Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

proportion of intelligent old men and intelligent young and middle aged who can give information. On your northern border you still have the great tribe of the Sioux, who claimed to the South Platte. Down in Oklahoma are the Pawnee, who held the central region with the Kiowa and Cheyenne who ranged over the same region, and the Oto, who held the southeastern part of the state; and back in Colorado are the Ute, who used to come down from their mountains and raid them all.

Mr. Gilder told you today of remarkable finds he had made along the Missouri river and in some cases gave his opinion as to the tribe that originated those things. It is hardly necessary to ascribe them to any of the tribes we know to-day, because before the historical period that region was occupied by more than one tribe that has now passed out of remembrance.

You can get from the Omaha anything that is within the memory of their tribe. It is not a difficult matter to go down to the Pawnee and others in Oklahoma and find out all that they can tell of the central region, or to get one or two of them up into Nebraska. They are all able to tell their own story.

You are also particularly fortunate that Nebraska is still a pioneer state, and you can get direct information from the first settlers. They are still here to tell their story, and you should secure this now, before it is too late.

You should make it a point to get the real Indian name of all rivers and hills and places. Get them correctly; get the name from the Indian himself (he is the best authority), and not the modern name manufactured as a translation by some white man. Get the real Indian name in scientific, phonetic spelling, and get the definite translation. It is well to remember that the Indian tribes in this central plain originally had no fixed boundaries, and often the same territory was covered or claimed by two or

more tribes. Consequently in getting these names from all of the tribes that ranged over the same country there may be some duplication. That does not matter so much, because it will be found that the names for the same place, in the various languages, have usually the same translation and are all indicated by the same signs in the sign language. For the Omaha territory get the Omaha names first. For the section of country claimed by the Pawnee put the Pawnee names first. Along with names of rivers, streams, hills, village sites and other places, you will get the names of plants, gods and notable heroes; and before you are done with it you will have a good deal of Indian mythology and Indian botany and many other things that you were not expecting when you started out. In that way cover the whole state from the Indian to the pioneer, with battle grounds and camp sites, posts and trails. Locate all these things by definite range, township and quarter section, and on one or the other side of a river. Anything that concerns Nebraska history you should follow out.

Some years ago in this way I made an archaeologic survey of the old Cherokee country in the southern Alleghanies. I located about one thousand sites of Indian archaeologic interest, village sites, mounds, quarries and stone graves. Each class was indicated on the map by means of a special symbol, and every site was numbered, with a separate series of numbers for each county. Corresponding to each number there was a manuscript note descriptive of the site or ancient remains, with a statement that it was so many miles in a certain direction from the nearest postoffice and on a certain side of the creek. That is an important point which is often neglected in mapping out these things. A man may tell you that a certain site is twenty-five miles north of Omaha, but you are not sure then even what state it is in; and if you know that it is within the state, you are not certain what county it is in.

Get these things down exactly by state, county and quarter section, distance in certain direction from the nearest postoffice, and on which side of the stream, if any. In order to follow up the investigation get the name and postoffice address of the man who owns the site, so that you can correspond with him or send somebody there to talk with him. In that way you can map out your ethnologic and archaeologic nomenclature and pioneer landmarks for the whole state. You will find in many cases that the emigrant trails and later railroad lines have followed the original Indian trails. You will also find that the trails lead to the village and battle sites. Get all the data relating to these things.

Here again it is important that you call in the aid of the state to save archaeologic sites from the vandalism of ignorant people in order, to preserve everything that is of sufficient importance for the state museum deposit. Especially if it forms part of a chain of evidence, try to secure it from interference until the proper students come to examine it. Photograph every stage of the excavation, then take out what you find and put it into your museum.

I believe I have suggested most of the things in connection with the archaeologic and Indian ethnologic survey of your state; but there is something beyond that which is growing rapidly in importance in this country. It has already been once or twice emphasized in these meetings that we are a new nation, a conglomerate, especially in these western states, from older nations. One of these days our children and their children will want to know concerning their forefathers, and what are the constituent racial elements that have combined to make up our present citizenship. It is still possible to fill in the record, especially here in Nebraska and Kansas and these younger western states. You can form some sort of impression of the line of general census work that would be required to make up

such an ethnologic map for the state. Find out where your immigrants have come from and where they have settled-your Germans, Irish, Swedes, Danes, etc., and your native Americans by states, and tabulate the result and put it upon a map. Then you will not only know who were your aboriginal predecessors, but who were your immediate ancestors in this country, and you will have put upon map record everything possible of past, present or future ethnologic interest to the people of Nebraska.

A TRAGEDY OF THE OREGON TRAIL

BY GEORGE W. HANSEN

[Paper read at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January, 1912.]

Upon a beautiful swell of the prairie between the forks of Whisky Run, five miles north and one mile west of Fairbury, Jefferson county, Nebraska, and close to the "old legitimate trail of the Oregon emigrants" a red sandstone slab, twenty inches in height, of equal width, and six inches thick, marks a lone grave. An inscription cut in this primitive headstone reads: "Geo. Winslow, Newton, Ms. AE. 25." On a footstone are the figures "1849". A deep furrow marks the course of the oldest white man's highway in Nebraska through this still virgin meadow which overlooks the charming wooded valley of the Little Blue.

The Oregon Trail had become well known some four or five years prior to 1849, when the rush to the California gold fields set in. A letter written by William Sublette and others, in 1830, and published with President Jackson's message, January 25, 1831, reads, in part, substantially as follows: On the 10th of April last (1830) we set out from St. Louis with eighty-one men, all mounted on mules, ten wagons, each drawn by five mules, and two light carts, each drawn by one mule. Our route was nearly due west to the western limits of the state of Missouri, and thence along the Santa Fe trail about forty miles, from which the course was some degrees north of west, across the waters of the Kansas and up the Great Platte river to the Rocky mountains, and to the head of Wind river where it issues

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »