Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-14

They Know the Right of Way to the Black
Hills, and. Knowing, Dare Maintain.

OF commission to treat with the Sioux for
a portion of their reservation, we, of the
Hills portion of Dakota, were pleased, as
we saw in this the extension of two or three
railroads that would, were the Indian title
extinguished, soon be here. The next
question that arose was, would the Indians
treat with the commissioners, and would
they cede portion of their lands?
Having slight acquaintance with the
prominent men of the northern tribes, the
writer went to the Cheyenne river agency
and interviewed them, and will give the
readers of the Times a short account of
what he saw and heard. There are on this
reservation about $500 Indians, composed
of the Two Kettle, Sansarc, Minneconjou,
Uncapappa, and Blacllfeet bands of the
great Sioux nation. The reservation was
established in 1868, and has had many diff
fernt kinds of management. The agency
| is on q high bench of the Missouri river,
on the west side, forty miles above Pierre,
the present terminus of the Chicago &
Northwestern railway. Fort Bennett, with
one company of the 18th infantry, occupies
| a portion of the bench referred to and with
| the agency buildings makes quite hand
some little town. There is no timber on
| miles, and the river is the only water sup
ply. The Indians live, the greater part of
| them, on the Cheyenne river and the Mis-
souri,, from sixty to eighty miles from the
agency, and remain at home, cultivating
| their truck patches. smoking the pipe of
| peace, and eating government rations, I'M
| til ration day draws near, which occurs
semi-montly, when they all rig out in paint
| and feathers, and gather to headquarters.
We were there on ration days, Tuesday and
Wednesday, and saw them in all their glory
and nastiness. From Monday noon until
| dark there was a continued procession of
| them coming in, some on horseback and
others in covered wagons; for be it remem-
bered the great father has dealt kindly
with his red children and issues to them
| on this reservation fifty wagons and har-
ness each year, and Mr.. Lo prefers riding
| in a covered wagon on spring
seat to a position on the hurricane
deck of a pony. The squaws do
| the driving, as also all mental chores. and
for this reason they always accompany
their lords. When the agency was reached,
| If before the sun went down, Mr.. Buck took
up position on the ground, comfortably
seated upon buffalo robe, nicely spread
out by one of his squaws, and with his
| pipe IN one hand an an umbrella in the
| other, patiently awaiting the erection of
| tepee. squaw is wealth, as she draws
| rations and is a good fellow to work. so
| the more squaws man has the nearer the
owner becomes Vanderbilt. A ration is
| food for one day, and 100 rations consist
of SO pounds of flour, $50 pounds of fresh
beef, % pounds of shelled corn, pounds
| of COTE, pounds of sugar, 3 pounds of
beans, 10 pounds of bacon, pounds each
of salt and soap, and 1 half pound each of
baking powder and tobacco; and the young
mewling infant draws as full a ration as
the full-hedged and painted warrior. In
addition to this food ration, they
are furnished, at the discre
ton of the agent, clothing and blankets, as
| also agricultural implements, carpenter
| tools, lumber, sash and doors, churns and
| apparatus for buttermaking, as also COWS,
the great essential in dairying. Some of
them take to it readily, and have shown by
their labor good log houses and good
| crops Of corn and other vegetables. Their
butter is not, / am sorry to say, of the
| quality that would be sought after by the
guests of the Palmer house, but it is new
ertheless greasy. The ten mowing-ma-
chimes furnished them by the government
last spring have been kept busy ever since
the haying seasol. commenced, and thou
sands of tons of hay have been put in stack
by them, and from the grinding of the
sickles up to the stacking the work has
been done by the men.
The siaughter-hOuse on ration-day is
curiosity. One hundred and fifty head of
I cattle are killed, and the labor is per
| formed by one white man and six Indians.
The work is well and neatly done at the
rate of ten head of cattle an hour. They
are driven into close pen, five at time,
by brave, who with a long lance dis
patches them by skillfully directed blow
IN the back of the neck, one blow being all
that is necessary to kill bullock. From
| here they go to the dressing room, where
they are skinned and quartered, and the
meat IN quivering mass is distributed to
| the awaiting crowd. At one end of the
building the entrails are thrown out into
| long sloping trough. and here is where the
fun can be seen. The offal of bullock
Is a greater luxury to a Sioux than
| ice cream would be to a Yankee, and
so great Is the demand for the
| delicate morsels that, to prevent rows and
bloodshed, the agent issues cards, each one
| of which entities the holder to the inter
4
given for good behavior, and we honestly
believe that one of these cards would be a
sufficient incentive to an Indian to remove
his mother-in-law to the happy hunting
| grounds. No part of them is allowed to
go to waste; they are shook out, rinsed out
slightly, and then hung on pole to dry,
| and are said to make nutritious soup.
| Each Indian is numbered and mama
| on the books, together with the number of
his family, and each has card stating this
fact. The distributing clerk and his assist
| ants prepare the rations, and have them in
piles running from one to sixteen, the
highest. When all is ready, the doors of
| the warehouse are thrown open and in rush
| the Indians. A ticket is presented to
! the clerk, who calls out the number and
| instantly the rations of that number
! are handed out, the Indian touches the
pencil and moves out at the opposite door.
The news of the passage of the act by
| congress had preceded me, and the Indians
were all up in arms in opposition to it.
They had been lied to by the whites living
| OFF the reservation; they had been told that
their country had been thrown open to set
Element, and, in few days, white men and
their families would be coming in and tax