CHAPTER V.
Fort Sill was the first post at which I had any experience with Indians. It was located on what was then called the Kiowa and Comanche reservation near the junction of Cache and Medicine Bluff creeks. Mount Scott, the highest point of the Wichita mountains was some nine miles to the northwest and both places had been geographically located and were used as a base for triangulation in locating other points. These tribes of Plains Indians were famous fighters and were finally subdued and brought to terms by Custer's great battle on the Washita. They were very numerous and there was always a feeling that an outbreak might occur at any time. During my service there from January, 1870, to August, 1871, there were seventeen men brought in and buried who had been killed and scalped by Indians. They would not attack a large party of men in soldier's uniform but boot-leggers and stragglers stood a poor show if caught out alone. Once while there a woman, one girl sixteen or seventeen years old, and one about twelve years old, and two smaller ones and two boys, one of whom belonged to another family, were brought into the camp on the promise of a hundred dollars apiece ransom. They were from Texas and at their homes when attacked by Indians, and the men were killed and these people brought away captives. If attempt had been made to recover them by force they would have been killed.
I once saw Lone Wolf, a Comanche chief, with a United States mail sack of leather on his pony, and the interpreter, Mr. Jones, told me that he and some of the other young bucks had been on a raid down in Texas and among other depredations they had killed the mail carrier and destroyed the mail, only keeping the sack for his own use. I saw him frequently with it afterwards. Mr. Jones told me that Lone Wolf had said that his heart felt better now, as he had avenged the death of his son who had been killed on one of their raids in Texas. These raids were of frequent occurrence, and there was generally some evidence of them in the wearing apparel or trinkets, or anything the Indians might fancy, and that had evidently belonged to some settlers or travelers who had been so unfortunate as to come in their way. But so far as I know, they never killed a soldier.
I have witnessed from the bluff near the hospital on Medicine Bluff creek their dances in the valley just across the streams at night, many times, but never had any desire to make a closer acquaintance. It always seemed to me a wild kind of a thing, consisting of jumping and gyrating and stooping and gliding and then straightening up suddenly, and swinging the arms, and all the time droning in short jerky cough-like notes, interspersed with sharp penetrating yells. There might be only one performer or maybe a half dozen or more. Where there is a number engaged, it is not only exciting but decidedly wild, certainly unlike any other dance I have ever seen.
They were great thieves and anything left outside of our tents which might strike their fancy was liable to be carried off. One day a squaw brought a venison ham to our tent to sell. The regular price was fifty cents and I bought it although we had bought one less than an hour before, and when taking it back to hang up with the first one I thought the squaw looked very much like the one from whom I had made the first purchase, and was not much surprised to find the first ham missing. We usually hung them out for a while to get the Indian odor off them, and I have no doubt that I bought the same ham from the same squaw the second time.
There were fixed days each month on which rations were issued to the Indians by the commissary department and I have seen the squaws carry sacks of flour a little distance away from the place of issue and empty out the flour and carry off the sacks, hundreds of them, so that the ground for a considerably distance around would be literally white with flour.
They were permitted to go about the camp any where during the day, but at sundown scarcely an Indian was to be seen and none were permitted in camp at night.
It was a very comfortable feeling to hear the hours called at night, by those on guard if one should happen to wake up and hear the announcement that "All's well." For instance, the sergeant of the guard announces in a loud enough voice to be heard by the first sentinel, "Two o'clock and all's well." On hearing it the sentinel repeats the message, and so on around the camp, and when the last sentinel has finished, the sergeant of the guard says, "Two o'clock and all's well all around." This is repeated each hour during the night.
