of Lieutenant E. W. Casey of the Twenty-second infantry by Plenty
Horses, a young Brulé, on January 7. Lieutenant Casey was in command
of a troop of Cheyenne scouts, and was stationed at the mouth of White
Clay creek, charged with the special duty of watching the hostile camp,
which was located 8 miles farther up the creek at No Water’s place.
On the day before his death several of the hostiles had visited him
and held a friendly conference. The next morning, in company with two
scouts, he went out avowedly for the purpose of observing the hostile
camp more closely. He rode up to within a short distance of the camp,
meeting and talking with several of the Indians on the way, and had
stopped to talk with a half-blood relative of Red Cloud, when Plenty
Horses, a short distance away, deliberately shot him through the
head, and he fell from his horse dead. His body was not disturbed by
the Indians, but was brought in by some of the Cheyenne scouts soon
after. Plenty Horses was arraigned before a United States court, but
was acquitted on the ground that as the Sioux were then at war and the
officer was practically a spy upon the Indian camp, the act was not
murder in the legal sense of the word. Lieutenant Casey had been for a
year in charge of the Cheyenne scouts and had taken great interest in
their welfare and proficiency, and his death was greatly deplored by
the Indians as the insane act of a boy overcome by the excitement of
the times. (_War, 24; Comr., 39; Colby, 10; G. D., 46._)
On January 11 an unprovoked murder was committed on a small party of
peaceable Indians on Belle Fourche, or North fork of Cheyenne river,
by which the Indians who had come in to surrender were once more
thrown into such alarm that for a time it seemed as if serious trouble
might result. A party of Ogalala from Pine Ridge, consisting of Few
Tails, a kindly, peaceable old man, with his wife, an old woman, and
One Feather, with his wife and two children—one a girl about 13 years
of age and the other an infant—had been hunting in the Black Hills
under a pass from the agency. They had had a successful hunt, and were
returning with their two wagons well loaded with meat, when they camped
for the night at the mouth of Alkali creek. During the evening they
were visited by some soldiers stopping at a ranch a few miles distant,
who examined their pass and pronounced it all right. In the morning,
after breakfast, the Indians started on again toward the agency, but
had gone only a few hundred yards when they were fired upon by a party
of white men concealed near the road. The leaders of the whites were
three brothers named Culbertson, one of whom had but recently returned
from the penitentiary. One of the murderers had visited the Indians in
their camp the night before, and even that very morning. At the first
fire Few Tails was killed, together with both ponies attached to the
wagon. His wife jumped out and received two bullets, which brought her
to the ground. The murderers rode past her, however, to get at the
other Indian, who was coming up behind in the other wagon with his wife
and two children. As soon as he saw his companion killed, One Feather
turned his wagon in the other direction, and, telling his wife, who had
also been shot, to drive on as fast as she could to save the children,
he jumped upon one of the spare ponies and held off the murderers
until his family had had time to make some distance. He then turned
and joined his family and drove on for some 8 or 10 miles until the
pursuers came up again, when he again turned and fought them off, while
his wife went ahead with the wagon and the children. The wounded woman
bravely drove on, while the two little children lay down in the wagon
with their heads covered up in the blankets. As they drove they passed
near a house, from which several other shots were fired at the flying
mother, when her husband again rode up and kept off the whole party
until the wagon could get ahead. Finally, as the ponies were tired out,
this heroic man abandoned the wagon and put the two children on one
of the spare ponies and his wounded wife and himself upon another and
continued to retreat until the whites gave up the pursuit. He finally
reached the agency with the wife and children.
The wife of Few Tails, after falling wounded by two bullets beside
the wagon in which was her dead husband, lay helpless and probably
unconscious upon the ground through all the long winter night until
morning, when she revived, and finding one of the horses still alive,
mounted it and managed by night to reach a settler’s house about 15
miles away. Instead of meeting help and sympathy, however, she was
driven off by the two men there with loaded rifles, and leaving her
horse in her fright, she hurried away as well as she could with a
bullet in her leg and another in her breast, passing by the trail of
One Feather’s wagon with the tracks of his pursuers fresh behind it,
until she came near a trader’s store about 20 miles farther south.
