Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget SoundDenny, Emily Inez
History
Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound
Denny, Emily Inez
Indians of North America -- Northwestern States; Oregon Territory -- History; Washington (State) -- History
As A. A. Denny recounts in his valuable work "Pioneer Days on Puget
Sound," Pat Kanem gave him assurance of his steadfast friendship before
the war and further demonstrated it by appearing according to previous
agreement, accompanied by women and children of the tribe, obviously a
peace party, with gifts of choice game which he presented on board to
the captain of the "Decatur."
With half a hundred or more of his warriors, his services were accepted
by the governor and they applied themselves to the gruesome industry of
taking heads from the hostile ranks. Eighty dollars for a chief's head
and twenty for a warrior's were the rewards offered.
Lieut. Phelps, gratefully remembered by the settlers of Seattle, thus
described his appearance at Olympia, after having invested some of his
pay in "Boston ictas" (clothes): "Pat Kanem was arrayed in citizen's
garb, including congress gaiters, white kid gloves, and a white shirt
with standing collar reaching half-way up his ears, and the whole
finished off with a flaming red neck-tie."
Pat Kanem died while yet young; he must have been regarded with
affection by his people. Years afterward when one of his tribe visited
an old pioneer, he was given a photograph of Pat Kanem to look at;
wondering at his silence the family were struck by observing that he
was gazing intently on the pictured semblance of his dead and gone
chieftain, while great tears rolled unchecked down the bronze cheeks.
What thoughts of past prosperity, the happy, roving life of the long ago
and those who mingled in it, he may have had, we cannot tell.
STUDAH.
Studah, or Williams, was one of three sons of a very old Duwampsh chief,
"Queaucton," who brought them to A. A. Denny asking that he give them
"Boston" names. He complied by calling them Tecumseh, Keokuk and
William.
The following sketch was written by Rev. G. F. Whitworth, a well-known
pioneer:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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