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Vol. 1 (of 2), by William Denison Lyman
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Title: Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties
Author: William Denison Lyman
Release Date: September 8, 2014 [EBook #46807]
Language: English
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LYMAN'S HISTORY
of
Old Walla Walla County
Embracing
Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield
and Asotin Counties
By W. D. LYMAN, M. A., Lit. D.
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918
[i]
CONTENTS
PART I
THE COUNTY AND ITS EARLIEST STAGES
CHAPTER I
PHYSICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES, SOIL, CLIMATE,
WATER-COURSES, AND MOUNTAINS
1
CHAPTER II
THE NATIVE RACES OF OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
10
CHAPTER III
THE FIRST EXPLORERS AND THEIR ROUTES THROUGH
THE REGION
32
CHAPTER IV
THE FUR-TRADE AND FUR-TRADERS
42
CHAPTER V
THE MISSIONARY PERIOD
57
CHAPTER VI
INDIAN WARS AND OPENING OF COUNTRY TO
SETTLEMENT
83
PART II
SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I
THE PERMANENT ORGANIZATION OF WALLA WALLA
COUNTY AND FOUNDING OF THE CITY
109
CHAPTER II
TIMES OF COWBOYS, MINERS AND VIGILANTES
124
CHAPTER III
POLITICAL HISTORY TO TIME OF COUNTY DIVISION
136
CHAPTER IV
THE EARLY TRANSPORTATION AGE
155
CHAPTER V
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY IN OLD WALLA
WALLA COUNTY TO THE PERIOD OF COUNTY
DIVISION AND AFTERWARDS IN THE PRESENT
WALLA WALLA
175
CHAPTER VI
INTELLECTUAL AND RELIGIOUS FORCES OF WALLA
WALLA COUNTY; EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF
WALLA WALLA
210
CHAPTER VII
THE PRESS OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY
257
CHAPTER VIII
WITH THE LAWYERS, JUDGES AND DOCTORS
265
[ii]
[iii]
PART III
PERIOD OF COUNTY DIVISIONS
CHAPTER I
POLITICAL HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY SINCE
COUNTY DIVISION
285
CHAPTER II
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES IN HISTORY OF COLUMBIA
COUNTY
319
CHAPTER III
GARFIELD COUNTY
358
CHAPTER IV
ASOTIN COUNTY
395
CHAPTER V
PIONEER REMINISCENCES
426
BIOGRAPHICAL
481
PART I
THE COUNTY AND ITS EARLIEST STAGES
Old Walla Walla County
(Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin Counties.)
[iv]
[v]
[1]
CHAPTER I
PHYSICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES, SOIL, CLIMATE,
WATER-COURSES, AND MOUNTAINS
A land of scenic charm, of physical interest, of fertile soil and ample resources, of climate
in which living is a delight, of two great rivers and many impetuous tributaries, of mountain
chains with rich and varied hues and contours of stately majesty,—such is the imperial
domain included in that portion of the State of Washington lying east of the Columbia River
and south of the Snake. While this region has distinctive physical features, it yet has a
sufficient family resemblance to the other parts of Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington to
indicate a common origin. We may therefore properly take first a general view of this larger
area. The greater part of the vast Inland Empire of Northeastern Oregon and Eastern
Washington consists of rolling prairies, sometimes fairly hilly, with extensive "flats" in various
parts, and low-lying, level valleys bordering the numerous streams. These valleys are usually
quite narrow, the three marked exceptions being the broad valleys of the Walla Walla,
Umatilla, and Yakima, the two latter being outside of the scope of our story. The Inland
Empire varies in elevation above sea-level from about three hundred and fifty feet on the
Columbia River to about nine thousand at the highest summits of the Blue Mountains. The
larger part of the cultivated portions ranges from eight hundred to two thousand feet. The
variations in elevation have a remarkable effect on temperature and rainfall, the former
decreasing and the latter increasing very rapidly from the lower to the higher levels. The
atmosphere throughout this region is ordinarily very clear, and the majestic sweep of the Blue
Mountains and the wide expanses of hills and dales and flats lie revealed in all their imposing
grandeur with vivid distinctness.
