The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-14
A Terrible Indian Onslaught Upon a
Herd of Buffal0es.

AN officer of the regular Army, who
left Fort Keogh, Montana, ten days ago,
arrived in the city on Thursday even
ing, and is a guest of friends living on
Prairie Avenue. The officer travelled by
"buckboard from the Yellowstone
River to the end of the Northern Pacific
Railroad, near the Little Missouri, and
thence eastward by rail.
Couriers had arrived at the post be-
fore his departure, bringing the latest
intelligence from the Crow Indians,
who were then absent from the camp,
or Agency, upon grand buffalo hunt.
The news brought in by the couriers
was very exciting. They related that
after riding over mountains for two
days the Crows come upon fine herd
of buffaloes in narrow valley near by
the Yellowstone. There were four hun
dred Indians and four thousand buffa-
loes. The Crows had been forced by
fear of starvation to take to the chase,
and the keen hunger they were suffer-
ing only sharpened their eagerness for
tilt with their old fellow-nomads, the
noble bisons. The game stampeded
down the valley in the direction of the
Yellowstone. The chase was hotly fol-
lowed, half a hundred buffaloes biting
the dust before the river was reached.
One of the most vehement of the pur-
suers, who had distinguished himself for
bravery in two or three fights with the
Sioux, fell from his pony in the midst of
the flying herd, and was trampled to
death by the frantic beasts.
The Yellowstone, roaring, rushing
river even at the lowest tide, was boom
ing with the regular summer freshet, the
outpour of the melting SHOWS in the high
mountains. When the river was reached
the game made bold stand, and for a
time it seemed doubtful which held the
mastery; but the incessant fusilade from
four hundred rifles, together with the
desperate proximity of the formidable
battalion, drove the herd in dismay into
the roaring torrent. Beside themselves
with the excitement of the moment, the
Indians urged their ponies into the
stream, unwilling that even a flood
should spoil their frenzied sport or cut
them off from their game. The terrific
current, made tumultuous from the
huge piles of rock here and there, in the
channel, whirled buffaloes, ponies, and
Indians along at bewildering velocity,
until the thousands of beasts were roll
ing and writhing in inextricable contl-
sion. In the dizzy evolutions of horses
and riders, the latter were left to strug-
gle for themselves in the water, and to
be damned to death between the surg
ing masses of drowning beasts. Some
who foresaw the danger in time, and
turned shoreward, found safety on terra
firma, but those who ventured far
enough to be embraced by the sweep
ing, resistless tide, and to become in
volved in the tangle of struggling ami
mails, were all drowned. The story
brought to the post was that thirty In
dams and fifty ponies were drowned.
besides five hundred or thousand buff
faloes.
Inquiry at military headquarters in
this city elected from Col. Sheridan the
information, corroborative in part of the
foregoing narrative, that the Crow Indi-
ans had eaten up all their food and had
gone out after game. The dispatch
conveying this intelligence to military
headquarters gave no particulars, but
intimated, that the Indians were des-
perately hungry.-Chicago Times.