The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-07-19
TIRED or PLAYING sQUAw.

" Mrs Noble Ned MANA" Extraordinary
From the Chicago Tribune.
T., ls67. Miss Amanda Barber was
c,erk in one Ut the Departments AZ
Wellington. Her salary enabled her to
a,sss fashionably. Her easy duties en-
lied her to devote much time 10
a 'san,al Improvement. In 1872, she was
Cheyenne squaw in Dakota. Her
smces and fluting, and furbelows had
h hun exchanged for two old blankets
va a pair of moccasins. Instead OF
sansrdinr pleasant hours in writing and
s.pckoniac, she passed weary days IN
founding maize. Instead OF daintlly
fp,,,chins at ravishing articles OF feminine
.Jornment, she made buckskin breech.
" ",",hs for her copper. colored chief, sew.
;nn together the heavy skins with
s;n e for thread and q sharpened nail
for needle.
All this happened because, up to
,s67. she had had much time for mental
;mnroyement, and because her idea Of
.a,ninp that end was to read novels.
with noteworthy patriotism she affected
american literature. She devOured
Fenimore Cooper's stirring scenes Of
savage heroism. She did not disdain
tho ten cent novelties of border life.
The civilization of the East palled upon
her She longed for the free, wild,
natural life of the West. The prairies
were peopled, in her imagination, with
grave, majestic Sachems, models OF
manly beauty and of all manly virtues,
who. freed from the sordid cares OF
money, lived in perpetual abundance.
She pictured them as hunting the
buffalo or routing some inferior tribe
and then coming back to their luxuri-
Gus lodges, to toy with their passion
ately. loved wives, and pour fourth the
Aood of poetical epithets which the
writer's OF America, from Cooper and
Loppfellow down to Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.,
have conspired to attribute to that most
prosaic being, the American Indian.
il is not to be wondered at then that
when Squatting Bear, tolerably good.
looking chief of the Brule Sioux, came
with party of his fellows to Washing.
ton. in 1867, Miss Barber, in lit OF
temporary insanity, yearned to wed
him. Her earthly heaven was to be
married and to be missionary. Here
was her chance and her Hiawatha. She
embraced both. With due religious
ceremonies she became Mrs. Squatting
Bear. and left Washington tor the
West. From this time her life was a
constant series OF rude disenchant-
ments. Her wedding trip consisted OF
a seven hunared-mile ride, from the
Missouri to the White Earth country,
on a wild, vicious pony. Despite her
native modesty, the want OF any saddle
compelled her to bestride the steed.
Even then she fell off, and fell Oft, until
the grave, majestic Sachems ridiculed
her mercilessly, and the particular one
of them whose wife she had become tied
her, Mazeppa-like, on the horse, and
finally brought her, in that disgrace.
full plight, into camp. When she crep;,
sore and tired, into the rude tepe which
was pointed out to her, she was, to say
the least, not pleased to be greeted by
two dirty squaws, one 40 and one IA
years, OF age, and to learn that she was
Mrs. Squatting Bear No. 3. However,
she went resolutely at her missionary
work. Her success was not brilliant.
Beyond large and varied stock Of
oaths, the Sioux we're ignorant of Eng.
lish, and she was wholly ignorant Of
Sioux. When she mastered that Ian
guage new difficulties arose. Her
pupils would gamble, would cheat,
would lie, would steal, would drink,
and would not keep Sunday. She
toiled on and on, but without result.
Moreover, whenever her husband went
Oft on scout, his two other wives i'm.
posed the most mental duties upon her.
In vain she tried to read the Bible to
them; they preferred to have her scrape
buffalo robes, and gather wood, and
cook food /; and they made her do it.
Her life was varied by grand spec.
tacular entertainment in the shape Of
the burning alive of white soldier.
Soon alter, Squatting Bear, in fit Of
passion, killed his oldest wife, and beat
hurried retreat. Miss Barber fell sick
and was left at temporary camp, from
which she fed and tried to walk sixty
miles to Fort Fetterman. She was
speedily caught. When Hiawatha beat
her over her head, she turned to him
the other cheek also, but failed tc
soothe his savage spirit by this act o.
Christianity. He knocked her down
and stamped on her, and performed an
ertempore war dance on her, and finally
after she had crawled away, sold her fol
three ponies to Cheyenne Chief, Bacon
sides. This was in 1870. For the mex
two years, her life was one Of infinite
degradation. She was treated as mere
animal, doomed to toll without ceasing
and made to yield implicit obedience Il
the whims Of her owner, under penalt.
OF brutal punishment. While with tn
Cheyennes, she was compelled to wit
ness the torture of two teamsters from
Fort Mcpherson, who were burne,
alive by their captors. Three week
AGO sho anooarad ~ Fort Raotop nm.