Yakama fighters kill Indian Agent Andrew J Bolon, leading to Yakima War

Following the Treaty council at Walla Walla in June 1855, settlers flooded into Yakama territory in what is now Washington State. Despite promises made by Isaac Stevens that settlers would not come for years nor until the treaties were ratified, Stevens announced the treaty in The Oregonian in the same issue that also announced gold discovered in the Okanogan. This caused a rush of settlers flooding Yakama territory with the usual accompanying issues including the rape of the daughter of Teias, a Yakama chief. Andrew J Bolon was assigned the Indian Agent for the newly created Yakama Reservation. In response to the assaults on Native women, warriors set out, with Yakama leader Kamiakin’s approval, to exact revenge on the miners for the rapes. They killed six miners where Wenas Creek entered the Yakima River, and then killed Henry Matisse and O.M. Eaton as they crossed Snoqualmie Pass, suspecting Matisse was the one who raped Teias’ daughter. Hearing the news Bolon traveled to the reservation to investigate the killings. Accounts of the actual killing vary and are mostly from a settler perspective. However the reasoning varies from his threats about punishment for the justified killings, to a Cayuse who's family he had personally killed in the Cayuse war. The Indian Agents grave was never found and the killing began the Yakima War.