An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 83

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > Washington > Kittitas County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 83
USA > Washington > Yakima County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 83
USA > Washington > Klickitat County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 83

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These various shades of belief all give expression to that unutterable longing, characteristic of humanity in all ages, to look into the future, to unravel the mystery of death, and to solve the problem of man's destiny after he quits this mortal body. In his vain attempts to satisfy the yearnings of his soul after immortality and happiness beyond the grave, man in all lands has invented mythic stories. Death, silence and darkness fill the savage mind with superstitious dread. The most profound and philo- sophical stand silent in the presence of death. Each tribe or nation of people has its own ideas of heaven; and each pictures what from its standpoint would seem the most happy and desirable condition. No people can picture a heaven superior to the powers of their conception to origi- nate. The Indian's heavenly mansion was a mat house; because he had never seen nor thought of anything supe- rior or better. Drumming, dancing, gaming and feasting were the highest conceptions of felicity possible to the Indian mind. Hence he pictured for himself a heaven in which these are the chief pleasures. The river and coast tribes, being accustomed to water and boats, located their heaven on a far away island; and the spirits were con- veyed to the Indian paradise in boats. The prairie tribes, being accustomed to horses as the speediest and best mode of conveyance, sent their dead to heaven on horseback.

We thus see that the habits of life and the surround- ings of a people have much to do in their heaven building. The Indian prophet harangues the children of the prairie and forest about a heaven where drumming, dancing and various plays and sports are conducted in a great mat house. The Mohammedan priest tells the followers of Islam of a land of palaces, fountains and delicate per- fumes, where beautiful houris and genii are found; and where the soul revels in sensual pleasures. The early Christian fathers preached about a heaven with golden streets, jasper walls, seas of glass and fountains and rivers of life. A higher authority says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive," what heaven is like; and this is in consonance with reason and philosophy.

One of the strangest developments of the In- dian doctrine of spirit, and the one having the most marked influence in enslaving the untutored

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red man, is a belief in what they term "tamano- wash." The word is hard to define; an Indian can convey an idea of its meaning only by citing illustrative examples ; but it seems to be a species of spirit power, working through a mortal and exercising an influence in the affairs of individ- uals. Persons through whose mediumship this power acts are known as medicine-men or doc- tors. The method of initiation into their frater- nity is this: A boy under the age of puberty goes out alone into a lonely place and there re- mains until a message comes to him. Some wild animal or bird gives forth the sound peculiar to its kind and in an unaccountable way intelligence from the realm of spirit is conveyed to the ex- cited mind of the candidate. If he remembers the words of this supernatural communication to maturity he is a medicine man, having power to use for the blighting or healing of any individual of his race the resources of his patron spirit. This supposed league with the supernatural gives the reputed possessor of it great influence over his less favored brethren, for who of them would not fear a man who has power to bewitch, to cast spells and even to take life by an effort of the will? True, this power may be exercised for the benefit as well as to the detriment of an individ- ual, and indeed it is invoked whenever the Indian is sick with an internal malady, but as diseases of this character are supposed to be the effect of a malevolent use of the tamanowash power, it can, after all, at best accomplish nothing more, even in the hands of its most benevolent possess- or than to undo the mischief which, differently applied, it has itself wrought. This belief in tamanowash is also baneful to the Indian in that it makes him too much the slave of the wizard doctor, who is many times the veriest charlatan. But if tamanowash is a curse to the common Indian, it does not always prove an unmixed blessing to the doctor himself, for he is likely at any time to be accused of causing the death of some tribesman, wlio has fallen a victim to dis- ease. When so accused, his charlatanry comes to the rescue, prompting him to lay the blame on some distant practitioner of sorcery. Occasion- ally he is unable to escape responsibility in this way, and dies at the hands of an enraged relative of the person he is thought to have murdered with his deadly spell.

