The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-09-19

whose n5hnes~ appear on the white mans maps
to perpetuate their fame
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
THE number Of places which bear
| his name Is any criterion, then
| Osceola OF the Semlnoes was the
III VII greatest Indian in American his
Nv E2I tory. For no other red man has
(kN0:2l thus been honored many times.
It seems appropriate enough that
the state of Florida should have
both an 0sceca county and VII
,apa of Osceola for it was down In the Ever
blades country that he wrote his name LII letters
of blood century ago But why should l. other
commonwealth similarly perpetuate MS hahie9
Is If because the white men, remembering now
they made the Seminole leader the victim OF one
of the blacklist acts Of treachery on record, nave
tried to make tardy amends to his memory oy
dotting the map with his name! Or Is II more
likely that its musical syables are Responsible
for there being towns in Arkansas Illinois, lndl-
ana. Missouri, New York, Ohio Pennsylvania,
South Dakota and Wisconsin. a county In Iowa
and both a town and county In Michigan ana
Nebraska, all bearing the name OF osceola?
Osceea was born on the Taapoosa river In
the Creek country In 1903. His paternal grand
father was a Scotchman who married an indiah
woman and this Caucasian strain gave 10 MS
grandson not only strikingly light complexion
bur also such Il gift for leadership that ms
tribesmen accepted him as a head warrior even
though he was net chief either by descent or
by formal election He first rose to prominence
In 1899 when part of the seminoles signed the
Treaty of payne's Landing by which they agreed
to cede the remainder of their lands In Florida
(hev had given up the most of them In 1879
and remove across the Mississippi.
Next to Osceola the Indian whose fame Is thus
perpetuated most frequently Is the heroine OF
one of our favorte Observation-Disclosures Again
II Is ease of our failure to immortaze the
real name OF the person we would thus honor.
For the real name of Pocahontas was Matoaka
or Nationwide, also misspeled Matoka and Ma
tcaks But rowhatan, chief Of group OF Nir-
ginia tribes at the time OF the settlement or
jamestown, had pet name for his favorte
daughter. pokahantes, THE playful one,' ne
called her SO the English settlers soon were re-
ferring to this INDIAN princess as Pocahontas
Although some historians are doubtful II the
romantic episode of her rescue of Capt John
Smith from death ever took place. that story
seems to be IN mperishable part Of our national
tradition If indeed 1t did take place then her
act shines all the more brightly by contrast with
the treachery which she experienced later. For
she was lured ON board the ship OF Captain
Argall In the Potomac, carried off to jamestown
and afterward taken to powhatan's village, where
the chief had to ransom his dearest daughter.
The next year Pocahontas who had been con-
verified to Christianity and baptized under the
name of 1.-The Lady Rebecca,'' was married to
John Rofe and accompanied him to England
where she died of smallpox In 161T. Besides
being immortalized In two famous paintings and
a statue near Jamestown her fame Is perpetu-
ated In towns In Alabama, Arkansas Illinois,
Tennessee and Virginia In county In West
Virginia and In both a town and county In
Iowa.
Another Iowa town and county also preserve
the name OF an Indian more intimately connected
with the history Of that state than was either
usceola or Pccnhontas. Among his own people,
the Sank and Fox Indians he was known
Observation-Disclosures aa, "the big black sparrow
hawk" But the white man remembers him as
another red man who tried to hold back the
tide of white settlement as the vanquished leader
In the Black Hawk war Of 1892
Black Hawk was born near the Rock river In
Illinois In 17G7 became war leader against the
tribal enemies Of the Sank. fought on the side
OF the British In the War Of 1872 and at the
close of that signed the treaty by which
his people agreed to give M their home lands
and move across the Mississippi. Then, declar-
terms of the treaty. he refused to move and
troops were sent te drive him out. After several
battles he suffered crushing defeat in Wlscon-
sin was captured by Winnehago allies of the
whites and taken prisoner Of war to Fortress
Monroe, Va. After his release he made his home
In Iowa where he died October 3, 1898 Besides
the town and county In Iowa which bear his
name there are also towns of Black Hawk Ii
Illinois, Indiana South Dakota and Colorado
, although the latter perpetuates the name Of |
Ute chief by that name. rather than that Of thu
Sank leader.
Long before Black Hawk tried to resist tn
advance of the white men, two other chiefs ha
also tried and failed. One of them was Pontiac
the Ottawa whose famous conspiracy agains
the English In 1TG3 came so near being SUCCESS
and the other was Tetumseh, the Shawnee Bot
Of them we're born In Ohe-pentac on TIA
shores Of the Maumee river In 1fs0 nhd Tecun
sch on the Mad river In l1GS-hut there ls Il
town In the Buckeye state to recall the name
either Pontiac was murdered by kaskask
Indian at Cahokla Ill, In lT69. aud Illinois bus