DOCSLIB.ORG

Four Physician-Explorers of the Fur Trade Days

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Four Physician-Explorers of the Fur Trade Days FOUR PHYSICIAN-EXPLORERS OF THE FUR TRADE DAYS By J. MONROE THORINGTON, M.D. PHILADELPHIA THE four physicians, whose lives Fraser. After Waterloo, David took up I are here recounted, spanned praetice in Paris, while John, following I almost a century of the fur his training in Scotland, returned to ■ J*.. trade in Canada, roughly the Canada and became a partner in the period between the arrival of Lewis and North-West Company. We find him at Clark at the mouth of the Columbia Fort Duncan, Lake Nepigon, in 1807; River (1805) and the completion of the at Sturgeon Lake in the winter 1807- Canadian Pacific railroad (1885). 08, and at the capture of Fort William The successive thrusts of exploration in 1816. through the valley of the St. Lawrence The Hudson’s Bay Company ab- were largely concerned with a search sorbed the North-West Company in for a Northwest Passage to the spice 1821, thereby obtaining a monopoly islands of Asia, and were the forerun- of the fur trade. At this time John ners of Verendrye’s sighting of the McLoughlin was in charge of Fort Wil- Rockies in 1738, of Hearne’s reaching liam on Lake Superior. He reached the Coppermine delta in 1771, and of Rainy Lake House in 1823, en route to Alexander Mackenzie’s journey to Bella the Columbia district of which he was Coola inlet and the Pacific in 1793. made supervisor in 1824, and where he John Jacob Astor’s ship, the Ton- ruled during the critical times of the quin, established the Astoria post on Oregon country, 1824-46. the Columbia in 1811, shortly before There were no American traders David Thompson, geographer and ex- regularly established west of the Rocky plorer of the North-West Company de- Mountains when McLoughlin arrived scended that river from its source. The at Fort George. It was the policy of the war of 1812 left the Astoria post in Company to keep them out of Oregon. British hands, when it was renamed In 1827 the agreement between the Fort George. Our four physicians took United States and Great Britain for part in the Canadian Northwest’s sub- joint occupation of the territory was sequent years. renewed, and McLoughlin was able dr . joh n mc Loughl in was the eldest to give Americans material assistance, son of an Irishman of the same name, although discouraging their settling who met an early death by drowning, north of the Columbia River. When, and of Angelique Fraser, a Canadian of however, he became certain that the Scottish parents. He was born in the Forty-ninth Parallel was to become the parish of Riviere du Loup, province of boundary, he removed the company’s Quebec, on October 19, 1784. John and headquarters to Fort Vancouver. his younger brother, David, were edu- McLoughlin believed in law and cated in medicine by their grandfather order, and protected Americans and British alike against Indian depreda- Roman Catholic churchyard at Oregon tions. When he first came to Oregon, City. the Company's men were obliged to dr . Joh n rowan d , the third in suc- cession to bear this name, was born at Edmonton, Alberta, then known as Fort Augustus. His grandfather, Dr. John Rowand, had been a physician in Mon- treal. His father, John Rowand (2nd) entered the service of the North-West Company about 1800, being listed as a clerk on the upper Saskatchewan in 1804. David Thompson found him at Fort Augustus in 1808. and speaks of his house on Pembina River, in 1812. I he subject of this notice, John travel in large armed parties, a danger which his influence soon made a thing of the past. There were no Indian wars during his administration. To stop the sale of liquor to the Indians, he placed the whites under similar restriction. In 1846 he withdrew from the Com- pany and retired to Oregon City, be- coming a United States citizen in 1849. Like other traders he married a half- breed Indian, the widow of Alexander McKay of the Astoria party, by whom Rowand (3rd), was sent back to Lachine he had four children. He was always to be educated. He graduated in med- known as “Doctor McLoughlin,’’ al- icine at Edinburgh, and was in London though the Indians called him “White- and Paris. Headed Eagle’’ on account of his long When Sir George Simpson, governor white hair. He was a man of command- of the Hudson’s Bay Company, under- ing presence, six feet four inches tall; took his overland journey around the his justice and dignity merited the title world in 1841, Dr. Rowand rode from of “Father of Oregon.’’ He died on Sep- Edmonton to Red River to meet him, tember 3, 1857, and was buried in the being attached to the expedition as physician. Between Fort Pitt and Ed- the first white men on record to visit monton “Mr. Rowand’s horse, stepping that place. into a badger hole, gave him a very After fording Bow River (South Sas- katchewan) they continued to the Con- tinental Divide, traversing the pass now bearing Simpson’s name. “We were much surrounded by peaks and crags on -whose summits lay perpetual snow. About seven hours of hard work brought us to the height of the land, the hinge, as it were, between the east- ern and western waters. We breakfasted on the level isthmus, which did not ex- ceed fourteen paces in width, filling our kettles for this lonely meal at once from the crystal sources of the Columbia and the Saskatchewan.’’ They blazed a tree on the summit of the pass and regis- tered their initials and the year: G S J R 1841. More than half a century later an outfitter, turning over a fallen, crumbling tree trunk, found and saved this inscription. It may still be seen in James Brewster’s house at Banff. Arriving at Fort Vancouver late in August, they missed seeing Dr. McLoughlin, who was then absent at Puget Sound. They had crossed North America in twelve weeks of actual trav- heavy fall, by which his face was much eling. Dr. Rowand accompanied Sir cut and by which, as appeared some George Simpson to Fort Stikine, to Cali- months afterwards, his breast bone was fornia, and Honolulu, returning thence broken.’’ However, with the fortitude in the Hudson’s Bay ship Vancouver to resume his post. He settled in Quebec which characterized the times, Dr. in 1847, and died there in February, Rowand continued with the party 1889. when it left Edmonton -westbound with forty-five horses on July 28. dr . ja mes hecto r was born in Edin- “In the spring of the year,’’ one reads burgh on March 16, 1834. His father in Simpson’s narrative, “Mr. Rowand was a conveyancer of note and Writer had secured as guide to conduct us as to the Signet, a friend of Walter Scott, far as the Rocky Mountains, a man of for whom he transcribed and translated the name of Peechee, who was a Chief old manuscripts. His mother was a of the Mountain Crees.’’ From Edmon- niece of Dr. Barclay, founder of the ton they traveled past Gull Lake, Royal College of Surgeons’ Museum of crossed Red Deer River and passed Edinburgh, and teacher of many re- through the present site of Banff, being nowned surgeons and anatomists. Hector, being early attracted to through which the Canadian Pacific chemistry and natural science, left his railroad was later built. father’s office and matriculated in 1852 I’he name commemorates a mishap at Edinburgh University, the medical course being at the time the only ap- proach to scientific study. As there was no chair of geology in the university, he took extra-academic lectures under Macadam and others, supplementing this by field knowledge obtained in hol- iday walks through Ireland and the Scotch Highlands. He received his de- gree of m.d . in 1856, his graduation thesis on “The Antiquity of Man-' bear- ing a title which Lyell later chose for his famous book. For a short time after taking his de- gree Hector acted as assistant to Sir J. Y. Simpson, but this was the only definitely medical position he ever held. Sir Roderick Murchison. Director- General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, selected Hector in March, 1857, to be surgeon and geol- ogist to the expedition, led by Captain John Palliser, to the western part of which nearly cost the doctor his life. British North America “to obtain cor- “One of our pack-horses,” he wrote, “to rect information with respect to the escape the fallen timber, plunged into facilities or difficulties of communica- the stream, luckily where it formed an tion between the Canadas and the eddy, but the banks were so steep that country west of Lake Superior and we had great difficulty in getting him north of the 49th Parallel.’’ out. In attempting to recatch my own The greater part of the scientific horse, which had strayed off while we work fell upon Dr. Hector. Besides were engaged with the one in the river, sharing the arduous work of the expe- he kicked me in the chest, but I had dition as a whole, he was also accus- luckily got close to him before he struck tomed, when the party went into winter out, so that I did not get the full force quarters, to take a man or two and, with of the blow. However, it knocked me Indian guides, to make long journeys down and rendered me senseless for on snowshoes and with dogsleds, under some time.” almost arctic conditions.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Oregon Historic Trails Report Book (1998)
    i ,' o () (\ ô OnBcox HrsroRrc Tnans Rpponr ô o o o. o o o o (--) -,J arJ-- ö o {" , ã. |¡ t I o t o I I r- L L L L L (- Presented by the Oregon Trails Coordinating Council L , May,I998 U (- Compiled by Karen Bassett, Jim Renner, and Joyce White. Copyright @ 1998 Oregon Trails Coordinating Council Salem, Oregon All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Oregon Historic Trails Report Table of Contents Executive summary 1 Project history 3 Introduction to Oregon's Historic Trails 7 Oregon's National Historic Trails 11 Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail I3 Oregon National Historic Trail. 27 Applegate National Historic Trail .41 Nez Perce National Historic Trail .63 Oregon's Historic Trails 75 Klamath Trail, 19th Century 17 Jedediah Smith Route, 1828 81 Nathaniel Wyeth Route, t83211834 99 Benjamin Bonneville Route, 1 833/1 834 .. 115 Ewing Young Route, 1834/1837 .. t29 V/hitman Mission Route, 184l-1847 . .. t4t Upper Columbia River Route, 1841-1851 .. 167 John Fremont Route, 1843 .. 183 Meek Cutoff, 1845 .. 199 Cutoff to the Barlow Road, 1848-1884 217 Free Emigrant Road, 1853 225 Santiam Wagon Road, 1865-1939 233 General recommendations . 241 Product development guidelines 243 Acknowledgements 241 Lewis & Clark OREGON National Historic Trail, 1804-1806 I I t . .....¡.. ,r la RivaÌ ï L (t ¡ ...--."f Pðiräldton r,i " 'f Route description I (_-- tt |".
