A History of Oregon, 1792-1849

“Tilokaikt, a Cayuse chief, rose and said: ‘What do you read the laws for before we take them? We do not take the laws because Tawatowe says so. He is a Catholic, and as a people we do not follow his worship.’ Dr. White replied that this did not make any difference about the law; that the people in the States had different modes of worship, yet all had one law.

“A chief, called the Prince, arose and said: ‘I understand you gave us liberty to examine every law, – all the words and lines, – and as questions are asked about it, we should get a better understanding of it. The people of this country have but one mind about it. I have something to say, but perhaps the people will dispute me. As a body, we have not had an opportunity to consult, therefore you come to us as in a wind, and speak to us as to the air, as we have no point, and we can not speak because we have no point before us. The business before us is whole like a body; we have not dissected it. And perhaps you will say it is out of place for me to speak, because I am not a great chief. Once I had influence, but now I have but little.’”

This was one of the principal chiefs of the tribe that assisted in taking Fort Wallawalla and tying Mr. Pambrun to compel him to give more goods for horses and furs. “He was about to sit down, but was told to go on. He then said: ‘When the whites first came among us, we had no cattle; they have given us none; what we have now got we have obtained by an exchange of property. A long time ago Lewis and Clarke came to this country, and I want to know what they said about us. Did they say they found friends or enemies here?’ Being told that they spoke well of the Indians, the Prince said: ‘That is a reason why the whites should unite with us, and all become one people. Those who have been here before you have left us no memorial of their kindness, by giving us presents. We speak by way of favor; if you have any benefit to bestow, we will then speak more freely. One thing that we can speak about is cattle, and the reason why we can not speak out now is because we have not the thing before us. My people are poor and blind, and we must have something tangible. Other chiefs have bewildered me since they came; yet I am from an honorable stock. Promises which have been made to me and my fathers have not been fulfilled, and I am made miserable; but it will not answer for me to speak out, for my people do not consider me as their chief.’ [This was just what Mr. Pambrun, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, had done to this Indian chief to break his power and destroy his influence with his tribe and his people. But let us hear him through.] ‘One thing more; you have reminded me of what was promised me some time ago, and I am inclined to follow on and see, though I have been giving my beaver to the whites and have received many promises, and have always been disappointed; I want to know what you are going to do?’

“Illutin, or Big Belly, then arose and said that the old men were wearied with the wickedness of the young men; that if he was alone he could say ‘Yes’ at once to the laws, and that the reason why the young men did not feel as he felt, was because they had stolen property in their hands, and the laws condemned stealing. But he assured them that the laws were calculated to do them good and not evil.

“But this did not satisfy the Prince. He desired that the good which it was proposed to do them by adopting the laws might be put in a tangible form before them.

“He said that it had been a long time since the country had been discovered by whites, and that ever since that time people had been coming along promising to do them good; but they had all passed by and left no blessing behind them.”

This chief said that “the Hudson’s Bay Company had persuaded them to continue with them, and not go after the Americans; that if the Americans designed to do them good, why did they not bring goods with them to leave with the Indians? that they were fools to listen to what Suapies (Americans) had to say; that they would only talk, but the company would both talk and give them presents.”

This Indian, as his speech shows, was shrewd, and thought he was certain to obtain his object, either from the Hudson’s Bay Company or the Americans. He had been humbled by the company, and an offer to buy him back had been made. He bid for a higher price with the Americans. In doing so, he naturally exposed the secret influence of the company, which is given in this book of Mr. Hines’, as a matter of course, and he passes along without note or comment upon what he saw, and heard.

“In reply to the last Indian speech, Dr. White told the Indians that he did not come to them as a missionary or as a trader.”

