(Man who Kills Difficulties or Fatigues)
They say that the progression of a sailor is from sailboat, to powerboat, to motorhome, to nursing home and finally to funeral home. Alas, Becky and I have phased from sailboat straight to a motorhome (class B, as in van conversion), mainly after cruising our Pacific Northwest waters via sail for most of my life and not a few years of her life, there aren’t many waters or destinations around our Pacific Northwest waters that we haven’t thrown out an anchor or passed through.
Yes, while we miss, the exaltation of 55 kt plus wind driven rain hitting our faces as we navigate 20’ waves in the Pacific, we’re finding that we still can have our “Northwest Experience” as we land-cruise the inland waters, from the mountains to the ocean. We’ve spent a few ‘local’ trips where Becky could get her 7 to 10 miles a day of hiking in, while I’ve been able to “explore” the area to learn the geographical and historical history, along with a little exercise. Now, when we think we’ll find the time to leave our grandparent responsibilities, we somehow still manage to drag along a grandkid or two with us, sometimes even with their mother (if they bring a tent…, Harvey the Arrr…vy only sleeps two). One such trip was to the Craters of the Moon, Yellowstone National Park and finished at the source of the Snake River, the Grand Tetons.
The late July days were hot, but the evenings were cool enough for sleeping in the comfort of our land-yacht. Thunderstorms were a daily occurrence, and for the most part welcome, as they tended to cool off a hot afternoon’s hike. The evenings and early morning were the best times of the day to experience the forages of wildlife such as; beaver, otter, moose, bear, Rocky Mt. elk, black tailed deer, pronghorn sheep, birds of all types, including pelicans, which I didn’t expect to see on the Snake River, fishing in the quiet flowing river, along with a fly fisherman.
Following the week, we spent in Yellowstone we headed for the Grand Tetons where we explored the many lakes, rivers and creeks, that makeup the Snake’s source. At the source of the Snake, there were quite a few other visitors taking in the breathtaking beauty of the Grand Tetons, by vehicle, canoe, paddleboards, fly-fishing and just hiking. The waters of the streams and lakes were crystal clear, with wildlife going about their daily forages.
As I observed at the gently flowing waters of the Snake, I began to wonder what it would have been like for Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery to make their epic trip, especially since their journal speaks of the many rapids that they had to portage around, which now are covered due to the damming of the Columbia, Clearwater and Snake Rivers. We all have read about the Corps of Discovery in school (or should have) and their hardships as they crossed the Rocky Mountains to the Clearwater River, meeting at the Snake River (at Lewiston) and finally six weeks later, to the Columbia, but their epic journey in 1804 may well have been the first Europeans, but…
*…that same fête was documented a hundred years prior by a Frenchman who settled around New Orleans in the middle 1700s, who then moved upriver to Natchez for better farmland. Once there, the curious ‘LePage du Pratz’, wrote Hstoire de la Louisiane, about how the Natchez natives governed, how they lived and where they came from, which he sent to Paris. When he asked where the Natchez came from, they always pointed to the Northwest, which didn’t make much sense to him, however he was told of a man of the Yazoos, 14 leagues (approximately 40 miles) upriver, who had been there.
When LePage sought out Moncacht-Ape’ he found an old man whose travels of many years had “not affected his physique” and he was also known as “the interpreter”, because of his ability to speak many languages. According to Moncacht-Ape’; sometime in the early 1700s, he had lost his wife and children to sickness and left his village, “notwithstanding all my relations”, he decided to find out where his people came from.
His journey first took him toward the rising sun, up the Mississippi to the Ohio and Wabash. There he befriended another native, an Abenaquais and the two of them traveled to the Eastern Coast, circling around the large villages of the whites “for fear they might be angry to see me, me a stranger”. They not only saw the Atlantic (Great Water) somewhere around Massachusetts, but also traveled to Niagara Falls (described the falls to LePage). From there his friend, who had family, traveled back to his village, while Moncacht-Ape’ traveled back to his own village above Natchez and prepared to head in a Northwest direction, hopefully to see where his people came from.
For the next five years, he would travel in a Northwesterly direction following the Mississippi to the Missouri River, staying with other tribes long enough to learn the language of their neighboring tribes, then move on. He describes the trip up the Missouri and then onto the Beautiful River, which easily could have been either the Clearwater River or the Snake River, and followed it to the Columbia. He spoke of spending time with the people who live a day from the “Great Water”, he described big fish, large blue birds, beautiful shell fish and an “animal which comes ashore to eat grass, which has a head shaped like a young buffalo, but not of the same color” (salmon, blue heron, clams, seal?).
He speaks of this tribe who “remain in the woods to conceal themselves from the bearded men who come for the yellow wood (Alaskan yellow cedar used for boat building) with beards to their chest and long hair flowing from the top of their head”. He speaks of traveling north with members of this tribe to meet with other natives, who together attacked the whites who came ashore to get the yellow wood and water, killing 11 before the beaded men gained their large progues that “came from where the sun sets”. The description of these men seemed not to be the Spanish, French or English that Moncacht-Ape’ had encountered on the Mississippi, but described either Chinese or Japanese.
His account of the native tribes he encountered on his quest and the physical description of the lands he traveled through has historians scratching their heads, as many believe the narrative LePage described in his work published in 1758. Did Moncacht-Ape’ really make the whole trip, and did he get close enough to hear stories from the West Coast natives? Apparently LePage’s narrative was believed by Thomas Jefferson, who had read of the journey, (probably while he served in France as a Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles) and one of the many books Lewis and Clark took with them, was the account of Moncacht-Ape’s epic trip.
Now, as I explore our Pacific Northwest, I find myself looking at it in a little different light. Not only am I taking in the beauty of our landscape, but I’m also seeing it through history’s lens. I’m also wondering why we haven’t been taught in school about Moncacht-Ape’? After all, his travels did eclipse the Corps of Discovery’s journey 100 years earlier, just to satisfy his insatiable curiosity of where his people came from. * (The Journey of Moncacht-Ape’ by Andrew McFarland Davis)