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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1901)
!1pf! VeTi ' T v T) V i 7Jt-Trr j?nrTz r - . - i Pc$gesj25 to 52 r :: . V VOL. XX. UJJLuyMmJ Uii . JJ J Jul J WJJ v &alM u Wj 7muA "fa f6 L J uJnvy . I - -" - : : r I mMMm m. 3dMffl WSmmm I Irtlte arJCzmiAMZT. as sbj&i & 2W':RWER;3pW I iSStrjti ? .MWKg'?MiKfr artm'iLMW- J" J4. JifS Jsysyr3feat WSBtUBKab 8Sraai taJBHW IB'' TeEFMM&mm ATHLAMET on the Columbia was, from time immemorial, tfie center of the Indian people on the Lower River. The Indian lingered longer and the Indian blood is more conspicuous there now than at any other place on the Lower Columbia. Chi nook was only 'a mud beach, a mere fish ing station,- but Cathlamet was an Indian town before Gray sailed into the River or Lewis and Clark passed by on their way to the sea. Here at thelast gathered and passed away the Cathlamets, Wah kiakums, .Chinooks and Cowellskles. It was early recognized as an Indian center, and is the only place of the Fish Indians to which Kamlakln condescended to send his messengers when he was organizing the Indian War of 1S5. At Its best it was the largest Indian settlement on the Columbia River west of the Cascades, and from the Indian stories must have num bered in the town Itself from COO to 1000 people. Like all Indian towns It changed population rapidly, and when the whites first knew it probably had 300 or 400 in habitants. Sauvle's Island occasionally had more. Indians, but they were there only temporarily, digging .wapatoes. Queen Sally, of Cathlamet, was the oldest living Indian on the Lower Columbia in the late 50s and early 60s, and her memory went back easily to the days of Lewis and Clark when she was a young woman old enough to be married, which, with the Indians, meant about 14 years old. Seventy years Is extreme old age for an Indian, and especially for an Indian wo man, but Queen Sally was all of this. Judging from her looks she might have been anywhere in the centuries, for never was a more wrinkled, smoke-begrimed, wizened old creature. Princess Angeline, of Seattle, was a blooming young beauty beside her. LcTvis and Clark at Cathlamet. It gave one a far-away feeling, in re gard to the event not warranted by the years that had passed, when from the cliffs above Cathlamet she pointed out the spot where the canoes of Lewis and Clark were first seen. She said the Indians had been on the watch for them for several days, as news had come by Indian post of the strangers from the East Lewis u . -i . - apwiM Yj-o cawywer and Clark with their party came in the afternoon or evening, and were met, by the Indians In their canoes at or a little above the modern town of Cathlamet and escorted to the Indian village, which was then on the slough below Cathlamet at about tho point where the saw mill now is. How long they stayed here she could not clearly tell. It was evident that she confused, their westward and eastward trips and also their Winter stay at Clat sop with their stay at the Cathlamet village. Twenty-five miles to wandering Indians is a bagatelle of too little im portance to be considered in fixing a lo cality. It was a time of feasting, wonder ment and council making. Lewi3 and Clark were doubtless weary of Indians by this time, but the strange sights they saw will never be seen again. The village was built of cedar houses, 3 Oor 40 feet long and 15 or 20 feet wide. How they managed to split and cut out the cedar planks sometimes 20 and 30 feet I long, two to three feet wide and three to six inches thick, of which these houses were built with the tools they had. Is a wonder. With wedges made of elkhorn and chisels made of beaver teeth, with j flinty rocks and with fire, they, in soma I way, and at a great expenditure of labor, cut out the boards. The houses were well built, an opening was left along the ridge j pole for the smoke to escape, and there j were cracks In tho walls, but, excepting tnls ana tne door, there were no openings. Unless destroyed by fire these houses would stand for ages, as the cedar was al most indestructible. Each house was fitted to accommodate several families. Along the sides, which might, be six or eight feet high, and along the rear wall were built beds like steamer bunks, one above the other. Prom these bunks the floor of earth extended out like a platform four or five feet to a depression of a foot or two along the center of the lodge, which was reserved for the fire place. Strange Bnrlal Canoe. Fully inhabited by Indian men, women children and dogs, lighted up by the smoky fires, the lodge Interior looked like a witches cave. Men and women in all conditions as to toilet lay sprawled on the earth platform about the fire. In tho bunks amid dilapidated furs, were number PORTLAND, OREGON. SDNDAT MORNING, NOVEMBER 10, 1901. less half-naked children and coyote-looking dogs. Along the celling hung dried' salmon and strings of dried clams and' roots. The smoke circled everywhere, and gave a misty look of vastness to the room, and through all like a solid atmosphere was the smell, ' the awful smell of the Indian lodge. Fires in an Indian village or an occasional abandonment were re curring necessities In Indian life. Flesh and blood, even of the Indian variety, could not long abide In one Indian en campment. From this as well as from the necessity of getting food, it came about that the Lower River Indian lived In his village for only small portions, of the year. It is safe to say that Lewis and Clark either found a lodge that had been little used or slept away from the vil lage. No sane white man. except under dire necessity, ever slept in a fully popu lated Indian lodge that had been used continuously for any