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
STORY OF THE CAPTURED BRAVES.--WHY CAPTAIN JACK DESERTED.--
LOATHSOME CONDITION OF THE STRONGHOLD.--END OF THE WAR.--SOME
COMMENTS.
That evening I had a long conversation with Captain Jack, and from
him I learned the exact number of Indians in the cave. He said
there were twenty women, and maybe thirty children and twenty-two
warriors. He said they would not stay there long for they had
nothing to eat, and their ammunition was nearly gone.
I must admit that when I learned Jack's story of the way that he
had been both driven and pulled into this war, which I knew to be
a fact myself, I was sorry for him. He said that after the Indian
agent would not send them anything to eat he was forced to go away
from the reservation to catch fish to keep his people from
starving, for which purpose he was at the mouth of Lost river when
the soldiers came there. One morning before the soldiers fired on
him without even telling him to return to the reservation or
giving him any warning whatever. He said that he did not give
orders for his men to kill any white men that morning, but they
all got very angry at the soldiers for shooting at them. "That
day," said he, "I go to lava bed, my men scout all over country,
kill all white men they see."
After I was through talking with Jack, Gen. Wheaton sent for me to
come to his quarters, as he was anxious to learn what information
I had obtained. When I told him the number of Indians yet in the
cave and that they had nothing to eat, he asked me what would be
my plan for capturing the remainder. I told him that if I was
doing it, I would capture the entire outfit without losing a
single man, but that it would take a little time; that I would not
fire on them at all, but would double the picket line, and it
would not be many days until they would surrender, and in case
some of them did slip by the guards, we would pick them up before
they got twenty miles away.
The following morning a council was held in camp, and all the
commissioned officers were present. Now Captain Jack had been
captured, and according to reports, the other Indians were nearly
starved out, so that morning they did not open out on them at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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