CHAPTER I.

TO THE

AMERICAN INDIAN

By Mrs. Lucy Thompson

(Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah)

EUREKA, CALIFORNIA

COPYRIGHT, 1916

By Mrs. Lucy Thompson

(Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah)

[Illustration: CHE-NA-WAH WEITCH-AH-WAH.

In Her Wedding Dress]

To Milton J. Thompson

My beloved husband, with whom all of my married life

has been so pleasantly spent, I dedicate this book.

Mrs. Lucy Thompson,

Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah.

CONTENTS

[Illustration]

Chapter Page

I. General History; Bill McGarvey’s Store 11

II. Creation of the World 55

III. The Wandering Tribe 59

IV. Traditions of the Ancient White People 64

V. Time and Names 69

VI. Death and the Spirit Land 72

VII. Through the Pearly Gates of Heaven 83

VIII. Burial Customs 93

IX. The Indian Devil 97

X. The White Deer-Skin Dance 101

XI. The Lodge Dance 111

XII. Our Christ 120

XIII. The Sampson of the Klamath Indians 124

XIV. The Deluge of the Klamath Indians 127

XV. The High Priests 133

XVI. Laws of the Fish Dam 135

XVII. The Ancient Houses 138

XVIII. Wars of the Klamath Indians 142

XIX. The Marriage Laws 145

XX. The Two Famous Athletes 153

XXI. Pec-wan Colonel 162

XXII. A Narrative of the Humboldt Indians 165

XXIII. Romance of a Wild Indian 168

XXIV. The Prophet that Failed 173

XXV. Teachings of the Klamath Indians on Child-Birth 176

XXVI. The Wild Indian of Pec-wan 178

XXVII. How the Rich Tried to be a Talth 181

XXVIII. The Slaves 183

XXIX. The Wild Indian of Mo-reck 185

XXX. How a Cor-tep Girl had her Wish Granted 188

XXXI. Our Tobacco 190

XXXII. Our Mermaids 192

XXXIII. Fairy Tales 193

PREFACE.

As there has been so much said and written about the American Indians,

with my tribe, the Klamath Indians, included, by the white people,

which is guessed at and not facts, I deem it necessary to first tell

you who I am, for which please do not criticise me as egotistical.

I am a pure full blooded Klamath river woman. In our tongue we call

this great river by the name of Health-kick-wer-roy, and I wear the

Tat-toos on my chin that has been the custom for our women for many

generations. I was born at Pec-wan village, and of highest birth

or what we term under the highest laws of marriage. I am known by

my people as a Talth. My maiden name was Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah,

Che-na-wah being my given name. My father, being also a Talth, took me

at a very early age and began training me in all of the mysteries and

laws of my people. It took me years to learn and the ordeal was a hard

one. I was made a Talth and given the true name of God, the Creator

of all things, and taught the meaning of every article that is used

in our festivals, together with all the laws governing our people. I

can understand every word, every nod and gesture made in our language.

Therefore I feel that I am in a better position than any other person

to tell the true facts of the religion and the meaning of the many

things that we used to commemorate the events of the past. In this book

I will endeavor to tell all in a plain and truthful way without the

least coloring of the facts, and will add many of our fairy tales and

mother’s stories to their children. I will also give the names of many

things in my own native tongue.

Mrs. Lucy Thompson

(Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah)

Eureka, California

June, 1916.

TO THE AMERICAN INDIAN.

CHAPTER I.

BILL McGARVEY’S STORE.

The Old Klamath Bluffs Store, or fort, and in late years the Klamath

Post Office, was built in 1855 or 1856, by a man named Snider. He

conducted it as a trading post for Indians, soldiers and travelers

alike. It was built of rough split lumber and strongly made of double

walls with sawed blocks four inches thick placed between the walls, and

was bullet proof, with port-holes so that a few white men could defend

themselves against many Indians. This store is located twenty-four

miles up the river from its mouth, and is about eighteen miles down

the river from Weitchpec or the junction of the Trinity River, and

something like forty miles below Orleans Bar on the Klamath. Orleans

Bar was at one time the County Seat of Klamath County. The old store

is on the north bank of the river on a bar that was formed in ancient

times, and is high enough to make it safe from all high waters. It is a

beautiful, sunny spot and on the line of travel up and down the Klamath

river.

The north side of the river is mostly prairie along the bank, and the

old Indian trail is on that side. The whites took up the Indian trails

and improved them so they were traveled by all. This old store is also

the central ground for the lower Klamath Indians, as here close by is

where they held the sacred White Deer-Skin Dance, which is a worship

to their God. Here for ages past have gathered the wealthiest and

most prominent Indians, both men and women of all the upper and lower

Klamath tribe, including the Hoopa, Smith River and our Indians down

the coast as far as Trinidad.

White men have visited this famous old store, whose names will go

down in history, such as General Crook and many other army officers,

besides many wealthy business men. All of them liked to linger in

this beautiful spot where the sun shines warm and the pleasant sea

breeze fans it all through the summer months. There is a trail to

this place from the north, Crescent City, Reck-woy and other places.

This is not a mining country as there are no mines below the mouth of

the Trinity, except in the river gravel or in the low bars that have

been washed down from the upper Klamath and Trinity rivers where all

the rich gold-bearing mining placers are found. These mines were the

cause of the old store being a central stopping place for the men in

the early days, going to and from the mines. In the Fall of 1876 I

counted upwards of three thousand Indians there at a White Deer-Skin

dance. There were five different languages spoken among them, the lower

Klamath, upper Klamath, Hoopa, Smith River and Mad River. Some of them

could speak two and some three, while others could only speak one. So

it can be seen that this old Klamath Bluff store or Klamath Post office

as it is now called, has been the scene of many and not a few murders

and this store will be mentioned often in my writing.

In about the year 1861 Snider sold the stock of goods to Bill McGarvey,

a jolly Irishman. It was Bill McGarvey that named me Lucy, yet he

always called me by my Indian name, Che-na-wah. Bill McGarvey kept in

stock plenty of whiskey, always in the flat pint bottles, which he sold

at a dollar a bottle to the whites and Indians alike. He would only

bring out one bottle at a time in selling it to the Indians so that any

time they became quarrelsome he could tell them that it was all gone.

Bill McGarvey had many ups and downs in the way of his trading there

among them and I will tell of some of his experiences.

Three Indians came to the store one day bringing with them a fine

looking young Indian girl and wanted to borrow thirty dollars and

leave the girl as security. He talked it over for awhile, the Indians

saying that they had to have this amount to make a settlement with some

other Indians, that they would come back and pay him and take the girl

in thirty days. So he decided to let them have the money without due

consideration of how he would take care of the girl. After they were

gone he began to think of the situation that he had placed himself

in, as he was a bachelor. So he made up a room for her and when it

came to cooking he thought he would have her wash the dishes and sweep

the house but she would do no house work unless he paid her for it.

McGarvey tried to argue the case with her and told her that he had to

furnish her food and cook it, also furnish a room and a bed to sleep

in and that she ought to clean up the house. She answered by telling

him that he was doing only what he had to do and that she would not

work unless he paid her for it. McGarvey had to absolutely wait on her

for the whole thirty days as completely as if she had owned him as a

slave. She could go and come as she liked, always coming back in time

so he could not make a complaint, telling him that if he said so, she

would stay in the house all the time. He said that the experience was

in after years a lesson to him in dealing with the Indians. When the

thirty days were up they came with the money, paid him and took the

girl.

Another time he wanted to get in his winter supplies and at that time

he got his goods from Crescent City, (Caw-paw) and he went to Cortep

village which is about six hundred yards above the store and on the

same side of the river to see if he could hire them to go down the

Klamath and out to sea to Crescent City with their canoes, as they

had a large new one. He hired five of them, all Cortep Indians to go

and bring his goods into the mouth of the river and store them there

until they had them all in before the ocean would get too rough, as the

winter months were coming on.

Early in the morning the five Indians of the Cortep village (this was

a town village of the Klamath tribe) started down the river and on

arriving at the mouth never stopped to take a view of the weather, but

put out to sea. The ocean was very rough, the waves were rolling high,

and when they got into the breakers their boat capsized and all five of

them were drowned. This brought on serious trouble for Bill McGarvey.

The relatives of the drowned Indians talked it over for three or four

months and then decided to go to McGarvey and demand pay, the most of

it to be paid in Indian money. McGarvey said that after counting it

up it would amount in our gold to about fifteen hundred dollars. He

refused to pay it, telling them that he was not responsible for the

drowning, that he had only hired them to bring in his goods by water,

that their getting drowned was not his fault and he would not pay. At

this they went away.

Two or three days after, late in the evening he heard small stones

striking on the shed-roof of the kitchen at the back part of the

store. He listened, but heard no more, so he went to the door of the

kitchen, enclosed with a high, strong picket fence, and opposite the

kitchen door was a gate in this fence, and as he looked out of the door

there stood a tall, slender fine looking Indian woman, one that had

always been a friend of McGarvey, and not only to him but to all the

whites. This woman was my close kindred which gave me the opportunity

of knowing it correctly. She beckoned to McGarvey to come, and as

he came up to her she told him to make preparations for himself and

the other two men that were in the store to defend themselves as the

Cortep Indians would be there very early the next morning and would

kill him unless they could manage to hold the Indians off. Then the

Indian woman stealthily crept away and back to her home while McGarvey

and his two friends, Jack Paupaw and George A. White, began at once

to prepare for their defence as well as they could. They got in as

good a supply of water as they had vessels to hold it in, closed the

doors and bolted them from the inside and opened the port-holes. Under

the store was a large cellar just on a level with the ground from the

outside. Sure enough, early the next morning there came twenty-five or

thirty of them, with their faces blackened with war paint and yelling

the war-hoop. But McGarvey and his friends were ready to keep them at

bay for a few hours, until a young Indian that was a great friend of

the whites and a life-long friend to McGarvey came and as he walked up

to the door of the store he asked to be let in. They opened the door

and let him in. This Indian, named So-pin-itts (Solomon), lived close

by and is yet living. After he was in the store awhile he went out and

talked it over with the Indians and called a stop till the next day,

during which time McGarvey tried to make a settlement with them; and

finally by telling them that it was too much money, that he never kept

so much money in the store and that the only way he could pay that

amount was to send to Crescent City and get his friends there to help

him. Finally the Indians, consented to this and all of them went home.

