“The Blackfeet have troubled us very much. I am going to tell what has happened since you were here. Twelve men have been killed when out hunting, not on war-parties. I fear the whites and keep quiet. I cannot tell how many horses have been stolen since. Now I listen, and hear what you wish me to do. Were it not for you, I would have had my revenge ere this. They have stolen horses seven times this spring.”
“The Blackfeet have troubled us very much. I am going to tell what has happened since you were here. Twelve men have been killed when out hunting, not on war-parties. I fear the whites and keep quiet. I cannot tell how many horses have been stolen since. Now I listen, and hear what you wish me to do. Were it not for you, I would have had my revenge ere this. They have stolen horses seven times this spring.”
The chiefs then returned to their camp, promising to attend the council the following Monday.
The Flatheads or Salish, including the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays, were among those who had been driven westward by the Blackfeet, and now occupied the pleasant valleys of the mountains. They were noted for their intelligence, honesty, and bravery, and although of medium stature and inferior in physique to the brawny Blackfeet, never hesitated to attack them if the odds were not greater than five to one. Having been supplied by the early fur traders with firearms, which enabled them to make a stand against their outnumbering foe, they had always been the firm friends of the whites, and, like the Nez Perces, often hunted with the mountain men, and entertained them in their lodges. A number of Iroquois hunters and half-breeds had joined and intermarried with them. The Bitter Root valley was the seat of the Flatheads proper. The Pend Oreilles lived lower down the river, or northward, in two bands, the upper Pend Oreilles on the Horse Plains and Jocko prairies, and the lower Pend Oreilles on Clark’s Fork, below the lake of their name, and were canoe Indians, owning few horses. The Koo-te-nays lived about the Flathead River and Lake. All these, except the lower Pend Oreilles, went to buffalo, and their hunting-trips were spiced with the constant peril and excitement of frequent skirmishes with their hereditary enemies. The Jesuits, in 1843, established a mission among the lower Pend Oreilles, but in 1854moved to the Flathead River, near the mouth of the Jocko. They also started a mission among the Flatheads in the Bitter Root valley, forty miles above Hell Gate, where they founded the beautiful village of St. Mary, amid charming scenery; but the incessant raids of the Blackfeet were slowly but surely “wiping out” these brave and interesting Indians, and the mission was abandoned in 1850 as too much exposed. The Owen brothers then started a trading-post at this point, which they named Fort Owen; and fourteen miles above it Lieutenant Mullan built his winter camp in 1853, known as Cantonment Stevens, which has been succeeded by the town of Stevensville. The term “Flathead” was a misnomer, as none of them practiced the custom of flattening the head.
After a quiet and restful Sunday in both camps the Indians assembled at the appointed time, and the council was opened on Monday, July 9, at half past oneP.M., by the governor, in a long speech, explaining, as at the other councils, the terms and advantages proffered by the government. Although the Indians were extremely friendly, and very desirous of “following the white man’s road” and coming under the protection of the Great Father, their only apparent refuge from the fierce Blackfeet, whose incessant raids threatened them with speedy extinction, the council proved unexpectedly difficult and protracted, lasting eight days, and the treaty was only saved by Governor Stevens’s persistence and astuteness in accepting an alternative proposition offered by Victor at the last moment. The chronic objection of every tribe to leaving its own country and going on a reservation in the territory of another was the stumbling-block.
The governor required the three tribes, as they were really one people, being all Salish, speaking a common language, and closely intermarried and allied, and also reduced in numbers, to unite upon one reservation. He offered to set apart a tract for them either in the upper Bitter Root valley in Victor’s country, or the Horse Plains and Jocko River in the Pend Oreille territory, as they might prefer, and urged them to decide and agree among themselves upon one of these locations; but neither tribe was willing to abandon its wonted region, where theywere accustomed to pitch their lodges, and where their dead were buried. The following brief extracts from the proceedings give an idea of the course of the difficult and at times stormy and vexatious negotiations.
When the governor finished Victor said:—
“I am very tired now, and my people. You [the governor] are the only man who has offered to help us.... I have two places, here is mine [pointing out Bitter Root valley on the map], and this is mine [pointing out Flathead River and Clark’s Fork]. I will think of it, and tell you which is best. I believe you wish to assist me to help my children here so that they may have plenty to eat, and so that they may save their souls.”Alexander: “You are talking to me now, my Big Father. You have told me you have to make your own laws to punish your children. I love my children. I think I could not head them off to make them go straight. I think it is with you to do so. If I take your own way, your law, my people then will be frightened. These growing people [young people] are all the same. Perhaps those who come after them may see it well before them. I do not know your laws. Perhaps, if we see a rope, if we see how it punishes, we will be frightened. When the priest talked to them, tried to teach them, they all left him. My children, maybe when the whites teach you, you may see it before you. Now this is my ground. We are poor, we Indians. The priest is settled over there [pointing across the mountains towards the north, the direction of his country]. There, where he is, I am very well satisfied. I will talk hereafter about the ground. I am done for to-day.”
“I am very tired now, and my people. You [the governor] are the only man who has offered to help us.... I have two places, here is mine [pointing out Bitter Root valley on the map], and this is mine [pointing out Flathead River and Clark’s Fork]. I will think of it, and tell you which is best. I believe you wish to assist me to help my children here so that they may have plenty to eat, and so that they may save their souls.”
Alexander: “You are talking to me now, my Big Father. You have told me you have to make your own laws to punish your children. I love my children. I think I could not head them off to make them go straight. I think it is with you to do so. If I take your own way, your law, my people then will be frightened. These growing people [young people] are all the same. Perhaps those who come after them may see it well before them. I do not know your laws. Perhaps, if we see a rope, if we see how it punishes, we will be frightened. When the priest talked to them, tried to teach them, they all left him. My children, maybe when the whites teach you, you may see it before you. Now this is my ground. We are poor, we Indians. The priest is settled over there [pointing across the mountains towards the north, the direction of his country]. There, where he is, I am very well satisfied. I will talk hereafter about the ground. I am done for to-day.”
