Lucullus Virgil McWhorter
Encyclopedia
Lucullus Virgil McWhorter (January 29, 1860–1944) was an American farmer
and frontiersman who practiced private studies in history
and archaeology
. These studies developed into one of the most coveted records of Indians
in the United States
and placed particular emphasis on Indian tribes in modern-day West Virginia
and the Plateau Indians
in Washington state. Through his studies, McWhorter was the voice for the Plateau Indians against mistreatment by the United States federal government and fought to make this mistreatment known to the public.
and instead adapted his own methods of learning through his love for nature and the out-doors. He married his wife Adelia A. Swisher on March 17, 1883 and together they produced three children: Ovid (born 1884), Iris (born 1886), and Virgil (born 1888). However, their marriage was cut short when Adelia died in the winter of 1893. He later married his second wife in 1895 and in 1897, moved his family from Upshur County, West Virginia
to Darke County, Ohio
. Here, he continued his work as a farmer and rancher and his in-depth study of Indian tribes through constant reading and research through experiencing Indian life. Though his studies on Indian tribes of West Virginia held great significance to the history of tribes in West Virginia and his founding of the journal, The American Archaeologist, with A. C. Gruhlke and J. R. Nissley helped further his research; McWhorter had his sights set on the American West.
. By choosing this area, McWhorter put himself directly on a trail that connected the town of North Yakima with the nearby Yakima Indian Reservation. “Anyone from the reservation with any business in town soon found the McWhorter place a convenient spot to camp, and the eager McWhorter began to make friends almost at once among the Yakamas.” The close observation of the Yakamas’ culture and spiritualism
, he found to be simple and inviting. This led him to question his own religion of Christianity
and he ultimately renounced Christianity altogether, but began a comparative study between different religions. McWhorter’s frequent contact with the Yakama Indians would lead to his championing the struggles of the Yakama Indians against federal officials and other white settler
s.
The plight of the Yakama Indians had been well established by the time McWhorter arrived in Washington. In 1855 various Indian leaders signed treaties establishing, amongst other things, reservations
. The Yakima Indian reservation was one of three reservations established during this time. The treaty guaranteed the Yakama Indians rights to their land; however, miner
s soon converged on Yakama reservation land prompting a three year war that ended with the defeat of the Yakama Indians in 1858. As the years progressed, Whites would continue to encroach on the Yakama Indian Reservation and in 1887 Congress
would pass the Allotment Act, which added legal weight to white claims on Yakama land. Then in 1906, Washington Senator Wesley L. Jones proposed a bill in congress that would require Yakama Indians to give up three-fourths of their land in exchange for irrigation rights. Seeing that the odds were against the Yakama Indians, McWhorter quickly took action.
McWhorter would befriend then Chief of the Yakama Indians, Yoom-Tee-Bee, as he sought to aid the Yakama Indians in their fight to preserve their rights and land. Together, the two would ride on horseback across the Yakama reservation talking to residents and encouraging them not to sign anything for US government officials. He would become a prominent figure in Yakama Indian affairs, sitting in on tribal council
s and writing scores of letters to congressmen as well as prominent Indian rights activists on the east coast to bring the struggle of the Yakamas to light. McWhorter would later publish a pamphlet
, The Crime Against the Yakamas, in 1913 further detailing the Yakamas long history of abuse at the hands of the United States government.
Chief Yoom-Tee-Bee died in 1910, but as a result of his and McWhorter’s efforts, the Jones bill died in congress in 1914. Later that year, McWhorter would receive a letter of thanks from Yoom-Tee-Bee’s successor Stwire G. Watters, in which he states, “We prayed for someone like you to come to us.” McWhorter’s efforts would lead to him being ceremoniously adopted by the Yakama tribe, being given the name Hemene Ka-Wan, Old Wolf. He would continue to be an active force in the Yakima Indian reservation for the rest of his life, attend council meetings, acting as a mediator
between the Yakamas and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
, and published an additional pamphlet in 1916 detailing the continuing plight of the Yakamas, The Continued Crime Against the Yakamas. McWhorter’s constant advocacy for Indian rights against the oppression
of the US government was a lifelong mission, one that contributed to his other passion of recording Indian history as narrated from Indian perspectives.
