“A good man is gone. The white man knows he was good, for he guided him round deserts and led him in paths where there was grass and good water. His people know he was good, for he loved them and cared for them and came home to them to die. All know that Truckee was a good man—Piutes and Americans. He is dead; the good man is gone. All of our people cry, for they loved Truckee.
I must go to Walker River and see the big Captain there and say to him, the good man is dead. I must go to Pyramid Lake, to Winnemucca, and say to him, the good man is dead. Winnemucca sits in the door of his house and says: ‘No sabe, no sabe?’ Winnemucca himself is growing old. When he knows the good man is dead, he and the big Captain at Walker River will have a talk and will choose a man to put in his place; but not many are fit to lead in the path where Truckee walked. [Captain John was himself chosen.] Truckee was much with the white men, he liked their way and learned much of them that we don’t understand. He wished to be buried as the white men bury their dead, and the white Winnemucca and the white men his friends have seen it done. I thank him and I thank them—I thank all for Truckee and Truckee’s people. Good-bye! I go to Walker River to see the big Captain—” and he at once set out on a run.
The Indians who remained packed up their traps, and setting fire to the hut in which Truckee died, they all set out along a trail leading to the northward, weeping and wailing as they went.
PRINCE NATCHEZ.
One of old Winnemucca’s wives (he had three or four) was a daughter of Captain Truckee. This wife was the mother of Sarah, known in Nevada as the “Princess Sarah.” She was educated at Santa Cruz, California, at a Catholic Mission, and reads and writes very well, sometimes writing articles for publication in the papers, concerning her people. She was married to a German named Snyder, and lived with him a number of years. Snyder died while on his way to Germany, on a visit, when the “Princess Sarah” married Lieutenant Bartlett, of the United States Army. She lived with him but a short time, when she left him and returned to her people.
When in towns and cities she dresses after the fashion of American ladies,[[C]] but when with her people generally dons the Piute dress. Her Indian name is Sonometa—even a prettier name than Sarah. Prince Natchez, a full brother of Sonometa, is heir-apparent to the Winnemucca throne and is now looked upon by all the Piutes as their leading man—the man to stir up the agent sent to the tribe by the “Great Father” at Washington, and he keeps all the money appropriated for the use of the Piutes. “Natches” is a name given to the “Prince” by the whites. His folks simply called him “Nah-tze,” the Piute for boy. The Indians have now split the difference and call him “Natchee.”
Old Winnemucca wears in his nose a stick some four inches in length, and when he goes to the happy hunting-ground Nachez will no doubt thrust into his nasal croppings this badge of royalty. The name, “Winnemucca,” means the charitable man.
