The Dying Grass, page 153
White Thunder—(Nimiputumít.) His maternal grandfather was the brother of Old Chief Joseph’s mother. A prominent fighter in the Nez Perce War. This book relies in part upon his autobiography [see G 4]. “The whites call me Yellow Wolf, but I take that as a nickname. My true name is . . . Heinmot Hihhih, which means White Thunder.” On the next page he relates his spirit-vision of a yellow wolf, from which he derived his more commonly known name. He survived war and exile, dying many years after Joseph, beside whom he is buried. His monument reads: Yellow Wolf (1855–1931). Patriot Warrior of Nez Perce “Lost Cause” 1877. Marker Placed by White Friends.
Wild Oat Moss—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Otskai.] (Conjectural meaning of this difficult word.) A companion of White Thunder, whose life he saved by killing a citizen with whom he was gun-duelling not long before the Canyon Creek battle. Since his name might have been Flathead, I imagine him as having Flathead relatives.
First Lieutenant Melville Wilkinson—Third Infantry. This devout Methodist artilleryman distinguished himself at Clearwater. According to General Crook, General Howard had “an aide-de-camp named Wilkinson, whose stock in trade was religion.” Wilkinson is stated to have been a captain at that time (1872), evidently by virtue of a brevet [G 2]. At Fort McDowell, Howard informed the commanding officer that he had been requested to deliver a speech to the soldiers. The CO, who disliked him, inquired who had asked for this speech, and he had to admit that the responsible party was Wilkinson. Everything that I have Wilkinson doing and saying between Clearwater and Bear’s Paw is a fiction, because Howard actually sent him to Spokane to keep the Indians quiet. There is no evidence that he was the scheming fault-finder I have made him; in fact he was more likely a bluff innocent, given his habit (not mentioned in The Dying Grass) of waking up his comrades early in the morning by bellowing out hymns. His subsequent career is as I give it in the “Further Histories.”
Colonel William H. Winters—This commander (Company “E”) was actually a captain (see Brevet Ranks, G 2). He led an assault at the Clearwater battle.
Wolf Old Woman—Toohhoolhoolzote’s elder wife (invented by WTV; name selected from Aoki’s dictionary).
Second Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood—Lived 1852–1944. An aide-de-camp to General Howard during the Nez Perce campaign and the Bannock War of 1878. The basic facts of his life and participation in the pursuit of Joseph are accurately presented here; his thoughts and words, of course, are mostly invented. He and Ad Chapman between them must have had a lot to do with Joseph’s famous surrender speech as we know it. An admirer of General Miles assures us: “Wood was known to be a heavy drinker and a spinner of wild yarns.” I see him rather differently. For discussion of how I constructed his character, see the note “Wood’s personality” in the source citations to “Alaska Sounds Fine and Cool.”
Wottolen—(Nimiputumít.) [“Hair Combed Over Eyes.”] A close comrade of White Thunder’s. Evidently a member of White Bird’s band, although he was often with Looking-Glass. The father of the warrior Black Eagle. His WYAKIN [G 2] promised him safety from bullets. One of the war leaders at Clearwater. A prophetic dreamer (whose dreams warned of disaster at Big Hole and Bear’s Paw), and after the war the tribal historian. (He lived to approximately a hundred and one.) His whereabouts at the beginning of the Nez Perce War are not entirely clear to me, so I have him keep White Thunder company at the Battle of White Bird Canyon, and then ride insouciantly home to Kamnaka [G 3] so that he can witness the cavalry raid on Looking-Glass—and verify Howard’s suspicions that Looking-Glass was not neutral. This may well be what happened.
Wounded Head—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Husis Owyeen.] [Also: Shot On Head.] His name at the beginning of the war was Wettusolalumtikt [Last Time On Earth]. A brave warrior. His wife (wounded at Big Hole) was Helping Another. His sister (who turned aside a soldier’s bayonet at the same battle) was Wetwhowees.
Wounded Mouth—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Mimpow Owyeen.] The father of Animal In A Hole, who was scouting for the Army, he was the first Nez Perce to die in the war (at Cottonwood, mortally wounded by the Brave Seventeen [G 2]).
Yellow Hair—See Custer.
