Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/152

 mooney] INDIAN CONGRESS AT OMAHA \2J

The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition held at Omaha from June to October, inclusive, in 1898, was the most successful ever held in this country, from the Centennial down, not even excepting the World's Fair. Conceived in a period of widespread business depression and carried through in the face of a foreign war, it closed with a record of over two and a half million paid admissions and a balance of several hundred thousand dollars in the treasury. Such a showing, in a town whose citizens only thirty years ago were called upon to barricade their homes against an attack of hostile Indians, well illustrates the rapid growth and tremendous energy of the west, and the grit and determination of the exposition managers, foremost among whom was Edward Rosewater, proprietor of the Omaha Bee. The success- ful outcome was due chiefly to his tireless activity and unfaltering courage. The ethnologic project was the child of his brain, and in spite of serious imperfections, the general result was such — particularly from the practical standpoint of the ticket seller — that we may expect to see ethnology a principal feature at future expositions so long as our aboriginal material holds out. Indeed, the projectors of one or two contemplated expositions, after look- ing over the ground at Omaha, have already included an Indian exhibit on a large scale as a part of their plans.

While in Omaha in October, 1897, the author drew up, at the request of the management, an elaborate plan of ethnologic pre- sentation at the exhibition, based on a plan already submitted some years before to the late Professor Goode for possible use in connection with the Columbian National Park. Briefly summa- rized, the scheme was based, not on linguistic or tribal affiliations, but on modes of life as determined by surroundings. However, congressional delays and unexpected governmental expenditures, consequent upon the breaking out of war with Spain, prevented the carrying out of any systematic project.

On the convening of Congress in December, the friends of the exposition introduced a bill appropriating $100,000 for an

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