The sudden approach and inexplicable march of Colonel Steptoe came in here to give the lie to all the arguments of the most sensible men, and those best disposed toward the whites. " I had always repeated to our Indians," says Father Joset, " ` have no fear. If the troops cross the river, it can only be against the Palooses or the whisky sellers at Colville.' "
But the troops did not take the road for Colville, nor that for the Paloos country. A portion of the Coeur d'Alenes were digging roots in the Nez Perce country. Learning that the soldiers were marching toward them, they at once retired and went to join their own people in the country of the Spokans. At once the Federals changed their line of march and came to the Indians' new camp. The colonel sent word that he was going to Colville. Just suppose for an instant that, instead of having to do with poor ignorant savages, it had been a question of white people; would they have believed the colonel's statement? Would they not have said, " How can we believe that you are going to Colville, when you are not traveling that way at all? If you were going to Colville, you would not have come here to where we are camped, very far from the road to Colville." That is what white men would most certainly have said.
As the soldiers approached, the words of Tim-o-tsen, the guide of the troops, were continually brought to the Coeur d'Alenes. This is what he said
" Coeur d'Alenes, soon we shall divide your spoil." And moreover, on the 16th of May, when Father Joset reached the Indian camp, they came and told him " that a slave of the soldiers (an Indian who accompanied them) had arrived in Kamiakin's camp, and reported these words of the chief of the soldiers: " Coeur d'Alenes, no matter what you do, your wives, your children and your lands are ours." Let any thinking man say: if instead of Coeur d'Alenes, it had been a white people, would the magistrates, with no other resources than words, have been able to control the uprising? And also, even yet, the Coeur d'Alenes will ex