MY LIFE AND EXPERIENCES 
 
 AMONG 
 
 OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 
 
 A RECORD OF 
 
 PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS, ADVENTURES, AND CAMPAIGNS 
 AMONG THE INDIANS OF THE GREAT WEST 
 
 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OP 
 
 THEIR LIFE, HABITS, TRAITS, RELIGION, CEREMONIES, DRESS, 
 
 SAVAGE INSTINCTS, AND CUSTOMS IN 
 
 PEACE AND WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL O. O. HOWARD 
 
 United Statet Army (retired) 
 
 Vrouttfiillg illustrated 
 
 WITH PULL PAGE ENGRAVINGS, CHIEFLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BT THE BUREAU OF 
 
 ETHNOLOGY, WASHINGTON, AND A SERIES OF COLORED PLATES SHOWING INDIAN 
 
 OBJECTS OF INTEREST AND CURIOSITY IN FACSIMILE 
 
 SOLD ONLY TO rf 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN. 
 A. D. WORTHINGTON & COMPANY 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1907, 
 
 BY A. D. WORTHINGTON & COMPANY, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
TO 
 
 CAPTAIN JOSEPH A. SLADEN, UNITED STATES ARMY 
 
 (Now Clerk of the United States Circuit Court.} 
 
 PORTLAND, OREGON, 
 
 MY LOYAL AND FAITHFUL AIDE-DE-CAMP AND SINCERE AND DEVOTED FRIEND, 
 
 WHO FOR TWENTY-THREE YEARS WAS BY MY SIDE THROUGH CAM 
 
 PAIGNS AND BATTLES, RISING FROM A PRIVATE SOLDIER 
 
 TO HIS PRESENT RANK, WHOSE RETIREMENT FROM 
 
 ACTIVE MILITARY DUTY WAS THE RESULT OF 
 
 LOSING HIS LEG WHILE IN SER 
 
 VICE UNDER MY COMMAND, 
 
 Volume is gffecttonatelp 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 248056 
 
V,.}. 
 
 IN the preparation of this book the greatest pains have been 
 taken to make it valuable and interesting as a pictorial 
 volume ; for the publishers believed that it was worthy 
 of being illustrated in the best, most truthful and realistic 
 manner. The old method of having artists seize the general 
 outline of a scene, and by a few rapid strokes of a pencil pre 
 serve the general idea, until, in the studio, leisure was found 
 to enlarge the hasty sketch and reproduce the details from 
 memory, has passed away; the modern camera has taken its 
 place, and is the basis of most of the illustrations in this 
 volume. 
 
 The colored plates show Indian objects of interest and 
 curiosity with as much fidelity to the originals as il is possible 
 for human hands to do. No pains or expense were spared to 
 faithfully portray these objects in exact facsimile. Many of 
 them belong to the government and are on public exhibition 
 at the Smithsonian Institution, where they may be studied in 
 glass show-cases, safe from the despoiling hands of curiosity- 
 seekers and relic-hunters. By far the greater number, how 
 ever, are carefully stowed away in boxes, under the care of 
 officials, and prying eyes are not permitted to see, much less 
 meddlesome hands to handle them. It was from this almost 
 inaccessible collection that many of the objects shown in this 
 volume were selected. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Many difficulties had first to be overcome before these ob 
 jects could be taken out of their show-cases and secret recepta 
 cles, in order that photographs might be made ; for this was 
 the first step in the work of making the colored plates. Full 
 ness of detail and great accuracy were absolutely necessary,. 
 and the aid of the camera was indispensable. Each group 
 was first photographed collectively, so that the relative size of 
 one object to another was maintained. A set of these photo 
 graphs, printed on paper adapted to the purpose, was painted 
 by accomplished artists from the objects themselves, a special 
 room having been set apart and free use of the objects having 
 been granted by the government for this purpose. Several 
 months were required to make these paintings. Some of the 
 details, especially of fine beaded work, were so minute that 
 the painting had frequently to be done under strong magni 
 fying glasses. The process was tedious and expensive, re 
 quiring artistic skill of the highest degree. The next step 
 was to engrave these paintings on stone, an undertaking that 
 required months of labor by skilful artists and engravers. 
 There are fifteen printings on each plate, and one engraved 
 stone is required for each color. 
 
 It should be apparent to the reader, therefore, that the ut 
 most care and skill were necessary to produce these colored 
 plates. They might easily have been slighted and still pass 
 current as attractive pictures ; but the aim constantly in view 
 was to portray each object with fidelity to the original, pre 
 serving as closely as possible the texture, colors, tints, handi 
 work, and natural appearance of the objects themselves. In 
 these respects these plates have a value not often possessed 
 by illustrations. 
 
 Equal care was taken with the full-page illustrations. 
 Many of them are reproductions from photographs taken by 
 government officials while on scientific expeditions. These 
 have been reproduced with photographic accuracy. Some of 
 the negatives were imperfect, for the appliances and stores of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 even well-equipped government expeditions sometimes fail, 
 and the photographer in the heart of the mountains, or in a 
 hostile Indian camp, far remote from his base of supplies, 
 occasionally meets with accidents and disappointments. As 
 sometimes happens in such cases negatives of some of the 
 groups and subjects were not perfect enough to be reproduced 
 in half-tone, and these have been carefully engraved. 
 
 The thanks of the publishers are due to all who have in 
 any way helped them to produce these illustrations, and 
 especially to government officials, to whose uniform courtesy 
 they are indebted for the use of instruments and privileges 
 in photographing and painting objects for the colored plates. 
 Without their efficient aid it would not have been possible to 
 have produced them. They would also mention the late Cap 
 tain John G. Bourke, U. S. A., a brave and experienced In 
 dian fighter, who during his fatal illness sent permission to 
 the publishers to use the necklace of human fingers, a fac 
 simile of which appears in this volume. Captain Bourke 
 himself captured this necklace from the Indians, and the 
 story of its capture and of the significance of this gruesome 
 object of Indian barbarity is told in his own words. They 
 would also mention Mr. James Mooney, who for many years 
 lived among the Indians as one of them, and who has con 
 tributed to the government collection many unique articles of 
 Indian ornaments, dress, and equipment; he kindly loaned 
 the original Indian drawings from which the illustrations 
 were made that accompany his translation of the unique story 
 of the Giant Sinti. 
 
 Taken as a whole, these illustrations portray Indian life 
 and scenes with fidelity to nature. Some of the portraits 
 of noted Indian warriors were photographed many years ago 
 in their absolutely wild state amid their native surroundings. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
AFTER passing the meridian of life, and especially when 
 old age is silently creeping upon us with an advance 
 that cannot he checked, our minds are wont to revert 
 to the experiences of our youthful days and the 
 years when, in manhood s prime, no task was too formidable 
 to he undertaken, no obstacle too great to he overcome, and 
 health and strength gave keen zest to the work in hand. In 
 this volume I have endeavored to tell the story of my life and 
 personal experiences among the Indian tribes with which 
 the fortunes of war brought me in contact, sometimes 
 in efforts to bring about peace, at other times in deadly strife 
 with a foe as brave, resourceful, and relentless as any savage 
 race of which we have knowledge. 
 
 In whatever I have hitherto written of myself I have 
 been accustomed to present my experiences in autobiographi 
 cal form, for it seems natural and easy for me to do so, and I 
 have adhered to that plan in the following narrative. I 
 have endeavored to show how my grandfather s stories of the 
 wild Indians with whom he had to do, affected my child 
 hood ; how these tales became almost like a nightmare to me 
 and continued to haunt me even when I was a cadet at West 
 Point. The thrilling experiences of old Indian fighters en 
 tered into the lives of, and were never-ending topics of discus 
 sion among the young army officers who were my companions. 
 Like Sherman and Thomas, early in my career as a lieuten 
 ant, my first Indian experiences were with the Seminoles in 
 Florida. It was there after graduating from the Military 
 Academy that I first saw actual field service. Later, some of 
 my best beloved fellow officers were taken from my side dur- 
 
PBEFACE. 9 
 
 ing the great Civil War and were hurried off to the West and 
 Northwest to meet the oft recurring outbreaks of cruel and 
 stealthy Indians, who massacred white settlers by hundreds 
 and left a trail of blood and ashes behind them. The cam 
 paigns and battles of these officers against such a crafty and 
 elusive foe intensely interested me. 
 
 While I was Commissioner of freedmen, working from 
 Washington as a center, and deeply engaged in that work for 
 the negroes, as one might well be, an aged Quaker friend, a 
 noncombatant, interviewed the officials who were mainly re 
 sponsible for the Indian conditions that existed at that time, 
 and entreated that I should be sent to the far Southwest as a 
 representative of the extreme peacemakers of the country. 
 This friend was an influential member of the Indian Com 
 mission, and the result of his appeal was that I was detailed 
 by President Grant to go to Arizona and New Mexico, 
 not as a commander of troops or of the Department, but as 
 a " Peace Commissioner " with instructions to assuage dif 
 ficulties and settle troubles that had arisen between various 
 savage Indian tribes, and between them and white settlers. 
 Some of the tribes and bands involved were the Yumas, the 
 Maricopas, and the Pimas, who were just then being intro 
 duced to civilized ways ; the Papagos, who wanted more land 
 and better schools ; the Arivipa Apaches, who had been mur 
 derously dealt with by so-called white men of the territory; 
 the White Mountain Apaches, then at peace, but suffering 
 from disease and always seemingly on the verge of war ; and 
 the roaming bands of wild Apaches who made their living 
 principally by stealing ungathered corn from Mexican in 
 habitants of the river valleys of New Mexico. In carrying 
 out my instructions I was brought into close contact with the 
 Navajos, seven thousand strong, who had always quarreled 
 more or less with their Indian neighbors, and who had been 
 bitterly complained of by all American frontiersmen and 
 settlers in their vicinity; and also with the Chiricahuas, 
 who were then actively engaged in war, led by the notorious 
 and bloodthirsty Cochise, under whom Apaches kept up 
 a constant and irritating border warfare. Cochise s cap 
 tains led their wild bands through Arizona and New Mexico, 
 and even through parts of Old Mexico, stealing horses, 
 cattle, sheep, and whatever they could lay their hands on, 
 and waging a war of extermination against the whites. 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 They never spared a stagecoach nor its passengers. It 
 was even said that only one white man among the many 
 captives they had taken from over-land stagecoaches and 
 wagon trains was known to have escaped death at their 
 hands, and his ascendency over Cochise was not easily ex 
 plained. 
 
 But President Grant wanted peace, and he firmly estab 
 lished and developed his well known " Peace Policy. 7 It took 
 from early in March until December to accomplish the task set 
 for me by the President and the Indian Department, In do 
 ing this I had not only the inertia and indifference of some 
 Indians, and the active hostilities of others to contend with, 
 but many hindrances from some of my old comrades of the 
 army, and the unanimous combined opposition of the Ameri 
 can and Mexican settlers who were neighbors to the Indian 
 reservations. I tried in every way to settle these troubles 
 without bloodshed. 
 
 I had hardly finished my work in the East as Commis 
 sioner of Freedmen and Refugees, when I was hastened off 
 to the extreme Northwest, where my first duty was to take 
 care of Modoc prisoners. Next I visited the tribes of 
 Alaska and the Pacific Coast; then came remarkable experi 
 ences with the Columbia Eiver Indians and their allied 
 bands, followedl)y the notable and no less arduous Nez Perce 
 campaign. In peace the non-treaty Nez Perces were restless 
 and fretful ; in war none fought with greater bravery ; nor do 
 I believe that any other body of Indians was ever more ably 
 led than they under Chief Joseph, who displayed consum 
 mate generalship in his conduct of that campaign. As a 
 consequence of this campaign, the Bannocks and Pi-Utes 
 subsequently waged a bloody war of depredation and murder 
 that tested the endurance of our troops in long forced marches 
 and swift racings through almost endless wastes and forests- 
 These bloody wars involved directly and indirectly many 
 other Indian tribes, such as the Flat-heads, the Shoshones, the 
 Snakes, the Crows, and others. 
 
 To me, the most satisfactory operation in the Northwest 
 was inaugurated by a very small band of savage Indians near 
 the head waters of the Salmon river. In this campaign I did 
 not take the field, but my trusted subordinates subdued the In 
 dians, captured the whole tribe, and brought them down the 
 Columbia river to my headquarters, which were then near 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 Vancouver Barracks. Here we had the opportunity of ap 
 plying the processes of civilization, namely, systematic work 
 and persistent instruction to Indian children and youth. 
 These Indians were well fitted to abandon their tepees and 
 blankets, dress as white men, and join the civilized Warm 
 Spring Indians who dwelt just beyond the Dalles of the 
 Columbia. In this work of preparation, or I may say of 
 probation, the young Indian princess, Sarah Winnemucca, - 
 of whom I shall have something to say in this volume, was 
 my interpreter, and bore a prominent and efficient part. 
 
 It is often said that the Indian child, even after 
 receiving the best education that we can give, will re 
 turn to barbarism at the first good opportunity. It is a 
 fact that some Indian children and youth do go back to the 
 blanket and their wild life. How can they help it? I 
 think if I should dwell a year or two with any savage tribe 
 I should live as they live; I should dress as they dress; I 
 should reside as they do in tepees or lodges, and not in 
 houses ; and I should probably eat out of the common pot, and 
 be, to all intents and purposes, an Indian. Those who have 
 been the most successful in civilizing Indians, brought about 
 a gradual separation from savage ways of living and intro 
 duced various peaceful industries among them. It was a 
 necessity. There is no virtue that I have not seen exem 
 plified in some of the different Indian tribes with which I 
 had to do. As a rule, they kept their promises to me with 
 wonderful fidelity, often putting themselves to extraordinary 
 exertion and peril. 
 
 The writing of this book has brought to the surface a 
 flood of recollections of those exciting days, and again thrown 
 into strong light many incidents which at the time in 
 tensely interested me. Indian life, as I observed it then, * 
 always afforded me enjoyment, Yet, when I glance back 
 ward over the field of my dealings with hostile Indians,! 
 I reckon my experiences as President Grant s Peace Com 
 missioner, as the most trying; but thanks to Divine help, 
 which I love to recognize and acknowledge, the strenuous 
 efforts then put forth resulted in great success. President 
 Grant s peace policy was made to prevail. At the close 
 of that year I believe that all our Indian tribes were at 
 peace, though they did not long remain so, as will be seen 
 from the stirring events set forth in the following pages. 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 Some of the seed of the outbreaks that followed were already 
 germinating, and subsequently sprang into vigorous life in 
 spite of every effort of the administration to suppress them. 
 
 It has been my aim to give to the world a connected and 
 comprehensive narrative of varied experiences with these 
 Indians, with some account of life as I observed it among 
 them in peace and war, together with as much history of 
 some of them as my personal knowledge would justify. We 
 must always, when we glance at the low, the vile, and the bad, 
 get our eyes as quickly as possible away and fix them upon 
 the high, the beautiful, and the good, and remember that, 
 by God s help in Christ, we can elevate men to the noblest. 
 
Jfrom special pbotograpbs supplfel> bv> tbe TUniteb States JBureau of ]tbnologs ano 
 from otber aouices, reprotwceb (n facsimile erpressls for tbis boofe. 
 
 1 PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL 0. O. HOWARD Frontispiece 
 
 2 ORNAMENTAL HEADING TO INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 3 ORNAMENTAL HEADING TO PREFACE ...... 8 
 
 4 ORNAMENTAL HEADING TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . .13 
 
 5 ORNAMENTAL HEADING TO CONTENTS 23 
 
 6 COLORED PLATE I To face 46 
 
 Boy s Buckskin Shirt; Girl s Buckskin Beaded Leggings; 
 Belt, Pouches, etc. 
 
 7 COLORED PLATE II To face 78 
 
 Dolls, Male and Female, of Various Tribes; Doll Warriors, 
 Toys, etc. 
 
 8 AN INDIAN ARTIST AT WORK IN HIS LODGE PAINTING 
 
 A BUFFALO ROBE To face 106 
 
 9 ON THE MARCH UNITED STATES CAVALRY CROSS 
 
 ING THE GREAT PLAINS To face 132 
 
 10 COLORED PLATE III To face 158 
 
 War and Ceremonial Tomahawks, Clubs, Slung Shots, 
 War Weapons, etc. 
 
 11 COLORED PLATE IV To face 200 
 
 Red Cloud s Buckskin War Shirt Ornamented with Human 
 Scalps and Beads; Beaded Leggings and Moccasins. 
 
 12 COMANCHE, KIOWA, AND NAVAJO CHILDREN To face 216 
 
 NAVAJO BOY COMANCHE GIRLS KIOWA GIRLS. 
 
 13 INDIANS RETURNING TO THEIR CAMPS FROM A FALL 
 
 BUFFALO HUNT To face 240 
 
14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 14 COLORED PLATE V To face 260 
 
 War and Sacred Shields ; Beaded Blanket Band ; Woman s 
 Belt, Warrior s Disk Strap, Head Dress, etc. 
 
 15 PURSUED A BAND OF INDIANS CHASING A PONY 
 
 EXPRESS RIDER . . . . . .To fact 280 
 
 16 INDIAN METHOD OF ATTACKING OVERLAND WAGON 
 
 TRAINS To face 328 
 
 (1) CIRCLING AROUND A WAGON TRAIN THAT HAS GONE 
 
 INTO CORRAL FOR DEFENSE. 
 
 (2) LYING IN AMBUSH W T HILE WATCHING AN APPROACH 
 
 ING WAGON TRAIN. 
 
 17 COLORED PLATE VI To face 346 
 
 Girl s Buckskin Beaded Clothes Bag; Garters; Toilet 
 and Tobacco Pouches; Moccasins, Needle Case, Fire 
 Bag, etc. 
 
 18 COLORED PLATE VII To face 366 
 
 War Bonnet of Red Flannel Ornamented With Scalp 
 Locks, Eagle Feathers and Buffalo Horns; Pipes, 
 Flutes, etc. 
 
 (1) DISMOUNTED UNITED STATES CAVALRY 
 , REPULSING MOUNTED WARRIORS 
 
 < (2) UNITED STATES , TROOPS AND SCOUTS 
 
 SURPRISING A BODY OF INDIANS . To face 384 
 
 20 NOTORIOUS INDIAN RAIDERS AND FREEBOOTERS 
 
 To face 410 
 
 " White Horse " Kiowa, a Notorious Raider killed in 
 1893 " Always Riding " A Ute Raider Old 
 Navajo Warrior With Lance and Shield. 
 
 21 GROUP OF KOOTENAI INDIANS AND THEIR CAMP 
 
 IDAHO To face 422 
 
 22 WARRIORS CHARGING AROUND THE SUN POLE A 
 
 SCENE AT THE GREAT SUN DANCE . .To face 460 
 
 23 COLORED PLATE VIII To face 468 
 
 Facsimile of an Original Indian Drawing of a Ceremonial 
 Dance Shows facial decoration drawn with colored 
 crayons and pencils by Big Back, a Cheyenne. 
 
 24 THE BATTLEFIELD OF WOUNDED KNEE, SHOWING 
 
 DEAD WARRIORS JUST AS THEY FELL . . To face 474 
 
 25 THE BATTLEFIELD OF WOUNDED KNEE AFTER THE 
 
 BLIZZARD, THREE DAYS AFTER THE FIGHT, SHOW 
 ING INDIAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN JUST AS THEY 
 FELL To face 478 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 15 
 
 26 BURIAL OF INDIANS KILLED IN THE BATTLE OF 
 
 WOUNDED KNEE To face 484 
 
 27 FACSIMILE OF AN INDIAN DRAWING BY RED HORSE, 
 
 A SIOUX, SHOWING GENERAL OUSTER S TROOPS 
 CHARGING AN INDIAN CAMP IN THE BATTLE OF 
 THE LITTLE BIG HORN To face 496 
 
 28 FACSIMILE OF AN INDIAN DRAWING BY RED HORSE, 
 
 A SIOUX, SHOWING THE SIOUX FIGHTING CUSTER S 
 BATTALION IN THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG 
 
 HORN To face 500 
 
 Red Horse was present at the battle. In his drawing he 
 shows dead soldiers in the foreground with limbs and 
 heads cut off, and the bodies otherwise mutilated. 
 Bugles, hats, and flags are scattered around, some of 
 the wounded cavalrymen are shown falling from their 
 horses. Wounds are generally indicated by spots from 
 which blood is flowing. One cavalryman is shot in the 
 mouth with an arrow. The drawing will repay careful 
 study. 
 
 (1) THE KNOLL ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF THE 
 LITTLE BIG HORN WHERE GENERAL CUSTER 
 AND HIS MEN FELL AND WERE BURIED . 
 
 The cross marks the spot where General Custer fell. 
 Gravestones mark the places where some of his soldiers 
 fell around him. General Custer s monument is at the 
 top of the knoll. One hundred and ninety-two soldiers 
 killed in this battle are buried on this spot. 
 (2) SOLDIERS CEMETERY ON CUSTER S BATTLE 
 FIELD 
 
 The remains of one hundred and six soldiers mas 
 sacred by Indians at Fort Phil. Kearney were removed 
 to Custer s battlefield and buried on this spot. The 
 white spots in the distance mark places where some of 
 Custer s men fell at the battle of the Little Big Horn. 
 
 To face 506 
 
 30 NOTED CHEYENNE INDIANS IN THEIR WILD STATE 
 
 To face 510 
 PLENTY HORSES LITTLE CHIEF STARVING ELK 
 
 31 COMMUNICATION BY SIGNS .... To face 534 
 
 ( 1 ) FRIEND OR FOE ? " STANDING OFF " INDIANS 
 
 (2) A POWWOW WITH THE CHEYENNES IN THE SlGN 
 
 LANGUAGE 
 
16 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 32 COLORED PLATE IX To face 544 
 
 ( 1 ) Necklace of Human Fingers, Arrow Heads and Teeth, 
 Attached to a Beaded Buckskin Collar. 
 
 (2) Necklace Made of the First Joints of Human Fingers. 
 
 33 THE GIANT SINTI FOOLING THE PRAIRIE DOGS . . 554 
 
 " Doggies, doggies, whisk your tails just the way I say." 
 
 34 THE LAME COYOTE FOOLING THE GIANT SINTI . . 556 
 
 35 COLORED PLATE X To face 556 
 
 Indian and White Scalps, Scalping Knives, Sheaths, 
 Bow, Bow-Case and Quiver, Arrows, etc. 
 
 36 AN INDIAN HORSE RACE THE FINISH To face 564 
 
LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH PLATES 
 
 WITH 
 
 Descriptions anD <rpianarion 
 
 [For a description of how these plates were made see the Publisher s Preface.} 
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 To face page 46 
 
 BOY S BUCKSKIN SHIRT; GIRL S BUCKSKIN BEADED 
 LEGGINGS; BELT, POUCHES, ETC. 
 
 1. IROQUOIS MOCCASINS. 
 
 Made of cloth, bound with silk, and handsomely ornamented with 
 beads. 
 
 ^OWA BOY S BUCKSKIN SHIRT. 
 
 An exceedingly handsome specimen. Made of buckskin tanned 
 as soft as velvet. The erect flap at the top was worn turned 
 down over the back of the wearer. 
 
 3. KIOWA GIRL S LEATHER BELT. 
 
 Ornamented with silver disks. To the belt is attached toilet 
 and umbilical pouches. 
 
 4. CHEYENNE GIRL S BUCKSKIN LEGGINGS. 
 
 Handsomely ornamented with beads. 
 
 5. KIOWA GIRL S BUCKSKIN LEGGINGS WITH MOCCASINS ATTACHED. 
 
 Handsomely ornamented with beads and metal disks. These leg 
 gings are of a different pattern from those shown in No. 4. 
 
 6. APACHE POUCH. 
 
 Decorated with original designs. 
 
 7. APACHE POUCH. 
 
 Beautifully ornamented with quills. 
 
 2 
 
18 LIST OF CHROMO-LITHOORAPH-PLATES. 
 
 PLATE II. To face page 78 
 
 DOLLS, MALE AND FEMALE, OF VARIOUS TRIBES, 
 DOLL WARRIORS, TOYS, ETC. 
 
 1. INDIAN DOLL WITH WOODEN HEAD. 
 
 Dressed in buckskin, and ornamented with beads. Tribe un 
 known. 
 
 2. KIOWA DOLL WARRIOR MOUNTED ON A DOLL HORSE. 
 
 The doll is dressed in fringed buckskin ; the horse is made of soft 
 buckskin, and is stuffed with horsehair. 
 
 3. Sioux DOLL WARRIOR. 
 
 Dressed in buckskin and pieces of flannel ; equipped with a minia 
 ture bow-case and quiver ; scalp lock carefully braided. 
 
 4. PUEBLO FEMALE DOLL. 
 
 Made of clay, with hideously painted face ; dressed in pieces of 
 flannel ; head ornamented with tufts of horsehair. 
 
 5. CHEYENNE MALE DOLL. 
 
 Dressed in buckskin, calico, and flannel ; scalp lock attached. 
 
 6. PRAIRIE INDIAN FEMALE DOLL. 
 
 Dressed in soft buckskin ; profusely ornamented with beads. 
 
 7. CHEYENNE DOLL. 
 
 Dressed in buckskin and calico. 
 
 PLATE III. To face page 158 
 
 WAR AND CEREMONIAL TOMAHAWKS, CLUBS, SLING 
 SHOTS, WAR WEAPONS, ETC. 
 
 1. WAR CLUB WITH BLADE INSERTED AT THE HEAD. 
 
 Ornamented with scalp locks at the top, and fur and beaded flan 
 nel at the bottom ; handle studded with brass nails. 
 
 2. APACHE SLING SHOT. 
 
 The head is made of a round stone encased in rawhide ; the han 
 dle is ornamented with part of a horse s tail. 
 
 3. CHEYENNE WAR TOMAHAW T K. 
 
 To the handle is attached a piece of flannel ornamented with 
 feathers. This is a real war weapon, and differs from the 
 tomahawk pipe which has a bowl at the head for tobacco, and 
 a perforated handle through which to draw the smoke. 
 
 4. GENUINE WAR TOMAHAWK. Tribe unknown. 
 
 5. PIEGAN TOMAHAWK PIPE. 
 
 Has a hollow head for holding tobacco ; the handle is perforated 
 so that smoke can be drawn through ; to the handle is at 
 tached a fringed piece of leather elaborately beaded. 
 
 6. GENUINE WAR TOMAHAWK. Tribe unknown. 
 
 7. STONE WAR CLUB. 
 
 The head is of stone, shaped by the Indians, and bound with raw 
 hide to the handle ; bottom of handle is ornamented with scalp 
 locks, horsehir, and feathers. 
 
LIST OF CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH-PLATES. 1 
 
 8. GENUINE WAH TOMAHAWK. Tribe unknown. 
 
 9. WAR KNIFE TAKEN FROM THE ROGUE RIVER INDIANS. 
 
 10. GENUINE WAR TOMAHAWK. Tribe unknown. 
 
 11. STONE WAR CLUB. 
 
 Ornamented with braided scalp locks. 
 
 12. WAR CLUB WITH SPIKED WOODEN HEAD. 
 
 13. WAR CLUB WITH SPIKED WOODEN HEAD. 
 
 14. SPOKANE INDIAN CLUB. 
 
 15. ARAPAHOE TOMAHAWK PIPE. 
 
 16. WAR CLUB WITH BARBED SPIKES. 
 
 PLATE IV. To face page 200 
 
 RED CLOUD S BUCKSKIN WAR SHIRT, ORNAMENTED 
 
 WITH HUMAN SCALPS AND BEADS; BEADED 
 
 LEGGINGS AND MOCCASINS. 
 
 1. WAR SHIRT OF RED CLOUD, THE FAMOUS Sioux CHIEF. 
 
 This is one of the finest specimens of an Indian war shirt in ex 
 istence. It is made of soft buckskin, beautifully tanned and 
 dyed, and is elaborately ornamented with beads. It is decorated 
 with an extraordinary number of human scalps. 
 
 2. NEZ PERCES BEADED MOCCASINS. 
 
 Made of buckskin and ornamented with beads. 
 
 3. KIOWA-APACHE BUCKSKIN BEADED LEGGINGS. 
 
 These leggings are remarkably fine specimens, and are very pro 
 fusely and handsomely decorated with beads. 
 
 4. KIOWA BOY S BEADED MOCCASINS. 
 
 Beautifully ornamented with beads and rich in color. 
 
 PLATE V. T f acc vw* 26 
 
 WAR AND SACRED SHIELDS; BEADED BLANKET 
 
 BAND; WOMAN S BELT; WARRIOR S DISK 
 
 STRAP; HEADDRESS, ETC. 
 
 1. FANCY BEADED BLANKET BAND. 
 
 2. ARAPAHOE WAR SHIELD. 
 
 Ornamented with eagle feathers and panther claws. Indian 
 drawings and symbols are shown on the face of the shield. 
 
 3. KIOWA WARRIOR S DISK STRAP. 
 
 Made of leather, to which are attached silver disks. These orna 
 mented straps were usually fastened to the scalp lock and left 
 hanging down the back. They were frequently worn in battle. 
 
20 LIST OF CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH-PLATES. 
 
 4. WOMAN S BEADED LEATHER BELT WITH HANGING STRAP, ORNA 
 
 MENTED WITH SILVER DISKS. 
 To the belt is attached a toilet pouch, awl and needle-case. 
 
 5. KIOWA CEREMONIAL HEADDRESS. 
 
 Made of bristles of turkey beard and hair of the elk dyed red ; 
 
 ornamented with ribbons and eagle feathers. 
 G. KIOWA SACRED SHIELD. 
 
 A perfect facsimile of the most sacred shield of the Kiowas, dedi 
 cated to the " Taime " spirit or Sun God, and painted with 
 symbolical figures of the sun and moon ; ornamented with the 
 carcass of a crow and claws of a panther. This shield was for 
 merly owned by the Kiowa Medicine Chief, Thunder, and was 
 with great difficulty procured by Mr. James Mooney and by him 
 presented to the government. 
 
 PLATE VI. To face page 346 
 
 GIRL S BUCKSKIN BEADED CLOTHES BAG; GARTERS; 
 
 TOILET AND TOBACCO POUCHES; MOCCASINS, 
 
 NEEDLE CASE, FIRE BAG, ETC. 
 
 1. KIOWA MOCCASINS. 
 
 Made of soft buckskin, beautifully colored and ornamented with 
 beads and fringe. 
 
 2. KIOWA BEADED FIRE BAG. 
 
 Used for carrying flint, steel, and tinder. 
 
 3. CHEYENNE TOILET POUCH. 
 
 Made of the skin of a calf s head. 
 
 4. SANTEE-SIOUX BEADED GARTERS. 
 
 These garters were obtained from a wounded survivor of the 
 battle of Wounded Knee. They are beautiful specimens of 
 fine bead work. 
 
 5. BEADED BUCKSKIN CLOTHES BAG. 
 
 A very unique and handsome specimen. It is made of soft buck 
 skin, and is elaborately ornamented with beads. Used by Indian 
 girls as a receptacle for their clothes and personal belongings. 
 
 6. ORNAMENTED TOBACCO POUCH. 
 
 A handsome specimen from the Plains Indians. Tribe unknown. 
 
 7. BEADED BAG. 
 
 Supposed to be a tobacco pouch. Made of soft buckskin, and 
 handsomely ornamented with beads. Tribe unknown. 
 
 8. KIOWA MOCCASINS. 
 
 Richly colored and profusely ornamented with beads and fringe. 
 
 9. CROW BEADED TOBACCO POUCH. 
 
 Made of soft buckskin, handsomely ornamented with beads. 
 
 10. Sioux TOBACCO POUCH. 
 
 A fine specimen, decorated with beads and porcupine quills. 
 
 11. KIOWA GIRL S PERFUME POUCH. 
 
 Also frequently used to carry simple toilet articles. 
 
LIST OF CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH-PLATES. 21 
 
 PLATE VII. To face page 366 
 
 WAR BONNET OF RED FLANNEL ORNAMENTED WITH 
 
 SCALP LOCKS, EAGLE FEATHERS, AND BUFFALO 
 
 HORNS; PIPES, FLUTES, ETC. 
 
 1. DANCE STAFF. 
 
 Commonly carried iu the hands while dancing. 
 
 2. SUPERB WAR BONNET. 
 
 Ornamented with buffalo horns and eagle feathers attached to 
 red flannel. 
 
 3. COMMON TOMAHAWK PIPE. 
 
 4. COMMON RED CLAY PIPE. 
 
 5. ELABORATE PEACE PIPE. 
 
 6. KIOWA FLUTE. 
 
 Made of two pieces of hollow wood fastened together with thongs. 
 
 7. CADDO FLUTE. 
 
 8. INDIAN WHISTLE. 
 
 Made of the wing bone of an eagle. These whistles are fre 
 quently carried in the Sun Dance, and blown incessantly by 
 the dancers. 
 
 9. RED CLAY PIPE. 
 
 PLATE VIII. To face page 468 
 
 FACSIMILE OF AN ORIGINAL INDIAN DRAWING OF A 
 CEREMONIAL DANCE. 
 
 Drawn with colored crayons and pencils by Big Back, a Chey 
 enne. It shows facial decoration in various designs and colors 
 intended to make the face as hideous as possible. 
 
 PLATE IX. To face page 544 
 
 1. NECKLACE OF HUMAN FINGERS, ARROW HEADS AND 
 TEETH, ATTACHED TO BEADED BUCKSKIN COLLAR. 
 
 Made of human fingers attached to a beaded buckskin collar, 
 ornamented with medicine arrows, medicine bags, and human 
 teeth. To the collar are attached eight left-hand middle 
 fingers of Indians of hostile tribes, killed by High Wolfe, a 
 Cheyenne. This last ghastly trophy of his prowess was worn 
 by him as evidence of the number of the enemy he had killed. 
 It was captured by Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. A., an experi 
 enced Indian fighter, who loaned it to the publishers for re 
 production in this book. Capt. Bourke died while this volume 
 was in press. A full account of the necklace and its capture 
 is given in Chapter XXVIII in Capt. Bourke s own words. 
 
 2. NECKLACE MADE OF THE FIRST JOINTS OF HUMAN 
 FINGERS ATTACHED TO A LEATHER COLLAR. 
 
 The history of this necklace is unknown. It is supposed that 
 each one of the nineteen finger joints represents a human life. 
 To whom the necklace belonged, or from what tribe it was 
 taken, and by whom, is unknown. 
 
22 LIST OF CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH-PLATES. 
 
 PLATE X. T O face p age $ 
 
 INDIAN AND WHITE SCALPS, SCALPING KNIVES, 
 
 SHEATHS, BOW, BOW CASE AND QUIVER, 
 
 ARROWS, ETC. 
 
 1. MEDICINE ARROW. 
 
 To it are attached two closely braided scalp locks, fastened to 
 beaded disks. 
 
 2. SCALPING KNIFE SHEATH. 
 
 Handsomely ornamented with beads. Northern Plains Indians. 
 
 3. SCALP OF A BLACKFOOT INDIAN. 
 
 A study of the scalp will show how the Indians divided a single 
 scalp into many scalp locks, which were used in ornamenting 
 war shirts, war bonnets, and for other purposes. A single 
 scalp was frequently divided into a dozen or more scalp locks. 
 Each lock does not, as is popularly supposed, represent one 
 dead person, but might be only one of many locks of the same 
 scalp. 
 
 4. Sioux BUCKSKIN QUIVER AND BOW-CASE. 
 
 A handsome specimen, richly ornamented with quills, and filled 
 with arrows. 
 
 5. SCALPING KNIFE SHEATH. 
 
 Sioux. Handsomely ornamented with beads. 
 
 6. CHEYENNE SCALP. 
 
 This scalp is stretched within a small hoop and shows how scalps 
 were prepared for the scalp dance. After being stretched in 
 this manner, they were carried aloft on poles during the dance, 
 usually by women. 
 
 7. Sioux Bow. 
 
 This bow belongs to outfit No. 4. 
 
 8. SCALPING KNIFE. 
 
 0. WHITE MAN S SCALP WITH COMB ATTACHED. 
 
 This scalp was taken from the Sioux and is stretched on a 
 wooden frame ornamented with fur. The comb attached was 
 probably taken from the body of the victim. The scalp is 
 shown just as prepared for the scalp dance. 
 
 10. AN INDIAN CAP OR HEADDRESS. 
 
 11. SCALPING KNIFE. 
 
 12. SCALPING KNIFE. 
 
 13. SCALPING KNIFE SHEATH. 
 
 From the Plains Indians. Handsomely ornamented with beads. 
 
 14. CARTRIDGE BELT, SCALPING KNIFE AND SHEATH. 
 
 Taken from the Kiowas. This outfit has evidently seen much 
 service, and was probably captured by them from a white trap 
 per or plainsman. The sheath is studded with brass nails. 
 
 15. SCALPING KNIFE SHEATH. 
 
 Taken from the Sioux. 
 10. WAR AND HUNTING ARROWS. 
 
 These are specimens from the quiver No. 4. 
 
 17. RAWHIDE WHIP OR QUIRT. 
 
 A severe instrument in the hands of Indians, who belabored 
 their animals unmercifully with it. Also used in many of 
 their ceremonies. 
 
 18. SCALPING KNIFE SHEATH. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 MY BOYHOOD AND EARLY HOME SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 
 
 DAYS APPOINTED AS A CADET TO WEST POINT 
 
 MILITARY ACADEMY. 
 
 Looking Backward Recollections of my Parents Grandfather s 
 Chimney Corner The Old Home in Maine Listening to Grand 
 father s Indian Tales My Father s Death Working as Man-of- 
 all-Work for my Board Attending the Village School Entering 
 Bowdoin College Appointed as a Cadet to West Point A Mo 
 mentous Step Going Forth into the World Arrival at West 
 Point Warned to Dispense with my Silk Hat and Cane " Stand 
 Straight, Sir ! " Reminiscences of West Point, . .39 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHASING INDIANS THROUGH THE EVERGLADES OF FLORIDA 
 
 INDIAN FIGHTERS WHO AFTERWARDS BECAME GREAT 
 
 MILITARY LEADERS IN THE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 The Story of Major Dade Indian Campaigns in Florida General 
 Sherman s Early Indian Experiences In the Heart of the Ever 
 glades A Sudden and Unexpected Attack Massacre of Major 
 Dade and His Command Viewing the Slain and Mutilated Bodies 
 of Our Troops Defeat and Flight of the Indians My First Meet 
 ing with General George H. Thomas Some of His Early Indian 
 Experiences His Own Account of a " Scout " against the Apaches 
 Pulling Arrows out of His Own Flesh His Unwavering Loyalty 
 to the Union, . . 59 
 
24 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 GRADUATING FROM WEST POINT MY MARRIAGE FIRST 
 
 CALL TO ACTIVE DUTY BREAKING UP OUR 
 
 HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 My Graduation from West Point A Memorable Year My Marriage 
 
 Settling our Home First Sudden Call to Duty The Conster 
 nation it Occasioned Scattering of the Family Ordered to 
 Florida A Renowned Indian Fighter The Seminoles Hiding 
 in the Great Cypress Swamps " Billy Bowlegs," the Chosen 
 Seminole Leader Raiding the Settlements An Amusing Inter 
 preter Meeting Young Officers Who Were Afterwards Generals in 
 the Civil War Recollections of Them A Crazy Soldier and an 
 Unpleasant Episode An Undignified Escape from Indiana, . 73 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE SEMINOLES INCIDENTS AND 
 EXPERIENCES OF MY ARMY LIFE IN FLORIDA. 
 
 Breakfasting with General Harney " Mr. Howard, you will be my 
 Chief of Ordnance " Becoming Accustomed to my Surroundings 
 
 A Pleasant Resort Mustering Volunteers into Service Gen 
 eral Harney Relieved from Command " We Haven t Lost any 
 Indians " Dislike of the Regulars for Indian Service Chasing 
 Indians from Place to Place Seeking Peace Ordered to Find 
 " Billy Bowlegs " A Journey into the Interior New and Fresh 
 Experiences A Nap Better than a Toddy Great Stature of the 
 Seminoles Their Physical Superiority over other Indians Semi 
 nole Women Making a " Good Peace," 86 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SKETCH OF MY MILITARY CAREER DURING THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 -ATTITUDE OF OUR WILD INDIANS DURING 
 
 THAT PERIOD. 
 
 On Duty at West Point as Instructor in Mathematics A Congenial 
 Position Thoughts of Entering the Gospel Ministry Fall of Fort 
 Sumter Opening of the Civil War Solving Some Personal Prob 
 lems I Become Colonel of a Maine Regiment Rapid Promotion 
 
 Active Military Service Restless and Troublesome Indians 
 Condition of Affairs in the Indian Territory Recruiting Indians 
 for the Confederate , Army An Important Treaty Effect of the 
 Civil War on the Indian Question, ... 96 
 
CONTENTS. 25 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GREAT UPRISING OF HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE NORTHWEST 
 THE TERRIBLE SIOUX MASSACRE IN MINNESOTA. 
 
 Trouble with the Indians on the Border Uneasy Savages of the North 
 west Threatened Outbreak of the Sioux Red Iron s Eloquent 
 Speech The Great Uprising The Crafty and Notorious Chief 
 Little Crow A Reign of Terror, Murder, Rapine, and Pillage 
 Indiscriminate Slaughter of White Men, Women, and Children 
 Settlers Banding Together for Defense A Resolute White Leader 
 A Fearful Onslaught Bloody Campaign Against the Sioux 
 Defeat of Little Crow Trial of Five Hundred Hostile Indians 
 Execution of Thirty-eight of them upon One Scaffold Where and 
 How They Were Buried Death of Little Crow, . . .105 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ASSIGNED TO DUTY AMONG THE BLOODTHIRSTY APACHES 
 MY ARRIVAL IN ARIZONA. 
 
 A New Field of Labor " Grant s Peace Policy" The Fierce and 
 Murderous Apaches A Roaming and Warlike Tribe Cochise, 
 the Notorious Apache Chief An Elusive and Dangerous Foe 
 Their Sudden Descents on Scattered Settlements Slaying Every 
 White Man Far and Near My Arrival at Fort Yuma No Rain, 
 for Three Years A Six-mule Ambulance " Dismal Jeems " 
 An Extraordinary Driver Comical Dignity of an Indian Chief 
 Vanished Pomp and Pride Appearance of the Yumas Arizona 
 Sand Storms, 120 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ARIZONA JOURNEYING ACROSS THE "AL 
 KALI DESERT " LIFE AMONG THE PIMAS 
 AND MARICOPAS. 
 
 Disagreeable Effects of Alkali Dust A Ration of Raw Onions " Oh, 
 Pshaw! The General W T ould Eat a Boiled Crow! " A New Way 
 of Obtaining Self-Control Trailing the Apaches Tales Told by 
 "Dismal Jeems" A Dry and Barren Country- 1 My Pima Indian 
 Interpreter Civilizing Wild Indians with a Melodeon A Man 
 with a Remarkable History A Queer Missionary " Let the Par 
 son Preach ! " Religious Service in a Frontier Saloon Oddly 
 Constructed Houses A Missionary Bride, . . . .131 
 
26 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN AND AROUND TUCSON INTENSE FEELING AGAINST THE 
 INDIANS OF ARIZONA A TRAGIC INCIDENT. 
 
 A Typical Frontier Character A Much Armed Sheriff A Walking 
 Arsenal Among the Papagoes Indians Who Embraced the 
 Roman Catholic Religion A Mexican Dancing Party An At 
 tractive Indian Maiden A Harmless Flirtation Ludicrous Mis 
 take of my Aid-de-Camp "Good Pigs, Senorita! "-Hospitality 
 of an Army Post Trying the White Man s Ways My Mexican 
 Half-breed Interpreter Capable but Dirty My Devoted Friend, 
 Chief " Santo " Outrageous Attack on Indians While Feasting and 
 Dancing Wounding Little Boys and Girls, .... 143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MEETING GENERAL CROOK INDIANS PLEADING FOR THE 
 RETURN OF THEIR CHILDREN HOW A MO 
 MENTOUS QUESTION WAS DECIDED. 
 
 A. Great Indian Fighter General Crook s Attitude Toward the Indians 
 Roads Infested by Hostiles The White Flag Hungry and 
 Tired of Fighting Lieutenant Ebstein s Experience Results of 
 Kind Treatment Dress and Ornaments of the Apaches Endur 
 ance and Speed of Indian Runners A Wonderful Journey on Foot 
 Gathering of the Apaches A Council Made up of Hostile Fac 
 tions Anxious Hours Indians Present their Grievances How 
 I Matured my Plans Praying for Guidance A Wonderful 
 Scene, . . . .151 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SELECTING A DELEGATION OF WILD APACHES TO VISIT 
 
 WASHINGTON GREAT FEAR OF THE JOURNEY - 
 
 CALLING UPON THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 Close of the Great Council A Visit from Tribe to Tribe Midnight 
 Visit to an Indian Camp A Rough March Arranging Details 
 of the Journey to Washington Getting the Party Together 
 Parting Scenes between Chiefs and their Families First Lesson 
 in the Use of Knives, Forks, and Spoons Trust Begets Trust 
 Loud Murmurs in a Discontented Camp First Glimpse of a Rail 
 road Indian Amazement and Curiosity First Ride in the Cars 
 Crouching Upon the Floor in Abject Terror Calling Upon the 
 President Opening their Hearts to Him, .... 163 
 
CONTENTS. 27 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I SET OUT TO FIND THE NOTORIOUS CHIEF, COCHISE. 
 
 Great Assembly of Relatives and Friends to Meet the Returning Braves 
 
 Chief Meguil and his Glass Eye Some Astonished Indians 
 Following the White Man s Ways Determined Efforts to Find 
 Cochise " Snake, General, Snake ! " Close Call from a Rattle 
 snake Meeting with " Tom Jeffords " " He s a Bad Egg " 
 Agrees to Take Me to the Camp of Cochise Starting on the Jour 
 ney A Strange and Suspicious Group Threatened by Angry 
 Miners Adventure with a Desperate Prospector Following an 
 Apache Trail Communicating Signs by Smoke Arrival at Co- 
 chise s Stronghold Meeting One of His Wives, . . . 177 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SCOUTING FOR THE APACHE CHIEF, COCHISE ENTERING 
 
 HIS MOUNTAIN STRONGHOLD FIRST NIGHT 
 
 IN A WILD CAMP. 
 
 Setting Out to Find Cochise "General, Aren t You Doing Wrong?" 
 
 Marching Under a Cloudless Sky A Camp Without Water 
 An Offer of Whisky in Place of Food A Midnight March An 
 Ideal Camp Little Savage Guides In an Apache Camp No 
 Word from Cochise " Will it be Peace?" "He is Coming!" 
 
 The Apaches Prepare to Receive their Chief Arrival of Co 
 chise " This is the Man " His Appearance A Long and In 
 teresting Interview Some Startling Questions A Midnight 
 Scare My Return Through a Dangerous Country, . . 190 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MY EXPERIENCES IN A WILD APACHE CAMP FAREWELL 
 
 TO COCHISE. 
 
 Getting Acquainted with Cochise A Dance of Welcome Becoming 
 Conduct of Indian Women Apache Mothers Inviting Cochise 
 to Dinner Some Ludicrous Table Manners Eating from my 
 Plate and Drinking from my Cup A Sudden and Startling Alarm 
 
 Cochise Becomes Intoxicated, Unruly, and Violent Disquieting 
 Rumors Managing Rough and Troublesome Customers A 
 Strange Ceremony and Weird Performance An Embarrassing 
 Offer A Chief Covets my Mules Offers to Exchange Two of His 
 Wives for Them Farewell to Cochise, 212 
 
28 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ASSIGNED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE COLUMBIA, EMBRAC 
 ING ALL THE NORTHWEST THE MODOCS 
 AND THE MODOC WAR. 
 
 An Arduous Task Ordered to Report to General W. T. Sherman 
 Assigned to the Department of the Columbia A Field Embracing 
 Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska My Arrival at Portland, 
 Oregon The Modocs and their Chief, " Captain Jack " Causes 
 that Led to the Modoc War Old Hostilities Revived Attempting 
 to Arrest the Leaders The Modoc Strongholds in the Lava Beds 
 
 Massacre of General Canby and of Dr. Thomas Defeat and Cap 
 ture of the Modocs " Scar-faced Charlie " End of the Modoc 
 Campaign, . . 226 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THREATENED HOSTILITIES A TRIBE THAT CAUSED TERROR 
 TO THE WHITE PEOPLE OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 Twenty-five Distinct Tribes of Indians in my New Field The Nez 
 Perec s Their Dress and Appearance Decoration of Their Horses 
 
 Fondness for Bright Colors and Picturesque Attires Fanciful 
 Dress of the Children The Famous Nez Perce" Chief Joseph 
 An Indian Feud Chief White Bird and His Band Indian 
 " Dreamers " and " Tooats " A Lazy Interpreter A Message 
 from Chief Joseph A Dignified Procession A Ceremonious Call 
 
 Clinging to Old Haunts " We Want Nothing from You " 
 Efforts to Avert the War, 232 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MY ARRIVAL AT FORT LAPWAI GROWING DISCONTENT AND 
 
 INSOLENCE OF THE INDIANS FEARS OF 
 
 AN OUTBREAK. 
 
 An Important Indian Council Happy " Medicine Men " A Pictur 
 esque Indian Procession A Suspicious Gathering A Fear-inspir 
 ing Song My Plain Talk to Chief Joseph His Reply "They 
 Treat me like a Dog" Growing Excitement Defiant Attitude 
 of the Hostiles Ominous Signs Efforts to Conciliate the In 
 dians An Immediate Uprising Threatened A Fierce Rejoinder 
 
 "I am the Man " An Obstinate and Angry Indian Thrusting 
 a Mischiefmaker out of the Council Averting the Crisis A Dis 
 trusted Indian Chief, 246 
 
CONTENTS. 29 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 Sy 
 
 AMONG THE COLUMBIA RIVER INDIANS INCIDENTS AND 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES " CUT-MOUTH JOHN." 
 
 Up the Columbia River Smohollie, a Pompous Indian of Important 
 Manner Standing on His Dignity Treating Him with Indifi er- 
 ence Changing His Mind Sending for an Interpreter Rene 
 gade Indians Wild and Fierce to the Last The " Skookum- 
 House " An Insubordinate Old Chief United Against the Whites 
 
 An Odd Character A Sea-sick and Disgusted Indian " Cut- 
 Mouth John " How He Acquired His Name Introducing Him 
 self to Me His Dirty and Comical Uniform A Ludicrous Spec 
 tacle Trying to be a White Man 258 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 BIDDING ADIEU TO MY FAMILY FOR WHAT PROVES TO BE A 
 
 LONG ABSENCE ON THE VERGE OF A BLOODY 
 
 INDIAN WAR. 
 
 Chief Joseph s Bad Conduct Robbing a Missionary s House Miracu 
 lous escape from Bloody Hands Resting in Comfort, Peace, and 
 Hope My Fourteen " Commanding Officers " An Old Comrade 
 of the Civil War Chief Joseph s Unconverted Heart Guarding 
 Against Indian Treachery Release of Old Skemiah from the 
 " Skookum-house " His Grievances and Plea to go Back to the 
 Reservation Bidding Adieu to my Family It Proves to be a 
 Long One On the Verge of a Bloody War, .... 267 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OPENING OF HOSTILITIES BATTLES OF WHITE BIRD CAN 
 YON AND THE CLEAR WATER. 
 
 A Disquieting Message Starting for the Front Rendezvous of Chief 
 Joseph and the Hostiles Discovering the Indian Camp Guard 
 ing Against Surprise Murdering a Husband in the Presence 
 of His Wife Women and Children at the Mercy of Savages 
 Indescribable Brutalities The Battle of White Bird Canyon 
 Slaughter of the Troops Death of Lieutenant Theller Defeated 
 by the Indians Burial of Our Slain Comrades A Forced March 
 
 An Indian Ambuscade Battle of the Clear Water Flight of 
 the Indians Preparation for a Long Chase, .... 277 
 
30 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 PURSUIT AND DEFEAT OF THE INDIANS SURRENDER 
 OF CHIEF JOSEPH. 
 
 Marching through a Rough Country Word from General Gibbon 
 An Experienced Scout and Frontiersman The Fleeing Indians 
 Turn Back Upon Me A Vicious Night Attack Half-breed Buck 
 ing Ponies Arrival in the National Park Murdering a Party of 
 Visitors Lost in the Forest " The Howard Road " Unwearied 
 and Relentless Pursuit of the Indians An Adroit Indian Chief 
 Running the Gauntlet The Surrender, 290 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 STARTING FOR ALASKA EXPERIENCES WITH ALASKAN 
 CHIEFS AND TRIBES. 
 
 Reservation Indians of Puget Sound Evil Results of Dissolute White 
 Men Mingling with Indians Indians as Coal Miners Wonder 
 fully Picturesque and Varied Scenery Arrival at Fort Wrangel 
 Some Dejected Indians Listening to their Grievances In 
 fluence of Strong Drink Presenting a Tribe with the Dead Body 
 of their Chief A Dance of Satisfaction A Pantomime Show 
 Begging for a Teacher Hideously-painted Faces Sitka Indian 
 Chiefs Extreme Poverty and Vicious Indulgence Brief Sketch 
 of Colonel Guy Howard s Career, 301 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 OUR JOURNEY TO ALASKA CONTINUED A VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHILCATS, THE SUMDUMS, AND OTHER 
 
 PACIFIC COAST TRIBES. 
 
 Pacific Coast Indians Their Domestic Life A Patient Indian Suf 
 ferer A Contrary Old Woman " Sitka Jack " Among the 
 Chilcats A Faithful Watcher Home of the Sumdums Ice 
 bergs, Glaciers, and Picturesque Scenery Celebrating the Battle 
 of Bunker Hill Describing the Battlefield of Gettysburg Home- 
 ward Bound A Methodist Missionary s Home Religious Service 
 in an Indian Village How it was Conducted Publishing Mar 
 riage Banns Extraordinary Changes in Indian Life A Skeptical 
 Officer Ascending the Columbia River, . . . 310 
 
CONTENTS. 31 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE STORY OF MARCUS WHITMAN THRILLING ACCOUNT OF 
 HIS PERILOUS OVERLAND JOURNEY. 
 
 The Story of Doctor Whitman s Life The Remarkable Journey of 
 Four Flathead Indians The Quest for " The White Man s Book 
 of Life" A Brave Methodist Pioneer Open Hostilities of the 
 Great Fur Companies Starting on a Perilous Journey His Re 
 turn and Marriage Organizing Another Expedition Dangerous 
 Journey for Brides Toils and Privations of Frontier Missionary 
 Life Instigating a Massacre An " Indiscreet Conversation " 
 Whitman s Remarkable Journey to Washington Unspeakable 
 Hardships Mutterings of the Coming Storm, . . . .321 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A FRONTIER TRAGEDY THE COLD-BLOODED MASSACRE OF 
 MARCUS WHITMAN AND HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Scene of the Brutal Massacre Unsuspecting Settlers Engaged in Peace 
 ful Avocations Hovering and Watchful Indians Sudden Appear 
 ance of Indians at an Open Door Dr. Whitman Asked to Come into 
 the Kitchen The Deadly Tomahawk Fighting for Life Ghastly 
 Scenes "Oh, the Indians! the Indians! " The Infamous Mur 
 derer " Joe Lewis " Death of Dr. Whitman Heroic Efforts of His 
 Wife to Save His Life Discovering the Hidden Children Dread 
 ful and Heartrendinng Scenes "We Will Now Burn! " Assassi 
 nation of Mrs. Whitman Desperate Struggles for Life Escape of 
 the Few Survivors, 337 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING ON THE UPPER COLUMBIA EXPERIENCES 
 
 WITH MOSES, WAR-CHIEF OF THE SPOKANES 
 
 HIS OWN NARRATIVE. 
 
 Moses, the War-Chief of the Spokanes His Personal Appearance A 
 Diplomatic Indian Some Hostile Threats Fears of an Outbreak 
 My Letter to Chief Moses His Reply The Gathering War 
 Clouds Efforts to Pacify Moses Starting for His Camp Moses 
 and Sixty Painted Warriors Advance to Meet Me Hunting for the 
 Murderers of the Perkins Family Arrest of Moses and His Im 
 prisonment The Story of His Experiences Narrated by Himself 
 " Our Hearts are One," . . . ... ". .346 
 
32 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ADVENTURES AMONG THE BANNOCKS A MIDNIGHT WAR 
 DANCE AND ITS SEQUENCE. 
 
 The Bannocks Their Good Mounts and Equipment A Shocking Inci 
 dent My Bannock Scouts Mysterious Disappearance of Twenty 
 Horses How I Made the Indians Recover Them A Distrusted 
 Chief An Exciting Midnight Scene War-Dance of the Bannocks 
 
 An Uneasy Night in Camp Demanding Permission to Kill Three 
 of My Scouts Getting the Best of the Bannocks Execution of an 
 Indian Surrounding the Indians Fair Promises but Hollow 
 Hearts Plans for Revenge An* Old Indian Legend Looking 
 Forward to a Resurrection, 365 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER CAMPAIGN OPENING OF THE 
 PI-UTE AND BANNOCK WAR. 
 
 The Noted Pi-Ute Chief Egan An Indian Princess and Her Interesting 
 
 History An Anxious Night in Camp Some Wakeful Hours 
 
 Fresh Troubles with the Bannocks The Discontented Pi-Utes 
 
 The Promised Resurrection of Indians Anticipating an Outbreak 
 
 - The Lava Beds of the Modocs A Desolate and Sterile Region 
 
 An Ideal Place for Ambush Preparations for Another Cam 
 paign Constant Murders and Outrages Weakening an Indian s 
 Courage Terrified and Fleeing Settlers The Wary Chief Buffalo 
 Horn An Indian Woman s Loyal Service, .... 377 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 IN ACTIVE FIELD SERVICE AGAIN SARAH WINNEMUCCA S 
 
 REMARKABLE RIDE NEARING THE INDIAN 
 
 STRONGHOLD. 
 
 Planning the Campaign Active Field Service Sarah Winnemucca s 
 Ride The Story She Brought Fresh From the Hostile Camp 
 Incidents of Sarah s Remarkable Journey Scenes Along a Bloody 
 Trail " Who Are You ? " Climbing Steep and Rocky Moun 
 tains on Hands and Knees "Oh, Sarah, You Have Come to Save 
 Us! " An Old Indian Chief s Advice Escaping from the Hostile 
 Camp Followed by the Bannocks Some Brave Women and 
 their Escort A Strong Force of Indian Warriors, . . .389 
 
CONTENTS. 33 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 INCIDENTS AND HARDSHIPS OF AN INDIAN CAMPAIGN THE 
 
 BATTLE OF BIRCH CREEK FLIGHT OF THE 
 
 INDIANS. 
 
 A Chosen Indian Leader Panic in an Indian Camp Indian Women 
 for Guides Alarming Rumors The Battle of Curry Creek 
 Camp of the Renegades An Innocent-looking Log Pulling an 
 Old Indian Squaw Out of It Pursuing the Indians Picking up 
 a White Man s Scalp A Couple of Unreliable Guides A Steep 
 Descent of Four Miles Finding a Column of Pack-mules A 
 Word of Warning Locating the Indians Getting Ready for 
 Battle How a Soldier Feels Before a Battle Indians Abandon 
 Their Stronghold " Come on, You White Dogs! " . . . 398 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A LONG AND EXCITING CHASE THE ENGAGEMENTS THAT 
 
 FOLLOWED THRILLING INCIDENTS OF 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Stumbling Upon Fresh Indian Trails Catching Up With the Hostiles 
 " See the Enemy ! " Indian Tactics in Battle A Brutal 
 Cayuse Chief The Murder of Chief Egan and His Companions 
 Searching for Indian Hiding-places Six Hundred Indian Prison 
 ers Charging the Indians Across a River Murder of a Nez 
 Perce" Scout A Remarkable Death Scene Surprising a Crowd 
 of Indians Breaking up Indian Camps A Burly White Ruffian 
 Efforts to Provoke a Quarrel With Me Sarah Winnemucca s 
 Criticisms Death of Mattie, . . . . . "~. . 407 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AMONG THE SHEEP-EATERS CAMPAIGNING IN " THE LAND 
 OF THE SEVEN DEVILS." 
 
 A Visionary Old Dreamer Some Alarming Reports Getting Ready 
 to Take the Warpath A Select Company of Indian Scouts and 
 Sharpshooters Campaigning in a Fearfully Rough Country 
 Pursuing a Band of Marauding Horse-thieves Defeat of Our 
 Troops Five Days of Terrific Forced Marches Stumbling Upon 
 an Indian Ambuscade Completely Surrounded by Indians Set 
 ting Fire to the Grass and Timber Heroic Efforts of the Troops 
 to Extricate Themselves A Bannock Spy Who Played Me False 
 Teaching Captive Indians Escape of the Bannock Spy, . . 421 
 
 3 
 
34 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 AMONG THE SPOKANES I AM WELCOMED BY CHIEF LOT - 
 INSTANCES OF INDIAN GRATITUDE. 
 
 The Spokanes A Filibustering Indian Chief Lot Preparations 
 for a Wedding An Indian Bride Listening to Indian Songs 
 Trying to Build " a Bona-fide White Man s House " A Queer 
 Piece of Architecture Religious Service With the Spokanes In 
 dian Confessions Shedding Tears of Contrition A Dissenting 
 Old Indian Woman "Sit Down, My Girl, Sit Down !" Chief 
 Lot s Confession My Indian Escort Unexpected Appearance of 
 Lot His Journey of Five Hundred Miles to Bid Me Good-bye 
 "You Must Not Go! " 434 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AMONG THE CROWS SECRET 
 HELPERS OF OUR FOES. 
 
 The Crow Reservation An Ingenious Plot Meeting a Delegation of 
 Mounted Crows Fraternizing with Our Indian Scouts A Crow 
 Escort A Tribe of Thieves Finding Bodies of White Men 
 Marriage Customs of the Crows Their Dress and Personal Ap 
 pearance Religious Belief Looking Forward to a Coming Mes 
 siah Settlers Opinion of the Crows " Thieves, Marauders, and 
 Murderers " Justly Entitled to Their Reputation Bad Feeling 
 Between the Sioux and Crows A Nomadic Tribe Full of War 
 and Revenge Incidents of Life Among the Crows A Reign of 
 Terror Driving Them from Their Reservation, . . . 443 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE FLATHEADS THEIR PECULIARITIES AND 
 CUSTOMS OUR INDIAN RESERVATION METHODS. 
 
 Plea of Chief Carlos On the Lolo Trail Friendly Emissaries and 
 Good Spies A Diplomatic Tribe My Two Flathead Messengers 
 How They W T ere Dressed Method of Flattening the Head 
 Efforts to Have the Practice Discontinued A Tribal Peculiarity 
 How the Flatheads Lived Their Homes in the Bitter Root 
 Valley Generally Friendly to the Whites Old Indian Trails 
 A Drunken and Terror-inspiring Indian Settlers Dread of In 
 dian War Work Preferable to Starvation Eagerness to Adopt 
 the White Man s Ways, . 448 
 
CONTENTS. 35 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES AMONG THE WARLIKE SIOUX - 
 SOME DANGEROUS CHARACTERS. 
 
 My New Field of Duty The Fierce and Warlike Sioux Some of 
 Their Influential Chiefs Interviewing the Brute s Indian Police 
 
 Fine Physical Specimens of Indians The Wife of Lone Wolf 
 
 Honoring My Arrival at the Rosebud Agency Attending the 
 Omaha Dance A Characteristic Indian Performance Getting 
 Ready for the Sun Dance The Country Inhabited by the Sioux 
 
 In the Bad Lands How the Sioux were Fed and Clothed 
 Their Delight in War and Pillage The Mischief-making Dreamers 
 
 Dangerous Character of Sitting Bull, 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE MESSIAH CRAZE AMONG THE SIOUX INDIAN DREAMERS 
 AND THE GHOST DANCE FRONTIER TRAGEDIES. 
 
 The Messiah Craze The Real Message and How it Originated 
 Urged to W T ild Frenzy by the Dreamers " We Will Always be 
 Indians " White Men s Broken Promises Bad Influence of 
 Land Boomers and Speculators "Indians are Coming! " How 
 Indian Wars Were Often Started Causes of the Great Sioux Out 
 break Big Foot s Band of Warriors The Battle of Wounded 
 Knee Creek Indiscriminate Slaughter of Indians Death of Lieu 
 tenant Casey The Horrors of Indian W T ar Another Side of the 
 Story Murder of Few Tails, 467 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 IN THE COUNTRY OF THE CHEYENNES MASSACRE OF 
 CUSTER AND HIS COMMAND A FRONTIER TRAGEDY. 
 
 The Fierce and Warlike Cheyennes Chief Black Kettle Brutal Mas 
 sacre of Southern Cheyennes by White Troops Retaliating on 
 White Settlers The Notorious Chief Sitting Bull Dull Knife, 
 the Cheyenne Chief The Cheyennes and Sioux Join Forces An 
 nihilation of General Custer and His Command A Tragedy that 
 Shocked the Civilized World General Terry s Account of the 
 Battle A Desperate and Bloody Fight Horny Horse s Story of 
 the Battle Narrative of Chief Red Horse Chief High Wolfe 
 and His Necklace of Human Fingers Appearance of Custer s Bat 
 tlefield Mutilating the Dead Bodies of Soldiers, . . .487 
 
36 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 GENERAL MACKENZIE S FIGHT WITH THE NORTHERN CHEY- 
 
 ENNES A NIGHT ATTACK ON AN INDIAN CAMP- 
 
 A STORY OF TERRIBLE SUFFERING. 
 
 "The Bravest Tribe of Indians on this Continent" Crazy Horse and 
 His Band of Sioux Dull Knife and His Fierce Cheyennes In 
 dian Scouts and Allies Searching for Camps of Hostile Indians 
 Sitting Bear and His White Flag MacKenzie s Search for the 
 Cheyenne Village Campaigning with the Thermometer Thirty 
 Degrees Below Zero Night Attack on the Unsuspecting Cheyennes 
 
 Death of Lieutenant McKinney Relics of the Custer Massacre 
 
 Unparalleled Sufferings of the Indians Women and Children 
 Frozen to Death End of a Bitter War, . . . .510 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 SQUAW MEN HOME LIFE OF WHITE MEN WHO HAVE MAR 
 RIED INDIAN WOMEN INCIDENTS. 
 
 White Men Who Marry Indian Women Results of Intermarrying with 
 Indians Effect of Such Marriages upon Indian Women An 
 Indian Wife s Efforts to Please Her White Husband The 
 Squaw Man s Loss of Self-respect A Shipload of Marriageable 
 WTiite Teachers Story of an ex-Governor Who Married an Indian 
 Woman A Cultured Frenchman and His Indian Wife A 
 Squaw Man s Children Proud of Their Indian Blood Indian 
 Half-Breeds Story of a Government Official Who Married an 
 Indian Women Living the Life of a Squaw Man, . . . 524 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN INDIANS THE SIGN LAN 
 GUAGECEREMONIAL DANCES A NECKLACE OF 
 
 HUMAN FINGERS. 
 
 The Sign Language Its Origin How Indians of Different Tribes 
 Converse with Each Other Curious Methods of Communication 
 Ceremonial Dances The Scalp Dance A Secret Performance 
 
 Elaborate Preparations for the Dance Wands with Dangling 
 Scalps A Weird Performance Frenzied Condition of the Dancers 
 
 Nervous Excitement of Spectators Medicine Bags and Totems 
 
 A Necklace of Human Fingers Captain Bourke s Story of its 
 Capture A Buckskin Bag filled with the Right Hands of Pa 
 pooses Gruesome Ornaments made of Human Bones, . . 534 
 
CONTENTS. 37 
 
 CHAPTER XLIL 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN INDIANS, CONTINUED 
 
 THEIR STOLIDITY, SEC11ET1VENESS, AND HUMOR 
 
 -INDIAN SPIES CURIOUS STORY 
 
 TOLD BY A KIOWA. 
 
 How Indians Conceal their Real Feelings and Intentions Thievery 
 as a Profession Attempt of Satanta, a Kiowa Chief, to Kill 
 General Sherman His Narrow Escape from Death Satanta s 
 Fate The Instinct of Revenge Expertness of Indian Spies 
 Surpassing the Feats of White Men Indian Sense of Humor 
 Laughing at the Queer Looks and Ways of White Men Making 
 Merry over Whiskers Bald Heads Versus " Forked Tongues " 
 Story of the Giant Sinti and the Prairie Dogs A Good Speci 
 men of Indian Fiction Boisterous Hilarity of Indians The 
 Spirit of Gambling Barbarous Cruelty When Intoxicated, . 549 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN INDIANS, CONTINUED - 
 ORATORS AND ORATORY EXPERT HORSEMAN 
 SHIPSURPRISES AND AMBUSCADES 
 -FUTURE OF OUR INDIANS. 
 
 An Indian Council Attended by the President of the United States 
 Characteristic Indian Oratory Indian Gestures Peculiarities of 
 their Speeches Indian Horses and Horsemanship Method of 
 Breaking and Training Colts Severe Cruelty to Animals 
 " Bucking " Ponies A Lesson Learned from the Indians In 
 dian and White Riders Compared Organizing an Attack on a 
 Wagon Train Averting a Threatened Disaster Curious Way 
 of " Trying to Please Me " Looking Back to Early Days 
 Retrospection Looking Forward to the Future with Hope and 
 Confidence, ........... 561 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS. 
 
MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MY BOYHOOD AND EARLY HOME SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 
 
 DAYS APPOINTED AS A CADET TO WEST POINT 
 
 MILITARY ACADEMY. 
 
 Looking Backward Recollections of my Parents Grandfather s 
 Chimney Corner The Old Home in Maine Listening to Grand 
 father s Indian Tales My Father s Death Working as Man- 
 of-all-Work for my Board Attending the Village School En 
 tering Bowdoin College Appointed as a Cadet to West Point 
 A Momentous Step Going Forth into the World Arrival at 
 West Point Warned to Dispense with my Silk Hat and Cane 
 " Stand Straight, Sir ! " Reminiscences of West Point. 
 
 AFTER passing the seventieth milestone men 
 usually and naturally look back to early 
 days. Certainly the writer of these pages 
 is doing so now and often dwelling upon different 
 epochs of his boyhood. There are periods that 
 stand forth like pictures on the wall ; they may or 
 may not have connection with other periods. When 
 you meet such pictures in larger galleries you 
 gladly renew their acquaintance and are gratified 
 if you find them of intrinsic worth ; so with remem 
 bered portions of your young life, they find their 
 way into larger galleries and have a relative value 
 not dreamed of at first. 
 
 Our household at Leeds, Maine, at the dawn of 
 my childish memory, surely belongs to the first 
 
! :> MY : ibIFI^\A M) PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 period of thoughtful observation. It consisted of 
 my mother, father, and grandfather, and Sam 
 Finnemore, our hired man. My young mother s 
 appearance at that time is dim to my vision. She 
 seems to have been going here and there about the 
 family room or about the house, with a healthy, 
 happy look, though at times very grave, and ha 
 bitually talking pleasantly to my grandfather. 
 He was a tall, spare man, erect of figure, although 
 already past seventy, and with that genial expres 
 sion of countenance that attracts a child. Because 
 of some infirmity of age my grandfather usually 
 remained indoors. I see him now as he sat in the 
 chimney corner and smoked his pipe of dusky hue, 
 turning often to help m^ and my small dog in our 
 plays, to tie or loose a knot, or yield laughing obedi 
 ence to the changing whimsies of his grandchild. 
 Again I behold him seated in his kitchen chair near 
 the east window that looked out toward the old 
 orchard, reading the paper, sometimes aloud; 
 while mother was at the spinning wheel, moving 
 steadily back and forth, creating as she did so a 
 peculiar music by thread and spindle, like ar> or 
 chestral accompaniment to a song, for, besides his 
 reading, she and grandfather held an intermittent 
 conversation distinct enough above the buzzing 
 sounds. When tired of play the little dog stretched 
 himself before the open fire, and the child crept 
 into grandpa s lap, daring to pull off his spectacles 
 and stop his reading. 
 
 Three times a day our goodly dining table was 
 set. When the proper hour came, there was my 
 father at the end farthest from the kitchen door ; he 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 41 
 
 was always a little careworn, had heavy eyebrows, 
 sandy side whiskers, and high forehead with dark 
 hair slightly lifted up at the middle front. Mother 
 sat opposite him. My chair, the seat raised by a 
 covered bench, was at her right; grandfather, al 
 ways in his kitchen chair, at the side next to me ; 
 while the sturdy Sam, with English face and light, 
 thin, closely curled hair, sat in silence opposite 
 me. No need to draw the picture further. That 
 was a frugal board, but it was a New England 
 home-table ; and ours was a frugal, self-reliant 
 family which never dreamed of great riches nor 
 extreme want. 
 
 The house was built by my grandfather about 
 thirty years before, wheji my father was a lad of 
 eleven years. It was of timber, except the cellar 
 walls and the entire foundation of stone, two 
 stories above ground, foursquare, with a central 
 front door, and hall running through, and a number 
 of back buildings connecting the kitchen to a siz 
 able barn. Erected high up on the north slope of 
 the great hill of Leeds, it could be seen from 
 Turner and Livermore westward across the Andro- 
 scoggin, and from Wayne, eastward across the lake. 
 Painted white, adorned with green blinds, and pro 
 tected by a few large elms, well away from the 
 common roads, Seth Howard s house afforded to 
 farmers and travelers far and near a notable land 
 mark. 
 
 Our home farm, embracing open fields, garden, 
 groves, and woodland, all together did not exceed 
 eighty acres. Father was at this time, as I after 
 ward knew, working too diligently and persist- 
 
42 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ently for his strength. But he had an unselfish 
 object in view. By the products of his farm work, 
 also by taking small droves of horses to Massachu 
 setts for the Boston market, by buying patent 
 threshers at a bargain and selling them, going 
 sometimes as far as New York state, and by other 
 helpful operations, he had succeeded in paying off 
 an oppressive mortgage on grandfather s farm. 
 He had also purchased the sandy " Day place " at 
 South Leeds for a sheep pasture. None of these 
 things were ever much talked of at home; still 
 there was to me, in time, an educational signifi 
 cance in the hard work and self-denial ever prac 
 ticed by my father and mother. 
 
 " Sam," the hired man, was kind to me in his 
 way. He made rough sleds, snow-shoes, small 
 wagons, and other playthings for me, but found 
 my sensitive spots and liked to touch them. His 
 teasings brought some tears, and first awakened 
 in the confiding child the doubt and distrust that, 
 soon or late, must come to us all. But father and 
 mother, never trifling with a child, were always in 
 earnest with me. They both were fond of music ; 
 mother sang in church, and usually when about her 
 work and not in conversation was humming some 
 good old hymn, while at evening my father often 
 played the flute. 
 
 Grandfather had a native humor in his kind 
 heart, and was always bubbling over to lighten and 
 sweeten his manners. He was my favorite com 
 panion during my boyhood. It was when sitting 
 in his lap that I began my knowledge of the How 
 ard family history. He told me much of the great 
 
AMOXG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 43 
 
 journey from Bridgewater, Mass., to Maine, with 
 my grandmother and their six children. Later, 
 their family increased to nine. He praised my 
 father s feats of horsemanship when ten years old, 
 - telling me how he rode a fine horse all the w r ay, 
 more than three hundred miles, from the old home 
 to Leeds; how Uncle Stillman had cut a willow 
 riding whip on the way, which, after arriving, he 
 had stuck into the ground by the roadside about a 
 mile south of us, from which grew a huge willow 
 tree that I had often seen. 
 
 He also related tales of the " Red Coats " which 
 prejudiced me fearfully against them ; some of the 
 stories included " the Tories," who burned houses 
 and killed people with little mercy or discrimina 
 tion. Old comrades of the Revolution occasion 
 ally came to see him, one a wounded lieutenant, 
 who seemed to me uncommonly kind and affection 
 ate. I did not then understand half of their war 
 stories ; but I listened to them with keen interest, 
 and well remember their hearty fellowship. 
 
 The name of Jesse Howard, my great-grand 
 father, is found recorded in the Massachusetts 
 archives as " a lieutenant in Captain Ames Com 
 pany " at the beginning of the Revolution. But 
 my grandfather said that his father Jesse was a 
 captain in the Army of the Revolution, and often 
 actively engaged during the long war. Recently 
 I have been able to verify this statement. My 
 grandfather, Seth Howard, being young at the 
 time of the Revolution, had remained at home to 
 take care of his good mother ; but subsequently he 
 was permitted to enlist and go with his father 
 
44 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 during one of the later years of the struggle, serv 
 ing as a private soldier. 
 
 What interested me most after I was old enough 
 to understand grandfather, and to remember what 
 he said to me, concerned the Indians. It appears 
 that when he was on duty during that year of the 
 war, between 1777 and 1779, he was a mere boy of 
 seventeen; but after that service, being of a 
 military turn, he, during his young manhood, ac 
 cepted from the Commonwealth the captaincy of a 
 militia company. This company was several times 
 called out to meet outbreaks of one kind and an 
 other. These included the riots of white men, like 
 those of " Shay s rebellion/ 1786-87; also the 
 combined offensive action of Tories and Indians, 
 insurrections which were not wholly quelled till 
 some years after the Yorktown surrender. 
 
 In the " Life of Joseph Brant " (whose Indian 
 name was Thayen-da-negea) a few words indicate 
 the state of affairs in the region on both sides of the 
 line where Massachusetts and Vermont border 
 upon New York. These disturbances, reaching 
 far into the New England states, were frequent as 
 late as 1872. The writer says: " Their chastise 
 ment by Major Ross [one of Washington s com 
 manders who had surprised and defeated the hos 
 tile Indians in eastern New York], equally severe 
 and unexpected, had discouraged the enemy from 
 making any further attempt in that quarter. Not, 
 however, that the Indians were entirely quiet. On 
 the contrary, they hung around the borders of the 
 settlements in small parties, sometimes causing 
 serious alarm and at others great trouble and 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 45 
 
 fatigue, and likewise inflicting considerable in 
 jury." 
 
 How clearly in my childhood grandfather de 
 scribed to me those wild red men, some of whom 
 were still in his youth inhabitants of New England. 
 He talked of their war-paint ; of their dress made 
 of skins of animals ; of their queer tents, wigwams, 
 and lodges; of their straight and heavy jet-black 
 hair ; of the eagle feathers and ornaments for their 
 chiefs and their women; of their weapons, their 
 bows and arrows of different sorts, and their cruel 
 tomahawks and scalping-knives. I had at that 
 time never seen an Indian, nor do I remember to 
 have looked at pictures of them till about two years 
 later, when father brought home, on his return 
 from Troy, New York, my first geography and 
 atlas. These contained pictures of the aborigines. 
 Better than prints my grandfather s clear and 
 pleasant voice had set the reality before my mind, 
 just how they looked and lived and fought. My 
 heart for years was steeled against such wild, un 
 merciful savages, who, worse than Tories, spared 
 nobody, not even women and children. It took 
 the broadening influence of years, and the stories 
 of William Penn, and of Pocahontas, besides the 
 persuasive charm of James Fenimore Cooper s 
 novels, to allay my strong prejudice and show me 
 the equal or greater sinfulness of the Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 I was greatly interested in grandfather s de 
 scription of the way he and his men were called out 
 to guard a village, and how they picketed a grove 
 or forest. The watchmen on the outer lines, like 
 our pickets, were placed within hearing of each 
 
46 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 other. They habitually lay upon the ground and 
 concealed themselves behind logs, stumps, and 
 trees. Their blunderbusses had at first a match 
 lock and later the flint and priming powder. In 
 complete readiness the men would lie for hours 
 perfectly silent. 
 
 An Indian spy would creep up so quietly that 
 his approach could with difficulty be detected. On 
 one occasion, after an alarm my grandfather s men 
 were distributed as explained, and he was with 
 them helping to keep watch. About midnight an 
 Indian succeeded in getting within a few paces of 
 one of the watchmen without detection; suddenly 
 he heard a sound and fell upon his face, remaining 
 for some time motionless ; at last, thinking that he 
 was mistaken with regard to the proximity of a 
 white man, the Indian raised his head just a little 
 to look around, when the watchman, catching a 
 glimpse, fired, hitting the Indian in the throat ; he 
 gave a gurgling sound and fell dead. The death of 
 that spy caused his comrades to flee and grand 
 father scored a victory for his company. 
 
 His work in the Revolution and in the local dis 
 turbances of his state, such as I have referred to, 
 appeared to be very much in his mind and was often 
 the subject of his conversation with me and with 
 others in my presence. He was never wholly free 
 from the startling impressions of those younger 
 days ; they troubled his dreams and disturbed his 
 sleep. He fought over again, as I well remember, 
 in his night visions, sometimes with actual demon 
 stration, his never-forgotten battles. 
 
 At the time of my father s death, which pc- 
 
PLATE 
 
 XI 1 
 
 BOY S BUCKSKIN SHIRT : GIRL S BUCKSKIN BEADED LEGGINGS, 
 BELT, POUCHES, ETC. 
 
 For Jsescziptlon see pagre 13 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 49 
 
 curred when I was nine years of age, in April, 
 1840, I had two brothers, one four years and the 
 other eight years younger than myself. One Sun 
 day morning, six months before this event, my 
 father had called me from a distant field in order 
 that I might accompany him and my mother to the 
 church at Leeds Centre. The wind was blowing 
 in his face and made it difficult for me to catch the 
 sound of his voice. I came at once, but for some 
 reason was excused from going with them. The 
 strain of the morning had been too much for the 
 lungs of my good father, and he was seized with a 
 hemorrhage while he was sitting in his pew during 
 the church service. I was much startled and af 
 fected by the return of my father and mother 
 earlier than usual, and by his illness, which was 
 accompanied with constant bleeding that seemed 
 impossible to control. 
 
 When he died, the grief of my mother, the 
 gloom of the household, and all the circumstances 
 of the funeral, the first which I had ever witnessed, 
 gave a new coloring to my thoughts and cast a 
 shadow upon my young life. I began to feel the 
 responsibility of being the eldest child in the little 
 family, and my mother began to advise with me as 
 with a friend. This epoch my father s death - 
 soon separated me from my grandfather. He went 
 to live with his son Stillman Howard, some three 
 miles distant from the old homestead, and I saw 
 him only occasionally from that time till his death. 
 This occurred while I was away at North Yarmouth 
 Academy attending a school preparatory to col 
 lege. Could I have anticipated the consequences 
 
50 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of such a separation, I think I should have fore 
 stalled them and spent four years more with my 
 grandfather. From ten to fourteen what might I 
 not have gained in veritable historic knowledge of 
 the Eevolutionary War, and of the Indian tribes 
 of the east and north which were round about him 
 in his early life ? 
 
 With a view to make the sketch of these early 
 days more complete, prior to my special acquaint 
 anceship and extensive experience with various 
 Indian tribes, I may say that after a little more 
 than a year my widowed mother married Colonel 
 John Gilmore. and moved to South Leeds, where, 
 on his larger estate, the Gilmore and Howard fam 
 ilies were united, and lived on very happily with a 
 degree of prosperity which mother s boys were 
 ever pleased to recall. 
 
 It was soon after this that I was sent away from 
 home in order that I might enjoy greater educa 
 tional advantages than the school in our neighbor 
 hood afforded. The year before I was twelve it 
 was arranged that I should go to Hallowell, situ 
 ated just below Augusta on the Kennebec River. 
 Here I lived with my mother s brother, the Honor 
 able John Otis, performing the tasks of a man-of- 
 all-work for my board, and going to the village 
 high school, kept by Mr. Jonas Burnham, who had 
 been a classmate of my uncle in Bowdoin College. 
 At this school, where I stayed for nearly two years, 
 I entered with a class upon a college preparation, 
 making considerable progress not only in English 
 studies, but in both Latin and Greek. 
 
 In the same village lived another relative w r ho 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 51 
 
 exerted a great influence upon my life, my mother s 
 father, Oliver Otis. As I was born the day he 
 was sixty-two years old, my mother gave me 
 his name. He was a man of mark, careful and 
 conscientious in everything that he did, especially 
 so in the making, keeping, and expending of money. 
 Just before he died he called me to him and talked 
 with me faithfully concerning my future. One 
 expression which I did not quite understand when 
 he uttered it has always remained in my mind: 
 " Otis, be sure always to treat your employees with 
 kindness." The prospect of my ever having the 
 privilege of employing anybody was not then very 
 clear; but how many thousands have since come 
 under my command as an officer, or have been 
 otherwise employed for useful service. 
 
 During the summer vacation I used to ride with 
 my uncle to his farm a few miles outside the vil 
 lage, and do what a strong, healthy boy of my age 
 could accomplish in the farm work by helping 
 others. In these two years, with varied experi 
 ences, I gained my uncle s good will and confidence. 
 A little later he became the member of Congress 
 from his district and was in position, as we shall 
 see, to do his favorite nephew a good turn. 
 
 In the spring of 1845, after being well fitted 
 out with home-made clothing, I was taken, together 
 with my luggage, in a sleigh, which we called a 
 " pung," from Leeds to North Yarmouth. There 
 I undertook to put a two years course of study 
 into one. Being behind the class which was to enter 
 college in June, 1846, I determined to catch up 
 with the others and to enter upon the college course 
 
52 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 with them at that time. We had an example before 
 us of a young man, Spencer Wells, who had done 
 so. Following his example I had a standing desk 
 and sometimes actually worked at my books from 
 sixteen to twenty hours out of the twenty-four. 
 This course enabled me to enter college a year 
 before the Hallowell class, but I believe now that 
 it was a positive detriment to my scholarship, be 
 cause my preparation was not as thorough as it 
 ought to have been, and the reaction upon my 
 physical strength weakened my subsequent efforts 
 the first year in college. Poor Spencer Wells lost 
 his health after a few years, later his mind failed, 
 and he died a complete wreck in an asylum. Cer 
 tainly overstraining in anything, especially in 
 study, is not the part of wisdom. 
 
 In college I stood fairly well in my studies for 
 one so young ; but I think the greatest gain to me 
 came from my intimate connection with college 
 mates, and with the members of the faculty, every 
 one of whom has left a good record of character 
 and of instruction that no student of the college 
 will ever forget. Among my classmates were young 
 men whose names have become of national repute, 
 such as Hon. William P. Frye, Rev. Dr. John S. 
 Sewall, and Prof. Carl-oil S. Everett of Harvard 
 University. 
 
 As I was finishing my course of four years at 
 Bowdoin, my uncle, of \vhom I have spoken, gave 
 me a nomination as a cadet to the Military Academy 
 at West Point. My decision as to whether I should 
 accept the appointment that ensued, or not, was 
 held under consideration for a few days. Our 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 53 
 
 different studies had been finished and the exami 
 nations properly passed, and a Commencement 
 part was assigned to me. At that time, in 1846, 
 from the final examinations to the Commencement 
 proper, a period of nearly two months was allowed 
 the students to prepare for the Commencement ex 
 ercises. Much was made of the graduating day 
 and every senior looked forward to it with intense 
 interest, as it was indeed the crowning epoch of 
 college life. Meanwhile, I returned to my home at 
 Leeds and showed my mother, with whom I coun 
 seled at every important step, my cadet nomination 
 and appointment. She shook her head; she did 
 not quite like to have me become a soldier, but 
 when she looked into my eyes she said at once : " I 
 must leave this matter to you ; I see you have al 
 ready made up your mind." 
 
 I accepted the appointment after being excused 
 from our Commencement, and, furnished with such 
 articles of wearing apparel as the West Point 
 circular prescribed, set out from Leeds for the 
 Military Academy. My kind step-father, Colonel 
 Gilmore, took me and my small trunk in his wagon 
 as far as Lewiston, the factory town near the falls 
 of the Androscoggin, twelve miles below us. I 
 bade him farewell, with difficulty repressing my 
 emotions as he spoke his last words of affection 
 and good will. From Lewiston I went by the new 
 " Atlantic & St. Lawrence Eailroad " to Portland; 
 a night on the steamer brought me to Boston ; by 
 the Old Colony route I went on to New York, 
 spending another night upon one of those Long 
 Island Sound steamers, then considered palatial. 
 
54 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 It took four days in all to complete the journey. 
 Twenty-four hours will now take one from Leeds 
 Centre to the city of New York. 
 
 How immense the metropolis of fifty years ago 
 appeared to my inexperienced vision ! and yet the 
 changes since are so numerous that it is difficult to 
 recognize the city of those days in the present New 
 York. It covers five times more ground than it 
 did then. Its principal business buildings, at that 
 time never more than three stories in height, now 
 run from ten to twenty or more ; and the popula 
 tion going in and out marches in processions larger 
 than brigades and divisions of a great army. The 
 Astor House was then the first-class hotel, and the 
 Washington House, near the foot of Broadway, 
 furnished me my first entertainment. 
 
 In the morning I entered a car of the Hudson 
 River Railroad at Chambers Street, and ascended 
 the river to have my first view of the changing and 
 variegated scenery all the way from the city to the 
 Highlands; surely there is none more attractive, 
 none grander in any country on the globe. In two 
 hours time we reached Cold Spring, three miles 
 north of West Point. After a few inquiries, I 
 managed to find my way to the dock with my small 
 trunk, and arranged with the boatmen to be taken 
 over to the Academy. Among other passengers was 
 a tall, rather slenderly built, genteel-looking man, 
 wearing spectacles. His familiarity with every 
 thing attracted my attention, and shortly after we 
 had started he gave me his name as Captain E. 
 Kirby Smith. The pleasant manner in which he 
 drew me into conversation had a peculiar charm in 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 55 
 
 it. He gave me many useful lessons while we were 
 together, and must have been amusingly entertained 
 over my questions and answers, which doubtless 
 recalled his own similar experiences. 
 
 Of course I was in haste to report immediately 
 on my arrival, as the written instructions required, 
 but Captain Smith advised me to go first to the 
 West Point hotel and stay there that night, because 
 neither the superintendent s nor adjutant s office 
 would be open to me till the orderly hour, nine 
 o clock the next morning. He further suggested 
 that I go to the evening parade and to guard- 
 mounting early on the morrow, and look on so as 
 to get a little used to my surroundings before un 
 dertaking anything else. This kind officer, early 
 in the Civil War, joined the Confederacy. In the 
 first battle of Bull Run, on the right of McDowell s 
 line, I met him in battle. He was wounded in the 
 action, but we were defeated. 
 
 By Captain Smith s courtesy and timely infor 
 mation given me on the ferryboat I escaped much 
 of the annoyance to which every new cadet, even 
 in those good old days, was exposed. There was, 
 however, no serious hazing to trouble me, a little 
 fun in the line of compliments coming from certain 
 yearlings at my expense, a few orders to bring 
 buckets of fresh water for my tent-mates, this is 
 all that I remember. Hazing of the freshmen in 
 college had been much worse. 
 
 The genuine set-up drill which we September 
 cadets (usually called " Septs ") had to go through 
 with three times a day was the greater trial. Hav 
 ing been a teacher of winter schools, a principal of 
 
56 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 a fall high school, and a graduate of Bowdoin, I 
 believe I had acquired at that time a self-reliance 
 and a pride of bearing that I never again realized. 
 Shortly after my appointment as a cadet I was 
 warned by a West Point graduate to dispense with 
 my silk hat and cane. I did this with some reluct 
 ance, for the passing so soon from the college 
 senior s dignity to the lowly position of a u plebe ! 
 at West Point had a peculiar bitterness in it that 
 no philosophy could wholly alleviate. 
 
 Two cadet corporals were put over our two 
 squads, having five or six " Septs " in each. These 
 corporals, to my relief, now and then exchanged 
 work ; one was a martinet, curt and severe in man 
 ner, while the other was dignified and always 
 courteous in giving his orders and in all he said to 
 us. " Stand straight, sir! Put your heels to 
 gether; draw in your chin and your stomach; 
 steady there! Head straight back; raise the 
 shoulders slightly; keep the little fingers on the 
 seams of your trousers! One corporal after a 
 command would say to me : i i What are you about, 
 Howard ? Try to behave like a man and not like a 
 monkey! : The other, Corporal Boggs, bless his 
 heart ! always omitted the offensive addenda. 
 
 In a few weeks the " Septs " obtained their 
 cadet suits of uniform, were incorporated in the 
 battalion, and lost forever, to their comfort, that 
 unenviable distinction which they had experienced 
 while their squad drill continued. At the end of 
 August the summer encampment broke up just 
 after the furlough class had returned, and all 
 moved together into barracks. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 57 
 
 I will not attempt here to detail my West Point 
 experiences and associations. From them was 
 derived much of my knowledge of the principal 
 actors in our country s later history. Their public 
 work ranges from 1850 till today/ 
 
 My classmate John T. Grebble was the first to 
 fall in battle at Big Bethel, Va. His rank, by the 
 prompt action of the War Department on receiv 
 ing the news of his death, became that of a Colonel. 
 O Connor, Smead, Davis, and others w r ere early 
 killed in action, each having risen to the Colonel s 
 grade. In fact, many of my choicest friends and 
 associates did not rise above the rank of field 
 officers. 
 
