The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-24

youths WHO were themselves p2fC Oh lnS
| squad that first escaped from the Grand
junction school The story was told in
Answer to my questions for the space Of
! two hours through reliable interpre-
ter. AS it proceeded the set faces and
ominously angry gestures that CLEANED
out over that little group told all too
well how soon they would have scalpod
Commissioner Morgan had he happened
in at that moment. The story is signed
by all three of the boys in their own
handwriting. 1t is es follows:
'Ma-mi-la-woi (the Runaway, Mar
l1i-yau-zi (the Little Mexican) and Val
qua-te-gwa (the Soft Toague) tell the
truth to the white man.
Our English school names are Larry
Bright, John Bowman and Ernest Riley.
Three years ago when we were at
the Fort Defiance school we were told
one day TO hold up our hands all of Us
who were willing to leave Defiance and
go to the Grand Junction school, a dis
tence OF over two hundred miles away.
The agent had before that tried several
times to coax US to leave the reservation
school. saying that if we went TO Grand
Junction school we would be taught O
trade, to be blacksmith or a shOe-
maker or something which we never
were taught. In that way he, persuad-
ed us TO 20, telling US that it would be
all right, though we felt it was ali
wrong f0r US to GO without our friends
knowledge or consent.
at was hard for US TO understand,
and we were some OF as young. The
youngest Of US was ten or twelve, the
Oldest twenty or tweney-tyuo. We did
not realize fully what we were doing.
So seventeen of US held up our hands and
moved out to one side of the school
house. At that time J. 3. Mooney was
superintendent, Vandeveer agent and
Lewis inspector. Lewis and Vandeveer
formed us IN line, took US out of the
schoolhouse to a big wagon, took us
to Gallup and thence by rail to the
Grand Junction school. 1t was little
after the gathering of the corn when
we went.
I'VE staid there till the next winter.
We suffered so much there that we
made up our minds TO rug away the
first chance We got. The food we got
was bad, very bad. The clothes and
shoes we had on when we came were
the clothes and shoes we had on when
we went away. We were often pun
ished severely. We often saw children
beaten with a bow cut in two The
edgeswere sharp and the children cried
very hard. You could hear them a
long distance off. There were queer
dOings in the school. We didn't like It,
We hated it. We watched our chance
to run away. We went away when it
was one cold day. We knew we would
suffer on the long journey.
'We had often asked for warm clothes
and shoes, but they would not give
them to us. We had no uDderclothes
on. Our shoes had holes in them and (,
were worn out. Some of our shoes had !
no soles hardly, and our bare toes were
sticking out. Those boys that had the |
bad shoes all froze their feet They /,
hurt them yet. Some of us got stitfy /
(rheumatism) and we can't run as we
started. Seventeen got home alive, but !
we have missed the rest and never /
found them since. We came home in /
two squads. There were seven in one .
and the rest in the other. We were in /
the seven. We ran away first We ran .
away Just before sundown. We knew
if we Travelled by night they could not /
find US or follow US. We had never been
that way before and we saw the noun
= 81.
knew that way was home.
1--WE crossed one water with bridge
and then we came to water that had
no bridge. The water was awfully
cold. There were pieces of ice floating
IN the river. The water came up to our
hips. There were holes where we went
down deep. When we got out our thin
clothes were frozen stiff in no time at
all Our wet shoes froze inside and our
toes turned blue. They began to burn
and bleed and then to prick US as if we
were walking on needles. We tore
pieces off our clothes and wrapped up
our toes and tied the ends of the strips
together, but our feet hurt so we could
not go fast after that any more.
I'VE camped that night three miles
from the school We had some matches
which we got before we came away and
we built little fire in gulch. But
cloud of wind came and blew it out.
Then we put some saQe-bTush over us
and laid down and tried 10 go to sleep.
We were hungry, but we had nothing
to eat that night. We didn't mind that
so much. for we were used to starving
Next morning when we tried to get up
we were so stiff we could hardly rise to
our feet. Our feet hurt terribly. They
were all cracked with the cold
ave started early, but we had TO
walk slowly that second day. After
awhile we got to a cowboys camp
They gave US little -four, pinch OF
sugar and some te2- We went only
twelve miles that day. We camped
that night on the side Of the mountain
the Sangra de Cristo range). We slept
near the edge of the snow. It was ter
ribly cold.
1--WE got some cedar bark and laid Il
ander Us. also putting bark over US, and
slept little, but not much. We had
DO gloves on and we froze our hands
The next morning we had nothing left
% eat. We started through the snow
70 cross the mountains. The snow got
deeper as we went, till il some places
[ was UP TO our waists. We had to
20 long distances round great ribbed
riffs. There was glazed crust on the
now made by the melting Of the sun
hat froze the surface night after night
i'll it had hardened to coat of ice. 1t
made great noise as we broke through