forced them to this choice, and they had left their home with the regret of the emigrant. The bucks were mostly mounted. Many of the squaws, however, carried their papooses on their backs, and led ponies that hauled the travois."

In the annual report of the agent for the Cheyenne and Arapahoe agency, in the Indian Territory, for the year ending June 30, 1877, made August 31, 1877, reference is made to the Northern Cheyennes, who had then been there less than one month. The agent said that their connection with his agency had been so brief that he had not been able to form an opinion or fathom the under current that controlled them. He said that there was a marked difference between them and the southern Indians; that they did not yield to the department regulations with such cheerfulness as their southern brethren. He thought, however, that it was not singular that there should be among them a feeling of distrust, as many of them were then in mourning for the loss of sons and brothers in the war, while others were suffering from wounds received in battle. He hoped, in time, by firm and just treatment, to win their confidence. He reported that Lieut. Lawton turned over to him 937, whereas that officer reported on his way that he started with 972.

These Indians were all dissatisfied with their new home. They were wild horsemen, who had never been brought under any agency discipline. At the close of the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1878, the agent reported this tribe to number 970. He said about one-half had refused to affiliate with the Southern Cheyennes, and invariably camped by themselves, away from the other Indians, and in all respects acted as if a different tribe. He said they manifested no desire to engage in farming, and in council and elsewhere expressed an intense desire to return north, where they said they would settle down. No difference was made by the agent in the treatment of these and the other Indians. All were required to do certain things, as a condition to the issue of the sugar, coffee, and tobacco ration. The compliance of these Indians with the requirements was of a different nature from that of the others. He thought it might become necessary, in the future, to compel that obedience which he had been unable to

obtain by an appeal to their better natures. Had we their view of the case, we should, no doubt, have some reasons, from an Indian standpoint, for their action. Dull Knife's band were among the dissatisfied. These were intermarried with the Ogallalla, or Red Cloud Sioux, and longed to return north and join their friends. So intense was their feeling, that among the Indians they were called the Sioux Cheyennes. They did not conceal the fact that they intended to return north, and such was their temper that on the 5th of September, 1878, the agent informed the commanding officer at Fort Reno of the fact. On the night of the 9th of September, this band, more than three hundred in number, left their lodges and started north. The fact was communicated to the agent about three o'clock the next morning, by one of his Indian police. He immediately dispatched a messenger to Fort Reno, to notify Col. Mizner, and requested him to send out troops and bring them back. The colonel had previously ordered two companies to watch this band, but these camped about four miles from Dull Knife's camp. It was, for some reason unexplained, eight hours after the Indians started, before the troops who had been posted to watch them, knew of their departure! It was said there were eighty-seven warriors in the party. It made a journey of six hundred miles with its camp equipage and its ponies. It was stated that in their progress the Indians did not attack a settler, or any one else, until after they were struck by the troops. They had gone about 120 miles before they were overtaken by the military. Several engagements took place as they passed on through Kansas, and they killed settlers, burnt houses, and committed other atrocities, such as are incident to savage warfare. It is probable they were not aware of the removal of the Sioux from the Red Cloud agency until they had reached northern Nebraska, since their line of march looked in that direction. Here they surrendered to the troops. In their different engagements the band was considerably decimated. The troops, also, lost both officers and men. The Telegraph newspaper, of Sidney (Nebraska), of the 25th of January, 1879, stated that when these Indians surrendered in the fall, they claimed that they were assured they should not be taken back to the

Indian Territory. The editor had visited Fort Robinson to obtain information. After being imprisoned more than two months at Fort Robinson, it was agreed upon by the war and interior departments that the Indians should be returned south, to the end that such of them as committed the murders and other atrocities in Kansas might be identified, and put on trial. This was said to be in pursuance of a demand from the governor of that state.

When informed that the government had determined to send them back to the Indian Territory, Dull Knife and his warriors protested. They said they would prefer death where they were than submit to removal. It was midwinter, and terribly cold, and, as a means of reducing them to submission, it was stated that they were for five days deprived of proper clothing, food, and fuel. This was done by the military at Fort Robinson. With the flag of our country floating over the fort, they deprived the Cheyenne men, women, and children of blankets, food, fire, and water for five days, in order to compel them to yield and return to an association they despised! Should such inhumanity be tolerated, and its perpetrators go unpunished? Instead of yielding, the Indiaus were made more desperate by this attempt to starve and freeze them into submission. Within one hundred feet of their prison-house were several companies of United States troops, and sentinels were kept on duty. These warmly-clad men paced to and fro, with their arms ready for service. Although the Indians had determined to die rather than be carried back, there were apparently at this immediate time no fears entertained by the officers, notwithstanding the interpreter had informed them that the Indians premeditated an outbreak. Strange to relate, that on the evening of the 9th of January, it is said that every available stretcher was overhauled and placed in position where it could be easily brought into use; the attendants were forbidden to retire, and for some reason the troops did not turn in. Moreover, the windows of the prison were left unbarred. About eleven o'clock at night, on a signal given by Dull Knife, every warrior leaped through the windows of the prison-house, and the

