Gilpin observer., 1899-11-30
THE LAST OF A TRIBE
CUSTOM OF IOWA INDIANS.
Life of Ease on Their Reservation In Ok
lahoma - squaw Trading Common =
Children Shun School

Most of the seventy-eig remnants
of the once powerful Iowas live on
their allotments near Perkins, Okla
homa Territory. They are not men
with the hoe, as most of their choice
lands are enther uncultivated or else
titled by whites. They employ their
time in eating, sleeping, dancing, grunt-
ing, visiting and worshipping. They
consider all the various doings--includ-
ing horse-racing and trading squaws-
as religious ceremonies.
Their religion is Il grotesque mixture
of paganism and Christianity. They
are ardent n-worshippers, calling
often upon Jesus, who they say is 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, very unctuous old limb Of
| the expiring tribe. said: Il 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 cloudless day"
Bill, however. got married again last
week to n fourtimes widow. Most of
their wigwams are adorned with gor-
geously colored pictures of scriptural
| scenes.
luty sum ptiSict. III Sl'it' Vi
been notified repeatedly not to do so,
in depositing their dead on the surface
of the earth. The graveyard in the
old, deserted Iowa Indian village on
Bear creek, Lincoln county, is a dis
gusting. sickening boneyard. Glutton.
Gus turkey buZzards and irreverent
hogs fight over the remains.
Dan Tohee a lineal descendant OF
the 2,O0O-year-old royal Tohee family
officiates as chief of the little tribe. He
looks very dignified. never gets drunk
nor trades wives and is not much of o
! liar His brother Dave 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 S25
marble cross near her resting place and
began preparations for a union with
squaw No. Z.
The Iowas delight to drink slightly
| intoxicating cOncoction made of fer
mented and boiled corn. sumach ber
ries, sugar and wild onions. 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 is one of their greatest hard
ships The young Iowas. 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 ana often help them to evade the
task. Two years ago they induced the
Indian department to allow them te
have school right at home. They had
a costly building erected and several
teachers We're hired, but. alas! only
about six juvenile redskins ATTENDED
the school.
The Iowas hate working on the road.
even worse than any other kind Of In
Dor. Eight of them started on n pro
tracted visit to Nebraska last summer
simply to escape from working three
days on the roads which they trave
more than any white man.
They regard all physical and othei
ailments as the work of "imps within
and take strong emetics and vomit tht
evil spirits through the knot holes into
hollow trees. Perhaps. through som,
sort of faith-cure process, this alway,
seems to make them feel all right foi
awhile