THE WANDERING TRIBE.
From the land of Cheek-cheek-alth, the mystic Eden of long ago, came
our wandering tribe of people who long since inhabited North and South
America; for we are all one people. Among them were our leaders, the
men who possessed in their secret breasts the true name of God. These
men and women in our language we call Talth, and were the High Priests,
and great rulers who ruled our people. Therefore, we were one of the
tribes that was never ruled by a single chief, but by our Talth, or
High Priests. Upon leaving the old land the Talth carried with them the
forked root, Walth-pay, (the root from which woman was made) and the
stalk of this root as a divine rod of strength, endurance and courage,
being used as a saviour of the tribe. With it the Talth would command
food for their famished members and bring peace and rest to their weary
bodies. The Walth-pay stalk kept perfectly green, and blossomed all the
while, and the High Priests carried it with them on their long journeys
and years of wanderings.
In my infancy, I was taught all that was good, and to make for a true
and noble womanhood; that there was a God in Heaven who ruled over all,
and during my researches throughout I have found nothing better. When
these last two members finish their earthly reign, with us perishes the
true name of God to my people. With it has perished from the earth our
true Indian laws, our sublime religion, our deeds of chivalry, as rich
as the civilized world has ever beheld. Also our glorious manhood and
womanhood; immoral, corrupt, tottering, down-trodden and debauched by a
superior race, we have perished in that winter night of the transition
period. At a single blow our laws were torn asunder; loathsome diseases
we had never known crushed out the life and beauty of our physical
bodies, and demented our spiritual minds with lowly passions. Poisonous
spiritous drink has set the brain on fire, degrading man and womanhood,
thus as a race we have perished. And this great land, the richest the
world has ever known, the land of our forefathers for so many thousands
of years. Now another race is struggling on where our reign has ended.
Already our great rulers are at rest, and forever; laureled with the
glories of the primeval ages that have passed away in silence. As a
nation, like the ancient Egyptians, we have grown old and passed away;
we have seen a great civilization rise to the highest of its splendors
and pass away to another land beyond recall. Today we see another
civilization endowed with a splendor of its own, rising over the debris
of the eternal years.
We are all one tribe from the source of the Klamath river to its mouth,
and down the coast as far as Trinidad, (Cho-ri) and up the coast as far
as Wilson creek, which we call Ah-man. We are classed in two divisions
and term ourselves as Po-lick-las along the coast and up the river
as far as Weitchpec, designated as the lower division of our tribe.
From Weitchpec on up the river to its source we term as Petch-ic-la,
the upper division of our tribe. We intermarry to a great extent,
having the same marriage laws and religious ceremonies and all our
traditions and teachings are the same. We call God, Wah-pec-wah-mow,
which means in our tongue the father of all and we do not consider Him
as one “which has been so much of the white man’s allegory, but as an
Invisible Omnipotent Being, who rules this great universe with an all
seeing eye, He is everywhere.”
Wah-pec-wah-mow is the common name applied to God, used by all classes
of our tribe, as the real and true name of God is never spoken. Our
high priests, born of the royal marriages, are initiated in the Holy
Lodge and are given the true name of God, but they never speak it
outside of the lodge, it is only spoken inside after they have gone
through a long and secret communion, and then the name is only
whispered in the lowest whisper from mouth to ear. This true name is
only used by the Talth with profound reverence to the Great Creator,
in the sacred lodge and in the hallowed lonely places far back on the
high mountains where they go to worship in the profound solitudes, away
from the gaze of curious people. Our religion has been too sacred,
too sublime an ideal to quarrel over, hence we have remained silent
through the gloom of so many years and borne patiently the insults on
royal society as being heathens. This true name of God, as great as the
universe, will never be spoken again. If it should be uttered in a loud
and harsh tone of voice, it is said that the earth will tremble, ignite
in mighty flames and pass away forever. Ever thus, since the creation
of the world, the Talth have handed down our religion and traditions
from the old land of Cheek-cheek-alth, from generation to generation.
It is the duty of every Indian child to be pious and worship the Great
Creator. Our sacred religion is O-pure-ah-way (the White Deer-skin
dance) where all the members of the tribes in unison and worship, and
entertain our guests with much hospitality.
