Claims "Happy Jack" Was Poisoned

New York, 1895

John W. Hoffman, aged 24 years, died in the Flushing hospital Tuesday night after an illness of several weeks. Hoffman was a devout member of the local branch of the Salvation Army, and was known as "Happy Jack." Hoffman's mother went to Coroner Corey and declared that her son had been poisoned by his wife, and that the poison must have been put into food she had taken him. The Coroner says it is not true.


Shinnecocks in a Big Row

The Shinnecock Indians are having a row over the question of selling their reservation and dividing the proceeds among the members of the tribe now living on the land. It is feared that the trouble will cause a fight between the two factions. The agitation to sell the land has brought back a lot of Indians who left the reservation some time ago. Those who have remained on the land are fighting against the returned prodigals.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 12, 1895, p. 1.

Sioux Mythology

1895

An Interesting Study of the Works of the Great Mystery.

Before the advent of the white man these people believed that the earth was flat, with a circular form, and was suspended in a dark place and sheltered by the heaven or sky in the shape of a hollow hemisphere. The sun was regarded as the father and the earth the mother of all things that live and grow, and as they had been married a long time and had become the parents of many generations they were called the great-grandparents. As near as I can judge, the moon seemed to be their servant, at least she was required to watch, together with her brothers, the stars over the sleeping universe while the sun came down to rest with his family. In the thunder bird they believed God had a warrior who presided over the most powerful elements — the storm and the fearful cyclone. This symbolic creature is depicted as an impatient and wrathy son of war, at whose appearance even the ever smiling grandfather, the sun, hides his face. In the realms of water the whale is the symbolized chief of the finny tribes. In every great lake the Sioux imagines a huge fish as ruler of its waters.

Yet none of these possesses the power of speech. The great mystery had shown them some truths denied to man, but he did not trust them fully; therefore he made them dumb. They can only show to man some supernatural things by signs or in dreams — as, for instance, to foretell future events or explain the use of certain powerful remedies. The same holds that the key of heaven is vested in the visible phenomena of the universe. All creatures, save man, are assigned to a peculiar paradise, in which there is forbidden fruit — namely, the apple of speech and reasoning; hence the animals and inanimate things are exempted from sin. Thus it is that rocks, trees and rivers are surrounded with an atmosphere of grandeur, beauty and mystery. Nature is the interpreter of the great mystery, and through her man is convinced of truth. — Popular Science Monthly.

An Arapahoe's Meal

1895

The Indian's Appetite Held Out as Long as the Meat Lasted.

"For feats of downright big eating I'll back the North American Indian against the world," said a Colorado man. "I recall in particular an Arapahoe Indian who visited our camp by the Fontaine qui Bouille river one night. We had killed a buffalo calf that day — a good sized fat calf 4 or 5 months old — and having skinned and dressed the carcass had hung it up on a wagon pole. We had carved enough off one shoulder to go along with mountain trout, bacon, bread and coffee for our party of four at supper. The rest of the meat was all there. The Indian came riding up after we had eaten, and he looked pretty tired and empty. He had evidently traveled a long way with little to eat, for he was dusty, haggard and thin as a shoestring, and there was no doubt when he asked by signs for food that he wanted it badly. He pointed to the buffalo calf, and with his knife he cut off some slices of meat, laid them on the embers, and as soon as they were a little scorched ate them ravenously and began again with the calf.

"He was still cutting and cooking meat and eating when we wont off to sleep, and, so far as we could tell, he spent the entire night in that occupation, for whenever one or another of us woke up enough to look around the Indian was either cutting at the calf or eating by the fire. When we turned out in the morning, we found that all that was left of that buffalo calf was its skeleton hanging from the pole. The Indian had not carved away its joints and ribs, as a white man would have done, but had hacked the meat off in small pieces till all was gone.

"The Indian looked like another person. His all night feed had fattened him up so that he looked well filled out, and he moved about with a different air. He greeted our rising with a 'How,' and sat stolidly by the fire until one of us gave him a tin cup of coffee, which he took with another 'How.' While we were at breakfast he mounted his horse and slipped away so silently that we scarcely noticed his going." — Chicago Times.

