Puzzling over some CJ quotations re Qualchan, Owhi, Kanasket

[Jeffrey Kopp]

I've run across this incident before, although my knowledge of history
remains shaky. What I'd read  a couple other places is closely followed by
Lang's translation offered at
<http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~chinook/Innsbruck/2.3.illustrations.htm> (the
first reference I found at the moment).

Records like this were often made sometime after the fact, and therefore
tend be colored by effects of memory and interpretation for the benefit of
the recipient or audience (plus in this case by the varying usage and
understanding of the Jargon across regions and races). However, most
accounts agree the chief was tricked into entering the army camp and
expecting a meeting, but instead was executed immediately upon arrival,
giving him only a surprised moment to blurt a desperate plea for his life.
(Although one reviewer noted, "There are so many versions of the story of
his death it creates mystery.")

Under the circumstances described, the "short story" sounds most plausible
to me. As it is terrifying as well as unflattering (to all involved), it
doesn't impress me as a construction.

Accounts of other wartime executions (and the few actual recordings of
nearly sudden death we have: spacecraft communications, aircraft "black
boxes") show that elaborate threats of retribution or expressions of
philosophical acceptance or defiance require at least some anticipation of
one's fate to compose. It's impossible when facing an immediate, unexpected
demise.

It is a very grisly bit of history, perhaps most illustrative in its stark,
unembellished form.

Regards,

Jeff
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