The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1897-12-28

the implements they required
for cooking, and they did not
see the need of having any use
less articles around them of that
kind.
Of course they were under
tribal government, but | think
the chief was chosen, or elected,
and the honor did not descend
from father to son.
Their gods were invisible to
all except the priests or medi-
cine men, though they worshiped
mountains and hills as the dwell
ling plac es of their deitys. They
made no sacrifices of religious
character, except once a year
they choose one of their number
to propitiate an evil being that
dwelt in deep, tortous, canyon,
just below Shoshone Falls. There
they came, to the top of the
canyon wall, every year and one
being chosen he was hurled into
the black depths below. All his
household effects followed, pos
sibly his squaw, but l can't say
for sure, though there are the
bones of females as we'll as males
among the boulders at the bot
tom of the canyon. Then they
turned about and made a great
feast of fish and game, and the
sacrifcial rite was over till the
next year. I have thought that
it might be that these sacrifices
were not for a religious purpose
at all, and may be not even what
would be called a sacrifice. 1t is
possible that it was priests, or
medicine men, who had offended
the chief; gods, or some other
potentate-by not curing certain
disease or losing too great a
percentage of cases, and by so
doing had forfeited the right to
live, and was killed. The same
custom prevails among the Sho-
shones at the present time. If a
medicine man loses, / believe
five consecutive cases, no matter
what the disease, he is put to
death. And these people were
the forefathers of the Shoshones
there being only two tribes
between them-and these people
were never driven away, but
were absorbed by another tribe
from the south, and many Gus
toms of the Shoshones are iden-
tical with the customs that these
people practiced. Therefore it
is logical to believe that this was
an execution of medicine men,
and may have happened at any
season of the year.
They built few permanent resi-
dences, living mostly in wigwams
of skins and poles, or in open
air. They were nearly always
on the move, up or down the riv-
er, either on warlike excursions
or in search of pastures new
sometimes across the river 10
ravage some southern village
or hurrying back with an army
of revengeful enemies at their
heels. They had not the inclina-
ton or the opportunity to build
any kind of homes except those
of the frailest possible form.
They never knew at what time
they would be forced to move, or
in what direction they were to
go. 1t was not a very good or
der of circumstances for people
to learn to build, SOW and reap.
They must have been of a high
order of intelligence for savages.
Their carving on horns and frag-
ments of armour shows the true
artist, and the skill with which
their weapons were made, the
true artisan. Their varied orna-
ments, manufactured from the
best materials that they were in
touch with, show that they were
great lovers of the beautiful.
Their bravery is unquestionable;
their endurance wonderful If
they had lived 5000 years later,
we would have seen them as we
see the Cherokee-a bright, en-
ergetic, active people, capable of
a high education.
They had no such animals to
contend with that the poor Ithy-
ophagist or Ignoian did, for all
these fierce beasts had become
extinct, but they had the fierce
western men, who were far more
terrible then any we have today,
even though they were armed
with only bow and spear.
The West seems to be the
birthplace of all our central
tribes. They increased faster
along the seacoast, and slowly