The Yakima War (1855–1858), also referred to as the Plateau War or Yakima Indian War, was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian-speaking people of the Northwest Plateau, then part of Washington Territory, and the tribal allies of each. It primarily took place in the southern interior of present-day Washington. Isolated battles in western Washington and the northern Inland Empire are sometimes separately referred to as the Puget Sound War and the Coeur d'Alene War, respectively.

Background
After the Washington Territory was formally organized as a U.S. territory in 1853, treaties between the United States government and several Indian tribes in the area resulted in reluctant tribal recognition of U.S. sovereignty over a vast amount of land within the new territory. In return for this recognition, the tribes were entitled to receive half of the fish in the territory in perpetuity, awards of money and provisions, and reserved lands where white settlement would be prohibited.

While territorial governor Isaac Stevens had guaranteed the inviolability of Native American territory following tribal accession to the treaties, he lacked the legal authority to enforce it pending ratification of the agreements by the United States Senate. Meanwhile, the widely publicized discovery of gold in Yakama territory prompted an influx of unruly prospectors who traveled, unchecked, across the newly defined tribal lands, to the growing consternation of Indian leaders. In 1855 two of these prospectors were killed by Qualchin, the nephew of Kamiakin, after it was discovered they had raped a Yakama woman.

Outbreak of hostilities

Death of Mosheel's family
A party of American miners came across two Yakama women, a mother and daughter traveling together with a baby. The miners assaulted and killed both women and the infant. The husband and father of the women, a Yakama man named Mosheel, collected two friends, one of whom was Qualchin, and the men tracked down the miners who had killed Mosheel's family. They ambushed the murderers in their camp and killed all of them.

Death of Andrew Bolon

On September 20, 1855, Bureau of Indian Affairs agent Andrew Bolon, hearing of the death of the prospectors at the hands of Qualchin, departed for the scene on horseback to investigate but was intercepted by the Yakama chief Shumaway, who warned him Qualchin was too dangerous to confront. Heeding Shumaway's warning, Bolon turned back and began the ride home. En route he came upon a group of Yakama traveling south and decided to ride along with them. One of the members of this group was Mosheel, Shumaway's son. After Bolon told Mosheel that the death of the miners was considered a wrongdoing and would be punished by American soldiers as soon as he returned home, Mosheel grew angry. At some point, he decided Bolon should be killed. Though a number of Yakama in the traveling party protested, their objections were overruled by Mosheel, who invoked his regal status. Discussions about Bolon's fate took place over much of the day (Bolon, who did not speak Yakama, was unaware of this debate as it unfolded among his traveling companions).

During a rest stop, as Bolon and the Yakama were eating lunch, Mosheel and at least three other Yakama set upon him with knives. Bolon yelled out in a Chinook dialect, "I did not come to fight you!" before being stabbed in the throat. Bolon's horse was then shot, and his body and personal effects burned.

Battle of Toppenish Creek
When Shumaway heard of Bolon's death he immediately sent an ambassador to inform the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Dalles, before calling for the arrest of his own son, Mosheel, who he said should be turned over to the territorial government in order to forestall the American retaliation he felt would likely occur. A Yakama council overruled the chief, however, siding with Shumaway's older brother, Kamiakin, who called for war preparations. Meanwhile, district commander Gabriel Rains had received Shumaway's ambassador and, in response to the news of Bolon's death, ordered Major Granville O. Haller to move out with an expeditionary column from Fort Dalles. Haller's force was met and turned back at the edge of Yakama territory by a large group of Yakama warriors. As Haller withdrew, his company was engaged and routed by the Yakama at the Battle of Toppenish Creek.

War spreads
The death of Bolon and the United States defeat at Toppenish Creek caused panic across the Washington Territory, provoking fears that an Indian uprising was in progress. The same news emboldened the Yakama and many uncommitted bands rallied to Kamiakin.

Rains, who had just 350 federal troops under his immediate command, urgently appealed to Acting Governor Charles Mason (Isaac Stevens was still returning from Washington, D.C. where he had traveled to present the treaties to the Senate for ratification) for military aid, writing that

Meanwhile, Oregon Governor George Law Curry mobilized a cavalry regiment of 800 men, a portion of which crossed into Washington Territory in early November. Now with more than 700 troops at his disposal, Rains prepared to march on Kamiakin, who had encamped at Union Gap with 300 warriors.

Raid on the White River settlements

As Rains was mustering his forces in Pierce County, Leschi, a Nisqually chief who was half Yakama, had sought to forge an alliance among the Puget Sound tribes to bring war to the doorstep of the territorial government. Starting with just the 31 warriors in his own band, Leschi rallied more than 150 Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Klickitat, though other tribes rebuffed Leschi's overtures. In response to news of Leschi's growing army, a volunteer troop of 18 dragoons, known as Eaton's Rangers, was dispatched to arrest the Nisqually chief.

On October 27, while surveying an area of the White River, ranger James McAllister and farmer Michael Connell were ambushed and killed by Leschi's men. The rest of Eaton's Rangers were besieged inside an abandoned cabin, where they would remain for the next four days before escaping. The next morning Muckleshoot and Klickitat warriors raided three settler cabins along the White River, killing nine men and women. Many settlers had left the area in advance of the raid, having been warned of danger by Chief Kitsap of the neutral Suquamish. Details of the raid on the White River settlements were told by John King, one of the four survivors, who was seven years old at the time and was – along with two younger siblings  spared by the attackers and told to head west. The King children eventually came upon a local Native American known to them as Tom.