The only accounts written about the Nez Perce and the War of 1877 were by white U.S. soldiers who fought against the Nez Perce Indians in the war, thus they told the story as a one sided argument. General Oliver Otis Owen was the commanding officer of U.S. troops perusing the Nez Perce during the Nez Perce War of 1877 and would later write his own historical record, Nez Perce Joseph: An Account of His Ancestors, His Lands, His Confederates, His Enemies, His Murders, His War, His Pursuit and Capture, depicting the Nez Perce campaign. This was the motivation for McWhorter to tell the Nez Perce story so to preserve Native American Identity. Many years before the arrival of McWhorter, the Nez Perce had gone through much change since the signing of the Walla Walla treaties on June 11, 1855, “It had taken the commissioners less than a month to acquire over thirty million acres of land in three future states…and added a fresh layer to the shifting sands of Indian identity along the Columbia River
”. Between 1855 and 1877 the Nez Perce Reservation would diminish into a fraction of what it used to be.
After several disputes over land and resources the Nez Perce people were growing weary of the whites influence over their land. The actions of three Nez Perce boys would be the breaking point and bring about the beginning of the Nez Perce War in 1877, “General Howard has shown us the rifle. We answer ‘Yes.’ We will stir up a fight for him. We will start his war!” By recording what Yellow Wolf had told him McWhorter would take action in telling the Nez Perce story in, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story. Yellow Wolf’s story would be the anthem
of all Nez Perce who lost and fought for their way of life. He depicted the “non-treaty” Nez Perce not as savages, but as strong people that were resilient to their American oppressors. In doing so, McWhorter challenged the stereotype
that had long been perpetuated by Indian histories told through white eyes.
Later in McWhorter’s life, he would pursue to complete his “Field History” of the Nez Perce which would later be called, Hear Me, My Chiefs! Nez Perce History and Legend. It would not be published until after his death in 1951 his son, Virgil McWhorter, would complete his field history so to depict the Nez Perce narrative. His final piece of work would cover how the Nez Perce came to be a thriving people throughout Washington State’s Palouse region and the events following the end of the war of 1877. “On his deathbed, McWhorter made a request to his son, Virgil…to see his still untitled Field History through to publication.” It was his dying wish that the voice of the Nez Perce people would be heard and told through their perspective.
The friendship that McWhorter found with Yellow Wolf and the Nez Perce Indians proved to be invaluable to his historical findings. Up to his death in 1944, McWhorter remained very active in Nez Perce relations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For most of his life he fought to preserve Native American identity as a persistent historian and caring friend. Without the efforts of Lucullus McWhorter the Nez Perce story would have been left to those ignorant of true Nez Perce life and culture.
led him to the opinion that most books that had been written on Indians were lacking in that they included little or no input from actual Indians. McWhorter therefore, decided to combine his passion for advocacy with his pursuit for writing a history of Indians as told by actual Indians. In addition to McWhorter’s ranch, which allowed frequent encounters with Indians, he sought additional contact with Indians through the creation of mock Indian encampments that toured the Pacific Northwest
rodeo
circuit.
These mock Indian encampments included traditional Indian dress, dances, and drumming. Indians from both the Nez Perce and Yakama tribes were frequent attendees. The reason for this is because the rodeo circuit mirrored the tradition ‘seasonal round’, or nomadic ways of life, that Indians had traditionally followed before the treaties that established reservations in 1855. These rodeos provided McWhorter with the opportunity to interview multiple Indians, “…with each rodeo or fair McWhorter learned more of the tribal oral tradition
and he recorded what he heard. He well understood the unique opportunity at hand.” The vast plethora of interview
s provided McWhorter with the ability to fact check his history quite easily. For facts were often repeated by multiple persons, thus adding more weight to their potential for being faithful accounts of events. Furthermore the rodeos provided the Indians and McWhorter as well, with a source of income.
