Part 31 (2/2)

CHAPTER XI

Of all the Indians I encountered in ent, as well as the e of dare-devils coy

They mastered the white man's tactics as soon as they had an opportunity to observe the white co in the art of warfare The Sioux fought to win, and in a desperate encounter were absolutely reckless of life

But they also fought wisely, and up to thein they conserved their own lives with a vast amount of cleverness The maxim put into words by the old Confederate fox, Forrest: ”Get there fastest with theprinciple with the Sioux

They were a strong race of men, the braves tall, with finely shaped heads and handsoreat deal of pride, and they seldoreatest of all the Sioux in my tihtingBull, whose life will soive hi Bull it ho stirred the Indians to the uprising whose cli Horn and the destruction of Custer's co to and fro aainst the encroaching white man It was easy at that time for the Indians to secure rifles The Canadian-French traders to the north were only too glad to trade them these weapons for the splendid supplies of furs which the Indians had gathered Many of these rifles were of excellent construction, and on a nued the army carbines hich ere equipped

After the CusterBull and the chiefs ere associated with him, and he quietly withdrew to Canada, where he was for the ti safe froan leaving hi to their reservations in the United States Soon he had only a remnant of his followers and his iotiating for immunity, and when he was fully assured that if he would use his influence to quiet his people and keep them from the warpath his life would be spared, he consented to return

He had been lonely and unhappy in Canada An accoift of leadershi+p, he had pined for audiences to sway and forHe felt sure that these would be restored to hies, I have no doubt that he fully intended to live up to them He carried in his head all the treaties that had been made between his people and the white ether with the dates of their ned for both sides

But he was a stickler for the rights of his race, and he devoted far ht to the trend of events than did most of his red brothers

Here was his case, as he often presented it to me:

”The White Man has takenfor it He has destroyed or driven away the gah the Indians' land a road on which ran iron horses that ate wood and breathed fire and sreed This road was only as wide as a man could stretch his arms But the White Man had taken from the Indians the land for twenty miles on both sides of it

This land he had sold for money to people in the East It was taken fro for it

”The iron horse brought from the East men and women and children, who took the land froame They built fires, and the fires spread and burned the prairie grass on which the buffalo fed Also it destroyed the pasturage for the ponies of the Indians Soon the friends of the first White Men came and took more land Then cities arose and always the White Man's lands were extended and the Indians pushed farther and farther away froiven them and that had always been theirs

”When treaties were broken and the Indians trespassed on the rights of the White Man, my chiefs and I were always here to adjust the White Man's wrongs

”When treaties were broken and the Indians' rights were infringed, no one could find the white chiefs They were soive us justice New chiefs of the White Men cas and laughed at us

”When the Sioux left Minnesota and went beyond the Big Muddy the white chiefs proain be disturbed Then they followed us across the river, and e asked for lands they gave us each a prairie chicken's flight four ways (a hundred and sixty acres); this they gave us, who once had all the land there was, and whose habit is to roam as far as a horse can carry us and then continue our journey till we have had our fill of wandering

”We are not as many as the White Man But we know that this land is our land And while we live and can fight, ill fight for it If the White Man does not want us to fight, why does he take our land? If we coes on the White Man's land, the White Man drives us away or kills us Have we not the saht as the White Man?”

The forfeiture of the Black Hills and unwise reduction of rations kept alive the Indian discontent When, in 1889, Congress passed a law dividing the Sioux reservation into many smaller ones so as to isolate the different tribes of the Dakota nation a treaty was offered them

This provided payment for the ponies captured or destroyed in the war of 1876 and certain other concessions, in return for which the Indians were to cede about half their land, or eleven million acres, which was to be opened up for settlement

The treaty was submitted to the Indians for a vote They came in from the woods and the plains to vote on it, and it was carried by a very narrowthat they had been coerced by their necessities into casting favorable ballots

Congress delayed and postponed the fulfillment of the promised conditions, and the Indian unrest increased as the months went by Even after the land had been taken over and settled up, Congress did not pass the appropriation that was necessary before the Indians could get theirBull was appealed to for aid, and once ift of oratory in the interest of arainst the white man