CHAPTER III.
THE WANDERING TRIBE.
FROM the land of Cheek-cheek-alth, the mystic Eden of long ago, came our wandering tribe of people who long since inhabited North and South America; for we are all one people. Among them were our leaders, the men who possessed in their secret breasts the true name of God. These men and women in our language we call Talth, and were the High Priests, and great rulers who ruled our people. Therefore, we were one of the tribes that was never ruled by a single chief, but by our Talth, or High Priests. Upon leaving the old land the Talth carried with them the forked root, Walth-pay, (the root from which woman was made) and the stalk of this root as a divine rod of strength, endurance and courage, being used as a saviour of the tribe. With it the Talth would command food for their famished members and bring peace and rest to their weary bodies. The Walth-pay stalk kept perfectly green, and blossomed all the while, and the High Priests carried it with them on their long journeys and years of wanderings.
In my infancy, I was taught all that was good, and to make for a true and noble womanhood; that there was a God in Heaven who ruled over all, and during my researches throughout I have found nothing better. When these last two members finish their earthly reign, with us perishes the true name of God to my people. With it has perished from the earth our trueIndian laws, our sublime religion, our deeds of chivalry, as rich as the civilized world has ever beheld. Also our glorious manhood and womanhood; immoral, corrupt, tottering, down-trodden and debauched by a superior race, we have perished in that winter night of the transition period. At a single blow our laws were torn asunder; loathsome diseases we had never known crushed out the life and beauty of our physical bodies, and demented our spiritual minds with lowly passions. Poisonous spiritous drink has set the brain on fire, degrading man and womanhood, thus as a race we have perished. And this great land, the richest the world has ever known, the land of our forefathers for so many thousands of years. Now another race is struggling on where our reign has ended. Already our great rulers are at rest, and forever; laureled with the glories of the primeval ages that have passed away in silence. As a nation, like the ancient Egyptians, we have grown old and passed away; we have seen a great civilization rise to the highest of its splendors and pass away to another land beyond recall. Today we see another civilization endowed with a splendor of its own, rising over the debris of the eternal years.
We are all one tribe from the source of the Klamath river to its mouth, and down the coast as far as Trinidad, (Cho-ri) and up the coast as far as Wilson creek, which we call Ah-man. We are classed in two divisions and term ourselves as Po-lick-las along the coast and up the river as far as Weitchpec, designated as the lower division of our tribe. From Weitchpec on up the river to its source we term as Petch-ic-la, the upper division of our tribe. We intermarry to a great extent, having the same marriage laws and religious ceremonies and all our traditions and teachings are the same. We call God, Wah-pec-wah-mow, which means in our tongue the father of all and we do not consider Him as one “which has been so much of the white man’s allegory, but as an Invisible Omnipotent Being, who rules this great universe with an all seeing eye, He is everywhere.”
Wah-pec-wah-mow is the common name applied to God, used by all classes of our tribe, as the real and true name of God is never spoken. Our high priests, born of the royal marriages, are initiated in the Holy Lodge and are given the true name of God, but they never speak it outside of the lodge, it is only spoken inside after they have gone through a long andsecret communion, and then the name is only whispered in the lowest whisper from mouth to ear. This true name is only used by the Talth with profound reverence to the Great Creator, in the sacred lodge and in the hallowed lonely places far back on the high mountains where they go to worship in the profound solitudes, away from the gaze of curious people. Our religion has been too sacred, too sublime an ideal to quarrel over, hence we have remained silent through the gloom of so many years and borne patiently the insults on royal society as being heathens. This true name of God, as great as the universe, will never be spoken again. If it should be uttered in a loud and harsh tone of voice, it is said that the earth will tremble, ignite in mighty flames and pass away forever. Ever thus, since the creation of the world, the Talth have handed down our religion and traditions from the old land of Cheek-cheek-alth, from generation to generation. It is the duty of every Indian child to be pious and worship the Great Creator. Our sacred religion is O-pure-ah-way (the White Deer-skin dance) where all the members of the tribes in unison and worship, and entertain our guests with much hospitality.