In this speech Alexander expresses the difficulty he has to manage his unruly young people, and his fear that the white rule might prove too strict for them.
THE FLATHEAD COUNCIL
THE FLATHEAD COUNCIL
Red Wing, a Flathead chief: “We gathered up yesterday the three peoples you see here. They think they are three nations. I thought these nations were going to talk each about its own land. Now I hear the governor: my land is all cut up in pieces. I thought we had two places. This ground is theFlatheads’, that across the mountains is the Pend Oreilles’; perhaps not, perhaps we are all one. We made up another mind yesterday, to-day it is different. We will go back and have another council.”
Red Wing, a Flathead chief: “We gathered up yesterday the three peoples you see here. They think they are three nations. I thought these nations were going to talk each about its own land. Now I hear the governor: my land is all cut up in pieces. I thought we had two places. This ground is theFlatheads’, that across the mountains is the Pend Oreilles’; perhaps not, perhaps we are all one. We made up another mind yesterday, to-day it is different. We will go back and have another council.”
The governor adjourned the council to the next day, urging them to talk and agree among themselves as to the reservation.
The following day the governor called on the chiefs to speak their minds freely.
Big Canoe, a Pend Oreille chief, made a long and sententious speech, in which he deprecated making any treaty, or parting with any of his country, and thought the whites and Indians could live together in the same land:—
“Talk about treaty, when did I kill you? When did you kill me? What is the reason we are talking about treaties? We are friends. We never spilt the blood of one of you. I never saw your blood. I want my country. I thought no one would ever want to talk about my country. Now you talk, you white men. Now I have heard, I wish the whites to stop coming. Perhaps you will put me in a trap if I do not listen to you, white chiefs. It is our land, both of us. If you make a farm, I would not go there and pull up your crops. I would not drive you away from it. If I were to go to your country and say, ‘Give me a little piece,’ I wonder would you say, ‘Here, take it.’ I expect that is the same way you want me to do here. This country you want to settle here, me with you.... You tell us, ‘Give us your land.’ I am very poor. This is all the small piece I have got. I am not going to let it go. I did not come to make trouble; therefore I would say, I am very poor....“It is two winters since you passed here. Every year since, my horses have gone to the Blackfeet. Here this spring the Blackfeet put my daughter on foot. She packed her goods on her back. It made me feel bad. I was going on a war-party as your express passed along. Then I think of what I heard from you, my father, and take my heart back and keep quiet.If I had not listened to your express, I should have gone on war-parties over yonder. We drove one band of horses from the Blackfeet. I talked about it to my Indians. I said, ‘Give the horses back, my children.’ My chief took them back. You talked about it strong, my father. My chief took them back. That is the way we act. When I found my children were going on war-parties, I would tell them to stop, be quiet; tell them I expect now we will see the chief; I expect he will talk to the Blackfeet again.”Governor Stevens: “I will ask you, my children, if you fully understand all that was said yesterday? I ask you now, can you all agree to live on one reservation? I ask Victor, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays? I ask Alexander, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Koo-te-nays? I ask Michelle, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles? What do you, Victor, Alexander, and Michelle, think? You are the head chiefs. I want you to speak.”Victor: “I am willing to go on one reservation, but I do not want to go over yonder” [Pend Oreille country].Alexander: “It is good for us all to stop in one place.”Michelle: “I am with Alexander.”Governor Stevens: “The Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays think it well to have all these tribes together. Perhaps Victor might think so by and by, if the place suits. Alexander and Michelle wish to live together, their people on one place,—they have a thousand people, the land ought to be good. Each man wants his field. The climate ought to be mild....“I ask Victor, Alexander, and Michelle to think it over. Will they go to the valley with Victor, or to the mission with Alexander and Michelle? I do not care which. You will have your priests with you, whether you go to the mission or Fort Owen. Those who want the priest can have him. The Great Father means that every one shall do as he pleases in regard to receiving the instructions of the priests.”
“Talk about treaty, when did I kill you? When did you kill me? What is the reason we are talking about treaties? We are friends. We never spilt the blood of one of you. I never saw your blood. I want my country. I thought no one would ever want to talk about my country. Now you talk, you white men. Now I have heard, I wish the whites to stop coming. Perhaps you will put me in a trap if I do not listen to you, white chiefs. It is our land, both of us. If you make a farm, I would not go there and pull up your crops. I would not drive you away from it. If I were to go to your country and say, ‘Give me a little piece,’ I wonder would you say, ‘Here, take it.’ I expect that is the same way you want me to do here. This country you want to settle here, me with you.... You tell us, ‘Give us your land.’ I am very poor. This is all the small piece I have got. I am not going to let it go. I did not come to make trouble; therefore I would say, I am very poor....
“It is two winters since you passed here. Every year since, my horses have gone to the Blackfeet. Here this spring the Blackfeet put my daughter on foot. She packed her goods on her back. It made me feel bad. I was going on a war-party as your express passed along. Then I think of what I heard from you, my father, and take my heart back and keep quiet.If I had not listened to your express, I should have gone on war-parties over yonder. We drove one band of horses from the Blackfeet. I talked about it to my Indians. I said, ‘Give the horses back, my children.’ My chief took them back. You talked about it strong, my father. My chief took them back. That is the way we act. When I found my children were going on war-parties, I would tell them to stop, be quiet; tell them I expect now we will see the chief; I expect he will talk to the Blackfeet again.”
Governor Stevens: “I will ask you, my children, if you fully understand all that was said yesterday? I ask you now, can you all agree to live on one reservation? I ask Victor, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays? I ask Alexander, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Koo-te-nays? I ask Michelle, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles? What do you, Victor, Alexander, and Michelle, think? You are the head chiefs. I want you to speak.”
Victor: “I am willing to go on one reservation, but I do not want to go over yonder” [Pend Oreille country].
Alexander: “It is good for us all to stop in one place.”
Michelle: “I am with Alexander.”
Governor Stevens: “The Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays think it well to have all these tribes together. Perhaps Victor might think so by and by, if the place suits. Alexander and Michelle wish to live together, their people on one place,—they have a thousand people, the land ought to be good. Each man wants his field. The climate ought to be mild....
