Being Now Strong In Numbers,
They Venture To Hunt The Buffalo In The Plains Eastward Of The Mountains,
Near Which They Spend The Winter, Till The Return Of The Salmon Invites Them
To The Columbia.
But such is their terror of the Pahkees, that, so long
as they can obtain the scantiest subsistence, they
Do not leave the interior
of the mountains; and, as soon as they have collected a large stock
of dried meat, they again retreat, thus alternately obtaining their food
at the hazard of their lives, and hiding themselves to consume it.
"In this loose and wandering life they suffer the extremes of want;
for two thirds of the year they are forced to live in the mountains,
passing whole weeks without meat, and with nothing to eat but a few
fish and roots. Nor can anything be imagined more wretched than their
condition at the present time, when the salmon is fast retiring,
when roots are becoming scarce, and they have not yet acquired strength
to hazard an encounter with their enemies. So insensible are they,
however, to these calamities, that the Shoshonees are not only cheerful,
but even gay; and their character, which is more interesting than that of
any Indians we have seen, has in it much of the dignity of misfortune.
In their intercourse with strangers they are frank and communicative;
in their dealings they are perfectly fair; nor have we, during our stay
with them, had any reason to suspect that the display of all our new
and valuable wealth has tempted them into a single act of dishonesty.
While they have generally shared with us the little they possess,
they have always abstained from begging anything from us.
With their liveliness of temper, they are fond of gaudy dresses and all
sorts of amusements, particularly games of hazard; and, like most Indians,
delight in boasting of their warlike exploits, either real or fictitious.
In their conduct towards us they have been kind and obliging;
and though on one occasion they seemed willing to neglect us, yet we
scarcely knew how to blame the treatment by which we were to suffer,
when we recollected how few civilized chiefs would have hazarded the comforts
or the subsistence of their people for the sake of a few strangers.
. . . . . . . . .
"As war is the chief occupation, bravery is the first virtue
among the Shoshonees. None can hope to be distinguished without
having given proofs of it, nor can there be any preferment
or influence among the nation, without some warlike achievement.
Those important events which give reputation to a warrior,
and entitle him to a new name, are: killing a white [or
grizzly] bear, stealing individually the horses of the enemy,
leading a party who happen to be successful either in plundering
horses or destroying the enemy, and lastly, scalping a warrior.
These acts seem of nearly equal dignity, but the last,
that of taking an enemy's scalp, is an honor quite independent
of the act of vanquishing him. To kill your adversary is of no
importance unless the scalp is brought from the field of battle;
were a warrior to slay any number of his enemies in action,
and others were to obtain the scalps or first touch the dead,
they would have all the honors, since they have borne off the trophy.
. . . . . . . . .
"The names of these Indians vary in the course of their life.
Originally given in childhood, from the mere necessity of distinguishing
objects, or from some accidental resemblance to external objects,
the young warrior is impatient to change it by some achievement of his own.
Any important event - the stealing of horses, the scalping of an enemy,
or the killing of a brown bear - entitles him at once to a new name,
which he then selects for himself, and it is confirmed by the nation.
Sometimes the two names subsist together; thus, the chief Cameahwait,
which means `One Who Never Walks,' has the war-name of Tooettecone,
or `Black Gun,' which he acquired when he first signalized himself.
As each new action gives a warrior a right to change his name,
many of them have several in the course of their lives. To give
to a friend one's own name is an act of high courtesy, and a pledge,
like that of pulling off the moccasin, of sincerity and hospitality.
The chief in this way gave his name to Captain Clark when he first arrived,
and he was afterward known among the Shoshonees by the name of Cameahwait."
On the thirtieth of August, the whole expedition being now reunited,
and a sufficient number of horses having been purchased of
the Shoshonees, the final start across the mountains was begun.
The journal says:
"The greater part of the band, who had delayed their journey
on our account, were also ready to depart. We took leave
of the Shoshonees, who set out on their visit to the Missouri at
the same time that we, accompanied by the old guide, his four sons,
and another Indian, began the descent of the Lemhi River,
along the same road which Captain Clark had previously pursued.
After riding twelve miles we camped on the south bank of this river,
and as the hunters had brought in three deer early in the morning,
we did not feel the want of provisions."
Three days later, all the Indians, except the old guide, left them.
They now passed up Fish Creek, and finding no track leading over
the mountains they cut their way. Their journal says: -
"This we effected with much difficulty; the thickets of trees and brush
through which we were obliged to cut our way required great labor;
the road itself was over the steep and rocky sides of the hills,
where the horses could not move without danger of slipping down,
while their feet were bruised by the rocks and stumps of trees.
Accustomed as these animals were to this kind of life,
they suffered severely; several of them fell to some distance
down the sides of the hills, some turned over with the baggage,
one was crippled, and two gave out, exhausted with fatigue.
After crossing the creek several times we at last made five miles,
with great fatigue and labor, and camped on the left side of the creek
in a small stony low ground.
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