Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

1862

(Washington Territory East of the Cascade Mtns. Showing Topography of the Mines Region)

. . .Yet all was not peaceful. Quarrels with the miners over livestock, land rights, springs, and other matters became frequent. Alcohol became a problem, and Indians, often made deliberately drunk, were cheated, robbed, and murdered. A succession of agents was powerless to protect the Nez Perces. . . . By June 1862 more than 18,000 whites were on the reservation, and friction had become so commonplace that some miners were calling on the government to move the Indians somewhere else. Blaming the situation on Lawyer who was prospering and lording it over them, the anti-white chiefs met periodically in councils, and their threats to make war on the invaders heightened interracial tensions. Even Lawyer became unhappy. A payment for the 1855 treaty finally arrived in November 1862, but it was far less than promised. The goods were shoddy and were not enough to go around to his headmen, and most of the funds were diverted into the pockets of Cain and other whites. Though Lawyer objected, his complaints were lost amid a general corruption that then permeated the Indian Bureau.

In the meantime, having failed to back up the local agents and use troops to evict the miners, the political leaders in the Northwest had decided that an orderly government had to be established in the new mining districts and that, to do so, the title to the overrun lands had to be secured from the Indians. At their urging, Congress agreed in May 1862 to appropriate $50,000 to negotiate a new treaty with the Nez Perces to purchase more lands. In November, Lawyer and his headmen were informed bluntly that a council for such a purpose would be held at Lapwai the following spring. At the same time, troops were finally moved onto the reservation and stationed at a new military post, named Fort Lapwai, near the village of Craig’s father-in-law, Thunder Eyes, in the Lapwai Valley. Rather than being used to force whites off the Indians’ lands, the western volunteers were charged simply with policing against conflict, though in practice their presence worked to support the whites and instill further anxiety among the Indians.

The announcement of a new council shocked the Nez Perces. During the winter, concern and grim fears circulated among the bands of both factions as they remembered what had happened to the Wallawallas, Yakimas, and other tribes that had resisted eviction. The anti-white headmen berated Lawyer for the crisis, and he retorted that they had no respect for the laws of God or the American government. The breach widened. (pp. 101-102)