The Chemawa American, December 01, 1912, Page 23, Image 23

THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
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daughter of the Clatsop chief found them, and in the usual dramatic
way of tradition succeeded in saving their lives. She married the
leader of the party, whom the Indians called Kunupi (probably a cor­
ruption of a Spanish name). This tradition is so clear that the actions
of the men, their personal appearance and the character of the wreck­
age are definitely described. According to the legend, they were all
bearded men, and as they were first discovered in the act of popping corn
on the beach, it is to be assumed that the vessel was from Mexico and
the sailors were Spanish.
“ They remained at the mouth of the Columbia a few years, building
their house in a place which became known as kunupi, as it is still call­
ed by the native survivors of the region. Then they went up the riv­
er, presumably in an effort to reach the Atlantic coast by an overland
journey.
Thus far the tradition is recited by the two sole survivors of the
Chinook, sisters who claim decent from Kunupi. Just at this point the
story of an old Cascade woman seems to fit in perfectly. Two bearded
white men she says, suddenly appeared in the populous villages of the
Cascades of the Columbia. Because of the ornamental bits of brass
which one of them, whom she calls Soto (another Spanish name manu-
facured,) the Indians received them kindly, gave them lodging, food
and wives. There the white men lived for some years, when they de­
parted eastward, and no further trace of them exists in historv or in
Indian tradition. No doubt they were killed by the Snakes or other
mountain tribes, who were at all times hostile to the river tribes. The
narrator of this tradition exhibits some of the brass ornaments made bv
Soto and inherited from her father, the Cascade chief, who was hanged
in the war of 1856.
That these traditions are authentic there can be no doubt. Alexander
Henry in 1813 was surprised to meet at the mouth of the Columbia a
man about 30 years of age, who has extraordinarily dark red hair and
is the supposed offspring of a ship that was wrecked within a few miles
of the entrance of this river many years ago.’ Again, in 1811, Franchere
met at the Cascades an old man who said that he was the son of a Span­
iard, one of four survivors of a wreck at the mouth of the Columbia
These unknown Spaniards were probably the first white men to behold
the Columbia.
Now to return to the two sculptured heads. They were found with­
in about 30 miles of the place where Soto, and after him his half-blood
son, lived in the Cascade village, and it does not seem impossible that
some Indian artist carved them in an effort to depict the strange visitors.
Indian priests were apt to fashion from wood, bone or stone figures re­
presenting creatures whom they associated with the supernatural.
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