“The Indians were greatly surprised at Steptoe’s sending a force to my assistance, and Kam-i-ah-kan said on learning it, ‘I will let these men [referring to the regular troops] know who Kam-i-ah-kan is.’”
On the 23d the combined force, accompanied by Craig and the fifty Nez Perce auxiliaries, started for the Dalles, where they arrived on October 2 without incident of moment. Thus, as the governor remarks:—
“Circumstances had brought about the coöperation between the military and the Indian service which had not previously existed, and the words of Steptoe to the hostiles and mine to the friendly Indians corresponded. I had sent messengers to the Nez Perce country directing the friendly Nez Perces to separate from the hostile Nez Perces, and to keep the latter out of their portion of the country. Steptoe sent word that good Indians he would protect, and bad Indians he would punish.”
In truth, a great change had come over Steptoe’s views. The burning of his grass and the attack on his camp were too strong even for the orders of Wool and his own prejudices. He writes to Colonel Wright from his camp on the Umatilla, September 27:—
“In general terms I may say that in my judgment we are reduced to the necessity of waging a vigorous war, striking the Cuyuses at the Grande Ronde, and Kam-i-ah-kan wherever he may be found.”
The day before the attack on the governor, he wrote the same officer:—
“As it is, he [Governor Stevens] complains that I have, by not aiding him, or by not coöperating heartily with him, actually opposed him. This may be so, but I certainly have done for him all, and more than, my instructions warranted.”
The governor warmly commends—
“the admirable conduct of the volunteers and the Indian employees not only during the council, but in all the operations east of the Cascade Mountains.... There was not a single case of injury either to the person or the property of a friendly Indian, or of injury to the persons or property of the hostiles, during the council. The kindness and forbearance of officers and men, agents and employees, even when treated with rudeness by the hostiles, was extraordinary. The strayed cattle and horses of the Indians were restored to them. The volunteers were well supplied, and were not tempted to plunder for subsistence. I have the permission of Colonel Steptoe to refer to him and his officers as witnesses of what I have stated, and have the assurance from Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe that he has reported it to Colonel Wright, and of Colonel Wright that he has forwarded the report to General Wool.”
But Wool’s malignant animosity was not to be abated by the testimony of his own officers. He augmented his charges by declaring that Governor Stevens had called the council on purpose to force war upon the friendly Indians.