Agent Jim Cooper

1895

HOW HE MADE THE CHEYENNE INDIANS RESPECT HIM.

He Started Out to Get Two Murderers and Refused to Quail Before 400 Warriors and a Like Number of Squaws — He Carried Through His Programme Too.

A tall, keen eyed, square shouldered, sandy haired man, with a countenance that bespoke a quiet and reserved nature, strolled out of the Hotel Lawrence and walked slowly up E street toward Newspaper row. As he passed the Press club an army officer stopped forward and shook hands with him cordially and then rejoined his companions.

"Do you know who that is?" inquired the military man. "No? Well, that's ex-Special Agent Cooper of the Indian office. Everybody in the far west knows Jim Cooper. He has nerve enough to supply a whole family of mountain lions and have enough left to equip several companies of hard riding Indian fighters. During the stormy times at Pine Ridge agency several years ago Cooper was a strong factor in settling matters with the Indians, being present there as a civilian representative of the government. His fame had preceded him to Pine Ridge from the Tongue river reservation of the northern Cheyennes, up in Montana, where he followed a career that was full of exciting adventures. One incident that may give you some idea as to the character of the man occurred up on the Tongue river reservation in the latter part of the eighties, when Cooper was temporarily acting as the agent there. Two Indian boys, as young unmarried Indians are called, about 19 or 20 years of ago, respectively, had murdered a white man.

"Cooper called the Cheyennes together, and they numbered about 400 warriors at that time and equally as many squaws, who are pretty near as good as warriors when it comes to a ruction, and told them that the boys would have to be brought in and delivered up to answer for their crime. The Indians said they didn't know where the boys were, and Cooper very plainly told them that they were lying. Then they asked him how many ponies he would take to let up on the prosecution of the criminals, and Cooper said that he would not listen to any such talk as that, but that what he wanted was the boys, and that he wanted them brought in without any further palavering or subterfuge or delay. The father of one of the boys grew very indignant at Cooper's determined stand and said that the boys would come in all right, but that Cooper was too big a coward to meet them. This was the Indian way of challenging Cooper to a fight. He never winced, but got mad in turn. He told the gathering that the whole Cheyenne tribe couldn't scare him, and that he proposed to get those boys in spite of all of them and see that justice was done and dared the father to let the murderers know what he said. Then he rammed a few handfuls of ammunition into his pocket, took up his rifle and started out.

"The Cheyennes ranged themselves round on the bluffs and waited for the fun to begin, ready to take a hand in an instant, if necessary. Cooper know that if he showed the slightest signs of nervousness or fear the Indians would make short work of him, burn everything in sight and go cavorting off the reservation. But he grew mighty lonesome, for all the white employees of the reservation had become scared and gone to hiding. He called on the six or seven Indian police that were on duty at the reservation to stand by him, however, and took the precaution to send one of them after a cavalry troop, I think it was Troop A of the First, that was camped down on the Lame Deer. Pretty soon Cooper saw a couple of Cheyennes in full war paint and regalia riding like mad down the trail toward the agency. They were the boys who had murdered the old man. As they came within range the agent raised his rifle and plugged one of them so good and hard that he rolled off his pony and gave up the ghost without a single kick.

"The other one began circling around and around for a little while, as Indians do, getting ready for a rush, and Cooper awaited his opportunity to get a good shot at him, when the cavalry troop appeared. Then came the strangest part of the proceeding. That young Indian charged directly at the line of United States soldiers and went right through it, wounding four horses as he did so. But when he had gone through somebody whirled that troop around, and the result was that in less than three wags of a sheep's tail Mr. Indian boy was as full of holes as any piece of honeycomb you ever saw in your life. There was no more trouble at the Tongue river reservation while Cooper was there, and the Cheyennes respected him.

"You mustn't imagine from this that the northern Cheyenne is a weak specimen of the Indian. Those fellows at Tongue river were the very same who were taken down to Indian Territory many years ago and escaped and were not overhauled or stopped until they had gone north to within 50 or 60 miles of Pine Ridge, and the government didn't try to get them to go back any more. They are fierce to a degree and the best fighters that live today, but still they are upright in their dealings, and the character of their lives may be appreciated when the fact is known that there is not a woman among the northern Cheyennes who is not perfectly virtuous." — Washington Star.