Leschi would later express regret for the raid on the White River settlements and post-war accounts given by Nisqually in his band affirmed that the chief had rebuked his commanders who had organized the attack.

Battle of White River

Army Captain Maurice Maloney, in command of a reinforced company of 243 men, had previously been sent east to cross the Naches Pass and enter the Yakama homeland from the rear. Finding the pass blocked with snow he began returning west in the days following the raid on the White River settlements. On November 2, 1855 Leschi's men were spotted by the vanguard of Maloney's returning column, and fell back to the right bank of the White River.

On November 3 Maloney ordered a force of 100 men under Lt. William Slaughter to cross the White River and engage Leschi's forces. Attempts to ford the river, however, were stopped by the fire of Indian sharpshooters. One American soldier was killed in a back-and-forth exchange of gunfire. Accounts of Indian fatalities range from one (reported by a Puyallup Indian, Tyee Dick, after the end of the war) to 30 (claimed in Slaughter's official report), though the lower number may be more credible (one veteran of the battle, Daniel Mounts, would later be appointed Indian agent to the Nisqually and heard Tyee Dick's casualty numbers confirmed by Nisqually). At four o'clock, when it was becoming too dark for the Americans to cross the White River, Leschi's men fell back three miles to their camp on the banks of the Green River, jubilant at having successfully prevented the American crossing (Tyee Dick would later describe the battle as hi-ue he-he, hi-ue he-he - "lots and lots of fun").

The next morning Maloney advanced with 150 men across the White River and attempted to engage Leschi at his camp at the Green River, but poor terrain made the advance untenable and he quickly called off the attack. Another skirmish on November 5 resulted in five American fatalities, but no Indian deaths. Unable to make any headway, Maloney began his withdrawal from the area on November 7, arriving at Fort Steilacoom two days later.

Battle of Union Gap

One hundred fifty miles to the east, on November 9, Rains closed with Kamiakin near Union Gap. The Yakama had erected a defensive barrier of stone breastwork which was quickly blown away by American artillery fire. Kamiakan had not expected a force of the size Rains had mustered and the Yakama, anticipating a quick victory of the kind they had recently scored at Toppenish Creek, had brought their families. Kamiakan now ordered the women and children to flee as he and the warriors fought a delaying action. While leading a reconnaissance of the American lines, Kamiakan and a group of fifty mounted warriors encountered an American patrol which gave chase. Kamiakan and his men escaped across the Yakima River; the Americans were unable to keep up and two soldiers drowned before the pursuit was called off.

That evening Kamiakan called a war council where it was decided the Yakama would make a stand in the hills of Union Gap. Rains began advancing on the hills the next morning, his progress slowed by small groups of Yakama employing hit and run tactics to delay the American advance against the main Yakama force. At four o'clock in the afternoon Maj. Haller, backed by a howitzer bombardment, led a charge against the Yakama position. Kamiakan's forces scattered into the brush at the mouth of Ahtanum Creek and the American offensive was called off.

In Kamiakan's camp, plans for a night raid against the American force were drawn up but abandoned. Instead, early the next day, the Yakama continued their defensive retreat, tiring American forces who eventually broke off the engagement. In the last day of fighting the Yakama suffered their only fatality, a warrior killed by U.S. Army Indian Scout Cutmouth John.

Rains continued to Saint Joseph's Mission which had been abandoned, the priests having joined the Yakama in flight. During a search of the grounds, Rains' men discovered a barrel of gunpowder, leading them to erroneously believe the priests had been secretly arming the Yakama. A riot among the soldiers ensued and the mission was burned to the ground. With snow beginning to fall, Rains ordered a withdrawal, and the column returned to Fort Dalles.

Skirmish at Brannan's Prairie
By the end of November, federal troops had returned to the White River area. A detachment of the 4th Infantry Regiment, under Lt. Slaughter, accompanied by militia under Capt. Gilmore Hays, searched the area from which Maloney had previously withdrawn and engaged Nisqually and Klickitat warriors at Biting's Prairie on November 25, 1855, resulting in several casualties but no decisive outcome. The next day an Indian sharpshooter killed two of Slaughter's troops. Finally, on December 3, as Slaughter and his men were camped for the night on Brannan's Prairie, the force was fired upon and Slaughter killed. News of the death of Slaughter greatly demoralized settlers in the principal towns. Slaughter and his wife were a popular young couple among the settlers and the legislature adjourned for a day of mourning.

Conflict of command

In late November 1855 Gen. John E. Wool arrived from California and assumed control of the United States side in the conflict, making his headquarters at Fort Vancouver. Wool was widely considered pompous and arrogant and had been criticized by some for blaming much of the western conflicts between Natives and whites on whites. After assessing the situation in Washington, he decided that Rains' approach of chasing bands of Yakama around the territory would lead to an inevitable defeat. Wool planned to wage a static war by using the territorial militia to fortify the major settlements while better trained and equipped U.S. Army regulars moved-in to occupy traditional Indian hunting and fishing grounds, starving the Yakama into surrender.

