CHAPTER XIl.

Indians, continued.—Chief Joseph.—White Bird. —Looking Glass, and In-
dians generally.—The White Bird fight.—These Indians in early
days.—Their flocks, herds and fine farms.—The result of the war to
the Indians. —‘‘Cold-blooded treachery.""—How chief Joseph treated
white prisoners. —‘‘The glory of the West.”—Col. Steptoe’s defeat, —
“For God's sake, give me something to kill myself with.” The others
saved by other Indians.--An ingrate.—Col. Wright's victory.—690
horses butchered.—How Wright treated Indian prisoners.—*"The
Chief Moses outrage.” —$70,000,000 squandered by the gang,

WILL resume as to the Nez-Percé, or Joseph, White Bird
and Looking Glass outbreak, and Indian affairs generally, by
condensing from the press.

THE WHITE BirD FIGHT, NEAR Fort Lapwat, Ipano, 1877.

“When the Indians attacked Col. Perry with about fifty men,
they expected to be repulsed, and then fall back about a mile
where was their reserve force of about sixty, entrenched for the
purpose of receiving the troops, as they pursued the advance
skirmish on their retreat. But their advance never had to retreat,
for Col. Perry and the troops fled in precipitancy almost at the
first fire, and never did stop until they had gone four miles up the
eanyon. The Indian reserve never came into the fight, except a
few old squaws, who, on seeing the soldiers in flight, followed
close up, to plunder the dead. They were frightened at the first
volley discharged in their direction, and Col. Perry was determined
to save his own scalp by flight. So demoralized was he, that he
said, he kept one charge in his revolver in order to shoot himself,
in case the Indians were about to capture him. He had rode down
one horse and took another, belonging to a soldier; and had not
W. B. Bloomer, a citizen, notified him of his danger of annihila-
tion, he would have rushed into Rocky canyon and been slaughter-
ed. Bloomer called to him to stop, when Perry says to him, “then
you lead the way out of this.”

But Lieutenant Theller gathered six or eight soldiers around
him, and stood off the Indians and fought them until every man
of his squad, including himself, was shot down. And for eleven
days Col. Perry’s dead soldiers lay mortifying in the hot sun on
the field of battle, while the Colonel [a mason] and his fleeing

(165)

166 INDIANS, CONTINUED.

force were at Cottonwood in good quarters, and the Indians had
left and gone to Salmon river and across. The citizen volunteers
buried Perry’s dead. ;

Manuel lay concealed in the brush near by, and personally
saw the Indians, when they made their breast works of rails, the
number who were there, and the number who sallied out to meet
the soldiers; and he says that not more than fifty of the Indian
warriors left the breast works, and that there were not at any time
more than 200 Indians in the hostile party at the time of the
White Bird fight, and from fifty to sixty of these were women and
children. After the fight, when they had their revelry over the
victory they had gained over the soldiers, Manuel was within a
few yards of the party, concealed in the brush, and could see and
hear all that was done and said. He is willing to make oath that
at that time not more than 200 men, women and children were in
the hostile party.

Such are some of the facts that [Mason] the pretended histo-
rian should have embodied in his pretended history, instead of ex.
ecusing the commander [Mason], who held the key position on the
hill, when the fighting commenced, and could have easily held it.”
— Lewiston Teller.”

Why should the people support a horde of such loafers to
command real citizens of the Government in time of war?

“CHIEF JOSEPH.—By his performances became entitled to be
recognized as one of the remarkable men of the age. One more
day’s march would have placed him inside the British dominions.
For four months he had eluded his pursuers, having travelled
more than 1500 miles through the wildest, rockiest and most
mountainous region in America. He had crossed ranges, leaped
canyons, and swam mountain torrents; all this while carrying
with him, on this remarkable flight, the women, children and
property of his tribe. He had been pursued altogether by several
armies, any one of which far outnumbered his force. He had
fought five battles against an eyemy, supplied with all the re-
sources of modern warfare, and each time he had been practically
victorious. Had he had the least suspicion of Miles’ approach, it
is evident that his fertile genius would have eluded his enemies
once more, and have been able to laugh at all their toil.”