McGarvey wrote a letter to his friends in Crescent City asking them to

help him, telling them of the situation he was in and asked them to

intercede in his behalf or the three of them would be killed by the

Indians. He also wrote a letter to the Government officer in command

of the Smith River Indian Reservation, telling him of his predicament

and asking him to send a squad of soldiers to his assistance, and then

dispatched the letters by an Indian in post haste. The Indian, not

knowing the contents of the letters, went with all speed to deliver

them to the friend of McGarvey at Crescent City. The friend, after

reading them, also made haste to deliver the one to the commanding

officer, while the officer in turn arranged to send ten soldiers with

an officer to the McGarvey store. They arrived at the store on the

morning of the fifth day after the truce had been given. At daylight

the soldiers came down the hill to the north of the store, whooping

and yelling at the top of their voices, after a long and tedious march

of almost day and night over rough mountain trails, up hill and down,

through brush and timber with only part of the distance in the open

ground, traveling for about fifty hours.

On the arrival of the soldiers the Indians were dismayed, knowing

that they had been out-generaled and that McGarvey had sent for the

soldiers instead of sending for the money to pay them, and had done it

by sending one of their own men to deliver the message. At this turn of

affairs the Indians quieted down and abided their time, as they never

get in a hurry to make a settlement.

After the soldiers had been there for a few days they received orders

to remain until further notice. It was then that McGarvey hired some

men to build an addition to the store. This was erected at the west

end of the store, about twelve feet wide and eighteen feet long and

eight feet high to the eaves. It stood out over a steep bank of a small

creek that comes down close to the west end of the store. This made

comfortable quarters for the soldiers where they would be sheltered

from the hot rays of the summer heat and the rains of the winter

months, also privacy from the prying eyes of the inquisitive Indians.

Here the soldiers remained for about eight months, having all sorts

of a jolly time, as Bill McGarvey had plenty of whiskey to supply

their thirst at a dollar a bottle after each pay day. McGarvey on some

occasions would take quite freely of the whiskey himself, becoming

intoxicated and boisterous. On these occasions his friend Solomon, the

Indian, would go into the store and keep him straight, locking the

doors and letting no one in.

Jack Paupaw and George White went to their own homes. Jack Paupaw was

a blacksmith by trade and was working in Crescent City. He was an old

pioneer of Crescent City and the Klamath river. He returned to Crescent

City while White went up the river to a place known as Big Bar, thus

leaving McGarvey with the soldiers, as everything was now quiet. Things

proceeded smoothly while the soldiers were there and all thought that

the trouble was forgiven and forgotten and the soldiers were ordered

back to their command.

But the Indians of the Cortep village began to scheme for another plan

for revenge of their lost relatives, but gave up McGarvey and chose

this time a man by the name of Bryson who was the superintendent of the

Klamath Bluffs Mine, situated only about two hundred yards up the river

from the store. Bryson had a miner’s cabin which he lived in while

working at the mines, up from the river out of the way of high water.

The mine was down close to the river. He was coming up the trail to

his cabin for dinner just about twelve o’clock when one of the Cortep

Indians shot him down in his tracks with one of the old muzzle loading

rifles; this Indian was named Lotch-kum. Then all the Indians left for

the timber to get out of the way of the whites and friendly Indians.

This started the row going again and McGarvey barricaded his store

until the friendly Indians came to his assistance. The first family to

come was Weitch-ah-wah (my father) and his brother (my uncle).

At that time they were camped at the mouth of Tec-tah creek, some four

miles down the river from the store, and as soon as they heard of the

killing of Bryson they started for their home at the Pec-wan village

about one mile above the store and on going home went by the store

and stopped to learn the particulars of the killing. McGarvey made

arrangements with Warrots (my uncle) to go up the river and give notice

to the whites, T. M. Brown, the Sheriff of Klamath County, and to the

soldiers stationed at Camp Gaston in Hoopa Valley, some twelve miles up

the Trinity river from its junction with the Klamath. After Warrots had

delivered the message at all points he stealthily returned to his home

at Pec-wan in the night so the other Indians would not find out he was

on this errand against them. On the day following Warrots’s return,

the Sheriff and other white men came among them. George A. White, who

was a cripple as has before been stated, started to walk on the front

porch of the store when some of the angry Indians said to him, Melasses

White you can’t fight, you are crippled (Melasses was his Indian name).

White went back into the store and got one of the first makes of Henry

rifles. (The one Warrots had let McGarvey have to defend himself

with, and was the one my brother had brought from Oregon while he was

up there with the white men and was the only one to be found on the

Klamath of the kind and make at that time). As soon as the Cortep

Indians saw the rifle they knew at once that Warrots had given it to

the whites to shoot them with and it caused them to swear vengeance

against Warrots and his brother. Upon further inquiry they also

found out that Warrots had been up to Hoopa and told of the killing

of Bryson. T. M. Brown having been the Sheriff of Klamath County a

number of years and also a pioneer of the Klamath river was quite well

acquainted with the habits and customs of the Klamath river Indians and

he counseled with the friendly Indians and agreed to pay them for their

services if they would bring in the guilty Indian Lotch-kum dead or

alive. So Warrots set out to find Lotch-kum and kept watching different

places to find where he was hiding. The country being heavily timbered

Lotch-kum kept out of sight for nearly a year but at last Warrots

found where he was hiding in a creek some eight miles down the river

from the store and about one mile up the creek from the river in the

heavy redwood timber, in a large pile of drift logs. He first heard

Lotch-kum’s little fist dog bark and on watching patiently for awhile

saw Lotch-kum come out. At this he went back to his home in the Pec-wan

village, then visited with the Ser-e-goin village and told them that he

had found the hiding place of Lotch-kum. When they got ready three of

them, the other two being from the Ser-e-goin village, Monmonth Jack

and Marechus Charley, with Warrots leading the way arrived close to

Lotch-kum’s hiding place. They commenced to keep a close lookout for

him, as they could see his tracks in the soft dirt and sand in the bed

of the creek; and had to keep up the watch for about ten days. Finally

they saw him come creeping out to the creek where he began to bathe

himself. Warrots raised his rifle to his shoulder, took aim and fired,

Charley and Jack firing next. Lotch-kum fell to the ground but kept

raising up and falling down again, trying to get away, when the three

of them ran up to him as fast as they could, drew their long heavy

knives and severed his head, put it in a sack and carried it back to

the old store in triumph. Inside they rolled it out on the counter,

which satisfied the whites for the killing of Bryson. Bryson was

buried in a pretty spot a little north-east of the store, with hardly

a mark to show the place where he was to sleep, and all settled down

to peace and quietness again between the Indians and the whites. But

the Pec-wan Indians were divided between the Indians and the whites,

some of them were friendly to the whites while others took sides with

the Cortep Indians. Warrots was a Pec-wan Indian and full brother to

Weitch-ah-wah. The Sheriff and Government officers gave to the three

Indians who had killed Lotch-kum, letters of very high recommendations

for their services and to the good graces of all the whites. (I have

seen these letters with the signatures many times in my girl-hood days.)

Now the Cortep village and part of the Pec-wan village began to make

plans to kill Warrots, and as he was considered to be a good and

faithful friend of the whites by these Indians, it must be done in a

way so as to deceive the whites and not to let them know it was being

done as a revenge for the part he had taken in killing Lotch-kum. So

they bided their time waiting for a good chance, but all the time

Warrots was hearing of their schemes through his friends and he went

to the Sheriff and Government officers and told them that Lotch-kum’s

friends were planning to kill him and all of them promised him that

no one would be allowed to harm him. Sheriff Brown sent him word to

meet him at Trinidad as Trinidad was at that time in Klamath County.

Warrots came and laid the facts before him and the Sheriff promised

him protection and Warrots went back home. After about three weeks his

brother Weitch-ah-wah and all the family except myself (I was about

eight years of age) went away, thereby Warrots’s enemies got their

chance to carry out their plans. Early in the morning Warrots went

down to the creek which was only a short distance, to bathe and there

he met a little boy, the son of Pec-wan Ma-hatch-us. He spoke to the

boy, bathed in the creek and went back up to the house, when he saw

another Indian coming up the river trail from the Cortep village,

and as he passed the boy Warrots saw him stop, talk to the boy and

give him a piece of bread which he ate. The boy then came up to the

Pec-wan village while the Indian, who was from the Cortep village,

kept on up the river. As the boy got to his house he became ill and

in about thirty minutes died. Evidently the Indian had given him a

piece of poisoned bread which had killed him. They gave no attention

to the one that gave the bread but instead laid all the blame on

Warrots for the death of the boy and as soon as the ceremony and

burial was over they pounced upon Warrots and shot him at the door of

his sweat-house, killing him. The next day Warrots was laid to rest

in the grave-yard of his own folks in Pec-wan village. None of the

whites ever made any attempt to punish any of the Indians or stop them

from killing him. This is the reward he received for being a faithful

friend to the whites in times of need. His brother with his family was

forced to leave their home in Pec-wan village and move to Ser-e-goin

village, where lived the friends and helpers of Warrots, Mermis Jack

and Ser-e-goin Charley. After living there for awhile we moved up to

Hoopa so as to get farther away from our enemies and where we could

have a better chance for protection. I took a position with the Agent

which they said I filled with credit to myself and satisfaction to

them. Mermis Jack and Ser-e-goin Charley lived for many years but were

never friendly with the friends of Lotch-kum. Mermis Jack finally died

suddenly and in a manner that pointed strongly that he was given poison

in his food. Ser-e-goin Charley died a natural death in 1886.