Indeed a case of this kind occurred as recently as September of the year 1903 on the Ahtanum river, twelve miles west of North Yakima. The matter was brought to the notice of the civil authorities and a deputy coroner, having repaired to the scene, found the headless trunk of an old woman known as Tisanaway in the wickiup of her son-in-law, Yallup. The victim was a witch- doctor and had incurred the enmity of a number of her tribesmen by giving, as they would ex-

press it, "bad medicine" to their kindred. It is thought that this was the cause of her death.

Such were some of the superstitions which held the Indian mind in bondage when benevo- lent white men began the work of evangelization and education among the Yakima tribes, and such are some of the superstitions which are still enthralling a majority of those tribes, despite the efforts of the government and the missionary. The Indian has everywhere manifested a con- servatism truly astonishing. With the fruits of civilization all around him, so that he cannot fail to observe the blessings which flow from intelli- gent industry, he still clings with pertinacity to his ancient habits and philosophy. Even the cer- tainty that his doom is sealed unless he shall yield to civilizing influences, and that quickly, has failed to arouse him from his lethargy. His race must soon go out of existence as a separate and distinct branch of the human family, with- out a history, with no monument in the way of art or architecture save a few insignificant trink- ets-"unwept, unhonored and unsung."

The Yakima nation first came into conflict with the American settlers shortly after the nego- tiation of the Stevens treaty of 1855. The story of that treaty and that war has already found place in these pages. None can follow the great Kamiakin in his efforts to form an Indian con- federacy and in his conduct of the Yakima war without feeling that he deserves rank among the ablest diplomats and warriors of the western aborigines, and the nation of which he was head chief certainly embraced more than one tribe that might compare favorably in general intelli- gence and spirit with any other band in the Northwest, though the palm for integrity, sincer- ity, peaceful disposition and capacity for civiliza- tion is usually accorded to the Nez Perces. Ac- cording to Kuykendall, "of all the Indians of the Northwest, the Klickitats were the most power- ful, extending their excursions the farthest into the surrounding country. It is said that the word Klickitat signifies robber or marauder. It was characteristic of the people of that tribe to go almost everywhere and make themselves at home anywhere. Their language impressed itself upon a greater number of people than any other native language of the Northwest. They were the trav- eling traders, the 'Yankee peddlers' of the tribes in the Northwest. The Chinooks were also great traders in the Indian way; but finding nearly everything they needed to supply their wants in their own country, they seldom made extensive excursions among the surrounding tribes. Their habits of life, their climate and methods of travel created a greater affinity between themselves and the coast and Puget Sound clans. The Klicki- tats were quite nomadic in their habits; and the summer time found numerous bands of them making long journeys among distant tribes.

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Every year some of them would go east, beyond the head of the Missouri river over into Dakota. They frequently met the Shoshones in Grande Ronde valley and traveled as far south as north- ern California. In fact, occasional trips were made as far south as the lower Sacramento' val- ley. On the north they ranged far into British Columbia. The objects of these excursions were traffic, gambling, horse-racing and sometimes theft and pillage. These Indians were well sup- plied with buffalo robes, most of which they ob- tained from the tribes in Montana and Dakota, exchanging for them horses, shells, beads, knives, guns and articles of clothing which they had bought of the whites or traded for with other In- dians. In many places in eastern Oregon and Washington there are yet to be seen old trails on the lines of commerce and communication be- tween the tribes. These trails are sometimes as many as ten or fifteen in number, running paral- lel and close together; in many instances they are worn deep into the soil."

Besides the Klickitats there were some thir- teen other tribes and bands, whose chiefs signed the Stevens treaty. All together constituted the Yakima nation, and occupied a territory extend- ing over many hundreds of square miles of what is now known as the Inland Empire.

