Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/55



The scope of this paper might include the rise of three Western States, for, from Oregon as it was in the beginning, Oregon, Washington and Idaho (the Pacific Northwest) have been formed. My discussion, however, will be confined more particularly to that section which comprises the Oregon of to-day.

The Oregon of 1817 embraced all lands west of the Rocky Mountains north of the 42d parallel. The northern boundary was still in dispute, the United States claiming 54 deg. 40 min., while Great Britain insisted upon the Columbia River.

Oregon, so far as climatic conditions are concerned, might be two different States, separated by the Cascade Mountains. In the eastern, which is by far the larger section, the land is mostly semi-arid. Admirably adapted to wheat growing in some sections, before the irrigation projects are completed, much the larger portion will be used for stock grazing. At the time under discussion, it was a trackless waste, visited only by the Indian tribes, and by an occasional trapper.

There it was that the Nez Perces, famous in Western history, led the allied tribes, the Grand Rondes, Klamaths, Umatillas, Wascos, etc. These mountain tribes were fierce and warlike; the whole environment tended to make them so. They led an active out-of-door life; their diet was mountain game. Theirs was a finer physique and a higher grade of intelligence than the coast tribes, a squalid, inactive people, subsisting, for the most part, on fish.

The soil of Western Oregon is exceedingly fertile, the climate warm, the atmosphere humid. There was the home of the Willamette Indians, whose chief, Multnomah, was ruler over the confederated tribes, which included all the tribes of the Oregon country, from the Rogue Rivers and Klamaths on the south to the Colvilles and Flatheads on the north; from the Blackfeet and Shoshones on the east, to the Quinsoults, the Cowletz, the Tillamooks and the Siletz on the west.