The Discards Part 2

If the "incompetent" Indian has it tough in this life where he is so well cared (?) for by the Bureau, can his condition be imagined in the Happy Beyond?--a land void of both Injun Agents and fleas.

An interesting, though pathetic scene was enacted in the Superior Court in Yakima recently. Sahpamequick t.w.a.tentush, a young Indian was on trial for his life for killing Sheowit a "bad" medicine man who had cast a death spell over his infant boy. Advised by two medicine women, who had been summoned to treat the child, that they could render no aid unless the man remove his evil spell, the distressed father rode twenty miles horseback to entreat Sheowit to come to the rescue. The medicine man refused, and according to the testimony of an eye witness, and that of the accused himself, he mocked at the sorrow of the father, stating that he had sent an evil spirit into his child's body and that it would die.

He angrily exclaimed: "I am a strong man! I want to kill somebody all the time! I have killed your child and I will kill you!" With this he drew a hatchet from beneath his blanket and made an attempt to strike the young man; who dodged and backed away. The enraged medicine man followed him, striking once or twice with the hatchet. It was then that the Indian drew his pistol and killed his a.s.sailant. The medicine man was of bad repute, having killed two or more men. For one of the crimes he had served a term in the penitentiary. During the trial, many interesting points concerning the philosophy of the Yakimas were brought to light. It is needless to say that the sympathy of the public was with the defendant, who sat stoical during the trial in full tribal costume.

It took the jury but ten minutes to bring in a verdict of not guilty.

Barring self defense, the young man in taking the life of Sheowit, had but followed an ancient law of his tribe. It was suggested, by one who attended the trial, that it might serve a good purpose could this unwritten Yakima tamanwit be enforced against some of the quack M. D.s among the whites.

As a side light on the prevailing belief in the powers of the medicine man, the following communication is given.

Mr. L. V. McWhorter, July 10, 1920.

My White Brother:

In G.o.d's will I was to live on this earth for a short time and I am about to lose my nice little son, Senator Leo. He is having awful time talking, repeating the words of the Indian Doctors and this matter nearly set me crazy, and if it was not for my religion I would take my gun and kill the bad Indian Doctors, but my Great G.o.d is on my side and he shall save my little boy's soul, but of course, the body will be buried to rot and decay and that my religion tell me this: Thou shall not kill, and I tried my best to save him, but white man doctor can not cure the boy because the boy had Indian doctor sick to which white man has no belief, but this is true as you understand Indian ways.

Old Man Tom is a bad one. He killed my mother-in-law and one little child for me. I can not do no further to reach a cure for my little dear son. I had Priest there yesterday giving the little boy blessing and extreme unctions so the boy will die holy. The Indian doctors are killing us right and left this day.

This is no lie and I do not know how long the little son live and he will go. He get some times unconscious and this is all my brother.

The sick child died four days later.

The curse of =Shakerism= on the Yakima Reservation is well ill.u.s.trated in the following. A young married woman stricken in confinement, was, for three days and nights "doctored" by one of the "priests", or "preachers"

by noisy incantations and ringing of bells, a.s.sisted by many "helpers".

At the end of that period the poor sufferer was released by death. Think of this and lend your moral and financial aid to the Mission now being established at White Swan.

The Tepee a.s.sociation is a body of its own, entirely distinct and separate from the =Mission= being established on the Yakima Reservation.

The =Tepee= will work in unison with the Mission and kindred organizations for the uplift of the Indian and for a more liberal recognition of his rights. Not only must the coming Indian be prepared by education for a higher plane in life, but the public must also be enlightened to his needs and to the fact that the Indian can =never be= a man until delivered from the unreasonable trammelings of the Indian Bureau. That body must be reformed or dethroned.

NOTE--Will the =Tepee= return to its original declared princ.i.p.al of battling for a better recognition of the rights of its people?; or is it to follow the less rugged trail of mediocre so recently determined on?

The true warrior never shows his heels at the first sound of the enemy guns.

The Tipi Order of America opened a new Council in Tacoma (Tahoma) during the Planting Moon. It started with 30 charter members, many of them identified with the I. O. R. M.

"LET MY PEOPLE GO!" Wa.s.saja.

The Yakima Council of Tipi Order is planning for a big pow-wow and shoot. Buffalo Ben is Chief of the Council's Gun-warriors, and has scored some high marks in clay pigeon shooting. From a humane point of view, it is regrettable that the clay bird is not subst.i.tuted for the living victim in all sports.

What is the TIPI ORDER OF AMERICA?

The American Commercial Bank of Wapato, Wash., is a red hot nail in the oft repeated a.s.sertion that the Indian is void of business qualities.