After the war of 1855-6, the United States government determined to establish a fort in the territory of these people, and in the fall of 1856 the construction of the post was begun. The site chosen was a place known among the Indians by the name "Mool Mool," referring, it is claimed, to the bubbling springs which there abound. The timbers for practically all the buildings were framed in the east, conveyed around Cape Horn on shipboard, thence up the Columbia river to The Dalles, from which point they were packed on the backs of mules over the mountains via the old military trail to the site chosen. It is said that the building now occupied by Agent Jay Lynch cost $60,000, and that the total amount expended by the government in the construction of the original Fort Simcoe buildings was $300,- 000. The work was so well and thoroughly done that most of the buildings have stood the test of time and are still giving service. They are quaint, old-fashioned structures, interesting relics of the days gone by. The ancient blockhouses are small low buildings constructed of timbers squared with the broad axe and laid one above another. It is not difficult to discern where the port holes originally were, though they are now filled up, and it is pleasant to remember that never once was it necessary to send a bullet through any of them to the heart of an attacking enemy. The blockhouses have long since been devoted exclu- sively to uses far remote from those for which they were originally designed, as have also all

the other buildings, for Fort Simcoe has for more than four decades been a fort in name only.

The establishment of an agency among the Yakimas was one of the provisions of the treaty of 1855, without the fulfillment of which none of the other pledges of the government could be redeemed. Old residents assert that some of the earliest agents were frequently accused of fraud and inefficiency. All this ceased when the Rev. James H. Wilbur was appointed to the general charge of the agency. This worthy representa- tive of the Methodist Episcopal clergy is known among the Indians as Father Wilbur, and they do well to honor him with this reverent and affec- tionate title, for he deserves a very large share of the credit for whatever progress the Yakimas have made in education and civilization. Speak- ing of him, John P. Mattoon stated to the writer that he was a very large man, weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds, well proportioned and powerful, dark complexioned and fine looking. He had a Roman nose and wore burnsides. He was quick to think and act, good natured, sensi- tive, slow to anger, but passionate, resolute and of great courage when aroused ; had a command- ing eye and voice and was seldom disobeyed by anyone. He was an excellent preacher. His wife was a small woman, of a retiring disposi- tion, popular with all classes and a great favorite with the Indian women.

Wilbur was appointed superintendent of teaching September 1, 1860. With characteristic energy he began, immediately upon going to the agency, to prepare for opening a boarding school for the children of the agency.

"I pledged the department," wrote he in his official report of 1878, "if they would feed the children for a time, until the wild steers could be made oxen and the Indian children could be tamed to drive them, and seed planted and sowed, and time given for it to come to maturity, the school would raise enough for its own subsist- ence. Provision was made to subsist the children of the school for eight months. I immediately gathered in the larger boys for school and com- menced my instruction in yoking the cattle, hitch- ing them to the plow, and with the wild team and wild boys began making crooked furrows on the land chosen for a school farm. In starting out with unbroken team and unbroken drivers, I needed and had a boy or two for every ox in the team, and then it was difficult to keep them on an area of eighty acres. Patience and perseverance in the work soon tamed the cattle and instructed the boys in driving; so good work was done in opening a school farm. We plowed in the fall about twenty acres and sowed wheat, and in the spring plowed ten acres more, that was planted in corn, potatoes and garden vegetables. We fenced eighty acres. When the crops were ma- tured we had 300 bushels of wheat, 500 bushels

AGENT'S RESIDENCE, FORT SIMCOE AGENCY PUPILS OF INDIAN SCHOOL MARCHING OLD BLOCKHOUSE FORT SIMCOE Built 1856

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of potatoes, 40 bushels of corn, with peas, turnips and garden vegetables sufficient for the subsist- ence of the school and seed in the spring to assist the parents of the children in beginning the work of farming. The work was done wholly by the boys of the school and superintendent of teach- ing."

The general policy of this efficient worker in the civilization of the Indian, together with some of his views on the Indian question, are set forth with great perspicuity and vigor in another part of the same report. He says :

"I have no affinity for the custom and prac- tice now pursued in many of the agencies of this nation-feeding the Indians in idleness and pre- paring them, when their treaties are run out, to fight the whites and get a new treaty, and then from year to year and generation to generation be a tax on the industry of the whites. What we want in the Indian service is not more money, but a consolidation of the agencies on good res- ervations, where the land, if properly cultivated, will be remunerative, where white men could live and prosper; where the Indians are remote from the pestiferous influence of degraded whites; re- mote from towns, cities and the great thorough- fares of the country. They want and must have men of God, full of business enterprise, capable of managing their own business and making it thrifty; men who are awake to the interests of this and the world to come; instructors to edu- cate them by precept and example. Give the In- dian agencies through the nation such men as agents, and the muscle and heart of the Indian would be educated, not for the use of the bow and arrow, not for the war dance and scalping knife, but for the plow, for the habits and prac- tices of civilized life ; for mental, moral and physi- cal culture, for the knowledge of the Bible, of God and heaven."

