The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-14
ABOUT OUR VIRGIN ISLANDS
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic - Haskin. director.
Washington, ID. e.

three little islands of the west lnuldn
archipelago which the United States
has Just purchased from Denmark
have attained in the last few months
a prominence in the public eye such
as they have not known since Column
bus discovered them. Artists. writers
and scientists have journeyed into the
Caribbean. The surprised natives
have been interviewed, the scenery
described. the hills and beaches dug
up for relics.
Mr. Theodore de BODY. an ethnolo-
gist attached to the Museum of the
American Indian, Heye Foundation,
has just returned from the ISLANDS
after completing what is probably the
first thoro scientific search of them
for relics of their primitive 1nhabl-
tants. He brings the interesting in
formation that our three little islands
of ST. Thomas, ST. Croix and st. John
were never inhabited by either the
Arawaks or the Caribs, popularity sup
posed to have been the pre-Columb1an
peoples of all the West Indies; but
were the home of distinct race. He
also discovered that these islands were
once the home of strange wingless
bird, which was exterminated by the
Indians. and he interestingly describes
the probable condition of the Virgin
| Islands in pre-Columbian days, when
they were heavily forested, and had a
fauna quite different from the present
one.
Mr.. de BODY found the sites of two
villa ges upon the island of st. Thomas,
where the Danish capital of Charlotte
Amalie is now located. On ST. CroiX
he found evidence of a large popula-
ton for primitive times; he estimates
that about ten thousand Indians were
supported by this rich little island,
which is now largely planted in sugar
cane and tropical fruits. The island
of ST. John, which is the best watered
i
believes never to have been occupied
by the Indians as home, but to have
been set aside by them for ceremonial
purposes.
Mr.. de BODY unearthed many skele-
tons OF the primitive people of the
islands, many of their stone imple-
ments, and found numerous shell
heaps where they had made their fish
ing camps; but the relics which con-
WINGED him that he had come upon the
traces of separate tribe were the
bits of pottery that he found about
the village sites. On the strength of
this pottery alone, he asserts positive
ly that Virgin Island Indians were
neither Caribs nor Arawaks but of a
different tribe, for the making of pot
terry is an art, and it is in art, which
gives play to personality and imagi-
nation, that any people, primitive or
civilized, is distinctive. Thus a pen
hulAS iHdue III IS not IN any
essential or characteristic way differ
ent from pen knife made in the
United States You could not distin-
guish the two products in a store win
dow. This is because there is only
one way to make pen knife, so that
it will best serve its purpose. But
German painting and sculpture are
absolutely distinctive from these arts
in the United States, as are German
philosophy and fiction
So among primitive races, stone
axes, arrow heads and knives made by
widely separated tribes in about the
same stage of development are much
alike, but the pottery of these tribes
in form and design is different
MI de Booy's theory is that the
people of the Virgin Islands belonged
to some South American tribe which
was driven from its mainland home,
round all of the more rich and impor-
tant islands occupied by the warIike
CARDS and the powerful Arawaks and
so were forced to settle on the two
minor islands of st. Thomas and St
Crc1x, which are about the smallest
in the Indies that have a dependable
water supply. 1t is interesting to no.
tice that this weak, primitive tribe got
the islands for the same reason that
the small and helpless civilized nation
of Denmark got them later-because
no one else wanted them.
These first inha bitants of our new
islands were similar in habits and pur-
suits to the other West Indian natives
They were farmers, and raised various
tropical crops. Beyond a doubt they
were expert fishermen, and were able
to travel from island to island in their
great sea-going canoes. These are
described by early explorers, and are
known to have been large enough to
seat eighty Or ninety men. The In
dams used them not only for fishing,
but for war and piracy; among the
distinctive remains are some that in
| dictate the presence of a few Caribs,
and these were undoubtedly brought
| to the islanls as prisoners
Next TIC his discovery that a hitherto
unknown tribe once inhabited these
| ing find was the bones of flightless
bird. Such a bird. belonging to the
rail family and having useless rudi-
| mentary wings inha bits New Zealand
| at the present day. but that a similar
| creature lived on this hemisphere was
| a tremendous surprise to the scien-
| lists of the Smithsonian Institution in
| Washington, who identified the bones
sent them by Mr.. de BODY. The bird
| is not prehistoric. but was undoubted-
| ly hunted and eaten by the Indians
| three or four hundred years ago.
Another creature which existed
upon the islands in pre-Columbian
days is now extinct. was the isolobo-
| dan. a large rodent. which also fur
| nished the islanders with food.
1t is we'll known that these three
! islands. which are now covered for the
| most part with brush and grass, where
| they are not cultivated, once SUPPORT
| ed heavy forests. The tree were p~ob-
| ably burned by the Spaniards in order
! to make room for crops
Mr.. de Booy's discoveries indicate
that the islands have not only been
deforested, but that the whole charac-
! ter of their fauna has been changed
by man. Not only the flightless bird
! and the isolobodan have been extermi-
| mated. but he also found bones OF a
species of crow which is not extinct
! and is known to have inhabited only
| dense forests. For these animals
| which have been destroyed, the Faro
| pean fallow deer. the partridge md
! the wild goat have been substituted.