Chapter 32

Nez Perce camp A chief with a hard name The Big Hearts of the

East Hospitable treatment The Indian guides Mysterious

councils The loquacious chief Indian tomb Grand Indian

reception An Indian feast Town-criers Honesty of the Nez

Perces The captain's attempt at healing.

FOLLOWING THE COURSE of the Immahah, Captain Bonneville and his

three companions soon reached the vicinity of Snake River. Their

route now lay over a succession of steep and isolated hills, with

profound valleys. On the second day, after taking leave of the

affectionate old patriarch, as they were descending into one of

those deep and abrupt intervals, they descried a smoke, and

shortly afterward came in sight of a small encampment of Nez

Perces.

The Indians, when they ascertained that it was a party of white

men approaching, greeted them with a salute of firearms, and

invited them to encamp. This band was likewise under the sway of

a venerable chief named Yo-mus-ro-y-e-cut; a name which we shall

be careful not to inflict oftener than is necessary upon the

reader This ancient and hard-named chieftain welcomed Captain

Bonneville to his camp with the same hospitality and loving

kindness that he had experienced from his predecessor. He told

the captain he had often heard of the Americans and their

generous deeds, and that his buffalo brethren (the Upper Nez

Perces) had always spoken of them as the Big-hearted whites of

the East, the very good friends of the Nez Perces.

Captain Bonneville felt somewhat uneasy under the responsibility

of this magnanimous but costly appellation; and began to fear he

might be involved in a second interchange of pledges of

friendship. He hastened, therefore, to let the old chief know his

poverty-stricken state, and how little there was to be expected

from him.

He informed him that he and his comrades had long resided among

the Upper Nez Perces, and loved them so much, that they had

thrown their arms around them, and now held them close to their

hearts. That he had received such good accounts from the Upper

Nez Perces of their cousins, the Lower Nez Perce-s, that he had

become desirous of knowing them as friends and brothers. That he

and his companions had accordingly loaded a mule with presents

and set off for the country of the Lower Nez Perces; but,

unfortunately, had been entrapped for many days among the snowy

mountains; and that the mule with all the presents had fallen

into Snake River, and been swept away by the rapid current. That

instead, therefore, of arriving among their friends, the Nez

Perces, with light hearts and full hands, they came naked,

hungry, and broken down; and instead of making them presents,

must depend upon them even for food. "But," concluded he, "we are

going to the white men's fort on the Wallah-Wallah, and will soon

return; and then we will meet our Nez Perce friends like the true

Big Hearts of the East."

Whether the hint thrown out in the latter part of the speech had

any effect, or whether the old chief acted from the hospitable

feelings which, according to the captain, are really inherent in

the Nez Perce tribe, he certainly showed no disposition to relax

his friendship on learning the destitute circumstances of his

guests. On the contrary, he urged the captain to remain with them

until the following day, when he would accompany him on his

journey, and make him acquainted with all his people. In the

meantime, he would have a colt killed, and cut up for travelling

provisions. This, he carefully explained, was intended not as an

article of traffic, but as a gift; for he saw that his guests

were hungry and in need of food.

Captain Bonneville gladly assented to this hospitable

arrangement. The carcass of the colt was forthcoming in due

season, but the captain insisted that one half of it should be

set apart for the use of the chieftain's family.

At an early hour of the following morning, the little party

resumed their journey, accompanied by the old chief and an Indian

guide. Their route was over a rugged and broken country; where

the hills were slippery with ice and snow. Their horses, too,

were so weak and jaded, that they could scarcely climb the steep

ascents, or maintain their foothold on the frozen declivities.

Throughout the whole of the journey, the old chief and the guide

were unremitting in their good offices, and continually on the

alert to select the best roads, and assist them through all

difficulties. Indeed, the captain and his comrades had to be

dependent on their Indian friends for almost every thing, for

they had lost their tobacco and pipes, those great comforts of

the trapper, and had but a few charges of powder left, which it

was necessary to husband for the purpose of lighting their fires.

In the course of the day the old chief had several private

consultations with the guide, and showed evident signs of being

occupied with some mysterious matter of mighty import. What it

was, Captain Bonneville could not fathom, nor did he make much

effort to do so. From some casual sentences that he overheard, he

perceived that it was something from which the old man promised

himself much satisfaction, and to which he attached a little

vainglory but which he wished to keep a secret; so he suffered

him to spin out his petty plans unmolested.