To Ellis and Lawyer, who called on them in the evening to have a talk, “they said they expected pay for being chiefs, and wanted to know how much salary Dr. White was going to give them. Ellis said he had counted the months he had been in office, and thought that enough was due him to make him rich. They left at a late hour without receiving any satisfaction. In the council, efforts were made to induce the Nez Percés to unite under one chief in the fall of 1842. Thomas McKay had promised these chiefs large salaries and many presents that Dr. White and his government would give them as an inducement to form a union, knowing that White had not the ability or means to make good his promises to them, and in this way any influence as an agent of the American government he might have would be lost in this tribe.

“Ellis was a Hudson’s Bay Indian, educated at the Red River settlement. They left this private interview with White without any satisfaction, showing that the policy of the company was producing its legitimate effect upon Ellis’s mind. The Lawyer, however, understood the matter in its true light. He explained to us the whole transaction, and the promises of McKay from the company. He thought Dr. White was foolish to let McKay talk so much for him and the American government.

“Some hundreds again assembled the next day (May 24) to renew the business relative to laws; but the first thing investigated was the shooting of John, the Kanaka, by the Indian. John had gone to a lodge the day before, and in a dispute in a trade he had dared the Indian to shoot him. The Indian had seized his gun and fired it at John’s head, making considerable of a hole in the scalp, but none in the skull. The Indian fled, but was brought back and found guilty and kept till the laws were adopted for sentence and punishment, and finally punished with forty lashes on the bare back.

“The Indians continued to speak in reference to the laws. Their speeches were grave, energetic, mighty, and eloquent, and generally in favor of receiving the laws. After all had spoken it was signified that they were ready to vote whether they would take the laws or not, and the vote was unanimous in the affirmative. Having adopted the laws, it was now necessary to elect their chief, according to the provisions of the laws, and Tawatowe was nominated to the highest chieftainship. Some were opposed; a majority were in favor, and while the question was pending [this Indian had not consulted his priest, or he would have declined at once on this first proposition to elect him chief], Tawatowe arose and said, ‘My friends, I rise to speak to you, and I want you all to listen.’ He then adverted to his past history, and told them how much he had suffered in consequence of their divisions and quarrels. Tawatowe joined his influence with the Prince to get more pay from the Hudson’s Bay Company for horses and furs, hence his tribe were encouraged to quarrel with and disrespect him. When we first arrived in the country he was seldom invited to the fort, and received no presents from the company. He inquired of his people if they would lay aside all their past difficulties and come up and support him if he would accept of the chieftainship.

“It was now time to close for the day, and the vote being put, Tawatowe was declared duly elected to the high chieftainship of the Cayuse tribe.

“Dr. White bought of Mrs. Whitman a fat ox and presented it to the Indians. Mrs. W. gave them a fat hog, which they butchered and feasted upon at night.

“May 25. – A number of the chiefs came early in the morning at Mr. Hines’ request, to settle a difficulty concerning some horses which they gave to Rev. Jason Lee when he first came to Oregon in 1834, Mr. Lee having requested Mr. Hines to come to some arrangement with them if possible. After a long talk we succeeded in settling with them by proposing to give them a cow for each horse that they had given to Mr. Lee. We found that the Indians always expected to be well paid for a present.”

The Jesuit missionaries and the Hudson’s Bay Company had represented to the Indians that Mr. Lee’s receiving their horses and not making them any presents was the same as stealing from them, and in this way the American missionary was regarded as having stolen the Indians’ horses. In the conversations and talks the Indians had with Dr. Whitman about the land the mission occupied, the horses given to Mr. Lee were generally mentioned. Dr. Whitman was anxious that some arrangement should be made to settle that matter as soon as he learned the facts in the case. The Indians, as per arrangement with Mr. Hines, did receive a cow for each horse given, and thus the matter was satisfactorily settled.

The Indians having again assembled, Tawatowe came forward and said that he had made up his mind that he could not accept of the chieftainship, in consequence of the difference of his religion from that of most of his people.

