History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 10

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134

USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 10
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 10

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Another present-day investigator, whose work is especially worthy of men- tion is Rev. J. Neilson Barry, an enthusiastic and intelligent student of every phase of the history of the Northwest, formerly of Baker, Oregon, now of Spokane. In Chapter III, of Volume I, of Gaston's "Centennial History of Oregon," Mr. Barry gives a valuable contribution to Indian legends.

Yet another original student was Miss Kate McBeth, of Lapwai, Idaho, recently deceased ,who, with her sister, lived for years among the Nez Perces, performing a most beneficent missionary work for them. In her book, "The Nez Perces Since Lewis and Clark," may be found the Kamiah myth, and a few others derived directly from those Indians. Mention may well be made here also of a Nez Perce Indian named Luke, previously referred to, living at Kamiah, who has a very intelligent knowledge of all kinds of Indian matters. Miss McBeth says that the Nez Perces do not like to discuss generally their "heathen" stories and customs. In connection with the Nez Perces it may be stated that Yellow Wolf of Nespilem is an authority on the myth of the Kamiah monster.

Still another enthusiastic student of Indian legends is Lucullus V. McWhorter of Yakima, who is one of the advisory board for this history. He is an adopted member of the Yakima tribe, and has been of incalculable benefit to the Indians in instructing them as to their rights, in presenting their cause to the Government, and in making known their needs as well as some of their wrongs to the general public through voice and pen. As an educational factor

' ourtesy of L. V. MeWhorter

CHIEF YET-TI-MOCHET A Descendant of the Kamiakins

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

for both races, he has made a specialty in recent years of organizing bands of tribesmen and taking them to historic pageants, celebrations and "Frontier Days." At the "Astoria Centennial" (Oregon), August and September, 1911, his Nez Perces and Yakimas took a prominent part in that wonderfully striking play, "The Bridge of the Gods," as dramatized from Balch by Mabel Ferris and there staged for the first time. A recent pamphlet by him on the treatment of the Yakimas in connection with their water rights is an "eye-opener," on some phases of Indian service and Indian problems. Mr. McWhorter has gathered a large amount of matter from the Indians, in which is material for three books: "Traditions of the Yakimas"; "Camp Stories of the Yakimas," and "Nez Perce Warriors in the War of 1877". Among the proteges of Mr. Mcwhorter from whom he tells the author that much of interest could be derived, are Chief Yel- low Wolf of the Joseph band of Nez Perces, and Mrs. Crystal McLeod, known to her people as Humishuma, or Morning Dove, an Okanogan woman of un- usual beauty and intelligence and well instructed in the English language. Her picture appears in this work from photographs taken by Mr. John Langdon of Walla Walla. She is herself an author and has ready for the press a book which promises to be one of rare value and interest.

One of the most notable contributions to recent Northwest history is by another of the most prominent pioneers of Yakima, A. J. Splawn, recently de- ceased. His volume, "Kamiakin, the Last Hero of the Yakimas," has attracted the interest of all readers of history in this section.

Any reference to any phase of Oregon would be incomplete without men- tion of John Minto, one of the most honored of pioneers, one of the noblest of men, and one of the best examples of those ambitious, industrious, and high minded State builders who gave the Northwest its loftiest ideals. Mr. Minto was a student of the Indians and discovered and gave to the world various Clatsop and Nehalem legends. Yet another investigator is Hon. E. L. Smith of Hood River, Oregon, well known as an official and legislator of both Oregon and Washington, and a man of such character that all who ever knew him have the highest honor for him in every relation of life. He has made a life-long study of the natives and has a great collection of myths both in mind and on paper. He is one of the most sympathetic, tolerant and appreciative of investigators, one whom the In- dians of the Mid-Columbia trust implicitly. He has written little for publication in comparison with what he knows, and it is to be hoped that his stores of ma- terial may yet be brought to the public. Worthy of mention as a general student of the geography and language of the Indians, is Mr. John Gill of Portland. While he has not made a specialty of myths, he has studied the habits and lan- guage with special attention, and his dictionary of the Chinook jargon is one of the most valuable collections of the kind.

