The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811–1912/Volume 1/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
1792—1840
THE INDIANS, THEIR FAMILIES. TRIBES AND DISTRIBUTION — THEIR ANCIENT STO.NIi
AGE DESCENT ANB IMPLEMENTS — THEIB MYTHS, HABITS AND RELIGION TllKlK
NUMBERS AND WEAKNESS THE JARGON LANGUAGE — THE INDIAN IDEA OF LAND
TENURE.
Wlien the wliite man discovored Oresi'on lie found a lar^c population of In- dians scattered in groups, families and tribes over the entire country from the Rocky monntains to the Paeilic ocean, and from California np to the Alaska line. The first comers detected no differences among these people of the forest and plain. They were all simply Indians. As time and experience brought the In- dians more and more under the observation of traders and naturalists, marked differences were discovered, and such distinction as the various tribes themselves maintained and enforced. By the study of the langiiage and dialects of these families and tribes, and by investigation of their beliefs in the supernatural, and their regulation of the social and family life, scientists versed in the principles of ethnology were able to arrange and segregate this apparently heterogeneous pojiu- lation of wild men into such a classification as would be intelligible to students of Indian life. This has been accomplished for this history, and for the first time given to the general reader not only in printed form but also on a map of the location of all the Indian families described. For this invaluable service the history is indebted to the Rev. J. Neilson Barry, of Baker, Oregon, and a mem- ber of the Advisory Board of the History for the Inland Empire Section.
THE INDIANS OF THE OLD OREGON COUNTRY
There were fifteen ki"ou])s or families of Indian tribes in that part of the Old Oregon country which is now occupied by Oregon. Washington and Idaho.
I. THE ATHAPASCAN FAMILY
(1) Kical-hi-n-qiiii tribe, so called Iiy the ("liinooks. meaning "'at a lonely place- in the woods:" tiii'>- livrd nn the AVillo]>ab river. I^rwis cdunty, AVasliiiii!:- ton.
(2) Tlalsldiiiii. lived on the Clatskanie riviM-. Columbia county. Orc^dn: a warlike tribe ; the early Hudson's Bay trappers did not dai'e to jiass their posses- sions in less numliers than sixty armed men.
(3) J' III jt-qiui, lived on the rm|U|ua river. Douglas counly. Oregon.
68
(4) Coquille, or Mishiklnvtitmetumie, lived on the Coquille river in Coos county, Oregon.
(5) Tal-tush-tun-tude, lived on Galiee creek, a tributary of Rogue river, in Josephine county, Oregon.
(6) Chas-ta-costa, lived on the north side of the Rogue river in Curry and Josephine counties, Oregon.
(7) Tu-tut-ni, lived on Rogue river near its mouth in Curry county, Oregon.
(8) Chet-co., lived on the Chetco river, Currj^ county, Oregon. A number of their villages were destroyed bv the whites in 1853.
II. CHIMAKUAN
(1) Quil-eute, on the Quillayute river in Clallam county, AVashington.
(2) Chim-a-kum, occupied the peninsula between Hood's canal and Port Townsend, Jefferson county, Washington.
III. CHINOOKAN
This family of Indians occupied the shores of the Columbia from its mouth to the Dalles, and the Willamette from Oregon City to its junction with the Co- lumbia. They artificially deformed their heads. A. — Lower Ghinookan — ■
(1) Cliin-ook, lived at the mouth of the Columbia in Pacific county, Wash- ington. Their language formed the basis of the Chinook jargon and has given the name for the Chinook wind.
(2) Clatsop, the name means "dried salmon;" lived along the Columbia from its mouth to Tongue Point and along the coast to Tillamook Head in Clat- sop county, Oregon.
B. — Upper Ghinookan — These were visited by an epidemic called ague fever in 1829, which in a single summer swept away four-fifths of the people. (The heaps of unburied bones of these people on Sauvie's island is mentioned by Wyeth and by other early settlers on this island. )
(1) CatJi-la-coni-O'-tup, resided on the south side of Sauvie's island in Mult- nomah county. Oregon.
(2) Cath-la-cum-up, lived on the west bank of the lower mouth of the Wil- lamette river, Columbia county, Oregon.
(3) Cath-la-ka-he-kit, lived at the Cascades of the Columbia in Hood River county, Oregon, and Skamania county, Washington.
(4) Cath-la-mef, on the lower Columbia from Tongue Point to Puget island in Clatsop count}', Oregon.
(5) Cath-la-nah-qui-ali, lived on the southwest side of Sauvie's island, Mult- nomah county, Oregon.
(6) Cath-la-potle, lived in Clark county, Washington.
(7) Cath-lath-la-las, lived on the Columbia below the Cascades in Skamania county, Washington, and Multnomah county, Oregon.
(8) Chak-ivay-al-ham, lived near Pillar Rock on the Columbia river, Clatsop county, Oregon.
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON 65
(9) Char-cow-a, lived on tlie Williiiiu'tte rivrr just above the falls in Claeka- tiias county, Oregon.
(10) Chil-luk-itle-qunw, lived along the Cohnnbia river in Klickitat and Skamania counties, Wasliington.
(11) Chit-pan-chick-chick, lived on the Columbia in Klickitat county, Wash- ington, nearly opposite the Dalles.
(12) Clack-a-ma, lived on the Clackamas river, Clackamas county, Oregon.
(13) Clah-dcl-lah, lived near the foot of the Cascades on the Columbia, Oregon.
(.li) Clah-na-quaJi, lived on Sauvie's island on the Columbia river, below the upper mouth of the Willamette river, in Multnomah county, Oregon.
(15) Clan-in-na-tas, lived on the southwest side of Sauvies island, Multno- mah county, Oregon.
(16) Clat-a-cuf, lived in Klickitat county, Washington, ten miles below The Dalles.
(17) Clow-we-wal-la, resided at the falls of the Willamette river, Clackamas county, Oregon.
(18) Clonaic, lived on the Columbia river below the mouth of Cowlitz river in Columbia county, Oregon.
(19) Vush-ook, lived on the east bank of the Willamette river, just below the falls in Clackamas county, Oregon.
(20) Dalles, resided at The Dalles, Wasco county, Oregon, and on the op- posite side of the Columbia river in Klickitat county, Washington.
(21) Uh-kye-ma-mit-is, lived in Klickitat county, Washington, nearly oppo- site The Dalles.
(22) Kas-e-nos, lived at the junction of Scappoose creek with the Willamette Slough in Columbia county, Oregon.
(23) Kat-lag-u-lak, lived on the Columbia river two miles below Rainier in Columbia county, Oregon.
(24) Kat-la-min'i-min, occupied the south end of Sauvie's island in ^lultno- mah county, Oregon.
(25) Kil-lax-tho-klc, lived on Shoal Water Bay in Pacific county, Washing- ton.
(26) Kle-mi-ak-sa.c, lived near the present site of the city of Hood River.
(27) Know-il-a-tno-waii, a village twenty-five miles from the Dalles (care Lee and Frost Ore. p. 176, 1844).
(28) Kt-l-aeshaf-l-kik. lived at the present site of Cathlamet, Wahkiakum county, Washington.
(29) Kiviil-kwul
(30) Lak-stak
Not determined, but probably on the Columbia river.
(31) Mult-no-mah, meaning "down river," a tribe living on the upper end of Sauvie's island, Multnomah county, Oregon. The term is also used to include all the tribes living on or near the lower Willamette river.
(32) Na-mo-it, lived on the Columbia side of Sauvie's island near its lower end, Columbia county. Oregon.
(33) Xaij-ak-a-u-kaui , lived at the present site of St. Helens, Columbia county, Oregon.
66 THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON
(34) Nech-a-co-kee, lived a short distance below the mouth of the Sandy river, Multnomah county, Oregon.
(35) N e-coot-i-meigh, lived at the Dalles (Ross, Fur Hunters I, p. 186, 1855).
(36) Neer-cho-ki-oon, lived on the Columbia river a few miles above Sauvie's island, Multnomah county, Oregon.
(37) Ne-mal-quin-ner, lived at the falls of the Willamette river in Clackamas comity, Oregon, and also had a temporary house on the north end of Sauvie's island in Multnomah county, Oregon, where they went occasionally to collect wap-pa-too roots.
(38) Ne-Looth-lect, lived twenty-eight miles from The Dalles on the Colum- bia river.
(39) Scal-tal-pe, lived a short distance above the Cascades on the Columbia river, Oregon (Lee and Frost, Ore., p. 176, 1844).
