Kootenai people

“ We foregather at an ancient traverse in the land of the Kootenai . Twenty miles to the north lies an unguarded and almost invisible frontier , which separates two great nations . At our feet flows the beautiful river Kootenai , which rises many miles to the north -east among the glaciers of the Canadian Alps , and here , for a distance , touches elbows with the Republic before returning to the Dominion to complete its course to the Columbia . ”

“ Mountain Chief went outside and shouted the names of the men he wanted: a medicine [Pg 51] man; several old, wise men; some warriors of great name. They came and were given seats in his lodge, each man according to his standing in the tribe. Said the Kootenai then: ‘I have a sacred song that I want you all to learn. I will sing it over three or four times, then you sing it with me.’
“He sang the song. It was low in tone, and slow; a strange and beautiful song that gripped one’s heart. ”

“ In later years it became the much traveled road of settlers and miners and merchants from the south into the Kootenai Country . How long the first Kootanae House was maintained as a trading post is not known , but the traders of the Saskatchewan soon discovered a more direct road to and from it , by Bow River and Simpson or Vermillion Pass , to the Columbia a few miles below Lake Windermere . ”

“ The Kootenays seldom, if ever, whip their children, and one of them said that he would rather die than see a white man chastise his offspring. At one of the stores in the Upper Kootenay country a little Indian boy was playing 'hide-and-seek' with a little white girl as blithely as might be. ”

“ MacDonald , as his avant courier among the Indians to the south , probably was the first white man to descend the Kootenai River to Lake Kootenai , and the first to traverse the trail across the bend of the river , from Bonners Ferry to Cranbrook and Fort Steele , the present route of the Canadian Pacific.10 The winter of 1808-9 MacDonald spent in a leather lodge above Kootenai Falls in Montana ( at the mouth of Rainey Creek , probably ) , and there built a log hut to protect the trading goods and furs . ”

“ Te Kooti, without a moment's hesitation, replied, "In India the pakeha rules justly; here the governments have not treated the Maoris fairly: one government has promised one thing and one another, and they have all broken faith."
When I stated to him that since the formation of the colony one law and one sovereign reigned from one end of New Zealand to the other, and that that applied to the King Country as well as to any other part of the island, he replied, "That may be so. But," he continued, "you have your queen, and Tawhiao is our king. Whatever Tawhiao says, we must do." ”

“ But are not these written in the books of the chronicles , journals , documents and the printed pages of those early days , when Bonners Ferry was the gate way for trade and travel to and from this Kootenai land ? Graven on the monument we dedicate today are names of the sturdy white men , who first saw and used this an cient thoroughfare of the Indians ; names which rank high in the history of the Columbia . ”

“ Then destiny has been kind, father, for I have never been so truly happy as at Kootenay. I would a thousand times rather work with my hands, and eat the fruit of my labour, than get the softest job a city could offer me. ”

“ Vachel explained what a squaw-man is—a white who marries an Indian girl in order to get hold of her portion of land, the Indians of to-day being almost all of them endowed with land by the Government. We found again the Kootenai, now brawling through the plains, and bathed again, and reverted in spirit to those mountains. Then we tramped from tent to tent across the green wilderness where the Indians lived. ”

“ The true sportsman will immensely enjoy an excursion into the Kootenai country. The best route is from Kootenai station to Bonner's Ferry, on the Kootenai river, a distance of thirty-three miles by wagon road, and thence by boat, either down to the lake, a further distance of ninety [Pg 34] miles, or up into the mountains. Complete camping outfits may be obtained from Spokane Falls, the nearest town on the line of the railroad. ”

“ The Kootenays are very fond of their children, the men much more so than is commonly believed, or even supposed. To see a man carrying a little child is by no means a rare sight. Among the Lower Kootenay in Idaho, the writer saw one of the older men of the tribe playing in right human fashion with his children. ”

“ Te Kooti is well known as the great Hauhau leader during the war. He is a man of singular intelligence, and still exercises a widespread influence over the tribes. He was sent as a prisoner of war, with other natives, to the Chatham Islands, and his escape from that inhospitable region with his followers, together with his massacre of the settlers at Poverty Bay, form one of the most remarkable and stirring events connected with the campaign. ”

“ Do not free your chief yet. Listen to what he has to say. The Ayana Indians see these bound hands. Do they know who did it? Do they realise that the Chilcat dogs are in this land, and did this deed? The spirit of Klota came to Klitonda when he was tied to a tree and gave him liberty, and he has come to his own people. The sun shines, the streams run through the land, and the birds fly in the air. They are free, but the Ayana people are slaves. ”

“ The Kootenais live in the space bounded by the Columbia River, Rocky Mountains, and Clarke River. The Kitunaha, Coutanies, or Flatbows, 'wander in the rugged and mountainous tract enclosed between the two northern forks of the Columbia. The Flat-bow River and Lake also belong to them.' Hale's Ethnog., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. vi., pp. 204-5, map, p. 297. 'Inhabit the country extending along the foot of the Rocky mountains, north of the Flatheads, for a very considerable distance, and are about equally in American and in British territory.' Gibbs, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. ”

“ Whole families, refusing to come out when called upon by Te Kooti, perished miserably in the flames of their burning houses. And not only the white settlers, but a number of friendly natives, who had accepted the inevitable, and had settled down to live, as they hoped, in peace with the conquerors, were surprised and slaughtered without mercy. Indeed, throughout his campaign, Te Kooti evinced an undying hatred towards those tribes of his countrymen that had become friendly to the British, and he never spared any of them when taken prisoners. ”

