History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 16

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 16
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 16
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 16

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An incident of special interest soon after landing was the appearance on June 15th of two strange Indians, a man and a woman, bearing a letter ad- dressed to Mr. John Stuart, Fort Estekatadene, New Caledonia. These two Indians wore long robes of dressed deerskins with leggings and moccasins more like the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. They could not understand the speech of the Astoria Indians nor of any of the mixture of dialects which the white men tried on them, until one of the Canadian clerks addressed them in the Knisteneaux language with which they seemed to be partially familiar. After several days of stay at the fort the two wandering Indians succeeded in making it clear to the traders that they had been sent out by a clerk named Finnan McDonald of the North-West Fur Company from a fort which that company had just established on the Spokane River. They said that they had lost their way and in consequence had descended the Tacousah-Tessah, which: the whites supposed to be their name for the Columbia, though the general im- pression among the Indians is that Tacousah-Tessah, or Tacoutche-Tesse, sig- nified Frazer River. From the revelation gradually drawn from these two Indians (and the surprising discovery was made that they were both women) the very important conclusion was drawn that the North-West Fur Company- was already prepared to contest with the Astor Company the possession of the river. The peculiar feature of the situation was that the most of the Astoria Company were Canadian and British by blood and sympathy, and hence were very likely to fraternize with the Montreal traders.

However, the Astorians decided to send an expedition into the interior to> verify the story given by the two Indian women, but, just as they were ready to go, a large canoe with the British flag floating from her stern appeared, from which, when it had reached the landing, there leaped ashore an active, well-dressed man who introduced himself as David Thompson, of the North- West Company. This was the same man, the reader will remember, who had crossed the Rocky Mountains the year before, had wintered near the head of the river, and had then descended it, seeking a location for the Columbia River.

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emporium of the Canadian Company. But he was too late. It was quite strange by what narrow margins on several occasions the British failed to fore- stall the Yankees.

On July 23d the delayed expedition of the Astorians set forth far to the interior, and as a result of their investigations, David Stuart, in charge of the party, began the erection of a trading house at the mouth of the Okanogan, five hundred and forty miles above Astoria. It was on September 2, 1811, that this. post was begun, and hence Fort Okanogan may be regarded as the first Ameri- can establishment in the present state of Washington. It was antedated a few months by the post of the North-West Company at the entrance of the Little Spokane into the Spokane, near the present site of the city of Spokane.

While the sea-faring contingent of the Astor Company were thus estab- lishing themselves at Astoria and Okanogan and were making the beginnings- of successful trade with the natives both on the seashore and inland, the land party was making its slow and toilsome way from St. Louis to the Columbia River. This was the first party following Lewis and Clark to cross the con- tinent, though, as already stated, Andrew Henry of the Missouri Fur Company had crossed the Great Divide to the headwaters of Snake River in 1809.

The land division made its journey, or started to, in 1811, but as a matter of fact the party did not reach Astoria till the opening of 1812. The story of this strenuous journey is told in Irving's most fascinating style in his Astoria, and no student of Pacific Coast history should fail to read that volume. Per- haps few have failed. The commander of the party was Wilson Price Hunt, who was the second partner in rank to John Jacob Astor.

With Hunt were associated four other partners of the expedition, Crooks, Mckenzie, Miller, and McClellan. Accompanying the party were two English naturalists, Bradbury and Nuttall, who did the first scientific study of the Rocky Mountain region. There were forty Canadian voyageurs whose duties con- sisted in rowing, transporting, cooking, and general drudgery. The remaining twelve of the party consisted of a group of American hunters and trappers, the leader of whom was a Virginian named John Day. The company was in all respects fitted out most bountifully.

There were at that time two great classes of trappers. The first and most numerous were the Canadian voyageurs. These were mainly of French descent, many of them being half-breeds. Almost amphibious by nature and training,. gay and amiable in disposition, with true French vivacity and ingenuity, gliding over every harsh experience with laugh and song, possessed of quick sympathies. and humane instincts which enabled them to readily find the best side of the Indians, these French voyageurs constituted a most interesting as well as indis- pensable class in the trapper's business.

