THE MANAGEMENT OF THE INDIAN AGENCIES—AGENT MACGILLICUDDY’S
WONDERFUL WORK—CROOK’S REMAINING DAYS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE
PLATTE—THE BANNOCK, UTE, NEZ PERCÉ, AND CHEYENNE OUTBREAKS—THE
KILLING OF MAJOR THORNBURGH AND CAPTAIN WEIR—MERRRITT’S FAMOUS
MARCH AGAINST TIME—HOW THE DEAD CAME TO LIFE AND WALKED—THE
CASE OF THE PONCAS—CROOK’S HUNTS AND EXPLORATIONS; NEARLY
FROZEN TO DEATH IN A BLIZZARD—A NARROW ESCAPE FROM AN ANGRY
SHE-BEAR—CATCHING NEBRASKA HORSE-THIEVES—“DOC” MIDDLETON’S
GANG
After Doctor Irwin the Indians at Red Cloud had as agent Doctor V.
T. MacGillicuddy, whose peculiar fitness for the onerous and
underpaid responsibilities of the position brought him deserved
recognition all over the western country, as one of the most
competent representatives the Indian Bureau had ever sent beyond the
Missouri. Two or three times I looked into affairs at his agency
very closely, and was surprised both at the immense amount of
supplies on hand—running above a million pounds of flour and other
parts of the ration in proportion—and the perfect system with which
they were distributed and accounted for. There were then eight
thousand Indians of both sexes at the agency or on the reserve, and
the basis of supplies was either Pierre, in Dakota, on the Missouri,
or Sidney, Nebraska, on the Union Pacific; the former two hundred
and the latter one hundred and twenty-five miles distant.
MacGillicuddy was kept on the go all the time from morning till
night, and managed to do the work of twenty men. His salary was the
munificent sum of twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars per annum. I
could not help saying to myself that this man was carrying upon his
shoulders the weight of a force equal to one-third the United States
Army; were he in the army, MacGillicuddy would have been a
major-general, surrounded by a high-priced staff, dividing the work
and relieving him of nearly all care; he would have had three
aides-de-camp, too frequently his own relations, each getting from
the Government a better salary than the agent of this great
concourse of savages was receiving. MacGillicuddy was expected and
required to keep his wards at peace, feed and clothe them in health,
see that they received proper medical attendance while sick,
encourage them in habits of industry, especially farming and
cattle-raising, prepare all kinds of accounts for the information of
his bureau, and in his moments of leisure instruct the aborigines in
the Catechism and Testament. In this matter of Indian agents, as in
all that pertains to Indian affairs, the great trouble is that the
American people have so little common sense. Let the salaries paid
to agents be raised to such a standard that the position will be an
inducement for first-class men to consider, and there will not be so
much trouble in getting an honest administration, if there should be
coupled a good-conduct tenure, subject to the approval of some such
organization as the Indian Rights Association. Civil Service Reform
may well be introduced in the Indian service.
Of the other services rendered by General Crook while in command of
the Department of the Platte there is no room to speak. Much of the
highest importance and greatest interest happened under his
administration, and it is needless to say that all which devolved
upon him to do was done well, done quietly, done without flourish of
trumpets, and without the outside world learning much about it. In
the line of military operations, there was the trouble with the
Cheyennes who broke out from the Indian Territory during the summer
of 1878, and fought their way across three military departments to
the Tongue River, where they surrendered to their old commanding
officer, Lieutenant William P. Clarke, Second Cavalry. There was the
nipping in the bud of the outbreak among the Shoshones and Bannocks,
principally the latter, led by “Tindoy” and “Buffalo Horn,” both of
whom were personally well known to Crook, who used his influence
with them to such advantage that they remained at peace until the
aggressions of the whites became too great and drove them out upon
the war-path. These Indians did not, properly speaking, belong to
General Crook’s department, but lived on the extreme northwestern
corner of it in a chain of almost inaccessible mountains in central
Idaho. There was the Ute outbreak, dating back to inadequate rations
and failure to keep pledges. The Utes were not of Crook’s
department, but it was a battalion of the Third and Fifth Cavalry
and Fourth Infantry, which moved out from Rawlins, Wyoming, under
Major Thornburgh, Fourth Infantry, to save the agency and the lives
of the employees; and, after poor Thornburgh had been sacrificed, it
was Merritt’s column which made the wonderful march of one hundred
and sixty miles in two and a half days to rescue the survivors in
the “rat-hole” on Milk River.
