The Rogue River Indian War in Oregon
"I had more men killed during peace than war" - Chief John, upon refusing to sign the 'treaty'
Chico State University's Account:
"The
Rogue River
War began in October, 1855, when a mob from the mining town of
Jacksonville,
in the Rogue River Valley in southwestern Oregon, killed at least twenty-eight
Indian people who were camped near the
Table
Rock Reservation.
This and several subsequent attacks on
Rogue
River Valley Indian people were meant to start an Indian war that would
employ
miners
unable to mine because of a drought. Like several conflicts in nearby
northern
California in the 1850s, the Rogue River War was a pork-barrel war."
The State of Oregon's Account (Click here) of the Beginning of hostilities:
"On October 8, 1855, a band of white volunteers surrounded a camp of reservation Indians and killed twenty-three men, women, and children. These men then scalped their victims and returned to Jacksonville. Indians began to attack whites the next day. At the same time, Superintendent Palmer finished these instructions to his agents. The instructions (Ed. Note: click here) treat male Indians on reservations who are over the age of twelve as prisoners, while Indians off the reservation were to be treated as outlaws."
After the war's close, the Indians were made to walk from the Rogue to Silets, northwest of Corvallis:
Sir
Agent Metcalfe arrived at this agency on yesterday
bearing dispatches containing instructions for the removal of the Rogue River
Tribe of Indians to the Willamet Vally it is quite unfortunate such instructions
did not arrive earlier. Winter with all its severity has fully set in. Snow is
several inches deep on the ground at the time of my writing, and falling fastly
yet. from all appearances it may be very deep before night.I regard it as almost
impossible to remove the Indians at this time, for several reasons, first the
unusual severity of winter at this early season, secondly they are destitute of
winter clothing, not having received their annuities but very few of them have
either shoes or stockings, many of them are sick...Agent
Ambrose to Supt. Palmer
Note: Scalping natives was not an atrocity unfamiliar to Oregon pioneers:
From Ewing Young's Account at Fort Vancouver (courtesy Oregon State Archives: Ewing Young was one of the earliest of Oregon pioneers, and the state's first bootlegger. It was to settle his estate that male residents of the state met, and subsequently voted to become a state.):
...1 pr Sfine
Cassimere
Trousers
6 Scalping Knives
6 Indian Awls
1 Sfine blue Cloth Jacket
10 lb Gunpowder
6 Cakes Windsor Soap
2 Band Silk Hdkfs
Forwarded L 18 2 3 15 " "
 |
| A scalping knife found with
a metal detector by a hobbyist. The practice was introduced into the
Americas by Scotsmen. According to the Scottish Field Archery Association:
"A foot or knee was placed between the shoulder-blades or the back of the neck, grasping the hair in the left hand, on the crown of the head, and passing the scalping knife around the skull and through the skin, palm-sized or larger, as it was lifted from the skull. This was then dried, often ornamented and preserved, being highly valued as a trophy, by the victor. The scalping was not calculated of itself, to take life, when only a small area of skin was removed, without injury to the bone of the skull. However, where a full head scalp was taken, the victim, even recovering from that ordeal, was likely to suffer from complications, due to profuse bleeding, infection, and eventual death of the bone of the skull exposed..." |
A letter to the New York Herald from a souhern Oregonian, 1856
To the Editor of the N.Y. Tribune.
Sir: Will you permit me to occupy a small portion
of your columns with a brief personal narrative of occurrences growing out of
the Oregon war. I belong to the small minority in Oregon who believe with
Generals Wool and Palmer, that the late war was unnecessary and cruel in the
extreme, and that all the burning of property, the destruction of life and
expenditure of public treasure, would have been saved if the civil authorities
had administered equal justice instead of calling the people to arms. I have
lived since the Fall of 1853 in Rogue River Valley, Southern Oregon, situated
between the head waters of the Sacramento and the Willamette Valleys, and have
had an opportunity of knowing much of the Indian tribes, both on the plains as
well as the Pacific Coast. Notwithstanding the heartrending statements of savage
barbarity which the Oregon papers have constantly spread before the public, it
is a fact there are far more murdered Indians than Indian murderers; and when
the whole truth is known, I believe it will appear that Indians are less savage
than some who assume to be civilized.
