CO = GE = WE = A The Half - Blood A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range By HUM-ISHU-MA “Mourning Dove” Author of “The Okanogan Sweat House” Honorary Member, Eastern Washington State Historical Society Life Member, Washington State Historical Society Given through SHO-POW-TAN With Notes and Biographical Sketch By LUCULLUS VIRGIL MCWHORTER Author of “The Crime Against the Yakimas,” “Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia,” “The Discards,” etc. Based on the original in the library at the University of Idaho Originally published in Boston by The Four Seas Company Publishers Copyright, 1927, by The Four Seas Company (for Hum-ishu-ma) Copyright registered in December 1927, no record of renewal found The Four Seas Press Boston, Mass., U.S.A. TO THE MEMORY OF MY GREAT GRAND FATHER, SEE-WHELH-KEN, K VENERATED CHIEF OF THE SCHU-AYLP ; THE SONG OF WHOSE GOOD DEEDS WILL FOREVER MINGLE WITH THE MIGHTY ROAR OF THE FALLS K OF SWA-NET -QAH AND THE MOURNFUL SOUGHING OF THE MOUNTAIN PINE: EARTH’S PRIMITIVE NOBLEMAN WHO, IN PEACE WELCOMED THE COMING OF THE PALE FACE, ONLY TO WITNESS THE SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION SCATTERED WIDE AMONG HIS OWN ONCE STRONG AND CONTENTED PEOPLE. TO HIM AND TO THE CROWDED DEATH HUTS AND BURIAL CAIRNS OF A NATION IS THIS VOLUME MOST ENDEARINGLY DEDICATED BY ONE WHO EVER YEARNS FOR THE UPLIFTING OF HER MOST UNHAPPY RACE. 2 CONTENTS CHAPTER I COGEWEA, THE HALF-BLOOD .................................... 9 II THE ROUNDUP AT HORSESHOE BEND ....................... 15 III A RANGE IDYL ......................................................... 27 IV COGEWEA HIRES THE TENDERFOOT ......................... 34 V THE TENDERFOOT’S BRONCHO RIDING ..................... 43 VI THE FOURTH OF JULY............................................... 52 VII THE “LADIES” AND THE “SQUAW” RACES ................ 59 VIII THE INDIAN DANCERS .............................................. 69 IX UNDER THE WHISPERING PINES ................................ 77 X LO! THE POOR “BREED” ........................................... 86 XI AT THE TEPEE FIRESIDE ........................................... 96 XII ON BUFFALO BUTTE ............................................... 106 XIII A VISIT TO THE STEMTEEMA’S TEPEE ..................... 116 XIV THE DEAD MAN’S VISION ....................................... 124 XV THE SUPERIOR RACE .............................................. 132 XVI ON THE OLD BUFFALO GROUNDS ........................... 141 XVII FRENCHY, TOY OF THE COWBOYS .......................... 156 XVIII SWA-LAH-KIN: THE FROG-WOMAN ........................ 162 XIX THE STORY OF GREEN-BLANKET FEET.................... 172 XX A TRAGEDY OF THE RANGE .................................... 186 XXI A “GEEZAR” IN CAMP............................................. 194 XXII BACK TO THE RANCH ............................................. 202 XXIII THE BASKET SOCIAL .............................................. 215 XXIV THE SECOND COMING OF THE SHOYAHPEE ............. 228 XXV VOICE OF THE AUTUMN LEAVES ............................ 240 XXVI STEMTEEMA CONSULTS THE SWEAT HOUSE ........... 249 XXVII THE FORKED TONGUE OF THE SHOYAHPEE ............. 260 XXVIII THE SENTINEL AT THE ROCK .................................. 270 XXIX STEMTEEMA’S DREAM OF THE SOMA-ASH-HEE ...... 283 XXX THE COST OF KNOWING ......................................... 292 XXXI A VOICE FROM THE BUFFALO SKULL ...................... 298 3 TO THE READER The author of Cogewea occupies an unique sphere in the liter- ary field. So far as the writer of this sketch is aware, she is the first Indian woman to enter the realms of fiction. Believing that the reader would be interested in a brief portrayal of her life and an- cestry, she was at last prevailed upon to let the same here be en- tered. This was not attained without difficulty. Her racial sensi- tiveness shrank from what she termed “unwarranted presumption.” Hum-iśhu-mā: “mourning dove,” was born while her mother and maternal grandmother were crossing the Kootenai River in a canoe near Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, about 1888. Her people at the time were on their way from Fort Steel, British Columbia, travel- ing by pack-horses to the States. She bears a remote strain of good Celtic blood, dating back to the earlier advent of the Hudson Bay Company into the Northwest. This, in a measure, accounts for her deep sympathy so manifest throughout her book for the mixed- blood, the socially ostracized of two races. Mourning Dove is a maternal great granddaughter of See- whelh-ken, head Chief of the Schu-ayl-pk, or Schwelpi; Schoyelpi—spelled in various ways—now embodied with the Col- villes, including the Okanogans proper. She is identified with the latter tribe, whose language she speaks. See-whelh-ken’s tribe resided at the Swa-netk-qha: “big river falls,” known in history as Les Chaudière, or Kettle Falls, of the Columbia River. The Okanogan appellation, however, applied to the stream in its entirety, so famed in legendary lore. These Falls have ever been renowned for their great fishery, and the Schu-ayl- pk were generally blessed with an abundance