THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
5
T. J. Gary regards the collection of great value and in the course of a
few weeks Dr. Raffety will formally turn over the collection to the
school district in a lecture to be delivered in the Washington High
School. It was expected to do this in the assembly hall of the Brook
lyn School, but the edict has gone forth that the assembly hall cannot
be used for public gatherings, and hence the Washington High School
was selected.
O. M. Plummer, member of the Board of Education, said the collec
tion is one of great value and he desired all students of Portland to see
it, and will arrange for this gathering, when Dr. Dav Raffety, the
collector of the specimens, will tell about the history of the relics.
The collection represents the work of more than 30 years. Dr. Raf
fety came to Oregon as a pioneer and at once started gathering Indian
curios and mineral specimens of every sort. With him it became a
passion. The Indian relics were gathered in and about Portland and
in the Willamette Valley, and in this work he was assisted by Indian
John Casino, a well-known friend of the whites, who died near Trout
dale a few years ago.
The relics were gathered near Oregon City, Sauvie's Island, at the
Cascades, along the Sandy River and Clackamas River. These rude
implements, stored away in the assembly hall of the Brooklyn School,
have a great value, and tell the story of the habits of the original in
habitants before the coming of the white man. Professor Thomas Con
don former state geologist, and other geologists regarded the collection
of great value and spent hours examining the relics when they were
deposited at the old Raffety store on East Oak street.
In the cabinets are many mortars and pestles. Dr. Raffety having
obtained a complete collection of both, ranging from the larger ones f
used for grinding food to the smaller ones used for making paint and
medicines from herbs. One of the mortars is oblong in form and has
the head of a turtle clearly defined, with the arms and ribs along the
sides. There are about 30 mortars in the collection made of common
basalt, some of tufa and trachyte. Dr. Raffety says that he secured his
finest mortar by the fact that he was a sprinter. O. B. Johnson, a
rival collector and a friend, told Dr. Raffety that a beautiful mortar
could be found at the foot of a certain oak tree on East Morrison street'.
Dr. Raffety reached the tree first and got the mortar.
Among the pestles is one made of jasper of extreme hardness and
beauty. This specimen is eight inches long by four across the base.
The material is extremely hard and it is not easy to understand how
the Indians could have fashioned the implement. One of the pestles
has the head of a seal and another the head of a bear. One pestle, 14