Rogue River Wars

The Rogue River Wars are among the wars in which settlers and Indians fought each other in Oregon . The last of them began in October 1855 when a mob from Jacksonville in the Rogue River Valley in southwest Oregon murdered at least 28 Indians who were camping near the Table Rock Reservation . More such attacks followed, similar to what happened in nearby California .

The beginnings

It was not about land disputes; the leaders of the regional tribes had long since signed treaties in which they had ceded the majority of their traditional territory. Even the responsible Oregon Superintendent of Indian affairs , Joel Palmer, and the commander of the US Army on the Pacific coast, General John Ellis Wool, spoke out publicly against the war.

The driving force was Joseph Lane , the Territory Delegate in Washington, DC , who gained some influence in the then ruling Democratic Party , and who had advocated profitable wars at every opportunity. He had played an important role in the US war against Mexico, and President James K. Polk appointed him the first governor of the Territory of Oregon. As Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, he was also responsible for negotiating treaties with the Indian tribes.

The Indians, who were determined to resist from the start, only had to flee to the Oregon Coast Range . Under Tecumtum they resisted the attacks, especially in the battle known as the Battle of Hungry Hill at the end of October 1855. Other Indians, however, decided to place themselves under the protection of the troops stationed in Fort Lane under Captain Andrew Smith. They were moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation in northwest Oregon in January 1856 .

In February 1856, the Indians carried the war down the Rogue River to the Pacific coast - the winter presumably forced them to do so. At first most whites left the coast, but in May troops arrived from Crescent City in northern California . Since some of the rebels believed they would protect themselves, they surrendered to the army. On the other hand, volunteers attacked the insurgents and they attacked a group at Big Meadows that had already surrendered to the army.

The last resistance group almost successfully attacked an army unit guarding a POW camp near Big Bend on the Rogue River. The survivors were taken by steamboat, e.g. Some of them also walked to their new reservation , the Coast Reservation on the central Oregon coast.

consequences

The purpose of this reservation was to separate them from the white population and prepare them for assimilation and integration into American society. The most important means were re-education to farmers in schools and mission stations. But the reservation was run by corrupt men like Robert B. Metcalfe and BR Biddle, and there was not enough arable land. The Indians helped themselves with fishing, hunting and temporary work in the Willamette Valley . They tried to maintain their social system, which was based on small villages.

In 1865 the reserve was dissolved. Behind it was a construction company that wanted to build a road from Yaquina Bay to the Willamette Valley. So this central part of the reserve was cut out. The northern part, where the Indian agency was on the Siletz River , was rededicated to the Siletz Reservation , the southern part, which was also under the same agency, became the Alsea Reservation . A sub-agency was established there on the Yachats River.

In order to save the costs for the Alsea sub-agency, the congress unceremoniously dissolved the reservation as early as 1875. Some senators asked for the approval of the Indians, but the Indian agent in charge assured them that they had indicated their consent. Former agent Benjamin Simpson gave her permission. But most of the Indians refused to go.

After the General Allotment Act ( Dawes Act ) was passed in 1887 , the issuance of numerous reservation properties to individual owners began. The privatization of the tribal area did not begin until 1894, however. In the 1870s, the residents had successfully defended themselves against privatization, in 1891 they were still negotiating with the government for four fifths of the reserve that had not yet been privatized.

The privatization was followed by a gradual expropriation. After the death of the owner, the Indian private property was usually not distributed to the heirs, but sold. Others received so little land that they couldn't live on it, got into debt and had to sell.

In the 1950s the Siletz even lost recognition as a tribe, but they were able to regain it in 1977 and a new reserve was created in 1980.

historiography

The history of the Rogue River Wars was detailed and scientifically presented in 1894. The Secretary of State of the Senate commissioned Francis Fuller Victor in 1891 . Recognizing that the early history of Oregon can largely only be passed on in the oral reports of contemporary witnesses, and that with these the memory threatens to be lost, and so that the inhabitants of Oregon can be proud of the achievements of the pioneers, decided to have "ten hundred" copies of the work to be produced printed. For this purpose, potential reporters were asked to send reports, drawings and the like to the Grand Commander of Indian War Veterans .

prehistory

The first "incidents" occurred as early as the 1820s. Apparently the local Indians were aware of the treatment of the Indians in the east of the USA, because from the beginning they viewed the whites as invaders and fought them.

First friendship contract with "Joe Lane"

Governor Lane attempted to intervene in 1850 by holding out peace feelers. Accompanied by 15 whites and 15 Indians from the Klickitat tribe, led by their chief Quatley, he met two chiefs and their 75 men. Lane offered them a friendship agreement if they agreed to end the robberies. Quatley captured one of the chiefs and he and Lane were able to force a peace. At the same time, Lane's demeanor had impressed the prisoner so much that he asked Lane to give him and his family new names. The chief was named Joe , his wife was named Sally , daughter and son were named Mary and Ben . To prevent any violation of their rights, Lane gave them a piece of paper to show if necessary. The name Joe Lane took on the character of a talisman on the Roguq River and in the Shasta Valley. But Lane was not re-elected after the Whigs won the presidential election. The future President Abraham Lincoln turned down the position and John F. Gaines succeeded him. Chief Joe gave the outgoing governor a Modoc boy as a slave as a farewell .

