Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
Indians was signed at Camp Ste\-ens, now the city of 'Walla ,ralla.
All of t he tribes of western Washington sold a large portion of their
lands to the government; the Cayuses, 'Walla Wallas and Umatilla:;
were to receive $100,000.00 for that portion of their lands lying between
the Tucanon and the Alpowai. This treaty was afterwards repudiated
by all the Indians except the Nez Perces. In the fall of 18;);),
Kamaiakin, head chief of the Yakima,,;, being dissatisfied with tbe
treaty, declared war against the white people, and drove the suldiers
from the Yakima couniry. This aroused the Cayuses and the
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Walla "Vallas, and Peu-peu-mox-mox was soon engaged in the war.
Nathan Olney, the Indian agent at The Dalles, mmle a trip to the ,ralla
,Valla country seeking to pacify Peu-peu-mox-mox, but this chief
refused the presents offered and repudiated the treaty. :\1r. Olney at
once ordered all settlers to leave the country. At this time Chase, La­
Fontain and Brooke left their cabins on the Touchet in Columbia
County on their way to The Dalles for supplies; and on arriving at
the mouth of the l7matilla, they were informed of the Indian uprising,
and returned to "Whitman mission, where a conference was held, and
all the whites agreed to convert the house of :Mr. Brooke, just below
the present Huntsville, into a fort and stay with the country. Chase
and LaFontain returned to their ranches at Dayton and on the day
agreed upon for the meeting at the Brooke cabill, LaFoutain weut
to confer with them, and learned that all the others, who had agrped
to stay and fight it out, had concluded to abandon their places and
leave the country. Chase and LaFontain concluded to stay, and commenced
to fortify. the Chase house,
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which was located in the vicinity
of tbe present Pietrzyski residence. They had three transient hired
men, who at first agreed to stay, but on the following day the hired
men concluded that they had not lost any Indians, and took their departure.
Chase and LaFontain completed their stockade, ran a bucketful
of bullets, stocked the cabin with provisions, and dug a tunnel
to the banks of the Touchet for water in case of siege, and waited for
the Indians.
They remained for ten days longer, when the constant standing
guard and waiting for the Indians, who had not appeared, began to
wear on their nen-es
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and thev started for the countrY of the friendly
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Nez Perces, picking up Louis Raboin on the Tucanon, and at that
time not another white man remained in southeastern ·Washington.
On the next day, after they had gone, the Indians came and burned
the Brooke and Chase houses.
During this Indian war 110 fighting was done in Columbia County,
and I will not mention it further than to say
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that on December 9th,
1855, the battle of tbe Walla Walla was fought, in which Peu-peu-mox-
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