The soldiers left their horses here on the Columbia River.
They asked the Indians to keep them until they should come back from the
West.
Then they started down the river in canoes.
On the Columbia, the party saw some Indians drying salmon.
They opened the fish.
Then they put it in the sun.
When it was well dried, they pounded it to powder between two stones.
Then they put it into a basket.
The basket was made of grass.
It had dried salmon skin inside.
The Indians pounded the powdered salmon down hard into the basket.
When a basket was full, they put dried salmon skin on the top.
Then the basket was put where it would keep dry.
The salmon powder would keep for years.
Only one tribe of Indians knew how to make it well.
The other tribes bought it from them.
All the tribes liked it.
The white men, too, liked it.
gath ered ar row head
sum mer wap pa to
pond toes
THE WAPPATO.
The party found a root new to them on the lower Columbia.
The Indians called it wappato.
Captain Clark called it arrowhead.
The wappato grew all the year.
The Indian women gathered it.
A woman carried a light canoe to a pond.
She waded into the pond.
She put the canoe on the water.
With her toes she pulled up the wappato from the bottom of the pond.
The woman caught it and put it in the canoe.
She was in the water many hours, summer and winter.
When her canoe was full, she put it on her head and carried it home.
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