A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 33

On May 23, the chiefs and princ.i.p.al men of the three tribes a.s.sembled at the station to hear what the self-const.i.tuted United States Indian commissioner and his secretary of state had to say.

"They were called to order by Tawatowe, who by this time had got over his excitement, and then was placed before them the object of our visit.

They were told that much had been said about war, and we had come to a.s.sure them that they had nothing to fear from that quarter." If Dr.

White was no more explicit in setting forth the object of this visit to the Indians than Mr. Hines is in giving the account of it, there certainly was room for a misunderstanding between him and the Indians.

He said "the President of the United States had not sent him [Dr. White]

to make war upon them, but to enter into arrangements with them to regulate their intercourse with the white people. We were not there to catch them in a trap, as a man would a beaver, but to do them good; and if they would lay aside their former practices and prejudices, stop their quarrels, cultivate their lands, and receive good laws, they might become a great and happy people; that in order to do this _they must all be united_." Exactly what the Hudson's Bay Company wished to have done to aid them in crushing the American settlement and preventing further American emigration to the country.

As a reason for their being united, Mr. Hines says, 178-9th pages:

"They were told they were few in comparison to the whites, and if they were not all of one heart they would be able to accomplish nothing. The chiefs should set the example and love each other, and not get proud and haughty, but consider the people as their brothers and their children, and labor to do them good, that the people should be obedient, and in their morning and evening prayers they should remember their chiefs.

"Ellis remarked that it would not be proper for the Nez Perce chiefs to speak until the Cayuse people should receive the laws. The Cayuse chiefs replied: 'If you want us to receive the laws, bring them forward and let us see them, as we can not take them unless we know what they are.'

"A speech was then delivered to the young men to impress them favorably with regard to the laws. They were told that they would soon take the places of the old men, and they should be willing to act for the good of the people; that they should not go here and there and spread false reports about war; and that this had been the cause of all the difficulty and excitement that had prevailed among them during the past winter."

With the information which Mr. Hines has already given us in the first part of his ninth chapter, we would suppose he would avoid this apparently incorrect statement to the Indians of the cause of the difficulties then existing. He and Dr. White appear to have acted under the same influence with Dr. McLaughlin, and to have carried all their acts and counsels to the one object, which was to combine the Indians, and divide and destroy the settlement. He tells us, in continuation of the proceedings of this council, that "the laws were then read, first in English, and then in Nez Perce."

"Yellow Serpent then rose and said: 'I have a message to you. Where are these laws from? I would that you might say they were from G.o.d.

But I think they are from the earth, because, from what I know of white men [a term claimed by Brouillet as belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company and Frenchmen], they do not honor these laws.' In answer to this, the people were informed that the laws were recognized by G.o.d, and imposed on men in all civilized countries. Yellow Serpent was pleased with the explanation, and said that it was according to the instructions he had received from others, and he was glad to learn that it was so, because many of his people had been angry with him when he had whipped them for crime, and had told him that G.o.d would send him to h.e.l.l for it, and he was glad to know that it was pleasing to G.o.d.

"Tilokaikt, a Cayuse chief, rose and said: 'What do you read the laws for before we take them? We do not take the laws because Tawatowe says so. He is a _Catholic_, and as a people we do not follow his worship.' Dr. White replied that this did not make any difference about the law; that the people in the States had different modes of worship, yet all had one law.

"A chief, called the Prince, arose and said: 'I understand you gave us liberty to examine every law,--all the words and lines,--and as questions are asked about it, we should get a better understanding of it. The people of this country have but one mind about it. I have something to say, but perhaps the people will dispute me. As a body, we have not had an opportunity to consult, therefore you come to us as in a wind, and speak to us as to the air, as we have no point, and we can not speak because we have no point before us. The business before us is whole like a body; we have not dissected it.

And perhaps you will say it is out of place for me to speak, because I am not a great chief. Once I had influence, but now I have but little.'"

