The Western United States Part 11

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 62.--CALIFORNIA INDIAN BASKET]

The Indians of the Columbia basin built better houses than those farther south. Where wood was abundant their homes were similar in some respects to those of the coast Indians north of the mouth of the Columbia. Fish was their main article of diet. At certain seasons of the year, when salmon were plentiful, each tribe or group of Indians established its camp near one of the many rapids and waterfalls along the Columbia River. Large numbers of the salmon were caught by the use of traps. After being partly dried they were packed in bales for winter use. The fish thus prepared were considered very valuable and formed an article of trade with the tribes living farther from the river.

The Indians inhabiting the coast northward from the mouth of the Columbia were different in many respects from those farther south or inland. They built better homes, took more pains with their clothing, were skilled in the making of canoes, and showed marked ability in navigating the stormy waters of the channels and sounds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 63.--HESQUIAT INDIAN VILLAGE

Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island]

The Vancouver Island Indians are called Nootkas, from the name of an important tribe upon the west coast. Those of Queen Charlotte Islands, still farther north, are known as Haidas. These two groups are very similar. They live upon the sh.o.r.es of densely wooded, mountainous lands and travel little except by water. Some of the canoes which these tribes construct are over fifty feet long and will easily carry from fifty to one hundred persons. Such a canoe is hewn out of a single cedar log, and presents a very graceful appearance with its upward-curving bow. In these boats the Indians take trips of hundreds of miles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 64.--FLATHEAD INDIAN WOMAN, VANCOUVER ISLAND]

A ride in one of the large canoes is an interesting experience.

When a party starts out to visit the neighboring villages, carrying invitations to a festival, the men are gayly dressed, and shout and sing in unison as they ply their paddles. The great canoe jumps up and onward like a living thing at every stroke of the paddles, which are dipped into the water all at once as the rowers keep time to their songs. But this enthusiasm quickly disappears if a head wind comes up, and the party goes ash.o.r.e to wait for the breeze to turn in a more favorable direction.

These Indians, as might be supposed, live largely upon fish. Berries are abundant during the summer and are also much used for food.

The clothing of the Indians was originally a sort of blanket made of the woven fibres of cedar bark, or more rarely, of the skins of animals, although among the northern tribes skins were used almost exclusively. Matting made of the cedar bark is still in common use in their houses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 65.--INDIAN HOUSES, FORT RUPERT, VANCOUVER ISLAND]

Among the Vancouver Island Indians, a few have peculiarly flattened foreheads (Fig. 64). This deformity is produced by binding a piece of board upon the forehead in babyhood and leaving it there while the head is growing.

The villages are located in some protected spot where the canoes can lie in safety. The buildings are strung along the sh.o.r.e close under the edge of the thick forest and just above the reach of the waves at high tide. They are very solidly constructed, for these Indians do not move about as much as those farther south where the forests are less dense. Figure 65 shows the framework of a partially built house, while another stands at one side completed.

Large posts are set in the ground at the corners and ends of the building; cross logs are then placed upon the middle posts, and upon these a huge log is placed for a ridge-pole. This is sometimes two feet in diameter and from sixty to eighty feet long. It must require the united strength of many men to roll such a log into position. Upon the framework thus constructed split cedar boards are fastened, and the building is practically finished. Such a house is usually occupied by a number of families. Upon Queen Charlotte Islands there is a dwelling of this kind large enough to hold seven hundred Indians.

The fronts of the houses are ornamented with figures hewn out of wood. These represent men, birds and animals and have a religious significance. Sometimes these figures are mounted upon the tops of tall poles.

The "totem pole" is a most interesting affair. Figure 66 represents the pole at Alert Bay, east of Vancouver Island. It is one of the finest upon the north coast. The figures of animals and birds carved upon it represent the mythological ancestors of the family or clan in front of whose abode the pole stands. The Indians often hunt similar animals to-day, but believe that their ancestors had supernatural power which raised them above the ordinary creatures.