The revocation of land rights west of the Cascade Mountains (1850)

As recently as 1850, Congress decided that the Indians west of the coastal mountain range, the Cascade Mountains, should no longer be entitled to land. Anson Dart and his secretary PC Dart were sent to Oregon as Superintendent of Indian Affairs. AG Henry, who did not even arrive, and Elias Wampole and HH Spalding were appointed as sub-agents, the latter already living in the territory. The agent received $ 20,000 to provide shelter, maintenance and gifts for the Indians. 15,000 dollars were deposited in San Francisco , goods for 5,000 dollars were transported around Cape Horn . Gaines, the new governor, and Alonzo A. Skinner and Beverly S. Allen were to sign contracts. To do this, they should first get in touch with the very small tribes in the Willamet Valley.

The commission began its first negotiations in April 1851 and the $ 20,000 was quickly spent, except for $ 300. At that time, Congress delegated the task of contract negotiations exclusively to the Indian agent.

This left darts practically destitute and unsupported in a vast area. Spalding had to be replaced, but his successor EA Sterling sat at the Columbia River estuary. At that time the local Cayuse were already severely decimated and only had 36 warriors left. On the Umatilla River , Dart set up an agency and traveled on to the Waiilatpu and Lapwai mission stations to determine the Presbyterian casualties in the Cayuse War . Wampole, who tried to get rich in trade with the Indians, was released after three months. Other sub-agents also turned out to be unusable, except for the Methodist JL Parrish.

In his report, Dart assessed the situation in such a way that the Indians in Oregon were peaceful, apart from those on the Snake and Rogue Rivers. In the meantime, numerous settlers and gold diggers moved through the country of the former and therefore he feared raids that could only be prevented by stationing an army unit. It is unclear what triggered the ensuing fighting. The hostility of the local Indians was incited not only by the behavior of the whites, but also by the bad experiences of the Cayuse. This made the Sanke extremely hostile to the Nez Perce who had not supported the Cayuse. The same was true of the hostilities between Rogue River and Klamath in late 1855. In addition, the United States lost the loyalty of certain chiefs who had previously been gifted with weapons - which the Hudson's Bay Company had been forbidden. At the same time, the recipients lost support within their groups.

When David Dilley and two Rogue River Indians friends were murdered near Phoenix, Oregon, and two white people escaped, revenge volunteers murdered two Indians and took numerous prisoners to exchange for the killers. The chief of the Rogue River refused to negotiate over the double homicides of his people, and there were several skirmishes and assaults. In January 1851, four men were killed at Blackburn's Ferry on Klamath, in May two men were killed each, and two more were killed at Eureka (then called Yreka). A man and a woman fell victim to acts of revenge, as well as an attack on an Indian camp in which all men were murdered. In the meantime, gold prospectors had found gold on the Josephine River in California, but they lost it in a repulsed attack by 200 Rogue River Indians.

The Battle of Table Rock

Samuel R. Thurston, the first MP for the Oregon Territory, had briefly informed Washington that the Indians were peaceful and that the force in Fort Vancouver was not needed. He, in turn, had listened to one of the negotiators for the first contract with Chief Joe, G. T'Vault. Now two units have been relocated to the region. With 67 men it was a small force that was still divided, with 28 men moving south under Kearney to Table Rock , a, as the name suggests, flattened table mountain that was easy to defend. The force reached the area on June 17, but was repulsed three times. 30 men were recruited between June 17 and 23.

Meanwhile, the unsuspecting former Governor Lane was preparing to leave for the capital because he had been elected as a delegate. He first heard of the fighting on the 21st and moved with 40 men to the Rogue Mountains, which he reached on the 22nd. After a two-day search, he also found the men of Kearney and the third division joined them.

The Indians under Chief Jo successfully fended off all attempts to conquer the mountain fortress, which they had fortified with tree trunks. Kearney was about to storm on June 25th, but when they reached the mountain fortress, the Indians had withdrawn. The troops went into pursuit and captured 31 Rogue Rivers. Recognizing Lane from last year's negotiations, some Indians complained that the whites were free to roam their land while they could no longer sleep soundly because of the intruders. Lane accused them of breach of contract, but recognized their will to peace. He handed over his prisoners to the governor on July 7th. The group, regarded as a peace party of the Rogue Rivers, which gained strength after the defeat and the capture, promised to submit, accepted the protection of the USA and got the family members back. A small military force led by an Indian agent was supposed to monitor the peace.

