Three Years on the Plains

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THREE YEARS ON THE PLAINS

[Illustration: THE DEATH OF JOHNSON IN COLORADO.

_Frontispiece._]

THREE YEARS ON THE PLAINS

OBSERVATIONS OF INDIANS,
1867-1870

EDMUND B. TUTTLE

"_Like an old pine-tree, I am dead at the top._"

--_Speech of an old chief_

Dedication

TO
GEN. W. T. SHERMAN,
WHOSE SPLENDID TRIUMPHS IN TIMES OF WAR SHED LUSTRE UPON
THE NATION'S HISTORY,
AND
WHOSE WISE COUNSELS IN TIMES OF PEACE WILL
INCREASE THE NATION'S STRENGTH AND
PRESERVE ITS HONOR, THIS
LITTLE BOOK IS, BY
PERMISSION,

Respectfully Dedicated.

LETTER FROM GENERAL SHERMAN

HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, D. C.,

June 13th, 1870.

REV. E. B. TUTTLE, FORT D. A. RUSSELL, W. T.

DEAR SIR,--I have your letter of June 8th, and do not, of course,
object to your dedicating your volume on Indians to me. But please
don't take your facts from the newspapers, that make me out as
favoring extermination.

I go as far as the farthest in favor of lavishing the kindness
of our people and the bounty of the general government on those
Indians who settle down to reservations and make the least effort
to acquire new habits; but to those who will not settle down, who
cling to their traditions and habits of hunting, of prowling along
our long, thinly-settled frontiers, killing, scalping, mutilating,
robbing, etc., the sooner they are made to feel the inevitable
result the better for them and for us.

To those I would give what they ask, war, till they are satisfied.

* * * * *

Yours truly,

W. T. SHERMAN, _General_.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations xi

Introduction 11

Where did the Indians come from? 13

Despoiling the Grave of an old Onondaga Chief 16

The Fidelity of an Indian Chief 22

Big Thunder--a Winnebago Chief 26

Indian Tradition--the Deluge 27

Tribes on the Plains 32

The Author a "Medicine-man" 47

The Sioux Sun Dance--Scene on the Plains of Young Warriors
exhibiting Fortitude and Bravery in Torturing Pains--a
Horrible Scene 48

Julesburg 52

A Brave Boy and some Indians 55

An Indian Meal 56

Shall the Indians be exterminated? 59

Indians don't believe half they hear 65

Army Officers 66

What shall be done? 68

A Good Joke by Little Raven 71

How the Indian is cheated 72

Burial of a Chief's Daughter 72

An Indian Raid on Sidney Station, Union Pacific Railroad 75

Why do Indians scalp their Enemies? 77

Indian Boy's Education 79

Making Presents 81

Indians making Signals 81

Merciful Indians 82

A Scene at North Platte 82

Across the Plains 87

Why does not the Indian meddle with the Telegraph? 89

Plum Creek Massacre 90

Pawnee Indians--Yellow Sun and Blue Hawk 91

A Trip to Fort Laramie 92

Moss Agates 95

A Young Brave 97

The Head Chief--Red Cloud 100

Red Cloud's Journey 106

Phil. Kearney Massacre 107

Perilous Adventure--Pursuit of a Horse-Thief 121

Hanging Horse-Thieves 128

An Indian Fight at Sweetwater Mines 131

Indian Attack on the Stage-Coach going to Denver--Rev. Mr.
Fuller's Account of Two Attempts upon his Life 135

Chaplain White says there's a time to Pray and a time
to Fight 143

Legend of "Crazy Woman's Fork" 145

Phil. Kearney Massacre 149

Mauvaises Terres, or Bad Lands, Dakota 150

Natural History--Animals on the Plains 153

A Night Scene 158

The Mission-House 160

Indian Language, Counting, etc. 160

Indians attack Lieutenant W. Dougherty--Fight between Forts
Fetterman and Reno 161

Speech of "White Shield," Head Chief of the Arickarees 162

Indian Trading 164

Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and their Friends in Washington 167

Conclusion 201

Lord's Prayer in Sioux Language 205

Apostles' Creed 206

Distances 206

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Death of Johnson in Colorado _frontispiece_

FOLLOWING PAGE 102

Issac H. Tuttle
Indian Boys
Indian Burial
Bishop Clarkson
Group of Converted Indians
Spotted Tail and his Son

MAP

Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska xii-xiii

[Illustration: Detail from an 1877 map showing principal areas of
Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska mentioned by Tuttle. Ft. D. A.
Russell was located near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Original by S. Augustus
Mitchell (1792-1868), 1" = 55 mi.

