In 1855 there was a general outbreak of hostilities on the part of the Oregon Indians. Tribe after tribe, even among those who had been considered friendly, fell into the ranks of the hostiles, and some base acts of treachery were committed. The Oregon settlers, menaced with danger on all sides, became naturally so excited and terrified that their actions were hasty and ill-advised. “They are without discipline, without order, and similar to madmen,” says one official report. “Every day they run off the horses and the cattle of the friendly Indians. I will soon no longer be able to restrain the friendly Indians. They are indignant at conduct so unworthy of the whites, who have made so many promises to respect and protect them if they remain faithful friends. I am very sure, if the volunteers are not arrested in their brigand actions, our Indians will save themselves by flying to the homes of their relations, the Nez Percés, who have promised them help; and then all these Indians of Oregon would join in the common defence until they be entirely exterminated.”
It is difficult to do full justice to the moral courage which is shown by Indians who retain friendly to whites under such circumstances as these. The traditions of their race, the powerful influence of public sentiment among their relatives and friends, and, in addition, terror for their own lives—all combine in times of such outbreaks to draw even the friendliest tribes into sympathy and co-operation with those who are making war on whites.
At this time the hostile Indians in Oregon sent word to the Nez Percés, “Join us in the war against the whites, or we will wipe you out.” They said, “We have made the whites run out of the country, and we will now make the friendly Indians do the same.”
“What can the friendly Indians do?” wrote the colonel of a company of Washington Territory Volunteers; “they have no ammunition, and the whites will give them none; and the hostiles say to them, ‘We have plenty; come and join us, and save
