USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 15
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12 As this mistake of Parker's afterward assumed serious import, some explanation should be made of the religious ideas of the natives selected by him as most hopeful and teachable. It will be remembered that the Dalles people observed Sunday as a holiday, in the manner of the Catholic church. Parker himself explains in a note, p. 254, that the reason assigned to him for dancing being included in their ceremonials was the fear that if it were forbidden they could not be interested in pure worship; obviously this reason was not furnished him by the natives themselves. Again, in relating the circumstance of the burial cross, he remarks that they had probably been told by some Iroquois, a few of whom he had seen west of the Rocky Moun- tains, to place a cross at the head of a grave, again showing he was not wholly ignorant of Indian theology in this quarter. Shea, in his History of the Catholic Missions, 467, says that some Iroquois formerly of the Coughna- waga Catholic mission, joined the Flatheads previous to 1820, the tribe be- coming christianized about that time, through their example; and that their desire for teachers led to the pilgrimage to St Louis before mentioned. They continued in the ceremonials and practices of the church, daily offering up prayers to God, and keeping the sabbath. This agrees with the observations of Bonneville in 1834, who says the Flatheads, Nez Percés, and Cayuses had a strong devotional feeling, but speaks of it as successfully cultivated by some of the Hudson's Bay Company's people. So far as Mr Pambrun of Walla Walla is concerned, this I believe to be the truth, but not of the com- pany's servants generally, as Dunn in his History of the Oregon Territory, 181, informs us, they having occasion to blame themselves for their neglect. So well advanced in the Christian religion were the tribes mentioned, ac- cording to Bonneville, that they would not raise their camps on Sunday, nor fish, hunt, or trade on that day except in cases of severe necessity, but passed a portion of the day in religious ceremonies, the chiefs leading the. devotions, and afterward giving a sort of sermon upon abstaining from lying, stealing, cheating, and quarrelling, and the duty of being hospitable to strangers. Prayers and exhortations were also made in the morning on week days, often by the chief on horseback, moving slowly about the camp, and giving his instructions in a loud voice, the people listening with attention, and at the end of every sentence responding one word in unison, apparently equivalent to amen. While these ceremonials were going on every employ- ment was suspended. If an Indian was riding by, he dismounted, and at- tended with reverence until the conclusion. When the chief had finished, he said, 'I have done,' upon which there was an exclamation in unison. ‘ Witlı
117
IN SEARCH OF MISSION SITES.
the Indians to Dr Whitman to be forwarded to the United States, he turned back to the Columbia River, determined to take the sea route home.
No longer lacking for time, he decided to make further explorations for mission stations, and noted with favor the upper part of the Walla Walla Valley as a site for an establishment, the only objection to it, in his mind, being that it was not central for the Nez Percés, Cayuses, and Walla Wallas, to whom he had promised a mission. "How easily," he says, "might the plough go through these valleys, and what rich and abundant harvests might be gathered by the hand of industry. But even now the spontaneous growth of these vast plains, including millions of acres, yields
these religious services,' says Bonneville, 'probably derived from the white. men, the tribes above mentioned mingle some of their old Indian ceremo- nials; such as dancing to the cadence of a song or ballad, which is generally done in a large lodge provided for the purpose. Besides Sundays, they like- wise observe the cardinal holidays of the Roman Catholic church.' Irving's Bonneville's Adventures, 389-90. Says John Wyeth, who also gives these savages a good character: 'I know not what to say of their religion. I saw nothing like images, or any objects of worship whatever, and yet they ap- peared to keep a sabbath, for there is a day on which they do not hunt nor gamble, but sit moping all day, and look like fools. There certainly ap- peared among them an honor, or conscience, and sense of justice. They would do what they promised, and return our strayed horses and lost articles.' Oregon, 54. Townsend was equally struck with the religious char- acter of the Nez Percés and Cayuses, and after describing their family wor- ship, concludes by saying: 'I never was more gratified by any exhibition in my life. The humble, subdued, and beseeching looks of the poor untutored beings who were calling upon their heavenly father to forgive their sins, and continue his mercies to them, and the evident and heart-felt sincerity which characterized the whole scene, was truly affecting, and very impressive.' Nar., 107. Elijah White, in a letter to the Oregon Spectator of November 12, 1846, says: 'Indeed, the red men of that region would almost seem to be of a differ- ent order from those with whom we have been in more familiar intercourse.' Parker himself often remarked upon the reverence and attention with which the Flatheads and Nez Percés listened to his devotional exercises, in which they joined with an intelligence that surprised him. The effect of the teaching they had some time had was apparent in the exhibition of that hos- pitality, care for others, and general good conduct to which he often referred. On one of his journeys with these people he says: 'One sabbath day about eight in the morning, some of the chiefs came to me and asked where they should assemble. I asked them if they could not be accommodated in the willows which skirted the stream of water on which we were encamped. They thought not. I then inquired if they could not take the poles of some of their lodges and construct a shade. They thought they could; and with- out any other directions went and made preparation, and about eleven o'clock came and said they were ready for worship. I found them all as- sembled, men, women, and children, between four and five hundred, in what I would call a sanctuary of God, constructed with their lodges, nearly one hundred feet long, and about twenty feet wide; and all were arranged
118
COMING OF THE PRESBYTERIANS.