This was one of the princ.i.p.al chiefs of the tribe that a.s.sisted in taking Fort Wallawalla and tying Mr. Pambrun to compel him to give more goods for horses and furs. "He was about to sit down, but was told to go on. He then said: 'When the whites first came among us, we had no cattle; they have given us none; what we have now got we have obtained by an exchange of property. A long time ago Lewis and Clarke came to this country, and I want to know what they said about us. Did they say they found friends or enemies here?' Being told that they spoke well of the Indians, the Prince said: 'That is a reason why the whites should unite with us, and all become one people. Those who have been here before you have left us no memorial of their kindness, by giving us presents. We speak by way of favor; if you have any benefit to bestow, we will then speak more freely. One thing that we can speak about is cattle, and the reason why we can not speak out now is because we have not the thing before us. My people are poor and blind, and we must have something tangible. Other chiefs have bewildered me since they came; yet I am from an honorable stock. Promises which have been made to me and my fathers have not been fulfilled, and I am made miserable; but it will not answer for me to speak out, for my people do not consider me as their chief.' [This was just what Mr. Pambrun, of the Hudson's Bay Company, had done to this Indian chief to break his power and destroy his influence with his tribe and his people. But let us hear him through.] 'One thing more; you have reminded me of what was promised me some time ago, and I am inclined to follow on and see, though I have been giving my beaver to the whites and have received many promises, and have always been disappointed; I want to know what you are going to do?'

"Illutin, or Big Belly, then arose and said that the old men were wearied with the wickedness of the young men; that if he was alone he could say 'Yes' at once to the laws, and that the reason why the young men did not feel as he felt, was because they had stolen property in their hands, and the laws condemned stealing. But he a.s.sured them that the laws were calculated to do them good and not evil.

"But this did not satisfy the Prince. He desired that the good which it was proposed to do them by adopting the laws might be put in a tangible form before them.

"He said that it had been a long time since the country had been discovered by whites, and that ever since that time people had been coming along promising to do them good; but they had all pa.s.sed by and left no blessing behind them."

This chief said that "the Hudson's Bay Company had persuaded them to continue with them, and not go after the Americans; that if the Americans designed to do them good, why did they not bring goods with them to leave with the Indians? that they were fools to listen to what _Suapies_ (Americans) had to say; that they would only talk, but the company would _both talk and give them presents_."

This Indian, as his speech shows, was shrewd, and thought he was certain to obtain his object, either from the Hudson's Bay Company or the Americans. He had been humbled by the company, and an offer to buy him back had been made. He bid for a higher price with the Americans. In doing so, he naturally exposed the secret influence of the company, which is given in this book of Mr. Hines', as a matter of course, and he pa.s.ses along without note or comment upon what he saw, and heard.

"In reply to the last Indian speech, Dr. White told the Indians that he did not come to them as a missionary or as a trader."

To Ellis and Lawyer, who called on them in the evening to have a talk, "they said they expected pay for being chiefs, and wanted to know how much salary Dr. White was going to give them. Ellis said he had counted the months he had been in office, and thought that enough was due him to make him rich. They left at a late hour without receiving any satisfaction. In the council, efforts were made to induce the Nez Perces to unite under one chief in the fall of 1842. Thomas McKay had promised these chiefs large salaries and many presents that Dr. White and his government would give them as an inducement to form a union, knowing that White had not the ability or means to make good his promises to them, and in this way any influence as an agent of the American government he might have would be lost in this tribe.

"Ellis was a Hudson's Bay Indian, educated at the Red River settlement.

They left this private interview with White without any satisfaction, showing that the policy of the company was producing its legitimate effect upon Ellis's mind. The Lawyer, however, understood the matter in its true light. He explained to us the whole transaction, and the promises of McKay from the company. He thought Dr. White was foolish to let McKay talk so much for him and the American government.

"Some hundreds again a.s.sembled the next day (May 24) to renew the business relative to laws; but the first thing investigated was the shooting of John, the Kanaka, by the Indian. John had gone to a lodge the day before, and in a dispute in a trade he had dared the Indian to shoot him. The Indian had seized his gun and fired it at John's head, making considerable of a hole in the scalp, but none in the skull. The Indian fled, but was brought back and found guilty and kept till the laws were adopted for sentence and punishment, and finally punished with forty lashes on the bare back.

