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Bryce parker camas washington9/13/2023 ![]() these cews are usually formed with throngs of dressed Otterskin crossing each other and not roled in our manner arrond the hair." ( The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, April 11, 1806) most of the women brad their hair which hanges in two tresses one hanging over each ear." ( The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, April 9, 1806) "The men usually cew their hair in two parsels which like the braded tresses of the female hang over each ear in front of the sholder, and gives and additional width to the head and face so much admired by them. When their Corps of Discovery returned in late March 1806 and camped for several days near the Watlala, Meriweather Lewis described the Natives: "The women of these people pierce the cartelage of the nose in which they wear various ornaments. American explorers Lewis and Clark first stopped at Camas in November 1805 while traveling down the Columbia to the sea. When Lieutenant William Broughton (1762-1821) was sent by Captain George Vancouver (1758-1798) to explore the lower reaches of the Columbia River in 1792, he made it a few miles upriver from La Camas and no doubt had some contact with the Watlala. ![]() Archaeological digs on Lady Island, separated from the mainland by Camas Slough, have unearthed prehistoric ceramic artifacts that indicate human presence as long ago as 2,000 to 2,500 years. ![]() The plant was abundant where the Washougal River joins the Columbia, and the area was named "La Camas" by French Canadian trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company, who also named La Camas Lake and La Camas Creek (which in later years were shortened to "Lacamas").Īmong the Indians who treasured the bulbs were the Watlala, one of several bands of Chinookan speakers referred to collectively by white explorers as the "Cascades people." These small bands appear to have been independent family groups - fishers, hunters, and gatherers who ranged along the Columbia on either side of its lower rapids. "Kamas" or "quamash" are non-Native approximations of the Indian word for a blue-flowered plant of the lily family, the bulbs of which were considered a delicacy by Native Americans from the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast. Accounts of the area's earliest settlement by non-Natives do not always draw sharp distinctions between the two localities, leaving room for doubt about precisely where particular persons lived and specific events occurred. Camas shares a long history with the city of Washougal, and they have jointly operated the Port of Camas-Washougal since 1935. In recent years, the city has drawn significant investments from high-tech firms, giving it a broader financial base. For most of its existence, the life's-blood of Camas has been the wood pulp used for the production of paper, and the local economy has been dominated by that industry for more than a century. Early attempts by Americans to settle the area were not successful, and nothing that could be called a town existed until the mid-1880s, when the La Camas Colony Company decided to build one. ![]() ![]() There were no known permanent Indian settlements near present-day Camas, but the area was frequented by Chinookan-speaking Natives who hunted and fished there centuries before the first European explorers and trappers arrived. The Clark County seat is in Vancouver, approximately 15 miles downriver to the west and slightly north. Most of Camas lies west of the Washougal, but a small section of the city crosses onto the east bank, where it blends seamlessly with the neighboring city of Washougal. The slough begins where the Washougal River meets the Columbia, and it scribes the north shore of Lady Island before rejoining the Columbia further downstream. Camas lies along the north bank of the Columbia River and the Camas Slough. The city of Camas (originally La Camas) takes its name from the camas lily, the bulbs of which were a staple of the Native American diet from the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast. ![]()
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