Everybody Has a Story: Grandmother lived to tell about Bannock Indian War

Not many people living today have had the experience of a grandmother telling of her childhood experience of the Bannock Indian War in Oregon. (In Washington history books, it is usually referred to as “Indian uprising in the Blue Hills.”)

A friendly Indian had told the people near the village of Pendleton that unfriendly Indians of several tribes were gathering in the Blue Hills to attack Pendleton. So the men built a fort and families near Pendleton went to the fort for safety.

My grandmother, Nellie Bentley McGee, was 7 years old and sick with diphtheria. She and her mother could not go to the fort. They had to stay in their house while her father went to the fort. They had to make their house look like an abandoned building. They could not build a fire, as the Indians might see the smoke. They could not light a candle. They could not go outside to the well for water.

One morning, my grandmother and her mother heard the shrill screams and saw their painted faces as they looked between cracks in the logs. The Indians went around the house several times.

In telling this story, my grandmother called it an Indian powwow around the house.

She and her mother were out of water! The water was needed for cold water compresses, to break the fever of my grandmother’s diphtheria.

When things became quiet, they still heard soft footsteps outside their door.

Great grandma Bentley was loading her gun when my grandmother looked between the cracks in the logs. They were relieved and surprised to see one of my grandmother’s playmates, a half-Indian boy, leaving a bucket of water for them.

My grandmother McGee was in her late 70s, as I am today, when she told me this story of her childhood. I feel fortunate to have had a grandmother who told me this experience from a bit of early Oregon history.

Everybody Has A Story welcomes nonfiction contributions of 1,000 words maximum and relevant photographs. E-mail is the best way to send materials so we don’t have to retype your words or borrow original photos. Send to neighbors@columbian.com or P.O. Box 180, Vancouver WA 98666. Call Scott Hewitt, 360-735-4525, with questions.