Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-08-14
ABOUT SPOTTED TAIL
Some Interesting Points in His Hist0ry--.
What Col. Maynndier Said.
rSt TOuis Repnhlicon

him, and their accounts embrace his con-
duct of late years, while leading COM
paratively quiet life at his reservation.
The late G. " Beauvais knew Spotted
Tail while yet but a lad, and other old
citizens of St. Louis, engaged in the fur
trade, knew of his reputation as brave
warrior.
Spotted Tail, or Pegaleska, as he was
known by his Indian name, who, in after
years, was a firm friend of the whites,
was, in early life, bad Indian, and his
name was a terror to his enemies.
About the year 1854 Brule Sioux was
wantonly shot by white man, a Mis-
sourian, on the California overland route,
beyond Fort Laramie, in Dakota Terrific
ry. In retaliation for this murder Spot
ted Tail was sent out by Red Leaf at the
head of a band
TO ATTACK THE STAGE COACH
from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake. Spot
ted Tail attacked the coach, killed the
passengers, including Salt Lake mer-
chant, whom he robbed of $4,000 or
s., 000 Out of this grew the Indian war
resulting IN the battle at Ash Hollow,
where the Sioux were badly whipped by
Gen. Harvey. Spotted Tail was captured
and remained prisoner under sentence of
death in the jail at Fort Leavenworth,
until he was pardoned out by President
Buchanan.
From the time of regaining his liberty,
Spotted Tail seems to have changed his
course towards the whites, and his good
will toward them was more than ever ce
mented by the following event, which
was first written up for the Missouri Re
| publican in 1867, by a correspondent OF
this paper then with the Indian Peace
commission. 1t has been written up sub
sequently by other correspondents, with
sundry embellishments, but these are
facts, as corroborated by Col. Henry A.
Maynadier, an
OFFICER OF DISTINGUISHED REPUTE.
In the spring of 1866 Col. Maynadier,
| in command at Fort Laramie, received a
messenger from Pegaleska( Spotted TalD,
head chief of the Brule Sioux, informing
him that his daughter mad died on the
way to the fort, and had begged her
father to bury her among the whites.
! The commander was asked to permit 1t to
be done. The girl was aged II years, but
Col Maynadier knew her five years be-
fore, when she was child of II. She
died from exposure and inability TO en-
dure the severe labor and hardship Of the
wild Indian life. Col. Maynadier COM
piled with the chiefs request. and rode
out to meet the funeral cortege half way
between the tort and the Platte river
The commandant sympathized deeply
with the chiefs application and assured
HIM that he felt honored by his conf
dence in committing to his care the re-
mains of child whom he loved so much.
The funeral was held as the sun went
down, that it might remind the disconso-
| late chief of the darkness left in his lodge
when his beloved daughter was taken
away The chief exhibited deep
emotion and tears fell from
| his eyes, rare occurrence
in an Indian, and FOR some time he could
not speak. At length, taking the hand
of Col. Maynadsser, he said ''This must
be dream for me to be in such fine
room and surrounded by such as you.
Have | been asleep during the last four
years of hardship and trial and am dream
| ing that it is to be we'll again, or is this
real? Yes, see that it is. The beauti-
| full day, the blue sky without cloud the
wind. calm and still,
| TO SUIT THE ERRAND COME ON,
and remind me that you have offered me
peace. We think we have been much
wronged and entitled to compensation for
the damage and distress caused by MAX
ing so many roads through our country,
and driving off and destroying the buffa-
10 and game. My heart is very sad and 1
cannot talk business. | will wait and
see the counselors the Grand Father will
send.''
Col. Maynadier, in reporting the scene,
| says it was the most impressive he ever
| saw, and it produced marked effect on
| the Indians present. A high scaffold of
posts was erected in one corner of the
soldiers cemetry and coffin made. Just
| before sunset the body was carried to the
scaffold, followed by her father and
! mother and other relatives, with the
chaplain, commanding officers and the SOL
diers of the garrison, and many Indians. A
touching prayer was delivered amid pro-
found silence, and the hour, the place,
the solemnity, even the restrained weeps
| ing of these children of the forest, is de-
scribed as having been deeply affecting.
The occurrence was regarded among the
oldest settlers and men of experience in
the Indian character as unprecedented
and calculated to secure a lasting impress
sion. In approaching Fort Laramie, the
elevated platform, on the top of which
rests the box inclosing the chiefs daugh-
ter, can be seen from long distance.
The skulls of two ponies, slain, as is the
Indian custom when a prominent person
age is inferred, are fastened to
POSTS SUSTAINING THE COFFIN,
and for many years the latter was COW
cred with pail of crimson cloth until it
rotted away
In the early fall of 1867, the peace COM
mission held council with Spotted Tail
and his band at North Platte, who came
in from the Republican fork, where they
had been permitted to 60 on hunt by
Sherman As is usual with Indians, they
were two or three days behind in coming.
At length the Brules, Ogallal]as and
Southern Cheyennes came in with long
train of ponies, and, fording the Platte
about dark, before morning their tents or
teepes covered the plain. The Indians
brought in the Campbell girls, who had
been held in captivity, and great interest
was taken in their cases. There came in
also Cut Nose, who was subsequently
killed in broil; and Turkey Leg, who
was leader of the band which ditched the
passenger train on the Union Pacific
road at Plum creek, and scalped the en-
gineer Early next morning the news