“I ask Victor, Alexander, and Michelle to think it over. Will they go to the valley with Victor, or to the mission with Alexander and Michelle? I do not care which. You will have your priests with you, whether you go to the mission or Fort Owen. Those who want the priest can have him. The Great Father means that every one shall do as he pleases in regard to receiving the instructions of the priests.”
But the council next day showed no change in the situation. Victor was unwilling to move to the mission, and Alexander to the valley. Neither would object tothe other coming to his place. It being evident, after protracted discussion, that no progress would be made by continuing the council that day, and it appearing that an influence was being exerted by the priests of the mission which might be adverse to the views of the government, a messenger was dispatched directing the presence of Father Hoecken for the purpose of investigating it, the council was adjourned over to Friday, and the Indians were recommended to have a feast and a council among themselves on the morrow. Accordingly they had a grand feast on the 12th, the means for which—two beeves, coffee, sugar, flour, etc.—were furnished them, after which the day was spent in discussing the question of the reservation among themselves.
But in council next day they appeared no nearer an agreement, and, after much and fruitless talk, Ambrose, a Flathead chief, said:—
“Yesterday Victor spoke to Alexander. He said: ‘I am not headstrong. The whites picked out a place for us, the best place, and that is the reason I do not want to go. Two years since they passed us. Now the white man has his foot on your ground. The white man will stay with you.’ Yesterday, when we had the feast, then Alexander spoke; he said, ‘Now I will go over to your side. I will let them take my place, and come to your place.’ But Victor did not speak, and the council broke up.”Governor Stevens: “Alexander, did you agree yesterday to give up your country and join Victor?”Alexander: “Yes, yesterday I did give up. I listened and he did not give me an answer; then I said, ‘I will not give up my land.’”Governor Stevens: “I speak now to the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays. Do you agree to this treaty?—the treaty placing the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays on this reservation? [at the mission]. I ask Victor if he declines to treat?”Victor: “Talk! I have nothing to say now.”Governor Stevens: “Does Victor want to treat? Why didhe not say to Alexander yesterday, ‘Come to my place’? or is not Victor a chief? Is he, as one of his people has called him, an old woman? Dumb as a dog? If Victor is a chief, let him speak now.”Victor: “I thought, my people, perhaps you would listen. I said, ‘This [at the mission] is my country, and all over here is my country. Some of my people want to be above me. I sit quiet, and before me you give my land away. If I thought so, I would tell the whites to take the land there [the mission]. It is my country. I am listening, and my people say, “Take my country.”’”Governor Stevens: “Alexander said yesterday that he would come up here. Why did you not answer and say ‘Come’?”Victor: “Yesterday I did talk.”Governor Stevens: “Alexander said yesterday he offered to give up his land and go to you. Alexander says you made no answer. Why did you not say, ‘Yes, come to my place’?”Victor: “I did not understand it so.”Governor Stevens: “Ambrose says he understood Alexander to say so. Alexander says he said so. You did not speak and say, ‘Come to my place,’ but you were dumb. Does Victor mean to say that he will neither let Alexander come to his place nor go to Alexander’s?”
“Yesterday Victor spoke to Alexander. He said: ‘I am not headstrong. The whites picked out a place for us, the best place, and that is the reason I do not want to go. Two years since they passed us. Now the white man has his foot on your ground. The white man will stay with you.’ Yesterday, when we had the feast, then Alexander spoke; he said, ‘Now I will go over to your side. I will let them take my place, and come to your place.’ But Victor did not speak, and the council broke up.”
Governor Stevens: “Alexander, did you agree yesterday to give up your country and join Victor?”
Alexander: “Yes, yesterday I did give up. I listened and he did not give me an answer; then I said, ‘I will not give up my land.’”
Governor Stevens: “I speak now to the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays. Do you agree to this treaty?—the treaty placing the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays on this reservation? [at the mission]. I ask Victor if he declines to treat?”
Victor: “Talk! I have nothing to say now.”
Governor Stevens: “Does Victor want to treat? Why didhe not say to Alexander yesterday, ‘Come to my place’? or is not Victor a chief? Is he, as one of his people has called him, an old woman? Dumb as a dog? If Victor is a chief, let him speak now.”
Victor: “I thought, my people, perhaps you would listen. I said, ‘This [at the mission] is my country, and all over here is my country. Some of my people want to be above me. I sit quiet, and before me you give my land away. If I thought so, I would tell the whites to take the land there [the mission]. It is my country. I am listening, and my people say, “Take my country.”’”
Governor Stevens: “Alexander said yesterday that he would come up here. Why did you not answer and say ‘Come’?”
Victor: “Yesterday I did talk.”
Governor Stevens: “Alexander said yesterday he offered to give up his land and go to you. Alexander says you made no answer. Why did you not say, ‘Yes, come to my place’?”
Victor: “I did not understand it so.”
Governor Stevens: “Ambrose says he understood Alexander to say so. Alexander says he said so. You did not speak and say, ‘Come to my place,’ but you were dumb. Does Victor mean to say that he will neither let Alexander come to his place nor go to Alexander’s?”
Ambrose, Til-coos-tay, Red Wolf, and Bear Tracks, Flathead chiefs, took up the discussion, pouring oil on the troubled waters, and excusing Victor for not speaking in answer to Alexander at their own council.
At length the governor said:—
“My children, I find that things are nearer to an agreement than when we began talking this morning. Ambrose says the people are not quite prepared, but will be ready by and by. Ambrose says, ‘Be patient and listen.’ I am patient, and have been patient and listened to them. Others of you have said they they were hiding their minds and did not speak; hence I reproved you and said, ’speak out, let us have your hearts.’ It seems many of the Flatheads are ready to go to the mission. If their chief says so, they will go. Victor says, ‘I am ready to go, but my people will not;’ but the people say they are readyto go. We want all parties to speak straight, to let us have their hearts, then we can agree. If Victor’s people will go, we want Victor as a chief to say, ‘I will go.’”
