In 1922, Harlan Smith photographed this Bella Coola man setting out on one of the Nuxaulk-Carrier grease trails with a box of valuable ooligan grease - renderedfrom a type of smelt.

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms o ur igMand

Wealth of the Northwest Coast

By Scott Byram and David 0. Lewis

With the Plains Indian Tribes, and I suspect the vast majority of the Indian groups, the most revered person was the scout. On his knowl edge and powers of observation the rest of the community vested their survival.... Lying by a scout was a dreadful act punished by death or banishment. Vine Deloria, Jr. Red Earth, White Lies, 1997

There is nothing improbable in the supposition, that the Indians in the Upper Mississippi and Missouri may have had early intercourse with the Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains, or even visited the Oregon in person, and given it some significant name of their own. Anonymous, 1839

quoted by Vernon F. Snow in "From Ouragan to Oregon," 1959

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Our!gan 127

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE HISTORY OF A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE IS PORTRAYED IN its geographical place names. In North America, these place names re flect both European colonial and indigenous experiences. With such disparate heritage, the origin of many place names is quite complex. Although the colonial origin of a name may be clear from compara tively recent written records, the deeper history of an indigenous place name is sometimes more difficult to bring to light. The challenge in volves finding ways to see through the veil of a North American geog raphy created during the colonization of Indian homelands. Although many historians have investigated the origin of the name Oregon, its original meaning has remained elusive. There is even uncer tainty as to its origin in North American Indian or European languages. In recent years, however, Northwest indigenous communities have been the subject of unprecedented research, as Indians from Northwest tribes have increasingly participated in cultural heritage studies. These efforts have shed new light on many aspects of Indian history in the North west, including further insight on the original meaning of the word Oregon. In addressing the source of this place name, this research ex plores the extent of indigenous geographic knowledge and cultural inter action across the North American continent during the eighteenth century' The place name Oregon first appeared in literature in 1778 when Jonathan Carver published Travels through the Interior Part of North America, a book widely read in England and the United States.2 Carver reported Indian accounts of a great river in the Northwest known as the River Oregon. Soon Oregon appeared on published maps of the west ern continent, in some cases as a name for the river we know today as the Columbia. By the early decades of the nineteenth century, the name described the region in the Northwest that now encompasses the prov ince of British Columbia and the states of Washington and Oregon. As boundary decisions were made between the United States and Canada, Oregon signified a northwest U.S. territory and finally the thirty-third state in the Union. One of the first of several scholars to examine this question was T.C. Elliott, who demonstrated in the 1920s that Jonathan Carver's Oregon was almost certainly borrowed from Robert Rogers's Ourigan, a place name that appeared in four documents written earlier than Carver's book.3 As cartographer on an unofficial expedition that Rogers orga nized, Carver had seen Rogers's communications before writing Trav els, and in his manuscript journal he uses Rogers's most frequent spell ing of the river name, Ourigan.4 Rogers was a British officer serving in the Great Lakes region in the early 1 760s, and while there he learned of a river route to the Pacific Ocean from Indians who had been to the Pacific Coast. He outlined this route in petitions submitted in 1765 and 1772 to King George's privy council, in which he sought funds to

128 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Photo by Lloyd L. Winter and Edwin P Pond, Alaska State Library, PCA 87-10

Traditionally, Northwest Coast peoples were known for their vibrant arts and wealth, including abundant natural resources. The interior of Tlingit Chief Klart-Reech's house in Chilkat, Alaska, shows some of his riches. The two intricately carved bentwood cedar boxes on the middle level are similar to those used to store ooligan grease for potlatch feasting.

support an expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage for trade shipping, and also in two 1766 letters to his agents James God dard and James Tute, whom Rogers intended to have explore the Pacific Coast.' Rogers's description of the route to the River Ourigan from the Great Lakes follows former Western Cree trade routes across the north ern Rockies to the upper Fraser River. According to Rogers, "the great River Ourigan [flows] through a vast, and most populous Tract of In dian Country to the Straits of Annian, and the Gulf or Bay projecting thence north-easterly into the Continent." Details of the River Ourigan's location closely match the location of the Fraser River. Furthermore, the Fraser lies within what was once a vast indigenous trading net work, known as the "grease trails." The key commodity traded through this network, which stretched from the Pacific Coast eastward across the Rockies, was the highly sought-after oil, or "grease," of the fish

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ounigan 129

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Historical Occurrences of the Word Ooligan and Its Variants throughout the Northwest

Grouped by location and tribal group; date of use, author or source, and spelling

Southeast Alaska (Tlingit) 1948 USGS euchalon 1971 Orth hooligan 1986 Schorr hulakon, eulachon 2000 Grandmother Teew hooligan

Nass River, B.C. (Tsimshian, Haida, Gitksan) 1834 Tolmie oolachan, oolaghan 1980 People of 'Ksan oolichan 1997 Miller oolichan, eulachon, ulaken, hooligans Ulkatcho, B.C. (Nuxaulk) 1982 Kuhnlein ooligan 1993 Boyd oolichan

SOUTHEAST ALASKA ULKATCHO, B.C. USGS and Donald J. Orth, Harriet Dictionary V Kuhnlein et al., "Ooliganof Alaska Grease: A Place Names (Washington, Nutritious D.C.: Fat U.S.Used by NativeGPO, People 1971); of Coastal Alan Edward Schorr, Alaska British Place Columbia," Names Journal of (Juneau,Ethnobiology 2:2 Alaska: Denali Press, 1986), (1982): 154; 46; Chief GrandmotherStan Boyd in Sage Birchwater, Teew (Tlingit elder), unpublished Ulkatcho: Stories of thejournal Grease Trail, Anahimrefer Lake, enced in letter from Caskey Bella Coola, Russell Quesnel (Anahim (Tlingit) Lake, B.C.: Ulkatcho to authors, August 2000, copy Culture of Curriculum journal Committee, in Russell's 1993), 5. possession. VANCOUVER ISLAND NASS RIVER, B.C. J.K. Lord, naturalist in Vancouver, Oxford English Dic William Fraser Tolmie, The Journals of William tionary, 2nd ed., s.v. "eulachon, oolakan";James Sewid, Frasier Tolmie, Physician and Fur Trader (Vancouver, Guests Never Leave Hungry: TheAutobiography ofJames B.C.: Mitchell Press, 1963), 275, 305, 314; People Sewid, a Kwakiutl Indian, ed. James P Spradley (New of 'Ksan, Gathering What the Great Nature Provided: Haven: Yale University Press, 1969), 31. Food Traditions of the Gitksan (Seattle: University FRASER RIVER, B.C. of Washington Press, 1980), 89-93; Jay Miller, McDonald-Fort Langley Post Journals in The Fort Tsimshian Culture: A Light Through the Ages (Lin Langley Journals, 1827-30, ed. Morag Maclachlan coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 17. (Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Press, 1998), 60, 108, 147.

130 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Vancouver Island (Kwakwaka'wakw) 1866 Lord eulachon 1969 Sewid olachen

Fraser River, B.C. (Cowitchan?) 1829 McDonald-Ft. Langley Post ulluchan 1830 McDonald-Ft. Langley Post ulachan

Columbia River (Chinook, Chinook Jargon) 1806 Lewis and Clark; ol-then, oll-can, ulken Ordway; Gass 1811 Franchere outhelekane 1811-1813 Ross ulichan 1812 Stuart uthulhun, uthlechan, uthlecan 1812 Astoria Post Journal uthelcan, uthlecan 1828 Fort Langley Post Journals ullachun 1836 Richardson oulachan 2000 Johnson ulxa'n

Alsea River (Alsea) 1849 Talbot olhuacan

COLUMBIA RIVER Astoria, ed. Robert F Jones (New York: Fordham Captain Meriwether Lewis University and William Press, Clark 1999),in 70, 72, 73, 83; Fort The Journals of the Lewis & Langley Clark Expedition, PostJournals vol. in The Fort LangleyJournals; 7, March 23-June 9, 1806, Sir ed. J. Gary Richardson, E. Moulton Fauna in Boreali-America, 226, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska cited in OxfordPress, 1990),English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. 12; SergeantJohn Ordway in"eulachon, TheJournals oolakan"; of Cap Tony Johnson (language tain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant specialist, John Confederated Ordway, Tribes of Grand Ronde), ed. Milo Quaife (Madison: personalState Historical communication Soci with authors, Septem ety of Wisconsin, 1916), ber329; 2000. P Gass, Journal, 1807:187 cited in Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ALSEA RIVER ed., s.v. "eulachon, oolakan"; Gabriel Franchere, Theodore Talbot in "Report to General Smith, Adventure at Astoria, 1810-1814 (Norman: Uni Fort Vancouver, Oregon, October 5, 1849," Re versity of Oklahoma Press, 1967), 113; Alexander port of the Secretary of War, Communicating Infor Ross, Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon mation in Relation to the Geology and Topography of or Columbia River (Corvallis: Oregon State Uni California, 31st Cong., 1st sess., 1850, S. Ex. Doc. versity Press, 2000), 108; Robert Stuart in The 47, serial 558, 112. Discovery of the Oregon Trail, ed. Philip Ashton Rollins (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), 30; Astoria Post Journal in Annals of

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ouigan 131

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Modified from a USGS relief map

* Northwestern and mid-continent North America, showing the grease trails region and the homelands and canoe routes of Western Cree and Assiniboine peoples. Historical accounts and archaeological findings indicate that there was ongoing trade between these two spheres before the arrival of Euroamericans.

