[209]With his party, De Smet advanced up the Snake or Lewis River to its forks, of which Henry's is the most northern, rising in Henry's Lake (seeante, p. 175, note45). This arid valley, of which the missionary speaks, has been proved fertile under the influence of irrigation. Several millions of dollars have in recent years been invested in irrigation canals, along the valley of the upper Lewis, through which runs a spur of the Oregon Short Line Railway.—Ed.[210]For the Three Buttes and Three Tetons see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 209, note 49.—Ed.[211]The travellers passed by Beaverhead Valley, where the main body of the Flathead met them, by the well-known trace along the Big Hole and across the divide into Deer Lodge Valley—the route now followed substantially by the Oregon Short Line Railway. "Father's Defile" must have been near the Deer Lodge divide.—Ed.[212]Deer Lodge takes its name from a spring around which many white-tailed deer were wont to assemble. The mineral deposit had piled in a conical heap, forming the shape of an Indian lodge. These are now called Warm Springs, and used for medicinal purposes. The name Deer Lodge is now applied to the river and its valley, to a Montana county, and to the seat of that county. The valley is fertile. In its lower course the river called Hell Gate united with Bitterroot (or St. Mary's) at Missoula.—Ed.[213]For a description of this plant see our volume xv, pp. 232, 233. It is allied to theYucca filamentosaof the Southern states, whence its name of "Adam's needle." It is more commonly called silk or bear grass, and its filaments were used for weaving by the Indians of the Columbia, whence it became an article of intertribal trade. SeeOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index.—Ed.[214]For the scientific names of these species, seeibid., index.—Ed.[215]Stories of this sort are numerous; the discarded beaver is, however, the victim of disease, being attacked by a parasite. Consult Martin,Castorologia, or the Canadian Beaver(London and Montreal, 1892), pp. 159, 168, 233.—Ed.[216]See our volume xix, p. 328, note 138 (Gregg).—Ed.[217]Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne was a Belgian, born in Ghent in 1788. Coming to America he was made master of novices at Whitemarsh, and in 1823 removed to Florissant, Missouri, being made superior of his order in the West. He was zealous for Indian missions, in 1827-28 visiting in person the Osage; and in 1836 founding the Kickapoo mission. He died at Portage des Sioux, August 17, 1836, having revived the missions of his order to the North American aborigines.—Ed.[218]John Gray was an old mountaineer, probably acting on this journey as guide to the Englishman who was out for big game. See an account of a trapper of this name in Alexander Ross,Fur Hunters of the Far West(London, 1855), ii, chapter x.—Ed.[219]It is now accepted that there are but two species of bears in the United States; the black (Ursus americanus), of which the cinnamon bear is a variety, and the grizzly (Ursus horribilis), known as the white, grey, and brown bear. The episode here related by De Smet may be found inOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ii, pp. 33, 34.—Ed.[220]Hell Gate is the defile just east of Missoula, Montana, on a river of that name. It is said to have acquired its name (French,porte d'enfer) because the Blackfeet so often lay in wait along its cliffs, and to pass through was as dangerous as entering hell. In the early days of the territory there was a settlement known as Hell Gate, about five miles up the river, from its mouth.—Ed.[221]For a further description of these bull-boats see our volume xxiii, p. 279, note 246.—Ed.[222]Compare Bidwell's account inCentury Magazine, xix, p. 116. According to his report, it was a war party of but forty well-mounted Cheyenne. The young American had been unduly excited by their appearance, and was thereafter known as Cheyenne Dawson. His baptismal name was James. Reaching California with the Bidwell party, he was later drowned in Columbia River.—Ed.[223]For the Bannock Indians see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 192, note 41.—Ed.[224]The massacre of these travellers gave rise to several vague reports. As we had started together it was supposed by many that we had not yet separated when this unfortunate accident took place. Hence it was circulated in the United States, and even in some parts of Europe, that the Catholic Missionaries had all been killed by the Indians.—De Smet.[225]The Bitterroot River rises in two forks in the main chain of the Rockies, on the northern slope of the divide between Montana and Idaho, and flows almost directly north through a beautiful, fertile valley, until at Fort Missoula it unites with the Hell Gate to form Missoula River. The name is derived from the plantLewisia rediviva(French,racine amère), which was occasionally used by the Indians as food. The name St. Mary's River, assigned by Father de Smet, is frequently found on early maps.—Ed.[226]The site of St. Mary's mission was on the east bank of the Bitterroot, about eighteen miles above its mouth, near old Fort Owen and the modern Stevensville. For the further history of St. Mary's mission see Palladino,Indian and White in the Northwest, pp. 32-67.—Ed.[227]The Cœur d'Alène (awl-hearted) Indians are a branch of the Salishan family, whose tribal name is Skitswish (Lewis and Clark, Skeetsomish). Many unauthenticated traditions are afloat in regard to the origin of this term, which seems to be allied to some form of parsimony. The habitat of this tribe, near the lake of that name in northern Idaho, is still the seat of their reservation, which was set off in 1867, but not occupied until after the treaty of 1873. The tribal population has been almost stationary since first known, numbering nearly five hundred. Their language is quite similar to the Spokan. The Cœur d'Alène are agriculturists, wear civilized dress, and are now receiving their lands by allotment.—Ed.[228]This was the estimated number of Indians under Jesuit control in Paraguay, at the time of greatest prosperity.—Ed.[229]This Pend d'Oreille's native name was Chalax, and he is said to have been before his baptism a famous medicine man.—Ed.[230]For the Spokan see Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 341, note 146.—Ed.[231]Two South American tribes of eastern Bolivia, who long resisted the Spaniards, but yielded finally to Jesuit missionaries. The mission to the Chiquito was begun in 1691; they were gathered into two villages, and easily civilized.—Ed.[232]Baptized as Ambrose, and one of the most faithful converts. He was living in 1859. See Chittenden and Richardson,De Smet, index.—Ed.[233]Another title for Michael, or Insula; seeante, p. 147, note13.—Ed.[234]The context proves this to be a misprint for 1841.—Ed.[235]Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-65), born in Seville of Irish parents, was inducted into holy orders at Rome in 1824. He was a noted scholar and controversialist, well known to the English-speaking world, and closely connected with the Oxford movement. In 1848 he was made cardinal-archbishop of Westminster, whereupon he issued anAppeal to Reason and Good Feeling, which won him many friends among the English people.—Ed.[236]Probably Jean François de La Harpe (1739-1803), a French critic and satirist, who from being a Voltairean became an ardent Christian in the latter years of his life.—Ed.[237]James Bridger was for nearly fifty years well known as a trapper, hunter, and guide throughout the Rocky Mountains. De Smet speaks of him as "one of the truest specimens of a real trapper and Rocky Mountain man." Born in Virginia in 1804, his parents removed to Missouri before the War of 1812-15. He was first apprenticed to a St. Louis blacksmith, but as early as 1822 went to the mountains with Andrew Henry. Becoming one of Ashley's band, he explored Great Salt Lake in 1824-25, and by 1830 had visited Yellowstone Park. He afterwards entered the American Fur Company, in whose service he was retained until he built Fort Bridger in 1843. There he lived for many years with his Indian (Shoshoni) wife, greatly aiding Western emigration. His ability as a topographer was remarkable, and he knew the trans-Mississippi country as did few others. His services as a guide were, therefore, in great demand for all government and large private expeditions, General Sheridan consulting him in reference to an Indian campaign as late as 1868. As the West became civilized, and lost its distinctive frontier features, Bridger retired to a farm near Kansas City, where he died in 1881. His name is attached to several Western regions, notably Bridger's Peak, in southwestern Montana. For his portrait (taken about 1865) see Montana Historical SocietyContributions, iii, p. 181; the figure of the "Trapper" in the dome of the Montana State capitol at Helena, is also said to be a portrait of this picturesque character. Bridger was so noted for his remarkable tales of Western adventures and wonders that his descriptions of Yellowstone Park were long uncredited, being contemptuously referred to as "Jim Bridger's lies." Apropos of this tale of arrow-wounds, it may be noted that in 1835 Dr. Marcus Whitman extracted from Bridger's shoulder an iron arrowhead that had been embedded therein for several years.