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.

pil1 PteSoO So11SIceS AoT Lie appointment
Of compassion 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 a portion of their lands?
Having a 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 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 Blackfeet 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 nigh bench of the Missouri river,
| on the west side, forty miles above Pierre,
the present terminus of the Chicago d
| 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 q hand
| some little town. There is no timber on
| the river, not even cottonwood, for many
| 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 ct home, cultivatiCg
| their truck patches. smoking the pipe of
peace, and eating government rations, IN
| 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 q continued procession of
F! them coming in, some on horseback and
| others IN covered wagons; for be 1t 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 tie hurricane
deck of pony. The squaws 90
| 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 II one hand an an umbrella in the
other, patiently awaiting the erection of q
| tepee. 4 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 -four, $50 pounds of fresh
( slE Dc Oh 4 l.
Of COTE, pounds of sugar, 8 pounds of
beans, 10 pounds Of bacon, 2 pounds each
of salt and soap, and half pound each OF
baking powder and tobacco; and the young
rnewling infant draws as full a ration as
the full-fedged and painted warrior. In
addition to this food ration, they
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 ard good
crops of corn and other vegetables. Their
butter Is not, I am sorry to say, of the
| quality that would be sought after by the
guests of the Palmer house, but it is new
4
| chimes furnished them by the government
last spring have been kept busy ever since
| the haying season 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 slaughter-house on ration-day is a
curiosity. One hundred and fifty head of
/; 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 4 close pen, five at time,
| By brave, who with long lance dis
patches them by a skillfully- directed blow
| in the back of the neck, one blow being all
| that is necessary to kill a 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 tie
| building the entrails are thrown out into a
| 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 Yankee, and
SCI 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
| nal apparatus OF a beef. These cards are
given for good behavior, and we honestly
believe that one of these cards would be a
1 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 q pole to dry,
and are said to make nutritious SOUP
| Each Indian is numbered and nam ed
| on the books, together with the number of
| his family, and each has a 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 CT 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 couAry had been thrown open to set
tlenen !, and, in a few days, white men and