I’ve Had It

Oct 17, 2005 by Naomi.

This ends the event Down The Great Columbia! At least in this century. Today was the day for school classes scheduled to see re-enactors of the Corps of Discovery where Lewis and Clark documented so much of the continent that had never before been visited by white folks. Actually two hundred years ago today Lewis was busy writing everything he could learn about the river peoples that congregated at the point where the Snake river runs into the Columbia river at a place we call Sacajawea State park. He was critical of the women for not wearing much below the waist but a g-string which was often lost in the folds of fat.

Most of the Corps men were as unhappy with the smell of rotting fish as they were with the smell of rotting buffalo back along the Missouri river. Druillard, the breed interpreter, estimated there were more fish in the river than there were bison and antelope and elk all together in the great plains. River people didn’t have to go hunting for food, it came right up the river to them.

Captain Clark was not about to eat those sick fish. He was familiar with Atlantic salmon that would spawn and swim right back into the ocean and come back next year to spawn again. Those red dying fish must be diseased. Well, the Indians lived with the knowledge of the life cycle of the Pacific salmon and thought nothing of the dying fish. In fact they probably used the dried dead ones for fuel if they did want a fire but the white party would have none of it. They traded a few worthless trinkets for wood and found little else to cook on it.

Clark took the small canoe and two men for paddlers and went up the Columbia river to mark the Yakima river as directed by President Jefferson. It was important to know the extent of the oncoming streams for purposes of traffic and trade in this unchartered country. He documented many drying racks of salmon on the shore and islands as he went north taking readings for his maps. Meanwhile I believe the hunters in the party went across the Snake river - it was only 475 yards wide at the mouth - and hunted for deer and large birds. That would put them on what is now my National Wildlife Refuge, McNary. Sacajawea would have gone also to dig for roots or search for berries. She had to eat well to be able to feed nine-month-old Jean Baptiste. She carried the baby with her and the journals mention that Lewis’s dog, Seaman, sometimes was with her. The dog more often favored Clark because he would not eat dog as the other men did.

But tomorrow the Corps moves on and it is doubtful that a similar event will be offered another year. I know the visitor and convention bureau will dream up a good excuse for recalling the historical journey that put a new spin on the travel and economics of the entire world. Seven thousand extra visitors did good stuff for the old home town as well.

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