Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/355



THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 337

effort to heighten the value of the lands, and claim the highest price, quite like more civilized men.

But, claiming that their lands were worth a high price was not done expecting to sell ; it was only to discourage buying. Over and over the commissioners set forth the advantages to the red race of acquiring the knowledge to be imparted by the white race. Their logic and painstak ing explanations fell on closed ears. Owhi, a chief of the Yakimas and brother-in-law of Kamiakin, was wholly op posed to a treaty sale of the Yakima lands, as was Kam iakin also. Peu-peu-mox-mox had abandoned his usual deference to white men s views, and stood up bravely for the right of his race to hold the soil. The Cayuses were all against the treaty. Joseph and Looking Glass, war- chief of the Nez Percés, were opposed to it. Only Lawyer, who had been head chief of the Nez Percés ever since the Cayuse war, and the death of Ellis and Richard, threw his influence on the side of the commissioners, to whom his word had been given previous to the opening of the nego tiations.

Two contrary opinions have been held concerning Law yer one, that he was vain and selfish, attaching himself to the power that could keep him in office; and the other, that he was a wise and shrewd politician, doing always what was best for his people. Probably he was a little of both, as Lieutenant Kip says: "I think it is doubtful if Lawyer could have held out but for his pride in his small sum of book lore, which inclined him to cling to his friend ship with the whites. In making a speech he was able to refer to the discovery of the continent by the Spaniards, and the story of Columbus making the egg stand on end. He related how the red men had receded before the white men in a manner that was hardly calculated to pour oil upon the troubled waters; yet, as his father had agreed with Lewis and Clarke to live in peace with the whites, he was in favor of making a treaty."

The numerical strength of the Nez Percés was such that