by an Indian.14 When Oregon won statehood, in 1859, Spokane county was stretched to cover all of Idaho, as well as western Montana and Wyoming, but in i860 Shoshone county was formed from the area between the Clearwater and the 42nd parallel, the Rockies and the Snake, and Missoula county was created by taking away all of Spokane east of the Bitter Roots, — about a third of what was left. District court sat for the first time at Pinkney City, July 28, 1862, for both Spokane and Missoula counties. Two new counties, Nez Perce and Idaho, were subtracted from Shoshone by the 1861-1862 legislature, and at the next session Boise county was organized. Governor Stevens was killed at the battle of 300 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Chantilly, September i, 1862, and on January 20, 1863, Stevens county was created to his nicinoiT. Tin iij'.isl attire was ahoui to establish this county under the name of Awahna. It was bounded by the Cascades, the 49th parallel, the Columbia and the Wenatchee. It was attached to Spokane county for judicial business, and it was found impossible to organize it within the prescribed boundaries, for its officials were miners who constantly moved to new claims and were succeeded by swarms of Chinamen who were glad to take what the whites abandoned. The Chinese apparently did well, and they paid no taxes. The legislature was induced to levy a personal tax, presumably to protect white labor, and the union of the two counties for judicial purposes was intended to prevent the Chinese from dodging taxes by crossing the Columbia. The organization of Idaho Territory in 1863 took a huge slice off Spokane county, and in 1864 the Washington legislature merged the county in Stevens. Spokane county ceased to exist for sixteen years, but as there were no officials west of the Columbia the Spokane organization continued to act. Stevens county covered an area of 40,000 square miles until November 29, 1871, when Whitman was organized, with the county seat at Colfax. The name of Pinkney City was changed to Fort Colville in 1868. On October 30, 1879, the legislature revived Spokane county, leaving all the northern region to Stevens. Lincoln and Franklin counties were cut off from Spokane and Adams from Whitman in 1883. It was originally intended to name Lincoln county for General John W. Sprague, but opposition arose in the council, and the Chair cast the deciding ballot for Lincoln. Four days later, a part of Lincoln was taken away to form Douglas. Grant county was taken from Douglas in 1909. Stevens county yielded Okanogan in 1888, Ferry in 1899, Chelan in 1899 and Pend Oreille in 1910. A county named Ferguson was set up, south of the Wenatchee river, and officials were appointed. They never made any returns, and Yakima county was substituted for Ferguson in 1865. Its northern district was set apart as Kittitas county in 1888, and parts of Yakima and Klickitat went to form Benton, in 1905. The first Idaho legislature, in 1864, created ten counties in the immense region east of the Bitter Roots, and sixty days later, after all this trouble, Congress detached the entire group to form Montana Territory. The first legislature left northern Idaho with little organization. The Washington legislature had created Shoshone, Nez Perce and Idaho counties, and the part of the Panhandle which was taken from Spokane was left unorganized and was attached to Nez Perce for judicial purposes. Clearwater county has since been taken from Shoshone, and out of Nez Perce have come Lewis and Selway. The narrow strip in the Panhandle is now cut into five counties, — Latah, Benewah, Kootenai, Bonner and Boundary. POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 301 County Seat Contests The location of county seats sometimes caused strife and led to amusing episodes. The residents of a prosperous section north of Lewiston, which had changed its name from Hog Heaven to Paradise prairie, wished to move the Nez Perce county seat from Lewiston to their own business center, Moscow, Their first effort failed in the legislature. A second campaign induced the legislature to submit the question to the people, but Moscow lost the election. In the midst of the third campaign, the Moscow people adopted new tactics, by which they avoided all further local embroilment. With the aid of Idaho's Delegate and in spite of protests from the Territory, they got a bill through Congress, creating Latah county. The most exciting county seat contests were the Spokane-Cheney and Davenport-Sprague struggles. As noted above, Spokane county passed out of existence in 1864. When the abortive attempt to transfer the Stevens county.seat to Spokane Falls was made in 1875, James N. Glover and his associates, the first settlers, had been there only two years. In 1879, Glover went to Olympia and, by liberal entertaining at Doane's oyster house, had Spokane county legally revived, with the county seat temporarily located at the falls. An election was called, however, to fix the permanent location.15 The first canvass showed that Cheney had won, but irregularities were discovered, and when a recount was made in Spokane and it was announced that Spokane had a majority of two or three votes, the Cheney people took the matter into court. The hearing was attended by a heavily armed audience, and another count was ordered, but the order from the court failed to specify a time. Spokane was in no hurry, as she had possession of the county records. Since the recount promised to be permanently deferred, an armed party from Cheney visited Spokane at night, when nearly every one was at a wedding dance. The courthouse was a frame structure at Main and Howard, and the County Auditor, W. H. Bishop, was working late that night. The room suddenly filled with the Cheney delegation, which included the Probate Judge, a Deputy Sheriff and a Justice of the Peace. The election returns were put in proper shape, and it was officially declared that Cheney had won by a majority of seventy-one. To make the decision effective, the county records were carried away and the Auditor was abducted with them. Spokane's lone night watchman heard sounds in the woods and fired his gun, but the loss of the county seat was not discovered until morning.16 A scout sent to Cheney to reconnoiter reported that the records were strongly guarded. The armed watch was kept up six weeks. By that time all the county officers had been induced to come in except A. M. Cannon, Treasurer, and the incident was closed when he consented to deputize a Cheney man to act for him. These events took place in the spring of 1881, and when another election was held, in 1887, on the 3o2 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST location of the county seat, Spokane easily won on account of her growth in population. But immediately after the forcible removal of the county seat to Cheney, the future looked dark for Spokane. The coming of the railroad in 1881 meant some growth, but the Northern Pacific favored Cheney. One of the men who remained firm in the belief that the logical center of population in this region was at Spokane Falls was Father Cataldo. As Superior of the Jesuit missions, he had an exceptional chance to promote the development in which he believed, and he made the best of this opportunity. In spite of offers of free property and financial help from Cheney, he bought two half-sections of land at Spokane. Men of his own faith, including M. M. Cowley, who was then living at Cowley's bridge, were pro-Cheney, and members of the Jesuit order complained of his lack of judgment to their General in Rome, who reminded him that the money of the poor Indian missions " should not be wasted on buying useless tracts of gravel." But he invested the funds at his disposal and lived to see his dreams come true." When Lincoln county was set apart from Spokane, the town of Sprague expected to get the county seat and to have the county itself named for General Sprague. When the legislature, by one vote, named the county Lincoln, and also designated Davenport as the temporary county seat, a spirited contest was inevitable. An election was held in 1884, to determine the permanent location, and the number of votes cast in each of the two towns was in excess of their combined population. It was charged that children were voted as well as passengers on the through trains and names from tombstones in the cemeteries. The railway undoubtedly gave Sprague an advantage, for it made the importation of voters easy, and every railroad man on the line who could be spared came into town on election day, while Davenport had to transport its outside vote by horseback. This handicap lost the county seat to Davenport, but, as in the Spokane-Cheney contest, the next thing was for Sprague to get it.18 Charges of fraud were hurled at each other by the towns, and a group of Sprague citizens, arrested for illegal voting, were tried at Cheney, but no convictions were secured. The county officials were ordered to remove their offices to Sprague and a building was leased for a courthouse. The Commissioners, however, could not legislate the records from Davenport to Sprague. Daily meetings were held, and the board appealed to the legislature. Sprague sent out a call for help to the settlers and cattlemen, and the citizens of Davenport dug trenches and threw up breastworks around their courthouse. Guards were posted day and night for several weeks. The Sprague forces waited until the defenders tired and were scattering to their ranches. Then Sprague men sworn in as Deputy Sheriffs, swept into Davenport and captured the county records. The invaders rather expected to have trouble, and on their way to Davenport POLITICAL SUBDIVISION AND GROWTH 303 they threw up defenses, at strategic points, to cover their retreat. While getting away with the records, they encountered several armed groups, who were, however, hopelessly outnumbered and could only make threats. Davenport suffered another defeat in 1890, but in 1896, after Sprague had experienced a double disaster, — the destruction of the railway shops by fire and the decision of the company to rebuild them at Spokane, — Davenport won the county seat. In Polk county, Oregon, the town of Independence started a movement to take the county seat away from Dallas, but the citizens of the latter town raised $17,000 as a bonus to have a narrow gauge railway then building from Dayton to Sheridan extended to their town, and the argument that they were on the railroad was unanswerable. The road immediately went into a receivership, but it was purchased by a group of Scotch capitalists, and a very helpful element was thereby brought into the industrial situation in Oregon. Economic Growth Mining and Transportation MINING OPENED THE INTERIOR TO SETTLEMENT, WAS prosperity, stimulated railroad building and is of increasing importance in the present generation. With all the anti-social features of its beginnings, it nevertheless brought the institutions of civilization into a region which had previously known only Indians, missionaries and troops, explorers, trappers and traders. With each new mining development of importance, the young cities took a fresh start. Early mining history may be grouped by fields or movements, one of which was in California, another in the Pike's Peak region, the third in Nevada, and the fourth in the Pacific Northwest, largely within the Inland Empire. Father De Smet was convinced that gold would be found in this region, and there had been rumors of its presence, in the thirties. Angus MacDonald, Chief Trader at Fort Colville, says: " I took charge of Colville in 1852 and hinted at the golden geology of that country to our men. I had a little sack of dark sand given to me by a friend in California, which I showed to our men. Morel had been out cutting a large tree for firewood and felt dry.1 He went and drank freely with his mouth deep into the Columbia. He saw some black sand of the kind I showed him in my little sack. Pulling off his old hat, he put some of the gravel of the beach and water into it, and managed to shake it enough to see several scales of gold, bigger and smaller than a pin-head, that remained in the hat after he poured the water out of it. Private information was sent to a few friends in Oregon about it. A few French Canadians and half-breeds arrived early in the spring and fixed their rocker machines where Morel washed before. They washed about three dollars a day per man." - MacDonald sent men up the river to prospect, and in a few days they returned with several ounces of fine gold scales from the mouth of the Pend d'Oreille river. To celebrate the discovery, a small field-piece said to have been taken at the Heights of Abraham, was lashed to a boulder with buffalo cord and fired,3 and, lacking a flag, a buffalo hide and a bear skin were hauled up on a flag-staff. It was in the late summer and fall of 1855 that the first real rush to the Colville country took place. Business was poor on the Coast at the time, ECONOMIC GROWTH 305 and consequently a considerable number of people took part in this movement. When the news of the Yakima outbreak brought Governor Stevens back from Fort Benton in a hurry, he enrolled eighteen of the Colville miners in the volunteer company which took the name of the Spokane Invincibles. The prospectors found gold in many places but in no remarkable quantities. During the summer and fall of 1857, gold was found on the upper Fraser river by miners who came mostly from Washington and Oregon. When they ran out of provisions, they had to return to Washington or go to Victoria, and they brought the news of their rich finds. The Fraser river discoveries well nigh depopulated some of the Coast towns, while others experienced a temporary growth, as shiploads of miners from California arrived.1 Some of the mining counties in California lost a third of their population. The number of miners who went from California to British Columbia in the summer of 1858 is estimated at twenty-three thousand by sea and eight thousand by land. The rush receded in the summer of 1859, when the strangers were confronted with the great rise of the Fraser in the warm months and learned of the long interruption in mining operations which this condition compelled.5 In 1858 to i860, there was a revival of interest in the Colville mines and considerable excitement over prospects on the Wenatchee, which did not amount to much. In 1859, the British Boundary Commission camped on the Similkameen river near the international line. A member of the party found gold in the stream, the news spread and hundreds of miners were soon in the region. In the first month of its existence, Okanogan City became a flourishing camp, with a population of nearly three thousand. Rumors came of new discoveries on the Fraser, nearly all the miners on the Similkameen rushed north, and Okanogan City, after three months of boom, was practically deserted. In the fall of i860, the Cariboo district, one of the most famous gold fields, was discovered. In 1861, about fifteen hundred men went to this region and are said to have taken out $2,000,000. " Cariboo " Cameron, a tenderfoot from Ontario, went to the mines in 1862 and left the country within a year with $150,000. The Kootenay diggings were discovered in 1864 by a prospector from Colville, James Manning, who had seen some fine gold brought from the region by a half-breed. By fall of the same year, fifty sluice companies, some of them employing twenty-five men, were taking out from $300 to $1,000 each per day. The principal diggings were on Wildhorse creek, about fifty miles north of the boundary. In 1865, upwards of two thousand men were in the district. The town of Fisherville, containing 120 houses, proved to be located on ground rich in gold, and two-thirds of the town-site was washed away by the miners that summer. These operations were naturally attended by numerous controversies between mine-owners and house-holders. Attention was first directed to quartz mining in the Kootenay district in 1888, when 102 claims were located. No A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST portant discoveries were made until Joseph Bourgeois located the North Star also located the famous Le Roi mine and discovered the principal Rossland copper mines. Victoria ditch, three miles long and costing $125,000, was built to bring hundred claims. It is estimated that a million dollars was taken of this district. The Kootenay mines suffered a sudden decline, partly be- of the attractions of other districts, and in 1866 only seven hundred men, half of these being Chinese, were at work on Wildhorse creek. The Kootenay district was naturally tributary to the States, and practically all its trading was done with Lewiston and Walla Walla, in spite of the high tariff. Gold was discovered in the Swauk district of the Okanogan country in 1874. Ben Goodwin, an old California miner, had prospected over a large part of Oregon and Idaho and was trying his luck in Washington. Reaching the Swauk, he lost his bearings and, while looking about, came upon the richest placer mines of the territory. Nuggets worth as high as $400 have been taken from these diggings. Idaho Placer Mines The Idaho placer mines were discovered in i860, the year of the Cariboo discovery. The section which was first opened was then a part of Washington Territory. The most important placer mines which were located following the discoveries in the Nez Perce and Salmon river districts were the John Day river and Powder river districts in eastern Oregon, the Boise basin and Owyhee in southern Idaho, and the Deer Lodge, Bannack, Alder gulch and Last Chance gulch in Montana.0 From Indian sources, Captain E. D. Pierce derived information which led him to suspect the existence of rich deposits of gold on the tributaries of the Clearwater. He went into the region in the summer of i860 with five other men. The Indians objected to their presence on the reservation and warned them to leave. Each time this happened, the prospectors turned back, but changed their course again as soon as the Indians were out of sight. They were able to elude the natives with the assistance of a Nez Perce girl named Jane, whose services had been secured as a guide.7 After a few days of wandering, the prospectors camped in a mountain basin which was afterwards named Canal gulch. After supper, a member of the party, W. F. Bas- sette, in a casual investigation of the stream, made the discovery which ushered in a new era of placer mining. Pierce returned to Walla Walla. Miners hesitated 0 the Nez Perce region on account of the attitude of the Indians, but ii to go in the fall Sergeant I. C. Smith took in a party of about sixty men, and i 1861, Smith came out on snowshoes with $800 in gold-dust. The gold \ to Portland, and the excitement commenced. By June, thousands of n camped on Orofino creek and the tributary streams. Two mining tow and Pierce City, were built. March, ; shipped ters were Orofino ECONOMIC GROWTH 307 Traffic became heavy on the Columbia, and two new steamers were built at once, in addition to the Colonel Wright, which was then running on the river. Lewiston came into existence, located by miners and the navigation company as the most convenient river port and point of departure for the daily pack trains. By August, it was estimated that twenty-five hundred miners were at the diggings and that possibly five thousand men were in the district making a living in other ways. It was in the same summer that gold was discovered on the South fork of the Clearwater, and Elk City was started. In September, the Salmon river discoveries were made, which became known as the Florence mines. The placer mines of Central Idaho produced between $30,000,000 and $60,000,000 in gold. They were exhausted soon after 1900. Quartz mining commenced about 1884, but the transportation problem, due to the isolation of the mines, has made profitable working of the ores difficult. The first prospecting for gold in tbe Coeur d'Alenes was probably done by Thomas Irwin, who located a quartz claim near the Mullan road in 1878, in or near Gold Run gulch. Placer discoveries on Prichard creek led to a rush to the North fork country early in 1884. At first the center of operations was the town of Eagle, but Murray soon became the hub, as it was found that the richest placers lay higher up Prichard creek. At this time, Colonel W. R. Wallace ran a store in a dense grove of cedars where the city of Wallace now stands. The locality was then known as Placer Center. Placer mining declined soon after the Bunker Hill and other silver-lead discoveries were made. 'eh ■ ;o ■':■;;■ lad :<:, y The great lode mining industry of the Inland Empire began with the discovery of the Old Dominion mine, about seven miles from Colville, by E. E. Alexander of Spokane, April 12, 1885.8 The Old Dominion, followed a few months later by the Bunker Hill discovery in the Coeur d'Alenes, did much to make Spokane a city, and the Old Dominion established Colville, where there had previously been little beside a brewery and two stores. The north part of the Colville reservation was not thrown open to mineral location until 1896, and the south part not until 1898. In the north part, many claims were located at the Eureka camp, the name of which was afterwards changed to Republic. The production was chiefly gold. The production in the south part of the reservation has been small. The Metaline district, which has recently received extraordinary publicity, is a segment three or four miles wide and about twenty miles long, extending north from lone into British Columbia, where it is called the Pend d'Oreille district. The river of this name divides the district into east and west sections. The mineral deposits are close to the river, in the high bluffs on both sides. The development of this district, one of the richest in the country, 3o8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST with an immense quantity of silver-lead ore in sight, has been delayed by the difficulties of transportation. At an early date, Indians made a practice of melting down the rock of what became the Blue Bell mine, opposite Ainsworth on Kootenay lake, to make bullets. The discovery of the Silver-King mine on Toad mountain, above Nelson, in 1886, marks the beginning of lode mining in the Nelson district. The Slocan district lies between the Kootenay and Arrow lakes. It is named for the lake about twenty miles long which lies at its center, surrounded by wonderful mountain scenery. Some of the richest silver-lead mines, yielding the highest grade ore, are in the Slocan country. Many of the mines are at high altitudes, frequently five thousand to six thousand feet above sea level, where the veins of precious metal have been laid bare by erosion. The first discoveries in the Slocan were made in 1891, — the Payne mine and the Noble Five group. There is a legend that the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mine, the richest property in the Coeur d'Alenes, was discovered by a burro, which uncovered the ore by pawing with its hoofs. The burro played an important part in the story but did not figure as the discoverer. The real discoverer, Noah S. Kellogg, was involved in litigation because the donkey was part of his grubstake and, though he considered that the grubstake was terminated, he failed to return the animal until after the great find. So the donkey determined the ownership of the mine and was rewarded with a life of ease on a farm in Oregon. Kellogg is believed to have made his discovery while searching the hills for the donkey, which had a propensity for wandering away. The Bunker Hill smelter at Kellogg is the largest and best equipped of its kind in the country, and a great electrolytic zinc plant has recently been added.9 Coeur d'Alene Riots The labor riots in the Coeur d'Alenes, culminating in the blowing up of mines, martial law and the famous Bull Pen, with the assassination of Governor Steunenberg and the disclosures of Harry Orchard as a sequel, form a thrilling chapter in the history of the mining region. A Consolidated Miners' Union was organized in 1890, and a Mine Owners' Protective Association was formed in 1891. A dispute over deductions from wages for medical care resulted in a strike. This, together with another dispute, between the mine owners and the railways, over freight rates, led to the closing down of the principal mines by January 15,1892. The proposal of the owners to re-open in March, with some reductions in wages, was rejected by the union. The owners announced that they would open on June 1, and began 10 import miners from outside, under the guard of detectives. Charles A. Siringo, a Pinkerton operator,10 was sent to the town of Gem to perform intelligence service for the owners. He worked in the mines, joined the union, of which George A. Pettibone was ECONOMIC GROWTH 3o9 Secretary, and soon discovered that the policy of the labor organizations was being shaped " by a number of dangerous anarchists." Several train-loads of armed miners were brought into the country by the owners, and a battle took place between the union men and the strike-breakers at the Frisco mine on July ii. The older building was blown up by turning off the water from the flume and sending giant powder down the penstock to the water-wheel. The defenders had removed to a new building before the explosion, but they soon afterward surrendered. At the Gem mine, a large number of shots were exchanged, after which a conference was held, and the strike-breakers surrendered. The union men then went to Wardner, took possession of the Bunker Hill concentrator and placed a ton of powder under it. The manager of the mine saved it from destruction by agreeing to send away his non-union employes. The casualties in the fighting were not heavy. Only five men were killed at the Gem mine, but a great deal of hardship was visited upon residents of the region who refused to join the union. It was occasionally voted to run certain " scabs" out of the State, then these men were dragged from their homes, treated to numerous indignities on the street, marched up the canon, a few miles beyond Burke, and given a good running start with a volley of shots fired over their heads. The nearest point of refuge for them was thirty miles over the range, through deep snow, as these outrages were perpetrated during the winter. While many non-union men were waiting for tbe steamer at the Coeur d'Alene mission, on their way out of the country, they were attacked by an armed party and were driven to the woods for the night. Robbery was undoubtedly the purpose, and the fugitives lost everything they had with them. Some were never heard of again. One man was severely wounded. Siringo escaped the vengeance of the strikers, when his identity was discovered, by crawling through the town beneath a board sidewalk, under the feet of the crowds who were searching for him.11 Troops were sent to the mines, under the command of General Carlin, and martial law was declared. Most of the authors of the outbreak were rounded up by the military and identified by Siringo. The prisoners were at first held in stockades at Wallace and Kellogg, where the military courts sat. The majority were released on parole, and only a few convictions were secured in the regular courts. Pettibone and several others were sent to the House of Correction in Detroit. Though the excitement in the mining towns quickly subsided, there were occasional individual acts of violence directed against residents who were particularly unpopular with the Work at the mines was resumed, but in April, 1899, another rupture occurred over a demand for official recognition of the union wbch was refused by Frederick Burbidge, Assistant Manager of the Bunker Hill mine. On April 29, a party of masked men took possession of the Northern Pacific train at Burke 3io A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and compelled the engineer, L. W. Hutton, to follow their instructions.12 The train was moved down the canon, and at Mace about one hundred men got aboard. At the Frisco mine, about eighty boxes of giant powder were loaded into a box car. After taking on two hundred more men at the town of Frisco and proceeding to Gem, the leader of the expedition had the train backed to the Frisco powder magazine again, where an additional load of explosives was picked up. On the return to Gem, a large part of the male population was added to the party, and a Mullan delegation was taken on near Wallace. Ammunition and guns were purchased at Wallace, and the train proceeded to Wardner. At the end of the journey, there were about one thousand men in the party, of whom two hundred or more were masked and armed. The boxes of powder were carried to the Bunker Hill mine, and the buildings were completely destroyed. No one was killed at the mill, but in the indiscriminate shooting which occurred a Frisco miner was killed. It is said that he was shot by the strikers on suspicion of being a traitor. An employe of the mill was fatally wounded. For the killing, Paul Corcoran, Secretary of the Burke union, was sentenced to seventeen years' imprisonment. Martial law was again declared, and federal troops occupied the mining region, under the command of General H. C. Merriam. A large number of : kept in an old stable. The conditi i good, and the fact that the guards at matters any. After twenty