Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-09-25
with more thought. My men looked a
him in amazement.
Indian Spoke Welsh.

Indian Spoke Welsh.
Here's something new" one OF
dian doing his best to speak Welsh
and he's doing pretty well at it, too"
! myself knew no Welsh, yet those
Welshmen and that Indian managed to
carry on a sort of conversation. Their
pronunciation differed widely and the
red man knew comparatively few
words of the Welsh tongue, but he
knew those few well and thoroughly.
Afterwards. he told me about 1t. First
same that l had heard among the
Arizona Indians 10 years before. There
was the coming Of a number OF white
men In a big canoe up the river. They
had been adopted into the different
tribes n finally the white blood en-
Indians that sometimes more white
men speaking h same language
would come and had adjured the red
men to transmit a few words Of their
language, n their story, to these
whites. This tradition and these
generation to generation, as the
American red men have demonstrated
their ability to do, word for word. Ac-
cording to he Creek chief, the coming
of the white men vas about 600 years
a~go-sometime about the year 1900.
soOlIIe S.cdTS allGT lnlS 1 mace lu~
vestigations in Wales and found that
time about the end of the Thir-
teenth century three %shiploads OF
Welshmen had sailed away from that
country for the west, seeking adven-
ture toward the sunset They never
returned. There is nothing more prob
able than that these people, having
heard Of the discoveries of Lief Erick-
son. attempted to follow in his track.
but were blown southwards and into
the Gulf of. Mexico. From here they
entered the Mississippi and then sailed
up the Arkansas.
But I had no proof. I had traditions
OF the Welshmen leaving Wales and
never returning. l had traditions Of
white men coming from the east to
these Indians. And I had found an
Indian who could speak Welsh. which
had been handed down from fatheS>to
son for 500 or 600 years.
Then. one day. / found myself in
Sulphur Springs, Ark. There Charles
II. HELLER, a druggist, told me he had
an odd looking piece of thick sulphur.
which he had taken from an indian
mound a short time previous. He
showed it to me. 1t looked like a
post of sulphur, which was half an
inch thick on each side and there re-
ma1n9d the iron blade Of an old knife.
Clearly cut on n side was the date
'l2bf.' 1t was my missing link
From Investigations I had made, I
found that 900 or 700 years ago the
Welsh We're the only people who made
iron implements and placed the date
thereon. This fact. the Welsh tradi-
tons of the three ships which never
returned, the traditions of the Arizona
Indians, those of the Creeks, the Creek
chief who spoke the Welsh tongue, and
the old iron knife with the date, all
20 to c~orroborate the story that
Welsh:nen beat Columbus to the great
discovery by something like 200 years"
Among all the queer implements and
relics Mr.. Barton has picked up in his
80 years of archaeological research
among the Indians, he values the old
knife above all. In fact, he keeps the
old knife blade locked up in a fire.
proof safe and guards it as though it
We're gold.
It's worth far more than SO much
gold to me-" he says.