Texts of the North American Indian

THE NEZ PERCES, PART 2

HISTORICAL SKETCH

Finding few Indians at Waiilatpu, White went on to the Nez Perce mission at Lapwai, called a council of the bands in that region, and proceeded to impose upon them a code of laws, and a head-chief to execute them. For this position he chose Ellis, a man who had received some schooling at the Red River establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company. Ellis had done much to spread the observance of various Christian forms among the Nez Perces and neighboring tribes, and was held in more or less regard because of his knowledge of English. But his elevation proved his downfall. Lacking a sense of discrimination, Ellis was unyielding in his efforts to exact the penalties prescribed by the new code, and what in many instances had been venial faults now suddenly became serious offences. The change was too sudden and too sweeping, and Ellis soon became a figurehead. He was never head-chief of the Nez Perces, except perhaps in his own mind and in that of the hopeful Doctor White. The Nez Perces, in fact had no head-chief. Nevertheless it must be said that the influence of Ellis and his teachings was a factor in gaining the acquiescence of the Nez Perces, in the treaty of 1855, although Ellis himself was then dead; for Lawyer, who mainly was responsible for the acceptance of the treaty, was a follower of Ellis, and in a meeting with the commissioners quoted the words of that chief: "Whenever the great chief of the Americans shall come into your country to give you laws, accept them." I Some of the causes which were to split the tribe into two irreconcilable parties, the Upper and the Lower Nez Perces, were already at work. The whole question was one of submission to the wishes of the white men and the adoption of their ways. The bands living in the watershed of the Clearwater, influenced first by Ellis and later by Lawyer, favored such a course as the only one whereby they could hope to survive the foreseen flood of immigration. The people of Salmon river, and of Snake river from the Salmon to the Clearwater, desired no schools and no missions, and they were strongly averse to selling their lands. That the former were wise in their generation cannot be denied; but the latter were patriots, and to call them, or any one of a hundred tribes that could be named, renegades, is to exhibit a curious indifference to the meaning of the word.

In 1855 twenty-five hundred Nez Perces, assembled in the Walla Walla valley to meet in council Governor Stevens, of Washington Territory, and General Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon Territory. The Wallawalla, Umatilla, Cayuse, the numerous Shahaptian bands known to the white men as Yakima, and scattering representatives of various villages along the Columbia were there. Lawyer (which is a nickname, not a translation of his native name, Hahlahlhutsot) was the most prominent chief among the bands of the upper country. He was a man of some ability, quick to acquire a working knowledge of the language of other tribes, and possessing a smattering of English. His cleverness, however, was not only in language: he perceived the wisdom of the course advocated by Ellis -- the adoption of the ways of civilization; and there was not absent a sense of the personal advantages that would accrue to him because of his support of the representatives of the Government. Among the Lower Nez Perces, Walamuitkin, chief of a band at the mouth of Grande Ronde river, exercised a greater influence than any other. To the white people he was known as Joseph. This, of course, is the elder Joseph. The proposal of the commissioners, so far as it affected the Nez Perces, was that practically all the land claimed by them should be established as a reservation for them and the Wallawalla, Cayuse, and Umatilla. With the exception of Lawyer, who spoke frequently and earnestly for the treaty, the Nez Perces, had little to say; but the other three tribes refused to give up their land. Their objection was met by the offer to create for them a reservation on Umatilla river,, and all were apparently becoming reconciled when Apaswahaiht, Looking Glass, chief of the Haso- band, arrived with a small party fresh from the buffalo country and with a scalp to testify to their prowess. He angrily denounced the proposed treaty, and declared he had better reason than Lawyer to be looked upon as the head-chief. The council was adjourned until the following day, but at the next session Looking Glass was still bitter, and the Cayuse chiefs supported him. Sunday intervened, and the missionized Nez Perces, as usual, conducted a religious service. Something - just what is not known - must have occurred to mollify Looking Glass, for on the following morning he entered the council in a very different frame of mind, and, when called on by Governor Stevens, affixed his mark to the treaty below that of Lawyer. Joseph was the third signer, and then followed fifty-five others. The treaty confirmed to them practically all the land to which they laid claim, excepting only the greater part of that comparatively small portion lying within the borders of the present state of Washington; but reserved the right to place within their domain any tribe or tribes of Washington Indians "not to exceed the present numbers of the Spokan, Wallawalla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes."

Throughout the council the line had been drawn between the progressive, or Christian, and the conservative elements. The former were quite complaisant, and it was only their friendship that prevented the hot-headed Cayuse from precipitating a massacre of the commissioners and their meagre escort. The Lower Nez Perces in their addresses only reiterated that as the earth had borne them, the earth was their mother, and they could not sell their mother. But the reservation lines did not, as they understood, exclude any of the Lower Nez Perce lands, and as they were not unwilling to agree that other tribes should be settled in their country, and had no objection to the cession of Upper Nez Perce territory, they saw no harm in signing the treaty. In reality a small area was cut off at the south, but the wording of the treaty was such that the Indians could easily have misunderstood it. In fact, very careful reading is required, if one is to note any difference between the description of the land ceded by the Nez Perces and that of the country restored to them as a reservation, except as to that portion of the agreement dealing with the northwestern boundary of the tract.

