PRINCE AMONG INDIANS!

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3368, 22 December 1919, Page 6

PRINCE AMONG INDIANS!

A UNIQUE CEREMONY. WELCOME IN THE ROCKIES. \Vriting from Banff (Rocky Mountains) under date Septe-mber 17th a, correspondent describes the welcome given to the Princlc‘ of Wales by Red Indians during his topr of Canada.

He says:—- ' Still we have rillging in our ears as we sit. here the thrill Who Ops of the once wan-like «Stoney tribe‘ of Indiims

,la. band of whom met. -the Prince at ¥the station and escorted him to an open level space in the valley among ' the mountains, w.h'ere he received ’civic and native, addresses. Nothing could-ybe more. unlike the conditions lof modern hotel life than this throwback into the past. As his_ procesIsion of motor-cars drove along, it .picked up by the‘ way fresh bands of lmounl-ed braves and squaws, ‘all ‘in: [full Indian dress. A conglomerate‘! -variety of eagle feathers and h-eadi ldresses, some reaching down to the’ :l§llees,_ and leather '_a_nd skin leggings,‘ -ancl '\\'al'paint'- ado:-ning the men and the beautiful bead and shell work’ and the bright shawls worn by the women glittering in the clear sunshine made the most efiective and bizarre scheme of colour Canada has as yet shown the Prince. The surroundings were also of grand and striking beauty. On both sides! of the level stretch on Vvhiell were erected -nearly thirty gaily painted; wigwams with the British flags flying above Ithem the mountains rose mayjestically against the clear ‘blue sky. ’ Most of them wel'e,bare rugged masses of grey twisted rocks, but their lower I slopes and the ‘sides of the valley‘ were thickly covered with copses of birch and spruce, and‘ masses of other forest trees, already coloured witht rich tints. yellow. brown, and red, by the hand of autumn. Only one peak shone white with -a patch of snow. In this setting the Prince met the first considerable body of the King’s American Indian subjects he has seen, and listened to their address, deliver-{ ed first in the native tongue, and then I in English, by Chief ‘Young '.l‘hunder.’ The address‘ -is worfh- reproducing as I a model of brevity, having, too, a cer- I taing underlyingv childlike pathos peculiarly its. own. The Chief said: I Your Royal Highness We are thank-s ful we are allowed to come to ' Banff To meet you and express to you our loyalty to your great father, our King. We ask you to accept from us this Indian suit, the best we have; em— ' blematic of the clothes we were in I happy days. VVe beg you also to al-i low us to elect you as our chief, and to give you the name of Chief Morning Star. We are [thankful the W':ll' is over and glad to welcome you to this", land of our fore fathers as our chief.” l

AS the two chiefs fronted each other, one with straight black hair, -.1 green silk scarf round his neck, and long-haired white wool leggings, the' o’thel', f'.lil'-haired, wearing a. grey suit and a guards tie, ‘the contrast was necessarily 1-elnur'kable_. and not the lesshso when the Princepbefox-e replying, put on fhe eagle-featller headdress which'ig part of the tribe’s gift. Native dances, two b-'sLl'c«bae'ked races by young men and sqnaws, and much cheering and whooping up the

rest of the pmgramme. One word, in conclusion, about 'tthc inhabitanits «of Banfi’. They sent oversea to the war as volunteers 25 per cent of their total population, a record probably unequalled by any other communi’ry in "€l2O British Isles or the Dominions o rany of tlm Allied comxtries.