days in the 'ere transferred to the structure which Pen. This was built at Wardner and ts were made, and the prisoners v under the circumstances were none to first were negro troops did not help stable and in box cars, the prisoners ' has generally been known as the Bui consisted of four sheds, enclosing a yard. Three of the sheds were bunk-houses, with a window at each end as the sole means of ventilation. These sheds opened into the yard, and entrance to the buildings was by a single door in the fourth shed, which was used as a kitchen and guard room for the soldiers. The entire group was enclosed by a barbed wire fence, and the military camp adjoined the prison. Several hundred men were confined in the Bull Pen, and it is said that at one time the number reached eight hundred. Those who were charged with minor offenses were released after a while, as the county decided that it could not afford to try so many persons. Eight men who were under indictment either contrived to escape from the Bull Pen or were permitted to do so, before their cases came to trial. It is significant that only these eight men escaped when there were about 150 prisoners still in the Bull Pen. Their escape was arranged with the connivance of a First Sergeant who was in charge of the guard and deserted at the same time. The State district court impeached and removed the Sheriff and County Commissioners of Shoshone county soon after the riot. The coroner's jury which dealt with the cases of the two men killed at Wardner charged the county offi- I ECONOMIC GROWTH 311 dais with complicity in the crimes and the Sheriff with being with the mob at Wardner and in collusion with its leaders. Many of the miners testified that they were not parties to any plot to blow up the Bunker Hill mine, that they went to Wardner solely to make a demonstration and that only the masked and armed contingent had definite plans. Owing to the numerous and bitter complaints regarding harsh treatment of the inmates of the Bull Pen by the troops, Congress ordered an investigation by the Committee on Military Affairs. The inquiry lasted from February 20 to May 8,1900, and the committee was not satisfied that the charges were sustained by the evidence, but seven members of the committee presented a minority report condemning the actions of the authorities and complaining that many persons had been imprisoned without being charged with any crime.18 The Sub-Commission on Mining of the Industrial Commission visited the Coeur d'Alenes in July, 1899, and took the testimony of numerous witnesses, but its report was not published until 1901." After the restoration of order, threats were made against Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho, and six years later, December 30, 1905, he was blown to pieces when he opened his gate, by a bomb placed by Albert E. Horsley, alias Harry Orchard, professional dynamiter. Orchard confessed to this and many similar crimes and implicated Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners, William D. Haywood, its Secretary and Treasurer, and George A. Pettibone, a member of its executive committee, under whose direction he claimed to have acted. These men were captured by operatives in Denver and were spirited away on a special train to Boise, — an act which only helped to swell their defense fund. Siringo served as body guard to Orchard during the trials and also to James McParland, head of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency in the West, who had secured Orchard's confession. The prosecution was conducted by William E. Borah and James H. Hawley. After the eloquence of Clarence Darrow, or intimidation of the jury, had acquitted Haywood and Pettibone, the charges against Moyer were dropped. Siringo tells of a conspiracy to take the three men from jail, to kidnap Darrow and to hang all four. A lynching party was on its way by train from Nampa. Siringo informed McParland, who notified Governor Frank R. Gooding in the middle of the night. The Governor dressed hurriedly, went to meet the would-be vigilantes and evidently dissuaded them from carrying out their intentions. Orchard was tried and sentenced to be hanged, but this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.15 Copper and Other Metals The production of copper in the Inland Empire is almost exclusively confined to the northern region, across the international line, and to two districts of this section known as Trail Creek and Boundary. Trail creek, on the 3i2 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST headwaters of which the mineral belt is found, got its name from the fact that the trail used by the Hudson's Bay men in crossing British Columbia passed through its valley. The mines, which are also known as the Rossland mines, are only six miles north of the boundary. The first claims were staked in 1890. The ore is chiefly pyritic iron, bearing gold and copper. The first discoveries in the Boundary district were made in 1891, but the ore was low-grade, and the region was inaccessible. Production in quantity had to await the coming of a railway in 1900. The best known group of mines in the Boundary district is the Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, Limited, with authorized capital of $50,000,000, of which about $35,000,000 has been issued, Granby was organized in 1901 and has acquired many properties in the district and elsewhere, including mines in Alaska. In the Hidden Creek (Anyox) property, Granby has probably the largest copper mine in British Columbia, and the Anyox smelter is the largest pyritic smelting plant in the world. Anyox is located on Observatory inlet, south of Portland canal. There is a limited copper belt in the southeast corner of the Coeur d'Alene district. Extensive properties on the Snake river in Idaho and Oregon await rail connection. Considerable deposits of iron exist in the Coast range of Oregon, northeastern Washington, British Columbia and Montana. The average metallic content of eastern ores is falling steadily, and in course of time the greater value of the western ores may justify the cost of getting them out. The United States consumes more magnesite than any other country in the world, and at the opening of the World War over ninety-six per cent of the magnesite in America was imported from Europe, chiefly from Austria-Hungary. In 1916, deposits of magnesite were discovered in Stevens county, Washington, and these deposits are now the largest supply on the continent. The present known deposits are sixty miles north of Spokane and between five and fifteen miles from Chewe- lah and Valley.10 The deposits are apparently confined to a narrow belt of dolomite along the eastern flank of the Huckleberry mountains, near the crest of the range. The deposit was known previous to 1916 but was mistaken for limestone, and the owner of the claim which is now credited with the largest production in America, who located it as limestone, once unsuccessfully offered to trade it to a neighbor for a second-hand Ford. One of the largest deposits of high-grade phosphate rock in the world is in southwestern Idaho. Coal Mining Outcrops of coal were noted by the fur traders and explorers. The first attempt to mine, near Renton, in 1852, was stopped in the following year when two of the miners were killed by Indians. Actual production began in i860, at the site of the city of Bellingham. The extensive Roslyn field was opened in 1880. Washington is the great coal producing State. Oregon and Idaho have coal ECONOMIC GROWTH 313 areas which will be of service in local markets, but most of the coal consumed in these States comes from well developed mines in Washington and Utah. British Columbia, Wyoming and Montana ship coal into the other States. In general, the use of coal is limited by the mild climate, the great wood supply and the cheapness of oil. The local production of coal will increase with the development of manufacturing industries. Ceramic Industries Wood is so plentiful that the use of clay products for building purposes has been retarded, but the growth of cities and the huge inroads on the timber of the country must lead to an increasing demand for brick and tile. In the Puget sound region, there are abundant clays formed of rock ground by the glaciers and deposited in the beds of lakes. In the interior, the great lava flows have broken down into basaltic clays, which make the harder grades of face and fire brick. There are large deposits of white clay in southeastern Washington and Idaho. The materials necessary in the manufacture of Portland cement, — limestone, with suitable clay near at hand, — occur chiefly in northwestern Washington. Good limestone is found in northeastern Washington but less suitable clay. The Oregon deposits are widely separated and yield one-third as much as those in Washington. Navigation on the Columbia The waterways were the first transportation routes in the Oregon country, and settlers made their homes beside them. The brigades of the fur companies carried freight and passengers until steamboats came into use. Regular steamer service on the Columbia commenced in 1850, when a small double-ender, named for the river, made runs between Portland and Astoria. The Lot Whit- comb, a larger boat, was built soon after, and in 1851 the Jason P. Flint was brought from the East and put together at the Cascades for the run between that point and Portland. The steamer Eagle was brought in sections to the upper Cascades in 1853 and was put together there for service between the Cascades and The Dalles. In 1854 and 1855, the Mary and Wasco were built above the Cascades. These were the boats which escaped capture by the Indians at the time of the Cascades massacre. The Colonel Wright, built in 1859, was the first steamer launched above The Dalles. She was built at the mouth of the Deschutes river am! carried freight between Celilo and old Fort Walla Walla. In 1859, the Colonel Wright made a reconnoitering trip of fifty miles up the Snake river, and in 1861, when the mining rush was on, she ascended the Clearwater to within twelve miles of the forks. The Tenino was built on the upper river in i860 and, later, the Okanogan. These boats became the property of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company.17 The pooling of their interests by all 3i4 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST the steamboat men on the Columbia river, in the company just named, resulted in immense profits for all concerned. The great highway to the interior was choked with freight and passengers for the new towns in the Idaho mines, and it was the age of the steamboat in transportation. The company started in i860 with property valued at $172,500. In its life of about nineteen years, it paid dividends of over $2,500,000, expended nearly $3,000,000 in developing its property, and was sold to the Villard interests in 1879 for $5,000,000. When business was good on the river, the company maintained a high class of service on its boats, even as early as the sixties. Samuel Bowles, the famous editor, who visited the Columbia region at this time, wrote of his astonishment at finding above The Dalles " another large and luxurious steamboat, built far up here beyond the mountains, with every appointment of comfort and luxury that is found in the best of river-craft, — large staterooms, long and wide cabins, various and well served meals."18 After the obstruction to river traffic at the Cascades was overcome by the building of locks in 1896, The Dalles was the only barrier to navigation between Lewiston and the sea. Various schemes were suggested to cheat n at this point, including an elev; where they would be hauled 0 0 be let down ii ft steamboats to the level of the railway, ight and one-half miles to another eleva- n. The total drop is eighty-one and one- half feet at low water. Steamboats have run the series of rapids at high w when the fall is about fifty feet. The Open River Association was organized in 1904, and a portage railway was built by Joseph N. Teal. Nearly all the right- of-way was contributed. This railway demonstrated the volume of independent traffic on the river, and the Open River line of steamboats was inaugurated. Construction of the Celilo canal followed, under biennial appropriations by Congress, — a system which took ten years for work that could easily have been done in five, at less cost. The canal was completed in 1915, at a cost of $4,745,000, and was formally opened on May 5.19 It is possible for a properly equipped steamer to navigate the Columbia from the ocean to the foot of Rickey rapids, a distance of 710 miles, but the number of rapids and the great fall of the river in this stretch make navigation expensive, and some of the rapids are passable only at certain river stages. Kettle falls and Rickey rapids are impassable at all times, but above them the river is navigable to Columbia lake at all states except high water. As dams are built in the Columbia between the Snake river and Rickey rapids, they must be provided with locks, on account of treaty stipulations with Great Britain. The cost of up-stream navigation is diminished as dams regulate the flow of a river, and it is probable that the Columbia above the Snake will again be used extensively for transportation. ECONOMIC GROWTH 315 Portage Railways Daniel and Putnam Bradford, financed by J. P. Flint of San Francisco, built the first portage railroad on the Columbia, at the Cascades, in 1851. They chose the Washington side of the river, and they operated the steamboat Mary above the Cascades and the Belle on the lower river, with no competition until the appearance of Colonel Joseph S. Ruckel, who became a part owner in the Fashion, a boat which had formerly run on the river. Ruckle was the moving spirit in the development of early transportation on the Columbia, and finally became President of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. He located at the Cascades, built a portage railway on the Oregon side, and allied himself with the builder of a second steamer above the portage, the Wasco. Both these pioneer railways were of course operated by mule power. The mules were driven tandem fashion, three or four being used, as the load required. One passenger car was provided, which had a roof. The rails were of six-by-six-inch fir, partly faced with strap iron.20 The rush for the gold mines stimulated the owners of the portage roads to introduce steam traction. The Bradfords had surveyed for a line to be operated by steam in 1861, but the Oregon Portage Railroad was the one which brought the first locomotive to the Pacific Northwest. The " Pony " as it was called, was the first locomotive built on the Pacific Coast. It was built in San Francisco, from an original design, by the Vulcan Iron Foundry. It had a habit of spouting water and cinders from its stack which ruined the appearance of passengers who did not keep under cover. The " Pony " was taken back to San Francisco, after two years service in Oregon, and helped level the sand hills of " the city." It was exhibited at the Lewis and Clark exposition and then became the property of the State of Oregon. Mule and Camel Pack Trains The pack train of mules was one of the oldest means of transportation on the continent. A model train consisted of from thirty to sixty animals, with two men to every fifteen mules and one riding the bell mare in the lead. The best packers used Mexican aparejos and took good care of their mules, keeping the blankets clean which protected their backs and watching for any shifting of the load. A slow man was a misfit in a pack train.21 Camels were used for a while on the trails to the mines. These animals were first introduced in the Southwest, for army use, in 1856. A part of the first herd was donated by the Viceroy of Egypt. The success of the enterprise led to the formation of the American Camel Company and the importation of two-humped Bactrian camels to San Francisco, from Manchuria, for use in Nevada mining regions.22 Twenty-one of these were brought to British Columbia in 1862. They were used on the portages to the Cariboo mines and made regular trips for a year 3i6 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST or so. They could easily carry twice the load of a mule, and they found their own forage, but their feet were not suited to travel on rocky or marshy ground. It was necessary to equip them with rawhide or canvas boots. Mules and horses became unmanageable when they scented the strange beasts. After several accidents and consequent litigation, the camels were withdrawn from the district. Some were taken to the Coast, but a few were turned loose in the Okanogan country, and one survived until 1905.23 Some of the Cariboo herd were used on the trails from Fort Hope into the upper Columbia and Kootenay mines, and camels appeared in Montana, probably from the Kootenay district. The newspaper references are in 1865, when a train of seven animals was in operation at Virginia City and Helena. They carried enormous loads of sacked flour and gold-dust in nail kegs. There is a story that one of these camels was shot by a man who had several drinks and thought it was a moose. They are said to have stampeded a mule train loaded with kegs of whiskey for the Hell Gate saloons, causing a temporary drouth. Stories of camel pack trains working out of Walla Walla may have originated in the purchase of one animal from the Cariboo herd by William Henry of the Bitterroot Ferry, who had a young man known as Blackfoot Bill drive it to the Kootenay mines in March, 1864. Mention of no other experiment can be found in the local press. Many whites and Indians testify to having seen camel trains in all parts of tbe Inland Empire in the sixties, though some of the trails were too heavily wooded to allow them to pass. The narratives are questionable so long as no corroboration is furnished by newspapers of the time. It is certain that some of the stories are inventions, for the simple reason that they require a larger number of camels than were brought to the Pacific Northwest. The Mullan Road The most famous of the early wagon roads was the Mullan road, 624 miles long, from Fort Benton, at the head of navigation on the Missouri river, to Walla Walla. Lieutenant Mullan had the choice of three routes west of Hell Gate. The Lolo trail was too difficult to consider. The route by way of the Clark fork and Pend d'Oreille lake, which was afterwards chosen for the main line of the Northern Pacific, appeared impracticable on account of floods at the time when he explored it. Fie therefore selected the St. Regis and 1 Coeur d'Alene valleys. In his Report, he acknowledges that he should have taken the Clark fork route.21 Mullan started at Walla Walla on July 1, 1859, with about one hundred men, and put a trail through to Fort Benton in i860. The road was completed in the summers of 1861 and 1862, at a cost of $230,000. The first 180 miles out of Walla Walla were through open woods or over rolling prairie, the next 120 miles were through densely timbered mountain | bottoms, the next 224 over open timbered plateaus and the last 100 over level . ECONOMIC GROWTH 317 or rolling prairie. There were 120 miles of heavy timber cutting, thirty miles of excavation, many stretches of corduroy and numerous bridges. Mullan was in the field seven years or more, —four years in building the road and the rest of the time in his preliminary surveys, with an interval at the time of the Indian uprising, when he served with Colonel Wright. The road was intended for military purposes, but the major difficulties with the Indians were ended. A few troops were taken over the route, and it was used in the mining rush to Montana, but it was soon in bad shape, except where local authorities kept it up. Father Cataldo once said, " The Mullan trail wasn't much of a road. It was a big job, well done, but we used to say, ' Captain Mullan just made enough of a trail so he could get back out of here.' " The building of modern highways dates from the coming of the automobile into general use and the change from a direct tax on property for road building purposes to license fees and the gasoline tax. In 1912, one automobile struggled into the Pacific Northwest, from Chicago to Seattle. The adventure took three months. In 1916, some three thousand cars made the trip, about fifteen hundred in each direction. The time then required was thirty days or more. Now a hundred thousand cars, carrying four times as many people, pass over the route annually, and the running time is one week for a fair car. It is interesting to note that many of the modern highways follow the old trails, — parts of the Colville trail, used by the fur traders, the route of Lewis and Clark, the Mullan road and the Oregon Trail from Boise through Baker to Pendleton and Umatilla. The Trans-Canadian highway dips down from Banff and links the old mining camps, with an almost direct east-and-west connection between Nelson and Vancouver, B. C. Baker's Strap Iron Railway The first railroad in the interior was the Walla Walla and Columbia, built by Dr. Dorsey S. Baker. It was thirty-two miles long, extending from the vicinity of Wallula to Walla Walla, and has been variously known as " Dr. Baker's road," the " strap iron road " and the " rawhide road," for reasons given below. The surveys were made in 1871, and it is said that the surveyors, lacking instruments, used as a level a whiskey bottle half filled with water and held horizontally for sighting. Baker himself scouted for timber, and in 1872 logs were floated down the Yakima, boomed at its mouth and rafted to a spot near Wallula, where Slabtown existed for some years as the western terminus of the road. A branch line was built to Wallula. Baker went to Pittsburg in 1872 and bought a seven-and-one-half-ton locomotive, with twenty-eight-inch drivers.25 The rails, of four-by-six fir, were sixteen feet long and were joined and wedged into the ties. They were surfaced with strap iron two inches wide, turned down and spiked into the ends of the rails and also spiked on top. 3i8 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Later, about thirty miles of iron rail in odd lengths, twelve to twenty feet long, were brought from Wales. The road did not operate at night. Baker said that it was always dangerous to do so. The train was often derailed in the course of the day. When the strap iron worked loose, it had a way of rolling around the wheels and coming up through the floor of the car. Then the train stopped till the track was nailed down again. These tricky rails were called by tbe train crew " snake-heads." The cow-catcher was supplemented with a Scotch collie dog, which would drive stock ahead of the train and sit down to wait for the train to come up. Wheat was hauled on flat cars, and a box car, with seats along the sides, was the passenger coach, locally known as the " hearse." In some way the story came to be circulated that the .ails were bound with rawhide. Hence originated one of the nicknames of the road and also a few good stories, all of which are apocryphal. It was told that the rawhide became soft in the winter, and starving wolves ate it and put the road out of commission. One reason why Baker used strap iron was that he could not afford rails, as he was financing the road almost entirely from his own resources. In 1874, sixteen miles had been built, to Touchet station, and he began to ship wheat. When the road reached the site of the Whitman mission, Waiilatpu, six miles west of Walla Walla, Baker announced that the terminus would have to be there, as he had no more funds. Fearing that a rival town might grow up at Waiilatpu, the citizens of Walla Walla raised $25,000 to build the road the rest of the way. Thus Baker got the local support which had been denied him at the start. His road was never mortgaged; it paid handsome returns, and he sold it to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company at a large profit. First Overland Railroad Plans Of those who first proposed a railroad from the States to the Pacific Coast, the most influential were not so much interested in the development of the West as in the control of the China trade. This was the case with both Asa Whitney and George Wilkes, whose plans were the first to be considered by Congress, in the forties. Whitney wanted a land grant sixty miles wide, from Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Columbia or to Puget sound. He had a chimerical scheme of financing the road as it advanced, by selling the land as fast as the rails reached it. Stephen A. Douglas favored the creation of new Territories to form a chain from Iowa to the Coast and a grant to the Territories of alternate sections of land, by the sale of which the Territories themselves would be enabled to build the road, — an awkward plan which probably originated in Douglas' interest in new Territories rather than in his concern for the road. His plan was put forward as a reaction to Whitney's proposal, and the plan which really competed with Whitney's for the attention of Congress ECONOMIC GROWTH 3!9 was that of George Wilkes, who suggested that the government sell its lands and build its own road.26 That detractors of the overland enterprise were numerous is not surprising, for the steam railway was new in the East, and builders had become conservative, after sad experience in the thirties. Roads had been built with State aid and borrowed money and with little regard for operating cost or probable revenue. This extravagance, together with reckless promotion in other fields, ended in the panic of 1837. Critics of the proposed trans-continental line were staggered at the estimated cost, doubted whether engines could climb the mountains and feared that the Indians would hold up trains on the plains. In 1845 and 1846, the proposal received some encouragement in Congress, in the form of favorable committee reports, but it became clear that the first step must be to make extensive government surveys. Fremont's trip to California in 1845 was, according to his own statement, for the purpose of seeking a route for a railway to San Francisco bay. Congress authorized the Pacific Railroad Surveys on March 3, 1853, and four routes were investigated. Three proved feasible, — the southern to San Francisco bay, the central by way of the South pass, which Fremont surveyed, and the northern, traversed by Governor Stevens' party.27 The influence of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, was felt in favor of the southern route, and no decision was possible until the South seceded. In 1862, Congress authorized the formation of the Union Pacific Railway Company, with a capital stock of $100,000,000, every other five sections of land on each side of its track and $16,000 in government bonds for each mile of road constructed. The construction was speeded up when the Central Pacific, organized in California, received similar grants from the government and was permitted to build east from Sacramento, to meet the other road building out of Omaha. Each company was the richer for every mile gained. The two roads met at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869. This brought a railroad to the Oregon country, but only to its southeast corner. The explorations of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson and Henry L. Abbot in 1853, from Redding, California, north by way of the Pit river pass, into Oregon, broke the way for rail connection down the Coast. Then followed a complicated tangle of efforts to finance railways in the Willamette valley, on both sides of the river, which finally got into the courts with a contest over the right to the name of Oregon Central Railroad Company. Very little construction work was done, and in 1868 Ben Holladay came to Oregon and at once became the central figure in a bitter struggle for control.28 He had considerable ready money, over $600,000, acquired by questionable maneuvers from a pony express firm, and he first bought a steamship line operating between San Francisco and Portland. His support was secured for the east side road, and his A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST money was spent largely in buying newspapers, paying the expenses of a lobby at the legislature and conducting a campaign wbich included every known method of winning votes. He managed to get an extension of the land grant act by Congress until he completed the first twenty miles of road and won by a single day. The west side road sold out to him in 1870. He reorganized under the name of the Oregon and California Railroad Company and floated bonds for over ten million dollars in Germany. With all his faults, the result of Holladay's activities was the investment of his own fortune and a large it of foreign capital in Oregon and the introduction of Henry Villard to the Pacific Northwest. Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific Henry Villard, German by birth and a newspaper correspondent in the Civil war, while visiting in Germany in 1873, was employed by bondholders of Ben Holladay's Oregon and California Railroad Company to go to Oregon in their behalf.20 Holladay was now unable to pay the interest. Villard effected a reorganization of Holladay's lines which assured a connection with the Central Pacific in California and then turned his attention to the Columbia 0 the East. Congress had given the Northern Pacific, in 1864, the right to build a road, with a liberal land grant. About five hundred miles of track had been laid by 1873, when the road went into the hands of a receiver. w company resumed construction, and by 1882 about one thousand :s remained to be built. The Northern Pacific was to use the north bank of the Columbia.30 In the meantime, Villard secured control of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, with its boats and portage railways, organized the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and built a continuous railroad on the south bank of the Columbia. He also purchased Baker's Walla Walla road and changed it to standard gauge. His Columbia developments led the Northern Pacific to abandon its plan to build down the north bank, and by his next coup he got control of the Northern Pacific itself. He did so by buying as much of its stock as he could and then organizing a blind pool, into which he invited his friends to put $8,000,000 without knowledge of its purpose and with no security except his reputation. Before the date set for disclosing his plan, $100 shares in the pool were selling at $150. His new company was the Oregon and Transcontinental. It held the controlling interest in the Northern Pacific and the O. R. & N., and Villard became President of both roads. The Northern Pacific was rushed through, connecting in 1883 with the Columbia river road, near the mouth of the Snake. The line across the Cascades by way of the Yakima valley and Stampede pass was completed in 1888. Villard's holding company failed three months after he drove the last spike on the Northern Pacific. The cost of building his roads at the rate of three miles a day, including ECONOMIC GROWTH 321 tunnels and bridges, had been unexpectedly high. In 1887, he was again in control of the Northern Pacific, and he remained a director of the road until 1893. Lieu Land Litigation The lieu-land litigation is one of the interesting episodes in the development of railway transportation in the Pacific Northwest. The counties chiefly interested were those traversed by the Northern Pacific Railroad. When Congress, in 1864, granted to the railroad all odd sections of land for forty miles on each side of the track in Territories and for twenty miles in States, from St. Paul and Duluth, to Puget sound and to tide-water on the Columbia it was not supposed that any great amount of these lands would be occupied in advance of the acts necessary on the part of the company to have the lands withdrawn from settlement. When the company applied for title to its lands, however, it was found that thousands of acres of this land had been taken up under the general land law. Congress therefore granted other lands to the railroad in lieu of those already occupied by settlers, the lieu lands to be selected within a strip ten miles on each side of the original grant. In making the new selection, the company still laid claim in many instances to land which had been improved by settlers.31 The railroad filed a map of its route in 1870, and the Register of the General Land Office ordered the railway lands to be withheld in accordance with the map and the price of government land in the even-numbered sections to be doubled. Many persons bought homesteads along the proposed line at the increased rate. In 1872, the railroad filed another map, showing a new route, which entered the Territory at a point 108 miles north of the entrance shown on the 1870 map. A new eighty-mile belt was established, and withdrawals were ordered in accordance with the revised map. Many suffered from this change who had bought lands at the advanced charge exacted by the government, with the understanding that they were to be on the line of the railroad. Litigation started by the railroad to have the entry of Guilford Miller of Whitman county cancelled, on account of the selection of his lands by the company, dragged through the courts from 1888 into the nineties. Miller won his case, and the rulings in this instance were sustained in the other cases which were taken to Supreme Court. The decision was that persons who settled on the odd-numbered sections prior to 1885 had a valid title to their land, but a case was decided against a settler who had located subsequent to that date, and to forestall the immense hardship which this decision meant to thousands of settlers, Congress passed remedial legislation. While this protected the settlers, it permitted the railroad to select as its indemnity timber lands which were much more valuable than the claims which it relinquished. ECONOMIC GROWTH 323 instrumental in leading them to build the line from a point on the Snake river near the present site of Ontario through the Burnt river, Powder river and Grande Ronde valleys to the Columbia river, instead of adopting the route further south, through central Oregon, which was also under consideration. Mr. Strahorn says: "Not the least of my reasons for strongly recommending the northern route was an appreciation even at that early date of the great resources of the Spokane territory and what is now known as the Inland Empire."31 Strahorn's greatest achievement was in originating and building the line which was first known as the North Coast Railway, — until the reasons for concealing its ownership no longer existed. During the years when his operations were surrounded with mystery and he was caricatured as the Sphinx, he paid for construction work costing millions with his personal checks. The engineering features of the road included several remarkable bridges, one 2,900 feet long over the Columbia, another 4,070 feet long and 275 feet high over the Snake, and, in the city of Spokane, one bridge 3,000 feet long and 165 feet high, and another, 1,000 feet long and 175 feet high, the latter crossing the falls above the Monroe street bridge.35 The North Coast Railway turned out to be an extension of the O. R. & N, giving Spokane a Union Pacific connection. While promoting this enterprise, Strahorn had more comprehensive plans in mind. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul road built its line across the state forty- five miles south of Spokane, notwithstanding the many efforts made to have it pass through the city. Strahorn succeeded in having his short line extended eastward to connect with the Milwaukee, — a detour which eventually became the main line of the latter road. One of his most skillful accomplishments was in uniting the various elements concerned and building the Union Station, which with its grade separation and approaches represented an expenditure of approximately $7,000,000 in the city. An important part of his general plan was to build this terminal, in order to accommodate the Milwaukee and the Canadian Pacific, as well as his own Union Pacific connection. When Strahorn resigned the presidency of the North Coast Railroad, in 1915, he was at once besought to develop a railway service for central Oregon.30 The Hill and Harriman lines had built rival extensions up the Deschutes river to Bend, at an expenditure of $22,000,000. An independent project was plainly in order in the country beyond, and Strahorn accepted the presidency of the Oregon, California and Eastern Railway and the Surprise Valley Railway. The first rails were laid in 1917, and then the war cut off much of the support on which he had counted, but he continued building, and in 1927 he sold a half interest in the Oregon, California and Eastern to the Great Northern for approximately $1,000,000. This gave the Great Northern an extension from Bend to Klamath Falls, and in 1930 the Interstate Commerce Commission approved 1 324 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST n of a connecting link between the Great Northern at Klamath Falls and the Western Pacific two hundred miles south in California, providing a direct avenue for Inland Empire products to the San Francisco market. The Boise basin of southern Idaho will enjoy the same outlet by means of a western extension of the Union Pacific from Crane to Crescent, on the Great Northern. In the event of war in the Pacific, the United States will have rail communication on the Coast, behind the shelter of the n Terminal Rates Contest For many years, the people of the interior carried on a vigorous contest for terminal freight rates. Until March 15, 1918, the residents of all the inter-mountain States in the West were obliged to pay a rate which was higher to Butte, Spokane, or Salt Lake City than the rate to Seattle, Portland or San Francisco. For instance, the rate on news print from Minnesota points to Spokane was fi.50 per hundred pounds and the rate to Seattle, 350 miles further west, was only seventy-five cents. The Interstate Commerce Commission, on an action brought by the Spokane Merchants' Association, granted terminal rates to the inter-mountain country on the above-mentioned date. The contest was not ended, however, for, as soon as the railroads were returned to private operation in 1920, they sought to revive the old system, by asking permission to reduce rates to the Coast points, while leaving the interior rates unchanged. The Commission, after two years of argument, denied this application in October, 1922, and within sixty days the railroads made a voluntary reduction of rates to all western points. Yet in April, 1923, the railroads made another attempt to favor the Coast territory. Their petition this time was for a reduction at the terminals on forty-seven of the more important commodities. The inter- mountain people, through their organization, the Intermediate Rate Association, were victorious after another two years' contest, when the Commission decided against the railroads, on March 1, 1926. The inter-mountain people have enjoyed terminal rates continuously since March 15, 1918, and the same relief has been felt by the wool-growers of southern Idaho and Utah, who, previous to that date, were forbidden direct access to the Boston market and were obliged to ship their wool to Los Angeles or Portland, for baling and scouring, and back again en route to the East. In June, 1930, the Interstate Commerce Commission granted milling in transit privileges to Inland Empire lumber manufacturers similar to those enjoyed at Mississippi river points. A 250-mile restriction had previously limited the inland wood-working industries, while Middle West mills could reach out to the Pacific Coast for material. In July, 1930, the Commission authorized increases in freight rates in the " sink hole " territory, between Lake Michigan and the Rockies and from Kansas and Missouri north, the effect being to make the cost of shipping within various zones of the Middle West nearer to the Pacific Northwest rates. XIX Further Economic Growth THE SIXTIES WERE THE GREAT YEARS OF PLACER MINING, AND THE SEVENTIES and eighties were the cattle days, —the period of " free grass" and the open range. Many of the miners stayed in the country, after their prospects had been washed out, and took to cattle raising. There was a movement of settlers from the Willamette valley to northeastern Oregon. Farming increased, but the value of live stock rose nearly twice as fast.1 The dry climate of the Inland Empire was also favorable to sheep raising, and this industry, though slower in getting a start, eventually became more important than cattle raising. Idaho is one of the greatest wool-producing States. With the coming of the railroad and an increased population, the cattlemen and sheepmen were pushed back and forced into sharp competition for what remained of the open grazing country. Several large cattle companies, by methods which were often questionable, secured the title to hundreds of thousands of acres for enclosed ranges. The breaking up of private ranges came with an increasing demand for these lands for agricultural purposes and a rise in values sufficient to induce the cattlemen to sell. The best grazing land is in the national forests, and permits for its use are issued by the Forest Service at fixed charges per head of cattle or sheep. The great range, with its huge roving herds, left to shift for themselves in the winter, was wasteful to animal life as well as to the land. The range was a vast graveyard, especially after hard winters, as in 1861-1862 and 1880-1881. Moreover, the ranges sometimes became over-stocked, and insufficient feed rather than unusual snowfall caused great losses. Beef cattle production and sheep raising will remain important industries. Large areas in the Pacific Northwest, with prolific native grasses and mild climate, are adapted to range purposes and are not suitable for any other use. In cultivated sections, alfalfa and waste from the grain fields and meadows make stock raising an important item in profitable farm management. The beginnings of agriculture were made by the Hudson's Bay Company, at Fort Vancouver and on the Cowlitz, and by the Willamette valley settlers.2 The first flour exported was a shipment from the Columbia to Japan in 1857. Wheat growing on a large scale commenced in the area of moderate rainfall, in the interior. Methods of cultivation were careless, but when the older lands 326 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST began to fail, the agricultural schools were in the field, and with their help, indispensable because of the variety of soils and conditions, the ranchers took successfully to general farming and dairying. Irrigation soon extended the productive acreage. All the essentials for profitable use of irrigation are present: heavy snowfall in the mountains, large lakes for water storage, numerous places where artificial reservoirs may be created and absence of storms in the summer.3 The garden of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla was irrigated when Whitman arrived. The Protestant and Catholic missionaries later taught the Indians to employ irrigation. The Columbia river flows through a deep gorge on most of its course within the Inland Empire, and water for irrigation was necessarily taken only from its tributaries, pending expensive future developments on the great river itself. Reclamation advanced in stages, from the activity of individuals and small groups to companies, which were mostly failures; then by State irrigation districts, which often took over the stock companies. The Carey act of 1894 permitted a donation to each of the States containing federal desert lands of as much of these lands, under one million acres, as a State would undertake to reclaim by irrigation and settlement, to the extent of not less than twenty acres of each 160-acre tract, within ten years. Washington never took advantage of the act. Oregon took 432,203 acres, mostly in the Deschutes river basin. Idaho developed a score of Carey act projects, embracing 833,567 acres.4 Reclamation Act Projects Congress passed the Reclamation act in 1902, creating a fund from the sale of public lands, which amounted to a hundred million dollars by 1915. The purpose of the fund was to provide means for the construction of irrigation works, the reclaimed lands to be opened to homestead entries and the entrymen to pay the cost of reclamation in ten annual installments, without interest. Under this act, the Umatilla project in Oregon was authorized in 1905. Cold Springs and McKay dams provide water for 56,000 acres.5 In Idaho, the Boise project was begun in 1911. About 150,000 acres are included. The chief engineering feature is the Arrowrock dam, near Boise, 349 feet high. The Minidoka project in south central Idaho supplies 128,500 acres. The American Falls reservoir was completed in 1926, ensuring an unfailing supply of water even in years of greatest drouth, for 500,000 acres. The Owyhee project, author ized in 1924, lies along the Snake river, above and below the mouth of the Owyhee, and contains 125,000 acres of irrigable land. The dam, twenty-five miles up the Owyhee and 405 feet high (520 feet above its lowest foundation) ECONOMIC GROWTH 327 holds the world's record for height until the completion of the Boulder Canon dam. Two projects were started in Washington soon after the passage of the Reclamation act, — the Okanogan and the large Yakima system. The Yakima valley contains about 600,000 acres which may eventually be irrigated. The project is designed to put water on a third of this land. Irrigation began at an early date on the Yakima Indian reservation. After a decision regarding water rights by the Secretary of the Interior, in 1906, which was exceedingly unjust to the Indians and was protested by the Superintendent of the reservation, a commission was created by Congress to investigate the feasibility of impounding water for the use of the Indians. The controversy was ended when the government, by taking over the Sunnyside canal, itself became the other party to the dispute. The Wapato Indian project diverts water from the west side of the Yakima river at Union Gap for the irrigation of 120,000 acres on the reservation.0 In western Montana, —the basin of the Clark fork, — 275,233 acres are under irrigation, and it is established that water may be profitably put on an additional 425,000 acres. These figures include the Flathead Indian reservation project, with 34,453 acres now irrigated and 100,000 as a possible addition. Columbia Basin Project Of all the sources of wealth in the Inland Empire, the greatest in its promise to the future is the vast uncultivated area of the Columbia basin which awaits irrigation, coupled with the abundant supply of water available. The Columbia Basin Irrigation Project is larger than all other federal irrigation projects put together.7 The construction cost will run into hundreds of millions, but the taxable values created will be more than twice the cost, and the annual production from the land will nearly equal the expense of reclaiming it. The project is likely to bring another million people to the Pacific Northwest, and it will be of immense commercial benefit to the entire country. When all the public lands in the rich Palouse country had been taken up, home-seekers moved westward where they found what was apparently tbe same quality of soil as in the Palouse. In the year or two following, practically all the country between Pasco and Ephrata in the bend of the Columbia was occupied. The settlers invested a considerable amount of money in clearing and fencing the land and in building homes. It is estimated that $45,000,000 was put into these improvements. Churches and schoolhouses were built, roads were made, and a great deal of other development took place. The settlers failed to accord sufficient importance to the difference in rainfall. In the Palouse country the annual rainfall is from sixteen to twenty-four inches, an ample quantity for raising wheat, but the rainfall in the basin district is only seven to ten inches. After the brush was removed and the surface of the ground was stirred for a year 328 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST or two, the moisture which had accumulated for centuries quickly evaporated from the soil. The land would not produce wheat in paying quantities, and the settlers had to quit. The Columbia Basin is the largest continuous irrigable area in the United States, —nearly 2,000,000 acres. It is the largest region in the world, outside of Africa, which can be economically irrigated. It is possible that the power supply of the world will eventually be provided by the Himalayas and the Pacific Northwest, including rivers in British Columbia. General George W. Goethals, after a survey, declared in 1922 that the project would mean more than the Panama canal or the Alaska railways.8 The soil in the Basin is in many places 100 feet deep." General Goethals favored the diversion of water at Albeni Falls on the Pend d'Oreille river.10 However, on recommendation of army engineers, the Grand Coulee dam site was adopted by Congress, as part of a design for a series of 10 dams in the Columbia, between tidewater (Bonneville dam) and the Canadian border. This is the greatest construction feat ever attempted. The Grand Coulee dam will be 4,300 feet long and 553 feet high. There are to be inspection galleries within the structure eight miles long. A lake will be created, 151 miles long, extending to the Canadian line, with an average width of 4,000 feet. The turbines will develop 2,700,000 horse power, but the dam has a double function. An immense pumping plant will raise water 280 feet to the old entrance of the Grand Coulee, where another reservoir with two dikes, one 90 feet high, will be created, to supply the Big Bend irrigation district. At the present writing (1938), the 500-foot wide foundation of the dam has been completed, and equipment used in erecting the San Francisco bridges has been secured to build a trestle 250 feet above the foundation, carrying two railway tracks and a track for cranes. This bridge will ultimately be enclosed in the concrete, and another, 150 feet higher, will be built. Contracts call for the completion of the dam, one power house and the pumping plant by 1942. Irrigation may start a year or two later. The Bonneville dam, 42 miles above Portland, is at the head of ordinary tidal effect. This is another Federal project, authorized by Congress and built by army engineers. It is 1,250 feet long and 170 feet high. A navigation lock, with a lift of 66 feet at low water, with 40 miles of dredging from Vancouver to the dam and the reservoir extending 52 miles upstream, will permit ocean steamships to pass from the Pacific to The Dalles,—187 miles. The salmon run, so important to the Northwest, has to be cared for, and a typical arrangement is the Bonneville plan, which includes fish lock chambers, 30 by 20 feet, three sets of ladders, with pools 40 by 16 feet and with one foot difference in elevation, and three by-passes for downstream migrants. The Rock Island dam, 12 miles below Wenatchee, was the first built on the ECONOMIC GROWTH 329 river and has been in operation since 1931. It was built by private capital, and the power output was accepted by the Puget Sound Light and Power Company in 1933, for use in Seattle and other points on the Coast. The dam is over 3,000 feet long and is 100 feet high. It creates a reservoir up river 10 miles above Wenatchee. A larger project than Rock Island is the Priest Rapids dam, at one of the most dangerous sections of the river, 50 miles below Wenatchee. This is also a private enterprise (Electric Bond and Share). The drilling has been completed, and plans are ready. The irrigation district was bonded for $125,000, but $100,- 000 of the bonds were sold to the Milwaukee Railway, which operates electric An interesting feature of the project is that the area included was once largely occupied by settlers and embraces many towns. It includes four county governments. There are good roads, telephones and power lines. Four transcontinental railways cross the region. The Columbia river is navigable from Pasco to the sea at all seasons, providing cheap transportation for heavy commodities, and numerous automobile stage lines penetrate to all parts of the territory. Calculations made by the Department of the Interior grant a minimum of 25,500 farm homes on the Columbia basin land. Flour Milling The Hudson's Bay Company milled flour by crude methods at its forts, probably in 1828 at Vancouver and about 1836 at Colville, and the Company often supplied the needs of missionaries and settlers. When Governor Stevens was at Fort Colville in 1853, he noted that Chief Garry came to grind his wheat. It is claimed that the first patent flour was made at Colville in 1866. Through the seventies, three-fourths of the exports of flour went to San Francisco, and much of this was re-shipped to the Orient. In the eighties, a large trade was established with Europe, around Cape Horn. When this fell off, as Europe found a supply nearer home, the Pacific Northwest millers took most of the oriental trade away from San Francisco. A large part of Montana's grain goes to Pacific ports. The future of flour milling in the Pacific Northwest is assured because of the export market and the great variety of wheat grown in the region, — the widest variety in America and possibly in the world, including the finest grades of both hard and soft. Dairy Industry The dairy industry has some importance in the irrigated districts but finds its greatest development in the humid region west of the Cascades and in southern Idaho. Milk production is so far in advance of local demand that A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST large industries have been created in the manufacture of condensed and evaporated milk, and of butter and cheese, for export. Horticulture The earliest traders and settlers planted apple seeds. The most famous apple tree is at Vancouver, Washington, the seed of which was planted in 1825. Old trees are still bearing in all the Coast sections which were first settled and in the Colville and Okanogan countries. In the " Okanogan Smith orchard," some of the Baldwin, Bellflower, King and Greening apple trees have reached a height of forty feet, with a stump diameter of three feet and a spread of over fifty feet, and still bear heavy crops. Commercial shipments were first made in 1900, and in ten years the apple production centers of the country shifted from New York and Missouri to Washington and Oregon. The irrigated valleys of the interior produced large and beautifully colored varieties which speedily captured eastern and European markets. The perishable nature of small fruits and distance from the large markets made the development of canning industries imperative. Most of the canneries are west of the Cascades, and ninety per cent of their product is shipped to the East and Europe. Oregon leads the United States in canning berries, with Washington second (figures are from federal comparisons available in 1930). Oregon ranks third in cherries and Washington fifth. Oregon is second in pears and Washington third. Vegetable canning is of growing importance. Fisheries Fish and particularly salmon attracted a large Indian population to the Pacific Northwest in prehistoric times, and the new white civilization counts fisheries among its chief industries, shipping its canned products to all parts of the world. The industry is of course confined to the Coast, but Alaska must be included, as its fisheries are largely outfitted from Washington and Oregon ports, and its products are marketed by these States. In the value of fishery products, Alaska ranks first, Massachusetts second, Washington fourth and Oregon eleventh.11 Salmon is still the largest item in the Pacific Northwest, with Alaska leading. Canned salmon is one of the most widely used food staples in the world, and the United States pack about four-fifths of the total supply. The North Atlantic has been depleted of halibut, and most of the world's supply now comes from the Northwest coast. As halibut keeps well, the greater part of the catch is shipped fresh to the East, especially to New England. The Pacific cod banks are very extensive, and cod are shipped dry-salted in great quantities to the East, South America and Asia. The herring industry ranks third in bulk, though not in value. ECONOMIC GROWTH Lumber One-half of the timber of the United States is in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana, and here are the largest stands of commercial timber in the country.12 The forests of the Pacific Northwest are among the greatest on earth, and they produce woods which are much sought in the markets of Asia and Latin America. An important consideration with respect to the future is that the rate of growth on the Coast, due to moist climate and speedy reproduction of Douglas fir, is from three to seven times faster than the average for other parts of America. Douglas fir is the chief species on the Coast, and the other trees, in order of importance, are western hemlock, western red cedar and Sitka spruce. The last mentioned is the most abundant species on the Alaska coast. Western larch predominates in western Montana and Douglas fir in Idaho, but the Inland Empire has over forty per cent of the country's supply of the highly prized white pine and more than fifty per cent of its western yellow pine.13 The largest single stand of white pine on the continent is in the Clearwater region east of Lewiston, where a Weyerhauser company, in 1928, built a mill with an annual capacity of two hundred million feet. By 1905, Washington had taken first place as a lumber State, and it has held its position ever since, excepting 1913. Secondary industries are rapidly increasing, notably the manufacture of pulp and paper, for which the region is adapted by its supply of pure water and power. Raw material for this use is nearly exhausted in the East. Shipping and Foreign Trade Water transportation suffered after the Civil war. The American merchantman disappeared, and even inland waterways were little used. The people were fascinated by railway possibilities. In 1874, the Columbia river grain fleet consisted of ten American and seventy-five foreign ships, and, in 1885, eleven American and ninety-two foreign. Coastwise trade, however, has always been in American hands. In 1874, the building of large sailing ships for the coast trade in lumber commenced on Puget sound. Transcontinental railways invited development of trans-Pacific shipping, particularly from Puget sound, which is several hundred miles nearer the Orient than San Francisco. The Canadian Pacific Railway inaugurated steamship service from Vancouver in 1887, and a direct line from Puget sound was soon started by foreign companies. The Great Northern was the first American company to enter into competition, — in 1904, with the Minnesota and Dakota, the largest merchant vessels that had been built in the United States. Seattle is the chief port. Its advantage in being on the shortest line between Yokohama and New York is illustrated by the silk trade. When interest on the 332 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST investment in a cargo of silks may amount to fifty dollars an hour, the saving of almost four hundred miles of distance is an object. By building the Lake Washington Ship Canal, Seattle added a fresh-water harbor to her port. Portland is about one hundred miles from the ocean, but Seattle is further than that, and Portland's harbor is fresh water. The chief obstacle to the development of maritime commerce at Portland, and at Astoria as well, was the shallow and dangerous entrance to the Columbia. Jetties completed during the World war period have confined the discharge of the river to a limited area and have created a deep channel a mile or more wide. Lesser obstacles in the river between Portland and the sea have also been removed, and the port of Portland has become a real competitor for future shipping supremacy. One advantage which Portland enjoys is that railways enter from the East by the easy river grade of the Columbia valley, whereas they climb the mountains to reach Seattle. Though trade with Europe and the east coast of South America has greatly increased since the opening of the Panama Canal, oriental commerce has shown a more prophetic growth. The World war changed the old system by which colonies of Great Britain and her European allies were accustomed to send their products home, thence to be trans-shipped for the American market. In place of this roundabout transaction, colonies in the Orient began to ship direct to the Pacific Coast and by the canal route to Atlantic ports. In turn, American goods were sought by these people when the European supply of manufactured articles was interrupted. The Pacific Northwest inherited from the World war a vastly increased shipbuilding industry. Large war plants at Seattle and Portland became permanent. After the war, I i ig Board allotted a considerable number of combination-type steamships and cargo carriers to Seattle and Portland for the oriental service.14 Water Power With the general application of electricity to manufacture, in addition to its manifold service in lighting, heating, cooking, operating street cars and pumping water for irrigation, the water power resources of the Pacific Northwest are being rapidly utilized. They are so enormous that there will be ample reserves for a long time, and with the perfection of long-distance transmission this region will be able to furnish two-thirds of the hydro-electric power of the United States.15 This is an estimate of the minimum or practical horse power, — that which can be developed at easily accessible sites. The maximum or potential horse power of the region is nearly twice as great. This water power is rather evenly distributed among the States. Climatic conditions make the inter-connection of power plants especially advantageous. The western rivers are at flood in the winter, with the exception of the Skagit. The Columbia and the H< IP inn If ■i pi fLfj jj-^5 sSJ (1 le IB,; ; , . "'' If HI it "11 ' - '<•»« ilflKrfr LfJB i; | ^HHR^-; •f*£jj£$ :-"."yV'-'."' •";" v- -*WJ ii^!