    [Show full text]
  • George Simpson to John Mcloughlin, 1842
    George Simpson to John McLoughlin, 1842 By Governor George Simpson Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) Governor George Simpson wrote this short letter to John McLoughlin, chief factor of the company’s Columbia Department, on April 27, 1842, to inform him of the recent murder of his son, John McLoughlin, Jr. “Young John” was chief trader of Fort Stikine, a fur-trading post rented from the Russian American Company on the southeast Alaskan coast. This typescripted version was edited by E. E. Rich and published in 1943 in The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee, Second Series, 1839 – 44 John McLoughlin, Jr. was born on August 18, 1812. For most of his youth, he was raised apart from his father, primarily by his great-uncle, Simon Fraser. Although young John’s first appeal to join the ranks of the HBC was denied (by Simpson himself), his subsequent participation in James Dickson’s failed “Indian Liberating Army” in 1836 gave cause for Simpson to re-evaluate his earlier assessment. Simpson decided to offer young John, along with several other trouble-making “half-breeds” like him, positions in the company rather than have them unemployed and directionless within HBC trading territory. Young John was made chief trader of Fort Stikine during the spring of 1841. He was murdered there in April 1842. Simpson discovered the death of young John while on a tour of the Columbia Department’s coastal operations. Although his letter to McLoughlin was brief, Simpson’s depiction of the murder as “justifiable homicide” enraged the bereaved father.
    [Show full text]
  • Agricultural Development in Western Oregon, 1825-1861
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1-1-2011 The Pursuit of Commerce: Agricultural Development in Western Oregon, 1825-1861 Cessna R. Smith Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Smith, Cessna R., "The Pursuit of Commerce: Agricultural Development in Western Oregon, 1825-1861" (2011). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 258. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.258 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. The Pursuit of Commerce: Agricultural Development in Western Oregon, 1825-1861 by Cessna R. Smith A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Thesis Committee: William L. Lang, Chair David A. Horowitz David A. Johnson Barbara A. Brower Portland State University ©2011 ABSTRACT This thesis examines how the pursuit of commercial gain affected the development of agriculture in western Oregon’s Willamette, Umpqua, and Rogue River Valleys. The period of study begins when the British owned Hudson’s Bay Company began to farm land in and around Fort Vancouver in 1825, and ends in 1861—during the time when agrarian settlement was beginning to expand east of the Cascade Mountains. Given that agriculture
    [Show full text]
  • Mutiny on the Beaver 15 Mutiny on the Beaver: Law and Authority in the Fur Trade Navy, 1835-1840
    Mutiny on the Beaver 15 Mutiny on the Beaver: Law and Authority in the Fur Trade Navy, 1835-1840 Hamar Foster* ... I decided on leaving them to be dealt with through the slow process of the law, as being in the end more severe than a summary infliction." L INTRODUCTION IT IS CONVENTIONAL TO SEEK THE HISTORICAL ROOTS of British Columbia labour in the colonial era, that is to say, beginning in 1849 or thereabouts. That was when Britain established Vancouver Island, its first colony on the North Pacific coast, and granted the Hudson's 1991 CanLIIDocs 164 Bay Company fee simple title on the condition that they bring out settlers.' It is a good place to begin, because the first batch of colonists were not primarily gentlemen farmers or officials but coal miners and agricultural labourers, and neither the Company nor Vancouver Island lived up to their expectations.' The miners were Scots, brought in to help the Hudson's Bay Company diversify and exploit new resources in the face of declining fur trade profits, but * Hamar Foster is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, teaching a variety of subjects, including legal history. He has published widely in the field of Canadian legal history, as well as in other areas of law. James Douglas, Reporting to the Governor and Committee on the "Mutiny of the Beaver Crew, 1838", Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Hudson's Bay Company Archives [hereinafter HBCA] B. 223/6/21. ' In what follows the Hudson's Bay Company ("IHC') will be referred to as "they," etc., rather than "it".