Battle of Port Orford, Oregon without US help (until 1852)

Seagull's Captain William Tichenor was looking for a natural harbor south of Columbia on June 1st. At what is now Port Orford , he put nine men ashore, who, armed with cannons and rifles, were to occupy the bay there. JM Kirkpatrick succeeded in deterring the attacking Indians with cannon shots, some of them perishing. A little later, the nine men fled at night and reached the mouth of the Umpqua River. When Tichenor returned with 40 settlers on board the day after his escape - delayed due to legal disputes in San Francisco - he only found a diary in which the fight for the hill was described. Articles about the massacre of the nine men appeared in the press, and Tichenor had the hill occupied by 67 men on July 14th. In Portland , Tichenor hired William Green T'Vault along with other volunteers. When he returned, some of the men had fled, 14 of whom he found in San Francisco and were forcibly brought back to Port Orford. T'Vault led a group to the Rogue River on August 24, but on September 1, 13 of the 23 men left the force and returned. The remaining 10 probably reached the Coquille River, where they gave up their horses and used the service of Indians with their canoes. These led them to a village where they were attacked immediately. T'Vault escaped with one of the men and reached Cape Blanco, where they were kindly received and cared for by other Indians. Three other men escaped and five were killed. They were warmly received by the Umpqua.

Now 20 men of the Pacific Division were sent from Astoria to Port Orford, apparently in complete overestimation of the importance of this isolated post, from where it was not possible to establish contact with the settlers and gold diggers in the hinterland. August V. Kautz led the troops. On August 14, when the raid took place at Coquille, the negotiator arrived at Port Orford to make peace, and T'Vault arrived two days later. Two women from the Cape Blanco Indians found out what had happened to the five missing and arranged for a funeral. On September 22nd, Parrish left for the Coquille, led by a Coquille who had been stolen by the tototems as a child and therefore understood their language. There was an exchange of gifts, one of the chiefs presented Parrish with a sea ​​otter skin , but no contract was concluded.

Now Governor Gaines tried to invite negotiators to Port Orford to negotiate the consequences of the deaths of 38 whites, but the more remote tribes did not dare to enter the territory of the neighboring tribes. More troops arrived at Port Orford between October 22nd and 27th. From October 31 to November 3 they moved to the Coquille River, on November 5 armed Indians appeared, carrying 14 rifles that they had captured on September 14. On November 7th, part of the troops crossed the river on a raft, but found no one except villages, which they destroyed. Three small boats brought another 60 men out of Port Orford and went up the river. On November 22nd, they won a victory over the Indians at the southern fork of the river, killing 15 Indians while losing no man. At the end of the year a fort was built called Fort Orford. In January 1852, a camp called Camp Castaway was added on Coos Bay, which was about 80 km or five days' march away and was to be connected by a path to Fort Orford to secure the Coquille River. It was almost impossible to get volunteers because most of them stayed in San Francisco to go to the gold fields.

The region was troubled by attempts by settlement societies from San Francisco to place around 100 settlers on the coast, such as in what would later become Scottsburg. A separate law forbade companies not based in Oregon from doing this.

The Shasta and Rogue Rivers were considered one nation. A group around Eureka was led by a Tolo, Scarface and Bill led a group in the Shasta Valley, John in the Scott Valley, Sam and Jo in the Rogue River Valley, with John's father being a kind of chief. Tipso, also known as "Hairy" because of his long beard, and Sullix led the groups on the north side of the Siskiyous. The latter two were bitter enemies of the whites. Much more important was another John, called "Old John", who led 53 warriors who played an important role in the battles from 1855 to 1856.

Again and again there was hostility between gold diggers and Indians, with John being captured and exchanged for white people. However, he fled in April. Around this time Elisha Steele, who later became Indian Superintendent of California, came from Eureka to Johnson's Rancho in the Scott Valley. He was trusted by the Indians and was called "Jo Lane's brother" (Codawa). Steele set up a meeting with Tolo and John. They wanted to help him catch the killers Scarface and Bill. Steele struggled to protect his new allies from the citizens. The persecuted fled to Sam, who was already at war. When Tolo and Jim learned of the unauthorized land seizure of the settler Ambrose, they left the troops, but left behind two warriors who were possibly to be convicted instead of the persecuted.

Meanwhile a force of around 75 men marched against Sam. Steele moved with his small group to Sam as well. A fight broke out on July 19, in which between 6 and 16 men, including two prisoners, were killed. Sullix was executed for murder. In 1852 there had been a total of 18 white killings, plus some suspected of being killed.

A peace agreement was reached with the Rogue River Indians, but the government prohibited further peace agreements in order to redefine its Indian policy . Meanwhile, there was heavy fighting with the Modoc, due to the increasing number of settlers, in which at least 39 of them were killed in one case, and 40 Modoc were murdered on another occasion.

In 1852 the White and Rogue Rivers kept peace, and Sam and Joe were frequent invited guests to settler homes, especially in Jacksonville .

US troops

In September 1852, 268 soldiers came to Fort Vancouver .

literature

• Nathan Douthit: Uncertain Encounters: Indians and Whites at Peace and War in Southern Oregon, 1820s-1860s , Corvallis: Oregon State University Press 2002
• EA Schwartz: The Rogue River Indian War and Its Aftermath, 1850-1980 , University of Oklahoma Press 1997
• Indian Wars of the Roque River , ed. Vd Josephine County Historical Society, Grants Pass, Oregon 2003

Remarks

1. ↑ Senate Joint Resolution No. 5, twentieth session, printed in: Indian Wars of the Roque River, Preface.