As there is a general physical similarity in the different parts of this entire Columbia Basin,
so has there been a common geological history. Broadly speaking, the upper Columbia Basin
from near Spokane on the north to Wallowa on the south is volcanic in origin. The scope of
this work does not permit any detailed discussion of the geology of the region, but it is of
interest to refer to the fascinating little book of Prof. Thomas Condon, formerly of the Oregon
State University, on the "Two Islands." Professor Condon was the first systematic student of
the geology of the Northwest, and during his active career, extending from about 1855 to
1890, he accumulated a large and valuable collection of fossil remains as data from which to
infer the stages in the geological history of the Northwest. One of his working hypotheses
was that there were two islands as the first lands in what is now the Northwest. These were
the Blue Mountain Island and the Siskiyou Mountain Island. Later geologists have not entirely
accepted all the details of Professor Condon's hypothesis, though they regard his general
reasoning as sound. It is generally believed now that there was a very early uplift, possibly a
third island, in what is now the Okanogan, Methow, and Chelan highlands and mountains. At
any rate, there is a general concurrence in the opinion that the oldest land in this part of the
continent was those very regions where the two or perhaps three islands are supposed to
have risen. The Chelan region and thence a vast sweep northeast and then southeast toward
Spokane is of granite, andesite, and porphyry, the primeval crust of the earth. Again on the
south, the core of the Blue Mountains, especially in the vicinity of Wallowa, is limestone and
granite. All these formations are very ancient. On the other hand, the volcanic regions are
comparatively recent, and those compose practically all the central parts. This area between
those two ancient formations, the part covering the four counties of our present story being in
the very heart of it, seems to have undergone almost every possible dynamic influence, fire,
frost, and flood. Apparently it was a deep basin between the earlier elevations and was the
scene of stupendous volcanic and seismic energy. Then it was covered with water and for
ages a great lake extended over much of what is now the Walla Walla Valley and the valleys
of its tributaries and the lower courses of the other streams, as the Touchet and Tucanon.
When the water had drained off, there succeeded an age of ice and frost, with disintegration
by cold and even some glaciation. Probably there were several alternating eras of fire and
frost and flood. The Yakima Indians have a fantastic tale of the formation of these lakes and
from them the Columbia River, which may have some basis of scientific fact. They say that in
the times of the Watetash (animal people, before the Indians) a monstrous beaver,
Wishpoosh, inhabited Lake Kachees, now one of the sources of the Yakima. Wishpoosh
had the evil habit of chewing up and cutting to pieces all the trees as well as other animals in
his reach. Speelyi, the chief God of the Mid-Columbia Indians, endeavored to make way
with this destructive monster, but succeeded only in wounding him severely and making him
so angry that he laid around him with furious energy and soon burst the rocky barriers of the
lake. The water flowing out streamed over the country and formed the Upper Yakima. The
[2]
deluge was checked by the mountain ramparts of the Kittitas Valley, as we know it, and thus
was formed a great lake over all that valley. But the raging beaver finally tore out that barrier
also and the flood passed on into the Yakima Valley, making another lake over the whole
region where Yakima now is, but it was stayed for a time by the ridge just below the
Atahnum of the present. In like manner that barrier was torn out and the accumulation of
waters swept on to the vast level region where the Snake and Columbia, with the lesser
streams of the Yakima and Walla Walla, unite. Thus, a large part of the region which we shall
describe in this history was a lake. But the infuriated Wishpoosh was not yet content, and by
successive burstings of barriers the Walla Walla lake was emptied through the Umatilla
highlands, then the Cascade Mountains themselves were parted, and the chain of lakes was
opened to the ocean, the Columbia River itself being the connecting stream. Wishpoosh
having reached the ocean making havoc among the whales and all other objects of creation,
when Speelyi at last pierced him to the heart and his monstrous carcass was cast up on
Clatsop Beach. There Speelyi cut him into fragments and of him made the various Indian
tribes.
Whatever may be the facts in regard to Wishpoosh, it is quite obvious that considerable
areas of the lower level parts of the Columbia basin and the tributary valleys are lake beds.
While the soil has all the indications of having been washed from the hills and mountains and
then settled in the lakes, it is plain also that it was originally the product of fire. For the soil of
this region is essentially volcanic. In the parts which have the larger rainfall, the decaying
vegetation of ages upon ages has covered the volcanic ash with a deep, rich loam. In other
places the action of glaciers grinding and dumping the triturated marls and clays of the
mountains has resulted in the deposit of heavy white and blue clays. In yet other parts erosion
of the volcanic rocks by wind and rain and frost, together with the wash of the streams at
flood stage, has left great beds of gravel. Through successive strata of these varying materials
there have burst at intervals new volcanic eruptions. These in turn, worn away by sun and
wind and frost and stream, have been blown and washed over the earlier strata and have
formed a new blanket of the richest soil. This process of successive stages of volcanic
outflow, disintegration, wash deposit, glacial dumping, dust drift, growth and decay of
vegetation, has gone on through the ages. The result has been that the greater part of the
Inland Empire has a soil of extraordinary depth and fertility. Analysis has shown that it
possesses the ingredients for plant food to an unusual degree. It is said to have an almost
identical composition with the soil of Sicily. That fair and fertile island was made by the
volcanic matter blown out of Mount Etna, covered by decayed vegetation and worked over
by frost and sun and rain until it became almost an ideal region for grain production. Two
thousand years ago Sicilian wheat-fields fed the hungry multitudes of Rome, and the same
fields still produce a generous quota of food products. Soil experts expect a similar history in
this country.
In no part of the Columbia basin have the processes of soil creation been more active
than in the parts of the Old Walla Walla County of this history. Beginning with the Columbia
River on the west we find as soon as we have passed the margin of river sand, which in a few
places has encroached upon the customary volcanic covering, that the soil, though dry, is
susceptible of the highest cultivation and with water is capable of producing the finest
products in the greatest profusion. Almost every mile from the river eastward towards the
mountains seems to increase the blanket of loam upon the underlying volcanic dust, until upon
the foothills of the Blue Mountains there is a soil hard to match anywhere in the world, a
mingling of volcanic dust, loam, and clay, a strong and heavy soil, not difficult to work, and
retaining and utilizing moisture with remarkable natural economy. Throughout this region the
soil is of extraordinary depth and there seems to be no limit to its productiveness. There is a
cut forty feet deep through a hill near Walla Walla, in which the same fertile soil goes down to
the very bottom. It is of lighter color when first opened to the light, but with exposure turns
darker and after a year or two of cultivation possesses the same friability and productiveness
as the top soil. Wells have been bored in the Eureka Flat region where over a hundred feet of
soil have been pierced without the drills even touching rock. In such soils the process of sub-
soiling can go on almost indefinitely with continuous preservation and renewal of
productiveness.
The climate of the region covered in this work has the general character of that of the
Inland Empire as a whole. As compared with the portions of Oregon and Washington west
of the Cascade Mountains, the climate of our section is drier and has the seasons more
distinctly marked, hotter in summer and colder in winter. The average yearly temperature is,
however, higher than that of the sea-coast, and much higher than that of the Atlantic states of
the same latitude. The average of Walla Walla is about that of Virginia, though in the latitude
of Wisconsin and Maine. On account of lower altitude the climate of the greater part of this
section, especially the portions on the large rivers, all the way from Asotin to Wallula, is
warmer than that of the parts of the state north of Snake River. The weather reports of Walla
[3]
[4]
Walla ordinarily run from four to eight degrees higher than those of Spokane. The spring
season opens from two to four weeks earlier than at Spokane or Colfax and the difference is
even greater compared with Pullman.
