Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-24
NOTED INDIAN DIES.
Poston Who Tried to Revive Fire Wor-
ship Among Tribes.

ship Among tribes.
Washington, July 23.-Chares n.
| Position. an x-lndian agent, who died
recently, was appointed by President
Lincoln, i'm consideration of his mill
| taly service i'm the civil war, Il supern-
ltenAent of Indian affairs, with juris-
Idiction covering the most picturesque
and interesting tribes of the southwest.
| His more intimate acquaintance with
the Pima Indians revealed To him the
fact that they We're fire worshipers.
With Il rital which linked them dis
Itinctly with the Parsees of the orient.
The discovery fell in with his mood,
and, as he had been more or less of a
Itheosophist in religion, he set about
he task of restoring the splendors of
the Parsee fire worship and establish
ing AN American Sun-cult by building
a temple on a high point near the
town of Florence, AriZ., where he
lived.
This hill-Poston's butte, as it has
since been known-WaS Il rare mine OF
archaeological markings corresponding
With the symbolic forms discovered on
the site of the ancient home of the
Chaldeans; and it was necessary only
to scratch the surface of the earth to
turn up specments of prehistoric pot
terry, bits of agate and turquoise and
natural glass etc, marking the spot
as probably the site of an altar or some
similar gathering place of u strange
people who had vanished from the land
From the summit, moreover, could be
obtained Il very fine view of that ruin
of unknown antiquity, the Casa Grande.
TO this point Poston built IL wagon
road from Florence; then he set about
his propaganda.
His purpose was first to interest the
Pimas in Il revival of the true fire wor
ship of their ancestors, and next to
procure subscriptions from white pro-
selytes and labor from others who had
no money to give, and to raise Il tenn
pie entirely of material native TO the
region, and especially adapted to the
semi-barbaric character of the enter
prise. Among the other features was
to be q group of monolithic onyx pylons
surrounding an altar of the same sub
stance, where a name should be kept
continually alight in honor of the sun
god. But the undertaking failed. The
age in which it was attempted was
allOSetnef 700 naIerlalStlc TO welcome
anything of the sort. The Indians
We're illiterate and superstitious, and
sluggishly content to dig a meager
living out of the soil, and not enough
intelligent whites could be made to see
that there was anything in it, for
them. SO Poston found himself old
and poor without having begun to
realize the most fondly cherished dream
of his prosperous days.
He used to visit Washington at rare
intervals during his later life, and the
newspaper correspondents have had
many talk with him about the begin
rings of Arizona. He was the father of
the territory and its first delegate in
congress and had handled millions of
collars entrusted to him by eastern
capitalists for the conduct of gold min
ing operations. But from these remi-
njscences his conversation would all
ways drift away, after a little, to his eX-
reriences with the Indians, some of
which were highly amusing. One story
had to do with fancy the Indians of
the remote southwest used to entertain
regarding portraits, and which affects
some of them still, its present form be-
ing an aversion to having their photo
graphs taken lest it be an omen of
death.
"Ireteha," said Poston, was the