In addition, these rodeos were in stark contrast to other rodeos, like those of Buffalo Bill Cody. Instead of a ‘white-washed’ version of the west, McWhorter’s rodeos presented traditional Indian culture to white settlers and served to stem the tide of ignorance that was so prevalent during the time. Through these rodeos McWhorter was able to find additional contacts who shared his interest in Indian advocacy and history. In particular, at the Frontier Days celebration at Walla Walla
in 1914, McWhorter was introduced to a lady named Cristal McLeod, also known as Mourning Dove
. Mourning Dove was a half-blood Indian of Okanogan
descent who had written, but not published, a semi-autobiographical novel called, Co-ge-we-a, The Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range. McWhorter would befriend Mourning Dove and help her publish her novel largely because her novel embodied the struggle of Indian culture versus white culture the McWhorter ardently fought to remedy.
and history allowed for him to befriend Indians, allowing him access to firsthand accounts of Indian history and legends. McWhorter was very much a historian who put his heart into his work, in contrast to the typical tendency of historians to remove themselves from the project to sustain objectivity. The history he sought to write was about a people who he felt of as family. McWhorter was able to involve himself personally in his subject and still produce a product that attained academic acceptability.
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
and frontiersman who practiced private studies in history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. These studies developed into one of the most coveted records of Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and placed particular emphasis on Indian tribes in modern-day West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
and the Plateau Indians
Plateau Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, also referred to by the phrase Indigenous peoples of the Plateau, and historically called the Plateau Indians are indigenous peoples of the Plateau or Intermontane region of Western Canada and the United States, whose territories are located in the...
in Washington state. Through his studies, McWhorter was the voice for the Plateau Indians against mistreatment by the United States federal government and fought to make this mistreatment known to the public.
Early life
Lucullus V. McWhorter was born one of twelve children to Reverend John Minion McWhorter and Rosetta Marple McWhorter on January 29, 1860 in Harrison County, Virginia (an area later admitted into the union as a part of the state of West Virginia). From his childhood on, Lucullus rejected a formal educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and instead adapted his own methods of learning through his love for nature and the out-doors. He married his wife Adelia A. Swisher on March 17, 1883 and together they produced three children: Ovid (born 1884), Iris (born 1886), and Virgil (born 1888). However, their marriage was cut short when Adelia died in the winter of 1893. He later married his second wife in 1895 and in 1897, moved his family from Upshur County, West Virginia
Upshur County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 23,404 people, 8,972 households, and 6,352 families residing in the county. The population density was 66 people per square mile . There were 10,751 housing units at an average density of 30 per square mile...
to Darke County, Ohio
Darke County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 53,309 people, 20,419 households, and 14,905 families residing in the county. The population density was 89 people per square mile . There were 21,583 housing units at an average density of 36 per square mile...
. Here, he continued his work as a farmer and rancher and his in-depth study of Indian tribes through constant reading and research through experiencing Indian life. Though his studies on Indian tribes of West Virginia held great significance to the history of tribes in West Virginia and his founding of the journal, The American Archaeologist, with A. C. Gruhlke and J. R. Nissley helped further his research; McWhorter had his sights set on the American West.
McWhorter and the Yakama Indians
McWhorter left Fort Jefferson, Ohio on February 26, 1903 and headed west to settle in North Yakima, Washington. He arrived in April and set up a ranch on the outskirts of North Yakima on the Yakima RiverYakima River
The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in south central and eastern Washington State, named for the indigenous Yakama people. The length of the river from headwaters to mouth is , with an average drop of .-Course:...
. By choosing this area, McWhorter put himself directly on a trail that connected the town of North Yakima with the nearby Yakima Indian Reservation. “Anyone from the reservation with any business in town soon found the McWhorter place a convenient spot to camp, and the eager McWhorter began to make friends almost at once among the Yakamas.” The close observation of the Yakamas’ culture and spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
, he found to be simple and inviting. This led him to question his own religion of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and he ultimately renounced Christianity altogether, but began a comparative study between different religions. McWhorter’s frequent contact with the Yakama Indians would lead to his championing the struggles of the Yakama Indians against federal officials and other white settler
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s.
The plight of the Yakama Indians had been well established by the time McWhorter arrived in Washington. In 1855 various Indian leaders signed treaties establishing, amongst other things, reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
. The Yakima Indian reservation was one of three reservations established during this time. The treaty guaranteed the Yakama Indians rights to their land; however, miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
s soon converged on Yakama reservation land prompting a three year war that ended with the defeat of the Yakama Indians in 1858. As the years progressed, Whites would continue to encroach on the Yakama Indian Reservation and in 1887 Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
would pass the Allotment Act, which added legal weight to white claims on Yakama land. Then in 1906, Washington Senator Wesley L. Jones proposed a bill in congress that would require Yakama Indians to give up three-fourths of their land in exchange for irrigation rights. Seeing that the odds were against the Yakama Indians, McWhorter quickly took action.
