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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1889)
WEST SHORE. ARCHEOLOGY OF OREGON CITY. I OCAL evidences are abundant to prove that Ore I gon City was for many generations the commer- cial and fighting center of the autochthones. Closo to the mouth of Abernethy creek there was a permanent village of considerable size. The refuso found there leaves no doubt of this. In the river bank back of Mr. (ilasHitool's residence, ten feet from the surface, a half inch seam of charcoal is found every three or four inches upward for eight feet. On the edge of AlxTnethy creek all the seams slope into one seam six feet thick. These layers of charcoal contain an abundance of human bones and of large and small game, and vertebra of fish. Over all these deposits lie two feet of vegetable chocolate-colored mould mixed with sand. In the face of the ophite bank, directly across, like deep traces of refuse and charcoal are found, indicative of long human habita tion. Unless there were overflows, the siijiernYial lay er of soil must have been a long time forming, indi cating that the noble siwash rarely, but sometimes, shifted the habitat of his dried salmon and tribal gods, and probably the shift was made either because the gods liecame frenzied with anger, or because the villages were wijx'd out by the war-club and the fag got. Floods, no doubt, sometimes drove them away. The most unmistakable evidence of the prosjterity of barbarism at this Hint is tho vast deposit of arrow heads found on the low river bank a short distance north of the mouth of Alierncthy creek. Here almut i:i(),(XX) perfect arrow heads have leen found and 200, (XX) iniNrfeet and broken ones, and enough secinieii8 of rock of which tho arrows were made, beside flak ings, are remaining to macadamize a road a mile. Near the Dalles, on the Columbia, also very perfect specimens of arrow points have Ix-en found. The do posits ol AUrnethy creek naturally make a bank at its mouth in the M of the Willamette, and it is said that on Recount of the shallows thus produced, there the river was usually forded by the Indians. It was a spot of strategic importance, and battles would occur here oftener than elsewhere. This fact may partially account for the large number of arrow joints found. ' In Canemah, at a low spot on the eastern bank, a half mile almve the falls, about 10,XX) arrow heads were found, but no Makings of manufacture, and where tho locks were built, on the west shoro of the Willam die, many thousands were scattered about, and an abundant of llakings, as though here had lxcn a po litical armory of the red men-but they are covered by twenty M of dump from the excavation of the ca nal. Arvhaologist express the opinion that the ar row heads found around Oregon City are superior to any found elsewhere in the United States, excelling in beauty and finish. They were made of clear and opaque obsidian, red, yellow and green jasper, camel ian, chalcedony, gray quartz, petrified, agatized and opalized wood and slate, but the majority found are of quartz and obsidian. The " raw " material was pick cd up here and there on the mountains and plainB by tho Indians. Most of the arrow points are barbed on both sides, but some only on one side, and some are two-pointed. An examination of the beautiful and valuable mu seum of rare and unique arrow points and other stone implements of Indian manufacture, collected by II. E, Stevens, of this city, surprises and delights one. The collection is the finest on the Pacific coast, and, doubt less, tho choicest in the world, as in this region only such perfect specimens have been found. The work manship on these arrow points is exquisite, and could be imitated by no one in fact, their manufacture it a lost art. The barbs on the light obsidian points, that were intended to rip and tear a path through the flesh, aro so small and delicate that it docs not seem possi ble to cut them without tho aid of a microscope. What wooden or stone tools did the wildwood artists use? The oldest siwash in this camp, Chief Snpsuck er, who claims he has lived on dog Balmon for more than a hundred years, promised Mr. Stevens that he would make a few, but a few days' work resulted in only wretched aliortions. He did not know how. Some who have given this subject considerable thought are of opinion that many hundreds of yean have elapsed sinco tho Indians used stone arrow heads, and that at the time the white man appeared they used bone arrow heads. As one ground for their opin ion they cito the following discovery of five remarkable skulls. At tho time of tho Juno high water in 1887 the river bank at Green Point was washed away, ex posing five human skeletons. They were lying under the six foot bed of charcoal alluded to at tho beginning of this article, eight feet below the surface. The skulls alone being of anatomical interest, three of these were saved, the other two crumbled to pieces on exKsureto the atmosphere. Two of them are now at tho Nation al Museum in Washington, D. C, numbered respective ly 2!7G and 2077. The teeth were worn down almost to the jawbone, indicating that owners of the skull were very old when they "slept with their fathers." Tho frontal developements of tho skulls was so far re tarded that the anglo of obliquity of the retreating or flat forehead far exceeded that of any of the Flathead Indians of the present day. This characteristic and the large basic formation of the skull indicates a low order of intelligence and a prominence of the propcnM ties of the brute. Another point of interest was that tho bodies were found to have been interred in a red earth not found in this valley.-Omm City Courier.