History Corner

My previous two columns have described the prosperous community in the Salubria and Indian Valleys in June of 1876. The area seemed well settled, with and abundance of crops and buildings and cooperative neighbors.

But storm clouds had been building far to the north. The previous year, the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce tribe had been ordered to surrender to reservation life, and their lands (including the Wallowa Valley where Joseph, Oregon is today) were opened to white settlement. This was the band of which Chief Joseph was a leader, and it was the last of the free-roaming (non-treaty) bands of the Nez Perce. The Wallowas refused to come in, but the government was still too under-funded and disorganized to do anything about it.

Around the end of the very month that Statesman editor Milton Kelly visited our area (June 1876), settlers on the upper Weiser heard rumors through local Indians about a big Indian victory over the horse soldiers in the buffalo country east of the Rocky Mountains. Days later, vivid accounts came from Boise of how Indians had slaughtered Custer’s Seventh Cavalry on the Little Big Horn River in Montana. How the Weiser Indians had received word of this battle before local whites had heard about it left the settlers feeling uneasy.

Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman – September 25, 1876: “INDIAN OUTRAGE – The non-treaty Nez Perce Indians on Salmon river are disposed to make trouble with the white settlers. A short time ago an Indian by the name of Red Elk, in company with two or three other Indians, after partaking freely of fire water, supposed to have been obtained at a China store on Salmon river, went to the house of Sam Benedict. Sam was not home at the time and the Indians took possession of the house and forced Isabella and the three children to wade White Bird creek at the risk of their life.

“About this time Mr. Benedict appeared on the scene with a double-barrel shot-gun and began to fire. They were armed and returned the fire and one Indian was killed and another badly wounded. It is supposed that Red Elk shot the Indian by mistake as he was killed by a pistol shot and Benedict had nothing but bird shot. The white settlers in that locality are very much excited and talk of raising a company and driving the Indians from that section.”

Just over 8 months later, Sam Benedict would be one of a number of settlers killed by the Nez Perce in the opening days of the Nez Perce War (June 1877).

Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman – May 8, 1877: “Major Collins, commanding at Fort Boise is in receipt of a letter from Fort Walla Walla stating that serious trouble with Nez Perce Indians is eminent; that the troops at Fort Walla Walla and Fort Vancouver are already moving for the Wallowa valley. From the nature of the country claimed and occupied by these Indians and the probable aid which they will receive from the main body of the Nez Perces and adjoining tribes, this promises to be a second edition of the Modoc war.”

Meanwhile, life in the Salubria and Indian Valley’s went on as if none of this concerned them. Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman – May 19, 1877: “A stage line to Indian valley will be a great convenience to those who wish to visit the Weiser country. Solon Hall, who carries the mail from Indian Valley to Warrens, always has surplus ponies and can send you on through to Warrens and North Idaho. You can make Warrens by this route in four days.”

Less than a month later, the killing began along the Salmon River. Solon Hall’s 18-year-old son, Edgar, who had arrived at Warren with the mail, made a marathon ride south to sound the alert. There were few, if any, settlers living in Meadows Valley, but when Edgar arrived at Council Valley and then the valleys along the Weiser River to the south, it’s hard to overstate the panic that erupted.

The Statesman shouted the news in a headline in their June 19 issue: “HOSTILE INDIANS IN NORTH IDAHO – 29 settlers murdered – Indians making for the Weiser”

The Weiser River settlements were the nearest settlements south of the Salmon River at the time, so I suppose it wasn’t unreasonable to speculate that hostile Indians would rampage south.

The Statesman printed a statement from the governor: “Notice: Volunteers wanted to join General Howard at Lapwai. Indians have killed 29 in Lapwai area and are on their way, 100 strong, to southern Idaho by the Salmon and Weiser valleys; pursued by U.S. troops. The Governor wants 100 volunteers immediately. Signed, M. Brayman, Governor.”

In my Landmarks book and in previous columns I have detailed how area settlers congregated in quickly-built forts immediately after the initial murders by the Nez Perce north of Riggins in June of 1877, so I won’t go into that now. (My account of the Nez Perce War and its local impact can be found in my History Corner archives at CouncilMuseum.com.)

Aside from a whole lot of absolute panic, scurrying around gathering arms and building forts at locations ranging from Indian Valley to Emmett (at least), nothing happened along the Weiser River. (Editor Milton Kelly personally delivered guns and ammunition to Weiser on June 18.)

What was left of the Wallowa band surrendered in Montana on October 5. Life went back to the peaceful scenes described by Milton Kelly along the Weiser River...until the next summer, when an even more serious war with Indians (the Bannock War) broke out, and similar panicked activities repeated along the Weiser.

Note: My books covering local history are now for sale at the Baker’s Pantry in Council.

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