The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1930-09-12

that impressive ceremony,
was the figure of an Indian
chief, resplendent in buckskin, scalp
shirt, fringed leggings, beaded mecca
sins and magnificent war bonnet
that swept to the ground AS he
stepped forward to place on the white
marble tomb war bonnet and coup
stick, he said in his native tongue, Il
feel it an honor to the red man that
he has taken part in this great event
today because it shows that the thou
sands of Indian soldiers who fought
In the great war are appreciated by
the white man. / am glad to repre-
sent the Indians of the United States
In placing on the grave of this noble
unknown warrior this coup stick and
war bonnet, every eagle feather of
which represents deed of valor by
my race. / hope that the Great Spirit
will grant that these noble warriors
have not given up their lives in vain
and that there will be peace to all
men hereafter This is the Indians
hope and prayer"
This chief who was chosen as the
representative of all the Indian tribes
to place the red mans tribute upon
the grave of the Unknown Soldier is
known among his people, the Abb
sarOkees, as Aleek-chea-ahoosh, mean
ing "Many Achievements" But the
white men who call the Absarokees
Grows, he is more commonly known
as Chief Plenty Coups, perhaps the
best known Indian in the United
States today. For that reason one Of
the outstanding biographies of the
year is the book American" pub
lished recently by the John Day COM
pany, for it is "The Life Story of a
Great Indian, Plenty Coups, Chief of
the Crows" as he told it to Frank
B. Linderman through the medium of
an interpreter and the sign language
in which both Plenty Coups and Lin
derman are adopts.
american" is not the first Indian
autobiography but it is outstanding
because it is the story of a genuinely
primitive Indian. When Plenty Coups
was born in Montana in the late '40s
his people were still living their nor
NAL nomadic life in the days before
the buffalo herds were swept away,
and these wild horsemen of the plains
were almost untouched by any contact
with the whites. His early life was
lived under tribal conditions, but lit
tie changed over a period of hundreds
Of years; in his early manhood he
witnessed the first conflict between the
two races with their inevitable climax
of the subjugation of the red and the
domination of the white and his de-
clining years are being passed in an
era which is seeing century of his
tory concentrated in a decade. So in
sense the life story of this Indian
chief is an epitome of 300 years of
American history, from savagery to
civilization, from a wilderness to the
Industrial age.
Plenty Coups has remained boy
all his life and the naturalness of
childhood is reflected throughout his
story "What are your earliest remem-
brances?" Mr.. Linderman asked him
and the old man smiled "Play," he
said happily. "All boys are much
alike. Their hearts are young and
they let them sing" And in his tell
ing Of the events of his boyhood and
his training at the hands of the eld-
ers of the tribe, there is food for
thought by the white man who be-
lieves that men of his color are SUI
perior in any way to men whose skins
are red
No doubt 1t will be shock to most
white men to realize that in the eyes
Of the Indians white children are SO
disgustedly III bred.