Bellevue gazette. [volume] (Bellevue City, N.T. [i.e. Neb.]) 1856-1858, 1857-06-11
VARIETY
A Trufhfui Account Of the In
dian Diniculties.
TRAvtRsr prs Sioux, }
April % 1867.

I write to tell you something Of the
Sioux who have committed the recent
murders on the white settlers near Spirit
Lake The leader Of the party is called
lnk-pa-duta (Red End| The whole
number Of men and boys able to carry a
gun belonging to his party is seventeen,
which Is the number reported 10 have
been engaged ia the first murders. A
Sioux now in the n~eighborhood Of the
agency, called Smo y Day, and two
brothers, Joseph and Louis Coursoix :,
half.br5eds, who saw and conversed with
them in tn neighborhood where they
killed two brothers named Wood, who
were trading not far from the head
Of the Desinoines river. say there
were only twelve men and n boy aged
probably ID years, from which il seems
potable that four or five Of the original
parry had left, not liking the business in
which they were engaged. lnk-pa-duia
and his people are Wah.peh.kuias, and
spoken OF by the leading men near Pa.
ju-ta.zee aud the Sioux Agency as rene
gales, who in consequence Of murders
connitted ON their owa people mnnv years
aro, had 10 lae from Cannon River To the
Nj S ol'i. Whether they were present at
the treaty at Mendoza in 1851, | have not
learned; but they suppose, not withou,
r,a.on, their claims to the lands coded in
that treaty as good as that of any Of those
who signed Il.
a part, If not all Of them, were pres
ent nj the time Of the payment last Sum.
mer or Fall, and it is said expressed
much dissatisfaction because they were
no. allowed TO share in the unnuities.
The agent refused to give them n share,
because they had not planted on the Re-
serve. They have told some of those
"ho have conversed with them that rs
they vera passing n house MI fur from
the Lit,le Sioux river, in Iowa, Il dog
came ont aud bit one Of them, who then
shot the dog. Soon after this a company
Of white men came upon them, and took
( oni them all their guns, aud then beat
them with sticks or whips, aud So drove
them off. Having M means Of Obtaining
a subsistence withou, guns, after suffering
some time, they determined TO supply
them selves by taking guns wherever they
could find them. After they had obtain.
ed a partial supply, a man from W ose
they had taken a gun came ont aud
ut them, without, however, hurting
them. They then shot him down. aud
from TINT tune proceeded to murder such
families as they met with. The report
alnoa, the Dako,as at Paiu azee, more
than n week ago, wns that they had killed
between thirty aud forty white persons,
aud had among them four female prison.
ers-three women aud a girl. Some of
the military men who have been in the
where the murders were commit.
ted, and returned to Fort Ridgeiy, say
that ~roRrv-s,x dead bodies have been
f 'und, and that as many us FIFTY may
have been killed.
Soon after the new of the first muir
ders reached Pajutazee, an intelligent
gentleman of that neighborhood with
whom | was conversing, told me that In =
pa-duta and his party, having supplied
Themselves with horses, ammunition, sc ,
would go up the Big Sioux river, to the
head Of it, and then up the James or Jac-
qaes river, to Join themselves 10 the north.
crn Sha Ik-ton.wan; and this is highly
probable, as when last heard from. about
the 18Th inst, they were not far from the
Red Plpestone quarry. 1t is not proba-
bic thatthey will again approach the white
settlements for some months, as plumber
seems II have been a principal object n
wha, they have done, and they are said
to be ~abundan,ly supplied.
The Sioux who receive annuities are
more di,p,sed to take par, with the whites
than with these renegades of their WI
people; and saw they would net feel at
all aggricved if the Americans should kill
Ink.pa-duta and his whole party. Those
of us who have Il families among the
Indians do not apprehend danger from
them unless some Of them are wantonlv
m lrlAred by some Of our countrvnen.
Of this there was and still is danger
in the excited state of feeling on the from
tier. Some of them have been chased
AMI badly used, and if thew had
not been more prudent and forbenring
than civilized men usually are, much blood
would have been shed. Major Flandrau
has BEEN exerling himself TO prevent n
further %effusion of blood.
Some will suppose that soldiers ought
to 90 immediately in pursuit of the muir
drrers. 1t is but fair to suppose that the
officers of the army understand their own
business much hetter than civilians do.
Those of us whose families are most ex-
posed, will feel much safer if this business
is coniuctAd by the officers of the regu-
lar army, than if militi, are employed.
From the unusual c~oolness of this Spring,
we cannot expect sufficient grass on the
p~rairies to subsist team and dragoon hors-
es much before the first of June. Till
this is the case, it is not probable that n
soldiers sent in pursuit of lux. pa-du,a