Even now among the more primitive class of the northwestern tribes, the young girls wear abnormally long skirts reaching well down over the ankles. I have often observed them when entering a teepee or house, to seat themselves upon the floor without effecting the least exposure of ankles. ↩
This law of force held with the Columbia River tribes. Harmelt, the hunter, was a fine looking Indian of the Yakimas, tall, well built and active. A terrible fighter, the tribesmen all feared him. His arms and upper portion of body bore scores of knife wounds. He courted the wife of another member of the tribe, who told him that she was afraid of her husband, that he had a bad temper and might kill her. Harmelt said that he would come on a certain day with a horse and take her away.
On the evening designated, Harmelt rode into the village, left his horse in front of the lodge where the woman was living with her husband and his parents, and entered the doorway. The husband was reclining on some blankets, his wife was sitting at his side engaged with work. Without preliminaries, Harmelt took the woman by the arm and said: “Come with me! I am going to take you for my wife.”
The woman rose without comment. The husband, a lithe, active fellow, leaped to his feet with knife drawn and protested: “No! You can not take this woman from me. She is my wife.”
Harmelt made no reply, but led the woman from the lodge, followed by the husband. As he drew near his horse, the enraged husband struck him in the back of the shoulder with his knife—struck twice—three times. It was then than Harmelt whirled and drove his own knife into the breast of his assailant, who crumpled to the ground. He died within a few hours.
Harmelt was not seriously wounded. His buckskin shirt and heavy blanket, doubled, had saved him. He was not punished for the crime. The transaction was all within the tribal laws, where force was the recognized right to rule. In after years, Harmelt regretted his crime. ↩
Inconstancy in the woman was severely dealt with among the Okanogans. Such disgrace was punishable with death at the hands of a relative or any member of her family. In 1915 there was still living an aged man who had shot and killed his own sister while she was sitting in her teepee, for the sole reason that she had in a single instance strayed from the path of virtue. Seemingly no such penalty was attached to a like offence by the man. ↩
An actual incident in the child-life of the author. This “no-talk” trait of the Indian is characteristic of the race, permeating alike both old and young. “No savey” is a time worn expression of the tribesman who conceives it not to his interest to understand. Sometimes this becomes jocund. I have observed even the school graduates, when going back to the blanket during festive occasions, gaze with blank stolidity into the face of a white interrogator, with perhaps only a negative grunt. This is considered a huge pleasantry to be laughed about afterwards. ↩
The name applied to some of the Columbia River tribes; but in this particular, to the village and bands residing about Les Chaudière, or Kettle Falls. See “To the Reader.” ↩
A tradition of this prophecy is current among all the Columbia River tribes. The most noted, perhaps, was that of Kööms-kooms, who, in a vision, foretold the coming of a strange and powerful nation which would overrun and usurp their country. He described the superior implements of war and domestic utensils of their conquerors, along with some of the domestic animals. To this revelation can be traced the source of the present Pom-pom, or “Dreamer” religion of the Yakimas and others, which is undoubtedly of comparatively recent origin. The dawn of the worship which constitutes the spirit dance of these tribes is lost in antiquity. The text gives a true version of this Okanogan oracle. In all cases where an Indian loses consciousness, even momentarily, he is regarded as dead. “Killed” or “was dead and came back to life” is an expression they often use when narrating some serious accident to themselves or other members of the tribe. ↩
Chip-chap-tiqulk: Okanogan for myth, or improbable story. ↩
See “To the Reader.” ↩
An historic fact. See “To the Reader.” ↩
Revelation 8:10–11. ↩
To a direct inquiry, an intelligent, primitive-minded Yakima in explaining to me their tribal belief relative to the Happy Hunting Ground said:
“There is no hunting there as in this life. There is no killing; no death. Suffering and hardships enter not in that place. If you wish for any kind of meat, the deer or other animal instantly appears before you. With a spirit knife you sever what you want but there is no wound; no pain with the cutting. The scar is healed as quickly as the knife passes. The spirit-animal does not suffer. It is the same way with everything; roots, berries; all are there just as in this life. There is no war, no wrong in the Happy Hunting Grounds.” ↩
Exodus 15:23–25. ↩
Mourning Dove had much of her information first hand, but for a concise exposure of the ghastly Blackfeet scandal, see James Willard Schultz, in Sunset Magazine, for November, 1922; published after Cogewea had been written. Mr. Schultz, an old-time Indian trader, and adopted member of the Blackfeet tribe, is most scathing in his open charge of duplicity on the part of
