WELCOME TO
BENTON COUNTY, WASHINGTON
in the heart of the Columbia Basin

page 6, Tri-City Herald, January 22, 1961

By BURTON 0. LUM
Tri-City Pioneer

Katy Al-La-Hle Chief’s Wife/
Stately Indian was Popular

Katy was not her Indian name.  Her Indian name was too hard for the pioneers to pronounce.  
They, therefore, called her “Katy” for short.  She was reputed to be of royal Indian lineage.  
Her face, figure and mien bore out well this reputation.  Katy wore her long glistening black
 hair parted in the middle at her crown, plaited in two braids which fell over her bosom.  Her 
complexion was a clear bronze.  Her unplucked, straight black eyebrows made known her 
emotions.  Her eyes were large, dark, thoughtful and kind.  She had the traditional high cheek 
bones and thin lips of the North American Indian.  Her face expressed much intelligence
 and strength of character.  She was much taller than the average Indian woman and quite
 “Junoesque” in stature.  Katy had been well trained for a chief’s wife.  She knew all the 
medicinal herbs and plants that grew in this locality and how to prepare and administer 
them. She had been taught how to tan pelts and hides; to weave grass and toolie reed 
mats for tepees; to make willow fish fence and traps; how and when to harvest the 
different wild food, plants and berries.  She had attended the Indian school at Fort 
Simcoe and learned the white man’s ways of washing, ironing, preparing of food and
 housekeeping.  She made her own Indian saddle.  It was a work of art.  The Indians 
used the lower jawbones of two buffalo in making their saddle tree.  They reversed the 
bones so that the front of one jawbone faced the front and the front of the other 
faced the rear.  The front jawbone formed the horn or pommel of the saddle and the 
other, facing the rear, formed the cantle of the saddle.  The loose ends of the jawbones
 were fastened to two boards that were shaped to fit the back of the horse.  Wet rawhide
 was sewed over the saddle tree.  When this dried it shrunk very tight.  Stirrup straps 
with loop stirrup, or calvalry stirrups, were fastened to the boards that were shaped to 
fit the back of a horse as were also cinch rings to lace the woven horsehair cinches. 
 A pelt was placed under the saddle to protect the horse’s back and a buckskin or 
blanket was thrown over the seat of the saddle for the comfort of the rider. The horse’s
 bridle was buckskin or woven horsehair.  The Indian infant or papoose was strapped to
 a board and kept in an upright position most of the time during its early life.  The 
mother’s fashioned very ornate boards with canopies to protect the papoose’s head
 from the sun and weather.  The mother carried this board or bassinet on her back 
by means of a looped strap that was fastened to the top of the board and through
 which the mother thrust her head and used as a brow band.  The Indian mother took 
the entire bassinet in her arms when she nursed her child.  The Indian mothers would
 sing and chant to their young, but never rocked them.  The Indian mothers never 
smoked.  The Indian women’s horses were “broke” to pace or foxtrot because with the 
children it was an easier gait than a trot or canter.  Katy was the regular washer-woman
 for many of the pioneer women.  She would come on her beautiful bay horse at day 
break, picket out her horse, wait until the family had finished their breakfast, then come
 in and eat hers.  She would bring the wash boiler, wash board and tubs from the 
back porch, build up the fire, and fill the wash boiler with water.  She would then select
 the white clothes from the dark and go at it in earnest.  Katy was exceptionally clean
 and took great pride in her work.  She was large and strong.  She would, with good
 drying weather, wash, starch and iron the weekly wash for a family of seven or eight
 and mop the kitchen floor in a half day’s time.  The stipend paid for this task was
 “mox quata” or fifty cents.  The observing eye of Katy saved the life of an infant
 child of one of her employers.  She noticed that all was not well with the 
“hi-iu humm ikta-hs” which in Chinook jargon meant diapers.  She spoke to the 
pioneer mother.  The worried mother showed the bottle of medicine, a prescription
 from a doctor in Walla Walla, which she was giving to the child for summer complaint.
  Katy looked at the bottle, then at the hi-iu humm ikta-hsm straightened herself to
 her full 5 feet 10 inches and exclaimed: “Boston man las mestin wake Skookum.”
 (meaning white man medicine is not good!)  She went out near the backdoor where
 the wild tansy, a weed hated by the pioineers, grew in profusion.  She dug up a
 few of the plants, roots and all, brought them into the kitchen, cut off the tops, 
washed the roots and placed the roots in a stew pan of cold water on the stove.  
They simmered for a half hour.  She then placed about a tablespoon full of the
 fluid into the baby’s nursing bottle with it’s prepared can milk.  The mother 
followed the instructions that Katy gave her and in a week’s time the child had
 recovered.  This happened over 70 years ago.  Would you believe it?  The same
 brand of baby’s milk can be purchased today.

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