The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-11-07

full native confederacy that gave the earl
Ylrsinia celonists 20 much trouble INIT
expelled from the Jamestown region
1644. Their progenitors possessed th
land when Captain Newport, in leo,
founded jamestown. the first permansu
English settlement in North America.
Consequently the present Pamunkey
are tho veritsble s'blue bloods" among q
the Indians surviving today, and the
form the largest remnant of the old Al
gonquin stock now to be found on th
Atlantic coast. Only few trifling of
shoots and some few uncertain and feebl
strains of bloods remaiaA Of tho othe
Powhatan tribes. The Pamunkeys alon'
have withstood intact the encroachuent
LIBERALIZATION for nearly 500 years. AND
their preservation is ell the more note
worthy from the fact that they live b,
themselves in their peculiar way in suct
close vicinity to the busy marts AND
s'effete civilization" of the East. Although
their manners are now modified, theil
language lost and their prastige vanished
they still illustrate in themselves the Law
Of the survival Of the fttest. The bare
fact of their existence 10 unknown even
in many parts of Virginia, and almost
wholly unknown elsewhere.
Unfortunately the very antiquity of the
Pamunkeys, the exclusivsness of their
race and the extreme blueness of their
blood, unmixed through centuries with
any other infusion, gravely imperil their
future, SO that the tribe is now in danger
of dying out and is urgently in need Of
a matrimonial alliance with some outside
stock to preserve the root. The detri-
mental effects of continued intermarriage
among themselves have become alarming,
but inasmnch as they scorn . vulgar
union with their white. IS we'll ~ their
colored neighbors, they are in sore di-
.lemma as to what steps they should take
to restore their blood and save themselves
from extinction.
Under this stress of necessity the head
men of the Pamunkeys have for three
years back been considering plans for
forming matrimonial alliance with some
more vigorous Indian tribe, notably with
the Eastern Band of Cherokees in the
adjacent States of North Carolina, Ten
nessee, Georgia and Alabama. They
opened negotiations with the latter year
ago to procure brides for their unmarried
sons and husbands for their unmarried
daughters. The male Pamunkeys have
been made to understand that the Eastern
Cherokee girls are exceptionally pretty,
modest and sensible, and the female Pa
munkeys believe the Eastern Cherokee
braves to be handsome, loyal and indus
trlous, from general hearsay. and calcu-
lated to make safe husbands. But for
some reason the negotiations have not
progressed satisfactorily, and up to date
th,re has been no substantial outcome.
Correspondence on the subject has been
fopdacted with the Chiefs of the Eastern
Cherokees. and repeated conferences have
peen held with various Indian philantho.
pists and with the United States Comma |
sioner Of Indian Affairs at the Govern
ment Bureau in Washington, while MANY
strong Inducements have been held out
to anY eligible tribe to make the desired
arrangement and promptly send on q &C.
!ect sample consignment Of "likeIy" girls |
ana youths. But 20 far no definite sue
cess has been attained. What WORTHY
tribe viii now step forward and come to
inc relief OF the Departing Pamunkeys2
vi course it Deed hardly be said that only
tlIst-grade tribe will answer tho re
4olrements, for, as explained above. the
Famunkeys esteem Themselves particu-
larry gilt edge race.
Naturally they are proud of their line
age, ana OF the prominent place occupied |
~ their illustrious ancestors in history
snd literature. King OpechancanoupL.
the successor OF Powhatxn, the leader Of |
the great massacre Of the whites in 1861.
is their titular hero. Next to him they
revere the memory of Powhatan aud his
starred daughter, Pocahonta.. who as
ntt'e glrl saved Captain John Smith
from Death IN 1908, and - grown wo-
man married John Rolfe, the English
planter. in 1918. They maintain among
themselves curious kind of native aris.
tocracy, aud assume . high superiority
over their surrounding Virgins peiehbors.
even as their old Pamunkey forebeurs
deemed themselves the leading factors
among all the allied Powhatan tribes. Irl