The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-10-14

ary with t h m, |
some ceremonies We're held in the lat
ter part of the preceding week. of !
which the whites were not made &C.
qualnted. It is said, and it is undoubt-
edly true, that the real green-corn
dance is held on the uuiet-although
there is good deal of noise about it
and that the public ceremony, which al
ways takes place on Sunday, is to salts
~ the curiosity of the whites and the
mercenary warnings Of the noble red
men. The dance was at first fixed for
a week ago Sunday, but was postponed
for week. The reason assigned for
the delay was that old Chief Daniel La
Fort was ill. The real reason was that
the number of white persons on hand
was too small to make it profitable to
the dancers
Your correspondent drove out to the
Onondaga reservation last Sunday af-
ternoon. 1t lies nine miles down the
beautiful valley south of this city.
Coming into the Indian settlement you
pass numerous houses occupied by the
Onondagas, some Of which are neat and
comfortable and speak we'll for the
, thrift of the inhabitants, while others
are badly in need of ordinary and ex-
traordinary repairs. The Council
House is in the centre of the settlement
and just off of the main road. It is a
long, narrow, one-story building, paint
| ed white, with green blinds and red
| roof.
Here were found a. dozen TALL, 1.-the,
wiry, muscular young braves, engaged
in the great national game of baseball;
that is, they were knocking up and
catching "hies." The ball-players said
! that there would be a green-corn dance
| in the afternoon, just when depended
upon Chief La Fort. In the shade back
| of house not far away sat this old
chief of the Six Nations, smoking fat
and cheap cigar He was surrounded
by half dozen of the tribe.
| La Fort is a good specimen of the
highest type of the civilized Indian He
is we'll along in years now, and his
hair and mustache are gray His Eng
| lish is excellent for one of his limited
opportunities. Among the tribes of the
Six Nations his word is law. Not only
is he the head Of the Iroquois League
but he also is the chief of the Ononda-
gas. All the Indians within his juris-
diction have great respect for him. He
was at the head of the New York In
dams who were at the Columbian Elk.
position, and he said last Sunday that
a man from New York had been tt
see him in the previous week about go.
ing with some of his race to the Paris
exhibition, and that he had agreed tt
| go.
1--WE shall have thes dance by-and-by
when fifty or a hundred people ge
here" said La Fort, in response to al
inquiry. Then he added that the In
dams wanted to make it pay by charg
ing small admission fee to the Lon,
House. After while there came !.
perfect string of carriages and bicycles
and by 8 80, when the dance was begun
! there were several hundred persons OF
the ground.
While waiting for the white people t
come, the chief spoke about the Onon
dagas and their ceremonies. Il hav
not taken a census of the people OF
the reservation in three years." sal,
he. ''The last one showed about fou
hundred Indians, men, women and chill
dren, and the number is about the sam
:" now. There are between seventy an,
:, eighty families. Twenty years ag
there were only 280 persons here, S
you see we have increased in numbers
The state gives us an annuity Of none
: and salt. Last year we got $4.44 t