Washakie

A. Billion. STERLING. Kerick. Eloquent at the council fire. Sagacious and planning campaigns. For 50 years as chief of the Shoshones he has the confidence and love of his. Memory of his love. For us. On. Golinger to assist them in their troubles. And he will never be forgotten. So long as the mountains and streams of Wyoming. Which was home. Are his main. There's always been. Rovere. People for him. No matter which group they come from. Sometimes just referred to as the old man. One I prefer that one day. I wish it. Was always for. Me. Anyhow. I don't.

Duel per. Hour. Witnessed witnessing that. And. They were. Trying to make up for. His work or suffer any. More. I am. Well I don't know. This. Story has many ways of remembering. The written word the story by the campfire the statue by the battlefield. The legacy of war should be the last chief of the Eastern Shoshoni is a place. The wind river Indian reservation. A fast track of beautiful landscape that stretches from the rushing water. Wind River Canyon. West around the broad fertile valley. And up amidst the blue alpine lakes to the peaks of the continental divide.

After a life that spanned an entire century this is where he was buried. He had been a warrior a leader and a diplomat. And now he rested in the soil he had secured for his people. But his story began hundreds of miles away in another high valley far to the north. Washi who would become a great chief of the Eastern Shoshone was born among another tribe in the Bitterroot Mountains at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This is their home. Base where they. Gather all of their roots. All. The plants everything was here. His father was a member of the sailors tribe known to some as the Flathead. His mother was a member of a band that fished for salmon in what is now Idaho. Bitter it's hardly fair. To travel over the mountain into my 40s. They

were allies. Blood. Brothers. Nobody would make you an outcast you know because you had a thought anyway. The sailors and the Shoshoni of two hundred years ago knew intimately the valleys and lakes and peaks of the Northern Rockies. They knew where the buffalo were. Where their enemies were. The spiritual places. They did not know where France was but they had met French trappers. They did not know who the president was though he ostensibly ruled even the unmapped country of the American West. They could not know what incredible changes lay ahead. The Shoshone homeland's and the entire continent would be utterly changed in this century of wash Ikey's life. President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark in 1884 to explore the Louisiana Purchase from St. Louis to the west coast.

They were followed by a flood of immigrants who marveled at the wild promising world of the West. For the Americans already in the West. The Native Americans the newcomers unsettled everything. And made the world wild. When the white man came they came from another world another hemisphere that they lived in a long time. So they live their way and we live our way over here. They weren't the same. When they came here they brought diseases with. New diseases like smallpox from which few Indians had immunity. The introduction of the horse and the rifle and the beginning of the destructive harvest of wild game in the West. The tide of American empire a great movement of immigrants compressing the native tribes until they were fighting with each other and with the U.S. military all in just a century.

A collision of utterly different cultures vying for the land and the heart of a new nation. There are no surviving stories of Washington's childhood among the Salish. But we know that as an Indian boy of that time he would be an experienced hunter at an early age. He might have gone on a vision quest to gain strength and guidance. When he started walking. They're already. Getting their discipline. Of. Getting their discipline. Up to 10 years old. They were in the care of the mothers. After 10 years old they become you know into the hands of the uncles or to. Their fathers. To take. The train. The sailors were a relatively peaceful people. But they found themselves fighting over hunting grounds and horses with the Blackfeet from the north. A skirmish with a band of Blackfeet set off a chain of

events that would lead to the Shoshone. Family. They were up that way toward Montana and. They happened to run into my bike and they killed his dad young wash. He survived the attack. He said A man came to him. And he said when he caught it I told him he was going to be a leader. He said the man disappeared. He said he had a bright. Light around him. He looked over this hill. There were some writers. He said I can understand these people understand these. They were speaking my mother's language. The leader. Who. Came. Here strong look at her still standing.

