Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-04-03


of the powerful Cherokee tribe. His
mother, highly educated lady, was
the daughter of Judge Northrup, of
Connecticut. The family moved with
the tribe to the present Cherokee res
ervation in the Indian Territory in
1887. Dissension soon arose among
the tribe, because of their enforced re-
fnoval from the home of their fathers,
which were cunningly fomented by
John Ross, rival chieftain, who was
Jealous of the popularity and power of
Chief Ridge, which finally eliminated
on June 30, 1889, in the cold-blooded
murder of General Ridge and his aged
father, in the presence of the family,
by the adherents of Ross, who seized
the supreme power, and remained chief
until about the close of the late civil
war between the States, when he died.
"Yellow-Bird, then boy of u years
of age, an eyewitness to this atrocious
murder, in letter thus describes the
incident:
"The removal of the Indians West had
fomented discontents of the darkest and
deadliest nature. The ignorant Indi-
ans, unable to vent their rage upon the
whites, turned their wrath towards
their own chiefs, and chose to hold
them responsible for what had happen
ed. John Ross made use of these
prejudices to establish his own
power. He held secret coun-
sci and plotted the death of my
father and grandfather, Ka-nun-ta-
kla-ge and Boudinot and others who
were friendly to those men. These
l1oa11z 1na1a ,Na,.1,ntrota1
der circumstances of peculiar aggrava-
tion.
"On the morning of June %, 1889,
about day break, our family was aroused
from sleep by violent noise; the doors
were broken down and the house was
filled with armed men. / saw my
father in the hands of assassins. He
endeavored to speak to them, but they
shouted and drowned his voice, for
they were ordered not to listen to him
for moment, for fear they might be
persuaded not to kill him. They
Dragged him into the yard and pre-
pared to murder him. Two strong
men held him by the arms, while 9TH
ers stabbed him deliberately with long
dirk knives twenty-nine times. My
mother rushed to the door, but
they pushed her back into
the house with their guns,
and prevented her egress until
the act was finished. My father fell
10 the earth, but did not expire for
few minutes. Ny mother ran out to
him. He raised himself on his elbow
and tried to speak, but the blood flow
ed into his mouth and prevented him.
T,, faHx 1,V,af Io 1,a1
but speaking the last word which he
wished to say. Then succeeded a scene
Of agony, the sight of which makes one
fegret that the human race had ever
been created. 1t has darkened my life
with an eternal shadow. In q room
prepared for the purpose lay pale in
death the man whose voice had been
listened to with awe and admiration in
the councils of his nation, and whose
fame as an orator, statesman and a
soldier had passed to the remotest of
the United States, the blood oozing
through his winding sheet and falling,
drop by drop, to the floor. BY his side
sat my stricken mother, with her hands
clasped, and In speechless agony-she
who had given him her heart in her
youth and beauty, and, leaving her
parents, had followed the husband
Of her choice from her home of
wealth and culture to a wild and dis
tant land; and bending over him was
his own afflicted mother, with her long
white hair flowing loose over her
Ehoulders and bosom, crying to the
Great Spirit to sustain her in that
dreadful hour; and in addition to all
these-the wife, the mother, and the
little children, who scarcely knew
their loss-were the dark faces of those
who had been privy to the assassina-
tion, who had come to smile over the
terrible scene"
John Rollin Ridge, or Chees -quat-
alaw-ne, his Indian name (sipnifying
"Yellow Bird"), was educated at Fay-
etteville, Ark, and graduated with
distinguished honors at Great Bar
rington, Mass. He was first cousin to
the gallant Colonel e. 9. Boudinot, SO
well known to the people of Texas as
the leader of regiment of Indians in
the Confederate army, and who has
been for years the representative of
his people at the national capital.
At the breaking out of the Califor-
MIA gold fever, in 1849, Yellow Bird
emigrated to that country, and en-
gagged in placer mining in Shasta
County. where this writer. then a small