The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-22
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, ID. @.
LEAVING Lo To THE ALTAR.

I
Washington. D. c., Nov. 1.-THE
red man is being married off the face
of the earth; in a few more genera
ftions he will practically have disap-
peared.
This is the predication, tho not the
! exact words, of Mr. Frank La Flesche,
| who is an Omaha Sioux Indian, three
quarters full blooded. and an ethnolo-
gist in the employ of the Smithsonian
Institution.
| The doom of the red man has been
pronounced before For about two
and a half centuries our ancestors
| worked hard trying to exterrninate
| him with rifles, knives and axes. 1t
was freely predicted that he would
soon be extinct. But he survived in
| considerable numbers and had to be
put on reservations. He was zea1ously
poisoned with bad whisky by Illicit
/ traders, new and deadly disease germs
were planted in his system, and he
was sent to climates which did not
agree with him. The best authorities
said he was doomed. But when it
/ came to a count Of noses, it was found
| that there were still a good many
Indians left. The doomed red man
| today numbers over third of mill
! lion. and it is doubtful whether there
| We're ever many more than a million
within what is now the United States
! Now new-peril has beset these
| survivors, in the form of matrimony.
!
mans warfare his whisky and his
diseases, but when it comes to the
| white mans Cor rather the white
womans) marriage, he is helpless
! His proud aboriginal blood is rapidly
| being mixed so that soon it will take
an expert to detect it's presence.
/ Intermarriage between the white
man and the red woman is, of course
a thing of long standing. Capt. John
| Smith and Pocahontas started the
] n a n1a h FFrn
| dent. Since then many thousands of
white men have married Indian
women. producing a large race of half
breeds who are always treacherOus
| villains in literature and generally
pretty good farmers in real life.
But as long as the Indian man con-
| tinued to prefer the Indian woman,
the aboriginal blood was safe. Real
Indian children continued to be pro
>duced in fair number. The thing
! which has doomed the red man is
| his growing tendency to marry the
white woman.
As soon as an Indian can prove his
fitness for full citizenship, he is given
1 an allotment of the tribal lands and
the tribal money, and is turned loose
from the reservation as an American
| citizen, free to go and come as he
pleases, to buy. sell, marry, vote.
make speeches, drink soda pop, and
| exercise all the other priceless prerog-
| atives of American freedom.
Now this newly made Indian citizen
! is seldom poor, and often he is rich;
for as everyone knows, many of the
| tribes own rich oil and mineral lands,
as we'll as farms. There has never
| been a strong social prejudice against
| the Indian in this country. On the
other hand. Indian blood is usually
considered a thing to boastIof as wit
ness the number of descendants of
| Pocahontas which are to be met with
| Therefore a young Indian buck who
| is a citizen of the United States. and
| a very substantial citizen at that, is
| recognized by the American girl as her
| natural prey. Poor Lo stood off the
white man for couple of centuries
| but now he is up against the more
deadly half of the species. He is being
| conquered almost without a struggle
There are some Indians, according
TO Mr.. La Flesche, who prefer to mar
| ry in their own race, but many of the
young men ere frankly eager to oh
tain white ives, and most of them
| succeed. At the same time, the
| wealthy young Indian woman is at
tractive to the white man. The result
is that in many sections where Indians
make up considerable part of the
| community intermarriage has become
| almost more common than marriage
within the separate races.
| And the half-breed is emphatieally
no longer an Indian. He may look Il
| good deal like one, but he doesn't feel
like one. He abandons completely the
! traditions superstitions and customs
of the tribe. When it thunders he no
| longer thinks that the great spirit is
humping around on the roof of the
| heavens. but he hopes it will not rain
and spoil his new derby.
| And he again will marry a white
woman or a mixed blood in all proba-
bility. Thus the process of absorption
goes rapidly forward. OF course, there
are whole tribes that still live on their
reservations and keep their blood rea-
sonably pure. These will resist abb
sorption for a long time. The ten
! thousand Navajos in New Mexico and
Arizona, for example. will remain
Navajos for many generations. OF
other tribes there will not be fuii-
blooded specimen left in three or four
generations. But whether the process
is fast or slow, 1t is sure.
Mr.. La Flesche believes that this in
He says that the people of mixed blood
are generally a people of excellent
qualities.
The Indian who is given his allot-
ment and turned loose to shift for
himself usually succeeds fairly well,
according TO Mr.. La Flesche. He says
that the Indian has not the white
mans business ability, but that he
his land and farm it. 1t is generally
the educated Indian. he says. who is
cheated. This Individual often thinks
he is a match for the white man be-
cause he has the same training, and
he often loses his wealth as a result
The ignorant Indian knows he will be