Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/76

 64 BINGER HERMANN attacks in 1853 upon the whites at Grave Creek, Table Rock, Stewart Creek and Evans Creek, when General Joseph Lane, Captain J. W. Nesmith, Col. John E. Ross, were in command of the volunteer forces and Captain A. J. Smith, Captain Alden and Lieutenant A. V. Kautz of the regulars, against the at- tacking Indians, led mainly by Chiefs Joe, Sam and John. After heroic struggle on both sides, with a number of killed and wounded of whites and Indians, an armistice was entered into with an agreement that a council should be held at Table Rock on September 10, 1853, and a treaty made whereby the Indians should relinquish their claim to the main Rogue River Valley, and go peaceably upon a reservation to be provided for them in the northern part of the state, and with payments of annuities and other benefits to be made the Indians by the U. S. Government. Such a council and such a treaty was had with ceremonies and unexpected treachery that approached the verge of a trag- edy. From that treaty it was hoped that a lasting peace would result. The volunteer military forces were disbanded and re- turned to their homes. The Treaty Indians were temporarily held at Fort Lane until they could be moved to the reserve. The year 1854 passed away with continued assurance that the peace would be permanent. Settlers and miners had returned to their homes and their mines and resumed their avocations with no further apprehensions. But, alas! their hopes were delusive. There were quarrelsome whites as well as hostile Indians. Slight offenses were magnified. In the Klamath Country an Indian uprising- was defeated by the military, with losses on both sides. Still the Treaty Indians refrained from open hostilities, until a most unfortunate and most unprovoked assault by a company of whites was made at dawn of day upon a little band of peaceful Indians quietly encamped on Butte Creek. These Indians were mainly old men, women and children. About 20 of them were killed, consisting mainly of decrepit old men, and a number of children and several squaws. This atrocious massacre was severely condemned by Captain A. J. Smith, in command at Fort Lane nearby.