The Battle of Spokane Plains was a battle during the Coeur d'Alene War of 1858 in the Washington Territory (now the states of Washington and Idaho) in the United States. The Coeur d'Alene War was part of the Yakima War, which began in 1855. The battle was fought west of Fort George Wright near Spokane, Washington, between elements of the United States Army and a coalition of Native American tribes consisting of Kalispel (Pend Oreille), Palus, Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Alene), Spokan, and Yakama warriors.
Although their lands were protected by treaty, the Schitsu'umsh were outraged by miners and illegal white settlers invading their territory. They also perceived the Mullan Road, whose construction had just begun near Fort Dalles, as a precursor to a land grab by the United States. Two white miners were killed, and the U.S. Army retaliated. The Coeur d'Alene War (the last part of the larger Yakima War) began with the Battle of Pine Creek (near present-day Rosalia, Washington) on May 17, 1858, during which a column of 164 U.S. Army infantry and cavalry under the command of brevet Lieutenant Colonel Edward Steptoe was routed by a group composed primarily of Cayuse, Schitsu'umsh, Spokan, and Yakama warriors.
Following Steptoe's defeat, Colonel George Wright, commander of Fort Dalles, led a much larger unit of 500 Army soldiers, 200 civilian drovers, and 30 Niimíipu (or Nez Perce) scouts to nearby Fort Walla Walla and then north to the Spokane Plains (near modern-day Spokane, Washington). On September 1, 1858, Wright's men defeated the Yakama chief Kamiakin and a force of about 500 Schitsu'umsh, Palus, Spokane, and Yakama warriors in the Battle of Four Lakes. Wright rested for three days, and at 6:30 A.M. on September 5 moved out again to the north.
Wright's column had moved about 5 miles (8.0 km) north and emerged onto the Spokane Plains when the reformed group of 500 to 700 Kalispel, Palus, Schitsu'umsh, Spokan, and Yakama warriors began attacking again. The Indians harassed the troop by racing toward the column, firing, and speeding away before the soldiers could respond. Wright headed for a small forest about 9 miles (14 km) further to the north. As the Army troop reached the forest (about the modern-day intersection of W. Deno Road and N. Craig Road), the Native Americans set fire to the prairie all around them. As thick smoke surrounded the soldiers, the Native Americans attempted to drive off the Army pack train. The infantry fired and drove them into the woods, where Wright fired his two 12-pounder howitzers and two 6-pounder guns at them. Although Wright's infantry were armed with the new Springfield Model 1855 rifle-musket (which had a range of 1,000 yards (910 m)). Native American horsemen used the smoke to cover their approach, effectively negating the guns' longer range.
The early republic period saw the United States move from the weak Articles of Confederation to the federal Constitution ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791. George Washington served two terms as president (1789–1797), establishing precedents for executive authority, and the federal capital moved permanently to Washington D.C. in 1800. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled the nation's territory for roughly $15 million, opening vast trans-Mississippi lands to American expansion. The War of 1812 against Britain ended inconclusively but produced a surge of American national identity and eliminated most British support for Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi. The Northwest Indian Wars (1785–1795) and the Creek War (1813–1814) broke Indigenous confederacies that had resisted US expansion. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily balanced slave and free states as the nation expanded westward, but embedded the contradiction of slavery in every subsequent territorial debate.
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