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
One day my scouts came in from the south and reported seeing a
band of Indians, about ten or fifteen in number, two miles away
and coming direct for the train. I struck out alone at full speed
in that direction to ascertain what kind of Indians they were,
there being another man whose business it was to take charge of
the train at any time I was away, and in case of an attack or
danger of such, it was his business to corral the train and
prepare for battle.
I had only gone a half mile when I met the Indians, and they
proved to be Arapahoes. I was personally acquainted with all of
them and asked them to go to the train with me, telling them it
was just over the ridge. This they agreed to do, saying: "We will
go to the train and then all will go out and kill some buffalo
this evening."
We rode leisurely along until in sight of the train, and the
moment the people saw me riding with the Indians on each side of
me, they felt sure that I had been taken prisoner, and all the
hustling and bustling around to get those wagons corralled, beat
anything I had ever seen, and they were all so badly excited that
it was no use to try to hello at them.
They were afraid to shoot at the Indians for fear they might shoot
me, or if they did not shoot me, they were afraid that if they
should shoot the Indians they would retaliate by shooting me down.
The wagons being corralled, we rode around the entire train. I
left the Indians and rode inside of the corral and told the people
that these were peaceable Indians and were all friends of mine,
and that I wanted every man, woman and child to come out and shake
hands with them. Quite a number hesitated, believing that I had
been taken prisoner by the Indians and had been compelled to do
this in order to save my own life, and believing that those
Indians wanted to murder the entire train.
But after reasoning with them for a while I succeeded in
convincing them that the Indians were peaceable. Then they all
went out and shook hands except the two darkies, who were not to
be found any where about the train at that time. I then told the
man whose duty it was to look after the train in my absence, to
drive about three miles and camp, describing the place, and that I
would go with the Indians and kill some buffalo, so that we might
have fresh meat, telling him to have each family cook a little
bread extra for the Indians, and that they would furnish meat
enough to do to-night and to-morrow, and was off for the buffalo
hunt.
The Indians told me there was a band of buffalo about two or three
miles ahead of us near the road.
We pushed on, on the main road, and sure enough right in the
little valley where I had told the captain to camp, we saw a band
of buffalo feeding. We all made a dash for them, and succeeded in
killing five fat buffalo, and on the ground, enough for the entire
train.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account