pip.NT2^3T' McNARY RESEARCH — SHINER 251 



goods in large quantities began to reach the central part of the Plateau. 

 At this time, parties from the post at Astoria (at the mouth of the 

 Columbia Eiver) traveled up and down the Kiver, trading as they 

 went (Thwaites, 1904-5, vol. 6). In 1818, Port Nez Perce was estab- 

 lished near the mouth of the Walla Walla River, and other posts 

 were soon scattered throughout the area. 



By 1835, when the Rev. Samuel Parker toured the Plateau, it was 

 rather clear that acculturation had taken place. His account is full 

 of details of Indian life, although colored by religious philosophy 

 (Parker, 1845). Parker's observations, several of which will be dis- 

 cussed later, lead to a conclusion that about 1835 to 1840 should mark 

 the close of the early historic period. Parker, and soon afterward, 

 Marcus Wliitman, began to convert Plateau Indians away from their 

 religion. Settlers, traders, and trappers, by this time, had begun to 

 push the Indians around, and European tools and weapons had be- 

 come common over most of the area. 



By the 1840's, around the Hudson Bay posts : 



Schools for the native children are attached to all the principal trading posts, 

 and particular care is extended to the education of the Half-breed children, the 

 joint offspring of the traders and the Indian women, who are retained and bred, 

 as far as possible, among the whites, and subsequently employed, when found 

 capable, in the service of the company. The policy of course is obvious. The 

 savage is gradually cured of his distrust and coaxed into new connections. He 

 abandons the use of his bows, his arrows and all his former arms, and the result 

 is that he soon becomes an absolute dependent upon those who furnish him his 

 guns, ammunition, fish-hooks, blankets, etc. [Wilkes, 1845, p. 86.] 



Therefore, as far as the present discussion is concerned, between 1835 

 and 1840 will be considered the end of the early historic period and 

 the "ethnographic present." The following quotations and comments 

 will apply to that period, beginning in 1805 and ending about 1835 

 or 1840. 



SEASONAL MIGRATION 



None of the writers on Plateau archeology have properly evaluated 

 the effect of seasonal migration on archeolog-ical sites. There is evi- 

 dence to show that practically all of the Plateau Indians made seasonal 

 migrations in order to avail themselves of different kinds of food. 

 In 1805, Lewis and Clark wrote of the Nez Perce : 



During the summer and autumn they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon 

 and collecting their winter store of roots. In the winter they hunt the deer 

 over the plains, and towards spring cross the mountains to the Missouri for 

 the purpose of trafficking for bufEaloe robes. [Hosmer, 1905.] 



Seasonal migration was noted in the same area by another observation : 



The spot where we landed (on the Snake River) was an old fishing establish- 

 ment, of which there remained the timbers of a house carefully raised on 

 scaffolds . . . the property of the Indians who still remained In the plains hunt- 

 ing the Antelope. [Biddle, 1904, vol. 2, p. 185.] 



