Coeur d'Alènes, Kalispels, Kootenais and Flatheads. All these Indians, hitherto quiet and peaceable (especially the four tribes last named) had of late become more or less disturbed and irritated, chiefly through the incursions of white emigrants into the Indian lands on the southwest of the territories of Oregon and Washington, where, without the least ceremony and without any preliminary arrangement or agreement, they had taken possession of the most fertile lands and the most advantageous sites.
"The mountain Indians, especially, had become alarmed and had resolved to oppose the entry of the whites and their further advance into the land. The Indian force that was on foot consisted of 800 to 1,000 warriors. They had just won a victory: the hasty retreat of the brave Colonel Steptoe, who was hardly expecting an attack from the savages and had only 120 soldiers, appeared to them a flight. He had even abandoned to them all his train and provisions. Swollen with pride and presumption, the Indians thenceforth believed themselves invincible and capable of resisting and withstanding the whole United States Army. Accordingly they issued their defiance of the whites. The Government at any rate thought their opposition quite a serious matter, and decided to send out General Harvey, who had covered himself with laurels on various occasions in Indian warfare in Florida, Texas, Mexico and the plains of the Missouri.
"I was once more invited by the Secretary of War, at General Harney's special request, to accompany him in his distant expedition. With the approval of my superiors, I consented to keep my post of army chaplain, with the hope especially that I might be able to be of some use to the mountain tribes of Indians, and be among my brethren in the difficulties which the war would bring upon them."(2)
(2) This outbreak is what is known in Oregon history as the Yakima War. It was induced, like nearly all our Indian wars, by the encroachment of white settlers on the Indian lands.