Afraid to go near it on account of her last experience, the poor woman
circled around it, and continued, wounded, cold, and starving as she
was, to travel by night and hide by day until she reached the Bad
Lands. The rest may be told in her own words:
After that I traveled every night, resting daytime, until I got
here at the beef corral. Then I was very tired, and was near the
military camp, and early in the morning a soldier came out and he
shouted something back, and in a few minutes fifty men were there,
and they got a blanket and took me to a tent. I had no blanket and
my feet were swelled, and I was about ready to die. After I got to
the tent a doctor came in—a soldier doctor, because he had straps
on his shoulders—and washed me and treated me well.
A few of the soldiers camped near the scene of the attack had joined
in the pursuit at the beginning, on the representations of some of
the murderers, but abandoned it as soon as they found their mistake.
According to all the testimony, the killing was a wanton, unprovoked,
and deliberate murder, yet the criminals were acquitted in the local
courts. The apathy displayed by the authorities of Meade county,
South Dakota, in which the murder was committed, called forth some
vigorous protests. Colonel Shafter, in his statement of the case,
concludes, referring to the recent killing of Lieutenant Casey: “So
long as Indians are being arrested and held for killing armed men
under conditions of war, it seems to me that the white murderers
of a part of a band of peaceful Indians should not be permitted to
escape punishment.” The Indians took the same view of the case, and
when General Miles demanded of Young-man-afraid-of-his-horses the
surrender of the slayers of Casey and the herder Miller, the old chief
indignantly replied: “No; I will not surrender them, but if you will
bring the white men who killed Few Tails, I will bring the Indians who
killed the white soldier and the herder; and right out here in front of
your tipi I will have my young men shoot the Indians and you have your
soldiers shoot the white men, and then we will be done with the whole
business.”
In regard to the heroic conduct of One Feather, the officer then in
charge of the agency says: “The determination and genuine courage, as
well as the generalship he manifested in keeping at a distance the
six men who were pursuing him, and the devotion he showed toward his
family, risking his life against great odds, designate him as entitled
to a place on the list of heroes.” (_War, 25; Comr., 40; G. D., 47._)
On the recommendation of General Miles, a large delegation of the
principal leaders of both friendly and hostile parties among the Sioux
was allowed to visit Washington in February, 1891, to present their
grievances and suggest remedies for dissatisfaction in the future.
Among the principal speakers were: From Pine Ridge, American Horse,
Captain George Sword, Big Road, and He Dog; from Rosebud, White Bird
and Turning Hawk; from Cheyenne River, Little No Heart and Straight
Head; from Standing Rock, John Grass and Mad Bear. The interpreters
were Reverend C. S. Cook, David Zephier, Louis Primeau, Louis Richard,
Clarence Three Stars, and Louis Shangreau. Their visit was eminently
satisfactory and resulted in the inauguration of a more efficient
administration of Sioux affairs for the future. Steps were taken to
reimburse those whose ponies had been confiscated at the time of
the Custer war in 1876, and additional appropriations were made for
rations, so that before the end of the year the Indians were receiving
half as much more as before the outbreak. (_War, 26._) On returning to
their homes the Indians of the various Sioux agencies went to work in
good faith putting in their crops and caring for their stock, and in a
short time all further apprehension was at an end.
The discussion of Indian affairs in connection with the outbreak led
to the passage by Congress of a bill which enacted that all future
vacancies in the office of Indian agent should be filled by military
officers selected by the Indian office and detailed for the purpose
from the army. At the same time a plan was originated to enlist Indians
as a component part of the regular army. Small parties from various
tribes had long been attached to various posts and commands in an
irregular capacity as scouts. These bodies of scouts were now reduced
in number or disbanded altogether, and in their stead were organized
Indian troops or companies to be regularly attached to the different
cavalry or infantry regiments. In the spring of 1891 officers were sent
out to various western reservations, and succeeded in thus recruiting a
number of regular troops from among the most warlike of the tribes, a
considerable part of these coming from the late hostile Sioux.
