The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1909-05-20
ANOTHER INDIAN
STATUE IS FOUND
Erected At Brantford, Ontario In
Honor OF Joe Brant.
MALAYSIA is ONLY ONE IN u IS
Or. G. Walter Barr, Of keokuk, Calls
Attention to the Error In
a Communication to Bur.
ington Hawkeye.

Burlington Hawkeye: The white
men of Oskaioosa and surrounding ter
ritory have at length come to the
point where honor has been paid by
them in no small measure to the noble
red man. The erection of the statue
to Chief Mahaska in Oskaloosa We'd
nesday marked an epoch in the re-
lations between the whites and the
redmen, which will long stand worthy
of note. Recognizing the real value
OF the great Chiefs friendship to the
early settlers of this portion of the
western wilderness, at a time when
the souls Of men were tried in the
melting pot of the human struggle for
existence, and in which only the fit
test of the strugglers survived, the
people of to-day raised the statue to
typefy the Respect and appreciation
in which the memory of the Indian
cheftain is held.
The occasion was one calculated to
arouse the interest of the younger
generation in the history of that per-
iod which marked the beginning of
great things for the magnificent mid
| die west. The statue will thus be an
incalculable benefit in the arousihg
of a desire in the younger minds for
greater knowledge of the struggles
and tirumphs of the pioneer days.
One interesting error has been
made concerning the statue erected
tot Chief Mahaska. 1t was stated at
the unwilling that 1t was the only sta
tue ever erected to an Indian. DR..
C. Walter Barr, of Keokuk, corrects
the error for the Hawkeye. He says:
The erroneous statement that the
statue to Mahaska, recently unveiled
at Oskaloosa, is the first statue of an
Indian to be erected, demanded no
correction as long as it was confined
to hurried newspaper writers. But
when see that Major Lacey, the or
ator of the day, perpetuates the state
ment, it seems to be a duty to cor
| rect it for the sake of history.
THE first, and only other, statue
of an Indian, is that of Joe Brant. at
Brantford, Ontario. which was un-
yelled many years ago. 1t was of
bronze. and 1 have had a small copy
of 1t on my desk for twenty years.
Joe Brant is the substitute name of
Thayendangea, Mohawk chief, who
was in the British service in the war
of the American revolution. He was
not a very good Indian until his
death, but he was great Indian of
much force and wisdom. He was born
in Ohio about 1742, and died near Lake
Ontario, in Canada, November "a, 1907
The statue at Brantford shows him
in full Indian costume and is well
modelled, beautiful specimen of sculp-
ture. ..
| No other statue of an Indian ex-
cept those of Brant and Mahaska has
been made. The only other monument
to an Indian, except these two statues
Is the one over the grave of Chief
Keokuk in Rand Park, overlooking the
famous Mississippi river view there
| This Keokuk monument is designed to
carry statue of Chief Keokuk, which
has not yet been made.
"Oskaloosa and her generous citi-
| htuo pioioS uhu AhN~tA
! glory for that statue of Mahaska, and
withheld correction of its claims to
first place in the Indian statue event,
because dislike to do anything to mar
in the least the proper feeling of
| pride there. But Oskaloosa will have
to be content with the very high nonor
of second place for Indian statues
the easiest way out, when talking to
visitors. will be to say that the statue
ia the only one of an Indian in the
United States" ..
DR.. Barr is in error, himself, when
he says the only other monument to
an Indian Is that to Chief Keokuk in
Rand Park. At agency, Ia, stands a
monument to Chief Wapello. 1t is a
humble shaft. but monument all
the same.