 Thomas, Sheridan, Gregg, Forsythe, Henry, 
 Crook, Bliss, Carr, Miller, and McCook, of my 
 Military Academy friends, had extensive experi 
 ence in dealing with Indians, both in war and in 
 peace. Their service on the plains was important 
 both before and after our civil war; so that in 
 bringing together in this work my varied experi- 
 
 * There I met and had personal acquaintance with Abbott, Alex 
 ander, Ames, Baird, Bayard, Bingham, Bliss, Breck, Boggs, Crook, 
 Craighill, Casey, Comstock, Carroll, Carr, Deshler, Delafield, Evans, 
 Forsythe, Field, Fry, Gilbert, Gilmore, Gillespie, Greene, Gracie, Gar- 
 rard, Gregg, Hardee, Holabird, Hawkins, Henry, Haskell, Hascall, 
 Harker, Jones (Roger), Jones (Samuel), Kearney, Kilpatrick, Lee (R. 
 E.), Lee (G. W. Custis), Lee (Stephen D.), Lee (Fitzhugh), McClellan, 
 McPherson, McKeever, Michie, McCook, Miller, Morgan, Merritt, Perry, 
 Fender, Pennington, Porter (Fitz John), Ruggles, Reynolds (J. J.), 
 Reynolds (John F.), Ruger, Sheridan, Stuart, Schofield, Sawtelle, Smith 
 (G. W.), Smith (E. Kirby), Stanley, Smith (W. S.), Slocum, Saxton, 
 Thomas (Geo. H.), Thomas (Lorenzo), Townsend, Villepigue, Vincent, 
 Williams (Seth), Williams (Robert), Wright (Moses), Weitzel, Walker, 
 Wheeler (Junius), Wheeler (Joseph), Whipple, Wilcox, Wilson (J. 
 M.), Wilson (J. Harry J, Warren, Weed, all of whom reached the grade 
 of general officers either in the line or staff. 
 
58 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ences among the Indians, and events with which 
 I was directly or indirectly connected, I naturally 
 begin at West Point. 
 
 Just after I entered the academy, on my first 
 half holiday in barracks, I sauntered out to ex 
 amine the surroundings, with my roommate 
 Thomas J. Treadwell, who had come to West 
 Point from Dartmouth College and was a genial 
 companion. As we passed down the pathway 
 near the Hudson River the first noticeable ob 
 ject we came upon was the monument erected 
 to the memory of Major F. L. Bade and his 
 detachment of over a hundred officers and men. 
 Its simple structure and the history engraven 
 upon it greatly impressed me. As it was alto 
 gether a new chapter in my knowledge of In 
 dian matters, I will here introduce, with some 
 detail, the story of the brave major and his fellow 
 soldiers who bedewed with their blood the soil of 
 Florida, which the Seminole Indians claimed as 
 their own, and for which they were so fiercely 
 fighting. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHASING INDIANS THROUGH THE EVERGLADES OF FLORIDA 
 
 -INDIAN FIGHTERS WHO AFTERWARDS BECAME GREAT 
 
 MILITARY LEADERS IN THE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 The Story of Major Dade Indian Campaigns in Florida General 
 Sherman s Early Indian Experiences In the Heart of the Ever- 
 glades A Sudden and Unexpected Attack Massacre of Major 
 Dade and His Command Viewing the Slain and Mutilated Bodies 
 of Our Troops Defeat and Flight of the Indians My First 
 Meeting with General George H. Thomas Some of His Early In 
 dian Experiences His Own Account of a " Scout " Against the 
 Apaches Pulling Arrows out of His Own Flesh His Unwaver 
 ing Loyalty to the Union. 
 
 FROM the simple inscription on the monument 
 to Major Dade and his comrades in arms we 
 did not gather all the facts set forth in this 
 chapter. That it was a massacre, however, was evi 
 dent enough. Upon myself, in spite of my sanguine 
 temperament and hopeful disposition, I confess 
 that the monument alone had a sufficiently depress 
 ing effect, which was not relieved when a little later 
 I studied the details of the situation in the library 
 of the academy. I felt as I did when I once stood 
 beside a target riddled with bullets and my com 
 panion asked : " How would you like to face that, 
 Howard? I answered resolutely: " What of 
 that?" but in my heart I long remembered the 
 warning. 
 
 Francis L. Dade, who, like Admiral Dewey, 
 had his one opportunity, entered the United States 
 service in the 12th Infantry, the 29th of March, 
 
60 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 1813. He was promoted step by step through dif 
 ferent grades to a captaincy, and in 1826 became 
 a major by brevet, " for ten years faithful service 
 in one grade." The record in the old register 
 gives these words at the close of his career : " Mas 
 sacred by Indians in Florida the 28th of December, 
 1835." 
 
 The bands of Indians with which he had to do, 
 and which caused the United States so much in 
 treasure and in precious blood, occupied the penin 
 sula of Florida, and were well known as the 
 Seminoles. Their mode of life, dress, wigwams, and 
 weapons for war and for the chase differed little 
 from those of kindred neighboring tribes, such as 
 the Creeks and Choctaws, with whom they traded 
 and intermarried. 
 
 In studying the early career of General W. T. 
 Sherman years ago I wrote: "It indicates the 
 rapid changes of army life to find Lieutenant Sher 
 man, in the October after his graduation, in charge 
 of a company en route for Florida." Soon after 
 his arrival at St. Augustine Sherman ascended the 
 Indian River. He noticed and remembered every 
 thing, the bar, the surf, the incoming tide, the 
 shape of the inlet, the Mangrove Islands, the roost 
 ing pelicans, the gulls without number tilting their 
 white wings in the air, and other birds poising and 
 sailing and screaming over his head, the water 
 swarming with fish, the phosphoric effect in the 
 wake of the 1 boat, but particularly the exciting 
 stories of exploits in the Indian wars, which the 
 pilot depicted in a vivid and spirited style. 
 
 A few sketches from Sherman s pen indicate 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 61 
 
 the nature of the country and the character of the 
 officers work. They chased the Indians through 
 the everglades, occasionally capturing men, women 
 and children; they surprised a Seininole camp, 
 killing some warriors and capturing others. Lieu 
 tenant Van Vliet, Sherman s lifelong friend, shot 
 at warriors while he was riding at full speed among 
 the trees; Sergeant Broderick gained a victory 
 over three dusky Seminoles, which triumph he 
 thought fit to celebrate by a spree, and so on. 
 
 In retrospect years afterward Sherman said: 
 "Florida was the Indian s paradise." Here it- 
 was that he came into close relationship with Gen 
 eral Ord and General George H. Thomas. They 
 were acquainted at West Point, it is true, but never 
 became as intimate as when serving together in 
 such a unique, isolated region as was then found 
 amid the islands, the numerous lakes, and the 
 curious everglades of Florida. 
 
 Such was the situation in Florida during the 
 first war between our troops and the Seminoles. 
 Of course this war was not confined to the parties 
 named, but, as usual after an uprising, the savages 
 moved against the settlements, burning the houses, 
 killing men, women, and children, and carrying off 
 the stock. It is difficult to say what were the 
 causes of the Indian outbreaks in 1835 which led 
 up to the massacres. The alleged difficulties began 
 upon complaints of the settlers that the Indians 
 ran off their stock and harbored their escaping 
 slaves. The Indians, on their side, insisted that 
 the entire peninsula, particularly the interior, in 
 cluding rivers, lakes, and everglades, belonged to 
 
62 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 them by absolute title, and that the whites had no 
 right to settle there. 
 
 Several councils took place from time to time 
 after Florida came into our possession. At a cele 
 brated council held May 9, 1832, the " Treaty of 
 Payne s Landing was concluded, and it was rati 
 fied in April, 1834. This treaty was to the effect 
 that the Seminoles should relinquish to the 
 United States all their claim to the land they 
 occupied in Florida, should emigrate to the Creeks 
 beyond the Mississippi, and become a part of the 
 Creek Nation. This treaty was signed by James 
 Gadsden, Commissioner of the United States, and 
 purported to be signed on the part of the Indians 
 by fifteen chiefs of the Seminoles. Each chief was 
 the leader of a tribe. In reality only eight out of 
 the fifteen assented to the treaty. The case was the 
 same as with the Nez Perces with whom I had to 
 do in after years. The minority of the non-treaty 
 Indians was indeed too large to be ignored. 
 
 Long before Payne s Treaty was enacted a 
 great half-breed leader, Osceola, who properly be 
 longed with the Creeks, had come into Florida and 
 been accepted as the principal war chief of the 
 Seminoles. The mother of Osceola belonged to 
 the Red Stick tribe of the Creek Nation. She was 
 the wife of a British trader by the name of Powell, 
 so that Osceola had English blood. Some trouble 
 arose in the family, which aroused her anger to 
 such an extent that she took her son away and re 
 turned to her own people. Soon after this, in 
 1808, Powell moved to the West, taking both of 
 his daughters with him, leaving Osceola and his 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 63 
 
 mother with the Indians in the southern part of 
 Georgia. 
 
 When, in 1817, General Jackson was pushing 
 the Indians southward, Osceola, already an ac 
 knowledged leader, retreated before him and finally 
 settled near Fort King, Florida, uniting his for 
 tunes with a branch of the Seminoles. At the time 
 that Payne s Treaty was signed he declared that 
 he would not sign it and that he would kill any of 
 his followers who did so. Osceola s bad temper was 
 shown as early as 1834, when a United States Sur 
 vey Corps was camping at Fort King. Captain 
 Ming, the commander of the corps, received a visit 
 from Osceola, who declined every friendly invita 
 tion and refused to break bread with the white men. 
 In council, showing a menacing manner and seiz 
 ing the surveyor s chain, he said: " If you cross 
 my land I will break this chain in as many pieces 
 as there are links in it, and then throw the pins so 
 far you can never get them again! " 
 
 On another occasion General Wiley Thompson, 
 the Indian agent, ordered Osceola to come up and 
 sign the emigration list. He replied, * I will not ! : 
 Thompson told him of President Jackson, the big 
 chief in Washington, who would teach him better. 
 Osceola answered: " I care no more for Jackson 
 than for you ! : Then going to the treaty he stuck 
 his knife through the parchment. 
 
 For a short time Osceola was imprisoned on 
 account of his contumacy, but somehow he managed 
 to secure his release and then immediately began 
 to prepare his warriors for battle. They were se 
 cretly ordered to have their knives in readiness, 
 
64 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 their rifles on hand, and plenty of powder. He went 
 from place to place, hardly stopping for food or 
 rest until he had collected a strong Indian force. 
 The first actual bloodshed came from the side of 
 the whites. They publicly whipped five Indians 
 whom they caught in the act of stealing. Then an 
 Indian was killed and three whites were wounded. 
 Next, a dispatch rider, Aug. 11, 1835, carrying the 
 mails between Fort Brooke and Fort King, was 
 murdered. Hostilities quickly followed, beginning 
 with, the slaying of Charlie Emathla, one of the 
 chiefs, who w r as friendly to the whites and who ad 
 vocated the emigration. 
 
 Soon after this Osceola selected ten of his bold 
 est warriors who hovered around the fort with a 
 view of killing his special enemy, the Indian agent, 
 General Thompson. It w r as the afternoon of De 
 cember 28, 1836. The general and Lieutenant 
 Smith, who had dined with him that day, were 
 quietly walking towards the sutler s store which 
 was quite a distance outside of the military post. 
 Osceola and his band saw their opportunity. They 
 cut them off from all help and slew them both. 
 General Thompson was perforated with fourteen 
 bullets and Smith with five. At the sutler s store 
 they killed the trader and four others, robbed the 
 store, and set fire to the building. The smoke from 
 the burning building gave the first alarm to the 
 garrison at Fort King. 
 
 Osceola, who had long hated General Thomp 
 son, had ordered his larger force, numbering nearly 
 eight hundred Indians, to push on without him 
 down the military road for fortv miles, and to 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 65 
 
 waylay a body of soldiers which he had learned 
 from his scouts was coming from Fort Brooke, on 
 Tampa Bay, to reinforce Fort King. The wild 
 and excited warriors had reached and passed the 
 Wahoo Swamp and found an excellent place for 
 an ambuscade five miles beyond. Hoithlee Matee 
 (in English, "Jumper"), a fierce and persistent 
 enemy of white men, was chosen by Osceola as first 
 in command, to be supported by Chief Micanopy, 
 an equally pronounced malcontent. 
 
 Near the road in advance of his force, like a 
 sentinel of a picket-post, Micanopy concealed him 
 self behind a tree to await, with Indian patience, 
 the approach of the Fort Brooke detachment. 
 His men, with loaded rifles, and knives in their 
 belts, about a third of the eight hundred, lay among 
 the small palmettos and in the tall grass, wholly 
 hidden, but within easy range. Jumper, farther 
 from the road, arranged the remainder of his force 
 so as to cut off every chance of escape after the 
 first attack. There was not a settlement, and 
 scarcely a ranch, on the route from Tampa Bay to 
 Fort King. The distance was a hundred and 
 eighty miles. 
 
 There were several swamps along the route, 
 some quite extensive. They were dotted with what 
 were called hammocks, small fertile islands cov 
 ered with luxuriant vegetation. Here the trees 
 and underbrush and vines were so dense that hun 
 dreds of men could be concealed, and their pres 
 ence not even be suspected by soldiers who were 
 skirmishing through the thickets till they were 
 within a few yards of the hiding place. So great 
 
66 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 was Jumper s confidence in the bravery and num 
 ber of his Indians, that he chose for a battlefield a 
 thinly wooded tract from which he could see the 
 soldiers approaching when several hundred yards 
 away, and he used only the low palmetto growth 
 and the tall and thick grass for shelter. Such was 
 the ambuscade, well planned and well arranged. 
 
 Major Dade s command was composed of eight 
 officers and one hundred and two enlisted men. 
 He took with him a wagon hauled by oxen to carry 
 the extra baggage, and a six-pounder field-piece 
 with all its equipment. They could not easily make 
 more than twenty miles a day; for the sand was 
 heavy, and they had been several days on the march 
 when the battle occurred. The order of march ap 
 pears to have been an advance guard which Major 
 Dade himself usually accompanied, then the first 
 company, with Captain Eraser at its head, then the 
 field-piece followed by the wagon, and last, acting 
 as a rear guard, the second company, commanded 
 by Captain Gardiner. Both companies belonged 
 to the Third Artillery. In those days the artillery 
 soldiers were armed and used as infantry. The 
 major belonged to the Fourth Infantry, the 
 regiment to which Lieutenant IT, S. Grant was 
 attached after his graduation. Other officers were 
 distributed along the column. 
 
 After a little experience such companies swing 
 along with an easy pace at route-step, and starting 
 at sunrise could make a twenty-mile march, even 
 in Florida, by one or two o clock without much 
 fatigue. The oxen, however, when they were used, 
 would regulate the gait and probably prolong the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 67 
 
 march until much later in the day. Thus, after 
 their encampment on the night of the 27th, without 
 any knowledge whatever of the near proximity of 
 Indians, Dade and his men were marching along 
 in their usual formation, chatting with each other. 
 Captain Eraser appears to have quickened his 
 pace and come up near to Major Dade, probably 
 that they might talk together more easily and 
 while away the time. They were within some five 
 miles of the Wahoo Swamp when, like a bolt of 
 lightning from a clear sky, Micanopy s gun rang 
 out and Major Dade fell. Quicker than it can be 
 told his Indians fired and killed or wounded the 
 entire advance guard, including Captain Eraser. 
 Then followed a running fire which cut off every 
 thing in advance of the companies proper. 
 
 Captain Gardiner seems to have met the situa 
 tion with promptness, coolness, and dispatch. 
 While some of his men were thrown out to skirmish, 
 the remainder used their axes and shovels with 
 desperate haste to throw up a triangular breast 
 work of old logs and such trees as could be easily 
 cut down and thrown together. Naturally this 
 breastwork was not very well laid out, and before 
 it could be finished a second attack came from the 
 whole body of Indians, and the little force were 
 very soon shot down. All Dade s command per 
 ished except four who succeeded in making their 
 escape. They ran toward Tampa, avoiding* the 
 roads and paths, taking themselves as quickly as 
 possible to the swamps. It is marvelous that they 
 escaped the watchful eyes of the fierce warriors. 
 One of them, however, was trailed and slain by 
 
68 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 some Indians the next day, while three succeeded 
 in reaching Tampa Bay in a few days and gave a 
 confused report of what had taken place. 
 
 Captain E. A. Hitchcock of the First Infantry, 
 acting Inspector General, gave a very graphic re 
 port of the visit of General Gaines to the battle 
 field February 22, 1836. One or two extracts will 
 show something of the situation. "We saw first 
 some broken and scattered boxes, then a cart, the 
 two oxen of which were lying dead, as if they had 
 fallen asleep, their yokes on them; a little to the 
 right one or two horses were seen." 
 
 He further speaks of the temporary breast 
 work: " Within the triangle, along the north and 
 west faces of it, were about thirty bodies, mostly 
 mere skeletons, although much of the clothing was 
 left upon them, . . . lying in precisely the po 
 sition they must have occupied during the fight, 
 their heads next to the logs over which they had 
 delivered their fire, and their bodies stretched with 
 striking regularity parallel to each other. They 
 had evidently been shot dead at their post, and the 
 Indians had not disturbed them except by taking 
 the scalps of most of them." General Gaines and 
 Captain Hitchcock found the bodies of eight offi 
 cers and ninety-eight enlisted men. All, after 
 being identified, were carefully buried. The can 
 non was recovered from a neighboring swamp and 
 placed in an upright position near the grave of the 
 officers, and long remained there as a monument 
 to mark the spot where these brave men fought 
 and fell. 
 
 In the very next battle, where General Clinch 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 69 
 
 was in command, Osceola himself was present. 
 He had increased his eight hundred Indians to over 
 a thousand ; but this time he had considerably more 
 than one thousand regulars to face. They were 
 marching southward and met the hostiles at the 
 crossing of the Withlacoochee River. The Indians 
 followed the example of their fierce leader and 
 fought with desperation as long as their ammuni 
 tion held out, intermingling with their riflemen 
 those who used only bows and arrows. 
 
 Osceola brought his warriors into action in 
 groups well arranged to resist every practicable 
 crossing, and he set an example of bravery and 
 effectiveness never exceeded by any savage leader. 
 He took a conspicuous place at the front, but 
 cautiously fought behind tree after tree as he ad 
 vanced or retired, and, according to the Indian ac 
 counts, killed and wounded more than forty white 
 soldiers. Notwithstanding the terrible fighting of 
 the Indians, General Clinch would neither give up 
 nor retire ; he continued the conflict till he had worn 
 out his foe, and at last, though with heavy loss, he 
 succeeded in forcing the passage of the river and 
 in defeating and putting to flight Osceola s entire 
 force. 
 
 While I was a cadet I came in contact, as I have 
 intimated, with many army officers who were serv 
 ing on the frontier, which in the 50s extended be 
 yond the Mississippi from the English possessions 
 on the north to Texas and New Mexico on the south. 
 Among them was Major Geo. H. Thomas, who had 
 been bronzed by much service, and who had already 
 received three brevet commissions for gallant con- 
 
70 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 duct in fighting the Indians and the Mexicans. 
 While in Florida Major Thomas was much with 
 Sherman and Ord, who had been his mates at West 
 Point, and he participated in the last work of the 
 army there under General Worth, who was always 
 a favorite leader whether warring against Indians 
 or white men. 
 
 Through the pathless forests and swamps the 
 Indians would creep and shoot into a moving 
 column, or into a camp at midnight, appearing and 
 disappearing with incredible swiftness. It took 
 the best of health, temperate habits, devotion to 
 duty, and great firmness of character to spend a 
 year in southern Florida and not become to some 
 degree demoralized. George H. Thomas met his 
 first trials there admirably and came out not only 
 unscathed but with added honors. In 1841 he par 
 ticipated in an Indian expedition and did such 
 royal service that Worth, joining with his captain, 
 warmly recommended him for the first brevet. 
 
 To cadets then at West Point, myself included, 
 Major Thomas of Virginia, who had been in bloody 
 battles and had been three times brevetted for gal 
 lantry, was not a figure to pass without notice. 
 Even now I remember his strong, mandatory voice 
 while he drilled us in artillery amid the rattle of 
 the gun-carriages and the clamor of section officers. 
 His soldierly appearance and solid seat on a good- 
 sized horse when he led a cavalry charge in our 
 cavalry school, or jumped the hurdles, caught 
 every eye. It was especially in the section-room 
 that he was a favorite. His kind manner and the 
 good marks he awarded us for average recitations 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 71 
 
 made our boyish hearts glad. After he left us he 
 served in Texas and had considerable active work 
 among the roving bands of Apaches. 
 
 A few words concerning one of Thomas 
 " scouts," from his own pen, will give an idea of the 
 perils of an expedition in 1856 : " As we were over 
 hauling them (the Indians) one fellow more perse 
 vering than the rest, who still kept his position in 
 rear of the loose animals, suddenly dismounted and 
 prepared to fight ; and our men in their eagerness to 
 dispatch him hurried upon him so quickly that 
 several arrows took effect, wounding myself in the 
 chin and chest, also Private William Murphy of 
 Company D in the left shoulder, and Privates 
 John Tile and Cooper Sidle of the band each in the 
 leg, before he, the Indian, fell by twenty or more 
 shots." This scout of Thomas was against a very 
 wild and troublesome band of Apaches that roamed 
 near the headwaters of the Concho and the Colo 
 rado Rivers of Texas. His wound was a very 
 painful one. While he was alone he had drawn out 
 the arrows from his own flesh with great difficulty ; 
 they made such deep and serious cuts that a notice 
 able scar was left upon his chin and an uglier one 
 upon his breast. 
 
 After I first knew Thomas I became interested 
 in him and always followed his career with eager 
 attention and expectancy. While returning from 
 Texas, on a leave of absence after he had become 
 a major in the Second Cavalry, he met with a 
 serious railroad accident, being rolled with his car 
 down a steep embankment. This injured his spine 
 so that for a time he despaired of ever being well 
 
72 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 enough again for field service. During the first 
 few months of his disability, he sought in his own 
 state for some military school where he could re 
 side permanently and teach young men. It is this 
 which gave rise to the suspicion that Thomas was 
 willing to go South and join the forces of secession. 
 It is now well known that he never veered in his 
 loyalty to his government. Soon after the out 
 break of the Civil War, he was promoted from a 
 majority to the colonelcy of the Second Cavalry, 
 from which Lee, Johnston, and Hardee had gone 
 when they tendered their resignations and joined 
 the Confederacy. 
 
 General Thomas early experiences among hos 
 tile Indians for two periods in Florida, and one 
 upon the frontier of Texas against the Apaches 
 and Comanches, largely helped him to acquire cool 
 ness and self-command in fierce battles, and pre 
 pared him in great measure for his grand and 
 patriotic service in the Civil War. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 GRADUATING FROM WEST POINT MY MARRIAGE FIRST 
 
 CALL TO ACTIVE DUTY BREAKING UP OUR 
 
 HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 My Graduation from West Point A Memorable Year My Marriage 
 Settling our Home First Sudden Call to Duty The Conster 
 nation it Occasioned Scattering of the Family Ordered to 
 Florida A Renowned Indian Fighter The Seminoles Hiding 
 in the Great Cypress Swamps " Billy Bowlegs," the Chosen 
 Seminole Leader Raiding the Settlements An Amusing Inter 
 preter Meeting Young Officers Who Were Afterwards Generals 
 in the Civil War Recollections of Them A Crazy Soldier and 
 an Unpleasant Episode An Undignified Escape from Indians. 
 
 HAVING been graduated from the Military 
 Academy sufficiently high in general stand 
 ing in a class reduced to thirty-six members, 
 I was entitled to a place in the topographical engi 
 neers ; but I chose for the service, as I had a right 
 to do, the Ordnance Department. After a pleasant 
 furlough spent in Maine, I went to my first station, 
 Watervliet Arsenal, in the fall of 1854. In 1855, 
 quite early in the season, I was surprised with a 
 separate command, that of Kennebec Arsenal. 
 That same year was furthermore a memorable one 
 to me, as my marriage occurred on the 14th of Feb 
 ruary to Miss Elizabeth Ann Waite, the daughter 
 of Alexander B. Waite, Esq., of Portland. Me.; 
 the 16th of the following December our eldest son, 
 Guy, was born. 
 
 After being nearly a year on duty at Kennebec, 
 I returned with my little family to Watervliet. 
 
74 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 We had excellent quarters which were made very 
 comfortable, being as well furnished as our limited 
 means would afford. We had the use of a good 
 garden and plenty of stable room. I had bought a 
 Canadian pony, and a carriage and harness, which 
 when I was off duty afforded us fine opportunities 
 for driving about the country. My brother and 
 my wife s mother had come from Maine to live 
 with us. He was attending the famous law school 
 at Albany, and it was very convenient for him to 
 come and go from our home. Taking it all in all, 
 our comforts and enjoyments were very complete 
 when suddenly in December, 1856, I was ordered 
 by the Washington authorities to proceed to 
 Tampa, Florida, and report to General W. S. Har- 
 ney, then commanding that department. This was 
 the beginning of my Indian campaigning. 
 
 Quite a remnant of the Seminoles had been left 
 hidden in the Everglades and the big cypress 
 swamps when the great body of that nation, at the 
 end of the war which I have before mentioned, 
 were transported to the Indian Territory. In ten 
 years their numbers had greatly increased. Many 
 of the boys had grown to manhood and become 
 warriors. Their chosen leader was a singular char 
 acter, very plausible in his deportment and very 
 deceptive in his dealings with white men. The 
 name given him by the settlers was " Billy Bow- 
 legs. " This chieftain and his followers had of late 
 had the usual conflicts with the white settlers, on 
 account of their gradual encroachments upon the 
 hunting and fishing grounds still stoutly claimed 
 by these Indians. No reasoning would convince 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS. 75 
 
 them that the treaty which had been signed by the 
 heads of tribes who had long since emigrated was 
 binding upon them. 
 
 They raided the settlements, ran off cattle and 
 horses, waylaid wagon trains and robbed them. 
 Stage lines became unsafe. Now and then a settler 
 was shot; a terrible retribution upon the Indians 
 would soon follow, and the middle and southern 
 part of Florida speedily became a land of terror 
 and trouble. The Indian raids were, of course, 
 exaggerated, but the fear of them was widespread. 
 Undoubtedly, greedy land owners and many un 
 scrupulous village traders took advantage of the 
 situation to magnify rumors and to call for troops, 
 with a view principally of furnishing abundant 
 siipplies. They insisted upon raising volunteers, 
 which, after being mustered in, had to be furnished 
 with arms, ammunition, and food. There were, of 
 course, not very many Indians, probably not to 
 exceed five hundred all told, yet enough to keep up 
 a continuous panic and constant calls upon the gov 
 ernment at Washington for aid. 
 
 This was the state of things when I was directed 
 to leave my home and report to General Harney, 
 the most renowned Indian fighter that we had at 
 that time in the field. 
 
 My family, before many years, became accus 
 tomed to such sudden calls to duty ; but this was the 
 first one, and it would be hard to exaggerate the 
 surprise almost consternation which it pro 
 duced. Our garden and house had to be given up ; 
 the pony, carriage, and harness were sold. My 
 household was divided, the other members return- 
 
76 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ing to Maine, while I proceeded through Washing 
 ton to Savannah, Pilatka, and Tampa. It was my 
 first journey through the South, and from a thou 
 sand incidents it became memorable. Passing from 
 the extreme cold of Watervliet to the sunny shores 
 of Tampa Bay, no young man was ever more de 
 lightfully entertained with the contrasts of scenery 
 and climate, with the people, and the newness of 
 his surroundings. 
 
 Not finding General Harney at Tampa, I went 
 on board the old steamer Fashion which after 
 wards, during the Civil War, became a Confed 
 erate cruiser. It was a beautiful moonlight night, 
 and at about ten o clock I reached the steamer at 
 anchor. The weather was warm and the bay quiet, 
 without a ripple upon its surface. I seemed to be 
 already in another world, and in spite of the sepa 
 ration from my family I was charmed with the new 
 experience. As soon as the tides would permit we 
 hoisted anchor and steamed out into the gulf and 
 down to the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. 
 The Fashion was anchored at this point (Punt a 
 Rassa) and put in charge of some watchmen. The 
 crew of the steamer, with the captain in command, 
 lowered their ship s boat, and taking all the pas 
 sengers on board, myself included, rowed us up 
 the river twenty miles to Fort Meyers, the first 
 sizable post along the river. The forests extended 
 all the way on both banks, with very few openings. 
 
 It was night when we reached the post, a 
 beautiful summer night it seemed to me. The post 
 was well laid out and the quarters for the officers 
 proved very comfortable. I hastened to find Gen- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 77 
 
 eral Harney. He had been described to me as a tall, 
 handsome man, often very severe in his style and 
 hard to approach. He was sitting by his table in a 
 sort of basement office reading a paper. He looked 
 up as I entered the door of his room, rose and gave 
 me a hearty welcome. So cordial was his manner 
 that I felt I had been misinformed. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Howard," he said, "I have long 
 wanted an ordnance officer, and I am glad you have 
 come ! Take a seat and make yourself at home. 
 I did so and found him companionable, remarkably 
 so considering the difference in rank between a 
 brigadier-general and a lieutenant. But in a few 
 minutes a sack of mail-matter was brought in and 
 emptied on his large table. He put on his glasses 
 and began to examine the mail. Something in a 
 letter from Washington displeased him ; he at once 
 became excited and angry, and his rough language 
 corresponded to the heat of his passion. I was 
 glad to make some excuse and retire from his pres 
 ence. I saw then that Harney in quiet social life 
 was one person, but quite another when official 
 matters ruffled his temper. Harney was as hand 
 some as Joe Hooker and as tall as General Scott; 
 genial as a friend in ordinary intercourse, but ter 
 rible as an enemy and often unreasonable as a 
 commander. 
 
 Here at Fort Meyers on my first visit I found 
 a camp, or rather a bivouac, of Seminoles who had 
 been captured. At this season of the year, Janu 
 ary, the climate was exceedingly mild, except when 
 a " Norther " swept in upon the fort. During my 
 stay there was a strong cold wind, sometimes ac- 
 
78 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 companied by rain, which affected our soldiers 
 quite as much as a sudden snowstorm would in 
 Ohio or Illinois. They made great fires near their 
 posts when permitted, and stood shivering around 
 them with their blankets over their shoulders much 
 after the Indian fashion. The Indians, however, 
 though excited by the storm and very noisy when 
 they could get anything stronger than water to 
 drink, appeared less disturbed than our people by 
 the sudden changes of climate. 
 
 They had for an interpreter a half-breed usu 
 ally called Natto, " or " Natto Joe. One pecul 
 iarity of Natto was that in his talk he made no 
 distinction whatever of sex. When speaking of a 
 woman he always said " he " and " him," and he 
 was very brief in his English utterance. For ex 
 ample, be it of man or woman, he would say : " He 
 lib Eberglade, big lake ! ? meaning that he or she 
 lived in the Everglades near the big lake. One day 
 he ran down to the office of the commander of the 
 fort and cried, in plaintive tones: " He scream! 
 He all over drunk! He scratch and bite! Natto 
 Joe fraid! The interpretation is that one of 
 the women was intoxicated, and she was screaming, 
 scratching, and biting so that Natto Joe was afraid 
 of her. Somehow this woman had gotten into her 
 possession a bottle of commissary whisky and was 
 making a great ado, so that the surrounding woods 
 resounded with her wild complaints. Nothing ever 
 appeared so dreadful to me or half so plaintive as 
 the cries of a drunken Indian, and of course the 
 woman s savage shrieks in a high key were even 
 more wild and piercing. 
 
DOLLS, MALE AND FEMALE, OF VARIOUS TRIBES; DOLL WARRIORS. TOYS, ETC. 
 
 For Description .<;ee page M 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 81 
 
 Fort Meyers was indeed nothing but a military 
 post, with roughly-constructed quarters for men 
 and officers, and a few log buildings for store 
 houses. By much practice the soldiers had learned 
 to make these rough structures very presentable 
 and comfortable. With axe and saw they cut out 
 the material from the neighboring forests, brought 
 it together and made their shanties, often begin 
 ning and completing a post in a single week. This 
 post as I looked at it the day after my arrival was 
 very pleasant ; it was carefully arranged and had 
 an abundance of ornamental trees and shrubs. 
 The oleanders were especially beautiful. They 
 were sizable trees, and later, on my second visit, 
 were in full bloom. 
 
 I met here for the first time several officers who 
 later became very prominent in our nation s his 
 tory. For example, Captain Winfield Scott Han 
 cock was the depot quartermaster ; Captain W. W. 
 Burns, who as brigadier-general commanded Ba 
 ker s Brigade after the terrible battle of Ball s 
 Bluff, was the post commissary; and Captain Al 
 fred Pleasanton, who at Gettysburg commanded 
 our cavalry, was then acting as Harney s assistant 
 adjutant-general. Here, too, was Captain R. B. 
 Marcy of the Fifth Infantry, who became a major- 
 general, and was General George B. McClellan s 
 father-in-law. He was very fond of the ordnance 
 department and often invited me to his quarters to 
 talk about the different arms of the service. Just 
 then he was ambitious to become paymaster with 
 the rank of major. 
 
 I remember, too, Captain Stevenson of the Fifth 
 
82 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Infantry, a man always very attentive to the inter 
 ests of his company, working out his discipline 
 through the boasted efficiency of his first sergeant. 
 The real governor of a company in those days was 
 the orderly sergeant. Matters came by appeal 
 from him to the captain, and the captain usually 
 sustained the rough discipline of his sergeant. 
 Captain Dolph de Russy of the Fourth Artillery 
 commanded a company of that arm, that is, nomi 
 nally artillery, but really what the soldiers then 
 called " Red-legged Infantry." 
 
 Quite early in the morning, the day after I had 
 reported, I was notified that General Harney was 
 going up to Tampa Bay, and that, with other of 
 ficers designated, I was to accompany him. I have 
 a very distinct recollection of the party after it 
 assembled on board a large rowboat at the river 
 wharf. Harney sat in the stern and proposed to 
 steer the boat. By his side on the left was Dr. Mc- 
 Farland, an army surgeon, already nearly old 
 enough for retirement, and a great personal friend 
 of the general. To his right, at arm s length from 
 him, sat Captain Pleasanton, who had a very hand 
 some face, but was demure and reserved; he sel 
 dom spoke to anybody, having at the time an un 
 happy look upon his face as if he were discontented 
 with his situation. I was shown a seat opposite 
 Pleasanton. Two clerks went along to take care 
 of all papers and accounts at headquarters. They, 
 with the oarsmen, completed the little company. 
 
 There were three oarsmen on a side. The boat 
 had a mast and rigging for a sail to be used should 
 the weather favor us. When we were readv to 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 83 
 
 start the soldiers acting as sailors fixed their oars 
 in the locks and began to row. The boat shot out 
 from the dock and was moving smoothly down the 
 river, when suddenly one of the oarsmen locked his 
 oar with another. Harney ordered him to be care 
 ful, but his oar caught a second time and a third, 
 causing the boat to whirl around in spite of the 
 rudder. General Harney then became white with 
 anger, stood up, seized a boat-hook near at hand, 
 and struck at the soldier. The man avoided the 
 blow and sought protection behind the mast. He 
 put his face round one side of the mast and jeered 
 at the general, saying: "Oh, no, you wouldn t! 
 No, you wouldn t! " laughing wildly as he did so. 
 
 All except Harney saw at once that the soldier 
 was delirious and did not realize what he was 
 doing. The general s anger waxed hotter and 
 hotter as he tried in vain to strike the delinquent 
 oarsman. At last the doctor seized his hand and 
 begged him to sit down, telling him that the soldier 
 was insane. Instantly the general s anger turned 
 upon the quartermaster. It was fortunate for 
 Hancock that he was not present. A fine quarter 
 master! " exclaimed Harney with some harder ex 
 pressions, " to send me such a boatman! 
 
 Another oarsman was substituted for the crazy 
 soldier and the boat moved with speed quietly down 
 the river. As General Harney s face recovered its 
 usual expression, he said: " I wouldn t hurt the 
 lad ; the crazy fellow probably thought I wanted to 
 kill him." Very soon after that, as we were glid 
 ing along with forests on the right and on the lef t, 
 we saw an opening like a glade near the right bank 
 
84 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of the river. " It was in that neighborhood," said 
 Harney, * that I got caught by those harum-scarum 
 Indians and had to escape in my night clothes." 
 The whole story, well told by Harney, interested 
 me deeply. The facts are given substantially in 
 an official report by Lieutenant Griffin as follows : 
 
 " It becomes my painful duty to inform you of 
 the assassination of the greater part of Lieuten 
 ant-Colonel Harney s detachment by the Indians 
 on the morning of the 23d (about 1840), on the 
 Caloosahatchee River, where they had gone in ac 
 cordance with the treaty at Fort King to establish 
 a trading-house. The party consisted of about 
 twenty-eight men armed with rifles ; they were en 
 camped on the river, but unprotected by defense 
 of any kind, and, it is said, without sentinels. The 
 Indians in large force made the attack before the 
 dawn of day and before reveille, and it is supposed 
 that thirteen of the men were killed, among whom 
 were Major Dalham and Mr. Morgan, sutlers. 
 The remainder, with Colonel Harney, escaped, 
 several of them severely wounded. It was a com 
 plete surprise." 
 
 In this encounter the Indians killed ten men 
 belonging to the military service, and eight more 
 citizens employed by the sutlers. Colonel Harney 
 and fourteen others succeeded in making their, 
 escape, though the colonel, as he said, made off in 
 his night clothing without waiting for coat or 
 trousers. 
 
 In that encounter the Indians obtained four 
 teen rifles, six carbines, some three or four kegs of 
 powder, and about three thousand dollars worth 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 85 
 
 of goods. Lieutenant Hanson, commanding at the 
 time, on receipt of the order quickly captured some 
 thirty Indians while visiting his camp, and sent 
 them immediately to Charleston, South Carolina. 
 From Charleston they were carried off to the far 
 West to join the other Seminoles and Creeks upon 
 their reservation beyond the Mississippi. 
 
 This incident occurred in a previous Indian 
 war when Osceola was in his prime. Harney was 
 then only a lieutenant-colonel. He had, since the 
 Mexican War, become a brigadier-general and a 
 department commander. He owned in his story 
 that the Indians had surprised him, but stoutly 
 averred that they never did it again and never 
 could. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE SEMINOLES INCIDENTS AND 
 EXPERIENCES OF MY ARMY LIFE IN FLORIDA. 
 
 Breakfasting with General Harney " Mr. Howard, you will be my 
 Chief of Ordnance " Becoming Accustomed to my Surroundings 
 A Pleasant Resort Mustering Volunteers into Service Gen 
 eral Harney Relieved from Command "We Haven t Lost any 
 Indians" Dislike of the Regulars for Indian Service Chasing 
 Indians from Place to Place Seeking Peace Ordered to Find 
 " Billy Bowlegs " A Journey into the Interior New and Fresh 
 Experiences A Nap Better than a Toddy Great Stature of 
 the Seminoles Their Physical Superiority over other Indians 
 Seminole Women Making a " Good Peace." 
 
 LATE in the afternoon of the same day we 
 found the steamer Fashion at anchor near 
 the mouth of the river, and we w r ere soon on 
 board and made comfortable for the night. Dur 
 ing the evening not much w r as said concerning the 
 military situation, or of an official character. Har 
 ney and the doctor played at draughts while the 
 remainder of the party looked on, much interested 
 in the game. The moon w r as shining and the even 
 ing was delightful, for all that night the bay was 
 as smooth as a mill-pond, and the temperature so 
 moderate that I w r as reluctant to leave the deck for 
 my berth. 
 
 The next morning General Harney had us all 
 at breakfast with him, and told us many stories of 
 the Florida Indians, especially of battles I have 
 alluded to, besides those he knew of, fought by 
 Worth and Taylor. He informed me that for the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 87 
 
 present campaign he was to have some ten com 
 panies of volunteers, all mounted. They were to 
 come from Georgia and Alabama and from differ 
 ent parts of Florida. Turning suddenly to me he 
 said : Mr. Howard, it is well you are here. You 
 will be my chief of ordnance. You must get mus 
 kets for the volunteers, their equipments and am 
 munition, and make the issues. The regulars 
 stationed all about are already fairly well sup 
 plied." I assured the general that I was glad to 
 be of use and would attend as w r ell as I could to the 
 duties of my department. 
 
 As soon as we had worked our way up to the 
 landing near Fort Brooke all went ashore. Fort 
 Brooke was then the headquarters of the Depart 
 ment of Florida. The buildings, though roughly 
 constructed, were very presentable. Live oaks, 
 with their widespreading branches, covered much 
 of the ground, and the officers quarters, stretched 
 along by the shore of the bay, were nicely fenced. 
 The buildings, thoroughly whitewashed, were re 
 lieved by the verdure of tropical plants and shrub 
 bery. There were numerous shell walks, one of 
 which ran the whole length of the reservation. 
 
 About a quarter of a mile from the rest of the 
 garrison, in the southeast corner of the reservation, 
 was a large frame building made of rough boards, 
 at that time without paint or whitewash. It was 
 propped up some six or eight feet from the ground 
 on piles. This was the arsenal, and near it was a 
 small building for an office. An ordnance sergeant, 
 who had already seen considerable service on the 
 plains, was in charge, and appeared pleased enough 
 
88 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 to have me assume command, and glad to become 
 my factotum. I soon became accustomed to my 
 surroundings and in time made my corner a pleas 
 ant resort for officers of the garrison and citizens 
 of the village. 
 
 The volunteers were soon mustered into service 
 and I issued to them their supplies. It was not 
 long before the dissatisfaction which existed be 
 tween General Harney and the Secretary of War 
 culminated in his being relieved from command 
 of the department. He had laid out his work well, 
 occupied forts on both coasts, and some important 
 points like Fort Myers and Fort Kissimmee in the 
 interior, and was preparing to give on the one 
 hand a fair protection to white settlements, and on 
 the other to make aggressive movements against 
 the Indians who were raiding the country and 
 doing mischief; but for some unexplained reason 
 he was not in favor in the War Office. The senior 
 colonel, L. L. Loomis, of the Fifth Infantry, was 
 placed in charge. It was a delightful change to 
 me, as he took much interest in his young ordnance 
 officer, and used me in many another capacity on 
 his personal staff. 
 
 During my year with him I do not recall an 
 important engagement between the Indians and 
 the regular troops. The regulars disliked the In 
 dian service, and the officers would often say, i We 
 haven t lost any Indians." But the volunteers 
 were very active. They had good captains and 
 lieutenants, but the rank and file were made up for 
 the most part from the roughest white population 
 of the South. Sometimes orders did not restrain 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 89 
 
 them; they chased the Indians from place to place 
 and shot them down mercilessly, men, women, and 
 children taking very few prisoners. 
 
 At last Colonel Loomis, much grieved at the 
 severity of this active campaigning, made up his 
 mind to seek peace with the Indians without wait 
 ing for them to sue for it. So one day in June he 
 sent for me and said he wanted me to go as a 
 " peace commissioner " to the Indians in the Ever 
 glades, or in any other place where I could find 
 them, and explain to them how easy and advanta 
 geous it would be for them to submit to the govern 
 ment and end the war. If possible, I was to find 
 Chief Billy Bowlegs and use all the influence I 
 could with him to induce him to take his tribe and 
 join the remainder of his people in the West. 
 
 I undertook the mission, first going to Fort 
 Myers and getting the interpreter, Natto Joe, and 
 the woman with her child, who \vas still detained 
 at that post. This I did as quickly as possible. 
 The woman in her miserable condition, poorly clad, 
 wrapped in an army blanket, looked as if she were 
 beyond middle age, but her little child, who was 
 perhaps five years old, with a comfortable gown 
 and two or three necklaces of blue beads, had a 
 healthy look and was really pretty. She would, 
 however, shake her hair over her face and act as 
 shy and wild as a young bronco. When white men 
 were about she generally clung to her mother s 
 skirt, endeavoring to hide herself in its folds. 
 
 With some difficulty Natto and I took this pair 
 with us to Fort Deynaud far up the Caloosahatchee. 
 There we found Captain Brown with two com- 
 
90 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 panics of the Second Artillery. Lieutenant S. D. 
 Lee, a classmate of mine at West Point, who in the 
 Civil War became a lieutenant-general in the Con 
 federate Army, was in command of one of the 
 companies. Captain Brown, leaving but a small 
 guard behind, took with him his two companies, 
 and wagons with- supplies for a ten days trip, and 
 escorted me and my charge into the interior. We 
 took the direction of Lake Okeechobee. 
 
 Lieutenant Lee and I were close friends and we 
 had an enjoyable expedition. The forests through 
 which we made our way, often being obliged to 
 change paths into passable roadways, the sweet 
 open glades near which we encamped for the night, 
 and the easy marches of every day, I have never 
 forgotten. All this experience was new and fresh to 
 me, and everything in tropical nature filled me with 
 an enthusiasm which much amused my companion. 
 At any brief halt while en route I found a nap of 
 twenty or thirty minutes better than any other 
 refreshment ; and here was begun my habit of tak 
 ing short sleeps in the midst of active campaigning. 
 Lee once said : * Howard thinks a nap better than 
 a toddy," and so indeed in time it proved to be. 
 
 On arriving at Lake Okeechobee a wonderful 
 transf ormation took place in our Seminole woman. 
 She bathed herself and her child ; she managed to 
 repair her clothing, and combed the tangles out of 
 her matted hair. Digging some roots that had a 
 saponaceous juice she powdered them and soaked 
 them in water, washing her hair with the lathery 
 substance till it was smooth and glossy. She found 
 different ways to beautify her child, and, indeed, 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 91 
 
 one would not take the mother, after her toilet had 
 been completed, to be more than twenty-five. From 
 a haggard old squaw she had been transformed 
 into a good-looking young Indian woman. She 
 promised us so faithfully that she would bring us 
 into communication with her people that with some 
 reluctance I gave her instructions and let her go. 
 
 Natto was afraid to accompany her. He had 
 been too long and too evidently a friend of the 
 white man. He said: " He, Indian kill me. I no 
 go! r I hoped almost against hope that Mattie, 
 as we called the Indian woman, would prove true 
 and bring about a meeting with the nearest tribe, 
 but I was to be disappointed. I could not get an 
 interview with any chief. My mission was, to all 
 appearances, a failure. Still, it is probable that 
 the news the woman carried brought about before 
 many months the peace which was secured by 
 Colonel Loomis and his men soon after I left his 
 department a peace which has lasted without 
 interruption from that time until today. 
 
 On our return, not far from Lake Okeechobee, 
 while we were crossing a long stretch of meadow 
 land which the daily showers had refreshed and 
 brightened, I witnessed for the first time a wonder 
 ful mirage. Lee and I were riding some distance 
 from the command. Suddenly we saw what ap 
 peared to be the whole command soldiers, am 
 bulances, and army wagons, lifted high in air and 
 moving along with regularity amid the clouds in 
 the sky. Such a mirage was more familiar to 
 officers and soldiers who had served on the plains, 
 but it was a startling sight to my vision. It was a 
 
92 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 complete illusion. My companion and I rode on 
 toward the point where we supposed Captain 
 Brown and his men were marching and had appar 
 ently come quite near them before the vision dis 
 appeared. 
 
 My impressions of the characteristics of the 
 Seminoles are that they differ in many respects 
 from all other Indian tribes with which I am ac 
 quainted. Generally the men averaged from five 
 feet ten to six feet in height. Even Natto Joe, a 
 half-breed, was five feet and eleven in his stock 
 ings. The Indians of one of the bands, called by 
 some writers " the Tiger clan, 7 were larger than 
 any other, and were, as a rule, very dark. They 
 had small hands and feet, but were nevertheless 
 strong and muscular in their limbs. Their fore 
 heads were as broad and high as those of the white 
 men, and their heads generally as large. I never 
 saw a Seminole who had eyes so full and open as 
 the Sioux or Apaches; they were intensely black, 
 and, like windows under a cornice, had their own 
 peculiar appearance and outlook. Their teeth 
 were very even, faces square-cut, and their other 
 features hardly differed from the European type. 
 
 In common with all Indians the Seminoles pos 
 sessed great physical endurance, which was never 
 wanting, except in infancy and extreme age. Clay 
 MacCauley gives an instance of this. He says: 
 " Even among the children this physical superior 
 ity is seen. One morning Ko-i-hat-co s son, a tall, 
 slender boy not quite twelve years old, shouldered 
 a heavy Kentucky rifle, left our camp and followed 
 in his father s long footsteps for a day s hunt. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 93 
 
 After tramping all day, at sunset he reappeared 
 in camp, carrying slung across his shoulder, in 
 addition to rifle and accoutrements, a deer weigh 
 ing perhaps fifty pounds, a weight he had borne 
 for miles. The same boy in one day went with some 
 older friends to his permanent home twenty miles 
 away and returned." 
 
 The Seminole women that I met were, as a rule, 
 taller than the Apache women, but seemed com 
 paratively short on account of the prevailing 
 height of the men. I do not know that any Indian 
 women were finer-looking or more shapely in their 
 figures than these unless it were the Nez Perces. 
 By strangers, especially white men, these women, 
 with their wild and fierce look, were often thought 
 repulsive; but all the repulsiveness disappeared 
 when they met those who neither feared nor hated 
 them. 
 
 Usually *the Seminole warrior managed to have 
 on something approximating the dress of his 
 tribe, leggings of flannel, a single shirt, the usual 
 breech-clout, and a peculiar headgear like a low- 
 crowned hat, indeed, a turban three or four inches 
 wide made by winding a comforter or thin shawl 
 several times around the head. The first time I 
 saw Natto Joe, the half-breed, I noticed that he 
 had one or two red handkerchiefs so tied about his 
 neck as to make a hammock-shaped pocket. Every 
 male Indian had one or more of these handker 
 chiefs, and sometimes several, always in gay colors. 
 They were intended as choice ornaments of dis 
 tinction, and were used by them for pockets. Of 
 course, like every Indian, the Seminole wore a belt 
 
94 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 about his waist into which he thrust his implements 
 for the chase and war. 
 
 The men had a strange style of wearing their 
 hair. A strip extended over the head and ended in 
 a braid or two behind the neck, and another narrow 
 border of hair was left just above the forehead - 
 all the rest being cut close. 
 
 There was nothing very remarkable in the 
 women s attire. They always had one long skirt 
 fastened around the waist, and an upper garment 
 to meet it, covering the breast and shoulders. The 
 material was light and cheap, usually of manta 
 (bleached or unbleached cotton). The wearing of 
 beads many strings of them gave distinction. 
 They wore no shoes or moccasins. The smaller 
 children had no clothing; and, like Mattie s child, 
 the larger ones would have a single garment like a 
 shirt cut low in the neck. 
 
 At my rough arsenal I soon had all the arms, 
 equipments, and ammunition necessary for the 
 troops, both volunteers and regulars. Major Page, 
 the permanent adjutant-general of the depart 
 ment, came and mustered in man by man, with his 
 horse, saddle, bridle, and blanket, and I issued the 
 remainder of his outfit for field service, holding 
 each volunteer captain responsible for his com 
 pany. Colonel Loomis kept his command con 
 stantly in motion, and, as far as he could, had his 
 men capture rather than kill the Indians, for 
 whom he had great pity. The prisoners were 
 placed in camps and guarded. 
 
 I have always considered the Seminoles intel 
 lectually superior to most Indians, and I under- 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 95 
 
 stand that in the Indian Territory, they proved 
 capable of attaining to a high order of civilization. 
 After my return to West Point in the fall of 
 1857 I learned with much satisfaction that Colonel 
 Loomis had succeeded in bringing in Chief Billy 
 Bowlegs to Fort Meyers, had also made a " good 
 peace," and that all but a small fragment of the 
 Seminole tribe had been sent to their friends west 
 of the Mississippi. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 SKETCH OF MY MILITARY CAREER DURING THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 -ATTITUDE OF OUR WILD INDIANS DURING 
 
 THAT PERIOD. 
 
 On Duty at West Point as Instructor in Mathematics A Congenial 
 Position Thoughts of Entering the Gospel Ministry Fall of 
 Fort Sumter Opening of the Civil War Solving Some Personal 
 Problems I Become Colonel of a Maine Regiment Rapid Pro 
 motion Active Military Service Restless and Troublesome In 
 dians Condition of Affairs in the Indian Territory Recruiting 
 Indians for the Confederate Army An Important Treaty Effect 
 of the Civil War on the Indian Question. 
 
 AFTER my brief Indian campaign in Florida 
 I was on duty at the Military Academy as 
 instructor in mathematics until the spring 
 of 1861. Having then a position suited to my 
 taste, that of assistant professor, with the pay of a 
 captain in the army, and more comfortable quar 
 ters than my rank had previously enabled me to 
 enjoy, every consideration of personal interest for 
 myself and my growing family would have induced 
 me to remain at West Point. There was still 
 another consideration favoring my continuance 
 there. It w r as an expectation on my part soon to 
 leave the service and enter the Gospel ministry. 
 But just after the fall of Fort Sumter a dispatch 
 was received from Augusta, Maine, proposing to 
 me, if elected, to take command of a regiment, 
 the first from the state, for three years or for the 
 war. Then immediately I faced and solved both 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 97 
 
 problems and decided that it was my duty favor 
 ably to answer the call from Maine. 
 
 Having become the colonel of that regiment, I 
 commanded it and three others, as a brigade, in the 
 first battle of Bull Run. Soon after, in September, 
 1861, I became a brigadier-general of volunteers, 
 and, with the exception of two months and twenty- 
 two days absence occasioned by my wounds, com 
 manded a brigade under General Sumner in all 
 McClellan s operations until the battle of An- 
 tietam. There on the field I took General Sedg- 
 wick s place after he was wounded, and held his 
 division through the subsequent battles till the end 
 of the year 1862. 
 
 In April, 1863, the President assigned me, now 
 a major-general of volunteers, to command the 
 Eleventh Army Corps. This command I held 
 through the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettys 
 burg, and then, transferred to the West, in Look 
 out Valley, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, 
 and the march to Knoxville. My first experiences 
 in the West were under General U. S. Grant, who 
 then conducted all the affairs of a large military 
 division. When General Grant was ordered to 
 Washington, in the spring of 1864, General Sher 
 man took his place in the military division, and I 
 was sent to Loudon, east Tennessee, to take com 
 mand of the Fourth Army Corps, then a part of 
 the Army of the Cumberland, under General 
 George H. Thomas. This corps was at that time 
 twenty thousand strong. This command was mine 
 during General Sherman s campaign from Chat 
 tanooga to Atlanta ; a campaign which comprised, 
 
98 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 while I was with the Fourth Corps, thirteen bat 
 tles, ending with what has recently been named 
 " The Battle of Atlanta," in which, on the 22d of 
 July, 1864, the young and well-beloved McPherson 
 was slain. 
 
 On the 26th of that month President Lincoln 
 assigned me to McPherson s place to command 
 the Army and Department of the Tennessee. I 
 had a portion of it, the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and 
 Seventeenth Corps, in round numbers about thirty- 
 three thousand, on the active line from that clay 
 forward. It constituted General Sherman s right 
 wing in the March to the Sea and through the 
 Carolinas, ending with the battle of Bentonville, 
 North Carolina, March 19 and 20, 1865. 
 
 We made a rapid march, averaging about 
 twenty-five miles a day, from Raleigh to Rich 
 mond, Virginia, a march that was begun just 
 after the announcement of the assassination of 
 Abraham Lincoln. On arriving at Richmond I 
 received a dispatch from General Grant, then in 
 Washington, instructing me to let my army march 
 overland in charge of my staff officers, while I should 
 come by water as qiiickly as possible and report in 
 person to the Secretary of War. This I did; and 
 on the 12th of May I was assigned to the new duty 
 of Commissioner of Freedmen and Refugees, a 
 new bureau in the War Department. 
 
 This brief sketch is a skeleton of my military 
 career during the four years of the Civil War, and 
 indicates why I was not more directly cognizant of 
 Indian affairs during that stirring period. 
 \ The Indians, however, all this time were very 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 99 
 
 restless and made constant trouble, and several 
 officers left my side to participate in operations 
 necessary to hold them in check. Some of the In 
 dians were on reservations and some were not, and 
 they represented every phase of civilization. 
 " Some in naked savage bands, adorned with paint 
 and feathers, armed with the tomahawk and scalp 
 ing knife, roamed the wilderness. Others, differ 
 ing from the planter or farmer only in their 
 complexion, possessed cultivated lands, flocks, and 
 herds." 
 
 The Seminoles, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and 
 Choctaws dwelt in what was called the Indian 
 Territory proper, a country west of Arkansas and 
 north of Texas. At the opening of the Civil War 
 it was, as a rule, under the supervision of officials 
 who sympathized with secession. This was un 
 fortunate for the United States government, for 
 with little inducement these officials and agents 
 broke up connection with the United States and 
 offered allegiance to the southern Confederacy. 
 Of course, when Mr. Lincoln came in, the superin 
 tendent and agents who had not kept faith with us 
 were removed from office and other men were put 
 in their places, but the new appointees were unable 
 to reach their posts of duty, so that great confusion 
 prevailed. 
 
 To aggravate matters still further, the old In-1 
 dian superintendent and many of the agents, join- \ 
 ing interests with the southern army, stirred up the 
 Indians till they began to commit acts of hostility.. 
 These men justified themselves by claiming that 
 they were acting under authority of the govern- 
 
100 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 merit of the Confederate States. About this time 
 a treaty with the Choctaws was ratified by the Con 
 federate Congress, under which delegates from 
 that nation had the right to sit in Congress. Two 
 full regiments of Indians were organized and at 
 tached to the Confederate army, and a third was 
 made ready during the first year of the war. This 
 constituted an Indian Confederate brigade. 
 
 It is only just to the Indians to say that they 
 could not hear from President Lincoln s adminis 
 tration. They witnessed the surrender of United 
 States army posts in their neighborhood and the 
 departure of government troops, and were uncer 
 tain as to what their allegiance ought to be under 
 I these new and trying circumstances. The cele 
 brated John Ross, chief of the Cherokees, resisted 
 the hostile action of his people as long as he could 
 and issued a proclamation. The instrument ended 
 thus: 
 
 " For these reasons I earnestly urge on the 
 Cherokee people the importance of non-interfer 
 ence with the people of the states, and the observ 
 ance of unswerving neutrality between them; 
 trusting that God will not only keep from our own 
 borders the desolation of war, but that He will in 
 His infinite mercy and honor stay its ravages 
 among the brotherhood of states." 
 
 Ross was overborne. It is said that his wife 
 was more staunch than her husband and held out 
 till the last. When an attempt was made to raise a 
 Confederate flag over the Indian council house her 
 opposition was so spirited that it prevented the 
 completion of the design. However, the Indians 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 101 
 
 that I have mentioned fell into line and gave their 
 sympathy and positive help to the cause of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 When the war was over the Choctaws and other 
 tribes within the Indian Territory, wiio had gone 
 against the United States, made special effort to 
 regain their position. Having been forced from 
 their homes and their lands by the operation of 
 war, or by the action of government agents, they 
 now desired to return. They had taken up arms 
 and thereby forfeited all rights and privileges 
 which had been theirs under their treaties before 
 the war ; but the administration decided to act with 
 clemency toward them, feeling confident that this 
 clemency would not be misunderstood but would 
 result in future good conduct on the part of the 
 Indians. 
 
 During President Johnson s administration an 
 important commission was appointed, upon which 
 was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the super 
 intendent of Indians for the southwest, General 
 Ely Parker, a full-blooded Indian who had served 
 on General Grant s staff. With him were Generals 
 Herron and Harney of the United States Army. 
 They met at Forth Smith, Arkansas, in September, 
 1865, and made a treaty with the Cherokees, Creeks, 
 Choctaws, Chickasaws, Osages, Seminoles, Senecas, 
 Shawnees, and Quapaws. Some extracts from this 
 treaty are of special interest to the lovers of our 
 Union. For example : 
 
 " Whereas the aforesaid nations and tribes, or bands of , 
 Indians, or portions thereof, were induced by the machina- , 
 tions of the emissaries of the so-called Confederate States to I 
 
102 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 throw off their allegiance to the Government of the United 
 States and to enter into treaty stipulations with said so- 
 called Confederate States, whereby they had made themselves 
 liable to a forfeiture of all rights of every kind, character, 
 and description which had been promised and guaranteed to 
 them by the United States ; and whereas, the Government of 
 the United States has maintained its supremacy and author 
 ity within its limits ; and whereas, it is the desire of the Gov 
 ernment to act with magnanimity with all parties, deserving 
 its clemency, and to re-establish order and legitimate author 
 ity among the Indian tribes; and whereas, the undersigned 
 representatives or parties connected with said nations and 
 tribes of Indians have become satisfied that it is for the gen 
 eral good of the people to reunite with and be restored to the 
 relations which formerly existed ; . . . The Undersigned 
 do hereby acknowledge themselves to be under the protection 
 of the United States of America, and covenant and agree that 
 hereafter they will in all things recognize the Government of 
 the United States as exercising exclusive jurisdiction over 
 them, and will not enter into any allegiance or conventional 
 agreement with any State, Nation, power or sovereignty 
 whatsoever ; and that any treaty or allegiance for the cession 
 of lands, or any act heretofore done by them or any of their 
 people, by which they renounced their allegiance to the 
 United States, is hereby revoked and repudiated." 
 
 The government promised to afford ample pro 
 tection to all persons and property of the nations 
 and tribes within the Indian Territory. It also 
 declared its willingness to enter into treaties to 
 arrange and settle all vexatious questions that 
 misrht arise in consequence of their part in the re 
 bellion. 
 
 Besides this treaty another was signed by the 
 commissioners and the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 103 
 
 which provided for something more than peace 
 and friendship. The Indians promised therein to 
 exert all their influence to compel the Indians of 
 the Plains to maintain peaceful relations with 
 each other, with the Indians of the Territory, and 
 with the United States. They agreed further that 
 slavery should be abolished forever, that the f reed- 
 men should be suitably provided for, that lands 
 should be issued to the Indians of Kansas and 
 elsewhere, that the right of way should be granted 
 to railroads, and that a consolidation of Indian 
 tribes with a territorial form of government should 
 be recommended by them to their respective 
 councils. 
 
 In view of this treaty, which has been more or 
 less faithfully kept, it would seem that the Civil 
 War resulted in the United States gaining a better 
 control over the Indians, and the Territorial tribes 
 were saved from outside annoyance by the Indians 
 of the Plains. 
 
 In 1862 it will be remembered General Pope 
 came to the East, and for a while commanded an 
 independent force sent out directly from the Dis 
 trict of Columbia and vicinity to meet and hold in 
 check General Lee s Confederate army while Mc- 
 Clellan changed his base from the James River to 
 Washington, bringing up from the peninsula the 
 Army of the Potomac as a support to Pope s 
 forces. Pope s last engagement was the second 
 battle of Bull Run, which ended in his defeat. 
 
 After an enforced vacation on account of my 
 wounds my first active engagement was near the 
 close of this battle. I was in command of a brigade, 
 
104 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 and was required to make a reconnaissance from 
 Centreville to ascertain if Lee s forces were still 
 present, or if they had withdrawn from our front. 
 The night after this movement we began a re 
 treat in different columns. General Sully, with 
 myself, commanded the rear guard of one of those 
 columns, and we had a bloody experience. I found 
 Sully in action an admirable commander; cool, 
 clear-headed, and full of expedients. This retreat 
 had hardly been completed when General Pope 
 and, somewhat later, General Sully also, was hur 
 ried off to the Northwest to meet and withstand a 
 fearful onslaught of Indians, which was reported 
 to have taken place on the western borders of 
 Minnesota. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GREAT UPRISING OF HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE NORTHWEST 
 -THE TERRIBLE SIOUX MASSACRE IN MINNESOTA. 
 
 Trouble with the Indians on the Border Uneasy Savages of the North 
 west Threatened Outbreak of the Sioux Red Iron s Eloquent 
 Speech The Great Uprising The Crafty and Notorious Chief 
 Little Crow A Reign of Terror, Murder, Rapine, and Pillage 
 Indiscriminate Slaughter of White Men, Women, and Children 
 Settlers Banding Together for Defense A Resolute White Leader 
 A Fearful Onslaught Bloody Campaign Against the Sioux 
 Defeat of Little Crow Trial of Five Hundred Hostile Indians 
 Execution of Thirty-eight of them upon One Scaffold Where and 
 How They Were Buried Death of Little Crow Indians as 
 Soldiers in the Union Army. 
 
 THE great uprising of the Sioux in 1862 is 
 now almost forgotten, and this is doubtless 
 due to the fact that it occurred at a time 
 when the North and South were engaged in deadly 
 strife. The trouble with the Indians on the border, 
 particularly in Minnesota, culminated about the 
 time of the second battle of Bull Run, in August, 
 1862. About this time several large tracts of land 
 were purchased from the Indians. The agents 
 and traders took advantage of this, and large 
 quantities of goods were sold at enormous prices 
 to the irritated Indians, who speedily showed their i 
 dissatisfaction. Councils were held, at one of 
 which Red Iron, an influential old chief, said : 
 
 Council, we will receive our next annuity, 
 
 * u 
 
 * From the New York Sun, March 17, 1901, and copied by it from 
 the Chicago Record. 
 
106 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 but we will sign no papers for anything else. The 
 snow is on the ground, and we have been waiting a 
 long time to get our money. We are poor; white 
 Father has plenty. His fires are warm ; his tepees 
 keep out the cold. We have nothing to eat. We 
 have been waiting a long time for our money. 
 Our hunting season is past. A great many of our 
 people are sick for being hungry. We may die 
 because you will not pay us; we may die, but 
 if we do we will leave our bones on the ground 
 where our great Father may see where his Dakota 
 children died. We are very poor. We have sold 
 our hunting grounds and the graves of our fathers. 
 We have sold our own graves. We have no place 
 to bury our dead, and you will not pay us the 
 money for our lands. 7 
 
 For making this eloquent and pathetic speech 
 Eed Iron was locked up in the guardhouse for 
 twenty-four hours. The Indians, led by Lion Bear, 
 departed sullenly from the council. Lion Bear 
 was a large, sinewy, resolute man and of great 
 influence with his people. When Red Iron was 
 imprisoned Lion Bear made the following speech : 
 
 Dakotas, the big men are here ; they have got 
 Red Iron in a pen like a wolf. They mean to kill 
 him for saying the big men cheat us out of our 
 lands and the money the great Father has sent us. 
 Dakotas, must we starve like buffaloes in the snow ? 
 Shall we let our blood freeze like the little stream ? 
 Or shall we make the snow red with the blood of 
 the white braves? Dakotas, the blood of your 
 fathers talks to you from the graves where we 
 stand. Their spirits come up into your arms and 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 109 
 
 make them strong. Tonight the blood of the white 
 man shall run like water in the rain, and Red Iron 
 shall be with his people. Dakotas, when the moon 
 goes down behind the hills be ready, and I will 
 lead you against the long knives and the big men 
 who have come to cheat us and take away our lands 
 and put us in a pen for not helping to rob our 
 women and children." 
 
 But Eed Iron was released, and the outbreak 
 for a time was prevented. The trouble with the 
 Indians continued, however, and their sufferings 
 during the winter and spring were intense. Some 
 1,500 of the old men, women, and children died of 
 exposure, and those who survived were obliged to 
 eat their horses and dogs. The dissatisfaction thus 
 engendered was fearfully augmented by the fail 
 ure of the government to make the annual payment 
 which had before taken place in June, and by the 
 traders refusing any more credit. 
 
 In the South the Union army had met with 
 reverses, and rumors of disastrous battles reached 
 the Indians. Their faith in the great Father was 
 shaken. Exaggerated stories were told by the half- 
 breeds and others interested in stirring up strife. 
 The enlistment of all the young men on the 
 frontier, of all the government employees not ab 
 solutely necessary, and of half-breeds, strengthened 
 the Indians belief that the great Father was in 
 desperate straits. 
 
 The head chief of the band of Sioux located 
 there was Little Crow. He had been in Washing 
 ton, was an Indian of unusual intelligence and 
 highly skilled in the art of savage warfare. 
 
110 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 The outbreak came on August 15, 1862, when 
 four young braves left Little Crow s village, near 
 Redwood, Minnesota, to go hunting. They became 
 intoxicated on whisky sold them by a white man, 
 and then, as drunken men do, they had a dispute 
 with each other as to which was the bravest. At 
 last they determined to put the matter beyond 
 controversy by killing white men. Once started 
 on their murderous errand they killed whole fam 
 ilies and plundered their homes. The excitement 
 and terror among the white people was intense; 
 the Indians were pursued and fled back to their 
 village, where they swarmed about Little Crow s 
 tepee. 
 
 Previously to this, Little Crow, seeing how 
 much our garrisons had been weakened to supply 
 the wants of the Civil War, had carefully planned 
 a hostile rising on the part of his Indians with a 
 view to pillage and the driving back of new settle 
 ments. He was waiting for further preparation 
 and for promised allies from other Sioux bands, 
 but seeing the storm already setting in, and expect 
 ing immediate retaliation for the murders com 
 mitted, he determined to make an immediate move. 
 In answer to his excited braves he said : " Trouble 
 with the whites must come ; it is here. It may as 
 well take place now as later. I am with you. Let 
 us go to the agency, kill the traders and take their 
 goods." 
 
 With a force of about three hundred he pushed 
 on to what was known as the Yellow Medicine 
 Agency, situated in southwestern Minnesota not 
 far from the border. Here was begun at once a 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 111 
 
 terrible slaughter of men, women, and children. 
 The agent himself, Mr. Galbraith, was away on a 
 short leave of absence, but his family perished 
 with the others in the outbreak. 
 
 As has been done so often, the commanding 
 officer of Fort Ridgely, the nearest garrison, dis 
 patched an inadequate force, only forty-five sol 
 diers, and, as one would have expected, half of 
 them were killed. The Indians, excited more and 
 more by their great success, widened their sphere 
 of operations, committed murders, killed unarmed 
 and helpless citizens right and left, and dealt out 
 to them the brutal treatment of savages. They 
 swept away the settlers on their isolated farms, 
 and robbed and outraged their women and chil 
 dren. The tales of suffering and woe are too 
 bloody and sickening to be repeated. One writer 
 says: " They practiced every species of atrocity 
 which their fiendish natures prompted." 
 
 They did not reach the village of New Ulm until 
 the 21st of August. It was the capital of Brown 
 County, settled principally by Germans. Outside 
 of the village they had plenty of victims, but their 
 main attack upon New Ulm itself did not take 
 place until the 23d of August, 1862. Judge Flan- 
 drau, a resolute man, highly honored on the fron 
 tier, had organized and armed a body of citizens. 
 He succeeded in repulsing the attack, but the hos- 
 tiles still hung around, closely besieging him and 
 preparing to repeat the assault, when a detachment 
 of regulars sent by General Sibley brought relief 
 to the citizen garrison and scattered the assailants. 
 Some two thousand women and children, who had 
 
112 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 escaped in great alarm from the settlements 
 round about, had taken refuge at New Ulm, so 
 that it was a place hard to defend for any length 
 of time against an increase of the assailants. Fort 
 Ridgely itself had been hemmed in for many days 
 and had hard work to hold its own against re 
 peated attacks of the Sioux. General Sibley there 
 fore caused New Ulm to be abandoned. The 
 women and children were sent to a place of safety, 
 and the troops, as many as he could spare, were 
 ordered to proceed under Lieutenant-Colonel Mc- 
 Phail to reinforce the garrison and the fort. 
 
 The cunning hostiles, perceiving that General 
 Sibley was on their trail, instantly changed direc 
 tion, going northward, killing and robbing as they 
 went. They, in part, crossed the Minnesota border 
 and began a siege against Fort Abercromby in 
 Dakota. The 3d of September a hundred and 
 fifty others suddenly showed themselves as far 
 north as Cedar City in the center of Minnesota, 
 and actually attacked the company of volunteers 
 there. So furious was their onslaught that they 
 drove them back as far as Hutchinson, while an 
 other band of hostiles rushed upon Forest City, 
 but found the citizens armed and organized and 
 ready to meet them. This attack was quickly met 
 and successfully resisted. A similar result oc 
 curred when the savages came upon Hutchinson. 
 The citizens, now fully alive to their peril, drove 
 them back from that village. The headquarters 
 of the department at St. Paul was aroused. The 
 able general, John Pope, assumed command, gath 
 ered all the troops of volunteers and regulars 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 113 
 
 available in his vicinity, and sent them to the vil 
 lages named and to every point of danger. 
 
 The hostile Indians soon discovered that they 
 were met by superior numbers of soldiers who had 
 been sent to take summary vengeance upon them, 
 and they began to lose heart. Their enthusiasm 
 for war, outrage, and pillage never did last very 
 long. When their enemy w r as weak they were 
 strong; but when they began to feel that his 
 strength and ability for war was far greater than 
 theirs, they ran to cover. 
 
 The hostile besieging force at Fort Aber- 
 cromby made two severe attacks. The garrison 
 repulsed both, the second with great loss to the 
 Indians. Now the Indians from all directions 
 were fleeing from Minnesota and soon crossed the 
 western border. When our troops had once taken 
 up the pursuit they did not stop for borders of 
 states or for rivers. At Wood Lake, however, the 
 22d of September, the hostile bands, now pretty 
 well concentrated, with their women and children, 
 the whole under the command of Little Crow, were 
 forced to a battle that they would gladly have 
 avoided. It was sharp and decisive. The women 
 and children and some of the men, with the 
 chief himself, fled for shelter to the Yankton Sioux 
 of Dakota. Five hundred Indians were taken 
 prisoners. 
 
 During this outbreak blood flowed freely on 
 the northwest frontier, and on every hand could 
 be seen by day the smoke from the settlers cabins, 
 and at night the flames lit up the horizon. About 
 700 persons were massacred. 
 
114 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 It is said that the military authorities tried by 
 court-martial five hundred Indians who had par 
 ticipated in this massacre. Three hundred and 
 three of them were sentenced to death. But Presi 
 dent Lincoln, always lenient and hating the death 
 penalty, allowed but thirty-eight to be executed. 
 
 These thirty-eight were hanged upon one scaf 
 fold at Mankato, Minn., February 26, 1863. The 
 few days preceding the execution were spent in 
 singing death songs and parting with relatives. 
 On Wednesday each of the condemned was per 
 mitted to send for two or three relatives or friends. 
 The Indians were fastened in pairs and chained 
 to the floor. Their ages ranged from 16 to 70 
 years, although the majority were young men. 
 All but three half-breeds were dressed in breech- 
 clout, leggings, and blankets. 
 
 Early on Friday morning the irons were 
 knocked off the condemned and their arms tied 
 behind with cords at the elbows and at the wrists. 
 At ten o clock began the march to the scaffold. 
 As they ascended the steps the death song was 
 started, and when they had got upon the platform 
 the noise of their deep, swelling voices was truly 
 hideous. The ropes were adjusted about their 
 necks, the white caps pulled down, and at a signal 
 followed three slow but distinct taps on a drum. 
 The rope holding the scaffold was cut by a man 
 named Duly, whose family had been murdered. 
 
 The lifeless bodies were cut down, placed in 
 four army wagons, and taken to a trench prepared 
 for their reception. They were all deposited in one 
 grave, thirty feet in length by twelve in width, and 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 115 
 
 four feet deep. They were laid in the bottom, in 
 two rows, with their feet together and their heads 
 to the outside. They were simply covered with 
 blankets and the earth thrown over them. There 
 they lie to this day. 
 
 The others of the condemned, but not executed, 
 were taken down the Mississippi to an island near 
 Davenport, Iowa, where they were closely confined 
 for a year. They were then taken to a reservation, 
 and it is probable that not one of them lives today. 
 
 As soon as the excitement had died down and 
 an investigation could be made, it was ascertained 
 that the Minnesota Sioux engaged in this business 
 did not exceed a thousand. Many of the Indians 
 in Minnesota took no part in the conflict. The 
 prompt defeat of the Indians at war, and the sub 
 sequent execution of thirty-eight of them, had a 
 decided effect in restraining other bands of Sioux 
 who were ready to help Little Crow clear out the 
 troublesome and ever-increasing settlements of 
 white men in their neighborhood. These opera 
 tions postponed further danger to the citizens of 
 Minnesota for another year. 
 
 In 1863 the Minnesota frontier was well 
 guarded with a force of never less than two thou 
 sand. Little Crow was not so badly beaten that he 
 did not make some experiments to regain what he 
 had lost the year before, particularly the Indian 
 hunting-grounds which had been abandoned to the 
 returning settlers. While we were absorbed in 
 watching the advance of Lee s army into Maryland 
 and Pennsylvania and fighting the battle of Get 
 tysburg, where the heaviest responsibility of my 
 
116 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 life came upon me, Little Crow s Indians in small 
 bands were creeping within our far-off lines and 
 succeeded in reaching the country about St. Paul. 
 They would murder a settler s family and glide 
 on, serpent-like, to strike another. At least thirty 
 white persons had been killed and several friendly 
 Indians massacred. 
 
 This remarkable raid of the savages through 
 out the State of Minnesota kept all the people in 
 constant alarm. One can hardly imagine, in time 
 of profound peace, the extraordinary ferment and 
 general terror that then existed. Of course our 
 military authorities were widely denounced in the 
 newspapers of the northwest for inefficiency. 
 General Sibley, however, knew what was going on, 
 but could not well divide his forces against a hand 
 ful of guerillas appearing here and there all over 
 the state in such insignificant numbers. He was, 
 however, waiting his opportunity to strike an ef 
 fective blow. 
 
 Little Crow had visited other bands beside his 
 own, and had gone twice to the British territory 
 to secure allies. He did not have much success, 
 and none beyond our borders. At last he gathered 
 near Miniwakan, a salt lake five hundred miles 
 northwest of St. Paul, a band of about five thou 
 sand Indians, this number including their women 
 and children. He had the Minnesota tribes, and a 
 thousand from the Yankton Sioux, and others. 
 In June, General Sibley was already approaching 
 the lake with three thousand soldiers. At the same 
 time General Sully, who had spent half his mili 
 tary life in watching and fighting wild Indians, 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 117 
 
 was making his way from Sioux City up the 
 Missouri River, with a view to cut off the retreat 
 should Sibley drive Little Crow and his band 
 southward from their selected fighting ground near 
 the lake. 
 
 While these expeditions were making their 
 fatiguing marches and hoping for a decisive en 
 gagement Little Crow himself, taking one of his 
 sons with him, had ventured across the lines, com 
 ing in almost as far as Hutchinson. One day he 
 was seen by a settler by the name of Lamson, who 
 managed to use the rifle in his hand so quickly 
 that even the wily Indian could not anticipate the 
 shot. Lamson knew that he had killed an Indian, 
 but did not know for some weeks that it was the 
 crafty and ruthless Little Crow. 
 
 One of Little Crow s sons immediately suc 
 ceeded him in command of his accumulated band 
 of warriors. The young man at first retreated 
 rapidly before Sibley, who continued the pursuit. 
 The 24th of July, however, the general came upon 
 the Indians in force. This battle began, like many 
 others, with an act of what we denominate treach 
 ery. An army surgeon approached the hostiles to 
 meet a flag of truce which they had displayed. 
 They instantly killed this officer and a sharp battle 
 quickly followed. The Indians soon ran and were 
 pursued for ten miles, experiencing a heavy loss in 
 men and stores. 
 
 Again on the 26th of July, at Dead Buffalo 
 Lake, the hostiles made a quick and unexpected 
 effort to capture the horses and mules of the com 
 mand, as they afterward did with me in the battle 
 
118 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of Camas Meadow, Montana. Still, as Sibley s 
 troops were ready, the Indians were successfully 
 and promptly resisted, and many of them were 
 slain. 
 
 On the 28th of July they were at Stony Lake 
 and skirmished with our forces, experiencing again 
 loss and defeat. Nevertheless, the young Indian 
 commander showed great generalship in working 
 his way across the Missouri Elver and putting a 
 stop to further pursuit by Sibley s men. 
 
 On the 3d of September General Sully struck 
 a large force of Indians, including Young Crow s, 
 at White Stone Hill, a hundred and thirty miles 
 above the mouth of the Little Cheyenne, and thirty 
 below where they had crossed in front of Sibley. 
 One of Sully s battles instantly occurred. It was 
 a bloody one to both sides. Sully lost twenty 
 soldiers killed and thirty-eight wounded; the In 
 dians lost vastly more in numbers, leaving a hun 
 dred and fifty prisoners in Sully s hands. This 
 battle, with the operations of 1863, delivered Min 
 nesota from the great burden of Indian occupation 
 and fear of further massacres. 
 
 The events narrated in this chapter indicate 
 the serious trouble that the United States experi 
 enced during the trying period of the Civil War 
 from the hostility of many Indian tribes along the 
 border. 
 
 Referring again to the hostiles of the Indian 
 
 i Territory I may note that Indians were used on 
 
 [both sides in the Civil War. The loyal Indians of 
 
 the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole nations were 
 
 organized into three regiments and put under the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 119 
 
 command of Colonel William A. Phillips of Kan 
 sas. " In all the operations in which they partici 
 pated they acquitted themselves creditably and to 
 the satisfaction of the Union commander in the 
 Indian Territory."* 
 
 The three Confederate Indian regiments pre 
 viously mentioned were commanded by General 
 Albert Pike. They did not excceed three thousand 
 five hundred men. They were engaged in the 
 battle of Chusto Talasah, where Colonel Cooper, 
 the Confederate leader, reported that about five 
 hundred loyal Indians were killed and wounded. 
 Their own loss, not given in the records, was con 
 siderable. These same Indians participated in the 
 battle of Pea Ridge in March, 1862. They were 
 accused of scalping our prisoners. General Pike 
 was indignant on hearing the report, and after 
 search found but one Union man scalped. To his 
 credit be it said he issued an order condemning 
 the barbarous practice in the strongest possible 
 terms. Wiley Britton says: " They fought very 
 well when they had an opportunity to take shelter 
 behind trees and logs (in Indian fashion), but 
 could not easily be brought to face artillery, and a 
 single shell thrown at them was generally sufficient 
 to demoralize them and put them to flight." 
 
 At a later day the Indians became used to artil 
 lery, and were as able to guard themselves against 
 its ravages and to withstand a battery as other 
 fighting men, that is, as soon as they understood 
 the range and effectiveness of the guns. 
 
 * See Wiley Britton s " Battles & Leaders." 
 8 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ASSIGNED TO DUTY AMONG THE BLOODTHIRSTY APACHES 
 MY ARRIVAL IN ARIZONA. 
 
 A New Field of Labor " Grant s Peace Policy" The Fierce and 
 Murderous Apaches A Roaming and Warlike Tribe Cochise, 
 the Notorious Apache Chief An Elusive and Dangerous Foe 
 Their Sudden Descents on Scattered Settlements Slaying Every 
 White Man Far and Near My Arrival at Fort Yuma No Rain 
 for Three Years A Six-mule Ambulance " Dismal Jeems " 
 An Extraordinary Driver Comical Dignity of an Indian Chief 
 Vanished Pomp and Pride Appearance of the Yumas Ari 
 zona Sand Storms. 
 
 IN compliance with a request of President Lin 
 coln, made a few days before his assassination 
 and left with Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, the Sec 
 retary of War, I was detailed as Commissioner of 
 the Bureau of Preedmen and Refugees. After 
 my arrival in Washington I attended to the duties 
 of this bureau from early in May until the spring 
 of 1874. But in 1872 there was an interval of 
 nearly a year in which General Eliphalet Whittle- 
 sey discharged the duties of the bureau for me and 
 in my name, while I was aw r ay, by President 
 Grant s order, in another field of labor. 
 
 My work concerned what was called " General 
 Grant s Policy with the Indians," and came about 
 in this way : Before this time the Indian manage 
 ment, in its dealings with the Indians all through 
 the country even to its remote corners, had ac 
 quired a reputation not at all to be desired. Ex 
 travagance, deception, extortion, cruelty, and all 
 
IRON MOUNTAIN S CAMP. 
 
 HAND SHAKER S CAMP. 
 TYPICAL WILD INDIAN CAMPS. COM ANCHE. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 121 
 
 sorts of crimes were here and there imputed, and 
 charged up by the public press and by writers of 
 books against Indian agents and employees. 
 
 Such was the case when General U. S. Grant 
 became President. He placed at the head of the 
 bureau a full-blooded Indian. General Ely Parker, 
 who had been during the Civil War an intelligent 
 and efficient member of his staff. He next asked 
 the representative societies of all the churches of 
 the land to correspond with the bureau and recom 
 mend new agents and other employees. A distri 
 bution of the agencies was then made among these 
 several societies. Many were reserved to the 
 Roman Catholics, some assigned to the Methodists, 
 some to the Episcopalians, some to the Presby 
 terians, some to the Baptists, Lutherans, and other 
 denominations. This arrangement was called 
 " Grant s Indian Policy." A little later it was 
 termed " Grant s Peace Policy." It was not long 
 before a peace, nominal at least, was effected with 
 nearly all the Indians throughout the country. 
 
 Omitting some little difficulties between the 
 whites and Indians in New Mexico and Arizona, 
 we may say that the " Peace Policy" had been 
 accepted by all the tribes except one, and that one 
 belonged to the large Apache division of the south 
 west. A celebrated and very able chief, Cochise 
 by name, had successfully fought our troops and 
 continued his robberies and murders for many 
 years. The grievances of this tribe had long be 
 fore been very great, and for ten years previous 
 to General Grant s announcement of his peace 
 policy these, the Chiricahua Apaches, under Co- 
 
122 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 chise, had carried on a system of aggression and 
 spoliation in Arizona, New Mexico, and across the 
 borders of Old Mexico, which gave the government 
 and the people of that region unheard-of trouble. 
 These Apaches would roam over the country in 
 small bands, destroy the stages with their passen 
 gers, rob supply trains, slay every white man far 
 and near, and break up every party sent out to 
 prospect for mines or establish surveys. 
 
 After General Parker became Commissioner 
 of the Indian Bureau, and the Hon. Columbus 
 Delano Secretary of the Interior, a strong effort 
 was made to reach this tribe by a special commis 
 sioner. A member of the Society of Friends, Vin 
 cent Colyer of New York, was selected for this 
 office and dispatched to Arizona. Mr. Colyer was 
 a well-known philanthropist, who during the Civil 
 War had freely rendered the most devoted per 
 sonal service to the soldiers, especially in the work 
 of the Christian Commission. In 1868 President 
 Grant appointed him a member of the board of 
 Indian commissioners. He was afterward elected 
 secretary, remaining in charge as chief executive 
 officer for three years. 
 
 General Crook, then commanding the Depart 
 ment of Arizona, gave Mr. Colyer a fine escort of 
 cavalry and facilitated his expedition in every way 
 possible, but he could never find the redoubtable 
 chieftain; he could not, in fact, get beyond Co- 
 chise s scouts who were on the qui vive a hundred 
 miles away from his stronghold. After many 
 futile efforts to communicate with the Indians, 
 Mr. Colyer gave up the quest and returned home. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 123 
 
 Then it was, the last of February, 1872, that a 
 member of the board of Indian commissions, a 
 "Friend 1 from Maine, usually called " Father 
 Lang," went to Mr. Delano and said to him: 
 " Why not try General Howard as a special com 
 missioner to Arizona and New Mexico to settle the 
 troubles down there, and especially to make peace 
 with the Ghiricahua Apaches under old Cochise? " 
 One object in choosing me was that I was known 
 as a friend of the Indians, and another that I had 
 sufficient rank as a major-general to command 
 everybody in the military service in the depart 
 ment and districts of the southwest. 
 
 After a little thought Mr. Delano said : " I will 
 write to General Howard and see if he is willing to 
 go, and I will also speak to the President and 
 ascertain what he thinks about it." I answered 
 Mr. Delano that I was willing to go, if he and the 
 President thought well of it, and would then do 
 what I could to secure the desired peace. General 
 Grant paid me a high compliment when Mr. De 
 lano spoke to him, and one which I am proud to 
 have a matter of record. It was to the effect that 
 no man was better adapted to the purpose ; but he 
 couldn t see how even General Howard could ac 
 complish what they desired. They resolved, how 
 ever, that I should undertake the expedition, so 
 that very speedily the necessary preparations were 
 made. 
 
 I was ordered to report to the Secretary of the 
 Interior for instructions and the necessary outfit. 
 These instructions revealed a host of complaints 
 and grievances on the part of various tribes ; for 
 
124 MY LIFE AND. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 example, by the Yumas, the Pimas, the Maricopas, 
 the Arivipas, the Mojaves, the Tontos, and the 
 White Mountain Apaches. There were also lively 
 disturbances in the Warm Spring tribe, recently 
 moved to Tulurosa, a disagreeable region in the 
 western part of New Mexico ; and feuds of all sorts 
 existed between the Navajos and their neighbors. 
 There were Indians at Fort Stanton who were 
 breaking out from their reservation and depredat 
 ing upon the scattered settlements. All these 
 surrounding tribes were to be quieted by my ex 
 pedition, but the main thing was to make peace 
 with the warlike Chiricahuas under Cochise. 
 
 I made up my party as far as I could from 
 Washington, taking an aide-de-camp, Captain M. 
 C. Wilkinson, an interpreter who spoke Spanish, 
 and a celebrated Indian agent from the White 
 Earth Reservation, E. P. Smith, who afterward 
 became Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Wash 
 ington. Mr. Smith had shown marked ability in 
 dealing with Indians in the northwest, and in 
 Christian work during the war, and afterwards in 
 school work among the freedmen. He had been 
 my friend and coadjutor for years. 
 
 With these acceptable assistants I set out the 
 7th of March and made my way to California. 
 General John M. Scofield in San Francisco was 
 commanding the Pacific Division, which included 
 General George Crook s command of Arizona and 
 New Mexico. General Grant had given me special 
 letters, written in his own hand, to both Schofield 
 and Crook. From the former on my arrival I 
 received every necessary help, orders for trans- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 125 
 
 portation and supply, and for an escort should I 
 need it. 
 
 The journey down the coast on a comparatively 
 smooth sea, upon the old steamer Newbern, had 
 few incidents worth recording. Mrs. Crook, the 
 wife of the general, formed part of our company 
 and added life and pleasure to our voyage. She, 
 with her brother, was on her way to join her hus 
 band at his headquarters in Prescott, Arizona. 
 Books, singing, and simple games made the days 
 pass quickly. Mrs. Crook and Captain Wilkinson 
 were good singers, so part of the way we had an 
 abundance of songs and hymns to entertain and 
 refresh us. 
 
 At the mouth of the Colorado River we ex 
 changed from the Newbern to a river steamboat. 
 I remember little of this part of our journey, 
 except that the cooking was about as bad as it 
 could be, and that garlic appeared to enter into 
 every dish that came upon the table. It was a 
 great trial to Captain Wilkinson, for, though he 
 was well again after sundry attacks of seasickness, 
 he seemed, after our transfer, unequal to the rough 
 fare of that steamboat. 
 
 Fifty miles below Arizona City Indian runners 
 from Yuma began to come in. I was greatly in 
 terested in them. They were lightly clad, usually 
 with an undershirt, a breech-clout, moccasins, and 
 a Spanish hat, either a light sombrero or a broad- 
 brimmed straw. They brought us letters and dis 
 patches, and took our communications back to be 
 mailed at Arizona City. So much swifter were 
 they than the steamboat, which, of course, had to 
 
126 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 pursue a crooked route, that our letters carried by 
 the runners were mailed two days before we ar 
 rived. 
 
 Arizona City was only a village. The Yuma 
 chief had a small tract of country and a bivouac 
 of his people, which he presided over with great 
 dignity, not far from the city, and on the opposite 
 side of the Colorado River. This region, as a rule, 
 was very dry. For miles around there had been, 
 when we were there, no rain for a period of nearly 
 three years. People often became deaf from the 
 exceeding dryness of the air and the prolonged and 
 intense heat. Water for all purposes had to come 
 from the Colorado River. Above Fort Yuma there 
 were irrigating ditches. Near the city were curi 
 ously made pumps run by windmills, but most of 
 the people Indians, citizens, and soldiers - 
 brought water from the river in pails, or hauled it 
 in barrels and tubs. 
 
 What was called the fort, only an army post, 
 a mile or more above the city, was a portion of 
 ground perhaps a mile square, fenced in, and with 
 a sufficient number of buildings for two companies 
 of infantry and the quartermaster s stores. The 
 irrigating ditches, drawing water from the river 
 above it, had enabled the officers to cover the 
 reservation fairly well with shrubbery and cotton 
 trees. It was delightful to see the green leaves 
 within the enclosure, and it gave us all a keen sense 
 of comfort to escape from the intolerable dust and 
 heat outside into the spacious quarters of Major 
 J. G. C. Lee, who was in charge of the quarter 
 master s depot, and who, with his wife, welcomed 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 127 
 
 us most cordially and entertained us with generous 
 hospitality. 
 
 My first duty was with the Yumas. Major Lee 
 gave us our choice, horses to ride, or a spring 
 wagon with a good driver. For short journeys 
 we chose the horses, and for long ones across the 
 sand desert we had the spring wagon, large enough 
 to carry our whole party inside, with the driver 
 up high on a seat arranged like those of the stages 
 of the country. Such a wagon is usually called an 
 ambulance, and was always drawn by six mules. 
 Lee gave us an extraordinary driver whom we 
 named " Dismal Jeems." The reason for giving 
 him this name will appear as my narrative pro 
 ceeds. 
 
 After a rest of a single night I attended a 
 council of the Yumas, at which the Yuma chief, 
 Pascual, was present. It had been already ar 
 ranged for by a local agent, who for a small com 
 pensation had been doing the slight work of an 
 Indian agent in addition to his ordinary business. 
 