In 1876 Bill McGarvey died in the old store that went by his name so

long. He had not been feeling well for some time. In the large room at

the west end of the store building he had a large stone fire-place, put

in many years before and he used this room as his bed-room and also

a sitting room. In this room he was taking his bath in a tub when he

fell over dead in front of the fire-place. The same evening his Indian

lady friend died in her home which was just a short distance from the

store. McGarvey had outside shutters to his windows which fastened

from the inside and these he had fastened, and in the morning as he

did not open the store, his Indian friend Solomon waited until late in

the morning for the opening of the store, when he became suspicious

of all not being right. He pried open the shutter of the window on

the south side of the store which would give him a view of everything

in the room where McGarvey slept, and there before the large stone

fire-place lay McGarvey cold in death and beside him was the tub in

which he was taking his bath. When the Indians heard of his death they

all said Bill McGarvey and Mollie have both gone over to the other side

together. (Mollie was closely related to all my folks.) Bill McGarvey

was laid to rest by the side of Bryson, on the flat above the store,

and the store passed into the hands of James McGarvey, a brother of

Bill. James McGarvey made the claim that he was the only living brother

which was afterwards said to be false, yet he got the store and ran

it for several years. He kept whiskey and sold it to the Indians and

the whites. The Indians would get drunk and have fights and kill each

other until he finally got mixed up with them by having a row over one

Indian finding a pistol in the trail that belonged to a white man by

name of Jim Douglas. McGarvey thought he would make the Indian give up

the pistol in short order and he went into the Wah-tec village which is

situated but a short distance from the store and as he got within a few

yards of Ray-no, the Indian, he drew his pistol and commenced to shoot

at him. McGarvey’s shots went wild and the Indian drew his pistol and

shot McGarvey, striking him in the back on the left side, just missing

the back-bone and went clean through the body on the striffin of his

stomach and he fell to the ground. The white men went to his assistance

and carried him to the store and the Indians that were in the row

left and went up the river to other villages with the pistol in their

possession. This raised quite a furor of excitement and the whites were

counseled with by the Indians that were friendly to both sides and they

were asked to bring back the ones that were in the shooting of McGarvey

and to bring back the pistol to the rightful owner. The next day they

came back and returned the pistol to James Douglas and he gave them

five dollars to be given to the one that found it. In some three weeks

Jim McGarvey was up and walking around and in a short time went to

Orleans Bar, where there was a Justice of the Peace and tried to swear

out a warrant for the arrest of the Indian but the warrant was refused

by the Justice who told him that he had commenced the row himself by

shooting first, while intoxicated. Several years before this, Klamath

County was taken off the map by being absorbed into Humboldt and Del

Norte Counties, leaving this old Klamath Bluffs store in Humboldt

County.

Jim McGarvey was selling whiskey to the Indians and causing so much

trouble among them that it caused a number of killing scrapes. After

this trouble was settled and Jim McGarvey got well of his wounds, he

sold the store to Peter Kane and moved down the Klamath River to within

about three miles of the mouth of the river and settled at the mouth

of a small creek close to the bank of the river, taking with him all

of his ill gotten gains and his beautiful little Indian woman that had

lived with him for years and to whom he had never been married by any

law. She was neat and tidy and a good cook but McGarvey got mad at her

for crying over the death of her mother and struck her on the back of

her head. From this she began to lose her mind and he finally abandoned

her and she became a raving maniac and died, leaving no children. Her

body was taken back up to her birthplace and laid to rest with her kin

in the family grave-yard, while Jim McGarvey lived on his place for a

few years and then died.

Peter Kane now had the store and he also kept whiskey and a rough

house. He would sell whiskey to the Indians and get drunk himself,

having trouble all around. He said one fall that he had two five

gallon kegs of whiskey and that the Indians close around there had

four hundred dollars and that he would get it all out of them for the

two kegs of whiskey. His selling to them was the cause of four of them

getting killed. Peter Kane had an Indian woman belonging to Redwood

creek. She spoke the Hoopa tongue and bore him three children. One day

one of the little girls about seven months old was crying and Kane

grabbed her roughly by the neck, held her out, shook her at the same

time, he walked out through the kitchen and threw the child flat on the

ground with its face down, then turned and walked back into and store

cursing the child and its mother. The next morning the mother got her

things together and started for her home on Redwood creek. Arriving at

the Klamath river which she had to cross she proceeded to cross over

with her children and had almost reached the other side before Kane

found that she was leaving. As soon as he discovered that she was

going he ran into the store, grabbed his rifle and ran down the bank to

the water’s edge and began firing. He fired several shots at her, the

bullets striking close by but failing to strike her. She went to her

home in the night, some twenty miles away, over a rough mountain trail

and through heavy timber most of the way. She never came back. The

Indians preventing him from following her that night was all that kept

him from killing her. It got too warm for him and he sold the store to

C. H. Johnson and afterwards went to the Indian woman on Redwood creek

and remained there with her. This brute took the same little girl by

her legs and dashed her brains out against a large redwood post, so

every one said. The woman again had to flee for her life. She left for

Hoopa Valley, where she could get some protection and Kane did not

dare to follow her there. He drifted down on the coast and lived for a

number of years but finally took sick and died in the County Hospital.

The woman he had lived with and bore him children remained at Hoopa

and raised the other children. Can you expect children, born to such

fathers under such conditions to grow up to be good and respectable

men and women? Many of them are a credit to their Indian mothers while

those who have good respectable fathers and are born under wed-lock,

having a birth that they can be proud of, over the average, make the

best of men and women.

I have strenuously fought the whiskey traffic carried on by the

unprincipled white men for years and did all that I could to stop it,

and made bitter enemies in doing so. Yet it is going on just the same

under the very eyes of some of those who are employed by the U. S.

Government to put it down. It looks as if they were paid to keep their

eyes closed and not see it.

When C. H. Johnson took over the store he cleaned it up and built an

addition to it and put in a large stock of provisions, made friends

with the Indians and did not keep any intoxicating liquors and he

allowed no one to drink around the store. He gave the Indians good

advice so that all looked up to him as a friend among them and he

never meddled with any of their wives but treated them with respect,

so that all could come and go, trade and chat with perfect ease and

freedom. Many of them would lay their troubles before him and he would

listen patiently and always try to give them good advice and keep down

trouble among them as far as it was in his power to do so. Mr. Johnson

kept this store for over twenty-five years and the Indians never at

any time made a threat against him or offered to harm him in any way.

He began with the help of the settlers and succeeded in getting the

government to establish a post office at the store and which he named

Klamath Post office, while he was the Postmaster. He ran the Post

office with the store and made a good official, striving at all times

to do what he could for the patrons of the office. It was very few

times that any complaint was made for mislaying mail. He ran the Post

office for about twenty-two years and during this time many of the

Indians sent letters and received others and he used to read their

letters for them and did much of their correspondence for them. He kept

the office until he died. Mr. Johnson used to keep quite a stock of

patent medicines and acted as doctor to the Indians if any of them were

sick, often going to see them and give them medicine if he thought by

doing so he could cure them. In serious cases he would advise them to

go to a white doctor which they would sometimes do.

As Mr. Johnson never kept any whiskey, being opposed to selling it to

the Indians, his neighbors now took advantage of the whiskey business

and began to get it in quantities and sell it to the Indians and mixed

bloods which still kept the quarrels going. It looks as if it will

still continue so to the end. It is a well known fact that Mr. Johnson

made money at the store and when he became sick he was attended by

white men until he died. It was said that no money was found above a

small sum. The stock of goods was run down until there was but little

left. The reader can guess how this happened as Mr. Johnson never made

a failure and always paid for his goods, his credit being good for

whatever he ordered. He was the father of one daughter, her mother

being a Klamath Indian woman. This daughter he always claimed as his

child and made arrangements for her to have all he possessed at his

death, but she will never get but little. He was buried upon the flat

beside the grave of Mr. Bryson in a deplorable manner.

A man by the name of Oscar Chapman, after the lapse of several weeks

was sent up to take charge of the store until the estate could be

settled. The Post office was moved from the store and Chapman continued

to run the store about one year and kept whiskey to sell and ran

gambling tables in the store. He meddled with the women, both married

and single for which he was shot dead in ambush. The Coroner was sent

up from Arcata to take charge of the body and brought it down to Arcata

for burial.

[Illustration: BILL McGARVEY’S STORE.]

Then a man named William Lawson was sent up there to take charge of

the store and remained a few months and would not stay any longer. The

order was given to him to sell all he could and box up the remainder

and take what was left down to the mouth of the Klamath by boat and

store it there for safe keeping until some future time. Thus, the old

store at Klamath Bluffs is dismantled and now stands there unoccupied.

After the death of Mr. Johnson the Government put two lady matrons on

the Klamath river to look after the interests of the Indians. They at

once began to look after this store and made reports against it. The

order came that no one could buy it or start it up as a trading post

without first giving a bond in the sum of ten thousand dollars, yet it

had been run by different men, sold a number of times and none had ever

given any bonds for over fifty years.

Around this store there are many tales woven, and I will tell quite a

number of them, using this place as a center to start with, as this is

where the lower Klamath Indians have their White Deer-Skin dance and

a short distance above the store is where one of their sacred lodges

is located. They have the true name of God which is used in the lodge

only in a low whisper, and outside of the lodge when three or four of

them are out in a secret place, and then only in a whisper when they

are burning certain roots and herbs that give sweet and pleasant odors

to their God. While the festival is being held all difficulties are

settled. Those of lower birth at the present time are pretending to

carry out the worship, but for the past few years have made a sorry

affair of it.

MARRIAGE

In the high marriage of the Talth the woman is most beautifully dressed

on her wedding day. A buck-skin dress all strung with beads and shells

that clink and rattle with her ever graceful step. Her hair is parted

in the middle, brought down on each side and rolled with the skin of

the otter. This skin is nicely dressed or tanned and then cut into

about one inch strips, thus holding the hair so it hangs down to their

hips or lower, according to its length. Around her neck are strings of

most beautifully arranged beads and of high value among them; they hang

down to her waist, almost completely covering her chest. A buck skin,

dressed and made as white as it can be made, goes over the shoulders

and fastens around the neck and hangs down covering the back. This

makes her very beautiful. She is so quick in movement that one has

to keep their eyes on her closely to see all of her actions, while

she speaks low and softly. These high marriages are very few and this

beautiful sight of the bride is seldom seen. The girls born of these

marriages were always looked up to by the Indians. When these girls

came along or were met by any children of other births, the latter

would always get out of the trail and let them pass.

The Klamath Indians never had a chief like the other large tribes but

were ruled by these men and women of such births that became members of

the order.

Another system is the “half married” one, the woman taking her husband

to her house to live with her. By this marriage she is the absolute

boss of the man and has complete control of all the children. She has

the power to correct her husband in all his actions and can send him

out to hunt, fish or work just as she deems proper, he being a slave

to her, as they usually both belong to the class that are slaves. It

amuses one to hear them use the term against white men that marry white

women, the man having no home of his own, and the woman taking him to

her home. They say that white man is half married just the same as our

people are half married and that the white man can not walk out at any

time as he is not boss for the woman owns everything. They have a third

form of marriage that belongs to the middle class. These marriages

are considered by the whole tribe as good marriages and the children

born by these marriages have a good standing in all walks of life. The

marriage is performed by a part barter and trade, such as giving in

exchange a boat or fishing place or any other property of a personal

nature. This ceremony is more of the common than the imposing way.

