St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-03-22
BURNING THE WHITE DOG

Peculiar Ceremony of the Pagan Onon.
dasas Near Syracuse-An Offering to the
Great Spirit for the Forgiveness of the
Last Years Sins of the Indian Nation.
Modern civilization and ancient bar
barity were strangely blended in this
township to-day. where. within sight OF
the steeples of Syracuse, the Onondaga
Indians held their feast of burning
the White Dog These savages have
q reservation near here, which is about
eight times as big as Central Park. The
major part of it is lovely valley,
shielded by hills that still retain the for
ests nature clad them with. In this
valley, in tumble-down shanties. some
built of logs with plastered cracks. and
some being ordinary frame dwellings,
live four hundred Indians, principally
Onondagas, but embracing a few sur
vivors OF the famous Six Nations of a
century ago. They have been slightly
affected by civilization. A few are
Christians. A few work their little
farms in an indolent. clumsy manner,
and for the rest they hunt and fish, play
Indian games, drink as much rum as
they can get. and preserve their old
tribal Government almost as it was
when they trod this soil unchallenged.
Their houses stand far apart along the
winding roads of the valley, and at the
junction of these roads their castle or
council-house stands. 1t is one-story
frame building with many windows and
a door on each side, and looks like a
country school-house.
Out Of nearly every house came chiefs.
warriors and squaws, all stalking with
the stride peculiar to old Bowery ira
gedians over the sparkling snow. They
wore the same clothing as the people oil
Syracuse. although it was as rule
threadbare and ill-fitting. There were
eccentricities in their dress not obsery-
able in the city, however. The women.
for instance, wore no hats, but covered
their heads with shawls or squares oi
blue cloth, the ends of which fell to
their breasts and were held there under
their folded arms. Some of them. too,
had their legs covered with buckskin
leggings. prettily decked with beads and
hideous than that of the old squaws,
whose faces were scanned like peach
stones, it would be difficult to imagine.
Their white hair against their coffee
colored skin looked strangely unnatural.
The little girls were rather pretty.
Their glossy black hair, bright jet eyes,
plump bronzed cheeks, and their straight
noses and shapely mouths made them
attractive. The young wives were not
so presentable Hard work had thinned
their faces, so that their cheek-bones
stood out and their eyes were sunken in.
All wore bright-coiored shawls. II
must he said for them that they neither
looked nor acted like the depraved and
wretched beings their converted fellow
Indians say they are.
The warriors were nearly all tall
finely built men, dark skinned, with
straight features and jet black hair.
They were as fond of color as theiI
women, though the only means they
had for display was in bright worStej
scarfs that they wound around theiI
necbs. The men sat on benches ut one
end of the council-hall. The women
were al the other end. The room wa:
bare -lioored, and no ornaments broke
the squares of wall paper between the
windows. There was a big wood stove
at each end of the apartment.
When all had gathered and were seat
ed there was a long pause. No man OF
woman uttered a word. They did not
even salute one another. They were
waiting for the medicine-man to brn.
in the white dog, which. by the way,
was eur that had belonged to Jake
Farmer. a warrior, and had been hanged
until dead in Jake's house and then
daubed with red spots. The white hide
represented purity. the red spots were
symbolical of a blood-offering. and the
whole celebration was the Indian OBJ
servance of a combination of New Year, $
Day and Thanksgiving, when the last
year S sins were supposed to have en-
tered into the cur in readiness to be
burned up.
Tom Webster was the medicine-man.
The last of long race of hereditary
priests, he belongs to the clan of Tawis-
ta-wis-tas or Snipes, and they. and the
clans of Ugh-qua-e and Skan-un-tung,
the Bears and the Deer, were over
across the campus in dwelling. There
were only twenty or thirty warriors and
squaws and four chiefs there, so slender
have the Snipes, Bears and Dee,
grown; but the Wolves, Mud-Turtles
and Beavers filed the big gcouncil-house.
Suddenly Medicine Man Webster ap-
peared in the doorway before the
throng. which at once exclaimed
.'Ught" As though he was big dose
Of medicine they all had to swallow
He wore a maroon-colored handker.