The Dying Grass, page 152
John W. Redington—A very young (around fifteen), very brave and brash thrill-seeker who departed Salem, Oregon, for Mexico but lost track of his companions en route, so he went to Salt Lake, where he heard of the Nez Perce War, then rushed back to Idaho, serving under Captain Fisher as one of Howard’s scouts. He joined the campaign not long after Big Hole, and continued nearly to the end, serving under Howard in the Bannock War of the following year. His letters and the memoir he wrote, “Scouting in Montana,” are vivid, amusing and quite racist; he showed little sympathy for the Nez Perces. His middle name was “Watermelon.”
James Reuben—A Christian “treaty Nez Perce” who scouted for the cavalry during the war. “Widely disliked.” His original name was Tip-ia-la-na-te-skin (“Eagle Which Speaks All”). His wife Elawitnonmi was Old Joseph’s daughter. At the ambush at Weippe, a rearguard of the retreating Nez Perce wounded him in the arm, after which he was sent back to Lapwai. Following the surrender he went to the Indian Territory to replace Chapman as interpreter, and to teach and proselytize the exiled non-treaties. The Nez Perce might have pronounced his name Tsams Lúpin.
Roaring Eagle—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Tipyahlahmah Elassanin.] One of the warriors who nearly captured the Army’s pack train at Clearwater.
Tom Robinson—He taught me a lot about cameras and printing, and I acknowledge him in several books. Here he appears as a semi-fictional character, on account of his lore concerning Indian negatives at the Oregon Historical Society.
Major George M. Shearer—A leader of volunteers at Mount Idaho during the Nez Perce War. Probable ally of Ad Chapman. The events at Cottonwood made him Perry’s enemy. His rank derived from the Confederate Army. Howard’s communications to him in The Dying Grass are indebted to true originals (see the Source-Notes). His memory of meeting a neighbor’s runaway slave in a Civil War battle is my invention. Near the beginning of the war he brutally crushed in a wounded Indian’s head.
General Phil Sheridan—As Howard would say, an energetic officer. In March 1856, when only a lieutenant, he disembarked his subordinate killers from the steamer Fashion and marched on the Indians at Middle Cascades, conquered at Bradford’s Island, and hanged Old Chenoweth, Tecomoec, Captain Joe, Tsy, Sim Lasselas, Four-Fingered Johnny, Jim, Tumalth and Old Skein. He fought bravely in the Civil War and kept rising. He had supreme command in 1868–69 in the campaign against the Kiowas, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanches and Apaches. In 1877 he commanded the Division of the Missouri [G 2, military divisional organization]. I am impressed by his wrinkled, shadowed cheeks and bitter eyes. He had an angry meager look, a high forehead and low thick brows; he could have been a policeman in some small French town.
General William T. Sherman—In 1877 he was the commanding general of the U.S. Army. A ruthless, racist, angry strategic genius (and a surprisingly gifted writer), he was Howard’s mentor and idol. To Sherman the Indian wars were an inglorious sideshow. He sometimes advocated, although did not put into practice, extermination for such determined enemy tribes as the Sioux. But he said much the same about Secessionists. He frequently spoke of “dispossessing” Southerners, and once wrote: “The whole people of Iowa & Wisconsin should be transported at once to West Kentucky, Tennessee & Mississippi, and a few hundred thousand settlers should be pushed into South Tennessee.” He gloried in the notion of a businessman’s America, and if he lived today might be running some multinational corporation.
Shooting Thunder—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Yettahtapnat Alwum.] The warrior who killed Richard Dietrich. The primary sources give him very little mention, so most of his doings in this novel (and his disappearance) are invented.
Shore Crossing—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Wahlitits.] Also: “Crossing,” or “Springtime River Ice Strong Enough To Be Crossed,” or “Crossing In Spring Along The Ice.” McWhorter calls him “an athlete with the trim faultless form of an Apollo.” The son of Chief Tipyahlanah Siskan [“Eagle Robe”], who gave land to a settler named Larry Ott. When Ott took more land without asking for it, Tipyahlanah Siskan attempted to stop him from plowing it, at which point he killed the chief with his six-shooter. Shore Crossing was accordingly incited (by and with at least two others: Red Moccasin Tops and Swan Necklace) into killing whites in 1877, precipitating the Nez Perce War. He then became one of the Three Red Blankets [G 2]. He fought well at White Bird Canyon and Clearwater, and died at Big Hole.