in such profusion, that not the fiftieth part becomes the food of organic life." 13
A mission located in this valley he believed would draw to itself a settlement of the Indians, who would cultivate the soil, while at the same time they were taught sacred things. Accordingly, he selected for a mission station a spot on the north bank of the Walla Walla River, near the mouth of a small stream now known as Mill Creek, where there was a small valley covered luxuriantly with rye grass, from which the Indians called it Waiilatpa, or Waiilatpu.14 It was not the most cheerful of sites for a homestead, being surrounded almost entirely by high rolling hills cov- ered with coarse bunch-grass; but it furnished water and wood, and presented a certain picturesqueness which its very isolation enhanced. It was but twenty- two miles from Fort Walla Walla, which was by no means an unimportant recommendation to a solitary white family.15
in rows, through the length of the building, upon their knees, with a nar- row space in the middle, lengthwise, resembling an aisle. The whole area within was carpeted with their dressed skins, and they were all attired in their best. The chiefs were arranged in a semicircle at the end which I was to occupy. I could not have believed they had the means, or could have known how to have constructed so convenient and so decent a place for worship, and especially as it was the first time they had had public worship. The whole sight taken together sensibly affected me, and filled me with astonishment; and I felt as though it was the house of God and the gate of heaven. They all continued in their kneeling position during singing and prayer, and when I closed prayer with amen, they all said what was equivalent in their lan- guage to amen. And when I commenced the sermon, they sunk back upon their heels.' Parker's Jour., Ex. Tour, 97-8. Nothing could be more evident than that at some time some influential and competent teacher had laid the foundations of religion and morality with conscientious care. Who he was, whence he came, or whither he went, is almost purely conjectural. The ex- planation given by Shea is repeated in Strickland's Missions, 120.
13 Notwithstanding this early recognition by Parker of the north of the Walla Walla Valley for settlement, it was thirty years before it began to be esteemed for farming purposes; and another decade had passed ere the fact was accepted that this was one of the most productive wheat-fields of the world.
1ª 'Place of Rye Grass.' This word is commonly spelled with a terminal u instead of a, which some say changes its signification, affirming that a is the proper termination for the word with the above meaning.
13 Undoubtedly, this spot was the choice of Parker, though in Gray's Hist. Or., 165-6, the reader is made to believe that the choice was left to Whit- man. Parker says that after encamping for a night on the 'upper part of the Walla Walla River,' he rode twenty-two miles and arrived at Walla Walla. Whitman may have selected a spot, not the identical one, in the same vicinity.
119
WAIILATPU.
