Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Grand Ronde, OR
About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1914)
2 THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN from the "Red Skin." An examination of our culture reveals to us the fact that the influence of the Indian on our civilization has been far reaching and comprises every phase of our intellectual, political, social, agricultural and industrial life. Some few years ago the late Dr. Chamberlain of Clarke University tabulated some of the contributions of the Indian race to our civiliza tion. To that list the present author has added additional material, a mere glance at which will convince us of the fact that we owe a great deal to the Indians of North and South America. Of the fifty States and Territories that form this great Union of Stars and Stripes, twenty-five derive their names from native Indian words; while the number of cities, mountains, lakes, streams and bays, that owe their appellation to Indian descriptive terms, is legion. Our daily speech abounds in terms and expressions that have been taken from the various Indian tongues. It is estimated that over 300 words of our present vocabulary have been borrowed from such sources. . One. only has to think of expressions like: Buccaneer, canoe, cannibal, chocolate, coyote, hammock, hurricane, hickory, mahogany, maize, moccasin, pampas, potato, quinine, raccoon, skunk, squaw, tobacco, toboggan, totem, tomato, tuxedo, wigwam, and ochers, to get an idea of the ex tent of this system of borrowing. But the Red Man did not confine his contributions to our vocabulary to single words only. There are a number of phrases in our language which owe their origion to the Indian mode of speech. How many Americans today use expressions, like: "Fire-water," "squaw-man," "pale-face," "medicine-man," "happy-hunting-grounds," "to burj the hatchet," "to smoke the pipe of peace," "to go on the war-path," etc., without knowing that these are phrases taken from the Indian languages? In some instances we have received from the Indian words and ideas that have become powerful factors in our daily life. I shall mention only "caucus," "chautauqua, " "mugwump" and "Tam many." Can anyone imagine American politics without "caucus?" Can anyone think of the city of New York without its "Tammany?" Let us now turn our attention to the field of literature. What a wealth of material has been offered by the Indian to our writers, past and present! Indian life and traditions have been an inexhaustible source of inspiration to English-speaking novelists, poets, and dramatic writers. Bryant's "Prairies", Longfellow's "Hiawatha" and "Burial of the Min nesink", Whittier's "Mogg Muggone", Lowell's "Chippewa Legend", Cooper's "The Lastof the Mohicans", Dryden's "Indian Queen", Camp bell's "Gertrude of Wyoming", and many others, are literary products that were inspired by the Red Man. The literary fame of men like, De foe, Kingsley, Lew Wallace, Bandelier, King, Haggard and Robertson