—Ed.[238]Clark's River (or more exactly, Clark's Fork of Columbia) was named by the explorers Lewis and Clark September 6, 1805, upon reaching the upper forks of its tributary the Bitterroot. It takes the name of Missoula from the junction of Bitterroot and Hell Gate rivers, but becomes distinctly Clark's Fork after receiving its great tributary from the northeast, the Flathead River. Its general course is north from the southern border of Montana, until turning slightly northwest it crosses into Idaho and broadens out into Pend d'Oreille Lake, running thence in a northwest course until it empties into the Columbia just on the boundary line between Washington and British Columbia. The bands referred to as "Clarke River" tribes are chiefly of Salishan stock—the Flatheads, Cœur d'Alène, and Pend d'Oreille.—Ed.[239]For the Chinook (Tchenook) Indians see our volume vi, p. 240, note 40.—Ed.[240]For Charlevoix see our volume xiii, p. 116, notes 81, 82.—Ed.[241]The following description is taken almost verbatim from the book of Ross Cox,Adventures on the Columbia River(New York, 1832), pp. 328-330. By the Calkobins is intended the Talkotins, a poor rendering of the Indian tribal name Lhtho'ten, or people of Fraser River. This was a tribe of Carrier (Taculli) Indians of the Tinneh stock, who inhabited the region around the fur-trade post of Alexandria, on Fraser River. By a census of about 1825 they numbered but 166; the revolting customs relative to the disposal of the dead were, however, common to all the Carrier Indians, whose name is said by some to have been given because of the burden of their husband's ashes, worn by the widows of the tribe. More probably, the name was derived from their function of aiding in "carries" or portages across the upper Rockies.New Caledonia was discovered by Alexander Mackenzie in 1793; its posts were begun under Simon Fraser (1805-06). During the fur-trading period, it was an important division of the Hudson's Bay Company's Pacific provinces; but was dependent upon the Columbia district, with headquarters at Vancouver. The chief posts of New Caledonia were St. James, Stuart Lake, and Alexandria. For its boundaries, etc., consult Ross'sOregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. 194, note 61.—Ed.[242]Sanpoil has been variously interpreted as a French word (meaning "without hairs") or as the English rendering of a native word. They were a tribe of Salishan stock, resident upon the upper Columbia, near a river in northeastern Washington called from their name. The Sanpoil did not prove amenable to missionary effort. The governor of Washington Territory in 1870 represents them as the least civilized and most independent aborigines of the territory, clinging to their native religion and customs. Since then, they have been located on the Colville reservation, where their reputation for honesty and industry is not high. With their near kindred the Nespelin, they number about four hundred.—Ed.[243]The Chaudière (or Kettle) Indians were so named from their habitat near Kettle Falls of the Columbia. Their native name was Shwoyelpi (Skoyelpi), rendered Wheelpoo by Lewis and Clark. They were early brought under Catholic influence, becoming satisfactory neophytes. The original tribe became extinct about 1854; but their place was supplied by natives of the vicinity, of similar origin. They are now known as Colville Indians, and to the number of about three hundred live on the reservation of that name, where the majority are Catholic communicants.—Ed.[244]For Fort Vancouver and its governor, Dr. John McLoughlin, see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, pp. 296, 297, notes 81, 82.—Ed.[245]Francis Norbert Blanchet had been a parish priest in the diocese of Montreal. In 1838, when a call came from the Canadians in the valley of the Willamette for a priest to minister to their settlement, Blanchet was sent out with the Hudson's Bay brigade, arriving at Fort Vancouver in the autumn of that year. Early in January, 1840, St. Paul's parish, in Willamette Valley, was established by Blanchet, and the church erected therefor in 1836 was occupied. In 1843 Blanchet was appointed vicar apostolic of the territory of the British crown west of the Rockies. Going to Montreal for consecration, he afterwards visited Europe, where he was created archbishop of Oregon, with a seat at Oregon City. For his portrait see Lyman,Oregon(New York, 1903), iii, p. 422. HisHistorical Sketches of the Catholic church in Oregon during the past forty yearswas published at Portland in 1878.—Ed.[246]Madison River is one of the three upper branches of the Missouri. Rising in Yellowstone Park, it is formed by the junction of Gibbon and Firehole rivers, and at first flows north through a mountainous and rocky country; but in its lower reaches courses through a fertile valley.—Ed.[247]Fort Colville was a Hudson's Bay Company post, built in 1825 to supersede the fort at Spokane, which was too far inland for convenient access. The site was at Kettle Falls on the east bank of the stream (see Alexander Ross,Fur Hunters, ii, p. 162), the post being named for the London governor of the company, Eden Colville. The fort became an important station on the route of the Columbia brigade; here accounts for the district were made up, and the dignitaries of the company entertained. Gov. George Simpson had been at Fort Colville in the summer before De Smet's visit, when Archibald Macdonald was the factor in charge. This post was maintained some time after the Americans acquired the Oregon Territory, but about 1857 it was removed north of the international boundary line. In 1859 the United States government built a military post called Fort Colville some miles east of the old fur-trading stockade, near the present town of Colville, Washington. The neighboring Indians having become peaceful, the fort is no longer garrisoned.—Ed.[248]This affluent of the Bitterroot from the west was the one followed by the Lewis and Clark expedition, in their route across the Bitterroot mountain divide. Those explorers named it Traveller's Rest Creek; it is now known as the Lolo Fork of the Bitterroot. An affluent of Missoula River, some distance further down, has now taken the name that De Smet first applied to the Lolo Fork.—Ed.[249]Hell Gate, for which seeante, p. 269, note139.—Ed.[250]The carcajou or wolverine (Gulo luscus).—Ed.[251]The route usually taken by the Indians did not follow the main branch of the river, but crossed the divide between the Missoula and Jocko rivers, coming down into the valley of the Flathead, and proceeding along that to its outlet into Clark's Fork. The two streams named for the saints were the main Flathead and Jocko rivers, which unite in the prairie described by De Smet. There were a number of small prairies in the vicinity, known as Camas from the abundance of that root (Camas esculenta). The better-known Camas Prairie was twenty miles below the mouth of the Jocko; the one mentioned by De Smet was apparently higher up, near the divide of the two rivers. These should all be distinguished from the Camas Prairie (Quamash Flats) of Lewis and Clark, which lay west of the Bitterroot Mountains.—Ed.[252]The Kalispel are the same tribe as the Pend d'Oreille, seeante, p. 141, note8.—Ed.[253]During the day (as described in Chittenden and Richardson,De Smet, i, p. 347), the father had passed Camas Prairie and advanced through Horse Plain at the junction of Flathead and Clark's Fork.—Ed.[254]Doubtless intended for oxide of iron.—Ed.[255]InExplorations for a Pacific Railway, 1853-53(Senate Ex. Docs., 35 Cong., 2 sess., vol. xviii, p. 91) the valley is thus described: "The next sixty-five miles along the valley of Clark's Fork is over a difficult trail, there being places where the sharp rocks injured the animals;" again, "The valley is wide, arable, and inviting for settlement, although rather heavily wooded."—Ed.[256]Lake Pend d'Oreille, in Kootenai County, Idaho, is one of the most picturesque bodies of fresh water in the Western states. It is irregular in shape, about sixty miles long, and from three to fifteen in breadth, with a shore line of nearly five hundred miles. It was probably, first of white men, visited by trappers and traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. It is now crossed by the Northern Pacific Railway, and steamers ply upon its waters.