Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1915-08-19
indian STORY
PRETT|LY TOLD
In Outdoor Pantomime- e---Appro-
PIRATE Stage and Settings.

The summer amusement field in
jamestown witnessed an innovation
Tuesday evening in a performance
in Klaus park of an Indian play or
a dramatic portrayal of a story of
Indian life. The performance was
put on by large number of children
and others. 1t was very creditabl
and highly entertaining, being nov
city in the way of open-air amuse-
ments. The story portrayed by the
| various actors was revealed in a
dream to an old hermit and the de-
velopment of the plot was partly in
pantomime, partly in spoken lines by
the leading characters.
The location of the play was on
the bank of the James river near the
foot bridge into the park, and the
little amphitheater was surrounded
| by seats containing spectators and
also by Gordon of automobiles,
whose electric lights made a bright
stage illumination. The green sward
was the floor, the overhanging trees
the scenery, and the river and its
tree-lined shores formed an artistic
background. The river was illum-
mated by red fire hung along the
bank, which reflected it's ruddy
CLEANS from the still surface of the
stream and added a mysterious and
romantic aspect to the surroundings.
A young moon peeped through the
trees from a clear sky above.
For all the actors and audience
knew, the spot chosen for the play
last night may have once been the
very scene of the activities of real
Indian village. And this in days not
very long ago when redmen of the
Dakotas hunted deer in the woods
along the river, fished in the stream,
trapped the cunning beaver and the
wary mink. Many villages of Indian
tepees are known to have been found
along the Jacques river in North Da-
kota. The Pfpestem river always
| was a favorite of the Indians, not
only for fishing and trapping, but for
gathering of the best pipestem
try, it is said. The Pipestem enters
into the larger river only short dis
tance from the spot selected for the
Indian play, and is point of some
geographical Importance in the state.
1t is more than likely that Klaus
park has been used by various In
dian tribes for their summer and
winter lodges. If the old elms that
spread their branches over the spot
where the Indian play was held last
night could talk, what stories they
might relate of the scenes that have
transpired in these Indian lodges; of
deeds of Indian daring, romantic
love adventures and terrible tribal
tragedies.
Briefly, the story as related by the
actors was that of village scene in
which various aspects of Indian life
were brought out. Amadaga, Indian
chief of the Abnaki tribe, had a
daughter, Wewenoe, an invalid.
Oyoha, another maid of the tribe,
married into a tribe of the Mohawks
and was therefore discredited by her
own people as we'll as by the men,
bers of her husbands tribe. She bore
son, Chewalis, who, from the condi-
tions of his birth, became an outcast
and was not allowed to take part in
the activities of the village. A medi-
cine man of another tribe, wandering
along, cures the daughter of the
chief of her infirmities and the chief,
in gratitude, promises to give any
thing to the medicine man he might
ask for, if possible to give. The
medicine man asked that the outcast,
on whom he had taken pity, be al
lowed to take part in the Indian
games and to run in races; and the
chief giving consent, the outcast
showed his superiority of strength
and endurance, winning the race and
was received into the tribe with due
honors The hermit who has
dreamed these events now awakes
and moralizes upon the lost opportu-
mites of life and his own unfortunate
career. Figuratively speaking he
sees his own corpse carried by on the
travois behind an Indian pony.
During the performance there was
an Indian war dance, as part of the
festivities of the village, and also a
death dance.
A very pretty scene was the ar
rival of two French explorers in
canoes on the river, who approached
the village of pow-wow. There