Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/40



32 O. B. SPERLIN

beaver skins and beads were the mediums of exchange; but copper, iron, and sea-otter skins were financial standards along the coast. Indians were skilled traders before white men came, according to all accounts, and within a few years, according to Marchand, 164 the most skilled of the white race had little to teach them. This trading often called for traffic over moun- tain ranges, as from the Okanogan 165 to the Puget Sound or Whulge over the Cascade Mountains; or passed great river obstructions, as on the Columbia at The Dalles.

Though their tools were crude and limited, Indians were skilled in many lines of carving, boat-making, and fabricating implements for fishing, hunting, and storing provisions. In praise of their physical skill we have many notable accounts. Fraser, 166 describing their chase after wild sheep, calls them really expert. "They run full speed among the perpendicular rocks; which had I not ocular demonstration I could never have believed to have been trained by any creature, either the human or the brute creation ; for the rocks appear to us (which perhaps might be exaggerated a little from the distance) to be as steep as a wall ; and yet while in pursuit of the sheep they bounded from one to another with the swiftness of a roe ; and at last killed two in their snares." Jewitt 167 describes the wonderful skill of the Nootkas in taking the whale, the "King's Fish." The coast tribes, both men and women, were accorded the position of the best canoe managers ever seen; the plains and mountain tribes, both men and women, were noted for their extremely good horsemanship. In fleetness of foot one Indian proved as swift as Drewyer and Reuben Fields, the best that Lewis and Clark 168 could trot out. At Priests Rapids Thomp- son 169 saw an old man who ran nearly as fast as a horse, a marvel to him and his men. Fraser 170 describes the wonderful skill of Indians in scrambling the "Jacob's Ladder." "They

1 64 Voyage: Vol. I., p. 286.

165 Ross: Adventures: p. 291.

1 66 First Journal.

167 Adventures: pp. 122 and 178.

1 68 Original Journals: V., p. 117.

169 Ore. Hist. Quarterly: XV., 55.

170 Journal: p. 211.