The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-04-08

verance which the early missionaries
must have had to oppose successfully
and overcome them.
A recent discovery of gold in jar
bidge canyon, rs miles from Duck
valley has revived an old Indian leg
end. The story as told recently by
one of the Duck valley Indians, fol-
lows. Jarbidge was huge giant,
thirty feet high, with teeth so big
that they could be seen for a half
mile. Fire was the particular bane
of the giants existence, when the In
dams would build fires across the
canyon he would roar so as to make
the air shake and throw stones as
large as a mans head for half mile
This monster lived upon human flesh.
To entice his victims into the canyon
he would make sound like the COO
ing of dove, and every Indian who
entered, with one exception, was con-
sumed by the monster. The Indian
narrator claimed he heard the story,
when boy, from the lips of the old
est Indian of the tribe. 1t would be
interesting to know what foundations
there were for the legend-at any
rate the tribe stunned the spot as if
If IT ic foot that
many Indians who entered the canyon
years ago and built fires, never re-
turned, nor were they ever heard
from again.
The following legend shows les
son in human faith and kindness not
often equalled in enlightened races.
1t is story of shipwreck long be-
fore the Columbia river was discover
ed. Indians claim that the earliest
knowledge of other races came from
prehistoric wrecks along the coast.
South of Mt. Mccartney, between the
Nehalam river and the sea- is strip
of sandy beach. Three kindred tribes
dwelled there, the Nehalem, Clatsops
and Tillamooks. A brother of the
Tillamook chief had desired the hand
of Ona, a beautiful and only daughter
of renowned Indian called Nehala.
One night ship was wrecked on the
coast and the kind hearted Ona
brought to their home a white man,
the first they had ever seen, who, ira
dition says, was Scot. They cared
for him and he lived all his life with
them, proving to be valuable hunt
er, fighter and fisher. The Tillamook
brave still desired Ona and was en-
ragged at Sandys, the Scot, success, he
tried several times to kill him, but
through the aid of the Clatsop chief,
he was finally killed by Sandy. Sandy
married Ona and she had four chill
dren-three daughters and one son.
On Clatsop plain, is bueatiful spot
called Cullaby's island, where the
family of Sandy and his descendants
lived. In 1906 the Lewis and Clark
exploring party, met an Indian who
must have been Sundays grandson.
Sandy afterwards went to his friend,
the Clatsop chief, to care for him
when the latter was stricken with
small pox, both died.
The legend of the Bridge of Signs
is valuable inasmuch as it shows that
the aboriginal race possessed tradi-
tions Involving eras of time. The
legend asserts that in the long ago
the Columbia river was not obstruct-
ed-that their canoes went up and
down with ease. The Klicktats who
tell this remarkable tale, occupied
he great gorge of the Columbia. They
claim that Mt Hood formerly stood |
close to the river, and that Mt. Adams
that rises thirty miles to the north,
stood facing Hood on the north shore.
Each mountain was the home of a
powerful genius, one of which was
extremely jealous of the other, and
n their rage and hatred hurled red
lot rocks at each other. The Great
Spirit had built bridge-a mass of
'ock, with one end resting on Mt.
Hood and the other on Mt. Adams
t was wondered at and admired by
he Indians. But the genii became
more violent and shook the founda-
ions so that the Bridge of the Gods
ell down. The Great Spirit, in pun
took Mt. Adams and sent it
wiring to where it now stands; then
flied Mt. Hood, tossing 1t thirty miles
o the south. Science proves no such
ridge ever existed, but it is fact
hat the Columbia's flow was once
lacid from the Dalles to the ocean
hat some commissions checked it's
olume. Yet the Indian has, with his
owe of mystery and poetic fancy,
aused the story of the Bridge of the
Iods.
l.