The boy found a new home among the Shoshone. Dilemma. Were one of many Shoshone bands throughout the West. Ranging from the deserts of Utah to California and North to Canada. All of the different bands of Shoshoni spoke the same language. The only difference in the language in speaking languages the dialect if communication became a problem was also in sign language Schicchi was fully accepted among the LMI Shoshoni and trained as a warrior and Hunter. Young children are treated as adults. If they wanted their child to be a war. Leader. They were spiritually. Trained. To use the mind. To endure pain. As a young man he also ran with a bannock band. The band shared the snake river country with the Shoshoni. The more aggressive young band acts sometimes rated immigrant travelers and there are stories that Washi participated.

That's where he really sharpened his skills with the batiks as far as a warrior you know you're growing to adulthood and so from that I think the batiks were pretty. They like to fight for only they would fight you know. But the batiks seemed to do a lot more of it as the record history records show their first fight. I was a boy. They were in the party. We went where we found five large black. We crawled up for sure. Several black for a 93. It was during this period that he received the name we know today.

Some people say that's rawhide rattle. Is big when people talk the people. In. The area that I grew up. In. Actually it was. In reference to the scar. That Hirshhorn a name for that. Rattler's like it. My greater come in and curve that we're do wash. And right there is what they call the boy because. He would have a rattle that he made from a buffalo. And what he would do is when he would go into battle he would shake it so that it would spook the horses and they would think that it was a rattlesnake. But his destiny was to be a leader and that would happen among the Eastern Shoshone in the wind river valley. The bands have shown it would eventually unite under wash.

Were skilled at survival in very difficult environments from the dry basins of Utah to the big rivers of what is now Idaho some other tribes referred to them where the hand sign the sign in the sign language of the Plains tribes for the Schoeni was the snake that was a sign of respect for the Schoeni people but it also was an indication that just Schoeni people were very capable of outmaneuvering other tribes. Archaeological digs suggest that Schoeni in people inhabited the fringes of the Rocky Mountain Cordillera for thousands of years. The Shoshone language connects the tribe to the Indians of Central America such as the ancient Aztecs among North American tribes. The Shoshoni are related closely to the Piutes and utes of the Great Basin and to the Comanche who became one of the most powerful tribes in the American Southwest. It was from the Comanche their relatives to the south that the Shoshone first obtained

Spanish horses probably early in the eighteenth century. They didn't have words for horses. They called them big elk Shonka big dog and they changed the life of all the tribes. And it also made the Shoshone people very strong in the field. The Shoshone became much more mobile. Traveling north to Canada south to Mexico and across the Rockies to reach the huge bison herds to the east they became the most powerful tribe on the northern plains. When the Plains tribes acquired horses their cultures flourished at an unimaginable rate because their lives were so simplified in so many ways where before they'd spend all their time hunting for survival on foot. During this brief period of glory and prosperity on the plains in the eighteenth century.

The distinct character of the Eastern Shoshone took shape. Now other more powerful forces would begin closing in and a new kind of leadership would emerge another force from the east. And this was the gun. Eventually all the tribes got horses and all the tribes got guns. When that happened. All the forces because of. The reputation of the Shoshones the snakes they allied and he began to push the snakes out of Canada. And. Push them back down into Montana and Wyoming. To. Politicians like Thomas Jefferson. The West offered space a vast empty repository where you could send restless pioneers and Indian tribes from the east.

But as more Indians were pushed west and more whites moved in. The pressure was immense. Indians struggled to figure out their new neighbors. Because their lives depended on it. They spoke a language few Indians understood they were protected by the well armed troops who seemed to think the land was theirs. Into this tumult stepped was a tall striking figure whose broad experience prepared him as a new kind of leader for a new era in the West. His leadership was evident not just of the Shoshoni but to the non-Indians as well. He was a man born to command having strength and dignity endurance and a countenance expressive of fine character and determination. Elizabeth Burtt Army wife 1865 stranger saw these attractive qualities in Wash Iki at an early age

as a young man after his time with the LMI and Baniyas he hooked up with Whyte. Trapper's was said in an interview in 1893 with Captain Patrick Henry Ray who was the Indian agent that he met Jim Bridger soon after Bridger made his entry into this country that occurred in 1824 so we can probably assume that was Schicchi met Jim Bridger 1825 26 somewhere in there which was the dates of the first rendezvous is. Keys friendship with Bridger may have played a role in his rise to power among the Eastern Shoshone. Proof he could communicate with the ever increasing whites. Great leaders of people come up through the ranks. In them days you have had to have power. And power. And that. One has physical power and you have to be strong physically strong and brave. The other one is spiritual and that is something within you.

