The Meeker herald., 1899-12-02
THE LAST OF A TRIBE
CUSTOM OF IOWA INDIANS.
IAfs of Ease On rAss, Rsssrvs.,oa 4. Oh
iahoma squaw Trading CenAea :
Children Bhun School

Most Of the seventy eight remnants
OF the once powerful lowas live on
their allotments near Perkins, Okla
homa Territory. They are not men
with the hoe, rs most Of their choice
lands are enther uncultivated or else
titled by whites. They employ their
time In eating, sleeping, dancing, srunt-
Ing visiting and worshippins. They
consider all the various d0ings-includ-
ing horse-racing and trading sQuaws-
- religious ceremonies.
Their religion is grotesque mixture
OF paganism and Christianity. They
are ardent sun-worshippers, calling
often upon Jesus, who they say il In
the glorious orb Of day. They believe
In spiritual horses, dogs and even green
prairies where no troublesome white
man or bad Indian can modest them.
Bill Dole, a very unctuOus old limb Of
the expiring tribe, said: II have eleven
sQuaws and pappooses up there, and
lots of spotted ponies eating grass up
there on the ever green prairieS. l
can see them on every cloudfess day"
Bill. however, got married again last
week to four-times widow. Most Of
their wigwams are adorned with Gor-
geOusly colored pictures of scriptural
scenes.
They still persist, in spite of having
been notified repeatedly not to do 30.
in depositing their dead on the surface
of the earth. The graveyard in tn.
old, deserted Iowa Indian village OIL
Bear creek, Lincoln county, ID dis
gushing, sickening boneyard. Glutton-
GUS turkey buzzards and irreverent
hogs fight over the remains.
Dan Tohee, a lineal descendant Of
the 2,00O-y ear-old royal Tohee family.
ofhciates as chief of the little tribe. He
looks very dignifed, never gets drunk
nor trades wives and Is not much Of a
liar. His brother DIVE, however,
seems to be the black sheep Of the To-
hee family. His sixth squaw died last
spring. and after bowling seven nights
around her dead house he put a $25
marble Cross near her resting place and
began preparations for union with
squaw No. Z.
Tho Iowas delight to drink a slightly
intoxicating connection made Of fer
mented and boiled corn, sumach ber-
ries sugar and wild onionA After gulp-
ing down copious draughts of the bev-
erage they get exceedingly happy and
talk about the good times coming,
when only good Iowas will inhabit the
whole Of Oklahoma.
Getting some Of the white mans edu-
cation II one Of their greatest hard
ships. The young Towns, ''like snails,
crawl to school," They play sick, and
sometimes even dead, to keep from At
tending. The older ones consider the
younger ones Martyrs during school
hours and often help them to evads the
task. Two years ago they induced the
Indian department to allow them to
have 4 school right At home. They had
Q costly building erected and several
teachers were hired, but alasl only
about six Juvenile redskins attended
the school.
TIE Iowas hate working on the road
even worse than any othee kind u Ia.
boz. Eight q them started On . pro
tracted visit to Nebraska last summer,
simply to escape from working three
days on the roads which they travel
more than any white man.
They regard all physical and other
ailments as the work Of ''imps within"
and take strong emetics and voff1it the
evil spirits through the knot holes into
hollow trees. Perhaps, through some
sort Of faith-cure process, this always
seems to make them feed all right for
awhile.