This session, held at half past two
o'clock, January 18, was a special meeting of the
Mississippi Valley Historical Association and the Nebraska
State Historical Society. Owing to the absence of President
Benjamin F. Shambaugh, Mr. Robert Harvey was elected
temporary chairman. Three addresses were presented at this
session: In Kiowa Camps, by Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau
of American Ethnology; Kansas-Nebraska Boundary Line, by
George W. Martin, secretary of the Kansas State Historical
Society; and Some Side Lights on the Character of Sitting
Bull, by Doane Robinson, Pierre, South Dakota, read by Mr.
William E. Hannan.1 The evening session was held at seven-forty-five P. M. Mr. Edgar R. Harlan, curator of the Historical Department of Iowa, who was to have discussed The Relation of State and Local Historical Societies, was unable to be present. The next number on the program, an address by General John C. Cowin, of Omaha, was omitted for the same reason. An address, The Indian Ghost Dance, by James Mooney of the Bureau of American Ethnology, occupied the entire session.2 1 Mr. Mooney's address is printed in the Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, volume III, page 43; Mr. Martin's in Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society, volume XVI, page 116; and Mr. Robinson's in the same volume, page 187.--ED. 2 This address is printed in Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society, volume XVI, page 168. |
An ethnological conference was held at
half past nine, Elmer E. Blackmail, presiding. |
pear before the Historical Society and Pioneers Association. There are a number of countries that come very near doing the thing that we are doing. All the civilized governments of Europe give some attention to their languages and antiquities. In most cases the antiquities relate to their own race or predecessors. In the United States that is not the case; except to a limited extent, our antiquities and aborigines are not of our own race. We have had historical societies and pioneer associations, but up to about thirty or forty years ago there had been very little scientific study of the Indian tribes, or of the period that preceded the organization of the United States. In 1879, Major J. W. Powell came to the conclusion, from his field work in the west, that some attention should be given to the study of the native tribes. Through his effort the Bureau of American Ethnology was established as a part of the Smithsonian Institution. You all know of the Smithsonian Institution. It was founded over sixty years ago. The original bequest was about half a million dollars, given in trust to the United States to establish an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." It was intended to comprise all classes of knowledge, and from time to time some ethnology was included. Among the very first volumes published by the Smithsonian Institution were the Squier and Davis1 monograph upon the mounds of the Mississippi valley and the great Riggs dictionary of the Sioux language.2 In 1879 the Bureau of Ethnology was established and began its work by getting together 1 Ephriam George Squier and E. H. Davis, Ancient Monuments Of the Mississippi Valley (1848).--ED. 2 Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language (1852).--ED. |
a force of Indian experts. One of the first was Rev. James Owen Dorsey, Episcopalian missionary to the Omaha and Ponca tribes, and an authority upon their language. One of our first publications was his study of Omaha Indian language of Nebraska. Another was Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, one of the most accomplished philologists we have had in this country. Before coming to America he had established a reputation in philology by his study of Swiss place names. The work has grown, and up to the present time we have produced about forty large volumes, chiefly the annual reports, besides a number of bulletins and miscellaneous publications, covering the whole range of American ethnology and archeology, with a great deal of history included. With one or two exceptions, every one of them is a standard of authority on its subject. It took some time for the American people, scientific bodies, and universities to find out that there was such an institution as the Bureau of Ethnology. They know it now, and for many years past we have been receiving letters weekly and sometimes daily making all sorts of inquiry relating to our Indian tribes. Among other things, there has come an intelligent desire to give correct Indian names to places, towns and post offices. Railroad companies are asking for suggestions of Indian names for new stations, names from the languages of the tribes that used to occupy those sections. Historical societies are coming to us for information, and governmental departments are asking to have particular persons detailed from time to time to furnish expert ethnological information. Our work in this direction is in line with similar work being done by other countries, both on our own continent and on the continents of Europe and Asia. Russia, France, Germany and Italy are all doing ethno- |