In the evening when they encamped, the old chief and his privy

counsellor, the guide, had another mysterious colloquy, after

which the guide mounted his horse and departed on some secret

mission, while the chief resumed his seat at the fire, and sat

humming to himself in a pleasing but mystic reverie.

The next morning, the travellers descended into the valley of the

Way-lee-way, a considerable tributary of Snake River. Here they

met the guide returning from his secret errand. Another private

conference was held between him and the old managing chief, who

now seemed more inflated than ever with mystery and

self-importance. Numerous fresh trails, and various other signs,

persuaded Captain Bonneville that there must be a considerable

village of Nez Perces in the neighborhood; but as his worthy

companion, the old chief, said nothing on the subject, and as it

appeared to be in some way connected with his secret operations,

he asked no questions, but patiently awaited the development of

his mystery.

As they journeyed on, they came to where two or three Indians

were bathing in a small stream. The good old chief immediately

came to a halt, and had a long conversation with them, in the

course of which he repeated to them the whole history which

Captain Bonneville had related to him. In fact, he seems to have

been a very sociable, communicative old man; by no means

afflicted with that taciturnity generally charged upon the

Indians. On the contrary, he was fond of long talks and long

smokings, and evidently was proud of his new friend, the

bald-headed chief, and took a pleasure in sounding his praises,

and setting forth the power and glory of the Big Hearts of the

East.

Having disburdened himself of everything he had to relate to his

bathing friends, he left them to their aquatic disports, and

proceeded onward with the captain and his companions. As they

approached the Way-lee-way, however, the communicative old chief

met with another and a very different occasion to exert his

colloquial powers. On the banks of the river stood an isolated

mound covered with grass. He pointed to it with some emotion.

"The big heart and the strong arm," said he, "lie buried beneath

that sod."

It was, in fact, the grave of one of his friends; a chosen

warrior of the tribe; who had been slain on this spot when in

pursuit of a war party of Shoshokoes, who had stolen the horses

of the village. The enemy bore off his scalp as a trophy; but his

friends found his body in this lonely place, and committed it to

the earth with ceremonials characteristic of their pious and

reverential feelings. They gathered round the grave and mourned;

the warriors were silent in their grief; but the women and

children bewailed their loss with loud lamentations. "For three

days," said the old man, "we performed the solemn dances for the

dead, and prayed the Great Spirit that our brother might be happy

in the land of brave warriors and hunters. Then we killed at his

grave fifteen of our best and strongest horses, to serve him when

he should arrive at the happy hunting grounds; and having done

all this, we returned sorrowfully to our homes."

While the chief was still talking, an Indian scout came galloping

up, and, presenting him with a powder-horn, wheeled round, and

was speedily out of sight. The eyes of the old chief now

brightened; and all his self-importance returned. His petty

mystery was about to explode. Turning to Captain Bonneville, he

pointed to a hill hard by, and informed him, that behind it was a

village governed by a little chief, whom he had notified of the

approach of the bald-headed chief, and a party of the Big Hearts

of the East, and that he was prepared to receive them in becoming

style. As, among other ceremonials, he intended to salute them

with a discharge of firearms, he had sent the horn of gunpowder

that they might return the salute in a manner correspondent to

his dignity.

They now proceeded on until they doubled the point of the hill,

when the whole population of the village broke upon their view,

drawn out in the most imposing style, and arrayed in all their

finery. The effect of the whole was wild and fantastic, yet

singularly striking. In the front rank were the chiefs and

principal warriors, glaringly painted and decorated; behind them

were arranged the rest of the people, men, women, and children.

Captain Bonneville and his party advanced slowly, exchanging

salutes of firearms. When arrived within a respectful distance,

they dismounted. The chiefs then came forward successively,

according to their respective characters and consequence, to

offer the hand of good fellowship; each filing off when he had

shaken hands, to make way for his successor. Those in the next

rank followed in the same order, and so on, until all had given

the pledge of friendship. During all this time, the chief,

according to custom, took his stand beside the guests. If any of

his people advanced whom he judged unworthy of the friendship or

confidence of the white men, he motioned them off by a wave of

the hand, and they would submissively walk away. When Captain

Bonneville turned upon him an inquiring look, he would observe,

"he was a bad man," or something quite as concise, and there was

an end of the matter.

Mats, poles, and other materials were now brought, and a

comfortable lodge was soon erected for the strangers, where they

were kept constantly supplied with wood and water, and other

necessaries; and all their effects were placed in safe keeping.

Their horses, too, were unsaddled, and turned loose to graze, and

a guard set to keep watch upon them.

