The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-10-08

THE CHEQOKEE NATION.

funds, long a terrible bugbear to the
full blood Indians, will soon be an &C
complished fact. At the election held
on the seventh of last August, the
Indians ratified, by large majority,
bill passed by Congress, providing
for distribution of the tribal hold
ings among the citizens of the
Cherokee natiops. The full-bloods
opposed it to the last, but they are
in the minority, scarcely numbering
s, 900 of the 81, 900 population accord
ed the Cherokees by the last census
Possessing a hereditary disinclina-
ton to manual labor of any kind, the
full bloods have heretofore succeeded |
in escaping the curse laid upon Adam
and all his descendants, in connection |
with the unfortunate apple incident !
that occurred at an early period of
the worlds history, in the Garden of /
Eden. They have always manifested,
and yet manifest, decided antipathy !
| towards assuming their rightful share
of the primal curse. The changed
conditions, incident upon the new de-
parture, will force upon them the
necessity of entering upon the strug
| gle for the means of sustenance and it
will be root, Indian, or die, with
| them How they will accept the new
conditions, forced unwillingly upon
| them, the future must determine
| That the proposed allotment of land
will cause much trouble, hard feeling
and perhaps bloodshed, among the
| Indians goes without the saying, as
quite frequently several parties will
wish to file upon the same section of
land 1t will be impossible to satisfy
all. In the mean time the wandering
Indians are returning home for the
purpose of participating in the distri-
button of the tribal holdings From
the four quarters of the earth they
come, as the Indian is by nature a
rover. They come from the plateaus
of Mexico and the llanos and pampas
of South America; from the. South
African veldt and European museums,
and one, former medicine man of
great renown, has returned after
twenty years of absence, spent among
Himalayan monasteries, in the study
of occult science In the course of
his wanderings he crossed the ever
lasting SHOWS of Hindoo Kush, and
penetrated into the mysteries of the
Grand Lama, who, from his monastery
high up on a Tibetan plateau, sur
rounded and guarded by Himalayan
peaks and Kuenlun SHOWS, has sue
ceeded till now in guarding his sacred
personality from the profane gaze of
European adventurer or Yankee trav-
eler, ubiquitous as the latter is gener-
ally conceded to be.
Something like twenty years ago
Oogalah was the medicine man,
par excellence, of the full bloods.
His reputation overleaped the confines
of the Cherokee country, and Creek
and Seminole, Choctaw and Chicka-
saw, Usage and Comanche looked up
on him as the heaven sent Messiah,
who was to eXterminate the hated
pale-face and restore the golden age
of Indian supremacy He possessed,
and still possesses, wonderful hypnotic
power. By its means he was enabled
to perform seeming miracles, working
largely upon the credulity of the sim
pie, untutored Indians. Highly edu-
Gated as he was, at length he became
the victims of his own pretensions,
and the dupe of his own fancies. He
believed in his own superhuman pow
er, that it was capable of development,
and that the Oriental mystics possess
ed the secret of evolving the primer
dial principle of life, its own renova-
tor, and thus conquering the King of
Terrors. After twenty years spent
in delving into the occult sciences of
the East, he has returned to his peo-
pie, and makes his former habitation,
a ruined Aztec temple, situated upon
the top of Mt. Cookson, and distant
one mile from the hamlet of that name
his home.
Here he now lives, surrounded with
retorts crucibles, metals and plants,
and his library contains old books and
hieroglyphic manuscripts, resurrected
from the subterranean depths of
Babylon and Nineveh, and the pyra-
mids of Egypt He has the parapher-
MALTA of an astrologer of the olden
time. His own appearance bears out
his statement that he has discovered
the Elixir of Life and can henceforth
laugh defiance unto death. He gave
lecture at this place last night, il
natural he undoubtedly possesses.
The lecture was given in rude arbor
erected for campmeetings, simply
rooted with branches, with sides and
ends open A rustic table for the use
of the speaker, and rude benches for
the purpose of seating the people,
were all the furnishing. There were
none of the accessories to fraud or de-
ceit. AS he stood before the assem-
blage, gathered for the most part to
make sport and mock at his preten-
sions, his appearance excited the live
liest curiosity. All knew, at least
from hearsay, that he was old, very,
very old when he left his home to
wander in Eastern chimes. He now
seemed man in the prime of life.
His features were noble and striking,
his form 1.-THE and erect, his face I'M
wrinkled and seamless-a placid face,
J expressing a monumental calm, and
| parfact Onfdanoa in himsalf
His large, dreamy, speculative eyes
gazed calmly over the assemblage,
and hush, as of death, fell upon the
multitude His dress, alone, was
sufficient to rivet and hold attention.
1t consisted of short coat of buck
skin, bearing strange, cabalistic de-
vices above this surplice of some
} sort of cotton cloth, and, over all, a
large capuchin of otter skin. On
his head, he wore a plume of green
feathers, curiously interviewer with
astrologistical devices; at his should