Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-06-24
MONUMENT IN HONOR
OF AMERICAN INDIAN
At Gateway of Country That Once Was His Will Rise
Heroic Statue of Indian.

AT the gateway of the country that
once was his, heroic monument is
soon to rise III honor of the American
Indian.
The project is one to stir the imagi-
nation. In the harbor of New York a
rival 70 the Bartholdi statue will rise,
figure of the aboriginal owner Of
North America.
Back of the movement stands the
wealth of Rodman Wanamaker, son of
John Wanamaker, the famous mer-
chant, and numerous other men OF
means, including some of the most
famed of American generals who led
the way against the redskin in battle,
and have promised to lend their as
sistance
1t is a curious thought, one that
seems most unexpected and out OF
place to do honor thus to the original
American. This has not been the
custom in the white mans attitude to
the savage he displaces.
The whole record of the gradual
wiping out of the many tribes of In
dams is one that reflects little credit
on the Caucasian race.
Barring only William Penn, that
kindly quaker, each successive leader
of colonies in the new world, set him
self to the task of reducing the In
dian.
Is Vanishing Race.
The march of civilization never
Scruples, and it was not over choice in
the relation it had with the Indian in
the new world. Massacres and war
fare took off a large proportion of the
redskin owners of the forests, streams
and lands, and the Introduction Of
vices, to which civilization had be-
come Injured, but which worked quick
havoc among the uninitiated aborig-
ines, gradually decimated the count
less hordes of the natives, until to-day
the tragedy is nearly complete, and
the Indian is vanishing race.
No longer is there work for Indian
fighters like Gen. Miles, Buffalo Bill,
Gen. Horace Porter or Gen. Leonard
Wood Off the plains they and their
predecessors have swept the painted
Indian with his buckskin trappings,
and only such occasional ludicrous
little outbreaks as those of Crazy
Snake recall the days when an Indian
uprising constituted a great and ter
rible peril.
The primitive race has yielded its
way. The Indian schools directed to
teaching the red man the ways of the
white and giving him a chance to
make his progress in the world OF
civilization, have not entirely succeed
ed. The trousers and coat of modern
civilization have not availed to wean
the Indian away from his blanket, his
headdress, his moccasins. He sees
that to be living in the ways Of his
forefathers Is to throw himself hope
lessly out of the hope of advance, yet
there are in him constitutionally ele-
ments that unfit him to life of the
white men, and hence he pursues his
way, uncertainty and falteringly to
that one destiny that awaits him-ex-
tinction.
Story of Poignant Pathos.
1t is a story of poignant pathos, yet
one that cannot be altered to have a
different conclusion.
The indian is a great deal of g.
fatalist. He has not dash, the endur-
ance, the resistance of the white man.
He sees little use of trying, the
ways of the world have gone beyond
him, he is hopeless and helpless.
In respect to literature the Indian
has been over idealized by those who
admired him, especially writer's like
James Fenimore Cooper, and i nre-
spect to actual experience he has been