Letterpress Book Arts: Journey with Confluence Project

November 18th 1805

a little Cloudy this morning I set out at day light with 10 men & my Sevent, Shabono, Sergt. Pryer odderway Jos. & R. Fields Shannon Colter, wiser Lebiech & york proceeded on Down the Shore from the 1st point...Monday 18th. The morning was cloudy. Capt. Clarke and 10 men went down to Cape Disappointment, to get a more full view of the ocean; and 3 went out to hunt. In the course of the day we got some dried salmon and roots from the natives. In the evening our hunters came in with a deer, 2 brants, a squirrel, a hawk, and a flounder, which the tide had thrown on a sand-bar. The Indians still remained with us, and Capt. Lewis got a specimen of their language. Those who live about the seashore and on Rogue’s-harbour creek, a large creek that comes in on the north side of the bay, call themselves the Chin-ook nation.

The River of The Gods

Long ago, when the world was young, all people were happy. The Great Spirit, whose home is in the sun, gave them all they needed. No one was hungry, no one was cold.

But after a while, two brothers quarreled over the land. The older one wanted most of it, and the younger one wanted most of it. The Great Spirit decided to stop the quarrel. One night while the brothers were asleep he took them to a land, to a country with high mountains. Between the mountains flowed a big river.

The Great Spirit took the two brothers to the top of the high mountains and wakened them. They saw that the new country was rich and beautiful.

"Each of you will shoot an arrow in opposite directions," he said to them. "Then you will follow your arrow. Where your arrow falls, that will be your country. There you will become a great chief. The river will separate your lands."

One brother shot his arrow south into the valley of the Wilamette River. He became the father and the high chief of the Multnomah people. The other brother shot his arrow north into the Klickitat Country. He became the father and high chief of the Klickitat people. Then the Great Spirit built a bridge over the big river. To each brother he said, "I have built a bridge over the river, so that you and your people may visit those on the other side. It will be a sign of peace between you. As long as you and your people are good and are friendly with each other, this bridge of the Tahmahnawis will remain."

Designed as a concept book for Maya Lin Studio and The Confluence Project, the book weaves the journals of Lewis and Clark as they traveled along the confluences of the Columbia River with Native American Mythologies. Confluence Project will ultimately be a seven-site specific land and art piece designed by Maya Lin which commemorates the bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery as well as commemorating the history of the land and the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.

Why Rivers Flow But One Way

Long ago, before the world changed, all the animal people came together for a big meeting. Eagle was the headman of the gathering. He lived up high, in the top of a tall tree. Whenever the people wanted to decide anything important, they called up to him as he sat in the tree, and he gave them his opinion. Each of the animal people at the meeting had a chance to say what he thought. Even Raven and Mink, who were slaves, told the others what they believed should be done. Raven’s opinion was so good that he became known as a wise man. For a long time the people argued about the direction in which the rivers should flow. Should they flow up or down, or both up and down? All but Raven thought that one side of all rivers should go up as far as the falls, they said, and then should turn round and come back.
“What do you think of our plan?” they called up to Eagle. “I agree with you,” answered Eagle. “If the rivers go both ways, the new people who are to come will have an easy time. It will not be hard to go upstream, and it will not be hard to go downstream. What does Raven think?” “I don’t agree with you,” replied Raven. “If the rivers turn round at the falls, salmon will have no chance to stop. They will go up as far as the falls, and then they will come right back again. Where will they spawn? And how will the new people catch them? I think that all river should flow bun one way.”
“Raven is right,” agreed Mink. “The people will have a very hard time catching salmon if the rivers run both ways” “I think the rivers should go but one way,” repeated Raven. “And I think that at all the bends in the streams there should be little eddies. They will make the salmon go slower. The people can fish there, too.”
“Raven’s reasons seem very good,” repeated the people on the ground. So the followed his plan. That is why all rivers now run but one way. That is why the salmon go all the way up their home river to spawn.

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