The Chemawa American, March 16, 1927, Page 4, Image 4

THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
PAGE 4
JOINT OCCUPATION OP OREGON TERRITORY
(C ontinued from page 1)
After Polk’s inauguration in 1845, the first thing he
did was to turn his attention to Oregon. He gave this
territory a regular and orderly government. He was
swift, bold, decisive, and a masterful administrator.
At this time emigrants were coming to Oregon in a
steady stream, “ stout sons of Ankk, not one of them
under six-feet-two in his stockings.” In 1845 some
ten thousand Americans had settled in the Oregon
country. In his first message to Congress, Polk rec­
ommended that Great Britain be notified that the
agreement of joint occupation should come to a close
and that the authority of the United States be extend­
ed over our citizens in that territory. Congress ap­
proved of Polk’s plan. England was notified and the
Federal Government assumed authority over the
Oregon Country.
Keeping to the campaign cry of “ 54-40 or fight,”
Polk quickly settled the vexed question of the Ore­
gon boundary. England claimed the Columbia River
as the southern boundary of her territory. The dis­
pute was settled by compromise and the dividing line
was established as the forty-ninth parallel from the
Rocky Mountains to the middle of the channel that
separates Vancouver Island from the mainland, and
thence should run southward along the middle of the
channel from Juan De Fuca’s strait to the Pacific.
Polk acted in a quick manner in regard to the Ore­
gon Country and England thought him arbitrary and
unjust. War at one time was threatened; however,
the two nations did not come to blows.
Major Eong had impressed the people that this west­
ern country was a vast desert and at the beginning of
this question few people thought it advisable to try to
obtain the Oregon Country or to settle it. At this
time one senator said, “ Oregon will never be a state
in the Union;” another wanted to build a railroad to
Oregon, but others thought that all the wealth of the-
Indies would not be sufficient for such a task. The
fur-trading companies were the first to bring settlers
to this region. These first “ Oregonians” saw the
possibilities of the soil and had a vision of the forests
cleared and productive fields and orchards taking their
place.
In the year 1832 Nathaniel J. Wyeth led a party
from New England into this region and established
Fort Hall in what is now Idaho. These expeditions
had to deal with the hostile Indians and all the hard­
ships of the prairie. The American Fur Trading
Company of St. Eouis annually sent caravans into
Oregon which were protected by large, strongly armed
bands. Eewis and Clark’s journal probably did more
than anything else to persuade the people to settle
this country. A cheap edition of the paper, issued
in 1811, made known to the people the resources of
the vast country beyond the arid plains and towering
mountains. Many missionaries carried their work to
the Oregon region and brought back to the East good
tidings of the new country. Dr. Elijah White led a
company of men over the mountains into Oregon in
the year 1842. This small band was soon followed
by many similar bands and Oregon soon began to
bloom into a country of men with clean minds and
strong hearts.
The first lasting colony to be planted was Astoria,
which was settled by John Jacob Astor of New York,
who was a fur trader. Not only did settlers come to
Oregon by land, but many came by the sea route
around Cape Horn. The most settled part of Oregon
at this time was the Willamette Valley.
The covered wagon was the schooner of the prairie,
piloted by men and women with the spirit of adven­
ture that lured them on.
It was these pioneer souls who pressed on with the
ardor of hope and blazed the path that man enjoys
today. They settled here, and desired that they be
Americans and their desire caused the termination of
the joint occupation.
THE WAR-BONNET
There seems to be much mental confusion, in the
minds of our white people in particular, as to the
status of the war-bonnet of the Indian. In pictures
we often see Indian children represented as wearing a
war-bonnet, or the decoration used as head-pieces on
‘ ‘pale faces, ’ ’ or even the children of the latter. Noth­
ing could be farther afield in regard to the facts in the
matter of the war-bonnet. To one who “ who knows”
the misconception of war-bonnet history on the part of
our artists is ludicrous.
In fact, only the Indian heroes were entitled to wear
the war-bonnet. Each individual feather was awarded
for the performance of some deed of daring. The
capture of an enemy’s scalp was a popular way of
winning one of these emblems of honor. Perhaps the
scarcity of war-bonnets now is attributable to the fact
that there is no open season on pale faces—and their
scalps. A real war-bonnet, made of eagle feathers,
each feather really earned, is almost without price.
Neither shells nor shock had anything to do with
shellshock, a form of mental disease experienced by
many in the World war, says Dr. F. W. Parsons, of
the New York state hospital commission. The shell­
shock was dependent on fear, he says, and the phrase
was simply invented to describe those stricken by terror.
‘ ‘A neurosis, a hysteria or a neurasthenia developed on
an emotional basis is what is meant by shellshock,” he
declares.