Fort Clatsop, winter quarters — Patrick Gass: March 21, 1806

204 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE
hunters went out this morning; and about ro o’clock we were
visited by some of the Clat-sop Indians. These and the
Chin-ook, Cath-la-mas, Cal-a-mex and Chiltz nations, who in-
habit the seacoast, all dress in the same manner. The men are
wholly naked except a small robe; the women have only the
addition of the short petticoat. Their language also is nearly
the same; and they all observe the same ceremony of deposit-
ing with the remains of the dead all their property, or plac-
ing it at their graves. I believe I saw as many as an hundred
canoes at one burying-place of the Chin-ooks, on the north
side of the Columbia, at its entrance into Hailey’s Bay; and
there are a great many at the burying-place of every village.
These Indians on the coast have no horses, and very little
property of any kind, except their canoes. The women are
much inclined to venery, and like those on the Missouri are
sold to prostitution at an easy rate. An old Chin-ook squaw
frequently visited our quarters with nine girls which she kept
as prostitutes. To the honour of the Flatheads, who live on
the west side of the Rocky Mountains, and extend some
distance down the Columbia, we must mention them as an
exception; as they do not exhibit those loose feelings of car-
nal desire, nor appear addicted to the common customs of
prostitution: and they are the only nation on the whole route
where any thing like chastity is regarded. In the evening our
two hunters returned, but had killed nothing.