Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-07-30
KANSAS LETTER.
HARPER, Kansas, July %, 1885.

Or course all readers of the NORTH
WEST have heard more or less about the
threatened uprising of the Indians, and
the great Indian scare consequent there
on, two weeks ago. In order to under
stand how it all came about, glance
at the situation in the territory will be
necessary.
The south line of Kansas is twenty
one miles south of Harper, the north
line of the Cheyenne and Arrapalfoe
reservation is about fifty-five miles
south, of the south line of the State, or
about seventy-five miles from here, and
Ft. Reno is some fifty miles further on.
Extending south of the Cheven..sss and
Arrapahoe reservation are the Kiowas,
Comarc6i1es, aud Apaches in the order
named. East of those are the Chick
asaws and then the Choctaws, whose
reservation extends to the east line of
the territory. North of these are the
Creeks and the Cherokees. Lying west
of the Cherokees and along the north
line of the territory are the Osages,
Pawnees, Kaws and perhaps other weak
tribes. West of the territory there
stretches narrow strip of public land,
between Texas and Kansas, known as
the Pan Handle"-or as some call it
"Nomans land" This strip is thirty
five or forty miles wide, and one hun
dred and seventy-five miles long. Ft.
Reno, the headquarters of the United
States forces in the territory, is on the
North Fork of the Arkansas River in
the midst of the Cheyenne, the Wichi-
taws and the Arrapahoes, while Camp
Supply, the nearest post, is something
over hundred miles northwest, on the
same river There was small force at
Ft Reno and smaller one at Camp
Supply. If the Cheyennes and ARA
pahoes should go on the war path,
twenty-four hours ride would take them
to the south line of Kansas, no "pre-
venting providence"-or United States
troops. And it would have been quite
an easy thing to have done two weeks
ago, as they could have easily passed
between the government forces and
| gone on north.
OF course all the settlers in southern
Kansas knew all this, and when it was
known that the Cheyenne and Arapa-
hoes were in fact preparing for war,
some uneasiness was felt. When later
it was reported that the Apaches and
| Comanches were also getting their war
paint on, the uneasiness increased, es-
/ pecially as it was well known that the
government did not begin to have
enough troops at hand to keep them
quiet. Things were in this situation for
seven weeks, when one morning came
the news that force of Indians vari-
ously estimated at from five hundred to
three thousand in numbers, were in
Pratt county. had burned Saratoga,
some fifty-fiVe miles northwest of Har-
per,and slaughtered the people, and were
driving the settlers before them south
east into Kingman county. Later
came the report that Bross, about twen-
ty-five miles from Harper, was burned,
and that hundreds of settlers were pour
ing into Kingman for protection.
About ten o'clock Wednesday fore
noon, July Sth, the wagons began to
come into Harper, and from then til
late at night the people were pouring in,
and the reports became worse with each
arrival. The settlers had been warned
out in the night, and had left every
thing, hardly taking their necessary
wearing apparel. They were told that
the Indians were within five or six
miles, robbing, murdering and burning,
so all joined in the general route. They
were were hatless, bonnetless, coatless,
and in many cases bootless and shoeless.
Some had come distance of forty miles
and were in pitiful plight, tired, dirty
hungry and half terror stricken, halt
ashamed at having run off from a
shadow. Most of them were positive
that the Indians were as reported, while
others were not sure but that it was all
a mistake. Ofcourse the people of Har-
per were more or less excited, and when
the report came that Kingman, twenty
| five miles North of here was burned and
the inhabitants. scalped, things began
to look serious, the streets were filled
with groups of men talking over the
situation. One group would he listen
| ing to the stories of the refugees, and evil
IDENTIFY believing the worst, in ten feet
would be another lot making fun of the
whole thing. The Mayor telegraphed
to Gov. Martin for three hundred guns
and ammunition, but the governor tele-
graphed back that he had sent off all
munitions of war belonging to the State
to Kingman and other points.
After talking with a dozen or more,
and finding that no body could find q
man, who had seena man, who had seen
an Indian, most of the people concluded
that it was scare. Yet as late as ten
o'clock that night heard man say he
was near enough to Saratoga to know
it was burned, for he saw the town
burning.
That night mass meeting was held
at the Skating rink for the purpose of
organizing a permanent militia COM
pany, preliminary steps were taken to-
ward that object, collection was taken
for the benefit of the refugees, COM
mittee was appointed to see. that none
went hungry, and by morning the
scare was.all over, and most of the peo-
pie on their way back to their deserted
homes, wiser and madder men. The
most curious. thing of the whole affair
was that there was not then nor has
been since, hostile Indian within a
hundred miles of the State line. The
whole scare resulted from the known
dissatisfaction of the Cheyennes, and
the knowledge that, if they should 60
on the wal. path, the government could
not hinder them. The great mistake of
the government was the leaving of hum
dreds of miles of border in an absolute
,ly defenseless, condition, and thus MAX
ing an Indian raid i'm case of an out.
break, not only possible. but probable. IT.
there had been u feeling OF security
among the settlers, it would have been
for such panic to have ac-
cured, but as, it was, it was no surpris-
ing matter that it did occur.