pers would then come up with ox teams, take off the hides, put them in the wagons, and transport them to the nearest railroad station, whence they were shipped to market. At one station alone on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad as many as 750,000 hides were shipped in one year. After taking the hide off the buffalo, the carcass would be poisoned in many cases, some yearling buffalo being generally selected, and next morning there might be found forty or fifty dead wolves lying scattered around, victims of the strychnine. In this way the large game was rapidly destroyed, together with countless numbers of wolves that had thrived only by preying upon them. This might seem like cruelty and wasteful extravagance, but the buffalo, like the Indian, stood in the way of civilization and in the path of progress, and the decree had gone forth that they must both give way. It was impossible to herd domestic stock in a country where they were constantly liable to be stampeded by the moving herds of wild animals. The same territory which a quarter of a century ago was supporting those vast herds of wild game, is now covered with domestic animals which afford the food supply for hundreds of millions of people in civilized countries. CHAPTER IX. THE INDIAN DURING THE CIVIL WAR. INDIAN UPRISING IN MINNESOTA CAUSES LEADING THERETO GOVERNOR RAMSEY'S INDIAN COUNRED IRON - LEAN BEAR THE CHIVINGTON MASSACRE GENERAL DODGE'S INDIAN CAMPAIGNS - THE BENT Boys - MAJOR NORTH DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS GENERAL CONNOR BATTLE OF THE TONGUE RIVER -THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE. RGENT need of practically withdrawing the troops from the frontier, forced upon the government by the exigencies of the Civil War and the continuance of that contest for four years, gave the Indians encouragement as well as opportunity to acquire firearms and munitions of war which they would not otherwise have been able to obtain. The disastrous results were soon felt all along the frontier, especially in the Northwest, where occurred what is known as the "Minnesota Massacre of 1862," and in the Southwest, particularly in Arizona and New Mexico; and it became speedily apparent that whatever the pressure at the front, large bodies of volunteer troops must be located and maintained in the Indian country, sufficient to overawe the hostile tribes and keep them in subjection. The Indian uprising in Minnesota in the year 1862, like many others, was that of a people quiet and semi-civilized, to avenge real or imaginary wrongs. They suddenly rose and fell upon the unprotected settlements and destroyed upward of a thousand people-men, women and children. As speedily as possible a large force of troops was thrown against the hostiles, under the command of General Sibley, who conducted an energetic and successful campaign, resulting in the subjugation of such portions of the Sioux Indians as did not escape across the border into Canadian territory. The following extract from "Heard's History of the Sioux War" will exhibit some of the causes leading finally to that outbreak. The council referred to in the extract was held in November, 1852, and was of great importance, as bearing upon subsequent events. "The room was crowded with Indians and white men when Red Iron was brought in guarded by soldiers. He was about forty years old, tall and athletic; about six feet in his moccasins, with a large, well-developed head, aquiline nose, thin compressed lips, and physiognomy beaming with intelligence and resolution. He was clad in the half-military, half-Indian costume of the Dakota chiefs. He was seated in the council-room without greeting or salutation from any one. In a few minutes the governor, turning to the chief in the midst of a breathless silence, by the aid of an interpreter opened the council. "GOVERNOR RAMSEY asked: 'What excuse have you for not coming to the council when I sent for you ?' "The chief rose to his feet with native grace and dignity, his blanket falling from his shoulders, and purposely dropping the pipe of peace he stood erect before the governor with his arms folded, and his right hand pressed on the sheath of his scalping knife. With firm voice he replied: 'I started to come, but your braves drove me back.'· "GOVERNOR RAMSEY: 66 GOVERNOR RAMSEY: What excuse have you for not coming the second time I "RED IRON : 'No other excuse than I have given you.' 6 At the treaty I thought you a good man, but since you have acted badly, I am disposed to break 6 I "GOVERNOR RAMSEY: Why did you get your braves together and march around here for the purpose of intimidating other chiefs, and prevent their coming to the council?' 66 "RED IRON: I did not get my braves together, they got together themselves to prevent boys going to council to be made chiefs to sign papers, and to prevent single chiefs going to council at night, to be bribed to sign papers for money we have never got. We have heard how the Medewakantons were served at Mendota; that by secret councils you got their names on paper, and took away their money. We don't want to be served so. My braves wanted to come to council in the daytime, when the sun shines, and we want no councils in the dark. We want all our people to go to council together, so that we can all know what is done.' "GOVERNOR RAMSEY: 6 Why did you attempt to come to council with your braves, when I had forbidden your braves coming to council?' RED IRON : You invited the chiefs only, and would not let the braves come too. This is not the way we have been treated before, and this is not according to our customs; for among Dakotas, chiefs and braves go to council together. When you first sent for us there were two or three chiefs here, and we wanted to wait till the rest would come, that we might all be in council together and know what was done, and so that we might all understand the papers, and know what we were signing. When we signed the treaty the traders threw a blanket over our faces and darkened our eyes, and made us sign papers which we did not understand, and which were not explained or read to us. We want our Great