 The<3GESSi^appeared very glad to see me. The 
 chief, whom the whites called by the Spanish name 
 66 Pascual," was an old man, I suspect more than 
 eighty. He was dressed very much as the messen 
 gers whom I have described. He w r as very tall 
 and thin. His shirt was open at the front, ex 
 posing the bones of his chest, and his limbs, 
 without leggings, were long and bony. The moc 
 casins upon his feet guarded him against the 
 prickly-pear and other thorny cacti that abounded. 
 He had all the dignity of an ancestral king when 
 he rose to greet me as the alleged representative 
 
128 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of the President of the United States; but his 
 dignity seemed to disappear after he squatted 
 upon a low bench and began to recite his wants 
 and his troubles with the plaintive voice of an old 
 man. 
 
 The Yumas were very poor. The men about us 
 were dressed in rags yet little clothing was re 
 quired and all those approaching age were ill- 
 looking and squalid. The younger portion, for the 
 most part, showed signs of scrofula, or of some 
 sort of loathsome disease, introduced by the dis 
 solute men that had followed our merchant trains, 
 or those of our army. Many of the younger 
 women, however, w r ere well clad. Some had orna 
 ments about their necks, such as beads, strings of 
 silver pieces, or kerchiefs. They w r ore calico gowns 
 or skirts, with here and there an upper garment. 
 From every quarter I heard that these poor In 
 dians, hanging about the village of Arizona City, 
 had been demoralized through their dealings with 
 the whites. 
 
 Some eight or ten of the men that I saw had 
 much the advantage of the rest of their tribe in 
 personal appearance. They were tall and broad- 
 shouldered. Their hair was cut square just above 
 the neck, and they were in good flesh : I was told 
 that they obtained their living by cutting wood for 
 the river steamers and by working about the 
 wharves of the village. Every one of these wore, 
 like the Mexicans and half-breeds, trousers which 
 were fastened closely about their middle, secured 
 by a waist-belt in which was the usual sheath- 
 knife. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 129 
 
 When a Yunia ran away from the tribe and got 
 his living by hunting with wilder tribes he was 
 called an " Apache- Yuma," and I began to see 
 from the use of the word that Apache meant simply 
 wild. In the same way there were " Apache- 
 Mo javes " and " Mojaves proper." 
 
 I was soon able to satisfy the complaints, writ 
 ten and verbal, of the aged chieftain and his com 
 panions, and to provide for their immediate wants, 
 though spending but a single day upon their 
 grounds. As a rule these Indians had defective 
 sight, owing, I presume, to the torrid heats, the 
 constant smoke, the excessive dust, and the oft- 
 recurring torment of terrific sandstorms. A sand 
 storm seems to rise far away on the horizon. It 
 approaches steadily and finally bursts upon the 
 village, the garrison, and the Indian camp; but 
 there is no rain in it and none to follow. The 
 blackness comes from the dense clouds of sand and 
 alkali dust, and there is no comfort to anybody 
 exposed to the blast until the storm has spent its 
 fury and passed. 
 
 The first accounts we have of these Indians, 
 given by the Spaniards who visited Arizona, show 
 them to have been unusually large in size. The 
 early visitors called them " giants." Habitually 
 at that time they were altogether without clothing. 
 They were athletic in build and possessed great 
 strength. "A log," says our writer, " that six 
 Spaniards could not carry, a Yuma would pick up 
 and carry on his head with little apparent effort." 
 They would bear off a load of two or three hundred 
 pounds without a show of fatigue. 
 
130 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Soon after the Mexican War, some twenty-five 
 years before my visit, the Yumas, then about two 
 thousand strong, had shown themselves averse to 
 our taking possession of the country. I heard a 
 staunch old army officer, Colonel Heintzelman, say 
 that he had encountered those Indians in the out 
 set and had conquered them in battle, and that 
 ever since they had been well behaved, gained a 
 reasonable self-support, and given the government 
 no trouble. Heintzelman stoutly averred that the 
 true way to keep Indians good and peaceable was 
 to begin by whipping them soundly. The old 
 chief, Pascual, was of great age and very infirm, 
 and in himself and his surroundings he exemplified 
 the poverty and degradation of his people. He 
 had just a vestige of the pomp and pride that had 
 once been his. I could not help thinking that there 
 was a better way to deal with Indians than to begin 
 with the conquering sword and f ollow it up with 
 starvation, and justify every species of neglect 
 and mismanagement in our dealing with them. 
 In spite of our prolonged Florida conflicts with 
 the Seminoles, we have dealt in a better way with 
 them and their descendants than with the Yumas. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING IN ARIZONA JOURNEYING ACROSS THE "AL 
 KALI DESERT " LIFE AMONG THE PIMAS 
 AND MARICOPAS. 
 
 Disagreeable Effects of Alkali Dust A Ration of Raw Onions 
 " Oh, Pshaw ! The General Would Eat a Boiled Crow ! " A New 
 Way of Obtaining Self-control Trailing the Apaches Tales 
 Told by " Dismal Jeems " A Dry and Barren Country My 
 Pima Indian Interpreter Civilizing Wild Indians with a Melo- 
 deon A Man with a Remarkable History A Queer Missionary 
 " Let the Parson Preach ! " Religious Service in a Frontier 
 Saloon Taking up a Collection An Arizona Bull-train Pima 
 Women Oddly Constructed Houses A Missionary Bride. 
 
 EARLY the next morning, after my council 
 with the Yumas, our party, using the six- 
 mule team, with " Dismal Jeems" for a 
 driver, proceeded across the long stretch of coun 
 try then called the " Alkali Desert. " An army 
 paymaster, Major Sprague, set out at the same 
 time for Fort McDowell and accompanied us all of 
 the first day. We halted for the night at a cross 
 road, a place near which there had been a silver 
 mine, which, after opening, proved of little value, 
 so that the small hamlet called " Gila City " had 
 been reduced to a single house and stage station. 
 The ride through the alkali dust had been an 
 extremely disagreeable one, and it was difficult to 
 cleanse our faces and hands from the grime with 
 out increasing the usual poisonous effect. One 
 young man s eyes became so sore and swollen that 
 he could scarcely see. 
 
132 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Major Sprague that evening invited us to dine 
 with him around the " mess chest." I had been 
 trying to discipline my friends so that their faces 
 would be immobile when in the presence of In 
 dians, never betraying any feeling of anxiety, 
 vexation, or anger, and I had annoyed my aide-de 
 camp by insisting that he should eat any sort of 
 food -without hesitation or question, that might be 
 placed before him. That night in the presence of 
 all our party at Major Sprague s entertainment 
 he tried to turn the tables upon his general. He 
 knew that I was not fond of raw onions. Before 
 him he saw a large plate of them. Without a 
 smile, and with an innocent look on his face, he 
 passed the onions to me. Instantly comprehending 
 his purpose I took a couple of them and, with 
 apparent relish, quietly ate them. His expression 
 is better remembered than described when he ex 
 claimed to Sprague: "Oh, pshaw! the general 
 would eat a boiled crow! >: It was not long after 
 this that the aide-de-camp realized the benefit of 
 self-control and self-command as never before, 
 when several of the fiercest Apaches were narrowly 
 watching his face, which, in spite of a mighty effort 
 to appear unconcerned, ill concealed his profound 
 disgust while eating an article of their food. 
 
 We passed several places on that journey that 
 had an eventful history. One was where a few 
 houses had stood and the Indians had raided them, 
 killed all the people and driven off their stock. 
 At another two or three men were upon a hill 
 surmounted by a flat rock, from which point of 
 view they saw a woman separated from her group 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 135 
 
 and a quarter of a mile away. One of them pro 
 posed to see if he could " wing " her with his rifle. 
 He took aim and fired, whereupon, to the astonish 
 ment of everybody, she fell upon her face, and 
 before they could get to her had bled to death. 
 The man who fired the rifle was her own husband. 
 It was with such tales as these that "Dismal 
 Jeems regaled my companions and myself, as by 
 turns we took a place by his side on the high seat. 
 
 At last, through hours of unceasing heat and 
 dust, we arrived at Sacatone, the stage station 
 nearest to the Pinia agency. "Jeems" had al 
 ready filled my mind as full as possible with wild 
 tales of the barren region through which we had 
 passed ; poor man, he could not tell of one pleasant 
 incident to redeem it. He seemed miserable him 
 self, and had a strange relish for making other 
 people miserable with his distressing stories. 
 
 The Pimas at that time were estimated to be 
 five thousand strong. They were for the most part 
 of the Pueblo class and well disposed toward other 
 Indians and toward w r hite men. According to the 
 information which I brought in my pocket they 
 had a very serious grievance against the white 
 settlers who were crowding them and taking up 
 land above them along the Gila River. This river 
 is very remarkable. You may find a stretch of it 
 for a mile or more where there appears to be an 
 abundance of water and a reasonably rapid cur 
 rent, but above this opening there is only the sem 
 blance of a river, apparently a river bed of nothing 
 but dry sand. The surface has no moisture and 
 has a barren look. As you proceed you find the 
 
136 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 same conditions repeated. I thought there must be 
 some underground connection to keep up the flow 
 of water which here and there was exposed, though 
 I was told that the sand really absorbed the water 
 and let it in above and out below without greatly 
 hindering its current. 
 
 The Pimas, by a system of irrigation, succeeded 
 in raising crops of grain and vegetables. But 
 when the white men, imitating them, made 
 ditches far above the Pima territory, the quantity 
 of water was so diminished that they could hardly 
 succeed in cultivating a crop. What an exhibition 
 of selfishness! Many expedients have been re 
 sorted to to relieve the situation. For years there 
 has been a hope that the government would con 
 struct for them a dam and a reservoir, so that in 
 the flood season in the mountains there might be 
 stored up water enough to satisfy all the dwellers 
 along the banks and valley of the Gila. 
 
 The agent, a young man with a family, Mr. 
 J. H. Stout, met me at Sacatone with his buck- 
 board and took me comfortably over to the agency 
 buildings. 
 
 The first Indian I saw at Sacatone was intro 
 duced to me as " Louis," the interpreter. I looked 
 upon him with admiration. He was five feet and 
 eleven inches tall, with a perfect figure. He had 
 large dark eyes that were changeable according to 
 his mood, lustrous and winning when he was 
 pleased, but full of quick flashes and repellant 
 when he was angry. His very black, thick hair 
 was combed back, slightly parted in the middle, 
 and plaited in two braids which extended below 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 137 
 
 his knees behind. While at the agency I never saw 
 him wear a hat. He did not need any. He was 
 always on hand to translate from English into 
 Spanish, but usually from Spanish into the Pima 
 tongue. It was a pleasure to hear his melodious 
 voice roll out Spanish with a measured accent. 
 Louis was with me a long time during the summer 
 of 1872, and traveled with me many miles, and I 
 became very fond of him. 
 
 Louis was the helper to the agent, but more so 
 to the teacher, Mr. C. H. Cook (his name was Koch 
 when he came to America, but he had it changed to 
 Cook when he enlisted in the army). Mr. Cook 
 had a remarkable history. During the Civil War 
 his regiment had been sent into New Mexico and 
 along the borders of Arizona to quell Indian out 
 breaks. After he was mustered out he became 
 greatly interested in religion, making public con 
 fession and uniting with the Methodist church. 
 While recalling his past life and experiences, he 
 thought of the Apaches of New Mexico and Ari 
 zona, and became possessed with the idea that it 
 was his duty to go as a missionary to them. When 
 he had laid by a small amount of money he con 
 cluded to start for the Apache country. He bought 
 a small melodeon which he could use to accompany 
 him in his singing, packed it in his trunk, and 
 started from Chicago for Santa Fe. The journey 
 cost him so much that he had but a few dollars left, 
 not enough to reach the Apaches whom he had in 
 mind. After prayer and consideration he con 
 cluded to take the stage and go as far as his money 
 would carry him. 
 
 9 
 
138 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 One Sunday morning he arrived at a cross 
 road in New Mexico where there was a little hamlet 
 and a single liquor saloon. While thinking what 
 he had better do next he noticed a number of rough 
 men coming from different directions to spend the 
 day in and near the saloon. He leaned against a 
 log by the roadside and watched the different 
 parties as they rode races, while others sat in 
 groups to play cards, throw dice, or gathered in 
 the saloon to treat one another. Taking his Testa 
 ment and hymn book from his pocket Mr. Cook 
 arose and went into the saloon and said to the bar 
 tender that he would like to hold a religious serv 
 ice. The astonished bartender was making some 
 strenuous objections when a queer-looking man, 
 with a tall hat, much the worse for wear, pulled 
 down over his face, suddenly took it off and said to 
 his boon companions: " Let the parson preach! " 
 Accustomed to this man s whims the crowd laughed 
 and jovially consented, taking a chair or bench 
 with mock solemnity, or backing up against the 
 counter with smiling expectancy. The bartender, 
 making no further objection, entered into the fun 
 himself and said: " Parson, go ahead! " 
 
 Mr. Cook, not abashed, began at once to read a 
 hymn, then he started a tune, and to his astonish 
 ment several of the roughs joined in the singing. 
 He went on to read the Scriptures and preach and 
 pray, and closed with another familiar hymn. At 
 the end of his service the strange man with the tall 
 hat said : This thing will not be complete without 
 a collection," and passed his hat around. Every 
 body contributed, and in this way our friend ob- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 139 
 
 tained thirteen dollars and fifty cents. The next 
 morning he joined what was called in that country 
 a " bull-train. 7 It was a train of wagons loaded 
 with merchandise and hauled by small oxen, sev 
 eral yokes of them being attached to each wagon. 
 He was charged simply the price of his food, and 
 went on with the train to its destination, which 
 proved to be Tucson, at that time the capital of 
 Arizona. 
 
 In Tucson then there were few Americans, 
 but many Mexicans. The Pueblo Indians, the 
 Pimas, Maricopas, and Papagoes, came and went, 
 making such small purchases as they could afford. 
 The governor and his friends took a great fancy to 
 Mr. Cook and persuaded him to give up his idea of 
 going to the Apaches as a missionary and to estab 
 lish himself among some of the more peaceable In 
 dians. 
 
 He yielded to their advice and went to the Pima 
 agency, where for more than a year before my 
 visit he had labored among the Pimas and the 
 Maricopas. I had heard of him and was glad to 
 meet such a man. Antonio, the hereditary chief 
 of the Pimas, with whom I had many interviews, 
 told me of the invaluable services which Mr, Cook 
 had rendered. He said : " We did not know any 
 thing about you Americans or the government we 
 were under until Mr. Cook had gathered the chil 
 dren in classes and taught them. The children 
 told their parents what they had learned. So the 
 Indians had knowledge." Mr. Cook s method was 
 first to learn the Pima language so that he could 
 understand the children and the children could 
 
140 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 understand him. Then he instructed them in 
 English; and it was amusing to hear them speak 
 English with an unmistakable German accent 
 which they had caught from Mr. Cook, who could 
 not fully overcome it in his own speech. 
 
 Mr. Stout, the agent, had constructed for Mr. 
 Cook a rough schoolroom with boards. But 
 among the Maricopas, thirty miles distant, he had 
 been obliged to improvise a schoolhouse. As there 
 was no timber of any size, he managed to put up a 
 square frame with a few small joists, the top being 
 horizontal, and then wattled the sides with reeds, 
 bushes, and poles, such as the country afforded. 
 Thus the scholars, when inside, were sheltered from 
 most of the dust and sand which the unobstructed 
 winds often drove in clouds through the Indian 
 village. No roof was needed, for rain was almost 
 unknown in that region. 
 
 Antonio, the chief of the Pimas, was rather 
 short and stout, and his son, Antonito, the prince of 
 the tribe, w r as even shorter than his father. An 
 tonio appeared to be about fifty years of age, and 
 Antonito thirty. These Pima Indians usually 
 dressed as the Americans did, using showy 
 blankets on their horses and to protect themselves 
 in the chill of the evening or morning, and also for 
 cover at night. Though the weather was warm, I 
 do not believe I saw an adult Indian without some 
 kind of clothing. The women were not ill-looking, 
 usually having their hair cropped behind around 
 the neck, wearing it combed back over their heads 
 and behind their ears. It dropped down over 
 their faces as they ground the corn with a pestle 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 141 
 
 or bent over their tubs when they were washing 
 near the Gila. 
 
 Their houses were so situated as to make con 
 tinuous villages, yet no two nearer each other than 
 forty or fifty yards. The Pima house was usually 
 made of ordinary adobe material, was oddly con 
 structed, and appeared, a little way off, like a 
 globe perched on a cylinder, with one door for 
 entrance. There was a hole in the center of the 
 top for proper ventilation, but no windows. Its 
 size was similar to that of one of our old-fashioned 
 Sibley tents, and had just about as much space and 
 comfort as I obtained from mine when on the 
 Rappahannock during the winter of 1862 and 63. 
 I had constructed the cylindrical part of logs 
 driven side by side like spiles, and the tent was 
 stretched over the tops of the logs. 
 
 The children, in later years, were represented 
 at Hampton Institute by quite a number of boys 
 and girls selected by the agent and sent there under 
 the care of Antonito. At one time I visited my 
 son, Lieutenant Guy Howard, while he was a 
 student in the artillery school at Fortress Monroe, 
 and saw Antonito sitting outside of his basement 
 quarters upon a rustic bench. He arose and smiled 
 pleasantly as Guy and I spoke to him. I asked 
 how he came there and my son said: " He is 
 studying with the boys and girls from his native 
 village, but without making much progress. He 
 comes over here very often and silently watches 
 me pass in an out, after which he returns con 
 tentedly to his school and his charge." He had 
 seen me, and later my son, in his own far away 
 
142 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 country, and it did his simple heart good just to 
 gaze silently upon us. 
 
 Antonio once said to me, through the inter 
 preter Louis and Mr. Cook, as follows: " Many 
 of my women behaved badly when the teamsters 
 and trainmen came along and camped near us; 
 sickness has come from it, so you see the bad con 
 dition of many children." Mr. Cook said that 
 quite a number of children of the Pimas and of 
 the Maricopas were afflicted with scrofula as never 
 before. 
 
 The Pimas did not practice polygamy. It was 
 a tradition among them that Montezuma had told 
 their ancestors that a man should have but one 
 wife, and the Pimas had followed that teaching. 
 Mr. Cook s instructions had been most wholesome. 
 Louis called himself a Christian and was very 
 angry one day w r hen Mr. Cook told him, on account 
 of the impatience and anger he suddenly exhibited, 
 that he was no Christian. The Pimas, at the time 
 of my visit, were trying to understand what it was 
 to be Christians, and they had good examples be 
 fore them in Mr. Stout and his family and Mr. 
 Cook. A little later Mr. Cook brought to them his 
 German bride, a woman of great beauty of person 
 and character; so that the Indians had before 
 them a good specimen of a genuine Christian 
 household. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN AND AROUND TUCSON INTENSE FEELING AGAINST THE 
 INDIANS OF ARIZONA A TRAGIC AND REGRET 
 TABLE INCIDENT. 
 
 A Typical Frontier Character A Much Armed Sheriff A Walking 
 Arsenal Among the Papagoes Indiana Who Embraced the 
 Roman Catholic Religion A Mexican Dancing Party An At 
 tractive Indian Maiden A Harmless Flirtation Ludicrous Mis 
 take of my Aid-de-Camp " Good Pigs, Senorita ! " Hospitality 
 of an Army Post Trying the White Man s Ways My Mexican 
 Half-breed Interpreter Capable but Dirty My Devoted Friend, 
 Chief " Santo " Outrageous Attack on Indians While Feasting 
 and Dancing Wounding Little Indian Boys and Girls Carried 
 into Captivity Arrangements for a Great Council. 
 
 WE went next to Tucson, then the capital of 
 Arizona, a beautiful little city situated 
 in the southern part of the territory, and 
 occupying an oasis in the wide desert which here 
 extends in every direction. Grant s " Peace 
 Policy was then very unpopular in all that country 
 over which the hostile Apaches roamed. Still, as 
 I represented the President himself, and at the 
 time outranked all the military officers, including 
 the department commander, Governor Safford 
 and his friends showed us all the respect and atten 
 tion we could desire. The governor extended to us 
 his hospitality and we soon had comfortable apart 
 ments in roomy adobe structures. The editor of 
 the local newspaper, a man of unusual acuteness 
 and native talent, attacked the " Peace Policy" 
 with severity, but wrote kindly of my friends and 
 myself in spite of his political bias. 
 
144 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 There was in Tucson a character frequently 
 met in frontier towns, in the person of a rough 
 sheriff, Major Duffield, who protected himself 
 against his numerous enemies by having about his 
 person loaded revolvers, and a loaded rifle upon 
 his shoulder which could discharge sixteen continu 
 ous shots without hesitation or delay. At night 
 these implements of authority were laid upon his 
 table and kept always within easy reach. More 
 than once he had defended himself successfully 
 against what he called " Mexican robbers and fron 
 tier sports. 7 
 
 Nine-tenths of the people of Tucson were Mexi 
 cans. For them the Roman Catholics had a very 
 respectable church edifice full of images and pic 
 tures appropriate to their faith. There being no 
 other church in Tucson, my friend and companion, 
 Rev. E. P. Smith, was asked to hold a Protestant 
 service. He did so in a hall, where during the first 
 Sabbath the English-speaking people, almost with 
 out exception, gathered to listen and participate. 
 
 Indians, for purposes of trade, came to Tucson 
 every day. The Punas, though living far away, 
 mounted upon their hardy little ponies, made the 
 journey thither in groups and families. They 
 encamped near at hand until they had gathered in 
 such articles as they wished from the traders, then 
 they returned as they came. No liquor was allowed 
 to be sold to them and they made no disturbances. 
 
 About ten miles south from Tucson was an old 
 Catholic mission. This mission had been extended 
 to the Papagoes who had gathered in villages 
 within easy distance of church and mission house. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 145 
 
 They were like the Pimas in most respects, The 
 difference was not in their houses, or in their 
 habits, dress, or manner of cultivating the soil, 
 but in their being Roman Catholic Indians, having 
 the characteristics of uneducated Catholic people 
 everywhere, with a perceptible retention of Indian 
 customs and superstitions. These Indians were 
 uniformly peaceable and well-disposed toward the 
 Mexicans. Our friends at Tucson, including the 
 governor, invariably spoke highly of the Papago 
 chief and his people, and wanted me to do all I 
 could to secure for them more land and more privi 
 leges in the way of schools and irrigation. 
 
 When I was with the Pimas I secured a dele 
 gation to join me at a meeting to be held with the 
 Aravipa Apaches in about twenty-five days. The 
 place to assemble was near Aravipa Canyon, where 
 the army post was then called " Old Camp Grant." 
 A similar delegation was promised by the Papago 
 chief. The governor and several of his officers, 
 among them the Unitecl States district attorney, 
 also promised to go to Old Camp Grant, taking with 
 them as many of the Mexicans as possible,- particu 
 larly those who had Apache children held as ser 
 vants in their households. The reasons for these 
 preliminary arrangements will soon appear. 
 
 While staying a few days at Tucson we at 
 tended dancing parties, which were peculiar to the 
 Mexicans. They were pleasant little gatherings 
 that seldom continued till very late in the night. 
 My aide-de-camp, Captain Wilkinson, and other 
 young officers who were stationed near Tucson, 
 enjoyed the dances, especially the efforts of the 
 
146 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Mexican girls to please them, and their willingness 
 to teach them their soft and musical language. 
 The most famous beauty of the place was " Chica," 
 who lived with her widowed mother, and gave 
 pleasant little " salons " every evening while we 
 were there. She was beautiful and in every way 
 charming and was always obliging when asked to 
 play her guitar ; she sang melodiously and sweetly. 
 Wilkinson was fond of music and soon delighted in 
 making visits at Chica s home. 
 
 One night, after he had acquired a smattering 
 of Spanish, he made an effort to bid Chica good 
 night when he was taking his departure. It may 
 be remembered that " noclies " signifies night, and 
 " caches " means pigs. In his bashfulness and im 
 perfect knowledge of the Spanish tongue my aide- 
 de-camp, while bowing politely, said: " Buenas 
 coches, Senorita! This created a laugh among 
 the Mexicans and the story found its way to the 
 fun-loving Louis of the Pimas. So Wilkinson 
 was often reminded, during our subsequent jour 
 neys, of how he had bidden a young lady farewell 
 by saying, with deep expression: " Good pigs, 
 Senorita!" 
 
 Bidding our friends adieu we hastened on over 
 the forty miles to Old Camp Grant. The last 
 eighteen miles our spring-wagons, hauled by 
 mules, dragged heavily in the coarse, deep sand, 
 but for that distance there had been a constant 
 descent till the country finally opened out into a 
 beautiful and broad plateau. It was a grassy val 
 ley, with a winding stream called the Aravipa, 
 coursing through what looked like eastern meadow- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 147 
 
 land. There were deep ravines and mountain 
 ranges not far oft , and rugged, rocky canyons 
 within a few miles. This post had only rough 
 barrack buildings which were not adequate for the 
 four companies stationed there, so that tents had 
 to be used. The garrison was under the command 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel Crittenden. It is always 
 like coming into civilization for a campaigner to 
 find and visit an army post, the more so when it is 
 remote from educated and intelligent people. 
 Hospitality is always offered, and is never narrow 
 or restricted, but charming and generous. So it 
 was here. 
 
 The Apache Indians whom this post was in 
 tended to watch were called Aravipas or Aravipa- 
 Apaches. They were, in contrast with the Pueblos 
 and Papagoes, comparatively wild. Various tribes 
 furnished them with additions, not of the best but, 
 as a rule, of the worst individuals of the tribe from 
 which they came. Doubtless there had been depre 
 dations committed by these Indians. They often 
 helped themselves freely to horses, mules, and 
 cattle, when they could find them, and without so 
 much as saying " By your leave." But for some 
 time prior to my visit peace had existed and they 
 had been trying the white man s ways. There was 
 a United States agency within a mile of the garri 
 son, with Mr. Jacobs, the agent, in charge. The 
 headquarters of the agency consisted of a few 
 temporary structures to house the employees and 
 furnish an office in which the business of the gov 
 ernment was transacted. 
 
 Among my first acquaintances at the agency 
 
148 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 was the interpreter, a Mexican half-breed named 
 Concepcioii Equierre. His father was a Mexican 
 and his mother an Indian. He spoke the Apache 
 language glibly and English with great facility. 
 It sometimes required extraordinary attention, 
 however, to understand him. He was short of 
 stature and thin of flesh, with hair and eyes as 
 black as coal. Usually he wore an old jacket, well- 
 seasoned trousers that looked like leather, a Mexi 
 can straw hat, and a shirt with a collar opened at 
 the neck. His garments were never washed, and 
 his hair was never combed, but it was straight 
 enough withal and worn back behind his ears. 
 When sober he was a capital interpreter, who 
 heartily sympathized with his Indian mother s 
 people. 
 
 Another acquaintance I made at the agency 
 was " Santo," the old hereditary chief, and father- 
 in-law of Eskimenzeen, then chief of the Aravipas. 
 He had married the daughters of Santo three in 
 number all at the same time. Two of them were 
 too young for brides, but Eskimenzeen could wait 
 to consummate the marriage till they became of 
 sufficient age for Indian wives. The eldest was a 
 very presentable young woman who loved her 
 father and mother and was proud of her husband. 
 
 I took a glance at Santo as he sat upon a small 
 bench looking at me. He had rather a long body, 
 short legs, and a very large head. His face was so 
 honest that it occurred to me to try an experiment. 
 Accordingly I told Concepcion to say to him: 
 " You have a Father up yonder," pointing up 
 ward. He seemed pleasantly to assent. " Say 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 149 
 
 next, I, General Howard, have a Father up there, 
 too. Your Father and my Father the same. Then 
 if you and I have the same Father we must be 
 brothers. ; 
 
 Santo arose at once and came to me and put his 
 hand in mine. He was so sincere that from that 
 time until his death he was my devoted friend. 
 Without him I could not have accomplished wiiat 
 I did in behalf of the Aravipa Apaches. 
 
 Lieutenant Royal E. Whitman, belonging to 
 the garrison, had taken a great interest in these 
 Apaches and had written to the Indian bureau at 
 Washington much of their story, ill treatment, and 
 suffering. His story was substantially that the 
 inhabitants of Arizona, both Americans and Mexi 
 cans, had falsely accused Eskimenzeen and his 
 followers. They had been misrepresented, he said, 
 as guilty of various robberies and murders which 
 had been perpetrated by others at considerable 
 distance from Old Camp Grant. The crime of 
 horse-stealing, in particular, had been charged 
 against them, and the young chief, Eskimenzeen, 
 was declared to be the worst of his race. 
 
 The feeling against Indians at Tucson and 
 round about, especially on the Mexican border, 
 had become so intense under current rumors that 
 a volunteer force of some two hundred or more, 
 consisting of Mexicans, with a sprinkling of Ameri 
 cans, had been organized. They marched out from 
 Tucson and arrived, as they had planned, at the 
 mouth of the Aravipa Canyon just before the 
 break of day. The Indians had had one of their 
 characteristic feasts and dances. In the dance the 
 
150 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Indian men had separated from their women and 
 children, and, as was their custom, had lain down 
 to sleep on the dancing ground. At dawn the 
 Tucson contingent had come upon them, firing into 
 the bivouac of the men and of their families simul 
 taneously. Many women and children were killed 
 and more were wounded. The men suffered from 
 the attack, but not so much as their families, as 
 they ran quickly to shelter, and with the few arms 
 that they could seize upon began to return the fire. 
 The Indians scattered and the affray was soon 
 over. In spite of the excuses given for it, the 
 American part of the force was much ashamed of 
 the outrageous massacre which had taken place. 
 
 Lieutenant Whitman was unsparing in his 
 comments and reports, and implied that the gov 
 ernor, and even the department commander and 
 many of his officers, sympathized with the attack 
 ing party. The little boys and girls, some wounded 
 and some unhurt, were carried off by the Mexican 
 families and distributed to households, many in 
 places far beyond the limits of Arizona. It was 
 these children that the governor and others prom 
 ised me should be brought back by the Mexicans 
 on the day which I had appointed. 
 
 After making all the preliminary arrangements 
 for a great council to be held soon near Aravipa 
 Canyon, to which w r ere invited all the Indians I 
 have named and the Tontos besides, I set out for 
 Prescott to deliver my letters from the division 
 commander and the President to General Crook, 
 who was in command over the territories of Ari 
 zona and New Mexico. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 MEETING GENERAL CROOK AN IMPORTANT COUNCIL IN 
 DIANS PLEADING FOR THE RETURN OF THEIR CHIL 
 DRENHOW A MOMENTOUS QUESTION 
 WAS DECIDED. 
 
 A Great Indian Fighter General Crook s Attitude Toward the In 
 dians Roads Infested by Hostiles The White Flag Hungry 
 and Tired of Fighting Lieutenant Ebstein s Experience Re 
 sults of Kind Treatment Dress and Ornaments of the Apaches 
 
 Endurance and Speed of Indian Runners A Wonderful Journey 
 on Foot Gathering of the Apaches A Council Made up of Hos 
 tile Factions Anxious Hours Indians Present their Grievances 
 
 How I Matured my Plans Praying for Guidance A Wonder 
 ful Scene Return of Captive Indian Children to their Relatives. 
 
 AT Prescott General Crook invited me to 
 share a room in his house. Mrs. Crook long 
 before this, with her brother, had joined 
 him. The visit afforded me an opportunity to be 
 come better acquainted with the man who was 
 called the greatest Indian fighter in our army. I 
 had known him at West Point, but as he was two 
 years ahead of me in that institution we had but a 
 casual acquaintance. His reputation as a division 
 and corps commander during the Civil War was 
 well known to us all, and on account of his ex 
 traordinary merit General Grant had him pro 
 moted from a lieutenant-colonel to a brigadier- 
 general in the regular army. 
 
 Crook was a peculiar man. He was six feet in 
 height, never fleshy, of very light complexion, with 
 light hair, wearing when I saw him a thin 
 
152 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 moustache. He was even more reticent than Gen 
 eral Grant, carefully keeping all his plans and 
 thoughts to himself. He was very temperate in 
 eating and drinking, and at the time I saw him he 
 was so strong and muscular that he appeared never 
 to be troubled with fatigue. He was indeed a favor 
 ite with the Indians, and though terrible in his se 
 verity when they broke out and made war, and 
 perhaps at all times distrustful of them, yet he 
 believed in keeping his word with an Indian as 
 sacredly as with a white man, and in all his deal 
 ings with them he was uniformly just and kind. 
 
 The general had that art which some men pos 
 sess of saying very little to you in conversation, 
 being at the same time such an attentive listener 
 that one was unconsciously drawn out in discourse. 
 The time passed pleasantly and swiftly. It was a 
 delight to a fellow-officer to find himself at his 
 table, particularly when his genial wife presided at 
 the head of it. 
 
 Here I met Lieutenant Frederick E. Ebstein 
 of the Twenty-first Infantry. He had been sent 
 by General Crook, at the request of the Indian 
 bureau, to take command at an Indian station or 
 gathering called " Date Creek." During my stay 
 at Prescott I paid him a visit. 
 
 A letter just received from Ebstein tells some 
 thing about the Indians under his charge, and how 
 interested he was in their welfare. They were 
 Apache-Yumas and Apache-Mo j a ves, numbering 
 about six hundred and fifty souls, and inhabiting 
 the country lying east of the Colorado River 
 agency. They were not true Apaches, but offshoots 
 
AMOXG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 153 
 
 from the Yumas and Mojaves who had not gone on 
 reservations with the remainder of their people, 
 but went to the mountains instead. They lived as 
 best they could on the country, getting a sort of 
 subsistence from incursions into neighboring set 
 tlements and attacks upon wagon trains which 
 traversed the roads from the Colorado River to 
 Prescott. They assumed the name " Apache." 
 The two people kept up distinct tribal organiza 
 tions, having, however, much intermarried, and 
 both spoke the same language. 
 
 When Ebstein went to his post in 1869 these 
 Indians, being hostile, made the roads and the 
 vicinity of the post so unsafe for individual 
 travelers, or small unescorted wagon trains, that 
 the troops were constantly engaged in scouting 
 for and fighting with them. In 1870 a small 
 party of them approached the post with a white 
 flag and said they were hungry and tired of 
 fighting and wanted to come in. A few days later 
 six hundred and fifty of them, including men, 
 women, and children, came in and camped about a 
 mile from the soldiers near the Date Creek bottom. 
 " Then it was/ writes Ebstein, "I took charge 
 under orders from the department commander and 
 afterward issued daily one pound of beef and one 
 pound of flour to each Indian." 
 
 Ebstein encouraged the Indians to begin work, 
 paying them by additional issues of flour. The 
 women supplied the military post with fuel ; they 
 gathered wood in the canyons, sometimes miles 
 away, bringing it in on their backs. For each load 
 so delivered one quart of flour was given. For 
 10 
 
154 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 clothing they mainly depended upon the skins of 
 deer which they killed, and upon the cast-off uni 
 forms of officers and soldiers. Ebstein says: " I 
 never had a cent of money for the use of these 
 Indians until you (General Howard) came to the 
 post in 1872 and gave me, upon my request, fifty 
 dollars for the purchase of garden seeds. 7 I also 
 authorized an increase in the rations by adding 
 some coffee, beans, and soap. That helped out 
 materially. The Indians now began gardening in 
 a primitive way, and were sufficiently successful 
 the first year to encourage them to continue plant 
 ing. Ebstein remarks: " I remember with what 
 pride they presented me with some of the first 
 melons raised by them." 
 
 The clothing of the men in the summer time 
 consisted of a breech-clout of unbleached muslin, 
 but after coming to the post they picked up sol 
 diers discarded uniforms and blankets, which they 
 freely used for dress. The women wore a pictur 
 esque short skirt made of successive narrow strips 
 of bark of trees intertwined with red flannel. This 
 skirt extended to the knee. They wore leggings of 
 deer-skin, often fancifully trimmed with bead- 
 work, and also moccasins. The body from the 
 waist up was nude except for a deer-skin apron 
 just under the breast, held by a string of beads, 
 or bones of birds threaded on a cord about the 
 neck. In cold weather a Navajo blanket was 
 drawn over the shoulders, the older women using 
 a gray army blanket. Ornaments of brass, silver, 
 and shells in the shape of necklaces, finger- and 
 ear-rings, were common. Married women had a 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 155 
 
 straight piece of sharpened bone piercing the flesh 
 just under the lower lip. Their hair was combed 
 out straight, left unbraided, and banged across the 
 forehead just above the eyes. Men tied their hair 
 into a sort of queue with pieces of red flannel. 
 Frequently the queue was braided. In summer 
 the men were accustomed to braid their hair close 
 to their head and plaster it with mud. They had 
 an idea that the hardened mud kept their heads 
 cool. 
 
 Lieutenant Ebstein regards these Indians as 
 fine specimens physically of their race. They ex 
 celled as runners, " being able to go on a dogtrot 
 all day." Once an Indian brought Ebstein a mes 
 sage from the River agency a hundred miles dis 
 tant, completing the journey between sunrise of 
 one day and noon of the next. When young, the 
 girls were comely, but aged rapidly after marriage. 
 Among them strict chastity was the rule. 
 
 At last my party turned back from Prescott, 
 this time being accompanied by General Crook and 
 some of his officers, and on the 21st of May we were 
 again with the garrison at Old Camp Grant. It 
 was on this day that we succeeded in bringing 
 together in the broad shady valley the delegations 
 from the various tribes of Indians already named. 
 The Aravipas were largely represented. Some of 
 the Tontos put in an appearance, and the northern 
 bands were early on hand. There were many 
 Pimas and Papagoes. The Mexican residents who 
 had captured and still held the Apache children 
 were induced to come bringing the children with 
 them. There were also present a large number of 
 
156 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 white men who had been more or less emancipated 
 from the restraints of civilization, and who par 
 ticularly enjoyed raids against Indians wherever 
 assembled. Here came the civil functionaries of 
 the territory, including the governor. The com 
 missioned officers from the neighboring garrison 
 also honored the occasion by their presence. Prob 
 ably there was never an assembly of men more 
 thoroughly made up of hostile factions who had 
 all their lives been more or less at war one with 
 another. 
 
 We had for interpreters the superb Louis of 
 the Pimas, the singular-looking Concepcion of the 
 Aravipas, and Mr. Cook, the Christian teacher, 
 whom I could use as a chaplain or as a faithful 
 adviser. In a beautiful glen-like spot, on ground 
 a little above the river bottom, the remarkable 
 council came together. A few chairs, some rough 
 benches and camp stools, with small logs drawn 
 together in regular arrangement, gave the dignity 
 of order to the occasion. Indians as well as Ameri 
 cans always desired to have councils conducted 
 with proper formalities. They choose somebody 
 to speak for them, usually a chief, who, though he 
 spoke in the first person, always meant to embrace 
 in it all his tribe or band. 
 
 On this occasion we had to wait some time for 
 Eskimenzeen and his people to assemble. Like 
 many consequential white people the Indians 
 seemed to fancy that it added to their importance 
 to come late to church or to council. That day all 
 parties became anxious while waiting lest there 
 should be trouble, but at last the Aravipas, led by 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 157 
 
 their chief, filed into their place. The chief was 
 not at all prepossessing; he stammered in his 
 speech, and was inordinately proud, though he 
 exercised a fierce leadership over his tribe. That 
 day and the next all parties were listened to pa 
 tiently and attentively. 
 
 The Indians presented their grievances. Sev 
 eral of them, after Eskimenzeen, made speeches. 
 They pleaded for the return of their children. 
 Most of the parents were dead, but the relatives 
 wanted them back. The Mexicans then told how 
 much they were attached to the children whom they 
 had carried away. They said they were kind to 
 them, and were bringing them up well in Christian 
 families. The governor gave us his views, which 
 agreed with those of the Mexicans, and the district 
 attorney from Tucson explained what was the law. 
 
 Before dismissing the council the second day, 
 I told them that my decision would be to return the 
 children to their relatives. Against this, however, 
 the district attorney made such strong objections 
 and gave so many reasons that I thought it better 
 to reserve final action for a meeting on the morning 
 of the 23d of May. 
 
 The Aravipas went off six miles to their 
 bivouac, as they did every night, into a narrow 
 canyon very defensible against attack. The others 
 were grouped here and there where they could talk 
 together, prepare their food, and sleep comfort 
 ably. The Pimas, with Mr. Cook amongst them, 
 selected a pleasant grass plot near a group of trees, 
 and there they sat together and talked over the 
 doings of the day until sleep overcame them. 
 
158 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 That evening I went over to their ground and 
 found Mr. Cook already sound asleep with his head 
 pillowed upon his saddle and his horse blanket 
 under him. I awakened him and laid before him 
 my troubles, and then said: " Mr. Cook, what 
 would you do if you were in my place? What 
 would }^ou do about the children? : 
 
 He answered rather gruffly: "I would give 
 them back to the Indians. I said : Few of their 
 parents are living and the Mexicans seem to have 
 taken good care of them." "I know that," he 
 answered, "but they use them as servants as 
 slaves and the children have relatives among the 
 Aravipas. They were carried off by force, some 
 of them badly wounded. It is right to give them 
 back, and I would do it." 
 
 After I left him to resume his sleep, I said to 
 myself: "But that will not bring peace among 
 the tribes." I then wandered far away from the 
 bivouacs and sat down upon a log. Here the whole 
 subject was carefully thought over, and, as I have 
 been accustomed in all emergencies, I earnestly 
 prayed for help and guidance. After that I lay 
 down and fell into a sound sleep. 
 
 The rising sun shining across the bright water 
 and through the beautiful canyon awakened me, 
 and instantly I realized that I had a matured plan 
 of settlement in my mind. Just as soon as I could 
 wash my face and adjust my clothing, I walked to 
 the commanding officer s quarters. His wife, Mrs. 
 Crittenden, met me at the door, and I asked her if 
 she knew of a woman in the whole garrison whom 
 I could employ to take care of some Apache chil- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 161 
 
 dren. I wanted one who would be kind and patient, 
 and one on whom I could depend to carry out in 
 structions. Mrs. Crittenden thought a moment 
 and then said : " Yes, I know of one, Mrs. , 
 the wife of a sergeant, who himself is a good 
 soldier. She has an invalid daughter of whom she 
 has taken the most tender care, and she is a woman 
 of infinite patience. I declared at once that this 
 was the woman I wanted. After I had found her 
 and her husband at their tent I was not long in 
 making arrangements. 
 
 To the governor and General Crook my course 
 had not seemed wise, and the district attorney was 
 outspoken in his opposition to any peace policy. 
 The Indians were restless and could see no good 
 likely to come out of my long talks. But they all 
 came together, as they had promised the evening 
 before, and I sat for a while hearing over again the 
 pleas already made pleas which the interpreters 
 were trying to make plain in different tongues. 
 At last I arose and stood before them, and in my 
 earnestness began to speak so rapidly that nobody 
 could interpret my words. Most of the Indians, 
 however, seemed to understand what I said. This 
 was the substance of the speech : 
 
 " Yesterday I decided that it was right to re 
 turn the children to the parents and relatives of 
 their tribe. From this decision the district attor 
 ney has made an appeal and wants the matter 
 referred to "Washington. I have determined to 
 listen to his appeal. His superior authority is 
 vested in the United States Attorney-General; 
 mine is in the Secretary of the Interior. They 
 
162 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 two have a common head, the President of the 
 United States, General U. S. Grant. He only can 
 decide this matter. Now, I will take the children 
 and place them at the agency under the care of Mrs. 
 
 , a good Catholic woman, who will care for 
 
 them kindly and permit Mexican friends to visit 
 them during the time of their detention, and also 
 permit their Apache relatives to come and see 
 them. This detention will continue until the whole 
 case is laid before the President himself and de 
 cision had thereon." 
 
 The district attorney then sprang to his feet 
 and said : " We wish to keep the children and will 
 give bonds to bring them forward according to the 
 President s decision." I instantly answered: 
 " No bonds are necessary. General Crook, with 
 his army and authority, will see to it that every 
 thing is carried out to the letter as I have decided. 
 
 Thereupon a wonderful scene followed. The 
 Indians of different tribes doubly embraced each 
 other Apache and Pima, Papago and Mojave 
 and even the Mexicans participated in the joy that 
 became universal. I said to myself, " Surely the 
 Lord is with us. 
 
 In due time our differences were laid before 
 President Grant, and I need hardly say that he 
 sustained me in my decision and that the children 
 were returned to their relatives. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SELECTING A DELEGATION OF WILD APACHES TO VISIT 
 
 WASHINGTON GREAT FEAR OF THE JOURNEY - 
 
 CALLING UPON THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 Close of the Great Council A Visit from Tribe to Tribe Midnight 
 Visit to an Indian Camp A Rough March Arranging Details 
 of the Journey to Washington Getting the Party Together 
 Parting Scenes between Chiefs and their Families First Lesson 
 in the Use of Knives, Forks, and Spoons Trust Begets Trust 
 Loud Murmurs in a Discontented Camp First Glimpse of a Rail 
 road Indian Amazement and Curiosity First Ride in the Cars 
 Crouching Upon the Floor in Abject Terror Calling Upon the 
 President Opening their Hearts to Him. 
 
 AFTER the close of the great council I deter 
 mined to go from tribe to tribe, according 
 to my instructions, and, if possible, recon 
 cile all differences. Here at Camp Grant I began 
 to select members of various bands to take with 
 me to Washington. The object of these east 
 ern visits was twofold : first, to cement the ties of 
 good will, and, second, to show to them the hope 
 lessness of resisting a government as powerful as 
 ours. That very night I made a midnight visit to 
 Eskimenzeen s convenient and safe lodging-place 
 in the narrow canyon. The shrill savage cry that 
 met my small party as we approached was fright 
 ful to unaccustomed ears, but Concepcion, throw 
 ing loud " back talk " to the clamor, conducted me 
 safely to the chief s lodge. 
 
 The Indians had never seen a railway or a tele 
 graph, and at first I could not get one of them to 
 
164 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 go. The risk seemed too great. It was here that 
 Santo began to show his friendship for, and his 
 great confidence in me. He arose, his face animated 
 by a new resolve as he spoke to the interpreter and 
 told him to tell me that he, Santo, old as he was, 
 would trust himself in my hands and would go with 
 me to Washington. He made a capital delegate 
 for the Aravipas. 
 
 A little later two Pimas, Louis and Antonito, 
 one Papago chief named Ascencion, two Date 
 Creek Indians called in English Charlie and Jose, 
 Mr. Cook, the Pima teacher, and Concepcion, 
 joined Santo and constituted the party that was to 
 leave Old Camp Grant for the White Mountains 
 (Sierra Blancas), which lay near the eastern 
 borders of Arizona. We set out on the morning of 
 the 25th of May. 
 
 By short journeys I accomplished the roughest 
 march that I ever undertook, of a hundred miles 
 over jagged hills, rocky trails, and through deep 
 canyons furrowed with stony cross-gulleys. True, 
 Santo, placing a flinty specimen on the ground, 
 had promised that the mountains would now be 
 level and the canyons filled up, but his prophecy 
 for that portion of Arizona between Camp Grant 
 and Camp Apache had not yet been fulfilled. 
 Camp Apache was in an opening in the forest, 
 in as beautiful a stretch of country as one can well 
 depict. The barracks and houses and sutler s store, 
 dotting the green plateau, were built of rough logs 
 and newly-sawn lumber. It was truly a pretty vil 
 lage in the wilderness, and most acceptable to us 
 weary travelers. 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 165 
 
 Here I found three bands of Indians sometimes 
 called the " Sierra Blancas," but usually known as 
 White Mountain Apaches. After a visit to each 
 band and a consideration of their special com 
 plaintsfor each had some trouble to present I 
 persuaded them to add a representative to our 
 delegation. We agreed that the principal chief 
 should go and represent his band. The eldest was 
 Es-kel-te-ce-la, who enjoyed the reputation of lov 
 ing peace. The next, and the one best known to 
 the whites, was one-eyed Meguil, who had been a 
 famous w r arrior, and the other, who constantly 
 longed for civilized life, was Pedro. 
 
 From Camp Apache I made several vain at 
 tempts to communicate with the Chiricahuas, who 
 were the real warriors to be pacified. While wait 
 ing for scouts and messengers to go and come I 
 was entertained in the most hospitable way by 
 Major Dallas, who commanded the garrison; but 
 in time the messengers returned, having been un 
 successful, and I decided to set out for the long 
 journey eastward through New Mexico. 
 
 The parting scenes between the chiefs and their 
 families were affecting. Indians from the three 
 bands had come up to Camp Apache for rations. 
 They were seated on the ground upon a gentle 
 grassy slope in the forest opening, waiting, as 
 multitudes have ever done, for the distribution of 
 bread. The Indians were troubled and manifested 
 great apprehension, which showed itself often in 
 tears over the last adieus. Old Es-kel-te-ce-la 
 made me look into his large clear eyes to assure 
 me that there was no badness in him, then took 
 
166 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 me by the hand and led me to his wife and daughter, 
 and made me, by Concepcion s help, explain and 
 promise that the journey would surely be safe and 
 that I would bring them back. Santo, who was 
 now the best lieutenant I had, praised me over and 
 over again to the children of Meguil and Pedro, 
 and so reassured their troubled hearts. It was no 
 light thing this going to Washington ! 
 
 My aged Bowdoin professor, Cleveland, a 
 chemist of world-wide reputation, in 1845, saw at 
 Brunswick, Maine, the first railway carriage which 
 passed through that city. His eyes sparkled 
 behind his slightly-colored glasses and his face 
 wrinkled into smiles at the novel sight, but he 
 shook his head and said: " I am too old; I ll not 
 risk it ! : So never would he enter a railway coach, 
 but always journeyed, when occasion required it, 
 in his own chaise from Brunswick to Boston. Just 
 think of it! What was the professor s risk com 
 pared with that of those untutored Indians of the 
 Southwest as they started upon their first trip of 
 three thousand miles over vast regions to them 
 unknown? Their fears were natural, but their 
 confidence in a white man s promise of a safe re 
 turn was simply marvelous. 
 
 There was added to our company the Indian 
 superintendent of Arizona, Major Bendel. His 
 title was one popularly given to Indian agents and 
 superintendents. My friend Eev. E. P. Smith 
 had gone back by the way of California. The In 
 dian party of ten, Cook, Bendel, Wilkinson, the 
 drivers of the ambulance and baggage wagons, and 
 a few soldiers, constituted my caravan. For our 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 167 
 
 conveyance, besides a few saddle horses, we had a 
 high-bowed six-mule wagon, a common army escort 
 carriage, and our six-mule ambulance. 
 
 When we rode out of Camp Apache there was 
 considerable style in our improvised chariots with 
 Indian outriders. June 1st we made a fair march, 
 - all the day in a continuous forest. I called a 
 halt before the sun had disappeared as we were 
 emerging into our first glade-opening. 
 
 "Apache chiefs must not work! " so said half- 
 blind Meguil while his evil-looking eye rested upon 
 me as I began to gather firewood. " We must all 
 work! " I said through Concepcion, repeating the 
 words for Meguil s benefit. " Take the hatchet, 
 Meguil, and help me ; we must all work ! : "Tat ah 
 no work white Tatahs no work," he murmured, as 
 I glanced at his twinkling eye. " I am as big a 
 Tatah as you are," I laughingly replied. Appar 
 ently in sport he joined me in dragging sticks and 
 bushes to the camp fire. Soon all the rest of the 
 party were doing the same. That was our first 
 work lesson. It was not long before the Indians 
 would spring forward and anticipate me in such 
 chores. 
 
 At the table I played the host. We had a square 
 piece of canvas stretched on the ground, and a 
 plate, knife, and fork were placed for each guest. 
 Some of us sat cross-legged like tailors, some of 
 the Indians leaned on elbow like the disciples of 
 old, while some squatted as they were wont to do 
 at council fires. After the food had been put on 
 the canvas it was hard to resist our appetites until 
 a short grace had been said, but we soon learned. 
 
168 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 The preliminary reverent uncovering of the heads 
 became a potent sign. It was very awkward at 
 first for the Indians to use those knives, forks, and 
 spoons. Pedro, who acquired polite manners 
 quickly, speared bread with his fork and took 
 meat with his fingers, while Louis, who spoke four 
 languages and whose shining braids hung below 
 his knees, and the determined Santo, wedded to old 
 habits, required considerable extension of the meal 
 hour to do things rightly and to satisfy hunger. 
 
 My Sabbath restraint was at first as irksome 
 to the Apaches as to children. At the end of the 
 first day, it being Saturday, I halted and rested 
 till Monday. Sunday morning Meguil mounted 
 his pony and said to me : " Meguil go his horse 
 - come back ! Mr. Cook shook his head doubt 
 fully as he looked at his receding figure, and Louis 
 said: " No more Meguil! >: But three days later, 
 after we had left the forest and were traversing a 
 treeless wilderness, we caught sight of a couple of 
 horsemen off to our left gracefully loping toward 
 us. I was glad to hear Louis Spanish as he 
 pointed and said: "He aqid, Apache Meguil ! r 
 It was he, true to his word, and his return was an 
 earnest of the confidence that I had desired to 
 establish between us all. Trust begets trust. 
 
 By another Sabbath we had made good prog 
 ress. That was a day to be remembered. We were 
 near the Eio Puerco. A small abandoned hut, the 
 only sign of past habitation in the neighborhood, 
 was quickly freed from the rubbish and dirt left 
 by former occupants; a few sticks, after much 
 search, were found for firewood, and our provisions 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 169 
 
 were unpacked and brought in. Soon, however, 
 the drivers of our wagons rushed to the door and 
 cried out excitedly: " The water of the river is 
 bad, the animals won t drink it! r Our white men 
 from the very first were vexed with me for halting 
 just there. Was not the Rio Grande only a few 
 miles ahead? Wasn t there a ferry, and a town 
 just beyond the river? 
 
 I understood the cause of their dissatisfaction. 
 The place was full of liquor saloons and I dreaded 
 more than I can tell two nights and a day with such 
 extraordinary temptations for our rough drivers, 
 soldiers, and Indians. I persisted in remaining 
 at the Rio Puerco. The water once drawn in pails 
 I believed would speedily settle and become clear, 
 but in this I was mistaken, and amid murmurs of 
 growing discontent we passed a hard night. Sun 
 day morning the pails filled at evening contained 
 the same clayey porridge; nobody could drink it. 
 The thirsty horses pawed the brink of the river 
 and caught up the hateful water in their lips, and, 
 without swallowing, raised their noses high in air ; 
 thus they made their indignant protest against 
 such stuff. But just as necessity appeared to com 
 pel a resumption of the march, Concepcion and 
 Antonito, the young Pima chief, ran to me with 
 good news. Wandering over the ledge not a hun 
 dred yards away they had found a natural basin 
 of clear, good water. My heart was glad. Our 
 discontent and anxiety vanished. 
 
 That day we had a brief religious service. 
 Captain Wilkinson was a good singer, and at the 
 close of the exercises he sang the hymn entitled 
 
170 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 " The Cleansing Fountain." This is the last 
 verse : 
 
 " When we ve been there ten thousand years, 
 Bright shining as the sun, 
 We ve no less days to sing God s praise 
 Than when we d first begun." 
 
 Pedro, who certainly could not have compre 
 hended the words, w^as in tears. He arose from 
 his half-kneeling posture, went straight to the 
 captain, folded him in his arms, and with a soft 
 ened voice said : " Bueno! Toueno! * 
 
 On this Sabbath at the Puerco, Louis, having 
 been drawn into a dispute with some of our party, 
 after a time became fretful and impatient and then 
 sulky. For this conduct Mr. Cook reproved him 
 with severity. At this Louis became angry. No 
 ticing his temper I called the young man to me 
 and asked: " Why, Louis, what s the matter? 1 
 He replied: " I am going back! : 
 
 "What for!" 
 
 " Teacher don t treat me right. He insults me ; 
 he says, * Louis no Christian. : 
 
 Major Bendel, who was a Jew, inquired into 
 the trouble that was becoming so serious, and was 
 able to adjust all matters amicably. Poor Louis 
 contribution to Christian progress was rather 
 meager and doubtful. Still, it was something 
 gained for an Indian to feel insulted at being 
 called "no Christian." 
 
 In spite of the attractions ahead there was con 
 siderable dread of the great obstacle across our 
 path, the Bio Grande. One of the most vigorous 
 of my West Point classmates was Lieutenant 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 171 
 
 Davant of South Carolina. In 1855 he attempted 
 to cross this river on horseback and was carried 
 off by the swift current and drowned. Among 
 army officers the difficulties of the passage of the 
 Rio Grande at high water were proverbial. Before 
 our approach the river had risen over its banks 
 and was as swift in its flow as the Mississippi in 
 flood-time. 
 
 We came to the western shore opposite Albu 
 querque. The Indians were full of wonderment 
 and gazed up and down the fierce waters. Pres 
 ently they caught sight of a large flatboat coming 
 toward us from a point farther up on the other 
 bank. The boat swept past us oblique to the cur 
 rent, but held by strong hands, and, at last strik 
 ing the shore, landed far below. It was then 
 dragged by ropes back to us. It took close packing 
 to get our party, wagons, ambulance, animals, and 
 all else on board. 
 
 " Dismal Jeems," tall, lank, and somber, had 
 little fancy for the prospective voyage. One of 
 his mules, a quiet, handsome little creature, he 
 called "Lucy." When she was on the road and 
 became tired she would put her ears back and not 
 pull a pound. Two or three times, sitting by 
 Jeems side and noticing that he could not reach 
 her with the whip, I tossed some pebbles which hit 
 her back, an action that Lucy naturally imputed 
 to the driver. When, last of all, I stepped upon 
 the flatboat I saw Jeems standing near Lucy s 
 heels. Never for one moment would one suspect 
 trouble from this quiet little mule, so demure was 
 she with her upright ears. However, at just the 
 11 
 
172 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 last push from shore, nobody could tell how, two 
 hind feet struck poor Jeems in his stomach and 
 he made a quick somersault into the water. Jeems 
 went down with a plunge, but, luckily, on the land 
 side, so that coming to the surface he was caught 
 and lifted to the boat, where, with dripping gar 
 ments, he sputtered aloud with terror and indigna 
 tion. The Indians were not yet civilized enough 
 to restrain their mirth. Clapping hands, they bent 
 their flexible bodies forward and back and laughed 
 remorselessly, saying : " Jon-dai-sy-ton-judah! " 
 i. e., " Mule very bad! This incident added an 
 other link to Dismal Jeems chain of misfortunes. 
 The flatboat, shooting across the torrent, brought 
 up against an island. Here we had to disembark 
 and wade to the eastern shore. Our mules wal 
 lowed in the muddy bottom, and now and then 
 sank in quicksands, so that we had trouble to save 
 them, and our staunch army wagon was so broken 
 and mired that it had to be abandoned. 
 
 Sad as was our plight when we came into camp 
 above the town, our misfortunes were aggravated 
 by the very disaster which I had feared. Some of 
 the men were made crazy with liquor, but to my 
 great joy the Indians, including the interpreter, 
 kept their promise and did not drink. 
 
 On June 12th, after refitting the men having 
 become reasonably sober we took the road again. 
 At Santa Fe we finished what I regarded as the 
 first important division of the journey, and so I 
 ordered a brief rest before taking the stage for 
 Pueblo. The stay was too long for Concepcion. 
 Intolerable thirst for strong drink overcame his 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 173 
 
 promise. He was in a terrible plight and passed 
 from spasm to spasm, screaming, crying, and 
 laughing by turns. The rapid transitions from 
 maudlin good nature to fierce anger, and vice versa, 
 terrific and ludicrous as they were, became object 
 lessons to the Indians. The interpreter s final 
 phase of besotted stupidity was a relief to Meguil 
 and his Indian helpers, who had constantly watched 
 and held him till the drunken sleep came on. In 
 time we neared the new city of Pueblo. The In 
 dians had greatly enjoyed the jolting journey of 
 two hundred miles in a four-horse stage. None of 
 them had ever passed beyond Santa Fe, and only 
 the " Sierra " Apaches had been so far. 
 
 The 17th of June we suddenly came upon the 
 narrow-gauge railroad just outside of the city, 
 which had been only recently completed to that 
 point. I enjoyed the Indians manifest surprise. 
 Hurriedly leaving the stage they ran to the railway 
 and sat down upon the strange framework. With 
 great curiosity they felt of the cross-ties and fin 
 gered the spikes which fastened the iron rails. 
 They looked long and wonderingly at the freight 
 and cattle cars, which were standing near, and 
 then, like children surprised with new gifts, they 
 clapped their hands with glee. A train soon backed 
 down to take us. Our party slowly filed into the 
 small coach to take seats two and two. I was 
 astonished at the evident fear of the Indians. 
 They crouched in abject terror upon the floor be 
 tween the high backs of the seats and covered their 
 dark faces with their hands. 
 
 "What s the matter now, Es-kel-te-ce-la ? " I 
 
174 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 asked. The interpreter gave me the old man s 
 affrighted reply : 
 
 "We ve said we ll go with you. We ve given 
 you our whole hearts, and w r e 11 go where you go ! : 
 
 " But what makes them hide their faces and 
 keep so quiet, Concepcion^ " 
 
 " Why, sir, they are afraid! " 
 
 Their terror did not last long. After a few 
 miles of safe and easy riding they lifted their heads 
 one by one and began to count the high hills and 
 mountain peaks. The first fear had given place 
 to other emotions. There were new wonders for 
 them as towns became larger and more frequent, 
 and the variety and size of the buildings increased. 
 
 Before we had crossed Colorado, Meguil told 
 me with a sigh that he could not count the moun 
 tains any longer, but must rely upon me to get him 
 back. 
 
 The climax of surprise was reached in New 
 York City, not in the magnitude of the metropolis 
 nor in the throngs on the streets, nor in the magnifi 
 cent buildings, nor in Central Park, whose collec 
 tions of natural objects delighted them, nor in the 
 forest of shipping, the like of which was beyond 
 their dreams ; no, it was in beholding Meguil clothed 
 and in his right mind, having two eyes, the lost one 
 having been so restored as to look precisely like 
 the other. 
 
 In Philadelphia I took the Indians to Fairmount 
 Park, to Girard College, to several manufactories, 
 and what delighted them especially to a magic 
 entertainment. Everywhere they were made par 
 ticularly happy by the cordiality of the people. I 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 175 
 
 shall never forget our visit to the Moyamensing 
 Penitentiary. The Indians walked up and down 
 the great galleries, which branch out like the spokes 
 of a wheel; as they sauntered along, stopping to 
 gaze through the gratings, they were filled with 
 compassion for the inmates. Before leaving, 
 Meguil came to me with the interpreter. He had 
 a solemn look. With much feeling he asked : 
 
 " Is there one man in confinement here who is 
 innocent? ?: 
 
 "Why, Meguil?" 
 
 " If there is one I want to speak to him, for I 
 was once a prisoner and kept a whole year, in a 
 prison like this, in Santa Fe. I was innocent of 
 any crime. I was very lonely and sad, and I don t 
 want another man to be so unhappy." 
 
 In Washington nearly two weeks were spent to 
 good purpose. As it was vacation at Howard Uni 
 versity and my own house was near the dormitories, 
 it occurred to me to use the latter for sleeping 
 rooms for the Apaches. I gave the Indians 
 glimpses of curiosities in the Capitol and in 
 numerous other public edifices. By appointment 
 they went to see President Grant, accompanied by 
 the Secretary of the Interior and the Commis 
 sioner of Indian Affairs. To them they opened 
 their hearts in set speeches and received pleasant 
 rejoinders. They looked through the navy yard, 
 and the arsenal, where the large guns and numerous 
 small arms powerfully impressed them. But noth 
 ing imparted richer enjoyment than our visit to 
 the College of Deaf Mutes. The bright, active 
 boys, who could not hear a sound, at once estab- 
 
176 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 lished sign communications with the Indians, and 
 the Indians rivaled the boys in the variety of their 
 imitations. The cat, the dog, the horse, the bear, 
 and other animals, tame and wild, were succes 
 sively characterized. Again and again the Indians 
 spoke of these young people as " the boys who 
 talked with their hands and arms." 
 
 All the Indians of my party, after leaving 
 Santa Fe, wore the white man s clothing and had 
 made wonderful progress in the ways of civilized 
 life. They visited my family freely and all took 
 their meals with us; but I am sorry to say that 
 agents from Washington were secretly sent to them 
 and they were offered as high as one hundred dol 
 lars apiece if they would only leave me and insist 
 on being entertained at a city hotel. Of course 
 this was a bribe and a decoy to have them visit the 
 lowest places in Washington and subject them 
 selves to the vilest doings. I was told that other 
 Indian delegations had been dealt with successfully 
 for the purposes of gain. But my party, thor 
 oughly loyal to me and keeping rigidly to their 
 promises, stoutly said: "No, w r e will not go! 
 Apaches stay with General Howard. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RETURN OF THE APACHES TO THEIR ARIZONA HOMES 
 
 I SET OUT TO FIND THE NOTORIOUS 
 
 CHIEF, COCHISE. 
 
 Great Assembly of Relatives and Friends to Meet the Returning Braves 
 Chief Meguil and his Glass Eye Some Astonished Indians 
 Following the White Man s Ways Determined Efforts to Find 
 Cochise " Snake, General, Snake ! " Close Call from a Rattle 
 snake Meeting with "Tom Jeffords" "He s a Bad Egg" 
 Agrees to Take Me to the Camp of Cochise Starting on the 
 Journey A Strange and Suspicious Group Threatened by Angry 
 Miners Adventure with a Desperate Prospector Following an 
 Apache Trail Communicating Signs by Smoke Arrival at Co- 
 chise s Stronghold Meeting One of His Wives. 
 
 IN keeping with General Grant s peace policy, 
 the Dutch Reform Society of New York nomi 
 nated the agents in Arizona. Leaving Wash 
 ington July 10th on our homeward journey we paid 
 a visit to that society in the metropolis. One sel 
 dom sees an assemblage of men more dignified 
 and impressive than were those who gathered in a 
 large room to welcome our delegation. When the 
 Indians were ushered in the assembly rose en masse 
 to receive them. Vincent Colyer, whom they knew, 
 was present, and it greatly relieved their embar 
 rassment to meet him. Every chief was encour 
 aged to speak, and so one after another recited 
 grievances to sympathetic ears, and received in 
 response such comfort and cheer as loving hearts 
 could suggest. 
 
 In the evening we were transferred to a large 
 
178 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Presbyterian church, and the Indians were again 
 asked to speak and to tell the people about their 
 condition and their wants. Though addressing a 
 large and civilized assemblage for the first time, 
 and through interpreters, these rude men fresh 
 from savage life commanded undivided attention 
 and received ringing applause. On this occasion 
 Pedro, every day growing in ideas, said : 
 
 " You have schools, churches, places where 
 clothes are made, houses filled with wealth; you 
 have wagons, horses, cars, and more than I can 
 speak of. We have nothing. We are very poor. 
 I have been thinking hard. We had long ago all 
 the land ; the Indians were once as one man. Now 
 they are divided and the white men have all the 
 land and all things. Now I am going to be a white 
 man. I shall wear the white man s clothes. I 
 shall cook and eat the white man s food, and I want 
 my children to go to school and learn to be white 
 men. I am done." 
 
 Each Apache followed suit, and that evening 
 many of the hearers were satisfied that the seeds 
 of civilization which had been sowed were already 
 springing up and bearing fruit. 
 
 A conservative army officer present at this 
 meeting was not so hopeful. He whispered to me : 
 " When a chief returns from Washington to his 
 tribe his Indians do not follow him. They declare 
 that he has been bewitched, or had bad medicine/ 
 and they do not believe anything he tells them." 
 Doubtless this is in part true. It requires constant 
 work and perennial faith to produce permanent 
 results. We ought not to expect too much from a 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 179 
 
 chief like Meguil or Pedro, returning from his 
 surprises and new convictions to the tepee and its 
 old gypsy ways, where roaming is more attractive 
 than labor and light-hearted indolence preferable 
 to perplexing thought. All good effects are lost 
 when a chief, by liquor and the baits of passion, is 
 made more savage than before in consequence of 
 his visits to us. But at any rate, our party of 
 Indians was carefully guarded against such draw 
 backs. 
 
 At New York we divided. The two Pimas, the 
 Date Creek Indians and the Papago chief went 
 with Major Bendel via California. The other 
 five accompanied me through Colorado and New 
 Mexico, pursuing substantially the same route by 
 which we came the railway to Pueblo, stage to 
 Santa Fe, and the saddle horses, with wagons for 
 baggage, to Camp Apache. I took Captain J. A. 
 Sladen this time as an aide, and also my eldest son, 
 Guy, then in his seventeenth year and enjoying a 
 college vacation. 
 
 In fulfillment of the promises made at Wash 
 ington by the Department of the Interior, I was 
 obliged to purchase at Santa Fe some horses and 
 equipments for the Indians. When we passed be 
 yond Santa Fe we were well mounted, and we had 
 a delightful enlargement of our company in the 
 persons of Major Pope, the Indian superintendent 
 of New Mexico, his good wife, and the Rev. Dr. 
 McFarland, an aged missionary. Without hin 
 drance or accident we went on some two hundred 
 miles to Fort Wingate, located on the border of 
 the large Navajo reservation. 
 
180 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 The Apaches and Navajos had long been hostile 
 to each other and bad feeling existed between them. 
 The old policy of government officials was to foster 
 enmities and mutual hatred in order to weaken the 
 Indian tribes. Having a different conviction, it 
 was the burden of my efforts to settle all the 
 troubles and introduce terms of peace and good 
 will. Hostile relations of one tribe to another had 
 kept up a warlike spirit, and their internecine 
 strifes usually brought terror and disturbance to 
 white settlements. 
 
 As I had arranged, the Navajo leaders were on 
 hand at Fort Wingate upon our arrival. An un 
 foreseen difficulty resulted because neither the 
 Apaches nor the Navajos were willing to make the 
 necessary advances. At first I took all our white 
 people with me and went to the place appointed 
 for the joint council, but not an Indian Apache 
 or Navajo would come. So much for Indian 
 pride. 
 
 Next I tried the experiment of seeing the hos 
 tile parties separately and engaging them to meet 
 each other at a given time and at a particular spot, 
 coming up simultaneously. On this occasion I 
 went again, alone, to a meeting-place which all the 
 Indians could see. Then I beckoned to each party 
 to come. They came on slowly, solemnly, arriving 
 at the same instant, and arranged themselves for a 
 talk. The Court of St. James could not have been 
 more ceremonious. 
 
 After the usual method of such councils there 
 began a recapitulation of wrongs. Then promises 
 for a better understanding were exchanged. The 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 181 
 
 eloquence, native grace, and show of deep feeling 
 were very marked. Soon their faces lighted up 
 and their tones changed from accents of complaint 
 to those of reconciliation, heartiness, and joy. As 
 was done at the Aravipa council, the Indians em 
 braced each other in that curious double manner 
 peculiar to them. They began to talk and laugh 
 freely like old comrades, and continued their fes 
 tivities throughout the night. Here I scored an 
 other victory, because peace makes peace. Neither 
 whites nor Indians can long exist by war measures 
 alone. When peace by mediation is obtained even 
 the mediating party has a share in it. 
 
 We found a crying evil existing along the 
 borders of the great Navajo Reserve. Frontier 
 stockmen, who had but a single cabin to live in 
 and a very small corral, were nevertheless accus 
 tomed to take vast stretches of the unoccupied 
 public domain for pasturage. They naturally lost 
 much of their stock, both cattle and horses. They 
 sometimes found signs of stock-killing, and their 
 horses suddenly disappeared as if stolen. The 
 owners and herdsmen cried out that they had been 
 robbed, and, whether right or wrong, they stoutly 
 accused the Indians. 
 
 After meditating upon this state of things, I 
 gave them a wholesome preventive measure. I 
 established an Indian police, the members of which 
 were to have the same pay as our soldiers, and put 
 their proud war chief Manuelito, with his consent, 
 at the head. That police was very efficient while 
 it lasted. It prevented all good Navajos, who were 
 in the majority, from being involved by their evil 
 
182 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 brethren in troubles which invariably followed the 
 commission of crimes. The greatest disturbance 
 arose from being obliged to give up Indians to 
 white men for punishment. The police, being 
 loyal to those who paid them, very quickly arrested 
 the criminals and delivered them up, and this was 
 done so quickly that Indian hospitality to the ac 
 cused was not violated. 
 
 Leaving the Navajos we continued our long 
 journey to Camp Apache. Here we again met 
 brotherly greetings, generous hospitality, and 
 home comforts. As we emerged from the continu 
 ous forest the rough quarters appeared elegant, 
 the grass plot greener than ever, and even the 
 deep-cut river close at hand seemed to murmur 
 sounds of peace and good will. As Mrs. Dallas 
 gave me her hand in greeting I said: " What a 
 cosy nest you have made here among the protecting 
 hills ! r It was hedged in by countless trees. 
 
 * But, General, the lady answered, " it is so 
 lonely! That was true; however beautiful the 
 situation, it alone is insufficient to compensate for 
 the society which cultured minds desire. 
 
 A large body of Indians had assembled from 
 the three tribes to meet our returning braves. 
 There were lively demonstrations. Each chief was 
 a hero. But Meguil, with an eye in his sightless 
 socket, took the palm of attention till the home 
 brewed tizwin* obscured the vision of himself and 
 friends by its relentless effects. Poor Meguil was 
 
 * Among the Apaches and kindred Indians, an intoxicating distilled 
 liquor similar to the Mexican mescal, made from the yucca or Spanish- 
 bayonet. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 183 
 
 no longer under a pledge. Es-kel-te-ce-la, with his 
 people, laughed heartily and talked rapidly; he 
 was, no doubt, telling to wife and children and a 
 crowd of listening Indians most wondrous tales 
 of adventure and sightseeing too grand for him to 
 portray. 
 
 Pedro, the most civilized of all, began at once 
 to introduce into his lodge such practical measures 
 as he could. He visited Major Dallas and asked 
 his aid in building a new house. No persuasion 
 could induce him to put off that shirt, once white, 
 which, unfortunately, had become too much soiled 
 by travel. To the major he discoursed with great 
 particularity, through the interpreter, upon the 
 changes he proposed to make in his housekeeping, 
 in his supplies, and especially in the cooking and 
 in new observances at his table. We smiled at 
 Pedro s enthusiasm, but he has lived on and con 
 tinued to improve, while Meguil and Es-kel-te- 
 ce-la, a few years after that, perished in a petty 
 Indian outbreak. 
 
 Santo all along had been my favorite. On the 
 return stage, when near Santa Fe, I ventured to 
 tell the Apaches that the earth was round and 
 turned on an axis. Santo was grieved, and, show 
 ing much feeling, said: " General Howard, you 
 have been like a father to us. You have told us the 
 truth, and never deceived us. We are on our way 
 home. Now do not talk that about the earth. 
 Nothing can make us believe that. Indians do not 
 think that way. We want to keep you our friend. " 
 
 Santo parted with me at Camp Apache. Years 
 after an officer told me that the old chief always 
 
184 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 slept with a New Testament which I had given him 
 under his head. Though he could not read, Santo 
 was ever after loyal to the book and to the giver ! 
 
 As my son Guy must soon return to college, I 
 sent him via Camp Grant over the hundred miles 
 of rough journey in charge of an expedition to 
 take the Aravipa Indians, with some from San 
 Carlos, to their reservations. This party consisted 
 of Rev. Dr. McFarland, Santo, a few Indians be 
 sides, and a detachment of soldiers from the gar 
 rison. It was, as we know, a dangerous journey 
 over a rugged, rocky trail. The young student, to 
 my joy, acquitted himself with honor and carried 
 through his company without loss, though the aged 
 missionary came near giving up his life from 
 fatigue and exhaustion. He insisted that the 
 tender care that he received from the young com 
 mander saved him. 
 
 For another attempt to negotiate with the wild 
 Chiricahuas, Concepcion and several other mes 
 sengers were dispatched in different directions 
 toward the south. Cochise s men were reported 
 to be still roaming and robbing; they appeared to 
 have no fixed dwelling place. Meanwhile, Captain 
 Sladen and I, with a small escort of cavalry, visited 
 the lodges and farm patches of all the different 
 bands of the Sierra-Blancas. The captain, then 
 young, was of medium height, straight, stout, and 
 broad-shouldered. He had a short neck, a coun 
 tenance ruddy and full, a shapely head and large 
 hazel eyes, now with a sad expression, now spark 
 ling with humor. His hair was straight and black 
 and so was his heavy moustache. He had been my 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 185 
 
 companion in many battles, always genial, fear 
 less, and intelligent. Of late years he had em 
 ployed his leisure hours in the study of medicine, 
 and was at this time admitted to practice. 
 
 As we passed on, lodge after lodge revealed to 
 Sladen the squalor, the diseases, and the sufferings 
 of those neglected Indians. With his small assort 
 ment of drugs and his sympathetic voice he became 
 to the Indians during that journey an angel of 
 light and deliverance. 
 
 We went as far as San Carlos. The bottom 
 lands in that quarter were largely used for Indian 
 planting, and white men averred that the Indians 
 made it a starting point for their thieving raids. 
 One night I camped near the Gila River. Captain 
 Leib, who had charge of a local cavalry guard, and 
 I were occupying an open space for our bivouac. 
 We were sitting upon logs some four or five yards 
 apart reading, when an enormous rattlesnake, 
 coming from Leib s left, suddenly coiled, and, with 
 head in air, made ready to spring at me. Leib 
 cried out, " Snake, General, snake! He seized a 
 good-sized stick and struck him a heavy blow across 
 the tail just as the snake s head reached my knee. 
 The blow so quickly delivered was enough. His 
 snakeship coiled again and Leib soon dispatched 
 him, while he remarked : " That was a close call ! 
 
 The next day we turned back and made a cir 
 cuitous trip by the way of canyons, wild, jagged, 
 and precipitous trails, and among numberless 
 buttes and rugged mountain crags. The scenery 
 everywhere was picturesque, but our paths were 
 ugly and often fear-inspiring. Two hundred and 
 
186 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 fifty miles of circuit and inspection brought us 
 again to Camp Apache, where we rested for two 
 days. Our messengers, led by Concepcion, had 
 made their journeys far and wide in vain, and re 
 turned without finding even a trace of the wily 
 Cochise. 
 
 My several efforts to complete this most impor 
 tant part of my mission had been thus far unavail 
 ing, but I was not ready to give up the chase. I 
 determined to seek for some one of Cochise s 
 various trails to the east and follow that back till 
 I could uncover his hiding-place. We had a 
 glimmer of light to aid us some vague stories 
 from the wife of a half-breed living near Camp 
 Apache. She was a Chiricahuan. She was sure 
 the old chief would not let us go directly to any of 
 his strongholds, but she knew that he occasionally 
 went eastward, crossing New Mexico as far as the 
 Rio Grande. 
 
 I resolved to go first to a camp of soldiers and 
 Apaches in New Mexico which my instructions re 
 quired me to visit. These Apaches were kindred 
 to the Chiricahuas. The camp was at Tulerosa, in 
 the western part of New Mexico. On my arrival 
 I found there Victorio s Apache band, which had 
 been recently brought from the Rio Grande. The 
 home they came from bore the musical name of 
 Canada Alamosa. All were full of discontent at 
 the transfer, and the officers of the garrison said 
 that these Apaches had been sorely ill-used. At 
 the first interview they pleaded: "Oh, take us 
 back home to Agua Caliente on the Rio Grande! 
 we are dying here. At Canada Alamosa there is 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 187 
 
 good land, good water, and good food." Patiently 
 I heard the Indians complaints and promised a 
 visit to that salubrious Canada, i. e., if Victorio 
 would send with me a proper delegation; and, 
 further, I would carry this petition for the In 
 dians return to the Rio Grande directly to the 
 President. 
 
 While I was interviewing the Indians and the 
 officers of the garrison, a returning troop of cav 
 alry that had been chasing some wild Apaches 
 brought in as its guide a singular character of 
 whom I had frequently heard but had never seen. 
 Everybody called him " Tom Jeffords." I may 
 say that frontiersmen, though this was not much 
 to his discredit, gave him a bad reputation. " Tom 
 Jeffords ! He s a bad egg ; he trades with Indians, 
 sells them whisky, powder and shot. They don t 
 kill him cause he s bought em up." 
 
 At one period while the stage was running 
 regularly on the Tucson road, Jeffords, living in 
 that neighborhood, had managed to keep the good 
 will of the Apaches. On one occasion, when the 
 driver and other passengers were killed, Jeffords, 
 who was on the stage, was spared. Whenever after 
 that he had fallen into their hands he hf\ always 
 escaped. Major Pope told me that he had once 
 managed to reach the Chiricahua chief through 
 Jeffords, and that he was confident that the man 
 had dealt honestly with him. I believed it a good 
 providence which now threw him in my way. 
 
 Learning that the cavalry troops had actually 
 arrived, I went to their camp to find Jeffords, 
 The first tent I entered a tall, spare man, with 
 12 
 
188 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 reddish hair and whiskers of considerable length, 
 rose to meet me. He was pleasant and affable, and 
 I was in the outset prepossessed in his favor. Giv 
 ing my name I asked : 
 
 " Is this Mr. Jeffords?" 
 
 " Yes, sir, that is my name." 
 
 " Can you take me to the camp of the Indian 
 Cochise?" 
 
 He looked steadily and inquiringly into my 
 eyes and then asked : 
 
 " Will you go there with me, General, without 
 soldiers?" 
 
 " Yes," I answered, " if necessary." 
 
 " Then I will take you to him." Something in 
 his brave face and decided manner made me be 
 lieve that he could and would do as he said. 
 
 With those Tulerosa Indians was a young chief 
 called "Chie," the son of Magnus Colorado, Co- 
 chise s brother, a notorious chief captured and 
 killed by our people in 1863. Jeffords said: 
 " Chie must go with us as a guide and friendly 
 witness." By giving a horse to him and another 
 to his young wife, who was to stay behind, after 
 some delay he was induced to go. The officers of 
 the garrison trusted Chie and spoke well of him. 
 He had often been a hunter for them. 
 
 Jeffords seemed in no haste. He favored our 
 making the expedition, which I had promised, back 
 to the Eio Grande. He declared that he must find 
 Ponce, another young chief, who with a roving 
 band had recently fled from Fort Stanton and 
 was somewhere near Canada Alamosa depredating 
 on the country. Ponce s Apache father had been 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 189 
 
 in his lifetime Cochise s friend. Ponce knew 
 Spanish and would be a true interpreter. Of 
 course, like a good general, Jeffords planned to 
 have everything possible in our favor. " Ponce is 
 a favorite friend of the old man," he averred. 
 " He and Chie will make us welcome to Cochise s 
 stronghold. " 
 
 We made the expedition to Canada Alamosa 
 and attended to all Victorious wants, and enabled 
 him to renew his petition for a return to that 
 favored land. We then began a diligent search 
 first for Ponce s band. 
 
 This w r as the make-up of my party which left 
 Canada Alamosa the 20th of September: Captain 
 Jeffords, Jake May, an Anglo- Spanish inter 
 preter, two packers leading their pack-horses, Chie, 
 Captain Sladen, and myself. We were all well 
 mounted. I had besides our pack-horses a good 
 four-wheeled ambulance, and a driver who was 
 also a passable cook. The ambulance had to keep 
 on wagon roads, but the rest of us could follow the 
 trail at will and so shorten the distances in each 
 day s march. It was only at long halts that we had 
 the ambulance with us at all. 
 
 The first day after leaving Canada Jeffords 
 and I rode on ahead. We were jogging along over 
 a trail that took the tributaries of the Rio Grande 
 transversely a trail that was naturally up and 
 down with few level stretches when the quick 
 eye of Jeffords detected the fresh track .of an 
 -unshod horse. The rider had ridden to the brow 
 of the hill, seen us, and turned back. We followed 
 the track of this horseman till we reached an 
 
190 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 abrupt descent. It led to a deep cross-canyon. At 
 the bottom flowed the Rio Cochinillo Negro. We 
 could descry that river s tortuous course for miles 
 toward the Rio Grande. The valley afforded many 
 rich fields for cultivation. At intervals waving 
 corn glistened in the sunlight and gave pictur- 
 esqueness to the view. 
 
 Immediately before us were Indian children at 
 play, women around camp-fires at work, and a 
 large group of men, not far off, squatting upon the 
 ground. Indian ponies, quietly grazing along the 
 river, completed the picture. Without hesitation 
 we descended the zigzag trail a mile or more and 
 approached the strange group. Many men were 
 playing cards, the remainder looking on ; all were 
 deeply absorbed. At first nobody in the card party 
 took the slightest notice of our coming. Jeff ords 
 left me a few rods back with the horses. As he 
 neared the Indians, walking, he saw Ponce among 
 them. He motioned to me that all was right, and 
 went and sat down beside a thick-set, pleasant- 
 visaged young Indian and spoke to him. They 
 exchanged a few words in Spanish, then Ponce, for 
 it was he, went on with his game. 
 
 After- it was over the Indians arose and some of 
 them took favorable notice of me, calling me Tatah, 
 a term with them meaning chief, like Tytiee among 
 northern tribes. Some came very close and exam 
 ined my clothing and our mounts with evident ad 
 miration and curiosity. Ponce was intelligent, 
 speaking Spanish with readiness a big hearted, 
 lazy fellow in camp, but quick enough on a scout 
 or a hunt. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 191 
 
 Ponce made two objections: First, he asked: 
 " Who will take care of these Indians ? " and, 
 second, "I have no horse." Our soldiers from 
 different posts were out scouting and hunting for 
 this very tribe of renegades, which had escaped 
 from a reservation and were feeding upon corn 
 which they did not plant. His first objection I 
 removed by taking the whole band to the nearest 
 Mexican hamlet where there was a store of general 
 merchandise. I furnished their gypsy-band with 
 thirty days supply on condition that they remained 
 there and did not depredate. I met the next ob 
 jection by presenting Ponce with a horse for the 
 journey. But the next day, as w r e drew out on the 
 trail, I noticed that Ponce was on foot. I ex 
 claimed : " Where is your horse ? : 
 
 With a mysterious look he pointed back to the 
 Indian village. On the eve of starting he had given 
 his horse to his wife. I could not get another for 
 Ponce, but told him that I would " spell " him now 
 and then with my own. Sometimes on easy trails 
 he rode behind my saddle and a portion of each day 
 I walked and let Ponce ride. This arrangement 
 greatly pleased him. 
 
 Taking the routes directly toward the Arizona 
 border we were able to spend the 23d and the 24th 
 of September at Fort Bayard. Here we received 
 hospitable welcome and replenished our stores. 
 Silver City, a small mining village, came next. In 
 its outskirts the rough miners, seeing our Indians 
 - Ponce and Chie barred their doors from fear. 
 In the town a crowd acting like a mob pressed 
 closely upon us and so persistently insulted the 
 
192 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Indians by threats and gibes that they became 
 alarmed. By keeping Ponce and Chie as much as 
 possible in the background out of sight, and by 
 conciliatory speeches, Sladen, Jeffords, and I man 
 aged to quiet the villagers. Nobody there believed 
 in the peace policy, but fortunately there were 
 present several sensible men who helped us to re 
 main through the night without suffering violence, 
 and to get on the western trail at the first peep of 
 day. 
 
 Ten miles beyond the village we ran upon a pros 
 pecting party who were searching for mines. The 
 leader, a big burly man, had had a brother killed 
 by the Apaches; he was far from cordial. When 
 the two Indians came near him he saluted me with 
 a fierce oath and swore he would kill the scoundrels 
 on the spot. As he raised his rifle I stepped be 
 tween him and the Indians, and, looking him 
 steadily in the face, said simply : 
 
 " You will kill me first." He dropped his rifle 
 and rode away cursing a " damnable peace policy 
 which permitted savage brutes to go at large! >: 
 
 Not long after that Ponce was walking by my 
 horse in a lazy fashion with his eyes on the ground, 
 when of a sudden he became animated and cried in 
 Apache, " A deer ! a deer ! " and then sprang up the 
 side of the hill with alacrity. Having Jeffords 
 rifle in his hand, he followed the track like a trained 
 dog and soon brought back a small deer. A few 
 days later Ponce was lying prone on my horse, 
 patting his neck as he bore him along the beaten 
 trail, when a horse s single hoof -print in the sandy 
 soil caught his attention. He instantly took the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 193 
 
 trail, which bore off at an angle. In a few minutes 
 he galloped back, calling out, " Apache! Apache! " 
 I asked Jeffords how Ponce knew it was an Apache 
 horse. Ponce laughed at my simplicity as he an 
 swered : " Feet small, pony no shoes ; Indian horse 
 goes all around like Apache." By this I under 
 stood that an American would ride straight ahead 
 from hill to hill, but not so the Apache. 
 
 This one trail led to others. Soon we found 
 the footsteps of men, women, and children near a 
 large log where they had dismounted and stopped 
 to cook and eat. Both of our Indians said at once, 
 " Cochise Apaches! r No others shod their horses 
 with deer skin tied above the fetlocks. 
 
 The trail now became full and plain. We put 
 ourselves upon it, and wound around among the 
 sand hills and through the wastes of southwestern 
 New Mexico till the Peloncillo Mountains began to 
 rise and stretch themselves across our path. The 
 trail, reaching harder ground, suddenly spread 
 into several dim paths and then vanished alto 
 gether, but we kept moving toward the range. At 
 the foothills the Indians made us keep together 
 and follow the lead of Chie, who ran some two 
 hundred yards in advance. There were no trees 
 of any size, but here and there were some resinous 
 shoots, straight and tall, having blade-like leaves, 
 with about the firmness of a cornstalk. Chie set 
 fire to eight of these, ranging in a large circuit, - 
 then to eight more, and repeated the operation; 
 the fire would shoot up quickly and leave a peculiar 
 little cloud of black smoke. I asked : " What does 
 he do that for?" 
 
194 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Ponce answered: " Paz, humo puz," that is, 
 peace, peace smoke. 
 
 Shortly Chie began to bark like a coyote and 
 was answered by a bark like his own from the 
 mountain side. He then ran up the slope to meet 
 a fellow Apache, while we went on slowly. 
 
 The danger to miners, prospectors, and sol 
 diers while crossing arid wastes arises from long 
 droughts. Indians also suffer for want of water 
 when their well-known springs dry up. We were 
 very thirsty, but Ponce assured us that there was 
 one good fountain up there among the trees where 
 Chie had gone. Our disappointment, however, 
 was great to find the source almost exhausted, 
 there being hardly water enough for the men to 
 drink. 
 
 While we sat beside the spring Chie and the 
 stranger joined the party. The latter ate some 
 crackers, drank some water, and smoked a pipe in 
 silence, then turning toward Chie he said: "I 
 must go." He immediately started off and ran 
 farther up the mountain. After a moment s delay 
 Ponce ran after him without remark. 
 
 Cochise s scout, for such was the stranger, very 
 soon returned. He was mounted on an Indian 
 pony with a child behind him, while his obedient 
 spouse followed on foot. Ponce, now coming from 
 another direction, led in a small company of ill- 
 dressed, dirty-looking Indians, some mounted, and 
 the rest leading their ponies. Evidently the spring 
 water had not been wasted in ablutions. An old 
 woman, wrinkled and haggard, was introduced to 
 me as one of the wives of Cochise. We had come 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 195 
 
 upon an outpost of the famous chief, but his 
 stronghold was yet more than a hundred miles dis 
 tant. Soon the ponies of sixty Indians and our 
 own horses and mules were feeding together along 
 the foothills of the range, while the Indians and 
 white men were eating bread and drinking water 
 from the same fountain. Luckily for the animals, 
 before night another spring was discovered, where 
 a few at a time were permitted to get a good drink. 
 The next morning Cochise s scout told me 
 frankly that I must diminish my party or never 
 see his master. I then turned off three more men 
 to meet the ambulance at Camp Bowie and remain 
 there till called for. Camp Bowie was a garrison 
 post in Apache Pas s, a few miles south of the In 
 dian trail which we were following. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SCOUTING FOR THE APACHE CHIEF, COCHISE ENTERING 
 
 HIS MOUNTAIN STRONGHOLD FIRST NIGHT 
 
 IN A WILD CAMP. 
 
 Setting Out to Find Cochise "General, Aren t You Doing Wrong?" 
 
 Marching Under a Cloudless Sky A Camp Without Water 
 An Off er of Whisky in Place of Food A Midnight March An 
 Ideal Camp Little Savage Guides In an Apache Camp No 
 Word from Cochise " Will it be Peace?" "He is Coming!" 
 
 The Apaches Prepare to Receive their Chief Arrival of Co 
 chise " This is the Man " His Appearance I am Asked to 
 Explain the Object of my Visit A Long and Interesting Inter 
 view Some Startling Questions A Midnight Scare My Re 
 turn Through a Dangerous Country. 
 
 JEFFOBDS, Sladen, myself, and the two In 
 dians went over the mountain and across the 
 valleys in a southwesterly direction. While 
 ascending the Chiricahua range along a blind trail, 
 Sladen rode to my side and said : General, aren t 
 you doing wrong ? Don t you think you are taking 
 too much risk? Eight could have made some re 
 sistance, but now there are only five of us. " 
 
 66 The risk is indeed great," I replied, " but I 
 have thought the matter over carefully and am 
 determined to proceed." 
 
 For some time we rode along in silence. I was 
 troubled and anxious about Sladen. At first I 
 meditated sending him back, but I knew that the 
 bare mention of it would make him indignant. 
 But it is one thing to lay one s self on the altar of 
 sacrifice, quite another to put there a faithful 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 197 
 
 friend. Suddenly I turned to Sladen and looked 
 him in the face and said aloud : " Captain, whoso 
 ever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever 
 will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save 
 it." Without another word Sladen dropped back 
 upon the trail and the danger was never again re 
 ferred to between us. 
 
