FEDERAL INDIAN RELATIONS PACIFIC NORTHWEST 51
stationed at Fort Steilacom, 9 and an Indian sub-agent was sent to the district, May, 1849, to obtain the surrender of the guilty Indians. The sub-agent offered a reward for the capture of the murderers of Wallace which caused the Snoqualmu Indians to deliver to the military authorities several of their tribe. These Indians were tried by a territorial court, and two of them were found guilty and hanged. Lane believed that this punish- ment of the Indians for an offence against the whites had the effect of making them fear the Americans, which was necessary for the peace of the scattered, unprotected settlements. 10
In the spring of 1850, the standing hostilities between the war party of the Cayuse Indians and the whites was brought to a close by the surrender of the Indians who had led the attack upon the Waiilatpu Mission. In February, Lane received information from the Hudson's Bay Company's post, Fort Walla Walla, that the Indians had agreed to give up the mur- derers. 11 Their decision may have been due to the increase in the number of soldiers in the country. The Regiment of Mounted Riflemen arrived in Oregon in the fall of 1849. Five of the Cayuse Indians were taken to Oregon City for trial. They were convicted and hanged, June 3, 1850. The Cayuse had thus accepted the terms of the government. The respect for Americans was increased among the Indians of the in- terior, and the prestige of the Cayuse among the tribes of upper Oregon was greatly diminished.
Lane's last important dealing with the Indians outside of the Willamette Valley was a peace treaty with a band of one hundred and fifty Indians in the upper Rogue River Valley. In the spring of 1850 a party of miners, who were returning from California, were robbed at the ferry of Rogue River. 12 They requested that Lane attempt to recover the gold dust which the Indians had stolen. Lane visited the Indians and the peace treaty which was made provided that the Indians should restore all stolen property, and that whites passing through the country should not be molested. The Indians
9 Adjutant General, Annual Report, Nov. 28, 1849 (Serial $49. Doc. i), p. 181.
10 Lane to the Secretary of War, Oct. 13, 1849. op. cit.. p. 156, first paging, n Message of the Governor . . . , May 7, 1850, p. 3.
13 Lane, Narratives, MS. (Bancroft Collection), p. 90.
