Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/583

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uovv; and toward this poiut llic vdluiilcfrs iiuiiiediately marched with their shooting irous; the nioiuitcd nicii pi'dcccdinK- up the uorth side of the ereek, and the footmen on the south side. R. L\ (ieer wrote an aceoimt of this affair which was pi'intcd in the Oregon Statesman in August, 1877. He mentions the lolh)wing settlers as taking part in the liattle which took place: William Parker, James Harpole, Wilburn King, James Brown, S. D. Maxon, L. A. Bird, Israel Shaw. Robert Shaw, King Ilibbard, William Brisbane, — Winchester, Port (iilliam, William Thomas Howell, George Howell (founders of Howell Prairie), William Hendricks. Lew Goff, Leander Davis, G. W. Hunt, James Williams, J. Warnnck. J. W. Shrum. Thomas Shrum, Elias Cox, Cyrus Smith, T. B. Allen, lit'nry Shrum, antl Jacol) Caplinger. The volunteers overtaking the Indians before dark, they retreated up the creek after exchanging a few shots with the attacking party. Night coming on. those who had families to protect returned home, leaving the single men and boys to watch the enemy. At daybreak the next morning pursuit of the foe was commenced and a running fight kept up for most of the day. Seven warrior Indians, one of whom was a woman, were killed and two Indian women wounded. But when the battle was over it was dis- covered that the volunteers had not engaged the fighting marauding Indians, but those who had suffered were the families and camp guards, while the real rob- bers and fighters had escaped entirely. The easy victory was not a matter to be proud of and was never much referred to for thirty j-ears afterwards, when it was all threshed out in the public press again. But thfere can be no doubt that if prompt resistance had not been made to the raids of these Indians, the ma- rauders, emboldened by success, might have brought in all the warriors of the Klamath tribe, a nation of fighters, as proved by Capt. Jack in the ^Modoc war. and many lives would have been lost and homes burned out.

WIDESPRE.VD DEMORALIZ.\TION OF THE INDIANS

The raid into the Willamette valley and the battle of the Abiqua, trifling in itself, was however, important as an indication of widespread unrest and demor- alization of the Indians in Oregon. The provisional government being forced to act to defend its own citizens, was compelled to face and deal with the wider and greater (piestion of maintaining the peace with all the Indian tribes within the ten-itory now covered by the States of Oregon, W^a.shington and Idaho. Steps nuist be taken at once to control the supplies of powder and balls to the Indians throughout this vast region; for if ammunition was freely on sale at any point within this territorj', Indian runners would distribute it throughout the whole region. There were by this time twenty-six Catholic priests, with schools and stations scattered over this widely extended region, all of whom, and especially the Indians attached thereto, must be provided with food, the principal part of which was the wild game. This all required ammunition, and the priests pro- vided the same just as they would any other supply. This enraged the Ameri- cans, as they believed the Indians would use this ammunition to make war on the American settlers. And so the line of cleavage and battle was drawn; the lU'iests and the Indians on one side, and the Protestant preachers, American set- tlers and the provisional government on the other. It was passing strange that peace was maintained at all.