Merritt had been preceded by a company of the Ninth Cavalry,
commanded by Captain Dodge and Lieutenant M. B. Hughes, who had
aided the beleaguered garrison to withstand the attack of the Utes
till the arrival of re-enforcements. The concentration of cars and
the clearing of obstacles from the track of the Union Pacific
Railroad imposed a great tax upon the shoulders of its principal
officials, Mr. S. H. Clark and Mr. T. L. Kimball, but they were
found equal to every demand made upon them and turned over their
track to General Williams and Colonel Ludington, the two staff
officers charged with aiding the Merritt expedition. In the
campaign, we lost Thornburgh and Weir, killed—two noble soldiers
whom the country could ill afford to lose; and had a number of men
killed and wounded and several officers badly hurt—Grimes, Paddock,
Payne, and Cherry.
A very singular thing occurred during the time that the troops were
besieged behind their feeble rifle-pits down in the hollow. One of
the first to be struck was the blacksmith of the citizen train which
had moved out from Fort Fred Steele under Lieutenant Butler D.
Price, Fourth Infantry; his corpse, without wasting ceremony, was
rolled up in place and made to do its part in supplying protection
to the soldiers; a piece of canvas was thrown over it, and in the
excitement and danger the dead man was forgotten. When Merritt’s
column arrived on the ground, the trumpeter alongside of him was
ordered to sound “Officers’ Call,” upon hearing which the invested
troops sprang upon the earthworks and gave cheer after cheer. It may
have been the noise—it may have been something else—but at any rate
there was a movement at one end of the rifle-pits, and slowly and
feebly from under the overlying clay and canvas, the dead man arose,
shook himself, put his hand wearily to his head, and asked: “My God,
what’s the matter, boys?” Then he staggered about, many of the men
afraid to touch him, or even go near him, and in a few moments was
dead in good earnest. The explanation made by Doctor Grimes was
that, in the first place, the man had been shot through the head at
the intersection or junction of the jaws just under the brain; the
shock had knocked him senseless, and the blood spurting from the
ghastly wound had led the soldiers to conclude somewhat hastily that
he was dead; the slip of canvas carelessly thrown over the body had
preserved it from being suffocated by the earth scraped against it;
the wound was so near the brain that it would have been impossible
to avoid inflammation of the latter organ, and when this set in, the
victim fell dead.
The case of the Poncas was, beyond question, the most important one
occurring within General Crook’s jurisdiction after the pacification
of the Sioux. I do not purpose entering into all its ramifications,
which would be entirely too tedious for the reader, but it may be
summed up in a nutshell. The Poncas were a small band of Siouan
stock, closely affiliated to the Omahas, who lived at the mouth of
the Niobrara, on the Missouri River. They had a reservation which,
unluckily for them, was arable and consequently coveted by the white
invader. From this they were bulldozed by officials of the
Government and transported to the Indian Territory, where malaria
and other disorders, complicated with homesickness, depleted their
numbers, and made them all anxious to return to the old land.
Application for permission to do this was refused, and thereupon a
portion of the band tried the experiment of going at their own
expense across country, walking every foot of the way, molesting
nobody, and subsisting upon charity. Not a shot was fired at any
one; not so much as a dog was stolen. The western country was at
that time filled with white tramps by thousands, whose presence
excited no comment; but the spectacle of nearly two hundred Indians
going along peaceably back to their old habitat to seek work and
earn their own bread, was too much for the equilibrium of the
authorities in Washington. One of the Indians was carrying a sack
tied by a string to his neck; it contained the bones of a beloved
grandchild—not a very heinous offence in itself, but having been
committed by a man whose skin was wrinkled and red, and whose people
had for generations been the consistent friends of the white race,
it was tantamount to felony.
To make a long story short, some people in Omaha began talking about
the peculiarities presented in this case of the Omahas, and
wondering why they had been arrested by the military authorities.
