The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-04-05
LIVED AS An INDIAN
FOR SIXTEEN YEARS
And Now This Prairie Child Finds
She Is Both White
and Rich.
A FORTUNE IN HER OWN RIGHT
Her Fathers Friend Sold Her to the
Blackfeet for Ponies-Pretty Story of
Her Love Affairs With IL Handsome
Young Brave of the Tribe.

Her Love Affairs With Handsome
Young Brave of the Tribe.
San Francisco, special: A Cinde-
rella from an Indian tribe is about TO
secure possession Of an inherited for
tune and marry the prince of her
choice Here is the story of the strange
life Of this white girl, who in baby
hood was heartlessiy traded to the
Blackfeet Indians for twelve ponies.
For more than sixteen years she dwelt
among the red men of the north as one
OF the daughters of the tribe, although
in her veins there was not one drop of
Indian blood
1t was at the last sun dance. less
than a year ago, that White Feather,
as the Indians called her, learned that
she was a paleface; that she had been
christened Alice Burke by her white
parents, and that she had been sold
to the Indians by an unscrupulous
friend OF her father.
These revelations awoke new emo
tions and ambitions in White Feathers
breast. Strange and varied have been
her experiences since then. Through
1t all she has been helped by the
stanch and shrewd assistance Of
full blooded Indian named Fleetwing.
John Fleetwing is not the ordinary,
painted, befeathered Indian, but he
was as uncouth and wild as any OF
them when he was taken from his
horses and sent away to the palefaces'
school. Now his name stands high on
the Carlisle roll OF honor and he typi-
lfles how Uncle Sam can develop the
modern Indian. He has been selected
to assist the ethnologists of the Smith
sonian Institution In their study Of the
American Indian. But it was not to
gather any new data of his own tribe
that he returned to the Blackfeet res
ervation Immediately after graduation.
White Feather was waiting for him;
White Feather, who had always
strangely fascinated him, even when
she was still toddling bit of soiled
bronze and he was a stalwart youth
able to ride on the long hunts. And
when the wise medicine men decided
that Fleetwing go to Carlisle with the
paleface who insisted that he was too
white an Indian boy to waste" 1t was
little White Feather who gave him
bit of sacred bark to keep him from
harm. .sl
Two Years at Carlisle.
Fleetwing stayed at Carlisle two
years. When he came back to the
reservation John Fleetwing was
scrawled on the text books which the
Indian youth proudly displayed to
White Feather. Before that vacation
was over the ambitious girl had mas
tered as much of the contents Of those
books as F'leetwing himself.
Just before Fleetwing's last depart
ure for Carlisle, White Feather learned
that a new agent was to be sent to the
Blackfeet people. She hurried to Mrs.
Fosters and found her already In the
midst Of packing. White Feather was
stunned with grief. Mrs. Foster was
almost as inconsolable over the ap-
preaching separation. That night she
had a talk with her husband, with the
result that next morning Mr.. Foster
went to the chief for permission to
take White Feather with them to Boise
City.
The day after Fleetwing departed for
his last term at Carlisle, White Feather
left with the agent and his wife for
Boise City. She had two months of
partial happiness while she tried to ac-
custom herself to the strange demands
Of civilization. Then death robbed her
Of her woman friend Mr.. Foster, in his
bereavement, found White Feather an
other home and then hastily departed
| for the east.
Then White Feather began to learn
| many things. Among the Indians it
| had been the white strain in her blood
| that had tainted her in their eyes. Yet
| they never taunted her. Here among
! the palefaces it was the Indian that
made them regard her as an inferior
Z: being.
A Household Drudge.
In her new home in Boise, where Mr..
| Foster left her, she was treated as a
household drudge and made to do odious
! indoor tasks, against which she revolted
| with all the strength born of free out.
/! door life. Fleetwing came to her rescue
! when she had been in Boise six months.
| He sent her the necessary money and ex-
| plicit directions and one morning the
J! household awoke to find their Indian Gin
| derella had gone
| Three months after the supposed Indian
1 girl White Feather returned to the tribe
| events began to develop that proved con-
4 clusiyely that she was a white girl and
| that her name was Alice Burke. The
| first person to take hand In clearing
], up the mystery was Tom Husson. Hus-
| son was disreputable horse trader, cat
| tie buyer and ranchman, who hailed from
/ eastern Oregon. He bore bad reputa-
tion, even among the frontier Indians. He
l rode into the Blackfeet settlement, max
| ing Inquiries concerning white girl baby
1 that had been lost among or traded with
/ the Blackfeet some sixteen years before.
| He could get no clue until he rode into
/ the village where White Feather lived
Just about the time the braves were get