Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-07-03
FIVE YEARS A SQUAW.
LONELINESS Of Indian Charaeter-HOW
the Romance Of Indian Life was
Taken Out Of a Yankee
SchOOlRIarm.

From the Kansas City Times, 18th ult.J
The steamer FonteneHe arrived at this
city yesterday morning after a three
months "trip to Fort Benton and the
mountains. Among her miscellaneous
cargo of robes, furs, peltries and Ne
braska corn was a female named Miss
Amanda Barber, nee Squatting Bear,
who, in a fit of fauatical romance, offered
herself in 1867 as a voluntary mission
airy to the Brule Sioux, then occupying
the territory between the Cheyenne
river and the Big Horn Mountains, Da-
kota Territory.
Miss Barber created quite a sensation
in the Eastern States by her marriage
with a young Indian named Squstting
Bear, who accompanied a 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,
before the impeachment fiasco. Ac-
cOrdingtO her W statement, made yes
terday to our reporter, she was firmly
impressed with the reality and perfec-
ton of the red men of the plains. She
had read everything relating to the In
dian tribes, from the reports of the Com
missioner Of Indian Affairs down to the
latest dime novel. In a fit Of enthusi-
asm or temporary insanity, she offered
herself to and became the wife of Squat
ting Bear, a junior chief in the Lone
Horn band of Brule Sioux, and
with him and his party returnedtO the
Yankee agency, where she was duly in
itiated into her new life as a white
squaw. Her romantic ideas of Indian
life GnnVn IN have rnulfvaA n Tarrfhla I
shock since her introduction TO her new
home and relations, and though she en-
deavored to fulfil her mission as a teach
er and 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 states that her
first great surprise was being required to
upon a wild, vicious pony, and
travel without saddle or attention over
the country, from the Missouri TO the
White Earth river, a distance of several
hundred miles. Her inability to make
the journey provoked mirth among her
husbands companions, and finally ex-
asperated Squatting Bearuntil he bound
with a rope to the pony's back and
led the animal himself on the westward
trail. She was still more surprized TO
find her husband possessed of two other
wives, one a vicious, dirty squaw of for
ty years of age, the otheTa girlof scarce
iy fourteen years. Her life in his wig
wan, or teepee, wa not as bright and
as she expected it would be. Her
husbands absence was taken advantage
by her rivals to compel her to per
form b vllest drudgery, such as gath
ering wood, cooking meat, and scraping
robes for the tanning process; but dur
ing Squattlng Bears presence at home
Miss Barber appears toshave been better
Her husband, in a violent fit
Of passion, killed his oldest squaw dur
ing the first year she was with the tribe,
when without warning or notice she was
off to the main camp of the
three days journey toward the
and from thence she accom-
the tribe on its annual buffalo
aunt, where she became sick from
exposure and fatigue. She was left at
| temporary drying camp at Rawhide
liver, where she attempted to C by
Walking to Fort FetteTman, a distance of
miles. For this attempt she was
Deaten until nearlydead and then sold by
Ter husband for three ponies, to a Chey-
.nEe chief who spOrted the expressive
Oubriquet of COo-CoOse, or Baconsides.
he was taken north in 1870, and has !
emained with the C%heYennes ever {
ince, until her escape this spring, when !
he made her appearance atand claimed
protection of the authorities at Fort s
Miss Barber's experiences
would no doubt make a story more
hrilling than that of the Escaped /
yum" She is a woman rather plain in |
ppearance, skin tawny and black, eyes !
mall, dark and impressive, voice rather Q
laseuline-and, in fact, just such a {
7Oman as Mrs. Colonel Anthony or Ten 7
lie Claflin would choose for a second in
Miss Barker c~onversed with
ur reporter without the least difidence,
nd answered any question asked of
er. She says that, so far as the
erned, she found none of it. Her
forts to teach and reform the young
indian children were treated with indif-
renee and contempt. She learned the
ioux language easily, but the Cheyenne
was harder to acquire. She has
much higher opinion of the Chevennes
of the Sioux. The, latter tribe, she G
lys, are to blame for nearly all the
and numbering done in the
hite settlements. She found II neces-
TO paint and color like the rest of
le tribe while she was with them, and
vice witnessed the murder or execution
white men-Once a soldier of the q,
h~irty-second Infantry, who had been CT
ken while out hunting, who was burnt u
nd scalped; the Others were two team ~
ers brought from Fort Mcpherson.
II three were burnt at a place called
Saddler's Hill in the Nebraska "Bad n
Miss Barber has a poor opinion of
rants Quaker policy, which She says
a perfect farce, and is so regarded BY
e Indians. She asserts that there will
no peace while white men intrude
TO the buffalo range, or tempt the Gu %
.ity of the Indians by bringing stock !
I'd valuables out into exposed frontier
Elements. The Indians have the
eatest contempt for the white mems
and the efficacy of the sol
ers.
Miss Barber left the steamer Fonte-
lie at this port, and after a few hours
It, started on her way to the home of
T friends at Milford, Massachusetts,.
A % of the late Prof. Morse is about TF
settle in Austin, Texas. la