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Traditions of the Ancient White People
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Original Message
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WHEN The Indians first made their appearance on the Klamath river it was already inhabited by a white race of people known among us as the Wa-gas. These white p eople were found to inhabit the whole continent, and were a highly moral and civ ilized race. They heartily welcomed the Indians to their country and taught us a ll of their arts and sciences. The Indians recognized the rights of these ancien t people as the first possessors of the soil and no difficulties ever arose betw een the two people. Their hospitality was exceedingly generous in the welfare of our people and all prospered together in peace and happiness, in their pursuit of human cxistance. After a time there where inter-marriages between the two rac es, but these were never promiscuous. For a vast period of time the two races dw elt together in peace and honored homes, wars and quarrels were unknown in this golden age of happiness. No depredations were ever committed upon the property o f their people, as the white people ruled with beacon light of kindness, and our people still worship the hallowed places where once they trod. Their morals wer e far superior to the white people of today, their ideals were high and inspired our people with greatness. After we had lived with these ancient people so long
, they suddenly called their hosts together and mysteriously disappeared for a d istant land, we know not where. We have no memory of their reason or cause why t hey abandoned their ancient homes where they had dwelt for untold centuries. War s did not drive them forth, for we loved them more than brothers, and difficulti es were unknown between the two people. On leaving they went toward the North fr om whence we came, and disappeared from our land beyond the northern seas. It wa s a sad farewell when they departed from this land, for our people mourned their loss, as no more have we found such friends as they, so true and loyal. In thei r farewell journey across this land they left landmarks of stone monuments, on t he tops of high mountains and places commanding a view of the surrounding countr y. These land-marks we have kept in repair, down through the ages in loving reme mbrance. I have seen many of these land-marks myself (and often repaired them) t hat they left as a symbol of the mystic ages and the grandeur of a mighty nation that passed in a single season. Oh, how little we know of the depths of the age s gone, how wide, how profound and deep is the knowledge we seek; a monument of stone, a stone bowl, a broken symbol, a hallowed unknown spot, a lodge of ruins, all this makes a golden page glittering with diamonds that trills the emotions with mysterious longings for truth and light in the depths unknown.
When the Wag-as left this land they assured my people that they would return to them at some future time. Perchance thousands of years have elapsed since then, and they have not returned, we have waited in vain for it seems that our cherish ed hopes are fading. However, some of our people are still looking for the retur n of the white man. The traditions handed down leads us to believe that the Wa-g as returned to the land of their birth, in the far north, the valley of Cheek-ch eek-alth, as their traditions were given to us that their origin was in this sam e land of Cheek-cheek-alth, as they came down from the North when they came to t his land. When the Wa-gas first arrived on this continent they handed down the t raditions to us that it was inhabited by a giant race of people when they first came. These giants were represented by the Wa-gas as being very swarthy in compl exion, and they used implements so large that no ordinary man could lift them. I t was an age when large animals roamed the earth, and it seems the birds and fow ls were all very large in size. It appeared to be the first age, and was the age of the giants. The recollections transmitted by the Wa-gas were that these gian ts were very cruel and wicked. It was said that God became displeased with them and destroyed them and they all perished from the earth. It was also said that G od appeared to the High Priest of the Wa-gas and told them that he was going to destroy the giant race and that the Wa-gas themselves would survive upon the ear th as a new people. Smaller birds and animals would appear upon the earth for th e use of man, thus the age of giants perished, but the Wa-gas do not hand down a ny tradition of how they perished from the earth, as my people have no recollect ions of ever seeing giants. My mother says that our people in ancient times have seen many relics belonging to these prehistoric giants, such as huge stone bowl s, stone slabs and other implements so great that our people could not move them
. During the ages of rains and wearing away of the earth, these implements have been buried so deep and have sunk into the earth, is the reason we cannot find t hem today. The Indian name for the giant race is Pah-pel-ene, which means people that have all died and passed away.
