The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1871-10-27
from the Overland Monthly for October ]
DECIMATION OF OREGON IN.
.sas DIANS. 4-sys s

i .. sae DIANS. s-s3 l#a
/ When the first trading ship entered
the Columbia river, its shores were
bordered with Indian villages, from
the Capes to the Cascades, and from
the Dalles, and so on, to its sources.
They were we'll clad in skins, and
cloth made of cedar bark. They had
| abundance of food, in the game
which the land and water supplied,
besides roots and berries in ample
variety
The settlement of the fur compan-
les in their midst dated the COM
mencement of the destruction which
has come upon them go overwhelm-
ingly. Gradually, disease, with
whose character they were entirely
unacquainted, and vices, of which, as
sayages, they had heretofore been in
nocent, were introduced among them.
Then followed epidemics, caused by
the malaria arising from the breaking
of the ground by the whites for agri-
cultural purposes. In the year 1929,
five years subsequent to the settle
ment of Vancouver by the Hudson
Bay Company, 30, 900 natives were
estimated to have died from malarial
fever In the Columbia river and Will
lamette valleys, west of the Cascade
Mountains.
The Indians understood nothing of
the cause or treatment of the disease;
and, although the gentlemen at the
Fort did all they could to save life,
yet with such numbers needing as
sistance. and with the native igno-
rance and superstition against them,
very little, comparatively, could be
effected. From this period on, the
Indians of Oregon have dacimated
with astonishing rapidity. Well may
they say that they are like the sun
that melts from the hillside, while
the whites who replace them are like
the grass that follows the melting of
the snow.
In 1882, when Nathaniel Wyeth vis-
tied Oregon, with the view of estab-
fishing salmon fishery on the Co.
lumbia, he built an establishment
| which be named Fort William, on
Wappatoo, or Sauvie's Island, on the
side bounded by the lower Willamette
river. Both the island and the oppo-
site shore OF the main land are fertile
and beautiful, made richly product
i've by the annual overflow of the Co
lumbia. The island was especially
priced by the Indians on account of
root called sc0ppatoo, which grows
In great abundance on it, and is high
ly esteemed by them for food In
1882, Wyeth found some villages bor-
dering on this portion of the William
ette that still numbered thousand
warriors. Estimating that there was
one warrior to family of five, it will
be seen how populous must have been
this portion of western Oregon.
And populous as it then was, it was
desolate to what it had been ten years
before. All along those fertile shores
were abandoned villages. So close
together were they that a rife ball
might have been shot from one into
the other, and they were built of huts
three or more tiers deep. When
Wyeth saw them, only the bones of
the victims of the pestilence were to
be found In these deserted hs bita-
tious. There is little hope for the
psychologists who are looking for
the bones of pre-Adanite man, when
a lapse of forty years has effectually
effaced all traces of the thousands of
skeletons Chat lined the river banks
of Oregon just previous toits colo
nization bv American settlers.
The advent among the Indians of
missionaries, in 1885, did not i'm
lprove their condition OF the few
who could be induced to altar their
nomadic habits. nearly all died. The
children and young persons taken
into the mission school, although
they displayed an aptitude for learn
ing, and even seemed to comprehend
the vital truths of Christianity, per-
ished like wildwood flowers set in the
sunny parterres of garden. The
causes are evident: change of diet,
change of dress, and malarial poisons
from the upturned. sods of the mis-
sion farm The missionaries them
selves suffered much from intermit
tent fever and chills; but the disease
proved fatal to the Indians, while the
white mems constitutions were able
to throw it off. BY this time, too, a
worse than malarial poison was work
ing in the veins of the natives, result
ing from their intercourse with VIC
ious class of men-the dregs of white
races-foated to these shores, by
chance, in trading ships, or seeking
here adventures more exciting than
civilized countries afforded. From
these causes--to which may be added
the deprivation of their old means of
abundant subsistence, and natural
habits and recreation-the Oregon
Indians have been reduced from many
to few.
!, The ADVANTAGES OF BEING PooR.-
, An exchange says there is some ad-
vantage in being poor. You are nev-
er asked to run for Alderman, Tor
, instance, nor to stand up with any
body who is going to be married.
No one bores you with invitations to
, wooden weddings, and you are not
, asked to attend political meetings
{ and sit on the stage near the speaker.
You are not worried with sewerage
} taxes, and the collector don't hunt
} you up and make you swear as to
your income; all of these things pass
} you unheeded. You are not likely to
get fat and dyspeptic through want
/ of exercise, nor do your relations
hunt you up to visit you. We can
! always tell by this latter sign when
, | 9. moor davil is getting alnnr In ho