McWhorter would befriend then Chief of the Yakama Indians, Yoom-Tee-Bee, as he sought to aid the Yakama Indians in their fight to preserve their rights and land. Together, the two would ride on horseback across the Yakama reservation talking to residents and encouraging them not to sign anything for US government officials. He would become a prominent figure in Yakama Indian affairs, sitting in on tribal council
Tribal Council
A Tribal Council is either: an association of Native American bands in the United States or First Nations governments in Canada, or the governing body for certain tribes within the United States or elsewhere...
s and writing scores of letters to congressmen as well as prominent Indian rights activists on the east coast to bring the struggle of the Yakamas to light. McWhorter would later publish a pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
, The Crime Against the Yakamas, in 1913 further detailing the Yakamas long history of abuse at the hands of the United States government.
Chief Yoom-Tee-Bee died in 1910, but as a result of his and McWhorter’s efforts, the Jones bill died in congress in 1914. Later that year, McWhorter would receive a letter of thanks from Yoom-Tee-Bee’s successor Stwire G. Watters, in which he states, “We prayed for someone like you to come to us.” McWhorter’s efforts would lead to him being ceremoniously adopted by the Yakama tribe, being given the name Hemene Ka-Wan, Old Wolf. He would continue to be an active force in the Yakima Indian reservation for the rest of his life, attend council meetings, acting as a mediator
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...
between the Yakamas and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
, and published an additional pamphlet in 1916 detailing the continuing plight of the Yakamas, The Continued Crime Against the Yakamas. McWhorter’s constant advocacy for Indian rights against the oppression
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
of the US government was a lifelong mission, one that contributed to his other passion of recording Indian history as narrated from Indian perspectives.
McWhorter and the Nez Perce Indians
Lucullus V. McWhorter’s first encounter with a Nez Perce Indian was by chance in 1907 when a man by the named Hemene Mox Mox, or Yellow Wolf came to his ranch near the Yakima River in Washington State. After learning of Yellow Wolf’s experiences as a Nez Perce warrior and veteran of the Nez Perce War of 1877 they would befriend each other. “McWhorter saw the need to record Nez Perce accounts of their history. “To hear Yellow Wolf,” he wrote, “was to be impressed by the unquestionable candor of his conviction that he and his associates were fully justified in all their actions”. With a translator, McWhorter began studying Yellow Wolf’s life and the history of the Nez Perce which would produce two pieces of work by McWhorter called, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story and Hear Me, My Chiefs!.The only accounts written about the Nez Perce and the War of 1877 were by white U.S. soldiers who fought against the Nez Perce Indians in the war, thus they told the story as a one sided argument. General Oliver Otis Owen was the commanding officer of U.S. troops perusing the Nez Perce during the Nez Perce War of 1877 and would later write his own historical record, Nez Perce Joseph: An Account of His Ancestors, His Lands, His Confederates, His Enemies, His Murders, His War, His Pursuit and Capture, depicting the Nez Perce campaign. This was the motivation for McWhorter to tell the Nez Perce story so to preserve Native American Identity. Many years before the arrival of McWhorter, the Nez Perce had gone through much change since the signing of the Walla Walla treaties on June 11, 1855, “It had taken the commissioners less than a month to acquire over thirty million acres of land in three future states…and added a fresh layer to the shifting sands of Indian identity along the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
”. Between 1855 and 1877 the Nez Perce Reservation would diminish into a fraction of what it used to be.
After several disputes over land and resources the Nez Perce people were growing weary of the whites influence over their land. The actions of three Nez Perce boys would be the breaking point and bring about the beginning of the Nez Perce War in 1877, “General Howard has shown us the rifle. We answer ‘Yes.’ We will stir up a fight for him. We will start his war!” By recording what Yellow Wolf had told him McWhorter would take action in telling the Nez Perce story in, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story. Yellow Wolf’s story would be the anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
of all Nez Perce who lost and fought for their way of life. He depicted the “non-treaty” Nez Perce not as savages, but as strong people that were resilient to their American oppressors. In doing so, McWhorter challenged the stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
that had long been perpetuated by Indian histories told through white eyes.
