“I ask Victor, Alexander, and Michelle to think it over. Will they go to the valley with Victor, or to the mission with Alexander and Michelle? I do not care which. You will have your priests with you, whether you go to the mission or Fort Owen. Those who want the priest can have him. The Great Father means that every one shall do as he pleases in regard to receiving the instructions of the priests.”
But the council next day showed no change in the situation. Victor was unwilling to move to the mission, and Alexander to the valley. Neither would object to the other coming to his place. It being evident, after protracted discussion, that no progress would be made by continuing the council that day, and it appearing that an influence was being exerted by the priests of the mission which might be adverse to the views of the government, a messenger was dispatched directing the presence of Father Hoecken for the purpose of investigating it, the council was adjourned over to Friday, and the Indians were recommended to have a feast and a council among themselves on the morrow. Accordingly they had a grand feast on the 12th, the means for which—two beeves, coffee, sugar, flour, etc.—were furnished them, after which the day was spent in discussing the question of the reservation among themselves.
But in council next day they appeared no nearer an agreement, and, after much and fruitless talk, Ambrose, a Flathead chief, said:—
“Yesterday Victor spoke to Alexander. He said: ‘I am not headstrong. The whites picked out a place for us, the best place, and that is the reason I do not want to go. Two years since they passed us. Now the white man has his foot on your ground. The white man will stay with you.’ Yesterday, when we had the feast, then Alexander spoke; he said, ‘Now I will go over to your side. I will let them take my place, and come to your place.’ But Victor did not speak, and the council broke up.”
Governor Stevens: “Alexander, did you agree yesterday to give up your country and join Victor?”
Alexander: “Yes, yesterday I did give up. I listened and he did not give me an answer; then I said, ‘I will not give up my land.’”
Governor Stevens: “I speak now to the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays. Do you agree to this treaty?—the treaty placing the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays on this reservation? [at the mission]. I ask Victor if he declines to treat?”
Victor: “Talk! I have nothing to say now.”
Governor Stevens: “Does Victor want to treat? Why did he not say to Alexander yesterday, ‘Come to my place’? or is not Victor a chief? Is he, as one of his people has called him, an old woman? Dumb as a dog? If Victor is a chief, let him speak now.”
Victor: “I thought, my people, perhaps you would listen. I said, ‘This [at the mission] is my country, and all over here is my country. Some of my people want to be above me. I sit quiet, and before me you give my land away. If I thought so, I would tell the whites to take the land there [the mission]. It is my country. I am listening, and my people say, “Take my country.”’”