“A Buack PaGE or History.—In the fine address delivered
before the Oregon Pioneers’ Association by Col. Geo. H. Curry,

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INDIANS, CONTINUED.

167

we find the following: On the third day from seeing the signal
smoke [while immigrating to Western Oregon in early days], we
arrived at the rim of the Grande Ronde valley. Looking down
upon this, the most beautiful valley in Oregon, we could see large
numbers of Indians riding over the plains. No choice was left
us, friendly or warlike, we had to pass through that valley, and
down the hill we started. Reaching the foot, we soon learned that
the Indians we had seen were a large band of Cayuses and Nez-
Pereés, who, following a custom taught them by Dr. Whiteman,
had come this far, to meet the immigrants, trade with them, and
protect them from the Snake Indians. Here, for the first time in
several months, we felt safe, and went to sleep without guard,
leaving our hungry stock to feed at will among the abundant
herbage of the Grande Ronde.

The smoke which had caused so much apprehension was the
Nez-Pereés’ signal of aid. It was the fiery banner of friendship
and succor, sent aloft by these dusky people to proclaim their
presence and good will,

The sad re#-“tion, consequent upon reading this passage, is,
that these friendly Indians, who protected the weary and famish-
ing Oregon pioneers, should have subsequently been the object of
the most outrageous, unjust and inhuman persecution that our
Government ever inflicted upon the Indians. Generals Howard,
Gibbons and Miles, who were obliged, under the orders of the
Government, to execute Secretary Sechui’s inhuman orders for
the ejection of the Nez-Percés from their homes, unanimously
testified, that these Indians had reached a comparatively high
stage of civilization; they had flocks aud herds, had fine farms;
were a brave, manly, spirited race of men, and so humane, that
they forebore to murder, scalp, or otherwise torture our wounded,
that fell into their hands.

In their retreat through our settlements they did not murder.
or rob; they paid for their supplies and only asked a peaceful
passage in their flight. Gen. Gibbons describes Chief Joseph as a
man of high intelligence, and of superior military talent, whose
men were equal, man for man, fo our soldiers, and who out-gene-
‘alled and out-fought us in every fight. [Why should not such In-
dians be given commands in the army, over the masons, in times
of war?} When Chief Joseph surrendered to General Miles on
honorable terms, which stipulated that his people should not be
removed to Indian territory, Secretary Schurz disgraced the

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168 INDIANS, CONTINUED.

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Government by violating the terms of surrender, [but was the
masonic President dead ?] and General Miles never ceased to pro-
test against this outrage. But Schurz persisted in removing them
to a district in Indian territory, where the tribe died of disease,
like sheep with the foot rot.

The only excuse for the Nez-Pereé war was that greedy men
wanted the splendid grazing and farming lands of the tribe.
[There was pienty of just as good and better land that was vacant
at that time; it was more for the plunder of the Indians of their
other property, and the Government, in the furnishing and trans-
portation of supplies by the gang that had so much evil influence
at court, and are sworn subjects of their secret mogul govern-
ment that prostitutes ours.] So these Indians, who had pro-
tected the Oregon pioneers, who had offered an asylum to settlers
fleeing from the savages in the Indian war, who had laid aside the
inhuman practices of scalping and tor(ure of captives, [even while
the Government hired and armed other Indians who did this
against the Nez-Pereés], who were rising steadily in the scale of
industrial and agricultural civilization ; these Indians were lashed
and goaded into rebellion, and fought a heroie fight against our
soldiers, who heartily sympathized with these brave men whom
they were ordered by the cold-blooded [tools of the gang] to shoot
down and evict from their homes. It is the blackest picture in
the whole history of the dealings of the Government with the
Indian |but it is not very far from a fair sample of the whole],
and we have no doubt, that the Oregon pioneers who were aided
in the Cayuse war by these Nez-Pereés, agree with General
Gibbons, who to this day pronounces the Nez-Pereé war as a cruel
outrage, contrived by [the gang] and executed by a secretary of
the interior, who was as cold-blooded and treacherous as the
meanest savage that ever wielded the tomahawk and the sealping

knife.”—Portland Oregonian.

