THE FOURTH OF JULY ON SKOKOMISH RESERVATION.
“Among the Indians, from all appearances, the Fourth of July will probably in time take the place of the potlatch. The latter is spoken of by their white neighbors as being so foolish, while the former is held in such high esteem; and as Indians, like others, enjoy holidays and festivals, it now seems as if the potlatch would be merged into the Fourth, changed a little to suit circumstances and civilization. The potlatch has always been given by a few individuals to invited guests and tribes, presents of money and other things being made to those who came, while in return a great name and honorable character was received. It lasts several days or weeks and is accompanied by gambling, feasting, tamahnous, and the like.
“The Fourth of July on the Skokomish Reservation began about a week beforehand and so lasted as long as a short potlatch. The Nisqually and Puyallup Indians, having resolved to have celebrations of their own, the attendance was smaller than it otherwise would have been. The Chehalis Indians came a full week before the Fourth in wagons and on horseback, while those from Squaxon, Mud Bay, and Seabeck came between that time and the Fourth. A few of the Skokomish Indians were at the head of the celebration, bore most of the expense, and received most of the honor. Other Indians besides these few, however, occasionally invited all the visitors to a feast. The guests, on arriving at Skokomish, brought more or less food with them,—much as at a potlatch, only on a smaller scale,—and they were received with less ceremony. A table a hundred feet long was made in a pleasant shady grove, and here for more than a week—when the guests were not invited to the house of some friend to a meal—they feasted on beef, beans, rice, sugar, tea, coffee, and the like: sitting on benches, eating with knives, forks, and dishes, and cooking the food on two large stoves brought to the grounds for the purpose; visiting, horse-racing, and other sports filled up the rest of the time.
“The Fourth was the central day of the festival and was celebrated in much the same style with the other days, only on a larger scale, there being more Indians present, more flags flying, more firing of guns, and more whites on the grounds. By invitation the whites on the reservation were present and were assigned to a very pleasant place on the grounds, where they might have had tables if they had done as the Indians did: made them for themselves; but, as it was, they picnicked on the ground, while their colored brethren sat at the tables. A few white men, rather the worse for liquor, visited the horse-races after the dinner; but not an Indian is known to have tasted liquor during the week.”
The Clallam Indians seldom have celebrations of their own. They usually attend those of the whites near them, often being invited to take part in canoe-races. There has always been much drunkenness among the whites at these times; the Indians have often been sorely tempted to do the same, and many of them have fallen then who seldom have done so at other times.
The Fourth of July, 1884, in many respects has the best record at the reservation. It was indeed not the greatest, most expensive, or most numerously attended. As the leading ones had decided not to have any horse-racing or betting, the younger ones thought that they could have no celebration, and it was only the day before that they decided to have one. It consisted of a feast, after which they went to the race-track. I felt fearful that some professing Christians would fall, but thought it not best for me to go near that place, but leave them and await the result. When the report came, it was that, while they had some fun with their horses, hardly any of which was regular racing, not a cent had been bet by any one.
XIV.
CHRISTMAS.
THIS day has been celebrated with as much regularity as the Fourth of July, but the former remains yet as our affair, while the latter has passed into their hands. They have no building large enough to contain much of a celebration of the day. The church is at the agency, and is the most suitable building for the purpose, and the exercises naturally center around the school, so the older Indians come to us on Christmas, and we go to them on the Fourth.
Usually there have been some speeches made, and presents from the government, school-supplies to the Indian school-children. Private presents have been made among the whites, but it has only been during the last two or three years that the outside Indians have taken much interest in this custom of ours. Indeed, during the first few years generally but few of them were present. It was far from their homes, the nights were dark, the roads muddy, so that they did not take much interest in it, but as the first school-children have grown up they have kept up the idea they received in school, and imparted it to others, and of late years a good share of them have been present. On Christmas 1882 and 1883 they made quite a number of private presents; more on the last one than ever before. Usually nuts and candy have been provided from contributions by the whites, and apples which are raised at the agency for the older Indians. A Santa Claus Christmas-tree, or something of the kind, has been the usual way for distributing the presents. The report of the Sabbath-school for the year has been a central item in the exercises, showing the attendance, the number of times each has been on the roll of honor, with the distribution of some extra present to those who have been highest on this roll.
