Pageant coming back to its roots

“Moccasined feet of Indians trod the paths surrounding the Big Horn Hot Springs long before the coming of the first white man.” These words are the opening of the “History of the Spring” written by Jessie L. Duhig and found in the program for the annual Gift of the Waters Historic Indian Pageant, this year at 6 p.m. on Aug. 4 and 5.

The pageant honors when Chief Washakie, in 1897, entered a federal treaty and ceded about 10 square miles of the northeast corner of reservation having the Big Horn Hot Springs. Chief Washakie put a clause in the treaty which provided that a portion of the Big Spring waters remain free for public use.

“It is in observance of the giving of the waters of the Big Spring to the whites,” Duhig wrote, “that Indians gather with their white brothers around Bah-gue-wana to present the pageant, ‘Gift of the Waters.’”

Barb Vietti with the Gift of the Waters Committee explained the first pageant was performed on Oct. 1, 1925, at 7:30 a.m., on a Thursday morning as opposed to the pageant these days, which is performed on two days, the first weekend in August, in the evenings.

That first performance was presented for the state federation meeting of the Thermopolis Woman’s Club, of which Marie Montabé Savaresy was a member. Savaresy went to live with the Shoshone Indians in the summer of 1925. She later wrote a poem titled “Gift of the Waters.” Vietti noted the poem is written in the same meter — trochaic tetrameter — as Henry Wadsworth Longellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha.”

Among the cast in that original performance was Dick Washakie, oldest son of Chief Washakie, who played the part of Chief Washakie. Vietti pointed out Milward Simpson, father of Al and Pete Simpson, portrayed the Third Brave of the Council.

Vietti said 400 Indians showed up to the first performance, all of whom camped at Hot Springs State Park. The second performance wasn’t until 25 years later, in 1950.

After that first performance, Vietti said, nothing happened until the late 1940’s. She speculated Duhig eventually contacted Marie Montabé, who was no longer with her husband Mike Savaresy, and asked if she’d be interested in performing the pageant again. Vietti shared that the oldest script she has found written by Montabé contained parts of the original poem but not its entirety.

Programs are given out mainly to tourists who attend the pageant, Vietti said. “This is their only real history of what happened, and it’s a great history . . . As they’re sitting there waiting for the Indians to show up hopefully they’re reading this and they have a good idea of what happened.”

There will be a change in this year’s presentation, Vietti said, with the committee trying to go back to more of what the original pageant had in terms of presentation, as they noticed several changes over the years. She said they wouldn’t be going as far back as 1925, but will try to get it back to the 1950 presentation.

Those interested in finding out more about or joining the committee can attend their next meeting at the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce office on July 24 at 6 p.m.