, 1892-10-19
THE EARLY INDIAN.
Historic "reminiscences in the Re
gion Of the Columbia.

! The Natural Bridge and It's Down
faII--HOw the Indians inter-
Preted ITS SIgnffieance--An In
teresting Letter.
Special Correspondence Of The Tribune
HOOP RIVER, October 8, 1892.
My walk this morning before breakfast
took me, as it frequently does, to the
prairie just above our enclosure, an am
phitheater or sort of basin, set in the en-
circling hills, and high peaks. some green
to the top, others bald and bare, seeming
here completelyto enclose the spot, where
"the air finds the bottom of ones lungs in
searching way" and whence the
view Of the mountains, Hood and Adams,
"Ampootah" and "Aukaken," in Indian
tongue, at sunrise or sunset can scarcely
be surpassed. The rising sun was just
lighting up the eastern slope of both these
guardians of the valley, while far below
the courses of the Columbia and of Hood
river were distinctly outlined by their
ascending mists; the former the great
"Wauna" of the Klickitats, and the latter,
"Waucoma," the place Of cottonwoods.
Not a moving figure visible, nor sound
but the distant tinkling of a cow-bell or
the growing of cock, and near at hand
the sweet notes of the meadOw-lark, greet
ing the uprisen sun. A spot worthy the
eternal vigilance Of the "Great White
Witch" of the Willamette tribe and of her
sister Waucoma.
"Life's burdens fall, its discords cease,
lapse into the glad release
OF Natures own exceeding peace"
well know that in reading accounts of
travels people always skip the scenery, and
yet this mornings outlook carried me back
in thought two hundred years, when the
confederacy Of the Wanna, or Columbia,
was one of the most powerful the New
World has ever seen; a union of the Indian
tribes of Oregon and Washington; with
the Willamettes -- corrupted from the
original Walamet ~ at the head and
seemed but the fitting prelude to a sketch
| wish to offer your readers Of an interest
ing book l have Just finished reading
entitled, "The Bridge Of the Gods" 1t is
the work of Rev. Il. II. Balch. published
published two years since, a former Con-
gregational minister Of this place and who,
all too soon, passed to cOnsumptlve's
grave; a young man of literary snd spirit
ual promise, rare, with the few advantages
he had possessed. 1t is romance of In
dian Oregon, presenting truthful and
realistic picture of the powerful and
picturesque tribes that Inhabited the Ore
gon country two centuries since. OF the
great natural bridge over the Columbia,
"The Bridge of the Gods, " it may be asked
says the writer, if this bridge ever existed,
and the, answer is emphatically Eyes"
"EveryWhere along the mid-Columbia, the
Indians tell of great bridge that once
spanned the river where the Cascades now
are, but where at that time the placid cur
rent flowed under an arch of stone that
] this hriGua Vvn fOunQnnWnq ftntpunA hUiIt
by the gods; that the Great Spirit shook
I the earth, and the bridge crashed down
into tho great river, forming the present
obstruction of the Cascades. All of the
Columbian tribes tell this story, In differ
ent versions and indifferent dialects, but all
agreeing upon It's essential featuret as one
of the great facts of their past history"
"Ancutta" (long time back say the
Tumwater Indians, "the salmon he no
pass Tumwater falls. 1t too much big
leap. Snake Indian he no catch um fish
above falls Bime by great tOmanoWOs
ter, make river higher all way up to Tum
water, then salmon he get over. Then
Snake Indian all time catch um plenty"
Local proof also is not wanting. In the
autumn, when the freshets are over and
the waters of the Columbia are clear, one
going out in a small boat Just above
/ the Cascades and looking down into the
Transparent depths can see submerged
forest trees beneath him, still standing up
! right as they stood before the bridge feel
in and the river was raised above them. It
is a strange weird sight, this forest beneath
the river; the waters wash over the broken
tree tops, fish swim among the leahess
branches; it is desolate, spectre-like, be-
yOnd all words. Scientific men who have
examined the field with a view to deter
mine the credibility of the legend about the
bridge, an convinced that tits essentially
true. Believed in by many tribes, attested
/ by the appearance of the locality, and con
hTmed BY geological investigation it is
surely entitled to be received as a historic
fact" The war trails of the Willamettes
went north and south and east, and when
their chief, the great M MultnOmah, lifted
his arm in war. his enemy's lodge became
ashes and his council silence and death
/ The one up in the sky had told the old men
and the dreamers that the Willamettes
should be the strongest of all the tribes as
! long as the "bridge of the Gods" should
\ stand. That was their tOmanOWOs. At
/ the time of the opening of the story the
\ confederacy was at the height Of its power.
/ 1t included the "Canoe Indians" of the
Sound and the Oregon coast. the hardy In
dians of the Willamette valley and the
] Cascade range and the bold. predatory
riders of Eastern Oregon and Washington.
10 comprised also the OkanOgans, who dis
posed Of their dead by tying them upright
] to a tree; bne dklOldS. VINO Durleu Jnem
under cairns of stones; the Klickitats who
swathed them like mummies and laid
I them in low, rude huts on the
Mimaluse or "death islands" of the Co
lumbia; the Chinooks who stretched them
in canoes with paddles and fishing imple-
ments by their side; and the Kalamaths
| who burned them with the maddest satur-
malta Of dancing, bowling and leaping
through the flames of the funeral pyre.'
The story goes on to describe the gather
ing of the chiefs on WappatO Island. from
time immemOrial the council ground of
the Willamettes, now Sauvies Island, ly-
ing at the mouth of the Willamette river
and extending for many miles down the
Columbia, 'the most picturesque spot in
Oregon" according to the author. As soon
as an Oregon Indian was old enough to as
pire to place among the braves, he was
sent into the hills alone. Then he tasted,
prayed and danced-chanted the (medicine
chant and cut himself with knife or thorn
till he fel exhausted to the ground. What
ever he saw then, in waking) delirium OF
feVerish sleep, was the charm that was tO
control his future. Be it bird or beast
dream or mystic revelation, it was his to-
tenn or tomanowOs, and gave him strength
cunning or sWiftness, sometimes knowledge
of the future, imparting to him its own
characteristics But what it was, its name
or nature, was the one secret that must 90
with him to his grave. Woe unto him Il
he told the name of his totem. In that
moment it would desert him, taking from
him all strength and power, leaving him a
shattered wreck, an Outcast from camp and
war party, The bridge as it then existed i;
thus described: A great natural bridge, q
rugged ridge of stone, pierced with wide
arched tunnel through which the water:
flowed, extending across the river. It wa!
covered with stunted pine and underbrusi
growing in every nook and creYice and on
IL WA Indian horunrrrnra with rImnnad hail
and rude lances. 1t was the bridge Of th,
Wanna, the bridge of the gods. g. L. H.
TO be continued.