The Captain's Dog (19 page)

Captain Lewis and Captain Clark spent almost all of their time in the little room they shared, Captain Lewis working on his animal collection and the official journal, Captain Clark drawing detailed maps of where we had been. The men had built the captains a small desk in front of the window so they could keep an eye on the fort while they worked.

Captain Lewis was unusually quiet the entire time we were at the fort. He woke up early, checked on the men, ate breakfast, then sat at the desk scratching words until evening, when he would check on the men again, eat dinner, then return to the desk and work by candlelight until he went to sleep. I began to wonder if this was what the Captain was like when he was at home. It was pleasant lying next to the warm fire in his room, but I wasn't sure I would like this every day. I had gotten used to rambling.

Whenever I could, I went out hunting with Drouillard. I also joined Colter hunting from time to time, and watched him perfect his bull-elk bugling in those thick, dark green coastal forests. He became so good at it that all he had to do when he wanted an elk was to find a
comfortable spot to sit, let out a bugle, and choose which elk to kill.

About the only long excursion I took while I was there was with Captain Clark. The Clatsops told us a giant whale had washed up on shore south of us. Captain Clark wanted to go down and get some of its meat and oil to add a little zest to our diet.

Bird Woman asked to go with him.

"I don't think so, Janey," Captain Clark said gently. Janey was his nickname for her.

Bird Woman looked Captain Clark in the eye. "I did not come all this way to miss a chance to see such a giant fish. I am going!"

"Well," he said, somewhat flustered at her response, "I guess you are."

By the time we got down to see the whale, the Indians had stripped most of the meat, but the skeleton was still there. I had seen a number of whales spouting in the ocean when I was a pup, but I had no idea how huge these beasts were until I stood next to those bones. That creature made salmon look like fleas.

February 17, 1806

This afternoon Privates Shannon and Labiche brought in a buzzard they wounded I believe it to be the largest bird in North America. From wing tip to wing tip this one measured 9 feet, 2 inches, and it weighed 25 pounds. It was a poor specimen and I suspect it would have weighed ten pounds more had it been in good flesh. We saw a number of these magnificent birds soaring above us as we descended the Columbia River.

Pomp had his first birthday last week and I would venture to say that he has seen more of this country than any boy his age. One of the men asked for a few of the buzzard feathers so he could make the boy a headdress....

POMP HAD GOTTEN
his feet under him and was running around like a young squirrel, which kept Bird Woman busier than a hen with a dozen chicks. Her husband,
Charbonneau, was little help to her, but Captain Clark spelled her every once in a while so she could get some rest.

Captain Clark was like a different person when he was around that pup. He took him for walks, played with him, tickled him, and always seemed a little sad when he had to give him back to his mother.

White Feather made several appearances during the long winter when I was out rambling by myself or with one of the men. I tried to draw attention to him, but the men were deaf and blind when it came to that crow. He seemed invisible to all but me. I hunkered down in Fort Clatsop as the gray days dripped by, listening to the men talk about going home and what they were going to do when they got there. Several of them, including Colter and Drouillard, had no intention of working the land the army had promised them upon their return. Their intention was to sell their land as quickly as they could, outfit themselves with the proceeds, and travel back up the Missouri to trap and hunt until the day they died.

As far as I could tell, the captains had no intention of going back up the Missouri after they returned home. They were going to set up residences in Saint Louis, publish their findings, and along with fulfilling whatever official duties they were given, perhaps enter into the fur business.

I wondered what the Captain's plans meant to me. There was a time, when I was with Brady, that I envied dogs that lived in houses with their masters, getting regular meals and kind words. But this feeling had faded with every step I had taken into the wilderness.

March 22, 1806

Tomorrow morning we will leave Fort Clatsop. It has been a difficult winter, but our time here has been productive. Captain Clark has completed his map, and although we did not find a Northwest Passage, I am confident that we have found the most direct navigable route to the Pacific Ocean.

