The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-05-20
An Indian Girps Appeal.

to which they were banished, as follows:
Some time in the winter of 1877 my
father received letter from my uncle,
who is now in the Indian Territory, say
ing that the tribe had been ordered to
leave the Reserve and 60 to the Indian
Territory that they had refused, but the
Inspector told them he would take them to
see the President. Accordingly ten ofthe
chiefs started, as they supposed, for wash
ington. Several weeks elapsed and we
heard nothing from them. My mother
said to me once, "Wbat if the white men
have taken them and left them in strange
place, where they cannot find their way
home" laughed at her, and told her it
was impossible for the government to treat
the chiefs of a nation with whom it made
treaties in that dishonorable way; that
it might cheat them, and all that, but it
would treat with respect at least men
with whom it was intending to make
treaty. Some time after this my uncle,
with the other chiefs, came to the Omaha
tribe on their way back. to their own Re-
serve, ragged, weary, and foot-sore. They
had been left in the Indian Territory be-
cause they would not select piece of
land there. Do you know what felt as
sat there and heard my uncle tell his
history, and saw the tears running down
my mother cheeks, and knew how pow
erless we were to help, or even avenge?
felt as though if there were God he
must have created us for the sole purpose
of torturing US. I think if it had not
been for the memory of the noble Chris
tian woman with whom I lived at one
time, I should have become an utter dis
believer in God and humanity. My un-
Gle told us how they were left in strange
country, among strange people, whose
language they did not understand, to find
their way home on foot, without guide,
money, or interpreter. The people
through whose lands they passed-lands
which had once been their own-set their
dogs on them. They lived on raw corn
and walked barefoot through the snow.
They were shelterless on the open prai-
rie in one of the most terrible storms of
the year. think it was the next day
after the chiefs had arrived on the Omaha
Reserve that they met in my fathers
house, to consult as to the best means Of
saving themselves from being sent to the
Indian Territory, and there asked us to
write the story of their wrongs, which has
since been published. The Rev. William
Hamilton wrote the following telegram:
"To the President Of the United States:
Was it by your authority that the men
you sent to take US down to the Indian
Territory to select home left us there
without money or interpreter, or how to
find our way back as best we could, be.
cause we could not? And did you tell
them to say to us, IF you don't select a
home here, you shall be driven from
your present homes at the point of the
bayonet?' Please answer, rs we are in
trouble. We have been thirty days in
falling back as far as the Omaha, tired,
hungry, shoeless, and foot-sore, and with
hearts and spirits broken and sad"
No notice was ever taken of it. 1t was
pitiful to see how hard they tried to be-
lieve that it was not the government that
had treated them in this way, and that the
Inspector had done it on his own respon-
sibility. They said to me, "If the
white people and the government hear of
this, they will not take our land from u.s."
The chiefs told us at the council that
when they refused to take any land in
he Territory they were told that the SOL
diers would take them down at the point
of the bayonet. They then said that ra-
ther than be taken to the Territory they
were willingto live with the Omaha tribe
on the Omaha Reserve. The Inspector
told them that the Omaha tribe were to
be taken down too very soon, and that
it would be of no use for them to 60 there.
The chiefs then said that rather than go
they would break up the tribe and live
with the Sioux, with whom they had
made peace sometime before. This was
also refused them. We were powerless
to help them, and they returned to their
own Reserve only to find the soldiers al
ready there. We next heard that the
soldiers were taking them down. My
father and I started for Columbus, Ne
braska, so that we might catch them on
the way and bid good-by to my uncle.
We arrived there before they cid and saw
the soldiers pitch their tents. The whole
camp remained at Columbus for two or
three days.
After the Poncas reached the Territory
we received many letters from my uncle.
Of course, he could not write for himself,
and had to depend on the agent and
others to write for him. These letters
are curious contrasts. The letters written
for him by the agent would contain an
account ofthe good progress and satisfac-
tion of the tribe. In another, written for
him by some one else, there would be q list
of the dying and the dead, and solitary ref
ugees who had fled from the deadly eli
mate came to us, bringing tidings of the
anguish and despair of all.
In May last my father aud / were sent
to the Territory by Mr.. Tibbles, to find
out the true condition of the tribe. The
first objects we saw in the far distance
we're the many graves which we were told
had been made there since July. Then
came in sight the tents, cleaning white on
the prairie. There were scarcely any
roads or paths. All looked as though
the tents had been pitched only for the
night, and that every moment we
might expect to see them on the move.
The only buildings we saw were six little
houses, interspersed here and there among
the tents, which were scattered far apart,
in groups of twos and threes, and the
agency buildings. When we came up to
my uncle's tent, my cousin Rosalie sat in
the door of one of the shanties, looking so
care.worn as though all hope had gone
out of her life. What light broke out
in her face when she saw that it was my
father and II Ny aunt, as sick as she
was, rose out of her bed on the floor to
greet us, looking more like askeleton than
a human being. My uncle said to me,
Daughter, all we have to offer you is a
seat on the floor. All our chairs were
taken from u.s." asked my cousin how
the children were. She answered, "My
children have all been sick, but are bet
ter now. I think it is so strange that
not one of them has been taken from me.
Not q family in the tribe but have had to