the Papers of Thomas Claiborne

From Stephen S. Tucker, 20 June 1850

Hd. Qrs.Camp Drum
[illegible] Columbia
June 20th. 1850

Kas quil-la, is this day made [Lord] Chief of the Dalles Indians, by their unanimous request having convoked the Indians for the purpose, & heard from them their wishes. [H]e is a good man & they say with due right

He Kas-quil-la will be hereafter obeyed & respected as the Indian Chief at the Dalles of the Columbia

His duties are many, in taking charge of his people, he will at all times look to the Commanding Officer at this post for instructions & to the great Supreme Ruler of the Mission for information in the rectitude of his conduct.

The Laws & acts of /this/ Congress of the U.S. will be his Guide in all his transactions with White men & Indians He will at all times be called upon to report both White men, as well as Indians for any new abuse and infractions of said laws & regulations.

S. S. Tucker1
Bv Maj Comdg. Mil Post
Dalles of the Columbia


1. Stephen S. Tucker led the establishment of Camp Drum, which became Fort Dalles. See John D. Unruh, Jr., The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979), 208.