JAK. 28, 1905.1 
POREIT AND STREAM. 
67 
At the DalleSi tarker iiiet Captain Wyeth, fioiti So8» 
ton, with whom, It will be remembefed, Townsend and 
Nuttall had journeyed westward the year before. A little 
above the Cascades he met the first Chenooks, which he 
denominates "the only real Flatheads and Nez Perces, or 
pierced noses, I have found. They flatten their heads 
and pierce their noses. The flattening of their heads is 
not so great a deformity as is generally supposed. From 
a little above the eyes to- the apex or crown of the head 
there is a depression, but not generally in adult persons 
very noticeable. The piercing of the nose is more of a 
deformity, and is done by inserting two small tapering- 
white shells, about two inches long, somewhat in the 
shape of a thorn, through the lower part of the carti- 
laginous division of the nose." While following the trail 
along the river, he came to a pleasant rise of ground, 
upon which were several houses of a forsaken village, 
which were both larger and far better than any he had 
hitherto seen in any Indian country. They were about 
sixty feet long and thirty-five wide, the frame work very 
well constructed, and covered with split planks and cedar 
bark. These houses thus greatly resemble those seen in 
recent times on the coast of portions of British Columbia. 
'I'he next dav Mr. Parker reached Fort Vancouver, the 
Hudson's Bay post, where Dr. J. McLaughlin, a chief 
factor of the company, received him very kindly. From 
here Parker went on down the river, and reached the 
brig May Dacre, of Boston, belonging to the Wyeth 
Company. Here he met Dr. Townshend, and before long 
they set sail down the river, and reached Astoria, the 
far-famed New York of the West. 
After more or less journeying about,_ Parker returned 
to Fort Vancouver, where he was invited to spend the 
winter. Fie devotes much of his time to a description of 
the country and its people, and recounts many of the inci- 
dents which Townshend gives in his voiumes._ He has 
something to say about the fur trade, as carried on by 
the Hudson's Bay Company, and often speaks of Dr. 
McLaughlin, as well as of Duncan Fiiilayson, Esq., who 
was so well known long afterward in Victoria, V. I., until 
his death there. Parker goes at great length into the con- 
dition of the Indian women, and his misstatements about 
this— of course unintentional— have been quoted for many 
years, and are still believed by many persons. 
The last half of the Rev. Mr. Parker's book is devoted 
to a description of the animals, fish and plants of Oregon, 
remarks about its geology, and quite an extensive descrip- 
tion of the natives, with a meteorological table, and a 
vocabulary of several Indian tribes. He speaks of a dark 
day in August, 1831, which some have thought must have 
been caused by smoke from an eruption of a volcano. The 
day was nearly as dark as night, except a little red lurid 
appearance in the sky, and lighted candles were necessary 
through the day. The air was filled with smoke, ashes 
and leaves; the last scorched, while the ashes were like 
wood ashes. Yet no fire was known to be in any part of 
the region. After the atmosphere became clear, it was 
thought that the pure white snow of Mt. St. Helens was 
discolored. 
The Indians of the country beyond the Continental 
Divide through which Parker passed, he divides into 
those of the plains, which live in the upper country from 
the falls of the Columbia to the Rocky Mountains, and 
ihose of the lower country, between the shores of the 
Pacific and the falls of the Columbia River. He observes 
that the first of these divisions are remarkable for their 
cleanliness; that they are well supplied with horses, which 
are very cheap, a good horse selling for not more than 
enough to purchase a blanket or a few small articles of 
merchandise. As to their habits, he declares that the In- 
dians of the plains are not lazy, as they are commonly 
supposed to be, for he rarely saw any of those Indians 
without their being engaged in some object of pursuit. 
To him, the Indians appeared as they since have to others 
—not especially different from other people. They have 
the same natural propensities, and the same social affec- 
tions. "They are cheerful and often gay, sociable, kind 
and affectionate; and anxious to receive instruction m 
whatever may conduce to their happiness here or here- 
after." They have but few manufactures, and those are 
the most plain and simple. 
Concerning their manufactures, while Parker has much 
to say of them, he tells us nothing that has not long been 
known. 
He calls attention, however, to the fact that these In- 
dians have no wars among themselves, and appear averse 
to all wars, not entering into battle except in self-defense. 
