CHAPTER XXX. THE PLAINS INDIANS FIFTY YEARS AGO AND TODAY

Robert M. Wright, Esq., of Dodge City, Kansas, located in that State when a boy, in the early ’50’s. There are few men living at the present time who have had a more varied and interesting career.

In Mr. Wright’s recent book, “Dodge City The Cowboy Capital”, I was struck with its frankness. The book presents a true picture of life among buffalo-hunters, scouts, gamblers, stockmen and others. I wrote to this aged frontiersman and asked him to give me an absolute, frank opinion as to the cause of the Indian wars, and his views upon our Indian policy. In return he sent me a lengthy communication which illuminates events on the Plains between the years 1855 and 1890.

Mr. Wright is one of the few living men who observed Indians from the pioneer point of view. Mr. Wright’s observations, which he kindly furnished me, are the more important in that they are offered by one who has not held Indians in very high esteem. Mr. Wright saw some of his warmest friends shot down during Indian raids. His narrative, if anything, should be rather prejudiced against the Indians. Yet it is not so, as will be observed by perusal of the following pages.

Before presenting quotations from his manuscript I shall sum up briefly his general observations. Looking back upon a career of upwards of sixty years throughout the West (chiefly in Kansas and Nebraska,) Mr. Wright concludes that the Plains Indian was vastly better off when able to roam, unhampered by anyone, throughout the country, than at the present time. He speaks of the great and interesting Kiowa village located some distance from Dodge City about 1868. Living in central and southern Kansas, he came in contact, not so much with the Sioux, but with the Pawnees, who occupied the flat country, and the Horse Indians, which included the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Prairie Apache. As to the wars among themselves, he thinks that the number of killed, or damage inflicted upon villages has been exaggerated. Usually, there were few casualties in these actions. Some writers might not agree with him, but this is his opinion. Occasionally, one band would surprise a village and take many captives and scalps. He was impressed in the early days with the good health of these Indians, their hardiness, and that they were seldom visited by epidemics. Smallpox broke out along the Missouri River, and to the east and north, but seldom in southern Kansas and northern Texas. He declares that there was no tuberculosis or trachoma when he first went among these people. The general standard of character and virtue was much higher.

“As has been said, the Indian was by nature a warrior and hunter, and was trained as such from earliest childhood. It is taken for granted, by the great mass of civilized peoples, that the uncivilized redskin had no idea of education. This is an error. For years, I was among the wild Indians of half a century ago, and I know from personal observation that they had as thorough a system of education for their children, in their line, as that boasted by the civilized white race. From the time the Indian child was able to walk, his or her education began. The first lesson usually consisted in being strapped upon the back of a docile pony and taking a little practice in riding. In the second step in education he was made to become familiar with the bow and arrow, which were the Indians’ favorite weapons, half a century ago. At the age of five, perhaps, the father took the boy out upon the hills adjoining the camp and admonished him to be observant of what he saw. Every ravine and hill, a buffalo skeleton, a rock or tree, a footprint in the sand or grass, the displacement of a stick or stone—all these things and many more a child must study and learn to notice. He must learn to readily detect the different marks on bows, arrows, and moccasins, distinguishing as to which tribe they belonged, as every tribe had a peculiar mark of its own for its manufactured articles. When the father and child came back to the tipi, after a day of observation, the child was required to give a description of what he had seen during the long tramp, the father or teacher questioning him. The child must give an intelligent and comprehensive account of his observations, or be taken over the same ground again and again until he could do so and had acquired a thorough knowledge of the territory covered. As soon as the child had familiarized himself minutely with one section of the country, he was taken to another and yet another, until, finally he was intimately acquainted with all the territory adjacent to the camp. These same methods were employed in familiarizing the young Indian with more extended ranges of country until, at last, he thoroughly understood his surroundings for hundreds of miles.

“But there were many other subjects in that course. For instance, the young Indian was expected to learn signalling, similar to that of our signal corps. Indians well versed in signalling could communicate accurately with each other though many miles apart. This knowledge was augmented by detailed instruction and drill in matters of war, the trail, and the chase. Some of the old-time scouts, who were with us, had been captured in childhood and raised and educated by the Indians. These were as proficient in Indian tactics as the Indians themselves, and were very valuable to have along with a command in Indian campaigns as scouts and guides. They could follow up a trail, tell the number of ponies, give the number of Indians in the party being trailed, and, in fact, by their Indian lore, could know the movements of such a party about as well as those comprising it knew them. The Indian was as fond of his boys as any white father could be, and took pride in their training.”