THE FREE TRAPPERS.

The free trappers were an entirely different class of men. They were usu- ally American by birth, Virginia and Kentucky being the homes of most of them. Patient and indefatigable in their work of trapping, yet when on their annual trip to the towns given to wild dissipation and savage revellings, indif-

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ferent to sympathy or company, harsh and cruel to the Indians, bold and over- bearing, with blood always in their eyes, thunder in their voices, and guns in their hands, yet underneath all of their harsh exterior having noble hearts, could they but be reached, these now vanished trappers have gone to a place in history alongside of the old Spartans and the followers of Pizarro and Cortez in Spanish conquest.

Of the many adventures of the Hunt party on the journey up the Missouri, we cannot speak. For some reason, although taking a more direct route than did Lewis and Clark, and having, to all appearance, a better equipped party, they did not make so good time. Guided by Indians, they crossed chain after chain of mountains, supposing each to be the summit, only to find another yet to succeed. At last on the 15th of September, they stood upon a lofty eminence over which they could gaze both eastward and westward. Scanning attentively the western horizon, the guide pointed out three shining peaks, whose bases, he told them, were touched by a tributary of the Columbia River. These peaks are now known as the Three Tetons.

And now the party thus late in the season was starting down the long western slope over an unknown region.

For Lewis and Clark, it will be remembered, had gone far to the north and had descended upon the Clearwater and had made much better time than did the Hunt party. It is worth noting, however, that the route taken by the Hunt party was that which later became in most of its course the great Oregon Emigrant Trail down Snake River.

The Hunt party met with many hardships. In the vicinity of the present Twin Falls, they were tantalized by seeing the river rushing, inaccessible, through volcanic sluiceways, and with parched lips were obliged to lie down for the night within sound of its angry ravings but without a drop to drink. The Scotchman dubbed this place "Caldron Linn," the Canadians called it the "Devil's Scuttle-hole," and to the river they gave the name, "La Rivière Mau- dite Enragée" (The Accursed Mad River). It was already winter time when the party reached the point on Snake River near Huntington, crossed at present by the Union Pacific Railroad. They were in extremities for food and could find few Indians from whom to get either subsistence or information. Being at the head of the great Snake River Canyon, above the Seven Devils of the present nomenclature, they found themselves in such a tangle of forbidding crags and cataracts as to make progress impossible. A small division, however, headed by Mckenzie, one of the partners and the strongest and most resourceful of all, did make their way down the canyon, and across to the Clearwater, and thence to navigable water on the Snake, whence, with boats constructed on the river bank they made their way down the Snake and Columbia to Astoria, five hundred miles distant, arriving a month or more in advance of the main party.

This main party, meanwhile, under Hunt's leadership but with no guid- ance, was floundering along the Boise and the Weiser, to and fro, in hope of salvation from threatening freezing and famine.

At last they crossed Snake River and struck westward across the highlands of Burnt River and Powder River. They must have pursued nearly the course of the present O .- W. R. R. and the State Highway through the Baker Valley.

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On New Year's Day they were in the beautiful Grande Ronde Valley. Attrac- tive as it now is, it must have seemed trebly so to those famished wanderers. For the snows in which they had been floundering ceased, the genial sun of a new year broke forth, and, best of all, they found many lodges of friendly Indians, from whom they procured food and horses. Thus the expedition was saved. The mercurial French Canadians, the voyageurs and coureurs des bois, with Gallic enthusiasm celebrated New Year's Day with dance and song, with feasts of dog meat, roasted, boiled, and fricasseed, and thus New Year's Day, 1812, was celebrated by the first party of trappers in eastern Oregon.

