The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 4: July 3, 1880-May 22, 1881

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 4 The Diaries of J G ohn regory volume 4 B ourke July 3, 1880–May 22,...

Author: Charles M. Robinson III

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The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 4

The Diaries of

J G ohn

regory

volume 4

B

ourke

July 3, 1880–May 22, 1881

Edited and Annotated by Charles M. Robinson III

University of North Texas Press Denton, Texas

©2009 Charles M. Robinson III All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Permissions: University of North Texas Press 1155 Union Circle #311336 Denton, TX 76203-5017 The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, z39.48.1984. Binding materials have been chosen for durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bourke, John Gregory, 1846–1896. The diaries of John Gregory Bourke / edited and annotated by Charles M. Robinson III. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-10 1-57441-263-9 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13 978-1-57441-263-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Bourke, John Gregory, 1846–1896—Diaries. 2. Soldiers—West (U.S.)—Diaries. 3. Indians of North America—Wars—1866–1895—Personal narratives. I. Robinson, Charles M., 1949– II. Title.

E83.866 .B75 2003 978’.02’092—dc21 2002152293 All illustrations are held by the United States Military Academy Library, West Point, NY. Cover photo of John Gregory Bourke is courtesy of the National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

To Robert Wooster

There is one who may wish to kill these Indians and I think he is foolish and without sense and if there is any one among you who can cure him, I hope you will do so and talk him out of his foolishness, so that the Indians may live and get along better. —Ponca Chief Standing Bear, Bourke Diary, 38:1018 Received an invitation from Major Powell, of the Ethnological Bureau of the Smithsonian Institute, to pay him a visit with references to a better acquaintance. —John Gregory Bourke, Diary, 38:1051

Contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................... viii Introduction................................................................................... 1 Part 1: More Staff Duties Background.................................................................................. 13 1: The Ute Country and the Mining Districts............................... 15 2: Into the Uintahs....................................................................... 43 3: Carl Schurz and Yellowstone National Park............................. 64 4: Wilderness Trails...................................................................... 86 5: A Trip East.............................................................................. 104 6: More Memories of Arizona..................................................... 121 7. Fort Niobrara and the New Agencies...................................... 131 Part 2: The Ponca Question Continues Background................................................................................ 153 8: A Summons to Washington.................................................... 158 9: The Ponca Commission.......................................................... 172 10: The Indian Territory............................................................ 185 11: Agency Operations............................................................... 199 12: The Poncas Before Removal................................................. 218 13. The Dakota Poncas Speak.................................................... 234 14: The Commission Concludes................................................ 262 Part 3: The Bureau of Ethnology Background................................................................................ 287 15. A New Assignment................................................................ 290 16. Bannock and Shoshone Customs......................................... 313 17. Back to the Southwest.......................................................... 343 18. In and Around Santa Fe....................................................... 362 19. Navajo Country.................................................................... 376 20. Among the Zunis.................................................................. 397 21. “So That I Could Show the White Men”............................... 422 Appendix: Persons Mentioned in the Diary................................ 442 Bibliography............................................................................... 510 Index.......................................................................................... 516

Acknowledgments I wish to express my appreciation to the people whose on-going efforts have made this series possible, particularly Ron Chrisman, director, and Karen DeVinney, managing editor, University of North Texas Press, for whom this sometimes seems like an endless project. Special thanks go to Lee Whittlesey, historian of Yellowstone National Park, and author of Storytelling in Yellowstone, who offered invaluable assistance. Mr. Whittlesey not only sorted out the convoluted administration of Yellowstone in its early days, but also cross-referenced the landmarks mentioned in Bourke’s text, with their names and locations in the modern park. The chapters on the Yellowstone visit therefore are much more useful to the reader than they would have been without his efforts. Such is the assistance I have always received from representatives of the National Park Service. At the United States Military Academy Library, West Point, New York, Susan Lintelmann, manuscripts curator, and Herbert LaGoy, archives technician, Special Collections and Archives Division, provided supplemental information on Bourke and his service as a cadet at the Academy. As I have stated in previous volumes, Bourke often scribbled field notes, and then transcribed them to a formal journal. These transcribed journals, in some cases written much later, form the basis of the manuscript volumes in the West Point Library. Sometimes the original field notes are also included in the subvolumes, but in other cases they are not. One of the original volumes of field notes, concerning Bourke’s work among the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi, is held in the Special Collections of the University of Arizona Library, Tucson. I was made aware of this by Louis A. Hieb of Seattle, who formerly headed Special Collections. Scott Cossel, currently with Special Collections, provided me with a copy. Thus I was able to compare the original with Bourke’s later transcription in West Point, and together they form the basis of Chapters 19–21 of this volume. I have discussed this further in the introduction to this volume. I greatly appreciate the help of both Mr. Hieb and Mr. Cossel. Here I should point out that upon learning of this volume in Arizona, I made

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inquiries with major libraries throughout the country to determine if there are others known outside the West Point collection, and so far have found none. Thanks to the administration of South Texas College, McAllen, Texas, Dr. Shirley A. Reed, president; Juan Mejía, vice president for instruction; Shirley Ingram, director of Human Resources; Dr. Margaretha Bischoff, dean, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences; and Dr. Christopher Nelson, chairman, Department of History and Philosophy, who have provided latitude and encouragement for this project. For this volume, which was disrupted by a serious illness, I want to thank all my friends and colleagues for their continued support and encouragement. On that subject, I wish to acknowledge the efforts of Dr. Todd A. Shenkenberg, Dr. Ramon Argüelles, Dr. Eduardo Flores, Dr. Eric Taylor, Dr. Stanley Sy, Dr. Ruben Lopez, and Dr. William Heins. Since the inception of this series, Robert Wooster has patiently gone over each volume, raising points, offering constructive criticism, and providing useful references on matters that were not clear, or that he felt should be developed more. For that reason, this volume is dedicated to him, with gratitude. Thanks also to Paul Hedren for his helpful comments on the manuscript for this volume, and his encouragement throughout all my projects.

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Introduction to Volume 4

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olume 4 of this series covers John Gregory Bourke’s diaries and notebooks from July 3, 1880, through May 22, 1881,1 and from half-way through manuscript volume 34 to about one-third of manuscript volume 40. The material comes from 124 manuscript volumes and several subvolumes held in the United States Military Academy Library in West Point, New York. The diaries were donated to West Point in 1936 by Bourke’s daughter, Mrs. Sara Bourke James, as a “gift outright” and now are in the public domain.2 The Zuni material in West Point’s manuscript volume 40, which appears in Chapters 20 and 21 of this book, is duplicated in a Bourke manuscript held in the special collections of the University of Arizona Library in Tucson. The Arizona volume appears to be Bourke’s original notes and sketches, while the West Point volume is a later copy with supplemental notes and information. Bourke often copied and expanded his notes, although in most cases, both the original and the copy are held by West Point. In the Bourke series, this volume is significant in two respects. First, a large portion centers around the continuing controversy

1. Volume 3 ends on June 22, 1880, but Bourke made no further entries until July 3. 2. Alan C. Aimone, assistant librarian for Special Collections Division, United States Military Academy Library, to Charles M. Robinson III, March 29, 1995.

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concerning the forced relocation of the Ponca Indians from their ancient homeland along the Dakota-Nebraska line to a new reservation in the Indian Territory.3 Second, an equally large portion concerns Bourke’s ethnological work under official sanction from the army and the Bureau of Ethnology, work which would make a profound change in his life and his place in history. Aside from a summary of the entire Ponca affair in about two pages, virtually none of this material appears in Bourke’s classic On the Border With Crook.4 The diaries, however, are much more detailed, and contain two of the longest manuscript volumes encountered to date in this series. Volume 38, consisting largely of transcripts on the Ponca hearings, is 192 handwritten pages, and volume 39, where Bourke begins work with the Bureau of Ethnology, is 190 handwritten pages. In the published diaries, much of Volume 3 involves staff duties, which continue with this volume. When Volume 4 opens, Bourke has recently been ordered to report to West Point as an instructor. Eventually, however, he opts against it, and the War Department grants his request to revoke the order.5 This is the second time Bourke has been assigned to West Point. The first, in 1873, was blocked by Crook on the grounds that he was necessary for the general’s staff. Bourke was satisfied with Crook’s attitude, believing the staff position would do more for his career than serving as an instructor at the academy.6 He does not give his motive for rejecting the appointment in 1880, but presumably, he has become comfortable as the general’s aide. Bourke joined General Crook’s staff in 1872, but much of the time until 1877 was spent in the field, on campaigns in which Crook took personal charge. Beginning with Volume 3, however, and continuing in this volume, Bourke spends more time behind a desk, or on inspection and other duties. This gives him time to 3. As the vast plains region of the Louisiana Purchase was divided and redivided, the boundaries between newly created territories often were vague. This was the case with Dakota Territory (the part which is modern South Dakota) and Nebraska, and causes confusion as to where the Poncas traditionally lived. Their home was on both sides of the lower Niobrara River, in an area generally considered to be in Dakota. In 1874, however, the boundary was surveyed, and lands presumed to have been in Dakota proved to be on the Nebraska side of the line. Consequently, the Poncas are now considered to be a Nebraska tribe, although during much of the nineteenth century they were said to be from Dakota, a usage that continued even after the boundary was fixed. See Robinson, “Standing Bear vs. Crook,” 445. 4. Bourke, On the Border, 427–29. 5. Robinson, Diaries, 3:410, 412; Bourke, Diary, 34:571, 639. 6. Porter, Paper Medicine Man, 20–21.

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observe and reflect on the profound and rapid changes occurring as the West develops. Describing a day trip on an excursion train between Omaha and Oakland, Nebraska, in July 1881, he remarks, “Last year, I described this part of Nebraska at some length (in my note-book for August)7 and will only say now that the remark to be added is improvement everywhere.”8 He is particularly fascinated with technology, and could border on the clairvoyant when it came to industrial and technological developments. In much of his writing, he expresses admiration for the achievements of Thomas Edison who, among other things, invented a practical means of electric lighting. This, of course, replaced the open flame of gas lights, candles, or oil lamps. As Bourke rode with Crook on the train from Omaha to the Indian Territory, he made a casual observation that shows just how dangerous life could be in the era before electricity. “We took on at New Hamburgh, Iowa, the remains of two lovely young ladies, 17 and 18 years old, who had been burned to death while dressing for a party.”9 Bourke is less capable, however, in judging people. His staff duties bring him into contact with many prominent individuals. He is particularly unimpressed with the commander of the army, General W.T. Sherman, who, he wrote, “is largely made up of the demagogue and will not survive in history.”10 He also is harsh on President Rutherford B. Hayes, now finishing out his term. As noted in earlier volumes, Crook had strong ties with the Hayes family, dating back to the Civil War when the future president had served under Crook. The diary records a visit with the Hayes family in Washington, including Christmas dinner at the White House in 1880 where, in accordance with Lucy Hayes’s teetotaling dictates, alcohol was not served. “The absence of wine didn’t cause me any inconvenience,” Bourke remarked, “but I must say that I was sorry to think Mrs. Hayes’ views had induced her to proscribe its use at the White House, more especially on occasions of state where she had to entertain distinguished foreigners who have been accustomed to its use from boyhood.”11 7. This material is contained in Robinson, Diaries, Volume 3, Chapter 14. 8. Bourke, Diary, 34:593. 9. Ibid., 37:905. 10. Ibid., 36:746. 11. Ibid., 37:898.

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Assessing President Hayes, Bourke commented, “President Hayes made such an ado about reform in the administration of the Government that some people four years ago were deluded into believing that he was honest in his expressions, but a uniform duplicity and treachery have convinced the nation that something besides Apollinaris water at a State Dinner or an unctious outpouring of sanctimonious gab at all times, is needed to make a man holy.”12 Such has been the view of Hayes in our time as well. The fact, overlooked by Bourke and many others, was that Hayes was a pragmatic politician, tempering his own high ideals with what was politically possible. He strictly constructed the Constitution, staying well within its limits. And his determination to restrict himself to a single term meant that the impact of his reforms often was not felt until well after he left office.13 On the other hand, Bourke liked Lucy Hayes. Despite her prohibition of alcohol, he described her as “a lady, gracing her position with dignity and sweetness.”14 Christmas at the White House was not Bourke’s only entry on meals. Throughout the diaries, he comments on food found on his travels. In 1880, he admits, My notes have with such frequency dilated upon good meals in the course of our travels, that I may be accused of epicurism. Be it so. I regard well cooked food as one of the greatest blessings that can come to humanity and especially American humanity. I hope to live to see the day when American ladies shall proudly boast of their skill in domestic matters and when the serving up of a poor meal to travellers shall be a crime punishable with death.15 His travels are now taking him to Eastern cities as well as Western communities. In New York, he watches construction work on the Brooklyn Bridge and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, visits Macy’s which he does not believe compared to Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia, and is a guest at the Union and University Clubs. He acknowledges that these clubs are “fine affairs, well conducted and having some of the best men of the city,” but adds the cryptic statement, “there is 12. Ibid., 38:1055–56. 13. Hayes’s life and career are discussed in Hoogenboom, Rutherford B. Hayes, Warrior and President. 14. Bourke, Diary, 37:900. 15. Ibid., 34:616.

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something about Club Life that strikes me as demoralizing. I don’t believe in them, as at present managed and am afraid they do more harm than good.”16 As he often does, now that he is removed from the field, Bourke reminisces about what he perhaps now remembers as “the good old days” of frontier duty in Arizona. Of particular interest, considering his Roman Catholicism, is the story of how he got drafted by a group of ladies into helping assemble a series of tableaux to raise funds for a community—and most definitely Protestant—church in Prescott (the idea of the tableaux originating with the well-meaning, but doddery old chaplain at nearby Fort Whipple, where Bourke was posted).17 Early in the morning a very sweet lady approached me, went into ecstasies over my appearance, said I always looked so well, expressed herself as happy to think she wasn’t a young maiden any more because she didn’t know what she should do with such a handsome man living in the same town,— and much more to same effect. I wish I could say that I told her—“get thee behind me, Satan”, but I didn’t. I swallowed all this “taffy” and much more and believed it all.... Bourke hammered and nailed until his shoulders ached. But when he overheard the same lady delivering the same line to Dr. Calvin De Witt, the post surgeon, he decided enough was enough, and De Witt was suckered into finishing the job.18 Bourke may have been tolerant of Protestantism, but he had the vehement aversion to Mormonism common among non-Mormons of all persuasions during that era. He equated Mormonism with ignorance, and in 1875 had speculated (erroneously, of course) that the arrival of the railroad and the opening of Utah to outsiders ultimately would bring an end to the religion.19 Five years had not changed his opinions of the Latter-Day Saints. 16. Ibid., 36:760–61. 17. Fort Whipple was established December 23, 1863, in the Chino Valley, about twenty-five miles north of Prescott, and relocated to Prescott five months later. The first telegraph linking Arizona to the outside world was established between Whipple and San Diego in 1873. In 1879, Fort Whipple was consolidated with Prescott Barracks to become Whipple Barracks. It served as departmental headquarters until 1887, when Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles moved headquarters to Los Angeles. Deactivated in 1922, it is now used by the Veterans Administration as a hospital. Altshuler, Starting with Defiance, 63–67; Frazer, Forts of the West, 14–15. 18. Bourke, Diary, 36:798–99. 19. Robinson, Diaries, 1:152.

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In July 1880, he was on a train going north from Salt Lake City, the passengers of which seemed to be about evenly divided between General Crook’s party and Mormons. Two of the Mormons were girls, not bad looking and one of a decidedly fine figure. To listen to their garrulous chat with the brakeman, one would infer they were on their way to some of the missions or “stakes” the Mormon church is constantly establishing in this Territory. I refer to them because they appeared to be better than the average Mormon women and still ignorant enough.20 Other prejudices appear as the diaries progress and Bourke is thrown into contact with more diverse people. Racism previously manifested itself concerning blacks, particularly during a horsebuying trip to Kentucky.21 Now, we also see a streak of anti-Semitism. In Santa Fé, he comments that among those filling the narrow streets of the city during the day were “a motley crew of hook-nose Jews,” and, a short time later during a band concert in the square, he remarked, “here in the streets, cavorting on prancing plugs from the livery stable, are a dozen hook-nosed descendants of the babies that Herod unfortunately failed to kill–Will they ever pass away?...the answer ‘Never! The progeny of Moses is ineradicable!![’]”22 Inspection tours show the profound changes that have overtaken the Indians in only a few years of settlement on reservations. At the new Spotted Tail, or Rosebud, Agency, Bourke found a conference in progress, where the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad was trying to buy right of way across the reservation. Although the Great Sioux War had ended only three years earlier, and the Red Cloud War of 1866–68 was still of recent memory, the Indians had wasted little time in determining what was valuable to the whites. Spotted Tail and Red Cloud evinced as much astuteness as a couple of old Philadelphia lawyers and succeeded in obtaining from the Rail Road Company what I took to be extremely fine prices, viz: One hundred and ten dollars per mile, for the linear distance (185 miles,) from the Missouri across the Reservation, the width of the strip ceded to be two hundred feet; any ground required by the company in excess of this 20. Bourke, Diary, 34:607. 21. Robinson, Diaries, 3:375, 382–83. 22. Bourke, Diary, 39:1212, 1214–15.

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to be paid for at the rate of $4 per acre, excepting 1000 acres at the crossing of the Missouri, for which five dollars per Acre should be paid.23 The chiefs obviously realized bridge approaches were prime real estate and upped the ante. Visiting the Uintah Utes, Bourke made an observation that summed up the entire problem facing the government as it tried to formulate a fair policy toward Indians. This Agency is on a branch of the main Uintah Creek, near the junction of the latter with the Duchesne.—in the midst of a large meadow of several thousand Acres....The number of Indians on the Reservation is only 450, a gross waste of the public domain. There is an abundance of farm-land in this tract,—enough to give a good farm to every man or boy of the whole Ute nation and yet leave a large region open to settlement.24 Indeed, it was hard to explain to poverty-stricken Easterners, crammed into cold, dark tenements at perhaps 450 per city block in New York or Boston, why 450 Indians needed several thousand acres in Utah. And such often was the basis of land seizures.

Format of the Edited Diaries Editing a work like the Bourke diaries is not necessarily confined to transcription, but also to rendering the text into a readable form while preserving the author’s original flavor and intent. Purists, such as Wayne R. Kime, who achieved the monumental task of preparing the Richard Irving Dodge journals for publication, adhere strictly to the original text, including cross-outs and insertions. On the opposite side of the coin, Lt. Col. Thomas T. Smith, former assistant professor of military history at West Point, took Cpl. Emil Bode’s German syntax, fractured spelling, and erratic punctuation and rendered them more easily understood by the casual reader.25 With Bourke’s diaries, I have chosen the middle ground between these two positions, and have undertaken a basic format to preserve as much as possible the flavor of the manuscript, while making it intelligible to the reader and without being cumbersome. Orders and Clippings. By and large, clippings are simply correspondents’ versions of events that Bourke himself recounted in 23. Ibid., 36:807. 24. Ibid., 35:663–64. 25. See Smith, A Dose of Frontier Soldiering.

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detail. Because of the enormity of this material, and its availability elsewhere, it has been deleted in favor of Bourke’s own manuscript text. In some instances, this includes entire volumes that are nothing more than collections of clippings and copies of orders. Abbreviations, Spelling, and Grammar. Bourke used many abbreviations. The @ symbol often appears as a substitute for the word “or” and sometimes for “to” as in “15 @ 50 feet.” While I have tried to remain as faithful as possible to the original text, for the sake of clarity I have spelled out the more common abbreviations, such as cardinal directions, “left,” “right,” “miles,” and “road,” as well as those he used frequently, such as “good grass and water,” and “creek.” For those that are less common or obvious, I have inserted the missing letters in [brackets], except when the abbreviations are scattered, requiring several sets of brackets within one word; in such cases, I have spelled out the word in brackets. When a word is illegible, but the meaning can be inferred, I have placed the probable word with a question mark in [brackets?]. If the meaning cannot be inferred, I have written it as [illegible]. Otherwise, I have transcribed the text as is, with all its inconsistencies, such as “tipi,” “teepee,” and sometimes even “tépi,” all of which he used to designate the conical Indian lodge. Names of individuals suffered in the same fashion. All such instances have been noted in the biographical sketches in Appendix 1. Spelling differences are a combination of changes in form between Bourke’s era and ours, lack of standardization in words that were relatively new to English in the nineteenth century, and Bourke’s own peculiarities. American English had not yet completely broken with the mother tongue, and British forms, such as “-re” instead of “-er” (i.e., centre, meagre) were standard. Some words, like “Mississipi,” “accomodate,” and “cayote,” are so commonplace in the manuscripts that I have not bothered even to note them, except on those rare occasions that Bourke actually spelled them correctly. In infrequent or inconsistent cases, I have followed the word with [sic]. Interestingly enough, as the years progressed, Bourke tended to pay more attention to spelling out words, as well as to punctuation and capitalization. Consequently these become less of an issue than in earlier volumes. Punctuation and Capitalization. Bourke tended to use periods and commas outside quotation marks rather than within. I lean to-

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ward leaving Bourke’s punctuation intact except for cases where it renders the text absolutely confusing. Capitalization was erratic. For example, in giving times of day, he might use a.m./p.m., A.M./P.M., or am./pm. I have preserved his capitalization as much as possible. Paragraphing was also erratic, with new paragraphs sometimes indented, but often flush with the left margin. Emphasis. Bourke emphasized words by underlining them. Most of the time (but not always), he underlined names of people and places, dates, and geographical features of interest. Yet some of his emphasis seems little more than whimsy and, more than a century later, appears to have had no practical reason. In an effort to make it more readable, I have deleted the emphasis except where it enhances the impression he was trying to convey. Bourke occasionally annotated the entries after the fact, as new information came to hand. His notes are indicated by an asterisk (*) while mine are numbered. I have replaced Bourke’s brackets with parentheses, to avoid confusing his texts with mine. Personalities, etc. Often individuals are named with no explanation as to who they were. Bourke was, after all, writing for his own future reference and knew the people in question. I have attempted, in Appendix 1, to identify as many as possible, and in the case of army officers, have been relatively successful. After more than a century, however, it has not always been possible to identify Indians, enlisted soldiers, or civilians. The basic intent of the biographical sketches essentially is to explain who these people were, and why they went west. The criteria for the extent of the sketches is based on three factors: their importance in history, their importance to the narrative, and the availability of material on them. In many cases Bourke might make only a passing reference, such as, “I encountered Lieut. X,” this being the only reference to Lieutenant X in the entire narrative. Because of that, and because many such officers did not attain historical prominence, the sketch is minimal. Others, mentioned frequently, and/or historically important in their own right, receive more detailed treatment. Where Bourke uses the local name for plants, or names that might not be widely known, I have attempted to identify them and put the botanical name in the notes; I did not do so for commonly known plants. Bourke’s designations of the territories have been preserved,

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and when they do not reflect the modern name of the state, I have inserted the state in [brackets]. In my own commentaries, I have used the modern state names. Military Ranks. Bourke tended to use brevet ranks for officers who had attained them in the Union Army. Thus we see a reference to “General John H. King, Col. 9h Infantry,” the former being his brevet rank and the latter being his active rank at the time of writing. The biographical sketches of officers in Appendix 1 include both active and brevet ranks.

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Part 1 More Staff Duties

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his section covers staff duties along much the same lines as Volume 3, and in some instances is a follow-through on material covered in that volume. One particular instance is Fort Niobrara, Nebraska,1 the site for which Crook selected in 1879. Bourke covered that expedition in detail.2 In this volume, construction of the new post is underway, and Bourke is sent to inspect its progress. In this section, also, we see Interior Secretary Carl Schurz to a much greater degree than in Volume 3. In that volume, Schurz remains in the shadows, significant because of his hand in the Ponca Affair, which is also carried over from Volume 3. In Volume 4, however, Crook and Bourke accompany Schurz on a visit to Yellowstone National Park, where Bourke is able to observe him on a daily, and personal basis. Bourke had very little use for Schurz, his disdain apparently growing out of the Ponca Affair. At one point, he had gone so far as to call the secretary a “spindle-shanked Mephistopheles.”3 1. Fort Niobrara was established in 1880 on the Niobrara River, to protect cattlemen and settlers from whatever roaming bands of Indians might remain, and as an additional control over the Indians at the Spotted Tail Agency. It was abandoned in 1906 and is now a national wildlife refuge. Frazer, Forts of the West, 89. 2. See Robinson, Diaries, 3, Part 3. 3. Ibid., 3:409.

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The trip does nothing to change his basic opinion of the man, but Bourke does show a grudging admiration for Schurz’s intelligence. Although the Interior Department was created only in 1849, the secretary of the Interior was a much more powerful and prominent figure in the 1870s and 1880s than today. At that time, the United States was as committed to developing its interior as it was to foreign affairs, if not more so. The secretary of the Interior was responsible for facilitating that development. The army, although under the War Department, was a key factor in that development. It essentially was an internal police force, structured more toward suppressing Indian outbreaks and quelling domestic disturbances than involvement in foreign wars. The Interior Department often had the task of determining whether military intervention was necessary, a situation that did not endear it to the army command which, by training and temperament, viewed Indian fighting with disdain. While the Department of State negotiated with foreign powers as a matter of routine, the Interior Department was forced into a delicate balancing act of often conflicting national, regional, economic, social, and ethnic interests. Thus Schurz was a key member of the Hayes Cabinet and a power to be reckoned with.

Chapter 1 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The Ute Country and the Mining Districts

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uly 3rd 1880. An unusually pleasant and congenial party of ladies and gentlemen, left Omaha and Fort Omaha1 this morning for a ride over the line of the Omaha & Northern Nebraska R.R., to its terminus at Oakland Neb., and back. It consisted of Mrs. J. A. Horbach and her daughter, Miss Mary2 and son Paul, Mrs Watson and son, Burt; Miss Jeannette C. Jewett—all of Omaha, and Mrs. W. B. Royall, Miss Agnes Royall and Dr. [Richards] Barnett, Lieut. M. C. Foote and the writer—all of Fort Omaha. The ladies were all lovely and refined and extremely gentle and companionable—the gentlemen, well acquainted with each other and with the ladies whom they had in charge. No finer day for our purpose could have been selected; a brief rain the preceding evening had laid the dust and tempered the heat, so as to enable us to enjoy the fine scenery along the line of the road and to indulge in pleasant converse. Last year, I described this part of Nebraska at some length (in my note-book for August) and will only say now 1. Fort Omaha was established as Omaha Barracks in 1868, on the right bank of the Missouri River within the present city limits of Omaha, Nebraska. It was upgraded to fort in 1878. The post was replaced by Fort Crook in 1895, but has been reactivated several times, and the government has retained the military reservation. Frazer, Forts of the West, 89. 2.â•‡ Bourke married Mary Horbach on July 25, 1883. Porter, Paper Medicine Man, 201.

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that the remark to be added is improvement everywhere. Within the past six months, the North Nebraska [Railroad] has been merged in the combination known as the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha R.R. and is building a connection to unite Omaha and Saint Paul, Minn. Aside from its value as an entering wedge in the great Upper Missouri bottom lands, it will be of importance as a link between the lumber regions of Wisconsin and the corn lands of Nebraska, bringing pine from the former to Omaha for distribution and taking back thousands of tons of corn to Duluth for cheap lake shipment during the season of navigation. As another reason, I may add that it will do much to smash the “Iowa pool” which has done so much to the detriment of Omaha, which by the present census shows a pop. of 30.625, (a gain of 14.000 since ’70.) and which will in 1890 show not less than 55.000. Our run to Oakland was made without much to note and in due time: it is a small place; remarkable more for having grown out of a cornfield since last September than for any other feature. We had seen so many mushroom Western towns that none of our party manifested any special astonishment and all yielded to a slight emotion of disappointment on account of not seeing the “war dance” which, it was expected would be given by one hundred warriors of the Omaha tribe, whose village is not very many miles from Oakland. They were to have come in by noon, but at the hour of our departure nearly 1 P.M., there had been no signs of their arrival. To compensate for this little disappointment, our hostesses spread for us in the car a very acceptable lunch which included among other delicacies, fresh red raspberries gathered from the bushes almost at the moment of our passing Fort Calhoun.3 At every station and especially at Blair, where was a “grand pic-nic and veteran’s reunion”, with three enthusiastic bands belting the stuffing out of bass-drum and wheezing cornets, and a “parade” of militia armed with slats or laths instead of rifles—our party attracted much attention, on account of the lovely ladies with us who must have looked angelic by contrast with the great throng of frecklefaced, elephant-footed, big-waisted and coarse voiced Bohemian, Scandinavian and German women who surrounded them. On our return trip, we were joined by a party of our friends who had been on a fishing excursion in a special car which allowed them 3. A town, rather than a military post.


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the privilege of going from point to point at will. Mr. Millard, Mr. Tongalin, Mr. Yates, Col. [Marshall I.] Ludington, Mr. Gil, Collins, Lt. [William] Hoffman and others made up that party and knowing them all very well, I am free to say that on their trip they broke as many of the ten commandments as they conveniently could. They hadn’t secured many fish—about 100—black bass—all told, but they had consumed much bait—kept in black bottles marked “Schlitz’s Milwaukee”. In our car, on our return trip was Miss Susette La Flèche, or “Bright Eyes”—a pretty Ponca Indian lady, daughter of the old chief, Josep[h] La Flèche, or “Iron Eyes”, and formerly referred to at length in my note-books treating of the Ponca Indians.4 July 5 1880. Below is inserted the criticism written by Mr. John F. Finerty of the Chicago Times upon Captain Charles King’s little book, descriptive of General Crook’s campaign against the hostile Sioux and Cheyennes in 1876-7. No one better than Finerty understood the merits of that severe campaign, as no officer or soldier participated with greater zeal, patience and gallantry in all its trials and dangers than he.5 KING’S “CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK.” [“]Campaigning with Crook” is the title of a very interesting series of Indian war sketches, by Capt. Charles King, U.S.A., published by The Sentinel company, Milwaukee, Wis. Capt. King, who served with the 5th cavalry during the operations in Wyoming, Montana and Dakota, from June until November in the centennial year [1876], is very happy in his description of the marches, bivouacs, skirmishes, and vicissitudes generally of that famous campaign against the warlike aborigine of the northwest. 4.â•‡ Actually the La Flesche were Omaha, but became involved in the Ponca cause. Thrapp, Encyclopedia, 2:804–5. 5.â•‡ Finerty’s involvement in the campaign is discussed in detail in Robinson, Diaries, Vols. 1 and 2. This paperback book, whose full title is Campaigning with Crook: The Fifth Cavalry in the Sioux War of 1876, was the compilation a series of articles King originally wrote for the Sentinel, after he was retired on disability for wounds suffered during the Nez Percé War. An expanded version, together with some of King’s short stories, was published in 1890 by Harper Brothers of New York, as Campaigning with Crook and Stories of Army Life. The 1890 edition, together with Bourke’s classic On the Border With Crook, and Finerty’s War-Path and Bivouac, is largely responsible for Crook’s modern image as Spartan, taciturn, and modest. See Russell, Campaigning with King, 94–97, and Robinson, General Crook, 247.

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The 5th cavalry did not arrive in time to take part in the first action on Tongue river, June 9, which was simply an Indian reconnaissance, and a daring one, nor was that fine regiment present at the Rosebud fight, on June 17, eight days before Custer met his fate; but it battled the Cheyennes who attempted to join the hostiles, on War Bonnet creek, and sent them back discomfited to their agency, in July, 1876, and then marched northward to join Crook on Goose creek, where it arrived in August. The pictures of the “affairs” on the War Bonnets [sic] and at Slim buttes are spiritedly drawn. Capt. King’s recollection of his military experience on the cross march from Tongue river to the Little Missouri, and from Heart river to the Black Hills is wonderfully accurate, and brings back to every participator in that terrible promenade, when all of Crook’s command lived on horseflesh for a week, the full weight of his misery. Without tents, without a change of clothing, with but a single blanket, and during an eternal downpour of rain, that luckless body of troops suffered as few soldiers have suffered since Napoleon’s campaign in German mud, during the year 1813, from Lutzran to Leipsic [sic]. The fighting result of Gen. Crook’s experiment was not satisfactory to that energetic officer, but Capt. King claims that the hardships endured by his command in the fall of 1876 virtually terminated the great Sioux war, by starving the Indians out and compelling the surrender of Crazy Horse and the most formidable bands of the united tribes that won the victory on the Little Big Horn in midsummer. The author highly compliments Gen. Crook on the result. There is a fascination about Indian books that fairly carried the reader, especially the military reader, on the wild current of all that is left of the romantic in the war fare of the far west. In Capt. King’s stirring volume, the retired frontier soldier lives again amid the scenes of his early exploits. He hears the shrill yell of the circling savages as they dash among and around the slow-moving columns of infantry, or as they engage hand to hand the cavalry, who can not cope with the inimitable horsemanship of their foes. He hears the stern word of command, and the fierce crash of musketry,


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as the combat deepens. He stands beside the shallow graves of the slain, and listens around the bivouac-fire to the brief words of regret for the lost comrade. He sees again the wide, weary stretches of the virgin prairie, here and there intersected by a rushing river, on shore bands the cottonwood grows tall and green, and he discerns rising into the clouds in masses, grandly irregular, the matchless mountains of the Big Horn, whose passes are the indestructible gates of “the Indian Paradise.” For every person who has an interest in the history of the new “empire,” wrested from the despairing grasps of the gallant hostiles, by the fraud and force of our pioneers, Capt. King’s book cannot fail to be both amusing and interesting. It throws fresh light on an arduous Indian campaign that escaped the recognition it deserved both from the government and the people because of the climax of public excitement reached when Custer’s command was butchered, and also because of the Philadelphia exposition, and the presidential election, both of which were in progress at the very time when Gen. Crook was cutting a new path through the unexplored wilderness for the march of civilization. th July 5 1880. Genl. Crook, with General [George Alexander] “Sandy” Forsyth of Lieut-General Phil. Sheridan’s Staff, Lieut. Samuel Swigert, 2nd Cavalry, and the writer, left Omaha, on Union Pacific train for the West: General Forsyth going to the camp on White River, Colorado; Lieut. Swigert returning from leave to his post at Fort Ellis, Montana6; and General Crook and myself going to Fort Douglass, (Salt Lake,) Utah,7 preparatory to a trip into the country of the Uintah Utes. The day was one of Nature’s loveliest; a series of brisk showers early in the morning had refreshed the thirsty earth, cooled the air and brightened the dust-laden foliage. Birds sang gaily in the trees or darted about in the tall grass and fields of waving corn. Truly, I thought, Nebraska is the poor farmer’s Paradise; no timber to 6.â•‡ Fort Ellis was established in 1867 on the East Gallatin River, three miles west of Bozeman, to guard Bozeman, Bridger, and Flathead Passes. It was abandoned in 1886, and the military reservation was transferred to the Department of the Interior. Frazer, Forts of the West, 80. 7.â•‡ Fort Douglas, or Douglass, was established as a camp in 1862 east of Salt Lake City, to protect the Overland Mail and telegraph, control the Indians of the region, and watch over the Mormons, whose loyalty was suspect. It was upgraded to a fort in 1878. Ibid., 166.

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encumber the ground and all that is needed for building purposes readily obtainable at low rates from the R.R.s now cutting the state in all directions. The present census will show that Nebraska is entitled to four members of congress; in 1890 she’ll be able to win ten; it is not a matter of imagination to think that the population now flowing in is of a very elevated type of honest, intelligent and hard-working farmers who will make themselves felt in building up the young Commonwealth. Our train spun along on the level track in such a luxuriously comfortable way that at times one was scarcely sensible of the motion; each day adds new improvements to the “plant” of this great road. New branch lines, side track, switches, iron and steel bridges, cut stone culverts and new steel rails, not to speak of cars kept in the neatest and newest condition. Superintendt. J. F. Clark was in his special car attached to our train, on his way to inspect the new branch building from Julesburgh to Denver, Colo. General Forsyth gave me a most thrilling account of his fight with hostile Indians in the Republican River, in Kansas, in 1868.8 At the commencement of active operations in that year, General Sheridan placed Forsyth in command of a band of picked frontiersmen with orders to scout the country lying West and North of Fort Wallace, Kansas,9 in which small bands of Cheyennes & Sioux had been depredating with great boldness. As the Indians had been careful in each case to obscure their trail as much as possible, Forsyth circled about for four days, hoping to find pony or horse tracks which might lead him towards some camp of the enemy. His idea proved to be sound. At the end of the fourth afternoon, his men came upon the tracks of two ponies which were followed until dusk when the late camping place of a small group of ten or twelve was discovered and not far beyond this the trail of a great village, as plain as a wagon 8.â•‡ This refers to Forsyth’s fight at Beecher’s Island, on the Republican River, just inside Colorado from Kansas. Forsyth and a fifty-man scouting party held off a band of at least six hundred Oglala and Cheyenne warriors for eight days, September 17–25, 1868, until a relief column arrived from Fort Wallace. Forsyth lost six killed and fifteen wounded during the siege. See Utley, Frontier Regulars, 147–48. 9.â•‡ Fort Wallace was established at Camp Pond Creek in 1865, at the confluence of Pond Creek and the south fork of the Smoky Hill River. It was upgraded as Fort Wallace, the following year. The post was established to control Indians and protect the Butterfield Overland stage line. Fort Wallace was abandoned in 1882, and the reservation was transferred to the Department of the Interior two years later. Frazer, Forts of the West, 58–59.


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road. Forsyth knew that he was in for it. Success was impossible in the face of the odds he knew he must be prepared to encounter; his only hope was to be able to fall upon some of the stragglers from the main body and kill or capture them before their friends could come to their rescue. But in this purpose he was disappointed. Early one morning, a fierce attack was made upon his party before it had broken bivouac. Providentially, camp had been made the previous evening in the only locality for miles capable of affording adequate protection. The savages to the number of 970, all splendidly mounted and armed and superbly led, made a desperate charge, confident of their power to eat up at one bite Forsyth’s little band of 51, all told. His position was on a little island in a bend of the Republican where, altho’ the stream was narrow and shallow, the open sandy banks on both sides gave the Indians no protection while making this dash. Forsyth’s men kept as close as possible in the tall, green grass and behind such shelter as the cottonwood and willow saplings growing about them afforded. Forsyth speaks enthusiastically of the desperate valor of the Indians who moved in so close upon his lines that several of their dead fell within reach of the weapons in the hands of his men. Their leader—Roman Nose—was killed; also their head medicine man who had often vaunted his complete immunity from the bullets of the soldiers and whose loss was therefore all the more of a damper upon their enthusiasm. Still, they persisted in their purpose of wiping out the little party of intrepid scouts and made several other charges as brave and as ineffectual as the first. They then changed their tactics and made a regular investment, hoping to starve out the little garrison. (The dampness of the grass prevented them from trying their favorite trick of burning.) Forsyth’s situation now became desperate. Upon the distant hills, back of the line of feathered and painted warriors, and stimulating them by voice and gesture, he could discern groups of Sioux and Cheyenne women and children to a total of several thousands. He had already suffered a loss of 24 killed and wounded, had no food in his camp and could expect help from no quarter. Every man who for a moment lifted his head from cover became the focus of a dozen

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converging lines of fire. The sufferings of the wounded were intense. Nothing could be done to alleviate them except to supply water, of which an abundance flowed in the stream, surrounding camp. The only food to be found was a meagre allowance of scarcely-ripened wild plums plucked at the risk of life and limb from a few bushes growing on the island. Two or three of the wounded went crazy and all, wounded or unhurt, were in the lowest depths of despondency and would have yielded to despair had it not been for the shame and confidence inspired by their indomitable leader whose heroism in this crisis appears sublime. He had been thrice wounded; once, in scalp; once in Right groin; and once—a horrible wound—in lower part of Left leg, smashing flesh and bones in such a manner that four inches of the latter protruded. He pluckily kept at his post of duty, cheered his men in every way and showed by his conquest of agony that he was as indifferent to pain as to fear. After nine days’ beleaguerment, relief approached and the baffled savages withdrew, firing a parting volley of spite and hate. When the Doctor came to put Forsyth’s leg in the splint that had been made by stripping off the bark from a cottonwood sapling & filling in with cotton to fit the limb, it was discovered that besides the puffed, discolored and shattered flesh and bones, the wound was a living mass of maggots! The scalp wound he never gave any attention to and the bullet in the Right groin he himself cut out with a razor borrowed from one of the scouts who happened to have such a luxury with him. A number of our wounded die within a short time and Forsyth himself lingered for four months at Fort Wallace, Kansas, the Doctor uncertain at first about saving his life and the whole time about saving his leg. At a Council held with the Indians a few years after this date when they had been some months upon a Reservation, Forsyth learned, in addition to what is above given that the attacking party was composed of Northern Cheyennes and Ogalalla Sioux, numbering all told over three thousand, that they were assured of their ability to destroy him and his party, having known of their approach for five days before making attack; that the death of their chief and head medicine man had much disconcerted and dispirited them and this, coupled with their loss of more than seventy killed


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and wounded, had broken their spirit and kept them from doing more than [illegible] a constant watch upon him and detachment to prevent escape. “We got enough in the fight,[”] said the old chief who acted as spokesman, [“]how was it with you?” “I got enough”, said Forsyth. “How! How!” grunted the circle of warriors. Thus the tale ended. Forsyth spoke in terms of the warmest praise of Captain [William Lewis] Carpenter, 9th Cavalry, who commanded the troops who effected his rescue. July 6, 1880. At Cheyenne, we were met by Capt. Jas. Lord, A[ssistant].Q[uarter].M[aster], Major [Peter D.] Vroom, Lieuts. [James Ferdinand] Simpson, [Bainbridge] Reynolds and [John Martin] Porter, 3rd Cavalry, and [John Arthur] Baldwin, 9th Infantry, and my old friend, Tom Moore, Chief of Transportation, a tried and true associate in much of our hard campaigning in Arizona, Wyoming, and Montana. Also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Tom. Sturgis and his beautiful bride, lately Miss Nellie Weir, sister of my old friend, Lt. Wm. B. Weir, of the Ordnance Corps, whose sad death at the hands of the Utes in October of last year was appropriately alluded to in my note books of that date.10 At Fort Sanders,11 met Captains [John B.] Johnson and [John Charles] Thompson, 3rd Cavalry, Lt. [George Allen] Dodd, same reg’t., Lt. [John] Scott, R.Q.M., 4th Infy., Major [Albert Selah] Towar, Pay Dept. and Colonel [Caleb Henry] Carlton, 3rd Cavalry. Colonel Carlton, at Genl. Crook’s request, accompanied us as far at Laramie City, the general being anxious to learn from him about the condition of affairs in the North Park of Colorado, which Colonel Carlton has lately scouted. Major Towar took our train as far as Ft. Steele,12 going on a pay tour. Lt. Dodd followed us to Laramie City in a buggy getting there a few minutes after the train. Colonel Carlton kindly brought down a couple of bottles of cham10.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, 3:339–41. 11.â•‡ Fort Sanders was established three miles from Laramie in 1866, to protect emigrant routes, the Denver-Salt Lake stage route, and Union Pacific construction crews. It was abandoned and transferred to the Interior Department in 1882. Not to be confused with Fort Laramie, which is in extreme east-central Wyoming near the Nebraska line. Frazier, Forts of the West, 185. 12. Fort Fred Steele was established in 1868 at the crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad over the North Platte River, to protect the railroad and the Overland Trail. The post was abandoned in 1886 and transferred to the Interior Department. Ibid., 186.â•‡

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pagne in which General Forsyth, Lt. Swigert, Mr. France, (the Pullman Car Conductor,) and I drank his good health after leaving Laramie City. General Forsyth bade us good bye about midnight at Rawlins, Wyo. July 7th 1880. Entering the Wahsatch Mountains whose summits are still white with snow, we saw on each side of us great clusters of sweet wild roses. At Ogden, enjoying a rich treat of delicious strawberries: here we parted with Mr. [James M.] Haworth, Indian Inspector, a very pleasant gentleman who had been with us from Omaha and with Lt. Swigert. Col. J. M. Thornburgh [sic]13 met us at Ogden and accompanied us down to Salt Lake City, where at the depot awaiting Genl. Crook were Genl. J. E. Smith, 14th Infy. and his adjutant, Lieut. [William W.] McCammon. Put up at Continental Hotel, (formerly Townsend House.) July 8. Mr. Reynolds, of Indian Territory and his brother, with Col. Thornburgh, Genl. Crook and myself started early in the morning for the Hot Sulphur Springs where we had a most delightful bath and thence, with sharpened appetites back to the hotel where we enjoyed at breakfast the fine strawberries for which Salt Lake is deservedly famous. General Smith drove us about noon out to the post [Fort Douglas] where we inspected his lovely gardens filled with roses and other fine flowers and then took lunch with his wife and daughter,—Mrs. Bascom—two charming ladies. At this collation, the strawberries and raspberries were something fabulous as to size and irreproachable in color, firmness and flavor. I certainly saw some strawberries on that table that would reach more than one half across this page. The raspberries tho’ not so large were worthy of attention for fragrance, sweetness and freshness. We saw many mulberry trees— both white and black—in full bearing, doing finely. The fruit is very insipid and the tree is mentioned simply to base a prediction that one day Utah will raise its own silk. In the afternoon, Genl. Crook, Genl. Smith, Lt. McCammon, Mr. 13. Heitman’s does not list a J. M. Thornburgh, so this is most likely Jacob N. Thornburgh of Tennessee, brother to Thomas Tipton Thornburgh who was killed in the White River Ute Uprising of 1879. See Robinson, Diaries, Vol. 3, Part 4. â•‡


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Thornburgh and myself took the Utah Western R.R. for Lake Point 22 miles out from town to have a bath in the Lake. The water, as is well known, is so dense that it is impossible to sink in it and people float upon its surface like so many corks. After leaving the water, head, neck, ears and eyebrows are coated with salt. July 9th 1880. Genl. Crook, Genl. J.E. Smith, Lieut. McCammon, Col. Thornburgh, (of Tenn.) Mr. Reynolds of N.Y. and brother of Indian Territory and Lieut. Bourke started for Springville, Utah. On our way to the dépôt of the Utah Southern R.R., were joined by Mr. Corcoran, Superintendent of the Pleasant Valley R.R., who had made every preparation for our trip. (The Utah Southern R.R. has already been described at some length in my note books of 1875, ’77 and ’78.)14 Springville, 54 miles from Salt Lake, is the present terminus of the Pleasant Valley R.R. which has been built up Spanish Fork to carry down wood, coal, coke and wool from the crest of the Wasatch range. In coal and wood, it already promises to do an immense business and may become in the near future the channel for carrying a large amount of gold ore and wool to the Salt Lake market. Our train was made up of a dozen or more flat cars and one small box, having seats running lengthwise, which were well filled with the members of our party and a few Mormons. Two of the Mormons were girls, not bad looking and one of a decidedly fine figure. To listen to their garrulous chat with the brakeman, one would infer they were on their way to some of the missions or “stakes” the Mormon church is constantly establishing in this Territory. I refer to them because they appeared to be better than the average Mormon women and still ignorant enough. The cañon of the Spanish Fork is commonplace and a great disappointment to any one whose hopes have been based on previous experience with that of the American Fork or other beautiful streams of the Wasatch range. The train runs in and out through unexpected bends and curves, the little engine panting and puffing, now up grade, now down; the brawling stream rushing along, at times in plain view and unsightly, at others hiding among clumps of willows, and rose-bushes and murmuring an invitation for us to share with it in the freshness of the shadows cast by the copses on overhanging rocks. The surrounding hills fail in color, form, height or asperity to im14.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, Vols. 1–3.

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press the beholder with a sense either of the beautiful or sublime. The valley appears to be well adapted for sheep-raising and Mr. Reynolds tells me that great flocks are at pasture nearer the summit of the range and that he and his partner own 50.000! The Rocks in proximity to the Railroad are mostly sandstone conglomerate. There is a great amount of drift near the mouth of cañon and considerable limestone near its head. The great source of value of this cañon will be as a sheep-pasturage and coal field. The general grade of this narrow gauge road is 115 feet to the mile; near summit there are two “switchbacks” with grades of 165 feet, to climb the flanks of the Range. These make a Z in moving up or down which the locomotive can be seen either above the last of the train or below it, as the case may be. Scenery at the summit is much nobler and air purer and cooler, but in no respect can Spanish compare with American Fork. Water now began flowing into Green River, instead of into Lake Utah. Our train now entered Pleasant Valley, a hill-bound depression covered with green grass upon which great herds of horses and cattle were grazing. Three miles farther, stopped at Thomas’ Saw mill where we found rough accomodations but a hospitable reception. The mill was busy in cutting out pine lumber, of which a good supply is accessible from the cañons near by; some of it will cut 3 feet in thickness and give 5 or 6 good sized saw logs. McCammon and De Graaf started out a little before dark to catch some trout and brought back a few, but too late to have them cooked for our supper. After dark, the Messers Reynolds, McCammon and myself took repeating rifles and revolvers and moved up the cañon, hoping before night had too far advanced to reach a lumber camp where a grizzly bear was reported as a nightly visitor. One mile and a half from Thomas’, the Rail Road ended at a coal mine belonging to Mr. Reynolds where we remained so long inspecting the output and the general management of the mine that darkness came on before we were aware of it. We hurried up the cañon, following a wood road which led us through a dense forest of graceful pine, spruce and aspen trees, past brawling waterfalls or along the swift rushing current of a crystal mountain stream, until we met a party of lumbermen who told us it was useless to think of going farther on account of darkness. We reluctantly retraced our steps for 3 miles to Thomas’ and quite tired turned in with our comrades to sleep upon the floor of


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a little room 15’ x 12’. We were nine in number and blankets being scarce we suffered much from the cold of the night and the hardness of the boards: however, being used to roughing it, we took matters coolly. July 10th 1880. (Saturday.) Before break of day, McCammon and De Graaf were up and off on a fishing trip, returning with trout enough to give us all a relish for our breakfast. We first made our hasty ablutions in the tin basin standing outside the door, wiping our faces upon a towel which had seen better days, and then to the dining room where the mongolian [sic] chef de cuisine received us with a Celestial grin and a very palatable meal. The keen mountain air whetted our appetites to a wonderful degree and caused the disappearance of ham, beef, potatoes, biscuits, coffee and all the other components of the meal Ah Sin had prepared for us. Immediately after, we mounted a bunch of cattle ponies and under the guidance of Mr. Palford started out to surmount the Wasatch Range and observe what we could of the Ute Country, on its Eastern slope. Our route took us through a fascinating region, part of the time pleasant little swales where the luxuriant grass was enamelled with rare flowers and again forcing our way through clumps of timber from which the startled deer sprang at our approach. Several fine seams of coal cropped out of the side of the ravine; one, that we halted alongside of for a few minutes being 5 feet in thickness and another in close proximity, which I did not look at, being 11 feet, according to what our guide told us. I cannot pretend to picture the beauty of the countless wild flowers growing at our feet in all the little dells and nooks beside our trail, the columbines, (white and purple) especially were the largest and finest any of us had ever seen. Breaking our way through the timber belt and emerging into an open stretch of barren mountain we saw that we had reached the snow line; below us and around us, glistening in the sun, were large patches of snow, our own rocky position being free from it on account of its exposure to the warm rays. Now followed a long climb which tested the endurance of our little ponies and gave me increased confidence in the wiry, gray little brute upon whose back I was seated. His saddle was old and too big for me, his bridle

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too little for him: it had done duty as a harness bridle, but in the present emergency was lengthened out with a halter strap to be long enough for riding. With ponies as with men, neither harness or clothes should be the standard of judgment. My Pegasus carried me safely, spiritedly and with patient good nature, to the crest of that steep mountain buttress and I take pleasure in commemorating his excellent qualities. From the summit of a very high perch of the Wasatch, we overlooked a scene which repaid us for all our trouble; it was a vast expanse, hundreds of miles in area, watered by the Green [River] and its tributaries and comprising much of that in which operations against the hostile Utes must be carried on this Fall and winter. It is not only very rough, but in the main a desert—one mass of mountains & cañons—and will interpose many obstacles in the settlement of this Indian question. This ride and climb of ten miles each way made us ravenous for dinner and then in a special car, provided by Mr. Corcoran, we steamed down to Fish Creek. (four miles.) and there spent the afternoon with good luck and bad, in catching, or trying to catch, trout. General Crook, Mr. De Graaf, Col. Thornburgh, & Lt. McCammon got nearly all that were caught: Mr. Corcoran got only one and I none. Not having any scales, the estimate of the weight was left to me and I agreed to put it at an average of 3½ pounds, which seemed to satisfy all concerned; in return for this compliment, our party agreed to consider that the bear which Mr. Reynolds and I did not shoot, weighed 2300 lbs standing and requested me to note both figures in my journal. Our little locomotive carried us back to Thomas’ by dark. Mr. Thomas informed us that supper had been laid out for us at the boarding house of the coal mines. In two or three minutes more, steam had brought us to the door of the boarding house, inside which we saw a table heaped up with a most excellent supper. I really forgot our host’s name—it was something like Blickendeifer—but I shall never forget his sunny countenance and quaint, good natured hospitality. Between 9 and 10 at night, we got back to Thomas’, took a drink and turned in upon our downy couches of pine boards. Exhaustion made us go to sleep almost the moment we laid our heads upon our pillows of coats and pantaloons; all except Col. Thornburgh who talked all night.


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July 11th. We were awake with the birds which sung merrily in the trees near the house. Our rotund Boniface declined to take any compensation for the trouble we had occasioned him and would only receive thanks in acknowledgment of his courtesy: these he had in plenty as well as assurances of our hopes of meeting him again under circumstances when we could play the host. Genl. Crook, Genl. Smith, Lt. McCammon, Col. Thornburgh and myself bade good bye to Mr. Thomas, and to Messers Reynolds, De Graaf and Corcoran who remained behind to attend to their coke furnace which has the promise of a large contract from the Horn Silver Mining Co. This Company is now paying $22.50 per ton for coke which Reynolds agrees to furnish at $14.00. Should his coal “coke” easily, he will make his fortune and that of his associates. This coal is rich in resin exuded from the knots and spores of ferns. Our down train consisted of 5 cars coal, 4 cars of lumber, 8 of wood and one passenger coach. Expensive rip-rapping has been required along this road to confine the winter floods of the Spanish Fork, which in early spring is a source of great danger to the track-beds. Noticed some Titanic blocks of conglomerate, towering above us like ancient ruins. The only passengers besides ourselves were half a dozen Mormons, men and women, returning from work at the Co-Op Sheep ranches along line of stream. At Springville, the kind forethought of Mr. Reynolds had secured dinner for us at the house of Mr. Parker, a leading Mormon. Our reception was in the highest degree hospitable and the meal spread out for us simply exquisite. Everything on the table had been raised around Springville, including the luscious strawberries which fruit attains in this Salt Lake country a size and flavor and richness unequalled any where else on earth that I know of. None of the ladies of the house sat down at the table with us. I can’t say whether or not the rules of the Mormon church encourage their women to mingle with strangers but I rather think not; at least, I have never yet eaten a meal with one of them. Reached the Continental Hotel, Salt Lake by 6.30 P.M. General Crook received a telegram announcing the sad news of the death in Omaha, Neb., last night, of his friend, G. H. Collins. July 12th. We, (the same party as yesterday,) left Salt Lake at 7 a.m.

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By the Utah Southern R.R. for Fort Cameron.15 The run to Juab, the terminus of the Utah Southern R.R. proper was made without incident and having been previously described, no reference is really needed. Approaching Juab, we remarked at points on a side track a number of cars, 15 or 20 all told, loaded with silver lead bars from the Horn Silver Mine. At Juab we dined and a really fine dinner we got. My notes have with such frequency dilated upon good meals in the course of our travels, that I may be accused of epicurism. Be it so. I regard well cooked food as one of the greatest blessings that can come to humanity and especially American humanity. I hope to live to see the day when American ladies shall proudly boast of their skills in domestic matters and when the serving up of a poor meal to travellers shall be a crime punishable with death. From Juab, we took the Utah Southern R.R. extension built to convey silver bullion from the Great Horn Silver Mine at Frisco. Its general course is South by West, keeping 30 @ 35 miles West of the old Beaver Stage road, which is unfortunate, as the latter, by hugging close to the flanks of the Wasatch, passes through a number of flourishing settlements, lying at foot of that range, while the iron rail strikes at once into a dreary desert of wind-rippled sand, covered with a sickly and scanty growth of sage-brush. The main stream is the Sevier river, a miserable brook at this season, but which yet meanders through a total length of 250 miles before losing itself in the marsh of mud that Geographers delight to call Sevier “Lake(!).” At Deseret station, a lonesome hole, took supper. Within sight of here, Lieut. Gunnison and party of surveyors were massacred by the Parawan Utes, about 1855. The atrocious deed was committed by a party of boys whose father had been foully murdered by white immigrants the year before.16 15.â•‡ Fort Cameron was established on the Beaver River, in 1872, to protect the mining districts of southern Utah. Initially designed “Post Near Beaver City,” it was upgraded to a fort in 1874. It was abandoned nine years later, however, because the heavy settlement and development of the region rendered it unnecessary. Frazer, Forts of the West, 164–65. 16.â•‡ John William Gunnison (1812–53), of the Topographical Engineers, originally went west as a member of an expedition under Capt. Howard Stansbury to survey the Salt Lake Valley in 1849. In 1853, Gunnison, now promoted to captain, headed his own expedition, which was attacked by a band of Indians in retaliation for the recent killing of one of their own. Gunnison and seven others were killed, and four escaped. Contemporary rumors that the massacre was instigated by the Mormons have been completely discredited. Gunnison had cordial relations with the Mormon establishment, and Bancroft (470) points out that one of the victims was a Mormon guide. Bancroft, History of Utah, 463–71.


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Near Black rock, carved upon the solid basalt are many curious Indian pictures, representations of cattle, horses, birds, &c. Mud Lake, below this, is a vast sheet of mud in the rainy season, but is now mostly an alkaline flat, charged with salt. A half dozen laborers were working here stretching the telegraph wire to connect Juab and Frisco; one of them complained to me that the mud of this Lake was so salty, it made the skin of his legs smart as if burned in a fire. In the seats in front of us were a half score of jolly miners returning from their 4th July holiday in Salt Lake. They had good voices and knew something about singing. Consequently, we were favored with good music, pathetic, humorous and religious. Their voices blended well and they sang as if they loved it. At 9.20 p.m. reached Milford. Here we met Paymaster [Charles Wesley] Wingard and Lt. [Frank] Taylor, 14th Infantry. Milford is assuming prominence as the centre of supply for the Star, Cave and other paying mining districts. Already, it has a smelter and quartz mill in operation and other improvements in construction or contemplation. By great effort, we succeeded in getting rooms for all our party. Genl. Crook and Genl. Smith with the Postmaster and the rest at the “Hotel”(!) Of our accomodation or lack of accomodation at this place, I’ll say but little; those who must at some time follow in our footsteps might be discouraged. McCammon and I shared one room–a little box, 8’ x 10’. He occupied the bed, I the floor. Each slept comfortably enough except for the cold which became severe–the evaporation on these desert flats being immense–and for the disturbance occasioned by the outgoing train which left at 3.40 in the morning. Let me say for our landlady that she was good-nature and jollity personified; her hotel is a poor specimen just at this date, but within twelve months I am sure she’ll have a new one of brick run up and in successful operation. July 13th. Took the transportation awaiting us from Fort Cameron and started for that post, 35 miles. Road very dusty and monotonous. Ten or a dozen miles out, struck Beaver River, at Minersville, and followed it up to Fort Cameron. Seven miles from the post, at the Mormon village of Pancake, Maj. Burke, (D. W.) Capt. [James] Kennington & Lt. [John] Murphy were waiting for us. We had a warm

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hand-shaking and a cold glass of iced beer—both very acceptable. All these officers served in the 1876–7 campaign and all are fine soldiers. Burke is a gallant soldier who bears three service wounds as his souvenirs of the War of the Rebellion. Murphy, I shall always particularly remember on account of the many pranks played upon him by waggish brother officers while he was Quartermaster at Fort Robinson in 1877. This was a most important and onerous position at the date in question, and no man could have discharged its duties with a more inflexible honesty and careful attention than Murphy bestowed upon them. He was too particular to suit his comrades who had fallen into the loose and indifferent ways engendered by a long campaign. Murphy made it a rule never to let any Q.M. property pass out of his possession without an order from superior authority and without a “mum-my-randum ray-sate” from the officer to whom he transferred it. The officer gave the memorandum receipts without demur, but a fearful outcry was always raised when the day of settlement arrived and the property had to be returned. There were so many ways of losing it;—the post was full of light-fingered Indians—recruits are nearly always careless—the work of constructing the post caused many tools to be lost or injured—there were all kinds of good reasons—that is good enough for anybody but John Murphy—He held the letter of the bond, the “mimmyr-andum ray-sate”.17 “No, no, Pay ther, Vroom, yiz got alivin shovils, ten sphades an’ foive picks; en’ yiz is shart foive shovils”. No coaxing or reasoning could prevail with John Murphy, but he had a hard customer to deal with in Major Vroom. Calling to his 1st Sergeant, he said to him, “Now Sergeant, it’s useless to tell me that those spades are lost for good. I know better. They have simply been mislaid and the men must find them and turn them in or I’ll have to charge them upon the pay-rolls of the company. Why, I’m almost sure I saw a bundle of spades lying outside the Q.M. warehouse as I was passing there just after retreat”. And so he had, only the spades were brand new spades that very hour unloaded from a freighter’s wagon. Well, to 17. Murphy appears to have shown very good judgment. As Lt. Col. Thomas T. Smith points out in his study of the military in Texas, which would have been little different from Nebraska during that era, quartermaster and commissary positions often were assigned to junior officers with little training or background for the position. There are more than a few instances of these officers finding themselves in trouble over shortages. Smith, U.S. Army & Texas Frontier Economy, 46–47.


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shorten a long story, the next morning, Vroom[’s] account was squared up, his 1st Sergeant having turned in all the tools called for on the “mimmy-randum ray-sate”, but John Murphy was prancing around invoking Heaven’s lightning to descend; upon Fort Robinson which he renounced as a “din of dam thaves who had stolen foive bran new shovil, be dad”. Fort Cameron has been much ornamented since my last visit, (in Dec. 1875).18 Neat, white, palings enclose the officers’ and men’s quarters, the parade is lined with thrifty cottonwoods19 and surrounded by a stream of cold, sweet water. The post has altogether a very finished look and to the traveller presents the features of an oasis in the desert, as it really is. The officers here stationed at date of writing are Colonel H. M. Douglass, (who kindly entertained Genl. Crook and myself.) Captains [David] Krause, Burke and Kennington, and Lts. Murphy, [Charles F.] Lloyd, [Millard Fillmore] Goodwin and Dr. Conden, all except the last named being of the 14th Infantry and those whose names are underscored having their families at the post, making a pleasant little social gathering. Mr. Valentine, post trader, was my companion in my first trip to this post and it is not likely that either of us will soon forget the roughness & discomforts of the journey. Genl. Smith, Lt. McCammon and I drove down to the town of Beaver, 2½ miles from the Fort and passed an hour or two looking about us. This little town is well laid out, has a goodly number of brick and stone houses and stores and with its avenues shaded with foliage and cooled by clear running streams on each side makes a decidedly agreeable impression upon the observer. The population is said to be in the neighborhood of 1500. Towards evening, we assembled at Maj. Burke’s to enjoy toddy lemonade and stories. To those who know Major Krause’s wonderful powers as a story-teller, I need say no more than that he was in his best vein, to satisfy them that we had a wonderfully good time. At the risk of mangling some of those which under his manipulation 18.â•‡ This is not covered in earlier published volumes, because there is a gap in the manuscript diaries between June 2, 1875, and February 17, 1876. 19.â•‡ Given the locale Bourke probably refers to the fact that cottonwoods make maximum use of the available water resources.

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made our sides ache, I’ll attempt an outline description. Old General Maurice Maloney, as all Army officers of sufficient age will remember, was a truly gallant, courteous old gentleman and a soldier of fine type, without much of an education or an extended knowledge of the world. He was at one time in command of all the U.S. forces at Atlanta, Ga., when Major General George Meade was to deliver a speech. There was an immense crowd and the speech was very effective. Meade told his audience that the war was ended and that all present should bend their energies to the reviving of good will between North and South. “You, soldiers,[”] said he, turning to the garrison, drawn up in line, [“]you, soldiers, have fought and bled that the stars and stripes might fly from that flag pole—There they must remain—They must never come down”. It was now Maloney’s turn. “Min,[”] said he, [“]yiz hev hur-r-d phat the Giniril hex sed about that flag—that it must nivir come down. Thots roight, min, it must nivir come down, excipt at raythrate or whin it r-r-rains”. Being at a social gathering, one evening, General Maloney was chosen umpire to impose the penalties in a game of forfeits. One of his decisions came near stampeding the assembly. Here it is. “Loo-tin-nint Far-r-gurson will promin-ade Mis Mic-Closkey about the room an’ kiss her at both inds. (Giggle.) At both inds av the room, oi mane”, he added, correcting himself with great dignity. (Renewed and prolonged giggles.) Next, Krause gave us an accounting of the 4th of July celebrations at Fort Fetterman, in 1874, when Lieut-Col. George Woodward was in command. (Since retired as Colonel 15th Infy. On account of wounds received in the late war.) Woodward was in every way a splendid fellow, but prone to the error of being too convivial on occasions of festivity. At the time in question, he was under the influence of patriotism and whiskey-punch and feeling very melancholy. He thus addressed his body servant, an Ethiopian gentleman,20 “Sam, you now belong to the dominant race. Once I belonged to the dominant race. When you become President, Sam, don’t forget your master, poor old George Woodward. Don’t dismiss him when you 20.â•‡ As in previous references, Bourke undoubtedly means black, “Ethiopian” being in common usage as a synonym in the nineteenth century.


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find he’s been drunk on duty, Sam”. And master and man mingled their tears together. Lastly, we listened to the story of Colonel Wilkins, who laid out the post of Ft. Cameron and was its first Commanding Officer. At one time, he was ordered off on recruiting service and his men determined to surprise him with a serenade. There wasn’t an astonishing amount of musical ability in the garrison, but a quartette was organized, the principal voice being that of a former English sailor, who knew but one song “Down with the Arethusy”, a melancholy lay having 937 verses, all alike. This was rendered with telling effect, much to the gratification of Col Wilkins, who was already a trifle “high”. At the conclusion of each verse, he would unbosom himself in about these terms. “My God! men, this is too much. You overwhelm me. We must all have another drink”, and would then give way to a copious flood of tears. Krause says the serenade lasted until the Colonel’s keg of whiskey ran dry. Lieut. Murphy took me after supper, to walk about the post: among other features, I observed a pretty little park or grove, left almost in the natural state, formed upon a small wooded island in Beaver creek, which stream after flowing around the island is conducted through a lakelet or basin, where the garrison in winter obtains its supply of ice. Fort Cameron, from its altitude, over 6000 feet, is subject to severe & late frosts; to this may be attributed the great scarcity of fruit in the vicinity, the present season. July 15th. Major D. W. Burke joined our party as we bade good bye to our generous hosts and left the Post. We had to start at 6 o’clock in the morning, in order to reach Milford by 11. This, however, was a great advantage and gave us a cool, bright drive, with very little dust, through the Mormon villages of Beaver, Pancake, and Minersville— all of them showing improvements of a permanent type indicating that the Mormons have settled in this country to remain. Milford has a quartz mill and smelting works, neither of which we had time or inclination to visit. Mr. John Sharp, Jr., of the Utah and Southern R.R., and Mr. Williams, of the Milford Smelting works, were waiting with a special engine and caboose to take us on to Frisco; we delayed only long enough to eat lunch and then started. Up grade all the way, 1650 feet in 14 @ 16 miles. Country a sandy desert hemmed in by barren mountains.

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Mr. J. M. Bourke, Mr. Campbell and other citizens of Frisco, met us at the train and took us in carriages through the town. It was a surprise to me, and to all of our party to see the stone and brick stores, saloons, hotels and residences, already up or going up on every side. As a matter of fact, the great bulk of the buildings in the town was of timber and of a primitive pattern, but when it is considered that Frisco is so new and that it is built in a sterile and arid land, only lately put in R.R. communication with the rest of the world, surprise will still be felt that there should be any such buildings at all. It is a disagreeably dusty own, laid out in a bed of volcanic ashes, hemmed in by a series of insignificant knobs whose flanks are covered thickly with a growth of scrub cedar. Lumber for building has to be hauled from the mills in the Wah-Wah mountains, 15 miles to the South East. Water is obtainable from wells, 15 @ 50 feet deep, but is not fit to drink. Drinking water sells for 4 c[ents]. per gallon. A profitable trade is transacted by selling it at these figures, both by parties who transport it from sweet springs lying a few miles out from down, and by the R.R. Co. which takes two tank cars of it daily all the way from Milford. Frisco, with its present population of 800, is dependant for its existence upon the great mines in its neighborhood, the greatest being the Horn Silver, discovered six years ago by a couple of half-starved prospectors, and, after changing proprietors a number of times, has this Spring been sold to a New York Company for $6.900.000!21 The steam hoisting works are not yet completed, will not be ready for use before another month. Access to the workings is had at present by the ordinary winze [sic], moved by horse power. Mr. Hill, the Supdt. and Mr. Crouch, the foreman of the mine, took us in charge and gave the necessary directions as to what we should do in going down the shaft. Two descended at a time standing on the rim of an ordinary vinegar band and holding onto a rope, 2½ inches in Diam. “Stand on your feet, gentlemen, don’t hang the rope. Are you ready?[”] “Yes, Sir”. There is a pause for one minute and a double clang of a bell to warn those below—and then Whizz-z—we are off. Down we go; the heavy timbers in the shaft rapidly running way, make our heads swim and tightly we clutch the frail rope our sole dependence for getting back to the receding blue spot 21.â•‡ In modern currency roughly $79,350,000.


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which we were wont to call the sky, but at which we now felt like clutching for safety. We are not going at such a very rapid rate after all, just close enough to keep us thinking what if that confounded rope should break! Well here we are. In a low chamber, not over 6½ feet high in the clear and about 15 feet square on the floor, braced by heavy pine timbers not less than 12 inches on a side, and lighted by a coal oil lamp placed in front of a reflector, in one corner. While we are making these observations, the other members of our party are descending and are receiving each one a lighted candle from Mr. Crouch. “Carry the butts forward, gentlemen, on account of the draft”. We follow our guide, not without fear at first, through levels, drifts, and past winzes and stofees—all full of ore. “This is low grade—30 oz. to the Ton”. “This is high-grade carbonate–2000 dollars”. [“]This is some other kind”—[“]This, Horn silver”. But money, money everywhere. Money on all sides. $38.000.000, “they say”—[“]in sight”. Aladdin becomes a pauper and Monte Cristo a beggar as our cicerone glibly speaks of millions with much the same concern as we have been in the habit of speaking in hundreds of dollars. How weary and tired one gets of being poor when brought into the presence of such affluence and to learn that it has been acquired in a moment and by accident! It’s the old, old story; two poor prospectors stumble on the ledge, starving to-day, to-morrow rolling in wealth and the theme of admiring tongues! I don’t know anything about mining, hence I cannot enter into a technical description of this great mine. For this I am glad. Nearly all the scientific descriptions of mines which I have read have been written by fools or scoundrels. In plain language, the Horn silver, in its present development, is an immense body of lead ore, carrying silver in varying percentages— from 30 dollars to 8.000 dollars’ worth to the Ton! This deposit lies between a decomposed trachyte on one side and a dolomite on the other. The distance between the “walls” being from 20 to 120 feet & in places the distance has not yet been ascertained. Its depth is only 365 feet and length of drifts, not much over the same number, but of course work is going on which adds to each dimension, daily. The “levels” and “drifts” are dry as a bone and the circulation of

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sweet, pure air, couldn’t be better. At one place, our guide showed us an outcropping of sulphide of antimony which he said would burn like a candle and sure enough, it did. Mr. Crouch having a mistaken idea of our gymnastic powers proposed that we should climb from the lower levels to Level No. 1. In a moment of mistaken enthusiasm, we assented. Up we went, rung after rung hand over hand and foot after foot. It’s an odd sight this long line of candles creeping slowly up the walls of the shaft. “We must be up now—ain’t we, Mr. Crouch” [“]Oh! No. We ain’t half up yet.” Most of our people are puffing—one or two swear and growl under their breath. Pride keeps the rest of us from saying anything. Colonel Thornburgh suddenly calls out; “By Jove, I think I’ll drop”. “Well, for Heaven’s sake don’t drop until we can get past you”. But Mr. Crouch points out that every 8 feet, there are “landings”, upon which to rest, if necessary. However, we are getting up, up, up, all this time and having had a breathing spell, make one more effort and our ascending work is over. Mr. Crouch hurries us in to a “stope”, on one side. “They are going to fire a blast”, said he. “Look-k-k Out-t-t-t.” is the gruff cry we heard, sounding in a muffled way, as if coming from under water— “Look-k-k, Out-t-t-t”. Bang-g-g! There is a dull, heavy thud and a feeble tremor of the ground near us. The blast has been fired and all is serene again. “Come a head”, says our guide and we resume our tramp like a line of pilgrims—on to Right, to left, in front, in rear. Mr. Crouch keeps on in his recitative. “Chorlide, very rich”. [“]This is [be]fore milling”. [“]Lead carbonate, very high grade.” [“]Here is some galena”. [“] That’s a streak of antimony” [“]That white stuff’s Baryta”, and so on. I had to study mineralogy once when a cadet and thought I knew it all, but I didn’t. It’s a good thing to visit a mine sometimes. A man finds out what a perfect ass he is. “What are those men doing, Mr. Crouch?[”] “Oh, here’s where the shaft caved in last week and came so near burying the whole shift”. Half a dozen men were taking out and replacing the giant timbers which had snapped like pipe-stems under the rush of earth which to our eyes looked as if it would at any moment cave in again and entomb everything and everybody. We cordially seconded the proposition to go out[;] we had seen enough. No one complained of the climbing down the shaft back to our former position; it was bad enough, but infinitely better than


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climbing up and then it was taking us farther and farther away from the cave. Here we are again at the main shaft! Tang! Tang! sounds the signal bell & the barrel is running down to meet us. Two by Two we jump on, the bell tangs, the barrel rapidly ascends and brings us back to the surface. We see in the town, the Stars and Stripes and the Green flag of Ireland flying in the breeze, the miners’ mark of honor to Genl. Crook; neither flag is extravagantly large, but they are the only ones in town. From the mine, we proceeded to the store of Campbell Cullen & Co, (formerly owners of the Horn Silver,) where we had the pleasure of meeting the proprietors and several other prominent gentlemen of the town, who drank General Crook’s health and bad him good bye, at the moment that Mr. Sharp came up to hurry us back to the train. All of us are delighted with the visit, but so, so tired, especially Colonel Thornburgh whose strength, never at any time great, has been completely overtaxed. At Milford, we take supper and then back to the cars, where we curl up on the seats and wrapped in the Navajo blankets Col. Thornburgh had bought at Beaver, secure such rest and comfort as we may, in the chilly night succeeding the torrid day. At the unearthly hour of 3.40 in the morning, our locomotive starts for Juab, crossing the lonely desert, which we don’t care to see so much of. We wake up in time for breakfast at Deseret, and then jog on, over sage-brush, grease-wood, artemisia, and barren sand to Juab. Two insignificant streams, with few and puny branches, traverse this desert in a purposeless sort of way, without beautifying or refreshing it and die at last in miserable sinks, or lakes, or ponds or holes–call them what you will. These are the Sevier and the Beaver, both rising in clear icy-cold lakelets in spurs of the Wasatch. The former is a little more than 250 miles long, and sinks within 50 miles of its own head. The course of the two may be roughly portrayed as follows:

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Tho’ desolate in vegetation and forbidding to the eye, this region is so rich in minerals of all kinds, Gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, sulphur, antimony, salt and coal that it compensates the dwellers in these desolate abodes for their enforced habitancy thereof. Juab being reached, we enjoyed a nice dinner—a clean table, with pleasant, bright-faced Mormon girls as waiters. A very short distance north of Juab, we crossed the “divide” into the valley of Utah and Salt Lakes and left the desert behind us. From this one, could be seen on either hand, smiling green fields and pastures, ditches flowing with water, trees bordering under weight of fruit, cattle grazing in the meadows and staunch houses of stone and adobe surrounded by every improvement. When we got to Salt Lake at 6.30 in the evening, Genl. Smith and Lt. McCammon left us, returning to Fort Douglass, while we—Genl. Crook, Col. Thornburgh and myself—put up for the night at the Continental [Hotel]. July 17th 1880. (Saturday.) “Half past five o’clock, No. 7, Sir”. (Thump, Thump, Thump on door.) No. 7 growls, grunts, rolls over and demands to know what this row is about. “Train, Sir, U.P. train, sir”. No 7 damns the U.P. train and all connected with it from Jay Gould down to the pea-nut boy, and then, in a fit of generosity, damns the porter, likewise. “Thank you, Sir”, says the porter and goes off to knock up No. 11, No. 10, No. 2 and No 5, whose combined growls and complaints make the corridor resound as with the roarings of half a dozen bulls. Everyone is cross at table, because it is a “Rail Road Breakfast” and what little is ready is poorly cooked and served by waiters who make no disguise of their gapes and yawns. The chief clerk gets a hauling over the coals, which may do him good and may not, but it relieves our feelings and enables us to start for the Dépôt with the consciousness of having performed an important duty. Our party is down almost to its original members.—Genl. Crook, Col. Thornburgh and self—and Thornburgh will go no further with us than Fort Bridger or Green River.22 At first we find the journey home 22.â•‡ Fort Bridger, in southwestern Wyoming, was established as a trading post by Jim Bridger and Luis Vasquez in 1842, and leased to the federal government in 1857. The title was disputed, and the government eventually took possession of the land, reimbursing Bridger for improvements. The post was permanently abandoned and transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1890. Frazer, Forts of the West, 178.


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somewhat quiet,—stupid, perhaps, would be the better word;—but gradually we scrape an acquaintance with the few passengers in the two Pullmans and find among them, Genl. J. G. McAllister, of the Ordnance Corps of the Army, a very genial and intelligent gentleman, with whose daughter and brother, (since dead.), Genl. Crook and I travelled from Salt Lake to Omaha in 1875: Mr. Allstrom, a miner, from Feather river, California, en route to Chicago to obtain machinery for hydraulic workings of his gold deposits—He had a pocket full of beautiful nuggets, one of them weighing nine ounces: and Mrs. Wallace, of Pennsylvania, returning with her pretty little daughter from a visit to friends in Oregon. I entered into a long conversation with this lady and was pleased to find her so bright and well-informed, especially in history. At Fort Sanders, on our way down, we met General Flint, Lts. [George K.] Hunter and Scott, Capt. [Thomas Francis] Quinn, Mr. Laine and others. July 19th. Reached Ft. Omaha. July 20th 1880. General Sherman, and daughter (Miss Rachel,) and Colonel [John Mosby] Bacon, arrived at Ft. Omaha and were received with the usual military salute. They remained at the post and in Omaha until the 22nd, leaving on that day for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.23 July 22nd 1880. Secretary of the Interior [Carl] Schurz, and party, including his two daughters, arrived in Omaha on their way to California. In August, they will go to the Yellowstone Park, with General Crook. Following is General Crook’s report of our recent tour in Utah. Hd.Qrs. Dep’t. Platte, Fort Omaha, Neb., July 22nd 1880. Ass’t Adjt. General. Hd.Qrs. Mily. Div. Missouri. Chicago, Ills. Sir: I have the honor to report that I left Salt Lake, Utah on the 8th 23.â•‡ Fort Leavenworth was established in 1827, and is the oldest United States active military post west of the Mississippi. During the last half of the nineteenth century, it was headquarters for the Department of the Missouri, a subdivision of the vast Military Division of the Missouri which comprised much of the central two-thirds of the United States. During the 1850s and ’60s, it was the depot for supplies for all military posts of the Rocky Mountain region, and remained a primary frontier defense unit throughout most of the Indian Wars. Ibid., 56.

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inst. by the Utah Southern and the Pleasant Valley (narrow gauge) R.R., [(]recently built) for Pleasant Valley 108 miles South and East of Salt Lake. At that point our party took horses and travelled to and across the summit of the Wasatch mountains to a position overlooking what is called Castle Valley. This is not, properly speaking, a valley, but is rather an immense basin, cut up with numerous detached ridges, of greater or lesser dimensions, and presenting in its general features a resemblance to the Tonto Basin in Arizona. It will afford many hiding places and good shelter to renegade Indians and offer great obstacles to troops who may be detailed for their pursuit. Large herds of cattle are already in that country and along its borders and upon them the Indians could well subsist during the winter. From our position on the summit of the Wasatch, we could readily see the ranges lying along the Grande and Gunnison [rivers] and follow the course of Castle Valley down to the Colorado River. Our next point was Fort Cameron, reached by the Utah Southern R.R. and its extension to Milford, and thence 35 miles by wagon. The roads leading from this post into Castle Valley and the Ute country generally are so well defined that I did not think it necessary at this time to make a personal examination of them. Either from Cameron or Douglass by way of Pleasant Valley, troops and supplies can with facility be moved across the Wasatch in case the behavior of the Ute Indians should make such movement necessary. Very Respectfully Your Obdt. Servant, (Signed.) George Crook,

Chapter 2 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Into the Uintahs

J

uly 26th. Major C.S. Roberts 17th Infantry, reported to Genl. Crook for duty on his Staff as Aide de Camp. Applied to War Dep’t. for revocation of my detail to the Mily. Academy. July 28th. General Crook, Major Roberts, A.D.C., Miss Gertrude Belcher (a bright, pleasant young lady daughter of Major [John Hill] Belcher, U.S.A.) and the writer, left Omaha for the West. In the car with us were Mr. Burt Watson and Miss Yates, accompanying Miss Belcher as far as the incoming train from the West at Valley. Shortly after leaving the dépôt, General Crook received a telegram from Lieut-General Sheridan informing him that the Hd.Qrs. Dep’t Platte were to be removed back to the city of Omaha. This is simply a common sense move, based upon wise business consideration. The transfer to Fort Omaha in the first place was a piece of clap-trap and demagoguery to which, unfortunately, the General of the Army, Sherman, lent too ready an acquiescence. It was, besides being an unnecessary hardship and inconvenience to the officers immediately concerned and their families, a serious hindrance to public business in separating headquarters supply departments from the mercantile branches of the community, and an extravagant increase

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in expenditure in the way of buildings for offices and quarters. Then, too, by filling Ft. Omaha with members of the Staff, no room was left for companies which had been in the field for months and which accordingly, instead of securing pleasant stations, had to be assigned to remote, dreary and uncomfortable posts in Wyoming and Utah. Lieut. Geo. B. Davis, 5th Cavalry, came on board at Frémont, going to Sidney as a witness before a General Court-Martial. Davis is a remarkably bright and well-educated man and “a fellow of infinite jest.” During his last visit to Omaha, he and I made up our minds to take in the circus (Cole’s.) then exhibiting. While going through the menagerie, we stopped in front of the cage of the Royal Bengal Tiger,—a splendid creature, with broad stripes around his body and eyes glistening like fire in the dim-light of the tent. We admired his stately proportions and shuddered at the idea of running against him in his native jungle. [“]Just look at his teeth, Bill,[”] said I—[“] Yes,[”] replied Davis–[“]he’s a hard-looking customer and I’ll bet he’s eaten many a man in his time”. “Good Lord, man,[”] interrupted one of the circus attendants standing near by, “Good Lord, (in a very disgusted tone.) that ain’t no Bengal Tiger—that’s a zebra”. July 29th. Miss Belcher and Lt. Davis left us at Sidney where we were met by Major Belcher, Lts. [William E.] Almy, [John G.] Baxter and Andrews. The last named travelled on our train to Cheyenne, Wyo. At Cheyenne, General Crook recd. a telegram from Lt.-Genl. Sheridan, announcing that he, (Sheridan.) had been presented with a fine son—“weight ten pounds”. To this General Crook replied with warmest congratulations to Sheridan and warmest regards to mother and son and the hope that the boy might become as fine a soldier as his father. A number of the officers at Fort Russell1 met us at the train—Genl. [Albert Gallatin] Brackett, Lts. Reynolds and Simpson, [Augustus C.] Paul, Capt. [Emmett] Crawford, Lt. [Allen] Jordan, Mr. Tom Moore and others. Major Lord, A.Q.M., got on our train to ride out as far as the incoming train, at Hazen[?]. He was talking with Genl. Crook about Arizona; the name of Tom Ewing was mentioned and while 1.â•‡ Fort D. A. Russell was established in 1867 to protect workers constructing the Union Pacific, and became an important supply base with a depot in Cheyenne. In 1930, the post was renamed Fort Francis E. Warren. It later was transferred to the Department of the Air Force, and now is Warren Air Force Base. Frazer, Forts of the West, 184–85.

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talking about him, the Colorado (Denver.) train drew up alongside us at Colorado Junction and one of the first persons to enter our car was Tom Ewing. By this time we were becoming acquainted with the people about us. In our own car was Mr. Sherman, a mining expert, who had visited the Murchie mine, of which he gave a very encouraging account.2 Mr. Byram, one of the late owners of the Horn Silver Mine, Utah, just sold for $6.900.000. He had with him his family, a very pleasant party. Capt. [Gerhard] Luhn, 4th Inf. and family and Mis [sic] Bernard, wife of Capt. [Reuben F.] Bernard, 1st Cavalry, in the forward sleeper. A large party of officers were at Fort Sanders, who greeted us kindly during the few moments of our stay at that point. Tom Ewing, an inveterate story-teller[,] kept our party in a roar with his inimitable jokes and tales; we became so hilarious that the other passengers eagerly listened to the cause of our [illegible] amusement. I can’t venture to repeat many of his anecdotes, so much depends upon the inimitable grace and mimicry with which he delivered them: but I’ll try two or three, sorry however that as here written they are scarcely the shadow of the stories as he told them. Judge Charlie Meyers of Tucson, was, as I have elsewhere stated,3 a terror to evil-doers and an upright, conscientious administrator of Justice, altho he knew scarcely any law. Being afraid that some of his victims might attempt to belabor or even to assassinate him, Judge Meyers avoided going out of his house or opening the door at night. He had a hole cut in the front door and a small shutter placed there which he could open to find out the character of people coming as they sometimes did, to get drugs from his dispensary. One night a terrible knocking aroused the old man from his slumbers. He went to the door, raised the little shutter and demanded to know who was there. “Me-Jeoge”. “And who are you, mine frent”. “Jedge, I want to give myself up, I’ve just killed a man”. “Vat you kill him for?” [“]Wa’ll, Jedge-yer see-e he ca-a’lled me a liar en I—” “Vare did you keel him?[”] 2.â•‡ Crook, Sheridan, Bourke, and others had invested in the Murchie mine, and Crook’s aide, Lt. Walter S. Schuyler, was on extended leave to manage it. See Robinson, General Crook, 248–50, and Robinson, Diaries, Vol. 3, various entries. 3.â•‡ Meyers, whom Bourke referred to as a “Dutchman” (probably German) also operated a pharmacy in Tucson. Robinson, Diaries, 2:380–81.

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“Down in George Foster’s Quarts Rock Gambling Saloon”. (This was a notorious deadfall.) “Vary Goot, mine frent, dot’s all right,[”] said the Judge soothingly, [“]dot’s all right—Go back und keel anudder von”—and then he turned in to bed. On another occasion, His Honor had just sentenced a very hard customer to the chain gang, when the culprit expostulated—“Jedge, yer really ortent to give such a hard sentence to a feller wot knowed yer grandfather”. The Judge denied that the prisoner had ever known any of his relatives and insisted upon it that his grandfather had been dead many years. But the prisoner was obstinate in his assertion: “Jedge, I knowed him well—I was on the Isthmus of Panama with him[.]” [“]Vat vas mine grant-fadder doin’ dare,[”] queried the astonished Judge. “Wa’ll, Jedge, when I seed him, he was a hangin’ by his tail to a cocoanut tree a gatherin’ cocoanuts an’ by the same token, he throwed a cocoanut at me and came near smashing my skull in with it. He tried to send a message to yer, Jedge, but I couldn’t understand enough of his infernal jabbering lingo to make out what he meant”. (The Judge imposed an additional month in the “shane-gang” for contempt of Court.) Ewing had a particular friend in Silver City, Idaho, (in 1866.)—Ike Jennings—who took it into his head that he ought to get married and selected a great, big, bouncing Missouri girl as the partner of his future joys and sorrows. Jennings consulted Ewing about the details of the wedding, which he desired should be a high-toned affair, with nothing wanting. Silver City at that date was a wild mining town in the wildest part of Idaho territory; built on both sides of a steep, narrow gulch with houses offering their inmates the advantage of being able to look down their neighbor’s chimneys and see what they had for supper. From the door of Jennings’ house which was situated upon the crest of the steepest part of the hill, access was had to the street 120 vertical feet below, by a steep grade and by a series of steps almost as steep, both coated with ice as slippery as glass, from water carelessly thrown from the building. The concourse of invited guests had much difficulty in climbing up this slippery path, but once inside the house were made welcome to a pretty fair collation, provided by the liberality of Tom

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Ewing from whom Jennings had borrowed the money to defray all expenses. As Tom officiated as a sort of master of ceremonies, he had arranged his friend Jennings in a suit of black, decked out with a pair of yellow kid gloves in which his huge paws looked like a couple of canvas-covered hams. The ceremony was soon over and the twain made one. Drinking succeeded, poor whiskey, bad rum and a kind of chemical preparation styled champagne circulated freely and began to make their efforts perceptible. Ewing, afraid of his company, had gotten himself up for an emergency. Around his waist was strapped a six-shooter and along his back, under his coat, a pick-axe handle, the tip projecting slightly above his collar, to admit of being grasped at a moment’s warning. Dancing commenced to the music of two squeaky fiddles and by the fitful glare of tallow-candles stuck to the walls. Some of the boys were already beginning to get a little bit high. As fate would have it, Dick Tregaski’s “girl” gave him “the dead shake” and bestowed her fair hand for a dance which he had anticipated, upon a Southerner named Welker—a man of fine education—since a Professor in the University of California. This was too much for Tregaski: running up to Tom Ewing, he asked excitedly,—“Tom, hev yer enny weepins, bee Gawd? Thar’s my gal over thar a shassaying through the quadrille with that damn Secesh outfit—Welker—Lend me yer revolver”. To oblige his friend, Ewing lent his six-shooter, but at same time felt it incument upon him to prevent a row by every means in his power. Tregaski walking up to Welker, as he was “shassaying” with the fair lady, gave him a ferocious whack over the nose. A champagne bottle popping at same instant sounded like the report of a pistol. “Don’t shoot for God’s sake”, yelled Tom Ewing, throwing open the door of the house. Men and women impetuously “pile out” into the open air and striking the frozen grade never stop sliding until they strike the street, 40 yards below, “where they lay,[”] says Ewing, [“]15 feet deep.[”] “Yes, Boys,[”] said “Jedge” Tregaski, in speaking of the affair a month afterwards, [“]we had a hell of a good time at Ike Jennings’ wedding”. Bourke returns to the present. At Rock creek, saw Captain [James Herbert] Spencer and wife; also Lt. [George Nathan] Chase and wife all of 4th Infy. July 30th 1880. Capt. [William Henry] Bisbee met us at Carter sta-

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tion and drove us to Ft. Bridger, 11 miles distant. Fort Bridger, on Black’s Fork of Green River has recently been re-established in consequence of anticipated trouble with Ute Indians. (It has been already described in my note-books of June and August 1877.)4 The temperature was very low at Bridger. Fires were burning in the parlors we entered. Major Bisbee, our host, has a very charming wife and interesting family. His son, Eugene, now past 16 years, is one of the handsomest and manliest youngsters I’ve ever seen and is said to be a wonderfully good shot with a rifle, shooting birds on the wing. Capt. Luhn, Lieuts. Young,5 [Edgar Brooks] Robertson and [Silas A.] Wolfe and Dr. McElderry, and Mr. Carter called upon us. Judge Carter has a very pleasant home, furnished with a fine library, piano, cosey parlor, and other accompaniments of civilization. Fort Bridger has the peculiar feature of a stream flowing across the parade, spanned by three bridges. It is a delightful post in many respects, especially as a summer residence. The Uintah Mountains to the South are now and at all times covered with snow. All afternoon, busy in getting ready for our march to the South, fitting up pack-trains, buying provisions from Commissary, getting tents, horses and mules ready for the start. In the evening called upon Mr. J. J. Dickey, son & daughter, Mr. Mead, son and daughter and Miss Herman and upon Mrs. T. L. Kimball, son and daughters[,] Miss Emerson and Mrs. Aldridge. Professor Church of Lincoln (Neb.) University, Judge Carter and family and others. July 31st 1880. Genl. Crook, Major Bisbee, 4th Infy., Maj. Roberts, A.D.C., Lieut. Young, 4th Infy., Masters Eugene Bisbee, Will Carter & Tom Kimball and the writer, left Fort Bridger, Wyo., for the Uintah Ute Agency, Utah; besides those who purposed making the through trip, we had with us, for the first day’s march only, Judge Carter and his son in law Mr. Dick Hamilton. As the road for some distance would admit of rapid travelling, Major Bisbee had loaded the wagons with our heavy baggage and sent them off at 5 in the morning, the escort going along at same time, while the others remained behind at Bridger to enjoy breakfast in comfort with Mrs. Bisbee. 4.â•‡ There is a gap in Bourke’s notebooks between May 7 and June 30, 1877, and again, between July 29, 1877, and March 28, 1878. The notebooks for that period, which presumably contain that description, have not yet been located. 5.â•‡ May be either Lt. George S. Young or Lt. Robert H. Young.

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Our transportation consisted of one six-mule wagon, one four-horse light wagon, and the necessary horses and pack mules for ourselves and escort. We had a pleasant morning for our start, just clouds enough to bring into greater prominence the sapphire sky in which they floated. Our route lay nearly due South, keeping to the Left of the mesa known as Bridger’s Butte. Five miles out we struck Smith’s Fork, a beautiful trout stream, about 20 yards wide, well shaded by the foliage of willow and other trees. The country was generally level, but with an up-grade towards the Uintah Mountains which lay directly in front with mantles of pine and hoods of snow. The soil was gravelly with some small pebbles and the vegetation the ever-faithful sage brush which never seems to desert the fortunes of this great Trans-Missouri country. Judge Carter’s cattle roamed by hundreds over the plains to the Right and Left of us, provision for their winter pasturage being secured in an immense area of meadow-land fenced in for about 5 miles square. At Smith’s Fork, Maj. Bisbee killed a badger, making a very fine shot. Twenty miles out, came to the site of an old saw-mill. Our packer, Jesús Baldes, killed a black-tailed deer and Major Bisbee, a jack-rabbit. From Smith’s Fork to this place, we had followed up the fork until we had come to Willow creek, and then up that for a total distance of 15 miles. The banks of Willow creek were screened by rose-bushes and quaking aspen as well as by the tree from which it takes its name. Many beautiful flowers grew in clusters near us, the character of the landscape up to this time being that of a pretty meadow land. But, in approaching the site of the saw mill, we entered the foot-hills and the outskirts of heavy forests of pine. The road which had been very good was now in places obstructed by windfallen timber; to cut and remove this took time and caused delay. Twenty Six miles from Bridger, we found Carter’s Saw Mill, (now abandoned.) This is charmingly placed in a small open depression, shut in on all sides by balsam breathing pines. The creek flowing alongside is a tributary of Smith’s Fork full of good, cold water and having an abundance of trout. Here we bivouacked. General Crook struck out on a fishing tour; the rest of us remained in camp to see to the unharnessing and unsaddling of the animals and the preparations for the evening meal.

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Jesús Baldes shot another deer at night-fall, a splendid buck. Genl. Crook caught 39 and “the boys” 15 trout. Judge Carter explained to me his method of preserving venison; he cuts the meat into steaks upon which he then sprinkles fine salt and granulated white sugar. The meat keeps well for several days and the flavor is greatly improved. In a few moments, supper was over and we clustered around the roaring fire of logs whose genial warmth was gladly sought as the sun slowly sank behind the hills and the cold damp breezes of night played about us. The situation was very picturesque. Our tents pitched with military precision and the lance-like pines; the smoke from our fire curling lazily upward to lose itself in the interlacing branches. Conversation became general but our voices seemed to have lost half their power in the deep space through which the mountain breezes carried the sight of the forest. We talked about Dr. Tanner, who in New York City is now (Aug. 1st 1880.) essaying with some promise of success the task of fasting for forty days and nights, allowing himself no food or drink save water.6Then we told stories, and among others this one on myself by General Crook, I think. In Arizona, it was often necessary for me to travel between Prescott and Fort Mojave,7 on the Colorado river; the only means of making the journey was by government ambulance and as a matter of convenience to the Quartermaster, I several times took with me Schimpff, a German blacksmith, whose duty it was to shoe the horses and mules at the various little posts on the road. Schimpff never drank; that is speaking in the Arizona sense of the term; but he always carried a little whiskey along with him for medicinal purposes. He had somewhere secured a cast-off oil of vitriol “carboy”, (they hold 5 gallons.) which he had rigged up with a handle of wire fastened about the neck. 6.â•‡ Henry S. Tanner, a Minneapolis physician, fasted for forty days after Dr. William A. Hammond offered $1,000 for someone who would go one month without food and observed by members of the New York Neurological Society. He lived only on water from June 28 to August 7, 1880. His clothes were examined before he dressed, to ascertain that he had no concealed food, he was weighed daily, and his pulse and temperature regularly were checked. He subsequently gave lectures on fasting. http://www.famousamericans.net/henrystanner/ 7.â•‡ Fort Mojave was established in 1859 on the Colorado River opposite the present city of Needles, California. It was abandoned in 1890, and became an Indian school. The school was closed in 1935, and the post buildings were demolished seven years later. Frazer, Forts of the West, 11–12.

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This immense bottle (for such it had become, the straw coating having been stripped off.) was always filled up with Arizona “cut-throat” whiskey as a preliminary to setting out on one of our tours. Schimpff, somehow or another got the idea in his head that courtesy required that all the whiskey should be consumed on the journey; this idea I combatted with all the eloquence in my power, but to no effect. Schimpff good-naturedly and hospitably proffered a drink every ten or fifteen minutes, and when I refused to accept would devote his unaided energies to the problem of consumption. Often he would break in upon my short naps by a heavy bear-like thump in the side and the salutation: “come, come, Lieutenant. Wake up and take another pull at the Wial”. Schimpff was strong as a bull and would lift this enormous wial with one arm and pour down his throat enough poison to kill a regiment. It was just my luck to have to travel in company with this really harmless, good-hearted fellow on occasions when I was brought face to face with ladies of the army, who, of course with that perversity of judgment for which the sex is often noted, concluded without a moment’s hesitancy that a wicked, depraved Lieutenant was leading a poor blacksmith astray! Bourke returns to the present. I didn’t sleep very well during the night. I lay awake thinking, listening to the crackling embers and watching the golden sparks circling upward from our camp-fire through the overhanging arms of the pine trees standing sentinel over us until they seemed to blend with the stars studding the sky. (This camp is in Utah.) August 1st 1880. A Heavy white frost last night. Awakened at 4 and breakfasted at 4.30, upon trout, deer’s brains, rabbit and venison from yesterday’s work. Judge Carter and Dick Hamilton started back to Fort Bridger, as did our six-mule team. The ambulance and light wagon remained in this camp with a small guard, while the rest of our party made ready to push on with pack-mules and horses. We had a great deal of trouble in packing “green” mules, and much profanity was vented upon the air by our disgusted packers. It was a ridiculous sight-ob[s]tinate, “mulish” mules, with heads covered with gunny-sacks while packers were adjusting bundles and boxes. We didn’t get out of camp until nearly 8 o’clock, which was a very good thing after all since it enabled Smith, (the guide whom we had almost given up hopes of meeting.) to overtake us. Our line of travel lay almost directly South. One mile from camp entered a

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beautiful meadow, “Gilbert’s”—1½ mile in Diameter—then over a low ridge and into a series of moraines. It seemed as if Nature in a maniac frolic had piled up these long heaps of granite and sandstone boulders and then had thrown upon them burnt and broken pine and spruce trees by hundreds & thousands. Wild flowers in profusion grew everywhere and frequently trickling rills of limpid water splashed the feet of our horses. Deer and elk tracks numerous: three or four of the former darted out from their coverts as we drew near. The country was now full of lovely little parks—groves of verdure in caskets of pine and spruce foliage. A storm of rain and hail attacked us at noon, lasting for three hours; beyond giving us a thorough soaking, no damage was done. The beauties of this Uintah range are not, I think sufficiently well known. For a place so close to the Union Pacific Rail Road it is about as wild and savage as any equal area in America and from its ruggedness will long remain so. We marched along by grumbling mountain torrents, lashed into foam against rocks and boulders obstructing their way to the sea. The murmur from these waters was a musical and sleep-beguiling monotone, to which the fitful breezes playing through the upper branches of the tallest trees of the forest gave gentle responses. Our march was very short, as we had to camp wherever we could find good grass for our animals. A nice little mountain meadow was found at the foot of the pass, fifteen miles only from last night’s camp, and just at the snow and timber line. Snow lay all around us in huge patches and the ground was generally damp. The timber ends here in a line of spruce, through which protrudes Wilson’s Peak, a solid, gloomy, barren mass of sandstone, whose white summit is 1500 feet above our bivouac. We are getting well up in the world, our position being by barometer, 11.950 feet above sea level and Wilson Peak 13.500. We found plenty of good wood and water and a sufficiency of nutritious grass. Lt. Young and I climbed to the summit of a high ridge near camp, hoping to run across a Rocky Mtn. sheep, elk or bear. There were plenty of tracks, especially of sheep, but no game. We washed our faces in snow and thought of our friends in Omaha, sweltering with the heat. Eugene Bisbee caught 30 [trout], Tom Kimball 42, Major Bisbee 15 and others of our mess 20–25,—making a total of 100 trout—some of which we had for supper. In every direction from this camp can be seen small ponds and lakes of ice-

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cold water, the home of thousands of trout. Mosquitoes annoyed us greatly at sun-down. Up to this place, a good wagon-road can be built with some labor in removing burnt timber and in placing corduroy in miry, meadow bottoms. Monday, August 2nd. Last night was very cold, so cold that the mosquitoes withdrew and left us the field. We kept close under our blankets and buffalo robes and enjoyed a delightful sleep. Aroused at 4 o’clock and breakfasted before dawn. Broke camp at 6.30. Moved South, skirting alongside a thin fringe of spruce timber for half to three quarters of a mile and then along the rugged and barren sides of the mountain which frowned above us gloomy and forbidding. We were now above timber line and had about us nothing but blocks of sandstone of all sizes from a hen’s egg to a barn. Among them, in sheltered nooks, grew a little mountain grass or a few scraggy bushes while great banks and patches of snow filled the shaded crevices: from these beds of snow trickled little streams which soon fell in musical cascades over ledges of rock facing the narrow valley. Immediately after crossing the summit of the Pass and lying along the Southern exposure of the mountain, we came to a small but exquisitely lovely park,—as sweet a gem as artist ever fancied. Its walls were the grim buttresses of red sand-stone, forming the ribs of the range: along its edges grew dense masses of spruce, with here and there a few clumps to relieve the lawn-like appearance of the luxuriant grass. The main branch of Rock creek headed here and from both sides of the valley its cold, glassy tributaries could be seen flowing, by dozens. They ran in and out of the tall grass, scampered over the rocks as wanton cascades, bathed the feet of the pine and spruce or swelling with the pride of newly-formed strength crossed in imitation or in rivalry of the deeper diapason of the parent-streams tumbling over enormous boulders, hurrying on to join Green River. The scenery throughout the day may truly be styled grand, but why attempt to describe it? I may say in the commencement that altho’ we are supposed to be following Captain Jones’ trail,8 time and accident have so obliterated it that scarcely a vestige can be detected. 8.â•‡ Probably refers to Capt. Dan Jones, who led a party of Mormon immigrants into the region in 1849. Bancroft, History of Utah, 296–97 n27.

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We force our way over hills of loose rock, descend into little ravines filled with sparkling rimlets, gaze into the cañon, walled in with vertical blocks of sandstone, hundreds of feet in height, and watch with rapture the creamy water dashing itself to frenzy against the boulders which bar its path; break through acres of burnt or fallen pine trees, burst through jungles of willow, rose and pine, wade the foaming torrent in the splash of rainbow-tinted cascades, glistening in the sun or admire the many-hued flowers—red, scarlet, pink, violet, purple, blue, yellow or white—nestling under the shadow of precipices,—all these enjoyments were ours, but when it comes to attempt a written description, the pen seems to engage in what Mr. Mantilini9 would characterize as one “demunition horrid grind” of beetling crag, shady forest, foaming cascade and musical rimlet—It’s no use. Such scenery must be seen to be felt. In general resemblance, this cañon is much like that of Clear Creek, Colorado, but is far more lovely. In one place, we saw several Indian “pictures” rudely daubed on the blazed faces of pine-trees: one, a white man; another, an Indian, in war costume, in the attitude of prayer before an elk. Nearby a few surveyor’s marks;—“K-T” and “BB”. South of this locality, was a beaver “house”, built of pine logs, seven feet long and eight inches thick, roofed in with brush and chinked with mud. A driving storm of rain and hail annoyed us for an hour or more about 2 o’clock; our clothing was saturated and our spirits depressed, but with the re-appearance of the sun, everyone brightened up once more. After having been ten hours in the saddle, and, making about 25 miles, we camped in a fine meadow at a place where the cañon widened. Found pretty good grass, but not much of it. Wood and water, of course, abundant; the latter from Rock Creek, here 15 yards Wide, 2½ to 3 feet Deep and Current of from 12 @ 15 miles an hour. In the channel of the creek were rocks weighing as [sic] least ten to twenty tons each, and trees not less than 60 feet long and 3 feet at butt, carried down by the torrent, when the snows melted in early summer. We saw no game to-day, but our fishers caught many trout, Genl. Crook 56, and the “youngsters” (who, are wild with enthusiasm over the whole trip and especially the fishing[)], 44. Found a great many wild raspberries around this camp. 9.â•‡ A character in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby.

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Aug. 4th [sic]10 Last night was quite warm, by contrast. This morning we have had no frost. In this lovely amphitheatre, protected from every adverse wind, there is every reason for supposing that farming would be successful. There is an inexhaustible supply of timber for every purpose, of water, (in the creeks and in springs.) of good grass and good soil. Took breakfast shortly after 4 o’clock and then pushed down the valley for 2 or 3 miles, when we turned nearly due East across steep hills, getting into a heavy rolling country, the hills bearing a good supply of pine and the valleys well mantled with grass. Moved along the trend of the foot-hills, passing through several pretty parks and then into a tract of country more arid and barren, but still having a little pine timber. In the parks, the pines are scattered in clumps, but are of great size, some of them not less than 6 feet in Diameter at ground. Ran across two or three bands of Indian cattle and one of Indian ponies. (A little limestone appearing to-day.) After getting out of the higher foot-hills, our trail wound among fields of the lovely marguinte,11 with lemon colored centres and petals of purple. At noon a heavy thunder-storm was raging in the mountains we had left. We were hoping for a little while to be able to avoid it—a hope which was soon dispelled as a brisk wind drove the opaque, lowering clouds down upon us and enveloped us in a damp mist. Such shelter as could be found in the clumps of willow fringing a little stream near which we happened to be, was eagerly sought and accepted. Then the thunder roared, the lightning plowed its snaky path of fire across the clouds and rain fell in torrents. I have spoken of the music—murmur of the cascades along our line of march;—sweet and low as Shakespeare says the voice of a lovely woman should be; but this thunder spoke in far different tones and yet grandly beautiful and impressive as well. For a while it sounded precisely like some obstinately contested field of battle: the echoes and reverberations from the different peaks sounding now near, now far—loud or subdued as if the struggle between armed hosts waxed or waned. After covering several minor tributaries, we reached a large stream 10.â•‡ Undoubtedly Bourke means August 3, because the preceding date is August 2, and the following date is also August 4. 11.â•‡ This common name cannot be located. From the description, location and terrain, it may be the leafy aster (aster foliaceus).

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which we thought must be the main Uintah—a noble body of water, 50 @ 60 feet Wide, two feet Deep and current of not less than 8 miles. Bottom is filled with large boulders, but is fordable at this season at any point. The approaches are easy. In places, the land lying along the stream (which we followed down,) seems to be arable. Reached the Uintah Ute Agency, at 6 o’clock in the evening, after a march of 30 miles. This Agency is on a branch of the main Uintah Creek, near the junction of the latter with the Duchesne.—in the midst of a large meadow of several thousand Acres. The buildings are in good condition and comprise a school-house, (used as a residence by the Agent’s family,) saw-mill, flour-mill and other appurtenances. Agent Critchlon is now in charge. At sun-down, a deputation of Ute Indians, some dozen in all, came over to talk with the “soger bid chief”—(Genl. Crook.). They were headed by a good-looking fellow, calling himself “Cap’n Jack”, but really named Wan-ro. (Indians never give their true names to strangers.) His comrades were healthy and comfortable looking— well-dressed and mounted on excellent ponies. I should remark also that all the cattle appeared in usually good condition. Genl. Crook spoke freely to them but declined any formal conference. After dark, Genl. Crook, Major Roberts, Major Bisbee, Will. Carter and myself called upon Agent Critchlon and family; he has with him his wife and two daughters, one a pretty little girl, and the other a very handsome, young lady. The number of Indians on the Reservation is only 450, a gross waste of the public domain. There is an abundance of farm-land in this tract,—enough to give a good farm to every man or boy of the whole Ute nation and yet leave a large region open to settlement. From this place sent a telegram to General [Robert] Williams, by way of Ashley Fork, Utah and Green River, Wyo.; it will be 5 days in getting to Omaha. August 4th 1880. Breakfasted at 4.30 a.m. Left at 6.40, returning by almost same trail as that which we travelled yesterday. Six miles out crossed a spring branch of Uintah Creek. Great masses of service berries were ripening along our path and it is fair to assume that there

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must be many bears in the Uintah Range as this berry is one of their favorite articles of food. Eight miles from Agency, crossed another creek, like its companion, flowing South to join the Uintah. This creek was heavily shaded by willows. The day became exceedingly warm, and we were very glad to halt and rest for a short time, when about 12 miles from the Agency, on the banks of the stream where the thunder-storm caught us yesterday. Bivouacked at same point as on 2nd–3rd. General Crook and “the boys” at once started to the creek to fish. These boys are, by the way, deserving of mention for their peculiarity of talking during the whole march. Few people are disposed to do much in the conversational line while marching in a hot sun, but these boys have adopted and pursued a different policy. They gabble the whole blessed day and have been kind enough to make me their victim. It don’t make much difference what sort of question they ask, so that it be a question. Here is a specimen of the persecution I underwent with the fortitude of one of the early Christian martyrs. “Major, what time it is? Three O’Clock! Wa’ll, I’ll jest bed your watch ain’t right.” [“]Is that a real good watch, Major? Whose is it?” [“]Jedge Carter’s! Oh! Do you think it is a good one, Major? What kind of watch would you buy if you was me, Major? Major, did you ever see a bar? Haint never seed no Polar Bar hev yer, Major? Do you know that officer who’s gone to the North Pole, Major?12 You do! Wa’ll you haint never bin to the North Pole, I’ll bet, Major” and much more of like import. These boys called us all Major, a title which seemed to them to suit us best. Bisbee came to me quietly and said “Bourke, if you don’t see any other way of putting an end to this chatter, I say let’s kill these boys. I’m perfectly willing to sacrifice my own offspring for the public good”. But after all they are fine young fellows. Brave, bright and goodnatured and the life of our little company with Genl. Crook this evening, they caught one hundred and twenty-five trout. Old Smith, our guide shows a pretty thorough familiarity with this range of mountains. He tells me that he has wandered over almost all the Pacific Slope, since 1852, tramping and prospecting over much of Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming & Utah. 12.â•‡ Referring to the expedition of Lt. Frederick Schwatka, which Bourke mentions later in the narrative.

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He is a gentlemanly, taciturn old fellow and in his old and timeworn costume of dark-blue flannel shirt, buckskin pantaloons, & hat handed down from the Revolution and with his bronzed face, snowy hair and long white beard tied up with string, presents the picture of a benevolent and tender-hearted but courageous and resolute old fellow upon whom unkind fortune has never smiled. He gave in a very quiet and modest way an account of a desperate encounter he once had with a grizzly bear in these mountains. Smith crawled in upon the grizzly, in a thick woods, hoping to get a shot at close range. The bear, however, had discovered him and was coming towards him at a full run before Smith could place his bullet. The shot killed the beast, but before dying he managed to seize the hunter in his fierce claws and give him such a terrible tearing and mangling that Smith was laid up for eleven months. Our bivouac is high up in the mountains and of course, we notice with great pleasure the difference in temperature between this point and the warm valley of the Agency. Everybody takes a dip in the sparkling, icy water of the stream and then to bed, lulled to repose by the solemn, deep music of the torrent. August 5th 1880. Awakened at 4 o’clock. Breakfasted at 4.30 and resumed line of march on the back trail. Our poor horses and mules do not seem to be much refreshed. The grass last night was not especially good and altho’ the distance we have travelled has not been great the route has been so difficult that they are badly used up, foot-sore, leg-weary, bruised and swollen. Marched for 7½ hours, making not more than 12 or 15 miles, through rapids, over rocky hills and through the almost impenetrable pine forest. The weather was all that could be wished for. We saw several beautiful cascades, which let the water down from the summit of a precipice at least 100 feet to the bottom of the cañon. Major Bisbee tells me that last evening while bathing, he saw a snake emerging from the creek with a fish in his mouth three inches long. Before he went down to the creek, I saw Bisbee take a couple of stiff drinks of whiskey. There is no special connection between these two items which are inserted at this time and in this order merely to keep my journal complete. Friday, August 6th 1880. Camp aroused at 3.30 a.m. Breakfast at 4 o’clock. We had hoped to get away by 4.30, but as a pair of our pack-mules had run off during the night, we had to devote a couple

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of hours to their pursuit, and even then, 6.30 a.m. as they could not be found, Lt. Young, Jesus Baldes and a couple of soldiers were left in camp, while the rest of us pushed out on the trail in the expectation of catching them. We found them about 3 miles out and sent word back to Young. Genl. Crook had started out in advance to hunt elk or bear. In getting across the “divide” above the timber and in the snow line, we ran into a stratum of musquitoes13 and green-headed flies which bit our poor horses fearfully and annoyed us almost beyond endurance. One of these flies, which I killed upon the back of my neck, must have [been] boring with a red-hot diamond drill. About 10½ hours marching, reached Carter’s Saw Mill where we had left our wagons; a few drops of rain fell upon us, but we escaped the drenching storm which appeared to be raging in the mountains behind us. Coming down the Pass, we obtained a fine view of Chinaman’s Lake, a little sheet of water, oblong in shape, quite deep, and about 3 miles by 1½ @ 2 miles in dimensions. Judge Carter told me a few days ago that this lake received its name from the one of his employees—a Chinese cook—[who] was drowned in it. We welcomed a large mail of letters and papers, to which devoted attention was paid until the call for supper. Major Bisbee had wounded a fat buck which nevertheless succeeded in escaping through the tangled meshes of fallen timber. But we had an abundance of venison from that killed by the teamsters during our absence. At meals, “our boys” act as if separated by half a mile of distance: “Gene, Ho! Gene!” Hullo, Tom. “Pass the beans, will yer”. [“]Ya’as, Shove down that there hard tack” (The young men are about seven feet apart.) (In justice, I should say that Will Carter is much more reserved and quiet than the other two.) Young Bisbee and Kimball have taken it upon themselves to give names to the whole country; thus we have Bisbee Falls, Kimball Falls, Bisbee-Kimball Falls, Rocky Gorge, Hell Gate (a very appropriate name for a vertical fissure through which the torrent pours over a great pile of opposing rocks.); and, best of all, Mannie Lake, bestowed by Mr. Tom. Kimball upon an exquisite little pool of snow-water, in honor of Miss Mannie Lake, the pretty young daughter of Judge Lake, of Omaha. This journal is rapidly getting into the condition of Mark Twain’s 13.â•‡ Bourke’s spelling is not consistent. He sometimes uses “mosquitoes.”

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famous diary. “Got up, washed and went to bed”, only substituting for the above the familiar “arose at 4. Breakfasted, moved out on trail. Lovely scenery, mountains, murmuring waterfalls, Rocky pathway, Dense pine forest”.14 Last night and this morning we had musquitoes again; not many, but enough to make us think we were at a New Jersey watering place paying $20 a week for the privilege of being bitten. Our bill of fare at this date so closely resembles the mënu of a cheap boarding house that it has ceased to be attractive. Our table-cloth is a large gunny-sack spread upon the ground; our china-ware of good, stout tin, as an Irishman would say, and our diet such changes upon hard tack, bacon, trout and venison as can be run by a cook in whom the inventive faculty appears to be entirely dormant. Genl. Crook takes his tin cup of coffee, soaks in a hand-full of hardtack, retires to a nook, sits down and gets through his meal in silence. He is remarkably abstemious, rarely drinks coffee or tea except when on a trip in the Mountains, can scarcely ever be prevailed upon to touch whiskey and then never more than a spoonful—in brief, is the most abstemious man I have ever been associated with. We have no books with us this time, but to him, The Great Book of Nature always lies open. He knows the rivers and the trend of mountains, as if by instinct, and can find his way through dark and tangled forests with the certainty of an aborigine. If there be any game near us, his keen eye detects its track, his stealthy foot follows it and his unerring rifle brings it down. If the stream upon which we camp be trout-bearing, his skill as a fisherman will lure the finny tribe where all others fail. We have had more trout than anything else on this journey and I boldly express my conviction that it is a very poor article of food. My opinion is partly due to having at one time during the campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne in 1876–7, been obliged to live mainly upon trout for about six weeks and I may have had too much of a good thing.15 Eugene Bisbee gave a detailed account after supper of the killing by a grizzly bear, of “Long Dan” Miller, which he witnessed. They were both out with an expedition under Colonel Anson Mills, then 14.â•‡ Bourke is referring to Roughing It, Mark Twain’s 1872 memoir of his experiences in the far west, primarily the silver country of Nevada. Indeed, as Twain’s book progresses, there are many similarities in style to Bourke’s later writing. 15.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, Vol. 1, Chapter 18.

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Captain of the 3rd Cavalry, and had reached a point in the Big Horn Mountains where a grizzly bear was discovered and pursued into a thick willow underbrush, growing along the banks of a creek. The grizzly had been wounded and poor Miller with great foolhardiness entered the thicket only to be grasped in the death-hug of the monster. The bear was killed by the soldiers and officers who rushed up, but too late to save the poor fellow—Miller—who received wounds which erelong terminated fatally. I mention Miller because he had been my servant in Arizona, at a time when the detailing of soldiers for such work was admissible.16 In his youth, Miller had been apprenticed to a blacksmith, a trade for which his great physical strength suited him perfectly. He was such a great, long-limbed, strong, good-natured fellow that all the world recognized the fitness of his sobriquet—“Long Dan” Miller. He at all times manifested a great affection for me, much to my delight as the good fellow in my mind was almost a synonym for bravery and honor. I was then running my own mess, being the only officer present in our little camp on the Rillits, near Tucson: well do I remember Miller’s efforts as a cook and particularly the means he employed for making tender the tough Arizona beef-steaks. He would place them one at a time on a chopping block and beat them with a hammer, much as if they were horse-shoes and all the while the air would ring with his merry refrain of “Hi-Daddy, Ho-daddyHi-daddy, Dum”. Tom Kimball killed a fine buck and a large elk this evening. Old man Smith insisted that the elk was a cow, much to Kimball’s indignation; Kimball put 25 shots into the animal to be sure about killing it. The scene about this camp, at all times lovely, was especially so this evening. Surely no loom of the East could have woven a more gorgeous carpet than that upon which we reclined, of emerald grass, spangled with countless clusters of wild flowers, of every hue. It became so cold about nine o’clock that we retired to bed, Roberts and I to our tent, but Genl. Crook, Bisbee and the others to the log house belonging to the saw-mill. 16.â•‡ The striker was an enlisted man who moonlighted as a servant for an officer. Although the practice was outlawed in 1870, the law was observed more in the breach until specifically prohibited by Army Regulations in 1881. Even then, the position did not completely disappear. By working as a striker, an enlisted man could live in private quarters, eat better, avoid more onerous duties, and supplement his meager army pay. Knight, Life and Manners, 128.

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Aug. 7th 1880. A few drops, of rain fell in the morning. We moved towards Ft. Bridger about ten miles; there all our people commenced to fish, intending to catch a quantity for our friends in Omaha.17 Roberts and myself, after hauling in a couple apiece, pushed on to the Fort to open the mail which had accumulated there. Judge Carter and all the officers gave us a most hearty welcome; the old Judge insisted on opening a couple of bottles of champagne which had been in his cellar for more than ten years. Unfortunately, he made it into a mixed drink with some sort of bitters; the result was that my drink made me feel wretched. August 8th. Colonels Ludington & [Thaddeus Harlan] Stanton who had been absent fishing joined us at Bridger where in addition to the people already mentioned, we found Miss Maud Stanton & Governor Pounds of Wisconsin (M.C.) and wife.18 ++++ + +++++++ ++++++++. - + + + Genl. Crook’s Report. Hd.Qrs. Dep’t. Platt. In the Field; Fort Bridger, Wyo., Aug. 8th. 1880. Ass’t. Adj’t. General Hd.Qrs. Mily. Divn. of the Missouri, Chicago, Ills. Sir: We arrived at Ft. Bridger, Wyo., on the 30th ult., and the next morning left for Carter’s Saw-Mill at the foot of the Uintah Mountains, a point 27 miles South of this post and accessible by wagons. From that place we proceeded with horses and pack-mules to the Uintah Ute Agency, a distance estimated at a total of ninety one miles from Bridger. The trail was exceedingly bad; owing to the fallen timber and bush: In many places extremely rocky and in some few miry. An excellent grade for a road can be had, but, in my judgment, the cost of construction would be far in excess of the amount asked for. This route is beyond a doubt the most feasible of all those under consideration: it cannot be used more than four months in each year, a objection holding good with regard to all the 17.â•‡ Given the distance to Omaha, and the lack of reliable refrigeration, the fish probably was smoked. See Seymour, Forgotten Arts and Crafts, 227. 18.â•‡ Bourke undoubtedly means Thaddeus Coleman Pound (1833–1914), who was lieutenant governor of Wisconsin in 1870–72, and U.S. representative from Wisconsin from 1877 to 1883. He was the grandfather of poet Ezra Pound. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Thaddeus_C._Pound

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others for reaching the same country. I was agreeably surprised to find the Reservation to be such a fine region; the moment we crossed the mountain-range, the climate and character of the vegetation seemed to change. Before us stretched a broad valley similar in appearance to that of Salt Lake but much better watered. Several excellent streams coursed through it, filled at all seasons with pure cold water, containing but little alkali. From my own observation and from what the agent, Mr. Critchlon told me, I believe that there is an immense body of arable land there available for the use of the Indians, more in fact than would be needed for the whole Ute tribe. Everything in the way of cereals or vegetables grown about Salt Lake can be produced here in abundance. The climate and soil being almost identical. The only difference being that the greater altitude of the Uintah Reservation makes a slightly lower average temperature. Very Respectfully, Your Obedt. Servant (Sig.) George Crook, Brigadier General

Chapter 3 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Carl Schurz and Yellowstone National Park

Carl Schurz’s tour included Yellowstone National Park. Besides Crook and Bourke, the party included Webb C. Hayes, son of President Rutherford B. Hayes, whom Crook had first met as a child when the elder Hayes served under him in the Civil War. As he grew up, Webb became a surrogate son to the childless Crooks. The general was a frequent visitor at the Hayes home in Fremont, Ohio, followed Webb’s progress through school, and took him on hunting trips. When Crook died, Webb stood with Mary Crook during the funeral.1 Bourke was impressed with the president’s son, commenting that Webb possessed “all the attributes of good companionship, with all the best qualities of manhood. He is very bright, gentle, good-humored, able to stand much fatigue and is a pretty good hunter.”2 Years later, in On the Border With Crook, he remarked with some humor on the relationship between the general and the president’s son. 1.â•‡ The relationship between Crook and Webb Hayes is discussed in Robinson, General Crook. Their correspondence is preserved in the George Crook Collection in the Rutherford B. Hayes Library. 2.â•‡ Bourke, Diary, 35:712.

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For eight or nine years Mr. Webb C. Hayes . . . hunted with Crook, and probably knows more of his encounters with ursine monsters than any living man, not excepting Tom Moore. Mr. Hayes became a renowned bear-hunter himself, and is well known in all the mountains close to the Three Tetons. In addition to being an excellent shot, he is a graceful runner; I remember seeing him make a half-mile dash down the side of a mountain with a bear cub at his heels, and the concurrence of opinion of all in camp was that the physical culture of Cornell University was a great thing.3 The trip inspired some of Bourke’s most soaring prose. He had always admired the natural wonders of the West, and Yellowstone had a particularly humbling effect on him. Whereas, in that era, many in the industrialized East believed that human technology was on the verge of overcoming nature, and solving virtually any problem, Bourke wrote that amid the mountains, meadows, forests, and rivers of the national park, “man’s impotence reveals itself and his awe-inspired soul bows down in humble reverence before his Lord and Maker.”4 The region now known as Yellowstone National Park was surveyed by an expedition under Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden in 1871. Hayden’s enthusiastic written report, together with the works of expedition photographer William H. Jackson and painter Thomas Moran, led to the establishment of the park the following year. Yellowstone existed in a sort of limbo for decades following its establishment. There being no National Park Service at the time, the park was under the War Department, with the Army Engineers having direct responsibility. Despite this arrangement, initially it was placed under civilian superintendents. Congress, however, found this unsatisfactory, and beginning in 1886, army officers served as superintendents. The National Park Service was created in 1916, but the War Department and Engineers disputed its jurisdiction for two more years, so that it was 1918 when the park passed to civilian control.5 Even at this early stage of the park’s development, remote as it was, and with Indian outbreaks still a possibility, Superintendent 3.â•‡ Bourke, On the Border, 430–31. 4.â•‡ Bourke, Diary, 35:709. 5.â•‡ Lamar, New Encyclopedia, 1244–45; Lee Whittlesey, Yellowstone National Park, to Charles M. Robinson III, January 2, 2008.

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Philetus Norris foresaw what it would become, and was designing his program accordingly. Already, as Bourke observed, the park was attracting tourists: Near the grand geysers, a photographer, Mr. [Henry Bird] Calfee, his [sic] pitched his tent and supplies tourists with such views as they may desire. We encountered several small parties travelling like ourselves for pleasure, but none that we knew except that of Major [William Burton] Hughes (A.D.C. to Genl. Terry.) with his wife and sister-in-law.6 August 9th. Dr. Tanner, so the telegram to-day informed us, completed his 40 days’ fast, a wonderful achievement of fortitude and endurance, which may yet prove of value to the medical profession in the treatment of obscure intestinal troubles. The report, published a short time since, of the rout and destruction of Genl. [George] Burrough’s [sic] Brigade of the British Army, near Candahar [sic], in Afghanistan, has been confirmed.7 We paid our farewell calls this afternoon to all our friends at the post, among others to Judge Carter, from whom we were glad to escape. The judge is one of the pleasantest and most affable gentlemen I’ve ever met, but like everybody he has his failings. He is an amateur medical practitioner and bases his views of health upon a copious administration of some stuff called “Cook’s Balm of Life” which he believes to be an alleviative for every malady. This nostrum is composed, to infer from the taste, of equal parts of carbolic acid, camphor, borax, iodide of potassium, [semmiate?] of ammonia and such ingredients, and is extremely well adapted for relieving nausea, but is not the proper thing for a constant drink, much as Judge Carter may think so. He dosed us all with it five or six times to-day, Col. Ludington and myself being the worst sufferers: we didn’t like to 6.â•‡ Bourke, Diary, 35:707. 7.â•‡ This refers to the battle of Maiwand, fifty miles from Kandahar, on July 27, 1880, during the Second Afghan War. Some 25,000 Afghans under Ayub Khan outflanked and smashed Brig. Gen. George Burrows’ 2,566 British and Indian troops. The British lost 962 dead and 161 wounded, but were saved from total annihilation by Ayub Khan’s failure to follow up on the victory. Despite the setback for the British, the Afghans lost 5,500 dead and 1,500 wounded. Although Ayub Khan managed to bottle up the British garrison in Kandahar, the battle had no real effect on the outcome of the war. On September 1, a British force under Gen. Frederick Roberts relieved Kandahar with a decisive victory over the Afghans. The battle of Maiwand entered British literature with Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “That Day,” and in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, in which the reader learns that Sherlock Holmes’ companion, Dr. John Watson, was discharged from the army on medical disability after being severely wounded at Maiwand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maiwand


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offend our old friend by refusing his medicine, but under our breath, we cursed the luck which had caused us to fall into his hands. Col. J. M. Thornburgh joined us, coming from Fort Washakie8 in the Wind River Mountains. August 10th. Govr. and Mrs. Pound, Genl. Crook, Maj. Roberts, A.D.C., Col. and Miss Stanton, Col. Ludington, Col. Thornburgh, and the writer, with Major Bisbee and Lt. Young, started for Carter Station, all except the last two, to take the Westward-bound train at that point for Ogden. On train, were Webb Hayes, son of the President, (who came to join our party.) and eight young midshipmen, just graduated from the Naval Academy and on their way to report for duty with the Asiatic squadron. They were all nice, bright young fellows of promise, and proved a pleasant acquisition to our society on the road. At Ogden we found Secy. Schurz and party, Genl. Smith, U.S. Army, Mr. Kimball of Salt Lake, and Major [William T.] Howell, U.S.A. Secretary Schurz’s party consisted of himself and two daughters, his private Secretary, Mr. Hanna, Mr. Gaulieur [sic: Gauliaur] of New York City and Mr. Mayer, (the Secy’s. nephew.) The Misses Schurz proceeded on to Washington, and Govr. and Mrs. Pound, Miss Stanton and General Smith to Salt Lake City. For the others, a special chair [coach] had been provided on the Utah and Northern R.R., under care of Mr. McConnell, of the Union Pacific freight department who did all possible for our comfort. This arrangement gave great umbrage to a big strapping fellow, calling himself Maguire who, much to my quiet enjoyment, wanted to whip the Secretary as a mark of esteem, I suppose. Mr. Maguire was very tipsy, but very plucky, nevertheless. As we were on the point of starting, a telegram reached me from Genl. Williams, saying that my detail to the Mily. Acady. had (upon my application.) been revoked. We supplied ourselves liberally with the large sweet apricots grown in this territory, which are sold at very reasonable prices. The train stopped at Logan, near midnight, when a fearful row was 8.â•‡ Fort Washakie was established as Camp Brown in 1871, and is referred to as Camp Brown in the first two volumes of this series. The post was located on the Wind River to protect the Shoshones. It was renamed Fort Washakie in 1878, in honor of the paramount Shoshone chief who allied himself with the government during the Great Sioux War. It was permanently abandoned in 1909, and turned over to the Interior Department as headquarters for the Shoshone Agency. Frazer, Forts of the West, 186–87.

