USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 3
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 3
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 3
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 3
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"From this group our eyes glanced to an extended line of the enemy who were forming behind them; and from their motions it became evident that their intention was to outflank us. We therefore changed our position, and formed our men into single files, each man about three feet from his comrade. The friendly natives began to fall back slowly towards their companions, most of whom had already concealed themselves behind large stones, tufts of wormwood, and furze bushes, from which they could have taken a more deadly aim; and Messrs. Keith and Stewart, who had now abandoned all hopes of an amicable termination, called for their arms.
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'An awful pute en und, when our attention was arre ted by the loud tramp- ig ut horses, and mupe lately after twelve mounted warriors dashed into the space between the two partie, where they halted and dismounted They were headed by a young duct, of time tigure, who instantly ran up to Mr Keith, to whom he presented be hint in the most friendly manner, which example was followed by his conjamons. He then commanded our enemies to quit their places of concealment, and to appear before him His orders were promptly (beyel; and having made hunself acquainted with the circumstances that led to the deaths of the two Inchians, and our efforts towards effecting a reconciliation, be addressed them in a speech of considerable length, of which the following is brief sketch :
" "Friends and relations' Three snows only have passed over our heads since we were a poor nuserable people. Our enemies, the Shoshones, during the summer stole our horses, by which we were prevented from hunting, and drove us from the banks of the river, so that we could not get fish. In winter they burned our lodges by night ; they killed our relations; they treated our wives and daughters like dogs, and left us either to die from cold or starvation, or become their slaves.
"."They were numerous and powerful; we were few, and weak. Our hearts were as the hearts of little children; we could not fight like warriors, and were driven like deer about the plains. When the thunders rolled and the rains poured, we had no spot in which we could seck a shelter ; no place, save the rocks, whereon we could lay our heads. Is such the case today? No, my relations! it is not We have driven the Shoshones from our hunting-grounds, on which they dare not now appear, and have regained possession of the lands of our fathers, in which they and their fathers' fathers lie buried. We have horses and provisions in abundance, and can sleep unmolested with our wives and our children, without dreading the midnight attacks of our enemies. Our hearts are great within us, and we are now a nation "
"'Who then, my friends, have produced this change? The white men. In exchange for our horses and for our furs, they gave us guns and ammunition ; then we became strong; we killed many of our enemies, and forced them to tly from our lands. And are we to treat those who have been the cause of this happy change with ingratitude? Never, Never! The white people have never robbed us; and, I ask, why should we attempt to rob them? It was bad. very bad !- and they were right in killing the robbers.' Here symptoms of in patience and dissatisfaction lecame manifest among a group consisting chiefly of the relations of the deceased; on observing which, he continued in a louder tone 'Yes! I say they acted right in killing the robbers; and who among you will dare to contradict me ?'
"'You all know well my father was killed by the enemy, when you all de erted him like cowards ; and, while the Great Master of Life spares me. no hostile foot shall again be set on our lands I know you all; and I know that those who are afraid of their bodies in battle are thieves when they are out of it : Just the warrior of the strong arm and the great heart will never rob a friend.' After a short panie, Fe re umed: 'My friends, the white men are brave and belong to a great nation. They are many moons crossing the great lake in coming from their own country in serve us If you were foolish enough to attack them.