But the labors of Father Wilbur and his worthy successors have not yet succeeded in converting the Yakimas into an industrious, in- telligent community of citizens. Though most of them are self-supporting, they get their living more by renting their allotments to the whites than by their own toil. They do, however, spend a portion of each year in the hop fields, but even at this season most of the work is done by the squaws, it being, seemingly, next to impossible to disabuse the minds of the men of the idea that labor is beneath their dignity and to present any incentive to them strong enough to induce them to overcome their natural indolence.

The Yakimas have, however, made some progress toward civilization. Some of them have donned the habits of white men and a consider- able proportion are professors of the Christian religion in one form or another. The Indian Methodist church, seven miles nearly due east of Fort Simcoe, has a membership of fifty-two, and

its worthy pastor, Rev. J. H. Helm, has in many ways received token that his labors and those of his predecessors have not been in vain. This church is supported by the missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. Its property consists of an edifice built in 1879, a parsonage erected by Father Wilbur for church purposes and so used until the present building could be provided, and twelve acres of land, irri- gated in part. There are two other Methodist Episcopal churches on the reservation, one at Toppenish, the membership of which consists mostly of white renters, and one on the Satus. There is also a Roman Catholic church, a very good building, situated near the Fort Simcoe Methodist church. Its pastor is Father Parrodi.

Besides the Methodist and Catholic Indians, who unitedly number a few hundred, there is a considerable representation of a sect known as the Shakers. This form of religion is of purely Indian origin. Just what the creed of its devo- tees is the writer does not profess to know, but it seems to mingle some of the doctrines and teachings of Catholicism with Indian supersti- tions and the emotionalism of the Salvation army. It is claimed by members of this sect that the desire for liquor and gambling,-two of the cardinal vices of Indians,-has, as a result of their religion, been miraculously taken away from them, and Messrs. Helm and Lynch both stated to the writer that this seemed to be indeed true. These gentlemen are inclined to look with favor upon the strange sect, inasmuch as it appears to be bearing the fruit of the Spirit among its mem- bers. It is highly probable that even the most nearly orthodox of the Catholic and Methodist Indians are far from free from the superstitions of their forefathers and that their theology, if it could be formulated into a creed, would present some startling divergences from the doctrines of their white brethren.

The Shakers are not the only sect that has arisen among Indians in comparatively recent years. In the seventies the famed Smohollah be- gan preaching his celebrated "Dreamer" relig- ion, a development of the old Indian idea of spirit. It borrowed nothing from Christianity; indeed it had its root in bitter enmity toward the white race. Smohollah lived on the Columbia at least part of the time with a small following of his own, a branch, it is said, of the Spokane tribe. He held religious dances, presiding over the cere- monies as medicine man, and dwelling persist- ently in his harangues upon a revelation he claimed to have received from spirit land to the effect that in the near future all the deceased In- dians were coming out of their graves with physi- cal bodies and were going to unite with their quick brethren in a tremendous effort to drive the whites from the country. The Indians of the east were to do likewise, and from the Atlantic

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to the Pacific a high carnival of war was to be held. When the white men were all killed or driven out the barbarism of the ancient days was to be once more established and the Indian was to revel and hunt and roam as in the glorious, golden past. This religion was certainly well calculated to appeal to the Indian imagination, the only objection to it-its utter lack of truth- being a small one to the minds of men long in- ured to the thraldom of superstition. The preach- ing of Smohollah was not in vain. Considerable excitement was stirred up among the Indians of the Northwest and these "Dreamer" doctrines no doubt incited some to take part in the wars of 1877 and 1878 who might otherwise have re- mained at peace.