Yet he was a pretty good Christian compared. to brethren
who were appointed to high offices out here,

‘(ARKANSAS Ciry, Kan., Marcu 26, 1885.—Information is
received here that the remaining members of the Nez-Pereé
Indian tribe, with the noted Chief Joseph, are to be transferred
from their present reservation in Indian territory, where they
are dying by the score from broken hearts, to their old reserva-
tion in Idaho. In 1877, when Joseph and his men went to war

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INDIANS, CONTINUED.

169

with the Whites, he conducted one of the most wonderful marches
and succession of fights in the annals of Indian warfare, and
when, at last, he surrendered to General Miles at Bear Paw moun-
tain, Montana, in the fall of 1877, he was over 900 miles from his

reservation.

Chief Joseph, at last, would only throw down his arms upon
the promise that he and his tribe should be returned to their old reser-

vation.

And so well were they intrenched behind stone fences and
breastworks, that Miles’ men could not dislodge them, and at one
period of the fight, when General Miles asked his command if
they could not drive them out by assaz!t, they replied, ‘Charge
hell! We are not Sioux!’ it beiag generally known that the
Sioux were the only Indians that would charge the Nez-Percés.
The tribe are to be transferred to the land of their forefathers.
Of the 600 men, women, and children, who surrendered, over 300
have died of broken hearts, and the only flourishing spot within
100 miles of their present reservation is their graveyard, where

newly made graves are to be seen on all sides.

Chief Joseph has

cheered up his tribe by the words that some time the Great
Father at Washington [with the permission of the gang| would
keep his word and let them return to their own hunting grounds

near the setting sun.”

“Chief Joseph, the Nez-Pereé, who, with his tribe, 800
strong, of the best fighters the United States troops ever met in
field, canyon or ambuscade, broke out in June, 1877, and after a
mareh of nearly 2,000 miles, were finally captured at Bear Paw
mountain, near the British line, in November, the same year, are
now on their way back to the home they love so well in Idaho.
Of the 800 who left }u: 250 are left, and of these 119, with Chief
Joseph, will be taken to the Colville reservation, and the re-
mainder will b: taken to Lapwoi. With the single exception of

Joseph himself, the Chiefs of the outbreak are all dead.

Looking

Glass was killed by General Miles’ troops at Bear Paw, Rainbow
we saw lying dead with a bullet through his brain and his face up-

turned to the sky on the Big Hole battle-ground ;

he was the first

Indian killed as he was going out at daybreak to gather in his
horses. Tool-hool-hool-suit was killed on the same field and his
body dug up by Howard’s Bannock scouts, scalped, and a general

war dance and correbboree held over his earcass.
was prominent in the Salmon river massacre

Caps-caps, who

(?] is also dead,

170 INDIANS, CONTINUED,

having been killed in one of the numerous engagements. On the
surrender, General Miles gave his word to Joseph that he should
be returned to his own country, but such has been the opposition
of the white people [who had stolen their property and had influ-
ence at court) it has not until now [when their property is secured
beyond their reach so they cannot “make trouble”| deemed ad-
visable to allow them to return, and, hence, Joseph will be placed
on a reservation far remote from the scene of his depredations.
Whenever he had the opportunity, he spared the lives of the
prisoners who fell into his hands, and caused to be delivered,
safely and unharmed, two ladies, who with their party were at
the time in Yellowstone Park. Joseph intereeded and sent them
on their way rejoicing, when they had been condemned to death.
[I wonder whether these ladies did anything for Joseph’s justice
when /e was in distress. |

He has paid dearly for his erimes [?] the vengeance of all
should be glutted by this time.” [Having got away with their
homes and herds, and robbed the Government out of big piles of
Es money; yes, these gentlemen, who “lashed and goaded them
into an outbreak” for plunder, might forgive them now, if they
will forget it all and say nothing about it.|

! ‘At last, after waiting nearly eight years, the remnant of and
the Nez-Pereé tribe, which was transported to Indian territory, Somt
after the surrender of Clief Joseph, is to be brought back, Of the

, over 500 persons that left, less than half remain, the others filling one
‘graves in the land of their exile. The story of this exile is a tilaery
: pitiful one, and that they have amply atoned for their erime [?] ; Seat
} a tribe few will deny. Since their departure great changes have as in

} taken place in their old homes, and their return need cause no onli