Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 1, Pt. 2

INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
grazing it is as little adapted; and there is, in its whole extent, nothing to tempt encroachment
upon its miserable owners.
During Captain McClellan's examination of the Methow river, six of the bands, belonging in
part to each tribe, agreed upon Ke-keh-tum-nouse, or Pierre, an Indian from Klahum, the site of
Astor's old fort, at the mouth of the Okinakane, as their chief.
The occasion furnished an opportunity of making an actual count, which for these six bands
gave a total of 274. The remainder would, according to our observations, raise the number of
Indians south of the 49th degree, and between the Columbia and the Cascade mountains, to 550;
a larger one than was expected. As the smallpox was at its height, however, this is doubtless
already much diminished. During the whole route we found the disease prevailing to a fearful
extent. Several villages had been nearly cut off; and we saw, at some places, the dead left
unburied on the surface of the ground. These tribes have no cattle, and but comparatively few
horses. They told us that formerly they had many, but that the company had purchased them
for food; and they complained bitterly that the shirts and other articles given them in exchange
were worn out, and nothing was left them but their new religion. At Fort Okinakane we
observed a mode of disposing of the dead differing from any before noticed. They were wrapped
in their blankets, or other clothing, and bound up right to the trunk of a tree, at a sufficient
distance from the ground to preserve them from wild animals. Notwithstanding the climate, none
of these Indians have a better shelter than is furnished by their mats. They raise some potatoes
but their main resource is salmon. These, at the time of their visit, actually filled the streams.
In the Okinakane, in particular, there were myriads of a small species, which had assumed a
uniform red color. They were depositing their spawn, and were in a condition eatable only by
Indians, who were busily engaged in drying them.
On leaving Fort Okinakane, the new chief accompanied the party to Fort Colville in the
capacity of a guide, assisted by two of his subjects; and the cavalcade was enlarged at the lake
by the chief of the Saht-lil-kwu band, a religious personage, who sported the title of King
George, and persecuted us nightly with family worship. We parted with the whole with the loss
of much tobacco and few regrets. Fort Colville is the principal ground of the Schwoyelpi, or
Kettle Falls tribe, one of the largest of the Selish.
According to the information received fromn Father Joset, of the Jesuit mission, they number
from five to six hundred. At the time of our visit the greater part had gone to the buffalo hunt.
They do not obtain many furs, the greater part of those taken at this post coming from the upper
Columbia. The fishery at the Kettle falls is one of the most important on the river; and the
arrangements of the Indians, in the shape of drying-scaffolds and stone houses, are on a corresponding scale. They take the fish by suspending immense baskets upon poles beneath the traps,
into which the salmon spring. We saw here, for the-first time, the canoe used upon the upper
waters of the Columbia. It is of birch bark, and of a form peculiar to these rivers, being longer
on the bottom than on the top. A canoe, of thirty feet in length on the floor, is open only about
twenty-four feet, and gathered to a point about three feet long at each end. They are stretched
on a light frame of split twigs, and are at once fast and buoyant. The mission is situated upon a
high bluff} above the falls, and consists of a small house for the priest and a chapel. Around these
are a number of huts and store-houses belonging to the Indians; the latter raised from the grouned
on posts. Fathers Louis and Joset, of the Order of Jesuits, are stationed here. Our visit admitted
of but little opportunity of gathering further information concerning the Indians than what has
already been published. The few who were present were assembled by Governor Stevens, who
addressed them. They have no head chief of note, and there were present on the occasion only
Klekahkahi, the chief at the falls; Kuiltkuiltlouis, a sub-chief; and Elimiklka, the son of a former
chief of this place.
The last was highly spoken of by Mr. McDonald, but did not seem to be in equal favor at ihe
nlissioL1. We learned that but few of the original Scllwoyelpi stock remained; they had gradually
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