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114 1859 Across the Plains March unclear by. The regulars had killed seven hundred and fifty horses that were in a corral. This heavy loss and the burning of their lodges brought them to submission. Since then they have been very friendly. The Fork and Colville Indians around Fort Colville are disposed to be hostile, the settlers here have to go in bands to the Hudson Bay Company's Mill to get their wheat ground, and even then the Indians will endeavor to rob them, as they are in a starving Condition. The settlers have entered a complaint to Col. Wright and he has promised them assistance as soon as troops could march in the Spring. We live in dread all the time. A great many of the settlers have endeavored to organize themselves and take the matter into their own hands, but they cannot persuade those that are in the Company's service, and those that have full blooded Indian wives, to participate, there excuse being, "Oh the Indians won't molest us, we are their friends, have married among them, and have lived among them too long to fear any danger." The settlers have lost a great number of cattle and horses for the want of feed; this winter they say, is the hardest winter that has been known, and that the snow has stayed longer than usual. It is our an uncommon thing for snow to fall to the depth of three feet in this valley. The valley contains a population of about eighty families. The valley is about thirty miles long, and ranging from a mile to five