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made by some-body, trying to get into our car. We were afterwards told that it was Sir John Rae Reid and some of his escort who wanted to go into the Yellowstone Park with us and ride in our sleeper. Sir John was disappointed in his hopes. August 11 1880. We arrived at Ross Fork early in the morning, where our car was switched off on a side-track until daylight. Agent [James] Wright provided us all with a good breakfast, after which Secretary Schurz held a conference with the Bannocks and Shoshonees whose agency is at this point and with a deputation of another branch of the same tribes and of the Sheep-Eaters* all of whom are located at the Lehmi Agency 165 miles North and West of this place. The object of the conference was to induce these last Indians to relinquish their Reservation at Lemhi and come down to live with the others near Fort Hall: in this, the conference was a dead failure. The Indians flatly refused to entertain any such proposition, altho’ the sum of $4000 per annum was offered as a bonus. Their language was, if not saucy, extremely independent. Tin-Doy, Pegui, Tucamesa and “Humpy Saw” were the speakers on the side of the Indians. Tin-Doy said “You (Schurz.) have given me ten agents—none of them has ever been fit for anything”. All the rest spoke in like strain bearing heavily upon Agent Wright (of Fort Hall.), but not upon Agent [E. A.] Stone, (of Lemhi.) both of whom were present. My own opinion coincided with that of the Indians; I imbibed a prejudice against Wright, but took quite a fancy to Stone. There was nothing especially note-worthy about this conference. The Indians were dressed in their usual, half-savage, half-civilized garb of their race living upon Reservations. All of them wore their hair long and loose, but pulled back in a “top-knot” at forehead, and under it at roots, a bright line of vermillion paint. Generally they had neck-laces of large, opaque, blue glass beads and each carried in his hat a brilliant scarlet tuft or plume of feathers.** One shone resplendent in an artillery officer’s dress coat of scarlet with gold buttons and shoulder-knots. These Indians, in their habits and mode of life, are a connecting link between the “fishers” of the Colum*Bourke’s marginal note: The Sheep-Eaters are a branch of the Sho-shonees and speak their language. They get their peculiar title from the fact of living mainly upon the Rocky Mountain Sheep which is to be found in numbers in the depths of the Rocky Mountains where these Indians abide. **Bourke’s marginal note: A great many of these Indians wore moustaches.


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bia and the “hunters” of the plains. Their general diet is salmon, salmon-trout,9 trout, Rocky Mountain Sheep, elk and deer, with an occasional moose, and each year a foray is made across the Rocky Mountains into the Sioux country east of the big Horn Range to hunt buffalo.* I had pointed out to me Bear-skin, a young Bannock warrior who sat very quiet during the whole proceedings. During the Bannock out-break, in this Department, in 1878, this Indian had a desperate hand to hand encounter with a Sergeant of the Army. I believe he killed the Sergeant and was himself very badly shot and left for dead: but here he was, all the same. Mr. Schilling, the trader at this Agency, an old friend, drove us over to his house for dinner where we had the pleasure of meeting three charming ladies—Mrs. Schilling, Mrs. White and Mrs. Butler, the last named very pretty and pleasing. Mrs. Schilling had gone to great trouble in making ice-cream for us, but I don’t believe she had any just cause of complaint about our lack of appreciation of her labors. I hunted around among these Indians to obtain a specimen of their handiwork. They don’t do much, and I was successful only in getting an odd-looking money-purse covered with beads; as it was the only thing in sight. I secured it without delay. We are among a very peculiar set of Indians—the Sheep-Eaters, above mentioned; then, the Flat-Heads, some of whom are intermarried among the Bannocks, who have had until lately, and still have, I think, the practice of compressing the heads of their newly-born children until in shape they resemble a sugar loaf. This is done by strapping the child to a stiff board and placing another smooth, heavy piece of plank upon its forehead. This is not pressed at all, at least not for the first month, its weight being sufficient, but after the first month a system of pressure is applied by buckskin thongs, running through holes and connecting the two boards, about as, with us, ladies tighten their corsets. The reason given for this singular practice, by some ethnologists, is that the Flat-Heads at one period in their history had been unusually successful in war and had taken many captives whose children they wished to distinguish from their own by a mark of servitude; but *In the margin, Bourke inserted, with no particular reference to anything: At Ross’s Fork Agency, there are four Indian carpenters. 9.â•‡ I.e., cutthroat trout (salmo clarki).

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the captives, becoming more numerous than the captors, usurped control and assumed as a tribal distinction that which at first had been invented as a badge of disgrace. The Flat-Heads themselves say they mark their babies in this way to enable the Great Spirit to recognize them when they go to the Happy Hunting Grounds. Roman Catholic missionaries have labored hard among the Black-Feet and Flat-Heads for many years, trying to break down their savage customs and meeting with encouraging success. The Flat-Heads have the best farms in Montana and a pretty little church in the Missoula Valley. They are very well-behaved and would make a much better Christian than the average were it not for the occasional out-croppings of the old blood-thirsty spirit which impels them annually to make raids into the Sioux country to kill and Scalp their hereditary enemies. Contiguous to the country of the Flat-Heads is that of the Blackfeet, Nez Percés and Coeur d’Alênes, of whom I may have opportunities to say something in the future. Between three and four in the afternoon, our car left Ross Fork, taking with us, (as far as Blackfoot station,) the three ladies who had dined with us. Blackfoot has improved wonderfully since my last visit, at Xmas (1879.)10 It has now all the airs and manners of a bustling little town, the impetus to its advancement being formed in the mining developments now going on in the Saw tooth and Salmon River mountains, in the Bonanza, Challis, Wood-River and Bay-Horse districts, 50 or 75 miles to the North West. The Snake River, a strong affluent of the Columbia, is crossed by an iron and wooden bridge, whose ends rest upon the vertical walls of a deep cañon of black basalt, a natural pier of the same material rising out of the middle of the river and serving as the support for the span. This point is a proud one for such a structure. Its discovery must have saved the Rail Road Company several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The river is wonderfully deep, how deep may never be known with accuracy. Soundings of 200 feet have been made, but such is the velocity of the current that the lead never yet has reached the bottom. This part of Idaho Territory is very flat and uninteresting, a scanty growth of sage-brush being the only vegeta10.â•‡ Bourke probably means the Christmas season, rather than Christmas Day. His entries for December 1879 show that he was at Blackfoot Station on December 16. On Christmas Day, he left Salt Lake City for Omaha. Robinson, Diaries, 3:350.


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tion. The soil is a decomposed volcanic rock and ash, which must be fearfully muddy in winter. We could see also that the Snake river makes great freshets at times to take the piles of drift-wood above the bridge, as any indication. Near Market Lake, (a broad, shallow expanse of mud, surrounded with mud.) we were shown two high hills to the North-East which are said to be the craters of extinct volcanoes. Pushed up the valley of the Snake, which is remarkable in this vicinity for the scarcity of timber upon its banks. It is easy to understand that the Utah and Northern R-R. must soon change from a narrow to a standard gauge. Its “haul” of freight is increasing daily and there are at this writing said to be over 300 car-loads at Ogden waiting to be transferred from the cars of the Pacific Rail Road to those of this. By assuming the standard track-width, the Utah line will avoid all the bother and delay of transshipments. A short distance above Market Lake is China point, named to commemorate six Mongolians who froze to death in the winter of 1875–6. They were travelling in a stage coach. The horses gave out and the driver started off with them to the relay station where fresh animals were to be found. A heavy snow-storm had set in for which reason the driver the driver [sic] urged the Chinamen to accompany him. This they declined doing, thinking they could keep themselves warm in the stage until his return. Later in the night a polar blast howled across the country keeping the driver from leaving the station and chilling the Chinamen so thoroughly that all but one determined to face the storm and plod through the snow to the shelter that stables afforded. But, as might be expected, they lost their way in the blinding snow drifts and their bodies were never found until the following Spring. The survivor, who clung to the stage, was badly frozen but did not lose his life. I believe that I was out in this very storm, riding in a stage from the (then) terminus of the R.R. at Franklin, Idaho, to Fort Hall. Some mention of the matter may be found in my journals of 1875–6.11 The serrated peaks of the Salmon River Mountains made a noble sight in the golden rays of the setting sun this evening. At 9.30 P.m., reached the end of our journey by rail—Beaver Cañon, 11.â•‡ This apparently is among the missing volumes, because there is a gap between June 22, 1875, and February 17, 1876.

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258 miles North of Ogden, 6200 feet above sea level. The air was very chilly. Had supper prepared for us [next lines crossed out and illegible] Major [Augustus H.] Bainbridge, 14th Infantry, in command of our escort, had pitched his camp at the water tank some distance from Beaver Cañon. Ludington and Thornburgh were with him, having preceded us in the regular train this morning, but we slept in the chair car all night. August 12th 1880. Breakfasted at 4.15 a.m. Left Beaver cañon at 5 o’clock and steamed down to Major Bainbridge’s camp. The heavy wagons had gone on several days in advance, but there were in waiting for us three ambulances and a light escort wagon in which we loaded ourselves and traps without delay and then took up the trail which General [Oliver O.] Howard followed in his ineffectual pursuit of Joseph and his Nez Percés in 1877.12 We moved East, going for a number of miles across a desert country with soil of broken lava and hills capped with columnar basalt. Crossed several small but good streams. Came to Camas Prairie, an extended area of excellent pasture, 5 or 6 miles in Diameter, surrounded by lofty mountains. It is not only covered with excellent grasses but bears a great quantity of the camas,13 a plant resembling the wild turnip, the bulb of which, after being roasted, is eaten by the Indians. The stem of the plant is white and is crowned with a number of seed pods, like those of a pea, each filled with small black seeds. Secy. Schurz and Genl. Crook shot a number of plump young prairie-chickens: Mr. Hayes and Mr. Gauliaur also made several good shots. The mountains around and about us were patched with snow; our line of march led us through lovely little parks, well grassed and fairly timbered, and covered with many pretty brooks flowing over beds of boulders and gravel. The water of all these, without exception, was pure, sweet and cold as ice.—they are all tributaries of the Snake. This country has once been the scene of powerful volcanic action, 12.â•‡ Although Yellowstone was in the Department of the Platte, the Nez Percé War originated in the Department of the Columbia, and the chase zig-zagged back and forth. Therefore it was more feasible for Howard, who commanded the Department of the Columbia, to coordinate the military action. See Beal, “I Will Fight No More Forever,” and Greene, Nez Perce Summer. 13.â•‡ Camassia quamash.


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but no craters are visible, this side of Market Lake. When we reached Shot-gun creek, a noble stream, we watered our mules and waited for an hour to let those so inclined try their hand at fishing. The current was full of fine salmon trout, gassy fellows,14 ranging from 2½ to 3 lbs. in Wt. Col Stanton and Col. Ludington each caught several weighing far above this, but they readily broke away from the small hooks and slender poles and lines with which they had been taken. I caught seven—all fighters and of good weight. Farther on from the Shot-gun, we passed a mammoth spring gushing in a solid stream out from the rock and rushing down to join the creek we had left. At 5 o’clock, reached our camp, a most picturesque location with tents pitched on the grassy banks of the North fork of the Snake river, here some 60 @ 70 yards wide, as clear as crystal, running with a very swift current over a bed whose pebbles danced in the sun’s rays at depths varying from 2 to 4 feet below the surface. In front of us, on the other side of the Fork, a beautiful copse of pine, and spruce;—in our rear, the main range of the grand old Rockies;—We are this evening very close to the divide separating the waters of the Columbia from those of the Missouri. A few drops of rain sprinkled us before sun-down. Tom Moore, our experienced master of transportation had everything in ship shape, ready for our coming. Our accomodations on this trip are decidedly regal. We have one wall tent for every two persons and a hospital tent for dining room. The outfit may as well be enumerated. Seven army wagons, i.e. 2 six mule, 2 four mule and 3 ambulances. Seventeen pack-mules—an escort of fourteen mounted Infantry from Major Bainbridge’s Company of the 14th Infy. Two Shoshonee Indian guides—Jack Hurley and Mike Fisher. One Hospital tent, seven Wall and fifteen common tents. Altogether, we had seventy-six animals. At supper Mr. Timothy Foley, our cook astonished us with the following Bill of Fare, which is published as a certificate of his energy and skill. Tomato Soup, Baked Salmon trout, mashed potatoes, Prairie chickens, young sagehens (stewed,) Pork and beans, hot biscuits, fresh butter, pickles, olives, peaches and pears, cheese, whiskey, 14.â•‡ Bourke probably means “gassy” in the colloquial sense, in that the fish seemed boastful or pretentious, an attitude familiar to any fisherman who sees them leaping about while ignoring his hook.

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claret and champagne. Tea and Coffee. (For the champagne we were indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Schurz.) August 13th, 1880. (Friday.) Breakfasted at 4 o’clock. Had some delay in starting on account of baggage. Did not get away from camp until 5.30 a.m. Crossed the North Fork of Snake river, hub deep on our wagons. Moved North North East leaving the grassy country and getting into pine timber with, however, an occasional bunch of good grass. Halted at the end of 6 miles to rest. Made another move of 6 miles in length, passing up along the North Fork through a country which was one unbroken succession of exquisite passages of scenery. A monstrous cinnamon bear, as big as an ox, emerged from the river, directly in our front and ran crashing through the dense undergrowth of the forest on our Right. We made an ineffectual pursuit through the broken and fallen timber. Crossed back to the Right bank of the river and halted in a fine meadow where we allowed our animals to graze for a few minutes. Day very cloudy and damp. Saw an old buffalo head on the trail, the first I’ve ever met with on the Pacific slope. The Buffalo gnats became very troublesome to our horses at this place. We now moved across the broad, grassy prairie of at least 7 & 8 miles in its greatest Diameter and towards the centre boggy and miry. Grass very thick and camas in patches. Grass hoppers plenty. The “Three Tetons” loomed up grandly to the South as noble an upheaval of mountains as can be found anywhere in our territory. Several herds of antelope on our Left. These our Shoshonee Indians pursued but without success. Two or three flocks of wild geese sailed over us lazily, flapping their wings and sounding a contemptuous honk-honk, secure in their elevation from the assaults of our rifles. We kept along the South and East shore of Henry’s Lake (which had by this time been reached), a picturesque expanse of water, 3 miles long by over a mile wide, walled in by snow-clad and timbercovered ranges. Passed a great swarm of locusts. (These are frequently used by the aboriginal tribes of this region as a delicious article of food.) 30 miles out from camp of last night we got to Sawtelle’s ranch at the head of the Lake and there learned to our great disgust that we had taken the wrong road and that to enter the Park, it would be


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necessary to retrace our steps to nearly the lower end of the Lake. There was no help for it. We had to turn around and make up our lost time by renewed vigor in marching. At Sawtelle’s met two men just out from the Park—the first people encountered since we left the Rail Road. Our course since day-light had been nearly due North. We now pushed almost due East, climbing over Tahgee [sic] Pass, named from a once celebrated Bannock chief, now dead.15 The ascent to the summit has a very easy grade, not much over 25 feet to the mile and for most of the way, the road passes through a beautiful arcade of pines growing so close together that the light of the sun is completely obscured. Bivouacked on Madison River. (Be it remembered that this river, with the Jefferson and Gallatin, form the Missouri.) The Madison at this point of 75 feet Wide, 11 feet Deep, Current of 7 or 8 miles, and flows in a pellucid mass over a bed of smoothly rounded pebbles. Since leaving Sawtelle’s, we have been on the U.S. Mail road from Virginia City, Montana and find every stream bridged, including the Madison which is spanned by a substantial frame structure. Our camping place was in a pretty little park with every essential for comfort. The scenery was exquisite, & the only drawback to complete enjoyment the buffalo gnats which swarmed about us in myriads. While crossing the divide in Tah-gre Pass, between the waters of the Missouri and the Columbia, I plucked a few sweet flowers as souvenirs for those at home. Distance to-day on line of travel 37 miles (This does not include distance travelled out of our course.) Sky in evening bright with a few clouds. As supper was announced, Mr. [Philetus] Norris, the Superintendent of the National Park and Mr. Harry Yount, the Government Forester, rode into camp. Saturday, August 14th 1880. Breakfasted at 4 a.m. Broke camp at 5 Travelled 10 miles East over a gentle hill, thickly timbered with small pines & Spruce, to the North, or main, Fork of the Madison, a stream of which it is only necessary to say that it is in every way as picturesque as its associates. On its bank is a little hut, tenanted by 15.â•‡ Shown on modern maps as Targhee Pass, although Bourke consistently misspells it in various ways. The route followed by Crook’s party is essentially along what is now US 20, entering the park by West Yellowstone, Montana.

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a couple of Gov’t. employees.16 From here on we began the ascent of a painfully steep mountain, separating the Yellowstone [River] from the waters of the Missouri.17 This mountain was one gloomy tangle of pines set as thickly as pins in a cushion: from its crest we obtained a glorious view of a vast domain to the West, including mountain ranges whose names I did not obtain and rivers and streams belonging to the Columbia drainage system. Moved over a rough plateau of lava—(augite) through an almost impenetrable forest of pines, growing so dense that none of them reached any great thickness. Were much bothered in this part of the day’s journey by buffalo gnats. Col. Stanton and I chased an enormous black bear, but he defied pursuit in the darkness of the pine jungle. Going down the flank of the mountain, we caught our first glimpse of the Geysers. The ascending steam made the scene essentially Tartarean. Stanton, who hasn’t said a prayer for a quarter of a century tried to mumble a Pater Noster, but he got it so badly mixed up with the Star Spangled Banner that I don’t think it did him much good. (Reached the Geysers about 1 P.M. Distance 28 miles.) Mr. Norris told us that we had reached the Lower Geyser Basin, in the valley of the Fire Hole or Hell-Hole river which is really the most important fork of the Madison. We pitched our tents close by the station, now building for the use of the company which proposes running a line of stages from Virginia City, Montana to this point, by the route we have travelled. I have only to remark that they will have a lively time in getting across the mountains.18 Mrs. McNulty, wife of ex-congressman McNulty, (of Illinois.) was in camp at this place and very considerately prepared for our refreshment a large tin full of tea. All of our party paid their respects to her in the course of the afternoon.19 16.â•‡ “This was the Riverside Station, a building originally erected as a mail station and later used as an office for the civilian assistant superintendents of the park.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008. 17. “His words ‘from here on we began the ascent’ make it clear that they were traveling on Philetus Norris’s new road—today’s ‘Old Fountain Pack Trail’—that connected Riverside Station with Lower Geyser Basin via Marshall’s Park.” Ibid. 18.â•‡ “‘Station’ no doubt refers to Marshall’s original use of this building as a mail station. This building, under construction in 1880, was George Marshall’s first hotel, located on the west side of Firehole River against a hillside in Lower Geyser Basin. He ran a hotel and stagecoach operation headquartered here beginning that summer for several years, until the Yellowstone Park Association bought him out in 1885.” Ibid. 19.â•‡ Bourke probably means the wife of Thompson Ware McNeely (1835–1921), who represented Illinois in Congress from 1869 to 1873. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Thompson_W._McNeely


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Saddled our horses and rode one mile to the “Mud Geyser”. Here are situated in a broad basin, once seemingly, the bed of a lake or crater, which is thickly crusted with a whitish deposit of siliceous material, in which, no doubt, considerable lime carbonate is to be found. From this flooring or ground-plan rise dozens of small, hemispherical and conical mounds, formed from matter ejected by the “geysers” thousands of which seethe and bubble in the middle. Looking into these geysers we find them to be of all depths and dimensions, some of very large size, say 20 feet in Diameter and the same in depth to the surface of the boiling mud within. These dimensions will serve for the cones likewise which are nothing more than feeble shells bearing about the same relation to the enclosed mass as does the skin of an orange to its pulp. The “slaked lime” or mud, for it was nothing else, spattered and hissed angrily in the caldrons, often throwing up a scalding mass ten or twelve feet high; near each caldron, the earth was cracked and gashed with fissures of all sizes which gave vent to the jets of superheated steam and probably prevented the pent up forces of nature from making more terrible explosions.20 Associated with the “mud geysers” and in close proximity are countless hot springs and geysers (hot water) of which the ascertained temperature is 273° F. or about 70°F. above the boiling point of water which, at this altitude, can’t be much, if any, over 200°F. We walked about with some trepidation; the crust was trembling under our feet and the noise of escaping steam and boiling water was plainly to be heard through the innumerable openings meeting us at every step. My account of this part of the day’s work amounts to the simple fact that we saw these geysers and springs; it, in no sense, gives the faintest idea of their exquisite beauty. Nearly all of them are of immense depth, with water of a peculiar blue-green tint, very much like that of the sapphire, and effervescing like champagne up through channels of solid rock. Over this basin hung a cloud, condensed from the steam emitted by the hundreds of apertures.21 Our horses became very nervous and acted as though they felt that they were in a dangerous position. The moment we drew near 20.â•‡ “Here they were probably in the Lower Geyser Basin’s Pocket Basin Mudpots, an area of large mud springs, some of which are thirty feet in diameter.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008. 21.â•‡ “Here they were probably walking around the Fountain Group of geysers and hot springs in Lower Geyser Basin.” Ibid.

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its brink, one of these geysers, (there are hundreds of them, with new discoveries every day; some of them cease to “spurt” and fresh ones break out.) commenced to play. The rumblings of the up-rushing volume of seething water was like the splash of waves upon the shores of the sea. We withdrew reverentially to a distance and watched the eruption. The height attained was from 30 to 35 feet.22 In a few moments, the tempest subsided and the angry waters rushed to a moan down again into the bowles [sic] of mother earth. Scratched upon the white surface of the incrustation surrounding this geyser, we noticed the names of some dozen or more of army friends. “Sam Swigert, 2nd Cavalry. Capt. [Camillo C. C.] Carr, 1st Cavalry, Lt. [Edward John] McClernand, 2nd Cavalry[”] and others:— some dating back to the time (1877.) when Howard passed through here with his column in pursuit of Joseph & his Nez Percés. As I was writing the above, another geyser, alongside of me, began its angry work, sending a shower of hot spray to my feet. I am making no attempt at a description of this Wonderland:— such a task would be beyond my feeble powers. I only write what we have seen and that very feebly. Anything beyond this on the part of anybody would be simply a mimicry of Nature’s powers here displaying themselves in the fullest grandeur. (Rossiter Raymond of New York and Ludlow and Jones of the Engineer Corps of the Regular Army, have each given very interesting descriptions of this region which beautiful though they be yet fall far short of doing justice to the noble subject treated:—this criticism of their works would, I am sure, be conceded by the gentlemen mentioned, to be a very just and impartial one.)23 Saw a few little flowers growing in this awe-inspiring basin; also saw the fresh foot-print of a bear and the crumbling bone of an elk. Mr. Mayer and Mr. Gaulieur [sic] broke through the crust of one of the Geysers the first named going down knee-deep, but without injury. Cols. Ludington and Stanton and I washed our handkerchiefs in one of the geysers; beyond scalding our hands, our efforts as laundresses did not bear much fruit. Getting back to camp, plucked a lot of luscious wild strawberries 22.â•‡ “This was probably Fountain Geyser or another one on that sinter platform.” Ibid. 23.â•‡ The survey by Rossiter Raymond was in 1871, and the military surveys by Capt. William A. Jones and Capt. William Ludlow of the Engineers, were in 1873 and 1875, respectively. Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 2, 2008.


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from the skirt of the forest nearby. As afternoon merged into evening, the sky was obscured by black and lowering clouds, but no rain fell. Darkness came upon us and still our wagons had not reached camp: we gladly accepted the invitation of Dick Moon, our chief packer, and went to his tent for supper,—pork and beans, stewed apples, coffee, hard-tack and molasses—regular packers’ fare. Long after night-fall, the welcome sound of rumbling wagon-wheels announced that Tom Moore had not failed to get our transportation across the rugged mountain we had to climb to-day: it was a work of genius to do so speedily and successfully as he had done it, and not a soul in our party but was unreservedly glad that Genl. Crook had had the foresight to bring out with him a man of Moore’s extended experience and great ability. Before we turned in to bed, Mrs. McNulty sent over to Genl. Crook to ask his assistance in hunting her husband who had started out hunting early in the morning and had not since returned. It was too dark to find anybody at that hour, so Genl. Crook returned answer that he would dispatch our two Shoshonee Indians the first thing in the morning to look for the missing man and that our party would remain where it was until Mr. McNulty should be found. Sunday, August 15th 1880. Mr. McNulty returned. He reported that he had suffered from a slight attack of paralysis in the leg, (to which he is at times subject.) which prevented his moving at all, altho’ he was in the main road and within sight of our camp. The valley is filled with fog from the geysers which undoubtedly exert an important influence upon the climate. Moved out from Lower Basin, up the Fire Hole River. Geysers everywhere. Hot springs steam escaping from countless fissures in the earth underneath which water bubbles and seethes like a huge caldron. In color, some of these waters are an indescribable and charming blue-green, flowing from basins of buff, red, grey and greenish rock. One hot spring which, so far as known, has made no eruption, is said to be the largest in the whole world.24 It has two basins one above the other; from the lower dashes a boiling torrent, of capacity to work the largest flour or quartz mill in this country. We passed so many geysers that I can’t remember even their names; but I don’t care: my journal is not a guide-book. There was the “Fan”, 24. “Excelsior Geyser at Midway Geyser Basin, three miles south of Lower Geyser Basin.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008.

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[“]Castle”, “The Giant”, [“]Giantess” [“]Lion’, [“]Lioness”, [“]Bee Hive”, and “Old Faithful”, so called from the fidelity of the recurrence of its eruption which takes place at regular intervals of 55 minutes. Many, if not all, of these geysers have a well-defined periodicity of agitation and as we become more thoroughly acquainted with them, the hours of commotion can be predicted with the same accuracy as in the case of “Old Faithful”.25 We reached the base of its mound, just as “Old Faithful” began to eject steam and spray. The sight was sublime. Spray and boiling water were cast of a height of 80 to 100 feet, a broad column sparkling in the sun and sprinkling the grounds to the foot of the mound. The eruption subsided in about two minutes when the waters receded with a gurgle into the cavernous depth of the fountain. A peculiarity of the eruptions of this geyser is that the water in rushing out from the throat of the channel brings with it a considerable number of small rounded pebbles which are scattered at the foot of the mound and can be collected the moment the “spurt” has terminated. Several explanations are offered to account for these “Faithful Beans” (They look for all the world like a lot of flinty-white beans.)26 The most plausible one is that the water rushed up through the orifice with such force that it breaks off pieces of rock, which are not always thrown out at the time of their separation from the sides of the geyser, but remain in the circling flood and by being abraded against the hard walls and against each other speedily assume a rounded contour. In the vicinity of all these Geysers, the ground sounds dismally hollow under the trail of our iron-shod horses. We have been travelling all day with pack-animals alone, the trail being too severe for our wheeled vehicles which we left behind at Fire Hole Station.27 Aside from the wonders near it which we came to see, Fire-Hole River itself would be a thing of beauty as viewed coursing down between its banks of hills, covered with forests of gnarly, storm-twisted pines. It is a series of pretty swirls and rapids with here and there a hot spring pouring from its very edge. Passing through the forest this morning, we came to a bright, sunny little glade wherein ripe strawberries blushed under the rich 25.â•‡ “All of these geysers are in the Upper Geyser Basin.” Ibid. 26.â•‡ “These are known to today’s geyser enthusiasts as ‘geyser eggs.’” Ibid. 27. “Firehole Mail Station, also known as Marshall’s Hotel.” Ibid.


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green grasses. Major Roberts and I tied our horses and ate most heartily of the banquet spread before us. Near the grand geysers, a photographer, Mr. Calfee, his [sic] pitched his tent and supplies tourists with such views as they may desire. We encountered several small parties travelling like ourselves for pleasure, but none that we knew except that of Major Hughes (A.D.C. to Genl. Terry.) with his wife and sister-in-law. Before I had finished the last line, “Castle”, to our rear, gave a magnificent exhibition of its powers as a geyser of the first class. It began with a very noisy discharge of steam, speedily changing into a dense, funnel-shaped column of white steam and spray, not less than 80 feet high. Grand! exclaimed everybody as the water subsided slowly; but this we soon saw was only the prêlude to the principal part of the eruption which cast up water and spray to an altitude of not less than 200 feet! This geyser remains in a state of agitation for hours at a time and becomes quiescent only by slow degrees. Its water pouring back into the orifice meets the volume of pent up steam with which it enters into desperate struggle for mastery, the noise resulting sounding almost as loud as the reports of fieldartillery. We consumed our lunch at the foot of “Bee-Hive” Geyser, at the moment when the rain-laden clouds, which had hung over us since yesterday afternoon, favored us with a generous sprinkle. Time pressed. Ten to Twelve miles of a steep mountain trail still intervened between us and the point at which we were to camp for the night. We followed up the Fire Hole River, narrowed between two walls of columnar basalt, along one of which our trail wound. While we climbed the tedious and rugged path, making our way over slippery blocks of basalt or through broken and burnt timber, which had fallen only to be succeeded by a more vigorous and jungle-like undergrowth, we looked down into the gorge, (which diminished from a width of sixty yards at top to one of ten or twelve at bottom, with a depth of 300 feet,)28 and saw the chaotic jumble of rocks and pine trees torn from their parent beds and forests to be hurled into the threat of the rushing torrent which laughed to scorn the resistance they offered.

28.â•‡ “This is the canyon on Firehole River known as Devil’s Gate or Narrow Gate.” Ibid.

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Here was a lovely cascade! here one still more lovely!29 Now the trail ran close to the edge of the cañon and half a dozen rival waterfalls thrust their charms before our view. The river is a foaming whirlpool, white as cream, contrasting pleasantly with the stately gray buttresses of basalt, at whose feet it madly roars, or with the deep velvety green of the pines and firs which, from every crevice and slope, giving a foot-hold, lean over as if to catch the reflection of their own loveliness in the eddies below. The trail by degrees becomes more and more damp; we are approaching the summit and the ground under our feet is sloppy from snow just melting; in the shadow of thickly woven branches, we see an occasional little bank of it slowly dissolving and flowing to the pretty lily ponds on the Left of us. The cañon is too deep and dark for us to see the river any longer, but we hear its roar as it lashes itself to fury against its foes, the rocks and trees. At last we are upon the summit. The forest is, if anything, more dense and the trail has become a quagmire. We move past an apparently insignificant pond, but look upon it with more respect when our guide tells us that its waters flow to two oceans; to the Pacific through the Snake and Columbia and to the Atlantic, through the Yellowstone, Missouri and the Gulf of Mexico.30 This kind of work is very tiresome to both man and beast, especially to the heavilyladen pack-mules which painfully pick their way through morass and fallen timber, the bell of the leader sounding meanwhile as sweet as an Angelus Chime. For one instant we halt: a thrill running through us. We are looking down upon Shoshonee Lake which from this particular point of view presents an exquisite picture. The ubiquitous tourist has not yet ruffled its serenity by asinine comparisons with some other lake, “in the Halps, you know”, and it lies like a lost jewel of price in a casket of pine and fir-mantled mountain. It is formed principally, by the engorgement of the Snake or Shoshonee river,31 flowing through it, and has the respectable dimensions of 15 miles x 8 miles. We bivouacked on the banks of the Shoshonee River, in a pretty, level meadow, not much more than a mile from the Lake, and at the edge of a thick forest. In this camp all was lovely except the 29.â•‡ Kepler Cascades. 30.â•‡ Isa Lake on the Continental Divide. Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008. 31. “The Lewis River, which flows south to Snake River.” Ibid.


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mosquitoes which in myriads came to annoy man and beast. “Smudges” were built as soon as possible and in their smoke we smiled defiance at the little pests. It was very ludicrous to watch our grizzled old pack-mules as with the air of veterans, they plodded up close to the fires and thrust heads and necks into the insect dispelling smoke. The scenery all day has been varied and sublime: I am no poet, but were I Caedmon my muse should find a grateful theme in singing the praises of God as he appears in his noble handiwork of beetling precipice and impenetrable forest, of grassy mead and trickling rill, gentle spring and maddened torrent. Here man’s impotence reveals itself and his awe-inspired soul bows down in humble reverence before his Lord and Maker. In cities, sophistry, cynicism, infidelity thrive; there rascality and intrigue too generally are successful and the despondent mind may well doubt the existence of an All-Wise and All-Good Master of the World. But in these grand mountain ranges, the human soul is brought face to face with its Creator, admires His Power, concedes His wisdom, and humbly hopes for His justice and mercy. “The heavens declare the Glory of God, the firmament showeth His handiwork.”32 Our march to-day has not been over 25 miles long, but it has been across such high ranges, (the main range of the Rockies) and then such rough country that everybody confesses to a sense of fatigue, especially Colonel Thornburgh who is much exhausted. But we have no casualties to report which is better fortune than I was afraid we should have to chronicle, considering all that we have been exposed to. Some of our horses have scalded their legs in the boiling streams which we had to cross, those ridden by Webb Hayes and myself being the worst hurt, but none of them badly. Mr. Schurz, Mr. Gaulieur [sic], Webb Hayes, Mr. Hanna and several others of our party walked down to the shores of Shoshonee Lake, but were soon driven back in disorder by the swarms of angry mosquitoes which attacked them. Genl. Crook shot a deer, but did not secure him, the fallen timber permitting the animal to escape. No better idea can be given of the immensity of our Western domain than by making mention here of the fact that this camp is in a county of Wyoming, whose county-seat Evanston, Wyo., can only be reached after 500 miles of travel! During the time I was writing up this part of my journal, the mosquitoes 32. Psalm 19:1.

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were just eating me up alive: my hands were black with them and blood trickled from wrists and temples. But I was determined to let nothing frustrate my efforts and “stuck it out” without a grunt. Our fires had burned down without my perceiving it and the enemy took prompt advantage of the change in the situation. Mr. Gaulieur [sic] very kindly brought me an Indian-rubber cup full of cold champagne which tasted like nectar and drowned the recollection of my sufferings. Mr. Gaulieur [sic], who has a wonderful facility in drawing, has devoted his time to making sketches, all of which are extremely good. He is not much of a rider, but is a very pleasant gentleman of extended travel and cultivated mind. Mr. Schurz, the Secretary of the Interior, is a very genial companion, puts on no airs whatever and exerts himself to make everything run along smoothly. He is a wonderfully fine linguist and speaks our language with classic precision.33 He is a very good shot and by his skill has done much for our table. He rides well, is very wiry and can stand almost any amount of fatigue. Mr. Mayer is Secy. Schurz’s nephew. He has just completed his term of service in the German Landwehr, and is a bright, amiable young man, an excellent shot with a rifle and a pretty fair rider. Mr. Hanna, Secy. Shurz’s private Secretary, is a skilled stenographer, possesses a very good education and has travelled much in our Western-country, especially since the incumbency of Mr. Schurz. Webb C. Hayes, son of his Excellency the President, possesses all the attributes of good companionship, with all the best qualities of manhood. He is very bright, gentle, good-humored, able to stand much fatigue and is a pretty good hunter. Ludington and Stanton are two of our best men. They both served with distinction during the War of the Rebellion and have since seen a great amount of hard work on the Frontier, where Stanton especially has become noted for gallantry and intelligence in Indian wars. They, with Col. Thornburgh, are maniacs on the subject of fishing. Col. Thornburgh, served during the Rebellion as regimental and Brigade commander, doing good service, and after its close represented his (Tennessee) District in Congress for a number of terms. His health breaking down, he was obliged to seek restoration in the bracing summer climate of the Rocky Mountains. His brother, Major 33.â•‡ Schurz immigrated from Germany.


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T. T. Thornburgh, 4th Infantry, was killed in action with hostile Ute Indians last year.34 Major Roberts, General Crook’s new Aide de Camp, is as yet unknown to me, but from the General’s description, I am certain he will prove to be a valuable friend. He bears a high reputation for courage and intelligence and in his intercourse with his comrades is gentle, genial and unaffected. Bainbridge is a thorough soldier, believes in keeping everything in ship-shape, and is as pleasant a companion as the most exacting could demand. Of General Crook, I have spoken elsewhere at length, and so also I have of Tom Moore. Mr. Norris, the Superintendent of the Park, who joined us last evening, we know pretty well already. He impresses me as a good-natured, egotistical enthusiast, warm-hearted and considerable ability. Of his pluck and grit I haven’t a doubt. Like Silas Wegg,35 he occasionally “drops into poetry” in retailing which he is sufficiently liberal. His garrulity is something wonderful. Upon the slightest pretext, he will burst into a conversational torrent, lasting as long as any of his audience have the nerve to remain near him. We have dubbed him “Old Faithful” from his resemblance to the Geyser. Sky cleared off at sun-set. 34.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, Vol. 3, Part 4. 35.â•‡ A character in Dickens’ novel, Our Mutual Friend.

Chapter 4 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

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ugust 16th 1880. Monday. Awakened at 3.30 a.m. to discover heavy frost on the ground. Breakfasted at 4 o’clock, the piêce de rësistance being steak, and liver from an antelope shot the day before yesterday by “Old Faithful”. Alunged [sic] at once into the “forest primeval” and began to re-ascend the Continental Divide. The trail was much better than that of yesterday altho’ it wound through miles of storm-wrecked timber which gave some trouble to our animals. The breeze playing with the branches above us was heavy with the fragrance of balsam; the rays of the sun scarcely touched the ground such was the thickness of the interlacing foliage. A ride of eight or ten miles took us across the crest of the Rocky mountains and out of the worst of the forest. Sloping down before us in a gentle grade was a beautiful grassy terrace spangled with wild flowers and enclosed by a matted forest of pine & fir, and there, grandest scene of my life, there lay at our feet, the unruffled bosom of Yellowstone Lake, miles in length and breadth, guarded by giant mountains upon whose wrinkled brows rested the snows of Eternity. The very air was still in the presence of so much solemnity and majesty: a few geysers lazily emitted puffs of steam and broke the

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otherwise absolute quietude of this vast seclusion.1 Soon the gently tinkling bells of our pack-train made merry music and roused us from our revery:—it was hateful to have to move away from such allurements. Here is the heart of our great country. To the South of us rise the waters of the Green River, flowing to the Colorado and so on to the Gulf of Cortés; to the East; those of the Big Horn, passing the spot where Custer and his men went down to bloody graves, here in front, the Yellowstone and behind us, the tributaries of the mighty Missouri and “deep-voiced Oregon”. Through these wilds, Joseph and his Nez Percés made the retreat which far outshone the achievements recorded by Xenophon and here too echoed the footsteps of [Pierre-Jean] De Smet and his noble colaborers seeking to win the souls of the red men to God. While we were at the part of the Lake, Webb Hayes caught a large salmon-trout and without moving from his own position or detaching the fish from the hook, swung it into a boiling spring and there cooked it.2 Secy. Schurz and Genl. Crook were witnesses of this. In five or six other places which we passed, the same thing could have been done, as numbers of hot geysers & boiling springs empty into the lake. Resumed our march along the West shore of the Lake, going North. At first, our surroundings were very pleasant and we amused ourselves in looking upon the salmon-trout darting about in the crystalline water. The lake is crammed with them, but so many are filled with worms that we did not care to eat any. Mr. Norris gave me his explanation of this singular phenomenon. He says that a species of the dragon-fly, which is very numerous about the Lake at certain seasons, deposits its larvae on the water and that the trout swallow the larvae either in the water itself or with the fly for which they are always greedy. After hatching out in the intestines of the fish, the larvae pass through an intermediate state of worm-hood, so to speak, and live upon the flesh of the trout until they are ready to assume the condition of dragon-flies when they bore their way out through its flesh. Nearly all the trout and salmon-trout in this Lake are thus affected; the wormy ones have a pale, sickly looking flesh even when 1.â•‡ “They were at West Thumb Geyser Basin, on Yellowstone Lake.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008. 2.â•‡ “This was the famous Fishing Cone hot spring, so named for that reason, at West Thumb.” Ibid.

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the worm itself cannot be discovered.3 Many lovely flowers, ferns, weed and mosses attracted our notice during our progress but we had no leisure to make collections. A narrow arm of the Lake barred our advance. We examined it carefully and seeing that the bottom was of gravel and “hard-pan”, pushed in and crossed in safety altho’ the water was more than belly-deep on our horses. Ludington and Thornburgh remained behind fishing. Almost at once after fording this water, the trail led into a rough country, where tangled webb [sic] of storm-wrecked saplings threw us into perplexity and bewilderment. We well-nigh despaired of being able to force a passage but by good luck and perseverance broke through all obstacles, receiving no injuries to anyone except myself who was violently thrown to the ground from the top of a large stump and a little bit shaken up. This little march took us to the trail formerly used by the Flat-Heads and Sheep-Eaters in their annual journeys into the Big Horn country to hunt buffalo. Here we lunched and then followed the trail for a further distance of 5 or 6 miles, through some lovely little grassy glades and parks where crystalline brooks of icy water trickled down to the Lake to a promontory jutting out into the water. This was the spot chosen for our bivouac and a most charming one it was. Our horses were turned loose in a broad savanna of juicy grass, while we spread our blankets under the shade of a grove of lofty pines and listened to the winds, murmuring their symphonies through the branches and the answering waves beating into spray upon the shingly beach. Longfellow’s lines came into my mind. “Mournfully answered the sea, “and mingled its roar with the dirges” Evangeline. Mr. Hanna spent the remainder of the afternoon in sailing about in a boat belonging to a backwoodsman whose log-hut was at the other end of our grove. A large deposit of brimstone crops out from the mountains on our Left and not more than 3 or 4 miles from us. The view from our camp is said by Mr. Schurz, and the other gentlemen with us who know, to be superior to anything in Switzerland, altho’ a general resemblance is noted between this Lake and 3.â•‡ Norris apparently obtained this information from Edward Campbell, zoologist with the Hayden survey of 1871. This was the best information available at the time, but subsequent studies suggest pelicans as the more likely source of the worms. Whittlesey, Storytelling in Yellowstone, 115.

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that of Lucerne. The size of Yellowstone Lake, I am told, is 30 miles x 20 miles but its coast line is much greater than would be inferred from these dimensions, owing to the great number of indentations or bays, five or six of them of the first magnitude. Its depth, I don’t know—it has been sounded in several places and bottom found at 300 feet, but up to this date nothing like a hydrographical survey has ever been attempted. However, its depth must be great, judging from the deep blue of the water in which every fleeting cloud is reflected perfectly. On the other shore of the Lake (Eastern.) rose in all its majesty the main chain of the Rockies, with a well-defined pass leading from the head of the East Fork of the Yellowstone River over to the cañons of the Gray Bull [sic] and Stinking Water, tributaries of the Big Horn. We all bathed in Yellowstone Lake this evening. The water was so cold that only the determination to say we had bathed there could have stimulated us to the end. Picked up a few pieces of agate, petrified wood, &c. as mementoes. The sun going down behind a wall of gray and crimson and golden clouds was repeated grandly in the bosom of the Lake; and scarcely had our pleasure at this sight begun to subside, before the moon, almost full, shone down upon us in her splendor and cast a broad, shimmering, silvery band of glory upon the trembling waters. The high ranges in the distance were obscured in a haze, but the promontories on each side and the timbered islets in the Lake stood out boldly in a picturesque contrast of light and shadow, glassy wavelet and sombre foliage. The noblest elevation in this thrilling picture was Mount Sheridan, a grand monument to a grand soldier. I must close the journal of the day by noting that Genl. Crook killed a wolverine and Mr. Mayer a hawk in a tree-top. (This was an extremely fine shot.) No other game was to be seen all day. We did observe elk, deer and moose tracks, but the general absence of all kinds of animal life was very noticeable. The possibility is that insects have driven them to the protecting cold of the mountain tops. Distance travelled to-day_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _40 miles. August 17th (Tuesday.) 1880. Camp aroused at 4.15 a.m. Breakfast at 4.30. Observed glorious sunrise, the most marked feature of which was Mount Sheridan first blushing under the fervent gaze of dawn and then slowly turning to silver, and gold.

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Moved out from camp by a very fine trail, leading over gently undulating hills beneath which the Yellowstone River débouched from the Lake and placidly wound along through meadows velvety with verdure. The scene was picturesque in the extreme; the river, of a rich green color, smooth as glass, hemmed in by hills whose soft contours and rich grassy colors, relieved by the brownish black of the pine groves, were in charming contrast with the rugged mountains and gloomy forests forming so much of the landscape for the past week. Great numbers of large salmon-trout darted in and about the channel along the bank or sluggishly swam with the current. The foot-prints of a tremendous grizzly bear were plainly and freshly stamped in the trail, greatly to the terror of our horses and mules. We next marched for a couple of miles through hills covered with white sage-brush and suddenly came upon a high mound of sulphur.4 Once more we entered a pleasant stretch of aromatic pine timber, from which we issued into a mournful-looking basin filled with mud springs.5 One of these, called “the mud volcano” is a small cone of indurated clay which Col. Ludington and I ascended, after tying our horses to a clump of scrub cedars at its base. The sight we obtained of the crater was horrible; it was a large bed of angry, boiling mud, flowing out from a cavernous recess in one side and splashing in impotent rage against the sides of its prison. The outlet for this crater is evidently one of the hot mud springs below it. Near this “volcano”, we met Lieut. [Samuel Warren] Miller, 5th Infantry, and a party of soldiers from Fort Keogh.6 Seven miles from last night’s camp, is a hill of pure sulphur at whose foot bubbles the “Devil’s Coffee Pot”, a seething, hissing caldron of molten sulphur and hot steam, around whose edges is a deposit of clean, pure, canary colored brimstone.7 All about here are racks and crevices in the narrow crust, through which puff the steam gas of the hellish furnace below. 4.â•‡ Probably the Ochre Springs area. 5.â•‡ The Mud Volcano area. 6.â•‡ Fort Keogh was established on the Tongue River by Col. Nelson A. Miles, Fifth Infantry, as a supply depot during the Great Sioux War. It was upgraded to a fort in 1878, and named in honor of Capt. Myles Keogh, Seventh Cavalry, who died at the Little Bighorn. The post was deactivated in 1900, and served as a remount depot until 1908. It subsequently was used as a livestock experiment station, and quartermaster’s depot. The reservation was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1924. Frazer, Forts of the West, 82. 7.â•‡ “This is Sulphur Spring, also known as Crater Hills Geyser, in the Crater Hills area of Hayden Valley.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008.

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It rained for a few minutes as we were leaving this place, but not enough to be dignified with the name of a storm. Mr. Mayer made another extremely good rifle-shot, killing another hawk, perched on the top of a very lofty pine. Turning our backs upon this desolate geyser basin, we once again found ourselves in cool, shady and fragrant pine groves, with crystal brooks flowing over gravel beds; and hurrying down to view the beauties of the Cañon. The country was rapidly becoming mountainous; the river had contracted its width between high ridges and was lovely murmuring in its passage over rapids, preliminary to making its plunge down the first fall. This (fall.) is a lovely cataract of foam-capped, greenish water changing into an opaque milk-white as with a roar it bounds 165 feet down the vertical face of a ledge of basalt. It is truly worthy of examination by any traveller, however blasé he may be, but along-side of its companion, the Grand Fall it scarcely attracts notice. To make the Grand Fall, the river is compressed between two precipitous cliffs of brownish-gray basalt which reduce its width to less than 80 feet. The height of this Fall is not far from four hundred feet, the depth of the cañon at the foot of the Fall being exactly 1000 feet. To me, it is a much more impressive wonder than is Niagara and the combination of colors something bewildering. There is first the deep emerald green of the river, followed by the snowy cataract with its cloud of spray dashing high in air. Receding back from this narrow thread-like torrent are the walls of the cañon,—not vertical, but just deep enough to give all the attributes of majesty to the picture without destroying the opportunity for exhibiting all the contrasts and harmonies possible to be effected with the various shades of brown, gray, buff, yellow and red of the rocks and clay and the sombre hues of the pines and firs, with their brownish boles and branches here and there turning red with the early frosts. On the side opposite to our position, a bright green field of grass spread down from the timbered hills to the very edge of the precipice and there terminated in a fringe of a single row of pines, proving the occurrence of a great land-side at some not distant day. Mr. Norris says that such slides are occurring constantly and are brought about not only by the heavy frosts of winter, but by the thermal springs of which this region is so full. The cañon below the Falls is 1500

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feet deep [sic]8 and cannot be descended in more than one or two places. Mr. Norris tells me that there are so many hot springs jutting out into the river that for a considerable distance this enormous flow of water is much too hot to be bearable. Through this lower cañon the river covered with foam can be traced sullenly pursuing its way like a great green snake with scales of silver. From the Cañon of the Yellowstone, we took the pack-train to “the Devil’s Coffee Pot”9 and then struck across country to overtake our pack-train which had been sent over to Mary’s Lake, on the road to our wagon-camp, on Madison river. Saw the breastworks thrown up by the Nez-Percés, on their retreat. Passed a mountain of Sulphur on our Right; also crossed a creek of sour alum water and one of hot green sulphur water. Trail took us across a rolling country, covered with sage-brush and grass: soil, all decomposed lava and apparently very rich. We followed the open spaces, having heavy timber on either side of us. Pretty soon we entered the forest, fortunately clear of wide brush and burnt or fallen timber, but carpeted with grass and weeds with pretty wild flowers of all colors, and with moss-grown stumps and black boulders scattered here and there to give diversity to the landscape. Getting through this forest, placed us in a sterile geyser basin, where half a dozen hot springs steamed and fumed and several pools of a creamy-green slime, (sulphur undoubtedly.) lazily flowed down the line of drainage. Then came another experience with burnt timber, (the first for today.) and breaking through that, we reached the borders of Mary’s Lake, a small pond, not over a mile in circumference. Here we struck the road made by Howard’s column while chasing Joseph—and a beastly road it was. First, it descended a dusty, timber-choked dry arroyo for a matter of a mile or more and then down an extremely steep grade which brought us to our bivouac, alongside a marsh in the depths of the forest. This day we were in the saddle 12½ hours and travelled 40 miles, which, with our sight-seeing made a good day’s work. 8.â•‡ Actually, about eight hundred feet, although Norris was correct on geology and water temperature. Whittlesey, Storytelling in Yellowstone, 115. 9. Sulphur Spring at Crater Hills.

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I should mention two items which to the traveller in the Yellowstone may prove to be of great interest: the first is that the East Fork of the Yellowstone river before it empties into the Lake, cuts its way through solid walls of basalt not less than 2000 feet high, making a cañon which for wild and weird beauty must be without a superior in the world. I regret extremely that my only opportunity for examining this wonder of Nature was through Mr. Schurz’s field-glass, since the breadth of the Lake intervenes but at some not distant day, I hope to [be] fortunate enough to explore it fully.10 The second point is that at certain hours of clear, bright days, the spray crowning the Upper Fall of the Yellowstone is gorgeous in the added grandeur of a rainbow, arching from wall to wall of the cañon. Genl. Crook, Col. Ludington, Col. Stanton, Webb Hayes and myself, climbed down the side of the cañon to a coïgn of vantage afforded by a rock overhanging the chasm, perched upon which like a lot of crows we could contemplate to our full satisfaction the grand panorama extended before us. We had not the good fortune to witness the arc in its completeness, but there was enough iridescence in the spray to convince any one that were the hour more favorable chosen and the sun’s rays at proper angle the effect would have been inimitable and beyond description. Wednesday, August 18th 1880. Camp aroused at 4 a.m. A heavy fire was started to drive off the frost which had made the night air so chilly and penetrating. In the flickering light of the crackling embers the pine trees stood out in bold relief. From this camp to the point where our wagons awaited us was only twelve miles, a distance accomplished after a few hours’ marching through the same kind of country as already described, part of it open hills with sage-brush and grass and the remainder, pine timber. Trail quite good. For the last three miles we were on the Madison11 and in sight of small geysers and bubbling hot springs. Buffalo and Bear signs seen. Mr. Gaulieur [sic: Gauliaur] was lost,—the same accident happened 10. “It is not known what Bourke was talking about here. The ‘East Fork of the Yellowstone River’ is present Lamar River and it does not empty ‘into the lake’ nor does it have any such spectacular canyon on its length. Perhaps Bourke was confused and was somehow looking at a more northerly stretch of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone which is 23 miles long.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008. 11.â•‡ Firehole River.

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to Mr. Hanna and himself yesterday from taking the wrong trail and in each case a few hours’ additional riding was the penalty suffered. After arriving at Fire Hole river, the party divided, Secy. Schurz, Mr. Gaulieur, Mayer and Hanna, with Norris, Moore and [Harry] Yountt [sic] going North to the Crow Agency and the rest returning West. Schurz’s party took the pack-train with one ambulance and six soldiers as escort. Our cooks made especial exertions to prepare a farewell dinner worthy of their exalted reputation. Secretary Schurz seemed sorry to lose our company, and especially the stories told about the camp-fire. One of those told to-day and which I know to be true in the main I have not preserved in any other note-book. On the stage-road running from Green River, Wyoming to Fort Washakie on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, there is, or was, a relay station, called “Starvation Camp” or “Alkali”. It is the most lonesome and dreary hole imaginable, but can best be summed up in the pithy language of a sign-board, tacked upon its outer walls by some disgusted miners.

The cook at “Alkali station” was a woman, perhaps we had better call her so—but one of those ignorant, uncouth, brainless specimens of frontier girlhood often to be encountered in such a place and only there. Of beauty, either of mind or person, she hadn’t a trace, but for all that she had been married and under the gloomy surroundings of which I am writing became a mother. Her husband had long since abandoned her, so that when she most needed the ministrations of tender affection and sympathy, she was left dependent upon the

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generocity [sic] of rough men. This wasn’t so bad after all. There is something in the roughest of rough natures which makes man the protector of weak woman in distress at all times. Everything their slender means would permit was done by these uncouth, hornyhanded drivers, blacksmiths and hostlers for mother and babe, and in a few days both were doing fully as well as could be expected. They felt too the “pride of possession” in the new arrival and its mother. These were proud moments for hostlers and station employees when the drivers of incoming stages, throwing down their reins, would ask with intense interest before leaving the box—“I say, Sandy, how’s the kid?” and swelling with delight, “Doctor” Sandy would reply conservatively—“pooty well, con’sid’rin’” or “Tolbut, Tolbut, That thar cam-mile en catnip hain’t done no good”. In spite of Sandy’s doctoring, which, perhaps, was not a bit worse than the quackery of his high-toned brothers in our large towns, in spite of chamomile and catnip, in spite of poor food and squalid lodging, the poor woman and child grew strong and were soon able to enter into the usual routine of life at the station. (I use the word “life” with some misgivings. “Existence” or “death” would be better terms.) One thing alone was lacking to fill to the brim the cup of joy the little waif’s guardians were preparing to drain to the dregs. It was not that the little brat was “ugly enough to curdle milk”, as Paymaster Stanton emphatically expressed himself after first seeing it; it was ugly. “The sun-light had been caught in its silken tresses”, which is the poetical form of saying that the youngster was hopelessly redheaded—it was sock-eyed, big-mouthed and bandy-legged. Not one of its admirers was bold enough to declare it a beauty; even “Doctor” Sandy admitted with a sigh that “the kid warn’t much of a success no how”, but the little weazened, dried up, five pounds of deformity was good and gentle and gave no trouble whatever to anybody. Now some people may say that this story is very much similar, in general outline, to Bret Harte’s “Luck of Roaring Camp”.12 But it is a true story, nevertheless and as such I tell it. The great matter of solicitude of which I have spoken above was—what name should be given the youngster? The mother did not evince a very active interest in the matter and left it, as well as the supplying of a cradle, to the attendants about her. The cradle wasn’t hard to get; the black12.â•‡ In this story set in a mining camp, a prostitute dies in childbirth, and the rough miners as a community adopt and care for the baby, whom they name Johnny Luck.

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smith could “knock one up”, he said, but the quarrel over the name became fierce and obstinate. George Washington, Abe Lincoln, U.S. Grant, and Sammy Tilden13 were proposed, advocated and derided, according to individual preferences, and finally withdrawn. While the wrangle was going on, the blacksmith was “knocking up” a cradle by putting a candle-box upon rockers and then, influenced by a sudden inspiration, marked with a paint-brush upon the box the title which commen consent ratified without hesitation, as most original and appropriate. When the happy mother received the cradle, she read upon its sides the quaint but potent legend

General Crook’s party took the road down the Fire-Hole valley which, in many respects, was preferable to following the “Norris Slide”14 across the mountains, but involved the crossing of Gibbon’s Fork once and of Madison river five times, the latter, altho’ flowing over a gravel bed, being so swift and deep, (over the tops of the forward wheels,) that our ambulances were flooded and in great danger of overturning. At Gibbon’s Fork,15 the king-pin of one of the ambulances slipped out and much time was consumed in re-inserting it. The cañons of both the Gibbon and Madison are very narrow and picturesque, with lofty pinnacled walls of basalt, columnar and disintegrated, covered with pine. A smart rain-storm struck us as we were going into camp on the Madison. The day has been chilly and disagreeable, for which we are not sorry since the cold has broken the enthusiasm of the musquitoes and green-headed flies which have been eating us alive. Genl. Crook found a great cluster of whortleberry bushes laden with ripe, red fruit: of this everyone ate heartily. In the afternoon, the rain-fall was very heavy. We made a fire of young 13.â•‡ Samuel Tilden was the defeated Democratic candidate in the 1876 presidential election. 14.â•‡ “This undoubtedly refers to P. W. Norris’s new (1880) road that the party took on the way into the park, which is today”s ‘Old Fountain Pack Trial.’ It was rough, narrow, and difficult, with many washouts and much deadfall.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008. 15.â•‡ Now Madison Junction.

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pine trees, in whose fierce heat we regarded with complacency the peltings of the storm. This did not abate until 5 o’clock, when our wagons arrived, tents were pitched and all hands made comfortable for the night. Before we turned in, the clouds had disappeared and outlined against the moon-lit sky we saw the delicate tracery of the stately pines. Colonel Stanton caught in the Madison this afternoon, a female grayling depositing ova. The fish was about 6 inches long, slender body, silvery-gray in color, had small hexagonal scales, small “sucker” mouth, full eyes, and seven fins, five dorsal and two ventral.16 I expressed some of the ova; they were reddish, translucent and about as large as a pin-head. Distance to-day _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 27 miles. Thursday, August 19th 1880. Morning very foggy. Could just see the saw-tooth peaks of the mountains near us protruding through the clouds. Moved to Henry’s Lake and camped at its foot. Ludington, Stanton, Thornburgh, Roberts, Bisbee and myself gave more or less of the afternoon to fishing for salmon-trout. I caught three of the largest size and then returned to camp with Roberts whose sprained ankle is still too weak to allow him to use it much. The others remained out until they had caught forty-two fine fish and this showing should have been improved had their tackle been stronger. As it was the gassy fish with no trouble at all broke reels, snapped line and ran off with hooks and tips, and gave me the impression that they had a great deal more fun than the fishermen. While Roberts and I were lying down under the ambulances reading or dozing, two separate bands of antelope, both large, dashed through our camp and made their escape, in spite of our close shots. General Crook and Webb Hayes returned—very much exhausted and out of breath. According to their own account, when near summit of the mountain on the Right hand side of the Tah-gre Pass, they ran in upon a grizzly bear. Genl. Crook had a rifle borrowed from a soldier in the morning; with this in his hands, he crawled upon Bruin, who did not at first notice Genl. Crook’s approach as a large rock separated them. Genl. Crook took a careful aim, pulled the 16.â•‡ “This entry documents the existence of the native Grayling in the Madison River below Madison Junction, although today they are difficult to find.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008.

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trigger, the cartridge failed to explode and----------------“The scenery,[”] said the General, [“]was the grandest I ever saw in my life”. “But, General, tell us about the Bar. Did he run you into camp?[”] “The scenery,[”] continued the General, not heeding the interruption—[“]the scenery was the most beautiful man ever looked upon. Why, Sir, there are springs up there which are rivers, Sir, Rivers”. “But, General, how about the Bar?” “The scenery,[”] said the General, now grown very red in the face, [“]was grand—but I am too hungry to talk about it now. Let me have some lunch.” So to this day, the chronicle which is the only strictly veracious account of our trip to the Yellowstone, is without an authentic statement of what happened. Webb Hayes was fully as hungry as Genl. Crook and declined to tell anything of their adventure. All that we in camp ever knew was that they arrived speechless and breathless and seemed to be overjoyed at getting back among us once more. Stanton, Ludington & Roberts had a game of poker—rather a tame affair, I should imagine, as they gave it up in a very short time. Distance to-day _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 26 miles. Friday, August 20th 1880. Remained in camp all day. Did not rise until 6 a.m. Genl. Crook and Webb Hayes started on a hunt in the mountains; Ludington, Stanton and Thornburgh on a fishing trip. The former had no success—did not see a single fresh sign. The latter caught a fine string of fat salmon-trout of which we have a superabundance in camp, because all the men of the escort and teamsters have taken to the sport with much zest. Our supper this evening was excellent. I give the bill of fare in full, to preserve most forcibly and indelibly the remembrance of the comforts we enjoyed, thanks to the foresight and consideration for all our wants evinced by Major Bainbridge. Bean soup, salmon trout, Blue Grouse Pie, Ham, potatoes, Turnips, Tomatoes, Beans, Canned Peaches, Apple Pie, Coffee and Tea. Saturday, August 21st 1880. We had a very heavy frost last night. Indeed, on this trip, heavy frosts have been the rule and not the exception. Wet towels left upon the guy-ropes over night are frozen stiff in the morning. Breakfasted at 4.30 and then struck out for our former camp on

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Snake River, (the beautiful camp of Aug. 13th) where we found the sacks of corn we had cached and then went into camp. As the distance was only twenty miles, we finished it before nine A.M., by which hour most of our party had gone fishing, the object being to secure as many of the salmon-trout as possible for our friends in Omaha and other points along the line of the Union Pacific R.R. Early each morning, before sun-rise strange noises have been heard in the air above us: Genl. Crook thinks these have been made by flocks of birds,—pelicans, ducks, geese, swans or gulls,—all of them plenty in this country.17 Mr. Rank, of Red Creek, rode into camp and remained as our guest for the day. Col. Stanton caught........................................23 Salmon-trout “ Ludington 27 “ ” “ Thornburgh 20 “ ” 17 duck, 7 plover, 2 jack-snipe, 1 white pelican, Genl. Crook 40 Sal. Trout. Webb Hayes. 1 Squirrel 1 duck. The pouch of the pelican is extremely distensible [sic] and had a capacity, in the full-grown bird, of not less than 5 gallons. We suffered all this afternoon from the assaults of a swarm of greenheaded flies which drew blood with every bite; toward evening, these were succeeded by the “trout-fly” which covered the flaps of our tents. Before night, the clouds gathered, rain fell with violence and strong wind prevailed, blowing several of our tents to the ground. Mr. Timothy Foley, our esteemed chef de cuisine, announced with a lisp through his broken tooth, that he was going to surpass all previous efforts in his Grand Farewell Supper, of which this is the Bill of Fare. Tomato Soup. Grouse pie, Baked Salmon Trout, Roast duck, Roast Snipe, Pork and Beans, Roast Plover, Stewed Prairie chicken, Beans, Peas, Broiled mushrooms, Fried potatoes, Currant Jelly, Peaches, Apples, Apple Pie, Jelly Cake. And so we broke company. God Bless thee, Tim Foley, noble Italian exile, with the toothless 17.â•‡ The gull probably is the California gull, that breeds east as far as North Dakota. The pelican would be the white pelican, which ranges inland around lakes and marshes, as well as in coastal areas. See Peterson, Field Guide, 78, 86.

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gums and the “rheumatiz”. May Time deal gently with thee until the final summons of the dread Angel is the sincere wish of all who partook of the good cheer prepared by thy skilful [sic] hands. Distance to-day 20 miles August 22nd 1880. (Sunday.) Had a very cold night. Towels frozen stiff this morning. Ice in buckets and basin. The sun-rise was extremely lovely; the sky of cloudless sapphire in which the rays of light played hide and seek with the fleeting shadows of the pine belt in front of our line of tents. Breakfast at 6 a.m. Remained in camp all day. Genl. Crook, Cols. Ludington, Stanton, and Thornburgh and Webb Hayes started out on a hunting and fishing trip. Mr. Rank among other news, has brought the item that the Empire of China has declared her ports open and that a junk, manned and officered by Mongolians, is expected to arrive within a fortnight in the Harbor of the Golden Gate. This action, of the Chinese may revolutionize the destinies of the whole world. Monday, August 23rd 1880. General Crook, Cols. Ludington and Stanton, Webb Hayes and Lt. Bourke, bade good bye to Major Bainbridge and Col. Thornburgh and started for the Rail-Road at Beaver Cañon, 35 miles, where we arrived at 12.30 P.M. I had several dispatches to send to Genl. Williams, (adjt. Genl. of the Dep’t. at Fort Omaha,) Major Bisbee (Fort Bridger,) Maj. Howell, (A.Q.M. at Ogden.) & Major Lord, (A.Q.M., at Cheyenne.) This kept me busy until the arrival of the “up-train[”] at 1.45. We got in this and rode as far as Pleasant Valley station, Montana, where we were to meet the “down train”. We had to cross the Idaho-Montana boundary at a point 6890 [feet] above sea-level and had a fine opportunity to view Beaver Cañon,18 which is simply a rift in a ridge of Basalt, very rugged and majestic: a heaped up pile of volcanic rock, and tempest-tossed timber, having a brawling mountain stream rushing in its sinuous course down the middle; this stream, eddying into deep, dark pools, the chosen retreat of the salmon-trout or rippling, in foam-flecked cascades over Titanic blocks of trachyte under the shadow of high walls of pine-crest basalt, in columnar piles over each side. On the “Up train[”] was Mr. [James B.] Eads the great civil engineer, who built the Saint Louis Bridge and improved the navigation of the Mississippi, by a system of jetties. He was going to the Yellowstone Park, with a small party, viâ 18. Beaver Canyon is the location of today’s Spencer, Idaho.

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Virginia City, Montana. Returning, at Blackfoot, we took supper and met again the pleasant and pretty Mrs. Butler. Here we entered the Pullman car “Argo”— a new car—perfect in the smallest detail, slept well and Tuesday, August 24th, 1880. Reached Ogden at 9 a.m. Col. Stanton, Major Roberts and Webb Hayes started for Salt Lake. Genl. Crook, Colonel Ludington and myself took train for the East. We had an immense amount of mail, both letters and newspapers—to get through and were occupied in that duty all day. At Custer Station, Major Bisbee and Dr. [Henry] McElderry were waiting to see us. East of Custer, had a heavy storm. At Fort Steele, Major [Edwin M.] Coates, Lt. [James E. H.] Foster and Lt. [James Alexander] Leyden got on our train en route to Cheyenne, Lt. [Arthur Charles] Ducat joined us at [Fort] Sanders, at which point and at Cheyenne there were numbers of army officers to see Genl. Crook. Col. Ludington left us at Cheyenne to make an inspection of the Q.M. Dépôt.19 Near Pine Bluffs, on the Nebraska boundary, a heavy storm of thunder, rain and hail beset us, and continued, with intermission, far into the night, flooding the track and delaying our train over an hour. Thursday, August. 26th 1880. A lovely morning, sky without a cloud. Air fresh and invigorating. Fields waving with the deep green of corn in tassel and the roads fringed with sun-flowers of the brightest gold. We are back in the valley of the Platte, one of the loveliest in the world. Reached Omaha at 3.30 P.M. and at the dépôt had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Royall and her daughter just starting upon a year’s tour in Europe, for which reason a number of friends had gathered to wish them a happy voyage. They will be sincerely missed from our little social circle at Fort Omaha, of which they have been such prominent features. General Crook’s Report of Trip. August 27th 1880 Hd.Qrs. Dep’t. Platte 19.â•‡ Cheyenne Depot was the official designation of a subpost of Fort D. A. Russell, at Cheyenne, Wyoming. Often referred to as “Camp Carlin” or “Russell Depot,” it was discontinued in 1890. Frazer, Forts of the West, 184–85.

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Commanding General’s Office, Fort Omaha, Neb., Aug. 27th 1800 Assistant Adjutant General. Hd.Qrs. Mily. Division of the Missouri, Chicago, Illinois. Sir: I have the honor to report that on the 10th int. I joined the Hon. Mr. Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, at Ogden, Utah and proceeded with him to Beaver Cañon, and Dry Creek, on the Utah and Northern R.R. and from that point by wheeled conveyance to the Madison Fork of the Missouri River, in the Yellowstone Park, there taking horses and pack-mules for further exploration. During our stay in the Park, we made as extended examination as our limited time and facilities would admit. Of its great natural beauties and wonders, I cannot attempt a description. Such a task has been undertaken by abler pens, but in no cases, coming under my notice have the descriptions done justice to the subject. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that an accurate description is an impossibility. In a military light, under present circumstances, the Park is not deserving of much consideration. There is every indication that the climate in winter is exceptionally severe, for which reason, as well, perhaps, as a superstitious dread of the Geysers and other phenomena, the Indians rarely penetrate to its interior.20 Even were trouble to arise, the Utah and Northern R.R., now running its trains well into Southern Montana, would enable us to concentrate troops at exposed points before any great depredations could be committed. Very Respectfully, Your Obdt. Servant (Signed.) George Crook, Brigadier General. September 3d, 1880. President and Mrs. Hayes and their two youngest sons, General Sherman and Miss Rachel Sherman, Secy. of War [Alexander] Ramsay and a party of twenty, all told, arrived in Omaha on a special train and were at once driven to the Fort where the prescribed military salutes were accorded, and then a reception was 20.â•‡ “This was a common misconception about Indians and Yellowstone in the nineteenth century. Most tribes were not afraid of the geysers, although many revered them as sacred.” Lee Whittlesey to Charles M. Robinson III, January 10, 2008.

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held at Genl. King’s quarters, attended by all the officers of Genl. Crook’s Hd.Qrs. and of Fort Omaha and their families. The party remained but a short time and then drove back through the mud to the special train in waiting to take them West. Presdt. Hayes impressed me as a man whom his enemies disparaged beneath his real merit and whom his friends extolled beyond it. He is certainly a man of capacity and ability and of good moral tone, altho’ not so strong a character as I had hoped to find. Mrs. Hayes is a woman of singular loveliness of disposition and has in her all the elements of a noble Christian womanhood. The sons are too young as yet to amount to much, but they will never, I am sure, equal to their brother, Webb.21 In coming from town, I had to escort Miss Rachel Sherman, a very sweet, good-natured young lady who lacks, however, much of the sprightliness of her sister, Miss Ella. (now Mrs. Thackary.) With the party, was Surgeon [David Lowe] Huntington, formerly on duty on the Rio Grande at the same time with myself. General Sherman was very garrulous. He disappointed those who expected to find greatness. He don’t [sic] deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with Grant, Sheridan, Thomas, or other prominent men of the Rebellion. The fact is that Sherman is largely made up of the demagogue and will not survive in history. He is vain to a degree, loquacious as a parrot—sometimes saying things well, but oftener ill—and is extremely fond of swilling whiskey. 21.â•‡ There were two other sons who died in infancy, one of whom was named George Crook Hayes, known to the family as “the little general.” Robinson, General Crook, 67, 82.

Chapter 5 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

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ept. 5th 1880. Left Omaha, viâ “Burlington” road1 for Chicago and the East. At dépôt, met my friend, Mr. William Carter, son of Judge Carter of Fort Bridger, Wyo., and also met exSenator [John Milton] Thayer of Nebraska. In Chicago dined at the Palmer House and then took the Balt[imore]. and Ohio Express for Washington. Sept. 6th 1880. Major [Azor H.] Nickerson met me in the R.R. dépôt, upon my arrival. (9.20 P.M.) and took me to his neat little home on Rhode-Island Avenue (near 18th [Street]). During my stay at the Capital, Nickerson exerted himself in every way possible to make my visit pleasurable. I did not visit many public buildings, my time being too brief, but I saw many delightful people, some of whom I had previously known personally and others through communications. Nickerson’s office was in the War Department, (in the old Navy building.) There I met numbers of officers—Generals [Samuel?] Breck, [Emory] Upton, [William B.] Hazen, [Richard Coulter] Drum, [Orlando M.] Poe and Colonels [Samuel Nicoll?] Benjamin, [Henry Clarke] Corbin and others. Captain Lamberton, U.S. Navy., escorted me through the new Navy 1.â•‡ Chicago, Burlington & Quincey Railroad.

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Building, an imposing edifice, constructed without regard to cost; it forms one half of a grand pile of masonry of which the uncompleted portion is the wing intended for the use of the War Department.2 The features which most vividly impressed themselves upon my memory were an exhibition of all the classes of cordage—hemp, manilla, wire, tarred and untarred cables and hawsers in use in our Navy:—a very prettily arranged display; and the Library, upon which the efforts of architect and artist were lavished without stint and with wonderful success. The decorations of this chamber are superb. The walls are panelled with malachite and precious marbles and in the gallery railings are inserted circular plates of the Mexican onyx. The collection of volumes will embrace when complete a full series of works bearing upon the Naval Profession and in all departments which can be made tributary to its service;—History, Geography, Law, Surveying and Physical Science. Washington, at this season, is a lovely city—some judges go so far as to say that it is the loveliest in the whole world. I cannot venture upon a comparison, not being very familiar with large cities: I must content myself with the remark that it is well laid out, has broad streets, well-paved, interesting noble avenues in which may be seen statues of our prominent personages, military and civil; the public buildings are constructed upon a scale of magnificence and the mansions of the wealthier citizens betoken luxury, refinement and good taste. The society of Washington ranks high and is entitled to all the consideration due to intelligence and polished manners. It was my fortune to find in the Capitol many friends and acquaintances upon whom I called during my stay. I first hunted up Mrs. Burns, the widow of my old friend, Cap’t. James Burns, 5th Cavalry who died in July 1874, of hardship and exposure incident to Indian service under Genl. Crook. Then I called upon my venerable friend, Sister de Chantal, one of the nuns of the order of the Visitation, in the Convent on Connecticut Avenue. She has passed the ripe age of three score and ten, but still retains unimpaired the keen intellect, sweet nature and gentle manners which endeared her to me fifteen years ago. From the convent, a very commodious and costly building, I went to call upon Mrs. Lamberton, wife of Captain Lamberton, U.S. Navy, 2.â•‡ The former State, War, and Navy Building, now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on Seventeenth Street between New York and Pennsylvania Avenues, constructed from 1871 to 1888.

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and sister of my old class-mate (and tent-mate during my “yearling” year,) Clare[nce] Stedman, now R.Q.M., 9th Cavalry. She received me with all the warmth and cordiality I anticipated, talked over old times and old friends—and concurred with her mother in the opinion that the happiest days either of them had ever enjoyed were those spent at West Point. Mrs. Lamberton, while a young lady, had a very narrow escape from drowning. While boating with Bob Carter, my old class-mate, the little craft in which they were seated was upset by waves caused by the Mary Powell, the fastest steamer on the Hudson. Bob was as strong as a bull and as brave as a lion. He encouraged the young lady, told her he was a fine swimmer and said he could support her until assistance reached them. It was some twenty minutes before boats could get to them and by that time both were well nigh exhausted. Carter has since been retired on account of injuries received in the Battle of Gettysburgh, [sic] in which he took part before entering the Military Academy.3 Mrs. Stedman received me with as much tenderness as if I were her own son and at my departure kissed me affectionately, for which act I felt grateful beyond expression. In the afternoon, after lunching at the Riggs House, which has an excellent kitchen, Nickerson drove me about town; to the agricultural grounds, where are to be seen growing in full perfection a very fine collection of grasses and flowers, then around the grounds of the Smithsonian and those behind the White House, passing the Washington Monument and then back home. On the trip, we drove within close view of the bronze equestrian statues of [Winfield] Scott, [George] Thomas and [James] McPherson, all of them good, that of Thomas especially good: the grand old soldier looms up as solid, as grim and as indomitable as he ever was in life in the full tide of battle. For Genl. Thomas, my feelings have always been tender and affectionate, not merely because he was a great soldier and a great man, but more especially because he recommended me for the position of cadet at the Mily. Academy. In the evening we made a number of calls; upon the Carters, a pleasant Virginia family met some years ago in Salt Lake, Utah; 3.â•‡ Heitman (Historical Register, 1:288) lists only one officer named Robert Carter, during this period, that being Robert Goldthwaite Carter, who graduated one year behind Bourke in 1870 and was posted to the 4th Cavalry in Texas. If it is the same Carter, Bourke is mistaken about the action which prompted his retirement. Carter’s leg was shattered when a horse fell on him during a fight with Comanches on the upper Brazos River in 1871. It never properly healed and ultimately he was retired on disability in 1876. Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, 1:236.

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upon ex-Attorney General [George H.] Williams,4 wife, and dau., very charming people, especially Mrs. Williams, who is a brilliant woman; and lastly, upon the Fants who, through friendship for Nickerson, received me at once in their home-circle, for which I was delighted, as their daughters are very beautiful and charming girls. During the remainder of my stay in Washington, I made numerous other calls, one only of which I think worth mentioning. Miss Fant took me to visit Mrs. Johnson, a lady whose son, Lieut. Riley [sic], 7th Cavalry,5 I had known quite well the spring before he was killed with Custer. This lady’s life has been marked by several strange episodes. Her first husband was Commander Riley of the U.S. Navy, who went down with his ship and all on board, not a soul ever having been heard of. Her boy, who never saw his father, upon whose birthday he was born, exhibited from his earliest youth a passionate desire to enter the military service. His ambition was gratified only a few months before the date of the horrible massacre in which he fell. He wore on the day of his death a peculiar ring, containing a blood-stone seal engraved with some heraldic device—a griffin’s head, holding a key in its mouth, I think. As this ring had belonged to his father, it possessed an especial interest in the eyes of his mother. The Indians who destroyed Custer’s force robbed the bodies of our officers and soldiers of everything, clothing, jewelry, arms and ammunition. But when to the great number of 4500, they surrendered to General Crook at Fort Robinson, Neb.,6 in 1877, and told him that they were tired of fighting him and that they felt they could enjoy no peace and serenity until they submitted, General Crook saw his opportunity and insisted upon the restitution of all trinkets, &c., which might have an interest and value to the families of those who had fallen. He referred very pointedly to Lt. Riley’s ring, a description of which had just been received from Col. Sharp in Washington. One of the chiefs spoke up; “I am almost sure there’s just such 4. Attorney general under Grant, 1871–75. 5.â•‡ Bourke means Lt. William Van W. Reily. 6.â•‡ Fort Robinson was established in 1874 to control the Indians of the Red Cloud and Pine Ridge Agencies. It was upgraded from camp to fort in January 1878, although Bourke still occasionally referred to it as “Camp Robinson.” During the Second World War, it was used as a dog training center for the K-9 Corps. It was abandoned in 1948, and is now a Nebraska state park. Buecker, Fort Robinson and the American West; Schubert, Outpost of the Sioux Wars.

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a ring down in So and So’s band”, (mentioning one of the newlysurrendered chiefs.) “I’ll go see about it”. After the council was over, he went away and remained absent until dusk when he returned with the ring which Lt. Wm. P. Clark, 2nd Cavalry, forwarded to Mrs. Johnson. This lady received me most kindly. She is very beautiful, refined and bright. Before leaving Washington, I had the pleasure of dining with General and Mrs. [Jedediah H.] Baxter, a lovely lady: Their house is furnished with great taste and contains, among other attractions, an Australian magpie which talks with wonderful clearness. I also called upon Genl. [Stephen Vincent] Bénèt and his wife; I was disappointed in not seeing Mrs. Bénèt, a lady for whom I have very friendly feelings, based upon former acts of gentle kindness. September 11th. Said adieu to Nickerson and took the 2.30 P.M. express to Baltimore. The run of 40 miles, was made in just one hour. Put up at the Carrollton House, chiefly to see my old friend, Major [Frederick William] Coleman, who was for a time Commanding officer of the post, (Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande.)7 At which I served in 1869. Coleman was a very fine soldier and kept the post in good discipline; all, except the laundresses who, for some reason or another, gave him a world of bother.8 They were always quarrelling and Coleman had his hands full in trying to keep the peace. One day two very belligerent dames were brought before his high court of justice and at once began an exchange of abuse and billingsgate, the principal point of which was the culmination: “Din, fur phat and fur phoi, Mrs. O’Dougherty, did you call moi by Jamesie, a maygur?” “Troth, thin, oill hev you to undersstaned, Mrs. O’Shaughnessey, 7.â•‡ Fort Craig was established on the Rio Grande, to provide protection against Apaches and guard the road along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It was abandoned and transferred to the Interior Department in 1885. Frazer, Forts of the West, 98. 8.â•‡ The institution of laundress was carried over from the British Army. Aside from doing the washing for the troops, they often functioned as midwives and nurses, as well as household maids for officers’ families. Women who joined the laundry service tended to be militant by nature, and had a reputation for being embroiled in fights, hence Bourke’s comment that they gave Major Coleman “a world of bother.” The problem was exacerbated because, unlike dependants, who were classified as “camp followers,” laundresses had official standing as military personnel. As such, they were subject to military law, thoroughly knew their rights, and did not hesitate to invoke them. See Stallard, Glittering Misery, Chapter 3.

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dat oi’m de saynior laundriss in dis ridgmint en oi want no wur-ruds wid you.” On another occasion, the worthy Major was showing the beauties of the post he then commanded (near Mobile, Ala.) to a party of ladies who had come out from the city. The Major was afraid that some of them might be slightly “secesh” and disposed to be critical: to make a good impression upon his fair visitors, he had caused the Post to be carefully policed and put in “apple pie” order. The ladies were delighted and praised all they saw. Coleman felt very proud, he was certain that no accident could occur to mar the success of the occasion; it’s a good motto which tells us never to halloa until we’re out of the woods. The party had seen everything in the post except the quarters occupied by the laundresses in front of which they soon found themselves. Everything was neat and trim and a source of gratification to the Commandant, who really began to feel for a moment that his laundresses were not such a hard lot after all and began to speak of them in terms of eulogy to his fair companions. He intimated that to be a laundress in his post, a woman had to possess all the virtues and gentle womanly qualities which are needed to gild the rough life of a garrison with the refinement of a home; but while he was talking, one of the gentle matrons who was to thus gild the rough existence of a soldier, came out upon her door-step and, with arms akimbo and tresses dishevelled, yelled to her nine year old daughter visible a quarter of a mile away; “Mary Ann, Mary Ann, where is your fa-aa-ather?[”] and soft and sweet, soothing and gentle as the dripping of a fountain, came back the answer from the little darling; “how the Hell do oi know where moi fah-ther is”. The Major received me enthusiastically, presented me to his beautiful wife and made me go to supper with them so that we might talk freely and easily over old times. The 11 P.M. express took me to Phila[delphia]. where I remained in the sleeper until morning and then started for home reaching there in time to breakfast with mother and sister. My extremely brief visit to the Quaker City was made delightful mainly from being in the society of my mother and sister, two as good, noble and bright-minded women as God ever made, and of my young brother, (now entering manhood.) a man bound to make his mark. He has refined, gentle manners, great common sense and shrewdness, has

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travelled a great deal for one so young and is possessed of decided physical power and dauntless courage. In Philadelphia, I did not go about a great deal, preferring to remain at home and enjoy a quiet time. Sister plays the piano with a skill far above the average and with unusual taste and good feeling. I saw nothing, except the new municipal buildings, on Penn Square, where the grave mistake has been committed of intercepting travel on the most important thoroughfares, when, with a little extra trouble, the arches of the main entrances of the edifice could have been heightened and widened to admit lines of street Railway. Wanamaker’s outfitting establishment surpasses anything of the kind in the United States. Baldwin’s Locomotive Works, I had hoped to visit but time forbade. Among those upon whom I called, was Colonel Richard Rush, a graduate of the Mily. academy, and an old officer of the army who had shown a great interest in me at a time when friends were not plenty. He is now advanced in years, and has lost all his former wealth. His two daughters are lovely, accomplished, gentle and refined ladies, for whom no fortune is too good. August 16th 1880.9 Took the Pennsylvania R.R’s limited express for New York, making the distance [of] ninety miles in one hour and thirty minutes. Put up at the Brevoort House, where I met Gel. and Mrs. [John Parker] Hawkins with whom I had served in the Department of the Platte. During my stay in the Metropolis every moment was occupied and yet there was so much to be seen that I could not persuade myself that I was seeing anything. On the night of my arrival, General Hawkins took me to the Metropolitan Music Hall, 42nd and Broadway, the great Concert Room of the city where we had the pleasure of listening to some very excellent music; thence we went to call upon Genl. [Francis] Darr whose son just graduated from the Mly. Academy, is about to start for his station in Arizona and was desirous to learn from me something about it. Early the next morning, I arose, took the bus for Fulton Ferry, saw the Suspension Bridge now building, inspected Fulton Market and took breakfast there; then by the Elevated Railroad (a grand enterprise,) rode to the new Cathedral, 51st and 5th Avenue and enjoyed a delightful half-hour in contemplating its stately proportions. 9.â•‡ Bourke obviously means September.

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Back by the Elevated road to Macey’s [sic: Macy’s] notion establishment on 6th Avenue: this, in my opinion, cannot compare with Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia. Lastly to Scribner’s book-store and then to make friendly calls upon my friends Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. Wetmore, (the latter I had not seen since I graduated, 1869.) This evening, at the San Francisco Minstrels, a very funny and wellpatronized theatre. During the other days of my stay in New York, I was kept busy. I went to the Custom-House to find my friend Will Metcalf, to the Grand Hotel, to hunt up my class-mate [Henry Pratt] Perrine, to the Central Park in a delightful drive with Mr. and Mrs. Wetmore, which took me along 5th avenue with its astonishing exhibit of opulence in costly houses; I also dined with the Wetmore’s in their comfortable home and had the pleasure of meeting their son, who was at the Mily. Academy for part of my stay there. He took me with him to the Union and University Clubs, both fine affairs, well conducted and having some of the best men of the city on their lists, but there is something about Club Life that strikes me as demoralizing. I don’t believe in them, as at present managed and am afraid they do more harm than good. Saturday, September 18th. Received a telegram from my class-mate, Sam Tillman that he was on his way down from West Point to see me; punctual to appointment, he arrived at the Brevoort at 7 P.M., and arranged for our return together to the Academy. Sunday, Sep’t 19th Tillman breakfasted with me at the Brevoort and then I went to Mass at Saint Stephens, on 28th Street, where the music was of the highest order. We lunched together at Delmonico’s up-town saloon and then took the Hudson River R.R. train for West Point. My reception by the Bachelor’s mess was extremely cordial. Professor [Henry Lane] Kendrick, the President of the Mess, my venerable old instructor in chemistry, mineralogy and Geology, was very glad to see me, and so also were the many good fellows with whom I had been a cadet or with whom I had served on the frontier and from whom I had been parted for years. There was Perrine, whom I had failed to catch in N.Y., and whom I had not seen since the night of our Graduation Dinner at Delmonico’s in June 1869—Frank Michler, last seen at Fort Mojave, Arizona, in 1873, Ned Wood, George Anderson, Braden, McLeary (?), Dr. Alexander, Godfrey, Sears, [Eric] Bergland & others.

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The Point itself was unchanged. In beauty still unrivalled. The Point still was young—I alone had grown old. I called upon the Superintendent, Genl. [John M.] Schofield, who received me courteously, and then visited Professors [Patrice] De Jañon, [Edgar Wales] Bass, and Andrews—the first two being very glad to meet me, but the last showing a little pique at my declining to serve in his Department. I was also most cordially greeted by Professor [Charles William] Larned who met me on the side-walk. The Custer Statue is a fearful monstrosity and ought to be pulled down. Monday, Sep’t. 20th 1880. In company with Harry Perrine returned to N.Y. In the evening, went to Harrigan and Hart’s Theatre [Comigne?] to see The Mulligan’s Guard’s Picnic, over which I laughed for several hours. Tuesday, Sep’t. 21st By advice of Genl. Hawkins, took breakfast at Farrish’s chop-house, a unique sort of a place, said to have the finest mutton chops in the city. I found it equal to its high reputation and was much pleased with it, altho’ I think that the Brevoort sets the best cooking upon its table of any hotel in the U.S. Went in the afternoon to Savoy’s photograph gallery. Wednesday, September 22nd. Wetmore and I took the limited express train, he going to Washington, I to Philadelphia, where I remained with mother until Friday, September 24th, when I went to Washington and there staid with Nickerson until the 26th, seeing the Williams and Fants and of calling upon Mrs. Hawkins’ venerable mother, Mrs. [Henry Knox] Craig, the widow of our former chief of Ordnance, Genl. Craig. September 27th. Arrived in Chicago and put up at Palmer House. Tuesday, September 28th. Reached Omaha, by the Rock-Island Road. The public journals of this date are full of the narrative of Lieut. [Frederick] Schwatka’s Expeditions in the Polar Regions in search of relics of the ill-fated Expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin.10 10.â•‡ Schwatka took an extended leave, and from March 1878 to October 1880, searched for the remains of Sir John Franklin’s expedition of 1847–48. Previous expeditions had discovered the remains of some of Franklin’s men and one of the ships, but Schwatka located the wreckage of the second ship and more of the men, giving them a proper burial. The expedition completed 3,251 miles by sledge, one of the longest on record. Having emerged from the trek and returned home unscathed, he slipped on a icy sidewalk and broke his leg. Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, 3:1280.

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All doubt is now dispelled as to the fate of the survivors: they perished most miserably of hunger and cold and disease, the last of the band making a desperate effort to prolong existence by feeding upon their weaker brethren. The records which had been cached in a sheltered spot to ensure their preservation were scattered and destroyed by Esquimaux11 children. To determine these results Schwatka and his gallant men, had to make a sled-journey of hundreds of miles in length, commencing in an Arctic winter and occupying nearly a whole year. They penetrated to the North of 82° North Latitude and subsisted most of the time on reindeer and other polar game, brought down by their long-range rifles. Much credit must be given them for bold courage since they started out from their supply camp with only one month’s provisions! Schwatka, whom I first met as a Cadet, in 1867, belongs to my Regiment, the 3rd Cavalry, and has rendered much valuable service. He is very brave, very erratic, good-natured and hospitable, a hard drinker and very witty and intellectual. He created an immense sensation at West Point by reporting for duty, on a sweltering day in June, clad in a long linen duster and fur cap. After graduation, he took up the study of law and was admitted to the Bar, at Omaha. Schwatka celebrated his success by going on a “gigantic toot” with a couple of his new associates in legal honors. With one of these gentlemen, Schwatka was to breakfast the next morning and when he made his appearance at the table all the boarders were on hand to see what kind of man was this young officer, in whose praise so much had been said. Schwatka was very pale, very sore-headed, red-eyed and drunkenly dignified. His host, who was several drinks the more sober of the two, hoped against hope that all would come out right and that no one would notice his friend’s condition or his own. But the waitergirl did not seem to understand matters for she persistently pressed upon Schwatka’s attention various articles of food or drink; he as persistently declined taking anything whatever. A solemn silence reigned. People were beginning to feel uncomfortable, but they gave way to unrestrained hilarity when the future Arctic Explorer, blinking his eyes like an owl said, with the solemnity of a sphinx..... “I’ll take a pickle.” 11.â•‡ I.e., Eskimo or Inuit.

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When he was stationed out a Camp Sheridan, Neb., a lonesome post at the edge of the “Bad Lands”, Schwatka employed as his servant a man whose reputation was first-class, except for sobriety. The Lieutenant cautioned his new Friday in very severe terms and concluded by saying[,] “Now I drink a great deal too much myself and can’t find fault with you because you may want to do the same, but I tell you once and for all you must only get drunk when you see that I am sober”. A few weeks later, the servant was dragged from the wood-shed, hopelessly drunk. “What do you mean, Sir,[”] said Schwatka, [“]did I not tell you never to get drunk except when I was sober?[”] “Oh, Begorra, Loo-tinint, av oi waited until the Loo-tinint was sober, oi’d nivir have no chance at all, at all”. September 30th. General Crook and Webb Hayes left for a hunt in the Big Horn Mountains near Fort McKinney.12 At Cheyenne, they were to be joined by Major James Lord, A.Q.M., and by John Collins, Esq., and Mr. Al. Patrick, of Omaha. Oct. 22d 1880. “Mike Burns” arrived at Fort Omaha on his way to the Government school at Carlisle, Pennia, where he is to receive his education.13 Mike is an Apache Indian, captured by Company “G”, 5th Cavalry, in a fight with Apache Indians on the summit of the Massissal Mountains, East of Camp McDowell, Arizona, in December 1872.14 The little boy, as he then was, was adopted by the company and named “Mike” for good luck and Burns after the Captain of the Company, 12.â•‡ Fort McKinney was established on October 12, 1876, as the new Cantonment Reno to supply Crook’s Powder River Expedition. In 1877, it was designated Fort McKinney, in honor of Lt. John A. McKinney, 4th Cavalry, who was killed in the Dull Knife Fight of November 25, 1876 (see Volume 2 of this series). In 1878, the fort was relocated to the confluence of Clear Creek and the Powder River, just west of the present city of Buffalo, Wyoming, and the original site was designated McKinney Depot. The post was abandoned in 1894, and the following year the buildings were given to the state, which used it as the State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home. Frazer, Forts of the West, 182–83. 13.â•‡ Carlisle Indian Industrial School was opened in 1879 at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, as the first non-reservation government boarding school for Indians. The objective, as defined according to the standards of the era, was to break tribal ties and identity by educating the children to function in mainstream American life. Never popular among the Indians themselves, by the time of the First World War, the school faced rising costs, demand for schools closer to home, and preemption by wartime needs. It closed in 1918. Hoxie, Encyclopedia of North American Indians, 101–2. 14.â•‡ An account of this fight, and of Mike’s capture, appears in Robinson, Diaries, 1:45– 46. Camp McDowell was established in 1865, and designated a fort in 1870. Troops from McDowell with the assistance of Pima scouts, successfully campaigned against the Apaches. Fort McDowell was transferred to the Interior Department in 1890. Altshuler, Starting with Defiance, 37–38; Frazer, Forts of the West, 11.

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James Burns, a gallant soldier since dead. Mike was with the attacking party which carried the “Cave” on Salt River, Dec. 28th 1872. This cave was situated about half way down the vertical wall of the cañon of the Rio Salado, or Salt River, which foamed hundreds of feet below its entrance. In this fastness the desperate band of NanniChaddi had taken refuge, secure against all attack; but the approach to their den was betrayed to us by one of their own people—Naltajé, or Joe, under whose conduct we made a toilsome climb over the mountains for 15 o[r] 20 miles, descending the steep trail, leading to the mount of the cavern, just as the rosy hues of dawn were flushing the Eastern horizon. Our advance-guard, under Lieut. [William J.] Ross, A.D.C., crept in upon the unsuspecting warriors, killed six at the first volley and drove the rest, panic-stricken, behind the stone bulwark in front of the cavern. Once in their retreat, the Apaches speedily recovered their courage and hurled defiance at us. Three times they were called upon to surrender and three times they dared us to make assault upon their fortress. The contest lasted for some hours and was finally terminated by our rolling large blocks of stone from the crest of the precipice upon the Indians at its base and crushing them to a jelly. We killed 75 and captured 30. (The latter, women and children.) For a full account of this fight see my note-books of December 1872. Mike Burns, after some months, became proficient enough in our language to hold conversations with the soldiers. His narrative of the death of his own father was wonderfully terse and vivid. “Soger heap kill um. Cayote heap eat um”. As Mike played an important role in a little “tragedy” which occurred at Fort Whipple, Arizona, I venture to give an account of it. Surgeon E. I. Bailey, the medical Director of the Department of Arizona, had two pets of which he was extremely fond. They were two enormous Thomas Cats—green eyed, yellow haired hump-backed rush-tailed felines upon which the Doctor had bestowed the names of “Sunday” and “Daniel Webster”. Now these cats were extremely bellicose and ferocious and as they always fought in partnership, they soon had vanquished not only all other cats, but also the dogs for several miles. It was truly very funny to watch their performances and see with what perfect strategy they carried on their contests with the canine enemy. Some unsuspecting bull pup, proud of his untried

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strength, would start out for a little ramble to see the world. In the course of his stroll, he would naturally run across our two felines with which the “purp” would at once seek to form an acquaintance. We would hear a sniff, a snarl, a spit and a whine—and then see the wretched puppy flying across the parade with tail pressed tightly between his legs and his voice raised in a dismal ki-yi-yi. And then too how delighted old Bailey used to be! “Come out here, Bourkey, my boy,[”] he would call, [“]come out here quick; for God’s sake; I hope I may die in my tracks if Tom McGregor’s pup isn’t going to tackle Daniel Webster!” And as he spoke, the worthy medico’s fat, pendulous belly would shake like jelly while he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks. Daniel Webster, of course, always came out victorious, thanks, in part to the assistance of his faithful colleague, Sunday. Affairs were running along in this Arcadian simplicity for some weeks: nightly, from the ridge-pole of the Bailey wood-shed, these hump-backed Thomas cats caterwauled, their Veni-Vidi-Vici [sic] of battles and their defiance for those to come. But no assailants dared appear to take up the gage of battle. Their prowess had become too well known to the canine residents of Fort Whipple, who gave the Thomas cats a wide berth. Both Sunday and Daniel Webster began to look melancholy at the prospect that “grim visaged War had smoothed his wrinkled front” and that they should have nothing to do but “caper nimbly in my lady’s chamber”.15 But one day Lieut. [Walter Scribner] Schuyler came to Fort Whipple. He was going on leave to be absent a year. Before starting, he was desirous of providing for the comfort of his pet and, after some deliberation presented it to Dr. Bailey who received it with unfeigned delight. This pet was a young coon,—a demure, sober-sided young Quaker-like animal whose life seemed to be passed in a decorous round of paw-licking, face-washing and body-scratching. Sunday and Daniel Webster approached the new-comer and surveyed him with undisguised satisfaction. In their innocence they took him to be a new puppy which had unwittingly intruded upon their domain,—and then this pup was so “fresh”. He didn’t apparently know anything. There he sat upright on his haunches, his attention absorbed in a search after a particularly troublesome flea which had been giving him much annoyance. The cats drew closer 15.â•‡ From Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 1.

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and vented a mee-yow of hostility, but still no sign of recognition from the coon. This was too much for feline endurance. Daniel Webster superciliously humped his back and brushed his tail across the coon’s face. Daniel, I should not omit to mention, was of Celtic extraction, and this movement was equivalent to asking the coon to tread on the tail of his coat. Out of regards for Sunday and Daniel Webster, and our friendship for their worthy master, we have purposely drawn a veil over the painful scene which followed. Three days after, Dr. Bailey, loudly bewailing the mysterious disappearance of his two favorites, and muttering the direst vengeance upon the scoundrel who had abducted them, paced the veranda of his cottage. Every reward promised had failed to reveal a trace of either Daniel Webster or Sunday and the Doctor was forced to make the best of his new acquisition which had been so inexplicably left when the other two were stolen. And surely! The dear little coon, so gentle and demure, would, in time console him for his loss! Hark! Was that the wind sighing through the trees or was it simply the ghost of former music? There it is again! The very caricature of a caterwaul, no back-bone to its volume, no haughtiness in its changes: not the defiant war-cry of an aggressive Thomas Cat, but the puny, faint mee-yow of a drowning kitten; and yet, in some manner, it recalls Daniel Webster to the Doctor’s memory. But if it truly be Daniel, he must have done some tall climbing to get up so high in that tree and in his new toilet of dragging tail and hair frozen stiff in terror, looks more like a yellow porcupine than a high-stepping warlike Grimalkin.16 A ladder is promptly placed against the tree and Mike Burns ascending soon brings down the half-starved changelings. The Doctor is anxious to see them and so is Mister Coon who has followed close at his heels. The cats, however, don’t want to see anybody just now and springing from Mike’s arms, one of them, Daniel Webster, erewhile the haughty, gives a terrified spit and mee-yow and disappears beyond the hills never to be seen again. Sunday lingered but a few days and then died of wounded pride and a broken heart, with no one to mourn at his grave but the Doctor and the coon which on this particular day surpassed himself and looked as pious as a country 16.â•‡ The name of the witches’ cat in Macbeth, also a fairy cat of the Highlands in Scottish legend.

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deacon. “I’ll tell yer what it is, fellers”, said Jim O’Neil, down at the corral, “that there coon just clawed the guts out of them two cats. He’s ole pisen in a fight, he is, you hear me”. Bourke returns to the present. October 28th. Thursday, Colonel Stanton, Mr. Chase, (his clerk.) Corporal Shiff, 9th Infantry and myself, left Omaha, viâ the Omaha and Saint Paul R.R. for Blair, Neb.—at which point we changed cars to the Sioux-City and Pacific R.R., going viâ Frémont to the Elkhorn Valley,—a fine stretch of good, rolling farm-land, well-watered and grassed, but without timber, except a small amount along streambed. This valley is filling up very fast with settlers. At Norfolk, there are four different lines of Rail Road; three of them branches of the Sioux City and Pacific and the fourth a feeder of the Union Pacific, leading out from a point near Columbus, Neb. Our car was deadly foul with impunity. In the seats near us were a woman and five or six little children, none of whom had touched soap or water for months. I had the pleasure of a long conversation with a gentleman named Dennis Sheedy,—a very intelligent cattle man, of extended travel. His herd now numbers over 17.000 head on the North Platte, near Sidney Bridge. Of these he expects to market 2600 this season. At Neligh, the R.R. terminus, 161 miles from Omaha, we had to put up for the night at the Waverly Hotel, where Stanton and I crowded into one little bed in a room not much larger than a chicken-coop. Our Boniface awakened us at the early hour of 4., as we had to leave on the stage at 5 in the morning of October 29th (1880. Friday.) The charges for our accomodations were certainly not great—only 25 cents apiece. Our rattle-trap stage rolled up the valley of the Elkhorn and 12 miles from Neligh stopped to let us get breakfast at a little station. The family living there seemed to be comfortably situated and the bill of fare gave us a good idea of the resources of the valley. The work of R.R. construction is being pushed by great energy, the track-layers being at this date a short distance beyond this station. A fearful storm of snow, wind and rain has lately swept down the course of the Elkhorn—we learn of the disappearance of a little boy who was herding cattle at the time of the tempest and whose body has not since been found. Our line of travel lay to the North North West up the valley of the Elkhorn, a very picturesque and fertile

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stretch of agricultural and farming land. The absence of timber in any great quantities has compelled the settlers in this as in all the other newly-opened portions of Nebraska—to build their houses of sod and to make roofs of hay. In one of the stable-enclosures, we saw two stately young elk which followed their mistress in a very tame and gentle manner. O’Neil City, the point to which the R.R. grade has been carried, is an Irish settlement, inhabited by a thrifty and well-behaved community of Celts. The houses are of sod, built in the middle of the prairie, and the town has a raw look, but also many indications of prosperity. At table, we were waited upon by an extremely pretty Irish girl who hearing us ask for milk, kindly milked a cow for our benefit. On the preceding [manuscript] page, I have alluded to the disappearance of a little boy, during the storm last-week. His body was found yesterday and the funeral ceremonies were celebrated during the hour that we happened to be in the town. At Emmet, Colonel Stanton found a beautiful Irish girl scrubbing the floor of the Post-Office. She began assorting the mail and Colonel Stanton thus had a good chance to look at her. The more he looked, the more enthusiastic he became and wishing us to enjoy the same pleasure he came out to the stage in which Chase and I had remained and urged [us] to go in and ask for a letter. It was so cold that Chase did not want to go to the trouble of unbundling and so he thought he would sit still and call for someone to come to the door, reasoning with his usual shrewdness that the young divinity would answer the summons. And this is the portrait of the lovely creature who glided to the door and inquired in gentle accents, “phot the hell duz yiz want?”

To-day has been very cloudy. A north wind blew all morning, but shortly after mid-day, subsided. Road as been very good, but our progress slow on acc’t. of our heavy load. Late at night of the 29th or rather very early on the morning of

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October 30th (1880.) Saturday, our stage stopped for an hour at a filthy hole called Bassett’s ranch, kept by an ex-sea captain whose pet was a pole-cat. The playful creature got after Col. Stanton and made him beat a hasty retreat back to the shelter of the ambulance. Chase and the Corporal tried to make themselves a cup of coffee, but gave up the attempt in despair. Cooke’s ranch, at the junction of Bone and Long Pine creeks, was our breakfast station. It is a well-appointed, neatly kept, home-looking little place presided over by two ladies who are experienced housekeepers. Here we found rich milk, good home-made butter, fresh bread, home-made preserves (called “jell” by one of the ladies.) fresh beef and venison,—all prepared in good style and served in an enticing manner, in great contrast to our general experience at cow-palaces. Copies of Harper’s Bazaar and other papers of recent date, attested a literary taste and the general air of refinement noticeable in the smallest details proved that the ladies of the house were not idlers. They gave us wild-plum wine, (which, by the way, made Chase and Stanton sick in the course of the afternoon) and also told us that their sand-cherry wine had all been drunk up by Colonel Royall who was here a week ago. From Cooke’s to Plum creek is 12 miles over a perfectly level prairie, matted with rich, juicy grasses. Through this prairie, Plum creek cuts its way making a picturesque little cañon studded with pine and cedar. The water of this stream is clear as glass. At this ranch, were three or four gentle and lovely little children. Chase and myself have begun to recover from a severe attack of dyspepsia from which both suffered all last night and all to-day until the present moment. It was indeed as might be expected, from drinking sour plum-juice and milk and eating freshly corned pork for our late supper. This hodge-podge of food, combined with the chilly night-air and our constrained position in the stage, brought on indigestion.

Chapter 6 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

More Memories of Arizona

W

e have all day been in the drainage of the Niobrara, to which Plum creek is tributary. A few miles beyond this is Evergreen creek, a pretty stream full of beaver. These streams head in the country near the sources of the Loup and Colemans through which I passed in July 1879, in company with Genl. Crook and others.1 Stanton has been recalling reminiscences of a trip we made together through Arizona, in 1872. Genl. Crook was then organizing an armed force of the Hualpai Indians to go out after the Apache-Mojaves and had started out from Prescott for the reservation of the former tribe at Beale’s Springs, leaving me to follow after with Col. Stanton.2 When we reached Camp Hualpai,3 or rather shortly after we had left there, we were assailed by a violent storm of wind and snow in the Juniper 1.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, 3, Chapter 12. 2.â•‡ This does not appear in Bourke’s previous notebooks, the earliest known at this time beginning on November 20, 1872. By that time, Crook had already enlisted the Hualpais. Likewise, Bourke does not refer his reader back to that volume, so we may presume it was among those lost prior to 1880. 3.â•‡ Camp Hualpai was established in 1869 at the toll gate on the road between Prescott and Fort Mojave, about forty miles northwest of Prescott. Troops from the post scouted against Yavapai Indians. The post was rendered unnecessary by Crook’s offensive of 1872– 73, and was abandoned in August 1873. Altshuler, Starting With Defiance, 32–33; Frazer, Forts of the West, 10.

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Mountains. Our tents were blown down and fires almost drowned out. We managed to cook something and to warm ourselves by the sputtering embers before starting out to overtake Genl. Crook and his party who we knew were without rations. We found them at Fort Rock, a miserable little station on the road near the Colorado river. We unloaded the pack-mules we had brought along and gave the welcome rations to our comrades. The people of the ranch, a couple of rough-fisted fellows, very good naturedly set about preparing some food for us, a task in which all of us helped either by suggestion or more active participation. Providentially, the number of cooks did not spoil the broth and the Irish stew, for such it was, proved to be most palatable. Our party with some recent accessions, now comprised the ranch-men, Genl. Crook, Lt. Ross, A.D.C.[,] Major [Julius W.] Mason, 5th Cavy., Lt. Frank Michler, Dr. [Washington] Matthews, and myself and a real, good jolly time we had. The ranchmen complained to Genl. Crook that the See-miches and Hualpai-Supais—two small bands, living in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, had run off between sixty and seventy head of their stock. I remember this particularly because these tribes are almost unknown to the white man. From Fort Rock, our expedition pushed down to the South of the Cervat mountains to attack the Apache-Mojaves, but when we got to the Devil’s Well, they sent in word that they were coming to surrender. This Devil’s Well merits a few words of description. It is a deep cup-shaped basin in the bosom of lofty mountains, having at its base a spring of pure water which flows into the Bill Williams Fork of the Colorado, through the Santa Maria. Here we found ourselves in presence of two confronting civilizations; the Spanish, with its wealth of devotion and religious feeling prompting the dedication of each rivulet and mountain peak to some gentle saint; and the American, with its immense personality seeking to commemorate the discoverer in the Discovery. Who can tell what zealous friar or mail-clad soldier first named the Holy Mary? But there can be no such want of certainty as to who first saw the Bill Williams.4 And this, I said, is really an exemplification of strongly-developed national traits: the Santa Maria and the Bill Williams. 4.â•‡ William Sherly (Old Bill) Williams (1787–1849) explored much of Arizona in the late 1830s. The Bill Williams Fork of the Colorado River and Bill Williams Mountain, mentioned frequently in Volume 1 of this series, are named for him. Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, 3:1572–73.


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While we were awaiting the arrival of the Apache-Mojaves our Hualpai and Chinahnevi allies made right hideous with their howling. Lauriano, the cook in our pack train, worked like a beaver, to prepare appetizing dishes and certainly did wonders, altho’ his combinations of beans, tomatoes, chile, cheese and bacon-grease might strike an American as a trifle peculiar. He had a rich, powerful voice and a correct musical ear and was not at all loathe to sing when called upon, as he frequently was, to do so. I can hear him yet starting up the pretty madrigal. ¿Caballero, por ventura, Conocia [sic] á mi marido?5 A dainty little bit of sentiment which goes on to recount the imaginary addresses to a returned soldier by a beautiful young widow, whose husband had never returned from the war with France. She wishes to learn, if by chance, this cavalier had ever met her husband and goes on to tell how noble, strong, handsome and brave he was. The cavalier replies that he certainly had known such a man, but that he was a traitor and coward and as such had suffered a wellmerited death; after saying which, of course, he sues for the widow’s hand. She scornfully repels his advances, indignantly refutes the aspersions cast upon her husband and expresses her determination to sell all her jewelry and trinkets and retire with her little daughter to a nunnery. Then the stranger discloses himself as her husband who has been seven years a prisoner in a French castle and the song concludes with an outburst of endearment from both husband and wife. It was very pretty in music and in sentiment and was the piece most frequently demanded by officers when sitting around the packers’ camp-fire. Colonel Mason and Lt. Michler were especially fond of it, the latter being able to sing it quite well. I at first thought of writing it down here, but as I cannot give the music for it and a translation of the words would be necessary any how, I have spared myself some trouble by giving merely a synopsis, as above. At the Devil’s Well, the first band of Apache-Mojaves, some one hundred and twenty five in number, made their submission under 5.â•‡ Cavalier, by chance, Have you known my husband?

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their old chiefs Ah-cu-la-huata and Eñacuiyusa (The Setting Sun and the Red Rabbit.) The whole tribe looked like a panorama of rag doll-babies, but the two chiefs vied with the glories of Solomon in their raiment of army officer’s cast off uniforms. I wonder what the dapper lieutenants who once sported those epaulettes, shoulder-straps and gold-bedizened coats would have felt to see them covering those two old sore-eyed, dirty-faced and furry-headed Indians! One of the young squaws with this band did not look to be more than 15 years old and yet she carried in her arms a little mite of a half-frozen baby which she told me by signs was only seven sleeps old. This she had carried across the mountains, keeping up with the rest of her family on the way in to surrender. The Apache-Mojaves soon affiliated with our Hualpais, the two tribes being connected by marriage, but it was easy to see that our younger Indian soldiers held themselves a little above their ununiformed relations. Corporal Joe, a bright boy, made it a point to come up every night to General Crook to get orders for the Hualpai soldiers just as he saw Colonel Mason do for the white soldiers. This particular band of Apache-Mojaves afterwards lived with the Hualpais at Beale’s Springs, where under the influence of my old friend, Tommy Byrne, they remained at peace with our people. Tommy had four of the boys “on duty” at his mess. The weather was so fearfully hot, they discarded all clothing except moccasins and breech-clout. I was very much amused the first time I took lunch at that mess to see there four naked boys file in and solemnly take station behind our seats, each one armed with a long green branch to drive away flies. Bourke returns to the present. At 10 o’clock at night, after a stage-ride of over forty hours, we reached Fort Niobrara, where we were met by Col. [John J.] Upham, Major [Robert Hugh] Montgomery, Lt. [Samuel Austin] Cherry, Dr. Marston, and Mr. Thacher, the post trader. I also met Dave Mears, one of our old Arizona packers, now a ranchman near this post and had a long and pleasant conversation with him. October 31st Sunday, A lovely Indian summer’s day. Colonel Upham sent his two Sioux Indian guides with a note to Agent Cook, at the


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Rosebud, (Spotted Tail) Agency, informing him of our intention to visit the Agency. During the day, all the officers at the Post, called upon Stanton, Chase and myself, at Colonel Upham’s quarters. Besides those already mentioned were Captains [John Scott] Payne, (5th Cavalry.), [William W.] Rogers (9th Infantry.) Davis and [James] Paddock (5th Cavy.)6 and Carpenter, (9th Infantry.) and Surgeon [Calvin] De Witt. They were all old friends and conversation was lively and spirited, aided by a demi-john of exceptionally fine punch which Col. Upham brought out for the occasion. Dr. De Witt recalled to my mind a very amusing incident of our former acquaintance in Prescott, Arizona. The ladies of the little town were desirous of building a church and felt that the Court-House was not the most suitable place for holding religious services. Arizona, the northern part of it especially, was at that period, very feebly served so far as ministers were concerned. The few who penetrated there were illiterate, uncouth, often unprincipled, itinerants, who after begging the biggest collection possible, decamped and were seen no more. I remember in one case the ladies raised about $300 for a “[dead] beat”, named Groves, I think, but as soon as he received the money he started for the Los Angeles Conference and never returned. The ladies were much dispirited but kept up a bold front, nevertheless, and insisted upon it that Mr. Groves was a “good man” and that any one thinking the contrary must be an atheist, a scoffer and an enemy of religion—But “Brother” Groves never came back all the same, so the ladies had the task of raising funds all over again. In this they were assisted by our worthy army Chaplain, Alexr. Gilmore, as good an old soul as ever lived, but perfectly worthless in any ecclesiastical sense of efficiency. I never heard “old” Gilmore preach but once, but that was enough to last during my life-time. The text was something about the trumpet of Zion. “Bee-low ye the ter-rumpet.” “Bee-low ye the ter-rumpet of Zion. 6.â•‡ James V. S. Paddock, in fact, was a second lieutenant, and the only officer named Paddock listed as serving in the 5th Cavalry at the time. Heitman, Historical Register, 1:764.

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“Sound it in the hi-i-igh per-laces “Sound ye the ter-rumpet of Sal-va-a“-tion” This text the worthy parson divided into four parts—Whoat [sic] was this ter-rumpet? Why should we bee-low the ter-rumpet? Why should we bee-low it in the hi-i-igh per-la-a-ces.—What was Zion and what was Sal-va-a-tion.-After handling his four “heads” in his usual able manner, the worthy parson got down to the “application” and the amen—the old women waked up with a start and the congregation began the massacre of that lovely hymn “Nearer My God to Thee”. When old Gilmore wasn’t butchering theology on Sundays, he passed much of his time in the village school, mangling the English Grammar. The children under his charge, with the keen intuition of their age, understood the value of the old man’s equation much better than their parents imagined they did;—I need not add that the school was a miniature Bedlam, the worst imp in the whole lot being Dick Dana, a bright, bold youngster, the son of Major [James Jackson] Dana of the army. Poor Dick was always under the ban—and always without cause. I know this to be so, because he told me himself: he said that “old Gilmore” was “down” on him, but that he would have revenge on him. Sure enough the boy had. It happened soon after my conversation with Dick that the Chaplain accused him, unjustly of course, of “lamming” one of his schoolmates over the head with a “spit-gob”. “Master Dick Dana will stand behind my chair for an hour’n wear a fool’s cap”. Such was the dread edict. There was no appeal. Every eye was turned upon Dick. Every boy and girl felt sure that he would resist the order, as he had so often previously done and gallop home on his pony which was hitched to one of the trees outside. But No! This noble boy evidently felt that it was his duty to observe the discipline of school even when it bore with unmerited severity upon himself. He walked quietly up to the Chaplain’s desk and took his place behind the Dominie as he had been directed. Gradually, the excitement subsided; the children resumed their studies and the worthy chaplain nodded in his hair, his brown wig half rubbed from his head.


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This was precisely the moment for which Dick had been waiting. A yell as fierce and loud as the war-cry of an Apache Indian filled the little school-room. The Chaplain awakened from his doze to see the children giggling and howling in mad delight and Master Dick dashing out of the room with his cherished wig in his hand. Dick jumped on his pony, clapped his heels to his ribs and darted into the plaza, holding the wig in [the] air and crying out—“I’ve got ole Gilmore’s scalp, here it is”. The children used to say afterwards; “we don’t have no more fun now since Dick Dana was expelled”, as I should say he was by the School Committee. This was the worthy chaplain who suggested to the ladies that, to raise funds for the contemplated church, they ought to arrange some tabloos. The idea spread like wildfire. Everybody seemed to have tabloo on the brain. The ladies said it would be just too sweetly lovely;—they would do all the work, the gentlemen would have no responsibility at all except to pay the bills. I am sorry to pollute these pages with any reference to the behavior of the tyrant man on this interesting occasion. The tyrant man, individually and collectively, expressed himself as of the opinion that the “hull thing” was a “Dam-m-m hen outfit” and further, that the “hen’s wuz a trying to run the town”. I blush to my ears when I make the admission that the term “hens” means the gentler sex, God’s last, best gift to man. Some of the more irreligious went so far as to say that Prescott had done well enough so far without “ho dam-m-m Gospel shop” and could get enough trouble without “hevin’ no preachers come “roun’.” But when “woman wills, she will, you may depend on’t”. The ladies were fearfully in earnest and the more miserable man scoffed the more determined they were to make the affair a success. A regular Crusade was inaugurated: every body was drawn into the arrangement. There was as much harmony as could be expected in a convention of ladies: and to tell the truth they did work in perfect concord until the time came to distribute parts in the “tabloos” and then we men were let into some fearful secrets. “What—have Mrs. So and So take the part of the Goddess of Liberty—her ankles are too thick!” [“]No, Miss Blank, won’t do either; she’s too round-shouldered and

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I’m sure her eyes ain’t straight either. What the gentlemen can see in that forward minx, I’m sure I can’t tell, but it must be something”. And so it went on:—heart burning and calumny—squabbling and rancor in the name of our Savior who bad us “Love one another”. I wish to anticipate a little and say that after a while the ladies buried the hatchet and smoked the pi—I mean drank the cup of peace and unanimously agreed that Lieut. Bourke’s account of their disagreement was all “made up”, that he ought to be ashamed of himself and what would his mother think of him if she knew he was going on in this dreadful way! &c. &c. &c. &c. At last the important day had come. The ladies who “had done all the work”, looked smiling and fresh as roses, while the men who “hadn’t done anything” seemed utterly fagged out. I was one of those wretches. Early in the morning a very sweet lady approached me, went into ecstasies over my appearance, said I always looked so well, expressed herself as happy to think she wasn’t a young maiden any more because she didn’t know what she should do with such a handsome man living in the same town,—and much more to same effect. I wish I could say that I told her—“get thee behind me, Satan”, but I didn’t. I swallowed all this “taffy” and much more and believed it all. A glance at the looking glass would have told me that Nature had endowed me too liberally in the matter of feet, hands, nose, mouth, ears and eye-brows, but I rejected the overtures of common sense and listened to the voice of the Siren. My business was to drive tacks, hang up curtains and pictures and under direction of one lady strain my back in moving heavy pieces of furniture which had to be moved back again to the original places whenever some other ladies of the management came along. My shoulders and spine were aching from my exertions and I had already knocked one thumbnail off with a tack-hammer, but what of that? Wasn’t I regarded by the ladies as one of the handsomest, brightest, bravest, noblest and most generous of men?—No. I wouldn’t give up—and anyway, I said, here comes De Witt, he’ll help me with this heavy baggage—Hullo, De Witt! But De Witt is talking with my lady and his face is beaming with smiles. I play the eavesdropper. Good Lord! She’s telling him word for word the very same stuff she told me. He is the handsomest, brightest, bravest, most generous of men,


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is he? De Witt! Great Heavens! De Witt isn’t a homely fellow by any means, but I now see through the woman’s wiles. I drop my tack-hammer, descend the step-ladder and have ever since been a blithe, uncompromising foe of Church fairs, festivals and Tabloos. For all that, the Tabloo appeared to be fully as great a success as if I had remained faithful to the end. De Witt performed my duties with as much ability as if he had not usurped the place of the only genuine, original, handsomest, best and bravest and brightest man in the vicinity. I did not always look upon the matter in this light. For a long time I cherished rancor towards De Witt but Time, the healer of all wounds, has poured balm upon my outraged pride and vanity and to-day I willingly concede that De Witt did nobly. His principal duty was to take care of the red light in the glare of which the Goddess of Liberty was to appear upon the stage, wrapped in the American flag and surrounded by representatives of American industry. It was a thrilling sight; the girls stopped chewing gum and the men stopped their talk of “Yes-sir-ree.—He’s struck her rich in Cerhat and Jedge Dawkins sez it’s jest the pertiest ledge he ever sed; richer’n the Tiger by a Doggoned sight and reminds him of the Comstock”.7 De Witt shared in the general excitement and blew so hard upon the red fire that it flared up and burnt off his eye-brows and moustache. In front of the stage the audience, delighted with everything, sat spell-bound, little dreaming of what was soon to disturb its placidity. Occupying one of the foremost seats was a very pretty girl, Miss Alice Dickinson, who like many other young ladies was in that state of mental perplexity that she couldn’t quite decide which of her suitors pleased her most. Two of them, more assiduous or more pleasing than the rest, gradually absorbed all her attention and looked upon each other as hated rivals. The young lady managed her cards with great dexterity, keeping her two slaves chained to the wheels of her chariot. She accepted an invitation from the one we shall designate as Mr. A., but before the evening of the Tabloos came around, he was suddenly called away to look after some mining interests in the Western part of the Territory and had barely time to leave word that he would be back in time or break his neck. The day arrived and as 7.â•‡ General chit-chat concerning silver strikes.

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Mr. A. had not yet returned, Miss Dickinson yielded to the pressing invitation of Mr. B. and under his escort attended the performance, occupying a seat in the full glare of the foot-lights and very close to my own. She had not been especially gracious to Mr. B. of late and thought that as Mr. A. was safely out of the way she could easily make amends for past coldness and be for this evening at least as agreeable as he could desire. But as Fate would have it, Mr. A. made the journey home with great speed, reached Prescott after dark on this very evening, hastily made his toilet and rushed to the dwelling of his adored one only to find that she had started for the Court-House in company with his rival. There was no help for it, he had to grin and bear it. He returned to the Court-House; found every seat filled and had to content himself with standing room near the door. Close by his elbow, the ladies had placed a small stand with refreshments which they disposed of at Shylock prices. It has always struck me as a great combination, the mingling of lunch and liturgy, Pumpkin Pie and Presbyterianism, Doughnuts and Dogma, but ladies insist upon making it and will make it, I suppose, to the end of Time. Mr. A. endeavored to soothe his lacerated feelings with a slab of pumpkin-custard and was slowly conquering grief, when, looking over the heads of those in front of him, he saw his adored cuddling up awfully close to his rival and evidently giving him some very sweet flattery to judge from the delightful countenance of the listener. Mr. A. was merely human: he could not stand everything. It took him but a second to make up his mind. He took careful aim at his rival’s head—Swish!! and the pumpkin pie sailed through the air and landed, not upon his rival’s head, as he had intended, but just back of Miss Dickinson’s ear. The confusion and uproar occasioned were, I need not say, very great. Mr. A. of course, escaped, altho’ Mr. B. promptly jerked out his six-shooter and ran up the aisle to catch him and shoot him. Much sympathy was felt for the poor young lady and she stood in want of every bit of it, as I don’t think I ever saw a lady in sadder plight than she was with all this pumpkin pulp filling up one ear and covering neck, collar and hair. She tried hard to rake it out with her fingers, but without success and had to remain through the remainder of the performance, happily only a few moments, with all the marks of the unfortunate affair upon her garments.

Chapter 7 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Fort Niobrara and the New Agencies

Bourke returns to the present. Lieut. Davis took me over to the new post which is rapidly approaching completion. The site is a most agreeable and healthy one, being a flat table-land well drained, ending in a bold bluff at the river, into which a dozen first class springs gush from the banks above. The quarters are of adobe, with brick corners to resist the encroachment of the sand-laden winds. The roofs are of shingles made at the post saw-mill. Each house is well provided with bath-rooms, dressing rooms & closets. The parade is a broad level piece of prairie, thickly covered with natural sod. For the water-supply, there is a windmill and a tank, holding 40.000 Gallons. In one of the little ravines alongside the post, is a very pretty waterfall and much beautiful scenery which Col. Upham intends preserving by enclosing the whole ravine as a park. Dined with Lt. Davis and his agreeable and handsome young wife. In the evening, read in the Révue de Deux Mondes an able exami-

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nation of the Irish Land questions1 and afterwards went to Mr. Thacher’s (the post trader’s) tent to drink a glass of champagne with him and the officers. November 1st 1880. Colonel Upham, Colonel Stanton, Lieut. [Augustus Canfield] Macomb, 3rd Cavy. and myself, took horses and began an inspection of post and surroundings. We crossed the Niobrara river close to the foot-bridge, and visited the Hotel erected by Mr. John Reed, on the site of Sharp’s Ranch, near the Minni-Chaduza. This is one of the few log-houses I have sever seen on the frontier with any pretensions to neatness of appearance. Mr. Reed has a dairy yielding a good supply of milk for which he finds a steady demand at good prices. In a little enclosure, a few rods from the door, are five tame black and white tail deer.* At the door itself are large logs of petrified cotton-wood, 5 @ 6 feet long and 10 @ 11 inches in diameter. After going through the new post, which I had carefully examined yesterday under guidance of Lt. Davis, we inspected the water-dam, the brick and adobe yards, the site for the hospital, corrals, stables, wood and hay-piles, and laundresses’s quarters, all of which, excepting the first, are to be down on the river-bank, under the hill, and thus out of sight of the garrison. Going home, we enjoyed a good glass of punch. Colonel Stanton and I took dinner with Captain and Mrs. Payne and then struck out along the lines of tents to pay our respects to the ladies.—Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Marston, Payne, De Witt, Rogers, Montgomery and Paddock,—all charming, intelligent and refined. Until their new quarters shall be completed, they must live in tents, but they have made themselves extremely comfortable and by their presence will add greatly to the attractions of the Post. Our old friend, Lt. Carpenter, 9th Infy. called upon us. He is in charge of the *Bourke’s note: There is a great deal of black and white tail deer and antelope in the vicinity of post; also of geese, ducks, chickens &c. 1.â•‡ By the time of Bourke’s writing, the Irish Land Question had haunted British governments for over forty years. It originated in the absolute power given to landlords, many of whom were ethnic English, and the expropriation of land that Irish peasants considered to be theirs. Rather than addressing the basic problem, the British response was a series of Coercion Acts, which deepened Irish resentment and led to a campaign of terror. In 1880, the nationalistic Irish Land League implemented a policy of boycotts (taking their name from a Captain Boycott who was one of the targets) that brought Ireland to a virtual standstill. The following year, the government responded with another Coercion Act that gave the viceroy in Dublin almost unlimited powers, but tempered it with a Land Act that conceded almost every demand by the Land League. For the next three years, Ireland remained relatively quiet. See Churchill, Great Democracies, Chapter 19.


