Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-07-14

unable to control, did join Sitting
Bull, and about 600 of the North |
ern Cheyennes are said to have ac-
companied them. General Van
Dever, who has been sent by the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to
Red Cloud and Spotted Tail to re-
port on the condition Of affairs
there, writes on the 2Sth and Doth
of June that, altoough the supplies
were almost gone,
THE INDIANS STILL REMAINED
FRIENDLY,
and that none of them have recently
left the reservation. At a great
sun-dance. which occurred only
short time ago, nearly the whole of
Red Clouds and Spotted Tails
bands were present, and a confer
ence of the chiefs was held to con-
slider the relations of the tribes
with the United States. The coun-
try where General Clusters disaster
is reported to have occurred is,
VERY FAVORABLE FOR A SUCCESS
Full AMBUsCADE.
1t consists of foothills, or, as they
are called in the West, hog-backs.
They are so formed by the upheayal
of the strata of the rocks that the
plane of their surface forms an
angle of from 100 to 140 degrees
with sthe natural surface of the
earth. These follow each other in
parallel lines, rising from 75 to 200
feet, and are so to 100 yards apart.
The rayines between them have of
course very steep sides, up which it
is almost impossible to go with
horse, and a body of soldiers, Or a
wagon train that once enters one
of them has no way of escape ex-
cept to follow it to the mountains
or the plains, or in turning back
and retracing its steps. The Little
Horn river empties into the Big
Horn a short distance above where
the latter empties into the Yellow
stone-the point where General
Sheridan has been desiring to eS-
tablish a post. The scene of the
conflict is on the Grow Reservation,
which is habitually invested by
hostile Sioux. The Grows are the
friends and allies of the whites.
The mouth of the Big Horn is the
point at which General Sheridan
has been DESTROYS of establishing a
garrison or depot as the proper base
of operations against the Northern
Sioux.
E The cause of this war, or rather
of these expeditions, for this war
with these Indians has been going
on for fifteen or more years, may be
summed up in the words, &" Sitting
Bull and the outlaw Sioux" We
have never had peace or even treaty
relations with these bands. After
the Spirit Lake massacre in Iowa
and the great Sioux massacre in
Minnesota, all the more turbu-
lent spirits banded together. After
: General Sibley's expedition in 1868,
they crossed the Missouri, and en-
deavored to concentrate for another
invasion of Minnesota, but the
next year
SULLY FOLLOWED THEM
| across the Missouri, and after sew
eral running fights they retreated
across the Bad Lands into the Big
Horn country, and he followed to
, the Yellowstone and established
5 Fort Buford. Upon this post,
and on the steamboats,, and immi-
grants to Montana, they kept up
unceasing war, often keeping the
garrison at Buford in a state Of
siege for weeks at a time, and muir
derlng every straggler who went
! outside the post. An attempt was
9 made to treat with them in 1865,
I but, after accepting the presents
e and securing ammunition, Sitting
Bull broke up the council, and
the commissioners escaped to the
l fort across the river. When Red
t Cloud and Spotted Tail made peace
at Laramie, Sitting Bull stubbornly
e refused to come in. All that year
l he made war on the steamboats, and
e commerce of the Missouri, mas
sacreing several small bOat-loads
D of returning miners, and capturing
large quantities of gold dust, which
he traded for arms to the Northern
half-breeds. In 1867 he threatened
the Gallatin valley, in Montana,
q when the Montana volunteers were
/. raised to meet him. In 1868 he
attacked the settlement of Muscle
4 Shell and suffered defeat, losing
p thirty-six warriors. The settlers
having notice of his coming,
: AMBUsoADED HIM IN A RAvINE
+ outside the town. Although the
) Sioux made the attack on the vii
J. lage this battle was denounced as d
e massacre by portion of the East
It ern press. After this he lost pres.
d tige, During 1869 and 1870 he
= devoted himself principally to the
d slaughter of the Grows, the Man
/ dams, the Rees, the Shoshone, and
all other tribes friendly to the
d whites, varying it by an occasional
r. attack on the Missouri river forts.