Chief Winnemucca's plea for peace
'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' series: Despite a treaty, conditions for the Northern Paiute remained dire. Still, Chief Winnemucca wanted peace and rode to Virginia City to plead for his people.
Quintus Hopper of Nevada, published in January 2022, is a historical novel that follows the epic and peculiar life of a frontier newspaper typesetter. As part of my research I made extensive use of newspaper archives and, in this series, I’ll share some of my often surprising findings. Here are history, commentaries and contemporary newspaper articles as they relate to my latest novel. This time a look at the plight of the Northern Paiute after the signing of a treaty that was supposed to secure them relative peace. As with most treaties, it was broken time and time again by enterprising white men who, in the spirit of the ever-convenient manifest destiny belief, saw everything as theirs for the taking.
After the so-called Pyramid Lake War, a treaty was signed that created the Pyramid Lake reservation. It required of the Northern Paiute to live on that land and to stay out of white man’s matters. White man, on the other hand, had no intention of staying out of the reservation. They soon encroached and fished the little the Paiute had. Both Chief Winnemucca, and his daughter Sarah Winnemucca as interpreter, always sought to write the wrongs and always addressed what was happening in the spirit of peace. By then, however, the Northern Paiute and other tribes were living under extreme circumstances. After the California Gold Rush, and after the new rush following the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the white population rapidly expanded, as did their requirements of land and food and timber.
While some Indians, like Chief Winnemucca, still longed and hoped for a peaceful living together of both people, others began to see the war path as the only remaining option. It marked the beginning of would become known as the Snake War, the deadliest Indian war in the west, a four-year period (1864–1868) that never culminated in a fire storm, but that instead burned slowly, flared here and there, leaving scorched clusters of corpses in its wake. It was in that time that Chief Winnemucca, still hoping for peace, and with his people starving, chose to ride into Virginia City to plead his case.
In the novel, the ending of below article is one of the reasons for Quintus’ leaving the Territorial Enterprise. There the Chief and his family are described as Virginia City’s very own royal family – comparable with the celebrities of San Francisco. That may not sound in any way disparaging. However, the mentioned celebrities were Uncle Freddy, a man named Frederick Coombs (seen in the image as grave digger) who used to dress up as George Washington and called himself George Washington II; Emperor Norton, Joshua Abraham Norton, self-proclaimed Norton I, Emperor of the United States (in the image is portrayed a the Pope-like figure); and Bummer and Lazarus – two rat-killing stray dogs (the drawing depicts the funeral of Lazarus). Essentially, the reporter called the Winnemuccas, the tribal leaders of the Northern Paiute, comparable to San Francisco’s lunatic and freak-show celebrities.
September 23, 1864
Territorial Enterprise, Virginia City
WINNEMUCCA AND HIS DAUGHTERS
IN A WAR DANCE.
The great attraction at Sutliff’s last night was the grand war dance by Winnemucca, his two daughters and a number of his people. Some twenty Indians, male and female, took part in the dance. They formed a semi-circle on the stage, with the old chief, in his tall crown of feathers, as the center piece. The old man opened the dance by starting a tune of a song, when their drummer began tapping his drum, and all hands joined in the monotonous song, keeping time with their feet.
As the song grew more animated the “spirit moved” some of the male dancers, who, with bows and arrows in their hands, bounded into the center of the ring and “scouted” about in various directions, as though on the track of an enemy. Five or six Indians were the most that were at any one time in the center of the ring. The other stood about, singing and keeping time with their feet. None of the women ventured into the center of the ring. They did so at rehearsal, but were too diffident to dance before the immense crowd that filled the theater. Even the men were backward, and did not enter into the dance with that spirit and vim displayed by them in their own secluded valleys. Before the commencement of the dance, Winnemucca, with his two daughters, came forward to the footlights, when the old man addressed the audience.
One of his daughters, acting as interpreter, said: “My father is sorry that he cannot give a better dance to-night than he will be able to give with those present. To-morrow night he will have his men here and give a good dance.” It appears that but two or three that were present last night are practiced dancers. At the conclusion of the dance, Winnemucca was called for and came before the curtain with one of his daughters. A speech was called for and the old man addressed the crowd.
He said, as interpreted by his daughter, that he had now no home among his own people. That he hoped the white people would do something for him, as he was now too feeble to do much work. He said that he was pleased that the whites treated him so well, and hoped, now that they knew him, that they would always continue to treat him kindly.
At the conclusion of his speech he bowed himself from the stage, making an Oriental salaam and each time bending very low, waving both hands toward the audience with much grace. When he came before the curtain a shower of half dollars was thrown upon the stage, which his daughter gathered up with a very cheerful air and some alacrity. The house was so packed that it was necessary to prop up the floor, and crowds were turned away from the door.
To-night the old Chief repeats his dance, with a lot of new hands “at the bellows!” Virginia has at last a lion! San Francisco had her Bummer and Lazarus, has her Emperor Norton, Uncle Freddy and we know not what other notables, but we have Winnemucca, the great Chief of all the Pi-Utes, his daughters and the royal family!