Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1998)
Spelyay Tymoo Warm Springs, Oregon November 19, 1998 9 Harvesting salmon was the By George Aguilar, Sr. Time of this short writing is Sunday, October 25, 1998, place: Columbia River Gorge. Weather conditions: periods of rain, temperature 59 degrees for a high, 40 degrees for a low, with westerly cold fall winds setting in, creating travel by canoe miserable. The high cascade mountains receive a light dusting of snow. One hundred ninety three years ago today, the Lewis & Clark Expedition was in this area. They probably were faced with IWishram girl. the same miserable weather conditions. On the plateau overlooking the Columbia in the fall of 1805, the Chilluckittequa eastern Chinookian speaking people greeted the Lewis & Clark explorers sent by President Jefferson. This mission was to access the new territory bought by the United States from France known as the Louisiana Purchase. The place of greeting is now the tourist town of Hood River, Oregon. I surmise that, it is quite possible, Lewis & Clark may have spent the days of October 28 and 29, 1805 in the Hood River area. This is based on the inclement weather for this time of the year, which made accurate sextant reading impossible. Lewis & Clark Journals called this place Chilluckittequa (Hood River). This was the largest village on this stretch of the Columbia River (from The Dalles to the Cascade Rapids). The estimated populations of this village was 1400 persons. Across the river was the Smockshop Band of the Chilluckittequa (White Salmon). It had 24 houses, population of 800 persons. This large tribe probably had smaller bands scattered on the river. The Chinookian speaking people were traders and fisherman that plied river fishing areas with their canoes from Cascade Rapids (Bridge of the Cods) to the Five Mile Rapid to above the present day The Dalles, Oregon. For thousands of years, these Chinookian (Wasco) people resided at this location during the wintering period when the salmon was not present in the Columbia River. Lewis & Clark Journals made mention of the boarded houses, visiting of a chief, the presence of European trade items, the food used, and other ethnological information. In the year of June 1855 AD, while fishing for the blueback (Sockeye) and June Hog Chinook salmon, the Chilluckittequa Dog River Wasco were in the Narrows (Five Mile Rapids) area fishing in their accustomed fishing area. This was probably the extent of their fishing site up river from the Cascade Rapids. In this sad year, they reluctantly became part of the ( ) f J mf.'' ' "y I - ' 4 Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation. In the treaty with the United States, the Chilluckittequa were changed to the Dog River Wasco (Hood River). As the salmon migrated up river, they followed the salmon to the Narrows, this is one of the best places for harvesting the early bright silvery salmon. The Wishram had 21 houses, Lewis & Clark population count was 1000 persons. The Wishram Chinook dwelled at the now, Dalles Port and Spearfish Northern Shore. They became Yakama, Southern Shore was comprised of The Dalles Chinook or Wasq'o (Wasco, means a small bowl in Chinook). At the head of the Narrows were Tenai'nu (Tenino), they became Warm Springs. Approximately 12-miles above the Narrows was a gathering place called SiTailo (Celilo). These were Tyighham (Tygh), Tenai'nu (Tenino) Waiya'mpam (Wyam) Dock-spus (John Day). There were other Sahaptin speaking people that became Warm Springs also. These were known in the treaty as the Walla Walla Band. These are the encounters with the Dog River Wasco as recorded in the Lewis & Clark Journals: Oct. 28, 1805: was first encounter with the Chilluckittequa (Dog River Wasco) First Village. Oct. 29, 1805: second encounter with the Dog River Wasco. This was on or near sand bar of the now, Hood River, Oregon. The sand that caused the beaches were washed down from Mount Hood. April 9, 1806: Lewis & Clark met Chief of the Hood River Nation (Dog River Wasco) and two others arriving from below on a trading mission for Wappato, beads, and recent dried smelt in exchange for their pounded fish, beargrass, acorns, dried huckleberries etc., and are now returning to their village at Hood River. April 16, 1806: Lewis observed Indians eating a plant that's now in bloom and has a yellow blossom. This could be wild celery or (pash-pash) sun flowers stems, which are eaten the same way as the celery. Onions (garlic) also are used this time of the year. April 18, 1806: The last encounter with the Chilluckittequa (Dog River Wasco) was at the Was'qo or Wascopum, the now city of The Dalles, Oregon. The Dog River Nation is now preparing for the long expected salmon run in this area of the river. Some of our ancestry can still be traced back to the time of