The following day a body of four hundred mounted Indians, supposed to be Cuyuses and Walla Wallas, were observed approaching, armed and in full gala dress, and uttering their war-whoops like so many demons, and, after riding three times around the Nez Perce camp, they departed. Soon after the Young Chief, accompanied by his principal chiefs, rode into camp, and, being invited to dismount, did so with evident reluctance, and shook hands in a very cold manner. They refused to smoke, and remained but a short time. “The haughty carriage of these chiefs,” remarks Governor Stevens in his journal, “and their manly character have, for the first time in my Indian experience, realized the descriptions of the writers of fiction.”
KAM-I-AH-KAN
Head Chief of the Yakimas
Garry, the head chief of the Spokanes, came, not to take part in the council, but as a spectator. When a boy he had been sent to the Red River settlements in Manitoba by Sir George Simpson, then governor of the Hudson Bay Company, where he acquired a common-school, English education. It being impracticable to assemble so distant and widely scattered a tribe as the Spokanes in time for this council, Governor Stevens designed making a separate treaty with them later in the season on his return from the Missouri.
Father Menetrey, from the Catholic mission among the Pend Oreilles, also arrived to attend the council,—a cultivated man, who spoke English fluently.
A messenger sent to invite the Palouses returned accompanied by only one of the chiefs, who reported that his people were indifferent to the matter, and would not come. A number of scattered and insignificant bands, who lived at different points on the Columbia, also arrived.
The following is from Governor Stevens’s journal:—
May 27, Sunday. There was service in the Nez Perce camp and in the Nez Perce language, Timothy being the preacher. The commissioners attended. The sermon was on the Ten Commandments. Timothy has a natural and graceful delivery, and his words were repeated by a prompter. The Nez Perces have evidently profited much from the labor of Mr. Spalding, who was with them ten years, and their whole deportment throughout the service was devout.
The next day agent Bolon, with an interpreter, was sent to meet the Yakimas, who were thought to be near at hand. He soon returned, having met Kam-i-ah-kan and also the Yellow Serpent. The latter said to Mr. Bolon that he was very sorry to hear that the chiefs and others in the commissioners’ camp had said that he was unfriendly to the whites,—that his heart was with the Cuyuses, whose hearts were bad. He had always been friendly to the whites, and was so now, and he would go to-day to see the commissioners, and ask why such things had been said of him. Accordingly, soon after Bolon’s return, Pu-pu-mox-mox, Kam-i-ah-kan, Ow-hi, and Skloom, the two latter being chiefs of the Yakimas, accompanied by a number of their braves, rode into camp. Dismounting, they shook hands in the most friendly manner, and seating themselves under the arbor indulged in a smoke, using their own tobacco exclusively, although other was offered them.