The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1904-05-13
PATHETIC INDIAN TALES
RELATED BY ONE WHO HAS
LIVED AMONG THEM.
The Burial of Beautiful Blossom
The Name Indian is a Misnomer-
The Red Man Hates a HaIf-breed-
The Aristocratic Cheyennes.

The Red Man Hates a Half-breed-
The ArstOcratio Cheyennes.
Tears came to the eyes Of many
members of the New York Indian AS
ISOLATION as Mrs. Ida Vose Woodbury.,
New England field secretary of the
American Missionary association, told
of the burial of Beautiful Blossom, the
youngest child of the Rev. Mr.. Wach-
acwastiwm, an ordained clergyman;
of the healing Of Eagle Feather, de-
serted, with her three children, by her
husband, Swallow; of the burning of
an aged Indian mother at the stake
by her son. because he said she was
too old any longer to spear the salmon
or snare the rabbit. and of the cree
ton, less than three years later. OF
church on the spot where her little
heap of gray ashes had fallen.
There is a difference between
knowing about Indians and knowing
Indians" said Mrs Woodbury.. Il
don't suppose l know very much about
Indians, but think may say know
Indians. l can almost claim to belong
to them. for l have been among them
all my life. and have been invited to
membership in one Of Che tribes. In
my girlhood there were usually from
one to half dozen indians rolled in
buffalo robes sleeping around my
fathers open fire Of night, and | used
to go into their wigwams freely, max
ing them little presents and some
times buying their baskets and bead
work I recall one day going to one
of their teDees where two Of the
young braves looked curiously at me.
HIM; that Vose girl!' said one,
make good sQuaw.
A Cause of Reproach.
''The name Indian is a misnomer.
They are not Indians. They are ma
tive Americans, the only native Ameri-
cans Nor are they red men They
may be brown, copper. or practically
white They have no pigment under
the skin, as a negro has, and with civ
ilization they whiten For an Indian
to have a fair skin is a cause of re-
proach among the f1ercer tribes. The
North American Indian is the native
aristocrat of this country, and he is
proud Of his birth.
"I once asked the daughter of an
old chief. who had become converted
and taken a new name. How many
Indians go back to the blanket?' AL
most none of the second generation,
she replied; of course, of the first
generation some go back but I have
heard of white people who baokslide.
However civilized an Indian family
may be, it has a tepee, and in summer
for little while it likes to go off and
pitch the tepee far away from man
and play heather for a few weeks.
The Indian wants to brown himself in
the smoke of his fire, go around in the
blistering sun hatless. and have va
cation from civilization. have known
white men who liked to play heather
a little while.
"The new name Of this girls father
was Kitto, after the author of the his
tory of the Bible He was one Of a
band of hostile Indians who were i'm
prisoned as a consequence of some
warlike raids. Father Ridge went
among them and converted them, and
when President Lincoln pardoned
them they marched out 200 strong,
singing the ffty-frst Psalm to the
tune of old Hundred When an In
dian becomes a Christian and is bap-
tized, they give him new name to
indicate something that he is to strug-
gle to attain to- This is simply an
adaptation Of the Indian system of
nomenclature. An Indian father who
calls his son Shoot-in-the-Ear thereby
expresses his hope that when the boy
grows up he will be able to shoot his
foe or his quarry straight and clean
in the ear, know one Indian who
ChrietpDpd himself Eli Abraham