the arrival of Lewis & Clark era. Se-sum-ke's mother (Dog River Wasco) was a great great great grandmother. She was a young child living in this era. Ke-sum-ke, the daughter born Chilluckittequa tribes' livelihood at the Columbia River 1831 AD later experienced the arrival of the Oregon Trail pioneers with their deadly diseases (1840 AD era). She was still living in the Hood River area, during the Chief Ki-mi-a-kin Yakama War was in progress. In the early spring of 1856, General Palmer made a trip to The Dalles Fort to make arrangements for removal of the Treaty Indians to Warm Springs Reservation. The Yakamas attack on the Cascade Fortification one week later killed seventeen soldiers and twelve others were badly wounded. Eleven years had come and gone after the migration to Warm Springs took place. Ke-sum-ke's first husband James Polk, Sr. was bom 1846 AD in the Hood River area. James was also a Dog River Wasco. He enlisted in the US Army at Fort Dalles and fought alongside the famous Captain Billy Chinook as a scout in the 1867 Snake War. Ke-sum-ke's english name was Mrs. Burns. How she acquired this name is unknown. Due to the enactment of the "Dawes 1887 allotment Act", she was brought in as a witness on allotment of the Carrie Wolford estate in 1917. Her age was mentioned as being 86 years old at this time. Sta-na-que (great great aunt) a Tenino Sahaptin, her age, according to Wal-lik-sma (Susan Semore) was 110 years old at the time of the photo. She passed on in 1934 in Tenino Valley, she is buried in Tenino cerr ery in an unmarked grave, at the Thompson's lot. She was born about 1822 AD: She was a young woman, age 33, when the 1855 Treaty was negotiated. She survived the deadly diseases and witnessed the arrival of the many Oregon Trail pioneers. In the year 1853 AD. Ke-sum-ke and my other great great grandmother Sta-ne-que, a; Tenino Sahaptin, lived in perilous times. The Cayuse war, Rogue War, the Yakama Chief Ki-mi-a-kin War, the Andrew Jackson Removal Act and the Oregon Territory land grab disrupted a way of life forever. The culture of the Columbia River Indians was never again to resume. A Yakama, a sister, became a Warm Springs, or maybe a cousin remained on the river. An aunt or uncle was sent to Tulalip, Washington, WU mmi"1'"' . . i I i - Hair UftR't f r,. I 1 1 " v- ?. j. . . .' ' ) At this camp you will notice the fish wheels in operation in the background, and the Shaker bell at their meal table. The dried salmon hanging indicates it to be sockeye run season, about June. Astoundingly, some of our older family members kept close contact with each other throughout the four generations. When my grandmother Hattie Polk passed on 50 years ago (1948), some Wishram Chinooks of the Yakama Nation attended grandmother's funeral. I was informed by my aunt Dorothy that these were distant relatives. Other distant relatives on the river are from Husum, Washington, Lyle, Washington and the Yakama Nation. The Policy of the Euro-Americans were: "exterminate these savages." In the year of 1853 AD the Yreka Harold wrote: "The present outbreak has justly led all to the conclusion that extermination is the only way to secure peace. We have 'drawn the sword and thrown the scabbard away' and the tomahawk will no longer be buried but in the sculls of the red foe." In 1855 AD, extermination began to occur literally in the Willamette Valley (Rogue War). The Oregon Indians had gone through hell in fifteen years (see the book, An Arrow in the Earth). "It is not your wars but your peace that kills my people," Chief John is reputed to have said of the Rogue Tribe. White man's deadly diseases, religious systems, education and other established policies was the exterminator of the Columbia River culture. The speaking of native tongue in schools was strictly forbidden and discouraged. Special Indian police forces were established to quell any activity of: Wus-cla-ke, Wa-sha-ni, shammanisuim Native Religious ceremonials etc. of the approximately 2,200 to 3,000 Dog River Wasco that lived in the Hood River area in Sta-na-que was half Wasq'o, half Dalles Tenino. She spoke Sahaptin, Wasq'o and trader Chinook jargon. She was a wife to Billy Chinook and to Wel-lo-cho-wit (her second husband). 1805 AD., only a few people remained alive after the Euro-American diseases subsided. Not even a hundred people (my estimate) from the Dog River Wasco survived. With a heavy and broken heart my great great aunt Ke-sum-ke and great great grandmother Sta-ne-que was forced to immigrate to a bad and harsh Ti-chum (land). Thus: the Chilluckittequa (Dog River Wasco) was plucked away from their home on the Hood River plateau and placed on a desolate area far away from the so called superior race. In 1871 AD, Francis Victor surveyed the Oregon Indian scene for the San Francisco Overland Monthly. In her report she found Warm Springs land was "poor and worthless." Victor also concluded that they would (the tribes) continue to be "life pensioners upon the bounty of the US Government, just so "'iiiL' ' '.'iv't j'.i.',f'- r - X V ? , ' - , - vj ' - ' 'Mutual in - - I !'