42. Spokane Garry, David Thompson, & Pacific Northwest

Before any fur traders or Christian missionaries had arrived in the Pacific Northwest, a strange but well-attested legend among the Middle Spokane Indians predicted that someday men with pale flesh would arrived bringing with them the book they called 'The White Man's Book the Great Spirit.' That prediction, sometimes called the One Prophecy, passed from Circling Raven to Eliium Spokanee, to Slough-Keetcha (Garry), and paved the way for the young son of a chief to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Mission station known as Red River, located in Manitoba, in 1825. Years earlier, when Garry was born, an English surveyor in the employ of the Northwest Company, passed through the regions inhabited by the Spokanes, and established a trading post known as Spokane House. His name was David Thompson, and he brought with him a book, that book of the Great Spirit, because he was himself a follower of Christ. When Garry returned from Red River in 1830, he also had that book, and inspired by its teachings and influence, four Nez Perce Natives braved a 2000 mile journey to the office of William Clark to seek their own copy. This presentation gives a widely accepted version of the One Prophecy.