(E.4-12) An Archival Review and Ethnographic Study ... - Idaho Power

FINAL REPORTit and with it Mr. Evans in charge of 11 men and 14 horsesand mules and three cows we went down the river S.W. 4mile and found a ford crossed and made N.W. 7 miles to thehead of a spring and camped in all 29 strong.The establishment of Fort Hall as a major American trading post,stood in contrast to Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Boise erectedMr. McKay in that same year. By August 23 rd Wyeth was at theconfluence of the Big Wood River [Boise River] and the SnakeRiver (Johnson 1984:79). The entry for this day was:23 rd . Made West 9 miles and found a small village of Snakesof whom we could only trade a very few salmon then 5 morein all 14 miles along the Big Wood R. and arrived at SnakeRiver which we forded by wetting our packs a little herewe found a few lodges of very impudent Pawnacks [Bannock] ofwhom we traded a half Bale of Salmon afterward 4 miles N.along the W. side of Snake River and camps near a few lodgesof Inds.Wyeth’s comment about the “impudent Pawnacks” is representativeof the type of information found in these sources. The rest ofthe journey to the Columbia River mimics the route of his firstexpedition; through the Blue Mountains to Fort Walla Walla onSeptember 2nd. Wyeth returned to Fort Hall on December 20 th , 1834and made his way back to St. Louis by the summer of 1836. FortHall was sold to the Hudson’s Bay Company in October of 1837 by aCaptain Joseph Thing.Accompanying Wyeth were the naturalists, Thomas Nuttall andJohn Kirk Townsend. As one of two scientists in the expedition,Townsend’s journal entries for the above dates contrastremarkably with Wyeth’s when describing the cultures of a varietyof Shoshone and Northern Paiute groups in southern Idaho. OnAugust 5 th , 1834, Wyeth christened Fort Hall and celebrated withhis men with uncontrolled liquor. For the “sensitivenaturalist,” Townsend, the whole celebration was vile anddisgusting (Sampson 1982:325; cf., Townsend 1970:231). UnlikeWyeth, Townsend did not have the responsibilities of command andwas able to describe the various traits, conventions, practices,and traditions, that were beyond Wyeth’s abilities. Townsend(1970:249-271) gives a fairly detailed description the variousIndian villages from the Boise River to the Powder River andbeyond. On the 22nd of August, Townsend, after chasing off anSnake intruder attempting to steal horses on the followingevening, wrote:72