Relative Values of Important Trade Goods
 hese passages from Lewis and Clark's journals give us an idea about the values of some of the items traded along the Columbia.
 Maryhill Museum of Art
Baskets on the Lower Columbia
...these (baskets) they make very expediciously and dispose off for a mear trifle, it is for the construction of these baskets that the beargrass becomes an article of traffic among the natives this grass grows only on their high mountains near the snowey region... (Lewis, from Moulton V.7, 215-216)
- Meriwether Lewis, January 17, 1806
 Nez Perce Horse Registry
Horses on the Plateau
...an eligant horse may be purchased of the natives in this country for a lew peads [few beads] or other paltry trinkets which in the U' States would not cost more than one or two dollars. (Lewis, from Moulton V.6, 313-4)
- Meriwether Lewis, February 15, 1806
 Washington State Historical Society
Canoes on the Lower Columbia
Drewyer returned late this evening from the Cathlahmahs with our canoe which Sergt. Pryor had left some days since, and also a canoe which he had purchased from those people. for this canoe he gave my uniform laced coat and nearly half a carrot of tobacco. it seems that nothing excep this coat would induce them to dispose of a canoe which in their mode of traffic is an article of the greatest val[u]e except a wife, with whom it is equal, and is generally given in exchange to the father for his daughter. (Lewis, from Moulton V.6, 426)
- Meriwether Lewis, March 17th, 1806 Canoes on the Plateau
...a man offered to Sell us a horse for a Canoe. (Clark, from Moulton V.7, 158)
- William Clark, April 22nd, 1806
 Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, USFWS
Wapato on the Lower Columbia
...the most valuable of all their roots is foreign to this neighbourhood I mean the Wappetoe. The Wappetoe, or bulb of the Sagitifolia or common arrow head, which grows in great abundance in the marshey ground of that butifull and fertile vally on the Columbia commenceing just above the quick Sand River and extending downwards for about 70 miles. This bulb forms a principal article of traffic between the inhabitants of the vally and those of their neighbourhood or Sea coast. (Clark, from Moulton V.6, 229)
- William Clark, January 22nd, 1806
Wapato near the mouth of the Mutnomah (Willamette)
...the wappetoe furnishes the principal article of traffic with these people which they dispose of to the nations below in exchange for beads cloth and various articles, the natives of the Sea coast and lower part of the river will dispose of their most valuable articles to obtain this root. (Lewis, from Moulton V.7, 27-8)
- Meriwether Lewis, March 29th, 1806
 Washington State Historical Society
Hats, Skins, Beads and Trade among the Clatsops
The natives are extravegantly fond of the most common cheap blue and white beads, of moderate size, or such that from 50 to 70 will weigh one penneyweight. the blue is usually pefered to the white; these beads constitute the principal circulating medium with all the indian tribes on this river; for these beads they will dispose any article they possess. ...the beads are strung on strands of a fathom in length and in that manner sold by the bredth or yard. (Lewis, from Moulton V.6, 186-7)
- Meriwether Lewis, January 9th, 1806
...we were visited today by two Clatsop men and a woman who brought for sale some Sea Otter skins of which we purchased one, giving in exchange the remainder of our blue beads consisting of 6 fathoms and about the same quantity of small white beads and a knife. we also purchased a small quantity of train oil for a pair of Brass armbands and a hat for some fishinghooks. (Lewis, from Moulton V.6, 221)
- Meriwether Lewis, January 19th, 1806
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab
Golden Eagle Feathers Along the Columbia
...I have some reasons to believe that the Calumet Eagle (Golden Eagle) is Sometimes found on this Side of the Rocky mountains from the information of the Indians in whose possession I have Seen their plumage. Those are the Same with those of the Missouri, and are the most butifull of all the family of the Eagle of America it's colours are black and white with which it is butifully variegated. The feathers of the tail which is so highly prized by the Indians is composed of twelve broad feathers of equal length those are white except about two inches at the extremity which is of a jut black. (Clark, from Moulton V.6, 405)
- William Clark, March 11th, 1806
Goat skins among the Upper Chinook
...on entering one of these lodges, the natives offered us a sheepskin for sail, than which nothing could have been more acceptable except the animal itself the skin of the head of the sheep with the horns remaining was cased in such manner as to fit the head of a man by whom it was woarn and highly prized as an ornament, we obtained this cap in exchange for a knife, and were compelled to give two Elkskins in exchange for the skin, this appeared to be the skin of a sheep not fully grown; the horns were about four inches long, celindric, smooth, black, erect and pointed; they rise from the middle of the forehead a little above the eyes. they offered us a second skin of a full grown sheep which was quite as large as that of a common deer. they discovered our anxity to purchase and in order to extort a great plrice declared that they prized it too much to dispose of it. in expectation of finding some others of a similar kind for sale among the natives of this neighbourhood I would not offer him a greater price than had been given for the other which he refused... (Lewis, from Moulton V.7. 101-2)
- Meriwether Lewis, April 10th, 1806
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