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CLARK COUNTY INDIANS WERE NOT COWLITZ - Page 2
Before 1830
It is generally accepted that at the time of Lewis and Clark, 1805-1806, and at least up to 1830, the lower Lewis River was held by the Cathlapotle Tribe, part of a group of Chinookan speakers found in permanent camps from the Dalles to the sea. Lewis and Clark did not meet a Cowlitz Indian, though they visited Cathlapotle village and camped in present-day Cowlitz County. Even the lower Cowlitz River was held at that time by Chinookan speakers, called Skilloots.
In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) moved to Fort Vancouver. The HBC soon hired 20 Klickitats to hunt and trap for the Fort. Klickitats are a Cascades mountains tribe, then and later affiliated with the Yakamas. Those associated with the Fort were sometimes referred to as the “Fort Vancouver Klickitats”. They camped nearby and their children attended school at the Fort.
Cathlapotle was a name for an area, a village, and a band or tribe numbering 900 at the time of Lewis and Clark, and it was the Indian name for the Lewis River. The site of the village was excavated south of the mouth of the Lewis River on the Lake River. It is generally accepted that the village of Cathlapotle was devastated in 1829 and the early 1830s by epidemics that killed up to 9/10s of the inhabitants of most Chinookan villages. [1] It is not clear if the village survived and rebuilt, was abandoned, moved or consolidated with another Chinookan village, or if another tribe or tribes occupied the site.
From 1830 to 1840s
There is strong evidence that the Cathlapotle Village and the Lewis River area remained inhabited by groups descended from the Cathlapotle Chinookans, the same group met there by Lewis and Clark, and likely including Klickitats brought to the Fort area in 1820s and later.
Some time after 1824, a Chinookan village, under Chief Cassino, moved near the Fort. The Chief was prominent with whites and Indians until his death in 1848. [2] There are reports that Cassino lived at Cathlapotle village [3]. Dr. Tolmie saw Cassino paddle his canoe up the Lewis River “homeward” in 1833, after the malaria epidemic had subsided. [4] As discussed below, The Catholic Church records document substantial and continuous Chinookan presence at Fort Vancouver thorough the 1840s and 1850s.
Prior to 1838 there is no report of Cowlitz Indians in Clark County [5]. It is possible to speculate that they seasonally moved down to the Columbia alongside the Chinookan bands for salmon. However, there are good reasons to doubt that they ventured into Chinookan strongholds or shared villages with Chinookans. Cowlitz and Chinookans were traditional enemies. Cowlitz were Salish speakers, unintelligible to Chinookans. The Tribes did not report friendly relations or consensual intermarriage [6]. One of the earliest contacts between Europeans and the Cowlitz was an encounter with 20 Cowlitz war canoes headed down the Cowlitz River to attack the Chinookan Skilloots living by the Columbia. And the Cowlitz did not need to go to the Columbia because the fish runs came to them.
Inland tribes, including the Cowlitz, were meat hunters and horse riders, whereas the Chinookan peoples were primarily marine, eating salmon, clams, eels, smelt, seals, whales and wapato, a water plant. No source discovered so far concludes that Cowlitz and Chinookan speakers were affiliated politically, did anything together, or that they recognized any common social or governance structure. As late as 1825 the inhabitants of a “Kowlitch” village were seen preparing for war against the Chinook. [7] Catholic Church Records document few intermarriages.
