A Native American Trail

Native peoples crossed the Blue Mountains long before the first explorers and fur trappers. In 1834, John Kirk Townsend found the Cayuse and Nez Perce very friendly, with each of the chiefs taking the travelers by the hand with great cordiality and anxiously pointing out the most expeditious route to the lower country. On August 30, 1847, Abalsom B. Harden wrote that Indians came in abundance, traded some of their horses for cattle and shirts, and brought plenty of salmon fish, which they sold for shirts, powder, and lead.

Oregon · United States