“My children, I find that things are nearer to an agreement than when we began talking this morning. Ambrose says the people are not quite prepared, but will be ready by and by. Ambrose says, ‘Be patient and listen.’ I am patient, and have been patient and listened to them. Others of you have said they they were hiding their minds and did not speak; hence I reproved you and said, ’speak out, let us have your hearts.’ It seems many of the Flatheads are ready to go to the mission. If their chief says so, they will go. Victor says, ‘I am ready to go, but my people will not;’ but the people say they are readyto go. We want all parties to speak straight, to let us have their hearts, then we can agree. If Victor’s people will go, we want Victor as a chief to say, ‘I will go.’”
Victor here arose and left the council. After a pause of some minutes Governor Stevens said:—
“I will ask Ambrose where is Victor?”Ambrose: “He is gone home.”Governor Stevens: “Ambrose, speaking of Victor, said he wanted time. Victor is now thinking and studying over this matter. We don’t wish to drive or hurry you in this business. Think over this matter to-night, and meet here to-morrow. I ask Ambrose to speak to Victor and tell him what I say. Ambrose loves his chief, let him take my words to him.”
“I will ask Ambrose where is Victor?”
Ambrose: “He is gone home.”
Governor Stevens: “Ambrose, speaking of Victor, said he wanted time. Victor is now thinking and studying over this matter. We don’t wish to drive or hurry you in this business. Think over this matter to-night, and meet here to-morrow. I ask Ambrose to speak to Victor and tell him what I say. Ambrose loves his chief, let him take my words to him.”
He then adjourned the council to meet in the morning.
But the following day word was sent by Victor to the governor that he had not yet made up his mind, and the council was postponed to Monday morning.
When the council opened at eleven Monday morning, Victor said:—
“I am now going to talk. I was not content. You gave me a very small place. Then I thought, here they are giving away my land. That is my country over there at the mission, this also. Plenty of you say Victor is the chief of the Flatheads. The place you pointed out above is too small. From Lo Lo Fork above should belong to me. My stock will have room, and if the Blackfeet will let my horses alone, they will increase. I believe that you wish to help me, and that my people will do well there. We will send this word to the Great Father. Come and look at our country. When you look at Alexander’s place, and say the land is good, and say, Come, Victor, I will go. If you think this above is good land, then Victor will say, Come here, Alexander. Then our children will be well content. That is the way we will make the treaty, my father.”Governor Stevens: “Victor has spoken. Do Alexander and Michelle speak in the same way? I will ask Alexander if he agrees.”Alexander: “Maybe we cannot all come together. Here isMichelle, I know his mind. He told me, you go this way, I won’t go. Here are the lower Pend Oreilles. Maybe they are the same way. They have no horses; they have only canoes. I am very heavy, as though they tied me there.”Michelle: “I am just following Alexander’s mind. If he goes this way, I will not go. I have come a long way to see you; when you leave I go back.”
“I am now going to talk. I was not content. You gave me a very small place. Then I thought, here they are giving away my land. That is my country over there at the mission, this also. Plenty of you say Victor is the chief of the Flatheads. The place you pointed out above is too small. From Lo Lo Fork above should belong to me. My stock will have room, and if the Blackfeet will let my horses alone, they will increase. I believe that you wish to help me, and that my people will do well there. We will send this word to the Great Father. Come and look at our country. When you look at Alexander’s place, and say the land is good, and say, Come, Victor, I will go. If you think this above is good land, then Victor will say, Come here, Alexander. Then our children will be well content. That is the way we will make the treaty, my father.”
Governor Stevens: “Victor has spoken. Do Alexander and Michelle speak in the same way? I will ask Alexander if he agrees.”
Alexander: “Maybe we cannot all come together. Here isMichelle, I know his mind. He told me, you go this way, I won’t go. Here are the lower Pend Oreilles. Maybe they are the same way. They have no horses; they have only canoes. I am very heavy, as though they tied me there.”
Michelle: “I am just following Alexander’s mind. If he goes this way, I will not go. I have come a long way to see you; when you leave I go back.”
The governor again asked them if they would agree to Victor’s proposition, and go to the reservation which was found best adapted to their needs after survey and examination, but both chiefs positively refused.
The governor then cut the knot by accepting Victor’s proposition as far as it concerned him, and giving the others the reservation at the mission:—
“My children, Victor has made his proposition. Alexander and Michelle have made theirs. We will make a treaty for them. Both tracts shall be surveyed. If the mission is the best land, Victor shall live there. If the valley is the best land, Victor shall stay here. Alexander and Michelle may stay at the mission....“I ask Victor to come up and sign the treaty. [He came up and signed.] Now I ask Alexander and Michelle.” [They also then signed.]
“My children, Victor has made his proposition. Alexander and Michelle have made theirs. We will make a treaty for them. Both tracts shall be surveyed. If the mission is the best land, Victor shall live there. If the valley is the best land, Victor shall stay here. Alexander and Michelle may stay at the mission....
“I ask Victor to come up and sign the treaty. [He came up and signed.] Now I ask Alexander and Michelle.” [They also then signed.]
Moses, a Flathead chief, on being called on to sign, refused. He stepped forward, and said:—
“My brother is buried here. I did not think you would take the only piece of ground I had. Here are three fellows [the head chiefs]; they say, ‘Get on your horses and go.’ ... Last year, when you were talking about the Blackfeet, you were joking.”Governor Stevens: “How can Moses say I am not going to the Blackfoot country? I have gone all the way to the Great Father to arrange about the Blackfoot council. What more can I do? A man is coming from the Great Father to meet me. Does he not know that Mr. Burr and another man went to Fort Benton the other day?”Moses: “You have pulled all my wings off, and then let me down.”Governor Stevens: “All that we have done is for your benefit. I have said that the Flatheads were brave and honest, and should be protected. Be patient. Everything will come right.”Moses: “I do not know how it will be straight. A few days ago the Blackfeet stole horses at Salmon River.”Governor Stevens: “Ask him if he sees the Nez Perce chief, Eagle-from-the-Light; he is going to the Blackfoot council with me.”Moses: “Yes, I see him. They will get his hair. The Blackfeet are not like these people. They are all drunk.”
