The Indians' Last Fight Part 15

As the Northern Cheyenne Indians who were at Fort Reno, I. T., have left there and are trying to make their way back north, the Department Commander desires to know if you think it advisable for the Indians under your charge to continue their journey south at present. Is there any liklihood of their trying to join those who have left Fort Reno?

Where do you think those who have left Fort Reno will try to cross the Union Pacific Railroad? Telegraph reply to this and any other information or opinion regarding movements of those from Fort Reno which may be useful. By command,

GEN. CROOK.

(Signed.) R. WILLIAMS, a.s.s't Adjut. General.

Major Mauck took charge of the escort under Ben Clark at Sidney Barracks.

Things went along according to the usual routine until they reached the vicinity of the Red Cloud agency. The close proximity of that agency to the present position of the prisoners of war, no doubt, had some influence on the Little Chief band, as they used to belong to that section of the territory. At this place, Iron Shirt and Black Wolf, chiefs of no mean repute, decided that they would go no further. They declared that they preferred to go to the Red Cloud agency and did not want to go any further south. For a time it seemed as if there was going to be some difficulty in getting the expedition under way again as Iron Shirt, in particular, who was looked upon as a military genius by his followers, was quite determined in his att.i.tude against any further advance towards Reno.

However, the matter was promptly adjusted by the commanding officer, by the use of a little diplomacy, as he explained matters to them through the interpreter and put the affair in such a light that it seemed satisfactory to all concerned. The Indians had been rather loathe to leave Fort Abraham Lincoln and would in all probably openly resisted were it not for an agreement made between them and General P. H. Sheridan wherein he promised them good locations, plenty of rations, good hunting on the North Canadian, and besides, gave them permission to retain their firearms as there was an abundance of game in the land to which they were going. The reader will discover later on how this agreement was respected by the war department.

The expedition journeyed along from Sidney Barracks under command of Major Mauck, via Fort Wallace, Fort Dodge, and Camp Supply, without any interruption of any importance, though it was a very tickelish situation all the way as they knew not at what time or place they might encounter the Dull Knife band. It took all the wariness of Ben Clark to keep the band out of all possibility of meeting their kinsmen who were then on the warpath. That he did it successfully, is to his credit, and for it he deserves the highest commendation of not only those immediately concerned with the expedition, but of the country at large, for if those two bands of Cheyennes united, there would have ensued another ma.s.sacre appaling in its execution.

Little Chief and his band escorted by four troops of the fourth cavalry under Major Mauck arrived at Camp Supply, I. T., in December, 1878, after a few days' rest started for Fort Reno, the first day's march brought them to the junction of Wolf and Beaver Creek, forming the North Fork Canadian River, where the command camped, the next morning in the midst of a heavy snow storm Major Mauck came to Lieutenant Creel's tent about five o'clock with a telegraphic order from General Pope commanding department of Missouri directing him to disarm and dismount the Northern Cheyennes in his charge and en route for Fort Reno, as the interior department at the instigation of the Indian office refused to allow the Indians to enter the Territory unless this was done--this was done to prevent a repet.i.tion of the Dull Knife raid of that year. General Pope being entirely ignorant of the promises made by General Sheridan to these Indians that they should retain their arms and ammunition and he had called their attention to the excellent hunting in the Indian Territory. Now on this morning the Indians expected to start out on a great hunt and had asked Lieutenant Creel to go with them, but immediately after reveille and breakfast were confronted with the four troops of the Fourth Cavalry mounted and asked to deliver up their arms and ponies. Lieutenant Creel told Major Mauck of the promises made the Indians by General Sheridan and pointed to the interpretation that would be placed upon such treatment and asked Major Mauck if he could not defer action until they could get into communication with General Sheridan, Division commander, but due to poor means of communication Major Mauck was afraid to a.s.sume the responsibility. Later when General Sheridan learned of this action on request of the Indian office, it is needless to say he was much incensed and it was due to this fact that he in a short time affected the transfer of all Northern Cheyennes in this band who desired, to return to their old hunting grounds in Montana.

On the arrival of the expedition at Camp Supply, they were confronted with a dispatch from the war department through General Pope, demanding the immediate disarmament of the Indians. When the order was made known to Little Chief, he at once objected to its enforcement, and with his band, stood with arms drawn and ready to rebel against such open violation of their treaty with General Sheridan.

