Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/90



■S-i THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON

great expedition was necessary to enable tliem. to pass over the mountains and strike some branch of the Columbia to float westward upon before the deep snows shut them in or out for the winter. Lewis and Clark crossed the Rocky- mountains about three hundred miles north of the point where the Oregon trail crosses, and here they found their salvation in the sturdy little Indian woman, Sacajawea.^' They got to a point that their white man's reason could not guide them, but Saeajawea had been there when a child, and she "pointed the way" to the Columbia 's headwaters, to safety and success. And by her aid as an inter- preter, and her kinship to the Shoshoues, the_party was enabled to procure horses from a band of wandering Shoshones, and by "caching" their boats and packing their goods and blankets on the ponies, they got out of the labyrinth of mountains, crossed over the great divide, struck the middle fork of the Clear- water; and made their way down to where the city of Lewiston now stands.

Here they got canoes from the Nez Perce Indians, and floated down the Snake river to the Columbia, and on down the Columbia to where Astoria now stands, and paddled around Smith's point and crossed over Young's bay and biiilt log huts at a point named Fort Clatsop, where they went into winter quar- ters until the spring of 1806.

With the troubles and experiences of the exploring party, during the long rainy season of 1805 and 6 at Fort Clatsop, we have no concern. The men put in their time hunting, fishing, mending their clothing, making moccasins for the long tramp homeward in the spring, and in making salt by the seaside out of the Pacific ocean water, some remains of the old furnace in which they placed their kettles to evaporate the salt water being still in existence after the lapse of one hundred and six j^ears. As early in the spring of 1806 as it was prac- ticable to travel, the party started on their return to the states. Whether the expedition, as a party, ever campod on the present site of the city of Portland, is uncertain. The probability is very strong that they did camp on the river flat in front of the town of St. Johns, which is a suburb of that city, and it is certain that members of the party came up the river as far as Portland town- site. On their return up the Columbia, the explorers camped at the mouth of the White Salmon river on the north side of the Columbia, and there it was that Timotsk (Jake Hunt), the Klickitat Indian, pictured on another page, saw the explorers, the first white men he had ever seen, when he was a little boy eleven years of age, making Timotsk one hundred and seventeen years old now, and pi'obably the oldest Indian on the Pacific coast.

The party pursued their way back over the mountains and down the Mis- souri river without loss, or anything specially eventful, arriving at St. Louis in September, 1806, having been absent from civilization for two years and four months. Their safe return caused great rejoicing throughout the west. "Never," says President Jefferson, "did a similar event excite more joy

" The name, spelling and pronunciation of this Indian Avonian, now in general use, is used in this history, because of such general use. But the claim is here made for the first time in history, that "Saeajawea" is incorrect. When the Lewis and Clark Exposition was held in Portland in 1905 Mr. George H. Himes interviewed William Shannon, an invited guest of I he Exposition As.sociation and who was the son of George Shannon who was a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, as to the name of this heroine of the party. After reflecting and testing his memory Mr. vShannon distinctly recalled his father's pronunciation of the name, saying it was "Suh-ka-gowea" — the canoe-woman; — not the bird-woman. "Suh-ka-gowea," has the guttural sound which proves its Indian origin and correctness.