Chief Garry - Later Years

Later Years

In the mid-1840s Garry led a trading party into California. While there, the party found themselves short of trading goods and went into the mountains to hunt for hides. A white man named Grove Cook who was reputed to be an Indian hater killed a young Christian member of Garry's party named Elijah Hedding, who was the son of the chief of the Walla Wallas. The apparent unwillingness of the Indian agent at Walla Walla to prosecute the crime enraged the Indians; tensions worsened after the Whitman Massacre of 1847. Garry, a wealthy man by the standards of his tribe, attempted to keep the peace between the two groups.

On October 17, 1853, Garry met with Isaac Stevens, the newly appointed Governor of Washington Territory. Stevens later professed himself surprised that Garry could speak both English and French fluently, but also wrote that he found himself frustrated by Garry's unwillingness to speak frankly.

Two years later, Stevens summoned the Walla Walla, Nez Perce, Cayuse and Yakama tribes to negotiate a treaty, asking Garry to attend as an observer. The chiefs agreed on a treaty and it seemed there would be peace, but soon the Yakama decided against allowing the whites to take their land and began to prepare for war against the United States. They recruited younger members of the Spokanes, but Garry was able to prevent his men from joining the impending battle. He could not stop the war, though, which began on September 23 with the deaths of several miners on the Yakima River and of A.J. Bolton, the special agent to the Yakamas.

When Stevens heard that war had broken out, he went immediately to the Spokane village and demanded to speak to Garry. The chiefs of the Coeur d'Alenes, the Spokanes, and Colvilles, as well as the leaders of the local French Canadian community were also in attendance. Stevens promised friendship, but asked the Spokanes to decide immediately between signing a treaty that would hand most of their land over to the whites or declaring war against the United States. He said in part:

I think it is best for you to sell a portion of your lands, and live on Reservations, as the Nez Perces and Yakimas agreed to do. I would advise you as a friend to do that... If you think my advice good, and we should agree, it is well. If you say, "We do not wish to sell," it is also good, because it is for you to say...

Garry made an impassioned speech itemizing all the grievances the Indians had and their unwillingness to give up their ancestral lands for the benefit of the whites. Stevens, finding himself unable to win the argument, retreated, and the Spokanes kept their lands.

In the following years Garry worked to keep the peace between the Spokanes and white settlers. His attempts to negotiate a new treaty with the territorial government were ignored; Stevens instead encouraged the Spokanes to abandon their traditional lands and take up individual ownership under the Indian Homestead Act of 1862. The Spokanes did not receive a reservation under the terms of the treaty they finally signed in 1887.