Fort Clatsop, winter quarters — John Ordway: March 22, 1806
The party prepared to depart Fort Clatsop, sending a small canoe ahead with hunters carrying baggage, while six additional men were dispatched to hunt. A group of Clatsop Indians visited the camp and traded a dog, some small dried fish, and decorative hats; the dog was bought to feed the sick men. By evening, all but one of the hunters had returned, none having killed any game. Editorial notes discuss the captains' controversial decision to take a Clatsop canoe as compensation for elk taken earlier.
with a Small canoe to go on a head to hunt untill we come up.
carried their baggage with them. 6 men Sent out a hunting, a
1 Lewis says that these savages esteem a canoe of equal value, for trading
purposes, with their wives, and that one is generally given to the father in
exchange for his daughter. “I think the U. States,” he adds, “are indebted to
me another Uniform for that of which I have disposed on this occasion was
but little woarn.”
2 The best excuse for this course of action was the urgent necessity of
the explorers. Unfortunately, as the present editor views the case, it occur-
red to one of the interpreters to propose that a canoe be taken from the Clat-
sops “in lieu of 6 Elk which they stole from us this winter,” and the captains
adopted the suggestion. Yet the savages in taking the elk had acted no differ-
ently than the white men themselves on several occasions, in appropriating
the property of the Indians; and the former had sought to make payment
for the elk by sending an agent to the fort with some dogs for the explorers.
Had the latter based their purloining of the canoe on the ground of overpowering
necessity their action would have been more defensible.
8 Gass reports the name as “ulken,” while Lewis refers to them as anchovies.
The fish was the eulachon, for which see ante, 327, note 2.
330 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
number of the Clatsop Indians visited us Sold us a dog1 & Some
Small dry fish and Some fancy Hats &C in the evening the hunt-
ers returned except one. had killed nothing.
1 Which “we purchased for our sick men.” Clark.
CHAPTER XIII
From Fort Clatsop to Walla Walla River,
March 23— May 1, 1806
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...with a small canoe to go ahead and hunt until we caught up. They carried their baggage with them. Six men were sent out hunting.
[Footnote 1: Lewis says that these natives value a canoe equally with their wives for trading purposes, and that one is generally given to the father in exchange for his daughter. "I think the U. States," he adds, "are indebted to me another uniform for the one I have disposed of on this occasion, as it was but little worn."]
[Footnote 2: The best excuse for this course of action was the urgent necessity of the explorers. Unfortunately, as the present editor views the case, it occurred to one of the interpreters to propose that a canoe be taken from the Clatsops "in lieu of 6 elk which they stole from us this winter," and the captains adopted the suggestion. Yet the natives, in taking the elk, had acted no differently than the white men themselves on several occasions in appropriating the property of the Indians; and the Clatsops had sought to make payment for the elk by sending an agent to the fort with some dogs for the explorers. Had the explorers based their taking of the canoe on the grounds of overpowering necessity, their action would have been more defensible.]
[Footnote 3: Gass reports the name as "ulken," while Lewis refers to them as anchovies. The fish was the eulachon, for which see earlier, page 327, note 2.]
A number of the Clatsop Indians visited us and sold us a dog and some small dry fish and some fancy hats, etc. In the evening the hunters returned, except one. They had killed nothing.
[Footnote: Which "we purchased for our sick men." Clark.]
CHAPTER XIII
From Fort Clatsop to Walla Walla River, March 23 — May 1, 1806
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