In 1878 quite an exhibition was made by the school, consisting of pieces spoken, dialogues, compositions, tableaux, and the like. In 1879 I arranged so that about twenty of the aged Indians, who had neither land nor good houses, came to the agency and had a dinner of rice, beans, bread, and tea. This was new to them, they generally being the neglected ones, but I thought it to be according to the principles of the New Testament.
The celebration for 1883 suited me better than any previous one in many respects. The first part of the exercises were more of a religious service than usual—more of a celebration of Christ’s birth. This idea suited also the minds of the Indians better than to have it mainly consist of sport. The Indian girls did nearly all the singing and playing, six of them playing each one piece on the organ. The year before three of them had done so, but this year it was still better. Then five of the older Indians made speeches, including two of the chiefs and two of the young men who had been in school. This was new for them on this day. More of the Indians also made private presents than ever before. Thus they took up the work, as the whites who previously had done it had been discharged, and it is better for them to do so.
The people at Jamestown for several years have had a celebration of their own, consisting often of a Christmas-tree, and they have borne the whole expense. I have never been present, but they have always been spoken of as enjoyable affairs, a good number of the surrounding whites feeling that it was a pleasant place for them to spend the evening.
XV.
VARIETY.
“JACK-AT-ALL-TRADES and good at some” was the pleasant way in which Dr. Philip Schaff put it, when some of the students in the Theological Seminary at Hartford, Connecticut, had done up some furniture for him, to send to New Haven. I have often been reminded of this, as I have had, at times, to take up a variety of work. Missionaries among the Indians have to be the first part of the sentence and console themselves with the hope that the latter part may sometimes prove true.
On one tour among the Clallams, I find the following: When three miles from home, the first duty was to stop and attend the funeral of a white man. Forty-five miles on, the evening of the next day until late at night, was spent in assisting one of the government employees in holding court over four Indians, who had been drunk; a fifth had escaped to British Columbia and was safe from trial. This kind of business occasionally comes in as an aid to the agent. I seldom have any thing to do with it on the reservation, as the agent can attend to it; but when off from the reservation, where neither of us can be more than once in six months or thereabouts it sometimes saves him much trouble and expense, and seems to do as much good as a sermon. It is of but little use to preach to drunken Indians, and a little law sometimes helps the gospel. The agent reciprocates by talking gospel to them on the Sabbath on his trips.
On reaching Jamestown, the afternoon was spent in introducing an Indian from British Columbia, who had taken me there in his canoe, to the Clallam Indians and the school; and in comforting two parents, Christian Indians, whose youngest child lay at the point of death. The next day she died, and, as no minister had ever been among these Indians at any previous funeral, they needed some instruction. So it was my duty to assist in digging the grave and making the coffin, comfort them, and attend the funeral in a snow-storm.
The Sabbath was spent in holding two services with them, one of them being mainly a service of song; and, as there was a part of the day unoccupied, at the request of the whites near by I gave them a sermon. The next day I found that “Blue Monday” must be adjourned. Years ago the Indians purchased their land, but owing to a mistake of the surveyor, it was necessary that the deeds should be made out again. So, in order to get all the Indians together who were needed, with the proper officer, I walked fourteen miles, rode six in a canoe, and then, after half-past three o’clock, saw that nineteen deeds were properly signed, which required sixty-two signatures, besides the witnessing, acknowledging, and filing of them, which required seventy-six more signatures. The plat of their town—Jamestown—was also filed and recorded. When this was done, I assisted the Indians to obtain two marriage-licenses, after which we went to the church, where I addressed them on two different subjects, and then the two weddings took place, and by nine o’clock we were done.
The monotony of the next day was varied by a visit to the school; helping the chief to select a burying-ground (for their dead had been buried in various places); a walk of ten miles and a wedding of a white couple, who have been very kind to me in my work there, one of them being a member of the Jamestown church.
