St. Landry democrat., 1884-10-11

United States troops AMI rcnegad"s OF
their own tribe, were driven about from
point to point all over Northern Mon
tana. and finally compelled Ia cspitulato
to Colonel Ilges and the military at Pop
lar River on June Z, 1880. AS soon as
the last Sioux Indian was made q prls-
oner, Congress took in hand the matter
of their inheritance, and by an agree
ment made with the Crows on June Y,
1880 Give davs after the surrender),
and approved by Congress on June II,
1882, the Crow Indians fell heir to the
very lands the Sioux Indians had for
feited by reason of being at war with
! the United States Government. This
was the bitterest pill the Sioux had ever
been forced to swallow. 1t distressed
them far more to see their hated foes
established in their own beloved home
than all the losses they had sustained in
the Little Horn fight.
| But the Crows are there, free to roam
at will over four million acres of beau
| tiful mountain and river lands, while
their ancient enemies, the unfortunate
Sioux, are penned up at Pine Ridge,
Standing Rock and other agencies, I'M
tually prisoners of war.
OF these four million seven hundred
and thirteen acres belonging to the
Grows at least one million acres are
capable of the highest cultivation. Yet,
during all of last year and up to the
present date, there were but ten acres
cultivated by the Government Tor the
Indians, and one hundred and twenty.
five acres titled by the Crows them
selves without assistance from anybody.
From the one hundred and twenty-five
acres handled by the red men were OBJ
tanned about one thousand five hundred
bushels of vegetables, which were con-
sumed entirely by themselves. Last
year the Grows put up thirty-fVe tons
of hay and cut over three hundred cords
of wood. The winter months, as is the
custom among all tribes, were spent in
hunting for game among the mountains
and on the plains.
But the Grows, with a keener insight
than is possessed by ordinary redskins,
have always kept an eye to business as
well as to pleasure, and in consequence
they returned from their last winters
hunt with not only goodly supply of
meat for their squaws and papooses,
but also with nine thousand dollars
worth of robes, furs, peltries and skins. 4
The principal wealth of the Grows lies
in their large and fine herds of ponies.
which are unequalled on the continent
for mettle and endurance. An old
saying is: ''Let white man ride an
Indian pony until he can't make him
move step further, and dismounting,
give place to a redskin, the latter
will ride the animal twenty-five miles
further the same day" And so it is
with the Crow ponies, or cayuses, as
they are called. Many Of them are
splay-footed, scraWny and ugly, but
turn them loose in Montana winter,
which would be sure death for an Amer.
lean horse, and they will know how to
paw away the snow to get the scant
buffalo grass beneath, eat cottonwood
twigs and bark, and rustic for them
selves generally, though the mercury
be actually frozen in the tube. For en-
durance they are unequalled. One in
stance will suffice to illustrate the quail
cOmpanied General Stanley on his IA
nous expedition through the Missouri
River country some years ago, was at
one time the bearer of dispatches from
the field to Fort Sully. The distance
travelled was more than three hundred
miles, which Gorse made on Crow
war pony in bee line straight across
the toughest country in North America
in exactly four days. The Grows pos
snss somewhere in the neighborhood OF |
$500 Of these hardy little cayuses,
which they have always divided into
two classes, viz. war ponies. distin-
guished by notch or slit in the points
of the ears, and buffalo ponies. This /
vast herd of animals has never cost the
Grows one cent, and represents the
principal wealth owned by them, but
it is not by any means the only wealth
they possess.
BESIDES ponies this favored tribe owns
$50. 900 worth of peltries, $4,000 buffalo
robes, on an average SO apiece, and at
least 100000 other property. Then |
their reservation. averaged at $3.50 per
acre-cheap enough considering the
fertile lands which for agi-
culture have no superior in the world, !
or if used for grazing purposes are ca
pable of raising beef enough for she |
Nation-is worth 1882, 800, more
than So, 1866 for each individual in cash,
or 1886 AZ acres for every buck, squaw
and papoose in the tribe.-F'ort Keogh /
Cor. Philadelphia Record.