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Show Dallin With The Indians BY MAE HUNTINGTON As a sympathetic interpreter of the American Indian, Cyrus E. Dallin stands in a class by himself. him-self. It is quite a shock to many who like to think of Miv Dallin as a sculptor of the Indian to find that, instead of living in the west, he has for years made his home in Arlington Heights, Mass. However, How-ever, a visit to his studio immediately immedi-ately dispels the. idea that he has lost interest in the Indian, for here not only do we find feather headdresses, blankets, Indian baskets, bas-kets, and many other things in abundance, but we soon discover there is no subject Mr. Dallin likes better to talk about. His interest !n the Indians dates back to his earliest boyhood, when he came in daily contact with them at first hand. He enjoys recounting re-counting his early experiences in and around Springviiie and rever fa'ls to thrill his listeners. At a recent Boy Scout jamboree held in Mount Hope Mr, Dallin related at length some of these experiences experi-ences and his impressions of the redman. To him, he said, the Indian In-dian was a man of dignity, beautiful beau-tiful manners, gentleness, and superlative su-perlative friendliness. In part, Mr. Dallin's narrative follows: "I was born in a Utah village. My home was a log cabin. The stars were' my comrades. I slept out of doors from spring to late fall. In the winter the cabin seemed seem-ed stuffy. My father sympathized with me in my feeling toward the Indians. He said the Indians were the finest people he ever knew; and that if he was ever in trouble and had to choose between a white man and an Indian he would choose the Indian. "Hospitality was a great asset of the Indian. To him it was a sign of social equality. The first thing he'd do would be to . bring you food. And he would expect food, too. when he was calling on you. He looked for it as much as you would look for a handshake. hand-shake. 1 "As a boy I remember that the Indians camped outside our village. For protection we had bv'lt adobe walls ten or twelve feet high all around. But we never had any trouble. They were a kindly, humane people, as a rule. "Once an Indian said to me, 'I notice you white people whip your children.' He said that it was unknown among the Indians to whip children. When I asked him why, he held up his hands and said, 'You whip man, woman and child. Break spirit. We no (Continued on Pnge Three) lALLIN WITH 3 THE INDIANS (Continued from Page One) euk spirit. We want him fear thing." "At one time soldiers came to r village from Camp Douglas ar Salt Lake City because the 3:ans had bjen molesting cattle at were grazing up the moun-inside. moun-inside. The soldiers made our lage their headquarters. The ;a was that they wanted to talk ings over with the Indians, but was two weeks before the In-ins In-ins could be persuaded to come to the village to make a treaty peace. "You can well imagine that we ys were very much interested 1 what was going on. I'm afraid Q was one time I stayed away v Dm school. I can remember it 'J tnough it were yesterday. First ; saw a cloud of dust off in the stance. That meant that the dians were on their way to the k. lage. As the cloud drew nearer, V of it came over a hundred dians all stripped down to bat-h, bat-h, array. I was interested in the mament which they carried in ose days of 1867. The majority ,d bows and arrows. In all that oup there were not more than dozen rifles. "When they came to the village 1! ey were received by the sol-Wrs sol-Wrs drawn up in a hollow square, lere were four or five chiefs nong them. Together with the my officers ttie chiefs went into tent and the flaps were pulled get her. We boys were dismayed when we saw that the tent was closed but. .someone suggested that because it was a very hot day, perhaps the back of the tent would be opened up to let in some fresh air. Sure enough that is what happened. "Behind the tent was a corn- : field with an irrigation ditch lead- ing almost up to it. So we boys ' wriggled down the trench; and, j wnen we peered out over the top i of the banking, we could see into the tent and there we witnessed the whole ceremony of the making mak-ing of a treaty of peace with the Indians. "By the time we got there the general had spoken. Then the old j chief arose, threw aside "nis blank-! et, bowed in his most dignified manner and started to speak in j his own language. We boys knew i most of the words and were able I to follow him in almost everything i he said. I have hear some splen- 1 did orations but I never heard anything which stirred me as did this Indian chief with his ges- tures, his rich sonorous voice and his very noble, dignified bearing. "After his speech came the ceremony of the pipe of peace. : The chief lighted it, passed it on to the general who very tactfully handed it back to the Indian c'hief. He faced the north and blew the smoke in that direction. After that he faced the west, east and south and blew the smoke in those directions. Finally he blew it straight into the air and then down toward the ground. In that way the four points of the earth were acquainted with the fact that the treaty was in force and the Great Spirit was told about it and finally Mother Earth. "As the pipe was passed around I noticed that each Indian took his blanket and carefully wiped the .stem after he 'had used it. It struck me as a bit of instinctive Indian refinement. And I never in my life saw a cowboy wipe off the lop of a bottle when he was passing it on to someone else. "When as a young man of IS, I came east to study art there were on the same train with me a group of Crow Indians on their way to Washington, D. C. Their chief was a mammoth person over six feet tall and weighing 265 pounds. All of them were Lug fellows fel-lows and rnad the dignity of a Caesar. They were beautifully dressed, the finest group of men I have ever seen. I took my seat quietly and in about an hour's time one of the younger Indians got curious and came over to me to ask what made the train go. I didn't know a word of the Crow language, but in sign language I told him as best I could. He told me his name was Pretty Eagle. It was most difficult to converse with him but when we spotted a group of antelopes out on the plains, he pointed and I knew he was saying, 'Gee, I'd like to go after those fellows!' "We came to a tunnel under the mountains. Suddenly everything every-thing was as black as black can be. The Indians had been singing but then they stopped and all I heard was a few startled 'ughs!' After four minutes or so the train came out of the tunnel and I looked around. Not an Indian was in sight except the old chief. The rest were hidden under the seats or under their blankets. The chief had a tight grip on both arms of his chair. He couldn't show fear no matter what happened. He was the chief. "When they had crawled out from under the seats, pretty Eagle came over and asked what caused the darkness. In sign language lan-guage I told him but it didn't quite sooth him. An hour later we came to another shorter tunnel. tun-nel. This time they all sat in their seats, except one or two who ducked duck-ed under again. When they came out they were the butt of jokes all the rest of the journey. - "Twenty years later when I was in Washington after having just returned from Paris I learned that there was a group of Crow Indians at the Capitol. I went there and found a young Indian who took me to the chief. Through this young Indian I asked the chief if he remembered me as having hav-ing come on the train with him twenty years before. Yes, he said and bowed. In spite of my Parisian Paris-ian rig, long flowing coat and high top hat, he remembered me and I want to tell you that it was one of the big thrills of my whole life. I asked him about Pretty Eagle and, pointing to the sky, he said 'Gone. '.Then he said something else to me which I didn't understand. I inquired of the interpreter what the chief had said. The young Indian replied, 'He wants me to tell you that he has never forgotten you and that he always has thougnt of you as one of his boys.' Can you imagine how pleased I was. It was like presenting me with a gold medal. "King Philip was one of the great heroic figures of history. He was a true patriot. It he had teen a white man he would have been regarded as a hero but our history books have been warped by people who wanted it that way. I don't believe that the Plymouth colony could 'have existed without the help of the Indians. "And one last thing I would, like to leave with you. An Indian could never get a position in his tribe unless he had won it througn achievement and by the force of his own character. He couldn't buy position through politics or influence. I advise you to follow the way of the Indian." . |