We will now leave the Legislative Committee to do their business, as per instructions, and see what our very officious Indian agent and his friend, Rev. Mr. Hines, are about.
During the fall of 1842 and winter and spring of 1843, “our plot thickens.” We must go back a little, and notice, among other things, that as soon as Uncle Samuel’s exploring squadron had looked at Oregon a little and Dr. McLaughlin’s good liquors more (when the infirmities of the stomach required something stronger than water), and had found occasion to express great praise of the kind treatment and generosity of the Hudson’s Bay Company, they also found it convenient to sanction the opposition to a temporary government for the settlement,—at least, Mr. Hines tells us they opposed it,—and leave the company to continue their kicking and changing the bushel, calling in their cattle and pay for all lost, and enter vigorously upon a settled system of opposition to all American settlements in the country. Their Jesuit missions were doing them good service in the interior. Their clerks and interpreters were ready to do their part. The puff-ball of folly and ignorance, in the shape of a sub-Indian agent, had been among the Indians, who were made to believe from his foolish statements,—confirmed or made worse by such old liars as Toupin, as in the case of Parker,—that the great parent was going to make them wise and rich, and give them all they wanted, if they would adopt his advice, and do as he wished them. All things combined aroused Mr. Hines to the solemn conclusion that it was his duty to volunteer and go with our sub-Indian agent, and assist him in pacifying the Indians. I suppose he must have gone in the capacity of prime minister or secretary of state. He says, page 146: “In the evening of the 17th, Dr. White arrived at my house, bringing intelligence from the falls.” Le Breton returned the next day, and reported that Anderson’s horse was stolen by an Indian,—the same that had stolen one from Mr. Hines two years before. Hines had the courage to go and get his horse, but Anderson, who was a Swede, had not. This transaction, it will be remembered, was on April 17, a month after the organizing committee of twelve had been appointed at Gervais’. White and Hines are in council at Hines’ house. The visit to the interior tribes is before the council. White had been up among the Nez Percés and Cayuses in the fall of 1842, and with the aid of McKay (who was the most reliable half-native servant the company ever had), the Indians were induced to form a combination, exactly such a one as Frank Ermatinger, in 1838, told the writer the company would form, with the aid of their half-breed servants, to resist the occupancy of the country by the American government. Mr. Hines’ stupidity led him to believe this was the policy of White, and not that of the company. He says, at the bottom of page 142:
“It had been the policy of the Hudson’s Bay Company to destroy the chieftainship, cut the different tribes into small clans, and divide their interests as far as possible, so as to weaken them, and render them incapable of injuring the whites, thus preventing them from acting in concert.” At the time this policy was adopted by the company there were no whites in the country but themselves. Mr. Hines believes that the American settlement was to be benefited by this shrewd policy of the company, and attributes to Dr. White the opposite policy. He says, page 143, that “the sub-agent adopted a different policy.”
How natural and how easy for his reverence to fall into this error, and to say, on page 142, “Thomas McKay contributed much to allay the excitement among them, and, in connection with the sub-agent, induced the natives to adopt a code of laws and appoint a head chief, and inferior chiefs, sufficient to carry the laws into execution.” Not the least suspicion of McKay’s instructions and the Hudson’s Bay Company’s arrangements and consent in the matter, and that the sub-agent was the very man the company was making use of to get their own trained and educated Indian (Ellis) at the head of the Nez Percé tribe, to accomplish the object they had in view. Mr. Hines has given us a good history, for which we thank him in behalf of truth, and also for the assistance it has given us in showing to the world the damning policy, the accursed influences brought to bear against the little band of patriots that had the courage to contend against such fearful combinations of avarice, stupidity, superstition, and savagism; and here allow me to say, is the reason that Whitman, Harvey Clark, Shortess, Smith, Cornelius Rogers, J. L. Meek, Couch, and fifty others, had no confidence in White or his advisers and friends.
Le Breton acted well his part; the company knew him better than Mr. Hines did; his death was a victory, as they supposed, to them, but the effort moved on. The act of a few Indians, in going to St. Louis in 1832, for religious knowledge, brought Mr. Hines to the country with others more capable of meeting the combined influences of avarice, stupidity, bigotry, and superstition.
And although many things have combined to keep them from any pecuniary reward, still facts, and the history of the country they have saved as the golden gem of our great Republic, will seek to know who it was whose efforts could successfully contend with such influences as were then held by the company, the Jesuit priests, Dr. White, and the Methodist Mission. We now know why our little settlement wept and mourned the death of Rogers, Le Breton, and Whitman, as they were substantial pillars in our temple of liberty on this coast. Does a simple slab mark the place of their rest? Their surviving associates are not able to answer in the affirmative.