^ Copyright by Asa id Curtis ECONOMIC GROWTH Skagit have their maximum flow later in the season. Thus the plants supplement each other and provide a continuous supply of power, with little recourse to auxiliary steam generators. Community Growth The first settlement was west of the Cascades, but the center of population was in the interior during the mining excitement. It shifted to the Coast again with the growth of shipping terminals at Seattle, Portland and Tacoma. Salem, Astoria, Vancouver, Washington, and Olympia are old centers on the Coast which grew into modern cities, and new communities developed wherever rivers and harbors provided advantageous sites for fishery and lumbering industries, as Bellingham, Everett, Hoquiam, Aberdeen and South Bend. On the Canadian side, Vancouver naturally became the great western terminal of the Dominion, and Victoria, founded by the Hudson's Bay Company when it was preparing to withdraw from the States, was continued as the seat of government of the new Province. Victoria was happily located, at a spot exceptionally favored by nature, and here the traditions of British social and official life are cherished as nowhere else on the continent, in an environment reminiscent of old England. Some of the earliest inland communities have survived as cities of importance, as Boise, Walla Walla and Lewiston, and other cities have been created by advantage of situation, as Missoula, Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane. The largest inland town, Spokane, dates from the arrival of four people in 1871, and the population was only 350 in 1880. Growth was rapid after the arrival of the railroad in 1881. The year 1889 was disastrous for Washington cities. A fire in Seattle wiped out about thirty blocks in the center of the city, with a loss of $15,000,000. Thirty-two blocks in the business district of Spokane were burned, with a loss of over $6,000,000, and the business sections of Ellensburg and Vancouver were also destroyed. These fires caused great hardship at the time, but they swept away most of the unsightly structures of pioneer days and enabled the citizens to build substantial towns. Twenty years later, the brick blocks of the nineties seemed old-fashioned and were making way for modern office buildings. ^^^^^^^^^^t^V^^^^^^^^t^^^M^V^K^K^t^")^, Governors of the Territories and States OREGON TERRITORY Governor Term Joseph Lane 1849-1850 Kintzing Pritchett 1850 John P. Gaines 1850-1853 Joseph Lane 1853 George L. Curry 1853 John W. Davis 1853-1854 George L. Curry 1854 George L. Curry 1854-1859 OREGON STATE Governor Term John Whiteaker 1859-1862 A. C. Gibbs 1862-1866 George L. Woods 1866-1870 Lafayette Grover 1870-1877 Stephen F. Chadwick 1877-1878 W. W. Thayer 1878-1882 Z. F. Moody 1882-1887 Sylvester Pennoyer 1887-1895 William Paine Lord 1895-1899 Theo. T. Geer 1899-1903 George E. Chamberlain 1903-1909 Frank W. Benson 1909-1910 Jay Bowerman 1910-1911 (Acting Governor) Oswald West 1911-1915 James Withycombe 1915-1919 Ben W. Olcott 1919-1923 Walter M. Pierce 1923-1927 I. L. Patterson 1927-1929 A. W. Norblad 1929-1931 Governor Julius L. Meier Charles H. Martin Governor Isaac I. Stevens J. Patton Andersonx Fayette McMullin R. D. Gholson W.H.Wallace1 William Pickering George E. Cole2 Marshall F. Moore Alvan Flanders Edward S. Salomon James F. Legate1 Elisha P. Ferry W. A. Newell Watson C. Squire Eugene Semple Miles C. Moore (sever GOVERNORS WASHINGTON TERRITORY WASHINGTON STATE 335 853-1857 Governor Term Elisha P. Ferry 1889-1893 John H. McGraw 1893-1897 John R. Rogers 1897-1901 John R. Rogers 1901 Henry McBride 1901-1905 Albert E. Mead 1905-1909 Samuel G. Cosgrove 1909 Marion E. Hay 1909-1913 Ernest Lister 1913-1919 Louis F. Hart 1919-1925 Roland P. Hartley 1925-1933 Clarence D. Martin IDAHO TERRITORY 1933- Governor Term William H. Wallace 1863 1 Failed to qualify. nfirmed by Senate. 336 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Governor Caleb Lyon David W. Ballard Samuel Bard Gilman Marston Thomas M. Bowen Thomas W. Bennett D. P. Thompson Mason Brayman John P. Hoyt John B. Neill John N. Irwin (ten dayt William M. Bunn Edward A. Stevenson George L. Shoup Edward J. Curtis w Governor George L. Shoup Norman B. Willey William J. McConnell Frank Steunenberg Frank W. Hunt John T. Morrison Frank R. Gooding James H. Brady James H. Hawley John M. Haines Moses Alexander D. W. Davis Charles C. Moore H. C. Baldridge C.Ben Ross B. Worth Clark Resigned ^ Resigned ^ Resigned \ ithout i ithout ; ithout ; 1875- 1876- Resigned without a Governor Sidney Edgerton Green Clay Smith James M. Ashley ; Acting Governor for many years. IDAHO STATE MONTANA TERRITORY 1890-1893 1893-1897 1897-1901 1901-1903 1903-1905 1905-1909 1909-1911 1911-1913 1913-1915 1915-1919 1919-1923 1923-1927 1927-1931 I93J-I937 !937- GOVERNORS 337 Governor Benjamin F. Potts 1870-1883 J. Schuyler Crosby 1883-1884 B. Piatt Carpenter 1884-1885 Samuel T. Hauser 1885-1887 Preston H. Leslie 1887-1889 Benjamin F. White MONTANA STATE 1889 Governor Term Joseph K. Toole 1889-1893 John E. Richards 1893-1897 Robert B. Smith 1897-1901 Joseph K. Toole 1901-1908 Edwin L. Norris 1908-1913 Samuel V. Stewart 1913-1921 Joseph M. Dixon 1921-1925 John E. Erickson !925-i933 Frank E. Cooney I933-I937 Roy D. Ayres 1937- Notes GENERAL REFERENCES - Judson, Katherine B. Subject index to the history of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Olympia, 1913. An index to public documents, covering the period 1789-1881. Smith, C. W. Pacific Northwest Americana. New York, 1921. Checklist of material in representative libraries of the region. Rockwood, Eleanor R. Books on the Pacific Northwest for small libraries. New York, 1923. Useful in forming collections for students and the public. Bancroft, H. H. The volumes in the Bancroft series devoted to Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, as well as the History of Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, Volumes VI and VII of the History of California and part of the History of the Northwest Coast were written by Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, who, with her sister Metta and Alice and Phoebe Cary, were famous in the fifties as Ohio's quartet of sister poets. She entered the Bancroft library in 1878 and devoted eleven years to the volumes which reviewers hailed as marking a distinct improvement over Bancroft's previous work. These volumes are full of useful material and are particularly valuable on account of references. Schafer, Joseph. History of the Pacific Northwest. New York, 1904 and 1917. Does not include the later Indian wars or political organization subsequent to 1859. Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1921. Meany, E. S. History of the State of Washington. New York, 1909 and 1924. Brosnan, C. J. History of the State of Idaho. New York, 1918. School text. References by Chapters SPECIAL SYMBOLS -OPAT: Oregon pioneer association. Transactions. OHQ: Oregon historical quarterly. WHQ: Washington historical quarterly. The use of op. cit. is confined to titles cited earlier in the same chapter. I i. Condon, Thomas. Oregon geology. A revision of "The two islands." Portland, 1910. The title of the original work, published in 1902, was changed because of the question as to whether both parts of the earliest Oregon land were islands. McCor- nack, Ellen C. Glimpse into prehistoric Oregon. OHQ, v. 13, p. 3. 2. Merriam, J. C. and Gilmore, C. W. Ichthyosaurian reptile from marine Cretaceous of Oregon. Carnegie institution of Washington. Contributions to paleontology, 395, 1928. Gilmore, C. W. New pterosaurian reptile from the marine Cretaceous of Oregon. U. S. national museum. Proceedings, v. 73, art. 24, 1929. 3. New fossil I My of Oregon Bulletin, May, 1906. 4. Merriam, J. C, Stock, Chester and Moody, C. L. Pliocene Rattlesnake formation and fauna of eastern Oregon. Carnegie institution of Washington. Contributions to paleontology, 34J, 1925. Hay, O. P. Pleistocene of the western region of North America and its vertebrated animals. Idem, 322B, 1927. Bulwalda, J. P. Paleonto- logical and geological investigations in the John Day region . . . Science: N. S., v. 66, p. 135, 1927. 5. Pardee, J. T. and Bryan, Kirk. Geology of the Latah formation in relation to the lavas of the Columbia plateau . . . U. S. geological survey. Professional paper 140-A, 1926. 6. Knowlton, F. H. Flora of the Latah formation. U. S. geological survey. Professional paper 140-A, 1926. Berry, E. W. Revision of the flora of the Latah formation. Idem, 154(h), 1928. 7. Bretz, J. H. Glacial drainage of the Columbia plateau. Geological society of America. Bulletin 34, 1923. 8. Symons, T. W. Report of an examination of the upper Columbia river. 47th Cong. 1st Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. 186, 1882, p. 108. 9. Large, Thomas. Glacial border of Spokane. Pan-American geologist, Decem- 10. Washington geological survey. Bulletin 22. 342 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST t. Science. N. S., v. 66, 1927, p. 540. t ancestor of the Three Sisters. referring to the Oregon Cascades. in Oregon. Pan-American geolo- the Cascade range, Washingto, 11. Large, Thomas. Drainage changes in northeastern Washington and northern Idaho . . . Pan-American geologist, May, 1924. 12. Bryan, Kirk. "Palouse soil" problem, with an account of elephant remains in wind-borne soil . . . U. S. geological survey. Bulletin 190, 1927. Lapham, M. H. Fossil remains in the loess of eastern Washington. Science. N. S., v. 65, 1927, p. 446. Culver, H. C. Mastodon remains in Washington 13. Hodge, E. T. Mount Multnomah, ant Eugene, 1925. See Note 14 for Crater lake, 14. Idem, pp. 157-158. Bibliography of literat Hodge, E. T. Framework of the Cascade n gist, June, 1928. Plummer, F. G. Forest conditl . . . U. S. geological survey. Professional paper 6, 1902. Russell, I. C. Preliminary paper on the geology of the Cascade mountains in northern Washington. U. S. geological survey. Twentieth annual report, pt. 2, 1900. Smith, G. O. and Calkins, F. C. Geological reconnaissance across the Cascade range . . . U. S. geological survey. Bulletin 235, 1904. 15. Meany, E. S. Mount Ranier. A record of exploration. New York, 1916. Schmoe, F. W. Our greatest mountain. New York, 1925. Pictorial. Williams, J. H. Mountain that was God. New York, 1911. Lancaster, S. C. Columbia, America's great highway. Portland, 1926. 16. Gilman, S. C. Olympic country. National geographic magazine, v. 7, 1896, pp. 133-140. Conrad, H. S. Olympic peninsula. Science. N. S-, v. 21,1905, pp. 392-393. Arnold, Ralph. Geological reconnaissance of the coast of the Olympic peninsula. Geological society of America. Bulletin, v. 17, 1906, pp. 451-468. Weaver, C. E. Preliminary report on the Tertiary paleontology of western Washington. U. S. geological survey. Bulletin 15, 1912. Arnold, Ralph and Hannibal, Harold. Marine Tertiary stratigraphy of the North Pacific coast of America. American philosophical society. Proceedings, v. 52, no. 212, 1913. Dodwell, Arthur and Rixon, T. F. Forest conditions in the Olympic forest reserve. U. S. geological survey. Professional paper 7, 1902. Reagan, A. B. Origin of small prairies on the Olympic peninsula. Pan-American geologist, May, 1928. Recent changes in elevation of the Olympic peninsula. Idem. November, 1929. 17. Federal power commission. Report on the uses of the Columbia river. Re- 18. Russell, I. C. Geological reconnaissance of central Washington. U. S. geological survey. Bulletin 108, 1893. 19. Symons, T. W., op. cit., pp. 24-51. Interesting account of a bateau trip down the Columbia from Rickey's landing, below Kettle falls, to the Snake river, in 1881. Lyman, W. D. Columbia river. New York, 1911. Freeman, Lewis. Down the Columbia. New York, 1921. Lorraine, M. J. Columbia unveiled . . . story of a trip, alone, in a rowboat, from the source to the mouth . . . Los Angeles, 1924. 20. Bretz, J. H. The Dalles type of river channel. Journal of geology, v. 32, p. 139, 1924. Buwalda, J. P. and Moore, B. N. The Dalles and Hood river formations and the Columbia river gorge. Carnegie institution of Washington. Contributions to paleontology, 404, 1930, pp. 11-26. NOTES 343 21. Bretz, J. H. Channelled scabland of eastern Washington. Geographical review, v. 18, 1928, pp. 446-477. Full bibliography of earlier articles, p. 447. Bars of channelled scabland. Geological society of America. Bulletin, v. 39, 1928, pp. 643- 702. Valley deposits immediately east of the channelled scabland of Washington. Journal of geology, v. 37, 1929, pp. 393-427, 505-541. Valley deposits immediately west of the channelled scabland. Idem, v. 38, 1930, pp. 385-422. Harding, H. T. Possible water supply for creation of channelled scab lands in eastern Washington. Science. N. S., v. 69, 1929, pp. 188-190. 22. Bretz, J. H. Lake Missoula and the Spokane flood. Geological society of America. Bulletin, v. 41, pt. 1, 1930, p. 92. 23. Stearns, H. T. " Craters of the moon " in Idaho. Smithsonian institution. Annual report, 1928, pp. 307-313. 24. The name has been taken to be a corruption of the French word pelouse, meaning ground covered with short, thick grass. It is more probably an example of the well known practice of the voyageurs to transliterate Indian terms loosely by selecting words from their own language with similar north of the Palouse river in Washington and Idaho and or Snake as far as the Columbia is named the Paloos or Palus. 25. Calkins, F. C. Geology and water resources of a portion of east central Washington. U. S. geological survey. Water supply paper 118, 1905. Freeman, O. W. Mammoth found in loess of Washington. Science. N. S., v. 64, 1926, p. 447. Bryan, Kirk, op. ch. Peterson, P. P. Rate and mode of soil deposition in the Palouse area. Science. N. S., v. 55, 1922, p. 102. 26. Scott, H. W. History of the Oregon country. Cambridge, 1924, v. 2, p. 218. 344 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST II i. Minto, John. Number and condition of the native race in Oregon when first seen by white men. OHQ, v. i, p. 296. Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition. New York, 1904. v. 6, pp. 113-120. Coues, Elliott, ed. History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark ■ ■ • New York, 1893. v. 2, p. 711. Wilkes, Charles. Narrative of the United States exploring expedition . . . Philadelphia, 1845. v. 4, p. 369. 2. Australian and Polynesian traces are found in California and down the west coast to Tierra del Fuego, and there is a theory, supported by eminent authorities, that the Australoid type preceded the Mongoloid in Asia and was therefore the first to reach America. It may have crossed by way of the archipelago of which Easter island is a remnant, and it presumably moved no further north than California. Morgan, L. S. Indian migrations. North American review, Oct. 1869, Jan. 1870. Repr. in Beach, W. W. Indian miscellany. Albany, 1877. pp. 158-257. Kroeber, A. L. American culture and the Northwest Coast. American anthropologist. N. S., v. 25, 1923, pp. 1- 20. Smith, H. I. Recent archaeological discoveries in northwestern America. American geographical society. Bulletin 3S, 1906, p. 287. Jochelson, Waldemar. Archaeological investigations in the Aleutian islands. Carnegie institution of Washington. Publication 367, 1925. MacLeod, W. C. American Indian frontier. New York, 1928. ch. 1-2. Excellent summary of present views regarding the origin of the American Indian. Extensive bibliography. Enumerates (pp. 9-11) numerous culture elements which are apparently of Asiatic origin and mentions particularly those which are confined to the Pacific Northwest. Harrington, M. R. Mystery of Gypsum cave. Scientific American, July, 1930. Finding of human artifacts in " Gypsum cave. Vegas, Nevada, in 1930, together with, and even in deposits below, r ground sloth, which lived twenty to thirty thousand years ago. 3. Terry, James. Sculptured anthropoid ape heads . . . New York, 1891. 4. Lewis, A. B. Tribes of the Columbia valley and the coast of Washington and Oregon. American anthropological association. Memoirs, v. 1, pt. 2. Valuable references and bibliography. Smith, S. B. Primitive customs and religious beliefs of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest Coast. OHQ, v. 2, 1901, p. 255. Barrett, A. S. Material culture of the Klamath lake and Modoc Indians . . . University of California. Publications in American archaeology and ethnology, v. 5, no. 4, 1910. 5. MacLeod, W. C. op. ch. States that the percentage of slaves in the population of the Pacific Northwest ran as high as one-fourth in some sections and perhaps even one-third. This came about partly because slavery was hereditary, except in the case of debtors. Almost everywhere else in the Americas the children of slaves were free. Dennis, Elsie F. Indian slavery in the Pacific Northwest. OHQ, v. 31, no. 1, 1930, et seq. Parker, Samuel. Journal of an exploring tour beyond the Rocky mountains. Ithaca, 1838, p. 245. 6. Royal society of Canada. Transactions for 1891, sec. 2, p. 6. 7. Lee, Daniel. Ten years in Oregon. New York, 1844. 8. Olson, R. L. Adze, canoe and house types of the Northwest Coast. University is of the I NOTES 345 of Washington. Publications in anthropology, v. 2, no. 1, 1927, pp. 1-38. Extensive bibliography. 9. Stone, A. L. Following old trails. Missoula, 1913. p. 202. Aboriginal horse 10. Gunther, Erna. Analysis of the first salmon ceremony. American anthropologist. N. S., v. 28, 1926, pp. 605-617. Further analysis . . . University of Washington. Publications in anthropology, v. 2, no. 5, 1928. Bibliography. 11. Lee, Daniel, op. ch., pp. 283-285, 299-301. Lee says that if a native was ill and apparently about to die, when the salmon run started, he was hurried into his grave, even though his groans indicated that life was not extinct, for if a dead body should be found above ground at the time, the salmon would surely disappear. 12. Wilkes, Charles, op. ch., v. 4, pp. 344-346. Describes fishing at Willamette falls, which he saw and Drayton sketched. 13. Allen, J. A. American bisons, living and extinct. Museum of comparative zoology at Harvard college. Memoirs, v. 4, no. 10, 1876. Idem. History of the American bison. U. S. geological survey. Geological and geographical survey of . . . Colorado and parts of adjacent Territories. Ninth annual report, 1877, pt. 3, pp. 441-588. Collects descriptions of buffalo hunts by Hennepin, Charlevoix, Cadin, Audubon, Lewis and Clark, etc. Branch, E. D. Hunting of the buffalo. New York, 1929. 14. Barry, J. N. Use of soil products by the Indians. OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p. 43. Coville, F. V. Wokas, — primitive food of the Klamath Indians. U. S. national museum. Annual report, 1902, pp. 725-739. Swan, J. G. Northwest Coast . . . New York, 1857. pp. 87-91. 15. Curtis, E. S. North American Indian. New York, 1907-. v. 9. Several prints of Coast Indian women in primitive costume. Krieger, H. W. American Indian costumes in the National museum. Smithsonian institution. Annual report, 1928, pp. 623-661. 16. Spinden, H. J. Nez Perce Indians. American anthropological association. Memoirs, v. 2, pt. 3, 1908, p. 245. 17. Cox, Ross. Adventures on the Columbia river. New York, 1832. p. 118. 18. Ross, Alexander. Fur hunters of the far west. London, 1855. v. 1, p. 309. 19. Rapport sur les missions du diocese de Quebec, no. 19, 1870, p. 108. 20. Ross, Alexander. Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia river. London, 1849. ch. 9. Good contemporary account of the ceremonies among the Okanogans. Lee, Daniel, op. cit., pp. 236-238. Amusing account of removal of skookums from a patient. 21. Wilkes, Charles, op. cit., v. 4, p. 464. 22. Spinden, H. G, op. cit., for Nez Perce mythology and references. Little has been published on the myths of the other tribes. Lewis, A. B., op. ch., makes comparisons between the myths of the Coast and the interior tribes. 23. Hodge, F. W., ed. Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico. Smithsonian institution. Bureau of American ethnology. Bulletin 30, 1907. Map of linguistic families, by J. W. Powell, in v. 1. 24. Powell, J. D. Indian linguistic families. Smithsonian institution. Bureau of 346 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST American ethnology. Seventh annual report, 1891, p. 141. Boas, Franz. Handbook of American Indian languages. Idem, 1911. 25. Sauvageot, A. Eskimo et Ouralien. Societe des Americanists de Paris, fournal, v. 16, 1924. The Esquimos were once numerous in northeastern Siberia. Their language belongs to the Ural-Altaic stock, along with Thibetan, Turkish, Hungarian and Finnish. 26. Hale, Horatio. Hale's Indians of Northwest America . . . American ethnological society. Transactions, v. 2, 1848, p. 1. Gibbs, George. Report . . . on the Indian tribes of the Territory of Washington. U. S. war department. Pacific railroad reports, 1855-1860, v. 1, p. 402. Bancroft, H. H. Native races of the Pacific States of North America. San Francisco, 1886. v. 1, pp. 150-321. Tribes of the Columbia valley. Uncritical text but full references to early literature, v. 3, pt. 2, ch. 3. Columbian languages. Barry, J. N. Indians of Oregon —Geographic distribution of linguistic families. OHQ, v. 28, p. 49. Indians in Washington, their distribution by languages. Idem, p. 147. 27. Gibbs, George, op. cit., p. 431. 28. Pilling, J. C. Bibliography of the Salishan languages. Smithsonian institution. Bureau of ethnology, 1893. Teit, J. H. Middle Columbia Salish. University of Washington. Publications in anthropology, v. 2, no. 4, 1928, pp. 83-128. Giorda, Joseph. Dictionary of the Kalispel or Flathead language, 3 pt. St. Ignatius mission, 1887-1889. Teit, J. A. (Boas, Franz, ed.) Salishan tribes of the western plateaus. Smithsonian institution. Bureau of ethnology. Forty-fifth annual report, 1930, pp. 23- 835. First exhaustive treatment of the Flatheads, Coeur d'Alenes and Okanogans. 29. Gatschet, A. S. Indian languages of the Pacific States and Territories. Magazine of American history, 1877. Repr. in Beach, W. W., op. cit. 30. Father Pandosy states that the Walla Wallas were called the Little River people. The word for river in the Palouse and Walla Walla dialects was wana. Pandosy says: "Further, the Indians of all this neighborhood form the diminutive by repeating the substantive, changing n into /, giving the voice a different tone, putting the lips out in speaking and keeping them suspended around the jaw. In this way we have the word wana-wana, which by the change of n into / gives wala-wala, which should be pronounced very short . . ." 31. Ross, Alexander. Fur traders of the far West. London, 1855. v. 1, Appendix. Nez Perce vocabulary, including a list of words used in the slave language. Dictionary of the Numipu or Nez Perce language, by a missionary of the Society of Jesus, pt. 1. English — Nez Perce. St. Ignatius mission, 1905. Only pt. 1 was published. Spalding, H. H., tr. Matthewnin taais\t- New York, 1871. Gospel of Matthew in Nez Perce. Pandosy, M. C. Grammar and dictionary of the Yakama language . . . translated by George Gibbs and J. G. Shea. New York, 1862. 32. Swan, J. G., op. cit., p. 306. 33. Idem, p. 316. 34. Pilling, J. C. Bibliography of the Chinookan languages (including the Chinook jargon). Smithsonian institution. Bureau of ethnology. Bulletin 15, 1893. Hale, Horatio. International idiom, a manual of the Oregon trade language . . . London, 1890. Shaw, G. C. Chinook jargon and how to use it. Seattle, 1909. Phillips, (L NOTES 347 W. S. Chinook book- Seattle, 1913. Gibbs, George. Dictionary of the Chinook jargon. New York, 1863. Repr. in Smithsonian institution. Miscellaneous collections 161, 1863. Hibben, T. N. Dictionary of the Chinook jargon. Victoria, v. d. Gill, J. K. Gill's dictionary of the Chinook jargon. Portland, v. d. Tate, C. M. Chinook as spoken by the Indians . . . Victoria, 1889. Thomas, E. H. Chinook jargon. The Frontier, v. 10, May 1930, p. 299. 348 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST i. Clarke, S. A. Pioneer days of Oregon history. Portland, 1905. v. 1, chs. 2c Lyman, H. S. History of Oregon. New York, 1903. v. 1, ch. 5. Cotton, S. J. Stories of Nehalem. Chicago, n.d. (1915). 2. Cox, Ross. Adventures on the Columbia river. London, 1831. v. 1, p. 315. 3. Lee, Daniel. Ten years in Oregon. New York, 1844. pp. 107-108, 126. Irving, I Washington. Rocky mountains . . . Philadelphia, 1837. Appendix: Letter froi Wilkes to Irving. Wilkes, Charles. Diary of Wilkes in the Northwest. Repr. from WHQ, Seattle, 1926. p. 53. Meany, E. S. History of Washington. New York, 1924. 4. Lee Daniel, op. cit., p. 107. Stafford, O. F. Wax of Nehalem beach. OHQ, v. 9, 1908, p. 24. 5. Wagner, H. R. Some imaginary California geography. American antiqua society. Proceedings. Apr. 1926. Spanish voyages to the Northwest Coast of Ami in the sixteenth century. San Francisco, 1929. 6. Nunn, G. E. Origin of the Strait of Anian concept. Philadelphia, 1929. 7. Michael Lok met, in Venice, a man known as Juan de Fuca, whose real name was said to be Apostolos Valerianos. Later search in the Spanish archives and at the reputed home of the Greek has failed to disclose any evidence of the voyage or of the existence of any person by this name. 8. Howay, F. W. Voyages of Kendrick and Gray . . . OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p, 89. Howay, F. W. and Matthews, Albert. Some notes upon Captain Robert Gray. WHQ, v. 21, 1930, p. 8. Pipes, Nellie B. Later affairs of Kendrick- OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p. 95. Howay, F. W. Ballad of the bold Northwestman . . . WHQ, v. 20, 1929, p. 114. 