The Kevin review., 1927-10-06

i TT 1F'T THINE eyes unto the hill
whence cometh thy strength.
exclaims the psalmist or thl
! prophet with the best Of rea
sons. The Jews loved the mountains
| SO different from the desert over which
they wandered for years. In the noun.
tatns they could hope for success WheK
attacked by surrounding enemies. Ever
| the God they Worshiped was not alWay:
to be depended upon to render then
victorious on the plains-Or or they
thought. Their great leader, Moses
from the summit of mountain received
the law which still governs them, and
from mountain top he was granted q
vision Of the Holy Land. Their temple
crowned lifty hill, in the midst OF
Jerusalem With all they loved and
reverenced confined to the mountains, it
is not surprising their writings are filled
with references to them, as aids and COM
forts, never as natural objects to be
feared.
Many Of our Indian tribes, notably
those of the East, of whom some have en-
tertained the mistaken notion that they
were descendants OF the lost tribes Of
Israel, have an entirely different con-
ceptton Of the mountains. They do not
love them-they fear them. That this is
true, we have the word of no less an
authority than Mountain Chief, heredi-
tary chief of the Piegans
The PieganS are one part OF the Black
feet nation; the others being the Siksiki.
or Blackfeet, and the Kainah, known to
the whites as Blood Indians. All three
OF these are part of the great Algon-
quin family. which has representatives
from the Atlantic coast to the Rockies,
the Blackfeet seemingly constituting its
western wing. It was a powerful FAM
lily, most Of the distinguished Indians Of
history having belonged to it, and it
was one Of the strongest hindrances to
the raY1id advance Of r11F race
Their Religious Belief
Today its numbers are few, and soon
these shall have passed away Fortunately
before it would be impossible to do so.
enough interest has been awakened
among scientists and others, in the man
ners, customs and beliefs of these peo-
pie, to enable us Of the present genera
ton and those who will follow, to un-
derstand in part how the Algonquins
lived and how they viewed the world
about them
The religious belief Of the Indians is
the more difficult to determine because
Of its being interpreted according to pre-
ideas of missionaries or other
white men or women who have made a
Gently taught that the Indians believed
in the Great Spirit, which we are told
is untrue. They endowed all things
and inanimate with spiritual
qualities, while like the rest OF the
human race at similar stage Of eVolu- |
tion, they Worshiped the sun. This was
Inevitable, due to the self-evident fact
Of the sun giving them light, heat, and
everything else which made life possible. |
The mind OF an Indian it has been
said, is like that OF child. and like a /
child he suffers from countless fears
unknown to us. He may worship the
yun but he also feels it necessary to
many other things which he
thinks might work him harm. His in
between himself and these
supernatural powers, is the medicine
nan. AS the barber OF old was both
,arber and surgeon, the Indian medicine
nan Is physician and priest ministering
q body and soul. The incantations that
his treatments may have
heir use in affecting the mind Of the
,atient. AS the Indians have unlimited
attn In him, often prefeTing his minis n
rafions to those OF a white doctor
Affected by Surroundings
Their stories OF creation. ETC., are ira
down through genera