Since the coming of the white man he has brought this marriage around

to a simple form of buying outright by giving a price as one would for

a horse, cow or any other purchase. The old Indian law was an exchange

of valuable articles and often the woman did not go to the man she

married and live with him in his own home until they had been married

one, two or three years.

The Klamath Indians were, at the coming of the white man, a very large

tribe, there being several thousand of them. It taxed every resource

of the country in which they lived for all of them to obtain a

subsistence, therefore everything was owned in the same way that it is

now owned by the white man. The land was divided up by the boundaries

of the creeks, ridges and the river. All open prairies for gathering

grass seeds, such as Indian wheat, which looks similar to rye, besides

other kinds of seed; the oak timber for gathering acorns, the sugar

pine for gathering pine nuts, the hazel flats for gathering hazel nuts

and the fishing places for catching salmon.

The most frugal and saving of the families had become the owners of

these places and their ownership undisputed and these ownerships were

handed down from one generation to another by will. In time this left

a great many of them owning no property by which they could make a

living and many of their own people became slaves to the wealthy class.

They made the slaves work and kept them from starving, and by this

there came about the “half married” system. There are some of these

Indians that were born slaves living yet, and they are the ones that

are always ready to tell the white man all of the Indian legends in a

way to fit their own cases. They cannot tell the true legends at all,

as they are ignorant of such facts. The wealthy ones would see that the

men got wives and that the girls got husbands, build them houses and

some families were very kind to their slaves. When they were sick they

saw that they had doctors and the proper care. Some families were mean

and over-bearing to their slaves, giving no care to the sick, letting

them die and going so far as to throw them into a hole, leaving them

there to suffer and starve until they died. This sort of treatment

was looked down upon by the ones that had better humane feelings and

they sometimes prevented such inhuman actions. The most of the doctors

are women and they exercised great power, especially those who had a

high standing as to family, and the art of curing most all diseases or

cases of sickness. A few of the doctors were men and they used roots

and herbs of different kinds and they are hard to beat as doctors in a

great many kinds of sickness. They can cure the bite of a rattle snake,

not one of them ever dying from the bite. I knew many of the people

that were bitten by the rattle snake at different times and they were

cured and lived to be very old. For this cure they use salt water out

of the ocean and the root or the onion of what you call kelp and which

is taken out of the ocean. They pound the onion of the kelp and make

a poultice out of it, place it over the wound and keep it wet with the

salt water, at the same time letting the patient drink all he can of

the salt water. The patient is kept perfectly still and not allowed to

move about more than is necessary. They bind the limb or place where

the part is bitten to prevent the free circulation of the blood through

these parts.

In other things they are equally as good. In child-birth they prepare

a woman for giving birth to her child and at the birth of the child

they have an old woman to take care of the mother and child. After the

birth of the child the cord is cut and tied, then they take the black

part of a large snail, which has an oily substance, and place it over

the navel. They put a bandage around the child which is kept there for

some time. I have never known an Indian of the old tribe to be ruptured

and yet they do not know anything about surgery. If anything of a

serious nature happens to a woman during child-birth they are at a loss

to know what to do to save her. If the woman gives birth to twins and

they are a boy and girl, they try to raise them both, but if it be two

boys or girls they pick one of them and raise it while the other one is

neglected and starved to death, and when it died they went through all

the forms of sorrow by crying and mourning over the loss of the child

just the same as if they tried to raise it. If anything happens to the

mother that causes her death at child-birth or after and the child is

yet an infant, they take sugar-pine nuts or hazel nuts and pound them

into fine flower and mix this in warm water, making a milky substance

out of it. They can raise a child on this preparation as well as if it

was nursed at the mother’s breast. Every family in the olden times was

very careful to keep a good supply of pine and hazel nuts on hand.

The Indians were preservers of the sugar-pine timber which grew on the

high ranges of mountains on the north side of the river and there was a

very heavy fine and also death to the Indian that willfully destroyed

any of this timber. The sugar from these trees was also used by them

as a medicine in different cases of sickness. The salt water mussels

that they gather which cling to the rocks close to the sea-shore, is an

article of food for them and they gather and eat them while fresh by

boiling them. They also dry them and take them up the river to their

homes for winter use. In the month of August and a part of September

these mussels become poisoned, in some years worse than in others, with

phosphorus. Sometimes whole families would get poisoned by eating them

out of season and in this case they use the sugar which is taken from

the sugar-pine tree and which is a sure cure if taken in time. This

made the Indian prize the sugar-pine tree very highly and putting to

death even a member of their own tribe who harmed a tree in any way.

In the early days when a white man arrived among the Indians, he took

an Indian woman, and in the fall of the year she would want to gather

some pine nuts, the white man would go with her, taking his axe,

and cut down the tree, as he could not climb it, and told the woman

there they are, what are you going to do about it? At first the woman

complained and finally said that the white man would spoil everything.

Then the Indians began to cut the trees. In the last few years these

trees have become very valuable in the eyes of the white man, and it

has become the complaint of the white man that the Indians ought to be

arrested and punished. Some of them have gone so far as to say that

the Indians ought to be shot for cutting down this fine timber for the

nuts. I leave the reader to decide which one ought to be punished for

the cutting of the great number of these fine sugar-pine trees.

The Indians also took the greatest of care of the hazel nut flats as

the nuts are used in many ways. The nuts were gathered and stored away

as they could be kept for a long time and could be pounded into flour,

put into warm water and made a good substitute for milk which could be

used for weak, sickly children, also in some cases for sick persons

that needed nourishment and had weak stomachs. The hazel is used in all

of their basket making, as the frame of all the baskets are made of the

hazel sticks. In taking care of the hazel flats they got out in the

dry summer or early in the fall months and burn the hazel brush, then

the next spring the young shoots started up from the old roots. On the

following spring in the month of May, when the sap rises and the shoots

start to grow, the women go forth and gather these young shoots which

are from one to two feet in length. Some of these sticks grow up to a

height of three feet and are gathered for making the large baskets and

also the wood baskets. They gather these sticks by the thousands and

take them home where the women, children and men all join in peeling

the bark off the sticks. They take up a handful in the right hand,

then place the butt end of one of them in their mouth, taking hold

of it with their teeth and the left hand, giving it a twist so as to

peel the bark around the end, and as they get the bark started they

give the stick one quick jerk and the bark peels off at one effort.

After they are peeled they are laid out in the sun, on a smooth place,

in thin layers and allowed to bleach and dry and when they are dried

they gather them up and assort them out according to their size and

length, and tie the different sizes in bundles and lay them away for

use, sometimes three or four years later, before they are made up into

baskets. The small sticks are used for making up the very fine baskets.

The reader can easily see by this why the hazel was preserved and not

destroyed as it had a great value to them in many ways. They made

withes of it for tying their boats and other things. The oak timber

they were very careful to preserve as they gathered the acorns from it

late in the fall, October and November. The oak tree furnished them

with the staff of life, as it was from the acorn they made all their

bread and mush and this bread they could take for use on long journeys

on their hunting trips. They would wrap up a large lump of dough and

placing it in a cool place, keep it for several days before it would

begin to spoil or sour. From this dough they made their mush by taking

a piece about the size of a tea cup and put it into one of the baskets,

fill it nearly full with water, then take some wash stones taken from

the river or creek and put them in the fire until they were hot and

often red-hot when they would take two sticks and lift them out, drop

them into the basket and stir the whole briskly with a paddle, made for

this purpose, they would soon have it boiling and by putting in another

stone and with a little more stirring they would soon have the basket

of mush cooked. They call this mush Ka-go and it is very nutritious

and gives great power of endurance. After the basket of mush has been

set aside for thirty or forty minutes it is then dipped out into small

baskets made for the purpose and of size to fit the stomach. One person

serves, handing out the mush together with a piece of dry salmon or

venison or different things that may be prepared for eating. The acorn

furnishes the bread to all the Klamath river Indians.

All the oak timber was owned by the well-to-do families and was divided

off by lines and boundaries as carefully as the whites have got it

surveyed today. It can easily be seen by this that the Indians have

carefully preserved the oak timber and have never at any time destroyed

it.

The Douglas fir timber they say has always encroached on the open

prairies and crowded out the other timber, therefore they have

continuously burned it and have done all they could to keep it from

covering all the open lands. Our legends tell when they arrived in the

Klamath river country that there were thousands of acres of prairie

lands and with all the burning that they could do the country has been

growing up to timber more and more.

The redwood timber they use for making their canoes and building their

houses. In making a canoe they took a redwood log in length and size to

suit the canoe they wanted to make, and split the log in half, shaping

the bottom of the canoe first, then turning it over and chipping off

the top until they get it down to the right place when they would

start shaping the guards; after this they dug out the inside, leaving

it a certain thickness and this they gauged by placing one hand

outside and the other inside, moving both hands slowly along—and it is

surprising how even the thickness is in all parts. They cut out the

seat in the stern with a place to put each foot on the side in front

of the seat so one can brace himself while paddling it with a long

and narrow paddle, pointed at the end, so they can paddle or push the

canoe with it. They are certainly expert in the Klamath river with a

canoe, either the men or women. They have no keel on their canoes,

just a round smooth bottom, with a rounded bow and stern. A large

hazel withe is put through holes in the corners of the bow and drawn

very tight across it so as to keep the canoe from splitting in case it

strikes the rocks very hard, which often happens, as they grind upon

the rocks in the rough places in the river. These canoes will carry

heavy loads, much larger than they would seem to carry; sometimes from

forty to one hundred and fifty sacks of flour at a load. In making a

canoe, the Indians always leave in the bottom and some two feet back

from the front or bow, a knob some three inches across and about two

inches high, with a hole about one inch deep dug into it, and this

they call the heart of the canoe and without this the canoe would be

dead. When I was a young woman no Indian would use a canoe unless it

had the heart left in it to make it alive, as it was not safe to use if

not thus fixed, something after the fashion or notion of the sailors

as to a vessel being christened. The redwood canoes are being used for

a distance of one hundred miles up the Klamath river but the redwood

is used only for a distance of about thirty miles up the river, for

houses, after this distance they use red fir for houses. The redwood

is a soft, easy timber for working and not susceptible to being sun

cracked and is an ideal wood for making a canoe. After they have

finished making the canoe they take the shavings and some dry brush and

burn it both inside and outside and then brush off the dry parts which

leaves it very light and dry. After using the canoe for a few days and

if any light cracks start in it they take it out, dry it perfectly and

go over it with pitch taken from the fir tree. In doing this they first

put the pitch on the cracks then put hot rocks on the pitch which melts

it and it fills up the cracks. After this treatment the canoe will last

for years.