It is proper to mention here several who are well versed in native lore, yet who have not given their knowledge of legends or myths to the public in book or magazine form. The most conspicuous, indeed, of this group, is no longer living. This was Dr. William C. McKay, a grandson of the Mckay of the Astor Fur Company, who lost his life on the Tonquin. The mother of Doctor Mckay was a Chinook "princess." He was a man of great ability and acquired a fine education. He lived for years in Pendleton, Oregon, where he died some time (7)

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

ago. In the possession of his children and grandchildren there is undoubtedly valuable material and if it could be reduced to written form it would furnish matter of great interest. Certain others of Indian blood may be properly added here who could give material for interesting narrations. Among these are Henry Sicade and William Wilton, living on the Puyallup Reservation near Tacoma; Samuel McCaw of Wapato and Charlie Pitt, of the Warm Springs Agency in Oregon. Frank Olney, of Toppenish, and William Olney, of White Swan, sons of Nathan Olney and an Indian mother, are excellent authorities.

Mr. Jay Lynch of Yakima, for many years agent at Fort Simcoe, is very good authority on Indiana customs. He had one of the finest collections of Indian baskets and curios in the Yakima country, which was acquired by the Tiffanys of New York. Mr. Coburn, of White Swan, for many years a trader on the Yakima Reservation, has what is probably the best collection of Indian curios in the Northwest, and he is perhaps more familiar with Indians and their history than any other white man in the Yakima country.

This summary of Indian stories and their investigators is necessarily incom- plete. One of the hopes in including it in this work is that it may lead to added contributions. As we contemplate the beauty and grandeur of Old Oregon, which includes Washington and Idaho and a part of Montana, and the pathos, heroism and nobility of its history, and as we see the pitiful remnant of the Indians, we cannot fail to be touched with the quaint and pathetic and suggestive myths and legends that are passing with them into the twilight. In our proud days of possession and of progress we do well to pause and drop the tear of sympathy and place the chaplet of commemoration upon the resting place of the former lords of the land, and to recognize their contributions to the common stock of human thought.

In concluding this chapter we insert a valuable article from the Washing- ton Magazine of June, 1906, by Harlan I. Smith, of the American Museum of Natural History of New York.

ARCHEOLOGY OF THE YAKIMA VALLEY

By Harlan I. Smith,

Of the American Museum of Natural History, New York

Archeological explorations were made by the writer in the Yakima Valley, Washington, for the American Museum of Natural History in the first part of the field season of 1903. These resulted in the discovery of a number of speci- mens and human skeletons, as well as the securing of several dozen photographs and a mass of field notes. Other data have been securred, both before the ex- pedition and since, from collections and museums. The following preliminary account is made up from these results, which may not be published in full for some time to come.

Central Washington is arid. In most respects the climate resembles that of the southern interior of British Columbia to the north. The Summers are per- haps warmer and the Winters colder. There is less vegetation, and no trees. are seen except in river bottoms or where irrigation has been successfully

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

prosecuted. The prehistoric people had no great staples, and had to rely upon perhaps even a greater variety of natural products than did the people farther north.

A glance at the linguistic map of Washington shows the great number of tribes inhabiting the general region. This suggests the possibility of the exist- ence of more than one culture area within the same territory, although, of course, we may find several tribes, especially if they be subjected to the same environment, all within one culture area.

Definite age can not be assigned to the archæological finds, since here, as to the north, the remains are found at no great depth or in soil the surface of which is frequently shifted. Some of the graves are known to be of modern Indians but many of them antedate the advent of the white race in this region, or at least contain no objects of European manufacture, such as glass beads or iron knives. On the other hand, there was found no positive evidence of the great antiquity of any of the skeletons, artifacts or structures found in the area ..

The implements used in securing food include many chipped projectile points of bright-colored agates, chalcedonies and similar stone. Several small. quarries of this material, with adjacent workshops, were found. While the bulk of the stone used was quite different from the black basalt employed to the north, yet a few points chipped from that material were also found. Points rubbed out of stone or bone were rare. Digging stick handles were seen, but no sap scrapers were found.

