St. Landry democrat., 1890-02-01
The Indians Great Spirit.
REMARKABLE CONNECTION BETWEEN SOME
TRIBES WITH ANCIENT BIBLE HISTORY

REMARKABLE CONNECTION BETWEEN SOME
TRIBES WITH ANCIENT BIBLE HISTORY.
A special dispatch from Washington, D
c., says: Col Garrick Mallerv, of the
Smithsonian Institution, who is recog-
nized as the authority on Indian traditions,
religions and languages, has just completed
contribution to science that is likely to
cause considerable stir in geological cir
cles. 1t is entitled "Israelite and Indian,
parallel in planes of culture" and was
written for the American association for
the advancement of science, Of which he
is the vice president and chief Of the an
thropclogical section. In this report Col.
Mallory overthrows and completely de-
molishes popular and almost universal
theory that all the savage tribes of Amer
lea, before their contact with civilization,
had formulated and established religious
faith, believed in single supreme being,
future life and system of rewards and
punishments after death. This theory,
which has been accepted and disseminated
by religious missionaries of all 6enomina-
lions among the Indians, has been the
chief link to connect them with the
prehistoric races of the Mosaic era, and
the same time has been used to demon
strate that man, as a creature, however
ignorant or degraded, was divinely inspired
with revelation or an instinct that recog-
nized the one supreme beirg, the immor-
tality of the soul and hope of happiness or
fear of misery after death, according as
his worldly life was spent.
Col. MaLery reports that after years of
investigation into the traditions of all the
North American tribes, representing fifty
eight linguistic stocks and more than 800
languages, he has been forced to the con
clusion that the aborigines had no such
instinct and no such religious belief until
after contact with European civilization,
when they gained it from the missionaries.
These missionaries, he says, were imbueo
with the dogmas sought, and therefore
found evidence of one primeval faith, but
were misled by their own enthusiasm. He
continues:
CATER careful examination, with the
assistance of explorers and linguists, | re-
assert my statement that no tribe or body
of Indians, before missionary influence,
entertained any formulated or distinct be-
lief in single overruling great spirit or
any being that correspondent to the Chris
tian conception of God But freely ad-
NIT, with even greater emphasis, that an
astounding number OF customs of the
North American Indians are the same as
those reported of the ancient Israelites."
He tells, too, of the experience of W.
w. Warren, who translated Bible history
for the Ojibway nation and was invariably
met with the remark from the native
priests, s'This book must be true, for our
ancestors have told US similar stories gen.
Grafton after generation, since the world
was new" and only last year when well
Informed chief of the Muskokis was being
questioned as to the religious myths and
legends of his tribe, he replied: "They
are all in the Old Testament. We can read
them there without the trouble of taking
them down for our people,"
Col. Mallery also argues that it is use
less to attempt to Christianize the Indians
until after they have been ciyilizad.