and modes of life of the Shoshones, which are especially interesting as
the record of an Indian tribe before it had come in contact with the
white men. The Shoshones, or Snakes, who here number four hundred souls,
lived a migratory, wretched existence, seeking at one season the salmon
of Lewis River, at another the buffalo of the upper Missouri, and again
in the mountains barely maintaining life on roots. They were, however,
gay, frank, fair-dealing, honest, fond of ornaments, amusements, and
games of chance, kind and obliging, and somewhat given to boasting of
their warlike exploits. The narrative continues: "The mass of females
are condemned, as among all savage nations, to the lowest and most
laborious drudgery. When the tribe is stationary they collect the roots
and cook; they build the huts, dress the skins, and make clothing,
collect the wood, and assist in taking care of the horses on the route;
they load the horses, and have charge of all the baggage. The only
business of the man is to fight: he therefore takes on himself the care
of his horse, the companion of his warfare, but he will descend to no
other labor than to hunt and to fish."
Their inferior arms put them at the mercy of the Minnetarees of Knife
River, who mercilessly stole their horses and killed their braves. They
seemed an adventurous and courageous people, and Cameahwait's vehement
declaration that, with guns, they would never fear to meet their
enemies, did not seem boastful.
Their common arms are bow and arrow, shield, lance, and a weapon called
by the Chippeways, by whom it was formerly used, the poggamoggon.
Their method of producing fire was by an arrow and a dry prepared stick,
which, being rubbed together vigorously and dexterously for a few
minutes, first creates a fine dust, then bursts speedily into flame.
The great wealth of the tribe consists in large numbers of small, wiry,
and hardy horses, capable of great endurance, sure footed and fleet.
They were second in value to the women alone, who carried the baggage
when horses failed.
The Shoshones were well dressed, with shirts, leggings, and moccasins of
dressed deer, antelope, etc., skins. A robe with the hair on served as
a cloak or as a bed-covering; the shirts were ornamented with porcupine
quills of different colors and sometimes by beads, also the moccasins.
Elaborate tippets of elegant pattern were also worn, made of otter and
fringed with many ermine skins; also collars of various kinds of
sea-shells, of the sweet-scented grass, of tusks of the elk, and of the
claws of the grizzly bear.
"The names of the Indians vary in the course of their life. Originally
given in childhood from the mere necessity of distinguishing objects, or
from some accidental resemblance to external objects, the young warrior
is impatient to change it by something of his own achievement. Any
important event, the stealing of a horse, the scalping of an enemy, or
killing a brown bear, entitles him at once to a new name, which he then
selects for himself, and it is confirmed by the nation."
Everything ready, Lewis started on August 27, 1805, with twenty-nine
pack-horses, to follow Berry Creek and pass over the mountains to Indian
establishments on another branch of the Columbia. In many places a road
had to be cut, and even then was barely practicable. Sure footed as is
the Indian pony, yet all of the horses were very much injured in passing
over the steep rocky ridges. The way was so rough that the horses fell
repeatedly down the hillsides, often capsizing with their load, and
occasionally one was crippled and disabled. The journey was made yet
more disagreeable by a fall of snow and by severe freezing weather, but
the spirit of the party is shown by the mention of a "serious
misfortune, the last of our thermometers being broken." On September
6th, however, they were safely beyond the mountain in a wide valley at
the head of Clark's Fork of the Columbia, where they met about four
hundred Ootlashoots, who received them kindly and gave to them of their
only food, berries and roots. Following the river they reached
Travellers' Rest Creek, where they stopped for hunting, as they were
told the country before them had no game for a great distance. Game
proved to be so scanty that they moved onward, crossing to the
Kooskooskee, where, being without animal food, they killed a colt for
supper. Snow fell again, which would not have been so uncomfortable had
not their road fallen along steep hillsides, obstructed with dead timber
where not covered with living trees, from which the snow fell on them as
they passed, keeping them continually wet while the weather was
freezing. The road continued difficult. Game was wanting, and as they
marched they killed one after another of their colts for food. Their
horses were becoming rapidly disabled; the allowance of food scarcely
sufficed to check their hunger; while the extreme bodily fatigue of the
march, and the dreary prospects before them, began to dispirit the men.
