THE WILD INDIAN OF MO-RECK.
This happened many years ago at the village of Mo-reck, which is
situated on the north bank of the Klamath River, just below where we
put in the fish dam. Up to within a few years ago there lived in this
village a family named Plats who had three boys, one of which became
sick and died, and in burying him they followed out the old and ancient
custom.
The house in which the family resided was very old, and the name of
the house was Plats-ah-chene, the boys were called Plats-ots-ene, and
the family was very rich. When the rich bury their dead they often put
more less valuables in and on the grave, and they did in this case. The
sand is put over the grave and kept dry by a board, so they can at any
time by looking at the grave, see if any one has been meddling with it,
or robbing the grave of the valuables, which has been done many times.
So the other two brothers of the dead boy noticed one day that things
did not look just right, and on a close examination they discovered
that it had been robbed, and after fixing the grave they kept watch for
the person or persons that done it, as there was left a part of the
valuables in and on the grave. So early one night as they were sitting
close to the grave, they heard a noise and kept very still, soon they
saw a man moving along like a shadow in the dark. This wild Indian
seemed to feel the presence of the watchers and kept moving stealthily
around, but was afraid to come up to the grave. So finally the wild
Indian (Oh-mah-hah) left and went down to the river and swam across to
the other side, landing just below the Cap-pell village. One of the
brothers cautiously followed behind, telling the other brother to go up
the river on the north, and keep on the old trail, and keep a close
watch and see if the wild Indian tried to swim back somewhere above
Cap-pell, while he took a boat, crossed the river and kept close to
the Indian, who went up the river and swam back to the north side just
below the village of Wah-say. So the brother on the north side went
too far up the river and missed the Indian, so when he arrived at the
village of Ma-reep and took a boat and crossed over to the south side
just below Ma-reep, and remained there on the south side by a large
hollow fir tree, which is called Ta-po, and close to the trail, thus
the two brothers were both on the south side. The Indian on the north
side became afraid and worked his way up the river until he came nearly
opposite Ca-neck, and then swam across to the south side again. As he
was dodging from tree to tree, as was the way of these wild Indians,
he came up to the large fir tree. The brother that was in the hollow
of the tree made a quick grab and caught him with a firm hold, and as
he was wrestling with him the other brother came to his assistance
and together they held and tied him fast to the fir tree. This Indian
was painted all black with some kind of a mixture of pitch and other
ingredients. He begged to be let loose and offered to give them half
he had, also if they had any enemies to tell him and he would cause
them to become sick and die. This Indian had the ac-gure sack which he
carried under his arm but refused to give it to them, telling them that
they would soon die as they did not know how to handle it, and he would
sooner die himself than tell them how to handle it. So the two brothers
left him tied to the tree after trying to persuade him to give them the
sack, and in the morning they went home, thinking that their folk might
become alarmed at their long absence. Upon their arrival they told
what they had done, and after eating they went back to the Indian and
began another bargain with him. At this he agreed to give them all the
wealth he had if they would let him go, but he still refused to give up
the ac-gure sack, as it contained poison, and a charm which they could
never use unless he told them how, and this he would never do. So they
finally agreed to take his wealth and let him go, so he led them to his
home which was west and south to a place on Redwood Creek, where there
was a cave in a clump of large rocks, some twenty-five miles from their
home. When they went into this cave-house they found that he had great
wealth stored there, and they took it all home, leaving him there with
his ac-gure to gather up more wealth with, and he was never seen again.
The Klamath Indians never kill these Wild Indians, but in many cases
where they had caught them, they most always found that they were rich
by robbing graves of wealthy people, and that they always had the
ac-gure. The wealth that these two Mo-reck Indians received from this
Wild Indian made the Mo-reck village so rich that it never afterwards
had to ask help from any one to carry their part through any of the
great festivals. These Wild Indians are evidently a former part of our
own cast-off people and of late years have entirely disappeared and the
Indians are wondering what has become of them. Some think they have
gone back into the tribe in other places or went out and mixed with the
present white people so as not to be known by them.