RESERVATION POLICY PACIFIC NORTHWEST 23
Cowlitz Indians were restless because settlers were taking their lands ; in eastern Washington, the Klikitat and the Yakima were preparing to make an attempt to drive all the whites out of the Pacific Northwest.
Nathaniel Olney, the Indian agent for the Snake River dis- trict, accompanied a military expedition which was sent to punish the murderers of the Ward party and to protect emi- grants who were entering the country in the early fall of 1855. The detachment under Major Haller was in the upper Snake Valley during August and September. The agent made pres- ents to the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Hall, but returned to The Dalles with the military force as he considered that it was unsafe to remain at Fort Hall without military pro- tection. At The Dalles the Indians were quiet. 52
The agent for southwestern Oregon reported that the month of September 1855 in the Rogue River Valley was passed, "In one continued series of aggressions." Two men were killed in the Siskiyou Mountains, September 25, 1855. It was stated that numerous thefts were being committed by the Chasta- Skoton bands that had left the reserve at Table Rock, and taken refuge in the Coast Range. The situation was so serious that the agent feared that the people would rise against the Indians unless the thefts were stopped. 53
In western Washington, the Chehalis and Cowlitz Indians were very restless and dissatisfied because the settlers were occupying their lands. Their situation was difficult because of their location between the Willamette Valley settlements and those on Puget Sound ; and because, on account of the failure of the Chehalis council, no lands were set aside as a reserva- tion for them. The Nisqually Indians were in an unsettled state due to the dissatisfaction with their reservation, and the stories circulated by the Nisqually chief, Leschi. J. Ross Browne stated that Leschi traveled among the Indians west of the Cascade Mountains during the summer and fall of 1855 telling them that the whites were planning to gather the Indians together on reservations in order to destroy them,
52 Nathaniel Olney to Palmer, Aug. 31, 1855, Message from the President communicating information relative to Indian hostilities in the territories
of Oregon and Washington, April 17, 1856, (Serial 858, Doc. 93), pp. 96-7; Thomp- son to Palmer, Sept. 28, 1855, ibid., pp. 61-62.
53 G. H. Ambrose to Palmer, Sept. 30, 1855, ibid., p. 62.