Another toilsome stage across the snowy range between Grande Ronde and the Umatilla was necessary before they reached the spring-like and balmy airs of the chinook-swept plain of that magnificent valley of the Umatilla. Here they found a large and well equipped body of the Tushepaw Indians. These Indians had axes, kettles, and other implements significant of trade with the whites. Moreover they gave their eager questioners to understand that the Great River was only two days' distant and that a small party of white men had just descended it. Being now relieved of anxiety about Mckenzie and his party, Hunt felt that their dangers were mainly over, and with well filled stom- achs and packs they set forth across the pleasant prairie and within two days, having reached a point presumably near the present Umatilla, they beheld with overflowing hearts the blue majestic flood, nearly a mile wide, hastening west- ward, the Columbia! Crossing the river into what is now Benton County, formerly Yakima, and hence within the scene of our present work, they pro- ceeded by land to the Grand Dalles. There they exchanged horses for canoes, and with great content and ease after the snow and starvation of the journey across the moutains of eastern Oregon, they proceeded gaily down the sweep- ing waters of the great river. On February 15, 1812, they rounded Tongue Point and close at hand saw the Stars and Stripes floating from the wooden walls of the newly christened town of Astoria. As they neared the shore their approach was noted, and the whole population came forth to meet them-trappers, sail- ors, and Indians. Foremost in the crowd were the advance guard, Mckenzie and his men, who had arrived a month before and who, having left the main party almost at death's door in the deserts of the Snake River, held no confident hope that they would ever see them again. The Canadians with their Gallic vivacity rushed into each others arms like so many school girls, while even the stiff-jawed Scotchman and the nonchalant Americans gave themselves up to the gladness of the hour.

The next two or three days were mainly devoted to eating and story telling.

Several of this party had been lost by drowning or starvation, and six sick men, under the leadership of Ramsay Crooks and John Day, had been left on Snake River, near the mouth of the Weiser. Of their subsequent evil fortunes we will make mention later.

Gen. H. M. Chittenden of Seattle in his invaluable History of the Ameri- can Fur-Trade sums up in a masterly way the different stages of the course of the Hunt party and of the return journey of a party in command of Crooks and Stuart which left Astoria June 29, 1812, and reached St. Louis, April 30, 1813. General Chittenden considers that these two expeditions, that went into Oregon (10)

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under Hunt and out of Oregon under Stuart, practically fixed the Oregon Trail and thus made a contribution of much interest to history. In entering, Hunt crossed the Rocky Mountains by what became known as Union Pass. It was not till 1823 that a small party of hunters belonging to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, led by Etienne Provost and sent out by Andrew Henry, made the great discovery of South Pass. To all immigrants or the descendants of such the location of the Oregon Trail is one of the great events of history, and hence these references to the beginnings of "Trail Making" contain much interest.

After what might be considered in a general way an auspicious beginning, in spite of so much hardship and some disaster, the Pacific Fur Company of John Jacob Astor was thus inaugurated both by sea and land. It was the fore- most American enterprise in the fur trade, and the causes and manner of its downfall, a matter of great chagrin to Americans, and the rise of the great British fur companies, the Hudson's Bay and the North-West, constitute one of the pivots on which the history of this country turns. The strange manner in which the downfall of the American fur trade and the resulting dominance of their British rivals were swiftly followed by the supplanting of those same great British interests by the American Missionary and American Immigrant, composes one of the great dramas of history.

In 1812 all signs pointed to the complete success of Astor's great enter- prise. In May, 1812, the Company's ship "Beaver," arrived from New York, loaded with stores and trading equipment, and bringing a considerable addition to the force of men. In the following month sixty men were despatched up- river, and by them a trading post was located at Spokane and another on the Snake River somewhere near the present site of Lewiston, while one section of the party went across the mountains and down the Missouri, to convey dis- patches to Mr. Astor.

RECORD OF DISASTER

At this stage of the history of the Astoria enterprise, every aspect was en- couraging. The trade in furs on the Spokane, the Okanogan, the Snake, and the Coeur d' Alene was excellent, a successful cruise along the coast by the "Beaver" seemed sure, and the Indians about the mouth of the river were friendly and well disposed. Mr. Astor's great undertaking seemed sure to be crowned with success. In the midst of all the signs of hope came tidings of dismay. It became known with certainty that the "Tonquin" had been de- stroyed. This appalling disaster was related directly to the Astoria Company by the only survivor. This was an Indian of the Chehalis tribe whose name is given by Irving as Lamazee, by Ross as Lamazu, and by Bancroft as Lamanse. He had escaped from the Indians who had held him after the destruction of the "Tonquin" and had finally found his way to Astoria, there to tell his tale, one of the most sanguinary in the long roll of struggles with the Indians. The next great disaster was the wrecking of the Lark, the third of the Company's ships from New York. During the same period Mr. Hunt, the partner next in rank to Mr. Astor and the one above all who could have acted wisely and patriotically in the forthcoming crisis, had gone in the "Beaver" on a trading cruise among the Russians of Sitka, and by a most remarkable series of deten- tions he had been kept away from Astoria for over a year.