    [Show full text]
  • Interpretation and Conclusions
    "LIKE NUGGETS FROM A GOLD MINEu SEARCHING FOR BRICKS AND THEIR MAKERS IN 'THE OREGON COUNTRY' B~f' Kmtm (1 COfwer~ ;\ th¢...i, ...uhmineJ Ilt SOIl(mla Slale UFU vcr,il y 11'1 partial fulfiUlT'Ietlt of the fCqlJln:mcntfi for the dcgr~ of MASTER OF ARTS tn Copyright 2011 by Kristin O. Converse ii AUTHORlZAnON FOR REPRODUCnON OF MASTER'S THESISIPROJECT 1pM' pernlt"j(m I~ n:pnll.lm.:til.m of Ihi$ rhais in ib endrel)" \Ii' !tbout runt\er uuthorilAtlOO fn.)m me. on the condiHt)Jllhat the per",)f1 Of a,eocy rl;!'(lucMing reproduction the "'OS$. and 1:Jf't)vi~ proper ackruJwkd,rnem nf auth.:If'l'htp. III “LIKE NUGGETS FROM A GOLD MINE” SEARCHING FOR BRICKS AND THEIR MAKERS IN „THE OREGON COUNTRY‟ Thesis by Kristin O. Converse ABSTRACT Purpose of the Study: The history of the Pacific Northwest has favored large, extractive and national industries such as the fur trade, mining, lumbering, fishing and farming over smaller pioneer enterprises. This multi-disciplinary study attempts to address that oversight by focusing on the early brickmakers in „the Oregon Country‟. Using a combination of archaeometry and historical research, this study attempts to make use of a humble and under- appreciated artifact – brick – to flesh out the forgotten details of the emergence of the brick industry, its role in the shifting local economy, as well as its producers and their economic strategies. Procedure: Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis was performed on 89 red, common bricks archaeologically recovered from Fort Vancouver and 113 comparative samples in an attempt to „source‟ the brick.
    [Show full text]
  • Ft Garry to Ft Ellice Via Souris River, Hind, 1858
    EXCERPTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE ASSINIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION OF 1858 GENERAL REPORT AND NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION The British North American Exploring Expedition, commonly called the Palliser Expedition, explored and surveyed the open prairies and rugged wilderness of western Canada from 1857 to 1860. The purpose of the expedition was to gather scientific information on Rupert's Land, including information on the geography, climate, soil, flora and fauna, to discover its capabilities for settlement and transportation. This was the first detailed and scientific survey of the region from Lake Superior to the southern passes of the Rocky Mountains.[2] The British portion of the expedition was led by John Palliser. Henry Youle Hind (1823–1908) was a Canadian geologist and explorer. He was born in Nottingham, England, and immigrated to Toronto, Ontario in 1846. He taught chemistry and geology at Trinity College in Toronto. Hind led the Canadian portion of the expedition to prairies in 1857 and 1858. In 1857, Hind’s “Red River Exploring Expedition” explored the Red and Assiniboine River valleys, and in 1858, the “Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition” explored the Assiniboine, Souris, Qu'Appelle, and South Saskatchewan River valleys. The expeditions are described in his reports “Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857” and “Reports of Progress on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition” in 1858. Following immediately below is the journal entry ‘Itinerary” version of Henry Youle Hind’s two week long journey from Fort Garry to Fort Ellice via the Souris River, during the summer of 1858. Following that summary version is Hind’s official account of the same journey.