—Ed.[257]This is the Oregon cedar (Thuya gigantea), which attains great size and is widely diffused on the trans-Rocky region.—Ed.[258]The original French text of the letter describing this journey will be found inVoyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses(Chittenden and Richardson,De Smet, i, pp. 354-358); it gives additional information regarding the remainder of the journey. Having arrived at Lake Pend d'Oreille on November 1, the traveller was three days passing the traverse; November 13 a high mountain was crossed, and by pushing ahead, one more long day's journey brought him to Fort Colville, where he was hospitably entertained by the Hudson's Bay factor. The return journey was without incident.—Ed.[259]Montmartre is the highest point in the city of Paris, three hundred and thirty feet above the Seine, and dominates the entire city. In recent years a large church has been built upon its summit.—Ed.[260]Victor, hereditary chief of the Flatheads, succeeded Paul (or Big Face) in that office, which he retained with dignity and ability until his death in 1870, when he was in turn succeeded by his son Charlot. He was a consistent friend of the whites, many of the early pioneers of Montana testifying to his kindness and integrity. His wife Agnes remembered the coming of Lewis and Clark to their country; see O. D. Wheeler,On the Trail of Lewis and Clark(New York), ii, p. 65.—Ed.[261]For Horse Prairie (plain) seeante, p. 336, note172. For the Kutenai see Ross'sOregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. 211, note 73. In addition, note that the Kutenai (also called Skalzi) are a distinct linguistic stock, known as Kitunahan. Their habitat was chiefly in British territory; but because of alliance with the Flathead and other Salishan tribes they frequently wandered southward. A few are still on the Flathead reservation in Montana; but about five hundred and fifty frequent the Kutenai agency in British Columbia. They are nearly all Catholics.—Ed.[262]Flathead Lake is a broadening of the river of that name, and lies northeast of the present Flathead reservation. It is about twenty-eight miles long, with an average breadth of ten, and is studded with beautiful islands.—Ed.[263]This hot spring is in the eastern part of the Flathead reservation, and by a small creek discharges into the Little Bitterroot River, an affluent of the Flathead.—Ed.[264]For this lake see our volume vii, p. 211, note 75. Father de Smet crossed the mountains from Missoula Valley by the route now followed by the Northern Pacific Railway along the stream which he had christened St. Regis Borgia, through St. Regis Pass, coming out upon the headwaters of Cœur d'Alène River, which he followed to the lake of that name.—Ed.[265]The mission founded by Father Point in November, 1842, known as the Sacred Heart, was successful. The site was first upon St. Joseph River, a feeder of Cœur d'Alène Lake; but in 1846 it was removed to Cœur d'Alène River, at the present Cataldo. There the first church was built by the neophytes in 1853, after designs by Father Ravalli; it is still a landmark of the region. The tribesmen had been taught agriculture, and lived chiefly in log houses; but the soil being sterile, the mission was again removed to the upper waters of Haugman's Creek, in Idaho, where the Cœur d'Alène still reside upon their reservation.—Ed.[266]Spokane River rises in Cœur d'Alène Lake and flows almost directly to the Falls, thence northwest to its embouchment into the Columbia. It is about two hundred feet wide at the mouth and throughout its entire length is broken by falls and rapids, furnishing water power of great value, its total decline being a hundred and thirty feet. An early fur-trade fort known as Spokane Post stood near the present city of that name, but about 1824 was abandoned for Colville. See Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 277, note 85.—Ed.[267]Father de Smet here refers to the cliffs and rapids on Clark's Fork, about fifteen miles above Lake Pend d'Oreille; they are still known as "The Cabinets." The water rushes through a gorge, between cliffs over a hundred feet high.—Ed.[268]This mission was located at the mouth of Chamokane (Tskimakain) Creek, on what is known as Walker's Prairie about forty miles northwest of Spokane, and the borders of the present Spokane reservation. It was a station of the American Commissioners founded March 20, 1839, by two missionaries who had visited the spot the previous autumn and erected log-huts on the site.Rev. Elkanah Walker was born in Maine in 1805. Educated at Bangor Theological Seminary he had first intended to go as a missionary to Africa; but recruits being needed for the Oregon mission, he volunteered, and in 1838 came out with his wife, Mary Richardson Walker. They labored among the Spokan with considerable success—in 1841 printing a primer in that language—until the Whitman massacre (1847). Their Indians requested them to stay and promised them protection; but the government sent a military escort to take them to the settlements. There Walker bought land at Forest Grove, in the Willamette Valley, where he died in 1877.Rev. Cushing Eells was born in Massachusetts in 1810. Graduated at Williams College, he married Myra Fairbank in the spring of 1838, and with her left immediately for the Oregon mission. Living to old age, the pioneer missionary was known throughout the West, his character revered by all. He gave over fifty years of his life to missionary service, in his later years being known as Father Eells. He was instrumental in founding both Pacific University and Whitman College, and travelled extensively in the work of building churches and preaching. He frequently re-visited his Spokan protégés, the larger portion of whom are now members of the Presbyterian church.—Ed.[269]For Rev. Samuel Parker see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 335, note 112. Parker thus describes this incident in hisJournal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains(Ithaca, N. Y., 1838), pp. 275, 276: "One grave in the same village had a cross standing over it, which was the only relic of the kind I saw, together with this just named, during my travels in this country. But as I viewed the cross of wood made by men's hands of no avail, to benefit either the dead or the living, and far more likely to operate as a salvo to a guilty conscience, or a stepping-stone to idolatry, than to be understood in its spiritual sense to refer to a crucifixion of our sins, I took this, which the Indians had prepared, and broke it to pieces. I then told them we place a stone at the head and foot of the grave only to mark the place; and without a murmur they cheerfully acquiesced, and adopted our custom."—Ed.[270]Modeste Demers was born near Quebec in 1808; educated at Quebec Seminary he was ordained in 1836, and the same year started for Red River. Thence he went overland with the Hudson's Bay brigade in 1838, arriving in Vancouver in the autumn of that year with Father Blanchet. In 1839 he visited New Caledonia, and in 1842 was detailed to found missions among the tribesmen, and to instruct the half-breeds at the forts. He labored chiefly in New Caledonia until 1847, then being consecrated bishop of Vancouver. He continued in this field of labor until his death at Victoria in 1871.—Ed.[271]The Okinagan Indians are of the Salishan family, although some authorities class them with the Shushwaps of British Columbia. They formed a considerable confederacy of allied tribes, extending along the river valley of their name, and including the bands of the Similkameen River. A trading post was early erected among them, for which see Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 260, note 71. Alexander Ross, who married an Okinagan woman, and lived among them for many years, is the chief authority upon their manners and customs. See Ross'sOregon Settlers, in our volume vii, chapters xviii to xxi. The Okinagan are now tributary to Colville agency, and number about five hundred and fifty, most of whom are Catholics.—Ed.[272]The country between Fort Colville and Okanagan has been but imperfectly charted. It is about sixty miles in a direct line through the Colville Indian reservation.—Ed.[273]A small lake called Karamip is found on modern maps near the head of Sanpoil River.—Ed.[274]Lake Okanagan in British Columbia is about sixty miles in length and the source of the river of that name. It would be a long and difficult journey to return thence to Fort Colville in three days; so that De Smet's rendezvous with the Indians was possibly at some smaller interior lake, entitled by him Lake Okanagan because he met that tribe upon its shores.