Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-11-12

dians dismounted and blankets were
spread on the ground and / laid down
to rest, with mother lying not far from
me.
Chief Douglass was considerably
excited, and made a speech to me with
many gestures and great emphasis
He recited his grievances and ex-
planned why the massacre began. He
said Thornburgh told the Indians that
he was going to arrest the head chiefs,
take them to Fort Steele and put them
in the calaboose-perhaps hang them.
He said my father had written all
the letters to the Denver papers, and
circulated wild reports about what the
Indians would do, as set forth by the
Western press, and that he was re,
sponsible for all the hostility against
the Indians among the whites in the
West.
A STRANGE PICTURE STORY.
He said pictures of the agent and
all his family, women and children,
had been found on Thornburgh's body
just before the attack on the agency,
and the pictures were covered with
blood and showed marks of knives on
different parts of the bodies. The
throats were cut. The one of the
agent had bullet-hole in his head.
He said l was represented in one OF
the pictures as shot through the breast.
Douglass said my father had made
these pictures, representing the pros
pcctive fate of his family, and sent
them to Washington to be used to in.
fuence the soldiers and hurry troops
forward to fight the Indians. This
remarkable statement, strange as it
may seem, was afterward told me by a
dozen different Indians, and the recital
and the particulars were always the
same.
While Douglass was telling this he
stood in front of me with his gun, and
his anger was dreadful. Then he
shouldered his gun and walked up and
down before me in the moonlight and
initiated the employees who had kept
guard at the agency for three nights
before the massacre He Knocked them
and sneered and laughed at them and
said he was "a heap big Indian Then
he sang English songs which he had
heard the boys sing in their rooms at
the agency. He sang the negro mel
ody, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" 4"
and asked me if l understood. | told
him l did, because he had the words
and tune perfectly committed.
He said father had always been
writing to Washington. He always
saw him writing when he came to the
agency. 1t was write, write, write all
day, he said. Then he swore fear
full oath in English, and said if the
soldiers had not come and threatened
the Indians with Fort Steele and the
calaboose and threatened to kill the
other Indians at White River, the
agent wouldn't have been massacrcd.
Then the brave Chief Douglass, who
had eaten at our table that very day,
walked off q few feet, returned and
placed his loaded gun to my forehead
three times and asked me if | was
going to run away? told him | was
not afraid of him nor of death, and
should not run away.
When he found his repeated threats
could not frighten me all the other In.
dians turned on him and laughed at
him, and made so much fun of him
that he sneaked off and went over to
frighten my mother. | heard her cry
ooh = and | supposed that she thought
some terrible fate had befallen me.
shouted to her that | was not hurt
that she need not be afraid; that they
were only trying to scare her. The
night was still, but | heard no re.
Spouse. The Indians looked at each
other
GALLANT PURsUNE.
All hands took drink around my
bed; then they saddled their horses,
and Pursune led my horse to me and
knelt down on has hands and knees
for me to mount my horse from his
back. He always did this, and when
he was absent his wife did it. l saw
Pursune do the same gallant act once
for his squaw, but it was only once,
and none of the other Indians did il
at ALL
We urged our horses forward and
iourneyed in the moonlight through
to the Grand Mountain with the In
dians talking in low tones among
themselves. The little three-year old
May Price, who was fastened behind
me, cried few times, for she was
cold and had had no supper, and her
mother was away in jacks camp, but
the child was generally quiet. 1t was
after midnight when we made the
second halt in a deep and sombre can
yon, with tremendous mountains
towering on every side. Mother was
not allowed to come up. Douglass
kept her with him half a mile further
down the ravine. Pursune had plenty
of blankets, which were stolen from
the agency. He spread some for my
bed and rolled up some for my pillow,
and told me to retire.
MoCKED BY THE soUAws.
Then the squaws came and laughed
and grinned and gibbered in their own
grim way. We had reached the camp
Douglass had chosen for the Indian
women who had been sent to the can.
yon previous to the massacre. Jacks
camp, where Mrs Price was kept, was
five or six miles away in another can
yon. When l had lain down on the
blankets two squaws, one old and one
young, came to the bed and sang and
danced Enthusiastically and joyously al
my feet. The other Indians stood
around, and when the women reached
certain part of their recitative they
all broke into laughter. Toward the
end of their song my captor, Pursune
gave each of them u newly stolen Gov
ernment blanket, which they took and
then went away. The strangeness and
wild novelty of my position kept mt
awake until toward morning, when