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post saw-mill, some miles away; hence, he could not get down any sooner. Like all the others, he is enthusiastic about the post, especially on account of its magnificent water supply, obtained from the river itself and from the really excellent springs gushing out from the foot of the bluffs upon which the post stands. Timber is rather scarce, but the soil makes first-class adobes. Colonel Stanton paid off troops today. November 2nd. To-day is cloudy and in unpleasant contrast with the brightness of yesterday. We arose at 6—took an early breakfast and then under escort of Lt. Macomb, a corporal and two men, started for the Spotted Tail, (Rosebud,) Sioux Agency. Our two ambulances got along famously until we reached the banks of the Niobrara, not over half a mile from Col. Upham’s quarters, where, through the carelessness of our driver, and the greenness of his mules, which had until this morning been attached to a water-wagon, our tongue broke off at the king-bolt. This delayed us an hour: the work of repair was done by the Government method, one man replacing the tongue and sixteen doing “the heavy standing around”. We had our driver relieved by one who did not, as Chase remarked, “look so much like as if he had been blown in thro’ the window” and everything having been changed to the new ambulance, we crossed the Niobrara and took the road for Rosebud agency which followed up the Niobrara for some distance being between it and the Minni Chaduza, and crossing the latter eight miles out. (This stream is perfectly clear and cold, has a good current, is 15 @ 18 feet in width, 8 inches deep, bottom firm and approaches good. There is little or no timber on stream near crossing, but the bluffs have scrub pine and cedar.) The country passed through all day is level prairie land, well grassed. We rested and lunched at the head of Keya-Paha or Turtle river and soon after struck into the valley of a branch of the South Fork of White Earth river, probably Rosebud creek. Following along this, we soon reached the Indian village of Spotted Tail’s band which I will not go to the trouble of describing, having done so previously.2 There was noticeable increase in the number of log-houses built for the use of the Indians, that occupied by Spotted Tail himself being a very cosy and comfortable looking cottage. At the agency, we 2.â•‡ See Chapter 6.

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were very courteously received by Agent Cooke [sic], and also had the pleasure of meeting Dr. [Valentine] McGillicuddy [sic], the agent of the Red Cloud Bands, Dr. Falconer, Mr. Campbell, Col. Gardner, Judge Lawler, (of the Milwaukee and Saint Paul R.R.) and the Indian Chiefs Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, White Thunder, Young Man Afraid of his Horses, Big Road, He Dog, Red Dog, Three Bears, Blue Horse, Sword, and many others, who were holding a conference with Judge Lawler relative to the right of way for his Rail Road to the Black Hills. In the discussion, Spotted Tail and Red Cloud evinced as much astuteness as a couple of old Philadelphia lawyers and succeeded in obtaining from the Rail Road Company what I took to be extremely fine prices, viz: One hundred and ten dollars per mile, for the linear distance (185 miles,) from the Missouri across the Reservation, the width of the strip ceded to be two hundred feet; any ground required by the company in excess of this to be paid for at the rate of $4 per acre, excepting 1000 acres at the crossing of the Missouri, for which five dollars per Acre should be paid. Bouchet, Robideau and Louis Richaud, with other squaw-men and half-breeds were present—all of them well known to Col. Stanton and myself since 1875. Bouchet came to see me and complained that he had not received any remuneration for his services in going out with Spotted Tail in 1877, as bearer of messages from General Crook to Crazy Horse and other hostile chiefs who have since surrendered. Bouchet was at that time under a cloud for selling ammunition to the enemy and my impression is that he obtruded himself into this business of the embassy to earn, not wages, but a condonation of past-offenses.3 The treaty being signed by all the chiefs,4 Colonel Stanton, Mr. Chase, Lieut. Macomb and myself witnessed it and then all the white gentlemen present withdrew to Agent Cook’s quarters to “ratify” it. At supper, Colonel Gardner and I spoke of my first meeting with his family which happened in this wise. The war of the Rebellion was at its height and treason was on the top wave of anticipated success, when in the summer of 1862, I enlisted. I was a harum-scarum boy, ambitious, adventurous, hot-headed and patriotic. I was past fifteen and in my own conceit just the stuff of which Generals should be made. I soon had a carbine in my hands and was “going through the motions” at Carlisle, Penna. Early in the winter of 1862, our Regi3.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, 2:245, 256. 4.â•‡ I.e. the right-of-way contract with the railroad.


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ment (the 15th Penna. Cavalry.) was ordered to Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn., arriving at the latter place in time to participate in the seven days’ fight at Stone River5 under General W. S. Rosecrans. While passing through Ohio, we were received with an exuberance of welcome and hospitality which could not easily be understood by people who did not share in the operations of those years of anxiety and peril. Ohio was especially charitable and warm-hearted to soldiers passing through her limits: when our three trains reached Bellefontaine, a very large crowd had assembled at the dépôt and we were at once beset with invitations to partake of refreshments at different houses. My elbow was touched and, upon turning around, I was accosted by an unusually handsome, bright-eyed young lady of the dangerous age of “sweet sixteen”. She said that her father and mother would be glad to have me come to their house and bring half a dozen of my comrades with me for luncheon. I complied gladly with the invitation, as did my friends and a right royal lunch we had. The young lady gave me her name—Gardner—and said she would at all times be glad to hear from me. I did send her several notes expressing my thankfulness for her courtesies and received very pleasant replies; but my life at that period was so eventful and so busy that continued correspondence with anybody was an impossibility and soon the acquaintance on my side had faded away into the remembrance of favors received from a lovely girl. In speaking of this to General Crook, himself an Ohioan, he remarked when I gave the name of the young lady—“Gardner”—“why I know those Gardners very well, one of the boys was on my Staff during the war”. So, in this way, I was thrown against Col. Gardner, with whom this evening, as upon other occasions, I have had pleasant conversation regarding his lovely sister, since married and dead. As the evening wore on, we went over to the trader’s store, and watched the Indians playing billiards—in which they are marvelously skilful [sic]. We inquired for samples of Indian bead-work, but could not find a single article; the trader said they had ceased making them. Col. Upham sent one of his scouts, Thigh, to overtake us with a message saying that another ambulance and team would be sent out to meet us on the road to Red Cloud Agency to-morrow. November 3rd 1880. Awakened at 6 a.m. Did our share towards making disappear a fine, hot breakfast of coffee, buttered rolls 5. Murfreesboro.

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and fricasseed chicken. The lady in charge of the mess when asked for our bill said two dollars for the whole party. As Macomb had gone off with the Doctor (Falconer.), this made the pro-rata for Stanton, Chase and myself 66 c[ents]. each. For this we had received the best of food and bedding. The landlady’s pride seemed to be most touched by reference to the quilt covering the bed in which Stanton and I slept; it was a very loud specimen of the American flag pattern and, as in duty bound, we said it was the handsomest thing we had ever seen which made the old lady’s eyes sparkle with joy. We said Good Bye to all at the agency, especially to Col. Gardner and the large-hearted Judge Lawler—and started out after McGillicuddy for the Red Cloud Agency. Macomb wasn’t yet up so we could not bid him farewell in person. We had good ambulances, plenty of buffalo robes and warm clothing, tents, stove and a good escort, so we didn’t fear the weather. Col. Upham and Lt. Cherry had equipped us with an abundance of good food—and Cherry’s “old darkie Auntie” cook had seen to it that the list included a fat haunch of venison (from one of the two deer that Cherry had shot the day after our arrival.) and a cup of her own wild-grape jelly. From Spotted Tail to Red Cloud Agency the telegraph poles are in position, waiting only for the wire and insulators. The work has all been done by the Indians. This line when connected at the west end with the Black Hills system, & at the East with Omaha viâ Ft. Niobrara and with Milwaukee and Chicago by the Railroads now building will be a very important chain of communication for the Western country. The Milwaukee and Saint Paul, Northwestern, Sioux City and Pacific, and Union Pacific Railways, with their attendant telegraph lines, will within the next two years, have transformed this whole region and driven out or split up the Sioux nation and rendered it impotent to confront the Government. Six miles out from Agency stopped at a pleasant little ravine to load up with wood. Near the first crossing of the South Fork of White Earth river, met the ambulance, as promised by Colonel Upham, to whom Stanton sent back a note of thanks. Nooned on the South Fork. (It is 30 feet Wide, 12 inches Deep, current swift, Water good, cold and sweet, Bottom hard, approaches steep and difficult.) This valley is finely grassed, well wooded with oak in the ravines and pine on hill-crests. The scenery is decidedly


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beautiful. While we were preparing lunch, a couple of Indian boys came by with a herd of ponies going to water. All day the weather has been raw and blustering, but at noon, rain began to fall, a few drops at a time. We made a blazing fire and when McGillicuddy joined us, set about eating lunch. McGillicuddy had with him a servant-girl,—a young woman,—for whom we did all in our power. We did full justice to our meal and then resumed our journey. The afternoon remained, cold, dark and gloomy. Bivouacked at a point, on South Fork of White Earth river, 38 miles from agency. Burn oak timber [from trees?] half a mile below camp. Plenty of good water, Grass good but dried. The soil thus far is of rich quality and no doubt would raise good crops of wheat and potatoes. We passed the time in telling stories, two of those from Chase being unusually good. I cannot do them justice but sooner than run the risk of losing them entirely, I’ll make the effort to narrate them. In Iowa, some years ago, an Itinerant organ-grinder wearily plodded along a high-way carrying upon his back his organ and monkey. The poor monkey was sick and its master tired and cross and when Jock, in a fit of peevishness, pulled his master’s hair, he received instead of the accustomed gentle caress, a buffet alongside the head which stretched him out cold, and lifeless on the road. The Italian, after pouring out a perfect torrent of impotent profanity, threw his dead pet into a newly-excavated ditch, where it lay, its wizened face upturned to heaven, its little paws outspread as if to ask for mercy, and its tawdry cap tied about its whiskered face and its thread-bare velveteen jacket, garnished with little bells and tarnished gold lace, giving it an appearance at once grotesque and piteous. Two Irish laborers trudged along an hour or two after the Italian had passed. They had but lately arrived from the “ould dart”, and were in search of employment as harvest hands. Back in Ireland, they had known a wretched little atom of decrepitude, a dried up, weazened [sic] creature, named Patsy Brophy—one of those half-idiotic specimens of humanity whom the Celtic peasantry call “changelings”, because in their touching, simple and childlike faith, they believe that everything coming from God is, at its birth, beautiful and bright but that frequently the fairies, who maliciously oppose God’s purpose, carry off newly-born babies and replace them by creatures of their own designing.

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Our two laborers paused to rest for a few moments alongside this ditch into which one of them happened to glance. “Arrah! Moike! Moike[”] he explained in unfeigned horror, [“]did yiz ivir know Patsy Brophy, of Castlereagh, the widow Brophy’s bi?” “Trooth’n oi did”. “Och thin, glory be to God, God rist his sowl poor chraythure,6 shure there is lois cowld’n sthark did, insoide the ditch beyant!” Mike took a critical look at the dead monkey and his whiskered face. “Arrah Dinnis,[”] said he, [“]shure that’s not Patsy, at all, at all—shure Patsy didn’t hev half that har on ’im.” [“]Troth, Michael an’ it’s himself shure enough, God rest his sowl pore bi—shure it was the har-r-dship’n har-r-rd wur-ruk dhun the har out an ’im”. And dropping a silent tear over the untimely fate of poor Patsy, the two good-hearted Micks, resumed their journey. Once upon a time, there were two Irishmen working at unloading a ship in the harbor of New York. They had just eaten their luncheon and were smoking a quiet noonday pipe. “Barney,[”] said one, between the whiffs, [“]wanst, thar war a mon in the county Down in the North av Oireland over sivin fut hoi.[”] [“]It’s a loi, Moike, it’s a loi,[”] replied the other with emphasis, [“]it’s a loi, no morchil man war ivir sivin fut hoi; Jaysus Croist himsilf war’nt sivin fut hoi”. We made a good supper of venison, bacon, coffee, hard-tack and grape-jelly. The clouds soon lowered, rain fell mingled with snow and shortly afterwards a great storm of wind and rain and snow arose and prevailed all night, testing the strength of our tent poles and cords. November 14th 1880. Awakened at 4 a.m. for breakfast. Morning very dark, cold and windy. Clouds black and full of rain and snow. Snow-storm and violent North West wind all day. Passed a mailwagon on which we saw Mr. Clay Dear, the only white people seen since leaving Spotted Tail Agency. Shortly before noon, we caught up with a party of Indians hauling freight. Dr. McGillicuddy tells me that he employs three hundred of his Indians in hauling freight from the Missouri river; the distance is a little over 180 miles, the journey is made in 8 days, with wagons carrying 2500 lbs. for which the Government pay 2 c[ents]. per lb. 6.â•‡ Creature.


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We had a very disagreeable day for travelling, the driving wind filled the ambulance with snow and chilled us to the marrow. The sun made a feeble effort to break through the clouds about 3 in the afternoon, but his discomfiture was so complete that the day seemed to increase in gloom from the little rift of light with which we had been momentarily favored. We crossed several pretty streams, all confluents of the South Fork of the White Earth, and crossed the Fork itself a couple of times, but we had to make a dry-camp between 4 and 5 in the afternoon after travelling 40 miles. We had no wood except what we had brought along in our wagon, and no water; but there was a little good grass under the snow. We made coffee from melted snow. Anticipating a bitter cold night, we erected our tent to face that occupied by the escort and between the two placed the cook stove that both tents might receive the benefit of its warmth.7 Our anticipation proved to be correct: the night was intensely cold and we had to get up several times to “stoke” our little stove with pine-knots. At half-past three November 5th we arose, the soldiers first cooked breakfast for themselves and then for us. We had to use their dishes and while we were breakfasting by the light of blazing pine-knots they took down the tents, packed the wagon and ambulance and hitched up the mules. Our drive this day was only 23 miles to the Red Cloud Agency, which we made in good season, the day being bright and cloudless and the air crisp and bracing, but no wind. Six miles out from the Agency, we overtook several of the trains of freight, driven by the Indians, as already noted and also a party of them putting insulators on the telegraph poles and stretching the wire. A few hundred yards from the Agency one of our mules played out from colic induced by feeding him upon corn and by cold weather: however, we succeeded in getting him to the agency, where Dr. McGillicuddy had him cared for. Mrs. McGillicuddy received us most cordially. She is a very handsome lady and one endowed with great good sense and much nerve. During the time her husband served in the army, (his name occurs frequently in my note books for 1876–7–8)8 she once accompanied him on a scout in mid-winter to the Black Hills. She laughed heartily at our appearance and made us look at ourselves in a mirror; 7.â•‡ For an illustration of this arrangement, see Robinson, Diaries, 2:218. 8.â•‡ See Ibid., Vols. 1–3.

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we were all black as negroes from the soot of blazing pine-fuel, something we had not noticed in each other before as we were so thickly wrapped up. The only item of news—in itself so important that it naturally obscured all others—was the announcement of the election of General [James A.] Garfield to the Presidency by an overwhelming majority.9 From Red Cloud Agency to Camp Sheridan, a telegraph line is in operation across which Lieut [Charles H.] Watts, 5th Cavalry, sent us the above news and likewise a very polite invitation to accept his hospitality when we reached his post. Dr. McGillicuddy took me on a tour of inspection about the agency, much to my delight. We first visited the mess-house of the Indian “police” whom we found at dinner. The quantity of food consumed by each individual was something enormous: immense piles of boiled beef and pork, biscuits and hominy loaded down each plate, all of it cooked by an old Mexican with whom I started into a little conversation in Spanish and who told me that he was a native of Tierra Amarilla in New Mexico and that around the agency were many Mexicans from the Rio Grande. In the storehouse, the quantity of supplies accumulated for the subsistence of these 7500 Sioux is immense and carries one back to the War of the Rebellion. There was over 1000.000 lbs. of flour, 130.000 lbs. of tobacco, 200.000 lbs of coffee, 200.000 lbs. of sugar, 500.000 lbs. Bacon and other articles in proportion. These supplies are of good quality, but the hard-tack might be better. There is a great need of more extended storage-facilities; the flour is at present piled up in the open air and altho’ it is well dunnaged and panlined, it is not properly sheltered under such circumstances. We saw piles of wash-tubs, wash-boards, stoves, lamps and locks for issue to the Indians who have constructed 300 log houses during the past year. There are great bales of blankets &c. in the clothing ware-house. The stable is strongly built and well-planned. The saw-planing, shingling and lath machine is run by Indian labor, under white supervision. The Indian police is composed of 50 picked warriors, uniformed and armed with breach-loading, magazine guns, and commanded by Sword, an extremely neat and cleanly dressed 9.â•‡ Garfield held office only a few months before being assassinated.


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Indian, who reads and writes in his native language. His quarters are a model of cleanliness and good order. At the two traders’ stores, as at those of the other Agency, we were unable to find a single article of Indian manufacture; the reason given is that the Indians were too busy freighting and are making so much money that they have not the time to make bead-work. We were not a little flurried, when returning to McGillicuddy’s Office to come across an old Indian on horseback, who was mourning the recent death of his little child. He cried and howled like a wolf and finally cocked his gun. The custom among this people when deeply afflicted is to go kill somebody and as this old duffer announced his determination to kill a white man we were delighted to see some of the police rush up and disarm him before he could do any mischief. In the evening Mrs. McGillicuddy thoughtfully invited Miss Blanchard and Mr. Barit, (the Episcopalian minister stationed at the Agency.) to come over to her house and favor us with some music on the piano and with a little singing. Colonel Stanton excused himself at an early hour and went to bed; Chase and I did not follow until almost midnight. When we got to our sleeping room, we pulled the covering back from Stanton’s head and lo! I recognized poor Patsey Brophy of Castlereagh! But Chase said that it war’nt Patsey, “shure Patsey didn’t hev hof that har’ an ’im”. Stanton swore vengeance on us the first opportunity— an opportunity which never came, however. Saturday, November 6th 1880. Stanton was astir at a fearfully early hour this morning and insisted upon Chase and myself getting up. He is the worst man I ever saw for going to bed early and getting up in the middle of the night. This time we were prepared for him. Last night we begged Mrs. McGillicuddy on no account to pay attention to the Colonel, told her he was a raving lunatic and didn’t know when he wanted his breakfast. We wanted ours at her usual time, 8 o’clock, which would give us an early enough start for Camp Sheridan which is only nineteen miles from the Agency. The result of this conspiracy was that Chase and I had a splendid sleep, Mrs. McGillicuddy was not worried and at 8 o’clock, we sat down to as good a breakfast as any man would want to eat. The morning was cloudy, but no signs of an approaching storm; in the air above, flocks of ducks and geese were wending their way Southward, as they have been doing every day since we have been

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on this trip. Great number of these birds winter in this country. Our sick mule was bled last night and treated with all the care possible and altho’ it could be driven to-day, Dr. McGillicuddy thinks that we had better let it remain at the Agency and use in its place one of his “bronco” ponies. We had soon bidden farewell to the Doctor and his kind wife and were on our way to Fort [sic] Sheridan. The sky cleared off and under the inspiriting influences of a bright, cloudless day and cold, bracing weather we rolled along the road, happy and delighted. Of the scenery, I will not say much as it is of the same general type as that we have seen since leaving the R.R. The contour of the land is gently undulating, occasionally rising into ridges which bound the horizon. The plain, so far as eye can reach, is mantled with grass; the ridges are studded with clumps of pine and cedar—The ravines cut out by the numerous little water courses are filled with willow, cottonwood and wild-plum. None of these streams is of great size, but in each the water is pure and cold and sweet. By mid-day, we had reached the post, where Lts. Watts, and [Henry J.] Goldman, (5th Cavy), and Baxter, 9th Infantry, and Dr. [Henry Maclean] Cronkhite, were awaiting us. Lt. Watts and his pretty wife, the only lady at the Post, had prepared for us and, being old friends we were perfectly “at home” with them. Lieut. Watts and I had a long conversation about former service together in Arizona; of this my journal of the time gave a sufficiently accurate description.10 It is sufficient to say here that the country we then scouted in search of hostile Apaches is now filled with a thriving population and that at the head of Cave Creek, then an unknown country, is the Rowe Gold mine, a very valuable property. No conversation between Watts and myself would be complete without a reference to “Moses Henderson”. “Moses” was a wild Apache boy, one of those who had surrendered and been enlisted as soldiers to hunt down the persistently hostile. He was cross-eyed, hook-nosed, had a tuft of hair hanging over his forehead, a whining voice and a cringing manner;—altogether, was so like a Chatham Street Jew clothes dealer that the men in our companies, with their usual felicity in such cases, dubbed him “Moses” and as he certainly looked like Mr. Henderson, a Hebrew merchant of Prescott, Arizona, I thought 10.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, Vol. 1, Chapter 2.


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to have a little fun when the campaign [ended] by starting the story that he was Mr. Henderson’s little brother who had been recaptured from the Apaches who had carried him off when a child. It took weeks of patient effort to prepare my pupil. The success crowning my work repaid me ten-fold for the trouble undergone. When we reached Prescott, I had John Marion, the editor of the Miner, insert a notice in his paper to the effect that Mr. Abraham Henderson’s young brother had been recovered from the Indians and was then in Prescott. The joke deceived a great many people. “Moses” was taken to the front of Henderson’s store, where he played his part beautifully. He would seize each passer-by by the coat-collar and assure him that:—“dot gote luk like hit crowt on you—mine frent. Dem glose vash mate fur der Brince o’ Valtes. I got a brudder—his name is E-e-zli an’ he scholtes. Sara-a-h luk vot noice ha-a-a-ir dis youn-ng mane’s got”. He really had learned his piece to perfection and dumbfounded everyone who heard him. People would ask “Who are you? What’s your name?”, to which he would reply—“Moses Henderson”, to the great disgust of “old man” Henderson, who never relished a joke in his life and certainly not one of this kind. From Watts I learned that the telegraph poles are all cut and in position to complete the connection with Fort Robinson. He also made me acquainted with Judge Haston who gave me the following particulars of the recent murderous affair in a “deadfall” near Sheridan. Judge Haston was the officer who investigated the whole business and who apprehended the murderer, Page. Dr. Cronkhite was the physician summoned to care for the wounded men. Sol. Martin kept a “hog-ranch”, (a gin-mill.) about two miles from Camp Sheridan, (off the reservation.) On the night of the 20th of October, about 11 o’clock, a dance was going on, attended by teamsters, hay-cutters[,] cattle-boys and four soldiers from Sheridan—Corporals Green, Bridges and Fleming and Farrier Steel—all of Company “G”, 5th Cavalry. A number of people, no soldiers among them, were standing at the bar, when an altercation arose between the proprietor and a Mexican hay-cutter as to the way in which the latter should hold a bottle of whiskey. The Mexican becoming angry, lifted the bottle to throw it at Martin and at this moment, another of the party—a man named Collins,—started to draw his pistol,—it is supposed with the intent to shoot the Mexican with whom he was on bad terms. In drawing

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his revolver, the hammer caught in some manner in his own clothing and struck against the cartridge exploding it and killing Collins instantly. The body was removed and most of those present dispersed. Those remaining, played cards, talked and drank. In about an hour, another quarrel arose between a desperado named Page and a man named Joyce. Page was very drunk and flourished his revolver, saying: “if we are going to have any kind of a wake let’s have a regular Irish wake”. The upshot of this was that he shot Joyce through the Right lung. Joyce was taken to the Post Hospital at Fort Sheridan where he lingered until the 29th of October. At this moment, the soldiers who were all unarmed, started to return to Camp, but Corporal Green who was in the rear was discovered by Page who, in pure malice, fired and struck him in the thigh. The limb was amputated by Doctor Cronkhite who arrived on the ground very soon after, but the wounded man died before morning. Mr. Haston said—“I do not believe that the soldiers acted disorderly or were in any way responsible for the affair.[”] Doctor Cronkhite remarked—“Corporal Green was murdered in perfectly cold blood. The soldiers, from all I could learn, were perfectly quiet and well behaved. They were unarmed and did not have so much as a pen-knife with them”. Martin “skipped out”. Page was arrested and is now in jail at Sidney, awaiting trial. Such is what I believe to be a correct version of the affair which had been much distorted and magnified in the public print. They represented that there had been a general scrimmage and that one of the “ladies”, “Beaver-Tooth Nell” had had an eye kicked out, but I was happy to learn that no “lady” had been injured. There was no “row” worthy of the name—as a stage-driver told me afterwards—“things was just a trifle lively” and that was all. Sunday, November 7th 1880. Forty Five miles to Camp Robinson. Met Col. [Edwin Vose] Sumner, Majors [John M.] Hamilton & [Alfred] Morton[,] Captain [William Curtis] Forbush, Lts. [Charles D.] Parkhurst and [Christopher C.] Miner and Dr. [William Barton] Brewster. Staid with Morton and after dinner with himself and wife, received calls from all the officers named and from Mr. J. W. Paddock. Rained all night. Monday, November 8th 1880. Morning misty and wet. Colonel Sumner drove me around the post—showed me the dam, new wind-mill (both in construction,) the saw-mill & other improvements.


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Fort Robinson has been wonderfully changed for the better. The houses are very warm, being of adobe, plastered within & without and giving abundant accomodation to the families occupying them. An irrigating ditch has been let into the parade and, as that has in places a very decided incline, the water has been allowed to run over a series of wooden steps, thus keeping it from washing away the soil. Telegraphed to General Williams and Lt. Foot[e] of my arrival. Called upon the ladies this morning. A very charming set they are—all old acquaintances; Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Brewster and Mrs. Parkhurst. Lunched with Lt. and Mrs. Parkhurst and then went over to Forbush’s quarters to take a glass of champagne with him. He told me that he was soon going to Arizona, to sell the La Noria (Deep Well.) mine which belongs to [Stephen] O’Connor, of the 23d, and himself and for which a big price has been offered in cash. I intended making mention of a lot of Indian trinkets shown us at Sheridan, by the trader, Mr. Newman, whose property they are. Besides children’s trinkets—cradles, dolls and dresses, of exceptional beauty, he had a pipe, bowl, stem and mouth-pipe carved out of one solid piece of pipe clay. It was very curious and the only one of its peculiar make that any of us had ever seen. Col. Sumner had telegraphed up to Deadwood last night to learn if I could get a seat on to-night’s stage, but the answer came back “chock-full”. I had made up my mind to remain at the post for another day or two when the stage rolled in to station and two of the passengers concluded to remain over. This would give me a place down, but would keep Stanton & Chase for another day when the telegraph said that two seats would be vacant from Deadwood. I determined to start and in a few moments was wrapped up as warmly as possible and provided with a big package of luncheon from Mrs. Morton and a flask of good whiskey from Major Paddock. When I reached the station, the stage was all ready and the driver, as might be expected, cross as a bear. I couldn’t get a seat inside and had to do the best I could with a place on top with the driver. The North wind blew furiously and the snow fell in great flakes which, as we crept slowly up to the summit of the ridge separating the

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White Earth from the Niobrara, gathered in deep drifts to impede our progress. The driver was at first very surly but a couple of swigs of whiskey thawed him out and when he found that I had travelled quite a good deal in the Western country he was completely mollified—“So you’s with old Crook is you, Cap? Wa’ll, bee Gawd, I tho’t you was no damn tender-foot, Wall I swore I must hev drove you up in Montany some time. I’ve drove ole man Stanton a heap o’ times. You don’t mean to tell me that the ole man’s back at Robinson! Wa’ll I’ll bur dam”. To make up for his former surliness, this driver, really a goodhearted fellow, whipped up his mules and “spun” us through his three stations in very good time. After descending the ridge, we got out of the snow belt for a while but all the way to Sidney 125 miles, we had it in “belts” alternating with zones of bare prairie. The night remained bitter cold. The second driver suggested that I cuddle down in the boot under his feet—a suggestion I gladly adopted and thus escaped much cold and exhaustion. Indeed, I dozed a little in perfect security and awakened at Snake creek ranch where such as felt the need of it had a chance to get a cup of coffee at 4 in the morning. No one improved the opportunity, all being anxious to hurry through the journey. I gave this second driver a liberal allowance of whiskey which I knew would get out to the cracker of his whip and keep the team from lazying. With good luck and no dilatoriness, we could catch the U.P. train for Omaha and that was what each one hoped and prayed for. November 9 1880. We breakfasted at Red Willow—a ranch of which I’ll not say much, as I think I have described it before in some of my numerous trips over this Black-Hills & Sidney road. It is the usual type of a frontier stage-station; a log-house—one general room or “bar”, filled up with red-hot wood stove in the center around which are gathered a cluster of men in all kinds of rough garb. I can’t tell what they do, I only know that no matter what may be the hour of your arrival at the station, you’ll find them there and always occupied in the same task, viz; frescoing the floor with designs in tobacco-juice. Upon the walls, you can see almost the one set of advertisements; there is the card of the North-Western Rail Way—the only line to take when you want to go from Chicago to Omaha; then you see the card of the Burlington, the only line to take when making the same


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journey, but if you rub your eyes a little and peer through the mist of rum-laded breaths and tobacco smoke, you will learn that the Rock-island is the only line you should patronize. “Buy the DozierWeyl Crackers”—“Use Yerba Buena Bitters” and try “Sozodont,” fill up the walls pretty well in the matter of decorations. The bar occupies one side of the apartment: cut-throat whiskey, Sardines, canned peaches, plug tobacco and a sleepy-looking, dirty faced bartender complete that picture. The last corner is filled with buffalo overcoats and canvas “jumpers” lying on the floor and with a tin wash-basin and a wooden tripod, close to which are a piece of rosin soap, and a dirty rag doing duty as a towel and a comb, every tooth of which is broken or decrepit. These last are luxuries for the exclusive use of stage-passengers. We hurry through our breakfast which really is not so bad as we anticipated from former experience at this place, jump into our seats, the driver calls “all set”, cracks his whip and off we go. The morning is cold, dark and dispiriting; to offset this we know that the snow will “pack” the sand in the road and make travelling more easy; thank Heaven, we make the last fifty miles in season for the train which thundered in at the moment of our halting in front of the hotel. There wasn’t a moment to lose. Our “traps” were slapped into the baggage car and we took seats in the day car, there being no vacant berths in the sleeper. I had to sit up all night, a rather tedious piece of business. November 10 1880. Wednesday. On the train with me, were Mr. Loring Jnr.[,] Herbert Thayer and Mr. Ramsey, who invited me to remain in the Pullman car with them, which I gladly did. Entering Omaha, we passed the outgoing passenger train of twenty two cars, in two sections, each drawn by two locomotives. Every seat was filled, the cars being occupied by the Land Excursionists, drawn into this country by the R-R. companies to examine the open country which is so soon to be settled up. These excursionists arrived in Omaha for a whole week, at the rate of from 700 to 3.000 per diem. The following editorial, clipped from the Omaha (Neb,) Herald, of December 5 1880, expresses in a perfectly correct, altho’ not very

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specific way, the injustice of the claim made by Sect. Schurz for the credit of the present condition of affairs among the Indians of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail bands. Schurz’ Pretensions and the Army’s Performance. The report of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior just published, makes a very interesting exhibit of the present condition and progress of the Indian tribes on our northern frontier. It would seem as though that period had been reached when the results of good management and civilizing influences would have their proper and practical influence. The extension over the tribes now on reservations of the jurisdiction of the courts, would be doubtless a most beneficial thing, not less for the whites than for the Indians themselves. In considering the report of the Secretary, however, one is impressed with the idea that all the beneficent things accomplished for the Indians have been done solely by the Interior Department. There is no mention anywhere of the work performed by the army in this most difficult and perplexing task. The Secretary of the Interior does not even admit that there is any use of an army on the frontier. He apparently does not know that there are a vast number of military posts in the west maintained expressly for the preservation of peace with the Indians. He does not state that he has opposed the abandonment of posts in the Department of the Platte, because they are essential to the maintenance of security and good orders near the Indian agencies. His report makes no acknowledgement [sic] of the services rendered by the Army in endeavoring to uphold the authority and control of the Interior Department over the Indians, and without which assistance such control must have been an utter failure. He fails to mention that the Indian police force at Pine Ridge and Rosebud, was made a possible thing by the previous enlistment under General Crook of many of these Indians, an employment which the Interior Department, through its agents and inspectors, did its utmost to prevent. Nevertheless, Gen. CROOK succeeded in enlisting many of them to aid him against the more hostile tribes, and the faith


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he kept with them as to remuneration for their services, made the police force now maintained at the agencies, which is considered by the Secretary so valuable an auxiliary in their advancement, an easy thing to accomplish. The Secretary does not mention the violent opposition of the Interior Department, through Commissioner HOYT [sic],11 to the plan of having the Indians haul their own supplies from Rosebud Landing, which they are now doing successfully. An officer of the Army, who was acting as agent at the time for SPOTTED TAIL’s bands urged this course upon the commissioner, and finally it was adopted, though against the wishes of the Indian Bureau, which saw one of the fat things of the Indian service thus slip out of its hands.12 Indeed, the reforms which the Secretary shows to have been made, and for which all credit is taken by the Interior Department, are reforms, the ground-work of which was laid by the Army, and were accomplished, not so much by the Interior Department as in spite of it, and in the face of its active resistence. To the good judgment, the intelligent management, great knowledge of Indian character, and high sense of honor and justice towards the Indians, displayed by GENERAL CROOK, the country is far more indebted for the progress that has taken place among these Indians, than it is to the efforts of the Interior Department which now so serenely claims all the credit to itself. 11.â•‡ Ezra A. Hayt, who was forced to resign in 1880, by Interior Secretary Carl Schurz over allegations of rampant corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 12.â•‡ Specifically a freight contract, which could be used (at the very least) for patronage.


✦

Part 2 The Ponca Question Continues

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Background

I

n Volume 3 of this series, Bourke discussed the legal case in 1879, by which the Ponca chief Standing Bear won the right to return to the ancient homeland and live unmolested, a right that the presiding judge, Elmer Dundy, believed should be accorded to any law-abiding resident of the United States, Indian or non-Indian.1 Although Dundy’s ruling settled the immediate status of Standing Bear, public outcry against the government’s forced relocation policy continued over the next eighteen months. That, together with internal dissension within the tribe, prompted President Hayes to appoint a commission to hold hearings among the Poncas, both in the Indian Territory and in Dakota. The president, who was interested in full justice to all the Poncas, would use the findings to recommend a proper course of action to Congress.2 The commission consisted of Brig. Gen. George Crook, Brig. Gen. Nelson Miles, William Stickney, secretary of the Board of Indian 1.â•‡ The ruling actually declared that an Indian was a responsible individual with legal standing in court, and therefore had the right to bring suit. By establishing that, however, Judge Dundy effectively prevented the government from forcibly relocating Standing Bear to a reservation. The case is discussed in Robinson, General Crook, Chapter 14; Mathes and Lowitt, The Standing Bear Controversy; and Tibbles, Standing Bear and the Ponca Chiefs. 2.â•‡ Bourke, Diaries, 38:991–94.

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Commissioners, and Walter Allen of the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee.3 Assessing the members, Bourke did not bother to recap all he had written about Crook over the previous nine years, but did not hesitate to comment on the others. Miles was “brave, energetic, and ambitious; selfish, conceited and inordinately vain....anxious to thrust himself forward as the most experienced of the list, but I err greatly, if he has not been the least of value of any.” Stickney, Bourke believed, was “a well-meaning, psalm-singing Christian,—of that class whose religion has given them the heart-burn.” He was most impressed with Allen, who, despite a tendency to allow idealism to overrule practicality, was “a very intelligent, clear-headed, hard-working and valuable member of the Commission.”4 As Crook’s aide, Bourke took down the testimony, resulting in a transcript of the hearings that appears in manuscript volumes 37 and 38. Volume 38, which contained the bulk of the transcripts, obviously was prepared later, because Bourke notes what pieces of testimony were omitted from the commission’s report. It is followed in the West Point sequence by a pocket notebook designated as Volume 38a. This notebook appears to be a record Bourke made during the hearings, or immediately after in consultation with the stenographer, and later copied over to the larger volume. The two texts are virtually identical, so I have skipped Volume 38a as repetitious. Carl Schurz was not the author of the affair, having taken office just as the relocation was getting underway. Nevertheless, he defended the policy, believing that leaving them in their homeland created the potential of conflict with the Sioux, who had been moved from western Dakota and Nebraska to the Missouri River region adjacent to Ponca country. Although the Poncas were a Siouan people, there was long-standing animosity between them and the Sioux proper. Despite such historic grievances, there really was little to fear. Much 3.â•‡ The Board of Indian Commissioners was a quasi-public entity created by Congress and consisting of nine unpaid members, who served as advisors to the president and the secretary of the Interior. It was part of an effort to clean up corruption in the Indian Bureau and improve public perception of Indian affairs. The legislation that created the board, however, was vague about its actual legal authority and this led to jurisdictional disputes between the board and the Interior Department. Priest, Uncle Sam’s Stepchildren, 28ff. The Boston Indian Citizenship Committee was formed after Standing Bear made a successful lecture tour of the East in the wake of his court victory. The committee was one of several established throughout the nation—including the West—that demanded reform of the federal policy toward all Indians. Mathes and Lowitt, Standing Bear Controversy, 11. 4.â•‡ Bourke, Diary, 38:953–55.

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of the fight was gone from the Lakota Sioux after their defeat in the 1876–77 war, and they and the Poncas were prepared to reconcile their ancient quarrels. Therefore, the forced relocation had been as needless as it was traumatic.5 Although Schurz ultimately came to regret his decision, he became the perennial bureaucrat, jealous of his control over the Indian tribes, shuffling people around according to his own notions of their best interests, without regard to what they might feel. As often happens in such cases, he created a greater problem than any he might have believed he was solving, and thus he emerges as the villain of the scenario. Schurz operated under a dual handicap, not only in having created the problem, but also being a foreign-born citizen in high government position at a time when nativism ran rampant. Even the Indians were touchy about it. At one point, Standing Bear contemptuously referred to Schurz as “the Dutchman with the eyeglasses,” and a few moments later in the same monologue suggested (to the amusement of the other chiefs) that the secretary was “sick or foolish,” pointedly adding, “I mean the one who speaks German.” It was evident that the Poncas believed that Schurz essentially remained a foreigner, and as such had no business involving himself in their dealings with the government.6 This also became an issue in Congress, when Senator Henry Laurens Dawes, chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, questioned whether Schurz’s German background might be the source of the problem. Like so many immigrants who find themselves accused of being somehow less imbued with American values than the native-born, Schurz bristled. Responding sarcastically to what he called Dawes’s “new-born anguish about the red man,” he commented: There never was an Indian unjustly killed in this country until a German born American citizen became Secretary of the Interior. All has been peace, love and fraternity. The red man has for three centuries reposed within the gentle bosom of his white brother, and there was no man to make him afraid until this dangerous foreigner in an evid [i.e. evil] hour for the republic was clothed with authority to disturb that harmonious accord and disgrace the American name 5.â•‡ Prucha, Great Father, 180; Hoogenboom, Rutherford B. Hayes, 451–53. 6.â•‡ Hoogenboom, Rutherford B. Hayes, 453; Bourke, Diary, 38:984–85.

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with rapineage in Indian camps and the blood of slaughtered victims, and all this he did in his efforts to naturalize on American soil dark and cruel methods and to imperil a government of which this foreigner notoriously is and has always been a faithful and ardent worshipper and champion.7 In looking over the interviews with the Poncas in the Indian Territory, one might initially assume they were satisfied with their lot, as they showed no interest in returning to their homeland in Dakota or Nebraska.8 A close reading, however, shows that it was not that simple. In fact, they seem to have distrusted the government. They had been relocated once, and it had been traumatic, physically and emotionally. Now, they were settled and reestablishing themselves. Privately, they might have detested the Territory, but if they opted to move a second time, they had no confidence that this would be final. In fact, it might start an unending cycle of moves. As White Eagle, who did most of the talking on behalf of the chiefs, observed, “If the Great Father should want to make that [move to Dakota] for me, I should think he’d have me wandering around, and for that reason, I should be unwilling to go and should want to remain here [in the Territory].”9 On the subject of Standing Bear, the ever-observant Nelson Miles noticed a certain amount of resentment. They had accepted their lot, and settled in the Territory, whereas Standing Bear had fought the government on its own terms—the court system—and won. Although they denied any animosity, they were adamant that Standing Bear should return to the Territory, and should not receive any share of the Ponca subsidy unless he did. When the commissioners suggested that representatives should accompany them to Dakota for the proposed interview with Standing Bear, both White Eagle and Standing Buffalo begged off, pleading illness and exhaustion. No doubt some of this was true; the Poncas had had a difficult time acclimating to the Territory, and illness was rampant. Nevertheless, one cannot avoid a feeling that they also were using it as a convenient excuse to avoid dealing with Standing Bear.10 The commission moved on to Dakota Territory, where the members heard Standing Bear and others who had returned to the old 7.â•‡ Omaha Herald, February 11, 1881. Clipping pasted in Bourke, Diary, 38:1090. 8.â•‡ Bourke, Diary, 37:908ff. 9.â•‡ Ibid., 37:918. 10.â•‡ Ibid., 37:919–23.

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homeland. Testimony from whites involved with the mission and agency showed that, before relocation to the territory and after their return, the Poncas strove to adapt to the white lifestyle, earning their way, living in furnished homes, and even installing curtains over their shelves so their dishes would not get dusty. One of the most remarkable revelations was how quickly and totally the Dakota Poncas had embraced Christianity. The Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, an Episcopalian priest who conducted morning services for the Poncas and afternoon services for the whites, noted that Ponca attendance “shamed the whites.” Many attended both services, even though they did not necessarily understand the one in English.11 Some chiefs began their testimony by invoking God because, as one Ponca observed, “God alone is able to make anything or anyone and so it is entirely unfit that He should be forgotten if one is to speak.”12 Others sometimes referred to God or Christianity in their statements. Dorsey not only was a major figure in the hearings, but also in Bourke’s future. A gifted linguist, he was fluent in Ponca, Osage, and Omaha, and at the time of the hearings, he had a dual role, representing both the Episcopal Church and the Bureau of Ethnology. The bureau had been created in 1879 under direction of Maj. John Wesley Powell, who had placed Dorsey on the staff with instructions to gather material that would offer insight into Ponca “thought and expression.” Learning of Bourke’s ethnological and linguistic studies to date, Dorsey wrote Powell about his potential as an ethnologist, pointing out that his notebooks would be valuable to the bureau. Powell was interested, and suggested that he and Bourke meet in Washington to discuss his work. For his part, Bourke was always ready to exploit useful connections to advance himself.13 11.â•‡ Ibid., 38:973. 12.â•‡ Ibid, 38,986. This custom continues among many Indians, today. In 1995, I moderated a convocation of Lakotas in which the Rev. Webster Two Hawk, an Episcopalian priest, began by telling the audience, “I greet you in the name of the Great Spirit, and of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Kiowa pow-wows also generally open with Christian prayer. 13.â•‡ Porter, Paper Medicine Man, 72–73.

Chapter 8 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

A Summons to Washington

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unday, December 12th 1880. In obedience to the telegraphic instructions from Washington, as follows: Washington, D.C., 12-10-80. The President desiring to see you in regard to the Ponca Indians, the Secy. of War directs you to report to this city when convenient for you to do so. (Sign.) R. C. Drum Adjutant General. General Crook, accompanied by his Aides, Captain Roberts and Lieut. Bourke, left Omaha, Neb., for Washington, D.C. At Council Bluffs, Iowa, we met Mr. S. S. Stevens, General Passenger Agent of the Chicago, Rock-Island and Pacific Rail Road, and Mr. Morris of the Wabash Line and Mr. Ezra Willard. On our train, were Dr. George L. Miller, Editor of the Omaha Herald, ex-Senator P. W. Hitchcock, Mr. N. Shelton, Cashier of the U.P.R.R., Mr. Frank Murphy of the State Bank—all of Omaha and all en route to New York to consult with the Union Pacific officials about the erection of grain elevators at Omaha. We also met Mr. Dows, a very bright, companionable old gentleman from the Pacific Coast; and 158


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finally, Captain [George Augustus] Drew and Lt. Ducat, of the 3rd Cavalry, both going on leave. The weather was wonderfully balmy, almost like a day in summer. Knowing nearly everybody in our car, we had a very pleasant trip as far as Chicago and obtained much valuable information from our companions. Mr. Dows, who turned out to be the brother of David Dows, of New York, one of the principal stock-holders and officers of the RockIsland road—, showed himself to be a man of wonderfully shrewd observation and philosophic mind. His views upon the necessity of simplifying our present overloaded curriculum of common-school education were expressed with an almost epigrammatic terseness and with a philosophical shrewdness which elevates his simple language to the plane of eloquence. Dr. Miller is a man of powerful mind, extended culture and undoubted ability. Mr. Murphy is a very shrewd, wary financier of unusual capacity. Senator Hitchcock has represented his state with a marked ability in the National Councils—so that, take them either in the aggregate or as individuals, my associates on the trip were men from whom I saw that I could learn much. Mr. Dows I found to be an extremely quaint, unassuming old gentleman, of perspicuous mental powers and one who under favorable circumstances would undoubtedly have developed into a caustic debater. I had with him a long conversation upon our common school system of education as at present conducted. He dwelt with much severity upon the fact that it has been allowed to diverge so radically from the principles contemplated in its establishment and that instead of giving to the children of all citizens the opportunity of acquiring a thorough comprehension of the rudiments—reading, writing and arithmetic, “ornamental” studies have been introduced to such an extent that the tuition received is reduced to a superficial varnish of diletanti-ism [sic]: he concurred heartily in the suggestion I advanced that the coming generation should be instructed in telegraphy and phonography, the channels of communication of the future. December 13th. Reached Chicago and remained several hours at Palmer House, General Crook in conference with General Sheridan.

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December 14th. Reached Washington, D.C. late at night and took quarters at Riggs’ House; went around to Nickerson’s house on Rhode Island Avenue (1457.) Waked him up and had a talk of several hours’ duration and then returned to my hotel to bed. December 14th. Accompanied General Crook and Major Roberts in formal calls upon the Adjutant-General (Drum.) General of the Army (Sherman.) and Secretary of War (Ramsay.) The Secretary had not yet reached his office, but Chief Clerk Crosby received us with marked courtesy. General Crook then went with General Sherman to call upon President Hayes at the White House. He remained there all day, lunching with the President and Mrs. Hayes and afterwards went with the former to look at the Washington Monument. Later on in the evening, the President gave a state dinner to General U.S. Grant to which General Crook was invited. In the afternoon, we received calls from Generals [Alexander James] Perry, Hazen, [George David] Ruggles, Miles, Baxter (M.D.) and Colonel Mills. In the evening, I made a call upon Mrs. Fant, and her daughters and afterwards spent a couple of hours with General and Mrs. Ruggles. December 15th. General [Ranald S.] Mackenzie called upon General Crook and myself. General Mackenzie’s name has appeared with such frequency in my note-books, especially those bearing upon the campaign carried out against hostile Sioux and Cheyennes by General Crook, in 1876 & 1877 that an extended reference to him or his services at this place would be unnecessary repetition.....1 December 16th. I called upon the family of Atty. General G. H. Williams & upon Sister de Chantal (at the Visitation Convent on Connecticut Avenue.) In the evening, I went with General Crook to pay a visit to Hon. Robert C. Schenck, ex-minister to England and formerly a member of Congress from Ohio who had given Genl. Crook his appointment as a Cadet at the U.S. Mily. Academy, West Point in 1848. The old gentleman, somewhat enfeebled physically by paralysis and advancing years, was to all indications, unusually bright mentally and entertained us for nearly an hour with anecdotes and reminiscences. His three daughters were with him; not handsome in the ordinary sense of the word, but polished, witty and intellectual to an unusual degree. From Schenck’s we went to Attorney Genl. Wil1.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, Vols. 2 and 3.


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liams, remaining for over an hour, partaking of cake and champagne and chatting animatedly with our host and his wife and daughter. Mr. Allen called to show Genl. Crook a telegram received from Mr. [Thomas H.] Tibbles in reference to the Poncas. Major Roberts left on a visit to his family in Connecticut. General Ruggles called late in the evening, and took me to his house to drink a jorum of hot punch and talk over old times and old friends in Omaha. Nickerson made us move our traps up from the Riggs’ House to his residence. December 17th. 1880. With General Crook in Secretary of War’s Office—met Senators [Alvin] Saunders, (Nebraska) Logan, (Ills.) Dawes and [George Frisbie] Hoar, (Mass.) and the Reverend Edward Everett Hale, author of “the Man without a Country” and other works. All these wished to confer upon the question of the complaints of the Ponca Indians. We also met Mrs. Nelson whom General Crook took over to the White House to see the President and to intercede for clemency for her husband Colonel James H. Nelson, Paymaster, U.S. Army, just tried by a General Court Martial at Governor’s Island, N.Y. Harbor for embezzlement of Government funds. Drink and gambling and fast living have been his ruin. While Genl. Crook was thus absent, I slipped off to call upon General Baxter, (Medl. Dep’t. U.S. Army.) Secy. Schurz and Mr. Hanna. The Secretary’s Office was pretty full of people when I entered but Mr. Schurz upon receiving my card waved them to one side and commenced a very animated colloquy with me about our trip in the Yellowstone Park last summer. Evidently he wanted some excuse to evade the importunities of the office-seekers for such I took them to be. I remained with him a few minutes and making my excuses left his office, going for a hurried call upon my old friends Mrs. Stedman and Mrs. Lamberton, but they were not at home. Rejoining Genl. Crook, we went together to visit the ladies of General Sherman’s family, whom we did not find; greater success attended our call upon General David D. Hunter, one of the veterans of the Retired List,—he is almost 80 years old, is perfectly white-haired and must soon, in the course of Nature, join the “great majority”. He pointed to General Crook and remarked laughingly; [“]he used to be one of my boys; he commanded a division under me in the Valley of Virginia and if I had only taken his advice, we should have captured Lynchburgh”. Senator [Allen Granberry] Thurman, General Hazen,

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Genl. Miles and Lieuts. [Walter Scott] Wyatt and Macomb were next called upon, the first named being the only one at home. He has been one of the most influential Senators the Democrats have had since the War, and is certainly a man of great experience in public affairs, profound learning, and spotless integrity: his manners are extremely gentle and unassuming. General Crook, Nickerson and myself dined with our old friends, the Ruggles. General Ruggles was in his best vein and kept us all in a roar with his witticisms. Mrs. Ruggles is a wonderfully beautiful lady and as refined, gentle and intelligent as she is lovely. December 18th 1881.2 Had the extreme pleasure of an interview with the Revd. Edward Everett Hale, who has apparently given much attention to the study of North American ethnology. He asked my opinion of the statement that Sir Francis Drake had seen wild horses on the West Coast of America during his voyage in 1597.3 I answered without hesitation that while I had never seen such a statement in print,* I could account for it by supposing that the explorer had seen a drove of wild animals, or else that he was taking a traveller’s license in trifling with the credulity of his fellow country-men. So far as I had read, the horse was not indigenous to America, but had been introduced by the Spaniards; history asserted that and Indian traditions to which I had listened, corroborated the assertion. While the horse did exist on this continent contemporaneously with the elephant as was shown by fossil remains, he was a quinqueungulate animal and not a solidungulate, as at present.4 The Spaniards brought horses to America, just as the wreck of the Armada introduced them to the Shetland and Orkney Islands.5 Our conversation next drifted upon the subject of Coronado’s expedition and I showed Mr. Hale how, on that Expedition, buffalo had been met and described under the Spanish name of Vacas (cows.) and some of our plains Indians seen and referred to [by Coronado’s â•‡ *In the margin, Bourke wrote: Mr. Hale afterwards sent me a book containing this statement and asked me to contradict it, which I did, Feby. 26th 1881. [See page 299] 2.â•‡ Bourke means 1880, and repeats this mistake before the end of the year. 3.â•‡ Bourke apparently transposed the numbers. Drake cruised the West Coast in 1579. 4. Meaning an ancestral horse with five toes, rather than the single-hoofed animal known today. 5.â•‡ In fact, the Shetland and Orkney ponies are indigenous to those islands, their ancestors having existed there at least since the Bronze Age, and later being crossed with Celtic ponies introduced from Britain, and Scandinavian ponies brought by Norse settlers. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_pony


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men] as the Cayaguayi (Kiowas.) Mr. Hale took my address, gave me a most cordial invitation to correspond with him and then took his departure. He impressed me as one of the brightest of gentlemen I had ever met and most unassuming withal.6 I called upon the Hon. G. V. Fox, formerly Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the administrations of Lincoln & Johnson. By the latter he was sent with the Miantonomoh, the first monitor to cross the Ocean, to Saint Petersburgh, to convey to the Czar of Russia the congratulations of the American people upon his escape from assassination. Through the earnest, faithful and intelligent efforts of Mr. Fox, I obtained my position as a cadet at large at the Mily. Acady. and have always borne him in grateful remembrance as a friend who showed himself to be such at an hour when there were not many to contest his claim to the sole title.7 I had a delightful half-hour with him and afterwards went with General Crook to call upon General McKenzie, Revd. E. E. Hale, and Senators [John Alexander] Logan, [Samuel Jordan] Kirkwood, [William B.] Allison, Hoar and others. Mrs. Logan was at home, a bright, lovely woman of immense ambition. Senator Kirkwood and wife also received us;—they are both intelligent, unaffected good natured people of the “old school”. Allison, I had previously met as one of the Commissioners appointed by the Government to treat with the Sioux Indians in 1875 for a relinquishment of the Black Hills of Dakota: he is a man with a great future before him. Senator Hoar has bestowed great attention upon the “Ponca question”, and has mastered it in all its knotty and intricate details in a thorough and comprehensive manner. Our day was rounded up by our dining—General Crook, Nickerson and myself with ex-attorney General Williams, wife and daughter. Their mansion is an elegant affair, finely furnished and kept in first class shape. The dinner was a success in the smallest details and spoke volumes for Mrs. Williams’ knowledge of household administration. Before retiring to rest, received an invitation from General Sherman to take a family dinner on Sunday, the 29th inst. 6.â•‡ Bourke discusses Coronado at length, and mentions correspondence with Hale on the subject, in Chapter 20. 7.â•‡ Fox endorsed Bourke’s application to West Point, writing that he was a “lad of great intelligence, who early enlisted in our army, and by good conduct at all times, and particularly for courage in numerous battles, he won the esteem and commendation of his superiors.” Endorsement to Application of John. G. Bourke, May 6, 1865, Bourke File, U.S. Military Academy Library.

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Autograph letter from General W.T. Sherman.


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Sunday December 19 1881. Early in the morning, Genl. MacKenzie called to see me. Attended mass at Saint Matthews’ and enjoyed some really good music. At half past one dined with the Sherman’s; there were present besides General Crook and myself General and Mrs. Sherman, Miss Lizzie, Miss Rachel & Master Tecumseh Sherman and Miss Ewing;—and at the last moment, General H. D. Wallen, of the retired list, came in and was pressed to remain: the young ladies of the Sherman family are intelligent, refined and gracious: I had made the acquaintance of the two just mentioned and of Miss Ella, (now Mrs. [A. M.] Thackaray.) In former years, in the West and felt very much at home with them. In fact, there is something about the social life of the Sherman family which puts an invited guest so much at his ease that he cannot help thinking that he has been on terms of intimacy with them for years. Miss Ewing, daughter of Congressman [Thomas] Ewing, is still in teens—a very pretty brunette,—a contrast to her cousin Miss Rachel who is a very pronounced blonde. General Sherman was in good spirits and full of talk: I say he was “in good spirits”; perhaps I should qualify that remark or substitute another for it. He was in good spirits so far as his meeting with his guests was to be considered—but there was an underlying irritation in his manner which betrayed the effect that recent changes in the Army had had upon his temper. I allude to the retirement of [Brig. Gen. E. O. C.] Ord to make a vacancy which has been filled by the promotion of Miles, Genl. Sherman’s own nephew. I am certain that Sherman worked hard to secure Miles’ advancement but he labored under the impression that Presdt. Hayes would retire Major Genl. [Irvin] McDowell, but he being rich and influential has been retained in place, while Ord his junior in rank and in years, but his superior in record and ability and in all that constitutes a soldier has been shelved.8 8.â•‡ The scramble for promotion was a classic, if slightly exaggerated, example of Army politics of the time. Miles was the logical candidate, because both Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell and Brig. Gen. E. O. C. Ord were nearing the retirement age of sixty-two. Additionally, Ord, who was at least nominally a Democrat, had overstepped by sending a congratulatory letter to Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock upon his receiving the Democratic presidential nomination. He also had offended Republican policymakers by advocating a more aggressive policy involving Mexico. The victory of Republican James A. Garfield substantially dimmed his chances of staying in the Army, as Ord himself realized. Miles, on the other hand, might have benefitted either way. Although a Republican, he had come under Hancock’s patronage during the Civil War, and they had remained close. The stumbling block was Sherman because, despite the relationship (which was marital), he disliked Miles and in any case was touchy on questions of nepotism. Sherman’s own view, as expressed to lame-duck President Hayes, was that McDowell should be retired, and Ord retained. Nevertheless, Hayes retired

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Then, too, the Whittaker Court-Martial Case, or Court of Inquiry case, which has been used by the Republicans for making a great racket about the injuries, and wrongs of the colored race, has resulted in the removal of Genl. Schofield from the Superintendancy [sic] of the Military Academy and the substitution in the place of that truly good and sanctimonious hypocrite Oliver O. Howard.9 Speaking of the latter, Genl. Sherman said very emphatically:—“Howard is honest and I think he’s brave, but he hasn’t a bit of common sense. He’s weak; he’s so vain that anybody can flatter him into doing anything he wants him to. Howard got himself into a mess with the Freedman’s Bureau; I told him “—you have made been made [sic] a fool of—Remember a man may make one mistake, but he mustn’t make two”. I told him the other day—“Howard! remember what I said to you years ago, Now you are going to be made a fool of by the preachers and the humanitarians. You are going to be hurt. When they get through with you, they’ll throw you overboard. Don’t come to me for help. We sent you to the Columbia to get you out of Washington and save you from your Freedmen’s Bureau troubles, but we can’t do that any more: you’ll have to face the music this time”. Yes, gentlemen, I am very much afraid that we have seen the last of our Military Academy: Howard will ruin it in less than five years. Howard, I think, is as honest as that baby (pointing to his grand-daughter who had just come into the room.) as honest as that baby, but he’s such a fool, he’s such a fool”.10 Ord on December 6, 1880. Miles then was appointed to the vacancy as a peace offering to Hancock and the Democrats. McDowell, who expressed no particular political convictions, was left in place as commander of the Military Division of the Pacific. Ord had been a popular commander of the Department of Texas, and Congress approved a bill sponsored by Sen. S. B. Maxey of Texas, and supported by General Sherman, that allowed him to retire with rank and pay of a major general. See Cresap, Appomattox Commander, 330–32; Wooster, Nelson A. Miles, 129–30; Sherman to S. B. Maxey, December 21, 1880, Ord Family Papers. 9.â•‡ Johnson Whittaker had become West Point’s only black cadet following the graduation of Henry Flipper in 1878. He later contended he had received a threatening note, and on the night of April 5–6, 1880, he was bound, beaten, and slashed. After a court of inquiry decided the note was fabricated and the wounds self-inflicted, he demanded a court-martial which convicted him. President Chester A. Arthur set aside the conviction in 1882, but Whittaker, meanwhile, had been dismissed for failing his examinations. Schofield, who had been superintendent of the academy at the time of the incident, complained in his annual report that the average black’s background did not qualify him for West Point, regardless of whatever academic skills he might possess. See Marszalek, Court-Martial for an overview of the affair; and Foner, Blacks and the Military, 65, for reference to Schofield. 10.â•‡ Howard was honest, but a poor administrator who placed too much faith in subordinates. Despite repeated evidence of corruption, he refused to take any action. A court of inquiry in 1874 exonerated him of personal misconduct, but he remained under a cloud. Bourke no doubt reflected the view of Crook, who considered Howard pompous, self-righteous, and incompetent. Warner, Generals in Blue, 268; Robinson, General Crook, 119.


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Shortly afterwards, Sherman spoke of Genl. Ord—said they were class-mates at West Point, at which place, Ord was distinguished for his great laziness, his wonderful mathematical ability and his inattention to dress. “Ord is extremely poor and altho’ he belongs here in Washington, he hasn’t the money to carry himself and family away from Texas.11 I am very, very sorry that we couldn’t retire him as a Major-General.* As dessert was brought in, the General gave us a very laughable description of the dementia of Colonel [John] McNutt of the Ordnance Corps, now retired. McNutt had been distinguished as a man of great learning and intense application to study; as age came upon him, his brain gave way in one odd feature that he forgot his own identity and imagined that he was two people. He would walk, of a hot day, to some prominent hotel restaurant, take a table by a window and order a bottle of wine or seltzer water, with two glasses. Then he would commence in a very polite and gentle way, “I’m very glad to have met you, Colonel McNutt”—“The same to you, Sir”—“Colonel, let me drink to your health”. [“]Certainly Sir”. having said which he would lift one glass, tip it against the other, drain it very solemnly and then swallow the contents of the second one. December 20th. President Hayes instructions to the gentlemen, composing the Ponca Commission are here inserted, copied for convenience from to-day’s New York Herald. EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 18, 1880, I request the following gentlemen to proceed to the Indian Territory as soon as may be, and, after conference with the Ponca tribe of Indians to ascertain the facts in regard to their recent removal and present condition, so far as is necessary to determine the question [of] what justice and humanity require should be done by the government of the United States, and report their conclusions and recommendations in the premises:—Brigadier General George Crook, U.S.A.;

* Bourke’s marginal note: Ord was shortly afterwards retired, by Special Act of Congress, as a Major General.

11.â•‡ Ord was commander of the Department of Texas in San Antonio at the time.

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Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, U.S.A.; William Stickney, Washington, D.C., and Walter Allen, Newton, Mass. It is the purpose of the foregoing request to authorize the commission to take whatever steps may in their judgment be necessary to enable them to accomplish the purpose set forth. General Crook is authorized to take with him two aidesde-camp to do clerical work. R. B. HAYES. Met Mr. John F. Finerty, the Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, an old campaign friend, who has served a great deal against the Indians on the North West frontier. I have made such frequent mention of Finerty in my note-books that there is scarcely a volume of them in which his name does not occur.12 We had a long and interesting chat about old times, and acquaintances and future hopes and prospects. Finerty had distinguished himself greatly for cool courage in the action on the Rosebud, Montana, June 17th 1876, and by an odd coincidence, soon after parting from him to day, I received in my mail a letter from E. A. Snow, a gallant young bugler-boy, formerly of Co. “M” 3d Cavy. who had been near me in that very engagement and had been shockingly wounded in both arms.13 His note simply informed me that he had named his young son—John G. Bourke Snow—for which honor I feel extremely proud, as Snow is one of the bravest men I’ve ever known. All afternoon, I’ve been with Genl. Crook, assisting him in returning the innumerable calls made upon him by friends and acquaintances who have learned of his presence in the city. Washington life in “the season” impresses me as being extremely formal, but it has a delightful side to it, nevertheless. There are countless lovely and refined ladies to be met and altho’ the gentlemen with whom one comes in contact are above the average in mental cultivation and in the knowledge of the manner of polite society, yet there are not enough of them to escort the “swarms” of the fair sex flocking to the National Capital every winter. But not alone in its social features, is Washington noticeable; in its general plan & architecture, it is by far the most lovely of American cities and it offers to the visitor eager to learn much that is worthy 12.â•‡ In addition to the previously mentioned Vols. 1 and 2 of this series, see also Vol. 3. 13.â•‡ Snow was shot through both arms above the wrists and was retired on disability. See Robinson, Diaries, 1:326–27.


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of attention and study. The sessions of Congress and the Supreme Court, the Congressional Library, the Washington monument, the Corcoran Art Gallery, the Smithsonian Institute, the Army Medical Museum, the Signal Bureau, the Coast Survey and several other items present themselves for serious consideration and if no bad fortune interpose, I hope to be able to see them all. After dark, I was invited to drop in at Genl. Ruggles to take part in a birth-day party given by his little six-year-old daughter, Alma. The young lady was very gracious, saw to our wants in a style that was decidedly matronly and then favored us with a selection of her best songs, evincing a wonderful knowledge of music, inherited from her bright, and beautiful mother. From Ruggles’ to Williams’ where, as usual, I had a delightful call, and thence to call upon Genl. [Alexander McD.] McCook, who conversed with me for a long time about early days in Arizona and New Mexico, and showed me his collection of Indian blankets—Navajos, Zuñi, Saltillo, & Pueblo—the finest of the sort I’ve ever looked upon. Mrs. McCook, a very lovely woman, her young daughter, and her mother were present and joined with much interest in the conversation. Heavy snow all afternoon. December 21st. Snowing heavily. Called upon the Ruggles, Fants, and the family of Secretary of the Navy [Richard W.] Thompson, leaving at latter house a letter of introduction from Capt. [Jesse Matlock] Lee, 9th Infantry. Did not get to see the Secretary who has just resigned from the Cabinet to assume control of the Panama Canal Company and is now turning over to his successor in office.14 December 22nd. General Crook and myself put in a very hard afternoon’s work, returning calls;—we had to plod through snow lying 12 @ 14 inches deep on a level, something scarcely ever before heard of in Washington. We started with a carriage, but found it impossible to make rapid progress. The street cars slowly forced their way, so we concluded we could get through with our work with greater rapidity by following the paths broken through the snow by eager pedestrians or by colored servants. One of the ladies whom Genl. Crook had the pleasure of meeting for the first time 14.â•‡ Construction on a sea level canal across the Isthmus of Panama had begun on January 1, 1880, by a French consortium headed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, who earlier had successfully constructed the Suez Canal. Actual heavy work ran from 1881 to 1889, by which time disease had killed an estimated 22,000 workers. That, together with the hydrology and geology of Panama, defeated this initial effort. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

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was Mrs. G. M. Johnson to whom I have already alluded. She was married when only sixteen to Lt. Riley, of the U.S. Navy, who was ordered off to sea two months after the wedding. The ship went down, not a soul returning to tell when or who or where it had been destroyed. A posthumous child was brought into the world upon its unfortunate father’s birthday. This boy grew to be a magnificent looking fellow—was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry, and was killed with Custer in the fight on the Little Big Horn, Montana, June 25th 1880 [sic].15 A ring worn by this boy fell into the hands of the savages from whom it was recovered upon their surrender to Genl. Crook at the Red Cloud Agency, Nebraska, in May 1877. It was to thank Genl. Crook for his intervention in this matter that Mrs. Johnson had asked me to bring him to see her; truly it seems that this world isn’t so large after all. I never thought when that griffin seal ring was first brought in by the Indians that Genl. Crook and I should be thrown in contact with the mother of the gallant young soldier who had worn it. After tea, I called with Nickerson upon the family of General [Samuel Augustus?] Duncan whose wife is the sister of Genl. Thomas Wilson, Chief Commissary of Subsistence of the Department of the Platte. The Duncans, as the Wilsons, are extremely pleasant refined and cultivated people. Later, I called upon the families of General Sherman and Secretary Schurz. The Secretary and his daughter have a deservedly high reputation as linguists, speaking and writing English, French and German with equal ease & elegance. At Schurz’s, we found Miss Lena Johnson, the bright and pretty young daughter of the lady upon whom we had called in the afternoon. Returning to the Riggs’ House, met Judge Woolworth and Frank Murphy of Omaha and Lt. C.A. Earnest of the 8th Infantry. I may say here that the Ponca Commission held a sort of informal meeting in the Patent Office this morning, at which were present General Crook, Mr. Stickney and Mr. Allen, Capt. Roberts and Lt. Bourke, A.D.C. (General Miles absent in New York city.) The letter of instructions from the President was read and the Commission determined before taking further action to await the arrival of a 15.â•‡ Bourke erroneously uses the current year. The Little Bighorn fight was in 1876.


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delegation of Ponca chiefs now en route from the Indian Ty. and also to give Genl. Miles an opportunity to join. Reverend Mr. Hale sent me a package of documents touching upon points in North-American ethnology.* *Bourke’s marginal note: Col. Nickerson and myself took tea with my old friends, Mrs. Lamberton, wife of Commander Lamberton, U.S. Navy, and her mother, Mrs. Stedman. We talked a great deal about our former acquaintance at the Mily. Academy in 1869—and in every way had a delightful evening with two noble ladies.

Chapter 9 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The Ponca Commission

D

ecember 24th 1880. Christmas Eve. The Ponca Commission met in Patent Office, in apartments of the Chief Clerk of the Indian Bureau. There were present. Brigadier General George Crook, U.S.A. Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, U.S.A. Mr. William Stickney, Washington, D.C. Mr. Walter Allen, Newton, Mass. Capt. C. S. Roberts, 17th Infantry, A.D.C. and 1Lieut. John G. Bourke, 3rd Cavalry, A.D.C.,—to act as Secretaries of the Commission also the Honorable Secretary Carl Schurz, Mr. Haworth, Inspector of Indian Affairs. Agent Whiting, of the Ponca Indians. Mr. Smiley. Mr. Lockwood Chief Clerk of the Indian Bureau. Mr. Ryan acted as stenographer. Reverend J. Owens Dorsey, Interpreter. and the following Ponca chiefs and head men. White Eagle, Standing Buffalo, Black Crow, White Swan, The Chief, Hairy Bear, Big Soldier, Red Leaf, Child Chief, Buffalo Chief 172


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Antoine Leroy and Joseph Esau, half-breed interpreters. Secretary Schurz. When I talked with them day before yesterday about the sum of money, provided in the Bill laid before Congress two years ago, I made a mistake. I thought then that the valuation of the lands they now occupy, in money, had been much higher than it is, and that it would cost more to buy them. I thought then that it would take about $80.000 to buy them, but I find it will not take quite $50.000; about $40.000 and some hundreds. Bourke’s insertion (I have concluded it would not be necessary to copy down in extenso Secretary Schurz’s remarks to the chiefs for the reason that their purport will appear again in the transactions of the Commission itself and that “boiled down,[”] they amount to about this. The Poncas who had been transferred to the Indian Ty. and who had not joined Standing Bear’s party in their flight back to Dakota, sent a letter to Secretary Schurz asking permission to come to Washington and arrange about selling their old Reservation. A copy of this letter will be found further on page [190–92]. Having reached Washington, they agreed with the Honorable Secretary to take for their old lands, a new reservation in the Indian Territory, about 105.000 A[cres]., and to have laid before Congress a Bill, making an appropriation of $1450.000 for their use and benefit. Of this Sum about $50.000 was to be paid for the land they now hold in the Indian Ty., and the remainder was to be employed as follows. $8.000 of the Sioux claim included. $10.000 to be paid in cash to individuals share and share alike, $10.000 in cattle to heads of families and remaining $71.000 deposited in U.S. Treasury @ 5 p[er].c[ent].—the accruing interest to be divided among the individuals of the tribe yearly, share and share alike. The above to be in full, of all indemnities for outrages committed upon the Poncas by the Sioux, & of all claims for damages occasioned by their removal from Dakota Territory but not to include claims for annuities due under former treaties and still unpaid.[)] At 11.30 a.m., a recess was taken until 2.30 P.M. Meantime, at high noon, the Ponca Commission, per sê, held a meeting to deliberate upon what to say to the Ponca chiefs this afternoon and also agreed to assemble at the Coates House, Kansas City, Mo., on Monday, Jany. 3rd 1881. At 2 P.M., the Commission reassembled in the same place as in the morning, with the same persons, whites and Indians, present

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as were named in the proceedings written on page [172]. General Crook (to Revd. Mr. Dorsey.) Tell the Indians that some complaints having come from the Poncas, the President has appointed a Commission to inquire into the whole matter for his own information and I now wish you would read and interpret to them the letter authorizing the Commission to act. (General Crook hereupon presented the letter which Mr. Dorsey interpreted and explained, at same time pointing out the members of the Commission.) The Indians. How! How! How! General Crook. As nothing can be done towards settling their affairs until our Report is made, we wish to do it as quickly as possible. We don’t want to ask them many questions here, but we do want to examine them in Indian Territory, as soon as they can get there. I understood them to say the other day that they were forced to leave their lands: will they state who forced them to leave? White Eagle. (First shaking hands.) My friend. As you have asked me the question, I will tell you. It is as I told the Great Father, When I lived up there, the Dakotas made attacks upon me, killed some of my people and stole some of my ponies and I was thinking that I could get pay for that. A white man came there suddenly about Christmas to see us: we didn’t get any news he was coming. He came suddenly. He called us all to the Church and then there told us the purpose of his coming. This is the 5th winter since that time. “The Great Father at Washington says you are to move, said he, and for that reason, I’ve come. These Dakotas are causing you to suffer and for that reason they’ll put you out of patience very soon”. “My friend, you have caused us to hear this thing very suddenly,[”] I said. [“]When the Great Father has any plan on foot, he generally sends word to all the people, but you have come very suddenly”. “No, the Great Father says you have to go”, said he. “My friend, I want you to send a letter to the Great Father, and if he really says this, I desire him to send for us.” I said. “If it be so and I hear of it the right way, I’ll say his words are straight, the Great Father cannot be surpassed”. “I’ll send a letter to him”, said he; he struck the wire—he sent the message by telegraph,—and I reached the Great Father very soon. “Your Great Father says you are to come with ten of your chiefs”, said he, “you are to go and see the land and after passing through a part, you are to come to Washington”.


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We consented to that proposition and went. “You are to look at the Warm Land (Indian Territory) and if you see any land that is good there, you are to tell him about it,[”] said he, [“]and also about any bad land there—Tell him about both”—and so we went, there to the Warm Land. We went to the terminus of the Rail Road and passed through the land of the Osages and onto a land full of rocks; and, next morning, we came to the land of the Kaws—and leaving the Kansas Reservation, we came to Arkansas City. And so, having visited the lands of two or three Indian tribes, and seen this land full of rocks, and how low the trees were, I came to this town of the whites. We were sick twice and we saw how the people of that land were and we saw those stones and rocks and we thought these two tribes were not able to do much for themselves. And he said to us, the next morning: “we’ll go to the Shicaska river and see that”; and I said, “my friend, I’ve seen these lands and I’ve been sick on the journey. From this on, I’ll stop on this journey, seeing these lands and I will go and see the Great Father. Run to the Great Father. Take me with you to see the Great Father. These two tribes are poor and sick and their lands are poor, therefore, I’ve seen enough of them”. “No,[”] said he, [“]come go see the other lands in the Indian Territory”. “My friend,[”] said I, [“]take me, I beg, to see the Great Father. You said formerly we could tell him whatever we saw, good or bad, and I wish to tell him”. “No,[”] said he, [“]I don’t wish to take you to see him, if you take part of this land, [”] said he, “I’ll take you, if not. [”] “If you will not take me to the Great Father, take me home to my own country”. [“]No, [”] said he, [“]notwithstanding what you say, I’ll not take you to the Great Father. He did not say I should take you back to your own country”. “How in the world am I to act [”], said I: [“]you are unwilling to take me to the Great Father & you don’t want to take me back to my own country. You said formerly that the Great Father had called me; but now it is not so: you have not spoken the truth.— you have not spoken the straight word.” “No, [”] said he, [“]I’ll not take you to your house. Walk there if you want to”. “It makes my heart feel sad, [”] said I, [“]as I do not know this land”. We thought we should die and I felt that I should cry, but I remembered that I was a man. After saying this the white man being in a bad humor, went upstairs. After he had gone upstairs, our chiefs sat considering what to do. We said, “he does not speak of taking us to the Great

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Father, or of taking us to our own country”. [“]We don’t think the Great Father could have caused this”. We had one interpreter there with us and we said “as he will not take us back, we want him to give us a piece of paper to show the whites as we don’t know the land”.1 The Interpreter went upstairs to see the man and came back and said he: “he will not give you the paper; he does not wish to make it for you”. We went the Interpreter back again and said: “we want some money from that due from the Great Father, so we can make our way home”. When he came back, he said—“he does not wish to give you the money;[”] he said—“the Interpreter and the three others, halfbreeds—four in all—must stay—and the rest of you can go, on foot”. We sat talking with each other and said, “altho’ the Great Father has not caused this, yet if we stay here what man will give us food? Let us go towards our own homes”. He said to those who were part white and who could act as interpreters: “you must not go to your homes”. Two of these half-breeds,—Michel [Le Clair] and the Lone Chief—remained; another, Big Elk, said to the full bloods: “wherever you go, I’ll go and die”. We said, “he has behaved shamefully towards us and now at night let us go”—and so we went towards our home. This man, Standing Buffalo, said “beware! lest they say of us ‘These men have stolen off’. We did not know the land. We were without food. We were without moccasins. And we said, “Why should we die? What have we done?” We thought we should die. Passing on, I was sick on the way—very sick. At last we came to the land of the Otoes and lived on corn. For ten days, we staid with the Otoes and they gave us food. Passing on our homeward way, we reached the Omahas, and from that place we soon reached our home. When we got home, we found that he had anticipated us and was there in advance. When we reached home, we found that he had ordered the Poncas who were there, to get ready to move. Having called us, we went there to him: “move yes, [”] said he, [“] prepare to remove”. We were unwilling. Said I: “I’ve come back very weary. Every one of us is unwilling to move. This removal is difficult; much money will be lost,—fall to the ground, Stop your speaking, that is enough”, said I. “No, [”] said he. [“]The Great Father wants you to move at once and you must remove to the Indian Territory”. 1.â•‡ I.e., a pass.


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“If you wish to speak saucy to us and scold us, scold us”, said I. Some soldiers came there. “Only this day will I speak about it,[”] said he, [“]I will leave this matter in the hands of the leader of the soldiers,[”] said he, [“]surrender my charge to him”. I said “There are white people travelling around and some of them may come here and look at my body and say “why did they kill him?” And they will say “because he would not go”—“and I wish the Great Father to know it. I want no trouble with the soldiers. If the soldiers should shoot at me, I’d not take revenge, I’d not shoot back”. “My friend, stop saying that. I do not want it that way”, said he. They separated the half-breeds from the pure bloods and talked separately to them and suddenly they were carried away. The white man came with the rations and provisions intended for us, but we would not take and eat of them. They had taken away some of our people in advance and we sat without eating. We commenced plowing our land, thinking the affair was ended: so we commenced to dig up the land. I wanted to see some of the leading men of the whites, but I could not see any of them. On the other side of the Niobrara river, at the town of Niobrara, was a white man—one who was a lawyer. I went to see him. “Alas! my friend I want to find out, I want you to send a message to the Great Father, but I haven’t any money. If you will send to him quickly, I’ll give you this horse”. He sent the message, but none came back altho’ I’d given him the pony. Then I said to this lawyer, “my friend! I want you to go to the Great Father”. [“]I have no money,[”] said he, “My friend, I have thirty-two horses; I’ll give them to you”. “Well, bring them to me”, said the white man. Driving the horses before me, I took them to the white man. He sold the ponies and went to the Great Father and returned. This white man sent a letter to me; he said in the letter, “I’ve been to see the Great Father”. He sent the first letter, before he returned and he was on his way home when he sent a second letter saying—“my friend, I am sick and on my way home”. It came to pass: a person came there. A white man came back with a half-breed interpreter, back from the party of Poncas first removed: not the first white man, but another. He called us to come across the Niobrara river. It was a place not quite at the town of Niobrara, but a little North West of it, between the bank of the river and the town. He spoke gently and softly to us. “My friends, I’ve come back to you that we may go; that we may remove”. At that time we were very tired. Before we

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returned home, a young Ponca came to us and said—“The soldiers have come to the lodges”—We had not seen them. Buffalo and myself said to the young men:—“come to a decision; if you say we are to remove, we are to remove”. The Ponca women were afraid of the soldiers. The soldiers came to the borders of the village and forced us across the Niobrara to the other side, just as one would drive a herd of ponies and I said: “if I have to go, I’ll go to that land; let the soldiers go away. Our women are afraid of them”. And so I reached the Warm Land and so I’ve been there up to this time. And this is the end”. General Crook. Ask him if he was satisfied after he got down there? White Eagle. We found the land there was bad, and we were dying one after another and we said: “what man will take pity on us?[”] And our animals died. Oh! it was very hot. [“]This land is truly said [sic] and we’ll be apt to die here and we hope the Great Father will take us back again”.—That is what we said. There were one hundred of us died and then we who are here come to see the Great Father. In the winter we came here, (in September 1877). “My friend,[”] said we to the Great Father, [“]you have brought us up well, but you have treated us very meanly, and we wish you to send us back to our own land”. The three Great Fathers2 sat listening to this, (one of them is not here now.)3 “No—that is very difficult, you have come from a great distance”. “Not so, Great Father, it is very difficult for us. I did not cause this myself to dwell at so great a distance. Some of us have died already. We are walking Indians,[”] I said, [“]and walk to our homes. The land being very small where we are now, when we put out our horses, somebody comes and steals them away from us. I am speaking of troubles, but down here where I am living, it seems as if I had leaped into difficulties”. He said: “search around for other lands. Those all belong to the Indians there in Indian Territory”. He gave me a paper, authorizing me to search for other lands. There were three lands mentioned in the paper. I did not go. These men went. They came back, saying, “These lands are very good”. They 2.â•‡ I.e., the president, secretary of Interior, and commissioner of Indian Affairs. 3.â•‡ President Hayes.


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all came back saying—“we have found good lands, and will remove there”—but the Great Father didn’t send us there so we sat waiting. There was an Agent with us and he didn’t want us to go. He wished to keep us in the land of the Quapaws. “This land is very bad”, we said—“the Great Father has told us to hunt for land and we’ll go and not listen to anything the Agent may say”. About ten lodges remained, waiting for instructions to move:—the rest moved on and those who went to the new land, being without provisions nearly starved to death. The agent had the provisions with him, but gave them to those who remained with him. And we said: “we’ll send a message to the Great Father by telegraph; we’ll abandon this old agent & get a new one”. I arrived there; the land was very good, but in the summer, we were sick again. After the 4th July, we were as grass that is trodden down;—we and our stock. Then came the cold weather and how many died we did not know. Next year, there was not quite so much sickness. We have made a turn in our course; turned over a new leaf and we think now that God has pity on us and that we’ll have better times. A bad agent and sickness, and the wind blowing all these bad things upon us were very hard to bear, but we have now a good agent and are doing better. The Agent having spoken gently to me and having spoken to me about working, I wished to remain where we are and so I wrote the letter. For five winters, I’ve been looking for some one to help me and now the sickness is going away—and now we think we will dwell in the land, we are. I said to my Agent, write this business for me; the land we had, I’ll sell and I will dwell in this land. We wish you to write and say we desire a firm paper for our land—(a good title.) Secretary Schurz. Ask them what are their relations the Indians around them? White Eagle. All those nations are good: we consider them all our friends. General Crook. Ask them whether any threats or promises were made to induce them to change their minds. White Eagle. Nobody caused it. We who are Poncas, coming to a decision for ourselves, wish to work for ourselves. We haven’t done much work heretofore and now we wish to work and so we’ve come here to settle that question, so we can go to work there. We hoped that the Great Father would give us a school into which

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we could put our children and so we could end this matter about our lands. I made my affairs straight for myself and I told the agent to write and somebody came from the Great Father to see about it. General Crook. Ask if all the Poncas have agreed to this; are they all satisfied? White Eagle. I think that all the Poncas are willing. General Crook. Tell him that is all I have to ask him now. Mr. Stickney. How many children have you of school age? White Eagle. A great many. It is difficult to give you the exact number: we here have two or three apiece, able to talk. General Crook. Tell him we’ll ask them all those questions when we see them at their own homes. Mr. Allen. Ask him if he thinks they could have a better title to their lands than they had to their lands in Dakota. White Eagle. We think the paper you’ll give us to this land will give us a better title than we have had. Secretary Schurz. Ask him if he don’t think it would be better to have lands in severalty, so that white men may say this is my farm and over there is Standing Buffalo’s farm:—just as white men do with their own farms? White Eagle. Yes. Secretary Schurz. We have submitted a Bill to Congress to enable us to give them such a title;—each to his own farm—so that each one of them may have a title to his farm as a white man has to his farm—That is what you desire? General Miles. I would suggest that they be informed that the Bill has not become a law. Mr. Allen. Do they understand that the President wishes this Commission to investigate the condition of all the Poncas, those in Dakota Territory and those in Indian Territory, and to report to him and that he will do nothing until the Commission comes back? White Eagle. We know it all. Secretary Schurz. I drew up that paper:—one copy if they will sign it, to be kept here and given to the President; the other copy to be given to them and taken back to their people to show to them. Do they want it read again? The Ponca Commission here started to leave the room, first bidding adieu to Secretary Schurz and the other gentlemen present.


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This being Christmas Eve, all Washington has been out of doors I have been grievously disappointed that our work with the Indians has kept me so busy and so secluded that it has not been possible to promenade along Pennsylvanian Avenue, with its stream of population—brilliantly dressed ladies, elegant equipages—handsome gentlemen.—toy and confectionery stores jammed with eager, struggling purchasers.—but this has been denied me, greatly to my regret. At 6 P.M., General Crook, Major Roberts, A.D.C. and I dined with President and Mrs. Hayes at the Executive Mansion; there were present on this occasion:

Mrs. Hayes led in, leaning on the arm of General Crook, there came his Excellency leading Mrs. Woodworth, then Major Roberts, A.D.C. with Miss Cooke, Webb Hayes and myself, and lastly Mr. Andrews with Master Scott Hayes. The table was tastefully adorned with flowers from the White House Conservatory, the centre-piece being a dazzling combination of calla lilies, bigonias [sic], roses and other fine flowers in the shape of a huge basket. Mrs. Hayes told us that this was one of the most beautiful baskets she had ever seen in the White House and gave as a reason that she had granted permission to the gardener to take it home to his family after it had done service at dinner; consequently, the florist had taxed the resources of the conservatory to the utmost to produce something especially beautiful for the gladdening of the hearts of his own little ones. The service, as might be expected, was all that could be desired and the meal elegant, but unpretentious. At first, the conversation lagged and was confined to President and Mrs. Hayes and General Crook. For my part, I did not feel like opening up a conversation with his Excellency until he should first address me, but this he soon did, in reference to his recent trip across the country and especially through

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Arizona Territory, with which he soon discovered that I was perfectly familiar. He mentioned having met numbers of people I formerly had the pleasure of knowing in Tucson;—Lord and Williams, Foyle, Levin and others and spoke of them all in terms of kindly good feeling. The ice once broken, we all talked very freely. Mrs. Hayes noticing that I greatly admired the flowers on the table, said: “Mr. Bourke, when you get back from Indian Territory you must come up and I’ll take you in and have you meet our gardener and when he sees you love flowers, he’ll make you a present of his best bouquet”. Miss Fanny Hayes here entered having been absent at a Xmas eve entertainment. She is a pretty, intelligent and sweet young girl of 13. She took great delight in showing us her Xmas presents and in distributing the candy brought back from the “party”. President Hayes told a good story on his wife which she bore with commendable patience. He said to her one day: “my dear, I don’t think it right to say to any of our friends that he resembles some other person—either of the parties is sure to be offended”. “Not so, my dear,[”] replied Mrs. Hayes—[“]not so, at all. I have often been compared to Mrs. Andrews, and I’m sure I never get angry about it”—“Ah, my love, that may be so,[”] said his Excellency, [“]but consider how bad poor Mrs. Andrews must feel about it”. The only beverage on the table was Apollinaris water;—the absence of wine didn’t cause me any inconvenience, but I must say that I was sorry to think Mrs. Hayes’ views had induced her to proscribe its use at the White House, more especially on occasions of state where she had to entertain distinguished foreigners who have been accustomed to its use from boyhood. The quantities of fruits, flowers and confectionary were something unusual, all obtainable varieties being represented. After coffee, Mrs. Hayes took us all over the house—I fell to the lot of Webb Hayes—a really good fellow—who has been out with us a number of times on our Western trips. I was shown through all the bed-rooms, the cabinet room, where the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Parlors, Reception rooms, Library, (a fine apartment,) and had pointed out the portraits of the different Presidents, several of those by Healey in his younger days being of remarkable merit.4 Mrs. [John] Tyler’s full length portrait adorned the wall of the 2nd story landing. The Carpets of the White House, 4.â•‡ George Peter Alexander Healy (1808–94) painted many notable people of the era, including King Louis Philippe of France, and every president from John Quincy Adams to U.S. Grant.


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on the lower floor especially, are worn threadbare and are in a disgraceful condition, while much of the furniture is cheap, and some of it rickety and broken. In the general receptions held here during “the season”, not only do large throngs of people move through the building, but Mrs. Hayes assured me, acts of Vandalism are perpetuated, in the cutting away of pieces of tapestry and upholstery to be kept as souvenirs, which speedily make new curtains and furniture look extremely shabby. We were next led all through the Conservatory, noticeable for its fine growth of palms and ferns, well lit up by an abundant supply of gas. Then Mr. Andrews, who is an artist of high repute, took me to look at some of his paintings, all of great artistic value. The one which pleased me most was a full length standing portrait of Martha Washington, almost life size, showing well the facial expression, pose and drapery. Not far from it was one of Washington himself done by a Spanish American artist from a photograph and presented to President Hayes for the Executive Mansion. Having finished our tour of inspection, we entered one of the small parlors, where we chatted with the ladies and listened to Mrs. Woodworth’s music and singing in which Mrs. Hayes and others of the party joined: only simple ballads were essayed,—“Coming through the Rye” &c.—but just the songs one loves to hear of a pleasant evening, seated by a crackling fire-side. While this was going on, Vice President [William A.] Wheeler came in and joined in the conversation; he impressed me as a very amiable man, but not of great depth. President Hayes in some respect, I did not like. His manners are courtly, his appearance and dress both good and he does all he can to make himself pleasant to his visitors. I cannot, in any manner, apply the word “great” to him; his information, no doubt, is extensive and his countenance stamps him as a gentleman of education and refinement. But, with all that, there is something about it which occasions the idea that he would be the last man in the world to advocate the unpopular side of a question or sacrifice his future upon a matter of principles. Few men would, I am afraid, but it is of these few and these only that our Presidents should be. Mrs. Hayes is a lady, gracing her position with dignity and sweetness: Webb Hayes is an excellent young man of rare good sense, not at all puffed up by his father’s eminence and possessed of the qualities which make and retain friends.

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At 9.30, we took our departure and finding Nickerson’s coupé at the door, drove to the Metropolitan Club to find him, but without success. Then to ex-Attorney General Williams’, with similar bad fortune and lastly to General Ruggles’ where we had the good luck to find the General and his wife and niece, and after a brief conversation, we said farewell and started for home and bed. I wish to tell something that when I heard it struck me as being highly absurd. The Library room of the White House was Jefferson’s favorite apartment for study and rest. Through it runs the Standard Meridian, from which Jefferson wished that all geodesic measurements in our country should be computed. My impression is that this meridian cuts through the Washington Monument, tho’ that don’t make much difference now as the United States Government’s computations of longitude are all based upon the Greenwich time: but there is in this Library a model of the monument which suggested to the President the following story. The engineers in charge of its construction feared that the foundation was not sufficiently broad, to remedy which defect Captain [George Whitefield] Davis 14th Infantry proposed that the grounds about the foundation should be excavated in sections 30 ft. in depth by two in width, into which a filling of gravel and beton should be poured. The plan was adopted with complete success, but to ascertain whether or not the superstructure had settled a delicate pendulum was suspended from the top of the building by a fine wire and its actual oscillation, due to any vibration of the masonry was to be registered by its bob, (which had been secured with molasses,) upon a sheet of letter paper spread underneath. The Engineer officers left the monument at dusk and returned early the next morning; to their great dismay, they discovered that the monument must have been shaken tremendously by the tremendous gale that had [illegible] during the night; at least, the paper was covered in all directions with fine lines traced by the molasses-covered point of the bob. While they were still wondering, one of the workmen heard a fluttering overhead and in a few minutes had captured an owl; this explained the mystery. The owl’s wings were saturated with molasses and undoubtedly the bird had flown into the shaft during the storm and stumbling against the wire of the pendulum had enjoyed itself for an hour or more in rocking to and fro.

Chapter 10 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The Indian Territory

C

hristmas 1880. I have been much disappointed in not being able to pay a brief visit to mother and sister, a pleasure which our present official trip to the Indian Territory will cause me to defer until the middle of next month. Left Washington at 8 a.m., the snow-fringed branches of the trees looking like exquisite patterns of thread lace, as we drove through the streets to the Dépôt. At Altoona, Pennia, broke part of the running gear of our Pullman and had to change to a chair car to Pittsburgh. The yard-master, an underling of overbearing demeanor, made himself very offensive to the occupants of our car. Major Roberts “tackled” him and the situation became ludicrous, but the “bully” had to “take water”. December 26th. Snowing heavily in Indiana and Illinois; left Chicago in the fine hotel car of the Chicago and North-Western Railway, reached Omaha, Neb., on morning of December 27th, (a very cold day,) and at once drove out to Hd.Qrs. In the mail accumulated during my absence, I found a letter from E. A. Snow, formerly a trumpeter in Captain Mills’ company, 3rd Cavalry. In my note-books of the campaign against the Sioux and Cheyennes, in an account of the engagement on the Rosebud, Montana Ty., June 17th 1876, will be found a short reference to a

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perilous predicament in which Snow and myself were caught and from which we were extricated by a wonderful piece of good luck. We were surrounded by a band of Cheyenne warriors from whom we escaped by a hair’s breadth, I unhurt, but poor Snow fearfully wounded in both arms.1 His letter, which gratified me immensely, announced that his wife had named her youngest boy, (born last Fall,) John G. Bourke Snow, after myself, a compliment with which I am delighted, coming as it does from so gallant a soldier.2 I also received a letter from Mike Burns, the Apache Indian boy, of whom I have said so much in preceding pages. Mike is at present a pupil in the Indian Training School, at Carlisle, Pennia., and since his letter indicates not alone his progress but also the type of his mind, I insert it entire, on this page.3 January 1st 1881. In company with my friend, Lt. M. C. Foote, Reg[imenta]l. Adjutant, 9th Infantry, paid a number of New Year’s Calls in Omaha. All or nearly all were very pleasant, but those at Richardson’s, Thrall’s, Ramsey’s, Lake’s, Wilson’s, Furey’s, Tverzalius’ and Watsons especially so. At the last, we met Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Ezra and Mrs. Jas. Millard, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Ringwalt, Mrs. O’Brien and Mrs. Horbach, a very charming set of ladies with all of whom I have the good fortune to be well acquainted. Major Roberts and wife left for St. Louis. January 3rd 1881. General Crook and Lt. Bourke, A.D.C., left Department Hd.Qrs., Fort Omaha, at 7 a.m. and caught the 8 o’clock “dummy”, connecting with the early morning train for Kansas City, Mo. The morning was very bright and cold, the temperature being certainly as low as -10° Fahr., the cars were crowded, passengers standing up in the aisle nearly all the way to Saint Joseph, Mo. At that point, we were met by Colonel A. C. Davis, General Passenger Agent of the road, an old friend of Genl. Crook’s. Between Saint Joseph and Kansas City, Mo., we were overtaken by the express train of the Missouri Pacific R.R., and engaged in a lively race, coming out neck and neck. Three squalling babies roared in concert for nearly an hour, much to the disgust of the gentlemen 1.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, 1:326–27. 2.â•‡ This is the second reference to this baby, the first appearing in Chapter 8. This one offers slightly more detail. 3.â•‡ The letter apparently was not securely fastened as it is not part of the diary.


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in our car. We took on at New Hamburgh, Iowa, the remains of two lovely young ladies, 17 and 18 years old, who had been burned to death while dressing for a party. At Kansas City, at Union Dépôt Hotel, found the other members of the Commission, and with them Revd. Alfred Riggs, who had joined as a Sioux interpreter, and Major Roberts, A.D.C., who had come on by way of St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Haworth, Indian Inspector, joined the party soon after. Captain Eli Huggins, 2nd Cavalry, reported to General Crook, for special duty with the Commission, under instructions from the Hon. the Secretary of War. Took the sleeper on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé R.R. to Newton, Kansas, and there took the “branch” for Arkansas City, on the river of the same name. To express an opinion from the fine character of its rolling stock and the great patronage it received, this Railroad must be doing a profitable business and must have a grand country to support it. Newton is a rapidly growing town with numbers of brick buildings, already completed or in course of construction. We did not reach Arkansas City, until noon of January 4th 1881., (a bright, clear & cold day.) This town, on the Southern border of Kansas, 280 m. from Kansas City and 492 m. from Omaha, is one of the terminals of the Topeka and Santa Fé. It is a small town on the North bank of the Arkansas, and is prominent at this writing, chiefly from having been and being the rendezvous of the Oklahoma “boomers” or would be settlers on the public lands in the Indian Territory ceded back to the General Gov’t by the Cherokees in a treaty made with them in 1866. To prevent their entry, detachments of regular troops have been placed in position, those at this point under command of Lt. [Abram E.] Wood, 4th Cavalry, whom we met. Taking with them Agent Whiting [sic],4 Inspector Haworth, Standing Buffalo & Joe Esau, the Commission proceeded, in such conveyances as could be found at Arkansas City, to the Ponca Agency, the road being above the average, its most perilous feature the crazy bridge spanning the Arkansas river. After getting over this rickety structure, we crossed the line and were in the Indian Nation. There was not much to observe, but we were told that one of the principal productions of this country is peaches, of large size and delicious flavor. The Ponca Agency is on a peninsula enclosed between the 4.â•‡ William H. Whiteman.

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Salt Fork and the main Arkansas, 35 m. from the terminus of the Rail Road. We reached there after dark, tired and benumbed with cold. A kind reception, a bright fire and bountiful supper made us forget the petty discomforts of the drive; the table at which we were seated was crowded, but each managed to get an abundance of good food, without putting the good ladies of Agent Whiting’s household to too much trouble. He had with him a grown son, a young daughter, his wife and a young lady, a teacher in the Agency school. They asked us to look at the photographs of some mammoth cat-fish taken in the Salt Fork: the average w’t. was one hundred and forty lbs. and some of them were over six feet long. (1800) lbs. of this fish were caught in one spot in the Salt Fork in less than two hours. The Indians are very fond of spearing them as they offer rare sport and supply good food. January 5th 1881. Commission held an informal meeting this A.M. A lovely morning, bright and clear sky, no wind. Took a stroll around the Agency which presents a most creditable appearance. I had pointed out to me on the West, the lands occupied by Joseph’s band of Nez-Percés on the South East, those of the Osages, on the East, those of the “Kaws” and on the North East, those of the Quapaws, (the last tribe was once known as the Arkansaws.) I visited the new brick school-house, rising rapidly from its foundation, then the brick-kiln, and a number of fine springs which yield all the water needed at the Agency. The water of the Salt Fork is not drinkable but the banks were seamed with ravines, each with its spring of sweet, cold water. Capt. [Eli Lundy] Huggins arrived at 1 P.M. He had been detained at Arkansas City, for want of transportation. At 2 P.M., the Commission assembled in the Agency School-room (old.) in presence of a large delegation of Poncas, including many squaws and pappooses, whose chattering, crying and gubbling [sic] made a din unusual in such conventions. Something like order having been attained, I was able to ascertain the names of the Chiefs and head men present. Black Crow, White Swan, Standing Buffalo, The Chief, White Eagle, Hairy Bear, Child Chief, Red Leaf, Big Buffalo and Big Bull. Rev. Mr. Dorsey, Rev. Mr. Riggs and Antoine Leroy, Interpreter. All persons connected with the Interior Department, not members of the tribe, were excluded from the conference.


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Rev. Mr. Riggs speaks. My friends, You have known me a long time. When you have been in trouble, you have come to me and I have helped you. I have always remembered you ever since you were taken away from the country in which I live. And you have always said to me and said to others that I have never told you anything that was false. I have come to-day with the same purpose—to help you and to tell you the truth. For many years, you have been very much troubled and have not known the way in which you should go. You have appealed to your friends to help you and to show you a good way in which you could travel. You have been divided into two bands; part of you have remained here and a part of you at your old homes. They have been anxious to know of your welfare & you also of theirs; altho separated, you have been one people. You have been waiting for something to be made clear to you here in this country: they have been watching and waiting for the same thing:—a permanent home. You have been waiting here and have now just told your Great Father that you would accept this as your home. Standing Bear has been planting & has built him some houses &, with the help of his friends, is living quite comfortably. I am glad to learn that you have been free from sickness recently and to see that you have been working & gathering more comfortable homes for yourself here. The President and all your friends among the whites have been very much distressed at your trouble and at the deaths you have suffered. Your friends among the Sioux have been very much grieved to hear of your distress and have sympathized with you. The President has heard that you are very much dissatisfied with your lands here and then again he has heard that you wish to stay here. And so he has sent to inquire about this; to find out what is the trouble and what is your real mind about it and for that purpose he has sent these men to ask you; he has sent them down to see how you are and to judge in reference to this matter: to hear from your own lips;—and to hear not only from the lips of the big men but from the lips of all. He has sent me here as your friend to tell you that these men are to be trusted. You know me & have trusted me and I know these men and you can trust in them. They wish it to be understood that they come from the President to see you and hear your story which they will report back to him. The President wishes you to understand that nothing

190 The


is finished and he waits until he hears the report of these four men before anything is to be done. They have come to see you and talk with you and then they will go to see Standing Bear and talk with him and his people. I wish you now to open your minds to these friends and tell them all you have in your hearts; keep nothing from them. They understand the story of your coming here and all you have suffered. They do not need to learn about that, but they wish to know how you are to-day and your wishes for the future. They do not ask you to make long talks about this, but to, each one, give his own mind in a few words. This is all I have to say. (The pappooses here begin to squeal dismally and were all “tired out.”) “Another thing which I forgot; you are not to be afraid to say anything in your mind, for nothing you say here will ever be used against you”. Reverend Mr. Dorsey now began as interpreter; he spoke in Ponca. Mr. Riggs spoke in Sioux, which was understood by some of the Poncas and translated to their comrades. I have already mentioned that the Ponca is a dialect of the Sioux. The Indians asked to have Antoine Leroy also present as Interpreter. Revd. Mr. Riggs, at the suggestion of the Commission told the Indians that as Esau was an employee of the Government, they would probably express their mind more freely in his absence, but if they wanted him, the Commission would send for him. The Indians said: “you need not send for him”. General Crook. We want to find out in the first place what their chiefs did in Washington; when their chiefs were on in [sic] Washington, they signed this paper. (Here Mr. Dorsey read and translated: We the Undersigned, Chiefs of the Ponca tribe of Indians, present in Washington, D.C., hereby declare that we desire to remain on the lands now occupied by the Poncas in Indian Territory, the same being a tract of 101.894 A[cres] and to establish our permanent homes thereon. We desire further to relinquish all our right & interest in all the lands, formerly owned and occupied by the Ponca tribe in the state of Nebraska and the territory of Dakota. In compensation for such lands, as well as for the various articles of property we left behind and lost at the time of our removal to the Indian Territory, in the year 1877, & for the depredations committed


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upon us by the Sioux Indians for which indemnity was promised us, we ask the Congress of the U.S. to appropriate the sum of $140.000; the sum of $50.000 or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be expended by the Secretary of the Interior for the purchase of the title to the lands at present occupied by the Poncas in the Indian Territory, such title to be invested in the Poncas in fee simple: $10.000 to be distributed among the Ponca tribe in cash, in equal shares per capita and $10.000 to be expended for the purchase of stock cattle and draught animals by the Secy. of the Interior,—the said stock cattle and draught animals to be distributed among the several families of the Ponca tribe, in equal shares per cap. This sum of $140.000, so expended and [illegible] as aforesaid, is to be a full satisfaction of all our claims for the lands formerly owned & occupied by us in Nebraska and Dakota, as well as for the goods & property lost by us in consequence of our removal to the Indian Territory, and for the depredations committed upon us by the Sioux, provided that this is not to be construed as abrogating the annuity granted to the Poncas by former treaties. We declare this to be an expression of our free will & desire as well as that of our people, at present residing on the Ponca Reservation in the Indian Territory and we ask that this declaration and request be submitted to the Congress of the U.S. for its favorable consideration and action. Done at Washington, this 22nd day of December, A.D. 1880. White X Eagle Standing X Buffalo Black X Crow The X Chief White X Swan Hairy X Bear Big X Soldier Child X Chief Buffalo X Chief Red X Leaf Authentication. I hereby certify that the foregoing agreement was duly interpreted and explained to the Ponca chiefs by me, before signing the same and that they fully understood the contents thereof. (signed.) J. Owen Dorsey, Interpreter. We also certify that we were present & heard the foregoing agreement read and interpreted to the Ponca chiefs and that they fully understood the same. (signed.) Joseph X Esau

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Witness Attest

( ( ( ( (

Ponca Question Continues “ “ “ “ “

) Antoine X Leroy ) Joseph T. Bender ) E. M. Marvel ) J. M. Haworth ) C. Schurz.

True copy from original notes. John G. Bourke, A.D.C General Crook continuing. Now if this expresses the wish of all who are here, they are to say so, and if not, not. Answer. We all hear & understand it. (The chiefs and others then consulted.) General Crook. Those who agree to it, are to hold up their hands,— men, women and children. (a general showing of hands.) General Crook. If there are any who don’t agree to it, let them hold up their hands. (Not a single hand held up.) General Crook. Tell them we understood that a short time ago, they were very much opposed to staying in this country: if this is so, we want to know what brought about this change of mind. White Eagle. Formerly, this was a business that was difficult for me. I will tell about my changing my mind. I came to the Indian land; when we were at the Quapaw land, we wanted to go back to our own land,—all of us, so we went to the Great Father. I told him, “I want to go home;—so do all my young men and all my people.” “Not so,[”] said the Great Father, [“]It is difficult for you to go back; it is impossible. Seek a land for yourself[”] and he gave me a paper. General Miles. Does he mean the President himself? White Eagle. I mean them all three.5 When they went to seek the new land, I had the chills; so I didn’t go. When the Chiefs came back, they told about this land & so we moved from the Quapaw land. I went again, in another year, to the Congress, to the Great House up on the Hill,—last winter and after what I told, when I was there, I knew for myself that I had failed in that when I got there. I knew that I had failed to get permission to go back to my own land. There were three Great Fathers, who questioned me at that time, and when 5.â•‡ I.e. President, secretary of the Interior and commissioner of Indian Affairs.


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I went on this time, I saw two of them, the 3rd wasn’t there. I said: “my friends, whatever way it may be, make it straight for me”. They said: “yes, it is not straight; it is just like when a man takes a wife and then tries to draw himself back: it is impossible”. Up to that time he said that—last spring—I thought I had failed. And I myself asked him: —“friend! How is it? Tell me straight—tell me exactly how it is and when I get home, I’ll tell the young men”. But he said: “no! it is not straight. Begone!” (He was the principal Examiner) And the man who had been helping us—Mr. Tibbles—said: “it is impossible to help you! I can’t help you further”. Bright Eyes6 was there & her brother. And when I came home, thinking I had failed, I commenced cultivating the land, and I told them to cultivate the land—last spring. I went to see the Cheyennes, and Mr. Tibbles came to the Cimarron, a little this side of the Cheyenne Agency [at Darlington], and when I came home, I met him. The interpreter said to me—“I have come for you, in order that you may go back to Dakota”. “Yes[”]—I said to the interpreter—Fontenelle—[“]whatever it is, friend, tell it to me”, and the Interpreter said to me: “by night, a few lodges at a time, not more than five—you are to go”. “My friend![”] I said, [“] this is very difficult. What things our young men use when they go travelling, there are none of those here and no ponies. How do you think I can go?[”] The Interpreter said: “there are persons who have provisions for the journey”. “And if I should go,[”] I said, [“]what would be the consequence?” He said, “Altho’ you should go and there should be some trouble, it would not hurt you”. He said also: “In some places, they may tie you”—and at that time, I was afraid of being arrested and confined just like Standing Bear. “That’s what they’ll do for you”, he said: and I was afraid of that danger. Fearing this danger, I did not want to go back. That is all. Therefore, I sent a letter to the Great Father saying I would keep still and so he called me and I went there. Mr. Allen. I would like to ask White Eagle some questions about what he said. I understand that when they were at the Old Land, they did not want to come to this land at all, is that right? White Eagle. Formerly, that was so. 6.â•‡ Susette La Flesche, an Omaha woman who married Thomas H. Tibbles.

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Mr. Allen. And when they were on the Quapaw land, they also wanted to go back? White Eagle. Yes. We did not want to go but, because we had failed in this business, we want now to remain here & cultivate the ground, so as not to be moving about. Mr. Allen. And after they came to this land they still wanted to go to their old home? White Eagle. The three men told me I could not go back and the chief Questioner told me I could not go back,—that it was very difficult—“You have come from a great distance”—and I said that which I did, after having failed: so I remained here. Mr. Allen. When Mr. Tibbles came here, if they could have gone back to Dakota without danger, would they have been glad to go? White Eagle. No. When I came back from Washington in the spring, I thought the thing was finished and I went to farming and made stables and cultivated a field of about Ten Acres. Mr. Allen. Ask him if he thinks this land is better land than his old land? White Eagle. I think this land is a better land: that it is improving; whatever we plant, will come up. Mr. Allen. Ask him if he was on his old land with all the people and they had houses and ponies and all the things they had before, would they be willing to come to this land? White Eagle. I was dwelling up there, just as we are now, but the Great Father caused us to come here and as he caused us to come, we are here. Mr. Allen. If the Great Father wanted to send you back there and give you all you had there before, would you want to go or stay? White Eagle. If the Great Father should want to make that for me, I should think he’d have me wandering around and for that reason, I should be unwilling to go and should want to remain here. Mr. Allen. If the Great Father should give you as strong a paper for that land, as you said you wanted for this land, would you be willing to go back there and remain permanently? White Eagle. I would stay here; the matter is finished, and so I’ll sit here. Mr. Allen (to Mr. Dorsey). Ask him if the houses they have here are as good as those they had in their old home? White Eagle. We think that these houses here are a little good: Those


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houses up there were bad; they had dirt roofs. These are better than the others. Mr. Allen. Do they raise as large crops as they did up there? White Eagle. In that land, there were insects that destroyed the crops; in this land, there are no insects, (grass-hoppers.) and no birds to hurt the crops, (black-birds and crows.) Mr. Allen. Would they like to have Standing Bear and the Poncas with him come back here to live with them? White Eagle. I want them: they are my own people and I have been hoping they’d come. Mr. Allen. He said in his letter to the Secretary that he wanted to stay here, because the young men were restless; now what made the young men restless? White Eagle. The young men were not behaving themselves and so I called them together and had a talk with them and so they came to a decision. Some of the young men wanted to go to Dakota. Have the others all heard what was said and do they agree? Answer. Yes. General Crook. Ask him if that Dakota land was owned by these People here alone and did Standing Bear and his people have no where in it? White Eagle. That land up there;—part of it was theirs and part was ours; but they are very few, so we want them to come down to this land, part of which is ours, and part theirs. General Crook. In case those Indians up there want to remain and the Government sees fit to let them remain there, what do these propose to do about it? White Eagle. We want them to come down, and if they do not, we think the Great Father will arrange the business for them (i.e., provide for them.) General Crook. Ask them if they expect to get all the money appropriated, or only their share of it and a part of it go to those people up there? Standing Buffalo. If he comes here, we want him and his party to take part of the money. Mr. Stickney. But if he stays there? Standing Buffalo. If he don’t come back, we don’t want him to take any of it. Mr. Allen. Notwithstanding they (Standing Bear and his party) may

196 The


wish to stay there, do you think it right to sign away all of that land? White Eagle. We did not think about Standing Bear. We were hoping that he could come back; he is but one chief up there; we are many chiefs and many people down here and we hoped he’d come back here and so we wrote the letter. Mr. Stickney. Does he think that Standing Bear would be willing to come down here if he understood the situation? White Eagle. I spoke to my young men and told them I hoped that if Standing Bear came back, they would make his heart feel good. I think that if he understood perfectly the condition of affairs, he would come here. Could he explain the situation to him if he was to go to Standing Bear with us—he and some other chiefs? White Eagle. When I came back, I was anxious to get some one to explain how things were to Standing Bear: I’d like to go see him myself. Mr. Stickney. Would he not like to have some chiefs go with him? White Eagle. I was thinking in my own mind that I should like to send a letter to Standing Bear and then when I had heard from him I should like to go up to see him. Mr. Stickney. Tell him we are going up now;—why not go with us? White Eagle. I am very tired and you seem in a great hurry. I can’t go now. General Crook. Tell him Congress adjourns very soon and that it is important for us to have this Report made out, so they can act upon it. Mr. Stickney. Tell him also the present President goes out of office very soon and another one comes in;—and this one knows all about the business. General Crook. Tell them they needn’t come back with us. We want to go to Washington as soon as possible and they can come straight home. Standing Buffalo. We shouldn’t have any pay for our expenses. General Crook & Mr. Stickney. Tell them that’s all right, the Government will pay their expenses. General Miles. Ask them if they are on friendly terms with Standing Bear and those Indians up there? Standing Buffalo. He’s my people; he’s my nation.


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General Crook. It’s very important that they should get a strong paper for their land & they can’t get it until we send in the Report. Standing Buffalo. I am sick. White Eagle can attend to this business. White Eagle. I am very tired. General Crook. If they don’t get this thing fixed now, it may not be fixed for a year,—and may never be fixed. White Eagle. Will you take letters for me;—will that do? General Crook. No, that won’t do at all. They’ll go in the cars all the way. This Rail Road has been finished to Niobrara since they left there;—do they know that? In case he don’t wish to go, let him send some of the others. White Eagle. We’ll discuss the matter to-night. Mr. Stickney. Will they let us know to-night? We may leave in the morning. (White Eagle hereupon consulted with his people.) General Crook. (to the Interpreter.) Tell them that we are so pressed for time that if they don’t settle this matter now, we’ll have to go on without them. We want them to settle it before we leave to-night. Mr. Stickney. If they don’t, we shall be obliged to go without them and do the best we can. (Standing Buffalo here spoke to his people.) Standing Buffalo, to the Commissioners. Hairy Bear will be one to go. How if one of the young men should go? General Crook. We want them to send somebody in whom those in Dakota have confidence. (Cheyenne here said he’d go.) General Miles. I want to ask a few questions here. I want to inquire what’s the condition of the tribe at present as regards health. White Eagle. Counting this winter, makes the 3rd season we have been sick. General Miles. Has there been much sickness in the tribe since they came to this Territory? White Eagle. For two seasons there was sickness. General Miles. To what extent? How many died? White Eagle. I cannot write. I do not know; they just died. General Miles. Can he ascertain by asking through the camp? White Eagle. For these who are here, I can ascertain by questioning them.

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General Miles. No, I want to know for the whole tribe. The Great Father sent us down here to find out the condition of the tribe;— that, among other things: and I must know for my own information. I’ll give him all the time he wants to find out; and he can tell me here or send to me. White Eagle. I will try, Sir. General Miles. Do they find this country as healthy as that they left up there? Have they, during the past three years, been as healthy as they were during [the time] they came down? White Eagle. From the time the sickness stopped, I have been walking here and find it very good. I put this country before the other:—think it healthier. General Miles. Ask them if there is any sickness now? White Eagle. No, Sir, I think not. On motion of General Miles, the Commission adjourned until to-morrow, January 6th 1881 at 8 a.m., and the Indians were so informed.

Chapter 11 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

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anuary 6th 1881. 9 a.m. The Commission met. Present all the members. The proceedings of yesterday were read and approved. Agent Whiting was sent for, and questioned by the Commission. He spoke in the highest terms of the general honesty of the Poncas; said he never had found any fault with any of them on that respect, except with one half-blood and two half-witted persons. Poncas generally well-behaved and orderly, there is a police-force organized of fourteen men. The Reservation is divided into eleven districts, each one inspected daily by the police-officer in charge. The salaries given are;—one Captain @ $8 per menseum [sic], 3 Sergeants @ $5 each per mo., and ten privates @ $5 each per mo. This force is for the Poncas. Among the Nez-Percés, at Oakland, there is a similar organization of native policemen, six in number @ $5 per mo. Three policemen have been discharged for drunkenness; White Eagle was one of those dismissed for drinking and gambling, against which stringent regulations have been passed. The Regulations in vogue are the Regulations of the Indian Bureau. Has been in charge of Ponca Agency since last April; this is his first appointment. Has lived in the station, only since he came here from Illinois last Spring. Has not had much experience with

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Indians. There are Five hundred & Twenty One Poncas here now; they are counted every three months. Last count took place, January 1st. They then numbered 519 or 520. The count was made during his absence in Washington. Count is always made by the Police force and the Issue clerk: there is no one to go around among them. Tickets are issued upon reports of policemen, but absolute reliance is not placed upon their representations. The lands appropriation for the Poncas was $50.000. Does not know what appropriations for Poncas haven been in previous years, but may be able to ascertain from documents. Mr. [Arthur J.] Carrier and Mr. [E. A.] Howard were agents with the Poncas in Dakota. Mr. Howard came to Quapaw with them. They have had one or two Agents since Mr. Howard was relieved. The appropriation of $53.000 does not include that for educational purposes: the school-building appropriation of $10.000 is additional. Does not remember any other appropriation. So far as he knows, the total sum appropriated for the Poncas this year is $63.000. First knew of the communication going to Washington from the Poncas somewhere in June or July—maybe sooner than that (Letter is inserted on following page.) The letter was sent in October, but they had been talking about sending it for some time. They asked Mr. Whiting to write for them. “I told them the Clerk was there to write anything they might desire.[”] The letter was sent in October and an answer returned in November. Copies of both letters on file in Agency Records....Told them they ought to counsel among themselves and reach a conclusion for themselves. Knows from what they say that they have had several councils in the matter, but knows of no one who has counseled them. (The letters were all given to Lieut. Bourke next day, and altho’ not strictly necessary to make record of proceedings clear are appended to make copies in this note-book, full and exact.) We, the undersigned, chiefs and headmen of the Ponca tribe of Indians, realize the importance of settling all our business with the government. Our young men are unsettled and hard to control while they think we have a right to our land in Dakota, and our tribe will not be finally settled until we have a title to our present reservation and we have relinquished all right to our Dakota land. And we earnestly request that the chiefs of the Ponca tribe of Indians be permitted to visit Washington the coming winter, for the purpose of signing

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away our right to all land in Dakota and to obtain a title to our present reservation; and we also wish to settle our Sioux troubles at the same time. We make the above request, as we desire to have the young men of our tribe become settled and commence to work on their respective claims. We also desire to make this visit in order to convince the government that it is our intention of remaining where we are, and requesting the aid of the government on obtaining teams, wagons, harness, tools, &c., with which to work our land. Yours respectfully, WHITE X EAGLE. STANDING X BUFFALO. BLACK X CROW. LITTLE X PICKER. FRANK X LA FLESCHE. RUSH IN X THE BATTLE. BIG X SOLDIER. BIG X BULL. CHILD X CHIEF. SHORT X MAN. THE X CHIEF. RED X LEAF. FOUR X BEARS. BUFFALO X RIB. YELLOW X BIRD. PETER X PREMEAUX. WHITE X BUFFALO BULL. BIG X GOOSE. WHITE X FEATHER WALKING X SKY. We, the undersigned, certify on honor that we were present and witnessed the signatures of the above by each of the individuals named, and that the above was written at the solicitation of the Ponca chiefs. JOSEPH ESAW [sic], Interpreter. A.R. SATTERTHWAITE. PONCA AGENCY, I.T., October 25, 1880. Examination of Agent Whiting continued. The amount of money the Poncas were to receive for their lands in Dakota, the amount to be paid them individually have not been arranged at the Agency, but have been set out in the Bill presented to Congress. Thinks the Bill was submitted a year or a year and a half ago. Has not paid as much attention to days and dates as he ought to, as he has had so much to do outside. Questioned by Mr. Stickney. We issue Beef every Saturday, sometimes Bacon; we issue Sugar, Coffee, Salt, Mackerel, flour, hard-tack—to each one of the family— to each individual 21 lbs. gross of Beef—a week—to each person—

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issued on hoof. If we took in Beef cattle at 900 lbs—the Indians get the benefit of the increase. Bacon, 10 oz. to the Ration. Now, we weigh cattle and give them dressed Beef: we give each one 11 lbs. Dressed Beef per diem, Flour, 3½ lbs. per wk., per capita. Every other week, 3 lbs Hard Bread. Hominy, 3 oz. per week, alternating with Beans, 3 oz. per week. Rice, for sick only, (dispensed by the Doctor.) Sugar, 9 oz. per wk. per cap., Coffee, 4½ oz. per wk., per cap. Soda & Salt, quant[ities] suff[icient]. We issue ration tickets, dated & numbered and signed by Agent, giving number of persons in family revised every 3 mos.—presented to Issue clerk and by him checked & entered on Record. By this, we have a record of all the people on the Reservation; the Police report all absentees. In issuing groceries and provisions, we have one policeman at door, 3 for flour, one for Beans. One employee acts as Issue clerk & takes their receipts; the Interpreter & Head Clerk are present. The Head Clerk examines; finally, I approve & forward them to Washington. The Poncas take their supplies home in wagons; nearly all have wagons and are accomodating to each other. They are much more interested in farming than I expected to find them. We have now all the farming implements we need; we have sixty-two new and fortyseven old plows: we need a few more harrows. Agricultural instruments are loans, not issued to the Indians. We have 107 families. The Poncas are aware that the issue of rations is not a permanent thing and for that reason are anxious to get to farming. I have no doubt but that they will send all their children to school. They need more spades, forks, post-augers, hammers &c., for making fences & stabling. We lend out Agency tools when needed. Questioned by Mr. Allen. I came in April: they were here one season before but had not broken any ground as they had no implements. They had no ponies: a great many of them had small gardens: Seven or eight of them had as much as 5 Acres apiece, others had smaller patches. Much of the corn was used green and to fatten hogs. They are beginning to eat hog-meat; they have no prejudice against it. They raise potatoes, beans, peas, melons, pumpkins and radishes,—are very fond of them. There are seventy-nine houses,—built before my arrival; built by contract. Indians got $12 for each house for furnishing logs and then the interior was finished by Contract.

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I came here after the Indians had been to Washington last spring; I then thought the Indians were going to stay yet there was some difference of opinions. I think they had bad feeling against their old Agent. They received me very kindly. I pulled my coat off and got hold of a plow and asked them if they didn’t want to do the same and put the seeds in the ground. I received no special instructions about these Indians and knew nothing about their difficulties. I was not an applicant for this particular Agency, but I was for an Agency in this part of the country. I had no knowledge of these Indians and received no particular instructions about them. I did read Mr. Tibbles’ letter in the paper, but knew nothing about these Poncas. I have seen very little discontent among them: there was a little last June after Mr. Tibbles came, but only a little. Five families left just after I came here and as I wanted to protect myself and had given bonds for Govt. property, I wanted to know if they should be permitted to take it away, so I wrote to the Department. I considered that anything I had issued to them, and for which they had receipted to me, was in their possession & I need give myself no concern about that; but property not issued, I was anxious about. The Department answered that I would use my influence with them to keep them from taking any Govt. property away and I communicated this answer to them. I didn’t offer to send any policemen after those who left and I informed all the Poncas that they must judge for themselves and that I would not meddle with anyone who wanted to go. I have at no time told them that they could not take away their own property: I would not consider I had a right to do so. If the Dakota Poncas had come here, I should have used my best influence to provide houses for them. Questioned by Mr. Stickney. Several gentlemen have been here during the past year to hold religious services; but, knowing that the Episcopalians have had charge of them, I did not wish to do anything. We have had Sunday School until after an accident occurred to the teachers. I think some of the Indians are professing Christianity;—some of them are Roman Catholics and some Episcopalians;—but I know nothing positive about this. Questioned by Mr. Allen I should not have prevented the Poncas from taking away their own property had they wanted to go: I should not without orders to do so:

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I considered that they had the right to take their wagons if they so desired. I don’t know what orders my predecessors may have had. Mr. Allen. If the Indians were at Liberty to go to Dakota, why were they going on to Washington to ask for this permission? Agent Whiting. I don’t know anything about that: that was before my appointment; I don’t know of any change of policy towards these Indians. Questioned by Genl. Miles I don’t know of any Indians being arrested for trying to go back to Dakota. Big Snake was arrested at Cheyenne Agency. Mr. Tibbles was arrested for violation of the President’s Proclamation of last winter to keep people out of this section of the country without proper authority. The purport of the Proclamation I can’t give. I can get you a copy of it. I arrested Mr. Tibbles upon orders from the Department to arrest him & send him out. I telegraphed to the Department because Mr. Tibbles was here against Law and against the Regulations of the Department, relating to the Indian Territory. They relate both to people settling in Indian Territory and to persons visiting here. I understand that no person, can come to visit in this Territory without making his business known to the agent and that the Agent has the right to object to his visit if he please[s]. Questn by Genl. Miles. If one of the Indians should write to a lawyer in Kansas City or Topeka, stating he wished to consult with him about business relative to his rights & property,—do you hold that this lawyer could see this Indian & consult with him without first getting a permit from you[?] Agent Whiting. I don’t understand that he has a right to come here without a permit from some authority. I think that the law is explicit upon this point. He would have no right to communicate with any Indian without permission. There is no restriction upon the rights of the Indians to write to whom they please. I let the Indians go up to Arkansas City when they please: the police only must obtain permission; or all Indians when they go to visit other tribes. The Commission hereupon adjourned from Agent Whiting’s House to the old school-building to meet the Ponca chiefs and head-men. General Crook (to Mr. Dorsey) Ask the Indians if they have agreed upon the persons who are to go with us to Dakota? Standing Buffalo. We have come to a decision and wish to send Hairy

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Bear and Cheyenne with you. If you want an interpreter to go with them, if you’ll leave some one to bring them back, we’d like one to go. We’d like Peter Primand to go with them. General Miles. Ask White Eagle if he is prepared to answer my question of yesterday as to the number of deaths in the Tribe since coming to Indian Territory? White Eagle. I don’t know the number of children; I know the number of adults. fifty in the land of the Quapaws;—30 men & 20 women, that is the whole number of adults who died, there and here too: but I don’t know the number of children. General Miles. Can he find out in the course of the next two or three days and send word to us? White Eagle. When I know it, of course I will tell you. Last night, I counted over the chiefs, women & men that had died and that is the number; but the children I couldn’t remember. General Miles. Ask him to try & find out in the next 2 or 3 days & send it to me. Standing Buffalo. I think that altogether; in the land of the Quapaws and here—we have lost One hundred and Thirty. White Eagle. I’ll send it to you. General Miles. He stated yesterday that he regarded this as a better country than Dakota; ask him if he knows anything about the relative productiveness of this section of the country as compared with that of the country he left? White Eagle. I told yesterday about any affair in that land and about how I planted my crops and very often I failed, and when my corn came up and I would see it, the grass-hoppers would destroy it, and I thought it was very hard: therefore, in each season, I did not have much corn, and the Sioux caused me to suffer. Therefore, it was hard for me. General Miles. Has he ever heard of grass-hoppers in Kansas or Indian Territory? White Eagle. I have not heard of them. Whatever the whites planted, I saw it come up. I planted, the summer before last, a small piece of land—in melons and vegetables which came up finely and I caused this man to take a team-load of my melons & vegetables and sell them to the whites. General Miles. He stated yesterday that the last three seasons his people were healthy: I want to know whether he is aware whether

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last year was an unusually dry season or an ordinary season? White Eagle. When we came to this country, we were sick because we were not accustomed to the warm weather; but now we are used to it, and are better and think we’ll like it. General Miles. Does he know of any other cause? White Eagle. No. I don’t think there was; the rain had nothing to do with it. General Miles. Of the ones who went on to Washington, and signed the paper read yesterday, how many are chiefs? The first name is White Eagle; is he chief of the whole tribe or only of a certain number of lodges? White Eagle. You should not ask me; you can ask any one else. General Miles. Is Black Crow a chief? If so, of how many lodges. White Eagle. You have principal men among the whites who are over the people and so with us. Black Crow is one of those among us. He is a chief over his clan or gens or band and at same time a chief in the tribe. General Miles. Over how many lodges? White Eagle. I haven’t counted them. General Miles. Is White Swan a chief? White Eagle. He is a chief and also a chief in one part of the tribe. General Miles. Of how many lodges? White Eagle. I haven’t counted them but the agency clerk knows. General Miles. Is Big Soldier a chief? White Eagle. Big Soldier and The Chief are together chiefs in one Band. General Miles. Is Buffalo Chief a chief? White Eagle. Yes. General Miles. Is Standing Buffalo? White Eagle. Yes. General Miles. Can he tell of how many lodges they are chiefs? White Eagle. I have [not] remember[ed] exactly; some have over ten and some have twenty lodges. General Miles. I want to know about changing their minds; staying here instead of going back to Dakota? White Eagle. Mr. Tibbles was working for us and as he failed, we changed our minds. General Miles. I understood them to say that no threats had been made to induce them to change their minds. Now I want to know what ef-

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fect the promises and assurances made to him & his people have had upon him and his people in bringing about this change of mind? White Eagle. We were dwelling in the land and were doing nothing and were foolish as it were; so we assembled together, and sent a letter to the Great Father asking him to send for us. We did this of our own accord. Nobody caused it. General Miles. At that time did they regard the Treaty giving them their land in Dakota as null & void? White Eagle. The whites caused our title to that land to be destroyed and because I wanted to get more money, I desired to sell. General Miles. I want to know if he thinks he can get any stronger title to this land than he had to that land in Dakota? White Eagle. Because I did not have a good title to that country up there, I was brought here and because I did not wish to have a similar title to this land,—one easily broken, I sent to the Great Father. I wanted for all these people a good title for this land and so, when I went to the Great Father, I asked for it. General Miles. Did the men who signed this paper and who held up their hands yesterday imagine they were getting a better title to this land than they had to the Dakota land? All answer. Yes. General Miles. These questions I consider as very important and in their replies they can be as deliberate as they please, because we must base our judgment upon what we learn here so that we can inform the Great Father. That’s what he sent us on here for. Now, I want to know if they regard it as a certainty that in case they consent to remain here, they’ll receive as much land as before and $90.000 besides? Standing Buffalo. Yes. We regard it as very certain. General Miles. (upon suggestion of Mr. Stickney.) Don’t they remember that the Secretary told them that when this affair came before him, he would recommend it to the favorable action of Congress, but that he himself had nothing to do with making the appropriation? Answer. We so understood it. General Miles. In case Congress fails to appropriate $90.000 but allows them to remain here without the $90.000 what effect will that have upon the tribe? Standing Buffalo. Even if they did not desire to give us that money, we should wish to remain here & work for ourselves.