—Ed.[275]The Cœur d'Alène.—Ed.[276]See Thomas W. Symons, "Report of an Examination of the Upper Columbia River,"Senate Ex. Docs., 47 Cong., 1 sess., No. 186.—Ed.[277]See brief biographical sketch of Ogden in Townsend'sNarrative, our volume xxi, p. 314, note 99.—Ed.[278]For detailed descriptions of the Great Dalles of the Columbia, seeOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, iii, pp. 151-159; Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 337; and Ross'sOregon Settlers, our volume vii, pp. 130, 131—Ed.[279]What are technically known as the Little Dalles of the Columbia lie above Fort Colville. The description would appear to apply to the present Whirlpool Rapids, just below Kalichen Falls, about twenty miles above Okanagan River. The entire stretch from the Nespelin River west, is a long series of difficult rapids and riffles. See "Report" citedante, p. 373, note195.—Ed.[280]For Fort Walla Walla, a Hudson's Bay post, see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 278, note 73.—Ed.[281]Of these Indian tribes the Chaudière, Okinagan, Sanpoil (Cingpoils), have been describedante, in notes162,190,161; for the Walla Walla and Cayuse see our volume vii, p. 137, note 37; for the Nez Percés (Pierced Noses), volume vi, p. 340, note 145; for the Indians of the Dalles, volume vii, p. 129, note 31; the Chinook (Schinooks), volume vi, p. 240, note 40; for Clatsop (Classops), volume vi, p. 239, note 39. The Attayes were probably the Yakima, an important Shahaptian tribe in the valley of that river; one branch of the tribe was called Atanum, and a Catholic mission by that name was in later years established among them.—Ed.[282]Part of the Great Plain of the Columbia, broken by many fantastic shapes of the volcanic underlying rock. Most notable of these is the Grand Coulée, which, however, De Smet did not cross, for it lies north of Spokane River. He probably took the trail afterwards developed into a part of the Mullan road, from Great Falls of Missouri to Walla Walla. From the land of the Cœur d'Alène he returned along the route by which he had come out—the St. Regis Pass and river St. Regis Borgia.—Ed.[283]This was the route followed by Clark on his return journey in 1806—through Gibbon's Pass, and down the upper waters of Big Hole (or Wisdom) River, an affluent of the Jefferson.—Ed.[284]It was not the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company to encourage settlements. Dr. McLoughlin, however, permitted some of the retired servants of the company to settle at French Prairie (or Chemayway) in the Willamette Valley. There, by 1830, a considerable group of farmers were found, mostly of French-Canadian origin. Among the earliest settlers were Louis Labonte, Etienne Lucier, and Joseph Gervais.Fort Nisqually, on Puget Sound, four miles northeast of the mouth of Nisqually River, was founded in 1833 as a fur-trading post. In 1838 the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was formed in London, most of its members being Hudson's Bay Company men, in order to exploit the region of the sound; consequently a considerable settlement grew up near the fort.In 1837 Simon Plomondeau was advised by Dr. McLoughlin to settle on Cowlitz Prairie, in the valley of the river of that name. Soon one Faincaut settled near him. In 1839 a large farm was surveyed by Charles Ross, John Work, and James Douglas as a company settlement. It grew but little until the advent of Americans in 1853-54.—Ed.[285]For the Kalapuya see our volume vii, p. 230, note 80.—Ed.[286]The Cowlitz were a numerous and powerful tribe of Salishan stock, in the valley of the river of that name. They have now lost their tribal identity, the remnant (there were about a hundred and twenty-five in 1882) having lands allotted in severalty.For the Klikatat, see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 302, note 88. On their later history it may be noted that they participated in the Yakima treaty of 1855, and are now one of the consolidated tribes on Yakima reservation; a few, however, maintaining themselves on White Salmon River.—Ed.[287]For the Chehalis consult our volume vi, p. 256, note 65.The Nisqualli are a Salishan tribe on and in the vicinity of Nisqually River. There are now but about a hundred and fifty of this tribe surviving on the Puyallup reservation, Washington.—Ed.[288]The Skallam (Clallam), a tribe of Salishan origin, were first met by whites along Admiralty Inlet. There are now about seven hundred and fifty of these Indians extant, having allotments in severalty both at Jamestown and Port Gamble.—Ed.[289]Methodist missions in Oregon were founded by Rev. Jason Lee, for whom see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 138, note 13. The establishment in the Willamette Valley was the central one, and consisted largely of an agricultural settlement with a school for Indian children, that afterwards developed into Willamette University. It was situated about eighteen miles above Champoeg, not far from Salem. The second station at Clatsop (not Klatraps) Plains, south of Point Adams, was founded by J. H. Frost, accompanied by Solomon Smith and Calvin Tibbits, who had married Clatsop women. The families removed to this point in February, 1841. Two years later Frost returned to the United States, and J. L. Parrish took up the work. Little attempt was made at this point to reach the Indians. The mission at Nisqually was begun in 1839. The following year, J. P. Richmond was stationed here; he returned home after two years, whereupon the Nisqually mission was abandoned. The Indian mission at the Dalles was begun in March, 1838, by Daniel Lee and H. K. W. Perkins. It was conducted with varying success until 1845, when the property was disposed of to the Presbyterians. The settlement at Willamette Falls, made in 1840 by A. F. Waller, was chiefly a colonizing experiment. In 1844 there were forty Methodists at this place.—Ed.[290]Father Blanchet here refers to the missions of Dr. Whitman at Waiilatpu for the Cayuse, and that of H. H. Spaulding at Lapwai for the Nez Percés. See Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 352, note 125.—Ed.[291]Perkins at the Dalles mission (seeante, note208) had attempted to reach the Indians gathered at the Cascades. But Blanchet gained more influence over these nations than the Protestant missionary, for the natives were better pleased with the Catholic ceremonials.—Ed.[292]Probably intended for Clackamas, the name of a tribe upon the river of the same designation, which empties into the Willamette at the Falls.A. F. Waller came to reinforce the Methodist mission in 1840, and was sent to Willamette Falls. He had a legal controversy with Dr. McLoughlin in relation to the title to land at this place. Waller became a citizen of Oregon, acquired considerable property, and died in Willamette Valley in 1872.—Ed.[293]A long struggle had occurred to secure the entrance of Catholic missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. The first priests, who came out in 1827, were soon expelled. Returning in 1836, after a long struggle all were obliged to depart save Robert Walsh, an Irish priest, who was permitted to remain, provided he would agree not to teach the natives. In 1839 a French man-of-war threatened the government with a bombardment and succeeded in wresting from them the promise of toleration for Catholics; thereupon Etienne Rouchouse (Chochure), bishop of Nilopolis, arrived in May, 1838, accompanied by two priests. The next year the bishop returned to France for reinforcements; when on the outward voyage the vessel foundered off Cape Horn, all on board perishing.—Ed.[294]In 1818 J. N. Provencher was dispatched from Quebec to minister to the Red River settlers, and established a station at St. Boniface. In 1822, he was consecrated bishop of Juliopolis, and remained at St. Boniface until his death in 1853. His jurisdiction included Rupert's Land and all the Northwest provinces, whither he sent out many missionaries during his long episcopate.—Ed.[295]Passing from Madison to Gallatin rivers, crossing the divide that separates them, and then from Gallatin to the Yellowstone, probably by way of Bozeman's Pass, the nearest and most frequented route. This would bring the travellers out upon the Yellowstone at about the present Livingston, Montana.—Ed.[296]One of the proprietors was Pierre Chouteau, whom Father de Smet had doubtless known in St. Louis. Larpenteur relates this meeting (Coues,Larpenteur's Journal, i, p. 174), and states that the opposition of a new firm had brought the American Fur Company partners to the upper river to concert plans.—Ed.
