Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the nativesJones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
History
Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the natives
Jones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America; Latter Day Saint pioneers -- Biography
Tabby stood straight and silent, hardly moving during this. He then
took from his squaw some buckskin, and without a word laid them
on my bench. I commenced cleaning up, giving my bench a general
straightening. When I came to the buckskins I handled them as though
they were trash in my way, and asked the squaw if she would not take
care of them. At this Tabby laughed, holding out his hand in a friendly
way, saying, "All right, we are friends, and it is foolish for us to
not talk and be as we used to be."
He then told me that most of the Indians liked me and thought I was a
friend, but that "Yank" and his crowd thought I was a spy and wanted to
kill me; but that if I could win him I would be all right. After this
I hadn't much fear, for I did not believe Yank would kill me for he
needed a saddle very badly.
I soon learned the general condition of affairs, getting information
both from the Indians themselves and some of the whites at the agency.
Tabby, and quite a number of the better disposed Utes, claimed that
they never had been at war with the Mormons, but acknowledged that they
had a very bad feeling about the killing of some of their friends under
circumstances that did not justify, telling about Tabby's half-brother,
who, Tabby claims, was a friend and not an enemy.
I myself knew of several instances where Indians were killed, that to
me looked a little crooked, and when their friends talked about these
cases, I could not help but admit sometimes that they had a right to
get mad. One Indian, known as Big-Mouth-Jim, took quite a liking to me
and became quite communicative. He was very faithful, never deceiving
me. He would tell me how the Indians talked about me; what their plans
were for raiding, and gave me advice how to control their actions, by a
little stratagem.
The season was getting late. Coalville was selected as the place to
raid. Yank had everything arranged but could not go without a saddle as
his was about used up. Jim advised me to put him off, saying that if I
could do so until snow fell that he would not go and perhaps by spring
I could "make him good."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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