Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-03-04
CROWDED sCAFFoLD.
How General Sibley Executed Thir.
ty-Nfne Indians In a Bunch.

ty-Nfne Indians In a Bunch.
From the Kansas City Times
General II. H. Sibley. of st. Paul" re-
marked a newspaper man last evening,
when the fatal illness of the veteran was
announced, was one of the most promi-
nent and picturesque figures of the north
west, and man whose life history is full
of the most stirring incident and exciting
romance. AS an Indian fighter he was
with few equals, but his work on the
frontier was done SO long ago that of late
| little has been heard of him, and I dare
say there are many of the present genera
ton who never heard his name 1t was
General Sibley VINO put down the greatest
Sioux rebellion ever known, an outbreak
in which over one thousand settlers of the
northwest were massacred.
''It was not this fact which interested
me most as newspaper man in General
Sibley, however. What was itl Why,
simply that he had charge of the execution
which followed the suppression of the In
dian war, when thirty-nine Indians were
hanged at one time from the same gallows.
Think of reporting such an execution as
that! What glorious chance for a man
to spread himself! 1t would be worth a
dozen years of ordinary work, and I'd be
willing to give my salary for year to
come to be able to try my hand at writing
up such wholesale affair. / remember
having seen picture of the execution in
General Sibley's Office in st. Paul only two
or three years ago. 1t showed a square
gallows, the condemned men facing out
ward on the four sides, each bound and
ready to be dropped into eternity. Gene
raj Sibley told me it was an excellent pic
ture, and at the same time told the story
of the man whom he assigned to cut the
rope which sent thirty-nine souls into eter-
nifty. l have forgotten the details, but
remember the general telling of how the
man pleaded to be assigned as executioner,
his family having been msssscred by the
red devils, who in the outbreak committed
atrocities never approached in any subse-
quent Indian troubles. You see the Indi-
ans took advantage of the war excitement
and the absence of many in the war-the
outbreak was in '62, think-and SO had
everything their own way for "a long time.
The whole frontier was devastated and the
tomahawk and scalping knife were used in
scores of homes on defenseless women and
children.
"To return to the wholesale execution
there was one redskin executed among the
thirty-nine, General Sibley told me, who
was never even charged with murder. 1t
was legal execution. you understand, the
conviction being in court, but the execu-
ton itself was under direction of General
Sibley. The condemned men, with hun
dreds of others, were confined in a single
prison, guarded by the troops who had
licked the life out of the savages in the
field. When the day of execution came
the names of the condemned were read out
and the prisoners were told to step for
ward. Among the Sioux the word 'Chas-
ka' means first born and there are, con-
sequently, any number of Chaskas among
them to the whites, the family name usu-
ally unpronounceable, being overlooked.
So on this fateful morning when 'Chasks'
was called an Indian charged with some
petty offense stepped forward, not resli-
zing what might be in store. The real
murderer Chaska was shrewd enough to
keep quiet. The unconvicted man was
hanged
General Sibley was no sentimentalist,
however, and / knew he expressed in good
round language the belief that whether
the redskin was convicted or not he doubt
less deserved his fate. There was no one
to identify the Indian as he protested-in
fact, said General Sibley in recalling the
incident, no one for moment suspected
the mistake until long after the thirty
nine swaying bodies had been cut down
and buried. The man who escaped execu-
ton was removed with other captives to
the present reservation, the trip being
made by boat, and 1 remember the general
telling with what secrecy the start was
made to avoid wholesale massacre of the
captives by the whites, who fully expected
that many more than the thirty nine
would bring up at the end of rope
"But just think of that execution
Thirty-nine dropped at one time: Think
what write-up that would be, And I'll
Just bet the cigars the newspapers of that
day didn't give a column to it when it wa:
worth at least twenty. l tell You, IN,
boy, they should have reserved such pleas
ant affairs on IA wholesale scale for tn,
present day. Thirty nine at a drop
Whew, but that was a dandy"