At the time Parker made his selection of Waii- latpu he was alone, except so far as he was surrounded by Indians, who overtook him and his Nez Percé guide, and continued with him out of curiosity or interest. To these he undoubtedly communicated his intention of founding a mission at this spot, and prob- ably obtained their sanction, as they were eager to have a mission established among them. There is nothing, however, in his account of his journey, which indicates that he offered the Cayuses, whose country it was, anything in payment for the land, or that the subject was discussed. On the contrary, having no interpreter with him, he mentions a diffi- culty in communicating with the Indians; and there is no evidence that at this time the Cayuses set any value on land required for an individual farm. It seems to have been taken for granted that there was to be a mission for the benefit of the Indians, and not of the missionaries.16
16 In Brouillet's Authentic Account of the Murder of Dr Whitman, 23, is a statement by John Toupin, which must be taken with allowance. Toupin, who was interpreter at Fort Walla Walla from 1824 to 1841, first avers that Mr Parker made the selection of the mission station in 1835, which is not possible, as during this journey he proceeded to Fort Vancouver with the delay of only one day to arrange for his passage down the river. This might have been simply an error in date, did not Toupin go on to say that Mr Parker, in company with Mr Pambrun, an American, and himself as inter- preter, went first to Waiilatpu, a place belonging to three chiefs of the Cayuses, where he met them by appointment to select a site for a mission for Whitman, who, he told them, would come in the ' following spring '-whereas, if the error was in date, it would have been the following autumn that he promised them that they would see Whitman. From the Cayuses, says Toupin, Parker went to the Nez Perces, about one hundred and twenty-five miles distant, on a small creek emptying into the Kooskooskie, or Clearwater, seven or eight miles from the place afterwards chosen for the Nez Percé mis- sion, where he made the same promises. 'Next spring there will come a missionary to establish himself here and take a piece of land; but he will not take it for nothing; you shall be paid every year; this is the American fashion.' The facts as given by Parker show that the only occasions when he could have been at Waiilatpu were those when he was alone with a chance company of Indians, and without an interpreter. So important a circum- stance as a formal meeting of himself with the chiefs and interpreter, witnessed by Pambrun, and an American, would not have gone unmentioned, when so slight a fact as a ride with Pambrun to the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers is carefully recorded; therefore it would seem that the story of Toupin was invented to serve a purpose; and that Parker, who was so careful of his word, did not promise the Cayuses payment or annual rent for their land.
120
COMING OF THE PRESBYTERIANS.
Returning to Walla Walla, Parker made arrange- ments for a tour up the north branch of the Columbia to Fort Colville, the most northern post of the Hud- son's Bay Company on that river, in the course of which he expected to meet other tribes than those he had seen, and to gain much interesting information.
51
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Fort
Columbia R
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Lake
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SHOSHONES OR SNAKE INU
Big
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Colorado
PARKER'S TRAVELS.
In this design he was encouraged by Pambrun, who procured for him Indian guides, and chose two French voyageurs to be his assistants, one of whom spoke the English language, though imperfectly. In order to see more of the country and the natives, it was decided to travel with horses, rather than by boat
Woody L
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CHILTZ IND
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SPOKANE RIV. & INO. CŒUR D'ALENE INDS
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121
IN THE SPOKANE COUNTRY.
in going up the river, and to pass by way of the Spokane country, leaving the great bend of the Columbia a long distance to the left.
The 23d of May being fixed upon for beginning his journey, the first day's travel brought him opposite the mouth of the Pavilion or Palouse River, up which lay his course to the head of the Spokane River. At this first encampment he made the acquaintance of the Palouses, an inferior branch of the Nez Percé nation, whom he paid for assisting him to cross to the north side of Snake River. Passing over hills and valleys destitute of trees, and meeting with several villages of Nez Percés and Spokanes, he encamped the close of the second day at one of the latter, his guides explaining to them the object of his visit to their country, at which they expressed their satisfac- tion.
On the third day the guides missed the trail, and the traveller was nearly lost on the trackless prairie ; but they fortunately fell in with a party of Spokanes, one of whom consented to show them the way to the Spokane River, leading the party to within sight of a lake, and telling them that on the east side of it was the main trail leading to their destination.
