Among Other Marks
Of It, We Noticed In One Of The Houses An Old Woman Perfectly Blind,
And Who, We
Were told, had lived more than a hundred winters.
In this state of decrepitude, she occupied the best position
in
The house, seemed to be treated with great kindness,
and whatever she said was listened to with much attention.
They are by no means obtrusive; and as their fisheries supply them
with a competent, if not an abundant subsistence, although they
receive thankfully whatever we choose to give, they do not
importune us by begging. Fish is, indeed, their chief food,
except roots and casual supplies of antelope, which latter,
to those who have only bows and arrows, must be very scanty.
This diet may be the direct or the remote cause of the chief
disorder which prevails among them, as well as among the Flatheads
on the Kooskooskee and Lewis' rivers. With all these Indians
a bad soreness of the eyes is a very common disorder, which is
suffered to ripen by neglect, till many are deprived of one
of their eyes, and some have totally lost the use of both.
This dreadful calamity may reasonably, we think, be imputed
to the constant reflection of the sun on the waters, where they
are constantly fishing in the spring, summer, and fall,
and during the rest of the year on the snows of a country
which affords no object to relieve the sight.
"Among the Sokulks, indeed among all the tribes whose chief subsistence
is fish, we have observed that bad teeth are very general; some have
the teeth, particularly those of the upper jaw, worn down to the gums,
and many of both sexes, even of middle age, have lost them almost entirely.
This decay of the teeth is a circumstance very unusual among Indians,
either of the mountains or the plains, and seems peculiar to the inhabitants
of the Columbia. We cannot avoid regarding as one principal cause
of it the manner in which they eat their food. The roots are swallowed
as they are dug from the ground, frequently covered with a gritty sand;
so little idea have they that this is offensive that all the roots they
offer us for sale are in the same condition."
The explorers were now at the entrance of the mighty
Columbia, - "The Great River" of which they had heard so much
from the Indians. We might suppose that when they actually
embarked upon the waters of the famous stream, variously known
as "The River of the North" and "The Oregon," the explorers
would be touched with a little of the enthusiasm with which they
straddled the headwaters of the Missouri and gazed upon the
snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains. But no such kindling
of the imagination seems to have been noted in their journal.
In this commonplace way, according to their own account,
Captain Clark entered upon the mighty Columbia: -
"In the course of the day [October 17, 1805], Captain Clark,
in a small canoe with two men, ascended the Columbia.
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