Courtesy Jerome A. Greene.]

INTRODUCTION

The interest which boys are taking in all that relates to our Indian
tribes, and the greediness they manifest in devouring the sensational
stories published so cheaply, filling their imaginations with stories
of wild Indian life on the plains and borders, without regard to their
truthfulness, cannot but be harmful; and therefore the writer, after
three years' experience on the plains, feels desirous of giving
youthful minds a right direction, in a true history of the red men
of our forests. Thus can they teach their children, in time to come,
what kind of races have peopled this continent; especially before
civilization had marked them for destruction, and their hunting-grounds
for our possession.

The RIGHTS and WRONGS of the Indians should be told fairly, in order
that justice may be done to such as have befriended the white men who
have met the Indians in pioneer life, and been befriended often by the
savage, since the Mayflower landed her pilgrims on these shores some
two hundred and fifty years ago.

The writer proposes now only a history of Indians since he began to
know the "Six Nations" in Western New York, about forty years ago.
Since then, these have dwindled down to a handful, and do not now exist
in their separate tribal relations, but mixed in with others, far away
from the beautiful lakes they once inhabited.

WHERE DID THE INDIANS COME FROM?

The origin of the native American Indian has puzzled the wisest heads.

The most plausible theory seems to be that they are one of the lost
tribes of Israel; that they crossed a narrow frith from the confines of
Asia, and that their traditions, it is said, go far to prove it.

For instance, the Sioux tell us that they were, many moons ago, set
upon by a race larger in number than they, and were driven from the
north in great fear, till they came to the banks of the North Platte,
and finding the river swollen up to its banks, they were stopped there,
with all their women, children, and horses. The enemy was pursuing, and
their hearts grew white with fear. They made an offering to the Great
Spirit, and he blew a wind into the water, so as to open a path on the
bed of the river, and they all went over in safety, and the waters,
closing up, left their enemies on the other side. This, probably, is
derived from a tradition of their forefathers, coming down to them from
the passing of the children of Israel through the Red Sea.

Elias Boudinot, many years ago, and a minister in Vermont also,
published books to show that the American Indians were a portion of the
lost tribes, from resemblances between their religious customs and
those of the Israelites. Later still, a converted Jew named Simon,
undertook to identify the ancient South American races, Mexicans,
Peruvians, etc., as descendants of ancient Israel, from similarity of
language and of civil and religious customs. These authors have taken
as their starting-point the resolution which, Esdras informs us (in the
Apocrypha), the ten tribes took after being first placed in the cities
of the Medes, viz., that they would leave the multitude of the heathen
and go into a land wherein never mankind dwelt, that they might there
keep their laws, which God gave them; and they suppose that, in
pursuance of this resolution, the tribes continued in a northeasterly
direction until they came to Behring Straits, which they crossed, and
set foot on this continent, spreading over it from north to south,
until, at the discovery of it by Columbus, they had peopled every part.
It must be admitted that this theory is very plausible, and that if our
Indians are not the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, they show
by their traditions and customs a knowledge of the ancient religion,
such as calling the Great Spirit Yo-he-wah, the Jehovah of the
Scriptures, and in many festivals corresponding to the Mosaic law.[1]
The country to which the ten tribes, in a journey of a year and a half,
would arrive, from the river Euphrates, east, would be somewhere
adjoining Tartary, and intercourse between the two races would easily
lead to the adoption of the religious ideas and customs of the one by
the other.