women and children followed. As the warriors passed from the prison across the grounds of the barracks, and out toward the cold prairie, they fired upon the guard with revolvers, which they had concealed, and four of them were wounded. The main guard, on the report of the revolvers, rushed out, and, following the Indians, shot and killed more than forty of them. Then, as soon as possible, a hundred and sixty cavalry-men started in pursuit, and the sharp bang of their carbines was heard as they pursued the fleeing Indians, who made for the bluffs about three miles distant from the fort. A dispatch from the fort, on the morning of the 10th of January, stated that it was thought not an Indian would be able to escape. The pursuit of the Cheyennes was kept up by the troops, first by one squad and then another, until the 22d of the month. After a few days, there was a disposition to relax, but a dispatch from the fort, on the 15th, stated that Gen. Crook had ordered that the pursuit be continued. On the 16th of January, Capt. Weasels set out with four troops of fresh cavalry. By this time the ranks of the Indians were considerably reduced. He took six days' rations. On the 22d, he closed the campaign. On that day he attacked the remnant of the band, then intrenched in the mouth of a ravine, about twenty miles north of Bluff station, and about fifty miles from Fort Robinson. His troops encircled the Indians, leaving no possible avenue of escape. As soon as the skirmishers approached within striking distance, the Indians fired on them, killing one lieutenant and two privates, and wounding the third. The troops advanced and opened a deadly fire on all sides, and with terrible effect. The Indians, then without ammunition, rushed with desperation toward the troops with their hunting-knives in hand; but before they had advanced many paces a volley was discharged by the troops, and all was over. The bodies of twenty-four Indians were found in the ravine, including, as the dispatch stated, "seventeen bucks, five squaws, and two papooses; nine remained, of whom one buck and five squaws were more or less wounded, and three squaws unhurt." A dispatch to Gen. Crook, of the date of January 23d, said that “the Cheyennes fought with extraordinary courage and firmness, and refused

all terms but death." The dispatch of the 15th, from the fort, which stated that Gen. Crook had given positive orders that the pursuit be continued, said, that on the 14th the troops abandoned the pursuit, leaving the Indians in possession of the natural mounds north of Indian creek. The same dispatch stated that "thirty-two Indians, of which twenty-five were bucks and the remainder women and children, had been killed and buried in one common grave." An observer of one burial said: "Let us see the dead and wounded brought into the fort. The soldiers drag out of the army wagons twentysix frozen bodies. They fall upon the frozen ground like so many frozen hogs. These bodies are pierced by from three to ten bullets each. They are stacked up in piles like cordwood, the scanty clothing of the women being in some instances thrown over their heads. They are a ghastly pile of God's poor despised children. Their heads have been scalped, and every indignity heaped upon them that more than Indian brutality can invent. The officers account for so many shots being fired into the bodies by saying that 'whenever the wind stirred a blanket, the soldiers fired again to make sure the Indian was dead.' They deny that the soldiers scalped the dead, but it is not shown that other savages were there."

In the annual report of the agent, made in August, 1878, the Northern Cheyennes, then near the agency in the Indian Territory, numbered 970. After Dull Knife and his band escaped, there still remained 650 of these. Hence, the number that left with Dull Knife was 320. We find that a few days after the close of the campaign by Capt. Weasels, on the 22d of January, 1879, there were sent from Fort Robinson to the Pine Ridge agency twenty-two Cheyenne women and thirtytwo children, widows and orphans, to dwell with the Ogallalla Sioux, their relatives; and, on the 4th of February, 1879, Capt. Vroom started from the fort with the survivors, being seven Cheyenne men and their women and children, fourteen in number, on his way to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the end that these might be turned over to the civil authorities, to answer for the murders and arsons committed by the band of Dull Knife, on its journey north, in the fall of 1878. Those sent to Pine Ridge and to Fort Leavenworth together