The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-10-30
THE GEORGIA HUMoRIST
PATHOLOGICAL FACTS REGARDING IN
DAMS AND WHITES
yptermarriages More Frequent than. OF
Old---The Red Man, Though Being Rap
id,v pecimated, Is Well Fixed and Happy
Withal.

Not long ago some writer from the
west told us that white people were
marrying Indian girls more frequently
than ever before. 'Indeed," he said,
"the dusky maidens seem to prefer
the pale faces to their own race and
COLOR"
This provokes mo to write letter |
about Indians for the special pleasure
| and benefit of our young people. Boys
and girls like to read about them, l
know. but most of the stories that APP
near are more romantic than true.
| During the war our brigade camped
one night on the Chickahominy river,
about thirty miles below Richmond,
and we were shown the very stone on
which Captain John Smith laid his
head for Powhattan's club when
the beautiful Pocahontas rushed
wildly in the circle and threw her
self upon his bosom and saved his life.
About the stone I have my doubts, but
it is historically true that Powhattan
lived there, and that his daughter,
lovely lass of fourteen, did save John
Smiths life, as he in his letter to the
queen of England says, "at the minute
Of my execution she hazarded the
beating out of her own brains to save
mine" She afterwards married John
Rolfe, with her fathers consent, and
from that anion came the Randolphs
of Virginia, and little strain OF that
same Pocahontas blood flows in my
wife's veins, and she is proud of it,
| and loves to tell the story to her MI.
merous and lovely offspring. That
little strain isn't bigger<than cam
. brio needle, but it has never lost its
strength. She would make right
good rocahontas now if anybody that
! she loved was in danger. In fact, she
has some Indian traits still lingering
! in her bosom, and should have been
/ named Indiana when she was chris
} tened.
I But it seems that ever since Poca-
I hontas married a white man the In.
Z dian maidens of all the civilized tribes
4 have been willing to do the same
, thing. It is we'll known that the
q daughters of the Creeks and Chero.
4 KEGS in Georgia always said yes when
4 a good-looking white man proposed
b marriage; but such unions were moi
! hasty nor deceitful; they had to be in
. earnest and from honorable motives,
Z If an Indian maid was betrayed by @
IL designing white man, he could hardly
escape for the whole tribe became
Il avengers of blood. Her virtue wa:
i her dearest ornament, and if she lost
q it the third finger of her left hand wa!
D dismembered at the second joint, ant
II that left her shame always visible.
n Now it seems to he settled by tn
n men of science that the Indian belong
q to the Caucasian or white race, o.
a else he is aboriginal and is race o
u his own. He is neither Monaghan
II Malay nor negro. He WIS first foun'
II here on this continent, just as tn
Il negro was first found in Africa. A
the elephant was found in Asia, tn
kangaroo in Australia and the liam
in Peru, SO the Indian may be q nativ
O, of the manor born, for biologists sa
that this continent is the oldest b
W several thousand years. But wher
az he came from or how he got here is
\ question too deep for me. The exis
nd ence of Aztecs in Mexico is still an IN
o. solved problem, and who were til
Ill mound builders is matter of doul
nj and speculation. One thing, howevel
fe seems certain, that the race is doome
"a to extinction. The command ST
in fruitful and multiply" does not belon
nd to them. According to the United State
Of census reports, in 1853 there were
,eI the United States and territories 400
%, 1854; in 1860. 339.42l: in 1870. 313.71.
tht in 1880, SOC, 543; i'll 1890, 24S, %
,eT OF these SO, 500 are classed as civi
'er lied. The Cherokees aud Greeks we
Tas sent from Georgia to the Indian Te
ritory about sixty years ago. III
lily former then numbered near 1900
lei they number less than that now. VIII
ah is the matter with them? They ha
II fine lands, both for pasturage and Gu
nil tivation, and the bounty of the go
eminent would nearly support ther
They have good framed houses to Ii
In ana nave rs good schOOlhouseS al
- churches. as our country people .ha
=. in Georgia. They are classed rs civ
:" lied, and dress just like white folk
and cook and eat as nourlshing fo'
=, as we do. What is the matter?
~. asked. one of their educated minister
.e' "God knows" said he. I mingl
with their people and talked with thel
They did not seem to be sad or d
tressed about anything. 1t was n
~ that the children died before maturit
but that the mature died faster th
-. children were born to take thu
~, ,a places. The exception to this decli
of the race seemed to be in the famili
So where white men had intermarried WI
:. Indian maidens. These unions we
-, prolific of children who were heatt
liz and handsome, and always bred SIT
: the mother, having her cinnam
ar color, her straight black hair and hi
M cheek bones. There is no appare
mixture of blood as that which appef
in the mulatto who is the half breed
whites and blacks. But these. Indi
types weaken in succeeding genel
tons of quadroons and octoroons, o
if ever the tribes are saved from {
tinction, it will be by this increasi
amalgamation with the white ra'
These unions do not seem to she