Dan Sickles—Another one-legged war hero (who truly did donate the amputated part to a museum). He helped pull the strings so that Hayes became President. It would be slander to say that he managed to put his mistress’s boyfriend out of the way.
Sitka Khwan—(Anglicized “Esquimau,” as Wood might have put it. [Exact language unknown].) Conjectural name of Wood’s Alaskan Inuk paramour.
Sitting Bull—(Anglicized Sioux.) Once his proposal for a pan-Indian uprising against the whites was rejected by the Nez Perces, this former enemy nonetheless took them in after Bear’s Paw. His career touches theirs only briefly in this book, which cannot do justice to him. In 1878 a Chicago Times correspondent described him as bow-legged and limping, with a hooked nose and wide jaws.
Captain Joseph Alton Sladen—Howard’s adjutant during the Nez Perce War, who was also with him at Chancellorsville. He had served him closely and bravely during the capture of Cochise. Between then and 1877 he lost a leg after a riding accident. He served Howard in the Bannock War and kept him company until 1885—twenty-two years in all. His Nez Perce adventures in this book are almost entirely fictional, but I wanted to keep him with Howard for as long as possible. He adored his commander, and said of him: “His enthusiastic confidence in the ultimate outcome of his mission, and his ultimate faith in God’s personal providence, made him brush away every obstacle as though it was a cob-web in his path.”
Smohalla—(Wanampum.) [Also, as Howard writes it: “Smohallie.”] An influential practitioner of the Dreamer religion [see G 2], which had much to do with the Ghost Dance (horrifically suppressed at Wounded Knee), this man resisted General Howard’s machinations to put him on a reservation. “He is not a chief . . . but a yantcha, a leader and spiritual adviser.” Howard first met him at Wallula [G 3], and described him thus: “He was the strangest-looking human being I had ever seen. His body was short and shapeless, with high shoulders and hunched back; scarcely any neck; bandy legs, rather long for his body; but a wonderful head, finely formed and large. His eyes, wide open, were clear, and so expressive that they gave him great power over all the Indians that flocked to his village.” Since the Dreamers resisted removal from their nomadic lives, the whites called the roaming bands affiliated with him and certain other shamans the “River Renegades.” Many non-treaty Nez Perces respected him and followed his teachings. He died blind and almost isolated but not defeated.
Sound Of Running Feet—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Whepwhepomni, Hophop Omni or Kapkap Pomni.] The only child of Chief Joseph who survived infancy. She would have been eleven or twelve in 1877. Her mother was Good Woman. After Bear’s Paw she escaped to Canada (where one account calls her Jean-Louise), and eventually returned to Lapwai with her mother. Her father was never allowed to see her again. In 1879 she married a Nez Perce on the reservation named George Moses (he surely must have been Christian) and took the Christian name Sarah.
Captain W. F. Spurgin—Twenty-first Infantry. He commanded a company of engineers who proved especially helpful when pursuing the Nez Perce through the tracklessness of Yellowstone National Park.
Springtime—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Conjectural meaning of “Toma Alwawinmi” or “Tom-ma-al-wa-win-mai.”] “This definition is questioned by a Nez Perce interpreter of considerable ability.” Younger wife of Chief Joseph. Wounded at Big Hole. Unlike Good Woman, she surrendered with Joseph at Bear’s Paw. After her baby girl died in the Indian Territory, she divorced Joseph, and James Reuben renamed her “Magdellenia.”
Stripes Turned In—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Ketalkpoosmin.] A brave warrior who helped capture the howitzer at Big Hole. Killed a few days later by Five Snows in a drunken fight subsequent to the murder of some white packers. His earlier activities at Clearwater are invented.
Strong Eagle—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Tipyahlahnah Kapskaps.] White Bird’s stepson. The last of the Three Red Blankets [G 2] to die. Wounded in the hip when he rescued Red Moccasin Tops’s body. Killed by the Assiniboines after Bear’s Paw.
Colonel Samuel Sturgis—Seventh Cavalry. An unlucky mediocrity, who was slightly older than Howard. He was unsuccessful in both the Civil and Mexican wars. In 1869 he became Custer’s commanding officer in the Seventh. His son died at Little Big Horn. Miles dispatched him to help capture the Nez Perces as they emerged from Yellowstone; the Indians tricked him and escaped. He fought in the Battle of Canyon Creek without success; after that his command was effectively worthless. Staying in service for a brief while after the Nez Perce War, he rose to lieutenant colonel. “Colonel Sturgis displayed energy and determination” during the Nez Perce War. “Perhaps he erred in being overly eager to intercept the Indians.”
