USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 10
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By the same writer the Pointed Hearts, or, as the Canadians called them. Les Coeurs d'Alenes, (Hearts of Awls) were described as a small tribe inhabiting the shores of a lake about fifty miles to the castward of Spokane House. "Some of this tribe occasionally visited our fort with furs to barter, and we made a few exeur- sions to their lands. We found them uniformly honest in their traffic, but they did not evince the same warmth of friendship for ns as the Spokanes. and expressed no desire for the establishment of a trading post among them. They are in many respects more savage than their neighbors, and I have seen some of them often eat deer and other meat raw. They are also more unfeeling husbands, and frequently beat their wives in an unfeeling manner."
These two tribes had been at war about twenty years before the advent of the white traders, arising out of an incident of a Trojan nature, but at the period of these writings were at peace, and intermarried and appeared to be on terms of perfect friendship.
By both tribes the women were condemned to a life of great drudgery. They collected the firewood, carried the water, cooked the food, prepared the raiment, dressed the skins and gathered and dried the winter's store of roots and berries. When
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a hunter killed a deer, he merely cut out the tongue or removed enough for a single incal, and on his return to the encampment dispatched his wife to carry in the body, she having for guidance in this task notches cut on trees by her hunter hus- band. The women, however, seemed quite contented in their subordinate position, notwithstanding its harships and their almost total lack of influence in tribal matters.
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR LEHOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
CHAPTER VII
EARLY DAY MISSIONS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE
CRUDE MISSION EFFORTS OF CATHOLIC IROQUOIS-EMBLEM OF THE CROSS ON THE CO- LUMBIA-INDIAN PILGRIMAGE TO ST. LOUIS-ARRIVAL OF REV. SAMUEL PARKER IN 1835-HIS TRAVELS IN THE SPOKANE COUNTRY-ARRIVAL OF WHITMAN AND SPALD- ING WITH THEIR BRIDES- OVERLAND JOURNEY OF EELLS AND WALKER WITH THEIR BRIDES-ADVENTURES ON THE PLAINS AND IN THE MOUNTAINS-ARRIVAL AT WHIT- MAN MISSION NEAR WALLA WALLA.
The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learn'd To hew the shaft and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them,-ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems ; in the darkling wood, Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down, And offer'd to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication.
-William Cullen Bryant.
W ITH the earliest advent of the white man in this region, bringing with him arms, implements, food, attire and customs different from those of the natives ; keen curiosity was created in the Indian mind regarding the source of his superior civilization and gifts. Some slight efforts were made by Cap- tains Lewis and Clark to enlighten the savage intelleet with respect to the Bible and Christianity, but the results were necessarily meager, both from the limitations of the aboriginal mind and an exceedingly imperfeet knowledge of the Indian tongues. Native conception of the benefits of Christianity was chiefly if not wholly material rather than moral, and after these explorers had left the country, a belief arose in the minds of the more intelligent chiefs and head men that possession and knowledge of the white man's "book" would supply their people with the key to eivilization and the mechanic arts.
A few years after the departure of Lewis and Clark, a number of Christianized Iroquois Indians, who had been attached to fur trading establishments in Canada, found their way over the Rocky mountains and fraternized with some of the tribes inhabiting the Inland Empire, notably the Flatheads and tribes along the Columbia. Zealous to spread the light of the gospel, these Catholie Iroquois attempted in a crude way to convert the tribes to Christianity. When David Stuart, a partner in John
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Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur company, was ascending the Columbia in the spring of 1811 to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Okanogan, he observed that religious services or ceremonies were being conducted by one of these Iroquois mis- sionaries, and from that circumstance named the cascades at that point "Priest Rapids," and Priest Rapids they remain to the present day.
Considerable results probably attended these missionizing efforts. for the Rever- end Samuel Parker, sent out here by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1835 to explore the country and choose sites for Protestant missions, reported finding along the Columbia in eastern Washington, a number of Indian graves over which rudely constructed crosses had been lifted by pious hands. "The night of our arrival." says Parker, "a little girl, of about six or seven years of age. died. The morning of the 12th they buried her. Everything relating to the ceremony was conducted with great propriety. The grave was dug only about two feet deep; and with their hands they till up the grave after the body is deposited in it. A mat is laid in the grave; then the body wrapped in its blanket, with the child's drinking cup and spoon, made of horn; then a mat of rushes is spread over the whole.
