Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
Only a short time ago, since coming to Idaho, I heard that she had
really found some of her relatives somewhere in the state of
Oregon, where she remained and raised a family; while a still
later report is that she is married to a rich merchant and is
living somewhere in the state of New York.
I have often thought of this poor girl since, and it has always
been a question in my mind whether I did right in taking her away
from the Indians after she had been with them so long; but if I
did do right, and she or any of her relatives should by chance see
this work and glance over its pages, I wish to say that to that
kind-hearted Indian girl of the Pima tribe, Nawasa by name, and
her brother belong the praise of rescuing Olive Oatman from
the Apache Indians.
In the first place, had it not been for her and her brother, I
would never have known of the girl, and even after I knew she was
there, I could not have done anything without Nawasa's assistance,
for she could not have worked more faithfully and earnestly if
there had been a thousand dollars in the operation for her.
On my return trip I rode the first day to the Pima village and
remained there that night.
I hired my young Indian friend to go among the Apaches and trade
beads for furs, and he went home with me.
Nawasa was very anxious to know how I got through with the girl,
but did not dare say anything while in camp; so the next morning
when her brother and I were leaving she caught a horse and rode
with us some distance. As soon as we were out of hearing of the
other Indians, she and her brother commenced asking all sorts of
questions concerning the girl; whether I thought she would be
happy with her own people or not.
Those Indians had learned in some way that somewhere, a long
distance away, the white people had great villages, and Nawasa
asked if I thought the white girl would be taken to the large
cities.
The young Indian and I arrived at our camp about four o'clock that
afternoon and found Jim Beckwith in a splendid humor, for he was
glad to see me. He had given up all hope of ever seeing me again,
for he thought the Apaches had followed me up and killed me. I
told him what I had brought the young Indian for, and he was well
pleased with the arrangement.
We fitted him out with beads that cost us twenty dollars, and tin
pans and blankets, agreeing to come to his village in two weeks
for our furs.
When the two weeks were up we took our pack-horses and went to the
village, and to our surprise he had traded off the beads and
blankets to much better advantage than we could have done
ourselves.
For this favor we gave him in compensation two pairs of blankets,
four brass finger rings and four strings of beads; and the young
fellow thought he had been well treated for his trouble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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