Chief Washakie and President Grant

 Wyoming Fact & Fiction

January 10, 2022

Last weekend I was part of a discussion about listening to books. I don't do a lot of books on audible platforms, but when traveling, we always take one or two along. I enjoy listening and am contemplating putting some of my books on one of the listening programs. That is quite an intro to Chief Washakie – I haven't got around to him yet. Here is the tie-in. My daughter mentioned she was listening to a book and laughing about their pronunciation of Washakie. I have heard the same when listening to some books set in Wyoming. Before moving to Wyoming (1983), I taught in Nebraska and remember butchering the name myself. Guess if you are not from around here, it is difficult to say. But, not as tricky as the Popo Agie.

The first tribes that settled in today's Wyoming in the late 1600s were the Staitans, Comanches, and Shoshones. Like many other plains and foothills tribes, they were bison hunters. It is interesting to note that Shoshone legend and spoken history talked of once living in a land where alligators inhabited the rivers.

Chief Washakie early on realized that friendship with the expanding population would be better than fighting the inevitable. Washakie was instrumental in the success of General Crook (Crook County Wyoming named after him)  fighting the Sioux in Wyoming and Montana.

Because of his help to Crook and the U.S. Army, President Grant sent a silver-trimmed saddle to the Shoshone Chief in appreciation for his service. Some history books have stated that he was given a "fine horse and saddle," but most list the gift as only a saddle. My guess, Washakie, would likely have preferred using one of his fine horses to anything offered up as a gift – he did use the saddle.

According to Virginia Cole Trenholm and Maurine Carley in their 1946 textbook, Wyoming Pageant - Washakie was told he should send some sort of a thank you to the president. Chief Washakie replied, "Do a favor to a white man; he feels it in his head, and the tongue speaks. Do a kindness to an Indian; he feels it in his heart. The heart has no tongue."

Wyoming Trivia – two questions today

1.  Of the four Shoshone branches, which did Chief Washakie and his Wyoming tribe belong to?

2. Washakie was only half Shoshone. What other tribe was he?

 

Answers for Today's Trivia

1. Wyoming hosted the Eastern Shoshone. Other branches were the Northern, Western, and Goshute. 

2. Chief Washakie was born in 1804 with a Flathead father and Shoshone mother.

See you next week!