Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-10-03
From the Sioux City Tribune.

Stanton, Neb. Special: a rusty,
roughly made old knife blade. bearing
the date .1257' and dug from an In
dian mound near Sulphur Springs,
Ark, by Charles III. Hebler, a druggist
of that city, has given Thomas W..
Barton. an archaeologist OF Stanton,
the last link in a chain of proof show
ing tina a shipload of Welshmen visit
ed tho southwest 20$0 years before the
discovery Of America by Columbus and
were assimilated by the Indian tribes
of New Mexico and Arizona. Mr.. Bar
ton, who has the old Welsh knife at his
home in Stanton, has spent more than
a dozen years among the Zuni. Moqu;
and other Indians of the southwest
studying their traditions. habits, lam
guage. etc. He is now at stanton
resting and working up the field notes
he made while among the Indians The
old knife blade, which, came into his
possession some time ago vas so heaV-
lily encrusted with sulphur that it was
almost an inch thick. When this Was
removed. the iron blade emained and
the date .'l257" is easily discernible. TO
his incrustation Mr.. Barton credits
the state of preservation in which the
old blade was found it was removed
from the Indian mound. The water
around the town of Sulphur Springs is
heavily impregnated with sulphur n
IllC III IUSlutlOA was 0uc w III SNSlAlAts
of sulphur crystals from the water
Upon the knife blade.
Proof Of Welsh Visits.
From Investigations | have made
say Mr.. Barton. Il find that in the
Thirteenth century the Welsh We're the
only people in the world who made iron
articles and put the date on them. But
this is only n link in h chain OF
proof"
The Welsh, according 20 the archaeol-
Ogist, not only antedated the sailor of
Palos, but they preceded Lasalle and
Marquette to the Mississippi. entered
the mouth of hat river 400 years before
d'Iberville heard of it. rowed or sailed
against the swift current and around
it's shaggy bends several hundred miles,
turned their way into the then lark
recesses of h Arkansas and up that
stream journeyed to the Rocky noun
tains centuries before the g~old-seekers
footed a train to Santa Fe. These white
men were adopted into the-Indiau
tribes and gradually the white strain
disappeared, but today these same In
dams cling to many traditions and
words left behind by the Welshmen.
Thirty years ago." says Mr.; Bar
ton, while In Arizona among the In
dams, / picked up the tradition that
In an earlier day a party of men with
white skins had come among them,
were adopted into the tribe and died.
They came from he eastward, up the
Arkansas river. The white men had
weapons and implements of a strange
metal, but these gradually We're brok-
en- or thrown away. 1t was many gen
erations before that the white had
come and I gained scarcely more than
the tradition. But l kept this tradi-
ton in mind.
'sTen years after that I was visiting
In a Creek Indian village. There We're
many Welshmen in the western states
and I had two of them in my party OF
that trip. Shortly after our arrival /
was exchanging greetings with the
head men of the trib and my two
Welshmen began making comment on
the camp, speaking to each other ii,
the Welsh tongue. One of the head In
dams stopped and listened to my men.
Then he ran over to them and em-
braced them both. at the same time
speaking rapidly in Creek. which they
did not understand. Then he pro-
nounced his words more slowly and