Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/144

134 from the trees, then he accepted their proposal. The next morning the snow had nearly all disappeared, and he was given the horses.

In the winter of '54 he was visited by the Klamaths for assistance for a sick squaw. After he had used his skill as a medicine man, she was able to resume her journey, but the next night she died. This so incensed the Klamaths that the next night they returned and killed the chief. Shellou was the last chief of the tribe, though they still continued the practice of allotting the different sections of the country to members of their tribe, who regarded it as his illahee.

In 1856 the Government removed these Indians to a reservation in Yamhill County, but only succeeded in placing about one-half of the tribe on the reservation. The rest returned to their former abode, but have gradually disappeared, until at present (1904) only one remains.

Though the Indian is no more, we have permanent reminder of his existence in the names he has left us; thus: Wineberry means red huckleberry; Willamette means "big river, almost, not quite." The dispute in regard to the pronunciation of the word was due to the fact that the nearer to the mouth of the river one went, the broader the sound in pronouncing it.

Spencer Butte was so named because Spencer, a man in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, being alone on the butte in search of game, was killed by an Indian to avenge the death of some of their tribe at the hands of some of the representatives of the company.

Except the settlements of the fur companies at Astoria and Vancouver, the first permanent settlement was made at French Prairie, in the Willamette Valley, as the most favored spot for farming, a nucleus for a future commonwealth. When the stream of immigration began to flow in it naturally chose this valley for its home, so new settlements were made at convenient distances from the old ones.

But one of these immigrants, wishing to select a place for a home that would not be reached by very many men for at