Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/316

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298
INDIAN WARS OF OREGON.

terms proposed the day before, namely, to surrender the murderers.

Agent Skinner was notified, and a council arranged for the following day. In the conference it was shown that Scarface had not been with Sam, but that the person mistaken for him was Sullix of Tipso's band, who also had a countenance made hideous with scars, and that the real Scarface was hiding in the Salmon-river mountains. He was ultimately arrested and hanged at Yreka.[1] As for Sullix, he had received a severe wound in the fight of the nineteenth, and was now more ugly than before.

The treaty which Skinner ultimately was able to make with Sam and his people, required the Rogue-rivers, among other things, to hold no communication with the Shastas. It is doubtful if this part of the treaty was very strictly kept, but to keep it in part tended to the prevention of mischief. An occasional present of a fat ox also contributed to the general peace of the community, and was easier for the agent than treaty making at the muzzle of a gun. The number of murders committed by Indians of the Rogue-river bands in 1852 were only about half those of the previous year, say eighteen that were certainly known, and a few others suspected.

In all the councils with the Indians they had been told that the United States government would ratify the treaties made, and pay for their lands in property, instruction, protection, and money. What was then the mortification and anxiety of these servants of the people when the superintendent of Indian affairs, soon after the treaty with the Rogue-rivers, received notice that all the treaties negotiated in Oregon had been ordered to lie upon the table in the senate, and was instructed to enter into no more, except such as were imperatively required to preserve peace. The government wanted time to define its policy. Dart, in December, sent in his resignation to take effect the fol lowing June.

  1. The expenses of Steele's expedition were two thousand two hundred dollars, which amount was borne by the party, and never reimbursed.