Perhaps no part of the Inland Empire, unless it be the Horse Heaven and Rattlesnake
Mountain section of Benton County, is so peculiarly the native home of that most dramatic
atmospheric phenomenon, the Chinook wind. Scarcely can anything more interesting be
imagined than that warm winter wind. No wonder that the native red man, with his
superstitious awe of Nature's tokens of love or wrath, idealized this heavenly visitant, opening
the gates of summer in midwinter chill and gloom and wooing the flowers from their dark
abodes even while the heavy snows still crown the mountain peaks and pile the timbered
flanks of the hills with their frozen burdens. A long wintry period, two or three or four weeks
in January or February, may have sent the great blocks of ice down the big rivers, there may
be a foot of snow upon the plains and much more in the mountains and the breath of the north
may wrap all Nature in chill and gloom, when suddenly some afternoon the frozen fog will lift,
a blue-black band will be visible along the southern horizon, the white tops of the mountains
will begin to be streaked with dark lines, there seems to thrill through the atmosphere a
certain rustle of expectancy, night drops with a rising temperature, during the night the snow
begins to slip from the trees and slide off the roofs, and with the morning, rushing and roaring,
here comes the blessed Chinook, fragrant with the bloom of the south, turning the snow and
ice into singing streams, calling the robins from their winter retreats, and bidding the
buttercups push from their heads the crust of winter and open their golden petals to greet the
sun. The Klickitat myth is to the effect that there were originally two sets of brothers, one of
the Walla Wallas from the north, the other the Chinooks from the south. The fathers of the
two lived with their respective sons upon the shore of the Columbia near the present Umatilla.
The Walla Walla were the cold wind brothers, coming down the river from the north, freezing
the streams and whirling the dust in vast clouds. At one time they challenged the Chinook
brothers to a wrestling match and threw them all and killed them. The chilly brothers had it all
their own way for a long time after that, and they made the lives of the poor old father and
mother of the vanquished Chinooks a burden. No sooner would the old man go out in his
canoe to fish than the implacable Walla Walla brothers would blow with their icy breath,
crusting the water with ice and compelling the old man to hurry half frozen to the shore. But a
deliverer was at hand, for one of the fallen Chinooks had left a son. His mother had taken him
to the lower river, and there he had grown up with only the one thought of avenging his father
and uncles. When he had become grown and so strong that he could pull up huge fir trees
and toss them around like straws, he felt that his time had come. Going up the river he slept
one night near the stream now called the Satus, and a curious depression in the hills can be
seen there now which the Indians say was his sleeping place. After his night's rest he went on
to the home of his grandparents. He found them in a most deplorable state, half-starved and
half-frozen. Young Chinook washed the grime and filth from the old folks and from it came all
the trout now found in this region. Then transforming himself into a little creature he crawled
into the stern of his grandfather's boat and bade the old man put forth for fish. At once the
hateful Walla Wallas swept down from the north to blow on the old man, but for some
mysterious reason could never reach him. Striving desperately in vain they saw the
explanation when suddenly Chinook rose to giant size and challenged them to wrestle. The
God Speelyi now appeared to judge the combat. One after another the cold wind brothers
were thrown. Chinook, more merciful than they had been, did not kill them. But Speelyi
declared that they should henceforth lose their power and could blow only at very rare
intervals and that Chinook should be the lord of the land. However, Speelyi decreed that he
should blow on the mountain peaks first as a token that he was coming.
The meteorologists tell us that the Chinook wind is not, properly speaking, an ocean
wind, though when there is a Chinook in the interior there is a warm wind with rain on the
coast. They say that the Chinook is due to dynamic heating or atmospheric friction. When
there is a low barometer on the coast and a high over Nevada and Utah, as is very common
in winter, the high pressure will descend upon the low and raise the temperature at a regular
rate of about seven degrees to a thousand feet of descent. This accounts for the fact that the
Chinook strikes the mountains sooner than the valleys. During the prevalence of a Chinook,
as shown by the weather reports, the thermometer will usually be higher at Walla Walla than
at Portland or Astoria. It has been as high as seventy degrees in January during a big
Chinook. As can be imagined, snow will vanish like a dream under a wind of such
temperature, or even one at fifty degrees or fifty-five degrees, which is more common.