Here is Jesuitism and Hudson’s Bay, combined with ignorance and religious bigotry, and shows the influence then operating upon the savage mind. This Indian declared a reason why he could not accept the chieftainship, which, four years later, would have fixed at once a crime upon that sect, without a shadow of doubt in their favor. As it was, the plan was deeper, and a Protestant Indian, or one that favored the Protestant cause and American missions, a younger brother of Tawatowe is selected. Tawatowe resigned, and his brother Five Crows is elected the American head chief of the Cayuse tribe, with the approval of the sub-agent of the United States. Bear these facts in mind as we proceed, that you may fully understand the deep-laid plots of the foreign influence then operating in the country to secure the whole or a large portion of it for themselves and their own government.

In connection with this we will give one other incident as related by Mr. Hines on his tour among the Indians; to show the shrewdness, as also the long premeditated baseness of the Hudson’s Bay Company in their efforts to get rid of all American missionaries and settlers, and to bring on a war with the Indians. Mr. Hines and party returned to the Dalles, and from there Mr. Hines embarked on one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s boats with Mr. Ogden for Vancouver. A short distance below the Dalles they were driven ashore by a wind storm. While there, Mr. Ogden told the following story of the killing of a medicine woman, or doctress: —

“Mr. Ogden related some of his wonderful adventures among the Indians, with whom he had resided more than thirty years. He was an eye-witness to a remarkable circumstance that transpired at the Dalles during one of his voyages up the Columbia.

“He arrived at the Dalles on the Sabbath day, and seeing a congregation of some three hundred Indians assembled not far from the river, he drew near to ascertain the cause, and found the Rev. H. K. W. Perkins dispensing to them the word of reconciliation through a crucified Redeemer. There was in the outskirts of the congregation an Indian woman who had been for many years a doctress in the tribe, and who had just expended all her skill upon a patient, the only son of a man whose wigwam was not far distant, and for whose recovery she had become responsible by consenting to become his physician. All her efforts to remove the disease were unavailing; the father was doomed to see his son expire. Believing that the doctress had the power of preserving life or inflicting death according to her will, and that instead of curing she had killed his boy, he resolved upon the most summary revenge. Leaving his dead son in the lodge, he broke into the congregation with a large butcher-knife in his hand, and, rushing upon the now terrified doctress, seized her by the hair, and with one blow across her throat laid her dead at his feet.”

This story is a very plausible one, as much so as the one Mr. Hines tells us on the 110th page of his book, about Smith, Sublet, and Dripse’s partner. There is an object in telling this story at this time to Mr. Hines, as much so as there was in a letter written by James Douglas, Esq., to S. N. Castle, Esq., and published in the March number of the Friend, at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, which we will give in due time.

The reader will observe in these sketches that our effort has been to speak of all the principal events and prominent and prospective influences in our early history, as in the year in which they occurred. In attending to other duties we have not been able to keep as close to dates and chronological order as we could wish; still, with patience and perseverance we can restore the “lost history” of our early settlement upon this coast, so that the future historian can have the material before him for an interesting chapter in the history of our country.

We have, in addition to personal and public duties, to wade through an immense amount of what is called Oregon history, to gather up dates and events that have been given to the public at different times, without order, or apparent object, only to write a book on Oregon. We have no hesitancy in saying that Rev. G. Hines has given to the public the fullest and best book, and yet there is but a single chapter that is useful to the historian.

Rev. Samuel Parker has many scientific and useful statements and observations, but all come in before our civil history began to develop itself.

CHAPTER XLIII

The Legislative Committee of nine. – Hon. Robert Moore, chairman. – Description of the members. – Minutes of their proceedings. – Dr. R. Newell, his character. – Two specimens of his speeches. – The dark clouds.

In 1843 the people of Oregon showed signs of life, and sprang into existence as an American Territory with their provisional government, which we have allowed to be silently forming in the Wallamet Valley, while we have traced the operations of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Dr. Whitman to Washington; and also Dr. White and Mr. Hines among the Indians, all over the country. This will enable the reader to understand the strong influences operating against the American settlement; and if he will go with us, we will introduce him to the first Legislative Committee of nine, and tell him just what we know of their proceedings all through their deliberations.

