It was on reaching the Dalles on his overland exploration that the governor first learned of this smouldering fire. Quick to grasp the situation, to see the breach into which, as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, it was his duty to throw himself, he lost no time, by his earnest and forcible reports, and by his visit in Washington, in obtaining the necessary authority for treating with these Indians.
Five years had elapsed since Congress, by the Donation Acts, had invited settlers to take possession of the lands of these brave and numerous Indians, utterly disregarding their rights, and now, when the volcano was ready to burst forth, the effort was to be made for the first time to treat with them, and the herculean task was devolved upon Governor Stevens of buying their country, allaying their well-founded fears, adjusting their jealousies and disputes with the whites and with each other, and inducing them to relinquish their savage and nomadic mode of life for agriculture and civilization. Many of the best informed settlers and army officers thought that any attempt to treat with these Indians for their lands was a useless and dangerous enterprise, and would surely lead to collision and bloodshed.
During the spring Mr. Doty and agents A.J. Bolen and R.H. Lansdale were visiting the powerful tribes of the upper country, and preparing them for treating. The Walla Walla valley was chosen for the council ground at the instance of Kam-i-ah-kan, the head chief of the Yakimas, who said, “There is the place where in ancient times we held our councils with the neighboring tribes, and we will hold it there now.” A large quantity of goods was taken up the Columbia to Walla Walla in keel-boats. A party of twenty-five men was organized at the Dalles, outfitted with a complete pack-train, mules, riding animals, and provisions, and sent to the council ground to make ready for the reception of the Indians, and afterwards to accompany the governor to the Blackfoot council. The Walla Walla council, like the Blackfoot, was conceived and planned exclusively by Governor Stevens. He alone impressed the necessity of them upon the government, and obtained the requisite authority. The work of collecting the Indians was done chiefly by his agents, and it was not until he learned from Doty that the Indians had agreed to attend, and that the council was assured, that he invited Superintendent Palmer to take part in it as joint commissioner with himself for such tribes as lived partly in both Territories. This fact he caused to be entered on the joint record of the council.
Leaving the gubernatorial office in the hands of Mr. Mason, and the Indian service, now well organized, in charge of Colonel Simmons and other agents, Governor Stevens early in May left Olympia on his treaty-making expedition east of the mountains, calculating to be absent from five to six months. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Richard Arnold, en route to San Francisco; Captain A.J. Cain, Indian agent for the lower Columbia; R.H. Crosby; his son Hazard, whom he decided to take as far as the Dalles and then send home; and some other gentlemen. The little cavalcade trotted rapidly across the prairies amidst severe and drenching showers, and after a brisk ride of thirty miles reached the hospitable log-house of Judge Ford for supper and shelter.
It rained heavily during the night, and on continuing the journey the next morning, and fording the Skookumchuck, where poor George Stevens was so recently lost, and which was then barely passable, a terribly swift, turbulent, and dangerous-looking torrent, the whole country seemed to be under water. The prairie upon which the town of Newarkum is built was flooded, and the horses laboriously waded across the plain in single file, belly-deep in water. The narrow track through the timber beyond the prairie was like a canal. Dick Arnold, who led the party, a tall, erect, athletic, soldierly figure, suddenly sunk down into the water with a plunge until only his head and his horse’s ears were visible. He had ridden into a deep slough, which here crossed the road, indistinguishable in the general flood, but his steed swam and struggled across it and climbed out on the other side, the water dripping from man and horse, but the rider remaining firm in his seat through it all. After some delay the rest of the party effected a crossing on foot by a fallen tree, and drove the horses across by the road, swimming. Without further mishap, save the toils and discomforts of muddy roads and rains, they reached Cowlitz Landing that afternoon, descended the Cowlitz in canoes the next day, and proceeded by steamboat to Vancouver. After a day’s stay here the governor continued his journey up the river by steamboat to the lower Cascades, where he spent the night, crossed the Cascades portage on horseback early the next morning, proceeded by steamboat to the Dalles, and found hospitable quarters with Major Granville O. Haller at the military post, where were stationed two companies of the 4th infantry, under Major G.J. Rains. Superintendent Palmer was found at the Dalles, awaiting the governor’s arrival.
The outlook for effecting a treaty was deemed unfavorable by all. Governor Stevens was warned by Father Ricard, of the Yakima Mission, that the Indians were plotting to cut off the white chiefs who might attempt to hold a council.[5] The Snake Indians had attacked and massacred parties of emigrants recently, and Major Rains was under orders to send a force on the emigrant road to protect them. General Palmer and his Indian agents were reluctant to attempt to treat with the Indians at that time. The governor relates in his diary how he induced Major Rains to send from his small force a detachment of forty soldiers, under Lieutenant Archibald Gracie, to the council as a guard. Mr. Lawrence Kip, afterwards a colonel of the United States army, accompanied Mr. Gracie on the trip, and published an interesting account of the council:—
“After supper, went with Major Haller to see Major Rains. It was about midnight, but the major got up, and we talked for two hours on Indian matters. I dwelt particularly on the necessity of a small force on the treaty ground to maintain order. He saw the necessity, but had no suitable force at his disposal, etc. The bearing of the proposed council on the Snakes was then alluded to by me, and I remarked that the services of a small force in checking insolence would be as good as two hundred men subsequently. We deemed it necessary to maintain our dignity and that of our government at the council, and we would seize any person, whether white man or Indian, who behaved in an improper manner. There were unquestionably a great many malcontents in each tribe. A few determined spirits, if not controlled, might embolden all not well disposed, and defeat the negotiations. Should this spirit be shown, they must be seized; the well affected would then govern in the deliberations, and I anticipated little or no difficulty in negotiating. I then alluded to my determination to call out the militia of the Territory should I find, on reaching the council ground, that any plan of hostilities was being matured, or should a feeling of hostility be manifested, in case a small force was not sent from the garrison.
“So doubtful did General Palmer consider the whole matter of the council, that it was only the circumstance of a military force being dispatched which determined him to send to the treaty ground presents to the Indians. He stated to me that he had concluded to send up no goods; but, the escort having been ordered, he would send up his goods. At this time the Oregon officers expected little from the council, and evidently believed that the whole thing was premature and ill-advised.”
Stopping at the Dalles only long enough to obtain this detachment and outfit his own small party with riding animals, seven pack-mules, two packers, and a cook, the governor again took the saddle, and traveling rapidly overland two hundred miles to the Walla Walla valley in four days, camping the first night on the Des Chutes River, the second on John Day’s River, the third on the Umatilla, reached the council ground on May 21 towards evening, the party thoroughly drenched by the soaking rain in which they had traveled all day.
An amusing incident occurred at the camp on John Day’s River, which the governor was fond of relating as a good joke on himself. There was no wood to be found in that vicinity, except some drift sticks, which were claimed by an old Indian who had pitched his lodge on the river’s bank. After many fruitless attempts to purchase some of his wood, the men took advantage of the temporary absence of the old fellow to purloin a small quantity of it. This was nearly all consumed, and a hot and savory supper was smoking before our travelers, when the old Indian returned and discovered his loss. Dismounting from his pony, he approached the governor, and, in a tone of indignation and scorn, exclaimed, “Do you call yourself a great chief and steal wood?” A liberal present mollified him considerably, and after partaking of the supper, he departed in great good humor.