490 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



was 58°. Mr. Spalding remarks, that, since his residence, no two 

 years have been ahke. The grass remains green all the year round. 

 In their cultivation, irrigation is necessary ; and the wheat fields, as 

 well as those of vegetables, &c., were treated in this way. Indian 

 corn succeeds well. 



Among the otlier duties of Mr. Spalding, he has taught the Indians 

 the art of cultivation, and many of them now have plantations. The 

 idea of planting seeds had never occurred to tlie Oregon Indians 

 before the arrival of the missionaries. Mr. Spalding kindly lends 

 them his ploughs and other implements of husbandry ; and on a 

 difficulty occurring with some of them, he had only to threaten them 

 with the loss of the plough, to bring the refractory person to reason. 

 One of the Indians had entirely abandoned his former mode of life, 

 had built himself a log cabin, and both himself and wife were neatly 

 dressed in European costume. The women ai-e represented as coming 

 a distance of many miles to learn to spin and knit, and assist Mrs. 

 Spalding in her domestic avocations. 



Mr. Spalding gave his assembled flock some account of the Expe- 

 dition, and a short sketch of the people we had seen, which the 

 Indians listened to with great interest, and appeared to comprehend 

 perfectly, with the aid of a map. 



Mr. Spalding stated, that the number of Oregon Indians whom he 

 had ascertained to have ^asited the United States was surprising. He 

 informed our gentlemen that he had sent letters to Boston in eighty- 

 one days from the Dalles, by means of Indians and the American 

 rendezvous ; and, what was remarkable, the slowest part of the route 

 was from St. Louis to Boston. The communication is still carried on 

 by Indians, although it was generally supposed to be by the free 

 trappers. He considers that these tribes, both men and women, are 

 an industrious people. 



Our thanks were due to Mr. Spalding for his kindness in exchang- 

 ing horses, which enabled our party to proceed more comfortably, 

 and to carry forward their collections. 



On the 26th, they left the mission at Lapwai, accompanied by 

 the missionaries and their ladies, intending to visit some of the rude 

 farms of the natives. These are situated in a fertile valley, running 

 in a southerly direction from the Kooskooskee. The farms are from 

 five to twelve acres each, all fenced in, and on these the Indians 

 cultivate wheat, corn, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, &c. One of 

 them, in the year 1840, raised four hundred bushels of potatoes and 

 forty-five bushels of wheat. With part of the potatoes he bought 