To Wool's chagrin, however, Oregon Governor Curry decided to launch a preemptive and largely unprovoked attack against the eastern tribes of the Walla Walla, Palouse, Umatilla, and Cayuse who had, up to that point, remained cautiously neutral in the conflict (Curry believed it was only a matter of time before the eastern tribes entered the war and sought to gain a strategic advantage by attacking first). Oregon militia, under Lt. Col. James Kelley, crossed into the Walla Walla Valley in December, skirmishing with the tribes and, eventually, capturing Peopeomoxmox and several other chiefs. The eastern tribes were now firmly involved in the conflict, a state-of-affairs Wool blamed squarely on Curry. In a letter to a friend, Wool commented that,

Meanwhile, on December 20, Washington Governor Isaac Stevens had finally made it back to the territory after a perilous journey that involved a final, mad dash across the hostile Walla Walla Valley. Dissatisfied with Wool's plan to wait until spring before resuming military operations, and having learned of the raid on the White River settlement, Stevens convened the Washington Legislature where he declared "the war shall be prosecuted until the last hostile Indian is exterminated. Stevens was further perturbed at the lack of a military escort afforded him during his dangerous passage through Walla Walla and went on to denounce Wool for "the criminal neglect of my safety." Oregon Governor Curry joined his Washington counterpart in demanding Wool's dismissal. (The matter came to a head in the fall of 1856 and Wool was reassigned by the Army to command of the Eastern Department.)

1856

Battle of Seattle

In late January 1856, Stevens arrived in Seattle aboard the USCS Active to reassure citizens of the town. Stevens confidently declared that, "I believe that New York and San Francisco will as soon be attacked by the Indians as the town of Seattle." Even as Stevens was speaking, however, a 6,000-man tribal army was moving on the unsuspecting settlement. As the governor's ship was sailing from the harbor - carrying Stevens back to Olympia - members of some of the Puget Sound's neutral tribes began streaming into Seattle requesting sanctuary from a large Yakama war party that had just crossed Lake Washington. The threat was confirmed with the arrival of Princess Angeline who brought news from her father, Chief Seattle, that an attack was imminent. Doc Maynard began the evacuation of women and children from the neutral Duwamish, by boat, to the west side of Puget Sound while a group of citizen volunteers, led by the marine detachment of the nearby-anchored , started construction on a blockhouse.

On the evening of January 24, 1856, two scouts from the massing tribal forces, dressed in disguise and talking their way past American sentries, covertly entered Seattle on a reconnaissance mission (some believe one of these scouts may have been Leschi himself).

Just after sunrise on January 25, 1856, American lookouts spotted a large group of Indians approaching the settlement under cover of trees. The  began firing into the woods, prompting townspeople to evacuate to the blockhouse. Tribal forces - by some accounts composed of Yakama, Walla Walla, Klickitat and Puyallup - returned fire with small arms and began a fast advance on the settlement. Faced with unrelenting fire from Decatur'''s guns, however, the attackers were forced to withdraw and regroup, after which a decision was made to abandon the assault. Two Americans were killed in the fighting and 28 Natives lost their lives.

 Snoqualmie operations

With a view to block the passes across the Cascade Mountains and prevent further Yakama movements against western Washington, a small redoubt was established near Snoqualmie Falls by Tokul Creek in February 1856. Fort Tilton became operational in March 1856, consisting of a blockhouse and several storehouses. The fort was manned by a small contingent of Volunteers supported by a 100-man force of Snoqualmie warriors, fulfillment of an agreement made by the powerful Snoqualmie chief Patkanim with the government the previous November.

Meanwhile, Leschi, having successfully repelled and evaded the previous American attempts to defeat his forces along the White River, now faced a third wave of attack. As construction on Fort Tilton got underway, Patkanim - brevetted to the rank of captain in the Volunteers - set out at the head of a force of 55 Snoqualmie and Snohomish warriors intent on capturing Leschi. Their mission was triumphantly announced by a headline in Olympia's Pioneer and Democrat  "Pat Kanim in the Field!"

Patkanim tracked Leschi to his camp along the White River, but a planned night raid was aborted after a barking dog alerted sentries. Instead, Patkanim approached to within speaking distance of Leschi's camp, announcing to the Nisqually chief, "I will have your head." Early the next morning Patkanim began his assault, the bloody fight reportedly lasting ten hours, ending only after the Snoqualmie ran out of ammunition. Edmond Meany would later write that Patkanim returned with "gruesome evidences of his battles in the form of heads taken from the bodies of slain hostile Indians." Leschi's, however, was not among them.

 Martial law declared
By spring of 1856, Stevens began to suspect that some settlers in Pierce County, who had married into area tribes, were secretly conspiring with their Native American in-laws against the territorial government. Stevens' distrust of the Pierce County settlers may have been heightened by the strong Whig Party sentiment in the county and opposition to Democratic policies. Stevens ordered the suspect farmers arrested and held at Camp Montgomery. When Judge Edward Lander ordered their release, Stevens declared martial law in Pierce and Thurston counties. On May 12 Lander ruled that Stevens was in contempt of court. Marshals sent to Olympia to detain the governor were ejected from the capitol and Stevens ordered Judge Lander's arrest by militia.

Learning of Lander's detention, Francis A. Chenoweth, the chief justice of the territorial supreme court, left Whidbey Island - where he was recuperating from illness - and traveled by canoe to Pierce County. Arriving in Steilacoom, Chenoweth reconvened the court and prepared to again issue writs of habeas corpus ordering the release of the settlers. Learning of Chenoweth's arrival in Pierce County, Stevens sent a company of militia to stop the chief justice, but the troops were met by the Pierce County Sheriff whom Chenoweth had ordered to raise a posse to defend the court. The impasse was finally resolved after Stevens agreed to back down and release the farmers.