That part was people in your relationship to the one. So I think a combination of them thing. Makes for a leader. There's nothing that's hereditary about it in our tribe it's a matter of people's choice of who you want to follow. A group of people are willing to follow you because are able to get decisions it's it's a title of respect. As far as skills you know you talk about some of those being able to. Meet the needs of the tribe by knowing where a game is or to set up a defensive if there are. Even to attack those who come into the area. We know from watching his interview with Captain Ray that he went on at least seven race the first two or three he a follower somebody else is leading these roads by the third or fourth. Was he just the leader.

So this demonstrates that he was following that the pattern of. Movement into prominence. He was noticed first as and gained some notoriety as a leader. They wanted to put wife through church ceremonies. They. Cut their. Fingers. But. The march. On is the chief's bartender the chief part is wrong. So they become blood brothers. He comes into the written record in the 1840s and this is when Osburn Russell mentioned that Watsky was one of these rising young warriors who was well known for his prowess in battles against the Blackfeet. The village of the snake chief already amounted to more than 300 lodges and moreover he was supported by the bravest man in the nation among whom were all able to see

and wash with the pillars of a nation whose names the Blackfeet quaked in fear. Osborne Russell. The years that followed were a most difficult time for the Shoshone Indians. They were beset on all sides. White immigrants to the south Blackfeet and crow to the north. Soon from the east to the west and now Mormons moving into Utah will gain diminishing many tribes coveted the hunting grounds of the Wind River and big corn basins. The Fort Laramie negotiations of 1851 were the first major attempt by the U.S. government to settle matters with the powerful Plains tribes. The Sioux the Cheyenne the Arapaho the Crow. It was Jim

Bridger Shakey's trapper friend who convinced the Shoshoni that they should be at this treaty meeting to the Shoshoni hesitated before entering the open country of their enemies. There had been trouble with the Sioux only days before when they finally did arrive. It was with a great show of strength. They were dressed in their best riding fine war horses and made it grandly savage appearance the chief alone a short distance in advance. A shoe sprang upon his horse bow and arrows and hand rushed towards Washington. The chief moved a few steps farther and raised his gun ready to fire. Just as the machine was pulled from his horse in. The attitude of the snakes the cool deliberate action of the chief the staunch firmness of his warriors and a quiet demeanor of women and children were perfectly self-possessed Percival of dragon. When I think about the things that my grandmother directly knew about what happened that your grandfather said

that he rode in. There was a lot of enemies there. But they didn't do anything. That he was ready. Because this was where he wanted to live. She said your grandfather took. Some of his men. They would go out and practice a battle said everybody in the camp. It's real quiet. They knew something. Was coming up. Sometimes she would put on. Your best raking. If you were to come back he wasn't afraid. And. If his men are. Moggi would kill him quick and then you would have got their backs up and it wouldn't be enough room to camp round here for dead soon it'll be a proud day for his next event. Perry tried to pitch in to. And they're not a bit of break off the brake pedal these days.

