Some time in 1843 Cockstock, a Wasco Indian, got a job working for George Winslow and James D. Saules. His promised payment for the temporary farm labor was a horse.
But Cockstock grew angry when he learned Winslow had sold said horse to Saules. Though he wasn’t yet done with the promised work, Cockstock claimed the horse. He still couldn’t get over the slight, however, and made repeated threats towards both men to the point that Winslow and Saules asked Elijah White, U.S. sub-Indian agent for Oregon, to do something about it.
White rounded up a posse and made several attempts to capture Cockstock, but Cockstock had a posse too. On March 4, 1844 in Oregon City, a skirmish broke out between Cockstock’s group and residents of the town. Two settlers and Cockstock were mortally wounded.