Salmon Chief

Henry James Warre’s painting of Fort Colvile

I have been chasing a story–the story of the Salmon Chief.

I found a beginning to this story in a manuscript I am reading for another author. Well, that’s not exactly true. I knew a bit about the story, but haven’t followed it up. The story? It’s about the agreement between the Salmon Chief at Kettle Falls, and Governor Simpson, which took place in 1825. The agreement made between these two men was that the HBC men at the so-far-nonexistent Fort Colvile would not fish for their own salmon at Kettle Falls, but would trade with the Indigenous people for salmon if they wanted them. I knew this story existed. I knew the HBC men at Spokane House erected their own weirs on the river and were outraged when the Indigenous people took “their fish” out from behind the HBC weirs. 

So when I decided to finally follow up this story (mostly because I had a lead or two as a result of reading the above author’s book), the story led me to look at Simpson’s journal for the year 1825, when he speaks to the Indigenous chief who he finds at Kettle Falls–perhaps the Salmon Chief? This journal is found here: Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson’s Journal, edited by Frederick Merk and published by Harvard University Press in 1931. On page 139 of the copy I have, Simpson writes this as he passes by the piece of land that will become the location of Fort Colvile, while he is heading upriver to Boat Encampment from Spokane House:

Passed the Grand Rapid about 10 a.m. where a Portage was made with Craft and Cargo of about 100 Yards. At 2 o’clock got to the Kettle Falls where we made a portage of about a Mile with Craft and Cargo. While the people were carrying I went to the Chief’s Lodge about a Mile above the carrying place; had an interview with him and some of his principal followers and intimated my wish to form an establishment on his Lands, provided he undertook to protect it and assured us of his Friendly disposition. He received the proposal with much satisfaction and offered me the choice of his Lands in regard to situation or quantity. We selected a beautiful point on the South side about 3/4ths of a Mile above the Portage where there is abundance of fine Timber and the situation eligible in every point of view. An excellent farm can be made at this place where as much Grain and potatoes may be raised as would feed all the Natives on the Columbia and a sufficient number of Cattle and Hogs to supply his Majesty’s Navy with Beef and Pork. My reasons for abandoning the Establishment of Spokane House and forming one here in its stead are explained under date the 8th Instant. Lined out the Site of the Establishment 150 feet Square on a bank facing and commanding a view of the River and I have taken the liberty of naming it Fort Colvile, as both the establishments that bore that Gentleman’s Name were abandoned at the Coalition; likewise marked out the Garden and wrote Mr. [James] Birnie at Spokane House, directing him to send a couple of Men across immediately to plant 5 or 6 Bushels of Potatoes, and to make the necessary preparations to remove the property on the arrival of the Brigade from Fort Vancouver. The Spokane chief known by the name of “Mr. Frazer” came here to meet me hearing of my fame, and previous to parting with him and the Kettle Fall Chief I made them a present of Ammunition and Tobacco with a Speech of about an hours length as they estimate harangues by measurement; they said in return every thing that was satisfactory. Put up for dusk and narrowly escaped upsetting in a strong rapid, the boat being forced broadside on a stone in consequence of the Bowman’s pole breaking…

Simpson does mention meeting with the Kettle Falls chief, who must be the Salmon Chief. There is nothing else here that will tell us what happened at this meeting. I also have a note that some of his instructions are found in John Work’s journals, and so I looked at them too, as you will see below. But first, let’s look for the two Fort Colviles that were abandoned at coalition (1821), that allowed or encouraged Governor Simpson to place his mentor’s name on this new post on the Columbia River in 1825. In fact I only found one, and that in the HBCA records: Colvile House, in Alberta, was closed down in 1821. That just means (I think) that the other Colvile House/Fort, which could be anywhere, left no records behind. Does anyone know where it was?

