The Chopunnish Chiefs Now Gave Their Final Answer To The Two
Captains Who Had Requested Guides From Them.
The chiefs said
that they could not accompany the party, but later in the summer
they might cross the great divide and spend the next winter
on the headwaters of the Missouri.
At present, they could only
promise that some of their young men should go with the whites;
these had not been selected, but they would be sent on after
the party, if the two captains insisted on starting now.
This was not very encouraging, for they had depended upon
the Indians for guidance over the exceedingly difficult and
even dangerous passages of the mountains. Accordingly, it was
resolved that, while waiting on the motions of the Indians,
the party might as well make a visit to Quamash flats, where they
could lay in a stock of provisions for their arduous journey.
It is not certain which of the several Quamash flats mentioned
in the history of the expedition is here referred to;
but it is likely that the open glade in which Captain Clark
first struck the low country of the west is here meant.
It was here that he met the Indian boys hiding in the grass,
and from here he led the expedition out of the wilderness.
For "quamash" read "camass," an edible root much prized
by the Nez Perces then and now.
While they lingered at their camp, they were visited
by several bands of friendly Indians.
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