Father at Washington to know what has been done.' "GOVERNOR RAMSEY: Your Great Father has sent me to represent him, and what say is what he says. He wants you to pay your old debts in accordance with the paper you signed when the treaty was made, and to leave that money in my hands to pay these debts. If you refuse to do this I will take the money back.' 66 RED IRON: You can take the money back. We sold our land to you, and you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the money I will be glad, and all our people will be glad, for we will have our land back if you don't give us the money. That paper was not interpreted or explained to us. We are told it gives about 300 boxes ($300,000) of our money to some of the traders. We don't think we owe them so much. We want to pay all our debts. We want our Great Father to send three good men here to tell us how much we do owe, and whatever they say we will pay; and that's what all these braves say. Our chiefs and all our people say this.' All the Indians present responded, 'Ho! ho!' "GOVERNOR RAMSEY: That can't be done. You owe more than your money will pay, and I am ready now to pay your annuity, and no more; and when you are ready to receive it the agent will pay you. "RED IRON : We will receive our annuity, but we will sign no papers for anything else. The snow is on the ground, and we have been waiting a long time to get our money. We are poor; you have plenty. Your fires are warm. Your tepees keep out the cold. We have nothing to eat. We have been waiting a long time for our moneys. Our hunting season is past. A great many of our people are sick for being hungry. We may die because you won't pay us. We may die, but if we do we will leave our bones on the ground, that our Great Father may see where his Dakota children died. We are very poor. We have sold our hunting-grounds and the graves of our fathers. We have sold our own graves. We have no place to bury our dead, and you will not pay us the money for our lands.' "The council was broken up, and Red Iron was sent to the guardhouse, where he was kept till the next day. Between thirty and forty of the braves of Red Iron's band were present during this arraignment before the governor. When he was led away they departed in sullen silence, headed by Lean Bear, to a spot a quarter of a mile from the council-house, where they uttered a succession of yells; the gathering signal of the Dakotas. Ere the echoes died away Indians were hurrying from their tepees toward them, prepared for battle. They proceeded to the eminence near the camp, where mouldered the bones of many warriors. It was the memorable battle-ground where their ancestors had fought, in a conflict like Waterloo, the warlike Sacs and Foxes, thereby preserving their lands and nationality. Upon this field stood two hundred resolute warriors ready to do battle for their hereditary chief. Lean Bear, the principal brave of Red Iron's band, was a large, resolute man, about thirty-five years of age, and had great influence in his nation. "Here, on their old battle-ground, Lean Bear recounted the brave deeds of Red Iron, the long list of wrongs inflicted on the Indians by the white men, and proposed to the braves that they should make a general attack on the whites. By the influence of some of the half-breeds, and of white men who were known to be friendly to them, Lean Bear was induced to abandon his scheme, and finally the tribe, being starving, consented to give up their lands and accept the sum of money offered to them. "Over $55,000 of this treaty money, paid for debts of the Indians, went to one Hugh Tyler, a stranger in the country, 'for getting the treaty through the Senate, and for necessary disbursements in securing the assent of the chiefs.' "Five years later another trader, under the pretence that he was going to get back for them some of this stolen money, obtained their signature to vouchers, by means of which he cheated them out of $12,000 more. At this same time he obtained a payment of $4,500 for goods he said they had stolen from him. Another man was allowed a claim of $5,000 for horses he said they had stolen from him. "In 1858 the chiefs were taken to Washington, and agreed to the treaties for the cession of all their reservation north of the Minnesota River, under which, as ratified by the Senate, they were to have $166,000; but of this amount they never received one penny till four years afterward, when $15,000 in goods were sent to the Lower Sioux, and these were deducted out of what was due them under former treaties." The Red Iron mentioned above was a man of great sagacity and of the highest personal character. He opposed with all his influence, and at the risk of his life, the outbreak of 1862, but the current against him was too strong. The Sand Creek massacre is perhaps the foulest and most unjustifiable crime in the annals of America. It was planned by and executed under the personal direction of J. M. Chivington, Colonel of the First Colorado Cavalry, on the 27th of November, 1864, at a point in Colorado about forty miles from Fort Lyon. The details of the massacre are too revolting to be enumerated and I dismiss the matter with the statement, for the benefit of those who would care to look into the details, that three letters from Helen Hunt Jackson appeared in the New York Tribune, January 31, February 22, and February 28, 1880, reviewing the official testimony and presenting such facts therefrom as could be LEAN BEAR ROUSING THE INDIANS. Indian Peace Commission of 1868, alluding to the Sand Creek massacre, or the Chivington massacre as it is more generally known, the statement is deliberately made that: "It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. Fleeing women, holding up their hands and praying for mercy, were shot down; infants were killed and scalped in derision; men were tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to shame the savages of interior Africa. No one will be astonished that a war ensued, which cost the government $30,000,000, and carried conflagration and death into the border settlements. During the spring and summer of 1865 no less |