Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-10
LOVED AN INDIAN GIRL.
Romance of New Yorker Who was
Hunting in British Colmut

There is a romance wrapped
the life of Miss Alice Hamblet. o
attic, Wash, which would have
lighted the heart of Fennimore Cooper.
SO, of course, it has to do with In
dams, picturesque Indians.
Miss Hambiet is the granddaughter
of Ne-aS-ha-lo-leS, the late chief of
the kitt-SO-la-Sha, the dominant tribe
of British Columbia Indians. She is
also the daughter of a New Yorker,
and SO Il descendant of one of the old
knickerbocker families. This is how
Miss Hamblet came by her ancestry,
as she told the story to an Examiner
historian in San Francisco the other
day.
My mother was the only child, and
at the death of her father she became
chief of the tribe She never cared
to assume the title-She only cares to
help her people. Being the only daugh-
ter of a powerful chief, he thought
she should have some education, SO.
he sent her to the home OF his friend.
Bishop Cridge, in Victoria She was
only fifteen years old.
"One day she Went fishing by her
self. She wore her blanket pinned
over her shoulders and looked very
picturesque, my father says. He hap
pened to be walking by the side of
the stream when he Spied her. She
caught fish so cleverly that he became
interested, and after watching the pro-
cess for a while fell desperately in
love with her.
You know the Indians have a the
DRY that people know the instant they
encounter their fateS. 1t was so with
mother. The first glance told her he
was the hero of her life Three months
afterward they came to this city with
| their friends and were married. The
marriage displeased her father, who
, had engaged her to a young chief in
! the northeast. After their marriage,
they visited their old Indian home, but
my grandfather never allowed his SON
in-law to sit at the family table. He's
a nice man. he said, but he has never
distinguished himself in battle-he
cannot eat with chiefs
LAS the acknowledged chief of the
tribe my mother has an opportunity
of doing a vast amount of good. In
dianS have great reverence for their
chiefs and can be easily influenced by
them. When we have gone on our mis-
siOnary tours we have mingled with
the peOple-lived with them and assim-
Hated with them as far as possible.
In many of the inhabitants their
ways are primitive. We always
ate the same food they did, and some
times it was boiled seaweeds and
sometimes the inner bark of the hem
lock tree. This last delicacy is a sub
stitute for bread.
MANY of the Indian modes of cook
ing seem extraordinary to Americans.
[ understand their recipes thorough
~" she SAID. laughingly, land feel
perfectly competent at any time to get
up an Indian dinner. The women Of
the Kitt-sO-)a-sha tribe are not slaves,
as the majority of women are. The
husband and wife work hand in hand
they help one another, and there is
nothing of the do-nothing- gentleman
illness about the men.
In some settlements they still have
the primitive schools. They are con-
Quoted in this way: The children are
called together and first one and then
another old person will give them oral
instruction. They tell them of the.
wars, the chiefs, and instruct them
about the rocks. trees and water.
Every child is also taught to cook
and to prepare medicine from herbs"
Miss Hamblet is highly educated.
Her associates have always been
Americans, although she has spent
considerable time with her mother,
who has devoted her life to the work
of elevating and Outstanding her
people.