9. Related in Chapter IV. 10. Lee, J. T. Bibliography of Carver's travels. State historical society of Wisconsin. Proceedings for 1909, pp. 143-183. Captain Jonathan Carver: additional data. Idem for 1912, pp. 87-123. Elliott, T. C. Origin of the name Oregon. OHQ, v. 22, 1921, pp. 91-115. Jonathan Carver's source for the name Oregon. OHQ, v. 23, 1922, pp. 53-69. A photostat copy of Carver's original journals in the British museum has been given to the Oregon historical society by Charles H. Carey; also, a copy of Carver's MS map dated 1769, which differs from the map first published in 1778 in that it does not show the River of the West. 11. With no clue whatever from the author, speculation has been free as to the meaning of the name. The French word ouragan, meaning hurricane, has been suggested; also, Aragon, for Spain; oregano, the Spanish word for marjoram, sometimes used figuratively to indicate excellence; oreja, Spanish for ear, or orejon, meaning a slice of dried peach. Joaquin Miller proposed Oye-el-agua, Hear-the-water, and John Fiske cites the Algonquin Wau-re-gan, Beautiful-water. John E. Rees produces the Shoshone Ogwa-pe-on, River-west. J. A. Myers proposes a combination of Sioux and Chipeway terms found in Carver's vocabularies, Owah-menah Wa-kan, or Falling-waters Slaves. This would be abbreviated in speech into something like Carver's word, without the r's, which could not be pronounced by some of the NOTES 349 tribes. It is further explained that the Oregon might have been so described because the central tribes made slave raids toward the West. Nearly all the serious guesses at the origin of the word have been mentioned, and some of them are obviously far-fetched. An example of the off-hand explanations which have been made is the statement of Wyndham Robertson, Jr. (Oregon, our right and title . . . Washington, 1846. p. 179) that " an Irishman, whose ancestors took up their abode in the territory about the time the Danes invaded Ireland . . . called the country O'Regan." 12. Greenhow, Robert. History of Oregon and California . . . Boston, 1848. p. 434. Remnant of the log of the Columbia; repr. with notes by T. C. Elliott in OHQ, v. 22, 1921, pp. 352-356. 13. Bancroft, H. H. History of the Northwest Coast. San Francisco, 1886. v. 1, pp. 703-735. Haswell's Journals (not in the 1st ed.). Bancroft did not publish the entire text of Haswell. See Elliott, T. C. Capt. Robert Gray's first visit to Oregon. OHQ, v. 29, p. 162. 14. Massachusetts historical society. Proceedings, v. 53, 1919. WHQ, v. 12, 1921, pp. 3-50. Entries in Boit's Remarks on the ship Columbia's voyage from Boston covering June 4, 1791, to Oct. 28, 1792, with notes by E. S. Meany. OHQ, v. 22, 1921, pp. 257-355. Entries for the entire voyage, with notes by F. W. Howay and T. C. Elliott. 15. Vancouver, George. Voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean . . . London, 1801 (2nd ed.). Meany, E. S., ed. New Vancouver journal. Seattle, 1915. Repr. from WHQ, v. 5-6, 1914-1915. Anonymous MS by a member of the Chatham's crew. Meany, E. S. Vancouver's discovery of Puget sound. New York, 1907. Newcombe, C. F., ed. Menzie's Journal of Vancouver's voyage. Archives of British Columbia. Victoria, 1923. 16. Vancouver, George, op. cit., Book 3, ch. 3. Broughton's exploration of the Columbia. See also Book 2, ch. n, pp. 395-401. 17. Howay, F. W. and Elliott, T. C. Voyages of the "Jenny" to Oregon, 1792- i?94- 0HQ. v- 3°. P' x97- 350 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST i. Bell, C. N. Journal of Henry Kelsey, 1691-1692. Winnipeg, 1928. See WHQ, v. 19, 1928, pp. 152, 228. 2. Moore, Irene. Valiant La Verendrye. Quebec, 1927. La Verendrye was bon in 1685 at Three Rivers, where his father was Governor. He took part in the expedi tion against New England in 1704, sailed for France in 1706 and w in the French army by bravery. In one battle, he received nine wounds. Returi to Canada, he was appointed commandant of the Nipigon trading post. 3. Burpee, L. J. Search for the western sea. Toronto, 1908. pt. 2, ch. 3. La Verendrye's explorations. Stuart, Granville. Earliest discovery of the Rocky mountains. Historical society of Montana. Contributions, v. 1, p. 316. 4. Kingston, C. S. Western sea in the Jesuit relations. OHQ, v. 28, 1927, p. 133. 5. Dobbs, Arthur. Account of the countries adjoining to Hudson's bay. London, 1744. 6. Butel-Dumont, G. M. (Le Mascrier, Abbe J. B., ed.). Memoires historiques sur la Louisiane. Paris, 1753. v. 2, p. 246. Repr. in French, B. F. Historical collections of Louisiana. New York, 1846. v. 5. La Page du Pratz, A. S. Histoire de la Louisiane. Paris, 1758. v. 3. There are English translations, but they are much abridged. Le Page's map, 1757, indicates the route taken by Moncacht-ape from the Missouri river to the Belle river of his story, showing the upper course of this stream. Greenhow, Robert. History of Oregon and California. Boston, 1844. p. 145. Account based on Butel-Dumont. Bancroft, H. H. History of the Northwest Coast. San Francisco, 1884. v. 1, pp. 598-607. Lengthy account taken from Le Page, whose map is reproduced. Lyman, H. S. History of Oregon. New York, 1903. v. 1, p. 311. Appendix, pp. 381-384. Criticism of the story as given by Bancroft. Perrin du Lac, M. Voyage . . . en 1801-1803. Paris, 1805. Contains earliest map of the trans-Missouri region which displays evidence of actual acquaintance with the country. 7. National intelligencer. Jan. 25, 1821. Repr. in Niles register, March 10, 1821. 8. Hunter, J. D. Manners and customs of several Indian tribes. Philadelphia, 1823. 9. Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages . . . through the continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific oceans . . . London, 1801. Repr. in 2 v. New York, 1902. Burpee, L. J., op. cit., pt. 3, chs. 2-3. Davidson, G. C. North west company. Berkeley, 1918. ch. 3. Masson, L. R. Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-ouest. Quebec, 1889. v. 1, ch. 3. Wade, M. S. Mackenzie of Canada. Edinburgh and London, 1927. Woollacott, A. P. Mackenzie and his voyageurs. London and Toronto, 1927. The last two items are the first books entirely devoted to Mackenzie. Morice, A. G. History of the northern interior of British Columbia. Toronto, 1904. 10. Dunn, John. History of the Oregon territory. London, 1844. p. 267. The inscription, pardy discernable, was seen by Dunn in 1836. Bishop, R. P. Mackenzie's rock- Department of the interior. Historic sites series, no. 6. Ottawa, n. d. Captain Bishop located the rock in 1923 for the Dominion government. 11. Fraser, Simon. Journal oj a voyage from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific NOTES 35i coast. Masson, L. R., op. cit., v. 1, pp. 157-221. English text. Idem, ch. 7. Masson's account, in French. Burpee, L. J., op. cit., pt. 3, ch. 5. 12. Sparks, Jared. Life of fohn Ledyard . . . Cambridge, 1828. 13. Gass, Patrick. Journal . . . Pittsburgh, 1807. Repr. with introduction by J. K. Hosmer. Chicago, 1904. Lewis, Meriwether and Clark, William. History of the expedition . . . Philadelphia, 1814. Introduction by Thomas Jefferson. This is the digest by Nicholas Biddle, prepared for the press by Paul Allen. Repr. with introduction and index, by James K. Hosmer. Chicago, 1902. Repr. with an account of the Louisiana purchase, by John Bach MacMaster (but no index). New York, 1904. Repr. with much revision from comparison with the original Journals, and with copious notes and index, by Elliott Coues. New York, 1893. Original journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Edited, with introduction, notes and index, by Reuben Gold Thwaites. New York, 1904. Includes the Journals of Charles Floyd and Joseph Whitehouse. Wheeler, O. D. Trail of Lewis and Clark- New York, 1904. Numerous illustrations. Brooks, Noah. First across the continent . . . New York, 1901. Lighton, W. R. Lewis and Clark- Boston, 1901. The last two titles are good popular accounts of the journey. 14. Pacific railroad reports. War department, 1855—1860, v. 12, pt. 1, ch. 9. Exploration of Lolo trail by Mullan. " Heclawa" (pseud, for Himmelwright, A. L. A.) In the heart of the Bitter Root mountains. New York, 1895. 15. Lewis says of dog meat (Original journals, v. 4, p. 277): " I prefer it to lean venison or elk, and it is far superior to the horse in any state." 16. Oregon historical society. Proceedings, 1900, pp. 13-23. Regarding site of Fort Clatsop. 17. Three of Coboway's daughters married white men, and their descendants entered into the civilized life of the new American State. See the Original journals, v. 4, p. 138. 18. Coues' note on this passage in the Journals is misleading. He apparently overlooked an important omission made by Biddle in the 1814 ed. —Lewis's words, "and to the north of the entrance of Clark's river." When Lewis continues, Biddle's omission makes him name the Spokane Clark's river. Even without the help of the original notes, the notions of the explorers regarding the northern rivers may be gathered from Clark's map. The map shows, for one thing, what Lewis was trying to say about the mouth of the Spokane. The first reliable information regarding Clark's fork and the Spokane was secured by David Thompson, in his visits to these rivers in 1808 to 1811. (Tyrrell, J. B. David Thompson's narrative. Toronto, 1916. pp. 464, 473.) Thompson's name for Pend d'Oreille lake was Kullyspell, and Clark's fork above the lake was the Saleesh river. He knew Coeur d'Alene lake and the upper Spokane river as the Skeetshoo river and lake, but he referred to the lower part of the river, in his Narrative and in his original notes as well, as the Spokane. Thompson was familiar with the names Coeur d'Alene and Pend d'Oreille, applied to the Indian tribes by Canadian trappers. Alexander Henry first recorded the name Spokane in a book and described the river and the Indians (Henry, Alexander. Manuscript journals of ... In Coues, Elliott. New light on the history of the greater Northwest. New York, 1897. v. 2, p. 711), but this was in a chapter of his Journals 352 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST written before he visited the region, from information furnished by Thompson or his clerks. Henry speaks of the " Kullyspell or Earbob Indians" and the " Skeetshue or Pointed Heart Indians." The proper spelling and pronunciation of the name Spokane has long been a subject of debate. The earliest spelling, in Thompson and Henry, is Spokane. The derivation is evidently from a Salish name for the sun. Two clerks of the Pacific Fur Company, Franchere and Ross Cox (but not Alexander Ross) used the spelling Spokan. Washington Irving adopted this form from them. But Cox calls the chief of the tribe " Illimspokanee or Son of the Sun," and according to Henry the Salish word for sun was spehkunne. The term undoubtedly had a final vowel, which was indistinctly pronounced. The present usage is to spell the name Spokane and pronounce it Spokan. See Pacific railroad reports, v. i, p. 414. Symons, T. W. Report . . . Washington, 1882. p. 128. Curtis, E. S. North American Indian. New York, 1911-. v. 7, p. 56. Handbook of the American Indians north of Mexico. Washington, 1910. art. Spokan. Gives all the names applied to these Indians. Parker, Samuel. Journal . . . Ithaca, 1844 (4th ed.). In a note which did not appear in the earlier editions, Parker says that after causing the Indians to pronounce the name several times he was convinced that it should be written Spokein. This form receives no support elsewhere. 19. Wheeler, O. D., op. cit., v. 2, p. 311. Account given by who was engaged in the fight with Lewis. 20. The story of the Journals is told in detail by Thwaites to his 1904 edition. This part of the introduction was reprinted 1906, pp. 26-53. 21. Gass, Patrick, op. cit., 1904 ed. Jacob, J. G. Life and tim Wellsburg (Va.), 1859. 22. Rees, J. E. Letter to C. H. Burke, Commissioner of India in Spokane Public Library. 23. Brackenridge, H. M. Journal of a voyage up the river Mis. 1816 (2nd ed.). Repr. in Thwaites, R. G. Early western travels, v. 5. 24. Luttig, J. C. Journal of a fur trading expedition on the upper Mi Louis, 1920. pp. 106, 132. 25. Hebard, Grace R. Washakie . . . Cleveland, 1930. p. 160. 26. Hebard, Grace R. Pilot of first white men to cross the American Journal of American history, v. 1, no. 3. Repr. in part in Schultz, J. W. Bird woman (Sacajawea) the guide of Lewis and Clark- Boston and New York, 1918. Mrs. Hebard confirmed the reports of Sacajawea's life and death on the Shoshone reservation, during visits among the Indians in 1915, 1926 and 1929, when she interviewed Sacajawea's relatives and white people who knew her in the seventies and until the time of her death (Information from Mrs. Hebard, July, 1930). Defenbach, Byron. Red heroines of the Northwest. Caldwell (Ida.), 1929. pt. 1, Sacajawea. Dr. Charles Eastman prepared a report on Sacajawea, in 1925, at the request of the Indian Bureau. Defenbach (ch. 17) gives the gist of this report, with his own information. 27. Elliott, T. C, ed. Discovery of the source of the Columbia river. OHQ, v. 26, 1925, p. 43. le of the Indians the introduction . the OHQ, v. 6, of Patrick Gass. in Affairs. Copy ■'. Baltimore, NOTES 353 28. Clark, R. C. History of the Willamette valley, Oregon. Chicago, 1927. v. 1, pp. 122-123, 839-841. See WHQ, v. 19, 1928, p. 151. 29. The name for the Palouse Indians in tbe Lewis and Clark Journals is variously spelled Palletepallcr, Pallotepaller and Pellatepaller. 30. Ross, Alexander. Fur hunters of the far West. London, 1855. v. 2, p. 9. 31. Information from Prof. Clark and the Rev. J. Neilson Barry. An important question is how much David Thompson knew of the southern tributaries of the Columbia when he referred to Pinch's location. If he had heard of the Snake river, Pinch's post was probably at Lewiston, and his association with the Palouse Indians is explained. They could have guided him to Coeur d'Alene lake. A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 1. Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages . . . London, 1801. pp. ii-cxxxii. First printed account of the fur trade in the Northwest by the North West Company. Tyrrell says that this part of the book was written by Roderick Mackenzie. Davidson, G. C. North west company. University of California. Publications in history, v. 7, Berkeley, 1918, pp. 23-27, 194-248. Full particulars regarding the volume of business and the trading methods of the Company. Davidson is the principal authority. An important earlier reference is Masson, L. R. Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord- ouest. Quebec, 1889. v. 1, pp. 1-154. Martin, H. T. Castorologia or the history and traditions of the Canadian beaver. Montreal, 1892. Moberly, H. J. When fur was king. London, 1929. Vandiveer, C. A. Fur trade and early western exploration. Cleveland, 1929. 2. Tyrrell, J. B. David Thompson's narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784-1812. Champlain society. Publications. Toronto, 1916. The only published text of the Narrative, written by Thompson when he was about seventy years of age. His extensive note-books and the original of his great map are in the archives of the Crown Lands Department of Ontario. T. C. Elliott has edited transcripts of the notes relating to the Pacific Northwest in the following references: David Thompson's journeys in the Spokane country. WHQ, v. 8, pp. 183, 261; v. 9, pp. 11, 103, 169, 284; v. 10, p. 17. David Thompson's journeys in Idaho. Idem, v. n, pp. 97, 163. journal of David Thompson (the Columbia river journey). OHQ, v. 15, pp. 39, 104. Discovery of the source of the Columbia river. Idem, v. 26, p. 23. Supplementary articles by Elliott: Fur trade in the Columbia river basin prior to 1811. Idem, v. 15, p. 241 (illus.). David Thompson and beginnings in Idaho. Idem, v. 21, p. 49. David Thompson, pathfinder, and the Columbia river. Idem, v. 26, p. 191 (illus.). 3. Cox, Ross. Adventures on the Columbia river. New York, 1832. ch. 15. Entertaining anecdotes about McDonald. 4. Elliott, T. C. Spokane House. WHQ, v. 21, 1930, p. 3. 5. Cox, Ross, op. cit., pp. 139-141. Henry, Alexander. Manuscript journals . . . In Coues, Elliott. New light on the history of the greater Northwest. New York, 1897. v. 2, pp. 895-916. Ross, Alexander. Fur hunters of the far West. London, 1855. v. 1, pp. 38-41. Ross gives the story of the drowning accident, as told by the sole survivor, who was rescued by Indians, after a terrible experience. Porter, K. W. Jane Barnes, first white woman in Oregon. OHQ, v. 31, 1930, p. 125. 6. Ross, Alexander, op. cit. In an earlier book, Ross told the story of Astor's venture. In this work, lie gives a history of the North West Company in Oregon. 7. Ross, Alexander, op. cit., v. 1, ch. 9. Cox, Ross, op. cit., ch. 29. Dunn, John. History of the Oregon territory . . . London, 1844. ch. 5. Harmon, D. W. Journal of voyages and travels in the interior of North America. Andover, 1820. p. 275. Rapport sur les missions du diocese de Quebec, no. 3, Quebec, 1841, pp. 39-41, 46. Davidson, G. C, op. cit., pp. 216-236. Davidson gives other references. 8. O'Hara, E. V. Catholic history of Oregon. Portland, 1911. p. 90 (1916 ed., p. 68). VI i. Jewitt, J. R. Narrative of . . . durin , < tc years among the savages of Nootka sound. Middletown, 1815. 2. Franchere, Gabriel. Narrative of a voyage to the Northwest Coast of America. New York, 1854. Translated from the original French edition, Montreal, 1820, with an additional chapter by the author and an appendix on the careers of persons who left Astoria before and after its transfer to the British. Ross, Alexander. Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia river. London, 1849. Repr. in Thwaites, R. G. Early western travels, v. 7. Cleveland, 1904. 3. Captain William Smith of the Albatross, which arrived at Astoria in August, 1813, had heard that these natives were waiting for a chance to take revenge, because a Captain Ayrcs of Boston had carried off a number of their people and left them on barren islands in Sir Francis Drake's bay. 4. The first printed account of the Tonquin disaster appeared in the Missouri Gazette of May 15, 1815, and was derived from the party which left Astoria in June, 1812, to return overland. Chittenden, H. M. American fur trade in the far West . . . New York, 1902. v. 3, p. 909. Reprint of the Gazette article. The other sources are Ross, Franchere and Cox. Franchere is in error in stating that the story of the interpreter was not heard until after Hunt's departure from Astoria in August, 1813. 5. Barry, J. N. Ko-come-ne-Pe-ca, the letter carrier. WHQ, v. 20, 1929, p. 201. Sperlin, O. B. Two Kootenay women masquerading as men? Or were they one? WHQ, v. 21, 1930, p. 120. 6. Bradbury, John. Travels in the interior of America . . . London, 1819 (2nd ed.). Repr. in Thwaites, R. G. Early western travels, v. 5. Cleveland, 1904. Bracken- ridge, H. M. Journal of a voyage up the river Missouri. Baltimore, 1816 (2nd ed.). Repr. in Thwaites, R. G, op. cit., v. 6. Cleveland, 1904. Franchere, Gabriel, op. cit., ch. n. Ross, Alexander, op. cit., ch. 10. Cox, Ross. Adventures on the Columbia river. New York, 1832. ch. 4. Chittenden, H. M., op. cit., v. 1, ch. 10. Barry, J. N. Trail of the Astorians. OHQ, v. 13, 1912, p. 227. Irving's Astoria contains the most extensive account of the Astor overland journeys, from journals in the hands of Astor, probably, according to Wagner, that of Hunt for the western trip and of Stuart for the return. A copy of Stuart's diary is in the New York Public Library. 7. Greenhow, Robert. History of Oregon and California . . . London, 1844. p. 439. Letter of Astor to John Quincy Adams, Jan. 4, 1823, in which he gives a brief history of his enterprise. 8. Henry, Alexander. Manuscript journals ... In Coues, Elliott. New light on the history of the greater Northwest. New York, 1897. Henry's narrative covers all his wanderings as a fur trader, from 1799 until the day before he was drowned in the Columbia, May 22, 1814. He tells of the closing events of Astor's enterprise. 9. Barry, J. N. Madame Dorion of the Astorians. OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p. 272. Defenbach, Byron. Red heroines of the Northwest. Caldwell (Ida.), 1929. pt. 2. The Dorion woman. Marie was an Iowa Indian (hence her name, Aioe). She was the 356 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST second woman to make the overland trip, and hers was the first child born on the Trail. It is interesting that Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark guide, was with the Manuel Lisa party which overtook the Astorians. So the two women travelled together part of the way. Mrs. Dorion and her descendants stayed in the Oregon country. Her son Baptiste became a guide and was a Lieutenant in the Cayuse war. Pierre Dorion's father was the first white settler in South Dakota. 10. Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1922. p. 246. Statement of this point, with references. n. Judson, Katherine B. British side of the restoration of Fort Astoria. OHQ, v. 20, 1919, pp. 243, 305. 12. For an appreciation of Irving's story of the Astoria enterprise and a review of Bancroft's uncritical and prejudiced treatment of both Irving and the Pacific Fur Company, see Chittenden, H. M., op. cit., v. 1, ch. 14. VII i. George Bryce, whose history of the Hudson's Bay Company is the best general work, states that he was allowed access to all the records up to 1821, the year of the merger with the Nor'westers, when Sir George Simpson took charge. Clark, R. C. History of the Willamette valley, Oregon. Chicago, 1927. ch. 7. States that in 1921 Dr. Frederick Merk of Harvard was allowed unprecedented facilities to copy documents of the later period, but has not made them public and possibly is not at liberty to do so. Clark was permitted, in 1929, to read copies of the documents seen by Merk, but without leave to make notes, and he says that they constitute an important body of material, though manifestly incomplete. 2. Bryce, George. Remarkable history of the Hudson's bay company. London, 1900. Willson, Beckles. Great Company . . . Toronto, 1899. Schooling, William. Hudson's bay company, 1670-1920. London, 1920. 3. Newell, Aaron. North west and Hudson's bay companies. WHQ, v. 15, 1924, p. 199. The amalgamation. 4. Simpson, George. Narrative of a journey round the world . . . London, 1847. Elliott, T. C. Sir George Simpson's place in the history of the " Old Oregon " country. WHQ, v. 20, 1929, p. 33. Sage, W. N. and Elliott, T. C. Governor George Simpson at Astoria in 1824. OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p. 106. 5. McDonald, Archibald. Peace river; a canoe voyage from the Hudson's bay to the Pacific . . . Ottawa, 1872. p. 24. 6. Holman, F. V. Dr. John McLoughlin, the father of Oregon. Cleveland, 1907. The standard biography. Dye, Mrs. Eva E. McLoughlin and old Oregon, a chronicle. Chicago, 1900. Romantic picture of the times, written with imagination. Watt, Joseph. Recollections of Dr. John McLoughlin. OPAT for 1886, p. 24. Anon. Dr. John McLoughUn. Idem, p. 41. Minto, John. What I know of Dr. John McLoughlin . . . OHQ, v. 11, p. 177. 7. Ross, Alexander. Fur traders of the far West. London, 1855. v. 2, pp. 54-59. According to Ross, the belligerent McDonald took sanguinary toll of the hostile Indians, and only seven of the seventy-five Piegans escaped. 8. Chittenden, H. M. American fur trade in the far West. New York, 1902. v. 1, chs. 17-18. 9. Irving, Washington. Rocky mountains, or scenes, incidents and adventures in the far West; digested from the journal of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville . . . Philadelphia, 1837. Printed in London in the same year under title Adventures of Captain Bonneville. Repr. in New York under the new title in 1849. Chittenden, H. M., op. cit., ch. 24. Condensed from Irving, with information from sources not available to him. Includes correction (p. 432) of Bancroft's prejudiced estimate of Bonneville. Irving's Astoria has an appendix containing extracts from a Bonneville MS on the Indians. 10. Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun was a clerk at Stuart lake in 1825; he took charge of Fort Walla Walla about 1832 and was there until his death in 1840. 11. Elliott, T. C. Northern boundary of Oregon. OHQ, v. 20, 1919, p. 25. Letter 358 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST of Governor J. H. Pelly of the Hudson's Bay Company to George Canning, Secretary of the Foreign Office, regarding the location of Fort Vancouver. 12. Elliott, T. C. John McLoughlin and his guests. WHQ, v. 3, 1908-1912, p. 63. Account of visitors at Fort Vancouver, from 1824 to 1845, and the treatment they 13. Clark, R. C, op. cit., ch. 8 and appendix 20. Details of the commercial operations and profits of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon. 14. Brown, W. C. Old Fort Okanogan and the Okanogan trail. OHQ, v. 15, p. 1. 15. The first name was selected on account of the instructions of the North West Company to McKenzie, to build among the Nez Perces, but the spot where he expected to build was among the Walla Wallas and Cayuses. The later name for the fort was more appropriate. The town-site of Wallula was laid out at this place in 1862. Old Fort Walla Walla was abandoned at the time of the Indian uprising in 1855, and the name was transferred to the new fort built by Colonel George Wrigbt in November, 1856, about twenty-eight miles distant, where the city of Walla Walla was incorporated less than six years later. 16. Lewis, W. S. Information concerning the establishment of Fort Colville. WHQ, v. 16, 1925, p. 102. The post was named for a Governor of the Company in London, Andrew Colvile, and this spelling of the name was sometimes 17. Elliott, T. C, ed. Journal of John Work, November and December, 1824. WHQ, v. 3, 1908-1912, p. 198. Journal . . . June-October, 1825. Idem, v. 5, 1914, pp. 83, 164, 258. Journal . . . July ^-September 15, 1826. Idem, v. 6, 1915, p. 26. Lewis, W. S. and Meyers, J. A., eds. Journal of a trip from Fort Colvile to Fort Vancouver and return in 1S28. Idem, v. 11, 1920, p. 104. Elliott, T. C, ed. Journal . . . covering Snake country expedition of 1830-1831. OHQ, v. 13, 1912, p. 363; v. 14, 1913, p. 280. Scott, L. M., ed. fohn Work's journey from Fort Vancouver to Umpqua river and return in 1834. Idem, v. 24, 1923, p. 239. Lewis, W. S. and Phillips, P. C. fournal of fohn Work ■ ■ ■ during his expedition from Vancouver to the Flatheads and Blackfeet . . . (1831-1832). Cleveland, 1923. Work's later exploits included a trading voyage up the Coast, on which he encountered Russian opposition and American competition. He became Chief Factor at Fort Simpson, and he was a member of the legislative council of Vancouver island from its organization in 1857 until his death in 1861, at the age of seventy. He was a kindly Irishman who won the confidence of his associates by his integrity and their admiration by his courage and endurance. 18. Royal horticultural society. Journal kept by David Douglas during his travels in North America, 1823-1827 . . . London, 1914. pp. 165-173. Hemenway, A. F. Botanists of the Oregon country. OHQ, v. 5, 1904, p. 207. Young, F. G. Literary remains of David Douglas . . . Idem, p. 215. Hooker, W. I. Brief memoir of the life of Mr. David Douglas. Idem, p. 223. Repr. from Companion to the botanical magazine, v. 2. London, 1836. Douglas, David. Sketch of a journey . . . Idem, pp. 230, 325. Continuation of the reprint, — extracts from the journal and from 19. This is one of many instances where in :t spelling has become established. NOTES 359 The man's name was Pion, as shown by the Company's records and Simpson's Narrative. 20. Oliphant, J. O. Old Fort Colville. WHQ, v. 16, 1925, pp. 29, 83. Contains extracts from many of these accounts, statements of the Company's business at the post and full references. 21. Lewis, W. S. Archibald McDonald: biography and genealogy. WHQ, v. 9, 1918, p. 93- 22. After Archibald, the family returned to the older spelling of its name. 23. Dye, Eva E. MacDonald of Oregon; a tale of two shores. Chicago, 1906. Lewis, W. S. and Murakami, Naojiro, eds. Ranald MacDonald . . . Spokane, 1923. Mrs. Dye had access to a copy of MacDonald's Narrative in the Provincial Library, Victoria. Lewis edited MacDonald's own copy, which was deposited in the Spokane Public Library, niter lus dentil. Proi. Murakami u-iiiied \!acl )nnnld's statements by records in Japan and supplemented Lewis's notes. 24. Howay, F. W., Lewis, W. S. and Meyers, J. A., eds. Angus MacDonald . . . WHQ, v. 8, 1917, p. 188. Valuable reminiscences, from a MS. Lewis, W. S. and Meyers, J. A. Life at old Fort Colville. Idem, v. 16, 1925, p. 198. Lurid account of murders, lynching, etc., from a MS. Williams, Christina. Daughter of Angus MacDonald. Idem, v. 13, 1922, p. 107. Recollections of life at the posts and journeys 36o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST VIII i. Lewis, W. S. Case of Spokane Garry. Spokane historical society. Bulletin, v. i, no. i, 1917. Full bibliography. 2. Clark was not a Catholic. He was a charter member of two Masonic lodges and helped organize Christ Church (Protestant Episcopal) in St. Louis. 3. Bishop Rosati of St. Louis reported the incident, and it was recorded, in 1832, in the Annates de la societe pour la propagation de la foi, published at Lyons, France. The burial register of the cathedral at St. Louis gives the baptismal names of the Indians as Narcisse and Paul. 4. Cadin, George. Letters and notes ... v. 2, no. 48. Plates 207 and 208 are portraits which Catlin painted of the two survivors. He gives their Indian names. 