186 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Sept. 2, 1905. 
Trappers of Oregon Territory. — II. 
(Concluded from last week.) 
Dunn describes the ways of the Columbia River 
Indians and tells of their custom of flattening the head : 
“There prevails a singular custom among all the tribes 
about the lower part of the Columbia — the flattening of 
the forehead, and compression of the whole head, which 
gives them a hideous appearance. Immediately after 
birth the infant is laid in an oblong wooden trough, by 
way of cradle, with moss under it. The end on which the 
head reposes is raised higher than the rest. A padding 
is then placed on the infant’s forehead with a piece of 
cedar bark over it; it is pressed down by cords, which 
pass through holes on each side of the trough. As the 
tightening of the padding and the pressing of the head 
to the board is gradual the process is said not to be at- 
tended with much pain. 
“The appearance of the infant, however, while under 
it is shocking; its little black eyes seem ready to start 
from their sockets, the mouth exhibits all the indications 
of internal convulsion, and it clearly appears that the face 
is gradually undergoing a process of unnatural configura- 
tion. About a year’s pressure is sufficient to produce the 
desired effect. The head is ever after completely flat- 
tened, and the upper part of it, on the crown, seldom ex- 
ceeds an inch in width. This is deemed a mark of beauty 
and distinction, like small and crippled feet among the 
Chinese ladies of rank. 
“All their slaves, whom they purchase from the neigh- 
boring tribes, have round heads. Every child of a slave, 
if not adopted by a member of the tribe, must be left to 
nature, and therefore grow up with a round head. This 
deformity is. consequently, a mark of their freedom. On 
examining the skulls of these people several medical men 
have declared that nothing short of ocular demonstra- 
tion could have convinced them of the possibilty of 
moulding the human head into such a form. 
“Though the Indians about the head waters of the Co- 
lumbia and in the other regions bordering on the Rocky 
Mountains are called ‘Flat Heads,’ the name does not re- 
sult from such a characteristic deformity, for all these 
people have round heads ; but appears to have been orig- 
inally given them from caprice, or from an observance of 
some similarity in disposition or habit, between them and 
the savages of the coast at the mouth of the river. The 
best supported opinion is, that they were of the same 
original stock with the lower tribes, but discontinued the 
custom.” 
The fishing on the Columbia, the establishment at Fort 
Vancouver, its inhabitants and its farm are all told of 
most interestingly. It was here, we believe, that the first 
fruit trees were planted in Oregon, a region since most 
famous for fruits of all description. 
It will be remembered that in several of the old books 
written of this far western country, and the travelers who 
passed through it, mention is made of James Bird, the 
half-breed son of an employe of the Hudson’s Bay Com- 
pany. This man died on the Blackfoot Reservation in 
northern Montana only a few years ago, and his chil- 
dren and grandchildren, most of them now nearly pure 
Indians, are still living in that country. One of his esca- 
pades is related by Dunn : 
“Mr. McKay, one of the principal officers in charge of 
the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trapping party in the Snake 
country, is a gentleman of great intelligence and natural 
astuteness, and also of good feeling, and is quite as much 
at home in the prairies and wildernesses as he is in a fort. 
I recollect a story related by him, in ‘bachelors’ hall.’ He 
was speaking of a son of a Mr. Bird, a gentleman some 
years ago in the service of the company. This young 
Bird (and a wild bird he proved to be) received a fair 
education and could converse in French and English. He 
was some time in the company’s service, but, finding 
the work too hard for him, joined the Blackfeet 
Indians, and was made a chief, and he took several 
daughters of chiefs for his wives and became a man of 
some note and respect. He received, among the trappers, 
the nick-name of Jemmy Jock. He had then been living 
with the Indians twenty years, and was much disliked by 
the American trapping parties ; in fact, it has been said 
that the Americans did once offer $500 for his head, as 
they supposed he had been a leader among a tribe of 
Blackfeet when an American party was cut off by him. 
“Mr. McKay said he was once encamped in the plain, 
and imagined that the Blackfeet must be in the vicinity 
of the camp, by various marks. He accordingly at night 
gave strict orders to the Canadians on watch to keep a 
good lookout, which they did, wuth rifle in hand. I 3 ut 
this Jemmy Jock, dressed as a Canadian voyageur, man- 
aged to enter the camp unobserved, walked up to the chief 
man on watch, and, addressing him in Canadian French, 
said that he had ‘received orders that the horses which 
were in the camp should be turned out to graze.’ The 
watchman, taking it for granted that the order came 
from McKay, ordered the horses to be let out. But be- 
fore long the camp wras roused by the loud whoop of the 
Blackfeet; some of the horses were mounted, and others 
driven off before the marauding party; the poor trappers 
being left to make the best of their way through the 
plains as they could. Sometimes in traveling through 
the plains the company’s trappers fall in with a letter, 
tied to a stick, left by this humorous half-breed, to an- 
nounce that he has camped at this spot with his party a 
short time previously — sometimes giving them good in- 
formation, and sometimes intending to mislead and play 
them a frolicsome or mischievous trick.” 
