“We found the house which Weahkootnut had mentioned, where we halted for breakfast.  It contained six families, so miserably poor that all we could obtain from them were two lean dogs and a few large cakes of half-cured bread, made of a root resembling the sweet potato, of all which we contrived to form a kind of soup.  The soil of the plain is good, but it has no timber.  The range of southwest mountains is about fifteen miles above us, but continues to lower, and is still covered with snow to its base.  After giving passage to Lewis’ (Snake) River, near their northeastern extremity, they terminate in a high level plain between that river and the Kooskooskee.  The salmon not having yet called them to the rivers, the greater part of the Chopunnish are now dispersed in villages through this plain, for the purpose of collecting quamash and cows, which here grow in great abundance, the soil being extremely fertile, in many places covered with long-leaved pine, larch, and balsam-fir, which contribute to render it less thirsty than the open, unsheltered plains.”

By the word “cows,” in this sentence, we must understand that the story-teller meant cowas, a root eaten by the Indians and white explorers in that distant region.  It is a knobbed, irregular root, and when cooked resembles the ginseng.  At this place the party met some of the Indians whom Captain Clark had treated for slight diseases, when they passed that way, the previous autumn.  They bad sounded the praises of the white men and their medicine, and others were now waiting to be treated in the same manner.  The Indians were glad to pay for their treatment, and the white men were not sorry to find this easy method of adding to their stock of food, which was very scanty at this time.  The journal sagely adds, “We cautiously abstain from giving them any but harmless medicines; and as we cannot possibly do harm, our prescriptions, though unsanctioned by the faculty, may be useful, and are entitled to some remuneration.”  Very famous and accomplished doctors might say the same thing of their practice.  But the explorers did not meet with pleasant acquaintances only; in the very next entry is recorded this disagreeable incident: 

“Four miles beyond this house we came to another large one, containing ten families, where we halted and made our dinner on two dogs and a small quantity of roots, which we did not procure without much difficulty.  Whilst we were eating, an Indian standing by, looking with great derision at our eating dogs, threw a poor half-starved puppy almost into Captain Lewis’ plate, laughing heartily at the humor of it.  Captain Lewis took up the animal and flung it with great force into the fellow’s face; and seizing his tomahawk, threatened to cut him down if he dared to repeat such insolence.  He immediately withdrew, apparently much mortified, and we continued our repast of dog very quietly.  Here we met our old Chopunnish guide, with his family; and soon afterward one of our horses, which had been separated from the rest in charge of Twisted-hair, and had been in this neighborhood for several weeks, was caught and restored to us.”