Evening star., 1902-08-30
FAIR SK|NNEDRED MEN
Mystery Solved at Last by
Bureau of Ethnology.
ARE THEY ALBINOS?
THEORY THAT THEY ARE OF
WELSH DESCENT.
Legend of Prince Madoc, Who May
Have Discovered America
in ITO.
ARE THEY ALBINOS?

III IL tOs
Copyright, 1902, by John Elfreth Watkins, ir)
Written for The Evening Star
There is one anomaly more scarce than
white blackbird, and this is a white red
man. The bureau of ethnology has been
collecting photographs Of these freaks and
Ethnologist ]. Walter Fewkes, recently de-
tailed in the Pueblo region of the far south
west, has come in contact with ten of
them. They seem to be peculiar to the
Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico
These white red men are full -bloeded In
dians, yet their skin is as white as the
driven snow. their hair. eyebrows and
lashes yellowish, their eyes pink. Their eyes
very weak; are always squirting and
blinking. Their skin is so tender that they
have to daub it thickly with paint as a
protection against the semi-tropical sun.
Yet the sun parches their lips. nostrils and
the edges Of their eyes and these become
so sore in summer that they bleed.
DR.. Fewkes asked the Pueblos of the Mo
qui reservation why these ten of their num-
ber are white. This is how they explained
the anomaly: In their religious ceremo-
mails are used prayer sticks, some white
and some painted with other colors. If a
woman deviates from the prescribed pattern
when making her prayer stick child born
to her soon afterward will be white. These
people contend that the reason why no such
freaks are found outside the Pueblo stock
Is that no other Indians worship with the
white prayer stick.
More Ancient Theory
But there is a more ancient theory. In
1891 the Rev. John Williams published in
London a learned treatise in which he
stated that there were in America white
Indians in some far western place, many
days journey beyond the Mississippi. Here
they dwelt in houses built of stone. They
cultivated the ground for food instead of
hunting for the wild beasts of the field the
birds of the air and the fishes Of the waters
under the earth. This description fits the
Pueblos better than it does any other peo-
pies.
1t was Dr. Williams theory that white
men had discovered the southern part of
North America before the advent of CO.
lumbus. The purpose Of his book was to
enlist popular support of an chronological
exposition to be sent into the wilds west of
the Ohio and mississippi and he hoped to
take the wind from the sails of the Span
fards who boasted that 1t was their enter
prise which placed the first white foot upon
the sands OF the new world. Now DR.. Will
Jams made deep and tireless researches
and he came to some interesting conclu-
slons, which were these:
Welsh Discovered America ITO.
brothers who inherited the kingdom OF
North Wales through the death Of their
father. Being Of nature which was 10th
to seek trouble-a phenomenal nature for
his day-the youngest Of this triumvirate,
one Prince Madoc Cor Madog) then COM
mander-in-chief Of the Welsh navy, gath
cred his vessels and men together and went
sailing out into the west, leaving Ireland on
his right hand. The Welsh bards sang of
this adventure. and they further put to mu-
sic tale that gentle Prince Madoc in the
course of time returned to Wales with
glowing accounts of his discovery Of a dis
tant land. fair and fertile, but thinly pop
ulated.- Believing even in this early day
that westward the course Of empire was
destined to take its way, this early Prince
OF wales gathered together an even more
considerable force Of his subjects and sail
ed away again. his purpose being to return
to this fair land, there to plant an empire
where no older brothers might share the
honors and revenues of state.
Three centuries rolled on and no one had
heard more of Prince Madoc's fate by the
time Columbus took the far westward path
with his Spanish fleet. The Welsh bards
but by the time their song became inscrib-
ed and fell into the hands of Dr. Williams
It's details were SO meager that no definite
evidence as to where the Welsh admiral
made his advent into the new world could
be obtained.
"AIS AAoAa0S spoke welsh.
The white Indians of America convinced
Dr Williams that the Prince Madoc theory
was correct, and that these yellow-haired
pale faces found scattered among isolated
red men were none others than descendants
of that victim Of the brothers brawl of
117o These white Indians, he contended,
wrote and spoke the Welsh language, and |
conVersed intelligently with certain Welsh |
men VINO encountered them at various
hat nn,
west.
In the possession of the white Indians
was salo TO be book which they treasured |
Wlth much veneration although they and
thelr Welsh visitors We're unable to trans |
late 1t. This DR.. Williams supposed to have |
oeen a manuscript copy of the Bible, writ |
ten in the Welsh language, but with Greek |
characters. The Welsh had been converted |
to Christianity before Madoc sailed awav |
from his native land
A quarter of a century ago J. H. Beadle, |
newspaper correspondent, visited the |
pueblos of Zuni. New Mexico and found |
the Indians there to be in possession of a |
book which they could not read, but which |
they held in extraordinary veneration. And |
the book known to DR. Williams in far |
away England over century ago Even |
before this one Rimington an Englishman, |
G;,an rs saio 10 nave met number of white In
dlans at native fair held at the forks of |
the Ohio. These freaks, he said came from
some remote region beyond the Mississippi, |
and ne asserted that one Jack Hughes, his |
companion. knew them at once as the |
Welsh Indians, by which name they were |
also called by the frontiersmen. Hughes is |
alleged to have talked to these mysterious !
people in Welsh, and to have acted as in
terpreter between them and the other peo- |
pie In Rimington's party. Their dress was |
alleged to be somewhat similar to that Of |
europeans, being a kind of trousers. coats |
with sleeves and hats trimmed with small |
and very beautiful feathers
Pronounced Welsh by Mormons.
In addition to the ten white Indians at |
Moqui there are seven at zuni. about |
hundred miles east, and several more scat |
tered among the pueblo villages along the |
Rio Grande and its tributaries in New |
Mexico DR.. Fewkes approximates that the |
proportion of these freaks among the |
Moquis alone is about five to the thousand. |
something like forty years ago, according |
to Dr. Fewkes, the Mormons tried to con- |
vert the Moquis. They took with, them
Weishman who claimed to speak his native |
tongue with that tribe, and for long time |
the Moquis were supposed to be Welsh. |