The record shows no instruction from the settlers, as to when or where the committee should meet to prepare the laws, to report at Champoeg, only, that they were limited to six days, and to be allowed $1.25 per day, and that the money be raised by subscription. Every member at once subscribed to the full amount of his own per diem pay, and in addition to this, Mr. Alanson Beers, Rev. J. L. Parish, and Dr. Babcock subscribed the full amount of the board of the whole nine, and the Methodist Mission furnished without charge the use of their granary at the old mission, as the first council chamber on this western coast. The building was a frame some sixteen by thirty feet, one and a half stories high, boards upright, with one square room in front, and the balance used for a granary, from which it derived its name; the upper part was for storing and sleeping use. The square room was used for schoolhouse and church, and now, for a legislative hall.

We will enter this hall and introduce you to an old gray-headed man with a fair complexion, bald head, light eye, full face, frequent spasmodic nodding forward of the head, and a large amount of self-importance, not very large intellectual developments, with a superabundance of flesh, sitting by a square-legged table or stand, in a chair with square posts, and strips of rawhide for bottom; dressed in fustian pants, large blue vest, and striped shirt, and a common brown coat, who, on motion of Mr. Hill, was chosen Speaker of the House, and hereafter will be known in our history as Hon. Robert Moore, Esq.

The first difficulty the committee found was to organize a government without an executive. They could organize a legislative body, and appoint all the committees and officers and draft all the laws necessary, but the folly and absurdity of the effort without an executive, was so apparent, that the first thing decided upon, was, Shall we have an executive head, called a governor, or a committee with executive powers! This was a difficult question, under all the votings and the discussions that had taken place. The committee were fully aware of all the opposition they must contend with. The judgeship had passed by vote of the people at Champoeg from a member of the Methodist Mission to Mr. A. E. Wilson, an intelligent, unassuming, and excellent young man, who came to the country in the employ of Mr. Cushing, and had become a settler.

The committee were well assured that they could eventually secure the Methodist Mission influence, yet at this time it was extremely doubtful, and they feared that it would, as in the previous effort of 1841, go against them, with that of the Catholic Mission and the Hudson’s Bay Company. An executive committee consisting of three men would form a council that could act in any emergency, and at the same time enable the Methodist Mission to be represented by one of their members in the Executive Council.

Alanson Beers was a good, honest, faithful, and intelligent Christian man, acting with heart and soul with the interests of the settlement and the American cause. The settlers could rely upon him.

David Hill was a resident of Hillsborough, Tualatin Plains, and was known to be decidedly opposed to the company, and not any too favorable to the Catholic and Methodist missions. He could be relied upon so far as the outside settlers were concerned, and Robert Newell could represent the Rocky Mountain men and such of the Canadian-French Hudson’s Bay Company, and Roman Catholics as were disposed to join our organization. It was in consequence of his contending so strongly for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s rights, interests, and privileges, at Champoeg, on the 5th of July, that he was dropped, and Joseph Gale (who was one of the Ewing Young party to bring cattle from California to the Wallamet settlement) elected in his place.

With the understanding as above indicated, the Legislative Committee, consisting of Hon. Robert Moore, David Hill, Robert Shortess, Alanson Beers, W. H. Gray, Thomas J. Hubbard, James A. O’Neil, Robert Newell, and William Dougherty, with the uplifted hand solemnly declared before God that they would faithfully perform the duties assigned them by the people of this settlement, at Champoeg, on the 2d day of May, A. D. 1843, so far as they understood the duties thus assigned them. W. H. Gray then by request administered an oath to the Speaker elect, that he would faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of his office as presiding officer of the present appointed Legislative Committee of the people of Oregon, so help you God; to which Beers said, Amen. The question arose as to the appointment of a clerk for the committee, when the members agreed, if necessary, to pay his expenses per diem, if no other means were provided.