All this being adjusted, they were conducted to the main building

or council house of the village, where an ample repast, or rather

banquet, was spread, which seemed to realize all the

gastronomical dreams that had tantalized them during their long

starvation; for here they beheld not merely fish and roots in

abundance, but the flesh of deer and elk, and the choicest pieces

of buffalo meat. It is needless to say how vigorously they

acquitted themselves on this occasion, and how unnecessary it was

for their hosts to practice the usual cramming principle of

Indian hospitality.

When the repast was over, a long talk ensued. The chief showed

the same curiosity evinced by his tribe generally, to obtain

information concerning the United States, of which they knew

little but what they derived through their cousins, the Upper Nez

Perces; as their traffic is almost exclusively with the British

traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. Captain Bonneville did his

best to set forth the merits of his nation, and the importance of

their friendship to the red men, in which he was ably seconded by

his worthy friend, the old chief with the hard name, who did all

that he could to glorify the Big Hearts of the East.

The chief, and all present, listened with profound attention, and

evidently with great interest; nor were the important facts thus

set forth, confined to the audience in the lodge; for sentence

after sentence was loudly repeated by a crier for the benefit of

the whole village.

This custom of promulgating everything by criers, is not confined

to the Nez Perces, but prevails among many other tribes. It has

its advantage where there are no gazettes to publish the news of

the day, or to report the proceedings of important meetings. And

in fact, reports of this kind, viva voce, made in the hearing of

all parties, and liable to be contradicted or corrected on the

spot, are more likely to convey accurate information to the

public mind than those circulated through the press. The office

of crier is generally filled by some old man, who is good for

little else. A village has generally several of these walking

newspapers, as they are termed by the whites, who go about

proclaiming the news of the day, giving notice of public

councils, expeditions, dances, feasts, and other ceremonials, and

advertising anything lost. While Captain Bonneville remained

among the Nez Perces, if a glove, handkerchief, or anything of

similar value, was lost or mislaid, it was carried by the finder

to the lodge of the chief, and proclamation was made by one of

their criers, for the owner to come and claim his property.

How difficult it is to get at the true character of these

wandering tribes of the wilderness! In a recent work, we have had

to speak of this tribe of Indians from the experience of other

traders who had casually been among them, and who represented

them as selfish, inhospitable, exorbitant in their dealings, and

much addicted to thieving; Captain Bonneville, on the contrary,

who resided much among them, and had repeated opportunities of

ascertaining their real character, invariably speaks of them as

kind and hospitable, scrupulously honest, and remarkable, above

all other Indians that he had met with, for a strong feeling of

religion. In fact, so enthusiastic is he in their praise, that he

pronounces them, all ignorant and barbarous as they are by their

condition, one of the purest hearted people on the face of the

earth.

Some cures which Captain Bonneville had effected in simple cases,

among the Upper Nez Perces, had reached the ears of their cousins

here, and gained for him the reputation of a great medicine man.

He had not been long in the village, therefore, before his lodge

began to be the resort of the sick and the infirm. The captain

felt the value of the reputation thus accidentally and cheaply

acquired, and endeavored to sustain it. As he had arrived at that

age when every man is, experimentally, something of a physician,

he was enabled to turn to advantage the little knowledge in the

healing art which he had casually picked up; and was sufficiently

successful in two or three cases, to convince the simple Indians

that report had not exaggerated his medical talents. The only

patient that effectually baffled his skill, or rather discouraged

any attempt at relief, was an antiquated squaw with a churchyard

cough, and one leg in the grave; it being shrunk and rendered

useless by a rheumatic affection. This was a case beyond his

mark; however, he comforted the old woman with a promise that he

would endeavor to procure something to relieve her, at the fort

on the Wallah-Wallah, and would bring it on his return; with

which assurance her husband was so well satisfied, that he

presented the captain with a colt, to be killed as provisions for

the journey: a medical fee which was thankfully accepted.

While among these Indians, Captain Bonneville unexpectedly found

an owner for the horse which he had purchased from a Root Digger

at the Big Wyer. The Indian satisfactorily proved that the horse

had been stolen from him some time previous, by some unknown

thief. "However," said the considerate savage, "you got him in

fair trade--you are more in want of horses than I am: keep him;

he is yours--he is a good horse; use him well."

Thus, in the continued experience of acts of kindness and

generosity, which his destitute condition did not allow him to

reciprocate, Captain Bonneville passed some short time among

these good people, more and more impressed with the general

excellence of their character.