logic and archeologic work, either directly or by encouraging individual explorers. It is a work to interest every civilized government. As to what we are doing for the state of Nebraska, that will be found chiefly in the writings of Mr. Dorsey and Miss Alice C. Fletcher. As a result of Mr. Dorsey's work there are two large volumes relating to the Omaha tribe, its organization, customs and ceremonials; and these two volumes, together with some smaller bulletins brought out in his lifetime, are standards. We cannot go back of them for any safe information. In another volume we have a full account by Miss Fletcher of one of the sacred ceremonies of the Pawnee, one of the principal tribes of Nebraska. Another one now in preparation is a monograph on the Omaha tribe, also by Miss Fletcher. Another publication is a handbook of American Indian tribes, a sort of encyclopedia covering every Indian tribe north of Mexico. We have also issued a number of ethnologic maps. I might also mention, without being egotistic, one or two things of my own which have a good deal to do with the history and customs of the tribes, the establishment of the pioneer forts, and the history of the early Indian wars in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas. In going about to collect this information, after we leave our own early history, trying to find something back of what the Indians can tell us, and trying to cover sections from which the Indians have been removed, we are constantly confronted with the fact that enough of this work has not been done in earlier times. We have few centers of pioneer information because the early settlers were too much engrossed with other things to gather this information. These historical societies are the very foundation for the history structure itself. The feeling |
is growing that it should be the duty and aim of these societies throughout the country to restore the aboriginal nomenclature; to find out what names were given by the Indians to the streams, the hills and other local features, and to perpetuate these names. Those who can best help us in this direction are the Indians themselves. The Bureau has the whole United States to cover, and, in fact, we cover the whole American continent. We are doing work in Alaska, British America, Mexico, and the West Indies. To do all this we only have about fifty thousand dollars and about a dozen field workers. We have here within the United States alone representatives of three or four hundred different tribes; and fully 150 different languages. You have in the state of Nebraska, or did have here, five different Indian languages which might be called native--Omaha, Pawnee, Sioux, Cheyenne and Oto. It takes a man at least ten good working years to acquire sufficient knowledge of one Indian language to handle it with any degree of accuracy; so you see how much we must depend upon local students. You still have representatives of the Omaha; and the other tribes are all still in existence, retaining their language and some knowledge of their history. We have here such names as Omaha and Niobrara. In Kansas they have the Kaw and Arkansas. One of these days your children or grandchildren will be wanting to know what were the other Indian local names, what they meant, and why they were given, in order to put them upon the map. That work can be done best now. They best can do it who have the present knowledge of these things. My suggestions would be, as you have a good working Society here, with a state university to draw from the whole state, that you set to work as early |
as you can to do these things. Map out the state, then set the young men of the university at work, each man in his own county, as well as members of the Pioneers Associations and members of the Historical Society. Cut up the country into districts. You have the Omaha here in the eastern part of the state, the Sioux on the north, the Pawnee in the center and on the south, and the Cheyenne on the west. With the appropriation that I am told you have and with the appropriation that you are going to have, get right down to business. It would be an easy matter to pick out a few good Indian informants from each tribe. Go over the country with them and get from them the Indian place names; get an interpreter to explain the meanings, and thus get at the beginning of your state history. Go down to Oklahoma--you should go down there anyway to learn how to build up a new state--and get some Indians from these former Nebraska tribes and they can tell you all you want to know. You can find men there who can tell you every Indian name in the state of Nebraska. Go to western Oklahoma and bring up one or two Cheyenne; get those who have a history and they will be able to tell you many things through an interpreter. Let them tell their own story. They can tell something of the battles they fought with your pioneers and volunteers in the early days. Get them to locate some of the battle sites that you cannot now locate. In that way draw up a historical map of Nebraska. Your archeologists, too, have a work to do. They can help you in this matter by mapping out correctly all the archeological sites. Locate every site by survey quarter section, and then, later on, set up a little monument there. Let the Pioneers Association, the Historical Society and the professors and students of the State University coöperate in the work. |