(40) Sha-ha-la, lived on the Columbia river from the Cascades to Sauvie's island.
(41) Sho-to, lived in Clark county, Washington, nearly opposite the mouth of the Willamette river.
(42) Skil-loot, lived on both sides of the Columbia river near the mouth of the Cowlitz river in Cowlitz county, Washington, and Columbia county, Oregon.
(43) Smack-sJwp, lived on the Columbia river from Hood river to the Dalles.
(44) Te-i-ak-ho-choe, lived in Columbia county, Oregon, about three miles above Oak Point.
(45) Thlak-a-lam-a, lived at the mouth of Kalama river, Cowlitz county, Washington.
(46) Tlak-at-la-la, lived in Cowlitz county, Washington, about three miles above Oak Point on the Columbia river.
(47) Tlak-luit, lived in Klickitat county, Washington, from about the pres- ent site of Spedis to the White Salmon river, their most noted village near Spedis was called Wishram, but properly Nix-lu-dix.
(48) Tla-le-gak, lived near Pillar Rock, on the Columbia river.
(49) Tlash-ge-ne-morki, lived in Wahkiakum county, Washington, below Skamokawa.
(50) Tle-gu-lak, lived near the present site of Hudson, Columbia county, Oregon.
(51) Wake, lived at the head of the Cascades on the Columbia river.
(52) Wah-ki-a-cicm, lived in Wahkiakum county, Washington. They were originally a part of the Chinook tribe, but had separated and moved up the river from the Chinook territory to Oak Point.
(53) Wak-a-na-si-si (or Ga-lak-a-na-si-si) lived in Clark county, Washing- ton, opposite the mouth of the Willamette river.
(54) "Wap-pa-too" is a name given to the tribes on and around Sauvies island.
(55) Was-co, or (Ga-Us-go) , means "cup or bowl," from a cup-shaped rock near the main village near the Dalles, Wasco county, Oregon.
(56) Wat-la-la, lived near Hood river, Oregon.
(57) Will-o-pah, lived on the lower part of the Willopa river. Pacific county, Washington.
(58) Wilt-wil-luk, lived near Rainier, Columbia county, Oregon.
(59) Ye-huk, lived just above the Cascades on the Columbia river.
IV. KALAPOOIAN
The Kalapooian families occupied the Willamette valley above the falls. They practiced the flattening of the head, and lived on game and roots.
A. The following tribes are known to belong to this division:
(1) Ahant-chu-yuk, lived on Pudding river, a tributary of the Willamette river. Oregon.
(2) At-ful-a-tu (or Tu-al-a-ti), on the Tualitin river and vicinity in Wash- ington county, Oregon.
(3) Cal-a-poo-ya, occupied the watershed between the Umpqua and Willam- ette rivers in Lane and Douglas counties, Oregon.
(4) Che-la-nie-la, lived on Long Tom creek, a tributary of the Willamette river, in Lane and Benton counties, Oregon.
(5) Che-pe-na-fa, lived at the forks of St. Mary's river near Corvallis, Ben- ton county, Oregon.
(6) Lak-imdt, lived on the Lakmuit (Luckiamute) river, a tributary of the Willamette, in Polk county, Oregon.
(7) San-ti-am, lived on the Santiam river, Linn county, Oregon.
(8) Yam-ti, lived on the Yamhill river, Yamhill county, Oregon.
(9) Y on-kal-la, lived on Elk creek and Calapooya creek in Douglas county, Oregon.
B. The following tribes are supposed to have also belonged to the Kalapoo- ian family :
(1) Che-ma-pho, is mentioned in the Dayton treaty of 1855 as a Kalapooian band.
(2) Che-mc-ke-ias, is supposed to have lived near Salem, Marion county, Oregon.
(4) Chil-ly-Chan-dizc, lived on the Willamette river (Ross' Adventures, p. 236, 1847).
(5) Lai>-tam-hif, lived on the ]\Iohawk river. Lane county, Oregon.
(6) Leesh-te-losh, lived near the headwaters of the Willamette river, Ore- gon.
(7) Pee-you, lived on the Willamette river, Oregon.
(8) Shee-hees, is mentioned by Ross (Adventures, p. 236, 1849).
(9) Shook-an-y, mentioned by Ross (Adventures, p. 236, 1849).
(10) Win-ne-fel-ly, tribe participated in the Dayton treaty of 1855.
V. KIT-U-N-A-HAN
(1) The upper Kute-nai (or Kit-o-naqua) (Kootenais).
(2) The Lower Ku-te-nai (or Ako-qtl-at-l-go).
These tribes lived mostly in British Columbia, but also in Northern Idaho
and the Northwestern corner of Mo VI. KU-SAN
A small family of Indian tribes residing in the neighborhood of Coos bay and on the lower part of the Coquille river, Coos county, Oregon.
- Me-lu-kitz, on the north side of Coos bay.
- Mul-luk, on the north side of the Coquille river.
- Nah-su-mi, on the south side of the Coquille river.
VII. TUT-UA-MIAN
This family claimed as their hunting ground all the Klamath county, and part of Lake and Crook counties, and a strip of California along the Oregon border.
- Klam-ath, resided chiefly on the Upper Klamath lake in Klamath county, Oregon.
- Mo-doc, resided on the lakes along the border of Oregon and California; in 1864 the Modocs joined with the Klamaths in ceding their territory to the United States, and both divisions were put on the Klamath Indian reservation; but in 1870 a chief named "Kintpuash," but commonly called "Captain Jack," led a portion of the Modocs back to the California border, and the attempt to bring them back brought on the Modoc war of 1872 and 3.
VIII. SAL-ISH-AN
The name Salish was originally applied to the Flathead tribe in Montana, and was afterwards applied to other tribes speaking their language. Those in Washington, Oregon and Idaho were:
A. Okinagan group:
- O-kin-a-gan, occupied Okinagan county, "Washington, west of the Okinagan river.
- Colville, lived in Stevens county, Washington, from Kettle falls to the Spokane river.
- Nes-pe-lim, or San-poil, lived on the Sans-Poil river in Ferry county, and across the Columbia river in Lincoln county, Washington.
- Sen-i-jex-tee, or Snai-chek-stik, lived on both sides of the Columbia river from Kettle falls to the international boundary, in Ferry and Stevens counties, Washington.
B. Flathead:
- Spo-kan, the name applied to several small bodies of Indians on and near the Spokane river in Stevens, Spokane and Lincoln counties, Washington.
- Kal-is-pel, or Pend d'Oreilles, lived in Bonner county, Idaho, and the eastern part of Stevens county, Washington.
C. Skits-wish, or Goeur d'Alenes, lived in Kootenai county, Idaho. They are known as the Coeur d'Alenes, the French word for "Awl Heart," an expression used by some chief to express the size of a trader's heart.
D. The Columbian Groups:
- Pis-quow, or We-nat-chi, lived on the Wenatchee river, in Kittitas and Okinagan counties, Washington.
- Sin-ki-usc, livcil ou the east side of the Columbia river in Washington, from Fort Okinakane to Point Eaton.
- Me-thow, lived ou the Methow river in Okinagan county, and around Lake Chelan in Chelan county, Washington.
E. Son-gish Group:
(1) CM-lam, lived on the south side of Puget Sound.
(2) Lum-mi, lived in Whatcom county, Washington.
(3) Sani-ish, lived on the Samish river, Skagit county, Washington.
(4) Sem-i-ali-)n()n. lived around Saniiahmoo Bay, AVhatcom county, Wash- ington.
F. Nis-qHal-li (iroap:
(1) Nis-qual-li, lived on the Nisijualli river in Thurston and Pierce counties, Washington.
(2) Dwam-ish, lived near Seattle, Washington, which was named from a ciiief of this and the Suquamish tribes.
(3) Puy-al-lup, lived in Pierce county, Washington.
(4) Skag-it, lived in Skagit county, Washington.
(5) Sno-qual-mi( , or Sno-quam-ish, occupied the upper branches of the Sno- qualmie river. King county, Washington.
(6) Squax-an, lived on the peninsula between Hood's Canal and Case Inlet, Mason county, Washington.
G. Twan-a Group:
The Twana lived along both sides of Hood's Canal, Mason county, Wash- ington. H. Che-ha-lis Group:
(1) Quin-ault, lived in Clielialis county, Washington.
(2) Quait-so, lived on the coast in Chehalis county, Washington.
(3) Eump-tu-lips, lived on the Humptulips river, in Chehalis county, Wash- ington.
(4) Lower Che-lta-lis, lived around Gray's harbor, Chehalis county, Wash- ington.
