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Published by The Caxton Printers, Ltd, Caldwell, Idaho, 1951
Seller: Alcuin Books, ABAA/ILAB, Scottsdale, AZ, U.S.A.
First Editiomn. Octavo. 2nd printing. 457 pages. Fries first survived a raft trip to the region as the Columbia surged in a horrific storm shows how the human spirit survives. He showed a tremendous respect for human personality. Homesteaders, cattlemen and cattle buyers, hoboes, doctors, Chinese, saloonkeepers, and a liberated Negro slave are sketched in proper perspective. Knowledge of the Chinook jargon helped in his dealings with the Indian. The features of the book are the scores of thumbnail sketches the author gives of everyone who came within his sight: good and bad Indians, Negroes, hoboes, country doctors, county officials, Chinese, and a whole range of whites from the best 457 pages. He came from Denmark as a farmer in the Midwest and made his way to the Columbia River on a raft and nearly drowned. His desire to simply farm after miners and other settlers had abandoned what they called useless Indian country shows how he supplies many observations on the Indians, whose friend he was and whose language he spoke, their preparation of food, their "Finnish" baths, how the new diet and mode of life were detrimental to their survival. A very good copy bound in red cloth lettered and decorated in gilt, spine gilt, one corner lightly bumped, the scarce unclipped pictorial dust jacket with only slight wear to spine ends and edges.