Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/517

Rh were delivered to the guard to be hanged, making in all sixteen Indians by him hanged as examples to their people. The country east of the mountains was closed to settlement by military order, much to the discomfiture of persons who had entered into stock raising on its grassy plains. But General Harney succeeding General Clarke in command of the department of the Columbia opened the country to settlement in 1859, since which time, with the exception of raids by Snakes and Utes, and Joseph's war of recent date, there has been peace and prosperity for both the white and red inhabitant.

.—In my researches into the history of the northwest, I fell into the habit of setting down the names and numbers of white persons killed by Indians. In the list, which covers the territory north of California and west of the Rocky mountains, now forming the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, the whole number known to have been killed or wounded, between the years 1828 and 1878, so far as I have discovered, was eighteen hundred and ninety-six, or an average of over thirty-seven annually. Of these, the unprovoked murders constitute more than half; the remainder being those wounded in attacks equally unprovoked, or killed or wounded in warfare.

It should be remembered that only a few of these murders occurred before 1847, which doubles the annual number killed after the Indian disturbances commenced, estimating the loss in that manner. But, as a matter of fact, the greater portion of the victims of Indian violence fell between the years 1850 and 1862, and estimating the loss by averaging it over twelve years, brings it up to at least one hundred and sixty annually for that period; and this out of a sparse population.

The greater proportion of those who suffered were men in the prime of life, who could ill be spared by the struggling young territories, though comprising all classes—travelers, prospectors, miners, ranchers, traders, freighters, and lastly, volunteers in defense of the settlements, or soldiers in the service of their country. Many immigrant families were totally destroyed, the women and children suffering every outrage which fiendish imaginations could devise. The amount of property destroyed by Indian attacks upon immigrants, settlers, and United States supplies is enormous. The losses sustained by the people has never been repaid, except in a few instances where congress has been specially besought to reïmburse a transportation company's losses.

Many philanthropical persons find themselves greatly outraged