ROUTE FROM FORT BENTON TO WALLAH-WALLAH. 
269 
Many of the tribes are now deadly enemies, but have promised to stop fighting until next 
summer, and then to meet in council to hear the “ white man’s talk,” and, if possible, to establish 
a lasting peace with them, and with each other. By sending up a steamer, annually, with 
supplies of articles, useful or desirable for the Indians, they will soon understand the advantage 
of friendly intercourse with us, and suffer emigrant parties to the west, beyond the mountains, to 
pass unmolested and in safety. The importance of the proposed convention of tribes at Fort 
Benton can hardly be exaggerated. Every principle of justice and policy to the Indian, to the 
emigrant, and to the United States, requires that some honest arrangement of the relations of the 
government and the tribes should be made in good faith. Whether they can ever be reclaimed 
from their present wandering life, and fixed in permanent homes, is a problem not yet perhaps 
absolutely solved, but upon which experience has cast some light. Whether they are destined 
to pass away before the advance of civilization, with the buffalo that forms their subsistence; 
whether contact with the white man shall always work the degradation of the Indian; by a wise, 
just, and humane policy on our part, open hostilities between the two races may be prevented, 
and thus one formidable obstacle to the success of the object to which our labors the past season 
have been directed—the finding of a safe way for emigrants to the farthest west and for the 
construction of an inter-oceanic railroad—will be removed. 
I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 
RUFUS SAXTON, 
Hon. Isaac I. Stevens, 
Governor of Washington Territory. 
Second Lieutenant Fourth Artillery. 
18. Report of lieutenant donelson as to the railroad practicability of the route 
FROM FORT BENTON, BY LEWIS AND CLARIES AND CADOTTE’s PASSES, BLACICFOOT TRAIL, 
THE BITTER ROOT, AND JOCKO LINES, TO CLARIES FORK, AND THENCE ACROSS THE GREAT 
PLAIN OF THE COLUMBIA TO WALLAH-WALLAH; WITH THE REPORTS OF LIEUTENANT R. 
ARNOLD, U. S. A., AND MESSRS. F. W. LANDER AND A. W. TINICHAM, ASSISTANT ENGINEERS. 
Olympia, Washington Territory, 
February 23, 1854. 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the survey of a route for a railroad 
from Fort Benton, across the Rocky mountains, by way of Cadotte’s Pass, to the valley of the 
Bitter Root river, and thence, by way of Clark’s fork and the Spokane house, to Fort Wallah- 
Wallah. 
The party you had designated for the prosecution of this survey moved from camp, near Fort 
Benton, at noon on the 16th of September. Mr. Lander, the engineer for estimates, started on 
the 15th, and having joined his party, which was encamped on the Teton, some miles above 
where we were, moved forward on the 16th towards Sun river. He was to pursue a course 
north of that, to be followed by the main party, and, crossing the mountains by a favorable pass, 
to proceed thence to the Flathead village. 
The course of a railroad line from Milk to Marias river having been determined ‘by Mr. Tink- 
ham, and from the Marias to the Teton by reconnaissance of both Messrs. Lander and Tinkham, 
the above-mentioned disposition of his party enabled Mr. Lander to carry forward a line, to esti¬ 
mate cost, &c., to the valley of the Bitter Root river. On the 19th Mr. Tinkham left the party 
for the purpose of reconnoitring Sun river, as an approach to the mountains. He was to meet 
us again on the Dearborn, or at some point not far beyond. 
Having passed the ridge which separated the waters of the Atlantic ocean from those of the 
Pacific, on the 22d of September, we reached the Flathead village on the 29th. I here received 
