Oneida01

 

Waupaca Record

February 6, 1908

 

POOR LO IS CHANGING

Racial Characteristics of Oneidas I Disappearing

 

            Gradually the Oneida Indian is losing the distinctive train of the red man.  This is more specially true of the bucks than the squaws.  The high cheek bone, the reddish color, the dress and customs of the former Indian are now becoming things of the past.

            This was especially noticeable in court recently, when 25 Indians of all ages were assembled there.  Their color differ nearly as much as day does from night.  There was the chief with gray hair and beard, who would be taken for a white man if met on the street.  There was the interpreter with a heavy mustache such as is not seen on the Indian of the plains.  There were Indians as black as tho they had Negro blood in their veins, although that is not probable.

            Some had somewhat of a kink or wave in their hair, while others had the straight coarse hair of the pure blooded red man.  But few of the bucks had the high cheek bone of the Indian.  Some had lost all of that particular characteristic of the race.  Their dress differed as widely as there were Indians in the room.  Some with sweaters, others with shirts and cllars.  Still others were minus the collars.  German socks and rubbers on some; shoes on others.  In this respect they differed as widely as would any crowd of laborers who might assemble.

            With the squaws it was different.  Their color appeared to be more uniform.  None of the eight or ten in the room were like some of the bucks.  They were all dark, all wore shawls, all had the coarse black hair.  The mingling with the whites and the doing away with Indian customs is changing the Oneida Indian.