Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/498

480 September tenth, the Washington volunteers were also mustered out of service.

Here might be ended the narrative of the causes and conduct of the Yakima war, so far as the volunteer service was concerned. But there are still to be related the leading incidents of its conclusion as a war.

On learning that the Nez Percés, excepting Lawyer's following, had refused to acknowledge their treaty obligations, or to accept the supplies sent them, Governor Stevens immediately instructed Shaw to send runners to the different tribes, friendly and hostile, inviting them to meet him on the twenty-fifth of September, but at the same time notifying them that he required the unconditional surrender of the latter. He urged Colonel Wright to be present at the council with three companies of regulars, including all his mounted men, which invitation Wright declined.

On the nineteenth of August, Stevens left The Dalles with a train of thirty wagons, eighty oxen, and two hundred loose animals, and without any other escort than the necessary employés of the expedition. A day or two behind him followed the baggage and supply train of Colonel Steptoe's command. He arrived in the Walla Walla valley on the twenty-third, again sending word in all directions of his desire to meet the Indians for a final adjustment of their difficulties.

At the end of a week a deputation of the lower Nez Percés came in with their agent, Craig. In another week the remainder of that people arrived, and on the same day came Father Ravelli from the Cœur d'Alene mission, with the information that Kamiakin, Owhi, and Qualchin of the Yakimas, refused to attend the council. The Spokanes also, influenced by Kamiakin, who had his headquarters on the border of the Spokane country, with the other northern tribes, declined to meet the superintendent.

On the tenth of September the hostile Cayuses and their allies arrived, and encamped near the Nez Percés, but