Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-09-01
AN INDIAN KILLER INTERVIEWER
ATalk with Gamanche Bill.

"
From the Davenport 0owa) Gazette. August 1871
There has been stopping in this city for
q couple of days past, one of those charac-
tiers who have made for themselves cele-
brity for their bravery and daring on the
plains of the far west, among the Indians
and the buffaloes in recounting whose
deeds, hair-breadth escapes and peculiar
life, the pages of romance are filled. The
person to whom we refer is no less a char
acter than "Camanche Bill,n who is re-
puted to be the slayer of no less than one
hundred and eighty three Indians. He
has been nine years on the plains, part Of
which time he has been III the employ of
the Government as ascout. He has hunt
ed and killed Indians for the pleasure and
sweets of revenge, andhunted and trapped
of necessity. He is now on his return to
his old life in the West, having been on a
visit to his early home in Minnesota. He
is about twenty-eight years of age, of slen-
der build, sandy compleXioned, with a
profusiOn of hair that he wears long on his
neck. His dress is parrot buckskin PANTS,
ornamented from the outer seams with a
row of steel buttons, coarse shirt. and old
coat and a broad brimmed hat. His eye is
piercing keen, and he has a grip like q
dozen backsmiths In response to our
questions he said
"My name is George w, Porter. have
been on the plains since '62. I.was i'll the
Minnesota massacre, near New Ulm, the
18th of August of that year All my folks
were killed except me and my little sister
three years old whom they took prisoner
i1 "Where were yOu?" a5
81 was away at the military station on
business; went the day before. The. first
i knew of the massacre, / was coming
along the road on my way home, when
saw little ways ahead of me wagon
filled with women and children, that the
settlers had sent to the station for protec-
ton. Just then saw the Indians pounce
upon them, and lodged into the woods
L could hear the hatchets crushing into
their heads. They killed them all, every
one.n .-.......--..-
"What did you do?' ....
'They scalped 'em, and when the coast
was clear, got out, and pretty soon along
came company of cavalry, and we buried
them.p aa# r' a
why didn't you follow after the In
dams 81
81 had no horse, and the captain didn't
want his men to go. You see that was in
1872, and everything was topsy-turvy.n
'Did you visit the scene of the massacre
at New Ulm ?n
eyes. 1 went there the next day, and
saw my father and mother all scalped and
cut up, and my sister was gone. [ swore
by the eternal God, | would never rest
until had had revenge-a bloody re-
venge. -- -,.--
Did you get any traces of your sis
ter?"
-" Why, yes, they was the Yankton
Swanee and Sioux Indians, and l knowed
them pretty well. I learned that they
had her. L knowed what they'd do with
herr
"You have, not been successful in your
efforts to secure her"
mo; you see, single handed and alone,
a man don't stand much chance. That's
what / had been doing all the time. Once,
in Arizona, L was right in sight of her.
The way | knowed it was her was, / had
been on the trail of the band of Sioux
that had her long time, and she was the
only white person they had This was in
1865, and then she looked just like moth
er. / waited, and watched, and watched,
and picked an Indian off every little while,
when he'd get a mile or two from camp,
but twas no use. They kept too good
watch over her."
"Were you ever captured ?' a..
Eyes. The Blackfeets captured me and
Jim Braden in '64, when we were out
uuuIlHS. 1uey CdulC Oh us Will a. 1uSuJ
but they didn't get us, though, until l had
killed one young buck"
"What did they do with you?
''They marched about twenty-five miles
to their camp, and there they stripped us
of everything we had, and tied us up to a
stake, and let the women beat us with
clubs They did this every day foreightdays
We were tied with buckskin thongs, and
one night it; rained, andwe slipped out of
Elm when they were wet. Jim got away all
right, and Just as l was Citing my things
on, the old squaw woke up and gave the
alarm. There was but four Indians in the
camp. The rest had gone on hunt. [
ran, with only my knife" They came up
to me, and had desperate fight One
shot had hit me in the left armn exhibit
ing scar) az cut and slashed the buck
that got hold of me, and finally give him
one under the ribs, so he won't tie any
more thongs. And he cut me, too, here,
and here, and here,n Showing scars in his
arm, neck and breast "The other buck
never came near, for I'd got this bucks
gun afore he'd reached u.s."
The rest of "Comanche Bills" story,
how he followed his sister among the Ca
manches, and had a fight with the white
chief of that nation, and other equally in
terestine accounts, we shall have to omit.
But if our readers wish to see & genuine
frontiersman, they should call upon the
''Indian fighter" himself