Stemming the Wallowa Flow

Stemming the Wallowa flow...

Rivers of fur continue to flow here
.. otter and beaver, mink and weasel,
... though spotted cats are the lure,
..... coyotes and muskrat still pay the bills.
 

Nimi'ipuu always took a few...
.. for food and clothing and such like.
..... Contact time found a few metis,
..... refugees from fur brigades, living here.
 

Then trade... plews for guns,
.. and pots, axes, gee-gaws and booze
.... supplanted the balance and the rush
..... was on for soft gold to trade.
 

Homesteaders flooded in here
.. once the natives had been chased off.
... A desperate folk hungry for a dollar
..... turned every rock and beast to use.

Today, all seventeen trappers
.. travel our streams with roads along them,
... following the mystique and almost
..... paying for the gas they use
..
Now, the big money may lie
.. in the pockets of veterinarians
... that patch up stock dogs and pets,
..... the by-catch that survives.
 

Ahhh and the rare glimpse
.. of an otter or mink, a beaver or muskrat,
... raccoon or skunk marks the day
..... for those of us who yet play afield.


'Tis an old tradition this,
.. subduing beasts of field and bush
... with gin traps and snares
. ... for subsistence and sport.



r.anderson





plew: a beaver skin used as a standard unit of value in the fur trade

Mt. Emily Gulch ...

Mt Emily Gulch . . .

Two hundred years ago...
..and for thousands of years before,
…...this area carried more colorful names.

Some of the old pines
..not only remember but still speak
…..where sandhill cranes used to gather.

"The people" once gathered
.. for spring rites of roots and cambium
….. giving thanks for local bounty.

General Howards' troops
..came by, chasing first peoples...
…… with others following to gather left stock.

More recently cowboys
..named this place with irreverence
…..and spoke glibly of going to Mt Emily.

Cows, timber harvesters,
..Eureka Bar miners and settlers,
……have left their marks on the land.

It is a quieter place now,
.. with elk and great gray owls,
…..cows and their tenders displace cranes.

The Old Pines still speak,
..in whispers whether wind or not,
….. of the short-lived ones and their impacts.

I visit, simply to listen
..to old tales and young, spoken slowly
…..by some far older than I.

Fluvial Geomorphs...

Fluvial geomorphs...

So many streams flow
.. off the jumbled topography
…. of the Wallowa scarp...

Heritage of ancient seas,
.. eons of glacial carvings,
…. subject to giant beavers.

The Wallowa, a valley
.. of winding waters
…. and ancient swamps.

Beavers became muffoon
.. streams straightened,
…. swamps drained.

Ice scoured channels,
.. depleted riparian capacity,
…. challenged fisheries.

Knowledge brings change,
.. re-meandered channels,
…. slow riparian recovery.

People's will wanders,
.. bargaining economics,
…. ecological imperatives.

Time will tell eventually,
.. if human will is as long
…. as the flow of waters.

--r.anderson

Whiskey Creek

Whiskey Creek

A place memorialized for a sad chapter

...settlers got wind that some of Tu-eka-kas' band
.....had just been sold a keg of illicit whiskey...

.......and, fearful of drunken indians
.......took the whiskey and made libation to the fish.

Of course we don't memorialize offenses

to the first peoples themselves...

.....camps occupied, lands taken, root gathering sites

.......rooted out by settlers hogs, horses taken,

.......and personal affronts . . .

There used to be burials of old ones

....at the base of the butte between the old camps,

.....and it used to be easy to winter at the hot springs

.......where elk gathered to bathe and graze,

.........Euro-settlers took those, too.

Now... we celebrate the return of indians

...as long as it conforms to our standards,

.....though whiskey is still an issue, on whiskey creek,

.......and they need to bow to our star and artifacts.
.........Perhaps, time will make some difference

Most of todays' local supporters for a home-site

...for distant and dis-enfranchised Ni-mee-poo

.....are locals and non-bloods though many of us

.......carry bits of the genotype, that too is well hidden.

