Sacajawea (185 page)

5
. The wapato was the root of the Columbia. Round and white like a small potato, it was baked into a crisp bread by the Chinooks.

6
. One of the most often quoted sayings of the expedition is their repetition of “we proceeded on.” In fact, the official publication of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation is titled We
Proceeded On.
Possibly the next most quoted saying of the Expedition was Clark’s “Ocian in view! O! the joy.” He wrote that in his field notebook on November 7, 1805. However, he was mistaken this day because they were camped near Pillar Rock on the Columbia, but the actual ocean could not be seen yet. From
The Journals of Lewis and Clark,
edited by Bernard DeVoto, p. 279. Copyright 1953 by Houghton Mifflin Co.

7
. Point Distress is now called Point Ellice.

8
. Haley’s Bay is the present site of Fort Columbia.

9
. On this night of November 14,1805, Clark wrote, “The rain and which has continued without a longer intermition than 2 hours at a time for ten days past has destroyed the robes and rotted nearly one half of the fiew clothes the party has, particularly the leather clothes … Squar displeased with me for not …” DeVoto, p. 284.

The last sentence is not finished. But it is evident that Sacajawea has enough self-confidence to speak up now when something is not done to her liking.

CHAPTER 26
The Blue Coat

1
. Many of the Chinook Indians were in poor health. On November 18, 1805, Clark wrote, “I saw 4 womin and Some children one of the women in a desperate Situation, covered with sores scabs and ulsers no doubt the effects of venereal disorders which several of this nation which I have Seen appears to have….”

On November 21, 1805, Clark wrote, “… Several Indians and squars came this evening I beleave for the purpose of gratifying the passions of our men, Those people appear to view sensuality as a necessary evill, and do not appear to abhore this as crime in the unmarried females. The young women sport openly with our men, and appear to receve the approbation of theer friends and relations for so doing maney of the women have handsom faces … large legs and thighs which are generally Swelled from a Stopage of the circulation in the feet (which are Small) by maney Strands of Beeds or curious Strings which are drawn tight around the leg above the ankle, their legs are also picked tattooed with defferent figures….” From
The Journals of Lewisand Clark,
edited by Bernard DeVoto, pp. 289–90. Copyright 1953 by Houghton Mifflin Co.

2
. The November 24, 1805, journal entry by Clark is actually the first time that he uses the name “Janey” for Sacajawea in his writing. Clark and Edmonds, p. 51.

CHAPTER 27
Weasel Tails

1
. The remainder of the tobacco was saved for trading purposes on the return trip. Ordway’s journal sadly states, “we have no ardent Spirits.” From
The Journals of Lewis and Clark,
edited by Bernard DeVoto, p. 294. Copyright 1953 by Houghton Mifflin Co.

Bakeless notes that in March all the tobacco gave out. Thirty of the party habitually smoked or chewed. The men tried smoking the bark of red willow and the bark of crab apple trees for chewing. John Bakeless,
Lewis and Clark, Partners in Discovery.
New York: William Morrow and Co., 1947, pp. 297–98.

2
. Point William is now called Tongue Point.

3
. These “vultures” are among the rarest birds in America today. They were the California condor. No one alive today has seen a condor as far north as the Columbia River.

4
. The original Meriwether Bay is now called Young’s Bay.

5
. The river called Netual by the Chinooks is now the Lewis and Clark River.

6
. The Coast Range blacktail deer never get over a hundred and fifty-odd pounds; a buck is well grown that dresses out at a hundred and twenty.

7
. This table survived until 1860. Visitors at the fort today can see how the table looked, but it is not the original tree trunk.

8
. Fort Clatsop National Memorial about six miles southwest of Astoria, Oregon, was built in 1955 by the Oregon Historical Society, which donated the site to the U.S. Government in 1958. Then Fort Clatsop became part of the National Park Service. In constructing the replica, the floor plan dimensions drawn by Clark on the elkhide cover of his fieldbook were faithfully followed. From the middle of June through Labor Day a living history program is presented by buckskin-cladrangers depicting various members of the expedition, including Sacajawea. Firing of flintlock rifles, hollowing out of a pirogue, bead and quillwork, and activities that show life at Fort Clatsop during the winter of 1805–6 are demonstrated. Within 25 miles of this site is the salt cairn at Seaside, the trail over Tillamook Head to Cannon Beach, and in the State of Washington, the camp and trail sites at McGowan, Cape Disappointment, and Long Beach.