"In this instance they had prepared a cross to set up at the grave, most probably having been told to do so by some Iroquois Indians, a few of whom. not in the capacity of teachers, but as trappers in the employ of the fur companies, I saw west of the mountains."
Apparently unconscious of a spirit of bigotry, and unmindful that he was sewing dragon seeds of discord that would bring fruits of bitter controversy between Pro- testant and Catholic missions, Parker added :
"As I viewed a cross of wood made by men's hands of no avail to benefit either the dead or the living, and far more likely to operate as a salve to a guilty con- science, or a stepping stone to idolatry, than to be understood in its spiritual sense to refer to a crucifixion of our sins. I took this, which the Indians had prepared, and broke it to pieces. I then told them that we place a stone at the head and foot of the grave, only to mark the place: and without a murmur, they cheerfully acqui- esced, and adopted our custom."
Twenty-six years after the return of Lewis and Clark, a delegation of five Nez Perces, two Spokanes and probably two or three Flatheads, moved by a longing to learn the ways of white civilization, and professing an carnest desire to acquire the great "book" of which these explorers had spoken, ventured across the Rocky moun- tains and down the Missouri river to St. Louis. There they found their old friend Captain Lewis, serving as Indian commissioner for the entire northwest, and to him made known their hearts' desire. Clark was a Catholic, and some of the Indians became converts to his faith, two of whom died there and received burial in conse- erated ground. On their return journey these red searchers for the truth experienced severe hardships and perils, and several of them were either killed or enslaved by the warlike and predatory Sioux in the land of the Dakotahs. Only a remnant of the delegation survived to narrate to their own people the stirring story of their adventures and the wondrous sights that had unrolled before their astonished vision.
Accounts of this extraordinary pilgrimage found their way into eastern news- papers, and appealed to mission zeal, both Protestant and Catholic. Moved by this stirring incident. the mission authorities of the Methodist Episcopal church, the
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American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the Catholie Order of Society of Jesus, all planted vigorous missions in the Pacific northwest. The Meth- odists sent out the two Lees, Jason and Daniel, uncle and nephew, who, with two lay members, crossed the continent to found missions among the Indians east of the mountains. They arrived on the Columbia river in 1834, and were persuaded by Dr. John MeLoughlin, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay company, stationed at Vancouver, to alter their plans and establish their mission and school in the Willa- mette valley.
One year later the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ap- pointed an exploring mission to the Pacific northwest. "to ascertain, by personal observation, the condition and character of the Indian nations and tribes, and the facilities for introducing the gospel and civilization among them." This society was supported by the Congregational, Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches, and selected for its explorers, the Rev. Samuel Parker and several other volunteers. They arrived at St. Louis in the spring of 1834, too late to join the annual expedi- tion of the American Fur company. Two members of the party took up mission work among the Pawnees, but Parker, having been joined in April, 1834, by Dr. Marcus Whitman, the two traveled to Green river, in what is now the state of Wyo- ming, under protection of the annual brigade of the fur company. On that stream, at a point known as Rendezvous, Indians from both sides of the Rocky mountains, together with traders and trappers from a wide expanse of country, were aecns- tomed to assemble for trade. Information gathered at the Rendezvous, from "moun- tain men," white traders and Indians, convinced Parker and Whitman that various tribes living west of the mountains desired missions and sehools. It was thereupon resolved that Dr. Whitman should return to the east to secure helpers. and Rev. Parker continue west to prepare the way.
