256 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 179 



pared, he entered the river a little way, sat down on a stone and began throw- 

 ing the small fish, three or four inches long, on shore [Thwaites, 1904, vol. 



7. p. 142.] 



There is no doubt that by the beginning of the early historical 

 period, the Plateau Indians were well versed in the art of taking fish. 

 Nets, traps, spears, and angling were all used with skill. 



It is not clear just where horses fitted into Plateau economy. There 

 is little question but that the first Plateau horses came from the Sho- 

 shones. Haines' research on the subject showed clearly that the 

 Shoshones were responsible for the transfer of horses both to the north 

 and to the northeast of their territory (Haines, 1938, p. 453) . Haines 

 quotes the narrative of an early explorer to demonstrate that the first 

 horses reached the Plateau about 1735. This date is acceptable for 

 thie first acquisition of horses, but there is good reason to believe that 

 they did not become numerous or important to the economy until 50 

 years or more later. Horses were seen among the Walla Walla In- 

 dians at the mouth of the Snake River in 1805. Lewis and Clark 

 noted that — 



The sokulks possess but few horses, the greater part of their labours being 

 performed in canoes. [Biddle, 1904, vol. 2, p. 191.] 



Yet only a few years later, in 1811, Ross visited the same vicinity 

 and observed : 



The plains were literally covered with horses, of which there could not have 

 been less than four thousand in sight of the camp. [Thwaites, 1904, vol. 7, 

 p. 138.] 



What seems to have taken place is a rapid buildup in numbers be- 

 tween 1805 and 1811. The increase would probably have to be attrib- 

 uted to raids rather than to natural multiplication. At any rate there 

 is no direct evidence of many horses in the Plateau until 1811. 



The archeological picture is much the same. Horse bones have been 

 found in a number of Plateau sites, particularly in the McNary Reser- 

 voir. Osborne pointed out that in no case were horse bones found 

 in prehistoric sites, but they were present in two late sites (Osborne, 

 1953, p. 262) . In the two sites mentioned by Osborne, 45-BN-3 and 

 45-BN-6, there also were large numbers of glass beads, copper, and 

 iron. Sites 454^BN-53 and 35-UM-17, which appear to be slightly 

 earlier, contained no horse bones. This small amount of evidence 

 tends to show that the archeological record of the appearance of the 

 horse is little if any earlier than A.D. 1800. 



Returning to Haines' statement regarding evidence of the horse 

 in the Plateau by 1735, it should be noted that this observation was 

 partly based on a statement made to David Thompson in 1787 by an 

 Indian whom "he estimated to be 75 or 80 years old (Haines, 1938, p. 

 435) . If the Indian, who recalled seeing horses in his youth had been 



