THE STONE AGE OF OREGON. 



I',Y r.KV. M. Eells. 



The stone n-e of Orei^on, like tliat of Washington, is mainly recent. 

 It was evidently fully alive a hundred years ago, and a little o the ..nt- 

 cropping may ^till be seen, though it is probably more nearly bur.ed 

 than that of Washington. t> * 



Tcon,parison of the articles which I have seen, with those on Pugel 

 Sound, shows a considerable diiference. This is partly accounted tor 

 because the Puget Sound Indians gained the largest share ot their liv- 

 :^ Ivon. the w.^ers of the sound, while the natives of On;gon, aUlu^ugh 

 gaining considerable of their living from the Columbuj, ^^ iHamette, am 

 other livers, yet lived more from the products of the land. The Puge. 

 Sounder trax^led, too, mainly by water, while the Oregonian used horse.s 

 largely for locomotion. Another reason for the difterence between the 

 article used by the inhabitants of the two regions was probably because 

 of the slight intercourse and trade between them. 



The distance by water was too great out of the sound by the StiaUs 

 of Fuca to the n^outh of the Columbia, and the sailing on the ocean too 

 dangerous for canoe traveling, while the heavy forests or the JO m.lts 

 thich lay between the headwaters of Puget Sound and the Colun.b.a 

 River was a great obstacle to both foot and horseback travel, so that 

 the people of each region had mainly to manufacture their own nnple- 

 ,„ei^s during the stone age. There was a little travel am -;^ -- 

 the Columbia up the Cowlitz Eiver, and then throug^j the to ests o 

 Puget Sound, and a little from Puget Sound across to the head of t^he 

 Chehalis, and down it to Gray's Harbor, thence to Astoria; but th s 

 was limited. That great forest was a dividing line between the people 



of the two sections. . ^^ fi-n Tn.iium 



The Indians of British Columbia often came in canoes to the Indians 

 of Puget Sound, who thus obtained articles from tliat far oft region, and 

 the people of the Willamette Valley went to the Columbia ami up l|e 

 Columbia for fish, where numerous Indians congregated, a.id tlRSc 

 turn traded with the people of eastern Oregon, who by l^orseback . nt 

 over the vast plains, the buffalo country east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and occasionally to California, Nevada, and Utah. . nr i> 



Autnoritics.-Yov private collections of Oregon V^^^^^^f^'V; f^ ' ^• 

 Ratferty, East Portland; H. C. Stevens, Oregon City; Mrs. Helen A. 



Kunzie, Umatilla. +i.nf rf.crinn 



G. M.Powers, of Shedd's station, has examined moumlsin that cg^on 



(American Antiquarian, May, 188G). See also J. L. Hill, m Lang's His- 



