The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-03-27
AN ELOQUENT DEFAMATION.
TyrapnOus Orders Against Indian
Customs May Call Forth Some
Such Protest as This:

Attention has been called to the fact
| that the interior department has di.
rected that the Indians on the govern
ment reservations must give up GER
tain of their Oldest customs and con.
form to civilized ways. They can nc
longer paint their faces, nor indulge
IN grotesque war dances, and they
must get their hair cut.
These are serious changes for the
noble red men, and they may lead to
others almost as serious. The depart
ment may even insist upon weekly
baths, says the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
1t may ask the remnants of a once
mighty race to dance the two stem
and sing ragtime songs. In short. it
is not at all surprising that the gentle
savage protests in his usual untutored
way against the outrages and may
even send deputation to Washington
to vigorously kick for the entire as
ISOLATION of amalgamated tribes. If
tbs delegation goes it may be led by
Big Head, the last of the Minneban-
goes, who can be expected to rise with
great dignity and wrapping his bed
blanket around him, say something
like this:
white father, we greet you. How,
how? Our brothers have sent us, and
we are here. And that's no Joke. We
come, great chief of the dazzling teeth,
to say to you that your young men
are not treating us right. Ugh! They
would deprive us of our inheritance
and our customs. They would rob
us of our birthright. Once we were
more numerous than the leaves that
cumber the autumn hillside from
Hoopla to Raw Dog. Our camp fires
blaZed on. every rise of ground. Now
we are scarcer than honest men on a
county tax list. Once the rattle of
our hickory bows would have struck
terror into an army To-day we
couldn't rattle a jackrabbit And vet,
oh white father, my people ask you
to stand between them and the on
pressor.
"The oppressor says to us: You
must not paint your faces!' Shades
of the mighty Mohicans, think Of 80
Think of it. We prlcnere to be no more
fancy mugs among the Minnegangoes!
Is the art of the nose trimmed to pass
like the wind that rustles in the long
grass? Will the brush of Pugabosh,
the smearer of red. and of Winkyboo,
the spatterer of white, be cast aside
like the tail feathers of the Huzmaguz,
the freely? Perish the thought.
"And again they say to us: You
must no longer dance the dance OF
bi-vi. the dance of the red warriors
And vet that dance has come down
to us from the dim Futfaloo, the way
back period to which memory no long
or runs. And this is the dance they
would destroy. a dance that combines
the stately stride of the bounding BUT
falo with the grace of the cinnamon
bear. And again the oppressor cries
to us. He SAYS: Get your hair cut!
Yes. great white father, that's what
he saws. He tells us to get our hal1
cu+ He wants us to have it trimmed
and shampooed and even bayrummed
And what will be the consequences o
this inhuman mandate? We Will nav
to keep it combed. Ugh!
at was not so in that older day b,
the laughing water. by the gurglini
Ninnehaha or the sluggish Kaw. NO
much. When our red warriors brough
a white man home with them they di
not bid them seek barber shop. NJ
indeed. They resorted to no such dis
courtesy. They said nothing abou
hair cuts. They just leaned hiI
against stake and piled little DIR
| wood around him and gave him
singel
"If it ever happened that a dusk
i child of the forest felt that child {
I the palefaces would look better wit
a reduced quantity of hair he took
| off in a way that never drew any pr
| test from the original owner. Ala
: how different the customs then.
| sBehold us here as suppliants, drei
chief Our people are scattered; o
Young men have taken up cigar,ett
and our maidens, who once hunted t
, graceful deer, now hunt for bargai
8 that are dearer
Grant our petition, for if you
q wen whoop it up for you to beat t
:. band on the earliest possible occasiC
N Ugh! Calicoola has spoke. Now
|