In their own words
The journals of explorers such as William Clark, David Thompson and Father P.J. DeSmet offer fascinating glimpses of an isolated land.

Story by Jim Kershner
The Spokesman-Review

The earliest written journals in the Inland Northwest concentrated, understandably, on the practicalities of the land: food, weather, latitude and longitude.

Yet even the earliest white visitors recognized that this vast and mysterious country possessed something else worth recording: the spirit of the land, expressed through the rituals, ceremonies and stories of the Native American tribes who had already been on the land for thousands of years.

We begin, as always, with the first white visitors to the Inland Northwest, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. A short time after they finally touched the great Columbia River, they found themselves witnessing a tribal ritual dedicated to the waterborne source of life throughout the Inland Northwest. (All entries retain the original spellings and misspellings).

William Clark, 1805: "There was great joy with the nativs last night in consequence of the arrival of the Salmon; one of those fish was cought, this was the harbenger of good news to them. They informed us that those fish would arrive in great quantities in the course of about 5 days. This fish was dressed and being divided into small pieces was given to each child in the village. This custom is founded on a supersticious opinion that it will hasten the arrival of the salmon."

All along the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark witnessed the most important of the tribal rituals, the dance:

William Clark, 1805: "The whole assemblage of Indians about 350 men women and children sung and danced at the same time. Most of them danced in the same place, they stood and mearly jumped up to the time of their musick.

"One of their party who made himself the most conspicuous character in the dance and songs, we were told was a medesene man and could foretell things. That he had told of our comeing into their country and was now about to consult his God, the Moon, if what we said was the truth and etc., etc."

In fact, another tribe had already told them - with great weeping and wringing of hands - that they believed Lewis & Clark were not men but had come "from the clouds."

Clark himself soon became a "medicine man" himself, as he applied poultices and liniments to the eyes and sores of dozens of tribal members who lined up to be treated.

William Clark, 1805: "I gave this man a jentle pirge cleaned and dressed his sore and left him some castile soap to wash the sore which soon got well. This man also assigned the restoration of his leg to me. Those two cures has raised my reputation and given the nativs an exolted opinion of my skill as a phisician. I have already received many applications. In our present situation I think it pardonable to continue this deception for they will not give us any provisions without compensation."

The tribal medicine man, of course, had great powers, and one early missionary, Father P.J. DeSmet, describes witnessing a medicine man attempt to cure a patient:

Father DeSmet, 1841: "The doctor or conjurer neither feels his pulse or looks at the tongue, but with a solemn countenance commences to sing some mournful strain, while those present accompany him with their voices and beat time with their sticks. During the singing the doctor operates on the patient, he kneels before him, and placing his closed fists on the stomach, leans on him with all his might. Excessive pain makes the patient roar, but these roarings are lost in the noise, for the doctor and the bystanders raise their voices higher in proportion as the sick man gives utterance to his sufferings. At the end of each stanza the doctor joins his hands, applies them to the patient's lips, and blows with all his strength. The operation is repeated till at last the doctor takes from the patient's mouth either a little white stone or the claw of some bird or animal which he exhibits to the bystanders."

Fur trader and explorer David Thompson was the first to make written observations of the Spokane area, and the first to voyage all the way down to the Columbia River. He, too, found himself entertained by Indian dances:

David Thompson, 1811: "They observed no order in their places, but mingled as chance brought them together - we remarked a young active woman, who always danced out of the crowd and kept a line close along us and always left the others far behind - this was noticed by the chief, who at length called her to order, and either to dance with the others or to take a partner: she chose both, but still kept close to us, with her partner leading up the dance. Having danced twice this way, the chief told them to dance a third time, that we might be preserved in the strong rapids we had to run down on our way to the sea. This they seemingly performed with great good will."

Thompson, more than most explorers, made a point of trying to understand the meaning behind the dances.

David Thompson, 1811: "They (the Sanpoil tribe) seemed to acknowledge a Great Spirit who dwelled in the clouds to be the master of everything, and when they died their souls went to him; the Sun, Moon and Stars were all divinities, but the Sun above all; and that he made the Lightning, Thunder and Rain. Their worship was in dancing, and the last dance they gave me was for a safe voyage and return to them."

David Thompson, 1812: "Their dances are so many religious acts, that they may, after Death, join the shades of their departed friends, and not wander among strangers. These tribes also dance to procure present and future good to themselves and their families."

Finally, Thompson noted what he understood of the tribe's core beliefs:

David Thompson, 1812: "They believe man to be a compound of body and of something that does not die, retaining after death a clear consciousness of what passed in this life, and of what they will see and meet with in the Lands unknown. After death the soul goes to the west, where they believe the great assemblage of souls to be."

Many decades later, when the tribal members themselves were able to write down their own stories and sacred tales, the world learned much more about the spiritual life of the Inland Northwest tribes. Yet Thompson's description still resonates, as we try to grasp the spirit of the West: Maybe the West is the place where, ultimately, our souls go.

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