NEGenWeb Project
Nance County
panies of United States troops and the band of Pawnees previously described. The. location of the Sioux was discovered by Buffalo Bill and six Pawnee scouts on a tract of land between the Platte and Republican rivers. They numbered over 2,000 warriors, and were on their way to the Platte. The scouts rode back to inform Gen. Carr, who was about ten miles in the rear, and the Sioux were overtaken in the sand hills of the Platte, not having discovered the near approach of the soldiers. The Sioux, on taking in the situation, made a precipitous flight, leaving their luggage and everything that would impede a rapid march. To puzzle their pursuers, they scattered, small bands striking out in different directions. The troops adopted the same method of pursuit, following a general course up the Platte. Darkness came on and a camp was made in the Platte valley, but in the early morning the troops were on the move, each taking a different trail. One company overtook a band of 100 Indians, who saved themselves by flight. After passing a short bend in the river, the tracks were observed to come together, and here several companies of soldiers joined each other, Buffalo Bill's command taking the lead. On the third day this division suddenly came upon 600 warriors in battle array, who made a furious assault upon the soldiers, driving them to the adjacent ravines, where they made a stand and fought like tigers. Buffalo Bill observed that the leader of the Indians was the famous chief, Tall Bull -- a most daring fighter -- and it occurred to him that if he could slay this chief it would be much easier to subdue the remainder of the tribe. Taking a mote favorable position, he quietly awaited another attack from the savages, who soon came forward with a rush, Tall Bull riding ahead. As he passed opposite the point where Buffalo Bill had secreted himself, but several hundred yards away, a ball from Bill's rifle pierced his heart, and with a wild yell he fell from his horse to arise no more till Gabriel's trumpet calls his scattered particles together, in the final day, to join his kindred in a land where they don't shovel snow. Bill rushed forward, in the midst of the fight, and obtained his victim's scalp, without receiving a scratch. The Indians were soon put to flight, leaving one hundred dead on the field.
Several days later the entire command of Gen. Carr overtook the united Sioux bands at Summit Springs, and July 11, 1869, a terrible battle was fought, in which 600 Sioux braves bit the dust, and many more were wounded or taken prisoners. The whites also suffered greatly in the fight, and their Pawnee allies were nearly wiped from the face of the earth. This practically ended Sioux depredations on the whites in the state, but what was gained by the whites proved a future loss to the Pawnees on the Reserve.
In the summer of 1870, if we are rightly informed, the Sioux and Pawnees had a pitched battle at the mouth of Cottonwood Creek, and from 200 to 300 Pawnees were buried on the battle ground the following day. Many of their bones were exhumed by curiosity hunters of Cottonwood and Loupe Ferry Precincts.
Later on -- we are unable to give the year -- while nearly 300 Pawnees were enjoying a hunt in the Republican valley, they were pursued by a band of Sioux, surrounded, and literally cut to pieces, only two or three escaping.
In the winter of '72-'73 many farmers of Merrick and Hamilton counties industriously occupied their spare moments in "borrowing" wood from the Reservation. (There was at that time an abundance of cedar and oak studding the Cedar and adjacent canons.) Occasionally as high as twenty teams would be in the timber at one time, and the Indians, concluding it was an unwarranted infringement upon their rights, planned to punish the offenders. One balmy day in mid-winter, a large number of men from near Central City, "Lige" McKendry and a neighboring preacher among the rest, were devastating a choice piece of forest about a mile west of the town site of Fullerton, when with a wild whoop a gang of not less than 200 Pawnees sailed down upon them, and before they had time to hitch up their teams and make tracks several were seized and put through a "course of sprouts" worse than a "thousand scorpion tails," and would have been literally cut to pieces but for the most vehement promises never to show up in these "diggins" again. The philosophical mind of McKendry devised a method of escape from punishment for himself and his clerical friend that proved eminently efficatious. He represented to the Indians that he and his friend had some valuable information to impart to them as soon as they had finished making hash of the rest of the crowd. He then told them that this friend was very familiar with the Great Spirit, and that if they treated him right he would invoke the Most High to heap prosperity upon them, and give their enemies, the Sioux, a taste of the torments in store for such mortals as Bob Ingersoll, or to that effect. The result was that the Indians not only let them off without a flogging, but gave them each a large load of the choicest wood the other fellows had cut, and invited them to come again. Owing to the scarcity of money and the high price of coal, "Lige" was not slow in accepting the very generous invitation.
The fall of 1872 an old trapper, whose name we have never been able to learn, came to the Cedar valley and established
(Continued)
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THE HOME RESTAURANT |
Page Thirteen
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HEN
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