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Mr. Stickney. Does he speak for all? Answer. We speak with one heart. General Miles. If no money is appropriated, but the privilege granted of remaining here or going back to their old homes, how many would remain here & how many go back to Dakota;—supposing it to be left optional with them and they to be perfectly free to do as they please? Standing Buffalo. We think that if he went back to Niobrara, we’d receive no tools, & no rations and so we’d prefer to remain here. General Miles. But supposing they received the same treatment in every way,—houses, tools, rations,—everything at Niobrara as here, what then would they do? I want to get at the bottom of their hearts in this thing. Standing Buffalo. Even if the Great Father should give us all those things up there, we’d fear wandering around and would prefer to remain here. General Miles. Ask White Eagle. White Eagle. I think the same. General Miles. Ask him if he is sure that all his people think the same about this as he does. White Eagle. Even if the Great Father should be willing, it is a very abominable thing for us to be going wandering around* doing nothing and so we want to stay here. General Miles. Is he sure that all his camp think the same way? White Eagle. We have talked with a good many of them and they all talk the same way. Mr. Stickney. Does he know anybody of a different opinion? White Eagle. All are of one opinion. General Miles. If there is any man in this room who would go back to Dakota if assured the Great Father would grant the same privileges as now give here,—and they should not be disturbed,—let him speak out, if he would want to spend the remainder of his days there, with a firm title to his land and the conditions the same? Answer from Peter Primand, chief of police. If the Great Father was to say to me:—Go! You can go back that place; even if he was to give me Twenty Thousand Dollars, I wouldn’t go. Standing Yellow. What these chiefs say, they say for us and we agree to. *

Above “wandering around” Bourke inserted “going about.”

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Bear’s Ear. We young men sent the chiefs to Washington, and they have come back with good news: I have put a big stove down here: I will sit upon it I will prefer to sit here (meaning, Mr. Dorsey said, he thinks his title is now permanent.) General Miles. What do they understand they will receive if they remain here? White Eagle. If I stay in this land, I think I will receive something. General Miles. Do they believe that Standing Bear’s rights will be respected in that Dakota land and that the Great Father takes the same interest in the Poncas as he does in these here? White Eagle. I think the Great Father would treat us somewhat alike. General Miles. Does he think the Great Father would give them any of that money, if they remained there? White Eagle. In consequence of my selling the land, I think that he would come down here and then the Great Father would do good things for all of us together? [sic] General Miles. Does he think that he has a right to sell all of that Dakota land, or only a portion of it, and Standing Bear sell the rest or live on it as he chooses? White Eagle. I think that the Great Father will do in this matter as he thinks best; let Standing Bear’s people remain there or come down here; he can give them a piece of the land up there. General Miles. Well then, if the Great Father let those remain there and let them keep some of the land and gives them some of that money, will these Indians here be satisfied? Standing Buffalo. About the land, if Standing Bear did not choose to come down here, he could keep some of the land and stay there, but as to the money, since we have sold the land, why should we give him part of it? General Miles. Do you understand that the Treaty includes the selling of all the land? Standing Buffalo. We thought when we went to Washington, we had finished this business. General Miles. Do they know that this business is still unfinished? Standing Buffalo. We know that, but it is finished so far as we are concerned. General Miles, In case the Great Father shall desire to give those up there a paper as strong as this restoring all that land to them and

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shall decide to send the $90.000 to those up there, I want to know how many of these here would wish to go back there, or whether they would wish to remain here without the $90.000? Standing Buffalo. Even if he didn’t give us the money, we’d all be willing to stay here:—but why should he not give us the money? General Miles. I am not answering questions; I am asking questions, just to find out their minds and exactly how they feel. These important and serious questions are to find out just how they feel, so that we can recommend to the Great Father what is best for their own good so if they have anything to say on this subject, hold nothing back. It is a serious matter for them and now is a good time to say all they have to say: or, if there is any in the tribe of a different opinion or different desires, we want to know it and they should tell us and not hold anything back. Standing Buffalo. We understand every word. General Miles. Is Michel here? Standing Buffalo. His eyes are bad; he’s not here. General Miles. Is he a chief? Standing Buffalo. Yes. General Miles. Of how many lodges? White Eagle. He and White Swan are together over one Band. His eyes are bad & he couldn’t come, but he sent his young men here. General Miles. Why didn’t Michel sign the paper sent to Washington. Standing Buffalo. He went traveling among the whites and said to us; “whatever you do, that is good”. General Miles. Is Buffalo sure that Michel thinks as he does about this business? Standing Buffalo. I myself had heard Michel say that dwelling in this land was very good and furthermore, Michel wished to send word to one of his younger brothers,—David [Le Clair]—in Dakota, to come down here, as his brother feared poverty. David lived on the Santee Reservation; Mr. Riggs knows where. Revd. Mr. Riggs. On the Santee Reserve. White Eagle. (rising and shaking hands.) My friends, I will speak about something: the Great Spirit has given you some mysterious things; some things we cannot comprehend: and He has left us. He has conferred benefits upon the whites He has not given to us. The Great Spirit has taught us that when we

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put our hands to the pen, that is something to stand and we must tell the truth in this matter. I have put my hand to the pen and I wish the matter to stand; and when we put our hands to the pen, we regard the matter as something precious, something sacred and I prize it. I was thinking it will be for my good and so I sold the land and put my hand to the pen, in presence of the Great Father in Washington; and these words I’ve said: “I thought these things would be good, if I dwelt in the land[”] and so I consulted with the Great Father about the matter and paid attention to what he said. When I reached Washington, I went to see the superior Great Father, the President himself,—and he said to me: “you think for yourselves,— come to a decision; whatever you think is for your good, that do for yourselves” and he said: “I will send four of your friends to you, (this Commission,) and whatever things you think will be for your good, do you tell them” and as I’ve been thinking this land is for my good, I tell you my friends, I would like you to tell the President. I will speak to you about another matter, my friends, You white people, my friends, I have not done any bad deeds towards you and from the former days to the present I have not thought in my heart to do any evil to you. When I’ve seen you in former days, even tho’ you should have hit me, I regarded you, took care of you and did nothing against you. I have been hoping from time to time, with reference to these officers of the white soldiers, that I would see one of them at some time. I have been thinking that I would tell him something; whether there may be one or two of you officers, I want to tell you something. Among you white people, your words being good, that only we follow. Some of the young men of the soldiers of the Great Father, came formerly to this place where we Poncas are and they killed one of our chiefs. And I did not scold those young men at that time, because I was thinking that at some time or another, we might get some indemnity for the death of this chief. If any person does anything to me, I do not take revenge, but I wish to get the indemnity,—the pay for damages. If a man didn’t behave himself and he were treated in that way, I wouldn’t say anything about it, wouldn’t ask for any indemnity. I refer to the brother of Standing Bear—Big Snake. Now the wife of this man, his widow and his children are here in this camp and on their account, I ask for the indemnity. One word I’ve forgot. In my own heart, I think that I have finished this matter, about dwelling in the land, and I wish

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you to tell the Great Father. General Crook. Tell him we’ll report his speech about the death of Big Snake to the Great Father; it is a matter we haven’t anything to do with. General Miles. I desire to put upon Record in the Proceedings of this Commission, in reply to White Eagle, the fact that some of us are officers; that I have listened to his statement regarding the killing of Big Snake, that I regret that it was done, but I believe that it is but justice to the soldiers to say that, as far as I understand the case, they did not come here of their own accord or at their own option. Accepted by the Commission as the expression of General Miles’ personal opinion and translated to the Indians by Mr. Dorsey. Big Bull arose & said he gave his assent to all that the chiefs had said, at this meeting; he wanted to stay here and have a farm of 160 A[cres]. for himself. The Indians had all heard very plainly what the chiefs had said and agreed to it all. The Commission hereupon adjourned. Three members of the Commission afterwards saw Michel, and questioned him in regard to his knowledge of what had transpired at the Council and his approval or disapproval thereof. He said that he had heard of it all from his children and approved of it all, and wished to remain in the Indian Ty. Dep’t. of the Interior Office of Indian Affairs Washington, Nov. 9th 1880. White Eagle, Standing Buffalo, and other Chiefs and Headmen of the Ponca tribe. Ponca Agency, Indn. Ty. Gentlemen. I have received your letters of Oc’t. 28th forwarded by your Agent, in which you say that your young men are unsettled and hard to control, while they think you have a right to your land in Dakota; that your tribe will not be finally settled until you have a title to your present Reservation and you have relinquished all right to your Dakota land, and you ask that the chiefs of your tribe be permitted to visit Washington the coming Winter for the purpose of signing away your right to all lands in Dakota and to obtain a title to your present Reservation; and also to settle your Sioux troubles at the same time as well as to convince the Government that it is your

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intention to remain where you are and to request aid in obtaining teams, wagons, harness, tools &c., with which to work your land. In reply, I have to state that your desire to become permanently settled and to have your matters satisfactorily adjusted, is fully appreciated by this Office and the Hon. Secretary of the Interior. We have been trying for a good while to get a law passed like that of which a copy is enclosed from which, when the Interpreter reads it to you, you will see that we are asking Congress to give you $140.000 to pay you for your land in Dakota and for what losses you have suffered from removal &c. We think when you understand what we are seeking to accomplish for you by this law, you will be satisfied that you have not been forgotten, but your best interests are being considered and attended to as fast as we can. Your Reservation in Dakota contains about 90.000 A[cres]: the value of this at $1.25 per Acre, (the price at which most of the Government lands are sold.) would be $120.000. The Reservation you now occupy contains 101.894 A[cres]. Or nearly 6000 A[cres]. more than that formerly occupied by you in Dakota. For this we propose to pay the Cherokees, [(]from whom it was obtained in trust for the location of friendly Indians.) not more than $80.000. When the Bill was first prepared, the price to be paid the Cherokees had not been fixed but it has since been fixed at $0.47 49/100 at per Acre which would make the amount to be paid to the Cherokees out of the appropriation asked for less than $50.000, leaving a surplus of more than $90.000, the interest on which at 4 p[er]. c[ent]. per annum, amounting to more than $3600, is to be expended for your benefit every year. We think you will agree with us that the provisions of this Bill, if it should become law, will fully compensate the Poncas for the losses they have sustained and provide a good sum to help you in your efforts to become selfsustaining. We shall endeavor, when Congress meets in December, to have this law passed and other laws which have been introduced to give Indians, as good a title to their land as white men have and if it should then be deemed best for some of the Ponca Chiefs to visit Washington, permission to do so will be granted. Very Respectfully, (signed.) E. M. Marble, Acting Commissioner. United States Indian Service

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Ponca Agency, June 24th, 1880. Hon. R. E. Trowbridge, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. Sir: I have to inform you that on the 1st inst., during my absence to Arkansas City, Mr. Tibbles, of Omaha, accompanied by an Omaha Indian, as Interpreter, came to this Reservation in the night and sought by promises and bribery to induce the Poncas to give up their present home and leave, a few at a time, and return to their old home in Dakota. Mr. Tibbles told them that they would receive aid on the journey and upon their arrival they would be fed by the Government and Annuity goods issued them, the same as here; he told the Indians that they had a right to take new wagons, cows &c. that have been issued to them by the Government and urged them to return at once as it would help him in the law-suit he was about to commence against the U.S. Government in their favor. I am creditably (?) informed that Mr. Tibbles went into the Ponca camp disguised as an Indian Squaw with a blanket around his shoulders and that he swore the Indians to secrecy, warning them to never disclose the fact that he (Tibbles) visited this Agency. Most of the Ponca chiefs were absent on a visit to the Cheyenne Agency, when Mr. Tibbles arrived. He took his interpreter and went out on the trail, meeting the Poncas several miles from his agency, where he had a Council with them in which he urged upon them to run off and return to their old homes, assuring the Indians that they would be clothed and fed the same as here. I made every effort in my power, on my return, to arrest Mr. Tibbles, but he eluded me and escaped to the State. The Poncas, for the last few weeks, have been doing well and I fear this visit of Mr. Tibbles may unsettle them again. Poison Hunter and his wife are the only Indians whom he has induced to leave as yet. I arrested Mr. Tibbles’ interpreter and had a long talk with him, in which he acknowledged that the course pursued by Mr. Tibbles was not an honorable one, [and] I went away feeling very different than when he came. Please instruct me as to the proper course to pursue should Mr. Tibbles or any of his party visit this Agency again on a similar errand.

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Very Respectfully Your Obedt. Servant (signed.) W. Whiting, U.S. Indian Agent. After the Commission had adjourned, I employed moments of a bright, fine winter morning, in looking around the Agency: one of the first persons was a handsome Indian chief, still under middle age, whom I was told was Joseph, chief of the Nez-Percé. His reservation is only a few miles from Ponca and he had come over to see Genl. Miles, with whom he was soon closeted in a conference the purport of which I did not learn; but it was intimated by those who ought to know that his object was to secure a return to his former home in Washington, Terry., he claiming that when he concluded his surrender with Genl. Miles in 1877, the principal stipulation was that his people the Nez-Percés should be allowed to return and remain unmolested on their old lands. I purchased some Nez-Percé and Ponca trinkets; a dog-baby, knife-case, bow and arrows &c. At the saw-mill were some excellent oak & black-walnut logs, of great value. The acorns of this valley are phenomenal in size and much relished by hogs which fatten readily upon them. The Indian nut—the pecan—grows here in quantities, but among the Indians prevails the very reprehensible practice of cutting down the tree to gather the fruit. It takes the trees 100 years to come to maturity, hence this destruction works great loss to what might become an interest of considerable value. Having shaken hands with our kind host and hostess, and the inmates of their hospitable house, we entered our conveyances and after a sharp drive of five hours in the face of a very cold North wind, covered the 35 m. between the Agency and Arkansas City, where we arrived, benumbed and fatigued. At the hotel, we met Major [George Morton “Jake”] Randall, Ass’t. Surgeon [John Monroe] Bannister, and Lt. Wood, U.S. Army. As I become more and more acquainted with the personnel of the Commission and its attachés, some reference may not be inappropriate. Of Genl. Crook, I have already in my journal, in various places, given a very full outline. Of Genl. Miles, I find it hard to express myself clearly without doing him an injustice; he is a man of considerable natural capacity

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and some merit: He is ignorant; almost illiterate, owing to lack of early education, but he reads a great deal and is doing all he can to remove or conceal his deficiencies. He is brave, energetic, and ambitious; selfish, conceited and inordinately vain. During the past seven years, through the influence of the Shermans and Camerons, with which families he is connected by marriage, he had been given considerable opportunities for doing hard work against the Indians on the North West border, that he had hard work to do and has done it well, no one can deny, but the methods employed by his relatives and by himself for parading his services before the country are not entitled to much eulogy. As a member of this Commission, he has been anxious to thrust himself forward as the most experienced of the list, but I err greatly, if he has not been the least of value of any. Personally, he has been very courteous to me and upon that score, I have nothing in the way of fault to find. Mr. Stickney is a well-meaning, psalm-singing Christian,—of that class whose religion has given them the heart-burn. He has travelled a great deal in foreign countries, especially in the Holy Land, of which he gave me a very bright description, last evening. Mr. Allen, the correspondent of the Boston Advertiser is a gentleman of great mental cultivation, a little bit too inclined to the humanitarian side of the Indian question and perhaps too much disposed to detect dishonesty in Mr. Schurz’s every act, but for all that a very intelligent, clear-headed, hard-working and valuable member of the Commission. Cap’t. Huggins, the son of a former missionary among the Sioux, was brought up in the tribe and speaks the language fluently: he has seen much service, especially in the Territory of Alaska.1 The Reverend Mr. Riggs and the Revd. Mr. Dorsey are both very excellent and intelligent gentlemen. The former has been for 12 yrs. a Congregational Missionary among the Santee Sioux, of which language he has compiled a very valuable grammar and Dictionary. Mr. Dorsey, now connected with the Bureau of Ethnology in the Smithsonian Institute, formerly represented the Episcopalian 1.â•‡ Huggins was with the initial contingent of U.S. troops sent to Alaska in 1868, following its purchase from Russia. He served there for more than two years, primarily on Kodiak Island. He later wrote a series of thirteen articles entitled “Men and Things in Alaska” for the Citizen, a weekly newspaper published in Minneapolis and St. Paul. See Foreman, “General Eli Lundy Huggins.”

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church among the Poncas, and speaks the language of that tribe with great ease. He entertained us last night for several hours in accounts of their tales and myths which he has learned while living with them. Maj. Roberts, I have already described. January 7th 1881. Mr. Allen, Mr. Haworth, Mr. Stickney and Genl. Miles came in from the Agency with the Indians & interpreters who are to accompany us. Day has been very cloudy. At 4 in the afternoon, left for Kansas City, Mo., viâ Newton. On the train met my class-mate, 1Lt. Chs. Morton, 3d Cavalry, returning from Santa Fé, New Mexico to Saint Louis, Mo: also met Lt. [James] Allen, 3d Cavy. and Hon. Mr. [Miguel Antonio] Otero, delegate from New Mexico.2 Our cars were filled with a large force of laborers on their way to the Rio Grande to work on the extensions of the Southern Pacific Transcontinental Railway system. At Kansas City, Mo., met the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska and Mr. William Chambers Q[uarter]. M[aster]. D[epartment]., Omaha, Neb. 2. Bourke means former delegate. Miguel Antonio Otero served two terms as delegate in the 1850s, but was defeated by Tranquilino Luna in a bid for election in 1880. See Lamar, New Encyclopedia, 836.

Chapter 12 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The Poncas Before Removal

J

anuary 8th 1881. Reached Fort Omaha, Nebr., Mr. Stickney going to Genl. Crook’s Qrs., Mr. Allen to Major Roberts’ and Captain Huggins to mine; the other members are to meet us at Council Bluffs. This night was fearfully cold—on our way to the Fort, the thermometer indicated -25°Fahr., but fortunately there was no wind. In the papers to-day appeared a telegram to Presdt. Hayes, purporting to have come from the Ponca Commission, announcing that at the convention held in Indian Territory, the Poncas had “enthusiastically and unanimously approved agreement made with the delegation lately in Washington”. This telegram it appears emanated from Mr. Stickney who endeavored to palliate his lack of discretion by saying that he had sent it to the President as a “personal” message. At 9 P.M., this day the thermometer indicated -28°Fahr. January 9th 1881 Remained at HdQrs. during morning, attending to official business &c. Day very cold. Left in the afternoon for Council Bluffs, Iowa, where we staid overnight at the U.P.R.R. dépôt, meeting the others of our party, Indians and all. This night was so cold that mercury froze in the Bulb. January 10th, 1881. Left Council Bluffs, Iowa for Running Water, 218


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Dakota, going by way of Chicago and North-Western R.R., to Missouri Valley Junction, thence by Sioux City & Pacific to Sioux City, Iowa, and from that point following along branches of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul R.R. As I was seated alongside of Revd. Mr. Riggs and Revd. Mr. Dorsey, our conversation naturally drifted to Indian matters and especially to Indian therapeutics. I gave them an account of the sickness and cure of Chimahuevi-Sal, one of the prominent chiefs of the Apache-Yuma tribe in Arizona, living at Camp Date Creek1 in that Territory. This Indian, a handsome specimen of physical strength and beauty, was “taken down” with a violent attack of inflammation of the lungs, complicated with every variety of pulmonary and bronchial trouble, fever and indigestion. There were two or three Army Doctors at the post who jumped at the chance of experimenting with the case. They certainly displayed no niggardliness in the amount of medicines they gave their patient: commencing with a syrup of squills and parejovis[?], they put him through the whole Dispensatory, now giving him a dose of ipecae, now a little Tolns Cod liver oil in larger quantities to furnish heat inwardly and Croton Oil to furnish it on the outside. Then they gave him warm baths and applied mustard poultices to his feet. But no effect was perceptible—the sick man kept getting worse and worse, his cheeks were hollow, his voice tremulous and his eyes shone with the gleam of approaching dissolution. More than that, most wonderful thing of all, the poor Indian had no appetite. After swallowing half a bottle full of cod-liver oil, three or four teaspoonsfull of ipecae, taking four (5) [sic] grains quinine pills, having a pint of Croton oil rubbed on his chest and experiencing the stimulating effects of a mustard foot bath, Chimahuevi’s system “failed to respond”, as the medical men termed it, and he refused to notice the food set before him. There was but one thing for our gentlemanly Sawbones to do and they did it; they declared Chimahuevi’s time had come; that he hadn’t many more hours to live and that he should settle up all his mundane affairs and turn his thoughts to the joys awaiting him on the Shining Shore. But Chimahuevi-Sal didn’t seem to enter very enthusiastically into the Shining Shore business; to be candid, he most decidedly “bucked” 1.â•‡ Camp Date Creek, originally designated Camp McPherson, was established sixty miles southwest of Prescott to guard the reservation for the Yavapais, Mojaves, and affiliated groups. It was abandoned after the reservations and military posts were consolidated. Atlshuler, Starting with Defiance, 25–26.

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against the idea of joining the Angel Band. This world was plenty good enough for the likes of him and he purposed remained [sic] in it to the very utmost limit of possibility. So he summoned the “head medicine man” of his nation. It must be understood that among the Indians of Arizona, a medicine man can “pitch in” and slay with perfect immunity from responsibility until he has planted seven of his victims under the daisies, or rather under the crocuses, because they don’t have daisies in that part of the country. His loss of popularity in the tribe is then intimated to him by a Committee who take him and roast him to death; that is if they can catch him. As a general thing, medicine men who have buried six patients prefer to retire from active practice and leave the field to younger men; this is a rule which might be observed with advantage in our boasted higher civilizations, but for some reason, our medicine men are not limited as to the number of their victims and consequently never know exactly when to retire from the front ranks of professional life, as their Apache-Mojave brethren do.2 As may be supposed, our American practitioners were fearfully discomfited by Chimahuevi’s action in sending for the Apache-Mojave Doctor and became very much exasperated at such Lieutenants as ventured to ask in a solemn kind of way if the Indian had been “called in for consultation with them”. Such a query whenever made, and it was truly astonishing how many lieutenants were making it about that time, was always sure to produce an explosive torrent of expletives against all the dash-dash-dash-dashed Indians in America and all the dash-dash-dashed idiot Lieutenants in the U.S. Army. The anger of our Medical Staff was somewhat assuaged but not wholly appeased by our rather lame explanations that we were merely in quest of enlightenment upon a point of professional etiquette and that had we even so much as dreamed that our gentlemanly, talented and experienced friends of the Medical Corps had been superseded by a savage Indian we should, from motives of delicacy, have carefully refrained from making any allusion to the subject. Somehow or another, our apologies only made the “paleface medicine men” all madder and evoked another storm of objurgation upon the dashdash-dash-dashed Idiot Lieutenants which we felt, in our hearts, was intended to have a very personal application. 2.â•‡ Bourke discussed the native practices in “The Medicine-Men of the Apache,” first published in 1892, and reprinted in 1993 as “Apache Medicine-Men.”


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To be brief, Chimahuevi Sal sent for his Indian medicine man, told him that the pale faced pill-carpenters had failed most ignominiously in their efforts to restore him to health and concluded by promising the Apache-Mojave doctor his all important friendship in case he succeeded in “pulling him through” his troubles. The medicine man accepted the contract and at once began to make his diagnosis: in this he was a great deal more expeditious than the white Doctors had been. They had come to no sort of a definite conclusion: from their remarks, one might judge that Chimahuevi Sal was suffering from a trifle of everything—mumps, bronchitis, cerebro-spinal meningitis and Bright’s disease, without any absolute certainty as to which was most serious in its indications. In the earnestness of his conclusions, as in the promptness with which he arrived at them, the medicine man again showed his power. He had only to thump the sick man on the chest once or twice to be able to announce in a very precise and dogmatic way that a spirit had seized upon Chimahuevi, and had to be dispossessed before the sick chief could get on his “pins” again. Everything was soon ready for the exorcism—The medicine man appeared, naked to the waist and daubed from head to foot with paint and powder; his long black hair, in which a few feathers hung, dangled loose to his waist: in each hand he held a gourd filled with shot which rattled in a fearfully dismal accompaniment as he thumped himself in the ribs with his elbows and howled a blood-curdling lay. Half the young bucks of the tribe had been sworn in as deputies and seated themselves in a circle around the dying man, upon whose naked breast, the half-healed blisters proclaimed the abortive efforts of the pale-faced Doctors. Within the extended circle a few old wrinkled hags were working over a little fire of juniper branches, in an iron camp kettle borrowed from the Quartermaster’s Department. In this kettle they had made a fearful mess, by boiling water with tobacco, coffee-grounds and bug-worms, which latter they would crack open to let the green “jism” run out. Then singing (!) commenced, the boss medicine man leading off in a howl that would have made a coyote ashamed of himself, and followed by all the bucks and squaws whose din showed they were engaged in a work of love. I don’t know how long this performance was continued; I had to leave the post, the coming of the day it commenced, but for the whole time that I was within ear-shot, the dismal noise of the

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thump, thump, thump of the drum and iron kettles, the rattling of gourds and the howls of the singers were maintained without the slightest sign of intermission. The recovering of Chimahuevi Sal was accomplished speedily; the Demon which possessed him could endure all the tortures our Doctors had inflicted upon him, but when it came to listening to the music (!) of the Apache-Mojaves, it found it hadn’t the necessary fortitude, as it retreated in a very hurried and undignified manner. Chimahuevi Sal celebrated his restoration by going on the war-path. It took our troops nearly three months to drive him and his little band back to the Reservation, such was the rugged and inaccessible character of the mountains in which he took refuge: Captain A. H. Nickerson, 23rd Infantry, (at that time A.D.C., upon Genl. Crook’s Staff and now a major in the Adjutant General’s Department, at Washington) and Captain James Burns, 3rd Cavalry, since dead, were entrusted with this duty and performed it well and notwithstanding the great trouble Chimahuevi-Sal gave, I never heard either of them say an unkind word about him; maybe the sufferings he had undergone at the hands of our “medicine men”, may have seemed to them to have justified any measure of retaliation. Yet our Doctors always maintained a bold front on this point and stoutly averred that it was their treatment which had saved Chimahuevi Sal’s life: that the Croton blister had drawn all the inflamation from his lungs and that the only thing needed after that was rest, which, perhaps, the tortured “invalid” found in the howls and yells and drumming of the Apache conjurors. I thought I noticed, after this occasion, that whenever any of the Lieutenants who had scoffed at the failure of our Doctors and extolled the greater skill of the Indian “professors”,—whenever any of these Lieutenants had an attack of indisposition,—no matter what its nature,— dyspepsia, malaria or jaundice, our medical men put him through a course of sprouts and drenched him with all the vile compounds in the laboratory—just to get even, I suppose. We arrived at Sioux City, Iowa, at dinner time; this town, on the East Bank of the Missouri river, 100 miles North of Omaha, has grown to be a Rail Road center of considerable importance touched by main or branch lines of the Sioux City and Pacific, Illinois Central, Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul, Omaha and St. Paul, Southern Dakota, Saint Paul & Sioux City and other lines. Thermometer here this morning indicated -26° Fahr. We took the Milwaukee and Saint


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Paul road to Canton Junction, Dakota. This is a growing young place, the point of intersection of two branches of the Milwaukee & Saint Paul R.R. It has a brick bank, several churches, a number of nice dwellings and a couple of hotels. We saw a number of men hauling ice to a store-house. This ice was beautiful, it was 26 inches thick, clear as glass and compact as iron. At 8 P.M., the Ponca Commission met in room 20, Naylor House, all the members present. The proceedings of the last meeting were read and approved, after which the Revd. Mr. J. Owen Dorsey was examined. Questioned by Mr. Allen. Q. Did you live among the Poncas at one time? A. I did at one time, from May 1871 until August 1873. Q. In what capacity? A. As missionary, under the Indn. Commisn. of the P[rotestant]. E[piscopal]. church, which comn. has its HdQrs in Bible House, N.Y. Q. Where were the Poncas then? A. They were living on the old Reservation in two villages, about eight miles apart; one on the Niobrara near the Island where Standing Bear now is and the other at the Agency, where the mission was established. Q. Please make a statement as to the condition of Indians at that time; as to their civilization, their disposition both towards their white friends & Indian neighbors and what progress they had made in agriculture and education. A. At that time, they were on friendly terms with the Santees and Yanktons. They told me that previous to 1868, they were the allies of the Brulé Sioux with whom they intermarried. Those were their near Indian neighbors. When I was with them, they were on friendly terms with the Omahas, but they told me that, previous to 1868, they had joined the Brulé Sioux in war against the Omahas and Pawnees. A nephew of Spotted Tail was in the Ponca camp when I was there,— adopted into that tribe; his name was Flying Eagle. He has since died; I have seen him. This very man down-stairs—Cheyenne—who has been selected by them as one of their delegates to accompany us from the Indian Territory to the old Ponca Agency,—is a DakotaYankton Sioux, adopted into the Ponca tribe and living with them many years. I found them on friendly terms with the whites; many

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of them were anxious to go out during harvest time and work for the whites, living on Niobrara and in that vicinity, but, as I was informed by the Agent, there was a Regulation prohibiting that. At the same time they were drawing no regular rations and they could not take up claims on the Reservation, because they feared the attacks of the Brulé Sioux, as the two villages of Poncas had to keep together. I have mentioned that, previous to 1868, they were on friendly terms with the Brulés, but subsequent to that time, I understand from the Poncas, ill-feelings were engendered on account of the treaty ceding to the Sioux the lands of the Poncas;—the Sioux began to commit depredations upon the Poncas. There was not a regular state of War,—only occasional raids. From the time the snow disappeared until the snow came again, they were in constant fear of the inroads of the Brulés. Several times while I was there, the Brulés attacked the Poncas. On one occasion, they came in daylight and the fight lasted about four hours. I understood there were sixtyseven mounted Brulés & Ogallalas in the party. In 1870, the Poncas promised their friend.—Mr. William Welsh, a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners—that they would not take revenge upon the Sioux, but they would ask the Department to grant them damages out of any funds belonging to the Sioux.3 I know that the chiefs endeavoured to keep that promise: the leading men of the tribe certainly exerted all their influence in that direction and they succeeded except perhaps in one instance. Some of the young men stole off from the lower village, (the island,) and in a few days they returned with a number of ponies. This was just after some of the Sioux had been down and taken ponies from some of the Poncas. I should have said there was another fight between the Sioux and Poncas in open daylight, which occurred after this stealing of ponies. This state of hostility continued during my stay. As to their desire for farming;—in 1871, they planted; the Sioux came down and pulled up the corn, saying they would not allow the Poncas to live like white people. The Poncas replanted; a part of the crop was injured by hail. In 1872, each head of a family had his piece of land laid off under cultivation and the crops were in fine condition, when the grass-hoppers came. I cannot say how large 3.â•‡ William Welsh was the uncle of Herbert Welsh who, together with Henry Pancoast, founded the Indian Rights Association in Philadelphia in 1882. Hoxie, Encyclopedia, 171; Mathes, Helen Hunt Jackson, 6.


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the crops were, nor how large the farms were: the pieces of land were given to the heads of families by the Agent and some of these farms were fenced in. The crops were looking very well indeed, but one day the grass-hoppers destroyed about half. About two weeks after that, there came a whirl-wind and hail-storm which destroyed nearly all the crops that remained. I understand that the men of the Niobrara or lower village, led by White Eagle himself, went out to the wheat-field and with hatchets or knives tried to cut the wheat in their fields by the handfull gathering it in their blankets. In 1872, those who lived at the Agency village, planted near the Missouri; at the time of the June rise, the river carried away all of their crops. It cut in beyond their fields, coming in nearly ¾ of a mile behind them. I should have said that in 1870 they planted, and the sun burned up their crops;—there was a drought and they were on the verge of starvation when Mr. Welsh visited them in the Fall and purchased some food which kept them until the spring of 1871, when I first saw them. They were very industrious and desirous of supporting themselves and their families. I cannot say how much land they had, under cultivation. I know of two chiefs who broke ten A[cres]. apiece for the Agent, for wages, besides what they broke for themselves. They have come to me repeatedly, begging for work, I employed them, I made work for them. I would have them pile wood in one place and then have them pile it in another. I was instructed to pay them out of mission funds, sometimes in clothing, sometimes in cash: this was to encourage industry among them. There was a saw and grist-mill there; some were employed there and some in blacksmith shop; some in carpenter shop and some as herders. They traded with the people outside at Niobrara, but of this, I speak only from hearsay. They lived in log-houses made by themselves, not at Government Expense; they were 18’ x 32’, one story high, roofed with earth. There must have been in the neighborhood of two hundred at one time. The row at the Agency formed an obtuse angle and must have been over a mile long. At first they had dirt-floors;—then plank. I know of one Indian who paid another $30 for the logs for his home. There were 747 Poncas, all told when I went there. I have a list of their houses at home, but not here. Q. by General Crook. How many Poncas were there when you

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left? Ans. About Seven hundred & Twenty Five. The first years were healthy, 1871, 1872. But the Summer of 1873, was unhealthy, owing to rank vegetation, stagnant water from the “June rise” and cut-ins by the Missouri river. The disease was of a malarial type. I myself was sick for over a month: I had to go to Yankton for nineteen days; about 15 @ 20 died. Q. by General Crook. Did they not increase any between 1871– 1873? A. I cannot say. I don’t think they did. The births about equalled the deaths. Q. by Mr. Allen. Did they show any disposition to improve their houses, as they were able? Ans. Yes. The first thing they desired was bedsteads; they didn’t wish to sleep on the ground. Next they asked for chairs and tables; the Agency carpenter was instructed to make them for them. I believe they were given to them. Then they said they wished floors to their houses because when they were eating, some one might come in and dust would arise & get in their food. Then they wished closets to hold their dishes and a number of them had curtains put before the shelves to keep the dust off their dishes. Each family had one stove and most of them had two:—one Heating and one Cooking. As hope grew in abundance there, the ladies of the Mission taught them how to make yeast: Then they were taught to make bread. There were more applicants than the ladies could teach and the wife of my interpreter and several other Ponca women, having learned themselves, became teachers, and assisted the ladies. They brought us specimens of the bread they had made—very good bread,—of which they were proud. The women had learned to do their washing on Monday, instead of on Saturday. A number of the men wore citizen’s4 clothing. As to their desire for education, previous to 1871, they had had two teachers; one, a white man, who was under the influence of liquor part of the time. I heard this from the Indians, and he would often direct Samuel Gayton, one of the Indian boys who knew a little English,— to instruct the smaller scholars,—teach them their alphabet. The next teacher was a Half-Breed—David Le Chair—whose knowledge of English is by no means perfect. The 3d teacher was a Mr. James 4.â•‡ I.e., white.


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Lawrence, subsequently their Agent. He recd. $75 per mo. & was, I think, the only good teacher they had had up to that time. He taught from June 1871 until March 1872—about nine months. I commenced my work in assisting him; when he caused the school to become a mission School, under the P[rotestant].E[piscopal]. Board. I taught myself part of the time and at other times the School was conducted by two lady missionaries. At one time, there were four ladies on duty there. Q. by General Crook. About how much progress had the Indians made up to the time you left there? A. A number of children were in the 2nd Reader; and a number of the Adults were so far advanced, they acted as interpreters for the ladies. They learned all this in the school, commencing at the alphabet. One man could speak English before I went there. I had a school for adults in the afternoon; the men were very eager to learn. I had over forty under me; one old man over 60, came to learn to read & I had to refuse him. There were about 50 children in the school from both villages. They did not live at school: Those from the lower village lived with their relatives in the upper village and we took all the children we could into our family: at one time, we had six. We had a church; at first we held services in the school-house: we occupied by permission of Government, a dwelling as Mission House; two rooms were used as a school and on Sunday for religious services. Afterwards, we built a church. The Indians helped by hauling lumber. The Indians were faithful in attendance upon service and shamed the whites. The morning service was held especially for them and they came in great-numbers. I spoke in English. The afternoon service was designed for the whites and timed to suit their convenience; on an average, not more than one employee was in attendance; sometimes two, but the Indians attended almost as much in the afternoon when they didn’t understand well, the services being in English—as in the morning, when the services were entirely for the Indians. Seventeen adults were confirmed and fourteen children. None [of the children?] confirmed. We had no Sunday School. Their general character for sobriety and for honesty was good. I could trust my property and my life among them. The young men were up to the average of Indians in similar circumstances, in morality. After I left, there was an intermission of some months and then Dr. Gray, a candidate for holy orders, succeeded me and remained for

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some time. I have no previous knowledge of the removal of these Poncas. I have been a correspondent with them. I was employed, under the orders of Major [John Wesley] Powell, now of the Ethnological Bureau of the Smithsonian Institute,—who asked me to get as many Indian letters as possible, to write to as many Indians as I could and to preserve the originals for his Office for linguistic purposes;—just to show their mode of thought and expression. I wrote letters at request of members of the Omaha tribe to their relations among the Poncas in Indian Terry. This was in the latter part of 1878 and up to February 1879, perhaps, a little later. I wrote no letters to the Poncas after April 3rd 1879, because I received on that day a letter from Agent [Jacob] Vore of the Omahas, enclosing one from the Indian Bureau, signed by E. J. Brooks, Acting Commissioner, of which I’ll give the substance. Mr. Brooks referred to a letter from Agent Whitman [sic] of the Poncas, in Indian Ty. in which letter Mr. Whitman stated that there was much dissatisfaction among the Poncas and a strong desire to return to their old home in Dakota; that this dissident faction was caused, in his opinion, by sundry letters received by the Poncas purporting to come from sundry Omaha Indians; that these letters contained expressions which were calculated to cause this dissatisfaction and that the letters were written by me (Dorsey.). I cannot say whether Mr. Whitman made the request or whether it was made by Mr. Brooks himself, but anyhow, a request was made in that letter to me, not to allow myself to be used in that way by the Omahas in the future and I was asked to eliminate from all letters I wrote from the Omahas to the Poncas such objectionable expressions. I replied to Agent Vore’s letter, saying that when I wrote for the Omahas to the Poncas, it was in accordance with instructions from Major Powell in Washington and I sent a copy to Commissioner Hayt saying I had the originals of the Indian letters on file and that they should be published in the future. To avoid a recurrence of such a thing, I determined to write no more letters from the Omahas to the Poncas. Q. by Mr. Stickney. Which of the tribes are in closest affinity with the Poncas? A. The Omahas; they speak the same language. Q. by General Crook. What are their affiliations with the Santees? A. They are intermarried a good deal with them, but they speak an entirely different language.


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Q. by General Miles. So far as you know, were the letters sent from the Omahas to the Poncas of a nature to create dissatisfaction? A. I was not aware at the time of sending these letters that they contained anything of a nature to create trouble, or I should not have sent them; and I remember distinctly having declined to send one letter because I thought it might make trouble. Q. by Mr. Allen. Have the Indian letters yet been published by Major Powell? A. No, Sir. I have the originals in the office in Washington. Q. How many bands or divisions of the Poncas are there. A. According to their own organization, there are, organized as follows: Typewritten and signed report pasted in the diary, manuscript volume 38, pages 976 and facing 977. ORGANIZATION OF THE PONKA CLANS OR GENTES. The Ponkas now have but nine clans, one, the Ne-shta, being extinct. Of the first clan, HI’-SA-DA, The Chief is the head. He was in Washington in December. Big Soldier is the head of the next. He was in Washington. The next but one to him, Cries for war [sic], is with Standing Bear. White Eagle is the present head of the third clan, DHI-GHIDA. Next to him is Smoke-maker (with Standing Bear), whose father was head of the clan before Eagle’s father.5 The 6th. chief of this clan (on my list in 1879) is Big Buffalo, now in I.T. Of the NO-KA-PA-SHNA clan Black Crow is head. Hairy Bear is head of the MA-KA″ clan. Raises others, and Over the land, are two under chiefs of this clan who are in IT. Hey Chief is about the only chief of the WASHA-BE- CLAN in the I.T. Three others, two being heads of sub-clans, are with Standing Bear. They are Bird head (head of sub-clan, and keeper of a sacred pipe); Black Elk (head of sub-clan), and Buffalo Chips 5.â•‡ Smoke Maker and nine others had left the Territory in 1878, and taken refuge at the Yankton Agency in Dakota Territory. The government took no action in that case. Mathes and Lowitt, Standing Bear Controversy, 47.

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(keeper of a sacred pipe). The NE-SHTA clan has become extinct. Standing Buffalo is head of the Dark Osage clan. Standing Bear is head of the Gray Osage clan; while Red Leaf, who represented this clan in Washington, is next to Standing Bear. When I met the delegation in Washington, the chiefs told me that of the last clan, the NU-GHE, Stands-at-the-end and his son were alive. According to my list, obtained in 1879-80, Stands-atthe-end is a chief of this clan. It was not represented at Washington when the paper was signed. When I was with the Commission at the present Ponka Agency, I was met by a claimant to the headship or chieftaincy of this gens. He expected that the others had brought him a chief’s medal from Washington. He made the claim in behalf of himself and Stands dark-in-the-distance. His own name is I-shta-ba-su’do (Buffalo calf) Sheds off the hair next the eyes. Children of white fathers by Ponka mothers have no status in the organization by clans or gentes. The sacred laws handed down from the ancestors of the Ponkas, have no application to them. Of what is now called “the half-breed band” Michel Gorre (Hard Walker) and Frank LaFleche (White Swan) are counted chiefs. Buffalo chief (Macdonald) belongs to this band and may be a chief in it, but not in the tribe. Michel used to be “the business chief.” What clan Buffalo chief represented at Washington, I am unable to say. Perhaps he and White Swan signed for the half-breeds. SUMMARY: Clans I. HI’-SA-DA. The Chief, head; at Washington. II. WA-SA’-BE-HI-TA’-ZHI. Big Soldier, head; at Washington. III. DNI-GHI-DA. White Eagle[,] head; at Washington. IV. NI’-KA-PA’-SHNA. Black Crow, head; at Washington. V. MA-KA″. Hairy Bear, head; ditto. VI. WA-SHA’-BE. Boy Chief, at Washington; three chiefs with


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Standing Bear. VII. NE’-SHTA. Extinct. VIII. DARK OSAGES. Standing Buffalo, head; at Washington IX. GRAY OSAGES. Standing Bear, head; NOT at Washington. (Red Leaf there). X. NU-GHE. NOT represented at Washington. Uhañ’-gena’zhi”, a chief; two claimants, Stands-dark-in-the-distance, and Sheds-hair-next-the-eyes. Half-breeds at Washington: White Swan, and Buffalo Chief. Respectfully submitted by (Rev.) J. Owen Dorsey. Ledgesville, W.Va. Jan 22, 1881 Received from Mr. Dorsey by mail in Washington, D.C., in Jany. 1881. Bourke’s transcript of the hearing continues. Q. by General Miles. Referring to their progress in agriculture during the time you were with them, 1871–1873, please state what portion of the tribe were supporting themselves, wholly or in part, by cultivating the ground? A. All of them, so far as I could ascertain. They received no regular rations & all seemed anxious to work. Q. Do you know what number of families had small farms or gardens? A. I do not know; I can’t recall the number, but I remember that one summer, from the Mission House, we issued packages of seeds to 50 families, besides what the Agent distributed. Every thing planted that year came up splendidly; the land was extremely rich and well adapted for cultivation. Q. Please state for how many years had the Poncas been cultivating the ground? A. I don’t know anything prior to 1870, I never knew anything about the Poncas, prior to 1870, when Mr. Welsh came back. Q. by Mr. Allen. What do you think of the productiveness of the Ponca Reservation in Dakota? A. I don’t know for all of it; there were three portions of it very good; the valley of the Niobrara, the valley of Ponca Creek and the Missouri river bottom, near the Agency village: these were the best parts of

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it,—fine soil,—everything came up,—well adapted for agriculture. Q. Were they receiving annuities or rations at that time? A. Only a small amount of annuities; I can’t tell how much. Rations, only in great exigencies. I have known Poncas to die of starvation in the time when the crops were not yet harvested. They had cattle and ponies and hogs and fowl and agricultural implements to some extent. Whenever they wanted implements they would borrow them from the Agency; I have often written notes for them to the Agent, asking for the loan of a plow for them. At eleven p.m., the Commission adjourned after having first read over and Approved the Proceedings of this Meeting. January 11th 1881. At one o’clock in the morning, took the train for Marion Junction, Dakota, which we reached in two hours. The cars were crowded, every seat being taken. At the Junction, took the train for Running Water, Dakota: this part of the journey had no redeeming features; we were packed in like sardines, the weather fearfully cold with the mercury down somewhere in the neighborhood of 40° below zero. The car not well warmed, the air foul and in every sense the ride was most inconvenient and disagreeable. From the terminus of the R.R., we crossed in sleighs to the West Bank of the Missouri River, to the little town of Niobrara, Neb.,* at the mouth of the little stream of the same name, where we found accomodations, so to style them, at the Hubbard House, a small affair, but the best in town. We ate a pretty good breakfast and then some of our older members retired for a nap, not having had much rest for several nights. Mr. Fox, who said he was one of the lawyers of the town, drove up in a sleigh and very kindly took Roberts, Allen and myself for a drive. We passed along several of the streets, enough to show us the town was a thriving little borough with a pop. of 500. It has grown up from nothing in the past two years: on every street, is a miserable “hotel”, and there is also a Brewery, at which we stopped to drink a glass of beer, cold as charity and not very good. The Thermometer at the Brewery indicated -14° F. Snow lay to a great depth, in places 12 @ 14 in. on a level and in drifts of at least 5 ft., Mr. Fox said that this was the severest winter known for years. Crossing the Niobrara river to a large island, we reached the village of the Poncas,—consisting both of tépis and log-houses. *Bourke’s footnote: 270 miles from Omaha, Neb.


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The Chief—Standing Bear and his brother, Yellow Horse, David, and the old chief Smoke Maker and several others came up to shake hands, but our stay was too brief to let us say or see much. The Poncas have ponies, wagons, cattle, hogs, hay and wood piles and other indications of thrift and increasing comfort. A supply of blankets had just reached them from friends in Omaha, Neb., which they were engaged in distributing among their women & children. This year, they have cultivated over 100 A[cres]. of corn, which is stored in granaries and have been, with the exception of some little assistance from sympathizing friends in Boston, and Omaha, independent of outside help.

Chapter 13 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The Dakota Poncas Speak

T

owards noon, Standing Bear and others came over to our Hotel; there they met Cheyenne, Hairy Bear and Peter Primand. When Standing Bear met the two old men, they kissed each other warmly but when it came to Primand’s turn, the young man did not venture upon a kiss, but simply pressed his cheek against the old man’s cheek in a very respectful manner. At 2 P.M., the Ponca Commission assembled in the Academy of Music. There were Present Brigadier General Crook, U.S. Army. Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, U.S. Army. Mr. William Stickney, Washington, D.C. Mr. Walter Allen, Newton, Mass. Major C. S. Roberts, A.D.C., Lt. John G. Bourke, A.D.C. And Capt. E. L. Huggins. Revd. Mr. Dorsey and David Le Clair, as interpreters. The following Chiefs present: Standing Bear, Little Ice, Bird Head, Smoke-maker, Cries for War, Broken Jaw, Black Elk, Buffalo Chips, Missouri Timber and a full delegation of Standing Bear’s band. A number of civilians present. 234


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General Crook. Mr. Dorsey, explain to them that we come here by order of the President, to find out their situation. We have just been down to Indian Territory and seen that part of the Band and now we have come here to see them & learn from themselves their condition and to satisfy ourselves as far we can what is for their best interests; and we want them to answer all questions as put to them unreservedly and they can rest assured that we are their friends and that they can speak freely. (Revd. Mr. Dorsey read & translated to them the President’s letter of instructions to the Commission, which can be seen on [167–68]. State to them that we have heard the story of their removal so often that we don’t care to hear it again but want them to give us the story from the time they left Indian Territory up to the present time. We want their story in as few words as possible, so as to save time. Standing Bear (dressed in civilian garb.) I do not think that we have made this day but I think that God has caused it, and my heart is glad to see you all here. Why should I tell you a different word? I have told to God my troubles and why should I deceive Him? I have told my troubles to Him. Whatever God does is good, I think; even if a thing happens which may not suit us or which may be unfortunate, still God causes it, I think. If a man gets by accident or puts himself into a bad place, or gets frightened, he remembers God and asks Him to help him. You have seen that land, my friends: God made us there, my friends, and He made you too, but I have been very weak. You have driven me from the East to this place and I have been here two thousands years or more. (David—The oldest man here cannot recollect when our people came here.) I don’t know how it came about that I encountered misfortune. My friends, they spoke of carrying me away. I was unwilling. “My friends, if you took me away from this land, it would be very hard for me. I wish to die in this land. I wish to be a very old man here”. As I was unwilling they fastened me and made a person of me and carried me to the Fort—(Fort Randall.)1 When I came back, the soldiers came with their guns and bayonets. The aimed their guns at us and our people and our children were crying. This was a very 1.â•‡ Standing Bear refers to his arrest and detention at Fort Randall in 1876, where he was held for ten days. See Robinson, General Crook, 233; Mathes and Lowitt, Standing Bear Controversy, 29–30; Greene, Fort Randall, 120–22.

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different thing that was done to me. I had hoped the Great Father had not done this thing to me, forcing me to leave this land. They took me and carried me without stopping: they travelled all day until night came, and they carried me down to Baxter Springs. (David. Where there are rocks and lead mines which have been dug out.) I reached that place & while I was there I think that fully 150 of my people died. The land was truly bad and so I came back again. One of the employees of the President—a commissioner—came to see me: I said to him: “I am going back to my own land. I have never given it to you. I have never sold it to you. You have not paid me for it. I am going back to my own land. The Lawyers, Ministers and those who are with them, those who control the land and God Himself, if He desire[s] it;—all will help me”. I came back and there was some talk of this affair; they took pity on me, just as you here take pity on me, and there was a suit brought about it in the Courts and the affair was settled and I came back successful. Some of my people have gone to my Great Father in Washington,—are they there now? (General Crook. No. They’ve gone back.) My friend, I haven’t got much brain, but you whites have a great deal of brain. The Indians do not know much but the Great Father has caused you to come to look into our affairs. I refer to this land, not knowing about it; the Indians are ignorant about it. When they went from Indian Territory to sell this land, they didn’t know about it and the Great Father should have told them correctly. Which of the Great Fathers was it? He should have released me, let me alone. Which of the Great Fathers was it? (Was it the Dutchman with the eye-glasses?) (The sentence in...brackets was suppressed in the report submitted by the Commission.) What I am going to tell you here, will take me until dark. Since I have got from the Territory up to this time, I have not wished to give even a part of it to the Great Father. Tho’ he were to give me a million dollars, I would not give him the land. Even if the Great Father should wish to buy a part of the land from me, the Indians up the river would be hear of it [sic] and would be unwilling. (meaning the Santees, Minneconjoux and other tribes of the Sioux.) My friends, I have been in our lands:—to Omaha, Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington—all these cities & I have been to the Dakotas and they (the Sioux) have given me my land back (David. explained that last summer the Poncas went up to Spotted Tail Agency and had a grand


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council with the Dakotas and that Spotted Tail had told his people they must not retain this land, but must give it back to the Poncas who wanted to live upon it.) I wish to take back my people from Indian Ty. I wish them to live[.] I haven’t heard what you’ve done with regard to them. If the Secretary is sick or foolish, I hope you’ll act as physician and heal him. (Great laughter among the Indians.) I mean the one who speaks German. If one man cheats another, tries to make sport of him or to kill him, and the other party finds out his danger, he don’t have anything more to do with him; he lets him go to one side. I refer to the land. When they went to the Great Father to sell the land, which land did they mean? They live in Indian Ty.: did they want to sell that land, or to sell this where I live and which is mine? One thing I forgot: the land in which you dwell, my friends, is your own: who would come from another quarter to take it away from you? Your land is your own & so are your things, and you wouldn’t like anybody to come and try to take them away from you. If men want to trade they say “how much do you want for that piece of property? What price do you put upon it?[”] But nothing of that kind was said. They came and took me away without saying a word. Whenever I went travelling, this man went with me and he has all the words of those people & he will tell them to you. Missouri Timber (speaking in Dakota through Mr. Riggs.) When a man first addresses any one, he should first make mention of God. God alone is able to make anything or anyone and so it is entirely unfit that He should be forgotten if one is to speak. My friends I am an Indian, but as the Great Father has given you a commission to travel about, so I have been commissioned by the Indian chiefs to travel about and now my friends, you will hear what they said to me. Last summer when they had a great gathering and all the Indian tribes were collected together, I was there. There are here now representatives from two parts of the Ponca people: It was the wish of this Great Council that this Ponca people should be troubled no longer. That Council was held for the sake of favoring anything that was good; for the sake of all things sent to us from the President. Eleven tribes there ratified to the Poncas their possession of this land and gave them a writing in assurance of the same which Smoke-Maker has with him to-day. The land occupied by these tribes is all one land and belongs to all

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the Indian people and not to any one tribe of them. (Revd. Mr. Riggs explained that he meant what is called the Great Sioux Reserve.) Therefore they appointed these men, the Poncas, the guardians of the extremity of this land and gave a paper to be presented to all white men in witness of this. General Crook. Tell him to be certain to bring that paper here tomorrow morning. We want to see it and get a copy of it. Standing Bear (Revd. Mr. Dorsey Interpreter.) If a man forgets something in telling a story he wants to speak again, so you can understand fully and have his story straight. You are here on some business:—to do some work—to make our affairs straight for us and I am very glad to see you on that account. My friends, now I’ve no troubles at all. I work for my living and I get food. Why should I have 2 or 3 hearts? It is not so: I prize this land very much. The Great Father doesn’t regard me.2 I am working for myself. I am an Indian and am working for myself. My friends. You are here as Doctors and you walk about in that business & so I tell you. Why should I tell you 2 or 3 stories? Smoke-Maker. My friends, When I see these four persons, it makes me very glad: because my friends wish to hear the story exactly as it is, it makes me very glad. I had a number of possessions on this land and they made me suffer very much by removing me and depriving me of them. My friend says he wants to hear all about this and I believe he does; he speaks the truth. My friend here (General Crook.) knows all the story; how we were taken to the Territory and how we came back and how I lost my children down there and I came back and took refuge in this land. The ministers and other people helping me I have come back to my land; I am, as it were, born again and so I live there; and they, my Christian friends, having helped me, I have received farming implements and I raised a large crop; and I have logs, chickens and stock. My Christian friends truly desired me to live, I thought. They sent me some provisions at first until I could raise some for myself and I have been doing very well here since. I heard something about selling a piece of land and I thought those Poncas in Indian Ty., must have sad hearts and that they waned to sell that land; but this land, I have here and I prize it very highly. I went to see Spotted Tail and the other Sioux up the river; they took pity on me and received me very kindly and gave 2.â•‡ By this, he meant he received no government support.


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me some food. And they gave me a paper, saying they gave me back my land and they wished me to dwell at the end, meaning that they took us in and considered us as Sioux and made us the end band of their tribe. They gave me ponies so I could work my land and so I depend upon both sides; upon them, the Sioux and upon you who have come here. Yes, I depend upon both of you; upon you and upon them and when I went up there they gave me one hundred ponies. I am very glad to see you, my friends, to-day. General Crook. Tell them I saw them last spring when they were in great trouble, but altho’ I sympathized with them, I wasn’t then in a position to help them. I am glad to see them getting along so well. Now we come in a different capacity and one in which we come to help them; we want them to assist us in this matter. We can’t do anything ourselves, but we can recommend to the President. We know their story and know more about the ways of the whites than they do and we want to recommend that which will be best for their interests in all time to come. We have seen the rest of their tribe in Indian Territory and we want to make such a recommendation as will secure justice to those down there and to these also. Altho’ those people down there signed a paper to sign away this land, that itself does not settle the matter (Here a bench broke down and tumbled a dozen chiefs to the floor; great laughter among the Indians.) Do these Indians know what was in the paper the others signed? Answer. We do not know it at all. General Crook to Mr. Dorsey, Read it to them. (Revd. Mr. Dorsey read & translated the “Washington Agreement” to the Poncas.) General Crook. Tell them that the Chiefs signed this paper and when we went to Indian Ty. we saw the Poncas there and explained this paper to them and they all agreed to it, as they understood it. Now tell them I wish to state to them a few points which will enter into our calculations in making our Report to the President: in the 1st place, the Poncas in Indian Ty. are a great deal more numerous than those here & consequently own a greater portion of the land there than these do. Now those Poncas down there in Indian Ty. were very decided in their expressions to us that they wanted to remain down there. Now if those Indians don’t change their minds and want to remain down there and these don’t want to go down there, there is going to be some trouble about dividing this land and if both the

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agencies are kept up, it will necessitate two Agents & other officers which of course will increase the expense which must come out of their funds. Now what we want to do is recommend to the President such measures as will do justice to all the Poncas, those down in Indian Ty. and those here. General Miles. Please state to them, Mr. Dorsey, that if those Indians down there gave as a reason for changing their mind that they despaired of ever being able to get back there. Being under the impression that they must remain there, they desired to do the best they could: they were under the impression that they would get a stronger title to the land down there than they had to the land here, hence the chiefs signed the paper giving up their interest in the land here and the Indians down there endorsed their action under this same impression. Some of them told us that they should prefer to remain in that land whether they got any money or not and they also told us that that was the general opinion of the Poncas there. In our recommendation, we shall have to respect the interests of the Poncas in Indian Ty., as well as of these here and what we wish to ascertain is whether or not an arrangement can be made which shall be satisfactory to both parties. Nothing, up to the present time, is definitely settled. We believe it is within the power and the intention of the Government to do full and exact justice to all the Poncas, and for that reason, before taking any definite action, we should be glad to hear any suggestions or wishes they may have as to the settlement of this matter, because we desire to recommend such a settlement as shall be for the best interests of all. Mr. Allen. My friends, I am glad to see you: I have heard about the Poncas for a long time and many of the white people have heard about them and their troubles. Many white people have felt an interest in them and when they thought all the Poncas wanted to come back to their own land, these white people wanted they should. They knew some of the Poncas had left Indian Ty. and come back to their own land. They heard that the Poncas wanted to come back to their own land and they were trying to help them to do it. While they were working to do this they heard that the Poncas in Indian Ty. had sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior. In the letter they said that they wished to remain where they were & wanted to sell their old land. They asked the Secretary of the Interior to let them come to Washington to make an agreement for the sale


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of their land and to settle all their affairs. The white people heard that the Poncas who were on the old Land wanted to stay on the old Land. The white people who were interested in the Poncas’ affairs told the President what they thought about them. The President is a very busy man with a great many things to attend to and had not the time to give so much attention to the Poncas’ trouble as some other people had: and when these white people told the President that they thought the Poncas had not been treated justly, he said he wanted to have them treated justly. They told the President that the Poncas on the Old Land had not sent any letter asking to sell their land but that those Poncas owned a share of the Old Land as well as the Poncas of Indian Ty. and that before the old lands were sold, what the Poncas on the Old Lands thought about it, ought to be known. The white men also said that they did not know what had made the Poncas in Indian Ty. change their minds about staying there. The President said he wanted the business to be made straight for all the Poncas. He said: “I will send some men down to the Poncas in Indian Ty. and to the Poncas in Dakota, to find out what the truth is in the matter”, and he said, “the old lands shall not be sold until these men come back to tell me what ought to be done”. So when the Poncas from Indian Ty. went to Washington, the President would not let them sell the lands. All that he would let them do and all that they did was to sign a paper, which said how they would be willing to sell the land. This paper, which was read to them, is not a bargain selling the land, but it is only a paper, telling what kind of a bargain the Poncas in Indian Ty. are willing to make. Now nothing more will be done about this business until this Commission gets back to Washington and tells the President what it thinks. If after the talk with all the Poncas, it seems best for them all to live in Indn. Ty., we shall say so; but if it seems best that all the Poncas shall come back to their old lands, we shall say that to the President. If it seems best that some Poncas shall stay in Ind. Ty. and some stay here, we shall tell the President that. So you see we shall not be able to make up our minds what to tell the President until we shall have learned the whole truth of the matter. We have been down to the Indn. Ty. We talked with the Poncas down there. They said that the Gov’t. wanted them to stay down there and some of them said they liked the land and the climate down there bet-

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ter than they used to and they had made up their minds that they would remain down there rather than make any further trial to get back here. Some of them said that the land down there was better than this land. One of them said that if the President would give him $20.000, he wouldn’t come back here. Now we have come up here to find out what you think of this matter and we want you to know just what the members of your band in Indian Ty. think about it, and so we have brought some of your friends along with us, that they and you may talk together about this matter. Perhaps you will persuade them that they had better come back here. Perhaps, they will persuade you that it is better for you to go down there. Perhaps you’ll not be able to agree, but you will see that if it is possible to agree, it will be better for all the Poncas to live together. Now, we are not going to you [sic] any more, now, but leave you to talk with your friends who come from the Indian Ty. who can explain the paper they have signed themselves and then we will all meet again at 8 o’clock to-night and then we want you should tell what you think of the matter after talking with your friends. The Commission hereupon adjourned. All day long we have been greatly annoyed by the obtrusive attentions of a lot of old “duffers”, claiming to be old friends of General Crook and General Miles: every one of them has a nose like a squashed tomato and a breath which ought to pay whiskey license and Internal Revenue Tax: I shall speak of these fellows again a little farther on. 8.00 o’clock P.M. The Commission met in the Academy of Music. Present Generals Crook and Miles and Mr. Allen. Major Roberts, Lieut. Bourke & Captain Huggins. Mr. Stickney, Absent. Sick. Revd. Mr. Dorsey and Riggs as interpreters. Same Indians present as at last meeting. Hairy Bear, having received permission from the Commission to speak to his people, said. (David Le Clair translating his remarks into English.) [Speaking to the Dakota Poncas, rather than to the commission] My friends, when I first saw you, you made my heart cry, you hugged me and kissed me. To-day, I want to say a few words to you. When our Indians down in Indian Ty. assembled in Council, they made this


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arrangement about their lands. My friends, I always think I wished I had a little more memory than I have to-day. My friends, to-day, they told you about the lands they have given to the Great Father. They have said so: it would be wrong to deny it. We have done it. My friends, it’s so long since we were together, we became tired of it and so our tribe got together and said they would sell their lands. No one caused it. They did it themselves. Then we got the letter from the Great Father, ordering us to come down to see him. My friends, I have said in the Council in the Ty. when they first mentioned about the lands: “That land is not our own: part of it belongs to our friends up there; we should find out what they have to say about it”—But they wouldn’t mind me. Now to-day we find ourselves together and you object to selling and that’s the thing I was afraid of when they first began to talk of selling. Now, friends, the chiefs are somewhat afraid of you. I thought I would come up and hear your own words. I have heard your words to-day. I said to them this, my friends, at the Council: “The Whites, (Mr. Tibbles and party,) are working for us both ways. I am afraid they have got tired of us so we had better make an arrangement for ourselves”. My friends, we got down to our Great Father. We asked him and he told us this: “has Standing Bear agreed upon this which you have said down in Indian Ty,” and, friends, Eagle said this to the Great Father. “Yes, Standing Bear is up there; he is entitled to a portion of the land and I want to do the fair thing by him”. Friends, when I started White Eagle told me this, “tell our friend Standing Bear up there that I am going to turn around and give our young people to him”. My friends, I don’t want to trouble you in this matter at all, but they told me to tell you what they have said to me. And also he meant for you (David.) that your brother down there wanted you to go down there. Myself, my friends, I feel bad between the two parties:—some of us here and some there. My friends, when the old chiefs were going to appoint us to be chiefs of the tribe, they told us one word which I believe was true; they told us this: “if we grew up without helping ourselves like we are now, we should be like a party of wolves, going around over the prairie and I believe we are so now. My friends, we heard of you that you have been all through the States, among the whites, working to try to get us back here: but we thought it was very true what we said down there that it was a very long time waiting and so we, concluded to

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settle the matter, one way or another. Friends, the Great Father, has told us this; to go back: that he would appoint four Commissioners to go down there to get our true Statement and then come up here to see you and learn what you had to say and get your statement fair & straight from you & what they have told you is all true. Mr. Allen. Mr. Dorsey ask if any others want to speak? Hairy Bear explained a remark in the message sent by White Eagle to Standing Bear as meaning that if Standing Bear came down to Indian Ty., White Eagle would yield the head position in the tribe to him. Cheyenne. My friends,—all you chiefs—I see you, my relations. Whether it makes my heart sad or good, I see you. All you chiefs, I think that I have arrived at the age of fifty years. When a person arrives at that age, he generally has some sense and I think I have come that far. I reached one land—Indian Terry. The Great Father made a mistake in carrying me there. You saw me—Standing Bear— you came to the land that I reached; you saw me there. I do not think that you fully understand that land, but I wish to understand it. I was there for five seasons and I wish to know all about the land, climate, and what could be cultivated there and I will tell what I know about my own affairs. For two seasons, I know that my men, women and children died,— I know it—I saw it with my own eyes. The 3d season, I wished to know how things are (were) and from that time on there was not any sickness. I saw none. I did not see any die. When they carried us away to the land, I said: “where you die, I will die”. I wanted to find out about the land; so I had some men break the soil for me and I planted corn, potatoes, watermelons and they rotted in the ground for I had more than I could gather. Today, these four persons have come to straighten out our affairs, and I hope, ye Chiefs, that we shall finish our own business. These persons who have come to finish your affairs, wish to hear your statement, they wish to hear it all and to hear it correctly and so do I. I wish to hear you exactly what you think. The Chiefs did not command me to come, but I have come for I want to talk with you to see you and shake hands with you. I think that God is above and He rules all things and He has caused this to be a good day, so we might talk about these matters, and I hope that they will carry back a straight account to the Great Father.


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General Crook. Do any others want to speak? Smoke-Maker. I have heard the words. The land that we live is this. You are nothing but little boys. I am a little older than you.3 When we were there,—up in Dakota,—I always talked to you; you didn’t mind me and now to-day, you find yourself in a different part of the country. Friends, you ought to remember in the old times, when we were together up there in our old land; we used to work them up with the shoulder-blade of a buffalo. Since then, we’ve seen the white men; we’ve taken their tools and we have learned to work with them. But you have made a different arrangement for yourselves and have gone to that Death Country. My friends, just the same as a man driving a drove of cattle into a corral to be slaughtered, just that way they did to me, but I wouldn’t stay there, so I jumped over the fence and came home. (Applause, checked by the Commission.) Friends, I always think about the Great Spirit. Also, I looked down to the ground. And I always thought I would learn to raise something and I did so; nobody taught me, that which I raised was my own crop. (Turning to Peter Primand, the policeman.) Friend, you who are sitting there have the police mark on your breast. I want to hear from you a full statement about the man they killed down there. (Turning to the white people.) My friends—Here they are in front of me; they are in front of me. I don’t decide to give up my land. Here I was born. I am going to hold on to it. Standing Bear. (to the Commission.) I want to speak good words to you. I haven’t anything more to say. I don’t want to say anything to them. (Turning to the Indians who had come up from Indian Ty.[)] The words I have said to-day, I adhere to. I have no other words to say to them, (meaning the Indian Ty. Poncas.) Peter Primand. I have nothing to say: we have talked enough. Standing Bear. I implore you, my friends, my relations, all of you. I have had some experience with Agents. I don’t want one of them, but I do want a man who will instruct my children,—a teacher. My friends, there have been a great many things that I’ve lost, things due to me and things coming to me from the Great Father. And I want you to hear this, so that I can learn if there is any prospect of 3.â•‡ Smoke-Maker was not sure of his actual age. He later said that he was over sixty, but added that he was a boy when Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri River. As that was in the summer of 1804, he would have been at least eighty. Bourke, Diaries, 38:1003.

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getting back what I’ve lost. The Santees who are over at Flamdreau, they have adopted the white man’s clothes & customs, and yet they have an Agent to oversee them. Even if we should be in two places, yet I want to dwell in this, my own, land and receive here my portion of the rations and annuities. Black Elk. My friends, I am not going to talk about a different subject. If I have something in common with another person and I have my own part, I am a little bit afraid on account of the other man. My friends, Where these people spoke about selling this land, they did not send me any work about it & therefore I am unwilling. The Indians up the country, I am afraid of—the Sioux—if I part with this land;—they have something to say about it. For four years, the Great Father has been owing us some money and it is about time he settled that indebtedness. In this land of my ancestors—out of that I make something to support myself and if the Great Father pays me what he owes me, I can buy tools for myself, and then we want to be paid for what was taken away from us when we were taken to Indian Territory, or which we had to leave behind. We ought to be paid for all that. Those Poncas down in Indian Ty. have been receiving some money; we ought to receive some too. General Miles. I want to ask Standing Bear whether or not his people are supporting themselves? Standing Bear. They are working, trying to make their own living and they get their food from their own industry. General Miles. Do they know how many Acres they cultivated the past year? Standing Bear. I think about 200 A[cres]: one had 30 A[cres]. General Miles. Do they receive any assistance from the Government? Standing Bear. No, Sir. Nothing from the Govt.: our Christian friends have given us 5 or 6 plows. General Crook. Have they given you anything to eat? Standing Bear. Yes, a little to eat. General Miles. Have the crops been good in the past 3 years: do they raise good crops in this country? Standing Bear. Yes, we raised a great deal last season: for two seasons, we were unsettled and did not raise much. General Miles. I want to ask Smoke-maker how old he is? Smoke-Maker: Over 60; I cannot give the exact account.


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General Miles. As you are the oldest man who has spoken to us, I want to know if you have as a general thing, raised good crops in this land since you were a boy? Smoke-Maker: I was a boy the time Lewis and Clarke went up the river: I can recollect that when I was a boy, we worked the ground with buffalo shoulder-blades and raised good crops always. General Miles. Ask them if they are all satisfied with this land? All assented saying in Ponca, Yes. General Miles. Ask him if he has heard of any one of his people who desires to return to that Indian Territory? Answer from all the Indians, No, Not one. Mr. Allen (to Mr. Dorsey.) I understood Hairy Bear to say they had a council in Indian Ty. to see about selling these lands, because they thought their white friends were tired of working for them, is that correct? Hairy Bear. Yes. Just that. Mr. Allen. If they had known their white friends were still working for them, would they have done the thing? Hairy Bear. We heard that they had stopped working for us. We were worn out and wished to settle the matter for good. Mr. Allen. Did anybody tell them their white friends had stopped working for them? Hairy Bear. Our own feelings told us. General Crook. We are now going to adjourn until to-morrow morning, and we want them to consult among themselves to-night to see if they can find some way of settling this matter with justice to the whole Ponca tribe; to see if they could suggest something in the morning? Commission adjourned at 9.30 P.M. The Poncas to-night had a big dance and pow-wow, the drumming being kept up until early in the morning of January 12th 1881. The Commission met at 9 a.m. Present. All the members and Cap’t. Roberts, Lt. Bourke, and Capt. Huggins. The proceedings of last evening’s session were read and Approved. Revered Mr. A. L. Riggs examined.

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Questioned by Mr. Allen. Q. Do you live at the Santee Agency? A. I have been there ten years and a half as a missionary of the American Board of Foreign Missions: Santee is fifteen miles from the Ponca Reservation in Dakota. I have been intimately acquainted with the Poncas and their condition during the whole period of my stay in this vicinity. Before their removal the Poncas were peaceable and so far as they had opportunity, very industrious. They were very anxious to learn. It is within my knowledge that they were opposed to going away. A few scattered among the Sioux & did not go to Indian Tery. They numbered about twenty. They went to the Yankton Sioux. They are now here, having returned to Standing Bear’s party just as soon as he got back from the Indian Territory. I am acquainted with the condition of the Indians who have returned here from Indian Ty. I have been connected with some of the Commissions organized to assist them last Spring; the Omaha Committee requested me to take charge of their contributions and I have also distributed some things received from private sources. During planting time and while their crops were growing they were assisted with food to the amount of about $125 per menseum, about one dollar per menseum per capita. Since then they have red. about $155 per menseum. They have received some bedding, but not through me. They have recd. so far, as I know, no clothing; that, they have bought for themselves. They have also recd. some stores and have bought some. They obtained the money by selling wood and somewhat by work-day labor among the whites. The Government has interposed no obstacles in my way to helping them; the Santee Agent has received orders not to have anything to do with the relief which his religious society wished to distribute through him:—the Society of the Hicksite Friends. The Santees and Poncas have always been friendly and mutually helpful. There are two cases of intermarriage between the Poncas and Santees, but none between the Poncas and Yanktons. The Omahas and Poncas are virtually one people, but I don’t know anything about their inter-marriages. I think the necessities of the Poncas of Standing Bear’s party might be fully met by putting them under the general supervision of the Santee Agent: by “general supervision”, I mean the oversight of financial matters between them and the Government; the distribution of such supplies as may be [necessary] to


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join them & the looking after cases in which they may need advice and protection in their intercourse with the whites. Further than that, I think they could get along here without further need of an Agent, provided they had some good responsible man as a teacher and as their instructor in general industry. In case of such an arrangement, it would be preferable for the Poncas to be located on quarter sections which they should hold in their own right. I believe in giving to them as to all other Indians the rights of citizenship and there is all the more reason for giving such rights to those who are prepared for them and in a measure prepared. (Mr. Riggs continued his testimony to some length upon this point, but as his language was not sufficiently deliberate for so important a topic, he asked and received permission from the Commission to submit his views in the form of a letter which has been appended hereto.... [Much of the ink has faded into illegibility, particularly on the first page of the four-page letter. An attempt is made to salvage as much as possible] “Dakota Home.” “Young Men’s Hall.” ALFRED L. RIGGS, Principal. Santee Normal Training School, Dakota Mission American Board. Santee Agency, Neb., Jany [day illegible] 1881 Gentlemen of the Ponca Commission, When questioned by your Commission as to my views in regard to Indian citizenship, while I have said that I did not choose......with an especial case......of the parties....... my opinion.......esteemed a.........my position fully given is that I think any Indian should be a citizen, in the same way as a subject of.......is entitled to personal.......protection of the laws, and this without regard to whether he wishes and asks for it or not. I am well aware that this principle would require a radical change in the present reservation system; but this must come before we can expect the Indian to be a man. The reservation system, as now organized, tends to make dependents and imbeciles. As to the rights that usually accompany citizenship—a homestead title to lands, and the right to vote,—I think these rights should be open to them whenever they appreciate

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them enough to seek them. And a much larger proportion of the Indians of our country are now anxious for these rights, than is generally supposed. I believe the majority of them are now ready for homestead rights. As to voting,—though I believe theoretically in a suffrage based on education, yet, as this is not made a general rule, I see no need of making a special test for the Indian. Our Indian population is neither so large nor so concentrated as to make our present situation materially worse by making them voters. And as for the Indian; without this franchise, his interests will never be fully protected. He will not [be] safe until it becomes for the interest of political parties and politicians to serve him. Therefore, in my opinion, it is best that the rights to vote be conferred as soon as any Indian appreciates it enough to apply for it. And, so far as I know, the Indians who have exercised their right to vote (as for instance the citizen Indians of Flandreau, D.T.) have done so more intelligently than many of our citizens of foreign birth. And they have made themselves respected in the community and feared by unworthy office holders. I finally believe that Standing Bear’s people and our Santees would be much better able to maintain themselves against the attacking politicians if they were only homesteaders and voters. I am, Yours respectfully, Alfred L. Riggs General Crook, General Miles, and Messrs. Stickney & Allen The President’s Ponca Commission Mr. Riggs questioned by Mr. Stickney. The relations between the Poncas and Sioux ten years ago,—at least with all the Sioux in their immediate neighborhood,—they were on most friendly terms and have been so ever since. The Poncas have been disturbed from time to time by war-parties from the Lower Brulés, the Sioux at Cheyenne Agency and Standing Rock Agency.


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This was particularly the case during the time when all this region was in a state of fermentation and the Indians, in the Great Sioux Reserve, were on the eve of breaking out into war against the whites.4 During this period of ferment, the Sioux very seriously interfered with the agricultural pursuits of the Poncas. The Poncas were sometimes afraid to go out into the fields on acc’t. of the Sioux. They became restive and showed a desire to seek some other Reservation for their home. During the years from 1864–76, was the period of war-ferment in this region, but it was worst from 1870–1876. The Poncas during the time of their persecution by these Sioux war-parties talked of some plan of moving down to where their brothers—the Omahas—were living and I knew of several embassies back and forth in relation to this matter. I have heard that the Poncas applied to the Government for permission to go down to live with the Omahas in Nebraska but I understood that the union of the two tribes was about to be consummated but that the Omaha chiefs were not all at home at the time of the last negociation [sic] and after that the Poncas began to lose interest in the matter. Questioned by General Crook. I never heard anything from the Poncas themselves, or from any other source that they ever gave any consent to their removal to Indian Ty.: but they did consent to going to join the Omahas; in fact, as I have said, they asked to do that. Questioned by Mr. Stickney I think about one quarter of this Ponca Reservation is good fertile soil. I cannot say how much is timber; the most of the other ¾ is pastoral. The soil is just as good, but it is not tillable land; it is good grazing land. Some of the hill-tops are good for nothing. For three years, the grass-hoppers devastated this whole region,— Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Minnesota; I don’t think that the Ponca Reservation has suffered any more from natural causes detrimental to agriculture than any other portion of the vast region, I have mentioned in which it is included. (Standing Bear’s wife here came in and was presented to the members of the Commission. She is a tall, stout, comely and well-formed squaw, about 35 yrs. of age, with a good face and presenting a neat appearance.) David Le Clair examined. 4.â•‡ The Great Sioux War of 1876–77.

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Questioned by Mr. Allen. I lived with the Poncas before they went down to Indian Territory. I went down there with them. I came back with the 1st party. I was the 1st one to come back. I have lived at Santee Agency for two years. I left there two weeks ago to-day. I went there because I had no place to go when I returned from Indian Territory. I lost all my property when I went to Indian Territory. When I was with the Santees, the agent issued to me stoves, plows and other things, but when I came back here to my people, the agent took all back, because I was going away from Santee, and coming back here to my own people. I got back here just as badly off as when I got back from Indian Ty. The Santee Agent said I couldn’t have anything to take away; that I must draw what I wanted from Standing Bear. A brother of mind was treated in same way; he is now living up at Spotted Tail Agency: three Ponca families are living up there—two of these the families of widows. Questioned by General Crook: I never heard a thing about any of the Poncas agreeing to removal to the Indian Ty., or signing any paper to such effect, but I did hear that they signed a paper, asking to go to the Omaha Agency: this was in 1878. Questioned by Mr. Stickney. I am a half-blood; my father was French, my mother a full-blooded Ponca. I have always lived with the Poncas and have a family of children here. I did not go to Indian Ty. of my own free will; I was forced to go down. I was not one of the ten who went down to look at the lands there; my brother went. At the time that Kemball5 came and said he wanted the Poncas to go look at some new land, my uncle—the head chief—Antoine Primand—The Lone Chief—told him that we were not going to remove. “These young chiefs have said they wanted to remove to the land of the Omahas, but I am the only Councilor chief now living; but I have not signed any paper to go to the Omahas or any other place. And so, my friend, I wish you would dry up on this questions and tell my Great Father I am going to remain here[.]” The young men wanted to go, because the Sioux bothered them so, they wanted to join the Omahas; because they were one people, 5. Indian Inspector Edward C. Kemble, one of the prime instigators of the relocation, and who was in immediate charge of the move.


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connected by marriage and speaking the same language. I don’t think any of them want to go join the Omahas now. Questioned by General Miles. Only a portion of the tribe wanted to join the Omahas: a little over one third of the tribe. I have a list of my own property which I had to leave behind when I went down to Indian Ty., but I have no list of what the other Indians lost. Agent Kemball had such a list, but the Poncas have not. I could not make out a correct list of the amount lost by the whole tribe. Each head of family might know his own loss. At the time of our removal, you remember, property was very high. I was the Interpreter of the Agency and had to buy my own property. It cost me $800 and I lost it all. You can judge better than I, but I think it would now cost $300 @ $400 to replace what I lost. This is merely what I was forced to leave here; plows, harness, and such things. On the way down, I lost property worth $250. A small percentage of the Tribe was religious & in attendance upon services. I lost three children of my family in Indian Ty. I remained a year. Sixty-four men, women and children died in the tribe during time I was with them in Indian Territory. The tribe numbered Seven Hundred and Thirty when we arrived there. General Miles. Ask Standing Bear if he has made up a list of the property lost by him in consequence of his removal to the Indian Territory? Standing Bear. What I lost has been put on paper and I think the lawyers in Omaha or some of those places have it. General Miles. What was its value? Standing Bear. I will tell you what I had: you will know how much it was worth. I made a house for myself; I cut the logs and built it myself. I built a stable and pen for my hogs: I built them myself: I bought a stove for $30. I had tools & farming implements, plows, harrows, pitchforks, spades, shovels—all those things. I had two beds and a closet full of dishes, and a table. On a sudden came a wind and blew upon me and I hadn’t time to pick up or count my things. I had two lamps. (I had a cat and I left her and she was in a pitiful condition. Omitted from Report by the Commission.) I had two cows three hogs. I am not the only one who had these things, but we all had such things.

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General Miles. Was that their general condition? Did they all leave houses, furniture, agricultural implements &c. as Standing Bear did? Answer from all. Yes. We all did. We all left the same things; the property of the tribe was left behind in the house. General Crook (to Revd. Dorsey.) Tell them we want to hear from them now. (Standing Bear goes to each of his band and asks if he is of one mind with himself. All answer Yes.) Standing Bear. You four persons & this gentleman, Mr. Haworth, have come from the Great Father to straighten our affairs and it makes me very glad to see you. I do not think you wish to do anything wrong; you are trying to do all that is right; I see it. If I attempt to do anything, I do not know how to do it, but when you wish to do anything you do it well because you know how to do it and because you consider. When you do anything, I know but a small part of it and as to your decision and plans. I don’t know very much. I know but very little as to your thoughts. When a man does not know how to do things, you come to straighten his affairs for him. A man may not know very much. I know but a very little as to your thoughts. When a man does not know how to do things, you come to straighten his affairs for him. A man may not know something; he may drink and get a headache. He may be foolish & you’ll come and set him straight. When people want to slaughter cattle, they drive them along until they get them to a corral and they slaughter them. And so it was with me. Who was it did this to me? I do not know anything, but you know much. You are strong; you are up above and I look to you for help. I don’t know anything and I hope that you will help me; be strong,—make an effort on my behalf. I think that I have but half the amount of brains; that is the reason I do not know much. There is one who may wish to kill these Indians and I think he is foolish and without sense and if there is any one among you who can cure him, I hope you will do so and talk him out of his foolishness, so that the Indians may live and get along better. Some of these persons have come up from Indian Ty. to see us, but I will not give them any word (alluding to the three Ponca envoys.), but I will attend just to you, (the Commission.) and the people of the cities, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, I have heard their words and I heed them. My plans are insufficient


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for me, because I haven’t brain enough, but you have brains to do something for me and so I give heed to what you say. My children have been exterminated; my brother has been killed and altho’ one had come from the President, (meaning Inspector Haworth.) I will strive to get that which is good and that alone; any good thing that he may say. But they can’t scare me and drive me into a bad hole yet. I have come back to my own land and I think that two of the Commissioners, (pointing to Generals Crook and Miles.) have had something to do with this. I was brought up before the Court and it released me. This, I think, is one of my principal friends from Boston (pointing to Mr. Allen.): one of those who have been my friends, by day and by night; one of those who have been trying to raise me out of the darkness. My friends, whatever I tell you to-day, I hope that you will carry back to the Great Father and give him an exact account of it. I hope you will tell him that I am living back on my old land and that I am doing well there and that I am working for myself. The man who has been working for me—the Great Father—has one of his representatives here (Mr. Haworth) and I want him to tell the Great Father that I want him to pay me the same as he pays the balance of the Poncas in Indian Ty. as I can go to work. I want him to give back what is already due for the past four years, for annuities. I want the Great Father to divide the annuities; let those down in Indian Ty. get their share and let us up here get our share. That is it. To-day I see you and this representative of the Great Father & I am very glad to see you all. Now I wish you to tell the Great Father that I wish him to send me all the things by means of which I can make a living for myself. To-day, my friends, I will say something. I did not know it formerly. Wherever you dwell, I admire your dwellings very much: my friends, I want to live in such a house as you live in, a house that is bright and full of light. If I live in such a house, then I will cultivate the land & will make an effort for myself. Now, I have learned a number of things from you; I have known them for some time. I speak of raising cows that will give milk for the family,—for the children; and of raising hogs and poultry. I know it all and have known it for some time. My friends, I speak to you all, to my relations. I have come back to my own land and I don’t wish any one to get beyond me, to get the better of me, or to take me away from my own land. I have said about knowing your

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ways. Now here is one [of the white ways] I learned. I had a hog.—I raised him, a very large one. I brought him to town, and sold him for $13.00. How could I speak a different word to you? I have told one story to General Crook here, to the people East and to the lawyers (in Omaha.) Why should I change it. I do not wish to tell another story now. You do not wish to do anything wrong: you wish to do that which is for my good and in order that you may help me. I let you know these things to-day. The things I tell you are not mine alone; they belong to all these Poncas, they have employed me to speak for them & so I speak their words. I have told you what I wish & I’m very glad that you want to hear from me. I have come back to my own land. I think you have helped me to come back. (speaking to Mr. Allen.[)] I do not wish any one to get the better of me. I do not wish to go elsewhere and now I say this and tell it to you. I say it. I now tell you one thing I want for myself; whatever damages are coming to us from the President and whatever annuities, I want them to be split in two; one part for us Poncas here and one part for the Poncas in Indian Ty. I desire you to help me in this; even if I don’t have an Agent,—that don’t matter. I don’t want an Agent. I want to have a teacher or a minister; I want a missionary to be with me & attend to me. The Agents are all the time sick; they’re sickly and I know about them and whatever things we have they are taking from us from time to time. (To General Miles.) Do you think the Agents are very good? Suppose you shouldn’t know anything about writing, just like an Indian, and I should be your Agent, wouldn’t I take everything away from you? And if you were an Indian & didn’t know anything about writing and I were the white man, your Agent, I would make you suffer perhaps. That’s the way it’s been with us, Poncas. I tell you these things because you wish to settle our affairs. That’s enough on that point; I want to say something else. This Indian who has come with you, Hairy Bear, has been talking about selling the land; now I want you to consider that matter. This land up here has been given to the Indians as an Indian Reservation; it belongs to the Indians. It is part of the Great Sioux Reservation and to sell that land will be a very difficult matter; it will be a very difficult matter to make it straight. The Sioux up the river have given me the land, have given it back to me; and if those Poncas down in Indian Ty. want to


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sell the land, there will be a difficulty about it. Such a transaction is something from which we must shrink back. We are afraid to do it: We’d be afraid of all the Sioux. And the Sioux said to me: “I give you back your land,—the Great Father made it mine. I give it back to you. You shall dwell at the end, on the Niobrara and we shall be one nation—Poncas and Sioux,—one body of people on this land”. You are very strong and when a man has trouble, I think he tells it to you and so I tell you my troubles. That land in the Warm Country was bad and so I left there and came home. What do I mean when I say it was bad down there? Supposing you took off your clothes, and lay down in that snow-bank, would it be comfortable for you? No, and so that climate was not suited for me and so I left it. I haven’t known much in my life. When you see such a man, you help him and it is proper you should do so, even if he don’t know much. When we were taken away from this land, we did not cause it; it was caused by the Secretary of the Interior. When I went East to the white people, Smoke-maker travelled among the Sioux & he has the papers which they gave him. Smoke-Maker. I went up the country to see the Sioux; while Standing Bear was travelling through the East, and I came back to this land before Standing Bear returned. The Sioux gave me this paper to let me go on this land until Standing Bear came back. This paper was given at the first. (This proved upon examination to be merely a pass-port from the Agent at Rosebud Agency, Dakota, issued upon request of Spotted Tail, head chief of the Sioux.) But, in the summer, after Standing Bear came back, he went with us to the Great Sioux Council & there they gave us back this land. They gave us the land in Council, but gave us no paper. Red Cloud & Spotted Tail told us that the Great Father had given them our land but, as we wished to come back and live upon it, they relinquished it back to us. In this Council were the representatives of twelve tribes: Santees, Yanktons, Winnebagoes, Lower Brulés, Omahas, Poncas, Yanktonnais, Two Kettles, Minneconjoux, Assinabonies [sic], Blackfeet, and Red Cloud and Spotted Tail’s people [Oglalas and Upper Brulés, respectively]. There is a young man here who went up with a lawyer last winter & they had a very plain talk with Spotted Tail & he will tell you about it.

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Yellow Horse, (brother of Standing Bear’s) My friends, What I have to tell you, I will tell you very straight. When I came back to this land, it belonged to Spotted Tail. I went directly to his lodge and entered it. Spotted Tail said to me: “as I am on the side of the lawyers, you go home & get a lawyer. I wish you to live and if a white man will come to me, I will give him the words directly from my tongue”. I came home and I went again with a white man—U.S. Marshal (Deputy?) Moody from Omaha. When I got there, Spotted Tail assembled all the people. He said: “in former days, in the days of my father & grand-father, we had nothing to do with this land; it was yours. That Ponca land I give back to you. When you reach home and the warm weather comes, I wish you to cultivate, as large a piece of ground there as you used to do. Just as much hay as you used to cut, I want you to cut now for yourselves. Altho I myself have given you this land, all these people will as one man, give it to you. Do you make an effort in any way that you think will be for your good. The words I give you are firm words. I want you to make an effort & remember them.[”] Mr. Allen. When the Poncas had the Great Council with the Sioux, did they make any pledge to help the Sioux in case of war? Yellow Horse. We did not. We told each other that We Indians must help each other. Some know more about the whites than the others and so we can help each other & we all want to be friends of the President’s. There are a great many white people in the land, people of different nationalities, but all of one mind & so with the Indians. We speak different languages, but want to have one mind and help each other. Mr. Allen. In case of war between the Sioux & the whites, on account of this land, or anything else did the Poncas agree to help the Sioux? Yellow Horse. No. Nothing was said about that. General Miles (to Mr. Dorsey.) Please say to Standing Bear that we want to find out how many Poncas there [are] up in this country on the Ponca Reservation and at the different Agencies. We have asked these men (David and others.) and they make it One Hundred & Seventy Seven. We want to find out from him the exact number and the places where they are living. Standing Bear. We know that there are 177 but there are a number of others we cannot recall. There are a number among the Omahas,


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but none among the Winnebagoes; some among the Sioux. When we learn exactly how many there are, we’ll let our friend, Mr. Riggs, know and he can tell you. General Crook. But are not those living among the other tribes part and parcel of those tribes, farming among and receiving annuities, clothing and rations with them? Standing Bear. If there are any of them living like the whites on their own land, they’d be apt to stay there, but those taking refuge among other tribes and fed by them, when they hear we have our old land back, will be likely to come and join us here:—will come back to their own tribe. (Standing Bear, after consultation with his people said, shortly afterwards, that he could now account for One Hundred & Ninety Five.) General Crook. Have they anything more to say? Standing Bear. We have said all we have to say. General Crook. Tell them we are glad we have met them all there to-day (How! How!) We have also been down to Indian Ty. to hear what they have to say & have put down on paper what they have said so as not to forget it and we’ll try in our recommendation to do Justice to all around and to both parties. We can simply recommend to the President; it rests with him and Congress whether or not to approve. The Commission hereupon adjourned. Smoke-Maker had in his possession, a bundle of old paper scraps which he carried with such care that my curiosity became excited and I asked and obtained permission to examine them. When put together, they proved to be treaties made between the United States & the Ponca Indians; the first made in 1817, by Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, U.S. Army, and Major Benjamin O’Fallon, Indian Agent. Done at the Ponca village, mouth of White Paint creek, the first below the mouth of “Qui coure” river (i.e. the L’eu qui court, Niobrara or Running Water. this—day of June 1817. Witnessed by J. H. Leavenworth, Colonel, U.S.A. S. W. Kearney, Bvt. Major, 1st Infantry. ----- (Blotted name) ----- (Blotted name.) ----- (Blotted name.) John Gale, Surgeon, U.S. Army

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J. Gault, Captain 6th Infantry. (Blotted name) Captain 6th Infantry. J. McRae 1st Lt. 1st Infantry. J. Rogers, 1st Lt. 5th Infantry. Thomas Nave, 1st Lt. 6th Infantry. I. Wolf, 1Lt. 6th Infy. Adjutant. R. Holmes 1Lt. R.Q.M. Those. P. Gwyn, 1Lt. 6th Infy. L. McNutt, 1Lt. 6th Infy. Jas. W. Kingsbury, 1stLt. 6th Infy. M. W. Bateman, 1Lt, 6th Infantry. R. M. C. Duncan, Lt. 6th Infantry. Wm. Harris, — 1st Infantry. P. Prima A. R. Langham, Secy. to Commission Signed by following Ponca Chiefs. Smoke-Maker, (father to present Smoke-maker.) Child Chief He Who Hides Something. The Hoe. Lightning Big Head with Tangled Hair The Brave The Wounded Prairie on Fire Flying Iron Buffalo Bull that leads. He that has no knife. He walks on land. He who fears no bears Black Raven Relative of the chiefs He that stamps on the Ground One that knows. The second paper was a treaty made by William Clark and August Choteau, Commissioners for the United States, “to remove the causes of ill-feeling arising out of the late war between the United


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State and Great Britain6 and to forgive and forget between citizens of the United States and Poncas”. This was witnessed by Benjamin O’Fallon, B. Vasquez, Saml. Solomon, Stephen Julian, Joseph La Flêche, (interpreter.) and several others, and signed by the following Poncas. Fork Tail Hawk. Smoker. (spelled “Smoaker” in the Treaty.) Little Chief Handsome man. Rough Buffalo Horse. The Comer He who stand five [sic] and The Fighter. 6.â•‡ The War of 1812. Why this declaration would be necessary is unclear. In his study of the Poncas, James H. Howard makes no mention of any ill-feeling between the Poncas and the United States during that period, stating that relations began with the 1817 treaty, followed by another agreement in 1826, in which the government placed the Poncas under its protection. He notes, “Present-day [1965] Ponca are proud of the fact that they have never taken up arms against the United States of America.” Howard, Ponca Tribe, 27.

Chapter 14 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

The Commission Concludes

T

heir interviews with the Dakota Poncas completed, the commissioners returned to Washington to prepare their report. Before departing, Riggs, Miles, and Bourke paid a brief visit to the Santee Agency, but their inspection was hindered by a blizzard that kept them confined to the main agency buildings. The storm also disrupted the trains, and during a layover at Marion Junction, Dakota Territory, Bourke had what appears to be his first encounter with the Mennonites who then were immigrating in large numbers into the American Midwest. A pacifist Anabaptist sect, the Mennonites were founded by Menno Simons (1496–1561), a former Roman Catholic priest from the Netherlands, as part of the Radical Reformation movement. By the nineteenth century, though, the vast majority had relocated in Russia, from which they immigrated to North America. Bourke, who tacitly admitted his knowledge was limited, tended to lump all Anabaptists together, attributing to them a common history of violence, communalism, and sexual license practiced by some splinter groups. The most notorious of these was headed by John of Leyden (1509?–1536), born in the Netherlands as Jan Beukelzoon. An Anabaptist leader who seized power in the German city 262


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of Munster, John proclaimed a theocratic state that encouraged communalism and polygamy. Munster, however, was reconquered by its prince-bishop, Franz von Waldeck, and John of Leyden, together with his associates, Berhard Knipperdolling (whom Bourke also mentioned in passing), and Bernhard Krechting, was publicly executed.1 Despite Bourke’s linking the Mennonites to John of Leyden, there is no indication of a connection with Menno Simons, other than a common origin in the Netherlands. The Mennonites came from the rural areas of northwestern and central Europe. Persecuted by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, they refused to fight back, preferring instead to find a place where they could live in peace. Initially, they settled along the delta of the Vistula, a region shared by the Prussians and Poles, both of whom viewed these hard-working farmers as an economic asset. They turned the delta from swampland into a thriving agricultural region but, in the end, Prussian militarism and renewed persecution prompted them to another move. In the 1780s, they joined thousands of other Germanic immigrants in accepting Catherine the Great’s invitation to settle along the Dnieper and around the Sea of Azov. They lived quietly for almost a century, until 1870, when the Emperor Alexander II determined that religious and ethnic minorities should be incorporated into the mainstream of Russian society. The final blow came a year later, when they became subject to Russian conscription. Learning of the agricultural prospects of the American Midwest, the Mennonites appointed a delegation to investigate. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, already realizing the potential, encouraged the move and offered reasonable terms on a large section of its federal right-of-way grant. Between 1873 and 1883, ten thousand Mennonites settled in Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota Territory, and another eight thousand in Manitoba.2 Back in Washington, Bourke was invited to visit with Maj. John Wesley Powell, head of the newly established Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. This proved to be one of the turning points of his life. The Ponca Commission held a private conference at the Hubbard House, at noon, but I did not learn its purport. 1.â•‡ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Leyden 2.â•‡ The Mennonite migration is discussed in Bailes, “The Mennonites Come to Kansas.”

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Reverend Mr. Riggs, General Miles and Lieutenant Bourke took sleigh, and started for Santee Agency at 3 P.M. an exceedingly cold, biting wind cut our faces and hands in spite of the heavy fur wraps in which we folded ourselves; the thermometer must have indicated at least -20°F. Our sleigh was made of a wagon on “bobs”,—our team, two half bred ponies which developed such very excellent powers of speed that we made the 14 miles to the Agency in less than 2½ hours, passing most of the way down the Missouri River bottom close under bluffs which yield an inferior quality of building stone, used to some extent at Niobrara, Springfield and other settlements near by. There is considerable timber in the crossing the boundary of the Santee Reservation and we could see many Indian huts, cottages, stables and corrals of log with mud chinking. Revd. Mr. Riggs’ brother managed the reins very skilfilly [sic] and lost no time in getting us along, as he knew how much in a hurry we were. At the Agency, the snow lay so deep and our stay was so limited that we couldn’t do justice to the Establishment. Mrs. Riggs, a charming lady with four pretty little children, received us very warmly and insisted on our remaining for refreshment. While tea was in course of preparation, Mr. Riggs took us on a flying examination of the school buildings. This mission, under the patronage of the Congregational Church, is well maintained, has over fifty girls in boarding school, the older girls living in a house by themselves. They number 16 and are certainly extremely neat, clean, bright and intelligent in looks. The ladies in charge of this Department, Miss Paddock and Miss Gray, explained that all the work of cooking and taking care of the house devolved upon these girls, an excellent idea. As we were leaving, a detachment of the elder scholars from the boys’ school came in to take tea with the girls, who had extended an invitation to them to do so. We purchased a few very neat and odd trinkets of their workmanship, to keep with those of Ponca fabrication bought yesterday. We rushed through the boys’ school, where there are 60 youngsters,— and the neat little chapel and then, without being able to run over to the excellent mission of the Episcopal church, or to carefully examine the shoe-shop and other individual features of Mr. Riggs’ establishment, hurried over to his house to swallow the cup of hot tea awaiting us. Our sleigh is at the door with a fresh team; we say good bye! jump in, face the fierce blast and make for the East bank of the Missouri. The ice is at least 3 ft. thick, sounds solid as iron


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and we fear no danger save air-holes. Fortune is with us, we reach Springfield, Dakota, in safety and from there have only one and a half miles to the R.R. station. This space we should have covered in twelve minutes, but one of our team took it into her head to balk and refused to move faster than a walk. Our friends, who had been on the train from Running Water, persuaded the conductor to wait for us for a few moments & by this thoughtfulness saved us from a delay of one day. We could yell thanks! and farewells to Mr. Riggs as we jumped aboard the train already moving off, but we felt more than words could say that our ride to the Santee Agency, cold and disagreeable tho’ it surely was, had amply repaid us for trouble and exposure. While we were still at Niobrara City, I have already mentioned, we were greatly annoyed by the attentions of a set of half or wholly intoxicated “bummers” who claimed, and perhaps with truth, to have served with General Crook or General Miles during the War. One of them pertinaciously assailed me, & wanted to have me drink with him, but was put off by my intimating that, we had so many clerical gentlemen with our party, I really should feel obliged to decline the honor, etcetera, etcetera. This is our conversation or rather monologue because I took no part in it beyond a passive submission to the inflection. “I was with the old buster, (General Crook.) at Farmin’ton’s doan’ you forget (embracing me and giving me full in my face of about 20 cubic ft. of bad breath, half of which was the steaming vapor of rot-gut whiskey. Ya-as we lic(hic)ked Joe Wheeler3 that day, you bet. You was in Chattynoogy, was yer! Wa’a’ll, Hell’s Bells! Wa’all we sa-aved you boys down thar from starving to death (hic) ‘ do’ne you forgit (ahic) (Another embrace.) We boys of the Old Army’zoll ri,4 you hear me; Wezollri-‘er do’ne you fergit (hic and embrace.). Ya’as the dam-n-n country did hav enuf git up and git about it fer evenst to give me a first Lootin’cy, butzahollri, (wiping away imaginary bubbles from his mouth.) zashollri, (all right) zashollri. Cap’n hev drink? Wa’all zash’ollri. The drinkin’ here’s kineroff, sure ‘nuff (hic.) but the Bran’ny, loe! the Bran’ny, I kin riccomin’ the Bran’ny, (confidentially.) I kin ricmin’ the Bran’ny. (hic.) en don’e you fergit it. (Prolonged hug with a liberal largess of rotten breath.) The “recommendation” of the Brandy was followed by a hearty squeeze of my hand, a significant wink and an assur3.â•‡ Confederate General Joseph Wheeler. 4.â•‡ I.e. We boys of the Old Army’s all right.

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ance in an undertone that he “knew I was one of the boys”. “Can’t fool me, Cap. I know it. (hic.) You’re on it, ole man, you’re on it. (hic.) But I see yer got Preachers with yer, I tumbles, I tumbles (all right.) zashallri. Zashollri. (hic).” And with a final embrace of affection & whiskey-laden breath, he left me to inflict his company upon General Miles. The Hubbard House is a first class hotel, so its owner says. The members of the Commission don’t seem to share this opinion. They manifest an unaccountable desire to hurry through with their work and get away from this charming hostelry, which is run, I should say, on the “wholesale” system—that is the “body” in the biscuit and the fat and dirt in everything else are measured by the “wholesale” as opposed to the old-fashioned homeopathic plan. We jogged along very slowly, our train making scarcely any progress against the strong head winds which drifted the snow into every crevice and gully, packing it down almost to the hardness of cast iron. General Miles gave me the synopsis of a talk he had with SmokeMaker this morning; the old chief told him that his memory ran back to the time when the Poncas didn’t have horses and when they had to use dogs for all purposes of carriage. General M. then gave me a very interesting account of the dog-sledges of the Assiniaboines and a brief description of the Red River Half-Breeds5 and their Red River carts. (These half-breeds are the issue of Chippaway mothers by French Canadian fathers—are noted for their skill as hunters; lived in towns in a semi-civilized way on the boundary between our territory and British American, principally along the valley of the Red river of the North in the West part of the province of Winnipeg. They are great traders and supply the wild tribes near them with all kinds of commodities hauled across the country in stout little carts drawn by one or more tough Indian ponies. Cap’t. Huggins gave a very animated sketch of Alaska, its seal fisheries, its inhabitants, Russian and Indian—their habits, customs and peculiarities; its timber and fisheries—especially salmon, and concluded with a few remarks concerning the candle fish, which is so extremely fat that the natives use it to illuminate their dingy huts. Revd. Mr. Dorsey told me that the Poncas have told him that formerly they lived far up in North Minnesota in contiguity to the 5.â•‡ I.e. Métis.


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Dominion of Canada—“where we had snow-shoes”. He also said that the Poncas are referred to by Prince Maximilian of Nieue Wied (1832.) under the Canadian name of Pons.6 Fifteen or twenty miles out from Marion Junction & West of it, the wind which all afternoon and evening had been increasing in force, became a gale, whistling and roaring about our cars, filling all cuts full to the crest. Our Engineer & Conductor were very much afraid of meeting with some of the accidents to be expected under such circumstances;—running of the track on the glassy snow, being blown over, hitting a broken rail, or sticking in a snow-drift. We had no snow-plow as we should have had; our only means of safety was to have our engine run ahead for a few miles to see that all was right and then return to pull the train over the section examined and cleared. At Marion Junction, the blizzard was fearful; a man could with difficulty keep his feet. None of our party was encumbered with baggage and, consequently, when the conductor informed us that the train could run no farther, we successfully reached the “hotels” of the town, without getting frozen. It is impossible to say what the temperature was, certainly not higher than -40°F and perhaps as much as -50°F. Remember, it was just midnight, the wind was shrieking in an Arctic blast and there was every reason why the mercury should have receded deep into the bulb and no doubt, congealed there. I am making this long explanation, because I wish to anticipate a little and say that the next morning at nine o’clock, the indication was Twenty Four Degrees below Zero. Mr. Stickney, Mr. Allen, Mr. Dorsey and myself found quarters in the Central House, General Crook, General Miles, Major Roberts and Captain Huggins struck out for another place, about two blocks away. It was exactly midnight by the clock and in the freezing cold & darkness, we were delighted to secure any kind of shelter. The Cen6.â•‡ Maximilian, a member of the Germany princely House of Neuwied (1782–1867), traveled through the United States and the western territories from 1832 to 1834, accompanied by the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer. Although Maximilian’s writings and Bodmer’s sketches and paintings would have been valuable in any case, they are all the more so because a few years later, a smallpox epidemic devastated many of the Indian tribes they visited, virtually wiping out the Mandans. Their record of Mandan life and culture is among the last and most extensive. Maximilian’s writings are also noteworthy in that he considered American Indians to be as intelligent and civilized as whites in terms of their environment. Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, 2:960–61.

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tral House was far from alluring in its appearance and there was “an ancient and fish-like” smell about it—a sort of a cross between the odor of a menagerie and that of a small-pox hospital—that made me feel dizzy and sick the moment my foot had crossed the threshold; but I was in for it and glad to accept any kind of accomodation and not growl about it. Each of us jumped into bed, shouted good night! to his comrades and fell asleep to dream that he was snowed up in a drift 30 ft. high, and to wake to the pleasing certainty that he was in a warm, even if a dirty bed and that the howling storm outside could not harm him. The young boy who had shown us to the little dens of bed rooms was a natural born landlord, with the faculty of making a good showing out of meagre resources. Thus, he had only one complete toilet set in the house, but he put the soap-dish in Mr. Allen’s rooms, the wash-basin in Mr. Dorsey’s, the pitcher in mine and gave Mr. Stickney the two sleazy rags which responded to the call for towels. January 13th 1881. The storm unabated. Learned at breakfast that the proprietors of the house were from the “ould dust”, but that the country in this vicinity is settled almost exclusively by Russians—Lutherans and Mennonites—(the latter the descendants of the Anabaptists of Westphalia who under their “prophets” committed such shameful excesses in Munster in the early days of the Reformation. Persecuted in Germany, the sect was at last induced to settle in Eastern Russia, where through the liberality of the Empress Catherine, many concessions were obtained from the Imperial Government, the most important being an exemption for one hundred years from conscription and taxes. The Mennonites, with such advantages in their favor, gained in numbers and wealth, but the century terminating, numbers of them have immigrated to the United States, and formed flourishing settlements in Minnesota, Kansas & Dakota. Of their forms of worship and social organization, I cannot say anything, not having been able, owing to the violence of the storm to obtain any direct examination. Mr. Stickney has a violent antipathy to tobacco in any form and to all who use it. We chuckled quietly in our sleeves when we heard that the bed in which he slept last night had previously been occupied by our youthful attendant who had been stealthily learning to smoke and had to practice in the seclusion of his private apart-


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ment, with his head concealed under the bed-clothes. The sheets were saturated with the vile odor of nicotine. For any one of our party, except Mr. Stickney, I should have been sincerely sorry, but he is “so good” that his piety has become an aggravated form of dyspepsia and has given his countenance a decided resemblance to that of the late lamented Brother Tadger, in Dickens’ novel of Pickwick papers [sic]. But Mr. Stickney’s religious convictions have not made him wholly uncompanionable; he is simply a fanatic, with some sterling traits. We were waited on at table by a Russian Mennonite girl and by a lady from the “ould sod”, with a “game leg”. The cooking was really much better than we had any reason to expect and the landlady who was also one of our waiters, showed a desire to contribute to our comfort as much as she knew how. General Miles received a telegram from John P. Sanborn, one of the principal officers of the Chic[ago]. Milwaukee and Saint Paul R.R., informing him that as soon as the blizzard subsided, a snow-plow would start East from Mitchell and behind that would run a special locomotive and car to carry us to Canton Junction, Dakota, and maybe, to Sioux City, Iowa. Mr. Allen and I started at midday to visit a Russian store, a couple of blocks from our hotel, hoping to get some accurate information concerning the Mennonite colonists. The wind was so furious and cut with such razor-like keenness that, after making a few rods’ headway, we had to forego the attempt and return to our Hotel. After dinner, we made another attempt and as the cold had moderated to -17°F and the wind abated very perceptibly, we were successful. In front of the Russian store were a great many barrels of spirits, confirming what I have always heard of the intemperate habits of this race. Entering the store, Capt. Huggins, who was with us, took the proprietor somewhat aback by opening fire upon him in the Russian language which he, (H.) had studied, to some extent, during his tour of service in Alaska ten years ago. Three languages were spoken in this little trading establishment;—Russian, German and English. From one of the proprietors who spoke the last with fluency, I queried some little information concerning the Mennonites. They are the disciples of Menno, not John of Leyden—have lived in Russia since 1770,—are mostly farmers,—in their religious views closely resemble the Baptists, are not believers in a community of goods,

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altho’ they have communes among them, (probably an adoption of the Russian “Mirv”.) are “close communion” and administer the Sacraments in the two forms of bread & wine. Baptism is conferred upon adults only. While all understand Russian, yet, in their households, German is the language more frequently employed and they are all anxious to have their children learn English. They are very abstemious, but the other Russians, or rather the Russians proper are, with scarcely an exception, confirmed drunkards. Altho’ my informant showed himself to be an intelligent man, yet he was very ignorant of the circumstances attendant upon the first establishment of his religion in Germany, or else he was guilty of deliberate falsehood when he denied that John of Leyden had anything to do with Mennonism. He claims that John of Leyden had not to do with their religion but all historical accounts that I have ever seen dwell upon the influence wielded by John of Leyden and by Knipperdoling, I think. We were shown Russian boots of wood, with legs of leather and having a thin false sole of wood, studded with iron tacks: there was also, in use another style of winter boot, made of very thick felt, very similar to my own foot-gear. They employ a calculation table (the Abacus.) upon which by means of buttons strung upon wires, they rapidly work out the value of goods purchased by a customer. A German in the store told me he had been in this part of the Territory of Dakota for twelve years: when he first came, it was so lonesome, he abandoned his family for a while and returned East, but now: “vy now, it shoost like Sharmany, all Sharmans vor den mile”. The Thermometer this morning, at breakfast, (9 o’c.) indicated -25°F: at 10.30, -19°F, at 11 A.M., -21°F., at 11.30 A.M., -22°F, at 12 m. -23°F., at 4 P.M., -25°F. The Locomotive, with the snow-plow, arrived at 5 P.M., and took off our party in a special car; we couldn’t tell to what point we might attain, but any place, even a snow-drift, was preferable to Marion Junction. An exquisitely beautiful full moon shone down upon the biting cold night, how cold, I cannot say, as on the train we had no thermometer, but I remember that at the time of starting from Marion Junction, the thermometer there said -27°F. I bought at the Junction a large gray wolf-skin to keep with that


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of a red fox, bought at Niobrara; for the first, I paid $1.25; for the second $1.00. The Ponca Commission held a meeting on the cars, and read up all the proceedings thereto unread and approved them. The engineer of our train was a surly and insubordinate man, disposed to question all orders given him by the conductor who was not a man of much force. Our train started from Marion Junction at 6 o’clock, moved half a mile and there remained until 10 at night, so that we did not reach Canton, Dakota, until 12.20 on the morning of January 14th 1881. General Miles, Mr. Stickney and Captain Huggins kept on the train, going East, but General Crook, Mr. Allen, Mr. Dorsey and Captain Roberts and myself, have to remain over in the Naylor House, as all trains on the line to Sioux city had been suspended on account of the storm and travel had not yet been resumed. I slept until 8 in the morning, the night being bitter cold. Must have been down to -40°F, if not lower. The passenger train came along very unexpectedly at 8.20 a.m. General Crook and all the rest, except myself, succeeded in dressing in time to catch, but I only succeeded in missing it, reaching the dépôt, as it was moving off. A wagon was standing near by, ready hitched up; I jumped in, had the driver urge his team to the top of its speed, hoping to reach the next station 2½ m. distant, before the train should leave; here again, I experience disappointment, a tantalizing column of smoke stretching out in the frozen air the very moment we got within hailing distance. There was no help for it. I had to return to the Hotel & wait for a freight train or some other God-send of that kind to take me down to Sioux city and there let me make connection for Omaha. While taking a quiet breakfast, I was agreeably surprised to learn that a freight train was making its way in over the Sioux Falls Branch and the telegraph operator thought I could go “part of the way, any how”. We worked our way slowly down as far as Elk Point where we had to “wait orders”. This place is the point of junction of the Dakota Southern Branch, running in from Yankton. I had a lingering hope that we might catch the Yankton Express, but the station agent said, “she’s stuck”. I remained in the R.R. office listening to the talk of the grangers about the crops, about the fearfully cold weather, about the famine in coal and about the great ravages small-pox was making in the town.

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Coal is so scarce in this part of the West that the R.R. companies issue it in ton & half-ton lots to the different families who deal it out to the stoves with as much care as if it were sugar. Elk Point is largely peopled by French Canadians. The smallpox has broken out with great virulence among them and as they are poor and ignorant, its ravages may be imagined. I was told that during the past week, 30 persons have died and thirteen families are now down with the terrible scourge. A rigid quarantine has been declared against all the infected communities, of which Elk Point may be taken as a type;—afflicted with disease, deprived of proper medical attendance, suffering from want of fuel & perhaps of other necessaries and isolated as pariahs from the rest of the world, the situation of these wretched people struck me as being most deplorable. I couldn’t bear the idea of having to remain in that village all night, and was immeasurably relieved when, after some 3 hours’ waiting the R.R. management at Sioux City waked up to the knowledge that our train was in existence and ordered it to proceed down to that point. Our Engineer and Conductor being very anxious to finish their run, infused a little of their anxiety into our engine which shot ahead in fine style, and landed us in Sioux City, 21 m., in less than an hour and in time for supper. Retired to rest at an early hour, the landlord promising to call me in time for the Omaha train, at 4 in the morning. I was wakened from a sound sleep by the noise of people rushing down stairs and the general bustle of a departing train. I was left again! Going to the head of the stairs, I called for the landlord and asked to explain his neglect;—“did you not promise to call me at 4?[”] “Well,[”] replied he very cooly, [“]I guess you’d better let me take charge of that calling business. I’ll see that you reach the train in time. You can get up now, if you want to, but it’s only 12 o’clock”. It was the Illinois Central R.R. which had broken my slumber. So, back to bed I went, laughing to think how absurdly ridiculous I must have looked to the landlord as I stood at the head of the stairs clad only in my under-clothing just as I had sprung from bed, a Ku-Klux cap upon my head, a travelling satchel in one hand and a wolf-skin in the other! Four o’clock at last came;* all Southward-bound passengers were hustled out of bed, each one burning his throat with *In the margin, Bourke inserted: Jany. 15th 1881.


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boiling coffee and then climbing into the waiting train which was to leave at once; only it didn’t. It just simply waited and waited and waited in the most exasperating manner, trying our patience to the utmost. The train from Saint Paul had failed to get through the drifts, so we waited. Our car was crowded and my seat was between a greasy old German Jewess in front and a sleepy Bohemian in rear—both of whom snored fearfully. We reached Missouri Valley Junction in the very nick of time; the Chicago and North-Western train steamed in at one end of the station, as we reached the other. Reached Department Hd.Qrs., Fort Omaha, Neb., at noon and there received orders to start for Washington at once. Had only time to take lunch and don another suit of clothes, before the conveyance to take us to the Dépôt. In the car with General Crook, Major Roberts and myself, was Mr. Wm. Chambers, of the Q.M. Department, en route to Chicago, on Government business. The snow fell fast and lay deep all the way across Iowa and Illinois, but in our luxurious Hotel car (Northwestern R.R.) we disregarded the elements or only noticed them in recalling to mind our rough experience of a few days ago in Dakota and Nebraska. January 16th. In Chicago, met Lieut-General Sheridan, General (Sandy) Forsyth, General [Rufus] Ingalls—all of the U.S. Army, and Mr. Harry Denel, the General Agent of the Iowa Pool lines. Also my old friend Professor E. S. Holden, (class of 1870, of the Mily. Academy.) now of the U.S. Naval Observatory, and also two sweet and lovely Omaha ladies, Mrs. Ringwalt and Mrs. O’Brien. We dined in the Palmer House Restaurant by the light of the Electric lamp. Left at 9.40 P.M., viâ Ft. Wayne. January 17th 1881. At Pittsburgh, Lieut. James Allen, 3rd Cavalry and the Hon. Mr. Otero, delegate from New Mexico, came in our car; also a lady, the sister in law of Captain McClellan, 6th Cavalry, all of them from Santa Fé. Lieut. Allen I had last seen at the Mily. Academy, West Point, in 1869 and had also met Mr. Otero in Santa Fé, when I arrived there in the Fall of the same year. In the seat facing me, was a gentleman suffering from some opthalmic [sic] trouble which had almost blinded him; to him came the “peanut fiend”7 and insisted upon selling him a Stranger’s Guide to Washington. January 18th 1881. Reached the National Capital 3 or 4 hours behind 7.â•‡ Vendor.

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time. Met during the day, General Ruggles, Mr. John Finerty, of the Chicago Times and Dr. Bailey, U.S. Army—all old friends and all holding prominent places in these note-books. (For a reference to Dr. Bailey and his Thomas Cats, see [Chapter 5]) January 19th 1881. The Ponca Commission held an informal session to consider their Report. All present. General Miles, Mr. Stickney, and Capt. Huggins did not arrive until this morning, having been “blockaded” for 36 hours in the snow. The Boston Committee appointed to conduct the Ponca case called upon Genl. Crook this morning; they were Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Carter & Mr. Goddard, all men of character, education and prominence in their community. General Miles and Capt. Huggins left in the evening for New York. I received an invitation to attend the Bachelors “German”, but was unable to accept, much to my regret. January 20th 1881. Read in the papers to-day of the death of my esteemed old friend, Tommy Byrne, Captain, 12th Infantry. This gentleman was one of the noblest men in his nature; his mind, extremely active and keen, unfortunately had never received the training which education alone can give; nevertheless, such was his high sense of honor and his earnest desire to do right that Captain Byrne rarely failed to perform an allotted task much more successfully than officers of far greater polish. His services during the War had been unusually trying and those he afterwards rendered among the Hualpais, of Arizona was of incalculable value to the country. Since getting to Washington this time, I have been extremely busy writing up the record of the Ponca Commission and consequently have been unable to make as many calls as I should like to have done; but, in addition to visiting the same friends as I had seen on previous occasions, I called this evening in a terrible rain, at the house of Lieut. [Adolphus W.] Greeley, where I had the pleasure of seeing his wife, and Miss Smyth, a bright, lovely girl, and of meeting a number of officers of the Navy and Surgeon [James Cooper] McKee, of the U.S. Army. With Nickerson, I attended a card reception at the house of Justice Hunt of the Court of Claims, where were assembled some of the most distinguished men of the country and many women, old and young, of beauty, intelligence and refinement. Our hostess, Mrs. Hunt, impressed me as a very fine woman; her daughter is a young lady of fine character with mild and lovely


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disposition, if looks can be depended upon. Among the guests were Lady Thornton, the wife of the British minister, and her daughters, two young ladies who if not especially beautiful, had all the attributes of “good bringing up”. As the hour arrived for the party to break up, the rain was descending in torrents, freezing as soon as it touched the ground. Walking was perilous, and to descend from the top of the steps to the curb to risk one’s life. Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Gibbs, two beautiful ladies asked Nickerson and myself to accompany them home in their carriage, which we gladly did. Without our assistance, I don’t see how they could have escaped some serious injury. January 21st. Received an invitation from Major Powell, of the Ethnological Bureau of the Smithsonian Institute, to pay him a visit with references to a better acquaintance. Busy all day with the Ponca Commission Record. After dinner, called upon Mrs. Johnson and accompanied her and her daughter to the Skating Rink, where we remained several hours. The hall was well lighted, the music superb and the great throng present embraced many lovely young ladies and graceful gentlemen. I knew a number of the young ladies and for that reason I took more pleasure in the visit. I had never been in a skating rink before and couldn’t compare the scene to anything so much as the movements of a troupe of whirling dervishes, after the music had warmed the skaters to enthusiasm. January 22nd 1881. Dr. Armstrong, Chief Clerk of General Ruggles’ Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, in whose room I have occupied a desk for the past 2 or 3 days, has made a comparison of the rapidity of my writing with that of several of the most expert pensmen in his Division. It was found that Mr. McCoy and Mr. Dermotty, his two quickest writers, considered that they had done a good day’s work when they had finished 20 pages of legalscap copying, each page of 21 lines and each line of 8½ words. My work was not far from 25 pages per diem, working from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. without lunch, altho’ at a great stress I am certain I could do 35 p. per diem, of 28 lines each, and an average of 17 words to the line. 30 pages of my work equalled 5½ pages of the best War Dep’t. work; the greatest number of words on one of my pages was 388, which will show how close & fine my writing was—I mention this fact merely to prelude my regret that my education has been so imperfect. If, instead of a lot of useless classical training, I had been carefully instructed in

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phonography, and telegraphy, I should have been a man of more consequence in my day & generation. Every boy should be taught such branches and also made to study a trade. I went with Nickerson to the Smithsonian Institute to call upon Major Powell, by whom I was received with the greatest cordiality; he said that Capt. [Clarence Edward] Dutton, of the Ordnance Corps, and Professor Holden had spoken to him a number of times about my service among the Indians and of my note-books which later had also been spoken of by Reverend Mr. Dorsey. Major Powell asked me to join his expedition to the New Mexican pueblos in the summer of the present year: I promised to take the matter under consideration, as it was a subject in which I was deeply interested. Our interview was most delightful and I gladly accepted Major Powell’s invitation to repeat it. Dined with General, Mrs. & Miss Ruggles. January 23rd 1881. Attended Mass at Saint Matthews. In the evening, dined with my old friend, Lieut. [Frank] Green and his wife. They have a pleasant little home, filled with bric à brac, collected during his travels in different parts of the world. In running our National Boundary from Lake of the Woods to the foot of the Rocky Mountains;—of this, he gave an animated description, referring to the Red River half-breeds, and their carts, dogs and dog sledges, fur clothes, the “bull” and Mackinaw boats of the Upper Missouri,—the fabulous swarms of mosquitoes, his experiences at a half-breed ball—his expedient for obtaining a “sight” across a lake—making one of his men swim to the other side and hold up a marked rod; his manner of placing monuments in swamps along the Boundary; this effected by driving 250 piles down around each wooden monument:—of all the above, he had many well-executed pictures, the work of a German artist with his command. He also had numerous articles of Chippeway workmanship, all displaying decided taste. On the walls, were hung the medals conferred upon him by the Czar of Russia and the Government of Roumania for gallant services in the Turco-Russian campaign. These medals are six in number and are all for work of a dangerous nature. Frank Green is justly proud of them and I couldn’t help feeling proud of him for winning them. He has a considerable collection of photographs of the Russian Impe-


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rial family, of Shobeloff8 and other eminent Russian commanders, all or nearly all with the signatures of the originals attached. Lastly, he showed me pictures of places in Saint Petersburgh, and Constantinople and the renowned Monastery of Mount Athos which has played so stirring a part in early history of the Christian World. January 24th 1881. A bright, lovely morning. Worked very hard all day. The newspapers contain the names of persons appointed by President Hayes to various positions in the Army. Major D. G. Swaim, to succeed Drum as Judge Advocate Genl. and two civilians to be Paymaster.9 One of the civilians is the son of Bishop [Henry Benjamin] Whipple of the Episcopal Church—the Bishop who has been very much in fear of the demoralizing influences of army officers upon the Indians under his charge. To me, Whipple has always appeared to be very much of a fanatic and something of a hypocrite. President Hayes made such an ado about reform in the administration of the Government that some people four years ago were deluded into believing that he was honest in his expressions, but a uniform duplicity and treachery have convinced the nation that something besides Apollinaris water at a State Dinner or an unctuous outpouring of sanctimonious gab at all times, is needed to make a man holy. No President ever entered upon his office with brighter prospects of gaining popular esteem and affection than did Hayes; no one has left or will leave the White House more thoroughly despised and detested. After supper, went to Ford’s Opera House, a miserable hole, very inconvenient, poorly ventilated and dangerous in case of fire. It was packed from floor to dome, every seat taken and standing room difficult to find. By extreme good luck, I secured a very good seat in the gallery and listened for three hours to the Opera of Sonnambula, in which Madame Etelka Gerster sang the part of Amina. The voice of this lady is phenomenal—it is of great compass and in every note, high or low, sweet and clear and silvery. The vast audience remained in ecstasies during the whole performance in which Gerster was ably assisted by great artists like Ravelli and 8.â•‡ Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev (1843–82) conquered Khiva in Central Asia for Russia, and was a hero of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. His early death of a heart attack deprived the Russians of a daring and gifted general. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Skobelev 9.â•‡ Swaim later was suspended for twelve years, after being convicted of theft by courtmartial. Johnson, Flipper’s Dismissal, 87–88.

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others whose names I cannot recall.10 Evidently, the best society of Washington was fully represented; costly raiment and beautiful jewels worn by lovely women formed a grand feature which afforded me indescribable pleasure. January 25th 1881. Extremely busy all day, finished the transcript of evidence taken before the Ponca Commission. Dined with General Ruggles, meeting his wife, his niece, Miss Ruggles, and his bright, handsome children, and his cousins, Miss Brooks and Miss Coggswell, all refined and elegant ladies; the last named, an extremely beautiful girl, the daughter of General Milton Coggswell [sic], under whom I formerly served (1870) in Arizona. Mrs. Ruggles is said to be the handsomest lady in the National Capital at this time and I, for one, believe the statement to be true. I accompanied General Ruggles and the ladies to the Presidents’ Reception. This can be outlined in a very few words. There was plenty of good music by the Marine Band and a great crowd of people, including many beautiful women and some not beautiful—all well dressed and not a few extravagantly dressed. Taking ones place in the long line, we slowly advanced step by step, running each moment the risk of tearing off the train of the lady in front and finally reach the presence of the President and Mrs. Hayes. Somebody asks you—“name please?” You answer “Lieutenant Bourke and Miss Coggswell”, whereupon he bawls out “Colonel Snogser and Mrs. Quirkswill”. But it don’t make any difference. The President greets you with a smile that is too truly good for this earth and Mrs. Hayes gives a gentle, pleasant glance of welcome which may not have any sincerity about it, but which is for all that, extremely pleasant. No one remains long at a White House reception; there is such a crush that after promenading once or twice around the rooms and through the conservatory people order their carriages and drive off to other entertainments. The policeman is requested to “call General Ruggles’ carriage”, of course, he yells out at the top of his lungs for “Giniril Murdock’s kerridge”, but the coachmen seem to be marvelously gifted and intuitively know when their services are most needed. We were driven to General Sherman’s where a card reception was in progress and to me this particular reception was unusually pleasant: 10.â•‡ Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula, first produced in 1831, was one of the most popular operas of the nineteenth century. Etelka Gerster (1855–1920) was a Hungarian soprano. Cross and Kohrs, Complete Stories, 556; Robert Wooster to Ron Chrisman, March 16, 2008.


