4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



Solion also accompanied Mullan on his extensive explorations of 

 the intermountain region from Fort Hall on Snake River in the south 

 to the Kootenay River on the north. They crossed the Continental 

 Divide six times and measured the snowfall in the passes. Sohon 

 made a series of excellent landscape sketches depicting the character 

 of the country traversed, important landmarks, Cantonment Stevens, 

 and views of the party on the march which were valuable as a record 

 of the explorations. 



In spring and early summer Sohon drew the remarkable series of 

 pencil portraits from life of the chiefs and headmen of the Flathead 

 and Pend d'Oreille tribes which is the subject of this paper. The 

 dated Pend d'Oreille portraits of April 21 to May i were drawn in 

 the Flathead Lake-Kootenay River region during Lieutenant Mullan's 

 northern explorations in the spring of 1854. The portraits of Flathead 

 and Iroquois living with that tribe, dated May 12 to June, 1854, 

 probably were drawn in the vicinity of the Flathead village at Fort 

 Owen in the Bitterroot Valley. 



Doubtless Sohon rendered valuable service also as map maker and 

 barometrical observer. If Sohon had had little experience in this 

 work before, it is certain that he learned quickly. After a year of field 

 work in the mountain valleys, Lieutenant Mullan led his little party 

 westward to make his report to Governor Stevens. They arrived at 

 Fort Dalles on October 14, 1854. 



Governor Stevens was so favorably impressed with the work of 

 Gustavus Sohon while under Lieutenant Mullan's command that he 

 made a special request to Major General Wool, Commander of the 

 Military Department of the Pacific, to have Sohon transferred to his 

 command. On March 31, 1855, by authority of Major General Wool, 

 Private Sohon was ordered to detached duty with Governor Stevens' 

 expedition. 



In the spring of 1855, before setting out on an important expedition 

 to obtain additional detailed information for the railway survey and 

 to make the first treaties between the United States and the Indian 

 tribes of the Upper Columbia River and Northwestern Plains regions, 

 Governor Stevens paid tribute to Private Sohon : 



I also secured the services of a very intelligent, faithful, and appreciative man. 

 Gustavus Sohon, a private of the Fourth Infantry, who w^as with Mr. Mullan 

 the year previous in the Bitter Root valley, and had shown great taste as an 

 artist, and ability to learn the Indian language, as well as facility in inter- 

 course with the Indians. . . . Thus in the month of May, 1855, I found myself 

 in the Walla-Walla valley, and with the means, by proper care and manage- 

 ment of time, and a little hard work, to make a good examination of the country. 

 My secretary, James Doty, esq., assisted me in the topography, and G. Sohon, 



