The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1916-05-04
sHAP-L1sH, WHO REMEMBERS THE
WHITMAN MASSACRE.

Pendleton, Oregon.-(Special Cores
pondence to the Sunday Oregonlan.l-
Holding up his stumpy and gnarleo
hands. Shap -lish, the SO-year-o Una
t;Ila scout, who served the United states
faithfully in the Bannock war and the
"Sheepeater" campaign, said to your cor
respondent yesterday, at his tepee near
Thorn Hollow:
"There is no white mans blood on my
hands: I am not afraid to del!
There was pathos and Tragedy III HIS
attitude and his voice, but oVershado"-
mo it all was an intense earnestness
soften toward this aged Indian, who
roalized the outlines of his race, yet
whose hands are clean of "paletace"
blood.
Born near the Umatilla agency, four
niles east of Pendleton, 80 years ago
h at January, Shap-lish was % years OF
aoe at the time of Whitman massacre,
in the fall of 1847, and well remembers
that awful tragedy, although he ala not
hear of the massacre until two weeks
after it had taken place.
Shap-lish reched, in broken English,
and picturesque Cayuse, his recollec-
ton of the tragedy at Waiilatpu to your
CORRESPONDENT. He said that owing to
the scourge of smallpox raging at the
Whitman mission, there had been no
communication between the lndrans on
the Walla Walla and Umatilla> rivers
for month. Those on the Umatilla were
free of the scourge, and did not go near
the Walla Wallas, and the Umatlllas
guarded their tribe against vlslt from
any from the Walla Walla. so IL was
two weeks after the massacre that
half breed from the Hudson's bay camp
near Wallula rode over to the Umatllla
river where Pendleton and the u II. ano
n. station of Cayuse now stand, ana
told the grewsome story.
The Umatillas did not believe 1T, al,
though they knew the bitter hatred tnaI
had been inspired against Dr. NhImalf
by 10 Lewis, a half breed, renegade ohei
| okee, who infested the Walla Walla Win
his troublesome presence.
Finally, becoming alarmed lest 1t
should be true, deputatlon OF = ma :
tillas, including Shap-lish, was sent to
Waiilatnu to investigate They found
the mission in ruins, the missionaries
and their associates killed, and the
ouiltv murderers fled to Tucanon.
When Shap-lish speaks of the sad
| event his black eyes CLEAN, his forehead
is knitted into a cloud of dark susplclon'
and he accuses the rival missionaries at
Wala Walla of melting the murder OF
the Whitman party at Walllatpu.
Shap-lish is the tallest, stralghtest'
swarthiest Indian today on the Una
! tilla reservation. His so years have lett
/ little trace of their ravages, although
his life has been filled with hardshlps
and activity. During the Bannock war
in eastern Oregon and Idaho, Shap
was sergeant of scouts, under Captain f.
! s. Farrow, United States army, and
with Farrow's party, consisting OF ~
JTmatillas and six white scouts, routed
the "Sheepeaters'' or renegade FLUTES
and Snakes, from their Businesses IN the
Salmon river mountains OF Idaho, III
1878.
Shap-lish, like all other modern In
dians, boasts "white mans name ms
being Charley WLirlwind. His wife and
two crown sons live with him on his al
lotment near Thorn Hollow, and he II
oneof the most thrifty of the Umatllla
tribe. He names two other aged indian
living today, who also remember th'
Whitman massacre-Weta la weet, VINO
lives near the agency, and E-o-se- ka- Sc
kah. who lives near Shap-lish at Ihor1
Hollow.
It is a matter of historical interest Il
} know that Captain Sum-kin, formerly