Although the campaign lasted only about a month the destruction of life
was great, for an Indian war, and the money loss to the government and
to individuals was something enormous. Three officers and 28 privates
were killed or mortally wounded during the campaign, and 4 officers
and 38 privates were less seriously wounded, several of these dying
later on. (_War, 27._) The Indian loss can not be stated exactly. In
the arrest of Sitting Bull there were killed or mortally wounded 8
of Sitting Bull’s party and 6 police, a total of 14. Those killed in
the Wounded Knee fight, or who afterward died of wounds or exposure,
numbered, according to the best estimates, at least 250. Those
afterward killed in the various small skirmishes, including the Few
Tails affair, may have numbered 20 or 30. In all, the campaign cost the
lives of 49 whites and others on the government side and about 300 or
more Indians.
The direct or incidental expenses of the campaign were as follows:
Expenses of the Department of Justice for defending Plenty Horses
and prosecuting the murderers of Few Tails, unknown; appropriation
by Congress to reimburse Nebraska national guard for expense of
service during the campaign, $43,000; paid out under act of Congress
to reimburse friendly Indians and other legal residents on the
reservations for property destroyed by hostiles, $97,646.85 (_Comr.,
41_); extra expense of Commissary department of the army, $37,764.69;
extra expense of the Medical department of the army, $1,164, besides
extra supplies purchased by individuals; extra expenses of Ordnance
department of the army, for ammunition, not accounted for; total
extra expense of Quartermaster’s department of the army, $915,078.81,
including $120,634.17 for transportation of troops over bonded
railroads. (_A. G. O., 8._) The total expense, public or private, was
probably but little short of $1,200,000, or nearly $40,000 per day, a
significant commentary on the bad policy of breaking faith with Indians.
According to the report of the agency farmer sent out after the trouble
to learn the extent of property of the friendly Indians destroyed
by the hostiles on Pine Ridge agency, there were burned 53 Indian
dwellings, 1 church, 2 schoolhouses, and a bridge, all on White Clay
creek, while nearly every remaining house along the creek had the
windows broken out. A great deal of farming machinery and nearly
all of the hay were burned, while stoves were broken to pieces and
stock killed. A few of the friendly Indians had been so overcome by
the excitement that they had burned their own houses and run their
machinery down high hills into the river, where it was found frozen in
the ice several months later. (_G. D., 48._)
In view of the fact that only one noncombatant was killed and no
depredations were committed off the reservation, the panic among the
frontier settlers of both Dakotas, Nebraska, and Iowa was something
ludicrous. The inhabitants worked themselves into such a high panic
that ranches and even whole villages were temporarily abandoned and the
people flocked into the railroad cities with vivid stories of murder,
scalping, and desolation that had no foundation whatever in fact. A
reliable authority who was on the ground shortly after the scare had
subsided gives this characteristic instance among others:
In another city, a place of 3,000 inhabitants, 75 miles from any
Indians and 150 miles from any hostiles, word came about 2 o’clock
Sunday morning for the militia to be in readiness. The company
promptly assembled, were instructed and drilled. In an evening
church service one of the pastors broke out in prayer: “O Lord,
prepare us for what awaits us. We have just been listening to the
sweet sounds of praise, but ere the morning sun we may hear the war
whoop of the red man.” The effect on children and nervous persons
may be imagined. The legislature was in session and the impression
upon that body was such as to lead it to make an appropriation for
the benefit of the state militia at the expense of one to the state
agricultural fair. (_Comr., 42._)
The crisis produced the usual crop of patriots, all ready to serve
their country—usually for a consideration. Among these was a lady of
Utica, New York, claiming to be of the renowned Iroquois blood, and
styling herself the “Doctor Princess Viroqua,” who, with her sister
“Wynima,” wrote to the Indian Office for a commission to go out to try
the effect of moral suasion on the belligerent Sioux, representing
that by virtue of her descent from a long line of aboriginal princes
she would be welcomed with enthusiasm and accomplish her mission of
peace. (_G. D., 49._) As a matter of fact, neither of the names Viroqua
or Wynima could be pronounced by a genuine Iroquois knowing only his
own tongue, and the second one, Wynima, is borrowed from Meacham’s
sensational history of the Modoc war in California.