Jim Bridger when he dealt with the whites in the 1940s and 50s he dealt with the whites from a position of power. He regarded them as probably less than his equal because they were very weak out here on the plains and in the Rocky Mountains at that time. But when the treaty at Fort Laramie was signed there was no mark of wash iggie on it. The wind river country belonged to the crows. While she was in fact at his most powerful during the 1850s. Despite the Army's attempt to undermine him. His people moved about in eastern Utah the Fort Bridger area the Green River Country and The Wind River Valley. This is Schoeni every few years would continue a tradition that went back several generations of of all the different bands from Oregon to Wyoming gathering in one place. And at this time they would have like a supreme chief I guess we would call them. And in 1856 according to some of the historians

was that he was that Chief. The Crow controlled the northern end of the Wind River Valley and there were fights between them and the Shoshone. The battle to hearts are cruel heart viewed as it's often known took place about 1850 to the 1857 is near as we can tell from the documentary sources and based on oral traditions as well. The battle came about primarily because of federal meddling in Indian Affairs namely the treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851. This treaty ignored the fact that the Shoshoni sheep eaters had lived in the mountains of the rivers in the Yellowstone area for a long long time and that Chief Shoshones often traveled through the river. Hunted there used it to get to other places in a popular version of the Crow heart Butte story was shaky and big robbers settled the tribes differences in hand to hand combat the image of the two warriors fighting a cruel heart. Beaute has become a wild west legend. The real story

is debated among historians crows and Shoshoni. I was told when I was a little girl was that the battle of Kerl heart did not actually happen at Krogh heart beaute a group of crow hunters had come down and stole. Some horses from the only people at their camp. And. She. To. Chase the crows. As far as Mexican pass where they were covered the horses. But. While they were there they did fight and some crows were killed. And the ones that survived were sent back with half of their scalps intact as a message to the people. That. Don't. Want to be messed with. When he challenged checkoff chief. He said. I'm going to cut your heart out. When that battle is over. Kill. And they said he held his. Heart. On the last. Battle. And rode with them.

My dad used to say that he did take his heart. My grandmother said he it. So. Between the two I'd say there's some truth to. This battle. Everyone agrees was shaky emerged with the crowd wife. To her descendants. That's indisputable. My great grandmother was a was a Crose. She took. What was absolutely Sly's flight. Well you have to take something and women are always the best. Lessons are good of course. But the real struggle of the mid 19th century for the Schoeni as well as other tribes on the plains and in the West was for sustenance. The game that had sustained them for centuries had been wiped out in just a few devastating years. Game enough could not be fellon for Indians to subsist for one year. In my opinion reservations should be made with out delay. Jacob Forni superintendent of Indian Affairs Utah territory

even one Sheekey who consistently made overtures of peace toward the US government protested the impact of the settlers on the land and wildlife. This is my country and my people's country. My father didn't have to drink from the river. All our ponies raised on his bottom. Are mothers gathered dry wood from this land. The. Buffalo. Here with water and grass. But now they have either been killed or driven back to the land. Grassers all eaten all of the white man's horses and cattle and the dry wood has been burned. And some. Human. And get tired and hungry you have come to the camp. Had been. Ordered. To get out in his anger wash. He made some threats but he repeatedly pressed Indian agents for a reservation.

He wanted to live in peace. Wyoming at that time was the last best place. The last largely unsettled region and not only where was it Schoeni home territory it had been for hundreds of years but now all these other tribes were trying to move into the area. The Sioux especially is the largest and most powerful of those tribes was overtly hostile. They were dedicated to driving the Shoney's back through South Pass into the Great Basin. Crickets with his large horse and his hold on valuable hunting lands. He knew the Sioux. Coveted his wealth but his band was caught largely by surprise in their camp. Along the Sweetwater river by a Sioux war party in mid June of 1861 the Shoshones under watch were camped at the site. We called Bert ranch today. At that time it was a trading post called Gilbert station. At the last crossing of the Sweetwater.