Stevens subsequently pardoned himself of contempt, but the United States Senate called for his removal over the incident and he was censured by the Secretary of State of the United States who wrote to him that "... your conduct, in that respect, does not therefore meet with the favorable regard of the President."

 The Cascades Massacre

The Cascades Massacre on March 26, 1856 was the name given to an attack by a coalition of tribes against white soldiers and settlers in the Cascades Rapids.  The native attackers included warriors from the Yakama, Klickitat, and Cascades tribes (today identified as belonging to Wasco tribes: Cascades Indians / Watlala or Hood River Wasco). Fourteen settlers and three US soldiers died in the attack, the most losses for US citizens during the Yakima War. The United States sent reinforcements the following day to defend against further attacks. The Yakama people fled, but nine Cascades Indians who surrendered without a fight, including Chenoweth, Chief of the Hood River Band, were improperly charged and executed for treason.

Puget Sound War
The U.S. Army arrived in the region in the summer of 1856. That August Robert S. Garnett supervised the construction of Fort Simcoe as a military post. Initially the conflict was limited to the Yakama, but eventually the Walla Walla and Cayuse were drawn into the war, and carried out a number of raids and battles against the American invaders.

Coeur d'Alene War
The last phase of the conflict, sometimes referred to as the Coeur d'Alene War, occurred in 1858.  General Newman S. Clarke commanded the Department of the Pacific and sent a force under Col. George Wright to deal with the recent fighting.  At the Battle of Four Lakes near Spokane, Washington in September 1858, Wright inflicted a decisive defeat on the Native Americans. He called a council of all the local Native Americans at Latah Creek (southwest of Spokane). On September 23 he imposed a peace treaty, under which most of the tribes were to go to reservations.

 Aftermath
As the war wound to a close, Kamiakin fled north to British Columbia. Leschi was twice tried for murder by the territorial government (his first trial resulted in a hung jury), convicted the second time, and then hanged outside Fort Steilacoom, the U.S. Army having refused to allow his execution to occur on Army property as military commanders considered him a lawful combatant. (In 2004 a Historical Court, convened by the State of Washington, conceded the Army's opinion and posthumously acquitted Leschi of murder.)

U.S. Army Indian scouts tracked and captured Andrew Bolon's murderers who were subsequently hanged.

Snoqualmie warriors were sent to hunt-down remnant hostile forces, with the territorial government agreeing to pay a bounty on scalps, however, the practice was quickly terminated by orders of the territorial auditor after questions arose as to whether the Snoqualmie were actually engaging remnant hostiles, or executing their own slaves.

The Yakama people were forced onto a reservation south of the present city of Yakima.

 See also
Bannock War
Cayuse War
Fort Dalles
Fraser Canyon War
Nez Perce War
Okanagan Trail
Rogue River War
Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War

 References

 Literature
  Hubert H. Bancroft, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889 San Francisco: The History Company, 1890. Chapter VI: Indian Wars 1855-1856, and V :Indian Wars 1856-1858
 Ray Hoard Glassley: Indian Wars of the Pacific Northwest'', Binfords & Mort, Portland, Oregon 1972

External links
 "Yakama (Yakima) Indian War begins on October 5, 1855", HistoryLink.org Essay 5311
 "Major Gabriel Rains and 700 soldiers and volunteers skirmish with Yakama warriors under Kamiakin at Union Gap on November 9, 1855", HistoryLink.org Essay 8124
 "Yakama tribesmen slay Indian Subagent Andrew J. Bolon near Toppenish Creek on September 23, 1855", HistoryLink.org Essay 8118
 "Guide to the Yakima War (1856-1858)", Washington State University Library

Conflicts in 1855
Conflicts in 1856
Conflicts in 1857
Conflicts in 1858
1855 in the United States
Wars between the United States and Native Americans
Native American history of Washington (state)
History of Washington (state)
Indian wars of the American Old West
1856 in the United States
1857 in the United States
1858 in the United States
Yakama

Yakima War


The Letters to the inhabitants of Canada were three letters written by the First and Second Continental Congresses in 1774, 1775, and 1776 to communicate directly with the population of the Province of Quebec, formerly the French province of Canada, which had no representative system at the time.   Their purpose was to draw the large French-speaking population to the American revolutionary cause.  This goal ultimately failed, and Quebec, along with the other northern provinces of British America, remained loyal to Britain.  The only significant assistance that was gained was the recruitment of two regiments totalling not more than 1,000 men.

Background
The acquisition of the Province of Quebec as a result of the French and Indian War (1754–1763)  gave Great Britain control over nearly the entire eastern seaboard of North America, and brought the former French colony of Canada into a closer relationship with the American colonies.  The new province was significantly different from the other provinces of British America, as the vast majority of people in Quebec spoke only French and were Roman Catholic.  There were also differences in civic and legal affairs, as the law had, prior to the British conquest, been based on French law.