Lewis, appreciating the gravity of the situation, sent Clark ahead, with
six hunters, who the next day was fortunate enough to kill a horse, on
which his party breakfasted and left the rest for the main expedition.
The country continued rugged, and in some places the only road was a
narrow rocky path at the edge of very high precipices. One of their
horses, slipping, rolled a hundred feet, over and over, down a nearly
perpendicular hill strewed with large rocks. All expected he was killed,
but he proved to be little injured. Their enforced fasting visibly
affected the health of the party; all lost flesh, grew weak, and were
troubled with skin eruptions, while several were more seriously ill.
On September 20th, Clark reached a village of the Chopunish or Nez
Percés, in a beautiful level valley, where he was kindly received and
well fed. Fish, roots, and berries were also obtained, which, sent to
Lewis, reached him eight miles out of the village at a time when his
party had been without food for more than a day. When the village was
reached, the party was in a deplorable condition through long fasting
and the exhausting fatigue of the march.
Purchasing from the Indians as much provisions as their weakened horses
could carry, they moved on to the forks of the Snake, where the party
slowly recruited its health and strength. They killed a horse for the
sick, while the party in general lived on dried fish and roots, the
latter causing violent pains in the stomach. Five canoes were made, and
as the men were weak they adopted the Indian method of burning them out.
The twelfth day saw their canoes finished and loaded for the final
journey, which was to lead them to the sea. Lewis cached his saddles,
the extra powder and ball, and branding his remaining horses, delivered
them to three Indians, the principal named Twisted-hair, who agreed to
take good care of them till the return of the party, when additional
presents were to be given for this service.
Their troubles now seemed to be over and they were congratulating
themselves on their safe progress, when they struck a series of fifteen
rapids. When passing the last Sergeant Gass's "canoe struck, and a hole
being made in her side she immediately filled and sank. Several men who
could not swim clung to the boat until one of our canoes could be
unloaded, and with the assistance of an Indian boat they were all
brought ashore. All the goods were so much wetted that we were obliged
to halt for the night and spread them out to dry. While all this was
exhibited, it was necessary to place two sentinels over the merchandise,
for we found that the Indians, though kind and disposed to give us aid
during our distress, could not resist the temptation of pilfering small
articles." The Snake River was in general very beautiful, but it was
filled with rapids, most of them difficult, and one strewed with rocks,
most hazardous.
Food failing, except fish and roots, they concluded, probably at the
suggestion of their Frenchmen, to change their diet, and being again
reduced to fish and roots, made an experiment to vary their food by
purchasing a few dogs, and after having been accustomed to horseflesh,
felt no disrelish to this new dish. The Chopunish have great numbers of
dogs, which they employ for domestic purposes but never eat, and the
practice of using the flesh of that animal soon brought the explorers
into ridicule as dog-eaters. "Fortunately, however," says Clark, "the
habit of using this animal has completely overcome the repugnance which
we felt at first, and the dog, if not a favorite dish, is always an
acceptable one." Elsewhere he adds, "having been so long accustomed to
live on the flesh of dogs, the greater part of us had acquired a
fondness for it, and our original aversion for it is overcome by
reflecting that on that food we were stronger and in better health than
at any period since leaving the buffalo country."
They were now in Lewis River, a broad greenish-blue stream filled with
islands and dangerous rapids, which were passed in canoes, except one
near the mouth, where a land portage of a mile was necessary. This
brought them to the junction of the Lewis and Columbia Rivers on October
17th, where they parted from the Nez Percés. These Indians lead a
painful, laborious life, brightened by but few amusements; are healthy,
comely, and generally well dressed; given to ornaments of beads,
sea-shells, feathers, and paints. In winter they collect roots and hunt
the deer on snow-shoes, toward spring cross the mountains to buy buffalo
robes, and in summer and autumn catch salmon, usually by weirs at the
rapids, in the following manner: "About the centre of each was placed a
basket formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a
cylindrical form and terminating in a conic shape at its lower
extremity. This was situated with its mouth upward opposite to an
aperture in the weir. The main channel of the water was conducted to
this weir, and as the fish entered it they were so entangled with each
other that they could not move, and were taken out by untying the small
end of the willow basket."
