Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1917-04-05

toned in this article is Yellow Thun-
der's squaw. She was the daughter
of Chief White Grow and her early life
was spent on the bank Of Lake Kosh-
kenong, where Mr.. Skavalem has his
summer home. Mr.. Skavlem has cut
into boulder on the band Of the lake,
an inscription to perpetuate the mem
ory Of White Grow, and the Sank
County Historical society and Twen-
tieth Century club Of this city have
erected stone pillar over the re-
mains of Yellow Thunder and his
squaw in Fairfeld.)
Indian history is not written by
their own historians. No Indian pen
traces the history of their tribes and
nations. nor records the deeds Of their
various and councillors, the glory OF
their victories, nor the wrongs they
f, have suffered.
Their spoilers have been their his
torians and generally the Indian char
acter has been presented as cold, cruel,
morose and revengeful.
| To be Just, we must admit that even
when most cruel they have been prac-
ticing their trade of war as much in
conformity to their own 1aWs-aye,
even much more sO-than have their
civilized opponents.
The "white" historian generally re-
; fers to the Indian participants in our
| Indian wars as ''fiends" and murder
! ers." Savage they were, and cruel
| their modes Of war when gagged by
| the white mans code; but not more so
than the treatment of the Indian by
| the white man, as seen from the In
dams viewpoint We should not for
get that it is not so very long ago that
our ancestors permitted executions
and practiced cruelties, as horrible as
any ascribed to the Indians.
Was the sudden and often painless
stroke of the tOmahawk or the war
club worse than the horrible torture
of the Inquisition? Was the torch of
the Red man hotter than the fagots OF
| Queen Mary? Aye, it is even claimed
by some that the torture of fire was
unknown to the Indian until the Span
iards introduced the practice by roast
ing hundreds of their chiefs.
"But they massacred defenseless
women and children!" True. This was
their own mode of warfare, as honor
able in their estimation as that Of the
! civilized nations Of today in tOlerat1ng,
and even gIoating over, the destruction
of the aged, the infirm and the help
| less by pestiIence and starvation in
besieged city.
| The Indians side of the story is not
often recOrded-there were none "tO
weep for Logan" Cruel they were in
| the prosecutions of their contests for
| the defense of their country and
homes which, to them, was theirs by
| the gift of "Gitche Mantle the Mighty
and the people is yet to be discover
', ed, who will not fight for their homes,
the graves of their fathers, and their
family affairs.
Cruel they were in their hopeless
struggle, but less so than were the
trained soldiers of our government at
the massacre of Indian men, women
and children at Wounded Knee.
Until it is forgotten that some of
the good Puritans killed peaceful In
dams as 'varmints" until the records
Of early Connecticut relating the fact
that friendly Indians were seized and
sold as slaves to the West Indies are
lost; and until the fact that the In
dian emperor, Guatimozin, Of Mexico,
after surrendering to the Christian
warrior and builder of churches, Cor
tes, was by him ordered stretched ma
ked upon a bed Of burning Goals, is
proved to be fiction, let not the Indian
be pronounced the most cruel OF men.
If aboriginal history, in general, is
one-sided and badly distorted by pref
udice, it is often equally so as regards
the individual, and the subject OF this
sketch was not an exception. Accused
of contemplated treachery in the Black
Hawk war, critical research proves the
accusation to be absolutely baseless,
and I am pleased to be able to present
to you this brief fragmentary charac-
ter sketch of "Kaw-ray-kaw-saw-
kaw," "The White Crow" and his
daughter, "The Washington Woman"
showing glimpses of a manly man and
a keen, sagaciOus, wOmanly woman.
On the northwest shore of Kosh-
konong, which in Indian signifies 1.-The
Lake on Which We Dwell" there juts
out into the lake promontory which
terminates in a limestone cliff about
, thirty feet high, overhanging the rocky
shore below.
It is even. yet fringed with trees and
shrubs and overgrown with creeping
vines, ferns and MOSES. This is one
of the beauty spots on the shores OF
Lake Koshkonong and historical, as
, we'll as archaeological, evidence, proves
this to have been favorite home OF
the aborigines for long succession
of years, that may best be recorded by
! centuries.
Back at this point was magnificent
wooded park when first seen by the
pioneer white man. Here the oak, the
elm, and linden shaded and sheltered
| ''I<aw-ray- kaw-saw-kaw's populous
village Here were family homes
where bright-eyed children romped
DER the f1ower-spangled green, chas-
! ing butterflies and gathering armfulls
| of the wildwood bloom. Here the en-
bryo warrior plumed his warbonnet
with the waving fronds of the beauti-
full shield-fern. Here the Minnehahas
of the village plated roses and blazing
stars in their raven tresses.
In the early days of the last century
this was the home of ''Kaw-ray-kaw-