[209]With his party, De Smet advanced up the Snake or Lewis River to its forks, of which Henry's is the most northern, rising in Henry's Lake (seeante, p. 175, note45). This arid valley, of which the missionary speaks, has been proved fertile under the influence of irrigation. Several millions of dollars have in recent years been invested in irrigation canals, along the valley of the upper Lewis, through which runs a spur of the Oregon Short Line Railway.—Ed.
[210]For the Three Buttes and Three Tetons see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 209, note 49.—Ed.
[211]The travellers passed by Beaverhead Valley, where the main body of the Flathead met them, by the well-known trace along the Big Hole and across the divide into Deer Lodge Valley—the route now followed substantially by the Oregon Short Line Railway. "Father's Defile" must have been near the Deer Lodge divide.—Ed.
[212]Deer Lodge takes its name from a spring around which many white-tailed deer were wont to assemble. The mineral deposit had piled in a conical heap, forming the shape of an Indian lodge. These are now called Warm Springs, and used for medicinal purposes. The name Deer Lodge is now applied to the river and its valley, to a Montana county, and to the seat of that county. The valley is fertile. In its lower course the river called Hell Gate united with Bitterroot (or St. Mary's) at Missoula.—Ed.
[213]For a description of this plant see our volume xv, pp. 232, 233. It is allied to theYucca filamentosaof the Southern states, whence its name of "Adam's needle." It is more commonly called silk or bear grass, and its filaments were used for weaving by the Indians of the Columbia, whence it became an article of intertribal trade. SeeOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index.—Ed.
[214]For the scientific names of these species, seeibid., index.—Ed.
[215]Stories of this sort are numerous; the discarded beaver is, however, the victim of disease, being attacked by a parasite. Consult Martin,Castorologia, or the Canadian Beaver(London and Montreal, 1892), pp. 159, 168, 233.—Ed.
[216]See our volume xix, p. 328, note 138 (Gregg).—Ed.
[217]Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne was a Belgian, born in Ghent in 1788. Coming to America he was made master of novices at Whitemarsh, and in 1823 removed to Florissant, Missouri, being made superior of his order in the West. He was zealous for Indian missions, in 1827-28 visiting in person the Osage; and in 1836 founding the Kickapoo mission. He died at Portage des Sioux, August 17, 1836, having revived the missions of his order to the North American aborigines.—Ed.
[218]John Gray was an old mountaineer, probably acting on this journey as guide to the Englishman who was out for big game. See an account of a trapper of this name in Alexander Ross,Fur Hunters of the Far West(London, 1855), ii, chapter x.—Ed.
[219]It is now accepted that there are but two species of bears in the United States; the black (Ursus americanus), of which the cinnamon bear is a variety, and the grizzly (Ursus horribilis), known as the white, grey, and brown bear. The episode here related by De Smet may be found inOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ii, pp. 33, 34.—Ed.
[220]Hell Gate is the defile just east of Missoula, Montana, on a river of that name. It is said to have acquired its name (French,porte d'enfer) because the Blackfeet so often lay in wait along its cliffs, and to pass through was as dangerous as entering hell. In the early days of the territory there was a settlement known as Hell Gate, about five miles up the river, from its mouth.—Ed.
[221]For a further description of these bull-boats see our volume xxiii, p. 279, note 246.—Ed.
[222]Compare Bidwell's account inCentury Magazine, xix, p. 116. According to his report, it was a war party of but forty well-mounted Cheyenne. The young American had been unduly excited by their appearance, and was thereafter known as Cheyenne Dawson. His baptismal name was James. Reaching California with the Bidwell party, he was later drowned in Columbia River.—Ed.
[223]For the Bannock Indians see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 192, note 41.—Ed.
[224]The massacre of these travellers gave rise to several vague reports. As we had started together it was supposed by many that we had not yet separated when this unfortunate accident took place. Hence it was circulated in the United States, and even in some parts of Europe, that the Catholic Missionaries had all been killed by the Indians.—De Smet.
[225]The Bitterroot River rises in two forks in the main chain of the Rockies, on the northern slope of the divide between Montana and Idaho, and flows almost directly north through a beautiful, fertile valley, until at Fort Missoula it unites with the Hell Gate to form Missoula River. The name is derived from the plantLewisia rediviva(French,racine amère), which was occasionally used by the Indians as food. The name St. Mary's River, assigned by Father de Smet, is frequently found on early maps.—Ed.
[226]The site of St. Mary's mission was on the east bank of the Bitterroot, about eighteen miles above its mouth, near old Fort Owen and the modern Stevensville. For the further history of St. Mary's mission see Palladino,Indian and White in the Northwest, pp. 32-67.—Ed.
[227]The Cœur d'Alène (awl-hearted) Indians are a branch of the Salishan family, whose tribal name is Skitswish (Lewis and Clark, Skeetsomish). Many unauthenticated traditions are afloat in regard to the origin of this term, which seems to be allied to some form of parsimony. The habitat of this tribe, near the lake of that name in northern Idaho, is still the seat of their reservation, which was set off in 1867, but not occupied until after the treaty of 1873. The tribal population has been almost stationary since first known, numbering nearly five hundred. Their language is quite similar to the Spokan. The Cœur d'Alène are agriculturists, wear civilized dress, and are now receiving their lands by allotment.—Ed.
[228]This was the estimated number of Indians under Jesuit control in Paraguay, at the time of greatest prosperity.—Ed.
[229]This Pend d'Oreille's native name was Chalax, and he is said to have been before his baptism a famous medicine man.—Ed.
[230]For the Spokan see Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 341, note 146.—Ed.
[231]Two South American tribes of eastern Bolivia, who long resisted the Spaniards, but yielded finally to Jesuit missionaries. The mission to the Chiquito was begun in 1691; they were gathered into two villages, and easily civilized.—Ed.
[232]Baptized as Ambrose, and one of the most faithful converts. He was living in 1859. See Chittenden and Richardson,De Smet, index.—Ed.
[233]Another title for Michael, or Insula; seeante, p. 147, note13.—Ed.
[234]The context proves this to be a misprint for 1841.—Ed.
[235]Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-65), born in Seville of Irish parents, was inducted into holy orders at Rome in 1824. He was a noted scholar and controversialist, well known to the English-speaking world, and closely connected with the Oxford movement. In 1848 he was made cardinal-archbishop of Westminster, whereupon he issued anAppeal to Reason and Good Feeling, which won him many friends among the English people.—Ed.
[236]Probably Jean François de La Harpe (1739-1803), a French critic and satirist, who from being a Voltairean became an ardent Christian in the latter years of his life.—Ed.
[237]James Bridger was for nearly fifty years well known as a trapper, hunter, and guide throughout the Rocky Mountains. De Smet speaks of him as "one of the truest specimens of a real trapper and Rocky Mountain man." Born in Virginia in 1804, his parents removed to Missouri before the War of 1812-15. He was first apprenticed to a St. Louis blacksmith, but as early as 1822 went to the mountains with Andrew Henry. Becoming one of Ashley's band, he explored Great Salt Lake in 1824-25, and by 1830 had visited Yellowstone Park. He afterwards entered the American Fur Company, in whose service he was retained until he built Fort Bridger in 1843. There he lived for many years with his Indian (Shoshoni) wife, greatly aiding Western emigration. His ability as a topographer was remarkable, and he knew the trans-Mississippi country as did few others. His services as a guide were, therefore, in great demand for all government and large private expeditions, General Sheridan consulting him in reference to an Indian campaign as late as 1868. As the West became civilized, and lost its distinctive frontier features, Bridger retired to a farm near Kansas City, where he died in 1881. His name is attached to several Western regions, notably Bridger's Peak, in southwestern Montana. For his portrait (taken about 1865) see Montana Historical SocietyContributions, iii, p. 181; the figure of the "Trapper" in the dome of the Montana State capitol at Helena, is also said to be a portrait of this picturesque character. Bridger was so noted for his remarkable tales of Western adventures and wonders that his descriptions of Yellowstone Park were long uncredited, being contemptuously referred to as "Jim Bridger's lies." Apropos of this tale of arrow-wounds, it may be noted that in 1835 Dr. Marcus Whitman extracted from Bridger's shoulder an iron arrowhead that had been embedded therein for several years.—Ed.
