Two years before the conflict between the followers of Roman Nose and the soldiers of the United States Government, a council was held near Fort Ellsworth. Kansas, between General Palmer and the head men of the Cheyenne tribe of Indians. The conquest of the American continent had begun. The steel rails of the Pacific Railway were being laid across the hunting grounds of the red men, and they, considering and believing the ground to be their own, had come to protest against this invasion of their soil.
As the General in command of the post listened to the words of the chiefs, suddenly a noble-looking Indian stood up and advanced in a solemn and majestic manner to the centre of the chamber in which the council was held. It was Roman Nose: one of the finest specimens of the untamed savage. His physique was superb. A large head, with strongly marked features, lighted by a pair of fierce black eyes, a large mouth with thin lips, through which gleamed rows of strong, white teeth; a Roman nose, with delicate nostrils like those of a thoroughbred race-horse, first attracted attention; while a broad chest, with symmetrical limbs, on which the muscles on the bronze of the skin stood out like twisted wire, were some of the marked characteristics of this splendid American savage. Clad in buckskin leggins and moccasins, elaborately embroidered with beads and feathers, with a single eagle feather in his scalp-lock, and a rare robe of white buffalo, beautifully tanned and as soft as cashmere, thrown over his shoulders—he stood forth—the mighty war chief of the Cheyennes—and said in measured tones:
"We will not have the wagons which make a noise (steam engines) in the hunting grounds of the buffalo. If the palefaces come farther into our land, there will be scalps of your brethren in the wigwams of the Cheyennes. I have spoken."
Courtesy of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute.
ROMAN NOSE.
But, in spite of what the noble-looking chieftain had said, the white settlers continued to push into the sacred precincts of the Cheyennes, to take up homes there, and to treat the red men as if they had neither right nor title to the soil. The Indians were soon upon the warpath. Under Roman Nose and Black Kettle, they swept through western Kansas like a whirlwind of vindictive ferocity. They fought the gangs of workmen engaged in the duty of laying the rails for the hated Kansas Pacific Railroad; attacked the isolated homesteads of the adventurous squatters; ruthlessly slaughtered men, women and children, and ran off cattle, sheep, and horses. From June to December, 1868, they murdered one hundred and fifty-four white settlers and freighters; captured between thirty and forty women and children; burned and sacked twenty-four farmhouses; and attacked several stagecoaches and wagon trains. Great excitement existed along the border settlements of Kansas and Colorado. Appeals were made to the authorities of the general government to give protection against the terrible Cheyennes, or else allow the people to take matters into their own hands and revenge themselves against their hereditary enemies. General Sheridan, then in command of that military department, was fully alive to the responsibilities of his position, and, in his usual decisive manner, set about the task of crippling the wild riders of the plains.
In order to punish these bloodthirsty Cheyennes, the celebrated Sheridan had not the necessary number of troops. Congress, however, had authorized the employment of detachments of frontier scouts to be recruited from the daring spirits always to be met with upon the border. So the General was only too ready to listen to the request of one of his young officers, Major George A. Forsyth, who asked him to grant him permission to raise a body of scouts, independent of the regular army. After listening quietly to what Forsyth had to say, Sheridan remarked: