joslibe.html

History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon.
Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

JOHN SLIBENDER About 1805
From the writings of H. C. Coe

Old John Slibender, the subject of this sketch, was the last of the old Indians who were strictly residents of Hood River Valley, as he and his ancestors as far back as his family traditions go, made their family home here. Slibender must have been close to his hundredth year, for when I first knew him, nearly fifty years ago, he must have been between forty and fifty years of age.
This would fix his birthday close to the period of the Lewis and Clark expedition. During my early boyhood I used to frequently visit his camp, and being the only white boy in the valley the Indians made a good deal of me and taught me to speak their language, which I could do quite fluently. Many a lovely Sunday morning have I wandered down to old Slibender's camp and listened to his wonderful legends and traditions. Among many, very many, was the noted one, "Bridge of the Gods", and how his great great grandfather used to paddle his canoe through this wonderful arch, and of his uninterrupted trip to sea and return, and how Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams grew angry at each other, and after a great deal of preliminary swearing, went to work in good earnest, throwing stones at one another until they finally knocked this mighty bridge down and dammed up the river, overflowing much land and killing many Indians. Of the absolute truth of this tradition I never had any question, and the dates must have been about as stated.
He claimed that his paternal grandparents were very long-lived, and allowing them seventy years each, it would hare placed his great great grandfather about two hundred years before his time, about the year 1600 or, perhaps, later; certainly not before that.
John Slibender was a true friend of the whites. All through the Indian war's of 1856 he was unswervingly our friend, upright, truthful and honest; a man one could trust if his skin was dark.
A few years ago he was converted to the Christian religion and became a member of the Shaker church that is spreading so wonderfully throughout the tribes in Eastern Oregon and Washington. He was an earnest and enthusiastic worker in his new found hopes. Vale, good John! and for your sake and mine, may your faith in a happy never-ending future be fully realized.