Of the buffalo, he claims, as have all writers, that the very existence of the Plains Indians was threatened when that noble animal was exterminated. A great enmity sprang up between the Indians and the white hunters.

“With this hatred and enmity, the Indian blended a certain fear of the white hunters, and to the credit of the redskin’s courage it can be said that the hunters were the only class on earth that he did fear, while with his fear was mixed also a sort of desperation. The Indian hunted altogether on horseback, with bow and arrow or lance, which they planted in the side of the animal by riding up alongside of him. The Indians claimed they killed only for meat or robes, and, as soon as they had sufficient, they stopped and went home; whereas, the white hunters never knew when they had enough, and were continually harassing the buffaloes from every side, never giving the herds a chance to recover, but keeping up a continual pop-pop from their big guns. Only under the most favorable circumstances would the Indians attack the hunters. They were afraid of the latter’s big guns, cool bravery, and, last but not least, of their unerring, deadly aim. The passing of the buffalo herds, because of the white men, was one of the prime causes of Indian hostility.

“But the feeling over the buffalo was only one of the causes of the Plains wars. To understand other causes, one should consider the Indian as he was found by the first white men, and compare him with what he was after his association with the Whites for a term of years. It can clearly be seen, by such a comparison, that a great change took place, in that time, in the Indian’s attitude and sentiments toward the Whites, and this change could not have been due to anything but the influence of association. The redskin acquired knowledge, also confidence in himself. Then followed hostile feelings awakened by the mismanagement and needless cruelty of the Whites. The Indian seemed to learn and adopt every vice of the Whites but not one of their virtues.

“When I first crossed the Plains in 1859, we met several bands of Indians. In fact we struck about the first and much the biggest number at the great bend of the Arkansas River, a little east of where the town of Great Bend now stands and from there on we met them up to seventy-five miles west of old Fort Lyon in eastern Colorado. There was no military fort there then, nor any west of Fort Riley to Fort Garland in the mountains, and there was no need of any, for the Indians were supposed to be friendly, which indeed they were. This part of the country was the chief resort of the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Prairie Apaches. Here, on the Arkansas River, near the present site of Great Bend, is where they all congregated. Up to 1864, all the Indians mentioned were considered peaceable and were so to a great extent. When they caught parties of Whites south of the Arkansas River (which was sacred ground to them, where no trespassers were allowed) there was trouble. Only traders were allowed in that region, and they had to be well known and familiar with the Indians to be safe. If an unknown trader ventured down there, he was stripped of his goods, whipped severely, often killed, and his wagons burned. But along the great Santa Fe Trail small parties of Whites, and even single individuals, went through without being molested, though I have seen these peaceable Indians, at such times, treated with the utmost contempt and actual abuse by the white travelers.

“The propensity to beg or steal seemed born in the original Plains Indian. They made away with any portable article at hand from seemingly sheer love of theft. And beg! they would beg one blind! They wanted everything in sight, yet in early days, they made no disturbance if they were given nothing. It actually seemed as if an Indian could not help begging or stealing, but, instead of accepting this as a fact and treating it accordingly with wise leniency, the Whites made use of needless cruelty. When an Indian picked up something and hid it under his blanket to carry away, he was black-snaked, or kicked out of camp. I once saw an Indian climb up on the hind wheel of a big freight wagon and lift up the wagon sheet. As he was peeping in, with his back bent and body exposed much as if he were bent over a barrel, a bull-whacker, with a big ox-whip, stood off ten feet and let him have it on the naked skin. That Indian dropped as if he were shot, with a gash where the lash struck as if a sharp knife had cut him. There were many other Indians in camp, and they all jumped up and halloed and laughed uproariously at the discomfited one, who crept humbly out of camp. Many indignities like this were given the Indians without their retaliating, even though there were often many more Indians than Whites in the party, which conclusively proves the superior peacefulness of the redskin. This was as late as 1863. But soon there came a change.

OGLALA WOMAN
Pine Ridge, 1909. Photographed by W. K. Moorehead.