Yellow Bull—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) [Chuslum Moxmox.] The father of Red Moccasin Tops. This warrior had fought against the Sioux with Looking-Glass and the Crows at the great battle of 1874. He was probably a leader in the second Salmon River raid, when the Nez Perces committed atrocities. McWhorter’s sources mention him in regard to White Bird Canyon and Bear’s Paw. After the surrender he accompanied Lieutenant Baird’s peace mission to Chief White Bird, then was returned to the Indian Territory. He accompanied Joseph to Nespelem, but eventually relocated to Lapwai.
Yellow Wolf—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) See White Thunder.
Young White Bird—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) White Bird’s nephew, aged about nine years. Wounded at Big Hole, his mother and sister being killed. He escaped from Bear’s Paw with his little brother.
2. GLOSSARY OF ORDERS, ISMS, NATIONS, PROFESSIONS, HIERARCHIES, DIVISIONS, RACES, SHAMANS, TRIBES AND MONSTERS
ACBADADEA—(Crow.) “The One Divine Being.”
A.D.C.—Aide-de-camp.
AHKUNKENEKOO—(Nimiputumít.) McWhorter translates this variously as “Deity” and “Land Above; Happy Hereafter.”
AIR BIRD—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) “A great bird, that . . . rests only the clouds.” The WYAKIN of Grizzly Bear Youth.
Americans—The Indians’ best friends.
Army—See Military divisional organization.
Assiniboin(e)s—(?) Called “Walkarounds” or “Walking Cutthroats” by their enemies the Nez Perces, some of whom died at their hands in 1877–78, these people have named themselves Nak’óta. They “speak one of the four dialects of Sioux.” During the Nez Perce War several of their bands were roaming northern Montana near the international border.
Bannocks—(Euro-American corruption.) [Also: Bannacks. From “Banakwut,” which is what they called themselves.] Employed in the Nez Perce War as Army scouts. “A part of the Shoshonee nation . . . but they spoke a dialect of their own. Their principal hunting grounds were west of the Bitter Root Mountains and south of the Coeur d’Alene River. They acquired the name of Root Diggers from the fact that a large portion of their food consisted of roots . . .”—Humfreville, 1899. Apparently only some bands were actually called Diggers. Some Shoshoni called them “Punnush.” [Cf. Lewis and Clark’s word for the Nez Perce: the Chopunnish.]— According to Christopher Tower, their dialect of Numic is very close to Northern Shoshoni. “The Bannock are actually related to the Northern Paiute.”— “The Bannock were Northern Paiute speakers who had migrated from Oregon . . .”—Robert F. Murphy and Yolanda Murphy. In the early 1700s they got horses and moved to south central Idaho by the Snake River in order to be near to buffalo. By 1840 Bannock and Shoshoni were said to be a single tribe.—“The Bannocks were Northern Paiutes who had intermarried with the Shoshoni and allied with them during times of war. They . . . were a horse culture, but caught fish lower down the Snake River at Shoshoni Falls and dug roots in Idaho’s Camas Prairie.”—Michno, 2007. In 1873 there were a hundred Bannocks and Shoshoni at Fort Hall, nine hundred in other places. The women were renowned for beautiful basketry. The Nez Perce word for “Bannock” meant “enemy.” Another derogatory word for them was “Lice-Eaters.” The Crows called them “Worthless Lodges.”
Big Bellies—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) See Gros Ventres.
Blackfeet—(Euro-American.) This nation is divided into the following tribes: Bloods [Kainaiowas], Blackfoot [Siksikas], North Piegans [Pikunis] and South Piegans [Blackfeet]. They were enemies with the Crows, and sometimes raided the Nez Perces, Flatheads and Kootenays for horses. The Nez Perces referred to them by a word meaning (approximately) “Legs” or “Shinbones.” According to Alexander Henry, ca. 1810, they were “the most independent and happy people of all the tribes E of the Rocky mountains. War, women, horses and buffalo are their delights, and all these they have at command.”
Bluecoats—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) American soldiers, especially cavalry.
Bostons—(Anglicized Nimiputumít and Chinook jargon.) White Americans; settlers. The Crow name for them was “Yellow Eyes.”