On the morning of June 20th on one of the longest days of the year the older women were as usual getting up early and beginning to light the cooking fires outside the tepees and prepare breakfast when the sun was rising over the bluffs above camp. Between 100 and 200 Sioux Cheyenne and Arapaho Warriors appeared with the sun at their backs and the Sioux thundered through the camp and weave between the tepees and they were stealing all tethered horses. There was a village on. The theft of horses was a major loss but more devastating to wash Ikey was what happened to his oldest son. Not a guy not a guy wrote him with his the other warriors from from Gilbert's station where they spent the night watch. He berated this young man. Called him an old woman said What are you doing riding into camp after our enemies have attacked and fled. Why aren't you chasing them down out there. So.

Not a guy with his horse in charge of camp and up the hill alone. According to one of the written records of people who have the traders who witnessed the whole battle says he had a Colt revolver in each hand and he shot down one sou on the one side and and others on the other side before the remaining Sioux warriors crossed their lances and his body. Wash. He always felt his face. The words had fled not a right out so impetuously. In addition to losing his son for what he supposedly mourned for days and his hair turned white. His village was also now in more danger. He. Described his despondent removed his band to Green River lakes and waited. Indian agents ever watchful. And often wrong. Trying to size up the situation. One of the misconceptions that the Euro American tradition has about Indian leadership is that there was this military.

Organization where one person had forty over all the rest of the members of the tribe or the band. Just Schoeni leadership takes place within the context of band or family affiliation. If there are disagreements it's OK for somebody to go elsewhere. The size of Washi Keyspan fluctuated. There were other Shoshoni chiefs like Puccio and bear hunter and aggressive Baniyas who were drawing away young warriors from the age in chief. That was certainly the lowest point. In. His career. And. They reeled literally. Self. Has. Passed Fort Bridger and even clear down into the Salt Lake Valley to see if he could begin to try and put some kind of. Power structure back together and that really didn't occur until January of 1863 at the Bear River massacre.

One of the worst massacres of the war against Native Americans occurred at Bear River. Responding to reports of raids by Shoshoni bannock bands along the Idaho Utah border. Colonel Patrick Connor and the 3rd California volunteers made a surprise attack. Honestly Schoeni encampment along the Bear River. Two hundred Indians were killed including women and children. Newspaper accounts never told the Indian story. The carnage presented in the ravine was horrible. Warrior warrior horses mangled and wounded in every conceivable form. Here there a squad who had been. Accidentally killed. San Francisco born was a woman and a woman and she told her grandson Let's go up there among the dead. Maybe our lives will inspire and from. The. In. The eyes.

Read the snow was bright red with a. Subdued survivors of the massacre at Bear River rejoined his band. The chief had been right. A small tribe had no chance against the might of the U.S. military. It was time to negotiate. He wasn't going to be able to stop the movement of the whites. He understood that he needed to develop an alliance with the white people and with the military in order to secure the safety of his people and you could see that in several of the other smaller crimes wash he thought they were in the same condition. So. When they were. There and saw this new mighty force coming. Numbered as many as leaves on the Prairie. Untold numbers of newcomers. They made. Sure that they were allies with this new force

because maybe they saw the writing on the T-P. At Fort Bridger in 1863. The U.S. government offered the Shoshoni a vast. Reservation. Stretching from the wind river mountains north to the snake river. South to Utah in the mountains and west to some undefined border near the Great Salt Lake. This was not the sort of bearing. On. Wanted track from which reservations were usually made. 1863. Was. Much larger than compass. A lot of things that our tribe needed. The importance of these treaties to the government and to its citizens can only be appreciated by those who know the value of the continental Telegraph and overland stage to the commercial and mercantile world and for the safety and security which peace can provide to the

trains and to travel to the gold discoveries of the north which exceed in richness any discoveries on this continent. James Duane doti commissioner of Indian Affairs 1863 the government's motives were purely generous. They saw Shoshoni reservation as a buffer to keep the aggressive suit and others from attacking emigrants as they headed west stabilizing the region that connected the coasts of a country divided by civil war. But the huge Shoshone reservation was poorly defined and five years later another treaty council was held at Fort Bridger. They are called to Fort Bridger. To talk about a treaty. They were given a chance. To Pictou a reservation where. They. Went around up.

