Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/553

Rh lying concealed by day, came upon a large body of the enemy in a cañon in the Puebla Mountains. He had with him the two companies of allies, composed of Warm Spring, Columbia River, and Boisé Shoshones, the first eager for an opportunity of avenging themselves on an hereditary foe. They were allowed to make the attack, leaving the troops in reserve. The Shoshones were completely surrounded, and the allies soon had thirty scalps dangling at their belts. It was rare sport for civilization, this making the savages fight the savages for its benefit. Proceeding toward and when within eight miles of the post, another Indian camp was discovered and surrounded as before, the allies being permitted to perform the work of extermination.

From observing that the Indians were constantly well supplied with ammunition, and that although so many and severe losses were sustained the enemy were not disheartened nor their number lessened, General Crook came to the conclusion that it was not the Oregon tribes alone he was fighting. From a long experience in Indian diplomacy, he had discovered that reservations were a help rather than a hinderance to Indian warfare, premising that the reservation Indians were not really friendly in their dispositions. It was impossible always to know whether all the Indians belonging to a reservation were upon it or not, or what was their errand when away from it. An Indian thought nothing of travelling two or three hundred miles to steal a horse—in fact, the farther his thefts from the reservation the better, for obvious reasons. He was less liable to detection; and then he could say he had been on a hunting expedition, or to gather the seeds and berries which were only to be found in mountains and marshes, where the eye of the agent was not likely to follow him. Meantime he, with