So, John Work’s Journals: in 1825, on the return of the Fort Colvile brigades from Fort Vancouver, the men are supposed to remove the goods from Spokane House and take them to the new Fort Colvile location. In the introduction to Journal of John Work, June 21-Sept.6, 1825, published in Washington Historical Quarterly, it says that John Work returned to Spokane House with the outgoing Annual Express (not yet the York Factory Express) in March 1825, when he was kept busy travelling through the territory. He reached Fort Vancouver with the Fort Colvile brigades and left it again on June 21, 1825; he traded for horses on the South branch [Snake River], and arrived at Spokane House on 7 o’clock, July 20, 1825, “and found Mr. Birnie and his people all well.” The next morning, Work was “employed examining the property to be transported to the Kettle Falls and and find that the whole amounts to 254 pieces including trading goods, provisions, stores & sundries. Mr. Birnie has been actively & diligently employed during the summer, & had almost the whole tied up and ready to put on horseback.”

So the Spokane House men were getting ready to move the goods to the new Fort Colvile almost immediately on the return of the incoming Fort Colvile brigades from Fort Vancouver. As we know, this did not happen. Work said that, for various reasons, “the conveying the property must be deferred until Mr. [John Warren] Dease and some men can be sent from Okanogan and the first trip will be at the Kettle Falls by the time the boats arrive.” Then he wrote:

On my arrival last night Mr. Birnie handed me a note from Governor Simpson of which the following is a copy. Columbia Lake, 16th Apl. 1825.

Dear sir; The Dr. [McLoughlin] will no doubt have informed you of the reasons that induced me to alter your destination for this season and I trust the change will be agreeable to you. I have lined out the site of a new establishment at the Kettle Falls and wish you to commence building and transporting the property from Spokane as early as possible. Mr. Birnie has been directed to plant about 5 kegs of potatoes. You will be so good as (to) take great care of them, the produce to be reserved for seed, not eat[en], as next spring I expect that from 30 to 40 bushels will be planted. Pray let every possible exertion be used to buy up an abundant stock of Fish and other Provisions, country produce, as no imported provisions can in future be forwarded from the coast…With Mr. Birnie you will have no difficulty, he is unassuming, active and interested. 

Well, a personal aside here: I enjoy the fact that Simpson considered James Birnie to be a good worker, because I always thought (as did all of us who are descended from him) that Birnie had not impressed Simpson at Fort Okanogan and Spokane House, and that was the reason for Simpson’s later dislike of him. I must presume then that it was not Birnie that said, in front of Simpson, that “agriculture is not a part of the fur trade.” 

Back to the story: on July 26, something happened that would completely change the men’s plans to move the goods from Spokane House to Fort Colvile that summer: John Work writes, “A little past noon an Indian arrived from Spokane with a note from Mr. Birnie and a packet which had recently reached that place from Mr. [Peter Skene] Ogden, dated East branch of the Missouri, 10th July.” To Work, the news contained in that letter meant that 

This occurrence will entirely change all our plans at Spokane, respecting moving the Fort, as all our time will be occupied in transporting the Snake outfit from Fort Nez Perces to Spokane if the Snake country business is carried on.

On September 1, 1825, John Work finally arrived at the location of Fort Colvile to do some work. Some buildings were completed, and some of the goods were brought from Spokane House to Fort Colvile. Then, on September 17, Work was told in a letter from Dr. McLoughlin “to stop the buildings at Kettle Falls till the arrival of the Express from across [the mountains], because the site pointed out for the fort is on the South side of the River.” So all work stopped. A footnote on this page tells us that “Dr. McLoughlin visited this place the following summer and the Fort was built where Gov. Simpson had selected the site.” However, a note a few pages later tells us that “From other sources we know that Dr. McLoughlin did not get further inland than Fort Walla Walla that season.” So who knows what happened! We know that work was stopped, and picked up again in the summer of 1826, as when Lieutenant Aemilius Simpson arrived in the district in October 1826, with the incoming York Factory Express, some of the buildings were on site but the fort was still unfinished.

