Three Years on the Plains: Observations of Indians, 1867-1870Tuttle, Edmund B. (Edmund Bostwick)
History
Three Years on the Plains: Observations of Indians, 1867-1870
Tuttle, Edmund B. (Edmund Bostwick)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Great Plains
Pickets were stationed all around us, and, save the snoring of some
tired sleeper and the occasional braying of a mule or two, we slept
soundly, with no fear of Indians. Here we met a white man and his wife,
a squaw, and several others, who were waiting for Red Cloud and his
chiefs, who were on their way to Washington from Fort Fetterman. They
were related to John Reichaud, a half-breed belonging to Red Cloud's
party. This Reichaud had lived about Laramie and Fetterman for many
years, and, by raising stock and trading, had accumulated, it is said,
about two hundred thousand dollars. During last winter, while drunk, he
quarreled with a soldier, and a little while after, in passing some
barracks at Fetterman, he aimed his revolver at a soldier, who was
sitting in front of his quarters, named Kernan, and killed him,
supposing it was the same soldier he had just before been quarreling
with. Finding out his mistake, he fled away up to Red Cloud's camp, and
while there incited the Indians to make war upon the whites. At the
time we were going up, General John E. Smith was journeying towards us
with Red Cloud and his band of warriors, and having Reichaud as the
chief's prisoner. It was said he expected to get the President to
pardon him and allow him to establish a trading-post for the
Ogallallas. The feeling against this outlaw was such as to make General
Smith fear that some one at Cheyenne would shoot him, and so the party
turned off to Pine Bluff Station, about forty-three miles east of that
town. We thus missed seeing them. But there were other objects of
interest in our journey, and we went on to the mail station, called the
Chug, a place not of much note,--for beside a company of cavalry, there
were not a dozen ranches there on the beautiful stream, along whose
banks were growing willow-trees, and the cottonwood also. Besides,
there were half a dozen tepees filled with half-breeds, who are herders
and wood-choppers in the mountains.
While the paymaster was dispensing the greenbacks to Uncle Sam's boys,
the doctor and I sallied out with a guide in search of those much
admired
MOSS AGATES,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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