mooney] TSCHADDAM OU SHAKER RELIGION 751 



Iu conclusion, permit me to say that the general assembly of the Presbyterian 

 clnm-h in this state has several times examined into the religion and character of 

 the Shaker or Slocum church, and has highly indorsed its people and their character 

 and actions. Vowaluch is their head now, and the strongest man mentally among 



them. 



Some months later Mr Wickersham forwarded a circumstantial and 

 carefully written statement of the history and present condition of the 

 movement. In accordance with his request, we publish it as written, 

 omitting only some paragraphs which do not bear directly on the gen- 

 eral subject. It may be considered as au official statement of the 

 Shaker case by their legally constituted representative. As might 

 have been expected, he takes direct issue with those who have opposed 

 the new religion. The reader will note the recurrence of the Indian 

 sacred number, four, in Slocum's speech, as also the fact that his lirst 

 trance was the culmination of a serious illness. 



Tschaddam or Shaker religion 



•'On Christmas day, 1854, a treaty was signed at the mouth of She- 

 nahnam or Medicine creek, on the south side of Puget sound, Washing- 

 ton, between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and ex officio superintendent of 

 Indian affairs for the United States, and the chief and headmen of the 

 Nisqually, Puyallup, and other small tribes of Indians residing around 

 the south shores of Puget sound. 



•'One of these small tribes was the Squaxin, situated on the south- 

 western branch or arm of Puget sound, now known as Little Skookum 

 bay, in Mason county, Washington, near Olympia. The remaining 

 members of this tribe yet live on the old home places, having purchased 

 small tracts of their old hunting grounds from the first settlers; and 

 they now make a living by fishing and gathering oysters as in days of old. 

 Of the fishy tribe of Squaxin was born John Slocum, as he is known to 

 the 'Boston man,' but to his native friends he is known as Squ-sacht-un. 



'•John Slocum, Squ-sacht-un, is now (1893) about 51 years of age, about 

 5 feet 8 inches high, and weighs about ICO pounds; rather stoop shoul- 

 dered, with a scattering beard, a shock of long black hair, a flat head 

 (fashionably flat, and produced by pressure while a baby), bright eyes, 

 but in all rather a common expression of countenance. He is modest 

 and rather retiring, but has unquestioned confidence in himself and 

 his mission. He is married, and up to the time of his translation was 

 looked on as a common Indian, with a slight inclination to fire-water 

 and pony racing, as well as a known fondness for Indian gambling. 



"In the mouth of October, 1881, Slocum was unaccountably drawn to 

 think of his evil courses. While iu the woods he knelt and prayed 

 to God, and began seriously to think of the error of his ways and of 

 the evil days that had fallen on his few remaining native friends. 

 Whisky, gambling, idleness, and general vice had almost exterminated 

 his people. His eyes were opened to the folly of these facts, and he 

 14 etii— pt 2 8 



