Salmon River Savage (Ione Love Thielke and Mary Edmundson, recorded ca. 1950) This song, found on a recording in a private collection in Blackfoot, Idaho is one of the earliest known records known to have been made in Idaho.  The singer is Ione Love Thielke, who identified herself as “The Musical Poem Recorder of Cascade, Idaho.”  Thielke was a traveling musician who lived in Idaho and Oregon and set regional poems to music.  The identity of the lyricist Mary Edmonson (spelling uncertain) and the date she composed the poem is unknown. It is likely that the poem was written about an actual Native American somewhere along the Salmon River, but we have been unable to verify this as fact.   Mrs. Cathy Furniss, the Blackfoot song collector, and Ione Love Theilke’s son in law Dexter Barnes of Seattle, graciously donated their Poem Recorder materials to the Boise State University Special Collections.