The change of reservations was brought forward in council the next day. The annuities of five hundred dollars for ten years to each of the head chiefs were extended to twenty years. The Yellow Serpent was given the privilege of establishing a trading-post for trade with the settlers and emigrants, and an annuity of one hundred dollars a year for twenty years was given his son. Young Chief and Yellow Serpent were the principal speakers, and in lengthy and rambling speeches gave their assent to the treaties. The latter, on declaring his acceptance, exclaimed, “Now you may send me provisions!” Kam-i-ah-kan was sullen, and refused his assent.
Some commotion was now observed among the Indians, and suddenly a small party of warriors were seen approaching, painted and armed, singing a war-song, and flourishing on the top of a pole a freshly taken scalp. It proved to be a party of Nez Perces, headed by Looking Glass, the war chief, just from the Blackfoot country, where they had been for three years hunting the buffalo. Looking Glass was old, irascible, and treacherous, yet second only to Lawyer in influence. While hunting the buffalo he had several fights with the Blackfeet. At one time seventy of his horses were stolen by them; but the vigorous old chief hotly pursued the depredators, killed two, put the rest to flight, and recovered his horses. He had reached the Bitter Root valley on his return home, when he heard that the Nez Perces were at a great council, and concluding a treaty without his presence. Leaving his party to follow more slowly, he pushed on with a few chosen braves, crossed the Bitter Root Mountains, where for some distance the snow was shoulder-deep on their horses, and, having ridden three hundred miles in seven days at the age of seventy, reached the council ground while Governor Stevens was urging Kam-i-ah-kan to give his assent to the treaty, for the governor, hearing the arrival of Looking Glass announced, seized the occasion to call upon the Yakima chief to sign the treaty in the name of Looking Glass, there being great friendship between these two. Scarcely had he concluded when Looking Glass, surrounded by his knot of warriors with the scalps tossing above them, rode up, excited and agitated, received his friends coldly, and finally broke forth into a most angry philippic against his tribe and the treaty:—
“My people, what have you done? While I was gone, you have sold my country. I have come home, and there is not left me a place on which to pitch my lodge. Go home to your lodges. I will talk to you.”
LOOKING GLASS
War Chief of the Nez Perces
The council was immediately adjourned. Governor Stevens consulted Lawyer, who was of opinion that Looking Glass would calm down in a day or two and accept the treaty. He said, however, that the latter’s return would make it impossible to reduce the Nez Perce reservation, which, originally intended for the Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and Umatillas, in addition to the Nez Perces, was larger than they alone required, and it was determined to make it a general reservation for other tribes, not exceeding in numbers those for whom it was at first designed.
In the evening Governor Stevens assembled the Yakima chiefs in his tent, and discussed the treaties with them until one o’clock in the morning. Kam-i-ah-kan was not present, but Skloom acted as the principal spokesman. The governor remarks in his journal, “Skloom was desirous that his land should first be surveyed.”
The council of the following day, however, soon made it evident that Looking Glass had not yet calmed down. He declared himself the head chief of the tribes present; that the boys had spoken yesterday, but that he would speak to-day. He made many inquiries, raised many objections, and finally marked another line for the reservation, including nearly the whole of the Nez Perce territory. The Cuyuses seized the occasion to retract their assent to their treaty, and the Young Chief strenuously supported Looking Glass in his objections, and omitted no opportunity to assert his supremacy as head chief of the Nez Perces. At length Lawyer abruptly left the council in the midst of one of Looking Glass’s philippics, and retired to his lodge. Governor Stevens refused to submit to the demands of the angry and grasping old chief, and adjourned the council until the following Monday.
After the adjournment the Yellow Serpent and Kam-i-ah-kan, who had at length yielded to the advice of the other chiefs, with all the chiefs and prominent men of the two tribes, came forward and signed their respective treaties. The former had remarked in the morning that his word was pledged, and that he should sign the treaty no matter what Looking Glass and the Nez Perces did. It was thought that his example had great weight with Kam-i-ah-kan.