SESQUICENTENNIAL OF SECOND
WALLA WALLA TREATY COUNCIL OF 1856
On Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006, the Sesquicentennial
Commemoration of the the Second Walla Walla Treaty Council between Governor
Isaac Stevens and Indians from throughout the region, as well as related events
that took place 150 years ago in the Walla Walla area will be observed.
As part of the commemoration, interested participants will
walk or ride horses to the probable site of a major skirmish between Gov.
Stevens and Indians from various tribes that took place following the council.
The Sept. 9 events will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Leon Filan
farm at 853 Five Mile Road, and will end with a treck to the Bennington Lake
skirmish site where observances will close.
The commemoration activities will begin with the sharing of
food by participants, including Indian fry bread, followed by a presentation of
flags by all parties, the sharing of tribal and immigrant perspectives on the
second council and resulting skirmish, and a treck over the probable route of
the Stevens party to the skirmish site.
You are invited to bring food to share, and to walk or ride
a horse the two miles to the skirmish site.
Some seating in four wheel drive vehicles will be available for elders
wishing to make the trek; transportation will be provided for walkers returning
to their cars.
Many of the materials used in the research for this project
were collected by Steve Plucker, a Touchet area farmer whose great grandfather
was a soldier in the U.S. Army during the Yakama War in 1858, before settling
here to farm along the Touchet River. Plucker is also one of the people
responsible for the erection of the historical sign on Five Mile Road honoring
both the treaty council and the establishment of the first US Army Fort Walla
Walla in that area.
Another member of the commemoration committee is Sam Pambrun
of Athena, whose great grandfather Andrew Dominique Pambrun was Stevens’
secretary, guide, and interpreter for the second council, and writes a colorful
account of both the proceedings and the skirmish in his autobiography, Sixty
Years on the Frontier in the Pacific Northwest.
Walla Walla Chief Carl Sampson is a co-chair of the
commemoration committee, along with Veronica Willeto, a member of the American
Indian Association at Whitman College, and Dan Clark of Walla Walla 2020. Sampson is related to Homli, who served as
head chief of the Walla Wallas after the killing of Chief Peo-Peo-Mox-Mox in
1855, and who was present at both the council and the skirmish.
Leon Filan, who is providing the site for the commemoration
adjacent to his well-known corn maze, remembers a square log building on the
property with no windows and a series of small round holes on every wall about
rifle height, that may well have been part of the Fort built by Steptoe. Filan’s family moved to Five-Mile Road in the
1940’s. Other farmers and landowners in
the vicinity are also cooperating with the commemoration by allowing the
historic trek through their lands from the Filan place to the Bennington Lake
area, where Corps of Engineers rangers are interested in the project and its
historical significance for the area.
On Sept. 9, papers and maps will be distributed to those
making the historic trek, detailing 15 points of specific activity documented
in accounts of the skirmish, and indicating locations for them on the ground in
the vicinity. Copies are also available
on this website.
The Indian position on the council can be summed up in the
words of Speaking Owl, a Nez Perce chief close to Looking Glass: “Will you give
us back our lands? That is what we all
want to hear about; that is what troubles us.
I ask plainly to have a plain answer.”
The reason for the failure of the council is made clear by
the governor’s own report:
At the conclusion of this council, in a brief address to the
Indians, I expressed my regrets that I had failed in my mission—that no one had
said “yes” to my propositions, and that I now had only to say, “follow your own
hearts; those who wish to go to war, go….My propositions were unconditional
submission…
The commemoration committee hopes that lessons will be
learned from these historic events of the past that will help us to live
respectfully together now and in the future.
For more information on this commemoration, contact Dan
Clark at 509-522-0399, or write to wallawalla2020@charter.net.
Best wishes to all,
Carl Sampson, Walla Walla Chief
Veronica Willeto, American Indian Association, Whitman
College
Daniel Clark, Walla Walla 2020
Second Walla Walla Treaty Council Commemoration Committee,
PO Box 1222, Walla Walla WA 99362, Tel. 509-522-0399,
