St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-04-02
. Trihe orHalr-Rre Is.

terror.
a Tribe of Half Bree Is.
A few Indians were found who by
signs indicated that the pale faces had
gone tar into the interior many moons
before. 1he reScuing party returned To-
England without learning any thing
more OF Whites lost colony, but when
the state was settled many years after
ward, the English settlers were surprised
to find far i'll the interior number
of halfbreedS who could speak a little
English. From them it was learned
that the men left behind by White had
joined tribe of Indians and had mar
ried Indian wives.
These half-breeds bore the name OF
some OF the meu who were known TO
have been part of the lost colony.
They were Barry, Strong, Lowry
and Applewhite. These half-breeds
continued to live with the Indians
until the latter were driven west. Then
they founded a colony and located in
Robinson county, where their few de-
scendants still live. They We're 4 lazy,
worthless lot, and lived chiefly by hunt
ing, fishing and theft. They lived i'll
rude cabins, and their settlement was
finally given the name of ScuffletoWn,
which it still bears.
The place in time became the resort of
runaway slaves. who were protected by
these half-breedS. Then slaves who had
purchased their freedom were admitted
to the colony on terms of social equal
ity. Then came marriages with blacks
and mulattoes. and the character OF
the tribe, already bad enough, rapidly
grew worse. The men were cunning
and treacherOus, and nearly always eS-
capped punishment for their many
crimes. Until the late war their GRIM
inal acts were confined to theft and
robbery. with an occasional murder that
could not be proved against them.
Some twenty years ago Seuif1etOwn
developed one of the worst and most
successful band of outlaws that ever
existed in this country. They
were led by Henry Barry Lowry, a
young member Of the tribe, of Un-
questioned courage and the cunning OF
an Indian. The outlaws were known
far and wide at the time as the Lowry
gang" They committed no less than
twenty brutal murders and as many
daring rObberieS, and for months terror
lied the entire country The band was
finally broken up, most of its members
killed and the others driven from the
state. A few families OF the Lost
Colony" tribe remain at Seutfletown,
distrusted by the whites, feared and
hated by the negroes.
In appearance these people are tall
and well built. Their skin is dark and
swarthy. the marks of their Indian and
negro blood being most prominent.
Their hair is black and coarse, but it
does not kink like the hair of the negro
and mulatto. They have the high cheek
bones of the Indian. the thick lips OF
the negro. while the nose and general
shape of the head show the trace of the
CaucaIsian blood that remains in this
odd mixture of races.
The Indian Negr oes.
The origin of the Indian negroes "a
not so clear. it is said in the locality
where they live that about the time of
the revolution, or perhaps before that
time, a mulatto, who had purchased his
freedom married an Indian squaw. and
from them descended the present tribe.
This seems plausible, as those now
living appear to have less of negro blood
than that of the other two races. The
striking popularity of their appearance
is that their skin is not the same color
on all parts of their bodies. Some of
them, from the waist up, are almost
white, while their lower limbs are
almost black. Others have swarthy
faces, while the skin on their hands
and other parts of their bodies is white.
They all have coarse black hair and
black eyes. Their features all show
the mixed blood that flows in their
veins, but number of them have faces
white enough tor the purest Anglo
Saxon.
The writer once saw three boys be-
longing to one of these families who
were as black as full-blooded negroes
from the nip down, and white, with oc-
caSlonal brown spots, above the hips.
The skin of their hands and faces are
perfectly white, exposure seeming to
have had the effect of remOy-
ing the brown spots that were
plainly visible on their arms
and shoulders. Their lips were thick
enough TO show that there was negro
blood i'll their veins. and their cheek
bones betrayed the Indian blood.
These Indian negroes are socially Os-
traclsed by both whites and negroes,
and live in settlement 10 them
selves. They are densely ignorant
and supersttious. and in the CON-
munity where they live they have
never been recognized as citizens of the
United States. They have never at
tempted to exercise the right of citizen
ship by voting. They are very peacea-
bic, and seem content to be let alone.
They support themselves by hunting
and cultivating small rented farms,
occasionally working for The whita