BUFEE
DACRES
Hotel Dacres
HOR
Grand Hotel
LEADING HOTELS OF WALLA WALLA
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they would kill a great many of you; but suppose you should succeed in destroy- ing all that are now present, what would be the consequence? A greater number would come next year to revenge the death of their relations, and they would annihilate our tribe ; or should not that happen, their friends at home, on hearing of their deaths, would say we were a bad and wicked people, and white men would never more come among us. We should then be reduced to our former state of misery and persecution; our ammunition would be quickly expended ; our guns would become useless, and we should again be driven from our lands, and the lands of our fathers, to wander like deer and wolves in the midst of the woods and plains. I therefore say the white men must not be injured! They have offered you compensation for the loss of your friends : take it; but, if you should refuse, I tell you to your faces that I will join them with my own band of warriors ; and should one white man fall by the arrow of an Indian, that Indian, if he were my brother, with all his family, shall become victims to my vengeance.' Then, raising his voice, he called out, 'Let the Wallah Wallahs, and all who love me, and are fond of the white men, come forth and smoke the pipe of peace!' Upwards of one hundred of our late adversaries obeyed the call, and separated themselves from their allies. The harangue of the youthful chieftain silenced all opposition. The above is but a faint outline of the arguments he made use of, for he spoke upwards of two hours; and Michel confessed himself unable to translate a great portion of his language, particularly when he soared into the wild flights of metaphor, so common among Indians. His delivery was generally bold, graceful, and energetic. Our admiration at the time knew no bounds; and the orators of Greece or Rome when compared with him, dwindled in our estima- tion into insignificance.
"Through this chief's mediation, the various 'claimants were in a short time fully satisfied, without the flaming scalp of. our Highland hero; after which a circle was formed by our people and the Indians indiscriminately : the white and red chiefs occupied the center, and our return to friendship was ratified by each individual in rotation taking an amicable whiff from the peace-cementing calumet.
"The chieftain whose timely arrival had rescued us from impending destruc- tion was called 'Morning Star.' His age did not exceed twenty-five years. His father had been a chief of great bravery and influence, and had been killed in battle by the Shoshones a few years before. He was succeeded by Morning Star, who, notwithstanding his youth, had performed prodigies of valor. Nineteen scalps decorated the neck of his war horse, the owners of which had been all killed in battle by himself to appease the spirit of his deceased father. He wished to increase the number of his victims to twenty; but the terror inspired by his name, joined to the superiority which his tribe derived by the use of fire- arms, prevented him from making up the desired complement by banishing the enemy from the banks of the Columbia .*
"His handsome features, eagle glance, noble bearing, and majestic person, stamped him one of Nature's own aristocracy; while his bravery in the field, joined to his wisdom in their councils, commanded alike the involuntary homage of the young, and the respect of the old.
"We gave the man who had been wounded in the shoulder a chief's coat ; and
* The Indians consider the attainment of twenty scalps as the summit of a warrior's glory. Vol. I-2
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to the relations of the men who were killed we gave two coats, two blankets, two fathoms of cloth, two spears, forty bullets and powder, with a quantity of trinkets, and two small kettles for their widows. We also distributed nearly half a bale of tobacco among all present, and our youthful deliverer was presented by Mr. Keith with a handsome fowling-piece, and some other valuable articles.
"Four men were then ordered to each canoe, and they proceeded on with the poles; while the remainder, with the passengers, followed by land. We were mixed pell-mell with the natives for several miles : the ground was covered with large stones, small willows, and prickly-pears; and had they been inclined to break the solemn compact into which they had entered, they could have destroyed us with the utmost facility.
"At dusk we bade farewell to the friendly chieftain and his companions, and crossed to the south side, where we encamped, a few miles above Lewis River, and spent the night in tranquillity.
"It may be imagined by some that the part we acted in the foregoing trans- action betrayed too great an anxiety for self-preservation ; but when it is recol- lected that we were several hundred miles from any assistance, with a deep and rapid river to ascend by the tedious and laborious process of poling, and that the desultory Cossack mode of fighting in use among the Indians, particularly the horsemen, would have cut us off in piecemeal ere we had advanced three days, it will be seen that, under the circumstances, we could not have acted otherwise."
And now we must turn to another phase of Indian life and character which is most worthy of record, and one in which more than anywhere else they show some of those "touches of nature which make the whole world kin." This is that phase exhibited in myths and superstitions. Here we shall find, as almost nowhere else, that Indians are, after all, very much like other people. In this portion of this chapter the author is incorporating portions of articles written by himself for the American Antiquarian.
