Tensions Rise on the Upper Columbia
Miners and settlers report growing hostility as military protection is withdrawn from the frontier.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In a previous number of this paper, referring to the unsettled condition of Indian affairs in this Territory, we gave it as the general belief that another Indian war upon our frontier settlements would speedily ensue, unless the troops lately withdrawn should be at once restored. These apprehensions have been verified by late reports from the Upper Columbia, which leave no room for doubt that the Indians are in a state of determined hostility to the miners in that region. Several men have lately been killed, and others threatened and ill-treated. The miners on the Columbia are becoming uneasy. They say that the Indians are very sulky and saucy; they keep aloof from the whites, and are not at all friendly; they are only waiting until the fishing season is over.
“The miners on the Columbia are becoming uneasy. They say that the Indians are very sulky and saucy; they keep aloof from the whites, and are not at all friendly.”
This article reflects the pervasive frontier anxiety of the 1860s, driven by the rapid encroachment of miners onto Indigenous lands. It serves as a historical record of the conflicts that defined the settlement of the Pacific Northwest and the resulting displacement of Indigenous populations.
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