Here Lewis began to lay in stores, and, fish being out of season,
purchased forty dogs, which for weeks had proved to be the best food
available. On October 20th they again launched their canoes in the
Columbia, and pushed on through the frequent rapids, looking forward
with interest not unmixed with anxiety to the great falls of which the
Indians told them. Arrived at the head of the rapids, they made a
portage of nearly a mile, availing themselves of the assistance and
guidance of the Indians. Owing to the great labor of portages they kept
to the river when possible, and "reached a pitch of the river, which,
being divided by two large rocks, descended with great rapidity down a
fall eight feet in height. As the boats could not be navigated down this
steep descent, we were obliged to land and let them down as slowly as
possible by strong ropes of elk-skin." They all passed in safety except
one, which, being loosed by the breaking of the rope, was driven down,
but was recovered by the Indians below.
Finally they came to an extremely dangerous place where a tremendous
rock projected into the river, leaving a channel of only forty-five
yards, through which the Columbia passed, its waters thrown into
whirlpools and great waves of the wildest and most dangerous character.
As the portage of boats over this high rock was impossible in their
situation, Lewis resolved on a passage in boats, relying on dexterous
steering, which carried them through safely, much to the astonishment of
the Indians gathered to watch them. Another rapid was so bad that all
papers, guns, ammunition, and such men as could not swim made a land
portage, while Lewis and Clark took the canoes through safely, two at a
time. The 25th brought them to the most dangerous part of the narrows,
which they concluded to hazard by canoe after using precautions as to
valuable articles and men. The first three canoes escaped very well, the
fourth nearly filled, the fifth passed through with only a small
quantity of water.
On the 28th Lewis was very much gratified by seeing an Indian with a
round hat and sailor's jacket, which had come up the river by traffic;
and as he went on similar articles became common. They passed a number
of different tribes who behaved in a friendly manner, and among others
the Eneeshur, at the great falls, interested them by their cooking
utensils, which were baskets so skilfully made of bark and grass as to
serve as vessels for boiling their provisions. Some of the party were
horrified, however, by "the chief, who directed his wife to hand him his
medicine bag, from which he brought out fourteen fore-fingers, which he
told us had once belonged to the same number of his enemies whom he had
killed in fighting."
On the 31st they came to the lower falls, where the river narrowed to
one hundred and fifty yards and fell twenty feet in a distance of four
hundred yards, while below was another exceedingly bad rapid. The upper
rapid was so filled with rocks that Crusatte, the principal waterman,
thought it impracticable, so a portage of four miles was made over the
route followed by the Indians. "After their example, we carried our
small canoe and all the baggage across the slippery rocks to the foot of
the shoot. The four large canoes were then brought down by slipping them
along poles placed from one rock to another, and in some places by using
partially streams which escaped alongside of the river. We were not,
however, able to bring them across without three of them receiving
injuries which obliged us to stop at the end of the shoot to repair
them."
On November 2d, Lewis was intensely gratified by the first appearance of
tide-water, and pushed on with the greatest eagerness until he reached
Diamond Island, where "we met fifteen Indians ascending the river in two
canoes; but the only information we could procure from them was that
they had seen three vessels, which we presumed to be European, at the
mouth of the Columbia."
As he went on, small parties of Indians in canoes were seen and many
small villages, principally of the Skilloots, who were friendly, well
disposed, desirous of traffic, and visited so frequently as to be
troublesome. One Indian, speaking a little English, said that he traded
with a Mr. Haley. The weather had become foggy and rainy, but on
November 7, 1805, while pushing down the river below a village of the
Wahkiacums, the "fog cleared off and we enjoyed the delightful prospect
of the ocean--that ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward of
all our anxieties. This cheering view exhilarated the spirits of all the
party, who were still more delighted on hearing the distant roar of the
breakers, and went on with great cheerfulness."
