Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

1855

. . . [Stevens] returned to Olympia, the capital of the new territory, and in January and February 1855 swept through western Washington, forcing headmen of the tribes west of the Cascades by threats and trickery to sign away their lands and accept small reservations.

Word of what was happening heightened the alarm east of the Cascades. Before the bands could agree on what to do, two emissaries from Stevens came upriver in April and, visiting each tribe, persuaded their headmen to meet with Stevens and Joel Palmer, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon, in the latter part of May at Mill Creek, some ten kilometers (six miles) above Waiilatpu in the Walla Walla Valley. Looking Glass and several of the anti-white headmen and chiefs were in Montana, hunting buffalo. In their absence, the Christians and other Nez Perce headmen, deciding that they had no choice but to hear what Stevens had to say, agreed to let Lawyer be their spokesman, hoping that he could avert any attempt to take their lands.

The council lasted from May 29 to June 11, 1855, and was the largest ever held in the Northwest. Several thousand Indians were present, including most of the Nez Perce nation, Wallawallas, Cayuses, Umatillas, Yakimas, and representatives of a number of other tribes. To win compliance from the Indians, Stevens sent keelboats up the Columbia ahead of him loaded with presents and food, and throughout the council, he feasted the important men. . . .

. . . Stevens warmly welcomed Lawyer as head chief of the tribe. Neither Lawyer nor Craig corrected him, possibly believing, as did the headmen, that the Americans were officially appointing Lawyer as their new head chief. From then on, Lawyer formally asserted title to that position, though he did not have the prestige or authority that Stevens thought he had. The individual headmen and chiefs continued to regard their bands as autonomous. The anti-Americans even ignored him, and neither they nor Lawyer assumed that he could speak for them unless they asked him to do so.

With Craig and several others acting as interpreters, the council got off to a bad start for Stevens and Palmer. The interpreting was poor. Even so, the Indians understood enough to recognize that the Americans were treating them patronizingly and with dishonesty. The Indians understood enough to recognize that the Americans were treating them patronizingly and with dishonesty. They know what the Americans wanted, but for several days Stevens and Palmer beat all about the bush. . . . Only once did Stevens briefly allude to the real purpose of the council, stating, "Now we want you . . . to have your tract with all these things; the rest to be the Great Father's for his white children."

The single allusion was enough. The Indians could see that the Americans were masking their real purpose. . . . The headmen, angered by the Americans' glibness and crooked talk, were restless. "You have spoken in a round about way," Peopeo Moxmox told Stevens." Speak straight. I have ears to hear you. . . . Speak plain to us." . . .

On June 4, Stevens finally revealed his plan to establish two reservations, one in Nez Perce Country for the Nez Perces, Cayuses, Wallawallas, Umatillas, and Spokans, and the other in Yakima country for the Yakimas and all the many tribes and bands along the Columbia River from the Dalles to the Okanogan and Colville valleys in northeastern Washington. The Indians would sell the rest of the country, including the areas through which the projected railroad would be built. He spent two days explaining the reservations and tracing their boundaries on a map, but he made little headway. Save for Lawyer and a few of the Nez Perce headmen whose territories were unaffected, the Indians reacted coldly.

As the days passed, Stevens became impatient. He worked harder on Lawyer, promising him personal benefits and payments befitting his position as head chief. With the help of Timothy and others, Lawyer pressured the other headmen and chiefs, showing them that the only territory the Nez Perces would have to sell were border areas where none of their villages were located and arguing that under the treaty the Americans would protect their villages and lands from whites, who would not be allowed on the reservation. If they turned down the treaty, Lawyer warned them, there would be no protection. Whites would seize their lands anyway, and there would be war. . . .

. . . Though it appears that the terms were still not clear to them and that some still opposed the treaties, they all reluctantly agreed to sign. Joseph made a final plea that the Americans be sure that his Wallowa homeland in Oregon be included in the Nez Perce reservation, and Red Wolf asked that Craig be allowed to stay with the Nez Perces "because he understands us." Stevens reassured Joseph and agreed to Red Wolf's request. . . . It made Craig the first permanent white settler in the present state of Idaho.