Do not assume that Nebraska history began fifty or sixty years ago; it began a long time before that. Your Indians can tell you a good many things that are not on record, but which are part of local Indian history, and which the white man does not know, because he was not here and never has gone to the Indians to find out. You can still get these things from the Indians. Then there is the French history of Nebraska. About twenty-five years ago the French government published six volumes of documents relating to the colonial French history of the United States and Canada. The editor's name was Margry, and the collection is commonly called the Margry Papers. Those volumes are available in the large libraries. Search them, and you will find valuable information concerning the earliest explorers that came through this part of the country. Set a local man at work to locate the places, and put them down on the map. There is some information to be obtained through Canadian sources. The Canadian government has published a catalogue of historical documents preserved in the archives, and many of these relate to the history of Nebraska. Send a man up to Ottawa to examine these documents, just as some eastern states within the past sixty years have sent men across the water to France, England, Spain and Holland, to search out documents relating to their own colonial history, and have had them copied and published for their own use. Most of the work here outlined can still be done for Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. A great deal of it can be done for Texas. You can do it for the state of Nebraska from what I have seen of your Historical Society and Pioneers Association; and having the State University right here upon which to draw for help, now is a good time to begin the work. |
Alfred Blackbird, a great-grandson of Chief Blackbird of the Omaha tribe, spoke as follows: MR. BLACKBIRD. I did not expect to make any talk to you this morning, but when I came here a gentleman asked me to say a few words. I will tell you about the Omaha Indians. You have seen them. We have heard of the three wise men in olden times when Christ was born. They used to get out at night and study the stars. One night they got out and looked at the stars. The star was very bright and they knew that was the night when Christ was born. We are told that King Pharaoh, of Egypt, had a dream and called all the wise men of Egypt together to interpret his dream, but none of them could understand what his dream meant. But there was a young man, the son of Jacob, whose name was Joseph, that interpreted his dream. So one time the king had a dream, and he wanted to know what it meant and they sent for Joseph. Joseph interpreted the meaning of the dream to the king. I don't believe any of us could understand and interpret the dream if we were to hear it. It is pretty hard to interpret, as you all know. The understanding of words is difficult. Maybe you have five words in the same way meaning the same. Indians have just one word, which has one meaning. If I know a word, I know its meaning. In my church every Sunday the minister asks me to interpret for him. He selects some one to read, and after that they have an interpreter. That is one of the hardest things I ever met in my life; but I did try my best to interpret our minister's sermon. After while the minister asked me if I could take a woman's place and teach the Sunday school lesson. I took up that work every Sunday, using my own language. Now, to-day In- 15 |
dians begin to realize what Christianity means. There are a great many Indians joining the church, and: they try to live right. I hope this work will progress. It may be slow, but it will be sure. The English language is pretty hard for the Indian. If I use my own language, as I said last night, I can say a good many things. I can tell you of olden times, of what I have heard in my language; but in English it is almost impossible for me to use it in explaining, so that is the reason that I will make just a short talk. These men say that the Indian will take up and write the history for himself. We have a language but we do not write history. The old people tell unwritten stories, so it is very hard taking up this work. I want to tell another thing about Indians supposed to be under the care of the government. The government puts up schoolhouses where Indians learn trades. Last fall one of the Indian commissioners wanted a farm on the reservation so that they could teach the young men and the young women. He said if we put schools on the reservation and teach Indians how to farm and how to raise stock you will then have your own money. I got up and gave a short talk about this matter. I said if we are living in the state of Nebraska and obeying the laws of the state we ought to live according to the laws. We want to live by ourselves. One congressman came over and told us that we had to pay taxes; because twenty-five years had expired we must pay taxes. We said we did not want any farm school. We wanted to train our children in the agricultural schools; but he said to me, "You don't have any interest in the state; you don't have any interest in the agricultural school. You don't have any interest at all over the state or the United |
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