island they have possessed-never subjugated, rarely civilized— their beginning lost in antiquity-and their end as a race so nigh, that it is reckoned by scientists and ethnologists today as they reckon an eclipse. The genius of the twentieth century in descriptive power and picture illumination and illustration of the Indian (Edward S. Curtis), gives in his series of the North American Indian a thrilling and pathetic picture of the passing of the Indian. It is called "The Vanishing Race." In Indian file they are marching through a treeless land toward illimitable space, where the darkness deepens into blackness. "In their faces stern defiance In their hearts the feuds of ages The hereditary hatred The ancestral thirst for vengeance." - Longfellow. The leader of the solemn file seems only a shadow as he steps into the awful gloom, and the others follow one by one to vanish like their leader, in the smoke of oblivion, and all-conquering silence of "the bourne from which no traveler returns." We learn from historians of the race that it is gradually disappearing toward the setting sun. The tribes that remain, we are told, are being educated and civilized. The far west Indians in some instances adopt the American dress, cultivate the habits of the white man; become polite and polished, and a few marry Americans and are apparently christianized. But above and around them seems to hang the shadow of the curse of hatred. There are memories they never escape from, no matter for their oft-times poetic natures, that find in nature their kindred tastes in thought and color. The Indian chief of other times painted himself in colors of the autumn leaves. Longfellow more than a half century ago decorated the Indians of the northwest with the jewels of his fancy in prodigal splendor in that wonderful poetic history and charming love story that he read so much real history to produce; along with personal acquaintance with the Indian: Vol. XX.-4. "He who builds his birch canoe By the river In the bosom of the forest And it floated on the river Like a yellow leaf in Autumn Paddles none had Hiawatha, Paddles none he had or needed For his thoughts as paddles served him And his wishes served to guide him Swift or slow at will he glided Veered to right or left at pleasure." Hiawatha was given as a model Indian, as his Princess, Minnehaha was given as a model woman of her race, queen of the Dacotahs, but those who have lived among the North American Indians, beyond the Mississippi and the Yukon, fail to find representatives of these two splendid barbaric figures in poetical literature there. The white man can not trust the Indian, no matter for his seeming friendliness and kindness. Their frequent outbreaks of hostility, disregarding all the laws of the government and humanity, show too plainly they, as a race, are the white man's never forgiven enemy. If we were writing a monograph, purely historical and ethnological of the Indian, we should go back to the earliest authorities upon these subjects, but this is unnecessary, in view of the splendid history of Edward S. Curtis, to whose picture we have alluded in the foregoing pages and whose history of this race is said to be the most wonderful triumph in historic, as well as pictorial art. We give his own words in the "General Introduction" to his marvelous work. "The value of such a work in great measure will lie in breadth of its treatment, in its wealth of illustration, and in the fact that it represents the result of personal study of a people who are rapidly losing the traces of their aboriginal character, and who are destined ultimately to become assimilated with the superior race." "The task has not been an easy one, for, although enlightened at times by the readiness of the Indians to impart their knowledge, it more often required days and weeks of patient endeavor before my assistants and I succeeded in overcoming the deep-rooted superstition, conservatism, and secretiveness so characteristic of primitive people who are ever loath to afford a glimpse of their inner life to those who are not of their own. Once the confidence of the Indian gained, the way led gradually through the difficulties, but long and serious study was necessary before the knowledge of the esoteric rites and ceremonies could be gleaned." The author has given study to his subject, and he has given to the world a beautiful and deeply interesting illustrated history of "The Vanishing Race." The deer has fled, the buffaloes are gone, the bear and the panther no longer roam unchallenged the field and forest, and it is meet that the Indian should follow his companions into the wilds of oblivion, and the dark and forbidding mountain silences of nature. It is from Washington Irving's Life of Christopher Columbus that we learn the origin of the name Indian. He says, on page three of the book: "As Columbus supposed himself to have landed on an Island at the extremity of India, he called the natives by the general appellation of Indians, which name was universally adopted before the true nature of his discovery was known, and has since been extended to all the