The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-02-19

3Do MAKE m0l0ns
There are about 5000 Snake or
Bhoshone Indians now extant, the great
er part being in Utah and Nevada,
though there is q reservation in Idaho
and another In Wyoming.
The. Shoshone Indian is reluctant to
accept of civilization ON the European
plan. He prefers the ruder customs
which have been handed down from
father to son along with other hair
looms. use the word hairlooms in
its broadcast sense.
There are the Shoshones proper and
the Utes or Utahs, to which have been
added by some authorities the Co
manches, and Moquis of New Mexico
and Arizona, the Netelas and other
tribes of California. The Shoshone,
wherever found, is clothed in buckskin
and blanket in winter, but dressed more
lightly in summer, wearing nothing but
an air of intense gloom in August. To
this he adds on holidays a necklace
made from the store teeth OF the hardy
pioneer.
The Snake or Shoshone Indian is
passionately fond of the game known as
poker among US, and which, learn, Is
played with cards. It is a game OF
chance, though skill and thorough
knowledge of firearms are of great use.
The Indians enter into this game with
great zeal, and lend to it the wonderful
energy which they have preserved from
year to year by abstaining from the de-
bilitating effects of manual labor. All
day long the red warrior sits in his skin
boudoir, nursing the sickly and reluc-
tant flush" patient. silent and hopeful.
Through the cold of winter, in the des-
olate mountains, he continues to
Hope on. hope ever"
that he will draw to fill. Far away
up the canyon he hears the sturdy blows
of his wife's tomahawk as she slaugh-
ters the grease wood and the sage brush
for the fire in his gilded hell where he
sits and wooes the lazy Goddess of For
tune.
With the Shoshone, poker is not
alone relaxation. the game wherewith
to wear out long and listless evening,
but it is q passion, duty and devotion.
He has face designed especially for
poker. It never shows sign of good
or evil fortune. You might as well try
to win smile from a railroad right of
way. The full hand, the tours, threes,
pairs and bob-tail fushes are all the
same to him, il you Judge by his face.
When he gets hungry he clinches
himself little tighter and continues to
"rastle" with fate. You look at his
smoky old copper cent of face and
you see no change. You watch him as
he coins the last buckshot OF his tribe,
and later on when he goes forth a pau
per, and the corners of his famine
breeding mouth have never moved. His
little black, smoke-infamed eyes have
never lighted with triumph or Joy. He
is the great aboriginal stole and sylvan
dude. He does not smile. He does
not weep. 1t certainly must be in
tenselv pleasant to be wild, free, law
less, irresponsible, natural born fool.
The Shoshones proper include the
Bannocks, who are again subdivided
into the Koolsitakara. or Buffalo Eaters,
on Wind River, the Tookarika, or
Mountain Sheep Eaters, on Salmon and
Suabe Rivers, the Shoshocas. or White
Knives, sometimes called Diggers, of
the Humboldt River and the Great Salt
Lake basin. Probably the Hokandi-
kahs, Yahooskins and the Wallpapers
are subdivisions of the Digger tribe.
/ am not sure of this, but 1 shall not
suspend my business till can find out
about it. If / cannot get at great
truth right off wait patiently and go
right on drawing my salary.
The Shoshones live on the Govern
ment and other small game. They will
nh 80
falo down to woodtick. The Sho-
shone does not despise small things
He loves insects in any form. He loves
to make pets of them and to study their
habits in his home life
Formerly, when a great Shoshone
warrior died, they killed his favorite
wife over his grave, SO that she could
go to the happy hunting grounds with
him, but it is not so customary now. L
tried to impress on an old Shoshone
brave once that they ought not to do
that. / tried to show him that it would
encourage celibacy and destroy domes-
tic ties in his tribe. Since that there
has been quite stride toward reform
among them. Instead of killing the
widow on the death of the husband, the
husband takes such good care of his
health and avoids all kinds of intel
lectual strain or physical fatigue, that
late years there are no widows, but
widowers just seem to swarm in the
Shoshone tribe. The woods are full of
them.
Now, if they would only kill the
widower over the grave of the wife, the
Indians future would assume O more
definite shape--Detrot Free Press.
The Arenging Deities