Thaleichthys pacificus, commonly known by First Nations and Native American peoples as ooligan, oolichan, hooligan, and other variants." Probably because of its widespread trade and the great value placed on the grease throughout the region, ooligan was a common word in Chinook jargon, the trade language used in the Northwest. Though radically changed during the nineteenth century, Chinook jargon has strong foundations in the Northwest and includes several words that are shared with Algonquian languages such as Cree.7 Visitors to the Northwest Coast from east of the Rockies would likely have been fa miliar with trade-related words such as ooligan, but Cree speakers would have pronounced ooligan differently depending on their dialect. The [I] sound common to languages in the Northwest was not used in many dialects across the Rockies. For example, the Cree spoke various dia lects that, according to linguists, had transformed a Proto-Algonquian *1 sound into reflexes such as [n], [yI, and [r. The western-most Cree speakers used the [r] sound in place of the [1], and thus [uligan], or ooligan, would have been pronounced [urigan], or oorigan. Rogers')s Ourigan likely shared this pronunciation." The indigenous place name Ourigan may reflect Western Cree inter action with indigenous peoples west of the Rockies and awareness of

132 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms the astounding wealth of the Northwest Coast. On the central and north ern Northwest Coast, this wealth was celebrated in great potlatch feasts where ooligan was used in nearly every dish. In fact, there may be an even earlier relationship between Algonquian and Chinook Jargon (or its antecedent) reflected in the word ooligan. In his 1959 analysis of the origin of the word Oregon, historian Vernon Snow recognized that vari ants of the word were used in several Algonquian dialects to refer to a vessel, plate, or "greasy bark dish."9 Considering the two meanings of dish in English (the vessel and its contents), an earlier transposition of the noun's meaning seems plausible. Though Snow seems to have come much closer to Oregon's mean ing than previous researchers, even suggesting that it represented a trading commodity, he did not relate Rogers's Ourigan to Chinook Jargon trade words and the Northwest Coast. His research may have been ham pered by two widely held assumptions that now appear to be unfounded. The first is that the River Ourigan originally referred to the Columbia River and that the indigenous traders told Rogers of a more southerly Missouri-to-Columbia route across the Rockies. Rogers mentioned a Missouri River route in his second petition to the king but not in his more detailed instructions to James Tute, where he described a route across the northern Rockies. This discrepancy, along with Oregon's later association with the Columbia River, led researchers to assume that Oregon's original referent was within the boundaries of the United States. We know of no accounts of indigenous traders traveling a south erly route between European posts and the lower Columbia River be fore 1765.10 There are, however, several accounts describing Western Cree journeys between Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes in the east and the Fraser-Columbia Plateau and Northwest Coast in the west. The North Saskatchewan River seems to have been the most frequently plied route. Later use of these routes by fur-trade canoes confirms the superi ority of these over more southerly land routes. Furthermore, the dis tance from the east slope of the Rockies to the Pacific is much less in the north than at the head of the Missouri River, and the portage be tween navigable rivers is also much shorter there. The second misconception limiting research on the River Ourigan was acceptance of David Mandelbaum's 1940 model of eighteenth-cen tury Cree expansion into the West. Researchers interpreted written ac counts of Cree communities as evidence of migration westward from Hudson Bay in the eighteenth century This fit with the mistaken no tion that the Northern Plains was nearly uninhabitable until European goods and horses became available. In the last two decades, however, scholars of Cree history have shown that it was the Cree ethnic name that shifted westward, not the people, and they were well suited for life in the Northern Plains. Speakers of various Cree dialects, sometimes

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourgan 133

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms grouped today as the Western Cree, lived in the region between the east slope of the Rockies, Lake Athabasca, Hudson Bay, and the Manitoba Lakes now the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba from the time of the earliest records. Given the extent of their tradi tional lands and their skillful use of birch bark canoes in the region's waterways, the Western Cree were well positioned to conduct trade between the far Northwest and the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay" The Western Cree were closely allied with the Dakotan-speaking Assiniboine peoples who lived between the vast parklands of the up per Saskatchewan branches and the southern Manitoba Lakes. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, and likely much earlier, Western Cree and Assiniboine trade networks formed a mosaic of interaction spanning much of the northern continent. Canoe routes were at the heart of these networks. Cree society in particular played such an im portant role in indigenous trade that the Cree language has been re garded as the lingua franca of the Northern Plains, southern boreal forest, and Manitoba Lakes regions.'2 Written records of indigenous travels are limited, yet those we have encountered portray changing interaction between peoples east and west of the Rockies through the eighteenth century Accounts of visits to the Northwest Coast seem to have decreased in frequency as the century waned. One reason for this change may be the spread of diseases brought to the region by Europeans. Western Cree communities were devas tated by smallpox in the 1780s. Survivors coalesced as the Plains Cree, who were often involved in conflicts with neighboring peoples as they endeavored to rebuild their communities and deal with the pressures of Euroamerican expansion. During this period, fur-trade posts were established throughout the northern interior, and once far-reaching in digenous trade networks became more locally centered.'3 In this con text, place names for many faraway regions, such as Ourigan, may have gone out of use. At the same time, the common practice of Euroamerican explorers and mapmakers was to rename rivers, mountains, travel routes, and so forth after themselves, other Euroamericans, or new events and observations - a proclivity that led to the loss of many traditional place names in local vernacular.14

The Route Described by Rogers

DURING THE YEARS 1766 AND 1767, ROBERT ROGERS SERVED as governor and Indian agent at Michilimackinac, a British post located at the confluence of the western Great Lakes. As described in his two

134 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms petitions to King George, Rogers was actively pursuing exploration of a route to the Pacific Ocean, which he thought led to a Northwest Pas sage to Hudson Bay Although his information on the Northwest Pas sage was inaccurate, it appears he had knowledgeable sources for the proposed travel westward. The route described varies in the four docu ments, but Rogers's letter of commission to expedition leader James Tute holds the greatest detail. The letter describes a route to the River Ourigan via Lake Winnipeg and the fur-trade post of La Prairie (spelled La Praire and La Parrie by Rogers), which appears to have been on the Saskatchewan River:

... from Fort La Parrie you will travel West bearing to the Northwest and do you endeavour fall in with the great River Ourgan [sic] which rises in several different branches between the Latitudes Fifty six and forty eight and runs Westward for near three hundred Leagues, when it is at no great distance joined by one from the South and a little up the Stream by one from the North; about these forks you will find an Inhabited Country and great Riches.... From where the above Rivers join this great River Ourigan it becomes much larger and about four hundred Leagues as the River runs from this town abovementioned it discharges itself into an Arm or Bay of the Sea at near Lati tude of fifty four and bends southerdly and entys into the Pacifick Ocean about forty eight, nine or fifty .....1

The route from Fort La Prairie probably followed the North Saskatchewan, which has tributaries leading to passes that can be taken to both the Fraser and Columbia rivers.16 Rogers described the Ourigan as a large river, several hundred leagues in length, a description that fits either of these Northwest rivers, but the latitudinal positions he gave are astoundingly close to the actual location of the Fraser River.'7 The latitudinal coordinates of the Columbia River are farther south; and of the two rivers, only the Fraser enters a large strait like the one Rogers described in other documents. Rogers's description of the people living across the Rockies fits to some degree with Northwest Coast peoples and the residents of the Fraser Valley In this "most populous tract of Indian Country," he noted, the people had "great riches," lived in towns, and traded over vast dis tances but did not work iron ore. As in other accounts from the period, the wealth of the Northwest Coast appears to have been transformed into gold through retelling: "the Inhabitants carry their Gold near Two thousand Miles to Traffick with the Japancies...." Although the Fraser goldfields lay along this route, there are no indications that Native people were trading this resource at this time, and Rogers's 1772 petition con tains no references to gold possessed by Northwest peoples.

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 135

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The detail of Rogers's information and particularly its close corre spondence with Northwest geography indicate that his sources had extensive geographic knowledge of the region. Ethnohistoric material from northwest of the Great Lakes indicates that many Western Cree people traveled beyond the Rockies for trade and raiding. Rogers may have met some of these travelers before writing his first petition to the king in 1765; at least by 1767 there were Western Cree and allied Assiniboine traders at the Great Lakes who had previously been to the far Northwest across the Rockies. Rogers would have had opportuni ties to discuss geography with these people, along with their French Canadian and Metis associates, while he served as governor and Indian agent at Michilimackinac in 1766-1767.'" As to the geographic accuracy of the route west, it was common for Indian traders and scouts to have detailed information about landscape and cultural features, and many early Indian maps maintained constant scale over vast areas.'9 Route maps were often distinct from maps of regional geography, though it appears Rogers had both types of infor mation. Historically, the Cree were expert canoeists; and, according to geographer David Pentland, they possessed "a profound knowledge of the drainage systems they used for travel." Furthermore, "familiarity with the entire river system is reflected in Cree [place naming]." Geo graphic knowledge and place names were often shared among Cree groups at large annual gatherings.20 As early as the 1 740s at Hudson Bay and in early records from the Northwest, latitudinal coordinates were estimated based on Indian reports, often with impressive accu racy. For example, while at Fort Simpson on the Nass River, knowl edgeable Northwest Coast Indians told George Simpson that the Fraser falls into a strait at fifty degrees north latitude, which is within one degree of this river's influent. The breadth of this geographic knowl

Latitudinal coordinates given by Rogers for the River Ourigan in his written commission to James Tute and on the Fraser and Columbia rivers

Rogers's Fraser Columbia Feature Ourigan River River

Northern edge of river basin 56 ? 56.3 ? 52.8 ? Southern edge of river basin 480 48.70 41.10 First major southerly bend 540 54.2? 52.1? Provenience of river mouth -49 0 49.2 ? 46.3 ?

