Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/46



38 O. B. SPERLIN

can be duplicated many times over. Franchere, Henry, Cox, Ross, Irving, Thompson, Lewis and Clark all have their word of condemnation for the Indians of The Dalles or Cascades. The worst elements among the natives seemed to flock here, till the place became the emporium of vice. The mouth of the Columbia and many other places soon became vice-ridden after the advent of the traders; but The Dalles seems to have been so from the beginning.

This is a composite record, a record of observations by ex- plorers, traders, scientists, surveyors, friars, adventurers, cap- tives, lieutenants, clerks, and sergeants. Some of the expedi- tions, like those by Perez, Vancouver,' and Lewis and Clark, have three or four journalists, which are in substantial accord. They agree in giving the Indian a better bill of character than has usually been manifested by historians, Bancroft possibly excepted. They show that the Indian received the strangers hospitably, that they practiced a simple, unostentatious religion, that they were men of honor, of simple industry, and physical skill, that their government was simple but efficient; and that the home embodied strong attachments, though it exhibited at times improperly apportioned burdens. Indian vices, not necessarily crimes, were such as improvidence, gambling, and occasionally cruel treatment of enemies; but we cannot justly charge the race with the alleged crimes of treachery, drunken- ness, nor with atheism nor idolatry.

These conclusions are not radical nor startling; but if they have brought even a modicum of justice to the so-called vanish- ing race, they are worth while. We all know the story of Sacajawea, the Bird Woman of Lewis and Clark. Two cities of the west have honored her with worthy monuments. That in Portland reveals the unconquerable courage of the west; that in St. Louis portrays patience that endures to the end. But I have often wondered what of the thousands of others as faithful, as patient, as hard working, and as noble as she, who have not had a world renowned expedition to celebrate and commemorate their virtues. If we could but notice these vir- tues more, might we not take a juster view of the widely heralded vices?