Impeachment of a Cabinet Officer: Wallowa Valley and Nez Perces

The subject of the Presidency occupied so much of the time and attention of the last session of the Forty-fourth Congress, that at its adjournment there was left a great deal of unfinished important business. There was, toward the last, so much factious opposition to the outgoing and incoming Administration, that Congress failed to pass important appropriation bills, and this neglect caused the necessity for calling an extraordinary session of the Forty-fifth Congress, to provide means for carrying on the Government. It was thought proper, at first, to have a summer session, but prudential reasons forbade it, and on the 5th of May (1877), the President issued a proclamation calling a session in October. When Congress met on the 15th of the month, the President in a message stated the object of their meeting, which was simply to make appropriations to supply money deficiencies; he presented a list of estimates of the amount needed, which aggregated about $37,000,000. It was expected that the session would be short, and it would have been, had only its legitimate business been attended to; but other subjects engaged the attention of members. The deficiency bills were delayed, and the extraordinary session was prolonged until the time for the opening of the regular session, on the 3d of December.

During the summer of 1877, our Government engaged in a war with the Nez Perce (Pierced-Nose) Indians, in Idaho. It was not only a blunder, but crime, on the part of the United States. The story, briefly told, is as follows:

The explorers of the Continent from the Mississippi River toward the Pacific Ocean, whom President Jefferson sent out in 1803, discovered the tribe of savages, in what is now the Territory of Idaho, called the Nez Perce Indians. They were friendly to the explorers, and from that time until recently they have been the unwavering friends of the white man. They were organized, as most of the tribes have been west of the Rocky Mountains, into bands, but had no general chief. About twenty-five years ago, an Indian agent--one of a class of men who have done much to create discontent among the Indians--forced upon them a grand chief, whose principal recommendation was that he could speak English (which he had learned at a mission station), and could be controlled by the Government representative. From that time there was discontent among the Nez Perces. They waited patiently for the chief to die, that they might again enjoy their old political system. But he was succeeded by another English-speaking chief, who was chosen in opposition to "Joseph," a member of one of the most illustrious families of the tribe. He was the father of Joseph, the leader of the band with whom our Government troops lately engaged in war. Old Joseph withdrew, in disgust, from the councils of the Nez Perces, but claimed the chieftaincy, if there was to be one.

From time immemorial, the dwelling-place of the Nez Perce Indians has been the beautiful Wallowa Valley, distinguished for its wealth of roots and fishing, as it now is for its abundant pasturage. Here begins the old, old story of the wrongs of the Indians. White people began to settle among the Nez Perces; and when they thought they were strong enough, they devised measures to dispossess these friendly barbarians of their beautiful valley. In this nefarious work the United States Government participated. From 1858 to 1868, several treaties were made with portions of the Nez Perces, by which they were provided with a reservation, and annuities from the public treasury, in lieu of their lands. It was a mild and seemingly harmless way of dispossession. Old Joseph and his band refused to go upon the reservation, and remained in their ancestral home in the Wallowa Valley. So also did others of the non-treaty Indians (as those who were not parties to the treaty were called), for they claimed that the rest of their tribe had no right to alienate their lands.

Old Joseph died in 1871, and left his son Joseph at the head of his band. He, like his father, denied the right of a portion of his tribe to give up their lands. Neither he nor his father had signed a treaty to that effect, and if they had, Government agents had so violated it, that even those who did sign it had a just claim to re-enter. Joseph might have claimed a larger tract, but he wished to occupy only the Wallowa Valley.

Joseph and his band continued to occupy the Valley. Finally settlers began to encroach on the land of the non-treaty Indians, which President Grant endeavored to prevent, by an order in June, 1873, that their possessions should "be withheld from entry and settlement as public lands, and that the same should be set apart as a reservation for the roaming Nez Perce Indians." Under this order Joseph and his band continued to occupy the Wallowa Valley in peace, until 1875, when President Grant was induced to issue another order, summarily revoking the first, and saying: "The said described tract of country is hereby restored to the public domain." White settlers now felt free to enter the Wallowa Valley, and they began to crowd the Nez Perces. The latter remonstrated, when they were peremptorily ordered to go upon the reservation. To their pleadings against the injustice, the reply of the Government was the gathering of troops to drive them from their lands into enforced exile. This meant war, if necessary to complete the cruel wrong.