The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-29
RECOLLECTIONS
FAST VANISHING RACE
BY MARVIN NICHOLS.

We're born. These pigments are made
from oreher. gypsum and a very rare
mineral. No Indian maiden's toilet is
complete without these paints, and a
brush made Of human hair
The pipe is used both in the declara-
ton Of war and the announcement of
peace. When man wishes to gather
a small war party he invites those who
may wish to join him. On the night be-
fore he intends to start he sits alone in
his tepee, having previously bent a long
stick like hoop around the fre-hole;
then he begins to sing his travel song,
beating time on the hoop with another
stick. Then they go out to a buffalo hide
and they beat on 1t while they sing their
travel song. The pipelis sent around only
when a large party is being formed In
the early spring of '62, a large party,
accompanied by women. started for
Texas. along the trail which runs through
the Panhandle crossing the North Ca
madam near Kiowa creek, and passing
on to Fort Elliott. While singing the
travel song on a southern head stream
of Wolf creek the tree tops return the
echo. 1t was a mystery the Indians as
eribed to spirits. 1t Is likely the echo
come from the blur back of the camps.
pipes, made of porphyry, and found In
mounds In Ohio. Indiana. Illinois and
Iowa The peaee-pipe of the North
American Indian figures greatly in our
early history Around the council fires
in the wigwams of the mighty chiefs the
peace of vast territories hinged on the
willingness of the white and the red
man to smoke the pipe together. The
favorite material was the rich red stone
found west OF the Big Stone lake in Da-
kota These quarries were always neu-
trail ground. even among the most war
like tribes. Longfellow thus refers to
1t in the matchless "Song Hiawatha:"
From his pouch he drew his peaee-pipe,
Very old and strangely fashioned;
Made of red stone was the pipe-head.
And the stem a reed with feathers;
Filled the pipe with bark of willow,
Placed a burning coal upon it,
Gave 1t TO his guest. the stranger,
And began to speak.
The diseased, wounded and helpless
are exterminated without ceremony.
Weakness and ineapaeity are a distinct
advantage. Ambush and strategy are the
Indians best allies. They never so on
a raid except In the light of the moon.
They travel in the night. When scat
tered they are gathered by signal fires
/ have not forgotten how that, through
the nighttime, the mountains of south
ern Arizona were all ablaze. Old Geron-
limo was trying to collect his warlike
Apaches in the outbreak of So Now
here, then yonder, sudden flame would
appear on the mountain-side and as sud
denly vanish away.
An Indian owns modern implement
of warfare only by right of capture. His
chief engine of destruction has always
been the tomahawk, arrow and scalping-
knife He is an artist inthe making
of arrows. In the Mississippi valley thou
sands of arrow points, made of highly
polished flint have been found. In the
ruins of the great southwest, especially
those of the Gila-Salado and Chihuahuan
regions. extraordinary specimens have
been found. Some of them were made OF
finely Clipped obsidian-a volcanic glass
of that country
There Is a wild, sad note in the drift
ing Of the tribes from the shores of the
Great Lakes toward the Golden Gate.
Two things are certain One Is, the ex-
termination of the buffalo meant death
to the red man; the other, their mighty
chieftains were great orators. 1t was
Satanta, the powerful sachem of the
Comanches, that made the speech around
the council fire, saying: II have heard
that you intend to settle us on a reser-
walton near the mountains. / don't want
to settle. I love to roam over the prai-
ries. There I feel free and happy. but
when we settle down we grow pale and
die"