From: Healing Waters, Vol. 2, No. 1, February 1929
Published by: Capon Water Company

On our labels, on our bottles, on our seals and letterheads, on our minds!--Why the Indian?

He is more than just a decoration; although there is none more picturesque. He is a symbol. The symbol of a noble and romantic past. Linking the crystal-blue waters of Capon Springs with the history of a great State and Nation. Linking man kind with Nature in the history of health.

What resounding names he brings to mind! Out of the early past come Pocahontas and her father, Chief Powhatan; Captain John Smith, at Jamestown, John Brown, at Harpers Ferry; General Grant, at Appomattox; George Washington, at Mount Vernon. Names that are chapter heads in the story of an evolution from "forest primeval" to the first colony in America, and from that to the grand "Old Dominion State."

Virginia--the land of the majestic Blue Ridge, of eerie caverns, of famous springs and famous tobacco. The land also of the beautiful river Shenandoah, "Daughter of the Stars." It was the Iroquois Indians who thus christened the River. But it remained for other tribes to christen the glorious Valley. With Bloodshed.

Says a noted historian of the region: "The two principal non-resident tribes who frequented this fine country in 1716 to 1745 were the Delawares from the north and the Ca-taw-bas from the south. In 1732 a bloody war was progressing between these tribes, and the valley was the theatre of action. In this war other tribes now and again participated as the allies of one or other party, and it was at the battle on the north fork of the Shenandoah that the Sen-e-dos tribe was exterminated. There is a burial place there-18 to 20 feet high and 60 feet in circumference-filled with human bones which testify to the truth of this tradition."

Grim testimony, this, of the supreme value placed by the Indians on the Valley-of-the-Daughter-of-the-Stars. Was it on account of the fine forests? Better could be found in the Northwest. Was it on account of the fortress-like mountains? More impregnable could be found in the Rockies of the West. Yet tribes from all parts--north, south and west--gravitated to the Valley of Virginia; to fight for possession, to be driven out, to be exterminated, or to prevail for a time only.

What was the special prize so savagely contested for? The answer is revealed to us by the location of one of the bloodiest conflicts in the Indian annals of Virginia: the Battle of Hanging Rocks-five miles north of Capon Springs in the Great North Mountains, a branch of the Blue Ridge. And the final victors, the Catawbas, made their headquarters at the Springs, calling their hard-won prize: Ca-ca-pa-on-"Healing Waters."

One of the numerous branches of the Sioux Nation, the Catawbas had come originally from South Carolina. A distinguished historian of the period, Conway Whittle Sams, characterizes the Catawbas as possibly the bravest and most enterprising of all the southern tribes. They are known to have gone as far north as Pennsylvania, and they repeatedly engaged in battle with the northern Indians in the Valley of Virginia. The Battle of Hanging Rocks was fought between this nation and either the Mohawks or Delawares Ö.The Catawbas became firm allies of Virginia. They fought on the side of the colonies in the war against the Tus-ca-ro-ras, during the years 1711, 12, 13, and again with them against the French and Indians."

The friendliness between the Catawbas of Capon Springs and the colonists of Virginia is picturesquely demonstrated in a 25-page pamphlet published in 1756 by order of Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia. Among speeches and pow-wows recorded verbatim, it contains the articles of a treaty made by Virginia with the Catawbas. The first article opens with a mixture of metaphors maintained throughout: "I, that the ancient Alliance between the English and Catawbas be renewed, and the old Chain brightenedÖ"

Signatures are appended, and with them the "marks" of the "Sachems and Warriors of the brave Nation of Catawba Indians," What a spell of romance hangs about those names: King Ara-tas-wa, Chup-a-haw, Prenchee-Uraw, Hixa-Uraw, Tan-na-see, Yea-put-kee, Took-se-sey. We wish we could reproduce their grotesque signatures for you.

The nearest we can come to it is the Indian on our bottles and seals and labels. He is a compound signature to another precious "document"--a crystal-blue document which stands for the ancient alliance between Nature and Health, between American history and a certain spot in the Great North Mountains of West Virginia.

It is the health document of Capon Springs Water-drawn up by Nature, first signed and sealed by the pick of Virginiaís Indian braves, and now superscribed by the most distinguished physicians and citizens of Philadelphia.

That is the "why" of our Indian-and, incidentally, of our faith in Capon Water.