Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-07-07
SPOUSE CT A SIOUX PRINCESS


Charles L. Jordan, Cousin OF General Gus
ter and a Typical Border Scout.
The queen Of the Sioux is the wife OF
n white man Neither of them is OF
has any reason to be ashamed Of it.
Red Cloud, without question the great
est Indian chief OF this generation. gave
her away at the altar on the Sioux res.
ervation. The Sioux queens husband
is Charles p. Jordan, brother of Lieu.
tenant-Colonel Jordan, United States
army, n cousin of General Custer and
one of the most tried representatives
of the government in the Indian coun.
try. lie bears the honor Of being the
only white man who was ever elected q
members of the Sioux council. In
their days of power, before hardly q
single white face hud been seen west
of the Missouri river, the Dakotas
Sioux were n nation, ruled by n
chief. The last Of this sutocratic
dynasty was Old Smoke, who died in
1859, after seeing his people pushed
westward and his power curtailed.
Although tho husband of more than
one squaw, he left but one child, a tiny
girl, who could hardly COO which Old
Smoke got ready TO float upward to the
happy hunting grounds. When dying,
he took her in his arms, aud named her
The Beautiful Woman, and SO she has
since been known. Tho Beautiful
Woman was q princess. She did no
work, but learned of missionaries
scorned dog meat, and kept her nails
trimmed and her glorious black hair
plated and combcd. She grew Il wo-
manhood high spirited, proud and
capricious-an ideal squaw. But rs M
ideal chief came to WOO her, she
scorned an alliance with any common
member of the tribe.
Young Jordan, "a tall, bright eyed
fellow, of good education and address,
came west as clerk to the Indian agent
at Pine Ridge. He fell in love with the
princess and his love was refrigerated
by the Sioux maiden. Aud SO they
were married by a priest In stole and
surplice and with oil the formnlities of
the white mans laws and customs.
The big Sioux chiefs came from miles
around to attend the wedding, the
army officers from tho neighboring
posts jingled their spurs in the Old Vir-
ginia reel, which followed the benedic-
ton, and the pretty Sioux queen has
since been plain Mrs. Jordan. A bevg
of black eyed children bless the alliance.
Charles y. Jordan, the Sioux queens
husband, has lived on the frontier for
many years. lie is still in his prime,
and his adventures would fill n book
on several of them. He has been
scalped, shot full of arrows, has been
tortured and even condemned 10 death
by the hostiles. Thirty miles from
Rosebud agency he has a fine farm and
stock ranch. well wooded with oak,
elm, ash and boxelder. There is a big
orchard of cultivated fruits close by
and a series of artificial dams down the
valley, in which beaver are encouraged
TO construct their peculiar fortih
cations.
Jordan's first meeting with the Sioux
queen was interesting and we'll worth
describing. One day he was out in the
hills with his rifle after antelope. He
suddenly heard q rustling in the brush
ahead Of him. as of a wild animal rush,
ing toward him. In q moment the
Sioux queen leaped down the hill
She had barely cleared cover when Q
young Sioux brave, who had wooed the
royal beauty vainly with embroidered
moccasins and p~rotes.ations Of undyina
love, dashed, club in hand, through the
underbrush and after the still fleeing
maiden. Other and more civilized en-.
dearments having failed. he was now
proceeding to voc her in true Indian
fashion-with a club. Before the ar.
dent lover could get near enough &c
express himself to the maiden, Jordan
tripped him headlong into a gulch.
The girl was safe in camp long before
her impetuous lover crawled out OF the
mud and water and began looking
about him for the snug which be had
struck. Jordan afterward had him
disciplined by the tribe and he was
banished In disgrace.