The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-07-08
At the Celebration of the
Three Hundredth An
niversary Of Discovery
of ChampIain Country
INDIAN PAGEANT IS GREAT
FEATURE - SENATOR ROOT
MAKES ADDRESS REPbETE
WITH HISTORIC FACTS.

PLATTSBURG July President
Taft who is the guest of the New
York and Vermont Champlain COM
mittee found himself the chief figure
today in connection with the celebra-
tion of the three hundredth anniver-
sary of the discovery of the Cham
plain country, he reviewed foreign
ambassadors and other notables The
Indian pageant which proved great
feature of the week. s celebration was
given on floating island which
was towed up from Fort Ticonderoga
during the night This afternoon S
program included a review of the
troops followed by the exercises.
Among the speakers was Senator
Root.
Dwelling upon the part played by
1roquois Indians in the early history
of America, Senaor Root in an adj
dress replete with historic facts,
paid a high tribute to Samuel de
Champlain and to those French
soldiers an explorers who shared in
the early struggle for America.
Senator Root pointed out the in
fiuence which the events attending
the discovery of Lake Champlain
800 years ago had upon the issue of
!. the great struggle between France
and Great Britian for the control OF
the continent; ''the struggle between
the two white races for the op-
portunity to colonize and expand and
between the two systems of law and
civil policy, for the direction and de-
velopment of civilization among the
millions who were TO people the vast
region extending from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and from the Rio
Grande to the frozen limits of the
North"
Relating to the events of the trip
made by Champlain late in June,
1903, accompanied by few white
companions and great array of
Algonquin Indians, Senator Root
told how, at the battle of Ticonderoga
where Champlain's party came upon
a war party of the Iroquois, the
French explorer fired his arquebus
upon the Indians. .'The shot from
Champlain's arquebus had deter
mined a part that was to be played
in the approaching conflict by the
most powerful military force among
the Indians of North America. 1t
had made the Confederacy of the
IrOquOis and all it's nations and de-
tendencies the implacable enemies of
the French and the fast friends of
the English for all the long struggle
that was to come"
The superiority of the five civilized
tribes and their systematic form of
government were given by Senator
Root as two of the primary causes
fOr the ultimate defeat of tha Eranch h
and their Indian allies by the
English and the Iroquois. Speaking
of those Indians, he said they, of
all the inhabitants of the New
World, were the most terrible foes
and the most capable of organized
the sustained warfare; and of all
the inhabitants north of Mexico, they
were the most civilized and in
telligent.
Senator Root reviewed the early
attempts made to colonize the new
continent, and the privations and
difficulties which were met by the
colonists. cat Quebec, twenty-eight
Frenchmen with Champlain had
braved the rigors of Canadian
winter and in the spring of 1909
but eight men remained alive" said
Senator Root. ''In this same month
of July, 1909, the Half Moon of
Henry Hudson was repairing dam
ages in Penobscot Bay after her voy-
age across the Atlantic and prepar-
ing to sail on to the noble river
that still bears her Commanders
name.
'The field was open; the hands
Continued on page two.)