Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-04-02
INDIAN TREASURES
PROBLEM ABOUT WHERE THEY
FINALLY GO.
BURIED WITH THE DEAD
Such was Done With Wampum-
Navajo Blankets Hard to Obtain
The Basket Collecting Craze
Art of Bead Working Not Yet
Lost.

j. e. c. in the New York Mail and
Express.-A few years ago a bright
dealer in Indian articles was on a col
lecting trip to the west. He did moi
exactly foresee the present rage for
Indian things, but he knew wei
enough that great many branches oil
native production in art and industry
are going TO become extinct, as wan
pun making has, and he realized thai
anything good that he could buy
would some time be worth more thar
it was then. He saw an Indian woman
at one of the reservations who had OF
a particularly beautiful beaded buck
skin dress. The work was done in
the free broad fine way employed by
the Indians whose work is yet un
spoiled by contact with the whites
with subdued and mellow colors, no.
glittering and cheap and gaudy The
dealer tried to buy the dress of the
woman, but she would not sell it,
Next time he came, she said. smiling,
perhaps he might have 1t. He told
her TO remember that he would give
her any price for 1t that she asked,
and she promised that no one else
should have it. In two or three years
more he went to the same reservation
and endeavOred to find the Indian
woman with the dress. He discovered
that she had died in the meantime.
and that her wonderful dress had been
buried on her body; and not only that,
but she had been dressed for burial
in three other dresses Of the same
sort.
The same dealer had an even NOR
startling experience. At one reserve
ton he came upon a warrior who had
a shirt decorated with 200 elk teeth
As elk teeth are now worth in the
market from So to $40 apiece the
value of this wonderful garment car
be estimated. The dealer made the
same proposition to the man that he
had made to the woman with the
dress When you want to sell the
shirt, he said, II will give you any
money you ask. ard will pay you
more than anybody else will pay you,
no matter what It is" The man re.
fused to sell, but said he would re.
member. Not very long after the
dealer went to the same reservation
and found his man alive and well
But in the meantime the Indian S
greatly beloved son had died. and. as
a mark of his love and grief, had
dressed the boy for burial in the won
derful elk-tooth shirt. The boy had,
therefore, winding-sheet whose
value, at low estimate, was $1,000
These incidents, which are not un
usual, help TO make It clear where 4
great proportion OF the Indian curios
have gone. They have been buried
with the dead. That is where nearly
ell of the beautiful old wampum Is
gone. This exquisite stuff which
probably constituted the most dainty
and charming medium of commercial
exchange that any people ever hit
upon, was made of the hearts of mus
sci shells, each bit fashioned into the
form of little cylinder and perfor.
ated lengthwise with a hole by means
of which II coul' he strung on sinew
or other thread Most OF the wampupi
cylinders were white; these were
never SO beautiful as the purple ones.
which. even in the days of their
abundance. were worth double the
value Of the white, and are now pra
rortionatoly still more precious. 1t is
a curious feet that all strings of wan
pun made by indians measure exacu. =
II inches In length. The little cylir
ders. or beads, ere of unequal length.
but whatever the length or number ot
TIE individual beads composing the
string the strings We're made to
measure II inches.
No Indian has made cylinder OF
wampum for loo years, White men
who had learned the trick cortinucuJ
to make them for so years. but half j
century ago the last white man died
who could do it, Many have tried
and failed. To flle out and perforate
one little she'll cylinder takes more
labor than the prodGct would be wo' .h
The supply for that reason.
totany cut off 80 years ago. r
good while after that wampum "a.
plenty aud cheaps 1t had long sine,
ceased to be used as currency but Z
was priced by almost all Indians 70
ornament and as characteristic,
native treasure. Women often pos
sessed such quantities OF it bestowe
by their fathers or husbands. that i
hung with almost burdensome weigh
around their necks, And when the.
died il was always buried with then,
1t goes on being buried, wherever /
still exists among the Indians. 1t cal
he found here and there. Looking a
the matter from their point of view
why should ii not be? Their arts an,
industries are gone. Their children
are ceasing to be Indians. They car,
more for sentiment than they do foI
money. and sentiment prompts then
TO cherish the old ideas first of all
One of these ideas is that the deat
like to have their dearest possession.
WITH fbpp, IN tho Dath that thev fol