We are all eager to get home....

THE MEN WERE
absolutely busting to leave Fort Clatsop. The only thing on their minds was to get upriver as quick as they could paddle, cross the mountains, shoot a buffalo or two on the other side, then race home so they could get on with their lives.

The following afternoon we climbed into the dugouts and set off, but the Columbia had something to say about how quick our trip was going to be. By Captain Lewis's estimate, the river had risen nearly
twenty feet since our descent, and once again we were paddling against the current.

We heard that the Chinooks farther upriver were going hungry because the salmon had not arrived. As we made our slow way up the Columbia, the captains sent parties out hunting every day, hoping to store up enough jerked meat to get us past the Indians.

The men killed deer or elk here and there, but there wasn't enough meat left over to jerk. They ate dog when they could buy it. I survived by eating deer entrails and whatever else I could scrounge alongshore.

We had some trouble with some of the Chinooks, who were more than just hungry. Their supply of salmon had run out weeks earlier and they were starving to death. A few of these Indians were so desperate that anything that wasn't tied down or guarded by an armed man was stolen with the hope that it could be traded for food. None of the stolen items amounted to much, but when something disappeared our men got very angry.

The real trouble started when we reached the narrow chute of water below Celilo Falls. We had to portage around it, of course. The Indians stood on the rim above the men and threw big rocks down on them. A little later that same day Private Shields bought a dog to eat, but before he could get it back to the main party, the Indian who sold it, and some of his friends, tried to take it away from him. Shields pulled a knife on them and they ran away.

But they weren't done with us yet Later that night I was wandering around looking for something to eat, and that same bunch of Indians jumped on me. Before I knew it, I had two nooses around my neck and they were dragging me away. Captain Lewis got wind of the dognapping and sent men out to retrieve me with orders to shoot the scoundrels that dared to take his dog.

"
Caw! Caw! Caw!
"

White Feather swooped down on the Indians, but they paid him no mind. I tried to help him by biting the Indians, but it was impossible to sink my teeth into them, strung out between the ropes like I was. I could bark, though, which I did with great vigor.

The men out looking for me heard the commotion from more than a mile away. One of them fired his rifle, and when the Indians heard the report they dropped the ropes and ran for their lives.

When we got back to camp we found Captain Lewis yelling at a couple of Indians he had caught stealing an ax.

"The next Indian we catch stealing anything will be instantly put to death!" he shouted.

A Chinook chief stepped forward and said that the two men who tried to steal the ax were troublemakers and the Captain shouldn't judge all the Chinooks by their bad behavior. The Captain was not inclined to accept this explanation, but I believed the chief. The trouble we'd experienced had been with just a few
individual Indians. In their hurry to reach the Pacific, and now in their rush to get home, our men had lost their patience with these river Indians. They hadn't treated the Sioux this way, or the Mandans, or the Shoshones. Most of the Chinooks crowding around us were just curious about us and our goods. They meant us no harm.

The captains wanted to get off the river as quickly as possible and get back to our Nez Percé friends. I was certainly in agreement with this. They decided to buy as many horses as they could afford from the river Indians and ride overland, which would be faster than fighting the current.

Unfortunately we had very little left to trade that the Indians were interested in. After a week of hard bargaining we managed to buy just eight very poor mounts.

June 3, 1806

We have been back with our friends the Nez Percé for nearly a month, waiting for the snow in the mountains to melt so we can cross.

We heard a rumor today that a Nez Percé boy was sent over the mountains to Traveler's Rest. If he was able to cross the mountains, I'm confident we can do the same. We are moving our camp closer to the mountains in preparation for our departure....

EVERY DAY
Captain Lewis went to the river and measured the rising level to assure himself that the snow in the mountains was still melting. And every day Twisted Hair and others told him that he would have to wait several weeks before he could proceed on.

"Still too much snow."

"Not enough grass for the horses to eat."