“The Indian wars of the Plains were more the result of a combination of causes, added to those already mentioned. First, our Government commenced a wishy-washy, desultory course with the Indians, instead of taking a bold, firm stand with them, and bringing out enough soldiers to overawe and make them respect the Government by showing them how strong it was, thus making them understand what to expect if they did not behave themselves. The Government policy was so weak at the beginning, that the Indians actually laughed at it and said: ‘The Government is afraid of us; it dare not punish us’; and this was their real belief. I heard some Kiowas braggingly say, ‘Why, we can whip the United States, for it has been fighting Texas for years and cannot whip her. We go and sweep down upon her settlements, kill, burn, and destroy, drive off stock, take women and children prisoners, and make the settlers glad to hide.’ This was at the time of the Civil War, and the Kiowas thought the Government was fighting only Texas.

“Now then, as I have said, the Government began with the Indians in a very feeble way and sent a few troops after them, which, of course, the Indians bested and forced to retreat. Then a large force was sent which also was beaten, and, after repeated little fights and skirmishes, large armies were sent out. Usually, however, the Indians got the best of the troops and were thus emboldened and given new confidence in themselves and their strength.

“I have been a stockman all my life, and whenever my cattle became ‘breachy’, if the break they made in my fence was poorly mended, it was broken through again and again. Each time we repaired the fence a little better than before, but each time, also, the cattle acquired fresh skill and force in breaking down the fence. At last, it was impossible to fix the fence in a way that my herds could not break through. If I had made the fence good and strong when first repairing it, the trouble would have been settled at once, and the cattle would never have broken it down the second time. A comparison between my haphazard fence and breachy cattle, and the Government’s Indian policy of years ago is the most fitting I can make.”

Wright believes that the military authorities at Washington were rather responsible for continuation of an unwise policy toward the Indians, and is somewhat critical as to the plans of campaign. It was a great mistake to send infantry against Indians, but this was repeatedly done. In the Fetterman massacre, the troops were infantry. The cavalry horses of the ’60’s and ’70’s were grain-fed, and extra large. Cavalry commands were accompanied by a wagon-train in which grain and hay were hauled. Hence, prior to Custer’s later campaigns, the American cavalry made little progress as against Indians. The latter went very light, carrying a little dried buffalo meat, guns and ammunition. Each Indian warrior always possessed an extra horse—his war pony—which was never ridden except in battle. He rode his ordinary pony, and led the other. In this way the Indian soldiers had an advantage over the white cavalry. Mr. Wright says that the Indians feared winter attacks on their camps. They seldom made war during cold weather. The warriors endeavored to lead the troops away from their permanent villages.

“General Sully found this out, in 1868, when he supposed he was marching upon an Indian village from which the families had been removed and hidden in another direction, while the warriors led Sully on a wild-goose chase into the Wichita Mountains. It is a wonder his whole command was not annihilated, and if he had followed the Indians a little further, not a soldier would have escaped, the trap was so well set. But Sully realized the danger just in time, turned around, got out of the mountains almost by a miracle, returning to Fort Dodge for reinforcements, with the Indians harassing him all the way back. This ambush and defeat was a source of great mortification to General Sully. General Custer then took the field with big reinforcements, and surprised the Indian camp on the Wichita River; but, after the attack, Custer, too, was forced to beat a hasty retreat to Camp Supply, as he found himself greatly outnumbered nearly ten to one. He inflicted on the Indians a severe punishment, taking nearly two hundred women and children prisoners, which greatly disheartened the Indians for a while. But this success was in the dead of winter, and might have resulted differently had it happened in the summer season, with the Indian fighting according to his views of proper war tactics. (See picture, page [302].)

