In 1888, a man named George Trumam Kercheval published “Lorin Mooruck; and Other Indian Stories.” The book’s preface is written by Bishop of Minnesota H. P. Whipple, and in it he laments the treatment of Indians, says that in his own visits in Indian Country he has seen “pictures of degradation and sorrow, and heard stories of oppression and wrong which would appall the stoutest heart.” But Kercheval’s stories ring true to his own experience, which sees the Indians still as primitive but honorable and believing in a singular divine presence and loving their children. He holds hope for the recently enacted—1887, a year prior to the signed preface—Dawes Allotment Act, which will “provide for personal rights of property and future citizenship.”

It is a kind of noble savage belief, which holds the primitive belief systems of Natives and White Christian values both high—and laments the transgressions towards Indians of some supposed Christians in the modern world. These views are demonstrated in the book. There is a long story of Lorin Mooruck and three additional Indian stories. One of the latter is “Three Men of Wallowa.” And we happen to have a xeroxed copy of this short tale. (And digital versions of the entire book are easily available online. Google the title.)

That Wallowa story has been floating around this Library for as long as I can remember. I finally decided that I should read it!

It’s a mashup of stories of Indians in the Northwest: disease epidemics; the missionaries at Lapwai and at the Whitman mission; treaties; conversions of Indians to farming and Christianity; the killings at the Whitman mission; and the surrender of a few Indians to the authorities to be hung for those murders.

There is no timeline, and no mention of Cayuse, Umatilla, or other tribes. From glancing at the other stories, the author has generic, noble Indians in mind. The men are muscular and straight; the women have beautiful black hair and bright eyes. The relationships of young women and suitors and husbands and wives are virtuous. Fathers love their wives and daughters, and are willing to sacrifice for them, and for the tribe.

It’s no surprise that the good Bishop held hope for the Dawes Act. This exercise—the reading of preface and story—gives hints to the mindset of Dawes Act proponents. Basically, Indians could be brought into American society with land ownership and assimilation.

Here the story—my story—goes straight to that of Alice Fletcher. Fletcher was a very early cultural anthropologist who worked extensively among the Omaha, and in fact was probably a major person in writing the Dawes Act. The idea was that individual Indians on owned parcels would, in giving up the concept of tribal or common lands, become Americanized. (The unexpected—or expected—consequence was millions of acres of “surplus” lands made available to White homesteaders.)

Fletcher came to the Nez Perce Reservation to make allotments, famously offering Chief Joseph land in Idaho (c, 1890). She was called the “measuring woman” there, and made friends with a Christian Indian named Billy Williams. He drew her a map and named over 70 Nez Perce villages along the Clearwater, Salmon, and Snake rivers. Most of the villages were gone when Billy and Alice Fletcher wrote and drew, but in 1893 she gave it as a paper to the American Anthropological Society. Alice Fletcher’s story is told in a fine biography: “A Stranger in Her Native Land: Alice Fletcher and the American Indians.”

Back to “Three Men of Wallowa” and George Truman Kercheval. I searched for information on the author, and found none. But there was a hint in one or two places that the author might have been “Mrs. George Truman Kercheval,” with “Mrs. Winifred Jennings.”

It would not be surprising. Historically, there are many instances of women authors hiding behind men’s names. And woman, who wrote many best-selling romances and popular novels at the turn of the last century, might quite plausibly written the characters and hints of romance in “Three Men of Wallowa.”

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Footnote: Fletcher was apparently a commanding presence, sometimes called “Her Majesty” as well as the “Measuring Woman.” And Anthropology was a new field not yet dominated by male academics. Early anthropologist Margaret Mead is said to have been a fan of Fletcher’s.