The Chinook Indians live upon the lower Columbia. The name "chinook"

has been given to a warm, dry wind which blows down the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and out upon the Great Plains. This wind is so named because it blows from the direction of the Chinook Indians' country. The "Chinook" jargon is a strange sort of mixed language with which nearly all the tribes of the Northwest are familiar. It is formed of words from the Chinook language, together with others from different Indian languages, French-Canadian, and English. Through the influence of the trappers and traders the "Chinook" has come into wide use, so that by means of it conversation can be carried on with tribes speaking different languages.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 66.--TOTEM POLE

Alert Bay, British Columbia]

Although there are so many different tribes, with great diversities of language, throughout the West, they were probably all derived from the same source. As we go north the similarity between the coast Indians and the inhabitants of eastern Asia becomes more noticeable. It seems almost certain that these American Indians originally came across the narrow strip of water separating Asia from America.

We do not know how long the Indians have occupied our country, but it has probably been several thousand years. Some of the main groups have undoubtedly been here longer than others.

Unless we protect the Indians and permit them so far as possible to lead their own natural lives, most of them will soon disappear.

THE STORY OF LEWIS AND CLARK

In the seventeenth century it appeared likely that France would before long control the northern and interior portion of North America. La Salle discovered the Ohio River, traversed the Great Lakes, and descended the Mississippi River to its mouth. In 1742 other French explorers pushed west from the Great Lakes and sighted the Rocky Mountains. But when the English triumphed at Quebec, France gave up to them all of her possessions east of the Mississippi River, and ceded the province of Louisiana to the Spanish. This province was very much larger than the state which now bears the name. Bounded by the Mississippi River upon the east, and the Spanish possessions upon the southwest, it stretched north and west with very indefinite boundaries, although in the latter direction it was supposed to be limited by the Rocky Mountains.

At one time Napoleon dreamed of founding a great colony in America, and induced Spain to cede Louisiana back to the French; but being unable to carry out his plans, he made a proposition to the United States to take this territory. His offer was accepted, and in 1803, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the vast province was taken into the Union.

It was immediately evident that more definite knowledge should be acquired concerning the great region beyond the Mississippi, particularly the portion about the head of the Missouri River.

The unknown region lying between the source of this river and the Pacific should also be explored, for Captain Gray's discovery of the Columbia River gave to the United States a claim upon this part of the continent which must be maintained. If something were not done soon, the territory would be occupied by the English fur companies.

Two young men, Captains Lewis and Clark, were chosen to lead an expedition into the Northwest, which proved to be one of the most remarkable in the history of our country. They were the first white men to cross the Rocky Mountains and to traverse the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific within the present boundaries of the United States.

How interesting it must have been to push into the Rocky Mountains, beyond the farthest point previously reached by white men; to see Nature in her wild state, to note the new plants and animals, and to study the Indians before their contact with Europeans had changed their customs!

Lewis and Clark were particularly instructed to investigate the sources of the Missouri, to learn how the continental divide could be crossed, and to ascertain the nature of the streams which flowed westward to the Pacific. They were also to study the resources of the country, and to examine into the character and customs of all the Indian tribes that they should meet.

The start was made from St. Louis in May, 1804, with two large rowboats and one sail-boat. The latter was to return with news of the party when the farthest outpost upon the Missouri was reached.

Through the summer months and late into the fall the boats toiled up the river against the swift current, finally reaching a village of the Mandan Indians in the present state of North Dakota, where the explorers spent the winter. Thus far they were in a region frequently visited by the traders and trappers from St. Louis.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 67.--THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI]

In the spring they pushed on again in canoes, at length entering an unknown region. The Missouri forked so frequently that it was often difficult to determine which was the main stream. To the surprise of the travellers, the country appeared to be uninhabited, so that they could get no a.s.sistance from the Indians. Only a small stock of provisions remained, and as the party numbered about thirty, it was necessary to keep hunters out in advance all the time.

