Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-07-12
Romance VS.. Reality.
EXPERIENCE AS AN INDIAN BRIDE.

Inc Telegraph uhy VI t"o aSo ioPo''
ed the escape from the Indians Of wom-
an named Amanda Barber, formerly of
Milford Mass, who in fit Of romance
married Sioux Indian chief at Wash
ington few years ago, and accompanied
him to his home in Dacotah, with the
idea that she could perform the role of
missionary among the savages of that re-
gion. Miss Barber arrived at Kansas
City. Mo-, in a steamer, on the 2Sth ult.
and the Times of that place gives the fol-
lowing narrative of her not very pleasing
experiences:
"Miss Barber created quite a sensation
in the Eastern States by her marriage.
with young Indian named Squatting
Bear, who accompanied party of Sioux
to Washington in 1867. Miss Barber
was at that time a clerk in one of the
departments at Washington, in a posi-
ton secured for her by General Butler.
According to her own statement, made
yesterday to our reporter, she was firmly
impressed 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 Commits
sioners on Indian Affairs down to the lat.
est dime novel. In fit of enthusiasm
or temporary insanity, she offered herself
ana became the wife of Squatting Bear,
Junior chief in the Lone Horn band of
Bruel Sioux, and with him and his party
went to the Yankton agency, where she
was duly initiated into her new life as a
white squaw. Her romantic idea of In
dian life seemed to have received a terri
BILE shock since her introduction to her
new home and relations, and though she
endeavored to fulfil her mission as a
teacher and a missionary to the best of
her abilities, her progress appears to have
been as slow as the progress of civiliza-
ton on the plains.
She says that her first great surprise
was being compelled to mount upon a
wild, vicious pony, and travel without
saddle or attention from the Missouri to
the White Earth river, distance of sew
eral hundred miles. Her inability to
make the journey provoked mirth among
her husbands companions, and finally
exasperated Squatting Bear, until he
bound her with rope 20 the pony's back,
and led the animal himself on the west
ward trail. She was still more surprised
to find her husband possessed of two 9TH
err wives, one vicious, dirty squaw of
forty years of age, the other girl of
scarcely fourteen years. Her life in the
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 vilest drudgery, such as gathering
wood, cooking meat and scraping robes
for the tanning process but dnring
Squatting Bears presence at home, Miss
Barber appears to have been better treat
ed. Her husband, in violent fit of pas
sion killed his oldestsquaw during the FIRST
year she was with the tribe, when, with
out warning or notice, she was hurried
off to the main camp of the Brules
three days journey toward the noun
tain, and from thence she accompanied
the tribe on its annual buffalo hunt, where
she became sick from exposure apd ia
tigue. She was left at temporary dry
ing camp at Rawhide river, where shf
attempted to escape by walking to For
Fetterman, distance of sixty miles
For this attempt she was beaten unit
nearly dead, and then sold by her has
band for three ponies, to Cheyenne
chief, who sported the expressive sou
briquet of Coo-Coose, or Baconsiles.
She was taken north in 1870, and hal
remained with the Cheyennes ever since
until her escape this spring, when sh,
made her appearance at and claimed tn
protection of the authorities at Fort Ben
ton.
Miss Barber is woman rather plair
in appearance, skin tawny and black
eyes small, dark and impressive. anC
voice rather masculine. She says tina
so far as the romance of Indian life
concerned she found none of it. Her Ell
forts to teach and reform the young In
dian children were treated with indiffer
ence and contempt. She learned tn
Sioux language easily, but the Cheyenn
dialect was harder to acquire. She ha
a much better opinion of the Cheyen ne
than of the Sioux. The latter tribe, she
: says, are to blame for nearly all tn
thieving and numbering done in the whit
settlements. She found it necessary +
paint and color like the rest of the trib
when she was with them, and twice wit
messed the murder or execution of whit
men, one a soldier of the Thirty -secon,
United States Infantry, who had bee
taken while out hunting, who was burn
I ed and scalped the others we're tw
teamsters brought from Fort Mcpherson