“My brother is buried here. I did not think you would take the only piece of ground I had. Here are three fellows [the head chiefs]; they say, ‘Get on your horses and go.’ ... Last year, when you were talking about the Blackfeet, you were joking.”
Governor Stevens: “How can Moses say I am not going to the Blackfoot country? I have gone all the way to the Great Father to arrange about the Blackfoot council. What more can I do? A man is coming from the Great Father to meet me. Does he not know that Mr. Burr and another man went to Fort Benton the other day?”
Moses: “You have pulled all my wings off, and then let me down.”
Governor Stevens: “All that we have done is for your benefit. I have said that the Flatheads were brave and honest, and should be protected. Be patient. Everything will come right.”
Moses: “I do not know how it will be straight. A few days ago the Blackfeet stole horses at Salmon River.”
Governor Stevens: “Ask him if he sees the Nez Perce chief, Eagle-from-the-Light; he is going to the Blackfoot council with me.”
Moses: “Yes, I see him. They will get his hair. The Blackfeet are not like these people. They are all drunk.”
All the principal men came forward and signed the treaty. Governor Stevens then said:—
“Here are three papers which you have signed, copies of the same treaty. One goes to the President, one I place in the hands of the head chief, and one I keep myself. Everything that has been said here goes to the President. I have now a few presents for you. They are simply a gift, no part of the payments. The payments cannot be made until we hear from the President next year.”
“Here are three papers which you have signed, copies of the same treaty. One goes to the President, one I place in the hands of the head chief, and one I keep myself. Everything that has been said here goes to the President. I have now a few presents for you. They are simply a gift, no part of the payments. The payments cannot be made until we hear from the President next year.”
The presents were then distributed. The chiefs were then requested to assemble on the morrow with regard to the Blackfoot council.
Thus successfully and happily terminated this protracted council, “every man pleased and every man satisfied,” says the governor. Twelve hundred Indians were present on the treaty ground.
The jealousy and pride of the chiefs, Victor and Alexander, greatly increased the difficulty of coming to an agreement. The former repeatedly asserted his chieftainship over both tribes by claiming that the countries of both were his, a claim that Alexander offered to recognize if Victor would move to the Horse Plains (mission) reservation. Alexander claimed to be chief of the lower Pend Oreilles, a claim the governor summarily rejected. Theinfluence and advice of the former Hudson Bay Company employees and half-breeds, to this and to the other treaties, was prejudicial, instigating the Indians to make unreasonable demands, and often opposing and misrepresenting the treaties themselves.
Father Hoecken arrived before the end of the council, in response to the governor’s summons. It did not appear that he was exerting any adverse influence. On the contrary, he highly approved the treaty, and signed it as one of the witnesses. It seems, however, as the governor reported, that the dislike of the Flatheads to the mission establishment was one cause of their unwillingness to move to the reservation in the Pend Oreille country. It is probable that the missionaries at St. Mary’s had been too strict and exacting for their independent natures. Moreover, it was the fact, as the governor had cause to realize later, that the missionaries feared and dreaded the approach of the settlers, and sympathized wholly with the Indians as between the two.
This treaty, like all made by Governor Stevens, was remarkably liberal in its terms to the Indians. The reservation on the Flathead River comprises a million and a quarter acres. $84,000 in annuity goods; $36,000 to improve the reservation; salaries of $500 a year for twenty years, with a house and ten acres fenced and ploughed, to the three head chiefs; schools, mills, hospitals, shops; teachers and mechanics for twenty years; the right to fish, hunt, gather roots and berries, and pasture stock on vacant land; and the provision for ultimately dividing the reservation among them in severalty,—were all embraced. It was agreed that the three tribes were to constitute one nation under Victor as head chief, to be known as the Flathead nation, in which, and on the same reservation, were to be included other friendly tribes, as the lower Pend Oreilles and Cœur d’Alenes. BesidesFather Hoecken, R.H. Lansdale, W.H. Tappan, R.H. Crosby, Gustavus Sohon, and William Craig witnessed the treaty. Some 25,000 square miles were ceded.
All three tribes now occupy the reservation on the Jocko (mission), together with the lower Pend Oreilles and a few Spokanes. They number 2000, showing little diminution since the treaty, and have made fair progress. Nearly all have houses with some land inclosed. Many raise small crops of wheat and have good gardens. They have 20,000 acres under fence, over ten miles of irrigation ditches, and raised last year 25,000 bushels of grain, 10,000 bushels of vegetables, and 7000 tons of hay. Their lands have not yet been allotted in severalty. The agent complains that worthless employees are frequently foisted upon the agency, “many incompetent men hold positions who take no interest in their work,”[8]etc.,—a state of things equally unfair to the Indians and disgraceful to the government.
Before the close of the council, agents Tappan and Craig arrived with the proposed delegation of Nez Perces under Looking Glass, Spotted Eagle, Eagle-from-the-Light, and other chiefs. It was agreed that they and the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles, under their chiefs Victor and Alexander, and accompanied by agent Thomas Adams and interpreter Ben Kiser, should cross the mountains to the buffalo country, and hunt on the plains south of the Missouri, until the time came for holding the great peace council at Fort Benton, of which they would be notified. Their agents were instructed to keep the governor informed of their whereabouts by frequent expresses, and to guard against collisions with the Blackfoot war-parties, and also to communicate with the Crow Indians and induce them to attend the council. Dr. Lansdale, agent for the Flathead nation, remained, and during the summer made extensive examinations of the reservation on the Flathead River and the surrounding country.