    [Show full text]
  • Road to Oregon Written by Dr
    The Road to Oregon Written by Dr. Jim Tompkins, a prominent local historian and the descendant of Oregon Trail immigrants, The Road to Oregon is a good primer on the history of the Oregon Trail. Unit I. The Pioneers: 1800-1840 Who Explored the Oregon Trail? The emigrants of the 1840s were not the first to travel the Oregon Trail. The colorful history of our country makes heroes out of the explorers, mountain men, soldiers, and scientists who opened up the West. In 1540 the Spanish explorer Coronado ventured as far north as present-day Kansas, but the inland routes across the plains remained the sole domain of Native Americans until 1804, when Lewis and Clark skirted the edges on their epic journey of discovery to the Pacific Northwest and Zeb Pike explored the "Great American Desert," as the Great Plains were then known. The Lewis and Clark Expedition had a direct influence on the economy of the West even before the explorers had returned to St. Louis. Private John Colter left the expedition on the way home in 1806 to take up the fur trade business. For the next 20 years the likes of Manuel Lisa, Auguste and Pierre Choteau, William Ashley, James Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzgerald, and William Sublette roamed the West. These part romantic adventurers, part self-made entrepreneurs, part hermits were called mountain men. By 1829, Jedediah Smith knew more about the West than any other person alive. The Americans became involved in the fur trade in 1810 when John Jacob Astor, at the insistence of his friend Thomas Jefferson, founded the Pacific Fur Company in New York.
    [Show full text]
  • From Wasteland to Utopia: Changing Images of the Canadian in the Nineteeth Century
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1987 From Wasteland to Utopia: Changing Images of the Canadian in the Nineteeth Century R. Douglas Francis University of Calgary Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Francis, R. Douglas, "From Wasteland to Utopia: Changing Images of the Canadian in the Nineteeth Century" (1987). Great Plains Quarterly. 424. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/424 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. FROM WASTELAND TO UTOPIA CHANGING IMAGES OF THE CANADIAN WEST IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY R. DOUGLAS FRANCIS It is common knowledge that what one This region, possibly more than any other in perceives is greatly conditioned by what one North America, underwent significant wants or expects to see. Perception is not an changes in popular perception throughout the objective act that occurs independently of the nineteenth century largely because people's observer. One is an active agent in the process views of it were formed before they even saw and brings to one's awareness certain precon­ the region. 1 Being the last area of North ceived values, or a priori assumptions, that America to be settled, it had already acquired enable one to organize the deluge of objects, an imaginary presence in the public mind.
    [Show full text]
  • Interpreting the Tongass National Forest
    INTERPRETING THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST via the ALASKA MARINE HIGHWAY U. S. Department of Agriculture Alaska Region Forest Service INTERPRETING THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST By D. R. (Bob) Hakala Visitor Information Service Illustrations by Ann Pritchard Surveys and Maps U.S.D.A. Forest Service Juneau, Alaska TO OUR VISITORS The messages in this booklet have been heard by thousands of travelers to Southeast Alaska. They were prepared originally as tape recordings to be broadcast by means of message repeater systems on board the Alaska State ferries and commercial cruise vessels plying the Alaska waters of the Inside Passage. Public interest caused us to publish them in this form so they would be available to anyone on ships traveling through the Tongass country. The U.S.D.A. Forest Service, in cooperation with the State of Alaska, has developed the interpretive program for the Alaska Marine Highway (Inside Passage) because, as one of the messages says, "... most of the landward view is National Forest. The Forest Service and the State of Alaska share the objective of providing factual, meaning­ ful information which adds understanding and pride in Alaska and the National Forests within its boundaries." We hope these pages will enrich your recall of Alaska scenes and adventures. Charles Yates Regional Forester 1 CONTENTS 1. THE PASSAGE AHEAD 3 2. WELCOME-. 4 1. THE PASSAGE AHEAD 3. ALASKA DISCOVERY 5 4. INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY 6 5. TONGASS ISLAND 8 6. INDIANS OF SOUTHEAST ALASKA 10 Every place you travel is rich with history, nature lore, cul­ 7. CLIMATE 12 ture — the grand story of man and earth.
