Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/264

 256 T. W. DAVENPORT. fur that warmed the hear warmed him. In all that great valley of the Willamette he had not an enemy from whom he sought deliverance, and being no politician and not aspiring to place, I have been at my wit's end in trying to fix upon a rational subject of his prayer, except it be that unrest of spirit which seeks escape from the bonds of clay and longs to rest in sublimer spheres, a characteristic of all the tribes of man. If not so, why should he ascend the mountain top to pray? Why not pray on low ground? I put this latter question to the unostentatious Indian worshippers, and al- though they were untaught in history, had never heard of Moses' interviews with Jehovah upon Mt. Sinai, or of the earthly rendezvous of the Grecian Gods and Godesses upon Mt. Olympus, their answer proved that they are at one with the whole human race, viz., "Soh-li Tyee mit-lite wake siah copa sohli illaliee, " which translated into our language means that God is near to the mountain top, or God is near in the mountains. The majority of Americans, and very likely of all other nationalities, are in the habit of measuring success in terms of money. When they speak of a successful man or woman, and the question is put to them, "What did they do?" the answer will be, nine times out of ten, they accumulated a fortune. Taking this definition of success, some American Indians are successful under the most adverse circumstances. Traveling up Sprague River through the Klamath Indian reservation in company with Hon. 0. A. Stearns, I observed at one place numerous ricks of hay, probably hundreds of tons, and querying aloud to my companion as to whether such were the accumulations of the Indians, he answered that we were then passing through the ranch of a full-blood Indian named Henry Jackson, who was the owner of many cattle and all the hay in sight. He also gave me something of the history of Henry Jackson, but as that was seven years ago, and I took no notes of his recital, I addressed a letter to the present superin- tendent of the Klamath agency, and received the following answer :