In 1774, the British Parliament enacted the Quebec Act, along with other
legislation that was labeled by American colonists as the Intolerable Acts.  This measure, which replaced the Royal Proclamation of 1763 as the governing document of Quebec, was used to fortify the position of the British in Quebec by guaranteeing (among other things) the rights of French Canadians to practice Roman Catholicism. It is largely perceived by historians to be damage control in the province of Quebec, in order to prevent the French Canadians from joining the independence movement in the American colonies.  The American colonists interpreted the religious provisions concerning Catholicism as a wedge by which Catholicism might be introduced into all of the colonies, and other provisions concerning the structure of the Quebec government to be an attempt by the British Parliament to assert more control over the province, and deny its people what many considered to be basic rights.

First letter

Congress drafts the letter

On October 21, 1774, the First Continental Congress, meeting to craft a united response to the Intolerable Acts, resolved to address letters to the populations of Quebec, St. John's Island, Nova Scotia, Georgia, East Florida and West Florida, all being colonies that were not represented by delegates in the Congress. A committee composed of Thomas Cushing, Richard Henry Lee and John Dickinson was set up to draft those letters. A first draft was presented on October 24, debated and returned to the committee. On October 26, a new draft was presented, debated, amended and adopted. A resolution was passed for the president to sign the letter and ordering the translation and printing of a Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec to be done under the supervision of the delegates of Pennsylvania. The letter was translated to French and printed as an 18-page brochure entitled Lettre adressée aux habitans de la Province de Québec, ci-devant le Canada, de la part du Congrès général de l'Amérique Septentrionale, tenu à Philadelphie. The translation is attributed to Pierre Eugene du Simitiere.  The final content of the letter is attributed to John Dickinson, as a draft in his own hand very closely resembles the final letter.

Contents of the first letter
The letter informed the people of Quebec of five important rights of British constitutional law which were not in force in their colony over a decade after the peace treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War, and resulted in every French subject in Canada becoming a new British subject, theoretically equal in rights to all other British subjects. These five rights were representative government, trial by jury, Habeas Corpus, land ownership, and freedom of the press. The text quotes a passage of Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishment and multiple excerpts of Montesquieu's The Spirit of Laws. Quebec historian Marcel Trudel believes this first letter to have been "a crash course on democratic government", while Gustave Lanctôt claims that the Congress' letter "introduced [among the inhabitants] the notion of personal liberty and political equality.", calling it their first "political alphabet" and "first lesson in constitutional law".

The people of Quebec were invited to give themselves the provincial representation the Quebec Act did not provide for, and have this representative body send delegates to the upcoming continental Congress, to be held in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775.

Distribution and reaction to the first letter
The French-born Philadelphia printer Fleury Mesplet printed 2,000 copies of the French translation. Other manuscript French translations of the original English letter (first published in Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet) were in circulation as well, possibly even arriving in Canada before the "official" translation paid by the Congress.  Wide circulation of the letter was prevented by General Guy Carleton, then Governor of the province.  However, he reported to his superiors in England that, "a report was spread that at Montreal that letters of importance had been received from the General Congress," and that town meetings were being held, "breathing that same spirit, so plentifully gone forth through the neighbouring Provinces."  These town meetings, seemingly dominated by English-speakers, ended without the election of delegates to the Continental Congress.

In early 1775, Boston's Committee of Correspondence sent John Brown into Quebec to gather intelligence, gauge sentiment, and agitate for rebellion in that province.  He found mixed sentiment among English-speaking inhabitants, some of whom were concerned that the Congress' adoption of an export boycott would essentially give the lucrative fur trade to French-speakers.  The bulk of the French-speaking population was at best neutral with respect to British rule; some were happy with it, but more might be convinced to assist the Americans in their aims.  Brown also noted the relatively weak military presence in the province.  General Carleton, while aware of Brown's activities, did nothing to interfere, beyond preventing publication of the letter in the local newspaper.

Second letter

Drafting the second letter
The Second Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in which colonial forces resisted a large British force on April 19 and drove it back to Boston. This victory resulted in Congress opening the session with great excitement and hope.

John Brown arrived in Philadelphia on May 17 to report the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and the raid on Fort Saint-Jean, an event that stimulated much discussion in the Congress.  On May 26, the Congress resolved to draft a second letter to the inhabitants of Canada. The committee that drafted the letter was composed of John Jay, Silas Deane and Samuel Adams, the last having previously written a letter to the people of Canada on behalf of the Boston Committee of Correspondence. On May 29, after having heard additional testimony on the situation in Montreal from James Price, a Montreal merchant, the Second Continental Congress approved the letter.

The letter, entitled Letter to the oppressed inhabitants of Canada, was translated as  The letter was signed by president John Hancock, and again translated by Pierre Eugène du Simitière; 1,000 copies of it were printed by Fleury Mesplet. The content of the letter has been attributed to John Jay.

Contents of the second letter
In the letter, the Congress again deplored the form of the civil government introduced by the Quebec Act, which it likened to "tyranny". It further asserted that under this form of government "you and your wives and your children are made slaves." As for the enjoyment of their religion, the Congress believed it uncertain for it depended on "a legislature in which you have no share, and over which you have no controul".  The Congress was clearly hoping to draw French-speaking habitants to their cause, as well as English-speaking residents that had migrated to Quebec from the other colonies.

At the time of the letter's writing, the Congress was already aware that Governor Carleton had called the people to arm themselves to defend their new King from the invasion. The letter warned the population of the danger of being sent to fight against France were it to join the war on the side of the Americans (which it eventually did in 1778). If the Congress insisted again on treating the Canadians as friends sharing common interests with the other colonists, it however warned the people not to "reduce us the disagreeable necessity of treating you as enemies."

