buke, and the chief actors be driven from positions for which they are utterly unworthy.

A word as to Sitting Bull, whom General Sheridan has officially stated to be an insignificant warrior, with a few thieving followers. Some have reported this chief as having been schooled among the whites, and being conversant with the English and French languages. He says these are all "strange lies." On being interrogated about these stories, and which he denied, the chief said, "What I am, I am;" and, in his attitude and expression of barbaric grandeur, he repeated: "I am a man. I am a Sioux."

On the 6th of November, 1877, when informed by Major McCloud, of the Canadian police, that he must hold himself ready to move his band to the Red Deer river-that the queen had provided a home for him there he is reported to have said: "I came to you, in the first place, because I was being hard driven by the Americans. They broke their treaties with my people; and when I rose up and fought, not against them, but for our rights as the first people on this part of the earth, they pursued me like a dog, and would have hung me to a tree. They are not just. They drive us into war, and then seek to punish us for fighting. That is not honest. The queen would not do that." After thanking the queen, he said: "Tell her that I will be a good man; that my people will be good. I will take my people to the Red Deer country; and now I do declare, before you, that I will not make any trouble, or annoy you, or give pain to the queen. I will be quiet. I will never fight on your soil unless you ask me to help you. Then I will fight. Place me where you will, I will be at peace in Canada. But you, who are brave soldiers, and not treaty breakers, thieves, and murderers, you would think me a coward if I did not die fighting the Americans. Therefore, while I go to Red Deer river, now to live in peace, I will come back when my braves are strong [here he almost shrieked], or if they will not come with me, I will come alone and fight the Americans until death. You I love and respect; them I hate; and your queen's soldiers would despise me if I did not hate them. That's all."

CHAPTER XVI.

OPERATIONS AGAINST THE NORTHERN CHEYENNES. THEIR SURRENDER.—' -THE SURRENDER OF CRAZY HORSE. THE CHIEF IS STABBED AT CAMP ROBINSON.TRANSFER OF THE CHEYENNES TO THE INDIAN TERRITORY.-DULL KNIFE'S BAND ESCAPES NORTH.-ITS FATE.-A SAD STORY.

IN referring to the military operations of Generals Terry and Crook against the Sioux Indians, Gen. Sheridan, in a dispatch dated November 10, 1876, said that Generals Crook and McKenzie had then only to hunt up and deal with the band of Northern Cheyennes and the band of Crazy Horse, and if successful, of which he had no doubt, the Sioux and all other Indian wars of any magnitude in this country, would be at an end forever. Before detailing the military operations against these bands, it seems appropriate to speak of the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes. The peace commission of 1867-8 made a treaty with them on the 10th of May, 1868. By this treaty they relinquished all right or claim to any and all territory, except the right to roam and hunt as long as game abounded in sufficient quantities to justify the chase. While exercising this right they were to receive like annual annuities as the nomad Sioux. It was, however, agreed that a permanent home should be provided for them on the reservation of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, south, or the reservation of the Crows, or the reservation of the Sioux; and when located on such reservation, school-houses were to be erected and teachers employed, agency houses and mills. built, and millers, engineers, farmers, and blacksmiths supplied them, and as the separate families located, each was to receive similar annuities as the Sioux of the same class. The appropriation of $500,000, made by Congress, July 27, 1868, to be expended by Gen. Sherman in commencing the fulfillment of the treaties made in 1867-8, had reference to the treaty with these as well as other Indian tribes. They were then residing north of the Platte, and had for some time domiciled with the Sioux of the Red Cloud agency. On the

