Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/75

 before the United States troops under General O. O. Howard, came directly through the Bitter Root Valley. They called upon their old friends, the Flatheads, to join their cause. Could a tribe of harassed Indians resist this appeal?

The Jocko agent reports: "They not only refrained from joining their ancient allies, the Nez Perces, but they gave them warning that if an outrage was committed, either to the person or property of any settler of the Bitter Root Valley, in their retreat before General Howard's advancing troops, they would immediately make war upon them; and to this worthy action of Charlos, the non-treaty Flathead chief, and the chiefs and head-men of this reservation, do the white settlers of the Bitter Root Valley owe their preservation of life and property during those trying days."

Now it would seem possible for a great Government to be magnanimous in a case of this kind without offending petty politicians; under similar circumstances one might expect something handsome from the king of the Hottentots. A communication from the agent to the Commissioner contains the story of the Indians' reward:

". . . The Flatheads lost their crops, owing in part to neglect, caused by assisting the whites in guarding their homes, and to a hail-storm which cut everything down before it that season, leaving them destitute, and compelling them to go to the