Port Orford News
Page 6 • September 3, 2008
Life with Brice: ‘The last surrender of a great warrior chief’
By Brice Wagner
PON staff writer
It was late June 1856 and on a high
bench overlooking the ocean was 110
US Army Troops lead by Captain
Edward Otho Cresap Ord camped and
waiting for the Last holdout band of
Rogue River
Indians lead by their famous “Chief
John.” In Earlier May 1856 Chief John
met with the US Army at Oak Flat, on
the Illinois River near what is now
Agness.
The Army officers requested he sur-
render and move to a reservation. Other
coastal Indian leaders surrendered there.
The old warrior chief refused stating
“this is my country, I was in it when
these large trees were small. My heart is
sick with fighting, but I want to live in
my country. If the white people are will-
ing I will go back to Deer Creek and live
among them as I used to do; they can
visit my camp and I will visit theirs. But
I will not lay down my arms and go with
you to the reserve. I will fight. Good-by”
On the 24th of May, 1856 a detach-
ment of 80 US Army dragoons and
artillerymen led by Captain Andrew
Jackson Smith made their way down the
Illinois, then turning up Rogue River’s
south bank and made a river crossing
near Big Bend. They
were to go to the
Big Bend meadows
for a surrender spot.
The detachment suc-
cessfully crossed
Rogue River then
made camp at Big
Bend meadow.
A hard coastal
Brice Wagner
rainstorm hit the
area and rain con-
tinued all through the following day.
Smith was unconcerned that there was
no appearance of surrendering Indians
that day assuming they had found shel-
ter and were waiting for the storm to
break.
Early the next morning a small party
of unarmed Indians came into the army
camp. They explained they were an
advance party of Cow Creek’s,
Applegate band, and Galice Creek’s.
They indicated the chief’s; warriors,
women and children were making their
way down the Rogue River Canyon.
The army also heard disturbing news
that instead of surrender it would be an
attack.
Captain Smith had an important quick
decision to make. He sent another offi-
cer to determine if he could move all his
men into a defensive position on a low
Photos courtes of “Until The Last Arrow,” and “Valley Of The Rogues,” both by Percy T. Booth
Chief John, left, and Capt. Andrew Jackson Smith are shown above.
ridge. It was a small area but large
enough for all eighty army troops to
relocate and defend themselves. All
night the army worked to move supplies
up hill, on foot, and carrying a disassem-
bled mountain howitzer. To the troops
rear was a vertical rock face. Below the
troops was a lightly timbered slope. The
nasty little mountain howitzer was
aimed to command the neck of the ridge
below. A generous canister of grapeshot
was rammed down its throat. It was 11
a.m. and all hell was about to break
loose for both sides.
The Rogues opened the attack. They
took positions behind the entire lower
slope sneaking tree-to-tree and bush-to-
bush. Then a large group could be seen
breaking over an open ridge, with that
the Artillerymen opened fire with the
howitzer mowing down a swath of small
trees and brush around them. The dra-
goons followed the cannon blast with a
wild charge down hill scattering the
Indians into the timber and out of sight.
The battle raged on. The company Dr.
changed his rifle for his medical bag, as
soldiers were falling wounded and two
seriously.
After two hours of touch and go fight-
ing Captain Smith realized his position
was precarious and ordered his troops to
move to higher ground. Several more
soldiers had been hit. The wounded were
half carried, half dragged up hill to the
summit.
With wounded and dying men and
very short of water Captain Smith and
his officers knew they were in for a fight
for their lives. They discovered they
were vastly outnumbered and in a very
desperate situation. The Rogues were
jubilant as they felt they had the Boston
soldiers defeated. Old Chief John was in
command of his warriors shouting
orders. (A later day Oregon historian
stated, “It was a spectacle unparalleled in
the annals of savage warfare to behold a
body of undisciplined men, move obedi-
ently to perform the orders of their
leader.)
Next week, how will the battle turn?
Will the soldiers be rescued? Read all
about it in “Life with Brice: ‘The last
surrender of a great warrior chief.’
Art matters: ʻRun to the Rogueʼ just one of events coming up
By Shirley Nelson
For the Port Orford News
Port Orford Arts Council invites you to the
annual “Run to the Rogue” of the Confederated
Tribes of the Siletz. Port Orford people will meet
at the Community Building on Friday, September
12 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm to welcome runners and
others and share a potluck meal. Approximately
250 tribal members participate in some way in this
event which starts at the Siletz Reservation to
which natives were taken in the 1850s and ends
beside the Rogue River at Oak Flats near Agness.
