| Show INDIANS IN NEW YORK I A Handful of Mohawks and Iroquois Iro-quois Live In the City Mr Jacob A Kiis writes an article for the December Century on Merry Christmas in the Tenements Mr Riis says If Within hail of the Sullivan street school camps a scattered little band the Christmas customs of which I had been trying for years to surprise They I I are Indians a handful of Mohawks and I Iroquois whom some ill wind hag i t blown down from their Canadian reservation f j i res-ervation and left in these west side I j tenements to eke out such a living as I i i they can weaving mats and baskets I and threading glass pearls on slippers and pincushions until one after another I an-other they have died off and gone to j I happier hunting grounds than Thompson i Thomp-son street There were as many fami I many lies as one could count on the fingers I I of both hands hen 1 first came upon I i them at the death of old Tamenund the basket maker Last Christmas I i there were seven I had about made I j up my mind that the only real Americans Ameri-cans in New York did not keep the holiday I j hol-iday at all when one Christmas eve I they showed me how Just as dark I I was setting in old Mrs Benoit came 1 from her Hudson street attic where I she was known among her neighbors I as old and poor as she was as Mrs I Ben Wah and believed to be the relict I I of a warrior of the name of Benjamin Wahto the office of the Charity Organization I Or-ganization society with a bundle for a I friend who had helped her over a rough I I spotthe rent I suppose The bundle i i was done up elaborately in blue cheesecloth cheese-cloth and contained a lot of little garments i gar-ments which she had made out of the i remnants of blankets and cloth of her I own from a younger and better day j For those she said in her French j patois who are poorer than myself i and hobbled away i I found out a few days later when 1 i I took her picture weaving mats in her attic room that she had scarcely food in the house that Christmas day and not the car farp to take her to church I I Walking was bad and her old limbs L 1 were stiff She sat by the window through the winter evenings and > watched the sun go down behind the western hills comforted by her pipe I Mrs Ben Wah to give her her local name is not rqally nn Indian but her I husband was one and she lived all her I life with the tribe till she came here She is a philosopher in her ownx quaint j way I is no disgrace to be poor she said to me regarding her empty i tobacco pouch but it is sometimes a great Snoonvenienee Not even the recollection i rec-ollection o the vote o censure that was passed upon me once by the ladles of the Charitable Ten for surreptitious ly 1 supplying an aged couple the special i object of their charity with army plug i could have deterred me from taking the hint |
