In times of peace the influence of the Catholic missionaries is good in that quarter, and their good offices are desirable till some outrage is committed, or war breaks out. But since the war has broken out, whilst they have made every exertion to protect individuals, and to prevent other tribes joining in the war, they have occupied a position which cannot be filled on earth,—a position between the hostiles and the Americans. So great has been their desire for peace that they have overlooked all right, propriety, justice, necessity, siding with the Indians, siding with the Americans, but advising the latter particularly to agree to all the demands of the former,—murderers to go free, treaties to be abrogated, whites to retire to the settlements. And the Indians, seeing that the missionaries are on their side, are fortified in the belief that they are fighting in a holy cause. I state on my official responsibility that the influence of the Catholic missionaries in the upper country has latterly been most baneful and pernicious.
Again, what is the interest of the Hudson Bay Company? There are unquestionably large deposits of gold, both north and south of the 49th parallel, east of the Cascade Mountains. A road has been made connecting Fraser River with the British interior, and the Hudson Bay Company have established a post in connection therewith on the main Columbia, north of the 49th parallel. This post and Fort Colville were supplied over this road the present year.
I ask again, what is the interest of the Hudson Bay Company? Most unquestionably to develop the British interior and its mines of gold, and to keep the Americans out, which will be most effectually accomplished by yielding to the demands of the Indians east of the Cascades, and making peace by an abandonment of the country.
I charge no man of that company with collusion with the Indians, but I know what human nature is; it will look out sharply for its own interests, and the interest of the Hudson Bay Company is the same as the Indian conceives to be his interest in that quarter.
It will be impossible for Dr. Lansdale to return to the Flathead agency this year; both the hostility of the Indians through whose country he would have to pass and the lateness of the season forbid it. I regret this, as the Flathead nation have stood firmly by the Blackfoot treaty, and take a proper view of the acts of the hostiles between the Cascades and the Bitter Root.
Thus, sir, east of the main Columbia the result of the operations of the regular troops has been that I am compelled to withdraw all my agents, except that it is barely possible that Craig, when he reaches the Walla Walla valley on his return, may be able to go to the Nez Perce country.
What is the remedy for this state of things? I answer, vigorous military operations,—the whipping of hostile Indians into absolute submission, the hanging of murderers on conviction, and the planting of these Indians on reserves established by Congress.
Agent Craig did return to Lapwai at the request of the Lawyer.
The soundness of Governor Stevens’s views and the accuracy of his foresight were abundantly vindicated within two years. During the following year, 1857, the settlers were excluded, the regulars lay inactive in their posts, and the quasi-peace continued. But in 1858 the Yakimas waxed too insolent and predatory for even Wright’s patience. He sent Major Garnett through their country with a large force, who summarily seized and hanged a number of the chiefs and warriors, shot seven hundred of their ponies, and these severe acts humbled the haughty savages and reduced them to good behavior at last.
Colonel Wright also ordered Steptoe, with two hundred dragoons, to advance from Walla Walla across Snake River towards Spokane. The Spokanes had warned the troops not to invade their country, alleging that they were neutral, and would permit neither the Yakima braves nor the white soldiers to enter their limits. Disregarding this warning, Steptoe marched some eighty miles north of the Snake, when he was assailed by the whole force of the Spokanes and Cœur d’Alenes, badly defeated, and driven in precipitate retreat the whole distance back to Snake River, hotly pursued by the victorious Indians, and his force was only saved from massacre by the friendly Nez Perces, who ferried the fugitive troops over the river in their canoes, and boldly interposed between them and the pursuing savages.