Life and adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas panhandle : $b A narrative in which is described many things relating to the early SouthwestDixon, Billy
History
Life and adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas panhandle : $b A narrative in which is described many things relating to the early Southwest
Dixon, Billy
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895
Among the notable chiefs were: Satanta, Kicking Bird, Black Kettle,
Medicine Arrow, and Lone Wolf. Black Kettle was then at the height of
his power, but soon to meet the death he had so often inflicted. He
led the Cheyenne raid in the valley of the Solomon River in August,
1868, and had been in the Sand Creek fight in Colorado, November,
1864, where Colonel Chivington, commanding a regiment of Colorado
troops massacred a lot of Cheyennes. I camped on that battleground in
1870 while hunting buffaloes. The spot was still strewn with bones of
the dead, and the trees were yet scarred by the hail of bullets that
had come from the guns of the soldiers, who killed old and young,
women and children, without mercy, and atrociously mutilated the
bodies of the dead. In 1866, at Fort Harker, Black Kettle had made a
speech of great eloquence, asking the Government not to permit the
building of railroads through the Indian country, as it would drive
away the buffaloes and leave the Indians to starve.
This fear of the change that would follow the building of railroads
across the Plains was night and day in the heart of the Indian. No
chief made a speech in which he did not refer to it. In June, 1871,
Little Raven, Powder face, and Bird Chief, Arapahoes; Little Robe and
Stone Calf, Cheyennes, and Buffalo Good, Wichita, were taken to
Washington and Boston, that they might be impressed with the white
man's strength, and futility of the Indians' further resistance the
Government. Stone Calf, in a speech at Tremont Temple, Boston, handled
the railroad question in this manner.
"They (the Government) said they would teach our people to plant and
raise corn, and to build our habitations from trees. But before they
ever ploughed or planted an acre of corn for us they commenced to
build railroads through our country. What use have we for railroads in
our country? What have we to transport from our nations? Nothing. We
are living wild, really living on the prairies as we have in former
times. I do not see that we have been benefitted in the least by all
the treaties that we have made with the United States Government."
We went into camp on Medicine Lodge Creek, to wait until the gathering
Indians had come in. Near us was a small village of Indians, to whom a
runner came on the third day to notify them that some of their
livestock had been stolen by the Kaws, a neighboring tribe. We could
see the wave of excitement run over the village, and the bucks running
to and fro, getting ready for the pursuit. The squaws were no less
active. They helped saddle the ponies, etc., and jabbered and screamed
to each other in a way that would have made it hard for the marauders
had they been captives in the custody of the squaws. As each buck got
ready, he rode away without waiting for his companions. They returned
later in the day with their ponies, but had been unable to overtake
the thieves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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