An estimated 1,000 Walla Walla, Cayuse, Palouse and Yakama warriors fought against 350 Oregon Mounted Volunteers in the Battle of Walla Walla.
Also called the Battle of Frenchtown, this was a landmark 1855 conflict of the Yakama War.
“Fought over four days from Dec. 7-10 near present-day Lowden, (what became known as the Battle of Walla Walla) remains the longest Native American battle in Washington state history,” according to the Frenchtown Historic Site and legendsofamerica.com.
This history will be commemorated with a sign. The dedication ceremony will be 2 p.m. Sunday, July 26, at Luckenbill Crossing.
To reach the site heading west on U.S. 12 from Second Avenue, take the Sudbury Road exit for the City of Walla Walla Sudbury Landfill. Drive north — after several miles, Luckenbill is a left turn off Sudbury.
Alternatively, drive to Touchet and turn right at the Touchet store onto Touchet River Road North; after several miles take a right hand turn east onto Luckenbill Road.
Speakers will include Rep. Skyler Rude, who obtained a state grant for the Walla Walla 2020 Historic Sites and Markers Project, which has placed the sign, naturalist Mike Denny, geologist Bob Carson, historian Sam Pambrun and Walla Walla 2020 coordinator Dan Clark.
A tour of the historic Luckenbill Cabin and a ribbon-cutting at the sign will follow.
The sign features the historic events of 1855, the Luckenbill Cabin, built in 1874 by Martin Luckenbill, and descriptions of the area’s geology and wildlife along the river, including a herd of moose.
Luckenbill is among early non-native settlers along the Touchet River and a noted pioneer farmer in the Walla Walla Valley.
The Pennsylvania native crossed the plains in 1851 to California and prospected for several years in the mining district.
In 1863, Luckenbill came to Walla Walla where he engaged in a merchandising business. He began farming in 1874 and moved his home to the property just northeast of Luckenbill Crossing, where he built a cabin that still stands. In 1907 he moved back to Walla Walla and died there in 1910 at 75.
Battle of Walla Walla
The premature opening of tribal lands to settlers and failure to ratify the 1855 Walla Walla treaties triggered the battle, according to sources.
Until 1855, Peopeomoxmox had been friendly with Hudson’s Bay Company trading post employees at Wallula and other newly arrived Europeans.
Following the Walla Walla Treaty Council that year that established reservations for many of the inland Indian tribes, the Yakama-Walla Walla Indian War broke out when whites began coming into the Indian territories before the treaties were ratified.
The Walla Walla tribe raided the Fort Walla Walla trading post at Wallula and their Chief Peopeomoxmox reportedly vowed to kill Gov. Isaac Stevens.
After Walla Walla Indians sacked and burned a portion of the Wallula trading post, Oregon Mounted Volunteers marched from the Willamette Valley to respond.
U.S. Army Maj. Gabriel Rains called forth the Oregon Mounted Volunteers, who established Fort Henrietta on the Umatilla River by present-day Echo, Ore., approximately 8 miles south of Hermiston.
“After inspecting the abandoned Fort Walla Walla trading post, they marched towards the Touchet River to punish the Walla Walla,” legendsofamerica.com reported.
The running battle began at the mouth of the Touchet River, along Frenchtown, a collection of French-Canadian fur trader cabins extending from near today’s Walla Walla to the west of present-day Lowden.
Waving a white flag of truce on Dec. 5, 1855, Peopeomoxmox and 50 of his warriors approached about 200 Oregon Mounted Volunteers downstream on the Touchet River, near where explorers Lewis and Clark had camped on April 30, 1806, seeking to delay the soldiers and protect the Walla Walla village, then sited just upstream from the Luckenbill site.
Though Peopeomoxmox promised to return trade goods from the Fort and provide food for the hungry volunteers at his Walla Walla village, the Volunteers insisted and the chief and five of his followers agreed to become their hostages.
En route to the Walla Walla village the Volunteers feared a surprise attack in the narrow gorge of the Touchet just above Luckenbill.
The next day the militia found the village deserted and took their hostages to their base camp at the confluence of the Touchet and Walla Walla rivers.
On Dec. 7, when the Volunteers crossed the Touchet, headed up the Walla Walla Valley to establish a permanent fort on the ruins of the Whitman Mission, they became engaged in an 8-mile running battle with warriors from a variety of tribes.
The militia killed Peopeomoxmox and four of the other hostages on the first day of fighting.
As the Volunteers ran low on ammunition, reinforcements arrived from Fort Henrietta on the Umatilla River on the fourth day and the warriors withdrew.