It will be borne in mind that while Dr. Whitman was on his way to Washington, Dr. White and Thomas McKay visited the Indians in the interior, in October, 1842,—about one month after Dr. Whitman had left for the States. Mr. Spalding was really more stupid than Mr. Hines in all matters of policy and deep-laid plans to accomplish any object. His courage was strong in ignorance of danger. Mr. Hines had personal courage, but his self-esteem was unbounded. Dr. White was shrewd enough to make use of both. Mr. Spalding was taken with Dr. White’s smooth milk-and-water false statements about his office, powers, and duties. He was led to believe that White had all the powers he professed to have, and lent his influence to McKay to organize and combine the Indian tribes, supposing all the while he was doing it for Dr. White and the American cause.
Messrs. Hines and Spalding were alike in this particular. The reader will not forget that I am speaking of men and their actions, and the influence they had at a certain time, and the effect of those actions upon the Indians and the religious, political, and general interests of the country. Personally, I have no malice against a single man of whom I write; many of them I know are dead, and at the proper time I will give you as faithful an account of their good deeds as I now do of their errors. Besides, I hope the children and friends of all of whom I write, will see and feel the virtue there is in doing right at all times, and, as we are told, “try the spirits,” or persons, “to know whether they are good or evil.”
A large portion of the ninth chapter of Mr. Hines’ book is too important in illustrating truth to be omitted in a history such as we are giving. The reader will understand the observations we have to make, bearing in mind that all these facts have an important bearing on a transaction that occurred four years later. He says:—
“April 14. This settlement has been thrown into a panic by intelligence which has just been received from the upper country, concerning the hostile intentions of the Cayuse, Nez Percé, and Wallawalla Indians. It appears that they have again threatened the destruction of the whites. Some time in October last, Indian report said that these tribes were coming down to kill off the ‘Boston’ people, meaning those from the United States. This intelligence produced considerable excitement at the time, and induced the sub-agent of Indian affairs to go directly to the upper country and ascertain the truth of the report, and, if possible, settle all matters of difficulty. On arriving among the Indians, he ascertained that the report was not without foundation, but entered into such arrangements with them as appeared to give satisfaction. Thomas McKay contributed much to allay the excitement among them, and, in connection with the sub-agent, induced the Nez Percés to adopt a code of laws, and appoint a head chief and inferior chiefs, sufficient to carry the laws into execution.
“It had been the policy of the Hudson’s Bay Company to destroy the chieftainship, cut the different tribes into smaller clans, and divide their interests as far as possible, so as to weaken them, and render them incapable of injuring the whites, by preventing them from acting in concert. But the sub-agent adopted a different policy. The individual appointed to the high chieftainship over the Nez Percés was one Ellis, as he was called by the English, who, having spent several years in the settlement on Red River, east of the mountains, had, with a smattering of the English language, acquired a high sense of his own importance; and, consequently, after he was appointed chief, pursued a very haughty and overbearing course. The fulfillment of the laws which the agent recommended for their adoption was required by Ellis with the utmost rigor. Individuals were severely punished for crimes which, from time immemorial, had been committed by the people with impunity. This occasioned suspicions in the minds of the Indians generally that the whites designed the ultimate subjugation of their tribes. They saw in the laws they had adopted, a deep-laid scheme of the whites to destroy them, and take possession of their country. The arrival of a large party of emigrants about this time, and the sudden departure of Dr. Whitman to the United States, with the avowed intention of bringing back with him as many as he could enlist for Oregon, served to hasten them to the above conclusion. That a great excitement existed among the Indians in the interior, and that they designed to make war upon the settlement, was only known to the whites through the medium of vague report, until a letter was received from H. K. W. Perkins, at the Dalles, in which he informed us that the Wascopum and Wallawalla Indians had communicated to him in substance the following information: That the Indians are very much exasperated against the whites, in consequence of so many of the latter coming into the country, to destroy their game and take away their lands; that the Nez Percés dispatched one of their chiefs last winter on snow-shoes, to visit the Indians in the buffalo country east of Fort Hall, for the purpose of exciting them to cut off the party that it is expected Dr. Whitman will bring back with him to settle the Nez Percé country; that the Indians are endeavoring to form a general coalition for the purpose of destroying all the ‘Boston’ people; that it is not good to kill a part of them, and leave the rest, but that every one of them must be destroyed. This information produced a great excitement throughout the community, and almost every man had a plan of his own by which to avert the impending storm. In the estimation of some, the Indians were to be upon us immediately, and it was unsafe to retire at night, for fear the settlement would be attacked before morning. The plan of the agent was to induce men to pledge themselves, under the forfeiture of one hundred dollars in case of delinquency, to keep constantly on hand and ready for use either a good musket or rifle, and one hundred charges of ammunition, and to hold themselves in readiness to go at the call of the agent to any part of the country, not to exceed two days’ travel for the purpose of defending the settlement, and repelling any savage invaders. This plan pleased some of the people, and they put down their names; but many were much dissatisfied with it; and as we had no authority, no law, no order, for the time being, in the country, it was impossible to tell what would be the result, if the Indians should attempt to carry their threats into execution.”