General Miles' Escape

1895

An Indian Chief's Bad Aim Is All That Saved His Life.

"My narrowest escape? It was at the time of the capture of the Indian chief, Lame Deer. It was almost in the midst of a charge. I rode up to where he was standing, and we shook hands. Suddenly he drew back his hand, and seizing his rifle stepped back a little, leveled it directly at my head and fired. Owing to his excitement, doubtless, he missed, and I was unhurt. But a brave soldier boy, a little to one side and back of me, was instantly killed. I do not think that the Indian chief premeditated this act. He doubtless thought that, having been captured, he was sure to be killed; that he was surely bound for the happy hunting grounds and he might as well take a white chief with him. Yet I, or rather my Indian scout, had told him that he would not be harmed if he surrendered then and there. He did not trust us, for he would not have kept his word with me if he had given it in similar circumstances. The man who cannot be trusted never trusts. Lame Deer was afterward killed."

"Which would you rather fight, Indians or white men?"

"Well, when you are fighting Indians, you know exactly what to expect. If you do not whip them, they will kill you surely. They give no quarter. You cannot make terms if you surrender. They pay no attention to the rules of war observed by civilized warriors who will not use poisoned arrows or poisoned explosive bullets. The Indians torture and mutilate prisoners. They will even violate a flag of truce. I came near being killed under a flag of truce once when I was holding a conference with Sitting Bull. The plan was discovered in time by some of our folks and frustrated." — Interview with General Miles in St. Louis Republic.

Indian Fighting Courage

1895

Terrors In White Settlements Who Run Away From Hostile Redskins.

"It takes a special kind of courage to fight Indians," said Major Edward Ragsdale. "They're pretty sure to surprise you, and they're slippery as quicksilver and as hard to catch. Their yelling and whooping alone are enough to stampede men not trained to their style of fighting. Sometimes they fight under cover, and you catch a fire from an enemy you can't get a sight of, and, again, where there hasn't been one to be seen, they seem all to spring out of the ground at once and charge you as though nothing could stand their onset. Then there's the knowledge that if they catch you alive you'll be skinned alive or burned or your life tortured out of you by slow degrees in a thousand other ways they can think up to make you suffer. There's many a stout hearted desperado, a terror in white settlements and not afraid to have a pistol or shotgun scrap any hour of the day or night with a man of his own color, who doesn't count for a row of pins in an Indian fight.

"Take Sam Brown of Nevada for a case in point. He wasn't afraid of any man that wore boots, and he was the terror of the mining camps everywhere he went. The Piute Indians got bad one time, and a party was organized in the camps to go out against them. Sam joined the volunteers, and everybody in the party and all that staid behind were talking about the big deeds Sam Brown would do and chuckling to think of the way those redskins would be wiped out when they ran up against him.

"Well, when they came upon the Indians things didn't turn out quite as they had expected. It was the whites that got licked out in short order, and those that weren't left on the ground stampeded for safety. Sam Brown was one of the first ones to run, and the pace he set his horse at to get away from those redskins was something that beat quarter racing in the way of reckless riding. As they stampeded down a canyon, every man trying to be foremost to get away, Sam hailed Joe McMurtrie, who was riding a better horse than his:

"'Oh, Mac! Pull your horse a little so I can come up. We'll ride safer together.'

"McMurtrie's answer to that friendly invitation was to bend down to his horse's neck, set in the spurs and get out of that canyon ahead of Sam and back to Bodie as fast as hoofs could carry him. He know Sam Brown, and that if that worthy once got alongside him he wouldn't hesitate to shoot him off his horse so as to get a better mount for himself. After they all got back to the settlement he didn't go round to places where he was likely to meet Sam, lest it might stir him up to unpleasant recollections of their Indian campaign, people were that considerate of others' feelings in those days when the other happened to be Sam Brown." — New York Sun.

And a Deep Silence Followed

1895

"Well, sir," said the vivacious lady to the artist who was painting her portrait, "you haven't finished already, have you? Or has the hour expired?"
"Neither, madam," replied the artist. "I am waiting for an opportunity of seeing how your chin looks in repose." — Chicago Tribune.


