Chief Moses subject of museum lecture

MOSES LAKE — Chief Moses, his beliefs and how they shaped his leadership will be the subject of a lecture at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center.

“No Hellfire Below Because Well Water is Cold: The Peaceful Skepticism of Chief Moses” will be presented by Dennis Knepp. Knepp said his lecture represents his personal, individual take on historical events. He is a professor of philosophy at Big Bend Community College.

Admission is free.

The lecture is the spring finale for the Salon Series, a new series sponsored by the museum and featuring afternoon programs. The Salon Series features local speakers talking about local history and culture.

Chief Moses, of course, is the Native American leader for whom Moses Lake and Moses Coulee are named. He was a leader of the Columbia band (now called the Moses-Columbia band) that is part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

Chief Moses grew up in a changing world, as British and American settlement reached what became the Pacific Northwest. His father sent him to the mission school run by pioneer Henry Spaulding to learn to read and write. According to the historical accounts Moses opposed the movement of settlers into what had been the band’s lands and hunting grounds.

But while he resisted – allegedly sometimes violently – Moses stayed out, and kept his community out, of the 1877 conflict between the Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph and the U.S. government.

Knepp argues that Chief Moses’ beliefs were central to that decision. “He rejected all supernaturalism.” Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce were influenced by their beliefs, which Chief Moses didn’t share, Knepp said. “Moses and Joseph were good friends, but they had radically different philosophies which led Joseph to war and kept Moses out of war,” Knepp said.

He cited an observation by Chief Moses on the wells he saw people digging around his home territory in the Moses Coulee. Water got cold as the well was dug deeper into the ground, so Moses said he concluded there was no “hellfire below.”

Instead, Knepp said, “Moses was into fancy clothes, horse racing, whiskey, multiple wives, running jokes and the pleasures of this world. Look at the few pictures of him: he’s always wearing such nice clothes.”

By using real-world examples to make his point, Moses was able to negotiate with the same U.S Army leaders that were chasing – and ultimately battling – Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce. That was unusual in the post-Civil War West; “It should be a famous story, but it’s not.”

Knepp said he became interested in the story of Chief Moses when he moved to Moses Lake in 2000 and tried to learn more about the area. “Sure, I traveled and stuff, but I also checked out a lot of library books about the area.” A biography of Chief Moses co-written by local physician and historian Robert Ruby prompted further study of the chief and his beliefs, he said.

The Salon Series, said museum manager Freya Liggett, is inspired by salon movement founded in 16th Century Europe, an “informal intellectual gathering.” Museum staff wanted to provide a place to discuss ideas and history focusing on the Columbia Basin. “Our 21st Century version of the salon is a venue where local ideas matter.”