Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-05-03
AN ODD TRIBE OF INDIANS.
FACTS ABOUT THE ANTIQUITY OF
+ THE BLUE EYED MANDANs.

from other Indians.
In the gallery at the National museum are
portraits Of Indians with light hair and blue
eyes George CatliH found such indians
among the Mandans. During the months he
lived with them and painted his pictures he
developed the interesting theory that this
tribe was descended from a band Of Welsh
explorers who landed in North America near
ly 200 years before Christopher Columbus
came in the Santa Maria.
There were ten ships which left North Wales
under the direction Of Prince Madoc or Ma
dave early in the Fourteenth century. They
never returned 1t is historical supposition
that these explorers landed on the west Of
what is Florida now, or somewhere about the
mouth Of the Mississippi, Travelled into the
interior, and gradually amalgalnated with
the Indians.
Catlin concluded that Madoc's men estab-
lished their colony in what is now Ohio. They
may have assembled the river from the gulf,
or they may have marched inland from the
coast. After he had lived among these In
dams in their fortified city on the upper Mis-
souri, Catlin traced their course backwards,
down the Missouri and up the Ohio, to the
extensive Notifications in that state. He
found Mandan ruins in a dozen places. He
became satisfied that the ancestors Of the In
dians he knew had built these forts with walls
twenty or thirty feet high and with covered
ways to the water. There was a striking
similarity in the work Of construction. Moth
ing like it was found among other tribes.
The specimens Of pottery dug from the
Notifications in Ohio were like the utensils
in use by the Mandans. A visitor at
the village could see the Mandan women
molding vases, cups, pitchers and pots from
black clay and baking them in the little klns
which they built in the sides Of hills The
Mandans alone Of North American Indians
possessed the art of manufacturing beauti-
full and lasting kind of blue glass beads. They
had these beads in great quantities when the
fur traders first came among them. They
kept the process secret. Mandan canoes were
altogether different from the canoes Of other
tribes They were exactly like the Welsh
coracle, and were made Of buffalo hides
stretched over frame Of willows or other
boughs, and were shaped SO as to be nearlyas
round as a tub.
wELsHSfEN ExTERAnNATED.
These were few of the facts which
strengthened Catlin in his theory. lie ar
gued that the Welshmen had settled in Ohio
and had fortified themselves. They had been
warred against by the Indians, and after
their ammunition gave out they had been ex-
terminated. But the. half breeds had been
spared. Half breeds are always despised by
full blood Indians. These sons and daughters
Of Welshmen and Indian women had natur-
ally associated together in band. They had
cut loose from parent tribes Gradually they
had made their way down the Ohio and then up
the Mississippi and the Missouri, stopping for
q generation or SO in one fortified place, and
then moving on, increasing in numbers, pre-
serving some of the customs and character
istics Of their Welsh ancestors, and trying to
find place where they could live at peace,
but aloof from other tribes.
Catlin found the Mandans living behind a
well built stockade. They had located their
principal city where the Missouri made n sharp
turn around a rocky ledge. On two sides Of
the town was this abrupt precipice and the
river. On the remaining side was the stock
ade. This was composed Of timhers II foot
thick, set firmly in the ground, and eighteen
feet high. Crevces were left between the
timbers to shoot through. Their fortified
city was impregnable.
Nothing like the Mandan architecture was
found by Mr.. Catlin among any of the other
circular, and from forty to sixty feet il
diameter.
The Mandan houses were built so closely
together that between them were only mar
row pathways. At a distance the dome like
yellow roofs presented singular appear
ance. On nearer approach the visitor found
himself among a lot Of great mud huts. Tho
greatest surprise was after entrance. Then
!, 4 hat fl,,la Ian
houses, dry and clean, and often furnished
with household comforts unknown to other
Indians.
THEY WE'RE SELF SUPPORTING.
Tho Mandans were agriCulturists. They
raised corn, pumpkins and squnshes III great
quantities. They had no plows, but labor-
ously chopped the soil with hoes mado from
the shoulder blades Of bullaloes or olks
Their corn was peculiar. it made ears which
were no larger than mans thumb, but it
ripened early, and maturcd well even in such
high latitude as the Northern Pacific of North
Dakota White men IN what was once the
Mandan country claim that it is impossible
to raise corn there. The seasons are too short
The Mandans stored their corn and dried
vegetables in cellars made six or seven feet
deep aud smaller ut the top, like a jug. In
InlS way lllNN tuHlI1 lt'H'' wa A'''' N''iN"7''
the worst winters. Wild fruit was gathered
and dried in season. The buffalo meat was
jerked.
Among the women particularly were many
whose skins were almost white, and who had
hazel, gray or blue eyes. There was every
shade of hair except auburn. The men
seemed ashamed of their light hair, and dis
cuised it with glue and black earth. But the
women were proud Of theirs, and wore 1t
spread out and down to their knees.
Although there were individuals among
them with records for great personal bravery,
the Mandans were not a warlike people.
They avoided hostIities ms long Gs possible.
They cared more for sports and for ceremo-
MES than for fighting.
six years after Mr.. Catln's visit among
tho Mandans smallpox was introduced in the
CITY by a fur trading boat At that time the
Sioux were making war upon the Mandans,
and the afflicted people were shut up within
their Notifications. The ravages of the dis
ease were terrible. or the 1900 people in the
Mandan city, 23 warriors, 40 women aud &c
Young people escaped the smallpox and found
n refuge with the Riccarees. The Mandans
now number about 800. They live in vii
lnge near Fort Buford,-Cor. st. Louis Globe
Democrat,
An Ingenious ENpvdicnt.
Superintendent Moir, of the Hudson river
tuunel. is a man of resource There was q
L.. rI..1N