The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-29

the Siwashes have had grievances
against the whites, large and vigorous
grievances, grievances that caused the
hair on many an innocent mans head
to rise up and never come back again.
Other Indians besides the Siwashes
have felt hurt Mt the treatment they
received from the white man, often
seriously IL not fatally hurt. Countless
abOriginees upon countless occasions
have sworn by the Great Spirit and
even in their wrath calculated cuss
words of a still more violent and repre-
hensible character, to emphasize the
statement that they rued the day when
the white man first set foot among
them and tiguratively ut least COM
menced using IL upon the posterior
portions of their persons as a can of
evicting them from the real estate of
which he desired to acquire possession.
Bitter has been their spirit of revenge.
But il may well be doubted whether
the white nan has ever given any In
dians greater caus for evaporation
than he has just given to the peace-lov-
ing band of Siwashes, squatting so hap
PLY up there on the banks of the
ripping Squadmish in Northern Brit
ish Columbia. They were leav-
ing the white man alone, severely
alone. They were firm In their
purpose to have nothing to
do with him on any account. Their
ancestors had tried 1t and had got
enough for several generations. They
were attending to their wi private
concerns, being engaged chiefly in the
peaceful avocation of getting drunk.
II must be admitted that the Siwashes
have somewhat deteriorated during the
last century. They are not the fierce,
brave, u~ndaunted tribe of tough cusses
that they were of old. Who does not
recall the stately lines of LongfellOw:
Came Siwaslies down from mp north,
Came they Ia the midnight council:
Came they ON their savage brOnchoes,
Bronchoes that could kick the stufing
hut of everything they kicked at.
Glorious were the proud Siwashes.
I'm their shoulders sported blankets,
Used alike for man and broncho,
Gorgeous stripes and plaids and backgrounds.
They had daubed their faces over
Thick with red and green and yellow;
iiftN hsth rsstht tfitfi ifiii ih bNtf = EtfdNfs
They were redolent Of skunk's oil.
I'm their heads nj varying angles
SAT extremely battered plug hats
Plug hats they had deity gathered
From the alleys of the white man,
From his garbage piles AMI barrels.
oh, the holes within those plug hats!
Who had pnnctured them 50 strangely:
Who had hit them with "A brlcklat:
Noble were the brave Siwashes!
They were dudes and well they knew IL.
standing fully forty rods on
Each could mash an Indian maiden,
With a smile could break her all up.
IL will be seen that eve at the time
of which Longfellow wrote, the 81
wash was becoming renowned more |
for his social accomplishments than for
military glory. of late years this has
grown still more pronounced. At all
times, however, the Siwashes have pre- |
served the traditions and customs of
their ancestors with religious care, and
this necessitated the preservation of
the ancestors themselves. The 81
washes, il will be remembered, belong
to that division of the human race who |
do not burn OF bury or eat their dead, |
but who lay them away up among the
signing branches of the trees, there to
be at rest. rocking like the famous era
die in the tree tops, SO long as the trees
shall last and the cords that bind the
bodies TO them shall not decay or bust.
II is a very beautiful custom, and
would be still more beautiful if the ST.
washes but understood the rudiments
of embalming so as to destroy certain
characteristics of the cemetery that
link il i'm the imagination to %limburger
cheese. II may have been on account
of this peculiarly, or it may have been,
us the whites maintain, the result of
pure accident that the forest was set
on fire last week. At any rate the 81
washes are now deeply mourning the
loss Of their ancestors i'm senses
than one. and will not be comforted.
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