The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-09-07
For the State Rights Democrat.
LECTURES BY REV. H. h. SPAULDING
Early Oregon NAssi siOns..-Their I'm.
pOrtance I'm Securing the COun-
try 60 Americans.
NUMBER rwExrr.rouR.

IOI onake or Lewis flVer--tne SOutn
branch of the Columbia, named for
Capt. Lewis, who was the first white
man who sat foot upon its waters, on
the 18th day of Aug, 1908, having
that day crossed the divide from the
waters of the Jefferson and camped
upon the waters of what has since
been ascertained to be the head waters
of Salmon river, and not Snake, as
at first supposed. That night they
found salmon, which are not found on
the head waters of Snake, by reason
of the impossible falls below Fort
Hail. But the Snake river very prop
erly retains the name of Capt. Lewis,
being the principal branch; while
Salmon river has received its appro-
pirate title from the great quantities
of salmon that find their way up
through its hundred branches to feed
the mountain tribes. The only other
i considerable tributaries of the Colum.
bia up which the salmon make their
way into the region of the mountains,
are the kooskooskee, or Clearwater,
and Spokan. Clark's River and the
main Columbia, with their countless
tributaries, are deprived of salmon by
1.-THE "Kettle Falls" six miles below
Fort Colville. On the 4th of Sept,
1903, Capt. Clerk, with small com
lpany from the main party, campcd on
the head waters of Clark, or Bitter
root river. On this account the main
river very properly received his name
till il reaches the main Columbia above
Fort Colville. 1t will be rccollected
the whole party Of Lewis 6 Clark,
through untold sufierings from starva-
tion, aud bare feet on the prickly pear,
mountains, reached the Clearwater
river below the forks on the 9th Of
Septembcr, where they had hoped to
find means of subsistence, but to their
lhorror they found the Ncz Perces as
they had the Sho-shonce and Flat
Heads, III most wretchcd and stary.
ling condition, subsisting on roots and
berries and very little game, ready to
Ideyour every offensive thing cast out
of the camp. They would rush like
so many starving dogs, tumbling over
each other, upon the entrails ofa horse
or deer east out by the hunters, de-
vouring them raw; and when the hun
tiers, though themselves almost starry
ling, would give them a deer, they
would fall upon il ike wolves aud de-
your it raw, the blood running down
their faces.
THE reader can not but contrast the
lhappy aud comfortable state of this
tribe of Indians for the last 25 years,
with their wrctchcd condition when
Lewis and Clark passed through their
country. 1t is natural To- inquire what
has contributed TO bring about this
wonderful change in this once wild
land miserable tribe of savages?
lanswcr, in no degree and III no sense
whatever is il due To any thing done
by the American Government accord.
ling TO abundant promises made Ia
them and all other tribes from the
day Lewis met them till the present
day, only to be broken, till the whole
Indian race has come TO regard the
American Government only as anoth.
er term for a set of robbers but, in
in the first place, to the good counsel
and means for hunting afforded them
by the Hudson Bay Co. for their fiurs
and principally to the plows, and seed
grain, and cows, and the Bible brought
to them in 1886 by the missionaries
and to their personal Instructions
The steady alliance and friendship oil
the Nez Pcrces to the Americans and
the American Government during
those years of bloody wars, when al
the surrounding tribes were at wal
with the Americans, and their steady
adhereance to their civilized habits
and Christian attainments received
from their missionaries, ere undoubt
edly due to the Bible preached tc
them from the start in their own Ian
guage, and which they value above al
price. The Americans and American
Government have never been able t.
provoke them to 60 to war in defense
of their property and their own fami
lies, although they have heaped upor
them sore and shameful provocationi
I5y stealing thousands of their horses
> II;rr5srftuting their women, Stealing
their Sabbath" (as the chief wrote t.
President Johnson,) numbering with
y out cause their young men, stripping
their country of timber, overrunning
i their reservation with liquor sellers
towns and settlements, withholding
some 100000 due them already, il
: money and labor service, for lands
long ago settled by the whites, anC
finally, by breaking up their school,
and religious meetings and sending
off their old missionary, pulling th'
Indians by the hair of the head ant
using language concerning the Lore
Jesus too shocking to go on the print
ed page, but which | will give if | an
! pushed too hard.
No, the Nez Perces will never be pro
yoked to go to war while they retail
the Sabbath and portions of the Hol,
/. Bible in their own language. And
j the American people, or the America
Government, or the Indian Depart
ment, or the cut-throats that run tina
machine, have decreed to rob that ma
tion of their country and exterminat
the tribe along with the whole Indial
race-and this unquestionably is tn
design of the Government, and prcba
bly, Of a majority of the people ives
of the Mississippi-the Governmen
has taken the best method to brin,
about this diabolical end by stoppin
the Bible from being given to tha
Ipeople and by expelling their old pas