The Battle of Four Lakes 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 near present-day Four Lakes, Washington, between elements of the United States Army and a coalition of Native American tribes consisting of Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Alene), Palus, Spokan, and Yakama warriors.
Schitsu'umsh lands were protected by treaty, and the tribe was 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 decided to retaliate. 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). Wright's troops were armed with rebored 1841 Harpers Ferry Rifles. These had a range of 1,000 yards (910 m), more than 20 times the range of Steptoe's outdated guns. They also had five times the range of the weapons (bow and arrow and musket) used by the Native Americans. Wright's men also carried two 12-pounder howitzers and two 6-pounder field guns.
On September 1, 1858, Wright's men woke at dawn to discover a large group of Indians atop an east-west trending ridge about 2 miles (3.2 km) north-northwest of Wright's camp that connected Meadow Lake in the east and Granite Lake/Willow Lake in the west. The Native Americans, who numbered about 500 in total, planned to lure Wright's cavalry over the ridge and onto the plains beyond, where their faster mounts and superior horsemanship would enable them to wipe out the mounted soldiers. This would leave Wright's infantry stranded, incapable of resupply and thus easy prey. Chief Kamiakin occupied the center with Palus and Yakama. On the Indian left were Kamiakin's nephew, Qualchan, with additional Yakamas, and Stellam, a chief of the Schitsu'umsh, with warriors of his tribe. On the right were the Spokan chief Polatkin and members of his tribe.
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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