Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-05-08

could see nothing very romantic
or poetical about their coarse black
hair. | saw one man riding with his
wife, ard that was Tom Poweshiek,
grandson of the chief, Poweshiek, for
whom the county is named He and
his wife We're returning from town
and rode in a real respectable buggy.
He is one Of the Indians who lives in
house and has some furniture in it,
He has d bedstead and stove and
few simple articles of household fur
mture. There are two stoves in the
camp, and his is one of them. Anoth-s
er house is occupied in the camp. and
that is house built by the govern
ment for the use of the agent, and is
used by an Indian family or two. but
it is like pulling teeth to get anyone to
live in it. Tom Poweshiek is also
noted for the fact that he has the
largest family in the camp. He has
ten children. Generally. the families
are small. Three or four children is
the rule
In summer the dwellings are moved
to the open where they get all the
breeze. Their moving is not an elab-
crate nor a laborious process. They
move good deal like they do down
i'll Arkansas. They pour a bucket of
water on the fire and call the dog
They build summer houses in which
they are as well off as the millionaire
who has his summer home in the
Adirondacks or the Catskills. Their
houses, or WigWams as the summer
home is called, are built like print
tive cattle shed. Poles are put in the
ground and for siding they use rough
boards, nailed on lengthwise. They
formerly used bark, but the demand
has so far exceeded the supply that
they now use cheap pine lumber. The
roof is made of mating woven by
hand by the squaws from the reeds
and flags found in the marshes. 1t is
absolutely waterproof, and for roofing
they are as well fixed as the man who
lives under the slate or thing They
do not use paint. Their wigwams do
not need it. They are from twenty to
thirty feet long and two-thirds as
also primitive. They do not use fres-
Going nor wall paper. The fire being
i'll the middle of the wigwam, as it was
in the wigwam of Powhattan and of
Osceola. the interior walls have the
same general color and Odor of a farm
er's smoke house after the seasons
meat is smoked with. wood smoke.
1n iS
slick that the baby can't learn to walk
on it, and there are no Turkish rugs
and Wilton carpets. The Great Spirit
has made floor good enough for any
Indian, and they use the dirt floor.
No other floor would be practical,
when you know that they cook by
means of a campfire on the ground
said there was not a stove in the reserA
walton except Tom Poweshiek's. A
space in the middle Of the wigwam is
left vacant for the fire and a pas
saSeway about eight feet wide. On
either side is a platform about four
feet from the ground. On this are
piled trunks and household furniture
and squaws and papooses and guns
and dogs; in short, everything that is
not in use, and they sleep on these
platforms. One would expect them to
be full Of vermin and bedbugs and
feas and things, yet it is said they
are not as vile as would be expected.
Yet, [ would just as soon sleep some
where else, if it is all the same to
you.
70 get I'D into his bed one Indian.
who is somewhat of a cripple, had
constructed a stairway that answers
the purpose as we'll as the marble
stairway in the Iowa capital 1t was
piece of Jack oak about four feet,
long into which he had cut notches
like the teeth of a crosscut saw. BY
the aid of these he mounts his humble
couch each night to dream of the days
when the buffalo and deer were as
plentiful on the prairies of Iowa as
Short-Horn cattle and fine sheep are
now
The wigwams are built in settle
nents Of eight or ten, and sometimes
more in a group. Each settlement is
apt to have drive well that some
white man has put down for them
Water is very easy to reach on that
Iowa River bottom Their wigwams
have porch on the east side. all Just
precisely alike. The porch is built by
placing more poles in the ground.
They are great on using poles. The
upper end of the pole is a fork, a
crotch to receive the plate to support
the poles laid cross. and on these poles
are placed limbs with the leaves left
OH. That is their shade. There is
enough wood in one of these wigwams
to run a good-sized family lifetime,
but wood is no item with them, since
they have an abundance, and it grows
faster than they can use it. In this
shade they sit all day long. and day
dream about-the Lord only knows
what They have nothing else to do
but just to sit around. Considering
that Lo, the poor Indian, has been rest
ing for over half century. what