Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/129

Rh In all the contentions between Protestants and Catholics in this Indian country, and between the partizans of American Colonization and the occupancy of the Hudson Bay Company, the Whitman massacre has ever been a subject of most bitter crimination. And no persons of humane feeling- can read the record of the horrible butchery of Whitman and his wife, children and the others killed, without being wrought up to intense bitterness, not only against the savages, but against white men who may have known of the possibility of murder, and took no step to prevent it. It seems clear that the chiefs of the Hudson Bay Company did warn Whitman of his danger at the distant and unprotected station. Whitman was himself, recklessly careless of the safety of himself and family. The Indians were permitted free access to all his premises, and no preparation for protection or defense from harm was provided. The Hudson Bay people did not trust the Indians. They had substantial barricades and stockade forts well supplied with arms for defense; and at all times required the Indians to remain on the outside of protective defenses. McLoughlin never forgot the native ferocity of the savage when aroused. To the careless observer, the Indians about the trading stations, and missionary stations were peaceful and harmless; yet behind all this was the racial instinct of the savage, developed by ages of contention with wild beasts in the contest for existence. And with the first blow of the tomahawk on the head of the unsuspecting victim—Marcus Whitman—and the sight of blood, the savage gave tongue to demoniac yells that harked back a hundred thousand years, when the naked savage man fought with clubs, the savage beast.

We here finally reach our bearings in the quest for the rightful ownership of the wilderness of Oregon. Whether it suits our wishes or our preconceived views or not, we are compelled to face the proposition that the white man, black man, red man and yellow man, are all on this globe on equal land tenures. That they have all sprung from a single original pair and though now found in diverse races, they have fought for and conquered their positions on the face of the globe, not only in competition with wild beasts, but also wild men. That this tremendous evolutionary programme, so far as it has related to the possession of land on which to live and grow, has never been settled in any other way than

The coming of the white man was inevitable, and the subjection of the Indian equally so. Our pioneers but followed nature's impulse, justified by the entire history of mankind. And if the inspiration of a higher humanity, and the precepts of Christianity can be used to enforce justice and inculcate charity to the poor benighted children of the forest that we found in the possession of this beautiful land, it is our bounden duty to see that while we enjoy all the beauty and glory of these grand rivers and gorgeous mountains, that the remnant of the native race be made as comfortable and enlightened as their mental and moral development will permit.

As a suggestive item in connection with the history and development of events in this vicinity, the photographic likeness of an aged Indian, still alive, is given on another page. Timotsk is now about one hundred and fifteen years of age. While able to go about on his pony, his sunken eyes—almost imperceptible, withered hands and white hair, betoken his great age. With his parents he camped here on the site of this city, before Lewis and Clarke reached this country. He remembers seeing the exploring party as they returned east and when they were camped at the mouth of White Salmon river, and says he was nine snows old at that time. As one of the chiefs of the Klickitats he took part in several great councils to determine what course should be taken by the Indians against the whites; and his family, or clan in that tribe always refused to go to war against the whites, but sought employment of them, Timotsk himself,