 That first day s ride of forty miles over the 
 Chiricahua range was tedious indeed. The atmos 
 phere was dry, the sun scorching, and there was 
 no water in any of the usual places. The animals 
 suffered even more than the men from increasing 
 thirst. Ponce and Chie had told us of a beautiful 
 spring on the western slope of the mountain we 
 were .crossing. About sunset Chie, who had ridden 
 off the route, came back shaking his head: "No 
 agua!" Not one drop all dry. We still pushed 
 on, fearing and hoping, while we examined every 
 semblance of relief in the ravines and deep gulches. 
 Just as the twilight was fading into night we dis 
 covered some high, perpendicular rocks. When 
 we came closer the welcome sound of water trick 
 ling down over their surface caught our ears. 
 Imagine the joy of our little party! The animals 
 were quickly there at a well-filled basin hollowed 
 out in the bottom ledge. How glad we were to 
 drink at that fountain and, like Rebecca, let the 
 animals drink also! 
 
 Under the same cloudless sky the next day we 
 toiled on for thirty miles across the San Simon 
 valley, in Arizona. It was a broad, dry, sage 
 brush stretch of country which reaches the foot 
 hills of the Dragoon Mountains. These, all that 
 
198 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 day, ragged, gray, and lofty, intercepted the west 
 ern view. At last, weary enough, we struck the 
 road at Rodgers ranch, twenty-five miles west 
 from Camp Bowie. The Bowie garrison had sent 
 out a small guard to protect this stage station. 
 Rodgers and the soldiers were much surprised as 
 we approached them from the desert. I said to 
 Mr. Rodgers, who ran out to meet us: " Can you 
 give us something to eat? " 
 
 " No, no," he answered, " but I have some 
 whisky to drink." 
 
 " But we don t want whisky! ! 
 
 i Why not ? " he asked in astonishment, " it is 
 good whisky! : 
 
 The little guard of enlisted men kindly shared 
 their bread and bacon with us and fetched excellent 
 water from the sulphur springs the salty im 
 pregnation was very slight. Here we staid, a 
 group mysterious to the guard, till the twilight had 
 disappeared and the upper dome was never before 
 more thickly studded with stars. Rodgers had 
 three or four large dogs, who were particularly 
 hostile to Indians. They were unwilling to make 
 any allowance for Ponce and Chie. As I lay down 
 upon a bear skin I asked Chie to come and sleep 
 with me. He approached, and looking at the bear 
 skin, said: " Shosh no bucno!" " Sliosli" was 
 the Apache word for bear. Chie was more afraid 
 of the dead bear s skin than he w r as of the living 
 dogs, but I put away the bear skin and used only 
 our overcoats, so then he came and was protected 
 from both dangers. 
 
 Shortly after midnight we saddled up in si- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 199 
 
 lence and quietly moved away, going southeasterly 
 toward the outer slopes. The grass was tall and 
 nutritious, but there was no water. Coming to a 
 level space Jeffords had us halt and said: " Let 
 us make a dry camp." We did so, resting till day 
 light, and then without stopping to eat we began 
 to thread a cross-canyon of the lofty range, going 
 on steadily till we came to the western slope. The 
 sound of a stream flowing from the mountain gave 
 us fresh delight. In a few minutes we were upon 
 its banks. It came from an abundant spring which 
 produced a rivulet of clear, cool, most acceptable 
 water. Near at hand, beneath a scraggy oak with 
 branches low, broad, and thick, we made our 
 bivouac, while the animals, quickly freed from 
 their loads, ran to the stream and drank their fill, 
 after which they busied themselves for hours feed 
 ing upon the sweet grass around them. 
 
 North of the halting-place was the rough gap 
 which, Jeffords said, led to Cochise s ordinary 
 abode. Chie had hardly placed his saddle and 
 blanket under the tree when, without a word, he 
 bounded over the rocks and crags, ever upward in 
 the direction of that gap, till lost to view. All the 
 day, under Ponce s direction, we were setting five 
 fires in circular order. This meant peace and five 
 comers. We watched in vain for a responsive 
 smoke. There was not even the footfall of a horse 
 to indicate the nearness of Cochise or any of his 
 clan. Chie had disappeared behind the high rocks, 
 and probably gone into the deep canyon beyond, 
 and as yet there was no sign from him when we 
 gathered around the canvas for supper. Ponce, 
 
200 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 apparently not anxious, was stolid. We had 
 written our letters and notebooks and spent the 
 long day trying to while away the time as patiently 
 as possible. 
 
 Just as w r e finished eating supper we beheld two 
 Indian boys of perhaps ten and fourteen years 
 approaching from the west. Both were on one 
 horse. As they drew near we saw that the horse 
 was without saddle or blanket, and for bridle they 
 had a small rope tied to his under jaw, with the 
 loop thrown over his neck. Coming near, the lads 
 dismounted, looked us over carefully, scarcely 
 speaking, and then sitting on the ground regaled 
 themselves with the crackers and coffee which we 
 offered. The repast finished, the larger of them 
 pointed toward the gap, and told Ponce that Chie 
 had come to their lodges and wanted us all to come 
 in and join him. 
 
 In a trice we understood the message. We 
 caught up our blankets and supplies, saddled our 
 mules and horses, and hastened away. The boys 
 acted as our guides, keeping our party ahead of 
 them along the trail. One of them took a great 
 fancy to Captain Sladen. He examined his 
 clothes, admired his pistol and belt, and minutely 
 inspected his horse and equipments. The good- 
 natured little savage doubtless coveted those lux 
 uries, yet he showed no enviousness either in look 
 or act. 
 
 Winding around the foothills to the left we 
 found a crooked stream flowing westward from 
 the gap. By a moderate ascent we followed that 
 up through the western pass into the heart of the 
 
poni,r-oi*N. 
 
 RED CLOUD S BUCKSKIN WAR SHIRT, ORNAMENTED WITH HUMAN 
 SCALPS AND BEADS,- BEADED LEGGINGS AND MOCCASINS. 
 
 for L/escnptlon scr pa/je 15 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 203 
 
 range. The sun had set, but there was still suf 
 ficient light to get glimpses of our environment. 
 A small band of Apaches mostly women and 
 children were sitting and waiting under some 
 trees. Chie, as well as a sub-chief, had risen to 
 meet us, and the children were flocking around. 
 Almost encircling the party were the walls of an 
 enclosing natural fortification; the bottom was a 
 rolling plat of thirty or forty acres of grass land ; 
 a ceniga or small swamp near the middle was fed 
 by abundant springs; out of this flowed the clear 
 creek which we had ascended; stunted trees were 
 growing here and there. This plat was protected 
 on the north and south by sandstone cliffs, rough 
 and irregular, rising in places to two hundred feet ; 
 there was considerable debris at their base. The 
 whole space was shut in except where the narrow 
 canyon afforded entrance or exit. It was a veri 
 table cul de sac. 
 
 We made our bivouac near the creek under a 
 tree, amid a throng of those wild people who, in the 
 outset, appeared curious and happy, not hostile. 
 That evening Tygee, a sub-chief, paid us a visit, 
 courteous enough, it is true, but he himself was 
 gloomy and reserved, and had no word from Co- 
 chise. Even Ponce and Chie were troubled and 
 silent. 
 
 " Will it be peace? " I asked. 
 
 Ponce shook his head and answered demurely : 
 " Quien sale?" i. e., " Who knows? " 
 
 When I had spread out my blanket and placed 
 my saddle for a pillow, and was lying down for 
 much-needed rest, the children came and nestled 
 
204 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 at my feet, laying their little heads upon my 
 blanket. I turned to Captain Sladen and said: 
 " This does not mean war "; so without particular 
 apprehension I slept comfortably till morning. 
 The Apache band had made their bivouac under 
 the small trees at a distance near the debris of the 
 great walls. 
 
 After our breakfast the following day we began 
 to be uncertain as to our next step. I asked: 
 " What shall we do now, Jeffords? " 
 
 " Pack up as if we could go where we please," 
 he replied. Therefore, to show our independence, 
 not very real, we were packing up and making 
 ready, when suddenly the sound of many voices 
 arose and echoed through the canyon. Ponce said : 
 " It is he; he is coming! r 
 
 Immediately preparations were made by the 
 Indians to receive their chief. The circle of sitters 
 was enlarged on the higher bank of the creek, and 
 a folded blanket placed for his seat. 
 
 First there appeared in advance, riding rapidly 
 down the ravine, a single horseman, short, thick 
 set, and much painted with stripes of black and 
 vermillion. He had a fierce look and carried a long 
 lance in his hand. He dismounted and embraced 
 Jeffords, while I asked: " Is that the man? r 
 
 "No," said Jeffords, "this is Juan, his 
 brother." The Indians never say Cochise, but in 
 Apache " Shi-ca-she," and in Spanish " Mi Her- 
 mano," meaning my brother. 
 
 We had hardly been made acquainted with the 
 warlike Juan, who was diligently inspecting our 
 personal possessions, when a mounted party ap- 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 205 
 
 peared. It consisted of a fine-looking horseman, 
 a younger Indian, and two women. The party 
 proved to be the old Chief Cochise, his son Natchez, 
 his sister, and his young wife. His elder son was 
 absent. 
 
 Having ridden up to us Cochise dismounted 
 and saluted Jeffords in Spanish as an old friend. 
 He then turned to me as Jeffords was saying: 
 " This is the man." The chief was fully six feet 
 in height, well-proportioned, with large eyes; his 
 face \vas slightly colored with vermilion, hair 
 straight and black, with a few silver threads. He 
 warmly grasped my hand and said pleasantly: 
 " Buenos dias, Senor! 
 
 Having returned his salute I began to study his 
 face. His countenance was pleasant, and made 
 me feel how strange it is that such a man can be a 
 notorious robber and cold-blooded murderer. In 
 after interviews I observed that upon ordinary 
 occasions he showed courtesy and simplicity, but, 
 as the Chiricahua chief, when in council or 
 mounted, leading his tribe, if Apache wrongs were 
 touched upon, he was terribly severe in aspect. 
 
 As soon as Cochise s sister met Ponce he said 
 something evidently very afflicting to her, for she 
 sat down, and for some minutes uttered a loud and 
 continuous Indian wail. Everybody stood still till 
 she had finished, then Cochise and I passed up to 
 where the blanket was placed and took seats. Al 
 ready the Indians men, women, and children - 
 had arranged themselves about us in a large semi 
 circle, giving due form and interest to the proceed 
 ings. Cochise now turned to Ponce and Chie, who 
 
 13 
 
206 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 were seated upon his right, and proceeded to gather 
 from them what he could of my history and de 
 signs. Both Ponce and Chie were now my strong 
 friends and their story evidently created a favor 
 able impression. 
 
 Next Cochise turned to me and said something 
 in Apache. Jeffords gave the substance in Eng 
 lish: " Will the General explain the object of his 
 visit?" 
 
 " The President sent me to make peace between 
 you and the white people." 
 
 " Nobody wants peace more than I do," he re 
 plied. 
 
 " Then," I answered, " as I have full power we 
 can make peace. 
 
 He then continued: " I have done no mischief 
 
 since I came from Canada Alamosa, but I am poor, 
 
 my horses poor and few. I might have brought 
 
 in more by raiding the Tucson road, but I did not 
 
 doit." 
 
 Cochise, however, acknowledged later that he 
 had recently sent out twelve captains in different 
 directions in Mexico and Arizona to get their liv 
 ing. He next recited at some length his own story 
 of the Apache wrongs. 
 
 I answered that I knew of these things; that 
 there were two parties in the United States one 
 friendly to the Indians, and the other hostile to 
 them ; that the friends of the Indians were now in 
 power, with General Grant at the head. I then 
 broached my plan of making, on the Rio Grande, a 
 common reservation for the different bands of 
 Apaches, including his own. 
 
AMONG OTJR HOSTILE INDIANS 207 
 
 66 1 have been there," Cochise replied, " and I 
 like the country. Rather than not have peace I 
 will go and take such of my people as I can, but 
 that move will break up my tribe. Then he asked 
 suddenly: "Why not give me Apache Pass ? 
 Give me that and I will protect all the roads. I 
 will see that nobody s property is taken by In 
 dians." As he said this his eyes flashed and he 
 lifted his chin proudly. 
 
 I answered : " Perhaps we could do that, but it 
 would be vastly to the interest of the Chiricahuas 
 to go to Alamosa. Five rivers are near there : the 
 Rio Grande, the Alamosa, the Negro, the Palomas, 
 and Puerco; in their valleys are fine planting 
 grounds and good grazing for thousands of cattle ; 
 plenty of mescal plants are there, and there is good 
 hunting in the mountains." 
 
 He quickly turned the subject. "How long, 
 General, will you stay? Will you wait for my 
 captains to come in and have a talk? : 
 
 These were startling questions, considering that 
 our lives were at his disposal, but I answered 
 promptly: "I came from Washington to meet 
 your people and make peace, and will stay as long 
 as necessary. 
 
 " It will take ten days," Cochise said. He ap 
 peared to be pleased at my answer and ordered his 
 messengers to the captains to get ready; then his 
 whole manner changed and he went into a com 
 plaining and sometimes fierce recital of the bloody 
 history of the Apaches. 
 
 " We were once a large people covering these 
 mountains ; we lived well ; we were at peace. One 
 
208 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 day my best friend was seized by an officer of the 
 white men and treacherously killed. . . . The 
 worst place of all is Apache Pass. There, five In 
 dians, one my brother, were murdered. Their 
 bodies were hung up and kept there till they were 
 skeletons. . . . Now Americans and Mexicans 
 kill an Apache on sight. I have retaliated with all 
 my might. My people have killed Americans and 
 Mexicans and taken their property. Their losses 
 have been greater than mine. I have killed ten 
 white men for every Indian slain, but I know that 
 the whites are many and the Indians are few. 
 Apaches are growing less and less every day. . . . 
 Why shut me up on a reservation ? We will make 
 peace. We will keep it faithfully. But let us go 
 around free as Americans do. Let us go wherever 
 we please. " 
 
 I answered that all this country did not prop 
 erly belong to the Indians; that all God s children 
 had an interest in it, and therefore to keep the 
 peace we must fix metes and bounds; that such a 
 peace as Cochise proposed would not last a week. 
 " Suppose, " I said, " some rough prospectors 
 should fire upon and kill a portion of your band, 
 or suppose some of your wild young men should 
 take the life of a citizen, the peace would then be 
 hopelessly broken." 
 
 After considerably more plaintive pleading he 
 said: "You Americans began the fight." I re 
 plied, as before : "I know that. A large number 
 of your friends fully believe what you state and 
 they wish to see war, murder, and robbery cease." 
 
 He smiled and in a different tone added: " I 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 209 
 
 am glad you have come, but will not the soldiers 
 fire upon my Apaches as they come in ? To this 
 I answered that I would send Captain Sladen to 
 Camp Bowie to notify that garrison and to tele 
 graph to other posts. Cochise shook his head 
 doubtfully : 
 
 ."The soldiers may not obey Captain Sladen. 
 They will obey you. I want you to go. Jeffords 
 and Captain Sladen can stay here." 
 
 Looking around upon the people with a smile 
 he added : " Our young women will look after the 
 young captain." Thereupon shouting and laugh 
 ter, with clapping of hands, came from all the 
 women in response. I hardly think Sladen en 
 joyed the alternative, even though he had evidence 
 of such popularity. 
 
 I decided to go back over the Dragoon mountain 
 fifty miles or more to Camp Bowie, and therefore 
 asked for a guide. None of Cochise s people dared 
 to go. They answered the chief as he spoke to 
 them: "There is no peace yet. We might be 
 killed." At last Chie stepped forward and said: 
 " I will go, if Jeffords will give me his mule." 
 
 Then, the mule being given, Chie and I pre 
 pared to make the journey. We mounted and rode 
 westward to the mouth of the danyon. Our 
 friends, accompanied by Cochise and several In 
 dians, went with us that far. Stopping on high 
 ground and leaning against a large smooth-faced 
 stone we gazed around. Before us was a mag 
 nificent landscape. As Cochise raised his eyes and 
 took in the view he exclaimed: " Shi-cow ah! " t 
 i.e., "My home!" 
 
 *.? * 
 
210 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Chie and I set out together, moving northeast 
 and ascending the western slope of the Dragoon 
 range. We followed a faint trail till night ob 
 scured it; we then scrambled on as best we could 
 over ragged heights and through deep gulches. I 
 tore my coat in shreds, pricked my legs with thorns, 
 and withal made such poor headway that for a 
 time I was sure we should be obliged to remain on 
 that mountain all night, but the young Indian did 
 not falter. Occasionally he cried back to me: 
 " Camino no faieno/ i. e., Road not good. Then 
 he would stop and push out in another direction. 
 I leaned forward and hugged my mule s neck as he 
 ascended a height, pulled him up after me along 
 the sides where it was too steep to stand still, and 
 sometimes I slid down a deep ravine by holding his 
 tail and pushing him before me. My Spanish was 
 meager and Chie s no better. His only English 
 was " yes, sir," and " milky-way "; but " Camino 
 bueno/ oft repeated by Chie s cheery voice at last 
 brought me out upon the foothills, where each of 
 us showed his joy by whistling and singing. 
 
 Obtaining a lift in Rodgers lumber wagon over 
 the last twenty-five miles, we came in sight of 
 Camp Bowie when the sun was an hour high. We 
 passed through Apache Pass, where Chie s father, 
 Magnus Colorado, was slain. Here Chie lost his 
 usual cheerfulness and seemed in distress. Once 
 previously the young man had asked Jeffords: 
 " Why did the white men kill my father? " Jef 
 fords answered: " Because those were bad white 
 men. This answer doubtless kept him from hold 
 ing all white men responsible. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 211 
 
 On our approach to Bowie through the woods 
 the outpost men took us for Apaches and came near 
 firing at us, but my American voice, shrill enough 
 then, reassured them. 
 
 At Camp Bowie I found the son of my old gen 
 eral, Major S, S. Sumner, in command. His good 
 wife helped put my wardrobe in better condition. 
 After I had given all necessary orders I took those 
 of our party who had been detached with us and we 
 turned back and by sunset of that day were once 
 more at Rodgers ranch. 
 
 The next morning, after a much-needed rest, 
 we followed the Tucson road till we had passed the 
 Dragoon mountains, and then turned southward 
 by the way of Dragoon springs. Cochise and Cap 
 tain Sladen, from a high point fifteen miles south 
 of the springs, were eagerly watching for the first 
 sign of our coming. As we neared them they all 
 descended with joyous speed to meet us. The night 
 previous, the Apaches there in Cochise s strong 
 hold had had a great fright. Some rumor came 
 that soldiers were nearing them; they changed 
 their ground to a place of easier defense. " We 
 lay," said Sladen, "the rest of the night on the 
 sharp rocks of the mountain side/ Behind them 
 was a rough bridle path practicable only for lead 
 ing horses and mules up to the summit of the moun 
 tain. Instantly upon actual approach of soldiers 
 the women, children, and luggage would pass to 
 the height and be off, while the warriors could 
 easily destroy any small force that should rashly 
 undertake the ascent and the attack. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MY EXPERIENCES IN A WILD APACHE CAMP FAREWELL 
 TO COCHISE. 
 
 Getting Acquainted with Cochise A Dance of Welcome Becoming 
 Conduct of Indian Women Apache Mothers Inviting Cochise 
 to Dinner Some Ludicrous Table Manners Eating from my 
 Plate and Drinking from my Cup A Sudden and Startling Alarm 
 
 Cochise Becomes Intoxicated, Unruly, and Violent Disquieting 
 Rumors Managing Rough and Troublesome Customers A 
 Strange Ceremony and Weird Performance An Embarrassing 
 Offer A Chief Covets my Mules Offers to Exchange Two of 
 His Wives for Them Declining the Trade Without Giving Offense 
 
 Farewell to Cochise. 
 
 1WAS now to live with the Indians for some 
 time. The new camping ground to which Co 
 chise took us was north of the entrance to 
 his stronghold, well up on the foothills where 
 were clusters of oaks and several acres of grass 
 land. Six miles off stood a globular height, 
 springing three hundred feet from the plain, 
 with the San Pedro River at its foot. On this 
 hill, at the request of Cochise, Jeffords and 
 Sladen had planted a white flag. Sladen told 
 me how the Indian women and children clapped 
 their hands when they first saw this emblem of 
 peace. Jeffords had understood them when in one 
 compound word in Apache they cried: " The-flag- 
 of-peace-I-love ! r 
 
 A stunted oak, with broad branches, covered 
 my bivouac; thirty yards away was Cochise s. 
 His was made by a couple of boughs leaned against 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 213 
 
 a scrub oak which had grown near a high rock. A 
 place for sleeping was hollowed out in the earth 
 beneath. The furniture consisted of several buck 
 skins dressed with the hair on them, a few blankets 
 that had seen long service, some bows and arrows, 
 a rifle in prime order, and four sets of saddles and 
 bridles thrown together with as many sets of hide 
 horseshoes; also a number of knives, a small tin 
 vessel for coffee, a water bucket, and an olla or 
 earthen water- jar. Our provisions, consisting of 
 some fresh and some jerked venison, were hung on 
 a branch of the oak. Mescal plants were abundant, 
 and sundry esculent seeds whose names I could not 
 learn were lying in heaps close at hand. 
 
 Every night after my return Cochise sent his 
 sister, a woman of at least forty years of age, with 
 a few helpers, to guard our animals and protect 
 our supplies. The first evening, in the dim star 
 light, without a camp fire, the Indians gave us a 
 dance of welcome. They used a simple contra- 
 figure. The women stood in line and opposite to a 
 line of men. Two women then stepped forward, 
 keeping time to the rough music of a tom-tom, as 
 they moved toward one man. He followed them as 
 they retired. At given times the men crossed over 
 and all formed one line, the men and women facing 
 different ways; then going forward and back the 
 women faced about and the men followed suit, 
 without losing step; occasionally, at a word, all 
 moved in a circle. The drum was the ordinary 
 tom-tom made of buckskin stretched over an olla, 
 and the drumstick was a flexible rod. 
 
 When I was invited to dance I did so. As I 
 
214 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 passed into line an Indian woman held my left hand 
 and another my empty right sleeve, chatting and 
 laughing all the time, but I could not understand 
 what they said. After each dance the men were 
 expected to make a present to both women ; it was 
 the rule for every man. Any little thing ans\vered 
 the purpose, such as a penny or a pencil. One tall 
 packer by the name of Stone, who had come with 
 me from Bowie, delighted the Indians beyond 
 measure when he joined the dance, for he spoke 
 Apache a little and was full of fun. But one night 
 he had nothing in his pocket with which to pay the 
 tax. Ponce suggested: " You have two shirts, 
 give them one," and so he did. Ponce shouted in 
 Spanish: "A man who gives his last shirt is sure 
 to prosper! 
 
 The conduct of the women during our visit was 
 uniformly good. Most of them were industrious. 
 They tanned deer hides, did all the camp work, 
 attended to the cooking, and cared for the children. 
 As soon as I let them have some mania (cotton 
 cloth) they worked busily enough making new 
 garments. All had short skirts, with loose sacques 
 hanging over them, and wore moccasins orna 
 mented with beadwork. Nearly all wore strings of 
 beads around their necks. There was no wanton 
 ness, and not one woman in that entire camp bore 
 the dreadful mark given by Apaches for adultery, 
 which was the cutting off of a part of the nose. I 
 had seen one case of it in the first Apache party 
 we met. 
 
 I was careful to maintain the good footing I 
 had established with the children on that first night 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 215 
 
 when we were in Cochise s stronghold. The babies 
 were each bound to a board, the head usually shel 
 tered by basketwork. I saw mothers dip their 
 little ones in the clear cold stream and immediately 
 wrap them in numerous bands of cotton cloth and 
 fasten them to the boards, leaving the head and 
 feet free. A strap enabled the mother to swing the 
 little one upon her back, supporting it by the strap 
 against her forehead as she walked or ran. Until 
 they were twelve years old the boys seldom wore 
 any other clothing than the breech-cloth. A bit of 
 cracker or lump of sugar overcame the shyness of 
 the children. Day after day I noticed them hap 
 pily sporting upon the huge rocks in innocent 
 play. Boys and girls gathered around me when I 
 was writing and did their best to imitate the 
 "copy" that I wrote for them. Cochise s son 
 Natchez, a lad of fourteen, learned from me to 
 write his name. For a diversion they tried to 
 teach me the Apache language, laughing at my 
 queer pronunciation and at my evident dullness in 
 learning Indian speech. 
 
 The Apaches could go many hours without 
 food, but in times of plenty they had food always 
 ready. Whenever one of them was hungry he pro 
 ceeded to help himself, for there was no regular 
 meal time. I introduced the three-meal-a-day sys 
 tem, using in lieu of a table my canvas spread on 
 the ground. When the first meal was served I in 
 vited Cochise to sit at one end and beside me. After 
 the invited guests were located the sub-chiefs and 
 other Indians were asked to occupy the vacant 
 places. As soon as we were seated boys and men 
 
216 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 crowded into every interval. I had, while squat 
 ting on the ground in tailor-like position, an Indian 
 at my left elbow and a child astride of my right 
 leg, both eating from my plate and drinking from 
 my cup. The white man s table etiquette was not 
 closely followed. 
 
 Only once did we have anything like an alarm. 
 Cochise and several of his Indians had had a 
 tizwin spree. They made the liquor from the 
 mescal plant. It was not very strong, but they 
 kept pouring it down until the inevitable result 
 followed they became much excited. Suddenly 
 I heard sharp screams from Cochise s wife and 
 sister, and I saw them fleeing in terror from his 
 bivouac. He was striking and scolding them, and 
 his voice was loud and harsh. With some trepida 
 tion I said to Jeffords : What shall we do now ? 
 
 " Oh, General, sit down! sit down! " replied 
 Jeffords. 
 
 I did so, while Jeffords ran to Cochise and plac 
 ing himself beside him managed to entertain him. 
 Crazy drunk as the man was at first, he soon be 
 came more quiet, and in a short time the extreme 
 violence of intoxication had passed. Indians when 
 sober may be managed, but with Indians drunk no 
 one can predict the consequences. 
 
 The first Apache captain to come into camp 
 was Nyle-shie-zie, a man over thirty, Cochise s 
 brother-in-law. He brought a rumor that soldiers, 
 in spite of my orders, had been sent against the 
 Chiricahuas. The whole camp seemed to be run 
 ning to me, and all were frightened. The scare was 
 caused by Indians getting a distant glimpse of 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 219 
 
 Captain Sladen, and Jake May, our interpreter, 
 who were returning from a food and mail trip to 
 Bowie. This incident, like that of the night camp- 
 moving, showed in what constant apprehension 
 these Indians lived. 
 
 Other Apaches continued to come in until 
 nearly all were in camp. Many of the newcomers 
 were rough and very troublesome, and an adjust 
 ment of all vexed questions was hard to bring 
 about. I was forced to abandon the Alamosa 
 scheme, and to give them, as Cochise had suggested, 
 a reservation embracing a part of the Chiricahua 
 mountains and of the valley adjoining on the west, 
 which included the Big Sulphur Spring and 
 Kodgers ranch. 
 
 The evening after the council a strange cere 
 mony for consulting the spirits was observed by 
 the Indians. It took place on a separate plateau 
 near my bivouac. I was not to be present at the 
 beginning of the performance. I could, however, 
 hear the muffled sound of voices of a multitude of 
 women apparently imitating the low moaning of 
 the wind. Then all men and women sang with 
 ever increasing volume of sound, and the women s 
 voices rose higher and higher. It was a wild, weird 
 performance. 
 
 In due time the roughest-appearing Apache 
 that I had ever seen, tall and muscular, his long 
 hair hanging in braids down his back, ran toward 
 me. His manner was not as fierce as his appear 
 ance would indicate, for he now spoke gently and 
 invited me and all our white men to join the band 
 on the plateau. Arriving there we sat outside the 
 
220 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 women s circle, the male Indians being seated 
 within it. As soon as the singing ceased the men 
 kept on talking, but without rising. An authorita 
 tive voice now silenced all the others. It was Co- 
 chise speaking in a mournful recitative. More 
 than once I heard him use Jeffords sobriquet, 
 " Stag-li-to/ meaning Eedbeard. Our whole case 
 was evidently being discussed at the meeting. 
 Those were solemn moments to us, for we could not 
 determine on which side of the Styx their super 
 stitions might land us. 
 
 Fortunately, the spirits were on our side. 
 Their answer to the Indian incantation was ren 
 dered through Cochise, who said: " Hereafter the 
 white man and the Indian are to drink of the same 
 water, eat of the same bread, and be at peace. I 
 felt that the object of my mission was now accom 
 plished. 
 
 The day following the spirits favorable declar 
 ation we all set out to meet, by appointment, the 
 officers from Camp Bowie. We were to assemble 
 at Dragoon Springs. During the journey I rode a 
 stout mule, carrying double; Cochise s Indian in 
 terpreter, with his supple arms encircling my 
 waist, was my companion. Cochise, with his face 
 freshly and hideously painted with vermilion up 
 to his hair, had a fierce and repellant aspect. The 
 wild yells of his mounted warriors seemed to excite 
 him almost as much as the tizwin had done. On 
 the way they made several wild charges at imagin 
 ary foes, and I could see how wagon trains of mules 
 could easily be frightened and stampeded almost 
 beyond recall. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 221 
 
 Arriving at Dragoon Springs Cochise located 
 his men with such skill that every one of them 
 could in two minutes have been safely under the 
 cover of a ravine, and in three minutes more have 
 escaped behind a protecting hill, and so have passed 
 to the mountains without the least hindrance. 
 
 Cochise now said to Jeffords: " I know your 
 party and I trust you, but those people from 
 Apache Pass (Camp Bowie) I do not know. How 
 long have you known them? " 
 
 " I never saw them/ said Jeffords. That was 
 all the conversation that occurred between the In 
 dians and ourselves before our arrival and their 
 quick formation near the Dragoon Springs. 
 
 Major Sumner, with several officers and a few 
 civilians, came out to meet us. We immediately 
 entered into a council with the Indians which 
 lasted four hours. It was substantially a repeti 
 tion of those which I have already described. The 
 metes and bounds of the reservation were fixed, 
 the agency at Sulphur Springs established, and 
 Jeffords was appointed as the agent of the Indian 
 department. It was arranged that all Apaches 
 when off from a road were to show a white flag, 
 and all on a road were to meet people, as white 
 men do, without any manifestation of fear. 
 
 One day while in Cochise s camp I noticed a 
 beautiful rifle, a breech-loader that had been the 
 property of Lieutenant Stewart whom the Indians 
 had killed in battle. As I was thoughtfully look 
 ing it over, the old chief, who w r as intently watch 
 ing my face, suddenly said: "No trieste, Gen 
 eral! " I was thinking of the young officer s sud- 
 
222 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 den death and how he was mourned at home. 
 Cochise interpreted my thought and said in Span 
 ish: " You know, General, that we do things in 
 war that we do not do in peace. It was hard to 
 comply with the old chief s admonition and not 
 keep a sad countenance, but I did my best and told 
 him that as I had been in war myself for many 
 years I knew that what he said was true, but I 
 longed for the time to come when all people would 
 make peace and there would be no more war. 
 
 Cochise had said in the spirit council to his 
 fellow Indians: " Hereafter the white man and 
 the Indian are to drink of the same water and eat 
 of the same bread." Soon afterward one of his 
 wildest captains came to me with the interpreter 
 and tried to buy my four magnificent mules. After 
 offering me everything of value which he pos 
 sessed, and receiving my answer, ofttimes re 
 peated: " I cannot sell them; they are not mine; 
 they belong to the United States government, ? he 
 went away with an incredulous look that plainly 
 showed he did not quite believe what I said. Had 
 I not declared in council that General Grant had 
 given me all necessary power to make peace with 
 the Indians ? Was not the power to give him those 
 four handsome mules necessarily included? 
 
 After a time he returned with the same inter 
 preter and two young Indian women. They were 
 dressed in new mania, their hair was neatly 
 combed, beads hung around their necks, and the 
 moccasins which met their pretty dresses were 
 fresh and clean. I said to myself as they ap 
 proached: "These are very presentable girls." 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 223 
 
 They smiled when they looked in my face as if they 
 had interpreted my thought. 
 
 Now judge of my surprise when the young 
 brave, looking at them and then at me, said through 
 the interpreter : 
 
 " General Howard, I will give you these two 
 girls for those four mules. They are my two wives, 
 and I shall be glad to let you have them for your 
 wives if you will let me have the four mules. " 
 
 I stammered out: " Why, I am married al 
 ready." 
 
 The girls then said something to the interpreter 
 and smiled sweetly upon me while he said : i The 
 women say that will make no difference. They 
 don t mind your having a wife already; they will 
 do everything they can to please you and will go 
 anywhere with you." 
 
 This flattering answer puzzled me more than I 
 can explain, but I remembered an incident that 
 had occurred the night before, and of which I had 
 been told. One of our packers had approached the 
 sister of Cochise during her watch over my camp 
 property a duty which Cochise had required of 
 her, and made to her an improper proposal. She 
 answered him indignantly: " Sir, that is not the 
 custom of our people ! The packer could speak 
 their language, and their conversation was in the 
 Apache tongue. 
 
 I thought that as an experiment I would try the 
 same phrase, if the interpreter could add a little to 
 it and translate it into Apache, thus: " It is not 
 the custom of our people for a man to have more 
 than one wife." 
 
 14 
 
224 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 As soon as this was translated the young women 
 turned away and went back to their husband s 
 lodging-place, apparently satisfied with my re 
 joinder. 
 
 Just as I was leaving for home via San Fran 
 cisco Cochise looked at me a moment, then stepping 
 forward and putting his arms around me, said in 
 plain English : Good-bye ! Thus we separated. 
 
 On Monday evening we were in Tucson. Here 
 a lively opposition was shown to what I had done. 
 The people and the local newspapers declared that 
 I had protected Cochise against deserved punish 
 ment. Nobody believed that he would keep the 
 peace beyond the ensuing winter months. Still, in 
 spite of the clamor, the citizens gave those Indians 
 a fair chance to keep their word. 
 
 Six years after the above events a letter from 
 an Indian inspector, who had been among these 
 Apaches to learn their condition and needs, said 
 that they told him I had made a good peace, add 
 ing: " General Howard placed the stone on the 
 mesa and told us that as long as that stone should 
 last so long would the peace continue. The stone 
 still lies on the mesa and we are still at peace." 
 
 Cochise kept his promise while he lived, and 
 his eldest son preserved the peace until his death. 
 On a visit to Washington in 1876 this. son was at 
 tacked with a fever which resulted fatally. I 
 happened to be in that city at the time and attended 
 his funeral. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the entire tribe kept faith 
 as long as our government did, but at last, on 
 recommendation of a new agent, they were taken 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 225 
 
 by force and put with the San Carlos Indians. 
 The consequence was that a part of them went off 
 under the notorious Geronimo, and among them 
 was the boy Natchez, Cochise s son. An Indian 
 \var of the worst sort followed. 
 
 Military operations in 1887, in which Generals 
 Crook and Miles participated, finally captured a 
 remnant of this band, including Natchez. They 
 were sent as prisoners to Florida and taken thence 
 to Mount Vernon barracks, Alabama, and were 
 kept at one of my posts for six years, the last 
 years of my active service in the army. 
 
 On my visits of inspection they always exhibited 
 confidence and great affection. Prom them were 
 formed two Indian companies that did themselves 
 credit while we were permitted to have Indian 
 troops. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ASSIGNED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE COLUMBIA, EM 
 BRACING ALL THE NORTHWEST THE MODOCS 
 AND THE MODOC WAR. 
 
 An Arduous Task Ordered to Report to General W. T. Sherman 
 Assigned to the Department of the Columbia A Field Embracing 
 Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska My Arrival at Port 
 land, Oregon The Modocs and their Chief, " Captain Jack " 
 Causes that Led to the Modoc War Old Hostilities Revived 
 Attempting to Arrest the Leaders The Modoc Strongholds in 
 the Lava Beds Massacre of General Canby and of Dr. Thomas 
 Defeat and Capture of the Modocs " Scar-faced Charlie " 
 End of the Modoc Campaign. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after the close of the Civil War 
 I was engaged for nine years in matters per 
 taining to freedmen and refugees; the latter 
 were whites disturbed by the operations of war in 
 the regions between the Union and the Confed 
 erate armies. My work embraced the payment of 
 bounties and claims, particularly the back-pay of 
 soldiers. This period extended from the 12th of 
 May, 1865, to August, 1874, having, as we have 
 seen, an interruption of about one year, which was 
 devoted to the settlement of Indian difficulties in 
 Arizona and New Mexico. Of this period all that 
 concerned the freedmen and refugees, the colored 
 soldiers and the white population, has been treated 
 of by me in a separate volume entitled the " Period 
 of Eeconstruction. " 
 
 The famous bureau of which I had charge be 
 gan with an extension to all the functions of gov- 
 

 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 227 
 
 eminent, and touched every subject where the 
 welfare of the people, without distinction of race, 
 was involved. As it proceeded it was able to throw 
 off one function after another until during the last 
 three years it devoted itself to little else than the 
 development and regulation of the schools under 
 its charge, and the payment of bounties and back 
 pay to colored soldiers. When at last the bureau 
 was closed all payments devolved directly upon 
 the Adjutant-General s Department. 
 
 Being relieved from this duty, I reported back 
 to General W. T. Sherman, then commanding the 
 army. I endeavored to exercise some choice as to 
 a position, thinking that my rank and previous 
 hard service entitled me to express a preference. 
 But Sherman wrote me that after so much duty at 
 Washington which was regarded by officers of 
 the army as easy and desirable I must not pre 
 sume to pick and choose my department. Really, 
 the bureau labor was the most onerous of any 
 ever imposed upon me. Fortunately, however, he 
 sent me to the farthest corner of the Republic, 
 namely, to the Department of the Columbia, with 
 headquarters at Portland, Oregon, a department 
 that embraced Oregon, Washington, a large part 
 of Idaho, and Alaska. 
 
 Arriving at Portland the 25th of August, I 
 assumed command September 1st, relieving Jef 
 ferson C. Davis, who from a major-general on re 
 duction of the army had become colonel of the 
 Twenty-third Infantry. 
 
 Davis was hurt at being displaced after the 
 distinguished and loyal service he had rendered, 
 
228 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 especially in the Modoc campaign, which had then 
 just ended. The Modocs were located in the south 
 ern part of my department, and with them I had 
 very little to do except to send a remnant of them, 
 escorted by my aide-de-camp and a few soldiers, 
 to the Indian Territory. 
 
 The treachery of " Captain Jack," the Modoc 
 chief, and his followers, the massacre of General 
 Canby and his companions, the prolonged strife 
 which a few Indians had waged against our many 
 troops, the efficient work of General Davis in 
 grandly closing up the campaign, executing Captain 
 Jack and a few guilty leaders by hanging, all this 
 was over, and peace, for a time, reigned throughout 
 the immense territory where the troops in Alaska 
 and those in Idaho were more than a thousand 
 miles apart. Davis and I, though he was much 
 disappointed, had no personal feeling, for he grace 
 fully yielded his command and went back to the 
 sole charge of his regiment. 
 
 I had the opportunity more than once to visit 
 Fort Klamath and go over the rough lands occu 
 pied by the Modocs, and to observe many of those 
 that remained after the removal of the tribe. 
 
 There were in the Modoc country three general 
 groupings of Indians. In eastern Oregon, north 
 and south of the line which separates Oregon from 
 California, the country was largely inhabited by 
 the Klamaths. East of the Klamaths and west of 
 the Cascade range of mountains, over a similar 
 extent of territory, were the Modocs and a tribe 
 known as the Snakes. The latter were not the 
 same as the so-called Snakes of the interior. These 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 229 
 
 tribes were at war with each other long before 
 white men came to share their possessions and 
 little by little to displace them. 
 
 As early as 1865 a sufficient number of Indians 
 from these three tribes were brought together for 
 a council. Those in conference, assuming to repre 
 sent all the Indians (as they did not and could 
 not), made a bargain with the United States. Our 
 people gave them a reasonably large reservation, 
 and procured as a quid pro quo from the Indians 
 from fifteen to twenty thousand square miles of the 
 rough land of that region. For this an appropria 
 tion of seventeen thousand dollars was to be made. 
 At no time did the government agent succeed in 
 gathering about his agency even a majority of the 
 Modocs. A part of the tribe, who had suffered at 
 one time a terrible massacre at the hands of white 
 men, were hostile to going upon any reservation, 
 and in fact were hostile to the white men them 
 selves, and to all Indians that had traded lands for 
 such a paltry compensation. 
 
 The Modocs original location was in the rough 
 est sort of woodland and pasturage, among the 
 Lava Beds, a wild region in northern California 
 and southern Oregon, near Tule Lake. It seems 
 strange that anybody should have desired to take 
 from them their old habitations, which occupied 
 about forty square miles of as dreary and unin 
 viting a region as men could inhabit and live upon. 
 Probably it was the hope of those who were pros 
 pecting for mines to find some favorable indica 
 tions among the volcanic and basaltic heaps of 
 stone and lava which strew the open fields for miles 
 
230 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 and miles north and east of the lake a hope that 
 always promotes a covetous disposition. 
 
 After some of the Modocs had made a trial of 
 life upon a Klamath reservation difficulties arose, 
 old hostilities were revived, the government s 
 promises were unfulfilled, and the pledged money 
 long delayed, so that suddenly every Modoc rushed 
 away and all went back to their former desolate 
 homes. A new agent made requisition for the 
 troops at Fort Klamath to go out and arrest the 
 leaders and bring back the Indians. Against this 
 the Indians protested, Captain Jack being their 
 spokesman. He begged for peace and peace meas 
 ures, but declared that the Indians would not yield 
 to force. Of course the troops persevered and 
 bloodshed followed. Then the Indian captain led 
 his people to the stronghold of the Lava Beds, and 
 stayed there fighting our troops till forty soldiers 
 or more had been killed and wounded. On the way 
 to the Lava Beds, passing a white settlement, white 
 men and boys were slain by the Modocs, but for 
 once the white women and younger children were 
 spared. 
 
 At no time did Captain Jack s soldiers exceed 
 a hundred warriors, yet for months they held an 
 army six times their number at bay. Among their 
 last acts was the massacre of General Canby and 
 of Dr. Thomas, an Indian commissioner, effected 
 by treachery. A few weeks passed and these In 
 dians were conquered. Captain Jack and three 
 others were tried for murder by a military com 
 mission, found guilty, and a few weeks later were 
 executed at Fort Klamath. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 231 
 
 My aide-de-camp took charge of about a hun 
 dred of those who were banished and ordered to the 
 Indian Territory. He handcuffed several of the 
 men who had been in the fights, and for a while 
 kept these irons upon them as they journeyed by rail 
 to the east, but their disposition was so evidently 
 good, and they were so thoroughly obedient, that 
 he ventured to remove their uncouth bracelets. 
 After that all the Indians of his party showed 
 themselves grateful for his kindness and helped 
 him in every possible way to make the journey 
 agreeable to him as well as to themselves. 
 
 One strong reason why the Modocs struggled 
 so hard to remain near Tule Lake was what has 
 been recorded as their special superstition, " To 
 live, die, and be buried where they were born." 
 One of their favorite leaders, usually called 
 " Curley-headed Jack," when he was about to be 
 taken to Fort Klamath by the soldiers shot himself 
 with a pistol and died in the arms of his mother. 
 Though the other Indians of his party felt the same 
 repugnance to leaving their territory and mourned 
 deeply for him, yet they did not go so far as to take 
 their lives. 
 
 It was the custom to bury with a deceased 
 Modoc whatever belonged to him and could be so 
 disposed of, such as clothing, ornaments, and at 
 times even coin. They also put into the grave some 
 kind of food to sustain him on his journey to the 
 Happy Hunting Grounds. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THREATENED HOSTILITIES A TRIBE THAT CAUSED TERROR 
 TO THE WHITE PEOPLE OF THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 Twenty-five Distinct Tribes of Indians in my New Field The Nez 
 Percys Their Dress and Appearance Decoration of Their Horses 
 
 Fondness for Bright Colors and Picturesque Attires Fanciful 
 Dress of the Children The Famous Nez Perce" Chief Joseph 
 An Indian Feud -Chief White Bird and His Band Indian 
 * Dreamers " and " Tooats " A Lazy Interpreter A Message 
 from Chief Joseph A Dignified Procession A Ceremonious Call 
 
 Clinging to Old Haunts "We Want Nothing from You" 
 Efforts to Avert the War. 
 
 WITHIN my northwestern military juris 
 diction I soon found that I had twenty- 
 five distinct tribes of Indians. They were 
 under the care of nine agencies, five of which com 
 bined several tribes in their charge. Each of the 
 remaining four had charge of a separate tribe, as 
 f ollows : The Simcoe Indians, under Mr. Wilbur, 
 were north of the Columbia River and just east of 
 the Coast Range of mountains ; the Warm Spring 
 tribe, under Captain Smith, was far south of the 
 Columbia and amid the foothills of the same range ; 
 the Nez Perces, under J. B. Monteith, were above 
 Lewiston, Idaho, and occupied a large country; 
 and the Skokomish bands, under Mr. Eels, were on 
 Puget Sound. Mr. Cornoyer, who had married a 
 Cayuse wife, managed the Umatilla agency, but 
 had various other tribes besides the Cayuses under 
 his care. General Mikoy, who achieved fame dur 
 ing the Civil War for almost reckless bravery, had 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 233 
 
 his headquarters at Olympia, and looked after 
 various tribes up and down the coast. 
 
 These Indians were particularly fond of orna 
 ment and display. I have often watched them at 
 Indian gatherings on feast and council days, and 
 noticed how careful the men were of their personal 
 appearance, and how painstakingly they decorated 
 the manes and tails of their horses with bright- 
 colored strips of cloth. The women were dressed 
 in the gayest clothes they could command for such 
 occasions. When passing in review the men and 
 women rode separately, and all intoned an Indian 
 song or chant that no doubt gave expression to their 
 feelings. 
 
 In illustrated newspapers the Nez Perces were 
 frequently shown in the old stereotyped manner 
 usually followed in portraying wild Indians. They 
 were represented as being mounted on sleek and 
 prancing chargers, naked above the waist, hair as 
 stiff and bristling as porcupine quills, long lances 
 poised high in air and ready to strike, and so on. 
 Neither in peace nor war do they so appear. In 
 these days the Nez Perce prefers the rifle and usu 
 ally he has the best. Those of them who remained 
 at peace during my stay in the Northwest dressed 
 like the white people as near as they could, though 
 their dress varied according to the degree of civil 
 ization to which any body of them had attained. 
 The men averaged about five feet eight inches in 
 height, and perhaps one hundred and forty pounds 
 in weight. They wore their hair cut short. They 
 looked, when on foot, like tho Spanish-speaking in 
 habitants of Arizona ; when mounted they sat upon 
 
234 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 their horses firmly and naturally and were more 
 graceful in their motions than the Mexicans or our 
 own frontiersmen. 
 
 The women wore their hair long enough to reach 
 down the neck, sometimes banged in front, and- 
 sometimes tied back with bits of ribbon. Their 
 skirts, even for young girls, were never short. 
 They had a fondness for bright shawls, and wore 
 them pulled over the head so that the face was half 
 hidden. At the Lapwai agency, on gala occasions, 
 I noticed an almost universal use of handkerchiefs 
 of bright colors, which seemed to take the place of 
 shawls. To the beholder the effect was picturesque 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Some families dressed their children as fanci 
 fully as whites do, but usually the little ones had 
 only such plain, cheap garments as the traders 
 furnished. When our people first met the Nez 
 Perces a century ago, they were then comfortably 
 clad in dressed deer-skin and furs, and took pains, 
 as our soldiers did, to keep the old white belt ever 
 white and new by the use of chalk. They are just 
 as painstaking today in their manners and dress. 
 
 In a rich valley called Imnaha I found two 
 young men Joseph and Ollicut. Their father, 
 who had not been long deceased, was called Joseph, 
 but usually in later years " Old Joseph." For a 
 while, when the famous missionary Mr. Spalding 
 held his mission and school on the Lapwai reserva 
 tion, Old Joseph and his family went there to get 
 the advantages offered by the mission. The boys 
 succeeded in obtaining a smattering of knowledge, 
 and the family was inclined to accept the condi- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 235 
 
 tions of civilization, including the use of the plow 
 and the hoe; but a feud sprung up between Old 
 Joseph and another hereditary chief, forcing the 
 old man to leave the Lapwai reservation and go 
 back to settle in Imnaha Valley, just over the 
 boundary in Oregon, there to occupy the Grande 
 Eonde country. Joseph had under him a large 
 band of followers and they owned many horses. 
 At Imnaha they found great abundance of grass 
 of the best sort (the bunch grass), and fertile 
 ground for their corn whenever their superstitious 
 inclinations would permit them to plant it. It was 
 declared by most of them that they could find 
 enough fruits to subsist upon, which grow of them 
 selves, without disturbing the soil to raise others. 
 
 Other bands had gone off to the east, to the 
 south, and to the west from Lapwai ; indeed many 
 of them had never come at all within the bound 
 aries of that well-chosen government reservation. 
 
 In 1876 and 1877 the Nez Perces were the cause 
 of a reign of terror among the white people, fol 
 lowed by great expense to the general government. 
 It is not difficult to trace the causes which led to 
 the subsequent disaster. The Nez Perces, before 
 Joseph s war, prided themselves upon never hav 
 ing shed white men s blood, and their steady pur 
 pose was to live at peace with them. They, min 
 gling with the Flatheads, had early heard about the 
 white men, and sent messengers to learn the truth 
 and the causes of our civilization. After the return 
 of these messengers, they had always welcomed our 
 people, whether coming as " Bostons "a term 
 they applied to white soldiers as English fur 
 
236 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 traders, or as missionaries. Mr. Spalding and Ms 
 saintly wife, always beloved and trusted by the In 
 dians, had succeeded in increasing their regard for 
 the white men of the east. 
 
 In 1855, when Governor Isaac Stevens made a 
 treaty with them, which was confirmed by the Sen 
 ate of the United States, he defined the boundaries 
 of a Nez Perce reservation. The immense territory 
 set apart for them was so extensive as to take in 
 Old Joseph and his people and all the other bands 
 which bore the name of Nez Perces. It embraced 
 an area half as large as the state of New York, a 
 diversified and rich country of rivers, valleys, 
 w r oodland, mountains, and mines of various de 
 scriptions. Even then one might have predicted 
 that the time would surely come when white men 
 would insist upon the reduction of those ample 
 limits. 
 
 The time was not long in coming. As soon as 
 Oregon was secured to our people a flood of immi 
 gration set in, and in due time encroachments were 
 made on Indian lands ; indeed, white settlers never 
 could be made to understand the reasons for treaties 
 with Indians, nor the justice of protecting them in 
 their reservations against the encroachments of the 
 whites. 
 
 Eight years after the first treaty, another bar 
 gain was made with a body of Nez Perce Indians 
 gathered in council. The new treaty left out Im- 
 naha, Wallowa, and all the Grande Eonde Valley, 
 now occupied by several thriving cities. True, a 
 majority of the Indians agreed to the new treaty, 
 but this caused a fatal division among the Nez 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 237 
 
 Perces, which eventually brought about dreadful 
 results. Two parties opposed each other from that 
 time on. Those within the reservation at Lapwai 
 were the " treaty Indians"; all the others were 
 known as the " non-treaty Indians." 
 
 Of the non-treaty chieftains White Bird had the 
 largest band. He dwelt in the Salmon Eiver Val 
 ley, and his followers occupied that valley and its 
 feeders. The White Bird Canyon was a favorite 
 gathering place for these wild Nez Perces, who 
 were rich in cattle and in horses. Between the 
 Salmon and the Snake Rivers, for the most part a 
 rough, mountainous fastness, dwelt another band 
 under a strange leader called " Too-hul-hul-sote. " 
 He was not a real chieftain as the Indians reckon 
 it, but a " Dreamer," named by the Nez Perces a 
 Tooat. 
 
 South of the Snake River, above the mouth of 
 the Grande Ronde, a river full of rocks, rapids, 
 and falls, comes in a famous stream called " Asotin 
 Creek." Along this creek was another small band 
 which made common cause with the non-treaties. 
 
 Off to the westward was still another roving set 
 of non-treaties. They fished in the Snake River 
 and hunted far and near in the rugged country 
 south and east of Lewiston. Hush-hush-cute was 
 their young chieftain, pleasant and courteous in 
 deportment, but never considered by white men to 
 be reliable. He was a favorite associate of young 
 Joseph. 
 
 On the reservation itself was to be found a 
 majority of the Indians whom I have described as 
 treaty Indians, i. e., the Nez Perces proper. They 
 
238 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 were divided into Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 Indians, and had a United States agency near Fort 
 Lapwai, and a sub-agency at Kamiah on the Clear 
 Water about seventy miles from Lewiston. James 
 Lawyer, an intelligent farmer, had been elected as 
 the chief of the tribe. The Catholic Indians lived 
 on Little Mission Creek, some eight miles from 
 Lapwai. Here they had a village to themselves 
 to which they were greatly attached because it was 
 near their mission. A sub-chief, with whom I had 
 much to do, was named Jonah. James Reuben, the 
 son of a former head chief, a very scholarly man 
 who had translated the gospel of John into Nez 
 Perce, was for two years my interpreter, friend, 
 and helper. The whole number of these reserva 
 tion Nez Perces when I first met them was esti 
 mated as between two and three thousand. 
 
 Early in 1875 I visited Umatilla and there met 
 Mr. Cornoyer, also Mr. McBean, the interpreter. 
 Mr. Cornoyer, a light-hearted Frenchman, intro 
 duced me to his three beautiful daughters, the 
 Indian mother we seldom had a glimpse of, and 
 I was royally entertained. McBean had a great 
 reputation as an interpreter. He was stout and 
 inclined to be lazy. Whether his interpretations 
 were always correct was better known to himself 
 than to anybody else. 
 
 Not long after my arrival McBean came in and 
 said: " Here is a messenger from Joseph. He 
 and ten of his Indians are at Young Chief s camp. 
 Joseph and his tillicums* want to have a talk with 
 the agent and with the new commander." 
 
 * Tillicums signifies Indian people. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 239 
 
 Soon eleven of these Nez Perces made their 
 appearance. They were strikingly tall, much more 
 so than the average Nez Perce, were in good flesh, 
 and clad in Indian costumes such as I have de 
 scribed. Each one had a blanket on his shoulder 
 or near at hand. They came on, one at a time, in 
 dignified procession and took first the agent s hand, 
 afterwards mine. Young Joseph opened his dark 
 eyes upon me and studied my face with care. His 
 fixed gaze did not annoy me, for I had a feeling 
 that he not only wanted to read my thoughts but in 
 some way to show me his own good disposition. 
 For a long time after that interview the young 
 man and I were apparently the best of friends. 
 V At this first meeting his message was short. It 
 is, as I recorded it at the time: "I heard *that 
 Washington had some message for me. I came to 
 visit my friends among the Cayuses. Young Chief 
 told me to speak to the agent. That is all." I 
 simply told him that there were no new instruc 
 tions from Washington, but that I was glad to see 
 him and make his acquaintance. 
 
 The eleven then immediately retired with the 
 same formal ceremony and dignity that had char 
 acterized their coming, and after remaining a short 
 time with the Cayuses, went back to their home in 
 Wallowa. 
 
 This visit fulfilled the prophecy made by Gen 
 eral Davis the previous year concerning the non- 
 treaties in the Imnaha valley. He reported, in ef 
 fect, that a collision with Joseph would come sooner 
 or later, that the Indians were very restless, and 
 that the real cause of their discontent was that 
 
 15 
 
240 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 their beautiful country was being more and more 
 encroached upon every year by enterprising and 
 covetous white settlers. 
 
 As no order for the Indians removal had been 
 enforced they had hoped to stay permanently 
 where they were. They were clinging to their old 
 haunts and herding their ponies upon the rich grass 
 lands of Wallowa, whilst white men who were 
 gathered in settlements near at hand were taking 
 up land as fast as it could be surveyed, erecting 
 houses upon it, and putting up extensive fencing 
 in plain sight of the protesting and irritated In 
 dians. 
 
 Governor Grover of Oregon naturally took the 
 side of the settlers, and had succeeded in getting 
 their petition heard at Washington, so that all the 
 lands that had belonged to the Indians in that 
 quarter (Oregon) had been secured by a presiden 
 tial order in favor of the new farming and stock- 
 raising settlements, and against Indian occupancy. 
 
 After all these statements concerning the rela 
 tions between Indians and white men, and the favor 
 shown to the whites by government officials, I will 
 repeat here what I have previously asserted, for it 
 is my conviction, that the main cause of the bloody 
 Nez Perce war that followed lay back of ideas of 
 legal ownership, back of savage habits and in 
 stincts ; it rested in the natural and persistent re 
 sistance of independent or " dependent " nations 
 to the authority of other nations. The non-treaty 
 Indians denied the jurisdiction which the United 
 States claimed over them. Everything that they 
 might want was offered and extended to them if 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 243 
 
 they would submit to governmental authority 
 which the United States agents exercised. They 
 answered, sometimes very roughly: " We want 
 nothing from you. We have not given you our 
 land. You have no right to take it from us. Wash 
 ington cannot divide up the country and give it to 
 anybody." Too-hul-hul-sote, one of the confed 
 erates whom Joseph trusted, always rough and 
 ugly, said to me in council : " We will go where we 
 please, and when we please, and do as. we please. 
 Who gave Washington rule over me ? 
 
 In 1876, after an Indian had been killed by a 
 white man in a dispute concerning some stock, I 
 entreated the President to send a good commission 
 with sufficient power to settle these Nez Perce dif 
 ficulties. At last the commission came and held 
 its session at Lapwai in November, 1876. No better 
 men could have been selected for that purpose. 
 They tried their best to get the consent of Joseph, 
 Ollicut, and the other non-treaty Indians to a set 
 tlement of all their troubles. At one time the 
 younger men, seemingly influenced by a spirit of 
 peace and good will, were on the point of yielding 
 to the persuasion of the commissioners. 
 
 Just then the " Dreamers " came in with their 
 characteristic talks and prophecies and turned the 
 tide against the measures of adjustment. The 
 Dreamers asserted that if the Indians would con 
 tinue faithful to old teachings " a leader would be 
 raised up in the east who would restore all the dead 
 Indians to life, and who would unite them in ex 
 pelling the whites from their country; then they 
 would repossess the lands of their ancestors." 
 
244 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 It must be remembered that Joseph and his 
 confederates set up an absolute title to the lands 
 and claimed an independent sovereignty; so that 
 any adjustment that the commission could have 
 effected would have been, like so many other com 
 promises, simply temporary. 
 
 The commission recommended that Joseph be 
 required to come on the Lapwai reservation and 
 reside permanently within its limits. 
 
 In process of time orders came from Washing 
 ton to carry out the recommendation of the com 
 mission. They were directed to the United States 
 Indian agent, J. B. Monteith, and, I being in com 
 mand of the troops, instructions were sent to me 
 to cooperate with and aid the Indian agent. Mon 
 teith at once, early in January, 1877, sent messen 
 gers bearing an order to Joseph and to the other 
 outside chieftains : Come on the Lapwai reser 
 vation." Instead of heeding the message the In 
 dians, who were in constant communication with 
 each other, were vigorously preparing for war. 
 In March, Mr. Cornoyer visited me in Portland 
 and told me that Joseph wanted to make him a 
 visit, because he was sure that the interpreters of 
 Lapwai had not properly spoken for him. 
 
 I answered: " Encourage them to come and I 
 will send my aide, Major Boyle, a judicious officer 
 of long experience with Indians, to represent me 
 at the council, and to hear and report what they 
 have to say." 
 
 The council was held, but Joseph s brother Olli- 
 cut, not Joseph himself, came. He had great in 
 fluence with Joseph, and when he spoke in a public 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 245 
 
 council Joseph immediately accepted Ollicut s 
 promises as his own. In private Ollicut urged war 
 measures, taking the side of the more reckless of 
 his tribe. To him the prospect of battles with 
 white men had a charm which he could not well 
 resist. No fruit came from this conference except 
 a promise from me to have another interview with 
 Joseph and his people the 20th of the ensuing 
 April. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 MY ARRIVAL AT FORT LAPWAI GROWING DISCONTENT AND 
 
 INSOLENCE OF THE INDIANS FEARS OF 
 
 AN OUTBREAK. 
 
 An Important Indian Council Happy " Medicine Men " A Pictur 
 esque Indian Procession A Suspicious Gathering A Fear-inspir 
 ing Song My Plain Talk to Chief Joseph His Reply " They 
 Treat me like a Dog " Growing Excitement Defiant Attitude 
 of the Hostiles Ominous Signs Efforts to Conciliate the In 
 dians An Immediate Uprising Threatened A Fierce Rejoinder 
 "I am the Man " An Obstinate and Angry Indian Thrust 
 ing a Mischiefmaker out of the Council Averting the Crisis A 
 Distrusted Indian Chief. 
 
 TAKING Captain Wilkinson with me, I left 
 my headquarters April 16, 1877, and was at 
 Walla Walla by the 18th. Colonel Grover, 
 a brother officer in Civil War time, took me to his 
 house on my arrival, where he and his good wife 
 extended a generous hospitality. 
 
 The Indians did not appear till about 6 P. M. 
 of the 19th. Ollicut came to the western gate and 
 stated in the most courteous manner that Joseph 
 was ill so that he, Ollicut, had come to represent 
 him. I promised to give him an interview the next 
 day in the presence of his Indians, and he turned 
 away to select a camp for the night. It was ar 
 ranged that the council should be held in the band 
 quarters, and we gathered in the large, low-ceiled 
 room at about 10 o clock in the morning. It w^as 
 soon well filled, the Indians being seated on rough 
 benches to the right, while officers of the army and 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 247 
 
 some citizens were upon the left. I took my seat, 
 with my aide for a secretary near at hand, beside 
 a large table. There was a sprinkling of ladies 
 among the officers and near the doorway. 
 
 After all the preceding formality and remem 
 bering that the appointment had been made long 
 in advance, I was much disappointed when the 
 council closed. The Indians were outwardly pleas 
 ant, and as dignified as usual. Again the wishes of 
 the government were explained to them. They an 
 swered that they were only delegates and could 
 make no binding promises. They begged me to fix 
 a date and place for another interview in order 
 that Joseph, his people, and other malcontents 
 might meet me. I promised that the desired inter 
 view should take place at Lapwai in twelve days. 
 The whole appearance of the " medicine men," of 
 Young Chief, the Umatilla friend and advocate, 
 of Ollicut, and every Indian present seemed to 
 bespeak good will. Yet it may have been a ruse on 
 the part of the Indians, particularly of Ollicut, to 
 observe how many troops there were at Walla 
 Walla, and the character of our armament. They 
 had an opportunity before they left of seeing a 
 review of the small garrison, and the testing of our 
 Gatling guns for different ranges and rapidity of 
 firing. We shall see by and by that they learned 
 some other things which were to our disadvantage. 
 
 Before the twelve days had expired I was at 
 Fort Lapwai. The council appointed for the 3d 
 of May for Joseph and his people began on the day 
 designated. There were present the agent, J. B. 
 Monteith, with an interpreter, then Joseph and 
 
248 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Ollicut, with about fifty of Joseph s Indians. The 
 council assembled out of doors under some awn 
 ings carefully arranged. The guard-house was on 
 one side of the awnings and the barracks, with 
 soldiers at hand, not far off on the other. I did 
 not distrust the Indians, but when one makes a 
 preparation it is better that it should be complete. 
 
 Before the council assembled there was an In 
 dian procession, consisting of a column of men fol 
 lowed by women and children, all mounted on In 
 dian ponies. This time the Indians were freshly 
 and hideously painted, the bright red color passing 
 up into the parting of their hair; the hair of the 
 men was braided and tied with colored strings, and 
 their bodies were ornamented with decorations of 
 different kinds. They had an odd variety of hats, 
 some blankets, leggings of buckskin, and moccasins, 
 some of them covered with beads ; the women wore 
 bright shawls or blankets, with skirts to the ankle, 
 and high moccasins. The effect was very pictur 
 esque. As Indians do, they kept us waiting long 
 enough in their mind to produce an impression, 
 finally moving up slowly from their camp to the 
 vicinity of the soldiers garden. 
 
 As soon as they had made careful announce 
 ment of their purpose they struck up a song and 
 slowly moved on. The men were armed with toma 
 hawks and knives, but did not bring many firearms 
 from their camp. The wild sound of their singing 
 did indeed produce upon every one of us a marked 
 effect. I was glad myself that the Indians were so 
 few. Their voices were shrill and penetrating, 
 now dying away to a plaintive wail, then bursting 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 249 
 
 into a mighty volume of sound that was fear-in 
 spiring in its finish. The Indians kept on outside 
 of the fences until they had made the entire circuit 
 of the garrison, ever repeating the blood-curdling 
 refrain of their song as they rode. At last Joseph, 
 Ollicut, and other leading Indians came to the 
 garrison from behind Colonel Perry s quarters. 
 They were thus attempting to do honor to the^om- 
 manding officer. 
 
 At the council tent I. found two interpreters, 
 Mr. Whitman and James Reuben, also two aides, 
 Captain Wilkinson and Major Boyle. Many of 
 ficers and ladies of the garrison had come to the 
 conference. There were numerous treaty Indians 
 gathered about. Father Cataldo, a priest from the 
 Roman Catholic mission, was also present. As 
 soon as the Indians with Joseph and Ollicut came in 
 and occupied the benches and chairs prepared for 
 them, the Catholic father opened the proceedings 
 with a brief prayer in the Nez Perce tongue. Then, 
 speaking to Joseph as the chief, I remarked : 
 
 " I heard from your brother Ollicut twelve days 
 ago at Walla Walla that you wished to see me. I 
 am here to listen to wiiat you have to say." 
 
 Joseph replied that Chief White Bird was on 
 the way and already in the Craig Mountains, and 
 that he would be present the next day. Joseph 
 wanted all the Indians to hear. I told him that we 
 would wait for White Bird if he wished us to do 
 so, but if he would immediately comply with the 
 wishes of the government he could have his pick 
 of the land. I told him further that the instruc 
 tions to White Bird were the same as to himself. 
 
250 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 The old Dreamers already present now spoke 
 up boldly, and charged the interpreters to tell the 
 truth. They intimated that they wanted to talk 
 many days about their land and deprecated any 
 hasty proceedings. 
 
 I answered them as quietly as I could and as 
 sured them that they could have all the time they 
 desired, but that they might as well understand 
 first as last that all the Indians would be required 
 to obey the instructions of the government. Mr. 
 Monteith, the agent, slowly read aloud his orders 
 from Washington, which were interpreted to them, 
 and added with considerable show of firmness : "I 
 sent out Reuben and some others to your camp and 
 invited you to come in. (They had not heeded this 
 message.) Now you must come and there is no 
 getting out of it. Your Indians and White Bird s 
 can pick up your horses and cattle and come on the 
 reservation. Joseph can select the place he wants, 
 if he will do it at once. General How r ard will stay 
 until matters are settled." 
 
 Next Ollicut spoke : " We must think for our 
 selveswhites and Indians. We have respect for 
 the whites, but they treat me like a dog and I some 
 times think my friends are different from what I 
 had supposed. There should be one law for all. 
 If I commit murder I shall be hung, but if I do 
 well I should not be punished. Our friends will 
 be here tomorrow and I will then tell what I think. 
 Of course I had to tell them that whatever the gov 
 ernment commanded us to do must be done. I 
 urged them to come on the reservation, and ex 
 plained that the privileges to hunt and fish in the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 251 
 
 Imnaha Valley might be granted to them; that if 
 they hesitated, the government had directed that 
 soldiers be used to coerce them; that Joseph and 
 Ollicut knew that we were friends to them, and that 
 if they complied there would be no trouble. 
 
 Joseph then put forward the Dreamers. They 
 were as rude in their manner as in their speech. I 
 deemed it best to meet their insolence with severity 
 of manner and brevity. For this I have been 
 blamed, but I noticed that the commission s action 
 the year before at Lapwai, on account of the kind 
 ness and long-continued patience of the members, 
 was interpreted by Joseph and the other Indian 
 chieftains as indicating weakness and fear. My 
 own idea may be expressed in this way : in dealing 
 with Indians we must neither fear nor hate them ; 
 after instructions are given by the proper author 
 ity see to it that the Indians are made to under 
 stand the orders ; afterwards see to it that they are 
 carried into execution without hesitancy or delay. 
 Everybody present understood that that was the 
 position of the Indian agent, and of myself as de 
 partment commander, when we adjourned the 
 council until the morrow. 
 
 The next day was exceedingly mild and beauti 
 ful. The sun shone brightly and gentle summer 
 breezes swept the valley of the Lapwai. As usual, 
 the Indians w r ere very deliberate in coming to the 
 council. They went through the same showy pa 
 rade and procession as the day before, but with 
 very much larger numbers. At last they came in 
 again by the colonel s back way and took their 
 places. Ollicut crouched at the feet of Joseph, 
 
252 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 White Bird took his position a few yards away, 
 and his followers sat on the benches or on the 
 ground near him. He kept a large eagle s wing in 
 front of his face. 
 
 The discontented Dreamers, or Tooats, were 
 made as prominent as on the day before. As soon 
 as we were ready Alpowa Jim, a treaty Indian, 
 opened the meeting with a fervent prayer in his 
 own language. Mr. Monteith then repeated the 
 instructions which we had received from Washing 
 ton. Joseph, as soon as Monteith had ceased, 
 glancing toward him, said to me : " This is White 
 Bird. I spoke to you of him. This is the first time 
 he has seen you and you him. I want him and his 
 Indians to understand what has been said to us." 
 
 I made all necessary explanations as before, 
 whereupon the Indians made for this occasion Too- 
 hul-hul-sote their principal spokesman. After he 
 had stopped talking Joseph, first, and White Bird 
 after him, endorsed what he had said. I saw that 
 the Indians were getting very much excited, and 
 was glad when the young chieftain asked for a 
 postponement of the council. The postponement 
 would enable me to get some troops into place that 
 were coming from Alaska and Oregon. Indeed, 
 the Indians at this meeting gave clear evidence that 
 they did not intend to comply with the instructions 
 from Washington. The next day being the Sab 
 bath we adjourned the council until the following 
 Monday. 
 
 It was plain to be seen that the treaty Indians 
 were frightened. As their opponents, the non- 
 treaties, increased in numbers it was noticed that 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 253 
 
 they were fully armed with modern weapons. 
 They put war paint on their faces and their man 
 ner was insolent, defiant, and hostile. The ladies 
 of the garrison instinctively comprehended the 
 situation, and in evident fear kept asking: " Is 
 Joseph going to fight the troops ? r 
 
 The Sabbath was as peaceful a day as we could 
 desire. At the agency the gathering was so large 
 that the hall used for a church would not hold the 
 people. The Nez Perce women and children were 
 dressed in their best, their picturesque attire giv 
 ing at a little distance the bright effects of a holiday 
 assemblage. Many of the non-treaty people min 
 gled with the worshipers, and the service was in 
 every respect a good one. The only thing that 
 marred the occasion was that in Joseph s camp 
 some of his warriors went through with a weird 
 dance, accompanied by the incessant beating of 
 tom-toms, and other ceremonies characteristic of 
 their heathen worship. Notwithstanding this di 
 version, at the close of the day a happier feeling 
 seemed to pervade all parties. 
 
 The most important council, at which I felt 
 sure matters would come to a climax, assembled on 
 Monday, the 7th of May, 1877. All the different 
 non-treaty bands from the south, the east, and the 
 west were there. Indian runners gave Joseph to 
 understand that our soldiers were already in the 
 Wallowa country. Again there was the same 
 marching and singing. The Indians had evidently 
 gained in courage, and all those who wanted war 
 were bolder in their attitude. Monteith, the agent, 
 appeared this morning to be very kind to the In- 
 
254 MY LITE AND PEKSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 dians. He wished, he said, to remove a false im 
 pression that had somehow gotten abroad. He 
 assured them that their religious rites would not 
 be interfered with, but he added that if a teacher 
 counseled insubordination and disobedience to the 
 clear instructions of his department such a teacher 
 would have to be restrained. 
 
 Again Too-hul-hul-sote took the floor. He as 
 serted that the earth was his mother, that it should 
 not be disturbed by any instrument of husbandry, 
 that men must eat what grows of itself. He had 
 much to say of chieftainship ; that it came from the 
 earth and was inherited, and so on. I answered: 
 " We do not wish to interfere with your religion, 
 but you must talk about practical things. Twenty 
 times over you have repeated that the earth is your 
 mother, and that chieftainship is from the earth. 
 Let us hear it no more, but come to business at 
 
 once. 
 
 Too-hul-hul-sote replied with another speech 
 in which he denied the jurisdiction of the United 
 States, and disowned the binding force of the 
 treaty already made. His manner was so surly 
 and disagreeable that I could see plainly that he 
 was exciting an opposition which might result in 
 an immediate outbreak, for every Indian appeared 
 to have, just at that time, some weapon ready at 
 hand for use. 
 
 " But," I replied firmly, " you know very well 
 that the government has set apart a reservation 
 and that the Indians must go upon it. If an Indian 
 becomes a citizen, like old Timothy of Alpowa, he 
 can have land like any other citizen outside, but he 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 255 
 
 must leave his tribe and take land precisely as a 
 white man does." 
 
 Too-hul-hul-sote made his fiercest rejoinder: 
 " What person pretends to divide the land and put 
 me on it ?" 
 
 I answered: "I am the man. I stand here 
 for the President, and there is no spirit good or 
 bad that will hinder me. My orders are plain and 
 will be executed. I hope the Indians have good 
 sense enough to make me their friend and not their 
 enemy. " 
 
 The hostile spirit then manifested could hardly 
 have been stronger, and I knew that the crisis had 
 come and that something must be done to relieve 
 the situation. So after listening for a short time 
 and hearing the old chief say that he had never 
 given anybody a right to sign away his lands, I 
 demanded: " Do you speak for yourself alone? " 
 
 He replied, with additional emphasis and 
 anger: " The Indians may do what they like, but 
 I am not going on the reservation ! : 
 
 Of course this was intended, as is the Indian 
 custom, to voice the purpose of all the non-treaty 
 people. I told him that it was bad advice, and, 
 trying to drive a wedge between them, I said: 
 " Joseph and White Bird seem to have good hearts, 
 but yours is bad. I will send you to the Indian 
 Territory." 
 
 Indeed, Monteith and I had feared that this 
 Dreamer, who hated every approach to civiliza 
 tion, would make trouble. He did not claim to be a 
 medicine man, but he talked all the time like one. 
 We knew well that he had not spoken a conciliatory 
 
256 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 word, that he had advised all the non-treaty In 
 dians to fight. So I said: " You counsel them to 
 resist, to go to war, to lose all their horses and 
 cattle, and have unending trouble." 
 
 Then suddenly I turned to the others and asked : 
 " Will Joseph and White Bird and Looking-Glass 
 go with me to look after their land ? The old man 
 shall not go. He must stay with Colonel Perry." 
 
 % Do you want to scare me with reference to 
 my body?" exclaimed Too-hul-hul-sote. 
 
 I said firmly : u I will leave your body with 
 Colonel Perry." Then before anybody could act, 
 with the help of Colonel Perry, I seized the cross- 
 grained Dreamer and led him out of the council 
 and delivered him to the giiard. At that instant 
 some of the Indians were on the point of plunging 
 their knives into my breast, but Joseph and White 
 Bird both counseled delay. They could have killed 
 me and the few other white men in the council, but 
 they knew they could not pass out of the enclosure 
 without large loss to themselves, for our men, with 
 rifles loaded, were ready at the guard-house on the 
 one side and at the barracks on the other. 
 
 The crisis had now passed ; the Indians changed 
 their tone and were pacific. They readily agreed 
 to go with me over the Lapwai reservation to 
 its remotest boundaries, where they could find 
 fertile lands for cultivation, if they would conde 
 scend to cultivate them, grassy hillsides for their 
 ponies, and a well-wooded country. With this un 
 derstanding the council adjourned. 
 
 We came together again after several days 
 spent in riding over and inspecting the reserva- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 257 
 
 tion, Joseph, White Bird, Hush-hush-cute, and 
 others in turn jogging along by my side and 
 talking to me through James Reuben, or another 
 interpreter, while my aide-de-camp, Captain Wil 
 kinson, Rev. Mr. Thompson of Olympia, Mr. Mon- 
 teith, the agent, and Whitman, the interpreter, 
 mingled with the other Indians, conversing pleas 
 antly with them. Looking-Glass took a special 
 fancy to Captain Wilkinson, and indicated great 
 delight at the peace prospects. We all firmly be 
 lieved that the Indians had at last made up their 
 minds to obey the instructions of the government 
 and come on the reservation. 
 
 Joseph at the last meeting presented a petition 
 that I would release Too-hul-hul-sote from guard. 
 This petition I granted. Joseph then promised 
 solemnly to be on the reservation by June 14th, 
 and he was to go to the region of the Clear Water 
 River for his allotment of it. That gave Joseph 
 and his people just one month to break up at Im- 
 naha. 
 
 Hush-hush-cute asked for thirty-five days. He 
 was the Indian most distrusted at the time, but 
 nobody supposed he could make war alone. 
 
 There was a general satisfaction among the 
 white people at Lapwai and Lewiston. The peace 
 ful treaty Indians had no doubt of Joseph s good 
 intention, and even now I think that he then be 
 lieved the best thing to do was to heed the instruc 
 tions of the Indian department, and take up his 
 abode along the fertile grounds of the Clear Water. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AMONG THE COLUMBIA RIVER INDIANS INCIDENTS AND 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES " CUT-MOUTH JOHN." 
 
 Up the Columbia River Smohollie, a Pompous Indian of Important 
 Manner Standing on His Dignity Treating Him with Indiffer 
 ence Changing His Mind Sending for an Interpreter Rene 
 gade Indians Wild and Fierce to the Last The " Skookum- 
 house " An Insubordinate Old Chief United Against the Whites 
 An Odd Character A Sea-sick and Disgusted Indian " Cut- 
 mouth John " How He Acquired His Name Introducing Him 
 self to Me His Dirty and Comical Uniform His Personal Ap 
 pearance A Ludicrous Spectacle Trying to be a White Man. 
 
 SOON after our return to Portland from the 
 Lapwai council, while waiting for the time 
 to arrive when Joseph and his people were to 
 go upon their designated reservation, I made a 
 trip up the Columbia River, arriving late one after 
 noon at crumbling old Fort Walla Walla, which 
 stood near the river where the hamlet of Wallula 
 is now situated. The proprietors of the hotel were 
 very hospitable, though they had but a poor, 
 rickety house, wretchedly built, with partitions 
 hardly thicker than pasteboard. 
 
 They had made the perilous journey over the 
 plains and across the mountains from the Kansas 
 and Nebraska frontiers to the Touchet River, and 
 finally settled at Wallula, rich in personal experi 
 ence, and with a fund of stories to relate of ad 
 ventures with Indians, hairbreadth escapes, of 
 danger, exposure, plenty, and want, enough to in 
 terest strangers for hours. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 259 
 
 Here we spent the night. The next day, in a 
 large tumble-down storehouse, I brought together 
 several bands that we called the " Columbia River 
 Renegades. In accordance with a previous prom 
 ise, I had sent a message to Smohollie, the leader 
 of the Indian spiritists, who was at the time in a 
 large combined camp, higher up the Columbia than 
 Wallula, an d on the other side. 
 
 Smohollie, who could not be exceeded by any 
 earthly potentate in assumption of power or im 
 portance of manner, had upon my arrival sent me 
 word by a messenger that I must go to his camp. 
 I informed the messenger that I had come all the 
 way from Portland, by appointment, to meet Smo 
 hollie at Wallula, which was an arrangement of 
 his own seeking, and that if the chief had anything 
 to say to General Howard he must come to Wallula 
 and say it. 
 
 Smohollie sent a second messenger who was to 
 find out and report to him what I intended to say 
 to the Indians. The messenger intimated that he 
 would carry back the tidings promptly, whatever 
 they might be, and then Smohollie and his follow 
 ers would act. 
 
 I replied that I had nothing whatever at this 
 time to say to Smohollie, and that it was not im 
 portant whether I saw him or not. This was, of 
 course, rather ungracious, but there was no appar 
 ent reason for this attempt to draw me across the 
 river. It might mean personal harm. A little 
 after noon Smohollie, having changed his mind, 
 and having mustered all the people he could, in 
 cluding women and children, crossed over the river 
 
260 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 just above Wallula. They approached the village, 
 freshly bedecked with paint and feathers, and the 
 cavalcade filed in with all the pomp and circum 
 stance characteristic of Indian conceit. As many 
 of the Indians belonged to the Umatilla agencies 
 I had arranged to have their friend Mr. Cornoyer 
 with me. The council was at last held, and there 
 were at least two hundred and fifty men present, 
 besides fifty women with little children. All gath 
 ered in and around the building, eagerly waiting 
 for some communication from me. 
 
 How some days everything goes awry! We 
 held an unsatisfactory conversation by using the 
 Chinook that meager and inadequate language 
 through which it is extremely difficult to convey 
 information. Our interpreter, McBean, had been 
 taken ill while on his way to us from Umatilla, and 
 a messenger brought word that he could not come. 
 Some of the bystanders made feeble attempts at 
 interpretation through signs and the Chinook lan 
 guage, but I \vas obliged to adjourn the council 
 until we could bring to us an old and famous 
 frontiersman, Mr. Pambrum, who lived near Wail- 
 atpu, where Dr. Whitman, who was slain by the 
 Cayuses, was buried. I knew Pambrum to be a 
 remarkably good interpreter. He could speak the 
 different Walla Walla dialects, which the Cayuses, 
 the Walla Wallas, and the Umatillas well under 
 stood. 
 
 He arrived at last, late in the evening, when we 
 immediately called a smaller council. There we 
 had Smohollie, Young Chief, the best leader of the 
 Umatillas, Homily of the Walla Wallas, and Old 
 
WAR AND SACRED SHIELDS; BEADED BLANKET BAND; WOMAN S BELT 
 WARRIOR S DISK STRAP, HEAD DRESS. ETC. 
 
 For L~scriptiQ2i ser paye 75 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 263 
 
 Thomas, a refractory chief who had led his band 
 to some lands beyond the Snake River. 
 
 The statements made by all these Indians were 
 the same that the non-treaty Nez Perces continu 
 ally repeated. They said they wanted peace, but 
 they desired much more to roam at large whenever 
 and wherever they pleased. They really belonged, 
 as the white men averred, on some reservation, 
 and so the word " renegades " described them 
 well. I believed that they were combining and 
 meditating resistance the instant I should attempt 
 to carry out the instructions of the Indian depart 
 ment at Washington, and that they were further 
 waiting to see what the non-treaty Nez Perces, 
 under whose wing they proposed to act, would 
 finally do. Should they alone precipitate war they 
 understood well enough that they would soon be 
 annihilated. However, I carefully explained the 
 wishes of the government and exhorted them to 
 run to the shelter of the reservation as soon as 
 possible. Mr. Cornoyer strongly endorsed my 
 words. 
 
 The roving Indians had now obtained what 
 they wanted and we separated with apparent good 
 feeling. Old Thomas, whose hunting ground was 
 near some of the non-treaty Nez Perces, was an 
 exception. He was wild and fierce to the last, and 
 wanted to know why I had been sending troops to 
 Wallowa, and denounced the action and wishes of 
 the United States government in unmeasured 
 terms. 
 
 Every Indian left the little town before mid 
 night. Old Thomas people, going with him, 
 
264 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 rushed northward up the Snake Kiver, making 
 better time than the steamboat. They were cross 
 ing their hands and stating to every one they met 
 that I was going to make slaves of them, and was 
 going to put them into the " skookum-house, " 
 meaning the guard-house or military prison. 
 
 " Father Wilbur," the Yakima agent, had pre 
 viously brought us an insubordinate old chief, 
 Skemiah, and we had him still confined in a guard 
 room at Port Vancouver. This fact the renegades 
 had learned during our interview, therefore the 
 " skookum-house " loomed up as a possibility to 
 them. As soon as they heard of it, these renegades, 
 though two hundred miles from the old captive, 
 pleaded his case with me and begged for the im 
 prisoned Skemiah s release. The renegades were 
 thus connected by a common feeling and sympathy 
 against all the white men, even though they did 
 quarrel and fight with each other. 
 
 Old Homily of the Walla Wallas was a singular 
 character. His village was along the Columbia, 
 not far from it, north of Wallula. A more rocky, 
 gravelly, forbidding, and unfruitful patch of land 
 I never saw. It was always windy there and often 
 so dusty as to make it doubly disagreeable. Yet 
 Homily enjoyed that wild country of his. At one 
 time, with some other chiefs, he went to Washing 
 ton. On the way back on the steamer just below 
 the mouth of the Columbia he was very seasick, 
 and begged the captain to stop the steamer and 
 send him ashore. * Oh, he said, me much rather 
 heap walk! r He told me afterwards, shaking his 
 fat sides, that some people might like to live in 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 265 
 
 such a place as Washington city, but it had no 
 attractions for him. He would " a heap rather " 
 live in his own home among the abundant rocks 
 and stones above Wallula. 
 
 Among the TJmatillas was a distinguished char 
 acter who rejoiced in the name of " Cut-mouth 
 John." He was brought to the city of Portland 
 when I was there in 1876. He came as a witness in 
 connection with some law cases where white men 
 of bad repute had been selling liquor to the Indians 
 of the Umatilla agency. When John introduced 
 himself to me he had on a lieutenant s cast-off 
 coat, with shoulder-straps, a red sash around his 
 waist, a pair of dirty white gloves, and a slouched 
 hat. He appeared in my room, and as I looked up 
 he asked: " Mr. Howard?" 
 
 66 Yes," I answered. 
 
 " Me Cut-mouth John," he said. 
 
 True enough, the right side of his face showed 
 a deep and continuous furrow, which ran from 
 where the corner of his mouth should be over and 
 beyond his eye, leveling teeth, skin, and bones, and 
 making his expression a constant and unsightly 
 grimace. Major Boyle, who knew all the Uma- 
 tillas, told me that Cut-mouth John had always 
 been true to the white man. He was a scout for 
 General George S. Wright. In one of his skir 
 mishes an Indian, who was hostile to the whites, put 
 his pistol on his arm, aimed sideways, and shot 
 John, thus disfiguring his face dreadfully. Since 
 then he had borne his present descriptive name. 
 
 After giving his testimony in Portland, Cut- 
 mouth John came to bid me good-bye. He took 
 
266 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 plenty of time to silently look at everything around 
 me. He felt much ashamed of his poor shoes. He 
 declared he had called the Indian agent s attention 
 to this sign of poverty; then he shook his head, 
 with an indescribable grin upon his disfigured 
 face, and said: " No potlatch " (no present). 
 John s soiled white gloves were full of holes and 
 his uniform was old and rusty. Poor fellow, in 
 his shabby finery he presented a truly ludicrous 
 spectacle ! Yet I had a feeling of great compassion 
 for him when I looked at the sad disfigurement of 
 his visage, and remembered that it was a wound 
 received from a hostile brother on account of his 
 fidelity to the white men who have never been very 
 faith-keeping to him or his people. 
 
 In their own native attire the Indians usually 
 appear well. The dress of skins and feathers, how 
 ever variegated, befits them. But when they put 
 on our clothing and strut about in it their appear 
 ance is sometimes comical. A chief in an old 
 shabby uniform, with perhaps a plug hat picked 
 up on the dump pile of a fort, thinks he is pleasing 
 and honoring the white man who in reality is pity 
 ing him, or laughing at his senseless vanity. Poor 
 Cut-mouth John was trying to be a white man. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BIDDING ADIEU TO MY FAMILY FOR WHAT PROVES TO BE A 
 
 LONG ABSENCE ON THE VERGE OF A BLOODY 
 
 INDIAN WAR. 
 
 Chief Joseph s Bad Conduct Robbing a Missionary s House Miracu 
 lous Escape from Bloody Hands Resting in Comfort, Peace, and 
 Hope My Fourteen " Commanding Officers " An Old Comrade 
 of the Civil War Chief Joseph s Unconverted Heart Guarding 
 Against Indian Treachery Release of Old Skemiah from the 
 " Skookum-house " His Grievances and Plea to go Back to the 
 Reservation Bidding Adieu to my Family It Proves to be a 
 Long One On the Verge of a Bloody War. 
 
 THE date agreed upon when the Nez Perces 
 were to come on the reservation was drawing 
 near. We had returned to Portland from 
 the council at Lapw r ai with a feeling that a great 
 work had been accomplished. One of our Union 
 generals always said to me at the close of a success 
 ful engagement: "Fait accompli/ Such seemed 
 to me the closing interview with Joseph s people. 
 We felt confident that there would be no serious 
 difficulties with the Nez Perces. All their past 
 history and their traditions favored this thought. 
 I have since learned, how r ever, that Old Joseph 
 had behaved badly toward the missionary Spalding 
 as soon as he heard of the massacre of Marcus 
 Whitman and his family wilich I shall describe in 
 another chapter and that during the absence of 
 Mr. Spalding s family he had robbed his house, 
 destroying such goods as he could not take away. 
 Besides, young Joseph and Ollicut, his stalwart 
 
268 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 sons, had in them Cayuse blood. I well remem 
 bered that the fierce Cayuses had perpetrated the 
 horrible massacre of the early missionaries at 
 Wailatpu, a very few of whom miraculously es 
 caped from their bloody hands. Yet after all that 
 may be said nobody can make me believe that 
 young Joseph, at the time I left him, was planning 
 treachery and murder. 
 
 The days came and went in Portland as usual. 
 The spring rains had nearly ceased and were fol 
 lowed by gentle summer showers, which make the 
 heart of an Oregonian glad. How many things 
 come back to memory when a resting-time is over 
 and the old perpetual conflict is renewed ! My mili 
 tary family and myself were enjoying comfort and 
 peace, and looking hopefully forward to the future, 
 when one day Colonel E. C. Watkins, the inspector 
 of Indian affairs, came into my office. How glad 
 I was to see him ! 
 
 I often declared that I had fourteen command 
 ing officers, being obliged to obey the call of four 
 teen different Indian agents. It is not scriptural 
 to obey so many masters. Colonel Watkins was 
 senior to them all, so I transferred my allegiance 
 at once to him, and placed him over all the agents. 
 He was an able official and very congenial to me 
 the more so perhaps because he had been a comrade 
 in the Civil War. He was a large, wholesome man, 
 possessing genuine courage that never failed in 
 any dangerous situation. We looked over the vast 
 Indian field and concluded that Joseph, should he 
 be inclined to treachery, might be tempted to take 
 that course if he could induce the numerous Co- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 269 
 
 lumbia River tribes to join him. We knew well 
 enough that his heart was not wholly converted to 
 our civilization. We therefore planned to antici 
 pate any messengers sent from Joseph to tribes 
 north of the Columbia. 
 
 To carry out our plans we made a brief visit to 
 that part of the Indian stamping-ground. At Fort 
 Vancouver we participated in the exercises of 
 Memorial Day. Old Skemiah was still in the 
 guard-room of the fort. He wanted to see me, and, 
 still more, Colonel Watkins as soon as he heard of 
 his presence and his office. Immediately we had 
 a formal interview with him. He was chief of one 
 of the small bands that should have gathered upon 
 the Fort Simcoe reservation. 
 
 Having seated ourselves in General Sully s 
 office, a soldier brought in poor old Skemiah, who 
 had a clay-colored, expressionless face, a fat body 
 and waddling gait. A sergeant, acting as inter 
 preter by using the Chinook language and a few 
 Indian signs, poorly made, managed to learn from 
 Skemiah that his heart was good, had always been 
 so, and that his people had gone to Fort Simcoe 
 already, and that he would be very glad to go there 
 too, and do all we wished him to do henceforth. 
 " Only let me go back! " he pleaded. 
 
 After a brief consultation Watkins and I an 
 swered him favorably. " Tomorrow r you shall go 
 to Fort Simcoe under the escort of a sergeant." 
 We were sure Father Wilbur would release him 
 if he behaved well after reaching the reservation. 
 
 On the 31st of May we again set out from Port 
 land, leaving there by the Dalles steamer at five 
 
270 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 o clock in the morning. I little thought as I took 
 my valise in hand and bade adieu to my drowsy 
 family that I should pass through a terrible Indian 
 war and be absent five months before I could look 
 upon their faces again. Such, however, was the 
 truth. 
 
 We picked up Skemiah and the sergeant on the 
 way. The old man was happy, and his dull face 
 suggested eager anticipation that was not unpleas 
 ant to look upon. I felt glad for him. 
 
 We left the Columbia transport forty miles 
 above the Cascades and began to ascend the moun 
 tain range to the northeast. We passed up the 
 north bank and turned our eyes back from time to 
 time to look down the beautiful valley of the great 
 river, and southward to catch glimpses of twice ten 
 thousand hills and the grand old mountains beyond 
 them. Slowly we wound our way to the top of the 
 Simcoe range. Near the crest, where the weather 
 was cold enough for a fire, we camped for the night. 
 A large number of Indians had now joined my 
 escort. Skemiah s little son of four years, dressed 
 in Indian finery and well mounted, was with them, 
 and all seemed happy to receive provisions from 
 us. Indians who smoke in a circle with a white 
 man, and condescend to eat the white man s food, 
 as a rule, wear, whether real or assumed, an ex 
 pression of remarkable contentment. Anyway it 
 is hospitable and politic thus to eat and smoke or 
 let them do so. It makes friends. 
 