After a more or less polemical chapter, devoted largely 
. to showing that the Americans in Oregon are all wrong, 
and the British subjects all right, Dunn passes on to- a 
capital review of Oregon, as it was then known, and this 
is followed by a description of Astoria, subsequently Fort 
George. Included in this is a description of the loss of 
the ship Tonquin, and of the sale by Mr. Astor of 
Astoria. Then comes a description of the extension of 
the British sphere of influence, from southwestern Ore- 
gon to the north of the mouth of the Columbia, and a 
description of that country and its products. The whole 
is very interesting as a picture of the early condition of 
the country. 
At Milbank Sound in 1833 the author and his com- 
panions, occupying a recently completed fort, came very 
near having a fight with the Indians. A man , had de- 
serted the post, and had joined the savages, and the trad- 
ers, in an endeavor to get him back, took the chief of the 
Indians prisoner and held him, threatening that unless 
their man was given up they would send the chief to 
V ancouver. The whites had no water in the stockade, 
and, as Dunn says : 
“On a particular day, seeing no Indians about, we pro- 
posed to allow some of the men to go out with buckets 
to get water. Mr. Anderson and myself went outside to 
see after them while Mr. Manson kept a lookout within 
the inclosure from a high temporary watchtower. We 
had not been out many minutes when, looking around the 
bay and on a point of land about a quarter of a mile to 
the southward, we perceived a fire. At that instant sev- 
eral Indians rose up, gave the war-whoop, and the fort 
was then surrounded with hundreds of these savages — 
some armed with knives, others with guns and axes. Mr. 
Manson cried out' to arms. Mr. Anderson and myself 
rushed as fast as possible to the fort, and then to the 
bastions, from whence we commenced firing along with 
the men that remained in the fort. This threw the In- 
dians into confusion and made them retreat with some 
loss of life into the woods. The whole of our outside 
m.en escaped unhurt into the fort, with the exception of 
twO'. One of these was a half-breed, who was surrounded 
by eight Indians. He was cut in the shoulder severely 
by an ax aimed at his head, after this blow he managed 
to wrest the ax from the Indian and keep his assailants 
at bay; but another Indian coming up with a gun was 
in the act ®f shooting him when Mr. Anderson rushed to 
the fort gate, and, with his rifle, shot the Indian. The 
others decamped and the half-breed made his way into 
the fort. The other, a Canadian, had before the disturb- 
ance fallen down with an ax in his hand, which had in- 
jured him. This man they took prisoner, dragging him. 
face downward, to the water-side and placed him, tied 
hands and feet, in a canoe, it being that night their inten- 
tion had we not had their chief in custody, tO' have burnt 
him. During the night they kept up a continual whoop 
and firing of guns, but kept a long distance from the fort, 
fearing we should get our big guns to bear upon them. 
Having this poor fellow in their possession all night they 
brought him in the morning, under the fort and an- 
nounced a desire to speak to us; and finding their chief 
was safe, said if we would give their chief freedom they 
would return our man. The deserter they persisted they 
knew nothing of. Finding we could not get back the de- 
serter we proposed to give tneni their chief, provided our 
man, whom they had taken prisoner, was returned; and 
likewise we proposed that they should give us two in- 
ferior chiefs as hostages. This was done for a guaran- 
tee tO' prevent any of our men from being attacked by 
them, in case they were compelled to go out of the fort. 
This was agreed to. The chief having been let free our 
Canadian returned next morning, and the two Indians 
were kept as hostages to insure safety to> our men on 
quitting the fort for business. The Indians requested 
us to hoist our flag as a signal of peace. They informed 
us that one or two Indians had been wounded in the pre- 
vious conflict and wished to know if they came, since 
peace had been, proclaimed, whether we would dress their 
wounds. To this also we willingly consented, and the 
patients were restored quite recovered. This conduct on 
our part in receiving and healing their wounded made 
a very favorable impression on them and they exhibited 
every .pacific disposition. We kept, however, within the 
fort for several weeks until their vindictive feeling would 
completely have cooled down, and by that time we be- 
came mutual friends. Trade then again commenced at a 
brisk rate, and we went on building and clearing ground 
as usual, for the completion of the fort and the prepara- 
tion of our little farm. As I began to speak their lan- 
guage so I increased in favor with them.” 
In one of his concluding chapters the author discusses 
further the relative claims of Great Britain and America 
to the Oregon Territory. The points on which he bases 
his claim are three — prior discovery, taking formal pos- 
session after discovery and settlement. The B.ritish dis- 
coverers whom he names are Cooke, in 1777; Berkeley 
and Dixon, in 1787; Lieutenant Mears, in 1788; 'Van- 
couver, in 1792, ’93 and ’94; Broughton, who in 1792 en- 
tered the Columbia River and proceeded up it 100 miles ; 
Mackenzie, in 1793. He .speaks also of the Spanish ex- 
plorers,. one of whom, in 1775, discovered the Columbia. 