[1] Labagh.

The gypsy tribes came from Tartary, and in my intercourse with these
wandering people, I found they had a custom somewhat like our Indians'
practice, in removing from place to place. For instance, the gypsies,
when they leave a part of their company to follow them, fix leaves in
such wise as to direct their friends to follow in their course. This is
called "_patteran_" in Romany or gypsy language. And the Indian cuts a
notch in a tree as he passes through a forest, or places stones in the
plains in such a way as to show in what direction he has gone. An
officer saw a large stone, upon which an Indian had drawn the figure of
a soldier on horseback, to indicate to others which way the soldiers
had gone.

_Origin of Evil_.--They have a tradition handed down that the Great
Spirit said they might eat of all the animals he had made, except the
beaver. But some bad Indians went and killed a beaver, and the Great
Spirit was angry and said they must all die. But after awhile he became
willing that Indians should kill and eat them, so the beaver is hunted
for his skin, and his meat is eaten as often as he suffers himself to
be caught.

DESPOILING THE GRAVE OF AN OLD ONONDAGA CHIEF.

On-on-da-ga was the name of an Indian chief, who died about the year
1830, near Elbridge, a town lying north of Auburn, in the State of New
York. This Indian belonged to the Onondagas, one of the tribes called
"the Six Nations of the IROQUOIS" (E-ro-kwa), a confederacy consisting
of the MOHAWKS, ONEIDAS, SENECAS, CAYUGAS, ONONDAGAS, and TUSCARORAS or
CHIPPEWAS. I was a lad at the time of this chief's death, having my
home in Auburn, New York, where my father was the physician and surgeon
to the State prison. My father had a cousin, who was also a doctor and
surgeon, a man of stalwart frame, raised in Vermont, named Cogswell. He
was proud of his skill in surgery, and devoted to the science. He had
learned of the death of the Onondaga chief, and conceived the idea of
getting the body out of the grave for the purpose of dissecting the old
fellow,--that is, of cutting him up and preserving his bones to hang up
on the walls of his office; of course, there was only one way of doing
it, and that was by stealing the body under cover of night, as the
Indians are very superstitious and careful about the graves of their
dead. You know they place all the trappings of the dead--his bow and
arrows, tomahawk and wampum--in the grave, as they think he will need
them to hunt and supply his wants with on his journey to the happy
hunting-grounds. They place food and tobacco, with other things, in the
grave.

Dr. Cogswell took two men one night, with a wagon, and as the distance
was only twelve miles, they performed the journey and got back safely
before daylight, depositing the body of the Indian in a barn belonging
to a Mr. Hopkins, in the north part of the town. It was soon noised
about town what they had done, and there lived a man there who
threatened to go and inform the tribe of the despoiling of the chief's
grave, unless he was paid thirty dollars to keep silence. The doctor,
being a bold, courageous man, refused to comply with a request he had
no right to make, because it was an attempt to "levy black mail," as it
is called.

Sure enough, he kept his word, and told the Onondagas, who were living
between Elbridge and Syracuse. They were very much exasperated when
they heard what had been done, and threatened vengeance on the town
where the dead chief lay.

The tribe was soon called together, and a march was planned to go up to
Auburn by the way of Skaneateles Lake,--a beautiful sheet of water
lying six miles east of Auburn. They encamped in the pine woods,--a
range called the "pine ridge,"--half-way between the two villages, and
sent a few of the tribe into Auburn for the purpose of trading off the
baskets they had made for powder and shot; but the real purpose they
had in view was to find out just where the body was (deposited in the
barn of Mr. Josiah Hopkins), intending to set fire to the barn and burn
the town, rescuing the dead chief at the same time.

For several days the town was greatly excited, and every fireside at
night was surrounded with anxious faces; the children listening with
greedy ears to narratives of Indian cruelties perpetrated during the
war with the English about Canada, in 1812; and I remember how it was
told of a cruel Indian named Philip, that he would seize little babes
from their mothers' arms and dash out their brains against the wall! No
wonder we dreamed horrid dreams of the dusky faces every night.

