On July 8th, Colonel Robbins located and surprised the Indians in a canyon leading up to the Blue mountains in Oregon. He was supported by Colonel Bernard with his troops, and succeeded in driving the red men from their position. But the Indians took to the hills and got away, leaving several dead behind them.
The Bannocks had crossed into Oregon in the hope of persuading the Umatilla and Yakima Indians to join them. In this they were disappointed, which, added to the close pursuit of the soldiers and the, now, well-picketed condition of the country, disheartened the marauders, and they began to sneak back in small bands to the reservations from which they had come. On their way they committed many depredations.
In Umatilla county, Oregon, Mr. Charles Jewell, hearing of the Indian outbreak, secured an equipment of guns and carried them to his herders, who were tending his sheep about thirty-five miles from Pendleton. He stopped at a rancher’s door for a friendly chat, and had barely alighted from his horse when a volley of shots from some ambushed Indians laid him on the ground. The other man was killed and Mr. Jewell was left for dead. When the Indians had gone, he crawled into the house and secured a pair of blankets and a shingle. On the shingle he wrote: “Charles Jewell—shot by Indians—is in the brush near by—call me if you see this.” The wounded man then dragged himself to the road, posted his sign there, and crawled into the brush, where he wrapped himself in the blankets. For three days and nights he lay without food or water, and when finally some passing men found his sign and were led to him by his feeble answer to their call it was too late. He died a few days afterward in Pendleton.
The three leading war chiefs of the fighting Indians were Buffalo Horn, Bear Skin and Egan. The two former had been killed since hostilities began in May. About the middle of July, Chief Homily of the Umatillas, with ninety followers, went up into the hills to recover some horses that Chief Egan’s men had stolen. He arranged for a conference with Chief Egan and thirty of his men, and in the midst of it, at a given signal, fell upon Chief Egan, killing him and his thirty companions. He then affixed the dead chief’s scalp to a long pole, with the hair flying in the breeze and carried it triumphantly back to the reservation. General Howard had doubted the loyalty of the Umatillas up to this time and Chief Homily killed Chief Egan as an evidence of his good faith toward the whites. Colonel Robbins was sent to the scene of the massacre to determine whether Chief Egan were really dead. Everything was found just as Chief Homily had described it.
Chief Egan’s death completely demoralized the Indians. They had now lost their three greatest fighting chiefs, and wherever they went they found the white men ready for them. Volunteer companies had been formed all through that section of the country, even as far south as Nevada, and the triumphant advance of the red men had turned into a search for safety. They broke into small parties, traveling along out-of-the-way trails and largely by night, killing and plundering when the opportunity came, but always heading for the reservation and safety. It is now more than thirty-five years since this war ended, during which time the Bannock Indians have given no further trouble. The large increase in population makes another outbreak practically impossible.
Idaho has seen one other Indian war, known as the Sheep-Eater Indian war. This was fought with the Tookarikkas, in 1879. These people were a mixture of the Shoshones and Bannocks, apparently inheriting the bad qualities of both without their good qualities. They were outcasts, even among the Indians, and won their soubriquet of “Sheep-Eaters” by stealing sheep from the ranges. They were cowardly and treacherous, and subsisted largely by theft. In May, 1879, they killed some settlers and burned some property on Hugh Johnson’s ranch on the south fork of the Salmon river, near Warrens, and as a result were rounded up by government and state troops and sent to Vancouver, Wash.
We give this war only passing notice because it belongs to the history of Bannock county, only through the relationship of the Tookarikka and Bannock Indians.