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the house was packed with people, every room filled to its utmost capacity with a surging mass of ladies and gentlemen, all or nearly all the officers of the Army & Navy being in full uniform. The pretty girls were countless, and those who if not handsome were charming and attractive by gentleness of manner were equally numerous. General Sherman, assisted by Miss Lizzie and Miss Rachel, received and everybody was made to feel perfectly at home. It was a very jolly affair, one where officers from opposite corners of the country were running against each other after a separation of years. Among those whom I met were Major General Schofield and his brother, Lieut. [Charles Brewster] Schofield, Genl. McCook, Colonel [Richard Irving] Dodge, (with whom I went on the Expedition to explore the Black Hills in 1875 see [Volume 1, Chapter 8 and 9]) and many others. The hours glided by with unnoticed swiftness until long after midnight when we left with unfeigned regret that the evening could not be made to last longer. January 26th 1881. The Ponca Commission assembled in the Office of the Board of Indian Commissioners, 15th & N.Y. Avenue. Present, all the members, and after listening to Major Roberts’ reading of the Report which they had agreed upon, proceeded in a body to the Executive Mansion to submit it to the President. The Report telegraphed to the N.Y. Herald in full for the next morning’s issue, I find it more convenient to cut from the columns of that journal than to write it down. WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 1881. THE PONCA REMOVAL—REPORT OF THE COMMISSION RECENTLY APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT. The commission appointed by the President, on December 18, to proceed to the Indian Territory and confer with the Ponca tribe of Indians, for the purpose of ascertaining the facts in regard to their recent removal and present condition so far as is necessary to determine the question what justice and humanity require should be done by the United States government in the premises, to-day submitted a report to the President in which the following conclusions and recommendations are embodied:— First—That the removal of the Ponca Indians from their reservation in Dakota and Nebraska, where they were living

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by virtue of treaties with the United States, of 1858 and 1867, was not only most unfortunate for the Indians, resulting in great hardships and serious loss of life and property, but was injudicious and without sufficient cause * * * * Second—That the lands from which the Poncas were removed had been ceded and relinquished to them by the United States for ample consideration specified in the treaties; that the government solemnly covenanted not only to warrant and defend their title to these lands, but also to protect their persons and property thereon; that the Indians had violated no condition of the treaty by which their title to the lands or claims to protection had been forfeited, and that this rightful claim still exists in full force and effect, notwithstanding all acts done by the government of the United States. Third—That up to within a few months of the present time they have manifested the strongest desire to return to their reservation in Dakota, and a portion of the tribe succeeded in getting back to their native land. The remainder of the tribe were greatly discouraged in their efforts to return, and as they finally despaired of regaining their rights, under the belief that the government would not regard their title to the land in Dakota as valid, and that they could obtain a stronger title to the land in the Indian Territory, as well as other prominent considerations, they decided to accept the best terms they could obtain. Their chiefs and head men agreed to remain in that Territory. Having once committed themselves in writing to that course, they, with commendable integrity, regarded the action as sacred as far as they were concerned, and the majority of their people acquiesced and indorsed the action of their head men. THE PONCAS IN DAKOTA Fourth—That the Indians who have returned to their reservation in Dakota have the strongest possible attachment to their lands and a resolute purpose to retain them. They have received no assistance from the government, and except the limited aid furnished by benevolent people they have been entirely self sustaining. With few agricultural implements they have cultivated a considerable tract of land


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for their support. They are on friendly terms with all other Indian tribes, including the Sioux, as well as with the white settlers in their vicinity. They pray that they may not again be disturbed, and ask for a teacher to aid and instruct them in the arts of industry, and for a missionary to teach them the principles of morality and religion. RECOMMENDATIONS. In the settlement of the problem presented by this state of affairs the commission believe that the government should be controlled by the principles that would be applicable to any peaceable and law abiding people in the same circumstances, and that not [only] the welfare of the Ponca Indians but the future influence and authority of the government over other Indian tribes who are better informed than are generally supposed concerning the circumstances of the Poncas, demand that there should be an ample and speedy redress of wrongs, thus exhibiting a conspicuous example of the government’s purpose to do justice to all. It is therefore recommended that an allotment of 160 acres of land be made to each man, woman and child of the Ponca tribe of Indians, said lands to be selected by them on their old reservation in Dakota or on the land now occupied by the Ponca Indians in the Indian Territory within one year from the passage of an Act of Congress granting such tracts of land; that until the expiration of this period free communication be permitted between the two branches of the tribe; said land to be secured to them by patent; that the title to the same shall not be subject to a lien, alienation of encumbrance, either by voluntary conveyance or by judgment, orders or decree of any court, or subject to taxation of any character, for a period of thirty years from the date of the patent and until such time thereafter as the President may remove the restriction; that any conveyance made by any of those Indians before the expiration of the time above mentioned shall be void, and it shall be the duty of the Attorney General, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, to institute suit to set aside such deed or conveyance, that their title to the lands may be intact and that they shall be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, including the laws of alienation and

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descent, in force in the state or Territory where such lands are selected; that the United States take immediate action to extinguish all claims that would be an incumbrance upon the title to any lands which it is proposed shall be allotted to all members of the Ponca tribe of Indians; that the government continue its appropriations the same as at present, not less than $53,000 per year during the period of five years from the passage of the act making the allotments, as aforesaid, the same to be for benefit of the members of the tribe pro rata; that the additional sum of $25,000 be immediately appropriated and expended in agricultural implements, stock and seed, $5,000 of which shall be for the exclusive benefit of the Poncas in Nebraska and Dakota, the remaining $20,000 to be divided among families of the whole tribe, according to the number in each family, to be in full satisfaction for all depredations and losses of property sustained by these Indians in consequence of their removal; that the further sum of not less than $5,000 be appropriated for the construction of comfortable dwellings and not more than $5,000 for the erection of schoolhouses for the Poncas in Nebraska and Dakota, and that suitable persons be employed by the government for their instruction in religious, educational and industrial developed and to superintend, care for and protect all their interests. We respectfully suggest that the welfare of these Indians requires us to emphasize the necessity of prompt action in settling their affairs, to the end that this long pending controversy may be determined according to the dictates of humanity and justice. APPEALS TO THE COURTS. In conclusion, we desire to give expression to the conviction forced upon us by our investigation of this case that it is of utmost importance to white and red man alike that all Indians should have the opportunity of appealing to the courts for the protection and vindication of their rights of person and property. Indians cannot be expected to understand the duties of men living under the forms of civilization until they know, by being subject to it, the authority of stable law as administered by the courts, and are relieved from the


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uncertainties and oppression frequently attending subjection to arbitrary and personal authority. The evidence taken by the Commission, together with documents pertaining to the inquiry, accompany the report. The members of the Commission were:—Brigadier Generals George Crook and Nelson A. Miles, United States Army; William Stickney of Washington, and Walter Allen, of Newton, Mass. Mr. Walter Allen submitted an additional report, in which he says that while he subscribes to the conclusions and recommendations of his colleagues in the inquiry as far as they go, he differs with them in his view of the duty of the commission to report the facts and reasons upon which the conclusion and recommendations are based, instead of unsupported conclusions and recommendations which may appear to be uncalled for. He then proceeds to give in detail a history of the various treaties with the Ponca Indians and the facts of their treatment. President Hayes took the Report and read aloud the recommendations contained in it. Then turning to the Commissioners, he said: “gentlemen, if I am to say anything formally, I will say that your recommendations are practical, judicious, wise and based upon common sense. I shall be glad to give them every support. Your mission has been a most important one and you have performed your duties just as I expected you would when I appointed you. You have been very thorough and have done very excellent service for which I thank you”. The Ponca Commission then withdrew & dissolved. I paid a visit to my old friend, Sister de Chantal of the Convent of the Visitation and afterwards went down to the Army Medical Museum, with its rich store of ghastly treasures, embracing specifics of all the wounds inflicted during the late War,—a horrible momento of those fearful days of carnage: hospital trains, ambulances, litters, horses, sledges, steamboats, field and permanent hospitals, surgical implements,—everything in use in our great Army during the war of the Rebellion.


✦ Part 3 The Bureau of Ethnology

✦


Background

U

pon returning to Washington to finalize the work with the Ponca Commission, Bourke met with Maj. John Wesley Powell, director of the two-year-old American Bureau of Ethnology. Powell had learned of Bourke’s work from E. S. Holden of the Naval Observatory, who had been a year behind Bourke at West Point, and from Rev. Dorsey, who, aside from his ministry with the Episcopal Church, and his work with the Ponca Commission, also was an ethnologist on the bureau’s staff. Both Holden and Dorsey believed the bureau could benefit from Bourke’s experiences. From this meeting came formal sanction for his ethnological interests, and thus he embarked on the work that would secure his own place in history. Indeed, with and without Crook, and with and without official support, the remaining fifteen years of his life would be devoted to this work.1 Although Bourke undoubtedly could have worked solely under the aegis of the Bureau of Ethnology, at this point in his life, he preferred to continue within the framework of his military duties. His position as Crook’s aide gave him substantial flexibility, and most likely he preferred this to the potential control of Powell. He also 1. Porter, Paper Medicine Man, 72.

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believed his past experience with the same Indians, and the notes he had made at the time, would allow him to work much more efficiently. Making his case to Sheridan, he said that working alone “will enable me to do more promptly the same amount of work which would require with Major Powell, six @ eight months. I feel that I ought to devote some time to this important work and thus save the accumulations of notes and memoranda, of more or less account, taken during my nearly twelve years of service among the Indians....” Sheridan was amenable, provided Crook had no objections, which, of course, Crook did not.2 This assignment in conjunction with his military duties was not as odd as it might seem. Beginning with the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804, the military was charged not only with policing and maintaining peace, but collecting scientific data as well. Soldiers were expected to record geological, zoological, and botanical information about the country itself, and ethnological information about its native inhabitants. In 1834, officers assigned to exploration or field duties on the frontier were ordered to keep journals of scientific information. The most prominent of these soldier-explorerscientists of the Antebellum era was Capt. John C. Frémont, whose well-publicized exploits made him a national hero. Frémont may have been the most famous, but there were many others, and officers who came after the Civil War took up the torch. Thus Bourke had the experiences of many officers, both contemporary and earlier, on which to draw, as he himself noted.3 Bourke and his contemporaries believed they had three objectives. First, they were to chronicle native cultures before they disappeared, as most ethnologists of the period believed they surely must. They also believed scientific data on Indian life and culture could serve as a guide to establishing Indian policy out of the chaotic contradictions that had plagued the Department of the Interior from its inception. Finally, they wanted to establish a methodology for acquiring, organizating, and publishing their information. To this end, drawing on the works of both American and British historians and ethnologists, Bourke designed a format for gathering information, which is reproduced at the end of Chapter 15. 2.â•‡ Bourke, Diary, 38:1118–19; Sheridan to Bourke, March 19, 1881; Crook to Sheridan, March 20, 1881, copies in ibid., 39:1132–33. 3.â•‡ Tate, Frontier Army, Chapter 1.

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Bourke handled his duties with conflicting emotions. This was during the Victorian Era, when white Europeans and their American counterparts had reached the zenith of their prestige and selfassurance. The common wisdom of the age dictated that other races represented cultures that contributed little of any value to humanity and, in fact, existed to their own detriment. If people such as the American Indians were to survive, they must abandon their native ways and assume the life of the dominant culture. Bourke was a product of this era, and shared its prejudices. After visiting a class at the Bannock and Shoshone Agency School at Fort Hall, Idaho, he wrote, “No encouraging progress can be hoped for except in establishments like Carlisle where a complete segregation of the children from the impeding idleness of tribal relations can be secured.” Carlisle, of course, referred to the Indian School at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where children of the various tribes were transported for education, under the policy of making them abandon their tribal culture and become “productive” citizens as defined by nineteenth century white standards.4 Nevertheless, this very same attitude gave Bourke trouble. The more time he spent with Indians, the more he had come to respect them. In the West, he had observed the best and worst of both Indian and white culture. Weighing the best of the Indian way against the worst of the white way, he was not totally convinced that the existing white civilization was the ideal role model for Indians to follow. He never doubted that ultimately the Indians would have to assimilate, but increasingly believed they should assimilate more at their own pace, and less under coercion, perhaps even retaining some of the better aspects of their own way of life. This would continue to worry him.5 4.â•‡ Ibid., 16–18; Porter, Paper Medicine Man, 79–81. Quote from Bourke, Diary, 39:1185. Carlisle and the Indian School experience are discussed in Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, and Adams, Education for Extinction. 5.â•‡ Porter, Paper Medicine Man, 81.

Chapter 15 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

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anuary 27th. After breakfast at the Riggs’, visited Major Powell—at the National Gallery, the new building of the Smithsonian Institute. This is a magnificent structure, of the finest I have ever seen. Being a little bit too early, I whiled away the moments, preceding Major Powell’s arrival, in making a hurried examination of a number of the apartments and cases. I succeeded in walking through those devoted to the “seal family”, the “rattlesnakes” and “skunks” and was delighted beyond description, by the order and system of arrangement. Major Powell coming in received me very warmly and presented me to his assistants, Captain Garrick Mallery of the Army1 and another 1. Garrick Mallery (d. 1895) was a captain of the First Infantry, who first entered the army as a captain of Volunteers during the Civil War. He finished the war with brevets to colonel of Volunteers and lieutenant colonel of the Regular Army. Like Bourke, Mallery became interested in American Indian culture during service in the West. He pioneered research into Indian winter counts with The Dakota and Corbusier Winter Counts. He was placed on detached duty to work on the monumental Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, but soon abandoned it for his own field work in American Indian pictography and sign language; the Handbook was completed by Frederick Webb Hodge. Mallery’s twovolume Picture Writing of the American Indians, published in the Tenth Annual Report of the American Bureau of Ethnology in 1893, remains in print, as does his Sign Language Among North American Indians. Mallery was one of the founders of the American Anthropological Society, and served as its president for several years. Heitman, Historical Register, 1:686; Fletcher, “Colonel Garrick Mallery,” 79–80; http://www.accessgenealogy.com/ native/tribes/preface.htm

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gentleman, Mr._______, whose name I did not catch, but who impressed me as a young man of decided ability (Mr. I. Pilling.). Our conversation naturally turned upon ethnology and in reply to Maj. Powell’s queries, I gave a succinct statement of my own efforts in that direction in Arizona in 1873. At that time, as I told Major Powell, I was still quite young in years and totally without knowledge of this most important branch of science, but I was impelled by a very sincere desire to learn and that is half the battle always. I prepared a long list of questions embracing a wide range of topics but based upon the idea of an Indian’s life, commencing with his birth, taking him through all the principal events of his history and ending with his death and mortuary services. Major Powell renewed his invitation for me to join his Expedition in May, and I again assured him that I would give the matter very earnest deliberation. I then passed over to the old building of the Smithsonian, and after glancing at the lordly Irish Elk and the German Aurochs, I entered the division of Anthropology, which I was most anxious to see. There is certainly a fair collection of Indian property, but it is only fair and is not well arranged. If the United States Government so desired the Bureau of Ethnology could get specimens enough to fill one half the Smithsonian Institute. The cases containing stone axes, hammers, “celts”, spears and daggers, make a good display and are so labelled as to give a good idea of the purposes for which their contents were intended. Returning to Nickerson’s Office, I stopped on the way at the Washington Monument, which I desired to ascend, but the elevator was under repair and the wooden stairway too slippery with the ice and snow—so I gave up the idea and entered the small frame building where are stored the stones presented by the various states, Territories, cities, towns and associations. At the Signal Office, Nickerson presented me to Captain Saldanha da Gama, of the Brazilian Navy, now on an official visit to this country. This officer is a direct descendant of Vasco da Gama, the great navigator of Portugal: Captain S. da Gama is a gentleman of unusually courteous manner, extended acquaintance with all quarters of the globe, keen powers of observation and, apparently, great range of reading. Professor Abbie invited me to visit the Instrument rooms of the Signal Service, which I did, and was shown through by Lt. [William Edward] Birkhimer, an esteemed friend of many years

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standing, whom I had not seen since 1869. I was astonished at the advances made in this department of science and gave as close an inspection to the self-regulating anemometers, barometers and thermometers, which were tracing out the direction, force and temperature of wind at every moment of the day. I ended the extremely active work of the morning by a visit to the Corcoran Art Gallery, which has plaster casts of notable statues.2 It is much patronized by Washingtonians and by strangers coming to the city, and is the nucleus of a Grand National Gallery of Art in the future, which our people shall be more wealthy and more refined. Later in the afternoon, Nickerson drove me to the Taylor Mansion to meet some of the Committee of the Art Loan Exhibition in aid of the School for Nurses. This Committee, of which Major Powell and Nickerson are members, was desirous of securing some Indian trinkets from Genl. Crook’s Hd.Qrs. and these I of course promised to send, altho’ our stock of such things is just now sadly depleted. General Crook & Major Roberts, A.D.C., left for Omaha. In the evening, I made calls at General McCook’s, Attorney General Williams, General Leman’s and Congressman [George Bailey] Lorings [sic], at which last named place, there was to have been a musical entertainment, but owing to the sudden indisposition of the young ladies who was [sic] to sing, we were deprived of the pleasure promised but had the recompense of an animating conversation with the family—a very cultured one from Boston, Mass. We wound up the night at the weekly reception of the wife of Justice Hunt, a preceding one of which I attended some days since. At this house one meets all the distinguished people in Washington,—there were certainly, if anything, too many of them here this evening. Judges of the Supreme Court, Members of the Cabinet, Officers of the Army and Navy, diplomats, literary people, ladies and gentlemen of wealth, and leisure. The English Embassador [sic], Sir Edward Thornton, with his wife and daughter, was there, and also the Japanese minister, Mr. Yoshida and his wife. The latter 2.â•‡ The Corcoran Gallery of Art was established in 1869 by banking magnate William Wilson Corcoran. At the time of Bourke’s visit, it was located at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1897, however, space demands forced relocation to a new building on 17th Street at New York Avenue NW. The original building now houses the Renwick Gallery. The Corcoran remains the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corcoran_Gallery_of_Art

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are extremely diminutive people but very bright and amiable. They wear the American costume. Here I met Mrs. Dahlgren and Miss Welsh, both of whom asked me to come to see them. Miss Welsh is a beautiful young lady, the niece of the wife of Lieut. [James McBride?] Stembel, of the Army. She paid a long visit to Fort Omaha, two or three years ago, and made hosts of friends by her beauty, intelligence, and animated gentle nature. Mrs. Dahlgren, widow of Admiral [John A.] Dahlgren of the U.S. Navy, was the mother of Lieutenant [Vinton Augustus] Goddard of the Army, with whom, when cadets, I was on terms of the closest intimacy. Naturally, her unexpected meeting with me, recalled many sad associations.3 I also met Secy. Carl Schurz, who asked me to be sure to come to his Office (Department of the Interior) before leaving town, as he was particularly desirous of having a talk with me. I felt almost sure that the Report of the Ponca Commission had been a severe blow to him and that the conversation would be upon that topic.... January 28th. Called upon Secretary Schurz, but learned that he had just left for a Cabinet meeting. Mr. Hanna, his private secretary, told me that Mr. Schurz was very anxious to have me wait until his return. My time was very much crowded, but I promised to wait as long as possible and in the meantime, Mr. Hanna brought me to Mr. Lockwood, chief clerk of the Indian Bureau, with whom I had a slight various acquaintance and by whom I was received in a very kindly manner. At Mr. Hanna’s request, Mr. Lockwood gave me a note to Mr. Ford, the Chief Examiner of the Patent Office, who escorted me all over that wonderful place. Of course, I took but a passing interest in General Washington’s clothes, mess-chest, watch & surveying instruments, altho’ they have a great value in themselves. They are out of place in the Patent Office which is more thoroughly the index of the new life of our nation than the record of its past. Mr. Ford was very patient with me & gave me very intelligent instruction as we went along. I told him that my visit was so hurried I couldn’t pretend to see everything worthy to be seen, but I wished to learn in what department I could find that of most interest for study in subsequent visits. It is almost impossible to say how many models are on exhibition; I remember Mr. Ford told me that in the 3.â•‡ Goddard had died not quite four years earlier, on March 2, 1877. Heitman, Historical Register, 1:461.

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fire of 1878, which consumed a part of the building, over 120.000 had been destroyed. To prevent a recurrence of such a calamity, the new structure is absolutely fireproof, not a particle of wood or combustible material to be found in its composition. The Walls and arches are of stone, the pillars, rails and staircases of iron, floors of slate, grooved with tongues of iron to prevent the percolation of water (See the purposely exaggerated drawing...in which A.A. are slate slabs grooved and B. is the iron tongue) The shelves and cases are of iron and glass, the glass being opaque when it encloses models not yet acted upon and which a sense of justice dictates should be preserved for the benefit of the presenter until a careful examination shall determine whether or not a patent shall be issued. In the afternoon, I attended [a] reception at the house of General [Thomas Jefferson?] Haines, U.S. Army, where I saw several lovely ladies, Mrs. Haines, Miss Haines, Miss Coggswell, Mrs. Johnson and two or three others,—at Admiral Scotts, where I met Mrs. Gibbs, Miss Julia Palmer and others and then put in the rest of the afternoon in making calls upon my dear old friend, Mrs. Stedman and her daughter, Mrs. Lamberton, upon Miss Welsh and lastly upon Mrs. Dahlgren, with whom I had a long conversation about her son. In the evening, I called upon General Ruggles, and his charming family and then ran down for a few moments to the Metropolitan Club, where I had a long chat with Col. Dodge, Major Twining and Colonel Nickerson and then home to bed, decidedly tired out. I forgot to refer at the proper time to my meeting with Brigadier Genl. Sprigg Carrol, of the retired list, U.S. Army, who altho’ still young, is permanently disabled from seven wounds received during the war. Saturday, January 29th, 1881. Made farewell calls at the Hunts, Ruggles, Fants & Johnsons and then started for Philadelphia being pressed in my movements by a desire to get away from the imbroglio between Mr. Schurz and the Ponca Commission, especially in the absence of General Crook. Reached Philadelphia, viâ Balto. & Potomac R.R. about 9 at night and was soon at home with my dear mother and sister. Altho’ my stay at home was very limited, only 36 hrs., it was one of the most unalloyed pleasures of my life. Sunday, January 30th 1881. In Philadelphia. Called upon my old

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friends, Mrs. Levin and upon Colonel and Mrs. Rush—all of whom seemed very glad to see me. Monday, January 31st 1881. Took the Fort Wayne line for Chicago. The papers in the last few days have announced the close of the war between Chili and Peru, the Chileños capturing Lima.4 A very severe snow storm began at dusk and February 1st 1881. Snow was still falling heavily, blocking the track and putting our train three hours behind time. Nearly all in our car were bound for points West of Chicago and as each moment’s delay diminished our chances of making connection for Omaha, we became cross and petulant and felt like assaulting the train boy for want of a better antagonist. But our faces brightened when we learned upon reaching Chicago that there was still time to catch the Rock Island Express, which we did with barely two minutes to spare.... The newspapers to-day contain telegraphic notices of the death of Captain Joseph Lawson, 3d Cavalry, of paralysis, at Fort Fred Steele, Wyo. The name of this officer can be found at many points in my journal, especially in those volumes bearing upon the Sioux and Cheyenne campaign, (1876–1877) and the Thornburgh Massacre.5 Lawson was a fine old soldier, a man without any education whatever, but gifted with considerable shrewdness and common sense. After returning from the Ute campaign, in the winter of 1879, Lawson one day entered the trader’s store at Fort Steele, (I think) where he found a number of officers congregated, playing billiards. He remarked very quietly in his squeaky voice: “young gintle-mane, I don’t want to make no trouble with nobody, but I’m dam-n-ned av I don’t nock He-e-el out of the next Lef-ten-nint I hear calling my wife, Mrs. Lawson ‘ould sét-tin Bull[’].” He sold a horse once to Mr. Valentine, Agent of the Black Hills Stage Company. “I want $110,[”] said Lawson, [“]an’ I wouldn’t sell him no how only I want the money to pay for my darter’s heddy-cation”. “Has the horse ever been driven, Cap?” “Oh? Yase, I had him in my own buggy”. The horse was bought, paid for and put in the outgoing stage team, 4.â•‡ This refers to the War of the Pacific (1879–84), in which Chile defeated an alliance of Peru and Bolivia. Although the Chileans occupied much of Peru in 1881, as Bourke notes, resistance continued for another three years. Ultimately Chile annexed one of Peru’s coastal provinces, as well as the entire Bolivian coast, leaving that country landlocked. This is still a point of contention between the three countries, and Bolivians remain particularly bitter against Chile. 5.â•‡ See Robinson, Diaries, Vols. 2 and 3.

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he went first rate for a few miles, but before getting to the first station, took it into his head “to buck” and just fairly kicked and tore everything to pieces. Investigation showed that Lawson had told only the truth; the horse had been hitched up in his own buggy, but he had kicked that to match-timber which was something the old man had forgotten to mention at the time of sale. Mr. Byram, formerly one of the owners of the Horn Silver Mine was in our car, and having met him a number of times before, I had a long conversation with him concerning mining in general & the Horn Silver in particular. February 2d 1881. (Wednesday). A raw and gloomy day with flurries of snow. Reached Omaha at 10¾ a.m., our detention occasioned by a freight train off the track. And this terminated a delightful trip, at least delightful in its main features, one which brought me in contact with many distinguished people and let me see that many whom I had been wont to regard as distinguished were made of very ordinary clay—were humbugs, in fact, or unworthy of the high places they occupied. February 3d 1881 Omaha (Nebr.) Herald, Feby. 3d 1881 The presidents message with the report of the Ponca commission was received. The president quotes from various reports upon the subject and says the commission will add very little to known facts as given in other reports. However, the evidence before the commission and their recommendations show conclusively what measure of redress the government ought to adopt. The commission fail to state the present condition of the Poncas in Indian territory, but the evidence conclusively shows they are satisfied, healthy, comfortable and freely and firmly decided to adhere to their present quarters and not to return to Dakota and Nebraska. The remnant now in Dakota prefer to remain there. They number 150. The president is therefore confident a consistent solution of the Ponca question agreeable to the Poncas and to the policy of the government is assured. Our general Indian policy should embrace the following ideas: First—Prepare Indians for citizenship by educating the young of both sexes.

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Second. Let lands be allotted to Indians in severalty, and to Indians inalienable for a certain period. Third. Fair compensation to Indians for their lands, and amounts paid to be suitably invested for their benefit. Fourth. These prerequisites secured, the Indians should be invested with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The president therefore recommends legislation instructing the secretary of the interior to secure to individual Poncas in severalty sufficient land for their support, inalienable for a term of years, or until the restriction upon their alienation may be removed by the president, and to let members of the tribe have ample time to choose their allotments on new or old reservations; give them full pay for lands relinquished, and for losses by Sioux depredations and by removal to the Indian territory, and let the amount not be less than named by their chiefs on December 27th last. Nothing should be left undone to show the Indians the government regards their rights equally sacred with those of its citizens. The time has come when the policy should be to place Indians as rapidly as practicable upon the same footing with other permanent inhabitants of this country. I do not undertake to apportion the blame for the injustice done the Poncas. Whether [the injustice was done by the] the executive or congress or the public is not now the question of practical importance. As chief executive at a time when the wrong was consummated, I am deeply sensible enough of responsibility for that wrong justly attaches to me to make it my personal duty and earnest desire to do all I can to give those Indian people that measure of redress which is required alike by justice and by humanity. [signed] R. B. Hayes, Executive Mansion. th February 4 1881. The cable announces that yesterday the Home Rule members6 of the English Parliament were expelled from the House of Commons for obstructing the debate upon the Coercion Bill which was introduced to give the Government power to employ extraordinary measures for the suppression of tumult and disorder 6.â•‡ Members from Ireland who advocated a separate Irish parliament.

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in Ireland. This expulsion of members, altho’ perfectly authorized by the tenets of British Parliamentary practice has never before been attempted and its occurrence at this period of popular agitation in Ireland is most unfortunate and will assuredly do much to convince the famine stricken peasantry of that misgoverned country that the Government of her majesty, Queen Victoria, is deaf to their cries for redress of grievances and that they have no alternative between starving to death or assassinating their oppressors. February 6th A heavy snow & rain storm began last night and has continued until present moment, 11 a.m. Nothing like it in my knowledge of Nebraska. The temperature, strange to say, remains mild. Trees and twigs and sprigs of grass are heavily clad with bright icicles, under the weight of which the strongest branches break and fall to the ground. All over the United States, the winter has been of unprecedented severity; grave fears are entertained for the safety of the immense cattle interests of Nebraska and Wyoming, and thus far, I am afraid, the loss to the West alone may be put down among the millions. Thomas Carlyle, the eminent author, died last night, in England. While according to Carlyle the possession of a splendid intellect and a noble soul, I must express my conviction that he was not one of those who will live in the future. His writings were dyspeptic and not adapted for general circulation; in many of his Essays occur words so utterly beyond the compass and comprehension of people of good education, that it is hard to see how his ideas were ever directly to reach the poor and humble-minded. Carlyle rather affected an obscure ruggedness of style and as a penalty will himself be condemned to obscurity. February 10th. Have been very busy since my return to Fort Omaha, Feby. 2nd, in completing the notes taken the two months of my absence, December 12th 1880–Feby. 2nd 1881, and in answering correspondence and other work accumulated in same time. I have also given some little attention to the arrangement of a small collection of Indian trinkets and curiosities for the Art Loan Exhibition, now being held in Washington, D.C....which if not interesting of themselves will demonstrate that General Crook and his personal Staff have done much work in the vast Territory lying between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean, and running from British America down to the Mexican boundary and beyond. Some of the relics are trophies of bloody fields.

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February 15th 1881. Great floods reported in the Eastern States, the Potomac river rises and overflows into the lower part of the city of Washington, carrying away the historical Long Bridge. An alarm of fire sounded and the firemen in approaching the burning building had to work in water breast-deep. Upon extinguishing the flames, it was found that they had been caused by the flood of water, which pouring into the old shanty had caused the “slacking” of a large quantity of lime stored there. Telegrams from the North Western states7 announce the continuance of unprecedentedly bitter weather: this, combined with the existence of fuel famine has made the existence of settlers wretched. In parts of Southern Minnesota, they are burning up their houses to keep from freezing. Three or four families concentrate in one building and consume the others as fuel. The Baroness Burdett-Coults, aet.8 67, married to Mr. Ashmael Bartlett, aet. 39, in London, England, on the 11st instant. The anticipation of this wedding has set all England by the ears for some months. The poor old lady has been vilified, abused and ridiculed, her large-hearted charity forgotten and her right to dispose of her hand as she pleases [illegible]. Her marriage at this last moment of her life can scarcely be called wise, but she has been such a good and noble woman that she fairly earned the right to make a fool of herself if she wants to. February 26th 1881. Finished and mailed to the Reverend Edward Everett Hale, Boston, Mass. a letter upon the subject of North American Indians, especially those subjugated by the Spaniards in Arizona and Western Mexico. February 28th. General Chas. F. Manderson, of Omaha, Neb., gave an elegant dinner party this evening at which were present Brigadier General George Crook, U.S. Army, General John H. King, 9th Infantry, General John E. Smith, 14th Infantry, Lt.-Col. W. B. Royall, 3d Cavy., Inspector Genl., Colonel M. I. Ludington, Chief Qr., Master, Colonel T. H. Stanton, Chief Paymaster, Major J. V. Furey, dépôt Qr. Mast., Captain T. H. Stanton,9 1Lt. M. C. Foote, Adjutant 9th Infantry, and 1Lt. John G. Bourke, 3d Cavalry, Aide de Camp. There were no ladies present, altho’ Mrs. Manderson and her mother 7.â•‡ At that time Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 8.â•‡ Latin “age.” 9.â•‡ Bourke obviously means Capt. William S. Stanton.

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came in for a few moments both before and after dinner to chat pleasantly with their guests. The affair was the most delightful one of the kind, I’ve ever known in Omaha. The next twenty-three pages of this volume are taken up by a clipping of a lengthy article on travel in the Southwest by Joseph Wasson, in the January 13, 1881, issue of the San Francisco Stock Report, and a clipping from the February 26, 1881, issue of the Army and Navy Register, concerning a request by Col. Joseph J. Reynolds, Third Cavalry, that his suspension under sentence of court-martial be reviewed.10 [Undated entry but after February 27 and prior to March 3, 1881] Cable dispatches announce the complete rout and destruction by the Boers of the Trans-Waal country, South Africa, of the brigade of invading British Troops, commanded by Major General Sir George Colley. The Battle which seems to have been a fair and desperate one terminated in the storming of the English position and the killing of General Colley; the retreat became a rout and the rout a massacre from which few of the English escaped.11 England has her hands full at this moment and may soon be compelled to drain to the dregs the bitter chalice of the world’s scorn and hatred. March 3d 1881. President Hayes vetoed the Funding Bill, by which it was proposed to take up with maturing bonds of the national debt and issue in their places a series bearing interest at the rate of 3 p[er]. c[ent]. per annum. By one of the clauses of the Bill, it was proposed that the banks should be compelled to substitute for the bonds they have now deposited as security for their circulation, bonds of the new issue, which measure fraught as it was with the danger of loss to the Banks, provoked their bitterest antagonism. 10.â•‡ Reynolds was court-martialed following the fiasco against the Cheyennes on the Powder River on March 17, 1876. See Robinson, General Crook, 169–71, and Diaries, 1:Chapter 13. 11.â•‡ This refers to the Battle of Majuba Hill in the Natal, on February 27, 1881, during the First Boer War. Some four to five hundred Boer commandos defeated a detachment of 405 British infantry. Two hundred and eighty British soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured, to Boer losses of one man killed, and five wounded, one of whom later died. The battle was significant in the Boer tactics of using camouflaged units to pin the British down with long-range gunfire until their position was untenable. As they retreated down the hill, they were shot to pieces. Despite the fact that the British were professional soldiers, and the Boers essentially militia, their tactics, discipline, and marksmanship proved superior. Majuba was the third major defeat in the war and forced Britain to negotiate a peace with the newly created South African Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Majuba_Hill

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They entered into a conspiracy to withdraw their circulation and retire from business and by their bold maneuvers brought on a panic in the New York Money market, second only to the famous Black Friday, of 1873.12 Secretary Sherman came to the help of the market, by buying maturing bonds and releasing several millions of gold from the vault of the Treasury. The Bill passed both houses, but was vetoed by Hayes. March 4th President James A. Garfield inaugurated at Washington, D.C., with much pomp and ceremony. Four years ago, Hayes entered upon his duties with the hopes and respect of the great majority of our people. He leaves the White House, the most thoroughly despised and hated of all our Presidents. He leaves behind him an unsavory reputation for hypocritical cant, insincerity, general untrustworthiness and positive mendacity. It is no easy matter to tell whether Republicans or Democrats despise him most: neither party will make the smallest effort to drag him again from the obscurity into which he has fallen. March 7th 1881. Received very complimentary letter from Reverend Edward Everett Hale, in acknowledgment of mine to him which letter he said he would read at the next meeting of the Massachusetts’ Antiquarian Society, in April....I also received another letter from Major Powell, of the Smithsonian Institute, repeating his invitation to me to join his proposed expedition to the Pueblo Indians. March 8th 1881. Wrote a personal letter to Lieut. General P. H. Sheridan, Commanding Mily. Division of the Missouri, requesting to be detailed in the work of ascertaining points in the ethnology of the North-American Indians, and especially of the Pueblos,—if I can get such a detail, it will enable me to do more promptly the same amount of work which would require with Major Powell, six @ eight months. I feel that I ought to devote some time to this important work and thus save the accumulations of notes and memoranda, of more or less account, taking during my nearly twelve years of service among the Indians of the great Plains of the Missouri & Columbia Basin and in the remote South-West, in the valleys of the Gila, Colorado and Rio Grande. The following list of questions prepared for my own use, will serve 12.â•‡ This initiated a six-year depression known as the Panic of 1873, the effects of which Bourke discussed at length in Volume 1 of this series.

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to make clear the object and scope of my proposed investigation. Here Bourke has pasted the printed criteria for ethnological investigation. It is included as essential to understanding Bourke’s ethnological work which occupied much of the ensuing decade. In the preparation of these memoranda, I have not depended alone upon such personal experience as I have had with Indians, but have carefully consulted the valuable works of Hubert H. Bancroft, Tylor, Trumbell [sic], Hayden, Yarrow, J. W. Powell, Gibbs, Dall, Lubbock, Maine, Morgan, Parkman, Evans, Short, Baldwin, Simpson, Stephens, Squires, &c., &c.,13 &c., from all of whose writings I have obtained important suggestions; and after preparation, have submitted the memoranda to the criticism of Army Officers of extended experience on the frontier. To these officers— Generals Sheridan, Crook, Robert Williams, G. A. Forsyth, Colonels Royall, Ludington and T. H. Stanton, and Captains W. P. Clark and W. L. Carpenter—I am deeply indebted for correction, sympathy and encouragement. J. G. B. H’D. QRS. DEPT. PLATTE, Fort Omaha, Neb., March 28, 1881. MEMORANDA For use in Obtaining Information Concerning Indian Tribes SECTION I. TRIBES. Obtain Indian names of Tribes. Give limit of present and former ranges and note affiliations and relations with other tribes. SECTION II. 13.â•‡ Bourke is referring to Hubert H. Bancroft’s Native Races; Sir Edward Burnett Tylor’s Researches into the Early History of Mankind, and Primitive Culture; James Hammond Trumbull’s The Composition of Indian Geographical Names and The Best Methods of Studying the Indian Languages; Dr. H.C. Yarrow’s A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians; the works of John Wesley Powell, Francis Parkman, Jr., William Healey Dall, and Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden; George Gibbs’s Indian Tribes of Washington Territory; Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages, by John Lubbock, first Baron Avebury; Sir Henry James Maine’s Early History of Institutions; Lewis H. Morgan’s Ancient Society; John Thomas Short’s The North Americans of Antiquity: Their Origin, Migrations, and Type of Civilization Considered; John Lloyd Stephens’s works on MesoAmerica. Baldwin, Evans, Simpson, and Squires could not be identified.

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BIRTHS Concerning treatment of women during gestation and accouchement; insert notes under head of Therapeutics. Are they guilty of prolicide, in any of its forms? Are there any traces of the custom called the “couvade?” How are bastards regarded? Is there more joy over births of boys than of girls? How are names bestowed upon children? Have they one set of names for boys and another set of names for girls? Have they names peculiar to families, gens or tribal divisions? Are these names permanent or changed during life? Are girls provided with guardians? SECTION III. DRESS AND PERSONAL ADORNMENT. (See also Sec. 5, Personal Appearance.) DRESS. Obtain name and make rough sketches of all articles of dress, whether for men, women or children; whether in ordinary use, or employed only during war or in their feasts and dances. Describe fabric, whether of the fibre of wild hemp, maguey or other plant; of cotton or wool; of rabbit, cayote [sic], deer, antelope, elk, buffalo, horse or wolf skins; of feathers, bark or grass. Head-gear,—which may be the head of an animal or bird, with in the first case, horns and ears left on. War bonnets of wild turkey or eagle feathers. Dance caps and masks, the latter either for use in religious ceremonies or in stalking game. Tunic—Breech-clout; leggings, moccasins, cloaks, blankets. Describe the material, manufacture and decoration. For women—describe also the basket they may habitually carry upon their backs, as among Apaches and other tribes. Describe also cradles of children. PERSONAL ADORNMENT.

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Describe all chaplets, neck-laces, bracelets, wrist-bands, whether of stone, bone, steel, wood, feathers, bills or claws of birds, claws of animals, skins of snakes, or human fingers. All finger, ear or nose rings, bangles, labrets, nose-sticks, masks and manner of arranging hair and painting faces in both sexes. SECTION IV. TOYS, GAMES, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND MODES OF RECREATION. Describe all toys used by their children, stilts, bows and arrows, slings, dolls, doll’s travois, doll’s cradles, doll’s dresses. GAMES. The games of children, whether with arrows, sticks or stones, their game of “shinny,” &c. Describe the games played by the adults; and if with cards, state of what material the cards are made, horse-hide, &c. (Note.—Nearly all Indians are inveterate gamblers, either with cards, or bones, dice, and sticks.) Learn all possible about their native games, or the changes they have made in games borrowed from the whites. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. These may be gourd-rattles, strings of shells, drums, whistles, fiddles, made of the stalk of the century plant, (as among the Apaches.) Flageolets, (as among the Pawnees,) or tambourines, (as among the Cheyennes.) Describe each and give drawings where possible. Obtain the words of their songs, whether of religion, joy, love, war or mourning. (See also Section 14, War, 16, Mortuary customs, and Section 17, Religion.) SECTION V. PERSONAL APPEARANCE. (See also Section 3, Personal Adornment.) Describe physical characteristics and facial peculiarities. Do they tattoo; if so in what manner? Do they paint face or body? Do they compress the head, flatten the nose, cut the toes (as among the Mojaves,) or blacken or file their teeth?

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SECTION VI. COURTSHIP MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. At what age are girls nubile?* Before marriage do girls work? After marriage, do they assume the whole or only part of the burdens of the household? Enumerate their household duties as well as those of the husband. Describe everything relating to courtship and the ceremonies, if any, attending marriage. Are they polygamists? Do they marry a brother’s widow? Do they cut off noses or otherwise mutilate women accused of adultery? Under what circumstances are divorces allowed? (Under head of widows see also Section 17, Mortuary customs.) SECTION VII. RESIDENCES. State whether they live in houses, wigwams, jacales or tepis. Whether these are made of poles covered or interlaced with bark, reed, tule, grass, &c.; of saplings covered with saplings or grass, or chinked with mud; of stone, laid in mud or cement; of the skins of wild or domestic animals; or of fabrics imported from abroad. Make sketches. Tell the number of compartments into which their residences are divided and the purpose of each. Describe all bedding, shelving, scaffolding or anything to be seen in the interior. Describe the modes of ingress and smoke escapes. Do they assign places to visitors? Do they paint gentile emblems on interior or exterior of house or lodge, or expose shields bearing them on some prominent spot near residence or village? Have they council lodges or chambers? Are they above or under ground? Obtain dimensions. Have they sweat lodges?** *Bourke’s handwritten marginal note: Have they the Puberty Dance and Kiss Dance? **Bourke’s handwritten marginal note: Have they menstrual Lodges?

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Do they disinfect their buildings or lodges by burning aromatic grasses or herbs? What kinds to they employ? (Mem.—In taking notes upon the Pueblo Indians, be careful to obtain measurement and rough sketches.) Are their building materials obtained on the spot or brought from a distance? Is their masonry rubble or cut stone? Do they use mud or mortar? Are foundations laid upon the surface merely, or do they extend into the ground? Describe joists, lintels and jambs; also calcimining, plastering and coloring of the interior; fire-places, chimneys and smoke escapes. How are these Pueblos organized? as communes, or as individual families? Obtain all information possible about gentile organization of tribes, and also as to how their houses are owned and how sold. What numbers of persons live and eat together united in a family and how are the members related? SECTION VIII. IMPLEMENTS AND UTENSILS OF WAR AND PEACE. WAR. Describe their bows, arrows, lances, clubs, slings, tomahawks, macuahuitls,14 shields and defensive armor, if any,— giving material employed and the mode of fabrication and adornment. Of what are their bow-strings and wrist guards made? In their arrow-heads, shafts, and quivers, what materials are employed? Do they use poisoned arrows? PEACE. Do they use stone implements, either as hammers, warclubs, berry mashers, flesh skinners, knives, &c. Do they use canoes or buffalo boats? if so, describe and make sketches. 14.â•‡ A sword most commonly associated with the Aztecs, consisting of a one-piece wooden blade and grip, the blade edged with obsidian.

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Also describe any contrivance employed by them for catching fish, as lines and nets; for catching animals, as rabbit nets and rat sticks. [inserted in longhand] lassoes &c. Describe their pipes and tobacco bags, also all earthen, wooden, horn, soap-stone, pipe-stone and basket-ware, and state whether or not the last named is coated with the gum or pitch of mesquite or other substance. Do they obtain fire by rubbing sticks together? SECTION IX. FOOD. Obtain names of everything they use, especially in the case of the more savage tribes—giving a list of all fruits, nuts, seeds, shrubs, grasses, sunflowers, mesquite beans and gum, roots, tubers, (such as tule and camas,) fungi, fleshy leaves and stalks, (such as mescal,) bark of trees, and the name of any vegetables and fruits they may plant, such as corn, beans, tomatoes, chili, melons, squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunflowers and peaches. Are they eaters of clay?15 What animal food do they use? Buffalo, elk, deer, bear, antelope, dogs, turtles, fish, lizards, snakes, porcupines, peccaries, beaver, crickets, ants, grass-hoppers, mules or horses? Have they domesticated animals, whether horned cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, chickens or hogs? Have they any prejudices against any particular kind of food, such as pork? Does this prejudice partake of the character of a religious scruple, that is, do they think certain food is “bad medicine”; or is their abstinence a simple aversion founded upon repugnance to taste? Give as full a description as possible of their mode of cooking, especially if they boil water by means of hot stones.* How are seeds or grain ground and roasted? Do they make bread; if so, in what way? *Bourke’s longhand marginal note: See miscellaneous. 15.â•‡ In Apache Medicine-Men (87–90), Bourke discusses clay eating, opening with the comment, “The eating of clay would appear to have once prevailed all over the world. In places the custom has degenerated into ceremonial or is to be found only in myths.”

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SECTION X. COLORS, DYES, PAINTS AND POWDERS, Describe their modes of decoration, by stained quills, beads, shells and elk teeth, as well as by coloring matter, and find out the sources of the latter and the pattern of its application, whether as checks, stripes, dots, spots or arabesque. SECTION XI. STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENTS AND VALUE. NUMBERS. What do their numbers signify? Have the men one set of numbers and the women another. LENGTHS AND DISTANCES. Do they measure by finger-lengths, arm-lengths, spans, &c.? Are their distances given as “day’s journey,” “sleeps,” &c.? TIME. Is the time of day or night indicated by pointing to position of sun or stars? Are the years denoted by snows, summers, &c., and the seasons by reference to the periods of hunting, fishing, berry gathering, corn planting, &c.? CURRENCY. Do they use beaver, buffalo, buck or other skins, elk teeth, strings of beads, eagle or wild turkey feathers, nacre, chalchihuitl,16 abalone or allacochook shells in our sense of currency? SECTION XII. KINSHIP. Examine their social organization. Is fatherhood or motherhood the line of authority? Obtain all possible data about their gentile divisions, phratries and battle-comradeship. SECTION XIII. TRIBAL GOVERNMENT. 16.â•‡ Turquoise.

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How are members admitted to the Council, and what are the attendant ceremonies? Are women admitted to a participation? Have they secret societies and soldier societies? Are their soldiers distinguished by black marks on their cheeks or otherwise? What qualities do they regard as virtues? What do they regard as crimes and what punishment or obloquy, if any, is visited upon infanticide, prostitution, seduction, adultery, theft, murder, witchcraft and treason? Do they abandon or kill their old people and children in times of scarcity? SECTION XIV. WAR CUSTOMS. How are expeditions organized? Are there any ceremonies, religious or otherwise, previous to starting? What is their manner of attacking? Do they prefer to attack by day or by night? Do they have anything to serve as a standard or ensign in time of battle? Do they use coup sticks? When their scouts return to announce the discovery of the enemy, have they any particular cry? Do they use signals by means of smoke, mirrors, by using blankets or by tufts of grass &c., left on the trail? Do they scalp the head or torture prisoners? Do they leave a moccasin, shield, or arrow or paint characters upon the bark of trees near the site of the destroyed villages of the enemy to show who made the attack? Give as full an account as possible of their system if any, of pickets and videttes, of making charges, stampeding the enemy’s horses &c., also their mode of protecting their own camp, by palisades &c. Do they assume new names after each victory? How do they treat wounds? (See Therapeutics).

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SECTION XV. THERAPEUTICS.* Do they treat diseases by incantation and conjuring? What herbs, roots and minerals do they make use of in their materia medica? What herbs do they smoke? How do they make medicine—with or without much ceremony? Do they make splints for broken limbs? How do they carry their sick and wounded? Have they among them the custom known as the “couvade”? How do they treat their women in childbirth? SECTION XVI. MORTUARY CUSTOMS. Do they have professional mourners? How do they deck the corpse for the last rites? Do they inhume, cremate, embalm or bury on scaffolds? What is the period of mourning? Do widows cut off their hair, stain their faces and garments, or slash their arms and legs? SECTION XVII. RELIGION, SUPERSTITIONS AND MYTHS.** Is their religion a Zootheism, Fetichism [sic], Shamanism, Animism or a combination of all? Have they any Idols? Get, if they have them, the names of their Nature-Gods, such as the God of the wind, the God of Rain, the God, (or bird) of thunder and lightning &c. Are they in any sense, Fire, or Sun or Star worshippers [sic]? Do they offer up prayer while smoking? Do they swear upon pieces of buffalo chips, stones &c.? Do they allow the blade of a knife to be passed through flame? *Bourke’s longhand marginal note: See miscellaneous. **Bourke’s longhand marginal note: Are Pregnant or menstruating women allowed near the Council Lodge?

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Do they have anything like an invocation to the spirits? Give the words to some of their prayers. Do they mention the name of their mother-in-law? Do they mention the names of those recently dead? Do they give another name to an object which has been the name of a dead man? Have they harvest, hunting and fishing dances? Have they the Sun dance? Under this section describe all dances which have a religious significance, and especially those which are intended to propitiate the great powers above. Do they fast at times under religious impulse? Do they believe in a vicarious propitiation by which the self-inflicted tortures undergone by one of their warriors will secure good fortune for the rest of the tribe? Obtain all stories, traditions and myths, regarding the origin of their tribe, of the world, of the useful arts, of the coming of the whites &c. SECTIONS XVIII. MISCELLANEOUS. Bourke completes this section with handwritten notes. When did they first obtain horses? What draught-animal did they use before they had the horse? Get relics of stone age, knives of obsidian &c. (See Section IX.) How are Doctors initiated? (See Therapeutics.) In preparing the above list, I have not depended solely upon my own experience among the Indian tribes, but have drawn liberally from the writings of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Tylor, Powell, Powers, Gibbs and have consulted General Crook, General Williams, Colonel Royall, Lieut. W.L. Carpenter, 9th Infantry, and other officers whose knowledge of Indian life is varied and accurate. The following is the complete list of works studied upon this subject, from most of which much valuable information has been derived. Tylor’s Early History of Mankind and Primitive Man. Bancroft’s (Hubert Howe.) Native Races of the Pacific Slope. Lubbock’s Pre-Historic Times Yarrow’s Mortuary Customs. Short’s North America in Antiquity. (an Excellent work.) Morgan’s Ancient Society.

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Sir Henry Maine’s Early Institutions.17 March 15th 1881. The newspapers this morning contain the information that the Czar of Russia18 was (March 13th) assassinated in the streets of Saint Petersburgh. This is a good thing. Alexander began life as a just and moderate ruler, anxious to alleviate the sufferings of his subjects; he freed the serfs and during our civil war remained the firm friend of our Government—for both of which acts, the world owes him a debt of gratitude. But his later years have been years of tyrannical severity towards his subjects, of licentious disregard of his vows to his wife (who died last year of a broken heart,)19 and of religious and political intolerance towards the unhappy people of Poland.... I hope before many months to be able to chronicle the assassination of Bismarck, one of the coldest-blooded and most unprincipled tyrants who have ever sprung into power. We, Americans, have the satisfaction of knowing that political trouble in Europe means increased financial prosperity and power to our own country... March 18th 1881. The newspapers this morning chronicle, without comment, the fact that yesterday the first train started out from Kansas City, Mo. for San Francisco Cal., by way of the newly completed Southern Trans-Continental Route.20 Within less than five years, it is my belief that we shall have at least five lines running across the American Continent, including in this number any that may be built in Canada or Mexico. 17.â•‡ See note 11. 18.â•‡ Alexander II. 19.â•‡ Maria Alexandrovna, see Robinson, Diaries, 3:418. 20.â•‡ Southern Pacific, extending east from California, linked with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in Deming, New Mexico, allowing completion of this route.

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Bannock and Shoshone Customs

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arch 20th 1881. Received the following telegram from Lieutenant-General Sheridan. Chicago, Ills., March 19th 1881. Lieut. John G. Bourke, A.D.C., Omaha, Neb., I have just read your letter. If Genl. Crook will make no objection to your absence, I will furnish you with all the reasonable means necessary for the accomplishment of the purpose you have in view, but shall want to see you before you start. (signed.) P. H. Sheridan, Lieutenant General. Thereupon, General Crook telegraphed as follows; Fort Omaha, Neb., March 20th 1881. Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan, Chicago, Illinois Bourke read his letter to me before sending it to you. It had my fullest approval and I consider the work he proposes very important. If you have no objection, I’ll send him to Chicago to-morrow. (signed.) George Crook,

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Brigadier General. March 22 1881. Left Omaha, Neb., in obedience to the above telegram from Lieut. General P. H. Sheridan....The road between the Fort and city was in an extremely muddy condition from rapidly melting snow. The present winter has been phenomenal in severity, lasting, almost continuously, from October 10th, until the present date and during nearly all that time only one night when snow melted. There has been more than twice as much snow this winter as during the whole six years just past. Not only does it cover the fields to a depth varying from 12 to 20 inches, but it fills the roads in drifts varying from 5 to 20 ft. in height and has blocked all lines of rail in the West and North-East. In three different ways will this Arctic severity of the present winter damage our R.R. interest: 1st. In actual injury to tracks, bridges and culverts, either as snow direct or as water from the freshets and floods occasioned by thaws; 2nd In the stoppage of winter freights; and 3rd In the Impoverishment of the farmers, miners and stockmen, who have been retarded so much in their labor or deprived of such a percentage of their accumulations. When the next “round-up” of cattle is made, I am sure that many ranges in Nebraska, Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado will show losses of not less than 60 @ 70 per cent; farmers will not be able to commence planting much earlier than April 15th and miners have been impeded in the work of development of their “prospects” by the failure to obtain necessary machinery as well as by the flooding of their shafts and drifts.1 The city of Omaha is looking forward to a grand “boom”. The coming spring and summer 30.000.000 Brick have been ordered from the kilns, the extreme limit of their capacity. New brick buildings, of different kinds, nearly all of them good, solid structures—are to be erected by blocks and several new R.R.’s will connect with the city before the end of the year. I note here the suicide of General E. Upton, Colonel of the 4th Art., at San Francisco Cali., during a fit of mental derangement, influenced by overwork and anxiety regarding his revised “System of Tactics.”2 Upton was regarded as one of the ornaments of the service; brave bright and accomplished. A gentleman of extended travel in all parts nd

1.â•‡ The floods of 1881 are discussed in Phil E. Chappell, “Floods in the Missouri River.” 2.â•‡ In fact, Upton suffered for some years from crippling migraines. Some modern authorities believe he probably had a brain tumor. Warner, Generals in Blue, 519–20.


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of the world, great intellectual polish and stainless reputation. March 24th 1881. Thursday. While passing through Eastern Iowa and Illinois, noticed a still greater amount of snow than in E. Nebraska. This is owing to the heavy storm of last week from which Omaha and vicinity escaped. The Mississipi and Missouri are still solid with ice and along the banks of both mighty streams the gravest apprehensions prevail as to the consequences of a sudden ice-gorge. Representatives of the important industrial interests clustering about Rock-Island, Davenport and Moline on the Mississipi, are debating the feasability of employing dynamite cartridges to blow open a channel in the center of the stream, to afford breaking ice an exit. Sidney Dillon, President of the Great Union Pacific R[ail].W[ay]. System, was a fellow traveller with me and early this morning came over to my seat and opened a conversation which lasted a long time. I have always been anxious to meet this gentleman and was delighted when chance threw us together. In appearance, Mr. Dillon is majestic; not less than 6’ 2”, sinewy, muscular and finely proportioned, he bears his seventy years as if they were but 40. His head is finely shaped, showing keenness, penetration and strength in every feature; his eyes are good, but rather too piercing and there is an expression of dogged self-will about him which may be regarded as a good or bad sign according to the humor under which he may be acting. Our conversation was principally upon the resources and progress of the Territories, specially of Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and finally some little concerning North East Nebraska and South Dakota, in all of which sections Mr. Dillon knew that I had travelled. My impression of him was that he possessed great financial intuition, combined with remarkable common sense, altho’, as he himself admitted, he has had no educational advantages. Reached Chicago in the evening, 5 hours behind time, our detention occasioned by a freight train off the track, in some part of Western Illinois. Put up at the Grand Pacific. In the evening, visited Havesty’s Minstrels, which consisted of 100 negro [sic] performers. The singing was good and the acting fair, but by no means equal to that of the average white “burnt-cork artist”. March 25th 1881. Visited General Sheridan’s Hd.Qrs., where I met Gen. G. A. Forsyth, A.D.C., Colonel [Frederick Dent] Grant, A.D.C., Colonel [William Henry] Jordan, 9th Infantry, Colonel M. V. Sheri-

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dan, A.D.C., Capt. W. P. Clark, 2nd Cavalry, and Capt. [James Fingal] Gregory, Engineer Corps, with all of whom I had pleasant converse. Brigadier General John Pope, now commanding the Department of the Missouri and his A.D.C., Captain [William Jefferson] Volkmar, 5th Cavy, entered the room and talked with us for a little while and then left to converse with the Lieutenant General. Upon their departure, I was sent for by General Sheridan who received me with his usual gentle and cordial manner and had a long talk with me upon the subject of my ethnological researches among the Indian tribes living within the limits of his Mil’y. Division. The purport of his remarks was summed up in the closing sentences: “I want you to devote your time to the Indians, South of the Union Pacific Rail Road and let Clark* take those north of it, but of course, I don’t mean that either of you should be tied down to mathematical lines;—there is plenty of work for you both. Don’t be in a hurry. Take your time. I want you to make a success of this and I’ll back you up in every possible way. I am giving you this work because I regard you as the man for the place, and that it is just the thing for you”. Thanking the General for his courtesy and his high opinion of me; bowed and withdrew. *Captain W. P. Clark, 2nd Cavalry, then invited me to run over to his apartments at the Palmer House, and examine the manuscript of his new work on the “sign language of the North American Indians”. Of course, I made no examination,3 not deeming myself fit to criticize the labors of Clark, who has made this subject a profound study for years. He is eminently fitted for the field now opening before him;4 of strong mental powers, powerful physique, indefatigable, persistent, ambitious and magnetic, he gets into the confidence of the Indians more quickly than any man I know excepting Genl. Crook.... This is not the place to make an extended reference to Clark, because such a reference would merely be a repetition of remarks long since written. (Consult my note-books of the Campaign against the Sioux 3.â•‡ By this, Bourke probably means “critical examination.” 4.â•‡ Although some tribes in a particular area might use a predominant language, such as Lakota or Comanche, for intertribal communication, there was no lingua franca universally understood throughout the Great Plains. As more officers found themselves working closely with Indians, they discovered sign was the best means of communication. Major General Hugh L. Scott, who joined the 7th Cavalry as a second lieutenant shortly after the Little Bighorn in 1876, observed that “the sign language of the Plains was an intertribal language, spoken everywhere in the buffalo country from the Saskatchewan River of British America to Mexico, east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Missouri....” Scott, Some Memories of a Soldier, 31–32.


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and Cheyennes passim.)5 When about to leave Hd.Qrs, this morning, I met Genl. John E. Smith (14th Infantry,) with whom I had a brief conversation. .....Passed the greater part of the evening in the pleasant, comfortable rooms of the Chicago Club, where in our party were General Sheridan, General G. A. Forsyth, Captain Clark, Mr. Norton, Mr. Lyon, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Pope and others. March 26th 1881. Saturday. Enjoyed a cosey breakfast with General Forsyth, at the Chicago Club. The cooking and the service were simply perfect. Again to Hd.Qrs. where I had another conversation with the Lieutenant-General, from whom I received my final instructions, which read as follows: Hd.Qrs. Mil’y Division of the Missouri Chicago, Ills., th March 26 , 1881. Special Orders, No. 33 First Lieutenant John G. Bourke, 3rd Cavalry, Aide de Camp, under instructions from the Division, will proceed to Fort Hall, I[daho]. T[erritory]., and thence to Santa Fé, New Mexico, and from that place to such other points as will enable him to comply with instructions. Post Commanders, on his written application, will furnish Lieut. Bourke such transportation and scouts as he may require. By Command of Lieut-Gen’l. Sheridan, (Signed) Geo. A. Forsyth, Lieut.-Colonel I.A.D.C. I bade good-bye to General Sheridan and other friends at Hd.Qrs. and then took the Rock Island train for Omaha.... In same car with me was Mr. Shelton, of Omaha with whom I was well acquainted and thus having company, the ride across Illinois and Iowa seemed very short. We had delightful weather, the warm rays of the sun dissipating the hillocks of snow which in numbers of places were still fence-high. March 27th 1881 (Sunday.) Reached Omaha. While crossing the iron bridge over the Missouri, we saw that the fetters of the ice-king were slowly yielding and that the noble river would soon again be free. 5.â•‡ Robinson, Diaries, Vols. 2 and 3.

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March 31st 1881. Thursday. Genl. Crook returned from an unsuccessful bear hunt in the mountains North of Rock Creek, Wyoming: he did not reach the dépôt in town until after one A.M., as his train had been obliged to make a détour by way of Kearney Junction, Neb., and Saint Joseph, Mo., a sudden spell of warm weather having thawed the ice and snow in the valley of the Platte, causing the river to overflow its banks, carrying away several miles of the Union Pacific track and flood the towns of Frémont and Columbia. After bidding adieu to General Crook and other officers at Hd.Qrs., I left for Fort Hall, Idaho, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. My bright young friend, Paul Horbach, came down to the dépôt to say good bye. Owing to break in U.P.R.R. near Frémont, our train had to cross the Missouri river East to the little station known as Council Bluffs, thence along the Kansas City, Saint Jo. & C.B.R.R., to Plattesmouth Junction, crossing the river again at that point and re-entering the state of Nebraska, and then following the Burlington road West to Kearney Junction. While no serious damage had as yet occurred, it was evident at a glance that both the Platte and Missouri rivers were on the eve of open rebellion from which the direct results were to be apprehended. We had to submit to many vexatious delays while on the B. and M.6 line which, it must be remembered, was clogged both with its own accumulated traffic and with that of the Union Pacific. In place of reaching Lincoln, the state capital, at 3 P.M., we did not pass there until almost 11 at night and upon awakening at 7.30 a.m., April 1st 1881, found we had proceeded no farther than Kearney Junction, 200 miles West of Omaha. This slow mode of progress would have been very disheartening, had I not found good travelling companions in Major [John Ewing] Blaine, Paymaster, U.S.A., Mr. Saulsburg of the stage and mining firm of Saulsburg & Co., and Mr. Wm. B. Loring, the latter an old friend.... Both to-day and yesterday have been cold, cloudy and gusty and people in our sleeper suffered much from chilly, dispiriting drafts. The papers inform us that farther East, from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio, this storm has been the severest of the winter; danger is threatened from an immense flood reported in the Missouri, above and near Bismark, Dakota: if it reach Omaha, incalculable damage will surely result. In this connection mention should be made of Mr. 6.â•‡ Burlington & Missouri River.


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Vernon, of Montreal, Canada, who has predicted very closely the commencement, course and progress of all the storms of this season; the basis of his calculations is not well understood, but enough is known to encourage us in the belief that meteorology will soon be advanced to the dignity of an exact science. The serious illness of Lord Beaconsfield reported in the English dispatches.7 From Kearney, we made pretty good time to North Platte, where we were provided with two fresh engines and increased our speed to such a degree that the long vista of telegraph poles closing the horizon to our front seemed to open like a door struck by some magic wand and to close the horizon behind to us in obedience to the same spell. Great numbers of dead cattle were strewn alongside the track; from Ogallalla to Sidney, as well as for considerable distance East of Ogallalla, or say for a total distance of 75 miles, they were so numerous that if arranged in a regular series they would not have been more than ten yards apart. As this would give up to 150 carcasses to the mile, some idea may be formed of the havoc caused by the fearful winter just closing or by the Rail Road trains running into small herds which had sought shelter in the ravines and cuts and been unable to get off the track when the whistle blew. Groups of men and boys were at work skinning the carcasses to save the hides. Attached to our train were a couple of car-loads of “tender-feet” going West; they were rough, good natured plowboys and clerks from sundry stores, starting out to make their fortunes in the new territories. Each one was armed with a small, toy revolver, conspicuously displayed and lavishly used at shooting at anything and everything in the shape of a mark along the line of travel. At every stopping place, they made the air resound with the barking of their little pop-guns and with much useless profanity. They will undoubtedly, with time, develop into good citizens and prominent men in our new communities, but a sound clubbing will first be required to take some of the conceit out of them. At Cheyenne, Wyoming, I had the gratification of meeting my old friend, Lieut. [Hayden] Delaney, 9th Infantry, now stationed at the dépôt. Mr Loring left us at Rock Creek, Wyo., to go out to his cattle 7.â•‡ Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, prime minister and one of the architects of the British Empire.

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ranch in the Big Horn Mountains. During the night, with the help of our double engines, we made up much of our lost time and reached Green River, Wyoming, almost at the usual hour for breakfast on the morning of April 2nd 1881. (Saturday.) A warm, lovely, bright day. Major Bisbee and Captain Young, 4th Infantry, were at Carter station and, much to my pleasure, rode with us until we met the Eastward bound train at Evanston. Got to Ogden, Utah, in time to connect with the Utah and Northern train for Fort Hall. At dépôt, I met Mrs. Bainbridge, wife of Major Bainbridge, Commanding the post of Fort Hall, and Lieut. [William Augustus] Kimball and party of ladies, including his very lovely young sister, all of whom had come to see Mrs. Bainbridge off. The water in the Salt Lake Valley was balmy as summer, the roads were thick with dust and fruit trees beginning to bloom. April 3rd 1881. (Palm Sunday.)* Arrived at Blackfoot, Idaho, a town which has grown from nothing within the past two years. It contains a number of very neat cottages and maintains a valuable trade with the rich mining districts now opening up in the mountain ranges between this point and Salmon River. An iron bridge, 600 feet long, has been thrown across Snake river to meet the demands of this trade, a sure indication of its value and permanency. Daily, immigrants are pouring into this part of Idaho and Montana, by the car and train load, attracted mainly by valuable mines. Consequently, the Utah and Northern promises soon to have one of the best paying roads in the country. Work will soon commence on a new line of R.R., to run from near Fort Bridger, Wyo., cross the Utah and Northern, near Fort Hall and continue until it reached Portland, Oregon. It will be built by the Union Pacific R.R. Co., and will play an important part in opening up Western Wyoming and all of Idaho. The Keeney House, Blackfoot, boasts of a parlor with dadoed wallpaper, piano, melodeon, hanging lamps, and easy chairs. A very good concern so far as it goes, but, unfortunately, the genius of improvement lost his enthusiasm on the threshold of the dining room, where the Spirit of the Past still holds sway and the grub, as of yore, is simply damnable. Major Bainbridge came over with an ambulance and drove Mrs. *Bourke’s marginal note: Error Apr 10, meaning that Palm Sunday was April 10.


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Bainbridge and myself to the post—8 miles, along a very dusty, but otherwise agreeable, road.... At the Fort I met Lt. and Mrs. [Richard Thompson] Yeatman and Dr. Grimes, the latter fully recovered from his wound received in the Ute campaign a year and a half ago. Here we found the ground broken for spring planting and listened for the first time in many months to the joyous twittering of happy little birds. April 4th 1881. Monday, After Breakfast, Major Bainbridge and I rode over to the Shoshonee and Bannock Agency, at Ross Fork, 14½ miles distant, taking the road across the nose of Mt. Putnam, which still had considerable snow close to its summit. At the Agency, we were kindly received by Agent Wright who escorted us about his Department, taking us to the saw-mill, where we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. DuBois, a very bright young gentleman, and Charlie and Joe Rainey,8 two intelligent Bannock half-breeds. At the post-trader’s, Mr. Schilling’s, the clerk Mr. Chas. Holt, very kindly invited us to take lunch at his mess, which we did gladly, finding plenty of good food well cooked. After lunch, we began to examine the Indians, whom Agent Wright had kindly sent to the store for that purpose. The questions were based upon the categories contained in pp. [302–11], and unless otherwise explained apply to both Bannock and Shoshonees, two tribes believed to be originally of a common origin, altho’ now speaking widely different languages. They call themselves and each other by the same names employed by the Whites—Bannocks and Shoshonees. They are extremely affectionate toward their children and are not much given to the crime of prolicide in any of its forms. Bastard children are treated with the same consideration as those born in wedlock because, as Charlie Rayney very sensibly observed, “they are not responsible for something they couldn’t help”. As a general rule they are more pleased to have male than female children, but do not exhibit their feeling, in any case, in the way of feasts or hilarity. Little children are first designated by some sobriquet based upon deformity where it exist, or upon some physical peculiarity or else any action, chance remark &c: failing all these motives, the 8.â•‡ Bourke was not consistent with this name, spelling it Rainey, Rayney, or even Raynor. He likewise varied between Charlie and Charley.

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title bestowed is generally of an obscure and vulgar type. When they become old enough to walk, they are given names which last until supplanted by those they gain for good behavior in battle. Girls are not provided with guardians, as among the Southern Cheyenne. Intercourse and association with the whites have almost, if not entirely, destroyed the primitive style of dress and equipments. Formerly, they made bed-clothes and cloaks of the fur of the rabbit and cayote; now such things can only be found, half worn, among the old people. In their dances, they were once fond of wearing caps made of the heads of the owl and their war bonnets to the present day are made of eagle feathers. The heads of wild animals, especially deer, once used as masks for stalking game, are no longer employed, the long range rifle making them useless. They are fond of wearing neck-laces of bears’ claws, and prize the tusks of the elk as a means of ornamentation. They are given to wearing such jewelry as finger-rings and wristlets made of brass wire and perforate the rim of the ear from the apex to the base to permit the insertion of ear-rings of brass and mother-of-pearl which frequently hang as low down as the waist. They disdain the employment of nose-sticks, labrets or masks but are addicted to the immoderate use of face-paint. This they obtain from a variety of sources. Vermillion from the Post-traders’ and White, Red and Yellow, either from the same sources or from natural deposits in their own Territory—as for instance, Paint Rock Creek in the Wind River Mountains and Port Neuf Cañon, not far from Fort Hall. They are as careless as the Apaches about arranging their hair and most frequently let in [it] grow out from their Medusa like heads in a serpentine entanglement. If there is any difference between the two tribes, it is wholly in favor of the young Bannocks, numbers of whom may be seen with their locks combed back from their brows, and a line of brilliant vermillion drawn at the roots. Their children are well provided with toys,—bows& arrows, and dolls being found in great abundance. The youngsters—growing boys—spend much time in throwing arrows, which they use with marvelous dexterity, altho’ fire-arms are driving out all other weapons. They also have a game of “odd or even” played as follows: there may be as many as please on each side, but there are two leaders to conduct the game, in front of whom are deposited twenty small sticks (ten before each) to represent


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the articles wagered. One of the leaders holds in his hands behind his back a couple of pieces of bone, one smooth and white and the other covered with buckskin. The other leader tries to guess the hand which holds the white bone: if he fails he forfeits a stick to his opponent’s pile; if he win, he takes the bones and his opponent in turn becomes the guesser and thus with varying success they play all day until one possess all the sticks and can claim the delivery of the property they represent. The girls play “shinny”, the no wise differing from our game except that the young men do not participate. The grown people of both sexes are much addicted to gambling and are as thoroughly versed in the mysteries of Poker as old General Schenck himself. “Yes,[”] said Charlie Rainey, [“]I mean what I say—We play poker—know all about it—Bob-tail Flush—everything. We know it all”. Then he continued, “we have another kind of Poker—Chinook Poker. The cards are shuffled, and the pack is placed on the ground in the middle of the players who draw cards one after another and the first one who gets five pairs wins the game”. Perhaps I had better from this on give the exact words used by my informants, Charlie and Joe Rayney, two bright, well-informed French and Bannock half-breeds, who, when at all in doubt, asked assistance from Captain Jim, Captain John, and (Ti-hi.) old Shoshonee and Bannock chiefs. Charlie Rayney. The Shoshonees came here from the West; they used to range over the West, (i.e. in Nevada.) but both Bannocks and Shoshonees have been in this section of country for over sixty years. Joe Rayney. There is an old man here now, more than 60 years old, who says he was born near this place. The Bannocks and Shoshonees drove out the Blackfeet. Captain Jim, (a full-blooded Shoshonee.) The Bannocks used to live over on the Malheur river (in Oregon). They followed the buffalo over here. The buffalo used to be very thick near Boise and we followed them up. Charlie Rayney. The Blackfeet used to camp on Blackfoot creek and the Shoshonees on Port Neuf Creek, there was a big fight and the Blackfeet were whipped and gave up the country. We have several times dug up skulls and bones from where the fight was. Captain John. I’ve seen buffalo on the foot-hills where Boise is—and have hunted them away over there—and have seen the country black

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with them over at Wood River. Then we followed them up as far as the Yellowstone, but no farther. I don’t know how old I am. (He looks to be 60.) Charles Jensen, a white man, present at this part of the conversation, interposed and said that over near Challis, in the Wood River country, buffalo skulls, partially decayed, can be seen in large piles. Captain John. Hard winter drove the buffalo out of here. I’ve seen the dead bodies lying on top of one another, on the Port Neuf. We used to live on buffalo, antelope, elk and mountain sheep and, in summer, on rabbits and salmon. Our old people tell us that we always used to live over there on the Malheur before we came here. Those are our people over there on that Reservation. Captain Jim. I’ve never been in the Yellowstone Park. Charlie Rayney. I’ve been in the Park when I was a little boy over 25 years ago. Joe Rayney. Don’t you remember, Charlie, when the colt fell into the hot springs and how mother told us it was cooked to death? I was such a little shaver, I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember we killed a grizzly there. Charlie Rayney. Talking about grizzlies—I’ve got two young grizzlies—pets: they are about four weeks old; one came near chewing my thumb off this morning. Captain John. The first white man we saw was a Frenchman: he had only one hand; he was trading with us. He brought us cloth and beads and wanted to get some of our horses. We had plenty of horses. The next white man I saw was at forks of the Snake river; he was different from the first and spoke a different language. He also was trading with us. As long ago as we can remember, we had plenty of horses;—had as many as the Nez Percés had; now we haven’t any, hardly. The Blackfeet used to come steal our horses, altho’ they had plenty of good ones of their own. The Salmon-Eaters, (a branch of the Shoshonees who used to live near the salmon streams.) never had horses; they used to go on foot; so did the Sheep-Eaters. We used to have dogs for hunting game. The dogs would drive the Rocky-Mountain Sheep among the rocks and then we’d come up and kill them with bows and arrows. Dogs were not used for draught among our people. I remember two missionaries; they wore long, black dresses and


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carried crosses when they preached. There were two of them; one was a great big fellow. I don’t know their names. They didn’t come until long after the traders came. Captain Jim. We used to be at war with the Nez-Percés, Flat-heads, Pends d’Oreilles, Blackfeet and Crows. We used at times to be friendly with the Sioux. (Here entered Big Joe—a Bannock with a wall-eye, Two Sacks and Ti-Hee, Bannock chiefs.) Ti-hee. We used to fight the Cheyennes and Arapahoes too, but we never had any trouble with the Utes. My mother used to tell me that her grand-mother was a Comanche, living away down there and that she came up here. Charlie Rayney. Our Shoshonee boys at school at Carlisle say they speak with the Comanche boys in their own language.9 Ti-hee is a Bannock chief, but he is a half-breed Shoshonee:—his mother was a Shoshonee. Ti-hee. I know nothing of the Pawnees. Ou-ji-hua. I saw the Pawnees; I was a scout at Camp Brown and saw them during our campaign with General Crook. Ti-hee. I’ve seen the Navajoes down here in Utah, where they used to come to trade, 20 yrs. ago. They used to bring blankets up here to trade for our horses and buffalo robes. They used to bring bridlebits with chains to them. I never saw any of the Indians who live in stone-houses (Moquis,)10but I’ve heard of them. Charlie Raynor. Some of our women tattoo a small star on forehead;—that’s all. Our girls marry at 14. You can have as many wives as you can support, but the 1st wife always bosses the lodge; they all live in the same lodge. Marriages are generally arranged between the young people. Sometimes, presents of blankets and horses are made to brother in law or father in law. We marry our brother’s widow;—that’s our rule. Another rule is, if you marry one girl in a family, you can have all her sisters if you want them. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, but you can have the first refusal and no one else can take them if you want them. We have no punishment for adultery: a husband generally gives his wife a good thrashing. We are not superstitious about our mothers in law: we speak to them 9.â•‡ The Comanches were a Shoshonean people who migrated southward into the Southern Plains in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. See Wallace and Hoebel, Comanches, Chapter 1. 10.â•‡ Hopis.

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always and so do girls to their fathers in law. Then we have another rule. If you like another man’s wife: he and you’ll have a fight, pull hair, scratch and thump each other and the one that whips takes the woman. Such things are going on all the time. Parents do all they can to prevent their daughters from committing any indiscretions with young men, but a lapse from virtue does not harm a girl in the estimation of her tribe, or prevent her from getting married. Many of our young women—about half of them—have syphilis. Divorce is easily obtained; when you want one, you just leave your wife, that’s all. Joe Rayney. Visitors to a lodge are always seated opposite the door, as a place of honor. The owner of the lodge sits near them and the women near the entrance. Ti-He. My name was Pipe when I was a young man; in battle, I captured a pipe. When I became a chief, the white men called me Ti-hee—(=Chief in Jargon.) We used to use poisoned arrows; we poisoned them with the blood of a deer that had died. Charley Rayney. We used stone berry-mashers yet. Ti-hee. We never planted before the whites came. All we knew was digging up roots. I never heard of any place for corralling buffalo. We always ran ’em on horse-back and killed ’em with bows and arrows. We used black flint (obsidian?) To make arrow heads. Charlie Rayney. The Shoshonees and Bannocks range up among the Sheep-Eaters, over among the Wind River Band, down in Utah, below Salt Lake, over the Wesser river, (Nevada) and some on Malheur river, Oregon. Many of our people have joined the Mormon church. April 5th 1881 (Tuesday.) Early in the morning, Major Bainbridge and I repeated our ride to the Shoshonee and Bannock Agency, a long, dusty, piece of travel of fifteen to seventeen miles, much of it hilly and at times steep in crossing Mount Putnam but the remainder level enough up to the agency buildings. Here we were received with his usual kindness by the agent, Mr. Wright, who seems to take a great interest in my work, and by D. DuBoise [sic], brother of the young gentleman whose acquaintance we made yesterday. At the store, our friend Mr. Schilling was waiting, and seemed very glad to have us come there. Dr. DuBois brought over for my inspection a necklace of cinnamon bear’s claws, not very well made however; and a pipe, inlaid with beaten lead-foil, which was of interest to me simply because it had


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been obtained in trade with the Crows, and thus showed the extent of the commercial relations carried on by these Fort Hall Indians. A number of Indians had assembled, responsive to the summons of the Agent: the principal among them were Ti-hee, seen yesterday, and an old blind man, named Mopia. Ti-hee showed me a buffalo horn which he had picked up near by and which showed most plainly the marks of exposure to the elements, which had reduced it almost to the condition of a piece of half-rotten wood, from which all bony matter had been extracted. Major Bainbridge showed me another such horn on the side of Mount Putnam, which serves as collateral evidence to the story of the Indians yesterday that the buffalo only a few years ago ranged in this part of the Pacific slope. There was no doubt about the horn; it did not belong to domestic cattle, the difference is too pronounced to admit of the possibility of doubt. Ti-hee remarked that he would not answer any questions to-day until he had first been presented with $5.00 for himself and another $5.00 for Mopia. This incensed me very much and I promptly refused in a very decided, but very cool and collected manner; that the questions I intended asking bore upon subjects concerning which white men had hitherto been in the dark; that a dissipation of this ignorance would be greatly to the benefit of the Indians because many of our previous disagreements had undoubtedly been aggravated, if not occasioned by a want of knowledge of the manners, customs and ideas; that no two nations, red or white, had ever yet managed to live in peace with each other unless sympathy existed between them and that sympathy in each others ideas, of life, religious convictions and ceremonies could not exist without knowledge, such as I was seeking. That I was always ready and glad to answer any questions an Indian might ask me concerning my people and that in an intercourse with between 30 and 40 tribes, I have never yet been refused a civil answer to a civil question. That I was getting no money for this work, which involved considerable bother, trouble and discomfort to myself; but that I was performing it in obedience to orders of my superior officer, General Sheridan, who took a great interest in all these matters and in everything relating to the Indians. That I had been among the Bannocks and Shoshonees before with General Crook and knew something about them already and was satisfied from the way in which Ti-hee talked that he, Ti-Hee was a miser-

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able old bummer and coffee-cooler whose information would not be of much account; that I would confine my questions to the other Indians and that he, Ti-hee, could go to Hell. There was a subdued titter among the Indians which assured me I had rung the changes upon a sympathetic chord. Ti-hee, as I afterwards was informed, was an old bummer, for whom the tribe had lost all respect and that he had managed to preserve even a semblance of importance at the agency, by artfully playing upon the fears of Agent Wright, who is much in terror of his Indians. Ti-hee looked very crestfallen, but tried to brazen it out for a moment and then finding that I paid no further attention to him and was getting all the information I wanted from other sources, wrapped himself up in his blankets and stalked out of the store. Joe & Charlie Rayney. The Shoshonees and Bannocks have given up the use of shields since the introduction of fire-arms. They make nets out of the fibres of the milk-weed, which looks like the wildflax. These fibres are strong as silk as make good thread. They catch rabbits with snares made of horse-hair. They eat wild choke-cherries, gooseberries, service berries, strawberries, camas, tule bulbs, and several varieties of bulbs tasting like wild carrots, wild potatoes which grow in this country and are very small, never bigger than hen’s eggs; piñon nuts which they used to get from a kind of pine which grows down in Southern Nevada; nuts from other pine cones; sun-flower seeds which they prepare in this way; they get a lot of hot willow cinders, or embers, and shake them up with the seeds in a basket. (these “baskets” are rather flat mats made of tule or willow.) The heat takes the skin from the seeds which are then ground to powder between two stones, the lower one flat, the upper round. (These are the same at the “metates” used by the Mexican and other Indians to the South.)11 They eat mushrooms,—the kind that grows on a cottonwood stump. They know that some kinds of mushrooms are bad. They eat the inner bark of the sugar pine and the juicy coating of the cottonwood tree, under the bark. Agent Wright. They plant wheat. (N.B. They raised several thousand Bushels last season. J.G.B.): oats, for their stock, onions, beans, 11.â•‡ The metate is a flat slab of stone, about twelve inches long, the top surface of which has been smoothed, used as a bed for grinding corn. The grinding stone, or mano (literally: “hand”) is shaped like a rolling pin and used in generally the same manner. Metates and manos are still used in Mexico and the American Southwest.


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turnips and potatoes. Charlie Rayney. They eat the meat of the Buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, moose, Rocky Mountain sheep, but won’t touch the Rocky Mountain Goat. They eat the cinnamon and black bear, but won’t touch the grizzly, because they have some superstition about it.— Joe Rayney. They say the grizzly digs up graves and eats dead bodies.— Charlie Rayney. They eat the beaver, but won’t touch the otter because it has such a strong flavor. They eat musk-rats, porcupines, salmon & trout; crickets, which they roast and grind; red ants which they roast in a basket just as they do sun-flowers; and grass-hoppers and locusts which are prepared like crickets. Then they eat certain kinds of worms—I don’t know their names, but I know them when I see them—and fly-blow. They don’t go around collecting fly-blow, but they’ll always eat it when it is on their meat. They don’t eat dogs; neither do they eat field-rats. (All efforts to shake the witnesses on this head were futile. Both Charlie & Joe denied most strenuously that their people ever used dogs or rats for food. It seemed to me incredible that after smacking their lips over worms and “fly-blow”, they should hesitate to commence upon two animals which are not especially unclean; but both my informants adhered with tenacity to their first statement. They said they knew that the Crows, the Sioux, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes were very fond of dogs, but their own people never touched them. They made snares for catching rabbits and were fond of the musk-rat, but the field rodent they never caught. I tried to find out if they used “rat-sticks”—the implement with which Apaches catch rats, but they denied having ever seen or heard of such a thing.) Charlie and Joe Rainey. They make bread now. They make it in a frying-pan and raise it with sour-dough or yeast-powder. They are now provided with horses, dogs, some few cats, a small number of chickens, a few sheep, hogs, and horned cattle. (I saw a tame sand-hill crane near one of their lodges this morning. Its left wing had been broken to keep it from flying away. It was very tame, not noticing our approach in any way except to shuffle to one side of the long12 on its ludicrously long legs. Mr. Holt tells me that these Indians have a great aversion to pork, but 12.â•‡ Bourke probably meant “lodge.”

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are now eating bacon and from the fact that they are raising swine I infer that their repugnance to this meat is rapidly disappearing in the same way as did that of the Arizona tribes.) They use stained porcupine quills, beads, mother of pearl shells and elk-tusks for decoration. (Elk-tusks are only to be obtained from the males; they are a beautiful ivory-white with a pink flush and could be made with goldmounting, a beautiful article of jewelry.) To say 100 in Shoshonee, we have the word, Pir-sámano; the word for same thing in the Bannock language is almost the same; the pronunciation is a little different,—that’s all. To express any number greater than 100, we hold up our fingers and say so many hundreds or if the number was a big one, we’d put sticks down on the ground to count the hundreds. We measure lengths along the hand or arm, as case may be. Journeys are indicated as so many sleeps, each sleep being equal to a whole day. The time of day is pointed out by the position of the sun. Years are spoken of as so many snows, altho’ time is also referred to as the season for going a berrying, catching salmon, or something like that. We have nothing among us in the way of money, but use American money altogether. (I endeavored ineffectually to ascertain something in regard to their gentile divisions, if any such existed. I asked Charlie and Joe all kinds of questions to elucidate this topic; for instance, whether a young man could marry any girl he pleased in the tribe or would he be restrained by the fact that she belonged to the same band with himself. Whether the figures of animals scrawled on their tents or painted on their shields in former days had any reference to their family or their origin. Whether the bands in the tribe were permanent divisions, or arbitrary segmentations. To all these questions, I could only get one reply: that a young man could marry whom he pleased, excepting his sister or first cousin; that the scrawls referred to were not in any case “totems”, but representations of animals killed by the owner of the lodge or of scenes in which he had distinguished himself; that a Shoshonee or Bannock liked to live with his own family, but was free to come and go and abide where fancy impelled him. But they have battle-comradeship, as among the Sioux, Crows, Arapahoes and Cheyennes.) Charlie Raynor. Yes, we have partners who keep by each other in battle and where one goes, the other is bound to go, too.


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Our Council Lodges are made by putting 2 or 3 lodges to-gether to make room. When any one of the Council dies, the other members send to any of the young men they have picked and ask him to join, but there is no feast given and there is no medicine made when the new member joins. (Women are not admitted to an active participation in the Council, but sit in an outer circle, surrounding the warriors and from time to time intone chants regarded as suitable for the occasion. They have had secret societies, but these are now in a state of decadence; formerly, a price was placed upon membership. They don’t seem to have the same excellent military organizations the Plains tribes have; very likely, because they generally have lived in such an inaccessible mountain country, that strict apportionment of military duties wasn’t necessary.) Sometimes, but not very often, women will kill their babies, but as a general thing they are very fond of them. When a man kills another, some relative of the man that was killed will take the matter up and kill the first man.* The matter cannot be settled with ponies or anything else; he would kill the man who murdered his relative. (Joe. corroborated Charlie’s story.) Yes, we have witches—lots of them: some are men and some are women. There are just lots of them. (I couldn’t get any satisfying explanation of the supposed origin or scope of the witches’ power, but was informed that they had it and “could do lots of things”.) We abandon our old people in time of war;—we leave them, that is if we are crowded by the enemy. Anybody wishing to get up a war-party can do so. All he has to do is to send a crier through camp to call the young men together. The man who organizes it, furnishes the supplies; he is the leader. All property taken, like ponies &c. belong to the individual capturing it, or striking it with his “coup” stick. We haven’t lances any more. There is a war dance, with singing before the party goes out and a scalp-dance after it gets back, if it brings any scalps. The scalp is tied to the top of a pole and all dance around it. Scalps are sometimes cut up and distributed around. We preserve scalps on willow rings. Day-break is our favorite time for attacking villages and stealing horses. When we have large war-parties, we use standards, made of eagle-feathers and scarlet flannel streaming from a long pole. (Washakie’s band of Shoshonees and Bannocks had such a standard during the time they were with General Crook in the campaign of *Above “first man” Bourke inserted murderer.

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1876 and 1877....) We almost always keep 3 or 4 scouts in advance of the main-body; when they find the enemy, they come back and announce the discovery by circling their ponies and hallooing like wolves. We signal by means of smoke, which have a meaning agreed upon before hand. We also convey intelligence by means of pieces of blanket, tufts of grass &c. left in places on the trail and we use looking-glass flashes also. We scalp the dead; male prisoners are never taken, unless very young. Women and girls become the slaves of the warrior who captures them. We never leave any signs behind us to show what tribe made the attack. We sometimes, but not always, take new names after a fight. We smoke kinnikinnick, a wild, creeping vine, and various herbs, when we can’t get tobacco. When a man dies, we put on his best war-clothes, just as if he was going into a battle, and wrap him up in his best blankets and robes, with his best gun and ammunition. We dig his grave either in the rocks or else on the top of some high hill; it doesn’t matter how the head lies;—that depends upon the way the grave is dug. He is put on his back, sometimes on his side,—and the grave is filled up. We kill his best horses over the grave and generally kill his dog also. That is because the Indians think that these things will be useful to him in the next world. We stick a stake in the middle of the grave and tie red flannel, beads and such things to it—also antelope hoofs [sic]—and anything that rattles—I don’t know what that’s for. (Probably to scare away cayotes and rapacious birds.) Only friends and relatives walk to the grave, the women crying the whole way; in fact, most all of the party cry. We haven’t any people who make a business of crying at the grave; only relatives and friends do that. When the family returns, its members destroy all their property; the women gash their arms, legs and ears, & cut off their hair. The men cut off their hair too. They will cry until sundown and by spells through the night, according to their sorrow. Joe Rayney. A great many Shoshonees and Bannocks are Mormons. Our people believe in spirits. They think the whirlwinds, (i.e. sand whirls) are spirits and are always afraid they are coming to do harm to somebody. They never pray while smoking, but I’ve noticed that the Crows do. They don’t mention the names of the recently dead, that is not when they are near any of his family; that is from fear of hurting their feelings. They don’t have fishing or hunting dances. They have a dance in


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the Spring when the leaves come; they call it the Sun Dance. A pole is stuck in the ground, a rag floating from the top; the bucks and squaws dance around that in a ring, all singing; they dance for 5 days, then they lay off for 4 or 5 days and finish up by dancing another five days. This dance will make everything green come up out of the ground and bring plenty to eat all the year. They don’t cut and gash themselves as the Sioux and Cheyennes do; I’ve heard of their Sun Dance, but ours is different. They often go off alone fasting and that’s the way some of them get to be medicine men, because they think they see the spirits then. Dr. DuBois. I’ve seen one of their women who died in child-birth. I was sent for and hurried down to the lodge, but she was dead before I got there. As a general thing, the women attend to all that and men are not called in. Charley Rayney. When a woman has a baby, she has to live in a lodge by herself for two months and the same way when she has her monthly sickness and then she is not allowed to touch anything which is to be used as food by others of the tribe. When anybody gets sick, the medicine men gather around him, sing and talk to the great spirit and say He talks to them from out of their stomachs, (Ventriloquism.) If you go into a lodge where there is a sick man and a medicine man is with him, you must take off your moccasins. They, (the medicine men,) suck places that have pain, and sometimes will spit out mice, worms or little frogs which have caused the sickness. Sometimes they say the sickness is caused by a paper (i.e. letter or printed paper) and then they’ll sing all night to chase away the witchcraft. A medicine man gets blanket, bolt of calico, sometimes a pony or a little money—just according to the man’s sickness. If a medicine man can’t cure people, he isn’t allowed to attend the sick any more. No, we don’t kill him; but he’s just got to quit, that’s all. We know how to take good care of wounded men, or those with broken bones. We make splints, bandage the leg to keep it straight and keep it cool. This concluded my long examination of Joe and Charlie Rayney and the Indians with them, for whom I now bought a great big pile of Mr. Schilling’s best candy, upon which they were soon doing honest work. I secured from Mr. Schilling, at very reasonable prices, the following

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articles of Bannock and Shoshonee workmanship: a war-bonnet of scarlet cloth and eagle feathers, a beaded purse to be worn attached to the waist-belt, a pair of leggings of scarlet cloth, elaborately beaded, a bead neck-lace, a buck-skin gun case, fringed and beaded; a sash of scarlet cloth feathers, otter-skin and bead-work, a toy pappoose board, of beaded buckskin and a pair of “cash bones”. Also a flat basket dish, such as they use for roasting grass-hoppers, and a basket for gathering seeds and berries. The male Bannock adult wears moccasins covering the feet and ankles—these are always nicely beaded, while those the women wear are perfectly plain: leggings of bright scarlet or blue cloth or buckskin, encrusted with beads around the ankle and up the outside, held in place by a string fastened to the waist-belt. His breech-clout is of shawl or blanket, hanging down below the knees in front and almost as far behind: this also is attached to the waist belt, or rather held in place by it. His shirt may be of buckskin or of some fabric issued by the Government or purchased at the store. Wrapped about his shoulders is the inevitable blanket; this is either the “issue” pattern, marked U.S.I.D.13 in big letters in the back, or if the buck is especially “toney”, it is of cloth, one half red, one half black or blue, with a central band of bead-work. The blanket is worn to enwrap the body and cover the head, thus: Or he may employ a buffalo robe, light in weight and decorated

Bannock Head-dress.

13.â•‡ United States Indian Department.


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with bead and quill work. Blankets are the rule and buffalo robes not often to be seen. Horse, buffalo or human hair is often plaited into the tresses of a buck when in full toilette such as our hats. Head covering is never worn, except by those who are working in the sun. Mr. Schilling, Agent Wright, Major Bainbridge, Doctor Dubois and myself drove over to the lodge of Captain John Logan to witness a game of “cash”. The lodge was the typical Indian conical habitation of smoke-begrimed canvass stretched upon 11 poles, about 15 ft. long, joined together at the apex, where an opening was left for the escape of such small portion of the smoke as did not care to remain within doors. Lifting up the flap, which served as door, we passed the little fire smouldering in the center of the lodge and the little dogs dozing alongside of it and took our positions against the canvass on the side opposite the entrance. Mats of tule were spread around the lodge, against the sides and upon these the Indians squatted in all sorts of positions, facing towards the center. There were two or three women inside when we entered, but they never noticed our presence and went on with their work, one of them grinding coffee and the others sewing, with as much indifference as if we were not in existence. A couple of pappooses crawled about pretty much where they pleased, excepting that whenever they came too near any of the visitors, one of the women, apprehensive of their giving annoyance, would pick them up and put them over on the other side with their natural comrades, the puppies. Pretty soon the game commenced and a great change was effected as if by magic in the whole bearing of our hosts and hostesses; the women giggled, laughed and chattered in a low tone together, while the men talked garrulously and vociferously, ignoring the proverbial stolidity of their race. Soon the game was arranged; two players on each side, with not less than a dozen interested as betters. Each of the two players on one side held in his hands a couple of polished bones, about as long and as wide as the dimensions traced on this page. One of these was plain, the other wrapped with buck-skin.

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Ten long thin tally sticks were laid in front of each side and when all was ready, the players who held the bones, set up a fearful howl, and indulged in all sorts of contortions of the body and moving of their hands under the folds of their blankets to mystify their opponents whose business it was to guess the whereabouts of the uncovered bones. Every time this was done, a howl of triumph would go up from their lusty throats, ably seconded by volunteer howls from the bystanders and a horrible rub-a-dub beaten with sticks by an amateur who, I suppose, expected some slight recognition of his services when the game should be decided. Major Bainbridge subscribed a silver half-dollar, Mr. Schilling, Dr. DuBois and myself each another, making a tempting display of treasure to induce the players to make a good exhibition of their skill. To me, the whole thing appeared very flat: it was nothing more or less, in principle at least, than our children’s game of “odd or even”, and its scheme has already been described in my notes of yesterday. At last, Captain John Logan’s side had won all the ten tally-sticks and taken all the money, their opponents accepting their failure with perfect good-humor. While the Indians were recovering their breath of which they had expended so much in their music(!), I found leisure to inspect the dresses and leggings which the squaws were making. The dress was deep blue calico, made in one piece to extend from the neck to the calf of the leg. The shaded lines are scarlet trimming, at neck, sleeves and bottom

Rough sketch of Squaw’s dress. Bannocks & Shoshonees. Fort Hall, Idaho Ty. 1881. Girdle of Bead-Work.


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of skirt. The sleeves are open underneath, and mothers suckle their children from under either sleeve, as the dress does not open in front. The leggings, as elsewhere stated, are of scarlet cloth, with heavy bead-work at the ankles. Moccasins made perfectly plain. The necklace worn was of blue beads, and wristlets of same—The whole costume graceful & pleasing. The underdress is precisely the same as the upper, excepting the absence of ornamentation; the body is of stout sheeting and the skirt of red or blue flannel. Around the head, neck, shoulders and body, the squaws wear a dark-blue blanket and outside all carry their pappooses, securely wrapped in a sort of cradle, made of board and buck or Rocky Mountain Sheep skin, lined with rabbit-fur. They are well provided with needles, thread, scissors, buttons, hooks & eyes &c., all, of course, of American manufacture. Outside the tent, we saw a group of bright youngsters, playing a game with brass rings, about the size of finger rings. These were fourteen in number and the game seemed to be something of this nature. A small board, 6” sq. is inclined in the ground, at an angle of 45’.14 In front, commencing at a distance of 15’, and separated by equal distances from each other, three lines were drawn on the ground, parallel to base of the board and perpendicular to these lines and joining their extremities so as to form two squares of 15’ x 15’, were two other right lines. One of the players taking a ring, threw it smartly against the inclined face of the board, causing it to rebound in the air and, after reaching the ground, to roll into, beyond or on the near side of the compartments enclosed by the straight lines and from its position, the player increased or diminished his score or let it remain as it was. The value of each “run” seemed to be agreed upon beforehand in each game, but for the purpose of illustration, we may designate the part of each square by a mathematical sign.

14. Although Bourke used the sign for 45 minutes, he obviously meant degrees.

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To reach the line AB, but not go beyond it, secures the biggest count. These boys, half-breeds and full-bloods, were enjoying their halfhour of recreation from school: one of them is said to be the son of a former Army officer, Captain Sinclair, a very brave man who lost his commission for the scandalous relations to which the youngster owes his being.15 Near by was another cluster of school children, little girls; one of them of unmistakable white blood and said to be a captive. She is decidedly beautiful and modest, and answers to the name of Minnie. Mr. Wright says that the Indians won’t say anything about her parentage or where they obtained her. At agent Wright’s invitation, we entered the school building, but we were first shown by Mr. Fant, the teacher, a number of articles of wearing apparel made by the little girls under the supervision of his wife, who, unfortunately, was sick abed, so we could not personally compliment her upon the progress of her pupils. They merited all that could be said of them, and according to Mr. Fant rapidly learn how to work the sewing machines. A big bell clanked a dismal notification to the boys and girls that their fun was over and the hour of torture at hand. We followed Mr. Wright to the recitation room in a building by itself and not in any material peculiarly different from the ordinary country school-house. It was a plain wooden edifice, entered by a single door, with one window on each side of it and one more on each of two other sides of the room. An unwieldy box wood stove occupied the center while a double row of plain bench-chairs was arranged along the two side-walls. Upon these were seated 14 little furtive-eyed boys and a dozen girls, several of the latter decidedly engaging in looks and coquettish in manner. In front of the children were two cheap black boards and two or three large paste-boards, bearing the cabalistic formulae. A.B.C.D.E.F.G.H.I.J.K.L. &c. 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10. &c. BAB. etc. The Dog, and the Man. The Boy, and the Rat, and other matter invented to torture and bedevil the otherwise too joyous hours of childhood. With the exception of their color, the boys were the boys of my youthful days and looked at the visitors in much the same way— 15.â•‡ The identity of this officer could not be determined.


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half in terror, half in contempt,—in which the young hopefuls of my day were wont to regard the vacuous, benevolent, fat, simpering countenances of the old frauds who used to inspect our schools. The girls all simpered and giggled shyly as girls have ever done in school since the days of Eve: the boys coughed unnecessarily, shuffled their feet and pinched one another behind the teacher’s back, but, take it for all, the scholars were remarkably well-behaved. We, on our side, smiled encouragingly at each youngster, and, I am afraid, made ourselves odious in their eyes by our condescension and patronage. Mac! called Mr. Fant, and a bright youngster, a perfect Black and Tan Tom Sawyer, slowly dragged his unwilling heels to the boards, where now stared in full figures of glaring white a sum in addition in four columns of four integres [sic] each, each row looking to the poor victim like a line of dead-man’s teeth grinning defiance at him. Mac, nothing daunted, surveyed the board cooly, rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, sucked his fingers, scratched his head, tickled his ribs, and dragged the shin of one leg against the calf of the other:—in one word, he went through the whole course of the manoeuvers white boys employ in similar emergencies to rouse their torpid mental powers to activity, and at last, triumphant, began to county on his knuckles the proper footing for each column. 5432 6875 1981 3256 17544 Very Good! Mac, and Mac returned to his seat, envied by his trembling comrades whose turn was yet to come. We had examples in subtraction and short division and then two of the little girls began an exercise in reading. In squeaky, timid voices, they piped out the same old stuff which has exasperated so many thousands of babes in this great land of America: The Egg is in the Nest. The Hen is on the Egg. The Dog is in the Box. The Boy is with his Top. Very good Julia! Very good Hattie! Good Bye, ladies. Good Bye, young

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gentlemen! and we left much pleased with the exhibition which was excellent, considering that the children speak so little English. No encouraging progress can be hoped for except in establishments like Carlisle where a complete segregation of the children from the impeding idleness of tribal relations can be secured. I noticed yesterday a game of “shinny” played by half a dozen young maidens on each side. The game is so precisely similar to our game that I did not care to attempt an elaborate description. As among the Sioux & Cheyennes, it is played only by the young girls, who deck themselves in their best attire for the occasion. These Bannocks and Shoshonees were largely represented in the hostilities against the whites in ’66 and ’67 and suffered a terrible castigation at the hands of General Crook, for whom they cherish an admiration based upon wholesome fear.16 How is Clook? Asked Captain Jim, when he met me. Clook down in Omaha? Clook all light? You tell Clook me know him. “All right, Jim, I’ll do it.[”] Major Bainbridge & I did not get back to Ft. Hall and finish our dinner, until long after dark and then my kind hosts mixed me a stiff toddy and we retired to rest. Slept soundly and awakened much refreshed, April 6th 1881. Wednesday. Rained quite heavily last night. Strong wind blowing all day. Paid a short visit to Lt. and Mrs. Yeatman & Dr. Gaines and devoted rest of the day to writing up my journal. Bade farewell to my kind hostess Mrs. Bainbridge and the Major and took the conveyance awaiting me at the door to drive me to Blackfoot station.* The road to Blackfoot station was very sandy; only enough soil on top to give a scraggy growth of sage-brush an excuse for existence. A fierce wind blowing the sand into ridges and ruts complicated the

*Bourke’s marginal note: In Mrs. Bainbridge’s parlor is one of Moran’s paintings—camp on Snake River—presented to her by the artist—and valued at $1.500. It is a gem of drawing and coloring. This painting is probably “Scene on the Snake River,” ca. 1879, now owned by the Montclair, New Jersey, Art Museum. 16.â•‡ This was a series of uprisings in Idaho, Oregon, and northern California while Crook, then a lieutenant-colonel, commanded the District of Boise. See Robinson, General Crook, Chapter 7.


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difficulty of crossing one or two of the larger dunes, in our way, but we had no serious obstacle and reached the station in good time for me to check my baggage to Denver and engage a berth in the sleeper to Ogden. Mr. Wheeler, editor of the Blackfoot paper, came in the car and talked with me at some length, in a very sanguine strain, of the bright future awaiting this part of Idaho; he instanced the wonderful development of the Wood River, Saw Tooth, Big Horse, Challis, Bonanza, and Butte districts, all drawing the bulk of their supplies from Blackfoot. The Custer Mine, on Yankee Fork, near Challis, in the Lemhi country, has 20 stamps in operation running upon ore assaying from $200 to $600 to the Ton, but unfortunately so rebellious that it does not work to a good percentage; still the daily yield averages $5000. A great land slide has stripped away much of the country rock,17 exposing one side of the ledge for several hundred feet vertically, showing the existence of enough ore to last the stamps for several years. In Bellevue a little town which has sprung up in the Salmon river mountains, 600 men have remained during the present severe winter waiting for the advent of mild weather to enable them to begin work. The new R.R., running from Granger, Wyoming, to Portland, Oregon, will assist greatly in advancing the knowledge of this now almost unknown region and bringing to light its hidden treasures. April 7th 1881. The Utah & Northern is one of the easiest roads to ride upon that I have ever travelled over; the change, in this road, since I first knew it, in 1875, is almost incredible. (For a description of this as it then was consult note-books, Nov. & Dec. 1875.)18 This morning has been quite cloudy: At Ogden, I was met by Lieut. Kimball, 14th Infantry, whom I very much wanted to see, on account of his service among the Fort Hall Indians. He said these Indians didn’t seem to have any idea of God, except as they learned of him from the whites; they have a vague belief in spirits and claim to be descended from the cayote. Their languages are identical, in most respects, except that the pronunciation of the Bannock is much the more guttural of the two. A great number of the Bannocks are able to talk in both dialects and many of the Shoshonees now realize the advantage of being able to do the same thing. Lieut. Kimball speaks 17.â•‡ Bourke’s meaning is not clear except, perhaps, for covering rock. 18.â•‡ These are among the missing volumes.

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Shoshonee to a slight extent and from his great intelligence may be relied on as excellent authority. He says the male Bannocks and Shoshonees exhibit the same facility as I have noticed among other Indian tribes, in drawing animals; the women are very faithful in their delineations of the human body. Cayuse Mary19 cuts out from paper figures of women which are anatomically correct. (Kimball promised to get some of these for me, and Mr. Schilling promised to send me a soap-stone pipe and a war-whistle made of bone of an eagle wing.) They have one set of names for males and one for females; the former are as a rule suggestive of majesty, strength or ferocity or recall animals in which these attributes are noticeable; the latter are drawn from the lists of plants, flowers or gentle animals. Buffalo Horn, Hairy Bear or Spotted Eagle would be typical male names: Corn Tassel, Pine Tree or Fawn, typical female. I will now recapitulate the information obtained concerning the Shoshonees and Bannocks, and not otherwise distinctly specified. They do not admit that their women use any different terms for the same object—different from those men employ; nor have I been able to learn from any source that such is the case. Mr. Lewis Morgan, in his Ancient Society, has advanced with much ingenuity and skill the theory that all our wild tribes have been governed by clan or gentile systems, similar to those of the Iroquois. Until its existence among the Shoshonees and Bannocks be better defined, the burden of proof will rest with Mr. Morgan and his school. Certainly, my efforts to determine the existence of such a system have been honest and well-meant, but entirely wanting in success. The Bannocks & Shoshonees use the sign language.... On our train was Lieut. R. M. Rogers, 4th Artillery [sic],20 with whom I was associated for a couple of years at the Military Academy. He told me much that was of great interest in regard to his year of absence in the Army of the Khedive of Egypt, and his impressions of Cairo and other cities and of his present experience as a military instructor in the University of the South, near Tracy city, Tenn. Before sun-set, I had the pleasure of taking a cup of tea with Rogers and his cousin, a very charming lady and her son, a young gentleman about 19 or 20. 19.â•‡ A Bannock woman who sometimes served as interpreter. See Robinson, Diaries, 2:369. 20.â•‡ Heitman lists Rogers with Second Artillery.

Chapter 17 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Back to the Southwest

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pril 8th. The U.S. Railway Mail Agent invited me to enter his car and examine its workings. I was much interested. The Railway Mail system has been methodized, almost to perfection since 1870 and has done wonders in expediting the transmission of letters and postal packages across the country. We reached Cheyenne on time to catch the Denver Pacific train. We pulled out in a severe gust, but this did not last long and did us no damage. The Denver Pacific runs along much more level line of country than that followed by the parallel line,—the Colorado Central. It is of the Denver Pacific that the story is told in R-R. circles that Jay Gould, having first quietly gobbled up the Kansas Pacific, the Colorado Central and the Union Pacific, thus cutting it off from all, except local, traffic, telegraphed to the Dutch share-holders in Amsterdam to know whether or not they would sell. An affirmative reply was cabled and Gould started for Europe. He reached Amsterdam on time and met the shareholders as agreed upon. The price for which they were willing to sell was $1.350.000; “All right”, said Gould, [“]sign the transfer papers”. “But.[”] rejoined the phlegmatic Mynheer [sic] who acted as spokesman for the Hollanders, [“]we want you to agree to pay us 5 per cent on the indebtedness

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until cancelled”. “All right”, said the American thereupon the legal documents were formally signed and delivered, and Gould, without giving the Dutchmen time to light a pipe of tobacco, drew his checkbook, made out a draft for the entire amount on the Barings’ Bank, in London, handed it to the chairman and started on his return trip to America, having been in Holland about 6 hours.... Greeley, on the Big Thompson is an enterprising, prosperous town, where Yankee thrift shows itself in brick houses, good barns and stables, painted fences, well-cultivated fields and other indiciae which appeal at once to one’s eyes, but cannot well be described. Mr. Barkalow of Omaha, and Mr. Adams of Cheyenne, were in car with me as far as Denver, Colorado. The transfer ’buss took us to the Windsor Hotel, a new and well-built establishment of the pretentious order—neatly furnished and high-priced, but with an inferior table.* The Rotunda was full of people, nearly all, to judge from scraps of conversation, interested in mining. Denver itself is full of bustle and “has a boom”, to use the Western phrase. Its people have a go-ahead spirit and numbers of fine brick blocks, new or reconstructed hotels, and magnificent Union R.R. dépôt, attest their faith in the permanency of their city’s prosperity. They have gas and water works, the latter supplying a very filthy liquid which is used by the inhabitants in their ablutions; strangers recoil from it, being content, as a general thing, with the dust and grime already upon them: There is some talk of introducing the electric light, and take it in any aspect of the [phrase?], Denver is a “live town and no mistake”. It already has the Denver Pacific, Colorado Central, Denver & South Park and the Denver & Rio Grande: the Union Pacific is pushing to completion a new branch from Julesburgh, Colo., and its rival, the Burlington, is making ground fly on the extension of the Trans Missouri system through Denver to Ogden, Utah, perhaps to the Pacific Coast—who knows? Lastly, the Topeka and Santa Fé, contemplates running its track in from Pueblo, thus giving Denver an eminent position as a Rail Road center. By the Denver & Rio Grande, the distance to Santa Fé, is just 400 miles; for this distance, the fare is $32.50, and has only recently been reduced from $39.25/100! And yet at such atrocious rates, it *Bourke’s marginal note: at supper-table was accosted by Mr. Hibberd, a young gentleman who married my friend Miss Beeson, the niece of Lt. & Mrs. Stemble; we passed a couple of very pleasant hours together before separating for the night.


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is well patronized. Leaving Denver, we saw close by the machine and repair shops of the company which are very extensive and complete. The road, like the Utah and Northern, is a narrow gauge, but cannot compare with its Northern comrade in solidity of trackbed or elegance of equipment. Still the Rio Grande is a grand line and one of ambition, as well. It has at present writing about 800 miles of rail under its management and has made arrangements to extend one branch to Galveston, Texas, another to Chihuahua, Mexico and a third to Salt Lake, Utah. We ran along the East slope of the Rocky Mountains and, 50 or 60 miles South or South South East of Denver, crossed the divide, between the waters of the South Platte and those of the Arkansas; on the summit of the divide is a small lakelet or pond, said to be 15’ deep, 200 yds. in Diameter, and having no visible inlet or outlet. I was riding in the day car, the better to observe the country, passengers &c: most of those in our train were bound for Leadville and the mining region in its vicinity and beyond it. One of our passengers told me that the Denver and Rio Grande now has 5.000 men at work grading its line of extension from Leadville to Gunnison and on toward Salt-Lake. As we receded from Denver, the country became rougher; our direction converged more closely with the trend of the mountains and pine timber appeared in greater plenty. The view of the more elevated peaks was not very good, the day being gloomy and clouds hanging low down on the skirts of the range. (The newspapers of this morning announce a heart-sickening earthquake at the Greek island of Chios, in the Mediterranean—one of the [reputed] birth-places of Homer. 8000 lives reported lost. Also, a great flood at Omaha, Nebr., threatening serious injury to that young city.) At Husted, in the pine region, we saw a large quantity of lumber from the mills, 14 miles up the Mountains. 75 miles below Denver, is Colorado Springs, a well-known summer resort, well patronized even in this season. The little village is solidly built, with an eye to comfort and taste. Near this station, we saw five villainous tramps, seated by a little fire, in a ravine at side of track. They ought to be hanged. Below Colorado Springs, the country became flat and tame again, but looked like good farm and grazing land. The farms and cattle ranges in vicinity of the road are nearly all enclosed with good,

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sound fences, either of paling or barbed wire. Approaching the valley of the Arkansas, the characteristics of the inhabitants began to change; their dwellings, at least the older ones, were of adobe and jacal, (posts placed upright in the ground and chinked with mud.); ditches for irrigation were cut across the level plain in all directions. We crossed the Arkansas, at Pueblo, the point of junction of several branches of the D.&R.G. and the Topeka and Santa Fé. I was amazed at the transformation effected by these roads in what, 10 or 12 years ago, had been the drowsiest of drowsy Mexican villages. Pueblo, or rather South Pueblo, is a thorough-going American town; the streets are regularly laid-out; it has steel-works, smelting works, boiler works, and machinery repair shops—all in full blast, for all of which the proximity of beds of coal and iron is perhaps as much to be thanked as the Railroads are. The dinner at this point was exceptionally good. All the eating stations on the Topeka and Santa Fé line, and Pueblo is one, are under the supervision of a caterer who devotes close attention to his duties, much to the gratification of the travelling public. The South Pueblo Land Improvement Company advertises for sale building lots, farms and other real estate and the great throng of people with sharp Yankee or gawky Missouri visages would lead one to infer that the company has many clients for whom provision must be made. Having become tired of the restricted accomodations of the day car, I here entered the dainty little sleeping car, as much of a gem in its way as those on the Utah Northern line. Here our train divided; one portion went North West to Leadville, and the other kept on South towards Santa Fé. Once across the Arkansas, you are in a foreign country, so far as the permanent population is concerned; the American, it is true, is present in strong force and holds in his hands the key of power and wealth; he controls the Rail Roads, manages the telegraph and works the steel foundries and coal mines, but, nevertheless, it takes but a glance to assure you that he is present, as yet, merely as an intrusive element, alien to the population, to the institutions, manners and customs of the Territory. The houses proclaim this; they are all of adobe, except here and there a lonely one built by the R.R. Co. for its employees; the children and women proclaim it,—their swarthy faces and liquid black eyes have drawn their tint and glow


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from warmer suns than ours,—their fathers and husband are the trackmen of the road, but receive their instructions in a tongue strange to the people who projected and built it; the names of the stations and localities proclaim it,—we have Pueblo, Cucharas, San Carlos, San Louis, Alamosa, Sangre de Cristo, Trinidad, Las Animas, Raton, Rayado, Embudo, Los Luceros. Even the animals in the fields and the viands on the table proclaim the change. We see plodding patiently along the country by-ways, little trains of little burros, each bearing on his diminutive back a load much bigger than himself, but suffering his trials with so much patience and uncomplaining good humor that the conviction flashes upon my mind that each burro is now the place of transmigration of the soul of some ancient stoic philosopher; a conviction which impels me to touch my hat to a burro every time I meet one and when speaking of him to employ the masculine pronoun instead of the neuter which applies to animals: then there are herds of goats with long beards—they look like old time patriarchs, but they forfeit by their levity the respect excited by their dignified appearance. Goats are too much addicted to chewing tin cans or picking their teeth with the fragments of old hoop skirts to ever gain the position in the social scale that the prim and well-behaved burro attains at once and without effort. Even the Railroad itself, intruder tho’ it be, has had to succumb to the pressure of Mexican ideas and has dubbed its sleeping and chair cars with such (to us) strange names as La Señorita, Aztec, San Idelfonso, Tierra Amarillo &c. Chile, frijoles and the fine large Mexican onion appear in various forms upon the tables at the refreshment stations and one by one, from out of the gloom somewhere, there glide figures wrapped in toga-like serapes and instead of announcing themselves as Thomas Jefferson Dawkins or George Washington Podger, whisper in a voice, half dulcet half husky, the names Jesus Maria Salazar or Guadalupe Francisca Gallegos. At Cucharas (Spoons) our route turned West, giving us a fine view of the sun-mantled Spanish peaks to the South and bringing us soon to the foot of the steep grade ascending Veta Pass. The Sangre de Cristo range, in which is the Veta pass,* is the di*Below “Sangre de “Cristo” and “Veta” Bourke wrote (Blood of Christ) and (Mineral Vein) respectively.

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viding line between the drainage of the Arkansas & that of the Rio Grande: aside from this, it is the locality of one of the grandest feats of Rail Road Engineering of the present generation, so prolific in grand achievements. The ascent of the Pass overcomes some of the steepest grades ever surmounted and introduces curves of the greatest severity, one of them “the Mule Shoe”, being aptly described by its name. Going around this, we could see our two little engines climbing like cats higher & higher up the mountain, and below us, deep down in the bosom of the cañon, glimmered the head-light of another locomotive, toiling and puffing in our wake. The scenery in the Pass is impressive and majestic, but decidedly naked & void of much claim to the picturesque; it appeals to one’s fears instead of to his love of the beautiful. There is not enough snow, or timber, or ordure to conceal its severe outlines; snow in huge patches and timber in great clumps can be seen in many places, but the general impression left on the mind is that of solemn, desolation. The summit of 9997 ft. above the sea level; here, in a sheltered recess is a side-track with a water-tank and engine house;—a slight trace of civilization in our otherwise unbroken solitude of savage Nature. Once across the Blood of Christ mountains, we run down a narrow ravine which gradually widens into the beautiful San Luis valley in which is the military garrison of Fort Garland.1 When last I knew the valley of San Luis, its inhabitants had no other means of transportation than their home-made “carreta”, a shocking burlesque upon its high-toned distant relations, the Brewster Buggy and the Studebaker Wagon; made altogether of wood and raw-hide, without a single nail or piece of iron in its composition, its wheels were solid sections of great pine trees, perforated in the centre by a hot iron to make a hole to admit the ungreased axle. As they rolled over the dusty roads, they squeaked a siren song which awakened the dead for five miles or more. In our car, were Captain and Mrs. [John Brandon] Guthrie, 13th Infy., with their children who left us at Fort Garland, where I met Captain

1. Fort Garland was established in 1858 near the mouth of Sangre de Cristo Pass, to replace the earlier post of Fort Massachusetts, and protect settlers in the San Luis Valley from Ute and Jicarilla Apache depredations. The post was located near a major Indian trail leading from the Rio Grande to the Arkansas River valleys. Fort Garland was abandoned in 1883, and is now a state historical monument. Frazer, Forts of the West, 36–37.â•‡


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Shindley, 6th Infantry, last seen at Fort Buford,2 at the mouth of the Yellowstone, Montana, in 1877. It was so late that the Fort could not be seen; that is nothing more than the lights which flashed from the windows of the quarters. I turned in to bed at this point and did not awaken until we had reached the terminus at Española. April 10th 1881. Palm Sunday. At early dawn, we took our seats in the stage bound for Santa Fé, 28 miles distant. No fault could be found either with coach or team; the former was a new Concord, of approved make, the latter six strong, well-formed, active American horses. I took my seat by the driver, wishing to see and learn all I could of the country. We first turned East, crossed the Rio Grande by a new but very frail and shaky bridge and then kept a general South course until we had reached the city of the Holy Faith. The Rio Grande, at Española, hasn’t a single element of beauty: the water is turbid, the banks low and sandy, and there is an almost total absence of foliage. In front of us, as we crossed the river, the Sangre de Cristo uplifted its snow-capped summit to form a back-ground in relieving contrast with the front of the picture which was a monotonous success of red sand and clay mesas, covered with ragged growth of greasewood and soap-weed. Our driver was out of humor with his team and swore at them all for laziness, emphasizing his remarks by a liberal application of the whip to “Tim” and “Keno” whose performance he considered below his standard of excellence. The road was very sandy and without the stimulus of the whip our animals might perhaps have lagged, but with its continuous cracking sounding in their ears, they had no incentive to delay, so we were not many minutes in reaching Santa Cruz, on the creek of the same name; a pretty Indian pueblo, or hamlet, built in the form of a square, all the houses of adobe facing inward. One side of the square was occupied by a church, said to be 280 years old. We had no time to examine it, but its dilapidated looks corroborate any assertions as to its venerable age. Its walls are of adobe, 2.â•‡ Fort Buford was established in 1866 on the Missouri River, below the confluence with the Yellowstone, in what now is North Dakota. It was just downriver from the former American Fur Company post of Fort Union, and materials from the latter were used in its construction. Fort Buford protected the emigrant road from Minnesota to Montana, as well as navigation on the Missouri River. The post was abandoned in 1894, and the reservation was transferred to the Department of the Interior. Ibid., 110–11.

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flanked at the corners by square towers of the same material and these surmounted by low belfries of old-fashioned pale brick, which in their turn are capped by wooden crosses. The main door of the sacred edifice opens upon an enclosure surrounded by a high, thick wall of adobe and pebbles. From seeing a tall wooden cross in this enclosure, I inferred that it must be the Campo Santo. (The Holy Field=Burying Ground.) In the centre of the plaza itself, (the town plaza) is another cross, erected upon a truncated pyramid of adobe: —the total height is about 12 feet. At the foot of the little pyramidal mound is an “aguada” or little reservoir, with a bottom of puddled clay, into which flows water from the acequia coursing diagonally across the square. This is the refreshment place for all the dogs, goats, sheep, chickens and burros of the pueblo. All around the town extend broad acres of land, cut up by acequias and having the peculiar, flat look of fields cultivated by irrigation. I learned that the annual yield of fruit, grain and vegetables is considerable, but we had no time to obtain figures. Two of the main acequias, (ditches) crossed the road and near the bridges we saw Mexican flour mills; there were cottonwood log edifices, about 12 feet square and 7 feet high, built over the ditch to allow the water to turn a small turbine wheel. I should conjecture that in an emergency under the stimulus of a Gov’t. contract with a full complement of hands (that is to say a man smoking a cigarrito, a small boy scratching his nose and a big dog scratching his ribs.) and running on full time, one of these mills could grind a bushel of wheat in a week; the ordinary out-put can’t be over half that quantity. The Rio Grande valley was dotted with the plazas of Mexicans and the pueblos of the Indians. The description given of Santa Cruz will do for them all, except that the more pretentious residences in some cases were coated with lime and stucco; that the gardens and fields were enclosed by walls either of plain adobe, or of adobe clay mixed with pebbles, or of “cajon” laid in huge blocks, 4 feet long by 3 in length and breadth; or else in place of walls, they had a boundary of fencing made by sticking thorny cactus branches in the ground or ordinary stout cottonwood branches placed in the same manner. Each house had at one of its exterior corners, a bake-oven, which was nothing more or less than a hemi-spherical tumulus of hardened mud like the figure on this page.


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The agricultural implements—the plows and harrows—were of the most ridiculously primitive description and the simple fact that they were in use spoke volumes for the fertility of the soil. We did not adhere very closely to the Rio Grande, but followed along parallel to it and at some distance to the East, crossing a number of its tributaries, one of the principal being the Porjuaque, upon whose banks is the pueblo of the same name. This is much neater in appearance than Santa Cruz and has a look of greater prosperity. Several Pueblo Indians were at the stage station. A Mexican boy told me in a sleepy tone of voice that they raised trigo (wheat,) maiz (corn,) durazones (peaches,) manzanas (apples) ciruelas, (plums,[)] cerezas (cherries), peras (pears), sandias (watermelons), melones (mush-melons,) calabazas (pumpkins), chili verde (green chile) and muchas otras cosas, (many other things.) An old French man lives here upon whom I thought I would perpetrate some of my French. The old man’s native language seemed to double him up as if a nitro-glycerine bomb had exploded near by. I had started without any breakfast and was ravenous for lunch. I couldn’t remember what the French for lunch was, neither could I get to my tongue’s end the precise question I wanted which was to ask him if he could let us have some bread and butter. However, I asked him one just as good which I had memorized from Ollendorff,3 which was: “haven’t you the bread of my uncle or the butter of my sister?:[”]—The look the old fellow gave me was of dumb-founded perplexity, occasioned, I imagine by his amazement at hearing the language of his native land spoken with such purity in a strange country. The old man gasped out “Ah! Monsieur, vous parlez très bien mais! mais! mais!”4—Well, we didn’t get any lunch, and the driver who was an unfeeling, coarse-minded fellow without any aesthetic culture, remarked in a sneering tone: “if yer wanted hash, why the h— didn’t yer ax fur it? Ole man Bukay talks American!” The memory of old man Bouquet’s appearance during my first interview with him shall ever be one of the most fragrant reminiscences of my experiences on the border. 3. Apparently refers to Heinrich Gottfried Ollendorff (1803–65), German grammarian and language educator. 4.â•‡ More or less, “Ah, sir, you speak very well.”

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Getting nearer to Santa Fé, the road became firmer and better but much more hilly. Pine and Piñon trees crowded in clusters down to the road. Droves of little burros passed us, each bearing a load, weighing from 150 to 300 lbs. Heaps of boulders, surmounted by rude crosses, marked where Mexican funeral processions had halted on their way to the last resting place of the dead. At Tesuque, an Indian pueblo, we obtained a little lunch at the house of a Dutchman while the driver was changing teams. We had beer and raw onions, jerked meat and very good bread.—and enjoyed the meal very much. At Santa Fé, I registered at the Exchange Hotel and had hardly done so when Lieutenant Millard Goodwin, R.Q.M. 9th Cavalry, an old friend, tapped me on the shoulder and insisted on taking me over to his Quarters, a proposition to which I assented all the more gladly when I learned that he and my old tent mate, Clare Stedman, were messing together. At same time, I met Mr. Rumsey of Omaha who is going to keep the new Hotel (not yet completed.) in Santa Fé, and Mr. Samuel Abby, the Express Agent, who had served in the same regiment with me as a private soldier during the war of the Rebellion. At Goodwin’s house, I had a most refreshing bath and then at dinner had the pleasure of meeting Goodwin’s messmates,—Lieuts. Glassford, [George Anthony] Cornish & [Robert Temple] Emmet, the last a collateral descendent of the grand Irish patriot,—Robert Emmet.5 After lunch, Major McKibbin, 1st Infantry, called upon me: I had known him when I first came to New Mexico in 1869 and we had much to say to each other in the way of reminiscences of old and half-forgotten friends. With a party of gentlemen, I dropped in for a few moments at the gambling rooms of Mr. Shelby, one of the old timers of this country, who may have much information of value for me in my work. 5.â•‡ Robert Emmet (1778–1803) was an Irish nationalist who led an abortive rebellion against Great Britain, which in reality was little more than a street riot. He is possibly best remembered for the speech he made to the court, upon being sentenced to death for treason, and for the love-letter to his sweetheart, Sarah Curran, that led to his capture. The love-letter aspect was highly romanticized during the Victorian era. He was hanged and beheaded in Dublin. The American branch of the family is descended from Robert Emmet’s older brother, Thomas Addis Emmet, who came to the United States shortly after the execution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Emmet


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Despite the character of his profession, Mr. Shelby is regarded with much esteem by all who know him; he is believed to be of sterling integrity and is known as a man of high character and great public spirit. He is one of the social incongruities to be met with in a place like Santa Fé, where public opinion, under the influence of Mexican ideas, does not regard gaming as dishonorable. There was nothing going on during our visit which lasted merely for a moment, but I may say that the rooms were quietly but elegantly furnished and that Mr. Shelby is a gentleman of unusually urbane & polished manners. Thence, Emmet and I went to the Cathedral of San Francisco, a grand edifice of cut stone, not more than half completed and enclosing within it walls, the old church of adobe. As I purpose [sic], at a later date, giving a more detailed account of the old building and others equally venerable in Santa Fé, as well as a sketch of the town itself, I will content myself now with saying that the town has been transformed by the touch of some magic wand during the past 12 yrs.6 It has gas works, is putting in water works, building a new hotel, has a fine new College under the Christian Brothers, a convent school for girls.—and metropolitan uniformed policemen! These innovations jostle against and contrast strangely with the medieval rookeries of adobe, the narrow streets, still lit at night with camphine torches or filled by day with a motley crew of hook-nosed Jews, blue-coated soldiers, curious tourists, señoritas wrapped to the eyes in rebosas, muchachos, enfolded in bright colored serapes, Pueblo Indians, stolidly marching beside their patient burros, upon whose backs are tied great bundles of wood or hay. We finished our stroll by entering the old church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,* on the other side of the Rio Chiquito, hoping to be in time for vespers; but, probably because it was Palm Sunday, there were no services. *Above this, Bourke wrote, San Miguel. 6.â•‡ Santa Fe was founded in 1610, and work soon began on the Governor’s Palace, San Miguel Chapel, and other buildings mentioned by Bourke. Nevertheless, the town remained a provincial backwater throughout much of the remainder of the seventeenth century. In the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Indians besieged the local population which had taken shelter in the palace. When the survivors broke through and fled south, the Indians converted the palace into a pueblo. In 1692, the Spanish reoccupied New Mexico, and began rebuilding Santa Fe. After Mexican independence in 1821, Santa Fe became a center of trade with the United States. The establishment of American rule, the coming of the military telegraph in 1869, and the arrival of the railroad in 1880 ushered in the period of development Bourke describes. Lamar, New Encyclopedia, 1021–22.

