St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-02-21
INDIANS w1NrER1NG.
II, Cheahnne Tcpee WIN HaT DOze"
Lazy Buck Carer Substitutes BOT
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Lazy Buck s-Q.teer Substitutes For
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drove up to the Indian camp near here
day or two ago, writes a Fort Keogb, Mont.
correspondent to the Pittsburgh Com
mercial Gazette, and took peepinto num-
( Der of tepees to see how the Cheyennes were
| making out with the thermometer Il be-
low zero. In the first lodge or tepee were
half oozen lazy bucks sitting around
smoudering fire in the very center OF the
place. and all fllriously smoking both the
! fire and the bucks. After being elected
from their nostrils in great clouds the smoke
assembled 10 the top, where the iodge-pole
crossed, and escaped through an aperture
| left for that purpose. These idle fellows did
nothing for living, but sat around in cir
Gle from morning till night, saying scarcely
| a word TO one another and smoking inces-
/ sanity. The squaws brought them a little
parched corn once in a while, which made
| up their bill OF fare for the day. The first
| thing in the morning they would all take E
| smoke, and then eat little corn for break
fast Then they'd smoke again till dinner
time, eat little more corn. and go to smok-
ing again The putting would continue un-
til evening, when supper would be had OF the
| same Old menu, a little more smoking, ana
then a bed of Buffalo robes and animal skins
until morning Next day the same old la
borious program would be gone through with,
and SO on until the advent Of warm weather.
| was little curious to know just what the
| indians were smoking, for | knew it was not
| tobacco from lis peculiar odor-a sort of
greenish freshness that Was very pleasant to
inhae. So / made bold to inquire of
A CHEYENNE Rr-CK
with whom had some slight acquaintance
! from frequently seeing him in the post
traders store at the fort, what the compound
was. Between my broken Cheyenne and
his broken English we managed to make
ourselves mutually understood, AID this is
! the substance Of it:
The stuff is called kinne-kan-nick and Is
| a sort Of wild tobacco made from the bark OF
willow trees. During the summer the squaws
gather a bundle OF the large-sizcd shoots and
carry them to the tepee, where the wind does
not blow, and then scrape off the bark with a
| knife. First the outside coating is taken of,
which is thrown away; the soft inner bark is
then scraped into piece of antelope or deer
skin and left to dry. 1t is of dark green
ish color, and emits pleasant smell. When
dry, the sauaws grease their hands with Buff
alo lat, and then crush the bark until it is
pulyerized fine enough for the pipe, the re-
suit of which is the grease adhering - the
| particles of bark makes it burn freely. The
| Crows and Piegaus use sort of sumach for
tobacco which is found growing on stunted
vine in the rocky mountains, far above the
| perpetual snow-line.
All through this CHEYENNE village Indians
were existing rather than living. a kind Of
Information, as it were, awaiting the advent
| Of hafOr oon12
forth from their tepees to lay in q supply OF
kinne-kau- nick and parched corn for the en-
/ suing winter.
THE CHEYENNEs
| have now reservation set apart for them by
| executive order dated Nov. 90 last, and as
| heir reserve joins the Grow reservation on
ne east. Agent Armstrong, the present
agent of the Crows, is to act in Il like capac-
itv for the Cheyennes.
The reservation is about thirty miles long
by twenty miles wide, and contains a little
over six hundred square miles, OF about
| $50, 900 acres of land. 1t is on the south
side of Yellowstone river between the
| southern limit of the forty-milc grant of the
| Northern Pacific railroad and the northern
borlerof Wyoming. There are exactly 6l0
Cheyenne Indians TO provide for, which will
| give Just one square mile of land to each
| buck, squaw and pappoose. The order pro-
vdcs that bona fida settlers who were on the
new reserve, prior to Oct. 81, 1884, should
be allowad to remain and retain hOme-
stead claim of $50 acres of land each, but
| they must keep themselves, their herds and
their fiocks within their 1850 acres and not
allow them 10 roam at large nor craze over
| the remainder of the reservation There are
| fifteen settlers, or ranchmen, who come I'M
der the head Of bona hde settlers, and their
herds are scattered far and wide over the
| country. Considering it from any point of
view, the order gives satisfaction to neither
whites nor reds. The Indians do not want
white men living on their reservation, and
the latter want the Indians moved out Of the
| country. For a long time the Cheyennes
and the cattlemen have been at war-not
real open warfare, but war on the sly;
COWBOYS SHOOTING
at Cheyennes, and Cheyennes Killing a steer
or two, when hard pressed by hunger, in
which as a general thing, the Indians GOT the
worst of It and as this remnant of a great
race. nomadic for years, without an agent
or an agency, have been knocked around
for some years past, drawing no supplies
| from the government, but endeavOring to
take care of themselyesas best they could, sue
when crowded to the wall, and ought to have
| their sunset of life smOohed as much as pos
| sible BY the people who have taken everything
/ from Them, it is no more than far and right
| that the Cheyennes should either have been
sent south to an agency where their kindred,
! the Sioux, are stationed, or else their new
reservation should have been cleared Of
white iuterlopcrs and the Indians left TO
themselves in peace.
! A little south and west Of here are the
| Crows, who have been raising a rumpus with
! Montana catilcmcn by signing an agree
mcnt looking to n lease of their reservation
to a syndicate or Colorado catilemen for graz
/ ing purposes. Word comes from Washing
! ton that the projected lease has fallen through
| which is not believed by Montanians who are
! opposed to the scheme. The Crows are all
right and are living in peace and plenty at
| their new agency on the Little Big Horn
| river.
In the Northwest the Piegans, who were
STARVING TO DEATH
| last summer and fall at the rate OF about
| thirty month, are now rolling in an album
/ dance Of provisions Of all kinds. Some Of
them, fearing famine similar to their late
| experience, and having no faith in the great
! father at Washington, who ''will not let
| them 90 hungry any more' $50 the agent
| tells them), are caching provisions by the
| wholesale to provide against rainy day.
| The poor redskins have been burned once,
| and they don't want any more scorching Of
| that kind ifs possible to prevent II. This
| great tribe has been dreadfully thipncd ont
| during the past three years. The bucks, tall,
| stately, and Of fine physique, who once trod
| the soil beneath their feet as If they were
| lords Of it-(aud they were too IL we come