Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1916-10-27
FOLLOWING
MONTANA'S LEAD
MEN OF ULTRA PROGRESSIVE
PLANET STOLE IDEAS FROM
FLATHEAD INDIANS.
Skull of Chief in National Museum
at Washington Proves Tribe Prac-
ticed Headshaping in Accordance
With Aboriginal Ideals of Beauty.

A novelist who transports his char
acters to Mars tells of how the wise
men of that planet direct the cccu-
patlonal destiny of the inhabitants
from birth molding the heads OF in
fants, making a prospective civil en-
gineer of one, giving another the an
alytlcal mind of the scientist, hard
ening the Uranium of another. per-
haps, to qualify him for the career of
a bill collector or a baseball player.
This practice Of shaping the head be-
fore it ossifies is not original with the
Martians, however.
Governor Stewart has remarked
that Montana ''has been first in gold;
it has been first in silver; it has been
first in copper; it has been first in
beef; it has been first ir sheep and
WOOL To which it should properly be
added that Montana was first in the
industry of shaping heads-at any
rate the Montanans beat the Martians
to it by several centuries. The mo-
tive of the Martians was sordid, but
the motive of the early Montanans
was beauty, as with the Greeks in
their exaggeration of the facial angle,
as the Kalmucks flattened the nose
and the Hottentot thickens his or her
lips-to conform to an ideal of
beauty.
Harrison Badge In Canoe.
Among the early Montanans who
shaped their heads were the Crows
and the Flatheads, the latter people
giving their name to the lake that is
one of the wonders of the state. In
the national museum at Washington
is the flattened skull of the F1athead
Fchief, Redgrass, who died in the for
ties of the last century. His body was
deposited on posts six feet high and
in his canoe were found beads and a
General Harrison badge of 1S41.
In sending this skull to the museum.
William Meinold wrote:
"When the child is about one week
old it is put on a board and tied hand
and foot. A small bag of sand is tied
over the forehead and remains in this
position eight or ten DAYS. It is Their
taken off for a short rest and after
wards fastened to the board again
This continues from six weeks to si2
months. The head then has its shap'
and grows in the right direction
;, Surfing Encyclopedias.
( It appears, however, that in late
, years the Flatheads for the most par
!, abandoned this practice of compress
ing the head, but that this was an an
) Gent custom in Montana, the evi
5 dence at Washington would seem to b
sufficient evidence. Someone ha
/ been "stuffing" the encyclopedia
for three of them in brief articles O
the subject take the position that tn
Flatheads did not flatten their heads
, Says one: GA TRIBE of Indians wit
uncompressed skulls, as distinguish
from the peaked heads who did CON
press their skulls and who gave to tn
others the name of 'flatheads. Say
another: sit is not known how thi
name came to be applied to them be
cause they never seem to have prat
ticed the head reformation of til
Chinook and other western tribes"
; Scientists Interested.
This practice of head shaping is @
particular interest to scientists i
consideration of the question as t
whether the shape of the skull has
t direct effect upon the intellectuf
capacity of the individual and as t
l whether the artificial molding of til
skull for several generations or Ger
r turtles will result in the evolution @
| a new type. That there is a marke
difference in the skulls of differer
4. races is an established anthropologics
/ fact, but the observation of headflat
e tening of American Indians does nc
S afford a single case of hereditary d.
!, formation resulting from the prat
t tice.
1t may be that in future centurie
. scientific headshaping will be pra,
e ticed on u own planet. In that cas-
r just as astrology is regarded as tn
progenitor of astronomy, the hea
f flattening or head "peaking" G
f Montana and other northwest Indian
0 may come to be regarded as a fore
:, runner on earth Of the practic
now supposed to obtain on Mars.
Ideals Of Beauty Vary.
g Meanwhile the stylish women of til
= country, with their wasp waist
forms squeezed into corsets and shoe
that enable them to walk on the:
-, toes, are helping us to remember thu
. il is possible to pervert the "huma
> form divine" Their motive, as wit
the F1atheads, Chinooks and Grow
of both sexes, is the maintenance {
7 an ideal of beauty. This desire
make ourselves "what we amt
finds it's counterpart in every part
the world, but the ideals of beaui
lie vary somewhat.
rs With the Sumatrans, the ideal ev
IDENTIFY is that of the jackass for, sa.
:; one writer, "they pull out the ears
ID infants To make them stand at q