Chief Moses Rock

Rocky Ford Creek lies about 4 miles north of Cayuse. The area was an important camping ground for Chief Moses and the Sinkyuse band of Indians in the late 1800s. I finally got some time to go explore a few weeks ago.

The large upright boulder in the top photo is called the "Chief Moses Rock." The Indians would tie a rope around the rock and then anyone who wanted to could tether their horse (or "cayuse") to the rope.

A couple hundred yards to the south lies the flat rock in the lower photo, known as the "Trading Rock." This is where the Indians placed their bets before the horse races across the alkaline flats adjacent to the creek.

These rocks were identified in the 1940s by a Sinkyuse named Billy Curlew, who camped in the area with the Moses band as a boy:

"We arrived at the base of a hill to the west and a large rock about 10 feet high and 10 feet in diameter. This, Billy informed us, was the site of one of the most important camps of the Moses Band. Its Indian name is Un-ta-pas-neat, meaning 'rock on the hill side.' ... For the convenience of Chief Moses and his guests a rope to which horse could be tethered was stretched about the big rock."...

"As a boy Billy saw the trading rock often piled high with buffalo hides and other articles that were bet on the (horse) races. The rock was also the place at which trading activities were conducted." - From the book Forgotten Trails by Ron Anglin, published by Washington State University Press.