Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/14



6 THOMAS W. PROSCH

laws of the latter had no force with the white men, while their own laws were imposed upon the native whether or no, and the latter invariably got the worst of it in their legal and sometimes illegal altercations. The Indian mind gradually came to know that it was only a question of time until they would be reduced and perhaps destroyed by these new strong people, who had come among them ; either that, or a combina- tion among the Indians, a sudden war, and extermination of the strangers. While they were thus contemplating their un- happy situation, a new cause for trouble arose.

Gold was discovered in the Colville country. White men began going there. The Indians had some knowledge of the discoveries in California, and of the vast armies of white men who, since 1848, had annually gone there in quest of the yellow metal. They knew that if anything of that sort occurred in Washington Territory they would suffer and die in conse- quence. Their country would be overrun, their game destroyed, their means of subsistence exhausted, their rights of every nature disregarded, and they insulted, abused, impoverished and starved. Some of them, wisely or unwisely, determined to resist, to prevent the threatened calamity or die in the attempt.

In the summer of 1855, seven men left Seattle to seek gold in eastern Washington. W 7 hile in the Yakima Valley they were attacked by Indians, and four of the number killed Eaton, Fanjoy, Walker and Jamieson. The other three men escaped, and soon were over the Cascade Mountains, telling their former neighbors of the unhappy and disastrous ex- perience which they had undergone. It was reported that other white men, also seeking gold, were killed by the Indians about the same time.

When information of these murderous acts reached the au- thorities, A. J. Bolon, an Indian agent, was sent to inquire of the Indians concerning them. He was at the Catholic Mission in Yakima, September 23rd, in conference with the Indian?. It is said and, no doubt truly, that he threatened them with