On my way home, while waiting for the steamers to connect at Port Gamble, I took a trip of about fifty miles, to Port Madison and back, to help in finishing the Indian census of 1880 for General F. A. Walker and Major J. W. Powell; and then on my way home, by the kindness of the captain of the steamer, who waited half an hour for me, I was able to assist the chief in capturing and taking to the reservation the fifth Indian at Port Gamble who had been drunk, and had, by that time, returned from the British side.
The variety of another trip in 1878 is thus recorded: As to food, I have done my own cooking, eaten dry crackers only for meals, been boarded several days for nothing, and bought meals. As to sleeping, I have stayed in as good a bed as could be given me for nothing, and slept in my own blankets in an Indian canoe, because the houses of the whites were too far away and the fleas were too thick in the Indian houses. They were bad enough in the canoe, but the Indians would not allow me to go farther away, for fear that the panthers would catch me. As to work, I have preached, held prayer-meetings, done pastoral work, helped clean up the streets of Jamestown, been carpenter and painter, dedicated a church, performing all the parts, been church organist, studied science, acted for the agent, and taken hold of law in a case where whiskey had been sold to an Indian, and also in making a will. As to traveling, I have been carried ninety miles in a canoe by Indians, free, paid an Indian four dollars for carrying me twenty miles, have been carried twenty more by a steamer at half-fare, and twenty more on another for nothing, have rode on horseback, walked fifty miles, and “paddled my own canoe” for forty-five more.
I have never had a vacation since I have been here, unless such things as these may be called vacation. They are recreation, work, and vacation, all at once. They are variety, and that is rest, the vacation a person needs, with the satisfaction that a person is doing something at the same time.
XVI.
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.
THE Indian idea of the marriage bond is that it is not very strong. They have been accustomed to get married young, often at fourteen or sixteen years of age, to pay for their wives in money and articles to the value of several hundred dollars, and the men have had, oftentimes, two or three wives.
When they married young, in order that two young fools should not be married together, often a boy was married to an elderly woman, and a young girl to an elderly man, so that the older one could take care of the younger, with the expectation that when the younger one should grow older if they did not like each other they should be divorced.
Such ideas naturally did not suit the government, the agent, or the Bible. The agent has had about all the children of school age in school, and thus had control of them, so that they could not get married as young as formerly. In 1883 the government sent word to prevent the purchase of any more wives, and this has been generally acquiesced in by the Skokomish Indians. Some of the Clallam Indians, however, are so far from the agent, and are so backward in civilization, that it has not been possible to enforce these two points among them as thoroughly as among the Twanas.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report for 1878, recommended the passage of a law compelling all Indians who were living together as man and wife to be married. The law has not been made, but the agent worked on the same principles long before 1878—indeed ever after he first took charge in 1871. He urged them to be married, making for a time special presents from government annuities to those who should consent, as a shawl or ladies’ hat, and some consented. Only two couples had been thus married when I went there. It seemed rather comical on the Fourth of July, 1874, when I had been on the reservation only about two weeks, to be asked to join in marriage seven couples, some of whom had children. One Sabbath in 1883 a couple stood up to be married, the bride having a baby in her arms, and she would probably have held it during the ceremony had not my wife whispered to a sister of the bride to go and get it. During the ten years I have married twenty-six couples among the Twanas, and twenty-nine couples among the Clallams, and a number of other Clallams have been married by other persons. Some very comical incidents have occurred in connection with some of these ceremonies. In 1876 I was called upon to marry eleven couples at Jamestown. All went well with the first ten, the head chief being married first, so that the others might see how it was done, and then nine couples stood up and were married with the same set of words. But the wife of the other man was sick with the measles. She had taken cold and they had been driven in, but had come out again, so that she was as red as a beet. Still they were afraid that she would die, and as I was not to be there again for several months they were very anxious to be married so as to legalize the children. She was so near death that they had moved her from their good house to a mat-house, which was filled with smoke. The fire was thrown out, and soon it became less smoky. She was too sick to stand, and only barely able to sit up. This, however, she managed to do in her bed, which was on the ground. Her husband sat beside her and took her hand, and I married them, measles and all. She afterward recovered.
