Here, on a small bar alongside the river, lived a former sailor, fifty-two-year-old Richard Devine. Devine had a harsh reputation. He set his dogs on any passing Indian, whether or not they were trespassing on his fenced field. He had also killed a Nez Perce woman, Dakoopin (Wounded Leg), for removing a white man's horse from her garden. Civil authorities overlooked this murder. But punishment eventually did overtake him late on the night of June 13. Leaving seventeen-year-old Wetyetmas Wahyakt outside to hold the horses, the two warriors, Wahlitits and Sarpsis llppilp, entered Devine's cabin.
. . . The two older of these young men met an old white settler, a bachelor, who was rather mean. Any time the Indians visited to have a talk with him, thev were driven away He killed one crippled man. The Indians never had done any wrong to him
They killed this white settler They took a stallion that he kept, and it was brought over to Camas Prairie to show what they had done.
Two Moons
Long gone, Richard Devine's cabin on Carver Creek .
Richard Devine is buried at John Day Creek Cemetery.
The Nez Perce Flight to Canada - An Introduction