These arrangements completed, on Wednesday, July 18, the second day after the close of the council, the governor dispatched Pearson, who had just returned to the party after his rapid trip to Olympia from the Walla Walla council, with full reports of the council just held, and letters to the Indian and territorial officers in Olympia, and resumed the march to Fort Benton, crossing for six miles the broad level valley here known as the Hell Gate Ronde, and passing the deep, dark portal of thatname,[9]and, six miles beyond it, encamped on the Hell Gate River. During the next five days and one hundred miles the party traversed the broad plateau of the great mountain chain over a beautiful rolling country of wide grassy valleys and gently rolling prairies, interspersed with low wooded hills and spurs, and well watered by clear, cold, rapid mountain streams. It was hard to realize that this beautiful and diversified prairie country was the top of the Rocky Mountains, the backbone of the continent. At the second day’s camp the Indian hunter and guide, a Pend Oreille furnished by Alexander, brought in a fine string of mountain trout, and, not content with this, started out again, and soon returned with an elk, and after this the messes were rarely out of game,—elk, deer, antelope, and mountain trout. The trail followed up the Hell Gate and its chief tributary, the Big Blackfoot, the route of 1853, and crossed the divide by Lewis and Clark’s Pass. From the summit the governor obtained a magnificent and beautiful view of the country about an hour before sunset, the main chain stretching far to the north, and the broad plains, broken by many streams and coulees, extending eastward as far as the eye could reach, like an illimitable sea.
He spent the whole day, with Doty and Sohon, examining the approaches to the summit pass, and those to Cadotte’s Pass, ten miles farther south, and determining altitudes and grades, and reached camp long after dark, well fatigued with the day’s work. Throughout the expedition the governor was constantly examining the topographical features of the country. He would frequently ride ahead of the train, and, sitting on a log or on the ground, would write up his notes or journal until it came up. He was accustomed to start the train rather late in the morning, about eight o’clock, move at a steady, briskwalk, without stopping for noon rest or meal, and make camp early in the afternoon, and by this management plenty of time was afforded the animals to feed mornings and evenings. Twenty miles was the average day’s journey, but thirty or forty miles were made with ease whenever expedient, as often happened. No better equipped or manned train ever traversed the plains and mountains.
It always moved in fine order, without delays, confusion, or friction. A worn-down or sore-backed mule or horse was a rarity. At the first symptom of need of rest, a fresh animal from the loose herd relieved the distressed one. The packers worked in couples, each two packing and caring for ten pack-mules. The riding animals were picked Indian horses. The mules were of large American stock, mostly those of the exploration of 1853. Thorough discipline and the best feeling prevailed among the party. There was scarcely a quarrel during the whole nine months the expedition lasted. This judicious care of the animals was characteristic of the governor, and it is noticeable that on his arduous expeditions, though hard-worked and only grass-fed, they actually improved in condition,—-a unique experience on the plains.
Leaving behind the prairies, groves, and sparkling, rippling streams of the mountain plateau, the party entered upon the vast rolling plains, gray and arid, and, traveling over them one hundred and thirty miles, camping one night on the Dearborn River, one on the Sun, and three on the Teton, reached the vicinity of Fort Benton on the fifth day, and went into camp on the last-named river four miles from the fort. The governor, riding ahead, reached it a day sooner, on the 26th, and was disappointed in not finding or hearing from his co-commissioner, Superintendent Alfred Cumming. During this march the party were rarely out of sight of game. Largeherds of graceful, fleet antelopes would come scouring across the plains, and circle around the slowly moving train, now abruptly halting to gaze with erect heads and distended eyes at the strange procession, and now dashing on again in full career, and presently, their curiosity satisfied, turning away and scampering out of sight. Deer and elk were constantly seen by the river banks and under the cottonwood groves. Buffalo trails crossed the country in every direction, and their skulls and bones were frequent. Thus far the party followed well-marked trails, but on entering the plains the guide directed his course by some distant butte or landmark, or by the sun, for there was no trail leading in a given course, and the buffalo trails lacing the plains in every direction were very misleading. The plains were covered with the short, fine, curly buffalo grass, very different from the luxuriant, waving bunch grass of the Columbia, but equally nutritious.
Learning of Mr. Cumming’s approach, the governor, accompanied by Doty and Sohon and a small party, made a three days’ trip to Milk River, August 11–13, a distance of eighty miles, where the commissioners met and formally organized the commission, appointing Mr. Doty secretary, and Mr. H. Kennedy, who came with Mr. Cumming, assistant secretary, and returned together to Fort Benton. The governor was seriously concerned to learn that the treaty goods and supplies were greatly delayed. Commissioner Cumming had been specially charged with the duty of transporting them to Fort Benton; but under his dilatory management the steamboat, which carried them with himself up the Missouri, did not reach Fort Union until late in the season, and, instead of continuing up the river as far as possible, discharged her cargo and returned to St. Louis. The goods were then loaded into boats, which were now slowly proceeding up the river by cordeling, or towing by a force of men walking along the bank and pulling on a long tow-rope. This unexpected and inexcusable delay seriously imperiled the holding of the council. Governor Stevens had brought with him only sufficient supplies to carry his small party to Fort Benton, expecting to find there ample stores sent up by the government under charge of Cumming. The western Indians, who at his invitation had come so far to attend the council, could not find subsistence for a long wait; and it was necessary for them, as well as for the governor and party, to start home before winter set in and blocked the return journey. The great numbers of the Blackfeet made it difficult to keep them in hand and assemble them late in the season, for they were accustomed, and indeed were obliged, to spread over a wide territory in order to hunt buffalo, and lay in their winter robes, lodge-skins, and food.
While in Washington the preceding summer Governor Stevens had urged upon the Indian Department the importance of the early arrival of the goods at Fort Benton, and on reaching Olympia in December, repeated his recommendations in writing. Moreover, he wrote a personal letter to the President urging the necessity of having a steamer start with them at the earliest moment in the spring, and push up the Missouri above Fort Union as far as possible, and especially recommended that a boat be chartered expressly for the trip. He added a prophetic caution, or warning, against relying upon the American Fur Company to transport the goods, as they could not be depended upon to make the necessary early start and vigorous push up the river, which would entail some extra expense and risk, but would surely pursue their usual methods, and in the end sacrifice the public interests to their own. Notwithstanding these wise and urgent recommendations, the whole matter was left to Cumming, who late in the spring wrote the commissioner, proposing that the council be postponed to another year. Being thereupon informed that Governor Stevens was probably already on his way with the western Indians too far to be recalled, and instructed to proceed, he contracted with the fur company to transport the goods, with the predicted result. In this and other ways he manifested a perfect willingness to play into the hands of the fur company, a willingness which, whatever the motive, affords the only rational explanation of this transaction, of his entire indifference to the success of the council, and of his opposition to making adequate provision in the way of farms and annuities for civilizing the Indians. Of course, the American Fur Company, like the Hudson Bay Company, was averse to having its trade impaired and eventually destroyed by the government’s giving goods to, and civilizing, the Indians.