Like all primitive men, the Oregon Indians have an extensive mythology. With childlike interest in the stars and moon and sun and fire and water and forests, as well as plants and animal life and their own natures, they have sought out and passed on a wealth of legend and fancy which in its best features is worthy of a place with the exquisite creations of Norse and Hellenic fancy, even with much of the crnde and grotesque. Yet it is not easy to secure these legends just as the Indians tell them. In the first place few of the early explorers knew how or cared to draw out the ideas of the first uncontaminated Indians. The early settlers generally had a stupid intolerance in dealing with Indians that made them shut right up like clams and withhold their stock of ideas. Later the missionaries generally inclined to give them the impression that their "heathen" legends and ideas were obstacles to their "salvation," and should be extirpated froin their minds. Still further the few that did really get upon a sympathetic footing with them and draw out some of their myths, were likely to get them in fragments and piece them out with Bible stories or other civilized concep- tions, and thus the native stories have become adulterated. It is difficult to get the Indians to talk freely, even with those whom they like and trust. Educated Indians seem to be ashamed of their native lore, and will generally avoid talking about it with whites at all, unless under exceptional conditions. Christianized
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Indians seem to consider the repetition of their old mythis a relapse into heathenism, and hence will parry efforts to draw them out. In general, even when civilized, Indians are proud, reserved, suspicious, and on their guard. And with the primal Indians few can make much headway. The investigator must start in indirectly, not manifesting any eagerness, and simply suggest as if by accident some peculiar appearance or incident in sky or trees or water, and let the Indian move on in his own way to empty his own mind, never suspecting any effort by his listener to gather up and tell again his story. And even under the most favoring con- ditions, one may think he is getting along famously, when suddenly the Indian will pause, glance furtively at the listener, give a moody chuckle, relapse into stony and apathetic silence-that is the end of the tale.
Our stories have been derived mainly from the reports of those who have lived much among the Indians, and who have been able to embrace the rare occasions when, without self-consciousness or even much thought of outsiders, the natives could speak out freely. There is usually no very close way of judg- ing of the accuracy of observation or correctness of report of these investigators, except as their statements are corroborated by others. These stories sometimes conflict, different tribes having quite different versions of certain stories. Then again the Indians have a peculiar habit of "continued stories," by which at the teepee fire one will take up some well known tale and add to it and so make a new story of it, or at least a new conclusion. As with the minstrels and minne- singers of feudal Europe at the tournaments, the best fellow is the one who tells the most thrilling tale.
One confusing condition that often arises with Indian names and stories is that some Indians use a word generically and others use the same word spe- cifically. For instance the native name for Mount Adams, commonly given as "Pahtou," and Mount Rainier or Tacoma, better spelled "Takhoma," as sounded by the Indians, really means any high mountain. A Wasco Indian once told the author that his tribe called Mount Hood, "Pahtou," meaning the big mountain, but that the Indians on the other side of the Columbia River applied the same name to Adams. A very intelligent Puyallup Indian says that the name of the "Great White Mountain" was "Takhoma," with accent and prolonged sound on the second syllable, but that any snow peak was the same, with the second syllable not so prolonged according to height or distance of the peak. Mount St. Helens was also "Takhoma," but with the "ho" not so prolonged. But among some other Indians we find Mount St. Helens known as "Lawailaclough," and with some Mount Hood is known as "Yetsl." Still other names are "Loowit" for St. Helens and "Wiyeast" for Hood. Adams seems to be known to some as "Klickitat." "Koolshan" for Baker, meaning the "Great White Watcher," is one of the most attractive of Indian names and should be preserved. There is "Shuksan" or "The place of the Storm Wind," the only one of the northwestern peaks which has preserved its Indian name. In reference to "Takhoma," a Puyallup woman told the writer that among her people the name meant the "Breast that Feeds," or "The Breast of the Milk White Waters," referring to the glaciers or the white streams that issue from them. On the other hand, Winthrop in "Canoe and Saddle," states that the Indians applied the name "Tak- homa" to any high snow peak. Mr. Edwin Eells of Tacoma has written that he derived from Rev. Father Hylebos of the same city the statement that the name
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"Takhoma" was compounded of "Tah" and "Koma," and that among certain Indians the word "Koma" meant any snow peak, while "Tah" is a superlative. Hence, "Tahkoma" means simply the great peak.
