were both killed by
tribesmen for breaking the rule of their respective tribes and accepting
favors from the Government.

Intermarriages were not common among the different tribes in the old
days, and still less so between Indians and Caucasians. The earlier
intermarriages were with the higher class of Europeans: officers,
noblemen, etc., and many of the offspring of these unions were highly
esteemed, some becoming chiefs. At this period the natives preferred
their own marriage customs, which was convenient for the white officers
who were thus enabled to desert their wives and children when they
chose, and often did so, quite as if there were no binding obligation.
Later, when unions between the lower class of both races became common,
the Sioux refused to recognize their half-breeds as members of the
tribe, and a certain territory was set apart for them. These half-breeds
disposed of their land to the Government, and took instead certificates
entitling them to locate upon the public domain. Some thirty years
afterward they returned to their mother tribe and were allowed full
rights as members of their respective bands.

Except among the French Canadians, in no section has there been such a
general intermingling of the blood of the two races as in the Southern
States. The Virginia legislature early recognized intermarriages between
whites and Indians, and from the time of Pocahontas to this day some of
the best families have married among Cherokees, Chickasaws, and
Choctaws, and are proud of the infusion of aboriginal blood. Among the
"Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma the Indian blood is distinguishable
only in a minority of those who call themselves "Indians."

This transition period has been a time of stress and suffering for my
people. Once they had departed from the broad democracy and pure
idealism of their prime, and undertaken to enter upon the world-game of
competition, their rudder was unshipped, their compass lost, and the
whirlwind and tempest of materialism and love of conquest tossed them to
and fro like leaves in the wind.

"You are a child," said the white man in effect to the simple and
credulous native. "You cannot make or invent anything. We have the only
God, and he has given us authority to teach and to govern all the
peoples of the earth. In proof of this we have His Book, a supernatural
guide, every word of which is true and binding. We are a superior
race--a chosen people. We have a heaven