The Indians when asked to surrender their arms and ponies refused, and formed in battle line in semicircular formation, the women and children in the center. Iron Shirt exhorting them to die fighting for their rights, telling them that they had been lied to long enough, during this time had one gun gone off, it would have been the commencement of a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre of women and children. All the women and children that could crowd into Lieutenant Creel's two tents, thinking that when the firing commenced they would be immune. Until eleven o'clock the Indians maintained a bold and relenting att.i.tude, their guns in hand, they stood immovable not yielding one inch; during this tense interval when any moment one shot would have precipitated a b.l.o.o.d.y fight, Lieutenant Creel remained with the Indians in their midst, walking quietly up and down their line urging carefulness and pleading for the lives of their women and children until they finally surrendered. The Northern Cheyennes as Little Wolf said at Washington in the winter of 1913, had made him an adopted member of their tribe, and the history of the Cheyenne nation or people would not be complete without his name in it, that no white man, an officer in the gallant Seventh Cavalry had when death was near, stood with the Indians in their midst, and on their side as he had done, every other white man had left the Indian camp including William Roland, a half-breed Cheyenne interpreter for these Indians, saying there was going to be a ma.s.sacre.

It was certainly a very trying situation. There was not a man of the whole command who did not admit the justice of the Indian Chief's refusal to turn over the arms which he had been promised to be allowed to keep as he would need them in his new location for the purpose of killing game. The cavalry were ordered to mount and enforce the unjust order. At this point there occured one of those little incidents that oftentimes raises a man above his fellows and marks him for all time as one to whom the regard for justice is paramount above all things, even life itself.

The troops had mounted and were holding themselves in readiness for further orders, when H. M. Creel, second lieutenant of K troop, indignant at the injustice of the order, went to the Indians and urged them to refrain from bringing on an engagement which would prove disasterous to themselves and cause a ma.s.sacre of their women and children. As the lieutenant could speak the Cheyenne tongue fluently, and was familiar with the customs and habits of the tribe, he received a hearing that was respectful. He succeeded in bringing about a conciliation by becoming personally responsible for their firearms and anything else which they might have that was considered contraband of war. By his course of action in the matter, he at once won the undying grat.i.tude of the Cheyennes, which endures to this day, and will continue to do so as long as the traditions of the Cheyenne are handed down to posterity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BEN CLARK

Gen. P. H. Sheridan's Chief of Scouts]

The trouble being averted, the escort started on its way again, Ben Clark guiding them down the river. But the danger was not yet past. General Pope insisted on the order being carried out in spite of the fact that justice and decency forbade it. However, he succeeded in having it fulfilled, but when it was carried into effect there were not enough guns of any value to arm a corporal's guard. I have always been under the impression that the Indians during the march from where the trouble arose to the place where they were disarmed, succeeded in secreting the best of their arms, which was not very difficult as the soldiers were not too strict in trying to prevent their doing so as they saw that an injustice was being done to their charges. I do not know what General Sheridan thought or said when he learned how his treaty of peace with the Indians had been observed by the war department, but, I am under the impression, that if one could have taken a kaleidoscopic view of his thoughts at the time, there would likely have been a very lurid tint about them.

Once the Indians were disarmed, the work trials of the expedition were practically at an end. It was a very short march down the North Canadian to the place of their future abode. Ben Clark saw to it that things were carried out, as far as possible, to the satisfaction of all.

Nor did Lieutenant Creel leave the wards of the government at once. In fact he remained with them for a considerable length of time in the capacity of agent, and the confidence they had in him is shown by the results of his tenure of office among them. He came to be looked upon as a father to all of them, to whom they might go to have all wrongs righted, and their rights preserved. The result of such confidential relationship between Lieutenant Creel and the Indians is manifest today in the high-cla.s.s of citizenship that exists among the wards of the government, and their advancement in the various pursuits of life according to the white man's ways.

Creel was the man of the hour. He devoted his time, talents, and energy to the elevation of the children of the plains. He set out to improve their educational facilities. He wrote a grammar and a dictionary of the Cheyenne tongue, of which he had a complete mastery. Also work on the sign language of the North American Indians. His work in this regard was of such a high order as to be preserved in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute in Washington, D. C.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Ben Clark; General Creel; Some Observation in Conclusion.

