Tuesday May 13th 1806. This morning Capt. C. as usual was busily engaged with his patients untill eleven OCk. at 1 P.M. we collected our horses and set out for the river escorted by a number of the natives on horseback. we followed the creek downwards about two miles, passing a stout branch at 1 m. which flowed in on the wright. our course S. E. we now entered an extensive open bottom of the Kooskooske R. through which we passed nearly N. about 11/2 miles and halted on the bank of the river at the place appointed to meet the canoe. the man had set out early this morning for the purpose but had not yet arrived with the canoe we therefore unloaded our horses and turned them out to graize. as the canoe did not arrive untill after sunset we remained here all night; a number of the natives continued with us. in the evening we tryed the speed of several of our horses. these horses are active strong and well formed. these people have immence numbers of them 50, 60 or a hundred hed is not unusual for an individual to possess. The Chopunnish are in general stout well formed active men. they have high noses and many of them on the acqueline order with cheerfull and agreeable countenances; their complexions are not remarkable. in common with other savage nations of America they extract their beards but the men do not uniformly extract the hair below, this is more particularly confined to the females. I observed several men among them whom I am convinced if they had shaved their beards instead of extracting it would have been as well supplyed in this particular as any of my countrymen. they appear to be cheerfull but not gay; they are fond of gambling and of their amusements which consist principally in shooting their arrows at a bowling target made of willow bark, and in riding and exercising themselves on horseback, racing &c. they are expert marksmen and good riders. they do not appear to be so much devoted to baubles as most of the nations we have met with, but seem anxious always to obtain articles of utility, such as knives, axes, tommahawks, kettles blankets and mockerson alls. blue beads however may form an exception to this remark; this article among all the nations of this country may be justly compared to goald or silver among civilized nations. They are generally well cloathed in their stile. their dress consists of a long shirt which reaches to the middle of thye, long legings which reach as high as the waist, mockersons, and robes. these are formed of various skins and are in all rispects like those particularly discribed of the Shoshones. their women also dress like the Shoshones. their ornaments consist of beads shells and peices of brass variously attatched to their dress, to their ears arrond their necks wrists arms &c. a bando of some kind usually surrounds the head, this is most frequently the skin of some fir animal as the fox otter &c. tho they have them also of dressed skin without the hair. the ornament of the nose is a single shell of the wampum. the pirl and beads are suspended from the ears. beads are woarn arround their wrists necks and over their sholders crosswise in the form of a double sash. the hair of the men is cewed in two rolls which hang on each side in front of the body as before discribed of other inhabitants of the Columbia. collars of bears claws are also common; but the article of dress on which they appear to bstow most pains and ornaments is a kind of collar or brestplate; this is most commonly a strip of otterskin of about six inches wide taken out of the center of the skin it's whole length including the head. this is dressed with the hair on; a hole is cut lengthwise through the skin near the head of the animal sufficiently large to admit the head of the person to pass. thus it is placed about the neck and hangs in front of the body the tail frequently reaching below their knees; on this skin in front is attatched peices of pirl, beads, wampum peices of red cloth and in short whatever they conceive most valuable or ornamental. I observed a tippit woarn by Hohastillpilp, which was formed of human scalps and ornamented with the thumbs and fingers of several men which he had slain in battle. their women brade their hair in two tresses which hang in the same position of those of the men. they also wear a cap or cup on the head formed of beargrass and cedar bark. the men also frequently attatch some small ornament to a small plat of hair on the center of the crown of their heads.
[Clark, May 13, 1806]
Tuesday 13th May 1806. a fine morning I administered to the Sick and gave directions. we collected all our horses and Set out at 1 P.M. and proceeded down the Creek to the Flat head River a Short distance below the enterance of the Creek at the distance of 3 miles from the Village. at this place we expected to have met the Canoe which was promised to be furnished us, and for which an indian Set out very early this morning. we halted at the Flat Head River unloaded our horses and turnd. them out to feed. Several Indians accompanied us to the river and Continued untill evening. The man who Set out early this morning to the forks of this river for a Canoe and was to meet us at this place. as the Canoe did not arive untill after Sun set we remained all night; in the evening we tried the Speed of Several of our horses. these horses are strong active and well formed. Those people have emence numbers of them 50 or 60 or a Hundred head is not unusial for an individual to possess.
