The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-25
A PAPoosEs CHRISTMAS.
To Little Stocking for Baby Redgkin-

Squaw's Love for Her Little One. The cutest thing of human kind is the papoose, and because it is the child of an Indian squaw let no one think that it is born to a life of neglect. As long as it stays strapped to it's board its mother is its constant and loving com panion, and, though it has no stocking to hang up on Christmas eve, it has as jolly a Christmas as any white child. The presents are merely placed beside the baby. It may receive bright neck tie, fancy cap or a striped stick of candy, for Indians are fond of color; but it's gifts are more apt to be string of shells, an elk tooth or the claw of a beaf.
 The infant redskin wears no stockings, because it does not need them. Fast ened to the board upon which it is strapped are comforting flaps of skin which answer all the purposes of cloth ing, and the board takes the place of many other accessories of infancy. It serves as the baby's cradle. The squaw mother, instead of rocking the baby, takes him up, board and all. swings him in her arms, and, hunming an Indian ditty, puts him to sleep and sets him upright against tepee pole to snooze. The board is also the papoose's go-cart. It has no. wheels; so the mother straps it on to her back when she wants to give the baby an airing. If she rides a pony she ties the board to the saddle and jogs along-the papoese dangling at the side of the beast and looking like a little live mummy.
 This board is a creation Of necessity. The Indian, following his will, is mo- mad. Being on the go so much forces him to put up his things in convenient the way. At best it would soon get broken. The Indian mother could not carry her babe in the same way that the white mother does and make days journey. The most convenient way to dispose of the papoose is to tie him on a board; and the Indian mother carrying her infant about is no more bothered by it than grande dame is by her shop ping. bag. .z ..--.--
 In making this peculiar article of the Indian household the prospective moth- CT spends much time and care. Girls make their baby board ever before they marry, and fathers in making their daughters marriage settlement often rovide this article. The board is gene rally covered with bueksSin, worked with beads of many colors in designs of leaves, flowers or animals, and the flaps and head cover are ornamented with large, flat beads or shells. Sometimes, however, the board is more simple in make, being merely few bent sticks. The richly ornamented board is a mark of gentility or distinction. ..,
 In time of war the Indian mother takes the papoose along, and herself renders great aid even in battle. She takes care of the ponies while the braves nlaket an attack, the papoose being slung all the while on her back. After the battle of Wounded Knee, in Dakota, in 1892, there was found upon it's mothers cold, stiff body a young girl papoose. The mother had been shot through the heart. The babe lay ex- posed to the cold all night, but the skin wrapping had kept it from freezing. Finding the little one thus, a big heart ed volunteer colonel from Nebraska, who was a man of wealth, said:
 Boys, we've killed the mother. It's up to us to take care of the child. By the gods, I'll adopt her right now; she shall be my daughter. =
 So the colonel carried the little pa- poose back to the railway strapped to her board. ~.. ~s.~
 The Indian mother never whips her papoose, as is the costom among civil