Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/20



10 C. F. COAN

53, there had been rumors that the Cayuse and the Nez Perces were in favor of a war against the American settlers, and that feasts had been held by the Nez Perces and the Cayuse in the spring of 1853 for the purpose of uniting all of the interior Indians against the whites. Places had been designated for the gathering of the warriors of the various tribes. The reason for these plans for hostilities was that the settlers were taking their lands. 25 Major Alvord reported, July 17, 1853 : that the Cayuse were afraid that the Americans would dispossess them of their lands; and that if settlements were attempted in the Walla Walla country, under the existing conditions, as had been planned, war would likely result with the Cayuse and their sympathizers, the Yakima. These men believed that some provision should be made for the Indians before the set- tlement of the region was attempted. 26 Bonneville advised that the Indians be given reservations, and that Indian agents be appointed to look after their interests. Alvord recommended that the Indian title to the lands along the Columbia River between The Dalles and the Cascades be extinguished and reservations provided for the Indians of that region. He also suggested that the northeastern part of the Territory of Wash- ington which at that time extended to the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains be reserved as an "Indian Country." These opinions, with the exception of the last, were in line with the later policy as developed by Stevens.

It seems evident from the above statements that the Indian situation in the eastern part of Washington Territory had reached a critical stage in the fall of 1853. The movement of settlement had started east from the Pacific, and settlers, com- ing from the ''States," were beginning to stop east of the Cascade Mountains, due to the occupation of all the lands thought desirable west of those mountains. Isaac I. Stevens, the governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the ter- ritory, faced, from the beginning of his administration in the fall of 1853, the difficult problem of adopting measures that

25 Father Pandory to Father Mesplie, April 1853, Letter from the Secretary of the Interior transmitting. . . the report of J. Ross Browne, on the subject of the Indian war in Oregon and Washington- Territories, Jan. 25, 1858 (Serial 955, Doc. 38), p. 64.

26 B. Alvord to Townsend, July 17, 1853, Message from the President. Feb. 14, 1857 (Serial 906, Doc. 76), p. n.