Their tools for working timber were very crude and they had to work

very slow. For axes and wedges they used the elk horn. They would cut

the horn to the length preferred with flint and then use a granite rock

where the quartz would adhere to it making it very rough, and with this

they would whet the horn into shape. After this they put grease on them

and lay them up so that the fire would dry the grease into them, until

it became very tough and could be used for years before wearing out.

For their malls or hammers they took a granite rock and by pecking on

it, could work it down to about one foot in length, then work it down

so that at one end it would be about four inches across the face of it

and the other end about two inches across it, while in the middle they

would bring it to about one inch, making it so one could hold it with

ease, using the large end for the mall part. With these crude tools

they cut trees, made their canoes and houses, by the aid of the fire to

help in many ways. They could split up a log into slabs and get some

nice looking lumber, only rough and of different thickness and in this

way they could build a very warm and comfortable house. In building

a house they leveled off a piece of ground from thirty to forty feet

square, then beginning in the center of the square they dug down about

five feet and from twelve to twenty feet across, surrounding this

part they dug a trench two feet deep and in this they set the slabs

or boards up endwise, being careful to put thick ones at each of the

four corners with holes burned through the top ends. These boards were

about eight feet long, which would leave them about six feet above the

ground on two sides. To this they tied with hazel withes a heavy pole

of the same size across the two gable ends on the same level of the

side poles. They tamped the ground in tightly around these boards the

same on all sides. At one corner of the gable end they had a very wide

plank about four feet in width and about four inches thick; they cut

out a hole in this plank about two feet across and around this they

put in about two feet from the corner setting it down in the trench,

tramping it very solid, for the door. Then they put across the top from

four to six very heavy poles for rafters, the two top poles being only

about three feet apart, with one a little lower than the other so as to

give it a slope for the water to run off when it rained. Then they tied

all this with hazel withes until the whole thing is fastened solidly

together and after this part is finished they put on the roof, using

the same heavy slabs which are about eight feet long, doubling them so

as to make it rain proof while the center part or comb of the roof is

short slabs about four feet long and in the center they leave a large

wide plank, so they can raise it to a slanting position so as to keep

the rain out and at the same time let the smoke out. After the roof

planks are all placed they put the large poles across the top, over

the joints and tie them down to the ones under with the hazel withes,

making it all quite substantial as to strength. Then they make a hole

in the center of the basement about one foot deep and side this up

with stones to fit for a fire-place, making it very smooth, then put

gravel in the bottom of the fire-place to the thickness of four inches

in depth. They then put a plank wall all the way around the house or

basement part holding them firmly to their place, after the fashion of

the white man’s wainscoting. After this they take a good quality of

clay, wet it with water until they get it to suit and plaster it over

the floor of the basement, tramping it until they get it plastered

over about four inches thick, while it is drying they keep very close

watch of it, and where it starts to crack they go over it with more

clay, filling in the cracks. They keep the cracks filled until the

floor becomes very dry and hard and this makes a very smooth floor.

They smooth off the upper floor which is irregular in shape and place a

slab or post at the four places which come opposite the corners of the

house, back about one foot from the wall and under one of the rafter

poles, so as to give support to the rafters. Then they put in an inside

partition in front of the door, letting this come back some ten feet

on each side of the door, reaching up to the roof and an inside door,

which is like the white man’s door. This is a place fixed in all the

houses for keeping their winter’s wood in while the rest of the place

is for storing away their provisions for the winter months, such as

dried salmon, eels, acorns and the other kinds of food which they store

in large baskets, some of these baskets are large enough for a man to

lie down in. Some of the girls make their beds in this upper part of

the house for the summer months. In a house where there is a large

family this upper part of the house is well filled with baskets holding

the different articles of food-stuffs, some of which have been stored

there for a number of years. They have shutters to both the outside and

inside doors and the roof projects well out all around the house, which

makes the house warm in the winter time and cool in the summer. Going

down into the basement they take a log about one foot through and cut

the right length, cut notches in it for footsteps and set it in place

and the little Indian children can go up and down this like squirrels

with less accidents than the whites have on their stairs. The whole

family eats in the basement and all the cooking is done there and at

night things are cleared away and all the women and girls sleep in this

basement, while the men and boys all go to the sweat-houses to sleep.

Outside in front of the door they make a sort of porch, the floor of

which is made of smooth rocks, thus completing the house. In going

through the doors they have to stoop very low and almost in a crawling

position and raise straight up on entering the inside. The inner door

is high and they can stand up on going through it. The doors in most

cases face toward the river. One of these houses will stand for fifty

years and with some repairing will stand a great while. There were

from ten to forty of these houses in a village and the villages were

from one half to three miles apart, some on one side and some on the

other side of the river. Generally there was a sweat-house to each

dwelling but sometimes there was only one sweat-house for two houses.

The men and boys visited from one sweat-house to another for a social

time and to remain over night. The Indians that travelled up and down

the river used to stop with old friends or relatives and would get in

the sweat-house, exchange news and smoke their pipes until a late hour

in the night. There is no law forbidding the women from sleeping in a

sweat-house, but the men say the women have too many fleas on them and

the women say the men talk too much, so the women let the men sweep,

get the wood and make their own fires in the sweat-houses. Sometimes

an Indian will take his wife or favorite daughter to the sweat-house

to sleep if the weather is cold but the women prefer to sleep in the

dwelling houses as they are very comfortable there and can be kept very

warm with a small fire. The women make a sort of mattress of the tules

that grow in the swamps. They gather this tule, let it dry and bleach

it, then take strings of their own make and commencing in the middle of

the string they lay one of the stalks of the tule and plat them closely

together. They weave the tules close together, putting about six

strings in a mat about three or four feet wide and have the mat five or

six feet in length, sometimes making them three and four thicknesses

which they can fold up and put out of the way in the day-time and take

out and unfold at night. These mats are quite comfortable to sleep

on. The old women sleep on the basement floors while the young girls

sleep on the upper floors in the warm months and on the lower floors,

with the old women during the cold months. My people were in the habit

of eating but two meals a day, the first meal or breakfast came about

eleven o’clock and in the evening, after dark the women prepare the

supper, the menu differing according to the season of the year.

As soon as it begins to get cold the men would go out and get large

loads of small limbs and brush, tie it up in a bundle which they placed

on their backs and held with both hands and as they came in they sang

a song for luck in whatever they might wish for, such as making money,

good health and many other things. With this wood they make a fire in

the sweat-house and the smoke coming out of the crevices would make

it look as if the house was afire for a short time, when the wood

would burn down to a bed of coals and the smoke all disappeared and

then the men and boys would strip and creep into them, one at a time

and in about thirty or forty minutes would all come crawling out of

the small round door, steaming and covered with perspiration weak and

limp, appearing as if they could hardly stand up. After crawling out

they lay flat on the stone platform that is fixed for the purpose and

sing the same songs, only at this time in a more doleful way. They lay

in this way for thirty or forty minutes, then get up and still looking

weak start off down to the bank of the river, one at a time, and plunge

into the cold water and swim and splash for a time, then all go back to

the dwelling house and go in where the women folks are preparing the

evening meal, take their seats around the basement floor, out of the

way of the women while they are cooking, and all will join in laughing

and talking until the evening meal is over. Then the men and boys go

back to the sweat-house for the night and prepare for a big smoke, all

laughing and talking about different topics and telling amusing tales.

Some of the older ones would discuss points on Indian law, others tell

how things are changing, how this and that used to be and is different

now, how they fought the other tribes, when they were victorious and

when they were defeated, praising one that was the leader or condemning

another, one that was a good general and many other things, and some

were very interesting talkers. They talked until they were ready to go

to sleep for the night and then they would place the wooden pillows

under their heads. Some of them would not use any kind of covering and

would be almost naked, as the sweat-houses would keep very warm for at

least twelve hours after a big fire had been built in them. Early in

the morning they would come out and each take his own way for the day,

such as hunting, trapping, fishing or getting something that might be

needed for the family. The old men dressed deer skins, many of which

the hair was left on and these were for the women to use as blankets

and for shawl-like coats which they wear, for moccasins (noch-i)

they take a dressed deer-skin and smoke it and then make it up into

moccasins. They make dresses and many other things out of skins. Others

would dress furs which they use in many ways. They use the Fisher

skin for quivers to carry arrows in, also the young Panther skin. The

fresh water Otter they dress very nicely for the women to tie their

hair with. Some would make mauls and wedges for future use and others

were making bows and arrows, while a few would give directions to

the others. The women went about their work such as pounding acorns,

soaking the flour and preparing it to make bread or mush, some cutting

fresh salmon and preparing it for cooking, others go out after wood for

their part of the living and cooking quarters and others made baskets

for cooking purposes. Some made hats and baskets they used for storing

away food, while others made fine dresses for wearing and anything that

was to be done, but few of them being idle, unless it was some of the

old women that were very wealthy. The Klamath people have the same kind

of tobacco that grows over a large part of the United States, which,

when it grows up has small leaves. They prepare the ground and plant

the seed but will not use any they find growing out of cultivation.

They are very careful in gathering the plant and cure it by the fire,

or in the hot sun, then pulverize it very fine, then put it up in tight

baskets for use. It becomes very strong and often makes the oldest

smokers sick, which they pass over lightly, saying that it is a good

quality of tobacco. The women doctors all smoke but the other women

never do. Their pipes are made out of yew wood with a soap-stone for a

bowl, the wood is a straight piece and is from three to six inches long

and is larger at the bowl end where it joins on to the stone, it is

notched in so it sets the bowl on the wood, making the pipe straight.

They hold the pipe upwards if sitting or standing and it is only when

lying on the back that one seems to enjoy the smoke with perfect ease,

however they can handle the pipe to take a smoke in any position. Some

of these pipes are small, not holding any more than a thimble-full of

tobacco. My people never let the tobacco habit get the better of them

as they can go all day without smoking or quit smoking for several days

at a time and never complain in the least. The men, after supper, on

going into the sweat-house take their pipes and smoke and some take two

or three smokes before they go to bed. The old women doctors will smoke

through the day and always take a smoke before lying down to sleep. All

inhale the smoke, letting it pass out of the lungs through the nose.

