Yakima Indian War Topics – Access Genealogy

Coeur d’Alene War

A matter to be remarked is the variation in designations of the names of Indian wars of the Pacific Northwest. In some cases there is complete acceptance of a single designation. In those instances the fighting was entirely between the whites and a single tribe, or tribes which were blood relatives. Under other conditions the transition from one to another was not clearly defined, the blending of one series of hostilities often being overlaid by periods of inactivity or witnessing the passing of the warfare from the initiating tribe to some other tribe or combination of tribes. Hence it has … Read more

The Winter of 1855-1856

It will be recalled that Governor Stevens of Washington Territory had been marooned to the northeast by the war. Fort Bennett received him late in the day on December 20, 1855. He had exhibited a rare insight into Indian character in his masterly conduct of treaty negotiations. Governor Stevens had left Walla Walla in June, 1855, with an escort of Nez Perce and had spent some time in establishing a spirit of cooperation with the Kootenai, Pend d’Oreilles, and Flathead tribes before visiting the Blackfeet. In October, having concluded a treaty with the latter tribe, he prepared to return home. … Read more

Colonel Wright Arrives with his Regulars

On December 21, 1855, the volunteers in the Walla Walla Valley were faced with a new snow-fall followed by a temperature of 20 degrees below zero. Their equipment and clothing did not con-form to the needs of the weather. Shoes were worn out and many of the men improvised moccasins from rawhide. Blankets and jackets had worn thin. Camp was moved from Fort Bennett to a location several miles north of present-day Walla Walla. There was plenty of beef and ample supplies of potatoes in the new camp and these provisions were supplemented by recovered caches of Indian food with … Read more

The Yakima War, 1855-56

Governor Stevens sent James Doty to notify the tribes of a series of councils to be held in May, 1855, the first of which was to be attended by the Yakima, Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Nez Perce. Kamiakin, chief of the Yakima, selected as the council ground a place in the Walla Walla Valley not far from Waiilatpu. Governor Stevens and Superintendent Palmer were escorted there by Lt. Archibald Gracie and 47 dragoons. The presents for the chiefs were stored at Ft. Walla Walla. Comfortable arrangements were made at the council grounds and on May 24th the first of the … Read more

Battle of Seattle

Governor Stevens soon learned that, as an adjunct to the Yakima War, there had been serious outbreaks in the Puget Sound country and that there was every prospect of more to follow soon. Often designated as “The Battles of Puget Sound” or “The Battle of Seattle” they were really a part of the Yakima War and are detailed here not alone for their intrinsic historical interest but also to show the wide-spread disaffection of the Western Washington tribes. Kamiakin, principal chief of the Yakima, was adept in his use of emissaries to incite and to threaten reprisals on any tribe … Read more

Affairs Other than Major Rains’ Expedition

Kamiakin was a man of mixed talents and many outstanding characteristics and easily the outstanding Indian personality in the entire Columbia Basin. He was tall, muscular, and very dark, with a bearing that was regal. He had condemned the Cayuses for the Whitman massacre but was true to his race and wanted only the peaceful possession of the country for his people. On the other hand, foreseeing the inroads of the white people and the ultimate consequences, he decided that the only way through which the Indians could continue to hold their lands was by the extermination of the whites. … Read more

Biography of Frederick Proebstel

FREDERICK PROEBSTEL. – This pioneer of the Wallowa valley was born in Germany in 1829, and with his parents emigrated to America in 1842 and located in Missouri. In 1852 he made the crossing of the plains to Lewis County, Washington Territory, locating on Fourth Plain. Mr. Proebstel, belonging to the family of this name, a number of whose biographies are found in this volume, shared many experiences in common with others, and was one of the Indian fighters of 1855-56, and wishes to bear special testimony to the liberality of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the hard winter of … Read more

Biography of Gen. John H. Stevens

GEN. JOHN H. STEVENS. – This hero of a hundred Western adventures, and a pioneer of the great Inland Empire, was born on a town line in Windham County, Vermont. The son of Asa Stevens, a miller and farmer, he learned to use his hands and brain in practical affairs, and at the village school obtained a good working education. In his youth he followed business in Boston, and was engaged in lumbering in Pennsylvania. In 1832 he came west to Michigan, and at Coldwater, Branch County, kept a hotel, advancing his business also by taking mail contracts, and in … Read more

Biography of Capt. Pleasent Calvin Noland

CAPT. PLEASENT CALVIN NOLAND. – Captain Noland, one of the most substantial farmers of Lane County, and for nearly forty years a resident of Oregon, was born in Missouri in 1830. His ancestry extends to Ireland and Wales; and his grandfather, Leadstone Noland, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. His father, Smallwood V. Noland, became a pioneer of Missouri, and a very conspicuous man in that region, and as commissioner of Jackson County was concerned in the removal of the Mormons, by whom he nearly lost his life. In 1846, entering the service of the United States … Read more

Biography of Hon. James Willis Nesmith

HON. JAMES WILLIS NESMITH. – Oregon has given a few men to the nation; and the luster of their memory still shines in the galaxy of her heroes. Colonel Baker, one of the most brilliant men ever at Washington, District of Columbia, has coupled with his title that of senator from Oregon. Yet he was in no sense an Oregon-made man, but rather made use of Oregon to elevate him to a seat which it was impossible for him to attain from Illinois. With Colonel Nesmith, however, the case was the reverse. He was as truly an Oregon man as … Read more

