The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-03-17
A VERY ABLE FAKE.


The following pretty story manifestly
written by no Indian, appears in the
New York Sun:
A member of the house of representa-
tives, who is spending a few days in
New York, showed a Sun reporter a let
ter which was dictated by an Indian, a
half breed KickapoO in Kansas, and
sent to the congressman. The letter was
as follows:
ITO the Son of the White Father at
Washington:
Word comes that you and your
brothers are going to spend a heap of
money to deepen the channel of the
mouth Of the Kansas river. What for?
THE white man has built bridges
over the mouth of the river there and
for some distance above. A man can
wade across the river anywhere, ex-
cept in spring. What good will it do to
deepen the channel at the mouth? A
steamboat couldn't go very far if the
channel was deepened, because the
white mans bridges don't open.
''Thitry-hve years ago when was a
buck, and my people camped on the
Mills OF WyandOtte, at the mouth of
what was then the Kaw river, 1 have
seen the mouth of the river crowded
with little steamboats, that made trips
up and down the river
There was plenty of water in the
river then. The white man came among
US and bought our land, and the white
father sent his agents out and they
AAlciIG LIcQGSs ana We marched on with
the course of the sun.
"A white mans bridge was built a
couple of miles from the mouth of the
river. A steamboat couldn't get through
1t or under it. After a while more white
man bridges was built at Lawrence and
at Topeka and then they went back to
the mouth of the river and built three
more and charged toll to cross them.
Then the water began to get low. In
some places Indian couldn't push his
canoe. The white father changed the
name of the stream. Indians had called
it the KaW. White man crossed it in
many places with bridges, gave it an
other name, and then the river wept it
self dry. We got pay for our lands. In
dian made his own trade and must sub
init. But you didn't buy the name of
our river That was our name. You
changed it and you said nothing to US
about it, nor paid US for it, and when
our children went to your schools and
came home they told US we had lost our
river and they called it by some other
name.
And now white man wants to dig in
the mouth of our lost river. No. Let it
alone 1t is running dry. 1t is like the
Indian. Let it alone little while and
you can tear down your bridges and
sell them for plOughs and cross over on
dry land. There won't be puddle be-
tween banks deep enough for a tad
pole
You changed the name of Wyan-
dOtte, too. No wonder the grasshOppers
anu the uOSS TOOK the Town at once
EVERY thing you put your foot on in our
Kansas of other days has withered and
persisted from the face of the earth
I'VE had council fires at Quindaro.
White man built a town there and cut
roads in the hills, and trimmed the for
ests and damned the streams. Where is
it now? You can't find the name on
your map, and the town is no more.
I'VE had our corn dance on the hills
further up the river. You came there
and built you a. town, and called it Pal
ermO. That was a pretty name, and
the Indians like it, and we said our
white brothers have built a town and
called it a pretty name, like some of
our own, and we took it as a peace Of
fering.
The katydid sings on the site in the
summer, and there are more graves on
the hills than there are people in the
town. When the trees bloom, you can't
find the town. When the snow falls it
covers it up so you can hardly see where
it is.
Even our beautiful Leavenworth has
faded and looks old, and AtchisOn is
like the yellow leaves in the forest
when they are touched with the frost.
THE town you built on the Kansas
shore, and which you named Doniphan
where is it? If a strange man came
to the place in the night, he would
have to camp out.
'EllwoOd, that you built across the
river from the Black Snake hills, fell
into the waters of the Missouri and
rushed to the sea. Belmont, that you
built on a hill, so it could be seen of
all men, is fallen down, and looks like
a ruin.
What is it in the white mans breath
that makes it like death when it blows
on the Indian and his people and his
country?
If the white father has money to
spend, let him give it to our children
instead of spending it to dig holes in