Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-07-20
White INDIANS DYING
MYSTERIOUS BLUE.EYED TRIBE
OF THE DAKOTAS.
DESCENDANTS OF THE WELSH:

DESCENDANTS OF THE WELSH?
Who Are Those PaIe-Faced Savages,
Speaking Strange Dialect and Hav.
ing Traditions Of Being Blown for
Days Against the "Great Waters?"
Mandans Slowly Passing for Years.
ST. Louis Republics One of the most
remarkable of the Indian tribes of
America is about to finally pass out of
existence. With their passing will
doubtless go the solution of the So
called "White Indians" of the North
west. There are but few of the Man
dams. once most powerful tribe of
the Dakotas now living. and the med
ical observations made by Herdlicka
and others of the government investi-
gators show that the time of their
passing is not afar off.
The Mandans have been slowly dy-
ing off for years. Almost a century
nation that then numbered 5000 souls.
There We're but 81 lett alive when the
spotted scourge passed on and left
their lodges. In nearly three-quar
ters of century their increase has
been remarkably small. These
white Indians" seem robbed of their
vitality and are placidly waiting the
end of their trib=: history with the
stoicism of the American abori"ne.
From the times when the first of
the Hudson Bay Fur Company's trap
pers stumbled into the Mandan houses
IN in the Northwest these Indians
have been something of an enigma to
the white man. There was an air
about them such as none other OF the
Indians had. They were regal look
ing men. straight. deep-chested. heavy
skouldered. and they walked with the
characteristic stride of the white man.
Many of them We're blue-eyed. and
their skins were dark like the skin OF
a white man. who has lived for gen
Grafton or so in the open.
There are scarcely a hundred of the
oure blood Mandans now living on a
Western reservation. They are gen.
orally credited with being Sioux race
but the strangeness Of their now al
most obliterated traditions has al
ways captiyated the mind of the stu
dent Their pale skins and occasion
Al blue eyes have lent much weight
70 their story that their ancestors
came across the great water from the
East in winged canoe. Like other
savages of North America. they have
kept no written annals of their tribe.
but the tradition Ct their coming has
been handed down from one genera
ton to another by the wise men of
he tribe.
st. Louisans Knew Mandars.
One of the old--time river men of
St. Louis was we'll acquainted with the
Mandan chiefs and tribesmen of a
geenration ago. A. G. La Barge quit
| the river nearly three-score years ago
and even then the Mandans were ap-
parently a doomed race. Their pale
skins and blue eyes aroused his youth.
/ full curiosity on his earlier trips up
the Missouri when the NIandan tribal
! remnants were living around old Fort
Clark.
They were Uneer looking race for
| Indians" said Mr. La Barge. recent
! ly land their tribal customs. while re.
sembling that of the other Indians in
| some particulars. were in some things
widely different. No other Indians
! had the same uncompromising stand
| ard of morality There was nothing
that ever approached polygamy in the
! tribal life. In most of the Northwest
tribes the marriage between the white
man and the Indian maidens We're in
| formal affairs. With the Mandans it
! was necessary to be married accord
| ing to the white mans ceremonies.
| They wished to impress upon the
white man the necessity of observ-
| ing the agreements of marriage in the
! most faithful manner
81 suppose that every man who trad
ed among the Indians of that section
felt down in his heart that the Man.
dams were really some queer branch
CT the white race. 1t was often dis
cussed in the trading posts and on
the steamboats, that ran up and down
the river in the early days Of naviga-
ton I remember that on one of
our voyages up the Missouri there
were three Welsh miners aboard as
passengers: was struck with the ia
miliarity of many Of their expressions
to those of the Mandans. We arrived /
at Fort Clark one morning and the
Welshmen like all the other passen-
gers went ashore and visited among
the Indian huts. Amusement was
written on their faces when I met
them a little later in the morning"
at seems that they had been idling
around among the lodges and had
CHANGED to hear the Indians talking
among themselves in their native ton !
que. CONSERVATION seized the men
from Wales when they heard certain
expressions that were almost identical
with those Of their native land. They !
found that the Indians seemed to I'M
derstand many of the words that the
We'Shmen afterward addressed to
them. but We're unable to find any ex- /
PLANTATION of it in the stories of the !
Indians themselves 1t was impossible
to make those Welshmen believe any
thing else than that some time in the
past a wild band of Welshmen had !
found their way into the forests of !