Wollawollah, Wollaw-Wollah. A tribe formerly occupying the country
about the lower portion of the river of the same name and along the
east bank of the Columbia from Snake river down nearly to the Umatilla,
in Washington and Oregon. They take their name from the river, the
word being said to refer to “rushing water.” Their language is said to
resemble closely that of the Nez Percés. By the treaty of 1855 they
agreed to go on Umatilla reservation, Oregon, where, in 1892, they were
reported to number 474.
A small band of the same tribe, known to the Yakima as Walu′la-pûm,
formerly lived on the west bank of the Columbia opposite the present
Wallula. Their dialect is said to have been more akin to the Pä′lus
language.
+Sahaptin+ or +Nez Percés+ (Shahaptian stock).—_Synonyms_: Chohoptins,
Chopunnish (Lewis and Clark), Copunnish, Laaptin (misprint),
Â′dal-k̔ato′igo, “people with hair cut across the forehead” (Kiowa
name), Shi′wanĭsh (Tenino name, applied also to the Cayuse),
Wa′pamĕtănt (Yakima name for the language). The Nez Percés are said
to call themselves Sahaptin, and were named Nez Percés, or “pierced
noses,” by the French from their former custom of wearing nose
pendants. They are the most important tribe of the Shahaptian stock,
and formerly occupied a large territory in eastern Washington and
Oregon and central Idaho, bounded on the east by the main divide of
the Bitterroot mountains, and including lower Grande Ronde and Salmon
rivers, with a large part of the Snake and all of the Clearwater.
The Wallowa valley, the disputed title to which led to the Nez Percé
war, lies on a branch of the Grande Ronde, in Oregon. They had the
Salishan tribes to the northeast, the Shoshonean tribes to the south,
and the Cayuse, Wallawalla, and Pälus, with all of whom they are much
intermarried, on the west and northwest. Almost all authorities give
them a high character for bravery, intelligence, and honorable conduct
traits which were strikingly displayed in the Nez Percé war.
Lewis and Clark traversed their country in 1805, and speak of them
and some connected tribes under the name of Chopunnish, distinguished
as follows: Chopunnish nation (about the present Lapwai reservation),
Pelloatpallah band (the Pälus), Kimooenim band (on Snake river, between
the Salmon and the Clearwater), Yeletpo band (the Cayuse), Willewah
band (in Wallowa valley, afterward Joseph’s band), Soyennom band (on
the north side of the upper Clearwater, in Idaho; these were really a
part of the Pälus—the proper form is Tätqu′nma, whence Thatuna hills,
referring to “a fawn” in the Pälus language, and was the name applied
to their kamas ground about Camass creek), Chopunnish of Lewis river
(on Snake river, below the Clearwater). In response to a request from
the Nez Percés, who sent a delegation all the way to Saint Louis for
that purpose in 1832, the first Protestant mission was established
among them at Lapwai, Idaho, in 1837. Soon afterward they entered into
relations with the government, and made their first treaty with the
United States in 1855. By this treaty they ceded the greater portion of
their territory, and were confirmed in the possession of a reservation
including Wallowa valley. On the discovery of gold in the country,
however, the miners rushed in, and in consequence a new treaty was made
in 1863, by which they gave up all but the present Lapwai reservation
in Idaho. Joseph, who occupied Wallowa valley with his band, refused
to recognize this treaty or remove to Lapwai. This refusal finally led
to the Nez Percé war in 1877, as already related. The main body of the
tribe took no part in the war. After the surrender of Joseph his band
was removed to Indian Territory, where the mortality among them was so
great that in 1884 they were returned to the northwest. For several
reasons, however, it was deemed unadvisable to settle them in the
neighborhood of their old home, and a place was finally found for them
in 1887 on Colville reservation in northern Washington. In 1892 there
were 1,828 on Lapwai reservation and 138 on Colville reservation, a
total population of 1,966.