Often as I have looked upon these people, dwelling
in small communities in the shady grove or along the lipid stream, bountifully
supplied with fish and roots and berries for subsistence, and apparantely happy
in the relationship of family and friends, the conviction was forced upon me
that they were living as much in harmony with the beautiful surroundings as
their more toiling and anxious brethren of another race. I could not perceive
wherein they were not equally with us endowed by their Creator with the right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of haappiness. And after they were driven from
their pleasant homes, and their domains usurped by invaders, I never saw
anything in their condition or conduct but what aroused my deepest sympathy and
commiseration. To have submitted to robbery and outrage of the gravest kind
without resentment would be more than Christian; to have remained passive and
indifferent would be less than Men.
I do not see under the circumstances how they
could have done different or better than they have done, for practically they
have only exclaimed with our own noble sires, "Give us liberty or give us
death." And for this they have been denounced as not only savages, but as
"varments" and demons unfit to live, and the military force of two
Territories has been drawn out to destroy them from the earth.
Under the deep conviction of duty, I never failed,
from my arrival in to my departure from the valley, to declaim against the great
wrong our people were doing. And, though many good citizens privately told me of
similar convictions; yet I know of none in whom it was strong enough to prompt
open expression. I write of this not with vain boast, but with the mingled
feeling of deep regret and lively joy. Regret that so many of my neighbors and
friends should cower in base subjection, to speculators and rowdies, and yield
their constitutional right to freedom of speech. Joy, because my life is spared,
contrary to my own expectation and the predictions of my friends and foes, who
said I should fall by an assassin.
All the papers in the Territory were closed
against me, yet they were unsparing in denunciation, and letters which I sent to
the Post Office for the California papers, were not allowed to pass, but were
opened in Jacksonville, so that when I arrived in San Francisco not one had been
published. At length a letter, or the substance of one which I had written,
appeared among them in THE N.Y. TRIBUNE of April 5. This brought matters to a
climax. Indignation meetings were got up and the writer denounced in the
strongest language, and not a tongue dare move in his defense. Having been
privately informed of what was intended, I fled in the darkness of night to Fort
Lane, and was, by an escort of United States troops, conveyed beyond the scene
of excitement. I arrived by the steamer Illinois last Saturday, and am pleased
to find myself, though among strangers, in your city.
JOHN BEESON New York, Sept. 30, 1856.
The following letter to Governor Curry by the superintendant of Indian Agents, and early Oregon pioneer, Joel Palmer, was the last of several, which cost him his job.
Portland, Oregon Territory
August
8th 1856
To
His Excy. George L. Curry
Governor of Oregon Ter.
(now at Washington City, D.C.)
Dear
Sir:
I must plead official duties for this delay to answer your letter under date of
23rd June, addressed to me on the eve of your departure for Washington City.
That letter is not, now before me, and I cannot recollect its precise language;
the impression left upon my mind in perusing it is, however, indelibly fixed. If
I remember rightly it commences by expressing regrets that anything should have
occured to destroy the friendly and neighborly feeling so long existing between
us, and informing me, that my official correspondence with General Wool evinsed
a disposition on my part to do injustice to the people of Oregon &c. and,
goes on to advise me, that it would be your duty and pleasure to oppose, at
Washington, all persons who might be against you.
This, of course, is not the language, but
modified in mild terms, yet, giving me distinctly to understand that I might
expect to find in you one who would sacrifice me, or any other person, if deemed
necessary to forth some of those causes, and whilst its language might be
regarded as unmerited, or improper if applied to a whole community, was
none too strong when applied to that class of persons for whom it was intended.
That subsequent events have verified the predictions, therein contained no sane
man can deny. There is not one sentence contained in that letter that I wish to
recall, because the facts have stamped its truthfulness; but in saying this, I
did not, nor do I wish to apply it to the entire community, but I say that the
war in Southern Oregon has been provoked by a set of lawless vagabonds who alike
disregard the rights of Indians and Whites. This is not a general or wholesale
charge against all the people of Southern Oregon, nor does it imply opposition
to the prosecution of the war by Volunteer forces, or opposing the speedy
appropriation by Congress, to pay the expenses consequent upon it, for, as in my
official correspondence to the Indian Department, I have stated that it was too
late to speculate as to the causes of the War; it was enough to know that it was
upon us, and that our women and children were being slaughtered by these
ruthless savages: Who could have imagined that in pointing out to the Commanding
Officer some of the cause of this war, and the necessity for furnishing troops
to remove the friendly bands from the proximity of hostile tribes would have
been seized hold [illegible]red man; and the cunning, the violation of faith,
the treachery and savage brutality said to be the characeristics of that people,
have been practiced towards them, to a degree almost inconceivably, by the
reckless portion of whites who have cursed that land with their presence the
past six years. By this I by no means intend to disparage the worthy and just
people of that portion of the territory, for there are many such there, and many
of whom are ignorant of what is going on around them, others decieved by false
representaions, gotten up for the occasion, and, not a few are awed into
submission by the numerous class who are eating out the very substance and life
of that Community.
