Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1870-06-18
Miss Sarah Winnemticca.

Miss Sarah Winnemicca.
Harper's Weekly contains highly
poetical allusion to Sarah Winuomucca,
the interesting daughter of Mr.. Whine.
mucca, chief Of the Piutes, whose gallant
exploits in stealing horses and cutting the
tongues out of defenceless emigrauts, will
long be remembered by the people Of
Nevada and Southern Idaho with feelings
of just pride and admiration. Now this
noble aborigine's daughter, Sarah-no lcss
lis to come in for share of the honors
which have been lavished so unsparingly
in days gone by upon her illustrious sire,
the old gentleman Winnemucca. Miss
Sarah, says Harper's Weekly, has " writ-
ten ~ a very sagacious letter to Indian
Commissioner Parker" in which she has
eloquently portrayed the wrongs Of her
race. What Internal noodles some of
these Eastern people are. FIVE are not
very much mistaken we had the pleasure
Of seeing, SOME years ago, Miss Sarah at
Camp McDermot, Nevada. She and a
few other interesting relics of the "nobls
red man" were being fatted at the fort
during that winter for the spring cam
paign against Idaho emigrants. The emf
grafton having stopped for the season,
there were no other worlds to conquer"
so Sarah and her tribe were about to fare
badly, as the supply of dried scalps, grass
hoppers and lice had been exhausted.
Their condition excited the sympathy Of
Uncle Sans boys at the fort, so they were
taken in aud cared for until spring, when
they resumed their favoritc pastime of
stealing and numbering. But it is our
recollcctions Of Miss Sarah we propose to
recitc. Sarah was at that time about
sweet sixteen or twenty-it would be diff
ficult to judge of her exact age from her ap-
pearance, owing to a careless habit she had
acquired of never washing her beautifully
chiselled features. But rs we had been
taught to judge the age Of COW by the
wrinkles on her horns, or the age Of tree
by the belts of growth on its trunk, so we
made slather at Miss Sarah's age by the
number Of scales Of greasy dirt which nat.
urally accumulated on the ridge of her
comely countenance during the lapse of
years. She was about FIVE feet high-how
is that for " Lo ?"-and not quite as broad
rs she was narrow. Her raven tresses,
which had been permitted to coy with the
sportive breeze, unbound;' unwashed and
uncombed, from her earliest childhood,
stood out in elegant and awry confusion
from her clasically shaped cabesd, which
contributed to her contour an air of 70.
mantio splcndor. Her style of dress,
though primitive, closely assimilatcd that
worn by her more fashionable white sisters
iu Paris and other big towns. 1t was the
fashion of the day, slightly exaggerated,
consisting of an elegant scarf, about foot
wide, cut from an ancient horse blanket,
which was gracefully girdcd round her
delicate waist, the circumference Of which,
owing to the scarcity Of clover and fresh
crickets at that season, had materially
diminished, over which hung beautiful
set of skeleton hoops. These completed
the toggery of this sweet and simple
daughter Of nature. Her feet were en-.
cased in moccasins, and showed evident
indications Of hard service and long walks
over the rocky hills and sage brush plains,
the mud of her native heath, crisp and
dry, clingins tsnaciously to her toes and
we are glad to be able to state that this
divinity was treated during her brief So
journ among the white savages with all
the respect due her exalted rank and
birthright--as the only daughter and
heiress of that noble old chief Winnie
mucca. If Miss Sarah has improved her
time as we'll since we saw her as she evil
dently had previous to that date, we have
no hesitancy in pronouncing her at this
day highly cultivated and refined young
lady, well qualified to write "sagacious
letter to Commissioner Parker" or to
make a valuable contributor to Harper's
Weekly.-Boise Ne~s. a,.. a.