Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 2; and De Smet's Letters and Sketches, 1841-1842

207

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 (see ante, p. 175, note 45). 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.

208

For the Three Buttes and Three Tetons see Townsend's Narrative, in our volume xxi, p. 209, note 49. – Ed.

209

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.

210

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.

211

For a description of this plant see our volume xv, pp. 232, 233. It is allied to the Yucca filamentosa of 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. See Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index. – Ed.

212

For the scientific names of these species, see ibid., index. – Ed.

213

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.

214

See our volume xix, p. 328, note 138 (Gregg). – Ed.

215

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.

216

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.

217

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 in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ii, pp. 33, 34. – Ed.

218

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.

219

For a further description of these bull-boats see our volume xxiii, p. 279, note 246. – Ed.

220

Compare Bidwell's account in Century 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.

221

For the Bannock Indians see Townsend's Narrative, in our volume xxi, p. 192, note 41. – Ed.

222

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.

223

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 plant Lewisia 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.

224

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.

225

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.

226

This was the estimated number of Indians under Jesuit control in Paraguay, at the time of greatest prosperity. – Ed.

227

This Pend d'Oreille's native name was Chalax, and he is said to have been before his baptism a famous medicine man. – Ed.

228

For the Spokan see Franchère's Narrative, in our volume vi, p. 341, note 146. – Ed.

229

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.

230

Baptized as Ambrose, and one of the most faithful converts. He was living in 1859. See Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, index. – Ed.

231

Another title for Michael, or Insula; see ante, p. 147, note 13. – Ed.

232

The context proves this to be a misprint for 1841. – Ed.

233

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 an Appeal to Reason and Good Feeling, which won him many friends among the English people. – Ed.

234

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.

235

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 Society Contributions, 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.

236

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.

237

For the Chinook (Tchenook) Indians see our volume vi, p. 240, note 40. – Ed.

238

For Charlevoix see our volume xiii, p. 116, notes 81, 82. – Ed.

239

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's Oregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. 194, note 61. – Ed.

240

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.

241

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.

242

For Fort Vancouver and its governor, Dr. John McLoughlin, see Townsend's Narrative, in our volume xxi, pp. 296, 297, notes 81, 82. – Ed.

243

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. His Historical Sketches of the Catholic church in Oregon during the past forty years was published at Portland in 1878. – Ed.

244

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.

245

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.

246

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.

247

Hell Gate, for which see ante, p. 269, note 139. – Ed.

248

The carcajou or wolverine (Gulo luscus). – Ed.

249

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.

250

The Kalispel are the same tribe as the Pend d'Oreille, see ante, p. 141, note 8. – Ed.

251

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.

252

Doubtless intended for oxide of iron. – Ed.

253

In Explorations 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.

254

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.

255

This is the Oregon cedar (Thuya gigantea), which attains great size and is widely diffused on the trans-Rocky region. – Ed.

256

The original French text of the letter describing this journey will be found in Voyages 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.

257

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.

258

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.

259

For Horse Prairie (plain) see ante, p. 336, note 172. For the Kutenai see Ross's Oregon 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.

260

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.

261

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.

262

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.

263

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.

264

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's Narrative, in our volume vi, p. 277, note 85. – Ed.

265

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.

266

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.