Adirondack

Adirondack was a nickname applied by the Iroquois Indians to their enemies, the Algonquins. The name means "people who eat tree bark." The territory now known as the Adirondacks was called by the Indians Coughsarage, "the Dismal Wilderness."

Folks, Facts and Fancies

1916

Henry Wheeler, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, predicts 75c. for fresh eggs in Boston this winter.

Henry Ford, the Detroit automobile manufacturer, announces that he and "his neighbors" will support President Wilson for re-election.

Horace White, for many years one of the Country's foremost journalists and an authority on financial subjects, died at his home in New York after a long illness. He was 82 years of age. Born at Colebrook, N. H., in 1834, Mr. White was educated at Beloit college and Brown University.

George W. Perkins finds that Maine progressives "almost unanimously" supported the republican ticket, and predicts that all progressives in the country will follow their example in November.

Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft, have accepted invitations to attend a reception in honor of Charles E. Hughes at the Union League club, Oct. 3. Elihu Root, president of the club, will preside.

The spire of the old Congregational church in Greenwich, Conn., whose peak is the highest point between New York city and New London, has been condemned. The church, it is said, is the richest in Connecticut. Its spire has been used for years as a steering guide by vessels.

With a crew of one man aboard, the 40-foot sailing launch Sir Francis, bound from San Diego, Calif., for the St. Lawrence River, cleared from Colon, Panama, for Jamaica and Key West.

"Mary" the big circus elephant which killed her trainer at Kingsport, Tennessee, Tuesday was hanged at Erwin, Tennessee. A railroad derrick car was used in the execution. The animal was forced to the tracks by other elephants, heavy chains tied around her neck and she was hoisted into the air. She was valued at $20,000 by her owners.

Ka-e-na-gi-wes, an Indian chief of Cass Lake, Minnesota said to be 128, and a heathen all that century and a quarter, won't be buried in the Spirit Land of the Chippewas' Happy Hunting Ground. He has taken the name, John Smith, and turned Christian.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 8.

Income Taxes

1916

Ninety-nine full-blood restricted Indians in the Five Tribes of Oklahoma are paying Federal Income tax, according to an announcement made in Muskogee, Ok.

Nose Rings Desired by San Blas Indians

1919

Defy Police When Government Rules Out Ornament.

"Changing the style of wearing gold nose rings by government order has aroused dissatisfaction in social circles in the San Blas Indian country on the Atlantic coast of Panama," is a statement made by Everybody's. Police were called in when the ladies insisted upon wearing the facial decoration, despite the order, and several women were fined.

According to the authority on this secluded spot of the world: "The San Blas occupy the Atlantic coast and the adjacent islands near the Colombian border and are among the best natural sailors in the world, many of them going to sea on ships from the Panama canal. They are great fishermen, and their coast and islands are said to produce the best cocoanuts in the world. These natural seamen bring large loads of cocoanuts to Cristobal, piled high in their dugout sailboats, up the roughest bit of coast on the Caribbean, with the waves laving over the edge, and never lose a nut.

"Their blood is probably the purest of any of the American Indians, as no men in the world have guarded their women with more jealousy and efficiency than the San Bias. In a country everywhere touched with the blood of the West Indian negroes, the San Blas never show the slightest trace of any kind of mixture. Until a few years ago, and it is still often true, no men other than those of their own tribe were permitted to be ashore on their coasts or on their islands after sunset."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Stork Brings "Quads" to Indian's Tepee, But Three Are Given Away

1919

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Head Chief Shot-Both-Sides, son of the famous Chief Crop-Eared Wolf of the Blood Reserve, near Lethbridge, just now is the pride of all Canadian Indians. His squaw has given birth to quadruplets, two boys and two girls, all living and healthy. For all that he is a chief with a formidable name, the family tepee was not built to accommodate such a rapidly growing family, and after a prolonged pow-wow, Mrs. Shot-Both-Sides picked out the man-papoose she liked best and the other three babes were quietly disposed of.

