Chiefs and Change in the Oregon Country

Theodore Stern's critically acclaimed 1993 book Chiefs and Chief Traders explored early encounters between the fur traders of Fort Nez Perces and the Indians of the eastern Columbia Plateau, principally the Cayuse, Nez Perces, Wallawalla, and Umatilla. Drawing on 25 years of research, Stern recreated the dynamic relationships between Indians and whites at the small but strategic trading post near the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers. He offered a new perspective on interactions at the fort, one that encompassed the voices and lives of Indians as well as whites.

In a remarkable new companion volume, Chiefs and Change in the Oregon Country, Stern again focuses on the Plateau Indians, and particularly on the changes they underwent as first the Hudson's Bay Company traders, then missionaries, and later settlers, Indian agents, and the military entered their world. Stern traces these forces of change as they swept through to the Willamette Valley and details their tremendous impact on the Indians tied by residency and trade to Fort Nez Perces. He concludes his history with the fall of the fort during the Indian wars of the 1850s and the end, shortly thereafter, of independent tribal government.

Like its predecessor Chiefs and Change in the Oregon Country is a skillful weaving of history and anthropology. This major work brings important new topics and insights to the story of Indian-white relations in the Pacific Northwest.

Preface
     List of Indians introduced in Volume I
     Acknowledgments

I. Guided Change and the Company
     ONE: The Red River School and the Post-Guided Change and the Company
     TWO: Toward a Stronger, Yet Responsive, Chieftaincy
     THREE: Contested Loyalties in the Fur Wars

II. The Missionary Programs
     FOUR: Founding of the Protestant Missions
     FIVE: >Developing Relationships at Waiilatpu and Lapwai
     SIX: Indian Allies and Opponents at Waiilatpu
     SEVEN: The Confrontation of 1841 and Its Sequels

III. A New Order Emerges
     EIGHT: Freemen and Company Servants
     NINE: Overland Emigrants
     TEN: The Emigrant Road
     ELEVEN: The Overlanders in Indian Eyes
     TWELVE: Company Views of the Overlanders

IV. The Government and the Indians
     THIRTEEN: Elijah White and His "Nez Perce Laws"
     FOURTEEN: The Wallawalla and the Cayuse Adopt the "Laws"
     FIFTEEN: The "Laws" in Action: Piupiumaksmaks and McKinlay
     SIXTEEN: The "Laws" in Action: The Wascos and Cockstock's Revenge
     SEVENTEEN: The "Laws" in Action: Piupiumaksmaks and Sutter

IV. The Government and the Indians
     EIGHTEEN: The Attack on the Waiilatpu Station
     NINETEEN: Edward Teloukaikt and a Village in Flux
     TWENTY: Preparations for a War
     TWENTY-ONE: The March to Waiilatpu
     TWENTY-TWO: The Council of the Peace Commissioners
     TWENTY-THREE: Fruitless Pursuit in the Hills
     TWENTY-FOUR: Governor Lane Ends the War

VI. Administering the Indians
     TWENTY-FIVE: The "Indian Problem" in Western Oregon and Federal Solutions
     TWENTY-SIX: The Indian Scene in the Willamette Valley in the 1850s
     TWENTY-SEVEN: The Utilla Agency
     TWENTY-EIGHT: Indian Agents, Army Officers, and Bourgeois in the Upper Country

VII. Negotiating a Future
     TWENTY-NINE: Governor Stevens Comes West
     THIRTY: Tribes, Legislatures, and Others Make Ready
     THIRTY-ONE: Doty and Thompson Prepare the Way for a Council
     THIRTY-TWO: The Council Covenes
     THIRTY-THREE: Overtures
     THIRTY-FOUR: A Concrete Proposal: Two Reservations
     THIRTY-FIVE: Secret Sessions and a Revised Proposal

VIII. The Beginning of a General War
     THIRTY-SIX: The Council Bears Bellicose Fruit
     THIRTY-SEVEN: The First Stages of the War
     THIRTY-EIGHT: The Yakima and Walla Walla Campaigns

     Epilogue
     Notes
     Bibliography
     Index

"Theodore Stern writes… with the magisterial scholarly authority of a lifetime devoted to the understanding of the peoples of the Northwest."