(5) Sat-sop, lived on Satsop river, a tributary to the Chehalis.
(6) Upper Che-lia-lis (Kiva-i-a-ilk), on the upper courses of the Chehalis river.
(7) Goiv-litz, lived on the Cowlitp; river in Lewis and Cowlitz counties, Wash- ington.
/. TiU-a-mook Group:
(1) Till-a-mook, lived in Tillamook county. Oregon.
(2) Si-let z, lived on the Siletz river, Lincoln county, Oregon.
IX. SHAHAPTIAN FAMILY
also called the Sciatogas, or Sait-u-ka.
(1) Nez Perces (Sahaptin or Chopunnish), was the most prominent tribe of which the following bands are most noted :
(a) Al-pcnv-a, in Garfield and Asotin counties, Washington.
(b) As-su-ti, living on Assuti creek (Asotin county, Washington). They joined Chief Joseph in the Nez Perce war of 1877.
70 THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON
(e) Ea-mi-ah, lived at the present site of Kamiali, Lewis county, Idaho.
(d) Lam-ta-ma, living on White Bird creek, a tributary of the Salmon river, Idaho county, Idaho.
(e) Lap-wai, living on Lapwai creek, Nez Perce county, Idaho.
(f ) WH-le-wah, living in Wallowa county, Oregon, who under chief Joseph were the leaders of the Nez Perce war of 1877.
(2) Elick-i-tat, lived in Klickitat and Skamania counties, Washington.
(3) Pa-loose, lived on the Palouse river and the northern side of the Snake river in Whitman, Adams and Franklin counties, Washington, and Latah county, Idaho.
(3) Ten-i-no, occupied the valley of the Des Chutes river in Wasco, Sher- man, Crook, Gilliam and Morrow counties, Oregon.
(4) Ty-i-gh, occupied the Tygh river and its tributaries in Wasco county, Oregon.
(5) TJm-a-til-la, lived on the Umatilla river in Umatilla county, Oregon.
(6) Wal-la Wal-la, lived on the lower part of the Walla Walla river and on the east side of the Columbia river in Walla Walla county, W^ashington.
(7) Yak-im-a (or Cut-sah-7nhi) , lived along the Columbia river and on the upper branches of the Yakima and the Wenatchee rivers in Benton, Grant, Doug- las, Chelan, Kittitas and Yakima counties, Washington.
X. SHOSHONEAN
This family was widely extended over several states.
(1) Shoshone, occupied the entire central and southwestern part of Idaho.
(2) Ban-nocks: (a) occupied the eastern part of Idaho. Bannock, Bear, Bingham, Bonneville, Fremont and Oneida counties, (b) Occupied the Salmon river, these in 1878 revolted and caused a war.
(3) Snakes ("Pai-ute"), consisting chiefly of the Yahuskin and Wal-papi bands who occupied Southeastern Oregon.
XI. SHASTAN
This family of Indians extended from California into Jackson county, Ore- gon, in the vicinity of Medford.
XII. TA-KEL-MAN
A small family of Indian tribes, sometimes called the Upper Rogue River Indians, living in Josephine county, and adjoining parts of Curry, Jackson and Douglas counties, Oregon.
Xni. WA-KAS-HAN
The name is derived from their word ' ' good, ' ' which Captain Cook heard at Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, and supposed to be the name of the tribe. These Indians pursued and killed the whale. Some of the tribes extended into the west- ern part of Clallam county, Wa shington.
XIV. WAIILATPUAN
(1) Cay-use, lived on the headwaters of the UiiiatiUa, WaUa WaUa and Grande Ronde rivers in UmatiUa and Union counties, Oregon, and Walla Walla county, Washington. Their territory also extended from the Blue mountains to the Ues Chutes river. It was some of these Indians who murdered Dr. Whitman in 1847.
(2) Mo-la-la, lived from Mount Hood to ilount Scott and on Molala river, Clackamas county, Oregon.
XV. YAKONAN
(1) Ya-quin-a, lived about Yaquina bay and river, Lincoln county, Oregon.
(2) Al-se-a, lived along the Alsea river in Lincoln county, Oregon.
(3) Si-w-slaiv, lived along the Siuslaw river in Lane county, Oregon.
(4) Ku-i-tish, lived along the lower Umpqua river in Douglas county, Ore- gon.
With the origin or advent of the Indians of Old Oregon this work is not concerned. The tirst white man to appear in ships on the sea coast found the Indians here before him. Lewis and Clark found them here everywhere when the great e.xpedition came over the Rocky mountains. How long the Indian had been here before the white man put in an appearance there is no data from which to make an estimate. The Indian of this region constructed no roads, built no mon- uments and left no traces on the face of nature to mark his existence or indicate the lapse of time. The temporary habitation he created, even when he had any, might have been for one or a dozen years, but not for even the span of a single life.
Yet, but only a superficial examination of the different tribes of Indians of the Pacific coast shows that there were not only distinct but wide differences be- tween the Indians of California, Oregon and Alaska ; but also between the Indians of the sea coast and those of the great interior basin of the Columbia river valley. The Eskimo and some of the other tribes of Alaska show that they might be re- lated to the Japanese ; and might have, as it were easily possible, at some time in the distant past, come across from the east shores of Asia to west shores of North America. The reverse might also have been the fact, as there is no positive knowledge to the contrary. Since this chapter was written a Norwegian explorer has found tribes of red-haired people in the far north on the .Arctic ocean, show- ing a connection with European peoples in the far distant past. The testimony of the rocks, the ancient geology of Oregon, shows that the horse, the camel, the rhinoceros and the mastodon were native to this part of the globe. Why not man also 1 Mankind is primarily an ethnological unit. There is only one specie of men. Attempts which have been made to separate mankind into several species of the genus Homo always failed. There being but one specie of man he could have but one origin. There are different races of men which have been produced by environment, and they each interbreed with the others. Different species of ani- mals are not fertile with other species ; and this proves the one single origin of all men. And whether the Indians came over from Europe or Asia ; or whether the Asiatics and Europeans went over from America is not now important. The migration might have been from either side on the solid ice cap that once furnished an unobstructed highway between Siberia and Alaska; or it might have been by some primitive makeshift of a boat floating down a Siberian river and blown across to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. But on all the Indian population from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the Equator, the influence of environment, of food, climate and shelter is plainly manifest. Where it was easy to absorb a physical support from the bounties of nature the Indian was a lazy vagabond. Whenever he had to fight or struggle to maintain an existence he was a rugged, assertive savage. Where he got an easy living from fishing he paddled around in a canoe; and where he had to capture the buffalo he rode a wild horse and brought down his game with a spear. And everywhere in Old Oregon when the white man came he found the Indian clad in the skins and furs of wild animals. It was not an unusual thing for the first fur traders to find Indians clad in furs that would excite the envy of an European princess and sell for thousands of dollars.
One hundred years ago the Indian owned the whole country. He might well have sung with Robinson Crusoe:
The Indian was the stone age man. The relics picked up all over Oregon, or unearthed by deep mining operations, irrigation canal works and deep wells, and sent to the Historical Society's rooms at Portland, contain the mute but indisputable story of the centuries of occupation of Oregon by our native Indians.
The stone axes, chisels, hammers, mortars, grinding mill stones, arrow points and spear heads exhibit the patience, skill and perseverance with which the Indian had to contend for an existence against rival tribes, wild beasts and the inhospitality of the uncultivated earth. He was purely a child of nature, and harbored no selfishness but the satisfaction of his immediate wants. He believed in a Great Spirit who had made the stars and the earth, and who had given the land and the water and all therein to all his children in common. The Indian was the original socialist—the man who lived as a socialist, fought for his lands as a socialist, divided the fruits of all his labors as a socialist, and died in the conviction that the white man had robbed him of his God-given birthrights.
The Indian had no standard of values. He estimated everything he parted with, or what he obtained by barter, by his desires for what he wanted and his ability to replace what he parted with. In disposing of his rich furs—otter skins now worth five hundred dollars each—he had no more idea of their money value than a five-year-old child; as for example his giving in one instance to a sea captain fur trader otter skins worth eight thousand dollars for a chisel that cost in England one dollar. In the grasp of his mind he could catch more otter and get more skins, but he might never have another chance to get a chisel that would be far more useful to him in carving a canoe out of a cedar log than the stone axe he had made himself.
