Chief Wolf Owned Many Horses and a Big Hearse
By BURTON 0. LUM
Tri-City Pioneer
Tri-City Herald, 30 October 1960, pg. 5
Chief Wolf was quite a character. He owned thousands of wild horses which he
ranged on the Pasco side of the Columbia. He was a tall well built man with
a commanding personality and a shrewd quick mind. He had secured his large herds
of horses by his astuteness. When he sold horses the buyers bought them one
at a time. They gave him first the exact price of the animal and then he turned
it over to them; thus, always getting his money first before he delivered the
animal to the buyer. This method of sale also kept the transactions within his
mathematical knowledge. He knew the Chinook numerals of Ikt equals 1, Moxt equals
2, Klone equals 3, Lokit equals 4, Guinnum equals 5, Taghum equals 6, Sinnamoxt
equals 7, Stotekin equals 8, Kwast equals 9, Tahtlelum equals 10, Tahtelum pe
Ikt equals 11, Moxtahtelum equals 20, and Ikt Tuckamonuk equals 100. He also
knew their values. Chief Wolf never drank “Pia Water.” The horse buyers therefore
were unable to get him drunk. He was one of the few Indian chiefs of this region
that was accredited with more than one wife or “Klutchman.” It was reported
that he had three. They were all fine specimens of feminine Indian beauty, tall
and stately varying in age from twenty to thirty five years. They dressed in
the height of Indian fashion and the mold of Indian form. On their feet they
wore buckskin or elk skin hand tanned, beaded moccasins. They did not wear socks
or stockings on their feet. Leggings were worn from the top of the moccasins
to the knee. These leggings were made of woolen cloth or buckskin, ornamented
by fringe of same on the outerside of the calf. The undergarments varied with
the weather conditions. The outer dress or garment was sleeveless, resembling
somewhat a mother hubbard. It was held in at the waist by a buckskin thong or
beaded belt. The garment extended below the knees, showing ten or twelve inches
of the leggings. There were no buttons or lacings in this sleeveless garment.
It was slipped on over the head. An undergarment with full length sleeves was
worn beneath this dress. Some Indian women wore pockets attached to the belt
at the waist, quite similar to the old fashioned chatlaine bags that were worn
by the white ladies in the early days. The head coverings of the Indian women
were few. They generally wore their hair braided in two braids which hung over
their bosoms. The middle part in their hair they painted with red pigment and
some times touched up their faces with the same. They wore around their necks
many strings of beads and shell necklaces. Shell earrings were worn in their
pierced ears. Bracelets of silver decorated their wrists and rings of silver,
never gold, adorned their fingers. The Indian women, in the summer, often wore
red bandanna handkerchiefs tied over their head and under their chin. Small
woolen shawls were worn over their heads and fastened at the throat in colder
weather. I never saw an Indian woman of the Tri-City region wearing a hat. Indian
women did not wear a blanket as much as the men. One reason for this was that
in wearing a blanket the use of one hand was quite restricted. The Indian women
were kept so busy that it took both hands to perform their many duties. Indian
women were very fond of small dogs which followed them everywhere. It was quite
an amusing sight, in very hot weather, to see the Indian women with the soles
of their moccasins reinforced with sheep pelt, to keep the hot sands from burning
their feet, trudging along followed by their dogs whose feet they had wrapped
in sheep pelt also. Chief Wolf, his wives, and their children, were very congenial
and enjoyed each other’s company. The Chief, upon completing a large horse sale,
took his family to Walla Walla. He searched for a conveyance large enough to
carry his entire family. The largest thing he could find was a huge hearse.
The undertaker was very anxious to sell the hearse because it took four horses
to pull it. The Chief bought the hearse. The driver of the huge hearse always
wore a stovepipe hat, black suit, black boots, and gloves. He and the Chief
were near the same size so the Chief dickered for the outfit and dressed himself
in the garb, bought the four black horses and their black fly nets, piled his
family into the hearse and drove back to Pasco. Sitting high on the drivers
seat, clothed in his black outfit stove pipe hat and all, his large family squatting
and reclining on the floor inside the hearse, was a sight never to be forgotten
by the early day pioneers of Pasco.