 We had an early breakfast and arrived at the 
 agency on the Simcoe River by 11 A. M. of that day. 
 The Simcoe is a branch of the Yakima, a river 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 271 
 
 which passes into the Columbia above the mouth of 
 the Snake. The confluence is quite a distance 
 above Wallula. The name "Yakima" 1 is also 
 given to the handsomest Indian reservation west 
 of the Rocky Mountains. The agent, Mr. Wilbur, 
 was away when we arrived attending to that in 
 teresting and exciting operation of branding cat 
 tle. There is only one thing that Indians enjoy 
 better, and that is killing them with firearms. 
 
 In the evening Mr. Wilbur and his wife re 
 turned. How tall and strong he looked, standing 
 six feet in his shoes, a broad-shouldered, thick- 
 chested, large-headed, full- voiced, manly man! 
 Still the advancing years had begun to tell upon 
 him. Mrs. Wilbur said : " We had to stop by the 
 way for my husband to lie down a while." I did 
 not wonder, for he had the care of a nation on his 
 shoulders and was himself the whole government, 
 though Mrs. Wilbur, a motherly woman, appeared 
 to be an efficient prime minister. 
 
 Monday we sent messengers to all Indians far 
 and near, some of them hundreds of miles away, 
 with an invitation to come to Fort Simcoe for a 
 council. While waiting Watkins, Wilkinson, and 
 I went over the extensive reserve. For a while we 
 watched the branding of cattle and saw how the 
 Indians marked wild steers. After being thrown 
 down the animal .was held flat and still, while a 
 strong Indian seized and applied the hot and heavy 
 branding iron. To repeat that operation through 
 out an entire herd was a trying ordeal. 
 
 When we returned to the agency good news was 
 brought to us, to wit. : Joseph, Ollicut, and White 
 
272 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Bird had been gathering in their cattle and ponies 
 preparatory to entering the Lapwai reservation 
 as they had promised. 
 
 Fort Simcoe was built by Major Garnet, under 
 whom I had been when he was commandant at 
 West Point, and who fell in battle on the Confed 
 erate side during the Civil War. The post was 
 constructed for three companies of infantry. The 
 quarters of the officers were picturesque and all the 
 buildings good, and showy fences surrounded well- 
 kept gardens. Years before this time everything 
 had been transferred to the Indian bureau, and 
 Fort Simcoe was now the headquarters of the Ya- 
 kima Indian agency. 
 
 The agent, the head chief, Joe Stwyre, and the 
 Indian police were ever ready to help Colonel 
 Watkins perform his part. They were to assemble 
 the renegades and nomads of the Columbia and 
 start them, like the Yakimas, on the road to civil 
 ization. White people said to Joe Stwyre : " You 11 
 be killed if you go to Smohollie ! : 
 
 " No, no," he answered, " I will not be killed; 
 I will go. I will go and carry the good message! r 
 
 Smohollie received him gladly and hastened 
 with his leading Indians toward Simcoe. So also 
 did Moses, whom the messengers found at Priest s 
 Eapids, far up the Columbia, and so did other 
 wandering tribes along the river valley. Pam- 
 brum, the interpreter, who spoke a language that 
 all Walla Wallas and Cayuses could understand, 
 came to us from his home near the Touchet River. 
 
 By Saturday the 8th of June all the Indians 
 far and near, north of the Columbia Eiver, had 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 273 
 
 come together to meet us. We had a large tent-fly 
 stretched in a beautiful grove, and this together 
 with the trees afforded a grateful shade during the 
 intense heat. There is nowhere so much formality 
 as in an Indian council. There were Colonel Wat- 
 kins, Agent Wilbur, and our military selves 
 white men and ladies all occupying comfortable 
 seats ; facing us were the Indians seated on benches 
 or chairs. In the first row, from right to left, in 
 order of their supposed rank, were Moses, Smo- 
 hollie, One-eyed John, Calwash, Skemiah, Thomas, 
 and others. Other renegades came in behind, sit 
 ting or squatting as Indians do. The background 
 was studded with women and children clothed in 
 bright and contrasted colors, with straight black 
 hair and black, flashing eyes, and some of them had 
 clean hands and faces. The friendly Indians were 
 mixed up everywhere with the newcomers and 
 treated them with persistent kindness. 
 
 After the opening prayer Colonel Watkins fol 
 lowed in a brief address, which was rather manda 
 tory in style for an Indian council. " First, the 
 government requires that you shall all come on 
 this or some other of its reservations. 
 
 " Second, in every possible way of looking at 
 this matter it is better for you to come. Third, 
 the commander of the military forces will enforce 
 this requirement." 
 
 Agent Wilbur argued the second proposition. 
 He strove to influence Smohollie particularly, be 
 cause Smohollie ardently fostered and openly ad 
 vocated the Dreamer religion, and was believed to 
 be the special cause of the restlessness of the 
 
274 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Columbia tribes. He kept alive the hope of super 
 natural intervention; relief was to come, so he 
 taught, through a general Indian resurrection. 
 Without making much reply that day the Indians 
 desired to postpone the council until the following 
 Monday. 
 
 All the Indians were cordially invited to be 
 present Sunday in that very grove for a religious 
 service. I enjoyed that occasion greatly. The 
 Christian Indians seemed to plead the cause of the 
 great Master with earnestness. They spoke in the 
 Indian tongue, so thaf I could not follow them 
 closely. Smohollie behaved well that day and an 
 swered all appeals with apparent sincerity. 
 
 On Monday, June 10th, we again assembled in 
 council at the same place. Moses forcibly inti 
 mated that he would do his best to comply with the 
 wishes of the government, not only for himself and 
 his own tribe, but for many other bands. 
 
 Smohollie, with his hunch-back figure and big 
 head, apparently fearing that Moses was getting 
 ahead of him in our favor or in diplomacy, stood 
 up and answered with loud voice : l Your law is 
 my law. I say to you, yes. I will be on a reserva 
 tion by September. I have but two or three hun 
 dred people." The difference between Moses and 
 Smohollie was that Moses would keep his promise 
 and Smohollie could not be relied upon. With the 
 Dreamer this may have been to some extent from 
 want of actual authority with his people. 
 
 The oldest chief present was Thomas, a spare, 
 tall man afflicted with a nervous trembling. He 
 said: " I have about fifty Indians in all. I will 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 275 
 
 go to the Umatilla reservation by the 1st of Sep 
 tember." He evidently took no exact account of 
 time, for he did not get there till the ensuing No 
 vember. All the others, Skemiah, One-eyed John, 
 and Calwash, made similar promises, each naming 
 the number of his Indians. The five Indians who 
 spoke thus strongly in the council were consider 
 able chiefs, and it was gratifying to us that they 
 made these promises. They did not join the non- 
 treaty Indians who subsequently went to war, and 
 but very few of their followers behaved badly after 
 that council. 
 
 It was an impressive story that we told them 
 about Joseph and his discontented Indians, how 
 they had already yielded to the persuasions of 
 government officials and had abstained from prep 
 arations for war. We thought so then. 
 
 The next day, in a spring wagon drawn by 
 mules, which were as lively and more enduring 
 than horses, our party followed the Yakima down 
 its southeasterly course. The majority of the In 
 dians had separated and gone back to the people 
 whom they represented, but there were still with 
 us the interpreter and many mounted braves. 
 They afforded our wagon a good escort, constantly 
 riding before, behind, and on our flanks. 
 
 We arrived at the Columbia fatigued by the 
 heat and hard traveling through leagues of sand, 
 and it was yet twenty miles to our destination 
 Wallula. It occurred to me that Indians in the 
 vicinity might take us down the river in a canoe, 
 and messengers were sped on ahead to secure one. 
 We were at the mouth of the Yakima at sundown. 
 
 17 
 
276 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Wilkinson had become alarmingly ill and begged 
 to be left at a half -civilized ranch near that place. 
 It was very important for Watkins and myself to 
 be at Wallula to catch the Lewiston boat, and yet 
 we were unwilling to leave Wilkinson behind. 
 
 It was now dark. We ran to the bank of the 
 river and called loudly for the canoe that the In 
 dian messengers were to have in readiness at that 
 place. After waiting a short time two of Smo- 
 hollie s Indians pushed out from the other side in 
 the darkness and silently paddled over to us in a 
 long, partly-decayed dugout. We laid Wilkinson 
 on a narrow bed in the middle of the boat. Pam- 
 brum and the Indians managed the boat, w r hile 
 Colonel Watkins and I sang songs and told stories 
 till Wilkinson, to our surprise, brightened up a 
 little and insisted upon joining us. Past the 
 islands, past the Homely Rapids, frightful to our 
 small boat, past the mouth of the Snake River, we 
 sped along for over twenty miles, wind, current, 
 and Indian paddle all in our favor. 
 
 By two o clock in the morning, just as dawn 
 was appearing, we pulled up at the Wallula wharf. 
 The gangplank of the up-river steamer was about 
 to be drawn in when we stepped upon its deck. 
 " Fifteen minutes for telegraph messages ? " I said 
 to the captain. 
 
 " Yes, yes," he answered, "but hurry." The 
 messages were sent, and in less time than I asked 
 the plank was drawn in and we were on our way 
 to Lewiston. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OPENING OF HOSTILITIES BATTLES OF WHITE BIRD CAN 
 YON AND THE CLEAR WATER. 
 
 A Disquieting Message Starting for the Front Rendezvous of 
 Chief Joseph and the Hostiles Discovering the Indian Camp 
 Guarding Against Surprise Murdering a Husband in the Pres 
 ence of His Wife Women and Children at the Mercy of Savages 
 Indescribable Brutalities The Battle of White Bird Canyon 
 Slaughter of the Troops Death of Lieutenant Theller De 
 feated by the Indians Burial of Our Slain Comrades A Forced 
 March An Indian Ambuscade Battle of the Clear Water 
 Flight of the Indians Preparation for a Long Chase. 
 
 THE thirty days given to the Nez Perces to 
 come on the reservation had now expired, 
 and I was again at Lapwai. My former 
 aide-de-camp Boyle was now a full-fledged captain 
 in command of an infantry company at this place. 
 Perry, who was a colonel by brevet, was a captain 
 of the First Cavalry, and his troop and Captain 
 Trimble s completed the garrison. Parnell, also a 
 colonel by brevet, was really a lieutenant in Trim 
 ble s company. Lieutenant Theller was serving 
 under Captain Boyle in the infantry. The com 
 mand of the whole garrison at this time devolved 
 upon Colonel Perry. 
 
 Everybody was happy and predicted that the 
 war-cloud had passed over. But we sometimes 
 arrive at conclusions too soon! I had hardly 
 stepped inside of Perry s doorway when a mes 
 senger, who had evidently ridden fast and far, 
 handed him a letter, dated that very day, and 
 
278 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 signed by a prominent citizen, L. P. Brown of Mt. 
 Idaho, a small village sixty miles distant to the 
 southeast and not far beyond the limit of the Lap- 
 wai reserve. One sentence in the letter was this: 
 " They (the Indians) say openly that they are 
 going to fight the soldiers wiien they come up to 
 put them on the reservation." The letter reported 
 that the non-treaties were gathering ammunition 
 and had taken a strong position in a rocky canyon, 
 evidently expecting General Howard with his 
 troops. 
 
 Another sentence in the letter was significant 
 of the feeling of the whites, to wit. : " Sharp and 
 prompt action will bring them to understand that 
 they must comply with the orders of the govern 
 ment. We trust such action will be taken by you 
 as to remove them from the neighborhood and 
 quiet the feelings of the people." 
 
 That rocky canyon to which the letter referred 
 was near the corner of the Lapwai reservation, 
 just beyond the boundary. The impression I 
 gained from the general tenor of the letter, and 
 from my knowledge of the locality, was that the 
 Indians were hesitating just what they had better 
 do. As a matter of fact they were hesitating just 
 then because they had in their own bands divided 
 counsels. 
 
 I at once dispatched a scouting party with in 
 structions to reconnoiter and report the facts in 
 the case as soon as possible. The scouts, quickly 
 on the road, met a couple of friendly Indians and 
 turned back with them on account of an alarming 
 rumor. The friendly Indians declared that four 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 279 
 
 of the malcontents restless young Indians of the 
 war party had committed a murder near Slate 
 Creek, forty miles beyond Mt. Idaho. It appeared 
 that a man named Larryott had previously killed 
 an Indian, and that they had begun hostilities by 
 making him the first victim. 
 
 Joseph s father-in-law, then with me, was a 
 treaty Indian. He insisted that Joseph would not 
 fight and, he volunteering, we sent him to the front 
 with a few other friendly Indians, hoping to secure 
 better news. Not long after their departure all 
 came rushing back at full speed, bringing with them 
 a half-breed whose name was West. A brother of 
 Looking-Glass accompanied him. West bore the 
 second letter from L. P. Brown. This letter stated 
 that some settlers about eighteen miles from Mt. 
 Idaho had been attacked and the whole party killed 
 or wounded. The writer s entreaty was: " Don t 
 delay a moment! We have a report that some 
 whites were killed yesterday on the Salmon River. 
 . . . Mr. West has volunteered to go to Lapwai ; 
 rely on his statements." 
 
 By the same messengers came another letter 
 which probably the brother of Looking-Glass had 
 received later and with it had overtaken West 
 while on the road. It said: " Since that (letter) 
 was written the wounded have come in, Mr. Day 
 mortally, Mrs. Norton with both legs broken, 
 Moore shot through the hips, Norton killed and 
 left in the road six miles from here." This letter 
 ended with these words : " Hurry up ! hurry ! rely 
 on this Indian s statement; I have known him for 
 a long time. He is with us." 
 
280 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 This is my reply of June 15th: 
 " Mr. Brown. 
 
 Dear Sir: Your two dispatches are received. 
 I have sent forward two companies of cavalry to 
 your relief. They leave tonight. Other help will 
 be en route as soon as it can be brought up. I am 
 glad you are so cool and ready. Cheer the people. 
 Help shall be prompt and complete. Lewiston has 
 been notified. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 " O. O. HOWARD." 
 
 As my letter indicated Colonel Perry was or 
 dered to take his cavalry, consisting of ninety men, 
 and proceed at once to Mt. Idaho, and do what was 
 necessary for the protection of the people. Perry 
 needed one lieutenant more, so Theller was detailed 
 and furnished with a horse to accompany the de 
 tachment. I had no more men to send, as the other 
 company was, of course, needed for defense of the 
 garrison. It was a great risk to send but ninety 
 men; I knew it, but it was the best that could be 
 done. One never saw two finer troops of cavalry 
 than those which set out for the front on the even 
 ing of the 15th of May. 
 
 Reaching the vicinity of Mt. Idaho a company 
 of volunteers under Captain Chapman, less than 
 fifty strong, reported to Perry, and urged him to 
 go on at once some eighteen miles further and 
 attack the Indians and drive them across the Sal 
 mon River. The idea of the volunteers and of the 
 citizens was that the Indians would be afraid of 
 the troops and would rush off. They were, in fact, 
 assembled in White Bird Canyon a deep and 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 283 
 
 broad valley and very strongly posted in com 
 plete readiness to meet any body of troops that did 
 not exceed their fighting men in number. They 
 probably had at that point as many as five hundred 
 Indians bearing arms. Many young Indians from 
 other tribes had joined them, delighted to take a 
 hand in the war that Joseph was going to conduct. 
 
 It is said, and it is now generally believed, that 
 Joseph himself was away from the Indians at the 
 time the first massacre began, and that the first 
 intimation he had of the actual state of things was 
 when a lot of young braves came racing back into 
 his camp and showed him evidences of slaughter 
 and of capture. Admitting this to be true, he now 
 decided to fight, and was present to command the 
 whole Indian force, which was standing on the de 
 fensive in White Bird Canyon. 
 
 At Grangeville, a small hamlet four miles from 
 Mt, Idaho, Perry gave his men a short rest, and 
 then set out to follow the Indians, strengthened by 
 the few volunteers, who appeared very eager for 
 the conflict. Marching all night they arrived at 
 early dawn on the high crest of White Bird. Can 
 yon. Four miles away they could just discern in 
 the dim light of the morning the faint smokes of 
 Indian camps. All the signs, such as the move 
 ments of herders, of horses, of sentinels on the 
 watch, and the extent of the ground occupied, in 
 dicated only a small number of Indians present. 
 Surely this was not the whole combination of dis 
 satisfied non-treaty Indians. The citizens were 
 more confident than ever and declared that what 
 they saw was only a rear-guard of Joseph s outfit. 
 
284 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Perry, though not wholly convinced of the fa 
 vorable nature of the situation, and hoping to sur 
 prise the camp, whatever it was, put his force into 
 as good order as possible. The infantry officer, 
 Lieutenant Theller, riding a good horse, was sent 
 out some hundred yards to proceed in advance, 
 with eight cavalrymen for guard and skirmish. 
 Perry followed with the volunteers and his own 
 troop. Trimble, with Parnell, led his men after 
 Perry with a short interval. With horses now 
 quiet, more so from the night march than any 
 thing else, all in column of fours, the handsome 
 young commander began the descent of the steep 
 trail. 
 
 They had not gone over a half mile when poor 
 Mrs. Benedict came up, leading a little girl, and 
 carrying her baby in her arms. Her husband had 
 been murdered in her presence, and she had suf 
 fered indescribable outrage, but by the help of 
 some compassionate acquaintance among the In 
 dians she had at last succeeded in escaping from 
 further brutalities. Believing that troops would 
 come to meet the Indians down that canyon road, 
 she, worn out with fatigue and distress, had been 
 awaiting them, lying hidden in the bushes by the 
 wayside. The commander, after hearing her sad 
 story, provided an escort from the volunteers to 
 take her and the children to Mt. Idaho, and then 
 pushed on into the valley. 
 
 No commander could have located his men 
 better than Joseph had done for a defensive battle. 
 The ground was rough and there were stony buttes 
 along his front, and his entire force was completely 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 285 
 
 hidden by the formation of the ground. His flank 
 ing parties, particularly those under White Bird, 
 had their ponies in readiness. Lieutenant Theller 
 began the action by skirmishing straight up toward 
 the occupied buttes, while the citizens ran to the 
 left hillock with a hope of getting beyond the In 
 dians in that direction. 
 
 Trimble deployed his troops and followed 
 Theller straight forward, while he himself bore off 
 to the right to watch his exposed right flank. 
 
 Soon Perry s men also were deployed to the left 
 of Trimble s, and the Indians were firing sharply 
 all along the line. Our men fired as best they could 
 over their horses heads, many of which became so 
 excited as to be beyond control. Parnell was doing 
 his duty near the center, and Perry, with a trum 
 peter by his side, was doing his best to keep a fight 
 ing line unbroken. One instant, looking to the 
 south, they saw some of the Indians running their 
 ponies to high ground just off to their right and 
 rear. Six men and a sergeant flew to the threat 
 ened knoll and repulsed them. Perry, turning to 
 the left, noticed that two of the citizens were limp 
 ing with wounds, and that the remainder of the 
 volunteers were fleeing to the rear. Just then his 
 bugler fell dying from his horse. 
 
 At this decisive juncture of a fierce battle Perry 
 saw that the Indians had at least three to one 
 against him, and that both his flanks were turned. 
 It was evident that he could not go to the Salmon 
 River nor stay where he was many minutes, so he 
 ordered the command back to the foothills of the 
 canyon whence he had come, but amid the yelling 
 
286 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of the Indians and the rapid firing of rifles and 
 carbines there was no longer any order whatever, 
 so that a confused mass, sauv e qid peut, started to 
 the rear, the swifter horses having the lead. 
 
 Chief White Bird and his flankers ran their 
 ponies with all speed to get to the crest of the can 
 yon before the troops, and starting so soon, just 
 after their first check at the knoll, they had the ad 
 vantage. Indians also pursued and kept within 
 easy rifle range of Perry s rear, so that all along 
 the way horses and men were falling. Every white 
 man that fell was slain. 
 
 Up the foothills of the canyon were ravines and 
 ridges, and our remaining men under Theller were 
 trying to ascend first a ravine and then a ridge. 
 So many Indians came upon him tha,t soon horse 
 and rider fell; Theller and the majority of his 
 cavalrymen were slain. All our men that reached 
 the crest were quickly reorganized and covered by 
 skirmish rear-guard; turning to the right they 
 pursued their way, slowly retreating and beating 
 back the Indians without further disaster for the 
 next ten miles. After that the Indians gave up the 
 chase and returned to Joseph s position in White 
 Bird Canyon. 
 
 Before night of that eventful day, June 16th, 
 1877, I had received the terrible news at Lapwai. 
 I shall never forget a message in Perry s note to 
 me: "Please break the news of her husband s 
 death to Mrs. Theller." When I opened her djoor 
 she anticipated my tidings and cried out: " Oh, 
 my husband ! : They had no children ; he was her 
 all, and her heart was broken. Thirty-three out of 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 287 
 
 the ninety that had left Lapwai in health and 
 strength, all in the buoyancy of young manhood, 
 were slain, and Perry was humiliated. A defeat 
 is hard to bear. 
 
 At the time I had only one small company of 
 infantry with me at Lapwai, but my men, respond 
 ing to telegrams, were on the w T ay from every part 
 of the immense Department of the Columbia. 
 When I had gathered not to exceed two hundred 
 of them I moved forward, taking command in 
 person, setting out at noon, June 22d. 
 
 Meanwhile Joseph had succeeded in picking up 
 small parties of soldiers and citizen scouts, and 
 had slain them all. We moved with care until we 
 joined Perry at Grange ville. When I thought my 
 command was sufficiently strong I began active 
 pursuit of the Indians. At Mt. Idaho we met 
 women and children who had been outraged and 
 wounded. We passed into White Bird Canyon 
 and there buried our comrades. We then crossed 
 over the Salmon River, at that time foaming and 
 tumbling like a boiling caldron, and ran down all 
 .the trails and recrossed the Salmon at its widest 
 point not far from its mouth, for the Indians had 
 gotten over on their skin rafts, hauled by their 
 swimming ponies, and had turned back eastward 
 between us and Lapwai, crossing the broad prairies 
 to the west and north of Grangeville. 
 
 I had managed at last to gather a force of be 
 tween five and six hundred in number, with two 
 field-pieces (small cannon) and a Gatling gun. 
 Locating the Indians as well as I could in the wild 
 forest southeast of Kamia, near the head waters 
 
288 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of one of the branches of the Clear Water, I made 
 a march in one day of forty-four miles, using 
 country wagons to carry about a third of the in 
 fantry at a time, while the remainder marched on 
 foot. 
 
 On the llth of July we discovered Joseph as we 
 were descending the right bank of the Clear Water. 
 He and his men were waiting for us; his women 
 and baggage were on the other side of the river. 
 It was a woody country, full of rough knolls and 
 transverse ravines. In one of these the Indians 
 lay concealed until my troops had passed them. 
 They then sprang out and ran to close in my com 
 mand between themselves and the river where there 
 was a considerable bend. We faced them, deploy 
 ing our lines and putting all our supplies and am 
 munition, carried by our pack-mules, between us 
 and the river. At first we had a spring of water in 
 our possession, and also a small, muddy pond of 
 bad water. 
 
 The battle began and was so fiercely contested 
 that the Indians at night had us completely hemmed 
 in and were in possession of our spring of water. 
 The other water neither our men nor the animals 
 would drink. The Indians were very confident, 
 but the next morning, using my artillerymen, 
 Colonel Marcus P. Miller commanding them, I 
 first recovered the spring, then everybody had 
 breakfast. After that Colonel Miller with his ar 
 tillerymen broke through the Indian line and met 
 Jackson s troop of cavalry, which was bringing to 
 us fresh supplies. 
 
 Miller, after meeting Jackson, caused him to 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 289 
 
 rush across the Indian line with his supplies while 
 he himself made a quick movement, which I had 
 ordered him to try, turning to the left and rolling 
 up the Indian lines. They were surprised and fled 
 in a panic, and swam the river or waded it where 
 the water was not too deep, and set their whole body 
 quickly in full retreat. I do not think that I had to 
 exercise more thorough generalship during the 
 Civil War than I did in that march to the battle 
 field, and in the ensuing battle with Joseph and his 
 Indians on the banks of the Clear Water. 
 
 We immediately took up the pursuit and fol 
 lowed the hostiles as far as Kamia. There the In 
 dians, still numbering between six and seven hun 
 dred, according to an estimate made at the time, 
 recrossed the Clear Water. We had skirmishes 
 with them, and tried the metal of our Gatling gun, 
 but our foes easily kept beyond its range and were 
 very cautious about engaging in battle again. I 
 sent out Colonel E. C. Mason, my chief-of-staff, 
 with all the cavalry I could muster, to press the In 
 dians rear as they were retiring by what was called 
 the Lolo Trail, which led through the forest toward 
 Montana. Mason overtook Joseph s rear-guard, 
 had a skirmish near a forest glade not far from 
 Kamia, and then returned in haste to me. Mean 
 while I was getting ready for what I believed would 
 be a long chase. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 PURSUIT AND DEFEAT OF THE INDIANS SURRENDER 
 OF CHIEF JOSEPH. 
 
 Marching through a Rough Country Word from General Gibbon 
 An Experienced Scout and Frontiersman The Fleeing Indians 
 Turn Back Upon Me A Vicious Night Attack Half-breed Buck 
 ing Ponies Arrival in the National Park Murdering a Party of 
 Visitors Lost in the Forest " The Howard Road " Unwearied 
 and Relentless Pursuit of the Indians An Adroit Indian Chief 
 Running the Gauntlet Slim Chances of Success The Surrender. 
 
 1HAD with me a few troops from California, 
 but my main dependence was upon the artil 
 lery acting as infantry, a majority of the 
 Twenty-first Infantry as a battalion under Cap 
 tain Evan Miles, the greater part of the cavalry 
 under Major Sanford, and a company of volun 
 teers under Captain McConville. It was necessary 
 to divide my command, leaving a portion at Kamia 
 under the command of Colonel John Green to 
 guard against the return of the hostiles or any 
 further outbreak in the department. 
 
 Captain Spurgin of the Twenty-first Infantry 
 was put in charge of a select body of fifty citizens 
 employed by my quartermaster, who were able to 
 do some sort of engineering work. They took with 
 them the necessary axes, picks, and shovels, but 
 owing to the character of the trail from Oregon to 
 Montana we could take no wagons, so all that we 
 had in the line of supplies was borne by pack ani 
 mals. Another small volunteer force, called " The 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 291 
 
 Scouts, " was added under the charge of Captain 
 Bobbins. Among them we had a few Indians from 
 the friendly Nez Perces, and later some from the 
 Bannocks, with quite a number of selected fron 
 tiersmen. This body, well organized, varied from 
 day to day never, all told, exceeding fifty men. 
 
 From Kamia a long and tedious march began 
 on the 26th of July, 1877. The Indians were al 
 ready a hundred and fifty miles ahead, and yet 
 over the Lolo Trail the first day we made but six 
 miles. A rougher country one could hardly imag 
 ine, and the short march looked discouraging even 
 to our experienced officers, but I knew that mus 
 cular endurance would develop as w r e went on, and 
 that our men would be untiring. The Indians 
 generally make their greatest distance the first day 
 and then slacken and rest when they are not closely 
 pursued. General Gibbon opposed the hostiles 
 with volunteers and a few regulars at the Montana 
 end of the Lolo Trail, but they easily, by the help 
 of friendly Flatheads, turned his flank and es 
 caped battle there. % Then, notifying me, he pushed 
 on after them as rapidly as he could until he over 
 took them at the mouth of Big Hole Pass. 
 
 As we were pushing on with all our might, 
 horses getting weak and weary from overwork and 
 underfeeding, we were met by a second messenger 
 from General Gibbon. His message apprised us 
 that he had had a battle, beginning at daylight on 
 the 9th of August, at first successful, " but they 
 (the Indians) then turned on us, forced us out of 
 it (the camp), and compelled us to take the de 
 fensive. 7 Gibbon had a number of wounded who 
 
292 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 needed medical attendance, and his men seemed 
 to be in pretty bad condition, as it was difficult for,, 
 them to cover themselves against the NezrPerce 
 rifles. The general closed with these yords: 
 6 Hope you will hurry to our relief. 
 
 As quickly as it could be done I made th<^niarch 
 to the vicinity of the Big Hole, when Josejfh, Jiear- 
 ing of my coming, made off eastward with nis In 
 dians. General Gibbon had been wounded^n the 
 leg, but notwithstanding this was able to*ricfe with 
 me over the battlefield. 
 
 At Junction Station, Montana, a< pVace where 
 the stages halted before continuing their journey, 
 our cavalry was so weak that we were Obliged: to 
 stop and rest for a few hours. Here another com 
 pany of volunteers joined us with fresh horses, 
 and remained with us a couple of days. From this 
 point I sent Lieutenant Bacon in command of two 
 troops of cavalry, giving him for a guides wonder 
 fully skilled frontiersman by the name fef Fisher. 
 He was very deaf, but possessed extraordinary 
 sharpness of sight, and was a capital scout. He 
 took with him a few Bannocks, among whom was 
 the famous Buffalo Horn. Bacon wa& to move 
 rapidly away from the Indian trails and strike in 
 by Henry Lake in the vicinity of Tach^L Pass, a 
 ^gateway to the National Park. He was w head off 
 the Indians and detain them by his fire till we could 
 come upon them from the rear. Bacon got into 
 position soon enough, but did not have the heart to 
 fight the Indians on account of their number. 
 
 While he was gone the Indians turned back 
 upon me, on the Camas Meadows, where there were 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 293 
 
 piles of lava covered with vegetation, and offered 
 battle in the night. They fired into our camp, ran 
 off our mules, having first cut the strap of the bell- 
 mare, so that she ceased to be their leader, then 
 ran from our cavalry and attacked one of Captain 
 Norwood s companies, which had strayed far to 
 the front during the rapid advance. We succeeded 
 in recovering most of the mules and setting Joseph 
 and his people again in rapid motion. He went 
 straight toward the National Park, where Lieu 
 tenant Bacon let him go by and pass through the 
 narrow gateway without firing a shot. 
 
 Buffalo Horn was disgusted because we did not 
 follow the Indians with more energy, and he 
 wanted me to kill Captains John and George, our 
 favorite Nez Perce scouts, because, as he insisted, 
 it was they who cut the strap of the bell-mare and 
 betrayed us to the Indians. After this night fight, 
 in which some of our volunteers became badly de 
 moralized while wading a deep creek and losing 
 some of their arms and ammunition, a number of 
 them took final leave of our expedition and went 
 back to their homes. 
 
 At this place, Henry Lake, I encamped for 
 three days, as I was obliged to halt for supplies. 
 I thought perhaps we had gone far enough and 
 that the troops of other departments would com- 
 plete what we had so well begun ; but hearing from 
 General Sherman that I should continue the pur 
 suit of the Indians until relieved by some other 
 officer of sufficient rank and energy, I took Lieu 
 tenant Guy Howard, my aide-de-camp, with me 
 and went north seventy-five miles for the supplies, 
 
 18 
 
294 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 riding night and day to what was called Virginia 
 City, then a small mining village. I bought nearly 
 everything that the village could furnish in the 
 way of provisions, clothing, and fresh animals. 
 The horses were pronounced "well broken," but 
 subsequent experience proved this to be untrue. 
 As I wrote at the time, " such a pitching and plung 
 ing, hooting and yelling, running and falling, made 
 one think of danger ahead from something besides 
 Indians." The bucking of a half -broken half- 
 breed pony is always exciting and frequently dan 
 gerous. 
 
 My aide and myself returned within three days 
 and the command was again set in motion. In the 
 National Park the Indians had killed or wounded 
 all the men of a party of visitors, but had spared 
 .the women, and finally sent them to their homes. 
 We met one man who was deranged and nearly 
 starved; another had been left for dead, him we 
 rescued and returned to his wife, already in mourn 
 ing; a third was also badly wounded, but finally 
 recovered and returned to Bozeman. 
 
 Joseph had gone on through the park and be 
 yond the Yellowstone and, fortunately for us, had 
 become lost for a few days in the entangled forest 
 of that region. The road that we made for a hun 
 dred miles across the park is still pointed out to 
 tourists as " The Howard Road." Of course we 
 had a view of the geysers and hot springs, and of 
 Mary Lake ; we marveled at the falls, which exceed 
 Niagara in height. High up that river we built a 
 bridge, using the logs which, already suited to our 
 purpose, we had found in a deserted house. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 295 
 
 Thinking I was too tired or too old for such an 
 extraordinary march, General Sherman dispatched 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert, an officer much older 
 than I, though of less rank, with a body of cavalry 
 from Fort Ellis to overtake me, relieve me from 
 duty, and take my place ; but it was not to be. The 
 stern chase was so hard that after ten days trial 
 Gilbert and his worn-out horses gave up the chase 
 and returned to the fort. 
 
 Everybody will remember the Ouster massacre, 
 that took place June 25, 1876. Taking as a nucleus 
 the remnant of the Seventh Cavalry, that suffered 
 so heavy a loss at the battle of Little Big Horn, a 
 new Seventh Regiment had been organized. 
 Colonel Sturgis was commanding it in the vicinity 
 of Hart s Mountain. We knew that the Indians, 
 following the usual Nez Perce trails, would prob 
 ably pass over the top of that mountain. I had 
 sent word to Sturgis to head them off, as he had a 
 full regiment of well-drilled cavalry in good trim 
 for campaigning and ready for a quick march. 
 We had reason to believe that our campaign was 
 about to end in a great victory. But Joseph s 
 scouts, aided by a few wily Crow Indians, suc 
 ceeded in deceiving Sturgis and in getting the 
 Seventh Cavalry some forty miles off the trail. 
 
 Joseph and his Indians passed on over Hart s 
 Mountain and, with my command, I was not far 
 behind. He deviated from the usual path after 
 clearing the mountain, and went through a strange 
 canyon, where the rocks on each side came so near 
 together that two horses abreast could hardly pass. 
 After clearing this canyon, Joseph, feeling himself 
 
296 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 comparatively safe, allowed his band to rest by 
 making shorter marches. But soon Sturgis, find 
 ing himself behind them, turned back and overtook 
 my command. Adding something to his force, I 
 encouraged Sturgis to make a forced march and 
 overtake the Indians, who were now not far ahead. 
 He was glad enough to do this to allay in a measure 
 his chagrin at being outwitted by them. 
 
 The next day I had made a march of some 
 twenty-five miles when a message came from my 
 aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Fletcher, who was with 
 Sturgis, that they had had a running fight with the 
 hostiles, and that there was a prospect of a decisive 
 battle before I could reach them. I rested for 
 three hours ; then, taking fifty cavalrymen with me 
 and ordering my chief -of -staff to follow with the 
 command in the early morning, I marched all 
 night. At sunrise we found the upper waters of 
 the Yellowstone before us. Crossing over I was on 
 the battlefield a little after ten o clock. 
 
 Finding that the wily Indian chief had again 
 escaped after small loss, I gathered up my forces 
 and, retaining Sturgis cavalry with me, moved 
 along more deliberately toward the Musselshell. 
 There w r as little hope of overtaking the Indians by 
 direct pursuit. Information led us to suppose that 
 they were running the gauntlet of the Judith Basin 
 across the Musselshell and then the Missouri some 
 where above Carroll, and that they would probably 
 push on rapidly into the British territory. They, 
 in fact, did this, defeating a guard of regular 
 troops and capturing a wagonload of supplies at 
 the Missouri crossing, biit I did not yet know of 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 297 
 
 that encounter. My only hope of striking the In 
 dians lay in apprising Colonel Miles (afterward 
 Lieutenant-General of the Army) of the situation, 
 and asking him to make a diagonal march across 
 our front and take Joseph unawares. 
 
 Colonel Miles was said to be near the mouth of 
 Tongue River. I sent one dispatch to him by mes 
 sengers riding overland and another by a boat 
 down the Yellowstone. These messages reached 
 him and he replied, telling me what he would un 
 dertake, and that he would start immediately upon 
 the expedition. Sturgis and I slowed our marches 
 for fear of causing the Indians to hasten too 
 rapidly, but Miles with his mounted infantry 
 made rapid and extended marches, crossing the 
 Missouri near the mouth of the Musselshell. The 
 first news I received from the front came in a re 
 markable way. Colonel Mason, Dr. Alexander, 
 and myself were riding together. I told them that 
 I had asked the great Master for success, even if 
 the credit were given to another, and that I be 
 lieved we should yet have a favorable ending to the 
 campaign. The doctor rallied me concerning my 
 conviction, for which he could see no reason, and 
 Mason replied pleasantly, but seemed to lack faith 
 in the possibility of such an outcome. A very short 
 time after this conversation two messengers came 
 riding rapidly, and reported that Colonel Miles had 
 overtaken the Indians and that an engagement 
 was imminent. 
 
 We now pushed on as rapidly as possible to the 
 Missouri. In plain sight of Carroll was the 
 steamer Benton ready for my use. Leaving 
 
298 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Mason, my chief-of-staff, to move my command 
 proper and Sturgis Seventh Cavalry over the 
 river to a designated point between Miles and what 
 was called the permanent camp of Sitting Bull on 
 the British side of the line, I steamed up to the 
 Indians crossing near Cow r Island. I had with me 
 two aides, Lieutenant C. E. S. Wood and Lieuten 
 ant Guy Howard. I had also the two Nez Perce 
 scouts, Captains John and George, and several 
 American scouts. We promptly took up the In 
 dian trail, plain enough now for anybody to fol 
 low, and on we went, meeting now and then 
 messengers who apprised us of the situation. 
 
 Miles had had a battle, but it had not been alto 
 gether decisive. It was near what was called " The 
 Little Rockies," a part of the upper portion of the 
 Bear Paw Mountain. 
 
 One night we camped on the trail, where we 
 had wood enough which we much needed on ac 
 count of the extreme cold but the water was alka 
 line and caused much sickness among my men. 
 Still none were left behind. During the day we 
 met some scouts, who reported that Indians were 
 between us and Miles bivouac. They said that 
 they could not go on and had turned back, but we 
 found the supposed Indians to be friendly hunters 
 and so pursued our w r ay. 
 
 It was early in the evening when we came upon 
 the crest of a hill and saw the campfires of our 
 troops. We heard firing, and some of the bullets 
 whistled over our heads, and as I thought that our 
 party had been mistaken for savages I cried out : 
 " What are you firing at us for? " 
 
MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 299 
 
 Just then Miles himself with a small escort met 
 and took me to his headquarters. That night we 
 consulted together ; he showed me how the Indians 
 had dug deep holes instead of ordinary entrench 
 ments; that part of the herd of Indian ponies had 
 been captured and a part was still in the possession 
 of the Indians; that he was very anxious for a 
 speedy surrender. He had sent in a brave and 
 capable officer, who had been for a while detained 
 by Joseph, but at last had returned, having 
 been unable to bring matters to a decision. I 
 proposed to send in my two Nez Perce scouts, Cap 
 tains John and George, bearing a white flag. I 
 believed that they could secure a prompt surrender 
 of Joseph and all his people who were with him. 
 
 The next day this was done. Miles and myself 
 sat side by side upon the slope of a hill in plain 
 view of both contestants, when " Captain John," 
 accompanied by George, moved off on foot swing 
 ing his white flag. 
 
 We did not have very long to wait. The scouts 
 returned and bore Joseph s message to the effect 
 that he had done all he could and that he left his 
 people and himself in our hands. Some of the In 
 dians violated the promise they had made to 
 Joseph, creeping out of camp in the night and es 
 caping. One of them was Chief White Bird. 
 
 It was rather a forlorn procession that came up 
 out of that Indian bivouac. They were covered 
 with dirt, their clothing was torn, and their ponies, 
 such as they were, were thin and lame. A few of 
 the Indians preserved their dignified bearing and 
 had attired themselves as best they could for the 
 
300 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 occasion. When Joseph appeared he extended his 
 rifle to me and I waived it over to Colonel Miles, 
 who had planned and made a swift diagonal march, 
 and so bravely fought the last battle. 
 
 That night Miles and I slept again in Ms tent. 
 He made his report to his department commander, 
 and a little later I made mine. I had been in 
 structed by McDowell to send the Indians back to 
 the Department of the Columbia, and I so gave 
 Joseph to understand, but I was overruled from 
 Washington, and Miles was ordered to keep them 
 for the time being and finally send them to the In 
 dian Territory. 
 
 All this was done. My own troops were brought 
 back to the Missouri, sent down that river in steam 
 boats as far as Omaha, and thence taken back by 
 rail and ocean steamers to Oregon and Washington 
 Territory. I returned to my headquarters in Port 
 land, Oregon, reaching home the last of November. 
 From the last day of May until the last of Novem 
 ber I had been under the severe strain of an ardu 
 ous campaign. We had marched one thousand 
 three hundred and twenty-one miles in seventy- 
 five days. Joseph s loss during the entire period 
 was over a hundred. Too-hul-hul-sote, Looking- 
 Glass, and Joseph s brother Ollicut perished in 
 battle. Our own losses in all the battles included 
 several valuable officers, and nearly as many men 
 as were lost by the Indians. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STARTING FOR ALASKA EXPERIENCES WITH ALASKAN 
 CHIEFS AND TRIBES. 
 
 Reservation Indians of Puget Sound Evil Results of Dissolute White 
 Men Mingling with Indians Indians as Coal Miners Wonder 
 fully Picturesque and Varied Scenery Arrival at Fort W T rangel 
 Some Dejected Indians Listening to their Grievances In 
 fluence of Strong Drink Presenting a Tribe with the Dead Body 
 of their Chief A Dance of Satisfaction A Pantomine Show 
 Begging for a Teacher Hideously-painted Faces Sitka Indian 
 Chiefs Extreme Poverty and Vicious Indulgence Results of 
 Missionary Efforts Brief Sketch of Colonel Guy Howard s Career. 
 
 WHEN I first assumed command of the De 
 partment of the Columbia Alaska was 
 within my jurisdiction. I had already 
 visited several reservations on Puget Sound, for 
 example, the Skokomish, the Swinomish, the Tula- 
 lip, and the Neah Bay. The Indians upon these 
 public lands were substantially of the same de 
 scription, differing a little in dialects. They were 
 not so tall as the Indians of the interior, and they 
 had no horses. Their bodies were long and their 
 legs short, as one would expect from a people that 
 spent more than half their time in canoes and 
 paddle-boats. Those on Puget Sound were, for 
 the most part, dressed in citizens clothing. 
 
 On each reserve, however, there were two 
 groups: the larger dressed as we do and lived in 
 small houses, but the smaller group adhered 
 tenaciously to old Indian customs. They usu 
 ally wore leggins, moccasins, breech-cloth, and 
 
302 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 blanket; they painted their faces more or less, often 
 hideously, using deep colors. Some of the uncivil 
 ized people of the Coast tribes were very low in 
 their habits of life and in their morals ; where dis 
 solute white men from the logging camps and mills 
 and from incoming vessels mingled with them, 
 scrofulous diseases were coupled with other signs 
 of degradation. 
 
 The civilized Indians on the Tulalip and nearly 
 all on the Skokomish reservations, the former 
 Roman Catholic and the latter Protestant, have 
 been educated in a Christian way and encouraged 
 to marry early in life. Their lives are simple and 
 exemplary. The men have become useful in cut 
 ting timber and in working in the numerous mills 
 along the Sound, while the women are fairly good 
 housekeepers. I found some of their houses very 
 neat and tidy throughout, with all the essential ap 
 purtenances of civilized life. 
 
 In the early summer of 1875 the members of a 
 court-martial were to sail for Alaska on the 
 steamer California, and I thought it would be an 
 excellent opportunity to accompany them for the 
 purpose of making a tour of inspection in that 
 distant portion of my department. I also took ad 
 vantage of this official visit to give an outing to my 
 wife and children. We left Portland, Oregon, on 
 the 2d of June, proceeding by railroad and a Sound 
 steamer as far as Victoria, and thence by the regu 
 lar transport, the California. The steamer sailed 
 from Portland by way of the Columbia River and 
 the Pacific Ocean to Victoria, thence by " the in 
 ner passage " to Wrangel and Sitka. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 303 
 
 At " Nanaimo, " an English post, I accompanied 
 the officers of the court-martial to some extensive 
 coal mines whfere many Indians were at work with 
 other employees. The Indians in the neighbor 
 hood did not exceed two hundred. They were 
 fairly well dressed in civilians clothing, and had 
 clean faces; there was no regular school; a small 
 mission of the Methodist persuasion was active 
 among them. 
 
 The voyage from Nanaimo to Wrangel was 
 very pleasant. The gulfs and sounds were con 
 nected by straits and bays, which seemed like a 
 succession of beautiful rivers. Wonderfully pic 
 turesque ^ and varied was that "inner passage." 
 At times there was on the right and left a wall of 
 magnificent mountains rising from two to three 
 thousand feet, snow-crowned and covered with 
 trees ; glistening cascades falling hundreds of feet ; 
 streams coursing like silver threads down the 
 mountain sides; mighty glaciers and extensive 
 snow fields; every natural feature that travelers 
 go beyond the ocean to see here meets and delights 
 the eye. 
 
 We had heard and read enthusiastic descrip 
 tions of the Alaska journey, but could never have 
 imagined half the wonderful beauty of this shel 
 tered and safe inland passage from Port Townsend 
 to Sitka. 
 
 Soon we were safely at anchor near Wrangel 
 Island. Fort Wrangel was on one end of the 
 island and was occupied by a small detachment of 
 troops, hardly a platoon, under command of Lieu 
 tenant John A. Lundeen of the Fourth Artillery. 
 
304 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 He had with him Lieutenant Macomb as his second 
 in authority. Buildings sufficient for the detach 
 ment were protected by an old-fashioned stockade. 
 The garrison being small, Lundeen occupied only 
 a part of the stockade enclosure. He reported 
 successful attempts by unprincipled white men of 
 the neighborhood to manufacture strong drink, 
 which was sold to both Indians and whites, and the 
 lieutenant was annoyed because he did not have 
 quick rowboats to reach the liquor stills and de 
 stroy them. I authorized him to hire a canoe for 
 this purpose. 
 
 As soon as my inspection was over, the Indians 
 from "the ranches," the name given to the long 
 rows of houses built and occupied by them, came 
 with extremely dejected countenances to have an 
 interview with me. Fortunately, our interpreter, 
 Alexander Choquette, spoke English well and the 
 Stickeen or Thlinket tongue with equal facility. 
 The complaint laid before me was that white men 
 had some time before taken away their favorite 
 chief Fernandeste by force; that our people (some 
 accursed liquor dealers who were prisoners with 
 him on the steamer California) had so frightened 
 Fernandeste as to excite his apprehension of the 
 consequences of his detention and journey to Port 
 land, so that in extreme terror he had taken his 
 own life ; that his immediate relatives were worried 
 and goaded almost to madness by the sneers and 
 gibes of other Indians, who called them cowards 
 because they did not seek revenge or obtain a settle 
 ment. I learned that under the influence of this 
 passion, increased and stimulated by strong drink, 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 305 
 
 these same relatives had made more than one at 
 tempt to kill a white man. The Indians had re 
 ceived a letter from me, as department commander, 
 which contained a promise to provide for a com 
 plete "settlement," and relying on this promise 
 they were patiently awaiting my coming. 
 
 Now that I had come the Indians felt certain 
 that I would soon make everything all right. They 
 went on to make several urgent propositions, but 
 finally settled upon the condition of a potlatch, 
 which was to consist of one hundred blankets and 
 the dead body of Fernandeste. Luckily I had been 
 amply forewarned and so had brought the body of 
 Fernandeste with us (it having been disinterred 
 at Astoria and put on board the California}. I 
 had also obtained the formal permission of the 
 Secretary of War at Washington to make the issue 
 of the necessary blankets. Thus prepared, I gra 
 ciously yielded to the Indians fervent entreaty and 
 gave them evidence of the blankets intended for 
 them and of the body which we had brought. 
 
 By the end of our first interview the appear 
 ance of these Stickeen Indians had wholly changed. 
 That night they gave a characteristic dance of sat 
 isfaction, participated in only by the men and 
 lasting for hours, in which they depicted, in rude 
 pantomime, the departure of Fernandeste on the 
 steamer, his suicide, and the return of his body; 
 they also portrayed our visit and the satisfactory 
 settlement which I had just promised. 
 
 These Indians had heard about our schools, and 
 their children had been taught to some extent by 
 members of officers families, who had been pre- 
 
306 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 viously stationed at Wrangel. They begged for a 
 teacher, such as they had heard of at Fort Simpson 
 and at Metlakahtla. Their houses were surpris 
 ingly good. They were constructed of thick slabs, 
 sometimes very long and broad, with a large door 
 in the middle. The roof had a broad opening at 
 the center, under which was a portion of ground 
 enclosed by logs partly sunk in the earth, used as 
 a fireplace and for cooking. All around the inside 
 of the best houses was a banquette conveniently 
 high and well built. It served for sleeping places 
 and for such bedding and clothing as they might 
 have. Many of the Indian women wore their hair 
 in a natural way, cut off just below the neck and 
 parted in the middle, but they painted their faces 
 with something that looked very much like lamp 
 black. 
 
 The totem poles interested me very much. 
 Some of the carvings of different animals on the 
 posts and at the top of the totem staffs were so well 
 executed as plainly to indicate a bird, a bear 
 or some other animal. The totem pole may have 
 carved upon it the tribal emblem, or the personal 
 history of a chief and the names of distinction 
 given him are indicated by its curious devices. 
 
 From Wrangel we journeyed northward in the 
 night and reached anchorage near Sitka Thursday 
 evening the 10th of June. An old friend and com 
 rade of mine, Major J. B. Campbell, was not only 
 commander of the troops, but the Indian agent for 
 the territory. I went ashore so as to make my 
 military inspection early Friday morning. Hav 
 ing been troubled for some time by numerous news- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 307 
 
 paper charges against the major s management of 
 affairs at Sitka, I gave those who called themselves 
 citizens, comprising Russians, Aleuts, half-breeds, 
 foreign traders, and Americans proper residing in 
 the town, an opportunity to meet me, as they de 
 sired, separate from the officers of the garrison. 
 We met at the house of the United States collector, 
 who kindly briefed the complaints for me. These 
 I carefully considered and acted upon as far as 
 possible. The complaints did not prove to be of 
 great importance. I remedied the real ills by hav 
 ing Major Campbell introduce a little home-rule 
 and a few police regulations. He established a 
 general hospital and raised sufficient revenue 
 to meet necessities. One of his most humane 
 officers acted in the capacity of a police judge. 
 Major Campbell could under the law do those 
 things with the powers vested in him as Indian 
 agent. 
 
 During the afternoon of Sunday, June 13th, I 
 met the Indians who lived in the neighborhood of 
 Sitka and had a long interview with the chiefs who 
 were present, and with their people. The famous 
 " Sitka Jack 1 was absent. He had gone away 
 with his long canoe filled with men using the pad 
 dle, while he, having hoisted his flag, sat in the 
 stern and steered the craft. I was sorry not to see 
 him, as he controlled at that time over one-half of 
 the Indian households. In each house there was 
 one family and some branches, often numbering 
 twenty or thirty people. 
 
 Anahootz was the chief who governed the other 
 households ; this time he spoke for all the Indians. 
 
308 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 He first came to me in a dignified way and sub 
 mitted the numerous and fairly well preserved 
 recommendations which he had received from 
 prominent officials, both Russian and American. 
 He told his story and concluded by saying: " My 
 people are just beginning to arrive at wiiat I have 
 long desired amity with the whites and with each 
 other under the protection of a good commander. 
 I have had many battles to secure this and my 
 people are just beginning to see that I was right." 
 
 After his speech I spoke to him of the advan 
 tages of education for the children, and told him 
 that was the best means of bringing about a mutual 
 understanding and of acquiring knowledge of the 
 white man s ways, and advised him to lay this 
 subject before his people. Anahootz heartily ap 
 proved of my suggestion and said : "I have spent 
 sleepless nights thinking for the interest of my 
 people. I want a good teacher ; I will build him a 
 schoolhouse. A teacher once came, but he did not 
 stay." 
 
 In reply to Anahootz I tried to address all the 
 Indians, urging education and industry and con 
 stant cooperation with their good chief. There was 
 a universal response, hearty and happy, to my 
 suggestions. 
 
 The Indians at Sitka showed many evidences 
 of extreme poverty, and some of vicious indul 
 gence, but the desire for a good teacher was 
 universal. I presented this desire, not only from 
 Sitka but from Wrangel, to the different societies 
 in the missionary field, but for a time without re 
 sult. At last, under the pleadings of the Rev. Dr. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 309 
 
 Lindsley of Portland, Oregon, the Presbyterians 
 added that part of Alaska to their mission field, 
 and great results have followed their efforts. I 
 may here add that the widow of the Rev. Dr. Mc- 
 Farland, whom it will be remembered my son, Guy 
 Howard,* so tenderly nursed w r hen ill and brought 
 in safety to Old Camp Grant, was the first mis 
 sionary at Fort Wrangel. Her sucesses there and 
 at Sitka was phenomenal. 
 
 * General Howard s son, Colonel Guy Howard, entered the service in 
 187G, as a Lieutenant of Infantry. He was long a Captain in the 
 Quartermaster s Department, and became Corps Quartermaster with 
 the volunteer rank of Colonel during the Spanish War. He was sent 
 to the Philippines, there became General Lawton s Chief -Quartermaster, 
 and fell in action on the Steamer Occanica, October 22, 1899, while 
 hauling barges of supplies to General Lawton. Colonel Howard, when 
 mortally wounded, sprang to his feet and cried to his men, " Whatever 
 happens to me keep the launch going." 
 
 19 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 OUR JOURNEY TO ALASKA CONTINUED A VISIT TO THE 
 
 CHILCATS, THE SUMDUMS, AND OTHER 
 
 PACIFIC COAST TRIBES. 
 
 Pacific Coast Indians Their Domestic Life A Patient Indian Suf 
 ferer A Contrary Old Woman " Sitka Jack " Among the 
 Chilcats A Faithful Watcher Home of the Sumdums Ice 
 bergs. Glaciers, and Picturesque Scenery Celebrating the Battle 
 of Bunker Hill Describing the Battlefield of Gettysburg Home 
 ward Bound A Methodist Missionary s Home Religious Service 
 in an Indian Village How it was Conducted Publishing Mar 
 riage Banns Extraordinary Changes in Indian Life A Skeptical 
 Officer Ascending the Columbia River Arrival at Portland. 
 
 WHILE the court-martial was performing- 
 its duties at Sitka I visited different 
 islands and promontories in the vicinity, 
 including timber lands where the Alaska cedar 
 grows in great abundance, and mines w r hich were 
 more or less productive. We proceeded northward 
 as far as we could in the five days that w r ere left 
 to us before the California w r ould have to return to 
 Oregon. 
 
 We stopped at Koutznous Bay, where we found 
 a band of Coast Indians of that name. They were 
 peaceably disposed, and watched us curiously 
 while we rowed a small boat around a point and 
 went on some four miles to the north of our anchor 
 age. We had run along by Admiralty Island. 
 
 In a pleasant little nook we came upon their 
 village. The ground was IOW T and fertile ; potatoes 
 were planted in high rows like celery in eastern 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 311 
 
 gardens, and there were growing crops of turnips, 
 cabbages, beets, and parsnips. The Indians seemed 
 to be happy, living substantially in the same sort 
 of houses as those at Wrangel, with a pitched roof, 
 quite broad and rather flat, and one door under the 
 gable just big enough to crawl through. One had 
 to ascend a few steps to enter it. The frame was 
 made of very large beams and the planks were of 
 great size. I measured single planks four feet 
 broad, six inches thick, and sixty feet long. The 
 houses were fifty or sixty feet broad and often 
 eighty feet in length. 
 
 In the best of the houses was a paved square for 
 the fire directly under the opening in the roof; 
 around this square the banquette was terminated 
 inward by a handsome single plank three feet wide 
 standing on edge. This plank was sometimes 
 carved and colored, as were those on the inside of 
 their canoes. Skins and furs of different kinds 
 were thrown upon or against the banquette. Over 
 the fire were pots, kettles, and horizontal poles on 
 which salmon were drying and smoking. Here 
 also were square waterproof casks for fish oil, and 
 well-made watertight trunks used by the Indians 
 in their canoes on long voyages, 
 
 In one house we found an old Indian of com 
 manding appearance, who had a finely-shaped 
 head and high forehead. He had been wounded in 
 the leg in an Indian skirmish years before and the 
 wound had never healed. His leg was kept straight 
 by props, his knee was swollen to three times its 
 natural size, and his uncut toenails had grown long 
 and pointed. His sufferings must have been in- 
 
312 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 tense, but he made no complaint. Oh, the infinite 
 patience of that poor fellow ! His wife seemed ill 
 and was moaning with pain as she sat at the door 
 way. 
 
 The Koutznous complained of a settler by the 
 name of Sullivan, and his partner, who ran a small 
 schooner into the bay with liquor for the Indians 
 of their village. They said they did not want them 
 there. One old woman, however, took the liquor- 
 sellers part and scolded the other Indians vehe 
 mently for telling about them. Among settlers may 
 be found crafty traders who understand the game 
 of getting Indians partly drunk before they buy 
 their furs and oils; after that they get all they 
 want at their own price. 
 
 Continuing our journey we anchored at the 
 mouth of the Chilcat River. The strong cold wind 
 was furiously lashing white-capped waves and 
 everything was bleak and dreary. As our anchor 
 fell a number of Chilcat Indians paddled about the 
 steamer. They were noticeably thin, but tough and 
 hardy, not so well clad as those at Sitka, but in 
 language, size, and features much like them. Here 
 I was glad to find " Sitka Jack" with his long 
 canoe, thoroughly equipped with paddles and 
 manned with expert paddlers. At this time he 
 carried a handsome United States flag in the stern 
 of his boat and came up to us in grand style. As 
 he clambered on the deck of the California he was 
 welcomed like a prince. We descended into a row- 
 boat and Sitka Jack was delighted to pilot us to a 
 small Indian village located under the shelter of a 
 high mountain four miles up the Chilcat Eiver. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 313 
 
 All their buildings, totem-poles, and customs were 
 like those of the other Indians we had visited. 
 
 Here we found an enormous meteorolite and 
 tried to purchase it for the Smithsonian Institu 
 tion, but some bold prospector then on a voyage up 
 the Chilcat had engaged it, and the Indians, faith 
 ful to their promise, were determined to keep it 
 for him. 
 
 After leaving the mouth of the Chilcat the Cali 
 fornia turned eastward, and at four in the morn 
 ing we were in plain sight of another Indian town. 
 Choquette and I, with a boat s crew, here left the 
 steamer and rowed along a rough and wooded shore 
 toward the town. Suddenly a small dog appeared 
 barking and moaning piteously. From this cir 
 cumstance I feared that the Indians had left the 
 village, but on going ashore we found the poor 
 animal in a starving condition, but faithfully 
 watching a cache at the edge of a wood. 
 
 When we were again on board, the steamer 
 headed toward the Tacon River and reached its 
 mouth in a few hours. Here was a village occupied 
 by the Tacon Indians, who were kind and hospi 
 table and did not differ from the Koutznous in 
 any material respect. A very old man, blind 
 and feeble with age, was being tenderly cared for 
 by his children and grandchildren, and I learned 
 that it was the custom with the Tacons to care for 
 the aged and helpless. This trait is seldom found 
 among Indians. 
 
 Just after noon, as we were approaching an 
 island inhabited by the Sumdum Indians, we en 
 countered some large icebergs, and also caught 
 
314 MY LTFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 sight of some remarkable glaciers working their 
 slow way between the hills toward the strait. One 
 glacier extended from the top of a mountain, two 
 hundred and fifty feet high, along a gentle slope 
 for miles. It was about three hundred yards 
 broad, but was narrower near the base. It was 
 near this glacier that we found the home of the 
 Sumdums. A young chief named Foust Chou 
 met our boat at a halfway island. He w r as greatly 
 pleased because I showed so much confidence in 
 him as to get into his canoe and have his people 
 paddle me back to the steamer, beating the steam 
 er s boat by many lengths. 
 
 After a formal interview he asked me for " a 
 paper " for himself and for the old chief " Harte- 
 shawk," whom he had left at the village. On Cho- 
 quette s recommendation I acceded to his request. 
 Choquette, in his own tongue, read to him the con 
 tents of my paper, which briefly stated that I had 
 met him ; that I was strongly opposed to the liquor 
 trade of the settlers with his people ; that I hoped 
 they would some time have a good teacher and keep 
 abreast of other Indians in knowledge and in good 
 behavior, and so on. Such papers strongly influ 
 ence not only the chief who holds them, but all 
 who, through frequent talks, become familiar with 
 their contents. 
 
 Two hours before the sun touched the horizon, 
 where it skimmed along for a considerable time, 
 we found ourselves in Prince Frederick s Sound. 
 I estimated that it was twenty miles wide. It was 
 calm and smooth as a mill-pond, with shores of 
 irregular outline, and mountains of different 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 315 
 
 shapes rising in the distance like ghosts. The gla 
 ciers in the dimness of the evening light looked like 
 the mists of Niagara, while the islands and nearer 
 shores were as clearly defined below as above the 
 water s surface. 
 
 The steamer moved almost noiselessly toward 
 Prevontet Island, whose distance proved to be four 
 times greater than it had seemed. The whole scene 
 was indescribably grand and beautiful. Captain 
 Hayes, who commanded the steamer, had come 
 from Massachusetts in his youth, and, remember 
 ing that it was the anniversary of the battle of 
 Bunker Hill, loaded his small cannon, putting in 
 as large a charge as he dared, and fired it, while 
 two of his men dipped the flag. 
 
 We had with us five of our children, the young 
 est being but four years old. Daylight continued 
 so long that it was difficult to get the children into 
 their berths at a reasonable hour. That evening 
 from nine to ten I marked the outlines of the battle 
 field of Gettysburg on an improvised blackboard 
 which was hung against the mast of the steamer, 
 and described the battle to the people assembled on 
 deck. The outlines in red chalk were clear enough 
 to be distinctly seen when I finished my descrip 
 tion. In fact, there was scarcely one hour from 
 the end of twilight to dawn of the next day. 
 
 We soon entered a snug little bay called Saga- 
 naw. The Cakes, a band of Indians living near 
 the shore, had, previous to my coming, undertaken 
 to revenge themselves for the loss of several of 
 their tribe at the hands of certain white men. How 
 far they had succeeded in carrying out their plans 
 
316 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of revenge I do not know, but one of our gunboats 
 had visited the bay and " the avengers " had been 
 demanded of the tribe. They not being delivered 
 up the gunboat opened fire upon the village, com 
 pletely destroying it. After that, either from 
 timidity or suppressed hostility, the Cakes had up 
 to the time of my visit kept aloof from the whites. 
 Such was the story told me by Choquette. 
 
 As soon as we were at anchor a Sitka Indian 
 and a child appeared in a canoe. By this man I 
 sent for the chief of the Cakes, who soon appeared, 
 coming toward us slowly, and with apparent re 
 luctance came on board the steamer. After get 
 ting a little acquainted he gave me some reasons 
 why he had not visited Major Campbell at Sitka. 
 He had been warned by a Sitka woman not to do 
 so, fearing we were against him still and that he 
 would not be kindly treated. He declared that the 
 next time he visited Sitka he would report directly 
 to the commanding officer. This chief, a very 
 young but dignified man, was well dressed and 
 showed good sense in all he said. 
 
 We \vere now obliged to turn southward and 
 homeward. I had visited many tribes of Indians 
 from Wrangel to the mouth of the Chilcat River 
 and found them much the same, usually well fed 
 and kindly disposed, but prone to believe the abun 
 dant superstitions of Indians, and still depraved, 
 most of them, by the grosser vices of savage life. 
 
 Quite a contrast to all this was presented at 
 Fort Simpson, British Columbia, and a more 
 marked one at Metlakahtla, eighteen miles south 
 of that place. We touched at Simpson on Sunday, 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 317 
 
 June 20th, very early in the morning. After 
 breakfasting on board the steamer, officers, ladies, 
 and children went on shore. We passed by nu 
 merous Indian houses built like all the others on 
 the coast, but with a little more care in their con 
 struction. Many had in them two small glass win 
 dows. The fort, which once had contained an old 
 Hudson Bay garrison, consisted of a single dwell 
 ing-house and several storehouses built inside of 
 a high stockade. 
 
 Mr. Morrison, the Hudson Bay agent, who had 
 been there many years, looked like a thorough 
 British seaman. He had married an Indian 
 woman. He gave us a very cordial welcome to the 
 fort, and showed us the way to the temporary home 
 of the Rev. Mr. Crosby, a minister of the Methodist 
 Church, who had come up from Victoria. His little 
 house was newly finished, and close by was his 
 church, which was then in process of construction. 
 He told us he had been at Fort Simpson only eleven 
 months, and that he had been much helped by the 
 good influence of those Indians who had come to 
 him from the Episcopal Mission at Metlakahtla. 
 Having been introduced to his family we tarried a 
 short time and then proceeded to the Indian vil 
 lage to attend a religious service which was to take 
 place in one of the largest Indian houses. 
 
 Soon after we left the parsonage a great bell 
 rang, when instantly not less than five hundred 
 Indians, well dressed, some with shoes and some 
 without, many women carrying babies, old men 
 and young men, boys and girls, came flocking from 
 all directions, obedient to the summons. They had 
 
318 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 quietly remained in their homes until they heard 
 the sound of the bell. We joined the throng, and 
 going into the Indian house found seats ready for 
 us near the desk. Mr. Crosby had not arrived. 
 After I had sat down and while waiting for Mr. 
 Crosby I said to the teacher : 
 
 " Shall we sing a hymn? " 
 
 " Oh, no, sir; we do not sing till Mr. Crosby 
 comes, 7 he answered. 
 
 When the second bell sounded Mr. Crosby came, 
 his young wife following with her little baby named 
 " A-he-shime," which is the Indian word for " Sun 
 beam." Mrs. Crosby was glad enough to meet 
 Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Wilkinson. She said at 
 once that she had not seen a white woman for 
 eleven months. 
 
 The Indians quickly filled the house and the 
 few benches reserved for them were soon occupied, 
 but the majority sat upon the floor, with their 
 heads raised in an attentive and expectant atti 
 tude. One could hardly find a better behaved con 
 gregation. Mr. Crosby read the Scriptures and an 
 Indian woman interpreted them sentence by sen 
 tence ; then all joined in a hymn. It was a strange 
 and plaintive sound that arose from that assembly. 
 Mr. Crosby took as his text: " Dost thou believe 
 in Jesus, the Son of God? " As he preached, the 
 same young Indian woman stood at his elbow and 
 translated his speech into the Indian tongue, and 
 it seemed as if no one in that house missed any 
 part of the sermon, except perhaps when the faint 
 cry of a little child was heard. 
 
 On this occasion the minister published the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 319 
 
 banns of matrimony between two Indian people, 
 and, as this was the second publication, the wed 
 ding would soon follow. It reminded me of the 
 same custom in my native town, where, in my 
 childhoood, I had seen the town clerk stand in the 
 gallery and read aloud for two Sundays in suc 
 cession the intention of two young people to wed. 
 
 The Simpson mission had been in operation 
 less than a year. The origin of it is worth record 
 ing. Some young Indians had gone down on a 
 steamer to Victoria for a frolic, and ran the risk, 
 as many others have done, of falling into bad com 
 pany, and subsequently- leading a sinful life ; but 
 certain Methodist Christians met them and, as Mr. 
 Crosby said, "they were soundly converted to 
 God." Among those who found the new experi 
 ence was the young woman whom we saw acting as 
 an interpreter for the minister. Mr. Crosby told 
 us that many Indians had already become con 
 sistent Christians, and many more were seeking 
 the way of salvation. 
 
 As soon as the more public service was ended 
 a number of young people, those who could read a 
 little and had Bibles, stopped awhile to go over 
 their lessons with the interpreter. I enjoyed lis 
 tening to this performance. First, a word pro 
 nounced by her in English was repeated by all in 
 concert, then two, three, and four at a time ; soon 
 a whole sentence. Over and over they repeated a 
 passage until it was thoroughly mastered by all. 
 
 A few 7 years ago the quarrels and fights among 
 these Indians were dreadful, often ending in blood 
 shed and death. They were at one time so savage 
 
320 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 and brutal as to eat a slain enemy, but quarreling 
 had now altogether ceased, order and cleanliness 
 prevailed, and there were no more blackened and 
 disfigured faces. They were very careful to keep 
 the Sabbath. At certain times in the year they 
 went up the Stickeen River to the mines, going all 
 the way in canoes. If the Sabbath intervened they 
 would tie up their canoes and wait patiently till 
 Monday morning. Of course they had not at that 
 time attained to a very high Christian life, but vast 
 and rapid progress had been made in the short 
 space of eleven months. 
 
 When I first met Mr. Duncan, the head of the 
 Metlakahtla Mission, I was accompanied by an 
 officer who was very skeptical with regard to the 
 truth of the Scriptures. He had heard of the 
 manner in which Mr. Duncan had brought a large 
 tribe of perhaps the worst Indians on the coast 
 from gross ignorance and superstition to a high 
 degree of civilization. After we had shaken hands 
 with Mr. Duncan my skeptical friend said: " Mr. 
 Duncan, how did you do it? " - 
 
 Mr. Duncan made prompt answer, which I have 
 never forgotten. It was this: "I first learned 
 their language, then I put the Word of God into 
 their minds, and you now behold the results. 
 
 We returned all the way by sea, having a safe 
 and pleasant voyage. When w r e were passing As 
 toria- we recalled the scenes at Wra-ngel and the 
 poor Indians who were such natural actors there, 
 for it was from the Astoria wharf, during the up 
 trip, that the dead body of Chief Fernandeste had 
 been taken on board. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE STORY OF MARCUS WHITMAN AND HIS LABORS AMONG 
 
 THE OREGON INDIANS THRILLING ACCOUNT OF 
 
 HIS PERILOUS OVERLAND JOURNEY. 
 
 The Story of Doctor Whitman s Life The Remarkable Journey of 
 Four Flathead Indians The Quest for "The White Man s Book 
 of Life " A Brave Methodist Pioneer Open Hostilities of the 
 Great Fur Companies Starting on a Perilous Journey His 
 Return and Marriage Organizing Another Expedition Danger 
 ous Journey for Brides Toils and Privations of Frontier Mission 
 ary Life Circulating a " Bad Medicine " Instigating a Mas 
 sacre An "Indiscreet Conversation" Whitman s Remarkable 
 Journey to Washington Unspeakable Hardships Mutterings of 
 the Coming Storm A Man of God and a True Patriot. 
 
 IN a previous chapter I alluded to the massacre 
 of Marcus Whitman and his family. The scene 
 of his missionary labors and tragic death was 
 in the country that \vas now the theater of my 
 operations against Indians, and as his noble life 
 and services are worthy of more than passing men 
 tion I will tell the story here. 
 
 Marcus Whitman was born in Rushville, New 
 York, September 4, 1802. When he was eight 
 years of age he was sent to Plainfield, Massachu 
 setts, and lived at the home of his grandfather 
 for ten years that he might receive such funda 
 mental education as that to\vn afforded. At eight 
 een he returned to Rushville and continued his 
 studies under the direction of Rev. David Page for 
 two or three years, afterward completing a course 
 in medicine at Fairfield, New York, in 1824. He 
 
322 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 soon entered upon the practice of his profession 
 in Canada, continuing there about four years, when 
 he again returned to Rushville, and remained till 
 a favorable opening appeared at Wheeler, New 
 York. Here the young physician practiced his 
 profession four years more, until the spring of 
 1835, when he received his first call from the Amer 
 ican Board. 
 
 With regard to the occupation of Oregon, and 
 especially the rich valley watered by the beautiful 
 Willamette, as missionary ground, our Methodist 
 brethren were a little ahead of the Presbyterian 
 and Congregational bodies then represented in the 
 American Board. In 1834 the Methodists sent 
 Jason Lee and his helpers there to establish a 
 mission among the Indians. That was done in an 
 swer to the report of Mr. Catlin, in which he told 
 the story of the four Flatheads who journeyed all 
 the way, over two thousand miles, from Oregon to 
 St. Louis, to find " The White Man s Book of 
 Life." Only one of the Flatheads lived to return 
 to his people. An American trapper, whose ex 
 peditions had led him to the far-off camps of these 
 peaceful Indians, had first told them of the won 
 derful book and something of its teachings. The 
 story was published in a New York Methodist 
 journal in March, 1832, and in the editorial com 
 ment was the thrilling call: " Who will respond 
 to go beyond the Rocky Mountains and carry the 
 Book of Heaven?" 
 
 The Willamette Valley was not hard to reach 
 by way of the Columbia River, because Astoria at 
 its mouth, and Fort Vancouver but six miles from 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 323 
 
 the nearest point of the Willamette Valley, were 
 then securely held by the American Fur Company 
 and the Hudson Bay Company. Jason Lee, that 
 Methodist pioneer " of strong nerve and indom 
 itable will, with a tender, loving heart, was in that 
 valley, and all around him were Indians, and num 
 bers of white voyageurs who had already to some 
 extent demoralized them. 
 
 A missionary to the Sandwich Islands had once 
 visited the northwestern coast and the Columbia 
 Valley, either in going to or coming from his dis 
 tant station, and had reported the evil ways and 
 teachings of many of the fur traders, and had con 
 vinced the secretaries of the American Board that 
 American missionaries would not be welcome in 
 Oregon Territory. The Northwest was all Oregon 
 then. 
 
 The need of missionary work among the In 
 dians on the one hand, and the fur traders hos 
 tility on the other, caused the American Board 
 first to hesitate, then at last to make a tentative 
 effort. Early in 1835 they decided to send the Rev. 
 Samuel Parker of Ithaca, New York, a highly- 
 educated man of pow r er and purpose, to explore 
 that country, and report upon the practicability of 
 establishing a mission there. The enterprising 
 young physician, Dr. Marcus Whitman, was chosen 
 to accompany Mr. Parker on this expedition. One 
 who knew the young man well has furnished a 
 sketch of his character, which is photographic in 
 its details. He said: " He was a man of easy 
 don t-care habits, that could become all things to 
 all men, and yet a sincere and earnest man, speak- 
 
324 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ing his mind before he thought the second time, 
 giving his views without much consideration, but 
 correcting them when good reasons were presented 
 for a change ; yet when fixed in the pursuit of an 
 object he adhered to it with unflinching tenacity." 
 
 He further describes him as generous in the 
 extreme, kind and self-denying, giving his whole 
 mind and thought to the accomplishment of the 
 work in hand; a character without excessive ap 
 prehension of danger, animated in conversation, 
 earnest in argument, and of indomitable energy. 
 As a physician he was successful. 
 
 Parker and Whitman set out together and had 
 accomplished more than half their perilous journey 
 when, at a halting place near a trader s post called 
 Fort Independence, at Green Eiver in the Rocky 
 Mountains, a serious difference arose between 
 them, which has never been satisfactorily ex 
 plained. Dr. Whitman s ability to " rough it," as 
 the soldiers say, was marvelous, and Parker was 
 feeble in that regard. Opposite opinions sup 
 ported by various reasons were asserted and ob 
 stinately adhered to. 
 
 It is evident that their tastes, habits, and daily 
 life were different, and that neither could adjust 
 himself to the ideas of the other. At Green River 
 these two men of God, in some vexation and per 
 plexity, were considering these untoward things, 
 when a Nez Perce Indian chief, with his hunters, 
 fortunately appeared. He agreed to safely guide 
 Parker over the long trails to Fort Walla Walla, 
 and did so with much display of savage pomp and 
 with but small discomfort to his guest. He deliv- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 325 
 
 ered him safe and sound to the secretary of the 
 great British fur company and asked for no pay 
 ment. 
 
 The Nez Perces did more : they allowed two of 
 their boys to go, as guides, with Dr. Whitman, he 
 having resolved to return to the East and report to 
 the American Board, with the intention of return 
 ing with means and men to plant a mission, not in 
 the Willamette Valley, but in Oregon east of the 
 Coast range and among the Nez Perce Indians. 
 
 It is delightful to see how easily Dr. Whitman 
 won the hearts of the rough American fur traders, 
 and of all the Indians that he met. His own warm 
 heart and ready help for body and soul lightened 
 the hardships of his long homew r ard journey. He 
 reported in person to the American Board, ob 
 tained the sanction of the secretaries, and soon was 
 preparing to return, greatly reinforced, to plant 
 his important mission. 
 
 We have glimpses of Whitman s dramatic 
 homecoming. On a Sabbath evening in November, 
 1835, without previous warning, he and his two 
 young Nez Perce guides marched down the aisle 
 of the Rushville church, startling his mother, who, 
 in spite of the solemnity of the place, cried out: 
 "Well, there s Marcus Whitman !" 
 
 In February, 1836, a wedding occurred at 
 Prattsburg, New York. Narcissa Prentiss, i the 
 adored daughter of a refined Christian home," the 
 sweetest singer of the village choir, greatly beloved 
 by all who knew her, there became the wife of 
 Marcus Whitman. The last h}^mn she sang in the 
 church before starting for Oregon, " Yes, my Na- 
 20 
 
326 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 tive Land, I Love Thee," was sung in her usual 
 voice, " clear, musical, and unwavering, " and pro 
 foundly impressed a sympathetic and weeping 
 congregation and seemed to emphasize the sorrow 
 all felt at her leave-taking. 
 
 Of this mission band the principals were the 
 well-known missionary H. H. Spalding and his 
 equally notable wife, then also a bride, Dr. and 
 Mrs. Whitman, and W. H. Gray of Utica, New 
 York, who was chosen by the American Board as 
 business agent, and " solicited to join the expedi 
 tion." The two Nez Perce Indian boys and two 
 teamsters made up the little party. Three wagons, 
 eight mules, twelve horses, sixteen cows, and Whit 
 man s extra wagon and team completed the equip 
 ment. This vehicle is mentioned in Gray s history 
 of the Whitman family, which states that "the 
 journey was commenced in an old wagon. Every 
 one said it would have to be abandoned, but the 
 irrepressible energy of the doctor overcame all 
 obstacles and the practicability of crossing the 
 mountains in a wheeled vehicle was established. 
 The fact gave much encouragement to those who 
 were considering the possibilities of emigration. 
 About the middle of May, when they were well on 
 their way, a young English nobleman, Captain 
 Stewart, joined his wagon and outfit to theirs. 
 
 Pawnee Indians in Nebraska, astonished and 
 pleased to see such women on the western march, 
 escorted them part of the way. The hardships of 
 that journey of more than two thousand miles can 
 not be told. But on they went, overcoming all ob 
 stacles, until in the far West, after traveling for a 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 327 
 
 month alone, they joined the American Pur Com 
 pany s caravan, then moving up the great Platte 
 Valley. At the place on Green River where Parker 
 and Dr. Whitman had parted, a wonderful and 
 characteristic scene at first terrified and then 
 pleasantly surprised them. 
 
 The Green River encampment was a great 
 meeting-place for all the different fur companies, 
 and Indians came from every quarter to barter 
 their furs and other goods for the white man s 
 merchandise, which often, I am sorry to say, con 
 sisted of nothing but beads, baubles, and useless 
 trinkets. " Two days before we arrived at our 
 rendezvous," wrote the business agent, " and some 
 two hours before we reached camp, the whole cara 
 van was alarmed by the approach of some mounted 
 Indians and four or five white men, whose dress 
 and appearance could scarcely be distinguished 
 from that of the Indians. As they came in sight 
 over the hills, they all gave a yell, such as hunters 
 and Indians only can give ; whiz ! whiz ! came their 
 balls over our heads, and on they came in less time 
 than it will take to read this account. The alarm 
 w r as but for a moment ; our guide had seen a white 
 cloth on one of their guns, and said: " Don t be 
 alarmed; they are friends," and, sure enough, in 
 a moment here they were. It was difficult to tell 
 which was the most crazy, the horses or the riders; 
 such hopping, hooting, running, yelling, jumping 
 over sage-brush, and whirling around; for they 
 could not stop to reload their guns, but all of us, as 
 they came on, gave them a salute from ours, as they 
 passed to the rear of our line and back again." 
 
328 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 I myself in later years often had just such ex 
 periences on the plains, and with my companions 
 have suddenly passed from a state of apprehension 
 to that of relief and satisfaction. 
 
 The frontier forts, especially in all that long- 
 disputed territory, in the mountains and beyond, 
 were not in 1836 our military posts, but were trad 
 ing stations defended by strong stockades and well- 
 armed employees of the fur company to which they 
 belonged. Our two beautiful brides appeared at 
 these posts like angels of light. They awakened 
 the chivalric spirit and gentle behavior of the 
 the roughest frontiersman and of all peaceable In 
 dians. The 2d of September they arrived at Fort 
 Walla Walla, not where the city of Walla Walla 
 and Whitman College, named for Marcus Whit 
 man, now is, but thirty miles farther west: a 
 stockaded fort in charge of one of the principal 
 agents of the Hudson Bay Company. 
 
 The agent and employees of the fur company 
 met the newcomers with every show of courtesy 
 and generous hospitality. The women were sent, 
 for a time, more than a hundred miles down the 
 river, beyond the snow-capped mountains, to enjoy 
 the welcome and protection of the chief of the great 
 English monopoly. Meanwhile our missionaries 
 reconnoitered what was called the Nez Perce terri 
 tory from the Umatilla below them to the Lewis 
 and Clark forks of the Snake River. Along the 
 borders of the great Columbia, which cuts its way 
 through a long stretch of prairie country from the 
 Rocky Mountains to the Coast Range, where it 
 bursts through seemingly impassable barriers to 
 

 CIRCLING AROUND A WAGON TRAIN THAT HAS GONE INTO CORRAL FOR DKFENSE. 
 
 
 LYING IN AMBUSH WHILE WATCHING AN APPROACHING WAGON TRAIN. 
 INDIAN METHOD OF ATTACKING OVERLAND WAGON TRAINS. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 331 
 
 find its way to the Pacific Ocean, we have on the 
 southern bank for a hundred miles a broad belt of 
 barren, sandy land. From Wallula eastward, after 
 passing that belt, Dr. Whitman examined and se 
 lected a fine rolling country bordering on Walla 
 Walla Creek, which is now known as Wailatpu. 
 Many times have I visited this spot. There are 
 trees, a rich valley of cleared land, and choice 
 knolls for buildings, but even now the region has 
 but few inhabitants. 
 
 Dr. Whitman thought Wailatpu the finest spot 
 in that region, and the one best suited for a mission 
 to the lower Nez Perces. Besides a sprinkling of 
 that tribe it included three sub-tribes, the Walla 
 Wallas, Cayuses, and Umatillas. It was conven 
 ient for supplies to Fort Walla Walla, and a fine 
 meeting point for all the Indian bands that roamed 
 between the Columbia River and the Blue Moun 
 tains. 
 
 Dr. Whitman did not know, and no scientist 
 seemed to have then discovered the fact, that the 
 vast open country, apparently covered with alkali 
 deposits, hills, knolls, mounds, foothills, and long 
 belts of mountain sides, had a soil unsurpassed in 
 fertility. Forty years later I stood on the Blue 
 Mountains and beheld more than sixty square miles 
 of the finest wheat land, covered with waving crops, 
 that I had ever seen. The soil was apparently so 
 dry, deep, and shifting, and the dust in the road 
 ways so superabundant, that it did not occur to the 
 early settlers to test anything beyond the narrow 
 valleys of the abundant streams which were finding 
 their way to the Snake and the Columbia. 
 
332 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Dr. Whitman chose Wailaptu for his home and 
 slowly built up his mission. Meanwhile Mr. and 
 Mrs. Spalding settled among the Nez Perces proper 
 amid the hills in the beautiful Lapwai valley, more 
 than a hundred miles to the northeast. 
 
 For seven years these good missionaries, some 
 times slightly reinforced, endured all the toils and 
 privations of frontier life. They established 
 schools for Indian children and extended their ac 
 quaintance among the various tribes round about 
 them. Dr. Whitman himself was apparently much 
 beloved by the Indians. He visited and ministered 
 to them in sickness and generally with success. 
 One scourge, however, among the Cayuses, for 
 which they had no remedy, was an attack of the 
 measles, which went from lodge to lodge until the 
 whole tribe was in terror. Many deaths occurred 
 in spite of Dr. Whitman s faithful attendance. 
 
 As it now appears, some of the worst of the 
 Hudson Bay Company s employees took advan 
 tage of this state of alarm and fanned into flame the 
 smoldering embers of superstition by impressing 
 the Indians with the idea that the Whitmans, not 
 withstanding their devotion and apparent kind 
 ness, were circulating a " bad medicine." There 
 was also the old religious opposition to all new 
 comers by the Roman Catholic people, especially 
 the Jesuit Fathers, because they themselves had 
 come to the country and started a mission of their 
 own; but it must always be remembered that the 
 Roman Catholic could not be a pronounced friend 
 to other denominations, because his fundamental 
 religious principle was that they were wrong in the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 333 
 
 faith. It does not appear that Catholic opposition 
 promoted a massacre, but it does appear that a few 
 Hudson Bay employees endeavored to saddle upon 
 them the responsibility of stirring up the Indians. 
 The missionaries found that arms, ammunition, 
 and liquor were freely sold to the savages by Brit 
 ish occupants of the territory, and against this 
 evil the missionaries exerted every possible in 
 fluence. 
 
 One day an " indiscreet conversation " by these 
 British employees was held at Walla Walla in the 
 presence of Dr. Whitman, in which new plans to 
 hold the country against all American commerce 
 and at all hazards, were made known to him. This 
 was in October, 1842.* Without waiting for per 
 mission from the American Board, the impulsive 
 Whitman suddenly decided to brave the perils of 
 a winter passage over the mountains in order to 
 reach Washington before Congress adjourned. 
 That resolve was made and he started on his long 
 and dangerous journey only twenty-four hours 
 after his ears first heard the fur company s prema 
 turely triumphant cry: " Hurrah for Oregon, 
 America is too late ! We have the country ! ; 
 
 More than once the doctor s winter party nearly 
 perished in the deep snows, but every obstacle was 
 overcome by his indomitable courage and fertile 
 expedients. March 3d, 1843, after a five months 
 journey in the winter season, through hardships 
 
 * This conversation is denied by several writers, but as I knew Dr. 
 Gray, who wrote the " History of Oregon," and have the greatest confi 
 dence in the truthfulness of Mr. Spalding, I adhere to the belief that 
 my account of what took place at Walla Walla is correct. 
 
334 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 unspeakable, he reached Washington.* To Daniel 
 Webster, then Secretary of State, he told his story. 
 Webster discouraged him, but, providentially, 
 President Tyler, after hearing him through, said : 
 "Your frozen limbs and leather breeches attest 
 your sincerity. Can you take emigrants across the 
 mountains in wagons? " 
 
 Here is the glorious answer of a patriot who 
 had faith in himself and faith in God : * i Give me 
 six months and I will take a thousand emigrants 
 
 across. 
 
 The President replied: "If you take them 
 across, the Ashburton Treaty (which would have 
 given Oregon to Great Britain) shall not be rati 
 fied." 
 
 Now comes the record: Dr. Whitman s party, 
 then about a thousand strong, in June, 1843, gath 
 ered on the banks of the Missouri River at the 
 small town of Westford, and set out for Oregon. 
 In good time, and after great trials which called 
 for incredible pluck and endurance, the party 
 safely arrived at Port Walla Walla. 
 
 It is said that the anger of the Hudson Bay 
 Company knew no bounds, and we can easily see 
 the reason. It was a little more than four years 
 later that the dreadful storm, which had been 
 slowly gathering and darkening the skies between 
 
 * That Whitman did reach Washington is proven by a recorded cor 
 respondence with the then Secretary of War. There is no direct evi 
 dence of the doings of Webster or the sayings of the President at that 
 time. It is, however, the story of the intimates of Whitman who were 
 with him in Oregon. What was Whitman in Washington for but to carry 
 out his purpose of interesting the administration in the populating of 
 Oregon by our people and holding it for our government? 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 335 
 
 the Cascades and the Eockies, broke upon them. 
 The tragedy that followed is more fully described 
 in the next chapter. November 29, 1847, Dr. Mar 
 cus Whitman, his wife, and seven others were 
 cruelly massacred and their home destroyed, but 
 the recorder adds: " Whitman s work had, how 
 ever, been accomplished, and the foul deed only 
 recoiled upon its instigators. " 
 
 As I have said, as soon as the instigators per 
 ceived their mistake and its consequences they 
 tried every conceivable plan to saddle the whole 
 blame Upon the missionaries themselves and the 
 Cayuse Indians, but the evidence of plotting, of 
 craft, of ambition, of avarice, and of diabolical 
 instigation is too plain for the historians of today 
 to relieve all of the white men of Oregon who were 
 then hostile to the American republic, and to our 
 type of Christian work and development, to escape 
 the scathing denunciation which they deserve. 
 Savages are bad enough, but savagery in alliance 
 with such white generalship is incredibly wicked 
 and cruel. 
 
 I have just seen a likeness of Dr. Whitman, 
 probably taken after he had passed his fortieth 
 birthday. It bespeaks a glorious character one 
 of nature s noblemen. Generous, hearty, frank in 
 statement, thoroughly educated, abreast of any in 
 his profession, he devoted his life to the service of 
 his fellow-men, and through them to the service of 
 God. No personal exposure, no toil, no prolonged 
 endurance, no opposition of men, not even that of 
 the great Webster, then Secretary of State, could 
 abate Whitman s patriotic fervor. 
 
33G MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 It should make every lover of humanity happy 
 to see a glorious college, erected on the banks of the 
 Walla Walla, which watered Whitman s gardens 
 and received Whitman s blood of sacrifice and that 
 of those so precious to him. Let that college pros 
 per, and bless the rich valley that his eye first fell 
 upon! I am glad to know that the fertile knolls 
 and hillocks that so long remained covered with 
 w r eeds and thistles, and that the grave so long 
 surrounded by a decaying picket fence, without 
 even a headstone to mark the places of burial, have 
 at last been looked upon by patriotic and Christian 
 eyes, and been cared for by tender hearts and 
 grateful patriots. 
 
 Yes, my countrymen, Dr. Marcus Whitman, an 
 American type of Christian manhood, heroically 
 planted the first mission of the American Board in 
 eastern Oregon and Washington, for it was his 
 energy that carried the devoted party of mission 
 aries thither into that vast domain. His example 
 and his work have stimulated every effort to raise 
 up the lowly and to redeem the savage. More, still, 
 that one heroic man, seeing the imminent danger 
 of losing to our country priceless regions of mag 
 nificent domain, with a heroism never surpassed by 
 anybody on earth, made one of the most remarkable 
 journeys on record, with a purpose to save to us 
 our rightful land. 
 
 So let us, who can appreciate high achievement, 
 give all honor to the memory of Marcus Whitman 
 -the man of God and the true patriot ! 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A FRONTIER TRAGEDY THE COLD-BLOODED MASSACRE OF 
 MARCUS WHITMAN AND HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Scene of the Brutal Massacre Unsuspecting Settlers Engaged in Peace 
 ful Avocations Hovering and Watchful Indians Sudden Ap 
 pearance of Indians at an Open Door Dr. Whitman Asked to 
 Come into the Kitchen The Deadly Tomahawk Fighting for 
 Life Ghastly Scenes "Oh, the Indians! the Indians!" 
 The Infamous Murderer " Joe Lewis " Death of Dr. Whitman 
 Heroic Efforts of His Wife to Save His Life Discovering the 
 Hidden Children Dreadful and Heartrending Scenes " We Will 
 Now Burn ! " Assassination of Mrs. Whitman Desperate Strug 
 gles for Life Escape of the Few Survivors. 
 
 I HAVE frequently visited Wailatpu, the scene 
 of that cold-blooded massacre of devoted Chris 
 tian people. It was past noon November 29, 
 1847. Joseph Stanfield had driven an ox from the 
 pasture to Wailatpu and Francis Sager had killed 
 it for beef. Kimball, Canfield, and Hoffman were 
 dressing the same near the mission buildings; 
 Sanders was in the schoolroom just beginning an 
 afternoon session ; Marsh was at the mill grinding ; 
 Gillan sat on his tailor s bench in the adobe man 
 sion " ; Hall was busy laying a floor near Dr. Whit 
 man s dwelling ; Rogers was working in the garden ; 
 Osborn and his family were in the Indians room, 
 next to the doctor s sitting-room; young Sayles 
 was lying ill with the Canfield family, who resided 
 in the blacksmith shop ; Bewley, a young man, was 
 ill in the doctor s house; John Sager, convalescent 
 from measles, was sitting in the kitchen ; Dr. Whit- 
 
338 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 man, his wife, and three sick children, and Mrs. 
 Osborn with her sick children were in the dining 
 or sitting-room of the Whitman house. Such is 
 the historian s presentation of the domestic and 
 peaceful situation at Wailatpu on that fatal day. 
 
 It is not easy to give a sketch of the buildings. 
 Dr. Whitman s dwelling was an adobe structure, 
 sixty-two feet long and eighteen feet deep, with a 
 half story above. The long building faced west 
 and probably had three doors opening that way. 
 In the north end was the large Indian room, in the 
 middle was the sitting and dining-room, and in the 
 south end a library on the front, and behind it a 
 bedroom. Behind the dining and sitting-room, 
 probably one and the same, was a kitchen of large 
 size, and abreast of it was the schoolroom. Due 
 east from the Whitman house was the blacksmith s 
 shop, partly used for a residence, and south of the 
 kitchen and some little distance from it was the 
 extensive building that is named in the accounts as 
 66 The Mansion." To the south and east and some 
 way from the mansion was the mill. Near the mill, 
 on the rapid creek which afforded water for all, 
 was a small lake or pond made by damming the 
 creek. The water from the mill flowed into a ditch, 
 which passed on the north side of all the buildings, 
 and furnished water for irrigating purposes. 
 