5. Lee, Daniel. Ten years in Oregon. New York, 1844. p. no. Lee refers to " a high-wrought account of the visit of these Indians to St. Louis," in the Christian advocate and journal, New York, March, 1833. 6. Marshall, W. I. Acquisition of Oregon. Seattle, 1911. v. 2, p. 10. 7. Johnson, C. T. Evolution of a lament. WHQ, v. 2, 1907-1908, pp. 195-208. 8. Lee sent this memorial, with a letter incorporating his own recommendations, to Caleb Cushing, and the latter included them in a lengthy report introduced in the House, in 1839. The report also included a legal argument in favor of the boundary at 540 40', offset, however, by a map showing the boundary at the 49th parallel, in accord with Henry Clay's ultimatum of 1826. There was also a reprint of W. A. Slacum's report, first published in 1837, memoirs by Nathaniel Wyeth and Hall J. Kelley, the constitution of the Oregon Provisional Emigration Society and estimates on the cost of making a show of armed force in Oregon, transmitted by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy. So great was the interest in Oregon that ten thousand extra copies of this report were printed. Brosnan, N. J. Jason Lee's part in the founding of the commonwealth of Oregon. Northwest Science, v. 4, 1930, p. 66. Much new material. 9. For references on the rumor that Lee secured a government subsidy, from the secret service fund, see Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1922. v. 1, P- 339- 10. This was not the first indication of the American Board's interest in Oregon. The Hawaiian mission was established in 1820, and in 1829 the Board sent the Rev. Jonathan S. Green from Oahu to view the Northwest Coast. He saw no hope for the northern Indians, but recommended effort in the vicinity of the Columbia. Blue, G. W. Green's missionary report on Oregon. OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p. 259. n. Parker, Samuel, fournal of an exploring tour beyond the Rocky mountains . . . Ithaca, 1838. 12. Dodge, G. M. Biographical sketch of fames Bridger. New York, 1905. Alter, J. C. James Bridger . . . Salt Lake City, 1925. Hebard, Grace R. James Bridger. Frontier, v. 9, pp. 145-148. Character witnesses for Bridger in connection with the portrait of him given in "The Covered Wagon" (motion picture). 13. Whitman, Marcus. Journal and report . . . OHQ, v. 28, 1927, p. 239. NOTES 361 14. Whitman, Narcissa P. Journal. OPAT for 1891, pp. 40-68. 15. Marshall, W. I., op. cit., v. 2, p. 247. 16. Eells, Myron. Father Eells. Boston and Chicago, 1894. Fullest account of the northern mission. 17. Ballou, H. M. History of the Oregon mission press. OHQ, v. 23, 1922, pp. 39, 95. Reproduces sixteen pages of the first books printed. Hall's visit to Oregon in 1839. The Friend. Honolulu, May, 1923. Repr. in WHQ, v. 14, 1923, p. 291. The press was moved to The Dalles, and the Rev. J. S. Griffin took it to Tualatin Plains, near Hillsboro, Oregon, two years later, where he printed, irregularly for a year, The Oregon, American and Evangelical Unionist. He gave the press to the Oregon Pioneer Society in 1872. It is now in the rooms of the Oregon Historical Society, in Pordand. 18. OPAT for 1891, p. 129. 19. Walker, Elkanah. Diary. MS. Original in Huntington Library; copies in University of Washington and Spokane Public Library. Describing the annual meeting of the mission, June 11, 1841, Walker wrote: "I was compelled to leave. It is enough to make one sick to see the state of things in this mission." Of the next annual meeting, May 3, 1842, he wrote: "Had a hard session today, and there was so much bad feeling manifested that I said that I thought it was an abomination for us to meet to pray." An entry for the following day reads: " Mr. Eells and I took a long ride in the rain and felt that all hope was gone." 20. Scott, L. M. John Fiske's change of attitude on the Whitman legend. OHQ, v. 12, 1911, p. 160. Gives both versions of Fiske's address. Fiske, John. Unpublished orations. Boston, 1909. Schafer, Joseph. History of the Pacific Northwest. New York, 1918. p. 185. Meany, E. S. History of the State of Washington. New York, 1924. p. 127. 21. For interesting accounts of the journey and first impressions of the Indians, given in letters from both priests, see Blanchet, F. N. Historical sketches of the Catholic church in Oregon . . . Portland, 1878. The principal source for the history of the Canadian missions to the Columbia is Notices (et rapports) sur les missions du diocese de Quebec. Montreal, 1839-1874. 21 v. In this collection, over seven hundred pages are devoted to the Columbia and Vancouver missions. The best history for the general reader is O'Hara, E. V. Catholic history of Oregon. Portland, 1916. This work includes the Jesuit missions and recent history. 22. Copies of the ladder are rare. A print from wood blocks on a sheet a yard long and about seven inches wide was included with the Rapport sur les missions du diocese de Quebec for June, 1843. The volume is rare, and the print is often missing. A later, engraved print of the ladder appeared in De Smet's Letters and sketches . . . Philadelphia, 1843. 23. Chittenden, H. M. and Richardson, A. T. Life, letters and travels of Father Pierre-fean De Smet, S. f. New York, 1905. 4 v. Biography of 146 p. and 1,450 p. of the letters. Laveille, E. Life of Father De Smet, S. f. New York, 1915. A more extended biography, by a Jesuit, translated from the French. Chittenden gives a partial bibliography of De Smet's own publications, which were numerous and were printed in English, French, Flemish, Dutch, German and Italian. De Smet wrote his letters 362 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST in French and translated them for the English editions, often rewriting them. Letters i to several persons on the same subject sometimes differ gready, because the writer took careful account of the interests of his friends. 24. Smet, P. J. de. New Indian sketches. New York, 1863. Story of his service I as an army Chaplain. 25. Palladino, L. B. Indian and white in the Northwest. Lancaster (Pa.), 1922, 2nd ed. Additional material on the missions in western Montana. 26. Hulbert, A. B. Undeveloped factors in the life of Marcus Whitman, in Trans-Mississippi West. University of Colorado, 1930, pp. 87-102. Records of the American Board are cited to show that the order to abolish the Waiilatpu mission in 1842 was a part of the Board's world-wide retrenchment to meet an increasing deficit. The Board, however, decided to rescind the order, but their letter conveying this news reached Oregon after Whitman had left for the States. i. Delaney, Matilda J. Sager. Whitman massacre. Spokane, 1920. Reminiscences of Matilda Sager, who was four years old at this time and eight at the time of the 2. Warren, Eliza Spalding. Memoirs of the West. Portland, 1916. Contains her recollections, with Mrs. Spalding's diary and some of Spalding's later controversial interpretations of the events. The Delaney and Warren items are untrustworthy as to names, dates and sequence of events. The authors were children at the time of the massacre, and to natural faults of memory they add repetition of rumors which they heard at the time and things which they were told when they grew up. 3. This happened at Tshimakain as well as at the southern stations, as shown by entries in Walker's diary for February 12 and 13, 1841. 4. These letters, recovered from the files of the American Board and published for the first time by William I. Marshall in his Acquisition of Oregon, in 1911, reveal the desperate situation which existed long before the massacre, and are in sharp contrast with Spalding's later statements. 5. Cannon, Miles. Waiilatpu, its rise and fall. Boise, 1915. pp. 103-106. Explanation of the confusion of Tamsuky with Tamahas in some of the narratives. 6. Kane, Paul. Wanderings of an artist among the Indians of North America. London, 1859. 7. Clarke, S. A. Pioneer days in Oregon history. Portland, 1905. 8. Marshall, W. I, op. cit., v. 2, p. 233. Letter of William McBean to the Walla Walla Statesman, dated March 12, 1866. 9. Cannon, Miles, op. ch., p. 119. 10. Stanley, who arrived at the fort a few hours after Osborne, had spent several weeks with Walker and Eells and was on his way to visit the Whitmans. He had come within two miles of the mission when an Indian woman warned him of the massacre. He sent the news to Walker and Eells from the fort, on the day of his arrival. His statements corroborate the reports of McBean and exonerate the latter from the later charges of Spalding and Osborne that McBean denied hospitality to the refugees, —an act inconsistent with the policy of the Hudson's Bay men. 11. Brouillet, J. A. B. Authentic account of the murder of Dr. Whitman . . . Portland, 1869. 12. Told by Mrs. Catherine Sager Pringle, an eye-witness of the first incident, in Clarke's Pioneer days, and by Miss Bewley, in her deposition of December 12, 1848. 13 Ogden was the son of a Chief Justice of Canada. He studied law, but gave it up on account of voice trouble. He was employed for a time in Astor's New York office and then went to the Coast to work for the North West Company. He remained with the Hudson's Bay Company after the amalgamation and became Chief Trader and Factor. 14 Several versions of Ogden's speech were reported. The Oregon Spectator printed it a month afterwards (Bancroft, H. H. History of Oregon, v. 1, p. 693), and Eells quoted it in a letter of January 28, 1848 (Marshall, W. I, op. at., v. 2, 364 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST p. 222). Brouillet, who was at the council, gives it in his Authentic account. Brouillet alone quotes Ogden as urging the Indians to li the priests. It is very likely that Ogden did so urge them, as he summoned Blanchet to the council and had him address the Indians. Bancroft makes in this connection which is not justified. 15. OPAT for 1896, p. 128. 16. Rapport sur les missions du diocese de Quebec, no. 8, 1849, PP- 27~32- 17. Young, F. G. Finances of the Cayuse war. OHQ, v. 7, 1906, pp. 418-432. 18. 31st Cong. 2nd Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. 1, pp. 126-240 (36 pi.) March of the regiment of mounted riflemen. After the Mexican war, this regiment was sent to Fort Leavenworth and was recruited to full strength. It started for Oregon on May 10, 1849. Posts were established at Fort Laramie and Fort Hall, with two companies at each place. A supply train from Oregon, with a herd of cattle, failed to meet the regiment, and the men arrived at The Dalles exhausted, many of them without shoes and with their clothing in shreds. Some were drowned in the rapids, and a part of the command, which took the road at the base of Mount Hood, lost two-thirds of their horses. The troops reached Oregon City with a loss of forty-six wagons, over three hundred horses and mules and seventy men, including deserters. 19. The messenger did not tell Hinman of the massacre until they were well down the river, and Hinman felt that he should have been warned. He would have remained at his post, to help guard it against a possible attack. Spalding and others have made much of this incident, and in Spalding's lectures it was highly elaborated. McBean afterwards stated that he ordered his messenger not to tell the news until he reached Vancouver, because he did not wish to excite the river Indians sooner than was necessary. 20. Gilliam had been Sheriff of Clay county, Missoi legislature. He served in the Black Hawk and Seminole ^ the State troops employed in the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri and received a colonelcy for meritorious conduct. He led a large company of emigrants to Oregon in 1844, settled in Polk county, organized a Freewill Baptist church and member of the .46-151. acted a; 21. Victor, Frances F. Early Indian wars of Oregon. Salem, 1894. j Applegate's account of the expedition. 22. Victor, Frances F. River of the West. Hartford, 1870. Largely a biography of Meek, who related his experiences to Mrs. Victor. Hewitt, Rosetta W. foseph L. Meek- WHQ, v. 20, 1929, p. 196. Ebbert, G. W. Autobiographical sketch. OHQ, v. 19, 1918, pp. 263-267. Account of the eastern journey. Ebbert was a member of the party and a mountain man. 23. Gray, W. H. History of Oregon, 1742-1849. Portland, 1870, pp. 542-547. Full text of this memorial, with Gray's partisan commentary. 24. The Huntington Library has a MS journal apparently kept by Major Lee, in which it is stated that the old Indian met Gilliam before he reached the village and delayed him by an interview while Tilaukait drove his stock to the river. The journal also says that five Spokanes came in and gave notice that their tribesmen were on the banks of the Snake and were ready to fight. When reassured regarding NOTES 365 of the troops, they said their people would be out of the way. The journal says that Stickas warned Gilliam that Palouse Indians were camped with Tilaukait. 25. Lee was a Virginian, a descendant of Richard Lee, founder of the Old Dominion family. He had been trained for the ministry, but lost faith in some of the tenets of the church. He came to Oregon in 1843 and spent his first winter at Waiilatpu. After the Cayuse war, he was successful in the California gold mines. He became a merchant at Oregon City and died a few years later while on a voyage to New York. 26. Fuller, G. W. Inland Empire. Spokane, 1928. v. 2, ch. 26. Return of the pioneer missionaries. The return, many years later, of Eells and Spalding to the field of their early labors is an interesting sequel to the story of the Whitman mission. Spalding found his usual difficulties with the government and his associates. Eells founded Whitman College and from 1874 to 1888 rode circuits on his sorrel horse, Le Blond, born in 1869, which carried its master three times across the Cascades. On February 12, 1893, Eells was seized with a fatal illness while feeding his old 27. Victor, Frances F. Early Indian wars of Oregon. Salem, 1894. pp. 242-245. 28. Ross, Walter. Journal of Fort Nisqually. In Evans, Elwood. History of the Pacific Northwest, v. 1, p. 306. 29. Curtis, E. S. North American Indian. New York, 1907-. v. 8, p. 82. A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST i. OHQ, v. i, 1900, 18, pp. 89,189, 1. About 1820, Russia had a trading settlement at Bodega bay, California. 2. See Chapter III. 3. Bell, J. C. Opening a highway to the Pacific, 1838-1846. New York, 1921. p. 30. 4. Ambler, C. H. Life and diary of John Floyd . . . Richmond, 1918. Blue, Verne. Oregon question, 1818-1828. OHQ, v. 23, 1922, p. 193. A study of Floyd's efforts in Congress in behalf of Oregon. Floyd, John. Reports of . . . OHQ, v. 8, 1907, pp. 51, 290. 5. See Chapter III. 6. Benton, T. H. Thirty years view. New York, 1897. 7. Some general references: Wilson, J. R. Oregon questi pp. in, 213. Shippee, L. B. Federal relations of Oregon. Idem, 283; v. 20, 1919, pp. 35, 173. Schafer, Joseph. Oregon pioneers and American diplomacy. New York, 1910. Repr. from Ford, G. S., ed. Essays in American history. ■■ New York, 1910. Schafer, Joseph. British attitude towards the Oregon question. . American historical review, v. 16, p. 273. Fenton, W. D. Winning of the Oregon country. OHQ, v. 6, 1905, p. 343. Meany, E. S. Three diplomats prominent in the Oregon question. WHQ, v. 5, 1914, p. 207. Bourne, E. G. Aspects of Oregon before 1840. OHQ, v. 6, p. 255. Paullin, C. O. Early choice of the forty-ninth parallel as a boundary line. Canadian historical review, v. 4, p. 127. Twiss, Travers. Oregon question examined in respect to facts and the law of nations. London, 1846. Morris, B. W. News of the treaty of 1846: how it reached Oregon. OPAT for 1896, p. 59. 8. Rush, Richard. Memoranda of a residence at the Court of London. Philadelphia and London, various editions, 1833-1845. 9. 21st Cong. 1st Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. 39, 1831, v. 1. 10. Bonneville's exploits are related in Chapter VII, and Slacum's visit to Oregon is described in Chapter XI. 11. Linn, E. A. and Sargent, N. Life and public services of Dr New York, 1857. 12. 26th Cong. 1st Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. 174, 1840. Greenhow enlarged and revised the work in 1845, and a second edition was published in Boston and Londi Some important material was omitted. See Marshall, W. I. Acquisition of Oregon. Seattle, 1911. v. 1, p. 209. 13. Johnson, C. T. Daniel Webster, Lord Ashburton and old Oregon. WHQ, v. 1, 1906-1907, p. 209. Daniel Webster and old Oregon. Idem, v. 2, 1907-1908, p. 6. Did Daniel Webster ever say this? Idem, v. 4, 1913, p. 191. 14. Documents pertaining to the Oregon question. OHQ, v. 9, 191 Minutes of several 1844 meetings. Howe, D. W. Mississippi valley in the for Fifty-four forty or fight. Mississippi valley historical association. Proceedings v. 5, p. 99. 15. Merk, Frederick. Oregon pioneers and the boundary. American historical L NOTES 367 16. Clark, R. C. British and American tariff policies and the Oregon boundary treaty. American historical association. Pacific Coast branch. Proceedings, 1926. History of the [i , Oregon. Chicago, 1927. ch. n. 17. Commager, Henry. England and Oregon treaty of 1846. OHQ, v. 28, 1927, p. 19. 18. 42nd Cong. 3rd Sess. House Ex. Doc. 1, pts. 1-2. Papers relating to the treaty of Washington, v. 5. Berlin arbitration. Northwest boundary . . . History of the military occupation of San Juan island. Washington, 1868. Milton, W. W. F. History of the San Juan water boundary question. London, 1869. Fish, Andrew. Last phase of the Oregon boundary question. OHQ, v. 22, 1921, p. 161. McKay, Charles. History of San Juan island. WHQ, v. 2, 1907-1908, p. 290. Documents pertaining to the American occupation of San Juan island. Idem, v. 1, p. 74; v. 2, P-352- 19. It is claimed that Pickett, together with General Harney, Governor Stevens and other Democratic federal officers on the Coast, saw a chance of averting the threatened civil war in America; if trouble with Great Britain were to start, the North and the South might be held together. See Pickett, La S. C. Pickett and his men. Atlanta, 1900. Appendix contains statement by General George B. McClellan to this effect. I A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST General: Hasse, Adelaide R. Reports of explorations. Washington, 1899. Wagner, H. R. Plains and the Rockies. Bibliography of original narratives of travel and adventure. 1800-1865. San Francisco, 1921. The notes contain a wealth of inforrr 1. Victor, Frances F. Hall ]. Kelley. OHQ, v. 2, 1901, p. 381. Chittenden, H. M. American fur trade in the far West. New York, 1902. v. 1, pp. 434-439. Powell, F. W. Hall J. Kelley, prophet of Oregon. Portland, 1917. Repr. from OHQ, v. 8,1907. Bibliography of Hall J. Kelley. Idem, v. 8, p. 375. Kelley's principal writings are: Geographical sketch of that part of North America called Oregon. Boston, 1831. Repr. in the Magazine of history, Extra no. 67, 1919. General circular to all persons of good character . . . Charlestown, 1831. Narrative of events and difficulties in the colonization of Oregon . . . with an account of the troubles and tribulations endured . . . by the writer. Boston, 1852. History of the settlement of Oregon . . . and of the persecutions and afflictions of forty years continuance endured by the author. Springfield (Mass.), 1868. 2. Young, F. G., ed. Correspondence and journals of Nathaniel J. Wyeth. 1831-6. Sources of the history of Oregon, v. 1. Eugene, 1899. Chittenden, H. M., op. ch., v. 1, ch. 25. Ball, John. Autobiography . . . Grand Rapids, 1925. Remarks upon the geology and physical features of the country west of the Rocky mountains, with miscellaneous facts. American journal of science and arts, v. 28, no. 1, Apr. 1835. Ball was in Wyeth's expedition and taught the first school in the Pacific Northwest, at Fort Vancouver, in 1833. Townsend, J. K. Narrative of a journey across the Rocky mountains to the Columbia river. Philadelphia, 1839. Repr. in Thwaites, R. G. Early western travels, v. 21, p. 107. Townsend was in Wyeth's 1834 3. Farnham, T. J. Travels in the great western prairies . . . Poughkeepsie, 1841. Repr. in Thwaites, R. G., op. cit., vs. 28, 29. History of the Oregon territory . . . New York, 1844. Shortess, Robert. Peoria party. OPAT for 1896, p. 92. 4. Fremont, J. C. Report of the exploring expedition to the Roc\y mountains in 1 the year 1842 . . . Washington, 1845. Later published in many editions, under the titles: Narrative of the exploring expedition to the Rocky » Oregon and California . . . , Exploring expedition to the Rocky " Life of Fremont and his narrative of explorations . . . Memoir by S. M. Smucker. Memoirs of my life. Including in the narrative five journeys of western exploration, v. 1. Chicago, 1887. Only one volume w; and forty-nine. New York, 1914. Nevins venturer. New York, 1928. 5. Memorial of William A. Slacum. 25th Cong. 2nd Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. 24, 1837. Repr. in the OHQ, v. 13, 1912, p. 175. Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1922. v. 1, pp. 318-322. Walker, C. M. Sketch of Ewing Young. OPAT for 1880, p. 56. 6. Bell, J. C. Opening a highway to the Pacific. New York, 1921. chs. 5, 6. is published. Dellenbaugh, F. S. Fremont Allan. Fremont, the West's greatest ad- NOTES 369 Marshall, W. I. Acquisition of Oregon. Seatde, 1911. v. 1, ch. 5. Schafer, Joseph. Notes on the colonization of Oregon. OHQ, v. 6, 1905, p. 379. 7. Dale, H. C. Organization of the Oregon emigrating societies. OHQ, v. 16, 1915, p. 205. Prairie and mountain life — the Oregon emigrants. New Orleans Picayune, Nov. 21, 1843. Repr. in the OHQ, v. 1, 1900, p. 388. 8. Young, F. G. Oregon trail. OHQ, v. i, 1900, p. 339. (Illus. and map). Chittenden, H. M., op. cit., v. 1, ch. 26. Hulbert, A. B. American transcontinental trails. Crown collection of American maps. Series 4. Colorado Springs, 1925-1928. 9. Bell, J. C, op. cit., ch. 7. Meeker, Ezra. Ox team; or, the old Oregon trail, 1852-1906. Palmer, Joel. Journal of travels over the Rocky mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river . . . Cincinnati, 1847. Repr. in Thwaites, R. G., op. cit., v. 30. Gives description of outfits for emigrants and tables of distances. It was used as a guide-book. Thwaites says it is the best account of the Trail. Marcy, R. B. Prairie traveler; a hand-book for overland expeditions. . . . New York, 1859. Elliott, T. C. Earliest travelers on the Oregon trail. OHQ, v. 13, 1912, p. 71. Parkman, Francis. California and Oregon trail. New York, 1849. Dorris, J. T. Oregon trail. Springfield (III), 1918. Dawson, Charles. Pioneer tales of the Oregon trail. Topeka, 1912. Burnett, P. H. Recollections and opinions of an old pioneer. New York, 1880. Repr. in the OHQ, v. 4, 1903, p. 64. Applegate, Jesse. Day with the cow column in 1843. OPAT for 1876, p. 57. Repr. in OHQ, v. 1, 1900, p. 371. Recollections of my boyhood. Roseburg (Ore.), 1914. Nesmith, J. W. Diary of . . . while with the migration of 1843. OHQ, v. 7, 1906, p. 329. Lenox, E. H. Overland to Oregon . . . Oakland, 1904. Ghent, W. J. Road to Oregon . . . New York, 1929. Dickson, A. J. Covered wagon days. Cleveland, 1929. Hebard, Grace R. Washakie. An account of Indian resistance of the covered wagon . . . Cleveland, 1930. Rucker, Maude A. Oregon trail and some of its blazers. New York, 1930. Old Oregon trail. 68th Cong. 2nd Sess. Hearings before the Committee on roads on House J. Res. 232 and 238 and Senate Res. 2053. 1925. Contains important references and bibliographical notes. Fox, Florence C. Notes on the Oregon trail. U. S. dept. of the interior. Office of education. Bulletin, 1930, no. 27. Consecutive accounts of the emigrations will be found in the Occasional addresses by survivors, delivered at the annual meetings of the Oregon Pioneer Association, commencing with the OPAT for 1875. 10. Chittenden, H. M. and Richardson, A. T. Life, letters and travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J. New York, 1905. v. 2, pp. 671-673. 11. OHQ, v. 1, 1900, p. 370. 12. Hancock, Samuel. Narrative of . . . New York, 1927. pp. 26-37. Hancock was in Meek's party. Bancroft had access to his MS, but this is the first printed edition. Palmer, Joel, op. cit., Thwaites reprint, v. 30, pp. 100-101, 121-125. Bancroft, H. H. History of Oregon. San Francisco, 1886. v. 1, pp. 511-516. Staata, Stephen. Occasional address. OPAT for 1877, pp. 50-53. 13. Palmer, Joel, op. cit., pp. 125-157. Bancroft, H. H, op. cit., pp. 517-522. 14. Wilkes, Charles. Narrative of the United States exploring expedition . . . Philadelphia, 1845. v. 4, chs. 11-13; appendix 12. Meany, E. S., ed. Diary of Wilkes in the Northwest. Repr. from the WHQ. Seattle, 1926. Prof. Meany tells the odd story of the inception of the enterprise and contributes valuable notes. From this 37o A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST diary Wilkes prepared his report. In his original entries, he indulged in frank criticisms of the missionaries and settlers. He toned down or omitted these comments in his Narrative. Barry, J. N. Pickering's journey to Fort Colville in 1841. WHQ, v. 20, 1929, p. 54. 15. Prosch, T. W. Military roads of Washington Territory. WHQ, v. 2, 1907- , l,p. 118. 16. Brosnan, C. J. History of the State of Idaho. New York, 1918. pp. 80-83. McConnell, W. J. Early history of Idaho. Caldwell (Ida.), 1913. ch. 3. 17. Bagley, C. B. Mercer immigration. Two cargoes of maidens for the sound country. OHQ, v. 5, 1904, p. 1. Engle, Flora A. P. Story of the Mercer expeditions. WHQ, v. 6, p. 225. Written by one of the Mercer girls. 1 I. Gray, W. H. History of Oregon, 1792-1849. Portland, ^70. Hines, Gustavus. Wild life in Oregon. New York, 1881. ch. 21. Allen, Miss A. J. Ten years in Oregon. Travels and adventures of Doctor E. White and lady . . . Ithaca, 1848. chs. 18, 28. Curry, G. L. First annual address. OPAT for 1875, P- 66. Kelley, James. Annual address. Idem for 1882, p. 7. Geer, T. T. Fifty years in Oregon . . . New York, 1912. chs. 21-26. Clarke, S. A. Pioneer days of Oregon history. Cleveland, 1905. lis. 60, 62-63. I 2. Lyman, H. S. Reminiscences of F. X. Matthieu. OHQ, v. 1, 1900, p. 73. 3. Russell, Thomas. Truth and fiction of the Champoeg meeting. OHQ, v. 30, '1929, p. 218. The size of the affirmative majority is a matter of controversy. Six or more French votes were cast in favor of organizing. I 4. Grover, L. F., ed. Oregon archives. Salem, 1853. Records of the Provisional Government. Deady, M. P. and Lane, L. General laws of Oregon, 1843-1872. Salem, 6872. Brown, J. H. Brown's political history of Oregon, v. 1 (all pub.). Portland, 1892. Strong, Frank and Schafer, Joseph. Government of the American people. Oregon ed. Boston, 1901. pp. 245-307. Thornton, J. Q. History of the Provisional Government of Oregon. OPAT for 1874, p. 43. Robertson, J. R. Genesis of political authority ,and of a commonwealth government in Oregon. OHQ, v. 1, 1900, p. 3. Scott, H. W. Formation and administration of the Provisional Government of Oregon. Idem, B.2,1901, p. 95. Geer, T. T. Incidents in the organization of the Provisional Government. Idem, v. 2, p. 366. Young, F. G. Finances of the Provisional Government. Idem, v. 7, 1906, p. 360. Bradley, Marie M. Political beginnings in Oregon. Idem, B. 9, 1908, p. 42. Woodward, W. C. Rise and early history of political parties in Oregon, 1843-1868. Portland, 1913. pt. 1. Period of the Provisional Government. Repr. from OHQ, v. 11,1910, p. 317. Scott, L. M. Oregon's Provisional Government. ,OHQ, v. 30, 1929, p. 207. 5. Clark, R. C. How British and American subjects unite in a common government for Oregon Territory in 1844. OHQ, v. 13, 1912, p. 140. Last step in the formation of a Provisional Government for Oregon in 1845. Idem, v. 16, 1915, P-3M- > 6. This article was omitted from the English translations of the address. The contemporary translations, which historians seem to have followed without consulting the French text, are all defective. The original address, in French, is in the office 1 of the Secretary of State, at Salem. No minutes have been preserved of the meeting in 1844 at which the Canadians presented their address. Some one endorsed the date of March 4, 1843, on the back of an English translation which accompanied the I original, and this date passed without question until the researches of Robert C. Clark disclosed the facts, in 1912. I 7. Walker, C. M. Sketch of Ewing Young. OPAT for 1880, p. 56. Young, F. G. tEwing Young and his estate. OHQ, v. 21, 1920, p. 171. 8. Condon, J. T. Oregon laws of 1845. WHQ, v. 12, 1921, p. 279. 9. Clarke, S. A., op. cit., v. 2, ch. 61. Gilbert, J. H. Trade and currency in early I 372 . HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Oregon . . . New York, 1907. Strevey, T. E. Oregon mint. WHQ, v. I5) r D „6 Underhill, W. M. Oregon s provisional post office. Idem, v. 15, p. 266- 10. Thornton, J. Q. Historical letter. OPAT for 1882, p. 40. Account of his own work in behalf of the Oregon bill. 11. Scott, H. W. History of the Oregon country. Cambridge, 1924. v. 5, p. ^ 12' Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1922. v. 1, p. 646. Nesmith, J. W Funeral oration at the tomb of General Lane. OPAT for 1882, p. 81. i3 Holman, F. V. Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon. Cleveland, iq07 14! Prosch, T. W. Political beginning of Washington Territory. OHQ, v. 6, i9S p. 147. Meany, E. S. Cowlitz convention . . . WHQ, v. 13, 1922, p. 3. ' 15. Stevens, Hazard. Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens. Boston, 1900. v. 1, chs. i5_25. Smalley, E. V. History of the Northern Pacific railroad. New York, 1883. ch. 9. 