Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/114

76 acquiring the treasures as well as the territory of the New World. Avarice and ambition were at the bottom of all their enterprises."

Seventy-five years after this criticism by Justice Story, Theodore Roosevelt in his Winning of the West, treats this question somewhat differently, saying, "Looking back, it is easy to say that much of the wrong doing (to the Indians) could have been prevented, but if we examine the facts to find out the truth, we are bound to admit that the struggle (between whites and Indians) was really one that could not possibly have been avoided. Unless we were willing to admit that the whole continent west of the Alleghanies should remain an unpeopled waste, the hunting grounds of savages, war was inevitable. And even had we been willing and had refrained from encroaching on the Indians lands, the war would have come, nevertheless, for then the Indians themselves would have encroached on ours. The Indians had no ownership in the land as we understand that term. Undoubtedly the Indians have often suffered terrible injustice at our hands. The conduct of the Georgians towards the Cherokees, and the treatment of Chief Joseph and Nez Perces in Oregon, may be mentioned as indelible blots on our fair fame."

But what has all this to do with the history of Portland? A very great deal. It throws light on the great drama of settlement of this regio^n of Old Oregon, of which Portland is the center and chief city. It explains the massacre of Dr. Marcus Whitman and family, about which more has been written than any other one subject in the history of the Northwest.

The Americans made a great mistake in assuming when they came to this country, that the Indians had no rights to the land which they ought to respect. The missionaries who came professing to be the best friends to the Indians, were as much to blame as those who made no pretense of religion. It was a fatal mistake to think the Indians had no ideas on this first of all questions. They knew nothing of the practice of European nations or of the decisions of courts. All the guide they had was the light of nature, and that first and greatest of all laws—self-preservation. The Indian never troubled himself to inquire into what he could not comprehend. He did not launch into conjecture or give rein to imagination. His puerile mind followed the glimmering light which had led his forefathers. He saw that he must, like the deer and the buffalo, live on the land; and that if another man crowded him off it he must die. Here he was where his ancestors had lived untold ages. He knew no other place. He was familiar with the Hudson Bay man, who wanted nothing but the furry skins of dead animals. He understood that proposition. The H. B. man deprived him of nothing, but bought the pelt he had for sale, and that was a positive gain. But the American was a different man. He came preaching peace and good will to all men, but he took up land, raised crops, built mills, bred domestic animals, sold the produce of the land for money to put in his pocket. There was no gain to the Indian in that, but a positive loss,—the loss of land. And worse, than this; where there was one American in 1842, there were hundreds in 1843; and then hosts more coming. He had heard from the wandering Iroquois how the white man came as flocks of wild geese come and covered the prairies of Indiana, Illinois and other states. The Indian was terrified at the thought of losing his land, him home, his mother; and so he acted.

We are now able to give for the first time in history, the first authentic account of the first great Indian council held west of the Rocky mountains by the Indians, of old Oregon. We print on another page the photograph of Timotsk, an aged Indian, a chief of the Klickitats, who was a member of that council. This council was held near where Fort Simcoe is located in the Yakima valley. Indian messengers had been sent out by the Cayuses to all other tribes in the Columbia river region, and chiefs had come in from the Nez Perces, Spokanes, Shoshones, Walla Walla, Wascoes, Umatillas, Cayuses, Klickitats and Yakimas. Timotsk says they were in council for "A whole moon;" that is about a month; and that there were about fifty chiefs in attendance. They talked