Women doctors are made and educated, which comes about in a very

peculiar way. They are usually from the daughter of wealthy families.

Most of them begin quite young, and often the doctor will take one of

her daughters that she selects along with her and begin by teaching

her to smoke and help her in her attendance on the sick, and at the

right time will commence with her at the sweat-house; while others will

have a dream that they are doctors and then the word will be given

out, and in either case along in the late fall all will be made ready,

the day being set. The sweat-house (which is the white man’s name and

does not have the same meaning in our language, we call it Ur-girk)

being selected they take her to it, dressed with a heavy skirt that

comes down to her ankles and which is made of the inner bark of the

maple, with her arms and breast bare. They all go into the sweat-house,

there being from fifteen to twenty men and women in number, she having

a brother or cousin, sometimes two, that look after her. All begin

to sing songs that are used for the occasion, dance jumping up and

down, going slowly around the fire and to the right, they keep this

up until she is wet with perspiration as wet as the water could make

her and when she gets so tired that she can stand up no longer one of

her brothers or cousins take her on his back with her arms around his

neck and keep her going until she is completely exhausted, then they

take her out and into the house. There she is bathed in warm water

and then allowed to sleep as long as she wishes, which revives her

and gives her back her strength. On awakening she appears rested and

vigorous, with a beautiful complexion. She can now eat her meal such as

is allowed her. While she is training for a doctor she is not allowed

to drink any water or eat any fresh salmon, all the water she gets is

in the acorn mush or in the manzanita berry, pounded to a flour and

then mixed with water, made into a sort of mush and warmed. They are

allowed to eat all other kinds of food. These dances are kept up at

intervals all through the winter months until late in the spring, when

they will take her far back on the high mountains and keep her there

all through the summer, never allowing her to drink water, only as

mixed with mush, nor eat any fresh salmon. In the fall they bring her

back home to the river when she will go through the same performance in

the sweat-house. Sometimes she will be from three to ten years before

being ready for the final graduation exercises when she will be taken

back to some almost inaccessible place on a high peak or on a very

high rock where they will smoke, pray and fast for from three to five

days. While at this place none eat or drink and on leaving it the pipes

are left secreted so as to be found on the next visit. On this trip

there will not be more than three or four with her and always one of

them is an old doctor so as to care for her, and on coming back, after

they get down the hill part way to a suitable place they make a stop

and all eat and take a rest. The young doctor bathes herself, loosens

her hair and washes it, then dries it and combs it with a bone knife.

These knives of deer bone, about the size of a table knife and have a

hole bored through the handle and a string tied through it and fastens

around the wrist, and in carrying it the point of the blade is up

and lays against the arm so that a person would hardly know that she

carried it. This comb is beautifully carved and checkered with black

stripes. She gently strokes the hair with it until it is dry, then she

thrusts the point through it, close to the head, gently pressing the

blade down through it, she keeps the comb in motion until the hair

is perfectly straight and glossy and then she parts the hair in the

middle of the forehead, then takes stripes of Otter skin and ties it

up, letting it hang down on each side of the head and in front of each

shoulder. This girl is a virgin, as perfect in statue and active in

movement and health as God can make her. She can bear hardships and

punishment without complaint or murmur, that would make a bear whine.

After all have rested they start for home which will perhaps take them

two or three days to reach and all the time her health is looked after

to see that she is in good spirits and does not become wearied, and on

arriving home she is allowed to rest for two, three or four weeks when

all is made ready to give her the final degree. This time preparing

one of the large living houses for the purpose, by taking off a part

of the roof and fixing it so that all can come and get a chance to see

the whole performance. The time is set and word is sent all up and down

the river and at the appointed time they will be there, some coming for

many miles to see and take part in giving the young doctor her final

degree. At sun down the fire is made in the center of the living room

and at the commencement of the hour of darkness she is brought in, goes

through the door and down into the basement, takes her place, when

the others that are to help her take their places, forming a circle

around the fire and all start singing in a low and monotonous voice,

jumping up and down, the young doctor taking care of herself at first

and taking instructions from the old doctor who sits close by but takes

no part other than to instruct her. After keeping this up for from two

to four hours the young doctor becomes very warm and fatigued and they

keep close watch of her until the time comes, when one of the men takes

hold of her and holds her up and helps her to stand, still wearing her

down until two men take hold of her by each arm and in this way keep

her dancing until she is helpless and so limp that she can no longer

go on. Then they lay her up and out of the way, still keeping on with

the ceremony until daylight in the morning, when all repair to their

places to sleep for a few hours, then arise, go forth, bathe and eat

and go back to their homes. The young doctor does not always go through

this ordeal and come out safely, as sometimes she became so warm that

she would never recover from the effects of the severe punishment,

but this seldom happens. After going through this she is pronounced a

doctor and can begin practicing her profession. She is now allowed to

get married if she so desires and the most of them do and raise large

families and live to be very old. They wield a big influence among

the tribe if they are successful as doctors and some of them are very

successful as doctors while others are of the ordinary class. These

women doctors are seers, as when they are called to doctor the sick

they claim to tell what is the cause of the sickness and what will cure

it. They suck the body where the pain is located and sing in a sort of

chanting way for awhile, then suck the body again and keep this up for

four or six hours, if it is a serious case there will be two doctors

and sometimes three and in this case they will not agree as to the

cause, if the patient gets well there will be one of them that gets the

credit for the greater part of it and sometimes all of it. When there

is a case of sickness, the relatives of the sick one decides on the

doctor, and the amount of money or other valuables, or all valuables

just as they may, go to the doctor and laying it before her at which

she will accept or refuse the offer, but if it is satisfactory she will

prepare to go with them and if it is rejected she will demand more and

sometimes she will call for some valuable relic which she knows the

family has in their possession, sometimes an article that has in years

gone by been in the doctor’s own family, and she will strive to get it

back again. If the sick one should die while she is trying to get more

they will make her pay to them all that they have laid down to her,

but if she accepts the money and goes and the patient dies, then they

make her return all that was given to her. If there was two or three

doctors then they all have to return all that was given to them and

then they will debate among themselves as to which one of the doctors

is the best. Some of the doctors were very successful and hardly ever

lost a patient, and accumulated great wealth, owning the best fishing

places and large tracts of land where they could gather acorns, hazel

nuts and grass seeds, besides many slaves. They were great talkers and

always had a ready answer to every question, and were almost habitual

smokers, using a large pipe and smoking often. They had a wonderful

constitution. To give an idea of the power of one of these most

successful doctors I will give a sketch of one and her methods. This

doctor was born at Cortep village and of a wealthy family who had been

for many generations back. She married a man that was born at Pec-wan

village, also of a wealthy family and would be called after marriage

in the Indian tongue as Peck-wish-on, but not in this case as she was

called by the tribes as Caw. She became famous among her people and

would come out of her house and sit on the porch of the stone platform

in front of her door, take off her cap, stroke her hair down over her

face and eyes and sit this way for hours at a time, and all, young and

old, would become afraid of her and say; look at Caw, she will make

some one sick, and there would be such a dread of her that there was

sure to be some one sick in two or three days, then they would say

that Caw made them sick, and if they could get her to doctor the sick

one she would cure the sick one as she seldom ever failed to cure any

of her cases. She doctored and took all the wealth of her mother and

father into her own hands besides all that her brothers and sisters and

other relatives had, for doctoring them. She lived to be quite old and

had raised a family of boys and girls. She had lots of slaves, land

and fishing places and money. Her son was the richest Indian in the

whole tribe and was known as Pec-wan Colonel. I knew a girl that this

doctor took for a doctor bill and who was to be the wife of one of her

grandsons. But as the grandson and girl grew up to be of marriageable

age he did not want her for his wife and the money was returned, which

freed her and she married another man, one of choice. These doctors

never act in cases of child-birth, nor do they ever attend or have

any part in these cases. An old woman that is always very pleasant

takes these cases, taking charge of the woman that is about to become

a mother and prepares her for the task of giving birth. She has a

medicine which she prepares and gives to the woman which does not fail

to do its work in a very short time. This is the pitch or gum of the

fir tree, that has by fires or otherwise dropped into the waters of the

creeks or streams and laid in the water for a long time which makes it

very brittle and hard. They take a piece of this and after pounding

it until it becomes as fine as flour put it into a cup of water and

let the patient drink, which in most cases brings her out in good

condition. This is not the only remedy they have for they have many for

use in the different condition of the patient; the baby is also cared

for by these women. They wash the child and dress it in soft furs, such

as rabbit skins or other soft kinds of fur. They now pound hazel nuts

into flour, put it into warm water which makes a kind of milk and then

feed it to the child, they also take milk from the mother’s breast and

give to the baby, they do not let the baby nurse at the mother’s breast

until after the first ten days, at which time the child is allowed to

do so until time to wean it. The baby is provided with a basket made

for the purpose and the child is placed in this in a sitting position,

it has a strap fastened in the back so that the mother can swing it

across her back, set it up against the wall or lay it down flat just as

she may choose. The baby if in health will doodle its feet and laugh

when any one takes notice of it. The baby baskets are changed in size

as the baby grows older and larger, the older baskets are burned. These

granny women are called Na-gaw-ah-clan. The Klamath Indians have men

doctors and they use many kinds of roots, herbs and some minerals, and

when it comes to wounds, bites of poisonous reptiles, chronic diseases,

women are ailing with such disease as falling of the womb and many

other kinds of sickness, they are called by rich families, and they

too are paid in advance and if they fail to cure they have to return

the money or if they refuse to come and the patient dies they have

to make good all that was offered them. These men doctors hand down

their secrets of the different kinds of medicines they use and for

what each kind is used, to their sons or close relatives, and before

one begins to practice he goes back on the mountains to some distant

and secluded place where there is a large rock or high peak, where he

can look over the whole surrounding country all alone. There he prays

to his God for health, strength and success. He does not drink water

or eat and punishes himself as much as he can and stands up under the

strain, he is gone from eight to twelve days and on his return he

bathes himself, rests and sleeps, smokes his pipe for three or four

weeks and then is ready to take up the calling of the doctor and will

go with the old doctors for quite awhile so as to make sure that he

makes no mistake in handling the cases nor in the uses of the different

kinds of medicine to be used for different cases or diseases. These

men doctors are called Pe-girk-ka-gay, the women doctors being called

Kay-gay. Most of the men doctors are of the highest birth and are often

members of the highest families and are often members of the secret

lodge. It is only them that stop the women doctors and make them many

of their accusations or retract their sayings, thus keeping them in

bounds of reason, though they are very lenient with them and often let

them go too far before they stop them. These men doctors help to start

and to make the settlements for the white Deer-skin dance, and this

is the time when all troubles between individuals, clans and villages

are settled, so the whole tribe is in peace. If any of them are not

willing to settle their difficulties they are strictly forbidden to

attend the worship, and if they should attend they would lose the

respect of the whole tribe, besides they would be dealt with harshly.