In addition to the primitive stone axe, hammer and grinding mill already mentioned, the Indian had very little property outside of the skin clothing to
THE CENTFA'NIAL HISTORY OF OREGON 73
cover his body and the skins that formed his bed. The Indians that lived by the river side and the ocean, possessed canoes on which they set great value. And in the interior far from the navigable rivers, Indians possessed large numbers of hoi'ses of the size of ponies. And on these they traveled from place to place, fi'eqnently making long excursions where there was no danger of war. The In- dians of the Snake river valley, Shoshones, would go cast beyond the Rocky mountains to hunt or trade for bufifalo beef and skins. The Indians of the Rogue river valley in Southern Oregon would come over into the Willamette valley, and the Klickitats of White Salmon and the Yakima would range all over the coun- try everywhere on horse trading expeditions, and when no favorable trades were offered would not hesitate to steal. The word Klickitat is said to mean "ma- rauder" or "robber." The Indians of Southeastern Alaska would come down to PugeL Sound (as they do yet to pick hops) by the hundreds in the finest canoes in the world, to trade and barter with the Puget Sound Indians. The Indian women of all the tribes, and especially of those in Alaska, were skilled in making baskets of willows and grasses, many of them water-tight, and that would last a lifetime. They were also not only skillful, but also artistic in weaving feathers and beads into ornaments to distinguish the "chief," or add to their own per- sonal charms. And some even had attained to the art of spinning in a rude way the wool of the mountain sheep and weaving it into serviceable shawls and blankets.
The idea of a "Great Spirit" that ruled all the universe that the Indian could see or comprehend was universal with all the Indians from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. And it must be conceded that this idea must have been evolved from the inner consciousness of the Indian himself, or it must have come to him from some foreign land so far back in the past that there is no history or dis- tinction of the fact. This universal idea assumed dilferent names and meanings with different tribes, and in consequence thereof, there came to be a lot of petty deities, or subsidiary gods, in the Indian theology. But over and above all these petty deities the Indian recognized one God subordinate to the Great Spirit, whose name was in some tribes Talipas, or Tullipas, and in others "Coyote." In relating the wonderful things performed by "Coyote" the Indian will go into many fanciful details. And sometimes he will vary the particulars of the story to suit what he may think is the fancy of his auditor. One story is as good as another to show the trend of the Indian mind in referenc-e to the supernatural. Here is the most prevalent one as to how there came to be different tribes of In- dians in this Old Oregon country.
"A long time ago," said an old Klickitat chief and medicine man. "when all kinds of animals could talk like men, and before any of the present tribes of In- dians lived on the earth, there was a mighty beaver, ' Wish-poosh,' who lived in Lake Cle-el-lum. This big beaver was the god of the lake, and claimed all the fish in the lake and all the trees around about the lake. He lived in the bottom of the lake and had eyes like balls of fire, and immense nails on his big claws as bright as silver. But like some other gods of the Indians he was a bad character, and killed many things, and made the lake a place of terror, because he had killed and eaten everything that had come in his way. To the animals he could not kill he denied the privilege of catching fish in the lake of which there was plenty for all. All over the country the Indians were hungry for fish, but not a fish could they
get. And then along comes ' Coyote ' and found the poor Indians in this bad fix, and their condition moved him to do something for the poor people. Coyote would kill Wish-poosh ; but as other gods had tried to destroy him Coyote knew he had a big job on hand, and so he armed himself for the dangerous battle. He procured a great spear with a long strong handle, and bound it to his wrist with strong cords of Indian flax, and thus armed he went down to the lake and finding old Wishpoosh drove the spear into his body. The wounded and maddened water god plunged into the lake and down to the bottom; and the cord of the spear handle being fast to Coyote 's wrist he was dragged down to the bottom of the lake and dragged around by the infuriated monster until the lake was churned up like foam upon the ocean ; and from the lake Wishpoosh whisked Coyote away to the mountain side, and in the awful battle the two gods tore a hole through the moun- tains making the Stampede pass where the railroad now goes through ; and from the great gap in the mountain the fighting monsters rushed down into the sea that covered the Yakima valley, and turning about rushed over towards the Co- lumbia river making a channel for the White Salmon river to run down from Mt. Adams. And still the mighty beaver god dragged poor Coyote along who was now getting the worst of the battle. Coyote grabbed the trees as Wishpoosh dragged him along and the trees were pulled up like stubble; he clawed at the rocks and they tumbled down upon him. Nothing could stay the mighty power of Wishpoosh. Exhausted and more dead than alive Coyote finally found himself in the breakers of the ocean at the mouth of the Columbia river — and — and — Wishpoosh was dead. Finally dragging himself to shore, and the dead body of Wishpoosh with him. Coyote wiped the water from his face and eyes and decided to cut up the beaver god 's body and make it into different tribes of Indians. And proceeding to do so he cut out the belly and of it made the Chinook Indians, say- ing as he did so 'you shall always be short and fat and have great bellies.' Of the legs he made the Cayuses, saying 'you shall be fieet of foot and have strong limbs.' Of the head and brains he made the Nez Perces, saying 'you shall be men of wisdom and strong in battle. ' Of the ribs he made the Yakimas, saying, 'you shall be the protectors of the poor Indians.' Of the remainder of the body of Wishpoosh — some scraps, blood and entrails, he made the Snake In- dians, saying 'you shall always be the people of treachery, blood and violence.' "
The above is onlj^ one of twenty or more mythical stories which the Indians have handed down from father to son for unknown generations past. As well as the above story, which is "Speelyai, the Coyote," they have Speelyai and his wonderful dog, Amash the Owl, the Legend of the Lick, The Rabbit and the Sun, the Frog and the Moon, the Origin of Fire, Wawa the Mosquito, Castiltah the Crawfish, Wak-a-Poosh the Rattlesnake, the Tumwater Stone God, Coyote's Ride to the Star, how the Coyote and the Eagle bring the dead back from the Spirit Land, and the Island of the Dead.
Now here is a real ti-ue Indian story which the author of this book vouches for himself. Four years ago as Mr. Maximilian Tuerck, who has a fruit farm on Cook's Addition near the town of White Salmon in the state of Washington, was driving home from town he had to pass along a road running through a for- est for half a mile. As he drove along suddenly a coyote — the sneaking, chicken- stealing, lamb-killing, little gray wolf of eastern Oregon — came out of the brush and trotted alongside the team for a quarter of a mile. Mr. Tuerck had nothing with which he could attack the animal and so took notice of all his movements. Every few minutes the coyote would look up at the man apparently fearing nothing and making no effort to part company. As the woods was passed and the open field closed in the coyote left the highway and disappeared in the brush. Before Mr. Tuerck reached his home he met on the road, Joe Hunt, an Indian about seventy-five years of age, and the son of Timotsk, whose likeness appears on another page of this book. Stopping his team Mr. Tuerck related his strange experience with the coyote. Hunt immediately showed great anxiety and with much excitement said to Tuerck, who had in many cases shown him friendship, "That is bad news, very bad news, the coyote knows, he brings you bad news, Indian know the coyote no lie. Now you see some of your friend die, may be now, may be tomorrow—you see, sure you see." Mr. Tuerck could only smile at the simple minded faith of
"The poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;"
but on reaching his home was shocked and overwhelmed by a telephone message from Portland announcing the sudden death of his mother a few hours previous.
But not all of the Indians believed in the grossness of the myths represented by the foregoing. Some of them had ideas of more refinement if not of progress. A few years ago Mr. Silas B. Smith, of Clatsop county, who was himself a half blood Indian, and an educated man—an attorney—prepared a statement of the beliefs of the Indians which he had gathered from Indians personally. Speaking generally of the Indians west of the Cascade mountains Mr. Smith said they were slave holders; but that their slaves were obtained from the tribes north of the Straits of Fuca, or from southern Oregon or northern California; and that there were no flatheads among the slaves. From this fact it is concluded that the flattening of the head was considered a mark of nobility—among the Willamette and coast Indians. Another interesting fact Mr. Smith gives is that the Indian men of the leading families always sought wives from tribes other than their own. And this shows that the Oregon Indian understood the danger of interbreeding with relatives, and in this respect they were more enlightened than the British aristocracy.
The Oregon Indians, says Mr. Smith, believed in one Supreme Being, the creator of all things, and they called him "E-cah-nie." They have subordinate gods, and the principal one is "Tal-i-pas." This divinity possessed some creative power, and he came among men to teach them ways of living, and in his travels he would assume the form of the coyote, hence his name (Tal-i-pas, pronounced by some tribes as "Tul-li-pas," being the name of the coyote). He taught the people the art of building canoes and of navigation, of making nets and seining for salmon, of building houses for their dwellings, and all the various customs and rites which they observed. On account of his creative qualities his character is sometimes blended in with the Supreme Being, and at such times, in referring to him, they award him the title of "E-cah-nie."
