The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-23
THE BATTLE OF DESPAIR.
The Slaughter of Cheyenne Indians at Camp
Robinson.


The last desperate fight of the Chey-
ennes-t to deliver themselves from fate
they regarded worse than death reads
Like romance. Granted that they were
cruel; granted that they were treacher-
Gus; granted that they were possessed
OF the worst traits of the savage race to
which they belonged there is still
something grand and subimely heroic
in their desperate and hopeless contest
with an overwhelming enemy, with no
possible outcome but death to the
struggle.
There were forty warriors only in this
band, mostly unarmed, indeed having
no weapons but those they had managed
to conceal from the eyes of the soldiers.
The rest of the Indians we're women and
children. Opposed to them were 200
or 800 regulars, well mounted and armed
with the best possible weapons. To
any but the most desperate men the con-
test which has followed their escape
would have been deemed impossible as
it was suicidal. The almost super
human courage and endurance of the
savages show to what straits they had
been driven, and how despair had nerved
each arm with threefold strength for
this last conflict. ...
The story of their wrongs will bear re-
peating, and is thus told by CORE
spondent at Omaha: ..a
when the Black Hills were invaded
by hordes OF adventures three years
ago, the Indians. to whom the country
had been secured by solemn treaties,
protested that the Government owed to
them it's protection. Not only was this
protection denied them, but the Gov
eminent insisted that the Indians
should surrender their rights and re-
move to other reservations. Sitting
Bull resisted this demand, and the
bloody war that followed cost us Custer
and the flower of the Seventh cavalry.
A part of Sitting Bulls band, captured
by Miles, we're sent as prisoners to Fort
Reno, near which post some 5000 of the
Sioux from the Black Hills had been
already sent.
Fort Reno is comparatively a new
post. It is situated near where the
ninety-eighth degree of west longitude
crosses the north fork of the Canadian
river. Of the Indians on this reserva-
ton some 1,78O were Arapahoes, and
the remainder Cheyennes. They were
located in bands under their chiefs or
head men at various points up and down
the river. They lived in lodges or te-
pees, and owned large herds of ponies.
Some of the Indians, under pressure of
the Interior Department, attempted
during the past summer to raise corn,
but their attempts generally proved
abortive, and what was not eaten UP
green was trodden down by the ponies
or burned up by the drought. The
buffalo being quite extinct in this Sec
ton, the Indians depended for their
subsistence almost entirely upon the
supplies issued by the Government.
These supplies were promised them in
pursuance of the treaties or agreements
made by the Commissioners. and as a
condition of relinquishing their rights
to the Black Hills and other lands. AS
an additional inducement for settling
upon their reservations, the Indians
were, in most cases, promised assistance
and instruction in opening up farms
They were also to be supplied with
houses, wagons and implements of ag-
riculture. The promises thus made
we're not fulfilled. In order to tide
over the dearth Of rations, the Indians
were often sent out on winter hunts
Finding no game in that almost-sterile
district, great hardships we're suffered.
Occasionally they were brought back in
a starving condition-their food some
times, for weeks at a time, being little
else than the flesh of dogs, wolves and
horses. They had come to Fort Reno
from the north, where they were accli-
mated and healthy, to a region infected
with malaria. Of 235 men of the tribe
known as the Northern Cheyennes, who
arrived in Aug gust, 1877, twenty-eight
died in one year, and the mortality
among the children was even greater"
Finally, they resolved to escape and
made the attempt. They were captured
after number of fights, and after 178
had been killed. The little remnant of
the pand, consisting of forty warriors
and ninety nine women and children,
were confined at Camp Robinson. They
had been told that they might not be
returned to their reservation, and fire.
quently declared that they would die
before they would go. When the order
for their transfer was finally made by
Secretary Schurz, and they were mott
fed, they determined to make good
their threat, and they have. A few
wounded and helpless have been recap
tured, but the great body of the warli].e
band have gone to the happy hunting
grounds where, their medicine men tell
them, white hatred and persecution VIII
not follow. If this massacre shall open
the eyes Of the humane people of this
country, and result in putting a stop to
our niggardly and disbonorable treat
ment of the Indians, the brave Chey-
ennes will have accomplished more by
by their death than they conld possibly
have hoped to accomplish by their life.
ROvnyJ Woylor.sc Advent into Rnc4ar