Lieutenant Gracie, with his little detachment, arrived on the 23d. A tent, furnished by the governor, was pitched for the officer and his guest, Mr. Kip, while the soldiers built huts of boughs, and spread over them canvas pack-covers. The two gentlemen dined with the governor under the arbor near his tent, “off a table constructed from split pine logs, smoothed off, but not very smooth,” says Mr. Kip.
The scanty treating party of whites were now all assembled, and awaited the arrival of the Indians with interest, not unmixed with apprehension; for it seemed a bold and perilous step to meet so many brave and warlike Indians, many of whom were known to be disaffected and ready to provoke an outbreak, in the heart of the Indian country, two hundred miles from the nearest settlement or military post, with such a mere handful. They numbered barely a hundred men,—the governor’s party of thirty-five, twelve with General Palmer, the military guard of forty-seven, two Catholic missionaries, and a few settlers.
The second day after reaching the valley Governor Stevens, learning that General Wool had just arrived at Vancouver, wrote him a letter urging the importance of occupying the Walla Walla valley with a strong military force, preferably of cavalry, pointing out the central location of the point, and its strategic advantages for protecting the emigrant road, the trails to the Missouri on the east, the Puget Sound on the west, and for controlling the disaffected Indians, particularly the Cuyuses and Snakes. This, like other sound and indeed necessary measures recommended by the governor, was ignored by the self-sufficient Wool and his officers, until they were obliged to adopt them from necessity.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE WALLA WALLA COUNCIL
The Nez Perces, the first to arrive, came the next day, May 24, 2500 strong. Hearing of their approach, the commissioners drew up their little party on a knoll commanding a fine view of the unbroken level of the valley. The standard of the Nez Perces, the large American flag given them by the officers engaged in the Cuyuse war, was sent forward and planted on the knoll. Soon their cavalcade came in sight, a thousand warriors mounted on fine horses and riding at a gallop, two abreast, naked to the breech-clout, their faces covered with white, red, and yellow paint in fanciful designs, and decked with plumes and feathers and trinkets fluttering in the sunshine. The ponies were even more gaudily arrayed, many of them selected for their singular color and markings, and many painted in vivid colors contrasting with their natural skins,—crimson slashed in broad stripes across white, yellow or white against black or bay; and with their free and wild action, the thin buffalo line tied around the lower jaw,—the only bridle, almost invisible,—the naked riders, seated as though grown to their backs, presented the very picture of the fabled centaurs. Halting and forming a long line across the prairie, they again advanced at a gallop still nearer, then halted, while the head chief, Lawyer, and two other chiefs rode slowly forward to the knoll, dismounted and shook hands with the commissioners, and then took post in rear of them. The other chiefs, twenty-five in number, then rode forward, and went through the same ceremony. Then came charging on at full gallop in single file the cavalcade of braves, breaking successively from one flank of the line, firing their guns, brandishing their shields, beating their drums, and yelling their war-whoops, and dashed in a wide circle around the little party on the knoll, now charging up as though to overwhelm it, now wheeling back, redoubling their wild action and fierce yells in frenzied excitement. At length they also dismounted, and took their stations in rear of the chiefs. Then a number of young braves, forming a ring, while others beat their drums, entertained the commissioners with their dances, after which the Indians remounted and filed off to the place designated for their camp. This was on a small stream, flowing parallel to Mill Creek, on the same side with and over half a mile from the council camp. The chiefs accompanied the governor to his tent and arbor, smoked the pipe of peace, and had an informal talk.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEZ PERCES
Hal-hal-tlos-sot or the Lawyer, the head chief of the Nez Perces, was an Indian Solon in his efforts to improve the condition of his people. Without any advantages of birth or wealth, he made himself the first in his tribe, while yet in middle life, by his unrivaled wisdom and force of character. His first acts were directed against gambling, which was indulged in to great excess, and against polygamy. Finding, however, that his influence as head chief was insufficient to carry out his plans for the improvement of his people, he reorganized the government of the tribe, appointed an additional number of chiefs from the young men, and, having thus increased and strengthened his influence, was enabled to accomplish his reforms. He early perceived that the growing power of the whites, which threatened to swallow up all before it, could not be resisted by force, and in consequence all his efforts were directed to inducing the Indians to adopt the customs and civilization of the whites, and to preserving the unbroken friendship between the two races. From the effects of the wound received at the battle of Pierre’s Hole he was still suffering, and his right arm had been twice broken in a fight with a grizzly bear. Wise, enlightened, and magnanimous, the head chief, yet one of the poorest of his tribe, he stood head and shoulders above the other chiefs, whether in intellect, nobility of soul, or influence.