.T." . ; ' '...' i '!.!$' TV-V--WS. . VVt "-.( ' ' Wasq'o method of harvesting fish. long as they or their descendants are compelled to occupy these volcanic wastes." The Polk family made yearly treks to the Columbia River to fish in the Cascade Rapids and Narrows (Five Mile Rapids) above the city of The Dalles. From 1855 to 1970s five family members had perished in this stretch of the river. The sixth one is my father Easton, drowned in the Cascade Rapids in 1932 AD. The fishing sites at Cascade Rapids were used yearly until the Bonneville Dam destroyed all the fishing sites. The method of commuting the river progressed from cedar canoes and horses to stern driven steamboats of the late 1800s, and then in the 1900s came the use of automobiles. During the 1800s and 1900s farms and orchards started to emerge where the Dog River Wasco once made their abode. Grandfather would leave grandmother and the children at this place to pick strawberries while he went down river (Cascade Rapids). He went to harvest the arrival of the millions of sockeye (this species is now near extinction). The huge spring June Hog Chinook salmon sometimes weighed 100 pounds or more is now extinct. This majestic salmon run was killed when the Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams near the Canadian border were put to use. Grandfather, James Polk, Jr., sold fish to the canneries. When Grandfather fished, the Narrows Seufert Cannery bought his fish. This was also one of the places where the family made their yearly camp (see photo taken about 1915-1920s). You can see the fish wheels in action in the background. An experience with the steamboat was told by Grandmother. Grandfather would send Grandmother and children up or down the river on the steamboat. He would follow by driving the automobile up the now historic Columbia River Highway. This was because of the fear of highway robbers and other hoodlums. The one method he told, was to never stop for anything that looked enticing that lay abandoned on the road. Inthe 1960s, Charles Jackson made a request to uncle Henry Polk and Dorothy, my aunt. This was to establish a history of the camping areas of the Dog River Wasco from the Cascade Rapids to the Five Mile Rapids. However, nothing ever became of this request and the information they possessed was buried with them when they passed on. At the turn of the century (early 1900s) many photos were taken of the Columbia River Indians. The photo of the late aunt Adeline Symintyre Morrison is of such a photo on the post card. Tourists bought these post cards for souvenirs. The young teenage girl seated in front is Adeline. Adeline was born in Hood River, Oregon. Her mother was probably a "Chilluckittequa Cascade Chinook" (Wasco). The father, Peter Symintyre, was also a Wasco. When Adeline passed on, the eulogy stated, "She was the last of the full blooded Wasco of the Warm Springs Reservation." I consider her also as the last of the razor sharp Chinookian Indian traders of the Columbia River. Many of the Indian trading items, now on display at The Museum at Warm Springs, most likely, had passed through Adeline, who was the Indian trader icon of the 20th century era. When any items become relics to be shown in museums, we then know for sure this was a passing phase, called history. The modern day Hood River, Parkdale and Odell is now desolate of the once huge fir trees that clothed the hills of fir mountain and the surrounding area. The steep hills were raped of her timber and never was replanted. The landscape is now barren with spots of scrub fir here and there. Bright yellow autumn leaves of maple have grown where I once fell trees of three feet to five feet diameter, old growth logs, 45 years ago. Older homes of the 1930s dilapidated structures and mobile homes line highway 35. Approaching our ancestors grounds of the Dog River Wasco is a beautiful handcrafted sign that mention the scenic area of the Columbia River Gorge. The final approach to the now dead still polluted river is met with cars and trucks cruising at a blazing speed on highway 1-84. The chain saw shop where I once shopped for supplies and repairs is replaced with a wind surfing store. Next to it is a Tum-a-lum lumber yard to supply the never ending progress of modern times. The sandy shores were perhaps our ancestors stored their swift, sleek, cedar canoes has been replaced by a modern boat marina cluttered with recreational boats. This is Hood River which at one time was the home base of the displaced Chilluckittequa Dog River Wasco of the Warm Springs Reservation.
