Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/28

 18 AMOS WILLIAM HARTMAN notable encounter of the period took place near Fort Laramie in August, 1854. An Indian killed an ox be- longing to a Mormon emigrant. A party of soldiers was sent out from the fort under an inexperienced young lieutenant to arrest the offending Indian and those who had eaten the animal. A fight ensued in which the lieu- tenant and his entire party of thirty men, with the ex- ception of one, were slain. 80 The Indians were also hostile along the trail to Oregon in 1854, attacking and burning trains. 81 The Indians along the Humboldt were very trouble- some in 1849, 1850 and 1851, as well as along the Carson. They hid in the willows or crept up on the emigrants in the dark, shooting and stealing all the oxen they could, and occasionally shooting an emigrant if they could do so with little risk to themselves. If pursued they would take to the mountains and trying to catch them was "very much like running down grayhounds with Bull dogs." 82 During the year 1852 these Indians were not so trouble- some. A trip of Indian agent J. H. Holeman down the Humboldt in the spring probably pacified them some- what. 83 The Indians along Pitt River, in Northern Cal- ifornia, caused considerable trouble. Their tactics were the same as those of the Diggers along the Humboldt. 84 Many emigrants were sorely in need of relief long before they reached California. Although piles of food were thrown away in the earlier stages of the journey, by the time the Humboldt was reached food was iij de- mand. In 1850 in particular, many emigrants had heard that too much food had been carried in the previous year so they went to the other extreme and many ran out of 80 Coutant, History of Wyoming, Vol. 1, pp. 322-323. 81 Mary Perry Frost, "Experience of a Pioneer, " The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII, pp. 123 -124. 82 Harlan, op. cit., p. 55. 83 Report of J. H. Holeman, House Executive Documents, 35 Cong., 1 sess., Vol. X ., Doc. 71, Ser. No. 956, p. 156. M Delano, op. cit., pp. 211, 239-240.