[238]Clark's River (or more exactly, Clark's Fork of Columbia) was named by the explorers Lewis and Clark September 6, 1805, upon reaching the upper forks of its tributary the Bitterroot. It takes the name of Missoula from the junction of Bitterroot and Hell Gate rivers, but becomes distinctly Clark's Fork after receiving its great tributary from the northeast, the Flathead River. Its general course is north from the southern border of Montana, until turning slightly northwest it crosses into Idaho and broadens out into Pend d'Oreille Lake, running thence in a northwest course until it empties into the Columbia just on the boundary line between Washington and British Columbia. The bands referred to as "Clarke River" tribes are chiefly of Salishan stock—the Flatheads, Cœur d'Alène, and Pend d'Oreille.—Ed.
[239]For the Chinook (Tchenook) Indians see our volume vi, p. 240, note 40.—Ed.
[240]For Charlevoix see our volume xiii, p. 116, notes 81, 82.—Ed.
[241]The following description is taken almost verbatim from the book of Ross Cox,Adventures on the Columbia River(New York, 1832), pp. 328-330. By the Calkobins is intended the Talkotins, a poor rendering of the Indian tribal name Lhtho'ten, or people of Fraser River. This was a tribe of Carrier (Taculli) Indians of the Tinneh stock, who inhabited the region around the fur-trade post of Alexandria, on Fraser River. By a census of about 1825 they numbered but 166; the revolting customs relative to the disposal of the dead were, however, common to all the Carrier Indians, whose name is said by some to have been given because of the burden of their husband's ashes, worn by the widows of the tribe. More probably, the name was derived from their function of aiding in "carries" or portages across the upper Rockies.
New Caledonia was discovered by Alexander Mackenzie in 1793; its posts were begun under Simon Fraser (1805-06). During the fur-trading period, it was an important division of the Hudson's Bay Company's Pacific provinces; but was dependent upon the Columbia district, with headquarters at Vancouver. The chief posts of New Caledonia were St. James, Stuart Lake, and Alexandria. For its boundaries, etc., consult Ross'sOregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. 194, note 61.—Ed.
[242]Sanpoil has been variously interpreted as a French word (meaning "without hairs") or as the English rendering of a native word. They were a tribe of Salishan stock, resident upon the upper Columbia, near a river in northeastern Washington called from their name. The Sanpoil did not prove amenable to missionary effort. The governor of Washington Territory in 1870 represents them as the least civilized and most independent aborigines of the territory, clinging to their native religion and customs. Since then, they have been located on the Colville reservation, where their reputation for honesty and industry is not high. With their near kindred the Nespelin, they number about four hundred.—Ed.
[243]The Chaudière (or Kettle) Indians were so named from their habitat near Kettle Falls of the Columbia. Their native name was Shwoyelpi (Skoyelpi), rendered Wheelpoo by Lewis and Clark. They were early brought under Catholic influence, becoming satisfactory neophytes. The original tribe became extinct about 1854; but their place was supplied by natives of the vicinity, of similar origin. They are now known as Colville Indians, and to the number of about three hundred live on the reservation of that name, where the majority are Catholic communicants.—Ed.
[244]For Fort Vancouver and its governor, Dr. John McLoughlin, see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, pp. 296, 297, notes 81, 82.—Ed.
[245]Francis Norbert Blanchet had been a parish priest in the diocese of Montreal. In 1838, when a call came from the Canadians in the valley of the Willamette for a priest to minister to their settlement, Blanchet was sent out with the Hudson's Bay brigade, arriving at Fort Vancouver in the autumn of that year. Early in January, 1840, St. Paul's parish, in Willamette Valley, was established by Blanchet, and the church erected therefor in 1836 was occupied. In 1843 Blanchet was appointed vicar apostolic of the territory of the British crown west of the Rockies. Going to Montreal for consecration, he afterwards visited Europe, where he was created archbishop of Oregon, with a seat at Oregon City. For his portrait see Lyman,Oregon(New York, 1903), iii, p. 422. HisHistorical Sketches of the Catholic church in Oregon during the past forty yearswas published at Portland in 1878.—Ed.
[246]Madison River is one of the three upper branches of the Missouri. Rising in Yellowstone Park, it is formed by the junction of Gibbon and Firehole rivers, and at first flows north through a mountainous and rocky country; but in its lower reaches courses through a fertile valley.—Ed.
[247]Fort Colville was a Hudson's Bay Company post, built in 1825 to supersede the fort at Spokane, which was too far inland for convenient access. The site was at Kettle Falls on the east bank of the stream (see Alexander Ross,Fur Hunters, ii, p. 162), the post being named for the London governor of the company, Eden Colville. The fort became an important station on the route of the Columbia brigade; here accounts for the district were made up, and the dignitaries of the company entertained. Gov. George Simpson had been at Fort Colville in the summer before De Smet's visit, when Archibald Macdonald was the factor in charge. This post was maintained some time after the Americans acquired the Oregon Territory, but about 1857 it was removed north of the international boundary line. In 1859 the United States government built a military post called Fort Colville some miles east of the old fur-trading stockade, near the present town of Colville, Washington. The neighboring Indians having become peaceful, the fort is no longer garrisoned.—Ed.
[248]This affluent of the Bitterroot from the west was the one followed by the Lewis and Clark expedition, in their route across the Bitterroot mountain divide. Those explorers named it Traveller's Rest Creek; it is now known as the Lolo Fork of the Bitterroot. An affluent of Missoula River, some distance further down, has now taken the name that De Smet first applied to the Lolo Fork.—Ed.
[249]Hell Gate, for which seeante, p. 269, note139.—Ed.
[250]The carcajou or wolverine (Gulo luscus).—Ed.
[251]The route usually taken by the Indians did not follow the main branch of the river, but crossed the divide between the Missoula and Jocko rivers, coming down into the valley of the Flathead, and proceeding along that to its outlet into Clark's Fork. The two streams named for the saints were the main Flathead and Jocko rivers, which unite in the prairie described by De Smet. There were a number of small prairies in the vicinity, known as Camas from the abundance of that root (Camas esculenta). The better-known Camas Prairie was twenty miles below the mouth of the Jocko; the one mentioned by De Smet was apparently higher up, near the divide of the two rivers. These should all be distinguished from the Camas Prairie (Quamash Flats) of Lewis and Clark, which lay west of the Bitterroot Mountains.—Ed.
[252]The Kalispel are the same tribe as the Pend d'Oreille, seeante, p. 141, note8.—Ed.
[253]During the day (as described in Chittenden and Richardson,De Smet, i, p. 347), the father had passed Camas Prairie and advanced through Horse Plain at the junction of Flathead and Clark's Fork.—Ed.
[254]Doubtless intended for oxide of iron.—Ed.
[255]InExplorations for a Pacific Railway, 1853-53(Senate Ex. Docs., 35 Cong., 2 sess., vol. xviii, p. 91) the valley is thus described: "The next sixty-five miles along the valley of Clark's Fork is over a difficult trail, there being places where the sharp rocks injured the animals;" again, "The valley is wide, arable, and inviting for settlement, although rather heavily wooded."—Ed.
[256]Lake Pend d'Oreille, in Kootenai County, Idaho, is one of the most picturesque bodies of fresh water in the Western states. It is irregular in shape, about sixty miles long, and from three to fifteen in breadth, with a shore line of nearly five hundred miles. It was probably, first of white men, visited by trappers and traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. It is now crossed by the Northern Pacific Railway, and steamers ply upon its waters.—Ed.
