Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/312

296 of Nez Perces on their best camas ground, the We-ippe (pronounced Weé-ipe), when Lewis and Clark came over the Lo Lo trail and surprised them there. Their first impulse was to kill them (the white strangers). Wat-ku-ese lay dying in her tent, but was told about the strange people who were on the ground. She at once began to plead for them, saying: "Do not harm them, for they are the crowned ones, who were so kind to me. Do not be afraid of them; go near to them."

Cautiously they approached, and the whites shook their hands; this they had never seen (done) before, and in surprise they said to one another, "They dandle us." Wat-ku-ese died that same day, but had lived long enough to keep Lewis and Clark from being put to death by these naked savages (the Nez Perces). Their fear of the paleface soon vanished and they became friends.

Some of the Nez Perces guided them (the explorers) into their beautiful Kamiah Valley, and on down the Clearwater River. At North Fork the Indians presented the leaders with some very fine fish. Lewis or Clark carefully unrolled a package containing a piece of cloth, the first they had seen—they now think it was a flag—and tearing a red band from it, wound it around the head of the man who had given the fish, and by this act was the first Nez Perces chief made. They separated at (the present) Lewiston, Lewis and Clark intrusting many things of value to them, and found them safe when they returned the following year."

Such is the story as now in circulation among the Nez Perces; and any one knowing Miss Macbeth would be sure that it is given by her with perfect accuracy.

An interesting comparison would be to follow the trail on the spot and see the points indicated in the Weippe. Reference to Doctor Coues' fine edition of Lewis and Clark's journal shows that the explorers had attempted