COLUMBIA Oil OREGON. 



381 



their canoes ; they trade with the Europeans, with whom they exchange furs and pehries for 

 trinkets, guns, powder, kettles, &c., and with the tribes iiigher np the river, with whom they 

 barter these articles for salmon, edible roots, &c. The singular custom of compressing the 



head in infancy, so as to render it com- 

 pletely wedge-shaped, prevails among all 

 these tribes ; a compress of bark, at- 

 tached to the forehead and back of the 

 head during the first year of infancy, it 

 suflicient to efi'ect this purpose. Thf* 

 Esheloots, below the Great Falls, ar» 

 different, both from the lower and uppe 

 tribes. 



The tribes above the Falls, over i 

 great extent of country, appear to be ot 

 kindred origin. The Eneshurs, at the 

 head of the Falls ; the Wallawallahs, or 

 Kiaous, at the mouth of the Wallavval- 

 lah ; the Nez I'erces, or Bored Noses, 

 called by Lewis a ~d Clarke, Chopunnish, 

 and by others, Sahaptins, probably names 

 of different bands, on the lower part of Lewis's River ; the Sokulks and Chimnapums on 

 the Columbia, above that river ; the Skynses and Tooelicans, southeast of the Wallawallahs ; 

 the Salish or Flatheads, Tuskepahs and Ponderays, in and near Clarke's River ; the Spokans, 

 and Pointed Hearts or Coeur d'Alenes, on the river Spokan ; the Camloops and Sinapolls, 

 between the Oakinagan and the Columbia ; the Oakinagans on the river of that name ; the 

 Cootonais, further north, &c. are all more or less nearly related in language, customs, and 

 character ; the term Flathead is applied to these tribes to distinguish them from the lower 

 tribes, which compress the head mto a wedge-shape. They subsist chiefly on salmon, of 

 which prodigious shoals ascend the rivers yearly, game, and roois. Further southeast, on the 

 borders of the great desert, are the Shoshonies, or Snakes, who seem to be of a different 

 origin ; they are more warlike in their habits, but are generally friendly to the whites ; the 

 Shoshonies, Nez Percts, and other tribes living in the great open plains, have large droves ol 

 fine horses, of superior speed, bottom, and spirit. 



6. History. The discovery of this region has already been noticed. Li 181 1, the Pacific 

 Fur Company established a post, called Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia ; soon after 

 which, the Hudson's Bay Company's servants fixed themselves on some points higher up 

 the river. On the breaking out of the war with England, the factor of the American Compa- 

 ny sold the establishment at Astoria to the British Company ; the name of the post wag 

 changed to St. George. In 1818, it was surrendered into the liands of the Americans. A 

 convention, concluded between Great Britain and the United States in that year, stipulated, that 

 all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, claimed by the two parties, should be open to 

 the subjects and citizens of each, without prejudice to the claims of either, during a period of 

 10 years ; this convention was renewed for an indefinite period, in 1S2S, with the provision, 

 nowever, that it might be brought to a close on a year's notice from either party to the other. 



Indian Fleet at JVootka Sound. 



