St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-17

were instructed 10 remain Win MIN anu car
for him until Chaska could get horse ant
wagon to convey him to his tepee. Will
bending over him they were discovered b,
the Indians who again wanted to kill him
but the women saved his life. And then, a
he lay there, writhing in intense agony, ht
was attacked with an unsuitable thirst fo
water, and he made up his mind that hi
might as well die from the bullets of the
Indians as from the internal fire which was
consuming him, SO he broke away from the
squaws, and with great effort, made for 8
house near by, where the Indians had driven
a poor settler up into his loft, and were then
| trying to kill him. Spencer
passed right by these Indians
who were watching the man
to get shot at him; saw q pail filled with
water, seized the dipper, and after emptying
it twice, came out of the house as he went
in, with dipper of water in his hand, I'M
mo!ested, the Indians no doubt thinking, from
the blood they saw, that he would soon die.
Chaska made his appearance with one
horse wagon loaded it out of the goods taken
from Myrick's store, and on top of the tepee
cloth thus obtained, placed Spencer, and at
the end of four miles landed him in the
| lodge of his necarniss, or best friend.
When about two miles on the way, another
body of Indians met them and wanted to kill
Spencer, but Chaska fought them off. Then
again, during the time he was in
the tent of Chaska, many sought
his life, especially after some
Indian had been killed by the whites, but
silent, solemn, sullen. determined Chaska
| sat with his gun in his hand, ready to kill
the first man who entered his tepee door.
And thus poor Spencer was nursed and ten
DERBY cared for for six weeks and then de-
liyered to Gen. Sibley safely, by this noble
Indian, who had shown undaunted courage
and unparalleled devotion to his friend. 1t
is sad to think that Chaska was subsequently
| poisoned while on the Indian expedition,
| either purposely or accidentally, and his
| bones now lie on the great plains 81 Dakota,
but one can never forget him or his mem
ory, and that one is-MAJoR GEORGE HI.
SPENCER.
| CLERK AND INDIAN AGENT.
| Major Spencer was chief clerk of the Sub
sistence Department of Gen. Sibley's expe-
dition. He was appointed Indian agent by
President Garfield for the Tantonag is Sioux
in 1881, and was afterwards re-
appointed by President Arthur but was leg
islated out of office in consequence of the
consolidation Of one agency with another,
after having held his position one year. Dur
ing his term of Office he was honest, faithful,
good friend of the Indians and an excellent
| officer of the government, leaving no uncet-
| tied or ambiguous accounts behind him when
he retired to private life.
BAD INDIAN.
! While Major Spencer comedies that he has
had some good Indians among his acquaint-
ances, yet he admits that there are also some
bad ones. AS an illustration, on one occa-
sion he gave credit to an Indian in the shape
of traps, powder, shot, provisions, ETC., to
enable him to prosecute his hunt.
| He made good catch that season
! Of furs, but instead of paying Spencer what
| he owed him, he took his furs to Fort Aber-
crombic and traded them off for whiskey.
When he returned he was upbraided in
rather strong language for his conduct, which
offended him. Soon after Spencer had oc
casion to drink from a pail of water standing
near by, and noticing peculiar taste and
being a little suspicious, he permitted two
cats to drink out of the same water, when
they both died from commissions in a few
minutes. He had heavy mustachs which
saved his life, for he picked poison enough
out of it to have killed dozen men, for ii
acted as a strainer and caught the deleterious
drug-He learned subsequently that this
Indian managed to empty the contents of a
| bottle of strychnine into the water pail, in
hopes to kill Spencer for reprimanding him
for his conduct.
| Again another Indian fired his store house
because he couldn't get credit, but
the fire was subdued before any
great damage was done. 1t was
no uncommon thing to find arrows
sticking into his houses, the work Of some
devilish Indian because foiled in his efforts
to get goods.
MAJOR SPENCER HIMSELF.
Personally Spencer is of medium height,
very quiet in his ways, cool in his tempera-
ment, undemonstrative, good book-keeper,
faithful, honest and very courageous, as
many incidents in his life show. While
laying no claims to literary ability yet he is a
great admirer of literary merit, and had he
been differently educated in early life he
might have made his mark as a literary man.
He is modest and retiring, and shines only
best when among his friends, the outer
world knowing but little of the intrins sic
merit of the inner man.