Indian Trails

This board stands on the Warm Springs Reservation, on a north-south route up the Deschutes country that was old long before fur trappers used it. Obsidian went north along it to the trading grounds at The Dalles and Celilo, and dried salmon, smelt and shells came back. People were traded on it too. The board lists slaves among the goods in a single word. Captives taken in raids on Pit River and Shasta villages in northern California were brought north on these trails and sold at The Dalles, a trade that grew once horses made the journey faster.

What the plaque says

Oregon History Indian Trails An ancient trail passed through here as part of an extensive Indian trade network linking peoples of the Northern Great Basin and Columbia Plateau to those living west of the Cascades. Obsidian, bear grass, and slaves were transported over these trails to major trading locations along the Columbia River in exchange for dried salmon, smelt, sturgeon and decorative sea shells. The long established route was later used by Peter Skene Ogden's fur trapping expeditions in 1825 and 1826. Fur trader Nathaniel Wyeth was here in the 1830s. Captain John C. Fremont followed this route on his 1843 explorations for the United States and Lt. Henry L. Abbot headed a Pacific Railroad survey party along it in 1855.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Museum at Warm Springs — 11 mi
  Oregon's first tribal museum, built because the three tribes of Warm Springs watched their families' heirlooms leaving the reservation and decided to buy them back.