At another time I married a couple who had homesteaded some land, and who had been married in Indian style long before. As they had never seen such a ceremony I took the man aside and explained it to him as well as I was able. After I had begun the ceremony proper, and had said the words: “You promise to take this woman to be your wife,” and was ready to say: “You promise to love and take care of her,” he broke out, saying, “Of course I do! You do not suppose that I have been living with her for the last fifteen years and am going to put her away now, do you? See, there is my boy, fourteen years old. Of course I do!” As it was no use to try to stop him, I did not try, but waited until he was through, when I said: “All right,” and went on with the ceremony, but laughed very hard in my sleeve all the time.
A girl in the boarding-school was to be married, and her schoolmates thought that it ought to be done in extra style. Thanks to the teacher and matron, the supper and their share of the duties passed off in an excellent manner. But five of the girls thought that they would act as bridesmaids, and they were left to manage that part among themselves. Each one chose a young man who had previously been in school to act as her escort. Thinking that they would hardly know how to act with so much ceremony, I invited them to my house fifteen minutes before the marriage was to take place in church, so that I could instruct them. They came on time, but what was my surprise to see the bride and groom and the five girls march into my house, but not a single groomsman, and they thought that it was all right, even if their partners did not come. Those whom they had expected were off in the woods, or at home, or if near by, were far from being dressed for the occasion, while the bridesmaids had spent a long time in getting themselves ready, and were in full dress. What a time I had hunting up partners for them! I had to borrow clothes for those who were on the ground, others whom I wished felt that they had been slighted so long that they did not care to step into such a place then, and the ceremony was delayed some before it could all be arranged. But how I was surprised to see five bridesmaids march in without a single partner!
At another time, as a sub-chief, well dressed, came forward to be married, he began to pull off his coat as if ready for a fight, although his intentions were most peaceable. I told him that it was just as well to let his coat remain on, and he obeyed.
The following is from The Port Townsend Argus of December 2, 1881:—
“Married.—Clallam Bay is alive! One of the sensations of the season occurred at that place on the sixteenth of November, and is news, though not published till this late day. Five of the citizens having complied with the laws of the Territory in regard to licenses were married by Rev. M. Eells to their respective partners. Nearly all the inhabitants of the place assembled, without regard to race or color, some of whom had come from miles distant. First came a short address by Mr. Eells on the history of marriage, beginning with the days of Adam and Eve, and setting forth some of the reasons against polygamy and divorce, after which Mr. Charles Hock-a-too and Mrs. Tau-a-yi stood up. Mr. H. has been the only Mormon of the place, having had two whom he called wives, but being more progressive than the Mormons, he boldly resolved to choose only one of them, and cleave only to her so long as they both should live. When the marriage ceremony was over, and he was asked if thus he promised to do, he replied in a neat little speech, fully as long as the marriage ceremony, very different from the consent of some persons whom the public presume to have said yes, simply because silence gives consent. It is impossible to reproduce the speech. It will live in the memories of those who heard it, however, as coming from an earnest heart and being all that could be desired. The bride did not blush or faint, but also made her speech, showing that she knew what was said to her. After this the four other couples stood up, Mr. Long John Smittain and Kwash-tun, alias E-ni-so-ut; Mr. Tom Jim-myak and Wal-lis-mo; Captain Jack Chats-oo-uk and Nancy Hwa-tsoo-ut; also Mr. Old Jack Klo-tasy, father of the Captain, and Mary Cheenith. In regard to the ages of the last two, from what we learn, the familiar lines would apply:—
‘How old is she, Billy boy, Billy boy,
How old is she, charming Billy?’
‘She’s three times six, four times seven,
Twenty-eight and eleven.
She’s a young thing and can not leave her mother.’”
