The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-07-19
WOMAN STUDENT or INDIANS
MISS FLETCHER'S NEXT BOOK
TO TREAT OF THE OMAHAS.

She HAa Lived Among Them for Years and
Has Done Much to Save Them Their
Lands-New Light On Their Religion
q and MusieAHolds Harvard Fellowship.
There 10 soon to be Issued from the Bureau
Of Ethnology at Washington q remarkable
volume written by a remarkable woman.
The book concerns life to-day and In the
past among the Omaha tribes OF Indians.
and it's author is Miss Alice Cunningham
Fletcher Of Cambridge. who has lived for
months at o time among the 0mahas and
has succeeded wonderfully in overcoming
the aboriginal reserve and In arriving at an
understanding Of the poetioal and musical
ideals Of this people.
For the last seventeen years Miss Fletcher
has been the holder Of the Thaw Fellowship
from the Peabody Museum. Cambridge.
enabling her to live in Washington and de
vote all her time to the work,
Previous to her Washington residence she
lived for many years among the Indians
themselves, lodging in their camps. learn
ing their language. and studying their
customs. music, traditions and philosophy,
She nays that che has never received any
insult or even rudeness from an Indian.
sYet I found the shadow Of fear Of removal
lurking at every campfire. When ! went
first among the Omahas,' she confessed to
the present writer. "the memory Of the
enforced transportation Of their relatives.
the Ponka tribe, from their homes on the
Niobrara River to the then Indian Territory
was very fresh In the memory Of the people.
and so many Ponkas had died from the
change Of climate that no one with q touch
Of humanity could fail to feel that there
were just grounds for their anxiety. So l
temporarily closed my scientific note books
and set myself to work to help
How successfully Miss Fletcher performed
her self-imposed duty may be gathered
Indians to-day aYectionately call her
mother 1t was not readily. though. that
Washington needed her plea that the people
might own their lands and homes individ-
ually. Her petition. with its carefully COM
piled statistics to show the need Of reform.
was sent away in 1881. but after long wait
ing no reply cam back. Then Miss Fletcher
set out In person for Warrington. sure that
II the facts were understood the cry Of the
Indian people for their homes would be
satisfactorily answered.
"It is a long story = she says, sand II covers
months Of effort and what seemed TO be end
less speaking before the committee Of Con-
gres, and befor influential people In the
parlors of friends and In the vestries OF
churches. At length, however, l secured
the passage Of q bill, that became a law In
1882, by which the Omahas received their
lands In ssveralty. Next came my plan for
small loans to help build homes on that
land. These homes secured. I was able to
pursue my researches with an undivided
and devoted mind
The interesting thing, however, Ia that
Miss Fletcher conducted much Of her inves-
OF the Omahas while performing the
very diflcult task Of allotting the lands
had been granted to them. President
leveland appointed her q Especial agent to
carry out tho provisions Of the act. and she
performed the duties In a way to make IL
clear hat some women at least possess the
quality, which men are DISPOSED
to deny than.
Il may as well say observed Miss
Fletcher when referen CO was made to the
capacity-or lack Of it-among women for
work as she has done. that I feel the
talk about sex In work to be nonsense. II
you can do a certain thing yor can do 1t
whether You are a man or q woman.
.The Indians have no lack Of respect for
women; only with them 1t is not a question
Of sex, only of ability, You see,' she
twinkled, "they have been without the story,
Of the Garden Of Eden and It's impfed sfir
asss r .s thew r wnsn thy s%s sssf m II tod t sssy
says that all the trouble came from a
. As Miss Fletcher talks Of them the Indians
a charming people Of whom most
are very ignorant. The totem
- 49, ----
ance: 1t is simply the sign Of q DIAN. like
heraldry. not q mark at all that the Indiana
believe themselves descended from ami
mails. as people generally think. What
ignorant Indians may feel about such things
proves nothing; In every tribe there are
dom Of the race. and 1t Ia to them that We
must look for our interpretations Of the
totem and traditions and religion.
0 course there are great difficulties In
at the real thought Of the Indians
regard to their customs and ceremonies.
fdenoe that I succeeded as well as I did.
They have to trust one implicitly, and there
much that they feel to be too sacred to
be spoken at all. One has therefore not
only to get into their point Of view and
hin their thought in order to understand
Ill diligence and patience the gaps that they
Even beyond this lies the difficulty
of expressing adequately what one has
managed to find out.
Take the matter Of the Indian music,
has been one Of the most interesting
branches Of my work. When l met Dvorak
some years ago and listened to one OF his
In which he had caught the
Of the negro song, and another in
the scenery Of Iowa In reflected, l
out that he hadn't the Indian music
at all. He replied that he would go out and
hear the Indians. But he couldn't have
lone that. The Indians real music be-
longs to his religious feeling and is not on
for the chance conner.
Tho Indians religion, by the way. has
been about as little UNDERWOOD as his use
Of the totem pole. He believes, as we do,
In a great overruling power. This power.
however. cannot. he feels. come near man
save to give him breath. But there are
lesser prowers. like the wind and the thun-
der. and these as we'll have other interme-
The nearest approach to the
Indians idea Of Goo Ia to be found In that
conception OF the Christian re-
ligion OF the immanence Of God. In the
power Of evil the Indian has not much
belief. 1t ~ man. in his idea. who works
all the mischief
Besides her forthcoming work on the
Omaha tribe Miss Fletcher completed a
lew years ago a monograph which gave
TO the world for the first time the whole
Of a wonderful intertribal tina