The council ended in a dramatic climax. Looking Glass had learned of the meeting and, crossing hurriedly from Montana, reached the conference just before the signing. His arrival . . . threw the council into a commotion and threatened to undo everything Stevens had won. "My people," Looking Glass scolded the Nez Perces, "what have you done? While I was gone, you have sold my country . . . . Go home to your lodges. I will talk to you."

That night he heaped scorn on the headmen who had agreed to sign, and the next day the 70-year-old war chief took over from Lawyer as spokesman. "It was my children who spoke yesterday," he told the Americans, "and now I have come.". He ran his finger along Stevens's map of the new reservation, outlining the borders of all the Nez Perces' lands as they had traditionally existed. That was the reservation he wanted. Stevens and Palmer argued with him, but got nowhere, and Stevens finally adjourned the session, telling him to think the matter over and talk to the other Nez Perces. . . .

In a stormy session in the Nez Perce camp that night Lawyer convinced the headmen that there would be trouble if they broke their pledge. A majority of those present finally reaffirmed their acceptance of the Americans' appointment of Lawyer as the head chief, and Looking Glass and the other elderly chiefs who had come with him, recognizing that their respective bands would lose none of their lands, at length gave their assent to the treaty. The triumph increased Lawyer's prestige among the pro-Christian headmen but did nothing to moderate the feelings of the anti-Americans. . . . The next day, Lawyer signed the treaty. He was followed by Looking Glass and Joseph, who made their marks in silence. The other Nez Perce chiefs and headmen—56 in all—added their marks, and then the Cayuses signed their treaty. All the other tribes had already signed, and the council was ended.

Though each Nez Perce chief or headman signed only for his own band or village, satisfied that he had not sold any of his ancestral lands, the Nez Perce treaty from the Americans' point of view established a reservation of about 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) for the entire Nez Perce tribe, which they assumed was now led by Lawyer. Since the leaders of every band had signed, the treaty eventually became in the eyes of the Nez Perces the basic document in their dealings with the American government. From its agreements and conditions stemmed—and still stem—the fundamental rights of the Nez Perces and the obligations of the Federal Government to them, for never again did the United States make a treaty with the tribe in which all the bands were present and able to speak for themselves.

The Nez Perces relinquished little land which they regarded as their own: a narrow strip of mountainous hunting grounds in the south running across the center of present-day Idaho and a grazing area on both sides of the Snake River west of the mouth of Alpowa Creek in present-day Washington. . . . For what they sold, the headmen were promised two schools, two blacksmith shops, a sawmill, a flour mill, a hospital, and other facilities, all of which would be built for them within one year of ratification of the treaty by the Senate; an agent, two teachers, and ten persons to maintain the buildings for 20 years; and $200,000 payable in graduated amounts annually over 20 years, for improvements and for blankets, clothing, and other goods and services. The tribe's head chief would receive a house and an annual salary of $500 a year for 20 years.

No whites, other than those in government service for the Indians, would be allowed on the reservation without the consent of the tribal leaders and the agent. . . . The Nez Perces retained the right to hunt, fish, dig roots, and gather berries on the lands they had ceded and to pasture their livestock on any land adjoining the reservation not owned by whites. . . .

The tribes were told that they would not have to withdraw from the lands they sold until one year after the government ratified the treaties. Nevertheless, Stevens and Palmer immediately sent word to the newspapers in western Oregon and Washington that the ceded areas were open for settlement. Inevitably, that would lead to trouble. Stevens then traveled from the Walla Walla to Montana to meet with the Blackfeet. . . . He wanted delegates from the western tribes to join him in his meeting with the Blackfeet to solemnize a peace pact between them, and he had invited Lawyer. The head chief's old wound was hurting him, however, and Looking Glass, as a second in rank to Lawyer, was prevailed on to lead the Nez Perce delegation. . . . Together with a party of Flatheads, Kutenais, and Pend d'Oreilles, they participated in the council with the Blackfeet, and Stevens had the satisfaction of bringing about a peace that, despite occasional clashes, endured thereafter between the long-standing enemies. (pp. 81-90)