“It was a big mistake of the National Government to appoint civilians and representatives of different religious denominations as Government Agents. We should have appointed army officers instead, at a post where there was also an agency. This was merely a necessity of the times and conditions, clearly visible to anybody in the least acquainted with the needs of the situation. Soldiers were always stationed at an agency, the commander of that post was always subject to the orders of the Agent, a civilian often wholly unqualified to direct military movements or frontier exploits, and the ideas of commander and Agent were nearly always in conflict. The officer bitterly resented being subject to the Agent’s orders and certainly the former, familiar as he was with the border and Indian, knew better than the Agent could know, coming as he did, as a rule, direct from civilized centers. While treating them kindly and fairly, an army officer would have governed the Indian with a firm hand, and with none of the little less than criminal weakness displayed by many of the Agents. Moreover, most of the Agents were not good men, and not only robbed the Indian but starved him. I personally knew of graft practised by several Agents by which the Indian suffered greatly. Let me cite one of many instances of weakness that fell under my own observation. Mr. Darlington, Agent of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, was a good old Quaker, but weak and unsophisticated to a marked degree. I was sutler for the soldiers at this agency, and these Indians had stolen a lot of horses and mules from me. One issue day, the Indians rode in, and I saw several of my horses and mules, bearing my brand, among their stock. Now, the Indians who had possession of my horses belonged to Stone Calf’s band. Stone Calf was one of the head chiefs of the Cheyennes, a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and a pretty truthful Indian. I went to Mr. Darlington, told my story, and asked him to recover my stock for me. He promised to do so, sent for Stone Calf, and said to him: ‘This young man is truthful and honest, and he says you have a lot of his stock (describing the brand). Now, Stone Calf, you are a good, honest, truthful Indian, and I have always found you square; give this young man back his stock.’ Stone Calf drew himself up with superb dignity and fairly breathed disdain at the Agent’s suggestion. ‘I have no doubt that this stock did belong to the young man,’ he replied, ‘but it belongs to me now. I took it when I was at war, and I never give back anything I take when I am at war.’ That settled the matter and I never recovered my stock. An army officer in the Agent’s place would have said: ‘This stock belongs to Wright; give it up to him at once!’ and he would have been obeyed and nothing more would have come of it.

“Again, had military instead of civilian Agents been appointed, the wholesale robbery of the Indians already mentioned, and system of graft in general that went on would have been largely avoided, the Indian benefited, and trouble averted. Remote as he always was from surveillance, with large quantities of Government supplies entrusted to his care for the use of the Indians, the temptation to dishonest practices for private gain was great to every Agent. Mr. Darlington, already mentioned as Agent of the Cheyennes, was as honest an old man as ever lived and, being so, seemed to think everyone else honest too, but his employees stole from the Indians right and left, and robbed them right along, under his very eye, and he was not aware of what was going on. The graft of the agencies was notoriously well-known on the frontier, and many an Agent became actually rich from the spoils of his office. The Indians realized the state of affairs and resented it, and added it as another brand to the fire of their hostility against the Whites. The big old chief Red Cloud once said: ‘I don’t see why the Government changes our Agents. When one Agent gets rich at his trade of looking after us and has about all he wants, he may stop his stealing and leave us the property which belongs to us, if he keeps his place. But when one man grows fat at our expense, he is removed and a lean man sent to take his place, and we must fill his belly till he is fat also, and give way to another lean one!’”

Mr. Wright calls attention to the fact that the army officer was a better judge of human nature than the civilian and he further had the advantage of discipline. Surrounded as he was by numerous associates aspiring to promotion, he dared not steal Government supplies lest he be found out, and drummed out of the army. With a civilian it was very different.

