Cayuse people

“ After he had finished, Stechus, an old Cayuse Chief, made a short speech, and then Governor Stevens adjourned them until to-morrow.
There is evidently a more hostile feeling towards the whites getting up among some of the tribes, of which we had to-night a very unmistakable proof. The Cayuses, we have known, have never been friendly, but hitherto they have disguised their feelings. To-night, as Lieutenant Gracie and I attempted, as usual, to enter their camp, they showed a decided opposition: we were motioned back, and the young warriors threw themselves in our way to obstruct our advance. ”

“ Yet many of the Cayuse became Christians. Old Istikus was a prince among Christian men, savage as he was. For sixteen years after the death of his loved friends, he regularly went to the door of his wigwam, rang the old mission bell, and invited all to come in to prayers. General Joel Barlow, who was one of the commissioners after the treaty of peace in 1855, to settle the Indians upon their reservations, says:
"I found forty-five Cayuse and one thousand Nez Perces who have kept up regular family worship, singing from the old hymn books, translated into their language by Mrs. ”

“ A revolver gleamed feebly in the starlight, leveled straight at the Piute’s breast.
“Ugh!” grunted Little Cayuse.
“Waugh, ye pizen varmint!” growled a voice. “Whar ye goin’ with them cabyos?”
“Wolf-killer!” muttered Little Cayuse.
“Snarlin’ hyeners ef et ain’t Cayuse? ”

“ The Cayuses, finding that no compromise could be ef- fected, abandoned their country, and most of them passed east of the Rocky mountains. Nothing was left for the volunteers but to leave the country also, which they did, and the Cayuse War had practically ended.
' ' The Cayuses, as a tribe, had no heart in the war, Joe Lewis told them imme- diately after the massacre that now they must fight, and advised them to send him to Salt Lake with a band of horses, to trade for ammunition with the Mormons. He started with a select band of animals, accompanied by two young braves ”

“ The Cayuse formerly bore a high reputation for intelligence and bravery, but on account of their fighting propensities, which led them to make constant war on the Snakes and other tribes to the west, they were never very numerous. In 1838 a Presbyterian mission, called Waiilatpu, had been established among the Cayuse, by Dr Whitman, where now is the town of Whitman, in Wallawalla county, Washington. In 1847 the smallpox, before unknown among them, carried off a large part of the tribe. ”

“ He had received his orders direct from Pa-e-has-ka, however, and that was enough for him.
As he crossed the rim of the valley in which lay the buildings of the Three-ply Mine, the roar of the mill-stamps was muffled by the wind, and his quick ear could distinguish a fall of hoofs from somewhere up the arroyo.
To pile his little heap of quartz “float” took him but a few moments, and then he started along the arroyo at a run.
If the Apache rode at speed, Cayuse knew that he would not be able to come anywhere near him. But this did not discourage the boy. ”

“ The Cayuses, weary of wandering, with the prospect before them of another war with white men, had prevailed upon those who among themselves had done most to bring so much wretchedness upon them, to risk their lives in restoring them to their former peace and prosperity. ”

“ The volunteers performed the duty of holding the Cayuse country, and patroling the immigrant road to the satisfaction of the Oregon government and the immigra tion. Since the opening of the road, never had the Indians behaved so well. The murderers, reduced to poverty, and without ammunition, kept out of the way of hoth volun teers and immigrants. Thus the Cayuse war came to an end, it might be said, for want of powder. The murderers had not been hung, but they had been severely punished, and the Cayuse nation, as such, had lost its prestige forever. ”

“ The Indians of the Cayuse tribe to whom the murderers belonged, were assured that the only way in which they could avoid a war with the whites was to deliver up the chiefs who had been engaged in the massacre, to be tried and punished according to the laws of the whites. ”

“ He has traveled all over this part of the country with the doughboys.”
“Hickok is right,” agreed the scout. “If Cayuse ever saw that hill once, he’d be able to draw it a hundred years from now. He never forgets anything.”
“Then,” murmured Gentleman Jim, “Lawless and his gang are headed for Medicine Bluff with my—with their prisoner, and our clue is a hot one. There’ll be no need to go to the arm of the gulch, to pick up the trail on the scene of the second hold-up, for, if this is really from Cayuse, we can mount and ride straight for the Bluff, thereby saving time.” ”