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To cap the climax of misfortunes, the War of 1812 burst upon the knowl- edge of the fur traders and seemed to force upon such of the partners as were of British nationality the question of their paramount duty. As a result of the crisis, McDougal and Mckenzie, although against the wishes of the other part- ners present, sold out to the agent of the North-Westers, who had repaired at once to Astoria upon knowledge of the declaration of war. Thus the great Astoria enterprise was abandoned, and the Stars and Stripes went down and the Union Jack went up. Soon after the transfer, the British man of war Rac- coon, Captain Black, arrived at Astoria, expecting to have seized the place as a rich prize of war. Imagine the disgust of the expectant British mariners to discover that the post had already been sold to British subjects, that their long journey was useless, and that their hopes of prize money had vanished.

With the close of the War of 1812 a series of negotiations between the min- isters of the two countries took place in regard to the possession of the river, by which it was finally decided that Astoria should be restored to the United States. Accordingly, on the 6th of October, 1818, the British Commissioners, Captain F. Hickey, of his Majesty's ship "Blossom," and J. Keith, representing the North-West Fur Company, signed an act of delivery restoring Fort George (Astoria) to the United States. Mr. J. B. Prevost, commissioner for the United States, signed the act of acceptance. Astoria was once again American prop- erty.

While the river was now nominally in possession of the United States, it was practically under the control of the British fur companies. The Pacific Fur Company ceased to operate, and the North-Westers entered upon active work both by sea and land in exploring the vast and profitable domain which the mis- fortunes of their American rivals, supplemented in a most timely manner by the treachery of McDougall and Mckenzie, had put within their power. The canny Scotchmen, McDougall, McTavish, Mckenzie, McDonald, and the various other Macs who now guided the plans of the North-Westers, signalized their entrance into power by despatching companies to the various pivotal points of the great Columbia Basin, the Walla Walla, Yakima, Okanogan, Spokane, and Snake Rivers. Two incidents may be related to illustrate the character of the people and the conditions of that wilderness period.

SOME STORIES OF THE FUR TRADERS

A party of ninety men in ten canoes left Astoria for up-river points on April 4, 1814. While passing the mouth of the Yakima, about three hundred and fifty miles up the river, the men were surprised to see three canoes putting out from shore and to hear a child's voice calling out, "Arretez donc! arretez donc!" Stopping to investigate, they found the Indian wife of Pierre Dorion and her children. They had been with the party under command of John Reed of the Astor Company. While trapping and hunting, deep in the mountains of Snake River, the party had been massacred by Indians. The woman and her two boys had alone escaped the massacre. It was the dead of Winter and the snows lay deep on the Blue Mountains. But the wife of Dorion found shelter in a remote fastness of the mountains, putting up a bark hut for a shelter and subsisting on the carcasses of some of her horses. In the Spring

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the pitiful little company of mother and children descended to Walla Walla and found there more kindly disposed natives who cared for them and turned them over to the protection of the whites. A more thrilling story of suffering and heroism than this of Madame Dorion and her children has never come up from the chronicles of the wild West.