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In this church, are oil paintings, hundreds of years old, black with the dust and decay of Time, which were brought from Spain by the early missionaries. The present edifice stands upon the site of an older one, destroyed in the general revolt of the Pueblo Indians in 1680:7 the gallery and other parts of the old church are preserved in the new and upon one of the beams holding the walls together may be deciphered in quaint characters the inscription: E/L/Sr/M/A/R/ Qs/D/L/Pe/ñu/eL/HI/ZO/ES/TA/FA/BRI/CA/ELAL/FEREs/Rl/Dn/AGn/ FLOs/VAR/GAS/S/U/C/R/I/A/D/O/Año “El Señor Marques De La Peñuela hizo esta fabrica. El Alferez Real Don Agostino Flores Vargas, su criado, Año----” “The Lord Marquis de la Peñuela made this building. The Royal ensign, Don Augustine Flores Vargas, his servant, in the year------”.* With a feeling of awe we left a chapel whose halls had re-echoed with prayers of men who perhaps had looked into the faces of Cortes and Montezuma or listened to the gentle teachings of Las Casas;8 and then, after walking a few blocks, we took our stand in front of the old palace of the Spanish governors, (said to be built upon and in part to include the ruins of the building used for the same purposes by the caciques of the Indians, inhabiting this country when the Spaniards came.) and there heard the afternoon concert of selections from The Little Duke, Pinafore & Carmen played by the colored band of the 9th Cavy. It was certainly an odd jumble of ideas of the past and present suggested by a glance around. Here was the band of Africans to redeem whom from slavery had died the brave men to whose memory yonder cenotaph has been created; here is the palace of the old Castilian governors, across the street, the Hd.Qrs. of the Mily. District, not a musket shot distant, are the hoary old temples of San Miguel and Guadalupe—these have all passed away or with Time shall pass *Below the dashed line, Bourke wrote, obliterated 7. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 remains the most successful Indian revolt in what is now the United States. The revolt began in August 1680, largely in reaction to abuses in Spain’s missionary program, and succeeded because of unprecedented unity among the Pueblo tribes. The Spaniards were expelled from New Mexico, and the Indians maintained their independence for twelve years. Ultimately, however, they lost their cohesion, and in 1692–94, Spain reconquered the province. The Spaniards had learned from the experience, however, and the new policy was far more lenient than that prior to the revolt. Lamar, New Encyclopedia, 928–29. 8.â•‡ Bourke’s romantic streak is taking over. The Spanish colonization of New Mexico began in 1598, long after all three men were dead.


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away and the land which once honored them shall wonder who built them, but here in the streets, cavorting on prancing plugs from the livery stable, are a dozen hook-nosed descendants of the babies that Herod unfortunately failed to kill—Will they ever pass away? Back from the walls of Guadalupe and San Miguel, Back from the walls of the Palace, echoing high in the blare of brazen trumpets, comes the answer “Never! The progeny of Moses is ineradicable!![”] When the Pyramids were young, the ancestors of these accipitrine-beaked youngsters were selling ready-made clothes to the subjects of Rameses. I don’t know the Egyptian for the phrase, but whatever it was, some benevolent looking old Israelite must often have bawled out in those days—“Isaac, Isaac! hant me town dot blum gulurd sir-it mit der schvaller dails” and in the far distant Future when we shall have mouldered into dust, the same cry, the shibboleth of the allconquering Hebrew, will resound in the land which has seen the Aztec, the Castilian and the American pass, away. At dinner to-night, we had Mr. Irwin, the chief Engineer of the Denver & Rio Grande R.R.—a very companionable, cultivated gentleman. April 11th 1881. Monday. Shortly after I had arisen and dressed, a Pueblo Indian and squaw knocked at the door; they wanted to sell pottery of which I bought a half dozen pieces for very low prices. They speak Spanish very well and told me the Apaches and the Navajoes are the same people, but that the Apaches are “malos” [(]bad[)] and the Navajoes are buenos (good.) The Pueblos were “buenos[”] because they were “Catolicos”. In paying for the articles I purchased, I noticed that the woman kept the money. Worked hard at my journal all day, with an intermission of half an hour at noon, devoted to going in company with Goodwin to a jewelry store filled with most artistic gold and silver-ware of Mexican make; one brooch especially being a dazzling barbaric incrustation of all the various kinds of precious stones found in this South West country. We also visited an unique establishment devoted to the sale of Indian pottery, basket-ware, stone-hammers, Navajo blankets and other articles of their manufacture. A great deal of the pottery was obscene, but kept concealed from ladies visiting the place. I took occasion to register my name in the book kept for that purpose at the Hd.Qrs. of the District; this book has been in use since 1854 and contains the signatures of the greater number of the officers who became famous during the War of the Rebellion; on the 1st page, I

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observed the names of A. D. McCook, J. W. Davidson, Geo. Sykes and several others, then subalterns but since Generals. Under date of Sep’t. 25th 1869, appears my own autograph, “on leave of absence, en route to join regiment.” Santa Fé possesses the only monument in the country to commemorate officers and soldiers killed in battle with hostile Indians. The Dade monument at West Point, N.Y., is not a monument in the sense in which I am here using the term; it has no national or state significance, but was paid for by private contributions from personal friends of the victims. So, the Custer monstrosity at the same place, is happily, not a national work. I can’t recall an instance in which the General Government has seen fit to recognize the services of men who gave up their lives to extend her frontiers; there has been a little talk about having stones erected on the Big Horn and Rosebud fields, but I am not in positions to state whether or not this talk has been allowed to subside or has taken practical shape. April 12th 1881. Tuesday. Lieutenant C. A. Stedman returned from El Paso, Texas, in company with General [John Porter] Hatch and Captain [Charles Albert] Woodruff. Stedman and I had not met since the day of my graduation and were mutually delighted to meet in his quarters and renew old recollections and keep alive the warm friendship always existing between us. I paid my respects to General Hatch who received me most courteously: he is a very handsome and soldierly man and has done an immense amount of hard work. About noon there was a very violent storm of thunder and hail, lasting, however, only a few minutes. Towards dusk, I walked about the Mexican part of the city and entered a number of grocery stores where I inquired the prices of all sorts of commodities merely to keep me in practice in the language. Captain Woodruff called in the evening and remained with us several hours, talking over old times. April 13th 1881. Wednesday. Had another interview with General Hatch this morning & explained the scope of the investigations I had been ordered to make. The General seemed to be greatly interested and promised to extend me every assistance in his power. He also asked me to go with him on a visit to the Navajoes in the North West corner of the Territory, and upon our return to go to the Northern Pueblos, as far as Taos. He gave me a most exact and interesting description of the evolutions of the Mexican troops he had reviewed


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at El Paso last week and praised them in high terms for discipline, cleanliness and high soldierly qualities. April 14th 1881. This being Holy Thursday, I went to the Cathedral of San Miguel to hear mass, arriving, however, somewhat too late. As the crowd of worshipers was leaving the church, one of them, a lady beckoned to me. Approaching her, I recognized the wife of my friend, Captain Woodruff, who presented me to the lady in her company. This latter proved to be Mrs. Symington, a Mexican young lady of the Armijo family, and a very beautiful woman. I went with the ladies as far as Mrs. Symington’s house, where I met her husband, who showed me a number of very beautiful Navajo and Mexican blankets. Their little boy is one of the loveliest children I’ve ever seen. I was delighted with this family which shows in marked degree all the traits of Castilian good breeding; dignified but extremely cordial manners and very frank, gentle behavior. I accompanied Mrs. Woodruff to her house and early in the afternoon returned to the church to be in time for vespers. I arrived as the bells were tolling and was fully rewarded for my trouble. The old church in itself is a study of great interest; it is cruciform in shape with walls of adobe, but slightly out of the perpendicular.* The roof is sustained by bare beams, resting upon quaint corbels. The stuccoing and plaster work of the interior evince a barbaric taste, but have much in them worthy of admiration. The ceilings are blocked out in square panels tinted in green, while two of the walls are laid off in pink and two in a light brown. The pictures are, with scarcely an exception, tawdry in execution, loud color predominating, no doubt with good effect upon the minds of the Indians. The stucco and fresco work back of the main altar includes a number of figures of life size, of saints I could not identify and of Our Lady. In one place, a picture of the Madonna and Child, represents them both with gaudy crowns of gold and red velvet. The vestments of Archbishop [Jean Baptiste] Lamy and the attendant priests were gorgeous fabrics of golden damask. The congregation, largely composed of women and children, was almost entirely of Mexican or Indian blood, swarthy countenances, coal black manes and flashing eyes being the rule, altho’ there was by no means a total absence of beautiful faces. Fashion had made *Bourke’s marginal note: Along these walls, at regular intervals, are arranged rows of candles in tin sconces with tin reflectors.

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some innovations upon the ancient style of dress; cheap straw bonnets and the last Chatham street outrage in the shape of cheap hats were ranged alongside of the traditional black tapalo and rebosa. One of the priests preached a very excellent sermon in Spanish from the text, “This is my body”. I did all I could to listen to and understand it, but such an epidemic of coughing, hawking, spitting and sniffling seized upon the congregation that it was impossible for me, a foreigner, to make out one third of what was said. I was perplexed, annoyed and amused at the constant interruption of the Sermon, a very able one, so far as I could make out, but utterly ruined in its effect by the continuous barking of the women and children. The sermon over, the Archbishop washed the feet of twelve altar boys, a custom which I have never before seen in this country. Lieutenant Emmet and I visited one of the Campos Santos (graveyards.) hoping to come upon some antique headstones; we failed to find anything of the age we sought. The dead-boards were all modern, dating back only to the incoming of the American element; the older graves either had lost their head-boards, or what is much more likely, never had any, and had been marked only by a mound of water-worn cobble-stones and a diminutive wooden cross. The inscriptions ran in much the same terms as those found in our own cemeteries: “En Memoria + de Rosario Duran, Esposa de Juan Sisneros [sic], falleció Junio 13 de 1877, de edad 26 años. Rogad por ella.” “En Memoria + de Guadalupe Real, Falleció el 3 de Junio, de 1877. Edad tres meces y tres dias.” “En memorial de Manuela Casado, falleció el dia 18 de Abril, de 1877, y nasio el Dia 1 de Enero, Año de 18[illegible]. Gose en Paz”. [“]Aqui yase Nasario Ortíz, fallecido a la edad de 49 año, el dia 8 de Abril de 1878. En Paz Gose.”9 The errors in spelling under-scored, occur upon the head-boards. Lieut. John Conline, 9th Cavalry, came in to Santa Fé, this evening. He was at the Mily. Academy with Woodruff, Stedman, Goodwin, 9.â•‡ More or less: In Memory of Rosario Duran, wife of Juan Cisneros, died June 13, 1877, 26 years of age. Pray for her. In Memory of Guadalupe Real, Died June 3, 1877, Age three months and three days. In memory of Manuela Casado, died April 1877, and born January 1, 18[illegible]. Rest in Peace. Here rests Nasario Ortíz, died at the age of 49 years, April 8, 1878. Rest in Peace.


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and myself, and is a splendid fellow in every particular. At same hour almost arrived Captain Edward [sic] Pollock, 9th Infantry, Inspector General of the District, returning from an official tour of Fort Lewis, Colorado.10 He is an old friend of mine in the Department of the Platte, to whom I make references in my note-books of the campaign against the Sioux & Cheyennes, in November 1876. General Hatch also called upon us and remained nearly the whole evening, the conversation being very animated and agreeable. April 15th 1881. Good Friday. Swallowed a cup of coffee for an early breakfast and started at 8 a.m. for the old “chalcahuitl” (turquoise,) mine 23 miles from Santa Fé in the foot-hills of the Sandía Mountains, called the Cerrillos. Our party consisted of the Messers. Smith, father and son, guests and old friends of Gen’l. Hatch, and myself. We were provided with a comfortable ambulance, a good driver and four excellent mules and rapidly traversed an uninteresting and dusty country, dotted at sparse intervals with houses of reddish adobe, scarcely distinguishable from the ground upon which they stood. Eighteen miles out from Santa Fé, passed through Bonanza City, a mining town springing up over a deposit of silver and lead carbonates. Twenty miles from town is Carbonateville, another mining “city”, with houses and saloon, of adobe frame work, or canvas. In this neighborhood, we entered the foot-hills (cerrillos) which are thinly covered with growth of scrub cedar and piñon. The “chalcahuitl” hill was distinguished by a large wooden cross upon its summit: it is conical in form and at its very apex commences the series of excavations and tunnels from which the Indians obtained the (to them) invaluable gem. The “country rock” I take to be a siliceous limestone, readily splitting into fragments under the action of fire. This seems to have been the method employed by the savages and the walls and ceilings of several of the excavations were heavily encrusted with soot, from fires made years ago. The “chalcahuitl”, occurs in narrow seams not more than 1⁄8 to ½ inch thick and is not, strictly speaking, turquoise, but rather an anhydrous carbonate of copper (azulite) very beautiful in color and susceptible of high polish. 10.â•‡ Fort Lewis was established in 1880 on the La Plata River, just west of Durango, and adjacent to the Southern Ute Reservation. It provided protection for the Utes against white encroachment, as well as for the agency, settlers, and railroad construction. Fort Lewis was abandoned and transferred to the Interior Department in 1891. It later was given to the State of Colorado for a branch of the state agricultural college. Frazer, Forts of the West, 38–39.

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Turquoise is Phosphate of Alumina, colored by Oxide of Copper. (The Apaches in Arizona—in fact all the tribes over there, think highly of this stone: use it as an amulet pendant from the neck or else inlay it in the stocks of their guns.) In the very center of the Indian excavations, a deep shaft penetrates the ground to the depth of several hundred feet and a notice tacked to one of the timbers informs the reader that [“]----Hyde11 has duly complied with all the requirements of the mining laws in the location of the chalcahuitl Lode to mine for carbonates &c.” Not knowing anything about carbonate ores, I am not ready to give an opinion upon the prospects of the Cerillos district, but I noticed that the “formation” was almost identical with what I’ve read concerning that near Leadville. There is the same iron-stained “cap rock” and the same friable siliceous lime-stone which in Leadville are always found in close proximity to the silver and lead bonanzas. Upon every hill in the Cerillos, shafts and prospect holes have been sunk, but the amount of development upon any one mine is very meagre. Many of the houses are dug-outs, having only a door and front-wall of man’s workmanship, the rest of the edifice being Nature’s handiwork. At this point, we investigated the contents of a lunch-basket, packed for us by Mrs. Hatch; it formed, by far, the most interesting episode of the day. Coming back, when within 16 miles of the city, we discerned a small procession of women and children climbing like ants up the abrupt bank of a high conical hill of basaltic blocks, upon crest of which a large cross was visible for a great distance. Thinking they might be “penitentes”, my companions and myself jumped from our ambulance and clambered up the stony trail in pursuit of the procession. I reached the cross first and found 3 young women and as many as a dozen boys and girls in the attitude of prayer. I interrogated them and learned that they were not “penitentes”, but “buenos catolicos”: that this was “Viernes Santo” (Good Friday) and that not having any church they had erected this cross in this elevated position to let all their “projimeros”12 see it and gather together for devotional exercises. 11.â•‡ Apparently D. C. Hyde who investigated some of the old diggings. Bloom, “Bourke on the Southwest,” 7:310 n14. 12.â•‡ Neighbors.


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One of the women was named McLain, one Espinosa, and one Padilla. They asked if I was a Catholic and upon receiving my answer that I was a very bad one, invited me to join them in the Rosary which I consented to do: and then la señora Espinosa began to intone in a very clear, sweet voice the Angelic Salutation.13 I had to listen very carefully to catch the words, but as the prayer was repeated over and over again, I soon learned it and was able to join it ran in this way, “Santa Maria, Dios te salvo; tu eres llena de gracia y entre mujeres tu eres bendita y bendito el fruto de tu vientre, Jesus. [“]Santa Maria, madre de Dios, reza por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. Amen”14 It looked to me as if they never would get through. Influenced by the example of these poor women, I had dropped on one knee and the sharp fragments of rock were beginning to make my joints ache. At last they finished their prayers with a very earnest one for the prosperity of our country, for the enlightenment of our rulers and for the safety of all at sea. I arose, shook hands with the ladies, bad them Adios! and clambered down the mountain; my companions were neither of them very strong nor used to mountain climbing and did not gain the summit until I was about ready to descend. Odd as the whole thing was to me, it had a touch of simple, childlike piety which was very pathetic. In the evening, called upon Captain and Mrs. [John Sylvanus] Loud. 13.â•‡ The Hail Mary. See below. 14.â•‡ Bourke would have been accustomed to hearing the English, which is: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed be the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen.

Chapter 18 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

In and Around Santa Fe

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pril 16th 1881. From my rambles around Santa Fé, I have seen much to impress me with the great changes wrought within the past decade. The newspapers are no longer issued in Spanish, and with the advertisements, store-signs &c are painted entirely in English. Numbers of private houses are finished with tin roofs, & painted, plastered and decorated in such a beautiful manner that they would be an addition to any young city. The streets are still filled with droves of burros tottering under immense loads of leña (fire-wood) and driven along by stealthy-footed Indians robed in the old-time serape. It is a city of the past, awakening to a newer and more vigorous life, but yet one in which the remains of forgotten generations shall long present lessons of instruction and interest to the student and traveller. Lieut. Emmet and I drove in an ambulance to Tesuque, 10 miles from Santa Fé. This pueblo, of which I shall at another time, make a more careful examination and more detailed description is composed of adobe houses all of two stories and facing upon a common plaza or square. This plaza is faultlessly clean, and the same praise rightfully pertains to everything visible in the village. The Indians themselves are short and squatty, but powerful in build and pres362


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ent a remarkable similarity to the Apaches. We saw a couple of old squaws sitting in what little sunlight struggled through the lowering clouds, and near them were two half-grown boys bearing on their backs huge bundles of firewood. We asked one of the old women to point out to us the house of the “gobernador”. She understood Spanish and directed one of a party of little boys and girls to show us the way; the little girl not alone but the whole gang with her obeyed the order. We were marched over to the other side of the plaza and observed on our way that the chimneys of the houses were made of earthenware pots,

placed one upon another and coated with mud, that upon the roofs in nearly all cases were bake-ovens, as already described and that to enter any house, it was necessary first to ascend a ladder to the roof of the first story and then descend to the living rooms. Because we did not attend to this last peculiarity, we walked quite around the residence of the gobernador, followed by the whole swarm of boys and girls laughing and screaming at our ignorance. At last, we found the proper ladder and climbed to the second story. This was built upon the first, but the walls were not, as with us, flush with the front walls of the edifice. They receded in such a manner as to leave platforms in front; this was the roof of the first story and was formed of round pine logs; covered with small branches and afterwards plastered smoothly with mud.

Almost immediately behind us, bearing a baby upon his back, came the “gobernador” himself. He invited us to descend again into the house which alto’ a trifle close was clean and in good order, warmed by a bright fire of cedar knots blazing on the hearth in one corner. We were first presented to his wife and little daughters; the former making moccasins with soles of rawhide; the latter grinding upon metates.

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First, the “gobernador” or “cacique”, (he acknowledged both titles.)1 showed us two silver headed batons of office; one, marked in plain script “President Lincoln á Tesuque, 1863”, and the other, unmarked, received from the Mexican Government before the coming of the “Americanos”. Hanging on the wall alongside of these was a doll-figure of San Antonio and several very crude and timeblackened holy pictures from Mexico. A very small window of nine lights opened upon the plaza. I asked the gobernador what material was employed before they had glass; he answered promptly “yeso”, (selenite) but added now there was not a single pueblo employing that material “en ninguna parte”.2 A couple of Apache baskets lay in one corer; I inquired whence they came; “de los Apaches”—he replied—“Nosotros cambiamos nuestros géneros por los de los Apaches cada año”.3 Then he showed us a gourd rattle (filled with stones) and another made of tortoise shell and antelope hoof; also a drumstick, with knob of buck-skin stuffed with hair; all these were “por la música de las fiestas, de los bailes”.4 The bedding in the corner was of colchones and Mexican black, white and blue striped blankets; no Navajo blankets were to be seen, altho’ he said they traded with the Navajoes and with all the tribes around. Finding him in a communicative mood, I asked him to name the tribes with which they had commercial relations. He promptly told off on his fingers—Apaches, Navajoes, Utes, Shoshonees, Comanches, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Napanannoes (Lipans) Tissúroquis (Absórokas=Crows?) And two other tribes whose names I cannot recall but from the direction given by his finger, I am certain they were the Cheyennes and the Pawnees or Sioux. I made him go over the list three times and did all I could to shake him in his assertion, but he stuck to this statement and said further that the Súsonnee, (Shoshonees) were the same as the Utes, but lived a little beyond them. Furthermore, he said the Súsonnee, the Ute, the Comanches, the Kiowas, the Tissúroquis, and the Arapahones 1.â•‡ In his commentary on this portion of the diaries, Lansing Bloom noted that Bourke, who was not completely familiar with social organization of the New Mexico pueblos, appears to have erred. Cacique and governor were two separate offices, the former being a life-time post as spiritual leader, and the wisest man in the pueblo. The governor and other civil officers, on the other hand, were elected annually. Bloom, “Bourke on the Southwest,” 7:312 n16. 2.â•‡ “in any part.” 3.â•‡ “We trade our wares for those of the Apaches each year.” 4.â•‡ “for music in the fiestas, in the dances.”


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were one and the same people, even if they didn’t speak the same language. The Napannannos (the Lipans) were “la misma sangre”5 with the Apaches and Navajoes. In communicating with people who didn’t understand their language or Spanish, they (Tesuques) spoke with their fingers (i.e. used the sign language.) The only fire-arm visible in the house was an old flint-lock. I asked him if the Tesuques were good Catholics—he responded in the affirmative. “But,[”] continued I, [“]have you not another religion, that of your antepasados (fore-fathers)? Haven’t you an estufa here? (Estufa=stove, is the name applied to the room in which was habitually kept the sacred fire of all these building Indians.) I will pay you if you will show me the estufa”. “[E]sta bueno”, said the gobernador and leading us out of the house by the same means by which we entered, he moved forward almost to the South East corner of the Pueblo. In the upper story of one of the houses on our way we saw what looked like strips of cork piled one upon the other; it was dried cow manure kept “para quemar loza”—(to burn crockery.) “Este es la iglesia” (this is the church.) said our guide, pointing to a sadly dilapidated one story flat roofed adobe structure, surmounted by a very small bell: we did not care much to examine the church just then, as the “estufa” was immediately behind it, but isolated from the rest of the village. The rumbling thunder worried us that we had not many minutes to spare and must economize time as much as possible if we wished to escape a drenching. Like every other building (except I think, the church.) the estufa was entered by a ladder, in this case wide enough for two persons at once. The roof was shaky and the ladder running down into the “estufa” halfrotten and very rickety. The room was about 20’ square and 8 ft: high, without any opening save that of the entrance through the roof and a small hole on the level of the floor which looked as if it has been worn through. On one side, occupying a space between the wall and the centre of the room, were the remains of a council fire and against one of the walls, was a small framework upon which, we were told, they placed a quantity of blazing wood, “lo mismo como una lampara”—in the manner of a lamp. I asked is this lamp “por el sol?[”] (for the sun?) He answered briskly, Si (Yes.) But I have my suspicions as to the sincerity of his statement. Upon further interrogation, the cacique said:— “I myself know nothing, or but 5.â•‡ “the same blood.”

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little of these things, but the viejos (old men) say that our ancestors came from over there, from the rising of the sun, (pointing to the North-East.) They first lived in caves before they came here to build houses and then they moved down the river (Rio Grande) towards Chihuahua. All these caves you see in the cañons are the old dwellings of our forefathers. [“]When we want to transact business, we light that fire and meet here. (Council Fire.) but, en el mes de Octubre (in the month of October,) we light the fire here and the lamp over against the wall: and when we have those lit, no other Indians came come in and no white men. [“]The other pueblos have fires the same as we have in this estufa and so used the Comanches and the other tribes I told you of. They didn’t have estufas, because they were not ‘teclados.’ (I.e. didn’t live under roofs.) When our forefathers took up this ground and began to build houses, it was just like this, (drawing a circle on the ground.) Now in this place. (in the circle) all the ‘vivientes’ were, (By the term “vivientes” or “living people”, I conjectured that he referred to the Pueblo Indians.) But the others did not build houses like us; they made their living by hunting venado and cibola. The Apaches and Navajoes and Napannanoes passed around us. They came from the same place we did, but we were here first. We are all of the same blood and why not? Tenemos la misma cara, pero diferentes lenguas,—no mas (We have the same countenances, but different languages and that’s all.) Now, it’s the same with you; you are all one people and have the same faces; but you are divided into Americanos, Irlandeses, Franceses, Alemanes y Italianos. The people of Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Moqui, Nambé, Tresuque and Taos, speak one language; those of Tegua, (one of the Moqui towns.) Ysleta, Jémez, Pecos, Cochiti, Laguna, Acoma and Zuni(?) are all one people.”6 He then named the different pueblos: I think that, altogether, he mentioned 23, but since I shall visit each of them this summer, I don’t think it worth while to recapitulate them at this point. We considered that the cacique’s conversation had been worth a little silver, which we gave him much to his gratification, and saying Adios, we started back for Santa Fé, in a brisk rain storm which 6.â•‡ Bloom (“Bourke on the Southwest,” 7:315 n18) notes that the governor was completely wrong, having “jumbled together pueblos which speak six distinct languages.”


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lasted nearly through the night. April 17th 1881. (Easter Sunday.) Attended mass at the Cathedral of San Francisco: the church, of course, was jammed, the altar a mass of light reflected back in the sheen of the gold embroidered vestments of the Arch Bishop and his assistants. The singing was execrable, but this unpleasant feature was in a great measure redeemed by the sermon delivered by Arch Bishop Lamy: His voice is weak, but his enunciation clear and distinct and his knowledge of Spanish precise and scholarly. To my great delight, I understood every word. His remarks bore upon the events commemorated during Holy Week and the triumphant resurrection typified and celebrated in the joy of Easter; of our Savior’s reappearance among his Disciples and his reproof to the doubting Thomas for his want of Faith; how we resembled Thomas in this respect as we remained blind to the miracles of His power and continually offend Him by indifference to the Grace He wished to confer; that the present was the only time left us; the Past was gone and the Future uncertain. As man sowed so should he reap and unless we planted the seed of good works, we could not hope to share in the Harvest of Eternal joys with Christ. In the afternoon, Emmet and I went to a Mexican funeral; only a hearse, followed by a long column of mourning friends,—two by two—no ostentatious display at all and a very sensible affair in all its bearings. In turning away to leave the cemetery, I was shocked to find I had been standing upon the graves of my old friends, Lt. and Mrs. W. J. Sartle, with whom I had passed many pleasant hours of service at Fort Craig, on the Rio Abajo, in 1869. Stedman and I had a very pleasant dinner this evening with our friends, Captain and Mrs. Woodruff. April 18th 1881 Monday. A glorious morning. A sky of sapphire, Birds warbling merrily in the branches of trees fast turning green in a vesture of tender foliage. I began my rounds this morning by inspecting the lovely silver-ware at Lucas’ and yielding to the temptation of purchasing some of the exquisite filagree work spread out for my inspection. Then I called upon his Excellency, Governor Lew. Wallace, at the Palace and was received most courteously. Governor Wallace told me two things: 1st that the East wall of the palace was the wall of the Indian building stormed by the Spaniards when they recaptured Santa Fé, in 1692, and that it was believed to antedate

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the coming of the Spaniards to this country; and 2nd that the Indians of Mexico and New Mexico, meaning the Aztecs and Pueblos, did not worship the Sun, but the Rattlesnake.7 The Governor introduced me to Mr. [Samuel] Ellison, the custodian of the Archives, who showed me about the Palace, which is the Administration building of the Territorial Government. Here the U.S. Court holds its sessions, the Governor has his office and the other officials their bureaus. Mr. Ellison took me into the room which he said was the oldest in the building. It certainly looks to be several centuries old, but as the beams are of sawed lumber its construction must have been posterior to the advent of the Conquistadores. On the East side, the old foundations are still perceptible, cropping out above the pavement. They resemble the foundations of old buildings in Arizona. Next, we went into the archives’ room and saw bundles upon bundles of paper, piled high above each other, in an inextricable confusion. There is no shelving, no glass-casing,—nothing to retard the destroying influences of Time and weather. Dust lies thick upon the leaves; mildew and decay have obliterated much of the writing and worst of all it is said that a former Governor,—a drunken political dead-beat named Pyle [sic],8 used many of these valuable documents for kindling the fires in his Office and sold cartloads of others for waste-paper! Mr. Ellison is laboring assiduously to bring order out of Chaos, and as he is not only a patient student, but has a fluent knowledge of Spanish, I look for much good from his exertions. Perceiving my great interest in the old Spanish pamphlets, Mr. Ellison gave me one or two to translate; with the printed ones there was no difficulty except in technical law terms; but the manuscripts were very difficult to decipher, the hand-writing being not only almost illegible, but peculiar in its way of forming letters &c. The printed matter.... is a copy of a treaty made with the Apaches who revolted in 1810. Having seen considerable hard service against the very bands mentioned in the Treaty, I asked Mr. Ellison to give me a copy of it which he kindly did and the following translation must do until some one come along knowing Spanish better than I do and make a better [translation]. 7.â•‡ In fact, the Aztecs worshiped both, as well as a myriad of other gods. 8.â•‡ William Anderson Pile was territorial governor from 1869 to 1871, when he was appointed minister to Venezuela.


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“Fundamental terms of the Peace granted to the Apaches in rebellion in the State of Chihuahua. [“]Whereas, in the year 1810 the Gileño and Mescalero Apaches, having craved peace unconditionally and without rations, the following Reservations were assigned for their occupancy and maintenance, to wit; [“]To the Mescalero, from San Elceario to the North (or opposite) band of the Rio (Grande.) thence to the Sacramento Mountains, including intermediate ranges which they shall continue to enjoy (possession of.) [“]To the Gileño, From the Copper Range to the Little Black Mountain, including the Bummer and Osier ranges,9 which they shall continue to enjoy (possession of) also. [“]To those who have revolted from San Buenaventura, Carrizal (Reeds) and Janos, may be assigned lands from the Little mouth of Janos or the Corral of Quintero, Acha, near Saranpion, Burras to the little house,10 with all the intermediate lands up to Santa Lucia, all of them to recognize the jurisdiction of Janos. [“]Let it be generally understood; 1st that they must not pass from their Reservations to the interior of the State, without the express permission of Hd.Qrs. and in the numbers permitted; 2nd They pledge themselves to return all stolen property now in their possession. Encinillas (The Little Oaks.) July 25th 1832. José Joaquin Calvo. Copied at Chihuahua, August 30th 1832. Cayetano Justiniani. Secretary” (Translated by Lt. John G. Bourke, U.S. Army.) Mr. Ellison promised to hunt up and present me with one of the Old Spanish orders organizing a military expedition against the Indians. Mrs. Woodruff took me with her to see the Convent and chapel of Loretto. We first passed into a large orchard of fruit trees of many varieties, all in full blossom, then across a broad vegetable garden and at last entered the interior corridor of the convent. Faultless neatness was the rule everywhere, not a speck of dirt or dust visible. 9.â•‡ The Spanish document pasted in the diary (39:1241) identifies these as Mogollon and Mimbres. 10.â•‡ The Spanish document uses the term “la casita,” which literally translates as “the little house.” Bloom (“Bourke on the Southwest,” 7:318 n19a) contends this actually meant a colloquialism for “little marriage or union” (i.e. “shack-up”), that Bourke did not understand. However, Bloom’s explanation makes less sense as a geographical designation than Bourke’s “little house.” Spanish surveys were based on existing landmarks that were not always permanent.

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No one answered our repeated pulls upon the bell, so we assumed the right to enter the chapel, the liveliest piece of church architecture in the South West Country. The nave is an ogival [?] arch of great beauty, leading to the steps of the main altar in front of which hangs a very large lamp of solid silver. A very well built geometrical stairway leads to the choir where the sisters sing during the celebration of the Holy Offices. It afforded me much pleasure to see this lovely little temple, so sweet, so pure and bright, attesting the constant presence and attention of refined and gentle womanhood—far different from the damp, dark, mouldy recesses of San Francisco, San Miguel or Guadalupe. The funeral of a tiny Mexican baby stopped our progress on the way home; we looked for a moment at the tiny coffin, decked with pink gauze and artificial flowers, bearing its little burden of puny babyhood to the grim threshold of the Great Hereafter. The child-pall-bearers gazed at us with mute curiosity, but the mother acknowledged our looks of sympathy with a kindly glance and courtesy as the procession resumed its way. At lunch, our mess behaved most outrageously to-day. Our friend, Conline, is a fanatical admirer of the 1st Napoleon and has read attentively nearly all the literature touching upon his achievements. It was preconcerted among us that a systematic, and vehement assault upon the memory of the great soldier should be commenced the moment we sat down to table. Cornish led off and I replied with a very feeble defense of the Corsican; we fanned the flame with skill and before our cups of tea were finished had the satisfaction seeing poor Conline almost beside himself with rage. After lunch, visited the establishment of Mr. Fisher where I saw a very good assortment of bear and other skins, Navajo blankets, Pueblo pottery, old stone axes and hammers. From Fisher’s “tienda”, I went to the old house, said to have been in existence before the Spaniards came to Santa Fé. I examined it carefully, found it to be an extremely antiquated two story edifice of adobe, with round rafters thickly encrusted with grime and soot; the second story was reached by a ladder. Upstairs, were a number of very old crucifixes, one, of especial sanctity and efficacy no doubt, being tenderly wrapped up in dust-stained gauze, cheap artificial flowers, wheels of watches, glass beads, and other decorations. Lt. [George Frederick] Cook [sic], 15th Infy. arrived in the evening, dined at the mess and entertained us for an hour with music on the


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guitar and singing. Stedman, Emmet, Cornish and self called upon Genl. Hatch and wife. I was shown the General’s fine collection of Pottery, stone implements, Navajo and Mexican blankets, and listened to his narrative of what he had seen in this Territory. Among other things of which I was told, was the ruined city or series of cities, some miles north of here, running for a total distance of 20 or 30 miles.11 The General inclined to the opinion that the cavedwellings have only recently been abandoned and cites in proof of the discovery by himself and others of corn cobs still firm and compact. Emmet spoke of an ossuary or charnel-house in a cave dwelling opened near the source of the Gila, pottery, stone axes, corn-cobs, human bones, cremated, were all found in abundance, covered by a stratum of bat-manure, 3 feet in thickness. Allusion was also made to the fact that dig where you will, in and about Santa Fé, human remains will be exhumed, showing the antiquity of the population residing here. April 19th 1881. Tuesday. Stedman and I visited the old church of our Lady of Guadalupe. It shows great age in its present condition quite as much as in the archaic style of its construction. The exterior is dilapidated and time-worn; but the interior is kept clean and in good order and in very much the condition it must have shown generations ago. The pictures are nearly all venerable daubs, with few pretensions to artistic merit. At present, I am not informed upon this point and cannot speak with assurance, but I strongly suspect that most of them were the work of priests connected with the early missions of Mexico. Many of the frames are of tin. The arrangements for lighting this chapel are the old time tapers in tin sconces referred to in the description of San Francisco and San Miguel. The beams and timber exposed to sight have been chopped out with axes or adzes, which would seem to indicate that this sacred edifice was completed or at least commenced before the work of colonization had made much progress. In the evening, I attended the session of the U.S. Supreme Court, which was engaged in the trial of a man for murder. The proceedings were in English, but as all the jurors were Spanish, the employment of an interpreter became necessary. And he was an extraordinarily fine one too; the Prosecuting Attorney was delivering his speech 11.â•‡ Probably the cliff-dwellings of the Pajarito Plateau. Bloom, “Bourke on the Southwest,” 7:320 n21.

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against the prisoner; he spoke loudly and rapidly, but scarcely had the words escaped from his lips before the interpreter had echoed them in Spanish, and in excellent Spanish too, choosing the exact word to represent the nicest shades of meaning or to translate the technical terms of law. Practice, certainly had much to do with this; yet practice could never have supplied the want of a keen intellect had not Mr. [José D.] Sena possessed it. Major [F. T.] Bennett, 9th Cavalry, on duty as Agent of the Navajo Indians, arrived from his Reservation this evening. He has had remarkable success in his management of the powerful tribe under his charge and is noted for his intelligent square-dealing, good-natured firmness and unflinching courage. April 20th 1881. The telegrams announce the death of the Earl of Beaconsfield. Rain has drizzled down all day, interfering greatly with my plans for examining points of interest in Santa Fé. Capt. Woodruff came to see me this evening and we [had] a very pleasant couple of hours together, chatting over old times. April 21st 1881. Morning damp and showery. April 22nd 1881. I devoted some few moments this morning to making another visit to the jewelry establishment of Lucas and Co., where I purchased a couple of exquisite articles of silver and gold filagree; thence, to the pottery establishment of Mr. Gold to secure one or two of the earthenware owls12 of the Pueblo Indians, and lastly, I purchased from a Tesuque Pueblo Indian a willow basket of the peculiar form made by those people. I bade a hurried good bye to the Woodruffs, to Mrs. Hatch and Mrs. Lee and had the great pleasure of an interview with my old friend Colonel [James G. C.] Lee, who returned from Chicago this morning.* The Colonel was, in 1870, dépôt Quartermaster at Tucson, A.T., and we there saw much of each other. I could fill pages with reminiscences of the town of Tucson as it then was, but have no leisure at this moment for so doing and will simply refer back to passages in my note-books.13 *Bourke’s note: Colonel Lee brought me the sad news of the sudden death of my friend, Mr. H. W. Farrar, who made the trip to the Big Horn & Yellowstone with our party in 1877. 12.â•‡ Bloom (“Bourke on the Southwest,” 7:321) transcribed this as “bowls,” assuming that is what Bourke meant. However, in an entry for April 26, 1881 (Diary, 39:1278), Bourke specifically states he acquired some Zuni pottery, including “an owl, a rooster, and a couple of bowls,” confirming that the Indians made earthenware representations of owls and other birds. 13.â•‡ Bourke’s manuscripts for 1870 are lost. However, he reminisces about Tucson during that period in Robinson, Diaries, Vol. 2, Chapter 19.


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At 3 P.M., Genl. Hatch, Colonel Bennett and myself took the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé train for Lamy, 22 miles. The day was lovely and the ride enjoyable. At Lamy, we changed cars for Albuquerque, our chances for observing the country being much narrowed by the gloom of evening. We rode through a very interesting region—one filled with the villages of the Pueblo Indians—all of which I hoped to be able to visit this summer. Among these were San Domingo [sic], San Félipe [sic], and Ysleta—all prominent and interesting. A number of the young men from San Doming[o] boarded our train to sell specimens of what they called “chalchuitl”, (turquoise,) of which I purchased three pieces. It is not genuine turquoise, but rather an impure malachite, (carbonate of copper.) Turquoise is chemically a phosphate of aluminum, colored with oxide of iron and oxide of copper, giving it a sky blue tint. The real turquoise, however, is found in New Mexico and is held at an extravagant valuation by all the Indians of the South-West. We were glad to exchange the crowded cars of the Topeka and Santa Fé Road for the caboose of a freight train on the Atlantic and Pacific at Albuquerque; but we found very soon to our sorrow that in avoiding Scylla we had run upon Charybdis.14 The conductor kindly made down for us rough berths in the corners, but we had no covering; the car was jammed with passengers most of them smoking villainous pipes: the air became foul and to complete our list of discomforts a wild-eyed young man became possessed of the idea that the stove needed more fuel and in a trice had it red hot. Every one was too sleepy to get up and too indifferent to comfort to try to mend matters. The conductor left the door open for an hour to aid in the ventilation; he ventilated our feet and ankles so thoroughly that when morning broke, half a dozen of us had such beastly colds we couldn’t speak above a whisper. We had by that time reached Crane’s station, the terminus of the road and all tumbled out to get a cup of coffee and a sandwiches [sic] in a “saloon”, doing business in a tent alongside the track. The coffee was quite good and the sandwiches fresh; the shaggy haired men behind the bar were courteous and polite in their demeanor and reasonable in their charges, all of which is more than 14.â•‡ A reference Bourke frequently uses, to mythological monsters on either side of what is believed to be the Straits of Messina. Sailors avoiding the one would run afoul of the other.

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can be said of a great many hash-factories I have patronized in my travels. April 23rd (Saturday.) From Crane’s the Rail-road extends still farther some 30 miles, but is not yet in a condition to do business; travel is done in freight cars alone, as far as Fort Wingate,15 and from there nothing but gravel and construction cars are permitted on the line. We were favored with a perfect day; a sky without a flaw and a sun bright and warm enough to inspirit but not to enervate. The scenery in its components could not strictly be called beautiful. The foot-hills were covered liberally with scrub oak and cedar; bold bluffs of red sandstone, carved by the sand-laden winds into all sorts of fantastic shapes, frowned upon us from the Right, like a long line of gloomy, castellated fortifications. The plains were covered with stunted sage-brush and as said before, no single part could be regarded as beautiful but they blended so softly that the general effect of the landscape was far from disagreeable. At the terminus, we were about 4 miles from Fort Wingate, so plainly visible on the skirt of the hill that we could scarcely believe it to be more than a few moments’ walk away. It is at the Ojo del Oso (Bear Spring.) and at present is garrisoned by 8 companies of the 13th Infantry and 9th Cavalry, commanded by General [Luther Prentice] Bradley in whose temporary absence Major [James Judson] Van Horn presided. We were kindly taken care of by the different officers, Colonel F. De Courcey looking after myself. I was very soon perfectly at home and after ridding myself of the dust of travel, received calls from all, or nearly all, the officers, Captains [Emory White] Clift, [Arthur] McArthur, and [William] Auman of the 13th, Parker of the 9th Cavy., Lts. Chance, Bishop,* Fornance, Olmstead, Griffith, Holmes, Scott, Parker and Hughes, and Lt. Wotherspoon, 12th Infantry, en route from his post in Arizona. *Above this, Bourke inserted: Asst. Surgeon [George Henry] Torney 15.â•‡ Fort Wingate, the second post of that name in New Mexico, was established in 1860 as Fort Fauntleroy. When its namesake, Col. Thomas T. Fauntleroy, joined the Confederacy in 1861, the post was renamed Fort Lyon, although official correspondence tended to continue using “Fort Fauntleroy.” In September 1861, the garrison was withdrawn ahead of the Confederate invasion of New Mexico. In 1868, Fort Lyon/Fauntleroy was reoccupied, and renamed Fort Wingate when the first Fort Wingate was abandoned. In 1918, the Fort Wingate military reservation was turned over to the Ordnance Department, and in 1925, a portion of the reservation and some buildings were given to the Indian Service as a school for Navajos. In 1960, the remaining portion of the military reservation was renamed Fort Wingate Ordnance Depot. Frazer, Forts of the West, 108–9.


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Some of them I had met before, especially, Olmstead, Griffith and Fornance, cadets in a class below me at the Acady. De Courcey took me around the post on a very interesting promenade, including the sutler’s store, where my national pride was aroused by the display of goods of the very best quality, and put up in excellent style. These included raisins, almonds, figs, olives, honey, preserves, pickles, canned salmon and other fish and all varieties of wines and liquors, all of California production. This store is peculiar in having a private room for ladies’ shopping, a feature to be commended to other military traders. The proprietor, Mr. Hopkins, evidently understands his business. The fine bands of the 13th Infantry gave General Hatch a serenade this afternoon, the selections being good and the performance excellent.

Chapter 19 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Navajo Country

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rom Fort Wingate, Bourke and Hatch journeyed to the Navajo Agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona,1 the headquarters of a 5,500-square-mile reservation set aside for the Navajos by treaty in 1868. The treaty concluded a long series of conflicts, to which Bourke alludes in this chapter. Trouble broke out shortly after the American occupation of the region in 1846. Clashes were almost continual until 1863, when Col. Christopher Carson led a contingent of troops and Ute scouts through the heart of Navajo country, destroying crops and livestock, and undermining Navajo subsistence. The Navajos were forced to surrender, and in 1864, some 8,000 were forced on the so-called “long walk” from Fort Defiance to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where they were interned until the 1868 treaty was formalized.2 April 24th 1881. Sunday. After Guard Mounting and Inspection, during which latter General Hatch closely examined the gun of every soldier and afterwards the arrangement and police of the quarters; 1.â•‡ Fort Defiance, the oldest military post in what later became Arizona, was established in 1851 to control the Navajos. The post was abandoned in 1861, and reoccupied two years later, when the name was changed to Fort Canby. The post was abandoned in 1864, at the conclusion of the Navajo campaigns, and four years later became the Navajo Agency. Frazer, Forts of the West, 8; Altshuler, Starting with Defiance, 26. 2.â•‡ Lamar, New Encyclopedia, 771.

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we started for the Navajo Agency at Fort Defiance, Arizona. We had another lovely day for our journey and a very good team of mules. For the first twelve miles, there was not much to notice beyond the Titanic blocks of sandstone piled up into great hills, one of the most peculiar being the spire called the Navajo Church, a land-mark distinguishable for a number of miles in every direction. The ranch at the Mineral Spring (ferruginous.) 12 m. from Wingate, furnished our relay, which had been sent out from the post the day previous. We had an unusually good road, over an elevated rolling country of an average altitude of 7000’ above tide water. The Bluffs still continued to be well covered with piñon and scrub cedar, but the almost total absence of water was painfully noticeable. 25 m. from Wingate rested our team for an hour while we lunched. Erected a monument of beef can and two beer bottles to commemorate our occupancy of the country and resumed our course (due West.) 30 m. from Wingate, came to a singular formation of sandstone, called “the hay-stacks”; these are three immense boulders of sandstone, 200’ above ground and named in accordance with their shape. In front of these is the “natural bridge”, a stone archway, spanning a chord of not less than 75 ft. horizontal, with a “rise” of nearly 200’. Further on were grim palisades of columnar basalt, with mounds of the same rock and “dunes” of coarse red sand, in which no doubt a considerable percentage of disintegrated lava could be found. Through the sandstone bluffs, seams of coal protruded. Our proximity to the Navajo Agency was indicated by an occasional corral of stone or an abandoned “hogan”. (When a Navajo dies his house, or “hogan” is always abandoned.) On the summit of a favorably-situated hill, we were shown by Col. Bennett, the decayed fence of brush wood formerly enclosing the antelope run made by these Indians for hemming in antelope and deer. 10 m. across the Arizona line, Old Fort Defiance was reached at sun-down, so I reserve a description of it until making up the record of to-morrow. Here I met the post-trader, Mr. Leonard, an old friend of former days in Arizona, who without delay or ceremony escorted us to his kitchen whose presiding genius was a full-blooded Navajo Indian, answering to the Mexican name of Francisco. Kitchen and dining room as well as pantry were all in one, and our conveniences were, as might be

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expected under the circumstances, of the simplest description; but the hospitality was genuine and the cooking unexceptionable. We had beef boiled in great big chunks, but boiled well, good bread, butter fresh from the Mormon settlements, 30 miles West, canned pears, good warm tea and excellent rice pudding. We devoured our meal with great relish and praised Francisco to the skies. A good sleep refreshed us after our long ride and we were ready for the business of sight-seeing when we awakened on the morning of* April 25th Monday. The first thing claiming my attention was the wretched position, in a military point of view, of the Navajo Agency, formerly Fort Defiance. It is at the Eastern entrance of the Cañon Bonito and so closely pressed by the vertical walls of the cañon that no defense could be long continued were the Indians to become hostile. Indeed, I had pointed out to me the door in which the wife of an army officer was shot dead by an Indian in the cliffs, at a time when the garrison comprised four companies of regular troops. Several other cases equally as bad are on record, but this one impressed me most vividly. Of the post, in its present condition, only a few meagre sentences need be written; it is of adobe in an advanced stage of decay, not one of the buildings being suitable for occupancy, and none possessing any of the halo of former value supposed to be inseparable from the ruins of antiquity. It is a collection of old, dilapidated mud pig sties and sheep pens and nothing more. Being the Agency of the Navajoes, it is of the utmost importance and should be maintained in better repair. The Navajoes, according to Colonel Bennett, number not far from 20.000, own 30.000 ponies and about 150000 sheep! They are from their wealth, intelligence, compactness and the inaccessible nature of the country they inhabit, the worst band of Indians to have in a state of hostility, if we drive them to it, as the indifference and neglect of our Government will surely do, if a change of methods be not soon effected. All this will appear farther on in proper place, as well as a more detailed account of the Navajoes, their manners, customs, &c., than I am now about to give. In personal appearance, they are strikingly like the Apaches whose language they speak, but they differ from them in being better dressed and in showing the refining influences of lives of greater ease *In the margin, not related to anything in particular, Bourke inserted: The Navajoes make a very neat and serviceable lariat of plaited buckskin.

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and comfort. Several of the children, I saw coming in to the Agency, (this is vacation day.) would be considered beautiful anywhere. Their foreheads were broad and high, eyes beautiful and expressive and countenances frank and bold. The dress of the women is very beautiful and closely similar to the costume of their Shoshonee and Bannock sisters; the material is different, the Navajoes using blankets, but the cut is almost identical. When the young Navajo belle is especially high-toned, the blankets have a blue or black body, with deep border of scarlet at bust and knees; or to be more exact, the middle third is blue, and the upper and lower thirds scarlet, the two blankets fastened at shoulders and sides exactly as is the costume of the Bannock and Shoshonee women, (q.v. p. 336) This is bound around the waist by a girdle of worsted work, like that used by the Zunis & Moquis, while garters of same material sustain the silverbuttoned leggings of black buckskin. Both men and women are passionately fond of silver ornaments & being good workers in that metal, it need surprise no one to be told that many of the grown men and women, more particularly the former, are fairly loaded down with it. It is used as ear-rings, great circular loops each containing at least one trade dollar;3 as belts, to gird about the waist, as sashes, to run across the breast and shoulders, as rings, as bangles, (not infrequently can been seen squaws with ten and eleven on each arm.) as buttons to moccassins [sic] and leggings and last, but by no means least, to encrust their saddles and bridles. They make it into fantastic necklaces which contest the supremacy of their affections with chalchuitl and red coral, the latter brought into the country during the Mexican domination. A few elk tusks can be found, and still fewer sea shells and mother of pearl, the last perhaps obtained from the Zunis who are said to make long pilgrimages every four or five years to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. On my way to the store, I observed a man knitting and was told that a considerable percentage of the tribe possess this accomplishment. The squaws of the Navajo and Apache blood are noted for their small feet: one of them, taken at random, had on a loose mocassin corresponding to a No. 3 shoe and, upon weighing her, we discovered that she turned the scale at 115 lbs. 3.â•‡ The trade dollar was a silver dollar made by the United States from 1873 to 1885 for the Oriental trade, to compete against foreign silver, particularly the Spanish and Mexican coinage preferred by Chinese merchants.

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Altho’ this is the regular issue day, not over a thousand Indians all told appeared at the Agency; the majority, no doubt, preferring to remain away with their sheep-herds to making a weary ride merely for the scant supplies doled out to them. A party had just gotten in from the La Plata, in the Ute country; one of the squaws had a brand new buffalo robe which she told me was from the (Oo-tay) (Utes.) The scene in the store was in the extreme, animated and picturesque, altho’ the old den was so dark that upon first entering it was difficult to distinguish the mass of parti-colored blankets— men, squaws and pappooses—pressed against the counter. The Navajoes are keen at bargain and as each unpacked his ponies and ripped open the blankets full of wool he had brought to market, he acted as if he knew its value and meant to get it. Mr. Leonard said that last year he purchased 250.000 lbs. and this season expects to buy a greater quantity. One of the old bucks in the store wore suspended by a chain from his waist belt, a silver tobacco pouch of simple but tasteful workmanship. By this time the Indian “crier” had set up a fearful gabbling, yelling and screaming at [the] top of his voice to let all the Navajoes know that it was time to draw rations. I should state to make things clear that at Fort Defiance there are two corrals, the Navajoes being in front of the store which is in the outer corrals. Colonel Bennett and his assistants took station at the entrance of the inner corral and, as each head of family filed by, handed over the tickets representing the amount of food due. The column surged along, a steady stream of whinnying ponies, each with its cargo of humanity; some bore only a painted and jewelled warrior; others, only a squaw with a pappoose slung in its cradle to her back, and others again had two and three youngsters perched from withers to croup, all jabbering, laughing and calling out in their own language. I was very careful to note closely all that transpired under my post of observation,—(the top of the gate.) I am certain that at least a dozen of the children I saw riding by could not have been four years old and one little toddler, scarcely able to keep on his own pins, was unconcernedly leading a gentle old pony through the mass of Indians, dogs, burros and horses crowding about him. The scene was essentially barbaric, the dresses of the riders gorgeous and fantastic and the trappings of the ponies jingling with silver. None of the throng wore a hat, men and women wearing the hair

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alike—that is brushed smoothly back behind the ears and gathered in a knot above the shoulders; a bandana handkerchief or fillet of some kind keeping it in position.

The display of coral and turquoise beads was something to excite astonishment, while those who were not the fortunate possessors of such heirlooms contented themselves with strands of silver hemispheres and balls of copper. Only pure metal is employed by the Navajo; plated ware, he rejects at once. Their chalchuitl beads are made by slicing the turquoise into narrow plates and boring these with flint.* No amount of money will persuade an Indian to surrender one of these necklaces, and when pressed for cash, they will pawn them at the trader’s, but the pledge is always redeemed promptly at the expiration of the term specified. As may be imagined without saying, the riding of these people was simply perfect; they use the flat Turkish stirrup and do not always appear graceful in their seat, but they are there, nevertheless. It took over an hour to issue the tickets, some of the Indians being very dilatory in appearing; after that, it took 2 @ 3 hrs. more to distribute the rations. These are shamefully inadequate; there are 20.000 Navajoes, for whose subsistence the Government has provided very meagre supplies. I counted the wheat on hand—sixty-nine bags, each of one hundred pounds—or a total of less than 7000 lbs. to last the whole tribe until June 30th. The amount was so utterly out of proportion to the needs of the case that at first I was certain that this wheat must be intended for seed, but Colonel Bennett corrected my error and told me that he feared for the worst unless prompt measures were taken to send in sufficient food before summer. While the Interior Department has persistently neglected the Navajoes, it has showered favors upon their neighbors the Utes and Apaches, much of the dissatisfaction of the former who feel that their long period of good behavior and their efforts at self-maintenance entitle them to recognition. A comparison of the sums of money and amounts of supplies allotted to the Apaches, Utes and Navajoes *Bourke’s note: This boring is done by the Indians of Zuni, Santo Domingo &c. from whom the Navajoes purchase the beads.

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respectively during the past year would occasion surprise to any reflecting mind. For all purposes the agent of the Navajoes had only $75.000 per annum, about 1/3 of what he should have. The Agent displaced by Colonel Bennett, was a Mr. [Galen] Eastman, a psalm-singing hypocrite, whom the Navajoes despised and detested and whom they tried to kill. This Eastman had on paper, a Boarding School for Indian children, of which he wrote glowing accounts to the Sabbath-school papers and which I visited. It consisted of one miserable, squalid dark and musty adobe dungeon, not much more capacious than the cubby hole of an oyster-schooner:—it was about 12 x 10 x 7 in height. No light ever penetrated but one window let darkness out from this den and one small door gave exit to some of the mustiness; Eastman reported that he had accomodations for sixty children, but I saw only nine cottonwood bunks, in which, if he made them double up, eighteen little children could be made wretched. It surpassed in cold-blooded disregard of the comfort of his scholars anything I have ever read of Dotheboy’s Hall or of Rev. Mr. Crowley’s [sic] Shepherd’s Fold.4 The Navajo chiefs became indignant at this outrage and withdrew their children from the unworthy Agent’s care. I had a long conversation with Mr. Damon, the Agency farmer and with Jesus—the Agency Interpreter, relative to obtaining information bearing upon the Navajoes, but as something may occur to prevent me from coming again to this country, I deem it only prudent to insert here the answers to the questions asked during this long interview. Mr. Damon has been agency farmer since 1868 and Jesus was a captive among the apaches [sic] before coming to live with the Navajoes. The answers under section II [births] correspond so closely with those obtained from the Shoshonees and Bannocks that it is not worth while to repeat them here.5 Section III [dress and personal adornment] will be described in detail on next visit. Their dresses are generally of woolen goods woven by themselves, or of buckskin which is generally stained black. Their 4.â•‡ In Charles Dickens’ novel, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Dotheboys Hall is a dreary boarding school run by the villainous, sadistic Wackford Squeers. Shepherd’s Fold was a children’s home in New York whose administrator, Edward Cowley, was indicted in 1879 for injury to a child by failing to provide proper food, clothing, and medical care. Cowley was convicted, and the conviction was upheld on appeal. Edward Cowley v. People of the State of New York, 83 NY 464 (1881). 5.â•‡ See Chapter 16.

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mocassins are made without toe-shields and button over the instep like our low-quarter gaiters. Their neck-laces, bracelets, bangles and ear-rings are, as said above of coral, chalchuitl, or silver, Sea-shells and malachite are seen at times, but silver may be regarded as the typical Navajo ornament. The ear-ring is inserted at the lower extremity of the lobe only; is made in the form of a simple solid ring and is fastened by a sliding button at the bottom, thus:

They make no use of masks, nose-rings, nose-sticks or labrets, arrange the hair in the simple way already described and freely apply vermillion or red ochre to the cheek-bones and for-heads. They are clean, lithe and muscular in appearance, handsome and intelligent in the face and nearly all understand more or less Spanish. Some of them speak Spanish fluently, notably Francisco, our cook of last night. Others again, as Captain Jack, one of General Hatch’s principal scouts, converse freely in Navajo, Spanish & English. Section IV. [Toys, Games, Musical Instruments, Recreation] Their children have about the same toys as those of the Shoshonees and also play with arrows,—the game of “odds or even”, only here 100 tally sticks are used instead of 40 as among the Shoshonees,—the game of the Apaches played by casting a bundle of colored sticks against a flat stone and determining the value of the cast by the position of the fallen sticks with reference to a circumscribing circle of pebbles.—

The game of shinny, the game of foot-ball, and a maniac burlesque upon “Base Ball”. The men and women are inveterate gamblers, and play with dexterity both kinds of monte and cancan; the stakes ran as high as two or three silver dollars on a side. Their musical instruments, to call them such, differ in no essential particular from those of the Shoshonees, but I was unable to find out that they ever used fiddles, made of the stake of the century plant, as their blood relations the Apaches do. Both Mr. Damon & Jesus contended that their songs had no words to them, but were merely sounds.

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Section 5. [Personal Appearance] They paint only the face in the manner herein before described. [Section VI. Marriage and Divorce] Girls marry at any time after ten, 12 to 15 being the more general average. The ceremony attending a girl’s entrance to womanhood consists of the feast where her parents can afford it, and much singing by the matrons. The young lady is decked with beads and other ornaments which she wears constantly for four or five days. Before marriage, girls assist their mothers in all house-hold duties and where they assume the duties of wives, everything in the way of work that they can do, they do cheerfully. The men are good workers too and hire themselves out, whenever they can, to make adobes, herd sheep, or, at present date, to grade tracks for the Atlantic and Pacific R.R. Marriage is largely a question of purchase, but at times, strong-willed or impecunious young men seize their sweet-hearts and carry them off by main force. They are polygamists to the extent of their inclinations, and abilities to support their wives. They marry a brother’s widow, or have the first refusal of her hand. Divorces are a matter of mutual convenience and may be permanent or transient; slight disagreements often eventuate in separation, in which case the woman takes with her all that she brought to her husband. [Section VII. Residences] Their habitations, called “hogans”, are made of stone or timber. Where stone is employed, after excavating a hole 12 ft. in Diameter and 3 in. in depth, they build a semi-globular mound to a height of ten feet, by laying stone in regular courses, each course approaching the vertex lapping over a few inches on the course below it.

An aperture is left at the apex for the escape of the smoke, and a small hole with steps for an entrance. The building is next covered with dirt or mud and is ready for habitancy. If palisades be used, after the excavation is made, straight, rough cedar logs, of 12 @ 15 ft. in length are placed firmly in the ground inclining towards each other at the top and these are covered with earth also. Inside the hogan, may be seen rugs of sheep-skin, blankets and coverlids [sic] of wool—woven in bright colors, many of these

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being of considerable beauty and value—crockery “ollas”6 and dishes from the Pueblo tribes of Zuni, Moqui, Laguna, Acoma or the Rio Grande, and elegant baskets from the Apaches. A fire in the center is a sine quâ non and a couple of squaws, two or three pappooses and as many mangy dogs complete the picture. The weather in Navajo country is generally so serene that their councils, without exception, are held in the open air: their women are admitted to participation in these and don’t hesitate to express their opinions when they feel called upon to do so. They are like other Indians in their firm belief in the efficacy of sweat lodges; these may be made like hogans, but, generally, are temporary structures of willow work and brush. Sweet grasses, when obtainable, are burned in both sweat lodges and hogans. They do not paint gentile emblems upon the outside of their residences, neither could I at this time, ascertain anything relative to their social organization. [Section VIII. Implements and Utensils of War and Peace] The Navajoes who were present at the Agency were poorly provided with warlike weapons, the most dangerous being the old-time Yaeger rifle.7 Bows, arrows and lances are still retained in use, but shields have been discarded. The only stone implement to be found among them now is the war-club. They use pipes very rarely, and smoke their tobacco, kinnikinnick and other substances in cigarritos wrapped in corn-husks. Their tobacco receptacles are of buckskin, and of beaten silver. Earthenware they obtain from the Pueblo villages and basketry from the Apaches, principally, altho’ they make some fair specimens themselves which they coat with piñon pitch to make them retain water. They understand and practice the art of obtaining fire by rubbing two sticks together; one stick of hard wood is held vertically between the two hands and pressed into and revolved rapidly in a hole in the lower stick, in which hole a little sand is thrown and around it some dried grass, punk or dung. [Section IX. Food] They are extremely fond of fruit, especially apples and peaches and have considerable orchards of the latter; they eat 6.â•‡ Water containers. 7.â•‡ By the 1880s, “Yaeger rifle” generally meant the muzzle-loading U.S. Model 1842 rifle.

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piñons, acorns, grass-seeds, sun-flowers, wild potatoes, mescal (generally obtained from the Apaches.) The juicy inner coating of the pine tree, and plant small quantities of corn, wheat, beans, squashes and melons. They readily eat Elk, deer, antelope, porcupines, beaver, mules and horses, but will not touch bear, dogs or fish.* They have some horned cattle, a few goats and chickens, a goodly number of donkeys, about 30.000 ponies and (estimated) 1.500.000 sheep. All grinding of wheat, corn and seed is performed in metates. Section X. [Colors, Dyes, Paints and Powders] In decorating, they make use of stained porcupine quills, (occasionally.) shells and elk tusks (rarely) but (principally.) beads of coral and chalchiuitl. Their clothing, blankets, sashes, garters, and saddle clothes are of woolen fabrics woven by themselves, the prevailing styles being broad bands of red, white and black, relieved by a little diamond or triangular ornamentation or a narrow banded check work in scarlet, black, purple, green and white. Their taste is very correct and the designs turned out from their simple looms will hold their own in comparison with the most pretentious examples of Persian or Turkish skill. [Section XI. Standards of Measurements and Value] They use silver alone as money. Sections XII, Kinship, and XIII, Tribal Government, not covered. [Section XIV. War Customs] They seem to have the custom of “coup” among them in this way; that, in hunting, it is the man who first puts an arrow or lance into the game that owns, even tho’ he may not be the one to overtake and kill it. [Section XV. Therapeutics] Their “medicine men” are arrant imposters whose favorite mode of treating desperate cases is to suck out from the affected arms, legs or body the beads which they allege have brought on all the trouble. Their women bear the pains of child-birth with much less inconvenience than do their white sisters; their free mode of dressing and natural mode of living contribute to this comparative immunity from distress. It is generally believed that Indian women make light of child-bearing; this is far from correct. Where comforts and attentions cannot be secured, they bear with the stolidity of their race that which cannot be avoided; but, in all possible cases, they *Bourke’s note: They come under the designation—chthonophagi—as they are eaters of clay, being very fond of an impure kaolin found in abundance in their country.

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extend to their pregnant women the attention their delicate condition requires. [Section XVI. Mortuary Customs] They have no professional mourners, but they do seem to bury their dead with processional honors and other mortuary ceremonies. The corpse is decked in its best raiment and, if full grown, carried to the place of burial*; if a child, two young men, friends of the family, carry it to the appointed spot. The burial is made in a full length position, feet to the East. Ollas, Baskets and other utensils in the case of a female, and bows & arrows, if the corpse be that of a man, are next broken in or upon the grave, which is sometimes marked by a heap of stones. The corpse bearers returning to the village, stop at a point designated by a blazing fire which has been kindled while the procession has been moving towards the grave and there wash their hands. The women keep up their lamentations so long as the humor may seize them, but, beyond cutting the hair, do nothing in the way of disfigurement or mutilation. “Ganado mucho” (Heap of Cattle) and other chiefs rode in during the afternoon to hold a conference with General Hatch. Colonel Bennett presented General Hatch with a fine Navajo blanket and myself with another and both General Hatch and I succeeded in buying each half a dozen blankets, rugs and such articles of Navajo manufacture. Mr. Leonard very kindly presented me with a pair of silver bangles and a pair of silver bridle rosettes, all made by the Navajoes;—these for myself and a very excellent bow and quiver full of arrows for General Crook. The quiver was a beautiful one of panther skin. Colonel Bennett desired me to say to General Sheridan and Genl. Crook that he hoped, during the coming summer, to secure for each of them a fine Navajo Blanket. The treatment I have received from everyone in this isolated station of Fort Defiance has been so cordial, unaffectedly good natured and generous that I would be lacking in common gratitude did I not refer to the matter in this feeble way in my journal. Fort Defiance which deserves its name because its position is in Defiance of nearly every principle of military science, is a wretched hole, but the people living there redeem the place most charmingly and fix my visit there as one of the pleasantest episodes of my life. *Bourke crossed out the line: followed by a throng of family and friends.

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After supper, General Hatch held a council with the Navajo chiefs who had come into the Agency. Only a small number was present, the shortness of the General’s stay and the distance many of them would have to come, preventing a larger attendance. The substance of the remarks made by the Indians was that they were extremely anxious to make their own living and not be dependent upon any outside source for supplies; that 12 years ago when they made peace with the Great Father, he had given them 12.000 sheep and told them to raise flocks and he would protect him in so doing and would also give them seed to put in the ground. They had listened to these words and taken good care of their flocks which had increased greatly, but as this Reservation had so little water, they have been obliged to seek pasturage outside. Now the Railroads were approaching this country, bringing settlers who had taken up most of the outside grazing land and their flocks were crowded back upon the arid tracts of their own domain and were beginning to suffer. They had made in good faith an effort to raise crops and last year had sowed a large tract of land. (N.B. about 1000 A. JGB); but first of all came a very high wind which blew all the seed out of the ground and when they had replanted and their crops were coming above ground, a freshet descended the stream and destroyed all the fruits of their labor. Consequently, until their next crop appeared, they would be dependent upon the Government for help: ¾ of the tribe are now without supplies. They had been promised farming tools, but had received nothing except a few hoes; they most earnestly desired plows and axes. Since coming on the Reservation, their numbers had increased rapidly; a great many babies were born each year and only a few died. General Hatch promised to make an urgent representation of their case to Washington and appeared to feel the importance of making instant provision for the support of this the most compact, powerful and formerly most warlike nation of savages in our country. The General spoke quite freely to Bennett and myself upon the subject which is assuming greater gravity from the different treatment accorded the Apaches and Utes, neighbors of the Navajoes and so recently on the war path. They have ample provision made for their support and as they are constantly running in and out among the Navajoes, (the Apaches speak the same language and the Utes are to some extent intermarried.) keep up a feeling of irritation and a sense that the

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Government is unjust in its dealings,—that it is good to those whom it fears and neglectful of those who observe its counsels. While our Government has not provided food, it has purchased for them 68 doz. lead castors, which are still at the Agency in barrels, uncalled for: and has laid out a boarding school, as already described.* April 26th 1881. Tuesday. Returned to Wingate, making the 49 miles in 7 hours. Colonel [Ferdinand E.] DeCourcey presented me with three or four specimens of Zuni pottery,—an owl, a rooster, and a couple of bowls,—all most unique in their way. On the grade of the R.R., not far from the Fort we came across a band of Navajoes working at laying ties and shovelling dirt. We ate our lunch at Hopkins’ ranch. Mr. Bennett, a splendid specimen of physical power, said he was an old soldier from the 15th Infantry, and declined to receive any pay for the hospitality extended.8 During the two hours of our stay at the Post, I made hurried calls upon the ladies, especially upon the charming wife and sister in law of my old friend, General Bradley (now Colonel 13th Infy.) A rapid drive of four miles brought us to the Rail Road station and the construction train; as our return journey was partly by daylight, I had a chance to see how the work of building this line had progressed. To supply water to gangs of graders and track-layers in arid sections, tank cars are run, each carrying several thousand gallons of good, cold water. A telegraph line runs along the Road, the wire being stretched on upright sleepers. Commencing at the Arizona boundary, and running East and North East, past Fort Wingate and 60 miles farther, is the peculiar sandstone formation noticed in my trip to the Agency. It stands out boldly against the horizon, all its walls and angles as clear-cut and well defined as the parapets and salients of a master-piece of military engineering. Near Blue Water, 40 m. East of Wingate, the formation began to change, eruptive rocks making their appearances as basalt and black lava. *Bourke’s note: The Railroads are bringing close to the Navajoes a wicked set of wretches who keep the young bucks supplied with the vilest whiskey. 8.â•‡ Bourke initially wrote “Bennett’s ranch,” and later crossed out “Bennett’s,” and wrote “Hopkins’” above it. Probably Bennett (not to be confused with Major Bennett, the Navajo agent) was the ranch manager.

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Lava came in in small islets and mounds, gradually changing into large mesas and ridges and dykes. One of the latter, along side which the track runs for 5 miles, is traceable 14 mi[.] back to its source, an extinct crater. A stream of pure water gushes out from under this dyke and trickles down to join the Rio Puerco of the East; this stream, I am told, is full of speckled trout. (The Rio Puerco of the East joins the Rio Grande: near to its head waters, are those of the Rio Puerco of the West, an effluent of the Colorado.) A great deal of alkali is visible in the low flat places near the Rail Road; the heat of the sun draws it as a saline efflorescence to the surface. The last I saw of the country, was a flow of lava, a petrified black sea, such as the Ancient Mariner might have come across in his wanders, the iron horse ploughs his path through it for 5 miles. As lava is not a very compact rock, the engineers experienced some trouble in blasting, but the fragments make excellent track ballast.* Before retiring, I had a long conversation with General Hatch who gave me not only an interesting recital of his services during the war, but of those since performed against Indians in Texas, Indn. Territory, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Chihuahua (Mexico). Then of his early career at sea, and voyaging up the Amazon, and finally in the lumber regions of Minnesota. General Hatch is an unusually handsome man, tall, finely proportioned and powerful, head finely shaped, hair white, eyes keen and penetrating, expression of countenance firm, intelligent and good natured. The conductor of the freight train (to which we had changed at Crane’s,) kindly made down berths for us and, wrapped in General Hatch’s Navajo blankets, our sleep was sound, until we were awaked at Albuquerque, N.M., at 2 a.m., on the morning of April 27th 1881. At the moment of stepping upon the platform, two high gentlemen of the town were blazing away with pistols at each other a little farther up the street. Unfortunately, neither was killed. General Hatch and I then entered what was said to be the “toniest” rum-mill in the town, and took a glass of whiskey, which with a cup of good coffee and a sandwich made a middling good breakfast. The establishment, the barkeeper politely informed us, was kept open *Bourke’s note: A little north of the R.R. is Mt. Taylor (13.500’), a bold peak of the Jemez Mountains.

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day and night, Sunday, and Monday and was doing a rushing business. Albuquerque, a very old town of the Mexicans, is now noted for being the centre of a growing R.R. system of considerable consequence and the place of resort of swarms of the hardest characters of the East and West. Loaded down with all kinds of plunder—Indian pottery, Navajo Blankets, baskets, bows and arrows, and our personal baggage, we patiently awaited the approach of the train from the South. In the gray of the dawn, it appeared and without a moment’s delay, started for Lamy. On the way up to that point, I saw much to admire in the Scenery of the Rio Grande Valley, so tame and uninteresting farther to the North. Here, it is laid out in broad fields, irrigated and ready for the coming crop. Dozens of villages, of Mexicans and Indians, dot the thread of the stream, each embowered in a grove of fruit trees, in full blossom. Across the valley, scores of acequias, large and small, wound between rows of fresh young sentinel cottonwoods which completely concealed the precious treasure of limpid water they were carrying to the parched fields, excepting where here and there it sparkled like jewels of price through rifts in the foliage. The morning was far enough advanced to throw a roseate flush over the dome of the sky and enable us to distinguish clearly, every village, house, barn and orchard in the landscape: and in one word, I may say the effect was enchanting. At Lamy, General Hatch and I took breakfast and then separated, he to return to Santa Fé, and I to continue on to Atchison, Kansas. During our brief tarry at Fort Wingate, I had the great pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mr. [Frank Hamilton] Cushing, of the Smithsonian Institute, who has been living among the Zuni Indians since last summer. They have regularly adopted him into the tribe, made him a chief and invested him with their costume. Noticing a string of sea-shells around his neck, I inquired whence they came. “From the Pacific Ocean; the Zunis make pilgrimages there every four years”. Cushing is a man of intelligence, persistency and enthusiasm, just the character to carry to a successful conclusion the mission he has undertaken.

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Leaving Lamy, our train soon entered Glorieta Cañon, the site of an engagement between U.S. Vols. and Texan rebels in 1861.9 There is much pine timber of small size and the scenery is picturesque. On the East side of the cañon, we came in full view of the ruins of the “Pecos church,” built by the missionaries years ago for the benefit of a pueblo, which becoming decimated by disease, finally merged in with the people of Jemez. Dined at Las Vegas (The Meadows.) a bustling, growing town, situated in the centre of broad, fertile farm lines. Supped at Raton (Mouse.) at the foot of the Rocky Mtns: here we took on two powerful engines and began to climb over the Continental Divide. In the pass, there appears to be a good deal of coal, indications and outcroppings being abundant. At the summit, we entered a long tunnel, having passed which, we had easy work to get down a long, steep descent to Trinidad. This is another Mexican town which like its neighbors, Pueblo, Santa Fé, Albuquerque, and El Paso, has awakened to new life under the influence of the pushing, busy Yankee. When I was last here in 1869.—it was as a worn-out, sleepy passenger on the overland stage running from the terminus of the R.R., in Kansas to Santa Fé. No one was then sanguine enough to dream of a Rail Road to Santa Fé, and every important point in New Mexico and Arizona; certainly not in our generation. April 28th 1881. A disagreeable, cold Kansas blizzard tormented us all day. We were bowling over the interminable plains of Kansas, stretching on all sides to the clouds, without any more undulation of surface than a wind-rippled sea, the total absence of timber confirmed the resemblance to ocean travel. For a number of hours we kept down the valley of the placid Arkansas, but at noon this diverged to the South and left us to continue our journey in a belt of land unrelieved by any attraction. The land seemed well adapted for farming and the careful fencing, the comfortable dwellings and the great flocks of sheep gave the idea that farming had not been without profit. This former home of the Buffalo has not now a single one of those noble creatures within her borders. 9.â•‡ Actually, the battle of Glorieta was March 26–28, 1862. After defeating Union forces at Valverde on February 16, the Confederates were moving against Fort Union, N.M., when they unexpectedly encountered a Union force in the pass. Hastily dispatched Union reinforcements from Colorado turned the battle, resulting in the loss of the Confederate supply train and the disorganization of the Southern force. Lamar, New Encyclopedia, 216.

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April 29th 1881. (Friday.) Reached Topeka, Kansas, at 2 a.m. Took the chair car on the branch line to Atchison (60 m.), which we reached at 5 a.m. Put up at the Union Dépôt Hotel, had a nice nap, good breakfast and refreshing shave. Telegraphed my whereabouts to General Williams. All communication between Atchison and the country to the North and East had been destroyed by the great flood in the Missouri River, which at Atchison was five miles wide, 20’ @ 30’ deep, and was rushing along with the overwhelming power of the ocean, sweeping before it houses and farms, fences and barns. This flood has wrought immense destruction at Council Bluffs, Iowa, East Atchison, and Kansas City, Mo. Omaha, Neb., has escaped with scarcely a scratch, demonstrating that there is the safest point on the Missouri for the investment of capital. Not seeing any other way of escaping from this point, I hired a buggy for $7.50 to take me 20 m. to Troy, the junction of the Atchison and Nebraska with the Saint Joseph and Denver R.R. Atchison is an important R.R. town; it is touched by the Burlington, Rock Island, Topeka and Santa Fé, Hannibal and Saint Joseph, Missouri Pacific, and the Central Branch of the last named line. It has a great many respectable brick buildings and many marks of wealth and prosperity. Our drive was over a rough road, coursing around steep hills, tracked by freshly made furrows or emerald with the tender blades of wheat. Solid farmhouses of stone and brick, with huge barns well filled with grain and hay, and their fields dotted with herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and chickens and droves of swine made a scene of contentment and prosperity pleasant to contemplate, and made one forget the horrible winter through which all this Western country has so lately passed. Upon all the orchard trees, multitudes of blossoms gave hope of a rich crop of fruit in the coming summer; tiny violets peeped out from every shaded nook, rich green grass and young wheat covered the sunny slopes and the silver-voiced meadow lark sang its blithesome song in defiance of the gloomy sky and raw, chilly East wind. There was not much timber on our line of travel; in places, groves of planted cottonwood, but fine orchards in every favorable spot. All houses and barns of good size, and frequently of tasteful appearance.

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Troy Junction, is a struggling country town, the seat of a large trade with a rich farming region. It is at the intersection of the two R.Rs already mentioned and is 20 m. from Atchison (14 by R.R.) 11 from Saint Jo., Mo., 238 from Grand Island, Neb., and about 100 South from Lincoln, Neb.

Put up at the Higby House and ate a good dinner served by a motherly landlady. April 30th 1881. Saturday. Had an early breakfast at 6 a.m. Smart rain fell for an hour or two. At 8, the train came in from Wahtheena, the nearest point to Saint Jo. Learned the welcome news that the Missouri had fallen a foot last night at Saint Jo., which means, of course, that it has subsided still more at Omaha. The Saint Jo. & Western R.R. runs along the Northern tier of Kansas counties and the Southern of those of Nebraska. At Marysville, half-way between Saint Joseph and Grand Island, there is a branch line of the B. and M. R.R. to Omaha, viâ Lincoln; this I had hoped to be able to take, but found to my regret that the floods had practically destroyed it and no trains were in operation. The country traversed is a broad rolling prairie, of rich black soil, cut up by numerous timbered ravines all well filled with perennial streams. By all odds, it is the prettiest piece of farming land I’ve seen since starting back from Arizona. At Hanover, the R.R. crosses the Nebraska line. At Hastings, a little village in the middle of a broad prairie, is the intersection of the main line of the Burlington & Missouri River R.R. A little North West of Hastings, we crossed the Platte river, like the Arkansas bank-full. Half an hour after, we reached Grand Island. Here I put up at the R.R. Hotel, kept by my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Wiltze. May 1st 1991. Sunday. Took the U.P. Passenger for Omaha, which we reached on time.

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May 4th 1881. Wednesday. Lieutenant [Frederick] Schwatka, 3rd Cavalry, called upon me. Schwatka’s card, was peculiar in its way, consisting of a piece of board with his name scrawled on it in lead pencil. None of our mess having seen Schwatka since his departure for the North Pole, 3 years ago, the conversation at dinner this evening related largely to former services together and to the numerous pranks in which our friend had been engaged. While serving in the Dep’t. of the Platte, Schwatka was stationed at the (old) Spotted Tail Agency, North West Nebraska, where, finding time hung heavy upon his hands, he gathered together as strange a menagerie, for its size, as ever was seen. It included among other items, a young owl, a pair of cayotes, a pair of wild cats, 2 or 3 young deer and I don’t know what else besides. Schwatka gave a very amusing description of this menagerie and said that once Captain (then Lieutenant) W. O. Clark, 2nd Cavalry, came up to see him. They had been “drinking freely”, as Schwatka expressed it, and after retiring to rest, Clark suffered from an all-consuming thirst. He arose from his couch, wandered around in the darkness hunting for water and in a trice ran in upon the two wild cats which scratched him badly. His mind was bewildered by sleep, by the darkness and to some extent, no doubt, by whiskey, so that he failed to grasp the situation. He couldn’t understand what brought these strange animals to that room; so groping his way to another room, (Schwatka was living in a large building.) he encountered the cayotes and while he was striving to collect his faculties and make out what it all meant, the owl flew at him, perched on his head and sank its claws in his skull. At the same moment, Clark was sure he heard two or three people running around the room on stilts, (they were the fawns, moving about in their peculiar, stiff-legged manner.) and this satisfied him that he “had ’em” sure enough. He threw himself into his bed, covered his head with the blankets and remained concealed until morning. This is Schwatka’s side of the story; I have not yet heard what Clark has to say. May 5th 1881. Thursday. With Schwatka, calling upon people in Omaha, all day. May 7th 188. Passed a delightful evening at the house of Mrs. G. S. Collins, Omaha, taking tea with the French Class of which I have been a member—Miss Collins, Miss Horbach, Miss Wakeley and Mr. Charles Ogden.

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May 10th 1881. Busy all day packing clothes &c. and passed the afternoon & evening calling upon friends in the post and in town—the Ludingtons, Horbachs, Watsons, Savages and others.

Chapter 20 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

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ay 11th 1881. Recd. a very pleasant personal letter from Lieut. General Sheridan, in reference to the prosecution of my work under his orders. Bade adieu to Genl. Crook, Roberts, Williams, Ludington, Col. & Cap’t. Stanton, Col. Burnham, Genl. King, the Bachelor’s Mess. (Foote, Palmer, Lee’s, Hay.) and started for Santa Fé. Passing through town saw several of my best friends and on the train met numerous pleasant acquaintances whose society as far as Cheyenne served to make time fly with rapidity. These were Mr. Vining of the Union Pacific, S. S. Stevens of the Rock Island, Lt. Reynolds, 3rd Cavy., Mr. Rustin of the Omaha Smelting Works and his young son, Mr. Barklow of Omaha, Drs. Coffman and Mercer and Mr. Congdon, of the U.P.R.R. and his son.1 The last four were proceeding hurriedly to North Platte to attend to Mr. Congdon’s nephew, who has met with a serious accident, involving a strangulated hernia which they feared might end fatally. Lt. Reynolds was returning to Regimental Hd. Qrs. Fort Russell, Wyo., from the wedding of Cap’t. [Charles A. H.] McCauley, A.Q.M. Besides the above we had in our two sleepers the Raymond Theatrical Company, 1.â•‡ Congdon was superintendent of Union Pacific’s Omaha shops, which Bourke described in detail in an earlier entry. See Robinson, Diaries, 3:282–83.

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thus representing all moods, sentiments and interests. Mr. Vining who has utilized every moment of his leisure in hard studies in philology interested me immensely by his conversation upon the subject of Indian dialects from which I drew many hints for future use. The weather which for the past week had been sultry and unpleasant to a degree, culminated this afternoon in a violent storm of hail & rain, the effect of which was delightful in the coolness of the evening air enabling us to enjoy the scenery of the picturesque valley of the Platte, green with the interminable fertility of Nebraska. May 12th 1881. Morning bright, cool and fair, excepting a few broken masses of cloud, reminders of yesterday’s storm. At Sidney, Neb., met Col. [William Thomas] Gentry, 9th Inf’y, [George Frederick] Price, [Emil] Adam and [Henry De Hart] Wait, 5th Cavalry. Mr. Stevens, Mr. and Mrs. Vining, and Mr. Barklow, kept on with me to Denver where we separated, they going to the Windsor an I to Charpiots, an excellent hotel. May 13th 1881. Took 8 a.m. Denver and Rio Grande train for Pueblo. A long file of impatient ticket-buyers waited behind a woman who was employing a good deal of useless energy in the effort to have a couple of extra trunks passed to her destination without paying for them. The ticket-agent was deaf to all persuasion, but she remained at her post, trying our patience to the utmost. Miracles sometimes happen; that woman’s jaw became tired and we had a chance to buy our tickets. We had a lovely day; the temperature was warm without any approach to undue heat, the sky clear as sapphire, and the scenery lovely to look upon. Fields and hills were covered with rich green, the trees were in full foliage and back of all in the Western horizon rose the blue and gray line of the Rocky-Mountains, the higher peaks still retaining their bridal purity of white. Lt. [James] Erwin, 4th Cavy. was a fellow passenger as far as Pueblo, where I found 4 cos. of the 4th Cavy. & 3 of the 6th Infy. all moving out to the Uncompahgre Ute Agency in Southern Colorado. I knew only a few of the officers—in fact, I think, only one—[Capt. Theodore Jonathan] Wint of the 4th, whom I met in Kansas City, Mo. when I was a member of a Horse Board last year.2 The last time I passed through Pueblo, (April 1881.) I spoke of the great improvements noticed; I forgot to say that it has a street car line and several brick-yards, and bids 2.â•‡ See Ibid., Vol. 3, Chapters 18 and 20.

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strongly to become in a few years more a dangerous rival of Denver. The American element is changing everything with the rapidity of lightning; yet, I observed a half dozen Mexican women washing linen in an acequia, in the good old fashioned way, pounding between flat rocks. Changed cars at Pueblo to the train of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, which ran along the timber-clad line of the Arkansas for 68 m. to La Junta, where I had to get out to await the arrival of the Westward-bound express. During the past 2 days, have read General Simpson’s sketch of Coronado’s march (1540.), which is a most pleasant article, very carefully considered and entitled to a respectful attention.3 But I think that Simpson has fallen into an error in making Old Zuni the seven cities of Cibola: having to employ the egregiously defective map of the Engineer Corps in use at the time of preparing his essay, Simpson makes Coronado march in a straight North East line from Chichiltecale, (Casa Grande.) to Zuni, which would require the passage of mountains, and cañons of the most rugged nature: whereas, right in front of Casa Grande, across a narrow desert, is the junction of the Verde and Salt rivers, the former flowing for a long distance nearly North and South. Down this river runs at the present day the trail made by the Moquis in coming and going to and from Prescott to sell their peaches and blankets and to buy our commodities. There can be no reasonable doubt that in 1540, they had the same general line of travel to the country of the Pimas, who lived along the Salt river, near the mouth of the Verde as well as on the Gila and Santa Cruz. Neither can there be any doubt that Coronado, as a good soldier, took the precaution of sending out an advance-guard to learn the lay of the land and ascertain the best course to pursue. The very authorities cited by Simpson assert as much and though their account of the march after leaving Chichiltecale, is given in vague & indefinite terms, there is nothing in it to militate against the theory, I advance, which besides has every physical fact in its favor. The Verde route 3.â•‡ James Hervey Simpson’s “Coronado’s March in Search of the ‘Seven Cities of Cibola,’ and Discussion of Their Probable Location” appeared in the Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1869, which was published in Washington in 1871. The principle known account of the Coronado expedition is by Pedro de Castañeda, a member of the expedition, the definitive translation of which was made by George Parker Winship, and published in 1896. It has been reprinted variously since then, including a 1933 edition with additional Coronado documents, and introduction and annotation by Frederick Webb Hodge. The definitive modern work on Coronado is Herbert Eugene Bolton’s Coronado, Knight of the Pueblos and Plains, published in 1949.

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would furnish always a sufficiency, at time an abundance, of water, wood and grass, besides its directness, running North East across the skirt of the Sn. Francisco Mtns. to Moqui. I can hardly reconcile myself to the idea that Coronado would forego all these advantages for the pleasure of scaling mountains and descending cañons which in 1870–1875 were regarded with dread by young soldiers of ambition and courage, in fair quantities. Without pretending to introduce it as evidence of great weight, I may here allude to the curious ruin found by Lt. [Jacob] Almy and myself in 1872, on the Upper Verde,—(see note-books.)—a ruin satisfying all conditions as a place of defense and storage of supplies, and which may have been constructed by some one of Coronado’s advance parties.4 The description of the place where Coronado was wounded, accords singularly well with that of Moqui, at this moment; the Moqui towns are seven in number, lying within 3 miles of each other. Zuni has but one town, and two or three small farming villages, not permanently occupied. General Simpson’s translation (which I am satisfied is correct and trustworthy, as I have not seen the originals.) says that Acoma was 5 days from Cibola, but if Cibola be Zuni, Acoma being less than 60 miles from there and about 120 m. from Moqui, the latter distance would appear to represent more closely the distanced traversed by veteran soldiers and Indians, inured to the climate and noted for pedestrian performances. Espejo’s statement that when he reached Zuni, he found there some of the Indians who had come in with Coronado and that that place was Cibola may be taken for what it is worth; he says in the same breath that these men had been so long at Zuni, they were unable to speak their own language with facility and as they never knew his to any great extent, the difficulty of communication with them and the danger of falling into mistakes will be understood and appreciated by those who have had any dealings with savages at the present day; when a treaty such as that concluded with the Utes last autumn, where provisions were explained to them with such care, was so completely misunderstood that the Utes can now claim they never ceded the lands for which they accepted $60.000 of our money! The branch expedition to Tusayan, which Simpson says went to Moqui in my opinion went to the ruins, north of those villages and within close proximity to the grand cañon of the Colorado. 4.â•‡ Bourke actually means March 21, 1873. See Robinson, Diaries, 1:73–76.

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The above views I endeavored to elucidate in a letter to the Rev. E. E. Hale, of Boston, (written in February 1881.) It should be remarked that the Pinal Mountains are out of position on Simpson’s Map. This criticism is inserted here to preserve some of the “point” which I hope to more clearly establish after my examination of this country shall have been concluded. La Junta is simply what its name indicates, “the junction” of two Railroads—a little village on the banks of the Arkansas. Here I ran against my old friend, Mr. Hiram Stevens of Arizona, formerly delegate from that Ty.; we had an enjoyable talk about many of my old friends in Tucson and other parts of the Ty. and then withdrew to the room we were to occupy in common. I copied a very amusing notice pasted on the wall. “Notice: Gentlemen occupying this room will please remove their boots before retiring and also will please not expectorate in the footbath as that is not what it is intended for—By order of the proprietor. (signed.) R. Jeffries, clerk.” May 14th 1881. Had to get out of bed at 1 a.m. to take the train for Santa Fé; altho’ it was pulling 3 Pullman’s not a berth was vacant. The passenger coaches were also filled and it was with difficulty we secured seats. Trinidad, on the Purgatoire, a pretty mountain tributary of the Arkansas, is growing wonderfully, on account of the coal and coke industries fostered by the R.R. It possesses a large number of nice houses, some of them of brick. The D.& R.G. Road has a branch running to Mora, only 3 m. from Trinidad. With the extension of this to the latter place, which no doubt will be effected shortly, Trinidad will assume increased importance. Raton pass was gaily decked with green grass and pretty flowers, but our enjoyment of the scenery was marred by the entrance of a gang of low Mexican women, accompanied by still viler American men. My experience with all grades of life, assures me that the vilest whelps on the face of God’s earth are degraded Americans. We breakfasted at Raton, which seems to be a collection of grogshops, on the South slope of the Rocky Mountains. The meal, as all meals I have eaten on the Santa Fé line, was quite good. Having passed the divide, we entered a very lovely country; broad plains carpeted with tender grasses and flowers, and low table-lands, breaking the contour of the surface every few thousands of yards. In the distance to the North, were elevated peaks, upon whose hoods of

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snow, the warm spring sun had as yet made no impression. Bold knolls of flinty limestone, shaded with stunted cedar, pine and piñon and mounds of black lava began to press in upon our line of travel: these have yielded excellent material for the construction of the road-bed which will soon be unexcelled in this country. The Topeka & Santa Fé people realize the economy of building solidly at the start; their rails are steel, their stations are nearly all of stone, their tanks are capacious and upon solid foundations, and the ballast of the road will soon be altogether of stone. On one of the side tracks was standing a construction train, the roofs of the cars decorated with cactus in full flower. We ran along the banks of the Mora, (Mulberry.) a pretty stream, recently very troublesome with its swollen currents threatening the grade and necessitating a good deal of masonry rip-rapping. While crossing the Rocky Mtns. this morning, the air was too chilly for comfort; in the lower elevations, a more genial temperature and balmy breezes awaited us. Flocks of sheep and frisky lambs, goats with their kids and donkeys with their young were to be seen at every point, each flock or herd under care of a diminutive, swarthy “muchacho” who gazed stolidly at the train whirling by. Las Vegas is situated in a fine meadow land, well cultivated in places: this town is putting in gas and water works and “there is some talk” of a street car line. Four miles distant are the famous Hot Springs which I hope to be able to see some time during the coming summer. Mr. Stevens concluded to remain over for one day at this point. In the Apache cañon near Glorieta, is a quarry of limestone, worked by the R.R. company. It is the finest limestone I’ve ever seen, compact, crystalline, clear white, hard, and obtainable in blocks of any desired dimension. In the Pecos Valley, is the old ruined church and Pueblo, already referred to and to be visited, if possible, this summer. A sprinkling of rain fell this afternoon. This Apache cañon, called erroneously Glorieta cañon, on the notes of my last trip, must have been a terrible place for ambuscades of those cruel & wily savages during the years they held sway in the region. In and around Glorieta, the pines increased in number and size, some being very respectable height and the source of great piles of

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ties and telegraph poles piled up for the use of the R.R. Company. Met the Rev. Mr. McNamara, an Episcopal clergyman doing duty at Las Vegas and Santa Fé, and formerly stationed in Omaha; with him were the Rev. Mr. Cossett and wife, the latter very handsome. At Lamy, changed cars for Santa Fe [sic] and at Santa Fé, put up at the Exchange Hotel. Paid my respects to Genl. & Mrs. Hatch and called upon Major Van Horn, Lieut. Goodwin and Mrs. Lee. May 15th 1881. A lovely bright morning. The papers contain a telegraphic statement that Lt. Cherry, 5th Cavalry, was on the 12th instant, killed by a highwayman, not far from his station at Fort Niobrara, Neb. Poor Cherry entertained me very hospitably last November and was one of the officers of the Thornburgh Expedition, I saw at Milk River, Colo., in Oct. 1879.5 Met Mr. Posey Wilson of Cheyenne and “Captain Jack” Crawford, “the poet scout”, who served under General Crook in the campaign of 1876–7. Lunched with the Woodruffs: our conversation referred to Conline who was in Santa Fé during my last visit, and has since, poor fellow, developed a violent type of insanity and is now confined in the Government Asylum, near Washington, D.C. At 2 P.M., took train for Lamy Junction where I met Col. Lee and McKibbin and Mr. Stevens. A brisk rain beat down upon us as we were moving through the Indian Pueblos of Santo Domingo and San Felipe, the latter extremely pretty. Their orchards promise an abundant yield of fruit, their fields are all planted and their acequias bank-full of water promise all the moisture needed to ensure good crops. Low Black lava mesas bound the valley of the Rio Grande, between Lamy & Albuquerque. At Albuquerque, I left the train, hoping to connect with one on the Atlantic and Pacific road: in this I was not successful, but I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. F. W. Smith, of the A & P. road, a very bright gentleman, much interested in all pertaining to the Indians of North West New Mexico and Arizona. The baggage-master at the dépôt inadvertently locked up all my baggage in the store-room, leaving me to grope my way in a drenching rain, but fortunately without any encumbrance, along the street 5.â•‡ Heitman (Historical Register, 1:298) says that Cherry was murdered by a soldier on May 11, 1881. The visit to Fort Niobrara is discussed in Chapters 6 and 7 of this volume, and the Thornburgh Expedition, in Ibid., Vol. 3, Part 4.

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railroad track to the Armijo House, a hotel just built and splendid in the “new town”. This new Albuquerque is a noisy place; its streets are lined with gin-mills, each with its “accordeon [sic] fiend” warbling forth his strains to the delight of an audience of open-mouthed miners, train-hands and “tenderfeet”. The Armijo is not a bad hotel in appearance & being brand new has not yet had a chance to become dirty. In the parlor, a squad of ladies and gentlemen were torturing the ears of night with their ideas of vocalization: they did fairly well with a couple of negro [sic] campmeeting songs which sufficed as an excuse, if excuse were needed in Albuquerque, for classifying their entertainment as a “sacred concert”. They sang selections from Pinafore too, but sang them so wretchedly that their violation of the Sabbath was degraded to a venial offense in presence of their more heinous crime of singing which merited hell-fire any day of the week. They regaled my ears with this musical banquet, until long after midnight. Not having any weapons with me, they escaped unharmed. A gentleman at the R.R. depot, this evening showed me a quantity of delicious strawberries and beautiful flowers, raised in the “old town,” he said. May 16th 1881. The train leaving Albuquerque this morning was composed of a long line of freight cards, with one “combined” coach to carry passengers, mail and express. Last night’s plenteous rain had laid all dust and made the air fresh and bracing and with the immediate blue sky above him one could not help feeling how true are the praises lavished by all travellers upon the climate of the valley of the Upper Rio Grande. At El Rito stopped for dinner in an unpromising woodshed, but the proprietor, Mr. Sheridan, disappointed us most agreeably. The bill of fare was not very pretentious, but composed of well cooked food—a rich broth, good fresh bread, boiled potatoes, beans, stewed mutton, apple pie and coffee. The sugar-bowls, & salt cellars were bric-à-brac that would have set Eastern collectors crazy with envy; they were of ornamented ware, made by the Pueblos of Laguna, 6 m. distant. Mr. Sheridan had a strikingly handsome face and head; he said he had wandered all over the world from the place of his birth, Charleston, S.C.—to Great Britain, India, China, Japan and Australia. Noticing my interest in pottery, he displayed a great number of specimens, all odd & not a few very beautiful. A dozen

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or more of the Indians were hanging around the door, waiting to sell their wares to the passengers. Not having the least bit of room in my valise, I had to content myself with an earthen duck and a painted cup, my purchases costing me the sum of just fifteen cents. These Indians, like all the Pueblos I’ve seen, are very short, but strongly built; their faces are decidedly good. The R.R. companies permit them to ride up and down to their heart’s content and not a train passes along without a half dozen or so availing themselves of the privilege. The track cuts through the middle of their town which is on the Rio Puerco (of the East.) about 75 m. from Albuquerque. This band have not confined themselves to the town proper, but under the security now afforded them, have branched out into a considerable number of dwellings, standing alone or groups into hamlets too small to be called towns. Each of these has its strip of cultivated land, its irrigating ditches dug at an immense expenditure of labor, and its orchards of peach trees. In one field, not a stone’s thrown from the cars, two Indians were plowing with the rude wooden instrument of this country. This was fastened to the horns of a pair of small oxen, driven by one of the Indians and led by the other. Saw a mill-stone of lava. 15 m. beyond Laguna is the pueblo of Acoma, composed of 3 small villages, a stone’s throw apart.6 Close to Acoma, I noticed mesas formed of lava and sandstone in juxtaposition, the lava on top: on summits and flanks, these mesas had a straggling growth of scrub cedar, not sufficiently plenty to hide the surface beneath. On a promontory projecting from one of these mesas, saw another pueblo, of very small size, containing not over a dozen houses: we should not have noticed its existence had not our train been chased by a parcel of white-toothed, bright-eyed children whose voices rang out in musical laughter as they emulated each other in a frolicsome attempt to overhaul us. The valley of the Pueblos, and indeed nearly all the country thus far penetrated by the line of the Atlantic and Pacific R.R., consists of a succession of broad, flat fields, bounded by low mesas of lava and sandstone. These fields lie well for good drainage and are filled with rich soils, the decomposed lava of the bluffs, mixed with sand and clay. All they need is irrigation to make them bloom as a garden. 6.â•‡ This refers to seasonal dwellings where Indians from Acoma proper came to work irrigable lands near the river. Bloom, “Bourke on the Southwest,” 8:106.

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Artesian wells would furnish all the water needed and would, I am convinced from the looks of the country, strike it at a moderate depth, say within 300 ft. A gentleman on the train told me that the R.R. had struck water at 60 ft., but that very likely was an exceptional instance. Were our Government to expend a small sum in the demonstration of this fact, a stream of colonists would quickly set in upon these lands and draw from them rich harvests of wheat and sub-tropical fruits, such as oranges, figs, olives, grapes and raisins, almonds, peaches &c. Going from the station to the Fort [Wingate], had the company of Mr. Small, U.S. Mail Agent, a very intelligent, companionable gentleman. Put up with Col. DeCourcey and called upon General Bradley and family before going to bed. May 17th 1881. Put in a good day’s work upon my journal; also called upon Genl. Bradley to arrange about transportation to Zuni, and finally visited the Great Spring, by which the post is built. This is a stream of very good size, especially for such a dry climate. It supplies more than enough water for all the needs of the post, where at present nine companies of cavalry and Infantry are stationed and much building is going on. May 18th 1881. (Wednesday.) After breakfast, left post, going nearly due South climbing up a steep grade for about 3 or 4 miles, the flank of the mountain being plentifully covered with piñon, scrub cedar, scrub oak and occasionally, stunted pine. From the summit, a fine view was obtained of the surrounding country which was seen to be a series of plateaus, or perhaps it might be better to say one plateau seamed and gashed with countless ravines and cañons. There was a great deal of timber to be seen, chiefly of small growth, but there was little water. To my surprise we now entered a very pretty park, a thick forest of pine encircling little grassy glades. The driver said that a fine spring poured out of the ground, a mile to the Left of our trail. Several wagons loaded with ties for the Rail Road passed us. The timber along this part of road was of good size: this plateau is, undoubtedly, a prolongation of the Mogollon of Arizona. The formation is generally sandstone; limestone crops out occasionally and a kiln is now burning, a half mile to the Left for the use of Wingate. We found the weather delightful, in this elevated table-land; the sky,

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as it so generally is in Arizona & New Mexico, was faultless and the temperature so balmy that the birds in the swaying pine tops were stimulated to floods of melody. Eight miles from Wingate, rested our team. Here we were overtaken by a band of Navajoes, driving a large herd of several thousands of sheep and goats: We journeyed along with them, an odd procession of men, women, children, dogs, ponies, donkeys, sheep, goats, lambs and kids, on until we came to a very bad declivity where they turned off to the West and we soon lost sight of them. Going down this bad grade, I left the vehicle, (a buck-board.) and walked in advance; the road cutting through a red clay soil, with out-croppings of what, in my hurried examination, I took to be limestone. At the foot of the hill, we entered the head of the valley of Nutria (Beaver.)7 a pretty little glen—at that point not over ¼ mile wide. On each side were high bluffs of sandstone, covered in places with a scattering growth of pine. At foot of the bluffs, was a stretch of green grass and other herbage affording pasturage to several thousands of sheep and goat, under care of three or four Zuni children. A curious wall of sandstone, 50 ft. high ran down the center of the valley for 30 or 40 rods, its crest occupied by tiny black & white kids, not over a month old, which gazed at us in grave eyed wonderment. A thousand yards farther, at an abrupt turn of the road around a projecting ledge of rocks, the valley suddenly widened to 1500–2000 yds; down its centre, a little brook, 5 ft. Wide and 6” deep, wound its way, affording water for irrigating the wheat fields which here commence. At suitable points, small houses had been built to afford necessary shelter to the laborers, and a great many scare-crows were in position to scare away birds and predatory animals. We crossed the stream at a stout dam of pine logs, stone and clay and entered the little pueblo of Nutria, one of the outlying towns of the Zunis, but occupied only during the summer for planting and harvesting. Its situation is at the foot of a low hill, having enough wood for all purposes, and about 1500 yds. South of a very high ledge of sandstone, which commands it completely and would make it untenable 7.â•‡ Exactly how Bourke made this translation is a mystery. A nutria is an entirely different animal from a beaver, and the Spanish word for beaver is castor.

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were hostile riflemen to post themselves in the cliffs. The soil of the valley, I should say, seems to be fertile and perhaps as much as 300 A[cres]. are under cultivation at this point. The houses at Nutria are small and intended, apparently, for single families. I entered one, built of flat small pieces of sandstone laid in mud, plastered smooth with lime, inside and out. Stone steps led up to the room I was invited to enter. Its divisions were 12’ x 14’ by 6½’ in hght.[sic] the floor of packed earth, the ceiling of round pine saplings, 3” in D[iameter]., covered with riven slabs of same tree. The door was made with nails and secured by a chain. Light and ventilation were obtained through three apertures in the wall; one 6” x 14”, filled in with pieces of glass; one large kept constantly open and 2’ x 4’; and the third filled in with a movable glass shutter of six small panes. Besides these, there were an opening in the ceiling, 8” x 8”, covered with a smooth, flat stone and the chimney opening out from the hearth at middle point of the north wall. This chimney was constructed upon sound principles and has a good draught; free from smoke. The accompanying sketch will explain the idea.

My hosts were small in stature; the men not over 5’7”; expression of face good-natured; hair dishevelled but kept back from face by a fillet of old red calico. Mocassins of reddish-brown buck-skin, rising above ankle and fastening on outside of instep with one silver button. Sole of raw-hide and toe protected by a small upraise, nothing so large at the [toe] shield of the Apache, who live in a cactus country. He wore both leggings and under leggings; the latter of blue worsted; the former of buckskin both reaching to the knee and then held in place by red worsted garters. Loose drawers, shirt and breech-clout, all of cotton cloth, once white; shirt worn outside of pants and drawers open on the outer side from knee down. Two quite pretty but dirty children stood by me while writing; the younger dressed in a simple “slip” reaching to knees; the elder wearing besides the slip, a jacket of American make. The smaller also had ear-ornaments, simply circlets of silver: There were two squaws; one, gray-haired, old and wrinkled, whose life was nearly spent. Her dress was made much as that of the Navajo women,—of

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blankets, fastened at Right shoulder, but exposing Left arm, shoulder and part of bust. A girdle of red worsted confined it at waist. In front, she wore an apron of coarse white manta, of which she also had a cloak, covering her shoulders. Around her neck was a collaret, reaching to waist, made of silver balls and quarter dollars and terminating in a pendant.

Like the man, she wore woolen leggings; feet bare. The younger squaw was dressed entirely in “manta”, but also wore mocassins, made as are all those seen here, perfectly plain. She had no jewels. One side of the room was taken up with a scaffold, covered with fresh mutton, old clothing and a pile of sheepskins which they use as bedding. There were also some coarse blankets of Navajo and Zuni make, and a rug, such as can be seen among the Moquis, made of strands of wool, with insertions of cayote & rabbit fur. The cooking utensils were iron pots and crockery ware, the latter made by themselves. There were also two baskets, round & flat, made of green willow twigs and coarse in construction. The table-ware, spoons, ladles &c. were also of earthenware, and in several cases pieces of old tin cans had been already shaped to the same uses. Near the hearth were bundles of dried twigs for kindling. The food, besides the mutton above spoken of, consisted of two earthen platters of yellow and blue corn, parched with salt and a number of strings of mutton tallow and what I took to be dried sheep entrails. From a corner of this room, a little door, 15” wide by 4’ high, led by a couple of steep steps down to a small store-room 8’ @ 9’ square, 6’ in height, and 3½ ft. below the level of the one first entered. It contained a few farming implements, American shovels, hoes, forks, picks & axes and half a dozen large earthen jars and “ollas”; in a basin, on the floor was a bunch of tempered clay, ready to be moulded into pottery. Three open slits in the walls, each 8” x 10”, gave light and air, besides what was afforded by the two chimneys in the corners, of one wall. They were made thus: a platform ran from wall to wall and 3½ ft. above floor; upon this, the chimneys were built, of pine logs, mud & stone.

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While I was writing, the younger squaw leaned over my shoulder, absorbed in interest at the rapid movement of the pencil over the paper. The old squaw kept on with her work, grinding corn in a metate. In the store room, as I have called it, were also gourd spoons, hay brushes for cleaning cooking utensils and an old Apache & Navajo basket. Descending a ladder, I reached a room of the same dimensions as the first and directly under it. The windows were four small affairs, each 6” x 12”, hermetically sealed with fragments of glass. There was a large accumulation of stores, betokening thrift and foresight and comfort. Boxes, bags and ollas, large and small, were filled with pumpkin dried in strips with mutton tallow, corn meal, beans, blue corn in the ear, chile and pumpkin seeds, sheep bones (for marrow?) corn husks (for kindling fires & smoking.) any quantity of crockery, several large Apache baskets, and along the whole of one side, ran a wooden bin, divided into four compartments with metates of varying fineness. My host handed me food made, to judge from the taste, of corn meal mixed with the juice of peaches.* An old fragment of buffalo robe which my guide said was Ootay (Ute,), a pet raven hopping about and another coverlid [sic] of rabbit-skins, were the only other things I could see. I was offered tortillas which tasted sweet and palatable. Bought a wooden spoon. This Nutria valley contains, I should say, about 4000 A[cres]. of arable land, 400 A[cres]. being irrigated by ditches laid out with wonderful skill. The town can accomodate 300 people but is unoccupied except during the season of planting and harvesting. The rest of the year not more than one or two families remain to guard property. It is 18 miles South of Wingate. Outside of the town, are the sheep & goat corrals, built of pine branches, stuck in the ground & held together by rough wattle work. Our direction thus far had been due South but after driving for a couple of hours along a good road, leading across a sag in a hill *Bourke’s note: This food, I afterwards learned to my great disgust was made by the young girls who first chewed the corn to a pulp & then set it out in the sun to ferment.

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covered plentifully with timber of the same kind seen this morning but smaller in size, the road turned West and entered a broad, open valley of poor soil, but covered with a thin growth of grass and herbage suitable for sheep, several flocks of which were to be seen on either side of [the] road, guarded by Zuni boys. This valley I should judge has water for several months of the year, (tributary to the Nutria.) At West end of the valley, lava protruded above ground. We are undoubtedly at considerable elevation above sea level; the day, tho’ bright and fair and sunny, had a very chilly breeze. Here is situated the ruin, called “old Zuni”. It consists now of nothing but huge piles of lava rock, with the following ground plan, which I passed.

The boundaries lie according to the apparent meridian; as I was pacing A-B, my shadow fell directly in front of me, along the former line of wall, (time 5 p.m., May 18th 1881.). At X,X,X, the wall can still be traced in places, 18” thick and formed about as at Nutria, of rock (rubble.) from 4” cube to 10” cube, laid in mud. The rock is sandstone with now and then a small boulder of lava, and is such as is to be found in abundance in immediate proximity to the ruin. The creek, (it has not water, except a couple of small pools) is directly in front, with “cut-banks” of clay. At M. occurs the protrusion of lava, I have alluded to. The “command” over the surrounding valley is very feeble; at the very highest point, which I have designated the “Citadel”, not being 25 ft. The interior is strewn with fragments of pottery; of these, I picked up as many as I could carry in my pocket: the ornamentation was varied; on some it has been made with a knotted cord and on others was plainly visible a peculiar fingernail decoration very much like that employed by old time cooks in Arizona for embellishing

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the rim of their fried apple pies. Where colors had been employed, they were still bright. The surroundings of this village impressed me with the idea that it had been occupied for much the same purpose as Nutria is to-day,—an outlying town inhabited during the harvest season. The only sign of life near the ruin was a gray burro who nodded his long ears at us as if to express a desire to open conversation. Road became very sandy. A mile West of the old ruin, we passed between two very high sandstone mesas; that on Left, 400’ high, masked by a feeble growth of cedar: that on the Right 250’ high, a solid mass of sandstone, with enough soil in the rock at intervals to afford life to a small number of stunted cedar bushes. In centre of the pass is a “finger rock” of white sandstone at least 150’ high. At this point, there projects from the Left hand mesa, a flying buttress pierced by a large elliptical orifice, through which the rays of the declining sun beamed with strange effect. At end of the pass, we came upon another large herd of Zuni sheep, numbering 2.000 @ 3.000. Emerging from the pass, we entered a broad plain, dotted with high, isolated masses of sandstone, of enormous dimensions, some of them grand enough to be called peaks or mesas. The soil of the plain must be good as it supports a liberal growth of sage-brush, a sure indication. Here we came to another large flock of sheep and goats and in a moment or two more to the banks of a creek, dammed up to irrigate fields, protected by scare-crows and provided with the adobe shelters, seen up at Nutria. Three miles farther we reached Zuni, a short time before dark. Put up at the Gov’t forage agency and store of Mr. Graham, where I met that gentleman, Dr. Ealy, Mr. Hathorn, (the cook & assistant.) and Mr. [E. L] Cushing. Dr. Ealy is a missionary sent out with his wife by the Presbyterian church. Mr. Cushing is the brother of Mr. Frank Cushing, who, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institute, has taken up a residence among the Zunis, been adopted into the tribe, learned the language & familiarized himself with the manners, & traditions of this really strange people. Unfortunately, he was absent from the village at the time of my visit, thus depriving me of a most invaluable guide. Hathorn, the cook, was formerly one of our packers during the Apache campaign (1872–3.) and being a great admirer

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of General Crook, extended to me a reflection of the courtesy and attention he would have extended to my chief had he been present. First, my keen appetite did full justice to a plentiful supper of fried bacon, stewed dried apples, bread & tea. Then I took an evening stroll around the town, more for the purpose of stretching my limbs than attempting to describe it. This had been the day for plucking the sacred eagles, a dozen of which plundered monarchs of the air moped moodily in large wicker cages built upon the ground, in the corners of buildings in the street. Quantities of “green” pottery of every description were to be seen in every dwelling and other quantities of it burning in the gentle heat of blazing cow dung. The clay used seems to have a proportion of talc and is mixed with old pottery, pounded to powder, the fineness of saw-dust. After the mass has been thoroughly kneaded with water, it is taken in lumps of suitable size into which the squaw inserts her thumb and by constantly but gradually enlarging this, keeping the mass wet all the time, it is made large enough to place upon a round stone of size convenient to serve as a table, held in left hand as a support. Upon this stone it is gently patted by a small piece of flat wood or gourd, and kept wet until it has attained the desired shape when it is carefully placed in the sun to dry. My description is obscure, but it is the best I can do. Climbing up by ladders, I entered a number of the houses; many of the windows are of fragments of selenite (sulphate of lime.) held in place by mud. Noticed dolls for children made of wood, rudely cut out, but having backs of heads decked with sheepskin & feather ornaments. Mr. Hathorn and Dr. Early [sic] told me this evening that the Zunis have clans one being the “parrot” clan(?) They say they came from the West and at one time lived on the Agua Fria in Arizona, where at Bowers’ Ranch, 15 m. from Prescott, may still be seen the walls of an old (so called) Aztec residence.8 They still, at long intervals, make pilgrimages to the Ocean. Dr. Ealy says they have secret societies, (much like those of the Sioux and Northern tribes.)

8.â•‡ Early Spanish explorers assumed these pre-Columbia ruins were Aztec, a belief that persisted into Bourke’s time. Initially, Bourke accepted the idea, although by 1881, he and other ethnologists had come to realize they were built by the ancestors of the local Indians. See Robinson, Diaries, 1:84, 88.

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May 19th 1881. A cloudy morning. 3 of our mules last night jumped over the fence of the corral in which they were confined and made their way back on the road to Ft. Wingate. A promise of a reward of one dollar stimulated a couple of Zuni boys to go back after them and they were recaptured in less than no time. The ruined church on opposite page, I found to be 11 paces in Width, 42 in Length and about 30 ft. high in the clear inside. The windows never had been provided with panes and were nothing but large apertures barred with wood. The carvings about the altar had at one time included at least half a dozen angels as caryatides, of which 2 still remained in position. The interior is in a ruined state, great masses of earth having fallen from the north wall; the choir is shaky and the fresco has long since dropped in great patches on the floor. The presence of 5 or 6 different coats of this shows that the edifice must have been in use for a number of years. A small grave-yard in front contained a few scarcely discernible graves and a squad of Zunis were digging a fresh one as I sketched, surrounded

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by a parcel of boys and girls and dogs. Wandering about the town, I came upon numbers of cages, built upon the ground, each holding a grand looking eagle. The Zunis, as I said yesterday, keep them for their feathers and one fierce bird still moped disconsolate for the loss of his splendid plumage stripped from him last evening. Diminutive garden patches scattered in various parts of the pueblo, were filled with freshly sprouting onions, chile and other vegetables. Looking into a house as I passed by, I saw two dames close by the door, the elder of the two critically examining the head of her companion to clean it of parasites. When found, the poor, innocent little insects were remorselessly crushed between the teeth of the hunter. Not being a member of the Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I did not attempt to interfere. I also saw men knitting blue yarn leggings just as among the Navajoes. Mr. Graham had an idea that the negro or Moor, (Estevanico) who had been a captive among these people, (1530–1536), and who had returned to this country with the expedition of Coronado, (1541–43), by whose soldiers he was put to death for treachery,* had left the impression of his features upon some of the present generation and especially upon one whom he called to my attention.9 But after careful examination of the Zuni’s features, I could not detect the slight[est] resemblance to the negro. Mr. Graham says that this man’s hair when short is curly; when I looked at it, it was long, wavy, finer than that of the other Zunis, but like theirs, dishevelled. Went with Mr. E. L. Cushing, brother of Frank, on a tour of the town. Saw several women, drying their hair in the sun and several others having theirs cleaned by the process previously explained. Saw 7 or 8 eagles in cages. Entered a house where the women were weaving blankets on rude looms. Saw a young kid, stuffed with wool, to be used as a doll by babies. Saw many feathers attached to 9.â•‡ The dates and details are off. Estevánico was the slave of Andrés Dorantes, both of whom, together with Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, were survivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition. During the years 1528–1536, they were making their way from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the Spanish settlements of Sonora. In 1539, Estevánico was assigned as guide to Fray Marcos de Niza’s expedition to what is now the American Southwest. He ranged well ahead of the expedition and seems to have acted too freely with the local Indian women. This, together with the fear that he was leading an invasion force, may have prompted the Zunis to kill him. On learning of his death, Fray Marcos turned back. Barr, Black Texans, 1–2.

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sticks to be placed in their fields with prayer, as a sort of sacrifice to propitiate the powers above.* Came upon a party of Albinos, of whom there are nine among the Zunis. These Albinos have very red faces and necks looking much as if they were flushed by liquor or exposure to a warm sun. The hair is yellowish white and the iris of the eye is colorless, which undoubtedly renders it powerless to resist the rays of the sun, as an Albino when talking to you is constantly blinking.** The streets are filled with mangy dogs, children of both sexes and all ages, the younger wearing no dress save a pair of malachite ear-rings. Most of the houses are entered by ladders, doors on the ground floor being a very recent innovation. It amazed me to see dogs climb up and down these ladders, something I should never have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes: their example was imitated every minute by naked little boys and girls, too young almost to be out of their mothers’ arms. I will now note down seriatim what I saw after entering one of the houses. The women were busy weaving blankets or grinding corn; not knowing anything about weaving, I cannot employ technical terms, and must limit myself to saying that in this case the blanket was one of the kind worn across a woman’s shoulder, and woven in five colors: scarlet, black, deep-blue and light blue, with a triple-twisted yellow cord in the longitudinal edges; the four main colors being run in horizontal stripes and bands, with pleasing effect. The Zunis have no chairs, but make a substitute of flat blocks of wood. Very many of the floors are of flat stone, in whole or part. Around (3) sides of the living room extends a banquette 6” high and 12” broad, serving as a seat and also as a shelf. After lunch, was taken around the town by Jesus Iriarte, a Mexican, who when quite a boy was captured by Apaches, near San Francisco del Promontorio, in Sonora, Mexico, and by the Apaches traded off to the Zunis.*** The Zunis to-day are arranging for a grand rabbithunt on horseback. They make use of a weapon, closely resembling the description given of the “boomerang”. It is of hard, bent wood, shaped thus: *In the margin, without reference to anything in particular, Bourke inserted: In Zuni, at the time of this visit, there was a regular “telephone” system, running from Mr. Cushing’s house to Mr. Graham’s store, based on the principle of vibration. **Burke’s note: These Albinos are in very respect, physically or intellectually, the equals of their darker skinned comrades, with whom they intermarry unrestrainedly. ***The Zunis say that, in war, they take no captives.

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Thickness 3/8 in......Hold at X and throw with point “A” to the front: this weapon does not return to the feet of the thrower. The Indians in this house offered me refreshments of tortillas, which tasted sweet and good. The description given of the first room seen yesterday at Nutria applies to this one excepting that this is 50’ long. 20’ wide. and 10’ high, plastered white on the inside, having a flat sandstone flagging for floor, kept very neat and well supplied with food. The lower wall of the room had painted upon it in quite good style an antelope 6’ in length and nearly the same measurement to tips of horns.

The Zunis employ the “bow-drill”.

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A-B is a stick ¼” in Diameter. 12” @ 14” in length, tipped at B with a flint, attached by sinew. C.D is a flat horizontal piece, ½ in Wide at Widest point, tapering towards extremities, six inches long and perforated at E. to admit of being slipped over A.B. to which it is fastened by thin leather thongs running from C. and D. to A. F. is a balance bob of flat wood or sandstone 3” in Diameter. The operator twirls C.D. so as to twist the leather strings around A.B. He then places the flint point over the object to be pierced which he holds in place with Left hand while he gently but continuously moves the horizontal bar C.D up and down, causing A.B. to revolve with rapidity. In my presence, a Zuni drilled a hole through a horn comb in two minutes. In making turquoise and malachite beads great patience is demanded; yet it is with this simple instrument that all perforations are made. The Zuni moccasin is thus made: sole, of rawhide, following plants of foot and turned up while open to form a protection for the great toe, but not as a toe shield, such as the Apaches have to employ, who live in a cactus and rock covered country. The legging attached to the moccasin of the women, is of buckskin & white in color, while those made for the men are generally colored red or black and separated from the moccasin. The moccasin of the Zunis resembles that of the Navajoes in being fastened by silver buttons on the outside of the instep like our low quarter shoes. The buckskin leggings of the squaws [are] in two pieces; one, a narrow tongue piece, 4” wide and the other an ankle protector, both reaching to the knee; the pattern is something of an exaggeration of our style of winter overshoe, known as the “Arctic snowexcluder”. The Zunis use woolen leggings under the buckskin and in winter, overshoes of sheepskin, with the wool inside. While I was writing the above, my old classmate, Lieutenant Carl F. Palfrey, Corps of Engineers, whom I had not met since we graduated (1869.) came up to me calling out, “Hi, John Bourke, what the devil are you doing here?” Of course, we were delighted to see each other and passed the rest of the day in company examining the town. The Zunis make three kinds of bread; the flat tortilla of the Mexicans; tissue bread such as the Moquis use. (both these are baked upon flat stones on the hearth,) and the ordinary loaf bread baked in the hemispherical mud ovens already described. Their leaven is

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salt and water, yeast powder, and sour dough, the last made, when necessary with saliva. A crier now roared through the streets that the preparations for “jack-rabbit” hunt were complete and in a very few moments throngs of young bucks had saddled & bridled their ponies and started for the place of rendezvous, whither also groups of men on foot were wending their way. I borrowed a pony and started with Mr. Cushing, followed by the brother of the Gobernador (Governor.) a very dandified chap in pantaloons of black velvet, decked with silver buttons, a red shirt and a dark blue plush cap also girt with buttons of the precious metal. We jogged along over gentle hills and flat red-clay valleys, passing through stretches of corn-fields, and at a distance of something more than 2 leagues from Zuni, ascended a small timbered knoll, upon whose summit was burning a small fire, the rallying point for a concourse of not less than 450 young men & old, 1/3 of them mounted: no women or girls could be seen but an old man was haranguing the multitude giving instructions upon the manner of conducting the hunt and, as I surmised from what I soon afterwards saw, interspersing his remarks with advice of a religious character. When he had concluded, the Zunis in parties of 6 to 10, approached the fire and with head bowed down and in a manner sedate and reverent, recited in an audible tone prayers of considerable length, at same time holding towards the fire in the Left hand a crust of bread and in the Right one or two boomerangs, (I can call them by no other name.) the prayers finished, the crusts were placed in the fire and the boomerangs held in the smoke; the devotees then divided, one part moving off by the Left, and other by the Right hand. The whole concourse went through this ceremony, those on horseback dismounting before approaching the sacred fire, and the crusts of bread making a pile 2 or 3 ft. high. My presence near the fire was the source of much sarcastic comment and hilarity to the Zunis who had finished their devolutions, but I stood my ground with the cheek of a lightning rod agent. The Indians rapidly scattered over the face of the country, here covered with stunted cedar and sage-brush and well suited as a hiding place for jack-rabbits. The dismounted battalion acted as beaters, the horsemen pursuing the frightened animals the moment they broke cover. The dust scattered and the amount of exertion made should have sufficed to catch and kill a hundred buffalo; but up to the mo-

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ment of my departure, not a single jack-rabbit was caught and the result of all this vast expenditure of time and labor was, as I learned at night, only four rabbits! This fact, connected with the religious features I had witnessed, impressed me with the conviction that this hunt is a religious ceremony and that it may be a survival of some mode of catching game in use at a time when their manner of life was much different from what it is to-day. The rabbits caught were not eaten by the Zunis but fed to the sacred Cha-Ka-li or Eagles. Tired out with waiting, we started on the homeward trek and ran upon a half dozen boys playing the game of “kicking the sticks”. They were arranged in two sides, each having a stick and the object, apparently, was for either side to kick its own stick to the goal first; without in any way interfering with the movements of its opponents. I couldn’t study the game very closely because the youngsters broke up their play and ran like deer the moment they perceived us close upon them. A little closer to Zuni, we came to another party of much younger children, engaged in digging for field mice; they had six, but in answer to my sign, said they did not intend to eat them.* Having reached the village, I went around again with Palfrey, this time buying several silver rings &c. Palfrey and I had a rather better dinner than usual, he contributing to the bill of fare at Mr. Graham’s a bottle of Cal[ifornia]. Sherry and one of Cal. Claret from his mess-chest. Mr. Chas. Franklin, of Arizona, came to Zuni this evening; he had formerly lived with the tribe for 3 yrs. and was formally adopted as a member. I had not seen him for 9 years and was glad to be thus thrown with him, as in the absence of Mr. Frank Cushing, he can elucidate many points of interest now involved in obscurity. About ten o’clock, I accompanied Palfrey to his wagons and returning I was beset by a horde of snapping mangy Zuni dogs, whose numbers I freely estimated at half a million, more or less. *Bourke’s note: Like the Mokis [sic], the Zunis feed them to the Eagles. JGB.

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Chapter 21 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

“So That I Could Show the White Men”

M

ay 20th 1881. Breakfast over, Mr. Graham took me to one of the corrals to see the Zunis shearing their sheep. The corral was a simple affair of small poles fastened with rawhide and contained as many as 250 sheep and goats, whose bleating and baa-aaa-ing made the place a pandemonium. A man would seize a sheep by the hind leg, and as soon as the animal had become exhausted with kicking, a squaw would seize the front leg on the same side and thus easily throw the sheep down, when all four feet were promptly tied together and the shearing began; the instrument employed being butcher knives, sharpened pieces of sheet iron and, occasionally, shearing scissors. In their herds, I noticed hybrids,—half sheep—half goats: the skin of one of these serves as a rug in Mr. Graham’s. Bought a pair of Zuni ear-rings, of same style as those of the Navajoes—paid for them $1.50. I have now been enough among the Zunis to observe that not a half-breed can be seen among them; this remark does not apply to the children of men, like Jesus, adopted into the tribe. A woman passed us crying bitterly for the loss of her mother who died yesterday. The funeral came along in a few moments and we had every opportunity for observing it: The corpse wrapped in a couple 422


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of coarse black & white striped blankets, was borne along in a hurried manner, by two men, one holding the head, the other the feet. They took the nearest line to the church: no procession followed, but as they passed the house of relatives of the deceased, the women seated themselves at the door and wept aloud, keeping up their lamentations until the corpse had been placed under ground. The grave was not over 3 ft. in depth and had already served as a place of sepulture for not less than half a dozen of the tribe, that number of skulls having been thrown out during the work of excavation. It was on the Left hand side of the cemetery, facing the church: all the women are buried on this side, the males on the other. The corpse was placed on its back, feet towards the church;* the two carriers then raked in the loose earth and human bones and the ceremony was over. The Zunis have primitive agricultural implements; one of wood is shaped like a stilt and by placing the foot upon the cross piece a hole can readily be made in ground into which to drop seed. Their yellow dye is a tuber, closely resembling a rotten sweet potato; bitter to taste, disagreeable to smell and perhaps poisonous. Their red is unravelled scarlet cloth or flannel. Blue is indigo purchased from traders & set with urine. Black and white are the natural wool. Bought from Mr. Graham and the Zunis, 35 pieces of pottery, which I carefully packed in sawdust for transportation to Wingate. Palfrey and I entered an old Zuni dwelling where I purchased a boomerang for 10 c. The room was 15’ Wide 50’ Long 10’ 6” high. Floor of packed earth. On 3 sides a small banquette, in which was a break of 3 ft. on East side. 2 small windows 1’ x 2’, at height of eye as man stands on floor: here the panes were of glass, but very frequently they are pieces of selenite, held in place by a white lime cement. The windows were deep in wall, top & sides square, sole of sill [sic] sloping toward floor for 2 ft. Vigas,1 round, peeled of bark, 6”–12” in Diameter. Cross pieces 3” in Diameter 18” apart—these covered with twigs and the twigs with hays [sic], upon which came the mud & stone flooring of the upper story. In ceiling of every room is an air-hole, one ft. square, covered with a flat stone, when ventilation is not needed. Walls all whitewashed. *Bourke’s note: the church faced east. 1.â•‡ Main support beams for ceiling and roof.