George W. Le Breton, a young man of active mind, ready with the pen, useful and agreeable, and practical in his conversation, having come to the country as an adventurer in a vessel with Captain Couch, was chosen secretary and duly qualified by the Speaker. The records of the proceedings, as published, seem to have left out the preliminary part of this Legislative Committee’s proceedings. This is owing to the fact that the compiler had no personal knowledge of them, and perhaps sought information from those as ignorant of the facts as himself; hence the meager and unsatisfactory document given to the country. Most, or all of the proceedings thus far mentioned were with closed doors, as will be seen by the record published. It was not deemed important by Messrs. Newell, O’Neil, and Hubbard, to have any record of our daily proceedings, only the result or report. Messrs. Shortess, Beers, Gray, Dougherty, and Hill thought it best to keep a record, which was commenced.

“Wallamet, May 15, 1843. – The Legislative Committee met, and after the preliminary discussions above alluded to, came to order by electing Robert Moore, Esq., chairman, and G. W. Le Breton, secretary.

“On motion of W. H. Gray, a committee of three was appointed by the chairman to prepare rules and business for the house. This committee (Messrs. Gray, Shortess, and Newell), at once, in a hasty manner, prepared eight rules, and suggested the business proposed for the committee as a whole to perform. The rules were taken up and adopted with scarcely a single objection. Up to this time no one except members of the committee had been allowed a place in the house as spectators.

“On motion, it was decided that the committee sit with open doors. O’Neil, Hubbard, and Dougherty favored the closed-door sessions, as they did not want to expose their ignorance of making laws. Newell thought we had better make as little display as possible, for it would all be known, and we might be ashamed of what we had done.

“Shortess, Hill, Gray, and Beers were willing that all our efforts to make laws for ourselves should be fully known, and were ready to receive instructions and advice from any source. The deliberations of the committee, they were confident, would not prevent opposition or aid the opposers of our proposed organization.

“On motion, a judiciary committee was appointed by the Speaker or chairman, consisting of Messrs. Beers, Hubbard, and Shortess.

“On motion, a committee of ways and means was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Shortess, O’Neil, and Dougherty.”

The minutes at this stage show that there was a doubt as to the disposition of the Speaker, Mr. Moore, to place the best men as chairmen of the several committees. Mr. Moore had peculiar notions of his own about land claims, and had placed upon the committee, I think, Robert Newell, as favoring his and Dr. McLaughlin’s pretensions to the entire water privileges at Wallamet Falls, which resulted in the appointment as above stated. The record seems to convey the idea that the first appointment was conferred by vote. This was not the case. It was the final action that was repeated and entered.

“On motion, a committee, consisting of Hubbard, Newell, and Gray, was appointed on military affairs.”

We have not the original documents to refer to, but are of the impression that considerable correction was made in the first day’s journal, and that more should have been made at the time. There was a little feeling on the part of the Speaker and the writer as to the necessity of an extended minute, and a disposition on the part of Mr. Le Breton to do as little writing as possible, not for want of time and material, but, from the deep interest he took in the discussions, he seemed to forget his work. I am not prepared to think the compiler has abridged the minutes, yet such may be the fact.

“On motion, Messrs. Shortess, Dougherty, and Hill were appointed a committee on private land claims.

“On motion, Messrs. Gray, Dougherty, and Beers were appointed a committee on districting the Territory into not to exceed five districts.”

This committee, it seems by the motion, was to be appointed by the chairman or Speaker.

“Adjourned to 8 o’clock, A. M., May 17, 1843.

“The house was called to order by the chairman, and Mr. Gray appointed secretary, pro tem. The session was then opened with prayer by A. Beers. The minutes of yesterday’s session were then read, corrected, and accepted.”

The house then adjourned for one hour and a half to prepare business, at the expiration of which time they were called to order by the chairman.

The judiciary committee reported progress. The military committee reported in part; also committee on districts.

“Reports accepted.

“It was moved that there be a standing committee on finance, which was lost, as the vote at Champoeg had directed that the finance of the government should be by subscription and voluntary contribution.