At the governor’s instance, messengers were immediately dispatched to the boats to ascertain how long before they would probably arrive, and to the different bands of Indians to advise them that they must wait longer than was expected, and to ascertain and regulate their movements, so that they might readily reach the council ground when notified, and meantime find sufficient buffalo and other game to support them.
Provisions for his own party, now nearly out, were sought at the fort, but the traders were also destitute, not having yet received their annual supply from below, and could furnish nothing but a few hundred pounds of old jerked buffalo meat, exactly like worn-out boot-leather in appearance,—so black, dry, tough, and dirty was it. It seems that all the jerked meat, when first obtained, was piled up loose in one of the store-rooms, and free access to it given the cooks and Indian wives of the employees.They naturally picked out the best first, so that, after the winter’s use, only the dryest and toughest pieces and scraps remained. However, two parfleches of pemmican of one hundred pounds each were found among the goods left by the exploring party two years before. This pemmican was put up by the Red River half-breeds, and consisted of jerked buffalo meat pounded fine and mixed with buffalo fat and dried berries, and then packed in large bags of rawhide called parfleches. It had become so hardened by age that it had to be chopped out of the parfleches with an axe, but it was perfectly sweet and good, and afforded a very palatable and nourishing hash.
The governor now fitted out a hunting party under Hugh Robie, with a pack-train, and sent them with a party of Gros Ventre Indians to the Judith River, some eighty miles south of the fort, after buffalo. These noble game animals were found there in great numbers and very fat. The hunters, white and red, killed hundreds of them, stripping off the hides and flesh, which they brought into camp, where the squaws jerked the meat by cutting it into thin slices and strips and drying it on scaffolds in the sun, and dressed the skins for lodges. In three weeks Robie and his party returned with his pack-mules and riding animals loaded down with fat, juicy buffalo meat,—a two months’ supply for the whole party. Metsic, an Indian hunter, was kept busy hunting in the vicinity of the fort, and brought in many deer and antelope, and small parties were from time to time sent to the Citadel Rock, a noted landmark twenty miles down the river, after bighorn, which were so abundant there that the hunters would load their animals in a day’s hunt. The governor was desirous that his son should see and experience all the aspects of the trip, and believed in throwing a boy on his own resources, without too close supervision, as the proper way of developing his judgmentand capacity; so Hazard, who was now well hardened to riding and the fatigues of the field, and sufficiently adventurous, accompanied the buffalo and big-horn hunting parties. There was no danger of starving, but the governor remarks:—
“As we had very little bread, sugar, or coffee, the bighorn of Citadel Rock were exceedingly delightful as an article of food, and are generally preferred by the mountain men to any other game except buffalo; so between buffalo, bighorn, and the smaller game we fared very well. The parties who extended our information of the country in conveying messages to the Indians, etc., invariably lived either on the dried meat they took with them, or on the game which they killed from day to day. They had no flour, no sugar, no coffee, and yet there was not a word of complaint from one of them; but we made it the subject of a good deal of merriment when we were able to reach the boats and have a sufficiency of those articles which in civilized life are deemed indispensable to comfort.”
“As we had very little bread, sugar, or coffee, the bighorn of Citadel Rock were exceedingly delightful as an article of food, and are generally preferred by the mountain men to any other game except buffalo; so between buffalo, bighorn, and the smaller game we fared very well. The parties who extended our information of the country in conveying messages to the Indians, etc., invariably lived either on the dried meat they took with them, or on the game which they killed from day to day. They had no flour, no sugar, no coffee, and yet there was not a word of complaint from one of them; but we made it the subject of a good deal of merriment when we were able to reach the boats and have a sufficiency of those articles which in civilized life are deemed indispensable to comfort.”
Meanwhile the Indians were all well in hand, ready and anxious for the council, which nothing delayed but the unfortunate backwardness of the boats. The Blackfeet were mostly north of the Missouri, the western Indians south of it, and the governor by his expresses kept himself informed of and guided their movements. The reports from the agents with the latter were especially encouraging. The Nez Perces, 108 lodges; Flatheads and Pend Oreilles, 68 lodges; and 40 lodges of the Snakes, numbering all told 216 lodges, or over 2000 souls,—were in one camp on the Muscle Shell River, awaiting the call to the council. The whole camp of the Gros Ventres, and Low Horn’s band of the Piegans of 54 lodges, were in the vicinity. The hereditary enemies were visiting and hunting together on most friendly terms, their minds all attuned to peace and friendship, and all anxious for the council.
An incident now occurred well calculated to test thegood faith of the Blackfeet. When making arrangements in the Bitter Root valley for the western Indians to attend the council, and they had objected that the Blackfeet would steal their horses, Governor Stevens assured them of his belief that the Blackfeet would receive them with kindness and hospitality, using this expression: “I guarantee that when you pull in your lariat in the morning, you will find a horse at the end of it.” Relying on his assurance, four young Pend Oreille braves visited the governor at Fort Benton, and on his invitation turned their horses into his band, which grazed two miles above the fort. Next morning they were gone. Two young warriors of the northern Blackfeet had picked them out from over a hundred animals, and made off with them. The governor immediately put Little Dog, a prominent chief of the Bloods, to search for the trail of the raiders, and at the same time dispatched Doty with one attendant and a guide to the northern camps, judging that the thieves would seek refuge in that quarter. Little Dog returned unsuccessful, not finding a hoof-print of the missing horses in one hundred miles and thirty hours’ hard riding, and was sent north to follow Doty. The latter pushed on fifty miles a day for two hundred and thirty miles to Bow River in British territory, a tributary of the Saskatchewan, where he struck a large Blackfoot camp only two hours after the arrival there of the stolen horses. He immediately called together the chiefs, and demanded the surrender of the animals. The head chief, Lame Bull, returned three of them, but stated that one of the scamps had gotten off with the fourth. He expressed great regret at the theft, and offered two of his own horses in place of the one not recovered. Doty placed the rescued animals in charge of Little Dog, who had overtaken him, and resuming the pursuit of the remaining one, rode seventy miles to Elk River, anotherbranch of the Saskatchewan, where he found another large camp of Blackfeet, and where the chief, Bull’s Head, delivered to him the last horse with expressions of regret at the misconduct of his young men, and the offer of another horse by way of amends. On the sixteenth day after the horses were taken they were returned to the Pend Oreille braves at the fort. This was the first and last instance of horse-stealing by the Blackfeet pending the council, and afforded most gratifying proof of their good faith. Thus a depredation which might have led to disastrous results was made the means of demonstrating the sincerity and strengthening the friendship of the Indians.
