|
|
Like guardians of the east, the peaks of this range of mountains loom over the depths of the canyon.
|
|
|
The voices of early residents long forgotten echo through the canyon walls. Is it a greeting?
|
|
|
The Snake River slithers and writhes in the bottom of the canyon, the master of its serpentine domain. But after leaving the canyon sanctuary, the liquid reptile makes its way west to be swallowed whole by the great Columbia River.
|
|
|
It was 1877. The proud Nee-Me-Poo (Nez Perce tribe), on U.S. military orders to evacuate their beloved Wallowa Valley to live on a reservation, defiantly head east to the canyon and cross at a narrow part of the Snake River. Soon after, the resilient band devastates the Calvary in the White Bird massacre. Weeks later, camped in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana only forty miles from freedom in Canada, the survivors of the broken and dying tribe are captured by General Howard.
"Hear me, my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." Chief Joseph.
|
|
|
The Trickster. He has always been there and always will be. Nee-Me-Poo legend says Coyote dug the canyon for them with a big stick.
|
|
|
Churning. Boiling. Raging. The river can gently caress you. Or violently tear you to pieces.
|
|
|
The Salmon River is the longest untamed river in the continental United States and is consumed by the Snake just below Hells Canyon. It is wild beyond imagination. If you choose to go down, you will not return.
|
|
|
It was 1887. Ambitious Chinese gold miners camped at Deep Creek are chasing the American dream. Horse thieves surprise them and demand their cache. No one talks. One by one, they are shot and their dismembered bodies are thrown into the river. Authorities arrest the cowardly devils but they are never punished for one of the most horrendous crimes of the Western frontier.
|
|
|
Pictographs, thousands of years old, grace the gigantic volcanic boulders that watch over the calm retreat below the canyon.
|
|
|
Huge glaciers creep and grind for eons digging the deepest gorge in North America. Was this Coyote's big stick?
|
Vol. 17, No. 2: Feb.-Mar. 2012