What struck Parker with astonishment was the conduct of his new guide in refusing to go with him to the river, though he offered a large reward for the service. "I have shown the way; you cannot miss it; why should I allow you to pay me for un- necessary labor ?" inquired this punctilious savage ; nor could he be persuaded from his determination. This conscientiousness, as it appeared to him, and which would have been extraordinary in a man of civilized habits, so moved the missionary that he not only paid him well on the spot, but afterward sent him a pres- ent of powder and ball.
Crossing the Spokane River on the 27th, his ferry- man guided him to the principal village, where there was a small field of flourishing potatoes, pease, beans,
122
COMING OF THE PRESBYTERIANS.
and other vegetables, the first instance of native agriculture Parker had seen west of the Rocky Mountains, although the Hudson's Bay Company would at any time have encouraged the Indians in planting in the neighborhood of their forts, had they cared to cultivate the soil. The Indians about Puget Sound, more than any others, seem to have taken to the cultivation of the potato for food,
Encamping for the night, sixty miles from Colville, he found many Spokanes and Nez Percés gathered, who had heard from others that a teacher of reli- gion was passing through the country, and they were anxious to see and listen to so great a personage. They brought with them, with wise forethought, an interpreter of their own, a young Spokane, who had attended school at the Red River settlement, and who understood English fairly. There was present also a Nez Percé chief who knew the Spokane tongue. For their edification religious services were held in the evening, and as the interpreter rendered the sermon into Spokane, the Nez Percé translated it into his language, which was done without disturbance, and was entirely the idea of the Indians themselves. So wonderfully interesting did the preacher find these people, that he regarded it as a special providence that he had suffered several detentions which pre- vented his passing them; and as he rode next day through a very fertile but narrow valley extending north and south for fifty miles, he settled in his mind that here too should be a mission, from which the tribes of the Spokanes, Cœurs d'Alene, Pends d'Oreille, and Shuyelpi, or Kettle Falls, could all be reached.
Reaching Fort Colville. after a hard ride, on the evening of the 28th, in an almost starving condition, having exhausted his supplies, he found himself just too late to see McDonald, the gentleman in charge, who had a few days before gone with the 'annual brigade to Fort Vancouver. Every attention was
123
DEPARTURE OF PARKER.
paid toward making him comfortable by the people at the fort, but his visit extended only over the sabbath, which he spent as usual in preaching, and teaching the Indians. On the 30th he journeyed to the Grande Coulée, in whose deep chasm a night was passed. He was again lost for a few hours on the great plain of the Columbia; but more by his own judgment than the knowledge of the Indian guides he made his way safely to Fort Okanagan.
At this place he made no stay, but obtaining a bateau and two natives to assist the voyageurs, set out on his return by river, sending his guides with the horses to Walla Walla, where he arrived the 3d of June, having been eleven days, Sundays excepted, in the saddle or bateau. After a rest of two days he left for Fort Vancouver, where he arrived in safety on the evening of the 9th, and took passage in one of the fur company's vessels to the Sandwich Islands.
It is worthy of note, in connection with Parker's residence of several months at Fort Vancouver, that thence originated the practice of assembling the Canadians twice every Sunday, and reading to them in French a portion of the scriptures and a sermon ; which practice was kept up until the arrival of Mr Beaver.
Before leaving Oregon Parker witnessed the intro- duction of a steam-vessel into the coasting service of the company. This was the Beaver, which arrived in the Columbia River in the spring of 1836, and on which Parker with a party of gentlemen from the fort took an excursion on the 14th of June around Wapato Island, indulging during their enjoyment in "a train of prospective reflections upon the probable changes which would take place in these remote regions in a very few years," and in the dream "a new empire be added to the kingdoms of the earth."17
17 Parker's Jour., Ex. Tour, 310-11. This pioneer steamboat on the Pacific Ocean was commanded by Captain David Home, her consort being the Nereid, Royal, master. She was a low-pressure, side-wheel steamer, 110 tons register,
124
COMING OF THE PRESBYTERIANS.
On the 18th of June Parker took final leave of Fort Vancouver, and sailed for Honolulu, where he was compelled to wait until the middle of December for a vessel to the United States, reaching his home in Ithaca the 23d of May, 1837,18 having travelled 28,000 miles.