Some small heaps of fresh water clam shells were examined but these being only about five feet in diameter and as many inches in depth, are hardly to be compared to the immense shell heaps of the coast. Net sinkers were made. by notching and also by grooving pebbles. Such sinkers were very rare to the. north, and much more numerous here than on the coast, except near the mouth! of the Columbia River, where grooved sinkers, usually slightly different from: these, are found.

For preparing food, pestles were used. These differ from those found' either to the north or on the coast, many of them being much longer. Some had tops in the form of animal heads. Fish knives made of slate were not found, and, it is believed, pottery was not made in the region.

Sites of ancient semi-underground houses, like those found in the Thomp- son River region, were photographed. Here, however, stones were seen on top- of the embankment. No saucer-shaped depressions were seen, but circles of stones were found, which similarly may mark lodge sites, since the modern Indian has a lodge identical in shape with that found to the north, where saucer- shaped depressions occur. Pairs of arrow-shaft smoothers were seen.

An idea of the ancient form of dress was obtained from a costumed human figure carved in antlers, which was found in the grave of a little child. It had a feather head-dress like that of the present Indians of the region from here to- as far east as the Dakotas. The hair was dressed and ornamented with detalium shells. The body is represented as painted, and with a fringed apron around the loins. The costume indicated is unlike that of the coast, but resembles those of. the plateaus to the south and the plains to the east.

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Besides a tubular form of pipe, one type consisting simply of a bowl was found. This is not seen among archaeological remains from other parts of the Northwest, although pipes used by the Thompson River Indians seem to re- semble it. The fact suggests that the culture of this region is somewhat more closely related to that farther east than are the cultures of the areas to the north and west.

Art work was found here as in the other areas. The costumed human figure, made of antlers, engraved on one surface, is of good technique and artistic execution. The circle and dot design was common. Paintings made with red and white on basaltic cliffs, many of which represent human heads with head- dresses, and some the whole figure, were also seen. These were made up of lines, and were pictographic in character. Sometimes such pictures were made by pecking into the surface of the columns instead of by painting. A design similar to the part of these pictures interpreted as representing the headdress was also found pecked into the surface of a grooved net sinker. Some of the pestles had knobs in the form of animal heads, but in general the art of the region tended to line work of geometric and pictographic patterns. The general style of art shows little resemblance to that of the coast, but a strong relation- ship to that of the plains.

There were three methods of disposing of the dead. In this arid region are stretches of country locally known as "scab-land," on which are occasionally groups of low dome-shaped knolls from about fifty to one hundred feet in diam- eter by three to six feet in height. These knolls consist of fine volcanic ash, and apparently have been left by the wind. This ashy material has been swept from the intervening surface, leaving the "scab-land" paved with fragments of basalt imbedded in a hard soil. The prehistoric Indians of this region have used many of these knolls, each as a site for a single grave. These graves, which are located in the tops of the knolls, are usually marked by large river pebbles, or in some cases by fragments of basalt that appear as a circular pavement pro- jecting slightly above the surface of the soil. In one only did we find a box or cyst. This box was formed of thin slabs of basaltic rock, some placed on edge, and two large flat slabs covering the cyst so formed. Above this, as was usually the case above the skeletons in this sort of grave, the space was filled with irregular rocks or pebbles. The skeletons were found flexed, on the side. In the graves artifacts, such as dentalium shells, were deposited at the time of burial. Simple graves in the level ground were not found. The rock slides, as in the region to the north, had frequently been used as burial places. In these skeletons were always in a flexed position. Objects were found to have been placed in some of these graves. Rings of stones were also seen, and on excavation within them cremated human remains were found, usually several in each circle. In such places dentalium shells, flat shell beads and shell orna- ments were usually seen.

The prehistoric culture of the region was apparently similar to that of the present natives.