136 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms edge can be seen in Western Cree historic accounts and maps based on individual observations and tribal oral histories.2'

Western Cree Travels to the Northwest

TRADE AND OTHER CULTURAL INTERACTION ACROSS THE northern Rockies has been conducted for several millennia. Northwest trade items such as obsidian stone tools and dentalium marine shell ornaments have been found in several sites east of the Rockies, even to the east of the Great Lakes. Archaeologists have proposed that these links between the Pacific Coast and the Northern Plains/Great Lakes may be the oldest long-distance trade patterns that Plains communities were involved in. Historically, the value of Pacific Coast trade orna ments among mid-continent peoples is well documented.22 The earliest written accounts of Western Cree journeys to the North west appear in the journals and reports of French and British traders and military personnel at Hudson Bay in the early eighteenth century Accounts of Cree travel to the Pacific Ocean were recorded in the con text of the search for a Northwest Passage to the Pacific. French trader Nicolas Jeremie, who was at Hudson Bay from 1694 to 1714, later wrote that the Maskegon (Swampy Cree) people with whom he traded had told him of a cross-continental trip to the Northwest Coast,

... after several months travel to the west south west they have found the sea on which they have seen large canoes, (these are ships) with men who have beards and who wear caps, and who gather gold on the shore of the sea (they mean the mouths of rivers).23

This and similar accounts have often been interpreted as references to Europeans, or "bearded white men from ships gathering gold."24 Yet many Northwest Coast men wore hats, had beards, and traveled in large canoes. They also harvested much of their wealth from the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though they are not known to have gathered gold. Use of the word gold in this account, as in Rogers's commission to Tute, may result from an inaccurate translation of indigenous terms for wealth or specific wealth items such as shell money, copper, and ooligan. Another influence on the translation of these terms would have been the proclivity of Europeans to seek gold when exploring uncharted regions.25 This issue aside, Jeremie's account of Cree observations shares wording with other accounts from the same period, suggesting that this may have been an ethnic caricature of Northwest Coast peoples by Cree scouts and traders.26 Another account is from Joseph Robson,

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ouigan 137

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Map in the collections of the National Archives of Canada, NMC 24561

les nouvlles decuvertes e l'ouet en Canada"7 demons -traztes th bradt. fgorpi

knowledge held by Indians of the Northern Plains and Manitoba Lakes regions in the 1 730s. The superimposed letters mark (A) Hudson Bay; (B) Lake Superior; (C) Lake Winnipeg; (D) Saskatchewan River; (E) "height of land," or Rocky Mountains; (F) mouth of a river flowing into the Pacific in a region of inshore straits, large towns, forts of "the whites," and a large, settled island; and (G) source of the Mississippi. Derived partly from expedition observations in the Manitoba Lakes region and more from Indian maps and accounts of more distant places, the map is probably a composite of Indian route maps rather than a depiction of the relative locations of and distances between geographic features. In this sense, locality F may represent the mouth of the Fraser River and Vancouver Island, while the two rivers between F and C may be the upper main branch and Snake River branch of the Columbia River.

138 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms who lived at Hudson Bay in the 1730s-1740s as an officer for the Hudson's Bay Company He spoke with

the Indians dwelling upon Nelson and Churchill-rivers, who say, that they have been upon rivers that run a contrary course to those in the Bay; and at the western sea on the other side of the land, where they have seen ships.27

Arthur Dobbs, who likely met Robert Rogers in the early 1760s, assembled accounts of a Northwest Passage and recorded the testi mony of Joseph La France in 1742.28 La France was Metis, his mother Saulteaux, and his father French Canadian. He had spent most of his life at Michilimackinac and lived for a time with a Cree community in the Manitoba Lakes region. A Cree man at Churchill told him of a journey he had taken across the Rockies, apparently in the 1720s. Sev eral Cree families had traveled for many months to the Northwest Coast to raid their enemies, the Tete Plat. La France's account includes de scriptive detail of the Northwest Coast: islands and tidewater channels, numerous orcas in the sea, and an encounter with people in a large coastal settlement who were surprised by the Cree party's firearms. The name Tete Plat, or Flat Head, was later applied to a tribe in the Rocky Mountains; but in earlier times it may have been used to indicate people who practiced head shaping, including several coastal groups from Oregon northward to British Columbia, and tribes within the ooligan grease-trails region.29 This extended journey by a Cree party to the Northwest Coast and back indicates that, decades before smallpox devastated communities along the rivers west of Hudson Bay, conflict sometimes superceded trade in tribal interaction among people in these regions. Environmen tal change may have played a role in this event. Only a generation be fore this undertaking, several Northwest Coast villages had been deci mated by a massive Cascadia earthquake and tsunami, possibly setting the stage for the kind of outsider incursions described by La France.30 In the 1730s, the French began to establish interior posts north west of Lake Superior. French traders gained knowledge of the Rocky Mountains over the next two decades, and they continued to seek a route to the Pacific Ocean while establishing trading relationships with local communities. The initial effort was undertaken by La Verendrye and his associates, who set up trading forts between the Great Lakes and the lower Saskatchewan River. La V&rendrye's reports contain sev eral accounts of people who crossed "the height of land" (i.e., the Rocky Mountains) and explored the interior and coastal lands of the North west. His 1730 report includes an account given by Crees from Lake of the Woods who related that a journey to and from the sea via the western river takes from March until November.3'

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourlgan 139

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Courtesy Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, BC, PN 4279

The vast ooligan fisheries at Fishery Bay on the Nass River in British Columbia inspired huge trade gatherings centered on ooligan grease. People came from hundreds of miles away by canoe or along the grease trails to partake in the fishing, trade, and celebration. Although smelt runs have declined along much of the Northwest Coast, they are still abundant in the Nass and other central British Columbia estuaries.

La VWrendrye also spoke with a chief of the Mongsoaeythinyuwok, an Algonquian band southwest of Hudson Bay that is closely related to the Cree. This chief had crossed the height of land in 1728 and in the Northwest saw "white" people who, with no axes, were able to saw wood into boards and had boats but no guns. He appears to depict the celebrated woodworking traditions of Northwest Coast peoples. This source is one of a handful in which apparent Northwest Coast indig enous peoples are described as being "white people." This perceived racial difference may stem from Northwest peoples' clothing, architec ture, and large boats as well as their light skin color and common male facial hair.312 Seven years later, La Wrendrye reported:

The Cree who gave me a drawing of the Blanche [Saskatchewan] river have traveled five days' journey beyond the height of land, going down the river, which they call the River of the West, and were surprised to find a quite different

140 Oregon Historical Quarterly /Summer 2001 I Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms climate in respect to temperature, with different fruits and trees with which they were not acquainted.... The upper part of the River of the West is inhabited by wandering savages like the Assiniboin, called Pikaraminiouach, very numerous, without fire-arms, but possessing axes, knives, and cloth like ourselves, which they get from down the river where white men dwell who have walled towns and forts. These whites have no knowledge of fire-arms or of prayer. The distance from the height of land to the sea may be three hundred leagues. The Cree have no knowledge of these men except through the slaves they have made after having crossed the height of land; the tribe in question carry their tents or dwellings with them like the Assiniboin.33

This account indicates that the Western Cree interacted with interior tribes across the Rockies. In this case, they learned of Northwest Coast peoples indirectly from captives, and they are again depicted as white people. Other aspects of the account fortified settlements and a lack of European firearms and Western religion - imply that they were not Europeans. There are several historic accounts of Native forts in towns along the Fraser River but none that we know of from the Columbia.34 Indians wore woolen textiles and used metal tools in the Northwest at this time, the tools possibly attained through trade from the coast or from Western Cree traders.35 By 1749, La Vrendrye had determined that the Saskatchewan River was the most suitable route from the interior lakes region to the Pacific Ocean.36 The maps generated by his associates, in large part based on Indian maps and accounts, illustrate the prominence of a Saskatchewan route to the Rockies and the Pacific Coast.37 During the next three years, La Verendrye's successor, St. Pierre and associates, established forts on the upper Saskatchewan. They may have established Fort La Prairie, which Robert Rogers later identified as the launching point for travel to the River Ourigan. While in the west, St. Pierre's party learned that tribes from the Saskatchewan Valley carried hides to the Pacific Coast to trade for metal goods and other items.38 Altogether, the records of European military personnel and traders at Hudson Bay and in the interior, prior to the 1760s, demonstrate that the Saskatchewan was a major route that the Western Cree followed when crossing the Rockies to trade and sometimes to raid. The objec tives were often an interior river valley and ultimately the Northwest Coast and a large strait or bay The war between the British and French, which lasted from 1753 to 1763, reduced the supply of French trade goods coming from the Great Lakes. Following the British victory, trade supplies increased along the St. Lawrence River, and tribes northwest of the Great Lakes took steps to initiate trade contacts at former French posts such as Michilimackinac.39 Major Robert Rogers played a key role in British

