The Sumpter miner. [volume] (Sumpter, Or.) 1899-1905, 1900-11-07
Wednesday, November>6, 1900


strong In the minds Of these simple folk,
a second nature to them, a sacred obliga.
tion which Is never broken. The Indian
medicine man who fails In his cures or
prophesies, Is doomed to certain death.
He has assumed to fill holy Office, to
take into his keeping the whole welfare
Of his tribe, and when he betrays his ut.
ter helpessness In the face Of natures
laws, no punishments are spared In his
torture and death.
So Anna Edna must pay the penalty.
The father Of the dead child Is only exc.
cutting a law Older than our declaration,
older, even, than the Anglo Saxon tongue.
when he kills the witch who has imposed
upon her people. Columbia George and
Toy.ro are types Of an age and race and
an order Of intelligence which Is passing
from view. They lose their local import.
ance, when considered In the light Of hu.
man history. Their simple confession Of
the crime is given In implicit faith that
the Indian tradition which dooms the
witch, will supplant the law Of the land.
Back Of their innocent story Is seen dimiy
struggling tor utterance and justification
the reason for the crime. IN their eyes Il
Is no crime. II Is tate. 1t Is duty, no less
binding than the burial Of the dead. 1t Is
one OF the iron clad rites of the old age Of
man, passing through the crucible Of the
newer age. 1t Is the past struggling
against the tide OF the present.
The lsraelites carried their laws into the
Egyptian bondage. "An eye for an eve
and tooth for a tooth" sounded as harsh
In the ears OF their masters, as the In It.
dams brutal custom does IN ours. Rome
found strange, unwri,ten laws In every
country she enslaved. She tried 20 stamp
these out. She inflicted penalties upon
the wondering peoples. and In all the Sc.
verify Of her law and nicity Of her cul.
ture, she never triumphed. The Scythian
mutila,ed his person for religious reasons.
The Goth drank water from q cup Of a
human skull. The Druids IN Britain
practiced their grewsome rites, 10 the pres.
ence Of the glittering spears Of the Roman
armies. Aud IN all countries, among all
races are found these indelihle characters.
tics, which time, and fortune, and culture
and threatened determination have failed
to destroy.
It Is historical parallel which has been
struck In every age. We look at il from
local standpoint and see none Of its
strange Importance. We rub against
these people on our streets and laugh at
their curious manners and customs and
pass them on without a deeper glance at
their story. But when We SIT ut the bar
OF justice and see a tribal custom, older
than our government, annullrd, set aside,
superseded and condemned, by the swift
and terrible justice OF civilization, we take
second glance at these wondering peo-
pie. The faith they have followed so
long Is shown IN its emptiness. The
laws of their fathers are wiped from their
statutes and they stand helpless and
amazed amid the binding splendors of an
age they cannot understand. The Jews
practice rites today they pract,ei in
Moses time. The Chinese have customs
four thousand years old. And is II any
wonder that Pendleton, like olj-n Egypt,
shall say to the bondman: "Forsale your
gods and follow mine BERT Huffman IN