Their only enemies are the Blackfoot Indians, whose 
country is along the east border of the Rocky Mountains, 
;ind who are constantly roaming about in parties on both 
sides of the mountains in quest of plunder. When the 
hidians on the west side meet with these war parties they 
endeavor to avoid an encounter, but if compelled to fight, 
show a firm, undaunted, unconquerable spirit, and rush 
upon their enemies with the greatest impetuosity. When 
an enemy is discovered, every horse is driven into camp, 
and the women take charge of them, while every man 
seizes his weapons, mounts his horse, and waits, firm, and 
undismayed, to see if hostilities must ensue. Very fre- 
ciuently when the Blackfeet see white men with the Nez 
Perces and. Flatheads, they decline battle, even though 
they themselves may be far superior in numbers, for they 
know that the white man can furnish a large supply of 
ammunition on such occasions. The Nez Perce or Flat- 
head chief will accept the pipe, explaining as he does so 
that he knows the Blackfeet mean war, although they pre- 
tend peace. . 
The Indians were great gamblers, especially at running 
horses and in foot races. Drunkenness was as yet a vice 
strange to these Indians, but Parker predicted that it 
would come to them so soon as it was possible to trans- 
port liquor to them. He describes the method of doctor- 
ing by a medicine man, and the practice of the sudatory 
or sweat bath. All this is of the plains Indians. _ 
Those of the lower country are of less attractive type 
than the others. They do not dress as well, nor with as 
o-ood taste. As their subsistence depends almost entirely 
on fish, they are less well clad, for they have not the same 
opportunity to obtain skins as those of the buffalo coun- 
try. Liquor had been brought into the lower country, and 
the Indians were slaves to it. ... , 
These Indians believe in the immortality of the soul, 
and that in the future state we shall have the same wants 
as in this life. Thus, in 1829, the wife of an influential 
chief of-the Chettooks, iie&f CaUfi blsappoiiitttleht, killed 
two female slaves, which should attend her child to the 
world of spirits, and especially should row her canoe to 
the Happy Hunting Ground in the south. 
He speaks of pipes made of black slate, at the mouth 
of Queen Charlotte's Island, which the Indians carve with 
remarkable skill. 
As the wealth of the upper Indians is estimated in their 
horses, so those of the lower country count their property 
1-y the number of their wives, slaves and canoes. Special 
attention is called I0 the excellent canoes which they 
make, and also to the baskets woven so closely as to hold 
water, and to be used_ for pails. Of course they were 
also used as pots in which to cook fish and mush. 
After having spent the winter on the Columbia, Parker 
set out in May to revisit the Nez Perces. He reached 
them in a short time, and, as it happened, came to a 
village just as a little child was being buried. The In- 
dians had prepared a cross to be set up at the grave, very 
likely having been taught to do so by some Iroquois In- 
dians, of whom there were not a- few trapping in the 
. country ; and here appears the bigotry of the missionary 
of that, and of indeed later days as well, for Parker says : 
"But as I viewed a cross of wood made by men's hands, 
of no avail to benefit either the dead or the living, and far 
more likely to operate as a salve to a guilty conscience, 
or a stepping stone to idolatry, than to be understood in 
its spiritual sense to refer to the crucifixion of our sins, 
I took this, which the Indians had prepared, and broke it 
to pieces. I then told them we place a stone at the head 
and foot of the grave only to mark the place ; and without 
ii. murmur they cheerfully acquiesced, and adopted our 
custom." 
Parker appears to have regarded the Nez Perce Indians 
as especially adapted to conversion, and laments that he 
is unable to speak their language, and thus to communi- 
cate wath them directly. Parker was an active and con- 
scientious person, and evidently wished to see all he could 
of the country to which he had been sent. He set out, 
from the Nez Perces for the Colville country, meeting 
Spokanes, Cayuses, Coeur D'Alenes, and a number of 
• other small tribes. Returning, he was unable to get trans- 
portation down the Columbia River, and was obliged to 
take horses for Fort Okanagan. The journey was long 
and very dry, and the party suffered more or less from 
thirst. At Fort Okanagan he took a boat to run down the 
river 400 miles to Walla Walla, which he reached in 
safety. Toward the end of June he took ship for the 
Sandwich Islands, and in December, 1836, sailed on board 
the Phoenix for his home in the East. After a stormy 
passage he reached New London, May 18, and five days 
later, after two years and two months of absence, and 
journeyings which covered 28,000 miles, arrived at his 
home at Ithaca, N. Y. George Bird Grinnell. 
