Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Grand Ronde, OR
About Weekly Chemawa American. (Chemawa, Or.) 189?-198? | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1903)
2 THK" CHEMAWA AMERICAN by a squall, and on the point of being: over' turned, Chabonneau, who with Sacajawea, was on board, had the steering oar, and struck with fear"Went howlingto theGods." Thie boat filled to the gunwale and was saved from an overturn only at the last mo ment, her precious cargo floating out up on theatre am, But the Bird-woman, with her wits all at hand, saved not only her self and baby, but grasping right and left At the escaping packages rescued what wa indispensable. It was the first conspicuous exhibition of her presence of mind and handiness, which later were constantly shown. As the summer waned the party ap proached the gates of the mountains, where the canoes must be forsaken, and the horses obtained, with which it would be possible to croNS . the divide to the head of the springs of the Columbia. Thus far line leaving the Mandans, there had been neither sight nor sound of man; nor as the mountains roe before them was there a trace 01 numan Demgs except in camps oe sorted .months before. The captains ranged far ah a J of their men; but though at Jast glimpse were obtained of Indians at a distance, these at once hurried away, Avoiding all contact. Caution, for those mountain tribes, in facf, wan the price of existence. When the case of Lewis and Clark was growing desperate, and the possi bility appeared that the attempt must be abandoned and the expedition go back, the Bird-woman began to dance and sing. She was once more among the haunts of her peo ple; she has recognized the valley into which they had penetrated as the place w here five or six years before she had been taken cap tive. Presently some Indian women were brought in, who abandoned by the men , had been left to fall into the hands of the strangers. As the creatures cowered be fore their captors, bending their heads to receive their deathblow, suddenly a young girl, catching sight of Sacajawawea, rushed toward her. She was a iribeswoman, who having been captured at the same time with the Bird-woman, had for a time undergone with her the pains of bondage. Escaping, however, the friend had found her peopl again. Now a second time losing her free dom, as she supposed, she descried among the newcomers no other than her old com panion. The two squaws embraced tender ly. The Shoshone women acting as guides and intercessors, brought back the war riors. It was the very band of the Bird wo man that at last had been reached, an 1 when presently at the council she began to interpret the speech of the chief, lo, it was her own brother whose wordB ihe was translating! A firm friendship was at once established between the party and theSho shones, the Indian girl had m id further progress possible. Henceforth the way was emoolM. Horses and guides were furnished; t lie friendly Shoshones passed the white nun on to the fktbeads and they in turn lo the Nez Perces. At the councils Sacajawen was alwayB the most important one in the 'line of interpreters. The Captains specu lated, amused as to what kind of reprob ation it was that at last reached the moun ain men, when their speech, done into French for Chabonneau, rendered by him into Minnetaree for Sacajawea, filtered on from her Shoshone into Chopunnii'i, Ootlashoot or whatever barb.iric dialect might be at hand. But 8om6 message wa conveyed, and through the Indian uirltlnw remotest wilds first heard of the grrsinuu of Uncle Sam and the good things he medit ated for his newly gained children ofth? forest. Nor was it solely as an iute p e tr that she was useful. As the party paw it from tribe to tribe, who were lwi timorous at the first encounter, disposnl to fly like frightened deer, the sight of StCHj't wea with her papoose, riding with tlieC.ip tains, was reassuring. It could he no war party if. a squaw and her baby were am n them. The Pacific was safely reached before win ter set in, and the journals record the wil der of the squaw before the great ocean, an I the mighty whale which its water In I cast upon the beach. With th tribe. nr the coast there might have been much b.." r; but Lewis and Clark had now quite n (Continued on page seven.)