"The Indians continued to speak in reference to the laws. Their speeches were grave, energetic, mighty, and eloquent, and generally in favor of receiving the laws. After all had spoken it was signified that they were ready to vote whether they would take the laws or not, and the vote was unanimous in the affirmative. Having adopted the laws, it was now necessary to elect their chief, according to the provisions of the laws, and Tawatowe was nominated to the highest chieftainship. Some were opposed; a majority were in favor, and while the question was pending [this Indian had not consulted his priest, or he would have declined at once on this first proposition to elect him chief], Tawatowe arose and said, 'My friends, I rise to speak to you, and I want you all to listen.' He then adverted to his past history, and told them how much he had suffered in consequence of their divisions and quarrels. Tawatowe joined his influence with the Prince to get more pay from the Hudson's Bay Company for horses and furs, hence his tribe were encouraged to quarrel with and disrespect him. When we first arrived in the country he was seldom invited to the fort, and received no presents from the company. He inquired of his people if they would lay aside all their past difficulties and come up and support him if he would accept of the chieftainship.

"It was now time to close for the day, and the vote being put, Tawatowe was declared duly elected to the high chieftainship of the Cayuse tribe.

"Dr. White bought of Mrs. Whitman a fat ox and presented it to the Indians. Mrs. W. gave them a fat hog, which they butchered and feasted upon at night.

"May 25.--A number of the chiefs came early in the morning at Mr. Hines'

request, to settle a difficulty concerning some horses which they gave to Rev. Jason Lee when he first came to Oregon in 1834, Mr. Lee having requested Mr. Hines to come to some arrangement with them if possible.

After a long talk we succeeded in settling with them by proposing to give them a cow for each horse that they had given to Mr. Lee. We found that the Indians always expected to be well paid for a present."

The Jesuit missionaries and the Hudson's Bay Company had represented to the Indians that Mr. Lee's receiving their horses and not making them any presents was the same as stealing from them, and in this way the American missionary was regarded as having stolen the Indians' horses.

In the conversations and talks the Indians had with Dr. Whitman about the land the mission occupied, the horses given to Mr. Lee were generally mentioned. Dr. Whitman was anxious that some arrangement should be made to settle that matter as soon as he learned the facts in the case. The Indians, as per arrangement with Mr. Hines, did receive a cow for each horse given, and thus the matter was satisfactorily settled.

The Indians having again a.s.sembled, Tawatowe came forward and said that he had made up his mind that he could not accept of the chieftainship, in consequence of the _difference of his religion_ from that of most of his people.

Here is Jesuitism and Hudson's Bay, combined with ignorance and religious bigotry, and shows the influence then operating upon the savage mind. This Indian declared a reason why he could not accept the chieftainship, which, four years later, would have fixed at once a crime upon that sect, without a shadow of doubt in their favor. As it was, the plan was deeper, and a Protestant Indian, or one that favored the Protestant cause and American missions, a younger brother of Tawatowe is selected. Tawatowe resigned, and his brother Five Crows is elected the American head chief of the Cayuse tribe, with the approval of the sub-agent of the United States. Bear these facts in mind as we proceed, that you may fully understand the deep-laid plots of the foreign influence then operating in the country to secure the whole or a large portion of it for themselves and their own government.

In connection with this we will give one other incident as related by Mr. Hines on his tour among the Indians; to show the shrewdness, as also the long premeditated baseness of the Hudson's Bay Company in their efforts to get rid of all American missionaries and settlers, and to bring on a war with the Indians. Mr. Hines and party returned to the Dalles, and from there Mr. Hines embarked on one of the Hudson's Bay Company's boats with Mr. Ogden for Vancouver. A short distance below the Dalles they were driven ash.o.r.e by a wind storm. While there, Mr. Ogden told the following story of the killing of a medicine woman, or doctress:--

"Mr. Ogden related some of his wonderful adventures among the Indians, with whom he had resided more than thirty years. He was an eye-witness to a remarkable circ.u.mstance that transpired at the Dalles during one of his voyages up the Columbia.

"He arrived at the Dalles on the Sabbath day, and seeing a congregation of some three hundred Indians a.s.sembled not far from the river, he drew near to ascertain the cause, and found the Rev.

H. K. W. Perkins dispensing to them the word of reconciliation through a crucified Redeemer. There was in the outskirts of the congregation an Indian woman who had been for many years a doctress in the tribe, and who had just expended all her skill upon a patient, the only son of a man whose wigwam was not far distant, and for whose recovery she had become responsible by consenting to become his physician. All her efforts to remove the disease were unavailing; the father was doomed to see his son expire. Believing that the doctress had the power of preserving life or inflicting death according to her will, and that instead of curing she had killed his boy, he resolved upon the most summary revenge. Leaving his dead son in the lodge, he broke into the congregation with a large butcher-knife in his hand, and, rushing upon the now terrified doctress, seized her by the hair, and with one blow across her throat laid her dead at his feet."

