Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/35

 THE UMATILLAS

IFTY years ago, the Indians living in the valleys and mountains where Oregon, Washington, and Idaho meet, first heard the white man's cry of Gold. Onward came the excited miners, reckless with gun and regardless of rights, and away sped the Indians' game. The Indians gazed in wrathful consternation. What should they do?

"Fight," said the chiefs. "Fight for the land of our fathers!" echoed the warriors. And fight they did, with the desperate ferocity of men who know that in the end they must lose. And they lost.

Then in 1859 the Government gathered up the remnants of three tribes,—the Walla Wallas, the Cayuse, and the Umatillas,—made a treaty with them, and placed them all together on a reservation in northeastern Oregon. 24