Humane work for the first time in history, has reached the Yakimas through the efforts of the Yakima County Humane Society. Recently two of its officers attended a round-up of wild range horses at the "Ten Cent Corral" near the Agency where they found some of the animals being "broke" by the usual method of keeping them tethered for three or four days without food or water. It was explained to the Indians that this could not be allowed, that under no circ.u.mstances must an animal be so confined for more than 24 hours. With but one or two exceptions the warning was received kindly, many of the Indians expressing their approbation. The brutality of the branding corral, where the young colts are trampled and maimed, ofttimes killed outright, was also supervised.

This part of the work fell to Mr. Simon Goudy, a half-blood Volunteer Officer. Here there was some friction, and it is said, a delegation of Indians laid complaint before their Superintendent, with what result is not known further than that the Humane Society received no official notice of action by the Agency. Later, in reply to a communication from the society setting forth its desire to promote humane education among the Yakimas, Supt. Carr expressed his unqualified approval and pledged to lend his support to the movement within the resources at his command.

Thus the way is paved and if properly handled, many of the ghastly features of the Yakima roundup will be eliminated.

The Yakima Humane Society has in its ranks two Indian Volunteer Officers helping to enforce humane laws on the Yakima Reservation, and instructing their people in the ways of kindness to animals. The first of their race to enter this field in the northwest, their action is bound to have a salutary influence among their own tribesmen. Look elsewhere for the "savage" than the Yakima.

Mrs. Jennie R. Nichols, of Tacoma, Wash., Field Worker of the American Humane Society, attended the National Parent-Teachers' a.s.sociation at Madison, Wisconsin, during Rose Moon. The result of Mrs. Nichols' ten days effort with that body may be summarized thus: A speech before the a.s.sembly which aroused intense interest. Getting through a resolution placing this great body of 100,000 educators solidly back of humane education. A Board of Managers in this Department of Education, Mrs.

Nichols, chairman. The newly elected President of the a.s.sociation pledged her support of this new Departure, realizing that such education means the elimination of much crime and all around better citizens.h.i.+p.

Mrs. Nichols' accreditation as the most active field humane worker in the United States is borne out by the success of her indefatigable efforts at the great Madison Convention, was loyally supported by Mrs.

C. A. Varney, President of the Was.h.i.+ngton State Parent-Teachers'

a.s.sociation.

Since Indian children are more in attendance at our public schools each succeeding year, this new feature of humane education is bound to have telling effect on the minds of the youth of the First Americans.

Out on a rock crowned desert mountain in the Okanogan country, far from water lies the shriveled form of a coyote with one foot clamped in the rusted jaws of a Government trap. The chain, with its triple flukes anch.o.r.ed to a sage brush, is taut and twisted, attesting the awful strugglings of the animal before death came to its release. Trapped in mid-summer, the agony of that coyote can not be imagined, as day after day pa.s.sed with the scorching rays of a h.e.l.l-sizzling sun beating down upon it. Obviously a war of extermination against certain predatory animals is justifiable, but there is nothing more brutal than the modern methods of trapping. Notwithstanding, we have the amazing spectacle of Dr. William T. Hornaday, naturalist, advocating that this brutalizing pursuit be taken up by the Boy Scouts; and the suggestion is sanctioned by the executive board of that fine organization. G.o.d created man and all kinds of animal life, but he did not create the steel trap.

The catch of salmon at Top-tut, now known as Prosser, on the Yakima river this year was unusually heavy. Under the Treaty of 1855, it would appear that the right to take fish at this, their ancient fis.h.i.+ng grounds, is a.s.sured the Indians, but a State law interferes and the authorities tacitly permitted the Yakimas a certain number of days in which to catch and cure a winter's supply of this, their favorite food.

The fish is both dried and salted. It is hoped that the next legislature will restore to the Yakimas their right to fish at Top-tut, built especially for them in the beginning by Speelyi.

The State Federation of Women's Clubs, meeting in convention at Wenatchee, Wash., June 1920, unanimously pa.s.sed resolutions requesting the coming legislature to enact some measure which will permit the Yakimas to take fish hereafter unmolested at Top-tut during the salmon season.

Pursuant to a recent ordinance pa.s.sed by the City Commission of Yakima, no dog is to bark, no cow to moo nor rooster to crow within the corporate limits after night fall, under penalty of a fine not to exceed $100 with possible imprisonment. The next sane move is to enact a tamanawit against the cooing of babies and the early carol of robin red breast. The dulcet yodel of the tom cat, the musical purr of the open m.u.f.fler and the rhythmical chime of the flat car wheel is symphony plenty a-nuff for the city denizens.

ONE WAY OF LOOKING AT IT

Help on the Yakima Reservation has been extremely scarce during the harvest season this year. A rancher came to Wapato and entering a pool room saw two young Indians taking life easy. He accosted them, enquiring if they wanted work, offering them substantial wages if they would help him a few days. The Indians exchanged glances and one of them spoke: "No! you white people came here, we did not want you. You made all this work, all this trouble. You can do the work yourselves; it is your business."

"=Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.=" (Matthew 25-40.)