The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-27
COOPER WAS ALL RIGHT.
Author OF Leather Stocking Tales Is
INDICATED by the Census.

Washington. July 27.-'Leather-
stocking is verified and Fenimore
Cooper is vindicated, and their suS-
sanitation comes as it should,
through the census bureau. 1t is
from far-away Alaska, but it is Of
fetal. This substantiation is found in
a report from Chief Census Agent Nc
Kenzie telling all about the taking
of the census in the Fairbanks dis
trict. Mr.. Mckenzie gives assurance
| that the Indians do measure time by
the SHOWS" and suns and distances
by Sleeps" Indeed he asserts that
they have no other standards of time
/ or OF measurement, and in relating
the fact he cites an instance which
throws no little light on the Difficult
ties of enumerating the red men.
only the very young children, who
have been educated in the govern
ment Schools he says, have any
knowledge OF their ages or births.
and the agents were instructed to use
the age and birth months as nearly as
talk and observation would seem cor
| rect. Time with them is computed on
suns and SHOWS, and distance, by
sleeps. Marriages, separations, births
and deaths are all based upon such
calculations, and we were obliged to
| base our information in the same
way"
He then gives this instance:
An Indian buck claimed to have
| lived 300 SHOWS After much talk
| and use of the sign language it was
determined that he was about so
years old. He was found to have
been 20 SHOWS old when he got his
| first woman to have kept her four
SHOWS, when she got away that he
| got more woman and keep her five
SHOWS and she died. that he got no
woman for 20 SHOWS more and fin
| ally that he got young chicken and
keep her all time ever since, now, on,
25 or 80 SHOWS"
That there were other difficulties
| in getting the facts regarding the
| aborigines is indicated by the follow
| ing from the report:
Many of the Indians know a suf-
| ficient number of English words to do
| business with a white man, but when
1t was determined that they were to
| be counted they had a faculty for
closing their mouths and knowing
nothing until an interpreter impressed
upon them the fact that the agent
came from the Great White Father at
| Washington"
Regarding the habits and character
of the people he says:
AS a class they are indolent, lazy
and dirty although in recent years
| the teachers have taught the Younger
| ones that dirt has been the cause of
much of their illness and the present
generation are keeping themselves
| healthier by bathing. Their homes
are filthy as rule and conducive to
the diseases with which the Indians
are most afflicted.
| They spend their winters in hunt
| ing and their summers in fishing. Furs
secured hides of moose and cariboo
are brought to the traders and ex-
changed for food and clothing, but
seldom for money. Out of these hides
they also make moccasins, gloves nit
| tens and other curios which they trade
in the same way. The fish caught in
the summer are dried and used for
| food for themselves and their dogs
during the winter.
THE Indians have no knowledge OF
| their tribal or clan names and are al
ways called by their village or. local
itv name. The Indians in the vicinity
of Chandlar river are called 'sChan-
dlar" Indians. The same is true of
| the Cinema .Sa1cha, Tanana, Mansfield
Circle. tribes, etc. The missionaries
and the bureau of education have de-
termined. however. that all of the
| Indians in the interior of Alaska are
habascan- Knaiok oh otana with the
exception of those in the Koyakuk dis
trict which are Athabascan-Koyak O.
| hOtana"