Sam Kaltomee was born in 1857 in the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana, which is located some sixty miles south of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
When Sam was a young boy, he became seriously ill and was thought to have died. This was in the late 1860’s, long before the practice of embalming became available in the area, especially to native people. Sam’s family organized a wake service for their child, which had become common practice due to the influence of Jesuit Priests who had converted many of the Bitterroot Salish people to Catholicism by that time.
At some point during the wake service, with family and friends grieving in front of his open casket, the young Sam rose up from his casket! Everyone there was astonished.
Sam asked in the Salish language, “What is going on?”
Different versions of the story say that some people got scared and ran outside, while some were in tears and amazed. After the initial shock of what happened, the people were joyful. From that day onward, Sam became known as Samwel Nk̓ʷƛ̓lex̣ʷncu by his Tribe or in English, Sam Resurrection.“He was quite the guy,” said Troy Felsman, Director of 8a Sales. “He is buried up the road from my house. One Memorial Day I went to check on his grave. It’s surrounded by lilac bushes, so I crouched down and saw that standing on his grave was a magpie (bird). The closer I got, it wouldn’t move, and just looked at me. I got close enough that I could have touched the bird. After that, I told my family what happened and said that might have been ole Sam thanking me for checking on him…or perhaps just a magpie mama with chicks nearby…but I prefer the former explanation.”
No one ever discovered the cause of Sam’s prolonged unresponsiveness. He lived until 1941, and his story continues to captivate audiences even today.
