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

by William Denison Lyman

Not all, however, of the Nez Perces approved the tactics of Lawyer. There was a powerful faction that favored the Yakimas, Cayuses, and Walla Wallas. While Governor Stevens had been gradually bringing the main body of the Nez Perces to consent to a treaty assigning certain reservations to them, and was flattering himself that with the aid of Lawyer he was just about to clinch the deal, there was a sudden commotion in the council, and into the midst there burst the old chief Apashwayhayikt (Looking Glass). He had just been on a raid against the Blackfeet, and hearing of the probable outcome of the Walla Walla Council, had made a ride of 300 miles in seven days. With his little band of attendants he came racing over the "bench" on which "Garden City Heights" is now located, and with scalps of several slaughtered Blackfeet dangling from his belt he rushed to the front, and fixing his angry and reproachful eyes upon his tribesmen he broke forth into a harangue which Hazard Stevens was told by some Indians began about thus: "My people, what have you done? While I was gone you sold my country. I have come home and there is not left me a place on which to pitch my lodge. Go home to your lodges. I will talk with you." Lieutenant Kip declares that though he could not understand the words, the effect was tremendous and the speech was equal to the greatest bursts of oratory that he had ever heard. The council broke up and the nearly accepted treaty went to naught.

With great patience and skill Stevens and Lawyer rallied their defeated forces and, in spite of the opposition of Looking Glass they secured the acquiescence of the main body of the Indians to three reservations. These were essentially the same as now known: the Yakima, the Umatilla, and the Nez Percé. In case of the last, however, there was a lamentable and distressing miscarriage of agreement and perhaps of justice. William McBean, already mentioned as a half-breed boy employed by Governor Stevens, stated to the author many years ago that he discovered that the general impression among the Nez Percé Indians was that by accepting the treaty and surrendering their lands in the Touchet, Tucanon, and Alpowa countries, they would be assured of the permanent possession of the Wallowa. Now, if there was any region more suitable to Indians and more loved by them than another, it was that same Wallowa, with its snowy peaks, its lakes and streams filled with fish, its grassy upland with deer and elk, its thickets and groves with grouse and pheasants. The understanding of the "Joseph band" of Nez Perces was, according to McBean, that the loved Wallowa was to be their special range. Upon that supposition they voted with Lawyer for the treaty and that was the determining influence that secured its passage. But twenty years later, white men began to perceive that the Wallowa was also suitable to them. With that lack of continuity in dealing with natives in face of a demand for land by whites which has made most of our Indian treaties mere "scraps of paper," the administration (that of Grant) forgot the understanding, the Indians were dispossessed, and the Nez Percé war with the very people who had saved Stevens in 1855 was precipitated in 1877. Young Joseph (Hallakallakeen) led his warriors in the most spectacular Indian war in the history of this country, as a result of which his band was finally overpowered and located on the Nespilem, a part of the Colville reservation. Kamiakin had seemed to agree to the treaty at Walla Walla. But he was only biding his time. Governor Stevens, having, as he thought, pacified the tribes by that group of treaties, proceeded on a similar mission to the Flatheads in Northern Idaho. There, after long discussion, a treaty was negotiated by which a million and a quarter acres was set aside for a reservation. The next move of the Governor was across the Rocky Mountains to Fort Benton.

But what was happening on the Walla Walla? No sooner was the Governor fairly out of sight across the flower-bespangled plains, which extended 200 miles northeast from Walla Walla, than the wily Kamiakin began to resume his plots. So successful was he, with the valuable assistance of Peupeumoxmox, Young Chief, and Five Crows, that the treaties, just ratified, were torn to shreds and the flame of savage warfare burst forth across the entire Columbia Valley.

Hazard Stevens, in his invaluable history of his father, gives a vivid picture of how the news reached them in their camp, thirty-five miles up the Missouri from Fort Benton. Summer had now passed into autumn. A favorable treaty had been made with the Blackfeet. On October 29th the little party were gathered around their campfire in the frosty air of fall in that high altitude when they discerned a solitary rider making his way slowly toward them. As he drew near they soon saw that it was Pearson, the express rider. Pearson was one of the best examples of those scouts whose lives were spent in conveying messages from forts to parties in the field. He usually traveled alone, and his life was always in his hand. He seemed to be made of steel springs, and it had been thought that he could endure anything. "He could ride anything that wore hair." He rode 1,750 miles in twenty-eight days at one time, one stage of 260 miles having been made in three days. But as he slowly drew up to the party in the cold evening light, it was seen that even Pearson was "done." His horse staggered and fell, and he himself could not stand or speak for some time. After he had been revived he told his story, and a story of disaster and foreboding it was, sure enough.

All the great tribes of the Columbia plains west of the Nez Perces had broken out, the Cayuses, Yakimas, Palouses, Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and Klickitats. They had swept the country clean of whites. The ride of Pearson from The Dalles to the point where he reached Governor Stevens is one of the most thrilling in our annals. By riding all day and night, he reached a horse ranch on the Umatilla belonging to William McKay, but he found the place deserted. Seeing a splendid horse in the bunch near by, he lassoed and saddled him. Though the horse was as wild as air, Pearson managed to mount and start on. Just then there swept into view a force of Indians who, instantly divining what Pearson was trying to do, gave chase. Up and down hill, through vale, and across the rim-rock, they followed, sending frequent bullets after him, and yelling like demons. "Whupsiah si-ah-poo, Whupsiah!" ("Kill the white man!") But the wild horse which the intrepid rider bestrode proved his salvation, for he gradually outran all his pursuers. Traveling through the Walla Walla at night Pearson reached the camp of friendly Nez Percé Red Wolf on the Alpowa the next day, having ridden 200 miles from The Dalles without stopping except the brief time changing horses. Snow and hunger now impeded his course. Part of the way he had to go on snow-shoes without a horse. But with unflinching resolution he passed on, and so now here he was with his dismal tidings.

The dispatches warned Governor Stevens that Kamiakin with a thousand warriors was in the Walla Walla Valley and that it would be impossible for him to get through by that route, and that he must therefore return to the East by the Missouri and come back to his territory by the steamer route of Panama. That meant six months' delay. With characteristic boldness, Governor Stevens at once rejected the more cautious course and went right back to Spokane by Coeur d'Alene Pass, deep already with winter snows, suffering intensely with cold and hunger, but avoiding by that route the Indians sent out to intercept him. With extraordinary address, he succeeding in turning the Spokane Indians to his side. The Nez Perces, thanks to Lawyer's fidelity, were still friendly, and with these two powerful tribes arrayed against the Yakimas, there was still hope of holding the Columbia Valley.

After many adventures, Governor Stevens reached Olympia in safety. Govornor Curry of Oregon had already called a force of volunteers into the field. The Oregon volunteers were divided into two divisions, one under Col. J. W. Nesmith, which went into the Yakima country, and the other under Lieut.-Col. J. K. Kelly, which went to Walla Walla. The latter force fought the decisive battle of the campaign on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of December, 1855. It was a series of engagements occurring in the heart of the Walla Walla Valley, a "running fight" culminating at what is now called Frenchtown, ten miles west of the present City of Walla Walla.

The famous battle of the Walla Walla, being so conspicuous and so near the present city, is worthy of some detail. The report of Col. J. K. Kelley is as follows:

"On the evening of the 8th inst., I gave you a hasty report of our battle with Indians up to the close of the second day's fight, and then stated that at a future time I would give a more detailed account of all transactions that occurred since the march from the Umatilla River. Owing to active engagements in the field, and in pursuit of the Indians, I have not hitherto had leisure to make that report.