Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-23

~ homa a remarkable gathering. 1t
was called the last council fire.
and its purpose was to bring together as
large a body as possible Of the Oid-fash-
Toned Indians of any and all tribes, TO
take formal farewell of the era in which
they had been truly representative OF
their race.
In Columbus. Ohio, about the middle OF
next month. another group of red men
will invite the attention of the country
to the first national conference of the
American Indian Association. society
ton belonging to the progressive class.
who feel impelled to get together and dis
cuss the future Of their people. The quail
ity of it's membership and the significance
Of movement started by Indians for In
dams. led the faculty Of the Ohio State
University to invite the conference to meet
on the university campus: and Prof. F.
A. Mckenzie, who earned his doctorate
by an admirable thesis on the history of
the American Indian, has undertaken to
act as the local representative of the as
ISOLATION.
The Columbus gathering will he sub
stantially everything that the last coun-
Gil fire. was not and thus within the
space of two years two mileposts of
history will have been set up to mark
the points where the old Indian retreated
to the shadows Of the past and the new
Indian made his bow to a better future.
Among the leaders who have issued
the call for the Columbus convention
oil Nv known
| to the public. and sprung from tribes as
widely separated, geographically and in
. order Of development. as the Onondaga
the Omaha, Winnebago and Ponca Of Ne
braska, the Souix Of South Dakota, the
Cherokee, Chickasaw. Peoria, Wichita
and Usage Of Oklahoma. and the Apache
of Arizona The chairman OF the tenn
porary executive committee is Charles F.
Dagenett, the government supervisor
charged with finding employment for In
dams who wish to earn their own living
1t was he who organized the band that
STAYED the ravages of the Salton sea, and
the raisers Of melons and sugar beets in
! the Rocky Ford district would have had
q hard time but for the five or six hun
dred lads whom he has yearly distributed
among their farms. He has, moreover.
avoided the common mistake of mixing
charity with his business: every Indian
| laborer has to earn his dollar before re-
ceiving It, and to pay for his board and
| lodging before spending 1T for other than
| Indian shows that he is able to hunt a
| lob without assistance. Dagenett takes
! his hands off him and encourages him to
| look out for himself thereafter. even
though he may be cheated occasionally
i'm the process Of learning worldly wisdom
| by experience.
| X
DR.. Charles A. Eastman. though born
| in a northwestern tepee, has enjoyed a
general academic and special medical
training in eastern institutions, where he
worked for his diplomas shoulder to
shoulder with white students. He is now
engaged for the government in revising
the family and personal names OF the
Indians, so as to bring these into some
reasonable and consistent system, in
stead Of defacing every tribal roll with
forlorn medley of Horace Greeleys,"
Happy Jacks and Billy Bigfeets." DR..
| Eastman proceeds on plan which pre-
serves the distinctively Indian names as
far as practicable, or some English
equivalent in cases where that seems to
present fewer difficulties. He is also COM
piling family records. so as to reduce the
peculiar aboriginal concepts OF relation
ship into harmony Win ouis " an
author. he has given notable eXpositions
of the life and spirit of his people.
/ DR. Carlos Montezunia is practcing
| physician in Chicago. and frequent
speaker on the Indian question Except
| for his unqualified Apache blood, he is
~ ali infents a Caucasian: that is. his
life and ideals are wholly on the eau
casian side Of the racial line. His career
has nodded his thought. As child ne
was captured by hostile tribe ana SOLO
/ Sla ipcOming the prop
| erfy Of a white mining prospector, and
knocking about the world with this patron
until he had acquired some schooling At
about the age Of ten years he was thrown
| Gov ex;stence proyed to be the making OF
him. Hence his demand that all barriers
between the races be swept down, tne
Indians compelled to depend on tne,s
ewn exertions alone, and nature ruis