The proprietor of a “wild west” show in New York, signing himself Texas
Ben, wrote also volunteering his services and submitting as credentials
his museum letter-head, stating that he had served with Quantrell, and
had the written indorsement of Cole Younger. An old veteran of the Iowa
soldiers’ home wrote to Secretary Noble, with a redundance of capitals
and much bad spelling, offering his help against the hostiles, saying
that he had been “RAZeD” among them and could “ToLK The TUN” and was
ready to “Do eneThin FoR mY CuntRY.” (_G. D., 50._)
A band of patriots in Minnesota, whose early education appears to
have been somewhat neglected, wrote to the Secretary of the Interior
offering to organize a company of 50 men to put down the outbreak,
provided the government would look after a few items which they
enumerated: “The government to Furnish us with Two good Horses Each a
good Winchester Rifle, Two good Cotes Revolvers and give us $300.00
Bounty and say a Salary of Fifty Per Month, Each and our own judgment
and we will settel this Indian question For Ever, and Rations and
Ammunition. We Should Have in addition to this say Five dollars a
Head.” (_G. D., 51._)
A man named Albert Hopkins appeared at Pine Ridge in December, 1890,
wearing a blanket and claiming to be the Indian messiah, and announced
his intention of going alone into the Bad Lands to the Indians, who
were expecting his arrival, with the “Pansy Banner of Peace.” His
claims were ridiculed by Red Cloud and others, and he was promptly
arrested and put off the reservation. However, he was not dead, but
only sleeping, and on March, 1893, having come to Washington, he
addressed an urgent letter to Secretary Noble requesting official
authority to visit the Sioux reservations and to preach to the Indians,
stating that “with the help of the Pansy and its motto and manifest
teaching, ‘Union, Culture, and Peace,’ and the star-pansy banner, of
which I inclose an illustration, I hope to establish the permanent
peace of the border.” He signs himself “Albert C. Hopkins, Pres. Pro.
tem. The Pansy Society of America.”
The letter was referred to the Indian Office, which refused permission.
This brought a reply from Hopkins, who this time signs himself “The
Indian Messiah,” in which he states that as the Indians were expecting
the messiah in the spring, “in accordance with the prophecy of Sitting
Bull,” it was necessary that he should go to them at once, so that they
might “accept the teaching of the pansy and its motto, which now they
only partially or very doubtfully accept.”
Receiving no answer, he wrote again about the end of March, both to the
Secretary and to the Indian Commissioner, stating that messiahs, being
human, were subject to human limitations, of which fact the Indians
were well aware, but warning these officials that if these limitations
were set by the government it would be held responsible for his
nonappearance to the Indians, as he had promised, “before the native
pansies blossom on the prairies.” He ends by stating that he would
leave on Easter Sunday for the Sioux country, but as nothing was heard
of him later, it is presumed that he succumbed to the limitations. (_G.
D., 52._)
* * * * *
The first direct knowledge of the messiah and the Ghost dance came to
the northern Arapaho in Wyoming, through Nakash, “Sage,” who, with
several Shoshoni, visited the messiah in the early spring of 1889, and
on his return brought back to his people the first songs of the dance,
these being probably some of the original Paiute songs of the messiah
himself. The Ghost dance was at once inaugurated among the Shoshoni and
northern Arapaho. In the summer of the same year the first rumors of
the new redeemer reached the southern Arapaho and Cheyenne in Oklahoma,
through the medium of letters written by returned pupils of eastern
government schools.
Fresh reports of wonderful things beyond the mountains were constantly
coming to the northern prairie tribes, and the excitement grew until
the close of the year 1889, when a large delegation, including Sioux,
northern Cheyenne, and northern Arapaho, crossed the mountains to
the Paiute country to see and talk with the messiah. Among the
Sioux delegates were Short Bull, Fire Thunder, and Kicking Bear, as
already stated. Among the Cheyenne were Porcupine and several others,
including one woman. The Arapaho representatives were Sitting Bull
(Hänä′chä-thi′ăk) and Friday. The delegates from the different tribes
met at Wind River reservation, in Wyoming, which they left about
Christmas, and after stopping a short time among the Bannock and
Shoshoni at Fort Hall, went on to Walker lake, in Nevada. They were
gone some time and returned to Wyoming in March of 1890, the Sioux and
Cheyenne continuing on to their homes farther east. According to the
statement of Nakash they had a five days’ conference with the messiah,
who at one time went into a trance, but his visitors did not.