Around and through Pinedale and through all that territory where they were set too much when they went down into a jack for much dough and they were no further on where. They all to go for winker. Everything that we need in. This place. A treaty for. All the old faller their names. Here. I want for my home. Valley of the wind river. And lands. On his tributaries as far east as the proposed privilege of going over the mountains to hunt where I please chief why he chose this area because of the vast beauty because of its vast abundance of wild game and we have the water which provided fish for the people in.

An area for camps to be set up. Now our primary source of revenue is generated by the minerals of this land. In retrospect chief watch Aquia still looking out for the people here on the reservation. He and his council members got to choose the reservation so they chose a land that they knew well and was rich in natural resources. I see the 1868 treaty as another attempt on the part of Washi not only to secure one of the last remaining refuges of the buffalo and a food supply which he knew but also the government must have. Felt very good about moving. This is Shawnee and other people away from the critical passage through southern Wyoming. The idea of moving them into the one river territory was that that became the perfect place for a reservation. So here government and Shoshoni interest coincide it was a again show his skill at

negotiations. In the second tree he demanded military assistance food and clothing and firm boundaries defining a three million acre reservation that included the wind river valley. It also encompassed South Pass where the Oregon Trail passed through and the high wind river mountain country with its hundreds of lakes and herds of elk and deer. Schicchi is often quoted speaking with a conduit an air of an absolute leader. His command seemed to come naturally. But what sort of man was he when he stood beside you and spoke with you and showed his feelings. These are hard things to know. Across the Gulf of history my grandfather is the son of Chief washday. My grandmother that raised me was a daughter in law. And she took care of him till the last days of his life.

The thing that I always thought about that grandma told me was a good spirit about him and he prayed. He was able to lead his people because of his spirituality because he believed in the Creator. The man that took him when he was a boy was the same way. He was the one that was given the Shoney's Sundance now. My. Knew about the Sundance and he sang. He carried a Bible time. He would. Do the medicine wheel first. Then he prayed and God is directions were to go. Down and get those stones.

Fixed pipe and. It is known that they use it for prayer and the older and because they believed in it that way to get the connection to a. Great. Spirit. He seemed quite capable of irony and sly humor. When a group of Mormons suggested that they would like to take young Shoshoni women as brides. He thought a moment then he said fine and we will be over to your camp to select women for ourselves in 1874 a young school teacher named James Patton accompanied wash Iki on a hunting trip in the AL Creek mountains there among these people. We find a man well into his 70s still full of vigor and vitality. Huge fires were burning throughout the camp harangues were made by the old man

incantations made by medicine man. Drums were beating. Rattlesnake. Wash. He himself saved on this wild and weird camping ground. Like another bean his voice loud and clear rang out on the night air as he addressed his. Face lighted up and caused great enthusiasm among the young and the old as they joined in singing their old war songs and the drums beat louder as one and then another of the old men took up a speech enumerating the victory here and there over their enemies their own bravery and their success on the hunt. James Patton schoolteacher 1874. That would be one of Washington's last hunts. The bison already wiped out most of the West would soon be gone from the wind river and Big Horn basin to. The era of reservation life had begun.

An experiment in which neither the US government nor the tribes knew what to expect for the eastern Shoshone. The adjustment from their old nomadic life to a settled community. Was difficult. They hung back near Fort Bridger at first fearing that they would be attacked by their enemies if they settled permanently at Wind River. After the treaty of 1868. You know it took them a couple of years to actually move over here and the expectation was that they would move here in the United States with guarantee. A physician. For. Medical. Purposes education for their children. Food. Things that they needed and that they would actually learn to become farmers. Those were the expectations they would be protected from attacks. The enormous Sioux tribe often allied itself with Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors. In a sense the Shoshones relationship with the U.S. Army was