Later in McWhorter’s life, he would pursue to complete his “Field History” of the Nez Perce which would later be called, Hear Me, My Chiefs! Nez Perce History and Legend. It would not be published until after his death in 1951 his son, Virgil McWhorter, would complete his field history so to depict the Nez Perce narrative. His final piece of work would cover how the Nez Perce came to be a thriving people throughout Washington State’s Palouse region and the events following the end of the war of 1877. “On his deathbed, McWhorter made a request to his son, Virgil…to see his still untitled Field History through to publication.” It was his dying wish that the voice of the Nez Perce people would be heard and told through their perspective.
The friendship that McWhorter found with Yellow Wolf and the Nez Perce Indians proved to be invaluable to his historical findings. Up to his death in 1944, McWhorter remained very active in Nez Perce relations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For most of his life he fought to preserve Native American identity as a persistent historian and caring friend. Without the efforts of Lucullus McWhorter the Nez Perce story would have been left to those ignorant of true Nez Perce life and culture.
Methods and Research
McWhorter lacked a formal education, as such his inspiration for conducting research into Indian life, culture, and history was garnered largely from what he read. His voracious appetite for literatureLiterature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
led him to the opinion that most books that had been written on Indians were lacking in that they included little or no input from actual Indians. McWhorter therefore, decided to combine his passion for advocacy with his pursuit for writing a history of Indians as told by actual Indians. In addition to McWhorter’s ranch, which allowed frequent encounters with Indians, he sought additional contact with Indians through the creation of mock Indian encampments that toured the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
circuit.
These mock Indian encampments included traditional Indian dress, dances, and drumming. Indians from both the Nez Perce and Yakama tribes were frequent attendees. The reason for this is because the rodeo circuit mirrored the tradition ‘seasonal round’, or nomadic ways of life, that Indians had traditionally followed before the treaties that established reservations in 1855. These rodeos provided McWhorter with the opportunity to interview multiple Indians, “…with each rodeo or fair McWhorter learned more of the tribal oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
and he recorded what he heard. He well understood the unique opportunity at hand.” The vast plethora of interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
s provided McWhorter with the ability to fact check his history quite easily. For facts were often repeated by multiple persons, thus adding more weight to their potential for being faithful accounts of events. Furthermore the rodeos provided the Indians and McWhorter as well, with a source of income.
In addition, these rodeos were in stark contrast to other rodeos, like those of Buffalo Bill Cody. Instead of a ‘white-washed’ version of the west, McWhorter’s rodeos presented traditional Indian culture to white settlers and served to stem the tide of ignorance that was so prevalent during the time. Through these rodeos McWhorter was able to find additional contacts who shared his interest in Indian advocacy and history. In particular, at the Frontier Days celebration at Walla Walla
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
in 1914, McWhorter was introduced to a lady named Cristal McLeod, also known as Mourning Dove
Mourning Dove (author)
Mourning Dove was a Native American author and best known for her 1927 novel Cogewea the Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range, which tells the story of Cogewea, a mixed-blood ranch woman on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The novel is one of the first written by a Native...
. Mourning Dove was a half-blood Indian of Okanogan
Okanagan people
The Okanagan people, also spelled Okanogan, are a First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the U.S.-Canada boundary in Washington state and British Columbia...
descent who had written, but not published, a semi-autobiographical novel called, Co-ge-we-a, The Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range. McWhorter would befriend Mourning Dove and help her publish her novel largely because her novel embodied the struggle of Indian culture versus white culture the McWhorter ardently fought to remedy.
Historical Significance
McWhorter’s unique combination of advocacyAdvocacy
Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an...
and history allowed for him to befriend Indians, allowing him access to firsthand accounts of Indian history and legends. McWhorter was very much a historian who put his heart into his work, in contrast to the typical tendency of historians to remove themselves from the project to sustain objectivity. The history he sought to write was about a people who he felt of as family. McWhorter was able to involve himself personally in his subject and still produce a product that attained academic acceptability.