Before their return the southern Arapaho, in Oklahoma, had sent up
Wa′tän-ga′a, “Black Coyote,” an officer of the Indian police, and
Washee, a scout at Fort Reno, to their relatives in Wyoming to learn
definitely as to the truth or falsity of the rumors. Washee went on
to Fort Hall, where his faith failed him, and he came back with the
report that the messiah was only a half-blood. This was not correct,
but Washee himself afterward acknowledged that he had based his report
on hearsay. Black Coyote remained until the other delegates returned
from the Paiute country with the announcement that all that had been
said of the messiah and the advent of a new earth was true. He listened
eagerly to all they had to tell, took part with the rest in the dance,
learned the songs, and returned in April, 1890, and inaugurated the
first Ghost dance in the south among the Arapaho.
[Illustration: PL. CIII
ARAPAHO GHOST SHIRT SHOWING COLORING]
The Cheyenne, being skeptical by nature, were unwilling to trust
entirely to the report of Black Coyote and so sent up two delegates
of their own, Little Chief and Bark, to investigate the story in the
north. Somewhat later White Shield, another Cheyenne, went up alone on
the same errand. Their report being favorable, the Cheyenne also took
up the Ghost dance in the summer of 1890. They never went into it with
the same fervor, however, and although they had their separate dance
with songs in their own language, they more commonly danced together
with the Arapaho and sang with them the Arapaho songs. For several
years the old Indian dances had been nearly obsolete with these tribes,
but as the new religion meant a revival of the Indian idea they soon
became common again, with the exception of the war dance and others of
that kind which were strictly prohibited by the messiah.
From this time the Ghost dance grew in fervor and frequency among the
Arapaho and Cheyenne. In almost every camp the dance would be held two
or three times a week, beginning about sunset and often continuing
until daylight. The excitement reached fever heat in September, 1890,
when Sitting Bull came down from the northern Arapaho to instruct the
southern tribes in the doctrine and ceremony.
At a great Ghost dance held on South Canadian river, about 2 miles
below the agency at Darlington, Oklahoma, it was estimated that 3,000
Indians were present, including nearly all of the Arapaho and Cheyenne,
with a number of Caddo, Wichita, Kiowa, and others. The first trances
of the Ghost dance among the southern tribes occurred at this time
through the medium of Sitting Bull. One informant states that a leader
named Howling Bull had produced trances at a dance on the Washita some
time before, but the statement lacks confirmation.
As Sitting Bull was the great apostle of the Ghost dance among the
southern tribes, being regarded almost in the same light as the messiah
himself, he merits special notice. He is now about 42 years of age
and at the beginning of his apostleship in 1890 was but 36. He is a
full-blood Arapaho, although rather light in complexion and color of
eyes, and speaks only his native language, but converses with ease in
the universal sign language of the plains. It was chiefly by means of
this sign language that he instructed his disciples among the Caddo,
Wichita, and Kiowa. He is about 5 feet 8 inches tall, dignified but
plain in his bearing, and with a particularly winning smile. His power
over those with whom he comes in contact is evident from the report
of Lieutenant (now Captain) Scott, who had been ordered by the War
Department to investigate the Ghost dance, and who for weeks had been
denouncing him as a humbug, but who, on finally meeting him for the
first time, declares that the opinion formed before seeing him began to
change in his favor almost immediately. (_G. D., 53._) In conversation
with the author Sitting Bull stated that he was originally a southern
Arapaho, but went up to live with the northern branch of the tribe, in
Wyoming, about 1876. When a boy in the south he was known as Bítäye,
“Captor,” but on reaching manhood his name was changed, in conformity
with a common Indian custom, to Hänä′chä-thi′ăk, “Sitting Bull.” On
returning to the south, after having visited the messiah, he found his
brother known under the same name, and to avoid confusion the brother
then adopted the name of Scabby Bull, by which he is now known. It
should be mentioned that an Indian “brother” may be only a cousin, as
no distinction is made in the Indian system. On removing to the south
he fixed his abode near Cantonment, Oklahoma, where he now resides.
[Illustration: +Fig. 83+—Sitting Bull the Arapaho apostle.]
With regard to the reverence in which he was held by his disciples at
this time, and of his own sincerity, Captain Scott says: