Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-03-04
Il THE NORTHWEST
Indian Picture-writins.


Let us see how an Indian Of North
America goes to work TO write.
Suppose a wild Indian belonging to
the great clan whose members call
themselves the Turtles, makes a raid
on village of huts and wlgwams own
ed by enemies belonging IN the wide
spread clan called the Bear clan. Sup
Pose it has taken the Turtles three days
ofhard travel through forests and over
the hills to reach the Bears. BY means
OF their crafty spies. they find that the
brave men of the Bears are away hunt
Ing moose, and that most of the squaws
and pappooses are either In the fields Of
maize or In the woods, where the ber-
rles are ripe, and only few old men
and women are left behind to keep
watch over some ponies and oxen. Then
the Turtles, each clutching his how,
creep on the village under cover of the
woods, and with a terrific veil rush at
the wigwams. The old people run into
the bushes, fright.ned almost tn death,
as you can well imagine. Then the
Turtles gather up all the ponies and
oxen, drive them of, burn all the wig
vans they can, and hurry home with
the cattle. Now these savages think
they have done quite fine thing in
robbing their neighbors of their cattle
and plundering and burning their
homes, as does one great nation In
Europe, when, like our Turtle chieftaln,
badly counseled by wicked and ambi-
tiOus men, it robs another of great
province, and forces the wretched peo-
pie who dwell there to obey the laws of
nation they dislike. And they wish
to let other Indians know what clever
robbers they have been. So the Turtle
chief chooses a piece of smooth, cream.
colored birch-bark, chews up little to-
bacco to serve as INK, plucl;s twig of
soft wood for pen, and with the tobac-
co juice draws the following pictures:-
First comes turtle, and it. very
big turtle, because he thinks that he
and his clan are very great personages
Indeed. Then he draws rs many wav-
Ing lines, to represent bows, as there
are Indians in his party, and perhaps
the same number of Indians with top
knots; his lines bend forward to show
In what direction the trail went. Fol-
lowing these, rising sun stands for
daytreak, and three lines under 1t
mean that three lays went by in going
to the Bears. Next, he puts down as
many funny little pyramids as there
were Bear wigwams, and draws them
upside down to show that they were
destroyed. After that, he draws, as
well as he can, wee, wee bear, very
small, in order to show his contempt
for the Bears. Finally, he draws with
the greatest care as many oxen and
ponies as he has captured, because he
Is chiefly proud of this part of his ex-
plot and wishes all the world of the
woods to know what great and sue
cessful robber he is. He does not tell
that the Bear braves were away when
he surprised the camp, and probably
does not care to tell that part of the
story. We may understand it from the
absence ofany sign for scalps. Had
there been resistance and men slain on
either side, the exact number of dead
would have been noted by drawing just
as many human figures without their
heads.-From "Wonders of the Alpha
bet,"by Henry Eckford, in st. Nicholas
for March.