...Bit Flesh from Arm to Bring Chinook... [5/11/1912]

[David Robertson]

Warning:  Contains biased language.

[khapa Spokane, Washington _Spokesman-Review_, qwInEm mun, taXEm pi ixt
san, 1912 khul; page 11, column 1]

IN IRRIGATION BELT
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
INDIAN PRINCESS KILLED BY CAYUSE
--------------------------------
Impressive Funeral Service Is Held Near Ellensburg by Reservation Reds.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TAKE HER BODY OVER TRAIL
------------------------
Old Medicine Man, Who Bit Flesh From Arm to Bring Chinook, Presides at
Ceremony.
---------

ELLENSBURG, Wash., May 4.--With the most impressive funeral service held
by Kittitas valley Indians since the burial of old Chief Toby the body of
Princess Laura Enia-aich-ick was laid to rest on the the [sic] old Nason
ranch yesterday.  Practically every Indian in Kittitas county was in
attendance, and when "Doctor" Snow-T-Jacks, the medicine man of the tribe,
read the services over Princess Laura's body, every head was bared and
squaws cried aloud.  Princess Laura, the most popular girl of the
remaining few of the Kittitas tribe, was killed on the Yakima reservation
while endeavoring to ride an outlaw pony, which reservation bucks could
not handle.  The animal reared and fell backward, crushing the girl....

MEDICINE MAN READS SERVICE

"Doctor" Snow-T-Jacks, now old, blind and feeble, who read the services
over Princess Laura's body, has been the chief medicine man of the Yakima
tribe for nearly half a century.

Matt Bartholet, one of the pioneers of the valley, when told of the
funeral, recalled an incident, in the early days, relative to the medicine
man.  The winter of 1880-81, the severest since the coming of the white
man, caused suffering among the Indians, and cattle and horses perished by
thousands.  In January of '81, following a heavy snowfall, came a thaw,
which crusted the snow with ice, so that the cattle's legs were raw and
bleeding from the knees down, while their muzzles wre torn and bruised
from their attempts to seek grass under the covering of ice.

The Kittitas Indians were in camp in the lower valley, near the present
city of North Yakima [Dave's note:  Now known as Yakima], and many prayers
were offered to the great spirit for the chinook wind.  Finally the chief
of the tribe, desperate with hunger, commanded the medicine man,
Snow-T-Jacks, to bring the chinook.

BITES FLESH FROM ARM.

The doctor ordered a pow-wow and for 11 days the Indians danced and prayed
for the wind that meant relief.  Each day the doctor would leave the big
teepee and stand for hours watching the sky to the southward, until the
eleventh day of the dance, when the cold was still unabated.  Calling to
the Indians he bared his breast and arms, and grasping his left wrist in
his right hand deliberately drew his arm to this mouth, bit out a great,
bleeding mouthful of flesh, squeezed the bleeding flesh in his left hand,
***allowing the blood to trickle on the snow, and said, "Skookum chinook
***ich tenas sun" (warm wind early tomorrow).  True to his prediction the
chinook wind started to blow the next day [and] the winter was broken.
Although the arm is stiff and a jagged scar shows on it the old man was
able to lift them to the skies to invoke the blessing of the great spirit
at Laura's funeral yesterday....

...Prominent among the Indians present yesterday were...Cecelia Sam and
her tillicum...

[Note:  I've added some emphasis and left out some parts of this account.
Also I've made the Chinook Jargon words more readable than they are in the
original.

[The spelling <ich> is somewhat interesting; I wonder whether it reflects
an awareness of "Indian" pronunciation of Chinook Jargon.  Compare the
very frequent use of <ikt> by non-Indians.

[Perhaps Matt Bartholet is attempting to quote an account told to him by
an indigenous eyewitness. -- Dave]




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