“ Then the Indians submitted their ultimatum, asking, "first that the Americans should not go to war with the Cayuses; sec- ond, that they should forget the murder of Whitman and the others, and the Cayuses will forget the murder of the chief's son in California; that two or three great Americans come up to Walla Walla and make a peace; that then after making the peace the Americans may take away with them all the women and children and other prisoners ; that thereafter no more Americans shall pass through the Cayuse country for fear their young men may do them harm. ”

“ They wanted the Indians to deliver up for execution all those who had imbued their hands in blood at Waiilatpu ; they wished the Cayvises to pay all damages to imigrants caused by their being robbed or attacked while passing through the Cayuse country. The Indians wished nothing of the kind. They wanted peace and to be let alone; for the Americans to call the account balanced and drop the
matter. ”

“ Cayuba often came to see me. He spoke a little Spanish, and was so anxious to know all about my country, we became great friends. I asked him whether the people were happy. He said, “Yes; but we are all slaves to the white man; we used to have plenty of cattle and fine horses. The white man comes from Santa Cruz and drives them all away.”
By the laws of the land, Indians are punished by whipping on the bare back with a raw-hide rope — twelve stripes for insubordination, drunkenness, or idleness. ”

“ Because we do not fight, he takes away our lands and gives them to the tribes who are fighting the whites all the time.
Howlish-Wampo (“the Cayuse chief, a Catholic Indian, in dress, personal appearance, and bearing superior to the average American farmer”) : When you told me you believed in God, I thought that was good. But you came to ask us for our land. We will not let you have 194it. This reservation is marked out for us. We see it with our eyes and our hearts; we all hold it with our bodies and our souls. ”

“ The precocious little savage was known to every rider on the trail from St. Joe to Sacramento. Of course the Indians were always on the alert to steal the horses that belonged to the stations, but where Little Cayuse was living they never made a success of it, owing to his vigilance. Often he saved the animals by giving the soundly sleeping men warning of the approach of the savages who were stealthily creeping up to stampede the animals. ”

“ Crossing the Umatilla on the 26th, Gilliam marched to within three miles of the Cayuse camp, where he remained until the forenoon of the 27th. While moving, and in camp, the Indians swarmed all along the hills, the main body showing a determination to continue hostilities. From those who approached the volunteer camp the commissioners learned that their messenger to the Nez Percés had been robbed and sent back by the Cayuses, and they immediately despatched another. ”

“ It is well known by critical inquirers into the causes of social deterioration of every grade that it varies with the intensity of the struggle for existence. The stress and tug of living was not so extreme among the Cayuses, and the Cayuse women were in the main above sus- picion. ”

“ In order to settle his suspicions, he watched his chance and got into the gully. The place was thickly grown with bushes, and for an Indian to dodge enemies in such a chaparral was an easy matter.
About a hundred yards from the mouth of the gully [297] Cayuse found an overhanging ledge of rock where the outlaws had made their camp.
Three of the outlaws sat in front of the dark opening under the ledge, talking together in low voices. Captain Lawless—that is, the counterfeit Captain Lawless—was not one of the three. What had become of him? Cayuse asked himself ”

“ A few days after the departure of the express last March a momentary excitement broke out among the Nez Perces and Cayuse tribe who inhabit the country about Walla Walla caused by reports spread among them that Dr. White, who as I informed you, gave himself out as an Indian agent for the United States, had said he would take their lands from them, which it is certain he never said and also from another report which came to the Willamette that the Cayuse and Nez Perces had said they intended to attack the settlers, but which was unfounded. ”

