INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
419 
As the relations of the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Indian tribes, as well as to the citizens 
of the Territory, is a matter of some importance, a statement of their establishments is herewith 
submitted. 
The principal is Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia river, which is the parent establishment 
whence the others are supplied with goods. The post is enclosed by a stockade of two hundred 
by one hundred and seventy-five yards, twelve feet in height, and is defended by bastions on the 
northwest and southeast angles mounted with cannon. Within are the governor’s house, two 
smaller buildings used by clerks, a range of dwellings for families, and five large two-story ward- 
houses, besides offices. Without, there is another large store-house, at present hired by the 
United States. These are all built of square logs framed together. At some little distance there 
is also a village of fifiy or sixty cabins, occupied by servants, Kanakas, and Indians, and a sal¬ 
mon-house on the bank of the river. The buildings are old and considerably decayed, only the 
repairs necessary to keep them in tenantable order having of late years been expended. There 
are at present two chief factors at this post, Messrs. Peter Skene Ogden and Donald MacTavish, 
with a considerable number of clerks and other employes. 
The company’s land claim at Fort Vancouver embraces several tracts: first, the plain on 
which the fort and United States barracks are situated, with a small one behind it, making 
together a tract of about four miles square. About one thousand acres are enclosed or under 
cultivation ; attached to which there are sheds, stabling, and a small dwelling for a farmer. Ad¬ 
joining this, to the eastward, is another tract, known as the Mill claim, two and a half by three- 
quarter miles square, on which is a saw-mill having tolerable water-power, but subject to stoppage 
during freshets. Besides the above, they claim two other small prairies behind the first men¬ 
tioned, which are respectively a half and one mile square. 
The business at this post has changed with the condition of the country since the treaty, and 
is now almost entirely mercantile and carried on with the settlers. American Oregon never was, 
strictly speaking, a fur country, and the fall in the value of beaver has annihilated what trade it 
once afforded. Comparatively a small amount of Indian goods are now imported, that descrip¬ 
tion of merchandise being sent to the posts in their own territory by way of Victoria. What 
trade with Indians is carried on here is the ordinary retail trade of country stores, and for 
cash. The amount of their general business may be gathered from their imports during 1853. 
These consisted of one cargo of assorted American goods from New York, and another valued 
at about <£19,000 from London, paying duties to the amount of nearly $24,000. A considerable 
portion of these were sold on commission at Portland, Oregon City, and other places in the Wil¬ 
lamette valley. 
The next post above Vancouver is Fort Wallah-Wallah, on the Columbia river, below the 
entrance of the Snake. There are here three or four one-story adobe buildings, with offices, 
enclosed by a wall of the same material some thirty-five yards on each side, having a bastion at 
one angle. It is almost utterly valueless except as a station where horses can be kept for the 
trains. There is, indeed, some trade with the neighboring Indians, chiefly in cash, but not 
enough to warrant its maintenance, except for the above purpose. The fort is in very indifferent 
repair, and the country in the immediate neighborhood a desert of drifting sand. Some eighteen 
or twenty miles up the Wallah-Wallah river is a so-called farm, on which are two small build¬ 
ings, a dwelling-house, and dairy. There was formerly a dam for irrigation, but it is broken 
down. They have here some twenty acres cultivated in different spots; the principal object is 
grazing. The force here consists of Mr. Pambrun, chief clerk, one interpreter, two traders, and 
six men, Canadians and Indians. 
Fort Colville, upon the Columbia, above Kettle falls, is next in importance to Vancouver, 
though far inferior to it in extent. It is situated on the second terrace, at some distance back 
from the river, the lower one being flooded in part during the freshets. The buildings consist of 
a dwelling, three or four store-houses, and some smaller ones used as a blacksmith’s shop, &c.; 
