Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/358



tunity and the temptation for intrigue; that the commis sioners should have been escorted by a larger body of troops and have been surrounded by every impressive ceremonial, this being the way to make sa.vages as well as civilized men respectful. Quien Sabc? It was well at any rate that Lawyer was able to avert the blow.

While the superintendent of Indian affairs was busied with treaty making in the north, trouble was again brew ing in southern Oregon. Following some minor disturb ances, on June first Jerome Dyar and Daniel McKaw were murdered on the road between Jacksonville and Illinois valley. On various pretenses the Indians, especially those living formerly on Applegate creek and Illinois river, roamed about the country off the reservation, and in June a party of them made a descent on a mining camp, killing several men and capturing property of considerable value.

A volunteer company calling themselves the "Independ ent Rangers" was organized at Wait s mill in Rogue-river valley, and commanded by H. B. Hayes, who reported to John E. Ross, colonel of the territorial militia, for recogni tion, which went in pursuit of the guilty Indians. This was the first organization of any military company since the treaty with the Rogue-rivers in 1853. The agent on the reservation hearing of the movement, notified Captain Smith of Fort Lane, who took out his dragoons and gathered up all the straying Indians he could find, brought them back to the reservation where they were safe. A portion of them who were not brought in were pursued into the mountains, and one killed, A skirmish took place, in which a white man, one Philpot, was killed, and several horses wounded. Skirmishing continued for a week, without very serious results on either side.

In August, a white man having sold a bottle of whisky to some strolling Indians from the reservation, they attacked a party of miners on the Klamath, killing John Pollock, William Hennessey, Peter Heinrich, Thomas