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By HARRY L. DEEFE [Read at the annual meeting of the
Nebraska State Historical Society, January 16,
1913.] |
corn and other articles of food and knowledge of its cultivation of Powhatan's band. The Plymouth colony was assisted in like manner by the Narragansetts. From Indians pioneer whites learned to girdle trees and make clearings for crops which were new to them. Colonies from the principal nations of Europe, otherwise well equipped, were yet largely dependent upon guidance by the natives who were skilled in utilizing the resources of the country. They adopted the Indian mode of travel, and the Indian system of flashes and signal fires was adopted and adapted by the white invaders. In fact, the white people came to America and complacently possessed themselves of American soil for a pittance, sweeping aside any vestige of prior sovereignty; disregarding vested rights of possession, they destroyed the resources that had immemorially maintained these people, leaving them to live their former primitive life only in literature, song, and tradition. The only argument which has been used to justify the ruthless spoilation of these weaker people is that they were thereby civilized and their condition bettered. The weakness of this argument, for justification's sake, lies in this: The white people, the interested party, thus sets itself up as the judge of what was best for the Indians, assuming that a white civilization was his salvation. After fifteen years of professional life on an Indian reservation, bringing me in touch with a number of tribes, I have naturally given considerable study and thought to the status of these people and have considered what they have lost and what they have gained by the revolutionary change in their environment. I have endeavored to consider these changes from the standpoint of Indian philosophy and logic, and I have concluded that by far the greatest loss which the Indian has sustained is that of the right to develop, in his own way, a civilization fitted to himself. |
This right, I believe, belongs to every people. A race occupying a defined territory and free from outside interference, is bound in time to develop a civilization of its own, formed in a great measure by surrounding physical conditions. That civilization may not be the best, judged by the standards of another people; but it is the best for the man who, through heredity and environment, is its product and type. Now, is not the American Indian, who has given and sacrificed so much to life in our land, entitled to have preserved his true place in the history of the American people, which is in the making? While not criticising historical research which has accomplished a great deal, still there has not been due effort by those having the passing facts close at hand to reach and record the full data of our Indian character and life so that in the future the Indian may be seen as he was. In 1900 there were 270,544 Indians ennumerated in the United States; in 1911, 322,715. This does not certainly show an increase of 52,000, because the difference may be accounted for in part by more careful enumeration. There has, however, been an actual increase in the past ten years, and possibly the increase will continue. Indians will never be separately enumerated again by the census bureau. Their tribal relations are rapidly passing, and in a few years they will pass entirely out of the influence of their former communistic life and assume individual responsibility. Very few white people realize the meaning of the change, in a single generation, from tribal, communistic Indian life to the white men's civilization, with radically different property rights and other social relations--in short, different philosophy of life. Not realizing his drawbacks, we become impatient because the Indian does not at once assume the new role and become fired with our own ambitions and desires. The development |
and civilization he had attained in his centuries of free life were fastened upon him, as similar characteristics became fastened upon the white race. Ought the Indian to be expected to drop in one short generation the influences of heredity and environment, as the snake sheds its skin, and at once assume all of the qualities of an alien civilization? Ten years, at the utmost, will see the passing of the last Indian who came to manhood in the purely primitive Indian life, and with him will pass many of the traditions of that life. Unless steps are taken now to preserve these traditions, they will be forever lost. Does not the great, rich state of Nebraska, which took its name, the name of its streams, the name of its metropolitan city, and so much more from this vanishing race owe some duty in the preservation of its character and traditions? I do not mean that nothing has been done; but what has been accomplished is the result of the unsupported enthusiasm of a few individuals. I am asking for a carefully planned, thoroughly executed system of research and conservation which will coöperate with the efforts made by the federal government through the Smithsonian institution, in placing Indian history in Nebraska in the position which it should occupy. By Indian history I do not mean merely a chronological account of the tribal movements, hunting trips, festivities and other incidents of these people, but a fuller and truer reflection of the everyday life of this race in its primitive station and up to the time that it began to be influenced by the white people, so that future citizens of Nebraska may see these early inhabitants of our territory in their everyday life as they came into the world, as the children played and were trained, as the people built houses and raised crops, clothed themselves, prepared for winter, protected their families, and as they loved their neighbor and worshipped their God. Let us see them not alone on |
