Copper-Colored Columnist

"There is no reason why an Indian should not be President of the U.S."

This recent observation by Indian Affairs Commissioner John Collier drew editorial comment from two widely disparate sources last week. The New York Herald Tribune cheerfully declared that at least an Indian President would have dignity, a sly and refreshing humor. Wrote Charles Round Low Cloud, longtime (since 1919) conductor of "The Indian News" column in the Black River Falls (Wis.) Banner-Journal: "Yes. It would take a good thinking man because some man you will think always a good fellow everywhere."

A Winnebago who spent five years at Pennsylvania's famed Carlisle Indian School as a second-string quarterback, squat, copper-colored, greying Charlie Cloud is described as one who "thinks in Indian and writes in English." Thumbing a ride weekly from the Indian mission six miles north to the Banner-Journal office, he calmly usurps Editor Harriet Thomas Noble's desk to pencil his weekly stint on scratch paper, after which he generally cozens a taxi fare home from her. His choice of subjects is limitless, ranging from the weather ("The weather is change wind every half day and person getting catch cold easy") to the latest blessed event in the Indian colony. Occasionally his desire for a scoop leads him into trouble, but he is graceful at retraction: "Last week we had made a mistaken on Frank Mike passed away. He is at first place, but he is life again two or three hours afterwards."

Avid followers of "The Indian News" are sometimes disappointed when Charlie's dispatch is limited to "Not much news this week. Indian report in jail." But their fidelity is rewarded when, under the spell of a hangover, Charlie dips his blunt pencil into vitriol to discuss the Indian and the white man. Sample: "Indian scalp his enemy, but now the white people, he skin his friends. That he called Business."

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