The day after the conclusion of the council the governor made preparations for returning to the settlements. He decided to withdraw Craig temporarily from the Nez Perce country on the advice of the friendly chiefs, who feared he might be killed by Kam-i-ah-kan’s warriors as a means of embroiling the Nez Perces in war against the whites. Said the Spotted Eagle:—
“If you [Craig] do not return with me, we shall go back as if our eyes were shut. I think my people will not go straight if Craig gets up from that place. But, my friend Craig, on account of the talking I have heard at this place, I am afraid for you.”
That afternoon Steptoe had a conference with the Indians, in which he declared: “My mission is pacific. I have come not to fight you, but to live among you. Come into my camp when you please. I trust we shall live together as friends,” and he appointed the next day for a fuller conference with the chiefs. By this action Steptoe intentionally repelled the governor’s wise recommendation and endeavor to “show the Indians the strength of our people and the unity of our councils.” Reports the governor:—
“Indeed, the Indians looked upon the Indian superintendent and the military officer as not representing a common cause. The former in the morning parts from them, having signally failed in making any arrangement to end the war; the latter speaks to the Indians as though there was no war, and therefore no necessity of making any arrangement at all.
“The Indians, sharp-sighted and constantly on the alert from the merest trifles to draw conclusions as to character and policy, saw there did not exist between the Indian Department and the military the proper coöperation.”
What next occurred is graphically related by the governor, in his report to Secretary of War Davis, as follows:—
I was occupied the remainder of the day and the next morning in establishing Craig’s agency in the neighborhood of Steptoe’s camp, and a little before noon, with some fifty friendly Nez Perces in charge of sub-agent Craig, I started with the train and Goff’s company for the Dalles.
The Indians did not, however, come to see Steptoe at the time appointed. They previously set fire to his grass, and, following me as I set out about eleven o’clock on my way to the Dalles, they attacked me within three miles of Steptoe’s camp at about one o’clock in the afternoon.
So satisfied was I that the Indians would carry into effect the determination avowed in their councils in their own camps for several nights previously to attack me, that in starting I formed my whole party, and moved in order of battle.
I moved on under fire one mile to water, when, forming a corral of the wagons, and holding the adjacent hills and the brush on the stream by pickets, I made my arrangements to defend my position and fight the Indians. Our position in a low, open basin some five hundred or six hundred yards across was good, and with the aid of our corral we could defend ourselves against a vastly superior force of the enemy.