Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

POSTOFFICE, WALLA WALLA

Of valuable books a few years later than those just named, one especially deserving of mention is Dr. Samuel Parker's "Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains," the result of observations made in 1835 and 1836. This, however, contains little in the way of mythology. Capt. Charles Wilkes, the American explorer of the early '40s, gives a very interesting account of a Palouse myth of a beaver which was cut up to make the tribes. This is evidently another version of the Klickitat story of the great beaver, Wishpoosh, of Lake Cleelum. One of the most important of the early histories of Oregon is Dunn's, the materials for which were gathered in the decade of the '40s. With other valuable matter it contains accounts of the religious conceptions of the Indians, and here we find the legend of the Thunder Bird of the Tinneh, a northern tribe. In this same general period, though a little later, we find the most brilliant of all writers dealing with Oregon; that is, the gifted scholar, poet and soldier, Theodore Winthrop. His book, "Canoe and Saddle," has no rival for literary excellence and graphic power, among all the books which have dealt with the Northwest. The book was first published in 1862, and republished fifty years later in beautiful form by John H. Williams of Tacoma. "Canoe and Saddle" commemorates a journey from Puget Sound across the mountains and through the Yakima and Klickitat countries in 1854. It contains several fine Indian stories, notably that of the Miser of Mount Tacoma, and that of the Devil of the Dalles. Winthrop does not state from whom directly he secured the second of these myths, but no doubt from the Indians themselves, though the peculiar rich imagination and picturesque language of Winthrop are in evidence throughout the narration. The tale of the Miser of Mount Tacoma is attributed by Winthrop to Hamitchou, an Indian of the Squallygamish tribe.

At about the some time as Winthrop's, occurred the visit and investigations of James G. Swan, whose book, "The Northwest Coast," was published in 1857. In this is found the creation myth of the Ogress of Saddle Mountain, relating the issuing forth of Indians from eggs cast down the mountain-side by the Ogress. Many years ago Rev. Myron Eells told the writer a variation of that story, which has appeared in sundry forms and publications, being the story of Toulux, the South Wind, Quootshoi the witch, and Skamson the Thunder Bird. In addition to the legend of the Thunder Bird, Swan gives many items of peculiar interest. Among these we find his idea that certain customs of the Indians ally them with the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. His final impression seems to be, however, that they are autocthonous in America. He refers to the observation of General George Gibbs of the similarity of Klickitat myths to those in Longfellow's Hiawatha. He also refers to the beeswax ship of the Nehalem. In connection with the thought of Indian resemblance to the Ten Lost Tribes, it is worth noticing that this has come forth from various directions. Miss Kate McBeth has expressed the same in connection with the Nez Perces. It was also a favorite idea with B. B. Bishop, one of the earliest builders of steamboats on the Columbia, who lived many years at Pendleton, Oregon. He told the writer that the Indians at the Cascades had a spring festival with the first run of salmon. They would boil whole the first large salmon caught, and have a ceremony in which the whole tribe would pass in procession around the fish, each taking a bit. They exercised the utmost care to leave the skeleton intact, so that at the end it had been picked clean but with not a bone broken. Mr. Bishop thought that this was a survival of the Jewish idea of the Paschal Lamb.

Among the great collectors of all kinds of historical data in what might be called the middle period of Northwest history and not exactly belonging to any one of the specific groups, is H. H. Bancroft, already referred to in the first part of this chapter. In his "Native Races," are found many myths, with references given, but these mainly deal with Mexican, Central American, and Californian Indians. He refers to Holmburg's ethnological studies in German as containing valuable matter in regard to our Northwestern Indians. Harmon's Journal, with its reference to the Tacullies of British Columbia and their legend of the Musk Rat, is also named. In the same connection we find reference to Yehl the Raven, an especial favorite of the Indians of British Columbia and the upper part of Puget Sound.

From what may be termed the first group of narrators of native tales, we may turn to those that may be called the scientific ethnologists. We are indebted to Dr. Franz Boas, himself the foremost of the group, for the list of these professional students of the subject. These men took up the matter in a more scientific and methodical way than the travellers and pioneers and have presented the results of their work in form that appeals to the scholar, the work of trained investigators, seeking the facts and giving them as exactly as possible, not affected by the distortions and exaggerations common to unscientific observers. They were all connected with the Smithsonian Institute, and their work was mainly under the Government.

The Bibliography as given by Doctor Boas, is as follows:

Edward Sapir, Wishram Texts (publications of the American Ethnological Society, Vol. II).

Leo J. Frachtenberg, Coos Texts (Columbia University contributions to Anthropology, Vol. I).

Leo J. Frachtenberg, Lower Umpqua Texts (Ibid., Vol. IV).