Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/314

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
298
H. S. Lyman.

The chief made a chart of the river and explained that a greater chief than himself, who governed the village, was now fishing down the river. This chart made the Kooskosky Fork a little below his camp; a second fork was below; still farther on a large branch (Snake) flowed in on the east side, below which the main river passed the mountains. Here was a great fall of water, near which white people lived.' (Coues here inserts a note that whites did not then live at the cascades, but Franchere mentions that there was a white man, named Soto, who had lived long at that place—writing but ten years after Clark.)

On page 608, we find this entry, as to the Nez Perces chief: "Captain Clark passed on with Twisted Hair, who seemed to be cheerful and sincere."

On page 609, an Indian is mentioned thus: "The man received us without any apprehension, and gave us a plentiful supply of provisions; the plain was crowded with Indians."

On page 610: "The chiefs and warriors were all assembled this morning. * * * We gave a medal to two of the chiefs, a shirt, in addition to the medal, received by Twisted Hair, and delivered a flag for the grand chief."

On page 611: "Captain Clark set out with Twisted Hair and two young men in quest of timber for canoes.(James Grant states that old Indians still know where the stump stands from which a tree was cut for a canoe.)

Stating characteristics of the Nez Perces, page 623, Coues, the journal says: "The Chopunnish are in person stout, portly, well-looking men; the women are small, with good features, and generally handsome. * * * Their life is painful and laborious.' In disposition, however, they are not described so favorably as the Shoshones, who were bountiful in the extreme, and asked no pay;