Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival (19 page)

Sha-kó-ka, Mint, a Pretty Girl
by George Catlin, 1832.

Mih-Tutta-Hangkusch, a Mandan Village
by Karl Bodmer, 1841. Hunt’s party witnessed a scene similar to this, with women in bullboats on the Missouri River hauling firewood for their village. These are women of the Mandan peoples, several hundred miles upriver from the Arikara villages where Hunt’s party left the Missouri.

Buffalo Chase over Prairie Bluffs
by George Catlin, early 1830s. Hunt’s Overland Party witnessed and participated in buffalo hunts on the prairies.

The Interior of the Hut of a Mandan Chief
by Karl Bodmer, ca. 1832. A contingent from Hunt’s party traveled to the Mandan villages to acquire horses for their long overland trek into unknown terrain.

“The American Falls of Lewis Fork,” from a report by later explorer John Charles Fremont. Hunt’s canoes ran into trouble here, along the “Mad River,” known today as the Snake River.

Hell’s Canyon of the Snake River, where Wilson Price Hunt and his party struggled on foot as winter arrived.

Entrevue de l’expedition de M. Kotzebue avec le roi Tammeamea dans l’ile d’Ovayhi, Iles Sandwich
by Louis Choris, 1827. The royal court of Hawaii, as it greets a party of Europeans. A party from the
Tonquin
was also greeted at the royal court here.

Sea Otter,
engraving by S. Smith, after John Webber, the illustrator who traveled with Captain Cook on his voyage to the Northwest Coast. This is the mammal whose fur provided the “soft gold” that brought so much attention to the Northwest Coast.

“Tenaktak canoes,” early photograph by Edward S. Curtis. These are typical of the large cedar canoes of the Northwest Coast.

Interior of Whale House of Chief Klart-Reech, Klukwan, Alaska. c. 1895.
Many of the peoples of the Northwest Coast had longhouses decorated with elaborate carvings and paintings.

“Tluwulahu mask—Tswatenok,” photograph by Edward S. Curtis. The peoples of the Northwest Coast had an elaborate ceremonial culture.

Ka’heit’am
(Stone Club), pre-1778, from Yuquot village, Nuu-chah-nulth (Vancouver Island area). Meticulously shaped from stone, with what appears to be a wolf’s head and thunderbird design, this was one of many types of clubs used on the Northwest Coast both for killing animals and for dispatching human enemies.