Numerous evidences were found of the close communication of the people of this culture with tribes of the southern interior of British Columbia. The preponderance of chipped over ground points, digging stick handles, sites of

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

semi-underground houses, pestles with tops in the form of animal heads, pairs of arrow shaft smoothers, as well as tubular pipes, an incised decoration con- sisting of a circle with a dot in it, and engraved dentalium shells, each of a particular kind, besides rock-slide-sepulchers, and the custom of burying arti- facts with the dead, were found to be common to both regions. Certain pestles and clubs made of stone differed from those found in British Columbia, while the chipped implements were made of a greater variety of stone, and more of beautifully colored material were found. Notched and grooved sinkers were much more common, and sap-scrapers were not found.

Considerable material of the same art as that found in The Dalles region was seen. It is clear that the people living in the Yakima Valley had exten- sive communication, not only with the region northward as far as the Thomp- son Valley but also southward as far as The Dalles of the Columbia. In this connection it is interesting to note that the present Indians of the region travel even more extensively than would be necessary to distribute their artifacts this far

Much less evidence of contact between the prehistoric people of the coast and that of the Yakima Valley was discovered. Many of the pestles and clubs made of stone were different from those found on the coast, where, it will also be remembered, artifacts were not found with the dead. A pipe, however, and sea shells of several species, were seen. The pipe is clearly of the art of the Northwest coast. It was found far up the Toppenish River, one of the western tributaries of the Yakima.

In general the culture of the prehistoric people resembled that of the pres- ent natives, and was affiliated with the cultures farther east, but differed from both the prehistoric and present culture of the coast to the west, and even of the southern interior of British Columbia to the north and The Dalles to the south.

From the whole series of archaeological explorations, in British Columbia and Washington, begun in 1897 for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, and continued in 1903 for the American Museum of Natural History, we have learned that the material culture of the prehistoric people and the present natives was similar in each area examined; that the culture of the coast is of one sort, that of the interior of southern British Columbia of another; from which that of central Washington differs somewhat; and that there are several small cul- ture areas lying adjacent to these. We find that each culture apparently de- veloped independently or at least more in accord with its own environment and local tradition rather than with any outside influence, but that at various times, especially in the past, each has been influenced by one or more of the others.

In general the culture of the North Pacific coast does not extend far in- land. Northward its limits are unknown, but southward it coalesces with that from the Columbia River in the region between Seattle and Shoalwater Bay. In the interior we have a plateau culture of which, likewise, that part to the north, differs somewhat from that to the south.

Experience in this work emphasizes the advisability of conducting archæe- ological investigations in cooperation with students of living tribes. A study of the modern Indians living in a country under investigaton usually throws light on archæological finds made there, while an understanding of the antiquities of

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a region often helps in the study of the present natives. Besides, in this way the continuity of the historical problems is met by a continuity of method.

In selecting successive fields of operation it seems best always to continue explorations in an area so far distant from one already examined that new con- ditions will be encountered. This will make it probable that new facts will be discovered ; possibly a new culture area. At the same time the new field of operations should be near enough that no culture may intervene. Thus the boundaries of culture areas may be determined and new areas discovered. This method of continuation from past fields of exploration allows any experience there gained to be of service in each new and adjacent field, while the discover- ies in each new region may always lead to a better understanding of the areas explored and that perhaps in time for incorporation in the results to be pub- lished.

It remains to determine the northern, eastern and southern limits of the general plateau culture, how far it may be subdivided into local culture areas, the interrelation of each of these, and of each to outside cultures.

But few specimens have been found in the whole area extending from the central Arctic region to the Columbia River, and from there southward along the coast to the Santa Barbara Islands, thence to the Pueblo region and east- ward as far as the mounds of the Mississippi Valley. Literature on the archæ- ology of the area is scanty. That whole region, north to the Arctic, across all the plains towards the east, and the plateaus south throughout Nevada, remains to be explored.

CHAPTER III

ERA OF DISCOVERY

DAYS OF FIRST DISCOVERY-THE "ERA OF LIARS"-RUSSIA WAKES UP-SPAIN'S OPPORTUNITY-HECETA'S ACCOUNT-ACTUAL DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER-FUR TRADE BEGINS-THE COLUMBIA REDIVIVA-THE GEOGRAPHICAL SPHINX-THE SIZE OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER.