Lewis, not content with a sight of the ocean, went on, determined to
winter on the coast. A severe storm forced him to land under a high
rocky cliff, where the party had scarcely room to lie level or secure
their baggage. It "blew almost a gale directly from the sea. The immense
waves now broke over the place where we were encamped, and the large
trees, some of them five or six feet thick, which had lodged at the
point, were drifted over our camp, and the utmost vigilance of every man
could scarcely save our canoes from being crushed to pieces. We remained
in the water and drenched with rain during the rest of the day, our only
food being some dried fish and some rain-water which we caught. Yet,
though wet and cold and some of them sick from using salt water, the men
are cheerful and full of anxiety to see more of the ocean." Here they
were confined six days, and the rain had lasted ten days, wetting their
merchandise through, spoiling their store of dried fish, destroying and
rotting their robes and leather dresses.
A series of gales and long-continued rain did not prevent Lewis and
Clark from exploring the country for a suitable place for winter
quarters. Lewis finally discovered a point of high land on the river
Neutel, where a permanent encampment was established which was called
Fort Clatsop. It was situated in a thick grove of lofty pines several
miles from the sea and well above the highest tide.
The fort consisted of seven wooden huts, which were covered in by the
20th of November and later picketed, so as to afford ample security. The
party subsisted principally on elk, of which they killed one hundred and
thirty-one. Fish and berries were much used in the early spring. Salt
was made in considerable quantities on the sea-shore, and some blubber
was secured from a stranded whale, 105 feet in length. In general, the
winter passed without serious results, except that the health of some of
the men was impaired by the almost constant rains, there being but four
days without rain in the first two months.
The conduct of the many Indian tribes with whom they had communication
was almost always friendly, and in only one or two cases did even
strange Indians from a distance show signs of hostility. The northwest
coast had been visited so often that little could be added to the
knowledge of their customs and mode of life. One comment of Lewis, is,
however, worthy of reproduction. "We have not observed any liquor of an
intoxicating quality used among these or any Indians west of the Rocky
Mountains, the universal beverage being pure water. They sometimes
almost intoxicate themselves by smoking tobacco, of which they are
excessively fond, and the pleasure of which they prolong as much as
possible by retaining vast quantities at a time, till after circulating
through the lungs and stomach, it issues in volumes from the mouth and
nostrils."
It appears surprising that Lewis was ignorant of the discovery of the
Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray, for he says that the name Point
Adams was given by Vancouver. Further, he was ignorant of the fact that
the trade at the mouth of the Columbia was conducted almost entirely by
vessels from New England. From the English phrases of the Indian, he
knew that the traders must be "either English or American," and presumed
"that they do not belong at any establishment at Nootka Sound."
The original plan contemplated remaining at Fort Clatsop until April,
when Lewis expected to renew his stock of merchandise from the traders
who yearly visited the Columbia by ship. Constant rains, however,
increased sickness among his men, while game failed to such an extent
that they only lived from hand to mouth; and as merchandise lacked
wherewith to buy food from the Indians, it became necessary to return.
On departing, he left among the Indians a number of notices setting
forth briefly the results of his expedition; one of these, through an
American trader, reached Boston via China in February, 1807, about six
months after Lewis's own return.
On March 24, 1806, the party commenced to retrace their long and
dangerous route of 4,144 miles to St. Louis. Their guns were in good
order and the stock of ammunition plentiful, but their entire stock of
trading goods could be tied up in a single blanket.
Detained by scarcity of fish, they discovered the Multonah (Willamette)
River which, hidden by an island, was not seen on their downward voyage.
Lieutenant Clark went up the valley some distance to Nechecole village,
where he saw an Indian house, all under one roof, 226 feet long.
