nied; nor that the fault was with the government rather than with the people. Every interest of the people in the first instance was in favor of peace; but the peace once, nay many times, broken, the preservation of their lives and property forced upon them the alternative of war, even to extermination, the end of which was, as we have seen, first conquest, and finally banishment for the inferior race. And all this, no matter where the responsibility rested, was in consonance with that law of nature which decrees the survival of the fittest.
About at the date of the outbreak in the Rogue-river valley, several citizens of the Puget sound region traveling to the Colville mines through the country of the Yakimas, were murdered by that tribe. The apology offered for their conduct subsequently was a story of outrages perpetrated upon their women by these men—a story never believed by their acquaintances at home, and never proven. Other small parties were also murdered.
As soon as the news of these murders reached sub-Indian agent A. J. Bolan, who was on his way to the Spokane country to meet Governor Stevens, who, it will be remembered, had, after the council of Walla Walla, continued making treaties with the northern tribes of east Washington and Montana, he turned back to investigate the matter.
From The Dalles he proceeded to the Ahtanahm Catholic mission, near which Kamiakin had his home, to learn from the chief himself the truth or falsity of the report. In order to show his confidence in the good disposition of the Yakimas, he traveled unattended, and consequently only Indian evidence was obtainable of what occurred between the agent and the chief. It was said that the latter was insolent and threatening, and that Skloom, the brother of Kamiakin, informed Bolan that a council of war had been held in Grand Rond valley, at which he, and Lawyer of the Nez Percés, had spoken in favor of peace. The haughtiness and unfriendly manner of the