Biography of Hon. Jackson L. Morrow

HON. JACKSON L. MORROW.- It is not so uncommon a thing in this land of a great future for a man to lay out a town or build a city; but there is, we believe, but one man in the state who may be called the maker of a county, and whose name is perpetuated in its designation: that man is Jackson L. Morrow, of Heppner, Oregon, whose sketch is here presented. This honor was worthily bestowed upon him at the instance and almost insistence of his neighbors, in recognition of his privations and labors in settling up the region, … Read more

Biography of Hon. Isaac Ingalls Stevens

HON. ISAAC INGALLS STEVENS. – Governor Stevens was born at Andover, Massachusetts, March 18, 1818. He graduated from West Point in the class of 1839, of which he stood at the head, and immediately thereafter was commissioned second lieutenant of engineers. In 1840 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy. In the war with Mexico (1846-1848) he served on the staff of General Scott and for gallant and meritorious services at Contreras, Churubusco and Chapultepec earned the brevet rank of major. He was severely wounded in the capture of the City of Mexico from the effect of which he suffered … Read more

Biography of Hon. James B. Sperry

HON. JAMES B. SPERRY. – The striking difference between a savage and a civilized community is the multiplication of different industries in the latter. The most of our interest in life arises from the interdependence of many persons, each supplying some single necessity of all the rest. The man who makes flour for the people of Heppner, Oregon, is Mr. Sperry. He built his mill with a capacity of seventy-five barrels in 1885, from means realized by the sale of his band of fourteen thousand sheep, which he drove to Montana to market. He is one of the substantial men … Read more

Biography of W. B. D. Newman

W.B.D. NEWMAN. – This well-known pioneer and veteran of the Indian wars comes of primitive stock of old Virginia, where the English family settled on the south bank of the Potomac, and where the father of our subject was born in 1793, and grew up to be a stout defender of the young American republic in the war of 1812. The mother, Matilda Downing, was also of Virginia, having come from that state to Kentucky. William was born in 1827 in the latter state, and two years later accompanied his parents to Ohio. Meeting with the loss of his mother … Read more

Biography of F. M. Naught

F.M. NAUGHT. – Mr. Naught, whose life experience contains many incidents of unique interest, was born in Illinois in 1838, and removed as a child to Texas, and in 1846 to Iowa. In 1853 he crossed the plains to Oregon and located in Polk county. Upon the outbreak of the Indian war in 1856, he joined Captain F.M.P. Goff’s Company K, Washington Territory Volunteers, and came east of the cascades. In July of that year, a part of Captain Goff’s company quartered at Fort Henrietta was summoned to the relief of Major Leighton’s command, which was surrounded on the John … Read more

Biography of John Hailey

The well-known pioneer and statesman of Idaho from whom the town of Hailey takes its name, is now a resident of Bellevue, this state. He has been twice elected a delegate to congress from this territory, and is one of the best informed men in the state on national affairs. Mr. Hailey is a native of Smith County, Tennessee, born August 29, 1835, of Scottish ancestry and a descendant of a family long resident in the Old Dominion, his grandfather, Philip Hailey, and his father, John Hailey, having been both natives of Virginia. His father married Miss Nancy Baird, a … Read more

Yakima Tribe

Yakima Indians, Yakima Nation (Ya-ki-ná, `runaway’). An important Shahaptian tribe, formerly living on both sides of the Columbia and on the northerly branches of the Yakima (formerly Tapteal) and the Wenatchee, in Washington. They are mentioned by Lewis and Clark in 1806 under the name Cutsahnim (possibly the name of a chief): and estimated as 1,200 in number, but there is no certainty as to the bands it eluded under that figure. In 1855 the United States made a treaty with the Yakima and 13 other tribes of Shahaptian, Salishan, and Chinookan stocks, by whit they ceded the territory from the … Read more

Biography of Hon. B. F. Burch

HON. B.F. BURCH. – B.F. Burch was born on the second day of May, 1825, in Chariton county, Missouri, where he lived during the first twenty years of his life, and received what was then considered a good, common-school education. It was complete enough to secure him the position of teacher for the families of Honorable Jesse Applegate and neighbors the first winter after his arrival here, – 1845-46. He also taught the first school in what is now known Polk county. In 1846, in company with Jesse Applegate, Lindsey Applegate, David Goff, William J.G. Parker, William Spotsman, John Jones, … Read more

Biography of Major N. A. Cornoyer

MAJOR N.A. CORNOYER. – It is sometimes complained of Oregonians that, coming to this state some time ago, they have not been able to keep up with the improved methods invented at the East since their departure. This is true only in part, if at all. The early settlers are the ones who have been most prompt and energetic to discover and apply the latest inventions and improvements. They compare very favorably in this particular with the latest arrivals; and their experience of soils and climate and methods peculiar to this coast give them a decided advantage. Major Cornoyer is … Read more

Biography of William Elliott

WILLIAM ELLIOTT. – This now venerable citizen of our state, whose form and character are familiar to many in Western Oregon, was born in Knox county, Indiana, September 14, 1815. Losing his mother by death when but a child of five years, he was received by an uncle, and remained in his family, removing with him to Missouri in 1820, and not leaving his kind relatives until he had attained his majority. In 1836 he became a volunteer soldier under A.J. Morgan, of Fort Leavenworth, to prosecute the war in Florida, and in this service experienced many sharp encounters. After … Read more