Brave Seventeen—Fifteen volunteers under Captain Randall, along with the dispatch rider they were escorting to Colonel Perry at Cottonwood. They ran into Nez Perce warriors and two of their number, including Randall, were killed. Perry hesitated to relieve them, for which he was accused of cowardice.
BREVET RANKS
A brevet rank was, in effect, honorary. It marked meritorious service. Many Civil War volunteers were brevetted, but so were regular Army soldiers; for instance, several of Gibbon’s officers who fought at Big Hole received this honor—which effected no increase in pay or command power. As such, it was a perfectly expedient reward for members of the undermanned, underfunded post-1865 Army. Here are the brevet and actual ranks of the following characters as of 1877 (Custer of course died in 1876).
Brevet
Actual
Custer
General
Lieutenant Colonel
Gibbon
General
Colonel
Mason
Major [& Brigadier Gen.]
Captain
Miles
Major General [& Brigadier Gen.]
Colonel
Miller
Colonel
Captain
Parnell
Colonel
Lieutenant
Perry
Colonel
Captain
Sturgis
Brigadier General
Colonel
Trimble
Major
Captain
Wilkinson
Captain
Lieutenant
Winters
Colonel
Captain
Whipple
Colonel
Captain
For this book I decided to have Howard address Perry as colonel, which indeed he often did. Since Perry was in actual rank senior to Parnell, Trimble and Whipple, I thought it best to have Perry and Howard commanding them according to their actual ranks, rather than, for instance, to have Perry call Trimble a major. For much the same reason I let Captain Miller stay a captain. Fletcher, Wilkinson, Wood and Guy Howard were all lieutenants and aides-de-camp, therefore equal colleagues, so I made no reference to Wilkinson’s brevet rank. I transformed Mason from a brevet major (and major is what Howard politely called him in Nez Perce Joseph) into an actual major, so that I could make use of the regulation about majors inventorying the property of dead soldiers, which grows relevant at White Bird Canyon (there is no reason to believe that Mason actually performed this gruesome task). On the other hand, I thought it best for Howard to refer to Custer, Gibbon, Miles and Sturgis as generals, not only out of politeness but also because, according to 1877 usage, any commander of a detached unit was its “general.” Hence in this book, Gibbon’s men call him general. When after Sturgis’s several failures I have Howard begin to call him colonel, this is a mark of the latter’s disappointment and irritation. In real life he might have been too gentlemanly to do this. Meanwhile, there was no impediment to letting Winters be called “colonel.”
Cayuse—Weyíletpu is “the Nez Perce term by which the modern Cayuse refer to themselves.” Closely related to the Nez Perce, although their language was different. By 1837 younger Cayuse had lost their language, and spoke Lower Nez Perce instead. After some Cayuses murdered the Whitmans in 1843, the tribe was often stigmatized (by Howard among others) as “the worst of the whole,” “crafty, cunning, and troublesome.”—Humfreville, 1899. By 1877 the lower-cased “cayuse” had become a descriptor for Indian ponies of less than high quality. In 2013 a rancher in northeastern Oregon (not far from Wallowa, in fact) told me that this usage was still active. See also Umatilla.
Cheyennes—Called “Painted Arrows” or “Arrow Marks” by the Nez Perce, these people served as scouts for Miles on the Bear’s Paw fight. At least one of Captain Fisher’s scouts during the pursuit through Yellowstone and after may have also been Cheyenne. Needless to say, this tribe won no great benefit for helping the Anglo-American conquerors, and once the scouts had “cleaned up” the northern plains, it came time to apply the adage about the Moor who has done his duty, and they were shipped to the Indian Territory with the rest of their people. To his credit, Miles eventually succeeded in getting them a reservation on their own homeland. [Following the lead of the Nez Perce informants in McWhorter’s two oral histories, I have not differentiated Northern from Southern Cheyennes in this book.]
Clatsop—[Also: Klatsop.] They lived near the mouth of the Columbia and were mentioned (not glowingly) by Lewis and Clark. In 1877 some could be found in Portland.
Columbia River Renegades—See River Renegades.
Cous Eaters—See Nez Perces.