There is other evidence from the mid to late 1830s that the Lewis River area was occupied by Klickitats. This period is after the Hudson's Bay Company brought Klickitats to Fort Vancouver in 1825, after the epidemic that depleted the Cathlapotle Tribe and before the mid 40s settlement by whites. As quoted and discussed by the Indian Claims Commission:
“In 1834 d. Lee and J. H. Frost reported the `Cawalitz' on the north side of the Columbia river to the north of the Chenook and Checaldish. Between the Colwitz and the `Dalls'' it was inhabited by scattering bands of Chenooks and Clickitats. John K. Townsend's narrative of his journey in 1834 told of a `truly fearful' depopulation caused by an epidemic disease throughout the area. He wrote that while encamped on a plain below Warrior Point (near the mouth of the Lewis River) he was near several lodges of Kowalitsk Indians [8]. When the Indians became bothersome, he reported that his camp-keeper, a Klikatat, who `has no great love for Kowaltsk Indians', would `clear the coast.' The chaplain to the Hudson's Bay Company, Herbert Beaver, in an 1836-1838 report, wrote `nearly two hundred of the Klickatack Tribe of Indians have congregated, for agricultural purposes, on a large plain about fourteen miles distant from the Fort. . .The described location would be in the Lewis River valley”. 21 ICC 143.
Theory of Dr. Verne Ray and Dr. Steven Dow Beckham
Over 100 years later Dr. Verne Ray, expert witness for the Cowlitz Tribe, published his novel theory that the Lewis River band was Cowlitz. He said that writers of the 19th century time were all mistaken. The Indian Claims Commission flatly rejected his theory:
“Explaining that early writers were confused and used linguistic designations, Dr. Ray equates all references to Klickitat, or Taitnapan, or Sahaptin to “Lewis River Cowlitz”, whenever such references occur in descriptions of the Lewis River Indians. We cannot accept Dr. Ray's view.” 21 ICC 143.”
Dr. Beckham, now working for the Cowlitz Tribe, has adopted Dr. Ray's practice of inserting the terms “Upper Cowlitz” or “Cowlitz” in old text. This implies as historical fact the same discredited theory that the eyewitnesses, including Indians, writers of the time and church and government officials were all mistaken. He relies primarily on sources who wrote decades later, or who recalled things said by their parents in the distant past. There is no 1830 to 1860 source to the effect that that Indians identified then as Cowlitz inhabited any part of Clark County.
Before Dr. Beckham, Dr. Ray published old text extensively modified by his own words in brackets. He did not warn readers that his insertions conveyed views not shared by other historians. BIA researchers critically called this “interpretive interpolation.” [9] When they consulted the original documents, they found Ray's interpretations “seriously misleading.” [10] They noted that a subsequent author, Judith Irwin, “suffered from confusion as a result of her accepting Ray's interpretation that the Lewis River band were Taidnapam.” [11] These and similar misleading interpretations continue today in materials published by the Tribe and its advocates. For example, Dr. Beckham has submitted a “Literature Search” marked by interpolations similar to, sometimes quoting, Dr. Ray's insertions. [12]
Fort Vancouver-Melting Pot
Fort Vancouver was the largest trading post between San Francisco and Seattle. French, British, Finns, Irish, Spanish and many other nationalities were represented among its visitors in the first half of the 19th century. Indians of many tribes came to Vancouver for medical help, to trade, to learn and to be baptized, married and buried at the Fort. The British forbade violence between Indians near the Fort; so new tolerances began to replace former enmities. At least forty different tribes are identified in the records of the Catholic Church from 1838 to 1860. The Fort was active long enough for the children of mixed marriages to themselves intermarry. There were many marriages between Indians of different tribes and between whites and Indians.
Footnotes
[1] The Coming of the Spirit of the Pestilence, Robert Boyd (1999)
[2] History of the Middle Chinooks, Wuerch (1979)
[3] Ibid.
[4] See the analysis of the Tolmie journal below.
[5] Catholic Church Records for Vancouver started in late 1838 and are discussed below.
[6] Indians throughout the region made raids on other tribes for slaves and wives.
[7] 21 ICC 155, reference to Dr. Scouler.
[8] The Lewis River enters above the point. There are many plains below Warrior Point including the large alluvial plain of the Cowlitz River. A short way below would still be in the Lewis River area in the Woodland plain outside present day Clark County.
[9] Historical Technical Report p 61
[10] Ibid. 17
[11] Ibid. 55
[12] Cowlitz Indian Tribe Literature Search: Examination of Cultural Resources. Beckham (2002)
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