Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/449

Rh those of you that remain will kill all your women and children, and then the country will be ours. The country is ours already, as you must see from our assembled army; for we intend to occupy it, and make it too hot to hold you. We are braves, and no brave makes war with women and children. You may kill them as you say, but we will not; yet we are thirsting for your blood, and want your warriors to meet us, and the warriors of all tribes wishing to help you, at once to come. The snow is on the ground, and the crows are hungry for food. Your men we have killed; your horses and your cattle do not afford them enough to eat. Your people shall not catch salmon hereafter for you, for I will send soldiers to occupy your fisheries, and fire upon you. Your cattle and your horses, which you got from the white man, we will hunt up, and kill and take them from you. The earth which drank the blood of the white man, shed by your hands, shall grow no more wheat nor roots for you, for we will destroy it. When the cloth that makes your clothing, your guns, and your powder are gone, the white man will make you no more. We looked upon you as our children and tried to do you good. We would not have cheated you. The treaty which you complain of, though signed by you, gave you too much for your lands, which are most all worthless to the white man; but we are not sorry, for we are able to give, and it would have benefited you. After you signed the treaty with Governor Stevens and General Palmer, had you have told us that you did not wish to abide by it, it would have been listened to. We wanted to instruct you in all our learning; to make axes, ploughs, and hoes to cultivate the ground; blankets to keep you from the cold; steamboats and steam-wagons which fly along swifter that the birds fly, and to use the lightning which makes the thunder in the heavens to carry talk, and serve as a servant. William Chinook at The Dalles, Lawyer, chief of the Nez Percés, Sticcas, and We-atti-natti-timine, bias tyee of the Cayuses, and many others of their people, can tell you what I say is true. You, a few people, we can see with our glasses a long way off, while the whites are as the stars in the heavens, or leaves of the trees in summer time. Our warriors in the field are many, as you must see; but if not enough, a thousand for every one more will be sent to hunt you, and to kill you; and my kind advice to you, as you will see, is to scatter yourselves among the Indian tribes more peaceable, and there forget you ever were Yakimas.

Some skirmishing on the march resulted only in the loss of fifty-four cavalry horses, which was party repaired by captures from the Indians. Two soldiers were drowned in the Yakima river, and two volunteers of Captain