Young Chief: “We have plenty of cattle. They are close to our camp. We have already killed three, and have plenty of provisions.”
General Palmer to the interpreter: “Say to the Yakimas, ‘You have come a long way. You may not have provisions. If you want any, we have them, and you are welcome.’”
Young Chief: “Kam-i-ah-kan is supplied at our camp.”
The Yellow Serpent and Kam-i-ah-kan dined with the commissioners, and remained in their tent for a long time, smoking in a friendly manner, but the Young Chief declined the invitation to dine.
WALLA WALLA COUNCIL
The two following days Governor Stevens explained the proposed treaties at length, item by item. There were to be two reservations,—one in the Nez Perce country of three million acres, on the north side of Snake River, embracing both the Kooskooskia and Salmon rivers, including a large extent of good arable land, with fine fisheries, root grounds, timber and mill-sites, and was for the accommodation of the Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and Spokanes, as well as the Nez Perces. The other embraced a large and fertile tract on the upper waters of the Yakima, and was for the Yakimas, Klikitats, Palouses, and kindred bands. The reservations were to belong to the Indians, and no white man should come upon them without their consent. An agent, with school-teachers, mechanics, and farmers, would take charge of each reservation, and instruct them in agriculture, trades, etc.; grist and saw mills were to be built; the head chiefs were to receive an annuity of five hundred dollars each, in order that they might devote their whole time to their people; and annuities in clothing, tools, and useful articles were to be given for twenty years, after which they were to be self-supporting. At first the reservations were to be used in common, but provision was made for the survey and subdivision of the land, and its allotment to the Indians in severalty as soon as they should be prepared to receive and utilize it. As it was evidently impracticable to make so radical a change in their habits suddenly, the Indians were to have the privilege of hunting, root-gathering, and pasturing stock on vacant land until appropriated by settlers, and the right of fishing. The advantages of the reservations were dwelt upon. They embraced some of the best land in the country, and were large enough to afford each family a farm to itself, besides grazing for all their stock; they contained good fisheries, abundance of roots and berries, and considerable game. They were near enough to the great roads for trade with the emigrants, yet far enough from them to be undisturbed by travelers. By having so many tribes on the same reservation, the agent could better look after them, and could accomplish more with the means at his disposal. The staple argument held out was the superior advantages of civilization, and the absolute necessity of their adopting the habits and mode of life of the white man in order to escape extinction. Governor Stevens also exhorted them to treat, for the sake of the example upon their inveterate enemies, the Blackfeet, that thereby they would prove themselves firm friends of the whites, and that he would then take delegations from each tribe with his party and proceed to the Blackfoot country, and make a lasting treaty of peace, so that they could ever after hunt the buffalo in safety, and trade horses with the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains. The Indians listened gravely and in silence, as these matters were slowly unfolded to them, sentence by sentence through the interpreters, for five or six hours each day, and upon the adjournment of the council, quietly dispersed to their lodges. The third day the Young Chief for the first time dined at Governor Stevens’s table with the other head chiefs, and General Palmer and the gentlemen of the party; and in the evening he sent word that his young men were tired of such close confinement as they had undergone at the council, and desired to have a feast and holiday to-morrow, and he requested that no council be held until the day after (Saturday). The commissioners cheerfully acceded to his request, well pleased at these signs of mollifying the opposition of the haughty savage.
There were now assembled on the ground between five and six thousand Indians. Says Colonel Kip: “About five thousand Indians, including squaws and children. Their encampment and lodges are scattered over the valley for more than a mile, presenting a wild and fantastic appearance.”
Every afternoon, after the council adjourned for the day, horse-races and foot-races were held at the Nez Perce camp, attended by the sporting bloods of the other tribes, and witnessed by many of the whites. The usual course was a long one,—some two miles out and back, making four miles. Oftentimes thirty horses would start together in a grand sweepstakes; the riders and betters would throw into one common pile the articles put up as stakes,—blankets, leggings, horse equipments, and whatever was bet, and the winner would take the whole pile. The foot-races were equally long, and the runners would be escorted in their course by a crowd of mounted Indians, galloping behind and beside them so closely that the exhausted ones could hardly stop without being run down. The riders and runners were invariably stripped to the breech-cloth, and presented many fine, manly forms, perfect Apollos in bronze.