"The ancestors originated in the river...tribes gathered by the river...we passed on along the river!...rivers of all sizes...people of all sizes...finally arrived at the seaside!..."
In the village of Clatsop by the river, the tribe's old grandmother, River Water, was singing in front of the firepit in the center of the tribe. This is a very small tribe, called the Swamp Tribe. Even if the old and young gathered in front of the fire pit are added up, there are only more than a hundred people. On the other side of the exploration fleet, the number of armored warriors and sailors combined was almost twice their number.
The appearance of the exploration longship brought great shock and terror to this small tribe that migrated from the upper reaches. Especially when one or two hundred warriors wearing armor and holding bows boarded the shore with "malintentions" and "surrounded" the swamp, the faces of many tribesmen all showed fear.
He Shui, the old grandmother of the tribe, stood up tremblingly. She personally lit the tribal bonfire to welcome the tribal army coming from the sea. The Clatsops are a matrilineal clan that migrates along the river. A tribe is a large family. The grandmother of the tribe is also the chief of the tribe.
As the chief of the tribe, Grandma River brought the swamp tribe from more than two hundred miles upstream of the Columbia River to the mouth of the lower reaches of the Columbia River in just over two years.
In the past few decades, in the upper reaches of the Willamette Valley, which was later known as Portland, the "powerful" Kalapuya people were gradually emerging and expanding step by step. They occupied the warm river valleys where cultivation was possible, and annexed many small tribes of one to two hundred people up and down the long river, and there was a gradual trend of forming a tribal alliance. And all the tribes in the lower reaches of the Columbia River feel the pressure of the rise of this new tribal alliance!
Several tribes on the north bank of the Columbia River, including the Chinook Tribe (ook), Cathlamet Tribe (Cathlamet), and Wahkiakum Tribe (Wahkiakum), are all moving towards unity. They would also become the precursors of the later federation, which would fight against the Calaboa federation for hundreds of years. Finally, in the middle of the 19th century, under the terrifying wave of the Yankees' westward advance, the two old enemy alliances united together, and even united the tribes hundreds of miles along the river, and carried out heroic resistance and sacrifice...
At present, the Bayou Alliance has just taken shape on the north bank of the river, and the Clatsop tribe on the south bank has not yet joined. Grandmother He Shui stared at the well-equipped elite hunters in front of her, looking at their huge bows and arrows that she had never seen before, with deep fear on her face. She knew that with the power of the tribe, she could not resist at all, and she would be destroyed overnight!
The rise of a tribal alliance will always have a huge chain impact on the surrounding tribes hundreds of miles away. Over the years, tribes up and down the river began to migrate, and conflicts gradually intensified. During their constant migration, the Swamp tribe also encountered many hostile tribal attacks along the long Columbia River. Their population dropped from two to three hundred people to just over a hundred, and they finally arrived at this peaceful and barren seaport with great difficulty.
However, the peaceful days only lasted for two years. As soon as the tribe gave birth to a child, so many elite hunters attacked them! You know, the "powerful" Calaboa tribes, with tens of thousands of tribes united together, may only be able to select two hundred elite hunters wearing armor and holding bows!
"Where did this tribal army come from? Is it from the powerful Kalaboa people in the east? Or is it the united river mouth tribes in the north? Or maybe the Tillamoke people in the south have also risen?..."
Thinking of this, the old grandmother's water surface turned bitter. She carefully looked at the kingdom warriors in front of her, staring at the shining sharp weapons in their hands, and was secretly frightened. She pursed her lips, lowered her head deeply, greeted the two leaders who came off the long boat, and sang the song again.
"The seaside is a harbor for rivers...The sea is a boundless river!...At the big river where our ancestors did not come, we met the people by the river...the powerful tribes by the river! Which river do you come from? You want to flow Where are you going?... You are a broad river. If you meet a stream like ours, what will be the outcome?..."
Exploration Captain Zuvalo looked at Mikey the Knowledgeable, and Mickey looked at Zuvalo. The eyes of the two people were both surprised and confused. This tribe on the south bank of the river reacted so excitedly when they saw the fleet docking! As if they had met "relatives", they lit a bonfire, gathered together, sang and danced, and didn't know what it meant. The most critical thing is that the song the other party sang loudly was in Kwakwala, which belongs to the rare Wakashan language family, and they did not understand a word of it.
"Oh my God (t?ana)! Oh my God! Oh my God!...Tsist! Tianthi! Tianthi!...Uh?...What is this?..."
Mickey the Knowledgeable listened intently, only to hear two words repeated repeatedly, and his mind was full of question marks.
The Clatsop people are a people who revere rivers. In their language and culture, the most important word is "river"! The larger river is called "tana", the smaller river is called "tsist", and "river" is also a very ambiguous word, which can mean "life". "The source and life of" can also mean "gathered tribes and groups", even "the inheritance of ancestors", and "the fusion of tribes"... Therefore, these two words of different sizes are not only several nouns, but also It can be used as several verbs, or even a complete meaning, which changes with the context...
"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!... Hunters who came from the river, what do you want?... The tribe has only shallow streams left, and there are What water source is worthy of a river as fierce as yours?..."
The eyes of the old grandmother He Shui were filled with anger at first, and then full of sadness. She stared at the silent hunter leaders with her cloudy old eyes wide open. Then, she saw Mickey, the knowledgeable man, approaching step by step with a sharp axe. He then placed the ax on the ground, pointed at the people of the tribe, and showed a "ferocious" smile.
"Leader of the tribal hunters...you want us to surrender?..."
Old grandmother He Shui was silent for a moment, and then looked behind her at the more than a hundred tribesmen, old and young. Among them, there are more than thirty strong men who can fight, and they are no match for these elite hunters. Most of these elite hunters are good at running and tracking. If the tribe wants to escape, it is impossible to escape and it is too late.
"Oh my god!...Tianthi!...Oh!...The tribe's stream went downstream, and was finally swallowed up by the larger river...This is an inescapable fate, and it is also the destined end of the river!..."
When she sang this, the old grandmother looked miserable. She looked at the clansmen behind her and announced with tears streaming down her face.
“Lay down your arms!…The tribe surrenders to them!…”
“Lord God bless you! We come with good intentions!…”
Mickey the Knowledgeable presented the gift with a gentle smile on his face, looking at the tribe in front of him who was so excited that he shed tears, thinking about the meaning of these strange rituals. But soon, the smile on his face solidified and turned into complete shock and confusion!
"Ah? Lord God! This... this is... eh?!"
In front of him, the old grandmother of the tribe, He Shui, slowly knelt down, lying on the ground, making a surrender gesture. After a few breaths, more than a hundred tribesmen also put down everything in their hands and knelt down on the ground. The bonfire in the camp reflected an orange outline behind everyone, like a shocking mural in a mythological epic, in which the tribe was inspired by the main god...
"Uh!...Is this...the Lord God's call? Thousands of miles away in the north, the glory of surrendering to God!..."
Mickey the Knowledgeable murmured, looking at the prostrate swamp tribe, his eyes gradually flashing with light. At this moment, a wandering thought suddenly appeared in his normally wise mind.
"Or... this is me carrying out the Lord God's will, bathing in the Lord God's glory, and gaining divine majesty!... Let the tribesmen by the river admire and admire me, and take the initiative to surrender?... Haha!"
