Smohalla (Wanapum Prophet of the Dreamer Religion)

Smohalla (meaning 'Preacher' or 'Dreamer') belonged to the peaceful Wanapum people who inhabited the salmon-rich basalt canyons of Priest Rapids along the mid-Columbia River in modern Washington State. Born hunchbacked, he was recognized early on as possessing deep clairvoyant gifts.

The Vision Quest of the Ghost World

Following a violent duel with a rival chief in his youth, Smohalla was left for dead. Dragging himself into a canoe, he drifted down the Columbia and embarked on a solitary wander through California and Mexico. Returning years later to his astounded tribe who believed he had returned from the land of the dead, he revealed that the Great Spirit had given him the sacred Washat songs, the ringing bells, and the sacred seven-drum dance.

Defense of Mother Earth

When United States military commissioners urged Smohalla to divide tribal lands into individual private farms and plow the ground, he uttered one of the most famous and profound philosophical rebukes in the history of Indigenous thought: 'You ask me to plow the ground! Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone! Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I can not enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay, and sell it, and be rich like white men! But how dare I cut off my mother's hair?'