By Alice L. Seamans, From The Covered Wagon, May 1947
My brother, Leroy Ledgerwood, E.D. C. Campbell and I pieced together our memories to tell the last big war dance of The Wintu Indians at Baird. It was held during the first week in August 1897.
An Indian employee at Baird Hatchery named Jeff Davis planned the celebration. All up the McCloud River, up the Sacramento and Pitt, down through Stillwater(now called Mountain Gate), Buckeye, Redding and Shasta, and away over into Trinity County he went saying over and over again for all the Indians to come to Baird for the last big get together of the Wintu’s, saying “This will be the last big war dance of the Wintu’s” and it was.
Old Consolulu was then the chief of the Wintu’s, their last child. He died January 15th, 1902.
Mr. Livingston Stone was superintendent of the hatchery then. He and each of the men working their donated flour, ham, bacon, and anything for the Indians to eat during the celebration. Jeff Davis planned it for the time when the big run of salmon was being spawned os there was plenty of fresh fish for everyone to eat; and Mr. Stone saw to it that they had all they wanted.
The first to come were The River Indians, including The Baird Indians, each family bringing a big bundled of dried salmon, which was all put together in a great stack. Next to come were the Stillwater, Buckeye, Redding and Shasta Indians, bringing great basket loads of Manzanita berries, and Black Oak Acorns to be eaten while there. And last the Trinity Indians came, each family bringing a fifty-pound sack of flour.
Most came afoot, some on horseback and a few with horses and wagons.
A cleared flat, with only a tall pine left standing here and there, and all the uncleared land back of the superintendent’s house on the hill was given over for a camp for the visiting Indians. The Baird Indians had dragged a large log into the center of the clearing ready for the bonfire, with plenty of wood stacked to one side to keep it going, for it must not be allowed to go out during the celebration.
On the first night, after the bonfire was lit, The McCloud River Indians were called to dance. Among them was the Indian maiden, Ellen Wycottie, who was to be especially honored as she was just entering her womanhood.
Ellen’s grandmother had dressed her in a new white dress trimmed in red and blue, and put her beads around her neck, and snug little cap woven like an Indian basket on her head. She gave her a pole with deer’s feet dangling from the top that rattled when she moved it. Ellen was accompanied by two maids of honor, Sadie Davis, Jeff’s daughter, and Susie Popejoy, E.D.C.’s daughter, who were also dressed in white dresses trimmed in blue. Ellen’s grandmother told her she must not laugh or look around. And that should pray to god to take care of her always.
All the McCloud Indians danced around the three girls, then they all danced around the bonfire. The other groups of Indians danced around the fire one after the other until there last to dance were the Trinity Indians.
From then on every night the Indians danced around the fire singing their strange wild songs. Sometimes the bucks danced alone, sometimes the squaws danced by themselves, and sometimes they all danced together.
Away from the dancing during the day and well in to the night, some of them played the straw game, sometimes gambling off even the clothes they were wearing. They played another game too, called “Handgame.” Mostly they danced at the night and played games during the day.
Not far from the cleaning, a teepee of poles and pine bark had been built for Ellen where she stayed by day with an Indian woman to look over her, trying to keep her awake so she wouldn’t dream bad dreams which they feared would come true. At night Ellen came out and danced until she was tried, when she would lean on her pole.
Some say Pay Silverthorne, on the last night of the celebration, claimed her hand in marriage, others say that afterwards he courted her and gave a house to her folks for her. Path was much older than Ellen but they lived many years together before he died.
The last night a make-believe enemy was made of brush and rags and planned not far from the bonfire. A large group of young bucks in feathers and war paint and wearing only breech clothes, led by Consolulu, came running out of the brush yelling and whooping, and jumping and hopping, to avoid the imaginary arrows of the enemy, and shooting at the brush enemy they had put up. As a mascot they had a little Indian boy, Jerry Gregory, all in feathers and war paint and a little bow and arrow. They all ran to the bonfire and danced the real war dance.
All this time the young Squaws, all dressed in their best, had been standing at one side watching. Now they vied with each other to pick up the arrows. The one getting the most was ranked best among them. When the warriors stopped dancing the women ran to them and threw down the arrows they had retrieved and began their dance around the fire. Later the warriors joined them and they all danced together. Around and around singing their weird songs that were monotonous expect of the tempo and volume which expressed their feelings as they danced around the fire faster and faster as they became more excited. One could imagine that they were far from any white man with only the tall pines to watch over them.
A halt was called and Chief Consolulu got on a stump and made a speech in the Wintu language wit many gesticulations. I asked William Conway what his grandfather was saying, and if he was talking against the white mane. He said his grandfather told the Indians he had been very glad to welcome so many of them to The Last War Dance of the Wintu’s, and now he bade them goodbye and wished them all a pleasant trip to their homes. He said he was sure his grandfather didn’t talk against the white man as he was always a friend of the white people.
When Mr. Stone established the salmon hatchery in 1872 at Baird, he made a friend of Consolulu, and when some of the Indians wanted to Brive Mr. Stone and his men away Consolulu forbade it and talked them out of attaching them.
Sadie Davis March, Consolulu’s grandaughter, told men that the Wintus can thank Consolulu for their being free American citizens today; That when the federal government wanted to put them on a reservation, he said “No, we will be free and claim the same rights as the white man.”
The next morning Jeff Davis called one family after another of the Trinity Indians to dance after which they were given ten dried salmon. He did the same with the Stillwater, Buckeye, Redding and Shasta Indians, giving each family the ten dried salmon. Each family of the River Indians received a fifty-pound sack of flour, as it was a rule among them that each guest must have a parting gift. And so ended The Last War Dance.
In 1898 there was a much smaller Indian Dance at Baird to honor the coming into womanhood of Sadie Davis and Susie Popejoy, but this was not a war dance.
Today, both the Baird Hatchery and the home of Chief Consolulu lie beneath the waters of beautiful Shasta Lake. There is a new fish hatchery on Battle Creek near Coleman Power House where the propagation of salmon goes on.
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