COYOTE—This trickster protagonist of ever so many Plains Indians myths figures in a great number of Nez Perce legends. Very often he spoils life for himself and others as a result of his own greed and ignorance, but sometimes his trickery has benefited others [see MONSTER]. The Nez Perces sometimes called themselves COYOTE’s children.
Crows—The Absaraka or Up-sah-ro-ku. A common spelling at the moment is “Apsaalooke.” The Assiniboines called them “the Raven Enemy.” Lieutenant Bradley (1876) believed that at contact their homeland extended from the North Platte to the mouth of the Yellowstone and north into the Judith River country, and that prior to this they (and the Gros Ventres) may have derived from the Paducas who dwelled on the headwaters of the Kansas River, and these in turn from a tribe of “white Indians” dislodged from Georgia by the Cherokees. In Bradley’s time there were already two subtribes: the Mountain and River Crows. “The Crows became mercenaries of the United States—according to native informants—in order to save that tribe from extinction.” After they helped the U.S. Army against their friends the Nez Perces, the latter called them the Women Nation.
Cutthroats—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) See Sioux.
Department—See Military divisional organization.
Diggers—See Snakes.
District—See Military divisional organization.
Division—See Military divisional organization.
Downstream People—“The Nez Perce have been divided into Upper and Lower divisions, primarily on dialect grounds. The Upper Nez Perce were oriented more toward a Plains lifeway.” The Downstream People, who used salmon more, and went to trade at Celilo Falls, included dwellers at Lapwai, Spalding, Lewiston, Asotin, and along the Snake and the Clearwater; the Upstream People, who often went to the Buffalo Country [G 3], hailed from Orofino, Ahshaka, Kamiah, Kooskia and Stites. Chief Joseph is said to have identified with the Downstream People, who were also called “Tied Back Hair.”
Dreamers—The pan-Indian Ghost Dance religion, which was so horrifically suppressed in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, grew out of the Dreamer doctrine that MOTHER EARTH should not be gashed by cultivation, mining, irrigation, etcetera, and that if the Native Americans respected Her enough, wandering the land, hunting, gathering and giving thanks, all their dead would presently be restored to life, and the white people driven out. Smohalla was an important prophet and practitioner of this faith, which is now sometimes called the Seven Drum religion.
Enemy—(Anglicized Nimiputumít.) When capitalized, this word refers to the people called Bannocks, Shoshonis and Snakes. The Nez Perce word is tiwélqe.
Flatheads—(Anglicized Chinook jargon?) These relatives of the Nez Perce, some of whom once wintered in their territory on the west side of the Lo Lo Trail, lived near Missoula. In 1877 the people who followed Sub-chief Arlee had but recently been removed to their reservation. The ones who followed Chief Charlot stayed free until 1891. The Shoshoni called them Tatasiba, “the shaved-head People.” They called themselves (and the Nez Perces followed suit) the Salish. The Flatheads and Pend d’Oreilles were “two groups of Salishan-speaking people with dialects mutually understood . . . They had separate but somewhat overlapping geographic locations.” When the fleeing Nez Perce left Yellowstone National Park, they came into the former Flathead zone, and stayed there until they reached the Missouri.
Freedmen’s Bureau—(Post–Civil War American.) Benjamin G. Humphreys, first postwar governor of Mississippi, 1865: “To the guardian care of the Freedmen’s Bureau have been trusted the emancipated slaves . . . Look around you and see the result . . . From producers they are converted into consumers, and, as winter approaches, their only salvation from starvation and want is Federal rations, plunder, and pillage.”— General Grant, 1865: “Everywhere general Howard, the able head of the bureau, made friends by the just and fair instructions and advice he gave; but the complaint in South Carolina was that when he left, things went on as before.”— W. E. B. DuBois, 1901: “Foredoomed to failure. The very name of the Bureau stood for a thing in the South which for two centuries . . . better men had refused even to argue—that life amid free Negroes was simply unthinkable . . .” Perhaps if Lincoln (who had called for the establishment of the Bureau, and recommended Howard for its chief) had lived, the Bureau could have accomplished something. As things turned out, its legacy was false hopes for the freedmen and shame, impoverishment and litigation for Howard.