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House itself of adobe, with some pieces of rough rubble masonry of friable sandstone, breaking square in all thicknesses & from 2 @ 6 “ in length and width up to 2 ‘. In one corner a rack for ollas and along one side a trough or bin divided into from 4 @ 8 compartments, each with a metate of graded fineness from the rough lava to very fine sandstone. (Each house keeps on hand surplus metates and crushers.) The vigas in this house looked as if they had been cut with stone axes but this is something I cannot aver with certainty. Blankets are kept upon poles suspended from rafters. Upon the walls hang gourd rattles and a peculiar drum stick shaped in this way.

Also boxes filled with feathers of the sparrow hawk, blue jay, turkey, & eagle, wrapped in paper; in these boxes, were also preserved their little store of face paints. The floor contained skins of sheep and goats and square blocks of hard wood,—all used as seats. The chimneys have already been described. Ladders are still used for entering houses but within the past ten years the innovation of doors opening upon the level of the ground floor has very generally obtained. Niches are to be seen in nearly every wall; a closer examination reveals the fact that at these points the walls are merely slabs of stone easy to be removed and in case one part of the town should be captured enabling the inhabitants to escape through these apertures to portions not yet in possession of the enemy. At one time, no doubt, the people of Zuni were in constant apprehension of attacks from hostile neighbors. The smell in Zuni is outrageous. Decayed meat, sheep and goats’ pelts, excrement human and animal, unwashed dogs and Indians, fleas, lice and bed-bugs, (the houses in Zuni are full of these last,)—garbage of every kind; it must be regarded as a standing certificate of the salubrity of this climate that a single Zuni is in existence today. Put on my full uniform and paid a visit of state to Pedro Pino, one of the head men, formerly governor and father to Patricio, the present governor: with me went Palfrey, whose services proved to be of the greatest value to me. When we entered the room, the old man was employed in


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tying feathers to little sticks which, as he soon told us were to be planted in the fields to insure good crops. He arose and made us welcome and sent one of the squaws to bring us a wooden trestle to serve as a seat, after a very fine blanket had been spread over it. “I see you have on a uniform”, said the old man, [“]wait a moment until I put on my good clothing”; and, suiting the action to the word, he drew from a rack in the corner a long-tailed red-flannel shirt which he donned with becoming dignity and was then ready for business. I explained to Pedro in my best Spanish that I was an officer of the army, that the Great Father had sent me out to see him and his son, as well as to see my friend, Cushing, in whose career the Great Father took the liveliest interest; that I was very much disappointed in not being able to see Cushing who could so well explain all that I wanted to say and that in his absence, I could only hope that Pedro and I might understand each other in Spanish. Many of the old Army officers, I continued, remembered Pedro and spoke of him in the kindest way and from them I had learned that he knew more than any other Zuni of the history, traditions and customs of his tribe. It was asserted by some ignorant people that the Zunis were not a bit different from the wild Indians who roamed the plains and were only a little above the level of the brute, but I knew better than this and wished that Pedro would give me a list of families or clans of his people so that I could show the white men when I returned to Washington that the Zunis were a most excellent race, equal to the Americans in every respect. In making this speech, I was obliged to deal much in exaggeration and flattery, but the bait took and my hopes were gratified beyond my anticipations. Before the old chief could reply, I explained to him that Palfrey was also an officer like myself and that the absence of his wagons was the reason why he did not appear in full uniform in honor of the occasion. Our conversation and uniform combined seemed to make a great impression upon Pedro and much to my delight he became very communicative. “These feathers, you see,[”] he said, [“]are to bring us rain. All the Zunis will plant these feather sticks in the ground and water will come down on their crops.[”] [“]The Zunis,[”] he continued[, “]were a very good people and widely different in habits and behavior from the Apaches and Navajoes who were very bad. The Zunis never had but one wife, while the other

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Feather-stick

Indians had thee or four. There are many ‘gentes’ here, (using the Spanish word ‘gente’ to mean ‘gens’ or ‘clan’.) When a young man marries he goes to live with his wife’s gens and his children belong to that gens. Now, I, Pedro Pino, am one of the Aguila (Eagle.) gents, but my wife belongs to the Guacamayo, (Parrot,) gens and all my children belong to the same gens, and I live with my wife’s people but when I die the Eagle gens will bury me, because I am an Eagle and have been a great captain in that gens.[”] The names of these gentes are as follows: 1 Agua=Water 2 Grulla=Crane 3 Aguila=Eagle 4 Oso=Bear 5 Cayote=Cayote 6 Guacamayo=Owl? (Huacamayo=Macaw=Parrot) 7 Maix=Corn (Toácue. Zuni.) 8 Tortuga=Tortoise 9 Pólilli=Road Runner 10 Bunchi=Tobacco. 11 Palo amarillo*=Yellow stick (Tá-subchi-cue. Z[uni].) 12 Sol=Sun. 13 Olla-jocué=Sun Flower? 14 Tejon=Badger. The old man repeated each name twice and after I had written them down, the list was read to him for correction. With 1.2.3.4.5.7.8. and 12, there as no difficulty at all. No[.] 6, he explained was a small bird about the size of the “gabilan blanco[”] (white sparrow-hawk,) which lived in this land and flew above us in the sky. Palfrey and I both conjectured from his explanations that it must be an owl.** *Bourke’s note: I think now (July 20th 1881) that this gens is the Palmilla or Yucca, which is also found among the Tegua Pueblos. **Bourke’s note: It proved to be the Mexican Huacamayo or Macaw parrot of Sonora.


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No[.] 9 Palfrey identified from the feathers which Pedro showed him to be the “road-runner”, a variety of tufted grouse having two long stiff feathers projecting from its tail and deriving its American name from its habit of running swiftly up and down roads and trails in Arizona and New Mexico.2 No[.] 10m we were told was “tobacco”, probably the plant smoked by the Zunis. Pedro said it was not American tobacco. Concerning the identity of 11 and 13, we were completely in the dark, but surmised that the former might be the osier and the latter the sunflower. Our host endeavored to make us know what olla-jocué was by saying that it was a small plant not more than 2 ft. high with a yellow flower. This account agreed perfectly with the description of the wild sunflower of this Western country. He gave us the clan captains. Agua—Juan Setimo, the silversmith. Grulla—Juan Aguila—Himself, Pedro Pino. Oso Francisco. Coyote.3 Santiago. Guacamayo ___________ Maiz José Pallé Tortuga Vicente. Pólilli Vicente No. 2 Tejon __________ Bunchi __________ Palo amarillo __________ Sol. Manuel Olla-jocué _________ Clans marked _________ were not given. “The people of Laguna and Acoma are divided the same as we, but you must go there to ask them; my grandson, Napoleón, is governor of Acoma. In Zuni, we call Father=Tá-chu Mother=Si-tá Uncle=Chachu Aunt=Cha-sé Cousin=Hom-sué 2.â•‡ Actually, the roadrunner is a member of the cuckoo family, while the grouse is in a family of its own. Peterson, Field Guide, 144, 182. 3.â•‡ One of the few instances where Bourke spells it correctly.

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Brother=Hom-pápu.[”] The old fellow went on to tell us that each Indian in the pueblo had been baptized and had a name given, but he evaded my inquiries as to the Indian names they have, if any. He said that each gens had its captain or cacique and over the whole community presided the “gobernador.” There was also a cacique of the sun who watched the sun and apprised the people when the time for planting &c. had come. He evaded all our efforts to ascertain who this “cacique of the sun” was. His orders had to [be] obeyed by everybody when he gave them; one of the principal functions of this cacique was to kindle the sacred fire in honor of the Sun. The sun was good for the Zunis, but the rattlesnake was bad. In playing their great national game of “kicking the sticks”, the different clans sent their representative players to the field, decked and painted with clan “totems”; thus the Eagle gens would be painted with yellow specks on front of body to represent that bird; the Agua, (water) would have a toad on belly; The Crane—painted like a crane on the back; the Bear, like a bear in front; the cayote painted with white clay to resemble that animal; the Corn, would have the fruit and flowers of that plant on back; the Tortoise, painted like a tortoise on back; the Road-runners would wear a crest of feathers; the Badger, white stripes down face; the Tobacco, the Bunchi plant on breast; the Palo amarillo, that plant in yellow on the breast; the Sun, a blue, rayed Sun on the back, while the Olla-jócue [sic], had arms, hands and feet painted white. Our visit had thus far been most satisfactory, but I had now to suffer a very decided rebuff. I asked Pedro if he would not let me accompany him to the fields and help him plant the medicine feathers which he had been making during our conversation. “My friend,[”] rejoined the old man, [“]everybody in this world has his own business to attend to; for instance, there is the maestro, (i.e. the school-master, the missionary, Revd. Dr. Ealy.) he has his business, he teaches school; then there is Mr. Graham, he has his business, he sells flour and sugar and coffee in his store, and I have my business, I am going to plant these feathers, and so everybody has his own business.” I got the idea from this remark that my services as a planter would not be needed and, therefore, thought I would get the old man in a good humor by thanking him for all he had told me and inviting


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him to go down to Mr. Graham’s store for a present of sugar. When we reached the store, Mr. Graham made his dog climb up & down a ladder for our amusement; this is a accomplishment in which all the dogs of Zuni are proficient: the little babies also begin to ascend and descend these ladders at an extremely early age; indeed, I saw numbers of naked children that couldn’t have been two years old! climbing up and down with the greatest freedom. Looked down into an “estufa”, which was 65’ long, 25’ wide, & 5’ high, built of sand-stone rubble laid in mud, foundation just upon ground. Entrance by ladders. Air hole one foot square in roof and 3 windows each one foot square, with sills of sandstone; no panes of glass or “yeso”. Called, with Palfrey upon Dr. and Mrs. Ealy and Miss Hanneker, Presbyterian missionaries and teacher. The Zunis have the game of “fox and geese”, played upon slabs of sandstone, marked in squares. Rude straw matting is made for covers to doors. The chimneys are made of “ollas”, the flues are built of stone and mud and wood. In the evening, I had a long conversation with Charles Franklin, to whom I read the list of “gentes” obtained from Pedro. Franklin is not a man of fine education, but is unusually clear-headed. He understood at once what I meant by “gentes”, altho’ he persisted in calling them “cliques”. He said he thought the list was almost complete, except it lacked the Snake, the Wolf and the Door or Antelope gentes, which he was certain existed. The Cayote may be the clan which Franklin designates as the Wolf, and I agree with him in believing that there may be a small Rattlesnake gens, because Palfrey and I saw the figure of that reptile worked in high relief on a single piece of pottery this afternoon: for the like reason, we do not deny that there may be a Deer gens, since the figure of the deer frequently occurs upon their ollas and vases. Franklin instanced a curious superstition prevalent among the Zunis. They reverence the sun-flower highly and when absent upon some commercial or warlike expedition at a distance from home, the Zuni warrior will pluck one of these flowers from its stem, breathe a prayer upon it and cast it from him with all his strength. If the [flower] fall downward, then the Zuni knows that his wife has been untrue to him, but if it turns toward him or the Sun, the loyalty of the absent spouse is established beyond question. Each “clique”, said Franklin, has a cacique, whose office is elective,

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not hereditary; the tenure is for life or during good behavior. These caciques elect the “tapoop” or gobernador, who holds his place for two years. The election is secret, but generally is a fair representation of the wishes of the community which the caciques from their office have the best means for learning. Deposition is likewise determined upon in secret; some 12 or 15 years ago, one of their tapoops was deposed for inefficiency. The manner of proceeding was about as follows; the caciques assembled with “closed doors” and selected three of their number who were to effectually disguise themselves and perform the ceremony of deposing the old governor and installing the new. The whole tribe was assembled, all being present who were not sick, excepting the caciques who from motives of prudence remained concealed or if they mingled among the crowd did so in disguise. The three deputies now entered, all muffled up and one of them dressed as an old woman. The delinquent tapoop was brought before them and in squeaky artificial voices they reproached him with his inefficiencies and shortcomings and he was then commanded to surrender his baton of office. Then the “old woman” took a rag and slapped the deposed tapoop in the face with it, saying that he was no better than an old woman and should now begone. The complete disguise of the judges and the fact that only 3 of the caciques officiated, would naturally increase the difficulty of determining their personality, in case the deposed official should at any time contemplate revenge. Franklin said that each cacique has his specific duties; he of the sun is the “time-keeper” and perhaps, has more power than any of the others. He notifies the tapoop who is the executive officer of the town, when the time has come for planting, reaping &c. and that for the celebration of any of their feasts. “At the commencement of their new year, some time in December when the days are very short, (Winter solstice?) They put out all fires and sweep the chimney clean;—sweep and clean out all their houses. New fires are kindled from the ‘sacred fire,’ which is either a fire made and blessed by the caciques or else is one they preserve, I don’t know where. When I was first with them, I had been for a long time sick with scarlet fever and about the time this ‘fire feast’ came on, I was lying on my bed, alone in the house and feeling chilly, got up and kindled a little flame to warm myself. The smoke escaping from the chimney betrayed and


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aroused the indignation and fears of the caciques who hurried to the house where I was living and found me suffering from a relapse brought on by the over-exertion. They cautioned me against my indiscretion and said that my sickness was a just punishment for having committed the crime of kindling that fire, that I was now a Zuni, I must conform to their ways, unless I wished for bad luck to pursue me when I violated them. For ten days, they allow no fires at all, except in cases of the greatest necessity, such as cooking a small amount of food, no one is allowed to smoke in the streets and nobody eats any meat for the first four days. If a man should eat any meat during those four days, he would die. They made peace with the Apaches one hundred & fifty years ago and have kept it ever since. They know the Navajoes and Pueblos very well and do a good deal of trading with them. They used to have wars with the Navajoes and the tops of their houses were protected by parapets when I first came here. There were then no doors on the lower floors; all these doors have been put in since 1865. They told me that during the Navajo war, (1862–3) one of their men betrayed symptoms of cowardice. They held a sort of court martial over him and sentenced him to run the gauntlet; he was beaten to death with clubs. They eat peaches, the only fruit they raise; piñon nuts, they have no acorns; pumpkins, squash and melon seeds as well as the fruits themselves; the roots of the wild cane (carrizo.); the bulb of the tulé; wild dates, (Spanish bayonet,) and the tuna (nopal cactus.) They plant corn, wheat, beans (frijoles.) chile, melons, squashes, pumpkins, onions, garlic, parsley and peaches.* They have a “Buffalo Dance” in the winter, which, according to their traditions is the dance to secure a good hunt. The Buffalo, they say, used to come near here, that is nearer than it has done in our time. They don’t hunt Buffalo now.4 [“]They eat deer, antelope, jack-rabbit, crickets & grass-hoppers; mules, horses, donkeys, beef, mutton and kid. They eat rats (field rats.) They won’t eat squirrels or hogs, but will eat bacon. They have horned cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, chickens, hogs *Bourke’s note: The Zunis and other Pueblos use a great deal of mutton tallow in their cooking. 4.â•‡ Bloom (“Bourke on the Southwest,” 9:195 n5) observed that this ceremony must have been very ancient because even the Coronado expedition did not encounter buffalo until the Pecos River country much farther east. Buffalo have not been considered indigenous to the Zuni country since prior to its acquisition by the United States in 1848.

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and turkeys. They won’t eat chickens or eggs, but keep them to sell and raise eagles for their feathers;—they catch them when they’re young. [“]They attach great importance to the ‘medicine’ power of the eagle feather which the clowns use in their dances. One of these dances is a very wonderful thing.5 I must tell you about it, as I saw it years ago and up to that time at least was certainly the only American who ever had seen it. [“]One of the clowns, there are 13 of them, has a sheep’s toe tied to his penis and around his waist is wrapped a heavy petticoat. The other clowns wear similar petticoats but to their private parts are attached feathers only. There is a great deal of singing, dancing and shouting, and then the young maidens of the tribe, one at a time, are urged to enter the ring and examine the clowns to see which one is wearing the sheep’s toe. Each girl has one guess; if unsuccessful, the priest, or clowns, (they are evidently priests,) present her with a handful of corn which is considered sacred and preserved carefully in the girl’s family to be planted in time of apprehended famine. The successful guesser is rewarded munificently with presents of beads, calico, buckskin, corn, wheat and blankets and followed to her home by an applauding crowd.”6 (This peculiar ceremony can safely be set down as a survival of phallic worship, having for its object the development of amorous tendencies among the grown girls to induce them to marry early.)* They are extremely superstitious in regard to persons suffering from gun-shot wounds. They think that presence in the room in which is a woman about to be confined will have a disastrous effect upon the new-born child. This danger can be obviated by calling in the medicine men who will repeat prayers and then blow ashes up the chimney. A little baby is carefully rubbed with ashes which they think act as a depilatory and keep hair from growing on face or body. For answers under Section 1, see preceding pages. Section 2. Women, as a general rule, bear the pangs of child-birth with great ease. When the time of accouchement has arrived, they *Bourke’s note: Phallic worship still in existence among the Zunis. 5.â•‡ Franklin no doubt uses “wonderful” in its original sense, i.e., full of wonder. 6.â•‡ This paragraph was omitted by Bloom, who commented (“Bourke on the Southwest,” 9:195 n6), “It has seemed best to delete the brief description which follows, but the editor will furnish it to any student of ethnology who requests it.” Because the New Mexico Historical Review was classed as a periodical, it was subject to the restrictive postal regulations of the day, and undoubtedly this was a factor in Bloom’s decision.


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prepare a bed of sand upon which the patient kneels, easing her pains by pulling upon a raw-hide rope attached to the rafters. During labor, she is assisted by one or two old women. In their treatment of lying in women, the Zunis closely resemble the Navajoes, [(]for an account of whom see pp. [382, 386]. They do not commit proticide and are very fond of their children, whom they rarely, if ever, punish. Bastards are treated with the same consideration as legitimate children. The names of these Zunis are of Spanish origin received in baptism, to which most of the elder people have been subjected. Each has a second name which it is almost impossible for a stranger to obtain. Their names are not changed after reaching maturity. A system of ward and guardianship seems to obtain among them. The Zuni women wear an under shirt of calico and over this a blanket dress made exactly like those of the Moquis—extending from shoulder to knee, fastened at right shoulder and leaving the Left arm, shoulder and upper half of Left bust exposed. It is fastened again under arm pits, (but leaving room for nursing their babies from under the arms,) and from waist to the extremities, much as the dress of the Shoshonee women. A red and yellow worsted girdle, 4” wide, confines the dress at the waist and a pattern of herringbone stick is darned in blue in the skirt at the hem and in red or yellow at the right shoulder. These dresses in color are black or dark blue and sometimes have scarlet bands woven at the upper and lower borders. Their leggings and moccasins have already been described. Women frequently wear aprons and while within doors, a square blanket thrown around neck; in the open air, this is used as a “tapalo”, it is at times replaced by a square piece of cloth, whose ends are made to serve the double purpose of dishclout and handkerchief. The arms, necks and busts of Zuni women who have not outlived their first youth, are beautifully rounded, owing I imagine to their habit of working at grinding meal and also of carrying large jars of water upon their heads. This last practice no doubt strengthens the spine and shoulders and keep [sic] them in shape. The men, when out of doors are nearly always enveloped in blankets. They use the fibre of the Spanish bayonet for thread and the feathers of the wild turkey and eagle to ornament their heads and hats. Bourke inserted a sketch of a Zuni headdress built upon a standard, Eastern-style straw hat. This illustration, however, is now

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too dark for reproduction. The cradles of the Zuni children differ but slightly, if at all, from those of the Apaches, Navajoes, Shoshonees, Sioux and other tribes. The shape is practically the same, altho the ornamentation employed by each tribe may be peculiar to itself. But, very frequently, the Zuni mother, in a hurry to run out and gossip with some neighbor, will pick up her infant and carry it on her back, wrapped in her blanket. Their necklaces are made of beads of malachite, of sea-shells, silver buttons and balls, made by themselves; Their finger rings are of silver and their ear-rings and bangles of same material cannot be distinguished from those made by the Navajoes. They wear no nose-rings, nose-sticks or labrets. The hair for both men and women is gathered carefully together at back of head and wrapped with red yarn; that growing on sides and forehead is suffered to hang loose, with a part on one side. Very often, the men wear a bandeau of bandanna or colored muslin tied about the forehead, the same as the Navajoes and Apaches. The women never wear these bands, but part the hair on the side, brush it down flat on sides and cut off the ends square at the level of the mouth. For toys, the Zuni children have tops, bows and arrows, slings, dolls and dolls’ dresses, and also are allowed to play with very young puppies and with dead kids, stuffed with hair or wool for this purpose. Here Bourke inserted sketches of men’s and women’s hairstyles, which now are too dark for reproduction. Both boys and girls play “shinny”, “fox and geese”,—the shinny ball is made of buckskin stuffed with wool and in shape is flat like a pat of butter. The men play “sock-ball” and a game something like our “hen and chickens”. They have among them a modification of the “odd or even” of the Sho[s]honees; a white ball or stick is hidden under one of several tiles (made of pottery,) and its place determined by guess-work. They have ten tally straws and in all other features adhere to the practice of the game as played by the tribes of the North. They engage in this contest with much zest, saying many prayers and singing many refrains. They don’t often play cards. For musical instruments, they make gourd-rattles, and use strings of shells, tortoise shells and antelope or sheep toes, drums, & flageolets. They have drums made of great crockery “ollas” covered with skin & beaten with peculiarly shaped sticks: and for same purpose, use


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hollow logs covered over with skin. They make great use of these last two kinds in their Harvest dance, in which one bevy of young maidens is kept at work grinding corn for the feast, while others sing and dance.

“Olla” Drum and stick. Zuni.

The Zunis look to be undersized, but have good physical proportions. The expressions of their faces are generally pleasant and good-natured and their muscles are well developed by hard work, (for Indians.) Neither sex tattoos or disfigures face or body in any way and the amount of paint used in every day life is very small indeed. Girls are nubile at from 12 to 14. Both sexes are industrious, before and after marriage. The women do an immense amount of work, within doors and without; they make the pottery and burn it, weave all blankets, girdles and garters, do the cooking and other housework and at odd moments attend to the tiny patches of ground, cultivated within the limits of the town. For this last purpose, they have to pack water on their heads for considerable distances. The men do most of the farm work, and the more onerous duties involved in the care of their herds of ponies & flocks of sheep. They also provide most of the fire-wood, dig and repair the irrigating canals &c. Courtship is much like that of other Indians, but if a suitor enter the house of his sweet-heart and she don’t ask him to sit down, he must at once go out. The gentler sex is of considerable consequence among the Zunis. Parents are not paid for their daughters and girls are free to marry whom they choose. The Zunis have but one wife: They marry a

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brother’s widow. Divorces are easily arranged and almost always by mutual consent, and upon separation from her husband, the wife takes away her children and property. They don’t mutilate women suspected of adultery. Gentile emblems are inscribed upon their houses and upon their pottery, or rather their pottery is made in shape of the clan patronym. Thus, I saw toads, owls, rattlesnake, grouse, tortoises, eagles, deer and other marks upon their ollas and dishes, or dishes made in those forms. Menstrual lodges are not employed by this tribe and women are not isolated during period of purgation, but after delivery, will remain secluded and abstain from nearly all food for ten days. The “Estufas” are used for religious purposes only, and not for councils. They don’t use disinfecting or aromatic grasses in their houses. The peaceful nature of the Zunis is typified in the almost complete absence of implements of war of any kind: a few old muzzle-loading, cap and even flint-lock rifles and shot-guns made up the inventory of all the arms of precision, I could find in their homes. They have wooden war-clubs similar to the “macanas” of the Pimas and Maricopas of Arizona.

Stone berry-mashers are common, as are sticks for catching field rats and as follows from the necessities of the case, each house has a liberal provision of stone metates. I have stated elsewhere that these are arranged in bins, and are “graded” in fineness from the 1st of coarse, vesicular lava occupying the compartment up to the 4th, 5th or even 8th in fineness, of smooth sandstone on the extreme right.

Bins with “metates”


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Pipes are scarcely ever used, but much tobacco is consumed in the form of cigarritos. Earthen utensils of all kinds are to be found in abundance. The Zunis have attained great dexterity in their fabrication and annually turn out hundred of pieces which evince great artistic taste. Dishes, Basins, bowls, ollas, jars of all sizes, spoons, ladles, cups, pitchers—figures of animals—every design suggested by consideration of utility, ornament or mere passing fancy fill their houses and are purchasable at very reasonable prices. To some extent, they manufacture gourd and wooden spoons, and also basket ware—the last of very ordinary quality and inferior in every way to the beautiful work of their more savage neighbors, the Apaches & Navajoes. The Zunis concede this by purchasing whenever they can the baskets of these two tribes. Section IX & X, see above. Silver and paper money are alike current among them; they prefer the former. They have no currency of their own; their beads of malachite and sea-shell no doubt were once available for all mercantile purposes and have only within the historic period fallen to the more degraded estate of being held as mere ornaments. I am pretty certain that their clans are combined in phratries and I also think that they have secret and soldier societies. Section XXI, see above. They have no idols,—at least, I could see none. They have a god or spirit for everything. They have hymns, prayers and invocations. On p. [417], may be seen the picture of an antelope, copied from the wall of one of their houses (inside.) The line running down from the animal’s mouth and terminating at its heart, may be described as a “prayer”. It is a pictographic invocation to the “spirit of the antelope” to incline the hearts of the antelope on earth to put themselves in the way of the Zunis that they may kill them for food. I made careful inquiries upon this point and know that I have obtained the correct explanation. Sacrifices are offered to the Sun and moon,* prayers are said while smoking and at commencement of each meal, a small fragment of bread is thrown in fire. Their prayers are without number and applicable to every occasion. Some of them, I am told, take 3 hours to recite: and again, *Bourke’s note: The Morning star is also worshipped.

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others have been so long in use that many of the words in them have dropped out of the common language of every-day life and have an import known only to the priests and the better instructed of what we may call the laity. Before owning horses, they had no draught animals; now they are well mounted. Their saddles and bridles are of home manufacture and often richly mounted with solid silver. The flat, Turkish, stirrup is the one they employ. Their ponies are of a good average in the qualities of beauty, bottom, nerve and speed. Their saddles, bridles, blankets, & silverwork are so closely alike to those of the Navajoes that a reference to a description of the workmanship of the latter to be found on p. [381, 383] will suffice for the Zunis. To sum up my account of this little visit, I will say that the Zunis are officially estimated at about 1700, all told; they answer to the name of Zunis, but call themselves Áh-si-vich, which has a striking resemblance to the name Si-vich, of the tribe, living in the grand cañon of the Colorado, near the mouth of Cataract creek, Arizona, T’y. The Zunis are firm believers in witchcraft and will not allow owl feathers to be burned near their corn fields for fear of damage to their growing crops. The rattlesnake is said to be held in high esteem among them and never to be killed unnecessarily; but this I doubt. The noises in the village are fearful; imagine a congregation of jackasses, quarrelsome dogs, and chickens, bleating lambs & kids, shrill voiced eagles, gobbling turkies [sic], screaming children and women mourning for the two dead relatives whose burial has been described on p. [422–23] & incite all these, each according to its kind and degree, to make all the noise in its power and a just, but still not altogether adequate conception of the hubbub may be attained. As with the turmoil, so with the effluvia; the place is never policed and I am not going one jot beyond the limits of strict verity when I characterize Zuni as a Babel of noise and a Cologne of stinks.7 The well of Zuni deserves special mention; it is a spring, 15’ diameter8 walled in with sandstone rubble masonry, 20 feet high, and roofed over with vigas, saplings, brush and earth. 7.â•‡ The remark on Cologne refers to a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See Robinson, Diaries, 1:106 n2. 8.â•‡ Bourke initially wrote “15’ deep,” but later changed “deep” to read “diameter,” hence the discrepancy among some transcriptions.


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In speaking of the ladders for entering the houses of the Zunis, I should have also referred to the notched poles and stone steps used for the same purpose. As this was to be my last night in the village, I bade good bye to Palfrey and also to Dr. and Mrs. Ealy: and returning home, stumbled against the public crier who was bawling at the top of his voice that Juan Lucero had that afternoon lost $30.50. May 21st. 1881. Mr. Graham refused all compensation for his hospitality, and left me only the pleasure of thanking Hathorn and himself, to whom as well as to Dr. Cushing who was at breakfast with us I bade farewell, leaving many kind messages for Mr. Frank Cushing, whom I was very much disappointed in not being able to see. Left for our return to Wingate; on the road, picked up an old Zuni,* who with hoe on shoulder was plodding his way out to his little “milpa”, or corn-field, 3 or four miles up the creek. Like all older men of the tribe, he spoke a little Spanish and told me that the field he now pointed out was his own property. This was another link of evidence to show me that the Zunis are not communists, but individual proprietors in the soil. The “farm” in question, was not over an eighth of an acre in extent. So, in Zuni itself, women took care of the little vegetable patches, as personal and not as communal farms. The driver of my buck-board told me that 2 or 3 miles from Zuni, were fine large fields of growing corn and orchards of peach trees. I feel that my report upon Zuni is at the best meagre and unsatisfactory; I had hoped to meet Mr. Frank Cushing, in which case I should have remained at least twice as long, feeling delighted to reflect that each moment spent in his society would be an advantage to me in every way. He has so thoroughly explored the field of Zuni investigation that my little scout therein will appear ridiculously insignificant in contrast; nevertheless, it was to me a personal experience I shall always look back upon as one of the most pleasant of my whole life. At some other time, I hope to be able to return and resume my studies in Zuni and also in the vicinity, especially the ruins of Toyallani [sic], upon the vertical sandstone crags, 1000 ft. above the level of the present village. The report[s] heretofore published upon Zuni are as unsatisfactory as my own; Sitgreaves is *This old man said that the Zunis called themselves Áh-sie-vitch. (See also p. 438)

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notably insufficient, the pictures accompanying it being burlesques.9 Mr. Cushing’s monograph will fill the gap and place him where he properly belongs in the world of science, at the top. I have already said that the present situation of the Zuni village did not fulfil in my mind the requirements of the seven cities of Cibola, visited by Coronado in 1541–2. Franklin tells me that in their traditions, the Zuni say that the Spaniards first came from the West; that the other pueblos killed the missionaries who visited them, but that the Zunis spared the one who came to them; for which reason, the Spanish soldiers destroyed the other villages, but did not harm the Zunis. This story, as given me by Franklin, is evidently a mélange of their story of the first invasion by Coronado in 1541, and the reconquest by Vargas, in 1692, after the general revolt of the Indians in 1680. At that time, the Spaniards did destroy many villages, the fugitives taking refuge among the Navajoes to the West. When the Spaniards approached Zuni, says Franklin, a trumpeter advanced and sounded a parley; to his astonishment, a native shouted to him in his own Castilian! The terrified soldier, satisfied that he was in the direct presence of the dread enemy of souls, fell precipitately back to the main body of his countrymen, to whom he related what he had heard & seen. The Commander drew near the foot of the sand-stone mesa, near the summit of which stood, in Indian garb, the man who had caused such terror to the trumpeter. In his hands he held a piece of white buckskin which he first waved in the air and then, wrapping it up in a large stone, threw it in the direction of the Spaniard. It proved to be a statement written with charcoal, and to the effect that he was and had been for some years a prisoner among the Zunis and had almost forgotten his own language. His release was effected without delay and the Zunis coming down from the high mesa, which must have been Toyalani, (upon summit of which are great ruins,) built their present town. Bourke has now arrived back at Fort Wingate. (For a complete outline description of the posts of Forts Wingate and Defiance, see the official work issued from Hd.Qrs., Mily. Div. 9.â•‡ This refers to Capt. Lorenzo Sitgreaves’ Report on an Expedition Down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers, published as a report to Congress in 1853. Sitgreaves led an expedition to find a feasible route to California. Although the ten-week expedition, in the fall of 1851, was successful, the report itself was sketchy, and published too late to be of any use in selecting a railroad route across northern Arizona. Thrapp, Encyclopedia, 3:1313–14.


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of the Missouri.)10 In the evening, called upon Genl. and Mrs. Bradley and upon Dr. & Mrs. [Washington] Matthews, who showed me a fine collection of Zuni and Navajo blankets, as well as the series of pictures, illustrative of life among the Zunis, taken by Mr. Frank Cushing. Also a little “ola”, found by Mr. Cushing in one of the sacred burial caverns of this region and said by the Zunis to have been placed there by the Maiz, or Corn gens in some of their ceremonies. Dr. Matthews says that the ruin I paced off was built by the Zunis; that since living in it, they have built seven other pueblos, not counting those they now possess and which they have occupied for from 200 @ 300 years. (My belief is that the present Zuni dates back to about 1695.) Doctor Matthews went on to say that on the summit of Toyalani, mocassin trails are worn deep in the solid sandstone; and also that Frank Cushing had told him the same story about the captive priest which I received from Franklin and that for their kindness to this priest, the Zunis were treated with greater consideration than was accorded to the other Pueblos. The clowns of the Zuni dances are called “mud-heads”, because they wear masks of earthen-ware, covering head, face, neck & shoulders. May 22nd 1881. Remained at Fort Wingate. 10.â•‡ Bourke undoubtedly means Outline Descriptions of the Posts in the Military Division of the Missouri Commanded by Lieutenant General P.H. Sheridan, issued at divisional headquarters in Chicago in 1876. It was reprinted in 1969.

Appendix ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Persons Mentioned in the Diary

Due to the large number of sources for the biographical sketches in this section, footnotes or endnotes would have been impractical. Consequently, I have placed the sources in parentheses at the end of each entry. In cases where the author has only one publication in the bibliography, I have used only the author’s last name. In case of multiple publications by the same author, I have placed the date of publication of the edition cited. Military When discussing the careers of cavalrymen, the designation of units overlapping the Civil War tends to be confusing. In mid1861, the Regular Army had six mounted regiments, viz. First and Second Dragoons, Mounted Riflemen, and First, Second and Third Cavalry. On August 3, 1861, Congress reorganized these regiments, designating them all “cavalry,” and renumbering them as follows: First Dragoons to First Cavalry Second Dragoons to Second Cavalry Mounted Riflemen to Third Cavalry First Cavalry to Fourth Cavalry 442


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Second Cavalry to Fifth Cavalry Third Cavalry to Sixth Cavalry After the war, additional Regular Army mounted units were authorized as needed. (Herr and Wallace, 116) ADAM, Emil (1831–1903), which Bourke spelled “Adams,” was captain in the 5th Cavalry. A native of Bavaria, he served in that country’s army before settling in Illinois. He served in the Illinois infantry during the Civil War and entered the Regular Army in 1867. He was breveted to major for gallantry in action against Indians at Muchos Cañones, Arizona, on Sept. 25, 1872, but was suspended for six months in 1874, when his failure to react to an attack on a wagon train near San Carlos led to a major outbreak. He participated in Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in 1876, and in the Nez Percé War. He retired as a major in 1893. (Heitman, 1:151; Altshuler, 1991, 2–3) ALLEN, James, of Indiana, entered West Point in 1868, and upon graduation was posted to the 3rd Cavalry. He rose through the grades, and in 1888 became captain. In 1890, he was assigned to the Signal Corps, and in 1899 became lieutenant colonel. During the Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection, he served in the Volunteers, attaining the rank of brigadier general in that service in 1901. (Heitman, 1:159) ALMY, Jacob (1842–73),was first lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry. A Quaker from Massachusetts, he nevertheless joined a state volunteer unit during the Civil War, but was mustered out in 1862 to accept an appointment to West Point. After graduation, he served in Indian campaigns in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming, before being posted to Arizona. He commanded the post at San Carlos where he was murdered during a confrontation with unruly Indians during a ration issue on May 27, 1873. (Heitman, 1:161; Altshuler, 1991, 7–8) ALMY, William Ellery (d. 1901), of the District of Columbia, entered West Point in 1875. Upon graduation, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 3rd Infantry, but transferred to the 5th Cavalry in September 1879. He served in the Volunteers during the Spanish-American War, and was a major in the Puerto Rico Regiment at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:161) ATKINSON, Henry (d. 1842), of North Carolina, entered the army as a captain of the 3rd Infantry in 1808. He was jumped to colonel in 1813, and breveted to brigadier general in 1820. (Heitman, 1:174)

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AUMAN, William, of Pennsylvania, joined the Volunteers as a private in 1861, and worked his way up the ranks, being commissioned as second lieutenant in 1864. He was mustered out as captain in 1865. The following year, he was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 13th Infantry. At the time Bourke knew him he was captain. He retired as brigadier general in 1902. (Heitman, 1:175) BACON, John Mosby, of Kentucky, served in the Volunteers and was mustered out as major in 1865. A year later, he was commissioned captain in the 9th Cavalry. From 1871 to 1884, he served as aide-de-camp to General Sherman. In 1884, he was promoted to major of the 7th Cavalry, rising to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Cavalry in 1893, and colonel of the 8th Cavalry in 1897. During the Spanish-American War, Bacon served as brigadier general of Volunteers. He retired in 1899. (Heitman, 1:179) BAILY, Elisha Ingraham (1824–1908), whose name Bourke spelled “Bailey,” was a native of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1844, and entered the army as assistant surgeon in 1847. He was promoted to major in 1861, and spent the Civil War as medical director of the Department of New Mexico. He later served variously as medical director of the Departments of Arizona, Alaska, and the Columbia, and the Military Division of the Pacific. He retired in 1888. In 1904, he was advanced to brigadier general on the retired list. (Altshuler, 1991, 17) BAINBRIDGE, Augustus Hudson, of New York, entered the army in 1858 as a private in general service, but was named battalion sergeant in the 14th Infantry. He was commissioned second lieutenant in 1862, and first lieutenant in 1864. Two years later, he was promoted to captain, a rank he held for over twenty-six years, until promoted to major of the 10th Infantry. He retired as lieutenant colonel of the 4th Infantry in 1898. (Heitman, 1:182) BALDWIN, John Arthur (d. 1903), of Iowa, was appointed second lieutenant in 1872, and later posted to the 9th Infantry in the Department of the Platte. He served in Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, and participated in the Rosebud Fight. From 1886 until 1899, he made several tours in Arizona, after which he was sent to the Philippines where he served in the Insurrection. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 16th Infantry in 1902, but by now, he was in failing health. (Altshuler, 1991, 19) BANNISTER, John Monroe, of Alabama, was appointed assistant


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surgeon in 1879, and promoted to surgeon major in 1897. (Heitman, 1:188) BARNETT, Richards (d. 1889), of Mississippi, was appointed assistant surgeon in 1875. (Heitman, 1:192) BASS, Edgar Wales, served as a quartermaster sergeant in the Volunteers from 1862 to 1864, when he entered West Point. Upon graduation, he was posted to the Engineers. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1871, and appointed professor at West Point in 1878. He retired in 1898. (Heitman, 1:197) BATEMAN, M. W. Heitman does not list an M. W. Bateman with the 6th Infantry. BAXTER, Jedediah Hyde (d. 1890), of Vermont, served as a surgeon of Volunteers from 1862 to 1867. He then was appointed lieutenant colonel and assistant medical purchaser of the army, and chief medical purchaser in 1874. He was appointed brigadier general and surgeon general in 1890, a few months before his death. (Heitman, 1:200) BAXTER, John G., of New Jersey, entered West Point in 1873, and upon graduation was posted to the 19th Infantry. A month later, in July 1877, he was named second lieutenant in the 9th Infantry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1885, and captain and assistant quartermaster in 1897. (Heitman, 1:200) BELCHER, Major, probably refers to John Hill Belcher (d. 1901), who served as captain quartermaster in the Volunteers from 1864 to 1866, and then entered the Regular Army in the same rank and position. He was promoted to major in 1883. He was breveted to major of Volunteers in 1865. He retired in 1892. (Heitman, 1:206) BENÉT, Stephen Vincent (d. 1895), grandfather of the poet of the same name, entered West Point in 1845, and upon graduation was breveted as second lieutenant of Ordnance. He remained in the Ordnance Department for the rest of his career, and in 1874, was appointed brigadier general and chief of Ordnance. He retired in 1891. (Heitman, 1:210) BENJAMIN, Colonel, probably refers to Samuel Nicoll Benjamin of New York (d. 1886), who entered West Point in 1856, and upon graduation was posted to the 2nd Artillery. He served with distinction in the Civil War, receiving brevets to lieutenant colonel. He was major and acting assistant adjutant general at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:210)

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BENNETT, Frank Tracey (d. 1894), of Ohio, entered the army as a private in the Volunteers in 1862. A year later he was promoted to second lieutenant of the 6th Infantry, and first lieutenant in 1864. He received brevets for gallantry during the Civil War. At the time Bourke knew him, he was major of the 9th Cavalry. He retired a major of the 2nd Cavalry in 1885. (Heitman, 1: 211) BERGLAND, Eric, native of Sweden, entered the army as a second lieutenant of Volunteers in 1861. He finished the war as a first lieutenant, and entered West Point. Upon graduation, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 5th Artillery, transferring to the Engineers in 1872. He rose through the grades, retiring as a major in 1896. (Heitman, 1:213) BERNARD, Reuben Frank (1834–1903), of Tennessee, enlisted in 1855, and was posted to the 1st Dragoons at Fort Craig, New Mexico. In 1862, he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry as the regiment had been redesignated. He served with distinction in the Civil War, earning several brevets. He was promoted to the active rank of first lieutenant in 1863, and captain in 1866. He returned to the Southwest when he was posted to Camp Lowell, Arizona, in 1868. He retired as lieutenant colonel of the 9th Cavalry in 1896. (Altshuler, 1991, 31–32) BIRKHIMER, William Edward, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1864, serving until August 1865. A year later, he entered West Point. Upon graduation, he was posted to the 3rd Artillery. In 1879, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and in 1890, to captain. He served with distinction in the Philippine Insurrection, winning the Medal of Honor for valor. (Heitman, 1:220) BISBEE, William Henry, of Rhode Island, enlisted in the 18th Infantry in 1861, and was promoted to second lieutenant the following year. He finished the war as a first lieutenant with a brevet as captain. He was promoted to the active rank of captain in 1866, and was assigned to the 4th Infantry in 1870. Bourke referred to him as “major,” although he was not promoted to this rank until 1893. Heitman, however, lists two brevets for gallantry to captain, in 1862 and 1864; the latter most likely was actually to major. He retired in 1902 as a brigadier general. (Heitman, 1:220) BLAINE, John Ewing (d. 1887), entered the army in 1868 as a captain in the Quarter Master Department, and resigned two years later. He reentered as a paymaster major in 1875, and held that


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position at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:222) BRACKETT, General. Because of the service record, Bourke probably means Albert Gallatin Brackett (d. 1896), although Heitman does not list a brevet as general. Brackett joined the army as second lieutenant of a Volunteer Infantry unit in 1847, and was mustered out the following year. In 1855, he was appointed captain of the 2nd Cavalry, renumbered 5th in 1861. He served in the Volunteers from 1861 to 1864, while retaining the active rank of major of the 1st Cavalry. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Cavalry in 1868, and colonel of the 3rd Cavalry in 1879. He retired in 1891. (Heitman, 1:237) BRADLEY, Luther Prentice (1822–1910), native of Connecticut, was appointed lieutenant colonel of a Volunteer regiment in 1861, rising to brigadier general by 1864. In 1866, he entered the Regular Army as lieutenant colonel of the 27th Infantry. He commanded Fort C. F. Smith, Montana, during the Red Cloud War. As lieutenant colonel of the 9th Infantry, he was in command of Camp Robinson, Nebraska, when Crazy Horse was killed there in 1877. Bradley was appointed colonel of the 3rd Infantry in 1879, and was commander of the Military District of New Mexico in 1881, during the Cibicue outbreak in Arizona. He took troops to reinforce Fort Apache, Arizona, and commanded a special military district created to deal with the crisis. When New Mexico was attached to the Department of Arizona during the Geronimo War, Bradley served under Crook in an effort to contain the raiding. He retired in 1886. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:157; Heitman, 1:239) BRECK, General, probably refers to Samuel Breck of Massachusetts, who entered West Point in 1851, and upon graduation was posted to the 1st Artillery. He was promoted to first lieutenant at the outbreak of the Civil War, and finished the war with brevets to brigadier general. He held the rank of colonel and assistant adjutant general at the time of his retirement in 1898. (Heitman1:241–42) BREWSTER, William Barton, of Pennsylvania, entered the army as assistant surgeon in 1879, and resigned in 1884. (Heitman, 1:244) BURKE, Daniel Webster (1841–1911), native of Connecticut, enlisted in the 2nd Infantry in 1858, serving in Minnesota, Dakota, and Nebraska. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1862, serving with distinction in the Civil War. In 1876, he was captain

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of the 14th Infantry, serving in Crook’s campaigns. He commanded Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, at the Spotted Tail Agency, when Crazy Horse surrendered, and it was at his suggestion that Crazy Horse went to Camp Robinson, where he was killed. Burke, however, had no knowledge of any plans to confine Crazy Horse at Robinson. He retired in 1899 as brigadier general. See also CLARK, William Philo; CRAZY HORSE. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:192–93) BURNS, James (ca.1836–74), native of Ireland, enlisted in the army in 1858. He was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry in 1865, eventually rising to the rank of captain in 1872. Crook recommended Burns for three brevets after actions resulting in the surrender of some two hundred Yavapais. Burns suffered from an unspecified pulmonary disease, and died of a lung hemorrhage on August 15, 1874. Bourke sometimes spelled it “Byrnes.” (Altshuler, 1991, 50; O’Neal, 65–66; Heitman, 1:265) BYRNE, Thomas “Old Tommie” (c. 1827–81), native of Ireland, enlisted in the 2nd Infantry in Philadelphia in 1854. He was commissioned second lieutenant in 1862, and was breveted for gallantry at Gettysburg. He was a captain at the time of his reassignment to the 12th Infantry in 1871. He died at Fort Mojave in 1881. (Altshuler, 1991, 51–52; Heitman, 1:272). CARLTON, Caleb Henry (1836–1923), native of Ohio, was an 1859 graduate of West Point. He was appointed second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry, and by 1862 had risen to captain. During the Civil War he served as colonel of the Volunteers and earned two brevets. Returning to the Regular Army, he served at Forts Laramie and Fetterman from 1867 to 1869, when he was dropped under the Army Reduction Acts. A year later, he was appointed to the 10th Cavalry at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and in 1876 was promoted to major of the 3rd Cavalry and posted to Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. He served in Arizona from 1882 to 1885, and later was posted to Texas. He retired as brigadier general on June 30, 1897. Bourke often spelled his name as “Carleton.” (Altshuler, 1991, 58) CARPENTER, William Lewis (1844–98), native of New York, enlisted in the 2nd Artillery in 1864. He was promoted to second lieutenant and assigned to the 9th Infantry in 1867, and promoted to first lieutenant in 1873. He served on survey and scientific expeditions, including to the Bighorn Mountains, and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


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He later served in Arizona, where he was promoted to captain. (Altshuler, 1991, 58–59) CARR, Camillo Casatti Cadmus (1842–1914), native of Virginia, he joined the 1st Cavalry in 1862, and was commissioned as second lieutenant the following year. He served with distinction during the Civil War. In 1866, he went to Fort McDowell, Arizona. After service elsewhere, he returned to Arizona as captain of Company I, 1st Cavalry, and was recommended for a brevet for gallantry in the 1872–73 winter campaign. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1903, and commanded the Department of Dakota until he retired in 1906. His memoirs, A Cavalryman in Indian Country, edited by Dan L. Thrapp, were published in 1974. (Altshuler, 1991, 59; Heitman, 1:284) CARROL, Samuel Sprigg (1832–93), graduated from West Point in 1856. After service on the frontier and at West Point, he was appointed colonel of Volunteers in 1861. He served with distinction in the Civil War, receiving a brevet to brigadier general of Volunteers. After the war he served as acting assistant inspector general of the Military Division of the Atlantic. He was retired on disability as major general in 1869. (Warner, 73) CARTER, Robert Goldthwaite (1845–1936), of Maine, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1862, serving until 1864. He entered West Point the following year, and upon graduation was posted to the 4th Cavalry in Texas. He served under Ranald Mackenzie, receiving a serious leg injury during a fight on the upper Brazos River in 1871. He subsequently received the Medal of Honor for this action, but the leg forced his retirement on disability in 1876. He wrote various books and magazine articles, the most famous of which is On the Border with Mackenzie, published in 1935 when Carter was ninety. He never achieved the success that Bourke did, however. See also MACKENZIE, Ranald Slidell. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:236) CHAMBERS, William. Heitman does not list a William Chambers with the Quarter Master Department. CHASE, George Nathan, entered West Point in 1873, and upon graduation was posted to the 1st Infantry. A month later, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. He was first lieutenant at the time of his retirement in 1891. (Heitman, 1:297) CHERRY, Samuel Austin, of Indiana, entered West Point in 1870, and upon graduation was appointed second lieutenant of the 23rd

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Infantry. He transferred to the 5th Cavalry on July 28, 1876. He was murdered by a soldier on May 11, 1881. (Heitman, 1:298) CLARK, William Philo (1845–84), which Bourke often spelled “Clarke,” was a native of New York. He graduated from West Point in 1868, and was appointed second lieutenant, 2nd Cavalry, at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. He served on General Crook’s staff in 1876 and 1877, figuring prominently in the Great Sioux War, particularly with events surrounding Crazy Horse’s death. Much of the acrimony between Clark and Crazy Horse that set the event into motion appears to have stemmed from Frank Grouard’s mistranslation of a remark by Crazy Horse. During the Cheyenne Outbreak of 1878–79, Clark managed to round up a large band without bloodshed. His book, Indian Sign Language, remains definitive. He also wrote an account of Crazy Horse’s death, which was edited by Robert A. Clark, and published in The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse, in 1976. See also BURKE, Daniel Webster; CRAZY HORSE. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:278; Robinson, 1995, 337–38) CLIFT, Emory White (d. 1886), entered the army as first lieutenant of the 13th Infantry. In 1864, he was promoted to captain, a rank he still held at the time of his retirement twenty years later. (Heitman, 1:310). COATES, Edwin Mortimer, was commissioned first lieutenant of the Volunteers in 1861, but resigned to accept a commission as second lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry. At the end of the Civil War, he was captain. He retired in 1900 as colonel of the 7th Infantry. Bourke refers to him as “Major Coates,” but no such brevet appears on his record. (Heitman, 1:312) COGSWELL, Milton (d. 1882), whose name Bourke spelled Coggswell, native of Indiana, entered West Point in 1845, and upon graduating was breveted to second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. He was named second lieutenant of the 8th Infantry in 1849. During the Civil War, he served as colonel of Volunteers. He retired as colonel of the 21st Infantry in 1871. (Heitman, 1:814–15) COLEMAN, Frederick William (d. 1902), of New York, entered the army as captain of Volunteers in 1862. He served with distinction during the Civil War, and was breveted to major prior to his honorable discharge in 1864. Two years later, he was commissioned lieutenant in the 15th Infantry. He was promoted to captain in 1867. He resigned in 1874. (Heitman, 1:316)


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CONDEN. Heitman does not list a surgeon named Conden, Condon, or Congdon. CONLINE, John, enlisted as a private in the Volunteers in 1861. He entered West Point in 1863, and upon graduation was posted to the 9th Cavalry. He was breveted to captain for gallantry against Indians in New Mexico in 1880, and retired in 1891 with the active rank of captain. (Heitman, 1:321) COOKE, George Frederick, of Ohio, whose name Bourke spelled “Cook,” was commissioned second lieutenant of the 15th Infantry in 1875, and promoted to first lieutenant in 1879. He was a major as of 1901. (Heitman, 1:324) CORBIN, Henry Clarke, of Ohio, was commissioned as second lieutenant of Volunteers in 1862. He resigned in 1863 to accept a position as major of the 14th U.S. Colored Infantry, and was mustered out in 1866 as colonel of the 14th and brevet brigadier general of Volunteers. He then accepted a commission as second lieutenant of the 17th Infantry, and rose through the grades. In 1900, he was appointed major general and adjutant general of the army. (Heitman, 1:327) CORNISH, George Anthony, of Alabama, entered West Point in 1869, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 15th Infantry. He rose through the grades, and in 1902 was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 26th Infantry. (Heitman,1:328) CRAIG, Henry Knox (d. 1869), of Pennsylvania, was commissioned first lieutenant of the 2nd Artillery in 1812. He rose through the grades, joining the Bureau of Ordnance as major in 1832. He was breveted to lieutenant colonel for gallant and meritorious service in the Mexican War, and was promoted to colonel in 1851. He served as chief of Ordnance from 1851 to 1861. He retired in 1863. (Heitman, 1:333) CRAWFORD, Emmet (1844–86), native of Pennsylvania, enlisted as a Volunteer during the Civil War and was mustered out as first lieutenant. In 1866, he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 27th Infantry. With the consolidation of regiments, he was assigned to the 3rd Cavalry at Camp Verde in 1871, moving with the regiment to the Platte where he served in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. Crawford was promoted to captain in 1879, and in 1882 was assigned to Camp Thomas, Arizona. Upon Crook’s return to Arizona, he assigned Crawford as commander of Indian Scouts,

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and military superintendent at San Carlos. During the Geronimo Campaign, he was killed in a skirmish with Mexican militia. See also THREE BEARS. (Altshuler, 1991, 84–85; O’Neal, 95–96) CRONKHITE, Henry Maclean, served as a private in the Volunteers during the Civil War, and in 1867 was appointed assistant surgeon. He was surgeon major on his retirement in 1890. (Heitman, 1:340) DAHLGREN, John Adolphus (1809–70), of Philadelphia, apprenticed in the navy as a midshipman in 1826. After passing his examinations, and spending time with mundane assignments, he was posted to the Coast Survey in 1834. He also excelled in ordnance and invented the Dahlgren gun, used extensively as both a naval and a coastal defense weapon during the Civil War. During the Civil War, he first commanded the Washington Navy Yard, and later the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance at the time of his death. (Schneller) DANA, James Jackson (1821–98), of Massachusetts, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 4th Artillery in 1855. He served on the frontier, and then with the Quarter Master Department in the Army of the Potomac. He was promoted to the active rank of major in 1867, serving as quartermaster of the Departments of the Lakes, Arizona, and the South, and the District of New Mexico. He retired as lieutenant colonel in 1885. (Altshuler, 1991, 92–93) DARR, Francis (d. 1895), of Ohio, was commissioned first lieutenant of Volunteers in 1861. He served with distinction during the Civil War, receiving brevets to brigadier general. He resigned in 1864. (Heitman, 1:354) DAVIS, George Breckenridge (1847–1914), of Massachusetts, entered the Volunteers as a sergeant in 1863, and was mustered out as first lieutenant. He entered West Point, and graduated in 1871, after which he was posted to Fort D. A. Russell as second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry. He served in Arizona from 1872 to 1873, when he was assigned to the academy as assistant professor. Davis was promoted to first lieutenant in 1877, and rejoined his regiment in the Platte. In 1883, he returned to the academy as principal assistant professor of history, geography, and ethics, and assistant professor of law, and wrote Outlines of International Law. He was promoted to captain in 1888, and after service in the Indian Territory, was promoted to major and judge advocate. Later he served for twelve


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years as judge advocate general of the army. He was a major general at the time of his retirement in 1911. (Altshuler, 1991, 95) DAVIS, George Whitefield (1839–1918), of Connecticut, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was commissioned in April 1862. He finished the Civil War as a major of Volunteers, and in 1867 was appointed captain in the 14th Infantry, and was posted to Fort McPherson (later Camp Date Creek), Arizona. He later was chosen to devise a reinforcement for the foundations of the Washington Monument. He retired as major general in 1903, and served as governor of the Canal Zone for the next two years. (Altshuler, 1991, 96–97) De COURCEY, Ferdinand Edwin, of Ireland, enlisted as a private in the 2nd Infantry in 1857, and by 1861 had risen to sergeant. In 1861, he was appointed second lieutenant, and subsequently to first lieutenant. He was promoted to captain in 1865. He retired as major in 1891. Although Bourke referred to him as “colonel,” Heitman does not list a brevet rank. (Heitman, 1:364) De JAÑON, PATRICE (d. 1892), originally from South America, joined the faculty of West Point as sword master in 1846, and was named professor in 1857. He retired with the pay of colonel in 1882. (Heitman, 1:365) DELANEY, Hayden (1845–90), native of Ohio, served as an enlisted man in the Volunteers during the Civil War. He was appointed second lieutenant of the 9th Infantry in 1867, and was breveted for service against the Paiute Indians of Oregon in 1868. He was breveted a second time for action in Col. Ranald Mackenzie’s attack on the Cheyennes on November 25, 1876, during Crook’s Powder River Expedition in Wyoming. He was promoted to captain in 1889, but suffered from lung hemorrhages. He died during sick leave. (Altshuler, 1991, 100; Bourke, 390–92) De WITT, Calvin, of Pennsylvania, served as a captain in the Volunteers from 1861 to 1863. In 1867, he was appointed assistant surgeon, and promoted to surgeon major in 1885. In 1901, he became colonel and assistant surgeon general. (Heitman, 1: 371) DODD, George Allen (1852–1925), of Pennsylvania, was an 1876 graduate of West Point. He was posted to Wyoming as second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry, and served in Nebraska and Dakota. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1880, and served in the Apache campaigns in Arizona in the 1880s. He later served in the SpanishAmerican War and Philippine Insurrection, and during Mexican

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border disturbances. He retired in 1916 as brigadier general. (Altshuler, 1991, 103–4) DODGE, Frederick Leighton (d. 1891), native of New Hampshire, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1862, and was appointed first lieutenant in 1865. In 1867, he was named second lieutenant of the 23rd Infantry in the Department of the Columbia. He was transferred to Fort Whipple, Arizona, in 1872, and promoted to first lieutenant a year later. His regiment transferred to the Department of the Platte in 1874. In 1889, he suffered a mental breakdown, and retired two years later. A few months after his retirement, he committed suicide. (Altshuler, 1991, 105) DODGE, Richard Irving (1827–95), 1848 graduate of West Point, was a grand-nephew of Washington Irving who shared Irving’s literary bent. Like Bourke, Dodge was a prolific diarist and observer as well as a naturalist, publishing several books on western wildlife and on Indian culture. Perhaps his best known are The Black Hills: A Minute Description of the Routes, Scenery, Soil, Climate, Timber, Gold, Geology, Zoology, etc. (1876), and Our Wild Indians: Thirty Three Years’ Personal Experience Among the Red Men of the Great West (1882). He spent part of the period prior to the Civil War on the Texas frontier. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who transferred to the Volunteers to attain advancement during the war, Dodge remained in the Regular service, although he was breveted to colonel for faithful and meritorious service in the organization of the Volunteer armies. Promoted to the active rank of major in 1864, he spent much of the postwar era on the frontier. He was named lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Infantry in 1873, and promoted to colonel and aide-de-camp to General Sherman in 1882. He retired in 1891. Aside from writing a definitive biography, Wayne R. Kime has edited Dodge’s book, The Plains of North America and Their Inhabitants (1989), as well as four volumes comprising his service journals from 1875 to 1883. For all his work, it is remarkable that Dodge has received little mention in biographical encyclopedias. (Heitman, 1:377) DREW, George Augustus (1832–1921), native of Michigan, was appointed a captain of Volunteers in 1862, and promoted to major the following year. He was breveted for distinguished service in the Shenandoah and against Richmond. He was named second lieutenant of the 10th Infantry in 1866, and promoted to first lieutenant


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in 1868. A year later, he was reassigned to the 3rd Cavalry. He was transferred to Camp Bowie in 1871, and to the Department of the Platte the same year. He served as acting assistant quartermaster for the Big Horn Expedition under Reynolds in 1876. He was promoted to captain in March 1879, and retired with that rank in 1896, but was advanced to major in 1904. (Heitman, 1:383; Altshuler, 1991, 108–9) DRUM, Richard Coulter, of Pennsylvania, entered the Volunteers in December 1846, and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Regular Army two months later. He served with distinction in the Mexican War and Civil War, finishing the latter with a brevet to brigadier general for service in the Adjutant General’s Department. In 1880, he was appointed brigadier general and adjutant general. He retired in 1889. (Heitman, 1:384) DUCAT, Arthur Charles (1856–1913),of Illinois, was an 1879 graduate of West Point. Initially assigned to the 11th Infantry, he transferred to the 3rd Cavalry, serving in Wyoming until 1882, when he was posted to Arizona. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1885, and served various posts in Texas and the Indian Territory. A substantial gain in weight disqualified him for cavalry service, and he transferred to the 24th Infantry. He served in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection. He was a colonel assigned to recruiting duty at the time of his death. (Altshuler, 1991, 111–12) DUNCAN, General. Probably Samuel Augustus Duncan (d. 1895) who was breveted to major general of Volunteers for gallant and meritorious service during the Civil War. He was mustered out in 1866. (Heitman, 1:388) DUNCAN, R. M. C. Heitman does not list any Lieutenant Duncan with the 6th Infantry in the second decade of the nineteenth century. DUTTON, Clarence Edward, of Connecticut, entered the army as first lieutenant of Volunteers in 1862. In 1864, he was commissioned as second lieutenant of the Ordnance Corps. At the time Bourke knew him, he was captain. Dutton retired as major in 1901. (Heitman, 1:391) EARNEST, Cyrus A. (1840–93), of Ohio, enlisted in the Volunteers in April 1861, and was commissioned second lieutenant the following December. He earned several brevets and was mustered out as captain. In 1867, he was commissioned second lieutenant

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of the 33rd Infantry, back dated to 1866, and posted to the 8th Infantry under the Army Reduction Act of 1869. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1872, and posted to Fort Yuma two years later. In 1886, he was promoted to captain. He died at Fort Niobrara. (Altshuler, 1991, 116) EMMET, William Temple, of New York, entered West Point in 1873, and upon graduation was appointed second lieutenant of the 9th Cavalry. He received the Medal of Honor for distinguished gallantry in a fight with Indians at Las Animas Canyon, New Mexico, in 1879. He resigned in 1891, but reentered the service as an officer of Volunteers during the Spanish-American War. He was honorably mustered out as a major in 1899. (Heitman, 1:405) ERWIN, James Brailsford (1856–1924), of Georgia, was an 1880 graduate of West Point, who was posted to the 4th Cavalry at Fort Hays, Kansas. In 1884, he was sent to Arizona, and served there and elsewhere in the West. By 1896, he had been promoted to captain and served as acting superintendent of Yellowstone National Park in 1896–97. He also served in the Philippine Insurrection, was active in San Francisco earthquake relief, and received the Silver Star for gallantry during the Punitive Expedition to Mexico in 1916. He served in the First World War and again on the Mexican border. He retired as colonel, but was posthumously appointed brigadier general. (Altshuler, 1991, 122) FLINT, General. Heitman does not list a general named Flint, either by active rank or by brevet. Bourke probably means Franklin Foster Flint (d. 1891), who entered the academy in 1837, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 6th Infantry. He rose through the grades, becoming colonel of the 4th Infantry in 1868. Bourke would have known him in that capacity. He retired in 1882. (Heitman, 1:425) FOOTE, Morris Cooper, native of New York, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was promoted to lieutenant the following year. In 1866, he was appointed second lieutenant of the 9th Infantry, and in 1868, to first lieutenant. He was adjutant on the Dodge-Jenney Black Hills Expedition, and later served as regimental adjutant of the 9th from 1879 to 1883. He retired as brigadier general in 1903. (Heitman, 1:427) FORBUSH, William Curtis (1845–1906), of Massachusetts, was an 1868 graduate of West Point. He was posted to the 5th Cavalry


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at Fort Hays, Kansas, serving there and in Arizona. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1870, and was commended in general orders during Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in 1876. Three years later, he was promoted to captain. He served during the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, and retired on disability in 1903 as colonel of the 12th Cavalry. (Altshuler, 1991, 132) FORSYTH, George Alexander “Sandy” (1837–1915), is best remembered for holding out with fifty men during a six-day siege by some 750 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at Beecher’s Island, Colorado, in 1868. A native of Illinois, he enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was appointed first lieutenant later that year. He served as an aide to Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, and was breveted to brigadier general. In 1866, he was appointed major of the 9th Cavalry. After serving intermittently as secretary and aide to General Sheridan between 1869 and 1881, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 4th Cavalry. He served in Arizona from 1884 to 1887. A year later, he was suspended for three years on half pay for financial irregularities. He retired in 1890, and wrote two books, The Story of the Soldier and Thrilling Days of Army Life. (Altshuler, 1991, 133–34; Lamar, 381; Thrapp, 1991, 1:509–10) FOSTER, James Evans Heron (1848–83), native of Pennsylvania, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1864 and was discharged in 1865. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the 3rd Cavalry in 1873, and distinguished himself in the Rosebud Fight. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1879, but tuberculosis forced him onto the inactive list in 1881. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:511) FUREY, John Vincent, of New York, enlisted as a private in the Volunteers in 1861. Taking a discharge in 1862, he reentered the Volunteers two years later as quartermaster captain. He was breveted to major of the Volunteers for meritorious service in the Quarter Master Department during the Civil War. Furey was appointed captain and assistant quartermaster of the Regular Army in 1867. Although Altshuler (Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue) does not list him among the officers who served in Arizona, he was Crook’s quartermaster both there and later in the Platte. He retired in 1903 as brigadier general. (Heitman, 1:441) GALE, John (d. 1830), of New Hampshire, entered the army as a surgeon’s mate of the 23rd Infantry in 1812, and was named sur-

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geon of the 31st Infantry in 1814. He was discharged in June 1815, but reinstated as surgeon’s mate of the 3rd Infantry the following September. He became surgeon of the Mounted Rifles in 1818, and surgeon major in 1821. (Heitman, 1:443) GAULT. Heitman does not list a captain of the 6th Infantry named Gault or Galt. GENTRY, William Thomas (d. 1885), of Indiana, entered West Point in 1852, and upon graduation was breveted to second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, he was promoted to first lieutenant of the 17th Infantry. He rose through the grades and finished the war as a brevet lieutenant colonel. In 1869, he was assigned to the 19th Infantry with his active rank of captain, and was promoted to major of the 9th Infantry in 1879. He was lieutenant colonel of the 25th Infantry at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:451) GILMORE, Alexander (d. 1894), of New Jersey, was appointed chaplain in 1870, and was post chaplain at Fort Whipple at the time of Bourke’s writing. He retired in 1879. (Heitman, 1:458) GOLDMAN, Henry Joseph, native of Germany, entered West Point in 1873, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry. He remained with the regiment and was captain as of 1903. (Heitman, 1:462) GODDARD, Vinton Augustus (d. 1877), of New York, entered West Point in 1867, and upon graduation was posted to the 6th Cavalry. He resigned in January 1873, but reentered the army the following September as second lieutenant of the 4th Artillery. (Heitman, 1:461) GOODWIN, Millard Fillmore, entered West Point in 1867, and upon graduation was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 9th Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1879, and served as regimental quartermaster from 1881 to 1883. He resigned in August 1883. (Heitman, 1:464) GOODWIN, William Percey (d. 1899), entered the army as a second lieutenant of the 14th Infantry in 1876. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1889, and captain in 1894. He retired in 1898. (Heitman, 1: 464) GRANT, Frederick Dent (1850–1912), eldest son of General and President U.S. Grant, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, when his father was posted there. He entered West Point in 1866, and upon gradu-


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ation served as aide-de-camp to General Sherman. In 1872, he was assigned to the 4th Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1876, but from 1873 to 1881 served as ADC to General Sheridan with the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel. He accompanied George Armstrong Custer on the Black Hills Expedition in 1874, and served in the Bannock War and the Victorio Campaign. Grant resigned in 1881 to help his father with his memoirs. He served as minister to Austria from 1889 to 1893. He reentered the army in the Spanish-American War. He was appointed brigadier general of Volunteers in 1898, and in the Regular Army in 1901. (Wikipedia; Heitman, 1:470) GREELY, Adolphus Washington (1844–1935), is best known for his ill-fated Arctic expedition of 1881–84. On the Powder River Expedition, however, he was first lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry. A native of Massachusetts, Greely enlisted in a Volunteer unit with the outbreak of the Civil War. He served with distinction, rising from private to brevet major. After the war, he was appointed second lieutenant of the 36th Infantry, and in 1873 was promoted to first lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry. In 1881, Greely was placed in command of an expedition to construct a polar scientific station in Greenland, part of an international chain of thirteen circumpolar stations in which the United States participated. The expedition landed in 1881, but by late 1883, no supply ship had arrived. By the time the expedition was rescued in mid-1884, only six had survived. In 1886, Greely was promoted to captain, and the following year was jumped four grades to brigadier general and chief signal officer, the first Union Army private to be appointed general. He headed the U.S. Weather Service until it was transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1891, and remained chief signal officer until 1906. He retired in 1908. Greely was a founder and trustee of the National Geographic Society. On his ninety-first birthday, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, by special act of Congress, for his heroic leadership of the Arctic expedition. See also LOCKWOOD, James Booth. (Johnson and Malone, 21:352–55) GREEN, Frank, probably refers to Francis Vinton Greene, who entered West Point in 1866, and upon graduation was posted to the 4th Artillery as a second lieutenant. He transferred to the Engineers in 1872, was promoted to first lieutenant in 1874, and captain in 1883. He resigned in 1886, but reentered the army as a colonel of Vol-

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unteers in the Spanish-American War. He was honorably discharged as a major general of Volunteers in 1899. (Heitman, 1:474–75) GREGORY, James Fingal (d. 1897), of New York, was engineer officer of General Sheridan’s staff at the time of Bourke’s writing. He entered West Point in 1861, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 5th Artillery. In 1866, he transferred to the Engineers, with promotion to first lieutenant. He became captain in 1874, and served as lieutenant colonel/aide-de-camp to Sheridan from 1881 to 1885. He held the active rank of major in the Engineers at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:477) GRIMES, Edward B. (d. 1883), entered the army as a captain and assistant quartermaster of Volunteers in 1862. He served with distinction in the Civil War, and was breveted to major. After the war, he was commissioned captain and assistant quartermaster of the Regular Army. He was a major at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:480) GUTHRIE, John Brandon (d. 1900), of Ohio, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was commissioned second lieutenant in 1862. He was mustered out in 1864. Two years later, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 13th Infantry, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1871 and to captain in 1882. He was a major at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:484) GWYN, Thomas P., possibly refers to Thomas Page Gwynne (d. 1861), of Virginia, who was at West Point from 1813 to 1818. In 1820, he was appointed second lieutenant of the 1st Infantry, and worked his way up through the grades, becoming major of the 6th Infantry in 1847. He held the same rank in the 5th Infantry at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:485) HAINES, General, probably refers to Thomas Jefferson Haines (d. 1883) of New Hampshire, who entered West Point in 1845. He served with distinction in the Civil War, and was honorably mustered out as major of the commissary service, with a brevet to brigadier general. (Heitman, 1:486) HAMILTON, John Morrison (1839–98), native of Ontario, enlisted as a Volunteer in New York in 1861. He attained the rank of first lieutenant with a brevet to captain during the Civil War. In 1867, he was commissioned as captain of the 39th Infantry in 1867. In 1870, he was assigned to the 5th Cavalry, and was posted to Camp McDowell, Arizona, in January 1872. He was breveted to major for


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gallantry in action against the Tonto Apaches in the foothills of the Tortilla Mountains on January 16, 1873. After the 5th was reassigned to the Department of the Platte in 1876, he participated in Col. Ranald Mackenzie’s roundup of Red Cloud’s band at Chadron Creek, Nebraska, and the attack on the Cheyenne camp during Crook’s Powder River Expedition. He was lieutenant colonel of the 9th Cavalry when he was killed in the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba in 1898. (Altshuler, 1991, 152–53; O’Neal, 130–31; Heitman, 1:493) HATCH, John Porter (1822–1901), of New York, was an 1845 graduate of West Point, and served in the Mounted Rifles during the Mexican War. He served throughout the West during the antebellum years, and in the Civil War was a brigadier general of Volunteers. At the close of the war his active rank was major of the 4th Cavalry. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 5th Cavalry in 1873, later transferred to the 4th Cavalry, and returned as colonel of the 2nd Cavalry in 1886. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:630) HAWKINS, John Parker (1830–1914), of Indiana, was brotherin-law of Brig. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, who was killed in the Modoc War in 1873. An 1852 graduate of West Point, Hawkins was posted to the 6th Infantry, serving primarily in the Northwest until the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war he served first in the Commissary Department, and later in command of black troops. He finished the war with brevets to major general, both in the Regular Army and Volunteers. He then reverted to the active rank of captain in the Subsistence Department, and was promoted to major in 1874. He served as commissary in various stations including Department of the Platte, ultimately retiring as brigadier general and commissary general of subsistence in 1894. (Warner, 218–19) HAZEN, William Babcock (1830–87), an 1855 graduate of West Point, served with distinction against the Indians in California, Oregon, and Texas, and was seriously wounded in action with Comanches in 1859. This wound, aggravated by diabetes, ultimately caused his death almost thirty years later. He was breveted to major general for his service in the Civil War. In 1867, he was assigned to the Southern Military District in charge of the Indian tribes in Kansas and Oklahoma. As colonel of the 6th Infantry, he commanded Fort Buford, North Dakota, from 1872 to 1877. In 1880, he was promoted to brigadier general and chief of the Army Signal Corps. An outspoken critic and reformer of the army system, he made

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many enemies. (O’Neal, 142–44; Kroeker) HOFFMAN, William, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and finished the Civil War as captain. In 1866, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 11th Infantry. At the time Bourke knew him, he was first lieutenant. He retired as a captain in 1894. (Heitman, 1:535) HOFFMAN, William Edwin, entered the service as first lieutenant of Volunteers in 1862, and was promoted to captain a year later. In 1867, he was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 31st Infantry, and in 1870, was assigned to the 4th Infantry. He retired as captain in 1889. (Heitman, 1:535) HOLDEN, Edward Singleton, of Missouri, entered West Point in 1866, and upon graduation was posted to the 4th Artillery. He transferred to the Engineers in 1872, and resigned the following year to accept a position at the Naval Observatory. (Heitman, 1:537) HOLMES, R. Heitman does not list a Lt. R. Holmes as a regimental quartermaster. HOWARD, Oliver Otis (1830–1909), native of Maine, graduated from Bowdoin College and West Point and spent more than half his antebellum service at West Point. Known as “the praying general,” he was a devout Congregationalist, and at one point considered resigning from the army to enter the ministry. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he resigned his commission as first lieutenant in the Regular Army, and became a colonel of Volunteers, and was breveted to brigadier general in September 1861. He lost his right arm in the Battle of Seven Pines. He finished the war as major general of Volunteers, and brevet major general of the Regular Army with the active rank of brigadier general. He headed the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands from 1865 to 1872, after which he was a appointed special Indian commissioner. Among his accomplishments was negotiating an end to the Cochise War. He later served as commander of the Department of Columbia, where his high-handedness helped provoke the Nez Percé War. After a period as superintendent of West Point and commander of the Department of the Platte, he was promoted to major general in command of the Military Division of the Pacific, and subsequently the Military Division of the Atlantic. He retired in 1894. He also founded Howard University, serving as its first president. See also COCHISE; JOSEPH. (Warner, 237–38; Thrapp, 1991, 2:683–84)


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HOWELL, William T. (d. 1883), of Pennsylvania, entered the Volunteers as quartermaster captain in 1863, and was named to the same rank in the department in the Regular Army in 1865. He received brevets to major in the Regular Army and lieutenant colonel of the Volunteers. He retired in 1882, and drowned a year later. (Heitman, 1:548) HUGGINS, Eli Lundy (1842–1929), entered the army as a Volunteer in 1864, and was mustered out as first lieutenant after the end of the Civil War. In February 1866, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Artillery, and promoted to first lieutenant the following December. He transferred to the 2nd Cavalry and was promoted to captain in 1879. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action against the Oglalas near O’Fallons Creek, Montana, in 1880. Huggins served as Miles’ aide-de-camp. He distinguished himself in the Spanish-American War, and retired as a brigadier general in 1903. (Heitman, 1:552; Wooster) HUNTER, David D. (1802–86), native of Washington, D.C., was an 1822 graduate of West Point. He was posted in what was then the frontier station of Chicago, where he resigned in 1836 to go into land speculation. Six years later, he reentered the army as paymaster major. He befriended Abraham Lincoln, which led to his appointment as general of Volunteers. After a spotty war record, he presided over the court-martial that sent those accused of participating in the Lincoln assassination to the gallows. He was breveted to brigadier general and major general of the Regular Army, and retired in 1866 as colonel of the Cavalry. (Warner, 244) HUNTER, George King (1855–1940), native of Ohio, was an 1877 graduate of West Point. He was posted to the 3rd Cavalry in Texas in December 1877, and transferred to Wyoming the following month. Promoted to first lieutenant, he was sent to Fort Bowie, Arizona, in 1882, and participated in the Apache campaigns. He later served with distinction in the Spanish-American War and in the Philippine Insurrection. He retired in 1918 as colonel, but in 1930, was advanced on the retired list to brigadier general. (Altshuler, 1991, 173–74) HUNTINGTON, David Lowe (d. 1899), was appointed assistant surgeon in 1862, and finished the Civil War with brevets to lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to surgeon major in 1877, and retired in 1898 as lieutenant colonel in the Department of the Surgeon

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General. (Heitman, 1:558) INGALLS, Rufus (1818–93), of Maine, was an 1843 graduate of West Point who served with distinction in both the Mexican and Civil Wars. He finished the latter as major general of Volunteers, and in 1866, was appointed colonel and assistant quartermaster general. He served as chief quartermaster for the Military Division of the Pacific and the Military Division of the Missouri. He retired in 1883 as brigadier general and quartermaster general of the army. (Warner, 245–46) JONES, William Albert, entered West Point in 1860, and upon graduation was commissioned first lieutenant of the Engineers. He was promoted to captain in 1867. In 1873, he led a military survey of Yellowstone National Park. In 1903, he was colonel of the Engineers. (Heitman, 1:583) JOHNSON, John Burgess (1847–96), native of Massachusetts, was named second lieutenant of the 6th U.S. Colored Infantry in 1863. In 1870, he joined the 3rd Cavalry as first lieutenant in Arizona, remaining there until his regiment was withdrawn in 1871. He participated in Crook’s expeditions of 1876. He was a captain at the time of his death. (Altshuler, 1991, 181) JORDAN, Allan (d. 1882), of South Carolina, was an 1879 graduate of West Point. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd Cavalry, and posted to the Department of the Platte. In 1882, his company was transferred to Arizona, where he died during a winter hunting trip, apparently of exposure. (Altshuler, 1991, 183) JORDAN, William Henry, of Ohio, entered West Point in 1855, and upon graduation was breveted to second lieutenant of the 2nd Infantry. He was commissioned second lieutenant of the 9th Infantry in 1861, and by the end of the Civil War was major of the 8th California Infantry. In Regular Army service he had risen to captain of the 9th Infantry, and at the time of Bourke’s writing, commanded Camp Robinson. He retired in 1891 as colonel of the 19th Infantry. (Heitman, 1:584) KEARNY, Stephen Watts (1794–1848), of New Jersey, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 13th Infantry in 1813. He served with distinction in the War of 1812. After the war he was posted to the frontier, where he spent much of the remainder of his career, exploring and establishing new military posts as the line of settlement expanded. During the Mexican War, he secured New Mexico,


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and proceeded to California, where he superseded John C. Frémont, much to the latter’s disgust. Kearny was a brevet major general at the time of his death. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:762–63) KENDRICK, Henry Lane (d. 1891), of New Hampshire, entered West Point in 1831, and upon graduation, was posted to the 2nd Infantry as a brevet second lieutenant. In 1836, he was given the active rank of second lieutenant and transferred to the 2nd Artillery. He served with distinction during the Mexican War and was breveted to major. In 1857, he was appointed professor of chemistry and mineralogy at West Point, where he served until his retirement with pay of a colonel in 1880. (Bourke, Diary, 40:1435; Heitman, 1:591–92) KENNINGTON, James (d. 1897), of Ireland, enlisted in the 11th Infantry in 1851. In 1862, he was commissioned second lieutenant, and promoted to first lieutenant in 1864. He received brevets as first lieutenant and captain during the Civil War. In 1870, he was assigned to the 14th Infantry. He was captain at the time of his retirement in 1887. (Heitman, 1:593) KIMBALL, William Augustus, attended West Point in 1872–73. In 1876, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 14th Infantry. He retired a captain in 1894. (Heitman, 1:598) KING, Charles (1844–1933), soldier and author, perhaps has the record for serving over a longer period of time than any soldier in the history of the United States military. He was in virtually every conflict in which the United States was involved, from the Civil War through the First World War. A native of New York, he grew up in Wisconsin. With the outbreak of the Civil War, King, then sixteen, volunteered as an orderly to his father, Brig. Gen. Rufus King. He subsequently was appointed to West Point, and upon graduation in 1866, was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 1st Artillery. Upon promotion to first lieutenant in 1870, he transferred to the 5th Cavalry. King scouted against the Apaches in Arizona, distinguishing himself in the fights at Diamond Butte and Sunset Pass. He served during the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in 1876. Upon promotion to captain in 1879, he was retired on disability from an old wound received in Arizona. He then became a popular novelist and playwright, and was known as “America’s Kipling” for his stories of army life. When the Spanish-American War broke out, King was appointed brigadier general of Volunteers, and commanded

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the District of Hawaii. He later served in the Philippines, and was adjutant general of the Wisconsin National Guard. At present, most of King’s writings have been forgotten. However, his 1890 book, Campaigning With Crook, remains a standard for the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. (Altshuler, 1991, 192–93; King, 1890; Russell, Campaigning With King) KING, John Haskell (1820–88), was appointed second lieutenant of the 1st Infantry at the age of seventeen. He served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War, and was in Texas at the outbreak of the Civil War. He finished the Civil War with brevets to major general in the Regular Army and Volunteers. After the war, he was appointed colonel of the 9th Infantry, and served at various frontier stations until his retirement in 1882. (Warner, 268–69) KINGSBURY, James Wilkinson (d. 1853), of Connecticut, entered West Point in 1819. In 1823, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the 1st Infantry. In 1830, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He resigned in 1837, shortly after being promoted to captain. (Heitman, 1:601) KRAUSE, David (1839–85), of Pennsylvania, entered the army as first lieutenant of the 14th Infantry with the outbreak of the Civil War. He distinguished himself in action, was breveted to major, and finished the war with the active rank of captain. He was posted to Arizona from 1866 to 1869, and participated in Crook’s campaigns in 1876. He was major of the 11th Infantry at the time of his death. (Altshuler, 1991, 196–97) LARNED, Charles William, entered West Point in 1866, and upon graduation was posted to the 3rd Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1876, and the same year was appointed a professor at the academy. As of 1902, he was a colonel at the academy. (Heitman, 1:616) LAWSON, Joseph (ca. 1821–81), native of Ireland, joined the Volunteers as a second lieutenant in 1862. He was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry in February 1866, and promoted to first lieutenant five months later. He was posted to Camp Date Creek from 1870 to 1871, when the 3rd transferred to the Department of the Platte. He participated in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. During the Milk River fight in Colorado in 1879, command devolved on Lawson after Maj. Thomas T. Thornburgh was killed, and the senior captain, John Scott Payne, was


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wounded. Lawson is credited with averting a massacre. See also THORNBURGH, Thomas Tipton; PAYNE, John Scott. (Altshuler, 1991, 198) LEAVENWORTH, Henry (1783–1834), of Connecticut, was appointed captain of the 25th Infantry in 1812. He served with distinction in various infantry regiments during the War of 1812., was breveted to lieutenant colonel, and in 1818 was promoted to the active rank of lieutenant colonel of the 5th Infantry. He established Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in 1819, and spent much of the remainder of his career on the frontier. Among the other posts he established was Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1827. Bourke noted his name as “J. H. Leavenworth,” but may have been thinking of his son, Jesse Henry Leavenworth, also a prominent officer on the frontier. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:825–26; Heitman, 1:622) LEE, James Grafton Carleton, native of Canada, served as captain and quartermaster of Volunteers from 1862 to 1864, when he was commissioned in the same rank and duty in the Regular Army. He was breveted to major and lieutenant colonel for his Civil War service. He was promoted to major quartermaster in 1879, lieutenant colonel deputy quartermaster general in 1892, and retired in 1900 as colonel acting quartermaster general. (Heitman, 1:624) LEE, Jesse Matlock (1843–1926), native of Indiana, enlisted in the Volunteers in November 1861, and was commissioned second lieutenant eleven months later. He finished the Civil War as a captain, and was appointed an infantry officer. By the mid-1870s, he was first lieutenant of the 9th Infantry at Camps Sheridan and Robinson, Nebraska. He reported that he was in the Powder River fight in March 1876, but this was purely a cavalry action with no infantry involved. Bourke does not mention him until a visit to Camp Robinson, after the expedition ended. In 1877, Lee convinced Crazy Horse to accompany him to Camp Robinson. Upon arrival, however, Crazy Horse was placed under arrest over Lee’s protests, and in the ensuing fight, the chief was mortally wounded. In 1879, Lee, now captain, was recorder for the board inquiring into the conduct of Maj. Marcus A. Reno during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He retired as a major general in 1907. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:832) LEYDEN, James Alexander (d. 1897), of Tennessee, entered West Point in 1875, and upon graduation was appointed second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. He was a captain at the time of his death.

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(Heitman, 1:641) LLOYD, Charles Frederick, entered West Point in 1870, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 14th Infantry. He resigned in 1883, but served as a lieutenant colonel of Volunteers during the Spanish-American War. (Heitman, 1:637) LORD, James Henry (d. 1896), of Pennsylvania, entered West Point in 1857, and upon graduation was posted to the 2nd Artillery. In 1865, he transferred to the Quarter Master Department with the rank of captain with brevets to major. He remained in the Quarter Master Department in the Regular Army, and retired in 1893 as major. (Heitman, 1:641) LOUD, John Sylvanus, of New York, joined the New York National Guard in 1862, and later transferred to Volunteers. He was mustered out with the rank of captain in 1865. In 1867, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 9th Cavalry. He rose through the grades, and retired as major of the 3rd Cavalry in 1898. (Heitman, 1:643) LUDINGTON, Marshall Independence, of Pennsylvania, entered the army as captain and acting quartermaster of Volunteers in 1862, and finished the war as colonel and quartermaster. In 1867, he was appointed to the Regular rank of major quartermaster. He retired in 1903 as a major general. (Heitman, 1:646) LUDLOW, William (d. 1901), of New York, entered West Point in 1860, and was commissioned first lieutenant of the Engineers upon graduation. He served with distinction in the final year of the Civil War, earning brevets to lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to captain in 1867, and in 1875 led a survey of Yellowstone National Park. In the Spanish-American War, he rose to major general of Volunteers. He was a brigadier general of the Regular Army at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:646) LUHN, Gerhard Luke, native of Germany, enlisted in the 6th Infantry in 1853, and in 1863 was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1864 and captain in 1875. He wrote a diary and letters on Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He retired in 1895. (Heitman, 1:646–47) McALLISTER, Julian (d. 1887), entered West Point in 1843, and upon graduation, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Artillery. He transferred to the Ordnance Corps in 1848, where he spent the remainder of his career. He was breveted as colonel in


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1865, “for zeal[,] ability[,] and faithfulness in the discharge of his duties as senior ord officer in the dept of the Pacific.” He rose through the grades to the active rank of colonel, which he held at the time of his death. However, despite Bourke’s noting him as “General J. G. McAllister,” there is no reference to his holding the rank of general by brevet or appointment. (Heitman, 1:651) McCAMMON, William Wallace (d. 1903), entered the army as a first lieutenant of Volunteers in 1861, and finished the war as a brevet major. In 1867, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 14th Infantry, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1873. He rose through the grades, retiring in 1902 as major of the 6th Infantry. In 1896, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at Corinth, Mississippi, in 1862. (Heitman, 1:654) McCAULEY, Charles Adam Hoke, entered West Point in 1866, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery. He transferred to the 7th Cavalry in 1878, and was promoted to first lieutenant the following year. He was promoted to captain and assistant quartermaster in 1881. As of 1903, he was colonel and assistant quartermaster general. (Heitman, 1:655) McCLELLAN. Heitman does not list either a McClellan or McClelland as captain in the 6th Cavalry. McCLERNAND, Edward John, of Illinois, entered West Point in 1866, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1879, and captain in 1890. He received a brevet and later was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry against the Nez Percés at Bear Paw Mountain, Montana, in 1877. During the Spanish-American War, he served as colonel of Volunteers. As of 1903, he was a major. (Heitman, 1:657). McCOOK, Alexander McDowell (1831–1903), was one of fourteen members of the same family known as the “Fighting McCooks” of the Union Army, and the one who attained the highest rank. A native of Ohio, he graduated from West Point in 1852 and was assigned to the 3rd Infantry. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he transferred to Volunteers, attaining the rank of major general. At the end of the war, he assumed the active rank of captain of the 3rd Infantry, rising through the grades until his retirement as major general in 1895. Meanwhile he served on the frontier, and as aide to General Sherman, when the latter was general-in-chief of the army. There appears to have been bad blood between General Crook and McCook,

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but whether it was Alexander, his cousin Edward McCook, or both, cannot be determined, as Crook tended to confuse the two. This animosity dated to the Civil War, when Crook felt others received the glory while his own efforts went unappreciated. (Warner, 294–95; Robinson, 2001, 321 n43) McDOWELL, Irvin (1818–85), of Ohio, is most remembered for losing the first Battle of Manassas, an engagement forced on him for political considerations. An 1838 graduate of West Point, he was breveted for gallantry during the Mexican War. From the end of that war until the outbreak of the Civil War, he was in the Office of the Adjutant General. He was appointed brigadier general in May 1861. Aside from his loss at First Manassas, he performed poorly as a corps commander under Maj. Gen. John Pope, in the Union loss at Second Manassas a year later. In 1864, he was assigned to command the Department of the Pacific. He later commanded the Departments of the East and the South, and ultimately the Military Division of the Pacific as major general. He retired in 1882. (Warner, 297–99) McELDERRY, Henry (d. 1898), of Maryland, enlisted in the Volunteers in June 1863, and a month later was named hospital steward. He was discharged in January of 1864, and enrolled as a medical cadet two months later. He was commissioned as assistant surgeon in 1866, and appointed surgeon major in 1884. He served with distinction in the Indian campaigns in Texas and in the Modoc War in California. (Heitman, 1:664) McKEE, James Cooper (1830–97), of Pennsylvania, initially served as contract surgeon at Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory (now Arizona), in 1858, and in October of that year was commissioned as assistant surgeon of the Regular Army. He served in campaigns against the Navajos and Pinal Apaches, and was at Fort Fillmore when that post was surrendered to Confederates in 1861. He was exchanged the following year, and in 1864 was appointed chief medical officer of the District of New Mexico. In 1877, he became medical director of the Department of Arizona. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1891. (Altshuler, 1991, 216) McKIBBIN. Heitman does not list a major of the 1st Infantry named McKibbin. McNUTT, John (d. 1881), of Ohio, entered West Point in 1836, and upon graduation was breveted to second lieutenant of the Ordnance Department. In 1842 the rank was made active. He was promoted


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to first lieutenant in 1847 and to captain in 1854. He served with distinction in the Civil War and was breveted to colonel. He retired in 1878, with the active rank of lieutenant colonel of the Ordnance Department. (Heitman, 1:680) McNUTT, L. Heitman does not list a lieutenant McNutt of the 6th Infantry. McRAE, J. Heitman does not list a first lieutenant named McRae for the 1st Infantry. MACARTHUR, Arthur, which Bourke spelled “McArthur,” entered the army as first lieutenant of Volunteers in 1862, and finished the Civil War as lieutenant colonel breveted to colonel. He later was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, in 1863. He was appointed first lieutenant of the 17th Infantry in 1866. At the time Bourke knew him he was captain of the 13th Infantry, but was promoted to major and assistant adjutant general in 1889. He served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, and in 1901 was appointed major general. He was the father of Douglas MacArthur. (Heitman, 1:652) MACKENZIE, Ranald Slidell (1840–89), called “Bad Hand” or “Three Fingers” by the Indians because of an injury received to his right hand at Petersburg, was an 1862 graduate of West Point. He served with distinction in the Civil War, rising to the brevet ranks of brigadier general of the Regular Army and major general of Volunteers. In 1867, he was appointed colonel of the 41st Infantry, and in 1870, he was transferred to the 4th Cavalry. He developed the 4th into a mobile assault force, fighting the Southern Plains Indians with their own hit-and-run tactics. During the Red River War of 1874–75, he smashed a large Indian camp in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, destroying their lodges, food stores, and pony herds, a stratagem he would repeat under Crook in Wyoming. Nevertheless, he was mentally unbalanced, which would become increasingly evident during the Great Sioux War. Promoted to brigadier general in 1882, he was institutionalized for insanity in December 1883, and invalided out of the army the following year. (Pierce, and Robinson, 1993) MACOMB, Augustus Canfield, attended the Naval Academy from 1872 to 1876. He was commissioned second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry in 1878, and transferred to the 5th Cavalry in 1879. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1887 and to captain ten years later. (Heitman, 1:680)

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MACOMB. Heitman does not list a lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry under either Macomb or Macomber. MALONEY, Maurice (d. 1872), of Ireland, entered the army in 1836, rising to sergeant major by 1846. The following year, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. He distinguished himself in both the Mexican and Civil Wars, earning brevets to colonel. He retired in 1870 as lieutenant colonel of the 16th Infantry. Although Bourke refers to him as “general,” there is no record of his holding that rank by brevet or appointment. (Heitman, 1:686) MANDERSON, Charles Frederick, of Ohio, entered the army as captain of Volunteers in 1861. He served with distinction during the Civil War and finished as brevet brigadier general of Volunteers. Bourke knew him in Omaha. (Heitman, 1:687) MARSTON, Doctor. Heitman does not list a surgeon named Marston. MASON, Julius Wilmot (1835–82), native of Pennsylvania, was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 2nd Cavalry (subsequently renumbered as the 5th Cavalry), in April 1861. He earned two brevets in the Civil War, and emerged from the war with the active rank of captain. He was posted to Camp Hualpai in 1872, and was recommended for two additional brevets for the 1872–73 campaign. As commander of Camp Verde, and acting agent of the reservation, he made substantial improvements. Mason was promoted to major of the 3rd Cavalry in the Department of the Platte in July 1876, but remained with the 5th until the end of the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He joined the 3rd at Camp Robinson, Nebraska, in October 1876. He returned to Arizona in 1882, as commander of Fort Huachuca, where he died on December 19 of that year. (Altshuler, 1991, 223–24) MATTHEWS, Washington, of Ireland, was brought to the United States as a child and was reared in Iowa, where he received his medical training. Upon receiving his degree in 1864, he served the remainder of the Civil War as a surgeon. He became interested in Indian life and gained a reputation as a leading ethnologist. His most important work on Navajo life was published between 1883 and 1902. He was surgeon major at the time of his retirement in 1895. (Bloom, 9:202–3 n11) MICHLER, Francis (1849–1901), native of New York, was assigned to the 5th Cavalry after graduating from West Point in 1870. He was


473

posted to Camp Hualpai in 1872, and took to the field almost immediately. He was commended in departmental general orders five times, and later received brevets for gallantry at Muchos Cañones and Tonto Creek. In 1873 he was appointed aide to Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, and later served as aide to Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles. He was promoted to major shortly before his death. (Altshuler, 1991, 227–28) MILES, Nelson Appleton (1839–1925), native of Massachusetts, was a self-made soldier, and the last general-in-chief of the United States Army before the position was abolished. A store clerk, Miles joined the Volunteers as a first lieutenant and finished the Civil War as major general. Transferring to the Regular Army in 1866, he was appointed colonel of the 40th Infantry, and with the consolidation of regiments was transferred to the 5th Infantry in 1869. He distinguished himself in the Red River War on the Southern Plains in 1874–75. During the Great Sioux War, he drove Sitting Bull into Canada and defeated Crazy Horse at Wolf Mountain in January 1877. Later that year, he accepted the surrender of Chief Joseph, effectively ending the Nez Percé War. Miles hated Crook, and was openly critical of him, and Crook reciprocated in kind. Appointed brigadier general in 1880, Miles relieved Crook in Arizona in 1886. He ended the Geronimo War, although he infuriated Crook by allowing loyal government Apache scouts to be sent into exile in Florida along with the hostiles. Promoted to major general in 1890, Miles became commander of the Military Division of the Missouri upon Crook’s death. In 1895, he was appointed general-in-chief, and served in the Spanish-American War. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1900, and retired three years later. Miles was married to Mary Hoyt Sherman, niece of Sen. John Sherman and Gen. W. T. Sherman. The marriage, however, may have worked against him to some degree, in part because the Sherman brothers wanted no accusations of favoritism, and in part because General Sherman detested him. See also JOSEPH; SITTING BULL; CRAZY HORSE. (Altshuler, 1991, 229–31; Wooster; Robinson, 2001) MILLER, Samuel Warren, of Pennsylvania, entered West Point in 1875, and upon graduation was posted to the 5th Infantry. He rose through the grades, and was promoted to major of the 19th Infantry in 1902. (Heitman, 1:712) MILLS, Anson (1834–1924), native of Indiana, is perhaps most

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famous as the designer of the Mills cartridge belt, which became the standard equipment of many of the world’s armies and made him wealthy. Although a resident of Texas at the outbreak of the Civil War, Mills departed for Washington, D.C., where he was commissioned first lieutenant of the 18th Infantry. He received three brevets during the war, rising to major for gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Chickamauga. He emerged with the active rank of captain. He transferred to the 3rd Cavalry in December 1870, and was posted to Arizona the following spring. In 1871, he and his company were transferred to the Department of the Platte, where he figured prominently in Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He later was breveted for his part in the fight at Slim Buttes on September 9, 1876. He retired in 1897 as brigadier general, and in 1918, published his memoirs, My Story. (Altshuler, 1991, 231–32; Heitman, 1:713; Mills) MINER, Christopher Comstock (1856–1915), of Connecticut, was an 1879 graduate of West Point. Upon graduation, he was posted to the 9th Infantry in Nebraska and later to Arizona. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1887, but was dismissed four years later. (Altshuler, 1991, 233) MONTGOMERY, Robert Hugh (1838–1905), native of Philadelphia, enlisted in the 2nd Cavalry (later renumbered to the 5th) in 1860, earning two brevets during the Civil War, and spending the last twenty months of the war as a prisoner. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1865, and to captain in 1870. He was posted to Arizona in 1872, and served with distinction during the 1872–73 campaign, earning brevet as major for gallantry at Muchos Cañones on September 25, 1872, and during a scout through the Tonto Basin in November and December 1874. During the notorious Horse Meat March of 1876, his company lost fewer horses than any other in the 5th, largely because of his attention to training. He retired as major of the 10th Cavalry in 1891. (Altshuler, 1991, 235; Heitman, 1:720) MORTON, Alfred (1834–1920), native of Maine, moved to California in 1852. He joined the Volunteers as a sergeant in 1862, and was mustered out as major and provost major of San Francisco in 1866. In March 1866, he was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 9th Infantry, and was promoted to first lieutenant the following July. He was regimental quartermaster from 1866 to 1879, serving in the Department of the Platte. Promoted to captain in 1879, he


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served in Arizona from 1886 to 1891. He retired in 1898 and in 1904 was advanced to major on the retired list. (Altshuler, 1991, 239; Heitman, 1:730) MORTON, Charles (1846–1914), native of Ohio, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861. After the war, he entered West Point, graduating in 1869. He was appointed second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry, and served with distinction in Arizona in 1870 and 1871. He participated in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in 1876. He retired as brigadier general in 1910. (Altshuler, 1991, 239–40) MURPHY, John (1836–1920), native of Ireland, enlisted at West Point in 1858. During the Civil War, he served in the 5th Artillery. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the 14th Infantry in 1867, and a year later was posted to Arizona. Murphy was promoted to first lieutenant in 1876, and served in the Great Sioux War. As a captain in 1898, he commanded five companies during the first Philippine Expedition. He was promoted to paymaster major five days before his retirement in 1899. (Altshuler, 191, 241–42) NAVE, Thomas. Heitman does not list a lieutenant of the 6th Infantry named Thomas Nave. NELSON, James Henry (d. 1881), of Michigan, entered the army as paymaster of Volunteers in 1864. In 1867, he was promoted to paymaster major. He was dismissed in January 1881, and died the following April. (Heitman, 1:743) NICKERSON, Azor Howitt (1837–1910),served on General Crook’s staff from 1866 to 1878. A native of Ohio, he joined the Union Army as a second lieutenant of Volunteers in 1861. He was breveted to major for gallantry at Antietam and Gettysburg, receiving a near-fatal chest wound in the latter battle. He entered the Regular Army in 1866. His wound left him in frail health and, although he tried to accompany Crook on his Indian campaigns, sometimes the surgeons would declare him unfit for field duty. He attempted to retire in 1882, but a scandal over a fraudulently obtained divorce from his second wife prompted the War Department to void his retirement. He resigned in 1883 to avoid court-martial. Nickerson later wrote an essay, “Major General George Crook and the Indians,” which, although never published in its entirety, has become an integral part of the Crook hagiography. (Crook to Rutherford B. Hayes, January 4, 1872, R. B. Hayes Papers, Crook Collection; Heitman, 1:747–48; Altshuler, 1991, 244–45)

476 Appendix

O’CONNOR, Stephen (1837–1914), of New York, enlisted in the 8th Infantry in 1860. He was posted to Texas where he was taken prisoner in the Federal surrender in February 1861, but later escaped and made his way back north. He served during the Civil War, and in 1867, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 8th Infantry, backdated to December 1866. He was assigned to the 23rd Infantry as first lieutenant in 1870, and in 1872 was posted to Camp Lowell, Arizona. Various scrapes delayed his promotion to captain until 1897. He retired in 1900. (Altshuler, 1991, 252–53) ORD, Edward Otho Cresap (1818–83), 1839 graduate of West Point, served in the Seminole Wars in Florida, and in California during the Mexican War. He then served in the Pacific Northwest off and on until 1861, when he was appointed brigadier general of Volunteers and ordered East. When the war ended, he was in command of the Army of the James and the Department of North Carolina. Ord was appointed brigadier general of the Regular Army in 1866 and commanded the Department of the Platte until relieved by Crook. He retired as a major general in 1881, and died of yellow fever in Havana two years later. He is believed to have been the grandson of King George IV through his morganatic wife, Maria Fitzherbert. (Cresap, 2; Warner, 349–50) PADDOCK, James V. Seaman, of Illinois, entered West Point in 1873, and upon graduation, was appointed second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1886 and retired in 1891. (Heitman, 1:764) PALFREY, Carl Follen, entered West Point in 1865, and upon graduation was posted to the 1st Artillery. He transferred to the Engineers in 1872 and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1874. He retired as captain in 1895. (Heitman, 1:766) PARKHURST, Charles Dyer (1849–1931), native of Massachusetts, graduated from West Point in 1872 and was posted to the 5th Cavalry at Camp Date Creek. He participated in the 1872–73 campaign, and was commended in departmental orders and recommended for a brevet. In 1875, he was transferred to Kansas, and a year later, participated in Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He received a Silver Star for gallantry during the SpanishAmerican War. Parkhurst retired as colonel of the Coast Artillery. (Altshuler, 1991, 257–58)


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PAUL, Augustus Chouteau (1842–1904), native of New York, was appointed captain in the Volunteers, and served with distinction in the Civil War. In 1869, he was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry, and was posted to Arizona a year later. He remained in Arizona until December 1871, when his regiment was sent to the Department of the Platte. He resigned in 1881 following court-martial. (Altshuler, 1991, 258–59) PAYNE, John Scott (1844–95), native of Virginia, was an 1866 graduate of West Point. He was assigned to the 5th Cavalry, where he was promoted to first lieutenant in 1867. After resigning, he practiced law and edited a newspaper. Payne reentered the army as second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry in 1873, but by act of Congress was given the first vacancy for lieutenant in that regiment, retroactive to 1867. He served in Arizona and in the Department of the Platte, where he was promoted to captain in 1875. He served on the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, and in the Wind River Expedition against the Nez Percés. In 1879, he assumed command in the Milk River fight after Major Thomas T. Thornburgh was killed. Badly wounded in the fight, Payne was commended for gallantry. He retired in 1886. See also LAWSON, Joseph; THORNBURGH, Thomas Tipton. (Altshuler, 1991, 259) PERRINE, Henry Pratt, of New Jersey, was an 1869 graduate of West Point. Upon graduation, he was posted to the 6th Cavalry on the frontier. Initially, he served in Texas, Kansas, and Colorado, but spent most of the period of 1872–84 in Arizona. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1872, and captain in 1884. He was retired in 1891. (Altshuler, 1991, 259) PERRY, Alexander James, of Connecticut, entered West Point in 1847, and upon graduation was breveted to second lieutenant of the 2nd Artillery. The rank was made active in 1852. After the Civil War broke out, he was made captain and assistant quartermaster, and finished the war as colonel and quartermaster. He was breveted as major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier general for faithful and meritorious service. In 1866, he was appointed quartermaster major, and lieutenant colonel and departmental quartermaster general in 1875. He retired as colonel in 1892. Perry is listed in Appendix 1 of Warner’s Generals in Blue as “breveted as . . .brigadier general for services rendered during the Civil War, but not appointed to full rank.” (Heitman, 1:785; Warner, 591)

478 Appendix

POE, Orlando Metcalfe (d. 1895), of Ohio, entered West Point in 1852, and in 1856 was commissioned second lieutenant of the Topographical Engineers. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1860. He distinguished himself in the Civil War, holding a temporary appointment as brigadier general in 1862–63. He finished the war with a brevet as brigadier general in the Regular Army, awarded for gallant and meritorious service in General Sherman’s campaign against Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army. In 1873, Poe, now a major, was appointed Sherman’s aide-de-camp, a position he held until 1894. He was a colonel at the time of his death. (Heitman, 1:795–96) POLLOCK, Edwin (d. 1885), of Pennsylvania, entered the ranks as a Volunteer in May 1861, and was appointed second lieutenant of the 9th Infantry the following August. He was promoted to captain in 1864 and held that rank at the time of his retirement, twenty-one years later. (Heitman, 1:796) PORTER, John Martin (1856–1908), was an 1879 graduate of West Point. He was posted to Fort Bowie, Arizona, with the 3rd Cavalry in May 1882. The following month, he was promoted to first lieutenant and sent to Fort Thomas as quartermaster and commissary of subsistence. He disappeared on August 26, 1883, leaving a shortage of almost $2,000 in government funds and was listed as a deserter. He worked in Central America as a civil engineer and returned to the United States in 1898. There is no record of further action against him. (Altshuler, 1991, 266–67) PRICE, George Frederick (1835–88), native of New York City, joined the second California Cavalry as second lieutenant in 1861, and participated in several Indian campaigns over the next two years. The first reference to service in Arizona is of a reconnaissance between Salt Lake City and Fort Mojave in 1864. In 1866, he was appointed second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry. He was posted to Camp McDowell in 1872, and soon after was promoted to captain. He was nominated for brevets twice for service in Crook’s 1872–73 campaign, and was commended for moving Indians to the Rio Verde Reservation after Date Creek was closed. He also supervised construction of the military telegraph between San Diego and Tucson. Transferring to the Department of the Platte, he participated in Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in 1876, and was present at the Slim Buttes Fight. In 1882, he compiled a regimental


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history, Across the Continent with the 5th U.S. Cavalry. (Altshuler, 1991, 268; O’Neal, 185–86; Heitman, 1:806) QUINN, Thomas Francis, of Ireland, served in the second Artillery from 1853 to 1858, when he transferred to the 4th Infantry. In 1863, he was commissioned second lieutenant, and was promoted to first lieutenant two years later. He was breveted to captain for gallant and meritorious service during the Civil War. In 1876, he was promoted to captain, which rank he held at the time of his retirement in 1894. (Heitman, 1:811) RANDALL, George Morton “Jake” (1841–1918), native of Ohio, was one of the most competent officers to serve under Crook in Arizona. He commanded Camp Apache from 1872 to 1874, during which it was considered the best administered post in the entire department. He also had the most outstanding scouting record of any infantry captain in Arizona. Randall was breveted to colonel of the Regular Army for gallantry at Turret Mountain and Diamond Butte in 1873, and Pinal in 1874, and for distinguished service during the Indian campaigns in Arizona. He had enlisted as a private in the Volunteers in July 1861, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in October. By the end of the war he had been breveted to colonel of Volunteers. He was appointed brigadier general of the Regular Army in 1901 and retired four years later. (Heitman, 1:814; Altshuler, 1991, 272–73) REILY, William Van W., which Bourke spelled “Riley,” was commissioned second lieutenant in the 10th Cavalry in October 1875, but transferred to the 7th Cavalry in January 1876. He was killed at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. (Heitman, 1:823) REYNOLDS, Bainbridge (1849–1901), eldest son of Col. Joseph J. Reynolds, was born at West Point, where he graduated in 1873. He was posted to the 3rd Cavalry, was breveted for action in the Rosebud Fight in 1876. He served in Arizona from 1882 to 1884. He resigned in 1891 to avoid court-martial. See also REYNOLDS, Joseph Jones. (Altshuler, 1991, 277–78) REYNOLDS, Joseph Jones (1822–99), native of Kentucky and an 1843 graduate of West Point, initially served on the Texas frontier. Resigning to enter private business in 1857, he rejoined the army at the outbreak of the Civil War. His distinguished service resulted in his being breveted to major general of Volunteers. In 1870, he was named colonel of the 3rd Cavalry and, with his brevet rank, com-

480 Appendix

manded the Department of Texas. During that tenure, Col. Ranald Mackenzie hinted that Reynolds was involved in corruption with supply contracts for Fort McKavett, which Mackenzie commanded. Reynolds was transferred with his regiment to the Department of the Platte in 1872. Despite the verdict and sentence handed him by Crook’s court-martial following the Powder River fight, Reynolds was allowed to retire for disability in 1877. Many historians believe that Crook should have shared a heavy amount of the blame for the fiasco. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1210; Heitman, 1:825) ROBERTS, Cyrus Swan, of Connecticut, entered the New York State Militia in 1862, and later served in the Volunteers, with brevets to major for gallant and meritorious service in the war. In 1866, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 17th Infantry, was promoted to first lieutenant the following year, and to captain in 1878. He served during the Spanish-American War. In 1901, he was promoted to colonel of the 2nd Infantry. (Heitman, 1:835) ROBERTSON, Edgar Brooks (1852–1924), native of Massachusetts, graduated from West Point in 1874, and was assigned to the 9th Infantry at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. He participated in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, and was in the fights at the Rosebud and Slim Buttes. He later served in the Southwest, in Cuba, and in the Boxer Rebellion in China. He retired as colonel. (Altshuler, 1991, 284) ROGERS, J. Heitman does not list a J. Rogers as first lieutenant of the 5th Infantry. ROGERS, Robert Morris, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was promoted to second lieutenant in 1862. He entered West Point in 1863, and upon graduation, was posted to the 2nd Artillery. At the time Bourke knew him he was first lieutenant. He retired as a major in 1901. (Heitman, 1:843) ROGERS, William Wallace (d. 1890), of Pennsylvania, enlisted as a private in the Volunteers in 1861, and became second lieutenant on December 31 of that year. He distinguished himself in the Civil War and was breveted to lieutenant colonel for gallant conduct in the field. In 1866, he was commissioned first lieutenant of the 45th Infantry. At the time of Bourke’s writing he was with the 9th Infantry. He retired as captain in 1889. (Heitman, 1:844) ROSS, William J. (1846–1907), aide to General Crook from 1871 to 1875, was a native of Scotland who grew up in Connecticut. He


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enlisted in a Volunteer regiment, rising to the rank of major of Volunteers during the Civil War. He was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 32nd Infantry (later amalgamated into the 21st Infantry) in 1868, and sent to Arizona a year later. On September 8, 1872, at Camp Date Creek, he saved Crook’s life when he kicked a would-be assassin’s rifle out of the way. When Crook was transferred to the Department of the Platte in 1875, Ross resigned and settled in Arizona. (Altshuler, 1991, 288; Robinson, 2001, 126) ROYALL, William Bedford (1825–95), native of Virginia, was commissioned as first lieutenant of a Volunteer unit in 1846, after the outbreak of the Mexican War. After two years of service in the Southwest, including a major Indian fight in 1848, he left the Volunteers. In 1855, he was commissioned first lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry (later renumbered 5th Cavalry). He distinguished himself during the Civil War, rising to the brevet rank of brigadier general. He served in Arizona as major of the 5th from 1872 to 1875, when the regiment was transferred out. In December 1875, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Cavalry, commanding Crook’s cavalry during the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He later was breveted for gallantry at the Rosebud Fight. In 1881, he succeeded Ranald S. Mackenzie as colonel of the 4th Cavalry. He retired in 1887. (Heitman, 1:849; Altshuler, 1991, 288–89) RUGGLES, George David, of New York, entered West Point in 1851, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Infantry. In 1857, he was appointed regimental adjutant, and would hold adjutant’s or aide-de-camp’s positions for the remainder of his long career. At the time of Bourke’s writing, he was a lieutenant colonel and acting adjutant general. He retired in 1893 as brigadier general and adjutant general of the army. (Heitman, 1:851) RUSH, Richard Henry (d. 1893), entered West Point in 1841, and upon graduation was breveted to the 2nd Artillery. He was commissioned second lieutenant in March 1847 and promoted to first lieutenant in December of that year. He resigned in 1854. He reentered the service as colonel of Volunteers in 1861 and resigned in 1864. (Heitman, 1:852) SCHENCK, Robert Cumming (1809–90), congressman from Ohio, appointed young George Crook to West Point. Altogether, Schenck served eight terms in Congress, as well as holding diplomatic posts in Great Britain and South America. He served on the Alabama Claims

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Commission that negotiated an indemnity for losses to United States shipping by British-sponsored Confederate warships. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Schenk was made brigadier general of Volunteers. He served with distinction, resigning in 1863 to serve another term in Congress. (Warner, 422–23; Robinson, 2001, 5) SCHOFIELD, Charles Brewster (d. 1901), of Illinois, entered West Point in 1866, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1879, and to captain in 1890. In 1895, he served as lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to his brother, Lt. Gen. John Schofield, general-in-chief of the army. (Heitman, 1:865) SCHOFIELD, John McAllister (1831–1906), native of New York, who grew up in Illinois, was an 1853 graduate of West Point. He served in Florida and later was an instructor at West Point. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was posted to Missouri, and in 1862–63 was commander of the Army of the Frontier. He was promoted to major general in 1863. At the end of the war, he retained the brevet rank of major general, with active rank of brigadier general. In 1868, he served as secretary of war. With Sheridan’s elevation to lieutenant general, Schofield was appointed major general. He served as superintendent of West Point from 1876 to 1881, and later recommended that the United States acquire Pearl Harbor as a naval base. (Warner, 425–26) SCHUYLER, Walter Scribner (1849–1932), native of New York, was an 1870 graduate of West Point. He served in Arizona from 1872 to 1875 as a second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry, distinguishing himself in several actions during that period. After a year’s leave in Europe, he joined Crook as aide-de-camp in Wyoming as a first lieutenant in 1876. He resigned as aide-de-camp and returned to his regiment the end of 1881, after a falling out with Crook over his management of a mine in which Crook had invested heavily. He was breveted several grades for gallantry in action in Arizona and Wyoming. He retired in 1913 as a brigadier general. (Altshuler, 1991, 294–95; Heitman, 1:867; O’Neal, 193–94; Robinson, 2001, 249–50) SCHWATKA, Frederick (1849–92), native of Ohio, attended West Point and was commissioned as second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry in 1871. He participated in campaigns against the Yavapais and Apaches in Arizona until 1872, when his regiment was transferred to


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the Platte. During Crook’s Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, he took part in the Rosebud Fight, the Horse Meat March, and the Slim Buttes fight. Subsequently, as both soldier and civilian, he became a noted explorer in the Arctic, southwestern U.S., and northwestern Mexico, lecturing and writing several popular books. He died of an overdose of laudanum (tincture of opium), which he took to relieve chronic stomach pain. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1279–80) SCOTT, John (d. 1886), enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was commissioned second lieutenant in 1863. He was mustered out in 1865 as captain with brevet to major. In 1867, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 30th Infantry, and appointed regimental quartermaster. With the army reorganization in 1869, he transferred to the 4th Infantry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1876, and served as quartermaster until 1883. (Heitman, 1:869) SHERIDAN, Michael Vincent, served on his older brother’s staff from 1864 almost until Philip Sheridan’s death in 1888. Mike Sheridan joined the army as a first lieutenant of Volunteers in 1863. Eight months later, in May 1864, he joined General Sheridan as a captain and aide-de-camp. During the Civil War he was breveted to major and lieutenant colonel for service during the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864. Although nominally commissioned to the active rank of second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry and captain of the 7th Cavalry during 1866, he remained with his brother, serving again as aide-de-camp from 1870 to 1878, and military secretary for another ten years. He retired as a brigadier general in 1902. (Heitman, 1:881; Hutton, 154) SHINDLEY. This name does not appear in Heitman. SIMPSON, James Ferdinand (1841–99), native of Massachusetts, was appointed second lieutenant of Volunteers in 1862. He distinguished himself in the Civil War and, in 1867, was commissioned as an infantry officer. He transferred to the 3rd Cavalry in 1871. He served in Arizona throughout much of the period until 1884, when he was committed to a government mental institution, after which he was released on sick leave. After a second commitment in 1887, he was retired as a captain. (Altshuler, 1991, 302–3) SMITH, John Eugene (1816–97), native of Switzerland, was brought to the United States as a child. He was secretary to Governor Richard Yates of Illinois at the outbreak of the Civil War, and became a colonel of the Volunteers. He earned brevets to major general

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in both Volunteers and Regular Army, and in 1866 was appointed colonel of the Infantry. He served on the frontier as commander of the 14th Infantry until his retirement in 1881. (Warner, 459) SPENCER, James Herbert, of Massachusetts, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1863. He was mustered out as captain. In 1866, he was commissioned first lieutenant of the 12th Infantry. In 1869, he transferred to the 4th Infantry. He retired as captain in 1885. Five years later, he was breveted for gallant service in action against Indians near Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming, in 1869. (Heitman, 1:910) STANTON, Thaddeus Harlan (1835–1900), native of Indiana, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861. On October 3, 1862, he was designated paymaster, a position he held for the rest of his career. He finished the Civil War as a brevet lieutenant colonel of Volunteers. Apparently Stanton moonlighted as a correspondent for the New York Tribune, and in that capacity accompanied Crook and Reynolds on the Big Horn Expedition in the convenience position of chief of scouts. With no previous combat experience, he distinguished himself in the Powder River fight, and later commanded the citizens and irregulars who joined Crook on the train during the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. In 1890, Stanton was breveted to lieutenant colonel of the Regular Army for the Powder River fight, and in 1895, he was appointed paymaster general of the army with the rank of brigadier general. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1357; Heitman, 1:916) STANTON, William Sanford, of New York, entered West Point in 1861, and upon graduation was commissioned first lieutenant of the Engineers. He was promoted to captain in 1871. (Heitman, 1:916) STEDMAN, Clarence Augustus “Deitsch,” entered West Point in 1865, and after graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 9th Cavalry. Promoted to first lieutenant in 1875, he served as regimental quartermaster in 1879–80, and adjutant from 1880 to 1883. As of 1902, he was lieutenant colonel of the 4th Cavalry. (Heitman, 1:918) STEMBEL, Lieutenant. Probably James McBride Stembel (1846– 1907), of Ohio, who was commissioned a second lieutenant of the 27th Infantry in 1867. He transferred to the 9th Infantry two years later. He was posted to Fort Verde, Arizona, in 1886. He retired as a captain in 1890. (Altshuler, 1991, 318)


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SUMNER, Edwin Vose, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry in 1861. During the Civil War, he served in the Volunteers and was mustered out with the brevet rank of brigadier general. He remained with the 5th Cavalry and was promoted to major in 1869. He retired in 1899 as colonel of the 7th Cavalry. (Heitman, 1:936) SUMNER, Samuel Storrow (1842–1937), native of Pennsylvania, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry (later renumbered 5th Cavalry) in 1861. He earned several brevets during the Civil War, and emerged from the war as a captain. He was posted to Arizona from 1870 until 1876, when he joined the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He retired in 1906 as a major general. (Altshuler, 1991, 324–25) SWAIM, David Gaskill (d. 1897), of Ohio, judge advocate general of the army, was convicted of theft, reduced three grades, and suspended for twelve years. He was allowed to reenter the army in time to retire in 1894. (Johnson, Flipper’s Dismissal, 87–88) SWIGERT, Samuel Miller, of Kentucky, entered West Point in 1863, and upon graduation was appointed second lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1869. He retired in 1903 as colonel of the 5th Cavalry. (Heitman, 1:941) TAYLOR, Frank, enlisted in the army in 1860, serving until 1863. In 1867, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 2nd Infantry, and in 1869, was assigned to the 14th Infantry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1876 and to captain in 1892. As of 1900, he was major of the 15th Infantry. (Heitman, 1:946) THOMPSON, John Charles (d. 1889), of Maryland, entered West Point in 1862, and upon graduation was posted as second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1868, and at the time of his death was a captain. (Heitman, 1:957) THORNBURGH, Thomas Tipton (d. 1879), of Tennessee, served in a Union Volunteer regiment from Tennessee from 1862 to 1863 when he was appointed to West Point. Upon graduation, he was appointed second lieutenant of the 2nd Artillery, and promoted to first lieutenant in 1870. Three years later, he was promoted to paymaster major. In 1878, he was appointed major of the 4th Infantry. He was killed in action at Milk River, Colorado, during the White River Ute uprising on September 29, 1879. See also PAYNE, John Scott; LAWSON, Joseph. (Heitman, 1:959)

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TILLMAN, Samuel Escue, of Tennessee, entered West Point in 1865, and upon graduation was appointed second lieutenant of the 4th Artillery. He transferred to the Engineers in 1872. In 1880, he was appointed professor at West Point with the rank of colonel, and remained active into the twentieth century. (Heitman, 1:962) TORNEY, George Henry, was appointed assistant surgeon in 1875, and promoted to surgeon major in 1894. (Heitman, 1:965) TOWAR, Albert Selah, native of Canada, was appointed major and paymaster in 1875. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and deputy paymaster general in 1899, and colonel and assistant paymaster general in 1901. (Heitman, 1:966) UPHAM, John Jacques (d. 1898), was breveted second lieutenant of the 9th Infantry in July 1859, and commissioned second lieutenant of the 6th Infantry the following December. In 1861, he was promoted to first lieutenant and then to captain, transferring to the 6th Cavalry in 1870. He was breveted to major for gallantry at Gettysburg, and commissioned to the active rank of major of the 5th Cavalry in 1874. He was colonel of the 8th Cavalry at the time of his retirement in 1892. (Heitman, 1:978) VAN HORN, James Judson (1835–98), native of Ohio, was an 1858 graduate of West Point, and joined the 8th Infantry in Texas. When Texas seceded, Van Horn was taken prisoner, and exchanged in 1862. During his internment he was promoted to first lieutenant and captain. He earned a brevet to major at Cold Harbor, Virginia. He served at the Red Cloud Agency and Camp Robinson, Nebraska. He was posted to Arizona in 1874, and spent much of the next decade in the Southwest. He was colonel of the 8th Infantry at the time of his death at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming. (Altshuler, 1991, 340; Heitman, 1:982) VOLKMAR, William Jefferson (1847–1901), of Pennsylvania, served in the Volunteers in 1863, before being appointed to West Point. He graduated in 1868, and was posted to the 5th Cavalry at Fort Harker, Kansas, where he distinguished himself in an engagement with the Sioux. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1870 and two years later was sent to Arizona, where he commanded Camp Date Creek. He was detached for recruiting duty from December 1872 until 1876, when he was appointed aide to Maj. Gen. John Pope. Later he served as an aide to Lt. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. Volkmar retired as colonel in 1900. His son, whom he named after


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Walter Schuyler, served as an officer of the Artillery. (Altshuler, 1991, 344–45) VROOM, Peter Dumont (1842–1926), native of New Jersey, served as an officer of Volunteers, earning several brevets during the Civil War. In February 1866, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the 3rd Cavalry, and was promoted to first lieutenant the following July. Promoted to captain in 1876, he participated in the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, distinguishing himself at the Rosebud Fight. He served in Arizona from 1882 to 1885, when he was appointed major/inspector general. He retired as a brigadier general in 1903. (Altshuler, 1991, 346) WAITE, Henry De Hart, which Bourke spelled “Wait,” entered West Point in 1875, and upon graduation, was posted to the 3rd Infantry. A short time later, in September 1879, he transferred to the 5th Cavalry. He retired as first lieutenant in 1894, but served as captain of Volunteers during the Spanish-American War. (Heitman, 1:993) WALLEN, Henry Davies (d. 1886), entered West Point in 1836, and upon graduation was breveted to the 3rd Infantry. He rose through the grades, and in November 1861, was promoted to major of the 7th Infantry. During the Civil War, he served in New Mexico, and was breveted to brigadier general. He was colonel of the 2nd Infantry at the time of his retirement in 1874. (Heitman, 1:999) WATTS, Charles Henry (1849–1917), native of New York, was an 1872 graduate of West Point, and was posted to Arizona as a second lieutenant of the 5th Cavalry. He was in the 1872–73 campaign, and was twice recommended for brevets. He departed with his regiment in 1875. During the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in 1876, he suffered an accidental gunshot wound. Recovering, he participated in the Wind River Expedition of 1877. He retired as colonel of the 9th Cavalry in 1911. (Altshuler, 1991, 353) WEIR, William Bayard (d. 1879), of New York, entered West Point in 1869, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 5th Artillery. In 1874, he was promoted to first lieutenant of Ordnance. He was killed during the White River Ute uprising in Colorado. (Heitman, 1:1015; Bourke, Diary, 32:348–49) WILLIAMS, Robert (d. 1901), native of Virginia, entered West Point in 1847, and upon graduation was assigned to the 1st Dragoons (later 1st Cavalry). In 1861 he was breveted to captain and appointed assistant adjutant general, and served in the Adjutant General’s De-

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partment throughout the remainder of his career. In 1865, he was breveted to brigadier general for “diligent, faithful, and meritorious service in the Adjutant General’s Department during the war.” He was assistant adjutant general of the Department of the Platte during Crook’s administration. Williams retired in 1893 as brigadier general and adjutant general of the army. (Heitman, 1:1042) WILSON, Thomas (d. 1901), of the District of Columbia, entered West Point in 1849, and upon graduation was breveted second lieutenant of the 6th Infantry. He was commissioned second lieutenant of the 5th Infantry in 1854. During the Civil War, he served in the Subsistence Department, attaining the brevet rank of brigadier general of Volunteers. After the war, he was captain commissary of subsistence, until his promotion to major in 1882. He was colonel assistant commissary general of subsistence at the time of his retirement in 1896. (Heitman, 1:1048) WINGARD, Charles Wesley (d. 1882), of Pennsylvania, was commissioned major of Volunteers in 1862 and lieutenant colonel a year later. From 1864 to 1867, he served as paymaster in the Volunteers, after which he was promoted to paymaster major of the Regular Army. (Heitman, 1:1050) WOLF, I. Heitman does not list a lieutenant named Wolf or Wolfe in the 6th Infantry. WOLF, Silas Augustus, of Pennsylvania, entered West Point in 1874, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry. He rose through the grades and as of 1901, he was major of the 19th Infantry. Bourke sometimes spelled the name “Wolfe.” (Heitman, 1:153) WOOD, Abram Epperson (ca. 1845–94), of Iowa, enlisted in the Volunteers in 1861, and served throughout the Civil War. He finished as a second lieutenant. He subsequently went to West Point, and upon graduating in 1872, was posted to the 4th Cavalry in Texas. He served on the plains and in Arizona. He was a captain at the time of his death from cancer. (Altshuler, 1991, 375–76) WOOD, Ned. Probably refers to Edward Edgar Wood of Pennsylvania, who, after serving in the ranks of the Union Army, entered West Point in 1866. Upon graduation, he was posted to the 8th Cavalry. He rose through the grades to captain, and in 1892 was appointed a professor at the academy with rank of lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to colonel in 1902. (Heitman, 1:1054)


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WOODRUFF, Charles Albert, served in the ranks of the Volunteers from 1862 to 1865. In 1867, he was appointed to West Point, and upon graduation posted as second lieutenant of the 7th Infantry. In 1877, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He was breveted to captain for gallantry at the Big Hole fight during the Nez Percé War in 1877, in which he was wounded three times. In 1878, he was promoted to captain and commissary of subsistence, working his way up the grades of the Commissary Department until 1898, when he was appointed colonel and assistant commissary general of subsistence. (Heitman, 1:1057) WOODWARD, George Abisha, of Pennsylvania, was appointed captain in 1861, and served with distinction in the Civil War. In 1866, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 45th Infantry, and with the Army Reduction, was posted to the 14th Infantry. He was promoted to colonel in 1876, and retired in 1879. (Heitman, 1:1059) WYATT, Walter Scott, of Ohio, served in the ranks of a Volunteer artillery regiment from 1864 to 1865. He was appointed to West Point in 1867, and upon graduation was commissioned a second lieutenant of the 2nd Cavalry. He transferred to the 9th Infantry in 1872, and in 1879 was promoted to first lieutenant. He resigned in 1887. (Heitman, 1:1064) YEATMAN, Richard Thompson, of Ohio, entered West Point in 1868, and upon graduation was commissioned second lieutenant of the 14th Infantry. He rose through the grades and as of 1900 was major of the 22nd Infantry. (Heitman, 1:1066) YOUNG, George Shaeffer, of West Virginia, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 7th Infantry in 1875, and promoted to first lieutenant in 1882. He was a major as of 1901. (Heitman, 1:1067) YOUNG, Robert Hunter, of Kentucky who, after distinguished service in the Volunteers during the Civil War, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 30th Infantry in 1867, and transferred to the 4th Infantry in 1869. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1878. Young was breveted for gallantry in action against Indians near Fort Fred Steele in 1869. He retired in 1891. (Heitman, 1:1067) Civilians ALLEN, Walter (1840–1907),of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, was Washington correspondent of the Boston Advertiser. His