Of similar nature was the story of Crooks and Day to which we referred ... . earlier. It will be remembered that the Hunt party had left six sick men in the Snake River country. They had little hope of ever seeing them again, but the next Summer the party on their way up the Columbia River, saw two wretched looking beings, naked and haggard, wandering on the river bank near the mouth of the Umatilla. Stopping to investigate, they discovered that these were Day and Crooks, the leaders of the party which they had left behind. Their forlorn plight was relieved with food and clothes, and, having been taken into the boat, they related their dismal tale. It appeared that they had been provided suffi- ciently by the Indians to sustain their lives through the Winter. In the Spring they had left the Canadians among the Indians, and set forth in the hope of reaching the Great River. But having reached The Dalles they had been robbed of rifles and ammunition, stripped of their clothing, and driven forth into the wilderness. They were almost at a point of a final surrender to ill fortune when they beheld the rescuing boat. So, with joyful hearts, they turned their boat's prow to Astoria, which they reached in safety. But poor Day never regained his health. His mind was shattered by the hardships of his journey, and he soon pined away and died. The barren and rugged shores of the John Day River in eastern Oregon take on an added interest in view of the sad story of the brave hunter who discovered them, and who wandered in destitution for so many days beside them. Strange to say, the four Canadians who remained among the Indians were afterwards found alive, though utterly destitute of everything. Hence it appears that the loss of life in this difficult journey was not great.

Yet another of the best illustrations of life among the fur traders is the story by Alexander Ross of his adventure in the "Eyakema" Valley. Ross was first in the employ of the Astor Company and when they sold out to the North- Westers he joined the latter. His book, "Fur-traders of the Far West," from which this narrative is taken, is one of our best authorities. It is especially worthy of note that from the reference to the Pisscows River (Wenatchee) the valley "Eyakema," must have been the Kittitas. It is also important to note that he refers to it as more or less known to the fur traders, and as not having been considered safe. Since this adventure occurred in 1814 we may readily infer that those enterprising avant-couriers of civilization had already made their way into pretty much all of central Washington.

The story by Ross is as follows :

"On reaching the Oakanagan everything was at a dead stand for want of packhorses to transport the goods inland, and as no horses were to be got nearer than the Eyakema Valley, some two hundred miles southwest, it was resolved to proceed thither in quest of a supply : at that place all the Indians were rich in horses. The Cayouses, the Nez-Perces, and other war-like tribes, assemble every Spring in the Eyakema to lay in a stock of the favourite kamass and Pelua, or sweet potatoes, held in high estimation as articles of food among the

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natives. There also the Indians hold their councils, and settle the affairs of peace or war for the year; it is, therefore, the great national rendezous, where thousands meet, and on such occasions, horses can be got in almost any num- ber; but, owing to the vast concourse of mixed tribes, there is always more or. less risk attending the undertaking.

"To this place I had been once before during the days of the Pacific Fur: Company, so it fell to my lot again, although it was well known that the fatal dis- asters which more than once took place between those tribes and the whites would not have diminished, but rather increased, the danger; yet there was no. alternative, I must go: so I set off with a small bundle of trading articles, and. only three men, Mr. Thomas Mckay, a young clerk, and two French Canadians,. and as no more men could be spared, the two latter took their wives along with. them, to aid in driving the horses, for women in these parts are as expert as men on horseback.

"On the fourth night after leaving Oakanagan, Sopa, a friendly neighbor- ing chief of the Pisscows tribe, on learning that we were on our way to the Eyakemas, despatched two of his men to warn us of our danger, and bring us back. The zealous couriers reached our camp late in the night. My men were fast asleep; but there was no sleep for me: I was too anxious, and heard their approach. I watched their motions for some time with my gun in my hand, till. they called out in thier own language, "Samah! Samah! Pedcousm, Pedcousm" -white men, white men, turn back, turn back, you are all dead men! It was, however, of no use, for we must go at all hazards. I had risked my life there for the Americans, I could not now do less for the North-West Company ; so with deep regret the friendly couriers left us and returned, and with no less reluc- tance we proceeded. The second day after our friends left us, we entered the Eyakema Valley-"the Beautiful Eyakema Valley"-so called by the whites. But, on the present occasion, there was nothing beautiful or interesting to us; for we had scarcely advanced three miles when a camp in the true Mameluke- style presented itself ; a camp, of which we could see the beginning but not the . end! It could not have contained less than 3,000 men, exclusive of women and' children, and treble that number of horses. It was a grand and imposing sight in the wilderness, covering more than six miles in every direction. Councils, root gathering, hunting, horse-racing, foot-racing, gambling, singing, dancing, drumming, yelling, and a thousand other things which I cannot mention, were going on around us.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 16

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