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ounrgan 141

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms expansion into the region during the 1 760s, and it is in this context that Rogers seems to have learned of the River Ourigan as a route to the Pacific Ocean. Carver's Travels provides further support for Northwest travel by Cree and Assiniboine traders during this decade, and his in teraction with the Cree is also recorded in his original journal.40 With the exception of Rogers's and Carver's documents, published records from Euroamericans during this decade provide little information about tribal interaction across the northern Rockies. During the last decades of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth century, numerous fur-trade forts were established in the interior west of Hudson Day and the Great Lakes. The Plains Cree appear to have shifted their economic focus, reducing their long-dis tance trade and intensifying buffalo hunting in the Northern Plains, though they continued to travel across the Rockies. The journals of traders such as Daniel Harmon, Alexander Henry, Duncan McGillvray, and Alexander MacKenzie depict the Plains Cree and Assiniboine raid ing for captives, fishing, and trading along the Fraser and Columbia rivers.4' Captives may have been especially importat at this time, as communities were recovering from losses due to disease and warfare. In this context, feast foods such as ooligan grease may not have been sought after as much as they probably were in earlier decades, when interaction between people at the Manitoba Lakes and the Northwest Coast appears to have been more extensive.

Ooligan and Northwest Coast Peoples

ON THE NORTHWEST COAST, THE EFFECT OF THE FUR COM pany presence on some traditional economies was not as great. There ooligan grease remained widely valued through the nineteenth century, and it is still valued in many indigenous communities today Through out the region, anadromous fishes such as salmon were the foundation of Indians' economies and culture, as they still are in many places. Salmon are the most well-known anadromous fish, but others such as Pacific lamprey, sturgeon, and many varieties of smelt (including ooligan) have also been key resources. Distant cousins to the salmon, smelt are small fish known for their migrations to spawn in sandy beach locali ties. Even today, Indians from California to Alaska return each year to outer-coast fish camps to take advantage of surf smelt spawns. The smelts are often caught on the beach using frame nets to scoop them from the surf. This is the case in northern California, where surf smelt are caught with A-frame nets and sun-dried by the Tolowa people of Smith River Rancheria.42

142 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Detail, OHS neg., OrHi 102935 Some smelts, including ooligan, are more often caught in estuaries, including the tide water portions of the Columbia, Nass, and Fraser rivers. California's Klamath River also has a large run of ooligan, and this fish is known to run in many of the coastal estuar ies of Oregon and Washington. On the Co lumbia River and in British Columbia, ooligan were harvested by men standing in I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ canoes and hauling the fish into boats with dip nets or fish rakes, using "curved blades set with bone or wooden teeth.... Chinooks, Clatsops, Wehkiakums, and Kathlamets rake A bucket of smelt caught on the in swarms of these tiny creatures, knocking Sandy River in Oregon them into the bottoms of their canoes." Ad ditionally, net traps, seine nets, and pens are also used to catch ooligan.43 Highly productive ooligan fisheries are still on the Nass and Skeena rivers of western British Columbia. For centuries, the springtime ooligan grease trade dominated cultural relations between the Tsimshian of this region and their neighbors. Every year vast schools appear, turning the estuaries "black with ooligans."44 At the Nass River fisheries, large groups from the interior, the northern coast, and the Queen Charlotte Islands gathered in early spring to harvest and trade for ooligan and the valu able grease rendered from the fish.45 There, many families bagged be tween five and ten tons of fish by run's end and then spent the next weeks rendering the grease and preparing it for transport and trade. On the northern British Columbia and southeast Alaska coast, the grease served as a respite in the harsh late winter months when food stores were depleted. For this reason, the ooligan is known as the "sav ior" and "preserver" fish.46 The grease was widely valued, and people traveled hundreds of miles to share in the bounty Haida people trav eled to the mainland to trade for the dried smelt and grease, and they often purchased mainland coastal fishing rights from the Tsimshian. In the 1820s, George Simpson termed the annual Nass trade fair "the grand mart of the Coast," and John McLoughlin noted, "more Land Furs are traded at Nass than at any other place along the Coast." Trade at the Nass River was comparable to that at The Dalles on the Columbia River, where ooligan oil was also a key trade item.47 The skins of beaver and moose, moose meat, freshwater fish, soap berries, and other items reached the Nass trade fair and Bella Coola through the ooligan grease trail network. Other items traded along this network include obsidian tool stone from Lake Adziza and Anahim Mountain, dentalium shell, pemmican and dried berries, and manufac tured items, such as intricately carved bentwood cedar boxes, mocca

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 143

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Courtesy BC Archives, H-06863

Stink boxes are used toferment the ooliganfor a week before rendering them into valuable grease. Wooden canoes are sometimes used as stink boxes. This image shows a Bella Coola woman in the 1 920s.

sins, gloves, and buckskin coats.48 The grease trails were used for other purposes as well: to visit friends and family; to access important hunt ing, fishing, and gathering areas; and, at times, to wage war.49 The grease trails enabled the coastal Nuxalk and Gitksan and the interior Carrier, Sekani, and other Athabaskan speakers to travel through moun tainous country to various camps as they pursued their seasonal rounds.50 Some segments of the route had suspension bridges and links to canoe routes in the lowlands, while others crossed over treach erous mountain passes in the Coast Range and the Rocky Mountains.5" These "highways of commerce and communication," continuing in use "since time immemorial," still exist in western British Columbia, some overlain by modern highways.52 Continued use of these routes is tes tament to the efficacy of indigenous trade networks through forbid ding country On the Columbia River, ooligan had to take its place among many other highly productive fisheries. As a more southerly and warmer locality, the Columbia River region contains more diversity in its sea sonal aquatic and terrestrial resources than British Columbia does. Ooligan was considered by Astorian Gabriel Franchere to be a "wel come change which we badly needed for our provisions were poor in

144 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms quality and limited in quantity."53 Robert Stuart observed that "uthulhuns [were] taken in immense numbers from March to April on the Colum bia River.... The Astorians traded extensively with the Clatsops for fish and game throughout the year. From February 2 to April 19, 1812, post journal records describe canoes laden with ooligan going past the post and many trades with the Clatsops for dried ooligan after the run ended for the year.55 Alexander Ross of Astoria wrote, "the ulichans are gener ally an article of trade with distant tribes as they are caught only at the entrance of large rivers.... they are dried, smoked, [strung] and sold by the fathom, hence they have obtained the name of fathom fish."56 For Columbia River tribes, ooligan was a valuable trade item. The term grease trail does not seem to have been used south of the Canadian border, yet there is evidence that dried ooligan and ooligan oil were key trade items in the extensive Columbia River trade network from the tidewater fisheries to the interior; and it was the Columbia River tribes who used the Chinook Jargon trade language, which spread the word ooligan throughout the Northwest. In 1840, James Douglas described how coastal tribes traded far into the interior as part of the Chilcat "circle of life."57 In this world view, the exchange of goods is part of the seasonal cycles, potlatches, and clan relationships of the inland peoples, just as the trade goods of the inland regions are a regular part of the coastal cultures. These long term relationships have ensured the cultural continuity of the inter related seasonal patterns of the coastal and inland indigenous peoples. "The cultural significance of ooligan grease cannot be underestimated, as it was, and continues to be, a prominent food and gift during feasts and potlatch ceremonies." The ceremonial feast or potlatch, in which ooligan plays a key role, is where the law is made and reaffirmed for the Witsuwit'en Athapascans.58 Clanships host intertribal feasts to affirm their right to own land for hunting and fishing places, and intertribal marriages form the basis for forging ties across languages and for shar ing ideas. Cultural continuity and relationship can be seen on the North west Coast in the clan relationships that extend from the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands to the Sekani of the northern Rockies.59 Much of the trade across cultural and language groups happened only within the clanship. One example of cultural continuity is in the myth "Origin of the Oolachen Fish," which is substantially the same for both the Haida and the Tinne (Athabaskan) people of the interior.60 For the Kwakwaka'wakw, ooligan grease is an important part of the potlatch ceremony. Franz Boas recorded that tribal chiefs would hold "grease feasts . . . in order to destroy the prestige of the rival" chiefs. The ooligan grease feast was the most expensive of all the feasts, "at which enormous quantities of fish oil [made of the oulachon] are consumed

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourgan 145

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Courtesy BC Archives, C-07437

People processing oolichan on the Nass River around 1884. The ooligan grease contributes greatly to a family's wealth and status in society. Connoisseurs can distinguish eachjfamily's own recipe for rendering the grease.

and burnt. .."During a grease feast, the central fire is built up to the point of scorching the guests in order for the host to conquer them, and "grease is poured into the fire so that the blankets of the guests get scorched."16'1 This serves to raise the prestige of the host who can afford to give such a feast, expending enormous quantities of the valued re source. If the rival chief is not able to respond with a similar potlatch and destroy an equal amount of property, then his name is "broken" and he suffers a loss of prestige. The Kwakwaka'wakw were a central group in the ooligan grease trade and traded with the interior Fraser River peoples for inland trade items.62 Qoligan grease was frequently packed in cedar boxes and carried into the interior by large parties of people. While surveying for the Pacific Railway in 1872, Charles Horetzky noticed that

more than one hundred [Kitseguecla Indians] must have passed us, and they were, without a single exception, not only the men, but also the women and children, laden with large cedar boxes, of the size and shape of tea-chests, which were filled with the rendered grease of the candle fish caught in the Nass waters.

