100 A RELIC OF THE LEWIS AND CLARKE EXPEDITION 



ures of environment, and thus reflect the geographic conditions 

 b} r which they are surrounded ; and the researches concerning 

 the relations between man and geographic condition have been 

 found suggestive and fruitful. The various studies have served 

 to correct early impressions concerning the aborigines ; it has 

 been shown that the Indians were more or less definitely organ- 

 ized in tribes and confederacies, belonging to some sixty distinct 

 stocks or families, each characterized by distinct languages, in- 

 stitutions, and beliefs, and each occupying a definite though per- 

 haps slowly shifting habitat. Som'e of the groups were large, 

 some small, the greater number being confined to a narrow belt 

 along the Pacific coast, while a few large groups occupied the 

 eastern two-thirds of the continent. Stucty of the movements of 

 the natives constituting each group indicates that they expanded 

 or contracted, and shifted or persisted, much as do the definitely 

 organized nations of civilization, under the influence of both ex- 

 ternal and internal forces, the former being essentially geographic 

 and the latter essentially human. It is only when the groups 

 are defined and when their movements are investigated and 

 compared that the principles of ethno-geography are brought to 

 light. These principles are set forth in a score of the publica- 

 tions of the Bureau. 



A RELIC OF THE LEWIS AND CLARKE EXPEDITION 



The print of which the accompanying illustration is a repro- 

 duction, slightly reduced, was made from an iron believed to 

 be an original branding-iron used by Captain Meriwether Lewis 

 on the Lewis and Clarke Expedition of 1804-'06. It was found 

 by Mr Winans, of The Dalles, Oregon, about three years ago, 

 clasped in the hands of an Indian skeleton, in one of the old 

 Indian burial places on an island in the Columbia river, near 

 The Dalles. 



Quite a number of Indian burial places are located along the 

 Columbia, and several were described by Lewis and Clarke. It 

 was the Indian custom to bury with deceased members of the 

 tribe any articles especially prized by them. Lewis and Clarke 

 passed down the Columbia in November, 1805, and wintered at 

 Fort Clatsop, near Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the river. 

 In the spring of 1806 they started eastward, homeward bound, 