And. again, they have divinities presiding over certain special interests, such as the run of fish and the like. The heart of the salmon must never be given to a dog to be eaten, as on account of his base nature it would be an act of
purity, which would provoke the disfavor of the god presiding over the des-
tinies of the sahnon, and would cause a failure of the season's run of fish.
The ' ' Ta-man-a-was " is a tutelary or guardian spirit or god who is supposed to see to the welfare of its subject and to give warning of approaching events of a portentious character. Every person having a tamanawas is not necessarily a doctor or medicine man or woman, but every medicine man must have a' ta- manawas. These personal gods were not considered to possess equal attributes — some were supposed to be endowed with greater qualities than others. Some individuals claimed that their gods could disturb the elements of nature ; that is, could cause storms to arise, the lightnings to flash and the thunders to rumble, and other disturbances as well.
These people believe in the immortality of the soul ; they believe in a spirit life and in a spirit land; they believe that the spirits of other animals go to the spirit land as well as that of men. Their conception of the spirit land is quite beautiful and pleasing. There it is always spring or summer ; the fields are per- petually green, flowers blooming; fruit ripening, and running waters diversify the scenery of the beautiful landscapes, with always an abundant supply of game, and of course the inhabitants are in a continuous state of felicity.
They believe that when a person becomes very sick the spirit leaves the body and seeks the shores of the spirit land, and unless it is recaptured and returned to its original tenement, the person will of course surely die. In such cases the services of a skillful tamanawas doctor are engaged, and an assistant is fur- nished him to accompany him on his journey of discovery to the land of the dead. The assistant is given a baton, ornamented in the upper part with plumes of birds and claws of beasts. The doctor manipulates his assistant until he has him mesmerized ; also the baton, which is in a continuous state of agitation ; he then places himself in a trance state, meanwhile keeping up a vigorous chant, and they start on their excursion to the shadowy shores. If they should be for- tunate enough to find the absconding spirit, the doctor seciires it and brings it back with him, oftentimes keeping it over night, and restoring it to the patient next day. Should the patient recover it is proof of the gi'eat powers of the doe- tor, but if on the contrary, the patient pass away, it is evidence that the spirit ran away the second time. And so strong is the regard of the Indian for the coyote (wolf) that he will not kill one of them to this day.
Among all the Indians of the Old Oregon country, four tribes stand out with distinguished prominence. The Platheads of the Bitter Root valley in the Rocky mountains were distinguished for their religious convictions and practice, and continued peace with the white men. The Nez Perces were also remarkable for their attachment to religious teaching, but were equally noted for their courage and sense of justice. The Cayuses were as much noted for their dishonesty and treachery as their neighbors were for good conduct. The Snakes (Shoshones) were the irreclaimable vagabonds. If the white man got a favor from them he had to first pay for it and then execute the contract by a demonstration of superior force. Speaking of the moral character of the Flatheads and Nez Perces, Bonne- ville says that they exhibited strong and peculiar feelings of natural religion ; and that it was not a mere supposititious fear like that of most savages — they evince abstract notions of morality, a deep reverence for an overruling spirit, and a respect for the rights of their fellowmen. They (the Flatheads) hold that
the Great Spirit is displeased with all nations who wantonly engage in war; they
abstain from all aggressive hostilities. Wyeth gave the Flatheads equal, or even
greater praise, saying he had never known an instance of theft among them ; and
neither quarreling or lying ; and that they were brave when put to the test, and
more than a mateh for the Blackfeet in battle. And the same praise is due
e(|ually to the Nez Perces. The Cayuses made loud pretentions to religion for
a while after the missionaries earae but fell from grace with the murder of Dr.
Whitman by members of their tribe. With the exceptions of the Flatheads and
Kez Perces it is quite reasonable that the Indian's native idea of religion, or a
Great Spirit, arose from his inability to comprehend the forces of nature about
him on all sides. But the example of the Flathead and the Nez Perce shows what
might have been developed out of those tribes if they could have been handled
and taught by uniformly honest and ,iust men. For these Indians had in them
the germs of a vigorous civilization which could have been so trained and ex-
panded as would have produced teachers and governors of all other tribes, and
saved the nation millions of dollars and thousands of valuable lives in suppress-
ing Indian wars.
So far as the British and their agent, the Hudson's Bay Company, was con- cerned, the morals and religious teaching of the Indians was a matter of no im- portance or concern of theirs unless it affected the fur trade. One religion was just as good as another to them, and no religion was better than either. An In- dian that would not go out and hunt for furs and come in and trade his pelts for trinkets was to the fur company a very poor Indian. When the British agents, Warre and Vavasour, visited Oregon in 1845, they reported the Indians as a very superstitious race, and declared "that neither the Roman Catholic nor the Methodist missions had done much toward reclaiming the Indian population, who are an idle, dissolute race."
The Indian population of the Oregon country, according to estimates made by the Hudson's Bay Company, was in the year 1842 as follows:
Port Vancouver locality 200
Umpqua Valley locality 800
Cape Disappointment locality 100
Chinook Point locality -. 100
Coweeman on Columbia locality 100
Champoeg on Willamette locality 150
Nisqually Puget Sound locality 500
Cowlitz County Valley locality 250
Port Colville, Upper Columbia locality 800
Pend d 'Oreille, Idaho, locality 400
Flatheads. Bitter Root Valley locality 500
Kootenais — Kootenai rivei', Idaho, locality 500
Okanogan, Upper Columbia locality 300
Walla Wallas, Walla Walla Valley locality 300
Port Hall — Eastern Idaho locality 200
Port Boise, Boise Valley locality 200
Port Victoria. Vancouver Island locality 5,000
Port Rupert. Vaucouvei' Island locality 4,000
Nanaimo, Vancouver Island locality 3,000
Fort Langley, Eraser River locality 4,000
Fort Simpson, N. W. Coast locality 10,000
Kamloops, Upper Columbia, B. C, locality 2,000
Total 33,400
In a population of this size there must have been five or six thousand fighting men. But there was no organization, no co-operation, and scarcely sympathy of one tribe with another. One tribe might rally a few hundred at one time for a single battle to rob a party of white men or attack a ship. Their weakness was pitiful. And so the white traders and trappers ranged the vast country over with scarcely a noticeable resistenee; the massacre of the Smith party on the Umpqua and of the crew of the Tonquin at Clayoquot being the only example of concerted action of the natives to destroy the white men. And after the Indian had learned the use of firearms, combinations of tribes to resist the aggression of the white man was formed, as in the case of the Rogue River Indian war, the Yakima war, and the memorable resistenee of Chief Joseph in his effort to retain the ancient home of his family in the Wallowa Valley. (An account of the In- dian wars will be given in the order of time of occurrence in another chapter.)
Probably the most effective agency to get access to the Indian mind, and to unify their relations to the white settlers and promote trade, peace and good fellowship with all the tribes was the invention and construction of the "Jar- gon" or "Chinook" language. Of all the spoken languages in America or in the world the "Jargon" is the most unique. Its origin is not definitely known. When Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of the Columbia river in 1805, they found the "Jargon" in use among the Indians at that point. It is supposed to have been originated by the first voyagers to the Oregon coast in search of furs, and was added to from time to time by Indians, travelers and fur traders. It contains some real Indian words of the Wasco tribe, and some corrupted French and English words, but most of it is pure fiction. Some of the words have gone into general use among the pioneer Oregonians and have got into good company" with people who prefer forcible languages, for instance the word "cultus" mean- ing utterly worthless, irreclaimably bad.
Below is given samples of the language, with definitions from Gill's standard dictionary of the "Jargon."
CHINOOK JARGON
Conversational Phrases
English Chinook
Good morning Klahowya, six ?
Good evening or
Good day Klahowyam.
How do you do ?
Come here Chahco yahwa.
How are you? Kahta mika?
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON 79
Are you sick ? Mika sick ?
Are you hungry ? Nah olo mika ?
How did you come ? Kalita mika cliahco ?
Are you thirsty ? Nah, olo chuck mika?
What ails you 1 Kahtah mika ?
Would you like something to eat? iMika tikeh inuckainuck?
Do you want work? Jlika Tikeh mamook?
To do what ?
What do you want me to do ? Iktah mika mamook ?
Cut some wood Mamook stick ?
Certainly Nawitka.