So in case there be some that cannot make a settlement it is best for

them to remain away for this is a time and place where all is free and

the best of good cheer and behavior must prevail. The White Deer-skin

Dance they hold every two years unless something of a serious nature

happens and which sometimes did happen and so crippled the people that

they could not hold them for a number of years, such as contagious

diseases or other calamities. In years that everything was all right

these men doctors would get together about the last of July or the

first of August and have a talk and settle the question and give out

the announcement that they were going to have the Deer-skin Dance

(Oh-pure-ah-wah). The word would be sent out to all the Indians up

and down the river, to the Hoopa and Smith river Indians and down the

coast as far as Trinidad, and any and all of them of the other tribes

could come and see the dance and none of them would ever be molested.

Now they would begin to settle all of their quarrels among themselves

by paying, this was done by arbitration in most of the cases, as they

would select the ones that were friends to both sides of the ones in

dispute. They would argue the case and bring them to a settlement if

possible, and if they could not make a settlement they could not come

to see the dance. This way things would move along and all kinds of

sayings would be learned and disputed as those that had no authority

would be guessing and often times give out something as coming from

some of the head men. All would believe it to be true until it got far

enough when the head ones would pronounce it as not authoritative and

the false sayings would stop. Another false story would take its place

and this would go on until about the middle of August when the Talth

would get together and set the time for the dance to start. They always

put in the fish dam first, it being a part of this great festival.

The one that handles the putting in of the fish dam is known as Lock,

and the fish dam is called La-og-gen. Lock selects one other of the

high priests and one girl of equal high birth and the three go to a

secluded place out on a high mountain from which place they can have a

good view of the surrounding country and there the girl makes a small

fire and is given instructions of how and what to do. The other man is

also directed what to do. Lock unrolls his emblems, which is a closely

woven scroll that is absolutely water proof and takes from it the roots

that he burns slowly over the fire that the maiden keeps burning. These

roots are burned as an incense and have a sweet odor as they burn, and

while they are burning Lock prays and sings to God to give him health

and power to carry through all the hardships of putting in the dam.

They remain here for two days and nights, then go back down the river

to where the fish dam is to be placed. There they land with their boat

and stop at a very large rock which is close up to the water’s edge,

and a large creek of clear pure water which enters into the river just

at and a little below this large rock. In the middle of the night the

maiden gets wood and starts a small fire and fixes things for Lock

and his helper. This girl is a virgin of purity. She goes across the

river and bathes herself and dresses her hair, using her Indian knife

like a comb, which she carries fastened to her wrist, until her hair

is dry and glossy, then she lets it hang loose, wearing a band around

her head made of beads which keeps the hair from falling over her face,

just coming to the jaw, and if at any time the hair comes over her

face she strokes it back with her Indian comb, but she never touches

her hair with her hands. After she has bathed and dressed she goes to

the lodge and lies down and sleeps until late in the morning when Lock

and his helper come to the lodge and lie down and sleep until late

in the morning when Lock-nee and his helper come to the lodge, when

the three of them all take a bath, and then eat for the first time

since they started. None of them are allowed any water and will not

be allowed to drink any for many days yet. Some of these people would

start in looking fine and when they came out they would often look

like a walking skeleton, they would soon regain their flesh although

sometimes they never would regain their normal condition. These three

keep themselves secluded and no one has seen or heard of them, but all

are anxiously waiting to hear the word. After they have had their meal,

Lock and his helper go back across to the large rock, then Lock unrolls

his scroll, burns some more incense and gives his order to his helper

to go out to all the villages and call on as many to come forward and

help to put in the fish dam as is needed, and this is the time for them

to appear before Lock. Sometimes there will be from one hundred to two

hundred young men, no old or sickly ones are wanted. After they all

appear before Lock, he assigns to each lot of eight or ten of them,

the part and amount that they are to do. After this they go home, fix

up their provisions and camp outfit and in about thirty hours’ time the

river bars in and around this place are alive with Indians, and the air

is filled with merriment and jokes.

Early in the morning they all start out without eating, and cut the

small pines that are from two to three inches through at the butt

ends. Some will make a fire, and as the others are cutting and packing

in they will take the green pine poles and run them through the fire

until they are scorched then take them out and the bark is peeled off

easily. While they are yet hot they split each one in two and four

pieces, then others get long hazel withes and run them through the fire

and while they are hot split them in two pieces, then they take them

and the pine pieces and plat them together like mats, leaving the pine

sticks about one and two inches apart, these mats when set upon end

are about nine feet long, with five or six hazel withes about fourteen

inches apart. After they get a mat put together they roll it up, making

each mat so that one man can pack it on his shoulder and at a given

time they all carry them down to the river to the place where the fish

dam is to be put in. Others get the posts which are about eleven feet

long and five or six inches through, they are all sharpened at one end

and made very smooth, all the bark being taken off. Some get the long

pole-beams or girders which are from twenty to twenty-four feet long

and about six or seven inches through with the bark taken off. The girl

that carries the true name of God is, during the day, in the lodge or

house that is used only on these occasions. This house was kept in

good condition at all times but no one lives in it, except on these

occasions, also the sweat-house that Lock sleeps in while this work

is going on. In the evening, about dusk, after all the workers have

retired for the day, she quietly goes out and crosses the river, as

Lock’s helper at this time is watching for her and takes the canoe over

to take her where Lock is concealed under the large rock close to the

bank of the river, and she gathers a quantity of dry wood by which Lock

keeps a small fire burning all through the day and on which he burns

incense. Lock keeps out of sight of all the workers as they do not

want to see him and avoid doing so. Lock gives orders to his helper,

directing him so that he can deliver the orders to the different

companies of workers. This helper is one that has the birth but has not

the secret of the true name of God. Lock gives him all the orders in a

low whisper, and this helper is called Lock-ee.

As soon as the girl whom they call Normer, has finished, the three

cross the river to the south side and after landing they all bathe,

there being a secluded place close by where the girl takes her bath

and when they have finished they proceed to the Lah-wah-alth or house

where Lock’s wife and his helper’s wife are preparing the only meal

that they eat every twenty-four hours. After the meal is finished Lock

and his helper go to the sweat-house for the night in which a fire has

been started by an old man who was selected to get the wood and thus

the place was warm for the night. Lock and his helper take a smoke and

then retire. Very early in the morning there is a fire made in the

sweat-house and Lock and Lock-nee take a sweat and then go back across

the river, Lock going to his secluded place and keeping himself hid so

that none can catch even a glimpse of him. The girl also keeps secluded

by keeping in the house where the wives of Lock and Lock-nee are, and

she is busy fixing her dresses, combing her hair and keeping herself

very neat and what spare time she may have after this she is making a

new dress or skirt from the inner bark of the wild maple that grows on

the river. The bark is bleached until white, then platted and hung to

a band that goes around the waist, making it as a skirt, coming down

to the ankles. All the workers which are called Nah-quelth are ready

to work like beavers getting everything in readiness. No one eats more

than one meal a day and all must be in good health and young before

they are accepted to work on the fish dam. The day that it starts and

until it is completed must not exceed ten days. The girl, Normer, now

sends Lock’s wife or Lock-nee’s wife, (either one can go) to select for

her ten girls all of which must be of good birth from the middle class

or rich, and not more than ten, but if ten cannot be secured a less

number will do. These young girls now come and are called Wah-clure,

but they do not see Normer. They remain with their kindred and are

drilled and fixed up to be ready for the last day and final finish of

the fish dam. Now Lock-nee has selected from the Nah-quelth or workers,

either five or six to act as managers over the different parts of the

work, and these take the bark of the madrone and make a hat which

looks very much like an old style plug hat that the white man wears.

This is striped and painted in a novel fashion and these workers are

very noticeable as they go from place to place giving instructions to

the workers. These plug hat men now select twelve or less boys and

put them to making ribbons of bark which they stripe off very flowery

by painting and carving, also making fancy Indian pipes, carving and

painting them very artistically. These boys are called Charrah and the

pipes and ribbons made by them are put on the top of long slim poles

from twelve to fifteen feet long and are to be used at the finish of

the fish dam. These poles have the bark taken off and are clean and

white.

All this time Lock has kept himself secreted from the eyes of all

the workers and on the morning of the fifth day, very early, he and

Lock-nee go up the mountain side and select the first one of the long

beams or stringers that is to be put in on the north side of the

river, starting just above the large rock under which he keeps himself

secluded up to this time, and when he has selected the one that suits

him he makes a small fire at the roots of the tree and burns his

incense, then sits down by the fire and prays to God to give blessings

to the whole people with health and plenty. Now all of the workers

knowing the time, and the boys and the men have followed up and are

all looking for the posts, twenty-two in number, and the rest of the

stringers which are ten besides the one that Lock selects, making

eleven altogether. After Lock has finished with his prayer to God he

commences to cut the tree, Lock-nee helping him and together they cut

it down and when it falls with a crash all the workers shout loudly,

“oh-oo”, and the whole side of the mountain echoes with their voices.

Lock-nee begins to trim off the branches and peel the bark while others

come in and help. All the workers are scattered off in different

places, each squad looking for posts and the rest looking for stringers

and cutting them down and as each tree fell they all holler “oh-oo.”