In our recollections of the past we left the land of our birth
(Cheek-cheek-alth) many thousands of years ago with our leaders, the
Talth, who were given the true name of God in the old land, and carried
with them the forked root, or Walth-pay. With this divine rod they
commanded food, comfort and peace during their long years of weary
wanderings. After we left the beautiful valley of Cheek-cheek-alth, for
years we wandered down a European land, always moving toward the south,
having our origin in the far north. Over this land we wandered like
exiles, we know not how long, as it might have been centuries until we
reached the rolling waves of the ocean. Upon reaching this salt water
we made boats or canoes, and paddled over the waves until we reached
the opposite shore, having crossed the straits in safety. Having
reached this opposite shore, upon this new continent we continued our
weary years of wandering, ever on, far on, down this land, always going
south as before. We carried the memory through the long ages, the
perils of the far north, the huge icebergs, the regal monarchs of the
North that floated like ghost-ships at night on dream-land seas, the
splendors of the aurora borealis flickered across the snowy fields and
through this land of the midnight sun came our brave forefathers.
In this land of the frozen North some of our people were left, the
Esquimau; they were given a language as they were separated from our
sturdy band and emigrated over the snowy fields and have long since
from this time on inhabited the land of perpetual ice and snow.
Our tribe would often become weary with travel and become very
dissatisfied and would quarrel much among themselves. The Talth would
stop after hearing so much grumbling and build a lodge where their
members would hold a meeting and offer up worship to God, that He would
guide them aright, endow them with power to bring peace among their
people, comfort them in their wants and give them food. After the lodge
meeting and prayer the Talth would command with the rod of Walth-pay
food for their people. The food came to them in the form of acorn dough
out of which they made bread or pop-saw. The Indians would never see
pop-saw falling to the ground, but they would find it where the Talth
told them to look, and each one would be compelled to gather up their
own, or they would go hungry. As long as they remained camped in the
same place the pop-saw would come to them but when they would break
up camp and travel on the pop-saw would cease to come and the tribe
would grow very hungry and begin to quarrel again. The Talth would
stop after days of fatigue and hunger, and build another lodge where
their members would worship at the sacred shrine. After the worship
food would come again in the form of the acorn dough, commanded with
rod of Walth-pay. Sometimes the Talth would leave the camps for several
days, during which time the people would become very restless and
discontented and some of the people would try to perform the duties
of the Talth in their absence, and some of them would pray to the
sun, some to the stars and other idols. The Talth would be very much
humiliated upon their return to find their people so corrupt in their
worship, and it would take much faithful work to assure peace and order
among them again. The Talth would plant the herb, Walth-pay at their
stopping places during their travels, and it would readily take root
and grow, at almost every stopping place some of our people were left
and God would give them a language; they would inhabit the locality
permanently and branch out to other localities, while our part of the
people traveled on until they reached their final earthly home on the
Klamath river, which we call Health-kick-wer-roy, and here we found the
white race, (Wa-gas) which will be told of in another chapter. Thus
we traveled on down a great continent, leaving behind at our stopping
places, a portion of our people, which were given different languages.
Thus were our languages confounded among the tribes of America, and our
tribes became numerous, being scattered over the land of the midnight
sun of perpetual ice and snow, over the continent of North America to
the equator and regions of perpetual sunshine; and beyond the equator
over the continent of South America to its farthermost southern
borders, where we merge into the regions of ice and snow again, our
tribes have been scattered. Over this great land we are all one people,
however some of our tribes were far superior to others. We know not how
many centuries we wandered, or when we reached our last stopping place
on the Klamath river and where we decided our long journey should end,
and that we would make this our final home. The Wah-teck, Wah-ker-rah,
Cor-tep and Pec-wan villages were among our first camping grounds on
the Klamath river. Here we spread our camps and built our first houses
long ages ago, and have resided in them and kept them in repair from
generation to generation. Some of these primeval houses yet remain
in these old villages, haunted with the romance of centuries and the
inspiring history of past ages. Upon our first arrival there were a
great many of our people and we began to divide off into different
villages and locate along the Klamath river and down the coast as far
as Trinidad, (Cho-ri) and up the coast to Wilson Creek (Ah-man). The
other tribes were placed by Wah-pec-wah-mow in different localities,
that all the people might sustain themselves with plenty of game and
food, and be kept comfortable.
The Talth kept the Walth-pay in commemoration of God’s creation of
woman and their travels, and planted it in a few selected places
back in the lonely mountains. The Talth all know where to find this
wonderful herb growing, but it is also fading with the remote ages as
there are only a few Indians left who know where to find it. With them
passes away the sacred rites and laws of an ancient nation forever, and
the primeval art becomes a thing of the mystic ages.