Distribution and reaction to the second letter
Price took the letter to Montreal, along with a similar letter from the New York Provincial Congress, and circulated them in the province.  Much of the English-speaking merchant class, which was dependent on the fur trade and the market for it in Europe, was wary of the situation.  The French habitants were generally unswayed by appeals to English liberties, with which they had relatively little familiarity.  However, they were also not overly supportive of the existing military government, as calls to arms were met with limited success.  The habitants much more opportunistically were happy to follow whichever force was winning at the time, as long as they paid for their supplies.

In the end, the Americans gained limited support in Quebec, ultimately raising two regiments that participated in the Continental Army.  The 1st Canadian Regiment was raised in November 1775 during the early days of the invasion of Canada, and the 2nd Canadian Regiment was raised in January 1776.

Third letter

In September 1775, after the failure of the second letter to sway public opinion, the American Colonists launched an invasion of Quebec from Fort Ticonderoga and Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This invasion culminated in the Battle of Quebec at the end of December 1775, in which the city was successfully defended, and the invaders dug in for the winter.  Following the battle, Moses Hazen and Edward Antill traveled from Quebec to Philadelphia to bring the news of the American defeat.

Drafting the third letter
After hearing of the defeat, the Congress, on January 23, 1776, set up a committee to which was entrusted the drafting of another letter to the Canadian population. The members of the committee this time were William Livingston, Thomas Lynch Jr, and James Wilson. The letter was approved the day after, and signed by John Hancock.

Contents
The Congress thanked the population for the services it rendered to its cause and ensured them that troops to protect them were on the way, and would arrive before British reinforcements.  It also informed them that the Congress had authorized the raising of two battalions in Canada to assist in the cause.  The people were once again invited to organize local and provincial assemblies, which could choose delegates to represent the province in the Continental Congress.

Distribution and reaction to the third letter
The French translation was again printed by Fleury Mesplet; however, it is not certain who in the committee is the author and also if du Simitière was the translator.  Hazen and Antill delivered copies of the letter to David Wooster, commanding the colonial forces occupying Montreal.  He oversaw distribution of the letter at the end of February.

The letter met with no significant response, as the populace was unhappy about being paid for supplies in paper currency, and was otherwise not enamoured of the occupation by the colonial forces.

Conclusion
The 1775 American invasion was a disastrous failure, with the Americans forced to retreat back to Fort Ticonderoga.  The province remained in British hands, and its population centers were never threatened again in the war.  The goal of these letters, and a variety of other addresses to the Canadian people, to gain political and military support for the revolution were generally not realized.  While the Congress succeeded in raising two regiments of Canadians (James Livingston's 1st Canadian Regiment and Hazen's 2nd Canadian Regiment), their numbers were not as large as desired, and the seigneurs and the Catholic clergy ultimately rallied around the British governor.  Quebec would remain a relatively strong colony for Britain due in large part to the strict leadership of Guy Carleton, and despite attempts to bring the revolutionary spirit of the American colonies into Quebec.

Contents of the letters
English and French Wikisource have the contents of the letters:
 Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec, October 26, 1774 (en, fr)
 Letter to the oppressed inhabitants of Canada, May 29, 1775 (en, fr)
 Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Canada, January 24, 1776 (en, fr)

Notes

References

 English translation of the previous entry.

  This book gives a somewhat detailed account of the activities of the First Continental Congress.

External links
 Images from the Turn of a Century. 1760–1840. A Portrait of the Arts, Literature and Eloquence in Quebec (JPEG image of the cover of 18-page Lettre adressée aux habitans de la Province de Québec, ci-devant le Canada [...] dated 1774)

Documents of the American Revolution
Canada–United States relations
Continental Congress
Diplomacy during the American Revolutionary War
1774 in international relations
1775 in international relations
1776 in international relations
1774 in the Province of Quebec (1763–1791)
1775 in the Province of Quebec (1763–1791)
1776 in the Province of Quebec (1763–1791)
1774 in the Thirteen Colonies
1775 in the Thirteen Colonies
1776 in the United States
1770s in the Province of Quebec (1763–1791)
1774 documents
1775 documents
1776 documents
John Jay
Samuel Adams

Letters to the inhabitants of Canada


Lawrence Richard Walters, nicknamed "Lawnchair Larry" or the "Lawn Chair Pilot", (April 19, 1949 – October 6, 1993) was an American truck driver. On 2 July 1982 he flew very high in the sky in a homemade aircraft. He called his flying machine Inspiration I. It was made of an ordinary outdoor chair and 43 large balloons full of helium. Walters went up more than . He went from San Pedro, California into an area near Los Angeles International Airport that was only for airplanes. Many newspapers reported his flight and he became famous.

Balloon flight

Origin of his plan
Walters had always dreamed of flying. He was unable to become a pilot in the United States Air Force because he could not see well enough. Walters had first thought of using weather balloons to fly at age 13. He got the idea when he saw the balloons hanging from the ceiling of a military surplus store. Twenty years later he decided to try it. He planned to attach a few large balloons filled with helium to his lawnchair and then float above his backyard. He planned to stay about 30 feet\9 meters up in the air for several hours. He had a pellet gun to break some balloons and move back to the ground softly.

