The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-12-14
OLD RED CLOUDS FARM
Tho Vast Region 10 Which she Old Man
Will Raise his Eoxi Fl mpsir-The
Trials and Triauia.ions Of the
" March from the Old aeen.
Giles 10 the New.

I aDSeDI OH Ills lul,S4ohs AfhSh A@h "
the new Agencies on the Missouri river,
a little over a month. From this officer
a reporter gathered some interesting in
formation relative TO the new Spotted
Tail and Red Cloud Agencies. The
former is located ut the mouth Of
Ponca creek, continent OF the Missouri.
Its distance from Yankton, the capital
OF Dakota, is fcrty-five miles. The Red
Cloud Agency is situated at the mouth
of Yellow Medicine creek. Tie dis
lance between it and Yankton is 10
miles by land, or 400 by water. The
| Agencies are about 100 miles apart by
a direct line. The Agencies are located
on the choicest portions of the Sioux
reservation. The site designed us the
abiding pl2cc of Spotted Tail and his
band embraces some thirty thousand
acres. Old Rcd Clouds ranch coyers
about sixty thousand acres. All this
land is pronounced to lie fit for tillage.
1t is hardly probable, however, that its
soil will yer be despoiled of its virgini-
ty by the ploughshare, ifthe implement
has to be guided by unprecedented
buck. Grass and water are plenty.
There is sufficient timber ut both
Agencies to supply fuel for years to
come. If all the trees scattered over
the Red Cloud ranch could be clustered
in one forest they would two
thousand acres. Those on Spotted
Tails domain, if brought together
would stand thickly on at least -
thousand acres of land.
Temporary buildings, for the quarter
ing of troops and for sheltering supplies
and annuity goods, have been erected
at both Agencies. The sums already
expended on buildings amount to about
SO, 500 Mt each of the Agencies. There
are supplies enough on hand to feed
fourteen thousand Indians six or eight
months. There are Sl65, 600 worth of
annuities on the ground. These goods
are to be issued in SO parcels. Once
every year for the next three decades
each redskin at both of these Agencies
is to he presented with some article of
the real or supposed value of two So
notes. BY such installments tie gov
ernmcnt proposed to compensate the
reds for their REIMBURSEMENT of the
Black Hills country. DR.. Irwin is the
civil agent in charge of Red Cloud
Agency. Spotted Tail Agency is in
charge of a military agent-Lieut. Lee,
of the sth infantry. The Indians pre-
ferred n military TO Il civil agent, and
their wishes were gratiied. Mr.. Law
renee, who has held the position of civil
agent, has resigned and will return
east.
Among the others who had reached
the river vas Swift Bear, of Spotted
Tails band. lie SEEM to bethe business
manager of the whole tribe. The main
column of Indians was expected to
arrive in a few days; the Israelites had
no harder time in cmigrating from
Egypt than these Indians had in their
trip over fiom the old TO the new
Agencies. They had to pick new trails
over Il part of the distance Travelled.
During much of the time since the
exodus commenced the weather has
been cold and stormy. Sometimes it
showed very hard. The bands were
subjected to the most tedious delays
from n cause and another. Among
the drawbacks were an unusual num-
Der of births and several deaths. Ii
primitive times the good wife of the
redskin attended to her dccou hement
while her liege was watering his pony
or cooking his buffalo steak. But since
they commenced initiating civilized
customs these family events are at
tended with more or less formality.
Hence it was that the whole column of
fourteen thousand Indians had to come
to q dead halt whenever an episode Of
this nature was transpiring.
The chiefs who had arrived in adj
vance looked forward to Spring for the
fulfllment of the Presidents promise
llIdl litN slOuiu NC tlloNSh " StiCSt
other sites for their Agencies than those
already located. They talk as if they
could not be hired, much less persuaded
to take permanent abode on the Big
Muddy. The Missouri is the river
Styx to the Sioux Indian. They have a
story that nee upon Il time, many,
many years ago, several thousand ponies
belonging to the Sioux nation got mired
in the mud of the Missouri. They were
all rescued, but the mud stuck fast to
their feet and froze there, and The
hoofs rotted and sloughed off, and the
ponies died. That is one reason why
the Missouri is an evil stream. Anoth-
err is that the smallpox once broke out
among Il band encamped on its bank
and nearly ii thousand pock-marked
red men changed base to the happy
hunting grounds.
Specia, Bargains
in underwear, gloves, hosiery and