New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-19
IJpstate Indian Powwow
Over the Paleface Draft

TINS encroachment had made itself
ielt when the states were colonies, but
IN Revolutionary days the Iroquois
were stilI mighty military force
they chose, chief among them the
herce Scnecas, who had defended its
western borders for the confederation,
20 lend their strength to the cause of
the struggling colonies favor so
generously repaid by General Washing
ton that to-day he is the only white
man IN their catalogue of saints. No
pale lace may enter the happy hunt
ing ground, but they will tell you on
any Of the reservations that there is
a shining temple just outside the gates,
and that he who PAGES under its arches,
smiling welcome upon the worthy and
the brave. is Washington.
Those were the great days, in 70
There were few more of them in 1912.
when again the Iroquois were allies
Of the United States Then came fam
inc, pestilence, weakness and obscur-
ity, until at last the fact that Indians
still lived within the boundaries of the
Empire State become to most of its
white residents o rumor hardly to be
credited.
1t was not until the draft law was
passed that the Iroquois were really
redscovered. Orders from Washing
ton were that every male of a certain
age, citizen and alien. must register
for military service. and in the search
for such males the registrars reached
the half-forgotten reservation.
With Yankee Neighbors
The hoquois knew full we'll that a
war was in progress and that the
United States had become embrolled.
Most certainly they knew it. They
read the newspapers, most of them, and
some, educated at Carlisle and Hampton
and Haskell, read Schopenhauer Until
the United States broke relations with
Germany they were neutral. But at
the declaration of war they were one
with their Yankee neighbors. Such Is
the habit of the Iroquois when there
are battles to be fought.
But il was the biggest news of all
when newspapers arrived in the reser-
vations telling IF Colonel Roosevelt,s
project to raise a division for immedl-
ate service in France.
In the old days, when one tribe OF
the Six Nations was attacked, it was
the custom TO send a runner TO the
"Iong House." which stood then where
il stands now. Signal fires were lit on
the hill behind the Long House"
bringing in for conference the chiefs
of the Oneidas and the Cayugas. These
were fighting tribes of less value than
the frontier-guarding Senecas and Mo
hawks. but of greater avail IN CONNECT
than the Onondagas, who held the
Long House" and eXcelled IN state
craft. -,
To the Iroquois Colonel Roosevelt's
was a familiar name. They had heard
much of him to command respect, and
had discussed and rediscussed him
until to them he had become simply
Teddy" And now "Toddy" was in
sore need of warriors.
, Firebrand Carried Again
Again the frebrand was carried
among the tribes. Even though the
runners" rode about on trains, tradi-
tions were otherwise adhered TO.
The signal fire hared once more on the
hill behind the "Long House" The chiefs
assembled. Breech clouts and head
dresses had gone out of fashion. The
clothes they wore were the clothes OF
the paleface, and a couple of them
ratified up to the Long House" IN
Fords.
But once they were squatted in the
/ conference circle, these comfortably
established farmers became, purely ana
simply, Indian chiefs considering no
/ less a matter than embarklng, after
many years of peace, upon the war
path. DR.. Bates, whose welfare work
among the Iroquois has won him the
title of Little White Father"-yes,
not in a yellow back, but in New York
in the year 1917-was called from his
Syracuse Office at. the end of the pow
WOW.
"Tell Teddy on the telegraph" was
the direction of Frank Logan, head
chief and high priest of the Six Ma
tions, chat the Iroquois will send with
him four troops of mounted braves. 1t
is not much, but we can do no more
until after the harvest. Our young
men are not many"
A couple Of days later DR.. Bates car
ried news to the reservation that
Teddy" thanked the lroquois for their
offer and accepted it.
Braves Answered the Call
For weeks thereafter the dwellings OF
the Six Nations resounded with the
martial clamor that arises when a war
party is preparing for the trail. The
quota of this reservation was forty
braves. All contrived to find mounts of
which Teddy" need not be ashamed,
and those who had turned from farm
ing to enter factories in Syracuse quit
their jobs and spent the days in cav
airy drill.
If the newspapers had suspended
publication then. all would rave been
well. But the presses kept rolling
them of week in and week out until
they reached the one which announced
President Wilson's emphatic mo"
Colonel Roosevelt was not TO 60 to
France and would not need the Iroquois
braves. The war party, thinking hard,
went back to shop and farm.
IL was not long before the news
papers began to tell of arrangements
for registration of all young men be-
tween the ages Of twenty-one and
thirty-one. The lroquois were only
slightly interested. 1t was a project
which did not concern them, for the
Great White Father at Washington was
only the White Father by courtesy. His
laws were not the laws of the Six Ma
tons, nor were the laws of the lesser
White Father at Albany. The Iroquois
had always ruled themselves without
interference.
That there Vas a state statute which
gave them the right to hunt and fish
in season or out, the men of the Six
Nations neither knew nor cared. When
they hunted and fshed they were only
doing what they had always done un-
questioned. When sheriffs' deputies had
come upon their lands they had, where
it suited, either ignored or gently eject
ed them
White Squaws Have No Vote
These were minions of another de-
mocracy. The government Of the Iro-