Lieutenant W. L. Carpenter, Ninth Infantry, had them under his
charge at Fort Omaha, and gave them an excellent character for
sobriety and good behavior of every kind. Public sympathy became
aroused; meetings were held, one of the first, if not the first,
being that in the Presbyterian Church, conducted by the Rev. Mr.
Harsha and Rev. Mr. Sherrill, and it was determined to bring the
matter before the United States court upon a writ of habeas corpus
to ascertain by what right these people were restrained of their
liberty. Competent lawyers were enlisted, and the case was taken up
by the Hon. A. J. Poppleton and Hon. J. L. Webster, two of the most
prominent members of the bar in Nebraska. Dr. George L. Miller, in
the _Herald_, and Mr. Edward Rosewater, in the _Bee_, and such
citizens as the late Judge Savage, Bishop O’Connor, Rev. John
Williams, and Bishop Clarkson brought much influence to bear; and by
the time that Judge Dundy’s court had convened the attention of the
people of the United States was to some extent converged upon the
trial, which was simply to determine the momentous question whether
or not an American Indian who had never been upon the war-path could
sever his tribal relations and go to work for his own living. Judge
Dundy’s decision was to the effect that he could; and the path of
citizenship was opened for the Indian.
Mrs. “Bright Eyes” Tibbles, an Omaha Indian lady of excellent
attainments and bright intellect, and her husband, Mr. J. H.
Tibbles, editor of the Omaha _Republican_, took up the cudgels, and
travelled through the Eastern and Middle States, addressing large
concourses in all the principal towns and cities, and awakening an
intelligent and potent interest in the advancement of the native
tribes which has not yet abated. President Hayes appointed a
commission, to consist of General George Crook, General Nelson A.
Miles, Messrs. Stickney and Walter Allen, and the Rev. J. Owen
Dorsey, to look into the general subject of the condition and
prospects of the Poncas; and as the result of this the members of
the band who had returned to the mouth of the Niobrara were
permitted to remain there unmolested.
To incorporate herein an account of the explorations and hunts upon
which General Crook engaged while in command of the Department of
the Platte, after the Indians had been reduced to submission, would
be tantamount to a description of the topography of the country west
of the Missouri up to and including the head-waters of the Columbia,
and north and south from the Yellowstone Park to the Grand Cañon of
the Colorado, and would swell in volume until it would include a
description of the methods of catching or killing every fish that
swam in the streams, every bird that floated in the air, and every
wild animal that made its lair or burrow within those limits. Ducks,
geese, turkeys, sage hens, prairie chickens; pike, pickerel,
catfish, trout, salmon-trout, and whitefish; elk, deer, moose,
antelope, mountain sheep; bears, wolverines, badgers, coyotes,
mountain wolves—all yielded tribute to his rod or rifle. He kept
adding to his collection of stuffed birds and eggs until there was
no man in the country who possessed a more intimate practical
knowledge of the habits of the fauna and flora of the vast region
beyond the Missouri. As he made these journeys on horse or mule
back, there was no man who could pretend to compare with him in an
acquaintance with the trails and topography of the country off from
the lines of railroad, and only one—General Sherman—who could
compare in a general knowledge of the area of the United States.
Sherman, while General of the army, was a great traveller,
constantly on the go, but nearly all of his trips were made by rail
or in stage-coach, and but few by other methods.
In company with General Sheridan, General Sackett, and General
Forsyth, General Crook travelled across the then unknown territory
between the Wind River and the Big Horn to the Tongue River, then
down to the Custer battle-field, and by steamer from the mouth of
the Little Horn to the Yellowstone, and down the Missouri to
Bismarck. In company with the Hon. Carl Schurz, then Secretary of
the Interior, he explored all the Yellowstone Park, and viewed its
wonders—the exquisite lake, the lofty precipices of the cañon, the
placid flow of the beautiful river, and its sudden plunge over the
falls into the depths below, the eruptions of the geysers, the
immense mass of waters contained in the springs, the pits of boiling
sulphur, the solid wall of forest of so many varieties of timber,
the dainty flowers, the schools of trout, the shady nooks in the
hill-sides resounding to the footfall of black-tail, elk, or bear,
the lofty cones, snow-crusted, reflecting back the rays of the
summer sun—all the beauties, oddities, and marvels which combine to
make the National Park a fairyland to dwell forever in the dreams of
those who have the good fortune to enter its precincts. With all the
cañons, passes, peaks, and trails of the Wahsatch, Uintah, Medicine
Bow, Laramie, and other ranges he was as familiar as with his
alphabet.