parade and in powwow dress and feathers, but let us observe their life, for 365 days in the year 1800. Now this is not an easy task. It is hard to get through the Indian's shell. He is reticent, unpretentious. He cares nothing for our conventionalities. The most treasured memories I have of these people are of occasions when I have come close to individuals in their private personal and domestic affairs when they have talked to me freely of the white man and his ways and of the Indian and the "Indian way". Those are the little glimpses, the little incidents which bridge across the chasm between the races. People may live among the Indians for a lifetime and see the outward signs of their manners and customs and know nothing of the true, rich inwardness and the beauty and meaning of those things that appear to us meaningless. Many think that by assuming the white civilization, cruelly thrust upon them, the Indians were the beneficiaries, giving up nothing worth while, and falling heirs to the great blessing of citizenship and all of the other trappings of civilization. Such a view is hardly correct from the standpoint of the Indian. He had a means of livelihood in his primitive condition sufficient for that condition. He had a well defined attitude toward his neighbor. He was circumscribed by laws as well understood and as efficient for him as our own are for us. He had a philosophy intricate and deep, a religion which satisfied the craving of the spirit; in short, he had surrounded himself with all of the means and equipment necessary to his well-being in that state of life. It required but the influences of a fixed habitation, the division of labor, competition, and an increased congestion of life to develop the true Indian civilization. The fixed habitation had been realized by many tribes. The cultivation of the soil was well developed, and the Indian was well on the way to his own development of a civilization when the white man came and changed the map. |
I am sorry that time will not permit me to discuss Indian industries and art and go into a better description of his products. He raised and developed six varieties of corn. He cured and preserved his meats. He planted, cultivated, gathered and preserved his potatoes, turnips, squash, berries and nuts. The Indian had a good knowledge of the medicinal qualities of many plants and applied them to human ailments very effectively, with little more necromancy than many of the white doctors now practice. But all of these subjects must be left to the historian. In 1847, at a meeting of the New York Historical Society, Peter Wilson, a Cayuga Indian, said: "The Empire State, as you love to call it, was once laced by our trails from Albany to Buffalo. Your roads still traverse the same lines of communication which bound one part of the Long House to the other. Have we, the first holders of this prosperous region, no longer a share in your history?" I believe you will all agree with me that the Indians of Nebraska have a large share in our history and more than has been so far recognized. No person realizes more than I do the many obstacles besetting the work of the investigator in these lines. Besides the reticence of the Indian, there is the difficulty of finding the person properly prepared and equipped who will give the time, care and patience to the work, who can lay aside sentiment, curiosity, and prejudice, who has the judgment to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials and to avoid tangents, and who is broad enough to grasp the whole scope, meaning, and import of Indian manners and customs and give them their true interpretation. He must be able to get the confidence of the older Indians. This you cannot buy. He must also be able to discount poor interpretation. He must abandon our intricate and extended method of many words and ask his questions candidly and directly. He must learn the Indian order of |
expression. In other words, he must be a trained and experienced sociologist and know Indian life. He must be equipped with the best facilities for recording, and he must be a true historian. Now where is the man and from whence will come the support? The labor is hard, but the reward is great. I shall feel well repaid if this paper accomplishes no more than to create enough interest to open the eyes of the members of this society to our duty to the Indians, historically, and the opportunity now open, but passing, to perform that duty. If this interest is awakened, I know that action will be taken and Nebraska will not forget her namesake, and that Omaha will do her duty towards the people who gave her their land and their name. Continuing extemporaneously Mr. Keefe said: One of the most beautiful things in the Indian philosophy is his idea of the ownership of property. It was that the elements consisting of air, water, and land belong to all men; that every person has a right to take possession of so much of that air, so much of that water, and that land as he needs for his sustenance, and as long as he possesses them, or as long as he lives, he uses them for himself, but the moment he passes on, they go back to the community. That is the idea in a few words. The Indian is communistic, in a sense. He claims he has a right to hold his land or sell it if he wishes to. When he sells a piece of land and spends the proceeds of it, he does so just as freely with the last dollar as with the first. We blame him for it. Go back fifty years, and what did his father or his fore-fathers do? How did they live? What was their idea of land? It goes back to the communistic value. It is of no value to him except as he lives upon it, uses it, and occupies it. |
The Indian does not come into this life as you and I came in with generations and generations of people behind us. That love for the individual holding, with the idea of value, of a piece, of land that you and I have, is not inbred in him. He loves his home just as much as anyone does, but without the idea of a homestead that is bred by generations into the Anglo-Saxon race. I have heard lots of people criticise Indians and say, "Why, just look at them! they sell the very last piece of land they have and buy horses!" And that is true. When they have enough horses they will buy more, and when they have bought them, they will borrow more money and buy more horses; that is traditional. The horse was the standard of value fifty or seventy-five years ago among them. The horse was their dollar of money. Do you wonder then at this prepossession? We are wont to look at the Indian as if he were on parade. We see him or his father as a show Indian, which he is not. I remember many incidents that led me to this belief. Lately it was my privilege to appear in a case in court, known as the "Standing Bear" case from the Ponka reservation, which had been pending for four years. Standing Bear, as many of you know, was a Ponka chief. This case was the subject of considerable litigation, over the question of citizenship, in the federal court in Omaha. By the way, the president of this association appeared in the case as a defender of Standing Bear, but that was before I came to Nebraska. But Standing Bear did as all other good Indians did--left a family, and there has been some litigation over his estate. The testimony of one of his witnesses, known as Yellow Horse, a very careful old man about his statements, was taken at Niobrara about a year ago. The old man was sitting in the room where the evidence was being taken. A question was raised as to the age of a certain |