As we are carried swiftly through this region to-day in the cars, no signs of wild creatures are to be seen, and it is difficult for us to believe that game was once abundant. The narrative of the expedition abounds with descriptions of various large animals which the explorers met in herds, such as deer, antelope, buffalo, bears, and wolves. The bears, both white and brown, were very numerous and bold. The white bears in particular were so ferocious that the hunters had many serious encounters with them. They would sometimes enter the camp at night, and at one time a herd of buffalo stampeded through it.

When undecided at one point which branch of the river to follow, Captain Lewis went some distance in advance and discovered the Great Falls of the Missouri. He was greatly impressed and awed by the magnitude and height of the successive falls, which were twenty-four, forty-seven, and eighty feet high respectively, and were connected by a series of cascades.

Many days were spent there in a long and laborious portage, for everything had to be carried a distance of twelve miles before the quiet water above the falls was reached.

How the coming of the white man has changed the region about the falls! The game has disappeared; an important city, supported by the enormous water-power, is growing up; while the smoke rising from extensive plants for reducing the gold, silver, and copper ores mined in the Rocky Mountains floats out over the country.

Proceeding up the river, the party reached the Gate of the Mountains--a picturesque spot where the stream leaves the mountains through a narrow defile between high and jagged cliffs and enters upon its long course across the Great Plains (Fig. 68). Gradually the river became smaller, and at last the travellers came to the point where it divided into three branches, to which they gave the names of Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson forks. The party made their way up the latter fork, which flowed from a westerly direction.

[Footnote: FIG. 68.--THE GATE OF THE MOUNTAINS

The Missouri River at the entrance to the Rocky Mountains]

Now they began to look anxiously for the Indians, from whom it would be necessary to get horses to transport their baggage when the river should become too small for the canoes. This region was inhabited by the Shoshones. It may well be asked how it happened that these Indians had horses, since no white people had ever visited them before. Their purchase of horses came about through the processes of trade with the tribes to the south, who in turn came in contact with the Spanish of New Mexico.

One or the other of the leaders kept in advance, on the lookout for the Indians. At last Captain Lewis, while crossing the divide at the head of the stream which they had been following, came suddenly upon several Indians. After overcoming their fear by presents, he accompanied them to their camp and induced them to return with horses to a.s.sist the party.

Upon reaching the Pacific side of the continental divide the explorers were in doubt as to which way to proceed. No man had been before them, and the Indians told stories of fearful deserts to the southwest (probably the Snake River plains), and said that the mountains were too steep for the horses, and the rivers too rapid for canoes.

If you will examine a map of the country about the head of the Jefferson fork of the Missouri, you will not wonder that Captains Lewis and Clark were in doubt as to which way they should go in order to reach the Columbia. They first attempted to go down the Salmon River, but soon gave up this project. They turned about and crossed the mountains to the Bitter Root River, which flows north and empties into Lake Pend d'Oreille through Clark's Fork of the Columbia.

After going down the Bitter Root for a short distance they turned west again across the Bitter Root Mountains and came out upon the head waters of the Kooskooskie River. Unable to follow its canons, they wandered to the north among the mountains. At this time their sufferings were intense. Food became so scarce that they were obliged to eat their horses. After many weary days they again reached the stream, but this time at a point where it was navigable. They floated down to its junction with the Lewis or Snake River, where the growing city of Lewiston now stands. At this point they met the Nez Perces Indians, who a.s.sisted them in every possible way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 69.--CELILO FALLS, COLUMBIA RIVER]

The party continued down the Snake River in canoes until they finally reached the Columbia. The difficulties of navigation were great, for at intervals of every few miles the river was broken by rapids through which it was dangerous to take the canoes. By treating the Indians kindly, the party succeeded in trading with them for such articles of food as horses and dogs. They also obtained some salmon. The presence of this fish in the streams gave them the first a.s.surance that the Pacific slope had been reached. Along the Columbia River salmon was one of the chief articles of food for the Indians.

At Celilo Falls, a short distance above the present city of The Dalles, the travellers found great difficulty in proceeding, as the canoes and loads had to be carried, or "portaged," around the falls. Lewis and Clark called these the Great Falls of the Columbia (Fig. 69).