Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/482

464 to the treaty Indians. A. P. Dennison, the agent, applied to Harney for a force to guard the reservation, but the general, instead of sending troops, ordered forty rifles with ammunition to be furnished, and Dennison resorted to organizing a company among the reservation Indians, and placing it under the command of Thomas L. Fitch, physician to the reservation, who marched up John Day River in the hope of recovering a hundred and fifty head of horses and cattle which had been stolen. His company killed the men belonging to two lodges, took the women and children prisoners, and recaptured a few horses, which had the effect to secure a short-lived immunity only. In August the Snakes made another raid upon the reservation, avenging the slaughter of their people by killing a dozen or more Indian women and children and threatening to burn the agency buildings, the white residents fleeing for their lives to The Dalles. The agent, who was at that place, hastened to the scene of attack with a company of friendly Indians, but not before sixteen thousand dollars' worth of property had been stolen or destroyed. It was only then that a small detachment of soldiers was sent to guard the reservation and induce the terrified Indians as well as white people to return; and a dragoon company was ordered to make a reconnoissance along the base of the Blue Mountains, to recover if possible the property carried off, returning, however, empty-handed; and it was not without reason that the old complaint of the Indian department was reiterated, that the military department would not trouble itself with the Indians unless it were given exclusive control.