Jack the Young Canoeman: An Eastern Boy's Voyage in a Chinook Canoe

by George Bird Grinnell

"That's bad business," said Mr. Sturgis; "these men think of nothing but the convenience of the moment. All these fires that they are kindling and that they are leaving to burn here may set the hills on fire, and large tracts of country may be burned and much valuable standing timber destroyed."

"Yes," said Hugh, "these men think of nothing but the quickest way of getting rid of anything that they don't use."

"It's the fault of the contractors," said Mr. Sturgis, "and some means should be found to stop such a destruction of timber."

A little later, as the stage approached the lake, they could see the woods on fire everywhere. The stage-driver told them that this had gone on for some time, and that on two or three occasions recently the fires had been so extensive that the stage had been unable to get through to the lake, and had been forced to turn around and return.

On this day the driver went carefully and succeeded in picking out places where he could get through, though more than once the stage drove between piles of blazing logs which made it uncomfortably warm for the passengers. The timber was largely pine and hackmatack, but there was also some white and some yellow birch.

Not long after the fire had been left behind they came into an open country, from which, ahead of them, they could see a large sheet of water; and presently from a hill they looked down upon beautiful Lake Pend d'Oreille, surrounded on all sides by towering, timbered hills.

At the end of the stage line there was an engineer's camp; and here, to Mr. Sturgis' great surprise, he met among the engineers two friends whom he had not seen for years and whom he little expected to meet in this far off spot. The surprise was a mutually delightful one. His friends seized him, and Jack, and Hugh, and insisted on their sharing the hospitality of their camp, and a very delightful evening was spent there.

Some distance down Pend d'Oreille River, or as it is often called, Clark's Fork of the Columbia, and so some miles from the engineer's camp, was a place known as Siniaqueateen, which in the Flathead language means "the place where we cross." Here was the supply depot for the engineer department of the Northern Pacific railroad, and here were the headquarters of Mr. Galbraith, the commissary, who had charge of the advance transportation of the railroad. To him Mr. Sturgis had a letter from the railroad officials; and to Siniaqueateen the travellers went the next morning. It was a small settlement, consisting of a trader's store and house, and two or three other stores and houses, and the office buildings belonging to the railroad. Here is the ford across the river which gives the place its name; and here is where the trail between the Flathead Lake and the Kootenay District of British Columbia, distant over two hundred miles, crosses the stream. From time immemorial this has been a crossing place for the Indians, travelling north and south through the country. Now on the bank of the river there was a camp of Kutenai Indians.

About the ferry were lounging many Indians, who, to Jack's eye seemed quite different from the Coast Indians, and much more like the people of the plains to whom he was accustomed. He asked Mr. Galbraith about these people, and Mr. Galbraith, who knew a number of the individuals of the two tribes, told him something about them.

"These Flatheads that you see here belong in the country as do also some Kutenais, but not those that have just come in, and are in camp here. They are from the north and are bringing down their furs to trade."