At that time the military did not amount to much. There was a company
of citizen soldiers there, called the "AUBURN GUARDS," numbering about
forty men, with a captain whose name I forget, but who became suddenly
seized with the idea of his unfitness to defend the town against the
threatened Indian invasion, and did the wisest thing he could, and
resigned his commission on a plea of "_sudden indisposition_." The
doctor walked the street as bold as a lion, but acting also with the
shrewd cunning of the fox. And now, my young friends, instead of
weaving a bloody romance in the style of the "Dime Novels," depicting
the terrible massacre, which might have happened, with so great a wrong
to provoke the hostility of the poor Indians, I am about to tell you
how the town was saved, and how the doctor outwitted them. If you pause
here, and guess, I think you will be far from the mark in reaching the
shrewdness of the surgeon, who had not been bred among the hills of old
Vermont for nothing.

As I said, at Auburn there is a State prison, and when the convicts
die, their bodies, unless claimed by relatives or friends within
twenty-four hours after death, are at the disposal of the surgeon for
dissection.

As good luck would have it, a negro convict died at the time of our
story; and the doctor conceived the idea of getting out of his
difficulty by transferring the dead body of the negro Jim to the
despoiled empty grave of Onondaga! This done, he easily persuaded the
Indians to go back and find the body of their chief all right: and so
he succeeded in humbugging the weak-minded Indians, while the bones of
old Onondaga were duly prepared and hung up to show students how
Indians and all men are made of bone and muscle. The doctor thought he
had done a good thing; but when I went into the office and saw the
horrid skull grinning at me, I was thankful that the spirit of old
Onondaga could not say of me, "You did it!"

II.

The most notable of the chiefs belonging to the Six Nations were
Hiawatha, Thayendanega (or Brant, his English name), Sagoyewatha, or
Red Jacket,--the most intelligent of the chiefs, and who is said to
have been the uncle of General Parker, a full-blood Chippewa, and at
one time Indian Commissioner at Washington. (Parker served as an aide
of General Grant during the war. In early life, he was a pupil at the
normal school, in Albany; and was reckoned quite a proficient in music
by Prof. Bowen.)

Most of these tribes, inhabiting the country bordering on the Mohawk
River, Onondaga Lake, Skaneateles, Owasco, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, and
Erie, migrated at an early day to Green Bay, and to the Straits of
Mackinaw. As remnants of the Onondagas were passing through Auburn,
they often slept on the floor of our kitchen, and they never stole
anything or did us any harm. One day, they were passing the American
Hotel, and, as usual, begged a few sixpences of all they met. A
gentleman sitting on the porch said to one of them, "No, you'll spend
it for whisky."

"Oh, no," he replied; "_give it to my wife,--he's a Methodist woman_!"

I met a tribe of Chippewas at Marquette, a short time since, on Lake
Superior, whither they had migrated from Green Bay. _An-ges-ta_, the
chief, was a tall, noble-looking fellow. He wanted the church to help
his people, who were very poor.

Said he, "We lived in Green Bay a great while, but when I looked into
our cabins and saw so many of them empty, and into the graveyard, and
counted more graves than we had living, my heart was sad, and I went
away farther toward the setting sun!"

He made an eloquent speech to the Prince of Wales on his visit to the
West, and it was pronounced a fine piece of natural oratory.

A few remnants of the New York tribes are living not far from Buffalo,
on a reservation, where they cultivate farms and have schools and
churches.

Such were the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Mohawks, and
Chippewas. Only one band is left in New York State now, that of the
Onondagas.

The present generation of grown people have read with delight the
beautiful novels of J. Fenimore Cooper, Esq., but they have been
disappointed in not finding any living examples of his noble heroes. As
a general thing, the Indian of our day is an untidy lord of the soil,
over which he roams unfettered by any laws of society, and often--in
his wild state--not controlled by its decencies or in possession of its
privileges. But I think this is the fault of Christians more interested
in foreign pagans, while neglecting these heathen at our own doors.

