Collection of Nebraska Pioneer ReminiscencesDaughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
History
Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences
Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
Frontier and pioneer life -- Nebraska; Nebraska -- History
One day Sarpy came to her and told her that Gale had left money for her
and she was to come to the fort for what she wished. And after a time it
came to pass that Sarpy took her to wife as Gale had done. Perhaps that
was in his mind when he looked at Gale with a smile in his eyes; but
Nikumi would not listen to him till she had waited long, and until Sarpy
told her and she heard from others that Gale would never come again. And
she was his faithful wife for many years, occupying always, because of
her inherent dignity and real womanliness, a position high in the
estimation both of the white and the red men. Many tales are told of her
life with Sarpy, how at one time she carried him miles on her back when
he was stricken with fever in the mountains, until she brought him to
aid and safety. Another time when he had given orders that no more goods
should be given her from the post (she was always very liberal to her
relatives and he wished to check it) she quietly picked up two or three
bolts of calico, and walking to the river bank, threw them in; a second
armful followed, and then the enemy capitulated. And still another time
when Sarpy had bought a beautiful black mare, "Starlight," to minister
to the pleasure of a designing English widow, she one day quietly
appeared when the horse was driven round by Sarpy's black servant, and
ordered it taken to the stable, and enforced the order, too. But this is
another story.
In later years, as Sarpy's dominion ceased with the gradual decline of
the fur company, and he spent much of his time in St. Louis, Nikumi
lived with Mary, who had married an Indian like herself, with a mixture
of white blood in his veins, although he was French, and who occupied a
prominent position in one of the tribes to whom was given a distinct
reservation. From this mixture of English, French, and Indian bloods has
arisen a family which stands at the head of their tribe, and one member
who is known throughout this country. It is worthy of notice, too, that
with one exception it has been the women of the family who have shown
the qualities which gave them preÎminence.
Nikumi died March 23, 1888, at the home of her daughter Mary; but her
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren live to show that
sometimes the mixture of races tends to development of the virtues, and
not, as has been so often said, of the vices of both races.
THE HEROINE OF THE JULES-SLADE TRAGEDY
BY MRS. HARRIET S. MACMURPHY
Our two weeks' ride over Iowa prairies was ended and we had reached our
new home in Nebraska. I sat in the buggy, a child of twelve, with my
three-year-old brother beside me, on the eastern bank of the Missouri
river, while father went down where the ferry boat lay, to make ready
for our crossing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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