+Chapter VIII+
THE SHAKERS OF PUGET SOUND
My breath was out and I died. All at once I saw a great shining
light. Angels told me to look back. I did, and saw my own body
lying dead. It had no soul. My soul left my body and went up to the
judgment place of God.... My soul was told that I must come back
and live on earth. When I came back, I told my friends, “There is a
God. My good friends, be Christians. If you all try hard and help
me, we shall be better men on earth.”—_John Slocum._
In 1881 there originated among the tribes of Puget sound in Washington
a new religion, which, although apparently not founded on any doctrinal
prophecy, yet deserves special attention for the prominent part which
hypnotism holds in its ceremonial. Indeed, there is good reason to
believe that the Paiute messiah himself, and through him all the
apostles of the Ghost dance, have obtained their knowledge of hypnotic
secrets from the “Shakers” of Puget sound.
[Illustration: +Fig. 67+—John Slocum and Louis Yowaluch.]
The founder of the religion is Squ-sacht-un, known, to the whites as
John Slocum. He is now (1896) about 58 years of age. His chief high
priest is Louis Yowaluch, or Ai-yäl as he is called by the Yakima.
Both are of the Squaxin tribe. In 1881 (Eells makes it 1882) he “died”
or fell into a trance one morning about daylight and remained in
that condition until the middle of the afternoon, when he awoke and
announced that he had been to heaven, but had been met at the entrance
by angels, who forbade him to enter on account of his wickedness, and
gave him his choice either to go to hell or return to earth and teach
his people what they must do to get to heaven. Accordingly, he came
back to earth and began his divinely appointed mission, introducing
into the new doctrine and ritual a great deal of what he had learned
from the white missionaries. From the nervous twitchings which so
peculiarly distinguished them, his followers soon became known as
“Shakers.” Although strongly opposed by the agent, who arrested and
imprisoned the leaders and visited various minor penalties on their
followers, the Shaker religion grew and flourished until it now has a
regular organization with several houses of worship, and has received
the official indorsement of the Presbyterian church.
The following account of the system, in response to a letter of
inquiry, was obtained from the missionary, Reverend Myron Eells,
brother of the agent:
A curious phase of religion sprang up in the fall of 1882 among
some of the Indians on the southern part of Puget sound. It has
prevailed mainly among the Squaxon, Nisqually, Skokomish, and
Chehalis Indians, and has been called by its opponents the “Shake
religion,” and its followers have been called “Shakers” on account
of a large amount of nervous shaking which is a part of the form
of its observance. It is evidently based upon about the same
principles of the mind as the jerks and shouting at camp meetings
among the whites of the southern and western states fifty years
ago, when they were more ignorant and less acquainted with real
religion than they are now. When superstition, ignorance, dreams,
imagination, and religion are all mingled together, either among
whites, Indians, or people of any other race, they produce a
strange compound. It has proven so in this case.
In the fall of 1882 an Indian named John Slocum, who was living on
Skookum bay, in Mason county, apparently died. Some years previous
he had lived on the Skokomish reservation, where he had attended
a Protestant church, and had learned something of the white man’s
religion, God, Jesus Christ, and the morals inculcated. He had
also learned something in his early life of the Catholic religion
and its forms and ceremonies. Many Indians were present when he
was sick and apparently died. They said his neck was broken, and
that he remained dead for about six hours, when he returned to
life, jumped up, and ran off a short distance, and soon began to
converse with the people. Whether or not it was a case of suspended
animation is a question. A white man, a near neighbor of his, who
saw him before his apparent death, while he thus lay, and after his
resuscitation, said he believed the Indian was “playing possum.”
But the Indians believed that he really died and rose again.
The Indian stated that he died and attempted to go to heaven, but
could not enter it because he was so wicked. He was there told,
however, the way of life, and that he must return to this earth and
teach his people the way, and induce them to become Christians. He
gained a small band of followers, a church was built for him, and
he steadily preached to the people.
Affairs went on this way until the next August. Then, after
consultation with other Indians who favored him, especially on the
Skokomish reservation, it was decided to hold a big meeting. The
Indians of the surrounding region were called to go. They were told
that they would be lost if they did not; that four women would be
turned into angels; that persons would die and be raised to life
again, and that other wonderful things would be done.