Preparation and launch
In 1982, Walters and his girlfriend, Carol Van Deusen, bought 45 eight-foot weather balloons. They got helium tanks from California Toy Time Balloons. They used a fake letter from his employer, FilmFair Studios. It said the balloons were for a television commercial.

They went to the backyard of a home at 1633 W. 7th St. in San Pedro. Walters attached the balloons to his lawnchair and filled them with helium. He put on a parachute and used belts to hold himself in the chair. He took his pellet gun, a CB radio, sandwiches, cold beer, and a camera. His friends cut the rope that tied his lawn chair to his Jeep and Walters' lawnchair went up very quickly. Soon, he was 15,000 feet\4,572 meters up in the air.

During the flight
At first, he was afraid to shoot any balloons. He thought he might change the way the chair pointed and fall out. He could not control which way he moved. He slowly passed over Long Beach and moved into the space where airplanes came into Long Beach Airport.

He used his CB radio to contact people on the ground. Some people made a recording of the conversation. Walters asked them to tell the airport what was happening. He also asked them to tell people he was OK.

After 45 minutes in the sky, he shot several balloons. Then he accidentally dropped his pellet gun. He went down slowly until cables hanging from the balloon got caught in an electrical power line. This caused a blackout in a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Walters was able to climb to the ground.

After the flight

Arrest
The Long Beach Police Department was waiting for him. They arrested him immediately. A reporter asked Larry why he had done it. Walters said, "A man can't just sit around."

At first, Walters was fined US$4,000 for breaking U. S. Federal Aviation Regulations. Walters tried to have the fine cancelled. It was reduced to US$1,500.

Fame
Walters received the top prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas for his adventure. He was on television programs such as The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman. He got a special prize in 1993 at the Darwin Awards.

The TV show MythBusters made a flight like Walters had done. But they used a rope to keep the chair from going too high. One of the show's hosts went up about 30m. He went back down slowly by shooting balloons with a pellet gun.

Later years
Larry gave the lawnchair from the flight to a boy named Jerry because the boy liked him. Later, Walters realized that was a mistake when the Smithsonian Institute asked him to donate it to its museum. Twenty years later, Jerry contacted Mark Barry. Barry is a pilot who wrote about Walters and made a website about his flight. The chair was still sitting in Jerry's garage and had some of the original ropes and water jugs.

Walters said that he had dreamed about flying this way for twenty years. And, that if he had not tried it, he would have become crazy. He did not think that reaching his goal in life would cause so much excitement or make so many people laugh.

After his flight, he quit his job as a truck driver. He was in a Timex print advertisement in the early '90s, He also gave speeches to help people get more confidence. But, he never made much money from being famous. Walters hiked in the San Gabriel Mountains and did volunteer work for the United States Forest Service. He broke up with his girlfriend after 15 years. He worked as a security guard sometimes.

In 1993, Walters shot himself in the heart in Angeles National Forest and died. He was 44 years old.

Other lawnchair balloonists
Kent Couch is a gas station owner from Bend, Oregon. He flew 240 miles in his lawn chair on Saturday, 7 July 2007. He landed in a field about 3½ miles NNW of North Powder, Oregon near Idaho. He travelled an average of 22 miles per hour. He tied 105 large helium balloons to his lawn chair. Couch used plastic bags filled with 75 liters water as weight to balance the balloons. Couch had a BB gun to shoot the balloons and start going down on that first flight. He tried again and learned how to let helium out of the balloons and go down more carefully. On 5 July 2008, Couch finally reached his goal. He travelled to another state and landed his lawnchair in western Idaho. The trip was 240 miles and took 9 hours and 12 minutes.

On 20 April 2008 a Brazilian Roman Catholic priest Adelir Antonio de Carli flew using a chair and 1000 helium balloons. He did not check the weather forecast and got caught in a storm. He had a GPS but did not know how to use it. He crashed into the sea. The Brazilian navy found his body near an offshore oil platform on 4 July 2008. This unsuccessful flight won him a 2008 Darwin Award.

Many other people have tried flying with balloons the same way. Some may even have gone higher than Larry did.

Related pages
Cluster ballooning, the modern, more careful approach to Larry's original goal.

References

Other websites
The Punk band Channel 3 on Larry Walters;the Song
Darwin Awards: 1982 Honorable Mentions
Check-Six.com - The Flight of Larry Walter - "Lawn Chair Pilot"
The Official Site Of "The Lawn Chair Pilot" (Includes photos, detailed research, approximate flight map, and CB radio recording)
Snopes.com: "Up, Up, and Away!"
The Straight Dope: "Did somebody once go aloft in a lawn chair tied to a bunch of helium balloons?"
Lawn Chair Larry
Larry Walters at Findagrave.com
Fox News Story on similar occurrence cites Larry
News video of de Carli taking off and disappearing in April, 2008

1949 births
1993 deaths
People from Los Angeles
American aviators

Larry Walters


Grandaddy is an American indie rock band formed in California in 1992 by singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jason Lytle, bassist Kevin Garcia, and drummer Aaron Burtch.

History
Complex Party Come Theories is their first work.  After that, they got new guitarist Jim Fairchild and keyboardist Tim Dryden. They released EP A Pretty Mess By This One Band in 1996, and their first full-length album Under The Western Freeway in 1997. "Summer Here Kids", one of the songs in Under The Western Freeway,  earned Single of the Week honors in NME. In 2000, in Sophftware Slump, they created vintage, electronic, drift-off music. In , Concrete Dunes was released, without the band's permission. In 2003, the group released another album, Sumday, and received good reviews. In 2006, Just Like the Fambly Cat was released.