9
. It was not until the captains were back in the States that they learned Jack Ramsay was a deserter from a British trading vessel who had lived for years among the Clatsops. When his son was born, he forbade his squaw to flatten the child’s skull between boards after the local custom. He tattooed his name on his son’s arm, so that thereafter he was also called Jack Ramsay by those who could read. Bakeless, pp. 296–97.

CHAPTER 28
The Whale

1
. The journal that Sergeant Pryor kept that winter was never found, nor the ones kept by Privates Frazier and Shannon, nor any of the many Indian vocabularies the captains, especially Lewis, so painfully compiled while at Fort Clatsop.

2
. The traders had probably come from the southwest, since whalers and seal hunters usually sailed home by way of Hawaii and China. In China they sold sealskins and beaver fur. These merchants made three profits: first on the goods they exchanged with the Pacific Coast natives for furs; then on the furs they exchanged for Oriental wares, such as silks, china, and wallpaper, which they sold for cash on their return home. John Bakeless,
Lewis and Clark, Partners in Discovery.
New York: William Morrow and Co., 1947, p. 293.

3
. Spuck is the name given to baby otter.

4
. Captain Youens and the others did not come in their trading vessels that year. The following year none of these names could be identified by any mariner’s list, but then no complete record was ever kept of ships sailing around the Horn and up the Pacific Ocean between 1780 and 1820. Bakeless, p. 292.

CHAPTER 29
Ahn-cutty

1
. Chief Comowool made Fort Clatsop his winter home during the remainder of his life, until 1825. Years passed, and the stockade fell and young trees grew up through the cabins, but the spring is still there, cool and clear.

A small clearing in the woods now marks the original site of Fort Clatsop. On the high bank of the river is a replica of the fort. Old Chief Comowool’s three daughters grew used to white men’s cabins, and they all married white men. Comowool’s grandson, Silas B. Smith, was educated in New Hampshire and became a member of the Oregon bar. John Bakeless,
Lewis and Clark, Partners in Discovery.
New York: William Morrow and Co., 1947, pp. 304–5.

2
. The “Indian Commissions” were paper and perishable. Thus it is remarkable that one of these papers, presented on the return trip to Warchapa, a Teton Sioux, is in the Huntington Library, San Merino, California. It bears the name of the chief and signatures of Lewis as “Captain, First Infantry” and Clark as “Captain on an Expedition for North Western Discovery.”

3
. A description of this paper which was nailed inside the Fort Clatsop officers’ quarters is found in Elliott Coues, ed.,
The History of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
Vol. III, 1965, p. 903.

Captain Samuel Hill, commander of the brig, Lydia, found a paper inside a leather shirt worn by a Clatsop. Captain Hill took the paper with him to Canton, where he let an American copy it and send the copy to Boston. The copy contained this message:

Captain Hill, while on the coast, met some Indian natives near the mouth of the Columbia river, who delivered to him a paper, of which I enclose you a copy. It had been committed to their charge by captains Clarke and Lewis, who had penetrated to the Pacific ocean. The original is a rough draft with a pen of their outward route, and that which they intended returning by. Just below the junction of Madison’s river, they found an immense fall of
three hundred and sixty two
feet perpendicular. This, I believe, exceeds in magnitude any other known. Fromthe natives Captain Hill learned that they were all in good health and spirites; had met many difficulties on their progress, from various tribes of Indians, but had found them about the sources of the Missouri very friendly, as were those on Columbia river and the coast.
[Bakeless, pp. 292–93, 302; R. G. Ferris, pp. 202, 373; Coues, Vol. III, pp. 903–4.]

4
. Somehow the expedition missed, by only a fortnight, the
Lydia.
This ship was anchored about ten miles up the Columbia River.

5
. This flat, green prairie was the future site of Vancouver, Washington.

6
. The Shahala village near which the expedition camped was next to the base of Mount Hood at the Sandy River.

