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Chief Washakie


Chief Washakie (c.1798/1810 – February 20, 1900) was a renowned warrior first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging of trapper Jim Bridger, Washakie led a band of Shoshones to the council meetings of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). Essentially from that time until his death, he was considered the head of the Eastern Shoshones by the representatives of the United States government.

Much about Washakie's early life remains unknown, although several family traditions suggest similar origins. Washakie was born between 1798 and 1810 (see below) to his mother Lost Woman, who was a Tussawehee (White Knife) Shoshoni by birth, and his father, Crooked Leg (Paseego), an Umatilla rescued as a boy from slave traders at Wakemap and Celilo in 1786 by Weasel Lungs, a Tussawehee dog soldier (White Knife) Shoshoni medicine man. Washakie's father, Crooked Leg, was adopted into Weasel Lungs' clan. There, Crooked Leg, would become a Tussawehee dog soldier (White Knife) Shoshoni, as he would meet and marry Weasel Lungs' eldest daughter Lost Girl, later Lost Woman. Thus, Washakie's maternal grandfather was Weasel Lungs. His maternal grandmother, Chosro (Bluebird)), was also Tussawehee by birth. Lost Woman's younger sister, Washakie's aunt was Nanawu (Little Striped Squirrel), the mother of Chochoco (Has No Horse), who was therefore a first cousin to Washakie.

Crooked Leg and Lost Woman's child, Washakie's birth name was Pinaquanah ("Smells of Sugar") and he had other names before being called Washakie. When he was a teenager, he changed his name to Shoots the Buffalo Running. He was a high-stakes gambler, playing a game involving shaking small stones inside of a gourd rattle, rather like dice, so his friends renamed him Gourd Rattler.


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