The greater portion of the people of this
Territory hear but one side of these questions -- as they generaly derive their
information from interested parties: my official duties have thrown me in
conflict with this latter class of population and, whilst I have mourned over
that state of affairs, and sought to evate the disasters consequent, I have
endeavored to leave the community to purge itself rather than take any steps
which could only end in defeat and tend to exasperate to additional extremes. A
communty unable through its judicial tribunals, on account of chicanery and
management, to rid itself of a portion of its most obnoxious members for
offences against its own citizens, would not be likely through the same
source, to extend its aid to federal officers in ridding it of similar persons
when charged with offences against Indians. Very many politicians charge me with
slandering the people of the South, can any man be so ignorant of events in that
section of the country as not to know that there has been an enormous amount of
crime committed there within the last few years theft robbery murder and the
whole catalogue of crime, not only against Indians but against white people, has
prevailed to an alarming extent and who has sought to remedy this growing evil?
Who has been punished? Several arrests have been made for the crime of murder,
but by 'management' the parties have been turned loose to prey upon the
community and commit similar offences. Crime will not cease there when the
entire Indian population shall be removed. It is claimed that in Jackson County,
on conviction of the killing an Indian punishment has followed the perpetration
of the act -- I have heard of but that one conviction and that one an
orphan boy who encouraged by the acts of those around him shot an Indian. An
orphan friendless and penniless, he alone, of all the offenders in that country
must suffer the penalty! Who does not believe that, had he been a prominant
citizen and backed up with means, the Court would have as in other cases in that
District set a few days in empanelling a jury until one was "packed"
that would have requitted him. But no!! he had no friends, no purse to empty,
and he was sentenced to two years in the Penitentiary. It is not the settler and
law abiding people to which I refer in my letters, but the scum of society who
have congregated there to eat out the substance of the better portion of those
people; but `scum' as it is, politicians federal and Territorial officers and
aspirants curry favor with and pamper to its viciousness and demoralization
instead of meeting it boldly and manfully, and aiding to purge the community of
its pestisential influence: One half the zeal manifested by public men in this
Territory in the denunciations of their neighbors and elevation of favorites to
office would have been quite sufficient to change the current popular feeling
into a right course, by riding and encouraging the real bona-fide settler and
good citizen to maintain the laws and restore the country to security and peace.
It is that class of persons whom I charge with reckless and lawless acts and so
long as politicians seek to throw odium upon, and trample under foot those who
would rid the community of such men so long we merit the reproach and
appeltation of a lawless community.
My official acts as Superintendant of Indian
Affairs are nearly closed, for I am, tho' not as yet officially informed,
removed, from the office, but this does not lessen the interest I feel in the
welfare of a people for whom I have been laboring, and I hope my successor may
be more successful in his efforts to accomplish good for them and insure the
interests of this community generally. Whilst I have been zealous to promote the
good of the Indian, and carry out fully my instructions I have by no means, been
unmindful of my obligations as a citizen, and have acted in all things as it
appeared to me best suited to secure the lives and property of our citizens
restore and maintain peace, advance the Indian in civilization and subserve the
cause of humanity. In leaving the office it is a consolation to feel and know
that fact, of an Official doing what his duties required of him.
As before remarked there have been many acts committed by members of volunteer
companies which I disapprove but the expression of that sentiment is not to be
construed as being in opposition to Governor Curry's policy generally, and has
nothing to do with the payment of these war expenses, nor can it reasonably be
perverted into a constinction that I stood antagonistical to the interests of
the people of Oregon.
It appears to me a weak argument that because the
first act of aggression in Southern Oregon was committed by a white man which
provoked this war -- hundreds of our citizens should be butchered by the
savages, and whole neighborhoods cut off and destroyed without an effort to
punish the aggression, or restrain their further acts, and that Congress
therefore, ought not to pay the expenses necessarily incurred...
-Joel Palmer
