News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-09-11
GAN EYE FOR AN EYE"
How the Indians Manage to Get Along with
their Little Troubles.

The law of retaliation is nowhere more
strictly observed, perhaps, than among
the Bannock Indians at Fort Hall in
Idaho.
In December, 1882, Bannock boy
went into the reservation grist mill; his
clothes were caught in the wheel and he
was killed. The boys father was "a bad
Indian" He had been on the war path
in 1876 and trouble was feared. Expla-
nations we're made and he appeared sat
isfied that it was an accident. Thirty
six hours afterward, at daybreak, the
usual hour of Indian devilment. the mill
was burned to the ground. Wheat was
stored in it, most of which belonged to
the ShoshOnes in the same reservation.
The Shoshones outnumbered the Ban
nocks two to one, but were afraid of
them. The Bannocks believed the Sho-
shones would follow the Indian rule by
killing the Bannock who supposedly had
burned the mill as an expiatorv offering
to his dead child. Bannock warriors
galIoped in to the Agency, heavily
armed and shouting and acting in ''war
path" fashion, and very soon there was
not Shoshone to be seen.
On the third day the boy was buried
in q coffin and in the ground, an unusual
concession to civilization. The night
before the lodge of mourning was sur
rounded by warriors and the howlings
of the mourners broke the stiffness at
quick intervals. It was q night of
anxiety. All the Indian police were on
guard, for it was thought that the Ban
nocks might burn down the Agency.
The coffin was dressed with costly In
dian furs and the body decked in the
gaudy trappings of Indian foppery. At
the ground the body was taken from the
coffin, crowned with the handsome
feathery war bonnet of the father and
held up in CHASTITY mockery, while
three of the best horses of the Indian
were circled slowly round the grave and
tn shot. Then the armed warriors
AIDED quietly away over the prairie and
the lodge of mourning was quiet.
It was not the end, however. Enough
had not been done to satisfy the Ban,
mock law of retribution. One Of the
squaws of the Indian-not the mother
of the dead boy-fed to the agent
claiming protection. The Bannock ha6
doomed her to death. He was brought
| ~ blt AS0HCf tiLIOoU AluC allO IAhC L
filthy ghost. The woman was placed
with the matron. inquiries into the fire
went on, and after time the Shoshones
crawled back to the Agency.
An event now occurred, which, coupled
with the wheat and mill loss, threatened
bad work between the Bannocks and
Shoshones. A Shoshone buck, son O.
the head chief was married to Ban
mock girl She had left him and re
turned to the Bannock camp on the
Snake, and was about to take up with
one of her own tribe. The young hus
band went to the lodge, and while sh'
was cooking supper shot her from the
outside. He rode off through the deer
snow. The Bannocks went to the Agenc,
demanding his capture. Excitemen
was general and a fight seemed to loon
up as a certainty. The Indian polic'
were sent out the same night, and a
day break they came up with the ASSASSIN
sixteen miles away with a rifle ball clea
through his body. He had shot him
self, and Bannock vengeance was salts
fed. Bannocks and Shoshones still liv,
on the Fort Hall Reservation, but the,
are miles apart, and they rarely NEE
except at the Agency on ration day.