Many went, about half of those on the Skokomish reservation being
among the number, and they did hold a big meeting. Women did go
around trying to fly like angels; four persons are said to have
died, and, with the power which was said to have been given them
from above, others were said to have brought them back to life
again. This was a mixture of trying to perform miracles, as in
Bible times, to prove the divinity of their religion, and some
of the ceremonies of their old black _tomahnous_. This was a
secret society of their savage days, in which persons went into a
hypnotic condition, in which they became very rigid, and out of
which they came in the course of time. The followers of this new
religion dreamed dreams, saw visions, went through some disgusting
ceremonies a la mode the black _tomahnous_, and were taken with
a kind of shaking. With their arms at full length, their hands
and arms would shake so fast that a common person not under the
excitement could hardly shake half as fast. Gazing into the
heavens, their heads would also shake very fast, sometimes for a
few minutes and sometimes for hours, or half the night. They would
also brush each other with their hands, as they said, to brush off
their sins, for they said they were much worse than white people,
the latter being bad only in their hearts, while the Indians were
so bad that the badness came to the surface of their bodies and the
ends of their finger nails, so that it could be picked off. They
sometimes brushed each other lightly, and sometimes so roughly that
the person brushed was made black for a week, or even sick.
In connection with this they held church services, prayed to God,
believed in Christ as a savior, said much about his death, and used
the cross, their services being a combination of Protestant and
Catholic services, though at first they almost totally rejected the
Bible, for they said they had direct revelations from Christ, and
were more fortunate than the whites, who had an old, antiquated
book.
After having kept up this meeting for about a week, they disbanded
and went to their homes, but did not stop their shaking or
services. They sometimes held meetings from 6 oclock in the evening
until about midnight, lighting candles and putting them on their
heads for a long time. They became very peculiar about making the
sign of the cross many times a day, when they began to eat as they
asked a blessing, and when they finished their meal and returned
thanks; when they shook hands with anyone—and they shook hands
very often—when they went to church and prayer meeting on Thursday
evening, and at many other times, far more often than the Catholics
do.
On the Skokomish reservation their indiscretions caused the death
of a mother and her child, and an additional loss of time and
property to the amount of $600 or $800 in a few weeks. It also
became a serious question whether the constant shaking of their
heads would not make some of them crazy, and from symptoms and
indications it was the opinion of the agency physician, J. T.
Martin, that it would do so. Accordingly, on the reservation the
authority of the agent was brought to bear, and to a great extent
the shaking was stopped, though they were encouraged to keep on
in the practice of some good habits which they had begun, of
ceasing gambling, intemperance, their old style incantations over
the sick, and the like. Some at first said they could not stop
shaking, but that at their prayer meetings and church services on
the Sabbath their hands and heads would continue to shake in spite
of themselves; but after a short time, when the excitement had died
away, they found that they could stop.
But about Skookum bay, Mud bay, and Squaxon the shaking continued,
and it spread to the Nisqually and Chehalis Indians. It seemed
to be as catching, to use the expression of the Indians, as the
measles. Many who at first ridiculed it and fought against it,
and invoked the aid of the agent to stop it, were drawn into it
after a little, and then they became its strong upholders. This
was especially true of the medicine-men, or Indian doctors, and
those who had the strongest faith in them. The Shakers declared
that all the old Indian religion, and especially the cure of the
sick by the medicine-men, was from the devil, and they would have
nothing to do with it, those who at first originated and propagated
it having been among the more intelligent and progressive of the
uneducated Indians. Very few of those who had learned to read and
had been in Sabbath school for a considerable length of time were
drawn into it. It was the class between the most educated and the
most superstitious who at first upheld it. They seemed to know
too much to continue in the old-style religious ceremonies, but
not to know enough and to be too superstitious to fully believe
the Bible. Consequently, the medicine-men were at first bitterly
opposed to it. About this time, however, an order came from the
Indian department to stop all medicine-men from practicing their
incantations over the sick. As a respectable number of the Indians
had declared against the old style of curing the sick, it seemed
to be a good time to enforce this order, as there was sufficient
popular opinion in connection with the authority of the agent
to enforce it. This was done, and then the medicine-men almost
entirely joined the Shakers, as their style was more nearly in
accordance with the old style than with the religion of the Bible.