7
. The artillery fuse was a paper case filled with slow-burning material. It was often called a port fire-match.

8
. They were on what is today the Willamette River, where the peaks of Mount Rainier, Hood, St. Helens, Adams, and Jefferson can be seen. The Yakima Indians call these mountains, “the five sisters who scold each other.”

9
. Clark tried to measure the bottom of the river, but his instruments could not measure its great depth. Today, international trade ships glide along the deep estuary to the wharves of Portland, Oregon.

10
. The Chinooks and other nearby coastal Indians had learned
damned rascal, sun of a pitch,
and some reputable English such as
heave the lead, knife, file, musket, powder,
and
shot.
They knew no other European language according to Lewis and Clark. They didn’t seem to know where traders came from, but they knew they sailed away to the southwest, where both whalers and traders of the day went by way of Hawaii and China. Bakeless, p. 293.

11
. When a horse is hobbled his hind legs are tied or one fore and one hind leg are tied together with a short rope. The horse can graze but cannot move around far, so can be easily found.

In later years some men used bells on their horses so they could easily be found. This became dangerousbecause the Indians could steal the horse, ring the bell, and scalp the owner when he arrived.

CHAPTER 30
The Sick Papoose

1
. “Imposthume” is an old word for any kind of abscess.

2
. The Kooskooskee is the Clearwater River.

3
. This sword is probably the same one found between two Walla Walla graves at Cathlamet, Oregon, in 1904, which had the name “Clark” engraved on the scabbard.

4
. The Kogohue tribe was probably a part of the Comanche Nation by this time.

5
. The villages in the south where horses were raided by the Comanches were Spanish or Mexican.

6
. This village kept a breeding stallion enclosed by a high fence built of thick brush. Inside, the sire would have from twenty-five to forty mares per season. The Nez Percés knew that if horses run wild and breed as nature prompts, they will degenerate in size and shape. They knew that the inbred horses were heavy and slow. The Nez Percés bred Appaloosas, which were solid black or brown with a white patch over the hips. Sometimes the patch was interspersed with small round spots of the same color as the body. These crossbred horses were sleek and fast, with more stamina than the inbred variety. Clark noted that the Nez Percés liked horses of a basic solid color with white dots over the entire body, or all white with colored dots. The name of the Palouse River in Idaho and Washington State came from these Appaloosas of the early Nez Percés. R. G. Ferris, pp. 208–9; Mathieson, p. 16; personal communication with Charles Bennett, Phoenix, Ariz., Oct. 2, 1982.

7
. Commearp Creek is called Lawyer’s Canyon Creek today.

CHAPTER 31
Retreat

1
. Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only casualty of the expedition. He died on August 20, 1804, near the southern edge of what today is Sioux City, Iowa, probably from an infected appendix that was perforated or ruptured.

In 1980 Chuinard wrote “that appendicitis is not adiagnosis that would have entered the minds of either Lewis or Clark. Not long after the Expedition, appendicitis was recognized, but it was years after, that it was treated successfully.” Chuinard goes on to say that “Sergeant Floyd was the first American soldier to be buried west of the Mississippi River.” From E. G. Chuinard,
Only One Man Died: The Medical Apsects of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1980, pp. 238–39.

The men of the Lewis and Clark party placed a cedar cross over the grave. In 1811 Henry Brackenridge passed the grave and wrote in his journal, “The grave occupies a beautiful rising ground, now covered with grass and wild flowers. The pretty little river, which bears his name, is neatly fringed with willow and shrubbery…. No one has disturbed the cross; … even Indians who pass, venerate the place, and often leave a present as offering near it.” Thwaites, Vol. VI, 1816,1904, p. 85.

Sometime later a Sioux chief camping nearby the grave site lost a son and had him buried in the same grave with Floyd, because of a belief that the white men had a better hereafter. However, when Floyd’s body was moved in 1857 because the Missouri River had cut into the bank of Floyd’s Bluff some of the bones were already lost, so that the story of the young son of the Sioux chief cannot be verified. On August 20,1895, the few bones that had been found and placed in urns were reburied and a concrete slab marker was put over the grave. The Sioux City Museum has a plaster model of Floyd’s skull and a piece of his first coffin. Chuinard, pp. 240–42.