In concluding the little work, I deem it impossible to close without paying tribute to two men who have done so much in the way of settling the difficulties of the west, and making it possible for the white settlers to live in peace and prosperity, freed entirely from the haunting spectre of an Indian raid. Many have contributed their share to the important work, and credit must be given them, nevertheless in any undertaking, there are men who seem by nature to be better adapted to the work than others; so it was in the closing days of the Indian troubles of the West, when the Indian had good cause for looking on the white man with suspicion, and the result as shown in those numerous raids upon the white settlements during the decade of 1870 and 1880.

In the long array of men who endeavored to bring the difficulties that disturbed the West to a satisfactory close, we find two who played an important part within the scope of their opportunities, and the results of their work are manifest at this date.

Ben Clark was a scout. The term to the ordinary man of affairs does not mean much, but if one could ask General Sheridan's opinion of the man and scout, he would place him in the very first rank of all scouts of the West. He was a man particularly gifted by nature with the endowments requisite to achieve success in his calling. He seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of the plains. Like an open book he read her every mood. On his knowledge of that vast trackless plain depended the success of many an expedition, and there yet remains no failure to mar the brilliant record of his achievements. Not only soldiers, but generals placed themselves unreservedly in his hands and felt safe. He was not a soldier, but no soldier ever showed greater qualities of generalship than he. Generals commanded the armies, he commanded the generals and they gladly obeyed him. Amid all the trials and vicissitudes of his life of hardship, he ever maintained an evenness of temperament that carried him down to the present day, to a ripe old age, after more than fifty years of service in the Army, not a soldier, but as a scout, respected and retaining the confidence of the men with whom he spent days and years of hardship on the plains.

a.s.sociated with Ben Clark in the later days was one who has risen by dint of devotion to duty to a very high position in the sphere of military affairs. I refer to General Creel, as he is now called. Among the many positions that General Creel has held was that of adjutant general of his state, North Dakota, where he raised the national guard of his state from chaos to such a degree of efficiency that the war department after full inspection and field maneuver of the guard with regulars declared ninety per cent fit for duty in the field on a par with the regular army. General Creel on his own request was highly complimented by the governor for his distinguished services, and retired with the rank of major general as provided by law. Of his soldierly qualities there is not much need of making the record here, as it is open to all who wish to consult the archives of the army. Fighting qualities are expected in a soldier, otherwise he would be out of place in the ranks, but there are other qualities that set a man apart from his fellows. Some men have administrative ability, some diplomacy, others skill in various lines, but a man must have a special adaptation by nature who can take the rough, untamed spirits of the plains away from their native heaths, from all that is dear to them, and at the same time make them love him. Some could do it by force, but the result would not be lasting, as is instanced in the case of Dull Knife; others could do it by love of justice and fair play and convert the savage into a high-cla.s.s citizen of the state. The latter was the method used by General Creel, and to show that they have not forgotten the spirit of fairness that characterized the man, one would but have to visit the Darlington Agency, Oklahoma, when the general makes a trip to the scene of his early efforts as an Indian pacifier, and see how they gather around him and show marks not merely of respect, but of real affection. To the work of his office he added occupations of his own choice. He devoted himself to a thorough study of the Cheyenne tongue, and his efforts resulted in a grammar and dictionary of that language. Not only is the general an authority on the Cheyenne dialect, but his work on the sign language is masterly. He is not only a man well versed in Indian affairs, though that itself would be sufficient for most men, but is one of the directors of the 1914 Chatauqua inst.i.tute. One would be inclined to think that with all the successes that attend his efforts, and the t.i.tle of general that he bears, that he would be inclined to be swelled with the sense of his own importance, but not so. You will not find a more modest man in the whole range of activity than the general. He is the last man that you would take to be one of the great geniuses of the West if you were to estimate him by his general behavior.

