Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-04-01
The Passing of the Indians.


them. THOMAS CALLAHAN.
i The Passing of the Indians.
i In view of the energy and money
now devoted to the study Of ancient
and prehistoric races it would be.
strange, indeed. if efforts were not
making to preserve knowledge of our
Indians. They will soon lose their
identity as distinct race. Customs,
habits, and arts. knowledge OF which
is of the highest value in the study Of
anthropology, are passing away. Many
languages are dying. 1t was recently
discovered in one of the Iroquois tribes
of Canada that only twenty-five out Of
about 200 Indians could speak the lan-
guage of their fathers. Now is the
time to collect and preserve this wide
range of facts before they are lost for-
ever; and this is the work which our
Bureau of Ethnology is now zealously
| forwarding.
A few years ago the recent history
of many Indian tribes could be obtain
ed only with difficulty from scattered
and fragmentary sources of informa-
ton. We can now find on the charts
of this bureau the habitat of very
many of the tribes when they FIRST
met the white race, and can easily fol
low them in their subsequent wander
ings down to the present time. The
work of classifying all the tribes OF
North America on linguistic bases has
now been in progress for several years.
In these researches the bureau has
laid satisfactory foundation for its
studies of Indian anthropology.
These labors are introducing us now
and then to the history and pecnliari-
ties of some tribal remnant that has
been hardly better known to us than
the natives of Central Africa. Few
specialists of late years have made
richer contributions to ethnologic sci
ence than Mr.. Gushing in his work
among the little known Zunis. We
had hardly heard the names OF the
Cocodinos of the Colorado Grand Canon
or of the Moquis of Arizona before
much carefully collected information
was accessible showing the curious and
distinctive customs of these remarka-
BILE tribes.
The fruits of some of the la bors of the
Bureau OF Ethnology have been depos-
tied in the National Museum at WASH
ington. In the collection are thou
sands of objects illustrating the arts
and customs of different tribes. Among
| the models is one of the Zuni village.
made of papier mache, on scale OF
one foot TO sixty. reproducing In mini
ature all the details of the curious town.
Quite large number Of the pueblos,
cliff houses, and other ancient dwell
.. ings that are found scattered over our
southern territories are being repro
duced in models. and sixteen tons or
collections. some of them very ancient.
have been taken to Washington from
the Zunl and Moqui tribes alone.
The collections of folk lore. voca bu-
laries, and all sorts of interesting i'm
formation are being rapidly enlarged,
and in this work the bureau is greatly
assisted by a number of scholarly mis-
sonsries, some of whom have pursued
special studies for the purpose Of Civ
ing greater value to their anthrOpolog-
ical and pathological studies. The Rev.
MIR. Dorsey, for instance, III addition to
making painstaking and admirable
study of the Omaha tribe, has within
the past few years complied diction-
aries of the languages of the Omahas.
Kansas and Usage Indians. To the
Rev. John p. Williamson q while ago
was assigned the task Of finishing the
linguistic labors among tile Dakotas
which were left incomplete by the
death of the eminent Indian scholar
DIR. Riggs. Mrs. Erminnie Smith, In
the course of several years labors, bas
gained good deal of linguistic and
ethnologic material among the IrJuuc-
ian tribes of New York and Canada.
The co-operatioE of several societies
and quite number of outside observ-
ers is of great assistance to the bureau.
Some recent results Of these various
researches are especially curious and
interesting. Among the ancient
mounds, for instance, which the bur-
eau has been opening within the past
three years in Arkansas, Mississippi.
and West Virginia, facts have been
brought to light showing clearly that
many mounds were built as tile founda-
tions Of houses, and that the houses
were plastered with clay, were paint
ed, aud were usually matched with
grass or straw. Equally interesting as
throwing new light upon the ancient
inhabitants Of North America were
the cliff cities and underground dwell
ings found by Mr.. Stevenson over two
years ago in Arizona, which differed
in some respects from any previously
examined, and In which the explorer
found implements for preparing food
and other specimens of ancient handi-
work. The bureau has also had some
of it's assistants examine the newly
found earthworks in northern Min
nesota and Dakota, which show that
the mound builders tolled throughout
the entire length Of our country. ana
directly connect our mounds with
those recently discovered In Manitoba.
In the worldwide possessions sof
England fragments of once numerous
peoples are passing away here aud
there, and the facts which might. II
collected. give them some little place
In human history are lost in their
graves. We have reason to selicItste
ourselves that much good work ID be-
Ing done to rescue from oblivion that
most Interesting chapter i'm the history
OF our kind which deals with the lives
and the pathetic fortun-s of the red
men we were destined to supplant.--
~. Y. Sun.
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