The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1889-08-15
A DUEL TO THE DEATH
Remembrance Of Beef Killing at
Standing Rock in the
ss ,,. Seventies. s
Aboriginal Enmity and How q Hot
Feud Was Suddenly and Finally
Ended.

shore, almost treeless. and embracing about
twenty acres; q large corral in the center of
this promontory ten logs high, and capable
OF holding 100 head Of cattle; mass Of
armed Sioux. shouting, gesticulating, firing
their pieces Qoaded with ball cartridge
in sheer wantonness; here and there an
agency employee in civilian dress or blue
coated soldier; on the opposite bank Of the
river the low buildings of Standing Rock
agency, and q little farther south the quar-
tiers. barracks, storehouses and stables of
Fort Yates; over all the intense blue of a
Dakota sky in August.
Such were the conconlitants Of the scene
of an Indian agency beef killing in 1876,
less than TWO months after Custer and his
troopers had been shot to death on the banks
OF the Little Big Horn. That the ensemble
was picturesque was no more true than that
it had many elements of the horrible in the
eyes Of the whites who could not fail to re-
member that many OF these yelling redskins
had been even more jubilant over the
slaughter of the soldiery led by the gallant
"long-haired chief" But the passage from
the picturesque to the disgusting was soon
to be made. In short time the frightened
steers. driven by bucksEin-garbed cowboys,
were forced into the corral and the word was
given to commence the killing. The yells
ledoubled in fury and the flu
slllade became an almost continuous
volley, for three hundred Wholesalers
were dealing 45-caliber DEATH Above
the yells of the Indians and the detonations
from the guns could be heard the groans of
the wounded steers: and every now and then
the resembling Crunch" made when a
l,2OOpound brute struck full in the brain
or heart by bullet fell prone and instantly
to earth They were hard to kill-those
sturdy Texan bovines Occasionally a lucky
shot in vital part brought immediate death,
but Indians are careless marksmen and,
when using government ammunition, take
little pains in their aim. To them the suffer-
lag of the poor beasts was factor of enjoy
ment, and the more drawn out and lingering
was the death Of the herd the greater was
the pleasure afforded
Finally-probably in half an hour-the last
quadruped was down. though here and there
among the mass of 40 beeves one could be
seen trying to rise, while the means of suf-
fering had not appreciably waned. Now for
the Individual spoils. The beeves. when all
We're dead, would be apportioned to the diff
ferent tribal chiefs or their representatives
and the distribution would be rigidly made
OF meat, bones, hides. horns, hoofs, en-
~ ohAS-0SCAy D1IU VI OuS anlm8l IN 1aCU save
one-the tongue. By some unwritten law
all tongues We're the property of those who
could secure them before the agent started
the distribution Into the bloody mass Jump
dozen or more of the hardest bucks, and
the scene grows redder as they hack out the
tongues, caring nothing whether the animal
be dead or o--always providing he was SO
nearly dead as not to be able to rise. At
nearly every beef killing some buck paid for
his greedy temerity by suffering an ugly
wound from the sharp horn of some tortured
anu dying ut still powerful steer.
Speedily the distribution is made, the in
terpreter pointing out the carcasseE appor-
toned to each chief, division beng made by
rough but accurate guess work as to the
weight OF steer and based upon the num-
Der of individuals in the tribe supplied.
Some naughty head man would get two or
more beeves Some humber leader must
ordinate in followers.
Cutting up follows distribution, and
CHASTITY work it is. One can see women and
children gorging on raw entrails and
smeared with blood until their yellow paint
seems dim in contrast. No whit of abate-
ment is there in the cries, yells, whoops and
seml-demoniac laughs. 1t is orgie day as
Well as issue day, and the Indians make the
most of 1t. No wonder this system of beef
killing was soon done away with and pla-
toOn OF soldier marksmen detailed to do the
shooting. They shot with better aim and
heavier metal and the animal suffering was
reduced to minimum, though the CORY
features Of the cutting up could not be done
away with.