Please bring a main dish, salad, or dessert to
serve ten people. Musicians are invited to come
and provide entertainment.
An interesting exhibition opens Sunday,
September 14 at Southern Coos Hospital in
Bandon from 1 to 3 pm. Approximately forty
artists, including some locals, created paintings
which were passed on to poets. Approximately
thirty poets, also including some locals, wrote
poems to complement the visual art. There is a
name for this process: (EK fra sis): writing
inspired by a piece of art.
There was also a reverse process. Poets con-
tributed poems which were given to artists for their
response in the form of paintings. Painters and
poets will be present at the opening reception.
For the Arts Council, www.portorfordart.org.
“ … art can calm and soothe. It can create a
peaceful center to our sense of time, place, and per-
son.”
— Luigi Salerni, master teacher of theater for the
University of Illinois, Chicago.
CCEC, from page 1
Heritage Society and Arts Council.
McMahan holds degrees in mechani-
cal engineering and business administra-
tion and a doctorate in business adminis-
tration with an emphasis in strategic
management from Alliant International
University in San Diego. During her
career, McMahan managed development
and implementation of strategic business
and operating plans for Southern
California Edison, an organization of
2,000 employees and an annual budget
of $500 million. For several years, she
represented Southern California Edison
on the Board of Directors of the Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the
largest nuclear plant in the United
States, exercising oversight of budgets,
outages, and selection of contractors,
materials management and quality assur-
ance.
The board of directors interviewed all
ten candidates yesterday. "We received
applications from a lot of very qualified
members, so our choice wasn't a simple
one," Daryl Robison said. "But after the
interviews, we agreed that the experi-
ence and knowledge Mr. Dowdy and
Ms. McMahan would bring to our coop-
erative made them the best choice and
we believe they will be good additions
to the talent we have on our board. We
look forward to working with them."
According to CCEC's bylaws,
Dowdy and McMahan will serve on the
board of directors until the next annual
meeting. Members to serve in these At-
Large positions will be selected by the
membership during the election process
prior to the 2009 Annual Meeting.
GOCHE, from page 1
Goche was not able to go into
each of the four in depth. He
touched only briefly on natural
resources, saying, “I want to
work to ensure thoughtful, con-
servative access to our shared
natural resources, because
they’re the heart of our econo-
my and of our very lives.”
In regard to education, he
thinks there should be more
attention focused on vocational
education, “because not every-
body wants to go to college, and
not everybody can afford it or
has the aptitude for it.”
As far as jobs go, Goche
wants to work to “create more
small business jobs and more
stability in those we already
have, because they are the back-
bone or our economy … 80 per-
cent of the new jobs in this state
are small business jobs.”
He feels very strongly that
Oregonians need to localize
their economy more and has a
suggestion to how that could be
done: “Why couldn’t the state
initiate and promote a county-
wide or a region-wide ‘local
producers’ catalog that would be
reflected on a website? … The
state could host the credit-card
component of the website, so
that people could accept credit
cards without getting individual
merchant accounts, which can
often be a daunting experience.
And for some minimal printing
fee, small businesses [and] local
producers could be included in
this catalog.”
His idea is that the state
would then promote the “wis-
dom of buying local and edu-
cate the people about the exis-
tence of this program of the
local producers … and market
the whole concept, so that even-
tually … instead of running to
the big box store, you reach
over and pick up the catalog and
look and see what your neigh-
bor is producing. That makes a
lot more sense to me as an econ-
omy.” With the dollar devaluat-
ed and energy prices rising, “we
can no longer expect to afford to
get everything that we want
from Taiwan and China. We
need to start looking at what we
can do here more and more, and
we need to do it soon.” He went
on to say that “(buying from our
neighbors) makes sense to me -
giving all of our money to a
company whose profits go to
some far-flung place, and we
never see any of that again, does
not.”
Goche has been out going
door-to-door to connect directly
with voters. “As I knock on
doors, and I talk to people, and I
hear the heart-breaking stories
behind those doors, it’s becom-
ing more and more important to
me to do what I can to go to
Salem and help out.”