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membership in the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee led to his appointment to the Ponca Commission. He wrote a dissenting report, contending the Poncas of the Indian Territory had been bribed or coerced to prevent them from joining Standing Bear’s band in Dakota. (Mathes, 149 n2) ALLISON, William Boyd (1829–1908), senator from Iowa from 1873 until his death, was a member of the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs, among other powerful positions. A native of Ohio, he studied law, practicing in his hometown of Ashland until 1857, when he moved to Iowa. During the Civil War he served on the staff of Gov. Samuel J. Kirkwood, helping raise state regiments. During that same period, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving until 1871. Although Allison was wealthy, he devoted his life primarily to public service, and was co-sponsor of the Bland-Allison Act that established a bimetal monetary system over the opposition of industrial and banking interests. (Wikipedia) BROOKS, Edwin J., acting commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1880, testified before the Senate committee investigating Ponca removal, that based on a Supreme Court ruling concerning Indian treaties, the 1868 treaty granting the Ponca lands to the Sioux had nullified previous treaties with the Poncas. Consequently, he said, the removal was necessary. (Mathes and Lowitt, 11) CALFEE, Henry Bird (1847–1912), operated a photography business in partnership with Nelse Catlin in Bozeman, Montana. Calfee appears to have moved to Montana in 1870, and began photographing Yellowstone each summer sometime between 1871 and 1873, continuing until 1880. The result was a set of stereo views entitled “The Enchanted Land, or Wonders of Yellowstone National Park by H. B. Calfee.” Several of the park’s features may have taken their names from the labels that Calfee placed on their photographs. In 1881–82, Calfee went on the lecture circuit with W. W. Wylie to promote the park. Wylie’s 1882 guidebook, Yellowstone National Park, or the Great American Wonderland, was illustrated with woodcuts from Calfee’s photos. (Whittlesey, 31–44) CARRIER, Arthur J., who served as Ponca agent in 1875, requested military assistance to the Poncas because of Lakota raids. In September 1875, he drew up a document, translated by Charles Morgan, by which more than fifty chiefs, including Standing Bear, requested removal to the Indian Territory. Standing Bear later con-


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tended that he understood the document would place them among the Omahas. See also MORGAN, Charles; STANDING BEAR. (Mathes and Lowitt, 16–17) CHOUTEAU, Rene August (1749–1829), native of New Orleans, was one of the founders of St. Louis. A fur trader, he acquired a considerable fortune and substantial influence among the Missouri River tribes. After the U.S. acquisition of the region, he served as federal commissioner, concluding treaties with several of the tribes. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:268) CRAWFORD, Jack, also known as “Captain Jack” and “the Poet Scout,” who published a book of rhymes, was a scout and part-time correspondent with the 5th Cavalry during the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. He weathered the Horse Meat March reasonably well. As the march neared its end, correspondents turned in their dispatches to Frank Grouard, who carried them to Fort Laramie for relay by telegraph. Reuben Davenport, knowing that, as a pariah, his dispatches to the New York Herald might be delayed in favor of competing papers, paid Crawford to carry duplicate copies. Instead of Fort Laramie, Crawford carried them to the nearest telegraph office, and the Herald beat the rival Tribune. Crawford later served as correspondent for the Herald as well as the Omaha Bee, and maintained a ranch in the Southwest and a home in Brooklyn. (Knight, 252, 276–78, 304) CUSHING, Frank Hamilton (1857–1900), Pennsylvanian-born archaeologist and ethnologist, published his first paper on native antiquities at the age of seventeen, in the Smithsonian’s Annual Report. Two years later, he helped arrange the National Museum’s Indian collections for exhibition at the Centennial Exposition. After a brief period as curator of the museum’s Department of Ethnology, he joined the staff of the Bureau of Ethnology and in 1879 he traveled to the Southwest. He lived among the Zunis, was adopted into the tribe, joined one of the orders of Zuni priesthood, and by 1882 had become a subchief. In 1886, he organized an archaeological expedition to a Salt River site in Arizona, and thereafter worked on archaeological sites in the Great Lakes region and Florida. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:361) DANILSON (which Bourke spelled Danielson), William H., an army officer when appointed agent at Fort Hall in 1869, was required under the Army Appropriation Act of 1870 to choose be-

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tween his commission or his post as agent. He chose to resign from the army and remain as agent. Danilson had entered the army as a private in the Volunteers in 1861, and by the end of the Civil War had been breveted to major. After mustering out of the Volunteers, he accepted a commission as first lieutenant of the 40th Infantry. Although the Shoshones and Bannocks at Fort Hall were prepared to give up their nomadic life and settle, Danilson was hamstrung throughout the 1870s by inadequate government appropriations. Eventually the Bannocks left in disgust, setting off a chain of events leading to the uprising of 1878. Nevertheless, Danilson managed to maintain the Indians’ confidence in his own integrity. (Heitman, 1:353; Madsen) DAWES, Henry Laurens (1816–1903), Republican from Massachusetts whose congressional career ran from 1857 to 1893, is best remembered for the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, also known as the General Allotment Act. Dawes opposed the removal of the Poncas. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, he began work on what became the Dawes Severalty Act, to abolish tribal ownership of reservation land and allocate tracts to Indian males. Unallocated lands would be thrown open to settlement. The purpose, which appears condescending now but was considered enlightened in his own time, was to destroy tribal identity, and provide economic independence and education, so that Indians could be assimilated into the dominant culture. (Lamar, 288–89) DE LESSEPS, Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte (1805–94), French diplomat and construction magnate who was best known for building the Suez Canal. A native of Versailles, he entered diplomatic service in 1825, and spent much of his career in North Africa, where he first envisioned a canal connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. After his retirement, he successfully negotiated a concession for the Suez Canal, which was constructed between 1859 and 1869. In 1882, he began construction of a projected sea-level canal across Panama, which failed in part because of the engineering impracticalities, corruption, and disease. (Wikipedia) DE SMET, Pierre-Jean (1801–73), a Belgian-born Jesuit, ministered to the Indians of Montana, Oregon, and Idaho for more than three decades beginning in 1840. During this period, he also made nineteen trips to Europe to recruit priests and nuns to work among


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the Indians. He served as mediator between the Indians and whites, including at the Fort Laramie Treaty conference in 1868. (Utley, 1997, 122) DORSEY, James Owen (1848–95), Episcopalian missionary, was resident missionary to the Poncas from 1871 to 1873, and remained associated with them in Nebraska and Dakota. He joined the Bureau of Ethnology in 1879 as an ethnologist and linguist. He authored works on Siouan languages, and contributed to the monumental Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. (Mathes and Lowitt) DUNDY, Elmer Scipio (1830–96), native of Ohio, practiced law in Pennsylvania from 1853 until 1857 when he relocated to Nebraska. He was a member of the Territorial County from 1858 to 1863, and the following year was appointed U.S. Territorial Judge for Nebraska. In 1868, he was appointed to the newly created federal court for the District of Nebraska, a post he held until his death. See also STANDING BEAR; TIBBLES, Thomas Henry. (http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=664) EADS, James Buchanan (1820–87), was one of the foremost American engineers of the nineteenth century. A native of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, he became purser on a Mississippi steamer in 1838, and became aware of the economic potential of salvaging sunken boats. He patented a diving bell and, in 1842, began a successful salvage business. During the Civil War, he constructed the iron-clad gunboats that helped secure Union control of the Mississippi. In 1874, he completed what is considered his greatest achievement, the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, that many engineers considered impossible using the technology of the era. (Johnson and Malone, 5:587–89) EASTMAN, Galen, Navajo agent, incurred the hatred of the Indians by trying to enforce his religious convictions on them. Brig. Gen. John Pope, commander of the Department of the Missouri, under whose jurisdiction the reservation fell, believed that Eastman’s fanaticism made him unfit for his position and he was removed from his post in 1880. He was reinstated, however, the following year and complained vehemently about military interference. Pope’s position was that the Navajos still had enough power to give the government serious trouble, and consequently should be handled very carefully. (Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico, 733–35 n13)

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ELLISON, Samuel, territorial librarian of New Mexico, was a native of Kentucky who went to Texas in 1837. After serving in the Mexican War, he went to New Mexico in 1848, serving in many different public positions before becoming territorial librarian and archivist in 1881. (Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico. 791 n7) EWING, Thomas (1829–96), was a Democratic representative from Ohio from 1877 to 1881 and General Sherman’s brother-in-law. Prior to the Civil War, he lived in Kansas, where he was a member of the constitutional convention of 1868, and chief justice of the state’s supreme court in 1861 and 1862. He served in the Volunteers during the Civil War, rising to the active rank of brigadier general with brevet of major general. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress) FINERTY, John Frederick (1846–1908), a political refugee from Ireland, became a correspondent for the Chicago Times, and covered more Indian war campaigns than any other professional journalist. In 1876, he covered Crook’s expeditions, and his book, War-Path and Bivouac is one of the most complete accounts. He also covered the Ute campaign of 1879, visited Sitting Bull in exile in Canada, and covered the 1881 Apache uprising. He was a member of Congress from 1883 to 1885. (Finerty; Knight, 173–74; Lamar, 369) FOX, Gustavus Vasa (1821–83), former naval officer, was assistant secretary of the navy under Abraham Lincoln. The joint effort of Secretary Gideon Welles setting overall policy, and Fox handling dayto-day administration was instrumental in the success of combined operations between the Union Navy and Army. (Wikipedia) FRANKLIN, Charles A. (1843–1924), was the alias adopted by Albert Franklin Banta, an Indiana native who went to Arizona in 1863. He worked at various jobs before becoming a civilian employee of the military. He served variously as probate judge, district attorney, territorial legislator, and various other public positions, and was founder of the Arizona Pioneer. At the time Bourke knew him, he was trader for the Zunis. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:62) GARFIELD, James Abram (1831–81), president of the United States for six months in 1881, was nominated by a coalition of Grant’s enemies in the Republican Convention of 1880. A native of Ohio, Garfield was entirely self-made, having worked his way through Williams College and as a school master. In 1859, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, where he was noted for his eloquence


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and logic. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of Volunteers, studied tactics, and mastered command so well that, after the Union disaster at Chickamauga that ruined Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, Garfield was appointed major general. He served in both houses of Congress before his election to the presidency. He was the second president to be assassinated. (Warner, 166–67) GOULD, Jay (1836–92), originally named Jason, was an American railroad magnate and financier. A native of Roxbury, New York, he did odd jobs, and by the age of twenty-one had saved $5,000, which he used to obtain part interest in a tannery. Eventually he attained full control, and from there went into speculation in small railroads. In 1867, he achieved notoriety when, with two partners, he managed to wrest control of the Erie Railroad from Cornelius Vanderbilt. From that point, he began acquiring control of the major lines as they expanded across the country, as well as Western Union Telegraph. (Johnson and Malone, 7:454–55) HALE, Edward Everett (1822–1909), Unitarian clergyman who eventually became chaplain of the Senate, was a prominent social activist for much of the latter half of the nineteenth century. He edited several newspapers and magazines, some of which he founded. He also wrote voluminous social commentary, as well as short stories, the best known of which is “The Man Without a Country.” (Wikipedia) HAWORTH, James M., entered the Indian service as agent for the Kiowas and Comanches at Fort Sill from 1873 to 1878. In 1879, he served as special agent to the Quapaws in northeastern Oklahoma, and later that year as special agent-at-large at Fort Hall. In 1880, he met with the chiefs of the Poncas who remained in the Territory, concluded they did not wish to be repatriated to Dakota, and testified accordingly before the Senate committee. (Mathes, 165 n2) HAYDEN, Ferdinand Vandiver (1829–87), was a physician and geologist who made his first western expedition under paleontologist Fielding Bradford Meek to the Dakota Badlands in 1853. He continued exploring in the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone regions through the remainder of the 1850s. During the Civil War, he was a surgeon for the Union Army. Resuming his western expeditions after the end of the war, he led an expedition to Yellowstone in 1871, the result of which was the creation of the national park the following

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year. He joined the U.S. Geological Survey on its creation in 1879, and retired due to ill health in 1886. (Thrapp, 1991, 1:633) HAYES, James Webb Cook (1856–1923), son of President Rutherford B. Hayes, and a sort of surrogate son to the childless George and Mary Crook, often accompanied Crook on hunting trips in the West, and stood with Mary at the general’s funeral. Webb Hayes attended Cornell University, but left in 1875 to serve as his father’s secretary while he was both governor of Ohio and president. In 1887, he and three associates founded National Carbon Company, later Union Carbide, of which he served many years as vice president. He served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, winning the Medal of Honor for valor in the Philippine Campaign. He also served in the Boxer Rebellion and the First World War. See also HAYES, Lucy Ware Webb; HAYES, Rutherford Birchard. (Robinson, 2001; Wikipedia) HAYES, Lucy Ware Webb (1831–89), wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes, and mother of Webb Hayes, was the first wife of a president to be referred to as “First Lady.” She was considered the most popular president’s wife since Dolley Madison, almost sixty years earlier, and at her death, flags throughout the nation were lowered to half-staff. Mrs. Hayes attended Ohio Wesleyan University, and was the first wife of a president to have a college degree, and devoted her education and energy to social causes. She was an active abolitionist and supporter of the Temperance Movement, and during her husband’s term, alcohol was not served at the White House. During the Civil War, on visits to General Hayes’ headquarters, she used her free time to nurse wounded soldiers in the hospitals. (Hoogeboom; Robinson, 2001; Wikipedia.) HAYES, Rutherford Birchard (1822–1893), served under Crook as a brigadier general of Volunteers during the Civil War, and became Crook’s life-long friend, supporter, and admirer, even naming one of his sons after him. Declared president after a controversial and hotly contested election, Hayes held office from 1877 to 1881. He was determined not to be distracted by campaign considerations, and therefore did not seek a second term. Consequently, in many cases the full effect of his reforms was not apparent until after he left office. Nevertheless, he was one of the more capable presidents of the last three decades of the nineteenth century. See also HAYES, James Webb Cook; HAYES, Lucy Ware Webb. (Robinson, 2001; Hoogeboom)


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HAYT, Ezra, a New Jersey businessman with ties to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church, was commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1877 to 1880. Hayt previously served on the Board of Indian Commissioners, and was appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs in an effort to clean up the scandal-ridden Indian service. As commissioner, he advocated several reforms, although not all were adopted by Congress. He was implicated, however, in a series of irregularities at the San Carlos, Arizona, agency and, in January 1880, Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz replaced him. See also SCHURZ, Carl. (Prucha, 191–92) HITCHCOCK, Phineas Warren (1831–81), native of New York, moved to Omaha in 1857. He practiced law and from 1861 to 1864 served as U.S. marshal. He served as territorial delegate to Congress from 1865 to 1867, when Nebraska became a state. Hitchcock was senator from 1871 to 1877, and served as chairman of the Committee on Territories. (Wikipedia) HOAR, George Frisbie (1826–1904), was a Massachusetts senator who attacked corruption and advocated Women’s Suffrage and rights for minorities including American Indians. Although he was a Republican, Hoar was noted for being nonpartisan and did not hesitate to criticize members of his own party whom he believed were wrong or were not acting in the best interests of the nation. (Wikipedia) HOWARD, E. A., was agent at the Spotted Tail Agency from 1873 to 1876. Little is known of him except that beneath his quiet demeanor he had great strength of character. He was the only agent who lasted more than a year at Spotted Tail during that period. Removed as part of the military takeover of the agencies, he was reassigned to the Ponca Agency, where a strong hand was believed necessary. Here he supervised the removal of the Poncas to the Indian Territory. (Hyde, 1987, 226–27 n2; Mathes and Lowitt, 35) KIRKWOOD, Samuel Jordan (1813–94), was an Iowa politician who served as governor and senator. He resigned his Senate seat in 1881, to succeed Carl Schurz as secretary of the interior. He held the position for a year, after which he was succeeded by Henry M. Teller. As governor, he raised a substantial number of Volunteer regiments for the Union Army. See also SCHURZ, Carl. (Wikipedia) LAMY, Jean Baptiste (1814–88), native of France, was a missionary on the American frontier, which he followed as it moved

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westward from Kentucky and Ohio. Appointed vicar-apostolic of Arizona, New Mexico, and eastern Colorado, he reorganized the Roman Catholic Church in those areas. In New Mexico, he cleaned up corruption in the church, which often called for curtailing the power of the dominant Spanish-Mexican families. Eventually, he was appointed archbishop of Santa Fe. (Lamar, 608) LOGAN, John Alexander (1826–86), was senator from Illinois and unsuccessful vice presidential candidate. Logan served with distinction in the Civil War, receiving the Medal of Honor for the Vicksburg Campaign, and becoming military governor after the city fell. Prior to the war, he had served in the House of Representatives, and resumed his seat from 1867 to 1871, when he was elected to the Senate. He was running mate in Republican James P. Blaine’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency against Grover Cleveland in 1884. (Wikipedia) LORING, George Bailey (1817–91), served as a Republican representative from Massachusetts from 1871 to 1881. After leaving Congress, he was appointed commissioner of agriculture, serving until 1885, and was minister to Portugal in 1889 and 1890. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress) McGILLYCUDDY, Valentine T. (1849–1939), contract surgeon with General Crook, and topographer for the Dodge-Jenney expedition, was a native of Michigan. He served as post surgeon at Camp Robinson, where he tended the mortally wounded Crazy Horse. He served as agent for the Oglalas from 1879 to 1886, when he was relieved in part because of disputes with Red Cloud. McGillycuddy also was first mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota, and served as president of the South Dakota School of Mines. Bourke occasionally spelled the name “MacGillicuddy.” See also CRAZY HORSE. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:905; McGillycuddy) MARION, John Huguenot (ca. 1836–91), publisher of the Miner, was considered the ablest newspapermen in central Arizona. Bourke called him “one of God’s noblemen.” Little is known of his early life, although he probably was born in New Orleans, and went to California in the mid-1850s. He was in St. Louis in 1856–57, returned West and purchased the Miner in 1867, operating it for ten years. One of his sons was named in honor of General Crook. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:942) MOORE, Thomas (1832–96),was one of the preeminent mule packers of the West and, with General Crook, streamlined the mili-


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tary pack transportation system to a model of efficiency. A native of St. Louis, he began his western career by traveling to California in 1850. He joined Crook as civilian chief packer in 1871, and served in virtually every major Indian campaign until 1895. He also organized transportation for hunting and camping trips by Crook and other dignitaries. His sister was Carrie Nation, temperance activist famous for smashing saloons in the Midwest. (Thrapp, 1991, 2:1011–12) MORAN, Thomas (1837–1926), native of Lancashire, was brought by his family to the U.S. in 1844. After studying painting in Europe, he made his first trip to the West with the Hayden expedition to the Yellowstone in 1871. His watercolor supplements to Hayden’s report are believed to have influenced the decision to declare the region a national park. Over the next three years, he made three more trips, and produced several large canvasses of western scenery. Two, “The Grande Canyon of the Yellowstone” and “Chasm of the Colorado,” were purchased by Congress for the Capitol. See also HAYDEN, Ferdinand. (Lamar, 735–36) NORRIS, Philetus Walter (1821–85), was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, succeeding Nathaniel Pitt Langford, who held the position from its creation in 1872 until 1877. A native of New York, Norris moved with his family to Michigan, and later struck out on his own to Ohio, where he helped establish the town of Pioneer. Later he returned to Michigan, where he founded the town of Norris, and made money in newspapers and real estate. Making several tours of the West, he visited what would become Yellowstone in 1870. After a trip to the park five years later, he wrote an article critical of Langford’s largely absentee administration and in 1877 was asked to succeed him as superintendent. Norris actively administered Yellowstone, and established a plan for systematic improvement and development, and for scientific study. However, he spent such large amounts of the park’s limited appropriation on development that little was available for maintenance, and the existing infrastructure deteriorated, which no doubt alienated Carl Schurz. That, together with political patronage, led to his dismissal. Norris Geyser Basin is the most prominent of several landmarks named in his honor. See also YOUNT, Harry. (Rydell and Culpin, Chapter 1; Whittlesey, 118) OTERO, Miguel Antonio (1829–82), native of New Mexico, was a prominent politician and businessman. He served twice

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as territorial delegate to Congress in the 1850s, but his bid for election in 1880 was defeated. He was involved in banking and the extension of railroads into the territory. His son, also named Miguel Antonio (1859–1944),later served as territorial governor. (Lamar, 836) POWELL, John Wesley (1834–1902), who explored and named the Grand Canyon, was a New York native who grew up in Illinois. As an artillery officer, he lost an arm in the Battle of Shiloh, but continued in service and ended the war as a major. As a geology instructor at Illinois Wesleyan College, he led several expeditions to the West, and became interested in exploring the canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers. In 1869, funded by the Smithsonian Institution and Congress, he led an expedition down the Green River and through the Grand Canyon. After several other expeditions to the region, in which he combined geology with ethnology, he became director of the Bureau of Ethnology, a post he held until his death. He also headed the U.S. Geological Survey until his retirement in 1894. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1169) RAYMOND, Rossiter W. (1840–1918), was U.S. Commissioner of Mining Statistics from 1868 to 1876. He also served as editor of the American Journal of Mining, building it into one of the influential publications in the industry. Among his many publications was a compilation of eight reports entitled Statistics of Mines and Mining in the States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains. (http://www.leadville.com/MiningMuseum/inductee.asp?i=46&b=in ductees%2Easp&t=n&p=R&s=) RICHARD, Louis (ca. 1846–1897), often rendered as “Richaud,” or “Reeshaw” based on pronunciation, was the son of fur trader John Baptiste Richard and his wife, Mary Gardiner, who was part Oglala. He grew up along the Platte River in Wyoming, where he and his brother-in-law, Big Bat Pourier, helped operate John Baptiste Richard’s toll bridge. Although a competent scout, his service under Crook was marked by quarrels with Frank Grouard and he was permanently discharged after the fall 1876 campaign. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1214–15) RIGGS, Alfred Longley (1837–1916), served as Congregational missionary to the Santee Sioux from 1870 to 1883. He later served as principal of Santee Normal Training School, and trustee of Yankton College. (Mathes, 98 n1)


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SAUNDERS, Alvin (1817–99), native of Kentucky, was territorial governor of Nebraska from 1861 until statehood in 1867, and senator from 1877 until 1883. He moved to Nebraska from Iowa, where he had been involved in politics, and was one of the commissioners appointed by Congress to organize the Union Pacific Railroad. During his term in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Territories. (Wikipedia) SCHURZ, Carl (1829–1906), native of Germany, secretary of the interior under Hayes. He also was a diplomat, senator, and author, and was a power to be reckoned with in every presidential election from 1860 until 1904. Schurz had to flee Germany after the abortive revolt against the Prussian government in 1848. He arrived in the United States in 1852, and soon established himself as an orator, abolitionist, and political campaigner. He was appointed minister to Spain by Abraham Lincoln, but returned to the United States in 1862, to advocate abolition. He served in the Volunteers during the Civil War, finishing as major general. After the war, he served one term as senator from Missouri. He advocated black rights, preservation of the public domain, and reform of the spoils system. Because of the Ponca Affair, Schurz has been vilified, but his moderate approach to Indian rights was the most reasonable in view of the times. He expressed his views in an article, “Present Aspects of the Indian Problem,” in the North American Review in 1881. Tall, spindly-legged, with a bushy beard and prominent eyes, Schurz provided ample fodder for cartoonists such as Thomas Nast, as well as for some of Bourke’s more acid comments. See also STANDING BEAR. (Warner, 426–28; Robinson, 2001, Chapter 14) SENA, José D., was born in Santa Fe in 1837. During the Civil War, he served in the New Mexico Volunteers, and was promoted to major for distinguished service in the Battle of Val Verde. After the war, he was responsible for the rebuilding of Fort Marcy. He served as sheriff of Santa Fe County for twelve years, and held various other public positions. (Bloom, 7:321 n22) STEVENS, Hiram Sanford (1832–93), Democratic delegate from the Territory of Arizona, was a native of Vermont. He enlisted in the 1st Dragoons in 1851, serving against the Apaches in New Mexico. Following his discharge, he moved to Tucson where he became a merchant and contractor to the army. In 1868, when Arizona was severed from New Mexico, he was elected to the territorial legisla-

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ture. He was the territory’s delegate to Congress from 1875 to 1879. (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress). STONE, E. A., took over the Fort Hall Agency in 1881, following the resignation of John A. Wright. The Blackfoot Register, which had called Wright a liar and a fraud, initially saw little improvement with Stone, but later admitted that he was a more efficient administrator. Stone attempted to improve the educational system on the reservation, complaining that when he took over, none of the Indians could read despite the government’s previous efforts. (Madsen, 309, 320) TIBBLES, Thomas Henry (1838–1928), native of Ohio, joined John Brown’s Free Soilers in Kansas, and later served in various capacities on the Union side of the Civil War. When the war ended he worked for various newspapers in Omaha, and was instrumental in Standing Bear’s suit to obtain legal status. When the case was resolved, he became an advocate of Indian rights whose writings stirred public interest. In 1880, he published an account of the Standing Bear case entitled The Ponca Chiefs, and presently available as Standing Bear and the Ponca Chiefs. See also STANDING BEAR; LA FLESCHE, Joseph; LA FLESCHE, Susette. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1428) THAYER, John Milton (1829–1906), Union Army veteran and politician, was one of the first two senators from Nebraska after it was admitted to the Union. His reelection bid was defeated in 1871. President U.S. Grant appointed him territorial governor of Wyoming, a post he held from 1875 to 1878, when he resigned to return to Nebraska. He served as governor for two terms, from 1887 to 1891, and temporarily from 1891 until February 1892, while a dispute over the 1890 election results was settled. (Wikipedia) THORNBURGH, Jacob N. (1837–90), brother of Maj. Thomas T. Thornburgh, was a Republican member of Congress from Tennessee from 1873 to 1879. See also THORNBURGH, Thomas Tipton. (Wikipedia, various entries) THURMAN, Allen Granberry (1813–95), Democratic politician, served as representative and senator from Ohio. Thurman’s positions appeared contradictory. Although he opposed the extension of slavery, he opposed emancipation of slaves during the Civil War. He likewise disputed the right of states to secede, but questioned the wisdom of trying to return them to the Union by force. Thurman


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was Grover Cleveland’s running mate in his unsuccessful bid for a second consecutive term in 1888. (Wikipedia) TROWBRIDGE, Roland E., was commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1880–81. VORE, Jacob, agent for the Omahas, ordered Standing Bear’s band arrested when it returned from the Indian Territory and notified the commissioner of Indian Affairs. (Mathes and Lowitt, 48–49) WALLACE, Lewis “Lew” (1827–1905), was governor of New Mexico at the time Bourke knew him, and in that capacity he is remembered for having to sort out the Lincoln County War. He is most famous, however, as the author of Ben Hur. A native of Indiana, he was an attorney and member of the legislature. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed state adjutant general, and subsequently colonel of the Volunteers. In September 1861, he was appointed brigadier general. He served with distinction under Grant and Sheridan. After the war, Wallace was a member of the court-martial board that tried the Lincoln conspirators, and was president of the board that condemned Capt. Henry Wirtz, commander of the Andersonville prisoner of war camp, to death. Besides serving as governor of New Mexico, he was also minister to Turkey. (Warner, 535–36) WASSON, Joseph, was one of the first newspaper correspondents who actually covered the Indian Wars from the field, joining Crook’s 1867 expeditions against Indians in Idaho, Oregon, and northern California. At the time, he and his brother, John, owned the Silver City, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche. The Wasson brothers later established the Tucson Arizona Citizen, where Joseph renewed his acquaintance with Crook and came to know Bourke. He covered the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition for the New York Tribune, San Francisco Alta California, and Philadelphia Press. (Knight, 32–33, 168–69) WELSH, William, was first chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners. He resigned when the board failed to gain control of Indian expenditures, but remained active in the Indian rights movement. Bourke spelled the name “Welch.”(Priest, 28ff.) WHITEMAN, William H., attorney from Baxter Springs, Kansas, was appointed agent for the Poncas in the Indian Territory in 1878. He advocated government consideration for their plight, a recommendation that was ignored. (Mathes and Lowitt, 40)

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WHIPPLE, Henry Benjamin (1822–1901), Episcopal bishop and Indian rights advocate, was born in Adams, New York, and was ordained a priest in 1850. Nine years later, he became the first bishop of Minnesota, where he resolved to serve the needs of the state’s twenty thousand Indians, as well as those of the whites. Whipple predicted the Minnesota Uprising of 1862, which he blamed on corruption in the Indian Bureau. He met and corresponded with every president during his career. Although he was vilified by white settlers and frontiersmen, and was the target of an assassination attempt, Whipple was not an apologist for the Indians, insisting they had responsibilities as well as rights. (Thrapp, 1991, 3:1547) WRIGHT, James, served as agent at Ross Fork during the period of Crook’s inspections. Among Wright’s chief complaints were clandestine, and often successful, efforts by the Mormons to convert the Indians on the reservation. (Madsen, 315) YOUNT, Harry (1837–1924), was hired as Yellowstone National Park’s first gamekeeper and forester in 1880. He previously had been to the park as a wrangler and packer for Dr. Ferdinand Hayden’s survey of 1871, and earned the nickname “Rocky Mountain Harry.” Although the federal government allowed hunting in Yellowstone until 1883, Superintendent Philetus Norris had set aside some protected herds in the Lamar Valley, and Yount’s job was to protect them from poachers. His duties also included exploring little-known areas of the park. Unable to protect the animals single-handedly, and lacking legal authority, Yount resigned in frustration in 1881. His letter of resignation carried a recommendation that envisioned the modern park ranger. See also NORRIS, Philetus Walter. (Manns) Indians CAPTAIN JIM (Shoshone), one of the signatories of the Fort Bridger Treaty between the federal government and the Bannocks and Shoshones in 1873, was part of a delegation that asked Idaho Gov. D. P. Thompson to represent their grievances to the government in 1876. He was also a member of the Lemhi, Shoshone, and Bannock delegation that went to Washington in 1880 to discuss white encroachment on their territory, resulting in an agreement to parcel out the lands of the Fort Hall Reservation in severalty, and sell the leftover tracts for settlement. See also MAJOR GEORGE. (Madsen)


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COCHISE (ca. 1824–1874), is one of the most famous American Indians, in part because of his efforts to maintain peace following the Cochise War, and in part because of Jeff Chandler’s portrayal of him in motion pictures in the 1950s. The war lasted almost twelve years before Brig. Gen. Oliver O. Howard was able to negotiate a peace. At Cochise’s direction, the government established a reservation centered on the Dragoon Mountains that occupied much of the southeastern part of Arizona. It was abolished two years after his death and the Chiricahuas were concentrated at San Carlos. Cochise was the son-in-law and associate of Mangas Coloradas, who is considered perhaps the greatest of all Apache leaders. He inherited the mantle of supremacy following Mangas’s death in 1863. In the nineteenth century, there was no consistent spelling of Apache names, and Bourke uses “Cochies,” “Cochis,” and “Cocheis,” the latter of which was most common among whites. See also HOWARD, Oliver Otis. (Sweeney, 1991; Lamar, 228) CRAZY HORSE (ca. 1840–1877), Oglala war chief, drew attention not only for his mysticism and introverted personality, but also because of his red hair and pale, freckled complexion. In 1865, he was designated one of the four Oglala “shirt wearers” or leading political chiefs, but lost the position five years later following an altercation involving another man’s wife. He distinguished himself in the Fetterman Massacre of 1866, and subsequently during the Great Sioux War. Arrested on September 5, 1877, he was bayoneted during a scuffle at the guardhouse at Camp Robinson, Nebraska, and died about midnight. During the latter half of the twentieth century, he became a symbol of Indian political and social resistance. See also BURKE, Daniel Webster; CLARK, Walter Philo; McGILLYCUDDY, Valentine T. (Hoxie, 137–39; Utley, 1997, 109–10; Nickerson, 20; DeBarthe, 117) JOSEPH (1841–1904), Nez Percé, sometimes called the Xenophon of the Indians, was leader of the Nez Percés on their monumental but futile trek toward refuge in Canada. Joseph was born Heinmot Tooyalakekt, the second son of the Nez Percé chief Tu-ya-kas-kas and the baptized Nez Percé woman, Arenoth. When Heinmot Tooyalakekt was about two years old, his father likewise was baptized, and took the name Joseph. After the death of his father, in 1871, Heinmot Tooyalakekt, who by now also was known as Joseph, became the political chief of the Wallamotkin band of Nez

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Percés. In 1877, federal authorities ordered all Nez Percés onto a reservation to accommodate mining interests in their territory in eastern Oregon. This enraged some of the younger warriors, who killed several settlers. Fearing retaliation, Joseph, Looking Glass, and several other chiefs led their people on a four-month trek of over a thousand miles, across the continental divide toward Canada. Ultimately, they were forced to surrender to Col. Nelson Miles less than a hundred miles short of their goal. By now, Joseph and White Bird were the only surviving chiefs. Initially, the Nez Percés were interned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and later sent to the Indian Territory, where many died of malaria. In 1879, Joseph traveled to Washington to present his case and became a national celebrity. The result was that the Nez Percés were allowed to return to the Pacific Northwest, but not to their old homeland. See also MILES, Nelson Appleton; HOWARD, Oliver Otis. (Hoxie, 309–11) LA FLESCHE, Joseph (1822–88), Omaha, also known as Iron Eyes, was a mixed-blood chief of the Omahas and patriarch of a remarkable family of tribal leaders, social reformers, and anthropologists. La Flesche was the son of an Omaha woman and a French trader for Hudson’s Bay Company. A convert to Presbyterianism, an act that cost him his position as chief, he determined that in order to survive, the Omahas would have to adapt to the encroaching white culture. He constructed a two-story frame house, the first Plains Indian to do so, and sent his children to mission schools. He and his daughter Susette became actively involved in the plight of the Poncas and Standing Bear’s efforts to obtain legal recognition. See also LA FLESCHE, Susette; STANDING BEAR; TIBBLES, Thomas Henry (Hoxie, 324–27). LA FLESCHE, Susette (1854–1903), Omaha, also known as Bright Eyes, was the daughter of Joseph La Flesche, and an activist and social reformer. She was educated in Presbyterian mission schools and in New Jersey. In 1877, she became involved in the Ponca Affair, and became an outspoken opponent of government policies. During this period, she became acquainted with Thomas H. Tibbles, whom she later married. See also LA FLESCHE, Joseph; STANDING BEAR; TIBBLES, Thomas Henry (Hoxie, 324–27; Thrapp, 1991, 804–5) MAJOR GEORGE (Shoshone), was one of the chiefs who agreed in 1880 to divide the Fort Hall Reservation lands in severalty. See also CAPTAIN JIM. (Madsen, 337)


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MORGAN, Charles (Omaha), served as interpreter for much of the government’s dealings with the Poncas in the 1870s and 1880s. The accuracy of his interpretations is subject to disagreement. Susette La Flesche, a New Jersey-educated Omaha woman, contended that Morgan’s interpretations were flawed and led to misunderstandings. Thomas Tibbles, who later married Susette, commented that Morgan “reads and writes, and speaks English as fluently as any one.” Tibbles, however, was not necessarily familiar with his ability in translation. See also LA FLESCHE, Susette. (Mathes and Lowitt, 18; Tibbles, 23) RED CLOUD (1822–1909), Oglala, became a powerful war chief through his own accomplishments. He appears to have taken his first scalp at sixteen, in a raid against the Pawnees. He participated in the Grattan Massacre, and was a distinguished leader against Gen. Patrick Connor’s failed North Plains Expedition. During a treaty council at Fort Laramie in June 1866, Red Cloud and his followers walked out in protest of a proposal to surrender more hunting grounds to the government. This led to the Red Cloud War of 1866–68, which forced the government to abandon the Bozeman Trail and Forts Reno, Phil Kearny, and C. F. Smith. After signing the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, Red Cloud never again went to war, although during the Great Sioux War, his sympathies were with the hostiles. This led Crook to depose him as paramount chief of the Lakotas in favor of Spotted Tail in September 1876. Following the death of Spotted Tail in 1881, Red Cloud again emerged as paramount chief. More visionary than many of the other leaders, he saw that the survival of his people depended on adapting to government expectations. He died at Pine Ridge. See also SPOTTED TAIL; THREE BEARS. (Olson; Hyde, 1975; Larson) SPOTTED TAIL (ca. 1823–81), was a Brulé “shirt wearer” or senior chief, and war leader. Although he was involved in the Grattan Massacre of 1855, he surrendered the following month. He was detained at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Kearny, Nebraska, for a year, during which he learned enough about the whites to realize their numbers and technology made them an irresistible force. From that point onward, he strove to maintain peace and obtain education for his people, while preserving their ancient culture. He did, however, lead an assault against Julesburg, Colorado, in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and government

508 Appendix

restrictions on Lakota travel along the Platte River. Soon after, he permanently ceased fighting whites, signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and took up residence on a reservation in Nebraska. In 1876, General Crook deposed Red Cloud as head chief of the Lakotas, and designated Spotted Tail in his place. Although Spotted Tail negotiated the surrender of hostile bands, he rejected the proposition that the Lakotas be relocated to Oklahoma. In 1880, a political struggle developed among the Brulés, with opposition centering around Spotted Tail’s cousin, Crow Dog. On August 5, 1881, an altercation developed between the two men, and Crow Dog shot Spotted Tail. After his death, the Brulés ceased to play a significant role in Lakota affairs. See also RED CLOUD. (Hoxie, 603–5; Hyde, 1987) STANDING BEAR (ca. 1829–1908), Ponca, was the plaintiff in a landmark suit that gave Indians certain legal standing in court, and placed them under the protection of federal law. Following the conclusion of this case, he and his supporters were allotted land on the Niobrara River. The case had galvanized Indian rights activists, and in 1879–80, Standing Bear went on a lecture tour of the East, accompanied by Thomas H. Tibbles, and Omaha Indians Susette La Flesche (whom Tibbles later married) and Francis La Flesche. Standing Bear has received revived attention in recent years; some of the literature on the case will be found in the bibliography. See also SCHURZ, Carl; TIBBLES, Thomas Henry. (Mathes and Lowitt; Thrapp, 1991, 3:1352) SWORD (Man Who Carries the Sword), Oglala, served as a guide for Sheridan’s hunting trip of 1877, and later was appointed captain of the Indian Police force at Pine Ridge Agency. He proved the reliability of the Indian Police when he led a force of twenty-five officers 180 miles from Nebraska to Wyoming, in pursuit of a band of Cheyennes under Spotted Wolf, who had bolted from the agency. In the arrest attempt, Spotted Wolf drew his pistol and Sword killed him. The other Cheyennes were taken into custody and returned. (McGillycuddy, 124–25) THREE BEARS (Oglala), served as first sergeant of scouts during Crook’s Powder River expedition of 1876. Together with Young Man Afraid of His Horses, he opposed Red Cloud’s obstructionist policies. Previously, in October 1874, they had headed off a confrontation between several hundred unruly warriors at the Red Cloud Agency, saving a small detachment of troops from Camp Robinson, under


509

Lt. Emmet Crawford, from potential massacre. After that, Crawford considered Three Bears a close friend. See also CRAWFORD, Emmet; RED CLOUD. (Dunlay, 137, 141–42) TI-HEE, or TYHEE (Bannock), despite Bourke’s disdain, was the leading chief of the Bannocks on the reservation, having assumed the position in 1874. He signed the Act of May 14, 1880, by which the Fort Hall and Lemhi Indians agreed to settle their land in severalty and sell a remaining portion to the federal government. He also was one of the Bannock representatives who negotiated right-of-way for the Utah Northern Railroad. (Madsen) TIN-DOY, also rendered TINDOOH and TENDOY (Lemhi), assumed a position of leadership in 1872, when a vacuum in native authority had left the Lemhis and portions of the Bannocks demoralized. The federal government attempted to formalize the position in late 1873, but Tin-Doy and his immediate followers remained outside the reservation, and leadership fell to Ti-hee. Although he remained peaceful, he continually resisted reservation life on the practical grounds that the rations were inadequate for the number of followers in his band. Ultimately he traveled to Washington to discuss the situation, and was one of the signers of the Act of May 14, 1880. (Madsen) WHITE THUNDER, subchief of the Brulé Orphan Band, was popular among the officers and families posted to the Spotted Tail Agency. He was among the group that escorted Crazy Horse to internment at Camp Robinson, where the latter chief was killed. (Hyde, 1974, 229, 285)

Bibliography

Manuscript Sources Bourke, John Gregory. Diaries. 124 vols. United States Military Academy Library, West Point, New York. Microfilm in possession of the editor. ———. File. Special Collections and Archives Division. United States Military Academy Library. West Point, New York. Crook, George. Collection. Microfilm edition. Rutherford B. Hayes Library, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio. Schuyler, Walter Scribner. Papers. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, Calif. Government Documents Bourke, John Gregory, “Apache Medicine-Men.” Originally published as “The Medicine-Men of the Apache.” Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887–’88. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1892 (443–603). Reprint. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, From Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903. 2 vols. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903.

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Howard, James H. The Ponca Tribe. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 195. 1965. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Rydell, Kiki Leigh, and Mary Shivers Culpin. Managing the Matchless Wonders: A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965. Historic Resource Study, Vol. 3. Park Administrative History, Part 1. National Park Service, Yellowstone Center for Resources. Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. VCRCR-2006-03, 2006. Books—Primary Bourke, John Gregory. On the Border With Crook. 1891. Reprint, Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1980. Clark, Robert A., ed. The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse: Three Eyewitness Views by the Indian, Chief He Dog, the Indian-White, William Garnett, the White Doctor, Valentine McGillycuddy. 1976. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. Finerty, John F. War-Path and Bivouac: The Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition. 1890. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966. Johnson, Allen, and Dumas Malone, eds. Dictionary of American Biography. 20 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–38. King, Charles. Campaigning With Crook and Stories of Army Life. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. Pratt, Richard Henry. Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867–1904. 1964. Reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. Robinson, Charles M., III, ed. The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. 3 completed vols. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2003– 2007. Scott, Hugh Lenox. Some Memories of a Soldier. New York: Century Co, 1928. Smith, Thomas T., ed. A Dose of Frontier Soldering: The Memoirs of Corporal E. A. Bode, Frontier Regular Infantry, 1877–1882. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972. Paperback, 1999. Tibbles, Thomas Henry. Buckskin and Blanket Days: Memoirs of a Friend of the Indians. 1957. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973. ———. Standing Bear and the Ponca Chiefs. Originally published as The Ponca Chiefs. 1880. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Winship, George Parker. “The Coronado Expedition, 1540–1542.” Four-

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teenth Annual Report of the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology, 1892–93. Part I. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896. ———. The Journey of Coronado: Pedro de Castañeda, et al. Originally published as The Journey of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado 1540–1542, by the Grabhorn Press, San Francisco, 1933. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Books—Secondary Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 18745–1928. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. Altshuler, Constance Wynn. Cavalry Yellow and Infantry Blue: Army Officers in Arizona Between 1851 and 1886. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1991. —. Starting With Defiance: Nineteenth Century Arizona Military Posts. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1983. Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Arizona and New Mexico. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft 17. San Francisco: History Company, 1889. ———. History of Utah. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft 26. San Francisco: The History Company, 1889. Beal, Merrill D. “I Will Fight No More Forever”: Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963. Barr, Alwyn. Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1995. 2nd ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. Bolton, Herbert Eugene. Coronado, Knight of the Pueblos and Plains. New York: Whittlesey House, 1949. Buecker, Thomas R. Fort Robinson and the American West 1874–1899. Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1999. Churchill, Winston S. The Great Democracies. A History of the EnglishSpeaking Peoples 4. New York: Dodd, Meade & Company, 1958. Cresap, Bernarr, Appomattox Commander: The Story of General E. O. C. Ord. San Diego: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1981. Cross, Milton, and Karl Kohrs. The New Milton Cross Complete Stories of the Great Operas. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1955. Foner, Jack D. Blacks and the Military in American History: A New Perspective. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1974. Frazer, Robert W. Forts of the West: Military Forts and Presidios and Posts Commonly Called Forts West of the Mississippi River to 1898. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. Reprinted 1972.

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Gilbert, Hila, with George Harris and Bernice Pourier Harris. “Big Bat” Pourier. Sheridan, Wyo.: Mills Company, 1968. Greene, Jerome A. Fort Randall on the Missouri, 1856–1892. Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2005. ———. Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-me-poo Crisis. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2000. Hoogenboom, Ari. Rutherford B. Hayes, Warrior and President. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. Hoxie, Frederick E., ed. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996. Hyde, George. Red Cloud’s Folk: A History of the Oglala Sioux Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975. Paperback 1987. Johnson, Allen, and Dumas Malone, eds. Dictionary of American Biography. 20 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–38. Johnson, Barry C. Flipper’s Dismissal: The Ruin of Lt. Henry O. Flipper, U.S.A. First Coloured Graduate of West Point. London: Privately printed, 1980. Madsen, Brigham D. The Bannock of Idaho. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, Ltd. 1958. Marszalek, John F., Jr., Court-Martial: A Black Man in America. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972. Mathes, Valerie Sherer. Helen Hunt Jackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. ———. The Indian Reform Letters of Helen Hunt Jackson 1879–1885. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. ———, and Richard Lowitt. The Standing Bear Controversy, Prelude to Indian Reform. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Pierce, Michael D. The Most Promising Young Officer: A Life of Ranald Slidell Mackenzie. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. Peterson, Roger Tory. A Field Guide to the Birds: A Completely New Guide to All the Birds of Eastern and Central North America. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980. Priest, Loring Benson. Uncle Sam’s Stepchildren: The Reformation of United States Indian Policy, 1865–1887. 1942. Reprint, New York: Octagon Books, 1972. Porter, Joseph. Paper Medicine Man: John Gregory Bourke and His American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. Paperback 1989. Prucha, Francis Paul. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. Abridged ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.

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Robinson, Charles Moore, III. Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ranald S. Mackenzie. Austin: State House Press, 1993. ———. General Crook and the Western Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. Russell, Don. Campaigning With King: Charles King, Chronicler of the Old Army. Ed. Paul L. Hedren. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. Schneller, Robert J., Jr. A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996. Schubert, Frank N. Outpost of the Sioux Wars: A History of Fort Robinson. Originally published as Buffalo Soldiers, Braves, and the Brass: The Story of Fort Robinson, Nebraska. 1993. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. Seymour, John. The Forgotten Arts and Crafts. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2001. Smith, Thomas T. U.S. Army and Texas Frontier Economy, 1845–1900. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999. Stallard, Patricia Y. Glittering Misery: Dependents of the Indian Fighting Army. Fort Collins, Colo.: Old Army Press, 1978. Sweeney, Edwin R. Cochise, Chiricahua Apache Chief. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. Tate, Michael L. The Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Thrapp, Dan L. Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography. 3 vols. 1988. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. Wallace, Ernest, and E. Adamson Hoebel. The Comanches, Lords of the South Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. Wooster, Robert. Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Articles—Primary Bloom, Lansing B., ed. “Bourke on the Southwest ” New Mexico Historical Review 8, no. 1 (January 1933): 1–30; 9, no. 2 (January 1934): 33–77; 9, no. 2 (April 1934): 159–83; 9, no. 3 (July 1934): 273–89; 9, no. 4 (October 1934): 375–435; 10, no. 1 (January 1935): 1–35; 10, no. 4 (October 1935): 271–322; 11, no. 1 (January 1936): 77–122; 11, no 2 (April 1936): 188–207.

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Articles—Secondary Bailes, Kendall. “The Mennonites Come to Kansas.” American Heritage 10, no. 5 (August 1959): 30–33, 102–5. Chappell, Phil E. “Floods in the Missouri River.” Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 10 (1907–8): 533–63. Foreman, Carolyn Thomas. “General Eli Lundy Huggins.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 12 (1935): 255–65. Robinson, Charles M., III. “Standing Bear vs. Crook: A Major Step Toward Indian Rights.” Papers of the Thirty-second Annual Dakota Conference on History, Literature, Art, and Archaeology. Sioux Falls, S.D. Center for Western Studies, 2000: 445–60.

Index The alphabetical listing treats the article “the” in two different ways. When used as a part of a title (i.e., “The Luck of Roaring Camp”) then the alphabetical listing falls on the word that the article defines (i.e., “Luck”). However, when used as the beginning of an individual’s proper name, specifically an Indian such as the Ponca leader The Brave, then it is listed alphabetically under “T.” Bourke’s footnotes, marked with an (*) in the text, are designated in the index with the page number followed by “fn.” My footnotes have the page number and note number.

A Abbie, Professor (Signal Service), 291 Abby, Samuel, 352 Adam, Emil, 398, 443 Adams (Cheyenne acquaintance), 344 Adams, John Quincy, 182 n4 Ah-cu-la-huata (Apache-Mojave), 124 Alexander II (Russia), 263, 312, 312 n18 Aldridge, Mrs., 48 Alexander, Dr., 111 Allen, James, 217, 273, 443, Allen, Walter, 154, 161, 168, 170, 172, 180, 193–95, 202–4, 218, 516

223, 226, 229, 231–32, 240–42, 244, 247, 250, 255–56, 258, 267–69, 271, 489–90; Bourke’s opinion of, 154, 216, 217; differs on Ponca Commission report, 283 Allison, William.Boyd, 163, 490 Allstrom, (miner), 41 Almy, Jacob, 400, 443 Almy, William E., 44, 443 Altshuler, Constance, 457 American Anthropological Society, 290 n1. American Board of Foreign Missions, 248 American Bureau of Ethnology, 157, 216, 228, 263, 275, 287,

Index 290 n1, 291, 500 American Fur Company, 349 n2 American Indians, 249–50, 290 n1, 299; Bourke’s studies of, 302ff.; sign language among, 316, 316 n4, 342 Anabaptists, 262, 263, 268 Ancient Society (book), 302 n13, 311, 342 Anderson, George, 111 Andersonville Prison Camp, 503 Andrews (dinner guest at White House), 181, 183 Andrews, William Howard, 44 Antietam, Battle of, 475 Apache Indians (see also under individual groups, and Indian scouts), 114–15, 114 n14, 304, 322, 355, 360, 364–65, 364 n3, 378–79, 381–83, 388, 402, 408, 410, 416, 418, 424, 434, 465, 473, 482, 505; treaty with Mexico, 368–69, 369 n9–10 Apache Medicine-Men (see “The Medicine-Men of the Apache”) Apache-Mojave Indians, 219–22 Apache-Yuma Indians, 219 Apache Wars, 121–23, 412, 461, 463, 474, 479, 494 Arapaho Indians, 325, 330, 364 Arizona Pioneer (newspaper), 494 Armstrong, Dr. (chief clerk, Adjutant General’s Office), 275 Army and Navy Journal (newspaper), 300 Arthur, Chester A., 166 n9 Assiniboine Indians, 257, 266 Atchison & Nebraska Railroad, 393 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 187, 263, 312, 344, 346, 373, 393, 399, 402

517

Atkinson, Henry, 259, 443 Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, 373, 384, 403, 405, Augur, Jacob, 39, 40, 298, 309, 344, 421 Auman, William, 374, 444 Avebury, John Lubbock, first Baron of, 302, 302 n13, 311 Ayub Khan (Afghan leader), 66 n7 Aztec Indians, 306 n14, 368, 368 n7, 413, 413 n8 B Bacon, John Mosby, 41, 444 Bailey, Elisha Ingraham, 115–17, 274, 444 Bainbridge, Augustus Hudson, 72, 73, 85, 98, 100, 320–21, 326–27, 335–36, 340, 444 Bainbridge, Mrs. Augustus Hudson, 320–21, 340, 340 fn Baldes, Jesús, 49–50, 59, Baldwin (ethnologist), 302, 302 n13 Baldwin, John Arthur, 23, 444 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 104 Baltimore & Potomac Railroad, 294 Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 129, 129 n19, 302, 302 n13, 311 Bannister, John Monroe, 215, 444 Bannock and Shoshone Agency (see Ross Fork) Bannock Indians, 68–69, 327, 379, 382, 492, 504, 509; farming and diet among, 44, 52, 328–30; child-rearing among, 321–23; crafts, clothing and personal adornment, 322, 330, 334–37, 342; entertainment, games and gambling among, 323, 335–38, 340; origins, 323;

518

early white contact with, 324; missionaries among, 324–25; relations with other tribes, 325, 330; marriage customs and married life, 325–26; Mormons among, 326, 332; weapons and implements, 326, 328; language, 330, 341–42; tribal organization, government and law, 330–31; warfare, 330–32; funeral customs, 332; religion, ritual and ceremonies, 326, 332–33, 341; agency school, 338–40; and General Crook, 340, 340 n16; sign language among, 342 Banta, Albert Franklin (see Franklin, Charles A.) Barit (Episcopal priest at Red Cloud Agency), 141 Barklow (Omaha acquaintance), 344, 397–98 Barnett, Richards, 15, 445 Bartlett, Ashmael, 299 Bass, Edgar Wales, 112, 445 Bateman, M.W., 260, 445 Baxter, Jedediah, 108, 445 Baxer, Mrs. Jedediah, 108 Baxter, John G., 142, 445 Baxter, General (Medical Corps), 160, 161 Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of (see Disraeli, Benjamin) Bear Skin (Bannock), 69 Bear’s Ear (Ponca), 209 Beaver-Tooth Nell (fancy lady near Camp Sheridan), 144 Bedner, Joseph T., 192 Beecher’s Island Fight, 20–23, 20 n8, 457 Beeson, Miss, 344 fn Belcher, Gertrude, 43–44

Index Belcher, John, 43–44, 445 Bellini, Vincenza, 278 n10 Ben Hur (book), 503 Benét, Stephen Vincent, 108, 445 Benét, Stephen Vincent (poet, grandson of above), 445 Benét, Mrs. Stephen Vincent, 108 Benjamin, Samuel Nicoll, 104, 445 Bennett (Arizona rancher), 389, 389 n8. Bennett, Frank Tracey, 372–73, 377–78, 380–82, 387–88, 446 Bergland, Eric, 111, 446 Bernard, Reuben F., 45, 446 Bernard, Mrs. Reuben F., 45 The Best Methods of Studying the Indian Languages (book), 302 n13 Beukelzoon, Jan (see John of Leyden) Big Buffalo (Ponca), 188, 229 Big Bull (Ponca), 188, 201, 212 Big Elk (Ponca), 176 Big Goose (Ponca), 201 Big Head With Tangled Hair (Ponca), 260 Big Hole Fight, 489 Big Horn Expedition, 455 Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, 443–44, 451, 457, 465– 66, 468, 472, 474–78, 480–85, 487, 491, 503 Big Joe (Bannock), 325 Big Road (Oglala), 134 Big Soldier (Ponca), 172, 191, 201, 206, 229 Big Snake (Ponca), 204, 211–12 Bird Head (Ponca), 230, 234 Birkhimer, William Edward, 291, 446 Bisbee, Eugene, 48, 52, 59, 60, 97, 100–1, 320

Index Bisbee, Mrs., 48 Bisbee, William Henry, 47–49, 52, 56–58, 61, 67, 446 Bishop, Hoel Smith, 374 Bismarck, Otto Edouard Leopold, Prince von, 312 Black Coal (Arapaho), 493, 510, 514 Black Crow (Ponca), 172, 188, 191, 201, 205, 229, Black Elk (Ponca), 229, 234, 246 Blackfeet Indians (non-Lakota group), 70, 323–25 Blackfeet Lakota Indians, 257 Black Raven (Ponca), 260 Blaine, James G., 498 Blaine, John Ewing, 318, 446 Blanchard, Miss, 141 Bloom, Lansing, 364 n1, 366 n6, 369 n10, 372 n12, 432 n6, Blue Horse (Oglala), 134 Board of Indian Commissioners, 153, 154, 154 n3, 224, 497, 503 Bode, Emil, 7 Bodmer, Karl, 267 n6 Bolton, Herbert Eugene, 399 n3 Boston Advertiser (newspaper), 216, 489 Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, 154, 154 n3, 274, 490–91 Bouchet (Squaw man), 134 Bourke, J.M., 36 Bourke, John Gregory, 1, 7–9, 13, 25, 57, 70 n10, 73 n14, 101, 106 n3, 108 n7, 116, 125, 128, 158, 163 n7, 170, 172, 182, 186, 191, 200, 220 n2, 234, 242, 247, 262, 264, 292, 295 n4, 299, 307 n15, 313, 317, 321 n8, 361, 364 n1, 369, 369

519

n10, 372 n12–13, 373 n14, 378 fn, 407 n7, 413, 418, 427 n3, 444, 446–47, 449–50, 453–54, 456, 460, 462, 464, 467, 469, 471–72, 480–81, 488, 494, 498, 501, 503, 505; and diary, 1–2, 154; ethnological work, 2, 287–88, 290 n1, 301–2, 302 n13, 311; staff duties, 2; and General Crook, 2, 287–88; on technology, 3; on General Sherman, 3, 103, 165; on President Hayes, 3–4, 183; on Lucy Hayes, 3–4, 182–83; views on food, 4, 30; on Mormonism, 5–6; anti-Semitism, 6, 353, 355; racial and cultural attitudes, 6, 289; on Indian policy, 7; and Uintah Utes, 7, 56; on Carl Schurz, 13–14, 84; visit to Yellowstone National Park, 13, 64–66, 75 n15, 83, 86–87, 100; and Murchie Mine, 45 n2; on wastage of reservation lands, 56; on Webb Hayes, 64–65; immediate family, 109–10, 112, 185, 294; on New York, 109–11; opinions of clubs, 111; and West Point, 111–12; on Nelson Miles, 154; on William Stickney, 154; on Walter Allen, 154; and J. Owen Dorsey, 157; on O.O. Howard, 166 n10; Christmas Eve at White House, 181–83; and Battle of the Rosebud, 186; on Mennonites and other Anabaptists, 262–63, 268–70; and Bureau of Ethnology, 263, 287; prepares ethnological questionnaire, 302ff.; researches Bannock Indians, 321 ff.; romanticism, 354 n8;

520

at Tesuque Pueblo, 361ff.; researches Navajos, 376ff.; researches Zunis, 407 ff. Bourke, Sarah (daughter) (see James, Sarah Bourke) Boy Chief (Ponca), 230 Brackett, Albert Gallatin, 44, 447 Bradley, Luther Prentice, 374, 389, 406, 441, 447 Breck, Samuel, 104, 447 Brewster, William Barton, 144, 447 Brewster, Mrs. William Barton, 145 Bridger, Jim, 40 n22 Bridges, Corporal, 143 Broken Jaw (Ponca), 234 Brooke, Edwin J., 228, 490 Brooks, Miss, 278 Brulé Lakota Indians, 223–24, 250, 257, 507–8, 509 Buffalo (Ponca), 178, 260 Buffalo Calf (Ponca), 230 Buffalo Chief (Macdonald) (Ponca half-blood), 172, 191, 206, 230, 231 Buffalo Chips (Ponca), 229–30, 234 Buffalo Rib (Ponca), 201 Bull That Leads (Ponca), 260 Burdett-Coats, Baroness, 299 Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, 318, 318 n6, 394 Burke, Daniel Webster, 31, 33, 35, 447–48 Burnham, Horace Blois, 397 Burns, James, 105, 114–15, 222, 448 Burns, Mrs. James, 105 Burns, Mike (Apache), 114–15, 114 n14, 117, 186 Burrows, George, 66, 66 n7

Index Butler, Mrs., 69, 101 Byram (mine owner), 45, 295 Byrne, Thomas, 124, 274, 448 C Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Nuñez, 415 n9 Calfee, Henry Bird, 66, 490 Camp Apache, Ariz., 479 Bowie, Ariz. (see Fort Bowie) Brown, Wyo. (see Fort Washakie) Carlin, Wyo. (see Cheyenne Depot, Wyo.) Date Creek, Ariz., 219, 219 n1, 453, 466, 476, 478, 481, 486 Hualpai, Ariz., 121, 121 n3, 123, 472, 473 Lincoln, Ariz. (see Camp Verde) Lowell, Ariz., 446, 476 McDowell, Ariz. (see Fort McDowell) McPherson, Ariz. (see Camp Date Creek) Pond Creek, Kans. (see Fort Wallace) Robinson, Neb. (see Fort Robinson) Sheridan, Neb., 114, 140–44, 448, 467 Thomas, Ariz., 451, 478 Verde, Ariz., 451, 472, 484 Campaigning With Crook (book), 17 n5; reviewed, 17–19, 466 Campbell, Edward, 88 n3, Campbell, Mr. (Citizen of Frisco), 36 Campbell, Mr., (Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad official), 134 Canby, Edward R.S., 461 Cantonment Reno, Wyo. (see Fort McKinney)

Index Cap’n Jack (Uintah Ute) (see Wan-ro) Captain Jack (Navajo), 383 Captain Jim (Shoshone), 323–25, 504 Captain John (Bannock) (see Logan, Captain John) Carlisle Barracks, Penn., 114 n13, 289, Carlisle Government Indian Industrial School, 114, 114 n13, 186, 289, 325 Carlton, Caleb Henry, 23, 448 Carlyle, Thomas, 298 Carol, Sprigg, 294 Carpenter, William Lewis, 23, 125, 302, 311, 448, Carpenter, Mrs. William Lewis, 132 Carrier, Arthur J., 200, 490–91 Carr, Camillo C.C., 449 Carroll, Samuel Sprigg, 449 Carson, Christopher (Kit), 376 Carter (Boston Indian Citizenship Committee), 274 Carter, Judge, 48–51, 57, 59, 62, 66–67, 104 Carter, Mrs., 186 Carter, Robert Goldthwaite, 106, 106 n3, 449 Carter, William, 48, 56, 104 Castañeda, Pedro de, 399 n3 Catherine II (the Great of Russia), 263, 268 Catlin, Nelse, 490 Cavalry Yellow & Infantry Blue (book), 457 Cayuse Mary (Bannock), 342, 342 n19. Chambers, William, 217, 273, 449 Chance, Jesse Clifton, 374, Chandler, Jeff, 505

521

Chappell, Phil E., 314, n1 Chase, George Nathan, 47, 449 Chase (Thaddeus Stanton’s clerk) 118, 119, 120, 125, 134, 136, 137, 141, 145 Cherokee Indians, 187, 213, Cherokee Strip (Oklahoma), 187 Cherry, Samuel Austin, 124, 136, 403, 403 n5, 449 Cheyenne (Dakota-Yankton adopted into Poncas), 197, 205, addresses Ponca Commission, 244 Cheyenne Agency (Darlington, Okla.), 193, 204 Cheyenne Depot, Wyo., 101, 101 n19 Cheyenne Indians, 17, 20–23, 20n8, 60, 185–86, 193, 304, 325, 330, 333, 340, 359, 364, 457, 508 Cheyenne Outbreak, 450 Cheyenne River Agency, Neb., 250 Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 136, 146, 185, 219, 273 Chicago, Burlington & Quincey Railroad, 104, 146, 318, 344, 393 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, 219, 222, 269, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, 51, 112, 147, 158, 159, 317, 393 Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad, 16 Chicago Times (newspaper), 17, 494 Chicago Tribune (newspaper), 168 Chickamauga, Battle of, 474, 495 Child Chief (Ponca), 172, 188, 191, 201, 260

522

Chimahuevi Indians, 123 Chimahuevi Sal (Apache-Yuma), 219, 220, 221, 222 Chouteau, August, 260, 491 Church, Professor, 48 Citizen (Minneapolis-St. Paul newspaper), 216 n1 Clark, J.F., 20 Clark, Robert A., 450 Clark, W.O., 395 Clark, William, 260 Clark, William Philo, 108, 302, 316, 317, 450 Cleveland, Grover, 498, 503 Clift, Emory White, 374, 450 Coates, Edwin M., 101, 450 Cochise (Apache), 77, 257, 395, 403, 494, 505 Cochise War, 462, 505 Coeur d’Alene Indians, 70 Coffman, Dr., 397 Cogswell (sometimes spelled “Coggswell”), Milton, 278, 450 Cogswell, Miss, 278, 294 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 438 n7 Colley, George, 300 Collins, 17 Collins (gunslinger near Camp Sheridan), 143, 144 Collins, G.H., 29 Collins, John, 114 Collins, Mrs. G.S., 395 Collins, Miss, 395 Coleman, Frederick William, 108, 108 n8, 109, 450 Colorado Central Railroad, 343, 344 Comanche Indians, 325 n9, 364, 366, 461, 495 The Composition of Indian Geographical Names (book), 302, 302 n13

Index Conden, Dr., 33, 451 Congdon (Union Pacific shop superintendent), 397, 397 n1 Conline, John, 358, 370, 403, 451 Connor, Patrick, 507 Cook (agent at Rosebud), 124, 125, 134 Cooke, George Frederick, 370, 450 Cooke, Miss (dinner guest at White House), 181 Corbin, Henry Clarke, 104, 450 Corcoran (railroad superintendent), 25, 28, 29 Corcoran Art Gallery, 292, 292 n2 Corcoran, William Wilson, 292 n2 Cornish, George Anthony, 352, 370, 371, 451 Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de (American form), 162, 163 n6, 399, 399 n3, 400, 415, 440 Coronado, Knight of the Pueblos and Plains (book), 399 n3 “Coronado’s March in Search of the ‘Seven Cities of Cibola’” (article), 399 n3 Clossett, Rev., 403 Cowley, Edward, 382, 382 n4 Craig, Henry Knox, 112, 451 Craig, Mrs. Henry Knox, 112 Crawford, Emmet, 44, 451–52, 509 Crawford, Jack “Captain Jack,” 403, 491 Crazy Horse (Oglala), 18, 134, 448, 450, 467, 473, 498, 505, 509 Cries for War (Ponca), 229, 234 Critchlon (Uintah Ute agent), 56, 63 Cronkhite, Henry Maclean, 142, 143, 144, 452

Index Crook, George, 2, 13, 17, 19, 24–25, 28–29, 31, 33, 39, 40–44, 48–50, 54, 57, 59, 60–62, 67, 72, 101, 103, 105, 107, 121–22, 134–35, 146, 154, 158–63, 168–70, 186, 215, 218, 222, 242, 265, 267, 271, 273–74, 292, 294, 298–99, 302, 311, 313, 316, 318, 325, 327, 331, 387, 397, 403, 413, 443–44, 448, 450, 453–54, 457, 464, 466, 468, 469–70, 471, 474, 475, 478, 480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 488, 494, 498–99, 500, 503, 507–8; Yellowstone visit, 13, 41, 75, 75 n15, 79, 83, 85, 87, 89, 93, 96–100, 102; and Hayes family 3–4, 64, 181; image 17 n5; and Great Sioux War, 18, 160; and Murchie Mine, 45 n2; and Uintah Utes, 56, 63; and Webb Hayes, 64–65, 64 n1, 114, 496; and Indian scouts, 121, 121 n2–3, 124; Apache campaigns, 121, 121 n2–3; and Poncas, 153, 167–68, 170, 172, 174, 178–80, 187, 190–91, 195–97, 204, 212, 225–28, 234–36, 238–40, 245–47, 250–52, 255–56, 259, 283; opinion of O.O. Howard, 166 n9; and Bourke, 287–88; Bannock and Shoshone expeditions, 340, 340 n16; opinion of Nelson Miles, 473 Crook, Mary Dailey (wife), 64, 496 Crosby (clerk of War Department), 160 Crouch (mining foreman), 36, 37, 38 Crow Agency, Mt., 94 Crow Dog (Brulé), 508

523

Crow Indians (see also Indian scouts), 325, 327, 330, 332, 364 Curran, Sarah, 352 n5 Cushing, E.L., 412, 415, 416 fn, 419, Cushing, Frank Hamilton, 391, 412, 415, 420, 425, 439–41, 491 Custer, George Armstrong, 18–19, 87, 107, 459 D da Gama, Vasco, 291 Dahlgren, John A., 293, 452 Dalhgren, Mrs. John A., 293–94 Dall, William Healey, 302, 302 n13 The Dakota and Corbusier Winter Counts (book), 290 n1 Dana, James Jackson, 126, 452 Damon (Navajo Agency farmer), 382, 383 Dana, Dick, 126, 127 Danilson, William J., 491–92 Darr, Francis, 110, 452 Davenport, Reuben, 491 Davidson, John W., 356 Davis, A.C., 186 Davis, George Breckenridge, 44, 125, 131–32, 452–53 Davis, George Whitefield, 184, 453 Davis, Mrs. George Breckenridge, 132 Dawes, Henry Laurens, 155, 161, 492 Dear, Clay, 138 de Chantel (or Chantal), Sister, 105, 160, 283 De Courcey, Ferdinand E., 374, 375, 389, 406, 453

524

De Graaf (fishing companion), 26, 27, 28, 29 Delaney, Hayden, 319 De Jañon, Patrice, 112, 453 de Lesseps, Ferdinand, 169 n14, 492 Denel, Harry, 273 Denver, Colo., 344, 345, Denver Pacific Railroad, 343, 344 Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, 344, 345, 346, 356, 398, 401, Denver & South Park Railroad, 344 Dermotty, (Adjutant General’s Office), 275 De Smet, Pierre-Jean, 87, 492–93 De Witt, Calvin, 5, 125, 128, 129, 453 De Witt, Mrs. Calvin, 132 Dickey, J.J., 48 Dickens, Charles, 269, 382 n4 Dickinson, Alice, 129, 130 Dillon, Sidney, 315 Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, 319, 372 Dodd, George Allen, 178, 434, 453–54 Dodge, Frederick Leighton, 454 Dodge, Richard Irving, 7, 279, 294, 454 Dorantes, Andrés, 415 n9 Dorsey, J. Owen, 157, 172, 174, 188, 190–91, 204, 209, 212, 216–17, 219, 234–35, 238–39, 242, 244, 247, 258, 266–68, 271, 276, 287, 493; and Bourke, 157; testimony before Ponca Commission, 223–29, 231–32; description of Ponca clans, 229–31 Douglass, H.M., 33 Dows, Mr., 158, 159

Index Dows, David, 159, Doyle, Arthur Conan, 66 n7 Drake, Francis, 162, 162 n3 Drew, George Augustus, 454–55 Drum, Richard Coulter, 104, 158, 159, 160, 277, 455 Du Bois (at Fort Hall), 321 Du Bois, Doctor (Ross Fork Agency), 325, 333, 335, 336 Ducat, Arthur Charles, 101, 159, 455 Dull Knife Fight, 114 n12, 453, 461 Duncan, R.M.C., 260, 455 Duncan, Samuel Augustus, 170, 455 Dundy, Elmer, 153, 153 n1, 493 Dutton, Clarence Edward, 276, 455 E Eads, James Buchanan, 100, 493, Eagle (Ponca), 229, 243 Ealy, Dr. (Missionary at Zuni), 412, 413, 428, 429, 439 Ealy, Mrs., 429, 439 Early History of Institutions (book), 302 n13, 311, 312 Earnest, C.A., 170, 455–56 Eastman, Galen, 382, 493 Edison, Thomas Alva, 3 Ellison, Samuel, 368–69, 494 Emerson, Miss, 48 Emmet, Robert, 352, 352 n5 Emmet, Thomas Addis, 352 n5 Emmet, William Temple, 352–53, 358, 362, 367, 371, 456 Eñacuiyusa (Apache-Mojave), 124 Erie Railroad, 495 Erwin, James, 398. 456 Esau, Joseph, 173, 187, 190, 191, 201 Estevánico, 415, 415 n9

Index “Evangeline” (poem), 88 Evans (ethnologist), 302, 302 n13 Ewing, Miss, 165 Ewing, Thomas, 44–47, 494 F Falconer, Dr. (Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad official), 134, 136 Fant (teacher at Ross Fork Agency), 338, 339, Fant, Mrs., 160, 294 Fant, Miss, 107 Farrar, H.W. (given in earlier notebooks as H.H.), 372 fn Fauntleroy, Thomas I., 374 n15 Fetterman Massacre, 505 Fetterman, William Judd, 83–84 n10, 438 Finerty, John Frederick, 17, 17 n5, 168, 274, 494 First Boer War, 300 n11 Fisher (at Chicago Club), 317 Fisher (Santa Fe merchant), 370 Fisher, Mike (Shoshone), 73 Fitzherbert, Maria, 476 Flat-Head Indians, 69, 70, 88, 325 Fleming, Corporal, 143 Flint, General, 41, 456 “Floods in the Missouri River” (article), 314 n1 Flying Eagle (Brulé adopted into Poncas), 223 Flying Iron (Ponca), 260 Fork Tail Hawk (Ponca), 261 Foley, Timothy, 73, 99, 100 Fontenelle (interpreter), 193 Foote, Morris Cooper, 15, 145, 186, 299, 397, 456 Forbush, William Curtis, 144, 456–57 Ford (chief examiner, Patent Office), 293

525

Fornance, James, 374, 375 Forsyth, George Alexander “Sandy”, 19–24, 20 n8, 273, 302, 315, 317, 457 Fort Apache, Ariz. 447 Bowie, Ariz., 455, 463, 478 Bridger, Wyo., 40, 40 n22, 48, 49, 51, 62, 100, 101, 320 Buford, N.D., 349, 349 n2, 461 C.F. Smith, Mt., 447, 507 Cameron, Utah, 30, 30 n13, 31, 33, 35, 42 Canby, Ariz. (see Fort Defiance) Craig, N.M., 108, 108 n7, 367, 446 Crook, Neb., 15 n1 D.A. Russell, Wyo., 44 n1, 101 n 19, 397, 448, 450, 452, 486 Defiance, Ariz., 376, 376 n1, 377, 378, 380, 387, 440, 470 Douglas, Utah (upgraded from Camp Douglas), 19, 19 n7, 24, 40, 42 Ellis, Mont., 19, 19 n8 Fauntleroy, N.M. (see Fort Wingate II) Fetterman, Wyo., 34, 448 Fillmore, N.M., 470 Fred Steele, Wyo., 23, 23 n12, 101, 295, 484, 489 Francis E. Warren (ex-Fort D.A. Russell), 44 n1 Garland, Colo., 348, 348 n1 Hall, Idaho, 289, 317, 318, 320, 322, 327, 340, 341, 491 Harker, 486 Hays, Kans., 456, 457 Kearny, Neb., 507 Keogh, Mt., 90, 90 n6 Laramie, Wyo., 23 n11, 48, 491 Leavenworth, Kans., 41, 41 n23, 466, 506, 507

526

Lewis, Colo., 359, 359 n10 Lyon, N.M. (see Fort Wingate II) McDowell, Ariz., 114, 114 n14, 449, 460, 478 McKavett, Tex., 480 McKinney, Wyo., 114, 114 n12 McPherson, Ariz. (see Camp Date Creek) Marcy, N.M., 501 Massachusetts, Colo. , 348 n1 Mojave, Ariz., 50, 50n7, 111, 121 n3, 448, 478 Niobrara, Neb., 13 n1, 124, 403, 403 n5, 456, site selection for, 13; described, 131–32, 136 Omaha, Neb. (see Omaha Barracks) Phil Kearny, Wyo., 507 Randall, S.D., 235, 235 n1 Reno, Wyo., 507 Robinson, Neb. (upgraded from Camp Robinson), 32, 107, 107 n6, 143, 146, 447, 448, 464, 467, 472, 480, 486, 498, 505, 508, 509; described, 144–45 Sanders, Wyo., 23, 23 n11, 41, 45, 101 Sill, Okla., 448, 495 Snelling, Minn., 467 Sumner, N.M., 376 Thomas, Ariz. (see Camp Thomas) Union, N.D. (American Fur Company), 349 n2 Union, N.M., 392, n9 Wallace, Kans., 20, 20 n8–9, 22 Washakie, Wyo., 67, 67 n8, 325 Whipple, Ariz., 5 n17, 115, 116 Wingate I, N.M., 374 n15 Wingate II, N.M., 374, 374 n15, 376–77, 389, 391, 406–7, 410, 414, 423, 440, 441

Index Fort Bridger Treaty, 504 Fort Defiance Agency (see Navajo Agency) Fort Laramie Treaty (1868), 493, 507–8 Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, 68, 71, 491–92, 502, 504, 509 Fort Phil Kearny Massacre. (see Fetterman Massacre) Foster, James E.H., 101, 457 Four Bears (Ponca), 201 Fox (Niobrara, Neb., attorney), 232 Fox, Gustavus Vasa, 163, 163 n7, 494 France (Pullman conductor), 24 Francisco (Navajo), 377, 378, 383, Francisco (Zuni), 427 Franklin, Charles A. (Albert Franklin Banta), 420, 429, 432 n5, 440–41, 494 Franklin, John, 112–13, 112 n10 Frémont, John Charles, 288, 465 Fulton Fish Market (New York), 110 Furey, John Vincent, 299, 457 A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians (book), 302 n13, 311 G Gaines, Dr. (Fort Hall), 340 Gale, James, 259, 457–58 Ganado Mucho (Navajo), 387, Gardner, Colonel (Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad official), 134–36 Gardiner, Mary, 500 Garfield, James A. (including references as “the President”

Index and “Great Father” after page 301), 7, 140, 140 n9, 165–66 n8, 301, 425, 494–95. Gauliaur, Mr., 67, 72, 78, 83, 84, 93, 94 Gault, J., 259, 458 Gayton, Samuel (Ponca), 226 Gentry, William Thomas, 398, 458 George IV, 476 Geronimo War, 447, 452, 473 Gerster, Etelka, 277, 278 n10 Gettysburg, Battle of, 106, 475, 485 Gibbs, George, 302, 302 n13, 311 Gibbs, Mrs, 275, 294 Gil, Mr., 17 Gileño Apache Indians, 369 Gilmore, Alexander, 125–27, 458 Glassford, Lieutenant, 352 Glorieta, Battle of, 392, 392 n9. Goddard (Boston Indian Citizenship Committee), 274 Goddard, Vinton Augustus, 293,. 293 n3, 458 Gold (Santa Fe merchant), 372 Goldman, Henry Joseph, 142, 458 Goodwin, Millard Fillmore, 33, 352, 358, 403, 458 Goodwin, William Percey, 458 Gorre, Michel (see Hard Walker) Gould, Jay, 40, 343, 344, 494 Graham (storekeeper at Zuni), 412, 415, 416 fn, 420, 422–23, 428–29, 439 Grant, Frederick Dent, 315, 458–59 Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 160, 182 n4, 458–59, 502, 503 Grattan massacre, 507 Gray, Dr. (missionary to Poncas), 227, 228

527

Gray, Miss (Santee Agency School), 264 Great Sioux Reservation, 238, 251, 256 Great Sioux War, 6, 17–19, 17 n5, 60, 67 n8, 90 n6, 160, 185–86, 251, 251 n4, 295, 316–17, 359, 450, 471, 475, 505, 507 Greely, Adolphus Washington, 274, 459 Greely, Mrs. Adolphus Washington, 274 Green, Corporal, 143–44 Green, Frank, 276–77, 459–60 Gregory, James Fingal, 316, 460 Griffith, Emerson, 374–75 Grimes, Robert D., 321, 460 Grouard, Frank, 450, 491, 500 Gunnison, John William, 30, 30 n16 Guthrie, John Brandon, 348, 460 Guthrie, Mrs. John Brandon, 348, Gwyn, Thomas P., 260, 460 H Haines, Miss, 294 Haines, Thomas Jefferson, 294, 460 Haines, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson, 294 Hairy Bear (Ponca), 172, 188, 191, 197, 204–5, 229, 247, 256; addresses Poncas, 242–44 Hale, Edward Everett, 161–63, 162 fn, 163 n6, 171, 299, 301, 401, 495 Hamilton, Dick, 48, 51 Hamilton, John Morrison, 144, 460–61 Hamilton, Mrs. John Morrison, 145 Hancock, Winfield Scott, 165–66 n8

528

Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (book), 290 n1, 493 Handsome Man (Ponca), 261 Hanna (Carl Schurz’s secretary), 67, 83–84, 88, 94, 161, 293 Hanneker, Miss (missionary and teacher at Zuni), 429 Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, 393 Hard Walker also known as Michel Gorre (Ponca half-blood), 230 Harris, William, 260 Harte, Bret, 95 Haston, Judge, 143, 144 Hatch, John Porter, 356–57, 359, 371, 373, 375–76, 383, 387–88, 390, 403, 461 Hatch, Mrs. John Porter, 360, 372, 403 Hathorn (cook at Zuni agency), 412–13 Hawkins, John Parker, 110, 112, 461 Hawkins, Mrs. John Parker, 110–12 Haworth, James M., 24, 172, 187, 191, 217, 254–55, 495 Hay (messmate), 397 Hayden, Ferdinand V., 65, 88 n3, 302, 302 n13, 495–96, 499, 504 Hayes, Fanny, 181–82 Hayes, George Crook, 103 n21. Hayes, James Webb Cook, 67, 72, 83–84, 87, 93, 97–98, 100–1, 103; and Crook, 64–65, 64 n1, 114, 181–83, 496 Hayes, Lucy Webb, 102–3, 160, 181–83, 496; Bourke’s opinion of, 3–4, 182–83 Hayes, Rutherford Birchard (including references as “Presi-

Index dent” and “Great Father” until page 301), 64, 67, 102–3, 153, 158, 160–61, 165–68, 166 n8, 170, 174–83, 189, 191, 193–97, 207–12, 218, 235–39, 241, 243–46, 252, 254–55, 257–58, 278–79, 283, 300–1, 496, 501; Bourke’s opinion of, 3–4, 183, 277, 301; on Indian policy, 296–97 Hayes, Scott, 181 Hayt, Ezra, 149, 228, 497; investigated, 149 n11 Hazen, William Babcock, 104, 160–61, 461–62 Healy, George Peter Alexander, 182, 182 n4 He Dog (Oglala), 134 He That Has No Knife (Ponca), 260 He That Stamps on the Ground (Ponca), 260 He Walks on Land (Pona), 260 He Who Fears No Bears (Ponca), 260 He Who Hides Something (Ponca), 260 He Who Stands Five (Ponca), 261 Henderson, Abraham, 142–43 Henderson, Moses (Apache), 142–43 Herman, Miss, 48 Hey Chief (Ponca), 229 Hibberd (Denver acquaintance), 344 Hill (mining superintendent), 36 Hitchcock, Phineas Warren, 158–59, 497 Hoar, George Frisbie, 161, 163, 497 Hodge, Frederick Webb, 290 n1, 399 n3 Hoffman, William, 462

Index Hoffman, William Edwin, 17, 462 Holden, Edward Singleton, 273, 276, 287, 462 Holmes, R., 260, 462 Holmes, Samuel Nelson, 374 Holt, Charles, 321, 329 Hopi Indians, 325, 325 n10, 379, 385, 399–400, 409, 418, 420 fn Hopkins (sutler at Fort Wingate), 375 Horbach, Mrs. J.A., 15, 186 Horbach, Mary “Molly” (J.G.B.’s future wife), 15, 15 n2, 395 Horbach, Paul, 15, 318 Howard, E.A., 200, 497 Howard, James H., 261 n6 Howard, Oliver Otis, 72, 72 n12, 462–63, 505; opinions by Sherman, Crook and Bourke, 166, 166 n10 Howell, Willliam T., 67, 100, 463 Hualpai Indians (see also Indian Scouts), 121, 121 n2, 123–24 Hualpai-Supai Indians, 122 Hudson River Railroad, 111 Hughes, William Burton, 66, 81 Hughes, William Neill, 374 Huggins, Eli Lundy, 187–88, 216, 216 n1, 218, 234, 242, 247, 266–67, 269, 271, 274, 463 Humpy Saw (Shoshone Indian), 68 Hunt, Justice (Court of Claims), 274, 294 Hunt, Mrs., 274, 292 Hunter, David D., 161, 463 Hunter, George King, 41, 463 Huntington, David Lowe, 103, 463–64 Hurley, Jack (Shoshone Indian), 73 Hyde, D.C., 360

529

I Illinois Central Railroad, 222, 272 Indian Rights Association, 224 n3 Indian scouts, 61, 69, 451, 452 Chimahuevi, 123 Hualpai, 121, 121 n2, 123–24 Pima, 114 n14 Sioux, 124 Ute, 376 Indian Sign Language (Book), 450 Indian Tribes of Washington Territory (book), 302 n13 Ingalls, Rufus, 273, 464 Iriarte, Jesus, 416, 422 Irish Home Rule issue, 297–98 Irish Land Question, 132, 132 n Irwin (chief engineer, Denver & Rio Grande), 355 J Jackson, William H., 65 James, Sarah Bourke (J.G.B.’s daughter), 1 Jennings, Ike, 46–47 Jensen, Captain (white at Fort Hall), 324 Jesus (Navajo Agency interpreter), 382–83, Jewett, Jeannette C., 15 Jicarilla Apache Indians, 348 n1 Joe, Corporal (Hualpai scout), 124 John of Leyden (Jan Beukelzoon), 262–63, 269–70 Johnson, Andrew, 163 Johnson, John Burgess, 23, 464 Johnson, Mrs. G.M. (Mother of Little Bighorn casualty), 107–8, 170, 275, 293–94, Johnson, Lena, 170 Johnston, Joseph E., 478

530

Jones, Dan, 53, 53n8 Jones, William Albert, 78, 78 n23, 464 Jordan, Allan, 44, 464 Jordan, William Henry, 315, 464 Joseph (Nez Percé), 72, 78, 87, 188, 215, 473, 505–6 Joyce (shooting victim near Camp Sheridan), 144 Julian, Stephen, 261 K Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad, 318 Kansas Indians (see Kaw Indians) Kansas Pacific Railroad, 343 Kansas Reservation, 175 Kaw (Kansas) Indians, 175, 188 Kearny, Stephen Watts, 259, 464–65 Kemble, Edward C., 252–53, 252 n5 Kendrick, Henry Lane, 111, 465 Kennington, James, 31, 33, 465 Keogh, Myles, 90 n6 The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse (book), 450 Kimball, T.L., 67 Kimball, Mrs. T.L., 48 Kimball, Tom, 48–49, 61 Kimball, William Augustus, 320, 341–42, 465 Kime, Wayne R., 7, 454 King, Charles, 17–19, 465–66, King, John Haskell, 10, 103, 299, 397, 466 King, Rufus, 465 Kingsbury, James W., 260, 466 Kiowa Indians, 163, 364, 495 Kipling, Rudyard, 66 n7, 465 Kirkwood, Samuel Jordan, 163, 490, 497

Index Kirkwood, Mrs. Samuel Jordan, 163 Knipperdolling, Bernhard, 263, 270 Krause, David, 33–34, 466 Krechting, Bernhard, 263 L La Flesche or La Fleche, Francis (Omaha) (see White Swan) La Flesche or La Fleche, Joseph “Iron Eyes” (Omaha), 17, 17 n4, 261, 506 La Flesche or La Fleche, Susette “Bright Eyes” (Omaha), 17, 17 n4, 192, 193 n6, 506, 507, 508 Laine, Mr., 41 Lake, Judge, 59 Lake, Mannie, 59 Lakota (Western Sioux) Indians, 155, 157 n12, 490, 507–8 Lamberton, Captain, 104–5, 171 Lamberton, Mrs., 105–6, 161, 171, 294 Lamy, Jean Baptiste, 357–58, 367, 497–98 Langford, Nathaniel Pitt, 499 Langham, A.R., 260 Larned, Charles William, 112, 466 Lawler, Judge (Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad official), 134, 136 Lawrence, James, 226–27 Lawson, Joseph, 295, 466–67 Leavenworth, Henry, 259, 467 Leavenworth, Jesse Henry, 467 Le Clair, David (Ponca halfblood), 212, 226, 233–36, 242–43, 251, 258; testimony before Ponca Commission, 252, 253 Le Clair, Michel (Ponca halfblood), 176, 210, 212,

Index Lee, James G.C., 372, 372 fn, 397, 403, 467 Lee, Jesse Matlock, 169, 467 Lee, Mrs. James G.C., 372, 403 Leman, General, 292 Lemhi Agency, Idaho, 68 Lemhi Indians, 504, 509 Leonard (post trader at Navajo Agency), 377, 380, 387, Leroy, Antoine, 173, 188, 190–91 Levin, Mrs., 295 Lewis and Clark Expedition, 245 n3, 247, 288 Leyden, James Alexander, 101, 467 Lightning (Ponca), 260 Lincoln (Boston Indian Citizenship Committee), 274 Lincoln, Abraham, 96, 163, 463, 494 Lipan Indians, 364–65 Little Bighorn, Battle of, 18, 90 n6, 107, 170, 170 n15, 316 n4, 467, 479 Little Chief (Ponca), 261 Little Ice, 234 Little Picker (Ponca), 201 Lockwood (chief clerk, Indian Bureau), 172, 293 Logan, Captain John (Bannock), 323–24, 335–36 Logan, John Alexander, 161, 163, 498 Logan, Mrs. John Alexander, 163 Lloyd, Charles F., 33, 468 Lone Chief (Ponca half-blood) (see Primand, Antoine) Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 88 Looking Glass (Nez Percé), 506 Lord, James, 23, 44, 100, 114, 182, 468 Loring, Frederick W., Jr., 147

531

Loring, George Bailey, 292, 498 Loring, William B., 318–19 Loud, John Sylvanus, 361, 468 Loud, Mrs. John Sylvanus, 361 Louis Philippe, King of the French, 182 n4 Lubbock, John (see Avebury, John Lubbock, first Baron of) Lucero, Juan (Zuni), 439 “The Luck of Roaring Camp” (short story), 95, 95 n12 Ludington, Marshall Independence, 15, 62, 66–67, 72–73, 78, 84, 88, 90, 93, 97–101, 299, 302, 397, 468 Ludlow, William, 78, 78 n23, 468 Luhn, Gerhard, 45, 48, 468 Luna, Trinaquilino, 217 Lyon (at Chicago Club), 317 M McAllister, Julian G., 41, 468–69 McCammon, William, 24–29, 31, 33, 40, 469 McCauley, Charles Adam Hoke, 397, 469 McClellan, Captain, 273, 469 McClernand, Edward John, 78, 469 McConnell (Union Pacific freight officer), 67 McCook, A.D., 356 McCook, Alexander M., 279, 292, 469–70 McCook, Edward, 470 McCoy (Adjutant General’s Office), 275 McDowell, Irvin, 165, 165–66 n8, 470 McElderry, Henry, 48, 101, 470 McGillicuddy, Valentine T., 134, 136–42, 498

532

McGillicuddy, Mrs. Valentine T., 139, 141–42 McKee, James Cooper, 274, 470 McKibbin, Major, 352, 403, 470 McKinney, John A., 114 n12 McNamara, Rev., 403 McNeely, Thompson Ware, 76, 76 n19, 79 McNeely, Mrs. Thompson Ware, 76, 79, McNulty (see McNeely) McNutt, John, 167, 470–71 McNutt, L., 260, 470 McPheeters, Miss, 27 McPherson, James, 106 McRae, J., 260, 470 MacArthur, Arthur, 374, 471 MacArthur, Douglas, 471 Macdonald (Ponca half-blood) (see Buffalo Chief) Mackenzie, Ranald Slidell, 160, 163, 165, 449, 453, 461, 471, 480, 481 Macomb, Augustus Canfield, 132–34, 136, 161, 471 Macomb, Lieutenant, 472 Macy’s (New York department store), 111 Maguire (drunk), 67 Maiwand, Battle of, 66, 66 n7 Majuba Hill, Battle of, 300, 300 n11 Mallery, Garrick, 290, 290n1 Maloney, Maurice, 34, 472 Maine, Henry James, Sir, 302, 302 n13, 312 “The Man Without a Country” (Story), 161, 495 Manassas, First Battle of, 470 Manassas, Second Battle of, 470 Mandan Indians, 267 n6 Manderson, Charles F., 299, 472 Manderson, Mrs. Charles F.,

Index 299–300 Mangas Coloradas (Apache), 505 Marble, E.M., 213 Marcos de Niza, 415 n9 Maria Alexandrovna (Empress of Russia), 312, 312 n19 Maricopa Indians, 436 Marion, John Huguenot, 143, 498 Marquette, Jacques, 407 Marshall, George, 76 n18 Marston, Doctor, 124, 472 Marston, Mrs., 132 Martin, Sol, 143–44 Marvel, J.M., 191 Mary Powell (Hudson River steamer), 106 Mason, Julius Wilmot, 122–24, 472 Matthews, Washington, 122, 441, 472 Matthews, Mrs. Washington, 441 Maxey, S.B., 165–66 n8. Mayer (Carl Schurz’s nephew), 67, 78, 84, 89, 91, 94, Mead, Mr., 48 Meade, George, 34 Mears (packer), 124 “The Medicine-Men of the Apache” (article), 220 n2, 307 n15 Meek, Fielding Bradford, 495 “Men and Things in Alaska” (newspaper series), 216 n1 Mennonites (see also Simons, Menno), 262–63, 263 n2, 268–69, 270 Mercer, Dr., 397 Mescalero Apache Indians, 369 Metcalf, Will, 111 Métis, 266, 266 n5 Mexican War, 451, 455, 461, 464– 66, 470, 472, 476, 481, 494 Meyers, Charlie, 45–46

Index Michler, Francis, 111, 122–23, 472–73 Miantonomah (monitor), 163 Miles, Mary Hoyt Sherman, 473 Miles, Nelson Appleton, 5 n17, 90 n6, 160–61, 215, 242, 250, 262–63, 265–67, 269, 271, 274, 463, 473, 506; Bourke’s opinion of, 154, 215–17; and Ponca Commission, 153–54, 156, 168, 170–72, 180, 191, 196–98, 204–10, 212, 229, 231, 234, 240, 246–47, 253–56, 258, 283; and Sherman, 165, 165–66 n8, 473; opinion of Crook, 473 Milk River Fight, 295, 466, 477, 485 Millard, Mr., 17 Millard, Mrs. Ezra, 186 Millard, Mrs. James, 186 Miller, Amos D., 327 Miller, George L., 158–59 Miller, “Long Dan,” 60–61 Miller, Samuel Warren, 90, 473 Mills, Anson, 60–61, 160, 185, 473–74 Mills, Cuthbert, 51, 488–89 Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, 6, 134, 136, 222–23 Miner, Christopher C., 144, 474 Miniconjou Lakota Indians, 236, 257 Minnesota Uprising, 504 Missouri Pacific Railroad, 393 Missouri Timber (Ponca), 234; testimony before Ponca Commission, 237–38 Modoc War, 461, 470 Mojave Indians, 219 n1, 304 Montgomery, Robert Hugh, 124, 474 Montgomery, Mrs. Robert Hugh,

533

132 Moody (Deputy U.S. marshal in Omaha), 258 Moon, Dick, 79 Moore, Thomas, 23, 44, 65, 79, 85, 94, 498–99 Mopia (Bannock), 327 Moqui Indians (see Hopi Indians) Moran, Thomas, 65, 340 fn, 499 Morgan, Charles (Omaha), 180–81, 184–85, 490, 507 Morgan, Lewis H., 302, 302 n13, 311, 342 Morris, Mr., 158 Mormons, 35, 326, 332, 378; Bourke’s views on, 5–6, 25 Morton, Alfred, 144, 474–75 Morton, Charles, 217, 475 Morton, J. Sterling, 217 Morton, Mrs. Alfred, 145 The Mulligan Guard’s Picnic (play), 112 Murfreesboro, Battle of (see Stone’s River) Murphy, Frank, 158–59, 170 Murphy, John, 31–33, 32 n17, 35, 475 N Naltajé “Joe” (Apache scout), 115 Nanni-Chaddi (Apache), 115 Napannanano Indians (see Lipan Indians) Napoleon (Acoma), 427 Napoleon I, 18, 370 Narváez, Pánfilo, 415 n9 Nast, Thomas, 501 Nation, Carrie, 499 Native Races (book), 302 n13, 311 Navajo Agency, Ariz., 372, 376– 78, 376 n1, 380, 388

534

Navajo Indians, 325, 355–56, 364–66, 370–72, 376–77, 378 fn, 389, 391, 407–10, 415, 422, 425, 431, 434, 441, 472, 493; appearance, 378–81; language, 378, 388; crafts, clothing and personal adornment, 379–84, 381 fn, 386, 438; trade and economy, 379–80; government rations and neglect of, 380–82, 388–89; agency school, 382, 389; entertainment, games, and gambling among, 383; marriage and married life, 384; habitations, 384–85; weapons and implements, 385; farming and diet among, 385–86; warfare, 386; child-bearing among, 386–87, 433; funeral customs, 387; relations with other tribes, 388–89; corruption by newcomers, 389 fn. Navajo Wars, 376, 376 n1, 431, 470 Nave, Thomas, 260, 475 Nelson, James H., 161, 475 Nelson, Mrs. James H., 161 Neuwied, Maximilian (see WiedNeuwied, Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu, Prince) Newman (trader at Camp Sheridan), 145 New York Herald (newspaper), 279, 491 New York Tribune (newspaper), 484, 491, 503 Nez Percé Indians, 70, 87, 92, 188, 215, 324–25, 462, 469, 473, 477, 489, 505–6 Nez Percé War, 17 n5, 72, 72 n12, 87, 443, 505–6

Index Nicholas Nickleby (book), 54 n9, 382 n4 Nickerson, Azor Howitt, 104, 106–8, 112, 160–62, 171, 184, 222, 274–76, 291–92, 294, 475 Niza, Marcos de (see Marcos de Niza) Norris, Philatus Walter, 66, 75–76, 76 n17, 85, 87–88, 88 n3, 91–92, 94, 96 n14, 499, 504 The North Americans of Antiquity (book), 302 n13, 311 North Nebraska Railroad, 16 North Plains Expedition, 507 Norton (at Chicago Club), 317 O O’Brien, Mrs., 186, 273 O’Connor, Stephen, 145, 476 O’Fallon, Benjamin, 259 O’Neil, Jim, 118 Ogden, Charles, 395 Oglala Lakota Indians, 20 n8, 22–23, 224, 257, 463, 498, 500, 505 Ollendorff, Heinrich Gottfried, 351, 351 n3 Olmstead, Jerauld Aubrey, 374, 375 Omaha, Neb., 15–16, 41, 56, 59, 62, 62 n17, 101, 112–14, 118, 136, 146–47, 158, 170, 185–87, 217, 222, 233, 253, 258, 271– 72, 292, 296–97, 299, 313–15, 317–18, 340, 344, 352, 394–96, 403, 472, 497; designated as departmental headquarters, 43; flooding in, 345, 393–94; Union Pacific shops in, 396 n1 Omaha Agency, Neb., 252 Omaha & Northern Nebraska Railroad, 15

Index Omaha & St. Paul Railroad, 118, 222 Omaha Barracks, Neb., 15, 15 n1, 41, 44, 100–3, 186, 214, 218, 273, 298, 302, 313; removed as departmental headquarters, 43 Omaha Bee (newspaper), 491 Omaha Herald (newspaper), 147, 158, 296 Omaha Indians, 16, 176, 214, 223, 228–29, 248, 251–53, 257, 491, 503, 507, 508 On the Border With Crook (book), 2, 17 n5, 64 One That Knows (Ponca), 260 Ord, Edward Otho Cresap, 165, 165–66 n8, 167, 167 fn, 167 n11, 476 Osage Indians, 175, 188, Otero, Miguel Antonio, 217, 217 n2, 273, 499–500 Otero, Miguel Antonio, Jr., 500 Oto Indians, 176 Ou-ji-hua (Shoshone), 325 Our Mutual Friend (book), 85 Outline Descriptions of the Posts in the Military Division of the Missouri (book), 441 n10 Outlines of International Law (book), 452 Over the Land (Ponca), 229 P Paddock, J.W., 144–45 Paddock, James V.S., 125, 125 n6, 476 Paddock, Mrs. James V.S., 132 Paddock, Miss (Santee Agency School), 264 Page (desperado near Camp Sheridan), 144 Paiute Indians, 453

535

Palford (guide), 27 Palfrey, Carl F. 418, 420, 423, 427, 429, 439, 476 Pallé, José, (Zuni), 427 Palmer, George, 397 Palmer, Julia, 293 Palo Duro Canyon, Battle of, 471 Panama Canal Company (French venture), 169, 169 n14 Panic of 1873, 301, 301 n12 Parawan Ute Indians, 30 Parker (prominent Mormon), 29 Parker, Charles, 374 Parkhurst, Charles Dyer, 144–45, 476 Parkhurst, Mrs. Charles Dyer, 145 Parkman, Francis, Jr., 302, 302 n13 Patrick, Al, 114 Paul, Augustus C., 44, 477 Pawnee Indians, 223, 304, 325, 364, 507 Payne, John Scott, 125, 132, 466, 477 Payne, Mrs. John Scott, 132 Pegui (Shoshone), 68 Pend d’Oreilles Indians, 325 Pennsylvania Railroad, 110 Perrine, Henry Pratt, 111–12, 477 Perry, Alexander James, 160, 477 Pickwick Papers (book), 269 Picture Writing of the American Indians (book), 120 n5 Pile, William Anderson, 368, 368 n8, Pilling, I., 291 Pima Indians, 114 n14, 436 HMS Pinafore (opera), 404 Pinal Apache Indians, 470 Pine Ridge Agency, Neb. (see also Red Cloud Agency), 107 n6, 148 , 507, 508

536

Pino, Patricio, 424 Pino, Pedro, 424–29 Pleasant Valley Railroad, 25, 42 Poe, Orlando M., 104, 478 Pollock, Edwin, 359, 478 Pollock, Robert, 265–66, 461 Ponca Agency, South Dakota, 200, 223–28, 231–32, 248, 251, 497 Ponca Agency, Okla., 187–88, 191, 201, 214–15, 217, 228; operations of, 199–203; agency police, 199 Ponca Commission, 153, 156, 167, 170–74, 180, 215–16, 218, 237, 241, 254–55, 262–63, 271, 274–75, 278–79, 287, 294, 296–97, 490; hearings, 187ff., 199ff., 223ff., 234ff., 242ff.; adjourns, 259; report and recommendations, 279–83; dissolved, 283 Ponca Indians (see also Ponca Commission), 2–3, 17, 17 n4, 158, 161, 163, 171, 174, 188, 190–91, 202, 215, 217, 228–29, 232–33, 238–40, 242, 248–49, 250, 257, 259–62, 264, 266–67, 281–83, 490, 493, 506, 507; in Dakota, 2 n3, 194–95, 208, 212, 214, 223–25, 231–32, 235, 241, 245–48, 251, 258–59, 280, 501, 503; legal case, 153, 153 n1, 255, 508; transported to Indian Territory, 154–55, 174–79, 191–92, 235, 236, 248, 251–53, 252 n5, 279–80, 490, 492, 497; relations with government, 156, 173, 180, 189ff., 200–4, 207–8, 211–12, 224–25, 228, 235–37, 239–41, 243, 246, 251, 255–56, 261, 261 n6, 280, 296–97; Indian Territory

Index Poncas and Standing Bear, 156, 173, 195–96, 209, 236–37, 243–46, 254–56; assimilation, 157, 189, 226–27, 256; Christianity and religious invocations of, 157, 203, 227, 235, 237, 253; in Indian Territory, 180, 194–95, 197–200, 205–6, 212, 236, 239, 241–45, 247, 253, 280, 495; clan organization among, 229–31 Pope (at Chicago Club), 317 Pope, John, 316, 470, 486, 493 Porter, John Martin, 23, 478 Pound, Ezra, 62 n18 Pound, Thaddeus Coleman, 62, 62 n18, 67 Pourier, Baptiste (Big Bat), 500 Powder River Expedition, 114 n12, 453, 459, 508 Powder River Fight, 467, 480, 484 Powell, John Wesley, 157, 228–29, 263, 275–76, 287–88, 290–92, 301–2, 302 n13, 311, 500 Powers (ethnologist), 311 Prairie on Fire (Ponca), 260 Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages (book), 302 n13, 311 Premeux, Peter (Ponca) (see Primand, Peter) “Present Aspects of the Indian Problem” (article), 501 Price, George Frederick, 398, 478–79 Prima, P., 260 Primand, Antoine “Lone Chief” (Ponca half-blood), 176, 252 Primand, also spelled Premeux and Primaud, Peter (Ponca

Index half-blood), 201 205, 208, 234, 245 Primitive Culture (book), 302 n13, 312 Pueblo Indians (generic), 351, 366, 368, 370, 372, 431. 431 fn Pueblo Revolt, 353 n6, 354, 354 n8, 367–68 Q Quapaw Indians, 179, 188, 191, 194, 200, 205, 495 Quinn, Thomas Francis, 41, 479 R Rainey, Charlie (Bannock mixedblood), 321, 323–25, 328–31, 333 Rainey, Joe (Bannock mixedblood), 321, 324, 326, 328–33 Raises Others (Ponca), 229 Ramsay, Alexander, 102, 160 Ramsey, Mr., 147 Randall, George Morton “Jake,” 215, 479 Rank, Mr., 99 Raymond, Rossiter, 78, 78 n23, 500 Red Cloud (Oglala), 6–7, 134, 147–48, 257, 461, 498, 507–8 Red Cloud Agency, Neb. (see also Pine Ridge Agency), 6, 107 n6, 134–36, 139–41, 170, 486, 508 Red Cloud War, 6, 507 Red Dog, 134 Red Hat (Cheyenne), 122, 135 Red Leaf (Oglala), 57 Red Leaf (Ponca), 172, 188, 191, 201, 230–31 Red River War, 471, 473 Reed, John, 132 Reid, John Roe, 68

537

Relative of Chiefs (Ponca), 260 Reno, Marcus Albert, 467 Researches into the Early History of Mankind (book), 302 n13, 312 Reynolds, Bainbridge, 23, 44, 397, 479 Reynolds, Joseph J., 300, 300 n10, 455, 479–80, 484 Reynolds, Mr. (From Indian Territory), 24–26, 29 Reynolds, Mr. (From New York, brother of above), 25, 26, 29 Richard, Jean Baptiste, 500 Richard or Richaud, Louis, 134, 500 Riggs, Alfred, 187, 188, 210, 216, 219, 237–38, 242, 247, 259, 262, 264–65, 290, 500; before Ponca Commission, 189–90, 248–50; views on Indian citizenship, 249–50 Riggs, Mrs. Alfred, 264 Ringwalt, Mrs., 186, 273 Reily, Commander, 107, 170 Reily (spelled “Riley” in text), William Van W., 107, 170, 479 Roberts, C.S., 43, 48, 56, 61, 67, 81, 85, 97–98, 101, 158, 160–61, 170, 172, 181, 185–87, 217–18, 232, 234, 242, 247, 267, 271, 273, 279, 292, 397, 480 Roberts, Mrs. C.S., 186 Roberts of Kandahar, Frederick Sleigh, Earl, 66 n7 Robertson, Edgar Brooks, 48, 480 Robideau (Squaw man), 134 Rock Island Railroad (see Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad,) Rogers, J., 260, 480

538

Rogers, Robert Morris, 342, 342 n20, 480 Rogers, William W., 125, 480 Rogers, Mrs. William W., 132 Roman Nose (Cheyenne), 21 Rosebud Agency (new Spotted Tail Agency), Neb., 6, 7, 125, 133, 136, 138, 148, 236, 251, 257 Rosebud, Battle of, 18, 168, 185–86, 444, 457, 479, 480–81, 483, 487 Rosecrans, William S., 135, 494 Ross, William J., 115, 122, 480–81 Ross Fork Agency, Idaho, 69 fn, 289, 321, 326, 504 Rough Buffalo Horse (Ponca), 261 Roughing It (book), 60 n14 Royall, William Bedford, 120, 299, 302, 311, 481 Royall, Agnes, 15 Royall, Mrs. William Bedford, 15, 101 Ruggles, Alma, 169, 278 Ruggles, George David, 160–62, 169, 184, 274–76, 278, 294, 481 Ruggles, Mrs. George David, 160, 162, 184, 278 Rumsey, 352 Rush, Richard, 110, 295, 481 Rush in the Battle (Ponca), 201 Rustin (Omaha Smelting Works), 397 Ryan (Ponca commission stenographer), 172 S St. Joseph & Denver Railroad, 393 St. Joseph & Western Railroad, 394 Saint Patrick’s Cathedral (New York), 110

Index Saldanha da Gama, Captain (Brazilian naval officer), 291 Salmon-Eaters (branch of Shoshone Indians), 324 Sanborn, John P., 269 San Carlos Reservation, Ariz., 443, 452, 497, 505 Sand Creek Massacre, 507 San Francsico Alta California (newspaper), 503 San Francisco Stock Report (newspaper), 300 Santa Fe, N.M., 344, 346, 349, 351, 353, 359, 366–67, 370, 391–92, 397, 401, 403; described, 353–55, 358, 362, 498, 501; brief history, 353 n6; ancient habitation of, 371 Santee Agency, South Dakota, 210, 248–49, 252, 262–63, 265 Santee Sioux Indians, 216, 223, 228, 236, 246, 248, 252, 257, 500 Santiago (Zuni), 427 Sartle, W.J., 367 Sartle, Mrs. W.J., 367 Satterthwaite, A.R., 201 Saunders, Alvin, 161, 501 Saulsburg (stage and mine operator), 318 Schenck, Robert C., 160, 323, 481–82 Schilling (Trader at Ross Fork Agency), 69, 321, 333, 335–36, 342 Schimpff (blacksmith), 50–51 Schofield, Charles Brewster, 279, 482 Schofield, John M., 112, 166, 166 n9, 279, 473, 482 Schurz, Carl, 41, 67, 72, 74, 148–49, 149 n11, 155, 170,

Index 216, 293, 497, 499, 501; visit to Yellowstone, 64, 83, 87–88, 94, 101, 161; Bourke’s opinion of, 83; and Ponca Affair, 154, 172–73, 179–80, 191, 294; German origin of, 84 n33, 155–56 Schuyler, Walter Scribner, 116; and Murchie Mine, 45 n2, 482 Schwatka, Frederick, 113–14, 395, 482–83; arctic expedition of, 57 n12, 112–13, 112n10 Scott, Admiral, 294 Scott, Hugh Lenox, 316 n4 Scott, John, 23, 41, 483 Scott, Winfield, 106 Second Afghan War, 66 n7 See-miche Indians, 122 Seminole Wars, 321–22, 321 n2, 466, 476 Sena, José D., 372, 501 The Sentinel (Milwaukee newspaper, 17, 17n5 Sharp, Colonel, 107 Sharp, John, Jr., 35 Sheds-Hair-Next-to-Eyes (Ponca), 231 Sheedy, Dennis, 118 Sheep-Eaters (branch of Shoshone Indians), 68 and fn, 69, 88, 324, 326 Shelby (New Mexico old timer), 352–53 Shelton, N., 158, 317 Shenandoah Campaign, 483 Sheridan (cafe proprietor and adventurer), 404 Sheridan, Michael Vincent, 315–16, 483 Sheridan, Philip Henry, 19, 43–44, 45 n2, 103, 159, 273, 288, 301–2, 313–17, 327, 387, 397, 441 n10, 457, 459, 460,

539

482–83, 486, 503, 508 Sherman, Eleanor Boyle Ewing (Mrs. William T.), 165 Sherman, John, 301, 473 Sherman, Lizzie, 165, 279 Sherman, Mr. (Mining expert), 45 Sherman, Rachel, 41, 102–3, 165, 279 Sherman, William Tecumseh, 3, 41, 43, 102, 160–61, 163, 165, 170, 278–79, 444, 454, 459, 469, 477, 494; Bourke’s opinion of, 103, 165; handwriting sample, 164; and Nelson Miles, 165, 165–66 n8, 473; on O.O. Howard, 166; sympathy for General Ord, 167 Shiff, Corporal, 118, 120 Shiloh, Battle of, 500 Shindley, Captain (Fort Garland), 349, 483 Shobeloff (see Skobelev, Mikhail Dmitrievich) Short Man (Ponca), 201 Short, Thomas, 302, 302 n13, 311 Shoshone and Bannock Agency (see Ross Fork) Shoshone Indians (see also Salmon-Eaters, Sheep-Eaters), 67 n8, 68–69, 73–74, 78, 327, 364, 379, 382–83, 434, 492, 504; farming among, 44–46, 52; child-rearing among, 321–23; crafts, clothing and personal adornment, 322, 330, 334–37, 342; entertainment, games and gambling among, 323, 335–38, 340; origins, 323; early white contact with, 324; missionaries among, 324–25; and Comanches, 325, 325 n9; relations with other tribes, 325, 330;

540

marriage customs and married life, 325–26; Mormons among, 326, 332; weapons and implements, 326, 328; language, 330, 341–42; tribal organization, government and law, 330–31; warfare, 330–32; funeral customs, 332; religion, ritual and ceremonies, 326, 332–33, 341; agency school, 338–40; and General Crook, 340, 340 n16; sign language among, 342 Simpson (ethnologist), 302, 302 n13 Simpson, J.E., 37 Simpson, James Ferdinand, 23, 44, 483 Simpson, James Hervey, 399–401, 399 n3 Sign Language Among North American Indians (book), 290 n1, 316 Simons, Menno (see also Mennonites), 262–63, 269 Sinclair, Captain, 338, 338 n15. Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, 118, 136, 219, 222 Sioux Indians (see also Lakota, under individual tribes, and Indian scouts), 17, 20–21, 60, 154–55, 163, 173–74, 185, 189, 216, 224, 236, 238–39, 246, 249–52, 256–59, 281, 325, 330, 333, 340, 359, 364, 413, 434, 457, 486 Sitgreaves, Lorenzo, 439–40, 440 n9 Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa), 473, 494 Si-vich Indians, 438 Skeleton Cave Fight, 114–115 Skobelev, Mikhail Dmitrievich, 277, 277 n8

Index Slim Buttes, Battle of, 474, 478, 480 Small (mail agent for Fort Wingate), 406 Smallpox, 267 n6, 268 Smiley, A.K., 172 Smith (guide), 51, 57–58, 61 Smith (New Mexico traveling companion), 359 Smith, F.W., 403 Smith, John Eugene, 24–25, 28, 31, 33, 40, 67, 299, 317, 483–84 Smith, Thomas T., 7, 32 n17 Smoke Maker (father) (Ponca), 260 Smoke Maker (son) (Ponca), 229, 229 n5, 233–34, 245 n3, 259, 266; testimony before Ponca Commission, 237–39, 245–47, 257 Smoker (Ponca), 261 Smyth, Miss, 274 Snow, E.A., 168, 168 n13, 185–86, Snow, John G. Bourke, 168, 186 n2 Solomon, Samuel, 261 La Sonnambula (opera), 277–78, 278 n10 Southern Cheyenne Indians, 322 Southern Dakota, St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad, 222 Southern Pacific Railroad, 217, 312 Southern Ute Reservation, Colo., 359 n10 Spencer, James Herbert, 47, 484 Spotted Tail (Brulé), 6, 133–34, 147–48, 223, 237–38, 257–58, 507–8 Spotted Tail Agency (new), Neb. (see Rosebud Agency)

Index Spotted Tail Agency (old), Neb., 395, 448, 497, 509 Spotted Wolf (Cheyenne), 508 Squires (ethnologist), 302, 302 n13 Standing Bear (Ponca), 189, 190, 211, 223, 229–31, 233–34, 246, 248, 252, 257–58, 490–91, 503, 506, 508; legal case, 153, 153 n1, 154 n3, 156, 235, 255; on Carl Schurz, 155, 236–37; Indian Territory Poncas and, 156, 173, 195–96, 209, 236–37, 243–46, 254–57; testimony before Ponca Commission, 235–38, 235 n1, 245–46, 253–59 Standing Bear’s wife (Ponca), 251 Standing Buffalo (Ponca), 156, 172, 176, 180, 187–88, 191, 195–97, 201, 204–10, 212, 230–31 Standing Rock Agency, North Dakota, 250 Standing Yellow (Ponca), 208 Stands-at-the-End (Ponca), 230 Stands-Dark-in-the-Distance (Ponca), 231 Stansbury, Howard, 30 Stanton, Maud, 62, 67 Stanton, Thaddeus Harlan, 62, 67, 72, 76, 78, 84, 93, 95, 97–101, 118–22, 132–34, 136, 141, 145–46, 299, 302, 397, 484 Stanton, William Sanford, 299 n9, 397, 484 State, War and Navy Building (Eisenhower Executive Office Building), 104–5, 105 n2 Stedman, Clarence Augustus, 106, 352, 356, 358, 371, 484 Stedman, Mrs., 106, 161, 171, 293

541

Steel (Farrier), 143 Stembel, James McBride, 293, 344 fn, 484 Stemble, Mrs. James McBride, 344 fn Stephens, John Lloyd, 302, 302 n13 Stevens, Hiram, 401–2, 501–2 Stevens, S.S., 158, 397–98, 403 Stickney, William, 153, 168, 170, 172, 180, 195, 197, 201, 203, 207–8, 228, 234, 242, 250–51, 267–69, 271, 274, 283; Bourke’s opinion of, 154, 216–18, 269; unauthorized report to President Hayes, 218 Stone, E.A., 68, 502 Stones River (Murfreesboro), Battle of, 135, 135 n5, A Study in Scarlet (book), 66 n7 Suez Canal, 169 n14 Sumner, Edwin V., 144–45, 485 Sumner, Samuel Storrow, 485 Sun Dance, 333 Swaim, David G., 277, 277 n9, 485 Swigert, Samuel Miller, 19, 24, 78, 485 Sword (Oglala), 134, 140–41, 508 Sykes, George, 356 Symington, Mrs., 357 T Tanner, Harry S., 50, 50 n6, 66, Taos Pueblo, N.M., 356 Taylor, Frank, 31, 485 Teller, Henry M., 497 Terry, Alfred Howe, 66, 81 Tesuque Indians and Pueblo, N.M., 362–66, 372, Thacher (post trader at Fort Niobrara), 124, 132,

542

Thackaray, Ella Sherman, 103, 165 “That Day” (poem), 66 n7. Thayer, Herbert, 147 Thayer, John Milton, 104, 502 The Brave (Ponca), 260 The Chief (Ponca), 172, 188, 191, 201, 229 The Comer (Ponca), 261 The Fighter (Ponca), 261 The Hoe (Ponca), 260 The Wounded (Ponca), 260 Thomas (sawmill operator), 28–29 Thomas, George, 103, 106 Thompson, D.P., 504 Thompson, John Charles, 23, 485 Thompson, Richard W., 169 Thornburgh, Jacob., 24–25, 24 n 13, 28–29, 38–40, 67, 72, 83–84, 88, 97–99, 502 Thornburgh Massacre (see White River Ute Uprising; Milk River Fight) Thornburgh, Thomas Tipton, 85, 295, 466, 477, 485, 502 Thornton, Edward, Sir., 292 Thornton, Lady Edward, 275, 292 Thurman, Allen Granberry, 161, 502–3 Three Bears (Oglala), 134, 508–9 Ti-Hi, also spelled “Ti-Hee” (Bannock), 323, 325–28, 509 Tibbles, Thomas Henry, 161, 193–94, 193 n6, 203–4, 206, 214, 502, 506, 507, 508 Tilden, Samuel, 96, 96 n13, Tillman, Samuel, 111, 486 Tin-Doy (Lemhi), 68, 509 Tongalin, Mr., 17 Torney, George Henry, 374, 486 Towar, Albert Selah, 23, 486

Index Tregaski, Dick, 47 Trowbridge, Roland E., 214, 503 Trumbull, James Hammond, 302, 302 n13 Tucamesa (Shoshone), 68 Twain, Mark (Samuel L. Clemens), 59–60, 60 n14. Twining, Major, 294 Two Hawk, Webster (Lakota), 157 n12 Two Kettle Lakota Indians, 257 Two Sacks (Bannock), 325 Tyler, Mrs. John, 182 Tylor, Edward Burnett, 302, 302 n13, 311 U Uhañ’-ge-na’zhi (Ponca), 231 Uintah Ute Agency, 48, 56–58, 62–63 Uintah Ute Indians, 7, 48, 56, 63 Uncompahgre Ute Agency, 398 Union Pacific Railroad, 23 n11, 52, 67, 99, 118, 136, 146, 158, 218, 315–16, 318, 320, 344, 394, 501; Omaha shops, 397 n1 United States Army, strikers in, 61 n16; laundresses in, 108, 108 n8, promotions in, 165–66, 166 n8, scientific missions of, 288, organization of cavalry in, 442–43 Upham, John J., 124–25, 131–32, 136, 486 Upton, Emory, 104, 314–15, 314 n2 Utah Northern Railroad, 67, 71, 102, 320, 341, 345–46, 509 Utah Southern Railroad, 25, 30, 35, 42 Utah Western Railroad, 25

Index Ute Indians (see also individual bands), 48, 63, 325, 348 n1, 359 n10, 364, 376, 380–81, 388, 400, 410 V Valentine, Mr. (Post trader at Fort Cameron), 33 Valverde, Battle of, 392 n9, 501 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 495 Van Horn, James Judson, 374, 403, 486 Vasquez, B., 261 Vasquez, Luis, 40 n22 Vernon (Canadian meteorologist), 319 Vicente I (Zuni), 427 Vicente II (Zuni), 427 Vicksburg Campaign, 498 Victoria (Great Britain), 298 Victorio War, 459 Vining (Union Pacific official), 397–98 Vining, Mrs., 398 Volkmar, William Jefferson, 316, 486–87 Vore, Jacob, 228, 503 Vroom, Peter Dumont, 23, 32–33, 487 W Wabash Pacific Railroad, 158 Waite, Henry De Hart, 398, 487 Wakeley, Miss, 395 Waldek, Franz von, 263 Walking Sky (Ponca), 201 Wallace, Lew, 367, 368, 503 Wallace, Mrs. (Railroad passenger), 41 Wallen, Henry Davies, 165, 487 Wanamaker’s (Philadelphia department store), 109, 111

543

Wan-ro or “Cap’n Jack” (Uintah Ute), 56 War Bonnet Creek Fight, 18 War of 1812, 261 n6, 464, 467 War of the Pacific, 295, 295 n4 War-Path and Bivouac (book), 17 n5, 494 Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. (exFort D.A. Russell), 44 n1 Washakie (Shoshone), 67 n8, 331 Washington, George, 96 Wasson, John, 503 Wasson, Joseph, 300, 503 Watson, Burt, 15, 43 Watson, Mrs., 15, 186 Watts, Charles, 140, 142–43, 487 Watts, Mrs. Charles, 142 Weir, Nellie, 23 Weir, William Bayard, 23, 487 Welles, Gideon, 494 Welsh, Herbert, 224 n4 Welsh, Miss, 293–94 Welsh, William, 224–25, 224 n4, 231, 503 Wetmore, Mr., 111–12 Wetmore, Mrs., 111 Wheeler (editor of Blackfoot, Idaho, newspaper), 341 Wheeler, Joseph, 265, 265 n3 Wheeler, William A., 183 Whipple, Henry Benjamin, 277, 504 White Bird (Nez Percé), 506 White Buffalo Bull (Ponca), 201 White Eagle (Ponca), 156, 172, 188, 193, 198–99, 201, 212, 225, 229, 243–44; addresses Ponca Commission, 174–80, 191–97, 205–12 White Feather (Ponca), 201 White, Mrs., 69 White River Ute Uprising, 295,

544

321, 403, 403 n5, 485, 487, 494 White Swan (Francis La Fleche) (Omaha), 172, 188, 191, 201, 206, 210, 231, 508 White Thunder (Cheyenne), 134, 509 Whiteman, William H. (erroneously called “Whiting), 172, 187–88, 199–200, 215, 228, 503; addresses Ponca Commission, 201–4 Whiteman, Mrs. William H., 188 Whiting (Ponca agent) (see Whiteman, William H.) Whittaker, Johnson, 166, 166 n9 Wied-Neuwied, Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu, Prince, 267, 267n6 Wilkins, Colonel (commanding Fort Cameron), 35 Willard, Ezra, 158 Williams, George H., 107, 112, 160–61, 163, 169, 184, 292 Williams, Mrs. George H., 107, 112, 161, 163 Williams (Milford Smelting Works), 35 Williams, Robert, 56, 67, 100, 145, 302, 311, 393, 397, 487–88 Williams, William Sherley “Old Bill”, 122 n4 Wilson, Posey, 403 Wilson, Thomas, 170, 488 Wiltze, Chauncey, 394 Wiltze, Mrs. Chauncey, 394 Wind River Expedition, 477, 487 Wingard, Charles Wesley, 31, 488 Winnebago Indians, 257, 259 Winship, George Parker, 399 n3 Wint, Theodore Jonathan, 398

Index Wirtz, Henry, 503 Wolf, I., 260, 488 Wolf (sometimes spelled “Wolfe”), Silas A., 48, 488 Wood, Abram Epperson, 187, 215, 488 Wood, Ned, 111, 488 Woodruff, Charles Albert, 356, 358, 367, 372, 403, 489 Woodruff, Mrs. Charles Albert, 357, 369–70, 372 Woodward, George Abisha, 34, 489 Woolworth, Judge, 170 Woodworth, Mrs., 181, 183 Wotherspoon, William Wallace, 374 Wright, James, 67, 321, 326, 328, 335, 338, 504 Wright, John A., 502 Wyatt, Walter Scott, 161, 489 Wylie, W.W., 490 Y Yankton Agency, South Dakota, 229, n5, 248 Yankton Sioux Indians, 223, 257 Yanktonnais Sioux Indians, 257 Yarrow, H.C., 302, 302 n13, 311 Yates, Mr., 17 Yates, Miss, 43 Yavapai Indians, 219 n1, 448, 483 Yeatman, Richard Thompson, 321, 340, 489 Yeatman, Mrs. Richard Thompson, 321, 340 Yellow Bird (Ponca), 201 Yellow Horse (Ponca), 233; testifies before Ponca Commission, 258 Yellowstone National Park, 13, 41, 64, 67, 72 n12, 74–75, 75 n15,

Index 96 n14, 100–2, 161, 324, 456, 464, 468, 490, 495–96, 499, 504; early development and administration of, 65–66 Yellowstone Park Association, 76 n19 Young, George Shaeffer, 48 n4, 489 Young Man Afraid of His Horses (Oglala), 134, 508 Young, Robert Hunter, 48, 48 n4, 52, 59, 67, 320, 489 Yount, Harry, 75, 94, 504 Yoshida (Japanese minister), 292–93 Yoshida, Madam, 292–93 Z Zuni Indians, 1, 372 n12, 379, 385, 389, 391, 400, 406–7, 411, 412, 414–16, 424–25, 428, 439, 441, 491, 494; dwellings, 408–10, 416–17, 420 fn, 423–24; farming, hunting, and

545

diet among, 407, 409–10, 410 fn, 418–20, 430–32, 431 fn; described, 408–9, 434–35; crafts, clothing and personal adornment, 408–9, 413, 415–16, 418, 433–34, 437; weapons and implements, 409, 417–18, 423, 436; tribal organization, government, law, and clans among, 413, 426–30, 426 fn; albinos among, 416, 416 fn; warfare, 416 fn; sheep raising among, 422; funeral customs, 422–23; religion, ritual and ceremonies, 419, 429, 431–32, 431 n4, 432 fn, 432 n6, 434–35, 437–38, 437 fn; child–rearing among, 432, 434; child-bearing among, 432–33, 435; entertainment, games and gambling among, 434; marriage customs and married life, 435–36; horses among, 438; early white contact with, 440

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 4: July 3, 1880-May 22, 1881

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke (Volumes 1-4)

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 3: June 1, 1878-June 22, 1880

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 2: July 29, 1876-April 7, 1878

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 3 of 4)

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 3 of 4)

Vampire Diaries 3 - The Fury

Stefan's Diaries #3

Red Silk Diaries 3

The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #3: The Craving

The Princess Diaries Volume I

The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #3: The Craving

The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3)

The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3)

The Collected John Carter of Mars - Volume 3 (Disney)

Vampire Diaries 4 - Dark Reunion

John Norman - Gor 22 - Dancer of Gor

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 22, 1921-22

Norman, John - Gor 22 - Dancer of Gor

Betancourt, John Gregory - Sympathy For Zombies

The works of John Locke 4

1881 Catalogue of Glasshouses

Womans Murder Club 4 - 4th of July

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 4 of 4)

Grantville Gazette Volume 22

Photochemistry (Volume 22)

The works of John Locke 3

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 4 of 4)

Horticultural Reviews, Volume 22

Research in Economic History, Volume 22, Volume 22

3-4)

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 4: July 3, 1880-May 22, 1881

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke (Volumes 1-4)

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 3: June 1, 1878-June 22, 1880

The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke. Volume 2: July 29, 1876-April 7, 1878

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 3 of 4)

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 3 of 4)

Vampire Diaries 3 - The Fury

Stefan's Diaries #3

Red Silk Diaries 3

The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #3: The Craving

The Princess Diaries Volume I

The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #3: The Craving

The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3)

The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3)

The Collected John Carter of Mars - Volume 3 (Disney)

Vampire Diaries 4 - Dark Reunion

John Norman - Gor 22 - Dancer of Gor

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 22, 1921-22

Norman, John - Gor 22 - Dancer of Gor

Betancourt, John Gregory - Sympathy For Zombies

The works of John Locke 4

1881 Catalogue of Glasshouses

Womans Murder Club 4 - 4th of July

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 4 of 4)

Grantville Gazette Volume 22

Photochemistry (Volume 22)

The works of John Locke 3

Portraits of Wittgenstein (Volume 4 of 4)

Horticultural Reviews, Volume 22

Research in Economic History, Volume 22, Volume 22

3-4)

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