length of time. One of the strange sights that Lewis and Clark saw about this Wahkiakum vil lage of Cathlamet were the burial canoes. The last of these were not destroyed until late In tho 50s. and when Lewis and Clark came they were very numerous about the village and In the Columbia sloughs between the Elokomon and Ska mokawa Rivers. The roar of the Co lumbia River bar, 40 miles to the west ward, Is clearly heard at Cathlamet. and It may be due to this that these burial canoes placed high in the Cottonwood and balm of Gilead trees were nearly always placed with their sharp-pointed prows to the west. With every paddle In place, with his robes and furs about him and all his wealth of beads and trinkets at his feet, the dead Indian lay in his war canoe waiting for the flood of life which should some day come in like the tidp from the sunset ocean. Considering the great value of these canoes and the toil" it took to build one, it almost passes belief that they would be sacrificed o a simple be lief in tho future life. It is, exactly as though upon the death of a multl-mll-Honalre of our day all of his moneys, stocks and bonds should be buried with him, his heirs renouncing the use "of all his accumulations. The Chinook canoe of the lower river was a beautiful thins. In Alaska the Indians had good canoes, but nothing that for size, model and finish equaled the Indian canoe of the Columbia. They were of all sizes, from the one-man hunt ing canoe that could easily -be carried, and which required an expert to handle, to the large cruising canoe 40 or 50 feet long and five or six feet wide, which could carry 30 or 40 people and all their equip ments. The straight up and down lines of the stern- and the bewitching curve j of the- bow were very graceful, and tho ; water lines of bow and stern have never been excelled. The building of one was the work of years. It was painfully hoi- i j lowed out with fire and flint and heaven j tooth chisel, was steamed within with j j red-hot rocks and water, and stretched J to exactly the right proportion and kept in place by stretchers strongly sewed in. It was swift, beautiful and seaworthy, j Its only weakness was in the places where j the cedar tree was cut across the grain l to give the lines of bow and stern. Here j in a heavy seaway the canoe would al- ways "work," and from here the canoe i would sometimes split from end to end. I Many a tragedy of the sea was due to t this Inherent weakness of the dugout ' canoe, for in these and the Alaskan canoes the Indians traveled the entire ' coast line of the Pacific, from the mouth ' of the Columbia northward to Sitka and southward to the California line, and even farther. Old Indians often told "of cling ing to the broken sides of the canoo when It had split for hours, andeven days, un til the surf rolled them ashore. Physical and Mental Characteristics. The lowervrlver Indians had no horses and. no place to use them, but dogs they had a-plenty- Why they kept them ex cept as sentries no one ever knew. They were miserable creatures without courage or hunting Instincts, but no one could come within a hundred yards of an In dian lodge without being discovered, and in this probably lay their value to the Indian, for they were not eaten except In cases of necessity or upon ceremonial occasions. The Indians In their canoes were ' fine-looking people. Arms, shoul ders and backs "were well muscled and proportioned, and they handled theliv poles and paddles with grace and skill, but out side of their canoes the effect was not so good. They almost uniformly had short. ! squatty legs, sometimes made crooked by continual squatting In the canoes, and this gave them a curiously top-heavy ef- feet. Compared ' with the horse Indians ' of Eastern Oregon and Washington they looked weak and Insignificant. They were not as warlike a people as the horse In dians, and hi a land battle would, bavo had but a poor chance. Intellectually l they were superior, and the Eastern In dians complained that at the Cascades, where the native peoples met to trade, they were- uniformly outwitted by their salt water brethren. Upon the wa ter they were superior also, and no In dian of the plains could handle a canoe as the salt water Indians could. The women were short, squatty creatures, with a tendency to grow fat and wrin kled when they could get food ejiough to grow fat on. The Wrinkles they ac quired anyway. From 15 to 20 the Indian girl was a warm-blodded creature, not at all bad looking, but after this she aged rapidly. At 30 was old, and at 40 fit only to tan buckskins and do heavy work. In their nntlve state very few of them lived much beyond 50. Their treatment by tho Indian men was brutal to a de gree that white women would hardly re alize. Nevertheless they had a great deal of influence, and while an Indian In a fit of bad temper might In the evening knock down his tired squaw and leave her lying In 'the ashes by the fire, the next morning she would be mistress of tho household as usual. It was astonishing what good women the native women were, and how patiently and honestly they tolled and suffered for their worthless husbands. Afterwards when tho white men came, the chance to marry one of the King George men or Bostons was to an Indian woman a chance to enter para dise. No white husband was ever as bad as an Indian, and however drunken and worthless the white man might be con sidered by his own people, ho was a mar vel of husbandly virtues In the eyes of his native wife. Long centuries of op pression made the Indian woman thankful for even a poor specimen of a man. Thrice happy was her lot when she was taken for wife by a decent white man. In her inarticulate way she greatly rejoiced and