Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-10-10
FAKE GREEN CORN DANCE.
Dnondagas Give a show that Would Hnv,
Eeen a Credit n rnnIn


Been Credit to Barnum.
Ever since the days of Hiawatha
and the time when his beloved Mime
haha was sent out at night to bless
the fields of maize, the five nations
have held the festival of the green
corn as the most holy and happy of
the year. AS can be imagined, their
disgust at the fact that the pale faces
would come in idle curiosity, and
with evident amusement look on the
religious dance of the ancient Min.
goes, was deep enough to bring lie
Reynard Subtil from the bottom Of
Cooper's gorge, beyond the Lac du
Sainte Sacrament. But, for all that,
every year, when the harvest moon
did come, the Yengeese would
gather at the council hall of the
Onondagas to see the show. At last
scheme was hit upon which seems to
satisfy all concerned. Some two weeks
before the date of the annual celebra-
ton of the festival fake dance is ar
ranged. The affair is widely adver-
tised as the old and original. Specta-
tors come from far and near, and the
rulers of half this continent is crowd
ed. Every guest is welcome, for all
who go inside must purchase tickets,
and every horse that is left outside
ne6s some one to hold it. What
harvest is brought to the red men.
What a lot of frewater those dimes
and quarters will buy!
} The whole population of the reserva-
ton was gathered in and about the
council house at an early hour in the
morning. Dan La Forte, the head of
the nation, was standing around with
his hands in his pockets, not saying a
word, but directing everything. BY
noon the crowd began to come, and as
soon as there was reasonable num-
Der paid admissions inside of the big
hall the dancing began. Three or four
old men performed the accompani-
ment, using Indian drums and rattles
as their instruments of torture. The
song and dance artists, decked in war
paint and feathers, took their place in
a cleared space in the middle of the
floor, and the excitement began.
Round and round they went, with
steps more weird than the witches OF
Macbeth, chanting as they moved
some uncanny dirge. With a liberal
applicatic of imagination one might
place the scene on the shores of Hor-
icon and fancy that in the depths of
the forests primeval about the camp
fire the noble red man was worshiping
the Great Spirit and thanking the
Deity for the priceless gift of the
maize. To the materalist of the living
present the performance was an anus
ing farce. The war paint and those
best one dollar and forty-nine cents
shoes. the waving plume sewed with
cotton thread TO clothing company's
advertising cap, the valiant braves
outside the door of the shanty all look
ing for a job holding some ones horse,
all in all, it would be hard strain on
Che most vivid of imaginations to
think of Uncas as among the motley
crowd.
Till FIVE o'clock in the afternoon the
jig was kept up,and then, when every
one seemed to have had enough of the
show adjourned to the neighboring
common, where, after the hat had been
passed around several times to make
an inducement, the young men of the
tribe gave an exhibition game OF la
crosse. This wound up the days
gayety, except that, it is said, a num-
Der of the braves were sent outside of
the reservation to procure some whisky
with which to celebrate the financial
success of the days work. The date
of the real green corn dance, the In
dians say, has not yet been fixed
Syracuse Standard.