“ They then saw that a fatal mistake had been committed in tacitly consenting to this assumption of independent power within the confines of the colony. Ever since, this portion of New Zealand has been a sort of refugium peccatorum for Maori offenders. The present Maori King—Tawhiao—has dwelt there for years in sullen seclusion, surrounded by the surviving veteran war chiefs. Here To Kooti is somewhere concealed from the vengeance of the colonists. As long as he remains within the charmed circle of the King Country he is perfectly safe ”

“ The Cootanies inhabit a section of country to the north of the Ponderas along M'Gillivray's river, and they are represented as an uncommonly interesting people. They speak a language distinct from all the tribes about them, open and sonorous, and free from gutturals, which are common in the language of the surrounding tribes. They are neat in their persons and lodges, candid and honest, and kind to each other. ”

“ The followers of Te Kooti, who sat around, were mostly men of over six feet in height, powerful in build, and stern and savage-looking in countenance, and with the same air of watchfulness about them as was observable in the manner of Te Kooti, as if th [Pg 337] ey, like their chief, had been ever on the qui-vive for their lives during their long sojourn of outlawry in the fastnesses of the King Country. ”

“ Again, in 1811, when Te Kooti, flying from us, took refuge in the King Country, and demanded the protection of the Waikatos, this was readily granted him; and the Waikato tribes, although they had no personal esteem for him, much less love or even family ties, would have gone to war with us rather than have surrendered him, had the New Zealand Government demanded him from them.
A Maori tribe considered it most unfortunate should even an accident befall a guest while dwelling in one of their villages ”

“ He then said that the Maoris did not want that war, but the pakehas would fight, and the Maoris fought them. I remarked [Pg 338] that it was now time for the two races to be as one, and that all the troubles of the past should be forgotten, and that the King Country should be opened by roads and railways. "I do not object," said Te Kooti, "to roads and railways; but," he continued, "we must hold the lands; it will not do for the natives to lose everything." ”

“ However, Te Kooti has now eluded justice for so many years that, unless some radical change should come over New Zealand affairs, the murderer of so many innocent men, women and children will in all probability never expiate his crimes on the gallows.
The "native difficulty" in New Zealand is by no means permanently settled. It has a disagreeable habit of forcing its way to the front when least expected; still, there is very little probability of actual war again arising between the Maories and the whites. ”

“ By no conquest do the Motuans live here, but simply because the Koitapuans allow them, saying, "Yours is the sea, the canoes and the nets, ours the land and the kangaroos; give us fish for our flesh, and pottery for our yams and bananas." What a power these Koitapuans have! midnight spirits travel at their will, strong men are laid low by them, canoes on distant travels never return because of them, burning sun, cracked earth, dried up bananas, and harvest-time and famine all belong to them. Who will not try to appease their wrath, to gain their favour? ”

“ They've been there since dark, hedged in by the Kootenais, who are only waiting for daylight to come. Heaven help our men when it does come!"
"The Kootenais? It can't be them. They are not hostile."
"Not yesterday," she agreed bitterly, "but they are to-day. They sent a messenger of good-will to camp this morning, the grandson of Grey Eagle. He was shot down, almost in sight of camp, by one of the soldiers, and the braves he had brought, the best in the tribe, attempted a rescue. Our cavalry pursued them, and were led into that ravine. The Indians knew the ground, and our men didn't. ”

“ If I am to die, so shall you," and fired point-blank at his captor. As the hammer fell, a Hauhau struck up the muzzle of the gun; but if the Maori—whose fate was sealed in any case—had not drawn attention to his action by making a speech, he would have had Te Kooti's company on the road to Reinga, and the [Pg 297] world would have been the sooner rid of a murderous ruffian.
Strong in his luck, Te Kooti skirmished and fought his way out of the Uriwera country and marched across to Taupo, where he compelled the allegiance of Te Heu Heu, chief of the "Boiling Water" tribes. ”

“ THE Kootenay Indians, who number between five hundred and a thousand persons, inhabit a strip of country between the Rocky and the Selkirk Mountains, partly in the United States and partly in British Columbia. As a rule, their moral character and behavior are good, and they are honest, kind, and hospitable ”

“ Te Kooti himself escaped, and for the next two years he lived the life of a hunted animal, chased through the gloomy forests by the relentless Ropata. He fought many fights; his twenty Hau Hau followers were often near to death from starvation; but at length wearied out he threw himself on the mercy of the white men, was pardoned, sunk into obscurity, and died in peace.
War was not really at an end till 1871; as up to that date occasional skirmishes took place. But there never was any fear of a general rising of the Maoris after 1866. ”

“ In March 1869 the great hardships, the bitter weather, the large number of wounded and, above all, the cowardice of our allies, the Arawa tribe, by far the most pampered by Government, and the only New Zealand tribe that can be called cowards, necessitated the Colonial Field Force falling back from the high plateau of Taupo to Fort Galatea to recuperate and refit. This gave Te Kooti leisure to look around for more devilments, and he determined to strike another blow at the settlements on the east coast. ”

“ Looking back, we saw the Kootenays move on through the meadow and disappear in the timber. Completely dazed by our great misfortune, we mechanically took our back trail, and seldom speaking, walked on and on. When night came, rain began to fall and the wind rose to a gale in the treetops. At that Pitamakan shook his head, and said, dejectedly, "At this season rain down here means snow up on top. We must make strong medicine if we are ever to see our people again." ”

“ As a matter of fact, no one, whether Maori or Pakeha, has ever given a satisfactory answer to the question, "Where is Te Kooti?"
With the disappearance of the Hauhau leader vanished the last sign of active resistance against the might and rule of the Pakeha. Smiling faces were not yet everywhere; there were too many tears to be dried on both sides for that, and the passions of strong men do not cool in a day, even when strife has ceased. The conquerors, too, must learn to temper their exultation with sympathy, the conquered must accustom their necks to the yoke, and all these things take time. ”