A few general statistics as to the average records at Walla Walla may be of interest. The
average annual temperature as shown by official records during thirty-one years is fifty-three
degrees. The average for January is thirty-three degrees; for July and August, seventy-four
degrees. The lowest ever recorded was seventeen degrees below zero, and the highest was
[5]
113 degrees. The average rainfall is 17.4 inches. The average date of the last killing frost of
spring is March 30th, and the first of autumn is November 7th. The average number of clear
or mainly clear days is 262, of cloudy is 103. The prevailing wind is always from the south,
and the highest velocity ever recorded was sixty-five miles per hour. There is an average of
eight thunder showers in a year. The other parts of the four counties included in this history
have essentially the same climate as Walla Walla. There is, however, a regular decrease of
temperature and an increase of rainfall from the west to east. Recent records of the Weather
Observer at Walla Walla, giving a comparison of various stations, show extraordinary
differences in rainfall according to elevation and proximity to the mountains. Thus, the average
precipitation, including melted snow, for some years past, has been at Kennewick, 6.46
inches; at Lowden, 11.18; at Eureka, 14.35; at Walla Walla, 17.37; at Milton, 19.50; at
Dayton, 22.14; and at the "intake," only fourteen miles from Walla Walla, but at an elevation
of twenty-five hundred feet (Walla Walla being nine hundred and twenty), and at the entrance
to the mountains, it was, in 1916, 47.93. The natural rainfall is sufficient for all the staple
grains and fruits in all parts except the areas in the west and north bordering the Columbia
and Snake rivers. In those semi-arid tracts irrigation is necessary, and the same means of
artificial moisture is practiced for a succession of vegetables and small fruits and alfalfa in
considerable parts of the other valley lands. One of the interesting and important features of
Walla Walla is the fine system of spouting artesian wells. There are now over thirty of these
wells in the Walla Walla Valley, the largest having a flow of twenty-five hundred gallons per
minute, sufficient to irrigate a half section of land. Owing to the immense snowfall on the Blue
Mountains, ranging from ten to fifty or sixty feet during the season, a large part of the slopes
and valleys below seems to be sub-irrigated and also to be underlaid by a great sheet of
water. Hence it seems reasonable to expect that artesian water will be found in other places.
In general it may be said that the climate of the sections considered in this work is eminently
conducive to health, wealth, and comfort. It is a happy medium between the extreme dryness
of the Great Plateau and the extreme humidity of Western Washington; as also between the
rather muggy and enervating climate of the South and the biting cold of winter and prostrating
heat of summer of the belt of northern states east of the Rocky Mountains. If we may judge
by a comparison of the native races, as well as by the "bunch-grass" horses and cattle, the
"bunch-grass" boys and girls will be on the road to becoming superior specimens of humanity.
Thus far there is too much of a mixture of the human stock to make scientific comparisons.
Old Walla Walla County shares with other parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho,
Montana, and British Columbia, the distinction of joint ownership of one of the sublimest
systems of waterways on the globe. This system consists of the Columbia and its tributaries.
The Columbia itself washes the western verge of Walla Walla County for a distance of only
about sixteen miles. Yet, in this short distance the great stream sustains its reputation as
belonging in the front rank of scenic rivers. Although the region around the junction of the
blue, majestic Columbia and the turbid and impetuous Snake is regarded as a desert in its
native condition, yet on one of the bright, still days of spring or autumn views of such
grandeur looking either up or down can be obtained that no appreciative observer would
ever say "desert." The azure and gold and russet and purple that play upon the mountains and
islands looking up river, or upon the Wallula Gateway looking down, with the mile-wide
majesty of the river in the midst, must be seen to be understood. No words of description
can do justice to those scenes.