This story is a very plausible one, as much so as the one Mr. Hines tells us on the 110th page of his book, about Smith, Sublet, and Dripse's partner. There is an object in telling this story at this time to Mr. Hines, as much so as there was in a letter written by James Douglas, Esq., to S. N. Castle, Esq., and published in the March number of the _Friend_, at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, which we will give in due time.

The reader will observe in these sketches that our effort has been to speak of all the princ.i.p.al events and prominent and prospective influences in our early history, as in the year in which they occurred.

In attending to other duties we have not been able to keep as close to dates and chronological order as we could wish; still, with patience and perseverance we can restore the "lost history" of our early settlement upon this coast, so that the future historian can have the material before him for an interesting chapter in the history of our country.

We have, in addition to personal and public duties, to wade through an immense amount of what is called Oregon history, to gather up dates and events that have been given to the public at different times, without order, or apparent object, only to write a book on Oregon. We have no hesitancy in saying that Rev. G. Hines has given to the public the fullest and best book, and yet there is but a single chapter that is useful to the historian.

Rev. Samuel Parker has many scientific and useful statements and observations, but all come in before our civil history began to develop itself.

CHAPTER XLIII.

The Legislative Committee of nine.--Hon. Robert Moore, chairman.--Description of the members.--Minutes of their proceedings.--Dr. R. Newell, his character.--Two specimens of his speeches.--The dark clouds.

In 1843 the people of Oregon showed signs of life, and sprang into existence as an American Territory with their provisional government, which we have allowed to be silently forming in the Wallamet Valley, while we have traced the operations of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Dr.

Whitman to Washington; and also Dr. White and Mr. Hines among the Indians, all over the country. This will enable the reader to understand the strong influences operating against the American settlement; and if he will go with us, we will introduce him to the first Legislative Committee of nine, and tell him just what we know of their proceedings all through their deliberations.

The record shows no instruction from the settlers, as to when or where the committee should meet to prepare the laws, to report at Champoeg, only, that they were limited to six days, and to be allowed $1.25 per day, and that the money be raised by subscription. Every member at once subscribed to the full amount of his own per diem pay, and in addition to this, Mr. Alanson Beers, Rev. J. L. Parish, and Dr. Babc.o.c.k subscribed the full amount of the board of the whole nine, and the Methodist Mission furnished without charge the use of their granary at the old mission, as the first council chamber on this western coast. The building was a frame some sixteen by thirty feet, one and a half stories high, boards upright, with one square room in front, and the balance used for a granary, from which it derived its name; the upper part was for storing and sleeping use. The square room was used for schoolhouse and church, and now, for a legislative hall.

We will enter this hall and introduce you to an old gray-headed man with a fair complexion, bald head, light eye, full face, frequent spasmodic nodding forward of the head, and a large amount of self-importance, not very large intellectual developments, with a superabundance of flesh, sitting by a square-legged table or stand, in a chair with square posts, and strips of rawhide for bottom; dressed in fustian pants, large blue vest, and striped shirt, and a common brown coat, who, on motion of Mr.

Hill, was chosen Speaker of the House, and hereafter will be known in our history as Hon. Robert Moore, Esq.

The first difficulty the committee found was to organize a government without an executive. They could organize a legislative body, and appoint all the committees and officers and draft all the laws necessary, but the folly and absurdity of the effort without an executive, was so apparent, that the first thing decided upon, was, Shall we have an executive head, called a governor, or a committee with executive powers! This was a difficult question, under all the votings and the discussions that had taken place. The committee were fully aware of all the opposition they must contend with. The judgeship had pa.s.sed by vote of the people at Champoeg from a member of the Methodist Mission to Mr. A. E. Wilson, an intelligent, una.s.suming, and excellent young man, who came to the country in the employ of Mr. Cushing, and had become a settler.

The committee were well a.s.sured that they could eventually secure the Methodist Mission influence, yet at this time it was extremely doubtful, and they feared that it would, as in the previous effort of 1841, go against them, with that of the Catholic Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company. An executive committee consisting of three men would form a council that could act in any emergency, and at the same time enable the Methodist Mission to be represented by one of their members in the Executive Council.