The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-04-02

| YANKToS, ID. T., March 26.-The
Pni Rd1Ipuia Black HILLS party are
looked tor here daily. Two small
parties have left here within a week
tor the hIll.-One from Sprinfi.Id
They vii take the NiObrara rou.r
and will 90 TO the Collins and Rus
sell sIockade. When the Phiiauel-
phia party are ready to NOV e, prob
IbIy a large number will j.,in them
mere. This will make business for
General Ord aud the govern ntnt
| pets" Is the Sioux are called here.
There seems to be no abatement in
the excitement here. Large num-
bers are only waiting for the grass
to start.
! The class of men who are now in
the hills must not be moderated.
Should General Ord fill his orders
to the letter, there will be tremen-
dous feeling among the plainsmen
here and elsewhere, and it is limited
strongly that great trouble may
well be appreheHded.
Large gangs of men are at work
on the seven steamers which win.
tered here, three of which are being
cut out of the ice. The Far West
was cut free to-day.
The weather is beautiful. The
Missouri is rising.
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIv'N OF THRJ
/ MISSOURI, CHICAGO, March p, 1873.
General w. L. Sherman, Headquar-
tiers of the Army, st. Louis, Mo.
GENERAL In reply to your
question: what do you know
about the Black Hills ?" respect
fully submit the following re-
marks:
Ny first knowledge of the Black
Hills was derived from interviews
with the late Father DeSmet, q not
ed Catholic missionary, whom 1
met many years sgo on the Column
bia River, in Oregon, from whom [
heard the Indian romance OF a
mountain of gold in the Black Hills,
and his explanation of that extraor-
binary and declusiVe story.
To Indians, frontiersmen, and ex-
plorers the Black Hills. country is
much more extensive than that par
ticular locality brought to the no.
| tice of the public by the recent ex-
plorations of General Custer, and
gets its name from the black scrub
by character of the timber which
grows on the sides and tops of the
mountains and hills. 1t comprises
the whole of the country bounded
on the east by longitude 102 de-
grees, on the south by the SWeetWa-
ter and Larmie Rivers, on the west
by the Big Horn and Wind Rivers,
and on the north by the Yellow
stone River. This is really the
country of the Black Hills; but en-
braced in it are several localities
called "Black Hills" For instance
the "Black Hills of the Laramie, the
Black Hills of Powder River" and
the ''Black Hills of the Shyenne
River" the latter being the locality
in which General Custer made his
reconnaissance last summer, and
about which there is so much spec
ulation at the present time, and
within the bounds of which it is
supposed by large number of peo-
pie is to be found the Father de
Smet mountain of gold.
Father dc Smet's story was, that
while living with the Sioux Indians,
he was shown by them nuggets Of
gold, which they informed him had
boon obtained at different points in
the Black Hills, supposed to be from
the beds of the Big Horn, Rosebud
and Powder Rivers, and from
branches of the Tongue RIVER; and
on his representing that such
yellow metal was of the greatest
value, they told him they knew
where there was a mountain of it.
Subsequent investigation, however,
proved that the Indian mountain
of gold was nothing more than a
formation of yellow mica, such as
may be found in number of places
in the above described country.
l had scarcely given the story q
thought after this, until about three
years ago, when 1 happened to be
in New York, and it was there
brought to my recollection by a
prominent gentleman, who asked
me where Father de Smet was to
he found, and insisted that some
one should be sent at once to get
from him the secret of the gold
mountain which would pay the nat
iOnal debt, etc.
After had informed him that it
was an old and exploded story. his
ardor cooled, and the excitement
about the "mountain of gold" again
subsidized.
1t so happened, however, that the
Black Hills country was embraced
in my military command, and two
years ago it became apparent to me
that military post in the Black
Hills of the Cheyenne would soon
become necessary for the proper
I IRssfn IS h4
Nebraska from the ralds of Sioux
warriors, who always, before they
commenced depredating on the
frontier, secured a safe place for
| their families and villages in the
locality mentioned. Believing that
these Indians would never make
war on our settlements as long as
we could threaten their families and
villages in this remote locality,
Astounding in game and all that
goes to make Indian life comforta-
BILE, and with this purely military
object in view, the order was given
for the Custer reconnaissance.
The discovery of particles of gold
by alluYial washing near Hsrney's
Peak, on the eastern slope of the
Black Hills of the Chyenne, follow
ed, anG Drought TO the surface the
Father de Smet Story for the third
time.
The Black Hills of the Chyenne,
described by General Custer, are
situated between the north and
south forks of that river, one of
which is known as the Belle Four
che, the other the South Fork; and
although l have the utmost conf
dence in the statement of General
Custer and General Forsyth, of my
staff, that gold was found near Har-
ney's Peak, may safely say there
has not been any fair test yet made
to determine its existence in large
quantities.
There is not a Territory in the
West where gold does not exist,
but in many of them the quantity is
| limited to the ''color.' which is as
much as has yet been obtained near
Harney's Peak The geological
specimens brought back by the Gus
ter expedition are not favorable in
dications of the existence of gold in
any great quantity. Still, It may
be there but as the treaty of 1868,
duly ratified, Writ ually deeds this
~