The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-25

III Uu6 COURSE u Gu0 OluldC wal, etl1u
men and horses were forced over the
edge of the terrible gorge into the depths
below Under the falls it was that the
Iroquois imagination located the home of
the mighty Spirit Of Thunder. In the
caverns beneath the roaring waters he
dwelt, and when he issued forth the In
dams trembled to hear him shouting in
the sky.
From Lewiston, below the falls on the
Niagara river. drive Of three miles
leads to the reservation, a tract inhabit-
ed by about 450 Indians Of the Tuscarora
tribe. The cultivation of the land is
careful and systematic. There are fine
looking farms and well built houses, and
prosperity and comfort abound.
When a youth reaches the age of 81 or
when he marries (and there is no law
fixing legal manageable age), he has
attained his majority. He then applies
to the council and is given from two to
six acres of land, not cleared, but gen.
orally where Indians have been chop
ping to obtain wood for fences or other
purposes all tho woodland being helG
strictly in common until assigned to in
dividual USE He clears and cultivates
his few acres and may afterward apply
for more. the council then exercising its
discretion as to whether or not to allow
it. No great quantity, however, is thus
given. The successful farmer obtains
as much as he can in grants and then
gradually secures more by purchase
from others. Some families cultivate as
many as 70 acres.
No land can be actually given or sold
on the reservation, but the right to occu-
by is considered sufficient, and all i'm
provements belong to the individual
making them. this tenure giving feel
ing of security and offering some incen-
tive to endeavor. While, however, land
adjoining the reservation is worth from
$50 to $75 per acre, the industrious Indian
can obtain for the permanent use of his
but from $5 to $l5 an acre.
Education has made rapid strides
among the Tuscaroras. The government
is vested in council of 16 chiefs, hold
ing for life or during good behavior. A
most peculiar thing is that, according to
an ancient custom, it is by the matrons
of the tribe that the chiefs are elected
whenever vacancies occur. Before the
chief can take his seat, however, the
election must be ratified by the council.
The deposing of chief, too, is a
strange reminder Of ancient days and
carries the fancy back to the time when
wigwams dotted the forest and deer and
bear ranged wild. The council assem-
bles. A warrior steps slowly forward,
and presenting string of black wam-
pun to the presiding chief states in sol
emn tones that the accused chief is there
by ''cut down." Then, if there is no OPP
posing voice, the chief is considered
deposed, but if. as is more often the
case, there is a defender he steps out.
and with a string of white wampum de-
clares that the chief is ''not cut down"
Then the accuser must reiterate his
charge, and thereupon formal trial
proceeds.
However picturesque such govern
ment and such forms once were they
are strangely out of place at present.
There is, too, something homogeneous in
meeting chief dressed in trousers, coat
and vest like a white man, well edu-
Gated, reader of books and newspapers,
and living in 2-story house, with stoves
and pictures, chairs and tables, and see
ing him open bureau drawer, take out
box containing wampum strings, and
hearing him explain the significance of
the old time ceremony.
Wampum is still used in the ordain-
ing of chiefs, and when a chief dies
wampum strings are laid upon his COT
fin, and just before the moment of burial
formally lifted off, thus indicating that
the chief has actually died and is buried.
Then a runner" takes the symbolic
strings and ION railroad trainD runs"
to the Onondagas, the recognized head
tribe of the Iroquois league. with the dis
NAL tidings.
The observance of law and order on
the reservation is actually better than
among most communities of white peo-