Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-01-27
A PRAIRIE TRAGEDY.
How Sioux Squaw and Her Three
Little Ones Met Death.
TRACING THE MURDERERS.
A Sad Scene Near Pine Ridge-The Discovery
and Burial of the Victims Of . Brutal As
sassination- Cowardly Crime by Men Wear
ing the Blue.
al Correspondence of The Evening Star.

War, barbaric at the best, is legitimate, but
| there can be no possible excuse for assassna-
ton. Today witnessed the last scene in the
earthly history of four of Gods crea-
lures They were Indians and they lacked
much. Education had done nothing
| for them and the softening touch of
/ religion had not smoothed their way to eter-
nifty. but they had souls. and those who killed
| them AZ the assassin kills are murderers of the
most villainous description. No one who
| looked upon that scene can ever forget it,
and not a man or woman who is ac-
quainted with the facts but regards
the bloody circumstances with anything save
horror. An Indian woman, comedy in life with
| her three children were brutally murdered at
about the time of the Wounded Knee fight and
within three miles Of the BATTLEFIELD. Yesterday
their bodies we're discovered by an Indian po-
Eceman; today the remains of the unfortunate
quartet were placed in the bosom Of mother
| earth.
A SOLEMN cAvALcADE.
When it became known at division head
quarters yesterday that four dead Indians had
been found Capt. Baldwin of the fifth infantry
| and now OF staff duty was instructed to proceed
TO the spot accompanied by sufficient force
for the purpose of identifying and burying the
deceased. Sunshine and frost combined to make
| this morning pleasant enough to make South
Dakota a reputation as a winter resort Ordi-
narily two or three men would be able to inter
four people. but these still times of war and
the revengeful Indian will lose no opportunity
to wreak portion OF his vengeance on weaker
parties than the one he commands.
For that reason company A, first United
States infantry, was ordered to perform escort
duty and al 50 to furnish burial party. Lieut.
Barry and his men have only recently been
mounted on Indian ponies and there is perhaps
a little friction because men and
yuscs do not yet understand each
other, but the command was ready
before the hour specified a.m.-and after a
slight and unavoidable delay on the part Of
others who were to go along the column moved
out Of the settlement and to the eastward Two
ladies--one of them n newspaper correspond
ent. the other simply morbidiy curious-were
with the little expedition, the latter daughter
of Eve being in a buggy commanded by DIR.
Gardner, the former on one of Gen. Miles pet
horses.
PICTURESQUE SCENE.
The scene was n picturesque one. Soldiers,
scouts, ladies, unattached Indians and an in
terpreter. At the head of the column rode the
official undertaken or funeral director. or what
ever else you may please to call him-Capt.
Baldwin-and by his side was Mrs. Dean, the
Chicago HerdNs correspondent. couple
of Indian police and sergeant
appearance to things, ably assisted by War Bon
net. an aged Sioux, whose emaciated pony
seemed barely able to Mobile along beneath
even the light weight of his attenuated pro-
prietor, but who was never anywhere but in
the lead. Then came the mounted infantry
with rifles slung on their backs over the brown
canvas and blanket lined overcoats.
Not all of these men were expert
horsemen. but the great majority of them were
just aching for opportunity to shoot an
Indian, even if they had to bury him afterward.
So far this campaign Is concerned the in
fantry have not been in 1t.
ON THE PRAIRIE.
Every one who has seen the prairies of the
great northwest knows what they are like;
those who have not seen them can gain no con-
ception of the apparently boundless stretch of
country from reading any attempt to de-
| scribe it. A hmitless succession of green
brown waves. an ocean of verdure-topped
soil even at this season. No matter where
you move you are always in the
center and until you reach the mountains you
| are like Sternes starling-''you can't get out"
Suddenly the russell hue gives place to intense
blackness. for the prairie fire has burned all
color out of a great section of the land
scape; then again the wagon trail
has stopped the flames, and ON one side
there Is vegetation, on the other
enough vegetable charcoal to clean the teeth of
every man and woman who thinks he or she
could settle this Indian question III five minutes.
Ii would take good many tons to do this, but
the materli IL mere.
WHERE THE MURDERED ONES LAY.
Twelve miles from the agency was the spot
to which our guides led us, the place where Red
Hawk, all Indian policeman, had yester-
day found the bodies of his sister and
terprete- Frank White and myself
rode ahead of the column and
| arrived there some minutes in advance, leav-
ing the main trail and our destination over
bride path that narrowed at times to IL danger
ously insufficient footing even for careful
horse. Red Hawk went alone to the little
patch of brush in which lay those he
loved. the remainder of the advance guard
considerably halting on the bank above the
bloody scene until it might be regarded as
proper fo- them to approach and see for them
| selves what a cowardly deed had been done.
Oh, il was pitiful sight. Mother and chill
dren had never been separated during life and
iii death they were not divided. Prone and
with the right side of her face frozen to the
! solid earth was the squaw Nv alks-crrying-the-
red Snow almost covered an extended arm
| and hlied the creases In the little clothing
she wore Piled up alongside OF her were her
little ones. the youngest with nothing to
cover its CHASTITY nakedness but calf buffalo
| robe, which is before me as 1 write. The posi-
| tons of the children were changed somewhat
| from those in which they were found. the dis
| coverer putting them together that he might
! cover them with blanket.
| THE vIcrIMc.
The first body to be examined was that of u
girl abou. nine years Of age. In the horrible
moment preceding dissolution she had drawn
her arms up and placed them across her face -
| n pretty face, say those who knew her-and as
| the features nodded themselves ON the bony
\ arms and froZe her visa,c became frightfully
distorted. A black bead necklace was en-
bedded in the flesh Of her throat. This victim
| was killed by being shot through the right
lung. tha ball entering high In her breast and
making its exit ut the right of her back, near
| the waist.
| Her sister-less than seven years old-was
| almost naked She. too, facing the muir
| derers when they took such deadly aim and,
like the other girl, she had tried with her arms
| to shut out the sight OF the unwavering rifle
muzzles- The ball entered her right breast,
went through the right lung downward and
came out near the spine and just above the left
kidney.
Seventy grains of powder drove 500 grains of
lead through the brain Of the boy-a stur,lily
built twelye-year-old- OF all the horrible
wounds ever made by bullets none could
be more frightfully effective than that
which forever extinguished the light of life in
this boy. The wound Of entrance was on the
upper part Of the right side of the head; the
wound Of exit was beneath the right eye. tear
ing open the cheek aud leaving
bloody hole large as dollar.
There must have been at least