16. The old buildings of Spokane House had long since disappeared, as George Gibbs, the ethnologist, who was with Stevens, notes in his Report. See Spokane House in the Index for further references. 17. As the various exploring parties which Stevens left in the interior arrived at Olympia, their leaders set to work compiling reports. Nearly all the meteorological observations, which were very full, were lost by the express company. Lieutenant Donelson was sent back by the War Department from Washington to San Francisco, to search for them, but they were never recovered. Stevens' preliminary compilation of the other reports was submitted in 1854 and appears in Volume I of the Pacific Railroad Reports. It served as a basis for the subsequent Northern Pacific project. Indian wars delayed Stevens' revision, and the Final Report was not submitted until 1859. This document fills two large quartos, as Parts I and II of Volume XII of the Pacific Railroad Reports and contains large maps and many colored lithographs and woodcuts. It includes the narrative of the 1855 treaty-making expedition. Most of Part I was dictated by Stevens, an hour or two each day before breakfast, while he was in Washington city as Delegate from the Territory. See Russell, Pearl. Analysis of the Pacific railroad reports. WHQ, v. 10, 1919, p. 3. 18. Gray, Mary A. Settlement of the claims in Washington of the Hudson's bay company. WHQ, v. 21, 1930, p. 95. 19. Meany, E. S. History of the State of Washington. New York, 1924. p, 107. XIII 1. Victor, Frances F. Early Indian wars of Oregon. Salem, 1894. pp. 267-420. Rogue river wars. Evans, Elwood. History of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, 1889. v. 1, chs. 41-48. Beeson, J. Facts and figures of the late Indian war in Oregon. One of the books which led eastern people to believe that the settlers were responsible for the Indian troubles and that the Indians should be handled by peace commissions. Beeson found that he could not air his theories in the eastern press and stay in Oregon. The death of General Canby and other losses in the Modoc war were due to a try-out of these theories by the Department of the Interior. 2. Doty, James. Journal of the operations of Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens . . . in the year 1855. Archives, Indian Affairs Office. 3. Kip, Lawrence. Indian council at Walla Walla. San Francisco, 1855. Repr. in Sources of the history of Oregon, v. 1, pt. 2. Eugene, 1897. 4. Stevens, Hazard. Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens. Boston, 1900. v. 2, pp. 47-48, 60. 5. Stevens, I. I. Narrative of 1855. Pacific railroad reports, Washington, i860, v. 12, pt. 1, chs. 11-12. Story of the trip to Fort Benton and back, following the first Walla Walla council. 6. Splawn, A. J. Ka-mi-akin, the last hero of the Yakimas. Portland, 1917. Contains full account of this conference; also the story of the Yakima war. Bancroft describes the war in his History of Washington, Idaho and Montana, pp. 108-118, 139-160, 165-170, 178-200. Mrs. Victor gives a longer account in her Early Indian wars of Oregon, pp. 424-500. 7. Sheridan, P. H. Personal memoirs. New York, 1888. v. 1. 8. Hunter, George. Reminiscences of an old timer. San Francisco, 1887. p. 122. 9. Miller, C. W. Battle of Walla Walla. Walla Walla Union, Dec. 7, 1905. 10. Sebring, F. M. Indian raid on the Cascades in March, 1856. WHQ, v. 19, 1928, p. 99. 11. Sheridan, P. H., op. cit., v. 2, ch. 5. 12. Evans, Elwood, op. cit., v. 1, p. 574. 13. Evans, Elwood, op. cit., v. 1, p. 512. 14. Meany, E. S. History of the State of Washington. New York, 1924. p. 183 15. Stevens, I. I. Message of the Governor of Washington Territory . . . Olympia, Furste, 1857. Stevens, Hazard, op. cit., v. 2, ch. 40. 16. Browne, J. R. Indian war in Oregon and Washington Territories. 35th Cong. 1 st Sess. House Ex. Doc. 38, 1858. 374 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST i. Lewiston Tribune, July 18, 1916. 2. Elliott, T. C. Steptoe butte and Steptoe battle-field. WHQ, v. 18, p. 24- 3. Manring, B. F. Conquest of the Coeur d'Alenes, Spokanes and Pa Spokane, 1912. p. 144. Letters of Father Joset. 4. Splawn, A. J. Ka-mi-akin . . . Portland, 1917. pp. 87-92. Steptoe says that I Yakimas took part in the fight, and Father Joset mentions Kamiakin's influence. 5. Manring, B. F., op. cit., p. 75. 6. The principal authorities on the Wright campaign are: Mullan, John. Topo- I graphical memoir of Col. Wright's campaign. 35th Cong. 2nd Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. i 32, 1859. Kip, Lawrence. Army life on the Pacific. New York, 1859. 7. The four lakes are Silver, Meadow, Clear and Granite. 8. Mullan says it was decided to name the lake where the horses were captured Lake Grier, in honor of Major William N. Grier of the dragoons. Settlers who ca into the country after the war named the lake for a man who was living there 1871, Stephen Liberty, a native of Quebec, who was.educated for the priesthood but chose the career of a western guide and mail carrier, married an Indian woman and finally went on the Coeur d'Alene reservation. 9. Colonel Wright did not carry out his threat, and Kamiakin was never taken. Father De Smet induced him to accompany a party of chiefs, invited by General Harney to visit Vancouver in May, 1859, but at Walla Walla, according to Harney's report, "in consequence of an officious interference with the Indians on the part of Mr. T , agent for the Flatheads, Kamiakin became alarmed and returned to his people." He went to British Columbia for a year and lived two years with the Crows, east of the Rockies. Urged by his wife, who was homesick, he returned to Washington in 1861 and fenced some land at Rock lake. W. P. Winans of Colville, Indian Agent, visited him in November, 1870, and offered him six hundred blankets' due him under the Stevens treaty. Winans had the blankets with him, on four pack horses. Kamiakin said that he was poor, but too rich to accept anything from the United States. The blankets were taken back to Colville and distributed to destitut Indians. Kamiakin was crowded off his land at Rock lake by settlers and died 0 the Palouse river, about 1880 (Winans MS in Spokane Public Library). 10. Various explanations of Qualchan's betrayal are given in Splawn, op. cit p. 117, and Smith, J. E. Pioneer of the Spokane country. WHQ, v. 7, 1916, p. 272. These accounts have their source in Indian romancing and camp gossip and cs be reconciled with the verifiable incidents recited above. 11. Morgan, M. R. Recollections of the Spokane expedition. Journal of the Mili- :. OHQ, v. 22, 1921, p. 88. Map showing the territory ceded by each tr 1 i. Bancroft, H. H. History of Oregon. San Francisco, 1886. v. 2, chs. 20-21. Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1922. v. 1, ch. 36. Geary, E. R. Depredations and massacre by the Snake river Indians. 36th Cong. 2nd Sess. House Ex. Doc. 46, 1861. State of Oregon. Adjutant general's office. Report . . . for the years 1865-6. Salem, 1866. Crawford, Medoram. Journal of the expedition organized for the protection of emigrants to Oregon . . . 37th Cong. 3rd Sess. Sen. 2. Bancroft, H. H, op. cit., v. 2, ch. 22. Carey, C. H, op. ch., v. 1, pp. 675-677. Gillem, Alvan. Final report of the operations of the troops in the Modoc country. U. S. Senate. Special Sess. Mar. 5, 1877, Ex. Doc. 1. Grover, La Fayette. Modoc war; report of Governor Grover . . . and the reports from the field of Maj. Gen. John F. Miller and Gen. Jul:,: II. Ross . . . Salem, iSyp Pi.tdv, C. T. iXorthiecstcrn and fighters. New York, 1907. pt. 2, Modoc war. Narratives of several officers. Meacham, A. B. Wigwam and war-path . . . Boston, 1875. Riddle, J. C. Indian history of the Modoc war . . . n. p., n. d. (about 1914). Many contemporary photographs. See review in WHQ, v. 5, 1914, pp. 225-227. 3. Jack probably had sixty men and later added twenty from another band. Fifty survived the fighting. As usual in Indian campaigns, he had a large number of women and children with him. 4. Curtis, E. S., North American Indian, v. 8, p. 22, holds that Joseph referred to Looking Glass when he said, " He who led the young men is dead " and that Looking Glass was the real leader in all the fights except the first, while Joseph was the head, or peace, chief. This position is not supported by the facts, in the author's opinion. 5. Brady, C. T., op. cit., ch. 2, Chief Joseph's own story, repr. from the North American review, Apr. 1879; ch. 3, General Howard's comments on it. 6. Brady, C. T., op. cit., ch. 4, Lieutenant Parnell's account of the battle of White Bird canon; ch. 5, Captain Perry's account. 7. Brady, C. T., op. cit., Captain Perry's account of the Cottonwood fight. Hunter, George. Reminiscences of an old timer. San Francisco, 1887. pp. 296-380. Hunter is interesting but unreliable. Wilmot, L. P. MS commentary on Hunter's account, in Spokane Public Library. 8. Brady, C. T., op. cit., chs. 7-9. Accounts of the Clearwater fight by various 9. Shields, G. O. Battle of the Big Hole. Chicago, 1889. Woodruff, C. A. Battle of the Big Hole. Historical society of Montana. Contributions, v. 7, pp. 97-116. Buck, Amos. Review of the battle of the Big Hole. Idem, pp. 117-130. Woodruff, C. A. Letter to Amos Buck concerning the battle of the Big Hole. Idem, pp. 131-134. Hathaway, Ella C. Battle of the Big Hole . . . as told by T. C. Sherrill . . . Spokane, 1919. Phillips, P. C, ed. Battle of the Big Hole. Frontier, v. 10, 1929, pp. 63-80. Cave, Will. Nez Perce' Indian war of 1877. Missoula, n. d. 10. Hunt, G. B. Sergeant Sutherland's ride . . . Mississippi valley historical 376 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST review, v. 14, p. 40. Connolly, William. Recollections of General Howard's campaign 1 ... MS in Spokane Public Library. 11. Brady, C. T., op. cit. Account of the battle of Camas meadows by H. J. Davis. Repr. from the Journal of the Military service institution. 12. Redington, J. W. Scouting in Montana. MS in the library of the Historical I Society of Montana. 13. Miles, N. A. Personal recollections. Chicago, 1897. chs. 20-21. Romeyn, I Henry. Capture of Chief Joseph. Historical society of Montana. Contributions, v. 2, p. 283. Titus, N. C. Last stand of the Nez Perces. WHQ, v. 6, 1915, p. 145. Kelly, L. S. " Yellowstone Kelly "... New Haven, 1926. ch. n. 14. The Indian losses in the last fighting are given as 17 killed and 40 wounded. Joseph surrendered 87 men, 184 women and 147 children. Miles had 363 men his command, with a Gatling gun and a cannon. His total loss was 24 killed ai about 50 wounded. His first cavalry charge, in which 115 men took part, accounted for 53 of his casualties. 15. Howard, O. O. Nez Perce Joseph. Boston, 1881. My life and experiences among our hostile Indians. Hartford, 1907. chs. 16-21. Wood, C. E. S. Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce. Century magazine, v. 28, p. 135. Excellent account of the campaign, by an officer. 16. McBeth, Kate C. Nez Perces since Lewis and Clark- New York, 1908. p. 99. Describes the scene at Lapwai when the widows returned. 17. Weibel, G. F. Rev. Joseph M. Cataldo, S. J. Repr., with added illus., from Gonzaga quarterly, v. 16, no. 2, 1928, pp. 20-23. 18. This name, which was given him after he became a prophet, means Preacher and is more correctly spelled Shmoqula. 19. Mooney, James. Ghost dance religion . . . Smithsonian institution. Bureau of ethnology. Fourteenth annual report, 1896, chs. 6-7. Smohalla's life, doctrines and 20. Splawn, A. J. Ka-mi-akin . . . Portland, 1917. ch. 39. Perkins murder, clash with Chief Moses and capture of the murderers. Splawn, whose brother commanded the Yakima volunteers, gives a version of the affair which puts some blame on Moses, though crediting him with repentance. Howard, O. O. My life and experiences . . . Hartford, 1907. ch. 26. Miles, N. A., op. cit., ch. 32. 21. Gwyder, R. D. Record of the San Foil Indians. WHQ, v. 8, 1917, p. 243. 22. Bancroft, H. H. History of Washington, Idaho and Montana. San Francisco, 1890. pp. 517-526. Howard, O. O., op. cit., chs, 27-31. Miles, N. A., op. cit., ch. 23. 23. Hardin, C. B. Sheepeater campaign. Journal of the Military service institution, v. 47, p. 25. Howard, O. O., op. cit., ch. 32. Brown, W. C. Sheepeater campaign. State historical society of Idaho. Tenth annual report, 1926, p. 23. Best account, by the second in command of Farrow's Scouts, with illus. and map. 24. Durham, N. W. History of the city of Spokane and Spokane country . . . Chicago, 1912. p. 437. 1. Eells, Myron. Father Eells . . . Boston, 1894. p. 162. 2. Richardson, A. D. Beyond the Mississippi. Hartford, 1867. p. 480. 3. McConnell, W. J. Early history of Idaho. Caldwell (Ida.), 1913. p. 138. 4. Trimble, W. J. Mining advance into the Inland Empire. Madison (Wis.), 1914. pts. 3-4. 5. Eells, Myron, op. cit., pp. 184-188. 6. Trimble, W. J., op. cit. McConnell, W. J., op. cit. McConnell, W. J. and Driggs, H. R. Frontier law. New York, 1924. Langford, N. P. Vigilante days and ways. Boston, 1890. Repr. New York, 1893. Abridged ed. Chicago, 1912. Dimsdale, T. J. Vigilantes of Montana. Virginia City, 1866. Repr. Helena, 1915; Butte, 1915. Various printings in cheap editions for news-stand sale. Birney, Hoffman. Vigilantes, a chronicle of the rise and fall of the Plummer gang of outlaws . . . Philadelphia, 1929. Written for the thrill of the story, with less interest in the facts. 7. Winans, W. P. Stevens county, Washington, 1904. MS in Spokane Public 8. Winans, W. P., op. cit. Lewis, W. F. and Meyers, J. A., eds. Life at old Fort Colville. WHQ, v. 16, 1925, p. 198. MS of Angus MacDonald. . Meany, E. S. History of the State of Washington. New York, 1924. p. 233. Illustrated history of Klickitat, Ya\ima and Kittitas counties. Chicago, 1904. pp. 111- 13. Details of Taylor's swindle. 10. Himes, G. H. History of the press of Oregon. OHQ, v. 3, 1902, p. 327. Lud- __igton, Flora B. Newspapers of Oregon. 1846-1870. Eugene, 1925. Repr. from the OHQ, v. 26, 1925, p. 263. Scott, H. W. History of the Oregon country. Cambridge, 1924. v. 5, ch. 73. History of The Oregonian. Meany, E. S. Newspapers of Washington Territory. WHQ, v. 13, 1922, pp. 181, 251; v. 14, pp. 100, 186, 269. Scott, L. M. Oregon newspaper in Oregon history. OHQ, v. 29, 1928, p. 225. A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST v. 2. Carey, C. H. ' of a Pacific Coast XVII i. Bancroft, H. H. History of Oregon. San Francisco, 188 Creation of Oregon as a Stale. OHQ, v. 26, 1925, p. 282. 2. Hull, Dorothy. Movement in Oregon for the establishm, republic. OHQ, v. 17, 1916, p. 177. 3. Kingston, C. S. North Idaho annexation issue. WHQ, v. 21, 1930, pp. 13 137, 204-217, 281-293. Full narrative of the efforts to annex the Panhandle Washington. 4. Brosnan, C. J. History of the State of Idaho. New York, 1918. Hawley, J. H. History of Idaho. Chicago, 1920. Hailey, John. History of Idaho. Boise, 1912. McConnell, W. J. Early history of Idaho. Caldwell, 1917. The last two books a largely of personal reminiscences. Illustrated history of northern Idaho. Chicago, 1903. 5. 49th Cong. 1st Sess. House Report 216. 6. 50th Cong. 1st Sess. House Report 1182. 7. Rees, J. E. Idaho —its meaning, origin and applicati Goulder, W. A. Reminiscences. Boise, 1909. ch. 23. 8. McConnell, W. J., op. cit., p. 27. 9. Evans, Elwood. History of the Pacific Northwest. pp. 50-54. Wilcox, B. P. Anti-Chinese riots in Washingtc p. 204. Portland, 1 1. WHQ, v , 1929, 1. Sanders, Helen F. History of Montana. Chicago, 1913. Stout, Tom. Montana. Chicago, 1921. 11. Holman, F. V. Oregon counties. OHQ, v. 11, 1910, p. 1. Garbe, F. A. Subdivisions of the original Lewis county. WHQ, v. 21, 1930, p. 23. 12. Smith, C. W. Naming of counties in the State of Washington. University of Washington. Bulletin. University studies no. 6, 1913. Repr. from the Magazine of history, v. 10, pp. 9, 79. Prosch, T. W. Evolution of Spokane and Stevens counties. OHQ, v. 5, 1904, p. 25. Winans, W. P. Stevens county, Washington, 1904. MS in Spokane Public Library. Edwards, Jonathan. Illustrated history of Spokane county. Chicago, 1900. 13. Harney's Depot, later Fort Colville, was built in the summer of 1859, on a flat near Mill creek, about three miles from the Colville river. It was established in connection with the work of the American Boundary Commission and was occupied by Major Pinkney Louganbeel and four companies of the Ninth infantry. Pinkney City, the first county seat of Stevens county, was named for this officer. The British Boundary Commission erected comfortable buildings in 1859, at White's Landing, the present site of Marcus. The joint work of the engineers was completed in 1861. The pioneer trader Marcus Oppenheimer made use of the British quarters in the eighties. The buildings were removed by settlers after the troops were withdrawn from Colville, in 1881. 14. The story of his tragic end and of the capture and lynching of the murderer is told in Chapter XVI. NOTES 379 15. Durham, N. W. History of the city of Spokane and Spokane country. Chicago, 1912. ch. 40. 16. North-West Tribune. Cheney, Nov. 19, 1880 —June 10, 1881. These issues embrace the contest. The Cheney paper abetted a conspiracy of silence regarding the raid, denying everything and claiming that the Auditor brought the records to Cheney at night, as soon as the returns had been duly attested, in order to have his office open at nine in the morning. 17. Weibel, G. F. Rev. Joseph M. Cataldo, S. J. Spokane, 1928. Repr., with added illustrations, from the Gonzaga Quarterly, v. 16. Father Cataldo survived all the other pioneer missionaries. He died in 1928, after celebrating Easter mass at the Umatilla mission, at the age of ninety-two. His seventy-fifth anniversary as a Jesuit had been recognized with public observances in Spokane and Lewiston a few weeks before. 18. Illustrated history of the Big Bend country. Spokane, 1904. pp. 79-83. L 380 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST XVIII 1. Joseph Morel, his teamster. 2. MacDonald, Angus. Few items of the West. WHQ, v. 8, 1917, p. 201. 3. This cannon was donated by the Stevens - County Pioneer Society to the Eastern Washington State Historical Society and is now in the latter's museum in Spokane. 4. Evans, Elwood. History of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, 1889. v. 1, pp. 514- 522. Fraser river gold rush. Howay, F. W. Early history of the Fraser river mines. Archives of British Columbia. Memoir 6. Victoria, 1926. 5. Trimble, W. J. Mining advance into the Inland Empire. Madison, 1914. ch. 1, Colville rush; ch. 2, Fraser river; ch. 3, Contemporary events; ch. 4, Cariboo, Kootenay, etc.; ch. 5, Idaho, etc. Watt, J. W. Experiences of a packer in Washington Territory mining camps . . . WHQ, v. 19, 1928, pp. 206, 285; v. 20, p. 36. 6. Fiske, J. L. Idaho: her gold fields and the routes to them. A hand book for emigrants. New York, 1863. Lowell, D. W. Map of the Nez Perces and Salmon river gold mines. San Francisco, 1862. Contains description of the mines and laws adopted in the camps. Fry, F. Fry's traveler's guide . . . Cincinnati, 1856. Thompson, F. M. Thompson's complete guide to the new gold regions ... St. Louis, 1863. Campbell, J. L. Six months in the new gold diggings. The emigrant's guide overland. Chicago, 1864. Other editions with changes in title. Stuart, Granville. Forty years on the frontier. Cleveland, 1925. 7. Defenbach, Byron. Red heroines of the Northwest. Caldwell (Ida.), 1929. pt. 3, Jane. 8. Fuller, G. W. Inland Empire, v. 3, p. 66. 9. Thompson, F. A. and Ballard, S. M. Geology and gold resources of North Central Idaho. Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology. Bulletin no. 7. Moscow, 1924. Boyd, J. H. Reminiscences. WHQ, v. 15, 1924, p. 243. Idaho mining towns in the sixties. Goulder, W. A. Reminiscences . . . Boise, 1909. Hailey, John. History of Idaho. Boise, 1910. McConnell, W. J. Early history of Idaho. Caldwell (Ida.), 1913. Waggoner, G. A. Stories of old Oregon. Salem (Ore.), 1905. Ransome, F. L. and Calkins, F. C. Geology and ore deposits of the Coeur d'Alene district, Idaho. U. S. geological survey. Professional paper 62, 1908. Rickard, T. A. Bunker Hill enterprise. San Francisco, 1921. Elaborate history repr. from a series of articles in the Mining and scientific press. Wardner, J. F. Jim Wardner of Wardner, Idaho . . . New York, 1900. 10. Siringo was with Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, not Pinkerton & Company. United States Detective Agency. 11. Siringo, C. A. Cowboy detective. Hammond, Ind., 1913. Two evil isms . . . Chicago, 1915. Riata and spurs. Boston, 1927. Details are given in each of these books which are not repeated in the others, and the Coeur d'Alene material is expanded in the last title (but only in the first edition, as the book was reprinted with new matter substituted for the last ten chapters). 12. Hutton, May A. The Coeur d'Alenes or a tale of the modern inquisition in Idaho. Denver, 1900. NOTES 38i 13. Coeur d'Alene labor troubles. 56th Cong. 1st Sess. House Report 1999, 1900. 14. Report of the Industrial commission ... v. 12, Washington, 1901, pp. xvi- xxii, Oudine of events; lxxxv-cix, Digest of evidence; 389-568, Testimony; 741-747, Index to Coeur d'Alene riot material. 15. Horsley, A. E. Confessions and autobiography of Harry Orchard. New York, 1907. 16. Whitwell, G. E. and Patty, E. N. Magnesite deposits of Washington. Washington geological survey. Bulletin no. 25, 1921. Pardee, J. T. Magnesite-bearing deposits near Lake Crescent and Humptulips, Washington. U. S. geological survey. Bulletin 795 (a), 1928, pp. 1-24. 17. Lyman, W. D. Columbia river. New York, 1911. ch. 10. Wright, E. W., ed. Lewis & Dryden's marine history of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, 1895. Gillette, P. W. Brief history of the Oregon steam navigation company. OHQ, v. 5,1904, p. 120. Scott, H. W. History of the Oregon country. Cambridge, 1924. v. 3, pp. 190-195. Crandall, L. D. The " Colonel Wright." WHQ, v. 7, 1916, p. 126. 18. Bowles, Samuel. Our new West. Hartford, 1869. p. 478. 19. OHQ, v. 16, 1915, no. 2. Open rivers number. Addresses at the Dalles-Celilo canal celebration. Federal power commission. Report on the uses of the upper Columbia river. Revised ed., 1925, p. 63. 20. Gill, F. B. Oregon's first railway. OHQ, v. 25, 1924, p. 171. 21. Splawn, A. J. Ka-mi-akin . . . Portland, 1917. ch. 48, Pack trains; ch. 51, Pioneer wagon train from Priest rapids to Fort Kamloops. 22. Lesley, L. B. Uncle Sam's camels. Cambridge, 1929. Full bibliography, but no discussion of the Pacific Northwest question. 23. Howay, F. W. and Scholefield, E. O. British Columbia from the earliest times to the present. Vancouver, 1914. v. 11, p. 98. Bancroft, H. H. History of Washington, Idaho and Montana, 1845-1889. Lewis, W. S. Camel pack trains in the mining camps of the West. WHQ, v. 19, 1928, pp. 271-284. Elliott, T. C. Camels in the Inland Empire. OHQ, v. 29, 1928, p. 125. 24. Mullan, John. Report on the construction of a military road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton. 37th Cong. 3rd Sess. Senate Ex. Doc. 43, 1863. Miners and travelers' guide. New York, 1865. Mullan gives the itinerary and full directions for emigrants over his road. Hewitt, R. H. Notes by the way . . . Olympia, 1863. Repr. with additions under title Across the plains and over the Divide . . . New York, 1906. Story of a journey over the Mullan road. Talkington, H. L. Mullan road. WHQ, v. 7, 1915, p. 301. Bemis, S. F. Captain John Mullan and the engineers' frontier. WHQ, v. 14, 1923, p. 201. Bradley, J. H. Account of the building of MuUan's military road. Historical society of Montana. Contributions, v. 8, p. 162. Prosch, T. W. Military roads of Washington Territory. WHQ, v. 2, 1907-1908, p. 118. 25. Moore, M. C. Pioneer railroad builder. OHQ, v. 4, 1903, p. 195. Baker, W. W. Building of the Walla Walla & Columbia river railroad. WHQ, v. 14, 1923, p. 3. Written by a son of Dr. Baker. Estes, George. Rawhide railroad. Canby (Ore.), 1916. Highly imaginative account. 26. Young, F. G. History of railway transportation in the Pacific Northwest. 382 A HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OHQ, v. 12,1911, p. 172. Early proposals. Smith, C. J. Early development of railroads | in the Pacific Northwest. WHQ, v. 13, 1922, p. 243. Scott, H. W., op. cit., Entirely devoted to railway articles, brought up to date by the compiler, Lesli< Scott, in his appendix. Carey, C. H. History of Oregon. Chicago, 1922. v. 1, ch. 37. Useful references. Lewis, S. H. History of the railroads in Washington. WHQ, v. 3, 1908-1912, p. 186. Cordz, Marian. Bibliography of railroads in the Pacific Northwest. Idem, v. 12, 1921, p. 91. 27. See Chapter XII. 28. Gaston, Joseph. Centennial history of Oregon, Chicago, 1912, v. 1, pp. 522- 529. Carey, C. H., op. cit., pp. 684-696. 29. Villard, H. H. Memoirs of Henry Villard . . . Boston, 1904. Hedges, J. B. Henry Villard and the railways of the Northwest. New Haven, 1930. 30. Smalley, E. V. History of the Northern Pacific railroad. New York, 1883. Winser, H. J. Great Northwest; a guidebook ■ ■ ■ New York, 1883. Fairweather, H. W. Northern Pacific railroad and some of its history. WHQ, v. 10, 1919, p. 95^ Campbell, M. R. et al. Guidebook °fthe western United States. Part A. The Northern Pacific route . . . U. S. geological survey. Bulletin 611, 1915. Detailed description of the route, with interesting geological data. Part B. The overland route. Bulletin 612, 1915. Similar description of the Union Pacific route. White, H. K. History of the Union Pacific railway. Chicago, 1895. 31. Illustrated history of the Big Bend country. Spokane, 1904. pt. 6, ch. 3. Lieu land litigation. 32. Pyle, J. G. Life of James J. Hill . . . New York, 1917. Flandrau, Grace. Story of Marias pass. Great Northern railway, 1925. Laut, Agnes C. Blazed trail of the old frontier. New York, 1826. pt. 5. Stevens' discovery of the pass. 33. Gilman, L. C. Spokane, Portland and Seattle railroad company. WHQ, v. 14, 1923, p. 14. 34. Letter of Mr. Strahorn to the author, Sept. 26, 1927. 35. Stern, S. S. Sphinx of the Northwest. Sunset magazine, v. 27, 1911, p. 544. 36. Cheney, W. D. Central Oregon . . . n. p., 1918. ch. 16. Strahorn lines. 37. Details of the construction of numerous independent railways in Oregon and Washington, later merged in the large systems, will be found in Carey's History of Oregon, ch. 37, and the author's Inland Empire, ch. 28. 383 XIX General references: Lewis, H. T. and Miller, S. I. Economic resources of the Pacific Northwest. Seatde, 1923. Lewis, H. T. Basic industries of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, 1925. 1. Kingston, C. S. Introduction of cattle into the Pacific Northwest. WHQ, v. 14, 1923. p. 163. Illustrated history of Klickitat, Yahjma and Kittitas counties. Chicago, 1904. pp. 97, 104. Severe winters. Scott, H. W. History of the Oregon country. Cambridge, 1924. v. 3, pp. 104-108. Passing of the live-stock range. 2. Barry, J. N. Agriculture in the Oregon country, 1795-1844. OHQ, v. 30, 1929, 3. Boening, Rose. History of irrigation in the State of Washington. WHQ, v. 9, 1918, p. 259; v. 10, p. 21. Not always accurate. 4. Department of Reclamation, State of Idaho. Fourth biennial report, 1925-1926, p. 29. 5. Annual report of the Commissioner of reclamation. Washington, 1902-. Hutchins, W. A. Irrigation district operation and finance. U. S. department of agriculture. Bulletin 1177, 1923. 6. 63rd Cong. 2nd Sess. Senate Doc. 337, 1914. Idem, 3rd Sess. House Doc. 1472, 1915. 7. Federal power commission. Report on the uses of the upper Columbia river. Revised ed. 1925. Columbia basin survey commission. State of Washington. Columbia basin irrigation project, 1922. 8. George W. Goethals & Co., Inc. Columbia basin irrigation project. Olympian 1922. 9. Federal power commission, op. cit. 69th Cong. 2nd Sess. Senate Com. Print., 1927. Columbia basin project. Contains Gault report, Board of engineers' reports, etc. 10. Albeni falls were named for Albeni Poirrier, for a long time a resident of the place. On the early maps which noted the falls (Rand McNally & Co., 1890), the spelling was correct, but the spellings Albani and Albany gradually crept in. 11. Cobb, J. N. History of fisheries in the State of Washington. WHQ, v. 20, 1929,p. 3. 12. Winkenwerder, Hugo. Forestry in the Pacific Northwest. Washington, 1928. McArdle, R. E. and Meyer, W. H. Yield of Douglas fir in the Pacific Northwest. U. S. department of agriculture. Technical bul. no. 201. 1930. 13. Mason, D. T. Timber ownership and lumber production in the Inland Empire. Portland, 1920. 14. Farwell, R. F. Water transportation. In Lewis, H. T. and Miller, S. I., op. ch., ch. 18. Lawson, Will. Pacific steamers. Glasgow, 1927. 15. Magnusson, C. E. Hydro-electric power in Washington. WHQ, v. 19, 1928, p. 90. Federal power cc Index Abbot, Henry L., 319 Aberdeen, Lord, 176-178 Abernethy, George, Governor, 154- 156, 159, 164, 166, 196-197, 201, 203, '. 