Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-01-28
STAFF Correspondence of The Evening Star.

alS"ereui u prODiefus poly sIlcu anu illtIiSaAe'
Every endeavor to probe into the true inward
ness of this wound, which ia devitalizing large
section Of the Northwest meets with more or
less opposition. Between those who think there
is nothing good save the Indian and those who
believe there is no good Indian but the dead
Indian, the seeker after truth has a hard time.
Up TO this time no one other than Gen. Miles
had succeeded in getting the Indian side Of the
causes which led to the campaign which now
seems to have come to an end, but today sue
ceeded in gathering under one roof a number
of the Indians who may be regarded, with per-
haps one exception. as fair repre-
sentatives Of their tribes. Some Of these
= Indians will in a day or two leave here FOR
Washington for the purpose of telling tire Great
Father their grievances. so L thought 1t might
be Just we'll to work in a scoop on the ati-
thorities who will endeavor to find out just
what these chiefs think Of the present situation
and of the causes which led up to 1t.
Numerous attempts have been made by IN
army Of correspondents to secure interviews
with both friendly and hostile head men, but
the general result has been failure. If any
have talked they succeeded admirably In not
saying anything worthy Of publication. They
were afraid of being Inisrepresented-some of
them have been in the past-so they kept their
mouths shut and looked as ignorantly wise as
only a brainy savage and an owl can look.
more prominent Indians has not been an easy
one, tine great barrier being the naturally sus-
picious nature Of the nations wards Even
when their confidence has been gained they
are not inclined to be communicative, and IN
less they are searchingly cross-examined they
will evade the point at issue and ramble
of through the green pastures OF gen.
eralization and dispOrt themselves in the
somewhat muddy but pleasant-sounding stream
of native North American oratory. The men
M n stream nv the Durply "A tiCure
OF speech, for your Sioux Indian is not an en-
thusiast in the matter Of water. For whatever
OF truth falsehood there may be in the
speeches made TO me today the speakers alone
are responsible. Their words are given fairly;
the translator could not be more accurate, ex-
cept that much of the useless and burdensome
vocal dourishes have been omitted.
THE GATHERING OF THE CHIEFS.
1t was nearly 1850 this morning when. in re-
spone to urgent invitation and many promises
ofkindly and hospitable treatment, ten Sioux
Indians met me in a room in one of the remote
agency buildings Not one of the ten could
speak ten words of lnglish and most of their
Anglo-Saxon vocabulary was profane in its ten
denotes Every man grunted How as he
came in and bestowed a hearty hand-shake.
Then they sat down and looked slyly for the
location of the material for q smoke.
What q crowd it was! Foremost among
them was tine Ogallaia Chief Tasunke-Kokipapi
HoksiIa (Young-S ian-Afraid-of-His- He
has done more than any other one Indian to
bring about the temporary peace which pre-
walls in south Dakota. The other Ogallalas
were Little Wound (TaOpi Ciqula). He Dog or
Plenty Pine (Sunks Bloka), Big
Road (Canku Tanka) and Fire Thunder
(wakiyan pita). Representing the hostile
Brule Sioux were the worst specimens in the
bunch of copper-cOlored humanity there as
sembled-Crow Dog (kangi Suuke), the muir
derer OF Spotted Tail and Two Strikes (Nonp
karpa).
Il NAV be of interest to base ball enthusiasts
to know tia. this latter gentleman secured his
present appeliation by knocking two Of his
enemies Cd their horses many years
before base ball became known west of
tho Missouri river. Worthy of note also is
the fact that Two Strikes ''out'' until his
recent surrender; out on the warpath- Hump
(Cauraraka), Iron Thunder (Wakiyan mazaJ
and Long Bull Cratanka-hauska) represented
the Cheyenne River Indians.
The PIPE OF PEACE
In minute or so the pipe of peace was going
around the circle with It's customary delibera-
ton. and when 1 thought there had been
enough of silence the distribution of a box of
cigarettes to eaeS man broke il with a conse-
auent chorus of How There can be no
more fo-cible evidence of the decadence
of the noble red man than this newly born
love Cor the cigarette of the pale faces
The cigarettes. however. made Their hearts
feel good and within reasonable period the
regular proceedings opened in due FORM The
Indians knew who 1 was and they also knew
tina: represented a newspaper which was pub
lshed at the governmental center of the
country. This, they agreed. was a good OPP
portunity to tell the Great Father their
grievances 1t would be good
thing to let the Great Father
know what they would say when they would
talk with him in a few days. He could read it in
The STAR and then they could tell it to him
once more when they had big talk with him.
They were satisfied tina. ''Hte yetl wicauhpi''
(Which is Dakota for The EVENING STAR would
print only that which the said, therefore they
would talk straight
Observation-Disclosures HORSES.
First to secure the floor, by reason Of his
superiority was ung-Mar-Afraid-of- His
Horses. The last two agents we have had
here" said ne. .'have made many of the Indians
hearts bad Those agents took away our
wagons. our harness. and the things we farmed
with. and gave them to other Indians. The In
dians who went away with Buffalo Bill to make a
little money fer thei- families were not allowed
to keep the work cattle and wagons that had
beer given them some time before they left.
The things were given to other families and
that caused trouble Hany Indians thought they
were not treated right Another grievance is in
matter Of ration tickets. II a man had a trouble
or dispute with the agent then the agent would
often take his ration ticket away from him, so
he could not get food when 1t was issued The
vile anu cnliGr6n suuereu most. IL was
they who were punished and not the man. II
an Indian Is bad he ought to be punished, and
whea We go to Washington we will talk to the
Great Father about that and try to have it so
fixed that the man family shall have something
to eat II an Indian has his ticket taken from
him those who have been good are burdened
with his family. although the good people have
not enough for themselves TO eat
I'VE get our TatioaS every week. but now thew
DO not last US more than three days, 80 much
have they been cut down. and We must starve
nearly al the res: of the week oh. yes, We have
feasts but our raticns could not be used in them,
for there Is not altogether enough for a feast.
Our feasts are of boiled dog, wild turnips and
Wild cherries We are not wdsteful of the food
We gee. We keep the rations for our children.
Then want TO say that some of the men
who work on the ageacy-the farmers who hive
IL the yiilaSes-otten behave cruelty to Indians.
This the Indian does not like; it makes his
heart bad"
LITTLE WOUNDS STATEMENT.
little Wound looked over at the first
speaker, and seeing that he was through, said
Il i've on Medicine Root creek, about forty
the agent gives ratlons, but il is only little
bat. II Iever LISTS more chan two weeks. IL
used 20 De that cur crops helped Us very much
but last summer the crops all failed and 1t ID
hard to 1--we now. The Great Father does moi
know low hard il Is i am talking straight
now What beef We get is very poor. The
Texas cattle are poor and small Some of them
are but two years old and some of them are