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REFLECTIONS OFAN ADVENTURER ANDA VISIONARY SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS SEPTEMBER 1999 o expedition - made me question whether I had ceased to think rationally about this and so I went to each man that night and woke each of them up and asked each one alone, "Should we quit? Should we climb out? Or shall we go on?" The three who were determined to leave would not change their minds. The others agreed to stay with me and to shoot that impossible last rapids, Separation Rapids. In the morning, we had a breakfast like a funeral. We now had five days of provisions left. The bacon, we had finally simply thrown away, it was so rancid. So we had a bit of flour and a few dried applies. We divided our food into two, we baked all of the flour into unleavened biscuits and divided it into two. We gave the deserters a shotgun and two rifles. We offered them whatevet other equipment they sought and they began to climb the mile of ascent to the top of the Grand Canyon. Now the rest of us had no choice any longer but to attempt that last rapids and we did. It was allover in 90 seconds. We were bobbed about like corks and nearly drowned but when we came through, both of the boats that we had used were intact and all the men were safe. We immediately put to shore and fired our guns again and again for two hours trying to hail those who had climbed out, hoping that they would rejoin us. They did not. And, as you know, those three, William Dunn, Seneca Howland and Oramel Howland, climbed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and moved overland towards Mormon villages. It's not quite clear what happened but we know they encountered a party of Shevwit Indians. Some sort of tension ensured and all three of them were killed. They were shot with the arrows of the Shevwits. A year later, I went to investigate to find out what had happened. I never learned to my satisfaction what went wrong, but the Shevwits, who became my close friends in the West, told me that there had been molestation of several of their young women. Now, whether it was by this party, I don't know, I signifi- cantly doubt that, but there may have been a misunderstanding and they were casualties of that misunderstanding. My brother, Walter, and I then left. In fact, when we got to Grand Wash Cliffs on the 30th of August, 1869, there was a group of four Mormons fishing there. Brigham Young had sent down this party to give us aid if we needed it or to pick up our detritus, whatever was left if we had perished in the river. We were fed sumptuously and re-provisioned after a fashion. My brother, Walter, and I went overland to Salt Lake but the other four members floated on. They said, "We haven't come this far to abandon the river long before its mouth." So two of them went as far as Yuma and two of them, Hawkins and Hall, went all the way to Slack Watet, all the way to the Gulf of California. Thus ended the famous Colorado River expedi- tion of 1869. It was bittersweet. Bittersweet because our scientific potential was not fully realized. By the time we reached the Grand Canyon, all of our barometers were broken. And it was bittersweet because three of our men had perished needlessly. I went back the following year to reconnoiter and in 1871, took a second descent of the Colorado River, this time with my brother-in-law, Almon Thompson. This was an anticlimax because now, of course, we knew what to expect around each bend in the river. There was nothing to discover. There was much to endure but little to discover. I was a famous man because of this eXpedition. I wrote my account in 1875. It became an American classic and I was the most celebrated American explorer since Meriwether Lewis. I decided to use that prominence to promote government science and I almost singlehandedly created official government science in the post-Civil War period. I became the first Director of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology and the second Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. I managed to persuade Congress to consolidate the four rival cartographical surveys of the West into one and, indeed, under civilian control, and created nomenclature and the iconography which became standards for maps of the U.S. Geological Survey. But my proudest work after the adventure was my study of native peoples. I eventually knew six native languages, fluently, and a smattering of others with less mastery. I went 30 times or more into the American West. I spent a lot of time amongst the Numa, as I called them, the Great Basin Indians, and became friendly with them and championed their causes in Congress. I took photographs, amongst the first ever taken, of the great basin tribes. I also made a tour with Sen. Engles of all of the Indian country in the United States and presented a report to Congress. I want to dwell on that for just a moment, because I have very strong opinions about Indian policy and the American West. Let me say first of all that it helps to know their languages. If you wish their regard, either ethnologi- cally speaking or politically speaking, it helps to show them the respect of learning something of their language. I always tried to do this, and I was never treated rudely by any Indians that I ever encountered. Secondly, after touring with Sen. Engles, I wrote a report to Congress saying, "If we are going to put these people on Reservations, if that is the policy of the United States, and it's not for me to challenge