“The last one to pay the penalty was a woman.”

I only trust so much the historical reports about Native American behavior in white publications, which reported on the tribes from a posture of fear and ethnocentrism. So make what you will of this excerpt from an article in the September 20, 1903 New York Times:

“North Yakima, Washington–The Indian Tribes of the Northwest do not permit bad medicine men to experiment on the lives of their members. When one dies under the care of the doctor, the medicine man generally goes to the happy hunting grounds to atone for his sins. The Yakima Indians of Washington have recently disposed of two old doctors because of their failure to cure sick families. The last one to pay the penalty was a woman. Her name was Tee-son-a-way. She had lived to see almost 100 years of life before the hand of vengeance was turned against her.

In a little wickiup that had done service for a quarter of a century the medicine woman made her home. She was compelled to live an isolated life because of being a medicine woman. Her possessions consisted of an eighty-acre farm which the Government had given her, a band of ponies and stock, and $40 in money. She had passed beyond the stage of life when her associates had faith in her charms for healing the sick. Her hair was long and gray, which caused many members of the tribe to reverence her. But the piercing black eyes made them think an evil one was lurking about and they desired to get rid of her presence.

Tee-son-a-way sat in her tepee smoking the pipe of peace and sadly dreaming of the fate that soon would be hers, for she knew that the Indians would drag her away into the mountains and leave her for wolves to devour if she did not die or some of her enemies had not the courage to take her life. A face darkened the door, and one of the redmen quickly stepped inside the hut. He had a duty to perform. It was to avenge the death of some member of his family whom the doctor had failed to heal. With a stone he struck the medicine women on the head and felled her to the ground. Then her head was cut off and dragged away, leaving the body in a tepee.

For many days the body lay in the wickiup, while the head was discoloring in the hot sunshine of the Yakima Valley. Then, Yallup, an Indian, had a call to make on the medicine woman. He entered the tepee and discovered the signs of death. He called the tribe, and there was much mourning among the Yakimas. The remains were buried in the Indian cemetery with the pomp due the chieftain of many wars. Blankets of every hue were woven about the body and spread over the grave. The medicine rattle was buried with Tee-son a-way, and her voice will be heard no more.

Tee-son-a-way was one of the fortunate doctors whose lives were spared during the cold Winter of 1890 and 1891. The tribe held a long pow-wow at that time and executed their medicine men. They argued that the men were bad or the snow would not fall so deep and continue so long on the ground. One of the chiefs was so earnest in his dances and marks of violence to appease the wrath of the Great Spirit that he stabbed his breast with a dagger until he dropped dead in the council chamber. Yet the good spirit did not breathe a warm wind on the frozen camp, and the medicine men were burned at the stake or shot in the snowdrifts.”