We find something of the same inconsistencies in regard to the Indian names of rivers. Our maps abound with supposed Indian names of rivers and yet an educated Nez Perce Indian named Luke, living at Kamiah, Idaho, says that the Indians, at least of that region, had no names of rivers, but only of localities. He told the author that "Kooskooskie," which Lewis and Clark understood to be the name of what we now call the Clearwater, was in reality a repetition of "Koos," their word for water, and they meant merely to say that it was a strong water. On the other hand we find many students of Indian languages who have understood that there were names for the large rivers, even for the Columbia. In the beautiful little book by B. H. Barrows, published and distributed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, we find the name "Shocatilicum" or "Friendly Water" given as the Chinook name for the Columbia. It is interesting to notice that this same word for "friendly water" appears in Vol. II, of the Lewis and Clark Journal, but with different spelling, in one place being "Shocatilcum" and in another place "Chockalili." Reverend Father Blanchet is authority for the statement in "Historical Magasine," II, 335, that the Chinook Indians used the name "Yakaitl Wimakl" for the Lower Columbia. A Yakima Indian called William Charley gives "Chewanna" as still another Indian name for the Columbia.
We have many supposed Indian names for God, as "Nekahni," or "Sahale," but Miss Kate McBeth, long a missionary among the Nez Perces, records in her book about them that those Indians had no native name for the deity. Of these Indian myths many deal with the chief God, as "Nekahni," "Sahale," "Dokidatl," "Snoqualm," or "Skomalt," while others have to do with the lesser grade of the supernatural beings, as the Coyote god, variously named "Tallapus," "Speelyi," or "Sinchaleep." Others may treat of "Skallalatoots" (Fairies), "Toomuck," (Devils), or the various forms of "Tomanowas" (magic). A large number of these myths describe the supposed origin of strange features of the natural world. rocks, lakes, whirlpools, winds and waterfalls. Some describe the "animal people," "Watetash," as the Klickitats call them. Some of the best are fire- myths. These myths seem to have been common among all Indians of the Columbia Valley.
In the preceding chapter we have given two of the best Indian myths, that of Wishpoosh and that of the Chinook Wind. We insert here two stories of a very different nature, derived from the same investigator as the two preceding, Dr. G. B. Kuykendall of Pomeroy, Washington.
There is a legend among the Yakima Indians which seems to have the same root in human nature as the beautiful Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, showing the instinctive desire of people on earth to bring back the spirits of the dead, and the impossibility of doing so. This myth sets forth how Speelyi and Whyama the eagle became at one time so grieved at the loss of their loved ones that they determined to go to the land of the spirits and bring them back. The two adventurers journeyed for a long distance over an unbroken plain, and came at last to a great lake, on the farther side of which they saw many houses. They called long and vainly for someone to come with a boat and ferry them over. But there was no sign of life and at last Whyama said that there could be no one
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there. Speelyi insisted, however, that the people were simply sleeping the sleep of the day and would come forth at night. Accordingly, when the sun went down and darkness began to come on, Speelyi started to sing. In a few minutes they saw four spirit men come to the bank, enter a boat and cross the lake to meet them. It seemed not necessary for them to row the boat, for apparently it skimmed over the water of its own accord. The spirit men, having landed, took Whyama and Speelyi with them in the boat and began their return to the island of the dead. The island seemed to be a very sacred place. There was a house of mats upon the shore, where music and dancing were in progress. Speelyi and Whyama begged leave to enter, and feeling hungry, they asked for food. The spirit land was so much less gross than the earth that they were satisfied by what was dipped with a feather out of a bottle. The spirit people now came to meet them dressed in most beautiful costumes, and so filled with joy that Speelyi and Whyama felt a great desire to share their happiness. By the time of the morning light, however, the festivities ceased and all the spirit people became wrapped in slumber for the day. Speelyi, observing that the moon was hung up inside the great banquet hall and seemed to be essential to the ongoings of the evening, stationed himself in such a place that he could seize it during the next night's meeting. As soon as night came on the spirits gathered again for the music and dance. While their festivities were in progress as usual, Speelyi suddenly swallowed the moon, leaving the entire place in darkness. Then he and Whyama brought in a box, which they had previously provided, and Whyama, flying swiftly about the room caught a number of the spirits and enclosed them in the box. Then the two proceeded to start for the earth, Speelyi carrying the box upon his back.