As it spread, one Indian went so far as to declare himself to be
Christ again come to earth, and rode through the streets of Olympia
at the head of several scores of his followers with his hands
outstretched as Christ was when he was crucified. But he was so
ridiculed by other Indians and by the whites that he gave up this
idea and simply declared himself to be a prophet who had received
revelations from heaven.
For several years there has been very little of the shaking or this
mode of worship among the Indians on the reservation, excepting
secretly when persons were sick. Still, their native superstition
and their intercourse with those off the reservation, who sometimes
hold a special gathering and meeting when their followers grow cold
and careless, has kept the belief in it as a religion firm in their
hearts, so that lately, since they have become citizens, and are
hence more free from the authority of the agent, the practice of it
has become more common, especially when persons are sick.
In fact, while it is a religion for use at all times, yet it is
practiced especially over the sick, and in this way takes the
place of the medicine-men and their methods. Unlike the system
of the medicine-men, it has no single performer. Though often
they select for leader one who can pray the best, yet in his
absence another may take the lead. Like the old system, it has
much noise. Especially do they use bells, which are rung over the
person where the sickness is supposed to be. The others present
use their influence to help in curing the sick one, and so imitate
the attendants on an Indian doctor, getting down upon their knees
on the floor and holding up their hands, with a candle in each
hand, sometimes for an hour. They believe that by so holding up
their hands the man who is ringing the bell will get the sickness
out more easily than he otherwise would. They use candles both
when they attempt to cure the sick and in their general service,
eschewing lamps for fear of being easily tempted, as they believe
coal-oil lights to be from Satan.
In another point also this resembles very closely their old
religion. For a long time before a person is taken sick they
foretell that his spirit is gone to heaven and profess to be able
to bring it back and restore it to him, so that he will not die
as soon as he otherwise would. This was also a part of the old
_tomahnous_ belief.
They have also prophesied very much. Several times when a person
has died they have told me that someone had foretold this event,
but they have never told me this until after the event happened,
except in one case. They have prophesied much in regard to the end
of the world and the day of judgment. Generally, the time set has
been on a Fourth of July, and many have been frightened as the
time drew near, but, alas, in every instance the prophecy failed.
Like Christians, they believe in a Supreme Being, in prayer,
the sabbath, in heaven and hell, in man as a sinner, and Christ
as a savior, and the system led its followers to stop drinking,
gambling, betting, horse racing, the use of tobacco, and the
old-style incantations over the sick. Of late years, however, some
of them have fallen from grace.
It has been a somewhat strange freak of human nature, a
combination of morals and immorals, of Protestantism, Catholicism,
and old Indian practices, of dreams and visions—a study in
mental philosophy, showing what the mind may do under certain
circumstances. Yet it is all easily accounted for. These Indians
have mingled with the whites for a long time, nearly ever since
most of them were small. All classes of whites have made sport of
their religion—the infidel, the profane man, the immoral one, the
moral one, and the Christian—and they have been told that God and
the Bible were against it, consequently they lost faith in it. But
the Indian must have some religion. He can not do without one. They
were not ready to accept the Bible in all its purity. They wanted
more excitement. Like the Dakota Indians more recently, they saw
that Christ was the great center of the most powerful religion of
the most powerful, intelligent, successful, and wisest nations with
whom they came in contact. Consequently they formulated a system
for themselves that would fill all their required conditions, and
when a few leaders had originated it, a large share of the rest
were ripe to accept it, but having had more Christian teaching
than the wild Dakotas, it took a somewhat different form, with no
thought of war and with more of real Christianity.