10th of August, 1868, by military order, Gen. Sherman created the Sioux district, and assigned Gen. Harney to it, and set apart to his use $200,000 of the $500,000. It was expressly declared in the order that the $200,000 was to enable Gen. Harney to fulfill the treaty stipulations with the Sioux. The Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes were entirely overlooked. No place was designated by Gen. Sherman within the Sioux or any other reservation for their home. In no communication from him to Gen. Harney, or to any other of his military agents, to whom he confided funds to fulfill treaty stipulations, were these Indians named. It does not appear that any of the military agents of Gen. Sherman ever had any interviews with them. From that time forward until September, 1876, when the Sioux commission, in the agreement then made, incorporated them with the Sioux Indians, the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes had no fixed home, and hence could only rely upon their right to roam and hunt, and for the exercise of this right, under the military order of June 29, 1869, they were regarded as hostile, and subject, wherever found by military scouting parties, to be treated as such and dealt with accordingly. They had continued from time to time to domicile with the Sioux, of the Red Cloud agency, and received some attention from the agent. An effort was made in 1873, by the interior department, to induce them to join the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, but they declined to do so. In 1874, Congress prohibited the department from giving them any supplies until they should join the southern Indians. Owing to complications which sprung up south of the Arkansas, it was not deemed expedient at that time to attempt their removal. An arrangement was made with them, however, looking to their removal in the future. In 1875, Congress again indicated in the appropriation act, that they should go south before any delivery of annuities was made to them, and the commissioner of Indian affairs, in his report dated November 1, 1875, stated that until such removal there were no funds from which they could be supplied with rations. After the failure of the commission that met the Sioux in the fall of the year 1875, to obtain a cession of the Black Hills, the Indian office decided on the re

moval of the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and requested the secretary of war, should the Indians refuse to go, to supply troops to compel them. The matter was referred to Gen. Sheridan, and he expressed the opinion that the change ought not at that time to be made. The secretary of war on the 18th of November, 1875, advised the interior department that such was the opinion of Gen. Sheridan.

At this time Gen. Sheridan was contemplating a war with the Sioux, and this war was inaugurated in February, 1876. In March of that year, a portion of Gen. Crook's command, under Gen. Reynolds, struck the village of Crazy Horse, on the Little Powder river. A large portion of the Northern Cheyennes were then dwelling in this village. Thus they became involved in the war. In the Indian appropriation bill, passed August 15, 1876, Congress again made it a condition that no supplies should be furnished these Indians until they removed south. In all this time no steps had been taken to set apart a home for them south, or anywhere else, and no agency buildings, or other improvements, were provided for them.

In this condition of things, about the middle of September, 1876, the Sioux commission of that year (being then at Red Cloud agency negotiating with the Indians there for a cession of the Black Hills) was waited upon by a delegation of the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who requested that their people be incorporated with the Sioux, in the agreement about to be made, and which was shortly after executed, and they were made parties to it. The commission had no specific instructions to that effect, but it was apparent that these Cheyennes and Arapahoes had a right to a home on the Sioux reservation (among others), guaranteed to them by the treaty of May 10, 1868, and having indicated a desire to live with the Sioux, who were perfectly willing to receive them, there seemed to be a propriety in making them parties to the agreement. They were unwilling to remove south; they had no association with the Crows, and were friendly to and many of them intermarried with the Sioux. The agreement was executed with the different bands of Sioux residing at the Red Cloud agency, and Northern Cheyennes and Ara

pahoes, on the 20th of September, 1876. It was executed by the Sioux at Spotted Tail agency, and the Sioux at the agencies on the Missouri, between that time and the last of October, 1876.

In the fourth article of the agreement, it was stipulated that the Indians should select a delegation from each band to visit the Indian Territory, with a view to the selection of a permanent home in that territory, provided that on actual view a suitable location, satisfactory to them, to the Indians in the territory owning the land, and the United States, could be made; and such delegations from Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies were selected and visited the country, and were, it was understood, generally well pleased with it. The civilized tribes received the delegations with marked attention and great kindness. On the return of the delegations to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies (these being the only bands that agreed to send delegates), they were not permitted to make report to the Indians they represented, since officers of the army were then acting as Indian agents at both these agencies, and Gen. Sheridan and Gen. McKenzie, the latter then in command at Camp Robinson, were opposed to the visit of the delegates, or the removal of any of the Indians to the Indian Territory. On the 28th of February, 1877, Congress ratified the agreement made by the commission with the Sioux and the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, first striking out the fourth article, and adding an express prohibition against the removal of any portion of the Sioux Indians to the Indian Territory, until the same should thereafter be authorized by act of Congress. Thus the Sioux were confined to the present Sioux reservation, and both they and the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes were, by the third article of the agreement, bound to receive all future subsistence and supplies on said reservation, and in the vicinity of the Missouri river. The law creating the commission of 1876 required that any agreement it made with the Sioux should contain a clause of this kind. The condition was very distasteful to the Indians at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, since they did not desire to live in, or near the valley of the Missouri river.