 Dr. Whitman s house was the most complete 
 structure yet finished. That day the man whose 
 name we revere was sitting in the midst of his 
 family reading the Scriptures. Several Indians, 
 who had been hovering about and watching the 
 killing and dressing of the ox, entered the kitchen 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 339 
 
 by a door from the outside. One of them stepped 
 to the open door which led to the dining-room and 
 requested the doctor to come into the kitchen. He 
 rose, and, carrying his Bible in his hand, went into 
 the kitchen, closed the door behind him, and took a 
 seat. Edward Sager, not feeling well, at once sat 
 down beside him to take some medicine ; then, while 
 these two were talking, the Indian Tamsaky, who 
 had some time before promised to give the bishop 
 at Walla Walla the doctor s station, silently came 
 up behind him and suddenly drawing a tomahawk 
 from under his blanket struck the doctor on the 
 back of the head. The first blow stunned him and 
 his head fell forward upon his breast. A second 
 blow followed instantly upon the top of his head 
 and brought him senseless, but not yet lifeless, to 
 the floor. 
 
 Young John Sager then sprang to his feet and 
 attempted to draw a pistol ; the Indians in front of 
 him rushed to the outer door crying: " He will 
 shoot us! He will shoot us! " but the Indians im 
 mediately behind him seized his arms, and, after a 
 desperate struggle, threw him upon the floor and 
 fired into his body several shots from Hudson Bay 
 rifles, hitherto concealed under their Indian blan 
 kets. Moreover his assassins gashed him with 
 knives; his throat was cut and a woolen tippet 
 thrust into it, still he lingered. Two of the mur 
 derers were accidently wounded by each other in 
 the struggle. 
 
 The moment that Mrs. Whitman heard the 
 tumult in the kitchen she understood the cause. 
 She wrung her hands in agony, crying out: " Oh, 
 
340 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 the Indians ! the Indians ! That Joe (referring to 
 Joe Lewis) has done it all! r 
 
 To digress a little: Joe Lewis had but re 
 cently come from the East, from Canada, with a 
 party of priests. He afterwards claimed to be a 
 Cherokee. On his way west, not long before the 
 massacre, he told the people at Fort Boise that 
 there was going to be a "great overturn at Dr. 
 Whitman s, and in the Willamette." He came to 
 Dr. Whitman s quite destitute and the doctor 
 showed him great kindness. Finding that Lewis 
 was making mischief the doctor sent him away with 
 some emigrant families as a teamster, giving him 
 a good outfit. He was gone only three days when, 
 having abandoned the emigrants, he came back to 
 Waijatpu. He spent most of his time in Nicholas 
 Finlay s lodge, close to the station, the resort of 
 Stanfield and of the Indians engaged in the massa 
 cre. Finlay was a half-breed, an employee of the 
 Hudson Bay Company, and the counsellor of the 
 Indians. Joe Lewis was really the leader in the 
 whole affair. Several times before the massacre 
 Mrs. Whitman had seen him coming to a window 
 with a gun and had asked him: " What do you 
 want? " At the sound of her voice he ran away. 
 
 To resume my story : Mrs. Osborn, seizing her 
 child, ran into the Indian room, where Mr. Osborn 
 immediately followed and managed to hide all of 
 them under the floor. 
 
 The Indians next began their destruction out 
 side the Whitman house. Just then, assisted by 
 Mrs. Hayes, who had hurried in from the mansion, 
 Mrs. Whitman dragged her dying husband into the 
 
. AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 341 
 
 dining-room, and placed his head upon a pillow, 
 and did all she could to stay the blood and to revive 
 him, but without avail. All he said until he 
 breathed his last was, No, repeating the word 
 in a low whisper in answer to several questions. 
 
 Just then the women saw Mr. Kimball come in 
 through the kitchen and run upstairs with his arm 
 broken and hanging by his side. Mr. Rogers fol 
 lowed him with a wounded arm, his head covered 
 with blood from the cut of a tomahawk. Rogers 
 assisted the women in making fast the doors and in 
 carrying the sick children upstairs. 
 
 Out of doors were heard the screams of fright 
 ened and fleeing women and children, the groans 
 and struggles of the dying, the roar of musketry, the 
 whistling of balls, the blows of the tomahawk, and 
 a furious riding about of naked and hideously 
 painted Indians, who gave unearthly yells char 
 acteristic of infuriated savages maddened like 
 tigers, at the sight and smell of human blood. It 
 would seem hardly possible that there could have 
 been so much noise and terror where there were so 
 few to be slain. 
 
 Mrs. Whitman saw two Americans fall under 
 the Indians blows outside her window, and, as she 
 looked, an Indian who had always been treated 
 most kindly by her, leveled his gun at her and fired. 
 The ball penetrated her right breast and she fell 
 forward, uttering a single groan. Presently she 
 revived, rose, and went to the settee, and was heard 
 by some one who escaped to pray for their adopted 
 children (the Sager family, who had lost their 
 parents in crossing the Plains), and also for her 
 
342 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 aged father and mother back in the East, that they 
 might be sustained under the terrible shock that 
 would follow the news of this tragedy. Soon after 
 this prayer she was helped into her chamber, where 
 were now Mrs. Hayes, Miss Bewley, Katherine 
 Sager, Messrs. Kimball, Rogers, and the three sick 
 children, nine persons altogether. The rooms 
 below were then being plundered and the furniture 
 smashed in pieces, Joe Lewis leading in the work 
 of destruction. 
 
 The famous Cayuse Tilokaikt, seeing Dr. Whit 
 man still breathing, deliberately chopped his face, 
 but still death did not come. John Sager was 
 similarly cut. 
 
 Joe Lewis now made his way into the school 
 room and, finding the hidden children, brought 
 them into the kitchen to be shot. As Francis Sager 
 passed his mangled brother he removed the tippet 
 from the wound, when John, attempting to speak, 
 immediately expired. Francis said to his sister: 
 " I shall soon follow my brother." 
 
 Eliza Spalding, the missionary s sweet daugh 
 ter, who was among the children, understood every 
 word the Indians said while they were pointing 
 their guns at them and yelling : 6 Shall we shoot ? : 
 Eliza, in anguish of mind, leaned upon the sink and 
 covered her face with her apron that she might not 
 see them shoot her. 
 
 From this place the children were taken out of 
 doors by the side of the Indian room. The Indians 
 next called to Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Rogers to 
 come downstairs. On receiving no answer Tam- 
 saky started to go up, but discovering the end of 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 343 
 
 an old gun desisted. He urged them to come down, 
 saying that nobody would hurt them. Mrs Whit 
 man answered that she was shot and had not 
 strength to come down, besides she feared they 
 would kill her. Tamsaky expressed much sorrow 
 and promised that no one would be hurt. Mrs. 
 Whitman answered : "If you are my friend come 
 up and see me! r 
 
 " No," he replied, " there are Americans with 
 arms who would kill me." Mr. Rogers, near the 
 head of the stairs, told him there were none, so he 
 came up, sympathizing with the sufferers and as 
 suring them that he was sorry for what had taken 
 place. He urged Mrs. Whitman to come down and 
 be taken to the other house, where the families 
 were, intimating that the young men might destroy 
 her house in the night. Just then Joe Lewis cried 
 out: "We will now burn!" and proceeded to 
 execute his threat. 
 
 They came out, Mrs. Whitman being carried on 
 a settee. They heard the command not to shoot the 
 children. Mr. Rogers perceiving their treachery, 
 dropped the settee and raised his hands exclaim 
 ing : Oh, my God ! when a volley was fired from 
 within and from without the house at Mrs. Whit 
 man and himself. He fell upon his face pierced 
 with many balls, and Mrs. Whitman was instantly 
 killed. An Indian near by caught Francis Sager 
 and held him, while Joe Lewis, exclaiming : " You 
 bad boy! " deliberately shot him. 
 
 Mr. Kimball, Katherine Sager, and the three 
 sick children remained in the chamber all night. 
 Mr. Osborn remained under the floor till the In- 
 21 
 
344 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 dians retired; he then made his escape to Port 
 Walla Walla with his family. The three men who 
 were dressing the beef were shot early in the 
 massacre and all were wounded. Mr. Kimball ran 
 to the house, Mr. Canfield to the blacksmith shop 
 and thence to the mansion, where, strange to say, 
 he managed to hide till night, when he fled for 
 Lapwai. Mr. Hall wrenched a loaded gun from an 
 Indian and ran for the bushes ; he, too, reached the 
 fort the next day, and was carried across the Co 
 lumbia but was never heard from again. Mr. 
 Gillan was slain upon his bench. Mr. Marsh, 
 pierced with a ball, started toward the Whitman 
 house, but expired before he reached it. 
 
 Mr. Saunders emerged from the schoolroom, 
 and, being seized by several Indians, was thrown 
 upon the ground and wounded with musket balls 
 and tomahawks. Being a strong and active man 
 he rose, though wounded, and ran some distance, 
 but was at last overtaken, surrounded, and mur 
 dered. Hoffman was also cut down after a despe 
 rate fight, which he made with a knife; his body 
 was cut open and his heart and liver taken out. 
 
 Joe Lewis took the two Manson boys and a half- 
 breed Spanish boy, whom Dr. Whitman had raised, 
 and soon arranged to send them to the fort. 
 Whoever this Joe Lewis was, or wherever he came 
 from, he acted faithfully his part in the great 
 " overturn " which he had predicted. It is said 
 that he afterward killed a guide who belonged to a 
 company of United States troops and was himself 
 shot for his crime. 
 
 The facts which I have given of this frontier 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 345 
 
 tragedy are substantially those narrated by Mr. 
 W. H. Gray, who went to Oregon with Dr. Whit 
 man, and who has left us this sifted story of the 
 terrible massacre. The Cayuse Indians led by Joe 
 Lewis perpetrated the murders, but they were only 
 the executioners of a dreadful plot whose authors 
 are not even yet fully known. Surely it was a 
 contest primarily aimed against United States im 
 migration and settlement, and fomented by the old 
 contest of one religious faith endeavoring to sup 
 plant and destroy another. The executioners may 
 have gone beyond the design of those who planned 
 the crime, for savages when used as instruments 
 by civilized men cannot always be controlled. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 CAMPAIGNING ON THE UPPER COLUMBIA EXPERIENCES 
 
 WITH MOSES, WAR-CHIEF OF THE SPOKANES 
 
 HIS OWN NARRATIVE. 
 
 Moses, the War-Chief of the Spokanes His Personal Appearance 
 A Diplomatic Indian Some Hostile Threats Fears of an Out 
 break My Letter to Chief Moses His Reply The Gathering 
 War Clouds Efforts to Pacify Moses Starting for His Camp 
 Moses and Sixty Painted Warriors Advance to Meet Me Hunt 
 ing for the Murderers of the Perkins Family Arrest of Moses 
 and His Imprisonment The Story of His Experiences Narrated 
 by Himself " Our Hearts are One " How Misunderstandings 
 Arise Between Indians and Whites Release of Moses. 
 
 THE first time I met Moses, the war chief of 
 the Spokanes, was the 8th of June, 1877, a 
 date previously mentioned, when he came to 
 meet Colonel Watkins and me at Fort Simcoe. It 
 then took our messengers three days to reach his 
 camp, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, 
 but not half that time for him to come to us. 
 
 Moses had been informed that the government 
 at Washington required him to go upon the Ya- 
 kima or some other reservation. He came to the 
 council to represent his own band, the Methuse 
 Indians, the Okanagans, and other nomadic tribes 
 located near the upper Columbia waters ; probably 
 every one of these bands had belonged in a general 
 way to the Flatheads. Moses was a large, muscu 
 lar, and handsome Indian, neat in his dress, head 
 carried well up and with a proud pose. His eyes 
 were red, caused by the smoke from Indian camp- 
 
PLATE 
 
 GIRLS BUCKSKIN BEADED CLOTHES BAG ; GARTERS,- TOILET AND TOBACCO 
 POUCHES; MOCCASINS, NEEDLE CASE, FIRE BAG, ETC. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 349 
 
 fires, and by the wind and alkali dust that he had 
 met on the way. His first speech was: " My In 
 dians are scattered over a large country. I cannot 
 say what they will do. I am ready to go on any 
 reservation, except this at Fort Simcoe. Several 
 tribes of the Indians above the Spokane have in 
 vited me to become their chief, and if they shall 
 have a reservation I would like to go with them." 
 
 When an Indian answered me warily and like 
 a diplomat I always tried to match him, so I 
 answered that a council would be held near Spo 
 kane Falls in about twenty-five days, where the 
 tribes and bands to which he referred would be 
 brought together, and should they express to me 
 such a desire I would consider it. Moses assented 
 to this agreement and gave it his approval by mak 
 ing his mark upon a formal paper. 
 
 General Frank Wheaton attended the next 
 council, held near Spokane Falls on the 16th of 
 August, 1877, where he expected to meet Moses, 
 but in a letter that I afterward received from him 
 he wrote: " I regret that Chief Moses was not at 
 the council." Colonel Watkins informed me that 
 it was doubtful if Moses received notice to appear. 
 As a matter of fact the message sent to him by 
 Colonel Watkins was duly delivered to Moses, but 
 indirectly and through an Indian woman, whereas 
 he had expected a white messenger. Moses claimed 
 that he did not think he was in reality called to the 
 council, and even declared that he did not receive 
 word in season, and so forth. By such irregular 
 proceedings his dignity was much offended, but he 
 still remained friendly to me. 
 
350 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Near the beginning of the Pi-Ute and Bannock 
 war I received the following message through the 
 commandant at Lapwai: " Moses people want to 
 fight, but against his wishes. Seven villages who 
 have joined the hostiles threaten to begin a war." 
 
 From the knowledge I had already gained of 
 Moses, directly and indirectly, and knowing the 
 great extent of his influence, I deemed it best to 
 use every exertion to persuade him to keep the 
 peace, for I feared an outbreak in the upper Co 
 lumbia, where he lived, more than in southern 
 Idaho, and I knew that more mischief would be 
 done should it occur. Here is a copy of the letter 
 I sent to this dignified old chief : 
 " MOSES, DEAR SIR: 
 
 " I have sent you word about the Bannocks. I 
 send again. The Bannocks are giving me trouble, 
 so that I cannot meet you as I promised at Spokane 
 Falls. When I come back from the Bannocks we 
 will arrange a meeting somewhere. I depend on 
 you to keep the peace. I am glad you have good 
 crops where you are." 
 
 Previous to this a letter had come from Moses, 
 substantially as follows: 
 " GENERAL HOWARD: 
 
 " I, Moses, chief, want you to know what my 
 turn-turn (heart) is in regard to my tribe and the 
 whites. Almost every day reports come to me that 
 the soldiers from Walla Walla are coming to take 
 me away from this part of the country. My people 
 are excited and I want to know from you the truth, 
 so that I can tell them, and keep everything quiet 
 once more among us. Since the last war (the Nez 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 351 
 
 Perce) we have had up here rumors that I am 
 going to fight if the soldiers come. This makes my 
 heart sick. I have said I will not fight and I say it 
 to you again, and when you hear white men say 
 Moses will fight tell them No. I have always 
 lived here upon the Columbia River. I am getting 
 old and I do not want to see my blood shed on my 
 part of the country. Chief Joseph wanted me and 
 my people to help him. His orders were many. I 
 told him, No, never ! I watched my people faith 
 fully during the war and kept them at home. I 
 told them all, when the war broke out, that they 
 must not steal. If they did, I w r ould report them 
 to Father Wilbur (the Indian agent at Simcoe). 
 
 "It is time for us to begin spring work. We 
 all raise lots of vegetables, and wheat and corn, and 
 trade with Chinamen to get money. I wish you 
 would write me and tell me the truth, so that I can 
 tell my people that they may be contented once 
 more and go to work in their gardens. I do not 
 want to go on the Yakima reservation. I wish to 
 stay where I have always lived and where my 
 parents died. I wish you would write to me and 
 send your letter by the bearer of this, and be sure 
 I am a friend and that I tell you the truth. 
 
 his 
 
 " (Signed) Moses X Chief/ 
 mark 
 
 The following May a prominent citizen, Mr. 
 John A. Shoudy, who lived about thirty miles from 
 Moses resort, while in Yakima City sent the fol 
 lowing statement to me: " There are about three 
 hundred people whose lives would be in immediate 
 
352 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 danger should Moses Indians break out. We 
 think the Indians are now peaceably disposed and 
 would prefer that they should stay where they are, 
 as the land they occupy is of no material value to 
 the whites. We believe that if Moses is let alone 
 he will not disturb the people nor commence hos 
 tilities anywhere. I translated General Howard s 
 letter to him, and he was glad enough to get it, and 
 said as long as the one-armed man was his friend 
 he feared no trouble. But if the Indian bureau 
 should insist upon putting Moses upon the Yakima 
 reserve his band and several others will certainly 
 resist and then run for the British line. Some 
 body keeps telling him that General Howard is 
 going to force him upon some reservation. 
 
 Shoudy s friend added: " Shoudy has gone 
 home. He will see Moses immediately and report. 
 As the lives of members of his family are at stake, 
 and as he thinks he can safely keep them within 
 thirty miles of Moses lodge, it shows that he 
 (Shoudy) believes that the Indians up there are 
 peaceably inclined." 
 
 Other letters came from Moses. In one he 
 said : "I want to live the balance of my days in 
 peace with all. I do not think we ought to be like 
 dogs all the time. My turn-turn is to quit this way 
 of doing." 
 
 Later, somebody sent me a telegram to this 
 effect: " Moses hopes General Howard will visit 
 him and his people soon, as he promised to do." 
 Moses wished to be reassured that the Indians con 
 nected with him would not be disturbed in their 
 habitations. At this time I was so absorbed in 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 353 
 
 other matters of vital importance that I sent an 
 aide-de-camp to meet Moses. The aide telegraphed 
 after a personal interview: "Moses met me at 
 Kititas Valley.Monday, riding all night. His mes 
 sage to you is satisfactory. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Indian bureau s urgent 
 desire to gather all the Indians on reservations, in 
 order to satisfy timid or greedy white men, I 
 deemed it judicious to secure a delay in the case of 
 Moses. Thus matters remained till near the close 
 of the Pi-Ute and Bannock war. A few renegade 
 Indians engaged in that war succeeded in crossing 
 the Columbia from south to north, and murdered 
 a white family by the name of Perkins. The mur 
 derers then pushed on and encamped near Moses, 
 doubtless hoping to incite him to rebellion. The 
 renegade murderers failed in this, but continued 
 to skulk around somewhere in the big bend of the 
 Columbia. 
 
 At last, with an escort and plenty of troops, I 
 went to Moses camp, both to fulfill my promise 
 and to form a correct judgment with regard to all 
 the upper Columbia Indians of whom sundry white 
 inhabitants were suspicious. Moses and sixty war 
 riors, freshly and handsomely painted, all armed 
 and well mounted, rode eighty miles to meet me. 
 We had a council of two days duration. The In 
 dians agreed to deliver up the murderers of the 
 Perkins family, if they came to them, and any 
 stolen horses which they could discover. Then, 
 through Moses, they made a formal request that 
 the big bend of the Columbia should be set apart 
 as their home, and that they might have some ter- 
 
354 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ritory on the other side of the river. I made a note 
 of their request and promised to forward it to the 
 President and to convey to them his reply. This 
 was the President s answer through his secretary: 
 
 "" Agent Wilbur believes that he can bring 
 Moses and his people, without trouble, on the Ya- 
 kima reservation. Let this be done if possible. 
 Second, should Agent Wilbur fail in this, then the 
 Indians request will be granted." 
 
 Upon invitation of Agent Wilbur in the early 
 part of December, 1878, Moses came again to his 
 agency for a conference, and agreed to furnish an 
 Indian contingent to act with the Yakima Indian 
 police in the arrest of that small band which was 
 charged with the murder of the Perkins family, 
 and also with horse stealing. This conference was 
 supplemented by a meeting of citizens at Yakima 
 City, a hamlet near Wilbur s reservation. 
 
 Moses was present at that meeting. It resulted 
 in an agreement on the citizens part to furnish 
 twenty volunteers, armed and equipped, to act 
 jointly with Moses, whom they agreed to meet at 
 or near Priest s Rapids on the Columbia. 
 
 Uniting and crossing there the combined party 
 were to proceed to what was called the Crab Creek 
 country for the purpose of arresting the fugitive 
 criminals. Moses, with his followers, was on hand, 
 but the volunteers were diverted by some subse 
 quent report to a place twelve miles below, where 
 they heard that the Perkins murderers had been 
 seen later. The failure to meet him very naturally 
 excited in Moses mind a suspicion of bad faith. 
 Informed by an Indian runner that the whites had 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 355 
 
 crossed the Columbia far below him, he hastily 
 called together all Indians of his vicinity and pro 
 ceeded to that crossing. Uneasy and fearful of 
 treachery, Moses, meeting the whites, confronted 
 them in what they considered a menacing attitude. 
 There was, however, no firing or outbreak. A 
 parley ensued between him and the captain of the 
 volunteers, and, after some wordy altercation, both 
 parties withdrew without positive collision. 
 
 On reflection, after returning home, Moses con 
 cluded to go in quest of the malefactors independ 
 ently, so with nine picked men he set out for Crab 
 Creek, and encamped there. On the 20th of De 
 cember, while asleep in his camp, a bright fire 
 burning, and his horses turned out to graze, Moses 
 and his small escort were suddenly surrounded by 
 the volunteers and the Yakima Indian police. He 
 suffered himself to be captured and disarmed with 
 out resistance. Six of his men were subsequently 
 released upon giving a promise to continue the 
 search for the murderers, while Moses, with the 
 remainder, was hurried off to Yakima City and 
 shut up in jail. 
 
 Then Mr. Wilbur, the agent, fearing violence 
 from the citizens, assumed the responsibility for 
 Moses. He bailed him out and took him to his 
 agency at Fort Simcoe, and held him in confine 
 ment there. The other six Indians succeeded in 
 arresting one of the murderers, another committed 
 suicide, and two more were subsequently taken 
 and placed in jail to await the action of the civil 
 authorities. 
 
 The volunteers now returned to their homes. 
 
356 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 No indications of an outbreak among the Indians 
 followed these proceedings. Moses was confined 
 in the Yakima City jail for a few days, and while 
 there, under date of December 25, 1878, made the 
 following statement : 
 
 " When Agent Wilbur sent Eneas* for me I 
 came at once. I arrived at Simcoe and was in 
 formed that he wanted me to go after the Perkins 
 murderers. The proposition was to send fifteen 
 men of the agency police. I said : i No ; these mur 
 derers are strong ; fifteen men are not enough. I 
 promised to send five of my best men, making 
 twenty in all. 
 
 " The conference then broke up and I started 
 to go home. On the way one of the horses of my 
 party broke down and I told the man to go to a 
 camp near the river, but to say nothing about our 
 arrangement, so that the friends of the murderers 
 would not hear of it. 
 
 I reached the Columbia River in the night ; 
 my people were at the one house. I told them all 
 to stay there and not go away; that tomorrow or 
 the day after the Bostons t would come with the 
 agency Indians, and to watch for them, and when 
 they arrived to take their boats to the place agreed 
 upon for the crossing. I directed my people, when 
 the party reached there, to send a man to my house, 
 eight miles distant, and let me know. I then went 
 home and slept there. A young man came to my 
 house as directed and said the Bostons had come 
 on the west side of the river, but they did not come 
 
 * Eneas was Wilbur s Indian scout. 
 
 f A term frequently applied to white troops. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 357 
 
 to the place he was watching, where the boats were 
 waiting. They had gone below. 
 
 " After this I stayed at my house one night and 
 told my young men to go and get their horses and 
 we would go and see the Bostons. Forty or fifty of 
 iny people went with me. I did not go with a dis 
 position to fight or with a warlike purpose. My 
 people wanted to see, and, from custom, took their 
 guns. My young men went along laughing and 
 talking. I went on until I could see the agency 
 Indians and the others, a little below the Indian 
 house. Just before arriving I met Eneas and told 
 him to go back to his party and I would come on. 
 
 " When I came near the Bostons camp I saw 
 them getting on their horses excitedly, but I went 
 right on close up to them. Billie Splawn, the cap 
 tain, came out and shook hands with me and wanted 
 to know what this meant, so many Indians coming 
 there with guns in their hands, and horses. I an 
 swered that it was because the young men wanted 
 to see. My people were not far away. Splawn 
 wanted to know if all of us were going with him 
 after the murderers. 
 
 "I said: No, but I will send some of my 
 tennas (picked) men. My guns were all pointed 
 up to the sky, not one toward the Bostons. As 
 Splawn and I stood together I called to Eneas and 
 asked him if he had a bad heart toward me, and 
 what I had done that he should have bad feeling ? 
 I told him then that my heart was all straight and 
 that I did not know why we should be bitter toward 
 each other. 
 
 "Not long after this the Bostons and agency 
 
358 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Indians, separating from us, went down the river. 
 With my people I went back and stayed at my 
 home three nights. Mr. Simbley and five other 
 Bostons then came to my house. One of the mules 
 they rode had become tired. I told him to leave the 
 mule, and I replaced it by one of my horses. 
 
 " This is the way my heart has been all the time 
 with the whites. Is it for this and for other kind 
 nesses that I now have these shackles on my limbs ? 
 Mr. Simbley wanted to know where the party of 
 Bostons were. I said at White Bluffs. He and his 
 men then went down the river, staying where the 
 volunteers crossed two nights, and then made for 
 White Bluffs, but Crab Creek was some twenty- 
 five or thirty miles distant. The next day an old 
 man came to me and told me where the volunteers 
 were. I made my young men hasten, taking nine 
 with me, and went to help arrest the murderers. 
 I made up my mind at once that I would give four 
 more than I had promised. For fear of any mis 
 understanding I went myself. My intention was 
 to keep on with the nine till I met the volunteers, 
 let the nine work with the others, and return my 
 self to my home. 
 
 " The first day we kept on our march until into 
 the night. I said as we halted : Here we will stay 
 until the sun rises, so as to see where the Bostons 
 are. We lay down to sleep around a large fire; 
 there was a hill on one side of us and a road not far 
 away, which led over the hill to White Bluffs. 
 There was a stream of water over there where I 
 thought the whites were encamped. They came to 
 the top of the hill in the night and saw our fire. As 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 359 
 
 they approached I thought it was cattle running, 
 but it proved to be the tramp of horses, and it was 
 the volunteer party coming. They came up with a 
 rush and surrounded my camp. I ordered my 
 people to lie still and not get up. Somebody cried 
 out three times : * It is Moses ! Moses ! Moses ! 
 
 " I then got up and found them around us and 
 their guns trained on our people. I thought we 
 were all to be killed, so I wrapped my blanket 
 around me and prepared to die. They dismounted 
 and I called out : Do not do so. We have come to 
 help you ! 
 
 " They then disarmed us, we making no resist 
 ance. They took our knives as well as guns. They 
 were very strong a good many had been drinking 
 whisky, and we came near being killed. I gave up 
 my own knife, pistol, and gun. I told them we w r ere 
 not to quarrel among ourselves, or with Mr. Wil 
 bur s men, but that our only business was to get the 
 murderers. All this occurred about four in the 
 morning. The whole party next went on to Crab 
 Creek, myself and nine men being held as prison 
 ers. We stayed there one night and when the sun 
 arose started back to White Bluffs. 
 
 " I then said: Give back the guns, the nine 
 men shall go with you to capture the murderers ; I 
 will go home. 
 
 " They answered, No/ and took away also our 
 provisions and went on to White Bluffs. I ad 
 vised them not to go back there ; that going there 
 would take us in the opposite direction from the 
 criminals. I then proposed that three of my men 
 should go with three of the Indians and two or 
 
360 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 three of the Bostons in pursuit of the murderers. 
 
 " They said: No. 
 
 "Again I proposed to the whites to send six. I 
 had good horses and wanted them to go, but said : 
 You must return their guns. They answered no 
 to this, but consented to let them have pistols. 
 With this outfit I let them go. 
 
 "I have watched my people, not only those 
 about me, but all around the country, and if they 
 had done badly I would have caught them and put 
 chains on them as you have put them on me. If 
 my people had caused the trouble for which I am 
 held I would not feel so hurt about it, but it is in 
 consequence of the acts of renegade Umatillas that 
 I have these irons on and am made to suffer. The 
 Bostons in the Kititas Valley have a good heart 
 toward me and treat me all right, but here every 
 thing is dark. I have a thick bundle of papers 
 from General Howard and other tyhees. I shall 
 not throw these away and go to fighting. 
 
 " When the sun comes up one day I do not talk 
 one way and the next day another. I only have one 
 straight way. When the Bostons, one, two, or 
 three, no matter how many, pass through my coun 
 try my people do not disturb them. My mind is 
 not to die by violence in war, but to die when I get 
 sick or old like other people. I do not know who 
 brought these irons upon me, whether Eneas or 
 some other, but it is the lying that has done it. 
 These chains are working a lie against me. 
 
 " When General Howard and I had the talk at 
 Priest s Rapids last summer about a reservation 
 I did not expect an answer right off. After the talk 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 361 
 
 my mind was at rest until he should give me an 
 answer. I believed all the time that he and I were 
 friends. 
 
 " While he was fighting last year and the year 
 before I was holding my people back so that they 
 would do nothing bad. General Howard did ex 
 actly right, and I am trying to do the same. We 
 have been a good way apart, General Howard and 
 I, but our minds have been together our hearts 
 are one. 
 
 "While the Bostons and friendly Siwashes 
 (police) have lied about me and brought the chains 
 on me, if I am liberated I do not mean to have a 
 bad heart toward them. My mind is to go along 
 the road with good men those that tell the truth 
 and do not lie. In staying here I am getting very 
 tired and I would like to hear from General How 
 ard very soon, so that I can go to my own house. " 
 
 When pushed by questions as to bringing his 
 people upon the Yakima reservation Moses man 
 liness was apparent. He said: " I prefer not to 
 answer that until after the question of reservation 
 is finally settled, and until after I have seen my 
 head men and understand their minds. 
 
 A physician by the name of Kuykendell has 
 given the citizen s view of Moses. He says that 
 the Indian Eneas, Wilbur s scout, represented to 
 Captain William Splawn, the commander of the 
 volunteers, that on the scout s visit to him Moses 
 was grum and sullen and had but little to say ; that 
 he refused to furnish the men as he had promised 
 and was not disposed to do anything. Eneas feared 
 he meant fight. When Moses met the captain he 
 
362 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 had nearly a hundred men, all painted, feathered, 
 and yelling like excited savages. Again, when Cap 
 tain Splawn spoke to Moses he at first made no 
 reply. He asked him if it was necessary to have all 
 of those Indians to find the thieves and murderers. 
 Moses said : * No. The doctor thinks that Moses 
 at last sent the six men as helpers merely with the 
 hope of getting himself released. 
 
 In all this we can see how easy it was for two 
 men not speaking the same language, and for 
 white men, full of suspicion and fear of an Indian 
 outbreak, to misunderstand each other. 
 
 Fortunately Mr. Wilbur appealed to me and I 
 released Moses from confinement and took the 
 whole responsibility of his subsequent conduct upon 
 my own shoulders, and he never disappointed me. 
 
 During the fall of 1878 and the early part of the 
 winter following the Indians, who had scattered 
 over a large territory in the upper Columbia, had 
 not yet been gathered upon a reservation. Some of 
 them, however, had wandered away from different 
 agencies and continued nomadic, being constantly 
 involved in troubles with the whites, especially in 
 the thickly settled parts of the Yakima country. 
 We succeeded in bringing a few of them upon the 
 Yakima reservation. The release of Moses from 
 prison did not allay the excitement. There were 
 terrible threats on the part of both whites and In 
 dians, and at last Agent Wilbur, fearing an out 
 break, made a formal requisition for the presence 
 of troops. I answered him favorably and placed a 
 good camp in Kititas Valley near the headwaters 
 of the Yakima River. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 363 
 
 In consequence of these difficulties and others 
 of a worse sort among the Umatillas, where some 
 Indian murderers had been tried and executed, 
 and where the Indians were divided between the 
 friendly and helpful and the secretly hostile, it 
 was thought best to humor the Indians by sending 
 certain chiefs of the Umatillas to Washington, 
 where their pleadings could be heard. Agent Cor- 
 noyer was to be their mouthpiece. I sent also 
 Chief Moses and a member of his tribe. In order 
 to give confidence to Moses and some other non- 
 treaty Indians that they would have a safe journey 
 and return, I sent with them an officer in whom 
 they had confidence, Major Boyle of the Twenty- 
 first Infantry. This measure of sending the chiefs 
 had a good effect upon all the Indians left behind. 
 
 Quite a tract of country had been set apart be 
 tween the Columbia and the Okanagan Rivers 
 named the Colville reservation. Upon it was a 
 large Roman Catholic agency for the Colville In 
 dians proper, but few of the Indians themselves 
 had ever gone upon the reservation to dwell ; a few 
 small bands, however, nominally under this agency, 
 were on and near the big reserve. Moses begged 
 of me to let him take his people into the same ter 
 ritory, that is, into unoccupied parts, and if we 
 would extend the lines to the Methow River he 
 could surely get all the Indians who had made 
 common cause with him under reservation cover. 
 
 A very good agreement was made with Chief 
 Moses while in Washington,, but when he returned 
 there seemed to be some doubt about the limits of 
 the lands intended in the promise ; however, Major 
 
364 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Boyle promptly made a careful affidavit to the 
 agreement actually made. To settle all difficulties 
 and to relieve apprehensions, Governor Ferry of 
 Washington Territory and myself, with consider 
 able force, made an expedition to the Colville coun 
 try. Chief Moses and other chiefs, representing a 
 large number of Indian tribes, met us at a frontier 
 store, the only inhabited place near the Wenat- 
 chie. Here we held very satisfactory councils with 
 the Indians. So peaceful and complete were our 
 arrangements and settlements that I took my large 
 force no further. The peace then entered into 
 settled matters finally between the whites and In 
 dians, so that there has been no disturbance of any 
 consequence from that day to this. 
 
 The Washington authorities overruled General 
 McDowell and myself in not sending the remnants 
 of the non-treaty Nez Perces back to Oregon. In 
 stead they dispatched them to the Indian Territory 
 proper, south of Kansas, where they remained 
 fretful and discontented until their entreaties for 
 a return to the Northwest, through humanitarian 
 influence, at last secured permission to that effect. 
 Joseph and all that belonged to him were then 
 transported to that part of Washington Territory 
 where Moses was, and placed as neighbors to him 
 upon the great Colville reservation. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ADVENTURES AMONG THE BANNOCKS A MIDNIGHT WAR 
 DANCE AND ITS SEQUENCE. 
 
 The Bannocks Their Good Mounts and Equipment A Shocking In 
 cident My Bannock Scouts Mysterious Disappearance of 
 Twenty Horses How I Made the Indians Recover Them A 
 Distrusted Chief An Exciting Midnight Scene War-Dance of 
 the Bannocks An Uneasy Night in Camp Demanding Permis 
 sion to Kill Three of My Scouts Getting the Best of the Ban 
 nocks Execution of an Indian Surrounding the Indians 
 Fair Promises but Hollow Hearts Plans for Revenge An Old 
 Indian Legend Looking Forward to a Resurrection. 
 
 DURING my Nez Perce campaign the Ban 
 nocks were mostly confined upon the great 
 reserve in eastern Idaho, usually called the 
 Fort Hall reservation. At that time it is said that 
 there were not to exceed five hundred of these 
 people who came under the charge of a government 
 agency. In 1877 about a score of them accom 
 panied the troops for the entire campaign from 
 Idaho to the Missouri River. The meii were fairly 
 good-looking, had good blankets, and their mounts 
 were in prime condition and well equipped with 
 good saddles and bridles. 
 
 It was difficult at times to restrain them from 
 what white men call criminal acts and insubordi-l 
 nate conduct. Once the Bannock scouts came sud- 
 denly upon one of Joseph s abandoned camps. 
 Finding in it an old woman too ill to keep up with 
 the hostiles they instantly killed her and took her 
 scalp as a token of victory. Again, on Gibbon s 
 
366 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 battle-field, the dead, including women and chil 
 dren, had been buried close to the water under the 
 bank of a stream. The Bannocks found and dis 
 interred their bodies, robbed them of clothing and 
 ornaments, then pierced and mutilated the naked 
 bodies in a shocking manner, carrying off their 
 scalps. Our men came upon this field too late to 
 prevent the mischief, but they carefully buried the 
 dead again, more deeply than before. The Ban 
 nocks acted here just as all wild Indians had been 
 taught to do for a century. For a while Buffalo 
 Horn, their war chief, behaved well and sided with 
 me in my attempts at discipline. 
 
 At the foot of the mountain near Mary Lake 
 forty horses belonging to citizens teams, which 
 were doing the transportation work for us, were 
 turned out to graze. During the night these horses 
 disappeared. The rough and indiscreet language 
 of the Bannock scouts aroused my suspicion that a 
 party of them had taken the horses. I arrested 
 ten and held them as prisoners. Their leader, 
 Eaine, a half-breed, was surly and disrespectful. 
 I had them all disarmed, their horses and rifles 
 taken from them, and sent them as prisoners to the 
 guard tent. The brave scout Fisher, who had come 
 to help us in controlling the Bannocks, was on the 
 front scouting line, almost deserted, for the Ban 
 nock scouts had found something to do besides hunt 
 other Indian trails. Soon an old Bannock chief 
 came and begged of me to release the prisoners, 
 earnestly assuring me of their innocence. 
 
 I answered: " What you say may be true, but 
 Indians are good to hunt horses. They follow 
 
WAR BONNET OF RED FLANNEL ORNAMENTED WITH SCALP LOCKS, EAGLE 
 FEATHERS AND BUFFALO HORNS : PIPES .FLUTES. ETC. 
 
 lye 17 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 369 
 
 blind trails better than white men. Send some of 
 your young men and bring back the lost horses. 
 When they do that, let me know." 
 
 " Yes, Indians good to hunt horses," said the 
 old man, " I will send them." 
 
 In a few hours twenty of the horses came gal 
 loping into camp, chased by the young Indians. 
 Again the old man came to me and declared that 
 twenty were all they could possibly find. 
 
 I said : " All right, I shall not let the prisoners 
 go until I see the other twenty horses." 
 
 The old chief gave a grunt of dissatisfaction 
 and a shrug of his shoulders when he left me. This 
 time he went himself witli the searching party. 
 That night the remaining twenty horses overtook 
 us, and all the prisoners were released except 
 Raine, whom I could not trust. He, at least, un 
 derstood that horse stealing was a crime to be 
 punished. 
 
 One night we had an exciting scene in which 
 Raine figured. It occurred in a beautiful glade 
 near the head waters of the Snake River. The 
 Bannocks had their tepees on a slight knoll not 
 far from my bivouac and near the water. Buffalo 
 Horn asked permission to have a war dance, and I 
 consented. The unearthly din of their wild wail 
 ing and singing, the weird shapes of the dancing 
 Indians silhouetted against the blazing camp fires, 
 and the sense of actual danger seemed to impress 
 my whole command with a feeling akin to awe. 
 Elsewhere there was an unusual stir of prepara 
 tion to start our march by two o clock in the morn 
 ing. The neighing of the horses and the braying 
 
370 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 of the mules sounded ten times louder than usual. 
 It was a night to be remembered. At midnight, 
 after the war dance and a brief council, Buffalo 
 Horn and Raine came to my headquarters and de 
 manded authority to kill my three Nez Perce 
 scouts, " Captain John," " Old George," and one 
 other comrade of the tribe. Raine insisted that 
 they were traitors, that they had rejoiced at Jo 
 seph s success in the late Camas Meadow fight, 
 and at his surprising and stampeding our mules. 
 He asserted that Old George, in particular, ought 
 to die. 
 
 I made George face his accusers. He was so 
 frank and evidently honest that I did not for a 
 moment distrust him, and Buffalo Horn was de 
 nied the small favor he had asked. He was very 
 angry at the time and never quite forgave me 
 for the refusal. The third Indian may have been 
 the one that cut the strap of the bell mare and 
 produced confusion in the herd of mules. At any 
 rate he was so terrified at the talk of the Bannocks 
 that he escaped that night into the forest and I 
 never saw him again. 
 
 All of the Bannock scouts left me after the last 
 battle near the Rockies and returned to their 
 agency. Buffalo Horn, puffed up with pride and 
 self-confidence, hoped in the future to do better 
 than Joseph and his warriors. So he fomented the 
 causes of dissatisfaction in and around Fort Hall, 
 and stimulated the Indians to seek revenge for real 
 and fancied wrongs. 
 
 After the Bannocks had been given a reserva 
 tion, as far back as 1869, it was determined by the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 371 
 
 Indian department to put all roaming Indians in 
 that neighborhood upon the same reservation. As 
 long as the Bannocks were the most numerous 
 there was. very little trouble. They had thousands 
 of ponies and were nomadic themselves, and were 
 really under but little restraint. They simply came 
 to the reservation for their annuity goods and de 
 parted at will. But little by little the roaming 
 Indians, mostly Shoshones, came upon the same 
 reservation to stay ; goods, subsistence, and cloth 
 ing intended for the Bannocks were issued to the 
 Shoshones, as they were always near at hand and 
 docile, and before long they outnumbered the Ban 
 nocks two to one. This was the main cause of the 
 restlessness and bitter complaints of the Bannocks. 
 They not only hated, but robbed the more indus 
 trious and more favored Shoshones. 
 
 There was an immense stretch of camas mead 
 ows between the great Fort Hall reservation and 
 Boise, Idaho. The Bannocks insisted on this as 
 their own special province, and regarded the white 
 settlers generally as their enemies. In August, 
 1877, the positive work of revenge began. A Ban 
 nock near Fort Hall killed two white teamsters. 
 Next the authorities, with a view to punishing the 
 guilty, began to look into the matter. The Indian 
 agent sent his interpreter to the Bannocks with an 
 order for them to come in to his office and bring 
 with them Petope, who w r as believed to have slain 
 the teamsters. The Indians appeared to obey. 
 They brought the suspected man and delivered him 
 to the marshal, who conveyed him to prison at 
 Malad City to await trial. But the Indians were 
 
372 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 feigning. They despised the white man s justice. 
 They believed they were merely squaring old scores 
 when they, through Petope, had killed the two 
 teamsters. 
 
 Within an hour after the marshal had gone the 
 suppressed wrath of the Indians began to show 
 itself. Alexander Rhodan, a young government 
 employee, was killed by Nam-pe-yo-go, and other 
 mischief was done. Captain Bainbridge, the com 
 mander of Fort Hall, was quickly on hand with a 
 detachment of troops. He demanded the murderer 
 of Ehodan at the hands of the Shoshones and the 
 Bannocks. The former replied that if a Shoshone 
 had committed the crime they would have arrested 
 the criminal at once, but that this arrest now 
 belonged to the Bannocks. 
 
 The Bannocks feigned acquiescence and started 
 off as if to make the arrest of the guilty Indian, 
 but when night came the pursuers returned with 
 out Nam-pe-yo-go. They said he had escaped to 
 join his father and brothers far beyond the Snake 
 River. 
 
 It was plain enough that the Bannocks were 
 hostile. They had armed themselves well and sup 
 plied their band with tough ponies, possessing 
 great endurance, and well trained for actual use. 
 But Nam-pe-yo-go did not escape. White men in 
 the vicinity found him, and he was tried, con 
 demned, and executed with extraordinary dis 
 patch. 
 
 General John E. Smith, who commanded one of 
 my divisions in the Army of the Tennessee, was a 
 thorough soldier, stationed at Fort Douglas. He 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 373 
 
 had charge of that district. At dawn on the 16th 
 of January, 1878, his troops surrounded two Ban 
 nock villages which were evidently preparing for 
 conflict. Though the Indians were armed, both 
 villages were surprised and captured, and upwards 
 of fifty warriors and three hundred ponies were 
 escorted to the agency. The father and two 
 brothers of Nam-pe-yo-go were sent to the garrison 
 for detention. The remainder, after General 
 Smith had given them good counsel, were allowed 
 their liberty, but their ponies and their rifles were 
 kept for them. Again the Bannocks feigned ac 
 quiescence, but at heart were angry enough and 
 vexed at the loss of their mounts and weapons. 
 They had all-night talks among themselves and 
 were constantly hatching plans for revenge. 
 
 As soon as spring had produced abundant 
 grass for animals the Bannocks one dark night 
 fled from the reservation. Many of them had put 
 in their crops, but even these were abandoned to 
 their Shoshone rivals. 
 
 These wild Bannock warriors shrewdly and 
 secretly negotiated with other and even distant 
 tribes of Indians. They took advantage of a dis 
 content which they found quite extensive in the 
 Department of the Columbia, and sent delegates 
 to the malcontents. The Pi-Utes gave them the 
 most abundant sympathy and aid, and were their 
 first allies. 
 
 There is a strange story, a very old Indian 
 legend, told by Sarah Winnemucca, daughter of 
 the Pi-Ute chief Winnemucca, to the effect that 
 there was a set of cannibals who occupied the 
 
374 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Humboldt River country at the time the Pi-Utes 
 were living by Mud Lake in Nevada. The canni 
 bals laid ambuscades for the Pi-Utes and other 
 more civilized Indians, and killed and ate them. 
 Of course this provoked wars, in which the canni 
 bals were as fierce and reckless as were the follow 
 ers of the Mahdi. Sarah s ancestors at last made 
 effective war upon them, killed large numbers, and 
 drove the remnant into the thick forest north of 
 Humboldt Lake. They then set fire to the forest, 
 but the cannibals rushed from the flames to their 
 bulrush boats and succeeded in making a landing 
 on the eastern border of the lake, and sought 
 refuge in a large cave not far off. The Pi-Utes 
 followed them and set a watch at the mouth of the 
 cave. 
 
 As it took too long to starve them out the Pi- 
 Utes began to pile up wood at the entrance to the 
 cave, while the cannibals withdrew farther and 
 farther within it. Then suddenly the Pi-Utes set 
 fire to the wood and made an oven of the cave, and 
 the last remnant of this ferocious tribe was de 
 stroyed. Such is the legend. 
 
 There was something remarkable about the Pi- 
 Utes. When the white men began to cross their 
 country they enjoyed being at peace with them, but 
 little by little their extensive possessions were 
 diminished as the wiiite settlements increased. 
 The lakes from which they took fish in abundance 
 were claimed by frontier occupants of the good 
 land, and their hunting grounds were circum 
 scribed and at last taken from them. One writer 
 says of them: " They are quite harmless and sub- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 375 
 
 sist upon fish, game, roots, and the like. They 
 show some disposition to be industrious. " The 
 same article calls them " a tribe of degraded In 
 dians of the Shoshone stock." Neither descrip 
 tion is fair. 
 
 I may say of them that, as a rule, they have 
 shown a love of peace and exhibited good qualities. 
 Both men and women have been willing to work 
 and often made great progress in imitating their 
 civilized neighbors. Under advisement they opened 
 an acequia (irrigating ditch) near the railroad on 
 the Pyramid Lake reservation and by hard labor 
 extended it a mile. They had a flume and power 
 to propel a saw and gristmill, which had been 
 promised them by the agents of the government, 
 but. the saw and gristmill never came, and the 
 lumber for houses was never sent. The acequia 
 became lost to them and is now used by Anglo- 
 Saxons for purposes of irrigation. 
 
 Again, in 1865 a cry arose among the white 
 settlers around Harney Lake that the Indians had 
 stolen some of their cattle. That might have been 
 true, but the Pi-Utes were not the Indians en 
 gaged in the theft. Chief Winnemucca s tribe was 
 at that time far away in Nevada. Many were at 
 Mud Lake fishing. A detachment of soldiers were 
 sent over there from Camp Harney to answer the 
 settlers cry. They came suddenly upon these 
 peaceful Indians in Nevada, fired straight into 
 their camp and killed old men, w r omen, and chil 
 dren. Chief Winnemucca and his young men 
 were, fortunately for the future of the tribe, away 
 on a hunting expedition. 
 
376 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 After this terrible catastrophe, whoever was to 
 be blamed, it is not at all strange that the Pi-Utes 
 became apprehensive and suspicious. They were 
 indeed ignorant and full of superstition, so that 
 when some to oat arose and made predictions many 
 were ready to listen. A favorite idea, similar to 
 the " Messiah craze," carried by these Dreamers 
 from tribe to tribe all through the Northwest 
 country, was that there would soon be a resurrec 
 tion of Indians. All the whites were to be killed, 
 and the Indians wrongs would then be righted. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER CAMPAIGN OPENING OF THE 
 PI-UTE AND BANNOCK WAR. 
 
 The Noted Pi-Ute Chief Egan An Indian Princess and Her Interesting 
 History An Anxious Night in Camp Some Wakeful Hours 
 Fresh Troubles with the Bannocks The Discontented Pi-Utes 
 The Promised Resurrection of Indians Anticipating an Outbreak 
 -The Lava Beds of the Modocs A Desolate and Sterile Region 
 An Ideal Place for Ambush Preparations for Another Cam 
 paign Constant Murders and Outrages Weakening an Indian s 
 Courage Terrified and Fleeing Settlers The Wary Chief Buffalo 
 Horn " Pi-Ute Joe " An Indian Woman s Loyal Service. 
 
 AFTER the close of several conflicts inaug 
 urated by a massacre in one of Chief 
 Winnemucca s tribes in Nevada, another 
 band of Pi-Utes, led by an able chief, Egan, was 
 brought upon a fairly good reserve of public land 
 not far from Harney Lake. It was named " The 
 Malheur Reservation." It was here, in the sum 
 mer of 1876, while on a tour of inspection, that 
 I first met the Pi-Utes. At that time they had 
 a favorite agent, Mr. Sam Parish ; and Sarah Win 
 nemucca, sometimes called the Indian Princess, 
 daughter of the Pi-Ute chief Winnemucca, was 
 their interpreter. I had long before heard some 
 thing of her history. She spoke English perfectly, 
 was very neat and tidy in her dress, and at that 
 time maintained an air of great self-respect. 
 
 During the night, as I had no guard or escort, 
 and in fact nobody with me except my aide-de 
 camp, Captain Sladen, and my daughter Grace, 
 
378 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 who had then recently returned to. our home at 
 Portland, Oregon, from Vassar College, and was 
 accompanying me on this tour, I felt no little anx 
 iety about the situation. This anxiety was in 
 creased when the Indians assembled and held a 
 council, accompanied with singing, beating of tom 
 toms, and dancing through the whole night, so that 
 I spent many wakeful hours. However, they 
 appeared to be contented with their agent at that 
 time, and the tooat was not predicting an immed 
 iate resurrection. 
 
 Soon after this a new agent, a Mr. Khinehart, 
 was sent to the " Malheur " by the Indian bureau. 
 The Indians were intensely opposed to the change, 
 for they loved Mr. and Mrs. Parish and had begged 
 for their retention. Rhinehart was a political ap 
 pointee. In giving the causes of the trouble that 
 followed, he said that the Bannocks had been there 
 as delegates some time before; that they were 
 particularly angry because some of their horses 
 had been taken from them, and because of a story 
 spread among them that all Indian horses and 
 ponies were to be seized and given to the soldiers. 
 Sarah Winnemucca gave an account of this affair. 
 She said: "Some Indians of Bannock Jack s 
 band had got drunk and shot two white men. One 
 of these Indians had a sister who, with other 
 w r omen, was digging some roots, and these white 
 men had caught this poor girl and abused her. 
 The other women had run away and left her to the 
 mercy of these brutes, and it was on her account 
 that her brother and others had shot them. " That 
 was the Indians version. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 379 
 
 It was while these Pi-Utes were in a state of 
 unrest and extreme discontent that the Bannock 
 messengers had come among them. The outbreak 
 seemed so extensive that the old tooats suddenly 
 had a new inspiration to the effect that the time 
 was at hand for the great, long-promised resurrec 
 tion of Indians. This news was carried from tribe 
 to tribe. With some reluctance the great majority 
 of the Pi-Utes decided to join the Bannocks and 
 other discontented spirits and make common cause 
 with them, because surely, if combined, they could 
 defeat all the white troops and destroy all the 
 troublesome white people in that part of the North 
 west. 
 
 I will now develop the campaign of 1878 which 
 followed ; it was my last active one in the field : I 
 very early learned, by corresponding with various 
 Indian agencies, that Indians who were friendly 
 were cooperating and giving unmistakable signs of 
 danger at hand. These statements were made by 
 white men who were living in the vicinity of the 
 plotting warriors, and were often exaggerated. I 
 was anticipating an outbreak, expecting it from 
 the Columbia renegades who had escaped from 
 their reservation and were causing a constant fer 
 ment among the scattered white settlements. The 
 declared policy of the Indian department, which 
 was to put every one of them on some reservation, 
 was everywhere resisted. The Indians were evi 
 dently waiting for me to send troops against them, 
 which would give them a pretext for carrying out 
 their war policy. Then they would strike, begin 
 ning, as usual, to kill white settlers. 
 
 23 
 
380 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 The stockmen who pastured their horses and 
 cattle upon the public domain made at this time 
 unending complaints against the Indians; their 
 stallions were found among the Indian herds, some 
 of their cattle and horses were lost, and so on. In 
 the fullness of time a terrible war began, but not 
 on the Columbia, where I had predicted it would 
 occur. 
 
 On June 2d, my commander at Boise said: 
 " Bannock Indians have been making serious 
 threats and ordering settlers off Big Camas 
 Prairie. A man from there this evening reports 
 two settlers shot by Indians this morning, both 
 wounded, ninety miles to where Indians are camped 
 between Big Camas and Snake River in the Lava 
 Beds. Number of hostiles two hundred, well 
 armed and supplied with ammunition; settlers 
 counted sixty lodges, and twenty more with Buffalo 
 Horn who has just joined them." 
 
 At this time there was a daily stage line run 
 ning from Fort Hall to Boise. It will be remem 
 bered that previous to this time the Modocs had 
 chosen the Lava Beds for the scene of General 
 Canby s massacre, and Joseph, in 1877, had found 
 the place favorable to his boldest plan. So, doubt 
 less, Buffalo Horn, following suit, had placed his 
 lodges among the Lava Beds to favor his campaign 
 already begun. It was a desolate and sterile re 
 gion, the "beds" being simply knolls of igneous 
 rocks, upon which debris and drift had gradually 
 formed a soddy loam, and the surface was grown 
 over with briers and bushes. The knolls were scat 
 tered here and there without regularity, alternat- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 381 
 
 ing with spaces of prairie grass land. There is 
 such sameness of surface that it is difficult to find 
 one s way, and people are lost easier than in the 
 forests. Still, the region is well adapted for In 
 dian tactics in war time, because all trails disap 
 pear, and the knolls are favorable to ambush, where 
 Indians may lie perfectly concealed until their 
 enemy is within good range of their rifles. 
 
 On the last day of May, 1878, 1 sat in my house 
 at Portland, Oregon, amid my family, when tele 
 grams came pouring in saying in substance: "An 
 Indian war is upon us ; come, we entreat you ; come 
 to our help ! I said to my wife : " Is it possible 
 that we must go through another such ordeal as 
 that of last year? " I referred to the Nez Perce 
 war. 
 
 A soldier s self -conflict is not much prolonged. 
 A moment later the proper spirit of decision came, 
 and within an hour the troops of my department at 
 the various posts, hundreds of miles apart, were 
 holding themselves in readiness to go by water, by 
 rail, or by marching, toward the scene of strife. 
 
 The governor of Idaho sent this dispatch the 
 2d of June: " The right to Big Camas Prairie 
 evidently the cause. Sheriff Hays informs me that 
 one hundred and fifty Indians are in Jordan Val 
 ley; King Hill Station, overland (stage) road, 
 raided; horses carried off." 
 
 Captain Reuben F. Bernard, a soldier of ex 
 perience and ability, with his troop of fifty cavalry 
 men, was the first to reach the prairie. He found 
 two herders wounded. They were shot while in 
 their tent by two Indians without apparent cause 
 
382 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 or provocation. The Indians then robbed the place 
 of everything valuable and drove off thirty horses. 
 There were signs that many warriors had com 
 bined for murder and plunder. 
 
 When Bernard had gone a little farther he dis 
 covered that the Indians had abandoned their 
 camps and fled, evidently not being quite ready to 
 meet his troop. A surprise is apt to weaken an 
 Indian s courage even more than that of a white 
 man. Captain Bernard now pressed on to the 
 eastern portion of Big Camas Prairie and came 
 into the lava country, where he deemed it too dan 
 gerous to operate with a single cavalry troop. He 
 turned to the stage road. At King Hill Station ten 
 more horses had been stolen by the Indians. After 
 this theft, the Bannocks for some reason abandoned 
 the Lava Beds and crossed over the Snake River 
 southward at Glen s Ferry, where they robbed a 
 store and house, turned the ferryboats loose, took 
 everything they could carry off from some freight 
 wagons, and stole all the horses in the region far 
 and near, in stable or pasture, which they could 
 find. Farmers, terrified by the first rumors, had 
 quickly abandoned their homes, and fled to the 
 larger settlements, where they set up defensive 
 barricades. Our soldiers found the body of a 
 stranger who had been killed and thrown into the 
 river ; several well-known persons, then away from 
 home, never returned. 
 
 A few Pi-Ute and Columbia River Indians were 
 present with the Bannocks before the first blow 
 w r as struck ; the Lemhi agency supplied some, and 
 a few came from elsewhere. An offensive league 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 383 
 
 had been formed among these Indians, and the 
 agreement was to move in such a way as to get the 
 most plunder possible, gradually passing from tribe 
 to tribe in a large circuit, and by working westward 
 they hoped to increase their forces, like a snowball 
 that increases in size as it rolls. They especially 
 needed to increase their supply of horses. By 
 carrying out this plan the Indian force would soon 
 be so large that it could cope with all my troops. 
 Such was the Indian hope and expectation. 
 
 Bernard wrote me : " This is the strongest out 
 break I have ever known. They give no reasons 
 of any kind for their actions, except the Bannocks, 
 who make objections to white men coming on Big 
 Camas Prairie with stock." 
 
 All our Indian friends in the East wanted us 
 to have " talks " and try to settle difficulties with 
 out war. But I knew from experience that when 
 ever our officers had in the past attempted to parley 
 after hostilities had once begun, and they had 
 often tried it, the attempt had never been success 
 ful. Indians laughed at such efforts and attributed 
 them to weakness. I believed it was too late to 
 attempt a council. There were many valleys lead 
 ing to that of the crooked Snake Eiver, and the 
 Indians sped on from one of these valleys to an 
 other, killing and destroying as they went. 
 
 Captain Patrick Collins of the Twenty-first In 
 fantry, mounting his small company at Boise, suc 
 ceeded in joining Bernard near a big bend of the 
 Snake River. On the way he found Bruneau Val 
 ley fortified. One man had been killed; cattle, 
 horses, and mules had been stolen and driven off. 
 
384 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 On the 5th of June, Collins joined Bernard, turned 
 over his force to him, and returned to Fort Boise. 
 Bernard, thus strengthened, crossed the broad and 
 swift current of the Snake River, took the trail of 
 the raiders, and by marching most of the night 
 reached a spot in the morning where the white set 
 tlers had assembled and protected themselves by a 
 unique fort, a sort of stockade. He escorted these 
 settlers to a larger and safer settlement. 
 
 In addition to Collins company Bernard had 
 gathered some citizen scouts, mounted upon fresh 
 horses, and placed them under an experienced 
 frontiersman by the name of Bobbins. Bernard 
 instructed them to push ahead in pursuit, ascertain 
 where the Indians were, and let him know. By 
 the 8th of June the scouts had succeeded in locat 
 ing the hostiles bivouac not far from Battle Creek. 
 
 As Bernard thus watched the Indians and pro 
 tected the citizens, Buffalo Horn became very wary 
 and endeavored to avoid battle with him. But that 
 very day, in the afternoon, a small company of 
 volunteers hurried up from another direction, com 
 ing from Silver City toward Battle Creek. They 
 succeeded in heading off Buffalo Horn, who had 
 with him at the time about sixty Bannocks. The 
 women and children had taken another route. The 
 place was seven miles from a small village called 
 South Mountain. The Indians at once attacked 
 the volunteers with fury, killed four white men 
 and two friendly Pi-Utes, and wounded another. 
 
 Pi-Ute Joe, a scout who went out with the vol- 
 unteers, gave an account of this engagement which 
 was slightly different from theirs. He said that the 
 
DISMOUNTED UNITED STATES CAVALRY REPULSING MOUNTED WARRIORS. 
 
 UNITED STATES TROOPS AND SCOUTS SURPRISING A BODY OF INDIANS. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 387 
 
 two Pi-Utes who were killed were guides conduct 
 ing the volunteers to South Mountain, where they 
 proposed to annihilate the Bannocks, and that the 
 volunteers ran off at the first fire, leaving behind 
 the poor old schoolmaster of Silver City, who had 
 joined them. He had been badly wounded by the 
 savages, and being angered by their desertion he 
 cursed his retreating friends while he was bleeding 
 to death. Pi-Ute Joe further stated that he him 
 self had killed Buffalo Horn; that the fall of their 
 leader had checked the Indians so that he, having 
 a swift horse, succeeded in escaping. 
 
 I was not able thoroughly to verify the story 
 about the volunteers, but Buffalo Horn did fall 
 in that skirmish at South Mountain, and after his 
 death the hostiles pushed on as fast as they could 
 with a view of joining the Malheur Pi-Utes at the 
 Juniper or Stein s Mountains. 
 
 Sarah Winnemucca left the agency when her 
 friend Sam Parish ceased to be agent. At the time 
 of the Bannock outbreak a man by the name of 
 Morton had hired Sarah to drive him and his 
 daughter in her wagon from the John Day Valley 
 in Oregon to Silver City, Idaho. She was making 
 that journey when, on the llth of June, she met 
 some volunteers and Pi-Ute Joe at Fort Lyon, an 
 old abandoned army post, then a station on the 
 stage line. The next day, with Pi-Ute Joe, she 
 went on to another station called Sheep Ranch. 
 I arrived at Boise that day and received Bernard s 
 report. The Indians had gone toward the Juniper 
 Mountains. They had captured the stage bringing 
 military supplies from the railroad, seized two 
 
388 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 boxes of Winchester rifles and much ammunition, 
 and had besides their mounts four hundred horses 
 in a herd. This band numbered sixty warriors. 
 He added to his report: " Sarah Winnemucca is 
 in my camp ; she wants to go to her people with any 
 message you or General McDowell might desire to 
 send ; thinks if she can get to the Pi-Utes with such 
 message she could get all the well-disposed to come 
 near the troops, where they could be safe and fed ; 
 says there is nothing at the Malheur agency with 
 which to feed them." 
 
 I answered: " Send Sarah with two or three 
 friendly Indians straight to her people, and have 
 them send a few of their principal men to you. I 
 will see that all who behave well and come in are 
 properly fed. Promise Sarah a reward if she 
 succeeds. " 
 
 Sarah, on horseback, with two friendly Pi- 
 Utes, immediately set out from Sheep Ranch in the 
 direction of Stein s Mountains, a distance of over 
 one hundred miles through the roughest part of 
 Idaho. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 IN ACTIVE FIELD SERVICE AGAIN SARAH WINNEMUCCA S 
 
 REMARKABLE RIDE NEARING THE INDIAN 
 
 STRONGHOLD. 
 
 Planning the Campaign Active Field Service Sarah Winnemucca s 
 Ride The Story She Brought Fresh From the Hostile Camp 
 Incidents of Sarah s Remarkable Journey Scenes Along a Bloody 
 Trail "Who Are You?" Climbing Steep and Rocky Moun 
 tains on Hands and Knees " Oh, Sarah, You Have Come to Save 
 Us ! " An Old Indian Chief s Advice Escaping from the Hostile 
 Camp Followed by the Bannocks Some Brave Women and 
 their Escort A Strong Force of Indian Warriors. 
 
 IN suppressing Indian outbreaks a commander is 
 apt to be impatient; he chafes at exaggerated 
 and sometimes conflicting reports as they pour 
 in from every quarter. But the experience of the 
 Ouster massacre and of the Nez Perce war had 
 taught me never to send out, if I could possibly 
 avoid it, an inadequate force against Indians after 
 they had had time to get ready. 
 
 As the troops were hastening forward, a fron 
 tier garrison at Camp Harney dispatched Mc 
 Gregor s troop of cavalry and Downey s company 
 of infantry. With many misgivings they left but 
 a small guard at Harney to protect their women 
 and children. At the same time, and from all di 
 rections, other detachments were hurrying to the 
 scenes of disturbance by water and by overland 
 roads from California. 
 
 Now, to follow my own course, the reader will 
 find me on the 9th of June consulting with Colonel 
 
390 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Frank Wheaton and Colonel Cuvier Grover at 
 Walla Walla. Wheaton had come from Lapwai 
 to meet me, and Grover had been in command at 
 Walla Walla. I ordered the latter at once to Boise 
 to take charge of everything in that vicinity and 
 keep me informed of important matters by tele 
 graph. Wheaton was to take up his station at 
 Walla Walla and guard the home district with 
 small reserves, while the rest of us were endeavor 
 ing by active field service to arrest the depredators 
 in Idaho and southern Oregon. I promised to 
 speedily beat them in battle or take them as cap 
 tives. 
 
 Pushing on with my staff officers, Major E. C. 
 Mason and Lieutenants Wilkinson and Wood, I 
 arrived in Boise on the morning of June 12th, just 
 in time, fortunately, to render Sarah Winne- 
 mucca s expedition effective. 
 
 A brief dispatch to General McDowell at San 
 Francisco from myself will indicate the plan I had 
 in mind: " Arrived here this morning; sent force 
 under Grover, including Major Sanford with cav 
 alry (coming from Kelton), to clear up scattering 
 Indians, eastward toward Fort Hall. Please ask 
 commanding officer Fort Hall to work toward 
 Grover, to detain the Bannock families reported 
 going to Hall, particularly relatives of those on 
 war-path. I am concentrating other troops against 
 Bannocks and Malheurs at Sheep Eanch, six miles 
 from O-wy-hee Ferry on Winnemucca stage road, 
 taking charge of this column myself." 
 
 At that time companies coming from Walla 
 Walla and farther west, cavalry, artillery, and 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 391 
 
 infantry, were marching through stifling clouds 
 of dust along the Baker wagon road, aiming for 
 Sheep Ranch. I supposed that the force sent from 
 Camp Harney was then somewhere near us. 
 
 As soon as my work at Boise was in operation I 
 hurried down the stage road and reached Sheep 
 Ranch on the 14th of June. The next day, while 
 waiting for the scattered companies to come to 
 gether, I was sitting with Captain Bernard at about 
 5.30 in the afternoon, in a little room at the stage 
 station, when a mounted party was reported in 
 sight. It proved to be Sarah Winnemucca and her 
 companions. She was well in advance of the party 
 and riding very rapidly. Hastily dismounting she 
 burst into tears and was so fatigued and excited 
 that for some time she could hardly speak. As 
 soon as she was sufficiently recovered to talk intel 
 ligently, Bernard, Wood, and Pitcher being pres 
 ent w r ith me, I received her account of her remark 
 able journey; she had ridden over two hundred 
 miles and met with some thrilling experiences. 
 My comrades thought her statements at the time 
 were exaggerated, but I had sufficient confidence 
 in her story to change my whole plan of movement 
 a change which afterwards proved to be for the 
 best. 
 
 Sarah had ridden to the hostile camp and 
 brought out her father and brother. Others fol 
 lowed them, but were pursued, overtaken, and 
 forced to go back. She heard firing, and feared 
 that her brother Lee was killed. Natchez, another 
 brother, aided the white men to escape from the 
 camp and went with them. Oytes, the Pi-Ute 
 
392 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Dreamer, and Egan, the chief, with their bands, 
 were still detained, although arms and plunder 
 were offered and threats and coercion made to 
 induce them to join the hostiles. She located the 
 camp near Juniper Lake, just north of Stein s 
 Mountains, giving the number of Indians at about 
 seven hundred. She brought her sister-in-law 
 Mattie with her, and implored help for her father, 
 whom she had left "behind with a few men and guns 
 guarding fugitive women and children. 
 
 Sarah said: " We (Sarah, and the Indians 
 i. e., George and John, Pi-Utes), followed the trail 
 down the O-wy-hee as much as fifteen miles, and 
 then we came to where they (the hostile Bannocks) 
 had camped, and where they had been weeping 
 and cutting their hair, so \ve knew that Buffalo 
 Horn, their chief, had been killed." She saw ar 
 ticles of clothing and numerous beads broken from 
 their strings and strewn around. They found on 
 the trail the whip of the stage driver, who was 
 killed, and other articles from time to time which 
 made the trail over the rocky beds easier to follow. 
 She and her friends paused for the briefest rest 
 at Mr. G. B. Crawley s farm. Everything com 
 bustible had been burned; the fire was still smol 
 dering and fresh human tracks were everywhere. 
 
 Having rested, they followed the freshest of 
 several branching trails, which led them straight 
 toward Stein s Mountains. That day they picked 
 up a clock and a fiddle on the road. Pi-Ute Joe 
 shot a mountain sheep, some strips of which were 
 added to their supplies ; now they were near Juni 
 per Lake ; then five miles farther on they caught a 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 393 
 
 glimpse of two people on the slope of the mountain 
 dressed like Indians. Sarah s account of this 
 meeting is pathetic: "As we came nearer to them 
 I said to Pi-Ute George, Call to them! He did 
 so. I saw them rise to their feet; I waved my 
 handkerchief at them, as I had done before, and 
 one of them cried, Who are you ? 
 
 "I said, Your sister, Sarah. It was my 
 brother, Lee Winnemucca, who had spoken. Com 
 ing nearer Lee said, Oh, dear sister, you have 
 come to save us, for our people are all prisoners of 
 the Bannocks ! 
 
 Her brother told her that her father had been 
 badly treated; that his friends had been stripped 
 of their guns, horses, and blankets, and that there 
 was great danger ahead for Sarah and her com 
 panions, "because," said Lee, "they will surely 
 kill you as they have threatened to kill every one 
 who comes with messages from the white people ; 
 for they say Indians who bring messages are en 
 emies. Every night they repeat these threats." 
 
 Sarah was not intimidated. Up to this time 
 she and her companions had been dressed like white 
 people, but they now changed to Indians dress, 
 effecting the transformation by using blankets 
 and putting on war paint, as they knew well 
 how to do; then, still keeping together, they 
 went on and joined the grand encampment be 
 yond Stein s Mountains. "The mountain we 
 had to go over was rocky and steep," said 
 Sarah. " Sometimes it was very hard to climb 
 on our hands and knees, but at last we were up 
 there and looked down into a great hostile assem- 
 
394 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 bly. It was a sight to see. It was beautiful ; over 
 three hundred lodges and four hundred and fifty 
 
 warriors. 
 
 A little later Sarah succeeded in working her 
 way into the hostile Bannock camp, and then into 
 her father s lodge, where she found several Pi-Ute 
 men and women. " Every one in that lodge whis 
 pered, Oh, Sarah, you have come to save us ! 
 
 By concerted action some seventy-five stealthily 
 crept out of camp in the night. When they were 
 well on the way they heard a horse behind them. 
 " We lay close to the ground," said Sarah, " and 
 the horse came up to us and stopped. Oh, how my 
 heart did beat! He stood still until some one 
 whistled, and the whistler cried out, Where is my 
 father? The horse s rider proved to be Mattie, 
 Lee Winnemucca s wife. 
 
 After that Sarah and Mattie rode and tented 
 together during the entire campaign. Lee, being 
 with the party, turned back to get more Pi-Utes, 
 and to act for them as a scout and guard. The old 
 chief said: " Ride two and two! Keep close to 
 gether. Men, look after your wives and children! 
 Six men keep well back for fear we may be fol 
 lowed!" 
 
 Thus Chief Winnemucca s family and friends 
 escaped from the hostile camp and rode for six 
 hours, reaching Summit Springs at the break of 
 day. While stopping there for rest and food, one 
 of their rear guard came riding furiously toward 
 them. " We are followed by the Bannocks! " he 
 cried. " I saw Lee running and they fired at him. 
 I think he is killed." 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 895 
 
 Winnemucca s party, thus warned, mounted at 
 once and rushed on again, tired as they were. But 
 Sarah, finding her friends too slow to suit her im 
 patient spirit, took Mattie and two Indians and 
 said to her father: 
 
 66 Come, father, give me your orders, for I am 
 going forward to the troops. What shall I tell 
 G eneral Ploward ? I am going to where he is this 
 very day." 
 
 Winnemucca answered: " Tell General How 
 ard to send his soldiers to protect me and my 
 people." With this message these brave women 
 and their escort sped on to Sheep Ranch and re 
 ported to me, as I have said. Bobbins was imme 
 diately dispatched with his well-mounted scouts to 
 meet the old chief and his party and bring them 
 speedily under the protection of the troops. To 
 facilitate this, Sarah sent Pi-Ute Joe back as a 
 guide, and in due time Chief Winnemucca was 
 rescued. 
 
 Sarah said of this extraordinary journey, 
 rather boastfully, but nevertheless with perfect 
 truth: " I went for the government when the of 
 ficers could not get, for love or money, an Indian 
 or a white man to go." 
 
 According to the reports that came to me the 
 aggregate number of the hostiles varied from seven 
 hundred to fifteen hundred warriors. They had a 
 strong defensible position and expressed fierce de 
 termination to give me battle at Stein s Mountains. 
 
 I received a sad report that McGregor and 
 Downey, finding the Indians so strongly posted, 
 had turned back to their families at Camp Harney. 
 
396 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 From every consideration Stein s Mountains were 
 just then our objective point. The different col 
 umns coming toward me were stopped en route 
 and ordered there ; they were to take every precau 
 tion ; carefully scout the country ; pick up Indian 
 men, women, and children, and avoid all ambus 
 cades; were warned not to attack the enemy 
 separately except where there was a reasonable 
 prospect of success, but when an attack was deter 
 mined on it must be delivered at once and be quick 
 and vigorous. The columns were to keep up con 
 stant communication with each other by scouts 
 and couriers, so as to give one another the readiest 
 information and the promptest support in case of 
 need. Colonel Wheaton at Walla Walla was in 
 structed to watch with great care the Cayuses and 
 other Columbia Indians in his district, particularly 
 the Umatillas, and to guard against the successful 
 return of renegades at all times. 
 
 After putting everything in motion, my staff 
 officers and myself, taking Sarah and Mat-tie 
 as guides and interpreters, drove rapidly from 
 Sheep Eanch to Fort Lyon, resting there a short 
 time. We then made a quick drive to the Baker 
 road and joined our right column under Major 
 Stuart. His men were pressing forward as fast as 
 they could march toward Stein s Mountains. 
 
 At Rhinehart s corner was a large brick house 
 and other buildings filled to repletion with families 
 that had rushed in for mutual safety from the 
 valleys and cattle ranches. My aide, Lieutenant 
 C. E. S. Wood, who was in charge of the scouts, 
 hired all the men in the vicinity to go out and skir- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 397 
 
 mish for the government. Every man was mounted 
 upon a Cayuse pony a half-breed animal, swift 
 enough, but often ugly. A woman cried out in 
 anguish to me : " What, send away our husbands ? 
 Who will care for us ? Who will protect us ? : 
 
 Wood replied laconically: "Their going is 
 your protection." 
 
 "Oh," said one in tears, "let the soldiers do 
 that; let the soldiers do the fighting it is their 
 business! >: 
 
 "Why, yes," the humorous lieutenant re 
 marked, "the soldiers will do the fighting your 
 friends will only have to help them find something 
 to fight." 
 
 By the 19th we were within striking distance of 
 the great Indian stronghold. When the Indians 
 caught sight of Bernard s mounted men they lost 
 courage, and rushed eastward and southward, run 
 ning with great speed, as only Indians can, for over 
 a hundred miles, escaping into a very hilly and 
 heavily wooded tract southwest of Camp Harney. 
 The instant Bernard found that the Indians had 
 fled from Stein s Mountains he pressed after them, 
 following their trail, and putting his own troops 
 to their utmost speed. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 IFCIDENTS~AND HARDSHIPS OF AN INDIAN CAMPAIGN THE 
 
 BATTLE OF BIRCH CREEK FLIGHT OF THE 
 
 INDIANS. 
 
 A Chosen Indian Leader Panic in an Indian Camp Indian Women 
 for Guides Alarming Rumors The Battle of Curry Creek 
 Camp of the Renegades An Innocent-looking Log Pulling an 
 Old Indian Squaw Out of It Pursuing the Indians Picking up 
 a White Man s Scalp A Couple of Unreliable Guides A Steep 
 Descent of Four Miles Finding a Column of Pack-mules A 
 W T ord of Warning Locating the Indians Getting Ready for 
 Battle How a Soldier Feels Before a Battle Indians Abandon 
 Their Stronghold " Come on, You White Dogs ! " 
 
 CHIEF EGAN had now become the Indians 
 chosen leader. He had been very reluctant 
 at first to join the Bannocks, but under 
 threats and persuasions he concluded to take Oj^es, 
 the Dreamer, as his counselor, and become the mili 
 tary head of all the tribes represented. In former 
 years Egan had successfully fought General Crook 
 and other officers, and had won quite a reputation 
 for heroic valor among both white men and In 
 dians. 
 
 He never risked everything in a pitched battle. 
 As soon as he heard that I was coming with three 
 separate bodies of fighting men and plenty of guns 
 and ammunition, he decided to move rapidly west 
 ward to his old stamping ground, where my col 
 umns would be separated ; while the Indians would 
 have the protection of extensive forests, and could 
 scatter at will and deceive their pursuers by nu- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 399 
 
 merous trails. He hoped also that as he drew 
 nearer to the resorts of the Klamaths and the 
 Umatillas some of them would join his ranks, and 
 that these new allies would bring fresh supplies. 
 
 The heart of ^old Oytes himself began to weaken 
 when the Indian scouts rushed in crying that more 
 than a thousand mounted men were moving to 
 attack them. Notwithstanding the panic that fol 
 lowed, Egan steadily continued the march, with 
 his warriors heavily encumbered with women, chil 
 dren, and baggage. Their march w r as phenomenal. 
 No white caravan of like size could stand such 
 tremendous strain and fatigue. 
 
 Meanwhile, I sent Lieutenant Wilkinson, with 
 two soldiers and the two Indian women for guides, 
 to make their way by the stars to Camp Harney. 
 The air was full of alarming rumors and one was 
 that McGregor s troops outside of that post had 
 been met by Egan and annihilated, and that Har 
 ney was in great danger of capture and massacre. 
 
 It was the 23d of June. I was with the head of 
 the foot column. We had gone late into camp and 
 an extraordinary quiet reigned. Suddenly, at 
 about eleven o clock that night, Wilkinson startled 
 the outposts by coming back with his Indian guides, 
 and rode rapidly into camp. He had ridden forty- 
 five miles that day from Camp Harney. He 
 brought good tidings. McGregor was united with 
 Bernard ; a battle had occurred the day before, but 
 instead of being defeated they had won a victory. 
 This was the battle of Curry Creek, ninety miles 
 from us, and forty-five beyond Camp Harney. 
 
 After unusual resistance the Indians had fled 
 
400 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 from that field, but had rallied again not far off 
 and continued their flight. Bernard had managed 
 to get four troops of cavalry into the Curry Creek 
 engagement, but, owing to their forced marches 
 over rough ground and long distances, his soldiers 
 were exceedingly weary, and he now called strenu 
 ously upon me for reinforcements. That battle 
 was not decisive enough to end the campaign. 
 
 Before eleven o clock the next morning the ad 
 vance, with myself, entered Camp Harney. Tak 
 ing but two hours for food and rest, Lieutenant 
 Wood and I rode on toward Captain Bernard, 
 reaching Captain Evan Miles company of infantry 
 at Sage Hen Springs. Captain Miles was hasten 
 ing from Harney to support Bernard. Early the 
 following morning we were on the battle-field, and 
 pushed forward to join Bernard, who was still 
 following the trail of the largest body of Indians. 
 
 We learned from some prisoners that the Kla- 
 maths, some Columbia River Indians, and a small 
 body of Umatillas were about to join the Bannocks 
 and Pi-Utes. These renegades had gone into camp 
 not far from the John Day Valley, sixty miles 
 south of the Umatilla reservation, and Egan had 
 turned his march northward in that direction. The 
 Indians had to cross a rough range of mountains 
 to get into the John Day Valley, and they were 
 then executing this movement. What a diversified 
 country! Jagged rocks, precipitous slopes, knife- 
 edged divides, deep canyons with sides steep and 
 difficult, the distance from a crest to the mountain 
 stream that tumbled over the rocks far below being 
 sometimes four or five miles. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 401 
 
 It was on the north side of this, the John Day 
 divide, that the Umatillas and other Indians under 
 suspicion were waiting for Chief Egan and his 
 raiders. Along one of the trails we came upon a 
 large, half -decayed log. This log, like so many in 
 veteran forests, was at one end simply a shell. 
 From the very center of it we pulled out an old 
 and decrepit Indian woman clad in tatters. At 
 first she was almost speechless. She was without 
 food, and had crawled into the log to stay there 
 until she died. I gave orders to have her brought 
 to my next night encampment, where Sarah and 
 Mattie took charge of her. She was fed, clothed, 
 and treated with great kindness by all. As soon as 
 she recovered her senses she cried bitterly, and said 
 that her nephew, Buffalo Horn, was dead. She 
 believed old Oytes had been put in his place. 
 
 Sarah and Mattie won her confidence and were 
 rewarded by a full statement of what the Indians 
 had done, and of some of their future plans. 
 
 The 30th of June was an eventful day. On the 
 two preceding days we had experienced the cold 
 of winter in the mountains, and considerable snow 
 had fallen. As we went from Indian camp to In 
 dian camp we found hundreds of pine trees 
 stripped from the bottom up as higli as one could 
 reach. Sarah said that the Indians used the inner 
 bark for food. The outer bark helped them to 
 cover the frosty ground for beds, and also added 
 to their fuel. From the camp signs we estimated 
 their numbers to be about fifteen hundred. On a 
 stump near the remains of a lodge we picked up 
 the scalp of a white man. 
 
402 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 That morning we met two men mine pros 
 pectorswho wanted employment. Upon their 
 declaring that they were familiar with the country 
 I engaged them as guides. As we went deeper and 
 deeper into the forest and ascended the slopes of 
 the mountains one of the guides, becoming con 
 science-stricken, deserted, and not long after the 
 other, having halted the train, came back to me and 
 confessed in broken English that he had lost his 
 way. I was greatly puzzled what to do ; every man 
 near me was an utter stranger to that region. 
 After a moment s delay I galloped to the head of 
 the column closely observing the country as I went. 
 I saw plainly by the formation of the ridges that 
 if I could go from hog-back to hog-back I would 
 finally gain the crest. 
 
 The hostile Indians, having no wagons, had 
 been able after crossing the divide to descend by a 
 narrow river canyon. At the risk of finding the 
 northern slope impassable I decided at once to take 
 the chances of advancing. Ordering the wagons to 
 follow me, without uttering a word of the uncer 
 tainties that oppressed me, I led the way from 
 ridge to ridge until I gained the summit. There I 
 discovered a spur, a steep one it is true, with a 
 slope not too difficult for wagons. The spur ran 
 northward, and then down into the very country 
 we wanted to reach. That night we were happy 
 to find ourselves in a good camp in a land more 
 familiar to some of our own men: 
 
 The next day had its own trials. Looking down 
 into the deep canyon of the John Day we discov 
 ered signs of an old emigrant wagon road. A spur 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 403 
 
 similar to that of the mountain, only steeper, led 
 from us to the bottom. One can judge of the depth 
 of that canyon when I say that there was a steady 
 down-hill descent of at least four miles. It took 
 from two r. M. until ten o clock that night to worry 
 our train down those difficult steeps into camp. 
 The hill was so precipitous as to cause a constant 
 sliding of the wagons. This sliding was checked 
 by dragging chains, by fastening limbs of large 
 trees to the axle-tree, by hitching a pair of obstinate 
 mules behind the wagon body, and by other emer 
 gency contrivances. The most successful experi 
 ment was the tying on of long ropes and manning 
 them with soldiers, who watched the wagons in 
 their descent and prevented their capsizing. 
 
 In the valley, the next morning, we saw where 
 another company of volunteers had rushed upon 
 the Indians and been driven back, leaving the 
 dead bodies of two of their number to be buried by 
 our advance. 
 
 We steadily kept on northward until our dif 
 ferent columns appeared to be in position to hem 
 in the Indians upon all sides and force them to 
 battle. I was warned by some experienced officers 
 who said: "Ah, General, Chief Egan is i great 
 on hiding and running. He always takes to the 
 wooded mountains. He is wary and swift." 
 
 I had come to Pilot Rock, a little hamlet north 
 of the famous Blue Mountains, near the charming 
 little town of Heppner. There were two streams 
 rising in the Blue Mountains a few miles south 
 east of Pilot Rock. They ran northeasterly and 
 emptied into the Umatilla River. The mouths of 
 
404 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 these two streams are miles apart, but their head 
 waters are near together, .so near, in fact, that 
 numerous little rivulets can hardly determine 
 which creek to take, till a chance knoll or rock has 
 decided their course. 
 
 It was between these streams near Birch Creek 
 that two of our diligent scouts the night before 
 had found the Indians. Chief Bgan had chosen a 
 broad and rugged height for defense. The slopes 
 in front of his warriors, after the detached hill 
 was reached, were steep, stony, deceptive, and ex 
 tremely difficult. Egan had woods on his right a 
 few hundred yards away, and hills as good as the 
 one he held and other woods behind him. 
 
 At sunrise, July 8th, I was talking hopefully 
 and looking toward that rugged hill, when Sarah 
 Winnemucca said : * No, they will not stop long. 
 The timber is near and the Pi-Utes will get away." 
 
 The sun came up bright and clear, and my col 
 umns were soon in motion. Throckmorton, with a 
 well-reputed guide, having some artillery, infantry, 
 and volunteers, took the Butter Creek route ; Ber 
 nard, with seven troops of cavalry, and Bobbins, 
 with his scouts and a Gatling gun, accompanied me. 
 We went up the foothills, passing rapidly from 
 knoll to knoll, and struck as directly as possible for 
 the rocky height. There is always a feeling of 
 dread just before a battle. It takes but one bullet 
 to kill you. The thought of death to a comrade is 
 not a happy one, and even the blood of your coun 
 try s foe is not attractive. The distinction, the 
 glory, the reward they are no compensation. 
 
 As we reached a high crest we saw the Indians 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 405 
 
 and their ponies among the rocks. They did not 
 act as usual, but kept moving about, some jumping 
 up and down as if in defiance. Their conduct was 
 like Joseph s Nez Perces at the Clear Water the 
 year before, when with blankets tossed high over 
 their heads they danced around, looking and acting 
 like hoAvling dervishes in their frenzied capers, 
 doubtless hoping to inspire terror in our breasts. 
 
 Bernard, taking the trot, began the ascent. 
 The cavalry sped from hill to hill until it reached 
 the vicinity of the enemy. The Indians from be 
 tween the rocks began to fire at Bernard s soldiers 
 as well as they could down such an unpropitious 
 grade. Our men veered to the right and left as they 
 went up different sides ; several soldiers were hit ; 
 several horses fell under the men, who with diffi 
 culty extricated themselves from their stirrups. 
 Soon we saw them clearing the summit. It was 
 speedily done; wave after wave striking the In 
 dians position front and flank in quick succes 
 sion. 
 
 But Egan and his warriors carried out their 
 plan. They were too quick for our breathless 
 horses. They had already abandoned their stone- 
 crowned hill, leaving to us only some old horses 
 and played-out mules, which were filling the gaps 
 between the dark rocks, while the Indians them 
 selves appeared triumphant on the next height 
 beyond. Bernard was vexed ; yes, disgusted. Like 
 a flock of birds they were on this pinnacle ; and, like 
 them, they had flown to the next. In a book Sarah 
 Winnemucca has written she says of us : 
 
 " Dear reader, if you could only know the diffi- 
 
406 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 culties of this wilderness you could appreciate the 
 soldiers royal service. The fight commenced at 
 eight o clock, under a hot sun and with no water. 
 The whole of it was watched by the general com 
 manding. The bullets were whistling all around 
 us and the general said to me and Mattie : Get 
 behind the rocks ; you will get hit. : 
 
 At one time we heard an Indian s shrill call. 
 It was from Oytes. Sarah interpreted it as mean 
 ing: "Come on, you white dogs.; what are you 
 waiting for?" We strained our ears to catch 
 more words, but they did not come. 
 
 Bernard endeavored this time, after a short 
 rest for his horses, to cut off their retreat while he 
 ascended the next height, but the rough country 
 and the great exhaustion of the horses and men 
 made it possible for the Indians to elude his next 
 charge, and they soon disappeared from his front 
 altogether. Not many Indians were killed and 
 wounded. Their women, children, and best horses, 
 in droves, were beyond danger before the battle 
 began. 
 
 I felt that night tired and chagrined. This ex 
 perience reminded me of a hunter chasing an ante 
 lope all day with several beautiful chances in his 
 favor, but the animal s quick ears and native fleet- 
 ness divined the hunter s approach and enabled it 
 to elude all his shots. Unlike the hunter, my object 
 in pursuing these Indians was not to kill, but- 
 like my dear father chasing bees to hive. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A LONG AND EXCITING CHASE THE ENGAGEMENTS THAT 
 
 FOLLOWED THRILLING INCIDENTS OF 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Stumbling Upon Fresh Indian Trails Catching Up With the Hostiles 
 " See the Enemy ! " Indian Tactics in Battle A Brutal 
 Cayuse Chief The Murder of Chief Egan and His Companions 
 Searching for Indian Hiding-places Six Hundred Indian Prison 
 ers Charging the Indians Across a River Murder of a Nez 
 Perce" Scout A Remarkable Death Scene Surprising a Crowd 
 of Indians Breaking up Indian Camps Results of the Umatilla 
 Council A Burly White Ruffian Efforts to Provoke a Quarrel 
 With Me Sarah Winnemucca s Criticisms Death of Mattie. 
 
 PLACING my chief -of-staff, Major E. C. Mason, 
 in my place at Cayuse Station, I hastened on 
 to Walla Walla to communicate with General 
 McDowell at San Francisco, and to inaugurate a 
 new pursuit. Some Umatillas, professing to be 
 friends, came into Mason s encampment the first 
 night after I had left and were kindly received. 
 They gave false information concerning the hos- 
 tiles and gathered knowledge from us that they 
 ought not to have had. Their reports fortunately 
 caused Egan to turn back against us. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mason changed his headquarters to 
 the vicinity of the Umatilla reservation, and was 
 gathering our scattered forces into a common camp 
 for rest and recruitment. In executing this move 
 ment Captain Evan Miles, having nearly all the 
 Twenty-first Infantry Eegiment with him, ran 
 upon fresh Indian trails, which he at once followed. 
 
408 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 On the 12th of July he made a march of thirty-five 
 miles, and camped at two A. M. on the 13th. While 
 in camp Captain Rodney of the Fourth Artillery 
 arrived with two companies of his regiment, and 
 he also had with him a troop of the First Cavalry, 
 under Captain Bendire. Miles camp, though made 
 in the night, proved to be a good point for observa 
 tion, and daylight revealed groups of Indians in 
 plain sight who took no pains to conceal their posi 
 tion. 
 
 At first a band of Umatillas, seemingly about 
 to join the hostiles, sent one of their number under 
 cover of a white flag to Captain Miles and had a 
 talk with him, with the result that they wisely re 
 mained neutral and were passive spectators dur 
 ing the conflict that followed. Miles made a slight 
 change of location for the convenience of his com 
 mand in getting coffee and breakfast, but the fires 
 were hardly lighted when the Pi-Utes and Ban 
 nocks were seen coming stealthily toward him in 
 large force. Without waiting a moment Miles 
 deployed his men, Rodney s companies being on 
 the left and facing southward, while some com 
 panies of infantry formed a semicircular line from 
 Rodney s position westward, putting Bendire s 
 cavalry upon the extreme left. The remaining 
 companies of the Twenty-first Infantry were held 
 in the rear in reserve. 
 
 Captain Miles had two small howitzers which 
 he brought into action near his center. The In 
 dians, as usual, stopped just beyond the zone of 
 immediate danger. They ran into deep and 
 crooked ravines, and concealed themselves as com- 
 
AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 409 
 
 pletely as they could, like our skirmishers, the 
 difference being that if our men heard a call such 
 as "See the enemy! 1 every individual soldier 
 would spring up and jump upon a log to see where 
 the enemy was, while the Indians would remain 
 motionless or secrete themselves still more effectu 
 ally. From their hiding places the Indians fired 
 briskly but irregularly, and our skirmishers re 
 turned the fire, aiming at puffs of smoke. This 
 kind of fighting lasted a long time and much ammu 
 nition was expended with small results, especially 
 upon our side. 
 
 About two o clock in the afternoon Miles or 
 dered Rodney with his battalion to gain ground 
 to the left and then push forward and clear a 
 ravine in his vicinity. Rodney s men sprang for 
 ward with enthusiasm and promptly set the In 
 dians in motion. Seeing this Miles made a charge 
 along his entire curvilinear front. Chief Egan 
 did not expect this, for he was intently watching 
 other chances in the game of war. His Indians at 
 once mounted their ponies and swiftly rushed for 
 the foothills behind them. Egan w r ent with them, 
 pursued by the excited troops, who for the time 
 had forgotten both breakfast and dinner. The 
 chase continued for more than three miles up the 
 mountain steeps and into the thick forest. At last, 
 worn out with fatigue, our men at dark went into 
 camp where they were. 
 