Upon his return to the "United States," Mr. Parker wrote and published an informative, entertaining account of his journeyings "beyond the Rocky mountains." He possessed keen powers of observation, a well trained analytical mind, and great capacity for enduring weariness and hardships and adapting himself to savage life and surroundings. In the course of his extensive travels, Parker explored the Spo- kane country. He had arrived at old Fort Walla Walla, on the Columbia, in the latter part of May, 1835. and having obtained Indian guides and two French voya- geurs as assistants, "concluded to take horses, and to go up through the Spokein country, leaving the great bend of the Columbia river to the left some fifty or sixty miles. . . On Sabbath, 22d. we had worship as usual, and the following day commenced the journey for Colville."
The little party crossed Snake river near the mouth of the Palouse. by Parker called the Pavilion river. ascended that stream, and passing north through the Palouse country, eame to the lands of the "Spokeins." "We stopped for the night, after a ride of fifty miles, near one of these villages of Spokeins. Their language differs almost entirely from any tribe or nation I have yet seen."
Father Cushing Eells, who, with the Rev. Elkanah Walker, established the first mission among the Spokanes. and labored with them for ten years, describes the Spokane language as harsh and guttural. "It makes me think of persons husking corn," was the expression made by one person on hearing it. "In this respect." writes Myron Eells, "it is very unlike the adjoining Nez Perce, which is soft and
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musical. It is also unlike the Nez Perce in its use of prepositions, the former hav- ing many and the latter alnost none, their places being supplied by the infections of the verb."
"A few nouns form their plural by reduplication, and some are irregular. For example. the word for man, skul-tu-mi-hu, becomes in the plural skul-skul-tu-mi-hu; hand, kal-lish, is kil-kal-lish; and mountain, ets-im-mo-ko, is ets-im-mo-ko-mo-ko; but woman, sem-ain, is pal-pil-kwi in the plural; and tree, sa-at-kl, is sil-a-sil, The plural for Indian. skai-lu, is the same, and that of boy is expressed by a numeral.
"There are no comparatives or superlatives among the adjectives. If two horses are placed side by side. one is bad and the other is good; but if the better of the two is compared with another still better it becomes bad and the latter is called good.
"Phrases are very common, but not compounded according to rule. It was nee- essary to learn them by the power of memory, and these, in a great measure, take the place of grammar. In these phrases many contractions take place, and occasional changes of letters, evidently for the sake of euphony.
"The language of the Spokanes is said to be the veritable Flathead language. and belongs to the Salishan family spoken by many Indians, though not by all, be- tween the Pacific ocean and the Rocky mountains, extending south of the Columbia and north a little beyond its sources. The geography of this Salishan family covers the greater portion of Washington southern Idaho and much of British Columbia, though other families, as the Sahaptian, including the Nez Perecs and Yakima, are also used by the Indians of the state. The Spokane language seems to have less regularity and grammar than many others belonging to the Salishan fam- ily. especially those on Puget Sound."
Parker and his little party traveled through the Spokane woods and struck the river about ten miles below the falls. They hallooed for a long time for the Indian who kept a ferry there, and after a while "two women came to the stream, and with uncommonly pleasant voices, together with the language of signs, the latter of which only I could understand, informed us that the ferryman was gone upon a short hunt, would return in the evening, and the next morning at sun two hours high he would come and take us over. I never heard voices more expressive of kindness. I requested them to paddle the canoe over to ns, and my men would perform the labor of ferrying over our baggage. They declined on account of the rapidity and strength of the current, the river being in full freshet. Therefore we had to en- camp and wait for the morning."
Parker found "this a very pleasant, open valley, though not extensively wide." He visited the old trading post of the Northwest fur company, only one bastion then remaining standing.
The following morning the ferryman crossed over at the appointed hour, and after passing the river they traversed "the valley of level alluvial soil," where it is about a mile and a quarter wide, and the east side especially is very fertile.
"Here the village of the Spokeins is located, and one of their number has com- menced the cultivation of a small field or garden, which he has planted with pota- toes, peas and beans and some other vegetables, all of which were flourishing, and were the first I had seen springing up under Indian industry west of the mountains."