237 Adams, John Quincy, 173 Adams county, 300 Adventure, ship, 51, 54 Agriculture, 119-121, 325-329 Ahtanum mission, 145, 224, 226 Alarcon, Hernando de, 45 Albatross, ship, 94, 105-106 Alexander, E. E., 307 Allen, Edward, 192 Allen, Jesse K., Lieutenant, 252 Allen, Paul, 73 American Board, 127-128, 130-133, 143, 145 American Fur Company, 102, 128-129 Amundsen, Roald, 46 Anderson, Alexander C, 123 Anderson, J. Patton, 206 Anian, Strait of, 46 Anson, George, Commodore, 45 Applegate, Jesse, 155-156, 164, 201, 263 Arnold, Richard, Lieutenant, 193 Ashburton, Lord, 175 Astor, John Jacob, 94-95, 105, 107, 109 Astor overland party, 102-103 Astoria, 97-107, 109 Astoria enterprise, 95-109 Aztec language relations, 37, 40 Babcock, Ira L., 196-197 Bailey, William J., 196 Baker, Dorsey S., 317-318 Baker, James, 56 Baker county, 299 Baker's strap iron railway, 317-318, 320 Balboa, Vasco N. de, 45 Ball, Edward, First Sergeant, 249-250, 258 Ball, John, 122 Ballard, David W., Governor, 293 Bancroft, George, 178-179 Bancroft, H. H., 50, 340, 364 Bannock war, 275-277 Barkley, Charles William, 46 Barlow, Samuel K., 191 Barlow road, 191 Barnes, Jane, 84-85 Bassette, W. F., 306 Baylies, Francis, 172 Beachey, Hill, 284 Beall, Thomas, 243 Beaver, Astor's ship, 100, 105, 109 " Beaver money," 203 Beaver, steamer, 237 Beers, Alanson, 198 Beeson, J., 373 Beeswax, Nehalem beach, 44 Belle, steamer, 234, 315 Benewah county, 300 Bennett, Charles, Captain, 228 Benton, Thomas H., 142, 157, 172, 184 Benton county, 300 Bering, Vitus, 45 Bewley, Crockett, 148-149 Bewley, Lorinda, 147, 151-152 Biddle, James, Captain, 109 Biddle, Nicholas, 73, 74 Big Hole, battle of the, 268-270 Big Star, Chief, 256-257 Bigsby, J. J., 83 Bishop, R. P., 350 Bishop, W. H., 301 Black, W, Captain, 106, 109 Blackfoot Bill, 316 Blackfoot Indians, 28, 33, 79, 89, 138- Blaine, E. T., 328 Blanchet, A. M. A., 137, 145, 152-154 Blanchet, Francois Norbet, 92, 135-137, Blockhouse era, 236-242 Blossom, ship, 109 Blue mountains, 14 Boise City, becomes capital of Idaho, 292 Boise county, 291, 299 Boise News, 289 Boit, John, 48, 51-54 Bolon, A. J., 224 Bonner county, 300 Bonneville, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de, Captain, 115-117, 124, 209, 218 Borah, William E., 311 Boston, ship, 93 Boundary county, 300 Bourgeois, Joseph, 306 Bowles, Samuel, 314 Brackenridge, Henry M., 74, 102 Bradbury, John, 102 Bradford, Daniel and Putman, 315 Bradley, J. H, Lieutenant, 268-269 Breckenridge, John Cabell, 204 Bretz, J. H, 16, 19 Bridger, James, Captain, 128, 187, 360 Bridger, Mary Ann, 143, 147 Brigades of the fur companies, 90-92, 136-137 Brooks, John P., 288 Brother Jonathan, steamer, 260, 262 Broughton, William, Lieutenant, 55-56 Brouillet, J. B. A., 150, 159, 364 Brown, W. C, Lieutenant, 277 Browne, J. Ross, 242 Brownfield, Daniel F., 206 Bryan, Kirk, 19 Bryant, William Cullen, 49 Bryce, George, no, 357 Buchanan, James, President, 176, 184 Buchanan, Lieutenant Colonel, 219 Buena Ventura, fabulous river, 184 Buffalo, 8, 27-28 Buffalo Horn, Chief, 276-277 Bulfinch, Charles, 50 "Bull Pen," 310-311 Burbidge, Frederick, 309 Burnett, Peter H., 187 Burnt river, battle of, 238 Burrows, J. M., Lieutenant, 228 Bush, Asabel, 289-290 Bush, George W., 205, 212 Butel-Dumont, G. M., 58 Cabrillo, Juan R., 45 Calhoun, John C, 176, 203 California Trail, 187 California volunteers, 281-282, 286 Calkins, F. C, 19 Camas, 29-30 Camas Meadows, battle of, 270 Camaspelo, Chief, 146, 152, 162, 165 Cameahwait, Chief, 63-64, 74 Camel, fossil, 5, 8 Camel pack trains, 315-316 Cameron, " Cariboo," 305 Camp Washington, 209 Canby, Edward R. S., General, 263, 373 Canfield, William D., 149 Cannibalism, 86, 167, 261 Canning, George, 117, 173 Cannon, A. M., 301 Captain Jack, Chief, 262-264 Carey, Charles H., 340, 348 Carey act projects, 326 Carlin, General, 309 Carson, Christopher (Kit Carson), 114, 184 Carver, Jonathan, Captain, 48-50 Cascade range, 3, 9-10 Cascades massacre, 232-235 ■Casey, Silas, Lieutenant Colonel, 179, I 232, 236 Cataldo, Joseph, 265, 273, 302, 317, 379 Catholic "ladder," 136 Catholic missions, French Canadian, I I34-J37. 145-146, 152-154. 159. l66> I 224, 226; Jesuit, 137-142, 168 Catlin, George, 125, 360 Catlin, Seth, 205 Cattle raising, 119-120, 325 [Cayuse war, 157-166 Celilo canal, 314 Central Pacific Railway Company, 319- 320 Champoeg meeting, 198 Champooick district, 298 Channelled scablands, 15-16 Chapman, John B., 205 Charbonneau, 62-64, 74 ■ Chatham, ship, 52, 55-56 : Chelan county, 300 Chelan lake, 13 Chenoweth, F. A., 21 r Cherokee Bob, 281-282 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 323 Chinese miners, 281, 300, 306 Chinese riots, 295 Chinook jargon, 40-41 Chinook wind, 20 Chirouse, E. C, 231 Choate, Rufus, 175 Chouart, Medard, no Clackamus district, 202, 298 Clark, Robert C, 75, 357 Clark, William, 62-74, 125, 174, 360 Clarke, John, 104-107 Clarke, Newman S., General, 242, 250- 252, 256, 259 293 Clatsop district, 298 Clay, Henry, 173 Clearwater, battle of, 267 Clearwater county, 300 Cleveland, Grover, President, Climate, 20 Coal, 3, 312-313 Coast range, 3, 9 Coboway, Chief, 69, 351 Coeur d'Alene labor riots, 308-311 Colen, Joseph, 79 Colnett, James, Captain, 47 Colonel Wright, steamer, 307, 313 Columbia Basin project, 327-329 Columbia plateau, 15 Columbia Rediviva, ship, 47, 51, 54 Columbia river, description, 10-13; discovery of, 53-56 Columbia, steamer, 313 " Columbia Territory," 206 Columbian, 289 Colvile, Andrew, 358 Comstock affair, 199 Concomly, Chief, 31, 68, 84, 98-99, 107, Condon, Thomas, 3, 22, 341 Congiato, N, 251 Connell, Daniel B., 288 Connell's prairie, battle of, 237 Consag, Fernando, 45 Cook, James, Captain, 46 Copper, 311-312 Coquilton, Chief, 237 Corcoran, Paul, 310 Corliss, George W., 237 Cornelius, Thomas R., Colonel, 229, 231-232 Cortez, Fernando, 45 Coues, Elliott, 73, 351 County seat contests, 301-303 Coureurs des bois, 77 Cowley, M. M., 302 Cowlitz meeting, 205 Cowlitz mission, 136 Cox, Ross, 102, 104, 107, 120, 352 Craig, William, 150, 161-162, 165, 231, 238, 294 Cram, Thomas J., Captain, 241 Crater lake, 9 Craters of the Moon, 18 Crawford, Medorum, Captain, 261 Crook, George, General, 262 Crooks, Ramsay, 101-103, 172 Crusat, Peter, 67 Cumming, Alfred, 223 Currey, George B., 262 Curry, A. P., Adjutant General, 277 Curry, George, 288 Curry, George Law, Governor, 225-227, 232 Curtis, Edward S., 167 Curtis, James F., Major, 286-287 Cushing, Caleb, 174-175. 36° Dairy industry, 120, 329-330 Dalles, see The Dalles Daniels, William B., 292 Darrow, Clarence, 311 Dart, Anson, 216-217 Davis, Jefferson, 212, 232, 319 Day, John, 101-103 Decatur, ship, 237-238 DeLacy, W. W., Captain, 236 Delaney, Mrs. Matilda J. Sager, 148, x54 Demers, Modeste, 135-137, 154 De Moy, Victor C, 243, 249 Dent, F. T., Captain, 249, 261 Deseret News, 289 DeSmet, Pierre Jean, see Smet, Pierre Jean de Discovery, ship, 52, 55, 56 Dobbs, Arthur, 58 Dodd, Charles, 237 Donation act, 204, 211-212 Donelson, A. J., Lieutenant, 208-209, 372 Dorion, Marie Aioe, 103, 108, 355 Dorion, Pierre, 103, 108, 356 Doty, James, 208, 223, 229-231 Douglas, David, 121-122 Douglas, James, Governor, 119, 152, Douglas, Stephen A., 291, 318 Douglas, William, Captain, 47 Douglas county, 300 Drake, Sir Francis, 45 Drayton, Joseph, 192 Dreamer religion, 265, 273-274, 276 Drumm, Stella M., 74 Dyer, L. S, 263 Eagle creek, battle of, 271 Eagle, steamer, 313 Ebey, Isaac N., Colonel, 178, 237 Edgar, scout, 225 Edgerton, Sidney, Governor, 295-296 Eells, Cushing, 41, 130-133, 152, 279, 282, 365 Eells, Myron, 282 Ellensburg formation, 5, 12 Ellis, Chief, 161, 165 Emigrating societies, 187 Emmons, George F., Lieutenant, 191 English, W. L, Lieutenant, 269 Ermatinger, Francis, 183, 201 Esquimos, 346 Farnham, Russell, 107, 172 Farnham, Thomas J., 182-183 Farrow, E. S., Lieutenant, 277 I-'er, Nicolas de, 45 Ferguson county, 300 Ferrelo, Bartolome, 45 Ferry, Elisha P., Governor, 275 Ferry county, 300 " Fifty-four forty or fight," 176-178 Fillmore, Millard, President, 206 Finlay, Jacques Raphael, 81, 121 Finley, Nicholas, 148-149 Fisheries, 330 Fisk, Wilbur, 126 Five Crows, see Achekaia 205 Flour milling, 329 Floyd, Charles, 73 Floyd, John B., 172-173, 242 Flying Fish, ship, 191 Fontanelle, Lucien, 128 Forsyth, John, 175 Fort Bellingham, 179, 237 Fort Bennett, 229 [Fort Boise, 118, 123, 188 Fort Bonneville, 116 Fort Bridger, 187 Fort Clatsop, 68-69 Fort Colville, 117, 121, 123, 128, 130- 131 Fort George, 107, 109, 117, 171 Fort Gilliam, 158 Fort Hall, 118, 123, 129, 182, 187 Fort Henrietta, 227 Fort Henry, 113 [Fort Hope, 120, 123 Fort Lee, 158 : Fort Lemhi, 193 Fort Naches, 236 Fort Nez Perces, 88, 117, 121 Fort Nisqually, 166 Fort Owen, 207 : Fort Simcoe, 236 Fort Steilacoom, 167 Fort Taylor, 253, 259 Fort Townsend, 179, 237 Fort Umpqua, 118 Fort Vancouver, 117-120, 129 Fort Walla Walla, 121, 128-129, 227, 358 Fort Waters, 161, 164-166 Fort William, 182 ! Four Lakes, battle of, 254-255 Fox, Ebenezer, 97 Franchere, Gabriel, 43, 96, 98, 102, 106- 107, 352 Franklin county, 300 Fraser, Simon, 60-61 Freeman, O. W., 19 Fremont, John Charles, Lieutenant, 184- Frenchtown, battle of, 228-229 Fuca, Juan de, 46, 348 Gaines, John P., Governor, Gale, Joseph, 198 Gallatin, Albert, 173-174 Galliano, D. Captain, 55 Garnett, Robert S., Major, 236, 252-253 Garry, Chief, 124, 208-209, 229-230, 251, 255, 257 Gary, George, 127 Gass, Patrick, Sergeant, 72 Gaston, William, Lieutenant, 245-246, 259 Geology, 3-9 Gervais, Joseph, 161, 197 Ghent, treaty of, 171 Gibbon, John, General, 268-270 Gibbs, George, 41 (iiacdo, Rcvilla, 48 Gilliam, Cornelius, Colonel, 155, 158- 164, 364 Giorda, Joseph, 273 Glacial age, 6-9 Glacial lakes, 7, 16, 328 Glacier National Park, 14, 208, 322 Glover, James N, 301 Glynn, James, Commander, 123 Goddard, James S., 50 Goethals, George W., General, 328 Goff, F. P. M., Captain, 238-240 Gold, 304-307 Golden Age, 289 Gooding, Frank R., Governor, 311 Goodwin, Ben, 306 Gordon, Sir John, 177 Governors, 334-337 Gracie, Archibald, Lieutenant, 220-221 Grand Coulee, n-12, 16-18 Grand Dalles fraud, 287-288 Grant, U. S., President, 264 Grant county, 300 Gray, Robert, 46-47, 50-54 Gray, William H, 129-130, 132, 138, 197 Gray Eagle, Chief, 160 Great Northern Railway, 322-324 "Great re-enforcement," 127 Green, Jonathan S., 360 Greenhow, Robert, 175 Gregg, David, Lieutenant, 244-248, 253 Grier, William N., Major, 258 Griffin, J. S, 288 Grover, L. F., Governor, 264 Gwydir, R. D„ Major, 276 Hale, Horatio, 41, 191 Haley, John, 293 Hall, Edwin O., 131 Hall, Peter D., 148-149 Haller, Granville O., Major, 220, 224- 225 Harmon, Daniel W., 92 Harney, William S., General, 140-141, 178-179, 227, 259, 367, 374 Harney's Depot, 378 Haro, Lopez de, 47 Harper, Charles, 287 Harriman, Edward H, 322 Harris, "Black," scout, 191 Hastings, L. W., 196 Haswell, Robert, 50 Hawley, J. H, 311 Hays, Mrs. Rebecca, 147, 151 Haywood, William D., 311 Hearne, Samuel, 57 Hebard, Grace R., 352 Heceta, Bruno, 42, 45 Helm, Mrs. Elizabeth Sager, 154 Hembree, A. J., Captain, 231 Henry, Alexander, 44, 84, 106, 351-352 Henry, Andrew, 113 Henry, John M., Lieutenant, 286 Henry, William, 316 Hickey, F., Captain, 109 Higgins, C. P., 223, 230 Hill, David, 198 Hill, James J., 322 Hill, Samuel, Captain, 93 Hill, Tom, 143, 145 Hines, Gustavus, 198 Hinman, A., 155, 364 Hipparion, 5 Hodges, H. C, Lieutenant, 208 Holladay, Ben, 194, 319-320 Horse, fossil, 5, 8; modern, introduction Horse Slaughter camp, 256 Horsley, Albert E. (Harry Orchard), 311 Horticulture, 169, 330 Howard, O. O., General, 265-267, 269- 273. 275-277 Howse, Joseph, 76, 80 Hudson's Bay Company, 77, 79, 80, 110-123, 152-155. 177. 182-185, I91] 195-198, 200-202, 204-205, 2ii, 217, 250-251 Humphreys, A. A., Captain, 241 Hunt, Wilson Price, 95, 100, 102-103, 105, 107 Hunter, John Dunn, 59 Hurdy-gurdies, 280 Hutton, L. W., 310 Ice, Yakima Indian, 224 Idaho county, 291, 299-300 Idaho, name, 294 Idaho, Panhandle, 293-294, 300 Idaho, State, 294 Idaho Statesman, 289 Idaho, Territory, 292 Ignace, Old, see La Mousse, Ignace Ignace, Young, 138 Indians Attacks by, 43, 51, 53-54, 57, 71, 76, 85, 93, 99-100, 130, 146-152, 193, 213-214, 217-220, 224, 232-237, 244-247, 261, 265-266 Blackfoot Indians, 28, 33, 79, 89, 138- Burial customs, 31 Ceremonial dances, 32-33 Executions of, 218, 220, 235, 252, 256, 258-259, 264 Haida pirates, 237 Head flattening, 23 Iroquois Indians, 81, 87-91, 113, 125, 130 _ _ Linguistic groups, 36-40 Manner of life, 22-35 Medicine men, 34-35, 143-144 Mythology and religion, 33, 35-36; Dreamer cult, 265, 273-274, 276 Non-treaty, 218-219, 264-265, 273- 274 Piegan Indians, 71, 79, 113, 207 Pilgrimages to St. Louis, 125, 137- 138 Potlatch, 23 Prehistoric, 21-22, 36-37 Treaties with, 207, 213, 216-218, 222-223, 242, 251, 256-260 Wars: Bannock, 275-277; Cayuse, 157-166; Garnett raid, 252-253; Haller expedition, 224-225; Modoc war, 262-264; Nez Perce war, 264- 273; Rains expedition, 224-227; Rogue River wars, 216-219; Shoshone campaigns, 261-262; Sheepeater war, 277; Walla Walla campaign, 227-229, 231-232; Wright campaign, 253-259 Agriculture, 119-121, 325-329 Cattle raising, 119-120, 325 Ceramic industry, 313 Dairy industry, 120, 329-330 Fisheri .330 Flour milling, 329 Horticulture, 169, 330 Lumber, 120, 172, 331 Sheep raising, 120, 324-325 Water power, 332-333 See also Mining, Transportation Inland Empire, vi, 13 Intermediate Rate Association, 324 Interstate Commerce Commission, 323- 324 Iroquois Indians, 81, 87-91, 113, 125, 130 Irrigation, 326-329 Irving, Washington, 102, 109, 352 Irwin, Thomas, 307 Isaac Todd, ship, 84-85 Jackson, Andrew, President, 117, 174, 185 Jane, Nez Perce woman, 306 Jason P. Flint, steamer, 313 Jefferson Davis, steamer, 237 Jefferson, Thomas, President, 49, 61- 62, 72, 73 Jenny, ship, 56 Jesuit Relations, 58 Jesup, Thomas S., Quartermaster, 172 Jewitt, John R., 68, 93-94 John, Chief, 219 John Hancock, steamer, 237 Johnson, Robert E., Lieutenant, 191 Joseph, Chief (1850), 161, 264 Joseph, Chief (1877), 264-272, 276, 375 Joset, Joseph, 245-246, 250-251, 256- 257. 273. 374 Kamehameha, King, 107 Kamiah mission, 130 Kamiakin, Chief, 140-141, 208, 220- 225, 226, 229, 231-232, 236-237, 239- 240, 247, 251, 254-255, 257-258, 374 Kane, Paul, 146 Kasiascall, 99-100 Kearney, Philip, Major, 217 Keith, James, 86 Kelley, Hall J., 180-181 Kelley, James K., Lieutenant Colonel, 227-228, 231-232 Kellogg, Noah S., 308 Kelsey, Henry, 57 Kendrick, John, 47, 51-52, 54 Kimball, Nathan S., 147-148 Kino, Eusebio Francisco, 45 Kip, Lawrence, Lieutenant, 220-222 Kirkham, V. R. D., 5 INDEX Kittitas county, 300 Liberty, Stephen, 374 Klokamas, Cayuse Indian, 167 Lieu land litigation, 321 Knights of the Golden Circle, 261 Lincoln, Abraham, 204 Konapee, 43 Lincoln county, 300, 302 Kootanae House, 75, 80 Linn, Lewis F., 174-175 Kootenai county, 300 Liquor laws, 202-203 Kullyspell House, 80 Lisa, Manuel, 76, 102, 356 Logan, William, Captain, 269 Lady Washington, ship, 47 Lok, Michael, 348 La Hontan, Baron, 58 Looking Glass, Chief, 221-223, 230, Lake Washington ship canal, 332 239, 264-265, 269, 272, 375 Lamerick, General, 219 Loring, W. W., Colonel, 167 La Mousse, Ignace, 125, 137 Lot Whitcomb, steamer, 313 Lancaster, Columbia, 206, 211 Louganhccl, Pinkney, Major, 378 Lander, Edward, 214 Louisiana Purchase, v, 62, 170 Lander, F. W, 210 Lovejoy, A. L., 133, 155, 201 Lane, Joseph, Governor, 157, 166-168, Low Horn, Chief, 207 204, 206, 216-218, 259 Lucier, Etienne, 198 Langlois, A., 199 Luelling, LIcnderson, 169 Lapwai mission, 130-133, 145, 150 Lumber industry, 120, 172, 331 Lark, ship, 107 Luttig, John G, 74 Latah county, 300-301 Lydia, ship, 93-94 Latah formation, 6 Lyon, Caleb, Governor, 292-293 Lava flows, 4-6, 9-10, 18 La Verendrye, see Varennes McBean, William, 145-146, 149, 159- Lawyer, Chief, 221-223, 230, 238, 249 Layton, Davis, Major, 232, 238 160, 364 McClallan, John, Captain, 72 Le Breton, G. W. 196, 198-199 McClellan, George B., Captain, 123 192, Ledyard, John, 46, 6i 207-211,367 Lee, Daniel, 44, 126, 183, 345, 360 McConaha, G. N, 211 Lee, H. A. G, Colonel, 158-159, 164- McConnell, W. J., Governor, 284- 166, 364-365 285 Lee, Jason, 23, 126-127, 182, 197 MacDonald, Angus, 122-123, 209 230, Le Page du Pratz, Antoine Simon, 48, 58 3°4 Leshi, Chief, 237-238 McDonald, Archibald, 114, 122 ~I23. Lewes, John Lee, see Lewis, John Lee 130 Lewis, Joe, 145-148, 162 MacDonald, Donald, 123 Lewis, John Lee, 123 McDonald, Finan, 80-83, 9^> TI3 122, Lewis, Meriwether, 62-73 357 Lewis and Clark Expedition, 62-72 MacDonald, Ranald, 122-123 Lewis and Clark Journals, 72-73 McDougall, Duncan, 95-97, 105 -107, Lewis county (Wash.), 298; (Ida.), 300 144 Lewis district, 203 McGillivray, Simon, 114 Lewiston, 279, 291, 307; first capital of McGiaw, ]ohn, Governor, 295 1 Idaho, 292 Mackay, Alexander, 59, 95-100 INDEX McKay, Charles, Lieutenant, 160 Meares, John, Captain, 42, 46-47, 52 McKay, Thomas, Captain, 114- 15. 129, Meaway, Chief, 165 155, 159-160, 164 Meek, Helen Mar, 143, 147, 150 McKay, William, Captain, 227 Meek, Joseph L., 155-157, 168, 183, Mackenzie, Alexander, 59-60, 62, 78, 198 Meek, Stephen H. L., 190-191 McKenzie, Donald, 86-89, 95. 102-107, Meek, William, 169 Meeker, Ezra, 189 McKinlay, Archibald, 132, 134 Meek's cut-off, 190-191 McLean, Samuel, 296 Mengarini, Gregory, 138 McLellan, Robert, 102-103 Mercer, Asa S., 193-194 McLennan, Donald, 107 " Mercer girls," 193-194 McLeod, John, 129 Merriam, H. C, General, 275, 310 MacLeod, W. C, 344 Mesohippus, 5 McLoughlin, John, 111-112, T5> 117. Methodist missions, 126-127, J55 126, 128-129, 135-137, 173, 180-181, Michaux, Andre, 62 183-185, 196-197, 199-202, 204-205, Miles, Nelson A., General, 271-273, 275, 278 376 . . McMillan, James, 83 Milkapsi, Chief, 257 MacMurray, J. W., Major, 273 Miller, Cincinnatus Heine (Joaquin McParland, James, 311 Miller), 262, 294, 348 McTavish, Donald, 84 Miller, Guilford, 321 McTavish, John George, 83, 85, 104, Miller, Joseph, 102-103 Mining McTavish, Simon, 78 Madison, James, President, 109 Magnesite, 4, 312 Magruder, Lloyd, 284 Mammoth, 8, 19 Manning, James, 305 Manring, B. F., 249 Maquina, Chief, 93 Marias pass, 208 Marsh, O. C, 22 Martinez, Don Estevan Jose, 47 Mary, steamer, 233-234, 313, 315 Mary Dacre, ship, 126, 182 Mascall formation, 5 Mason, Charles H, 224-225, 227 Mason, E. C, Colonel, 264 Massachusetts, steamer, 167, 237 Mastodon, 8 Maxon, H. J. G, Captain, 164 Meacham, A. B., 263-264, 273 Meagher, Thomas F., 296-297 Coal, 3, 312-313 Copper, 311-312 Gold, 304-307 Magnesite, 4, 312 Silver-lead, 307-308 Minto, John, 44 Miocene lakes, 5 Missions American Board, 127-134, 143-154, 155, 165, 209 French Catholic, 134-137, 145-146, 152-154, 159, 166, 224, 226 Jesuit, 137-142, 168 Methodist, 126-127, 155 Mormon, 193 Missoula county, 299 Missouri Fur Company, 102, 113-114, 186 Modoc war, 262-264 Monaghan, James, 287 INDEX Moncacht-ape, Yazoo Indian, 48, 58 Ogden, Peter Skene, 91, 113, 144, 152- Monroe Doctrine, 171 154, 192, 363 1 Montana, State, 298 Okanogan county, 300 Montana, Territory, 295-298 Okanogan Highlands, 13 1 Monticello convention, 206 Okanogan, steamer, 313 1 Morel, Joseph, 304, 380 Ollicut, Chief, 265 Morgan, Michael R., Lieutenant, 258 Olney, Nathan, 224, 227-228 Mormons, 140, 193, 217, 274, 293 Olympic peninsula, 10 Moses, Chief, 236, 274-276, 376 O'Neil, John, 249 Mount Mazama, 9 Ontario, ship, 109 Mount Multnomah, 9 Opdyke, Dave, 285-286 Mount Olympus, 10 Open River Association, 314 Mount Rainier, 10 Oppenheimer, Marcus, 378 Moyer, Charles H., 311 Orchard, Harry, see Horsley, Albert E. Mullan, John, Lieutenant, 250-252, 258, t )id\ . .. loan 'iergea.nl, ';..':■; 316-317 Mullan road, 212, 215, 250, 316-317 Oreodon, 5 Oregon American and Evangelical Multnomah Circulating Library, 196 Unionist, 288 Munson, Lyman E., 296 Oregon and California Railroad Com Muslin towns, 279 pany, 320 Myers, J. A., 348 Oregon and Transcontinental Railway Mylodon, 8 Company, 320 Oregon boundary dispute, 170-178 Navigation, brigades, 90-92, 136-137; Oregon, California and Eastern Railway, Columbia steamers, 313-314; coast 323 and foreign shipping, 331-332 Oregon Central Railroad Company, 319 Nehalem beeswax, 44 Oregon Exchange Company, 203 Nesmith, James W., Colonel, 218, 225, Oregon Free Press, 288 227, 229, 242, 288 Oregon Lyceum, 196, 203 New North West Company, 78, 80 Oregon, name, 48-50, 172, 348-349 Newell, Robert, 159, 183 Oregon Printing Association, 288 Newspapers, 288-289 Oregon Railway and Navigation Com Nez Perce county, 291, 299-300 pany, 320 Nez Perce volunteers, 230-231, 238-241, Oregon Short Line, 322-323 251-255 Oregon Spectator, 203, 288 Nez Perce war, 264-273 Oregon, State, 291 Nootka convention, 48, 170 Oregon Statesman, 289, 290-291 Nootka sound controversy, 47-48 Oregon Steam Navigation Company, North Coast Railway, 323 313-315. 3'8, 320 North West Fur Company, 77-92 Oregon, Territory, 157, 203-204 North-West Tribune, 379 Oregon Trail, 186-191, 317 Northern Pacific Railroad Company, Oregonian, 289, 291 214, 320-322 Osborne, Josiah, 147, 149 Northern railway survey, 206-212 Oskonoton, Iroquois Indian, 88 . Northwest passage, 46, 59 Otter, steamer, 237 Owen, John, 207 Owhi, Chief, 208, 236-237, 239, 257- 258 Ox, broad-faced, 8 Pacific City fraud, 287 Pacific Fur Company, 95-109 Pacific railroad surveys, 319 " Pacific Republic," 204, 290-291 Packenham, Richard, 176-177 Paine, Thomas, 116 Palmer, Joel, 159, 162, 165, 191, 218, Palouse falls, 18 Palouse, name, 343 Palouse soil, 18-20 Pambrun, Pierre C, 116, 124, 128, 132, 357 Pandosy, Marie Charles, 226, 346 Parker, Samuel, 121-122, 124, 127-129, Parrish, J. L, 217 Patkanim, Chief, 166, 237-238 Patten, James I, 75 Paulina, Chief, 262 Peacock, ship, 191-192 Pearson, W. H., Lieutenant, 223, 229- Pedlar, ship, 107 Peel, Sir Robert, 177-178 Peel, William, Lieutenant, 177 Pendleton's first report, 175 Pend Oreille county, 300 Peone, Baptiste, 122 Peoria party, 183 Perez, Juan, 45 Perkins, H. K. W., 144 Perry, David, Lieutenant, 266-267 Peterson, P. P., 19 Pettibone, George A., 308, 311 Peupeumoxmox, Chief, 146, 161, 165 221-222, 226-228 Phelps, T. B., Rear Admiral, 238 Physiography, 9-20 Pickett, George E., Captain, 178, 237, 367 Piegan Indians, 71, 79, 113, 207 Pierce, E. D., Captain, 306 Pilcher, Joshua, 114 Pinch, Jeremy, 75-76 Pinkney City, 286, 378 Plante, Antoine, 207-208, 229-230, 239 Plummer, Henry, 282-283 Pohlatkin, Chief, 255-257 Point, Nicholas, 138-139 Poker Joe, Chief, 268 Polk, James Knox, President, 157, 176- 177, 203 Polk county, 203 Porpoise, ship, 191 Port Gamble, battle of, 237 Portage railways, 315 Preble, ship, 123 Pringle, Mrs. Catherine Sager, 146 Printing, first press in the Oregon country, 131, 288, 361; newspapers, 288- 289 Protohippus, 5 Provisional government, 154, 198-203 Provost, J. B., 109 Pryor, Nathaniel, Sergeant, 72 Puget Sound Agricultural Company, ), 205 Quadra, Juan Francisco de Bodega y, 46. 48, 54- 55 Qualchan, Chief, 223-225, 239, 257-258, 374 Quatley, Chief, 216 Quesnel, Jules, 60 Quiamashouskin, Cayuse Indian, 167- 168 Quimper, Manuel, Captain, 48, 54 Quivira, fabulous city, 46 Raccoon, ship, 106-107 Radisson, Pierre Esprit, no Railroads, 315, 317-324 Rains, Gabriel J., Major, 224-227 Smith, A. B., 130-132 Smith, C. DeWitt, 292 Smith, Green Clay, Governor, 296-297 Smith, I. C, Sergeant, 306 Smith, Jedediah S., 114-115, 117 Smith, William, Captain, 355 Smohalla, 265, 273-274 Snoqualmie pass, 209-210 South pass, 109, 113, 116, 186-187, 319 Spalding, F.liza, see Warren, Mrs. Eliza Spalding. Spalding, Henry H., 129-133, 143, 145- 146, 150, 152-154, 160, 217, 364-365 Spillman, W. J., 17 Splawn, A. J., 247, 249, 252 Spokane county, 299-302 Spokane House, 81-83, §5. 87-88, 121, Spokane Invincibles, 230-231 Spokane, name, 352 Spokane, plains, battle of, 255 Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad, 322 Spotted Eagle, Chief, 230, 238 Squire, Watson C, Governor, 295 Stanfield, Joseph, 148-151 Stanley, J. M., 149, 154, 363 Stanton, Richard H, 206 Steinberger, Justus, Colonel, 261 Steptoe, Edward J., Lieutenant Colonel, 232, 234-236, 239-250 Steunenberg, Frank, Governor, 311 Stevens, Alfred K., 182 Stevens, Isaac Ingalls, Governor, 123, 206-215, 220-223, 227, 229-233, 236, 238-242, 259, 367, 372 Stevens, John F., 208, 322 Stevens county, 300-301 Stevens Guards, 230-231 Stickas, Chief, 145-146, 161-162, 165, 231 Strahorn, Robert E., 322-323 Stuart, Alexander, 106 Stuart, David, 82, 95-96, 99, ioi-ioz, Stuart, James, Captain, 217 Stuart, John, 60, 98 Stuart, Robert, 96, 98, 99, 101 Sturgis, Samuel Davis, Colonel, 270-271 Sublette, Milton G., 182 Sublette, William L., 181-182 Sultana, ship, 182 Surprise Valley Railway, 323 Symons, T. W., Lieutenant, 7 Table Rock council, 218 Tamahas, Cayuse Indian, 167 Tamsuky, Chief, 134, 145, 147, 151, Tawatowe (Young Chief), 146, 152, Taylor, O. H. P., Captain, 245-247, 259 Taylor, Orson D., 287-288 Taylor, Zachary, President, 204 Teal, Joseph N., 314 Teias, Yakima Indian, 225 ■. 3i3 t, 324 Terry, James, 2 The Dalles, 12-13 Thomas, Eleazer, 263 Thompson, David, 61, 75-76, 78-83, c 101, 172, 351-352, 353 Thompson, John, 93 Thorn, Jonathan, Captain, 96-100 Thornton, J. Q., 156-157, 203 Three Feathers, Chief, 230 Three Sisters, 9 Thurston, Samuel R., 204 Thwaites, Reuben Gold, 73 Tilaukait, Chief, 134, 145-147, 1; 152-153, 163, 167-168 Tilaukait, Edward, 150-151, 158 Tilcosx, Chief, 257 Timothy, Chief, 230, 244, 248 Tinkham, A. W., 208, 210, 220 Toby, Modoc woman, 263 Tonasket, Chief, 275 Tonquin, Astor's ship, 96-100 Tonquin massacre, 99-100 Toohulhulsote, Chief, 265, 267, 272 Toppan, W. H., 230 Transportation Brigades of the fur companies, 90-92, 136-137 Columbia steamers, 313-314 Coast and foreign shipping, 331-332 Mullan road, 316-317 Pack trains, mule, 315; camel, 315- 316 Portage railways, 315 Railroads, 317-324 Trimble, William J., 280 Tsaiachalkis, Cayuse Indian, 167 Tshimakain mission, 130-132, 165, 209 Tuality district, 202, 298 Tunnachemootoolt, Chief, 71 Tute, James, Captain, 50 T'Vault, William G, 203, 288 Twisted Hair, Chief, 65, 71 Tyler, John, President, 175, 192 Tyrrell, J. B., 79 Ulloa, Francisco de, 45 Ultimatum map, 174-175 Umatilla mission, 145, 152-153, 159 Umehowlish, Chief, 231 Umtippe, Chief, 143 Union, 289 Union Pacific Railway Company, 319, 322-324, Valdes, C. Captain, 55 Vancouver, George, Captain, 54-56, 60 Vancouver district, 202, 298 Varennes, Pierre Gaultier de, Sieur de la Verendrye, 57 Victor, Chief, 246 Victor, Mrs. Francis Auretta (Fuller) Barrett, 340 Vigilantes, 277, 283-287, 296-297, 311 Villard, Henry H, 320-321 Vincent, Chief, 245-246, 256 3. 5°, 52, Virginia City, first capital of Montana, 295-297 Vizcaino, Sebastian, 45 Voyageurs, 90-92 Waiilatpu, see Whitman mission. Walker, Elkanah, 124, 130-133, 361 Walker, William, 125 Walla Walla and Columbia Railroad, 317-318, 320 Walla Walla council, first, 220-223, 274; second, 239-240 Walla Walla county, 211-212, 299 Walla Walla, name, 346 " Walla Walla Tcritory," 292 Wallace, W. H, Governor, 292 Wallace, W. R., 307 Wampole, Elias, 217 Wappato, 30 Warren, Mrs. Eliza Spalding, 143, 148, 150 Wasco county, 299 Washington, State, 294-295 Wasco, steamer, 233, 313, 315 Washington Statesman, 289 Washington, Territory, 205-206, 208- 215 Washington, ship, 51, 52 Water power, 332-333 Waters, James, Lieutenant Colonel, 161, 164-165 Watson, W. H, 286, 299 Webster, Daniel, 175 Weeks, Stephen, 97 Western Pacific Railway, 324 Weymire, J. A., Lieutenant, 262 Wheaton, Frank, General, 273 Wheeler, James, Lieutenant, 247-248 Whipple, Captain, 266-267 White, Elijah, 132, 190, 196-197, 287 White Bird, Chief, 265-267, 270, 272 White Bird creek, battle of, 266 Whitehouse, Joseph, 73 Whitman, Marcus, 125, 127-130, 132- 134. I43-M7 Whitman, Mrs. Narcissa Prentiss, 119, 128-130, 132-134, 143-144, 146-147 Whitman, Perin B., 155, 265 Whitman county, 300 Whitman "legend," 134 Whitman massacre, 144, 146-154 Whitman mission, 128-130, 132-134, 143-154 Whitman's "ride," 132-134 Whitney, Asa, 318 Wilkes, Charles, Lieutenant, 91, 175, 191-192, 196, 369 Wilkes, George, 318-319 Wilkes expedition, 191-192 William I, Emperor of Germany, 179 Williams, W. C, Sergeant, 249 Williamson, R. S., Lieutenant, 319 Willson, W. H., 198 Wilmot, Luther P., Lieutenant, 267 Wilson, A. E., 198 Wilson, A. V., Captain, 228 Wilson, Henry, 294 Winans, W. P., 374 Winder, C. S., Captain, 245-246, 248 Winship brothers, 94 "Wolf Meetings," 197 Wool, John Ellis, General, 219-220, 226-227, 231-233, 241-242 Work, John, 121, 358 Wright, George, Colonel, 140-141, 232- 235, 238-239, 241, 250-260, 262, 374 Wyeth, Nathaniel J., 118, 128, 180- X Y Company, see New North West Company Yakima county, 300 Yamhill district, 298 Yantis, B. F., 230 Yellepit, Chief, 67, 69, 82 Yellow Bull, Chief, 167 Young, Brigham, 140 Young, Elam, 149-150 Young, Ewing, 114, 180, 185-186, 196, Young Chief, see Tawatowe This book is set on the Linotype in Granjon, a type which is neither a copy of a classic face nor an original creation. George W. Jones drew the basic design for this type from classic sources, but deviated from his model wherever four centuries of type-cutting experience indicated an improvement or where modern methods of punch-cutting made possible a refinement that was beyond the skill of the sixtecnth-a ntttry originator. This ilea'creation is based primarily upon the type used by Claude Garamont (1510-1561) in his beautiful French boo\s and more closely resembles the work of the founder of the Old Style letter than do any of the various modern-day types that bear his name. University of British Columbia Library DUE DATE , REI'D APR 2 & W97 rCCT 9 01Q0Q ET-6 '* 3 9424 01517 1 I KOERNER LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF B.C. NC fALS
Includes an index Includes bibliographic references Different edition than that listed in Strathern & Edwards (1970) Other copies : http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41043446
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II-0197-i
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Koerner Library stacks. F851 .F96 1938
Northwest, Pacific--History
A history of the Pacific Northwest
Text