.As to American explorers he quotes Washington Irving, 
who speaks of Captain Gray who took his ship Columbia 
in 1792 into the river of that name, and up as for 'as 
Gray’s Bay. Captain Gray, after proceeding to sea, fell 
in with Vancouver and gave him a chart. The author 
refers also to the explorations of Lewis and Clark, whom 
he speaks of as American citizens but does not appear 
highly to regard their discoveries. 
Dunn makes quite an elaborate argument in favor of 
Great Britain, and it is a pretty good argument, too; but, 
of course, at this distance of time it is interesting only 
as a curiosity. He winds up his chapter by a quotation 
from a message of the President to Congress, saying that 
the United States have always contended that they had 
a right to the whole region of country lying on the Pacific 
embraced between 42 degrees and 54 degrees 40 minutes 
of north latitude, winding up with this mouth-filling 
paragraph : 
“Commentary on so false and monstrous an assertion 
as this is thoroughly useless. If concession be made to 
this claim they will, by and by, claim as far as the pole. 
In a word, nothing will satisfy them short of the extinc- 
tion of British power and influence throughout the north- 
ern continent of America. And it only remains for the 
British Government and the British people to consider 
whether they will tolerate this.” 
Writing of the missionaries and their influence over 
the savages, whom they hope tO' convert, he declares that 
before the conquest of Canada the Jesuit missionaries 
propagated the principles of the Christian faith among 
the remotest tribes, and did it successfully, and he be- 
lieves that had not Canada been conquered by the British, 
‘’Christianity — perhaps Christianity in. a .bad form, but yet 
Christianity in all its elements — better than no Chris- 
tianity at all, would have been diffused throughout the 
continent” ; and he laments that since the conquest of 
Canada very little has been done toward the conversion 
of the natives in the interior and west. He believes that 
the natives should be Christianized through the instru- 
mentality of the Church of England, or even of British 
dissenters, because, if so converted, they would, as a 
whole, attach themselves to Great Britain; but as this has 
been neglected by British missionaries it seems to him 
probable that the natives will be converted by those mis- 
sionaries who swarm into the country from the United 
States and so the British hold upon their affections must 
soon be enfeebled. Finally, he declares that “The Ameri- 
can missionaries are used by the American Government, 
and fairly represented by the American writers, as polit- 
ical instruments in exercising their influence with the 
natives to attach them to republican institutions and to 
make them the passive recipients of all sorts of anti- 
British antipathies, and thus the Americans hope to re- 
cover the position in the country which they lost by their 
want of integrity or energy as traders.” 
George Bird Grinnell. 
My First Black Bear. 
The winter before I was five years old a young uncle 
at my request taught me to read, and by the following 
spring had me able to read in my mother tongue about as 
Avell as I can read in it now. Soon after I had learned 
to read I got hold of several books about Indians, “Peter 
Parley’s Tales” was one of them. They told me all about 
Indians and some more, as I afterward found out when I 
had got to be an Indian (by brevet) myself. 
Now, I wanted to see these Indians and their country, 
and the Great American Desert, that took up so much of 
the map between the Mississippi River and the Rocky 
Mountains. I did afterward find the Indians but failed to 
find the Desert; it had been moved, probably. I studied 
for years after I had got to be a little older to hit on a 
plan to go West, and at last I thought I had it. 
Early in the spring of 1855 the recruiting officer at 
Pittsburg, my native city, called for recruits for the 
Mounted Rifles— it is the Third Cavalry now— and he 
wanted trumpeters also, and as I could read music now 
and make a noise on a cornet (I thought then I could 
play it) I applied for a position as trumpeter— they called 
them buglers then; the bugler has since left the regular 
army and has gone to the volunteers, he is only a trum- 
peter in the regulars now. But I struck a snag here right 
at the start. I could not enlist unless I brought my 
mother to give her consent. I was only sixteen years old. 
I might as well ask her consent to let me hang myself, 
and knowing that, I did not ask her but • wrote out her 
consent myself, then lest this officer might ask me to ' 
Avrite, when he enlisted me, I had a boy friend of mine 
sign for my mother and then tried again. It would not 
Avork. I must bring my mother, he told me. 
I was bound to go West, though. Had not Horace 
Greeley told us to go there? So I next found an old river 
steamboat that was going to St. Louis, and shipped on 
her as a cabin boy. We got to St. Louis in good time — : 
that is good time for this boat, she never was in a hurry 
going anywhere. And now I was in the West, or a part : 
of it, at least. The Indians and buffalo and Great Ameri- 
can Desert were still farther west. I held a council with 
myself, and as the boat was going to New Orleans next, 
I concluded to remain on her a while, the Indians and 
buffalo' could be found later on, I thought. 
I was right. I found them both when I came to look 
for them, and kept on finding the buffalo for the next 
twenty-four years, and did not stop, finding Indians for 
the next thirty years. The last bunch of them I ever 
foimd must have been mad about something, for they got ! 
behind rocks and trees and shot at us for two hours. 1 
We made the trip to Ncav Orleans and back, then put : 
in most of the summer between St. Louis and Memphis. I 