The Tsimshian packed grease boxes using a tumpline, with men and

146 Oregon Historical Quarterly s Summer 2001 InVol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms women carrying an average of 150 pounds of grease on their backs and children and dogs carrying loads as well.63 The ooligan grease also attracted the Haida, Tlingit, Kwakwaka'wakw, and northern Eyak to the Nass and Skeena rivers to trade with the Tsimshian. Much like the early accounts of Northwest Coast wealth from the Western Cree,

the lure of the grease was like the lure of gold, and every year most of [the Gitksan] trekked off loaded with all of the surplus meat or fur they could muster to exchange for the prestigious grease, and to enjoy the reunions and trade opportunities.64

Ooligan grease can remain preserved for years; and, unlike most other animal oils, it has the consistency of butter or lard, thickening to a solid in cool temperatures. This facilitates transport and enhances its value as a condiment. The Tsimshian prepare the ooligan by allowing them to ferment in "stink boxes," a term that reflects the potent smell of the fish during the rendering process. After a week, the fermented ooligan are cooked in canoes or wooden boilers at low temperature, and the oil that floats to the top is skimmed off. The oil is then cooked a second time to remove impurities and finally cooled in cedar boxes for storage and trade.65 Ooligan grease is highly nutritious. There is a widespread prefer ence for fatty meat among hunter/fisher populations, and fish oil and other fats were a fundamental part of the diet for Northwest Coast peoples.66 Besides ooligan, the oil of salmon, black cod, and other fish was important on the Northwest Coast, as was the oil of sea mammals. For interior peoples who relied heavily on hunting, the ooligan grease trade may have been part of a much larger need for extra fats during lean winter periods. In addition to being an important item in the diet, ooligan grease was used as a food preservative, a medicine, and a food supplement and to preserve leather. Among the Nuxalk, ooligan grease had diverse uses as a food, a medicine, a polish for wooden imple ments, and waterproofing for canoes. In the Tlingit village of Klawock, hooligan grease was a dietary staple, used in flavoring dishes such as boiled fish and seaweed. Traditionally, they considered it the "main reason the people were healthy." Similarly, the Gitksan call it ha la mootxw, which means "for curing humanity."67 For centuries indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast celebrated their region's wealth through trade, potlatch feasting, giveaways, and flourishing art traditions. These economic systems were drastically changed with the arrival of Russian, Spanish, English, French Cana dian, and American explorers and traders on the Pacific Coast. Initially, non-indigenous trade items such as metals and glass beads were traded through traditional networks; but as the region was charted, harbors

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 147

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms and posts were established that altered the center of trade for the whole region. The Indians near key trading locations became wealthy as inter mediaries between foreign traders and other far-ranging Native groups. Eventually, the values of European or non-Native goods supplanted many indigenous wealth items. Ooligan grease, however, maintained its status as a wealth item and is still valued by many Native families in the Pacific Northwest. In 1978, for example, a gallon of grease was worth eighty-five dollars in Bella Coola.68 Because of the effects of the fur trade and Euroamerican settlement on indigenous trade networks, the value Western Cree peoples may have once placed on this resource can only be estimated. It is clear that these groups appreciated the wealth of Northwest Coast peoples and that they traded and raided for resources west of the Rockies along the ooligan grease trails. At the peak of its abundance in spring, when stored foods ran low and fatty meat was scarce in the interior, ooligan grease may have been especially welcomed by travelers from east of the Rockies. Whether it was pronounced Qoligan or Ourigan, this would have been a fitting name for the region and the great river that people followed to reach the wealth of the Northwest Coast.

Language and Trade across the Continent

LONGSTANDING TRADE AND OTHER INTERACTION AMONG Indian communities across the Rockies and throughout the Northwest is reflected in the languages of the Northern Plains and the Northwest. Perhaps the strongest linguistic connection is in the affinity of both Yurok and Wiyot on the northern California coast with the Algonquian language family east of the Rockies. The two western languages are thought to have split from Algonquian several centuries ago.69 Other indications of cross-continent interaction are seen in trade words used across language families and in jargons. The best known examples from these regions are the widespread use of Cree as a linguafranca on the Northern Plains and Chinook Jargon in the Northwest. Each facili tated trade and other interaction where numerous languages and dia lects were spoken.70 The Northwest in particular held some of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world, and trade languages were especially important at large trade centers such as The Dalles, Lillooet, and the Nass. Other jargons were used during the maritime fur-trade years, including Nootka Jargon on west Vancouver Island and Haida Jargon in the north. Over the countless generations people have lived in the Northwest, many trade languages have likely come and gone, but Chinook Jargon seems to have

148 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Courtesy BC Archives, C-07435

In addition to being rendered for grease, ooligans were dried on racks for winter storage and for trade. The dried fish is so rich in fat that it is easily burned, which is why it is sometimes called the "candlefish. " These drying racks were photographed on the Nass River around 1884. been the most prominent at the time Europeans arrived and began keeping written records. It grew even more so during the fur-trade years."t Northwest Native peoples have always held great respect for linguistic diversity, seeing language as a foundation for group identity and unique ness. Traditionally, it was common for visitors to converse in the language of their hosts. Yet, through the first half of the nineteenth century, many traders and missionaries increasingly claimed hosts' privilege when it came to language, though they were on land belonging to people of other na tions. This practice set the stage for both the development of Chinook Jargon into a primary language for some people and its subsequent spread throughout the Plateau and Northwest Coast.72 just as the purported eighteenth-century migration of the Cree onto the Northern Plains has been heavily debated, so too is the genesis and extent of Chinook jargon before the fur trade. Yet, the widespread use in the Northwest of certain "trade words" from Chinookan, Coast Salish, and Nootkan is evident in the earliest written accounts from the region, and many of these words became part of Chinook Jargon. This set of

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 149

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms OHS Research Library, OrHi 102934 widely used trade words also includes a small number of Algonquian words, some of which were clearly in use before fur traders established interi or posts in the Northwest. Whether these accounts represent use of a lim ited set of trade words, a full jargon, or a lingua franca may be debated; F, : U. ii ; ., but they do indicate extensive trade and cultural interaction over great 4d.C.'.rJ< A'.. Mt, 8 distances prior to European presence in the Northwest. A.4 While these early inter-regional ,44~~~~~~~4X trade words signify a variety of cultur /~~~ al items and activities, three groups of words stand out in prevalence. These are words for starch-rich plant foods, hides and hide-related prod ucts, and special trade items some times related to currency Each of these groupings includes trade goods that were abundant in some regions and limited or unavailable William Clark's drawing in others. of a eulachon, from The OriginalJournals For twentieth-centuryof Lewvis North and Clark, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites Americans it may be hard to envi sion that carbohydrates, and starch in particular, were once hard to come by On the Plateau and in western Oregon and Washington, plants such as oak acorns, camas, wapato, and biscuit root supplied starch calories in abundance, especially where these were tended by harvesters and managed through controlled burn ing. In more northerly parts of the coast and interior, however, the land yielded fewer starchy foods, so they were valued trade goods. Some of the earliest records of the Northwest interior mention trade in camas bulbs and wapato roots, two widely valued nutritious plant foods.73 A third, related word is sapolil, which refers to a flour or bread made from wapato, biscuit root, and other edible roots. Linguists have shown that the word wapato is Algonquian in origin, and camas appears to be from Nuu-chah-nulth on western Vancouver Island. All three words were used from the Rockies to the coast in the earliest records, reflect ing widespread trade.74 Several words relating to hides indicate similar language influences. The word clamen, or clemel, for prepared elk hide or armor was used from the Chinook in the south, suppliers of the hides, to the Tlingit

150 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms and other peoples in the north. Thenorthern coastal peoples used clemels as armor during warfare. Similarly, moose and buffalo hides were traded westward across the Rockies in great quantities, frequently from Algonquian-speaking peoples. Hides were the key trade good moving westward on the grease trails. This trade is reflected in words of Algonquian origin appearing in many Northwest languages and Chi nook Jargon, including mus-tus or mus-mus (buffalo), mitass (leggings), and pishemo (leather saddle blanket)." Some valued trade items served as currency Typically these were items or materials that were of very limited availability The word chik, or tsik, appears to be Yurok or Wiyot in origin and was used in much of the Northwest in reference to money, shell currency, and metal, some times in composite words such as chicamin (metal) and alacachic (shell money). The most common form of shell currency in the Northwest was dentalium, known as hiaqua. Variants of this Nuu-chah-nulth word were used by many different peoples, some as far east as the Great Lakes, where hiaqua was extremely valuable, especially before fur com panies brought large supplies into the region.76 Trade terms for starchy foods, hides, and currency reflect differing geographic availability and need through the Northwest and Northern Plains. Ooligan belongs on this list as well. As the cornerstone of a vast northwest trade network, ooligan grease was certainly among the most important trade items, particularly in British Columbia and southeast Alaska. Though the word ooligan became ubiquitous on the Northwest Coast, it did not supplant other words for this important fish or its grease in many local languages.77 Yet, coupled with the intensive use of the valued trade good it represented, the ubiquity of this word suggests that ooligan was also a trade word known in much of the Northwest and even across the Rockies during the eighteenth century, when Rob ert Rogers and his associates sought a route across the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean.78

