THE WARS OF KLAMATH INDIANS.
The Klamath Indians as a tribe, are like all other people that have
a history dating back long before the great flood as their legends
plainly tell. They have had wars and plenty of them, through all the
ages, and never have laid down their bows and spears at any time to
any other tribe or tribes, and have at different times had to fight
every tribe, and sometimes combinations of tribes. They have many times
been nearly exterminated at different places of habitation. It was at
the junction of the Trinity River, that the Hoopas (Ar-me-musees)
would come down the Trinity River and strike them in the center of the
tribe, and kill, burn and scatter them before they could gather, and
at times they would patch up the differences with the Hoopas, and let
it go by without war. Thus the Hoopas became more bold and cruel, and
began the tactics of mutilating the bodies of the slain, or cut off
the hair of the dead and wear it when dancing their war dance. These
things when carried to a certain point would not be tolerated, so the
Klamaths would gather in great numbers, strong enough to throw a force
against them that they could not resist, burn their villages and drive
them back, taking both men and women as prisoners, until they would beg
for peace and things would be settled, sometimes for a long period. In
these settlements they gave women for marriage on both sides, so as to
make relationship between them, which would keep long and everlasting
peace periods. The Klamath Indians would take Hoopa men for slaves and
give their own men for slaves, but at all times these were of the low
birth and slave class that was given in this manner, and never of the
wealthy class.
Our tribe extended to the mouth of the Klamath and six miles north to
Ah-man, and here they had to fight back the treacherous Crescent City
and Smith River Indians, these He-nas were hard fighters, brutal in
every way, killing women and children, and when they took a fancy to a
fine looking young woman they would exterminate her people, and take
her and try to kill her by being abusive and starving her. The Klamaths
would fight the tribe for such deeds, and they would fight on and on
for many years, and settle and patch up until the He-nas would do some
unbearable act, when the Klamaths would gather a strong force and go
after them. On several occasions they nearly exterminated the whole
tribe of the He-nas. They were married and mixed in relationship with
the Klamaths for over one hundred miles up the river, but the Klamath
women dislike to marry among them on account of their cruelty. On the
other hand the He-na women were pleased to get the opportunity to marry
Klamath men. Our tribe extended down the coast as far as Trinidad,
a distance of over fifty miles, and here they had to fight back the
Mad River and Humboldt Bay Indians, which we call the Way-etts. The
Way-etts were a large tribe, fat and lazy, living mostly on clams,
shell fish, mussels and other fish. They were not good warriors, but
strong in numbers, and the Klamaths easily held them to the line of
their own territory, and with the Way-etts they would not mix in
marriage, claiming that they were too low in morals and did not make
and live in permanent homes, all the time moving and camping here and
there.
The Klamaths had some wars with the Redwood Creek Indians and some with
other small tribes, and held themselves all through the ages, so as to
have many that could call themselves pure blooded Klamath Indians.
The worst of all the wars was, that the Klamath Indians were almost
continually fighting among themselves, village against village,
sometimes close together and sometimes far apart, one rich family and
their slaves against another rich family and their slaves. The great
festival, one of which was held each year unless prevented by some
great calamity, would bring about an almost complete settlement of
their differences, and bring them together on as near friendly terms
as could be had, and caused the fighting to be stopped for nearly half
the time, in many cases stopping it for all the time. In this way the
Klamath Indians were kept from exterminating themselves, and were held
together as a powerful tribe, there being several thousand of them
when the first white men came. Our tribe was governed by the Talth and
without ever having a chief.
My people wore hats or caps that we made with our own hands by weaving
them out of our basket material, with the different marks or designs
wove into them, for many generations before the coming of the present
white people. No woman would wear a hat that she would make herself,
believing that it was unlucky for her to do so.
It is a pleasure for me to say that my people never had a war with
the present white people, for in the first coming of Ken-e-ahs we
took up all differences of a serious nature between us and settled it
ourselves, so as to make it satisfactory with them and forced it to be
satisfactory with my people. Thus we kept down those of our people that
were disposed to go to bloody wars, and only for this we might have
held the whites back for a long time on account of the roughness of
the country. It is only about seventy years since we first knew of the
white people that are here now.