The death of Indian Agent Andrew J. Bolon on September 25, 1855 was the spark that ignited war with the Indians in 1855. Upon hearing the news of the killing of two miners who were traveling through Indian country to the newly discovered gold fields of Colville, Agent Bolon cut short his assignment to arrange provisions for the Spokane Council. He went to investigate the deaths of the miners, unaware of being in peril.

Sometime between 1911 and 1915, rancher and amateur historian Lucullus McWhorter recorded this account of Bolon's murder from Sul-el-il, an eyewitness to the event:

[A. J. Bolon] overtook us before we got to the summit of the Wahk-shum Mountain. He was white. I had never seen a White person before. He rode a gray horse, and he came over the Ah-soom from near Mool-Mool.

Chief Mo-sheel was at the head of our party. He knew the White man, and he told the other Indians who he was. (McWhorter 26)

The narrator describes Bolon as a man who was "large, not very fleshy, and had a reddish beard. He was a strong looking man." (McWhorter 26)

As they rode along the trail, Mo-sheel insisted that the Indians should kill the white man. He said, "I want to kill him the same as he killed my poor people." (McWhorter 27)

The White man unbridled his horse so he could eat, took a lunch rolled and tied to the back of his saddle, and came to the fire. He left his canteenis [saddlebags] and six-shooter in its holster on the saddle. We were all standing about the fire, warming [ourselves]. The White man pulled off his overcoat; he had on an undercoat. He stood with us, holding his hands to the flames, warning by the big fire.

Then the White man took his lunch and divided it with the Indians. (B McWhorter 27-28)

Around the campfire, the Indians discussed Mo-sheel's intent to kill Bolon. Several of them expressed opposition to the plot, but Mo-sheel said, "You are not chief. I am chief. I will kill this man, as he killed my brothers.We [had] better hurry!" (McWhorter 28)

Then Wah-pi-wah-pi-lah, the strong man, dropped quickly and caught the white man by the legs and jerked him to the ground. So-qiekt and Mo-sheel jumped on him, each catching an arm, Mo-sheel on the right. The white man cried out [in Chinook}:

"Do not kill me! I did not come to fight you!"

Stah-kin grabbed his beard, pulled back his head, and called: "Hurry!"

So-qiekt threw him a knife, and Stah-kin cut the White man's throat. He struggled a short time and then lay still, the blood running from the big knife wound...

They stripped the saddle from the horse and placed the dead man on his own saddle blanket..They carried him away on the blanket, leading his horse. They went down about a quarter of a mile from the camp where a pine tree had turned out by the roots. They placed him this cavity, put his overcoat on him, and covered him with the saddle blanket. Then they threw dir, broken limbs, and bruch on him.

We heard the shot that killed the horse — good white [gray] horse. (McWhorter 28-29)

The death of Bolon, who had been on generally good terms with the Indians, caused a state of near panic in the settlers. Rumors of a general uprising throughout Oregon and Washington territories were accepted as fact, and news reports kept the whites teetering between fear and hatred of the Indians.

On October 3, 1855, Major Granville Haller, with a force of 106 soldiers, Near Toppenish Creek they encountered a force of about 600 Yakama Indians, who wished to explain that "Bolon's death did not occur as a result of tribal policy." The Yakama numbers increased to about 1500, and Haller, determining that he was severely outnumbered, called a retreat. About 250 warriors followed, fighting the soldiers intermittently. Haller's force suffered casualties numbering five killed and seventeen wounded. Major Haller was criticized by General Wool for a lack of precautions with regard to Indian warfare. (Richards 240)

News of Haller's rout set every community in the Northwest into a frenzy of fear-inspired activity. The commander at Fort Vancouver asked Oregon's governor for four companies of volunteers to bolster the inadequate Army forces. He called up eight. Though there were both settlers and Indians who desired peace, the desire for vengeance prevailed.

Bischoff, William N. We Were Not Summer Soldiers: The Indian War Diary of Plympton J. Kelly 1855-1856. Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1976.

McWhorter, Lucullus Virgil. The Tragedy of Wahk-shum: The Death of Andrew J. Bolon, Yakima Indian Agent, As Told by Su-el-lil, Eyewitness. Issaquah, WA: Great Eagle Publishing, 1994.

Richards, Kent. Isaac I. Stevens: Young Man in a Hurry. Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1993.