The heart-breaking stories are
one reason that Goche wants to
“work to guarantee the avail-
ability and the affordability of
health care for every Oregonian
… a medical disaster shouldn’t
have to always turn into a finan-
cial disaster … Most of the time
those people who relate these
stories (of financial disaster due
to medical disaster) to us are
elderly people. I was raised to
take care of and respect my eld-
ers, and we’re doing neither
with our health care system in
this country. Whatever I can to
do care for and respect our eld-
ers in their health care needs in
the late years of their lives, I
want to do that.”
Laura Teague,
Realtor
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When asked if he supports the
idea of socialized medicine,
Goche commented, “The phar-
maceutical companies, the
health care providing compa-
nies, and the insurance compa-
nies have vilified the word
‘socialized.’ I want socialized
medicine the same way I want a
‘socialized’ highway system,
water system, sewage system,
law enforcement and military.
These are essential services that
we have agreed to as a society
to collectively pay for. In that
sense, yes, I think socialized
medicine/health care is the way
to go.”
He is careful to say that “It
needs to be a single payer plan.
In the United States, the nation-
wide average (is that of) every
dollar that you pay as a premi-
um - if you are lucky enough to
even have health care insurance
- 34 percent of that goes to
administration.”
Goche wrapped up his inter-
view with some comments on
politics. “If you look at any of
my literature, none of my litera-
ture associates me with any
political party. I’m a Democrat.
I’m proud to be a Democrat …
What I am ashamed of is how
… we have allowed partisan
politics to tear this country
apart. I want people to listen to
what I say and read what I write
before they pigeon-hole me and
stereotype me with some little
letter behind my name.”
“When we talk about address-
ing these big issues … so many
of this issues are so big and
remote from us in our district …
I looked around to see what’s
the most I can effect where I
live, where the people that I
care about live, and this (run-
ning for office) is it. That’s why
I am doing this. I want to be
able to tell my kids and grand-
kids that I did everything I
could do.”
Caroline Clancy, candidate
for Port Orford City Councilor,
who was present to introduce
herself to the public, made this
statement to the Port Orford
News: “I’m running because I’m
tired of moaning about what’s
going on. I figure if I’m going to
moan all the time, I should stand
up and do something about it.
This is why I’m asking people to
vote for me. We need a council
that gets along. We will not all
agree all the time, but compro-
mise has to happen. Most of all
I’m running because I want to
run for what’s the best for Port
Orford. I have no personal agen-
da in any way. I don’t own a
business … I’m solely a person
who loves Port Orford and
wants to do what’s best for it. If
anyone wants to tell me what
they think is best, I’m willing to
listen to everyone.”
Pat Piper, candidate for Curry
County Commissioner Position
No. 2 said that she was “really
enthusiastic about the turnout
here and the enthusiasm for
change in the state and the coun-
ty is wonderful. I decided to run
because I’m concerned about the
county and the fix that we’re in.
Whatever we have in our future,
I want to be to communicate it
to people and to get feedback
from them as to what things they
want and what things they may
have to pay for …I’m really
pleased how many people say,
‘Regardless of which party
you’re running for, we’re voting
for the person this time.’”
Asked about the Home Rule
Charter, she responded “I’ve
very much against it, and the
reason is, I think that any time
you’re taking away from people
the right to vote for who gov-
erns them, it’s a mistake. We
have commissioners who are
now working around 50-hour
weeks … to have unpaid com-
missioner volunteers, they’re
either going to have an agenda
of their own that makes them
want to do this, or they’re not
going to last. I’m on a lot of dif-
ferent boards or committees,
and the people who hang in
there are people who really have
a ‘burn’ for whatever the cause
is. Nobody’s going to volunteer
to work 40-hour weeks for free,
or 30-hour weeks, or a 20-hour
week. They’re going to have
one meeting a month. All the
commissioners are assigned dif-
ferent projects, like the port or
hospice or schools, and they go
to those meetings, and they
report back to the board of com-
missioners, so serving as a vol-
unteer commissioner doesn’t
just mean going to one meeting,
it means being a liaison with all
these other groups. It’s very
time-consuming, and I think it’s
wrong to (expect) volunteers
(to) do this.”
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Clancy, Piper also at
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PON photo by Carol Berger
Rick Goche is a candidate
for State Representative.
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