child at a certain time. You know with an Indian you can not say, referring to the year 1904 or 1905, such things were true. You must go back and say, "At the time the stars fell, their the Ponka were at such and such a place, were they?" Answer, "Yes, sir". "Very well, when they camped at such and such a creek (knowing what those days were) then was this boy living?" That is the way you have to bring out Indian testimony. I asked old Yellow Horse, who was watching the proceedings, the age of this boy at a certain time. They never put their hands this way (indicating). I said, "The boy was seven years old, was he"; and he said, "No". I said, "Was he six years old"; and he said, "No". Well, was he five years old and he answered, "No"; and so I went on down to three years, and Yellow Horse did not believe the child was three years old. I said to him, "Give us the age or size of the boy, and he held up his hands this way (indicating). I said, "Just hold them there", and went over and put my hands up and marked it about like that. Then I stepped back and said, "You say the boy was that tall at that time"? Old Yellow Horse looked at me and he said to the interpreter, "Oh, I thought I was sitting on the ground". He was sitting on the ground at the time he had referred to. He was sitting on the ground in the tepee and did not realize he was that much above the ground at the time he was being examined. There are dozens and dozens of those incidents occurring every day that bring a person in close touch with the simplicity of these people and at the same time with their truths. One night at ten o'clock, about four years ago, I was called up by telephone by a friend of mine on the reservation. He said that an Indian boy by the name of William Cox had shot himself. The person telephoning was a young Indian woman, and she asked me to come over. She said |
this boy had been living with his grandmother, and she wanted me to come and bring a doctor. I went over with the doctor. The boy had killed himself and none of them had been anywhere near the corpse. By the way, he had been somewhat demented for years. It was the most weird thing I ever saw. The night was dark, with thunder and lightning, and we could hardly find our way with the rain falling. When we got where the boy was we found him in a little opening among some trees. He had shot himself with a shotgun, but none of the people had been anywhere near him. I assisted in getting the corpse into a room and helped prepare it for burial. We did this because the Indians are very careful about touching a dead body. I noticed they were especially careful in this case. This doctor, by the way, had some Indian blood. Just before I left and before locking the room, a very old lady came into the room with a blanket around her and, for the first time, approached the corpse, went to the feet, and lifting the sheet over the corpse did something. I did not show my curiosity but waited until she was gone out of the room; then I looked to see what she had done, and I found that with a butcher knife she had slashed the feet of the dead body several times. I said nothing about it at the time. The doctor saw what had taken place. On our way home I asked the doctor what that meant, and she told me that this was the second instance of a suicide in the Omaha tribe in almost a generation. She said there is a tradition among the Indians that when a person takes his own life his spirit will return, and if the corpse is buried either with the face down, so that it cannot return, or the feet are slashed, so that the walking will be difficult, the spirit may not come back. I intended speaking something of Indian philosophy, but I want to say a word now concerning Indian literature. I believe that is one of the things we regret |
the most to see pass away unrecorded--Indian eloquence and Indian literature. I think the most touching thing I ever heard was an old man speaking at a funeral. At such times it is customary for one of the oldest men to address the audience or mourners. This was a wrinkled old man, always considered simple, of little or no business judgment, and who had always appeared to me as without very much force or character. He stood before the coffin that day and his speech was interpreted to me. The old man pushed back his hair and said: "My sister" (pointing to the corpse), "you have gone before; you have passed over the mountain. On its peak I am standing. I can look over into the world to which you have gone. I can look back into the world from which you have gone. I hear around you the voices of your children. You have gone before us. I hear the voices of your mother's children as they wept when she passed over the mountain. I hear the voices of your mother's mother's children as they wept. And such is the course of man. You have gone before. You were taken when the flowers were blooming in your life. I am left here when the leaves have fallen off their branches. We don't know why you were taken; we can only say that the One above knows why I was left standing here with the leaves falling upon my branches." While this interpretation is quite accurate, it has lost all its beauty in translation. It is the crudest kind of an interpretation, but is as near as I can give it. Indian life is full of that kind of beauty, with that kind of expressions, the nicest kind, the most direct. About two years ago. I was in court when a lawyer in cross-examining an Indian witness queried: "Now, considering your relations with the plaintiff, and the various transactions between you, what was your opinion as to the relative state of facts at the time those relations were 19 |
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