RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN AGENT. 33 their death song upon the scaffold. I wonder if they have been taken account of, anywhere by anybody ? I left the Umatilla Agency at the end of the second quarter of the year 1863, and of course knew nothing personally of the trial and execution of the two Indians delivered to Colonel Steinberger in the winter. So I had to depend upon the recol- lections of soldiers stationed at the fort for what has been written concerning them. I talked with Lieutenant Seth R. Hammer, Captain John T. Apperson and several privates, but as their memories did not reach to particulars, I wrote a letter to Colonel Geo. B. Currey August the 25th, 1898, and received the following reply: La Grande, October 1, 1898. T. W. Davenport, Esq., Salem, Oregon. Dear Sir: Eesponsive to yours of August 25, directed to me at Grants Pass and forwarded to me at this place, where it arrived this morning, I will say -that you and Lieutenant Hammer are both right. As a matter of fact, there was a slight showing as to a trial; and as a matter of law and justice, there was no trial. Colonel SFteinberger, by his order, created a commission to try the case and detailed Col. E. F. Maury, Capt. E. J. Harding and myself ,to constitute the commission. We met one morning and had a kind of trial. I first raised the point that we had no legal right to act under the order of Colonel Stein- berger, for the reason that the civil law was operative in that section and the courts were open for all such purposes. But the other members overruled me. The prisoner made a statement which left an impression on my mind that he was so drunk he vaguely remembered what actually took place. I do not recollect that any other than the accusing witness was before the commission; I distinctly remember that I felt, the testimony showed, no high crime had been committed. The commission talked very little about the case, when Captain Harding spoke very gruffly, "Damn the Indians, hang them." Colonel Maury acquiesced, the verdict was so rendered and recorded and the hanging took place. I felt then and so feel now, that the hanging was unlawful and un- necessary and that the pretended trial was the veriest sham. The day of the execution, I left the garrison, not being willing to witness what I then regarded a murder. I expected Colonel Steinberger would arrest me for absence without leave, but he did not. Very respectfully, GEO. B. CUEREY.
