N3838

Lewis & Clark Expedition - Bicentennial

Fred's Anecdotal Note

The Clatsops

The captains and men liked the Clatsops much better than the Chinooks because they where not thieves. That consideration bccame a major factor (along with a more plentiful elk) in deciding to build the fort sourh of the Columbia. On Dec. 12, 1805 Chicf Coboway of the Clatsops came to visit. The captains gave him a peace medal in trade for edible roots, and Lewis bought two prime lynx skins. On Dec. 23rd Clark traded six fishhooks for a mountain lion pelt about 8 feet long.

The Clatsops displayed their strong artistic abilities in everyday lifc. Clothing from furs and woven materials was colorful and finely made. Carvings of animals adorned thc wooden house, totem polcs. and bows of large ocean-going canoes. The men of the Corps acquired from the Clatsops (and to a lesser degree the Chinooks) the most unusual, most beautiful, and most practical hats seen on the entire expedition. They were conical in shape and made of cedar bark and beargrass. On Nov. 21, 1805 Clark noted that he "purchased a hat made of splirs & strong grass." The one shown in the foreground of this cachet is currently on display at the Peabody Museunr at Harvard University. It is intricately decorated with two whales and Indian whaling parties in canoes. These hats were so effective as protection against the sun and rain that quite a few were acquired and used by the men on the return journey. One journal errtry describes such a hat in use five months after leaving the Pacific coast.

The Clatsop tribe proved to be of much assistance during the winter of 1805/06. Not only were they not prone to stealing like the Chinooks, they where friendly and anxious to trade food and clothing for fishhooks. beads, cloth, and ribbon. The mutually beneficial relationship lasted to the very end. The day bcfore the Corps departed, Coboway paid a final visit and Lewis gave him "our'houses ond furniture." He wrote that thc chief "has been much kind an hospitoble to us than any other lndian in this neighbourhood."