How much do you want for cutting that Kansee dolla spose mika mamook kono-
lot of wood ? way okoke stick?
That is too mucli. I will give half a Ilyas mahkook, nika potlatch sitkum
dollar dolla.
No ! Give three quarters Wake, six ! Potlatch klone quahtah.
Very well ; get to work Kloshe kahkwa ; mamook alta.
Where is the axe ? Kah lahash ?
There it is Yah-wa.
Cut it small for the stove Jlamook tenas, spose chickamin pah.
Give me a saw Potlatch lasee.
I have the saw ; use the axe Halo lasee ; is 'kum lahash.
All right Nawitka.
Bring it inside Lolo stick kopa house.
Where shall I put it ? Kah mika marsh okoka ?
There Yahwa.
Here is something to eat Hahkwa mitlite mika muckamuek.
Here is some bread Hahkwa mitlite piah sapolil.
Now bring some water Klatawa iskum chuck.
Where shall I get it ? Kah nitka iskum ?
In the river there Kopa ikhol yahwa.
Make a fire Mamook piah.
Boil the water Mamook liplip chuck.
Cook the meat Mamook piah ohoke itwillee.
Wash the dishes Wash ohoke leplah.
What shall I wash them in ? Kopa kah ?
In that pan Kopa ohoke kettling.
Come again tomorrow Chahco weght tomolla.
Good-bye Klahowya.
Come here, friend Chahco Yahkwya, six.
What do you want? Iktah mika tikeh ?
I want you to do a little job in the morn- Spose mika mamook tenas mamook tenas
ing sun ?
Come very early Chahco elip sun.
At six o'clock Chahco yahkwa tahkum tintin.
Oh, here you are ! Alah ! Mika chahco.
Carry this box to the steamer Lolo okoko lecasset kopa piah ship.
Take this bag also Lolo weght lesac.
What will you pay ? Iktah mika potlatch ?
A quarter ? Ikt Kwahtah ?
Very well, and something to eat? Kloshe kahkwa; pee tenas muckamuck?
It is pretty heavy Hyas till okoke.
Is that man your brother ? Yahka nah mika kahpo okoke man ?
He can help you, too Yahka lolo leeasset kopa mika.
I will give him something, too Nika potlatch weglit yahka.
Can you carry it ? Nah skookum mika lolo okoke.
Is it very heavy ? Hyas till okoke ?
Oh, no ! We shall do it Wake ! Nesika mamook.
Are you tired 1 Mika chalico till ?
How far is it, this ship ? Koonsee siah, okoke ship ?
Not much farther Wake siah alta.
That is all Kopet.
Do you understand English ? Kumtux, mika Boston wawa.
No, not very much Wake hiyu.
Will you sell that fish ? Mika tikeh mahkook okoke pish ?
Which of them? Klaxta?
That large one Okoke hyas.
What is the price of it ? Konsee chickamin tikeh ?
I '11 give you two bits Nika potlatch mox bit.
I '11 give you half a dollar Nika potlatch sitkum dolla.
No, that is not enough Wake, okoke hiyu.
Where did you catch that trout ? Kali mika klap okoke opalo ?
In Skamokaway river Kopa Skamokaway Ikhol.
Are there many fish there? Nah hiyu lepish yahwa?
Not many; too much logging Wake ; klaska mamook hiyu stick alta.
Well, I won 't buy it today Abba, wake tikeh iskum okoke sun.
What do you think of this country ? . . . . Iktah mika tumtum okoke illahee ? It is very pleasant when it does not rain . Hyas koshe yahkaw spose wake snass. Not always; it is worse when it snows Wake kw.onesum. Chahco weght peshak and freezes spose cole snass pee selipo.
How long have you lived here? (How
many years ? ) Konsee cole mitlite yahkwa mika ?
Many years ; I forget how many Hiyu cole ; kopet kumtux konsee.
I was born at Skipanon Chee tenas nika kopa Skipanan.
Did you get your wife there ? Nah, mika iskum nika kloochman yah- kwa ? No ; she is a Tillamook woman. I mar- Wake ; Tillamook kloochman, Yakha.
ried her at Nehalem Nika malleh yahka kopa Nehalem.
How many children have you ? Konsee tenas mika ?
We have three boys and one little girl.. .Klone tenas man nesika pee ikt tenas
likp ; ho. I will send you some things for them Nika mamook chahco iktas Kimta nika ko
when I get home nika il .png)
MAP OF INDIAN TRIBES
A GRACE AT TABLE
From Lee & Frost's "Ten Years in Oregon"
O Sohole Isthumah, etokete mikah; toweah ekokete itlhullam Mikah minchelute eopa ensikah. Kadow quonesuni miuchteauieet ensikah, Uminshee- tah conawa etoweta eopa raikali, emehan. God, good art Thou; this good food Thou hast given to us. In like manner always look upon us, and give all good things to us, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A HYMN IN JARGON
From Lee & Frost
Aka eglahlam Ensikah
Mika Ishtamah emeholew
Kupet mikam toketa mimah
Mika quonesim kadow
Mikah ekatlah gumohah
Mika dowah gumeoh
Konawa etoketa tenmah
Mika ankute gumtoh.
Translation
Here we now unite in singing
Glory, Lord unto thy name.
Only good, and worthy praising.
Thou are always. Lord, the same.
Of the sun, Thou are Creator,
And the light was made by thee ;
And all things good, yea every creature.
At the first, Thou made'st to be.
THE LORD'S PRAYER
Nesika Papa klaxta mitlite kopa Sahalee, Kloshe kopa nesika tumtum mika nem. Nesika Hiyu Tikeh cahco mika ilahee ; Mamook ]\Iika kaloshe tumtum kopa okoke ilahee Kahwa kopa Shalee. Potlatch konaway sun nesika mueka- muek ; pee Mahlee konaway nesika mesahchee, kahkawa nesika mamook kopa klaska spose Mamook mesachee kopa nesika. Wake lolo nesika kopa peshak, pee marsh siah kopa nesika konaway mesahchee. Kloshe kahkwa.
Our Father who dwellest in the above, sacred in our hearts (be) Thy name. We greatly long for the coming of Thy Kingdom. Do Thy good will with this world, as also in the heaven. Give (us) day by day our bread, and remember not all our wickedness, even as we do also with others if they do evil unto our- selves. Not bring us into danger, but put far away from us all evil. So may it be.
A COMMON SIGN LANGUAGE
Intercourse by signs was universal among the Aborigines. The code of signals was much the same from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Major Lee M. House tells of being at Washington, D. C., with a party of Indians from Oregon and Washington, attending a great council of representatives from all parts of the country. Languages were different and the gathering clans were cold and morose, until somebody made an attempt at an address in the sign language, which put everybody at ease, for all understood.
Certain chants and songs are widely known also. The Omalias knew at once the "stick-bone" gambling song of the Indians of Vancouver island, upon hear- ing it sung by a student of Indian music. It was the same as their own.
While there has not been that general uplift in the character of the Indian, or of his race as an element of the population, which was hoped for and labored for by the first missionaries, yet there has been a vast improvement of his condition mentally, morally and financially. Civilization has not been advantageous to the bodily vigor and strength of the red man. In his primitive condition he had to put forth strenuous effort to take game for his subsistence, and this developed his limbs, his body, and his vital organs. The lazy life of the Indian reservation, with government annuities to piece out slight efforts at labor to produce crops for foods, has enervated rather than developed his body. But worse than all his natural and inherited shortcomings to hold the native down to barbarism has been the persistent and devilish pursuit of the Indian by the dishonest, corrupt and diseased white man. The worthless white man that hangs around the reservation, that sneaks into its confines the bad whiskey, and debauches the Indian family, that persistently fights and defeats every effort to teach the Indian decent ways of living, is a thousand times a meaner, baser and more destructive creature than any Indian could be. And this vile influence of the depraved white man is unfortunately a part of the history of the Indian for a hundred years — "a century of dishonor" it has been called ; and it is also, and severely just so, a part of the history of the educated and governing class of the American citizens. In the history of the state of Oregon it can be pointed out where an Indian agent at Grande Ronde agency, on a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year for four years, came out of office with money enough to purchase two thousand acres of the richest land in the Yamhill valley. How much of the annuities which the United States government issued to be paid by that agent to the fifteen hundred ignorant Indian wards was stolen by the trusted agent, and how little the poor Indians received, will never be known. At the Umatilla reservation, not one agent but more than half a dozen, grew rich in persistent thefts from the ignorant and impoverished wards of the government, and which robbery was continued until the Christian churches of the nation made reform of the Indian agencies the battle cry from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine.