As the two adventurers went upon their long journey toward the earth with the precious box, the spirits, which at first were entirely imponderable, began to be transformed into men and to have weight. Soon they began to cry out on account of their crowded and uncomfortable position. Then they became so heavy that Speelyi could no longer carry them. In spite of the remonstrances of Whyama, he opened the box. They were astonished and overwhelmed with grief to see the partially transformed spirits flit away like autumn leaves and dis- appear in the direction from which they had come. Whyama thought that per- haps even as the buds grow in the spring, so the dead would come back with the blooming of the next flowers. But Speelyi deemed it best after this that the dead should remain in the land of the dead. Had it not been for this, as the Indians think, the dead would indeed return every spring with the opening of the leaves.
The Klickitat Indians, living along the Dalles of the Columbia, have another legend of the land of spirits. There was a young chief and a girl who were devoted to each other and seemed to be the happiest people in the tribe, but sud- denly he sickened and died. The girl mourned for him almost to the point of death, and he, having reached the land of spirits, could find no happiness there on account of thinking of her.
And so it came to pass that a vision began to appear to the girl by night, tell- ing her that she must herself go into the land of the spirits in order to console her lover. Now there is near that place one of the most weird and funereal of all the various "memaloose" islands, or death islands, of the Columbia. The
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writer himself has been upon this island and its spectral and volcanic desolation makes it a fitting location for ghostly tales. It lies just below the "great chute," and even yet has many skeletons upon it. In accordance with the directions of the vision, the girl's father made ready a canoe, placed her in it, and rowed out into the great river by night to the menialoose island. As the father and his child rowed across the dark and forbidding waters, they began to hear the sound of singing and dancing and great joy. Upon the shore of the island they were met by four spirit people, who took the girl but bade the father return, as it was not for him to see into the spirit country. Accordingly the girl was conducted to the great dance house of the spirits, and there she met her lover, far stronger and more beautiful than when upon earth. That night they spent in unspeakable bliss, but when the light began to break in the east and the song of the robins began to be heard from the willows on the shore, the singers and the dancers began to fall asleep.
The girl, too, had gone to sleep, but not soundly like the spirits. When the sun had reached the meridian, she woke, and now, to her horror, she saw that instead of being in the midst of beautiful spirits, she was surrounded by hideous skeletons and loathsome, decaying bodies. Around her waist were the bony arms and skeleton fingers of her lover, and his grinning teeth and gaping eye-sockets seemed to be turned in mockery upon her. Screaming with horror she leaped up and ran to the edge of the island, where, after hunting a long time, she found a boat, in which she paddled across to the Indian village. Having presented her- self to her astonished parents, they became fearful that some great calamity would visit the tribe on account of her return, and accordingly her father took her the next night back to the memaloose island as before. There she met again the happy spirits of the blessed and there again her lover and she spent another night in eestatic bliss.
In the course of time a child was born to the girl, beautiful beyond descrip- tion, being half spirit and half human. The spirit bridegroom, being anxious that his mother should see the child, sent a spirit messenger to the village, desir- ing his mother to come by night to the memaloose island to visit them. She was told, however, that she must not look at the child until ten days had passed. But after the old woman had reached the island her desire to see the wonderful child was so intense that she took advantage of a moment's inattention on the part of the guard, and, lifting the cloth from the baby board, she stole a look at the sleeping infant. And then, dreadful to relate, the baby died in consequence of this premature human look. Grieved and displeased by this foolish act, the spirit people decreed that the dead should never again return nor hold any com- inunication with the living.
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