Sun Tied—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Weyatanatoo Lapat.] His wife, her midwife (his sister) and the newborn child were all killed by soldiers at Big Hole. In one account, Sun Tied fought back along with White Thunder and others. In another, he spent the day burying his family. His later brief appearances in the novel are inventions.
Swan Necklace—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Um-til-lilp-cown. Also: Weyat-mas Wa-hakt.] One of the first three Salmon River raiders, but not one of the Three Red Blankets [G 2]. Accounts of the first raid vary. He might have been an instigator as I portray him, or he could have been the merest young horse-holder. His mother was Shore Crossing’s sister. He does not figure largely in the oral histories collected by McWhorter, so much of what he does in this novel is invented. He escaped from Bear’s Paw to Canada, but was captured upon his return and sent to the Indian Territory.
Swan Woman—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Yiyik Wasunwah.] White Thunder’s mother. She survived Bear’s Paw.
Tendoy—(Lemhi.) “One of the great Lemhi chiefs of the mid-nineteenth century.”—Robert and Yolanda Murphy. He was half Bannock and half Shoshoni. He refused the Nez Perces shelter as they fled Big Hole, and his people later scouted after them for the Army.
Mrs. Delia Theller—All I know about her is that she was Edward’s wife, and that she was overcome with disbelief and rage at his death. She removed to her parents after White Bird Canyon (and eventually got a job at the San Francisco Mint). I have imagined her as very attractive. Her marital unhappiness and Perry’s interest in her are invented. Having assigned her childhood to a McKay stitching machine in 1862, I made her twenty-three in 1877.
First Lieutenant Edward R. Theller—Perry’s second-in-command at White Bird Canyon, and the highest-ranking soldier to die there. He had also served under Perry in the Modoc War. I have imagined, without knowing for a fact, that they were close friends.
Three Feathers—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) A sub-chief of the Looking-Glass band, who was present at Whipple’s attack. Whether or not he fought at Clearwater is unknown to me. At Weippe he decided to surrender with “his small following” and rode to Kamiah, where he was promptly imprisoned.
Thunder Travelling To Loftier Heights—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Heinmot Tooyalakekt.] Conjectural name of Young Chief Joseph.
Samuel Tilden—Hayes’s Democratic opponent. “The contemplation of Mr. Tilden’s career will always repay the student of great disappointments . . . He had sharp, clerkly qualities, which would have been useful in a cheese-paring administration.”
Tiwí-teqis—(Nimiputumít.) [“Senior Warrior.”] A name for Old Joseph.
Toohhoolhoolzote—(Nimiputumít.) [“‘Sound,’ such as is produced by striking any vibrant metal or timber with a hard substance . . . probably a Flathead name.” Aoki transliterates the name “Tukulkulcú-t” and writes that it means “antelope.” Other renderings: Toohulhulsote, Toohhoohoolsote, T-whool-we-tzoot.] The leader of a non-treaty band in the Salmon River Mountains. Many non-Indian sources portray him as favoring war; McWhorter claims that he did not. General Howard’s arrest of him for speaking his mind at the Lapwai council undoubtedly contributed to the anger of the young men who began the war. This immensely strong and active old man was a war-chief at Clearwater. He died fighting at Bear’s Paw. Howard thought him to be a shaman, but this might not have been true. His marital status is unknown to me, so I gave him two wives, Wolf Old Woman and Place Of Arrival.
Towhee—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) Mother of Helping Another. Although in real life this woman did more or less as she does in The Dying Grass, her name is one I have lifted from Aoki’s dictionary.
Captain Joel G. Trimble—Another veteran cavalryman. His company (“H,” First Cavalry), with Perry’s, took part in the fiasco at White Bird Canyon. Trimble’s second-in-command there was First Lieutenant William Parnell. Like Perry, Trimble had fought in the Civil War, and in the Modoc War; he was the one who took Captain Jack’s surrender. At Perry’s court of inquiry, Trimble testified against him. His supposed default at Camas Meadows is entirely my invention; who was officer of the day on that occasion I never learned.
Tsams Lúpin—See James Reuben.
Tsépmin—See Ad Chapman.
Tso Alpít—See Animal In A Hole.