sacrificed herself for him gladly. There are many people In Oregon and Washing ton who have Indian bjood In their veins, and few, very few, of them have ever had reason to blush for their Indian moth ers. Indian Younsrsters. The children that Lewis and Clark saw oh tho lower river were odd-looking crea tures. The babies wero strapped to boards, but the older ones were cease lessly active. They were little brown fel lows with slender legs that upheld and rapidly carried about a protuberant stom ach, apparently four sizes too large for the legs below and the head above. It Is astonishing how nearly they looked like the pictures of Brownies In our children's picture books. Amongst them the rate of mortality was high, and they grew up wv ar'iCzmJArt&T. s sfjm & with the dogs as best they could; were fed and In a fashion clothed and shel tered, and that was all. As soon as the littlo Indian could run about he com menced to hunt and fish, and In mere wantonness of slaughter would frequent the streams and kill and malm the sal mon coming up to spawn. The little creek by Cathlamet wa3 a favorite stream of the Fall salmon, and here the little ! Indians would gather and spear fish unU they were weary of the sport, and would then In mere wantoness throw their cap tures on tho rock3 to spoil. At 13 and 14 the boys would begin seriously to hunt for game. The old Queen Anne muskets that they had in early days would be carefully loaded, not a grain of powder or a single shot would be wasted, for these commodities in the early days were difficult to obtain. In his little one-man canoe the youth would silently paddle thrrough the sloughs looking for ducks and geese, of which there were countless thousands. He never attempted to shoot on the wing, and would rarely fire at a single bird, but would maneuver for hours to get a chance to fire Into a sit ting flock at short range. Economy in Ammunition. So strongly was the necessity of econ omy In powder and shot impressed upon them that a young Indian about 14 years old, seeing one day a large cougar about to cross a stream on a log did not Are at him from the canoe, but crept ashore and hid himself at the end of the cross ing log until the cougar, nearly touched the end of his gun, then he fired, and In the words of Western Ike. "Blnveod I hole In that cougar that a bull bat could a flew through without techlng his wlng3 on either side." Spoken to about the risk he had taken, the youngster said he couldn't afford to waste a load of shot, and had to make sure work. These old guns missed fire very frequently, and the little Inalan's economy might have cost him dear, but to his mind life was about the cheapest of his possessions: It had never cost him anything. For large game shooting they would frequently make a slug for their muskets by whit tling out a wooden plug the size of the Interior of the gun barrel, and with this make a mold In damp sand. Into which was poured the melted lead. The result was a fearful missile. It would not go straight for 40 yards, but as It was never fired at such a great distance this made no difference. By lying In wait or care ful stalking the Indian would get so closo to his game that a miss was impossible, and would then banc away. A bear slain In this way looked after bl3 decease as NO. 45. tt&xwb- If he hnd been .hit by a section of Mount Hood In some "Battle of the Gods." The Hunt for Ellr. Opposite Cathlamet Is Puget Island named by Vancouver's exploring party on Its first trip up, the Columbia, In ITS:!, and here the Indians hunted out the deer in tho low, marshy lands along the sloughs. In the early times, before they used guns, the hunts were elaborate af fairs and long lines of skirmishers drove the frightened deer Into lnclosures or pit falls, but after the traders came with guns and gunpowder, the same wary tac tics and careful stalking were employed In deer hunting as in the pursuit of other wild game. Across the river, beyond lt3 two channels and Puget Island, was high land again, and here is one of the most beautiful pieces of forest and one of the most striking slopes In all of the Coast Mountains. Commencing at Cathlamet Head, the unbroken slope sweeps easterly to a point back of Westport, and between It and the Nehalem River, for miles, the hunter travels In a great fir forest and up a gentle slope until he reaches an eleva tion of about 3000 feet and sees the Co lumbia River to the north and east, the Nehalem River to the south and the Pa cific Ocean to the West. Looking at It across the river from the hill In Cathlamet by the Blrnlo house, the sweeping outline of this long slope presents one of the most graceful and Impressive scones on the Lower Columbia. Here Whollky and Scarborough and all the mighty hunters of the Lower Colum bia hunted the elk and tho bear, and tho long aisles of those magnificent wood3 have seen stirring eights. To watch one of these thorough hunters track an elk was always a fresh delight. For hours he would go uphill and down and out and In In devious wanderings. Here a little twig misplaced or a leaf pressed down, signs too faint for the Inexperienced to even notice, would tell Wm when and whore the great beast had passed. No bloodhound ever followed the track more persistently. After hours, perhaps, of thl3 kind of work, the signs would grow clearer and easier to follow, and tho hunter's eyes would grow keen and hot, step by step he would increase his speed, and piece by piece he would drop his wrappings and clothes. It was said ot Indian Dick that he rarely had any clothes, to speak of, on at the death, and yet so perfect was his woodland Instinct that he would afterwards retrace his track for miles and gather up every ar ticle. THOMAS N. STRONG.