Evening star., 1909-02-26
RELICS OF DELAWARES
Historic Collection Loaned to
the National Museum.
PEACE AND WAR EMBLEMS
Possessions of Richard c. Adams of
This City.
HEREDITARY CHIEF OF TRIBE
Buffalo Horns Worn on War Bonnet
When Celebrated Treaty With
Penn Was Concluded in 1852.
HEREDITARY CHIEF OF TRIBE

The loan collection of the National
Museum has just been enriched by
small but important deposit of Della
ware Indian relics by Richard c. Ad-
ans the hereditary chief of the tribe.
who is a resident of Washington. The
collection has just been placed on eX-
hibition. 1t consists of a silver peace
pipe. silver tomahawk, wampum belt.
flute and war bonnet. all of them the
finest specimens that a fashionable
Delaware brave could want to sport on
dress occasion. All of them. too,
have historic value, the buffalo horns
on the war bonnet being the same that
were worn by the war chief Of the tribe
when he signed the treaty with Penn
I'm 1852.
Mr. Adams, the hereditary chief of
the tribe, is business man living
here. and looks about as much like a
blanket Indian as Greenoughs Wash :
ington looks like the Father of his
Country. He has features cast in the
Indian mold. but he is not swarthier
than many Caucasians, and maintains
an up-to-date home in Mount Pleasant
and modern business office in a steam
heated downtown office building. He is
the hereditary chief of the tribe, how
ever, and the articles in the National
Museum came to him by virtue of his
office.
Gift of William Henry Harrison.
The silver pipe was presented to the
tribe in 1914 by Gen. Harrison. and is
engraved Peace and Friendship 1t
is decorated with picture of an
American eagle and of an Indian silak-
ing hands with an army officer.
The silver tomahawk is Of later date
having been presented to the chief OF
the tribe in 1850. 1t bears the same
legend Peace and Friendship and is
decorated with an engraving OF ali
eagle and a rifle crossed with an arrow.
The war club is the most sinister OF
the relics. 1t has record Of eight men
to it's credit. SO far as is known. 1t was
presented to Capt. Swannock. the war
chief of the tribe. and carried by him
through the Florida war of 1888, and was
by him presented to War Chief Secondine,
and by him carried on two trips with
Fremont across the Rocky mountains and
| through the Mexican war. 1t was carried
by his successor in the civil war, and al
ways in behalf of the United States.
| The tribe presented it to Mr.. Adams in
| 1902.
Few of the Delawares Left.
There are not many of the Delawares
| left. There are. perhaps, 2000 Of them
altogether, some scattered in cities, many
| of them citizens of the United States,
and small band of them still in New
Mexico. though the most of them are in
Oklahoma. They were the Indians in
| habiting Delaware and Pennsylvania at
| the time Penn made his settlement
there. The name has come to be geo.
graphical in American usage. but it means
| in the Indian language sure enough
| men" The Delawares have always been
partisans of the United States, and in fact
some experts in American history say
there would have been no United States
| had it not been for the Delawares.
They were treated about as we'll as any
| of the Indian tribes were treated, being
pushed back to the mountains from their
original hunting grounds. and thence
across the mountains to the Mississippi
valley. Whenever they took up new
| abode they were allowed to keep 1t until
| the whites found that they wanted it.
and then the Delawares were pushed
| farther west. They were for a time
| under tse sovereignty of the Iroquois and
afterward adopted in a way by the Choc-
| taws. There are only few of them left
| in the east. but they have in them the
| making of good citizens.
| The flute that is now in the National
Museum collection is of cedar. Nobody
knows just how old it is. but it was in
possession of the tribe when they lived
| in the vicinity of Fort Pitt. now Pitts
burg. 1t was presented to Mr.. Adams In
| 1900.