Indian women do that kind of thing as a matter of course when their families get too big — and the foster mothers bring them up just like their own. These "overs," being from the ranks of the tribe's "400," there was keen competition among the squaws for possession of the mites, which were finally given to Lizzie Long-Run-Home, Mary Saltfish and Little Glow Worm, who almost in one voice declared that they could have received no more welcome Christmas present.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Few Old Signs Left

1920

Many of the familiar trade signs used to advertise business enterprises have been discarded entirely in the onward sweep of advertising progress or displaced by more or less artistic displays of paint and electric lights.

One of the most common of the oldtimers that has vanished, says the New York Sun, was the wooden Indian, which kept its silent, stolid vigil beside the door of the tobacconist. The significant boot that once was suspended over the shop of the repairer of boots and shoes is also only a memory. So are the anvil hanging above the entrance to the blacksmith's shop and the horse's heads over livery-men's doorways.

The origin of the cigar store Indian dates back to Sir Walter Raleigh and his English settlers in our sunny South. These fortune seekers, visiting the unseen New World in the seventeenth century, and for the first time in the history of the white race learning the use of the tobacco weed from the North American Indian, symbolized this industry by the red man's imposing figure.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6.

Navajo Blankets

1903

How They Won Their National Reputation

Though Navajo blankets as rugs, portieres, couch coverings and a dozen other things, have held their own in American homes for a season and more, there are many interesting details of their manufacture which are not known to the casual customer.

The impress of the Spanish cross, recalling the invasions of the Coronado expedition of 1540 is still paramount in this industry of the tribe. This marked the Navajo's first knowledge of the white race, and the later influence of Mexican art can be traced in the zigzagging diamond.

There is always one blanket weaver in a Navajo family, generally a woman, though sometimes a man, and the blanket frame which is erected outside the "hogan," or hut, is part of its architecture. This frame is of upright posts or rude poles. Kneeling or squatting in front of it is the patient weaver from morning till night.

The blankets are considered a medium of barter, as current as any coin among the neighboring tribes, for the Navajo's country is the finest for flock raising, and their wool far famed. The dyes used, too, are practically indelible, and their manufacture is a tribe secret.

The blanket is the banner garment of the squaws with 'dressy" aspirations, and the choicest of wigwam decorations. The care taken in the making of these blankets may be realized when one knows that two or three months are given to the manufacture of some of the more elaborate. No two of these are ever exactly alike, and for certain tribal ceremonies especial patterns are introduced. The choicest designs are reserved for enshrouding the dead, as the journey to the "Happy Hunting Ground" is considered much enhanced by the richness of the traveler's wrapping.

It is the Navajo blanket, too, that oftenest forms the charmed square of the snake dancing Mokis, and the sun dancers of the Shoshones and Arapahoes carpet their sacred enclosures with these same weaves that American bachelors and den devotees pay such round prices for. No wonder, with its history, its wealth of association, with its richness of color and originality of design, the Navajo blanket has attained a National reputation.

What Alaska Indians Smoke

1910

"How would you enjoy a pipeful of wood shavings saturated with a strong solution of pepper as an after-dinner smoke?" asked William F. Quinn of Portland, Ore.

"Strange as this may seem as a substitute for tobacco, it is nevertheless used as such by Indians along the Alaska coast. Their mouths are often made raw by the practice, and the eyesight of many is affected by the strong fumes. It is no uncommon practice among farmers to smoke the leaves of the tomato and potato plants. While both these plants contain a narcotic poison, the smoking of leaves in moderation is harmless. Excessive use, though, produces a heavy stupor, from which the smoker awakes with a terrific headache and a feeling of utter exhaustion. Insanity and suicide have often been caused by the immoderate use of these two weeds. Rhubarb, beet, and even garden sage leaves are all smoked by farmers, but are perhaps the least harmful of substitutes for tobacco."

Odd Indian Foot Race

1917

A foot race among the Tarahumare Indians is a most picturesque scene, especially after nightfall, when the course is lit up by flaming torches carried by the eager friends of the runners, who steadily pursue their way, the only silent people in the excited crowd.

How in this weird fitful light the men contrive to keep the ball in view is a mystery. One would think that so small an object would be lost to the flickering torchlight; but Indians have wonderful eyes as well as wonderful muscles, and somehow the ball survives all perils and is there at the finish.

