The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-07-18
FIVE YEARS A SQUAW,
How tho Romance Of Indian Life was
TnIen Out of Yankee Schoolmistress.
From the Kansas City Times.

From the Kansas City Times.
The steamer Fontenelle arrived at this
city yesterday morning after three
months trip to Fort Benton and the
mountains. Among her miscellaneous
cargo of robes, furs, peltries, and Ne
braska corn, was female named Miss
Amanda Barber, nee Squatting Bear,
who, in fit of fanatical romance, Of
fered herself in 1867 as voluntary
missionary to the Brule Sioux, then oc-
cupylng the territory between the
Cheyenne River and the Big Horn
Mountains, Dakotah Territory.
Miss Barber created quite q sensation
in the Eastern States by her marriage
with young Indian named Squatting
Bear, who accompanied a party of Sioux
to Washington in 1867. Miss Barber
was at the time clerk in one of the de-
partments at Washington, in u position
secured for her by Gen. Butler, before
the impeachment fasco. According to
her own statement, made yesterday to
our reporter, she was firmly impressed
with tho reality and perfection of the
red men of the plains. She had read
everything relating to the Indian tribes,
from the reports of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs down to tho latest dime
novel. In a fit of enthusiasm or tenn
porary 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 agency, where
she was duly initiated into her new life
as white squaw.
Her romantic ideas of Indian life seem
l. L.. - IL -.
her introduction to her new home and
relations, and though she endeavored to
fulfill her mission as teacher and mig
sionary 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 on
wild, vicious pony and travel without
saddle or attention over the country
from the Missouri to the White Earth
River, O distance of several hundred
miles. Her inability to make the jour-
ney provoked mirth among her hus-
bands companions, and finally exasper-
ated S9uatting Bear until he bound her
with a rope to. the pony's back and led
the animal himself to the westward
trail. She was still more surprised to
find her husband possessed of two other
wives, one vicious, dirty s9uaw of
forty years of age, the other girl OF
scarcely fourteen years Her life in his
wigwam, or teepee, was not as bright and
happy as she expected it would be. Hel
husbands absence was taken advantage
of by her rivals to compel her to per
form the vilest drudgery, such as gath.
ering wood, cooking meat, and scraping
robes for the tanning process; but dur
ing Squatting Bears presence at home
Miss Barber appears to have been better
treated.
Her husband in a violent fit of pas.
sion, killed his oldest squaw during th'
first year she was with the tribe, Wien
without warning or notice, she wa
hurried off to the main camp of tn,
Bruaes, three days journey toward tn,
mountain, and from thence she accom-
panied the tribe on its annual buffal,
hunt, where she became sick from ex
posuxe and fatigue. She was left at
Temporary drying camp at Rawhid'
by walking to Fort Fetterman, dis
tance of sixty miles. For this attomp
she was beaten until nearly dead, an,
Iuch SOlt ny HeT huSDiuu 1OT UITe
ponies to Cheyenne chief who sporte,
the expressive soubriquet of Coo Goose
or BaoOnsides She was taken north il
1870, and remained with the Cheyenne
ever since, until her escape this spring
when she made her appearance at an,
claimed the protection of the authoritie
at Fort Benton. Miss Barber's expert
ence would, no doubt, make stor
more thrilling than that of the Escape
Nun" She is a woman rather plain il
appearance, skin tawny and black, eye
small, dark, and impressive, voice rathe
masculine-and, in fact, just such
woman as Mrs. Col. Anthony or Tenni
Clafflin would choose for second i
command.
Miss Barber conversed with our re
porter without the least diffidence, an
answered any questions asked of hel
She says that so far as the romance c
Indian life is concerned, she found non
of it Her efforts to teach and rcfor1
the young Indian children We're treate
with indifference and contempt. Sh
learned the Sioux language easily, bu
the Cheyenne dialect was harder to az
quire. She has much higher opinio
of the Cheyennes than of the Siou,
The latter . tribe she says are to blam
for nearly oil the thieving and murder
ing done in the white settlements. Sh
found it necessary to paint and cole
like the rest of the tribe while she ws
with them, and twice witnessed til
murder or execution of white men, on
soldier of the Thirty-Second Unite
States Infantry, who had been take
while out hunting, who was burned an
scslped; the others were two teamstel
brought from Fort Mcpherson. A
three were burned at place calle
"Saddler's HILL" in the Nebraska " Ba
Lands"
Miss Barber left the steamer Font
nellie at this port, and after few hour
rest started on her way to the home
her friends at Milford, Massachusetts.
Instinct