Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/352



pedition surveying for a Pacific railroad route, and had conferred with several of the tribes on the north side of the Columbia concerning the sale of their lands. They had seemed well disposed towards the government and willing to sell, and Stevens had so reported. On the strength of this report Stevens and Palmer had been ap pointed commissioners to make treaties with these tribes, and money had been appropriated for the purpose.

But in the time which had intervened between Stevens first appearance among them and the spring of 1855 many things had occurred to change the friendly feeling then expressed into one of doubt, if not of fear and hostility. For there are no greater gossips and newsmongers in the world than Indians, whose childish imaginations quickly seize upon any hint of coming events to distort and mag nify it. They had been alarmed by the rumor of Palmer s design of settling the Wallamet tribes east of the moun tains. They weie informed of the troubles in southern Oregon from the coast to Goose lake, and of the expedi tions sent out against the Modocs and against the Snakes. The Cay uses had not forgotten the tragedy of Waiilatpu, and their punishment; the Nez Percés were, as they had been always, cautious and conservative. It was, in truth, not a propitious time for treaty making with the powerful tribes of the trans-Cascades country.

But the command having gone forth, Governor Stevens made some preliminary movements during the winter of 1854-5, by sending among the Indians of eastern Wash ington, Mr. James Doty, already known to them as his trusted aid, who explained the nature of the council to which they were invited in May, securing their promises to be present, and also their assent to the proposition to purchase their lands, except such portions as they wished to reserve for their permanent homes. The first council was to be held with the Yakimas, Cayuses, Walla Wallas, and Nez Percés, in the Walla Walla valley, on an ancient council ground of the Yakima nation, selected by Kamia-