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Show The Record of a Noble Redman By Garrett P. Serviss. THE story of Chief White Eagle, the Cheyenne Indian, who died while fighting in tho American Army in Franco and who bequeathed his war dress to the American Museum of Natural History, is one of the most interesting inter-esting that 1 know. It is a very significant story, too, as showing what education can and cannot do. White Eagle was a graduate or the Carlisle Indian School. He knew both sides of American history his-tory the white man's side from his books, and the Rod Man's side from the traditions of his ancestors. ances-tors. He cherished the memory, and retained some of tho customs and ideas of his people, but he was a thoroughly loyal American, and, with throe of his brothers, offered his life to defend the life and the honor of his country a country whose' broad acres, whoso mountains, moun-tains, forests and valleys were fundamentally his rather than the white man's. His gallant deeds in Franco and his doath under the flag and In tho uniform of the United Statos were a sharp robuke to that brutal and too ofton approvingly quoted phrase of some narrow-minded, selfish, sel-fish, white-skinned rooter for fortune: for-tune: "The ouly good Indian Is a dead Indian." Why should White Eagle not have fought, and died for America? Who could call him an Interloper? This land belonged to his race before be-fore the walls of Babylon arose, before King Minos built the labyrinth, laby-rinth, before Rome wag founded. Even pre-history Is not long enough to suggest a date for the beginning f of the red man's occupation of tho American continent. That occu- ! pation runs back into the geological geologi-cal ages, if It was the . result of an Immigration from the eastern world, which is not certain, its beginning be-ginning must be sought in that remote re-mote and uncalculated time when the ocean waters Vere spanned by "land-bridges" if they ever were so, spanned. Perhaps those speculative thinkers think-ers who believe that the hiiiimu race originated around the -aorth pole, at a period when a genial climate cli-mate prevailed there, may be on the right track, in which case the red man may be as old, and as independent in-dependent in origin, as the white man and the yellow man, and coin-cldently coin-cldently with them may have sot out from the polar Eden, choosing the American side of the world for his own. Tho only serious indictment that has ever been lodged against the American red man Is based upon the fact that ho did not develop de-velop the white man's type of civilization, and did not increase and multiply and overtax the earth and nature with swarming numbors and Insistent, spurring demands, as we have done. Possibly Pos-sibly a cosmic court would not find him guilty of any crime on that BCore. Did the history of America in pre-Columbian days offer anything any-thing more hellish than wliat White Eagle faced when he fought with and against white men in Europe? Here, as I write, glancing at an opened history of America, I read this sentence: "The most hopo-less hopo-less feature in connection with the Indian problem 13 that the race seems incapable of civilization." Disregarding tho gigantc assumption as-sumption made In that sentence about the saving value of tho kind of civilization that his white con- querors have tried to force upon the rod man, what become? of lho assertion that he Is incapable of civilisation when .tested, by -White Eagle's last act, that of-bequeathing his ..war costume w-a white man's museum a costumc carefully care-fully made. v,Uh his own hands after the ancient model leaving' it as a historic document for future.- "generations lo study and ponder? . That act seems to me a very notable example of the broadest-mi (led 1 ind of civilization. And what about his three , brothers broth-ers wh-j ioue..c .a inc.. side, and about the hundreds of other members mem-bers of their race who battled oh ' the same bloody fields for the freedom of tho world? Were they "incapable of civilization?" No, tho Indian has proved that he is capable oven of the white man's civilization in Jts essential elements. But he has also proved that education in the white man's schools and ways does not, as It should not, entirely remake hi3 nature. In the way of religion he has as good a foundation as we have. He believes and always has believed In the Great Spirit. He has, to bo sure, associated many superstitious notions and practises with his rollglon. Very well, hnve we, In the long course of our history, done better , in that respect? Perhaps he cannot can-not give you a very clear definition of what he means by the Great Spirit, but can we do any better? Have wo found out God, or caught Him in a formula? For my p'art I believe the Indian is just as near Cod as we are. And I believe God is Just as near to an Indian teepeo as Ho Is to a Wall Street brokcn'3 office, or to a great, smoking, champing, nervc-dciislcatln? Indus-trial Indus-trial establishment. The. Indian's industries did not ma.ko the world a purgatory for half Its Inhabitants. Inhabi-tants. - - j |