a similar alliance for mutual defense but often in the early years on the reservation. The tribe had to take care of itself. Why should he and his war chiefs were up to the task when the Sioux Cheyenne and Arapaho attacked at Trout Creek. They had a little house over there where they could put. The. Government and military dependents you know wives and children. But really there was no place to put women and children or the Schoeni tribes or what they did was they actually took them west up Trout Creek and hid them. And because they had best notice on that battle it was able to set their tepees up along a ridge and actually dig down inside the tepees and set the TVs up high. There was warriors with rifles and bows. They were inside those tepees all dug down. Much like you would probably dig a foxhole and they were able to

shoot out from under those. Tepees and. Kill quite a few but they didn't kill they. They chase towards Casper Shoshoni warriors sometimes accompanied U.S. Army troops in campaigns to subdue tribes that were traditional Shoshoni enemies even washee. Now in his 70s sometimes went riding with General George Crook in his campaign against the Sioux the Shoshoni say that if the generals had listened to Washington Kuster staff that little Big Horn would never have happened. That to. Talk to me that. They joined up with the. Army. They had the enemies to. Straighten things out. They got help from each other. They fought the shoe.

Shine. Sometimes the battles were close to home. In June of 1874. Troops under Captain alphabets set out from camp Brown after an Arapaho hunting party. Though there was no evidence that they were to blame for any attacks. These were Shoshoni enemies. So why should he and his warriors accompany the troops as they traveled at night to the Owl Creek mountains. We had several body alkali creeks to cross and deep Arroyo's ravines high sandy ridges and infernal sagebrush deserts. From the terrain treacherous and taxing. Flowing Hair and the swarthy countenances of the Shoshones mingled with the eager faces and the uniforms of the officers. Dr. Thomas Magee in early morning the troops and warriors came over a ridge above the sleeping at Arapahoe camp. The battle was hand-to-hand with heavy losses for the Arapaho who retreated to a plateau above the camp and fired down on the attackers.

When Lieutenant Young fellow shiki and his men held the line and when it was impossible owing to the concentration of the enemy to hold the point longer he ordered the noted scout cars to carry lieutenant off and. Slowly be treated under a desperate fire. James or an Indian agent. Four years later in 1878 about six hundred Arapaho would arrive starving and cold with the Shoshone reservation. They had suffered losses and hunger. And promises of an Arapahoe reservation had been made and broken. The Arapaho people arrived here on the reservation. Destitute. Hungry. And they had no place else to go. And when the government. Put them here on the reservation with the Schoeni people. Chief Washington said yes. You know they may stay for one winter.

Nevertheless the government intended to be permanent and never made that plain to the owners or the Arapahoes. The Shoshones although they were opposed to it. And look upon it as cultural and their rights. Yet will make no great objections. Wash and the headman though they dislike bitterly to divide their property with other bands have two great hearts to say no. James a pattern. Indian agent you know as I was told by my grandmother. Even though we were two separate people our were two separate tribes were still Indian people. And she would tell me now and US oil and us. We are as one. The Arapaho would never leave the Wind River Indian Reservation. It was one of many promises made and broken to both the Shoshone and the Arapaho.

To this day people still argue about what is right and wrong about reservations. But in war time what was wrong was quite evident the tribes that exchange their freedom and their claims on the traditional lands in exchange for their own inviolate piece of property and government support to help them get started. The efforts of tribal members were stymied when annuities were cut or farm implements failed to arrive. Farming on the Wind River as a nation is a dicey proposition for anybody. Not to mention Indians who had basically no background in farming they were a hunting culture. The government expected this has shown is to far. But they never supplied them with what they really needed to make them successful. And that was water. He never dreamed in his wildest nightmares that the whites would come

in. And. Literally take over everything. By the late 80s hundreds. Of people would be undereat wanted three mortality rate for a white man kills or game. Captures our furs. And sometimes feeds his herds upon our meadows and your great mighty government does not protect us in our rights. It leaves us with the promising. Without tools for cultivating the land. Without food we still lack without the school we need so much for our children. Again say the government does not keep its word. At the very time that Shoshoni re-assigning the 1868 treaty a gold rush was developing in the high country around South Pass. The miners were digging within the reservation boundaries. So the government sent Felix Bruneau a veteran negotiator with tribes to see if the Schoeni would give up the land

