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
But when they had arrived at the bluffs, on the edge of the valley,
they were surprised to see a bountiful supper spread on the bank of the
stream, close by the Forks, and a white woman close by, standing up and
making signs to them to descend from the bluffs.
Having never before seen a "white squaw," they were greatly astonished.
The medicine-man descended to the valley. The white woman told him that
the Great Spirit would talk to the council through her. She told him
that the wars of the tribe were displeasing to the Great Spirit, and
they must make peace with the Sioux nation. When that was done, the
great chief, "The-Bear-that-grabs," must return to her.
They sent out runners to the Sioux, and peace was declared between the
tribes for the first time in one hundred years.
She then told the great chief to follow the mountain in a westerly
course, until he came to the Big Horn River, and where the rock was
perpendicular, _he was to shoot three arrows, hitting the rock each
time_.
The chief departed on his mission, and as he gained the bluffs from the
stream, he looked back at the white squaw, but what was his surprise
when he saw her rising in the air and floating towards the mountains!
He watched her until she disappeared over the highest peak towards the
sky.
The chief pursued his journey, and, arriving at the place told him by
the white squaw, he discharged his arrows. The first one struck in
rock. The second flew over the mountain. The third was discharged, and
a terrible noise followed: the heavens were aglow with lightning; the
thunder shook the mountains. The earth trembled, and the rocks were
rent asunder, and out of the fissure countless herds of buffalo came,
filling the valleys and the hills. The hearts of the Indians were glad,
and they ate and were merry, and returned thanks to the Great Spirit
and to the good white woman.
The great fissure in the rocks is the canon of the Big Horn River.
Iron Bull avers that when anything of note is about to befall the
tribe, the image of the white woman can be seen hovering over the peak
of the mountain at "Crazy Woman's Fork." He says the Crows have never
killed any of the whites, and his people say and believe "that they are
treated by the government agents worse than the tribes who give us all
the trouble."
In other words, because they are peaceable, we need not, as with
others, to buy them off with presents. And they say we have taken some
of their lands and given them to the Sioux, who were fighting and
destroying the whites as often as they could.
PHIL. KEARNEY MASSACRE.
One of the most fearful and fatal massacres on the plains that is
known, occurred in the forenoon of December 21st, 1866, at Fort Phil.
Kearney, Dakota.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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