Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-07
The Indians Used 1t.

The Indians Used It.
Our mound builders having made the
swastika. II Is by no means remark able that
many such symbols have been found among
their descendants, the Indians. as the white
man has known them. The Kansas India n
warriors. who removed the hearts of slain
foes and put them In the fire as sacrifice
to the winds, used a war chart bearing the
swastika as a sign for the winds. The
Sac Indians called the swastika the luck
or good luck" 1t was embroidered upon
the necklaces and garters of their sun wor-
shippers; also by those of the Kickapoos,
Pottawatomies, Iowas and winnebagoes.
The Sac SQuaws used the Swastika In the
silk patchwork of which they make sashes
and skirt trimmings. The Pueblo Indians
OF the southwest use the swastika on their
dance rattles and pottery. The Nava joes
reproduce It on their many-Colored ceremo-
NAL charts of dry sand. and on the war
shields of the Pimas il appears in the same
peculiar form as found elsewhere only in
Europe. The swastika was known not only
to our aborigines. but TO those of Nicaragua,
Yucatan, Costa Rica, Brazil and Paraguay.
How the swastika became thus widely dis
tributed on both continents has been dis
cussed by many ethnologists. DR.. Daniel
G. Brtnton argued that ii. like the cross
was a design simple enough to have been
invented Independently by many primitive
tribes-to have originated in many places
by designers ignorant Of the fact that 9TH
ers had designed 1t elsewhere. DR.. Wilson,
after assembling all of the data above alb
stEacted, concluded that the swastika was
not simple enough to have come to the
minds of many persons. He found that 1t
was almost unknown among Christian peo-
ples that 1t was not included in any of
the modern European or American deCora-
tive designs or works on decoration. He
discovered that its use in modern times
has been confined principally to oriental
and Scandinavian countries countries
phio hnl Nla LAT ions xxyft n itN
in western Europe where the swastika was
most frequent in ancient times 1t has be-
come extinct in the last 1000 or 1900 years.
He found 1t used on the same style of OBJ
ject in Europe, Asia and America. He came
to the conclusion that the distribution OF
the swastika due to migration, contact
or communication between the peoples OF
the old and new world early as the time
of the mound builders, the oldest civiliza-
ton in America who f1ourished prior to
any historic knowledge which we have OF
communications between the two hemis-
pheres; that some immigrants from the
old world brought this symbol to America
long before the days OF Lief Ericsson, who
is alleged to have landed here about A d
1000 As to the swastika's mgrations In
the old world it has been held that the
Phoenicians, finding 1t In the orient,
brought it across the Persian gulf to Asia
Minor and Cyprus. other peoples bringing
it by the overland route from Central Asia
and Asia Minor.
Is One Form Of the Cross.
IT have come to regard the swastika
merely one form OF the cross, the distinc-
ton being merely one of detail" said Prof.
w. H. Holmes, chief of the bureau Of
ethnology, when 1 asked him for his
theory as to the origin of the symbol. THE
cross as q religious symbol in one form or
another, came into existence long before
the beginning of the Christian era-so far
beyond the beginnings Of history, indeed.
that there is not the least possibility Of OBJ
tanning definite knowledge of its earliest
origin. The cross was in very general use
In America at the time Of the discovery.
In nearly all branches Of art in which sur
face ornament is an important factor the
spaces available for decorative designs are
rectangles. circles and ovals, or are borders
or zones divided into squares or parallel
ograms for ready treatment When simple
figures are filled into these spaces they are
introduced in fours. thus filling the spaces
evenly and symmetrically This quadrupls
arrangement in a multitude Of cases pro-
duces a cross"
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.