Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1917-07-12
CHAPTER XVII.
Meriwether Lewis

iH0 lCluWPudnI n0tAtSs
l|1HE Shoshones received the ex-
plorers as friends-asked them
to tarry, told them how dan
~ 'gerous it was to go into the
mountains.
But haste was the order Of the day,
and they left the Flatheads, rejoicing
that these also told oflstreams to the
westward up which the salmon came.
They had heard of white men, too, to
the west, many years before.
Down the beautiful valley of the Bit
ter Root river, with splendid mountains
on either side, they pressed on, and on
the 9th of September, 1905, they stop
ped at the mouth of a stream coming
down from the heights to the west.
Their old guide pointed up this valley.
'There is a trail" said he, (which
comes across here. The Indians come
to reach the buffalo. On the farther
side water run toward the sunset"
They were at the eastern extremity
of that ancient trail, later called the
Lolo trail; known immemorially to the
tribes on both sides of the mountains.
Laboriously, always pressing forward,
they assembled the eastern slopes of
the great range, crossed the summit,
found the clear waters on the west
side and so came to the Kooshooskie
or Clearwater river, leading to the
Snake. And always the natives mar
Teled at these white men, the first
they ever had seen.
The old Indians still made maps on
the sand for them, showing them how
they would come to the great river
where the salmon came. They were
now among yet another people-the
Nez Perces. With these also they
smoked and counciled and learned that
it would be easy for boats to go all the
way down to the great river which
ran to the sea.
By the first week of October they
were at the junction of their river with
the Snake. An old medicine man Of
the Nez Perces, Twisted Hair, a man
who also could make maps, had drawn
them charts on a white skin with a
bit Of charcoal. And on ahead mount
ed runners Of the Indians pushed down
to inform the tribes of the coming of
these strange people.
1t was no longer an exploration, but
a reception for them now. Bands of
red men who welcomed them had heard
OF white men coming up from the sea.
White men had once lived by the Tim
Tim water, on the great river of the
salmon, so they had been told, but
never had any living Indian heard of
white men coming across the great
mountains from the sunrise.
'"Wil," said Lewis, ut is done. We
are safe now. We shall be first across
to the Columbia. This"-he shook the
Nez Perces' scrawled hide-'is the map
Of a new world"
Soon, so said the Indians, thew would
come to ships-canoes with trees stand
ing in them, on which teepees were
hung.
But they found no ship anywhere in
the lower Columbia. All the shores
were silent, deserted. No vessel lay
at anchor. Before them lay the empty
river, wide as a sea, and told no tales
Of what had been. They were alone.
in the third year out from home. Thou
sands of leagues they had Travelled and
must travel back again.
Here they saw many gulls. AS to
Columbus these birds had meant land,
to Dur discoveries they meant the sea.
Forty miles below the last village they
saw it-rolling in solemn, white topped
waves beyond the bar.
Every paddle ceased at it's work, and
the boats lay tossing on the incoming