In our recollections of the past we left the land of our birth (Cheek-cheek-alth) many thousands of years ago with our leaders, the Talth, who were given the true name of God in the old land, and carried with them the forked root, or Walth-pay. With this divine rod they commanded food, comfort and peace during their long years of weary wanderings. After we left the beautiful valley of Cheek-cheek-alth, for years we wandered down a European land, always moving toward the south, having our origin in the far north. Over this land we wandered like exiles, we know not how long, as it might have been centuries until we reached the rolling waves of the ocean. Upon reaching this salt water we made boats or canoes, and paddled over the waves until we reached the opposite shore, having crossed the straits in safety. Having reached this opposite shore, upon this new continent we continued our weary years of wandering, ever on, far on, down this land, always going south as before. We carried the memory through the long ages, the perils of the far north, the huge icebergs, the regal monarchs of the North that floated like ghost-ships at night on dream-land seas, the splendors of the aurora borealis flickered across the snowy fields and throughthis land of the midnight sun came our brave forefathers. In this land of the frozen North some of our people were left, the Esquimau; they were given a language as they were separated from our sturdy band and emigrated over the snowy fields and have long since from this time on inhabited the land of perpetual ice and snow.
Our tribe would often become weary with travel and become very dissatisfied and would quarrel much among themselves. The Talth would stop after hearing so much grumbling and build a lodge where their members would hold a meeting and offer up worship to God, that He would guide them aright, endow them with power to bring peace among their people, comfort them in their wants and give them food. After the lodge meeting and prayer the Talth would command with the rod of Walth-pay food for their people. The food came to them in the form of acorn dough out of which they made bread or pop-saw. The Indians would never see pop-saw falling to the ground, but they would find it where the Talth told them to look, and each one would be compelled to gather up their own, or they would go hungry. As long as they remained camped in the same place the pop-saw would come to them but when they would break up camp and travel on the pop-saw would cease to come and the tribe would grow very hungry and begin to quarrel again. The Talth would stop after days of fatigue and hunger, and build another lodge where their members would worship at the sacred shrine. After the worship food would come again in the form of the acorn dough, commanded with rod of Walth-pay. Sometimes the Talth would leave the camps for several days, during which time the people would become very restless and discontented and some of the people would try to perform the duties of the Talth in their absence, and some of them would pray to the sun, some to the stars and other idols. The Talth would be very much humiliated upon their return to find their people so corrupt in their worship, and it would take much faithful work to assure peace and order among them again. The Talth would plant the herb, Walth-pay at their stopping places during their travels, and it would readily take root and grow, at almost every stopping place some of our people were left and God would give them a language; they would inhabit the locality permanently and branch out to otherlocalities, while our part of the people traveled on until they reached their final earthly home on the Klamath river, which we call Health-kick-wer-roy, and here we found the white race, (Wa-gas) which will be told of in another chapter. Thus we traveled on down a great continent, leaving behind at our stopping places, a portion of our people, which were given different languages. Thus were our languages confounded among the tribes of America, and our tribes became numerous, being scattered over the land of the midnight sun of perpetual ice and snow, over the continent of North America to the equator and regions of perpetual sunshine; and beyond the equator over the continent of South America to its farthermost southern borders, where we merge into the regions of ice and snow again, our tribes have been scattered. Over this great land we are all one people, however some of our tribes were far superior to others. We know not how many centuries we wandered, or when we reached our last stopping place on the Klamath river and where we decided our long journey should end, and that we would make this our final home. The Wah-teck, Wah-ker-rah, Cor-tep and Pec-wan villages were among our first camping grounds on the Klamath river. Here we spread our camps and built our first houses long ages ago, and have resided in them and kept them in repair from generation to generation. Some of these primeval houses yet remain in these old villages, haunted with the romance of centuries and the inspiring history of past ages. Upon our first arrival there were a great many of our people and we began to divide off into different villages and locate along the Klamath river and down the coast as far as Trinidad, (Cho-ri) and up the coast to Wilson Creek (Ah-man). The other tribes were placed by Wah-pec-wah-mow in different localities, that all the people might sustain themselves with plenty of game and food, and be kept comfortable.
The Talth kept the Walth-pay in commemoration of God’s creation of woman and their travels, and planted it in a few selected places back in the lonely mountains. The Talth all know where to find this wonderful herb growing, but it is also fading with the remote ages as there are only a few Indians left who know where to find it. With them passes away the sacred rites and laws of an ancient nation forever, and the primeval art becomes a thing of the mystic ages.