In conclusion, much might be written about the complex nature of the Indian and the trouble he created for the white man during the last half century. But if the white man were to put himself in the place of the Indian I doubt if he would act differently. One cannot see an intruder come into one's domain and lay waste the very foundation of one's existance without finding that trouble has originated that is likely to be far reaching. That was the situation. The Indian had been master of the plains from time immemorial, and like every possessor of territory; he had no idea of yielding up his home, his life, without a struggle. He had not admitted the sovereignty of the government when the white man came among the tribes. Any territorial extension that had been made on the part of the government was made by treaty, and any one conversant with history well knows how faithlessly the truces and pacts with the Indians have been kept. In fact, it is one of the standing disgraces to our country that so many of the agreements with the original holders of the land have been broken. It looks as if the principle that "might makes right" were the only one in vogue when dealing with the Indian. He has not only been deceived frequently in the past, and treaties with him violated, but he has also been plundered in ruthless fashion by those whom the government sent to look after his affairs. Scandal upon scandal has occured among the agents in charge of the different reservations, with the result that the Indians not only became disgusted with the treatment they received, but broke away from their locations and went on the warpath. If the different tribes that surrendered had been treated with the proper amount of justice, half or more of the blood-curdling atrocities of the latter part of the decade of 1870 would not have occured. What was wanted was more men like General Sheridan, and General Creel, and less of the grafters and boodlers who looked upon the Indian as lawful prey to be robbed and pillaged with ruthless abandon.

The government, I have no doubt was willing to do the right thing, but was frequently unfortunate in the choice of the means adopted. The Quakers who came upon the scene early in the management of Indian affairs, meant well, but their peaceful measures were not adapted to the nature and character of the tribes of the plains. They did not understand the nature of the Indians who were wont to travel with unrestrained freedom over the vast plains, living their lives according to their lights and traditions. The Quaker method of curbing their dauntless spirit was about as effective as trying to tame a wildcat by saying, "p.u.s.s.y." As I said, they meant well, did their best, but their efforts caused the Indian to smile on more than one occasion.

The methods frequently used by the war office to bring the Indians into subjection did not always meet with the success that the efforts exerted would warrant. True, it was a novel kind of warfare for civilized men to undertake, but I do not think that the utmost care was always exercised in carrying out the different campaigns. There is much to show that there must have been considerable laxity in different places, as is shown in the ease with which Dull Knife marched, by, past, and around, different forts in his way north, and with a mere handful of men set at naught the efforts of several regiments. There is no question about the willingness of the private soldier to do his duty, for he was usually found at his post and fighting to the last ditch, but there were men wearing the garb of officers who did not exercise the judgment of skilled fighters in handling a difficult situation, or in following an efficient plan of campaign. All this naturally tended to give the Indian an opportunity he was looking for, and the blows he dealt in return were of considerable heft.

The day is coming slowly but surely when the last red man will have disappeared from the domain wherein he roamed a monarch. He does not seem to be able to thrive on the white man's mode of life. It may be that the veneer of civilization that he had acquired in recent years is more of a restraint than a benefit to him. The vices of the white man have had their effect upon him also. Whatever the causes, the race seems to be doomed to extinction, the buffalo and the Indian seemed to be an essential part of the plains. The buffalo is practically only a memory, and the red man is following his trail toward the setting sun, soon to disappear over the horizon of time.

AFTERWORD

Before taking leave of my readers, I cannot refrain from expressing the appreciation I feel for the a.s.sistance I have received from numerous reliable sources. The best authority for an account of any happening is the chief actor in the drama, and this is undoubtedly true when the authors themselves are men of integrity, reliability, modesty and truth.

Men of this type necessarily leave the impression of truthfulness and reliability, on any narration of events they may make. Such men I have consulted in my work to guarantee the authenticity and veracity of my narrative. I take a great pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to General H. M. Creel, Ben Clark and Mr. John Murphy. Others who have a.s.sisted me in compiling the preceeding chapters, I have mentioned in various parts of the book, but those I enumerate here, have a.s.sisted me in a special manner and I feel it a duty to thank them abundantly for their favor in directing me in setting down the correct narrative of events described. As these gentlemen are still living, it is a very easy matter for any one to consult them in regard to the historical events of the preceeding chapters, but any one who knows the character of these gentlemen will deem it sufficient that they have placed the stamp of their approval on the pages of the preceeding work.

To my wife, who so faithfully kept the light in the window as a beacon to insure my safe return, this little volume is most respectfully dedicated.

THE AUTHOR.