t !
12 Conservative.
SPIUITUAI.ISM AMONG INDIANS.
The treaty with tlio Onmlm Indians
by which they ceded their lands in Ne
braska to the general government was
completed in June , 1S54 , and proclaimed
by President Franklin Pierce. Under
that treaty the tribe was to receive in
the early spring of 1855 a certain sum of
money. The amount was fixed and
definitely known. No one belter un
derstood the financial , social and relig
ions conditions of the Omahas than
Colonel Peter A. Sarpy , whose trading
post was then at the foot of the bluffs
in Bellevue , near where the Burlington
& [ Missouri River railroad depot now
stands.
And the colonel knew when he had
credited , at his store , each head of a
family among the Omahas up to a
sum which would pretty nearly
absorb his portion of the coming spring
payment. But savage and barbaric
man , even in tribal relations , is as fond
of running in debt as his civilized cous
ins. And like a cultivated human being
of the Bellamy , socialist , or other gre
gariously inclining type , an Indian will
take and use credit with payday so dis
tant in his mind that he really believes
it will never arrive. And like all civ
ilized socialists and communists the In
dian thinks things unequally distributed
and labor and temperate frugality a
very crude and unphilosophical method
of getting a redistribution. Like the
alchemists of old the big medicine men of
the Indians are trying to make something
out of nothing. Their fiat-money rela
tives in civilization show how small the
distance is from educated to uneducated
minds when the impossible is attempted.
But to return to the debt-contracting
habit of the Omahas. It had reached
the limit of safety. And Colonel Sarpy
informed the editor of THE COXSEUVA-
TIVE , one bright day in December , 1S54 ,
that if he would call at the trading post
council chamber the next morning at 9
o'clock he could see an Indian council
and hear how to manage Indians so as
to keep them from running into debt so
deep that they could not pay out.
Promptly on time , at the appointed
hour , the council began. Colonel Sarpy
occupied a chair and the chief headmen
and braves of'the Omahas squatted upon
the floor against the walls of three sides
of the eighteen-feet-square room. When
repose and silence had been secured a
big tomahawk pipe filled with kinakin-
nick was lighted and passed from hand-
to-hand. Each Indian inhaled a tre
mendous volume of smoke and leisurely
extruded it through his nostrils. After
all present had taken a puff Col. Sarpy
arose and , very nearly , as follows , after
shaking hands with Shon-ga-ska ( Logan
Foutanelle ) E-Sta-mah-za ( Joe Le
Flcscho ) Wha-no-ke-ga , the village
maker , and other chiefs , headmen , and
braves , addressed them :
"My brothers : For many , many
moons wo have been good friends. We
have hunted the buffalo on the prairies
and we have trapped beaver , otter and
mink on the streams together and we
have never quarreled. But game is
going away forever. It is now more
than a hundred miles to buffalo. Deer
and antelope are getting scarcer. It is
more work now to hunt than when we
were young. We travel a long ways to
find plenty of game.
"Last night was very beautiful. The
air was clear , the stars were bright and
seemed near enough to reach up and
touch with a pipe. And I said to my
friend , Stephen Decatur : Come , let us
go out under the shining stars and upon
the high hill to the grave of Big Elk.
"He went with me.
"Wo sat down on the grass by the
grave of that great chief of the Omahas.
' We smoked silently. We were re
membering his courage in battle and his
great teachings in peace. And then
there came out of the sky from away up
among the stars a strong voice.
"That voice said : 'Sarpy , How ! ' and
I knew it was the voice of Big Elk.
Then Big Elk said :
" ' brother have been
'Sarpy , my , you
always good to my children the Omahas.
But now you are too good to them.
You let them have too much sugar , cof
fee , flour and other things. You so
make them lazy. They will not Imnt.
The men arc like squaws.
" 'Sarpy. you must stop trusting my
children. If jou do not stop they will
sicken and die. '
"And " continued "I .
, Sarpy , promised.
Therefore , not xintil next summer , after
your hunt , when you have peltry and
furs can we trade any more. " He
ceased.
Deep silence pervaded the room. And
then So-da-uak-ze Yellow Smoke
- - - or ,
arose and said :
"I know you speak truth. Words
come to us from graves. Words drop
down from the sky. They are the
words of spirits. We obeyed those spir
its when they were our chiefs. We
must mind them now. "
Then Gah-he-ga-gin-gah , or Little
Chief , expressed his faith in the mes
sage from the spirit of Big Elk and all
gave the sign of assent and concurrence
by a deep and sonorous "Ugh ! Ugh ! "
And the council adjourned and credit
to the Omaha Indians , at the trading
post of the American Fur Company of
Bellevue , Nebraska , was by spiritual
communication suspended for six
months by mutual and amicable agree
ment.
"CONFISCATION. "
w h 11 e expressly
stating that it was not necessary to con
fiscate land , did undoubtedly propose to
"confiscate rent. " This use of the word
"confiscation" is , in my judgment , to be
regretted , because it has been the chief
stumbling-block in the minds of consci
entious men to the acceptance of the
general doctrine of the single tax. It
has very naturally led most readers to
believe that Mr. George proposed to
punish land owning as if it were a crime.
This impression has been confirmed by
other passages in Mr. George's writings ,
in which he spoke of private property in
land as a gigantic robbery. The misap
prehension thus arising is due to the ex
treme accuracy with which Mr. George
endeavored to express ideas which could
not easily be expressed in familiar
words , and to his using many words , in
a strictly scientific sense , in accordance
with their original and proper meaning ,
regardless of the great perversion of that
meaning which had taken place in pop
ular usage. There is no better example
of this than in his use of these two
words "confiscate rent. " In the general
public mind , "confiscation" means a
form of punishment for crime , especially
for treason and snmggling. In common
usage , "rent" means the annual price
paid for the use of houses and im
provements upon land , quite as much as
for the use of the land itself. But the
scientific , original and only strictly
proper meaning of the verb "to confis
cate" is merely "to take into the public
treasxiry ; " and the only scientific and
strictly proper meaning of the word
"rent" is the price paid for the privilege
of xising land , irrespective of buildings
or other visible improvements. Mr.
George explained , once for all , that he
used the word "rent" in this sense , and
in this only. And , although ho did not
make the explanation , it is none the less
a fact that he used the word "confisca
tion" only in the sense of taking into the
public treasury , which is its precise
meaning. Within that meaning , every
tax is a confiscation. Thomas G.
Shearman in Self-Culture.
One can hardly suppose , from the
writings of the Reverend Cotton Mather
and his contemporaries , that the early
founders of America were likely to stake
sums of money on tiny contingency
whatever , even on the election of a new
pastor or the arrival of a relief-ship from
England. Yet the habit must have pre
vailed largeljat some time , or why
should terms of betting have passed into
such general use in our langiiage , that
many people customarily say they "will
bet" so and so , when they merely mean
to express a surmise or conjecture ?
The practice is offensive to some , but
it has been reserved for that great man ,
Mr. Dewey of Manila , to invent a
treatment for it. It is said that he one
day , not long ago , perceived a person
waiting in his path with an amiable
smile , who , on his near approach , ex
tended his hand to him , saying ' 'Admir
al , I'll bet you don't remember me. "
The admiral did not relish this address ,
or perhaps the man's looks displeased
him. "You've won your bet" he said ,
and kept right on. walking.
EMMMIlSSS&HH AU UEMVVlf'f * " * " *
