Lewis and Clark
... as well, in on September 16, 1805, Clark writes in his journal “I have been wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life, indeed I was at one time fearfull my feet would freeze in the thin Mockirsons which I wore…” By the time the eleventh day came the men were very close to starvation. Clark decided that he should push ahead with six hunter and see what was ahead of them and if there was any food available. They became lucky and found a stray horse that they butchered and used for food, leaving the rest for the others who would follow behind them. This stray horse meant that there were Indians in the area, and it turned out to be the Nez Perces tribe. They were unable to speak with them but communicated through hand signals. The men were fed large helpings of dried salmon and camass root that while filling them up, ultimately left them feeling sicker than they already were. Clark bought some rations off the Nez Perces, sent one of his men, Reuben Fields, to take the rations back to Lewis and the rest of the party and continued on his way. The group would meet back up together at the forks of the Clearwater River. At this time Captain Lewis was very sick, most like affected by dysentery caused by the roots they’d been eating. Many of the men were suffering the same illness but not to the same extent. Since the trip from that point on would be by way of water, Clark was able to leave their remaining horses with chief Twisted Hair of the Nez Perces with whom they had forged a strong friendship. The men who were healthy enough to work made six canoes out of large pine trees for the trip ahead. On the 7th of October, 1805, the party began their travel down the “Kos-kos-kee” a tributary of the Clearwater River. Through several sets of rapids and a couple of delays caused by leaks in the boats and in one case a ship sunk in the rapids, they made their way to what is present day Lewiston right on the border of Washington and Idaho. The expedition was getting closer and closer to its’ destination. The Columbia River was to be the last stretch of the journey and they were a few days canoe trip down the Snake river to get there. At this point their friends chief Twisted Hair and Tetoharsky had joined them to serve as guides through the rest of their expedition. As they floated down the Snake a daily changing group of Nez Perces frm the Clearwater region followed along with them at the edge of the river either walking on foot or horseback. They group lost one of the boats when it struck a rock and overturned, along with many of the supplies it had housed. Luckily no one drowned (as many of the men couldn’t swim) but they lost a lot of their “money” or ways with which to barter for food, supplies, and information. As they made it farther and farther into Eastern Washington they came out of the canyons and onto the dry plains. They were unable to find much firewood or game to kill for food, and it also became obvious why so many of the tribes of this area fed themselves almost exclusively with fish (although this was seasonal). They reached the Columbia on October 16, 1805. Although a monumental moment being the first time white men had ever seen the Columbia East of the mountains, some authors that have examined and edited the journals of Lewis and Clark, such as Bernard Devito, have noted that very little emotion was displayed among the group. The journal entry of Clark is very dry and talks only about details of the expedition. The journal entries do, however, speak of many Indian tribes such as the Yakamas, Wanapams, and the Teninos who were along the coast as they began their travel down the Columbia. Many were very kind to the Expedition but others were shrewd traders who had done business with foreigners before. They might not have been treated even as they were if it had not been for the fact that an Indian woman by the name of Sacajawea who had joined them early in the trip was still there serving as a kind of peace symbol. The group purchased as much food as possible before they left, including fish, horse meat, and even dogs as fish were scarce in the river that time of year. Lewis and Clark decided it was time to make the final descent to the coast. It had been a shared belief among the members of the group that once they had reached the Columbia that it would be smooth sailing the rest of the way. Little did they know that the most treacherous fifty-five mile stretch of water that they were to face in the entire journey sat right in front of them. The difficulty would begin with the thirty-eight mile Celilo Falls at the East end of the Columbia Gorge, the crew was forced to carry the canoes around the falls and strap supplies onto horses. Next they would have to go through the Dalles, of which Clark called an “agitating, gut-Swelling, boiling and whirling in every direction”. Their final test would be the Grand Rapids, a four straight mile stretch of bends, curves, falls, and extremely dangerous rapids. It would end up taking the party two whole days just to go the short distance down the threatening waters. Through the rest of the fall and early part of the winter in 1805 the tiring group struggled to find a place to camp for the winter. Lewis says at one point after eleven straight days of rain was “… the most disagreeable time I have experienced confined on a tempiest coast wet, where I can neither get out to hunt, return to a better situation, or proceed on.” Although they developed some...