“ He is baldly wounded. We must take him with us.”
Cayuse flashed his eyes over the limp trooper.
“Wuh!” said he. “Yellow Hair wait till Cayuse git um pinto.”
The boy whirled and darted down the slope and into the brush again. When he returned he was mounted on a calico cayuse—his own horse, Navi.
There were two slain Apaches on the hogback, and between them Little Cayuse halted Navi, looking from one Indian to the other, and his hand hesitating about the handle of a scalping-knife that swung from his belt.
“Cayuse!” called Dell. ”

“ Efforts were made by the Cayuses to bring about a general uprising. Had they been successful in this it would have resulted in the annihilation of all the Americans in the upper country, armed or unarmed. These delays and negotiations continued to the end of the campaign. "Blood is thicker than water," and even the Nez Perces, most of whom were always the friends of the whites and deplored the massacre at Waiilatpu, as well as other friendly Indians, did not hesitate to employ artifices to delay the troops and thus enable the Cayuses to move their families and stock out of danger. ”

“ The vanity of a native is his most distinguishing trait. These three hundred Cayuses had told each other, and believed it themselves, that they should have an easy conquest of the Americans. "We will beat the Americans to death with clubs, and then proceed to the Willamette and take the women, and all their property," said these boastful braves, [15] who had yet the art of war to learn. They had an advantage in the ground chosen, and in their general acquaintance with the country, and had they been as great warriors as they imagined, must easily have beaten the invaders. ”

“ Returning to Waiilatpu, Dr. White found awaiting him Tauitowe (sometimes called the young chief) , head man of the Cayuses on the Umatilla, and brother of Five Crows; and Feather Cap, belonging to Tiloukaikt s camp at Waiilatpu, with a few other chiefs from the three principal Cayuse camps, the third of which was half way be tween the two just mentioned, and governed by Camaspelo. It was at once evident that much disaffection existed here, which it would be difficult to cure, and White put forward Rogers and McKay as better informed how to deal with it than he. ”

“ Wait here, Dell, and Cayuse and I will go for the horses.”
As the scout and the Indian boy left the cabin, Dell moved over to where the sergeant was lying. She wanted a last word with him before she, and the scout, and Cayuse galloped out of Bonita.
“You know this country, Cayuse?” asked the scout, [261] as he and the Piute moved through the camp toward the place where the horses were picketed.
“Wuh,” said Little Cayuse.
“You can take us to Tonio Pass without any trouble?”
“Sure.”
“In that case, then, I won’t take any of the Pimas as guides. The smaller our force the more mobile it will be. ”

“ They desire to have the past forgotten, and to live in peace as before. Your excellency has to judge of the value of the documents which I have been requested to forward to you. "Nevertheless, without having the least intention to influence one way or the other, I feel myself obliged to tell you that by going to war with the Cayuses, you will likely have all the Indians of this country against you. ”

“ There is a last stubborn struggle at the spot since marked by the great falls called Aputaput, a tearing of earth and a lashing of water in the fierce death-flurry, and the huge Beaver is dead. The brothers having secured the skin and fat, cut up the body and threw the pieces in various directions. From these pieces have originated the various tribes of the country, as the Cayuses, the Nez Percés, the Walla Wallas, and so on. The Cayuses sprang from the beaver's heart, and for this reason they are more energetic, daring, and successful than their neighbors. ”

“ The Cayugas know 239 the hearts of the Five Nations. When the Mohawks have risen to defend their homes, the hearts of the Cayugas have been warm, and they have taken up the hatchet with their brothers. When the Onondagas have gone on the war-path, Senecas and Cayugas have gone with them, and the trouble of one has been the trouble of all.”
“The good White Father is no longer the war chief of the white men. The Great Mountain, who knew the voice of the forest, who spoke with the tongue of the redman, has been called back to his Great-Chief-Across-the-Water. ”

“ The Cayugas were, before that expedition, a powerful tribe, about whom little or nothing had ever been written or known. In their customs and manners of living, they resemble in every way the Club Indians of the Colorado, who were destroyed by the small-pox. They led a wandering prairie life, but generally were too cowardly to fight well, and too inexpert in hunting to surround themselves with comforts, even in the midst of plenty like the Clubs, they are cannibals, though, I suspect, they would not eat a white man. ”