of salmon. The Chief was noted for his generous distribution of fish to the less fortunate bands and tribes remotely situated. Regarding the fishery as a di- rect provision of a benign Spirit-ruler, he deigned not, at any time, 4 to accept compensation for the food. The beautiful sentiment of ceremonial gift-exchange so universal among all the tribes, should not be confounded with sordid commercial barter. To this day the older Indians—even to the distant surrounding tribesmen—speak of the great See-whelh-ken, of the “big heart,” so strong is the memory of he who, in other snows drove famine from the door. Tall, well proportioned with strong pleasing features, he ruled with a firm, though just hand. Stressed on communistic ideals, his every action was governed by magnanimous wisdom. Descended from an ancient line of warrior-chieftains, See- whelh-ken saw the advent of the white man into his domain, and was ever that alien’s most steadfast friend. It was owing greatly, if not wholly to his influence that his own, and neighboring tribes maintained friendly relations with the strange intruders. The rapid decimation in the ranks of See-whelh-ken’s once virile following, is ghastly testimony of the recompense that was meted to him. Of happy childhood, Mourning Dove recalls none. At the age of seven she was placed in the Sacred Heart Convent at Ward, Washington, but the following year was brought home to aid in the care of her small brothers and sisters, all younger than herself. When thirteen she was returned to the convent, but her mother dy- ing within the twelve months, was recalled to take charge of the bereaved home. For the next three years she was a mother to the four little ones. At last there came a period of exhilarating life with her mater- nal grandmother, Soma-how-atqu. Under the tutelage of this ven- erable parent, the girl’s impressionable mind became inoculated with the principles of ancestral philosophy. In the fishing village by the streams; in the hill and mountain camps where the women digged and cured the various edible roots; where they harvested and dried the wild berries; gathering basket-weaving materials 5 within the deep forests; did she acquire a lasting knowledge of the customs of her tribe. She learned the magic, invigorating virtue of the native foods, and the religious significance of the Song of the Mountain Herb. She was made to understand, and to believe in the mysterious and sacred power of the sweat-house, as a cleanswer for both body and mind. Mourning Dove took long horseback rides into remote sections of the neighboring mountains, bivouacking alone and wherever overtaken by night. Fond of hunting—but not in the sense of sport—a good shot and wholly self-reliant, these excursions through wilderness mazes grew with the years. This wild girl was endowed with a primitive sense of security not born to her civilized-reared sister. A daring and graceful rider, she often fig- ured in the dashing relay, and “squaw” races, and other equestrian sports peculiar to the Western range. In 1908, Mourning Dove became more closely connected with the cattle range. She witnessed the last grand roundup of buffaloes on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana; when the famous Pablo herd was disposed of to the Canadian Government. She saw the scattering of this remnant of the plains monarch, and the reser- vation thrown open to settlement. Her sympathies were with the buffaloes—the one remaining link with an era forever past. The animals fought desperately before at last driven from their native haunts. Some burst from the railway cars in the process of load- ing; one being dashed to the ground with a broken neck. This scene brought tears to the eyes of some of the aged Indian bystand- ers, a race renowned for unemotional stoicism. A sensate longing by Mourning Dove for an education was never realized. Her people, as an integral, contended that her con- vent schooling, where she reached the third grade, would suffice for all practical purposes. But from seventeen to twenty-one, 6 through her own efforts, she attended Government Indian schools. During this time she was acting matron for sixty to seventy girls. Although this service occupied half of her time, barring her from study, it carried with it no salary—no compensation whatever— apparently a feature of Departmental economy. While strict with her charges, the young matron was markedly kind. Loved by them all, they confided to her their many little troubles and childish grievances. Zealous of duty and responsibility, she had no hesi- tancy in crossing swords with her superiors for what she deemed to be justly right. The winter of 1912-13 found Mourning Dove enrolled in a Calgary, British Columbia, business college. English, and typing were her principal studies. The humiliation from wanton contu- mely because of her Indian blood, were multitudinous, but, using her own phraseology, she “stuck” through the term, not missing a class. Mourning Dove is endeared to her people. A warm personal- ity, and sound judgment has enabled her—despite her tinge of Caucasian blood—to render signal and telling service to the de- pendent tribesmen.