The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1898-05-06
WROUGHT BY WHITE MEN.
Caused by the Advance of
Civilization.

ION mas recelSeo the 1OllOWlnS letter
from a half-breed Kickapoo living in
Kansas:
ITO the Son of the White Father in
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
.or some distance above. A man can
wade across the river anywhere, ex-
cept in the spring. What good will it
| 10 to deepen the channel a the mouth?
steamboat couldn't go very far #
the channel was deepened, because the
white mans bridges don't open.
'Thirty-fve years ago, when was
| buck, and my people camped on the
hills of Wyandotte, at the mouth of
| what was then the Kaw 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 the mouth of
the river. A boat couldn't get through
i: 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 ge. low.
La some places an Indian couldn't push
his canoe. The white father changed
the name of the stream. Indians had
ca lied 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
| Nv some Otuer ndIne.
And now white man wants to dig
| ia the mouth of our lost river. No. Let
it alone. 1t is running dry. 1t is like
| the Indian. Let it alone for a little
| while and you can tear down your
| bridges and sell them for plows and
| cross over on dry land. There won't
lie a puddle between banks deep
enough for tadpole.
You changed the name Of the Wyan-
dotte, too. No wonder the grasshop-
pers and the dogs took the town at
once. Everything you put your foot
IN in our Kansas of other days has
| withered or persisted from the face of
| the earth.
eve had council fires at Quindaro.
| White man built town there and cut
| roads in the hills, and trimmed the for
| .sts and damned the streams. Where
| IS it now? You can't find the name on
your map and the town is no more.
1--WE had our corn dance on the hills
further up the river. You came there
| and built you a town, and called ii
Palermo. That was pretty name and
the Indians liked it, and we said our
white brothers have built a town and
called it a pretty name, like some CT
our own, and we took it as peace Of
fering.
1.-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
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 strange man came to
the place in the night he would have
&c 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 Il hill, so it could be seen of
all men, is fallen down, and looks like
q ruin.
What is in the white mans breath
that makes il 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 a
sandbar. Chicago Inter Ocean.