Conclusion

PLACE-NAMING HOLDS ENORMOUS POLITICAL AND SOCIAL power, and Euroamericans used place names to define the landscapes they colonized. In 1765, Robert Rogers may not have perceived that Ourigan symbolized the wealth of the Northwest Coast when he heard this name from people living east of the Rockies, yet he seems to have passed this meaning on to others. Carver brought the word into the English lexicon, attaching Oregon to the legendary "River of the West." By the nineteenth century, the meaning of Oregon had been transformed,

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 151

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms no longer referring to the wealth of Indian fisheries but to potentially vast farming and mining resources sought by Euroamerican colonists. To Americans in the East, Oregon represented a route for explora tion and an artery of commerce and economic development. It was a pathway for settlement, the key to perpetuating the Jeffersonian agrar ian ideal. As James Ronda observed, "However it was spelled, Ouragon, Ourigan, or Ourgan - the invented place captured the imagination. It was the westernmost place, the Eden at the end of the rainbow."79 In this sense, Oregon meant freedom and opportunity for Euroamericans leaving crowded eastern valleys. For Indians, this meant the loss of land and resources and, for many, the loss of their lives. The Northwest holds vast natural resources, but prior to Euroamerican settlement, it was also a landscape of rich and intercon nected societies whose traditions celebrated the region's wealth in myriad ways. The heritage of the place name Oregon is part of this tradition, a fundamental aspect of indigenous Northwest Coast economies. Al though ooligan is not used as widely today as it once was, Northwest fisheries are of great economic importance. While most of these fisher ies are no longer in the hands of Native communities, fish and fishing are still a part of Northwest peoples' cultural identities. As a symbol of the wealth of Northwest Coast indigenous peoples, ooligan is a fitting namesake for a state that encompasses three hundred miles of the Northwest Coast. By acknowledging this meaning of Or egon we also honor the indigenous traders and scouts whose knowl edge of a vast continent was immense. As the history of the name Or egon gives us the chance to consider traditional North American cul tures and their interconnections in trade, technology, and oral tradi tion, it reveals that travel across the continent was more common than has often been represented. Long before European notions of wealth drew people west, indigenous wealth had done as much. In setting out to investigate the meaning of the word Oregon, we found ourselves exploring new aspects of the history of pre-colonial indigenous cultures in the North American West. In one sense a place name study, this research also contributes to a redefinition of indig enous history, which has so often been dismally portrayed. Native peoples are now participants in writing history; and as these relation ships continue to mature, a vast, multifaceted heritage will unfold.

An expanded version of this article, including more detailed notes, copies of primary source materials, and links to related sites, is avail able on the Oregon Historical Society's Web site, at www.ohs.org. Go to the publications page, and after selecting Oregon Historical Quarterly go to the "Featured Articles" section.

152 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Notes

In exploring the historic processes that led to the 6. Hilary Stewart lists eleven modern spelling place name Oregon, we have yet to consult with variants of ooligan. See Stewart, Indian Fishing: Early many indigenous people on the Northern Plains Methods on the Northwest Coast (Vancouver, B.C.: and Northwest Coast who will have much to con Douglas and Mclntyre, 1977), 95. The two most tribute. We have, however, taken advantage of many common spellings of the word in English are published indigenous perspectives, and we have oolichan and eulachon (from the Chinook ulakan); spoken with several Native people who were readily Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. "ooligan". available for comment. They and several others The latter English form is pronounced [yoo-le provided invaluable advice on drafts of this paper. kan], but few Northwest Coast peoples seem to We especially thank Madonna Moss, Jon Erlandson, have pronounced it this way traditionally. First Caskey Russell, Dell Hymes, Scott Delancey Beth Nations peoples of the British Columbia coast (the Hege Piatote, Tom Connolly, Tony Johnson, Harriet coastal groups in closest proximity to the Cree) Kuhnlein, Sarah Thomason, Donna Ralstin-Lewis, typically pronounce the word [uligan], spelled and the Chinook Jargon listserv membership ooligan, and we have chosen to adopt this spelling (CHINOOK@LISTSERV LINGUISTLIST.ORG). Par for this article. See Harriet Kuhnlein et al, "Ooligan ticular appreciation is extended to our anonymous Grease: A Nutritious Fat Used by Native People of reviewers and the editors of the Oregon Historical Coastal British Columbia,"Journal of Ethnobiology Quarterly. This article is dedicated to Saghaley Wayne 2:2 (1982): 154-61. The Grease Trails also receive Lewis, born March 6, 2001. this name from the ooligan grease stains that ap 1. Examples of these collaborative efforts in pear on the rocks in the high mountain passes, the clude a western Oregon Indian history project led grease having spilled from the cedar boxes carried by the Coquille Indian Tribe and the University of on people's backs. See Sage Birchwater, Ulkatcho: Oregon (Southwest Oregon Research Project) and Stories of the Grease Trail (Anahim Lake, B.C.: language research programs such as those of the Ulkatcho Culture Curriculum Development Com Tolowa and Grand Ronde tribes. mittee, 1993), 9. The most important trade route 2. Originally published as Travels Through the in southern British Columbia appears to have been Interior Parts of North-America, in the Years 1766, the grease trail between Lillooet, a Fraser River 1767, and 1768, printed for the author (London, tributary, and the Squamish villages at Howe Sound, 1778). north of Vancouver. Dorothy Kennedy and Randall 3. T.C. Elliott, "The Origin of the Name Or Bouchard, "Lillooet," in Handbook of North Ameri egon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 22 (Summer can Indians, vol. 7, Northwest Coast, ed. Wayne 1921): 91-115; idem, "Jonathan Carver's Source Suttles (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, for the Name Oregon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 1990); personal communication with archaeolo 23 (March 1922): 53-69. Although Rogers first gist Rudy Reimer (Squamish), April 2001. spelled the word Ouragon, he later spelled it Ourigan 7. See note 71. six other times. Pronunciation of the first syllable 8. See Dale R. Russell, The Eighteenth-Century as [u] is indicated by the spelling ou. English trad Western Cree and their Neighbours (Hull, Quebec: ers in the Northwest commonly used the French Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1991), 3; Rich language at this time. For an overview of research ard A. Rhodes and Evelyn M. Todd, "Subarctic Al on Oregon, see Lewis A. McArthur, Oregon Geo gonquian Languages," in Handbook of North Ameri graphic Names (Portland: Oregon Historical Soci can Indians, vol. 6, Subarctic, ed. June Helm (Wash ety Press, 1992), 637-40. ington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1981), 52 4. John Parker, ed., The Journals of Jonathan 66. Furthermore, the [r] and [1] reflexes have been Carver and Related Documents, 1766-1770 (St. Paul: shown to be diaphonous in some Algonquian lan Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976), 121. guages. See Victor Egon Hanzeli, Missionary Lin Carver uses Ourigan in the May 6, 1767, journal guistics in New France (Paris: Mouton, 1969), 71. entry Only later did he use Oregon, perhaps a more 9. The [r] sound was not used in most North poetic sounding word chosen for literary purposes. west Coast regions; therefore, the Algonquian oo?gan 5. Rogers apparently lent his two petitions to may have become ooligan in Chinook Jargon or Carver in 1775, three years before Carver's Travels vice versa. Vernon Snow, "From Ouragon to Or was published. See Elliott, "Origin of the Name egon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 60 (Winter 1959): Oregon," 97. 445-7.

