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!