He was not always so prudent as he should have been while out on
these trips, and several times had very close calls for death. Once,
while shooting wild geese on one of the little tributaries of the
Platte, he was caught in a blizzard, and while trying to make his
way back to his comrades, stepped into an air-hole, and would have
been drowned had it not been for the heroic exertions of Mr. John
Collins and the late Mr. A. E. Touzalin. He had more adventures than
I can count, with bears of all kinds and with maddened, wounded
stags. Once, while hunting in the range known as the Three Tetons,
he stationed his party so as to cut off the retreat of a very large
bear which had taken refuge in a tule thicket or swamp; the enraged
animal rushed out on the side where Crook was, and made straight
towards him, mouth wide open and eyes blazing fire; Crook allowed
Bruin to come within ten feet, and then, without the quiver of a
muscle or the tremor of a nerve, fired and lodged a rifle-ball in
the back of the throat, not breaking out through the skull, but
shattering its base and severing the spinal cord. It was a beautiful
animal, and Crook was always justifiably proud of the rug.
For eight or nine years, Mr. Webb C. Hayes, of Cleveland, Ohio,
hunted with Crook, and probably knows more of his encounters with
ursine monsters than any living man, not excepting Tom Moore. Mr.
Hayes became a renowned bear-hunter himself, and is well known in
all the mountains close to the Three Tetons. In addition to being an
excellent shot, he is a graceful runner; I remember seeing him make
a half-mile dash down the side of a mountain with a bear cub at his
heels, and the concurrence of opinion of all in camp was that the
physical culture of Cornell University was a great thing. General
Crook became prominently identified with the Omaha Gun Club, which
included in its membership such crack shots as the late Major T. T.
Thornburgh (afterwards killed by the Utes), Messrs. Barriger,
Collins, Coffman, Parmlee, Patrick, Petty, and others. In all their
hunts General Crook participated, as well as in the fishing
expeditions organized by such inveterate anglers as T. L. Kimball,
Frank Moores and the late Judge Carter, of Wyoming, whose home at
Fort Bridger offered every comfort to his friends that could be
found in a great city.
Carter was a man of means and the most hospitable, generous
instincts. He was never content unless his house was filled with
guests, for whom nothing was too good, provided they humored his
whimsical notion that a certain patent medicine, called “The Balm of
Life,” was a panacea for every ill. Judge Carter had entered the far
western country near Fort Bridger with the expedition sent out to
Utah under General Albert Sydney Johnston, although I am not
absolutely sure as to the exact time, and had remained and
accumulated means, principally from the increase of his herds, which
might truly have been styled the cattle upon a thousand hills. The
last time I saw this grand-looking old patriarch was at a very
substantial breakfast, served in his own princely style, where the
venison, mountain mutton, and broiled trout would have evoked praise
from Lucullus, but after which—much as the Egyptians introduced
images of mummies at their banquets—Ludington, Bisbee, Stanton,
McEldree, and I had to face the ordeal of being dosed with the “Balm
of Life,” which came near being the Balm of Death for some of us.
In the great riots of 1877, and again in 1882, Crook’s energies
were severely taxed for the protection of the Government property
along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, but he performed the
duty to the satisfaction of all classes. The handsome, stately,
soldierly figure of the late General John H. King, Colonel of the
Ninth Infantry, rises up in my memory in this connection. He
rendered most valuable and efficient service during the periods in
question. Similarly, in running down and scattering the robber
bands of Doctor Middleton, and other horse-thieves in the Loup
country, in northwestern Nebraska, the intelligent work performed
by General Crook, Captain Munson, and Lieutenant Capron was well
understood and gratefully recognized by all who were acquainted
with it. Nebraska had reason to feel indebted for the destruction
of one of the most desperate gangs, led by a leader of unusual
nerve and intelligence—the celebrated “Doc.” Middleton, who was
wounded and captured by Deputy United States Marshal Llewellyn.