groups dwelt in villages scattered along the hanks of the 
Potomac and its tributaries. Unmolested, they fished in 
the beautiful streams and hunted in the primeval forests. 
They had not forebodings of the fate that awaited them — 
the complete surrender to foreign and merciless invaders 
of the birthright of their race. 
The first white man arrived in 1620, and 
the last Indian disappeared from the Valley in 1690. Since 
that date barely ten generations have passed, yet today the 
only permanent mark of their presence here, the only exist¬ 
ing reminder that such a people ever dwelt within the 
District of Columbia, are these deposits of quarry-shop refuse 
covering acres of ground, on the site which will in a few years 
be the very center of the capital city of the usurping race. 
A most serious question thus presents itself 
to our people: shall we go on selling and buying and sell¬ 
ing again the hills and valleys of their birthright, amassing 
fortunes upon fortunes, without a thought of their former 
existence or their sacrifice? In the world f s history races 
« 
have succeeded races in possession of the garden spots of 
the world, and are we to follow the example of the barbarians 
of the past? Are we the barbarians of the present? Or shall 
we preserve this Piney Branch sits, erecting thereon a monu¬ 
ment, a memorial, to show the world that we are ntlt utter 
ingrates? 
