solemn treaty was made in 1856, guaranteeing
to them occupancy of the Wallola valley forever. I. I. Stevens, who
was governor of Washington Territory at the time, and ex-officio
superintendent of Indian affairs in the region, met the Nez Perces,
whose chief, "Wish-la-no-she," an octogenarian, when grasping the hand
of the governor at the council said: "I put out my hand to the white
man when Lewis and Clark crossed the continent, in 1805, and have never
taken it back since." The tribe kept its word until the white men took
forcible possession of the valley promised to the Indians, when the
latter broke out, and a prolonged war was the consequence. In 1867
Congress appointed a commission to treat with the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and
Arapahoes, appropriating four hundred thousand dollars for the expenses
of the commission. It met at Medicine Lodge in August of the year
mentioned, and made a solemn treaty, which the members of the
commission, on the part of the United States, and the principal chiefs
of the three tribes signed. Congress failed to make any appropriation to
carry out the provisions of the treaty, and the Indians, after waiting
a reasonable time, broke out, devastated the settlements from the Platte
to the Rio Grande, destroying millions of dollars' worth of property,
and sacrificing hundreds of men, women, and children. Another war was
the result, which cost more millions, and under General Sheridan
the hostile savages were whipped into a peace, which they have been
compelled to keep.

CHAPTER IV. TRAINS AND PACKERS.

As has been stated, until the year 1824 transportation across the plains
was done by means of pack-mules, the art of properly loading which seems
to be an intuitive attribute of the native Mexican. The American,
of course, soon became as expert, for nothing that the genus homo
is capable of doing is impossible to him; but his teacher was the
dark-visaged, superstitious, and profanity-expending Mexican arriero.

A description of the equipment of a mule-train and the method of
packing, together with some of the curious facts connected with its
movements, may not be uninteresting, particularly as the whole thing,
with rare exceptions in the regular army at remote frontier posts, has
been relegated to the past, along with the caravan of the prairie and
the overland coach. To this generation, barring a few officers who
have served against the Indians on the plains and in the mountains, a
pa