 Meantime, Mr. Cornoyer, finding that many of 
 his Umatillas had been treacherous, sent a hurried 
 dispatch to Captain Miles to return at once, saying 
 that he feared the agency and everything connected 
 
410 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 with it would be destroyed. Tired as the soldiers 
 were with the terrific march of the day and night 
 before and an all-day battle, they silently but hur 
 riedly turned back and were soon at the agency, 
 where their commander made thorough prepara 
 tion for defense and then gave his men needed food 
 and rest. 
 
 After this defeat the renegade allies Cayuses, 
 Umatillas, and Columbias came to Captain Miles 
 and proposed to act on his side. Their real leader 
 was Umapine. He was a Cayuse Indian about six 
 feet in height, having a closely-knit frame, thick 
 chest, and broad shoulders. When not on the war 
 path he had a friendly eye and not an unpleasant 
 smile, yet the impression he left upon you was that 
 he possessed a fierce animal nature. When he ate 
 he consumed twice as much as any other strong 
 man ; when he fasted he could go a long time with 
 out food. In war he displayed profound treachery 
 and postitive enjoyment of murder. Even his 
 mates shuddered at his brutality. After commit- 
 ing atrociously wicked acts he would strut with 
 pride and boast of his brutal prowess. 
 
 The Pi-Utes and Bannocks had leaned upon 
 him as a friend. After the interview with Miles, 
 the day following the battle, Umapine, with a few 
 followers, overtook Chief Egan and his fleeing 
 warriors. The next day he brought back to the 
 agency ghastly signs of his terrible work. He had 
 murdered Egan and some of his companions. 
 
 The talk of Natchez, Sarah Winnemucca s 
 brother, to the Umatillas in a subsequent council 
 tells its own story. After showing the Umatillas 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 413 
 
 that they had promoted war by their delegates, and 
 then urged Egan and Oytes to make it, he said: 
 " You have called them fools (the Pi-Utes) to stay 
 on the reservation and starve ; and another thing, 
 you have helped the Bannocks to fight the soldiers. 
 After all that, it must be a beautiful sensation to 
 cut a man or woman to pieces and then skin their 
 heads and fasten them on a pole and dance around 
 them as if you w r ere happy! r 
 
 After these events I divided my command again 
 in order to follow up the numerous trails of the 
 hostiles, visit every hiding-place, and search the 
 entire field. My object was to bring in the Indians 
 as prisoners, and, if possible, allay the wild fears 
 of the ranch people and settlers, who never felt sure 
 of protection until they saw the troops. 
 
 I kept up this work for more than a month, 
 sweeping southward across the John Day Valley 
 and on to Harney Lake, and westward over all our 
 campaigning ground, vising at times as many as 
 ten different columns. 
 
 When passing the Malheur agency for the sec 
 ond time I put Colonel M. P. Miller there to do 
 what he could to bring in the Indian stragglers. 
 He thoroughly probed the country, gathered many 
 wanderers, kept the prisoners sent to him, and 
 caught all who fell into his net. The old Indian 
 woman whom Sarah and Mattie had cared for had 
 come back to health and strength. Miller sent her 
 out to hunt for frightened people, be they men, 
 women or children, instructing her to show them 
 where they could come for food, shelter, and per 
 manent peace. Miller wrote to me afterwards: 
 
414 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 " The pickets brought them in (those that the 
 old woman had seen and informed) and they had a 
 talk with me to the effect that their band desired 
 to surrender. I told them that they could come in 
 as prisoners of war." There came to him in all 
 twenty-seven warriors, seventy-two women and 
 children, with fifty horses and ponies and ten guns. 
 
 Colonel J. W. Forsyth, who in the subsequent 
 operations commanded my right column, rendered 
 me an account of his several days of marching: 
 " It was up and down steep canyons, over the high 
 est ridges of the mountains, and through a perfect 
 network of fallen timber." He went there because 
 the hostile Indians had led the way. He struck 
 their rear guard in a deep ravine on the north fork 
 of the John Day River. The ascent was so steep 
 that in getting out of it several of the pack animals 
 rolled into the stream and were lost. 
 
 The Indians kept a rear guard of -about forty 
 warriors. Forsyth s eight scouts were close upon 
 their heels. One of them accidentally discharged 
 his carbine and this set the Indians to firing. They 
 killed our courier, Mr. Forman, and severely 
 wounded one of our scouts. Forsyth instantly 
 rushed his line forward up a precipitous hill, but 
 not soon enough to get a fair chance at the foe, who 
 had mounted and fled before the troops could reach 
 the crest. 
 
 When I reached Boise again I found there 
 twenty Indian prisoners that Lieutenant Guy 
 Howard of the Twelfth Infantry, with a part of 
 Captain Vivien s company, had succeeded in gath 
 ering up near Ladd s Canyon. In like manner 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 415 
 
 other small detachments had found Indians in hid 
 ing and had brought them in until at last there 
 were at Camp Harney over six hundred Indians 
 under guard. 
 
 There were no more battles of any consequence 
 and scarcely any organized resistance, excepting 
 on the part of the Bannock contingent which had 
 separated and fled from the Pi-Utes and other 
 allies. 
 
 Major Sanford wrote, on July 18th: "I re 
 ceived information from Lieutenant Williams in 
 command of our Nez Perce scouts (near Ladd s 
 Canyon) that he had been fired upon by a party of 
 white men, and that one of his Indians was mortally 
 wounded." The other Nez Perce scouts were very 
 much incensed at what they considered an outrage, 
 and determined to return home. The white men 
 claimed that they thought .these scouts were Ban 
 nocks, but the Nez Perces insisted that they were 
 dressed in their scouts uniform, and were moving 
 in a proper way. After that they distrusted the 
 white men altogether. Before his death the 
 wounded Indian scout sent for the white man who 
 had shot him, took him by the hand, looked him in 
 the face, told him that he forgave him, and besought 
 the other scouts to do the same. His comrades gave 
 him a simple Christian burial. One of their num 
 ber prayed, another repeated some words from the 
 Scriptures, and all joined in singing as they 
 committed his body to earth. Could a white Chris 
 tian have been nobler than that dying Nez Perce 
 scout ? 
 
 There was one band of mounted Indians that, 
 
 25 
 
416 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 in spite of shelling and rifle shooting, started 
 to cross the river. These were scattered, though 
 a very few of them succeeded in reaching the other 
 shore. This was the band that had murdered Mr. 
 and Mrs. Perkins, and brought suspicion upon five 
 hundred other Indians along the upper Columbia 
 who had continued to be faithful to their promises. 
 
 Our campaign was not finished until I had re 
 turned to Umatilla and had a prolonged council 
 with the different bodies of Indians, Cayuses, 
 Columbias, Walla Wallas, and Umatillas. 
 
 The results of the Umatilla council were to 
 send several prominent Indians whose loyalty was 
 suspected to safe forts, there to be kept for a time 
 as hostages for the good behavior of the remainder. 
 
 When the councils were concluded Lieutenant 
 Wood and myself took the first steamer down the 
 Columbia. The lieutenant, worn out by fatigue, 
 was soon fast asleep upon a side seat. I was sitting 
 near him and half dreaming when a burly citizen 
 approached and roughly accosted me. He was 
 fairly well dressed, but had evidently been drink 
 ing. On seeing me he had doubtless boasted to his 
 boon companions that he would show me how the 
 white settlers felt toward me and the authorities 
 who were over me. He began: " I hear that you 
 have allowed those accursed Indians to surrender." 
 
 " Of course I have," I answered. " Whenever 
 Indians give up and put out the white flag they are 
 taken as prisoners of war." 
 
 He then said savagely : "I wouldn t have done 
 it. Every last one of em should have been killed ! : 
 
 " Then, sir," I replied, " you would have been 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 417 
 
 a murderer. It would be more than my commission 
 is worth to do such a dastardly thing as to kill pris 
 oners of war." 
 
 Showing great anger, he uttered more insulting 
 language, and imputed unworthy motives to my 
 officers and myself. The crowd seemed to be en 
 couraging him to provoke a quarrel with me. 
 
 I then arose and said with all the decision of 
 manner I could muster : " Sir, I do not know who 
 you are, but I wish you to understand that I am a 
 soldier who has never turned a corner to avoid a 
 bullet; now what do you want? " 
 
 He instantly changed his tone and said, as if 
 ashamed of himself: " Oh, nothing come, take a 
 drink." 
 
 The crowd was now on my side, and after hur 
 rahing for me, I was left to join my aide-de-camp 
 in his undisturbed repose. 
 
 Sarah Winnemucca, some time after the war, 
 gave a succinct account of our transferring the Pi- 
 Utes from Camp Harney, where we had collected 
 most of them, to the Yakima agency some sixty 
 miles away. She said : * No human being would 
 do such a thing as that, send people across a fearful 
 mountain in midwinter ! We could have kept 
 them until spring, but our instructions were im 
 perative to deliver them to Agent Wilbur at Fort 
 Simcoe. The work was done by Captain William 
 H. Winters of the First Cavalry. He made short 
 marches, and succeeded in taking them through the 
 rough country with his small escort of two troops 
 of cavalry. Two adults, who were already ill, and 
 three children perished on the journey. 
 
418 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Sarah says : i One afternoon Mattie and I 
 were out to get five women who got away during 
 the night; an officer was sent with us. We were 
 riding very fast and my sister Mattie s horse 
 jumped to one side and threw her off. The blood 
 ran out of her mouth and I thought she ^vould die 
 right away, but, poor dear, she went on, for an 
 ambulance was at our command. " This injury 
 finally caused her death. 
 
 On the Simcoe reservation, notwithstanding 
 the great care of the venerable Indian agent, Mr. 
 Wilbur, there was very bitter feeling between the 
 newcomers and the occupants of the reservation, 
 who were already far advanced in the ways of 
 civilization. Sarah denounced not only the agent 
 himself and other employees, but all the civilized 
 Indians with whom the Pi-Utes had to do. 
 
 Later, upon Mr. Wilbur s request, I saw Sarah 
 and gave her letters to Washington, which she 
 could use after she had visited her father and all 
 the friendly Pi-Utes who were then in Nevada. 
 One remark in a letter which she bore is this: 
 " Mr. Wilbur, the Yakima Indian agent, thinks 
 Sarah is now a Christian and wishes me to aid her 
 to prosecute her journey to Nevada, which I have 
 gladly done. . . . Please do what you can to 
 assist her to have a fair interview with Mr. Stick- 
 ney of the Indian board and also with the Com 
 missioner of Indian Affairs." 
 
 Friends of humanity may say, " The pictures 
 you have given us are sad enough, and do they not 
 show how cruel the whites have been to these In 
 dians ? I answer : i Yes, if we take only the In- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 419 
 
 dians point of view." But surely our army of 
 ficers were not cruel toward them. The Indians 
 first believed one of their old Dreamers about the 
 , coming of the Messiah. Then the Pi-Utes took 
 advantage of a grievance, viz.: the removal from 
 them of a good agent and his wife and giving them 
 another whom they claimed to be bad. I would 
 have helped them to remedy that, if they had asked. 
 They conspired with the Bannocks and renegades 
 and appealed to arms, and believed for a time that 
 they were strong enough, when combined, to defeat 
 the white troops and clear their region of the sol 
 diers and all the settlers. The outbreak was met 
 promptly by the troops. The Indians were de 
 feated in every battle; they broke into small par 
 ties, but were pursued relentlessty until a part 
 were captured and the rest driven far beyond the 
 field of operations. The prisoners were gathered 
 together at Fort Harney and Vancouver Barracks 
 and the whole case submitted to Washington for 
 instructions. 
 
 It would have been a reward to misconduct to 
 have given them back the reservation which they 
 had robbed and deserted when they went to war. 
 Any hardships that occurred were merely inci 
 dental to the circumstances. Camp Harney, in the 
 midst of the mountains, could not easily be pro 
 visioned to keep the garrison through the winter, 
 and it appeared necessary to the Indian bureau to 
 have the Indians sent to a better place at once. Ex 
 traordinary expense was incurred for their protec 
 tion and comfort. The extreme destitution of the 
 women and children was due to the rigors of war, 
 
420 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 a war which every soldier would, if in his power, 
 gladly have prevented. Had the Pi-Utes accepted 
 the situation at Yakima, cultivated their lands, 
 and built houses and fences, as the Simcoe Indians 
 had done, they would have been prosperous and 
 happy. 
 
 But it was too much of a transformation to ef 
 fect in a single season. Many of the Simcoe In 
 dians, as we have seen, live in good houses and are 
 prosperous farmers ; some of them are each worth 
 several thousand dollars fortunes accumulated 
 by their own industry. They were indeed an object 
 lesson to the Pi-Utes, but the Pi-Utes were not 
 yet far enough along " the white man s road " to 
 take advantage of their good fortune. They be- 
 > oame homesick, and begged to go from a land of 
 fertility to a comparatively barren waste in Nevada 
 which had always been the hunting and fishing 
 ground of their people. Their cry w r as heeded, like 
 that of Joseph and the non-treaty Nez Perces, and 
 so they returned to beat their tom-toms and dance 
 and dream in their old haunts. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AMONG THE SHEEP-EATERS CAMPAIGNING IN " THE LAND 
 OF THE SEVEN DEVILS." 
 
 A Visionary Old Dreamer Some Alarming Reports Getting Ready 
 to Take the Warpath A Select Company of Indian Scouts and 
 Sharpshooters Campaigning in a Fearfully Rough Country 
 Pursuing a Band of Marauding Horse-thieves Defeat of Our 
 Troops Five Days of Terrific Forced Marches Stumbling Upon 
 an Indian Ambuscade Completely Surrounded by Indians Set 
 ting Fire to the Grass and Timber Heroic Efforts of the Troops 
 to Extricate Themselves A Bannock Spy Who Played Me False 
 Teaching Captive Indians Escape of the Bannock Spy. 
 
 IN the early part of 1879 I was looking for the 
 establishment of a new army post near the mouth 
 of the Spokane River. While in camp on the 
 opposite side of the river and in view of the San 
 Poels, or Sheep-Eaters, I was visited by a delega 
 tion from that tribe, who were solicitous for entire 
 and absolute independence of all white men and all 
 Indians. The acting chief, a tooat, was lame and 
 much given to visions. His dreams, when I was in 
 the neighborhood, were extraordinary, but sensible, 
 and I anticipated no great trouble from his people, 
 who were temperate and industrious. The sub 
 stance of this man s dreaming was the prayer of 
 an aged Presbyterian divine who had visited the 
 tribe when he was young. This prayer had re 
 mained in his memory and appeared to be leading 
 him to good and high aspirations. At frequent in 
 tervals he would point to approaching serious 
 
422 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 troubles with the wild tribes in and around the 
 fearfully rugged Salmon River country often 
 called " The Land of the Seven Devils" -and 
 would urge immediate preparations to meet and 
 resist the same. 
 
 I had not long been returned to Vancouver, my 
 headquarters, before I received a dispatch stating 
 that the Indian agent at Lemhi had reported a re 
 volting murder of miners at a place called Oro 
 Grande, on Loon Creek, about eighty-five miles 
 northwest of Boise. General McDowell, the di 
 vision commander, directed me to send troops from 
 Boise as soon as the trail could be traveled, for the 
 purpose of investigating this murder and other 
 alarming reports coming from the rough Salmon 
 River country. I was already advised of these 
 troubles, and was convinced that hostile Indians 
 of the previous year had united with the Sheep- 
 Eaters on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River 
 for the warpath. In addition to the troops from 
 Boise, I ordered another command from Camp 
 Howard, near Mt. Idaho, to prepare to take the 
 field as soon as it might be possible to cross the 
 rugged mountains between the Snake River and 
 the South and Middle Forks of the Salmon. 
 
 Anticipating trouble at various places, because 
 of the reappearance of some of the hostile Nez 
 Perces who escaped to British America after the 
 Nez Perce campaign of 1877, and hostile demon 
 strations by Pi-Utes and Bannocks who had par 
 ticipated in the war of 1878, and wishing to keep 
 well informed and strike effectively, I ordered 
 Lieutenant Edward S. Farrow of the Twenty-first 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 425 
 
 Infantry, fresh from West Point and full of ac 
 tivity, to enlist a company of Indian scouts and to 
 form a detachment of picked men, selected for 
 endurance and their skill in marksmanship. I 
 placed these Indian scouts and sharpshooters under 
 the independent command of Lieutenant Farrow, 
 gave him private instructions, and sent him in the 
 direction where the hostile Nez Perces had been 
 reported. I then gave orders to the commanding 
 officer at Boise to send a troop of cavalry, under 
 command of Captain Bernard, to Challis, Idaho, 
 with instructions to operate from that point, indi 
 cating that when the command sent from Camp 
 Howard reached Bernard that he should command 
 both columns. The same instructions, in substance, 
 went to the commanding officer at Camp Howard, 
 to operate toward Challis and unite with Bernard 
 as soon as possible. These instructions were 
 promptly carried into effect, the troops starting 
 early in June ; but great delay was occasioned ow 
 ing to impassable trails, the fearfully rough coun 
 try, and the deep snows through which the com 
 mands had to dig their way in order to reach the 
 roaming ground of the Indians. 
 
 On July 6th Bernard dispatched me these 
 words : " To enable us to get up the Middle Salmon 
 a trail through timber and rocks had to be made 
 all the way. This was done with the river, already 
 a flood, constantly rising, so that crossing and re- 
 crossing the swift torrent became extremely slow 
 and difficult. Bernard added: "The mountains 
 closed in, forming such a canyon as to cause us to 
 leave the river and try the mountains, which were 
 
426 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 covered with snow and very rocky. . . . Pack 
 rnules were carried down stream, having rolled 
 down the mountains, causing the loss of many 
 rations and other supplies." 
 
 Lieutenant Catley, leading the force from 
 Camp Howard, reported from Warrens, a hamlet 
 near the South Fork of the Salmon, that nothing 
 could be done toward getting into the country 
 where the Indians were supposed to be until later, 
 when more of the snow was gone. The middle of 
 June he had gone only seven miles from Warrens 
 and was obliged to turn back because it was ab 
 solutely impossible to get through. It was not 
 until the llth of July that he succeeded in getting 
 into the region of the Salmon Eiver country and 
 camped on the South Fork. 
 
 On the 15th of July Bernard reported from 
 Cape Horn Valley that " The country was rougher 
 than any of the United States, and to get at the 
 Indians would be a work of great difficulty. Should 
 they discover us before we do them, they can hide 
 in the timbered Rocky Mountains for a long time, 
 and go from point to point much faster than we 
 can, even if we knew where to go." He added: 
 We have traveled over much country that no 
 white man ever saw before ; old guides and miners 
 declared that we could not get through at all." 
 
 Lieutenant Farrow, with his command, crossed 
 the Blue Mountains and moved with celerity to the 
 Snake River, which he crossed at Brownlee s Ferry 
 on July llth. By the 16th of July he reported from 
 Council Valley that he had found signs of Indians 
 near Wood Creek. After two days pursuit he 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 427 
 
 dispersed these Indians, they seeking refuge on the 
 Lapwai and Lemhi reservations. Lieutenant Far 
 row then gave his attention to an organized band 
 of marauding horse thieves, whom he pursued to 
 the highest peaks of the Seven Devil Mountains, 
 where he dispersed them and captured a large lot 
 of stock and supplies stolen from the government. 
 Several notorious Indians, prominent in the cam 
 paigns of 1877 and 1878, were in company with 
 these marauders, and these Lieutenant Farrow, 
 after capture, impressed as guides and scouts. He 
 then proceeded in search of the reported returning 
 Nez Perces, having ascertained the then where 
 abouts of the commands of Bernard and Catley. 
 
 The three commanders slowly and cautiously 
 forced their way through that impassable country 
 like hunters in search of wildest game. On the 5th 
 of August a message came to me from Bernard to 
 the effect that he had just received a dispatch from 
 Lieutenant Catley stating that the Indians had at 
 tacked and defeated his command on July 29th, 
 and had captured his pack train and all supplies. 
 The force of Indians was reported as well posted 
 on Big Creek, a stream that flowed from the west 
 and emptied into the Middle Fork of the Salmon. 
 
 About this time Lieutenant Farrow was ad 
 vised by couriers of Catley s defeat. He at once 
 caghed his supplies and equipage, and, living off 
 the country, made forced marches in the shortest 
 line across mountains and canyons to Catley s re 
 lief. After five days of terrific forced marches 
 Farrow camped with Catley s retreating command 
 on the South Fork of the Salmon at Rains Cross- 
 
428 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ing. Leaving a few of his footsore men and horses 
 with Catley, Lieutenant Farrow crossed the South 
 Fork of the Salmon at daybreak the next morning 
 and hastened in the direction of Big Creek, the 
 scene of Catley ? s disaster. 
 
 Catley accounted for his misfortune by saying 
 that his command struck an ambuscade from 
 which, after determining that it was impossible to 
 do anything because the Indians were lodged in a 
 point of rocks across the creek, where they had so 
 fortified themselves that their exact location could 
 not be discovered, he took the responsibility of 
 ordering a prompt retreat some two miles up the 
 creek to a point which he thought could be held 
 defensively. Here he camped one night, and the 
 next morning, putting his wounded men upon hand 
 litters, he moved up a steep ridge which he be 
 lieved would lead him into the mountains and back 
 to the trail by which he had come. But here, un 
 fortunately, he lost his way, and to make matters 
 worse the Indians kept ahead of him, occupying 
 rocky points on his right and left. Completely 
 surrounded by Indians, he finally ordered the pack 
 train unloaded and instructed his men to take such 
 cover as they could find in the rocks and behind the 
 cargo, and hold the position if possible should the 
 Indians attempt to approach. 
 
 To increase his troubles the Indians set fire to 
 the grass and timber. The base of the mountain 
 seemed to be entirely on fire. The wind was high, 
 and the terrible roaring of flames and dense clouds 
 of smoke seemed to approach from every direction. 
 The heroic efforts of his men in " counter-firing " 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 429 
 
 prevented the singed and scorched command from 
 immediate destruction. As soon as possible, after 
 dark, the command moved slowly and quietly down 
 the precipitous side of the mountain, having aban 
 doned all public property and personal effects. 
 His condition was such after the loss of his prop 
 erty, supplies, animals, equipage, and clothing, 
 that he at once decided to return to Camp Howard. 
 The back movement of Lieutenant Catley was 
 promptly arrested by Colonel Wheaton, from Fort 
 Lapwai, as soon as the report of the defeat reached 
 him. Captain Forse of the First Cavalry, with his 
 company, was hurriedly sent out to reinforce Cat- 
 ley and turn him toward the Indians, and in sup 
 port of Farrow, who was then advancing into the 
 Sheep-Eater country. On August 24th I hurriedly 
 sent dispatches to Bernard, stating that the In 
 dians had been encouraged by Catley s defeat, that 
 the trouble was extending, and urging every ac 
 tivity in promptly moving on the Indians. In 
 answer I received a more hopeful dispatch from 
 Bernard, saying that " Farrow (30 miles ahead of 
 him) was pursuing the hostile Indians down the 
 Middle Salmon canyon, had captured thirty-five 
 horses, and had caused them to abandon all their 
 luggage. Bernard, now joined by Forse, followed 
 Farrow s trail down Big Creek to the Middle Fork 
 of the Salmon and went into camp where Farrow 
 was recuperating after his plunging pursuit down 
 the Middle Salmon canyon. From this camp Ber 
 nard sent me a dispatch saying: " The country is 
 so rough that animals cannot be got through at all. 
 All our stock except a few of Captain Forse s 
 
430 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 horses and the animals captured by Farrow are 
 exhausted. Most of our horses and mules have 
 given out and have been shot/ 
 
 It seemed so impossible to capture these flying 
 Indians, who ran from peak to peak faster than the 
 troops could follow, and, realizing the intense suf 
 fering of the troops engaged, I at last sent orders 
 for Bernard, if in his judgment it was impossible 
 to do more than had been done, to leave that fearful 
 country and distribute his forces to the posts where 
 they belonged. Bernard acted promptly on this 
 order, and with his own command proceeded south 
 ward to Boise. Forse and Farrow went westward 
 to the South Fork of the Salmon on the trail made 
 by Catley in his retreat. Upon reaching the South 
 Fork hostile Indians were seen near by, and sev 
 eral prospectors were attacked and killed, while 
 numerous signal smokes indicated that the Indians 
 were following Forse and Farrow and would doubt 
 less attack all ranches south and west of Warrens 
 after the troops had left that section of the country. 
 
 In view of this situation Lieutenant Farrow 
 remained in camp on the South Fork of the Salmon 
 to watch the Indians until all whites could get out 
 of the neighboring country, while Captain Forse 
 proceeded to his post at Fort Lapwai. 
 
 Lieutenant Farrow now abandoned most of 
 his equipage and with a portion of his command 
 advanced upon the Indians once more and finally 
 attacked them in their stronghold on the Middle 
 Fork of the Salmon. After numerous assaults, 
 finally flanking the Indian position and destroying 
 the Indian camp, he forced the entire band to 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 431 
 
 surrender, and then by sixty-two days of march 
 ing through fearful snows over rugged mountains 
 he reached the Columbia River with his captive 
 tribe and delivered them to me at Vancouver 
 Barracks as prisoners of war, thus enabling me to 
 fully realize every hope I may have had as to 
 the favorable outcome of this most hazardous 
 expedition. 
 
 In my order of congratulation I stated that 
 " the men in this expedition, one and all, deserve 
 special mention for gallantry, energy, and perse 
 verance, resulting in success." 
 
 As a reward for his services in this campaign, 
 Lieutenant Farrow has a brevet commission signed 
 by President Cleveland. 
 
 When Lieutenant Farrow brought his Indian 
 prisoners to Fort Vancouver it was the head 
 quarters of the Twenty-first Infantry, with six 
 companies present for duty. Colonel Henry A. 
 Morrow, who was a general by brevet and had been 
 my comrade in the Civil War, was in command of 
 the regiment, and the post captain, John A. Kress, 
 who had been a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers 
 on the staff of General Wadsworth, was in com 
 mand of the Vancouver Arsenal. Upon arrival at 
 the post these Sheep-Eater Indian prisoners were 
 the objects of curious scrutiny. For the most part 
 they were substantially the same as the Bannocks 
 in manners and customs, but dressed in scanty 
 attire of mountain sheep and other skins. The 
 band was composed of Bannocks, Pi-Utes, Snakes, 
 Nez Perces, and Cayuses. One of the Bannocks 
 had been a spy for Buffalo Horn and Egan during 
 
432 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 the Indian campaign of 1878. When I was en 
 camped at Sheep Ranch, actively engaged in the 
 Bannock campaign, this Indian came to my head 
 quarters and so won my regard and the confidence 
 of those about me that I decided to send a message 
 by him from that point some two hundred miles to 
 Camp Harney. As he was more loyal to the other 
 side he carried my dispatches straight to Chief Egan 
 (the enemy) in Stem s Mountains instead of to 
 Camp Harney. This Bannock spy was the only 
 one of all the Indians in the Northwest that I had 
 to do with directly who played me false. 
 
 It was not long before confidence and con 
 tentment reigned throughout the encampment. 
 Sarah Winnemucca visited Fort Vancouver about 
 this time, and as an interpreter rendered invalu 
 able service in arriving at a better understanding 
 of the Indian prisoners and their needs, and in 
 stituted a good school for the children and others 
 and began teaching them English. 
 
 Major Kress was the superintendent of our 
 Sunday-school, and Indians, old and young, were 
 gathered into that. In this the ladies of the gar 
 rison became teachers, and, with Sarah, they had 
 sewing classes and proper instructions in that line. 
 General Morrow set the Indians to work, being de 
 lighted at the opportunity to relieve his soldiers 
 from ordinary and extraordinary police duty. 
 The Indians came out of the guard-house to white 
 wash the fences, make paths, build and improve 
 roads, and to put the whole outer face of things in 
 prime condition. 
 
 I often watched groups of these Indians while 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 433 
 
 they were at work. They never appeared to re 
 lax their energy and effort to do everything re 
 quired of them, and to do it well. The spy, 
 taking with him two other Indians, succeeded in 
 making his escape, crossing the broad Columbia, 
 and disappearing in the forests of Oregon. I did 
 not blame him much for getting away as soon as 
 possible, even after he had made his solemn prom 
 ise to obey all regulations and to remain at Van 
 couver till properly released, because he was con 
 scious all the while of having done those things in 
 war which would subject him to the severest 
 penalty, and as he knew that the white man could 
 not really trust him he was not willing to trust Gen 
 eral Morrow s word as to his own safety. 
 
 As a rule, when an Indian looked in my face 
 and gave me his promise to do a certain thing, he 
 was scrupulous to perform that promise. Some 
 one asked me after my long experience among In 
 dians if I did not find them treacherous. I an 
 swered: "No, not so much so as the Anglo- 
 Saxon." I did not mean to say that they were not 
 as outrageous as they possibly could be during the 
 activities of what they called " war," but that after 
 the war was over none of them ever entered into a 
 deliberate plan to deceive and injure me and mine 
 as many an educated white man has done. 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 AMONG THE SPOKANES I AM WELCOMED BY CHIEF LOT 
 RELIGIOUS SERVICES AMONG INDIANS IN 
 STANCES OF INDIAN GRATITUDE. 
 
 The Spokanes A Filibustering Indian Chief Lot Preparations 
 for a Wedding An Indian Bride Listening to Indian Songs 
 Trying to Build " a Bona fide White Man s House " A Queer 
 Piece of Architecture Religious Service With the Spokanes In 
 dian Confessions Shedding Tears of Contrition A Dissenting 
 Old Indian Woman " Sit Down, My Girl, Sit Down ! " Chief 
 Lot s Confession My Indian Escort Preparations for Leaving 
 the Department of the Columbia Unexpected Appearance of Lot 
 His Journey of Five Hundred Miles to Bid Me Good-bye 
 " You Must Not Go ! " Instances of Indian Gratitude. 
 
 DURING the summer following our council 
 at Fort Simcoe, I caused my aide-de-camp, 
 Captain Wilkinson, in company with, the 
 Indian inspector, Colonel E. C. Watkins, to meet 
 several kindred bands of Indians in a council 
 to be held at Spokane Falls. The Colville Indians, 
 the Upper Spokanes, the Okanagans, the Coeur- 
 d Alenes, and the Lower Spokanes were all repre 
 sented. The agent at Colville nominally had these 
 Indians in charge, but they were not all upon 
 reservations. 
 
 The Spokanes under different chiefs were very 
 much scattered. Those off from reservations were 
 grouped, several of them under Chief Moses, and 
 several others under Spokane Garry, who had 
 achieved a great war record in his early life, but 
 during the councils showed himself more of a 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 435 
 
 lawyer than a fighter. At one time, in a council 
 at which I was present, I thought that Garry could 
 make the longest speech of any Indian I had ever 
 listened to, and he knew how to filibuster like a 
 congressman when he had a point to gain by con 
 tinuous talking. . Garry ? s main desire was to have 
 a reservation set apart for himself and his follow 
 ers. His own band did not exceed three hundred, 
 but he hoped to increase his importance by having 
 several bands collected and placed by the govern 
 ment under his leadership. 
 
 Spokane Garry was short in stature, dressed in 
 citizens clothing, and wore his hair cut very short 
 for an Indian. He was shriveled, blear-eyed, and 
 repulsive in appearance, but wiry and tough, and 
 still able to endure great fatigue, though he must 
 have been at least seventy years of age. 
 
 The results of the councils at Spokane Falls 
 were quite satisfactory. All the renegades and 
 Spokanes off from reservations secured from 
 Colonel Watkins the promise of a new and ample 
 reservation, with metes and bounds well defined, 
 and in return for this promise they agreed to keep 
 the peace during the threatened Indian troubles 
 whose shadow was already upon us. Altogether 
 there were between three thousand and four thou 
 sand Indians represented at these councils. 
 
 The year before I had gone from band to band 
 and made some observations. When I first struck 
 a portion of the Lower Spokanes they were in 
 camp near a bridge that led over the Spokane 
 Eiver on the Colville wagon road. They were liv 
 ing in lodges built like those of the Flatheads and 
 
436 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 the Blackfeet, erected with good lodge-poles and 
 covered with canvas and skins. I was welcomed 
 by them, and on my approach to their camp their 
 chief, by the name of Lot, came out to meet me at 
 the head of a small company. Lot was a man of 
 remarkable height; he spoke a little English, but 
 preferred to use the " Chinook " in his intercourse 
 with white men. 
 
 We pitched our camp close to the river and not 
 far from the Indian lodges. These Indians had 
 been taught by an old missionary wiiom they called 
 " Father Eells," and were decidedly Presbyterian. 
 That night a weary but faithful minister, with a 
 halting gait, joined us at the bridge, having come 
 some distance from Spokane Falls obedient to the 
 call of the Indians. He was to officiate at a wed 
 ding. It appeared that a rough white man, Rich 
 ards by name, had been living near the bridge and 
 had traded extensively with the Indians and fra 
 ternized with them more than with white men. He 
 had become attached to an Indian maiden who had 
 consented to become his wife, and the minister was 
 on hand to marry them. The ceremony was con 
 ducted after the simple form of the Presbyterian 
 church and had nothing remarkable about it. The 
 girl w r as very young and bashful, but she seemed 
 happy to accept the white man. I wondered that 
 she did not prefer one of the young Indians to that 
 rough and uncouth specimen of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, whose appearance indicated that he was what 
 is called in that country a " squaw-man." 
 
 After the wedding, which took place in the even 
 ing, the Indians returned to their lodges. Soon 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 437 
 
 Indian songs sung in Indian words to tunes that 
 were familiar to me from childhood arose from 
 every lodge and produced a strange effect upon us 
 all. The singing was part of their evening wor 
 ship and had nothing to do with the wedding. 
 
 After the Indian wars of 1877 and 1878 were 
 over I accompanied two Presbyterian ministers to 
 the home of a very ambitious Indian who had es 
 sayed to build something beyond the common lodge, 
 namely, a bona fide white man s house. A few In 
 dians had secured some land thickly covered with 
 trees and on this Spokane William had erected his 
 dwelling. The house measured, I should judge, 
 about forty feet each way, and its plan was as 
 nearly square as the Indian could lay it out. It 
 had a roof, and a door in one corner, but there was 
 not a window or a fireplace in it, and nothing be 
 tween the ground and the rafters. But it was a 
 beginning, and William was proud of it. 
 
 The day we were there the ministers held a re 
 ligious service with the Indians. The Spokanes 
 came in and filled William s house. They sat on 
 the ground, all facing toward a table, while the 
 ministers and guests occupied the few chairs that 
 William possessed. Chief Lot was present, and 
 sat upon the edge of the table. The singing was 
 similar to that I had heard in the Spokane lodges 
 on the evening of the wedding ; the reading of the 
 Scriptures and the sermon preached by one of the 
 ministers w T ere translated by a good interpreter. 
 
 After the regular service communion was par 
 taken of. It was customary for those frontier 
 ministers to require short talks and confessions 
 
438 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 from Indians who had departed from the faith, 
 or been guilty of trangressions according to the 
 Bible code which Father Eells had given them. 
 One after another arose and confessed. One young 
 Indian said that he had taken two horses from a 
 white man, but that he had restored them, and he 
 was very sorry for his conduct and would never 
 again steal. Others, both men and women, con 
 fessed the specific sins which they had committed. 
 They shed tears of contrition, all ending with 
 promises to do their best in future. At last a very 
 sharp-voiced Indian woman rose in the back part 
 of the house and, talking with great rapidity, 
 seemed to be indulging in crimination and fault 
 finding. I could not understand her, but as I was 
 looking toward Lot I saw him rise slowly to his 
 full height and then lift up his hand and wave it 
 downward with considerable emphasis. The inter 
 preter told me that Lot said : " Sit down, my girl, 
 sit down! r 
 
 She dropped down, when he added: " We can 
 confess our own sins ; we have a right to do that, 
 but we have no right to confess other people s 
 
 sins. 
 
 When Chief Lot s turn came he owned that he 
 had not always done what he ought to have done 
 and had sometimes set a bad example to the people 
 of his band, but he was sorry, and he purposed with 
 all his soul to lead a good and Christian life here 
 after. 
 
 On a later visit to the north I heard that Lot 
 and his Indians were much troubled and persecuted 
 by white settlers. They had gone to a portion of 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 439 
 
 the country far above the Spokane River and high 
 up among the hills, where they had found a fertile, 
 well-watered plain. Lot had there between four 
 thousand and five thousand acres of good land en 
 closed by a fence. Along the borders of this com 
 mon territory Indian houses, barns, and lodges 
 were located at intervals within this fence, and fair 
 crops appeared near every building and lodge. 
 They were living upon and cultivating part of the 
 public land, but they had no reservation and no 
 visible right to remain there. 
 
 Lot heard of my coming and just at night came 
 out some ten or twelve miles to meet me, accom 
 panied by twenty Indians. They were greatly de 
 lighted that I had come. We encamped near a 
 stream of water in the woods. In that bivouac 
 it was more of a bivouac than a camp, for we had 
 no tent I did not feel the same sense of danger 
 that I did among the Apaches, the non-treaty Nez 
 Perces, or among the Pi-Utes, when at my first 
 visit they sang their wild songs. Lot and his 
 people, though very little advanced in our customs, 
 were nevertheless Christian Indians. They were 
 trying to square their conduct by a good code of 
 morals. 
 
 On looking over the land that Lot had selected 
 I tried to persuade him to have his Indians take up 
 the land in severalty, as the settlers do after public- 
 surveys have been made, but he said to me: " I 
 cannot do it. Only a few of us would know how, 
 and we have no money to pay what the land office 
 demands. A few might learn to do that kind of 
 farming, but most of our Indians would perish if 
 
440 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 they tried to get a living on farms of their own. 
 They cannot do it. Set apart a tract big enough 
 for us all and we can cultivate it together, and I 
 will see that the old and infirm and the children 
 are fed and taken care of." 
 
 I protected Lot as well as I could until 1880, 
 when the President and General Sherman made a 
 visit to Oregon. Then I had the papers made out 
 for setting apart the tract which Chief Lot had 
 selected and was then cultivating. General Sher 
 man joined me heartily in recommending the re 
 serve, and signed his name to the paper, and Presi 
 dent Hayes gladly added his strong approval. 
 Many greedy white men, who believed that Indians 
 had no rights which a white man ought to respect, 
 were much chagrined at this action, but, fortu 
 nately, they could not overturn it, so that Lot and 
 his people were made happy in spite of the con 
 tinued and bitter opposition of their white neigh 
 bors. 
 
 When I \vas about to leave the Department of 
 the Columbia for the East and had gone on board 
 the San Francisco steamer lying at the dock in 
 Portland, and had entered my room for the night 
 to get a good sleep and be ready for a very early 
 start the next morning, my door was suddenly 
 darkened by a tall human form. I turned and saw 
 that it was an Indian dressed in citizen s clothing, 
 but with a blanket over his head and shoulders. 
 As soon as he spoke I recognized Lot. He had 
 come all the way from his reservation above the 
 Spokane to Wallula on horseback and thence down 
 the river by steamers, and had arrived in Portland 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 441 
 
 just in time to see me before my departure. It 
 deeply touched me to learn that an Indian would 
 travel over five hundred miles in the way I have 
 described to bid me good-bye before my final fare 
 well to the Pacific Coast. I instinctively thought 
 that my going had troubled the veteran chief, and 
 that he probably had some special message for me. 
 He began by reciting some of the things that I had 
 done. He spoke of our meeting at different times, 
 and of my giving him a reservation and having it 
 confirmed by the approval of General Sherman 
 and the President. 
 
 "Now," said Lot, " after all this you go 
 away? : 
 
 " Yes," I said, " I must go. The President has 
 ordered me to go East, and I must obey his orders 
 as your men obey yours." 
 
 "But," he entreated, "you must not go; you 
 cannot go! You are the Indians friend. If you 
 stay everything will go on right, but if you go the 
 white men around me will get my land and there 
 will be trouble. You must not go ! r 
 
 The old man s voice was tender and his eyes 
 were full of tears as he pleaded with me in better 
 broken English than I thought he could command. 
 His fears were quieted before we separated. Prob 
 ably before he came to me he was convinced that I 
 w r ould obey my orders and go to my new depart 
 ment, but he could not refrain from expressing his 
 gratitude and confidence, and his strong desire for 
 me to remain. 
 
 This was the third incident in which an Indian 
 had shown strong emotion and good will on parting 
 
442 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 with me. Cochise had embraced me twice and 
 spoken very gently and expressed a wish for me to 
 stay ; Moses had taken me by the hand and looked 
 in my face and said that he would come to me 
 whenever I should call him, but Lot had traveled 
 over five hundred miles to see me, and had shown 
 all the tenderness and affection of a brother when 
 he bade me good-bye. These are recollections 
 which show a oneness in the love and sympathy 
 which is a common heritage of God s children of 
 every race, and give me special satisfaction. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AMONG THE CROWS A TRIBE OF 
 
 WARRIORS AND THIEVES SECRET HELPERS 
 
 OF OUR FOES. 
 
 The Crow Reservation An Ingenious Plot Meeting a Delegation of 
 Mounted Crows Fraternizing with Our Indian Scouts A Crow 
 Escort A Tribe of Thieves Finding Bodies of White Men 
 Marriage Customs of the Crows Their Dress and Personal Ap 
 pearance Religious Belief Looking Forward to a Coming Mes 
 siah Settlers Opinion of the Crows " Thieves, Marauders, and 
 Murderers" Justly Entitled to Their Reputation Bad Feeling 
 Between the Sioux and Crows A Nomadic Tribe Full of War 
 and Revenge Incidents of Life Among the Crows A Reign of 
 Terror Driving Them from Their Reservation. 
 
 IN my account of the Nez Perce war I described 
 how our columns followed the Nez Perces 
 through the Yellowstone Park and then, turn 
 ing gradually northward, went from Wyoming into 
 Montana in a northeasterly direction. As we de 
 scended from Hart Mountain we touched the Crow 
 reservation. The Crow Indians were the secret 
 helpers of our foes. Some of them succeeded in 
 turning General Sturgis away from his camping 
 ground and leading him and his command some 
 forty miles out of the way of Joseph s advance just 
 at the right time. 
 
 Undoubtedly this ingenious plot was carried 
 out by Joseph s scouts, but the Crows very kindly 
 gave the scouts the information that enabled them 
 to guide the hostiles through a safe pass that they 
 might without material interruption continue their 
 
444 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 eastern march toward the British territory, where 
 Sitting Bull was at that time. As soon as I arrived 
 in the neighborhood of the Crows a mounted dele 
 gation of them, with bright faces, came straight to 
 me from the Indian agent with profuse offers of 
 hospitality. They were, however, a little over- 
 friendly, and I suspected at the time that their 
 duplicity had misled Sturgis. 
 
 It was surprising to see how quickly they would 
 pick up a stray horse, and how ready they were at 
 the first opportunity after detection to return any 
 thing that belonged to our camps. Like the Flat- 
 heads, as soon as they came near us they frater 
 nized with our Indian scouts, the Bannocks under 
 Buffalo Horn, and the few Nez Perces who were 
 with us. A group of them, not very well dressed, 
 nor as fine appearing as the Flatheads, but always 
 well mounted, kept along beside our marching col 
 umn for two or three days, going as far as Sturgis 
 battle-field near the Musselshell. From us and 
 from the Indians who were fleeing from us the 
 Crows managed to gather much booty, such as cast- 
 off clothing and blankets, pack mules that had 
 strayed away loaded with provisions, and numer 
 ous animals temporarily lame or otherwise broken 
 down with the hardships of a long journey. These 
 they gathered up and took back to their lodges, 
 and with so much adroitness that no harm seemed 
 to be intended and no complaint was made against 
 them. Really the Crowds gloried in thefts, to 
 snatch a pony without detection was for a Crow a 
 highly praiseworthy act. 
 
 An officer who was serving at that time with the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 445 
 
 cavalry told me that not one of the messengers and 
 scouts that Sturgis sent out to get news of the 
 coming Nez Perces ever returned. We found the 
 bodies of a few white men after we descended from 
 Hart Mountain, but whether they were slain by 
 the Nez Perces or the Crows we could not deter 
 mine. 
 
 The Mountain Crow Indians were noted among 
 surrounding tribes for their shrewdness and ac 
 tivity. Having now become half -civilized they 
 show the change in their dress, wearing partly the 
 white man s and partly the Indian costume. They 
 have, however, always preferred the tepee to the 
 dwellings provided for them through the Indian 
 bureau. 
 
 It is said that when any Plains Indian wishes 
 to marry he agrees to give the father a certain 
 number of ponies in return for the possession or 
 promise of his daughter. But the marriage cere 
 mony had no binding force among the Crows, for 
 if at any time the husband became weary of his 
 wife he could return her to her parents, and she 
 was free to marry again. Some of these Indians 
 have more than one wife. 
 
 Like the Apaches, Crow parents were over-in 
 dulgent to their children. They were under no re 
 straint, and when the boys were old enough to ride 
 and use the bow they w^ere very wild, yet happy 
 together in their varied sports. The Crows trusted 
 in the Good Spirit, and regarded any evil or dis 
 aster as a punishment to chasten them. When re 
 lief came the Good Spirit had brought it, and they 
 were comforted. In this faith they differed from 
 
446 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 most wild Indians, who imputed all evils to the Bad 
 Spirit, whom, by various ways, they endeavored to 
 appease. 
 
 The religious faith of the Crows did not differ 
 much from that of the non-treaty Nez Perces. 
 Like them they held tenaciously to the idea of a 
 coming Messiah, who was to restore the hunting 
 grounds and privileges of their fathers. 
 
 Among our frontier settlers the reputation of 
 the Crows was bad. They were denounced as 
 thieves, marauders, and murderers. Such they un 
 doubtedly were, and such they taught their chil 
 dren to be; still they managed to get along with 
 white men without open war. We saw many evi 
 dences in the neighborhood of their domain of old 
 conflicts with other Indian tribes, and were told by 
 men who had long resided among them that their 
 lodge-poles had been dropped in great quantities 
 on all " the old trails " while they were running 
 away from the Blackfeet, with whom they were 
 constantly at war. 
 
 The Crows were natural herders. They liked 
 to own live stock, and seemed to take a lively pleas 
 ure in herding cattle and horses. They gradually 
 gained the appliances of civilization, and a large 
 number of them are now employed every year by 
 government agents in hauling supplies. Many are 
 farmers and succeed fairly well when the seasons 
 are favorable. 
 
 In noticing the totems of Sioux warriors I have 
 often observed that about the first act depicted was 
 the killing and scalping of a Crow Indian. Some 
 times the record of distinguished prowess included 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 447 
 
 the slaying of Crow women and the seizing of their 
 ponies. Sitting Bull in his younger days, while he 
 was laying the foundation of his fame as a warrior, 
 put great stress upon his killing of Crows, taking 
 their scalps and their property. These curious 
 records show that the Sioux and Crows were deadly 
 enemies, and were perpetually at war with each 
 other. 
 
 Their code of honor was substantially the same. 
 The Crows did not believe in robbing each other, 
 but took great delight in killing and robbing their 
 enemies. Were not the white settlers their en 
 emies? How could they have our code of morals 
 except through Christianization and civilization? 
 
 At the time I crossed their reservation their 
 limits extended from the north line of Wyoming 
 to the Yellowstone and the one hundred and 
 seventh meridian. They were then known as the 
 Eiver and the Mountain Crows. The former had 
 long been especially nomadic, and roamed north of 
 the Missouri with little regard to metes and bounds. 
 They had constantly fallen in with white men who, 
 through the use of whisky, drove good trades with 
 them. The government agent, however, had suc 
 ceeded in getting some twelve hundred of them to 
 join the Mountain Crows, then about three thou 
 sand strong, and to remain at least during the cold 
 months within reasonable distance of his agency 
 buildings. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE FLATHEADS THEIR PECULIARITIES AND 
 CUSTOMS OUR INDIAN RESERVATION METHODS. 
 
 Plea of Chief Carlos On the Lolo Trail Friendly Emissaries and 
 Good Spies A Diplomatic Tribe My Two Flathead Messengers 
 
 How They Were Dressed Method of Flattening the Head 
 Efforts to Have the Practice Discontinued A Tribal Peculiarity 
 
 How the Flatheads Lived Their Homes in the Bitter Root 
 Valley Generally Friendly to the Whites Old Indian Trails 
 A Drunken and Terror-inspiring Indian Settlers Dread of In 
 dian War Work Preferable to Starvation Effect of Confining 
 Indians on Reservations Education of Indian Children Eager 
 ness to Adopt the White Man s Ways. 
 
 U/^VN the 2d of March, 1889, an act of Con- 
 
 I I gress proposed a fresh negotiation with 
 the Carlos band (the Flatheads) with a 
 view to their acceptance of the local warrants, or 
 the assent to the sale of the land thus allotted for 
 their benefit, and their own removal to the reserva 
 tion already occupied by a majority of their 
 people. "* During the negotiation Chief Carlos 
 forcibly emphasized the just claims of his people- 
 claims existing from time immemorial and he 
 especially pleaded his own action during the Nez 
 Perce war substantially as follows : 
 
 " It is admitted by the whites that, with a band 
 of less than one hundred of my men, we saved the 
 white families of the valley from extermination. 
 This worthy act we did before Howard and Gibbon 
 could concentrate a sufficient force to meet Joseph 
 
 * Extract from United States Census Report, 1890. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 449 
 
 and Looking-Glass in the field." This brief state 
 ment, however, is misleading, but doubtless it ap 
 peared true at the time to the inhabitants of Bitter 
 Root Valley and vicinity, and to the Indians. 
 
 Two Flatheads, as fine-looking Indians as I ever 
 saw, met my column while we were following the 
 Lolo Trail before we came to the Montana border, 
 and represented that they and all their people w r ere 
 peaceably inclined toward us. The tribe they rep 
 resented, however, did not interfere in any way 
 with the wild Nez Perces, except to negotiate be 
 tween them and the white people living in that 
 country. They professed and practiced neutrality. 
 They did, however, give the hostile Indians all the 
 information they needed to escape from us when 
 Gibbon was hemming them in near Fort Missoula. 
 They also carried information to the Indians that 
 my command was about to strike the Nez Perces 
 while they w r ere clustered around Gibbon s camp 
 at the Big Hole, gradually picking off and killing 
 or wounding his soldiers one by one. Indeed, in 
 my opinion, they furnished friendly emissaries to 
 the white people and at the same time were good 
 spies for the hostile Nez Perces, and managed 
 adroitly to keep peace with us all. Such neutrality 
 passes current among Christian nations, if not too 
 minutely investigated. 
 
 My two Flathead messengers were men above 
 the ordinary size, very neat in their attire, and 
 quite showy. They had on low-crowned hats with 
 stiff brims, one wearing in his hat a dark plume, 
 and the other something that looked like an eagle s 
 wing. Both wore buckskin breeches and skin jack- 
 
 27 
 
450 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ets, the latter ornamented with painting, fringes, 
 and beadwork; they had also blankets of Navajo 
 make, variegated in stripes of different colors. 
 
 There was nothing in these two Indians nor in 
 the numerous individuals of the band then occu 
 pying portions of Bitter Root Valley which made 
 noticeable the distinctive feature wilich gave rise 
 to their name. The method of flattening the head 
 is still persisted in to some extent notwithstanding 
 the strong efforts of Christian missionaries to have 
 the practice discontinued. The infant is placed on 
 its back on a wide piece of bark or slab of wood. 
 A shorter piece is fastened to the end of this in 
 such a way as to press down gently but continually 
 upon the forehead of the child. As the bones yield 
 to the pressure the thongs are drawn tighter, and 
 the skull, being soft and pliable, gradually assumes 
 the desired formation and never regains its normal 
 shape. In some cases the flattening has been car 
 ried to the extent of a gross deformity. What is 
 remarkable is that the intellect seems not to have 
 been at all impaired, even though the apparent 
 shape of the head has become that of an idiot. Of 
 course this was a tribal peculiarity and was con 
 sidered not only a mark of distinction but, in spite 
 of our taste, of increased beauty. 
 
 The Flatheads made their homes in the Bitter 
 Root Valley. There were other bands, however, 
 associated with the Flatheads proper on the Jocko 
 reservation just above the town of Missoula who 
 were often described in connection with the Flat- 
 heads who lived near the government agency. 
 They were doubtless kindred bands ; they had the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 451 
 
 same root language, but were far from being the 
 same in energy, enterprise, and thrift. 
 
 While the buffalo lasted and the Flatheads 
 could go upon winter hunts, they supplemented 
 what they could raise in the valley during the short 
 season of that northern country, and were com 
 paratively wealthy. As General Gibbon s troops, 
 and mine following them, moved rapidly from the 
 end of the Lolo Trail through the Bitter Root Val 
 ley and on to Gibbon s battle-field at the Big Hole, 
 some of the Flatheads kept in or near our camp all 
 the way and showed every sign of friendly feeling. 
 The white people in that region were vexed be 
 cause we did not stop the pursuit of Joseph and 
 his warriors altogether, declaring that peace would 
 be quickly established if General Howard would 
 cease operations. The \vhites also gave liberal sup 
 plies to the fleeing Indians, so that at that time 
 their Indian protectors, the Flatheads, surely 
 seemed more friendly to us and to the government 
 than w r ere the Anglo-Saxon settlers of western 
 Montana. 
 
 The Nez Perces often joined the Flatheads in 
 their long winter excursions into the buffalo coun 
 try, and were uniformly on friendly terms. With 
 them they constantly intermarried. They helped 
 to make the " old trails," which for hundreds of 
 miles coursed along in several parallel lines from 
 valley to valley, ridge to ridge, and mountain side 
 to mountain side, at that time the only discernible 
 routes from Idaho to Dakota. These trails were 
 distinctly marked and more quickly seen by traders 
 arid Indians than the old national roadway from 
 
452 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Montana to Oregon. They were called the Nez 
 Perce buffalo trails, and must have existed when 
 the voyayeurs of Canada were planting the old 
 forts Hall and Walla Walla and when the first 
 Flatheads came all the way from the region of the 
 Bitter Eoot to St. Louis to find the Book which had 
 made the white men wise and prosperous. 
 
 About the time I first met the Flatheads it was 
 said of them that all the Indians of the Jocko 
 reservation had ever been friendly to the whites. 
 Still, complaints were continually made that horses 
 were stolen by them, that they set fire to the grass 
 and woods in many places, sometimes on purpose 
 that new and tender grass might spring up and 
 young brushwood might grow, and sometimes 
 through sheer carelessness. It was said in a report 
 (1875) that only one white person had ever been 
 killed on the Flathead reservation, and that the 
 murder was committed by a Pen d Oreille and not 
 by a Flathead. He was quickly surrendered, tried, 
 and executed. 
 
 Another accusation was that many of them 
 drank liquor, and that, though he might not rob or 
 murder, a Flathead w r hen intoxicated was utterly 
 wild, and in his drunken frenzy frightened the 
 settlers in the hamlets where he resorted. A squaw- 
 man, a cowboy, or a " sport " is bad enough when 
 intoxicated, but nothing is so terror-inspiring as a 
 drunken Indian! It is the same old story every 
 where from generation to generation. 
 
 A year before our Nez Perce war reports were 
 current that an outbreak on the part of some 
 strange Indians who came every year over the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS. 453 
 
 mountains had long been feared by the citizens. 
 The strangers came from Oregon and Idaho, 
 equipped for the annual hunt of buffalo and other 
 game, and large numbers of the Flatheads had 
 been accustomed to join them as they crossed the 
 Bitter Root Valley. The governor and all other 
 white people knew how peaceably the Flatheads 
 had always conducted themselves, but were in 
 great dread lest they should enter into combination 
 with the non-treaty Nez Perces, Spokanes, Cceur 
 d Alenes, and others, and so cause a general dis 
 turbance of the peace. The settlers had a perpetual 
 dread of savage war. 
 
 It was upon such representations as these that 
 the post of Missoula was finally established and 
 maintained. The object of the post was to furnish 
 soldiers to prevent all roaming by bands of In 
 dians in that vicinity. 
 
 Agent Medary has recorded this remarkable 
 statement : i An Indian will naturally work rather 
 than starve, and if confined within the limits of his 
 proper country he would have to turn his attention 
 to some industrial pursuit." This is very much 
 like the Spanish general Weyler s policy in Cuba. 
 He established small reservations near the cities, 
 called stations of concentration ; he placed soldiers 
 with arms in their hands close by to prevent non- 
 combatantsold men, women, and children from 
 going outside of the prescribed limits, and held 
 them there to starve and die. 
 
 The reservation process for the Flatheads was 
 not, of course, so bad, because there was a possi 
 bility of their getting a living within the limits 
 
454 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 assigned. But it seems never to have occurred to 
 many of our wise men that these people who had 
 been accustomed for generations to get their living 
 by hunting the buffalo, killing game, and selling 
 peltries, could not immediately be transformed 
 into gardeners and farmers. 
 
 For the feeding of cattle and the herding of 
 horses, and the pasturing of large flocks of sheep, 
 immense tracts of the rolling prairies of the West 
 have been needed and taken by white men, and 
 they have not hesitated to use freely the public 
 domain. It would be a hardship which our white 
 frontiersmen could not bear to shut them up to 
 gether upon a ranch, however fertile, and keep 
 them there by military force in order to convert 
 them from shepherds and herders into successful 
 farmers. They would in time doubtless come to it 
 by some such pressure, especially if attended with 
 a reasonable degree of starvation. Such inhuman 
 ity is plain when whites and not Indians are con 
 cerned. 
 
 I notice, in one treaty with the Flatheads, that 
 Arlee, their chief, in many talks with our Indian 
 inspectors, referred to the Garfield agreement 
 (1872). He claimed that six hundred bushels of 
 wheat, guaranteed to be delivered to his people the 
 first year after their removal to the reservation, 
 had never been provided. By referring to the in 
 strument it may be seen that the superintendent 
 of Indian affairs for Montana was to furnish the 
 six hundred bushels of wheat in question. He did 
 not do it. I wonder if this also was a starvation 
 policy to benefit the Indians by withholding from 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS. 455 
 
 them seed and sustenance, so as further to drive 
 them into habits of industry ! 
 
 I feel more strongly than ever that our reserva 
 tion method is not the best in dealing with Indians 
 who have always been self-supporting, and that a 
 starvation process is wicked and foolish, and must 
 end in failure. 
 
 The Jocko reservation furnishes another object 
 lesson. It is in the education of children. An 
 agent says: " The education of girls alone might 
 be a greater benefit if it were not certain that they 
 would finally marry ignorant Indians and soon 
 lapse into semi-barbarism. ... If boys alone 
 were instructed they would make better use of their 
 acquirements; if they should marry uneducated 
 girls they would take pride in imparting their 
 knowledge to them." 
 
 These statements suggest the thought : how very 
 neglectful of duty is our government in not provid 
 ing that all the children shall be educated. Educa 
 tion, and not the squalor, degradation, and utter 
 demoralization that go with a starvation policy, is 
 the only relief in sight for these superb Flathead 
 Indians, who are really eager to learn the white 
 man s ways. The treaty Nez Perces, whom they 
 most resemble, are considerably in advance of 
 them, but the slavery of a reservation constantly 
 checks and represses them. 
 
 If years ago the Flatheads could have had the 
 privileges that the white men of Idaho enjoy, the 
 privileges of land ownership, self-government, and 
 education, which are the common privileges of citi 
 zenship, they would now be abreast of the most 
 
456 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 advanced Indians in the Indian Territory. For 
 years they were allowed to elect their head chief, 
 who was to help the agent. They did it well and 
 counted it a great privilege, but even this small 
 help toward self-government was taken from them. 
 The reservation system is a system under which 
 the Indian people can never make much progress. 
 It is a system plainly for the benefit of white men, 
 settlers and Indian employees. 
 
 How hard it is for our lawmakers to shake off 
 prejudice and break up the unhappy complications 
 of years, and establish a government for the In 
 dians that will assure to them the same rights, 
 privileges, and responsibilities that other people 
 have ! Here is a work for some patriotic and far- 
 seeing young statesman to inaugurate. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES AMONG THE WARLIKE SIOUX - 
 SOME DANGEROUS CHARACTERS. 
 
 My New Field of Duty The Fierce and Warlike Sioux Some of 
 Their Influential Chiefs Interviewing the Ernie s Indian Police 
 
 Fine Physical Specimens of Indians The Wife of Lone Wolf 
 
 Honoring My Arrival at the Rosebud Agency Attending the 
 Omaha Dance A Characteristic Indian Performance Getting 
 Ready for the Sun Dance The Country Inhabited by the Sioux 
 
 In the Bad Lands How the Sioux were Fed and Clothed 
 Their Delight in War and Pillage The Mischief-making Dreamers 
 
 Dangerous Character of Sitting Bull Raising Up False Mes 
 siahs Frenzied Indian Dancers. 
 
 I HAD been six years in the great Department 
 of the Northwest when President Hayes, after 
 his visit, decided to transfer me to the East. 
 Just at that time there was quite a ferment at West 
 Point, occasioned by a colored cadet named Whit- 
 taker, who claimed to have been badly maltreated 
 and wounded by some of his fellow cadets, many 
 of whom insisted that the wounds were inflicted by 
 his own hands. The President seemed to think 
 that I was the one to settle such a complicated case, 
 and this feeling doubtless hastened my orders. 
 
 I arrived at the Military Academy in the winter 
 of 1880 and 1881, and w r as retained there almost 
 two years. Late in the fall of 1882, being relieved 
 from West Point when it ceased to be a depart 
 ment, I was assigned to the Department of the 
 Platte, which at that time included Iowa, Ne 
 braska, Wyoming, Utah, and part of Idaho, with 
 
458 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 headquarters at Omaha. This brought me in con 
 tact with the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Moun 
 tains and north of Kansas, and also with Indians 
 who did not live or have their hunting-grounds 
 in the Platte country, but who frequently passed 
 back and forth over that part of our domain. 
 
 The Sioux were the first to receive my special 
 attention. I had two forts near them, one at Nio- 
 brara near the Eosebud agency, the other, Fort 
 Robinson, being near the Pine Ridge agency. The 
 Indians that were gathered at Fort Mobrara and 
 upon the reservation were mostly Brule Sioux. 
 Crow Dog and Short Bull were their principal 
 chiefs. Upon the Pine Ridge reservation exten 
 sive enough in acres if not rich in fertility were 
 gathered the Ogalala Sioux. Red Cloud, Short 
 Bull, Spotted Tail, and Crazy Horse were among 
 the chiefs who exerted great influence at that time. 
 
 Taking with me the commanding officer of Fort 
 Mobrara, and Lieutenant Charles G. Treat, an 
 aide-de-camp, with a few civilian friends, I went 
 to the headquarters of Agent Wright to interview 
 the Brules. There was no special trouble amongst 
 them at that time, but the agent, who had only just 
 assumed his duties, was evidently a little uncertain 
 how to deal with his charge. I found that the same 
 old struggle between Indian customs and the white 
 man s ways was still rife. Their Indian police 
 was not yet efficient. The agent had not succeeded 
 in enlisting Indians of good repute in the tribe, 
 and Indian opposition was so strong that he found 
 it somewhat difficult to enforce his authority. 
 
 At a later day, both at this agency and at Pine 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS. 459 
 
 Ridge, some full-blooded Indians expressed a will 
 ingness to join the police force for pay. After that 
 the agent had something besides his own will to 
 strengthen his rule among them. Probably, - 
 under the reservation system there never was a 
 better or more conservative method than the organ 
 ization and use of Indian police, for the chief of 
 police, when well selected, was soon recognized as 
 the strongest chief in the tribe. 
 
 The Brules were the finest physical specimens 
 of Indians that I had yet seen. Their chiefs usu 
 ally wore their hair long, parted in the middle, and 
 falling upon their shoulders. They w r ere not so 
 particular in their dress as the Flatheads or the 
 Nez Perces. The chief s rank was indicated by 
 one or more feathers standing erect in his hair, a 
 breast-plate of porcupine quills, and sometimes a 
 fur or skin jacket ornamented in various ways. 
 Ordinarily all these Indians wore trousers, but 
 their feet were shod with moccasins instead of 
 shoes ; a showy blanket to throw on and off at will 
 completed the outfit. 
 
 The wife of Lone Wolf wore her hair quite 
 neatly arranged, with small braids on each side of 
 her head, while several ornaments dangled from 
 the back part of her ears. She wore a jacket or 
 shirt made of buckskin ornamented with rows of 
 small shells. On her arm she carried a handsome 
 blanket, and around her neck were two or three 
 strings of beads. 
 
 The Indians desired to honor the occasion of 
 my arrival at the Rosebud, so they obtained from 
 Agent Wright permission to come to the agency 
 
460 MY LITE AND PEKSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 and give a dance on a beautiful plateau near the 
 agent s quarters. It was midsummer, so we could 
 all sit round out-of-doors among the non-dancing 
 Indians and look on. The dance, which they said 
 was the dance of peace, was by them called the 
 " Omaha Dance," and was performed altogether 
 by the males. Most of the Indians who took part 
 were naked, except for the breech-cloth, and vari 
 ous ornaments, made of feathers, wings of birds, 
 or evergreen branches, worn upon their heads or 
 hanging around their necks. The dancers were 
 fantastically painted from head to foot. 
 
 We could not trace anything very distinctive 
 in the dance, nor very well interpret what it meant. 
 They used the same odd steps characteristic of 
 nearly all Indian dances. The men, when together, 
 retained sufficient space for individual movement. 
 A man would take two steps first with one foot and 
 then with the other, then putting his hands together 
 he would bend down and look on the ground as if 
 eagerly searching for something, all the time keep 
 ing step with the beat of the tom-toms. The antics 
 of one Indian were not always like those of another. 
 One would indicate the chase and represent a deer, 
 antelope, or buffalo, and others would represent 
 wild geese, turkeys, or ducks. 
 
 After most of the dancers had ceased their per 
 formance, one sometimes two or three would 
 jump up and dance for a long time, going through 
 with all kinds of movements and gyrations, and 
 looking down, and up, and off. Mingled with the 
 sound of the tom-tom was the incessant chanting 
 of the lookers-on, who sat with their heads thrown 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 463 
 
 back. The chant was participated in to some ex 
 tent by the dancers, but they confined themselves 
 mostly to punctuating it with whoops and yells, 
 which made the dance, though intended to symbol 
 ize peace, almost as startling as that which por 
 tended war. 
 
 The next day, hearing that the Indians were 
 assembling for a large summer encampment, and in 
 fact that a camp of several thousand Indians, 
 mostly Sioux, was already located and many lodges 
 erected, a company of us proceeded to the grounds. 
 On reaching them we found that the Indians were 
 busy making preparations for a great sun dance, 
 which w r as to take place the following day. Our 
 interpreter explained how the dance w r as to be 
 performed, and showed me the level piece of ground 
 in the midst of the encampment which had been set 
 apart for it. 
 
 The detail of the dance, which I did not care to 
 see, was sufficiently described by an Indian chief 
 through the interpreter. The chief said he was 
 opposed to the sun dance, but his Indians would be 
 filled with grief if it should be stopped. 
 
 I had already heard much about the sun dance 
 and had done all in my power to discourage the In 
 dians from the self-inflicted tortures incident to it, 
 but I had not yet used the troops to prevent it. 
 Such an act on my part would have done no good 
 at that time, but might have provoked another In 
 dian uprising ; indeed, the Sioux were a people free 
 from fear, and, being ever ready for war, were not 
 easily mastered by force. 
 
 The Sioux occupied that portion of the United 
 
464 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 States lying between the Mississippi River and the 
 Rocky Mountains north of the fortieth parallel of 
 latitude. Their lands were drained by the great 
 Missouri River and its many tributaries. Their 
 reserved lands, early set apart for them, have 
 gradually been made smaller and smaller until up 
 wards of thirty thousand Sioux inhabit a tract of 
 country called " The Sioux Reservation, " which 
 contains about thirty-five thousand square miles of 
 territory. Much of this is grass-covered rolling 
 prairie, with timber along the creeks and rivers. 
 The soil is alluvial and through it the streams have 
 cut deep ravines, and the country is everywhere 
 much broken. In some places are apparently un 
 derlying deposits of coal ; such portions are called 
 the Bad Lands, being exceedingly rough and incap 
 able of producing much vegetation. The reserva 
 tion now occupied by the Sioux is what remains of 
 that allotted to them by treaty nearly forty years 
 ago. Whenever the reservation has been reduced 
 the United States has been the purchaser of the 
 portion surrendered. 
 
 As soon as the buffalo was extinct and game of 
 all kinds scarce, it became necessary to furnish the 
 Indians with clothing and food, and to assist and 
 encourage them in everything that would con 
 tribute to their self-support. The emergency, in 
 fact, came too suddenly for the Indians to begin 
 the new life with much hope of success, so that the 
 feeding and clothing was done by collecting the 
 Sioux in groups at several points within their 
 reservation. Each camp was placed under the care 
 of a civil agent, who was charged not only with 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 465 
 
 feeding the Indians, but also with their instruction 
 in the peaceful arts. There are now five Sioux 
 agencies, or groups, from one to two hundred miles 
 from each other, viz. : Standing Rock, Cheyenne 
 River, Brule, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge ; I found 
 at these agencies two distinct classes of Indians, 
 the progressive and those who have long resisted 
 progress, i. e., the reactionary. 
 
 The progressive Indians were willing to till the 
 land, live quietly and honestly, and were more or 
 less Christianized. The reactionaries were at all 
 times subject to excitement, and delighted in war 
 and pillage. From time to time they made raids 
 against other Indians, with now and then a hostile 
 expedition against white settlers. 
 
 Over this turbulent element there arose in 
 every camp the spirit-leader, sometimes called a 
 " Dreamer/ and among the Indians farther west 
 a " tooat." Sitting Bull, an Indian of large capac 
 ity and great energy, rose to power by becoming a 
 chief and a Dreamer. He was at last allowed by 
 the Indians to exercise supreme command, as was 
 shown in the bloody massacre of General Custer 
 and his command during the summer of 1876. The 
 Messiah craze, to which I have several times al 
 luded, and which all the Dreamers believed in, was 
 taken advantage of by Sitting Bull and men like 
 him to divide the Indians and excite them to fa 
 natical enthusiasm, and his adherents were ever 
 ready to carry out his evil machinations. Sitting 
 Bull s death did not pacify the wilder Sioux. It 
 only increased the terror of the timid and infuri 
 ated those who had already been intoxicated by the 
 
466 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 weird ghost dance. He was a dangerous character, 
 and his death was really a benefit to all the Sioux, 
 and much more so to the white settlers of South 
 Dakota and Nebraska. 
 
 White people are sometimes led into extreme 
 enthusiasm and behold a Messiah coming in propria 
 persona, and they have at times done extravagant 
 things at which the worldly- wise have jeered and 
 laughed. Some satanic agencies delight in raising 
 up false Messiahs and false Christs, so that good 
 and well-disposed people are deceived. 
 
 The Pi-Ute Indian who started the wild theory 
 of the coming of the Messiah who should restore 
 Indian supremacy, walked a thousand miles to 
 carry it from tribe to tribe. He encouraged the 
 wild ghost dance that grew fiercer and more fren 
 zied under his teaching. One might as well have 
 asked the untamed lion not to roar, or the tigress 
 robbed of her young not to spring upon the robber, 
 as to ask the wild Sioux to keep the peace after 
 their old dances and new ghost dances had stirred 
 them up and roused all the fierceness of their un 
 tamed nature. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE MESSIAH CRAZE AMONG THE SIOUX INDIAN DREAMERS 
 AND THE GHOST DANCE FRONTIER TRAGEDIES. 
 
 The Messiah Craze The Real Message and How it Originated 
 Urged to Wild Frenzy by the Dreamers " We Will Always be 
 Indians" White Men s Broken Promises Bad Influence of 
 Land Boomers and Speculators "Indians are Coming!" How 
 Indian W T ars Were Often Started Causes of the Great Sioux Out 
 break Big Foot s Band of Warriors The Battle of Wounded 
 Knee Creek Indiscriminate Slaughter of Indians Death of Lieu 
 tenant Casey The Horrors of Indian War Another Side of the 
 Story Murder of Few Tails Sad Journey of a Wounded Indian 
 Woman. 
 
 A PERSONAL witness speaking of the 
 " Messiah craze : said: " The delusion 
 has taken possession of the wilder portion 
 of the Indians. The leaders have invigorated old 
 heathen ideas with snatches of Christian truth, 
 and managed to excite an amount of enthusiasm 
 which is amazing. They teach that the Son of God 
 will presently appear as the avenger of the wild 
 Indians ; the earth will shiver and a great wave of 
 new earth will overspread the face of the world 
 and bury all the whites and Indians who imitate 
 their ways, while the real Indians will find them 
 selves on the surface of the new earth, basking in 
 the light. The old Indian customs will all be re 
 stored in primitive vigor and glory, and the buffalo, 
 antelope, and deer will return." 
 
 The turmoil and bloodshed that followed what 
 was called the Messiah craze among the Sioux cre- 
 
 28 
 
468 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ated the idea that the Indian who first promulgated 
 the doctrine and styled himself a " prophet," 
 commonly called by other Indians the Messiah, 
 taught that the Indians were "to rise from the dead, 
 and that living Indians were to help them put to 
 death all white men, after which the Indian hunt 
 ing grounds were to be restored to them in their 
 primal condition ; but the actual message from the 
 prophet, as it came to the Comanche, Wichita, and 
 Arapaho agencies, was in effect: " You must do 
 right. Do no harm to any one. Do right always." 
 
 Wovoka was a Pi-Ute, living in Nevada about 
 forty miles from Walker Lake. Some years ago 
 he was stricken with a severe fever, which was fol 
 lowed at intervals by trances. While he was ill 
 there was an eclipse of the sun, whereupon he de 
 clared that " when the sun died " he fell asleep in 
 the daytime and was taken up to heaven. 
 
 Out of his disordered imagination, caused, no 
 doubt, by his sickness, and the effects upon him and 
 his people of the eclipse, were derived his alleged 
 revelations. When we read the full text of his mes 
 sage, which he said the Lord wanted him to deliver 
 to the Indians, we find nothing which should have 
 harmful or injurious consequences. 
 
 The free rendering of the message sent by him 
 to other Indians (given in Powell s 14th Annual 
 Report) shows the nature and extent of what 
 Wovoka (or Jack Wilson) the prophet desired to 
 communicate. Here is all of it : 
 
 " When you get home you must make a dance to continue 
 five days. Dance four successive nights, and the last night 
 keep up the dance until the morning of the fifth day, when 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 471 
 
 all must bathe in the river and then disperse to their homes. 
 You must all do in the same way. 
 
 " I, Jack Wilson, love you all, and my heart is full of 
 gladness for the gifts you have brought me. When you get 
 home I shall give you a good cloud (rain), which will make 
 you feel good. I give you a good spirit and give you all good 
 paint. I want you to come again in three months, some from 
 each tribe there (the Indian Territory). 
 
 " There will be a good deal of snow this year and some 
 rain. In the fall there will be such a rain as I have never 
 given you before. 
 
 " Grandfather (a universal title of reverence among In 
 dians and here meaning the Messiah) says, when your friends 
 die you must not cry. You must not hurt anybody or do 
 harm to any one. You must not fight. Do right always. It 
 will give you satisfaction in life. This young man has a 
 good father and mother. (Possibly this refers to Casper 
 Edison, the young Arapaho who wrote down the message of 
 Wovoka for the delegation.) 
 
 " Do not tell the white people about this. Jesus is now 
 upon the earth. He appears like a cloud. The dead are all 
 alive again. I do not know when they will be here, maybe 
 this fall or in the spring. When the time comes there will 
 be no more sickness and every one will be young again. 
 
 " Do not refuse to work for the whites and do not make 
 any trouble with them until you leave them. When the 
 earth shakes (at the coming of the new world) do not be 
 afraid. It will not hurt you. 
 
 " I want you to dance every six weeks. Make a feast at 
 the dance and have food that everybody may eat. Then 
 bathe in the water. That is all. You will receive good 
 words again from me some time. Do not tell lies." 
 
 The ghost dance and the ghost shirt were not 
 instituted by Wovoka. There is nothing in the 
 above to warrant any wicked conduct. On the con 
 trary, if this teaching had been even partly fol 
 lowed, I believe it would have led to better be- 
 
472 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 havior among all the uncivilized tribes of the In 
 dian Territory. 
 
 But behold the dancing picture ! A lot of danc 
 ing, excited Indians, each dressed in a calico shirt, 
 called " the mysterious shirt/ cut very short like 
 the army jacket, the Dreamers preaching while the 
 Indians are singing and shouting, " The buffalo 
 are coming! the buffalo are coming! >: Then seiz 
 ing each others hands they go round and round in 
 dizzy circles, becoming wilder and more frenzied 
 until one after another of the dancers falls down 
 unconscious. The medicine men declare these 
 prostrate Indians dead, and announce that they 
 are making a visit to the Great Spirit world, where 
 they will meet the Son of God and all true Indians 
 who have gone before. When these " dead" In 
 dians are restored to life they naturally have won 
 derful stories to tell of their strange visions. 
 
 The good bishop of Dakota said that he looked 
 upon this movement as the efforts of heathenism 
 grown desperate in the attempt to recover its vigor 
 and be reinstated. Many of the missionaries fore 
 told that such a struggle among Indians would 
 some time come. I was once in council w r ith some 
 wild Indians who believed in and practiced spirit 
 ism. They beat their tom-toms continuously 
 around every sick man, woman or child, and lis 
 tened to the voice of their medicine men. They 
 questioned me very closely and said: " Will you 
 give us schools, churches, farms, houses, and im 
 plements for all kinds of work, if we will do as you 
 tellusf" 
 
 "Yes," I answered, " the government that I 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 473 
 
 represent will do all of that, and teach you to live 
 as white men do." 
 
 " Now, General Howard," was the answer, " we 
 tell you plainly that those are the very things we 
 do not want. We want the earth to be as it is, 
 nothing should break up the surface of the earth. 
 We will not have schools, nor churches, nor farms, 
 nor white men s houses, nor their ways of living! 
 We will always be Indians! r This was, indeed, 
 the fundamental spirit that actuated every wild 
 Indian in whose soul slumbered the fire of Indian 
 manhood a manhood after their ideas. 
 
 Of course, if the United States maintains the 
 reservation system, there always will be secondary 
 causes, as in the Sioux outbreak. For example: 
 promises not speedily fulfilled, or, worse still, never 
 fulfilled at all. For years the Sioux waited for the 
 fulfillment of promises made by general officers, 
 by United States commissioners, and government 
 agents. After a pledge or promise of money it has 
 always taken a long time to get the necessary ap 
 propriation through both Houses of Congress. No 
 officer or agent can transfer his feelings of sym 
 pathy to our legislators. Often for years and years 
 solemn pledges made to Indian tribes, I state it 
 with sorrow, have remained unfulfilled. 
 
 The consent of the Sioux to the breaking up 
 of their reservation was not unanimous on their 
 part. The dissenters very soon found an oppor 
 tunity to revenge themselves. Minorities among 
 white men are at times dissatisfied and occasionally 
 turbulent. A Sioux minority was sure to exceed 
 the fervor of white men. When a citizen has a 
 
474 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 claim against the government he prosecutes it with 
 patience and waits sometimes for many sessions 
 of Congress for a decision and an appropriation. 
 The reactionary Sioux could not be made to com 
 prehend the reasons for such long periods of wait 
 ing. They interpreted them as resulting from 
 forked tongues and bad hearts. For example, after 
 the war of 1876, led by Sitting Bull, when certain 
 Sioux were disarmed and deprived of their ponies, 
 all who were not hostile were promised payment 
 for their losses. That payment has never yet been 
 made. 
 
 Another secondary cause came from ambitious 
 white men living near the Sioux. A land boom 
 ends disastrously and white men are " land poor." 
 They try to mend their fortunes by encouraging the 
 incoming of troops which, of course, is followed 
 by the purchase of supplies and the circulation 
 of more money. But these crafty speculators are 
 easily thrown into a panic ; they are afraid of a few 
 drunken Indians who may be found at a brothel or 
 saloon; their fears magnify the situation: " In 
 dians are near! Indians are insolent! Indians 
 are dancing! Indians are coming! they will wipe 
 us out ! : Governors, congressmen, and editors are 
 appealed to. " Troops, troops, more troops ! " they 
 cry. The governor sends the militia or volunteers, 
 and the government is obliged to bring up at least 
 a few companies of regulars. During such a time 
 money flows in and trade is quickened. Frontiers 
 men of the roughest kind, who have nothing to lose 
 and everything to gain by such disturbances, get 
 for a time congenial employment, and the means, 
 
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AMONG OUK HOSTILE INDIANS 477 
 
 too often, for a renewal of their dissipated modes 
 of living. 
 
 But some one asks: " Does this make war? " 
 Yes, it does. The rumors are enough. Poor ranch 
 men far and near become terrified at the reports 
 and rush with their families to the nearest settle 
 ment. The Indians also have heard these rumors, 
 ten times exaggerated, so that the wild become 
 wilder, and Indian women and children are blinded 
 by the common terror. Ambitious young braves 
 have a special inspiration and go off in small 
 parties to steal cattle and horses, and murder 
 whites indiscriminately. They return with their 
 booty and display the scalps, followed by a scalp 
 dance, and they become at once the lions of their 
 tribe. Again and again peace councils have been 
 overridden and savage war brought upon us, with 
 all its sickening outrage and horror, by just such 
 wickedness and folly ; the mustard seed becomes a 
 great tree. This was the case in the great Sioux 
 outbreak. 
 
 Indian agents deserve some attention and kindly 
 consideration. They have had hard and trying 
 positions. They must have unusual ability and 
 character to control a storm at such times. Doubt 
 less some are not suited to their work, and some are 
 not wise governors, but I have found among them 
 true and very competent men. No one man, how 
 ever, can quench the fire of a blazing house after it 
 has passed beyond his control. 
 
 In my judgment, under the excitement of the 
 Messiah craze and the ghost dances the agents at 
 the five great centers of the Sioux nation would 
 
478 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 have been more than human to have maintained 
 peace without adequate help from the army. 
 
 Nor should the army be blamed for the fright 
 ful conflicts that occurred in the Sioux war. In 
 this, as in every Indian war, the troops, except in 
 small garrisons, were used as a last resort. The 
 killing of Sitting Bull, and the bloody combats that 
 followed, the rushing of the worst Indians to the 
 famous Bad Lands, the urgent calls from neighbor 
 ing villages and hamlets for arms and soldiers, the 
 killing here and there of white men, then of one or 
 two Indians these stories came over the wires like 
 successive waves of the ocean. This time more 
 quickly than usual the troops, abundantly equipped, 
 were called, and promptly transported to different 
 points all around and upon the great reservation, 
 occupied the agencies, and gradually drew nearer 
 to the hostile camps. 
 
 At the very last the Seventh Cavalry, attempt 
 ing to disarm Big Foot s band near Wounded 
 Knee Creek, was suddenly, through the treachery 
 of a single Indian and the fear and fierce hostility 
 of others, brought into deadly conflict. Twenty- 
 five of our soldiers were quickly slain and thirty- 
 eight wounded. At least one hundred and fifty 
 Indians perished, including women and children, 
 and many others were maimed for life. Their 
 bodies, frozen stiff from exposure to a Dakota 
 blizzard, were buried a few days later in one long 
 trench. In this battle Captain Wallace fell in 
 death and several other officers received severe 
 wounds. The worthy priest, Father Crafts, who 
 had hastened from New York to use his known in- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 481 
 
 fluence with the Indians in the hope of restoring 
 peace, fell mortally wounded. A little later, Lieu 
 tenant E. W. Casey, a most worthy and promising 
 army officer, who had been with me instructing 
 cadets but a few years before at the Military Acad 
 emy was shot and killed while reconnoitering in 
 front of a band of hostiles, by Plenty Horses, a 
 Brule Indian. Lieutenant Casey had distinguished 
 himself in the command of Indian scouts, and 
 given them instruction and discipline, and he 
 firmly believed that he was beloved by them all. 
 
 Such is only a hint of the sad condition of af 
 fairs during the Sioux war, but the army went 
 steadily on as usual to accomplish its work. The 
 extensive field of operations was diminished little 
 by little, while every inducement was offered, 
 finally with success, to all friendly Indians to es 
 cape to the protection of the troops, and to all the 
 hostiles, regardless of what they had done, to make 
 a timely surrender. 
 
 The horrors of this Indian war, like all such, 
 were terrible and revolting. The conflict was an 
 unusual one and occurred contrary to all predic 
 tions. 
 
 We cannot fail to admire the courage and en 
 durance displayed by our regular soldiers in these 
 arduous campaigns. They constantly endured the 
 rigors of the keenest cold, the thermometer often 
 ranging thirty degrees below zero. They will al 
 ways, as at Wounded Knee, give a dreadful recep 
 tion to such enemies if they should renew the 
 bloody contest, but there should always be enough 
 of them to make success and victory so sure that 
 
182 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 every hostile Indian may recognize the fact, and 
 realize the utter folly of beginning a conflict. 
 
 But there is sometimes another side to the story 
 of these outbreaks besides the one that generally 
 appears to us before and after an Indian war. 
 Here is an example: A party of Ogalala Sioux, 
 consisting of Chief Pew Tails, a peaceable and 
 quiet old Indian, his wife, far advanced in years, 
 and another brave named One Feather, with his 
 wife and two children, one being a girl thirteen 
 years old and another a babe, had been out hunt 
 ing in the Black Hills, and had a regular pass from 
 the Indian agent. They were returning from a 
 successful hunt, and camped for the night at the 
 mouth of a creek. 
 
 Early in the morning they set out for Pine 
 Ridge, but had proceeded only a few hundred yards 
 when some concealed white men fired upon them. 
 These white men, who were well known, had sent 
 one of their number into the Indian camp as a 
 messenger the evening before, so that they knew 
 who the parties were, and had not the shadow of 
 an excuse for their infamous conduct. Few Tails 
 was slain at the first shot and the ponies attached 
 to his wagon were killed. As his wife leaped 
 to the ground she was twice wounded, but not fa 
 tally. One Feather, being considerably behind the 
 chief, seeing what had happened, turned his wagon 
 in another direction, telling his wife, who had just 
 been shot, to drive for her life and try to save the 
 children. He himself jumped upon a pony and 
 skillfully stood off the murderers until his family 
 had gone some distance. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 483 
 
 As the wounded woman passed a settler s house 
 more shots were fired at her, but fortunately she 
 was not hit, and her husband speedily coming up 
 placed himself between her and the new danger. 
 One Feather kept on until his wagon ponies were 
 exhausted ; then, putting his two children upon one 
 of his spare ponies and his crippled wife upon an 
 other, he continued the retreat rapidly enough to 
 distance his pursuers, finally succeeding in bring 
 ing in his family to the cover of the troops at the 
 agency. The old wife of the chief was unconscious 
 for some time, but after regaining her senses the 
 next morning she went to a settler s house only to 
 be driven away. With great difficulty she pursued 
 her lonely journey to the Bad Lands, and from 
 there succeeded, after many weary days and nights, 
 in reaching a military camp. 
 
 She said at the close of this terrible journey: 
 " I had no blanket and my feet were swollen and I 
 was ready to die. After I got to the tent a doctor 
 came in, a soldier doctor, because he had straps on 
 his shoulders, and w r ashed me and treated me well." 
 
 It is said of Young-Man- Afraid-of-his-Horses, 
 a prominent Sioux chief, that he objected to the 
 surrender of the slayers of Lieutenant Casey and a 
 herder by the name of Miller in these words : i i No, 
 I will not surrender them ; if you will bring to me 
 the white men who killed Few Tails I will deliver 
 to you the Indians who killed the white soldier and 
 the herder." 
 
 At one time, when Red Cloud was in his prime, 
 he was a great leader among the Sioux, but during 
 our last struggle with them, though he sympa- 
 
484 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 thized with the Dreamers and felt indignant at the 
 non-fulfillment of promises on the part of our 
 government agents, he stood aloof from the conflict 
 and did not join in active operations against the 
 troops. I saw him not long before this outbreak. 
 He was considerably wrinkled with age, but had 
 still a great abundance of black hair, parted in the 
 middle and hanging down over his shoulders. He 
 was dressed completely in citizens clothing, in 
 cluding a shirt-front, collar, and necktie. His 
 wife was with him. Her long hair fell in braids 
 below her waist, and shell ornaments were pendent 
 from her ears. Around her neck she wore what 
 appeared to be a broad band made of porcupine 
 quills. Her face was that of a woman in middle 
 life, keenly observant, thoughtful in expression, 
 and not unpleasant to look upon. Her husband s 
 face when at rest was more forbidding, but indi 
 cated a strong character. 
 
 The Cheyenne and Sioux scouts, who had been 
 carefully selected, had a remarkable history during 
 this conflict. They were so true to what they had 
 promised and so well led by their chief that every 
 body was pleased with them, and certainly no 
 loyalty could be more thoroughly tried than was 
 theirs under those circumstances. It is true that 
 Lieutenant Casey, who had trusted the scouts, was 
 killed, but it was by a Brule Indian who belonged to 
 the hostiles. The scouts, who were much affected 
 by his death, were greatly attached to him and were 
 ever ready to obey his slightest behest. 
 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 IN THE COUNTRY OF THE CHE YENNES MASSACRE OF GEN 
 ERAL CUSTER AND HIS COMMAND A FRONTIER 
 TRAGEDY. 
 
 The Fierce and Warlike Cheyeimes Chief Black Kettle Brutal Mas 
 sacre of Southern Cheyennes by White Troops Retaliating on 
 White Settlers The Notorious Chief Sitting Bull Dull Knife, 
 the Cheyenne Chief The Cheyennes and Sioux Join Forces An 
 nihilation of General Custer and His Command A Tragedy that 
 Shocked the Civilized World General Terry s Account of the 
 Battle A Desperate and Bloody Fight Horny Horse s Story of 
 the Battle Narrative of Chief Red Horse Chief High Wolfe 
 and His Necklace of Human Fingers Arrival of General Terry s 
 Relief Column Appearance of Custer s Battlefield Mutilating 
 the Dead Bodies of Soldiers Burial of the Dead. 
 
 THE great tribe of Cheyennes has for many 
 years been divided into two bodies known as 
 the Northern and the Southern Cheyennes. 
 There is but little difference between them. 
 
 "When we first knew them they were living in 
 villages on the Cheyenne River. In early contests 
 with the Sioux they were gradually pushed farther 
 west, but were always found somewhere on the 
 southern branches of the Yellcvv-stone. The coun 
 try immediately east of the Black Hills was the 
 favorite location from which they started on their 
 hunting expeditions. 
 
 The first treaty between the United States and 
 the Cheyennes was made in 1825 near Port Benton, 
 at the mouth of the Teton River. The Cheyennes 
 were then at peace with the Sioux, with whom they 
 were so often allied, but they were constantly 
 
488 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 quarreling with the Pawnees and other distant 
 tribes of Kansas and Nebraska, which shows how 
 far from home they roamed. At that time their 
 numbers altogether were recorded as three thou 
 sand two hundred and fifty. 
 
 The Cheyennes were, as a rule, friendly to all 
 white settlers as late as 1862, and yet they made 
 constant raids across their valleys far to the south 
 ward. After that time difficulties gradually sprang 
 up between them and various mining prospectors, 
 which finally culminated in open hostility and in 
 fighting United States troops. During the Civil 
 War the Southern Cheyennes were continually on 
 the warpath and we had many battles with them. 
 Finally peace was declared, but it was abruptly 
 terminated by the indiscretion of Colonel Chiving- 
 ton of the First Colorado Cavalry, who, either be 
 lieving or feigning to believe that the Southern 
 Cheyennes were still on the warpath, came, in 
 November, 1864, upon one of their villages located 
 on what was known as Sand Creek in the south 
 eastern part of Colorado. 
 
 The head of the village was Black Kettle, who, 
 in accordance with instructions given by army of 
 ficers during a recent peace council, was flying the 
 United States flag above his lodge. Furthermore 
 the bravest of the Cheyennes, thinking there was 
 some mistake on the part of Chivington and his 
 troops, confidently pointed to the flag as a sign of 
 their loyalty and their desire for peace, but no at 
 tention was paid to them or their entreaty. With 
 out a shadow of excuse the Colorado cavalry fired 
 straight at them and into the Indian village, killing 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 489 
 
 armed Indians, old men, women, and little chil 
 dren indiscriminately. The white volunteers fur 
 thermore treated their dead bodies with barbarity 
 that no savages could have surpassed. They even 
 carried off their scalps as evidence of their own 
 infamous brutality. 
 
 The few that escaped from this slaughter car 
 ried the dreadful tidings to all the Southern Chey- 
 ennes and those Indians who were allied with 
 them, and a horrible massacre followed of all set 
 tlers within their reach. The war that followed 
 between the Southern Cheyennes and our troops 
 continued with more or less virulence until 1867, 
 when General Hancock checked it by burning the 
 village of " the Dog soldiers," - a band of young 
 Cheyenne Indians who had some pretence to mili 
 tary organization and who committed frequent 
 murderous raids and depredations accompanied 
 by unusual ferocity. This blow was not severe 
 enough, however, to wholly discourage them, and 
 they soon continued the war and pushed it with 
 more persistency- than ever. General Ouster fol 
 lowed them up as far as the borders of Colorado 
 and defeated them in battle, killing Black Kettle 
 and thirty- seven of his warriors. 
 