Two Moons—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Lepeet Hessemdooks. His name might in fact have meant “Sun And Moon,” or “Two Celestial Orbs.”] A warrior in Chief Joseph’s band who first informed him of the Salmon River raids, fought at Big Hole and other battlefields, survived the war, and verified some of White Thunder’s narration to the historian L. V. McWhorter. He is not to be confused with a Cheyenne warrior of the same name, who makes a glancing appearance during the Bear’s Paw battle, and briefly reappears in the Indian Territory.
Tuk-le-kas—(Nimiputumít.) A shaman mentioned in J. Diane Pearson’s The Nez Perces in the Indian Territory [see G 4] as ringing the small bell for a funeral ceremony. After Big Hole he must have had plenty of work.
Tzi-kal-tza—(Nimiputumít.) Also called Halahtookit, which means “Daytime Smoke.” A by-blow of William Clark’s by Chief Red Grizzly Bear’s sister, he was seventy-two in 1877. He survived the war and was deported to the Indian Territory, where he died.
Umatilla Jim—A U.S. Army scout, entirely invented. Some of his memories (a wife mixing salmon flour with huckleberries; a mother singing while digging roots) derive in part from a certain linguist’s pattern sentences in the Umatilla Sahaptin dialect. The Nez Perce could have pronounced his American name something like Tsím.
War Singer—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) One of L. V. McWhorter’s informants.
Wahlitits—See Shore Crossing.
Wellammoutkin—(Nimiputumít.) One of the names of Old Joseph.
Well Behaved Maiden—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) An invented character, standing in for other real people whose names we have lost. Wounded at Big Hole, she faded away and was left behind on the trail near Heart Mountain. I took her name from Aoki’s dictionary.
Welweyas—(Nimiputumít.) “Coulee.” A “half-man-half-woman” mentioned briefly in one of the oral histories. Most of her doings in The Dying Grass are my invention, as is her mother Agate Woman. [Although I use female pronouns for Welweyas, McWhorter notes that “the gender” of the word “is neutral, neither masculine nor feminine.”] Apparently she always wore female dress. Deward E. Walker, Jr.: “Transvestites were sometimes seen but not typically taken as second wives.” She was with the party who were away from camp, bringing in a beef-feast for the people at Tolo Lake, when Swan Necklace and his fellow raiders began killing whites on the Salmon River. There was two such transvestites when the war broke out; neither was captured; one died at Kamiah and the other “was killed in Lewiston during the gold rush,” which is odd since the gold rush in Lewiston happened a decade before the war. I have imagined that Welweyas was the one who died at Kamiah, after having made it to Canada and back. This would imply (given the habits of Indian Agents) that she became nominally Christian and stopped cross-dressing.
Wetwhowees—(Nimiputumít.) Sister to Wounded Head. Her husband Red Sun is invented. Through physical strength she saved herself from a soldier’s bayonet at Big Hole. Later she was called Lucy Ellenwood.
Where Ducks Are Around—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) An invented character; one of the women who died at Big Hole. I have imagined her to be Swan Necklace’s sister.
Captain Stephen G. Whipple—This commander of the First Cavalry (Company “L”) was charged with keeping an eye on the Joseph band during their final winter of freedom (1876–77) in the Grande Ronde Valley. After the war started, Howard dispatched him on the imprudent and unjust raid on Looking-Glass’s village. His communications show him to have been intelligent, perceptive and educated.
White Bird—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Peop[p]eo Hihhih.] Another translation is “White Goose,” but see the entry for Peopeo Tholekt. A prominent chief among the Salmon River band. White Bird Canyon, or Sparse-Snowed Place, was in his territory. He was an experienced buffalo hunter. In 1877 he was quite old, so it is said that he fought in no battle except Bear’s Paw—although I must believe that he took some part in the White Bird Canyon fight. Most of the Salmon River raiders originated in his band or Toohhoolhoolzote’s, only one being from Joseph’s. He was the sole Nez Perce chief to escape to Canada, where he was eventually murdered. According to a private in Miles’s army, he had two wives; however, a photograph of White Bird in Canada shows but one, the woman called Kate. Since Private Zimmer probably never saw White Bird, I have discounted his assertion and made White Bird a one-wife man.
White Cloud—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Sewattis Hihhih.] A brave and diligent warrior who took part in every battle. Wounded at Cottonwood. He survived to return to Colville with Joseph.
