Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

When missionaries came to the Upper Columbia region, determined to change Indian lives, native people were somewhat prepared for their arrival. Many tribes had contact with French Canadian and Iroquois trappers whose Roman Catholic practices exposed Indians to a new set of beliefs. HBC Governor Simpson sent the sons of two influential chiefs to the Anglican missionary school on the Red River (now Winnipeg) in 1825; they returned four years later and began to teach about Christianity. One of these young men, Spokan Garry, taught hymns, prayers, and the practice of saying grace before meals, all of which appealed to Indians who had traditionally practiced a variety of rituals. [13]

The first missionaries came in direct response to a delegation of Flathead and Nez Perce Indians who traveled to St. Louis in 1831. Their request for religious instruction for their people resonated with Americans, fueled by a religious revival and interest in proselytizing. The first missionaries went to the Willamette Valley in Oregon Territory in 1834, and two years later others settled among the Cayuse near Walla Walla and the Nez Perce at Lapwai. Samuel Parker, an itinerant Protestant missionary, came to Fort Colvile in 1836 and is credited with giving the first church service there. When Elkanah Walker and Cushing Eells and their wives arrived at the fort in 1838, HBC trader Archibald McDonald suggested the site of Tshimakain (Chamokane), now Walker's Prairie, for their church. These missionaries soon had a congregation of two hundred Spokane Indians, but the numbers did not hold up. During their ten years there, Walker and Eells had little success in changing the nomadic lifestyle of the Spokane people or in converting many to Christianity. They closed the mission in June 1848, a few months after disillusioned Cayuse Indians had turned against their missionaries and murdered them at Waiilatpu. [14]

Catholics joined Protestant missionaries within a short time. Two Jesuit priests stopped briefly at Fort Colvile during the winter of 1838-1839 to minister to HBC employees and their families. One of them returned the following summer for a longer stay, resulting in many Indian baptisms and confessions. More importantly, the goodwill he generated laid the groundwork for a Catholic mission there. The indefatigable Father Pierre Jean DeSmet spent ten days at Fort Colvile in May 1841, continuing the pattern of short visits to baptize and preach. Father Anthony Ravalli built the first chapel for the Indians at Kettle Falls in 1845. This was followed two years later with the construction of the more permanent St. Paul's Mission on the hill above the falls. Catholic missionaries visited the Spokane people during this same period, coming from a mission among the Coeur d'Alenes. After Chief Baptiste Peone requested a permanent missionary for the Upper Spokane, Father Joseph Cataldo took up residence there in December 1866 and built St. Michael's Mission. Other Catholic churches in the region included the Church of the Immaculate Conception, near the U.S. Army post, and St. Francis Regis. [15]

Like the fur traders, missionaries had considerable impact on the culture of native peoples since they worked to totally change the traditional religious and social systems. They preached against the practice of polygamy, despite its important place in the native cultural, political, and economic systems. They urged men to take up farming and failed to understand their reluctance to assume what was considered women's work. They hoped to end the nomadic lifestyle of Indians and to have them settle in small cabins; such dwellings, however, were not suitable for the traditional extended family. Those Indians who did become Christians faced many problems: non-Indians still saw them as inferior while Indians often despised them for giving up the ways of their forefathers. [16]

Interior Salish Indians in camp, ca. 1935. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO 2506).

Tensions between Indians and non-Indians increased dramatically during the 1850s. Following the creation of Washington Territory in 1853, Isaac Stevens was appointed both governor and ex officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs; it was in the latter position that he was mandated to take a census of the tribes and negotiate treaties for the United States. These treaties were key to the eventual construction of the transcontinental railroad since all Indian claims to land along the route had to be extinguished. Stevens called for a council in Walla Walla in 1855. Prior to meeting with the governor, leaders of several tribes, including Yakama, Walla Walla, and Nez Perce, met in the Grand Ronde Valley in Oregon to devise a strategy for outwitting Stevens. If each chief demanded his tribe's entire territory for a reservation, they reasoned, then non-Indians would be left without any land. Stevens had a spy among the Indians, however, Hollolsotetote (Lawyer) of the Nez Perce, who revealed the plan to Stevens. Lawyer's announcement at the council that he would sign the treaty upset the other chiefs, who were further were alarmed by Indian Agent Joel Palmer's explanation that non-Indian settlement could not be stopped. By the end of the council, the tribes had ceded sixty thousand square miles and reserved substantially less acreage for three reservations, an annual payment of $500 to the chiefs, and promises of agricultural equipment and provisions worth close to $650,000. [17]

Tribal resentment exploded that summer, fueled by clashes with miners trespassing on land reserved for Indians. In the fall of 1854, an HBC employee discovered gold on the sandbars of the upper Columbia River, in the vicinity of Fort Colvile. When the news leaked out a few months later, a predictable rush of miners flooded the region just as Stevens was concluding the treaty process. Colville chief Peter John closed his lands to non-Indians in August 1855, and the following month a number of miners and an Indian agent were killed by Yakamas. A state of war erupted, and both sides remained on high alert during the next three years. Stevens met with leaders of the Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and Colville tribes late in 1855 in an effort to contain the war. They reached no agreements at that time, however, and a meeting planned for the following spring never occurred. [18]

While the Colvilles and their neighbors remained relatively aloof from the fray, the Spokanes allied themselves with the Coeur d'Alenes, Yakamas, Kalispels, and Palouse to protect their lands from further encroachment from non-Indians. A frightened group of settlers met at Fort Colvile in November 1857 and petitioned the government for a company of soldiers to protect them. Discovery of gold on the Fraser River in British Columbia in 1858 intensified the problem. Col. Edward J. Steptoe and his two hundred troops felt the full force of Indian wrath when they ventured out from Fort Walla Walla in May, only to be soundly defeated by a coalition force of between six hundred and sixteen hundred Indians. The victory, while sweet, was short-lived. Col. George Wright and his Army troops won two decisive battles later that summer and ended the war. In an effort to permanently cripple the Indians and ensure that they could never fight again, Wright ordered the killing of eight hundred horses, a devastating blow to a people whose welfare and wealth depended upon these herds. Troops also destroyed grain crops and stores of food in Spokane territory and then hung fifteen Indians for alleged murders. The war was over, but the memory lived on. [19]

Portion of map of upper Columbia River area showing position and strength of Indian tribes, 1871. Note gold mines, HBC Post, Fort Colville, and Old Presbyterian Mission. (Frame 658, RG 049, WSA-ERB, Cheney.) (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Following the defeat of the interior tribes, the U.S. Army responded to the request for a post in the vicinity of HBC's Fort Colvile to monitor the border and help prevent future trouble between settlers and Indians. Two companies of the 9^th U.S. Infantry, under the command of Pinkney Lugenbeel, arrived in the spring of 1859 to begin construction of Fort Colville, located about three miles east of the present town of Colville. Within four years, it encompassed forty-five buildings. Pinkney City, an occasionally wild settlement, grew up near the army post and came into prominence during the 1860s as a supply point for mines in the region. Supplies arrived from Walla Walla via pack trains, and later freight wagons, on a major trail through the Colville Valley. [20]