The Spokanes appear to have attained a higher state of thrift and industry un-
JASON LEE'S MISSION IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY
METHODIST MISSION AT THE DALLES, FOUNDED IN 1939
4
. IVATIONS
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der tutelage of the fur traders than was maintained in after years. It will be re- called that the Astor party had brought seeds from Astoria and started at this point a flourishing garden. A few years later the fur traders introduced wheat into the Spokane valley, and when Governor Stevens came into the valley in 1833 he found extensive fields of that cereal and oats. Five years after, in 1858, Colonel Wright, as an act of reprisal and warning, burning several Indian granaries and vegetable storehouses in the upper valley.
As Parker elimbed an eminence leading out of the valley, and looked down into the pleasant vale which bordered the winding river, he "drew in imagination a pieture of what this valley will be when this people are brought under the influence of Christianity and civilization."
They encamped that evening in a pleasant glade on the way to Colville, when "many Spokein and some Nez Peree Indians eame riding into the place of encamp- ment, and turned out their horses with ours in the half wood and prairie." The Spokanes, who had seen him on his way, and learned the objeet of his mission, had sent out runners with the information that a minister was passing through their country, and as it was the first time a teacher of the gospel had ever come among them, they were eager to see him and hear his message. This date, the 27th of May, 1835, passes into history as commemorating the first preaching of the gospel by an ordained minister in the vieinity of Spokane.
The Spokanes had brought with them as interpreter, "a young man of their na- tion, who had been to school at the Red river settlement on the east side of the mountains, and who had a very good knowledge of English." This deseription fits Chief Garry, so named from the eireumstanee of his having been sent to Fort Garry, in the Manitoba country, when a child, where he acquired a good command of the English language.
"We had publie worship that evening in the Spokein and Nez Peree languages," Parker adds in his report. "One of the Nez Perees, a chief, understood the Spokein language, and collected his people a little back of the Spokeins, and translated the discourse as it was delivered, into the language of his people, without any interup- tion to the service. This was a plan of their own devising. All the eireumstances combined were to me very interesting. If I had not been delayed the three several times, they would not have had time to colleet their people and overtake me. Some of them had been engaged in the business of assembling and following a day and a half. Many of them were unwilling to return, and expressed a determination to go with me to Colville. What influenced these benighted Indians to manifest so meh solicitude in my instruction derived from the word of God? It must be the influence of the Divine Spirit. And shall these influenees pass unregarded and un- improved ?"
A sixty mile ride the day following brought the party to old Fort Colville, on the Columbia. "The situation of this fort." says Parker, "is on an elevated spot. about fifty rods from the river, surrounded by an alluvial plain of rich soil, and opening in every direction an extended prospeet of mountain seenery ; and a half mile below are Kettle Falls, above which the river spreads out widely and moves slowly until just above the precipice. it contraets into a narrow channel, and disap- pears from the view of the spectator. who beholds it at the fort; winding its way among the rocks below. This establishment is built for defense and is well stoek- Vol 1-5
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aded, but so friendly have the natives always been, that no wars have ever occurred among them. It is occupied by some half dozen men with Indian families, and is well supplied with the useful animals and fowls common to farming establish- ments. The winter and summer grains, together with garden vegetables, are culti- vated with success and in profusion."
This trading post or fort. then in possession of the Hudson's 'Bay company, had been established by the Northwest company in 1811. and had passed, with the other posts of the Northwesters, to the Hudson's Bay people when they absorbed the Northwesters.
As the day after his arrival was Sunday, Parker conducted services for the people of the fort who understood English, "and we worshipped the God of our lives who had protected us hitherto, and from different nations had collected us in a little group in this end of the world."
The service over, a number of the Indians gathered about the preacher "and expressed great anxiety to be taught the revealed will of God." They endeavored to make him understand their former beliefs and practices, and affirmed that what they had so far learned from him appealed to them as reasonable and satisfactory. Parker was moved by this experience, which appealed powerfully to his intense religious zeal, to inveigh against the coldness of the Christian world. "How little of the faith, and love, and liberality of the church," he lamented, "is invested in the most profitable of all enterprises, the conversion of the world. Should some one propose the construction of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and demon- strate the practicability of the measure, and show that nature has interposed no effectual barrier, and that it would concentrate not only the whole internal, but also the China trade, and the stock would produce annually a rich dividend, how soon would Christians engage in it.""
