It Is Called Quamash,
And Is Eaten Either In Its Natural State, Or Boiled Into A Kind
Of Soup, Or
Made into a cake, which is then called pasheco.
After the long abstinence this was a sumptuous treat.
They returned
The kindness of the people by a few small presents,
and then went on in company with one of the chiefs to a second
village in the same plain, at the distance of two miles.
Here the party were treated with great kindness, and passed the night.
The hunters were sent out, but, though they saw some tracks
of deer, were not able to procure anything."
The root which the Indians used in so many ways is now known as camas;
it is still much sought for by the Nez Perces and other wandering tribes
in the Northwest, and Camas Prairie, in that region, derives its name
from the much-sought-for vegetable.
Captain Clark and his men stayed with these hospitable Indians
several days. The free use of wholesome food, to which he had not
lately been accustomed, made Clark very ill, and he contented himself
with staying in the Indian villages, of which. there were two.
These Indians called themselves Chopunnish, or Pierced Noses;
this latter name is now more commonly rendered Nez Perces, the French
voyageurs having given it that translation into their own tongue.
But these people, so far as known, did not pierce their noses.
After sending a man back on the trail to notify Captain Lewis
of his progress, Captain Clark went on to the village
of Chief Twisted-hair. Most of the women and children,
though notified of the coming of the white man, were so scared
by the appearance of the strangers that they fled to the woods.
The men, however, received them without fear and gave them a plentiful
supply of food. They were now on one of the upper branches
of the Kooskooskee River, near what is the site of Pierce City,
county seat of Shoshonee County, Idaho. The Indians endeavored,
by means of signs, to explain to their visitors the geography
of the country beyond.
"Among others, Twisted-hair drew a chart of the river on
a white elk-skin. According to this, the Kooskooskee forks
[confluence of its North fork] a few miles from this place;
two days toward the south is another and larger fork [confluence
of Snake River], on which the Shoshonee or Snake Indians fish;
five days' journey further is a large river from the northwest
[that is, the Columbia itself] into which Clark's River empties;
from the mouth of that river [that is, confluence of the Snake
with the Columbia] to the falls is five days' journey further;
on all the forks as well as on the main river great numbers
of Indians reside."
On the twenty-third of September, Captain Lewis and his party having
come up, the white men assembled the Indians and explained to them
where they came from and what was their errand across the continent.
The Indians appeared to be entirely satisfied, and they sold their
visitors as much provisions as their half-famished horses could carry.
The journal here says:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 99 of 201
Words from 53766 to 54297
of 110166