When the Wa-gas returned to Cheek-cheek-alth it is supposed they found a ladder in this beautiful valley which extends from earth to Heaven, and climbed it to W erse-on-now, (Heaven) where they dwell with God. All the half castes with the ex ception of a few went away with the Wa-gas, and nearly all those that were three quarters Indian remained with our people. This is said to be the reason why som e of our people are very fair. Some of the Indians are still looking for their r eturn to the earth, when they come back it is believed that peace and happiness will reign supreme again over this great land and all evil will be cast out. Whe n the present race of the white people made their first appearance upon the Amer ican continent, we believed it was the Wa-gas returning and a hearty welcome was extended to them and there was great rejoicing among our tribes. But soon the s ad mistake was discovered to our sorrrow, when the men began to debauch our wome n, give whiskey to our men and claim our land that our fore-fathers had inhabite d for so many thousands of years, yet not a single family has ever been driven f rom their house on the Klamath river up to this day. We no longer termed them as Wa-gas, but as Ken-e-yahs, which means foreigners, who had no right to the land and could never appreciate our kindness, for they were a very different people from the Wa-gas. They had corrupt morals that brought dissolution upon our peopl e and wrought the horrors of untold havoc.
When the Indians first reached the Klamath river there were large prairies and v ast tracts of grassy land, which have since grown up in timber and under-brush. Many of the prairies were set on fire and burnt off every year during the dry se asons which kept the timber from growing up very fast.
The Klamath emptied into the ocean at Wilson creek, about six miles north of whe re it now goes into and ocean at Reck-woy. There were high bluffs of rocks betwe en the river and the ocean all the way from Reck-woy to Wilson creek, which kept the river in its course to Ah-man (Wilson creek) where it emptied into the ocea n. The river was said to have kept in this course until our Christ caused the mi ghty rocks to split open and the waters of the river rushed ahead to the ocean a t Reck-woy, where it has ever since flowed into the ocean.
The traditions handed down say that the land, north of Redwood creek, where it g oes into the ocean, extended far out into the sea to the large rock that is now known to the white people as Redding rock, has continually washed away leaving t his rock jutting up from the ocean depths and can be seen for many miles over th e surrounding area of land and sea. This rock is located at a distance of about ten miles from the shore and is called by the Indians Sa-quan-ow. This name tran slated into English means an acorn pestle, a conical shaped stone, carved out of granite and is used to pound acorns and grass seeds into the finest flour. Long ages ago Redding rock extended up from the ocean to a great height, and from a distance appeared to be a huge Sa-quan, or pestle, hence its name. After ages of erosion the massive rock became surrounded by water and the receeding bluffs le ft it alone out in the ocean where its greater portion has crumbled and fallen b eneath the waves as it is seen today. The Indians still call it Sa-quan-ow.
There has been but little change in the channel of the Klamath river, except at its mouth since our arrival in this land. In olden times the channel of the rive r was very deep and clear and much narrower than it is now and large bars of all uvial soil composed its banks, where luxuriant grasses grew, and upon these lowlands during the winter months great herds of deer and elk would graze, coming d own from the snow covered mountains. The channels of the large creeks and tribut aries of the river, such as Blue creek, (Ur-ner) Tec-tah and Pec-wan have practi cally never changed as they still flow into the river in the same places. Where the Trinity river flows into the Klamath river it has made but little or no chan ge during the passing ages as has been handed down to us.
We have no word of severe earthquakes in our regions, but have had slight shocks from time to time throughout the centuries. We have n o tales of any great damage ever done by earthquakes and our people never held a ny fear of tremors of the earth. But my people tell of great tidal waves that ha ve swept our country. They say a long time ago one swept up the Klamath river to the mouth of the Trinity river, a distance of over forty miles, and did great d amage, as it swept away houses and thousands of our people were drowned and carr ied away by the rolling waves of the ocean, so few of our tribe were left that t hey were well nigh exterminated. Many smaller tidal waves have swept over the co ast where the destruction was not so great.
They tell of epidemics that came up the river and laid us low in the devastation of life, thousands of our people would pass away in a single season; they would die so fast that they could not be buried and many of the bodies would be throw n into the river. The only way we could keep the whole tribe from complete devas tation by the ravages of these dreadful diseases was to abandon the dead and lea ve the river and go back into the high mountains and there we built bark houses and remain until the snow and cold would compell us to retreat to the low-lands again. In our mountain home we subsisted on wild game, berries, pine nuts, roots and herbs. Some of our people would have such a terror of the fatal diseases th at they would refuse to return to their homes and would brave the fierce storms of the cold winter until they were convinced that all dangers had ceased. In our traditions of the passing centuries many of these epidemics have almost devaste d the land of human life. During one of these contagions it was said that the ch ildren would go down to the river to swim and would lie down in rows from six to twelve in number upon the sand, as if they were alive and had been placed there by careful hands; but they would be in their eternal sleep, contagion having ov ertaken them.
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