Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux IndiansKelly, Fanny
History
Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians
Kelly, Fanny
Dakota Indians -- History; Dakota Indians -- Wars -- 1862-1865; Indian captivities -- West (U.S.); Kelly, Fanny, 1845-1904
I endeavored to enlighten her, and to do her all the good I could; told
her of the white people, and of their kindness and Christianity, trying
to impress her with the superiority of the white race, all of which she
listened to with great interest.
I was the only white woman she had seen, for whenever they neared any
fort she was always kept out of sight.
She seemed to enjoy painting herself, and dressing for the dances,
as well as the squaws, and was happy and contented with Indian
surroundings, for she knew no difference.
I know not what has become of her, for I have never heard; neither can
I remember the name of her father, which was in the note handed the
Indian by his dying hand.
A little boy, fourteen years old, whose name was Charles Sylvester,
belonging in Quincy, Illinois, who was stolen when seven years of age,
was in the village, and one day I saw him playing with the Indian boys,
and, discovering immediately that he was a white boy, I flew to his
side, and tried to clasp him in my arms, in my joy exclaiming, “Oh!
I know you are a white boy! Speak to me, and tell me who you are and
where you come from?” He also had forgotten his name and parentage, but
knew that he was white.
When I spoke to him, the boys began to plague and tease him, and he
refused to speak to me, running away every time I approached him.
One year after, one day, when this boy was out hunting, he killed a
comrade by accident, and he dared not return to the village; so he
escaped, on his pony, to the white people. On his way to the States,
he called at a house where they knew what Indians he belonged to, and
they questioned him, whether he had seen a white woman in the village;
he replied in the affirmative, and a bundle of pictures being given
him, he picked mine out from among them, saying, “That is the white
woman whom I saw.”
After awhile, being discontented with his own people, he returned to
his adopted friends on the North Platte, and became an interpreter and
trader, and still remains there, doing business at various posts.
When the Indians went to obtain their annuities, they transferred me
to the Unkpapas, leaving me in their charge, where there was a young
couple, and an old Indian, who had four wives; he had been very brave,
it was said, for he had endured the trial which proves the successful
warrior. He was one of those who “looked at the sun” without failing in
heart or strength.
This custom is as follows: The one who undergoes this operation is
nearly naked, and is suspended from the upper end of a pole by a cord,
which is tied to some splints which run through the flesh of both
breasts. The weight of his body is hung from it, the feet still upon
the ground helping support it a very little, and in his left hand
he holds his favorite bow, and in his right, with a firm hold, his
medicine bag.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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