[257]This is the Oregon cedar (Thuya gigantea), which attains great size and is widely diffused on the trans-Rocky region.—Ed.
[258]The original French text of the letter describing this journey will be found inVoyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses(Chittenden and Richardson,De Smet, i, pp. 354-358); it gives additional information regarding the remainder of the journey. Having arrived at Lake Pend d'Oreille on November 1, the traveller was three days passing the traverse; November 13 a high mountain was crossed, and by pushing ahead, one more long day's journey brought him to Fort Colville, where he was hospitably entertained by the Hudson's Bay factor. The return journey was without incident.—Ed.
[259]Montmartre is the highest point in the city of Paris, three hundred and thirty feet above the Seine, and dominates the entire city. In recent years a large church has been built upon its summit.—Ed.
[260]Victor, hereditary chief of the Flatheads, succeeded Paul (or Big Face) in that office, which he retained with dignity and ability until his death in 1870, when he was in turn succeeded by his son Charlot. He was a consistent friend of the whites, many of the early pioneers of Montana testifying to his kindness and integrity. His wife Agnes remembered the coming of Lewis and Clark to their country; see O. D. Wheeler,On the Trail of Lewis and Clark(New York), ii, p. 65.—Ed.
[261]For Horse Prairie (plain) seeante, p. 336, note172. For the Kutenai see Ross'sOregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. 211, note 73. In addition, note that the Kutenai (also called Skalzi) are a distinct linguistic stock, known as Kitunahan. Their habitat was chiefly in British territory; but because of alliance with the Flathead and other Salishan tribes they frequently wandered southward. A few are still on the Flathead reservation in Montana; but about five hundred and fifty frequent the Kutenai agency in British Columbia. They are nearly all Catholics.—Ed.
[262]Flathead Lake is a broadening of the river of that name, and lies northeast of the present Flathead reservation. It is about twenty-eight miles long, with an average breadth of ten, and is studded with beautiful islands.—Ed.
[263]This hot spring is in the eastern part of the Flathead reservation, and by a small creek discharges into the Little Bitterroot River, an affluent of the Flathead.—Ed.
[264]For this lake see our volume vii, p. 211, note 75. Father de Smet crossed the mountains from Missoula Valley by the route now followed by the Northern Pacific Railway along the stream which he had christened St. Regis Borgia, through St. Regis Pass, coming out upon the headwaters of Cœur d'Alène River, which he followed to the lake of that name.—Ed.
[265]The mission founded by Father Point in November, 1842, known as the Sacred Heart, was successful. The site was first upon St. Joseph River, a feeder of Cœur d'Alène Lake; but in 1846 it was removed to Cœur d'Alène River, at the present Cataldo. There the first church was built by the neophytes in 1853, after designs by Father Ravalli; it is still a landmark of the region. The tribesmen had been taught agriculture, and lived chiefly in log houses; but the soil being sterile, the mission was again removed to the upper waters of Haugman's Creek, in Idaho, where the Cœur d'Alène still reside upon their reservation.—Ed.
[266]Spokane River rises in Cœur d'Alène Lake and flows almost directly to the Falls, thence northwest to its embouchment into the Columbia. It is about two hundred feet wide at the mouth and throughout its entire length is broken by falls and rapids, furnishing water power of great value, its total decline being a hundred and thirty feet. An early fur-trade fort known as Spokane Post stood near the present city of that name, but about 1824 was abandoned for Colville. See Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 277, note 85.—Ed.
[267]Father de Smet here refers to the cliffs and rapids on Clark's Fork, about fifteen miles above Lake Pend d'Oreille; they are still known as "The Cabinets." The water rushes through a gorge, between cliffs over a hundred feet high.—Ed.
[268]This mission was located at the mouth of Chamokane (Tskimakain) Creek, on what is known as Walker's Prairie about forty miles northwest of Spokane, and the borders of the present Spokane reservation. It was a station of the American Commissioners founded March 20, 1839, by two missionaries who had visited the spot the previous autumn and erected log-huts on the site.
Rev. Elkanah Walker was born in Maine in 1805. Educated at Bangor Theological Seminary he had first intended to go as a missionary to Africa; but recruits being needed for the Oregon mission, he volunteered, and in 1838 came out with his wife, Mary Richardson Walker. They labored among the Spokan with considerable success—in 1841 printing a primer in that language—until the Whitman massacre (1847). Their Indians requested them to stay and promised them protection; but the government sent a military escort to take them to the settlements. There Walker bought land at Forest Grove, in the Willamette Valley, where he died in 1877.
Rev. Cushing Eells was born in Massachusetts in 1810. Graduated at Williams College, he married Myra Fairbank in the spring of 1838, and with her left immediately for the Oregon mission. Living to old age, the pioneer missionary was known throughout the West, his character revered by all. He gave over fifty years of his life to missionary service, in his later years being known as Father Eells. He was instrumental in founding both Pacific University and Whitman College, and travelled extensively in the work of building churches and preaching. He frequently re-visited his Spokan protégés, the larger portion of whom are now members of the Presbyterian church.—Ed.
[269]For Rev. Samuel Parker see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 335, note 112. Parker thus describes this incident in hisJournal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains(Ithaca, N. Y., 1838), pp. 275, 276: "One grave in the same village had a cross standing over it, which was the only relic of the kind I saw, together with this just named, during my travels in this country. But as I viewed the cross of wood made by men's hands of no avail, to benefit either the dead or the living, and far more likely to operate as a salvo to a guilty conscience, or a stepping-stone to idolatry, than to be understood in its spiritual sense to refer to a crucifixion of our sins, I took this, which the Indians had prepared, and broke it to pieces. I then told them we place a stone at the head and foot of the grave only to mark the place; and without a murmur they cheerfully acquiesced, and adopted our custom."—Ed.
[270]Modeste Demers was born near Quebec in 1808; educated at Quebec Seminary he was ordained in 1836, and the same year started for Red River. Thence he went overland with the Hudson's Bay brigade in 1838, arriving in Vancouver in the autumn of that year with Father Blanchet. In 1839 he visited New Caledonia, and in 1842 was detailed to found missions among the tribesmen, and to instruct the half-breeds at the forts. He labored chiefly in New Caledonia until 1847, then being consecrated bishop of Vancouver. He continued in this field of labor until his death at Victoria in 1871.—Ed.
[271]The Okinagan Indians are of the Salishan family, although some authorities class them with the Shushwaps of British Columbia. They formed a considerable confederacy of allied tribes, extending along the river valley of their name, and including the bands of the Similkameen River. A trading post was early erected among them, for which see Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 260, note 71. Alexander Ross, who married an Okinagan woman, and lived among them for many years, is the chief authority upon their manners and customs. See Ross'sOregon Settlers, in our volume vii, chapters xviii to xxi. The Okinagan are now tributary to Colville agency, and number about five hundred and fifty, most of whom are Catholics.—Ed.
[272]The country between Fort Colville and Okanagan has been but imperfectly charted. It is about sixty miles in a direct line through the Colville Indian reservation.—Ed.
[273]A small lake called Karamip is found on modern maps near the head of Sanpoil River.—Ed.
[274]Lake Okanagan in British Columbia is about sixty miles in length and the source of the river of that name. It would be a long and difficult journey to return thence to Fort Colville in three days; so that De Smet's rendezvous with the Indians was possibly at some smaller interior lake, entitled by him Lake Okanagan because he met that tribe upon its shores.—Ed.
[275]The Cœur d'Alène.—Ed.
[276]See Thomas W. Symons, "Report of an Examination of the Upper Columbia River,"Senate Ex. Docs., 47 Cong., 1 sess., No. 186.—Ed.
