The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-09-21
OLD BETZ.
A Sioux Herofne.

A Sioux Herofne.
Just now, when we are all naturally
incensed against the Sioux and dis.
posed to regard them as devils incar.
nate, it NAV be worth while, in the in.
terest of fair play, to look on the other
side Of the picture. j do not mean
white in-doing, but Sioux well-doing.
There is to-day (unless she has recent
| ly died) 2 R0man of that tribe living in
the State Of Minnesota who may well
contest the palm of true heroism with
Ida Lewis or any of our many Cauca-
sian women who have risked their own
lives TO save those of others.
The readers of this sketch VII re-
| member that the massacre of the 9TH
Cavalry is not the first instance in quite
recent times when the Sioux have
thrilled our whole land by their bloody
deeds. Startling as that tragedy is IN
ats dramatic accessories, the rank and
popularity of its chief actors and vic
Tins, and more than sil, in its absolute
ly unprecedented completeness, it still
seems quite trivial when compared
with the widespread, long-enduring
accumulation of horrors upon horrors
inthe Minnesota massacre of 1861. r.
We need not 90 back to the first
causes of that outbreak II is the old
story of trading dishonesty, and, In
dian suspicion and lawlessness. To
hunger and distrust succeeded loud in
dignation, turbulence, .rioting at the
agencies and posts, robbery and murder
of isolated families, and then a general
carnival of fire and blood. Most of the
quietly and peaceably disposed Indians
were forced by a sort of savage con-
'scription TO abandon or destroy the
homes and comforts which budding
semi civilization had begun TO gather
around them, and to swell the war par
ties that now overrun the country in ev-
cry direction. The terrified European
immigrants who had largely settled all
this northwestern region, hurried from
a peril so new as to be almost paralyz-
ing, leaving behind them the helpless
from age and sickness, and carrying
with them nothing except what could
be hurriedly snatched up before taking
flight. The roads were crowded with
misunderstanding figures jabbering a
strange jargon, and lined with wagons
and horses, sick men, women and chil-
dren, who had been left to their fate, as
they proved unable to keep up with
their lying friends, while close in the
rear of the fugitives, from blazing cabin
to cabin, winged with an untiring thirst
for blood, sped the scalping, torturing
bands, silent as death, save when, from
some wayside covers, they burst out
upon their victims with the sudden ex-
ultant notes of savage delight. Earth
has seen few spectacles to compare with
those frightful days.
Still, in spite of the eontagion of ex-
element, SO powerful with all, but most
of all with savages; in spite of COM
mon interests, affection and blood; in
spite even of threats, violence, aud i'm
minent danger of life, some few Of the
Indians remained true TO the cause of
humanity. The most notable of these
was, perhaps, Old Betz, a squaw of
more prominence than is usually ac-
corded to the sex among the redskins,
but aged and ugly and well worn with
work. Seeing her bending forward af-
ter the manner of the Dakota women,
with a bag of flour or a good-sized
grandchild on her back, partially sup
ported by the vertebral column, partly
by sharp cord that passed over her
forehead, you would not readily have
selected her for heroine. Neverthe-
less, she soon displayed hardihood,
both of courage and endurance, which
any man might envy.
When the first murmurS began, Old
Betz eXerted her utmost influence to lay
the storm, travelling from chief to chief
and from band to band imploring
peace, patience, if only for little
while. But she soon found that it was
hopeless to suppress the explosion, and
addressed herself to lessen,
as far as she might, the havoc that
must unsue. When the fierce gangs
dashed out in every direction on their
raids, there was one before them swift
er and silenter still, darting like q
warning angel before an advancing
host of demons, spreading far and
wide the news of the coming danger,
melting the few loiterers TO escape
while hope was left, and more than all,
gathering the abandoned tottenng
wretches from the roadside and cabin,
and leading them by unfrequented
paths to places of at least temporary
safety.
Falstaff's ragged regiment was not to
be compared TO chat of Old Betz. The
mother, painfully creeping with the
week-old infant; the sick child on the
hobbling cripple's shoulder; the bag
gard consumptive toiling painfully to
save the little remnant of life; the half
naked lad, wounded and starving, who
had fed through the briars and over
fiints from the midnight attacks, where
who were dear to him persisted in the
flames or under the knife; the little
girl whose parents, unhumanized by
fright, had lost her in the melee, or
dropped her as as an circumference the
lame woman, young and pretty, but
helpless, who had stayed in the broken
wagon because there was no longer
any means TO save her from the wig
wan of some filthy savage ;rthe old
man, hardly able to understand the
meaning of the stir about him, who
would not cease from his monotonous
complaints even when silence was nee
essary to save his life-these and such
as these were the followers of Old Beiz.
Here, there, everywhere she picked
up her recruits-in the houses or vehi-
cles where they had been left, in the
thickets where they had hidden, up and
down the roadside, everywhere. At
first but handful, they grew by fresh
accretions to a company of more than
fifty, nearly all of them helpless and
slow of motion, and some Of them I'M
manageable beside. Decidedly Old Betz
had task upon her hands now.
Already the bloodthirsty pursuers had
overtaken and passed beyond them,
crossing and recrossing the country in
every direction, filling it with eyes Keen
to penetrate a trail under every disguise,
and hands that yearned for scalps.
Betz and her party travelled continually
in the very midst of danger. Often