.........Someday we may be able to celebrate our humanity.

-- R.Anderson

Camp Creek

Camp Creek

In the old days
.. when horses were still just food
... there were people here
….. learning... how to live on this land.

Perhaps, life was harder then
.. certainly it was a bit simpler
… food, shelter, water, amusement
…. were abundant... so were big bears.

Travel was different, too.
.. The dogs and women
... carried everything important.
…. Men... were guarding and hunting

Villages moved in good weather
.. for a few hours each day
… over open ground . . .
…. There were old people and young.

The land revealed secrets then,
.. in the first and last red light of day,
… mid-summer's spires of fire,
…. green gentian blazed on the hillsides.

The people remarked then
.. on the spirits of medicine women
…. watching the land they loved
.. and the people's observances of it.

-- R.Anderson, Wallowa

Last Chance Creek, Swamp Creek

Last Chance Creek

Deep in the Wallowas, in the good old days,
.. the last Audubon's bighorns held out a long time
Competitive grazing with domestic sheep
.. guaranteed the loss of the old natives . . .
….. poaching, disease and low thrift from lack of food
We thought grizzlies, indians and wolves were problems

Swamp Creek

Cowboys named this place, frustrated with driving cows.
Beavers used to reign here with marsh and pond,
.. sedges and willow carrs, teaching steelhead to jump,
… and otters and mink amused crawdads and mussels.
Nee-me-poo left huge shell middens, cached couse
.. and flaked keen basalt tools while waiting for game.

Trading beaver for guns and pots guaranteed their demise.
.. marshes and ponds disappeared, stream down-cut,
… steelhead grew rare, everything that survived was grazed
….. by multiple classes of livestock for fire control.

It takes a long time and a glacial shift of attitude to repair
.. what was wrought with inattention, greed and short sight.

Where else on this landscape have we applied as much,
.. and forgotten . . . the grass belly deep to a tall horse,
… open pine woodlands sprinkled with dryland willow,
….. filled with walking grouse, game and abundant roots?
An ecological eye seems to see in depth of time
even as i can hear... keening in the wind through the trees.

--R.Anderson Wallowa

A Pair of Place Poems

Minam
Once, "Eh-mee-ni-mah..." was a peaceful place
.. several tribes gathered for early roots,
..... steelhead, whitefish, bighorn sheep or wapiti.
The old rockshelter was welcoming
... the campsites handy to wood and water.

Drovers, homesteaders and land speculators
. found the hidden valley following indian trails.
Tu-eka-kas posted his boundaries,
...traded friendship for peace . . .
.....and was rewarded with "the thieving treaty."

Wagon roads, toll bridges, railroad and log mill,
. a town and a fish hatchery to restore salmon runs,
.... then a highway later... and most folks
...... actually speed up to miss the historic vestiges.
Only a few fishermen wander here, now.

The rivers still flow by this place, sometimes high
. often-times as low as the legends, history and memories.
A canyon full of echos and dreams, illusions and delusions,
. it is still a quiet place to gather a few berries,
..... dig a little couse... watch the eagles or a bear.

R.Anderson, Wallowa

Corral Creek

A trail connects the lower Imnaha canyon
. to the upland prairie and forest.
The old people used to winter deep
. and crowd spring to the prairie
... for roots, game and an expansive view.

There is a pre-history and a history
. almost forgotten in this place
.... but... the scarred old pines remember.
The people... laughed, played
. and gathered sweet cambium here.

Once, a raiding party of Tukuaduka came
. looking for plunder, horses, women
..... and left their bones deep in Ni-mee-poo land.
Though congress has noted such events
. most people have forgotten.

The setting here provokes visions
. of exotic terranes, rich resources for life
... and depths of time in a widening space.
I... come here to dream, watch for falcons
. and listen for ancient echos.

R.Anderson Wallowa