Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years Ago

by William F. Drannan

I asked him what direction the Indians came from, and he answered that they invariably came from the west. I asked whether they were in large or small bands. He said there were seldom more than thirty in a band, and they always came up that river, and he pointed to a small stream not far from us.

I rode back to camp and told Capt. McKee what I had learned. He said, "The Indians must be very sure that no one will be after them now. What do you think is the best plan to adopt?"

I told him that I thought we had better travel down the stream that the Indians seemed to make a pathway of, for one day at least, and go into camp at night, and I would scout around the country and find their main trails, for I was satisfied that only a part of the band came to this settlement. "And what we want to do, Capt., is to cripple them so they would let this settlement alone, and we can do it if we can catch the main band."

We pulled down this little stream and traveled in that direction.

All day we saw lots of Indian sign all the way, but none of them was fresh. As we were going into camp that evening, I told Capt. McKee that my scouts and I would take a circle around the camp and see if there were any Indian camp fires to be seen.

We rode about three miles on top of a high ridge, and looking off to the west we saw a large Indian camp. I knew this by the number of fires they had burning. I pointed to the fires and said to the boys, "There they are. We have found the main camp. But now the difficulty will be to get to them without being discovered by them."

As the darkness was coming on, I could not see well enough to tell how far the Indian camp was from where we stood, but we struck out towards the fires. I told the boys to ride carefully and keep close together, and for each man to keep a close watch in every direction.

We rode about two miles, and almost before we were aware of it, we were close to the Indian camp. I tried my best to count them, but I could not make out the number of Indians there were in the camp. Their horses were staked all around them, and I could not count them either.

I said, "Now boys, we will go back and report to Capt. McKee and see what he thinks is best to do."

It was late when we got back to camp, and they were awaiting our return. Before turning in for the night, I told the Capt. what we had found, and the position of the Indian camp, and that I thought they were about five miles from us.