The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1872-07-18

The steamer FonteneIle arrived at this city
yesterday morning, after three months trip to
Fort Benton aud the mountains. Among her
miscellaneous cargo Of robes, furs, peltries and
Nebraska corn, was a female named Miss Aman-
da Barber, nee Squatting Bear, who i'm q fit Of
fanatical romance, offered herself in 1867 a. q
voluntary missionary to the Brule Sioux, then
occupying the territory between the Cheyenne
river and the Big Horn Mountains, Dakotah Ter
ritOry.
Miss Barber created quite q sensation in the
Eastern States by her marriage with q young In
dian named Squatting Bear, who accompanied
party Of Sioux to Washington in 1867. Miss Bar
Der was at that time clerk in one of the depart
ments at Washington, in position secured for
her by General Butler, before the impeachment
fiascO. According to her own statement, made
yesterday to our reporter she was firmly impress
ell with the reality and perfection of the red men
Of the plains. She had read everything relating
to the Indian tribes, from the reports of the Com
missioner of Indian Affairs down to the latest
dime novel. In a fit of enthusiasm or temporary
insanity, she offered Herself TO and became the
wife Of Sqnatting Bear, junior chief in the Lone
Horn band of Brule Sioux, and with him and his
party returned to the Yankton agency, where
she was duly initiated into her new life as q
white squaw. Her romantic ideas of Indian life
seemed to have received terrible shock since
her introduction to her new home and relations,
and though she endeavOred to fulfill her mission
as a teacher and missionary to the best of her
dututicS, ucI pIOkTtSS appears 10 nave Deeu ~
slow as the progress of civilization the plains.
She states that her first great surprise being
required to mount upon a wild, vicious pony, and
travel without saddle or attention over the conn
try from the Missouri to the White earth river,
distance of several hundred miles. Her inability
to make the journey provoked mirih among her
husbands companions, and finally exasperated
Squatting Bear until he bound her with rope to
the pony's back and led the animal himself on
the westward trail She was still more surprised
ksv..v1
one q vicious squaw Of forty years Of age, the
other girl of scarcely fourteen years. Her life
in his wigwam, or fcepcc, was not bright and
happy as she expected it would be. Her hus-
bands absence was taken advantage of by her
rivals to compel her to perform the vilest drudg
cry, snch gathering wood, cooking meats, and
scraping robes for the tanning process; but dur
ing Squatting Bears presence at home Miss Bar
Der appears to have been better treated. Her
husband, in violent fit of passion, killed his
oldest sqnaw during the first year she was with
the tribe, when, without warning notice, she
was hurried off to the EIain camp of the Brules
three days journey toward the mountain, and
from thence she accompanied the tribe ON its all
nual buffalo hnnt, where she became sick from
exposure and fatigue. She was left at tempo
rary drying camp ut Rawhide river, where she
attempted to escape by walking to Fort Fetter-
man, distance Of sixty miles. For this attempt
she was beaten until nearly dead, and then sold
by her husband for three ponies, to a Cheyenne
Coo Goose, or Baconsdes. She was taken north
in 1870 and has remained with the Cheyennes
ever since, until her escape this spring, where
she made her appearance at, and claimed the pro-
lection of the authorities at Fort Benton. Miss
BARRIERS experience would no dOnbt make st0-
~ more thrilling than that of the Escaped
Num- She is woman rather plain in appear
ance, skin tawny and black, eyes small, dark and
impressive, voice rather masculine-and, in fact,
inst such woman Mrs. Col. Anthony or Ten
ME Claflin would choose for a second in command.
Miss Barber eonversed with our reporter without
the least tliffidence, and answered any question
asked of her. She says that, SO far as the TO
nance of Indian life is concerned, she found none
of 1t. 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 wac harder to
acquire. She has much higher opinion of the
Cheyenne than of tn Sioux. The latter tribe
she says to blame for nearly all the thieving
and numbering done in the white settlements.
She found it necessary to paint and color like the
the rest of the tribe while she with them,
and twice witnessed the murder or execution of
white men, one soldier OF the sd United
States Infantry, who had been taken while ont
hunting, who was burnt and scalped; the Others
were two teamsters brought from Fort McPher-
son. All three were burnt at place called ''Sad-
dler's Hill, 4" in the Nebraska Bad Lands"
Miss Barber has poor opinion of Grants Qua
ker policy, which she says is perfect farce, and
is so regarded by the Indians. She asserts that
there will lie no peace while white men intrnsle
into the buffalo range or tempt the cnpidity 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 ut this
port, and after few hours rest, started ON her
way to the home of her friends at Milford, Mas
sachusetts.