In these races the runners receive no prizes, but only honor and glory and the admiration of the women, which no doubt fully repays them. It is, however, customary for those who win wagers on the race to give some part of their winnings to the men who have won; but this is optional.


Splinterless Goggles

Splinterless goggles are a new development that is expected to be of great value in military gas masks and for aviators, as well as for machinists, welders and other workers requiring protection for the eyes.

The lenses consist of two layers of optical glass separated by a layer of celluloid, the whole being perfectly welded together. The product is claimed to have the advantages of ordinary glass without its dangerous splintering on being broken, and the strength of celluloid without its inflammability and lack of rigidity. The heat insulating effect of the celluloid is said also to prevent clouding by moisture.

Indians' Christmas Festival

1910

Miss Clara True, superintendent and special disbursing agent for the mission Indians in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, came to Los Angeles to purchase Christmas gifts for some of the Indians under her supervision.

The Indians near Banning are planning for their regular festivities on Christmas eve. They feast upon barbecued beef and play Indian games.

Miss True said the morals of the Indians of the reservations had improved fully fifty per cent, and that there was a noticeable improvement in their education and general condition.

"During the last century the Indians in this state have decreased at the rate of 50 per day," said Miss True. "About the time of the American occupation of the state there were about 210,000 Indians. Now we have 17,000. This amazing decrease has been caused by starvation, constant eviction from their hunting grounds, whisky and disease." — Los Angeles Examiner.


The Electric Light Dimmer

The "dimmer" system in use at the New Theater, in New York, is something new; the lights are controlled by automatic devices, whereby they may all be set at one time to any degree of candle-power, from 0 to 16, and then by the throwing in of a single switch they are all in operation at once.

Indians Believed to Be Syrians

1896

Canon J. D. Good, of British Columbia, tells a San Francisco Call reporter that his long residence among the Columbian Indians warrants him in saying that the latter are of Syrian origin, and are, in fact, Syrians now, having the customs and language. "I was astonished at the richness of this language." he said, "and its wonderful capacity for accurate expression.

"I found many pure Syrian words in it, as, for instance, Eneas and Solomon-Chute, among proper names. The words of the language are historical and traditional, and observe the same laws as those of the Syrian language. I think the language of the Thompson River Indians is one of the Toranian tongues. There are direct Syrian words in it.

"Then there are other evidences that these Indians are the Syrian descendants. Their medicine man is the same as the Syrian seer. The burial customs are to this day the same. Besides this there is the character of the people, who are Syrians in thought, habits of life, and general customs.

"When I first went among the Indians they had their war chiefs as well as their civil chiefs — the same as the Greeks. All I saw in every way convinced me, and I have during the ensuing years been very fully confirmed in my conviction that these Indians are Syrians."

Origin of Some Geographical Names

1896

The Menominee, in Wisconsin, was named from a tribe of the same name. The word means "wild rice."

Massachusetts Bay was named from two Indian words, Mais Tchusaeg, meaning "this side the hills."

The Catawissa River, in Pennsylvania, was named from an Indian word that means "getting fat."

The Cattaraugus, in New York, has its name from an Indian expression signifying "bad smelling banks."

The Platte River was originally named the Nebraska, from an Indian word meaning "shallow water."

The Housatonic, in Connecticut, was called by the Indians Wussiadenex, the "stream beyond the mountains."

The Delaware Bay gave its name to the State. The bay was named from Thomas West, Lord De La War.

The Chickahominy had its designation from an Indian word, Chik-a-maw-hony, "the place of turkeys."

Appalachie Bay, Florida, was variously termed Apahlachie, Abolachie, Apeolatel, Palaxy, Palatachy, and so on.

The Neversink was not named because its waters do not get low, but from the Indian Na-wa-sink, "ma-river."

The Pascagoula, in Mississippi, was named from the Indians called the Pascagoulas, or "the bread-making Nation."

Lake Champlain was named in honor of its discoverer. The Indians called it Canaderi-Guarunte, "the door of the country."

Cape Fear River, in North Carolina, was originally Charles River, afterward Cape Fair River, corrupted to Cape Fear.