“History gives no more striking example in proof of feeble Governmental policy with the Plains Indians in combination with the pitiful incapacity of some of the civilian Agents, than the story of the last Indian raid through western Kansas and Nebraska in 1878. It seems that for no better reason than that they wished to have all the Cheyenne Indians in one band, the Indian officials of the Government gave orders for the removal of the Northern Cheyennes from their agency in Dakota, to that of the Southern Cheyennes at Fort Reno, in what is now Oklahoma. The Northern Cheyennes did not wish to move and protested vigorously, but in vain. Being unused to the southern climate, it was not long after their arrival at Fort Reno, before malaria appeared among them, numbers became sick and many died. Terror-stricken at this almost unknown experience, they became possessed with the idea that the water they had to drink in the new country was poisoned, and that all would die if they remained. Going to the Agent, they begged to be allowed to return to their northern home, but were refused. Then provisions began to grow scarce. The Cheyennes applied to the Agent for permission to go on a buffalo hunt to gain food. Permission was granted, but the buffalo had been practically exterminated in that locality, and, though they hunted for days, not a buffalo could be found, and the poor savages were in worse condition than before. They were forced to kill their few scrawny ponies for meat to sustain life until they could return to the agency, and there they killed their dogs and lived upon them for a while. Again they begged to be permitted to return to the North, and again they were refused. In pity for their distress, however, the Commander of the fort gave orders that a small ration should be distributed among them, but it is almost certain that a large portion of this was confiscated by unscrupulous assistants, and that very little of it ever reached the needy Indians. Their condition rendered them fairly desperate. They resolved to return to Dakota at any cost. ‘We may as well die fighting,’ said Dull Knife, the Cheyenne chief and leader, ‘as to stay here and die of starvation.’ They began stealing and concealing guns, ammunition, and what provisions they could spare from their scanty stock. When ready to start, they stole horses, and, with a few mounted warriors, their foraging operations were rapidly extended until an abundance of mounts, arms, and provisions were obtained. Women and children took part in the exodus, and the march was very leisurely, but notwithstanding this fact, the troops sent in pursuit were defeated in battle about sixty miles from Reno, and afterwards proceeded in so careless a fashion, that the Indians were not again overtaken till they reached Sand Creek, about forty miles south of Dodge City. Here, however, the troops completely surrounded the Indian camp and might have recaptured the fugitives with ease, but the superior cunning and energy of the Indians were here again strikingly apparent, for they managed to slip away in safety during the night, the soldiers not discovering the escape until two days after it occurred. The flight and leisurely pursuit was resumed, but the Indians had killed very few Whites until they reached White Woman creek in Western Kansas. Here they were again overtaken by the soldiers and an engagement fought. If Colonel Lewis, who had joined the pursuing detachment with reinforcements, had not been killed, it is probable the Indians would have been defeated and recaptured, but the troops, deprived of a leader in Lewis’s death, showed the white feather, and once more allowed the Cheyennes to slip away in safety. From thence onward, emboldened by success and filled with contempt for the Whites by the indolence of the troops, the progress of the Indians was marked by horrible bloodshed and devastation. Their course was practically unchecked, and they reached the northern agency, at length, thus attaining the object of their expedition.

“It was the Indian’s nature to be cruel, and many of the conflicts between him and the Whites of the Plains were caused by the Whites’ retaliatory measures for some atrocity born of Indian cruelty. On the other hand, as has already been hinted, many Indian cruelties arose from needless, petty cruelties and indignities, inflicted upon the latter by the Whites and afterwards avenged. These relations of hostility existed between the Indians and all classes of Whites on the Plains, excepting, possibly, the cowboy. He and the Indian had little to do with each other, therefore they had few encounters.

BETTER CLASS OF FULL-BLOOD PLAINS INDIANS OF THIRTY YEARS AGO

“It is often asked—since the United States had so much trouble with her western Indians, why has Canada had no trouble with hers? There are several good reasons. First, Canada, from the start, had a better method of dealing with the Indians. She was firm with them, and never deviated in the least from this course. They were awed by the Canadian police, and it is a well-known fact that this mounted police really protected Canada’s frontier. Whiskey peddlers, as well as fugitive criminals, knew this, and knew how firm and just these police were, and the Indians entertained the same feeling toward them. Second, the Canadian Government always strictly kept its word with the Indians and never broke its agreements with them. It invited and warranted their confidence. Moreover, the Indians claimed no land over in Canada, as they did in the United States, and their best reason for keeping peace with the former when at war with the latter, was that they might have a refuge at hand, to which to fly in times of need. When they crossed the Canadian line, they knew they were safe from hostile pursuit. It was a healthy country, well watered by clear, cold streams; mountainous, where Indians could easily hide when hard pressed. It had plenty of game to sustain them, and beautiful, warm valleys, full of nutritious grasses and plenty of wood, where they could winter comfortably and feel in safety and at home. In summer it was an equally ideal place to live. It was also a place where they found a ready market for stolen horses and sold them to advantage. One may ask why they could not have selected Texas for like purposes. Well, for just the opposite reasons from those which led them to select Canada. Texas was much more unhealthy; they had always been at war with Texas, and besides, it was a glorious country upon which to forage. There they raided the frontier and not only got all the stock they wanted, but many other things that were useful to them.

“One should consider the natural propensities of the American Indian, and be convinced that he was better off in his original state than at the present time, with all the so-called advantages civilization has brought him. This was especially true of the Plains Indian. By nature he was a nomad, a warrior, a hunter, living in the open air. Under conditions favoring this nature, he was a healthy, hardy, happy individual, like any product of natural growth; under the absolute reversal from this to conditions imposed upon him by civilization, he became diseased, debilitated, and inferior; as might be expected from any unnatural growth.”