The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-04-08


St. Louis could only have been cree.
ted by the we'll disciplined labor OF
thousands of men.
The animal mounds in the Ohio
valley indicate well defined, artistic
and perhaps, religious purpose, and
the organized service of hundreds OF
workingmen. The ornaments in the
tombs, the pottery, the weapons, the
cloth, the skulls themselves, testify
to high grade of culture.
The Indian flood came, no one
knows from where, and swept away
the great population which must have
filled the valleys so utterly that only
it's graves remain. No living rem
.nant was found when the white man
came, except the Natchez tribe, whose
connection with the Mound Builders
is denied by some of the best Arch
biologists. The Zunics in New Mexico
and the Aztecs further south as well
as some Of the races of Central and
South America were highly civilized
and enlightened. The whole country
from Mexico to the Attic Sea, was
filled by shifting, unsettled race
loosely banded together in rowing
tribes, depending for livelihood
chiefly on the natural produce of the
forest, and the streams, and forced
by their very mode of life to go Oh
being nomads and vagabonds forever.
1t has been calculated that it re-
quires an area of twenty-five square
miles to furnish food for one person
in the savage state; hence it will east
ly be seen how impossible it would
have been for the Indians to form cit
les, or even large aggregations of peo-
pie. Agriculture after rude fashion
was followed by many of the tribes
particularly by the Seminoles and the
Shawnees; but there was little secur-
ity that the sower would reap the
crop Every influence impelled to
barbarism. A close scrutiny would
show however that there was the be-
ginning of civilization. A rude justice
was administered; wampum was used
as we use money. Hunting grounds
were held as tribal property and en-
croachments were bitterly resisted.
The boundaries of each tribes terri
tory were fixed and well understood;
the ownership residing in the whole
tribe and not in any individual. Com
munionism did not go further than
property in land. Private property
was respected but secured labor in
our sense of the word, the Indians
did not understand. The whole
drudgery of life fell on the woman
she was the newer of wood and draw
er of water. When the tribe moved
to new locality, it was she who was
the aboriginal beast of burden. The
duties of the chase and of war fell
upon the man, all else was the wom-
ans. Only such work was done as
made provision for the wants of the
family. 1t is needless to say that pin
money or wages were wholly I'M
known.
Neither the system of the Indians,
nor the results which they achieved,
are of interest save to the antiquary,
They are gone like the bison and the
deer. Their places are filled by a |
new race, following new methods, in
4 new home. On the ruins of their
'avagery the great edifice of the civil
ization of the future is being built
No ship ever carried more precious
freight upon the waters than did the
7essels which pushed out from Palos
n 1892, and turned their bows to the
vest. s.
These barques carried not alone Co.
umbus and his crew, but they carried
idings of peace to all the world. They
'arried liberty and equality of men.
they carried the seed of the new sys-
EN-, which was to displace the old
hey blazed the road for the pioneer
t the modern world to pass along. On
hat clear October morning when the
earning eyes of the white men first
aw the New World, it requires no
fancy to imagine the
'hantoms of the things to be, which
must have clustered around its
hores. 1t was the most portcnious
md the most fortunate day in the
history Of the race. Here was virgin
and, teeming with plenty. Here was
10 cruel past to undo, no national
ins to expiate. 1t was a fresh start
new birth for humanity.
The westing impulse which carried
he Aryan from the Hindo Kush into
Europe, carried him once more to the
cry gates of the sunset. And we are
o consider this land at the gates of