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TRIBAL MEMBER NEWS Clueless and Lark*, the Elakha Connection by David R. Hatch He was the first European to walk and canoe across the North American continent. He was determined to find an overland alternative to the long sea voyage around South America for the British sea otter trade. His efforts to explore the Pacific Coast were thwarted by his own countryman. Alexander Mackenzie crossed 1,200 miles of unexplored Canadian territory in 75 days. When Mackenzie finally arrived on the Pacific Coast on July 21,1793, he paddled into a hornets’ nest. While Mackenzie was approach ing today’s town of Bella Bella, George Vancouver’s mapping expedition was sailing away after forcing its way into the native homes, fighting and firing “warning shots” at the people. Mackenzie‘s native guide scouted the town just after Vancouver left. He returned with a few residents and reported that a larger group was on its way “to shoot their arrows and hurl their spears at us.” Mackenzie fled back across Canada. As they were loading their boat to flee, one of his crew “lighted a bit of touch wood with a burning-glass ... which so surprised the natives, that they exchanged the best of their otter skins for it.” This skin and another three-sea- otter robe returned across Canada with Mackenzie. In 1797, one of the skins came into the hands of the American Philosophical Society and one of its members, Thomas Jefferson. As president, Jefferson was quick to obtain a copy of Mackenzie’s book and maps when they were finally published in 1801. Jefferson appreciated the value of fine furs and was well aware of the ongoing sea otter trade. Ten years prior to Mackenzie’s trip, he proposed an American trip across the continent led by William Clark’s father. He tried three times to propel a land expedition across the continent. He went so far as to personally support John Ledyard's 1786 solo trek across Russia from Europe to reach the northwest coast of America and cross from west to east. The Russian people possessed the capacity and good sense to arrest and detain Ledyard. By 1802, Jefferson had George Vancouver’s published maps, which included a description of the lower 100 miles of the Columbia River as well as the location and name of Mount Hood and today’s city of Vancouver. In January 1803, Jefferson sent his secret letter to Congress calling for an expedition to “explore ... to the Western ocean, have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse, get admission among them for our traders as others are admitted, agree on convenient deposits for and interchange of articles, and return with the information ...” In the letter, Jefferson presents his true motive for developing the fur trade: “The Indians ... have for a considerable time been growing more & more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy ... and the policy has long been gaining strength with them of refusing absolutely all further sale on any conditions ... In order to peaceably counteract this policy of theirs, and to provide an extension of territory ... two measures are deemed expedient. First, to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply ... to agriculture and domestic manufacture, and thereby prove to themselves that less land & labour will maintain them ... better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life will then become useless ... Secondly to multiply trading houses among them, & place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort than the possession of extensive, but uncultivated wilds. Experience and reflection will develope to them the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare & we want, for what we can spare and they want.” Jefferson's message to Congress, Jan. 18, 1803 Jefferson was very specific in his instructions to Captain Meriwether Lewis in June 1803: “Should you reach the Pacific Ocean inform yourself of the circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may not be collected as advantageously ... as at Nootka Sound, or any other point of that coast; and that trade be consequentially conducted ... more beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practised.” Nootka Sound was the center of the ongoing sea otter trade. What we now call the Lewis and Clark Expedition started out in September 1803 armed with excellent maps of their destination. They also carried nearly 500 pounds of “Indian Presents,” including “small cheap looking glasses, small cheap seizors, tin rings cheap kind ornamented with colour’d glass or mock stone, brass curtain rings sufficiently large for the finger,” etc. About 750 days later (a little slower than Mackenzie), this government- sponsored trip found the Pacific Ocean. On Nov. 20,1805, across the Columbia River from today’s town of Astoria, the “Corps of Discovery” acquired its first two-sea-otter robe. The Chinook natives who traded with the corps didn’t have a lot of use for curtain rings. The only item they would trade for was Sacajawea’s own precious beaded belt. The corps never could trade for sea otter robes during its winter in Oregon: “One of the party was draped in three elegant sea otter skins which we much wanted; for these we offered him many articles but he would not dispose of them for any other consideration but blue beads, of these we had only six fathoms left, which being four less than his price for each skin he would not exchange nor would a knife or an equivalent in beads in any other colour answer his purposes.” Lewis'journal, Jan. 17, 1806 The corps did trade for one more two-sea-otter robe in a large village just below today’s town of Ridgefield, Wash., while they were returning east. Upon his return, Lewis’ first letter to Jefferson reports, “I have brought back with me several skins of the Sea Otter...” Curiously, the large collection of materials delivered to Jefferson did not list sea otter pelts. One “handsome dressed sea otter skin” is included in the 1809 list of the personal effects of Meriwether Lewis after he chose to end his life. There are Thomas Jefferson, photomechanical print, crealed/puhlished [between ¡890 and 1940(?)J. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Presidential File. Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-2474. This print is a reproduction of the 1805 Rembrandt Peale painting of Thomas Jefferson held by the New- York Historical Society. many later listings of his estate for his creditors, but the sea otter skins mysteriously disappeared in history. Let’s remember the actual purpose of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as we approach the bicentennial. Elakha and the nations of Oregon’s coastal people suffered the full impact of Jefferson’s policies. The fur trade elim inated Elakha from Oregon shores and federal policies took all the land and “terminated” all the native coastal people of Oregon. Very recently, the native coastal nations have restored themselves. The last sea otter in Oregon was killed one century after Lewis and Clark left Oregon. Perhaps two centuries after their departure, the native coastal nations will be allowed help Elakha restore themselves. *Robert Frazer began questioning the relative accomplishments of Lewis and Clark in 1807. Families maintaining the tradition use this term as a humorous reference to the pair. Dave Hatch is not a biologist, but his brother Keith is, so folks often mistake Dave for a biologist. Actually, he’s an engineer for the city of Portland. He also serves on the Siletz Tribal Council and is one of the founding members of the Elakha Alliance, which is dedicated to restoring the sea otter in order to restore near-shore ecosystems. May 2003 □ Siletz News □ 17