HUDSON BAY POST AT WALLULA. ERECTED IN 1818
An inspection of the map will show that Snake River touches a much larger rim than the
greater stream. For it borders each one of the four counties, for a total distance of about a
hundred and fifty miles. For this entire space Snake River is swift and turbid, having an
average fall of about three feet to the mile. Nevertheless, it is navigable the whole distance
during six or eight months in the year. The immense volume of these two big rivers is not
[6]
[7]
generally understood by strangers. The Columbia is less than half as long as the Mississippi,
yet it is but slightly inferior in volume to the "Father of Waters," and far surpasses any other
river in the United States. Its maximum flood stage at Celilo in the flood of 1894, the greatest
on record, was estimated at one million six hundred thousand second feet, while the
maximum of the Snake, just above its mouth, was about four hundred thousand. We shall
have occasion later to speak of the steamer traffic upon these rivers and the improvements,
past and prospective, by the Federal Government. Suffice it to say here that as that phase of
early history was among the most important, so it is plain that the future will bring on a new
era of water-borne traffic, and that with it will come a new era of production. Nearly all the
tributaries of the two big rivers flow from the snow banks and the canons of the Blue
Mountains. Though conveying in the aggregate during the flood season an immense volume,
the tributaries are too swift for navigation. They supply abundant water for irrigation where
needed, and each is a superb trout stream. The largest, the Grande Ronde, is in truth an
Oregon river, for its main supplies come from the Grande Ronde and Wallowa valleys, but it
crosses the corner of Asotin County and enters Snake River within that scenic country. The
Grande Ronde is a powerful stream and for varied scenes of wild grandeur and gentle
beauty, it is not easily matched. The Wallowa Basin (the "Far Wayleway" of Longfellow's
Evangeline) is sometimes called the Switzerland of the Inland Empire. Of the historic interest
of that region which thus finds its exit through one of the counties of Old Walla Walla, we
shall speak again. The next affluent of the Snake River below the Grande Ronde is Asotin
Creek, a small stream and yet one of the busiest and most useful for it is the source of the
water supply of that fair and productive region around Clarkston and extending thence to
Asotin City. Some distance below Clarkston is the Alpowa, also a historic stream. Yet
another stage and about half way between the Grande Ronde and the mouth of Snake River
we find one of the most charming in appearance as well as most attractive to the fishermen of
all the Blue Mountain streams, the Tucanon. This also is invested with historic interest, as we
shall see later. Below the mouth of the Tucanon the previously lofty, almost mountainous,
shores of Snake River rapidly drop away and the vast expanse of arid plain stretches away
toward the crests of the Blue Mountains. No more tributaries of the Snake River enter, and
with another stage that most interesting point in the history of this turbulent and historic river is
reached—its mouth, and its individuality is lost in the mighty sweep of the Columbia. A few
miles below the junction the most historic and in some respects most beautiful of the small
tributaries of the Columbia streams in through the verdant meadow and overhanging willows,
the Walla Walla. The events which have made the place of entrance, as well as many other
places on the course of this stream famous in the history of the Northwest, will become
manifest as our story proceeds.
In the great semicircle of one hundred and fifty miles in which Snake River borders our
four counties, there are frequent profound canons through which the snow-crested mountains
from which the streams issue can be seen. The observer who has made that long journey and
reaches the open prairie at the mouth of the Snake will behold with wonder and delight the
distant chain, all in one splendid picture, of which he had before seen broken glimpses
through the rifted canon walls or up the sources of the foaming creeks. But whether in broken
glimpses or in their grand unity, the Blue Mountains possess a unique charm and individuality.
While not so bold and aiguillated as the Cascades, and while there are no peaks standing in
lonely sublimity to compel the vision of the traveller, like Mount "Takhoma" or Mount Adams
or Mount Hood, the Blue Mountains are not inferior in many of the features of mountain
charm to their greater brothers. The marvelous coloring is perhaps the most distinctive of
these features. While most mountains are blue, these are blue blue. They are all shades of
blue, according to the hour and the month and the season—blue, indigo, ultramarine, violet,
purple, amethyst, lapis lazuli, everything that one can think of to denote variations of blueness.
