Show POWHATAF TRIBE CAST REMNANT EXISTS IN THE PA MUNKEY INDIANS Or VIRGINIA I A Town of 800 Acres With liO Inhabitants Proud of Their Lineage They Accept Whlto Persons as Equals but Will Havo Nothing to Do With Negroes How strange it seems that a remnant of the onco powerful confederacy of Powhatan should actually exist at this day not so very far from Washington This last fragment of nation which at the time of the landing of Columbus occupied all of the region hereabout including a large part of Virginia and Maryland consists of about 110 individuals individ-uals They call themselves the Pamun keys and dwell at what is known as In diantown which is situated on and comprises the whole of a curiously shaped neck of land extending into Pa munkey river and adjoining King William Wil-liam county Va on the south The town consists of 800 acres and is almost al-most entirely surrounded by water be ing connected with the mainland by a narrow strip Tho comparative safety afforded by the situation in time of wai is doubtless accountable for the presence of tho tribe in this spot Very likely their survival is due to the protection thus given On the death of Powhatan he was succeeded suc-ceeded by Opechancanongh chief of tho Pamunkeys The tribo was at that time the most powerful of the 80 warlike tribes which composed the confederacy The entire nation had 2400 warriors and comprised about 8000 individuals Of this population 1000 wore of the Pamunkey contingent Powhatan was a chief of remarkable valor and judgment The confederacy organized under the direction of his savage genius was one of the most notable not-able among the many unions of native American tribes The prominence of this aboriginal nation in the early history his-tory of this country is partly due to the fact that Captain John Smith was a writer asJW filLuwow > r iOSr < = = te SbiK HiS leadership in the massacre of 1622 made him the most dreadec enemy the colonists emy ever encountered by of that period The Pamunkey Indians whose distinction dis-tinction it is to be the only Virginia tribe that has survived the encroachment of civilization have excited the interest inter-est of the bureau of ethnology which has issued a bulletin describing them Oddly enough their number has varied va-ried hardly at all during the last century cen-tury Jefferson writing in 1781 estimated esti-mated the population of Indiantown at 100 and How nearly 70 years later placed it at the samefigure No member mem-ber of the tribe is of full blood While tho copper colored skin and the straight coarse hair of the aboriginal American show decidedly in some individuals there are others whose origin would not be detected by the ordinary observer There has been considerable intermixture intermix-ture of white blood and not a little of that of the negro though the laws of the tribe now strictly forbid marriage with persons of African descent olio Pammikeys have a great deal of race pride Though they acknowledge the whites as equals they consider the blacks far beneath their social level Their feeling toward the negro is illustrated illus-trated by their recent indignant refusal to accept a colored teacher who was sent to them to conduct the free school which the stato of Virginia provides for them They are very anxious to keep their blood free from further mingling with that of other races and how to accomplish ac-complish this purpose is a serious problem prob-lem of theirs inasmuch as they recognize recog-nize the danger of too frequent marriages mar-riages within tho pale of consanguinity To obviate this difficulty the chief men have been trying to devise a plan by which they may induce immigration from tho Cherokees of North Carolina The Pamunkey Indians rye not particularly par-ticularly strong and robin perhaps because of frequent marriaffis between relatives They are temp Ate moral and peaceable There is g 9d < feeling between them and their whte neighbors neigh-bors They are exceedingly proud of their lineage and lovo to tell ow bravely brave-ly and stubbornly their fore athers resisted re-sisted tho encroachments of tie whites Opeohancanough is their nero They take great delight in reciting familiar famil-iar story of how this noted chef when old and infirm was carried Jon a litter to battle that his presence mirht inspire his men to deeds of bravery Aside from their mode of subsistence theis nothing noth-ing peculiar in their mane and customs cus-toms unless it be an inclinznon to ex cessive use of gaudy colors n their attire at-tire Their homes are cprnfatable and well kept They all belong te the Baptist Bap-tist denomination and attend church on the reservation every Sunday They obtain their living for the most part in true aboriginal styp Their chief occupations are hunting and fishing fish-ing primitive dugout canoes reing used Farming they do on a small Ecale but for manual labor they entertain a truly aboriginal dislike frequently Wring negroes ne-groes to attend i to their littlo truck patches Considerable numb of raccoons rac-coons muskrats otters and ven deer ore captured on tho reservajon The skins are sold in i Richmond Ind Baltimore Balti-more as well as many of thd < fish they catch They take shad boa herring and other fishes in large lumbers by means of seines I t1lfl J1 W1W1 t l JJM ff4qh Jp a1 > uiP f tt C > WW B b in I j t > 9 r l C I I they can a sora norse resemonug a j peach basket in size and shape and made of strips of iron Before they had iron clay was utilized as the material The horse is mounted on a pole stuck in the marsh or placed upright in a boat At night a fire is kindled inside it The light attracts thoreedbirds and they fly around it while the Indians knock them down with paddles Every year white hunters visit the reservation for the pur pose of shooting reedbirds employing I the Pamunkoys as guides Washington Btar A HOTEL ROMANCE How a Newly tJfnn led Conplo Were Blade Happy by an Old Bachelor There is many a sweet romance cherished cher-ished by the visitor to New York that is never dreamed of by the prosaic everyday ev-eryday people of business Much of this romance is necessarily connected with the hotels In these old hotels every room is interwoven with tho history of hundreds of persons and every time one of these persons is in the city the interest inter-est is revived in the past One day a friend led me down Broadway on some pretext or another and we finally paused refore the old New York hotel I stopped there on my wedding trip he finally blurted out Itty wife wished it Her mother had stopped therein there-in her time and on her wedding trip My wife was anxious to occupy the same room that her mother had We had been married that day and this was our first hotel just as it had been in her mothers case and my little ones mind was surcharged with the romance of the thing But like all young married mar-ried folks wo had a horror of being conspicuous con-spicuous and at the first didnt like to say anything about it to tho clerks At last however I mustered courage enough to look over the register just to ascertain whether the roomwe knew the number floor and everything as mj brido had figured it all up in her owr mind was really occupied We thought we might get into it on some excuse CB another I merely desired to gratify her But I couldnt find the number at alL You cant fool a hotel clerk yy easib rt ri Confoundedly sorry sir said ho but that particular room is occupied by a regular boarder and one of the crossest cross-est old bachelors I ever knew too That settled it So I went up stairs and told my wife about it There was no help for it Our room was good enough but she thought it would be so nice if we could have the same one her mother and father had There was no time to think much about it for a few friends came in to ECO us and we were dragged off to a box party that evening When we camo in however the room clerk called me into the private office and handed me a key to the cherished room roomI happened to mention the matter to Mr said ho not with any idea of his giving it up of course but asa as-a curious circumstance when to my surprise he told me to tender tho use of his room to you at once He was going away tonight anyhow he said for a week and you could have the room forD for-D week and longer you wanted it So there you arc No hes gone Youre to take possession just as it is J Well when I told my wife she wo BO excited and pleased that she cried i littlet and when we found ourselves thi occupants of a beautifully fitted up and decorated rooma room that looked as if somebody of taste and culture lived in it the room she wanted because in it years ago her mother staid a young bride as she waswell old man you couldnt blame me much for participating participat-ing somewhat in the romance VNev York Herald I |