Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-09
HOW THEY FOOLED TEE SIOUX
Party of SeveatY.Five Assinibones Rode to Their Death to Escape Mas @@cFe.
LFren the St. Paul Globe. ]

From the St. Paul Globe.l
 Slushy as the Missouri river looks now, and sick and tired as the ice seems to be, week ago it was looking quite healthy and streng in the vicinity of old Fort Clark, a few miles below Stanton. The hunting was not especially enticing, though the ozone of the atmosphere was of the best, and the horseman who was properly dressed and well mounted did not suffer a great deal. The broad expanse of the river was covered com
 plstely with ice, except at a bend of the
 stream where a bare spot was observable, and the traveller could see that there was an air.
 hole through which the Neptune of the Big Muddy would be able to get whiff of air. This hole is the result of the swirling of the waters around the bend that exists there, and though the temperature gets down very | low the hole never closes, as the water never I stays there long enough to get congealed.
 | 'That hole" said an cid trapper that l met on the bank as I was locking across to Mclean county. lis just tho same it was | in '3S, though n course warn't old enough | at thet time to see it. But I hearn the h. | jins tell good deal about it. In them days ! the Sioux Injins were alters in some fight | wi somebody. If 'twasn't the Mandans l 'twere the Assinibenes, and if 'twan't the ! l were never happy, summer nor winter, onless ! they had screp wi somebody. Els the 1n- iins tell onto me, twas bout the the middle | of the winter when party of sevsnty-hve \ Assinibines came down rum the north. ! They was harmless enough an didn't mean
 no harm to nobody. They got past the spot ! where we are new a-standin' bout five miles. Jest bout that pint they kem onto 8 Sioux | village in their winter korters. The number | are warioasly indicated, but I should jedge | from the reports hal hearn that there must I ha' bin at least two hundred and fifty war; riors They were feelin' their oats, es hess ! II feel eff you feed him on the fat e the laEd | fer few months and don't gi' him any wor- \ ruk to do. They wuZ jest spilin' fer 8 | fight and they seed the Assinibines a-comin'. l Up the river apiece was another Sioux will lage, and es this were the other side of | the Missouri, an kinder behint 6 hill, the Assinibines hedn't seed lem, and what was more to the purpose. the Sioux hedn't seed the AssinibiRes nuther. Jest es soon ss the southernmost Sioux seed the inimy comin' they sent one uv their number up the water l to tell the other village and get them warri- I ors to come out an' lay for the Assinibines ef they should turn to run.
 | "'Great smokep ssd the chief uf the As- l sinibines, when he seed for the fust time the Sioux village-usin' uf course the Ingin l tongue, wi which ain't so very familiar, 1 an what's more 10 the purpose, you couldn't ' unnerRtanQ me CT WuS. threat SMOk6I
 said the Assinibine, we're lost, sure pop.
 See, my worthy braves, the bloodthirsty
 Sioux ahead uf us. What shall we do. Shall we make stand an fight the inimy,
 or shalRwe runP An es he spoke an arrow
 from 2 f6ng bow came flying over the ice."
 "Why not bulleta" I asked.
 tKause they didn't hev no bullets in those
 days. It twas jest bout this time that the l Injins used to get hold uf f1intlocks, and the 1 varments didn't hev them generally yit.
 the Injins heving to pay about ten robes a ! gun Well, this is nuther here nor there. The Assinibines considered for a mint and
 then the old chief said, T have an idee. Elf
 we turn back and fight we shall be scalped
 and tortured es the Sioux only can torture.
 If we run we shall be caught and be cow ! ards. Death is certain es thet we are here.
 See thet airho1e in the icel The water . l co1d-to leap in there is like leaping into the
 fire. But there is no torture. By thet root we shall jine our friends in the happy hunt in grouns with hair on our heads. We shall
 meet there with no scalpers' keen-edgsd
 knife Only the brave foller me- and with wild war hoop the chief dashed into the
 swirling waters and he'd foremost he disap- l peared. Stranger, you've seed circus when
 the jumpin' fellers pile over the tops of ele- l phants and camels and other wild beastsi
 Well, from what they tell me hey come te the conclusion that it was sumpin like thet. l Inter the jaws of death-and mighty cold jaws at thet-rode the seventy>fve Assini-
 pines. The Sioux were fooled some more. , Prof. Shaler says that "Veleanees play g
 most important part in the physical history