The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-08-12
A ROMANCE OF THE FORREST
SPOTTED TAIL AND HIS DAUGH-
TER.

/
The following account of the calebrat
ed Sioux chief Spotted Tail is from adj
vance sheets of Gen. B1isbin's book:
During the latter years of the war
part of Spotted Tails family remained
for time at Fort Laramie, and with
them was his favorite daughter, young
girl just budding into womanhood. The
fort was then garrisoned by companies
OF an Ohio regiment of volunteer caval-
ry. Among the officers of this regiment
Was a young man of good appearance
and pleasant manners, and with whom
the chiefs daughter fell in love. Her
passion does not seem to have been re-
clprocated by the young soldier, and he
did all in his power to convince her he
could not marry her, and, therefore, it
would be wrong in him 10 pay his adj
dresses to her. But tie infatuated Girl
would not be convinced, and could not
understand why she a princess and the
daughter OF the most powerful chief on
the plains, was not a suitable wife for
the young soldiers. Day after day she
would dress herself with scrupulous
care and come to the fort to see her be-
loved. 1t was pitiable to observe her.
as hour after hour she would sit ON the
door step of tue young officers quarters
waiting for him to come ont. At other
tunes she would follow him about the
parade ground like dog, seeming per-
fect1y happy if she could only be near
him and enjoy the poor privilege of look
ing at him.
Spotted Tan hearing of the strange
conduct of his daughter and deeply
mortified at her want of self-respect,
hastened to the fort and putting her in
charge of some kind friends bade them
carry her off into the Rocky Mountains
where a portion of his tribe dwelt, and
endeavored i'll every way to make her for
get her unfortunate love. She went away
meekly enough, but fell into q deep mel
ancholy, from which no effort of friends
could arouse her. Presently she refused
to take any food and pined away to a
mere skeleton.
One day a courier, whose horse was
white with foam, sought the great chief
and told him that his daughter was dy-
ing of a broken heart and wished to see
him once more before she passed to the
happy spirit land. Away over noun
tain and stream hurried the chief, and
paused not for food OF rest until he had
reached the bedside of his beloved child.
He found her still alive but fast sinking,
and she babe him sit close beside her
and hold her feshless hands in his while
she told him all her simple story of love
and suffering and broken heart She
said: 81 shall soon be at rest, my father,
and with our own kindred who have
gone before. In that beautiful land I
will wait for you and you Will soon come
to JOIN me, dear father, for your locks
are whitened with years of care, you are
fast growing old and tired. You are a
great chief and have yet many warriors,
but the pale faces are more numerous
than the leaves of the forest, and I pray
yon to cease from warning with them.
Spare your people, my chief; rest yet a
little while III peace, and you will have
reached the end of your journey of life
and come to join me in the happy home
to which L am now going. The pale
faces are His people, and between you
and them L hope war will never come
again. And, oh, my father and my
chief, when ] am dead take my Door,
wasted body and lay it on the hill beside
the fort where [ learned to love so well. -
The pulseless hand grew cold as the
great chief promised his child all she
asked Of him, then the lustrous eyes
glazed over, the thin lips ceased to move,
the smile fled from the wasted face, and
the Indian girl was dead.
The heart-broken chief bade the at
tendants dress the body of the princess
for burial, and on the shoulders of stout
warriors it was carried to fort Laramie
and laid to rest among the pale faces,
one of whose race she had so fatally
loved. Her grave is pointed out to the
traveller, and there it will long remain q
monument of the saddest story of the
plains. Spotted Tail often speaks of
his dead daughter with aifectionate re-
membrance, and once in a great council
held with the whites at Laramie he said ::
''Were not the hopelessness of resistance
and the dictates of policy sufficient to
restrain me from acts OF war, the pledge
| made to my dead child in her dying
hour would cause me to keep al peace
with your people.