    [Show full text]
  • Full Text (PDF)
    Document generated on 09/24/2021 2:41 a.m. HSTC Bulletin Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology and Medecine Revue d’histoire des sciences, des techniques et de la médecine au Canada Mid-Nineteenth Century Cretaceous Studies in the Canadian Interior Plains W. O. Kupsch and W.G.E. Caldwell Volume 6, Number 2 (21), mai 1982 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/800136ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/800136ar See table of contents Publisher(s) HSTC Publications ISSN 0228-0086 (print) 1918-7742 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Kupsch, W. O. & Caldwell, W. (1982). Mid-Nineteenth Century Cretaceous Studies in the Canadian Interior Plains. HSTC Bulletin, 6(2), 59–84. https://doi.org/10.7202/800136ar Copyright © Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association / This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit Association pour l'histoire de la science et de la technologie au Canada, 1982 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 5 9 MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY CRETACEOUS STUDIES IN THE CANADIAN INTERIOR PLAINS W.O. Kupsch* and W.G.E. Caldwell* (Received 2 February 1981. Revised/Accepted 19 May 1982.) BACKGROUND TO THE BRITISH AND CANADIAN EXPEDITIONS Mid-nineteenth century geological exploration of the Western Interior Plains of North America, and particularly of the widespread, underlying Cretaceous rocks, has had a profound influence on developing notions of the geological evolution of the region.
    [Show full text]
  • CTUIR Traditional Use Study of Willamette Falls and Lower
    Traditional Use Study of Willamette Falls and the Lower Columbia River by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Jennifer Karson Engum, Ph.D. Cultural Resources Protection Program Report prepared for CTUIR Board of Trustees Fish and Wildlife Commission Cultural Resources Committee CAYUSE, UMATILLAANDWALLA WALLA TRIBES November 16, 2020 CONFEDERATED TRIBES of the Umatilla Indian Reservation 46411 Timíne Way PENDLETON, OREGON TREATY JUNE 9, 1855 REDACTED FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION Traditional Use Study of Willamette Falls and the Lower Columbia River by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Prepared by Jennifer Karson Engum, Ph.D. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Department of Natural Resources Cultural Resources Protection Program 46411 Timíne Way Pendleton, Oregon 97801 Prepared for CTUIR Board of Trustees Fish and Wildlife Commission Cultural Resources Committee November 16, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Umatilla (Imatalamłáma), Cayuse (Weyíiletpu), and Walla Walla (Walúulapam) peoples, who comprise the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), have traveled throughout the west, including to the lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers and to Willamette Falls, to exercise their reserved treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather the traditional subsistence resources known as the First Foods. They have been doing so since time immemorial, an important indigenous concept which describes a time continuum that spans from ancient times to present day. In post- contact years, interactions expanded to include explorers, traders and missionaries, who brought with them new opportunities for trade and intermarriage as well as the devastating circumstances brought by disease, warfare, and the reservation era. Through cultural adaptation and uninterrupted treaty rights, the CTUIR never ceased to continue to travel to the lower Columbia and Willamette River and falls for seasonal traditional practice and for other purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • MEASLES, 1847-1850 the First Modern Epidemic in British Columbia
    MEASLES, 1847-1850 The First Modern Epidemic in British Columbia R. M. GALOIS ITH THE ARRIVAL OF the steamer Beaver in 1836, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) brought modern industrial Wtechnology to the Northwest Coast. An unintended conse­ quence of this innovation was the enhanced mobility of Old- World diseases. In this instance, a combination of the Beaver; other HBC transportation systems and Native trading patterns produced the first epidemic to affect much of the area that is now British Columbia — the measles epidemic of 1847-1850. Similar interactions of disease, technology and culture have been described elsewhere.1 Here, I draw upon and expand the picture presented in a recent article by the American anthropologist Robert Boyd2 in order to argue that this measles epidemic, and not the smallpox epidemic of 1862-1863, was the first "modern" epidemic in British Columbia. Beginning in 1846, measles spread from the American Plains north­ wards to the Canadian Prairies and westwards across the Cordillera. Boyd demonstrates that the epidemic entered British Columbia from the Columbia River watershed via coastal and interior routes in the winter of 1847/48. I begin with the latter. INTERIOR ROUTES From Ft Colvile in December 1847, Boyd describes the spread of the measles to Kamloops and Ft Alexandria by early January 1848 (see Figures 1 and 2). To this, two additions can be made. First, there is 1 See A. J. Ray, "Diffusion of Diseases in the Western Interior of Canada, 1830-1850," Geograph­ ical Review 66 (1976): 139-157; C. D. Dollar, "The High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38," Western Historical Quarterly 8 (1977): 15-38.
    [Show full text]