James Wickersham, esquire, of Tacoma, Washington, the well-known
historian of that region, is the regular attorney for these people as
a religious organization, and is consequently in a position to speak
with authority concerning them. In reply to a letter of inquiry, he
states that the Shakers believe in an actual localized heaven and hell,
and reverence the Bible, but regard John Slocum’s revelations as of
more authority. “They practice the strictest morality, sobriety, and
honesty. Their 500 or 600 members are models, and it is beyond question
that they do not drink whisky, gamble, or race, and are more free
from vice than any other church. They practice a mixture of Catholic,
Presbyterian, and old Indian ceremonies, and allow only Indians in the
church. They have five churches, built by themselves, and the sect is
growing quite rapidly.” From all this it would appear that the Shaker
religion is a distinct advance as compared with the old Indian system.
Under date of December 5, 1892, Mr Wickersham wrote again on this
subject, as follows:
I read your letter to my Indian friends, and they beg me to
write you and explain that they are not Ghost dancers, and have
no sympathy with that ceremony or any other founded on the
Dreamer religion. That they believe in heaven as do the orthodox
Christians; also in Christ, and God, the Father of all; that they
believe in future rewards and punishments, but not in the Bible
particularly. They do believe in it as a history, but they do not
value it as a book of revelation. They do not need it, for John
Slocum personally came back from a conference with the angels at
the gates of heaven, and has imparted to them the actual facts and
the angelic words of the means of salvation.
This testimony is even better than the words of Christ contained
in the Bible, for John Slocum comes 1800 years nearer; he is an
Indian, and personally appears to them and in Indian language
reports the facts. These people believe Slocum as firmly as the
martyr at the stake believed in that for which he offered up his
life; but it is the Christian religion which they believe, and not
the Ghost dance or Dreamer religion.
In short, they have a mixture of Catholic, Protestant, and Indian
ceremonies, with a thorough belief in John Slocum’s personal visit
to heaven, and his return with a mission to save the Indians and
so guide them that they, too, shall reach the realms of bliss.
Personally, I think they are honest, but mistaken; but the belief
certainly has beneficial effect, and has reduced drinking and crime
to a minimum among the members of the “Shaker” or “Tschaddam”
church.
In conclusion, permit me to say that the general assembly of the
Presbyterian church in this state has several times examined into
the religion and character of the Shaker or Slocum church, and
has highly indorsed its people and their character and actions.
Yowaluch is their head now, and the strongest man mentally among
them.
Some months later Mr Wickersham forwarded a circumstantial and
carefully written statement of the history and present condition of the
movement. In accordance with his request, we publish it as written,
omitting only some paragraphs which do not bear directly on the general
subject. It may be considered as an official statement of the Shaker
case by their legally constituted representative. As might have been
expected, he takes direct issue with those who have opposed the new
religion. The reader will note the recurrence of the Indian sacred
number, four, in Slocum’s speech, as also the fact that his first
trance was the culmination of a serious illness.
_Tschaddam or Shaker religion_
“On Christmas day, 1854, a treaty was signed at the mouth of Shenahnam
or Medicine creek, on the south side of Puget sound, Washington,
between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and ex officio superintendent of
Indian affairs for the United States, and the chief and headmen of the
Nisqually, Puyallup, and other small tribes of Indians residing around
the south shores of Puget sound.”
“One of these small tribes was the Squaxin, situated on the
southwestern branch or arm of Puget sound, now known as Little Skookum
bay, in Mason county, Washington, near Olympia. The remaining members
of this tribe yet live on the old home places, having purchased small
tracts of their old hunting grounds from the first settlers; and they
now make a living by fishing and gathering oysters as in days of old.
Of the fishy tribe of Squaxin was born John Slocum, as he is known to
the ‘Boston man,’ but to his native friends he is known as Squ-sacht-un.”
“John Slocum, Squ-sacht-un, is now (1893) about 51 years of age,
about 5 feet 8 inches high, and weighs about 160 pounds; rather stoop
shouldered, with a scattering beard, a shock of long black hair, a
flat head (fashionably flat, and produced by pressure while a baby),
bright eyes, but in all rather a common expression of countenance.
He is modest and rather retiring, but has unquestioned confidence in
himself and his mission. He is married, and up to the time of his
translation was looked on as a common Indian, with a slight inclination
to fire-water and pony racing, as well as a known fondness for Indian
gambling.”