Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/140



72 THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON

gration might have been from either side on the solid ice cap that once furnished an unobstructed highway between Siberia and Alaska ; or it might have been by some primitive makeshift of a boat floating down a Siberian river and blown across to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. But on all the Indian population from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the Equator, the influence of environment, of food, climate and shelter is plainly manifest. Where it was easy to absorb a physical support from the bounties of nature the Indian was a lazy vagabond. Whenever he had to fight or struggle to maintain an existence he was a rugged, assertive savage. Where he got an easy living from fishing he paddled around in a canoe ; and where he had to capture the buffalo he rode a wild horse and brought down his game with a spear. And everywhere in Old Oregon when the white man came he found the Indian clad in the skins and furs of wild ani- mals. It was not an unusual thing for the first fur traders to find Indians clad in furs that would excite the envy of an European princess and sell for thou- sands of dollars.

One hundred years ago the Indian owned the whole country. He might well have sung with Robinson Crusoe :

"My right there is none to dispute;

Prom the center all round to the sea I am Lord of the fowl and the brute."

The Indian was the stone age man. The relics picked up all over Oregon, or unearthed by deep mining operations, irrigation canal works and deep wells, and sent to the Historical Society's rooms at Portland, contain the mute but in- disputable story of the centuries of occupation of Oregon by our native Indians.

The stone axes, chisels, hammers, mortars, grinding mill stones, arrow points and spear heads exhibit the patience, skill and perseverance with which the In- dian had to contend for an existence against rival tribes, wild beasts and the in- hospitality of the uncultivated earth. He was purely a child of nature, and harbored no selfishness but the satisfaction of his immediate wants. He believed in a Great Spirit who had made the stars and the earth, and who had given the land and the water and all therein to all his children in common. The Indian was the original socialist — the man who lived as a socialist, fought for his lands as a socialist, divided the fruits of all his labors as a socialist, and died in the conviction that the white man had robbed him of his God-given birthrights.

The Indian had no standard of values. He estimated everything he parted with, or what he obtained by barter, by his desires for what he wanted and his ability to replace what he parted with. In disposing of his rich furs — otter skins now worth five hundred dollars each — he had no more idea of their money value than a five-year-old child ; as for example his giving in one instance to a sea cap- tain fur trader otter skins worth eight thousand dollars for a chisel that cost in England one dollar. In the grasp of his mind he could catch more otter and get more skins, but he might never have another chance to get a chisel that would be far more useful to him in carving a canoe out of a cedar log than the stone axe he had made himself.

In addition to the primitive stone axe, hammer and grinding mill already mentioned, the Indian had very little property outside of the skin clothing to