Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/150



136 T. C. ELLIOTT

the most part in canoes and lived upon and trafficked in fish. The Shahaptins were "horse Indians" and many of them annually went to the buffalo country to obtain meat, but many others came to the Celilo Falls and The Dalles to trade for fish and to enjoy a season of gambling and visiting with their neighbors. Both the Dalles and the Falls, and also The Cascades below, were then as now valuable as fishing resorts where salmon were caught in large quantities. A tribe of the Chinookans known to us as the Klickitats maintained almost permanent habitations at both The Cascades and The Dalles and dominated the fishing privileges. With the advent of the white men these Indians found themselves in a position to demand tribute of any passing up or down the river and were not slow to enforce that demand. The fur traders for many years were at times in danger of their lives, and quite reg- ularly subject to crimes of petty larceny committed upon their goods, provisions, clothing or arms. From the first coining of white men then these obstructions in the river had to be taken into serious account by all who would pass up or down stream. The control of the portage has always affected the commerce upon the river.

The Dalles-Celilo Canal has been constructed in historic ground. It passes directly through the site of some of the nomadic villages of Wishram, so designated by the golden pen of Washington Irving in his book entitled "Astoria." The population of Wishram was very large, and was of two dis- tinct species of the animal kingdom, Indians and fleas. The Indians thronged here most numerously during the fishing seasons, and the fleas thronged here during all seasons ; so the chronicles tell us. The inhabitants of Wishram, both Indian and insect, preyed without ceasing upon those who were com- pelled to travel past their door and perforce to remain awhile. The name of WISHRAM is probably a corruption of the name of a band of E-NEE-SHUR Indians who were so named by Lewis and Clark, though at first thought it savors more of Hebrew or Assyrian literature.