Part 6 (1/2)
Robert Bent testified thus:
”I saw a little girl about five years of age, who had been hid in the sand; two soldiers discovered her, drew their pistols and shot her, and then pulled her out of the sand by her arm,” etc.
This occurred at the time government officials in Denver had sent for them,--had a ”talk” with them,--advising them to go just where they were. Before he was killed, Black Kettle, one of the chiefs, thus addressed the governor at Denver:
”We have come with our eyes shut, following Major Wynkoop's handful of men, like coming through the fire. All we ask is, that we may have peace with the whites. We want to hold you by the hand. You are our father. We have been traveling through a cloud. The sky has been dark ever since the war began.
”These braves who are here with me, are willing to do all I say. We want to take good news home to our people, that they may sleep in peace.
”_I have not come here with a little wolf-bark!_ But have come to talk plain with you. We must live near the buffalo or starve. When I go home, I will tell my people I have taken your hand, and all of the white chiefs in Denver, and then they will feel well, and so will all the tribes on the plains, when we have eaten and drank with them.”
And yet one hundred and twenty friendly Indians were all slain, and the war that followed cost $40,000,000.
A _council of Indians_ was held previous to the ”Chivington ma.s.sacre,”
which stamped the character of Black Kettle, the Cheyenne chief, as n.o.ble and brave. It seems that he had purchased from an Arapahoe band two girls named Laura Roper, aged eighteen, and Belle Ewbanks, aged six years, who were captured by the Indians, after attacking Roper's ranch, on the Little Blue River, in July, 1864. Two little boys were also captured at the same time. They were carried off to the Republican River, and Black Kettle bought them for five or six ponies, to give them to their parents. Certainly a generous act. He gave them up, and met the Commissioners in council, together with several Arapahoe chiefs of small bands, all of whom were confederate together to kill the Commissioners and bring on a general war.
Black Kettle knew it, and was determined to expose the plot and break it up. But the party of white officials, with Colonel E. W. Wynkoop, were in the dark about their evil intentions. The Indians called Colonel W. ”The Tall Chief that don't lie.”
”Black Kettle”--Mo-ke-ta-va-ta--Colonel Tappan says, ”was the most remarkable man of the age for magnanimity, generosity, courage, and integrity. His hospitality to dest.i.tute emigrants and travelers on the plains for years, had no limit within the utmost extent of his means; giving liberally of his stores of provisions, clothing, and horses. His fame as an orator was widely known. He was great in council, and his word was law. Hundreds of whites are indebted to him for their lives.... He held Colonel Chivington's men at bay for seven hours, and carried to a place of safety three hundred of his women and children,--twenty of his braves and his own wife pierced with a dozen bullets.
”Previous to the conflict, after his two brothers had been shot down and cut to pieces before his eyes (while approaching the troops to notify them of the friendly character of the Indians), he aided three white men to escape from the village, one of them a soldier. They were his guests, whom he suspected of being spies, 'but did not know it,'
and they are now living to the eternal fame and honor of the chieftain.
From Sand Creek he fled to the Sioux camp, where it was determined to make war upon the whites in retaliation. He protested against interfering with women and children, and insisted upon fighting the men. He was overruled. Thereupon he resigned his office as chief, and a.s.sumed the garb of a brave. He soon after made peace for his tribe, which was faithfully kept until the burning of their village two years afterward. A war again ensued, in which he took no part, having promised never again to raise his hands against the whites. He was the first to meet the Peace Commissioners at Medicine Lodge Creek. His many services and virtues plead like angels trumpet-tongued against the deep d.a.m.nation of his taking off.”
Well, when the council a.s.sembled, among them were about a dozen chiefs of Arapahoes, Cheyennes, etc.; the worst of whom was Neva,--Long-nose,--an Arapahoe with one eye, and that a very ugly one. He was an outlaw, commanding twenty or thirty warriors. All were seated in a tent, and this fellow became boisterous, and wrangled, clamoring for a general war against all whites. It was a most exciting time. The chiefs stripped almost naked, and worked themselves up into a great excitement. At last, Black Kettle rose up, and pointing his finger at Neva, thus addressed him:
”You, you call yourself brave! I know what you mean. You come here to kill these white friends whom I have invited to come and have a talk with us. They don't know what you mean, but I do. You brave!
(sneeringly.) I'll tell you what you are: your mouth is wide, so (measuring a foot with his hands),--your tongue so long (with his forefinger marking six inches on his arm),--_and it hangs in the middle, going both ways_. You're a coward, and dare not fight me.” Here all the Indians gave a grunt of approbation. ”Now, go,” said he, ”and begone! This council is broken up; I have said it; you hear my words; begone!” And they slunk off, completely cowed down.
Dog-soldiers were with them, well equipped for a big fight, and these white men beguiled, would all have been slain only for Mo-ke-ta-va-ta.
A ”dog-soldier” is a youth who has won, gradually, by successful use of the bow and arrow, a position to use the gun, and stand to the warriors just as our police force do to us, in guarding property, etc. These boys have a stick, called a ”coo,” on which they make a notch for everything they kill,--a kind of tally,--and when the coo is of a certain length, they are promoted to the rank of a ”dog-soldier.”
INDIANS DON'T BELIEVE HALF THEY HEAR.
When several chiefs are allowed to visit Was.h.i.+ngton on errands for their tribes, to get more given them, they tell their people how numerous are the children of their Great Father they have met on their way, and what big guns they saw, etc. But those at home believe it is a lie, gotten up by the ”white man's medicine,” as they call it. All have heard of a young chief whose father gave a stick, on which he should cut a notch for every white man he met. But it soon got full, and he threw it away.
The most amusing experience is told of a lot of Indians having been induced to go into a photographer's and have their likenesses taken.
The operator asked a chief to look at his squaw (sitting for her phiz) through the camera. It looks as though one was sitting, or rather standing on his head,--reversing one's position. The chief was very angry at seeing his squaw in such an uncomely att.i.tude, and he walked over and beat her. She denied it, but he saw it. He looked again, and again she was turned upside down. He said it was the white man's medicine, and would have nothing to do with it!
An Indian boy was asked some questions by one of the Peace Commissioners about some trouble, and he said to a chief, ”Does the boy tell the truth?”
”Yes,” replied the chief, ”you may believe what he says; he never saw a white man before!”