In this battle to secure justice to the poor and despised Indian, who could do nothing for himself or family, the names of Marcus Whitman, Jason Lee, Elkanah Walker, Cushing Eells, H. H. Spalding, Bishop Blanchet, Peter John De Smet, James H. Wilbur, George H. Atkinson, Joel Palmer, T. W. Davenport, Lee Moorhouse and Aaron L. Lindsley will stand out in glorious renown as long as the state of Oregon has a history.
But if the statements of the Nez Perces are to be believed the government agents still consider it a safe and respectable business to rob an Indian — or a thousand Indians. At the present session of Congress these Indians have presented a petition through Senator Borah, of Idaho, showing that the Nez Perce Indians were a strong and powerful tribe of Indians occupying a large tract of territory amounting to many millions of acres in the states of Oregon, Washing- ton, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming ; in 1855 they ceded over 12,000,000 acres of their territory to the government, but retained the rights to game and fish thereon, they say:
"Again in 1863 a further cession of land was made but our rights to the game, fish, etc., were still retained ; finally in 1893, when we made the last cession of land, we were guaranteed all the treaty rights theretofore promised.
"We were not paid the full amounts promised to us in the treaties and agreements and we were not protected in our hunting and fishing rights.
"The game, fish and herbs, the use of the streams, springs and fountains, roads and highways, the use of the timber and camping privileges were consid- ered by us of much greater value than the money promised to us for the cession of the land.
"Our people are good, law-abiding, sober and industrious citizens and desire fair and honest treatment at the hands of the United States government and at the hands of the officers thereof.
"Many of our people are unjustly and wrongfully treated by the officers or agents of the Interior Department in the forcible deposits of our moneys in banks without our consent — the moneys that belong to individuals, derived from the sale of inherited land, of the collection of rents from their personal lands — and the withholding of the money from the individual, depriving him of the use thereof and imposing on him many hardships at great cost."
Contrary to the general belief the Nez Perces and the Yakimas have actively kept up their local church and school organizations, as well as sending delegates to conferences and church conventions, and have liberally patronized the great government school for Indians near Salem. This school has been of marked use- fulness to thousands of Indian boys and girls who have attended it. One young Indian man educated there — a full-blood Indian of the Puyallup tribe — is now cashier of the First National Bank of North Yakima, and many instances of oth- ers could be given who have succeeded in business, live stock, farming and trans- portation lines.
THE INDIAN AND THE LAND QUESTION
The land question was at the bottom of all the troubles with the Indians. And the land question will be at the bottom of all the trouble amcng the Americans. The Hudson's Bay Company did not seek to monopolize land for cultivation- or sale. It only sought to preserve the wilderness as a vast fur-bearing game pre- serve. This disposition of the land coincided exactly with the ideas of the In- dians, and as the compan.v brought goods and trinkets for exchange for his furs, the Indian was happy and welcomed that sort of a white man to his tepee and his confidence. But not so with the American. He came hunting new lands, for farms and homes, clearing away the forest and driving away the game—the natural food support of the Indians. With the single exception of Penn's experiment in buying the lands of the Indians in Pennsylvania, the contest between the white man and the Indian on the American continent has been one of opposition and violence, and the cause of the trouble, the possession of land.
All the Indians from the Atlantic to the Pacific were possessed with the same socialistic idea of land ownership. And while neighboring tribes would war with each other for favorite hunting grounds, yet to the white man all of them presented the same unyielding front on the land question. This view of the land question was never more forcibly or clearly set forth than by the Indian Chief Tecumseh, of the territory of Indiana. When General Harrison was appointed governor of Indiana territory in 1801, he tried to secure a permanent peace with the warlike Indians of that region, of which Tecumseh was the great warrior and leader. And to promote this end, he invited Tecumseh and other chiefs to visit him at old Vincennes. Tecumseh accepted the invitation and was attended by a number of other chiefs. The governor proposed to hold the conference on the portico of his residence, but Tecumseh declined to meet there and proposed a nearby grove, saying, "The earth is my mother, and on her bosom will I repose." And in the speech following, Tecumseh said, "that the Great Spirit had given this great island (America) to his red children and had put the whites on the other side of the water. The whites, not contented with their own, had taken that of the red men. They had driven the Indians from the sea to the lakes, and the Indians could go no farther. The whites had taken upon themselves to say that this land belongs to the Miamis, this to the Delaware, and so on. The Great Spirit intended the land as the common property of all.
"Since the peace we formerly made," he continued, "you have killed some Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Delawares, and Miamis, and you have taken our land from us, and I do not see how we can remain at peace if you continue to do so. You try to force the red people to do some injury. It is you that are pushing them on to do mischief. You endeavor to make distinctions. You wish to prevent the Indians from doing as they wish to—unite and to consider their land as the common property of the whole. By your distinction of Indian tribes in allotting to each a particular tract of land you want them to make war with one another.
"Brother, this land that was sold to you was sold only by a few. If you continue to purchase our lands this way, it will produce war among the different tribes. Brother, you should take pity on the red people, and return to them a little of the land of which they have been plundered. The Indian has been honest in his dealings with you, but how can we have confidence in the white people? When Jesus Christ came on earth, you killed him and nailed him to the cross. You thought he was dead, but you were mistaken. You have many religions, and you persecute and ridicule those who do not agree with you. The Shakers are good people. You have Shakers among you, but you laugh and make light of their worship. You are counseled by bad birds. I speak nothing but the truth to you."
And as Tecumseh reflected the ideas of all the Indians east of the Rocky mountains, so we find also the same ideas pervading among those west of the Rockies.
At the council with the Indians at Walla Walla, to secure a treaty for the Indian title to their lands, several chiefs spoke freely, showing that they not only well understood the position of the land question, but their great fear of giving up their lands. Lawyer, the old Nez Perce chief, spoke first, describing how the Indians in the eastern states were driven back before the white men, and then went on as follows:
"The red man traveled away farther, and from that time they kept traveling away farther, as the white people came vip with them, and this man's people (pointing to a Delaware Indian, who was one of the interpreters) are from that people. They have come on from the Great Lakes where the sun rises, until they are near us now, at the setting sun. And from that country, somewhere from the center, came Lewis and Clark, and that is the way the white people traveled and came here to my forefathers. They passed through our country, they became acquainted with our country, and all our streams, and our forefathers used them well, as well as they could, and from the time of Columbus, from the time of Lewis and Clark, we have known you my friends; we poor people have known you as brothers."
Governor Stevens said: "We have now the hearts of the Nez Perces through their chiefs. Their hearts and our hearts are one. We want the hearts of the other tribes through their chiefs."
Young Chief, of the Cayuses — (He was evidently opposed to the treaty but grounded his objections on two arguments. The first was, they had no right to sell the ground which God had given for their support unless for some good reasons) : "I wonder if the ground has anything to say? I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said? I wonder if the ground would come alive and what is on it? Though I hear what the ground says. The ground says: 'It is the Great Spirit that placed me here. The Great Spirit tells me to take care of the Indians, to feed them aright. The Great Spirit appointed the roots to feed the Indians on.' The water says the same thing. 'The Great Spirit directs me. Feed the Indians well.' The grass says the same thing. 'Feed the horses and cattle.' The ground, water and grass say, ' The Spirit has given us our names. We have these names and bold these names. Neither the Indians nor whites have a right to change those names.' The ground says, 'The Great Spirit has placed me here to produce all that grows on me, trees and fruit.' The same way the ground says, 'It was from me man was made.' The Great Spirit in placing men on the earth desired to take good care of the ground and to do each other no harm. The Great Spirit said, 'You Indians who take care certain portions of the country, should not trade it off except you get a fair price. '
"The Indians are blind. This is the reason we do not see the country well. Lawyer sees clear. This is the reason why I don't know anything about this country'. I do not see the offer you have made to us yet. If I had the money in my hand I should see. I am, as it were, blind. I am blind and ignorant. I have a heart, but cannot say much. This is the reason why the chiefs do not under- stand each other right and stand apart. Although I see your offer before me I do not understand it and do not take it. I walk as it were in the dark, and cannot therefore take hold of what I do not see. Lawyer sees, and he takes hold. When I come to understand your propositions, I will take hold. I do not know when. This is all I have to say."
General Palmer: "I would enquire whether Pe-pe-mox-mox or Young Chief has spoken for the Umatillas? I wish to know farther, whether the Umatillas are of the same heart?