After the album, the band broke up in 2005. They did not do Just Like the Fambly Cat tour concert. The band was utterly content and happy about the decision to end Grandaddy. In the song 'Elevate Myself', he says "I don't wanna work all night and day. On writing songs that make the young girls cry." Other members all worked in their own field, but Jim Fairchild was still working with music. He joined a guitarist in Modest Mouse tour, and he released his first solo album, Ten Readings of a Warning. In 2012, the band reunited for Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco. In the same year, they played in End of the Road Festival.  No album has been released since then.

In an interview, Jason Lytle tell why the band name got their name Grandaddy; They realized that they are too ugly to seduce young women, so they try to appeal to old women, just like Morrissey. Birds frequently appear in their album cover, because birds are beautiful and colorful, and they can sing.

Style
Grandaddy's music has features in the late 90s lo-fi indie rock. Their music has the catchy melodies that they are able to create with the synths and distorted guitars. Most of their musics are slow and emotional. Also, they used electronics. Their lyrics are mostly vague and abstract, but inventive. The album's most enduring image is a man sipping a beer and strumming an acoustic guitar in quiet, beautiful countryside. The Sophtware Slump is generally regarded as the band's masterpiece, but other albums like Under the Western Freeway are popular, too.

References

Indie rock bands
American rock bands
1990s American music groups
Musical groups from California

Grandaddy


ETSU/Mountain States Health Alliance Athletic Center, previously known as the Memorial Center, and popularly referred to as the "Mini-Dome", is an 8,539-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Until 2014, it hosted ETSU's men's and women's basketball teams. It also serves as the indoor venue for tennis and track. At one time, the facility also hosted ETSU's football team, but the school discontinued its football program at the end of the 2003 season as a cost-cutting measure. The football team was reinstated in 2015, but did not return to the facility; the Buccaneers played the 2015 and 2016 seasons at Kermit Tipton Stadium, a local high school facility, before opening the new William B. Greene Jr. Stadium in 2017. It was the host of the 2006 and 2007 Atlantic Sun Conference men's basketball tournaments, and the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships from 2001 to 2011.   The Mini-Dome has also hosted non-athletic events that could not be housed in an indoor setting on most American college campuses, such as national indoor championships for free flight model aircraft.

In December 2009, the Tennessee Board of Regents approved the renaming of Memorial Center to ETSU/Mountain States Health Alliance Athletic Center, adding the name of the hospital system headquartered in Johnson City to the official name of the Mini-Dome.

On October 16, 2010, the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center hosted an NBA exhibition game between the New Orleans Hornets and Atlanta Hawks.

History
Dominating the campus skyline, the building was opened in 1977 largely as an attempt to increase attendance at the university's struggling football program and to help its recruiting, but also as a large, multi-purpose campus building.  The contract ran both well over budget and the allotted time, with the eventual opening occurring two football seasons later than had been planned.

The building has had its successes but never truly put the Buccaneer football program on the map, despite being one of very few on-campus domed stadiums in the United States.  The decision was made by ETSU president Dr. Paul Stanton for ETSU to drop football following the conclusion of the 2003 season.

For the 2006–2007 academic year and basketball season, the Mini-Dome's occupancy was decreased to around 6,800 due to fire code restrictions.  Efforts are underway to build a true basketball arena on campus, but the Mini-Dome will likely remain intact due to the large number of offices and training facilities it contains, as well as the enormous cost of demolition.

In 2006–2007, ETSU made an attempt to bring back the football program, but it failed when the student body voted down an increase in the athletic fee that was needed to fund it.  The Mini-Dome was not considered as a possible venue for the new program.

The interior of the Mini-Dome is pictured briefly in the ending moments of the film We Are Marshall during a sequence of highlights of the Marshall University football team.

References

External links
Facilities - Home - Official Site of East Tennessee State Athletics

College basketball venues in the United States
Defunct college football venues
East Tennessee State Buccaneers basketball
Indoor arenas in Tennessee
Covered stadiums in the United States
Sports venues in Tennessee
Basketball venues in Tennessee
Johnson City, Tennessee
1977 establishments in Tennessee
Sports venues completed in 1977
American football venues in Tennessee
Athletics (track and field) venues in Tennessee
College track and field venues in the United States
East Tennessee State Buccaneers football venues


Repeating decimal (or recurring decimal) is a decimal where the number or pattern repeats forever. Repeating decimal is resulted when dividing a number by a number that is not divisible except for certain cases like dividing any number by 5. For example, dividing 7 by 3 would result in a repeating decimal, which is 2.333... or 2.. The number or group of numbers that repeats is called a repetend or reptend and the number of numbers in the repetend is called the period length. For 2., 3 is the repetend and the period length is 1.

Related pages
0.999...
Rational number

Numbers

Repeating decimal


An ammeter is a measuring tool used to measure the flow of electric current in a circuit. The electric current is measured in amperes; for this reason, some people call the ammeters as ampmeters, by mistake. It can measure 'resistance' of a current, speed of a current and force of a current (the units used are ohms, amperes, and volts) Ammeters are connected in series in a circuit with two connections.

Related pages
 Voltmeter

Measuring tools

Ammeter