"Blue Mountain" is a real name. The French voyageurs of the fur-traders were the first to note
the characteristic blue, and according to Ross Cox, began at once to say, "Les Montagnes
Bleues." Another characteristic feature of these mountains is the fact that they do not so much
constitute a range or chain, like the long, narrow, regular Cascade Range, as a huge mass
with prongs radiating from something like a central axis which might be considered the great
granite and limestone knot of peaks about Wallowa Lake, of which Eagle Cap is the loftiest,
over nine thousand feet in elevation. On account of this ganglionic structure there are many
radiating canons from the long ridges and plateaus to the lower levels. The views from the
open ridges and rounded summits down these canons constitute a scenic gallery of contours
and colorings which may challenge comparison with even the views of the loftier and bolder
Cascades.
The value of the Blue Mountains in condensing the moisture of the atmosphere and
dropping it upon the plains below in rain and snow can hardly be conceived unless we reflect
that without this vast reservoir of salvation to all growing things the Inland Empire would be a
desert. Nor could it even be irrigated, for in the absence of the Blue Mountains there would
[8]
be no available streams for distribution. Wonderful indeed is it to consider how the ardent sun
of the Pacific lifts the inconceivable masses of invisible vapor from the ocean and the west
wind carries them inland. The coast mountains constitute the first condenser of that vapor,
and almost constant rain during half the year with a predominance of clouds and fogs at all
times prevails along the ocean margin of Oregon and Washington. The Cascade Range lifts
its stupendous domes and sentinel-like cliffs to catch the vapor that still sweeps inland and to
feed the greedy rootlets of their interminable forests and to clothe the heights with perpetual
snow and ice. But those vast demands fail to exhaust the limitless resources of the sky, and
there are yet remaining infinite treasures of moisture floating eastward. And so the next great
suppliant for the vital nourishment of all life stands with uplifted, appealing hands, our wide-
extended and clustered uplift of the Blues. Nor do they appeal in vain, as the fertile prairies
and benches with their millions of bushels of grain and their far-reaching cattle ranges and
their orchard valleys and their countless springs can testify.
Whether from the standpoint of the forester or the farmer or the stockman or the
gardener or the orchardist or the fisherman or the artist or the poet, the Blue Mountains
constitute one of the great vital working facts, the very framework of the life of Old Walla
Walla County. We shall discover that they are not simply a picture gallery, but that the history
of this region is fairly set within this stately frame.
With these necessarily hurried and fragmentary glances at the physical scene of the story,
we shall be prepared to bring the human characters upon the stage.
[9]
[10]
CHAPTER II
THE NATIVE RACES OF OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
Any history of any part of America would be incomplete without some view of the
aborigines. Such a view is due to them, as well as to the accuracy of statement and the
philosophical perspectives of history. Such a view is required also by justice to the natives
themselves. The ever westward movement of American settlement has been marked by trails
of blood and fire. Warfare has set its red stains upon nearly every region wrested from
barbarism to civilization. This has been in many cases due to flagrant wrong, greed, and lust
by the civilized man. It has been due also to savage cruelty by the barbarian. Perhaps more
than to wrong by either party, it has been due to that great, unexplained and unexplainable
tragedy of human history, the inability of either party to comprehend the viewpoint of the
other. And yet, most of all, it has been due to that inevitable and remorseless evolution of all
life by which one race of plants, animals, and human beings progresses by the extermination
of others. Perhaps the philosophical mind, while viewing with pity the sufferings and with
reprobation the crimes and irrational treatment forced upon the natives by the civilized race,
and while viewing with equal horror the atrocities by which the losers in the inevitable struggle
sought to maintain themselves—if to such a philosophical mind comes the question who was
to blame for all this seemingly needless woe—must answer that the universe is mainly to
blame, and we have not yet reached the point to explain the universe.