We have now to deal with the results of the explo- ration ordered by the American Board. When Mr Parker decided to proceed alone, Dr Whitman turned back with the caravan to St Louis for the next year's supplies, reaching the Missouri frontier late in the autumn of 1835. The business in hand was some- thing requiring all his superabundant energy, for before spring he must bring into the service of the Presbyterian missions in Oregon persons enough to set up at least two stations, one among the Flatheads and one among the Nez Percés.
To enlist the sympathy of Christians, he took with him two Indian lads, as did Columbus, Pizarro, and Wyeth, and as do others, down to the Indian agents and military men of the present day, when wishing to interest the public in alien and savage races. With these he went directly to the missionary board, and reported the field of mission work west of the Rocky
built at Blackwell, England. Her paddle-wheels were small and well forward. She carried a crew of thirty inen, armament 4 six-pounders, with a large supply of small-arms. The decks were protected by boarding-netting, the natives being restricted to the gangways for access. After leaving the Colum- bia in 1837 she never afterward entered it, but was engaged in coasting the northern seas, collecting furs, and supplying the northern forts. This steamer entered the harbors of Esquimalt and Victoria in 1836. She was in 1881 a tug in the latter harbor. Seattle Intelligencer, Jan. 1, 1881; Finlayson's V. 1. and N. W. Coast, MS., 6.
18 With the departure of Mr Parker from Oregon ends his relation to its history. He published in 1838 at Ithaca, N. Y., a Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains, the first actual report of the country and the Indain tribes since the expedition of Lewis and Clarke, if we except the partial accounts of Kelley. William Strong of Portland remarks in his Hist. Or., MS., 23, that lie was a proof-reader on Parker's book, 'the first book in regard to the country by an American.' Parker's remarks upon the geography, geology, climate, productions, and possibilities of the then unsettled Oregon territory show close observation, and supplementing his own discoveries with information contributed by the gentlemen at Fort Vancouver, formed a faith- ful and valuable account of the country.
125
WHITMAN AND SPALDING.
Mountains as ripe and waiting for the harvesters. Yet he seemed unable to awaken sufficient enthusiasm in individual members of the church to draw them from their comfortable firesides into the storms of March, which they must face to join a caravan for the sum- mer journey over a homeless wilderness. For it was families, not single men, whom Whitman wished to establish as missionaries among the Indians. In his difficulty, and fully determined to return himself as a missionary, he appealed successfully to Miss Narcissa Prentiss, daughter of Judge Prentiss of Prattsburg, New York, and in February 1836 they were married. Mrs Whitman was a bright, fresh-looking woman, with blue eyes and fair hair, good figure and pleasant voice, more than commonly attractive in person and manner, besides being well educated, and something of a contrast to her husband in her careful habits and regard for small refinements. But one man and woman could not go alone into this new world, as did the primal pair, and Whitman sought some other husband and wife to accompany them. He had, how- ever, started on his westward journey in March, before he found at Pittsburg, on his route, the Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, newly married, graduated only a short time before from Lane Theological Seminary and the female college near it in the suburbs of Cin- cinnati, and who were already on their way to the Osages as missionaries.
Mr Spalding was considered a man of plain, practical talents, more esteemed for his sincerity and faithful- ness than for his gifts, yet honored as a zealous and comparatively successful missionary. Mrs Eliza Spald- ing, daughter of a farmer named Hart, of Oneida County, New York, had been taught to spin, weave, and make clothing, as well as to cook. These were ex- cellent attainments for a new country ; added to which she was an apt linguist, and something of an artist in water-colors, both of which acquirements proved of use in the missionary work, the first in catching the
126
COMING OF THE PRESBYTERIANS.
native tongues, the second in teaching by rude but vigorous pictures what could not be conveyed with force in language. The tall, slender, plain, dark woman, with few charms of voice or feature, saga- cious, decided, sympathizing, and faithful, won the confidence of all about her. What she lacked in personal charms she made up in the excellences of her character, taking for her own standard that of the highest in pious life. She was fitted by nature for the work of a missionary, and found the reward of self-sacrifice in elevation of spirit.19
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