With Sully into the Sioux Land — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
With Sully into the Sioux Land
John Stuart Mill · en
The latter, it now seemed clearly established, was an Upper Yanktonais
warrior named Te-o-kun-ko, or, in English, The Swift. From the
statements of hostile Indians who had talked with friendlies or had
surrendered to the troops during the campaign, it appeared that this man
had not been with the main body of the Indians during the Summer; he had
taken his family, in company with a small party of about a dozen other
lodges, over into the country along the Yellowstone and Powder Rivers,
in Idaho. They had probably spent the season in hunting and skirmishing
occasionally with the Crows, the powerful people occupying most of that
region, who were hereditary enemies of the Sioux. It must be understood
that the great Sioux Nation consists of a number of different tribes, of
which the Upper Yanktonais tribe is one, and the Lower Yanktonais
another. It seemed that he still had with him the white boy whom he had
captured in Minnesota. The lad seemed perfectly contented and was
displaying such aptitude and prowess in learning to ride, shoot, hunt,
and perform the other feats of skill, agility, and hardihood which the
Indians regard as most manly, that Te-o-kun-ko took great pride and
delight in him and was evidently trying to wean him away from any
longing for his white relatives, in the hope of eventually making him,
to all practical intents, a full-fledged Sioux warrior.
General Sibley added that in the Spring of 1864 General Sully would
almost certainly lead another expedition up the Missouri to fight the
Indians, though whether he himself would move against them again was
doubtful. He renewed his regrets that he had been unable to recapture
Tommy, and his hopes that another year would surely see him restored to
his family, and here the letter ended.