THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 9$ 



This is Joseph's band, captured on Snake Creek, Montana, October 

 4, 1877. They were never satisfied, and asked to be returned to their 

 homes in Northern Idaho. An earnest effort was made by many people, 

 and after favorable reports by officials Congress, in 1884, ordered their 

 removal. They were removed to Northern Idaho in May and June y 

 1885, arriving at their old home June 1, 1885. 



The climate of the Indian Territory was unfavorable. Four hundred 

 and eighteen were surrendered October 4, 1877. Two hundred and 

 eighty-seven were reported as alive August 15, 1884. One hundred 

 and eighteen reached Idaho June 1, 1885. Considering the natural in- 

 crease, in addition to the numbers captured in 1877, the death rate 

 was excessively large. 



The agent wrote of them August 15, 1884 : 



The entire baud, with perhaps one or two exceptions, are quiet, peaceable, and 

 orderly people. They are unusually bright and intelligent. 



Total Nez Perce*, 1885, about 1,500. 



CHINOOK. 



[Not known as a tribe to the laws of the United States — probably so called because 



of local tradition.] 



On the lower parts of the Columbia, near the Pacific Ocean. 



147. Hee-doh'ge-ats, ; a young man, eighteen years of age. Painted in 1832. 



(Plate No. 209, page 110, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



148. ( ), woman and child ; showing the manner in which the heads of the 



children are flattened. Painted in 1832. 



(Plate No. 210, page 110, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



(See ISTos. 145 and 146, "Nez Perce".") 



MR. CATLIN'S NOTES ON THE CHINOOK INDIANS AND THE METHOD OP FLATTENING: 



THEIR CHILDREN'S HEADS. 



The Chinooks inhabiting the lower parts of Columbia are a small tribe, and cor- 

 rectly come under the name of Flat Heads, as they are almost the only people who 

 strictly adhere to the custom of squeezing and flattening the head. Plate 209 is the 

 portrait of a Chinook boy of fifteen or eighteen years of age, on whose head that 

 frightful operation has never been performed, and in Plate 210 will be seen the 

 portrait of a Chinook woman, with her child in her arms, her own head flattened, 

 and the infant undergoing the process of flattening ; which is done by placing its 

 back on a board, or thick plank, to which it is lashed with thongs to a position from 

 which it cannot escape, and the back of the head supported by a sort of pillow, made 

 of moss or rabbit skins, with an inclined piece (as is seen in the drawing) resting on 

 the forehead of the child, being every day drawn down a little tighter by means of a 

 cord, which holds it in its place, until it at length touches the nose, thus forming a 

 straight line from the crown of the head to the end of the nose. 



The process is seemingly a very cruel one, though I doubt whether it causes much 

 pain, as it is done in earliest infancy, whilst the bones are soft and cartilaginous, and 

 easily pressed into this distorted shape by forcing the occipital up and the frontal 

 down, so that the skull in top, in profile, will show a breadth of not more than an 

 inch and a half or two inches, when in a front view it exhibits a great expansion on 

 the sides, making it at the top nearly the width of one and a half natural headi. 



