Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-11-21

XXTASHINGTON, D c., Nov 16-The red
w man is being married off the face OF
the earth; in few more generations he
will practically have disappeared.
This is the prediction, though not the exact
words, of Mr.. Frank La Flesche, who is an
Omaha Sioux Indian, th.ee-CuarterS full blood.u.
and an ethnolOg.Gt in the employ of the Smith
sorian institution.
The doom OF the red man has been pro-
noanced before. For about two AID halt cen
turtles our ancestors worked hard trying to ex-
terminate him with rifles, knives and axes. 1t
was freely predicted that he would soon b.
extinct. But he survived in considerable num-
FerS and had to be put reservations He wa
zeaously poisoned with bad whisky by Illicit
traders new and deadly disease germs were
plan ed in his system, and he was sent to eli
mates which d not agree with HIM. The best
! au, hOritieS sad he was doomed. But when it
came to count of noses, it was found that
there were still coed many Indians left. The
doomed red man today numbers over thir(
of million, and it is doubtful whether there
were ever many more than million within what
| is the United States.
Now a new peril has bcSet these survivors
in the form of matrimony. The Indian has
su vved the white mans warfare, his whisky
and fiS diseases. but when it comes to the
marriage he is helpless His proud aboriginal
blood is rapidly being so mixed that soon it
will take an expert to detect its presence
lntermarrage between the white man and
The red woman is of course thing Of long
standing. Captain John Smith and Pn:A;cntas
started he game, providing a fashionable prece-
dent Since then nary thousands of white
men have married Indian women producing
large ace of half-breeds who always t:each-
erOuS villains in literature and generally pretty
good far:'.erS in real life
! But as long as the II dian man continued tc
| prefer the Indian woman. The aboriginal bio ID
was safe Real Indian children continued to be
produced in fair numbers. The thing which has
doomed the red man is his growing tendency tC
marry the white woman.
AS soon as an Indian can prove his fitness
for full citizenship, he is given an allotment u.
the tribal lands and the tribal money, and is
turned loose from the reservation IS an Amer,
lean citizen, tree to gO"a and come IS he pleaSeS
to buy, sell, marry, vote, make speeches, dr. nE
soda pop, and exercise all the other priceless;
prerogatives of American freedom
| Now this newly-maae Indian citizen is sci
dom poor, and often he is rich; for as every
one knows, many of the tribes own RIGA OF!
and mineral lands, as well as farms. There
has never been strong social prejudice against
the Indian in this country. On the other hand
| Indian blood is usually considered a thing tC
| boast OF, as witness the number of deScendan
| Of PocahontaS which are to be met with.
Therefore, a young Indian buck who is
citizen of the United States. ard very sub
stantal citizen at that is re :ogElzed by the
American girl as her n"tural prey. Poor LC
! stood off the whit man for coupel o cen
turtles, but now he is up against the more deadly
half of the species. he is being conquered al
| most without Strue g.
There are some Indians, according to Mr.
La Flesche who prefer to marry in Their OWL
| race, but many OF the young men are frankly
! eager to obtain white wives, and most of them
succeed. At the same time. the wealthy you ng
Indian woman is attractive to the white mcn
The result is that in many sections where In.
dams make up considerable part of the com
munty, intcrmarri2ge has become almost more
common than marriage within the Sc arato
races.
And the helf breed is emphatcally no long
an Indian. He may look good deal like one
bit he doesn't feel like one He abandCnS com