chief were said to have annoyed Bolan, and that he threatened in his turn the punishment of the hostile Indians by the United States government. However that may have been, Bolan was murdered by a nephew of Kamiakin, son of his half-brother Owhi, who, while pretending to escort him, killed both the agent and his horse, and burned the bodies, together with everything belonging to either.
Bolan not appearing at The Dalles at the expiration of a sufficient time for his business, Nathan Olney, agent at that place, dispatched a friendly Des Chutes chief as a spy to discover the cause of the delay. To this chief Kamiakin confided his intention and ability to carry on a war against the white race, stating that he was prepared to fight for five years if all were not sooner killed; and that the tribes which refused to join him would be treated as enemies, and killed or enslaved. Father Brouillet also wrote to Mr. Olney that ever since the treaty council in the spring, war had been the absorbing topic among the Indians about the Ahtanahm mission.
That the Yakimas were prepared for war was ascertained to be quite true, large stores of powder having been purchased notwithstanding the legislative act against selling arms and ammunition to the Indians, and everything pointed to a combination of several powerful tribes, including the hitherto friendly Walla Wallas, and the Spokanes.
Rumors continued to come in of murders committed upon persons going to or returning from the Colville mines, which being confirmed, towards the last of September acting Governor Mason of Washington Territory made a requisition upon Forts Steilacoom and Vancouver for troops to protect the travel upon this route. This requisition was honored by Major Rains, in charge of Vancouver, ordering Brevet-Major Haller of The Dalles into the Yakima country with a force of about one hundred men and a howitzer, to coöperate with a force of fifty men under Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter from Steilacoom.
