Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES IN HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY

We have already given a general view of the first settlement on the Touchet, in what is now Columbia County. But a valuable paper by Judge Chester F. Miller of Dayton, prepared for a club at that city and published in the Chronicle of April 8, 1916, offers some material so fitting for an introduction that we avail ourselves of it here. Judge Miller discusses the meaning of the names of the local streams as follows:

"It is rather unfortunate that the original Indian name Kinnooenim was not retained instead of the rather harsh sounding name of Tucanon. Many people have the idea that Tucanon derived its name from the tradition that some early expedition buried two cannon on its banks when pressed by the Indians, but the early expeditions, both explorers and Indian fighters, did not carry cannon, they did well if they got over the country with their muskets. The first cannon in this section that we read about were at Fort Taylor, at the mouth of the Tucanon, built by Colonel Wright in 1858, which was some time after the creek had received its present name. I am inclined to adopt the theory that the name is derived from 'tukanin,' the Nez Percé name for cowse or Indian bread root, which was generally used by the Indians in making bread. I have some early recollections of trying to eat some Indian bread made from crushed cowse, flavored with grasshopper legs.

"The name Patit, called by the Indians Pat-ti-ta, is somewhat in doubt, one Indian having told me that it was a Nez Percé word meaning small creek. The word Touchet has never been properly identified, but Ed Raboin thought it was from the French, and came from the exclamation 'touche' used in fencing with foils, when one of the fencers touched the other over a vital spot."

The second extract deals with the expulsion of the settlers in the Indian war of 1855:

"Nathan Olney, the Indian agent at The Dalles, made a trip to the Walla Walla country seeking to pacify Peupeumoxmox, but this chief refused the presents offered and repudiated the treaty. Mr. Olney at once ordered all settlers to leave the country. At this time Chase, LaFontain and Brooke left their cabins on the Touchet in Columbia County on their way to The Dalles for supplies; on arriving at the mouth of the Umatilla, they were informed of the Indian uprising, and returned to Whitman mission, where a conference was had, and all the whites agreed to convert the house of Mr. Brooke, just below the present Huntsville, into a fort and stay with the country. Chase and LaFontain returned to their ranches at Dayton and on the day agreed on for the meeting at the Brooke cabin, LaFontain went down to confer with them, and learned that all the others, who had agreed to stay and fight it out, had concluded to abandon their places and leave the country. Chase and LaFontain concluded to stay, and commenced to fortify the Chase house, which was located in the vicinity of the present Pietrzycki residence. They had three transient hired men, who at first agreed to stay, but on the following day the hired men concluded that they had not lost any Indians, and took their departure. Chase and LaFontain completed their stockade, ran a bucketful of bullets, stocked the cabin with provisions, and dug a tunnel to the banks of the Touchet for water in case of siege, and waited for the Indians.

"They remained for ten days longer, when the constant standing guard and waiting for the Indians, who had not appeared, began to wear on their nerves, and they started for the country of the friendly Nez Perces, picking up Louis Raboin on the Tucanon, and at that time not a white man remained in Southeastern Washington. On the next day after they had left the Indians came and burned the Brooke and Chase houses."

Still another interesting extract tells of the controverted point as to the rights and wrongs of the tragic death of Peupeumoxmox, of which we have spoken in the chapter on Indian wars:

"During this Indian war no fighting was done in Columbia County and I will not mention it further than to say that on December 9, 1855, the battle of the Walla Walla was fought, in which Peupeumoxmox was killed by the guards while held as a hostage. Some 1,500 Indians were engaged in this battle against 350 volunteers. The results were twenty volunteers killed and wounded and 100 dead Indians.

"Some writers, particularly Colonel Gilbert, claim that this chief was murdered, and his body mutilated by the guards, but I don't believe it. My father was one of the guards, and he has told me that when the battle commenced this chief began waving his hands and shouting to his warriors, giving them directions in regard to the battle, and that Colonel Kelley rode up and said, 'Tie them or kill them, I don't give a damn which,' and that when the guards proceeded to tie them the Indians began to struggle, and one by the name of Wolfskin broke away and stabbed Sergt. Maj. Isaac Miller in the arm, and that the guards then began to see red, and the whole thing was off."