[277]See brief biographical sketch of Ogden in Townsend'sNarrative, our volume xxi, p. 314, note 99.—Ed.
[278]For detailed descriptions of the Great Dalles of the Columbia, seeOriginal Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, iii, pp. 151-159; Franchère'sNarrative, in our volume vi, p. 337; and Ross'sOregon Settlers, our volume vii, pp. 130, 131—Ed.
[279]What are technically known as the Little Dalles of the Columbia lie above Fort Colville. The description would appear to apply to the present Whirlpool Rapids, just below Kalichen Falls, about twenty miles above Okanagan River. The entire stretch from the Nespelin River west, is a long series of difficult rapids and riffles. See "Report" citedante, p. 373, note195.—Ed.
[280]For Fort Walla Walla, a Hudson's Bay post, see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 278, note 73.—Ed.
[281]Of these Indian tribes the Chaudière, Okinagan, Sanpoil (Cingpoils), have been describedante, in notes162,190,161; for the Walla Walla and Cayuse see our volume vii, p. 137, note 37; for the Nez Percés (Pierced Noses), volume vi, p. 340, note 145; for the Indians of the Dalles, volume vii, p. 129, note 31; the Chinook (Schinooks), volume vi, p. 240, note 40; for Clatsop (Classops), volume vi, p. 239, note 39. The Attayes were probably the Yakima, an important Shahaptian tribe in the valley of that river; one branch of the tribe was called Atanum, and a Catholic mission by that name was in later years established among them.—Ed.
[282]Part of the Great Plain of the Columbia, broken by many fantastic shapes of the volcanic underlying rock. Most notable of these is the Grand Coulée, which, however, De Smet did not cross, for it lies north of Spokane River. He probably took the trail afterwards developed into a part of the Mullan road, from Great Falls of Missouri to Walla Walla. From the land of the Cœur d'Alène he returned along the route by which he had come out—the St. Regis Pass and river St. Regis Borgia.—Ed.
[283]This was the route followed by Clark on his return journey in 1806—through Gibbon's Pass, and down the upper waters of Big Hole (or Wisdom) River, an affluent of the Jefferson.—Ed.
[284]It was not the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company to encourage settlements. Dr. McLoughlin, however, permitted some of the retired servants of the company to settle at French Prairie (or Chemayway) in the Willamette Valley. There, by 1830, a considerable group of farmers were found, mostly of French-Canadian origin. Among the earliest settlers were Louis Labonte, Etienne Lucier, and Joseph Gervais.
Fort Nisqually, on Puget Sound, four miles northeast of the mouth of Nisqually River, was founded in 1833 as a fur-trading post. In 1838 the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was formed in London, most of its members being Hudson's Bay Company men, in order to exploit the region of the sound; consequently a considerable settlement grew up near the fort.
In 1837 Simon Plomondeau was advised by Dr. McLoughlin to settle on Cowlitz Prairie, in the valley of the river of that name. Soon one Faincaut settled near him. In 1839 a large farm was surveyed by Charles Ross, John Work, and James Douglas as a company settlement. It grew but little until the advent of Americans in 1853-54.—Ed.
[285]For the Kalapuya see our volume vii, p. 230, note 80.—Ed.
[286]The Cowlitz were a numerous and powerful tribe of Salishan stock, in the valley of the river of that name. They have now lost their tribal identity, the remnant (there were about a hundred and twenty-five in 1882) having lands allotted in severalty.
For the Klikatat, see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 302, note 88. On their later history it may be noted that they participated in the Yakima treaty of 1855, and are now one of the consolidated tribes on Yakima reservation; a few, however, maintaining themselves on White Salmon River.—Ed.
[287]For the Chehalis consult our volume vi, p. 256, note 65.
The Nisqualli are a Salishan tribe on and in the vicinity of Nisqually River. There are now but about a hundred and fifty of this tribe surviving on the Puyallup reservation, Washington.—Ed.
[288]The Skallam (Clallam), a tribe of Salishan origin, were first met by whites along Admiralty Inlet. There are now about seven hundred and fifty of these Indians extant, having allotments in severalty both at Jamestown and Port Gamble.—Ed.
[289]Methodist missions in Oregon were founded by Rev. Jason Lee, for whom see Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 138, note 13. The establishment in the Willamette Valley was the central one, and consisted largely of an agricultural settlement with a school for Indian children, that afterwards developed into Willamette University. It was situated about eighteen miles above Champoeg, not far from Salem. The second station at Clatsop (not Klatraps) Plains, south of Point Adams, was founded by J. H. Frost, accompanied by Solomon Smith and Calvin Tibbits, who had married Clatsop women. The families removed to this point in February, 1841. Two years later Frost returned to the United States, and J. L. Parrish took up the work. Little attempt was made at this point to reach the Indians. The mission at Nisqually was begun in 1839. The following year, J. P. Richmond was stationed here; he returned home after two years, whereupon the Nisqually mission was abandoned. The Indian mission at the Dalles was begun in March, 1838, by Daniel Lee and H. K. W. Perkins. It was conducted with varying success until 1845, when the property was disposed of to the Presbyterians. The settlement at Willamette Falls, made in 1840 by A. F. Waller, was chiefly a colonizing experiment. In 1844 there were forty Methodists at this place.—Ed.
[290]Father Blanchet here refers to the missions of Dr. Whitman at Waiilatpu for the Cayuse, and that of H. H. Spaulding at Lapwai for the Nez Percés. See Townsend'sNarrative, in our volume xxi, p. 352, note 125.—Ed.
[291]Perkins at the Dalles mission (seeante, note208) had attempted to reach the Indians gathered at the Cascades. But Blanchet gained more influence over these nations than the Protestant missionary, for the natives were better pleased with the Catholic ceremonials.—Ed.
[292]Probably intended for Clackamas, the name of a tribe upon the river of the same designation, which empties into the Willamette at the Falls.
A. F. Waller came to reinforce the Methodist mission in 1840, and was sent to Willamette Falls. He had a legal controversy with Dr. McLoughlin in relation to the title to land at this place. Waller became a citizen of Oregon, acquired considerable property, and died in Willamette Valley in 1872.—Ed.
[293]A long struggle had occurred to secure the entrance of Catholic missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. The first priests, who came out in 1827, were soon expelled. Returning in 1836, after a long struggle all were obliged to depart save Robert Walsh, an Irish priest, who was permitted to remain, provided he would agree not to teach the natives. In 1839 a French man-of-war threatened the government with a bombardment and succeeded in wresting from them the promise of toleration for Catholics; thereupon Etienne Rouchouse (Chochure), bishop of Nilopolis, arrived in May, 1838, accompanied by two priests. The next year the bishop returned to France for reinforcements; when on the outward voyage the vessel foundered off Cape Horn, all on board perishing.—Ed.
[294]In 1818 J. N. Provencher was dispatched from Quebec to minister to the Red River settlers, and established a station at St. Boniface. In 1822, he was consecrated bishop of Juliopolis, and remained at St. Boniface until his death in 1853. His jurisdiction included Rupert's Land and all the Northwest provinces, whither he sent out many missionaries during his long episcopate.—Ed.
[295]Passing from Madison to Gallatin rivers, crossing the divide that separates them, and then from Gallatin to the Yellowstone, probably by way of Bozeman's Pass, the nearest and most frequented route. This would bring the travellers out upon the Yellowstone at about the present Livingston, Montana.—Ed.
[296]One of the proprietors was Pierre Chouteau, whom Father de Smet had doubtless known in St. Louis. Larpenteur relates this meeting (Coues,Larpenteur's Journal, i, p. 174), and states that the opposition of a new firm had brought the American Fur Company partners to the upper river to concert plans.—Ed.