Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-05-24
A Last Word About the In
dians Of Oklahoma.
Dear Advertiser:

Hast letter about Indians? know that
4 you think / have thought all the
thoughts and. dreamed all the dreams
| that / can about them, and that
ihenceforth / shall have to reiterate
what 7 have said before, but that isn't
exactly so. You see today I went ad-
|venturing down the heart of my
adopted home town down "Main
Street," that was lit in. the daytime
mot so much by the sun even, as by
the warm colors, and the bizarre saw
agery Of The Indians.
They decorated the town as for a
festival, for it is May; the day was
hot and they were like Lizards sum
ming themselves on the sidewalks.
A photographer could not have
grouped them more effectively. 1t
was the artlessness of the scene that
would have made the faces so good
| in picture. But they are opposed to
1.-THE camera. It is the white mans idea
and they are not predisposed in the
favor Of the white mans inventions
except those that make for ease such
1 as the automobile. They do not like
to have their eerie faces copied.
Itseemed today as if they had mis-
taken the time for Easter, so gay
was their dress, but the Easter bon
net was conspicuously absent The
women do not wear hats. In extreme
heat or cold they throw their shawls
lover their heads. Some of them look
like enormous. bolts Of colored cloth,
their faces old with the years that
have brought nothing more in their
train than sort of lazy comfort and
stolid response alike to the joys and
the disappointments of life.
The men have even. adopted khaka
some of them and many look exceed
ingly modern, but for the bronze of
their faces. But the Indian women
are like all other women, fond Of
tbeads, and. ealsl..:.:.es and decoration,
i;si AID III the years to come; if they
change at all, they will change only
in the number of ornaments. They
will still tend toward the fantastic.
I recently read an Indian poem
written by Miss Muskrat, an Indian
girl, and a former student of this
school. In it she says,
"Light and airy are the footsteps
!, Of Welleah, of my Squaw."
When / saw on the street some of
the ponderous creatures with the roll
ing gait of an cold Salt" / marveled
at the incongruity of the lines. To say
that their step was light and airy
would be to tamper unmistakably
with the truth as / know it.
The poem goes on to say,
"And her laugh is like the gurgling
of the crystal Sparinaw."
Far be it from me to deny the
poets license, but it seems to me that
the Indian is too stolid creature
ever to show much amusement, at
least around white people. / saw an
old squaw the other day, trying to
entertain an obstreperous papoose.
The various pantomines that played
over her face were enough to attract
not only the papoose, but me.
Above all things the Indian is
averse to speaking to white person.
He goes into store, lays a certain
amount of money on the counter, and
points to the article he wishes. He
tries not to use change, but simply
buy what the amount of money, he
pays the clerk will purchase. Some
times he goes behind the counter and
collects the various things he wishes,
anything to keep from speaking. He
would rather grunt.
1t is said that less than rs of
the Indians are church members. The
majority of these are Methodists, the
Baptist church coming next as de-
nominational choice.
The Fonkawas are rapidly dimin-
ishing, there being only eighty-six
of them left. They hold their own
land, and thus get nothing from the
government. In contrast with the
Osages, they are very poor, however,
Tonkawa Oil Field is growing nearer
to the land owned by several of the
tribe. In time they may be million
aires if the rivers of oil flow in the
ripht direction.