Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-07-17
INDIAN SIGNALS.
CURIOUS WAYS OF IMPARTING
INFORMATION.

| Signaling by Means of Smole-The
Blanket Used to Send Messages
Indian War Ponies as Signal
Bearers.
1t may interest readers to know how an
Indian signals with smoke, writes Cap
| tain King in the Courier-Journal When
he wants to attract attention, give warn
ing of an enemy's coming, tell his num-
| bers, etc., it Is all very easy matter.
He simply builds a brisk little fire of
perfectly dry sticks, so that there is hot
flame and. very little smoke; if possible
this is built in a hollow in the ground.
As soon as he has got good hot fire
with plenty of Goals &c heaps on over
this lot of green bush; this, of course,
raises column of heavy smoke. If the
wind is not blowing it rises straight in
the air and can be seen for miles,
and attracts the Indian eye at
once. Now to convey information:
He throws a blanket over his brush
heap; that checks the smoke, confines
it; then by suddenly lifting the blanket
and letting a little puff of smoke float in
the air, covering it up again, then letting
another little puff, you can readily see
that he can send up in separate puffs five,
ten, fifteen or twenty little clouds of
smoke, each one entirely separate and
distinct from the other, and each to an
Indian eye visible for miles and miles.
In mountain country and in wooded
country this system of signals is almost
exclusively used by the Indians, but out
on the plains they employ something very
different. Captain Philo Clark, Of the
Second Cavalry, who was an authority
on all such subjects, said that the plains
Indians rarely used smoke signals at all.
Yet | very well remember how in the
Sioux campaign of '76, when l was
pushed ahead of our regiment in com
mand of the advanced party as we
neared the valley of the South Cheyenne,
twenty odd miles ahead of our supports,
we distinctly saw two signal smokes GO
ing up among the distant ridges both to
the right and to the left of our
line of march. Among the plains
Indians, however, where all is open
country, the mirror is a pet means
for making signals. Almost every Indian
has ole of those little circular hand
glasses, and with it, if the sun
is only shining he can telegraph back for
miles. If the enemy's force is but small
he sends distinct flashes, and by shifting
them to the right or left indicates which
way he wants the support to move in
order to catch and strike them. If the
enemy he discovered be a strong force,
the mirror only sends back a shivcring,
tremulous beam, and that means "scatter
and hide If on hunt, the Indians
used to have prc-concerted arrangement
as to what should be indicated by each
number of flashes, but the buffalo days
have gone forever.
The blanket is universal as means of
signalling, and in the days of the old In
dian red blanket they could be seen for
miles. 1t was the blanket that conveyed
to the villages Of Sitting Bull and his al
lies that fateful Sunday morning in
June, 1876, the news that the Long
-Custer-with with heap soldiers
was coming FAST A number of reports,
question and answers can be made by
means of the blanket, but, as in our army
code of flag and torch signals, they all
start from what might be called the first
DOolAlOns NuAtAA SIMPLY
consists in standing erect, holding the
blanket with hands up and outstretched
as far as possible so as to show as big a
surface of the blanketas can conveniently
be handled.
From this position it is easy to signal
to the enemy in the midst of an engage
ment to call for cessation of hostilitics
to call for all of party to come in or APP
proach to warn back all but one; to
Indicate the discovery of a party, either
of the enemy or friends, approaching; to
nature of the herd of game that can be !
seen in distance; to say edo not APP
proach," or to signal "come in" All
these can be readily indicated with the
blanket. One example will suffice: In |
the old days an Indian, far out in front
scouting for buffalo, could send back |
word to his friends that he had sighted |
herd; he simply took the first position"
facing toward them, then, bending for |
ward, spread the blanket on the ground, |
and then with his hands and feet kicked |
up the dust in the immediate neighbor- |
hood of it; that meant 'large herd of /
buffalo" If an Indian with his blanket /
wishes to indicate ''come in, T" ''come to-
ward me" he first takes the position of /
attention or ''look, then bends forward, /
bringing the blanket near the ground,
repeats it, makes two motions of it, and |
then, holding the one corner of the
blanket with the right arm way out to the
right, makes circular sweep to the
right shoulder with the left hand, so that
he circles from right to left in toward |
the body of the blanket, that means
"come"
But the pony, the Indian war-pony, can
convey almost as much information in the
way of signaling, and is more universally
used in war than anything else. An In
dian far in advance of his comrades, and
acting as scout or advance guard, when
he approaches ridge will ride cautiously
to ward the summit, never venturing on