Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1888-09-20
ABORIGINES AT HOME.
THE SAC AND FOX INDIAN TRIBES AT
TAMA CITY, IOWA.

A TenderfoOt Visits Their Primitive Homo
and Graphically Describes what He Saw
The Red Mans Tepee-No Advanc ement
Made in Fifty Years.
[Marshalltown Times -Republican.l
Indian Agent Enos Gh9sn was kind enough to
invite your reporter TO accompany him on a
visit TO the Indian camp some three milos from
Tama City, Iowa, thinking, no doubt. the ten
derfoot would see som msthing new, and he did
This is not a reservation. The Sac and Fox
tribes own some /, 400 ncres, bought by the Gov
ernlnent for them some years ago, the title
deeds being held by th9 Governor OF Iowa in
trust for them.
AS farmers, they raise corn and garden truck
with fair success, and have some 5eJ head OF
ponies that have to shift for themselve' :; sum.
mer and winter, no feed or shelter beyond what
nature supplies being furnished them by their
owners No cattle are on the farm-soine say
it's against their religion-and two hogs make
At present they are occupying their summer
residences, which consist OF sheds without
chimneys aud the inside 10 generally one room.
They still ct as Their torefa hers did whom
hungry, and the table is the lap OF mother
earth covered with mating made by the
women from the rushes on the river banks
Stores are unknown, schools they won't have,
and clothes are the combination seen when they
v.s.t town.
the "tepees, a circular thatched hut, say six feet
high, with an opening for the smoke TO so out at
The top and u hole 10 crawl into. In other
words they live as thoy did 100 years ago. per-
haps with few more comforts in the way OF
clothing and food.
AS we rode up some three games Of poker
were going on, no penny ante business, but a
game for keeps, q dollar-raise common and the
limit was off. We hearl the continuous ro1nd-
ing OF a drum from one cabin, and an inquiry
showed We were fortunate enough to be on hand
to witness an "adoption'-that Is, n certain
family was to adopt healthy spring buck OF
twenty five years Of age. Across the bottom
fha chit pnn fNaJf fad fO mn
Der OF twenty or more; one old fellow that
would weigh $50, "fatter'n fool" a
linen duster, some one-legged pants, and
that's all; others were covered with red
blankets, that as they walked showed
Then the drummer had called two assistant
musicians A stick some three feet eight was
stuck i'm the ground this was covered with
streamers, like May pole, and the Queen of the
tho Ssed the ROdS % Il
some mating, with bakers biscuits, green corn,
and other truck, and at given signal, down on
the ground, around the table (?l, they sat, and
the feast commt need, let tho devil take tho
hindmost. The squaws and hungry papooses
keep q resp p9ctful distance, waiting for some
thing 10 turn up, that is the bucks. They make
short work of It, and then the women and chill
dren gathered up the fragments and carried them
of inside of them.
Old Kick em Stiff, youth of II, with his head
shaved n In Chinaman, face painted, clothes re-
moved to his hips, then commenced slow walk
around the May pols with drum accompani-
sweet singers gave us, Dundee. or something
like. Faster and faster he went, until his breath
gave out, he gave backward kick, the music
stopped and then his oration commenced Our
intoi oipreter said no was hu ting the Sioux. At
any rate he had big time making believe he
was doing something, and all OF sudden he
Stricken ID or, a 50-year-old chap, with his
head tied up in black rag, b -chuse
he was scaped once upon time. He
put the battle ax between his logs, played horse
kicked up, buckCd, AID went down Interpreter
said horse threw him." AT any rate we all had
good laugh, Indians included, Then he gave
fSneifhbers, rss and handing the battle AK to the
next performer, no walked around once did
nothing, said nothing, bit gave it to the end
man, who asked some old chestnuts, which We
gave up and then the adopted one, covered with
blankets, ribbons Of all colors, stepped out, took
the ca'ico from the May pole, gave each chief
red rag, and the show was over,
This visit has knocked all of the Fenimors
Cooper business out of the writer. He saw a
little fat papoose, with a stomach ON him like a
four-weeks-old pig after drinking two gallons Of
buttermilk get fighting mad and cry as natural
rs any white baby ever did He helrd these
dignified noble red men laugh at and guy II
bashful speaker equal to any students debating
society. One of he speakers, the fellow that
played horse, was perfect clown, and kept
chiefs squaws and papcoses in a continual roar
Of laughter.
They treat their women ns they always have
like brutes. They live 10 eat, making no pro-
vision for their horses or themselves for the
winter months, any moIe than they did fifty
years ago. They nre inveterate gamblers. One
thing that perhaps some white folks can get q
pointer from, Is that when the noble red man
comes home drunk, the squaws tic him hand and
loot till he sobers off.
Perhaps the most comical sight was an old
chief, half naked, painted, dancing his war
dance, with bells on his ankles, KILN AMI
s,nlping is imaginary enemies, all this In the
mo 3t approved style, and wearing spectacies.
This can be said to their credit, that they re-
member little debts of honor Deputy Post
master Austin SAYS il is safe to trust them for
n postage stamp. Agent Ghoen snys they ap-
preciate kindness and his successful work with
them is ON that plan.
Thirty minutes brought us back to town. and
IL hardly seemed possible thai within three
miles of us lived 400 human beings that had not
advanced perceptibly. socially, morally, intel
lectually or financially, in fifty years.