A Buffalo Hunt with the Comanches 
(Continued from page 4T.)- 
Our squaws were beginning to put the finishing 
touches on a few of the robes. Most of them would only 
be stretched, scraped and dried now,' then left to be 
tanned after the Indians had got back home; but an old 
, squaw that the chief had - to help his squaw now went 
to work on a large robe off a young bull that I had shot 
myself, and after tanning it began to paint it. They use 
a bone instrument, and after marking out the figure, rub 
the lines with this bone, then rub in the paint. The chief 
had a robe which bore his coat-of-arms that he would 
not take $50 for, though at that time good robes could 
be bought for $5, though they would not be painted. 
The old squaw asked me if the eagle was not my coat-of- 
arms. 
"Yes," I told her. "But it is the coat-of-arms of all 
white men, and I have another one of my own." 
She wanted to see it. I had it engraved on my watch- 
charm, and showed it to her. "Oh, yes, I savey," she 
told me. _ "It is the antelope," and she got it on the robe. 
Then going out to the herd examined my horse for his 
brand. He had "H-4, _U. S.," the troop letter, the regi- 
ment number, and United States for his coat-of-arms. 
The squaw got this on the robe, too. Then the chief 
offered it to me. 
"No," I said, "I cannot take this. It is too much 
money. You sell it to the agent. It will pay $25 on 
your bill." Had I that robe now it would be worth 
almost any amount I might ask for it. I had often to 
smile at my coat of arms.* 
The old chief was about sixty years of age; he did not 
know how old he was, but he was as spry as a man of 
half his age. He had the marks of at least twenty 
wounds on dift'erent parts of his body; each of these 
wounds had a tattoo mark alongside of it, and each 
wound had a history. One had been given him by a 
Cheyenne he had caught stealing his ponies ; then he 
had shot the Cheyenne; and so on for each of these 
other marks. 
liis squaw was about thirty years old. She was the 
sister of the chief of the other band of Pena-teth-kas, 
and her father had been a chief, and she never failed to 
let it be known that she was the daughter of a cliief and 
the wife of another one. She was one of the best look- 
ing squaws I had ever seen. We had another one here 
who I thought was still better looking; but I took care 
not to tell the chief's squaw so, or else the other one 
would have been given many a snub for it ; for until they 
get to be old (and then they don't care) all the squaws 
want to be thought good looking. 
They address their women as "my sister" until she 
gets old; then she is "my mother." I knew that; but 
after I could talk to the squaws in, Comanche, I would 
often address a young squaw as "my mother," only to- 
be told that I knew better than that — she was still my 
sister. While the squaws generally dress in a slip (it 
can't be called a dress) made of four or five yards of 
calico, the chief's squaw never wore anything but fine 
*T have one, though. It is a wild goat's head and neck above 
an earl s baton, with the motto below it. My old grandfather 
used to show it to me about once a week, and tell me that it was 
his, and would be mine some day. I was the eldest son of his 
oldest son, he said. The only use I see made of it nowadays, 
though, is to furnish a trade-mark for Brooks' spool cotton 
thread. The old fellow would do some tall cussing were he alive 
now to see it, _ _ , ._ 
WoDleli clotk called stroiig clotli, atid she liSd half li 
dozen dresses made of it. She rode a man's Mexican 
saddle that was covered with silver^ and ' she had more 
silver jewelry than she could find room for, 
I often wondered how these squaws could stand the 
winter weather here. It is not cold, of course; nothing 
such as it is further north ; but their only clothing was 
this thin dress, a pair of moccasins with buckskin legs 
ihal came above the knee and were tied there, and a 
blanket doubled and tied around their waist, if they were 
working, and if not (and it was not often that they were 
not), then half the blanket would be drawn up about 
their shoxilders, but never over their heads. 
The chief's squaw was one of the cleanest women 
about her cooking that I have ever seen. If she were 
cooking or baking and stopped to bring in wood for her 
fire or cover a pack, she would not touch the food again 
before she had washed her hands. No white man need 
fear eating any part of his peck, of dirt in anything that 
she cooked. They bake the bread before each meal, 
using baking powder, and making the bread in flat cakes, 
then baking it in a frying-pan; and some of the best 
bread I have ever eaten has been that baked by these 
squaws. Sometimes they boiled the meat; but generally, 
if it was fresh, they fried it ; and a standing dish with us 
three times a day, if not ate so often, was the white fat 
off the buffalo, dried and eaten raw. I got to like it in 
time, and could eat my share. Thej' made the coffee 
very strong, and the squaw will put a lot of sugar in 
each man's tin cup before handing it to him; but if a 
white man is present, she will offer him the sugar to 
put in himself. I knew their custom, and the first time 
she offered me the sugar, I told her to put it in the 
coffee herself — that her hands were clean. That pleased 
her. 