Albemarle Sound was named after George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, one of the members of the original charter company. — Boston Journal.

Longfellow's "Hiawatha"

1896

The Indian epic of "Hiawatha" took the world by surprise, writes Hezekiah Butterworth in an article "How Longfellow Wrote His Best-Known Poems" in Ladies' Home Journal.

Its form and its matter were for a long time mysteries. How could a Cambridge literary recluse produce such an epic? Certain critics claimed that the idea, form and magic treatment of the poem had been borrowed from a Scandinavian sage, and the implication greatly disturbed his publishers, and must have caused his sensitive spirit great pain. It partly eclipsed for a time the new star in the literary horizon on which all eyes were fixed.

The criticism was disarmed; the wonder grew; a fixed star had appeared. But the mystery of the poem is simply solved. Longfellow desired to produce an epic that should be in sympathy with all that was most beautiful and noble in the vanishing Indian race. Abraham Le Fort, an Onondaga chieftain, had furnished Schoolcraft, the historian, much Indian lore and many mystic traditions, with certain Indian vocabularies, in which the musical and unmusical sounds of many words indicated their meaning.

These traditions and vocabularies made the work of the poet easy. One only needs to read Schoolcraft, to whom the poet acknowledged his indebtedness, to see how this monument to the Indian race, their only great literary memorial, was builded.

How Indians Find Way Through Woods

1920

Stefansson Disputes Old Belief in Sixth Sense

The apparently marvelous way in which Indians, Eskimos and other primitive people make their way through forests, snow-covered areas or other regions that have little to indicate direction to white newcomers, has led to a widespread belief that they possess a mysterious sixth sense of direction.

Stefansson, the Arctic traveler, who has lived much with Eskimos, is very skeptical about the existence of any superiority of sense of direction among primitive peoples of any kind, and gives strong evidence from personal experience that Eskimos have no such superiority.

The ability of Indians and others to find their way he attributes solely to their familiarity with the country through which they are passing. They note many things that they have seen before and that have no significance to the stranger in their land.

White men can and do acquire the same ability to find their way when they have learned to know the country. When the land is equally strange to the white man and the Indian or the Eskimo, the white man, because of his better developed reasoning power, is more likely to have a correct line of direction than the Eskimo.

Tannaumirk Killed a Deer

Stefansson tells how, at a time when his little party was in great need of food, one of his Eskimos, Tannaumirk, came home late at night and caused great rejoicing by relating his success in killing a deer which he had started to pursue early in the morning. He was the hero of the hour and recounted his adventures in great detail.

When he finished his story Stefansson asked him whether it was a long way to the spot where the meat lay and whether he had cached it safely. The Eskimo's answer was that he had covered the meat with snow and set traps by it, and that the place was a long way off. Stefansson volunteered to go with him the next morning, but Tannaumirk said this would not be necessary; if he were to start early in the morning he would, without assistance, be able to get the meat home by night.

Bright and early the next day he was off with sled and dogs, but it had long been pitch dark when he returned. In answer to questions he said that he had been hurried all the time; that he had hastily loaded the meat on the sled, had set two additional traps by the deer killed, making four altogether, and had come right back home.

Covered 20 Miles Making Trip

The next day about noon Tannaumirk had gone off somewhere to set fox traps. Stefansson and his companion, Dr. Anderson, heard some of their dogs howling and whining behind a ridge about half a mile away from the camp. The sounds indicated that the dogs had been caught in the traps. As the weather was about 40 degrees below zero, there was danger that the dogs' paws, if pinched in the traps, would freeze quickly and render the dogs valueless for service. Stefansson and Anderson hastened therefore to the rescue.

They found four of the dogs, as they expected, with their feet caught in traps. But what greatly surprised them was to find these traps around the deer kill, which Tannaumirk had taken so many hours to reach in his trips hack and forth. The explanation was that Tannaumirk, in starting after the deer, had followed it as it took a circuitous course of more than ten miles.

After shooting the deer he had followed the trail over which he had come and in going after its meat he had once more made the circuitous trip, covering more than twenty miles in a round trip to a spot that was less than half a mile away.