A SETTLER FLEEING FROM THE INDIANS
THE ORIGINAL AMERICANS
Indian always attracts attention. I have no doubt that all the boys and girls who read these pages have seen one or more Indians. You do not have to go to the mountains and prairies of the West to meet these "original Americans," for they live among us; many of them attend schools of their own in different parts of the country, and some of them are engaged in business. For years past the football club of the Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has ranked among the best, as more than one of our colleges have found to their cost. A full-blooded Indian was a member of General Grant's staff, and was present at the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox.
Where did these red people come from? Nobody knows any more than he knows where or when the first human being appeared on this earth. There have been a good many guesses—for they are little more—to tell how the Indians came to be on this continent. Some have thought they are descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, who passed across Bering Strait from Asia, and, in the course of centuries, spread over and peopled both North and South America. Why their color changed to the well-known copper tint must have been due to the climate, though it is hard to understand why other persons should become yellow, brown or black. Then, too, a learned man once said there was no reason why the Indians might not have crossed Bering Strait from the other way, and peopled the Eastern Hemisphere. No doubt we shall have to wait a long time before learning all about the origin of man.
You hardly need be told how these red people got their name. Christopher Columbus, when he caught sight of land, after sailing so many weeks to the westward over the Atlantic, thought it was a part of the Indies. So, quite naturally, he called the natives Indians, and the name will never be changed.
You have heard of the Mound Builders, and many of you have seen some of the vast piles of earth which they heaped up hundreds of years ago. Ohio has ten thousand such mounds, and one near St. Louis covers eight acres. For a long while, it was believed that the Mound Builders were a race different from the Indians, who in the course of time gave place to them. This is a mistake. They belonged to the same race, and when Columbus discovered America, the Mound Builders were working like beavers in many parts of the country.