We have found in the preceding chapter and shall find in succeeding chapters frequent
occasion to refer to events in connection with Indians. Our aim in this chapter is rather to give
an outline of locations of different tribes, to sketch briefly some of their traits as illustrated in
their myths and customs, and to state the chief published sources of our knowledge in regard
to these myths and customs. The history of Indian wars, which also includes other incidental
matter about them, will be found in the last chapter of Part One of this volume.
The literature of Indian life is voluminous. Practically all the early explorers from Lewis
and Clark down devoted large space to the natives. The pioneer settlers knew them
individually and some of them derived much matter of general value which has been
preserved in brief newspaper articles or handed down in story and tradition. Out of this vast
mass a few writers have formed groups of topics which serve well for those generalizations
which a bird's-eye view like this must be content to take. Foremost among the writers dealing
with the subject in a large way is Hubert Howe Bancroft. Although his great work on the
history of the Pacific Coast has been severely and sometimes justly censured, yet it must be
granted that, as a vast compendium of matter dealing with the subject, it is monumental and
can be turned to with confidence in the authenticity of its sources and in the general accuracy
of its statements of fact, even if not always in the breadth of its opinions or the reliability of its
judgments.
HUMISHUMA, OR MORNING DOVE, A WOMAN OF THE OKANOGAN
TRIBE
Her deerskin robe, decorated with beads, elk teeth and grizzly-bear claws, is worth over
one thousand dollars
In Volume One, Chapter Three, of Bancroft's "Native Races," there is generalized
grouping of the Columbian native tribes which may well be accepted as a study of ethnology,
derived from many observations and records by those early explorers most worthy of
credence. These general outlines by the author are supported by numerous citations from
those authorities. The Colombians occupied, according to Bancroft, all the vast region west
of the Rocky Mountains lying between the Hyperboreans on the north and the Californians
on the south. They are divided into certain families and these families into nations, and the
nations into tribes. There is naturally much inter-tribal mingling, and yet the national and even
tribal peculiarities are preserved with remarkable distinctness. Beginning on the northern
coast region around Queen Charlotte Island are the Haidahs. South of them on the coast
comes the family of the Nootkas, centered on Vancouver Island. Then comes the family of
the Sound Indians, and still farther south that of the Chinooks. Turning to the east side of the
Cascades, which more especially interests us, we find on the north the Shushwap family,
embracing all the inland tribes of British Columbia south of lat. 52°, 30´. This group includes
the Okanogans, Kootenais, and others of the border between British Columbia and
Northeastern Washington and Northern Idaho and Northwestern Montana. Then comes the
Salish family, in which we find the Spokanes, Flatheads, Pend Oreilles, Kalispels, and others
as far south as the Palouse region. There we begin with the family of Sahaptins, the one which
particularly concerns us in Old Walla Walla County. Numerous citations in Bancroft's volume
indicate that the early explorers and ethnologists did not altogether agree on the subdivisions
of this family. It would seem that the groups have been somewhat arbitrarily made, yet there
was evidently considerable effort to employ scientific methods by study of affiliations in
language, customs, treaty relations, range, and other peculiarities. In general terms it may be
said that the different writers pretty nearly agree in finding some six or eight nations, each
divided into several tribes. These are the Nez Perces or Chopunnish, the Yakimas, the
Palouses, the Walla Wallas, the Cayuses, the Umatillas, the Wascos, and the Klickitats. The
tribes are variously grouped. The modern spelling appears in the above list, but there is a
bewildering variety in the early books. This is especially true of Palouse and Walla Walla.
The former appears under the following forms: Palouse, Paloose, Palus, Peloose, Pelouse,
Pavilion, Pavion and Peluse. The word means "Gooseberry," according to Thomas Beall of
Lewiston. Our familiar Walla Walla, meaning, according to "Old Bones," the Cayuse chief,
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