It is somewhat singular that this preacher in the wilderness, 'profoundly stirred by mission zeat, thus casually stumbled upon the precise arguments that later were employed by the promoters of the Northern Pacific railroad to float the stock in that vast industrial enterprise.
After a short sojourn at Colville. Parker followed the windings of the Columbia to the mouth of the Okanogan. There be purchased a batean, and employing two, Indians to take his horses overland to old Fort Walla Walla, descended the Columbia to Vancouver, and a few weeks later took passage in a sailing vessel. via the Sand- wich islands, for the Atlantic coast, arriving at his home in Ithaca, New York. on the 23rd of May. "after an absence of more than two years and two months, and having journeyed 28,000 miles."
This published reports enter extensively into the customs of Indian tribes, the geology, flora and fauna of the country, character of soil, climate. etc. From those reports we extract the following excerpts descriptive of the Indians of the interior as they existed three fourths of a century ago:
"Proceeding north, we come to the country of the Nez Perces, which has many fertile parts adapted to tillage, and all of which is a fine grazing country. They number about 2,500.
"The Cayuses are situated to the west of the Nez Perces, and very much resemble them in person, dress, habits and morals. They are equally peaccable, honest and hospitable to strangers," an estimate that was hardly borne out by Dr.
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Whitman's subsequent experiences. "They number more than 2,000 persons. Their wealth consists in horses, which are usually fine and numerous, it being no uncommon thing for one man to own several hundred. Their country, especially about the Grand Round, is uncommonly fertile, producing spontaneously camas in great abundance, upon which, with fish and some game, they principally subsist. Their anxiety to be instructed in the way of salvation is as great as that of the Nez Perces and Flatheads.
"The Walla Walla Indians inhabit the country about the river of the same name, and range some distance below along the Columbia river. 'The number of per- sons in this tribe is about 500. In their character, employment and moral habits, they do not materially differ from the last named tribes.
"The Palouse tribes are a part of the Nez Perces, and in all respects are like them. Their residence is along the Nez Perce river (the Snake) and up the Pavilion (the Palouse). They numbered about 300. The four last named tribes speak the same language, with a little dialectical difference.
"Northeast of the Palouses are the Spokein nation. They number about 800 persons, besides some small tribes adjoining them who might be counted a part of their nation. Their country is very much diversified with mountains and valleys, prairie and woods ; and a large part is of primitive formation; some parts are very fertile. They denominate themselves the children of the sun, which in their language is Spokein. Their main dependence for subsistence is on fishing and hunting. to- gether with gathering roots and berries. They have many horses, but not so numerous as their neighbors farther south.
"East of these are the Coeur d'Alene Indians, whose numbers are about 700, and who are characterized by civility, honesty and kindness. Their country is more open than the Spokeins, and equally if not better adapted to agriculture.
"The country of the Flatheads is still farther east and southeast, and extends to the Rocky mountains. They are a very interesting tribe. dignified in their persons, noble. frank and generous in their dispositions; and have always shown a firm attachment to white men. They numher about 800 persons, and live a wandering life. For subsistence they follow the buffalo upon the waters of Clark and Salmon rivers, and often pass over to the headwaters of the Missouri. They have become a small tribe by constant wars with the Blackfeet Indians; not that they themselves are of a ferocious or hostile disposition. Being averse to war, they wish to settle upon their lands, and are only waiting to be instructed in the arts of civilization and in Christianity. Their country is mountainous, but inter- sected with pleasant, fertile valleys, large portions of which are prairie. The mountains are eoll, but in the valleys the climate is mild.
"The Ponderas are so nearly like the Flatheads in person. manners and char- acter that a particular description of them may be passed over. They number about 2,200, and live on the north of Clark's river, and on a lake which takes its name from the tribe. Their country has many fertile parts, and would soon he put under cultivation. if they could obtain instructors to teach them agriculture and to impart to them a knowledge of those things which are necessary to con- stitute a happy and prosperous community. Their language is 'the same as the Spokeins and Flatheads.
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