One of the grandest and most significant of all the dramas of human progress is the discovery of the Pacific Coast of North America, its subsequent acquisi- tion by the people of the United States, and its progressive evolution under that people to its present stage of world importance, with the vision of yet larger development in the unfoldings of the Twentieth Century.

We shall better comprehend and estimate the acts and scenes of this great drama if we rapidly unroll before our minds the opening act, that of first dis- covery.

The earliest discoverers, beginning with Columbus, had become so accus- tomed to weighing all things in the scales of the Old World and especially of finding new routes to the supposed treasures of the Orient, India and Golconda, that they vailed their eyes for a time-a long time, it seems to us-and with seeming obstinacy, to the truth that they had made a far vaster discovery than that of a new route to the lethargic and somnolent lands of the most ancient world. Only gradually did it dawn upon the minds of these heroes of the sea, those new Jasons seeking for vaster and more precious fleeces, that they had steered their prows to a new continent, where development should within five centuries hold up to mankind the banners of new hopes, new aims, new achievements, by which there should no longer be an Orient, or an Occident, but a world, no longer petty dynastic struggles and the dictation of warring groups of pirate kings and robber barons, but the beginning of life for a united world and a national humanity. As the most significant feature between the close of the Fifteenth Century and the middle of the Twentieth, it may be seen by future historians that the discovery of a new continent of man's intellectual and moral life was the logical outcome of the discovery of the physical con- tinent of America by Columbus and his followers.

Inasmuch as the new lands seemed to those first navigators of American waters obstacles in the way of fulfilling the supposedly vital establishment of a water route to India, the greatest aim of those navigators was to find open channels through what they persistently believed to be a fringe of islands screening the domains of the "Great Cham" or some other imagined potentate of "Ormus or of Ind." Out of that stage of discovery and geographical con- ception grew that myth of "the Straits of Anian," whose ghost still walked the waters of the Pacific until the voyages of the closing decade of the Eighteenth

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Century at last laid that persistent ghost to rest. Not till Roald Amundsen, the Scandinavian navigator of our own day, did any keel of human construction actually solve the problem of the "Northwest passage." The myth of Anian came into existence only eight years after the landing of Columbus on San Salvador. For in 1500 Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese in the service of Spain, entered a great inland water, presumably that later known as Hudson's Bay, and upon his return proclaimed that he had penetrated the screen of islands and had actually reached the Asiatic shores.

THE "ERA OF LIARS"

More than a hundred years later, during the "era of liars," two veritable Munchausens, who rejoiced in the names of Maldonado and Bartolome de Fonte, told most seemingly veracious tales of their actually passing through inlets of the sea and thus completely solving the mystery of the Northwest Passage. Fonte asserted that he sailed in 1640 by way of the Californias up the Western Coast to latitude 53° and there found a great river which he called Rio de los Reyes. Up this river he made his way to a great lake of such beauty that he named it Lake Belle. On the south side of that lake, he asserted, was a large native city called Conasset. Pursuing his course eastward from that lake

he reached still another to which he applied his own name. Still further this lake debouched into a strait to which, in honor of one of his captains, he gave the name of Ronquillo. From this strait the explorers made their way, accord- ing to their narrative, to the Atlantic or to an arm of that ocean. To add to the verisimilitude and we might add in the language of 1918, to the camouflage of it-Fonte still further relates that upon his entrance to the ocean he dis- covered a "Great ship, where there had never been one before, and upon board- ing it, found there only an old man and a youth who told him that they came from the town called Boston in New England. On the following day came the captain and the owner, the latter of whom was a 'fine gentleman and major- general of the largest colony in New England,' called Maltechusetts." Fonte had an exchange of courtesies with these New Englanders, after which he returned by the Rio de los Reyes to the Pacific. Meanwhile his lieutenant, Bernardo, had followed another river to a lake in latitude 61° which he called Valasco, and rom it he, with his party, went in canoes as far as latitude 78° where the land still trended north and ice rested upon it.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 10

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1134

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134