Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-11-10
The srandan Indians.


News from the Northwest tells us
war is raging between the Sioux
and the Mandans, acrOss Dakota
And this reminds us what strange
people the Mandans are.
They were q hundred years ago
called "White Indians" and were
believed by many American antigua
rians to have descended from the
Welsh colonists under Prince Madoc,
who is supposed to have landed on
the Florida coast as early as ITO,
three hundred years before Column
bus. These Welsh seem to have scat
tered. The Indians of North Carroll
ma were said, at the time of the Rev.
olution, to speak language resem-
bling the Welsh.
We have the story Of Rev. Morgan
Jones that the Tuscaroras understood
his preaching lin the British tongue
about 1860, and there is the statement
ofOliver Humphreys respecting ma
tives in Florida who spoke Welsh
and have Welsh features and complex
ion. Benjamin Sutton, captive in
B766, stated that he had been with
theChoctaws to an Indian town, some
distance above New Orleans, whose
inhabitants were Of lighter complex
ion than the other Indians, and who
spoke Welsh, and that they had a
book among them wrapt in skins but
could not read it; and that some Of
them spoke Welsh with one Lewis,
captive Welshman.
The remarkable account given by
Capt. Isaac Stuart, in 1882, is substan-
TALLY as. follows: Eighteen years be-
fore, he was taken prisoner by the
Indians and carried to the Wabash.
After two years Of. bondage, he and,
a Welsh fellow-captive named John
David, were redeemed by Span.
lard, and accompanying him to the
Red River, travelled up that river
seven hundred miles, when they
came to a nation of Indians "remark-
ably white, with hair of reddish COL
or" The day after their arrival, the
Welshman, David, declared his in
tention of remaining with the peo-
pie, as he understood their language.
Stuart's curiosity being excited, he
questioned their chiefs, and learned
from them that their fOrefathers
came from foreign country and IAN
ded beyond the Mississippi, the chiefs
lninutely describing the appearance
of Florida. In proof of their state
snent, they exhibited rolls Of parch-
1neat, carefully tied up in otter skins,
on which were large characters writ
ten in blue ink.
And in Filson's Kentucky, pub
lished before Capt. Stuart'snarrative,
we find the following passage: "Of
late years the Western settlers have
received frequent accounts of a ma
ton, inhabiting at a great distance
up the Missouri, in manners and ap-3
pearances resembling the other Indi-
ans, but speaking Welsh, and retain
ing some ceremonies of the Christian
worship, and at length this is believ-
ed to be fact. Capt. Abraham Chap
lain, of Kentucky, "A gentleman whose
veracity may be entirely depended
on, assured the author that in the late
war, being with bis company in gar
Eison at Kaskaskia, some Indians
came there speaking the Welsh dta-
alect, were perfectly understood, and
conversed with two Welshmen in his
company"
Charlevoix says that in 1870 some
indians whom he calls AiOuaz lpos-
sibly the Iowas, informed him that
A.tl,e Omans, three days journey from
them, had white skins and fair hair,
especially the women" Carver also
heard OF a nation about the heads OF
Missouri, "rather smaller and whittier
than the neighboring tribes" This
testimony, and much more to the
same purport, might be quoted,
agrees with Mr.. Catlin's account OF
the Mandans-a people whom School
craft describes as having "blue and
light brown eyes" and rs being much
fairer than the surrounding tribes
=.
The question IS, did the Welsh dis
cover America three hundred years
!. before Columbus p Chicago Pos.