In time, Sophia Pelkey was married again in accordance to the Indian mode and had five children. Her last husband, a white renegade, in a drunken rage one day stabbed her to death. When the older children entered the cabin, they found their mother and her baby lying side by side; both in sleep, from which the one would never awaken. She had always kept her children with her, save only when they attended the mission school.
In St. Louis with their paternal grandmother, Robert and Kitty Pelkey found home and schooling. The father eventually drifted West and settled in Walla Walla, Washington; and when his children had reached early maturity, he sent for them.
Kitty married Alonzo Hunter, sergeant in the U.S. Army and stationed at the military post near Walla Walla. It is averred that at the time of her marriage, the girl was not aware of her Indian descent. By accident, she and her brother met Mr. Charles Brown, a later son of Green-blanket Feet, who acquainted them with the history of their Indian blood.
The Hunters moved to Missoula, Montana; and to them three children were born; John, Charles and Susan. The mother died when Susan was but three years old. The boys were placed in a Government school and later given allotments on the Flathead Reservation, where they were still recently residing. Susan was taken into the family of a Montana pioneer and at the age of seventeen married Mr. Rolla Winegarden. They settled in the land of her Indian ancestry, in northern Washington.
Robert Pelkey, Sr. died in Missoula, about 1898–1900. Robert Pelkey, Jr. died a few years later. He was a printer by trade and worked for various newspaper firms of Montana. He had achieved some prominence as a writer, when his career was cut short by drink. His three children now reside about Iron Mountain, Montana.
As a sample of Indian Bureau administration, it is interesting to note that while the two brothers and other relatives of Susan Winegarden, née Hunter, have been granted land allotments as recognized tribesmen, she has been denied this right, notwithstanding the Flathead Indian Council voted her a member of the tribe. But as absurdly unjust as such “ruling” may seem, even though she had resided with a white family, it has its counterpart in scores of similar cases on the different reservations.
Kathryn Maud Wilcox, born September 13, 1910, was refused allotment on the Yakima Reservation, although her older sister, Ruby, as well as Georgia, a younger sister, were both allotted as Indians. The father is a mixed-blood, and an allottee. ↩
The Upper Falls of the Pend d’Oreille are about eleven or twelve miles above the Horseshoe Bend, with intervening rapids to the Lower Falls. For two miles the river roars through an impressive canyon from four hundred to six hundred feet in depth. For three fourths of the way the walls of the gorge are sloping hills broken at intervals by imposing cliff formations. For the remaining distance, the foam-crested waters tumble between sheer, slate colored embattlements of the greater height. This stream, outlet of the Flathead Lake, is shown on old Government maps as “Flathead River”; but it has always been known by the old timers as the “Pend d’Oreille,” according to Mr. W. F. Millar of Polson, County Surveyor. ↩
One such incident as here hinted was witnessed on the Flathead, during the period covered by this story. ↩
Chinook for “secret thief.” ↩
Puch-qeeh: “grass snake.” Belonging more properly to the Yakima, the phrase is expressive of distrust, a reflection on the declared intentions of a supposed friend. In every way it is the world wide “snake in the grass.” ↩
In tribal life, the power of the medicine man is to be reckoned with. In all gatherings where two or more tribes are represented, it is the business of the accompanying medicine man to protect his people against the possible machinations of the medicine man of the rival band. This is done in various ways, but the most spectacular coming under my personal observation, was during a festive period, where the medicine man in native garb, mounted on a white horsea favorite color of the warrior class—rode circling back and forth in front of his own village, the while chanting a low weird tah, or medicine song in unison with the measured tread of his mount. ↩
While history records no account of Lewis and Clark having wintered among the Okanogans, this tradition of the second coming of the Shoyahpee as narrated by the Stemteemä, is, in its essence, true as handed down by this tribe. Perhaps time has confused it with accounts of the later expedition brought to them by their more southern neighbors.
After the departure of the explorers, or voyageurs, and the return of the Chief’s sister to her people, she explained that the skin had been laced to the drying-frame with the bark of young willows—perhaps with the willow itselfand had been struck from its fastenings after the lashing had become dry and brittle. The Indians watching from a distance supposed the lacing to be buckskin, and knowing the tenacity of such they attributed to the strange white beings a supernatural power.
In this relation another incident is preserved. At the abandoned cabin of their visitors the Indians found a fragment of what they believed had been a foot covering. The material was unlike anything they had ever seen, and they “danced” over it for several suns, endeavoring to fathom its magic. It was
