Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/35



RESERVATION POLICY PACIFIC NORTHWEST 25

The Yakima and Klikitat Indians were in arms by October 1, 1855. They were not joined immediately by any of the other tribes, although individual members of other tribes probably did join them. Opinions varied as to the cause of the outbreak. John Cain believed that it was due to rumors that were current among the Indians that Stevens's party and Haller's command had been murdered by the Blackfeet and the Shoshoni, respectively; that the whites were about to be overthrown in every direction ; and that the time had come for the Indians to gratify their enmity against the whites. 57

Palmer believed that the outbreak was due to the dissatis- faction of the Klikitat and the Yakima with the treaty; the immigration of settlers into the country before the treaty had been ratified and carried out; the passing of miners through central Washington on their way to the Colville mines; and the stories told the Indians of the increasing value of their lands due to the discovery of gold. 58

The immigration into the eastern part of the territories of Washington and Oregon had been forbidden between 1848 and 1855. Mrs. Victor stated: "From the spring of 1848, when all the whites, except the Catholic missionaries, were with- drawn from the upper country, for a period of several years, or until Government had made treaties with the tribes east of die Cascades, no settlers were permitted; to take up land in eastern Oregon." 59

James G. Swan, writing in 1857 stated that the Indian trouble began on a border where the Indians south: of the line were under the control of a foreign company by which was meant the Hudson's Bay Company. He believed that the under employees and the half-breeds in the pay of the com- pany were guilty of inciting the Indians against the Ameri- cans. Upon this point, however, he admitted that there was no evidence. To what extent the company was guilty of sell- ing ammunition to the Indians after the law was passed for- bidding the sale of arms to Indians would be diffijcult, probably impossible, to determine. It is probable that Americans were

57 Cain to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Oct. 6, i8s5,,tfcirf., p. 513,

58 Palmer to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Oct. 9, 1855, Message from tht President. . .. April 17, 1856 (Serial 858, Doc. 93), p. 56.

59 Victor, The River of the West, p. 497.