St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1914-01-10
The Attakapas were abort

lie AeLdkdJdS were dUOIi.
gines who were native and most
ancient. DR.. S. L. Mitchell, who
wrote a book more than a cen.
tury ago. ascribed to these peo-
pie the place of being the most
ancient in the continuous occu-
4 pancy of their habitat of any OF
the native peoples Of America.
A folk lore tradition obtained
among them, when visited by
/ Volney and Humboldt, Of a time,
ages back, when a great animal
thundered through the forests
from the north country, making
a great noise and destroying a
pathway of trees as he pushed
his way toward the gulf, how
this mastodom had got himself
into a great slough, then began
sinking by his great weight; how
the buzzards gathered from far
and near; how the sun was dark
ened by the vast cloud of these
carrion crows; how the animal
finally died, his body being Sc
curely anchored to the ground.
Then came the carnage of flesh,
moons upon moons until after
many seasons there was left a
pile Of great white bones as a
monument to the greatest catas-
trophe their annals and tradi-
tions could trace.
This was the story that had
come down from father to son.
The Interpretation by geologist
and anthropologist, as set forth
by Mitchell, was that here in
southwest Louisiana, on the fer
tile prairies of the Opelousas and
the Attakapas, were a people
whose traditions dated back to
the prehistoric mammoth; here
were the only evidences in ell
ethnology of man and mastodon
living at one and the same time,
either by hierograph record or
tradition. Nowhere else on earth
had the bones of great animals
and those of the human been
found in the same strata. Infer
ence:: The Attakapas were the
earliest people! And the spot,
in consequence, the Garden of
Eden the cradle Of mankind.
The best guess a geologist
may make on the last Of the
mastodons would probably be30, =
900 years ago. However, we
will not attempt to put the hui
man toe far back or to bring for
ward the date of these pr ehistor-
ic big brutes. Suffice to say that
great scientists give credance to
traditions, and lay more store by
them than by records on cuni-
form tablets and papyrus.
These same Indians could
show the pile Of big bones lying
in quantity just below and on
surface of the ground at point
called Carencro.
Many of these bones were
taken to museums at the North |
quite a number are to be seen
at the Louisiana State Museum
in New Orleans.
1t IS up to some one else. to
refute. We offer our facts and
claim that here, in the very heart
of Louisiana, was discovered by
Humboldt the human incunabu-
lum, the place designed by God
for the beginning of this most
intelligent product, and if we
have proven our case it will not
be necessary to explain why our
Lord has been so generous in
giving to this spot all the COM
ponent essentials and ingredients
for the proper support Of life.
First the Attakapas, then the
Arcadians whom the Lord
wished to reward for much suf-
fering-then the scientists, Gu
vier and Humboldt and Mitchell.
who discussed the big bone dis
covery, and at last a man from
the East. who had gravitated
nitherward for spot to carry
out a great plan that had been
dreaming in his soul for years in
mis- home in Pennsylvania.
Some twelve years ago Mr..
!. Franklin Schell, the man with