All these Indians professed great willingness to make friends with the western tribes and the Crows, and agreed to meet them at the council and conclude a treaty. They arranged with Mr. Doty to so direct their movements as to bring them within reach of Fort Benton at the proper time. He also secured James Bird as interpreter, an intelligent half-breed, said to be the best interpreter in the country, who was then visiting Low Horn’s band.
On August 27 Pearson arrived with letters from Olympia, and reported that everything was quiet and favorable west of the mountains, and that many miners and settlers were going into the upper country, gold having recently been discovered on the Columbia, near Colville.
“Pearson rode seventeen hundred and fifty miles by the route he took from the Bitter Root valley to Olympia, and back to Benton, in twenty-eight days, during some of which he did not travel. He was less than three days going from Fort Owen to Fort Benton, a distance, by the route he pursued, of some two hundred and sixty miles, which he traveled without a change of animals, having no food but the berries of the country, except a little fish, which he killed on Travelers’ RestCreek of Lewis and Clark on the morning of starting from Fort Owen, which served him for a single meal,” as the governor says in his final report.
“Pearson rode seventeen hundred and fifty miles by the route he took from the Bitter Root valley to Olympia, and back to Benton, in twenty-eight days, during some of which he did not travel. He was less than three days going from Fort Owen to Fort Benton, a distance, by the route he pursued, of some two hundred and sixty miles, which he traveled without a change of animals, having no food but the berries of the country, except a little fish, which he killed on Travelers’ RestCreek of Lewis and Clark on the morning of starting from Fort Owen, which served him for a single meal,” as the governor says in his final report.
On his trips Pearson usually drove two extra horses ahead of him, and, when the one he was riding became tired, changed his saddle to a fresh one. He could “ride anything that wore hair,” and was equally expert with the lariat which he carried at the horn of his saddle. He always contrived, too, to procure fresh horses at certain points on his long trips, as at Walla Walla, Lapwai, and the Bitter Root valley, sometimes having previously left them, and sometimes by trading with the Indians. Imagine this little man of steel, insensible to cold, hunger, and fatigue, galloping like a centaur, day after day, across the vast, lonely plains, driving before him his two loose horses!
The messenger dispatched to the boats returned with the report that they would probably reach the mouth of the Judith in twenty days, and Fort Benton in thirty or thirty-five, or on the 5th to the 10th of October. The governor proposed that one of the boats be loaded with the most necessary goods and forced up faster by an extra crew, in order to hasten the opening of the council, leaving the others to follow; but Commissioner Cumming refused to consent to this expedient. He was a large, portly man, pompous, and full of his own importance, and having been named first as commissioner, and charged with bringing up the goods and the disbursements for the council, now attempted to arrogate to himself practically sole and exclusive authority. He even attempted to dismiss Doty as secretary, and claimed the right to appoint all the officers for the council; and this was the more unreasonable because he had not brought with him a single efficient man, and the whole work of holding and collecting the Indians, furnishing interpreters,and in short carrying the council through successfully, had to be done, and was done, by Governor Stevens and the trained force he had provided for the purpose. But the governor firmly insisted that nothing could be done except by the act of the commission; sternly informed his colleague that he would not permit him to repudiate his own action in organizing it, appointing the secretary, etc.; submitted a series of rules regulating its proceedings, and required all official communications between them to be in writing and made a matter of record. Under this firm and decided treatment Cumming was forced to abate his pretensions and subside into his proper place; but he opposed most of the governor’s suggestions, disagreed with him on all points, and exhibited a degree of arrogance, ignorance, and childish petulance hard to be believed, were they not so plainly shown by the official record.
In framing the treaty the governor proposed that farms be opened for the Blackfeet on the upper waters of the Sun River, and that $50,000 a year be allowed the Indians for twenty years, the greater part to be expended in carrying on the farms, instructing the Indians, etc. This amount was authorized by their instructions, and did not seem very extravagant for teaching twelve thousand Indians the ways of civilization, and leading them to abandon their life-long hostilities and predatory raids, being only about four dollars per capita. But Cumming flatly refused to agree to more than $35,000, and objected to the farms as “affording opportunities for speculating under the guise of philanthropy.” As the Blackfeet were within his superintendency, this was really a reflection upon himself and his agents not intended by the self-sufficient official. The commissioners were instructed to report generally on the Indians and the country. Cumming stigmatized the Blackfeet asutter savages, bloodthirsty and depraved, and declared that they would use goods that might be furnished them as the means of buying rum at the British trading-posts, and, therefore, that annuities of goods, etc., would only aid in demoralizing them. As to the country, he adopted,con amore, the Jefferson Davis theory, asserting that “it is a vast and sterile region, which could not sustain the animals required for even a limited emigration, and altogether unfitted for cultivation. Every part of this barren region must forever be closed against all modern improvements in the way of transportation, with the exception of the Missouri River.” He was as unable to appreciate the philanthropic views of Governor Stevens, and his earnest desire to improve the Indians, as he was ignorant of them and of the country.
The governor’s views are given at length, and have been remarkably sustained by the subsequent settlement of the country. The following extracts will be found interesting, particularly his calculation that a million and a half buffalo grazed over the region:—