Owhi, Umatilla Chief: "We are together and the Great Spirit hears all that we say today. The Great Spirit gave us the land and measured the land to us; this is the reason why I am afraid to say anything about the land. I am afraid of the laws of the Great Spirit. This is the reason of my heart being sad. This is the reason I cannot give you an ansM'er. I am afraid of the Great Spirit. Shall I steal this land and sell it, or what shall I do ? This is the reason why my heart is sad. The Great Spirit made our friends, but the Great Spirit made our bodies from the earth, as if they were different from the whites. What shall I do? Shall I give the land which is a part of my body and leave myself poor and des- titute? Shall I say I will give you my land? I cannot say so. I am afraid of the Great Spirit. I love my life. The reason why I do not give my land away is, I am afraid I will be sent to hell. I love my friends. I love my life. This is the reason why I do not give my land away. I have one more word to say. My people are far away. They do not know your words. This is the reason I cannot give you an answer. I show you my heart. This is all I have to say."
As explanatory of the trouble which led to the Whitman massacre, and to the wars with the Oregon Indians, Mrs. Victor in her history of the Indian wars of Oregon says, page 29 : " The real cause of ill feeling between the Indians and their Protestant teachers was the continued misunderstanding concerning the ownership of land and the accumulation of property. No one appeared to purchase the lands occupied by the missions; nor had any ships arrived with Indian goods and farming implements for their benefit, as had been promised."
Both the missionaries and the settlers had located in the Indian country and proceeded to build houses and cultivate the land as if the Indian had no title. That, indeed, was the way the white man had viewed the question from the first settlement in America. They who came from civilized Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries found the American continent peopled by tribes with- out cultivation, literature and refinement, or fixed habitations. They considered the Indians mere savages, having no rightful claim to the country of which they were in possession. Every European nation had deemed it had secured a lawful and just claim to any part of the American continent which any of its subjects had discovered, without any regard to the prior occupation and claims of the Indians. And even in much later times, and by the highest court, this view was affirmed as good law by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1810, delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States (Cranch's Reports, vol. 6, page 142) held, that the Indian title to the soil is not of such a character or validity as to interfere with the possession in fee, of the disposal of the land as the state may see fit.
It takes a long time to correct an erroneous principle of fundamental law, and a still longer time to beat down a race prejudice. The nation has had to spend billions of dollars and sacrifice almost millions of lives to extinguish the heresy that neither the black man nor the red man had any rights the white man was bound to respect. And while our nation has finally arrived at the full stand- ard of giving justice and equity to all men, without respect of persons, the great
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON 87
nations of Europe are still enforcing their ideas of two hundred years ago upon the weaker peoples of Asia and Africa to maintain privilege and power to taxa- tion without representation. The decision of the Supreme Court in 1810 did not pass unchallenged. Justice Story, in his exposition of the constitution, page 13, says: "As to countries in the possession of native tribes at the time of the discovery, it seems difficult to perceive what right of title any discovery could confer. It would seem strange to us, if, in the present times, the natives of the South Sea Islands should by making a voyage to and discovery of the United States, on that account set up a right to this country. The truth is, that the European nations paid not the slightest regards to the rights of the native tribes. They treated them as barbarians that they were at liberty to destroy. They might convert them to Christianity, and if they refused to be converted, they might drive them from their homes as unworthy to inhabit the country. Their real object was to extend their own power and increase their own wealth, by acquiring the treasures as well as the territory of the New World. Avarice and ambition were at the bottom of all their enterprises."
Seventy-five years after this criticism by Justice Story. Theodore Roosevelt in his Winning of the West, treats this question somewhat differently, saying: "Looking back, it is easy to say that much of the wrong-doing (to the Indians) could have been prevented, but if we examine the facts to find out the truth, we are bound to admit that the struggle (between whites and Indians) was really one that could not possibly have been avoided, unless we were willing to admit that the whole continent west of the Alleghanies should remain an unpeopled waste, the hunting grounds of savages, war was inevitable. And even had we been willing and had refrained from encroaching on the Indians' lands, the war would have come, nevertheless, for then the Indians themselves would have en- croached on ours. The Indians had no ownership in the land as we understand that term. Undoubtedly the Indians have often suffered terrible injustice at our hands. The conduct of the Georgians towards the Cherokees, and the treat- ment of Chief Joseph and Nez Perces in Oregon, may be mentioned as indelible blots on our fair fame."
But what has all this to do with the history of Oregon ? A very great deal. It throws light on the great drama of settlement of this region of Old Oregon. It explains the massacre of Dr. Marcus Whitman and family, about which more has been written than any other one subject in the history of the Northwest.
The Americans made a great mistake in assuming when they came to this country, that the Indians had no rights to the land which they ought to respect. The missionaries who came professing to be the best friends to the Indians were as much to blame as those who made no pretense of religion. It was a fatal mis- take to think the Indians had no ideas on this first of all questions. They knew nothing of the practice of European nations or of the decisions of courts ; all the guide they had was the light of nature, and that first and greatest of laws — self- preservation. The Indian never troubled himself to inquire into what he could not comprehend. He did not launch into conjecture or give reign to imagination. His puerile mind followed the glimmering light which had led his forefathers. He saw that he must, like the deer and the buffalo, live on the land ; and that if another man crowded him off it he must die. Here he was where his ancestors had lived untold ages. He knew no other place. He was familiar with the Hud
son's Bay man, who wanted nothing but the furry skins of dead animals. He
understood that proposition. The Hudson's Bay man deprived him of nothing,
but bought the pelt he had for sale, and that was a positive gain. But the Amer-
ican was a different man. He came preaching peace and good will to all men,
but he took up land, raised crops, built mills, bred domestic animals, sold the
produce of the land for money to put in his pocket. There was no gain to the
Indian in that, but a positive loss — the loss of land. And worse than this ; where
there was one American in 1842, there were hundreds in 1843, and then hosts
more coming. He had heard from the wandering Iroquois how the white man
came as flocks of wild geese come and covered the prairies of Indiana, Illinois
and other states. The Indian was terrified at the thought of losing his land, his
home, his mother, and so he acted.
We are now able to give for the first time in history the first authentic account of the first great Indian council held west of the Rocky mountains by the Indians of Old Oregon. We print on another page the photograph of Timotsk, an aged Indian, a chief of the Klickitats, who was a member of that council. This coun- cil was held near where Fort Simcoe is located in the Yakima valley. Indian messengers had been sent out by the Cayuses to all other tribes in the Columbia river region and chiefs had come in from the Nez Perces, Spokanes, Shoshones, Walla Wallas, Waseoes, Umatillas, Cayuses, Klickitats and Yakimas. Timotsk says they were in council for ' ' a whole moon ; ' ' that is about a month ; and that there were about fifty chiefs in attendance. They talked from day to day as to what course they should pursue against the white men. The burden of all their fears and complaints were against the Americans; and was summed up in the belief that these white men would come more and more every year and finally take all their lands and hunting grounds from them; that they were even now killing and driving away all the deer, and that after a while the In- dians would have nothing to eat and must die. The Yakima, Cayuses, Walla Wallas, and some of the Spokanes advocated killing off all the Americans at once. The Nez Perces, Waseoes, Umatillas and Klickitats opposed this course, saying that the white men had good guns to fight with and would easily kill off the In- dians who had but a few guns and must fight mostly with bows and arrows.
After this council broke up, Timotsk came down to Vancouver and got em- ployment of Dr. McLoughlin as a boatman, in which work he continued for many years. He speaks of McLoughlin as a good man, a father to everybody, whites and Indians alike. As soon after this council had broken up and the measles broke out among the Indians at the Whitman mission. Dr. Whitman and family were massacred. Whitman would have been killed all the same if no sickness had occurred, as he was blamed by the Indians for going back over the moun- tains and bringing more white men out to Oregon. The Cayuses made it plain at the council that they would go on the war path and kill all the whites they could. And that is what they did do.
In some places the Indian population in the United States seems to be in- creasing slightly, but in other places it is decreasing.
In 1910 the Indian population of the United States was 265,683, as compared with 237,196 in 1900. According to these figures there was an increase in the Indian population from 1900 to 1910 of 28,487, or 12 per cent, as compared with
a decrease from 1890 to 1900 of 11,057, or 4.5 per eeut. For the twenty-year
period from 1890 to 1910 there was an increase of 17,430, or 7 per cent.
The last census shows that the Indian population of the Pacific coast is for the state of Washington, 10,997; Oregon, 5,090; California, 16,371; Idaho, 3,488. The Indians evidently live longer and do better in a warm climate than in a cold one.