The Indians dispersed, and Governor Stevens with a small party proceeded northward and across the mountains to make a treaty with the Flatheads, Pend d'Oreilles, and Kutenai, and later with the Blackfeet. During his absence an outbreak occurred among the Yakima. They had consistently opposed the treaty, and their chief, Kamaiakin, had signed it only after protracted discussion. Either he was overpersuaded, and yielded against his better judgment, or else he was only feigning acquiescence, awaiting a favorable opportunity to overwhelm the white men and drive them out of the country. The trouble spread to the Klickitat, Wallawalla, Umatilla, Cayuse, Palus, Sinkiuse, and Wenatchee, and eventually to the Spokan and Coeur d'Alenes, to many of the bands on the Columbia from the Walla Walla to the Cascades, and to various tribes on the coast of Puget sound. Accompanied through the hostile country by a party of friendly Nez Perces (Looking Glass was one of them), who had attended the council with the Blackfeet and had there made peace with that tribe, Stevens made his way to Olympia and gave his attention to the war on the Sound. In September, 1856, he returned to the Walla Walla valley to hold another council with the disaffected Indians. The Wallawalla, Umatilla, and Cayuse, as well as a considerable number of Nez Perces of both parties, met him. As before, the Upper Nez Perces headed by Lawyer, upheld the treaty, but the others supported the hostiles in their contention that only by restoring their lands could the white men hope to maintain peace. They declared that they had not understood the provisions of the treaty. Nothing was accomplished, and after a few days Stevens, with a company of sixty-nine volunteers and fifty friendly Nez Perces moved down the Columbia toward The Dalles. They were attacked by four hundred and fifty Indians, one hundred and twenty of whom, according to the Governor's report, were Nez Perces No serious loss was suffered. It was feared that this presaged a flocking of the Nez Perces to the ranks of the actively hostile, but nothing of the kind happened, and the uprising of the other tribes was brought to an end in 1858. The Lower Nez Perces remained passive, but they refused to accept the annuity goods sent to them after the ratification of the treaty.

The treaty of 1855 was not ratified until 18S9, and none of the annuities promised by the Government under the provisions of the treaty were delivered until 1861; but, notwithstanding the fact that the Government was six years in making its first payment on these ceded lands, they were taken possession of by settlers immediately following the original treaty-making. The Government's failure to keep its promises greatly discouraged the friendly Indians, and gave the "non-treaty" bands the best possible opportunity to argue lack of good faith on the part of "Washington." Notwithstanding the fact that some of these conservative chiefs had signed the Stevens treaty, they claimed that they had been deceived, and would not take any of the annuity goods, insisting that to do so would give the Government a right to say that they had sold their land. Each year when the Nez Perce agent made his report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, he complained bitterly of the Government's disregard of its treaty obligations: that mills and buildings required by the treaty had not been constructed, that Lawyer's salary was in arrears, that work done on the promised church was not paid for, that thousands of dollars' worth of horses furnished by them for the Yakima war of 1855 were not paid for, and in the face of this condition, which continued year after year, settlers were constantly encroaching on the Nez Perce lands. Immediately following the close of the Yakima war, in 1858, their country was literally overrun with miners, traders, farmers, and stock men, who swarmed into the country without regard to reservation boundaries or Indian rights.

To adjust these matters a commission was appointed to negotiate a new treaty. This commission, consisting of C. H. Hale, Charles Hutchins, and S. D. Howe, met the Nez Perces at Lapwai, June 9, 1863, and the chiefs of the uppercountry bands signed an agreement that "the Nez Perce tribe do hereby relinquish . . . the lands heretofore reserved for the use and occupation of the said tribe," excepting a reservation of less than twelve hundred square miles, in Idaho, mainly on the southern side of the Clearwater. Those who lived outside the boundaries of this new reservation were to move inside within a year after the ratification of the treaty. Again four years passed before the treaty was ratified; meanwhile the annuity payments, which were made to them in the years 1861 and 1862, ceased, thus furnishing another cause for complaints from the long-suffering friendly Nez Perces and ample opportunity for their ridicule by the "non-treaties." This treaty was ratified in 1867, but there was no movement by the conservative Indians toward the reservation. Against the treaty of 1855 the conservatives had but a questionable grievance, but now their position was certainly well defined, and their contention tenable, in that none of the Lower Nez Perces had signed this treaty or taken any part in the council. Notwithstanding this fact, the Upper Nez Perces had assumed the privilege of disposing of the lands of the conservatives, and by doing so received material benefits to themselves. Lawyer, the leader of the Christian Nez Perces had proved himself a good friend of the whites on several occasions, but it would seem as if this attitude was anything but an unselfish one, particularly as evidenced by the treaty of 1863. By it he had, without hesitation or consultation, sold his brother's birthright. In so doing he not only shared in the price of the "nontreaty" lands, but furthered his own political ambition, in that if the " non-treaty " chiefs moved to his reservation they would naturally be subservient to him. What would Lawyer's attitude have been had the position been reversed, he giving up his home-land and moving to another, under the chieftaincy of White Bird, and letting that leader and his people share equally in the price received for Lawyer's land?

EDWARD S. CURTIS