Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-09
GOOD WORD FOR THE INDIAN
Ernest Thompson Seton Insists They Are
Good Before Death.
NEITHER IMMORAL NOR CRUEL BY NATURE
Lectures for the Children and Makes
q hit I'm the Rendition of the
Ghost Dance of the
Sioux.

CHICAGO, March S.-Ernest Thompson
Seton was seen in a new role at Music
hall yesterday morning. He impersonated
the Indian in his weird ghost dance, &C
companied by its forbidding song; he MIN
licked the VOLTS blood-chilling cry and
he built a FIRE on the stage in traditional
savage fashion by rubbing two sticks of
wood together.
''The Indians as l Know Them" was the
title Of his lecture. and If not as fertile
q subject as wild Aniamls 1 Have
Known" It shove Mr.. Thompson Seton at
his best. The only notice the lecturer
took Of the time-worn descriptions OF the
Indian was when he decried them.
The speaker painted the Indian In a
new hue, vested him with a new character,
Of which q high sense of morality was the
keynote and savagry only an atom of its
composition. The lecture was intended
primarily for the entertainment Of chill
dren, and 1t is doubtful IL any Of his
youthful hearers will ever again dread
meeting with q red man. The cigar signs
will no longer carry terror to the youthful
minds that soaked up everything MI.
Thompson Seton said.
The lecturer pictured the Indian as a
man to whom stealing and thievery is an
unknown trick. a mar who is only to be
feared when he is on the warpath, devoted
to his children and his squaw. domestic
in his tastes, thoroughly appreciative OF
the gifts OF nature, humane IN his instincts.
and II not a Christian a careful observer
Of the ten commandments.
Mr.. Thompson Seton mingled with his
description of Indian character and GUS
toms stories that impaired pictures of In
A L.awa9u nth q rfuNd-
ness that thrilled and made them hold
their breath with interest and awe. Every
story had a moral woven into 1t that made
the parents glad they had brought their
children. He told the little people that
indians wouldn't kill even a mouse or any
animal which they could not eat. He told
the story Of an adventure in Ottawa during
which he and his party got lost In the
woods. and being obliged to spend the night
away from their tents and their wagons
returned in the morning to hnd that a
hand Of Indians had passed the caravan
during the night, but rather than steal
some molasses which they wanted had
eamped nearby to swait the return Of the
Americans In the morning to enect trade
for the syrup.
who the Real Indian IL.
Mr.. Thompson Seton introduced MS sub
ject by declaring that, as all boys ar'
bound to play Indian, they might as vel
play the game right.
There are two current ideas Of the In.
dian," he said. The one is the Fenimor'
Cooper ideal and the other the filthy brute
OF yellow western journals. Both ideas ar'
wrong. The truth is midway between, bui
q little nearer to the Cooper ideal than the
yellow journal picture"
Mr.. Thompson Seton declared that the In
dian FIRST learned the white mans vices and
afterward the white mans virtues. The
reservation Indian, he said, is not the tru'
Indian. Whisky has to a great exten
changed his nature. The lecturer drew an
other striking p~frailel between the Indian
and the white man when he told the answeI
Of a Grow chief to the charge that Indian
are cruel in war.
YES" unused the aged chief, who hal
visited Chicago with Buffalo Bill, I'VE ar
cruel TO our enemies, but the people Q
Chicago are cruel to their own people