in exchange for some acreage to the north. The government thinks that exchange is fair if the Indians do not think it fair. It is for them to say so. I have two hearts about her. This land is good. There is plenty of grass berries parries corals and fish. That in the north is poor and I think it belongs to the crows. Suppose you give the president that land and the President gives you five thousand dollars worth of cattle every year for five years. This you shown he gave up seven hundred thousand acres in the negotiations with Bruneau. The wash. Do you recognize the value of resources like gold. He could see dangerous conflicts looming with miners in the South Pass area. Peace was the path. Then he and the other Shoshoni leaders had chosen. Watsky does confer with his council members to pursue the best policy.

It looks like he has absolute authority but he's doing the same thing he did all along which is use his advisors to help him decide the best course of action for his people. I think that's one of the. Main qualities or later to work was a. Cover. Up. After 1885 Shoshoni wealth decline rapidly. This happened because Buffalo had been killed off. It also happened because where there were good hunting and game lands. Now white ranchers spread their hundreds of thousands of cattle into the areas which destroyed the resources available for a wild game. There was also something called the Panic of 1893 which was the most severe Riffe recession depression. The United States had ever experienced up to that point and budgets to Indian agencies were cut severely. All in all this

contributed to massive poverty of all Indian tribes not just the Shoshones. Once again the federal negotiators came around to parly for a chunk of the reservation this time in 1896. Speculators were interested in the eastern side of the reservation particularly a huge hot spring that flowed into the Big Horn River. U.S. Indian inspector James McGlothlin offered the Shoshoni and Arapaho sixty thousand dollars for the hot spring and 10 square miles of land around it. Major McGlothlin evidently had his instructions as to what he should do. At the same time the treaty was not entirely satisfactory to me. I thought that the amount paid was absurdly low for the finest hot spring on earth. Pernell Richard Wilson 1896. But Wash Ikey's focus was not on monetary value. It was on the

survival of his people. I used to go to the hotsprings on the. A game and buffalo were there. When buffalo were plenty I went there. Now. I have moved away. I was afraid to stay there and there was nothing to eat. My friends I spoke for this land are all dead. And gone. I am the only one. The old me and my people left. Wilson was one of many military men who had the greatest respect for the old Shoshone chief that respect went all the way to the top. President Ulysses S. Grant something of a warrior himself during the Civil War. Sent Washi a silver trimmed saddle as a gift in 1876. Asked by an Indian agent for a reply to take back to the president. He was silent. Only after some prodding. Did he speak when a

favor is shown a white man. Feels that it is him. And. His. Speech. Is shown to an Indian. Who feels. His heart. His heart. Worship 1876. Wash. He was an old man now. The life he had been born to following the cycles of the seasons was long gone. Skirmishes battles and wars had been won and lost. His people around him in the warm valley. He had the respect of presidents. But he stayed close to his family. And he lived to be old. A lot of times. Good people look. To. Good. That's what they're here for.

To the end the old man lived a robust unpretentious life. He made visits around the reservation. Often riding his horse. In February 19:00. His health took a turn for the worse. He had been having difficulty. And finally. Could no longer rise from his bed. He had last words with his friends and family before he died. He said I brought you here to this land. It's beautiful. This is where I like to live. This is where. I brought my people. We lived a good life here. I want to say a few words. To my children and their family. I want you to open your eyes and say you know what I have saved you. It has always been my hope to keep peace and harmony.

I have never permitted to pray for depredation by my people. When it was possible for you to prevent it. It is my earnest prayer that you my children will follow the footsteps which are made for you. Always be highly respected by our people and the white people. I not telling news to you but to all. He was buried with full military honors at the cemetery in Fort Washington where he lives today.