Frontier War Bounty
A recruitment call for the 1st Regiment of Oregon Cavalry, targeting the 'Snake Indians' on 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.
100 Volunteers Wanted for the First Regiment of Oregon Cavalry, to serve three years unless sooner discharged. 100 Dollars Bounty. The Governor of Oregon, in his proclamation calling for these volunteers, says that they will be needed the coming spring on the frontiers of this State and Washington Territory, and for an expedition against the Snake Indians who have so long been mercilessly engaged in robbing immigrants and murdering our fellow citizens.
“Expedition against the Snake Indians who have so long been mercilessly engaged in robbing immigrants.”
This recruitment notice frames the systematic dispossession of Indigenous peoples as a defensive frontier war. It serves as a stark artifact of the violent, state-sponsored expansion that defined Washington Territory in the 1860s.
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