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 153

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 10. Although there are several accounts of in Tute indicates that by 1767 he was in contact with tertribal trade between the Pacific Coast and the traders at this remote post. See Atlas of North Ameri upper Missouri, we have encountered none that can Exploration, ed. William H. Goetzmann and portray journeys across this entire distance, with Glyndwr Williams (New York: Prentice Hall, the exception of the spiritual quest of Moncacht 1992), 110-11. It is likely that individuals at Fort Ape, of the Yazoo Tribe, in the early 1700s. An La Prairie (Des Prairies) and other forts in the drew M. Davis, The Journey of Moncacht-Ape region traded with Western Cree people who had (Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1966). traveled across the Rockies. 11. David G. Mandelbaum, The Plains Cree 19. D. Wayne Moore, "Indian Map-Making: (New York: American Museum of Natural History, Two Examples from the Fur Trade West," in People, 1940); Russell, Eighteenth-Century Western Cree, Places, Patterns, Processes, ed. Graeme Wynn 212-17; James G.E. Smith, "Western Woods Cree," (Toronto: Copp Clark Pittman, 1990), 56-67. in Handbook of North American Indians, 6:257-58. 20. David H. Pentland, "Cartographic Concepts On the assumption of an uninhabitable Northern of the Northern Algonkians," Canadian Cartogra Plains, see W Raymond Wood, Archaeology on the pher 12:2 (1975): 149-60. For more on Indian Great Plains (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, maps, see James P. Ronda, "A Chart in His Way: 1998), 5. Indian Cartography and the Lewis and Clark Expe 12. Russell, Eighteenth-Century Western Cree; dition," Great Plains Quarterly 4:1 (1984): 43-53; Smith, "Western Woods Cree"; Michael Silverstein, Mark Warhus, Another America: Native American "Dynamics of Linguistic Contact," in Handbook of Maps and the History of Our Land (New York: St. North American Indians, vol. 17, Languages, ed. Ives Martin's Press, 1997). Goddard (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institu 21. On measuring latitude, see Silvio A. Bedini, tion, 1996), 119. The likelihood of a Cree shift to "The Scientific Instruments of the Lewis and Clark locally oriented subsistence has been debated. See Expedition," Great Plains Quarterly 4:1 (1984): 54 David Meyer and Paul C. Thistle, "Saskatchewan 69. On Simpson's Fraser River coordinates, see River Rendevous Centers and Trading Posts," Frederick Merk, ed., Fur Trade and Empire: George Ethnohistory 42:3 (1995): 403-44. Simpson's Journal 1824-25 (Cambridge: Harvard 13. Smith, "Western Woods Cree," 264. University Press, 1968), 75. Estimates of latitude 14. James P. Ronda, "Calculating Ouragon," for localities across the Rockies date to as early as Oregon Historical Quarterly 94 (Summer-Fall 1741. See "Journal of Captain Middleton," in Arthur 1993): 123. Dobbs, An Account of the Countries Adjoining to 15. On Fort Des Prairies see Parker, Journals oj Hudson's Bay, in the Northwest Part of America, printed Jonathan Carver, 16, and Lawrence J. Burpee, The for J. Robinson (London, 1744), 118-19 (Western Search for the Western Sea, vol. 1 (Toronto: Americana Microfilm Reel 153, #1645). MacMillan, 1935), 267-79. See also Elliott, 22. Susan C. Vehik and Timothy G. Baugh, "Carver's Source for Oregon," 60 nl. North "Prehistoric Plains Trade," and Roy L. Carlson, Saskatchewan as a canoe route is described in Eric "Trade and Exchange in Prehistoric British Colum W Morse, Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada, Then bia," in Prehistoric Exchange Systems in North America, and Now (Ottawa: Queens Printer, 1969), 42-3. ed. Timothy G. Baugh and Jonathan E. Ericson 16. See James R. Gibson, The Lifeline of the Or (New York: Plenum Press, 1994). On trade orna egon Country: The Eraser-Columbia Brigade System, ments, see Karlis Karklins, Trade Ornament Usage 1811-47 (Vancouver: University of British Colum Among the Native Peoples of Canada (Ottawa: Envi bia Press, 1997), 26-9. ronment Canada, 1992). 17. The league of fur-trade canoe routes was 23. Twenty Years at York Factory, 1694-1714, less than the three miles of the British league. See Jeremies Account of Hudson Strait and Bay, trans. R. Ralph Ehrenberg, "Exploratory Mapping of the Douglas and J.N. Wallace (Ottawa: n.p., 1926), Great Plains Before 1800," in Mapping the Great 21. Original account in Jeremie s "Relation de la Plains, ed. Frederick Luebke, Frances Kaye, and Baie de Hudson," Recuil d'Arrests (Amsterdam, Gary Moulton (Norman: University of Oklahoma 1720), 12, 26. Press, 1987), 17. Although the Fraser does not 24. The Douglas and Wallace translation of discharge into the sea here, it is linked by grease Jeremies account (Twenty Years, 21) adds the racial trails to various inlets near latitude 54?. characterization, later reiterated by Glyndwr Wil 18. Rogers may also have received the infor liams in The British Search for a Northwest Passage mation indirectly from traders working between (London: Royal Commonwealth Society, 1962), 6. Detroit and Fort Des Prairies. His commission to Jeremie's Cree sources did not identify the coastal

154 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms residents as "white people," nor does it appear that Simon Fraser encountered one tribe on the lower they saw ships rather than large canoes, though Fraser River who painted their faces white with Jeremies parenthetical remark adds to this inter pigment. The Letters and Journals of Simon Fraser, pretation. As George Simpson observed, hundreds 1806-1808, ed. W Kaye Lamb (Toronto: MacMillan, of Indian canoes on the Northwest Coast were 1960), 103. larger than HBC ships and carried forty to fifty men 33. Burpee, Journals and Letters of La V?rendrye, each. Merk, Fur Trade and Empire, 301. 247-49. 25. Native accounts of cross-continent travel 34. Madonna L. Moss and Jon M. Erlandson, have largely been overlooked, misconstrued as fan "Forts, Refuge Rocks, and Defensive Sites," Arctic tasy or lies, or presumed to be local geography. Anthropology 29:2 (1992): 73-90. See, for example, the notes in Journals and Letters of 35. See Erna G?nther, Indian Life on the North Pierre Gaultier de Varennes De La V?rendrye and His west Coast of North America (Chicago: University of Sons, ed. LJ. Burpee, (Toronto: Champlain Society, Chicago Press, 1972), appx. 2; and George 1927), 59, 62, 247; " 'Oregon' Revisited," Oregon MacDonald, Kitwanga Fort Report (Hull, Quebec: Historical Quarterly 61 (June 1960): 214. Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1989), 24. 26. Phillip Buache, Considerations g?ographiques 36. Burpee, Search for the Western Sea, 268-9. et physiques sur les nouvelles d?couvertes au nord de la 37. Historical Atlas of Manitoba, ed. John Grande Mer, appellee vulgairment la Mer du Sud (Paris: Warkentin and Richard J. Ruggles (Winnipeg: Imprimerie de Ballard, 1753), 38. Manitoba Historical Society, 1970). 27. Joseph Robson, An Account of Six Years Resi 38. Burpee, Search for the Western Sea, 271-80. dence in Hudsons Bay, printed for J. Payne and J. See also Elliott, "Carver's Source for Oregon," 60. Bouquet (London 1752), 56; Jeremie, "Relation." 39. Robert Rogers, A Concise Account of North Both Jeremie's and Robsons sources were likely America (Yorkshire, England: S.R. Publishers; rpt. Cree, but they may also have included Chipewyan New York: Johnson Reprint, 1966), 186. people, who also related accounts of travel to the 40. Elliott, "Carver's Source for Oregon," 61. Northwest Coast at this time. York Journal, July 12, 41. For accounts of Cree and Assiniboine travel 1716, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Provin across the Rockies see Alexander Henry, The Jour cial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, B 239/a/2. E nal of Alexander Henry the Younger 1799-1814, vol. 2, 45r, cited in Williams, British Search, 4. ed. Barry M. Gough (Toronto: Champlain Society, 28. Arthur Dobbs, Account of the Countries Ad 1992), 522-23; Alexander Henry, Travels and Ad joining to Hudson's Bay. For Rogers's possible asso ventures in Canada and the Indian Territories Between ciation with Dobbs, see Louise P Kellog, "The Mis the Years 1760 and 1776, ed. James Bain (Toronto: sion of Jonathan Carver," Wisconsin Magazine of George N. Morang, 1901), 303-4 and 312-13; History (December 1928): 132. and Duncan McGillivray, The Journal of Duncan 29. Jerome Cybulski, "Human Biology," in Hand McGillivray of the Northwest Company at Fort George book of North American Indians, vol. 7, Northwest on the Saskatchewan, 1794-5 (Toronto: Macmillan, Coast, ed. Wayne Suttles (Washington, D.C.: Smith 1929; rpt. Fairfield, Wash., Ye Galleon, 1989), 47. sonian Institution, 1990), 52-53; on the origin of 42. David G. Lewis, "Tolowa Deeni Fish Camp the Flathead Tribe's name, see Franz Boas and James Ethnographies," in Changing Landscapes. Teit, Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, and Okanagon Indians 43. Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, The (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnol Chinook Indians: Traders of the Lower Columbia River ogy, Smithsonian Institution), 259-67. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 30. See Robert J. Losey "Oral Tradition of Earth 12; Gordon Hewes, "Aboriginal Use of Fishing quakes and Tsunamis on the Central Cascadia Coast: Resources in Northwestern North America" (Ph.D Variation of Accounts and Relations to Historically diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1947), 92; Observed Patterns across the Northwest Coast," in Scott Byram, "Fishing Weirs in Oregon Estuaries," Changing Landscapes: Telling Our Stones, ed. Jason in Hidden Dimensions: The Cultural Significance of Younker, Mark A. Tveskov, and David G. Lewis Wetland Archaeology, ed. Kathryn Bernick (North Bend, Ore.: Coquille Indian Tribe, 2001). (Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Press, 1998). 31. Burpee, Journals and Letters of La V?rendrye, 56. 44. Kuhnlein et al., "Ooligan Grease," 155. 32. Northwest Coast men commonly wore 45. H.A. Collison, "The Oolachan Fishery," Brit beards and mustaches, and the average skin color ish Columbia Historical Quarterly 5:1 (1941): 27. of coastal indigenous peoples in British Columbia 46. John H. Dunn, A Practical Dictionary of the is lighter than that of peoples east of the Rockies. Coast Tsimshian Language, Canadian Ethnology Ser Cybulski, "Human Biology," 52. Also, in 1808, vice Paper No. 42 (Ottawa: National Museums of

