“This man, although he was an officer sent out from Washington to look into the matter, did many things to help this trouble along, but he did not know it at the time,” continued Carl, after drawing a few vigorous pulls at his pipe to make sure that the tobacco was well started. “When he came back he went among the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, because he had some friends among them, and he wanted to set their minds at rest. He told them what Wovoka, the Cutter, had said to him, claiming that he was not the Messiah but one who had seen him, and gave them some of the piñon nuts to eat. You haven’t seen any of those piñon nuts around here, have you?”
“No, I haven’t,” said Parker.
“Well, out in the country where the Piute Indians live they are used every day for food; and yet those Arapahoes and Cheyennes received them as if they came from the hands of the Messiah himself. Those Indians were anxious to touch this man by the hand and lay hold of his clothes, believing that if they but touched the Cutter some good would come to them. When the man went East to make his report to Washington, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes sent some prominent men to investigate for themselves. They were gone all winter, and brought back some queer stories that this man had not told them, because he did not know anything about them. Finally the Sioux got hold of it, and became excited at once. They seemed to think it was what they had so long been waiting for—a summons to go to war and wipe the whites off the face of the earth. They, too, sent out some men, and they brought back some other strange stories. One thing the Cutter told them was, that if they got weary with their journey—Wovoka lives all of a thousand miles from here—they had but to call upon the Great Spirit, and he would set them miles ahead on their route. Another thing was, that if they killed a buffalo on their journey they were to take everything except the tail and hoofs, and that after they got out of sight the buffalo would come to life again.”
Lieutenant Parker laughed loudly when he heard it.
“The idea,” he exclaimed. “To think that twenty thousand people could be fooled in that way! After a buffalo is dead he is dead, and nothing can bring him to life again.”
“Well, I don’t know that the Indian is so much to blame for that,” said Carl, looking down at the horn of his saddle. “You know how susceptible the savage is to superstition. All his life he has been planning and thinking about getting rid of the whites. We are his evil genius; and if we could be driven out of the country everything would go along as smoothly as it did before. One of their agents, in making out his report to Washington, has twelve different counts against our people.”
“What have we done to the Sioux?” demanded Parker, opening his eyes in surprise.
“Take, for instance, a supply of goods which ought to have been here by August but did not get here until midwinter,” said Carl in reply. “I guess that was enough to set a more patient people than the Sioux on the warpath. A good many of them starved to death in spite of all the army could do to prevent it. I tell you, you would find it mighty hard to be loyal to a Government that could deliberately go back on you in that way.”
“Why, Carl, I did not know you were such an Indian lover,” said Lieutenant Parker.
“I am an Indian lover in this way: I say they have been abused, and shamefully, too. When the Black Hills were given up to them, they were assured that they should belong to them and their heirs forever. Everything went on smoothly until gold was discovered there, and from that time the trouble began. Custer was sent through that country, not with any instructions to turn the settlers out, but just to examine the spot; and the consequence was that in less than a year the Black Hills were overrun with prospectors.”