The Nevada County picayune., 1908-09-17


 HHBw.AW least of it's separate MW VEGA- little planets,' fitted Af@ C. ~--ul for the habitation of A....EEsaS that king of animals ~mankind. In the course of ages the forces of nature shaped this planet into two hemisphercs, which in time came to be peopled with race or many nations and tribes.
 The East claimed to be the cradle of the race and thought itself the whole of earth. 1t was therefore un- believable that a new world had been found, when discovery of the great western continent was heralded But fits inhabitants proved the discovery They were not like those of any East ern country-a strange red people with a traditional history reaching back into obscurity. and showing re mains of yet another people of which the rcd mans oldest tradition told nothing.
 Whence. or how the North Amer ican Indian came is yet unknown, though discussion has long since grown old between those who believe the people indigenous, and those who claim his coming was from contact with the East.
 But from whatever source, they were here when the first white man came, savage nomads. worshipping the Great Spirit through strange gods and dreaming over pipes of peace of the Happy Hunting Ground.
 Where the State Got Its Name.
 in forest and by stream the North American Indian lived and loved, fought for supremacy in many con quest. died the warriors death and passed into the Great Silence until the coming of the pale face. Before his march they fell back foot by foot, resisting or unresisting, il mattered not, toward the place Of the setting Sun. Progress was he dominating spirit of the Pale Face, and 10 the Red Man progress ment extinction.
 And yet no race has left such en- .during monuments to the memory of its people; collosal monuments built by nature in the shape of mountain chains that rib a continent or peaks that kiss the sun beyond the clouds, rivers that water a thousand valleys and empires of state ruled by the Pale Face.
 One tribe thus 10 be forever per petuated in the memory of mankind by mighty river and proud state was the Arkansa.
 When the Arkansa Indians came Into tribal existence or where is a matter of conjecture, but from the formation of their language the termt nation of their words and the method of their sun-worship it is inferred they were descendants of the Aztecs.
 Among the multiplied scores ci ,tribal Indians many types were found ranging in kind from the ferocity ol .the Iroquois of the northwest to the 'kindlier disposition of the Choctaw an the south.
 The Arkansa or Arkanzas nation ,syas one of the most civilized of all aborigines of North America, and long
  on the western continent they lived in mud.walled towns, fortified with circular towers which protected them from moro barbarous tribes, always engaging in wars of conquest.
 Like all tribes they worshipped [ Great Spirit. Their Manito, which was sometimes an animal, sometimes a bird. sometimes snake, was con suited on every occasion and all theil good fortune or bad luck was attrib uted to it.
 Before going 10 war they made great feast, to which all their allies were invited. When war lad beer determined upon the chiefs painted their bodies black and lasted seVera days, after which they washed tho black off, painted themselves vermil lion red and went out 10 fight 10 the death
 Their armor consisted of a war-club and bow and arrows swung to thei' back Their baggage consisted oi bear skin, which served as bed, { skin for pouch to hold calumet ant tobacco. Their provision was corr pounded fine and carried in smal bags. This was moistened with watei arl eaten with bear and buffalo meat
 If victorious. they returned witi their prisoners to their villages