Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-05-14

BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE
! cred to a Spaniard for a rather inferior
horse, and in the picture the grand
j mothers spirits are represented lifting
their hands to heaven in holy horror for
this strange new custom The children
of these virgins born Of Spanish fathers
| became slaves in the mines. Some OF
these virgins were carried still further
away and sold. II the Assinibola In
dams told lie Verendrye that these In
dams were pleased and contented in
| slavery (as lie Verendrye says they told
him in his famous document), they We're
jollying HIM. American Indians every
where spurned slavery. and so they
missed their opportunity Of becoming q
great people. The most of the great
races have. at some time in their his
tory. submitted to slavery. THIS ordeal
seems to be the !Almighty'S required
schooling for future greatness.
Then came the French. far up the
Missouri river in large numbers, traders.
trappers and adventures. One OF the
trading posts dating from this French
period Is near the mouth q the Can
non Ball river. Many OF these French
trading posts were also unlicensed in
order to avoid crow duties. Lac court
of Louis XIV lived luxuriously. and re-
Qulred revenues from every possible
source. The Sioux Indians had also re-
Gently come from the east in large mum =
bers. but It was the superior weapons
OF the French quite as much as the
prowess OF the Sioux which Overcame
the Missouri river agricultural Indians,
destroying and disseminating them TIL
a pitiful remnant huddled on the Knife
river in despair. and then when q baby
boy was born the mutrOns all walled.
thinking 1t likely that before he had
reached complete manhood he would be
ok.,gcd to go to the front and fall fight.
ing tho foe. , o.
The Hudson's Bay Company cncour-
aged Indians to scalp tneir foes and
these French adventures taught the
J Sioux to cut of the heads Of their
foes, so from this time on the Indian
sign for Il Sioux became a stroke with
the right hand made across the throat.
Blu it is remarkable that these Sioux
Indians were strongly inclined to ag-
| riculture. Their ancestors seem to have
been Il seni-agricultural people. Yank-
tons had plenty Of corn and cultivated
foods when there was no game in win
ter. Chief Two Bears with his small
band living below Fort Yates had two
hundred acres of corn. while in the Fort
Berthold country the pitiful cmnan Of
| three tribes had large corn fields. DE
Smet in his report mentions seeing one
thousand acres Of corn in this Fort Ber-
thold country. l might say very much
more specifically about farm products
raised by these old time Indians, but |
have purposcly confined myself to the
instances hat are corroborated by white
men. In the Photograph Tteon histories
which l have seen the record sometimes
runs, The white men came and stole
our corn"
The frontiersmeh gathered here to-
night saw in their day only the rem
nant Of Il degenerate people with hope
and ambition crushed. And yet this In
dian agriculture persisted in spite of all
adversities until the white man domin-
ated the Missouri with boats, forts and
Indian agencies. .,.. 49,. -
The 1Iudson's Bay Company from the
north exercised considerable influence
along the lower Red river. but soon has
tened to the upper Missouri. struggling
to hold this northwest territory for the
English nation.
Please note then that four national
forces struggling for dominion in the
northwest cOnverged along the Missouri
river in North Dakota. These national
forces were Spanish, English, French and
Americana, and the resultant Of these
c%ontending forces just barely turned IN
favor Of the Americans. while the un-
fortunate ..DorigineS have been ground
down to bed rock and nearly extcrmin-
uted. So far 1t has been the survival
of the Americans. What will come
next? =.
II one will patiently study this re-
gion with its numerous events OF far
reaching natiOn Importance Il its
picturesque rOmances n vivid TRACED
les, what subjects may not be derived
for art, literature. history and poetry.
While these events are still within our
grasp shall we neglect to. carefully study
n record them. as some of the east
ern states have done with similar events
in their early history until the oppOr-
tunity has been lost.
Arnold Bennett. the English fine art
critic, expresses surprise that some dill
lidanti Americans do not seem to know
that America had produced the man
| who next to Byron has most influenced
French imagination. Edgar Allen Poe,
and one Of the worlds suDremest poets,
/ Walt Whitman. and the, greatest pure
humorist Of modern times, Mark Twain.
| and the miraculous Henry James. and
| Stanford White, and the incomarable
| Mckim. and the only two Anglo Saxon
personalities who in graphic art have
been able to impose themselves III mod
ern art, namely, Sargent and Whistler
and Whistler got his fundamental no.
\ tons of graphic art from Indians, it is
said-from the Maya art which was so
largely destroyed by the invading Span
iards.
If we had good films showing ,pust
what has tran9nirel in this region for