Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1898-06-09
WHITE MAN DID IT
a Kickapoo Indians Plaintive Let,
ter to Washington.
Relates the Dire Things Which Rave
neraIIen His People Through
the Advance of the Hated
PnIefaec.

One of the congressman at Washing
ton has received the following letter
from half-breed Kickapoo living in
Kansas:
TO the Son of the White Father in
Washington:
Word comes that you and your
brothers are going to spend 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. y man can
wade across the river anywhere, eX-
cept in the spring What good will it
do to deepen the channel at the mouth?
y steamboat couldn't go very far If
the channel was deepened, because the
white mans bridges don't open.
''Thirty-fve years ago, when l was
buck, and my people camped on the
hills of Wyandotte, at the mouth of
what was then the Raw river, 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 men came among
us and bought out land, and the white
father sent his agents out and they
made trades, and we marched on with
the course of the sun.
"a white mans bridge was built
couple of miles from tha mouth of
the river. A boat couldn't get through
it or under it. After a little while
more white man bridges were 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 an 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
ii another name, and then the river
wept itself dry. We got pay for our
lands. Indian made his own trade
and must submit. 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 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. Ii is running dry. 1t is like
tie Indian. Let it alone for little
while and you can tear down your
bridges and sell them for plows and
cross over on dry land. There won't
be a puddle between banks deep
enough for tadpole.
you changed the name OF the Wyan-
Gotte, too No wonder the grasshop,
pers and the dogs took the town at
once. Everything you put your foot
on in our Kansas of other days has
withered or persisted from the face Of
the earth.
1--WE had council fires at Qundaro.
White man built 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 an
your map and the town is no more.
eve had our corn dance on the hills
further up the river. You came there
and built you town, and called it
Palermo. That was a'T9etty name and
the Indians liked it, aid we said our
white brothers have built town and
called it a pretty name, like some Of
our own, and we took it as peace Of
fering.
The katydid sings on the site in
summer and there are more graves on
the hills than there are people in the
town. When the trees bloom you can't
fiGd 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 II! II strange man came 10
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 hill, so it could be seen of
all men, is fallen down, and looks like
ruin.
What is in the white mans breath
that makes it like death when it blows
on the Indian and his people and his
country?
eff the white father has money to
spend let him give it to our children
instead Of spending it to dig holes in
sandbar. Chicago Inter Ocean.