Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-03
FIVE YEARS A SQUAW.
How the ROIn. nee of Indian Life
was Taken cit OF a Yankee school
MANN rr..g

was Taken g 1t OF q Yankee school
mann. r las
From the Kansas City Times, June %
The steamer Fontenelle arrived at this
city yesterday morning after a three
months trip to Fort Benton and the
mountains. Among her miscellaneous car
go of robes, furs, paltries aud Nebraska
corn, was a female named Miss Amanda
Barber, nee Squatting Bear, who in fit of
fanatical romance offered herself in 1857 as
voluntary missionary to the Bruie Sioux,
then occupyiES the territory between the
Cheyenne river and the Big Horn Noun
tains, in Dakotah Territory. -
Miss Barber created quite a sensation In
the Eastern States by her marriage with a
young Indian named Squatting Bear, who
accompanied party of Sioux to Washing
ton in 1867. Miss Barber was at that time
clerk in one of the departments at Wash
ingtou, in position secured for her by
Gen. Butler, before the impeachment fiasco.
According to her statement, made yester-
day TO our reporter, she was firmly impress
ed with the reality and perfection of the
red men of the plains. She had read everv-
thing relating to the Indian tribes, from the
reports of the Commissioner of Indian Az
fairs down to the latest dime novel. In
fit of enthusiasm or temporary insanity, she
offered herself to and became the wife of
Squatting Bear, junior chief in the Lone
Horn band of Brule Sioux, and with him
and his party returned to the Yankton agen-
cy, where she was duly initiated into her
new Life as white squaw. Her romantic
ideas OF Indian life seem TO have received
terrible shock since her introduction to her
new home and relations, and though she
endeayored to fulfil her mission as a teacher
and missionary to the best of her abilities,
her progress appears to have been as slow
as the progress of civilization on the plains.
She states that her first great surprise was
being required to mount upon a wild,
vicious pony, and travel without saddle or
attention over the country from the Mis-
souri, to the White Earth river, distance
of several hundred miles. Her inability to
make the journey provoked mirth among
her husbands companions, and finally ex-
asperated Squatting Bear until be bound
her with rope to the pony's back and led
the animal himself On the westward trail.
She was still more surprised to find her hus-
band possessed of two other wives, one
vicious dirty squaw of forty years of
age, the other a girl of scarcely fourteen
years. Her life in his wigwam,
or teepee, was not as bright and
happy as she expected it would be. Her
husbands absence was taken advantage of
by her rivals to compel her to perform the
Vllest drudgery, such as gathering wood,
cooking meat, and scraping robes for the
tanning process; but during the Squatting
Bears presence at home Miss Barber appears
to have been better treated. Her husband,
in violent fit Of passion, killed his Oldest
squaw during the first year she was with
the tribe, when without warning or notice
she was hurried off to the main camp of
the Brules, three days journey toward the
mountain, and from thence she accompani-
ed the tribe on its annual buffalo hunt,
where she became sick from exposure and
fatigue. She was left at temporary drying
camp at Rawhide river, where she attempt
ed to escape by walking to Fort Fetterman,
distance of sixty miles. For this attempt
she was beaten until nearly dead and then
sold by her husband for three ponies,
to Cheyenne chief who sport
ed the expressive soubriquiet of
Loo-Coose, or Baconsides. She was
taken north in 1870, and has remained
with the Cheyennes ever since, until her
escape this spring, when she made her
appearance at and claimed the protection
| Of the authorities at Fort Benton, Miss
BARRIERS experiences would no doubt make
a story more thrilling than that of the
! Escaped Num-" She is a woman rather
| plain in appearance, skin tawny and black,
eyes small, dark and impressive, voice rather
masculine-aud, in fact, just such woman
as Mrs. Col. Anthony or Tennie Clafin
would choose for second in command.
Miss Barker conversed with our reporter
| without the least difidence, and answered
any question asked of her. She SAYS that,
so far as the romance of Indian life is
concerned, she found none of it. Her
efforts to teach and reform the young Indian
children were treated with Indifference and
| contempt. She learned the Sioux language
easily, but the Cheyenne dialect was hard
to acquire. She has much higher opinion
| Of the Cheyennes than of the Sioux. The
latter tribe she says are to blame for nearly
all the thieving and numbering done in the
white settlements. She found it necessary
to paint and color like the rest of the tribe
while she was with them, and twice wit
messed the murder or execution of white
men, once soldier of the 32d United States
| Infantry, who had been taken while cut
| hunting, who was burnt and scalped; the
| OtnerS were Two teamSter5 brought from
| Fort Mcpherson. All three were burnt at
place called "Saddler's Hill" in the Ne
braska "Bad Lands"
Miss Barber has poor opinion of Grants
| Quaker policy, which she says is a perfect
farce, and is so regarded by the indiana.
| She asserts that there will be no peace
while white men intrude into the buffalo
range or tempt the cupidity of the Indians
by bringing stock and valuables out into
| exposed frontier settlements. The Indians
have the greatest contempt for the white
mems judgment and the efficacy of the
| soldiers.
Miss Barber left the steamer Fontenelle
at this port, and after few hours rest
started on her way to the home of her
| friends at Milford, Massachusetts.
TRUTH no FLATTERY.