Red River prospector. (Red River, Taos County, N.M.) 1900-190?, 1901-06-20

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The Mohawks Of Canada and New
York state are to have a newspaper.
IL will be edited by Charles A. Cooke,
a full-blooded Indian employed in the
department Of Indian affairs at Otta-
wa, says an Ottawa correspondent of
the New York Sun. Some time ago
Cooke began publishing the Onkweon-
we, a semi-monthly magazine, printed
in the Mohawk language, and it was
so successful that he has decided to
turn it into a newspaper, the first of
its kind in Canada and the second in
America. There are other Indian pub
locations not newspapers, but the ma
jority Of them are issued by mission.
sry societies and they are edited by
white men. The Cherokee Advocate,
published in Indian Territory, is the
only other Indian newspaper in North
America. The Onkweonwe will pub
lish some telegraphic news from differ
emit parts of the world, market news
and reports of prices of furs, skins,
fish, etc, and will have an inquiry de-
partment, which will be one of its
leading features. Editor Cooke is the
son of a Mohowk chief and was edu-
Gated at government schools and after
ward took a course in a Canadian col
lege. When he had been graduated he
got a clerkship in the Indian depart
ment. He is a dark-skinned young
man, with pronounced Indian features.
He is a good singer and is a member of
the choir of the leading Methodist
church in Ottawa. Two other Mohawk
Indians, Miss Maracle and Joseph De-
Isle. are employed in the same room
with Mr.. Cooke. All are well edu-
Gated. Few Of the Indians can read
English, but about 10000 are able to
read anything printed in the Mohawk
dialect. The Mohawk alphabet con-
sists Of twelve letters and n and k are
used much oftener than any of the
others. An ordinary eight-page issue
of the Onkweonwe contains about one
quarter ms and ks. For this reason
the editor has had some difficulty in
getting his copy set up, as the printer
soon runs out Of MS and ks. English
characters are used. Here is a speci-
men paragraph from the ~Onkweonwe:
"KONONKWE ~AOTIRIWASONHA.
"Iakonnewata iaiakoseke enska ne
tens teken mint j~lnikariwes onon-
warejerakerike tionekonties enska me
j~iaiaiaksera tenwatiaseren senah jiien-
wakatsteke jieniontste."
When the Onkweonwe came out first
nan of the old chefs objected to it.
"The great Spirit, Gitchee Manitou
the Mighty, says good Indians never
read newspapers" said they 70 the
younger braves, but the paper became
popular. Indians like to hear about
the doings of the white men. When
Editor Cooke started the paper he
published incidents about the Indians,
and soon letters were sent to MIN
from his fellow braves saying, stop
publishing news about the Indians; tell
rs about Laurier and Others" They
cd not object to the name Onk-aOn-
we, which means in the Mohawk
tongue, "the only human being" or
the real human being" in contradis-
NNANAAOh " OAlNA0 W III ait lOOhGu GPOJA
~ being less worthy of the name of
n:an, or as lacking in qualities of
manhood. "Onkwe" means a human
being and would be applied to a pale
face or to an Indian of another tribe.
The addition of "onwe" is Mohawk for
"the real thing" The Mohawks are
inquisitive. Among the questions Edi-
fnu Tnn1ya hoe hoa fa nnuo ~ tho
following: why does the government
try to control ~Indians?". What is
electricity? 2" who was Papineau? and
what did he do?" What is an In
dian?" To the last question Mr.. Cooke
answered "An Indian is an Indian who
has native blood in his veins. and
who is on the reserved lands under the
protection Of the government" The
O~nkweonwe recently published the fol-
lowing story about an Indian living
near Eganville, not many miles from
Ottawa: Indian John, a celebrated
Mohawk guide, who is now 80 years
old, has been sleeping in his coffin for
some months. John, although still a
vigorous man, knows that he must
soon leave for the happy hunting
grounds, so some time ago he made
himself a coffin and began sleeping in
it. Since then he has used no other
bed, and he has told his family that
II death comes to him while he is ly-
ing in his coffin they are to put on
the lid and bury him. Until the call
m John will continue to hunt IN
the land of the Mississaugus.