CHAPTER V.

INDIAN WARS.

1874-1878.

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

ITIES.

AFTER the close of the Modoc war, General Davis ordered a march by the cavalry of 700 miles through the country threatened by dissatisfied tribes, in order to impress upon their minds the military force of the United States. But the reservation set apart for Joseph and his non-treaty followers remained unoccupied, and he continued to roam as before. The settlers on the Wallowa were impatient to know whether their indemnity money was to be paid, or what course the government would pursue, and wrote to their representative in congress, who replied that the commissioner of Indian affairs had assured him that the reservation order would be rescinded, and the settlers left undisturbed.1 With this understanding, not only the settlers who were in the valley remained, but others joined them, and when the Indians overrun their land claims with imperious freedom, warned them off. It was not until June 10, 1875, that the president revoked his order, thereby formally

1Ind. Aff. Rept, 1874, 57-8; Lewiston Signal, June 13, 1874.

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(497)

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

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

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

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believer in the Smohollah doctrine, whose converts were called 'dreamers,' an order of white-man-hating prophets which had arisen among the Indians.2

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

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

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

They held that their dead would arise and sweep the white race from the earth. Joseph said that the blood of one of his people who had been slain in a feud, by a white man, would 'call the dust of their fathers back to life, to people the land in protest of this great wrong.' See Sec. Int. Rept, 608, 45th cong. 2 sess.

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

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

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

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

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

3 So far as can be gathered from the confused accounts, the first four men killed were on White Bird Creek. They were shot June 14th as they sat playing cards, the Indians being about 20 in number who did the shooting. That same morning they shot Samuel Benedict through the legs while about his farm-work. In the evening they went to his house and murdered him, together with a German named August, Mrs Benedict and two children escaping by the aid of an Indian.

The first company of volunteers was organized at Mount Idaho, where a fortification had been erected. A part of these, under A. Chapman, were with Perry on the 17th. Another company, organized for defence merely, was at Slate Creek. The governor of Idaho ordered to the hostile region, June 20th, a company under Orlando Robbins of Idaho City. A company was organized at Placerville, under J. V. R. Witt. Capt. Hunter of Columbia county, Washington, with 50 volunteers, reported to Howard on the 22d; also Capt. Elliott from the same county with ‍25; Page of Walla Walla with 20 men, and Williams with 10; and about the same time Capt. McConville of Lewiston with 20 volunteers-making altogether a force, in addition to the regulars, of about 150 mnen.