While she probably is not eighty-five, yet she was old enough to obtain a license and leave her mother. He was about seventy years old. These were all married with one set of words, when congratulations followed—regular hand-shaking, none of those present so far forgetting themselves as to indulge in the (im)propriety of kissing the brides. The ceremony having been concluded, a part of those present, the invited guests (but here there was a distinction as to race and color) sat down to the marriage-feast. It was none of your light, frosted, airy cake (in fact, there was not any cake in sight), but substantial solid bread and the like. [Here the line went down, and the meager accounts we could gather about the elegant and varied costumes worn by the charming brides, the number and appearance of the bridesmaids, etc., had better be supplied from the vivid imaginations of the readers.] All of the high contracting parties, we may say, however, are tax-payers of Clallam County and land-owners. Kloshe hahkwa (“good so”).
Not much of a direct war was waged on plural marriages. They were simply fenced in and allowed to die out. In 1874 there were only five Twana men who had more than one wife, and there were about as many more among the Clallams. Those who had one wife were never allowed to obtain another as long as they were living with the first. When one of the wives died of those who had more than one, or was willingly put away, they were not allowed to take another in her place. On some reservations where plural marriages have been numerous, the plan has been adopted of having the man choose one of his wives as the one to whom he should be legally married; and then, in order to save the others and their children from suffering, they have been told to provide for them until the women should be married to some other man. Among these Indians it has now come to be practically the same. One is the real wife, and the others are so old that they are simply taken care of by their husbands, except when they take care of themselves, until they shall get married again; only they do not get married to any one else, being willing to be thus cared for.
They soon learned that a legal marriage meant more than an old-fashioned Indian one and that a divorce was difficult to obtain. The agent took the position that he had no legal right to grant a divorce even on the reservation, and that if the parties obtained one they must apply to the courts. This involved too much expense, and so not a divorce has been obtained by those legally married. But it has taken a long, strong, firm hand to compel some of the parties to live together, and this made others of them somewhat slow to be legally married. One day I asked a man who had then recently obtained a wife, Indian fashion, if he wished to be married in white style. “I am a little afraid,” he said, “that we shall not get along well together. I think we will live together six months; and then, if we like each other well enough, we will have you perform the ceremony.” It was never done, for they soon separated.
The most severe contest the agent ever had with the Indians on the reservation was to prevent divorce. In 1876 one man, whose name was Billy Clams, had considerable trouble with his wife and wanted a divorce, but the agent would not allow it. He tried every plan he could think of to make them live peaceably together, and consulted with the chiefs and the relations of the parties; but they would still quarrel. At one time he put him in charge of his brother-in-law, a policeman, with handcuffs on; but with a stone he knocked them off and went to the house of his uncle, a quarter of a mile from the agency. To this place the agent went with two Indians and told him to go with him. With an oath Billy Clams said he would not. The agent then struck him with a stick quite severely. Billy got a larger stick, which the agent wrenched from him. Then Billy grabbed the agent around the waist, and, with the help of his uncle, threw him down. The other Indians who went with the agent took them off. Then the agent locked the door and sent the friendly Indians to the agency for two white men, the carpenter and the blacksmith, for help. Twice Billy and his uncle tried to take the key away from the agent, but failed; three times Billy tried to get out of the window, but the agent stopped him. Then they made an excuse that a very old man must go out; and while the agent was letting him go, Billy ran across the room, struck the middle of the window with his head, and went through it; and the agent went so quickly out in the same way, that he lit on Billy’s neck with one foot, after which the window fell on him, and, as he was knocking that off, Billy got away and ran through the woods. Being swift of foot, he escaped; but there had been a fresh fall of snow, and the agent and two white men, with a number of Indians, followed him all day. They, however, could not take him. The agent at night offered a reward of thirty dollars if any of the Indians would bring him in; but their sympathies were too much with him, and at night one sub-chief and his son, with a cousin of Billy Clams, helped him off, and he went to some relations of his at Port Madison, sixty or seventy miles away. The next day Billy’s uncle was put in irons in the jail, and not long after those who had furnished Billy with a canoe, blankets, and provisions also went into the jail, while the sub-chief was deposed. The Indians worked in every way possible to have them released, but the agent said that he would only do so on condition that Billy Clams should be brought in. They had said that they did not know where he was; but in a short time after the agent said this, he came in and delivered himself up and was confined in the jail for six months. But a number of the Indians, including the head chief and a sub-chief, encouraged by some white men near by, had been to a justice of the peace and made out several charges against the agent for various things done during all his residence among them, and had them sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington. The principal charges were for shooting at an Indian (or ordering an employee to do so), burning ten Indian houses, selling annuity goods, collecting large fines for small offences, and having the employees work for him. The real cause of their sending these was the trouble with Billy Clams and his friends. The commissioner sent to General O. O. Howard, in charge of the military department of the Columbia, and requested him to investigate the charges. The commissioner said that on the face of the letter, it bore evidence of being untrue; but still he desired General Howard’s opinion. Accordingly Major W. H. Boyle was detailed for this purpose. He examined six Indians and three white men, as witnesses against the agent, and one white employee in his favor,—giving the agent an opportunity to defend himself,—and found that the charges amounted to so nearly nothing that he went no further.