That a religion so manifestly absurd should have gained a hearing and a following as recently as the later seventies is good evidence of the hold which the ancient barbarism still had upon the savage mind and heart. Neither can it be claimed that this hold has yet been loosened, though it is certain that constant contact with the whites is slowly breaking down the power of superstition among the Indians of the Yakima reservation. This is resulting not so much from direct instruction as from the fact that the two races are fusing their blood, so that the number of half-breeds and quarter-breeds is increasing and the number of pure Indians suffering a cor- responding diminution. Of course the more white there is in any individual, the greater his affinity for the customs and habits of the white race. Naturally, then, the ancient code of laws, the ancient religion, with its feasts and dancing, and all the ancient observances and customs must soon go into oblivion. The new environment and conditions have already forced great muta- tions in the life of the Indians, and with change of habits must come the decline of the related ceremonials. Thus it happens that the war dance and the scalp dance have lost their significance, and when indulged in at all are merely spectac- ular performances ; indeed the end of Indian wars must soon mean the end of the pow-wows, and dances and drills and savage chivalry, which are concomitants of Indian belligerence. Other changes in the red man's mode of life are alike inimical to his savage ceremonies. The policy of gathering Indians upon reservations has in it- self, aside from direct efforts to civilize and Chris- tianize them, had a marked effect in destroying the ancient usages; the policy now in vogue of inducing the red man to accept lands in severalty and dispose of the surplus to the government will go a long way further in the same direction ; yet such is the conservatism of the Indian that we may expect some vestiges of his ancient be- liefs, ceremonial observances and superstitions to persist until he shall have drawn his latest breath.

No attempt will here be made to describe the different dances, religious, remedial and social, the methods of courtship, the marriage customs, the mode of sepulture, or the criminal codes once in vogue among the tribes now on the Yakima reservation. Neither can a complete picture of their present habits be essayed ; but it is thought that the narration of the observations and ex- periences of one or two white men will add some- thing to the interest of the chapter and perhaps to the volume of general knowledge regarding the Indians. Walter Scott Elliott, speaking of Indian dances, says :

"The medicine man executes many weird in- cantations to awe the ignorant savages into sub- jection to his rule. Their religious dances, called 'Kulla Kulla' or bird dances, sometimes last for weeks at a time, during which the medicine man offers up supplications to their high 'tyee' for the sick and distressed. 'Chinook' dances for the early coming of spring are engaged in toward the close of winter. Their dancing is merely jump- ing up and down and 'howling' in a sort of sing- song.

"White men are not allowed usually to attend their dances, but the writer started out one night determined on seeing the performance. The chanting of a hundred voices could be distinctly heard over a mile away, getting louder and louder as I neared the camp. When I got within forty yards of the tepees, several dozen dogs an- nounced my arrival, but the uproar inside pre- vented their alarm from being heard. I pro- ceeded up to the 'curtain' door, and seeing noth- ing dangerous, slowly raised the flap and crawled into the hallway or 'chute' which led into the main room of the tepee, then, plucking up a little courage, walked boldly in.

"The sight which met my eyes defies accurate description. I was in a room about fifty by twenty feet; two campfires were burning some distance apart, the dim light casting a lurid glare over the vast assembly of painted faces. The dancers were formed in two lines facing each other with alternate men and women. Each of the men carried a bow and arrow in his left hand and in his right a single arrow with point up- ward. The women were in their gayest dresses, but carried nothing in their hands. No one ap- parently noticed me at first, so deeply were they interested in the dance. Finally, however, a big savage-looking Indian motioned me inside and compelled me to take off my hat and dance, which I did, much to the general amusement.

"Very soon the medicine man made his ap- pearance with solemn tread, going up and down between the lines of dancers, uttering the most heart-rending cries and pulling at his hair, as if he were in the greatest agony, finally stopping over the campfire and leaning on a wand, his head being bent downward, he chanted away at regu-

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 83

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146