Explorers and TravellersGreely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington)
History
Explorers and Travellers
Greely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington)
Explorers; Travelers
The great wealth of the tribe consists in large numbers of small, wiry,
and hardy horses, capable of great endurance, sure footed and fleet.
They were second in value to the women alone, who carried the baggage
when horses failed.
The Shoshones were well dressed, with shirts, leggings, and moccasins of
dressed deer, antelope, etc., skins. A robe with the hair on served as
a cloak or as a bed-covering; the shirts were ornamented with porcupine
quills of different colors and sometimes by beads, also the moccasins.
Elaborate tippets of elegant pattern were also worn, made of otter and
fringed with many ermine skins; also collars of various kinds of
sea-shells, of the sweet-scented grass, of tusks of the elk, and of the
claws of the grizzly bear.
"The names of the 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 something of his own achievement. Any
important event, the stealing of a horse, the scalping of an enemy, or
killing a brown bear, entitles him at once to a new name, which he then
selects for himself, and it is confirmed by the nation."
Everything ready, Lewis started on August 27, 1805, with twenty-nine
pack-horses, to follow Berry Creek and pass over the mountains to Indian
establishments on another branch of the Columbia. In many places a road
had to be cut, and even then was barely practicable. Sure footed as is
the Indian pony, yet all of the horses were very much injured in passing
over the steep rocky ridges. The way was so rough that the horses fell
repeatedly down the hillsides, often capsizing with their load, and
occasionally one was crippled and disabled. The journey was made yet
more disagreeable by a fall of snow and by severe freezing weather, but
the spirit of the party is shown by the mention of a "serious
misfortune, the last of our thermometers being broken." On September
6th, however, they were safely beyond the mountain in a wide valley at
the head of Clark's Fork of the Columbia, where they met about four
hundred Ootlashoots, who received them kindly and gave to them of their
only food, berries and roots. Following the river they reached
Travellers' Rest Creek, where they stopped for hunting, as they were
told the country before them had no game for a great distance. Game
proved to be so scanty that they moved onward, crossing to the
Kooskooskee, where, being without animal food, they killed a colt for
supper. Snow fell again, which would not have been so uncomfortable had
not their road fallen along steep hillsides, obstructed with dead timber
where not covered with living trees, from which the snow fell on them as
they passed, keeping them continually wet while the weather was
freezing. The road continued difficult. Game was wanting, and as they
marched they killed one after another of their colts for food. Their
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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