The camp was on a river bank with a high prairie 
around it, and the wolves would come on this prairie 
and sit here howling all night long. It would be no use 
to try to shoot them ; but the chief had two one-ounce 
bottles of strychnine in his packs — he had almost every- 
thing 141 these packs— and getting the strychnine, I put 
out bait for the wolves. I would put it out in the even- 
ing, then next morning I and the boys would put in all 
forenoon hunting up our dead wolves and skinning them. 
We generally found them close to water; they would get 
a dose of my poison, then hunt up the nearest water, 
drink and die. We took about 150 of their skins, which 
the squaws cured for us, and we got a dollar in trade for 
each of them when on our way home the following 
spring. 
When we had been in this camp about three weeks the 
buffalo left us again, and we followed them. Two days' 
march from here going directly west brought us to a 
creek that was not down on my map, although this map 
was an official one printed by the War Department ; but 
I explored this creek now to its source, then put it on 
my map. 
Just west of us now was New Mexico. I knew about 
where the boundary line was. Our cavalry under General 
Mackenzie had done a good deal of exploring in this 
country, but most of it south of this, and had corrected 
the map. These maps needed some correcting, too, for 
when I was a small boy I had been shown the Great 
American Desert on the map, and had been told all about 
it, and a good deal more ; and a few years after, while 
still a boy, I had crossed this desert, or a part of it, at 
least, and found it to be no- desert at all, but a lever plain 
covered with buffalo grass and buffalo. 
The chief said that now he was as far west as he 
meant to go ; the buffalo were here ; they could not get 
away from us it seemed, and although we might drive 
them still _ further west, the Mexican hunters who were- 
west of us would send them east to us again. These 
Mexicans were hunting buffalo under white men for 
their hides, the chief told me. Nothing could take place 
in this country and this chief not know it., I used to 
think that I could follow a trail, and I could: but I was 
like a schoolboy learning his letters alongside of this 
chief. When out with him I was still learning something 
every day. Nothing escaped his notice; if a blade of 
grass was turned the wrong way, he would see why be- 
fore he went further. 
When we had been a few days in camp here, I con- 
cluded to go on a hunt of my own further west. I took 
two boys about fourteen years old, one of them my. pet 
boy, the Antelope, without whom I never went anywhere, 
and the other was named the Crow. I took some bread, 
coffee, sugar and salt, and leaving my gun in camp, bor- 
rowed a Winchester from the chief. I wanted a maga- 
zine gun, and there were Winchesters in camp. The 
boys could not get arms, so they had only bows and 
arrows. I took the white pony to ride. I had been 
riding him every day now, and had made a pet of him. 
I could dismount and walk off and he would follow me 
all day if I wanted him to. 
Going directly west, when a few miles from camp we 
ran into- a big herd of buffalo, and getting behind them, 
started them toward camp for our men to get, then kept 
on again. I wanted a deer or antelope, but found none. 
Then late in the afternoon we scared up a flock of prairie 
chickens, and the boys got a number of them, using 
their bows and arrows. I could not do any shooting 
here. I was not as good a shot as the men I found in 
books. I did not find them anywhere else, for the reason 
that they are not to be found outside of these boys' books. 
I could not cut off a chicken's head with a Winchester, 
and did not want to waste my cartridges anyhow j I 
might need them for more dangerous game than prairie 
chickens. 
We camped at a small pond on the open prairie, there 
being no timber in sight. I did not like to camp here, 
for from the looks of the clouds I thought we might 
have a storm before next morning; but this was the best 
we could do ; so staking our ponies out on grass, we 
cooked the chickens, then lay down on our saddle 
blankets — an Indian boy on each side of me. We needed 
no camp guard here; nothing could get near us and these 
boys not know it. 
Just before sunrise next morning that norther that I 
had been looking for came up and brought a snowstorm 
with it. So getting our saddles on we started to look 
for timber, and at ten o'clock a blue streak away across 
the prairie told me I had found it, or would find it when 
I got that far. 
The snow was still falling, but not heavy, and just on 
