Preliminary Treaty of 23 September 1858

Preliminary Articles of a Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between the United States and the Spokane Nation of Indians

Article 1. Hostilities shall cease between the United States and the Spokane nation of Indians from and after this date.

Article 2. The chiefs and headmen of the Spokane Indians, for and in behalf of the whole nation, promise to deliver up to the United States all property in their possession belonging either to the government or to individual white persons.

Article 3. The chiefs and headmen of the Spokane Indians, for and in behalf of the whole nation, promise and agree to deliver to the officers in command of the United States troops the men who commenced the attack upon Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe, contrary to the orders of their chiefs, and further to deliver as aforesaid at least one chief and four men with their families as hostages for their future good conduct.

Article 4. The chiefs and headmen of the Spokane nation of Indians promise, for and in behalf of the whole tribe, that all white persons shall at all times and places pass through their country unmolested, and further, that no Indians hostile to the United States shall be allowed to pass through or remain in their country.

Article 5. The foregoing conditions being fully complied with by the Spokane nation, the officer in command of the United States troops promises that no war shall be made upon the Spokane, and further, that the men delivered up, whether as prisoners or hostages, shall in no wise be injured, and shall, within the period of one year, be restored to their nation.

Article 6. It is agreed by both of the aforesaid parties that this treaty shall also extend to and include the Nez Perces nation of Indians.

Done at the headquarters of the expedition against the northern Indians at camp on the Ned-Whauld (or Lahtoo), Washington Territory, this twenty-third of September, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight.

G. Wright, Colonel 9th Infantry, Commanding United States Troops.

Pohlatkin
Spokan Garry
Skul-hull, his x mark.
Moist-turm, his x mark.
Ski-ki-ah-men, his x mark.
She-luh-ki-its-ze, his x mark.
Mol-mol-e-muh, his x mark.
Ki-ahrmene, his x mark.
Hoh-hoh-mee, his x mark.
Huse-tesh-him-hiah, his x mark.
Nul-shil-she-hil-sote, his x mark.
Che-lah-him-sko, his x mark.
Huit-sute-tah, his x mark.
Kehrko, his x mark.
Qualt-til-tose-sum, or Big Star, his x mark.
Chey-yal-kote, his x mark.
Quoi-quoi-yow, his x mark.
In-sko-me-nay, his x mark.
Its-che-mon-nee, his x mark.
It-tem-mee-koh (son of Pohlatkin), his x mark.
Schil-cha-him, his x mark.
Meh-mah-icht-such, his x mark.
Be-noit, his x mark.
So-yar-ole-kim, his x mark.
Se-may-koh-lee, his x mark.
Sil-so-tee-chee, his x mark.
See-chee-nie, his x mark.
Ko-lirrirchin, his x mark.
Ho^ho-mish, his x mark.
Ski-ime, his x mark.
Se-ra-min-home, his x mark.
We-yil-sho, his x mark.
Che-nee-yah, his x mark.
Sko^moh-it-kan, his x mark.
Quoit-quoit-il-nee, his x mark.
Pe-daltze, his x mark.

Witnesses:
E. D. Keyes, Captain 36 Artillery.
Wm. N. Grier, Brevet Major United States Army.
J. F. Hammond, Assistant Surgeon United States Army.
R. W. Kirkham, Captain, Assistant Quarter master.
F. F. Dent, Captain 9th Infantry.
Charles S. Winder, Captain 9th Infantry.
James A. Hardie, Captain 3d Artillery.
A. B. Fleming, 1st Lieutenant 9th Infantry.
Jno. F. Randolph, Assistant Surgeon United States Army.
R. O. Tyler, 1st Lieutenant 3d Artillery. H. B. Lyon, 2d Lieutenant 3d Artillery. Lawrence Kip, 2d Lieutenant 3d Artillery.
J. Howard, 2d Lieutenant 3d Artillery.”

The foregoing treaty, together with that made on the 17th with the Coeur d’Alenes, was forwarded to Army Headquarters, endorsed by General Clarke as follows:

“The 5th article in each of these treaties is disapproved, in so far as it accepts a conditional surrender of those Indians guilty of commencing the attack on the troops.

An unconditional surrender was demanded by me before the troops were sent into the field; less should not have been accepted afterwards.

A surrender of the guilty conditioned on their immunity from punishment is futile.

It is now too late to repair the error; the prisoners are but hostages and as such will be kept as long as it may be proper to do so.

The agreement to admit troops and citizens to pass through the country had better have been, a demand than a part of the treaty, but this matters not much, as we have the substance.

N. S. Clarke, Colonel 6th Infantry, Brevet Brigadier General Commanding.”


Collection:
Manring, B. F. Conquest of the Coeur d'Alene, Spokane and Palouse Indians. The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 3 No. 2, 1912.

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