aboriginals of the new world. He found the Indians living upon the sunny islands in a state of nature, like unto the beasts of the forest, and the inhabitants of the sea. Columbus imagined that the Indians had no system of religion, but a disposition to receive its impression, as they regarded with great reverence and attention the religious ceremonies of the Spaniards, soon repeating by rote any prayer taught them, and making the sign of the cross with the most edifying devotion. They had an idea of a future state, but limited and confused. They confess the soul to be immortal, says Peter Martyr, and having put off the bodily clothing they imagine it goes forth to the woods and the mountains, and that it lives there perpetually in caves; nor do they exempt it from eating and drinking, but that it should be fed there. "The answering voices heard from caves and hollows, which the Latins call echoes, they suppose to be the souls of the departed wandering through those places." To this day there are Indians who believe this delusion. We remember one summer while in Waukesha, Wis., we visited the grave mound of the Chief Waukesha, in Cutler Park, and wrote some verses concerning him and his grave. They were published and republished in the northwest, and republished in a Waukesha newspaper, "The Freeman," the following summer when we returned there for an outing. In this way a grandson and a nephew of the dead chief, for whom Waukesha was called heard of his grave and made a pilgrimage to it, and placed upon the old warrior's breast a pipe and tobacco for him to smoke when his soul wandered back to the grave, a mound of eight or ten feet in height. In the September Register of 1905 is a history of the Indian school in Kentucky, at old White Sulphur Springs, of Scott county. It is said it was the first government school established in America for the benefit of the Indian. It was placed under the care and superintendence of Richard M. Johnson, first Congressman, and afterwards Vice-President of the United States. We learn from the history of Scott county that it flourished for a number of years, but finally was abandoned, and the Indians. were sent with the Cherokees and Choctaws of Mississippi across the great divide. A son, now an Indian chief, wrote to us that his father cherished the recollection of his school days at White Sulphur, and that he loved Col. Richard M. Johnson, and had a son called for him, Richard Johnson Ross, who, he writes, was a major in the Confederate Army in 1864, and died at Carriage Point, in Chickasaw Nation. We give his eulogy upon Col. Dick Johnson, as the people of Scott county called him: Richard Johnson was a popular man among Southern Indians after he started and opened his Indian school in Kentucky. He had a noble impulse, his heart was big, and he called Indian boys to the paths of peace and learning. Returning to their Indian homes they were stars in a dark night. Their influence was mild and always good among their people. There is a clock in the Kentucky State Historical Society, presented by Judge and Mrs. William Lindsay, of Frankfort, once used in the Indian school at White Sulphur. From this school sprang the missionary spirit that since has striven to win the Indian to the paths of learning, peace and prosperity. We are told by teachers in the Indian schools that many of them are men of bright minds. When they do not learn it is indifference, and not want of capacity to understand that prevents them from becoming scholars. They are naturally averse to restraint, and concentration of thought upon the learning of unknown tongues. Their teachers for ages have been their fine eyes and well trained ears. They look and listen. "They who love the haunts of Nature Love the sunshine of the meadow, Love the shadow of the forest, Love the wind among the branches And the rain-shower and the snowstorm And the rushing of great rivers." We should think the heart of a race that appreciates all Nature's secrets and treasures would be subdued and gentled by the sweetness all around them. Not so. The spirit of evil triumphs over Nature-and the Indian's sign and symbol, are said to be "Bloody hands with palms uplifted." They leave the world their pretty conceits in regard to certain products of agriculture, for instance the Indian corn. We are told by one historian, that this maize is held in great veneration, as a special gift from the Great Spirit. It is well known that corn planting and corn gathering among some tribes are left entirely to the women and children, and a few old men. It is not generally known perhaps that this labor is not compulsory. A good Indian housewife deems this a part of her prerogative, and prides herself to have a store of corn to exercise her hospitality in the entertainment of the lodge guests. Schoolcraft rescued from oblivion much of the legendary lore of the Indian. Upon this lore and kindred traditions much of the poetry and literature concerning the Indian has been founded. But after all they leave the land they knew not how to keep, without cities of splendid structure, magnificent monuments, or |