The Chopunnish are in general Stout well formd active men. they have high noses and maney of them on the acqueline order with chearfull and agreeable countinances; their complexions are not remarkable. in common with other Indian Nations of America they extract their beard, but the men do not uniformly extract the hair below, this is more particularly confined to the females. they appear to be cheerfull but not gay; they are fond of gambling and of their amusements which consists principally in shooting their arrows at a targit made of Willow bark, and in rideing and exersiseing themselves on horsback, raceing &c. they are expirt marks men & good riders. they do not appear to be So much devoted to baubles as most of the nations we have met with, but Seen anxious always to riceve articles of utility, Such as knives, axes, Kittles, blankets & Mockerson awls. blue beeds however may form an exception to this remark; This article among all the nations of this Country may be justly compared to gold and Silver among civilized nations. They are generally well clothed in their Stile. their dress Consists of a long shirt which reaches to the middle of leg, long legins which reach as high as the waist, mockersons & robe. those are formed of various skins and are in all respects like those of the Shoshone. Their orniments consists of beeds, Shells and peices of brass variously attached to their dress, to their ears arround theire necks wrists arms &c. a band of Some kind usially Serounds the head, this is most frequently the Skin of Some fer animal as the fox otter &c.; I observed a tippet worn by Hohastillpilp, which was formed of Humane Scalps and ornemented with the thumbs and fingers of Several men which he had Slain in battle. they also were a coller or breast plate of otter Skin orniminted with Shells beeds & quills. the women brade their hair in two tresses which hang in the same position of those of the men, which ar Cewed and hang over each sholder. &c
[Lewis, May 14, 1806]
Wednesday May 14th 1806. The morning was fair, we arrose early and dispatched a few of our hunters to the opposite side of the river, and employed a part of the men in transporting our baggage to the opposite shore wile others were directed to collect the horses; at 10 A.M. we had taken our baggage over and collected our horses, we then took breakfast, after which we drove our horses into the river which they swam without accedent and all arrived safe on the opposite shore. the river is 150 yds. wide at this place and extreemly rapid. tho it may be safely navigated at this season, as the water covers all the rocks which lie in it's bed to a considerable debth. we followed our horses and again collected them, after which we removed our baggage to a position which we had previously selected for our permanent camp about half a mile below. this was a very eligible spot for defence it had been an ancient habitation of the indians; was sunk about 4 feet in the ground and raised arround it's outer edge about three 1/2 feet with a good wall of eath. the whole was a circle of about 30 feet in diameter. arround this we formed our tents of sticks and grass facing outwards and deposited our baggage within the sunken space under a shelter which we constructed for the purpose. our situation was within 40 paces of the river in an extentsive level bottom thinly timbered with the longleafed pine. here we are in the vicinity of the best hunting grounds from indian information, are convenient to the salmon which we expect daily and have an excellent pasture for our horses. the hills to the E and North of us are high broken and but partially timbered; the soil is rich and affords fine grass. in short as we are compelled to reside a while in this neighbourhood I feel perfectly satisfyed with our position.immediately after we had passed the river Tunnachemootoolt and Hosastillpilp arrived on the south side with a party of a douzen of their young men; they began to sing in token of friendship as is their custom, and we sent the canoe over for them. they left their horses and came over accompanyed by several of their party among whom were the 2 young men who had presented us with two horses in behalf of the nation; one of these was the son of Tunnachemootoolt and the other the son of the Cheif who was killed by the Minnetares of Fort de Prarie last year and the same who had given us the mare and Colt. we received them at our camp and smoked with them; after some hours Hohastillpilp with much cerimony presented me with a very eligant grey gelding which he had brought for that purpose. I gave him in return a handkercheif 200 balls and 4 lbs. of powder. with which he appeared perfectly satisfyed. Collins killed two bear this morning and was sent with two others in quest of the meat; with which they returned in the evening; the mail bear was large and fat the female was of moderate size and reather meagre. we had the fat bear fleaced in order to reserve the oil for the mountains. both these bear were of the speceis common to the upper part of the missouri. they may be called white black grzly brown or red bear for they are found of all those colours. perhaps it would not be unappropriate to designate them the variagated bear. we gave the indians who were about 15 in number half the female bear, with the sholder head and neck of the other. this was a great treat to those poor wretches who scarcely taist meat once a month. they immediately prepared a brisk fire of dry wood on which they threw a parsel of smooth stones from the river, when the fire had birnt down and heated the stones they placed them level and laid on a parsel of pine boughs, on these they laid the flesh of the bear in flitches, placing boughs between each course of meat and then covering it thickly with pine boughs; after this they poared on a small quantity of water and covered the whoe over with earth to the debth of four inches. in this situation they suffered it to remain about 3 hours when they took it out. I taisted of this meat and found it much more tender than that which we had roasted or boiled, but the strong flavor of the pine distroyed it for my pallate. Labuish returned late in the evening and informed us that he had killed a female bear and two large cubbs, he brought with him several large dark brown pheasants which he had also killed. Shannon also returned with a few pheasants and two squirrells. we have found our stone horses so troublesome that we indeavoured to exchange them with the Chopunnish for mears or gelings but they will not exchange altho we offer 2 for one; we came to a resolution to castrate them and began the operation this evening one of the indians present offered his services on this occasion. he cut them without tying the string of the stone as is usual, and assures us that they will do much better in that way; he takes care to scrape the string very clean and to seperate it from all the adhereing veigns before he cuts it. we shall have an opportunity of judging whether this is a method preferable to that commonly practiced as Drewyer has gelded two in the usual way. The indians after their feast took a pipe or two with us and retired to rest much pleased with their repast. these bear are tremendious animals to them; they esteem the act of killing a bear equally great with that of an enimy in the field of action.—I gave the claws of those which Collins killed to Hohastillpilp.