I hoped the snow would stay forever, because when
we crossed the mountains I knew I would never see Mountain Dog again.

Mountain Dog and I had picked up our friendship right where we had left it in the fall. He and his friends moved close to our camp and I spent nearly every day with him, learning more and more about the Nez Percé, whom I admired greatly.

Once again the captains traded their medical skills for food and other necessities. Captain Clark, whose reputation as a healer had spread, was in high demand. Indians came from a hundred miles away to have the "white healer" fix their sicknesses. He did the best he could, but admitted that often he really wasn't doing much for their afflictions.

The captains asked Twisted Hair for a guide to take us through the mountains. Twisted Hair agreed but said that he would have to hold a council with the other village chiefs to determine who this would be.

"When will we get our guide?" Captain Lewis asked every time he saw the chief.

"Soon," Twisted Hair would reply. "There is no hurry. You cannot leave until the snow is gone."

June 10, 1806

We have departed for the camas meadows and from there we will proceed over the mountains whether we have a guide or not. Each member of our party has a horse to ride and leads another behind with supplies. We also have several extra horses for meat if needed, and to serve as replacements should any of the horses become injured...

MOUNTAIN DOG
squatted down and tied a few small shells on my neck. "Be safe, Yahka," he whispered. He scratched my ears, then joined the crowd that had gathered to see us off.

I was hoping that Mountain Dog would join us at least as far as the camas meadow, a few days' journey from where we were, but the salmon had finally arrived on the Clearwater and he was busy helping with the harvest.

We proceeded on.

That night my reluctance to leave was not eased by the conversation I overheard between the captains. They had their maps spread out by the fire and were discussing what the tribe would do after we reached Traveler's Rest.

Captain Lewis traced his finger along the map. "You and your men will go down to the Jefferson River here, then on to the Three Forks, where you'll build canoes, then you'll float down the Yellowstone to the Missouri.

"I'll take a small party down along the buffalo path to the Great Falls and leave a few men there to dig up our cache of supplies and ready the pirogue we left there. While they're doing that I'll take the rest of my men up north a ways and explore the source of Maria's River."

Maria's River. The bad-luck river where we'd had so much trouble on our way west. I never thought I would see that place again. I never wanted to see that place again.

"After we explore Maria's River," the Captain continued, "we'll meet the men we left at the Great Falls and continue downriver with them in the pirogue."

"But the upper reaches of Maria's River are reported to be firmly in the control of the Blackfeet," Captain Clark said. "I'm concerned about your meeting up with that bunch. I think we were very fortunate not to have run into them on our way here."

Captain Lewis brushed Captain Clark's concern
aside. "If we meet the Blackfeet we'll be fine. I plan to take only a handful of men up Maria's River. With so few of us, the Blackfeet can't possibly mistake us for a war party." He pointed back at the map. "We will all meet again at the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri and continue down together to Fort Mandan."

June 14, 1806

We have waited long enough for Twisted Hair to send us guides. Tomorrow we will leave the meadow for the mountains. I am somewhat concerned by the amount of snow, but there is nothing that can be done about it....

IN SOME PLACES
the snow was ten feet deep, which helped us in one way—the deadfalls were buried and we did not have to climb over or detour around them. But it was cold, very cold. The men's hands and feet went numb. The higher we climbed, the deeper the snow became. Without a guide, we risked losing our way and perishing in those mountains. The fear of this increased with every step, until Captain Lewis called us to a halt.

June 17, 1806

We have decided to retreat. There is no grass for the horses to eat. We have left most of our goods at our forward position and will pick them up upon our return. They are secured on a scaffold to keep them away from animals and are covered well. I sent Drouillard and Shannon down ahead to the Nez Percé village to find a guide for us. I gave them a rifle to offer as payment, with instructions that if the one rifle is not enough we will offer two more rifles and ten horses to the man or men who will lead us to the Great Falls....