After Billy Clams had served out his term of six months in jail, he secretly abandoned his wife and took another, and then they ran away to Port Madison. The agent quietly bided his time, found out the whereabouts of the offending party, and, with a little help from the military, had him arrested and conveyed to Fort Townsend, where he worked six months more, with a soldier and musket to watch him. This showed the Indians that they could not easily run away from the agent, or break the laws against divorce, and greatly strengthened his authority among them.
XVII.
SICKNESS.
THE department of the physician has always been a discouraging one. The government, for twenty-five years, has furnished a physician free, and yet it is difficult to induce the Indians to rely on him. There are three reasons for this: (1) The natural superstition an Indian has about sickness. This has been quite fully discussed under the head of native religion. (2) The Indian doctor does not like to have his business interfered with by any one. It is a source of money and influence to him, and he often uses his influence, which is great among the Indians, to prevent the use of medical remedies. (3) If a medicine given by the physician does not cure in a few doses, or, at least, in two or three days, they think it is not strong, or it is good for nothing—so often when medicine is given, with directions how to use it, it is left untouched or thrown away. When using medicine they often employ an Indian doctor, and his practices often kill all the good effects of medicine, so that sometimes the physicians have felt that, when Indian doctors were employed, it was almost useless for them to do any thing.
At the same time there have been some things which have aided our methods very materially. Under the head of native religion, two cases have been given, where it seemed to the Indians as if their mode was true. This has occasionally been the effect with older people. But with young children, too young to go to school, the opposite has been true. Infants have continually died. Their mortality has been very great, when they lived at home, where they could have all the Indian doctors they wanted with no one to interfere. The medicine-men have been especially unfortunate in losing their own children. One Indian doctor has buried twelve and has only three left. Another has buried four and has one left. And others have lost theirs in like proportion. On the other hand, in the school, where we could have more control over them, both as to observing the laws of health and the use of medicine, when they were sick there have been very few deaths. Only five children in ten years have died in school, or been taken fatally sick while there, while the attendance has been from twenty-five to forty.
During November and December, 1881, we passed through a terrible sickness. It seemed to be a combination of scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, and chicken-pox, about which the physician knew almost nothing. It was a new hybrid disease, as we afterward learned. The cases were mostly in the school and in the white families, there being comparatively few among the outside Indians. There were sixty cases in five weeks, an average of two new ones every day. At one time every responsible person in the school was down with it. A number of the children, while all the physician’s family, himself included, had it, and one of them lay dead. Five persons died with it, but not one of them was a scholar. There were then twenty-four scholars, and all but three had it. Nineteen outside Indians had it, of whom three died. The rest, who were sick and died, belonged to the white families and the Indian apprentices and employees. The favor which was shown to the school in saving their lives was of great value to it.
And now the older Indians are gaining more and more confidence in the physician, slowly but steadily, some within a year having said that they will never have an Indian doctor again. In the winter of 1883-84, four Indian children died, and not an Indian doctor was called. In one case the parents had just buried one, and another was fatally sick. The parents came to me and said: “If you can tell us what medicine will cure the child, we will go to Olympia and get it (thirty miles distant). We do not care for the expense, we do not care if it shall cost fifty dollars, if you will only tell us what will cure it.” The child died, but they had no Indian doctor, although its grandfather strongly urged the calling of one. After the death of these two children, the family went to live with an aunt of the mother’s, where they remained about five months. At that time a child of this aunt was sick, and an Indian doctor was called, whereupon the bereaved family left the house, because they did not wish to remain in a house where such practices were countenanced, even if those doing so were kind relations.