They take the bark off and trim and sharpen the posts. All these pieces

are complete in one day and taken down to the river’s edge by evening

and before any one can eat or drink water after all the pieces are

finished. Lock and Lock-nee take the lead with the stringers, a rope

tied around the large butt end which is quite heavy timber and start

down the mountain with it, Lock all the while talking in prayer to God,

and if the timber stops he prays and talks good and as he has all his

life been so good that God causes the timber to move along easily. As

Lock starts all the rest follow with their timbers and all arrive about

sunset on the north bank with all the heavy frame part for the fish

dam. These people while they are working all day are full of jokes,

laughing and telling funny stories, and if one has done a mean trick

of any kind and others know of it, he is twitted about it; they poke

fun at each other continually, yet they all keep good natured about it

and they are all very witty in their answers. They all smoke during the

day, each one using his own pipe and all have their own buck-skin sack

to carry his pipe and tobacco in. Now all the timbers are in the water

and tied to the bank and left floating, ready for morning. Men and boys

now bathe themselves and clean their hair, when all depart for their

different camping places, parting with jests and jokes, and eat their

only meal in twenty-four hours. Lock addresses the girl as my child,

my daughter and other endearing terms. After the meal is over Lock and

Lock-nee go to the sweat-house to rest and sleep for the night and in

the morning, early, all are out and ready and go down to the river and

across in their canoes, they having many of them on such occasions.

Lock now gets the rock for driving the post, this is of granite and

flat, from twelve to fifteen inches across and from two to four inches

thick and weighs from fifty to sixty pounds. Only those who use this

rock ever have a chance to examine it and it is said to have been made

many generations ago. It is kept hidden in a secret place and only

brought to view for this purpose and all the other tools that are used

for every part and purpose in putting in the fish dam (La-og-gen) are

hidden in a secret place, not all being in one place, and there are

never more than two persons (Lock and Lock-nee) at one time that know

where to find them, being handed down from one to another. This rock

they call Milth-me-ah-lisi and in calling for it they say, Say-yah.

The other tools are called by their different names, the hammer they

call Tec-wan-ore. Lock and Lock-nee drive the first two posts which

starts the fish dam, the first one is driven nearly perpendicular, and

now the workers have to put up a staging which Lock climbs upon as the

post is long and has to be driven quite deep into the ground. Lock-nee

holds the post so as to keep it in place while Lock takes a maul and

as he raises it he talks to God, using words for lots of salmon and

to bless all, and at this he comes down with a hard blow, and keeps

it up until the first post has been driven to the proper depth, he

does not strike his blows fast, each blow is struck slowly. The second

post is set at an angle on the down river side of the first one, set

to make a brace against the current of the river, and also the top

ends come together so as to leave a fork or crotch at the top which

is tied securely together with hazel rope, leaving it so beam poles

can be placed in the crotch and tied securely. Now when Lock-nee has

the second post properly set in place, Lock commences as on the first

and drives it down to the proper depth and after this is done Lock and

Lock-nee take the hazel withe and tie it to the first one, leaving

the crotch. This being done Lock passes the mall over to the other

workers and drive the rest of the posts, the next two of which are set

angling down the river and the third two are set angling up the river

so as to make it in a shape like the old style of a worm fence made of

rails; this is also done for the purpose of bracing the whole structure

against the current of the river. As soon as the posts are all driven

Lock and Lock-nee place the first long stringer in its right place,

which is on the north side of the river, then the workers soon place

the rest of them and tie them with hazel withes. Then smaller posts

are driven at the corners for each trap, at the corners two posts are

driven, one angling down the river and they are placed so as to leave

the crotch, in which a pole is placed. The traps are about twelve feet

wide and fourteen feet long commencing so the center of the first trap

will be in the center of the first worm of the main frame work and

this is started first on the north side of the river. When the posts

are all driven for the traps which are many of them for the corners

and side and also to brace against the current of the river. The top

pieces are placed and braced, then poles are withed to the sides and

ends all around each trap. The mat or woven work of small split poles

are taken in and placed, unrolled, letting them close up, close to the

frame work of the structure. These traps are set on the down river

side of the main structure so that all of this mat work has to be put

on the inside of the frame work of the traps. Then all of this matting

is tied with hazel withes very carefully. These traps are not put up

close together, there is a place of about six feet left between each

trap so that a canoe can be run between them. This matting is placed

all the way across on the upper side of the main frame, except on the

south side of the river where there is an open place of about twenty

feet in width, this only has the main beam over it and is left so all

can pass up and down the river in their boats, and also a chance for

many salmon to pass up river. They place boards along the main fish

dam so as to leave a good foot walk all the distance across the river

from one bank to another. They put in a gate at the lower end of fish

traps and one at the upper end of each trap, and at this time the water

begins to roar so that when close to the dam it is deafening. Now there

are so many families to each trap, so the upper gate is closed down and

the lower gate is opened. We are now up to the noon hour of the tenth

day, when there is a long pole some twenty to twenty-four feet long set

just at the south side and end of the fish dam and just on the lower

side, on the top of this pole all of the fancy work that the boys have

been making is tied and there is a mound of sand heaped around the foot

of this pole to a height of three or four feet and from eight to ten

feet across. Now it is about four o’clock in the afternoon and Lock

and Lock-nee are with the Nah-quirlth, busy as bees putting the final

touches to the fish dam. And of all the tribes, the women are the most

anxious and are from place to place asking the others how the girl

Normer is, if she is well, can she go and if she is going, when out

comes Normer from her place where she has been kept from view all these

days. She has in the palm of her right hand a small basket in which is

a small piece of acorn dough, and she goes in a swift run on a broad

smooth trail in an easterly direction for a distance of five hundred

yards to this pole, which she runs up to, facing it, then going around

to the right she sets the basket on top of the mound, close up to the

pole. All are watching for her and as soon as one sees her they all

shout at the top of their voices. Then Lock runs to hide as he does not

want to see her at this time. Now she turns and goes back at the same

swift speed and at this time all of the girls that she sent for are

in their place where they dance. The ground is all fixed, having been

scooped out leaving a depression some four feet deep and twenty feet

across, gently sloping to the center. Normer comes up to the dancers

and passes on in a westerly direction down the river until she comes to

a woman who has been a Normer before her and tells her where to turn to

the river, where she bathes herself, then turns back and walks to where

the girls are dancing and sits down in front of them and urges them to

sing louder and dance faster. These Wa-clures stand erect moving the

body forward and backward by the action of the knees, raising first

one foot and then the other. Normer keeps watch of the sun and as it

is getting low and it is getting time for all to come, she raises to

a kneeling position and bids the Wa-clures to sing louder and dance

faster, they then move very lively. Normer is the absolute ruler of

her people as she is the child of God’s own purity. Then comes Lock

with Lock-nee closely behind and thirdly comes the boy, Charrah, with

the same basket that Normer left at the pole and which is now full of

water, and as Lock walks up to Normer the girls all drop down and hover

over Normer, then Lock and Lock-nee drop over them, then the boy who

has the basket of water lowers his hand and throws the basket, water

and all as high up in the air as he can and the water comes down over

them in a shower. As the boy throws the basket and water up in the air

he and all of the boys drop down over the others, hovering over Normer

like a swarm of bees hovering over the queen. This is done for her

protection, for now come all the workers, each one having a long pole

on the top of which are tied the bark ribbons and fancy carved Indian

pipes that the boys made, and as they come running up they form a half

circle around the heap letting the long heavy poles fall over them with

a crash which is done so quickly that it is very hard to see how it is

done, and just as quickly the whole heap raises up out of this place

and place themselves in fours for the next move. At this time if Normer

was silly enough she could command every man, woman and child to lie

flat on their abdomens and go without eating for another twenty-four

hours, as all must obey her commands, no matter what they might be. Now

the fish dam is completed and all go to their camps. Normer goes to

the lodge with Lock, while Lock-nee secures and takes to her the first

salmon taken from the fish dam and Lock-nee cuts out from the middle

of this salmon enough for her supper, while no one else can eat of the

salmon until the next day. Every thing now becomes quiet for an hour,

as they are all taking their evening meal. Then first one than another

will begin to inquire about Normer and her health. Now all depends upon

Normer, if she is strong enough she quietly goes out and cleans off

the ground this same evening but if too tired she puts it off until

morning. After making her plans she then gives her orders to Lock and

he in return gives it out to the people and they all begin to prepare.

After Normer has cleaned the ground she makes a small fire just in

front of the dancers and on which she places the incense roots, then

as the dancers come up and take their places she sits there with her

hair hanging loose, down on each side of her face, and with beads over

her neck and hanging down over her breast, she has on a white buck-skin

dress trimmed with beads and shells, all of which are made by her own

hands as we use only of our own make. She does not use feathers of any

kind. Normer sits there a model of beauty with the teachings that have

been hand-down through the many generations, that if she should, while

carrying out her duties, lose her virtue, or disobey any of the laws

of her God, that she would be struck dead for doing so. Now the dance

starts and this is the beginning of the White Deer-skin dance. This

place is about ten miles up the river from the place where the White

Deer-skin dance is held but is started first at this place after the

finishing of the fish dam. Normer starts it here and then all go home,

but Normer, Lock, Lock-nee, the girls and the boys remain here, Lock

and Lock-nee taking charge of the fish dam and all stay here as long as

the fish dam holds intact, except the last day of the White Deer-skin

dance when Lock calls all of them and asks if they want to see it the

last day, if they decide to go not one of them must eat the last day

and all go together and return in the evening when they all eat. Now

all is fun and mirth with all of them that remain at the fish dam, Lock

and Lock-nee leading them all in the plays and fun of every nature.

Normer stays with Lock and Lock-nee but she now goes out and plays and

jokes and has her share of the fun, and all have their regular meals.

This place where the fish dam is put in is called by them Cap-pell

and is a bar of some twenty or thirty acres, high enough so the river

never over-flows it and yet it is very level. It is a pretty place,

being situated on the south bank of the Klamath river. There are two

villages on this pretty spot, one being Cap-pell which was very large

in the ages gone by and which contained a very large number of Indians.

The other village was called Sy-ah and was very ancient, being the

place where the lodge was situated. The house they stay in is called

Lah-wa-alth and the house where Lock and Lock-nee sleep is called

Ur-girk.

I will say to the white race that my people, or any other Indian tribes

as far as I know them, do not use the name of our Creator when using

profane language, as we would feel it a disgrace to do so, even to

think of such a thing. We never use the sacred name of God, only in our

prayers.

The following are a few expressions sometimes used: Kee-mol-len-a

Ta-ga-ar-a-wah-ma, (bad talk) pointing the right hand, with the fingers

extended, toward a person and at the same time saying: Woo-saw-ah,

means that the person is badly born, and they never forgive you for

this. Another is: Char-reck-quick-cal-lah, and means: “I wish you were

in hell”, and for this also they never forgive.