THE PROPHET WHO FAILED.
This Indian was a Smith River, and the Klamath Indians in their tongue,
called him, He-na Tom. In the year about eighteen hundred and sixty
five, this He-na Tom, while living at his home on Smith River, which
is north from the Klamath River, his wife became sick and died, and
he mourned her loss greatly. In the fall he had a prophetic dream,
which caused him to commence a sort of revival among the Smith River
Indians, telling them to destroy everything they had ever received
from the white people, discard all the clothing, houses and in fact,
burn all and everything, and go back to their old Indian way of living
entirely, and in a short time all the dead Indians would come back to
life, to this world. As it happened He-na Tom had a sister, that was
married to a Klamath River man, and they had a family of grown sons and
daughters, and this family lived in a village called Ni-galth, which
is situated on the west side of the Klamath River, opposite the mouth
of Blue Creek, some eight miles down the river from where the Klamaths
hold their White Deer-Skin Dance. So in the fall, after the Klamaths
had finished putting in the fish dam, and the Indians from all parts
of the country had been invited to come and see the ceremony, and the
White Deer-Skin Dance was going on, He-na Tom made his appearance
among them with his sayings, telling them to destroy all their white
man’s goods, burn all the houses that were made in the white man’s
way, and tear down all their Indian houses, but not to burn the lumber
of the Indian houses, thus leaving a clear opening, and for all of
them to bring all their Indian money and wealth of all kinds, and hang
it up in plain view, around him where he was lying, covered with
Indian blankets made of deer skin. He told them to go ahead with the
White Deer-Skin Dance, so when the dead ones appeared, they would all
dance with them and make a big jubilee, and all of them who failed to
comply with his holy orders, and not bring their valuables, that it
would all turn into rock or rocks, and those that disbelieved and did
not come, would themselves turn to rock. He had a great many of the
Klamath Indians of the wealthy class, all of the poor class, and a few
of the high class that was wild and willing to follow, and there was
a lot of valuable property and things destroyed, while the shelves or
tables were loaded with provision for the dead when they came, so they
could eat, dance and all be joyful, while all the white people were
to turn to rocks. Some of the wise ones of the high class, that were
versed in the secret mysteries, hung back saying no, that they wanted
to see. While they were claiming that He-na Tom had gone to meet the
dead Indians, and that he would be back with them that night, three or
four of the doubtful ones went over to where the large piles of Indian
blanket were by a fire, and on lifting up the blankets behold, there
was He-na Tom. They spoke to him, calling him by name, but he did not
answer, his followers claimed that his body was there, but that his
spirit had gone to meet the dead ones. When the old ones who were so
highly versed in the mysteries as not to be hoodwinked, had seen enough
to convince them that there was no truth in it, they shook their heads,
quietly moved back and retired to their camps or homes, saying that
He-na’s prophesies were a fake, and that he was a humbug. As it turned
out, that night He-na Tom slipped down the Klamath River, to the mouth,
and up the coast, back to Smith River, his home. So when the Klamaths
came to gather back their valuables, there was considerable of it that
the rightful owners could not find, and never did get back, which made
many of them very angry.
He-na Tom’s brother-in-law was afterwards killed, and all of his
Klamath relations were compelled to leave the Klamath River, and go to
Smith River to live for a number of years before they dared to return
to the Klamath again. I have long since found that the Klamath Indians
are bad fellows, for any one to try to play fake on. They have, or used
to have, their wise ones, that watched the different positions of the
planets, at different seasons of the year, and tell of hard winters,
of cold or warm summers, and of different harvest famines. They
sometimes had dreams that they interpreted for good or bad. Other than
this I have never heard of them ever having prophets.
Since the white race of people, that they found inhabiting the Klamath
when they first arrived there, which we call the Wa-gas, which must
have been thousands of years ago, they do not tell of ever having
come in contact with any kind of a white race, or of any other race
ever coming among them until the present white race came, which we
call Ken-ne-ah. The Klamath River is so inaccessible, winding its way
through high mountains, with no valleys, that to this day it is a wild
country with lots of game and fish. And there never has been a Preacher
of any kind among us to this day.