XVIII.
FUNERALS.
THE oldest style of burial was to wrap the body in mats, place it in one canoe, cover it with another, elevate it in a tree or on a frame erected for the purpose, and leave it there, burying with it valuable things, as bows, arrows, canoes, haiqua shells (their money), stone implements, clothes, and the like. After the whites came to this region, the dead were placed in trunks, and cloth, dishes, money, and the like were added to the valuables which were buried with them.
But one such burial has taken place within ten years, and that was the daughter of an old man. The next step toward civilization was to bury all the dead in one place, instead of leaving them scattered anywhere they might chance to die, make a long box instead of using a trunk and canoe, and elevate it on a frame made for the purpose only a few feet high, or, perhaps, simply lay it on the ground, erecting a small house over it. This was frequently done during the first few years after I was here.
Clallam Graves at Port Gamble.
These are painted, with no cloth on them. (a) Looking-glass.
(b) A shelf, on which is a bowl, teapot, etc., with rubber toys floating in them, such as ducks, fish, etc.
On the opening of a new burying-ground, in August, 1878, the head chief of the Twanas said to me: “To-day we become white people. At this burying-ground all will be buried in the ground, and no cloth or other articles will be left around, at least, above ground.” At that place this promise has been faithfully kept, as far as I know, though since that time, at other places, they have left some cloth above ground. They often yet fill the coffin, now generally made like those of white people, with much cloth and some other things. A grave-stone, which cost thirty dollars, marks the last resting-place of one man, put there by his wife.
These are grave-enclosures at the burying-ground at the Skokomish Reservation. In Figures 1 and 3 they are covered altogether with cloth, and that which is not colored is white. Figure 3 is chiefly covered with a red blanket; a in Figure 1 is a glass window, through which a red shawl covers the coffin, which is placed a foot or so above the ground. In all grave-enclosures which I have seen where glass windows are placed the coffin is above ground. Sometimes more than one is placed in an enclosure. Figure 2 is almost entirely after the American fashion, and was made last year.—(December, 1877.)
Most of them had a superstitious fear of going near a dead body, for they were afraid that the evil spirit, which killed the deceased was still around and would kill others who might be near. This, together with the fact that they cared but little for Christianity, made them have no desire to have Christian services at their funerals at first. Before I came, only one such service had been held. And, for the first few years after I came, notwithstanding the efforts of both agent and missionary, there were but few such services. Sometimes they would hurry off a deceased person to the grave, and I would not hear of the death until after the burial, much less have a chance to ask whether they wished for such services.
But steady effort, together with the example of the surrounding whites, who, previous to my arrival, had had no minister to hold such services, in time produced a change, so that they wished for them at the funerals of all persons whom they considered of much importance. At the funeral of one poor vagabond, who had almost no friends, I had my own way, and many thought it very strange that I should hold such a service. It was well enough, they said, with persons of consequence, but with such a person they thought it useless.
Not long after they opened their new burying-ground, already spoken of, I was absent from home when one person died. When I returned, a sub-chief said to me: “We felt badly when we buried a person and no white man was present to say a Christian word. We wish that when you are away, you would make arrangements with some of the whites at the agency to attend our funerals, for we want such services.” Since then, I have almost constantly held them, except when they preferred to have the Indian Catholic priest to attend them.
But now a new error arose at the other extreme. This was that such services helped the soul of the deceased to reach heaven. It came from Catholic teaching. I have had to combat it constantly, but some believe it still.
Most of the Clallams now put their dead in the ground. Those who are Catholics have a funeral service by their own priest. In February, 1881, I was at Jamestown, when a child of Cook House Billy died. I went through with the services—the first Christian ones that had ever been held there. They soon asked how they should do if I were absent, and I instructed them as best I could. Since then the Christian part of the community have obtained a minister of any Protestant denomination, if there was one to be obtained, to hold services at their funerals.