18 C. F. COAN
Chehalis, Chinook, Cowlitz, and Quinaielt, February 25, 1855. It was the aim of this council to extinguish the Indian title to the coast area and southwestern Washington, and to set aside a reservation for these Indians between Grays Harbor and Cape Flattery. The Indians were offered $44,000 in annuities, and the usual aids of a reservation establishment. One objection that the interior Indians made was that they did not wish to occupy a coast reservation, among "canoe Indians." After the early meetings Tleyuk, a young chief of the Upper Chehalis, influenced other chiefs to refuse to sign. Some of the members of the council thought that, had the reserve proposed been located upon the lands of the Upper Chehalis Indians and had Tleyuk been chosen head chief, he would have agreed to the treaty and it would have been accepted by the other chiefs. The council broke up with- out effecting anything definite, but the treaty with the Quin- aielt, Quillehute, and others, was a direct result of this meet- ing, the treaty having been explained to them at this council. 43
Stevens and Palmer had thus made noticeable headway toward the extinguishment of the Indian title west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon during the winters of 1854-55. In June 1855, all arrangements were completed for the beginning of treaty making east of the Cascade Mountains. It was planned to inaugurate the work in the interior by a council with the principal tribes of that region, namely : the Yakima, Nez Perces, Cayuse, Walla- walla, and the Umatilla, to be held by the superintendents Palmer and Stevens, acting jointly, because the lands claimed by the Indians were partly north of the Columbia and the forty-sixth parallel, and partly south of that line.
Three treaties were made at Camp Stevens, June 9 to 11, 1855, in the Walla Walla Valley, which were known col- lectively as the Treaty of Walla Walla. The original plan was to create two reservations, but in order to overcome the objection of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and the Wallawalla, they were allowed a reserve in the Umatilla Valley. The Yakima, and other Indians, ceded about one-half of the eastern part
43 Hazard Stevens, Life of Isaac Ingatts Stevens, II, 2-8.
