Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/143



When the white people first reached the land now included within the present limits of Lane County, the only tribe of Indians that lived in it was the Callapooias, although it was visited and made the place of short stops by various other tribes.

The Callapooias were short, heavy set, and extremely dark, with black eyes and straight hair. They had some traits of character peculiarly of their own. They were rarely known to commit any act of depredation or lawlessness in the sight of man or to raise their arm to injure him, but were ever ready to take advantage of 'an unprotected woman, and compel her to prepare for him a meal which he would sit down and enjoy, or force her to remain a passive spectator while he helped himself to the limited supply of winter's food. These Indians were ofttimes caught and severely flogged by the early settlers, hut never tried to get revenge on the body of the man who flowed them. Even during the trouble with the Rogue River Indians in 1853, the Callapooias remained friendly to the whites, who, though did not think it safe to trust them too far, but barricaded themselves in different places throughout the country. In the southern part of the county the settlers gathered at the house of J. Cochran and prepared to resist an attack, but were not molested.

The chief of the tribe was Shellou, a man of shrewd mind a dose observer of nature, and renowned as a medicine man. One winter the Klickitats, who were going south, were compelled t<> camp near the Callapooias until the snow should melt. Shellou, who claimed to have superhuman power, was offered three horses if he would cause the snow in the mountains to melt. He kept putting them off until he noticed that it had turned warmer, and that the snow had begun to fall