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 155

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Canada, 1978), 35, 38; Tom Koppel, "Catching Service), 47, cited in Richard Mackie, Trading Be the Savior Fish," The Beaver, December 1998-Janu yond the Mountains (Vancouver: University of Brit ary 1999. ish Columbia Press, 1997), 142. 47. Merk, Fur Trade and Empire, 269, 300; Knut 58. Antonia Mills, Eagle Down Is Our Law: Fladmark, British Columbia Prehistory (Ottawa: Ar Witsuwit'en Law, Feasts, and Land Claims (Vancouver: chaeological Survey of Canada, National Muse University of British Columbia Press, 1994), 38, ums of Canada, 1986), 138; Theodore Stern, "Co 39; Kuhnlein et al., "Ooligan Grease," 155. See lumbia River Trade Network," in Handbook of North also Koppel, "Catching the Savior Fish," 23. American Indians, vol. 12, Plateau, ed. De ward E. 59. Mills, Eagle Down, 104. Walker, Jr. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Insti 60. George M. Dawson, On the Haida Indians of tution, 1998), 641. the Queen Charlotte Islands, (1880?), 151B, micro 48. Birch water, Ulkatcho, 11; Grant Thomas form available through Canadian Institute for His Edwards, "Oolachen Time in Bella Coola," The Bea torical Microreproductions, "Early Canadiana ver, Autumn 1978, 37. Sir Daniel Wilson, The Lost Online," www.canadiana.org. Atlantis and Other Ethnographic Studies (Edinburgh: 61. Franz Boas, Kwakiutl Ethnography (Chicago: D. Douglas, 1892), 114-115, microform available University of Chicago Press, 1966), 93-96, 104. through Canadian Institute for Historical Microre 62. Ibid., 93. On Kwakwaka'wakw trade with productions, "Early Canadiana Online," the interior, see William Downie's journal, 1860, www.canadiana.org. See also Catharine McClellan, referenced in Robert Galois, Kwakwaka'wakw Settle "Intercultural Relations and Cultural Change in the ments, 1775-1920: A Geographical Analysis and Gaz Cordillera," in Handbook of North American Indians, etteer (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1994), 150. 6:388. 63. MacDonald, Kitwanga Fort Report, 17, 22 49. Birchwater, Ulkatcho, 3. 23; Charles Horetsky, Canada on the Pacific 50. Birchwater, Ulkatcho, 3. See also Richard A. (Montreal: Dawson Brothers, 1874), 117; candle Gould, Archaeology of the Point St. George Site, and fish is another name for ooligan. See also Gould, Tolowa Prehistory (Berkeley: University of Califor Archaeology of Point St. George. nia Press, 1966). 64. People of 'Ksan, Gathering What the Great 51. Aliene Drake and Lyle Wilson, Eulachon: a Nature Provided: Food Traditions of the Gitksan (Se Fish to Cure Humanity (Vancouver: University of attle: University of Washington Press, 1980), 89. British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology, 1991), 65. Drake and Wilson, Eulachon, 23; 31. See also Birchwater, Ulkatcho. Birchwater, Ulkatcho, 6-9. The use of fish oils and 52. Fladmark, B?tish Columbia Prehistory, 138; fish grease extends to the Asian continent, which George M. Dawson, Sketches on the Past and Present may indicate long-term cultural affinities that have Condition of the Indians of Canada (1877?), 21, mi existed between the indigenous peoples of the croform available through Canadian Institute for northern Pacific Rim. Ooligan grease is fermented Historical Microreproductions, "Early Canadiana using similar techniques well-known in Asia and Online," www.canadiana.org. on the Northwest Coast. MacDonald, Kitwanga Fort 53. Gabriel Franch?re, Journal of a Voyage on the Report, 73. North West Coast of North America during the Years 66. For more specific nutritional information, 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, ed. W. Kaye Lamb see Harriet V Kuhnlein et al., "Nutritional Quali (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1969), 110-11. ties of Ooligan Grease: A Traditional Food Fat of 54. Discovery of the Oregon Trail: Robert Stuart's British Columbia First Nations," Journal of Food Narratives of His Overland Trip Eastward from Astoria Composition and Analysis 9 (1996): 18-31; see also in 1812-13, ed. Phillip Rollins (Lincoln: University Kuhnlein et al., "Ooligan Grease." On the role of of Nebraska Press, 1995), 30. fat in traditional diets, see John D. Speth, Bison 55. Robert E Jones, ed., Annals of Astoria: The Kills and Bone Counts (Chicago: University of Chi Headquarters Log of the Pacific Fur Company on the cago Press, 1983), 146. Columbia River, 1811-1813 (New York, Fordham 67. Drake and Wilson, Eulachon, 8; letter from University Press, 1999), 70-83. Caskey Russell (Tlingit), University of Oregon En 56. Alexander Ross, Adventures of the First Set glish Department, to authors, August 2000, quot tlers on the Oregon or Columbia River: 1810-1813 ing the unpublished memoir of Tlingit elder Grand (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2000), mother Teew in Russell's possession; Edwards, 108-9. "Oolachen Time," 32, 34. 57. James Douglas, "Diary of a Trip to the North 68. Edwards, "Oolachen Time," 36. west Coast" (British Columbia Archive and Record 69. William F Shipley, "Native Languages in

156 Oregon Historical Quarterly / Summer 2001 / Vol. 102, no. 2

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms California," in Handbook of North American Indians, 73. For the nutritional value of native North vol. 8, California, ed. Robert E Heizer (Washing west roots and bulbs, see the Oregon Statesman ton, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 87. Journal (Salem), June 24, 1971, 25. See also 70. It has been proposed that trade between Bradford Angier, Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants coast and interior tribes was key in the develop (Harrisburg, Penn.: Stackpole, 1974); account by ment of Chinook Jargon. See Dawson, Sketches on Charles Bishop of the ship Ruby, 1796, in F Howay, the Past and Present Condition, 22. On the debate "Early Followers of Captain Gray," Washington over the antiquity of Chinook Jargon in the North Historical Quarterly 58:1 (1927): 14; A.F Chamber west, see Dell Hymes, "Commentary," in Theoreti lain, "Words of Algonkian Origin," Science 53(457): cal Orientations in Creole Studies, ed. Albert Valdman 260-61. On the use of camas, see George Gibbs, A and Arnold Highfield (New York: Academic Press, Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, Trade Language oj 1980), 389-423; Sarah Thomason and Terrence Oregon, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Kaufman, Language Contact, Creolization, and Ge 161 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1863), and netic Linguistics (Berkeley: University of California Gary Moulton, ed., The Journals oj the Lewis and Press, 1988), 256-63; William Samarin, "Chinook Clark Expedition, vol. 5, July 28-November 1,1805 Jargon and Pidgin Historiography," Canadian Jour (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988), nal of Anthropology 5:1 (1986): 23-34. 224 nl5. 71. On Haida Jargon, see Alexander Caulfield 74. Variants of sapolil were recorded by Lewis Anderson, Notes on the Indian Tribes of British North and Clark on the Columbia River as early as 1805, America and the Northwest Coast, edited by George and the word occurs in Chinook Jargon and sev Gibbs (1863?), 74, microform available through eral Northwest Coast languages (Sarah Thomason, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproduc personal communication). See Moulton, Journals tions, "Early Canadiana Online," www.canadiana. of Lewis and Clark, 5:380 nl. org, CIHM 16598; and Jonathan S. Green, Journal 75. James Gibson, Otter Skins, Boston Ships and of a Tour on the North West Coast of America in the China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade on the Northwest Year 1829 (New York: Fred Heartman, 1915), 40. Coast, 1785-1841 (Seattle: University of Washington One of the earliest observations on the northern Press, 1992), 9-11; Jones, Annals of Astoria, 46; extent of Chinook Jargon indicates that in 1834 it Chamberlain, "Words of Algonkian Origin," 261. was not used north of Vancouver Island. Milbank 76. Gibbs, Dictionary of Chinook Jargon; Robert Sd report, 1834, HBC Archives, B 120/e/l. On Spott and Alfred Kroeber, Yurok Narratives, Uni Plains sign language, see Dell Hymes, "Commen versity of California Publications in American Ar tary," in Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies, ed. chaeology and Ethnology 35 (Berkeley: University Albert Valdman and Arnold Highfield (New York: of California Press, 1942), 249; Rebecca W. Academic Press, 1980), 416. Andrews, "Hiaqua: Use of Dentalium Shells by 72. Chinook Jargon continued in use well into Native Peoples of the Pacific Northwest" (master's the twentieth century, especially in reservation thesis, University of Washington, 1989), 311-12; communities where people from different nations Karklins, Trade Ornament Usage, 125. were confined. See Henry Zenk, "Chinook Jargon 77. The word ooligan (or hooligan) even replaced and Native Cultural Persistence in the Grand Ronde the use of shrowton, of Haida Jargon, most often Indian Community, 1856-1907: A Special Case of used by European and American fur traders on the Creolization" (Ph.D. diss., University of Oregon, Northwest Coast. See Gibson, Otter Skins, 231. 1984). Use of Chinook Jargon is being rekindled 78. See Adrien Gabriel Morice, The Carrier by the Chinook, Grand Ronde, and other tribes; Language (Vienna: Anthropos, 1932), 1:59, see Tenas Wawa Web site, at www.geocities.com/ 2:500-50. tenaswawa. 79. Ronda, "Calculating Ouragon," 138 nl.

BYRAM AND LEWIS, Ourigan 157

This content downloaded from 71.34.78.7 on Wed, 27 May 2020 20:23:04 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms