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Bill McGarvey and the Klamath River Indians (25 pages)
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Page: of 25
THE CALIFORNIANS V OU UUMBEw I" 22/4NXO» 3
Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah’s family, though wealthy and powerful among the Yurok, had to
move away from the Klamath because her uncle Warrots sided with the whites and Bill
McGarvey in a blood feud with Indians from two villages that began when McGarvey refused
compensation to the relatives of five Indians who had drowned while bringing his winter
stocks down the coast from Crescent City and up the Klamath River in their large new canoe.
talked it over fora while. The Indians said
that they had to have this amount to make
a settlement with some other Indians, that
they would come back and pay him and
take the girl in 30 days. So he decided to let
them have the money without due consideration of how he would take care of the
girl. After they were gone he began to think
of the situation that he had placed himself
in, as he was a bachelor. So he made up a
room for her; and when it came to cooking
he thought he would have her wash the
dishes and sweep the house, but she would
do no housework unless he paid her for it.
McGarvey tried to argue the case with her
and told her that he had to furnish her food
and cook it, also furnish a room and a bed
to sleep in, and that she ought to clean up
the house. She answered by telling him
that he was doing only what he had to
do and that she would not work unless
he paid her for it. McGarvey had to
absolutely wait on her for the whole 30
days as completely as if she had owned
him asa slave. She could go and come
as she liked, always coming back in
time so he could not make a complaint, telling him that ifhe said so, she
would stay in the house all the time.
He said that the experience was in
after years a lesson to him in dealing
with the Indians. When the 30 days
were up they came with the money,
paid him and took the girl.
Another time he wanted to get in his
winter supplies, and at that time he got
his goods from Crescent City (Cawpay). And he went to Cor-tep village,
which is about 600 yards above the
store and on the same side of the river,
to see if he could hire them to go down
the Klamath and out to sea to Crescent
City in their canoes, as they had a large
new one. He hired five of them, all
Cor-tep Indians, to go and bring his
goods into the mouth of the river and
store them there until they had them
all in before the ocean would get too
rough, as the winter months were coming on.
Early in the morning the five Indians
of the Cor-tep village (this was a town
village of the Klamath Tribe) started
down the river and on arriving at the
mouth never stopped to take a view of
the weather, but put out to sea. The
ocean was very rough, the waves were
rolling high, and when they got into
the breakers their boat capsized and all
five of them were drowned. This
brought on serious trouble for Bill McGarvey. The relatives of the drowned
Indians talked it over for three or four
months and then decided to go to
McGarvey and demand pay, the most
of it to be paid in Indian money.
McGarvey said that after counting it
up it would amount in our gold to
about 1,500 dollars. He refused to pay
it, telling them that he was not responsible for the drowning, that he had
only hired them to bring in his goods
by water, that their getting drowned
was not his fault and he would not pay.
At this they went away.
Two or three days after, late in the evening, he heard small stones striking on the
shed roof of the kitchen at the back part of
the store. He listened, but heard no more,
so he went to the door of the kitchen,
enclosed with a high, strong picket fence,
and opposite the kitchen door was a gate in
this fence; and as he looked out of the door