 Finally, in 1868, the Southern Cheyennes and 
 their allies, the Arapahoes, were thoroughly beaten 
 in southern Kansas by United States troops, and a 
 large number of them were captured and sent to 
 Camp Supply in the Indian Territory. Some stray 
 villages of Cheyennes, however, remained ugly and 
 defiant, and endeavored to preserve their inde 
 pendence and their roving habits. Finally, in 
 
490 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 March, 1875, the remnants of the Southern Chey- 
 ennes, tired of constant warfare, came in and sur 
 rendered at Fort Sill, and, with the exception of a 
 single outbreak, have since lived upon their pres 
 ent reservation in Oklahoma. 
 
 The Northern Cheyennes were even more fierce 
 and warlike than the Southern branch. They lived 
 in villages in the country north of the Black Hills. 
 In 1876 they joined Sitting Bull and the Sioux, 
 who \vere just then unusually hostile to the whites 
 and to the government, and with them took a prom 
 inent part in the Ouster massacre on the Little Big 
 Horn River in July of that year. 
 
 Sitting Bull was a great medicine man and a 
 regular Sioux chief who had early imbibed the re 
 ligious ideas of the Dreamers which, as we have 
 seen, was so nearly universal in its hold upon, the 
 minds and hearts of the different tribes that it may 
 be called the principal tenet of their faith. 
 
 Mrs. Ouster says: " The most powerful chief 
 of the different bands was known by the title of 
 Sitting Bull." She places him ^mong those who 
 from their youth entertained implacable hatred to 
 the whites and stood out for the Indians original 
 habits of life. Individual Indians, who for one 
 cause or another wished to leave a reservation, 
 hastened to cast their lot with Sitting Bull or 
 Crazy Horse of the Sioux or Dull Knife of the 
 Cheyennes. At the beginning of his career Sitting 
 Bull had but few lodges and not more than a hun 
 dred warriors, but before 1876 his village had 
 become a large one ; and Crazy Horse, with whom 
 he now united, had at the start three times as many 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 491 
 
 warriors as Sitting Bull. After Dull Knife and 
 his Cheyennes had joined them, together with in 
 numerable warriors from all the Sioux agencies, 
 there were two or three thousand fighting Indians 
 combined in the hostile camps, and Sitting Bull 
 became the war chief of them all. 
 
 He was very reluctant to attend any council 
 where white men were present. Mrs. Ouster de 
 scribes him as " a heavily built Indian, with a large 
 massive head, and, strange to say, brown hair, un 
 like most Indians. He was heavily marked with 
 smallpox." Sitting Bull s career as portrayed by 
 himself in some Indian drawings shows him first 
 as a young brave without special dress or insignia ; 
 another represents him in the act of killing a Crow 
 Indian on a horse and securing his scalp. In each 
 one of another series of sketches he is shown in the 
 act of taking the life of Indians or of whites ; in 
 one he has captured herds of ponies; fifty-five 
 drawings were boastful representations of robbery, 
 murder, and theft. In writing of the noted chief 
 Mrs. Ouster records other characteristics of his. 
 She said that he was an Indian of unusual powers 
 of mind, and a warrior whose talent amounted to 
 genius, while his stubborn heroism in defense of 
 the last of his race was undeniable. Cruel he un 
 doubtedly was, but that was from the instincts of 
 his race ; a general of the first natural order he must 
 have been to have defied the United States as he did 
 for more than ten years. That he was able to do 
 this so long was owing to his skillful use of two ad 
 vantagesa central position surrounded by the 
 Bad Lands and the quarter of a circle of agencies 
 
 29 
 
492 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 from which he drew supplies and allies for every 
 campaign. 
 
 I have a good picture of Sitting Bull as he ap 
 peared after the surrender at Fort Buford in the 
 spring of 1877. 
 
 When this picture was taken he was forty years 
 of age, but the deep and heavy wrinkles in his for 
 bidding face gave the impression that he was 
 nearer sixty. His features indicate strong char 
 acter, power to plan, to act, and to persevere until 
 what he undertook to do should be accomplished. 
 There is no sign of tenderness or mercy in his 
 countenance. 
 
 There are so many accounts of the Ouster mas 
 sacre, and Mrs. Ouster s history is so thoroughly 
 complete and good, that I need not attempt more 
 than the briefest account of it, and this for the 
 purpose of showing something of the part the 
 Cheyennes took in that disastrous battle, and of 
 giving the Indians version of it, for not one of 
 Ouster s command survived to tell the story. This 
 can be briefly done by extracts from General 
 Terry s published story, which he wrote from the 
 field the 27th of June, 1876: 
 
 "It is my painful duty to report that day be 
 fore yesterday, the 25th inst., a great disaster over 
 took General Ouster and the troops under his com 
 mand. At twelve o clock on the 22d he started 
 with his whole regiment, and a strong detachment 
 of scouts and guards, from the mouth of the Rose 
 bud. Proceeding up that river about twenty miles 
 he struck a very heavy Indian trail, which had 
 previously been discovered, and pursuing found 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 493 
 
 that it led, as was supposed, to the Little Big Horn 
 River. Here he discovered a village (of Sioux and 
 Cheyennes) of almost unexampled extent, and at 
 once attacked it with that portion of his force 
 which was immediately at hand. Major Reno, 
 with three companies, A, G, and M, of the regiment, 
 were sent into the valley of the stream at the point 
 where the trail struck it. General Ouster, with five 
 companies, C, E, F, I, and L, attempted to enter it 
 about three miles lower down. Reno forded the 
 river, charged down its left bank, and dismounted 
 and fought on foot until finally, completely over 
 whelmed by numbers, he was compelled to mount, 
 recross the river, and seek a refuge on the high 
 bluffs which overlook its right bank. 
 
 " Just as he recrossed Captain Benteen, who, 
 with three companies, D, H, and K, was some two 
 miles to the left of Reno when the action com 
 menced, but who had been ordered by General 
 Ouster to return, came to the river, and rightly 
 concluded that it would be useless for his force to 
 attempt to renew the fight in the valley; he joined 
 Reno on the bluffs. Captain McDougal, with, his 
 company, B, was at first at some distance in the 
 rear with a train of pack-mules. He also came to 
 Reno soon. This united force was nearly sur 
 rounded by Indians, many of whom, armed with 
 rifles, occupied positions which commanded the 
 ground held by the cavalry, ground from which 
 there was no escape. Rifle pits were dug and the 
 fight was maintained, though with heavy loss, from 
 about half past two o clock of the 25th till six 
 o clock of the 26th, when the Indians withdrew 
 
494 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 from the valley, taking with them their village.* 
 " His (Ouster s) trail (made by his horses) 
 from the point where Eeno crossed the stream 
 passes along and in rear of the crest of the bluffs 
 on the right bank for three miles, then it comes 
 down to the bank of the river, but at once diverges 
 from it as if he had unsuccessfully attempted to 
 cross, then turns upon itself, almost completes a 
 circle and closes. It is marked by the remains of 
 his officers and men, the bodies of his horses, some 
 of them dropped along the path, others heaped 
 where halts appeared to have been made. There 
 is abundant evidence that a gallant resistance was 
 offered by the troops, but they were beset on all 
 sides by overpowering numbers." 
 
 General Terry states the entire loss in that en 
 gagement as two hundred and fifty killed, and with 
 Reno fifty-one men were wounded. Major Eeno 
 and Captain Benteen estimated the number of In 
 dians engaged as not less than two thousand five 
 hundred. 
 
 Captain John J. Bourke in his work " On the 
 Border with Crook " relates some incidents as told 
 by Indians who were in the fight. Horny Horse 
 said: " Some lodges came out from Standing 
 Rock agency and told us the troops were coming. 
 The troops charged on the camp (village) before 
 we knew they were there. The lodges were strung 
 out about as far as from here to the Red Cloud 
 agency slaughter-house (about two and a half 
 miles) . I was in the council-house with a lot of the 
 
 * General Terry knew at that time no details of the massacre, be 
 cause not one of those who accompanied General Custer were living. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 495 
 
 old men when we heard shots fired from up the 
 river. The troops first charged from up the river. 
 We came out of the council-house and ran to our 
 lodges. 
 
 "All the young bucks got on their horses and 
 charged the troops. All the old bucks and squaws 
 ran the other way. We ran the troops back. Then 
 there was another party of troops on the other side 
 of the river. One half of the Indians pursued the 
 first body of troops (Reno s), the other half went 
 after the other body (Ouster s). I didn t see ex 
 actly all the fight, but by noon all of one party 
 (Ouster s) were killed and the others driven back 
 into a bad place. We took no prisoners. I did not 
 go out to see the bodies, because there were two 
 young bucks of my band killed in the fight and we 
 had to look after them. 
 
 " We made the other party of soldiers (Reno s) 
 cross the creek and run back to where they had 
 their pack-train. The reason we didn t kill all this 
 party (Reno s) was because while we were fighting 
 his party we heard that more soldiers were coming 
 up the river, so we had to pack up and leave. We 
 left some good young men killed in that fight. We 
 had a great many killed in the fight, and some 
 others died of their wounds. I know that there 
 were between fifty and sixty Indians killed in the 
 fight. After the fight we went to Wolf Mountain, 
 near the head of Goose Creek. Then we followed 
 Rosebud down and then went over to Blue Stone 
 Creek." 
 
 Dr. Charles E. McChesney, acting assistant sur 
 geon United States army, communicated to the 
 
496 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Bureau of Ethnology at Washington a unique In 
 dian account, both in carefully noted gesture-signs 
 and in pictographs, of the battle of the Little Big 
 Horn. These drawings were made and the ac 
 count which accompanied them was given by Red 
 Horse, a Sioux chief, and a prominent actor in the 
 battle. His narrative, closely translated into 
 simple English, is herewith given. The drawings 
 were made on rough manilla paper, some of them 
 with colored pencils. Some of these drawings are 
 presented in this volume, not only as specimens of 
 Indian art, but as a contribution from the Indian 
 standpoint to our knowledge of Custer s last fight. 
 Here is the story of Red Horse : 
 
 " Five springs ago, I, with many Sioux Indians, 
 took down and packed up our tipis (tepees) and 
 moved from Cheyenne River to the Rosebud River, 
 where we camped a few days ; then took down and 
 packed up our lodges and moved to the Little Big 
 Horn River and pitched our lodges with the large 
 camp of Sioux. 
 
 " The Sioux were camped on the Little Big 
 Horn River as follows: The lodges of the Unc- 
 papas were pitched highest up the river under a 
 bluff. The Santee lodges were pitched next. The 
 Ogalalas lodges were pitched next. The Brule 
 lodges were pitched next. The Minneconjoux 
 lodges were pitched next. The Sans-Arcs lodges 
 were pitched next. The Blackfeet lodges were 
 pitched next. The Cheyenne lodges were pitched 
 next. A few Arikara Indians were among the 
 Sioux (being without lodges of their own) . Two- 
 Kettles (a tribe of Sioux), among the other Sioux 
 (without lodges). 
 
.T o 
 
 ft. ^ W 
 
 S 13 X> 
 
 *z3 
 
 ~ H Z 
 ^ X O 
 - n JO 
 
 -s , ; r/] 
 
 ^So 
 
 III 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 499 
 
 " I was a Sioux chief in the council lodge. My 
 lodge was pitched in the center of the camp. The 
 day of the attack I and four women were a short 
 distance from the camp digging wild turnips. 
 Suddenly one of the women attracted my attention 
 to a cloud of dust rising a short distance from 
 camp. I soon saw that the soldiers were charging 
 the camp. To the camp I and the women ran. 
 When I arrived a person told me to hurry to the 
 council lodge. The soldiers charged so quickly we 
 could not talk (council). We came out of the 
 council lodge and talked in all directions. The 
 Sioux mount horses, take guns, and go fight the 
 soldiers. Women and children mount horses and 
 go (meaning to get out of the way) . 
 
 "Among the soldiers was an officer who rode a 
 horse with four white feet. The Sioux have for a 
 long time fought many brave men of different 
 people, but the Sioux say this officer was the brav 
 est man they had ever fought. I don t know 
 whether this was General Ouster or not. Many of 
 the Sioux men that I hear talking tell me it was. 
 I saw this officer in the fight many times, but did 
 not see his body. It has been told me that he was 
 killed by a Santee Indian, who took his horse. 
 This officer wore a large-brimmed hat and a deer 
 skin coat. This officer saved the lives of many 
 soldiers by turning his horse and covering the re 
 treat. Sioux say this officer was the bravest man 
 they ever fought. I saw two officers looking alike, 
 both having long yellowish hair. 
 
 " Before the attack the Sioux were camped on 
 the Eosebud Eiver. Sioux moved down a river 
 
500 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 running into the Little Big Horn River, crossed 
 the Little Big Horn Elver, and camped on its west 
 bank. 
 
 " This day (day of attack) a Sioux man started 
 to go to Red Cloud agency, but when he had gone a 
 short distance from camp he saw a cloud of dust 
 rising and turned back and said he thought a herd 
 of buffalo was coming near the village. 
 
 " The day was hot. In a short time the soldiers 
 charged the camp. (This was Major Reno s bat 
 talion of the Seventh Cavalry.) The soldiers 
 came on the trail made by the Sioux camp in mov 
 ing, and crossed the Little Big Horn River above 
 where the Sioux crossed, and attacked the lodges 
 of the Uncpapas, farthest up the river. The 
 women and children ran down the Little Big Horn 
 River a short distance into a ravine. The soldiers 
 set fire to the lodges. All the Sioux now charged 
 the soldiers and drove them in confusion across 
 the Little Big Horn River, which was very rapid, 
 and several soldiers were drowned in it. On a 
 hill the soldiers stopped and the Sioux surrounded 
 them. A Sioux man came and said that a different 
 party of soldiers had all the women and children 
 prisoners. Like a whirlwind the word went 
 around, and the Sioux all heard it and left the sol 
 diers on the hill, and went quickly to save the 
 women and children. 
 
 " From the hill that the soldiers were on to the 
 place where the different soldiers (by this term 
 Red Horse always means the battalion immedi 
 ately commanded by General Custer, his mode of 
 distinction being that they were a different body 
 
/*M 
 
 i V^m ^ 
 
 ~ s T , ^\ ^ 
 ,^v4 J t^ 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 503 
 
 from that first encountered) were seen was level 
 ground with the exception of a creek. Sioux 
 thought the soldiers on the hill (i. e., Reno s bat 
 talion) would charge them in rear, but when they 
 did not the Sioux thought the soldiers on the hill 
 were out of cartridges. As soon as we had killed 
 all the different soldiers the Sioux all went back to 
 kill the soldiers on the hill. All the Sioux watched 
 around the hill until a Sioux man came and said 
 many walking soldiers were coming near. The 
 coming of the walking soldiers was the saving of 
 the soldiers on the hill. Sioux cannot fight the 
 walking soldiers (infantry), being afraid of them, 
 so the Sioux left. 
 
 " The soldiers charged the Sioux camp about 
 noon. The soldiers were divided, one party charg 
 ing right into the camp. After driving these sol 
 diers across the river the Sioux charged the dif 
 ferent soldiers (i. e., Ouster s) below, and drove 
 them in confusion; these soldiers became foolish, 
 many throwing away their guns and raising their 
 hands, saying : Sioux, pity us ; take us prisoners. 
 The Sioux did not take a single soldier prisoner, 
 but killed all of them ; none were left alive for even 
 a few minutes. These different soldiers discharged 
 their guns but little. I took a gun and two belts 
 off two dead soldiers ; out of one belt two cartridges 
 were gone, out of the other five. 
 
 " The Sioux took the guns and cartridges off 
 the dead soldiers and went to the hill on which the 
 soldiers were, surrounded, and fought them with 
 the guns and cartridges of the dead soldiers. Had 
 the soldiers not divided I think they would have 
 
504 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 killed many Sioux. The different soldiers (i. e., 
 Ouster s battalion) that the Sioux killed made five 
 brave stands. Once the Sioux charged right in the 
 midst of the different soldiers and scattered them 
 all, fighting among the soldiers hand to hand. 
 
 " One band of soldiers was in the rear of the 
 Sioux. When this band of soldiers charged the 
 Sioux fell back, and the Sioux and the soldiers 
 stood facing each other. Then all the Sioux be 
 came brave and charged the soldiers. The Sioux 
 went but a short distance before they separated 
 and surrounded the soldiers. I could see the of 
 ficers riding in front of the soldiers and hear them 
 shouting. Now the Sioux had many killed. The 
 soldiers killed 136 and wounded 160 Sioux. The 
 Sioux killed all these different soldiers in the ra 
 vine. 
 
 6 i The soldiers charged the Sioux camp farthest 
 up the river. A short time after the different sol 
 diers charged the village below. While the differ 
 ent soldiers and Sioux were fighting together the 
 Sioux chief said : i Sioux men, go watch the sol 
 diers on the hill and prevent their joining the dif 
 ferent soldiers. The Sioux men took the clothing 
 off the dead and dressed themselves in it. Among 
 the soldiers were white men who were not soldiers. 
 The Sioux dressed in the soldiers and white men s 
 clothing fought the soldiers on the hill. 
 
 " The banks of the Little Big Horn Eiver were 
 high, and the Sioux killed many of the soldiers 
 while crossing. The soldiers on the hill dug up the 
 ground (i. e., made earthworks), and the soldiers 
 and Sioux fought at long range, sometimes the 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 505 
 
 Sioux charging close up. The fight continued at 
 long range until a Sioux man saw the walking sol 
 diers coming. When the walking soldiers came 
 near the Sioux became afraid and ran away." 
 
 In this terrible engagement a large number of 
 Cheyennes under Chief Dull Knife participated. 
 He was seconded by Little Wolf and Standing 
 Elk, two of his bravest warriors, and by High 
 Wolf, who was a medicine man and a Dreamer. 
 Of High Wolf Captain Bourke said: " He had 
 been proud to wear as his pet decoration a neck 
 lace of human fingers, which he knew had fallen 
 into my possession. " Of this necklace I shall have 
 more to say in another chapter. 
 
 On the morning after the battle the Indians 
 resumed fighting and continued until late that day, 
 when, on learning of the approach of General 
 Terry s command, they hastily started for the 
 Canadian frontier. 
 
 General Terry arrived too late to save Custer. 
 But he brought relief to Major Reno and his 
 troops, who had become separated at some distance 
 from Custer, and was prevented by a great number 
 of warriors from joining him. Reno was hemmed 
 in by Indians, and but for the timely arrival of 
 General Terry s command his troops would cer 
 tainly have shared Custer s fate. Of the arrival of 
 General Terry Captain Godfrey, who was with 
 Reno, and whose account of what happened was 
 published in the Century magazine, says: 
 
 " About 9.30 A. M. a cloud of dust was observed 
 several miles down the river. The assembly was 
 sounded, the horses were placed in a protected situ- 
 
506 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ation, and camp kettles and canteens were filled 
 with water. An hour of suspense followed, but 
 from the slow advance we concluded that they were 
 our own troops. But whose command is it ? 
 We looked in vain for a gray-horse troop ; it could 
 not be Ouster ; it must then be Crook, for if it was 
 Terry, Ouster would be with him. Cheer after 
 cheer was given for Crook. A white man, Harris, 
 I think, soon came up with a note from General 
 Terry, addressed to General Custer, dated June 
 26th, stating that two of our Crow scouts had given 
 information that our column had been whipped and 
 nearly all had been killed ; that he did not believe 
 their story, but was coming with medical assist 
 ance. The scout said that he could not get to our 
 lines the night before, as the Indians were on the 
 alert. Very soon after this Lieutenant Bradley, 
 Seventh Infantry, came into our lines and asked 
 where I was. Greeting most cordially my old 
 friend, I immediately asked, Where is Custer ? 
 He replied, I don t know, but I suppose he was 
 killed, as we counted one hundred and ninety-seven 
 dead bodies. I don t suppose any escaped. We 
 were simply dumbfounded. This was the first in 
 timation we had of his fate. It was hard to realize ; 
 it did seem impossible. 
 
 " General Terry and staff and officers of Gen 
 eral Gibbon s column soon after approached, and 
 their coming was greeted with prolonged hearty 
 cheers. The grave countenance of the general 
 awed the men to silence. The officers assembled to 
 meet their guests. There was scarcely a dry eye, 
 hardly a word was spoken, but quivering of lips 
 

 THE KNOLL ON THE BATTLE-FIELD OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN 
 WHERE GENERAL CUSTER AND HIS MEN FELL AND WERE 
 BURIED. 
 
 The cross marks the spot where General Custer fell. Gravestones mark the 
 places where some of his soldiers fell around him. General Custer s monument is at 
 the top of the knoll. One hundred and ninety-two soldiers killed in this battle are 
 buried on this spot. 
 
 SOLDIERS CEMETERY ON CUSTER S BATTLE-FIELD. 
 
 The remains of one hundred and six soldiers massacred by Indians at Fort Phil 
 Kearney were removed to Custer s battle-field and buried on this spot. The white spots 
 in the distance mark places where some of Custer s men fell at the battle of the Little 
 Big Horn. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 509 
 
 and hearty grasping of hands gave token of thank 
 fulness for the relief and grief for the misfor 
 tune. . . . 
 
 " On the morning of the 28th we left our in- 
 trenchments to bury the dead of Ouster s com 
 mand. The morning was bright, and from the high 
 bluffs we had a clear view of Ouster s battle-field. 
 We saw a large number of objects that looked like 
 white boulders scattered over the field. Glasses 
 were brought into requisition, and it was an 
 nounced that these objects were the dead bodies. 
 Captain Weir exclaimed, Oh, how white they 
 look! 
 
 "All the bodies, except a few, were stripped of 
 their clothing. According to my recollection nearly 
 all were scalped or mutilated, but there was one 
 notable exception, that of General Ouster, whose 
 face and expression were natural ; he had been shot 
 in the temple and in the left side. Many faces had 
 a pained, almost terrified expression. It is said 
 that Rain-in-the-Face, a Sioux warrior, has gloried 
 that he had cut out and had eaten the heart and 
 liver of one of the officers. Other bodies were 
 mutilated in a disgusting manner. The bodies of 
 Dr. Lord and Lieutenants Porter, Harrington, 
 and Sturgis were not found, at least not recognized. 
 The clothing of Porter and Sturgis was found in 
 the village, and showed that they had been killed. 
 We buried, according to my memoranda, two hun 
 dred and twelve bodies." 
 
CHAPTEE XXXIX. 
 
 GENERAL MACKENZIE S FIGHT WITH THE NORTHERN CHEY- 
 
 ENNES A NIGHT ATTACK ON AN INDIAN CAMP 
 
 INDIAN BRAVERY A STORY OF TERRIBLE 
 
 SUFFERING. 
 
 "The Bravest Tribe of Indians on this Continent" Crazy Horse and 
 His Band of Sioux Dull Knife and His Fierce Cheyennes In 
 dian Scouts and Allies Searching for Camps of Hostile Indians 
 Sitting Bear and His White Flag MacKenzie s Search for the 
 Cheyenne Village Campaigning with the Thermometer Thirty 
 Degrees Below Zero Night Attack on the Unsuspecting Cheyennes 
 
 Death of Lieutenant McKinney Examples of Reckless Bravery 
 
 Setting Fire to the Indian Village Relics of the Custer Massa 
 cre Unparalleled Sufferings of the Indians Women and Chil 
 dren Frozen to Death End of a Bitter War. 
 
 T 
 
 HE Northern Cheyennes have been called 
 " the bravest tribe of Indians on this conti 
 nent, but they were completely crushed by 
 General Eanald S. MacKenzie in a fierce fight in 
 the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains, when 
 Dull Knife lost his power and his desire ever to 
 fight the whites again. 
 
 I knew MacKenzie when he was a cadet at West 
 Point. He was in a class that I taught which en 
 tered the Military Academy in 1858 and finished its 
 course in 1862. During the Civil War he displayed 
 an ability, dash, and courage, especially in the 
 cavalry service, which constantly brought him into 
 notice, and while his health continued there was no 
 more reliable commander for a district or an active 
 campaign. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 511 
 
 During the winter of 1876 General Crook was 
 commanding the Department of the Platte. As a 
 consequence of the Ouster massacre, and the fights 
 which the troops were constantly engaged in with 
 the Indians in Crook s and Terry s geographical 
 departments, the spirit of the hostiles had not been 
 broken, but had grown even more confident and de 
 termined. For the winter season the Indians had, 
 as usual, separated into villages and pitched their 
 lodges in some sheltered ravines among the foot 
 hills of the Big Horn Mountains. Crazy Horse 
 had a large body of Sioux somewhere on the tribu 
 taries of the Big Horn, while Dull Knife had a 
 smaller village of Northern Cheyennes. 
 
 General Crook, who had more experience in In 
 dian warfare than any of our general officers, 
 thought it would be wise to strike the Indians in a 
 winter campaign, where our troops would have the 
 advantage of being better prepared for moving 
 and for resisting the terrific cold of Wyoming and 
 Montana. 
 
 General Crook fixed upon Fort Fetterman, 
 famous in our annals for Indian battles of the past, 
 as the place for gathering his troops. Here he as 
 sembled eleven companies of cavalry under Mac- 
 Kenzie and eleven of infantry and four of artil 
 lery under Colonel Richard I. Dodge. 
 
 General Crook was especially successful in se 
 curing Indian allies, who were always more effect 
 ive than whites as scouts, and very often acted no 
 small part in battle. He drew for this campaign 
 large quotas from the friendly Sioux, Cheyennes, 
 Pawnees, Arapahoes, and Shoshones, with a few 
 
512 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Bannocks and Nez Perces. These lie had at the 
 start. A little later the Crows added a consider 
 able contingent, which joined his expedition about 
 ninety miles ahead, near old Fort Reno. The 
 strength of his command was then, all told, about 
 nineteen hundred men, fifteen hundred white 
 troops and four hundred Indian scouts. The 
 scouts were not a single body by themselves, but 
 were divided into detachments, and over each de 
 tachment was placed an army officer who had the 
 confidence of the Indians and considerable knowl 
 edge of the country. These Indian scouts were 
 picked men and could not be excelled by any of the 
 hostiles in bravery, energy, or endurance. 
 
 General Crook was to use wagons as far as he 
 could conveniently take them, but beyond that he 
 depended upon his pack train. The pack trains, 
 so essential beyond wagon transportation, were in 
 charge of a competent and experienced man, and 
 in men, material, mules, and discipline were as 
 complete as any company of the expedition. 
 
 I seem to see the column as it drew out from 
 Fetterman, where, as the historian says: " The 
 scene was certainly most picturesque and full of 
 animation ; everything moved like clockwork. 
 Each man, horse, wagon, and mule was in proper 
 place." A reasonably comfortable march, consid 
 ering the extreme cold, was made, averaging about 
 twenty-five miles a day. The Indian scouts were 
 kept out many miles to the right and left and front. 
 Nothing escaped their observation. When they 
 met prospectors, white horse thieves, or Indians, 
 they promptly galloped in and reported. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 513 
 
 General Crook thought at this time that the 
 principal hostile Sioux village, under Crazy Horse, 
 was on the Rosebud toward the Big Horn Moun 
 tains, and a search was begun for it. As they were 
 marching along Sitting Bear, a friendly Cheyenne 
 scout, appeared carrying a white flag. He had just 
 come from the Red Cloud agency and was on his 
 way to try to secure a surrender from Crazy Horse 
 before a battle should be brought on. He brought 
 important information; it was to the effect that 
 there was a large Cheyenne village somewhere near 
 the sources of the fork on which they were moving, 
 and not far away. It was situated in a deep and 
 well-sheltered ravine, but was only to be seen on 
 close approach. The Cheyennes were in ignorance 
 that their camp had been discovered. 
 
 Crook s objective was Crazy Horse, but on re 
 ceiving this information he instantly changed his 
 plans. The exact location of the Cheyennes was 
 not known to the scouts, but they immediately pro 
 ceeded cautiously up Crazy Woman s Fork. Mac- 
 Kenzie was detached with his cavalry and a part of 
 the scouts to find the Cheyenne village, while Crook 
 kept with him the remainder of the command. On 
 the 23d of November MacKenzie marched in the di 
 rection of the Cheyenne camp. His Indian allies 
 soon were far ahead, and preceding all by eight or 
 ten miles, was a very small detachment of Indian 
 scouts, selected with special reference to their 
 knowledge of this section of country, their cool 
 ness, good judgment and experience in war. 
 
 The cold was becoming more and more intense ; 
 often at night the thermometer ranged as low as 
 
 30 
 
514 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 thirty degrees below zero. After their first bivouac 
 the cavalry, as they struggled along, had great 
 difficulty in passing deep-cut ravines, dry enough 
 at the time, but filled with rushing water in the 
 springtime. The banks were then steep and frozen 
 solid, so that they had to be cut through in order to 
 get down to the bottom and ascend the other side. 
 While MacKenzie was doing this and keeping his 
 command well closed up, the advance scouts came 
 rushing back with news that the much sought Chey 
 enne village was very near. Two of the scouts, 
 Eed Shirt and another Indian, remained at the 
 front, hiding among the crags that overlooked the 
 village. 
 
 MacKenzie did not hasten. He waited till the 
 moon would give him sufficient light to work his 
 way up the ravine of Willow Creek to the village. 
 Bourke, who was present, says: "All night we 
 groped our way, floundering, slipping, struggling 
 over smooth knolls of glassy surface, making the 
 slowest kind of progress but still advancing. Not 
 a word was spoken above a whisper. Not a match 
 was lighted, and the soldier s faithful friend his 
 pipe was not allowed outside the saddle bag." 
 
 At last a halt was called. The Indian scouts 
 and all the cavalry were formed and ready for the 
 word. MacKenzie left no time for anxious sus 
 pense. The Cheyennes were not asleep. The 
 sound of their tom-toms and the shouts of dancers 
 could be distinctly heard. They were indulging in 
 a grand war dance in honor of a victory over a 
 party of Shoshones. 
 
 The word " gallop " was given and the cavalry 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 515 
 
 rushed forward in a terrific charge up the ravine, 
 which opened wider as it came to the lodges strewn 
 for some two or three hundred yards along the 
 creek. The hostile Cheyennes had barely time 
 enough before the cavalry was actually upon them 
 to run off their old men, women, and children, with 
 whatever clothes they had on, to shelter among the 
 steep crags and behind protecting rocks and trees, 
 while some of the warriors, hastily grasping their 
 rifles and ammunition, ran to the nearest cover. 
 
 The shouting of white men and the yelling of 
 Indian scouts made a fearful din, but the hostiles 
 quickly crept into positions of such great strength 
 as to check MacKenzie s advance. Seeing a strong 
 defensive bed of rocks and crags held by the hos 
 tiles, MacKenzie ordered Lieutenant John A. Mc- 
 Kinney to carry it with his company. McKinney 
 made a gallant charge, but his horse was wounded 
 and he was slain, and several of his men were killed 
 or wounded. Other officers of his regiment brought 
 their companies to his assistance, while the Indian 
 scouts gradually worked up and occupied a higher 
 peak. From there they delivered a descending fire 
 upon the Cheyennes position and it was soon 
 taken. Other scouts, under good leadership, had 
 gathered nearly all the herd of horses belonging to 
 the Cheyennes. 
 
 It was evident that MacKenzie had won his 
 battle, but the Cheyennes would not surrender. 
 One of the friendly scouts succeeded in reaching 
 and talking with Dull Knife, the principal chief of 
 the hostile Cheyennes, who asserted that he had 
 lost three of his children in the battle and that he 
 
516 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 himself would like to give up, but that Little Wolf, 
 Old Bear, Grey Head, Roman Nose, and other lead 
 ing Indians would not consent. To the friendly 
 Cheyennes some of the host-lies cried out: " Go 
 home, you have no business here. We can whip 
 the white soldiers alone, but can t fight you too! : 
 They stated also that they were sure of getting help 
 from Crazy Horse. 
 
 The reckless bravery displayed by some of the 
 Cheyennes, even after the contest was hopeless, is 
 remarkable. One brave, wearing the war bonnet 
 of a chief and carrying a buffalo hide shield, rode 
 out defiantly into the open. He was fired at from 
 every direction by the troops, but none of the bul 
 lets reached him. He laughed at his Indian foes 
 and derided them, when a lieutenant, taking steady 
 aim, hit him, and he fell dying from his horse. 
 
 In the midst of the tumult that followed the 
 fall of this bold warrior a young brave, a friend 
 of the fallen, mounted on a swift pony, rushed 
 from the midst of the hostile Cheyennes; he also 
 carried a shield of buffalo hide, and one that 
 proved to be of extraordinary hardness. This 
 fearless young brave directed his horse toward his 
 fallen friend. The air was full of hissing bullets. 
 Faster and faster horse and rider went, and both 
 seemed to have a charmed life, for nothing touched 
 him or his steed. Dismounting he lifted the body 
 of his friend and threw it across the pony in front 
 of the pommel, then remounting moved slowly 
 back to where his comrades were defending the 
 rocks and crags. When he had almost reached the 
 safety of a ravine several bullets pierced him 
 

 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 519 
 
 through and through, and he, too, dropped from 
 his horse dead. 
 
 General MacKenzie now believed it the wisest 
 policy to utterly wipe out the Cheyenne village. 
 Two troops of cavalry were assigned to this work 
 and it took them the entire night to destroy the In 
 dian camp, with plenty of fuel gathered and at 
 hand to aid the burning. There were two hundred 
 lodges, some being covered with large buffalo skins 
 to make them comfortable during the bitter cold of 
 winter. There was plenty of ammunition, an im 
 mense supply of buffalo meat, and other pro 
 visions, fur robes and peltries of every description, 
 together with hammers, knives, spades, shovels, 
 picks, axes, and innumerable utensils. 
 
 What arrested the special attention of the of 
 ficers were the hundreds of articles that had been 
 captured in the Ouster massacre. Among them 
 were personal articles of value, with the names of 
 the slain officers upon them; and letters were 
 found that had been written by some of Ouster s 
 men just before the massacre and were ready for 
 mailing. 
 
 The large number of valuable fur robes, beau 
 tifully ornamented, and the great amount of In 
 dian furniture destroyed on that night shows that 
 the Cheyennes had already accumulated consider 
 able wealth, together \vith much that belonged to 
 civilization. With the exception of a few articles 
 stolen by some of the Indian scouts, everything 
 was consumed. 
 
 MacKenzie s losses were one commissioned of 
 ficer and six enlisted men killed and twenty-six 
 
520 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 wounded. After a few weeks it was ascertained, 
 from the Indians own testimony after they had 
 surrendered, that they had forty killed, but the 
 number of wounded they were never willing to 
 give. They stated also that eleven infants were 
 afterwards frozen to death while being carried in 
 the arms of their destitute and starving mothers. 
 Many women, unprovided with clothing, perished 
 from the cold. It was stated further that some 
 ponies were killed in order to preserve the old and 
 feeble from dying, by inserting their feet within 
 their warm bodies. 
 
 Colonel E. I. Dodge vividly describes the hor 
 rors of that flight. He says: " Unfortunately, 
 the preceding night had been intensely cold, not 
 less than twenty degrees below zero. Indians 
 when in camp, and unsuspicious of danger, habitu 
 ally sleep naked. The Cheyennes were so, and, 
 aroused as they were, had no time to clothe them 
 selves; some few had seized a blanket or robe in 
 their flight, but the large majority had no covering 
 whatever. Human nature could not stand it, and 
 notwithstanding their favorable tactical position, 
 they were compelled to get back into the main can 
 yon, and retreat to a position where they could 
 build fires and procure food. Collecting what was 
 left of their herds of ponies, they fled during the 
 night. . . . The sufferings of these Indians 
 during the three months succeeding the battle can 
 never be known. Numbers perished, principally 
 women and children. With no food but the flesh 
 of their ponies, no covering but the green hides of 
 the same faithful animals, the survivors made their 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 521 
 
 way across the Big Horn Mountains, and after a 
 long and terrible march presented themselves to 
 Crazy Horse, then encamped on Mizpah Creek. 
 
 "At no time previous had the Cheyennes been 
 otherwise than welcome visitors to the Sioux, but 
 here was a band of near fifteen hundred people, 
 absolutely impoverished, in want of tepees, cloth 
 ing, food, everything. The warriors still pos 
 sessed their gallant spirit, and burned for an op 
 portunity for revenge upon their white enemies, 
 but their arms were in poor condition, their am 
 munition expended. It was too great a tax on the 
 Sioux chieftain, and he received the newcomers 
 so coldly and with so scant a charity that they soon 
 left his inhospitable camp. 
 
 " They had received a blow far worse than a 
 bloody defeat, and from which they knew it would 
 take years to recover. Their women were suffer 
 ing, their children dying, Crazy Horse, their last 
 hope, had failed them. Struggle as they might 
 their fate was too hard for them, and in 1877 they 
 came in and surrendered." 
 
 Perhaps Crazy Horse could not give Dull Knife 
 and his destitute Cheyennes the aid and shelter 
 they sought, and preserve his own village, which 
 had to be kept in readiness for an attack that might 
 be made at any time. 
 
 Spotted Tail, who while he lived was the lead 
 ing Sioux chief, had early made up his mind that it 
 was folly to contend further against the govern 
 ment. Doubtless he influenced Crazy Horse to 
 yield, for he went to see him and proved to him 
 that there was no help to be expected from the 
 
522 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 scattered Sioux, because Terry and Crook had so 
 stationed their troops that the Indians could not 
 get away in any large numbers from the reserva 
 tions, and that more and more Indian scouts were 
 enlisted every day, showing themselves on the side 
 of the government. Crazy Horse decided in the 
 early spring to come in and surrender himself and 
 all his people to the Pine Eidge reservation. But 
 Dull Knife and Little Wolf had led the way and 
 had already surrendered all that remained of their 
 Cheyennes after MacKenzie s fight, but they 
 showed their bitterness tow r ard Crazy Horse and 
 the Sioux by asking only one condition: that if 
 Crazy Horse remained hostile they might help the 
 troops to conquer him and destroy his village. 
 
 This surrender occurred near Fort Robinson, 
 Nebraska, where the Northern Cheyennes were 
 first placed under surveillance, but they were 
 finally sent to the Indian Territory and placed on 
 a reservation at Fort Reno (the new fort). The 
 remnants of the tribe numbered at that time about 
 one thousand souls. They were, however, so bit 
 terly "dissatisfied with their new home that the gov 
 ernment consented to remove them again to the 
 north; they were first escorted to the Pine Ridge 
 agency, and in 1891 a new reserve and agency was 
 given them in Montana, just east of the Crows, 
 called " The Tongue River Agency." 
 
 But all this was not accomplished without a 
 struggle. Dull Knife, Wild Hawk, and Little 
 Wolf, with other chiefs, had started back to their 
 old hunting grounds. The army was obliged to fol 
 low them, and desultory fighting was resumed. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 523 
 
 Many men, women, and children among the set 
 tlers were killed by the Indians, and we lost sev 
 eral soldiers in the skirmishes and small battles 
 that took place. The hostiles were at last captured 
 in Nebraska, in October, 1878, and after being kept 
 some time under guard were returned to the Indian 
 Territory. The move to Montana then followed. 
 It is declared in the reports that in the raids be 
 tween 1878 and 1881 more than five hundred Chey- 
 ennes perished. Only a small remnant of them at 
 last found a resting place on Tongue River near 
 the Crow reservation. 
 
 The history of this fierce and remarkable tribe, 
 if given in detail, would show how terrific and per 
 sistent was the struggle of the Indians of the 
 Plains to maintain their supremacy and independ 
 ence. They waged a long and bitter war against 
 all influences to make them submit to and partici 
 pate in civilization. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 SQUAW MEN HOME LIFE OF WHITE MEN WHO HAVE MAR 
 RIED INDIAN WOMEN INCIDENTS. 
 
 White Men Who Marry Indian Women Results of Intermarrying with 
 Indians Effect of Such Marriages upon Indian Women An 
 Indian Wife s Efforts to Please Her White Husband The 
 Squaw Man s Loss of Self-respect A Shipload of Marriageable 
 White Teachers Story of an ex-Governor Who Married an Indian 
 Woman A Cultured Frenchman and His Indian Wife A 
 Squaw Man s Children Proud of Their Indian Blood Indian 
 Half-Breeds Story of a Government Official Who Married an 
 Indian Woman Keeping an Indian Wife s Existence Secret A 
 Bride s Dissipation Living the Life of a Squaw Man. 
 
 AN old friend has often remarked to me that 
 the Bible story of the children of Israel 
 and their heathen neighbors always re 
 minded him of Indian customs. The converse is 
 more nearly true, namely, that the customs of our 
 Indian tribes and their relations to their rough 
 white neighbors often remind us of the ancient 
 Israelites and the people who dwelt in their vi 
 cinity. 
 
 In the tribe of Dan, for example, Sampson, a 
 giant in strength, seems to have been set apart for 
 the punishment of wicked Philistines who were 
 uncomfortable neighbors to the Danites. On one 
 occasion Sampson went down to Timnath and saw 
 a Philistine woman who delighted his eyes, so he 
 said to his father : " Get her for me, for she pleas- 
 eth me well." Sampson married her, and the re 
 sult of uniting Hebrew and heathen was a most 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 525 
 
 unhappy life for both. By threats of burning her 
 and her father s house, the heathen enemies of 
 Israel succeeded in making her betray her hus 
 band, and through this treachery a terrific war was 
 brought on. The story is familiar to all. 
 
 A like experience, as thoroughly true, has often 
 repeated itself among scores of our Indian tribes. 
 On our frontiers the white man, whether Spaniard, 
 Mexican, Frenchman, Englishman, or American, 
 who married an Indian woman was called a l squaw 
 man," and in not a few instances the squaw man 
 suffered betrayal, like Sampson of old. Then fol 
 lowed relentless Indian wars, accompanied with 
 outrage, burnings, and slaughter ; but as far as my 
 observation goes the results have not been uni 
 formly bad. 
 
 Naturally, a civilized white man is lowered in 
 many respects by marrying an uncivilized Indian 
 woman ; still, many an Indian woman married to a 
 white man has borne him worthy children. 
 
 I have seldom visited a tribe of Indians without 
 finding at least one white man married to an Indian 
 woman. Frequently the wife learned from him 
 to live in a house, and to do, often in a rough way, 
 it is true, such work as white women did in the 
 home of his youth. Her marriage to a white man 
 elevated her to a higher plane of living than that 
 of the tepee or the lodge ; she learned to dress fairly 
 well, and in most cases showed herself to be a true 
 friend and companion to her husband, but too often 
 the man himself descended to a much lower level 
 than that in which he was reared in his early home. 
 His personal cleanliness suffered ; his clothing be- 
 
526 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 came shabby, and his self-respect degraded. In 
 such a pair the man soon lost his dignity and 
 showed indifference to his former habits and life, 
 while the woman usually showed even more pride 
 than the wife of an Indian chief. Still, she could 
 not compete with her wiiite sisters in the essentials 
 of a prosperous and well-ordered home life. 
 
 Many years ago a young man who had come 
 from the East settled upon a farm near Fort Ste 
 vens, Oregon. That was before an ex-governor of 
 what was then Washington Territory sent a ship 
 load of marriageable white teachers around Cape 
 Horn, when white women in that territory were 
 few and far between. Under the circumstances 
 he did the best he could. He himself married a 
 woman of a neighboring Indian tribe. He carried 
 on a good trade with the garrison at the fort, was 
 enterprising, and often obtained fat contracts, 
 which enabled him to accumulate a comfortable 
 fortune. 
 
 His Indian wife was a good woman, hard-work 
 ing, and faithful. Her love for him caused her to 
 learn all she could, and to study to make his home 
 more and more acceptable as the years went on, 
 but she was very careful to keep apart from white 
 women. She became the mother of good children, 
 who learned, as they grew to manhood and woman 
 hood, to dress better than their mother, and to 
 gather much useful knowledge, social and practical, 
 from other American youth. The eldest son suc 
 ceeded his father in an honest and profitable busi 
 ness, and the daughters all married well. In this 
 family the results of a mixed marriage were good, 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 527 
 
 but who can tell of the heartburnings of the father 
 and mother during the period of their children s 
 development ? 
 
 In eastern Oregon a few years ago lived a fam 
 ily that I knew very well. The husband was a tall, 
 dark-eyed Frenchman. At one time, and in fact 
 for many years, he was a trusted employee of the 
 government. He had three beautiful daughters 
 by his Indian wife. In grace of figure and move 
 ment, in elegance of attire, and in the varied ac 
 complishments of gifted women few could surpass 
 them. The wife and mother, however, at the time 
 I visited them, always kept in the kitchen. She 
 was really the servant of the household. She did 
 not speak French, knew but little English, and 
 shrank from every social attention. Though she 
 advanced far beyond the women of her tribe, she 
 never for one moment forgot that she was an In 
 dian, so that even in this successful instance of 
 white and Indian intermarriage it was next to im 
 possible for that polished French gentleman to 
 rise in the estimation of his white neighbors above 
 the commonly recognized condition of a " squaw 
 
 man. 
 
 The old voyageurs, French emigrants to the far 
 West from Canada, who served the northwestern 
 fur companies and traveled largely through the 
 wilds of Oregon, were encouraged to settle in fer 
 tile valleys, whose small rivers and creeks con 
 tributed to swell the waters of the great Columbia. 
 They naturally married Indian women. It was 
 the policy of the Hudson Bay Company in par 
 ticular to favor such marriages. In my travels 
 
528 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 through the Department of the Columbia I was 
 constantly meeting young half-breeds, descendants 
 of those enterprising French voyageurs, who were 
 the first white men to appear in the vast region of 
 the Northwest. They were not the equals of the 
 best business people on the Pacific Coast, though 
 some of them were on the front line of progress. 
 Yet they were at all times a kind, hospitable, 
 steady, industrious, self-supporting people. Their 
 sires or their grandsires had taken Indian w r omen 
 for wives, and many of their descendants in Ore 
 gon, Washington, and Idaho are today proud of 
 their Indian blood. 
 
 I have already spoken of my first visit to the 
 Spokane country and of a wedding which occurred 
 near the Spokane bridge. At that bridge was a 
 white man who exemplified the poorer class of 
 squaw men. He took the meager toll of passers-by 
 and lived in a wretched apology of a house. The 
 Indian lodges were far preferable to his home, 
 particularly in cleanliness and order. He had a 
 poor, hopeless-looking Indian wife, and numerous 
 half -wild children, who gazed from under their 
 shaggy locks with timid curiosity upon strangers, 
 and ran instantly to cover upon our approach. 
 This family appeared to me, at first thought, to be 
 beneath the level of the best of the uncivilized In 
 dians, yet before this twentieth century began the 
 country had become settled, Spokane Falls had 
 become a city, and schools had been established so 
 near that bridge that all the little ones of this In 
 dian household had for some years the opportunity 
 of being educated with white children, and some of 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 529 
 
 them have grown up to be enterprising young men 
 and women and prosperous citizens of the State 
 of Washington. 
 
 Again referring to the people of Israel, we 
 have seen in the Bible that a certain Levite mar 
 ried a woman of Bethlehem, and that, notwith 
 standing that she was his wife and he himself is 
 distinctly named in the records as her husband, 
 our translation calls her his concubine. Several 
 similar intermarriages have taken place between 
 whites and Indians on what was once called our 
 frontier. For example: an old and distinguished 
 government official, whose name should I repeat it 
 would be recognized anywhere in this country, was 
 married to an Indian woman. The pair had a little 
 girl born to them, but for some reason the father 
 left his Indian wife, probably giving her a divorce 
 after the Indian fashion. He then married a lady 
 of his own people, and since then he and his wife 
 have brought up a large and beautiful family. The 
 squaw wife, after the husband had separated from 
 her, went back to her tribe, taking the child with 
 her. 
 
 On one of my trips to Puget Sound I visited the 
 schools of Father Chirouse and there learned that 
 this child had been for some years attending the 
 school, and was then about fourteen years of age. 
 Already an enterprising young Frenchman had set 
 his eyes upon the beautiful girl and an announce 
 ment of their approaching marriage had just been 
 made. I managed to be at Tulalip at that time and 
 was present at the wedding. It seemed a pity that 
 a girl should be married so young, but Father Chi- 
 
530 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 rouse said that it was a good thing for young 
 people to marry early ; that it was the very begin 
 ning of right living and proper training. The 
 little half-breed, with a fair bit of education, 
 started in as a housekeeper in a neat cottage, while 
 her enterprising husband maintained the family 
 by log-work at a neighboring mill. Before our 
 Father above the mother of that half-breed girl 
 was doubtless, like the concubine of the ancient 
 Levite, a ~bona fide wife. Men, however, who rise 
 so high in the world as her husband did were never 
 called squaw men, and often in later years the fact 
 of the Indian wife s existence was carefully sup 
 pressed. 
 
 The son of a leading citizen, in the wild days 
 of his youth, thought it would be an amusing 
 surprise to his friends, and certainly gratifying to 
 himself, to marry an Indian girl. The maiden he 
 selected was bright and handsome, and, under the 
 care of some Sisters of the Catholic faith, had re 
 ceived a fair education in the common branches of 
 Spanish and English. She spoke English with 
 facility, and with a pretty accent. Having seen 
 only the rough camp life of frontiersmen, scarcely 
 ever having been in contact with white women ex 
 cept with the Sisters of Charity, she was flattered 
 and delighted with her prospects, and looked for 
 ward full of eager anticipation to performing all 
 the social functions expected of a young white 
 man s wife. 
 
 After marriage, like some other wild young 
 men, he drank freely of whisky, his favorite bever 
 age, and unlike white grooms generally he fre- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 531 
 
 quently induced his Indian bride to drink with 
 him. Whisky never agreed with Indian blood, and 
 it made the young woman at times wild and unman 
 ageable. After a time the pair visited the nearest 
 great city and soon overturned all the staid cus 
 toms of society. It took much ready money and 
 all of its influence to keep these young people out 
 of the clutches of the law. 
 
 For a while our young friend lived the life of a 
 veritable squaw man, and doubtless might have 
 been adopted into the tribe and become a chief, and 
 led thousands of Indians in their subsequent wars 
 against white men. But his hopes were nipped in 
 the bud ; his parents and influential friends inter 
 posed and forced him to send the young woman 
 back to her tribe. He, too, gave the Indian wife a 
 quasi, Indian divorce, and afterward married a 
 white lady and raised a family. His first bride, 
 after that one reckless frolic into which her hus 
 band led her, never ceased to maintain a high de 
 gree of self-respect, and managed to live and work 
 in good homes of white people. Those circum 
 stances made this a mesalliance, yet in my judg 
 ment the first marriage was the valid one, and the 
 Indian woman whom, as well as her husband, I 
 knew for years, was far superior to him. 
 
 A very able gentleman from an eastern city fell 
 into evil ways and was attacked by a terrible 
 disease which badly disfigured his face. A deep 
 sense of shame came over him, and in profound 
 melancholy he abandoned civilized life and began 
 to wander among our Indian tribes. I first saw 
 him in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Arizona. 
 
 31 
 
532 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 He was then attached to a small band of Indians 
 who had a sensible, good-hearted, half-civilized 
 chief. He married, as the chief told me, into his 
 royal family and had a goodly number of boys and 
 girls, who lived as the Indians lived. 
 
 The tribe was nomadic; they had no tepees or 
 lodges, always slept under the boughs of trees, 
 planted fertile spots in the springtime with both 
 corn and potatoes, and watched their herds of 
 ponies. They were always with the wildest Indians 
 when on the warpath. Our poor friend, though a 
 man of culture, lived for many years with the In 
 dians as an Indian and was but little more. He 
 was, however, at times a sort of chief -of -staff and 
 gave good advice. He preferred peace to war and 
 he brought all his influence to bear in that direc 
 tion. Still, his sympathy for the Indians was so 
 great that he fearlessly took their part in all their 
 quarrels with their white neighbors, and somehow 
 managed very often to settle their difficulties ami 
 cably, and to prevent the frequent outrages and 
 bloodshed that marked the line of the frontier. 
 
 When at last the wild tribe to which he be 
 longed was forced to take up land and be confined 
 on a permanent reserve this squaw man secured a 
 hundred and sixty acres, three times repeated, 
 which were assigned to his wife and children. At 
 last a good house was built in one corner and near 
 it a large barn. Oats, barley, corn, and hops grew 
 upon his well-chosen acres. Fences were built, 
 trees planted, and orchards enclosed. Artesian 
 wells were sunk, and the water was sufficient to 
 irrigate the land that was under cultivation. Here 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 533 
 
 was a type, that I knew well, of squaw men often 
 met in Arizona, New Mexico, and elsewhere. In 
 loving Indian women well enough to expatriate 
 themselves these squaw men husbands neverthe 
 less managed to obtain reasonable compensation. 
 
 I do not like the expression " squaw man," for 
 if we define the term as we ought it should mean 
 only the husband of an Indian woman. As a matter 
 of fact such marriages have touched some of the 
 highest in the land, directly and indirectly, includ 
 ing judges of the United States courts, members 
 of Congress, generals in the army, officers of the 
 general staff, prominent merchants, and hundreds 
 of citizens of the best standing in the community 
 where they lived. 
 
 Two things are often asserted and commonly 
 believed where Indian and civilized society come in 
 contact. One is that the man who marries an In 
 dian girl has degraded himself, and the other is 
 that the issue of such a marriage is uniformly bad ; 
 that is, that half-breeds are bright and shrewd 
 enough, but deficient in moral character. As a 
 general statement this is far from true. 
 
 I know that nearly all of our interpreters and 
 many of our guides were squaw men or half-breeds, 
 and that their moral character was not always of 
 the best. Yet I must say that they compared favor 
 ably with our own citizens who had white wives 
 and growing families, who clustered around the 
 numerous Indian reservations and were evidently 
 there for what they could make. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN INDIANS THE SIGN LAN 
 GUAGETHE SCALP AND OTHER CEREMONIAL 
 DANCES A NECKLACE OF HUMAN 
 FINGERS. 
 
 The Sign Language Its Origin How Indians of Different Tribes 
 Converse with Each Other Curious Method of Communication 
 Ceremonial Dances The Scalp Dance A Secret Performance 
 Elaborate Preparations for the Dance Wands with Dangling 
 Scalps A Weird Performance Frenzied Condition of the Dancers 
 
 Nervous Excitement of Spectators Medicine Bags and Totems 
 
 A Necklace of Human Fingers Captain Bourke s Story of ita 
 Capture A Buckskin Bag filled with the Right Hands of Pa 
 pooses Curious Contents of an Indian Medicine Bag Gruesome 
 Ornaments made of Human Bones. 
 
 I AM often asked, " Can you speak the Indian 
 language? My answer is that I would have 
 to speak more than two hundred languages to 
 speak the Indian tongue of each tribe. Few real 
 ize how great was the number of these tribes, and 
 how marked the differences were between them. 
 There is, however, a language common to nearly all 
 Indians, known as " the sign language. " It is 
 made by the hands, the fingers, the arms, and, in 
 fact, by motions of the w r hole body, and enables In 
 dians of tribes speaking different languages, to 
 hold intercourse with each other. Old frontiers 
 men who have long mingled with various Indian 
 tribes are nearly always experts in the sign lan 
 guage. 
 
 It was among the Plains Indians that gesture- 
 
, 
 
 FRIKND OR FOE? "STANDING OFF" INDIANS. 
 
 A POWWOW WITH THK CHKYKNNKS IN THK Slc;N LANGl AGE. 
 
 COMMUNICATION BY SIGNS. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 537 
 
 speech arrived at such perfection that it might 
 properly be called a language, for the reason that 
 these tribes used it not only in intercourse with 
 people whose oral language they neither spoke 
 nor understood, but for everyday intercourse 
 among themselves. In their own camps and fami 
 lies this method of communicating ideas was used 
 so constantly that it became a natural and instinc 
 tive habit. Col. Richard I. Dodge, whose expe 
 rience among the Plains Indians was perhaps 
 greater than that of any other army officer, in his 
 book entitled " Our Wild Indians, 7 published 
 when he was a colonel and aide-de-camp to General 
 Sherman, suggests the origin of the sign language. 
 He says: 
 
 " All the Plains tribes depended almost entirely 
 on the buffalo for everything. That animal, in his 
 migrations (going north in the spring, and south 
 in the fall and winter) , was exceedingly erratic, his 
 visits to any particular section of country depend 
 ing on his own food supply, and the condition of 
 the grass. One year, the country of a tribe of In 
 dians might be overrun by herds whose numbers 
 were simply incalculable; the next year, the same 
 territory might be visited by scarcely a single ani 
 mal. 
 
 " If the buffalo did not come to the Indian, the 
 Indian must go to the buffalo, at whatever hazard. 
 Runners were sent out, the location of the buffalo 
 discovered, and long journeys were made by tribes 
 and bands into countries to which they had no 
 claim. 
 
 " The same necessity possibly actuating many 
 
538 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 bands and tribes, the country in the vicinity of the 
 buffalo became dangerous ground. The tribe or 
 band in whose territory they were, regarded the 
 buffalo as their own property, an evidence of the 
 favor of God. They resented the intrusion of 
 other bands and hunting parties, not only as kill 
 ing and driving off their property, but as interfer 
 ing with their l medicine, the medicine chief tak 
 ing care that all should understand that his influ 
 ence with God brought the buffalo. Each year, the 
 country occupied by the buffalo became a vast bat 
 tle-ground, the proper owners attacking the inter 
 lopers at every favorable opportunity. 
 
 " But hunting parties met other hunting par 
 ties of tribes not hostile. To distinguish between 
 the hostile and the friendly, and to communicate 
 with, and possibly make common cause with the 
 latter, some means of intercourse must be had. 
 Not being able to speak or understand each other s 
 language, communication was had by signs. 
 
 " We may suppose that at first only signs most 
 natural and expressive were used. By-and-by 
 other signs were introduced, always conventional, 
 but becoming more and more arbitrary, until there 
 resulted a means of communication almost as per 
 fect as if each understood and spoke the oral lan 
 guage of the other. 
 
 " The Plains Indians themselves believed that 
 the sign language was invented by the_Kiowas, 
 who, holding an intermediate position between the 
 Comanches, Tonkaways, Lipans, and other inhabi 
 tants of the vast plains of Texas, and the Pawnees, 
 Sioux, Blackfeet, and other Northern tribes, were 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 539 
 
 the general go-betweens ; trading with all, or mak 
 ing peace or war, with, or for, any or all. It is 
 certain that the Kiowas were more universally pro 
 ficient in this language than any other Plains tribe. 
 It is also certain that the tribes farthest away from 
 them, and with whom they had least intercourse, 
 used it with least facility." 
 
 Ceremonial dancing in various forms was a 
 prominent feature in Indian life. Those tribes 
 that w r ere expert horsemen were generally sham 
 bling and awkward in walking or running on foot, 
 the natural result of their being almost constantly 
 on horseback from childhood to old age. Indian 
 dances did not require much agility on the part of 
 the performers. The body was kept stiff and the 
 legs were moved forward and back, and up and 
 down. It appeared to me as I watched the dances 
 of Indians that every dancer cultivated rigid ac 
 tion of the muscles, even when bending over or 
 looking skyward. 
 
 As to the scalp dance, I doubt if many white 
 men ever witnessed the whole performance. Col 
 onel Dodge in his book gives a good description of 
 that ceremony. He says : 
 
 " The day after the return to the home encamp 
 ment of a successful war party, by which scalps 
 had been taken, a ceremony was performed by the 
 warriors who took them, no other person whatever 
 being permitted to be present. 
 
 " I have been a spectator at a distance, but all 
 to be seen was a number of Indians, sitting on the 
 ground in a close circle. During this ceremony, 
 the scalps were trimmed, cleared of all fleshy mat- 
 
540 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 ter, and the skin cured by some process. Each 
 scalp was then stretched by thongs inside of a hoop 
 of wood a little larger than itself, and the hair was 
 carefully combed and greased. Each w r arrior then 
 attached his scalp or scalps, in their hoops, to a 
 peeled willow wand, from eight to ten feet long. 
 
 " This ceremony was called * counting the 
 coups, and was i Big Medicine, that is, very im 
 portant in a religious point of view. It was pre 
 paratory to the scalp dance. 
 
 1 i When it had been satisfactorily completed, all 
 the warriors marched gravely one behind the other, 
 back to camp, each bearing his wand with its bur 
 den of dangling scalps in his hand. The wands 
 were planted in a circle in the center of the camp. 
 
 " By this time, the whole population of the vil 
 lage was crowded around this center of interest. 
 The warriors who took the scalps were now joined 
 by those who had taken part in the fight, or who 
 belonged to the party which did the fighting, and 
 thus won for themselves the right to participate in 
 the dance. 
 
 "All assembled in a circle around and facing 
 the circle of w r ands. At a signal, all the warriors 
 joined hands, and commenced the monotonous song 
 and dance, turning slowly about the scalps. As 
 the dance progressed, the warriors soon loosed 
 hands, and varied the song by whoops and yells, 
 and the dance by bounds, gestures and brandish 
 ing of weapons, working themselves up to a condi 
 tion of excitement bordering on frenzy. 
 
 " The eyes of the spectators were strained upon 
 scalps and dancers as each slayer in turn sprang 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 541 
 
 from the circle, and bounding to his wand, vaunted 
 in extravagant terms his own prowess, and acted 
 over again the taking of the scalps. 
 
 " When the fortunate takers of scalps had all 
 exhausted themselves in self -laudation, others of 
 the dancers sprang by turns into the circle, each ex 
 plaining by what unfortunate interference of the 
 Bad God, he was prevented on this occasion from 
 taking a scalp, and recounted in glowing language 
 his successful prowess on some previous occasion, 
 or what he proposed to do at the next opportunity. 
 This was continued until each dancer had full op 
 portunity to show how brave and great a warrior 
 he was. Dancers and spectators grew wild with 
 excitement, and by the time the dance was over, the 
 whole population was little short of insane. 
 
 " This nervous intoxication was a special de 
 light of the Indians, and when they felt like indulg 
 ing in it, and there were no fresh scalps, they 
 brought out some old ones, and went through with 
 the same performance, the same scalps in piping 
 times of peace being made to do duty over and 
 over again. 
 
 " I have been told that, wild as the dancers ap 
 peared to be, each knew perfectly well what he was 
 doing, having previously in some solitude gone 
 over his speech and acted his part time and again. 
 
 " I was once spectator at a scalp dance which 
 was a special and exceptional occasion, for not only 
 had a goodly number of scalps been taken, but two 
 prisoners a woman of about forty, and boy of 
 twelve years of age were to grace the ceremony. 
 The peeled wands bearing the hoops and stretched 
 
542 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 scalps had been planted in a circle in the ground. 
 The prisoners were brought by the warriors who 
 had captured them, from the lodge in which they 
 were confined, and forced to take their places in the 
 circle, their hands being held by the warriors on 
 each side of them. The woman-prisoner accepted 
 the situation, and in looks and actions appeared to 
 take as enjoyable an interest in the dance as any of 
 the proper performers. Not so the boy ; with eyes 
 downcast, without a voluntary motion of foot or 
 body, he was dragged around the circle, taking only 
 such walking-steps as were necessary to avoid being 
 pulled down. All the turmoil and excitement 
 failed to produce on him the slightest effect. Not 
 once in the dance of more than an hour did he lift 
 his eyes to the scalps, to which were directed all the 
 eyes and attention of his captors, nor did he evince 
 the slightest interest in any of the proceedings. 
 
 " I could not but admire the proud determina 
 tion of one so young to resist all the efforts of a 
 crowd of enemies to force him into even a sem 
 blance of rejoicing over the scalps of his people, 
 possibly of his own father." 
 
 Medicine bags and totems were common among 
 the medicine-men. The necklace of human fingers, 
 a facsimile illustration of which is inserted in this 
 volume, belonged to the principal medicine-man of 
 the Cheyennes, from whom it was taken in Gen. 
 MacKenzie s battle with them, which I have al 
 ready mentioned. It is described as follows by the 
 late Captain John G. Bourke, United States Army : 
 
 " Among the bitterest losses of valuable property 
 suffered by the defeated Cheyennes on this ocea- 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 543 
 
 sion were the two necklaces of human fingers which 
 came into my possession, together with the small 
 buckskin bag filled with the right hands of papooses 
 belonging to the tribe of their deadly enemies, the 
 Shoshones. These were found in the village by 
 one of our scouts Baptiste Pourrier, who, with 
 Mr. Frank Gruard, was holding an important and 
 responsible position in connection with the care of 
 the great body of Indian scouts already spoken of. 
 From these two gentlemen I afterwards obtained 
 all the information that is here to be found regard 
 ing the Cheyenne necklace. 
 
 " The second necklace, consisting of four fin 
 gers, was buried, as General Crook did not wish to 
 have kept more than one specimen, and that only 
 for scientific purposes. Accordingly, the necklace 
 here depicted was - sent first to the United States 
 Military Academy at West Point, N. Y.. and later 
 to the National Museum at Washington, where it- 
 was believed it could better fulfill its mission of 
 educating students in a knowledge of the manners 
 and customs of our aborigines. 
 
 " The buckskin bag, with the papooses hands, 
 was claimed by the Shoshone scouts, who danced 
 and wailed all night, and then burned the fearful 
 evidence of the loss sustained by their people. 
 
 " The necklace is made of a round collar of 
 buckskin, incrusted with the small blue and white 
 beads purchased from the traders, these being ar 
 ranged in alternate spaces of an inch or more in 
 length. There are also attached numbers of the 
 perforated wampum shell beads of native manu 
 facture. Pendant from this collar are five medi- 
 
544 MY LITE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 cine arrows, the exact nature of which, it was, of 
 course, impossible to determine from the owner 
 himself. Both Frank and Baptiste agreed that an 
 arrow might become * medicine either from hav 
 ing been shot into the person of the owner himself 
 or into the body of an enemy, or even from having 
 been picked up under peculiar circumstances. 
 The owner, High Wolf or Tall Wolf, admitted as 
 much after he had surrendered at the Red Cloud 
 Agency and had made every effort to obtain the re 
 turn of his medicine, which was this necklace. 
 
 " The four medicine bags to be seen in the pic 
 ture are worthy of attention. They were carefully 
 examined under a powerful glass by Dr. H. C. Yar 
 row, United States Army, in the city of Washing 
 ton, and pronounced to be human scrota. The 
 first of these contained a vegetable powder, some 
 what decomposed, having a resemblance to hod- 
 dentin; the second was filled with killikinnick; the 
 third with small garnet-colored seeds like the chia 
 in use among the Apaches, and the fourth with a 
 yellow, clayey-white vegetable matter not identi 
 fied. The fifth, also, remained unidentified. 
 
 " Besides the above, there are artificial teeth, 
 resembling those of the fossil animals abundant in 
 the Bad Lands of South Dakota, but cut out of 
 soft stone. 
 
 " The fingers eight altogether are the left- 
 hand middle fingers of Indians of hostile tribes, 
 killed by High Wolf. I obtained the list and could 
 insert it here were it worth while to do so. The 
 fingers have not been left in the natural state, but 
 have been subjected to very careful and elaborate 
 
(1) NECKLACE OF HUMAN FINGERS. ARROW HEADS ANDTEETH, ATTACHED 
 
 TO A BEADED BUCKSKIN COLLAR. 
 (2) NECKLACE MADE OF THE FIRST JOINTS OF HUMAN FINGERS. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHER AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRLSSLY FOR THIS WORK. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 547 
 
 antiseptic treatment in order thoroughly to desic 
 cate them. They were split longitudinally on the 
 inner side, and after the bone had been extracted, 
 the surface of the skin, both inside and out, re 
 ceived a treatment with a wash or paint of ocher- 
 ous earth, the same as is used for the face. I was 
 told that the bones were not replaced, but that 
 sticks were inserted to maintain the fingers in 
 proper shape. 
 
 " Of the reason for making use of such a trophy 
 or relic, there is not much to be said ; even the sav 
 ages know little and say less. From the best in 
 formation that I have been able to gather, it would 
 seem to be based partly upon a vainglorious desire 
 to display the proofs of personal prowess, and 
 partly upon the vague and ill-defined, but deeply- 
 rooted, belief in the talismanic or medicinal po 
 tency possessed by all parts of the human body, es 
 pecially after death. It was such a belief that im 
 pelled the Mandan, Aztecs, and others of the 
 American tribes to preserve the skulls of their 
 dead as well as (among the Aztecs) those of the 
 victims sacrificed in honor of their gods. 
 
 " The use of necklaces of human fingers or of 
 human teeth is to be found in many parts of the 
 world, and besides the fingers themselves, we find 
 the whole arm, or in other cases only the nails. 
 The Cheyennes did not always restrict themselves 
 to fingers; they generally made use of the whole 
 hand, or the arm of the slaughtered enemy. In a 
 colored picture drawn and painted by one of them 
 selves I have a representation of a scalp dance, in 
 which the squaws may be seen dressed in their best, 
 
548 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 carrying the arms of enemies elevated on high 
 poles and lances. There is no doubt in my mind 
 that this custom of the Cheyennes of cutting off the 
 arm or hand gave rise to their name in the sign lan 
 guage of the Slashers, or Wrist Cutters, much 
 as the corresponding tribal peculiarity of the Da- 
 kotas occasioned their name of the Coupe Gorge 
 or Throat Cutters. 
 
 " The necklace of human fingers is found 
 among other tribes. A necklace of four human 
 fingers was seen by the members of the Lewis and 
 Clarke expedition among the Shoshones at the 
 "headwaters of the Columbia. Early in the spring 
 of 1858, Henry Youle Hind refers to the allies of 
 the Ojibwa on Red River as having two fingers 
 severed from the hands of the unfortunate Sioux. 
 
 " The necklace of human fingers is not a par 
 ticle more horrible than the ornaments of human 
 bones to be seen in the cemetery of the Capuchins 
 in Rome at the present day. I have personally 
 known of two or three cases where American In 
 dians cut their enemies limb from limb. The idea 
 upon which the practice is based seems to be the 
 analogue of the old English custom of sentencing 
 a criminal to be * hanged, drawn, and quartered. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN INDIANS, CONTINUED 
 
 THEIR STOLIDITY, SECRETIVENESS, AND HUMOR 
 
 -INDIAN SPIES CURIOUS STORY 
 
 TOLD BY A KIOWA. 
 
 How Indians Conceal their Real Feelings and Intentions Thievery 
 as a Profession Attempt of Satanta, a Kiowa Chief, to Kill 
 General Sherman His Narrow Escape from Death Satanta s 
 Fate The Instinct of Revenge Expertness of Indian Spies 
 Surpassing the Feats of White Men Indian Sense of Humor 
 Laughing at the Queer Looks and Ways of White Men Making 
 Merry over Whiskers Bald Heads Versus " Forked Tongues " 
 Story of the Giant Sinti and the Prairie Dogs A Good Speci 
 men of Indian Fiction Boisterous Hilarity of Indians The 
 Spirit of Gambling Barbarous Cruelty When Intoxicated. 
 
 MEN of limited experience, particularly those 
 who have suffered from Indian depreda 
 tions, stoutly declare that all Indians were 
 stolid, secretive, and treacherous. It is true that 
 most of them assumed a demeanor intended to con 
 ceal their real feelings and intentions when they 
 came into the presence of white men whom they did 
 not kno\v, or into association with Indians who 
 were strangers to them. But when well acquainted 
 with each other and confidence was once estab 
 lished, all stolidity disappeared. Some Indians, 
 like the Comanches, were taught from childhood to 
 be secretive ; and they practiced thievery all their 
 lives ; but this habit was exercised, as a rule, toward 
 their recognized enemies. I cannot recall any case 
 within my personal experience where Indians 
 
550 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 robbed their friends, or manifested toward them 
 any greater secretiveness than we white men do to 
 each other in ordinary business life. 
 
 I have seen several instances of treachery of 
 Indian to Indian, and of Indians to white men, 
 like that shown by the Modocs about the time Gen 
 eral Canby was killed, but these instances, those 
 referred to included, always occurred in what the 
 Indians considered a state of war. According to 
 our ideas of peace and war, the Indians would be 
 condemned ; we often thought that certain Indians 
 were at peace when they were actually preparing 
 for a hostile foray, or were in the frenzy of a 
 warlike outbreak. 
 
 In 1874, just before the wild flight of the Kio- 
 was to the Plains, when several army officers were 
 at Fort Sill to have a talk with them, Satanta, a 
 Kiowa chief, stood, rifle in hand, in the midst of a 
 group of his people. The commander of the army, 
 General W. T. Sherman, was present. Suddenly 
 in a fit of rage at something that was said Satanta 
 sprang to his feet, aimed his rifle at General Sher 
 man s head and fired, but another Indian who was 
 friendly struck the rifle just in time to save the 
 General s life. Some time previous to this, Sa 
 tanta had been imprisoned for leading a raid 
 against a wagon train of supplies in Texas, in 
 which all the men in charge of the wagons were 
 slain and the mules and goods carried off. To 
 keep the Kiowas from an outbreak he was released 
 on parole. He was again imprisoned after at 
 tempting to kill General Sherman. This time, 
 feeling that there was no hope of release, he sprang 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 551 
 
 from a high window of the jail in which he was con 
 fined and ended his own life. 
 
 They have had before them, permeating their 
 thoughts, their talk, and their actions, actual causes 
 of war. For example, if a white man killed an In 
 dian, and had taken his corn or tobacco, or had ap 
 propriated to his own uses the valley where he had 
 cultivated small patches of land, to the Indian 
 mind the cause of war was very plain, and to him 
 it already existed. 
 
 Before an outbreak revenge had long been med 
 itated and settled on; it was a sacred principle. 
 The Indian who did not seek revenge was despised 
 by the men and women of his tribe. This disposi 
 tion, as a principle, has not altogether disappeared 
 among white men. In our mountain country it is 
 still recognized as the necessary function of the 
 head of the family as against another and rival 
 family. Christianity has not yet succeeded in fully 
 eradicating this terrible cause of feuds among some 
 of our bravest people. Of course there are some 
 qualities that Christianity has not yet removed 
 from the human heart. Generally, however, white 
 men know the right whether they do it or not ; but 
 the savage has conscientiously adhered to the prin 
 ciple of merciless revenge. 
 
 In my experience I found Indian spies to be 
 experts in their profession and frequently their 
 performance was jriienomenal ; they always 
 equaled and often surpassed the best feats of white 
 men. In the midst of war, an Indian spy would 
 come into the presence of a hostile commander 
 with a plausible story and a look of innocence, 
 
552 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 which made him, to all intents and purposes, a safe 
 visitor. He would gather all the information he 
 wanted and easily make off without arousing sus 
 picion, carrying the much-needed information to 
 his friends. The Indian spy was generally as 
 handsome, stalwart, intelligent, and shrewd as any 
 man that could be selected for a dangerous mission. 
 Indeed, he rose to the character and conduct of our 
 most famous scouts in civilized warfare. He was 
 honored during and after the war as our spies and 
 scouts never have been. We use our scouts to get 
 for us all needed information, and when their work 
 is completed we treat them with contempt. 
 
 It is commonly believed that the Indians have 
 no sense of humor. This is far from true of the 
 numerous tribes with which I have had to do. Of 
 course there were different ways of manifesting 
 humor. The Nez Perces laughed among them 
 selves at the queer looks and ways of white visitors. 
 , They made merry over the white man s odd whis 
 kers, and compared his forehead to the peculiar 
 front of some bird, or pig, or sheep. A bald head 
 was full of suggestions to them. It seemed to mean 
 deception, untruthfulness, or signified what they 
 called a " forked tongue. " These conclusions were 
 derived from their experience with bald-headed 
 men whom they had met in council, and whose 
 promises were never fulfilled. They laughed 
 heartily, as children do, at small accidents which 
 occurred in their games and sports. I noticed 
 everywhere among the Nez Perces a badinage as 
 frequent, as hearty, and as amusing as that among 
 college students or frisky lads at play. 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 553 
 
 A prominent character in the humorous stories 
 of the Kiowas was Sinti, whom they described as a 
 long-legged giant with an insatiable appetite, and 
 an incurable liar and trickster. As a sample of the 
 imaginative productions of the Kiowas, and of their 
 strong sense of humor, I give one of their stories, 
 as told by Mr. James Mooney, who for many years 
 lived among them, with facsimile illustrations 
 drawn by an aboriginal Kiowa artist, loaned by Mr. 
 Mooney to illustrate this story : 
 
 THE STORY OF SINTI, THE PRAIRIE DOGS, AND THE 
 LAME COYOTE. 
 
 " One day Sinti was out walking, with his club 
 over his shoulder, looking for something to eat. 
 He was very hungry, for he had tricked the animals 
 so often that most of them now managed to keep a 
 good distance away from him. At last he came to a 
 prairie dog town. The dogs were not much afraid 
 of him because they were so little, hardly a mouth 
 ful apiece, that Sinti had never thought it w r orth 
 while to bother with them. So he called them and 
 said: 
 
 "* Doggies, nephews, Sinti called everybody 
 nephew l wouldn t you like to learn a new dance ? 
 
 " Yes, said all the little dogs, that would be 
 nice. 
 
 " All right, then. I ll sing the song and show 
 you how to dance, and then you stand around me 
 in a circle and shut your eyes and sing the song 
 after me, and stamp your feet the same way. 
 
 " So the prairie dogs formed a circle around 
 Sinti, all standing on their hind legs, and Sinti be- 
 
554 
 
 MY LIFE AND PEKSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 gan to sing the song, keeping time with his big club 
 like a rattle, as he stamped with his feet upon the 
 ground : 
 
 " Doggies, doggies, whisk your tails, 
 Whisk your tails, whisk your tails, 
 Just the way I say/ 
 
 " It was a very pretty song, but the big club 
 frightened the prairie dogs and they were almost 
 
 THE GIANT SINTI FOOLING THE PRAIRIE DOGS. 
 
 " Doggies, doggies, whisk your tails just the way I say." 
 (Facsimile of an original drawing made by a Kiowa.) 
 
 ready to run, so Sinti said, Don t be frightened, 
 nephews; that s just the way the dance goes. Now 
 shut your eyes and sing with me. 
 
 " So they all shut their eyes and he began again : 
 " Doggies, doggies, whisk your tails/ 
 
 but every time he stamped his foot he brought his 
 club down on the head of a prairie dog. They 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 555 
 
 were all singing so loud that they couldn t hear the 
 squeak, and as they had their eyes shut they didn t 
 know what Sinti was doing, until one little dog be 
 gan to think that the dance was lasting a long time, 
 so he peeped out of one eye, and there he saw all 
 the rest of his friends stretched out dead on the 
 ground with their paw T s up. He made one big 
 jump to get away and ran for his hole, with Sinti 
 after him. But the little dog got there first and 
 was safe, and so there are still prairie dogs in the 
 world. 
 
 " Sinti looked into the hole and said to himself, 
 i That little dog would have had very sweet mar 
 row, but I guess I can make a meal from the others. 
 So he walked back to where the dogs were lying 
 and gathered a lot of wood to roast them in their 
 skins, Kiowa fashion. 
 
 " While he was turning them over the fire, up 
 came a lame coyote, with one paw held up from the 
 ground, and altogether looking very poor and hun 
 gry, and asked Sinti to please give him something 
 to eat. 
 
 i Get out ! said Sinti, run and get your own 
 meat. 
 
 " I can t, said the coyote. I ve broken my 
 leg and I can t run fast enough. 
 
 " Very well, then, said Sinti, with a sneer, 
 * we 11 race for it. We 11 run to that hill over yon 
 der, go around it and run back, and the one who 
 gets here first takes the meat. 
 
 " But I m lame, said the coyote, and you 
 have such long legs. 
 
 " 0, well, said Sinti, I ll tie stones on my 
 ankles and then we ll be even. 
 
556 
 
 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 " So Sinti tied two big stones on each ankle, 
 and away he started, with poor coyote limping 
 painfully behind as well as he could. Sinti quickly 
 reached the hill, although the stones were very 
 
 THE LAME COYOTE FOOLING THE GIANT SINTI. 
 (Facsimile of an original drawing made by a Kiowa.) 
 
 heavy, went round it and started back on a walk 
 because there was no need to hurry and the stones 
 bothered him. At last the coyote reached the hill. 
 Sinti had sat down to rest awhile, and looked 
 around to see how the coyote was getting on, and 
 here he was coming on at a gallop. 
 
 " The coyote wasn t lame at all! 
 
 " The next moment the coyote passed him, run 
 ning as if after a jack-rabbit. Sinti untied the 
 stones from his ankles as quickly as he could. But 
 it was too late now. The coyote got there first, 
 and when Sinti arrived there was nothing left but 
 the bones." 
 
 The wild Apaches talked freely about matters 
 pertaining to the human body as nobody would ven- 
 
INDIAN AND WHITE SCALPS, SCALPING KNIVES, SHEATHS, Bow, 
 BOW-CASE AND QUIVER. ARROWS, ETC . 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHED AND PAINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK, 
 
AMONG OITR HOSTILE INDIANS 559 
 
 ture to do in polite society, but to them there ap 
 peared to be no sense of vulgarity. Some Indians 
 were low and indecent in their talk, but this did not 
 come so much from their own ways and customs as 
 from the suggestions of degraded white men who 
 had settled among them and taughf them such 
 things. They were only trying to please their 
 teachers. As far as I can judge, profane expres 
 sions and curses were invariably learned from 
 white men. 
 
 Many times I have seen Apache chiefs laugh at 
 sudden surprises until they could hardly breathe ; 
 I have seen them roll on the ground and bend them 
 selves double in the excess of their merriment. But 
 after all, Indians were not so full of boisterous 
 hilarity at all times and upon all sorts of occasions 
 as Africans. Strong drink developed this disposi 
 tion among the Indians, and in the beginning of 
 their intoxication they seemed greatly to enjoy a 
 good time, using tizwin, mescal, or corn soaked and 
 fermented when the white man s liquor could not 
 be obtained. Under the influence of these drinks, 
 they delighted in gambling and dancing; yet this 
 hilarity was soon followed by the terrible savagery 
 that strong drink always awakened in them. A 
 drunken white man is hard to manage, but a 
 drunken Indian, with few exceptions, was beyond 
 control. Nothing appeared to give him greater 
 satisfaction than acts of barbarous cruelty to men 
 and animals. All who have had any experience 
 with Indians will admit that strong liquor never 
 agreed with them. 
 
 Fun was everywhere observable among Indian 
 
560 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 children who were healthful and free to act. In 
 dian parents were seldom cruel to their children. 
 They loved them and humored them, often beyond 
 reason, yet they fiercely demanded such obedience 
 from them as was necessary to keep a child quiet, 
 or to make a child do what he was reluctant to un 
 dertake. Parents laughed heartily at the odd ways 
 and unexpected pranks of their children. Wher 
 ever I succeeded in getting the good-will of the chil 
 dren I was sure to have the women on my side for 
 anything that I desired to accomplish in the inter 
 est of the government or of the Indians. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN INDIANS, CONTINUED 
 ORATORS AND ORATORY EXPERT HORSEMAN 
 SHIPSURPRISES AND AMBUSCADES 
 -FUTURE OF OUR INDIANS. 
 
 An Indian Council Attended by the President of the United States 
 Characteristic Indian Oratory Indian Gestures Peculiarities of 
 their Speeches Indian Horses and Horsemanship Method of 
 Breaking and Training Colts Severe Cruelty to Animals 
 " Bucking " Ponies A Lesson Learned from the Indians In 
 dian and White Riders Compared Organizing an Attack on a 
 Wagon Train Averting a Threatened Disaster Curious Way 
 of " Trying to Please Me " Looking Back to Early Days 
 Retrospection Looking Forward to the Future with Hope and 
 Confidence. 
 
 OUR Indians are without exception natural 
 orators. President Hayes and General 
 Sherman, with several officers and ladies, 
 visited the Puyallup Reservation during the Presi 
 dent s tour in Oregon and Washington Territory 
 in 1880. The principal chief of the Puyallup 
 tribe and several heads of bands took their turn 
 during a formal council to make their wants known 
 to the great Father of the Republic. Surely no 
 Indians ever had a better opportunity. When the 
 council was over the President said to me, " What 
 remarkable oratory ! There is no hesitation. Their 
 gestures are always natural and graceful, and not 
 one of them has failed to make a good speech. Of 
 course I judge them by the translations. Their 
 figures of speech are choice and well carried out. 
 
562 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 Indeed, they seemed to have been born orators. " 
 In the scores of councils which I attended I always 
 noticed the excellence of their speeches. Their 
 metaphors were often strong and always pointed. 
 An Apache chief, observing a flinty stone which I 
 had placed on the mesa, said: "As long as this 
 stone shall endure so long let there peace between 
 
 us. 
 
 Again, when the prospects of a lasting peace 
 between the Indians and the white men were 
 brightest, the same chief said: " Hereafter the 
 deep canyons shall be filled up and the crooked 
 trails shall be made straight for the white man and 
 the Indian." 
 
 The famous Cochise translated the Spirit s 
 words thus : " Hereafter the Indian and the white 
 man shall eat bread together." The oratory of 
 the medicine men everywhere was more remark 
 able and more influential than even their weird 
 ceremonials. Through this they controlled, com 
 bined, and directed movements of vast extent and 
 consequence in all the Indian wars and massacres. 
 
 The Plains Indians whom I met always had 
 horses, either Indian ponies or those which were a 
 cross between the Indian pony and the American 
 horse. They showed great skill in breaking and 
 training them. But seldom did I find an Indian 
 boy or grown man of these tribes who was kind to 
 his horse. The severest cruelty was exercised in 
 breaking the horse to the bridle and the saddle. 
 An Indian did not spend much time in the opera 
 tion. He would lasso a wild one, thrown him down 
 and bind him, never letting him up till he believed 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 563 
 
 the animal s spirit had been sufficiently toned down 
 to allow him to mount and ride. Sometimes he 
 would tie the animal s head to the limb of a tree, 
 stretching his neck into a painful position, and 
 keep him so during an entire night. By morning 
 the horse was glad enough to submit to anything, 
 be it saddle, or bridle, or an Indian on his back. 
 The bona fide bronco, after a few days, was very 
 likely to attempt to take his revenge by resorting 
 to the well known trick of " bucking." He would 
 rear again and again ; he would kick, round up his 
 back and run, often in a circle, as soon as the saddle 
 touched him. For this outbreak the Indian sub 
 jected him to new and severer discipline, which was 
 repeated at every attempt of the animal to assert 
 his independence. The Indian would mercilessly 
 beat him and tie him up again and again until the 
 beast was completely subjugated. 
 
 The Nez Perces, Flatheads, Cayuses, Spokanes, 
 and Colville Indians were much kinder to their 
 animals than the Plains Indians. They used the 
 same methods, however, in breaking their colts ; but 
 afterwards they did not, when they could avoid it, 
 put packs or saddles upon backs that were galled 
 and raw from rough usage. They divided the over 
 worked and lame ponies into separate droves. 
 When moving from place to place they herded and 
 grazed them with much care, even in a trying cam 
 paign. Many a good horse so treated was in a few 
 days restored to full vigor. I learned from the In 
 dians to husband the strength of my own horses in 
 a similar way. We could not do this of course un 
 til we had secured animals enough for extra 
 
564 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 mounts. Chief Joseph, the leader of the Nez Per- 
 ces, had a large surplus of ponies from the start, 
 so that his riders could change horses every day, 
 while each of my pursuing cavalrymen was at first 
 allowed but one horse. I soon, however, found it 
 necessary to increase my supply, which I did from 
 the half-breed horses I found while marching 
 through Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas. 
 
 The Comanches led every other tribe in horse 
 manship. They had the swiftest mounts in their 
 races, and outstripped American riders with Amer 
 ican horses every time they had a trial. Our young 
 officers on the Plains during intervals of peace were 
 fond of trying the speed of their horses with the 
 war chiefs and principal men of the Comanches, 
 and I have no incident on record in which these In 
 dians, when putting forward their best ponies, did 
 not win the race. 
 
 The Comanches were like the Kurds of Eastern 
 Turkey. A band of Comanches, say a hundred 
 strong, beholding afar off the dust of a wagon train 
 with its escort and a guard of our cavalry, would 
 manage noiselessly to get into some ravine where 
 they could easily and suddenly descend upon the 
 train. They would do this so quickly and conceal 
 themselves so effectually that not even a suspicion 
 of their presence was aroused until a body of them, 
 without apparent order, charged like a whirlwind 
 upon the escort and train. They would shoot as 
 they charged, terrifying and stampeding horses, 
 mules, or oxen, and putting everything into hope 
 less confusion with such speed that none but an offi 
 cer of experience was able to withstand them. If 
 
llpflfill 
 
 !l 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 567 
 
 the officer rallied his cavalry upon a knoll near by 
 and was ready for a counter-charge, the Indians 
 cut the terrified animals loose and drove them off 
 at full speed. If forced to abandon them the Co- 
 manches would disappear as quickly as they came, 
 always bearing away their wounded. 
 
 I once watched a band of such Indians making 
 preparation for a charge upon a mule train which 
 had a small guard. My influence in this instance 
 over the chief prevented the disaster that was 
 plainly in sight. In an incredibly short space of 
 time the Indians painted their faces and concealed 
 themselves in a convenient ravine just behind a 
 line of foothills. They then mounted and placed 
 themselves in no particular order, the chief being 
 near the center and the Indians on his right and 
 left and rear, but so that every man had sufficient 
 room to turn his horse in any direction. Every 
 man was armed, some with carbines ; the chief had 
 a rifle which he had taken from a white man, and 
 some had only bows and arrows. They sprang for 
 ward in a trot, then a gallop, and then a fast run, 
 but in some way the chief was able to stop them by 
 a signal doubtless agreed upon beforehand. They 
 came within a quarter of a mile of the train and 
 must have startled the escort and drivers beyond 
 expression at their wild approach, but they turned 
 and bore off to the right; when the chief joined me 
 he smiled and said it would have been good sport, 
 but that he was at peace now, and he wanted to 
 please me. 
 
 My earliest knowledge of Indians greatly preju 
 diced me against them. My grandfather, a man of 
 
568 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 the olden time when Indians were very trouble 
 some, had nothing good to say of them. His ex 
 perience in fights with them was not to their ad 
 vantage. Their war-paint, their depredations, 
 their knives, tomahawks, bows and arrows, and 
 wild life were the themes of common conversa 
 tion. In his day their conversion, instruction, and 
 up-building were very little considered. The gen 
 eral purpose of our people was then, as it has been 
 all along, to conquer them in battle, drive them out, 
 or exterminate them, in order that savagery might 
 give place to civilization. 
 
 A few men believed, and I came in time to join 
 them, that a portion of them might be civilized and 
 made respectable citizens; but that was not the 
 general conviction of the white man at the begin 
 ning of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Osceola and his followers had a special griev 
 ance. They wished to preserve their habitations 
 and they fought hard against being sent off beyond 
 the Mississippi. Osceola was brave, wary, re 
 vengeful, and able, but in time he and his followers 
 were obliged to give way before the white men. 
 Whites began the Seminole war. General Sher 
 man used to say that they began every war. This 
 one they commenced by publicly whipping five In 
 dians. All of the Indian outrages^ including 
 Dade s massacre, followed that shame which no 
 Indian would bear. 
 
 Wild Cat s dissipation was brought on by sol 
 diers and whisky dealers. Through them the 
 Florida Indians were corrupted, and after a time 
 were ahvays at war. White men killed them on 
 
AMONG OUR HOSTILE INDIANS 569 
 
 sight, and the Indians naturally retaliated, burnt 
 houses, and killed everything that had life, espe 
 cially human beings. If they spared the live stock 
 of the country it was to carry it off for their own 
 use. In fear of them, treaties were made with a 
 view to move them westward. Surely our action, 
 legislative^ and executive, was usually hostile 
 never really friendly, Indians were feared and 
 they were hated. 
 
 In my own time Billy Bowlegs led a remnant of 
 the Seminoles to war, they having risen up to dis 
 pute the treaty ; they raided the settlements, as the 
 Indians before them had done; they waylaid the 
 stage lines ; now and then they killed a settler ; after 
 that our army was brought in to crush them. Vol 
 unteers and regulars made it almost impossible for 
 Indians to live. The volunteers were especially 
 unscrupulous and unsparing of human life. From 
 my observations then and there, the war that raged 
 in 1856 and 1857 was dreadful. This encounter 
 ended in our superior force getting the advantage 
 and enforcing its demands. All other Indian wars 
 began, continued, and ended in the same way. 
 
 It does not seem to be difficult to teach Indian 
 boys and girls of every tribe our code of morals, 
 and they appear to be as conscientious as other 
 children in the observance of Christian precepts. 
 The most pronounced success in moral and Chris 
 tian teaching is where the children are separated 
 from the degrading influences of their rough life. 
 I have noticed, however, that the educated young 
 Indian is always troubled about the condition of 
 his own tribe or people, and greatly desires their 
 
570 MY LIFE AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 amelioration. One of them said to me at Carlisle, 
 6 Why cannot my people be more independent ? 
 Why can they not take care of themselves ? Why 
 is it necessary to throw meat to them as to dogs "? 
 Surely the best way is for all the children somehow 
 to learn and practice self-support." 
 
 I need not prolong this chapter further. It is 
 my hope and belief that a remnant of the American 
 Indians will be saved, perhaps not in any tribal 
 way, but in communities and villages such as I have 
 referred to in the preceding pages. It is a slow 
 process to get entirely rid of the old savagery and 
 all that goes with it, and the development is not 
 rapid even among the best ; but it is going on, and 
 there are today hundreds of communities where 
 Indians are living in comparative comfort, and 
 their children are looking forward with hope and 
 confidence to a reasonable prosperity. May the 
 time never come when Christian people shall forget 
 to help those who are lowly and slower than them 
 selves to attain unto the blessings of a civilized and 
 Christian life. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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