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AT SUITER'S FORT 297

cattle were left, as they fled before the pursuers sent out by Captain Sutter. Six weeks later, worn and torn and bent with rage and grief, Pio-pio-mox-mox reached his lodge on the winding banks of the Walla Walla. Riderless beside him galloped Elijah's horse. Siskadee came out, and put her arms around the good steed's neck and whispered in his yellow mane. The shot-pouch was done. She handed it to Yellow Serpent and said nothing. But the warriors heard her wail on the hills at sunset, and they heard the wail of Elijah's mother, sister of the great sachems of the Cayuse nation.

A raging fire burned in the tribes on the upper Columbia. Never the death of an Indian had created such an uproar; the six allied nations had lost an idol. Apprehensive of danger, Chief Trader McKinley strengthened Fort Walla Walla and loaded his cannon with nails and grapeshot. Dr. Whitman wrote a friendly letter to Ellice, head chief of the Nez Perec's, and another to the Willamette.

"Our Indians are enraged on account of the treacherous and violent death of their educated and accomplished young chief Elijah, and also on account of their own great hardships and losses. Disaffected scamps, late from the Willamette to California, calling them dogs and thieves, have made the Indians think they have been slandered by your settlements."

The six nations, the Walla Wallas, Cayuses, Nez Perces, Spokanes, Pend d'Oreilles, and Snakes met together in council.

Seven hundred Walla Wallas stood ready to march on the Willamette, but were stopped by Tauitau.

"No," said Tauitau, going before their horses and waving them back. "The Willamette whites were our young chief's best friends. They are not to blame."

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