So after checking John Work’s journals, I was led to a modern-day book written by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, titled A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change, published by Rocky Mountain Books. This is a Canadian publisher and the book may or may not be available in the United States. This book could be found in three branches of our local library, but not at any branch close to me. Still, I did find time to go to the Saanich branch, and this is how the Revised and Updated book read in a footnote, p. 39: 

When the Hudson’s Bay Company moved its trade fort to Sounding Waters [Kettle Falls], HBC governor George Simpson and the Salmon Chief Kee-Kee-Tum-Nous agreed that if the tribes supported the HBC’s exclusive right to trade in the region, the HBC would leave the fishery entirely to the Indigenous peoples. Simpson observed at the time that the traders would be “able to get food out of stones and sand, and could manage to live very well without fish.” The tribes not only controlled the fishery: they could prohibit the HBC from fishing in the river. When Governor Simpson returned to Kettle Falls in 1841 on a stop during his trip around the world, the Salmon Chief called on him again. Simpson was impressed by the chief’s word-for-word recitation of the terms of the 30-year-old contract. After Simpson gifted the chief with a capote, a shirt, a knife and a small stock of ammunition, he described how “the old fellow, whose whole wardrobe was the hide of a buffalo, was sent away as happy as a king.” 

The footnote in this book read: “Brogan; Simpson.”

I also note that Simpson did not ever write down the name of the Salmon Chief. He did not know it.

I should have spent more time looking at the above book, so that I understood how it worked: It would have saved me some time. But I followed up the “Brogan; Simpson” footnote, not thinking hard about it, but looking for a book about Governor Simpson, written by someone named Brogan. Obviously, I did not find it (it doesn’t exist). I did, however, find a book written by Phil Brogan, titled East of the Cascades [Binford & Mort]. This sounded promising, and so I found it in the archives and quickly read it through–only to find that it had no mention of the Salmon chief! Then I realized it was not the right book. I needed to go back to A River Captured and figure out what the footnote referred to. I did: and I eventually realized that this is a book that has footnotes that refer to a list of about a dozen books and manuscripts used in the research: It is not until you match the footnote with the List of Books in the back of the book that you will understand what the footnote refers to. And once I figured that out, I learned that the “Brogan” mentioned in this book referred to a Chris Brogan as author of an unpublished manuscript titled “The Hudson’s Bay Company and Native Salmon: Subsistence Security during the Early Years of the Colvile District, 1821-31.” So some of the information I have been chasing around came from this unpublished manuscript, which I have no access to–and the rest? Well, it comes from Simpson’s book, An Overland Journey Round the World during the Years 1841 and 1842. I have a downloaded copy of this book, and so this is where the rest of the information I will need comes from.  

So, in An Overland Journey, Sir George wrote this description of Fort Colvile, saying that it stood “about a mile from the nearest point of the Columbia, and about two miles from the Chaudiere [Kettle] Falls, where salmon are so abundant that as many as a thousand, some of them weighing upwards of forty pounds, have been caught in one day with a single basket.” Then he said:

The next morning, being the nineteenth of August [1841], many of the Chaudieres came to visit me. Among them was an aged chief, with a name far too guttural to be written, who in the year 1824 [1825] had made me a formal cession of the neighbouring soil. On that occasion he had given the company the land and the woods, because the whites would make a better use of them than himself; but he had reserved the Chaudiere Falls as necessary to his own people, remarking that the strangers being able to get food out of stones and sand, could manage to live very well without fish. During his visit he recited the terms of the contract with perfect accuracy; and at the close of half an hour, the old fellow, whose whole wardrobe was the hide of a buffalo, was sent away as happy as a king, with a carpet [capote?], a shirt, a knife, and a small stock of ammunition and tobacco. Finding that speeches were so well paid, the chief’s heir apparent and several others came to have their talk out, taking care, of course, to continue the palavar till the equivalents were forthcoming.  

So, although Simpson did not tell us the name of the Salmon Chief, modern day writers do know his name. It is Kee-Kee-Tum-Nous.

If you want to know more about Governor Simpson’s time at Fort Colvile in 1841, then go here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/to-fort-vancouver/ 

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2026. All rights reserved.

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