Of the valley of the Willamette, Lewis remarks that it was the only
desirable place of settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, and it was
sufficiently fertile to support 50,000 souls. He mentions its rich
prairies, its fish, fowl, and game, its useful plants and shrubs, its
abundant and valuable timber.
The conditions of the rapids below The Dalles was such that one boat,
fortunately empty, was lost, and the upper rapids being impracticable,
they broke up or traded all their boats and canoes but two, which were
carried to the upper river. They proceeded with the horses, that had
been purchased with the greatest difficulty, Bratton, too ill to walk,
being on horseback, and on April 27th reached a village of the
Wallawallas, near the mouth of Snake or Lewis River. Here they were so
well received that Lewis says: "Of all the Indians whom we have met
since leaving the United States, the Wallawallas were the most
hospitable, honest, and sincere."
Their horses recruited to twenty-three head, cheered by information of a
new route which would save eighty miles, and with Wallawalla guides,
they moved in early May up the valley of Snake or Lewis River, and
finding it too early to cross the mountains, encamped in the forks of
the Kooskoosky, having meanwhile received back from their savage friend
Twisted-hair their thirty-eight horses intrusted to his care the
previous year. Their journey by land was marked by great scarcity of
food, which was roots or dog, except when the officers, practicing
medicine for sick Indians, obtained horses for food. The use of dog,
which was now very palatable, caused derision among the Indians. On one
occasion an Indian threw a half-starved puppy into Lewis's plate, with
laughter, which turned to chagrin when Lewis flung the animal with great
force into the savage's face and threatened to brain him with a
tomahawk. The Indians lived almost entirely on fish during the salmon
season, and on roots the rest of the year. Their houses were collected
under one roof, with many apartments, and two were seen each about one
hundred and fifty feet long. The difficulties of communicating with the
Chopunish were very great, and if errors occurred it was not
astonishing. Lewis spoke in English, which was translated by one of the
men in French to Chaboneau, who repeated it in Minnetaree to his wife.
She put it into Shoshonee to a prisoner, who translated it into
Chopunnish dialect.
An attempt in early June to cross the mountains failed, the snow being
ten feet deep on a level. On June 24th they started again, and with
great privations succeeded in following their trail of the previous
September across the Bitterroot Mountains to Traveller's-rest Creek, on
Clark Fork, which was reached June 30th.
Here the party divided in order to thoroughly explore different portions
of the country. Lewis took the most direct route to the great falls of
the Missouri, whence he was to explore Maria's River to 50° N. latitude.
Clark proceeded to the head of Jefferson River, down which Sergeant
Ordway was to go in the canoes cached there. Clark himself was to cross
by the shortest route to the Yellowstone, and building canoes, descend
to its mouth and rejoin the main party at that point.
Lewis went into the Maria's River country, but was unable to proceed far
through lack of game. He there fell in with a band of Minnetarees, who
attempted to steal his arms and horses, which resulted in a skirmish
wherein two Indians were killed, the only deaths by violence during the
expedition. Then turning to the mouth of the Maria's River, they were
rejoined by Ordway's party, and on August 7th reached the mouth of the
Yellowstone, where a note from Clark informed them of his safe arrival
and camping place a few miles below.
Clark had explored portions of the valleys of the Jefferson, Gallatin,
and Madison, and had prescience of the wonders of the Yellowstone in a
boiling-hot spring discovered at the head of Wisdom River. His journey
to Clark's fork of the Yellowstone was made with comfort and safety, but
there an accident to one of his men obliged him to make canoes, during
which delay the Indians stole twenty-four of his horses.
As Lewis descended the Missouri he saw that the tide of travel and
adventure was already following in his track, and two daring
Illinoisans, Dickson and Hancock, were at the mouth of the Yellowstone
on a hunting trip. Rapidly descending the river the 23d of September saw
the party safe at St. Louis, the initial point of their great and
eventful expedition.
The great continental journey to and fro, from ocean to ocean, across
barren deserts, through dangerous waterways, over snow-clad mountains,
among savage and unknown tribes, had been accomplished with a success
unparalleled in the world of modern adventure and exploration.