Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-09-25
KNIFE BLADEW WITH DATE
1857" ON 1T MISSING LINK
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 H. HELLER, a druggist
Of that city, has given Thomas w.
carton, an archaeologist Of Stanton,
the last link in a chain Of proof show
ing that a shipload OF Welshmen visit
ed the southwest 20s0 years before the
discovery of America by Columbus and
were assimilated by the Indian tribes
Of New Mexico and Arizona. Mr.. Bar
ton, who s.:Ss the old Welsh knife at his
home in Stanton, has spent more than
and other Indians of the southwest
studying their traditions, habits, lan
guage, etc. He is now at Stanton
resting and working up the field notes
ne made while among the Indians. The
old knife blade. which came into his
possession some time ago, was so heav-
lily encrusted with sulphur hat it was
almost an inch thick When this was
removed, tho iron blade remained and
the date "1257' is easily discernible. To
this 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 and
the incrustation was due to the settling
of sulphur crystals from the water
upon the knife blade.
Proof of Welsh Visits.
From Investigations / have made"
says Mr.. Barton, II find that in the
Thirteenth century the Welsh were the
only people in the world who made iron
articles n put the date on them. But
this Is only one link in the chain of
proof"
The Welsh, according to the archaeol-
Ogist, not only antedated the sailor of
Palos, but they preceded LaSalle and
Marquette to the Mississippi, entered
the mouth of that river 400 years before
dIberville heard Of it. rowed or sailed
against the swift current and around
Its shaggy bends several hundred miles,
turned their way into the then dark
recesses Of h Arkansas and up that
stream journeyed to the Rocky noun
tains centuries before the ~gold-seekers
footed q train to Santa Fe. These white
men We're adopted into the Indian
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. I picked up the tradition that
IN an earlier day a party of men with
white skins had come among them.
WCtc lIlIO the CrlDe n died.
Ihey came from the 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.
erattons before that the white had
come and | gained scarcely more than
the tradition. But / kept this tradi-
ton in mind.
Ten years after that I was visiting
in a Creek Indian village. There were
many Welshmen in the western states
n l had two of them in my party on
that trip. Shortly after our arrival I
was exchanging greetings with the
head men of the trib and my two
Welshmen began making comment on
the camp, speaking to each other In
the Welsh tongue. One of the head In
dams stopped and listened to my men.
Then he ran over to them and en-
braced them both, at the same time
rapidly in Greek, which they
did not understand. Then he pro-
nounced his words more SLOWLY and