THE FIDELITY OF AN INDIAN CHIEF.

The following story about an Oneida chief is told by Judge W----:

Early in the settlement of the western part of New York, the judge was
living in Whitesboro', four miles west of Utica. All around was an
unbroken forest of beech, maple, and other trees, held by wild tribes
of Indians, who had been for ever so long owners of the soil. Judge
W----, feeling how much he was at their mercy in his lonely place, was
anxious to keep on good terms with them, and secure their friendship in
return.

Many of the chiefs had heard of his friendly ways, and went to see him,
carrying presents, because of the gifts he had sent them; but he was
much troubled that an old chief of the tribe, having great influence
with his people, had never come to see him, or sent him any presents,
or shown any signs of welcome. After awhile the judge made up his mind
to go and see the sachem in his wigwam, and thus secure a friendship he
might rely on in case of any difficulty. His family was small,--only
his daughter, a widow, and her only child, a fine boy, five years old.
So, one day he went to pay the chief a visit, taking the widow and her
son along with him. He found him seated at the door of his tent,
enjoying a nice breeze of a fine summer's morning, and was welcomed by
the old chief with kind manners and the word "Sago," meaning, "How do
you do?" Judge W---- presented his daughter and her little boy to the
old chief, and said they had come to live in his country; they were
anxious to live in peace with them, and introduce among them the arts
of civilization. Listening to these words, the chief said,--

"Brother, you ask much and promise much; what pledge can you give of
your good faith?"

_Judge._--"The honor of a man who never knew deceit."

_Sachem._--"The white man's word may be good to the white man, yet
it is but wind when spoken to the Indian."

_Judge._--"I have put my life into your hands by coming hither; is
not this a proof of my good intentions? I have trusted the Indian, and
I will not believe that he will abuse or betray my trust."

"So much is well," said the chief; "the Indian repays trust with trust:
if you will hurt him, he will hurt you. But I must have a pledge. Leave
this boy with me in my wigwam, and I will bring him back to you in
three days with my answer."

If an arrow had pierced the bosom of the young mother, she could not
have felt a sharper pang than that which the Indian's proposal had
caused her.

She flew towards her boy, who stood beside the chief looking into his
face with pleased and innocent wonder, and, snatching him to her arms,
would have rushed away with him.

A gloomy frown came over the sachem's brow, and he remained silent.

The judge knew that all their lives depended upon a right action at
once; and following his daughter, who was retreating with her child
into the woods, he said to her, "Stay, stay, my daughter; bring back
the child, I beg of you! I would not risk a hair of his head, for he is
as dear to me as to you,--but, my child, he must remain with the chief!
God will watch over him, and he will be as safe in the sachem's wigwam
as in your arms beneath your own roof." She yielded, and her darling
boy was left; but who can tell the agony of the mother's heart during
the following days?

Every night she awoke from her sleep, seeming to hear the screams of
her child calling upon its mother for help. How slowly and heavily
passed the hours away. But at last the third day came. The morning
waned away, and the afternoon was far advanced, yet the chief came not.
There was sorrow over the whole home, and the mother, pale and silent,
walked her room in despair. The judge, filled with anxious doubts and
fears, looked through the opening in the forest towards the sachem's
abode.

At last, as the rays of the setting sun were thrown upon the tops of
the tall trees around, the eagle feathers of the chief were seen
dancing above the bushes in the distance. He came rapidly, and the
little boy was at his side. He was gayly attired as a young chief: his
feet dressed in moccasins, a fine beaver-skin thrown over his
shoulders, and eagle's feathers stuck in his hair. He was laughing and
gay, and so proud of his honors that he seemed two inches taller than
before. He was soon clasped in his mother's arms, and in that brief
moment of joy she seemed to pass from death to life.

"The white man has conquered!" said the chief; "hereafter let us be
friends. You have trusted the Indian; he will repay you with confidence
and kindness."

And he was true to his word. Judge W---- lived many years, laying there
the foundation of that flourishing community which has spread over a
wide extent of western New York.

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